EZEKIEL 33-39. CHANGES AND PREPARATIONS NECESSARY FOR THE BLESSED FUTURE. Now that the security of Israel for the days to come is guaranteed by the destruction of the foreign nations, the mood of the prophet changes the old rebellious house (Ezekiel 2:5) gives place to the children of my people (Eze... [ Continue Reading ]
GOG'S DESTRUCTION AND BURIAL. This chapter does little more than repeat, with variations, the message of the last. The slain hordes lie thick upon Israel's mountains and fields, to be devoured by beasts and birds. Yahweh, whose power is not limited to His own land, will send His destructive fire upo... [ Continue Reading ]
To cleanse the holy land from the defilement caused by the corpses of these heathen hordes, the common people were to spend seven months in collecting and burying them, in a place appointed for that purpose east of the Dead Sea; and after that, to ensure the absolute holiness of the land, permanent... [ Continue Reading ]
Ezekiel's imagination, never weary of contemplating the destruction of those alien hordes, now pictures them as a sacrifice, to devour which Yahweh invites the birds and beasts, who gorge themselves with their flesh and blood.... [ Continue Reading ]
- THE PURPOSE OF THE JUDGMENT. The effect of this decisive judgment is to bring glory to Yahweh's name: for the world must now see that it is not His impotence but His horror of sin that accounts for the calamities and exile of His people. But now their redemption is complete: they will forget (rath... [ Continue Reading ]