Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 20

Verses 1-44

CHAPTER 20:1-44.

A NEW series of prophecies begins here, and stretches to the close of the twenty-third chapter. It commences with a definite period of time, marked as the seventh year, fifth month, and tenth day of the month (nearly a year later than the last previous date given), and took its rise in a specific occasion. The entire series is of a peculiarly dark, objurgatory, and threatening character, interspersed with only some occasional gleams of light and distant prospects of a still coming good. No substantial amendment had been produced by the earlier communications of the prophet, and the contemporary efforts of other servants of God. Hence the guilt having become so much greater, and the time drawn nearer for the execution of judgment, the burden which the prophet had to deliver was but the more fearfully charged with intimations of brooding woe.

The occasion of this series of discourses was furnished by certain of the elders of Israel coming to inquire of the Lord at the mouth of the prophet. What might be the precise object of their inquiry is kept in the background, as it was also on a former occasion (Ezekiel 14:0). There can be little doubt, however, that it had respect in some shape to the then depressed and suffering condition of the covenant-people, and implied, at least, if it did not openly express, a desire to ascertain some thing more definite about God’s purposes respecting them. But here, again, a preliminary objection arose from the moral state of the persons inquiring, which was such as precluded them from any right to expect a friendly response from God to their desire for further information. Regarding, as they did, iniquity in their heart, the Lord could not hear them. He therefore, at the outset, denounced the presumption of such persons in corning to inquire at his servant, and called upon the prophet to do toward them the part of a judge, by charging upon them the rebellious spirit of their fathers, and showing how little either they or their fathers had received in chastisement from God compared with what they had deserved.

Ezekiel 20:1 . And it came to pass in the fifth (month) of the seventh year, in the tenth of the month, that some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

Ezekiel 20:2 . And the word of Jehovah came to me saying, o. Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Have ye come to inquire of me? As I live, I shall not be inquired of by you, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 20:4 . Wilt thou not judge them? wilt thou not judge, son of man? (The interrogative has here the force of a command, the הֲ being equivalent to the usual הזלֹא , Wilt thou not? And the interrogation is repeated to show the strength of feeling on the part of God, and the urgency of the occasion: Wilt thou not do it? Wilt thou not do it? Why delay? There is here the loudest call for the exercise of judgment; do it promptly.) Make them to know the abominations of their fathers.

Ezekiel 20:5 . And thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day that I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand to the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand to them, saying, I am Jehovah, your God.

Ezekiel 20:6 . In that day I lifted up my hand to them, that I should bring them forth from the land of Egypt to a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. (It is, literally, the ornament or beauty of all lands; and from being applied to Canaan before the Israelites took possession of it, the epithet must, of course, be understood in its natural sense, as denoting the native excellence and desirableness of the country. The same epithet is applied in Isaiah 13:19 to Babylon as a kingdom, and several times in Daniel to Palestine (Daniel 8:9; Daniel 11:16). We may understand by it, not so properly the absolute superiority of Canaan, as its relative superiority, considered as the abode and heritage of the Lord’s people.)

Ezekiel 20:7 . And I said to them, Cast ye, every man, away the pollution of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Jehovah, your God.

Ezekiel 20:8 . And they rebelled against me, and were not willing to hearken to me; they did not, every man, cast away the pollutions of his eyes, nor forsake the idols of Egypt; and I said that I would pour out my wrath upon them, that I would accomplish my anger in them within the land of Egypt.

Ezekiel 20:9 . But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it might not be polluted in the eyes of the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known, to bring them forth from the land of Egypt.

Ezekiel 20:10 . And I led them forth from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:11 . And I gave to them my statutes, and my judgments I made known to them, which if a man do, he shall live in them.

Ezekiel 20:12 . And I also gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah, who sanctifies them.

Ezekiel 20:13 . But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not walk in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them; and they grievously profaned my sabbaths; and I said that I should pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness to consume them.

Ezekiel 20:14 . But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it might not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

Ezekiel 20:15 . And also I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given, flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

Ezekiel 20:16 . Because they acted despitefully against my judgments, and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths for their heart went after its idols:

Ezekiel 20:17 . Yet mine eye spared them from being destroyed, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:18 . And 1 said to their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, and do not keep their judgments, and with their idols defile not yourselves.

Ezekiel 20:19 . I Jehovah am your God; walk in my statutes and keep my judgments, and do them.

Ezekiel 20:20 . And sanctify my sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I Jehovah am your God.

Ezekiel 20:21 . But the children rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and kept not my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my sabbaths; and I said that I would pour out my wrath upon them, that I would accomplish my anger in them, in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:22 . But I turned back my hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it might not be polluted among the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.

Ezekiel 20:23 . Also I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and that I would disperse them among the countries;

Ezekiel 20:24 . Because they did not execute my judgments, and despised my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were after the idols of the heathen.

Ezekiel 20:25 . And I also gave to them statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they should not live.

Ezekiel 20:26 . And I polluted them in their gifts, in the presentation (literally, the causing to pass over) of all their firstborn (The expression here, of “making to pass over,” does not refer to the horrid practice of making children pass through the fire to Moloch, as our translators have unhappily understood it. That was a later abomination, and as such is mentioned in Ezekiel 20:31, where subsequent corruptions are historically related; but what is here meant, is the consecration of the firstborn to the Lord. It is the same term that is used to express the act of consecration in Exodus 13:12, where the original ordinance is given: “The firstborn shall all be made to pass over to the Lord.” Here, however, to the Lord is omitted, and on purpose. As if to say: They kept up the ceremony, indeed, the outward service was still gone through; but I did not own it as done to me, since it was mingled with such pollutions.) that I might make them desolate, that they might know that I am Jehovah.

Ezekiel 20:27 . Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In this again your fathers have dishonoured me in their treacherous dealings toward me.

