CHAPTER 20

EZEKIEL 20:1

Here he does not narrate a vision but an event which really happened. It is a simple historical narrative, that some of the elders of Israel were chosen to interrogate him. We know this to be customary, and when God separates His people from the profane nations, he opposes his prophets to the soothsayers and magi, augurs and astrologers. For he says that the Gentiles inquire what concerns them in various ways, and so interrogate their deities; but that he prescribes to the chosen people but one method: I will raise for them a prophet from the midst of their brethren, says Moses, (Deuteronomy 18:18;) that is, they need not wander about, like the wretched gentiles, destitute of counsel, first to their soothsayers, then to magi, and then to astrologers: there is no end to them’ but I will meet them, says he, by my prophets, who shall always exist among the people. In this sense Ezekiel says that the elders of Israel came to consult God. The verb, çrd, deresh, properly signifies “to seek” but it is here received for “to consult” or “inquire into,” as in many other places. Now it is not surprising that the elders came by public consent to the Prophet: for the Israelites were already worn out by long weariness, and thought that they had almost perished through their long exile. But there was another reason, since false prophets, as we saw, tickled the ears of the simple by offering them daily some new hope. Since therefore they were agitated between hope and fear, and the devil scattered false prophecies which distracted the minds of the vulgar, it is probable that the elders of Israel came and were sent to inquire concerning either the prosperous or disastrous event of their captivity. They come therefore to the prophets; he says it happened in the seventh year, that is, after the captivity of Jehoiakim. They reckoned the years from that change, and deservedly so: for so remarkable an act of God’s vengeance ought to be kept constantly in remembrance. There was also another reason, since God gave some hope of restoration. The reckoning of the years, then, which the Israelites dated from Jehoiakim’s exile, had a twofold use and end, first, that God’s judgment might remain fixed in their minds, and next, that they might nevertheless refresh their spirits by the hope of good. Hence as often as they dated the first year or the second, it was just as if they kept before their eyes that slaughter by which God testified himself grievously offended. But for another reason they ought to cheer their spirits by good hopes, because if the kingdom had been utterly abolished and no promise added to lighten their sorrow, that reckoning was superfluous, since in a state of desperation we do not take an account of years: but when seventy years were fixed, they nourished and cherished hope in this way, because they renewed the remembrance of their liberty, which had been promised them by the mouth of Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 25:12, 13, and Jeremiah 29:10.) Now therefore we understand why he simply says the seventh year he mentions also the day and the month.

Now the Clause which I have noticed contains some useful instruction, — the elders of Israel came to consult God and sat before the Prophet. We see, then, as far as concerns outward forms, that they followed what God had commanded in his law; lest you should say, Who shall ascend above the clouds? who shall descend into the abyss? who shall cross the sea? The word is ever there, in thy heart and in thy mouth. (Deuteronomy 30:12-14; Romans 10:6-8.) Since therefore God in some way brought himself forward whenever he instructed his servants by the spirit of prophecy, so when the elders of Israel came to the Prophet, they are said to come to God himself, because God was unwilling to utter his own oracles either from heaven or by means of angels, but he appointed his servant by whom he would speak, and suggested what he should say. Hence we gather that our faith is not rightly founded unless when we listen to God alone, who only deserves and claims us as listeners. But at the same time, we must remark that faith was joined with humility and modesty. Hence if any one desires to ascend to the clouds to inquire what God will answer, he departs far from him, although he pretends to approach him. Hence this moderation is to be observed, that our faith may acquiesce in the authority of the one God, and not be carried hither and thither by the will of men; and yet it should not object to here God speak through his servants, but calmly submit itself to the prophets. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:2-3

Here the Prophet is ordered to blame those elders, although they pretended to rare piety in inquiring of him: God says that they did not come with a right disposition. Many translate otherwise — if I shall be found, or be en-treated by you, or if I shall answer: thus they take the word, çrd, deresh, in a double sense: in the first clause, for to seek or interrogate; but when it is added, as I live, etc., they do not take the word by “to be sought” or “interrogated,” but by “to answer” or “be entreated.” But this seems far-fetched and in Ezekiel 14:3, a phrase not unlike this was explained; and hence we may gather, that God rather inveighs against the people’s hypocrisy than rejects them, and refuses to answer. There the Prophet said that the elders came to consult him, as if they had been his best disciples; but as Ezekiel might be deceived by that deceptive picture, God meets him, and says, Do you think that they come to inquire of me? They are fixed upon their idols; for their heart is towards them, and they raise their eyes to their own abominations: As I live, if they seek me, says he; that is, it is easy to convict them of bad faith, when they come suppliantly to inquire of thee. For if they truly and heartily sought me, they would renounce their idols, and would no longer partake of their abominations; but they do not repent, but remain obstinate in their wickedness. It is certain, therefore, that they are by no means sincere:

there is no reason why you should delay them, or trouble yourself about them, since their conduct is mere dissimulation. So, therefore, in this passage God pronounced by his Prophet, are you come to seek me? that is, to consult me. I will not be inquired of by you, says he: the reason is, because, as we saw in the Ezekiel 14th, they always remained the same, since therefore they were at the greatest distance from God, and remained wrapped up in their own abominations, their seeking God was only fallacious. The conclusion is, that God rejected them, because, though they pretended a holy zeal, they were still perverse in their disposition; hence God refuses to discharge the office of a master towards them since they did not come to learn: this is one point. He then says, if I shall be inquired of by you. And because their hypocrisy was stained by various colors, God swears that their disposition was perverse, and that they did not come with pious and holy affections, and were neither docile nor obedient, nor desirous of making progress, and hence were unworthy of having him for a teacher. Now let us go on.

EZEKIEL 20:4

The context flows very well if we embrace this sense, that God swears that the Israelites did not come to be subject to his Prophet, and to submit themselves modestly to his instructions. If this sense pleases, it is well added, shall you judge them? that is, shall you spend thy breath in arguing with them? He means that they are rather to be dismissed than instructed; as Christ says, You shall not cast pearls before swine. (Matthew 7:6.) And we know what God pronounces: My Spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is flesh. (Genesis 6:3.) He now means that there was no need of any dispute, since there was no means of carrying it on; so in this passage, since the Prophet was dealing with men utterly broken down, who never listened to wise counsels, nor obeyed any admonitions, nor were softened by any chastisement, he adds, therefore, shall you judge them? Some indeed coldly and insipidly explain this of taking away the part of a judge, since God rather wishes them to be called to repentance than to be condemned. But here judging embraces within itself all reproaches and threats. On the whole, since they acted deceitfully, and by no means proposed to submit themselves to God, hence he uses this bitterness, What! are they worthy of your judging them? that is, of your contending with them? for the Prophet’s duty is to argue with sinners, to threaten them, and to cite them to God’s tribunal. God, therefore, pronounces them unworthy of such disputing, because they are not only deaf, but, hardened by abandoned obstinacy. Now, therefore, we understand the sense of the words, wilt you judge them? will you judge them? The repetition is emphatic, that God may strongly express the obstinacy of that desperate people. He afterwards adds, If this be done, then show them the abominations of their fathers. God here mitigates the asperity which he had used, and by means of a correction descends to a reason for it, namely, that he may for once try whether or not they are curable. If then they are to be judged, that is, if he chooses to enter into any dispute, and to argue with them, he says that he ought to begin not with themselves, but with their fathers. God wishes them to be judged, not only on account of the wickedness of a few years, but because before they were born their fathers were obstinately attached to their abominations. In fine, God shows that the wound was deep, and could not be cured, unless the hidden poison was carefully examined, which otherwise would cause putrid matter, from which at length inflammation would arise. For many think that they have properly discharged their duty when they have but lightly probed their wounds: but sometimes it is necessary to penetrate to the inmost parts, as the people had not only provoked God lightly, and for a short time, but their impiety had been growing for ages, and their sins had become a kind of inheritance to them. Since, then, this hidden poison existed, which could not be cured either easily or by any slight remedy, hence God orders them to begin with their fathers. Show them, therefore, the abominations of their fathers. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:5-8

God confirms what I said before, that the Jews were not to be reproved for beginning lately to sin: it was not sufficient to bring recent offenses before them; but God orders the Prophet to begin with their fathers, as if he had said that the nation was abandoned from the very beginning, as Stephen reproaches them: Uncircumcised in heart, you still resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers always did. (Acts 7:51.) And Christ had said the same thing before: You fill up the measure of your fathers. (Matthew 23:32.) We know also how frequently rebukes of this kind occur in the Prophets. God therefore says, that from the time when he chose the seed of Israel, he had experienced both the wickedness and obstinacy of the people; for he says that they were not drawn aside by either error or ignorance, but because they were unwilling to hear, when they were over and over again admonished as to their duty. Hence three things are to be marked, namely, that the people were bound to God, since he had gratuitously adopted them; for God here commends his gratuitous election, together with the singular benefits which he had conferred on that people: this is one point. The second is, that he not only took them once to himself, but showed them what was right, so that they could not mistake, except knowingly and willfully: this is the second point. Then the third is, that they rebelled purposely, because they would not listen: for if they had been left at the meeting of two roads, their error had been excusable if they had turned to the left instead of the right. But if God by his law so shone before them, that he was prepared to direct them straight to the mark, and they turned aside; thus their obstinacy and rebellion is plainly detected. This is the sense.

