Ezekiel receives directions A. M. 3409. EZEKIEL. B. C. 595. from the Lord. 20 Again, When a righteous man || stood there, as the glory which I A. M. 3409. doth turn from his righteousness, and saw by the river of Chebar: and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block || I fell on my face. before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand. a 24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thy house. 25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them: 26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them 9a reprover: for they are a rebellious house. 9 27 But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, f Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: 5 for they are a rebellious house. e Chap. xxiv. 27; Luke i. 20, 22.- 9 Heb. a man reproving. d Chap. ii. 5, 6, 7.- Le Chap. xxiv. 27; xxxiii. 22. Verse 11. Verses 9, 26; Chapter xii. 2, 3. Verses 22-27. And the hand of the Lord was there upon me--Namely, at Tel-abib. I felt a divine power acting upon me as before: see on chap. i. 3. And he said, Arise, go forth into the plain-Withdraw from the multitude, and retire to a place more private, and fit for contemplation, and the reception of divine communications. Then I arose-As I was commanded; and the glory of the Lord stood there "Thou shalt be accountable for the loss of his soul, just as a man's blood is laid to the charge of him who is any way accessory to his death." Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not-But still go on in|| his trespasses, unawakened and unreformed; he shall die, but thou hast delivered thy soul-Thou shalt be clear from the guilt of being accessory to his destruction. Verses 20, 21. Again, When a righteous man--The same glorious vision and representation of One truly righteous, and devoted to the love and service of God in heart and life; one whose person is justified, whose nature is renewed, and whose practice is conformed to God's holy will; doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity-Which the Scriptures show to be very possible, and experience and observation demonstrate to be a case not uncom mon. God's majesty, which I had seen before, (chap. i. 28,) were manifested to me again. Then the spirit entered into me--The spirit, power, or influence of God came upon me in an extraordinary manner; and set me upon my feet-Raised me up after I had fallen on my face; and spake with me—This should be rendered, And he spake with me, for the verb And I lay a stumbling-block before him- 7 is in the masculine gender. The spirit or Such a temptation to sin as he might have resisted, power, which now entered into him, is distinguished but to which, nevertheless, he yielded, and by which from the divine glory, or Shechinah, which the prohe was overcome. The word, here rendered phet saw, as it is also very plainly chap. ii. 2. And stumbling-block, sometimes signifies ruin, as chap. said, Go, shut thyself within thy house--From xviii. 30. Therefore some render this clause, And public view, and to receive further instructions. Or, I cause iniquity to become his ruin; he shall die— as some think, symbolically to represent the siege Shall perish in his sin; and his righteousness shall || of Jerusalem. Behold, they shall put bands upon not be remembered-Shall be of no advantage to thee--The LXX. read ide dɛdovrai eni oɛ deoμol, kal him; shall stand him in no stead for the preventing || Sngovat ce ev avroiç, bands shall be put upon thee, and of punishment. But his blood will I require at thy || hand-See on verse 18. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man-That he may not be drawn aside by bad examples, or any other temptation, to forsake the ways of piety and virtue. And he doth not sin-But continues conscientiously to walk in God's ordinances and commandments blameless. He shall surely live-In the favour of God here, and in his kingdom hereafter. Also thou hast delivered thy soul--Both the warner and the warned escape destruction. they shall bind thee with them. So also the Vulgate. Some think this was done by the captive Jews at Tel-abib, and that they bound him as a criminal, and disturber of the peace, in order to the punishing of him. Others suppose his domestics bound him, as thinking him out of his right mind. But it is more probable, comparing this passage with chap. iv. 8, that the meaning is, as Bishop Newcome observes, that his friends or servants bound him by his order; namely, more fully to express the shutting up of the Jews in Jerusalem by the siege. And thou shall not The siege of Jerusalem CHAPTER IV. portrayed on a tile. go out among them-Thou shalt not go abroad || I will open thy mouth-Give thee the power of speakamong the people, but continue thus shut up. And ing such things to them as it is my pleasure should thou shalt be dumb--For some space of time I will be set before them. He that heareth, let him hear-withhold revelations