Ezekiel 20:28 . And I brought them into the land which I lifted up my hand to give to them, and they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering, and there they set forth their sweet savours, and there they poured out their drink-offerings.

Ezekiel 20:29 . And I said to them, What is the high place to which ye come? And its name was called Bamah (high place) unto this day. (Such is the literal translation of this passage, and that also which yields the best meaning. Various interpretations and renderings have been given. Hävernick would regard it as charging them with having confounded the difference between God’s temple and other places of worship; but it seems rather to indicate what God himself held their worship to be: he gave the name Bamah to every place of their worship, and held by that as the proper name, for the worship was essentially of a polluted and heathenish character. Quite parallel is Hosea 4:15, where Bethel, God’s house, is changed into Bethaven, the House of Iniquity.)

Ezekiel 20:30 . Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the way of your fathers ye have polluted yourselves, and after their abominations have ye wantonly gone.

Ezekiel 20:31 . And in the offering of your gifts, in making your children to pass through the fire, ye have polluted yourselves with all your idols to this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I shall not be inquired of by you.

Ezekiel 20:32 . And that which has come up in your minds shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the nations, to serve wood and stone.

Ezekiel 20:34 . And I will bring you out from among the peoples, and will gather yon from the countries wherein ye were scattered, with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out.

Ezekiel 20:35 . And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and will contend with you there face to face.

Ezekiel 20:36 . Like as I contended with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I contend with you, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 20:37 . And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

Ezekiel 20:38 . And I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

Ezekiel 20:39 . And you, house of Israel, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Go, serve ye every one his idols; but afterward if ye will not (i.e. surely ye will the usual form of strong asseveration) hearken unto me, and ye will not pollute my holy name with your gifts and your idols.

Ezekiel 20:40 . For in my holy mountain, in the mountain -height of Israel, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me; there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.

Ezekiel 20:41 . I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I shall have brought you out from the peoples, and gathered you from the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

Ezekiel 20:42 . And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have brought you into the land of Israel, to the country which I lifted up my hand that I would give it to your fathers.

Ezekiel 20:43 . And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings wherewith ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

Ezekiel 20:44 . And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

I. The chapter naturally falls into two great portions, the first of which consists of what fell from the prophet in the execution of his office of judgment. It extends to the close of Ezekiel 20:32, and proceeds historically, dividing the entire course of Israel into so many sections, in each of which substantially the same spirit of rebelliousness is charged upon the people, and the same purpose of severity is ascribed to God, but constantly tempered and restrained by manifestations of mercy. Five distinct periods are thus rehearsed in order, the first, when the Lord came to visit the children of Israel in Egypt; the second, when they were brought into the wilderness; the third, when, near the close of their sojourn there, a new generation had come into being; a fourth, when they were settled in the land of Canaan; and the last, the period comprehending the generation now addressed by the prophet. There is no difficulty in discovering the import of what is said, either with respect to the people’s behaviour during those successive periods, or to the manifestations of God’s mind and will concerning them. The language throughout is remarkably plain, and free from ambiguity or darkness of any sort, so that verbal criticism has here scarcely any occasion for its exercise. But, on the other hand, there is not a little that calls for explanation or remark in the things that are affirmed both respecting the people’s sinfulness and the manner in which this was dealt with on the part of God. We must therefore look at what is written of each period in succession.

1. In regard to the earliest period named, we find a very specific charge not only of idolatry, but even of obstinate and perverse attachment to the corruptions of idolatry, brought against the Israelites as a people. In that mere infancy of their national existence, “the day,” as it is called, “when God chose Israel, and lifted up his hand (or swore) unto the seed of Jacob, and made himself known unto them in the land of Egypt, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that he had espied for them,” then he said to them, “Cast ye every man away the pollutions of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am Jehovah, your God. But,” it is added, “they rebelled against me, and were not willing to hearken to me; they did not every man cast away the pollutions of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. And I said that I would pour out my wrath upon them, that I would accomplish my anger in them within the land of Egypt” (Ezekiel 20:5-8).

There is nothing in the history of the period referred to, to countenance the idea that the words here attributed to the Lord were actually spoken to the Israelites in Egypt, or that the injunctions upon the one side and the disobedience on the other took the formal and definite shape here given to them. The description is according to the prophet’s usual manner, whose vivid imagination, when transporting him either into the past or the future, constantly seeks to give a living and embodied form to the truths exhibited to his view. Moses has not even left any direct notice of the people’s addictedness to idolatry in Egypt, nor has he spoken of any resistance made by them to the Divine injunctions issued regarding it. The only kind of resistance to the word of God, which he expressly mentions, is that which arose out of the cruel treatment practised upon them. “They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage” (Exodus 6:9). In more than one passage, however, he has given no doubtful indication of the real state of matters in this respect; as when in Exodus 32:0 he represents the whole people as so speedily lapsing again into the practice of Egyptian idolatry; or when, in Leviticus 17:7, contrasting what should now be done with what had previously existed, he says, “And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils (literally, Seirim, he-goats), after whom they have gone a lusting.” ( Καλέεται δὲ τε τράγος, καὶ ὁ Πὰν αἰγυκτιστὶ , (Herod, ii. 46). And this Pan was one of the chief gods of Egypt, viewed as personified, incarnate in the he-goat, which was hence deemed sacred. (See Hengst. Beitr. ii. p. 119.)) Indeed the very form given to the commission of Moses, to go and vindicate the children of Israel for God that they might come forth and serve him, was itself a proof how much the worship of Jehovah had fallen into abeyance, and how generally the people had allowed themselves to sink into the prevailing idolatries. They must go out of the polluted region, where other lords, spiritual as well as temporal, have had dominion over them, that they may stand free to worship and serve Jehovah. And so the whole design and purport of the commission of Moses might be regarded as a protest against their connection with the abominations of Egypt, and a call, not only to Pharaoh to let the people go, but also to the people themselves to come out and be separate, as a seed whom the Lord had chosen.