Now as far as words are concerned, he says, that he had chosen Israel. But election, as I have already briefly touched upon, is opposed to all merits: for if anything had been found in the people which should cause them to be preferred to others, it would be improperly said that God had elected them. But since all were in the same condition, as Moses says in his song (Deuteronomy 32:8, 9,) there was scope for God’s grace, since he separated them from others of his own accord: for they were just like the rest, and God did not find any difference between them; we see, then, that they were bound to God more sacredly, since he had joined them to himself gratuitously. He now adds, that he lifted up his hand to the seed of Jacob. The lifting up the hand seems to be taken here in different senses. Since it was a customary method of swearing, God is said sometimes to lift up his hand when he swears. That is indeed harsh, since the lifting up the hand does not suit God: for we lift up the hand when we call God to witness; but God swears by himself, and cannot raise his hand above himself. But we know that he uses forms of speech according to the common customs of men: hence there is nothing absurd in this phrase, he lifted up his hand, that is, he swore. Hence, if we may so explain it, this was a confirmation of the covenant, when God by interposing a oath promised himself to be Israel’s God. But since he shortly afterwards adds, that he was known, the other sense suits pretty well, since it refers to the benefits which he had conferred upon the people. And truly experimental knowledge is intended, since God really proved himself to be worthy of credit, and thus illustrated his own power in preserving the people. Hence I said that to lift up the hand is to be received variously in this chapter, since, if we read the two clauses conjointly, I lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and was made known to them, truly the lifting up the hand will imply a display of power. That also has been said by means of a simile; but shortly afterwards the lifting up of the hand must be taken for to swear, by the figure of rhetoric called catachresis, which is the use of a word in a different signification, and yet there is no absurdity.

I have raised my hand, therefore, to the seed of the house of Jacob, saying, I Jehovah am your God. (Ezekiel 20:5.)

We see, then, that God raised his hand to sanction the covenant which he had made; for when he pronounces himself their God, he binds them to himself, and claims them for his peculiar people, and thus confirms his covenant. But at the same time he had raised his hand or arm by so many miracles performed in freeing the people. He says, in that day I raised my hand to, or towards them, to bring them out. Again, the raising the hand refers to God’s power, since he brought them forth by an extended arm from that miserable slavery. Since, therefore, he so raised his hand, he acquired them as his own, that they should no longer be free, but belong altogether to him. He afterwards adds other benefits, since he not only snatched them from the tyranny of Pharaoh, but brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, which he had espied for them. We see how briefly God enlarges upon that remarkable benefit which he had bestowed upon his people. Not only was he their Redeemer, but he looked out for a place of residence for them, not only commodious, but abounding with plenty; for this phrase is common enough with Moses. In that same day in which I led them out of Egypt, I brought them into a land, the desire of all lands; that is, which is desirable and superior to all other lands. It is true, indeed, that other nations were not less fruitful; but God, in thus praising the land of Canaan. considers it, clothed and adorned by his bounty. But there was no region under heaven to be compared with the land of Canaan in one point, namely, God’s choosing it as his earthly dwelling place. Since the land of Canaan excelled all others in this respect, it is deservedly called the desire of all lands, or desirable beyond all lands.

Another clause now follows, that God instructed the Jews in piety, and withdrew them from all the idolatries to which they had been devoted. Instruction then went before, which showed them the right way of salvation, and recalled them from their superstitions. The meaning is, that when God adopted the people, he gave them the rule of living piously, that they should not be tossed about hither and thither, but. have an aim, to which they might direct the whole course of their life. I said, therefore, to each of them: this seems more emphatic than if he had spoken to all promiscuously and generally: but this familiar invitation ought to penetrate more into their minds, when he speaks to each individually, just as if he said, let each of you cast away your abominations, and not pollute himself anymore with the idols of Egypt. When therefore God thus attached them to himself, he shows that he could not be rightly worshipped by them unless they bid their idolatries farewell, and formed their whole life according to the rule of his law. He calls their enticements defilements or idols of the eyes: but we know that the Prophet often speaks thus, that unbelievers should consider their idols. Hence it is just as if God recalled them from all the wiles of Satan in which they were enticed, and were so devoted to them as to have their eyes exclusively fixed on them. He speaks by name of the idols of Egypt: whence it easily appears that they were corrupted by depraved desires, so as for the most part to worship the fictitious gods of Egypt. Yet they knew themselves elected by the true God, and boasted in circumcision as a symbol of divorce from all nations. Yet though they wished to be thought illustrious on the one hand, they afterwards prostituted themselves so as to differ in nothing from the Egyptians. We see then that the desire of piety was almost extinct in their hearts, since they had so contaminated themselves with the superstitions of Egypt. That he might retain them the better, he says at the same time that he was their God: for without this principle men are tossed hither and thither, for we know that we are lighter than vanity. Hence the devil will always find us subject to his fallacies unless God restrains us in our duty, until he appears to us and shows himself the only God: we see then the necessity for this remedy, lest men should be carried away by idolatries, namely, the knowledge of the true God. The third clause will follow afterwards, but we shall explain it in its turn.

PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since you have once stretched forth your hand to us by your only-begotten Son, and have not only bound thyself to us by an oath, but have sealed your eternal covenant by the blood of the same, thy Son: Grant, I pray thee, that we in return may be faithful to thee, and persevere in the pure worship of thy name, until at length we enjoy the fruit of our faith in thy heavenly kingdom by the same Christ our Lord. — Amen.

LECTURE SIXTY-FIRST.

In the last lecture I began to explain the eighth verse, where God complains that he was exasperated by the children of Israel when he had begun to extend his hand to free them. He says, then, that they had rejected his grace. But at the same time we see that all pretense of ignorance was removed, because unless Moses had exhorted them to good hope, they would have pretended. to be so deserted through two centuries, that they had hoped for help from God in vain. But since Moses was a witness of their redemption, hence their ingratitude was the more without excuse, since they were unwilling to embrace the message which they had so greatly desired. Nor is the language of Moses vain, that they often cried out in their calamities. Although their clamor was turbulent, yet they doubtless remembered what they had heard from their fathers, that the end of those evils was at hand to which God had fixed an appointed time. But more is expressed in this passage than Moses relates, who simply says, because they saw themselves treated too roughly, that they were worn down and disgusted: hence those expostulations — You have made our name to stink before Pharaoh: God shall judge between you and us: Judea you gone from us. (Exodus 5:21.) We do not then clearly collect from Moses that they were rebels against God, since they had not cast away their idols and superstitions, but the probable conjecture is that they were, so rooted in their filth, that they repelled God’s hand from succoring them. And truly if they had promptly embraced what Moses had promised them in God’s name, the accomplishment would have been readier and swifter: but we may understand that their sloth was the hindrance to the exertion of God’s hand in their favor and to the real fulfillment of his promises. God ought indeed to contend, with Pharaoh, that his power might be more conspicuous: but the people would not have been so tyrannously afflicted, unless they had closed the door against God’s mercy. They were, as we have said, immersed in their defilement’s from which God wished to withdraw them. He now accuses them of ingratitude, because they did not cast away their idols, but obstinately persisted in their usual and customary superstitions. He speaks of the time of their captivity in Egypt, and this passage assures us that while there they were infected and polluted by Egyptian defilement’s. For the contagion of idolatry is wonderful: for since we are all naturally inclined to it as soon as any example is offered to us, we are snatched in that direction by a violent impulse. It is not surprising then that the children of Israel contracted pollution from the superstitions of Egypt, especially as they lived there as slaves, and were desirous of gratifying the Egyptians: for if they had been treated liberally, they might have lived freely after their custom, but since they were not free and were oppressed as slaves, it happened that they pretended to worship the gods of Egypt according to the will of those by whom they saw themselves oppressed: and not only did they sin by pretending, but it is probable that they were impelled by their own lusts as well as by fear: for it will soon be evident that they were too inclined to impiety of their own accord.

On the whole, Ezekiel here testifies that they were rebels against God, because they did not listen to God by casting away the idols of their eyes, that is, to the worship of which they were too attentive, nor did they desert the idols of Egypt. When he speaks of the idols of their eyes, we gather what I have touched upon, that they were not impelled to idolatry by fear and necessity, but by their own depraved appetites: For unless they had been eagerly devoted to Egyptian superstitions, Ezekiel would not have called them idols of the eyes. Hence by this word he means that they were not only superstitious through obedience to the Egyptians, but were spontaneously inclined towards them. Besides, when he adds the idols of Egypt, he points out as the occasion of their corruption their spending time under that tyranny, and their being compelled to bear many evils, since slavery commonly draws with it dissimulation. It now follows, And I said I would pour forth, that is, I determined to pour forth. God here signifies that he was inflamed by anger, and unless they had respect to his name he would not withdraw his hand from the vengeance to which it was armed and prepared. We know that this does not properly belong to God, but this is, the language of accommodation, since first of all, God is not subject to vengeance, and, secondly, does not decree what he may afterwards retract. But since these things are not in character with God, simile and accommodation are used. As often as the Holy Spirit uses these forms of speech, let us learn that they refer rather to the matter in hand than to the character of God. God determined to pour forth his anger, that is, the Israelites had so deserved it through their crimes, that it was necessary to execute punishment upon them. The Prophet simply means that the people’s disposition was sinful, and hence God’s wrath would have been poured out, unless he had been held back from some other cause. I have already touched upon the obstacle, because he consulted his honor lest it should be profaned.

