XI. This chapter continues and concludes the vision; yet its scenes are not to be considered as consecutive with those which have gone before. In Ezekiel 9 all who had not the Divine mark upon their foreheads were slain by the destroying angels; in Ezekiel 10 the city itself was given up to fire; b... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT ME UNTO THE EAST GATE OF THE LORD’S HOUSE. — This is the same place, the main outer entrance to the whole Temple enclosure, to which the prophet had seen the cherubim go (Ezekiel 10:19). It is not expressly said where he was brought from; but the last place mentioned was the court of the pri... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS NOT NEAR; LET US BUILD HOUSES. -Neither the text nor the marginal reading of the Authorised Version quite accurately represent the original. The expression is literally _not near to build houses;_ and it is to be explained by the prophecy and narrative of Jeremiah 29. After the 10,000 (among w... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE MULTIPLIED YOUR SLAIN. — Crimes of violence, as well as of licentiousness, are always the fruit of defection from God. In this case the apostacy of the people had produced its natural result; and the abundant crimes against life formed a prominent feature of the terrible indictment against t... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR SLAIN... THEY ARE THE FLESH. — They had boasted of the protection of their strong city: it should be a security only to the dead who had fallen by their own violence. The living who vainly trusted in its strength should be brought out of it, and delivered as captives to the stranger. The prophe... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE BORDER OF ISRAEL. — The judgment should be cumulative: first, the sword should come upon them (Ezekiel 11:8); then they should be driven out of the city in which they trusted, and delivered into the hands of strangers (Ezekiel 11:9); and then, finally — what was most terrible to a Jew — they... [ Continue Reading ]
PELATIAH... DIED. — This Pelatiah was one of the “princes of the people” mentioned in Ezekiel 11:1 as “those that devise mischief and give wicked counsel.” The prophet’s mind is greatly affected by his sudden death, and he earnestly intercedes that in the judgments God will not “make a full end of t... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAIN THE WORD. — This does not mark the beginning of a separate prophecy, but only the Divine answer to the prophet’s intercession. This answer differs entirely from the denunciations that have gone before, because it no longer relates to the people of Jerusalem (for whom intercession was in vain:... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BRETHREN — _i.e.,_ those who were with Ezekiel in the Captivity. The expression is made emphatic by repetition, and by the addition, “men of thy kindred.” The people remaining in Jerusalem, with arrogant confidence in themselves, and without sympathy for the exiles, had said to them, by words an... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SAY. — These words, again repeated in Ezekiel 11:17, refer to what the people of Jerusalem had said in Ezekiel 11:15. Their saying these things was a reason, not for what God would do, but for His declaring His merciful purpose beforehand. AS A LITTLE SANCTUARY. — Rather, _as a sanctuary f... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GIVE YOU THE LAND OF ISRAEL. — Again in contrast to the people of Jerusalem, who claimed the land as their own exclusive possession. They shall be cast out; the exiles whom they despised shall be gathered again and possess the land. (Comp. Numbers 14:3; Numbers 14:31, where when the people re... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL TAKE AWAY. — Chastened and purified by their chastisement, they should return to the land to do away utterly with the abominations which had caused their exile. Historically, this was fully realised in the abomination in which idolatry, the great sin of the people, was ever after held amo... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE HEART. — Unity of purpose among the restored exiles was to be at once a consequence and a condition of their improved moral condition. The opposite evil is spoken of as one of the sins of the people in Isaiah 53:6 : We have turned every one to his own way.” Self-will, which leads to division, an... [ Continue Reading ]
Here follows one of those germinant and ever developing prophetic promises which in fuller and fuller degree have formed from the very first, and still form, the hope of the future. True religion and a service acceptable to God must spring from a subjection of the affections of the heart to His will... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL RECOMPENSE THEIR WAY. — In striking contrast to the mercy granted to the repentant, is set forth here, as in Revelation 21:8, the Divine wrath upon the impenitent. It has never been promised that all men shall be brought to a true sense of their relations to God, for human responsibility, and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WHEELS BESIDE THEM. — These are the wheels described as with the cherubim, and animated in their movements by one common impulse with them and, as all along, the Divine glory was above.... [ Continue Reading ]
STOOD UPON THE MOUNTAIN. — This mountain, on the east of the city, is that which was afterwards known as the Mount of Olives. It is considerably higher than the city, and commands a view over its entire extent. Here the Divine glory rested after taking its departure from the Temple and the city in t... [ Continue Reading ]