Now that they did not properly respond to this call of God that, oppressed and afflicted as they were, they would rather have remained where they were than gone forth to join themselves to the pure worship and service of Jehovah is but too manifest from the subsequent history. They were not themselves, indeed, at the time fully aware of the contrariety that existed in their heart and ways to what was to be required of them in the Lord’s service; for as yet their views were very crude and imperfect. But the Lord knew well how matters actually stood, and could easily descry, through the apathy, the impatience, and partial opposition that discovered themselves in their behaviour, the signs of a deep-rooted opposition to his righteous and just demands. Nor can we doubt, especially from what afterwards occurred, that the thing most grievous to the eye of Jehovah during the whole of that dreadful conflict which was maintained with the powers of evil in Egypt, was the debased and corrupt state of those in whose behalf it was more immediately maintained the comparatively slight difference, in a spiritual respect, that existed between them and the people of Egypt. They evinced no intelligent or hearty sympathy with the high ends and purposes for which such a conflict was waged; so that if the Lord had acted toward them according to the strict requirements of justice, he would even have poured out his anger upon them. And nothing but a regard to his own name, that he might appear true to the promises he had made to the seed of Israel, and that the heathen themselves might see what a glorious thing it was to have an interest in his covenant-love and faithfulness, nothing but this could have moved God in such circumstances to work so marvellously for the deliverance of his people from the house of bondage. Such is the testimony of the prophet regarding the first period brought under consideration.

2. The next period embraces the first part of the sojourn in the wilderness. When conducted thither, the Lord gave them, it is testified, “his statutes, and showed them his judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them.” There is nothing properly new or peculiar in this part of the statement, though it has not unfrequently been perverted to a wrong purpose. The same thing substantially had been said by Moses, when in respect to the laws and ordinances, which through his ministration had been imposed on Israel, he declared he had set before the people life and death, life if they loved the Lord, and walked in his ways, and kept his commandments and statutes and judgments, but if otherwise, death (Deuteronomy 30:16). But neither Moses nor Ezekiel, it is obvious, meant that the life spoken of, which comprehends whatever is really excellent and good, was to be acquired by means of such conformity to the enactments of Heaven; for life in that sense was already theirs, freely given and secured by the goodness of God in the covenant of promise. What they meant was, that only thus could the children of Israel retain possession of what was given, or attain to the secure and continued enjoyment of it. For as the statutes and ordinances, which God enjoined them to keep, were to constitute the out ward form and expression of their spiritual being, so by the measure of their conformity to these must necessarily be determined what should belong to them, either of the goodness or of the blessedness of life. If life existed at all, this was the channel through which it was to flow, these were the signs and exhibitions which it was to give of itself. And just as in the natural sphere the exercise and discharge of all the appropriate functions is the way to sustain and invigorate, as well as to exhibit, the principle of life; so it might be said of Israel in respect to their covenant life, that by following the appointed channel of God’s institutions, it was to preserve itself in healthfulness and vigour. Doing those things, they lived in them; because life thus had its due exercise and nourishment, and was in a condition to enjoy the manifold privileges and blessings secured in the covenant. And the very same may be said of the precepts and ordinances of the gospel: a man lives after the higher life of faith, only in so far as he walks in conformity with these; for though he gets life by a simple act of faith in Christ, he cannot exercise, maintain, and enjoy it but in connection with the institutions and requirements of the gospel.

It was manifestly the design of Ezekiel here, as also of Moses in the passage referred to in Deuteronomy, in coupling life so expressly with the observance of the laws and ordinances of the old covenant, to show the necessary connection between what was required of God and what was to be enjoyed by the people. They were thus taught to regard it as an act of kindness that he should have set before them such laws and ordinances and could not fret and turn aside from them without wronging their own souls. But there is one ordinance in particular, of which special mention is made by the prophet, in connection with this period of Israel’s history: “And also my Sabbaths I gave them, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.” Along with Nehemiah 9:14, this passage is often appealed to as a proof of the later origin of the Sabbath, and its essentially Jewish character, as if from its being given to the Israelites, and made to stand as a sign between the Lord and them, it must then for the first time have come into existence. But one might as well affirm, that up till that period they were altogether without the statutes and judgments by which they could live; for these too are connected with the same period, and of necessity were also, to a certain extent, signs between God and Israel. The proper view rather is, that the Sabbatical institution was then brought more prominently out, and more formally enacted, than it had hitherto been; and that, from its very nature, as requiring for its proper observance the general ascendancy of religious principle, it was specially fitted to serve as a sign of the people’s faithfulness to the covenant of God. If they kept the Sabbaths of the Lord, whether in their weekly recurrence, or as connected with the annual feasts, as he required them to be kept, it would be a living and palpable proof of their having entered into the spirit of the dispensation they were under, while their neglect and profanation of the Sabbath would equally serve as a proof of their unfaithfulness. Hence the observance of the Sabbath is here so expressly mentioned in connection with their sanctification: “a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.” It was, in truth, their sanctification, or their holiness in heart and conduct, which was the grand sign and evidence of Israel’s being the chosen people of God. In so far as they complied with the exhortation, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” they possessed the mark of his children. And the proper observance of the Sabbatical rest being so specially designated a sign in this respect, could only have arisen from its singular importance to the interests of religion and morality. These, it was virtually said, would thrive and flourish if the Sabbath was duly observed, but would languish and die if it fell into desuetude. And for this reason the prophet Isaiah, at the close of a long expostulation with the people regarding sin, presses the dutiful observance of the Sabbath, as sure to carry along with it the remedy of the evil: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:13-14). This passage may justly be taken as an explanation of the sense in which the Lord meant the people to regard his Sabbaths as a sign between them and him. Such paramount importance could never have been attached by the prophet to this sacred institution, nor could it have been so peculiarly connected with the blessing of the covenant, if the mere outward rest had been all that the institution contemplated. This is what those who hold mistaken views on this subject almost uniformly take for granted, as if the people should have been properly sanctified by simply resting every Sabbath from their usual labours. The command must have had a far deeper import, and required a great deal more at the hands of the people, in order to prove an adequate sign between them and God. It must have been, and it was, intended not only to separate them from their worldly employments, but also to call out their hearts in suitable exercises of faith and love to God, and in brotherly acts of kindness and good-will toward those around them. On no other account could its faithful observance be represented as indicative of a sound and healthful state of religion generally. And we might ask, without the least fear of contradiction, if the same practical value is not attached to the careful observance of the Lord’s day now by those who have an enlightened regard to the interests of religion? When this day ceases to be devoutly observed, all experience and observation testify that there never fails to ensue a corresponding decline in the life and actings of religion. (We cannot help noticing with regret, that Hävernick here contents himself with expressing his concurrence in the view of Bähr, who regards the Jewish Sabbath as simply a day of outward rest, in memorial of creation, and in token of the people’s looking to God as the final resting-place of their souls. But something of a more positive nature was necessary to secure the design of the Sabbath; it required spiritual employments and holy convocations. See Typology of Scripture, vol. ii. p. 118, where the subject is more fully discussed. Herbert only expressed the sentiment that pervades the bosoms of pious men in every age when he wrote: “Sundays the pillars are On which heaven’s palace arched lies; The other days fill up the spare And hollow room with vanities. They are the fruitful beds and borders In God’s rich garden: that is bare Which parts their ranks and orders.” )