I have decreed, therefore, to pour forth my burning fury upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Some translate, to consume them, but improperly, for the word, hlk, keleh, signifies to fill up or accomplish, as well as to consume. But although God sometimes says that he consumes all his weapons or scourges in the punishment of men’s sins, yet it is not suitable to transfer this to his wrath itself. Hence another sense will suit better, namely, that God decreed to pour out his wrath until he satisfied himself. For here, as we have said, he puts on the character of an angry man, who cannot appease his mind otherwise than by satiating it by the exaction of punishment: for anger is usually inexhaustible. But God on the whole here expresses that such was the atrocity of their wickedness, that the Israelites deserved destruction through the pouring forth of God’s wrath and the filling up of the measure of his indignation; and that in the midst of the land of Egypt; because they had shown themselves unworthy of his redemption, and hence it was enough for them to perish in the midst of the land of Egypt. But he afterwards added —

EZEKIEL 20:9

Here God signifies that he was restrained for one reason only from entirely blotting out so ungrateful and wicked a nation, namely, since he saw his own sacred name would be exposed to the Gentiles as a laughing-stock. He teaches, therefore, that he spared them, and suspended his rigor for the time, rather through being induced by regard to his own glory than by pity to them. Hence, by the word I did it, we ought to understand what will be more clearly explained. The sense is, that he abstained from the final act of vengeance for his name’s sake, that it should not be profaned among the Gentiles. Although God here pronounces that he had respect rather to himself than to them, yet there is no doubt that he spared them, because he saw that they could not be otherwise preserved than by his pardoning them even in such hardness and obstinacy; and certainly God’s glory and the salvation of the Church are things almost inseparably united. When I speak of the salvation of the Church, I do not comprehend all those who profess to be its members, but I mean only the elect. Since, therefore, God had adopted that nation, he must preserve the remnant in safety, otherwise his truth would have failed, and thus his name would have been much more severely profaned. Hence we may gather, whenever God pardons us, though he regards himself, and wishes in this way to exercise his clemency, yet his pity towards us is another reason for his pardoning us: but when he says that he has withdrawn his hand from vengeance through regard for His own glory, he in this way prostrates still more the pride of this nation, since, whenever he had pity on them, they thought it a concession to their own worthiness and merits. The Prophet therefore shows here that they were snatched from destruction, while they were remaining in the land of Egypt, for no other reason than this, that God was unwilling to expose his name to the contempt of the nations. He says, therefore, in the eyes of the Gentiles, among whom they were, regarding not the Egyptians only, but others.

Yet the question arises, in what sense, he adds by and by, that he was known to them? for as yet he had given no specimen of his power among the Gentiles. He had borne witness by two miracles that Moses should be the agent in their redemption, (Exodus 4:2, and following:) afterwards Moses approached Pharaoh himself: there God put forth the signs of his power, which deservedly frightened all the Egyptians; but his fame had not yet reached other nations. But this knowledge ought not to be simply restricted to past time; for God only means that he had already begun to show, by certain and remarkable proofs, that Moses was chosen, by whose hand he wished to redeem his own people. Since, therefore, God had. already come forward with those remarkable signs, he says, that he was known to those nations, not that his fame had reached them, but because he had gone there himself, so that the event could not be in obscurity, and all must know that miracles had been performed by the hand of Moses, by which it was evident that he wished to claim the Israelites as his own. Now, therefore, we understand in what sense Ezekiel says that God was known. Some explain this relatively thus: I was known to them, meaning the Israelites, in their eyes, meaning the Gentiles: but this sense seems to me forced; for in my opinion this one word “their,” in the Prophet’s language, is superfluous. He simply means that God was manifested in the eyes of all the nations in leading them forth. This clause shows the kind of knowledge intended, since God showed his power in liberating the people by remarkable miracles. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:10

After Ezekiel had taught that the Israelites deserved to perish in Egypt, unless God had spared them for his name’s sake rather than for their own, he now adds the cause of their coming forth, which was the promotion of his own glory. Hence, therefore, we gather that the Israelites falsely imagined any other cause of their deliverance than that respect of which the Prophet now speaks. But this is more than if he had simply said that they were snatched from the tyranny of Egypt by God’s gratuitous pity, since God gratuitously stretched out his hand towards them, and was so induced by feelings of humanity and clemency as to snatch away from their miseries the innocent who were unjustly afflicted; but he here excludes them from God’s clemency, because they were unworthy of his notice. I said, indeed, that two things were united, the salvation of the Church and the glory of God; but at the same time I noticed that the Prophet’s intention must be considered, since he wished to withdraw all confidence from such a proud people, and to show that, as far as they could, they had always repelled God’s favor by their obstacles, unless he had overcome their wickedness by his untiring goodness. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:11

Here God enlarges upon his favors, since he had given his law to the Israelites, as if he would prescribe to them a certain rule of living. If they had only been brought out of Egypt, that would have been an inestimable benefit: but God was much more generous, since he deigned to rule them familiarly with his doctrine, lest they should wander to one side or the other; and in this way he testified that he would be their God. He adds a promise: for God might precisely enjoin what he wished on the people of his choice; but he spontaneously adopts the method of indulgence by promising them life. Now, then, we understand why this promise is mentioned; for God might simply command anything, and say, this pleases me, and use but a monosyllable, after the manner of kings issuing a command. Since, then, God not only exacted of the Israelites what he might justly require, but, by annexing a promise, enticed them gently to the pursuit of obedience, this was certainly a mark of his fatherly indulgence. Hence he now exaggerates the people’s ingratitude by this circumstances, that neither by commands nor by kindness could he induce these obstinate and perverse dispositions to bend to the yoke. I gave them, therefore, my statutes and my laws; and afterwards, which if a man do, he shall live in them. He thus briefly reminds them, that it was not his fault if the Israelites were not in any sense happy; for when he stipulated with them for the observance of his law, he bound them in turn to himself, that they should want nothing which contributed to a good and happy life; for in the name of life solid happiness is comprehended.

Yet it is here asked how the Prophet testifies that men should live by the works of the law, when the law, on the testimony of Paul, can only bring us death. (Romans 4:15; Deuteronomy 30:15.) He took this testimony from Moses, and we shall see immediately that he cites it in a different sense. Moses there pronounces that the life of man rests on the observance of the law; that is, — life was surely to be expected through satisfying the law. Some think this absurd, and so restrict what is said to the present life, taking he shall live in them politically or civilly: but this is a cold and trifling comment. The reasoning which influenced them is readily answered: they object, that we owe all things to God; that we ourselves and our possessions are all his by the right of possession; so that if we keep the law a hundred times over, still we are not, worthy of such a reward. But the solution is at hand, that we deserve nothing, but God graciously binds himself to us by this promise, as I have already touched upon. And from this passage it is easy to infer that works are of no value before God, and are not estimated for their intrinsic value, so to speak, but only by agreement. Since, then, it pleased God to descend so far as to promise life to men if they kept his law, they ought to accept this offer as springing from his liberality. There is no absurdity, then, if men do live, that is, if they deserve eternal life according to agreement. But if any one keeps the law, it will follow that he has no need of the grace of Christ. For of what advantage is Christ to us unless we recover life in him? but if this is placed in ourselves, the remedy must not be thought anywhere but in ourselves. Every one, then, may be his own savior if life is placed the observance of the law. But Paul solves this difficulty for us when he determines for us a twofold righteousness of the law and of faith. (Romans 10:5, 6.) He says that this righteousness is of the law when we keep God’s precepts. Now, since we are far distant from such obedience, nay, the very faculty of keeping the law is altogether defective in us: hence it follows that we must fly to the righteousness of faith. For he defines the righteousness of faith, if we believe Christ to be dead, and to be risen again for our justification. We see, therefore, although God promised salvation to his ancient people, if they only kept the law, yet that promise was useless, since no one could satisfy the law and perform God’s commands. Here another question arises. For if this promise does not take effect, God vainly reckons that as a benefit to the Israelites which we see was offered them in vain: hence no utility or fruit would arise from it. But some one may say that the imagination was fallacious, when God promised life, and now by his Prophet blames the Israelites for despising such a benefit. But the reply is easy: although men are not endued with the power of obeying the law, yet they ought not on that account to depart from the goodness of God; for men’s declension by no means hinders them from estimating the value of so liberal a promise: God is treating with men:

he might then, as I have said, imperiously demand whatever he pleased, and exact it with the utmost rigor; but he treats according to an agreement, and so there is a mutual obligation between himself and the people. No one will surely deny that God here exhibits a specimen of his mercy when he deigns thus familiarly to make a covenant with men. “Ah! but this is all in vain: God’s promise is of no effect, because no one is able to keep the law.” I confess it: but man’s declension cannot, as I have said, abolish the glory of God’s goodness, since that always remains fixed, and God still acts liberally in being willing thus to enter into covenant with His people. We must then consider the subject simply, and by itself: man’s declension is accidental. God then put forth a remarkable proof of His goodness, in promising life to all who kept His law: and this will remain perfect and entire. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:12

Besides the law God here commends his Sabbaths, which we know to be only a part of His law: nay, whoever compares the commandments one by one, will at first sight perceive more weight in others than in the fourth. For what is the meaning of that commandment, You shall not have any strange god? You shall not make any idols? Afterwards, Do not take God’s name in vain? (Exodus 20:3, 4, 7; Deuteronomy 5:7, 8, 11.) I answer, that the Prophet takes one precept of the law the better to explain what I have already touched on before, namely, that the law was given to the Israelites to bind them more and more to their benefactor. For God was unwilling to cast them away after redeeming them: but he testified by his law that he would be the guide of their whole life. Still the Prophet looked further, meaning, that the law consisted not only of the commandments, but embraced the whole grace of God, on which the adoption of the nation depended. For if God had simply commanded either one thing or another, it would not have been easy to perceive and taste his goodness. Why so? because when he calls upon us to discharge a duty, every one, feels that a greater burden is imposed on him than he can bear. Even if the promise should entice us by its sweetness, — he who does these things shall live in them; yet when we try, we are deficient through being destitute of all power. But the Prophet means that something else was intended by the Sabbath, that the Israelites might acknowledge themselves separated by God, so as to experience him for their Father in all things. Hence, though the precepts of the law were somewhat distasteful; yet, as the fourth commandment has in it a gratuitous promise, it has a different savor, since the people thus recognizes itself as elected by God for a peculiar nation: and this the Prophet sufficiently expresses by the word sanctifying, for it means that the people were separated from the profane nations to be God’s peculiar inheritance. If any one wishes to render sanctify by one word it will be, “to separate.” But the meaning of separation ought to be explained. How, then, did God separate a certain people from the whole world? Why, by promising to Abraham that he would be a God to his seed. (Genesis 22:17.) Then he could not otherwise be their God than by gratuitously loving his elect, by regenerating them by his Spirit, and becoming propitious and easily entreated: and besides, a single people could not be separated from others without a mediator. For separation cannot last unless the people be united to God; and what bond of union is there without a mediator?