from thee, and thou shalt say This is the last warning I shall give them, and they nothing to the people by way of admonition or re- must take it as such, and either give heed to and proof. For they are arebellious house-They are obey what is said to them, and so avoid the im an obstinate, refractory people, who will give no pending evil; or neglect it at their peril, and take heed to thy words. But when I speak with thee-Or, the consequence which shall follow. These words, when I have spoken to thee; that is, revealed to thee it seems, were spoken to Ezekiel only, and are not the knowledge of what is to come, or have commu- any part of the message which he was to deliver to nicated to thee what I intend to be declared to them; || the people. CHAPTER IV. In this chapter, to try the faith of those Jewish captives who regarded Jerusalem with affection and a pious disposition, and to rebuke the presumption of those false prophets and their votaries, who expected a speedy return to it, Ezekiel, by a figure, warns them of its approaching calamities. (1,) He represents the close siege of it, and the fortifications that should be raised against it, by besieging a portraiture of it, lying three hundred and ninety days on his left, and forty on his right side, thus declaring of how long continuance those sins were, which God visited upon that people, 1-8. (2,) The famine which should rage in the city and among the captives is represented by his eating coarse bread, baked in a very mean and disagreeable manner, so long as this typical representation lasted, 9–17. B. C. 595. B. C. 595. a This shall be a A. M. 3109. THOU also, son of man, take thee the city and set thy face against A. M. 3409. a tile, and lay it before thee, and || it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. sign to the house of Israel. portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem. 2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. 4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that 3 Moreover take thou unto thee 2 an iron pan, || thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their and set it for a wall of iron between thee and iniquity. 1 Or, chief leaders, Chap. xxi. 22.-2 Or, a flat plate, or. slice. NOTES ON CHAPTER IV. a Chap. xii. 6, 11; xxiv. 24, 27. of to be below the dignity of the prophetical office, may as well accuse Archimedes of folly for making lines in the dust: see Lowth. Verses 2, 3. And lay siege against it-Make a portraiture of a siege, and of such warlike instruments as are used in sieges, figuring every thing just as when an army lies before a place with an intention of taking it. Moreover, take thou an iron pan -Or rather, an iron plate, probably such as cakes were baked on. "This," says Bishop Newcome, "may denote the strong trenches of the besiegers, or their firmness and perseverance in the siege; or, according to others, that there was an iron wall between the besieged and God, whom the prophet represented;" namely, the sins of the people, which separated between them and God, and prevented him from showing them mercy. Verse 1. Take a tile, &c., and lay it before theeThe prophets often foreshowed impending judgments by significant emblems, which usually strike more powerfully than words. So Jeremiah was commanded to go down to the potter's house, and observe how frequently vessels were marred in his hands, (chap. xviii.,) and to take one of those earthen vessels and break it in the sight of the elders of the Jews, (chap. xix.,) that they might thereby be sensibly taught the greatness of God's power, and their own frailty. So here God commands Ezekiel to take a tile, or such a slate as mathematical lines, or figures, are usually drawn upon, and there to make a portraiture of Jerusalem, thereby to represent it as under a siege. We may observe, that God often suited prophetical types and figures to the genius and education of the prophets themselves: so the figures which Amos makes use of are generally taken from such observations as are proper to the employ-out intermission, but in the exercise of his prophetiment of a shepherd, or a husbandman. Ezekiel had a peculiar talent for architecture, therefore several of his representations are suitable to that profession. And they that suppose the emblem here made use | Verses 4-6. Lie thou also, &c.—"In his own house, chap. iii. 24. This was to be his posture, not with cal office, during that part of each day, when the people were likely to observe his conduct."-Bishop Newcome. Upon thy left side-The left side, as being the least respectable, signified Israel, or the Further delineation of the A. M. 3409. B. C. 595. 5 For I have laid upon thee the || the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm A. M. 3409. years of their iniquity, according to shall be uncovered, and thou shalt the number of the days, 3 three hundred and prophesy against it. ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. 