But, to return to the subject more immediately before us, the prophet brings, in regard to these statutes and ordinances which the Lord imposed upon the Israelites, as soon as he had led them into the wilderness, substantially the same charge that had been already brought against them in regard to the period of their sojourn in Egypt. He declares that they showed the same spirit of rebellion as formerly, but in a more directly offensive manner, as there was now more of positive precept to transgress. They did not walk in his judgments, they despised his statutes, they polluted his Sabbaths, of which the historical records of the period contain but too ample evidence. These also relate how, as is testified here, the Lord once and again threatened to pour out his fury upon them, and consume them, but was again restrained by a regard to his own glory, that his name might not be polluted among the heathen, especially those of them in whose sight he had brought out Israel, and set them in a state of freedom (Exodus 32:10-11; Numbers 14:11, etc.). So far he did allow his righteous displeasure to proceed, that he would not permit the generation that came out of Egypt to enter the land of Canaan, but caused them to sojourn and die in the wilderness, though he did not there make an end of the people themselves. There was a visitation of judgment, but one so light when compared with the sins which provoked it, that it might rather be characterised as the triumph of mercy over judgment!

3. The next period of special dealing mentioned by the prophet is that which comprises the latter part of the sojourn in the wilderness, and has respect to the younger generation, the children of those who had come out of Egypt as full-grown men. To them, it is said, the Lord repeated the charge he had given to their fathers respecting his statutes and judgments and Sabbaths, and had also distinctly warned them not to follow the ways, nor defile themselves with the idols, of their fathers. But neither did this new generation keep the charge of the Lord; they rebelled against him, by setting at nought his commandments and ordinances, so that the Lord again said he would pour out his fury upon them, to accomplish his anger against them in the wilderness. There is an apparent contrariety in what is thus said of the generation that grew up in the wilderness, to the testimony borne partly respecting them, and partly respecting the former generation, by Jeremiah, at the beginning of the second chapter of his writings: “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase; all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.” But this testimony is not to be understood of the actual condition of Israel; it rather indicates what they were in appearance, what, in the freshness and ardour of their youthful zeal, they professed and seemed to be, than what they really were. At the very most, it cannot be regarded as more than a comparative statement; for the prophet himself, immediately afterwards, represents them as beginning to defile the land, as soon as they entered it; and the historical records also of the period too clearly show, that the congregation as a whole were far from being what they should have been. It was near the close of the sojourn in the wilderness that the rebellion of Korah and his company appears to have taken place; as also the murmuring for water in Kadesh, which proved the occasion to Moses and Aaron of their losing the prospect of entering Canaan. And worse than all, the fearful apostasy on the plains of Moab belongs to this period, and did not occur till after the congregation had finally left the wilderness. Such facts decisively show, that however this new generation excelled the one that had come out of Egypt, elements of corruption were still plentifully at work in it; and it was not without ample reason that Moses spoke of them as, notwithstanding the many signs and wonders they had witnessed, not having got a heart to perceive, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, unto this day (Deuteronomy 29:4). It was also to that generation peculiarly, and no doubt because they needed the warning, that the threatening was proclaimed of a future dispersion among the heathen, as recorded in Deuteronomy 28:0, and referred to here by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 20:23.

Our prophet, however, not only represents God as lifting up his hand, threatening a dispersion to them on account of sin, but adds further: “Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live,” words which from the earliest times have been variously misunderstood. Among the Fathers, the opinion was so common as to be almost universal (Jerome alone tries to qualify it), that the law in general, and in particular its sacrificial rites, must be understood by those statutes not good, and judgments in which men could not live although the prophet expressly opposes them to those which God had given in the wilderness, and which must have comprehended all the sacrificial institutions. Others, again, have sought to distinguish between one part of the law and another, giving to the decalogue especially the honour of being accounted good and life-sustaining; while the other and more burdensome parts of the ritual are assigned to the class of not good, and tending to death (so Spencer, Warburton, etc.). As if only the decalogue had been given to the generation that had come out of Egypt, and at the commencement of the wilderness sojourn, while all the rest had been reserved to the close, and made known to the generation that succeeded! On the contrary, all the distinctive laws and ordinances of the old covenant were imposed during the first and second year after the deliverance from Egypt; and consequently were given, not principally to the generation here spoken of by the prophet, but to their fathers, who had been brought out of Egypt. It was also of these laws and ordinances, of the whole legislation of God by Moses, that Moses himself spake when he told the people that they had therein the way of life set before them.