Now, therefor, we understand why the Prophet speaks of the Sabbath, since he had formerly commended the whole law, of which the Sabbath was a part, namely, because it displayed God’s gratuitous adoption; and at the same time the Israelites might acknowledge that the way of approach to God was open to them, and he was rendered placable; then that they were not adopted in vain, but were sought by God, that he should renew them by his Spirit, and rule the whole course of their life. It was, then, the greatest ingratitude to break the Sabbath, as will be said shortly afterwards. But this passage teaches that God was not pleased with the people’s quiet or ease when he commanded them to keep the seventh day holy, but he has another intention. Whence we gather that that precept was shadowy: for there are some things which please God of themselves, and must be performed; but others have a different object. For to worship one God, to abominate idols, to use God’s name reverently, these things are, as I have said, the simple duties of piety in themselves: so the honor which sons pay to their parents is a duty pleasing to God in itself, like chastity, abstinence, and such like. But Sabbaths do not please God simply and by themselves. We ought, therefore, to look for another purpose, if we wish to understand the reason of this precept. And hence Paul says, that Sabbaths were shadows of those things of which Christ is the substance. (Colossians 2:16, 17.) This, therefore, is one point. Ezekiel is not the first who says so, though he took it from Moses; for though he does not clearly say in so many words that the Sabbath was the symbol of sanctification, yet he afterwards shows this to be its object, (Exodus 31:13, 14,) and that God commanded the people to rest on the seventh day with this intent. Moses then himself shows that the command had another object, which Ezekiel interprets for us; but the matter is made much clearer in the Gospel, since in Christ the truth and substance of this precept is set forth, which Paul calls the body. I have, then, sufficiently explained this object., namely, that the Israelites might know God to be their sanctifier. But if we desire to understand the matter better, we ought first to lay it down that the Sabbath was the sign of mortification. God, therefore, sanctifies us; because when we remain in our natural state we are there mixed with others, and have nothing different from unbelievers: hence, therefore, it is necessary to begin by dying to ourselves and the world, and by exercising self-denial; and this depends on the grace of God. But I perceive that I cannot complete the subject today so I shall put it off till tomorrow.

PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since you have not only deigned to bestow upon us a rule for living rightly, but has so shown thyself our Father in Christ as to be prepared to engrave thy law in our inward parts: Grant, I pray thee, that we may not cast away that inestimable boon through either ingratitude or sloth; but may we offer up ourselves to thee as a sacrifice: and then do you so pardon us that our infirmities may not hinder us from finding thee always propitious whenever we fly to thy mercy in Christ, your only- begotten Son. — Amen.

LECTURE SIXTY-SECOND.

We said in yesterday’s lecture, that God’s Church was separated from the profane nations that he might regenerate it by his Spirit: we said also, that the Sabbath was a proof of this favor; but now a confirmation of this teaching must be added. This is easily gathered from the institution of the Sabbath, when God is said to have rested from his work on the seventh day. (Genesis 2:2; Exodus 20:11, and 31:17; Deuteronomy 5:14.) Now there is no doubt that he wished to bring the faithful to imitate his example: it follows, then, that rest was enjoined upon the ancient people, that they should each rest from their works, and so conform themselves to God’s example. For we are said to rest from our works when we are dead to ourselves; and allow ourselves to be governed by God’s Spirit, when we live in him, and he in us. Now, therefore, we see that the grace of regeneration was promised to the ancient people when God consecrated the seventh day; and the Apostle also shows this in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he treats of the true and lawful use of the Sabbath, and refutes the gross supposition with which the Jews were imbued, that God was properly worshipped by an outward rest. (Hebrews 4:5.) he shows them that it was only an outward symbol, and that it contained a spiritual mystery. It now follows, as I lately touched on it, that the Sabbath was a sacrament, since it was a visible figure of an invisible grace. And this also is expressed with sufficient clearness by the Prophet, when he says, the Sabbath was given for a sign. By this word, therefore, he shows that regeneration was promised to the ancient people; and if I may use the expression by a visible word, since God not only spoke, but wished some symbol or pledge or mark of his promise to be perpetual. The phrase between me and you must be noticed: from which we gather that there is a mutual agreement in the sacraments, by which God binds us to himself, and we mutually pledge our faith. And hence also their foolishness is refuted who think the sacraments nothing but marks of outward separation: for if the sacraments concern only the profession of faith, it is inconsistent with the Prophet’s teaching that they are a mutual and reciprocal sign, as I may express it, since God requires faith on the part of his people; and he promises in return what he witnesses and prefigures by an outward sign. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:13-14

Here God pronounces that the sons were like their fathers; and that the people, after their deliverance from Egypt, were so obstinate in their wickedness as not to profit in any way. He had complained already before of their rejecting his grace: for it is equivalent to rejecting all offers to be corrupted by superstitions, and not to cleanse themselves from that defilement, although they knew it to be abominable before God. But after the law was promulgated, they then might have put away their perverse affections. And surely redemption ought to have conformed them to obey God; when they beheld his hand stretched out as it were from heaven, how was it that this spectacle did not avail to humble them, and to make them submissive to God? But in addition to the teaching of the law, God’s promise was given, by which he bore witness to them, that, if they sought from him the spirit of regeneration, the Sabbath would be really given them as a pledge and sign of it; and since all these things produced no effect, that was a proof of astounding contumacy. God says, therefore, that he obtained nothing more in the desert than he had formerly experienced from the people under their Egyptian tyranny: then, also, says he, the house of Israel exasperated me in the desert. The circumstance of place must be noticed, because they were wonderfully rescued by God’s incredible power, and they depended every moment on his good pleasure; for there they wanted food and drink: God daily rained down manna from heaven, and brought them water from the rock. (Exodus 16:14; Numbers 11:9; Deuteronomy 8:15, 16.) Since, therefore, necessity compelled them every moment to look to God, was it not more than brutal stupidity to exasperate God? When men grow wanton, it arises from becoming intoxicated by prosperity, and forgetful of their lot through not feeling how much they need God’s help. But when death is presented to our view, when terror hems us in on every side, when God is up in arms against us, what madness it is to despise him! We see, then, why the Prophet dwells so on this point.

He says too, they did not walk in God’s precepts, and they despised his judgments. He confirms what was said yesterday, that they were not deceived through ignorance, but manifested utter contempt of God, since they knew well enough what was pleasing to him. Since, then, they had a sure rule which could not deceive them, we see how they wandered away after their own superstitions by deliberate wickedness. This is the reason, then, why Ezekiel says that they despised God’s judgments. He repeats the promise which I expounded yesterday. For this reason also availed to exaggerate their crime, namely, the mildness of God in deigning to allure, them: he did not command them, exactingly and imperiously, as he might have done, but he entered into a covenant with them, and testified that a reward was prepared for them if they kept the law. Since, therefore, they neglected this promise, we see that they were not only rebels, but ungrateful to God. He adds, they had polluted his Sabbaths; which I refer not only to the outward right, but rather to the inward spirit. It is true, indeed, that their impiety was sufficiently notorious as to outward desecration, as it appears from the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah, when he says, that they carried their burdens on the Sabbath, and occupied themselves in common business. (Jeremiah 17:21, 22.) There is no doubt that they broke the Sabbath when they then promiscuously transacted their own business. But when it is added, that they violated the Sabbath greatly or grievously, we may understand that profanation is denoted in the mystery itself, since they struck off the yoke, and gave the rein to their own desires: for Isaiah also shows that the Sabbath was violated in this way, especially when the will of men is consulted.