7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward C 8 And behold I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee 5 from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege. 9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the 6 About B. C. 975. Beginning from 1 Kings xii. 13; ending Num. xiv. 34.- Hebrew, a day for a year, a day for a year. about B. C. 585. e Chap. iii. 25.- - Heb. from thy side to thy side. Or, spelt. ten tribes: the right side, as being most honoured, heroes with their right arms bare, and out of the the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or, as it is gene- sleeves of their garments. Thus God is said to make rally expressed, the kingdom of Judah. Ezekiel's bare his arm, Isa. lii. 10, where he is represented as lying on one side for a long time together, signified subduing his adversaries, and bringing salvation to the great patience of God in bearing with the sins of his people. And thou shalt prophesy against it— Israel. And lay the iniquity of the house of Israel Thou shalt signify by these signs what shall happen upon it: according to the number of the days, &c. to it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee-See -From the days that I shall order thee to lie upon chap. iii. 25. God is said to do what was done in thy left side thou shalt understand how many years consequence of his command. And thou shalt not I have borne with their iniquity, for each day was turn thee from one side to another—This may mean, to signify a year: see verse 6. Thou shalt bear that the Lord would powerfully enable, and even their iniquity-Thou shalt, in the way of a sign or constrain him to lie quietly in the posture appointed symbol, suffer for their iniquity, namely, in lying so him, till the days were accomplished, in the sense long upon one side. Or, thou shalt presignify the explained in note on verse 4, this being intended to punishment which they shall bear. For I have laid signify that the Chaldeans should continue the upon thee the years of their iniquity-This verse siege, and should be, as it were, fixed and fastened explains the former: I have pointed out the number there, as by bonds, till the city was taken. This eviof years wherein apostate Israel sinned against me. dently seems to have been a real transaction, and According to the number of days, three hundred and not a vision, otherwise it does not appear how it ninety days-"This number of years will take us could have been a sign to the people; for how could back, with sufficient exactness, from the year in any thing be a sign to them, of which they were not which Jerusalem was sacked by Nebuchadnezzar to eye-witnesses? Till thou hast ended the days of the first year of Jeroboam's reign, when national || thy siege-"The three hundred and ninety days, idolatry began in Israel."-Bishop Newcome. Some, mentioned verses 5 and 9, it seems, were designed, however, rather suppose that the years are meant not only to signify the years of Israel's sin, but the which intervened between the falling of Solomon continuance of the siege of Jerusalem. That siege into idolatry, and the carrying away of the ten tribes || lasted, from the beginning to the end of it, seventeen by Shalmanezer, at which time they entirely ceased months, as appears from 2 Kings xxv. 1-4. But the to be a nation or people of themselves, and were king of Egypt, coming to relieve the city, was the wholly dispersed and mixed with other nations. occasion of raising the siege for some time, as apThou shalt bear the iniquity of Judah forty days—pears from Jer. xxxvii. 3. So that it may reasonaSo many years there were from the time when King ||bly be gathered from the authority of the text, joined Josiah entered into a solemn covenant to serve and to the circumstances of the story, that the siege lastworship God, (from whence their future idolatry re- ed about thirteen months, or three hundred and ceived a great aggravation,) to the destruction of the ninety days." city and temple. I have appointed thee each day for a year-Days frequently stand for years in the prophetical accounts of time. Verses 7, 8. Thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem-Thou shalt look toward Jerusalem, or toward the portraiture of it upon the tile, with a threatening countenance, as men do toward the city which they are besieging. And thine arm shall be uncovered-Or, stretched out, as the Vulgate reads it. Their habits were anciently so contrived, that their right arms were disengaged from their upper garments, that they might be the more ready for action. So ancient statues and coins represent Verse 9. Take thou also wheat and barley, &c.