It must therefore be something quite diverse and opposite; it can only, indeed, be the polluted customs and observances of heathenism that the prophet here characterizes as statutes not good, and judgments in which life was not to be found. By a strong expression (and yet not so strong as that in Isaiah 63:17: “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardened our heart from thy fear?”), God is said to have given death-bringing ordinances to the Israelites, when he saw their wayward and perverse behaviour in regard to the commandments and duties of his service; since, to punish their unfaithfulness, he subjected them to influences which carried them still farther astray, and brought on, first spiritual, then also, in due time, outward desolation and ruin. We have precisely the same process described, and in still stronger language, in 2 Thessalonians 2:0, where, of those who “received not the love of the truth,” it is said, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, and that they might be damned,” first, the corrupting influences that bring spiritual blighting and disaster let loose upon them, and then, when these have wrought their full effect, the doom executed upon them of final perdition. Such entirely was the case with the Israelites, who were led into the land of Canaan. And as a proof of what might be expected there a solemn pre-intimation and warning of the future the troubles were allowed to befall them, which took place on the plains of Moab, in the matter of Baal-peor. It was in chastisement for existing unfaithfulness to God’s covenant that the votaries of Baal were permitted on that occasion to ply them with solicitations to apostasy, as is but too clearly evinced by the melancholy success which attended the experiment; a widespread degeneracy alone could have accounted for this. The very direction of events, therefore, so as to expose them to this unhappy temptation, was itself an act of judgment, and a judgment exactly of the kind now under consideration; it surrendered the people to influences which were sure, as matters then stood, to entangle them in the abominations of heathenism, as these, again, were sure to bring down upon them the stroke of Divine retribution. The first step in the Divine procedure was necessary to render manifest the corruption they were secretlv harbouring in their bosom; and the second, to drive it out by the rod of chastisement. Would that succeeding generations had sufficiently considered the solemn lesson! How many renewals of the same severe and wholesome discipline might have been spared them! But to their own shame and confusion, they constantly forgot the works of the Lord, and remembered not his judgments.

That the view now given of Ezekiel 20:25 is the correct one, becomes still more evident when we look at the next verse, which ought to be regarded as explanatory of the other: “And I polluted them in their gifts (viz. as the results of the bad statutes and judgments now brought in upon them); in the presentation of all their firstborn, that I might make them desolate, that they might know that I am the Lord.” When the Lord speaks of polluting them in their gifts, something more is to be understood than Hävernick’s, “I declared them to be impure, I treated them as such.” They really were impure, and God had, in righteous judgment, ordered his providence so as to render this impurity palpable. He speaks, therefore, as if he himself had polluted them, that he might lead the people to regard the blindness and infatuation of mind, which disposed them to submit to heathenish influences, as the result of his just displeasure. Whence also it further came to pass that the Lord’s face was turned away from them that even when they brought their gifts according to the law, in particular when they presented their firstborn, by which each succeeding generation should have been consecrated to the Lord, all was regarded by him as defiled through the heathenish admixture, nor would he even own it as properly done to himself. But in proportion as such feelings were entertained by God, he must make it manifest by the outward executions of judgment; he must render their condition desolate, that, thus chastened and humbled, they might come to know the Lord, and return to him in truth.

4. The next period in this religious history is the somewhat indefinite one that followed the settlement in the land of Canaan; it comprehends generally the procedure of the fathers of the generation who lived in the prophet’s time, from the era of their settlement in Canaan downwards. It is characterized as substantially of the same nature with those which had preceded it; their fathers still went on, it is stated by the prophet, trespassing against God, and blaspheming his name: “For when I had brought them into the land, which I lifted up my hand to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering, and there they set forth their sweet savours, and there they poured out their drink-offerings. And I said to them, What is the high place to which ye come? And its name was called Bamah (high-place) unto this day.” That is, their worship (viewed generally) has been still a mere high-place celebration, a mongrel combination of the false and the true; and that wherever performed, whether on Mount Zion or on the other places chosen for the purpose throughout the land, the scene of their dovotions has ever been, in my sight, but a high-place its name is Bamah it has no proper sacredness about it, nor have the services presented come with acceptance before me.

5. Nothing more is said of the fathers who had hitherto been occupying the land of Canaan. The prophet is impatient to get at the children, the generation who then lived, and with whom he had more immediately to do. He is anxious to bring home to them the charge of being of the same spirit with their fathers, and therefore having no right to expect that the Lord would deal with them on friendly terms, and return a peaceful answer to their inquiries. “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the way of your fathers ye have polluted yourselves; and after their abominations have ye wantonly gone. And in the offering of your gifts, in the making pass (or presentation) of your children through the fire, are ye defiled with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I shall not be inquired of by you. And that which comes up into your mind shall not be at all, in that ye say, We shall be like the heathen, like the families of the nations, to serve wood and stone” (Ezekiel 20:30-32).

Thus he describes the spirit of apostasy as reaching its climax in the existing generation. They were not satisfied with treading generally in the footsteps of their fathers, but they must even aspire to a perfect conformity to heathen customs, as if it was a privilege they were ambitious to reach, or a consummation they desired. And so the dedication of the children, which of old had been done with so much of foreign admixture that the Lord could not own it as done to him, now takes the hideous form of a committing of them to the flames in honour of their false deities; and instead of simply mingling up Jehovah and Baal together, as their fathers had done, they must now be altogether on a footing with the wretched idolaters, who bowed down to wood and stone.