(Isaiah 58:13.) For hypocrites think they have discharged every duty by abstaining from all work; but the Prophet replies that this is a mere laughing-stock, since they fast on a Sabbath for strife and contention, and then that they gratify their will, which is opposed to self-denial. Hence God not only accuses the ancient people here for not hallowing the Sabbath, but also for neglecting its legitimate object and use. He now repeats what we saw yesterday. I have determined, therefore, to pour out upon them mine anger in the desert to consume them. If it is asked when this was done, it is sufficient to reply, that God’s wrath was frequently inflamed by the people’s wickedness. For although Moses does not verbally relate every event, yet there is no doubt that God often threatened the people with destruction, as we shall soon see with reference to their dispersion. It follows, I did it for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the Gentiles. God repeats again that he was appeased, not because he pardoned them, but because he was unwilling to allow his name to become a laughing-stock among the nations. We said that in this way God’s twofold pity is commended, as he had already gratuitously adopted the people: hence their redemption could only be ascribed to his sole and gratuitous liberality, since it flowed from the election or adoption which we have mentioned. But though this was one kind of mercy, yet it did not suffice to render the people worthy of the grace offered them. Hence it came to pass that the promise given to Abraham could not profit them, unless God conquered the nation’s iniquity. This is the meaning of the Prophet when he says, that the people were preserved, although unworthy of it, since God saw that otherwise his name would be profaned among the nations. Without doubt he had respect to the covenant, since the Israelites had perished a hundred times over without any help from the name of God unless he had adopted them. It was necessary, therefore, that God should spare them, since their preservation was connected with his sacred name and regard for his covenant. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:15

God here shows that his threats were ineffectual, even when he inflicted severe punishment, yet the people were not broken down and subdued: and this is a sign of a most perverse disposition. The foolish are at length corrected with rods, but when those who are chastised become worse instead of repenting, they betray their desperate character. God therefore here signifies that the Israelites were of an abandoned disposition, because there were no means of bringing them back to good conduct. At first he enticed them by his mercy, then gave them the law, and added a sacrament, as we have seen; but this proved wholly useless: what remained then, except to terrify them partly by threats and partly by punishments? He tried both, for he threatened them when they sinned, without any advantage: then he showed them in reality that theirs was no vain terror, since all those died in the desert who had refused to go forward when he called them into the land of Canaan. (Numbers 32:10.) Since, they were not bent by those signs of God’s wrath, their contumacy appears so great, that they ought to perish a hundred times over. I also, says he, raised my hand; he doubtless means that he swore, as we gather from Moses and from the Psalms, I swore in my wrath if they should enter into my rest. (Psalm 95:11.) He says then that he raised his hand; we have explained whence the simile is taken, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them. Here God emphatically shows how formidable that punishment was, as it deprived them of that sure heritage which he had bestowed on them: for before they were born they were lords of the land of Canaan — since four hundred years before it was promised to Abraham in their name. Since they cast themselves off from this inheritance, they plainly displayed their slothfulness: I had given them an inheritance, says he, for they compelled me to swear: I swore that they should not reach it. He adds, a land flowing with milk and honey, desired by all nations. By these words he enlarges upon the people’s ingratitude, since they despised no mean benefit, but a land in which they might dwell happily. For God had so enriched it with his gifts, that they might have been as it were in paradise. Since then such fertility did not attract them to obey God, hence it appears, that they were in every way refractory. It afterwards follows —

EZEKIEL 20:16

The reason of the oath of which mention has been made is expressed by Moses, because being frightened by a false report they wished to return to Egypt: but here a cause is assigned to their superstitions. (Numbers 13:32, 33, and Numbers 14:1-3.) But it suits each case well, since if they had been sincerely obedient to God, they would never have refused to remove their camp, and fearlessly to proceed where he commanded them. But since they first detested the land, and then terror and despair seized their minds so that they rejected the inestimable blessing of God, it is clear that not a drop of piety existed in their hearts. Although therefore the special reason why they did not enter the land of Canaan was their refusing to obey the call of God, yet the Prophet adds also their superstitions. For impiety and contempt of God was the reason why they so boldly, proudly, and furiously rejected the grace of God, and wished even to stone Moses, and then when penitent they encouraged each other to return to live again under the tyranny of Egypt. We see, therefore, how the Prophet here lays down general causes from which that impious dislike of the land proceeded, as well as the rejection of the grace of God. He says, therefore, because they had despised my judgments and had not walked in my statutes. He here inverts the order: he had formerly said that they had not walked in his statutes and had despised my judgments; but now he begins with the contempt: and have polluted my Sabbaths, because their hearts went after their idols. The sense is, that they always treated God deceitfully: and although they held that he was to be worshipped formally, yet they were always addicted to various superstitions: as also Stephen reproves them, (Acts 7:40-43,) for he agrees entirely with our Prophet. As he puts Sabbaths in the plural number, I do not interpret it so strictly as some do, thinking that the Prophet means Sabbaths of years, and afterwards the jubilee: for there were three Sabbaths among the Jews; that is, every seventh day was consecrated to God, and every seventh year, and every fiftieth. Although it is true that years were sabbatical as well as days, yet I do not think that the Prophet is making any subtle distinctions here but I take Sabbath to mean the seventh day. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:17

This is added, because God often afflicted the people with heavy punishments, but he restrained himself, that he should not utterly destroy both their persons and their name. He says, then, that he spared them through respect for his own name, as he formerly said, that he should not execute consumption on them; that is, that he should not utterly blot out the memory of them. He did not spare them entirely to foster their depravity by his indulgence, but as we shall afterwards see, he withdrew his hand that he should not consume them, as he might most justly have done. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:18-19

After God has shown that the obstinate wickedness of the people was such that they profited by neither rigor nor clemency, he now says that the sons were altogether like their fathers. For when he says that he turned his discourse to their sons, he obliquely indicates that he was so broken down by their disgust, that he is unwilling to address the deaf. I said, therefore, to their sons: why not to themselves? because they had become obdurate in their impiety, and gave no hope of repentance. Since then God had experienced their utmost obstinacy, he says that he turned his discourse to their sons; Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, and do not observe their judgments. Here God does not speak of bad examples and of plain and palpable crimes, but he uses words seemingly favorable — judgments and statutes. If he had simply said that their fathers were wicked, and hence the sons must take care not to imitate them, that would have been ordinary teaching; but by adaptation he uses honorable expressions, namely, my statutes and judgments. Meanwhile he forbids their posterity to conform to the statutes and laws of their fathers, meaning to their ceremonies and rites. Lest any should object that those statutes were to be observed which tend to a right end, he adds, that you pollute not yourselves with their filth and defilements. Here the former language of accommodation is removed, and God as it were wipes away the coloring, that it may be clearly apparent that those statutes and precepts differed in nothing from thefts, robberies, and adulteries: this is the Prophet’s meaning.

Besides, this passage is worthy of notice, because we may learn from it how frivolous is the excuse of those who boast of their fathers, and arrogantly predict that they will be pardoned if they conform themselves to their example. For God not only forbids us to imitate the gross and open wickedness of our parents, but their laws, statutes, and ceremonies, and whatever is apparently plausible, and seems to the common sense of mankind worthy of praise. And thus the foolishness of the papists is detected, who think that they lie safely concealed under the shield of Ajax, when they boast to us of the examples of their fathers, and the value of antiquity: we clearly see how plainly God’s Spirit refutes them when he pronounces that they must obey his statutes and precepts, and not listen to open wickedness only, but not even to good intentions, as they say, and devotions, and the traditions of the fathers. But what is the worship of God in the papacy in these days but a confused jumble, which they have thrown together from numberless fictions? for whoever will examine all their trifling, will find them fabricated by the will of man; and they are not ashamed to oppose the traditions of their fathers to the word of God. Now, therefore, we see the whole papacy laid prostrate, and all the remarkable traditions of the fathers in which they boast, when the Prophet says, walk you not in the statutes of your fathers. But since antiquity deserves some reverence, it would be gross and barbarous promiscuously to reject all the examples of the fathers: hence we need prudence and selection here, and God’s Spirit suggests this to us when he adds pollution’s or idols. Hence the traditions of the fathers must be examined; and it is a mark of prudent discretion to observe what they contain, and whence they proceed. If we discover that they have no other tendency than to the pure worship of God, we may embrace them; but if they draw us away from the pure and simple worship of God, if they infect true and sincere religion by their own mixtures, we must utterly reject them.

Let us proceed then. I, says he, am Jehovah your God; walk you in my statutes, and observe my judgments. God confirms the former sentence, and at the same time provides a remedy for all corruption’s when he says, walk you in my precepts, because I am your God: for by these words he claims as peculiarly his own what men commonly arrogate to themselves. They do not dare, indeed, to despoil God of his authority, but they carry themselves as his allies, and infect his law with their commentaries, as if it was not sufficient for complete and solid wisdom. Here, therefore, God pronounces himself to be the only lawgiver. If, therefore, I am your God, walk you in. my statutes. Hence it follows, that we indirectly deny God when we turn aside even a little from his law. The passage is remarkable, if we only estimate the Prophet’s language aright. For the two clauses must be read together, because I am your God, therefore walk you in precepts, and thus show that you are my people. But if they are not content with God’s precepts only, but mingle human comments with them, God indirectly teaches that he is not acknowledged, since they deprive him of a portion of his rights; for if God is one, he also is the only lawgiver. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:20

What he had said generally concerning the commandments he now applies again to the Sabbath, and not without reason. For, as we said yesterday, God not only wished by that day of rest to exact from the people what was due to him, but he rather commands it for another purpose, namely, that his Sabbaths should be sanctified. But the manner of keeping it holy was formerly explained, since mere rest was insufficient. God was not satisfied by the people’s resting from their occupations, but the inward sanctification was always the chief end in view. And for this reason he also repeats again, that they may be a sign between me and you to show you that I Jehovah am your God. In this passage God bears witness, that if the Jews rightly observed their Sabbaths they should feel the effects of that favor which he wished to be represented thereby. For we said that the Sabbath was a sacrament of regeneration: now therefore he promises the efficacy of his Spirit, if they did not shut the door by their own impiety and contempt. Hence we see that sacraments are never destitute of the virtue of the Spirit unless when men render themselves unworthy of the grace offered them. When papists speak of the sacraments they say that they are efficacious, if we only remove the obstacle of mortal sin: they make no mention of faith. If a person is neither a thief, nor an adulterer, nor a homicide, they say that the sacraments produce their own effect: for example, if any one without a single particle of faith intrudes himself at the table of Christ, they say that he receives not only his body and blood, but the fruit of his death and resurrection, and only because he has not committed mortal sin; that is, cannot be convicted of theft or homicide. We see how they are steeped in blindness, according to God’s just judgment. We must hold, therefore, that there is a mutual relation between faith and the sacraments, and hence, that the sacraments are effective through faith. Man’s unworthiness does not detract anything from them, for they always retain their nature. Baptism is the laver of regeneration, although the whole world should be incredulous (Titus 3:5:) the Supper of Christ is the communication of his body and blood, (1 Corinthians 10:16,) although there were not a spark of faith in the world: but we do not perceive the grace which is offered to us; and although spiritual things always remain the same, yet we do not obtain their effect nor perceive their value, unless we cautious that our want of faith should not profane what God has consecrated our salvation. ¹

PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since the doctrine of thy Gospel sounds daily in our ears, when you invite us so kindly by thy amazing clemency, and stretch out your hand by your only-begotten Son, — Grant, I pray thee, that we may be of a teachable and flexible disposition, and that we may sincerely submit to thee: and since thy law contains so many dreadful examples of thy wrath, may we be moved by them, and may we walk with fear and trembling in obedience to thy word, that at length we may enjoy that inheritance which you have promised for us in thy heavenly kingdom, by the same Christ our Lord. — Amen.