— In times of scarcity it is usual for people to mix a great deal of the coarse kinds of grain with a little of the better sort, to make their provisions last the longer. This Ezekiel was commanded to do, to sig-. nify the scarcity, and the coarse fare the inhabitants should have in the siege of the city. Three hundred and ninety days thou shalt eat thereof-During which time the siege lasted: see verse 8. The forty days, mentioned verse 6, seem not to be brought into this account. These, denoting Judah's sin of forty years' continuance, being superadded to the three hundred and ninety days of the siege, may signify Great scarcity of B. C. 595. B. C. 595. A. M. 3409. number of the days that thou shalt || among the Gentiles, whither I will A. M. 3409. lie upon thy side; three hundred and drive them. ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. 10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. 11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. 12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out|| of man, in their sight. 13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread 14 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of f that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. 15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. i 16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, Exod. xxii. 31; Lev. xi. 40; Lev. xxvi. 26; Psa. cv. 16; Isa. iii. 1; Chap. v. 16; xiv. 13. Deut. xiv. 3; Isa. lxv. 4. i Verse 10; Chap. xii. 19. d Hos. ix. 3. Acts x. 14. xvii. 15. the days spent in spoiling and desolating the city and temple, and carrying away the remnant of the people. Jerusalem was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month, Jer. lii. 6; and on the tenth day of the fifth month the temple was burned, verse 12; and so we may reasonably conjecture by the eighteenth of that month, which was the fortieth from the taking of the place, the whole city was burned, and the few Jews who were left were carried into captivity: see Lowth. Verses 10-12. And thy meat shall be by weight twenty shekels, &c.—In sieges it is common to stint every one to a certain allowance, by which means they can guess how long their provisions will last: twenty shekels is but ten ounces; a short allowance for a day's sustenance. From time to time shalt thou eat of it-This shall be thy daily allowance during the whole three hundred and ninety days. Thou shalt drink also water by measure-In sieges it is usual for the enemy to cut off the water from coming into the cities which they besiege, as much || as they can, which produces a scarcity of it; the sixth part of a hin-Which is about a pint and a half of our measure. Thou shalt eat it as barley cakes-Such as people make in haste, when they have not time for preparing a set meal: see Exod. xii. 39. This represents the hurry and disorder which would be occasioned by the siege. And thou shalt bake it with dung-To signify the scarcity of all kinds of fuel. Sir J. Chardin, in his MS. quoted by Harmer, tells us, "the eastern people always used cow-dung for baking, boiling a pot, and dressing all kinds of victuals that are easily cooked; especially in countries that had but little wood." And D'Arvieux, "complaining that one sort of Arab bread smells of smoke, and tastes of the cow-dung used in baking it, informs us, that the peasants often make use of the same fuel, and that all who live in villages where there is not plenty of wood, are very careful to stock themselves with it; the children," he says, "gather up the dung, and clap it against a wall to dry, from whence the quantity that is necessary for baking, or warming themselves, is taken from time to time."-Harmer, chap. iv. observ. 20, vol. i. According to Dathius, quoted by Bishop Newcome, the dung of camels, as well as that of cows or oxen, was also "often used by the easterns as fuel for preparing their food." But the command here given to the prophet, to use human dung, expressed the greatest necessity, and was terribly significant of the extremities which the inhabitants of Jerusalem should undergo during the siege, no nation making use of that offensive kind of fuel. Verse 13. Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles--The prophet, speaking above of eating and drinking by weight and measure, foretels the famine in Jerusalem; now in the bread baked with dung is also presignified the unclean bread which the children of Israel were to eat among the Gentiles. For their circumstances in their captivity would not permit them to observe the rules of their law relating to unclean meats; and they would be constrained to partake of meats, part of which had been offered to idols. Compare Hos. ix. 1-3; Dan. i. 8. Bread is often used in the Hebrew for all sorts of food. Verses 14, 15. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, &c.— He deprecates this, and entreats, it may not be enjoined him. Behold, my soul hath not been polluted I have always carefully observed the distinction between meats clean and unclean: I beseech thee, command me not now to eat any thing so contrary to my former practice. Neither came their abominable flesh into my mouth-The Hebrew word, 19, abominable, is used of such meats as were forbidden by the law, as the learned reader may see, Lev. vii. 18, and xix. 7; Isa. lxv. 4. Then he said, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung, &c.