II. Now, having thus fulfilled the office of judgment, and disclosed with all plainness the estimation in which the Lord held the people of Israel, represented by the inquiring elders before him, the prophet thenceforth proceeds to the second great division of his message. It stretches from vers. Ezekiel 20:33-44, where, in the Hebrew Bible, the chapter terminates, as it manifestly should have done also in the English Bible. And the leading purport of what is said is to make known the mingled goodness and seventy with which the Lord was now going to deal with them, to the end that he might thoroughly wean them from their abominations, and bring them into a state in which he could return to bless them and do them good.

The chief peculiarity in the representation consists in the historical form into which it is thrown; what was to be is exhibited as a doing over again of what had already been done in the earlier periods of their history. A striking example of this species of representation has previously come under our notice, when at Ezekiel 4:0 we found the prophet disclosing the awful period of iniquity-bearing, or chastisement for sins, that was ready to befall them, under the double form of a return of Egyptian bondage and oppression, and of the sojourn in the wilderness. Here, again, it is precisely the same periods that are represented as returning, but under a somewhat different aspect not so much as ages of gloom and desolation rolling over them, as rather successive stages of providential dealing, of the same nature, but more perfect in their kind than those formerly experienced. In the carnal and idolatrous state into which they had sunk, they were beginning to think of abandoning all their distinctive privileges and hopes, as the chosen people of God, and amalgamating themselves with the heathen nations around them. This was what formerly had, to a large extent, been done in the land of Egypt, where, as we had occasion already to notice, the distinction in a spiritual respect between Israel and their oppressors became in process of time all but obliterated. The Lord declares, however, he will not suffer this contemplated amalgamation to take place he will no more do so now than he did formerly; and to prevent it, he will resort to the same kind of stern and wholesome discipline. “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.” And being thus held under the grasp of Almightiness, and made to feel in their peeled and scattered condition how powerful a Sovereign ruled over them, and was reckoning with them for their iniquities, they were also to know for what holy and beneficent ends he held them bound by this special lordship. “And I will bring you out from among the peoples (it is presupposed they had been dispersed among these), and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I contend with you face to face. Like as I contended with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I contend with you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will cause you to pass under the rod (the shepherd rod or staff of the Lord), and I will bring you into the bond (or discipline) of the covenant. And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me. And I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah” (Ezekiel 20:34-38).

Here the state of dispersion and exile, which was soon to be consummated, and which was of necessity a state of subjection and trouble, corresponds to the period of affliction in Egypt; on which account also the region of exile is in the last verse called “the country of their sojourn,” the very common designation of Egypt in the Pentateuch (Exodus 12:40; Leviticus 19:33-34; Deuteronomy 26:5; Psalms 105:23, etc.). (By a strange misapprehension of this part of the description, Hävernick supposes here a reference to the sojournings of the patriarchs in the land of Canaan, and considers the land of exile to be called “the country of their sojourn” by a bitter irony. A very forced and unnatural idea. Egypt, in such a connection as this, was manifestly the historical place of the people’s sojourn.) And between the calling out of the people from this Egyptian-like condition, between the termination of their sojourn in the enemies land and their entrance into their own land, lies now, just as of old, a temporary abode in the wilderness, where the Lord enters into very close and special dealing with them, refines them as in the fire, purges out from among them the rebels, who, though delivered from the land of exile, are not suffered to come into the land of blessing, and so prepares the people for fulfilling aright their covenant obligations. Now, what precisely is to be understood by this wilderness? The prophet expressly distinguishes it from the “wilderness of the land of Egypt,” in which of old the people had been thus dealt with by God; so that we are not to think of an actual return to the desert that lay between Egypt and Canaan. He further calls it “the wilderness of the peoples,” or nations, which many, and still some of the latest interpreters (most recently, Hitzig), understand of the desert that lies between Babylon and Judea, on account of its being frequented by wandering tribes; as if the wilderness on the other side, between Judea and Egypt, were not equally and even more frequented by such! The correct view is given by Hengstenberg in his Christology, on Hosea 2:16, where God’s future dealings with his people are presented under the very same image of a re-enacting of the scenes of the wilderness: “I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, stands in direct reference to, I will bring you out from the nations. Hence it appears that the peoples to whom the Israelites were brought could be no other than those out of the midst of whom they were to be led forth. In the earlier leading of the Israelites, the two spiritual conditions also outwardly existed; the first belonged to Egypt, the second to the desert. But it is not to be so in the above-predicted repetition of this leading. At the commencement of the second condition, the Israelites are only spiritually led forth out of the midst of the people, among whom outwardly they still remain. The desert is in the second Egypt itself. The residence in the desert is repeated only as to its essential, not its accidental outward form. Hence we acquire the important result, that the leading of God predicted here is not limited to one place.” So far from that, it was to be looked for on as extensive a scale as the dispersion itself; this was to bring them into the wilderness of the nations, and while they were there no matter whether locally in Babylon or in Egypt, on the banks of the Chebar, or in the cities of Greece or Rome the Lord was to meet with them for the purpose of judgment, separation, and cleansing.