LECTURE SIXTY-THIRD.

EZEKIEL 20:21-24

I join these four verses together, because they have been already explained, and I do not wish to burden you with useless repetitions. In short, God accuses the whole posterity, because they were by no means more obedient than their fathers. Again, he charges them with rebellion, since they neither obeyed His commands, nor were persuaded by mild promises; for, on the one hand, he demanded the worship due to him, and invited them softly by the promise of reward. He complains that; neither plan succeeded. He adds, what we have already seen, that he proposed to scatter them through various quarters of the world, and utterly to dissipate them. He assigns as a reason for his moderation his unwillingness that his name should be profaned among the nations: he also announces that they had never restrained their impiety from bursting forth, and hence it was only through his own incredible patience and indulgence that they had not perished a hundred, nay, a thousand times. The rest may be gathered from the previous context. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:25

Here God announces that he had taken vengeance upon people so hard and obstinate, by permitting them to endure another yoke, since they would not be ruled by the doctrine of the law; for we saw that, when God imposed the law upon the Israelites, they would have been extremely happy, had they only considered how honorable it was to be in covenant with God, who deigned to bind them to himself in mutual fidelity. This was a remarkable honor and privilege, since God not only showed them what was right, but promised them a reward which he by no means owed them. But what was the conduct of that unteachable nation? It threw off the yoke of the law; hence it deserved to experience a different government. God, therefore, gave them laws that were not good, when he suffered them to be miserably subjected to an immense heap of errors: such laws as these were not good. Some writers have violently distorted this passage, by thinking the law itself, as promulgated by Moses, “not good,” since Paul calls it deadly; but they corrupt the Prophet’s sense, since God is comparing his law with the superstitions of the Gentiles: others explain it of the tributes which the people were compelled to pay to foreigners. But, first of all, God does not speak here of only one age; nay, during the, time of the Israelites’ freedom his vengeance was nevertheless severe.

Thus, in the next verse, the Prophet confirms what I have briefly touched on, namely, that the laws called not good are all the fictions of men, by which they harass themselves, while they think that God is worshipped acceptably in this way: for we know how miserably men labor and distract themselves when Satan has fascinated them with his toils, and when they anxiously invent numerous rites, because there is no end of their superstitions; hence these statutes are not good: for when they have undergone much labor in their idolatry, no other reward awaits them than God’s appearance against them as an avenger to punish the profanation of his own lawful worship. They indeed by no means look for this, but they utterly deceive themselves; hence they must hope for no reward but what is founded on the covenant and promise of God; for all false and vicious forms of worship, all adventitious rites, which men heap together from all sides, have no promise from God, and hence they vainly trust to them for life. God began to show them this in the wilderness; but in succeeding ages he did not fail to exercise the same vengeance. We see how they fell in with the superstitions of the Moabites; and why so? unless God blinded them by his just judgments. (Numbers 25:1-3.) He had experienced their untamed dispositions, and so he set them free from control; and not only so, but afterwards gave them up to Satan, and so he says that he gave them laws that were not good. The Prophet might indeed have said, that they despised God’s law through their own wisdom, that they foolishly and rashly legislated for themselves: this was indeed true; but he wished to express the penalty of which Paul speaks, when he says that the impious were delivered to a reprobate mind, and to obedience to a lie, (Romans 1:24-26,) since they did not submit to the truth, and did not suffer themselves to be ruled by God, and thus were given up to the tyranny of Satan and to the service of mere creatures. Now, therefore, we understand the Prophet’s meaning, I have given them also, says he, laws not good, as if he had said that the people so threw themselves into various idolatries, that God desired in this way to avenge their incredible obstinacy; for if the Jews had calmly acquiesced in God’s sovereignty, he had not given them evil laws, that is, he had not suffered them to be so tormented under Satan’s tyranny; but when they were entangled in his snares, God openly shows them to be unworthy of his government and care, since they were too refractory. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:26

There is no doubt that God here continues the same doctrine’ hence we gather that injurious laws were given to the people when they adopted various errors and worshipped idols of their own fabrication instead of God: hence it is added, I polluted them in their gifts. This, then, was added by the Prophet, lest the Jews should object that they had not altogether rejected the worship of God; for they mingled the ceremonies of the laws with the fictions of the Gentiles, as we saw before, and the Prophet will shortly repeat: in this way they thought they discharged their duty to God, though they added mixtures of their own. Here the Prophet meets them, and cuts off all occasion for turning aside, since they were polluted in their gifts, and nothing was pure or sincere when they thus corrupted God’s precepts by their comments. However, they daily offered their gifts, and professed to present them to the true God; yet they obtained no advantage, because God abominated mixtures of this kind, as we have previously said; for he cannot bear to be worshipped by the will of men, but wishes his children to be simply content with his commands. Now, we perceive the meaning of the Prophet — God pollutes them in their gifts; that is, renders their gifts polluting whenever they think that they discharge their duty; — but how? why, he says, when they cause whatever opens the womb to pass through. ² Here the Prophet touches on only one kind of superstition, but, by a figure of speech, he means all kinds, by which the Jews vitiated God’s pure worship; for this superstition was very detestable, to pass their sons through the fire, and to consecrate them to idols. But in this passage God speaks only of the first-born, so as greatly to exaggerate the crime: that ceremony was indeed general; but since God claimed the first-born as his own, and wished them to be redeemed at a fixed price, (Exodus 13:2, Exodus 22:29, and Exodus 34:19, 20,) and by this act wished the remembrance of their redemption to be kept up, since all the first-born of Israel, as well as of animals, had escaped, while those of the Egyptians perished, (Numbers 3:13, and Numbers 8:16,) was it not monstrous to pass through the fire, and to offer to idols those who were specially devoted and sacred to God? We see, then, that the Prophet does not speak in vain of the first-born.

That I should destroy thou, says he, and they should know that I am Jehovah. God here shows that he had proceeded gradually to the final vengeance; and for this reason the people were the more convicted of stupidity, since they never perceived God’s judgments manifest. If God had suddenly and impetuously issued his vengeance from heaven, men’s astonishment would not have been wonderful; but when he grants them space of time and a truce that they may weigh the matter at leisure, and admonishes them to repentance, not once only, but often; and then if they remain always the same and are not effected, they show themselves utterly desperate by this slothfulness, as the Prophet now asserts. But when he adds, that they may know that I am Jehovah, he means that as he was not acknowledged as a father by the Jews, he would be their judge, and compel them whether they would or not to feel the formidable nature of that power which they despised. Since we have treated this subject fully before, we now pass it by more lightly. Yet we must notice this, that God is recognized by the reprobate, since, when his fatherly goodness has been for a long time despised by them, he at length appears as a judge, and draws them against their will to his tribunal, and executes his vengeance, so that they cannot escape. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:27-28

He now descends to the wickedness of the people, by which God was provoked after they had taken possession of the land of Canaan, since they despised God after being so carefully warned. He complains, therefore, that this was very disgraceful, since, after he had put them in possession of the land of promise, they had never desisted from purposely insulting him. This disgrace was intolerable, since he had profited nothing by them in the wilderness: this witnessing was sufficiently serious to stir them up. “Walk you not in the decrees of your fathers: I am your God, observe you my law.” Since. therefore, God drew them under obedience to himself, what a mark of pride it was not to attend to that witness-bearing, but to pursue their own mad career? In truth, the crime was the more atrocious when at length they entered the land of Canaan, and had obtained so many victories, that they did not learn by experience how God declared his pourer for the very purpose of binding them closer to himself. For the numerous benefits which God had conferred upon them were but so many bonds by which they were bound more closely to him. This expostulation, then, is not in vain, when he reproaches them by saying, when they dishonored me, or rebelled against me. This was not a single crime, or simple perfidy, but a continual delight in wantonly insulting him; for ãdg, gedef, signifies to reject, treat contumeliously, or disdain. God, therefore, by this word wishes to express the deliberate insolence of the people, while they rose so wickedly against him as if they would spit in his face. The full meaning is, that they were not only breakers of treaties and rebels when they contaminated the land of Canaan with their superstitions, but were so petulant that they professedly threw scorn upon God.