-This indicated, that even the pious would suffer greatly during the siege of Jerusalem; and that all the circumstances of things would admit of, would be a very small distinction between them and the wicked; for Ezekiel, God's prophet, could only obtain the exchange of a somewhat less offensive kind of fuel for one extremely offensive. Verses 16, 17. Behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem-I will cause a scarcity of bread to get a further supply, when what they had was in Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxv. 3; and deprive it of the consumed. That they may want bread and water chief support of man's life. And they shall eat-Or, so that they shall want bread and water: their bread by weight and with care-Here we have and be astonished one at another-Shall look upon a declaration of the meaning of what the prophet one another astonished at each other's ghastly, meawas ordered to do, verses 10 and 11. It was intend-ger countenances, or at the greatness of their calamed to signify, that during the siege, the people of ities; and consume away, &c.—And pine away with Jerusalem should eat their food very sparingly, and hunger and hardships, on account of their wickedwith great anxiety, for fear they should not be ableness. CHAPTER V. In this chapter, (1,) The destruction of the Jews, still remaining in Judea and Jerusalem, in various ways, is represented by the cutting, burning, and scattering of Ezekiel's hair, 1-4. (2,) The Jews, particularly those of Jerusalem, are charged with ungrateful and unparalleled contempt of God's laws, profanation of God's ordinances, and defilement of his temple with idols, 5–7, 11. (3,) On account hereof, and answerably to Ezekiel's sign, great wrath is threatened, 8–10; and a variety of miseries issuing in their reproach and ruin, 12–17. B. C. 594. B. C. 594. 4. M. 3410. AND thou, son of man, take thee a || part, and smite about it with a knife: A. M. 3410. sharp knife, take thee a barber's and a third part thou shalt scatter razor, a and cause it to pass upon thy head and in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after upon thy beard: then take thee balances to them. weigh, and divide the hair. e 3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. 1 4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the d Chap. iv. 8, 9.- - Jeremiah xl. 6; lii. 16.-1 Heb. wings. f Jer. xli. 1, 2; xliv. 14. NOTES ON CHAPTER V. bitants of Jerusalem had been dear to God, as the Verse 1. Take thee a sharp knife, take thee a bar- hair of an eastern beard to its owner, yet that they ber's razor-The latter expression explains the for- should be taken away and consumed, one part by mer; and cause it to pass upon thy head, &c.—Hair|| pestilence and famine, another part by the sword, being then accounted an ornament, and baldness a || and a third by the calamities of an exile." See note token of sorrow, therefore shaving denoted calamity or desolation. "Among the Arabs,” says Harmer, chap. vi. observ. 23, "there cannot be a greater stamp of infamy than to cut off any one's beard: and many among them would prefer death to this kind of punishment. And as they would think it a griev-happen to the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem. on 2 Sam. x. 4. And then take the balances, &c.— A symbol of God's justice, as the razor was of his wrath; to weigh and divide the hair-What the prophet is here commanded to do was by way of another emblematical representation of what was to The hair signified the Jewish people; shaving the hair with a razor, the divine vengeance; the weighing of the hair in the balances, the divine equity, which metes out to every one what is just and right; the dividing of the hair, the punishments allotted to different persons of them. ous calamity to lose it, so they carry things so far as to beg for the sake of it, ' By your beard, by the life|| of your beard, do.' In like manner some of the benedictions are, 'God preserve your blessed beard, God pour his blessings on your beard.' And when they would express their value for a thing, they say, 'It is worth more than his beard.' I never had so Verses 2-4. Thou shalt burn a third part in the clear an apprehension, I must confess, as after I had || midst of the city-In the midst of that portraiture read these accounts, of the intended energy of that of the city, which the prophet was commanded to thought of Ezekiel, where the inhabitants are com- make, chap. iv. 1. This signified the destruction of pared to the hair of the prophet's head and beard. the inhabitants within the city by famine and pestiThe passage seems to signify, that though the inha-lence; for both famine and pestilence may be said to |