But such being the case the wilderness in this new aspect of Jehovah’s dealings being, as to its outward position, identified with the new Egypt out of which they were to be delivered it would evidently be to put an entirely false construction upon such a prediction to surround it on every side with local and definite landmarks, as if all now must have the same outward and ostensible realization as of old. The prophet has guarded against this error by throwing the wilderness and Egypt, as it were, together; so that it would be impossible to mark precisely where the one ended and the other began. And as thus a certain degree of indefiniteness was made to inhere in the prediction in one respect, the same might also to some extent be looked for in others; the more especially as we see indications of it at the very outset. According to the representation of the prophet, the new Egypt-state of bondage and affliction is the exile into other countries; and yet how plainly did such a state begin before the exile was actually consummated! It did not take place all at once, as the descent of old into Egypt, but by many successive strokes and fresh removals. Even before some of the later deportations, the remnant that still existed in the land of Canaan, enfeebled and sore broken as it was, crippled in its resources, and overridden by the might of heathen powers, had become in a manner subject to the yoke of Egypt. And if, in point of fact, Egypt did thus begin in Canaan, and the wilderness was to begin while they still continued to reside in the countries of their dispersion, might not this wilderness-condition ( i.e. the period of trial, discipline, and purification) be prolonged also beyond the outward sojourn in the nations, and extend into Canaan again? It is not precise boundaries the prophet seeks to determine, but rather successive spiritual conditions on the part of the people, and corresponding methods of dealing on the part of God. Hence, as Calvin justly remarks, they might even be in exile, though in the land of Judea itself; and in reality, God did come anew to plead with them after he had led them back thither from the Babylonish exile. The writings of the three last prophets, but especially those of Malachi, conclusively show, that as the Egypt-state began before they left Canaan, so the wilderness-state, to a large extent, continued even after the return. The separation between the precious and the vile was still far from being complete, and the bond of the covenant was never more than imperfectly entered into. Canaan could not, therefore, properly be to them what it is described in the word of promise; for in spirit they had not properly emerged from the wilderness, and God could not be present with the full bestowal of his gifts and blessings. Nay, as if scarcely anything in these respects had yet been done, Malachi, after severe but comparatively ineffectual reproofs against the prevailing evils, hands over the returned remnant of the children of the covenant generally to the searching ministry of the Baptist, and the personal dealings of the Lord himself, who were still to find them as in the wilderness, and were to effect, in another manner than hitherto, the still needed separation between sin and holiness among the people.

But Ezekiel, in the passage before us, does not go into detail. He merely sketches the general outline. The children of Israel, he virtually says, by reason of their sinful craving after heathen ish pollutions, must have the old things in their history revived again, only with such variations in outward form as the altered circumstances of the time might require. They are already sinking anew into the bondage and affliction of Egypt, out of which they shall in process of time be brought, that they may be sifted and purged and prepared for the heritage of Jacob by earnest pleadings and sharp discipline, such as belonged of old to the period of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. Then shall they reach the state of peace and rest which they desire, and then shall they be in a condition for attaining to the blessed end of their calling. Therefore, on the ground of this fixed determination of God, and in the prospect of this coming good, the prophet addresses himself to the present generation: “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, Go ye, serve ye every one his idols (do so, if you have a mind; I am prepared to expect no better from you); but afterwards, surely ye will hearken unto me, and ye will not pollute my holy name with your gifts and your idols. For (this is the reason why they should not do so the Lord will accomplish his gracious purpose) in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel (high, because holy, spiritually, not outwardly pre-eminent; see Ezekiel 17:23), there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things,” etc. (Ezekiel 20:39-44.)

Thus the perfected condition to which matters were to be brought, takes also to the prophet’s view the form of a revival of the old; the regenerated people, the pure and acceptable worship, the glorious inheritance of blessing, presented themselves as the return, and more than the return, of the best in the past it was to be the full realization of what should have been, yet never was more than in part. How far, however, similar qualifications to those connected with the other points in the prediction were to have place here, could only be determined by the event. But since such a compass was given in the earlier part to the wilderness, there can be no reason, from the nature of the prophecy, why a like enlargement might not also be given to the land, and mountain, and people of the latter part. By the new and better state of things introduced through the gospel, Mount Zion has risen to a nobler elevation than of old, and Canaan has burst its ancient bounds, and the elect people have spread themselves far and wide in the earth. Wherever there is a true believer in Christ, there also is a genuine member of the house of Israel, a pure worshipper coming to Mount Zion, a free-born citizen, who feeds on the heritage of Jacob his father; for they who are Christ’s are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. But other and more fitting opportunites will occur for considering how far the promised good to Israel is to be understood as merging in the good of the Christian Church. See especially at chap. 34, and at the beginning of chap. 40, where the principles of interpretation applicable to such prophecies are more fully discussed.

Verses 45-49

CHAPTER 20:45-49, 21.

THE five concluding verses in Ezekiel 20:45-49, as already noticed, should evidently have been connected with Ezekiel 21:0, and are justly regarded by interpreters as a kind of general introduction to what follows, or a brief delineation under one aspect of what is afterwards more fully and explicitly described under another. The leading import of the vision is plain enough; but it is written throughout in a style so singularly abrupt, and in some parts so utterly enigmatical, that it may certainly be considered, as a whole, one of the darkest portions of Ezekiel’s writings. Even Horsley, who was not scrupulous in forcing a way where none naturally presented itself, has here simply left a record of his inability to proceed, in the brief note, “The difficulties of this passage are to me insuperable.” For once, at least, his ready resort to a change in the text proved insufficient to bring the necessary relief. Various emendations of the text have been suggested by late authors; but these, being of an entirely arbitrary and conjectural character, are incapable of yielding satisfaction, and are seldom even deserving of notice. I cannot, certainly, pretend to say that I see my way through all the obscurities of the passage, as it stands, and shall not hesitate to state my doubts as to the real meaning, where I have failed to get them removed. But the portions of this kind are not, after all, very numerous, and will be found to interfere comparatively little with the general import of the prophet’s communication.

For the greater facility and clearness of interpretation, we shall take the passage in successive portions.

Ezekiel 20:45 . And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Ezekiel 20:46 . Son of man, set thy face by the way on the right (south), and pour forth toward the south, and prophesy towards the forest of the field in the south.

Ezekiel 20:47 . And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am about to kindle a fire in thee; and it will devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree; the glowing flame (The two words here used, לַהֶבֶת שַׁלְחֶבֶת are very like in sound, and also not very different in meaning, although they are not quite so synonymous as our translators have taken them to be. The second rather means ardent, glowing heat, than flame in the ordinary sense. What is meant is evidently a flame of intense fervency.) shall not be quenched, and all faces shall be scorched by it, (Here, as not unfrequently with Ezekiel, the figure is dropt, or rather, figure and reality are mingled together. He lets out the secret, that men are represented by the trees, when he speaks of all faces being burnt. (See similar violations in Ezekiel 19:7, and various passages in Ezekiel 21:0.)) from the south to the north.