Hence, after I had brought them into the land for which, or concerning which, I had lifted up my hand to give it them, they saw, says he, every high hill, and every green or branching tree, and there they sacrificed. God wished to have one altar built for himself, and sacrifices to be offered in one place; nay, before the people had any certain and fixed station, God was unwilling that any altar should be built to him of polished stones, that no trace of it should remain; but a mound only was to be made of either turf or rough stones. (Exodus 20:25; Deuteronomy 27:5, 6.) Now he says, whenever hills and branching trees were lying before them, there they found enticements to superstition. This, therefore, is the reproach which God now complains was offered to him. But this passage, like many others, teaches, that not only is God’s worship corrupted when his honor is transferred to idols, but also when men heap up their own fictions, and contaminate God’s commands by the mixture. We must remember, then, that there are two kinds of idolatries; the one being grossest when idols are worshipped openly, and Moloch, or any Baal, is substituted for the living God: that is a palpable superstition, because God is in some sense cast down from his throne. But the other kind of idolatry, although more hidden, is abominable before God, namely, when, under the disguise of a name, men boldly mingle whatever comes into their minds, and invent various modes of worship; as at present we see in the papacy statues adored, and dead men invoiced, and God’s honor violated in various ways. Hence, however, the papists chatter, they are selfconvicted, and the wonder is that they are not utterly silenced, since their superstitions are so gross that even boys perceive them. But there are other superstitions more specious and refined; for when they have invented many things in honor of God, they will not bring forward the names of either St. Barbara or St. Christopher, but the name of God covers all those abominations. But we see that this excuse is frivolous, when men assert that they have nothing else in their mind than the worship of God. Not only does God wish worship to be offered to himself alone, but that it should be without any dependence on human will: he wishes the law to be the single rule of true worship; and thus he rejects all fictitious rites. Hence the Prophet deservedly excuses the Israelites, because they turned their eyes towards every high hill and every branching tree, and there offered the provocation of their offering. He calls it the provocation of their offering, since they not only foolishly poured forth much money on those vitiated rites, but also provoked God to anger. We see, therefore, that men not only lose their labor when they decline from God’s commands, and rashly fatigue themselves with their own superstitions, but they provoke God to a contest, because they snatch from him the right of a lawgiver: for it is in his power to determine how he ought to be worshipped; and when men claim this power to themselves, it is like ascending to the very throne of God. But if they follow the inventions of others, still it is setting them up as lawgivers, while God is degraded from his tribunal. Thus it is not surprising if God’s wrath is provoked by any sacrifices, besides those which the law prescribes. And this is expressed very clearly by Isaiah, when God announces that he will do what will frighten them all as an unexpected prodigy: I will blind the eyes of the wise, says he, and I will take away prudence from the aged. (Isaiah 29:14.) And why so? because they worship me by the precepts of men.

It follows, And they offered their sweet odor, or agreeable fragrance. These two things seem contrary to each other, that their offerings inflamed God’s wrath, and yet their savor was sweet. But the Prophet. speaks ironically when he says, their incense was sweet-smelling. By conceding this he derides them, since they falsely supposed God was appeased in this way, although he reproves them at the same time for defiling, by their corruption’s, that incense which ought to have been of delightful fragrance. For the language of Moses is repeated: The scent shall reach God’s nostrils, and he shall be appeased. (Deuteronomy 33:10.) Since, then, the incense of the law was sweet-smelling, God here bitterly reproaches the Jews for infecting that good odor with their foulness.

Hence the phrase is used in a sense contrary to its direct meaning. Lastly, he says, they have poured out their drink-offerings there. Here God reviews the various kinds of oblations which he had fully prescribed in the law but he shows that the Jews were rebellious against them all; and he further detects their unbridled petulance, since they had not only violated the law in one point, but had left no part untouched by their superstitions. God had commanded sacrifices, but these they rendered polluting: he added various oblations, yet all these they defiled: he desired libations to be made, and will to be poured out, but this part of the service was not kept pure from superstitions. Thus he shows that the people purposely took all means of declaring war against God, when they falsely pretended that nothing more was prescribed than to worship him as they pleased. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:29

Although there is no ambiguity in the Prophet’s words, yet the sentence seems frigid, and interpreters, in my judgment, have not understood the Prophet’s meaning. It may seem spiritless, that God should ask, what is the high place? But it means that they were not deceived through ignorance, since he had often cautioned them against profaning the true and genuine worship, for he often endeavored to draw them back again when he saw them wandering after their own superstitions. Hence they are continually rebuked by the prophets; and their obstinacy is the more apparent, since, nevertheless, they followed their own perverseness. But because all these reproaches were useless, God here enlarges upon their crime, since they were deaf. I have said, therefore; that is, by means of prophets. For we know how constantly the prophets discharged their duty, by urging them to worship at one altar only. For this reason the people’s wickedness was greater; whence God says, What is this? and why do you so greatly desire your high places when they displease me, and you know my commands? your ears are deaf, and obstructed by wickedness. On the whole, he asks how could such madness seize upon them as to approach these high places, since he had pointed out a place where he was to be sought and invoked. My temple, says he, is neglected; meanwhile you run to high places, and yet it is known by the name of a high place. There is no mystery in this word; but God means that no reproaches or threats of his prophets could prevent the people from worshipping on these high places. He says, then, that the name was still used, since the same dignity and religious regard for them still flourished, when their remembrance ought to be utterly abolished. If God had only once pronounced that those high places were not approved by him, all ought to have changed their course instantly: he, exclaimed against them long and vehemently by his prophets, and yet the name “high places” was constantly in everybody’s mouth; it was famous among them, as if God ought to be sought there. Now therefore we see that the Jews were condemned for too much pride, because they not only failed to desert their high places when repeatedly admonished, but they perniciously wished to oppose those places to God’s sanctuary, although they were so many pollution’s. Hence we gather the condemnation of the people’s obstinate malice, since fathers handed down the name to their sons, so that through a continued posterity they opposed these high places to the only sanctuary of God. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:30

Now at length the Prophet openly attacks those by whom he was consulted. After showing that they sprang from impure fathers — which was sufficiently manifest from their never ceasing to provoke God in every age from the very beginning to the end — he turns their own language against them, and asks, whether they were polluted after the superstitions of their fathers? The old interpretation is “truly;” but h, he, the mark of interrogation, does not allow of that. I am surprised at the rendering of some expositors, are you not polluted?” as if the word were awlh, hel-va, for in my opinion they pervert the Prophet’s sense, for this would make him ask absurdly, what? are you polluted in the way of your fathers? and are you gone astray after their idols? For when they were in exile, that disinheriting ought to subdue them although they had been endued with a more than iron pride: and then they pretended to piety, when they came to the Prophet and desired to receive some consolation from him. Since, therefore, they pretended to some modesty, God here asks them how they could pollute themselves in the way of their fathers? what could it all mean? the things are quite contrary: you approach my servant as if you intended to submit your minds and your senses to my word; but when you so feign yourselves to be attentive to my answers, how does it happen that you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? This seems to me the Spirit’s meaning. You shall say, then, are you polluted in the way of your fathers? that is, are you so obstinate as not to reflect upon your course, and never to look back? for you see how severely God was revenged on your obstinacy: you now seek me in appearance, as if this were your only refuge; then how is it that you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? and why do you commit fornication after their idols? It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:31

He follows up the same sentiment, that it was a monstrous sin that they so perniciously remained fixed in the perverse imitation of their fathers: for they had been drawn off from their lusts by God’s numerous chastisements, and then they pretended to be afterwards disposed to obedience: God therefore here says, why, then, by offering your gifts, do you make your sons pass through the fire, and pollute yourselves with all your idols even to this day? For this question concerns what is quite incredible and worthy of the greatest surprise, since there was no way of reconciling the sufferings of the Israelites in exile with their remaining obstinate in their wickedness. But the Prophet here again deprives them of that vain pretense with which they covered themselves in offering their gifts: he concedes to them what was true, yet, at the same time, he objects, that they passed their sons through the fire, and were polluted in all their idols. He adds, at length, shall I be inquired of by you? I have elsewhere explained that clause, which is now for the third time repeated. Many take it in a different sense, that God will not deign to answer them any more: but, in my opinion, he simply reproaches their perfidy, because, when they approached the Prophet, they wished to blind his eyes. Shall I, says he, be inquired of you? For çrd, deresh, means to seek, and to attain the end of our search, when the person asked answers, and the person sought presents himself. But here God simply shows that they do not come in a right mind, and that nothing else was imposed on them except seeking him. But because that was almost incredible, hence he swears that they were merely hypocritical in pretending to true piety in suppliantly applying to the Prophet for an answer in God’s name, and then wantonly deriding it, and impiously and wickedly using his name, and thus profaning it.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, since you do not cease thy daily exhortations to repentance, but indulge us, and bear with us, while you correct us by thy word and thy chastisements, that we may not remain obstinate, but may learn to submit ourselves to thee: Grant, I pray thee, that we may not offer ourselves as thy disciples with feigned repentance, but be so sincerely and cordially devoted to thee, that we may desire nothing else than to progress more and more in the knowledge of thy heavenly doctrine, till at length we enjoy that full light which we hope for through our Lord Jesus Christ. — Amen.

LECTURE SIXTY-FOURTH.

EZEKIEL 20:32-33

Now God discloses what those old men had in their minds who, as well as the rest of the captives, came to the Prophet for the purpose of inquiry, namely, a feeling of despair, since they thought nothing would be more useful to themselves than to revolt utterly from God, and to form themselves after the manner and rites of the Gentiles; for they found themselves specially hated by the profane nations, because they worshipped a peculiar God. Since, therefore, the law separated them from all the rest of the world, that they might escape that hatred and envy, they encouraged the perverse intention of deserting God’s worship and passing over to the Gentiles. For they hoped that those who had been formerly hostile would have shown themselves favor-able. Now God not only announces that he would not suffer it, but he asserts with an oath, what you are thinking of shall not come to pass, since I will draw you back with a strong hand, and with an extended arm, and poured out wrath. The meaning is, that although those miserable captives desired to throw off God’s yoke and to mingle themselves with the profane nations, yet God would have respect to his covenant and not suffer them to be snatched away from him, just as a master fetches back his fugitive slave; or like a prince who might destroy the perfidious and rebellious, yet only chastises them that they may groan under a hard slavery: this is the complete sense.