Ezekiel 20:48 . And all flesh shall see that I Jehovah have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.

Ezekiel 20:49 . And I said, Ah! Lord God, they say of me, Does he not speak in parables?

In this portion there is an obscurity, but it is an obscurity that arises simply from the want of precision in defining the exact sphere of the vision. That it indicates a severe and consuming judgment from the Lord upon some land and people, situated somewhere to the south of the prophet, admits of no doubt. For the substitution in one place of faces instead of trees, as the subjects of the burning, renders it manifest that the vision has respect to the inhabitants of a country. And when the conflagration is represented as falling upon every tree, the green as well as the dry, those that were apparently not fit as well as those that were fit fuel for the flame, this could only be meant to express the fearfully comprehensive character of the coming judgment, as not sparing even the better part, who might seem undeserving of such a visitation. It is in the same way, and with reference, doubtless, to this part of the vision, that our Lord, pointing from the troubles that were befalling himself, to those which were soon to befall the Jewish people, said, “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:31); if such things befall one who has done nothing to provoke them, what may be expected for those who are the fit objects of Heaven’s vengeance? or, if the righteous suffer thus, what must be the measure of severity that is preparing to overtake the wicked? So that by the green trees can only be understood the more righteous, and by the dry trees the more wicked portions of the community; they were all alike to be involved in the coming desolation. But who precisely were the people thus to be visited, or by what kind of instrumentality the desolation was to be brought upon them, the vision so far is entirely silent; and it might truly be said in this respect, that the prophet was speaking in parables. He notices the complaint that was sometimes made respecting the parabolical character of his communications, as if on this occasion, at least, it might justly be complained of. And he presently obtains from the Lord what may be called a duplicate of the vision, only of such a kind as served to make perfectly intelligible both who the objects of the foreseen calamity were, and who also were to be the instruments of inflicting these upon them.

Ezekiel 21:1 . And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Ezekiel 20:2 . Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and pour forth toward the holy places, and prophesy toward the land of Israel.

Ezekiel 20:3 . And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of its scabbard, and will cut off from thee righteous and wicked.

Ezekiel 20:4 . Because I cut off from thee righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall go forth out of its scabbard against all flesh from south to north.

Ezekiel 20:5 . And all flesh shall know that I Jehovah do make my sword to go forth out of its scabbard; nor shall it return again.

Ezekiel 20:6 . And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

Ezekiel 20:7 . And it shall be, when they say to thee, Wherefore dost thou sigh? that thou shalt say, For the tidings; because it comes, and every heart melts, and all hands hang down, and every spirit faints, and all knees become water; lo! it comes, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Here the darkness and ambiguity that hung over the earlier part of the vision, so far as the precise locality is concerned, is entirely removed. The region of judgment and desolation is now expressly determined to be the land of Israel, and more especially Jerusalem and its holy places. And if any doubt had remained as to the extent of meaning indicated in the former vision by the burning up of “every green and every dry tree,” the declaration that the sword to be presently drawn was to cut off both “the righteous and the wicked,” must have set it completely at rest. But the announcement that there was going to be such an indiscriminate and unsparing execution of judgment in Judea is startling, and presents an apparent contrariety to the command given in an earlier vision (Ezekiel 9:4), to seal the fore heads of the righteous, as persons set apart and entrusted to the safe custody of God against the coming evil. It was, no doubt, the stumbling-block of this seeming contrariety which prompted the translator in the Septuagint to make a violent change in the text, so as to express the sense,” I will destroy out of thee the lawless and unjust” ( ἐξολεθρεύσω ἐκ σοῦ ἄδικον καὶ ἄνομον. ). But it is only on a superficial consideration that the one passage will appear at all contradictory to the other. For here, as is manifest from the whole nature of the representation, it is the merely external aspect of the visitation which the prophet has in his eye. The sword of the Lord’s judgment, he announced, was to pass through the land, and accomplish such a sweeping overthrow, that all, without exception, would be made to suffer in the fearful catastrophe. This did not prevent, however, but that there might be, in the midst of the outward calamities which were thus to burst like a mighty tempest over the land, a vigilant oversight maintained, and special interpositions of Providence exercised, in behalf of the pious remnant who still continued faithful to the covenant of God. It was this distinguishing goodness to some, even amid the horrors of a general desolation, which, as we showed before, was the real object of that sealing of God’s servants on the forehead in a former vision; while here, on the other hand, it is merely the general desolation itself which is contemplated by the prophet. And the very circumstance that he should now have looked so exclusively on the outward scene of carnage and distress, which he descried in the approaching future, seemed to say that this was to be the grand feature of the time, and that the special interpositions which were to be put forth in behalf of the better portion would be so few that they scarcely required to be taken into account. It is obvious, too, that the description given even of the general desolation must be understood with some limitation. For, that the sword should literally be unsheathed against all flesh from north to south in the land, and should cut off or destroy all within its borders, whether righteous or wicked, would not only be at variance with the other prophecies of Ezekiel, but would even not consist with the sequel of this prediction itself, which, as we shall see, still speaks of a purpose of mercy in behalf of the covenant-people. But undoubtedly he wished to convey the impression of a very fearful and overwhelming destruction. The immediate prospect of this national disaster had called his mind back again from the bright vision of distant glory he had unfolded at the close of the preceding communication, and as seeing all now overshadowed with gloom, his soul was filled with the deepest trouble and anguish. Agitated and rent, as he thus was, with the most painful and violent emotions, he naturally proceeds to give utterance to his feelings in abrupt sentences and plaintive reiterations.