But this passage is worthy of observation, since in the present day the same thought makes many anxious; for the name of sincere piety distresses them, and so they consult their love of ease, and satisfy both themselves and others by uniting with the rest of the world, and avoiding the hatred of mankind in consequence of their religion. Others again desire to escape in any way from God, because they feel him hostile to them, for the condition of the Church seems to them much worse than that of the world at large. And truly as God takes special care of it, so he chastises its faults more severely. We see then how he spares unbelievers and foreigners, as if he connived at their crimes: meanwhile his hand is always extended to chastise all who profess to be in the number of the pious. But some would desire to bid farewell to God, if they could choose for themselves. Hence I said we must observe this passage. The Israelites thought that nothing would be better than to be joined to the Gentiles and to become in all respects like them, since they imagined that in this way they would enjoy relaxation, since God was more lenient to the Gentiles than he had been to them, and because they perceived themselves exposed to many dangers and troubles, harassed by assaults and subject to daily threats. Hence that perverse deliberation which is here reproved; — what arises in your mind, says he, shall not come to pass, because you say we shall be as the nations and the families of the earth. But we must also consider the end, because the people’s folly was so great that they thought they would be free from God’s chastisements, if they utterly rejected all religion. God therefore denies that he would suffer it. Now a clearer explanation follows: As I live, says he, if I will not rule over you with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm; in this sense — when they had removed all refuges he would yet be an avenger of his rights and empire, so as to compel them to return to him, as we have said, and thus violently to bring back the fugitives. We now see the great stupidity of the people in thinking the only remedy for their troubles to be in declining from true piety. Let us then be careful that we do not harden ourselves when God chastises us, and desire to withdraw from his power and dominion. Meanwhile God shows that he will rule, but in some other way; because we know with what humanity he treated his people, and what patience he exercised towards them, when they so often provoked his wrath. He now announces that he would be the Lord, but with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, since he would forget his former clemency and subject them to perverse bondage. As when a master sees that he cannot obtain voluntary obedience from his slaves, he compels them to the galleys, or other laborious works, until they become half dead. God denounces that such will be the condemnation which he will use against them, since they never profited by either clemency or pardon. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:34

He confirms the same sentiment, and at the same time marks out the manner of his dominion. For when the Jews were dispersed in captivity, they were like strangers to God’s jurisdiction: they were mingled with the Gentiles, and their condition seemed very like an exemption from God’s power. Now God signifies when he wishes to recover his right, that he had a place at hand, since he will bring them out from the Gentiles, and gather them from the lands through which they were dispersed. We are aware, as we have often said before, that it was a kind of abdication, when God expelled the ten tribes from the land of Canaan and a part also of that of Judea. Since then they were disinherited, they thought themselves free on their part, and they no longer regarded the authority of God, since they ceased to be his peculiar heritage when they were deprived of the promised land. Here God reminds them that although he had emancipated them for the time, yet they were in some sense under his hand, since he would collect them again, and so subdue them, that they should not escape his authority. I will draw you back, says he, and gather you with an outstretched arm and with a strong hand. But what he adds concerning the fury of his wrath does not seem consistent with this. For it was a sign of favor to collect them again, although hard and sorrowful slavery awaited them; yet they might perceive some taste of the divine goodness in gathering them from exile. For we know the bitterness of their captivity; especially under the Chaldaeans, by whom they were subdued. But the phrase wrath may relate as much to the Gentiles as to the Israelites themselves: yet I explain it more willingly of the Israelites, because although God in reality shows that he did not altogether neglect them, yet he asserts his right as a master grievously offended. Just as a person who had lost his slave may afterwards receive him into his house, and yet that house may be like a sepulcher, because he is either thrust into a deep dungeon, or three or four times as much is exacted of him as he can bear. So therefore God pronounces, although he may gather the Israelites again under his hand, yet they shall feel him to be displeased with them, since he nevertheless will require the punishment of their impiety; and this will be better understood from the context.

EZEKIEL 20:35-36

He specially marks this reason here, which is a medium between rejection and reconciliation to favor: for God’s bringing the Israelites out of Chaldaea might seem a sign of favor, as if he were again their deliverer. But he here defines why he intended to bring them forth, namely, to plead with them in the desert as with their fathers. We know that when the people came out of Egypt they did not possess the promised land, because they shut the door against themselves by their ingratitude: but if there had been no hope left, it was better for the people to spend their time under the tyranny of Egypt than to pine away in the desert. For it was a kind of life scarcely human to wander in a wilderness and to behold nothing pleasant or agreeable; a mere solitude instead of cultivated fields, and nothing but discomfort instead of beautiful flowers and trees and undulating ground: and besides this, to feed on nothing but manna, to taste no wine, to drink only water from the rock, and to endure heat and cold in the, open air. Such freedom then was by no means agreeable, unless they had hoped to become possessors of the land of Canaan. But a whole generation was deprived of that advantage through their ingratitude. God therefore appositely compares them to their fathers, who had gone forth into the wilderness, and he says, I will make you pass into the desert of the nations. Here he compares the desert of Egypt to that of the Gentiles. Although the passage from the land of Canaan to Chaldaea is partly across an and unfruitful wilderness, yet I do not doubt that God here metaphorically points out the state of the people after their return from exile.

The complete meaning is, as he surrounded their fathers throughout their whole life in the wilderness, so after they were brought back from Chaldaea their life should be as solitary as if they were banished to an obscure corner of the world, and to a miserable and deserted land. Here, therefore, another region is not intended, but the state of the people when dwelling in the land of Canaan; although he speaks not only of that small band which returned to their country, but of the liberty promiscuously given to all. He calls that state a desert of the Gentiles, to which all were subjected, whether they remained in distant regions or returned home. We must hold, then, that God would be so far the deliverer of the people that the benefit would reach only a few, since, when the multitude wandered in the desert, they perished there, and did not enjoy the promised inheritance. We now see how God established his sway over the Israelites, when he did not suffer them to be perpetually captive, and yet did not show himself appeased when he brought them back, since he still remained a severe judge. I will bring you, therefore, into the desert of the nations; this is the heat of anger of which he had spoken, and I will judge you, or plead with you, face to face. He signifies by these words, that although their return to Judea was evident, yet he was not propitious, since he met them as an adversary. There, says he, I will meet with you face to face, as when contention is rife, adversaries become opposed, and contend hand to hand: thus God here points out the extremity of rigor when he says, that he will dispute with them face to face. But he says, that he was a pleader in the desert of Egypt, and the sense extends to the future; not that it ought to be understood that God descended to plead a cause, and place himself at another’s tribunal; still it was a kind of pleading when the people were compelled to feel that their impiety and obstinacy was not excusable; and also when experience at the same time taught them that God was by no means appeased, since his wrath was again stirred up. Isaiah’s language is slightly different: Come you, says he, let us reason together, I will plead with you. (Isaiah 1.) He is there prepared to argue his cause, as if with an equal. But the case is soon closed and the sentence passed, since it is evident that the people are deservedly punished by God on account of their sins. Thus he pleaded with their fathers in the Egyptian desert when he deprived them all of entrance into the promised land. And afterwards he often punished them for their murmurs, perverse cravings, lusts, idolatries, and other crimes. Hence, let us learn that God is pleading with us whenever any signs of his anger appear; for we cannot derive any advantage from obstinate resistance: and hence nothing remains but to accuse ourselves for our faults. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:37

He follows up the same kind of instruction, that the people were not permitted to perish because they belonged to him, as if he had said that they should be always his, whether they liked it or not. And yet he seems to promise here what was very agreeable, that he would always esteem them as his flock. This is the meaning of to pass under the rod; for fbç, shebet, does not mean a scepter here, nor a staff by which a delinquent is struck, but it means a shepherd’s crook. It is, then, a simile taken from a shepherd who numbers and marks his flock; and this phrase often recurs. It means, because God has once acquired the people as his own, he cannot be rightly deprived of them. The exiles, indeed, had imagined themselves free if they could blot out of their minds and memories the name of the true God, and pollute themselves with the defilement’s of the Gentiles. But God, on the other hand, pronounces, that as a shepherd notices his sheep, and counts their number, and makes them pass under his staff, like a king reviewing his army, so he would reckon up his people, and not suffer any one to snatch them from him, since he claims authority over them all without exception. Now, therefore, we understand the sense of the words: whence we gather again, that abandoned men gain nothing by their obstinacy, but God’s really showing that the dominion which he has once assumed cannot by any means be snatched away from him. So this passage teaches us the kind of reward which awaits all apostates who think themselves emancipated when they brutally indulge in impiety, because God at length will make them pass under the rod, that is, he will call and compel them to render an account, as if their profession of faith was like a brand burnt in to their hearts.

He says, in the bonds of a covenant, but in a different sense from what Hosea denominates a bond of affection. (Hosea 11:4.) He is there treating of reconciliation; but in this passage God pronounces that he will no longer be en-treated by the Israelites. Hence, the bond of the covenant means the constancy of his covenant, as far as he is concerned: and the, simile is suitable, because God had bound his people to himself, on the condition that they should be always surrounded with these bonds. Hence, when they petulantly wandered like untamed beasts, yet God had hidden bonds of his covenant: that is, he persevered in his own covenant, so that he collected them all again to himself, not to rule over them as a father, but to punish their revolt more severely. Here is a tacit comparison between the Israelites and the Gentiles; for the Gentiles, through their never approaching nearer to God, wandered away in their licentiousness without restraint. But the state of the elect people was different, since the end of their covenant was this, that God held them bound to him, even if the whole world should escape from him. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:38

He continues the discourse which he had commenced, namely, that God would not suffer the exiles to withdraw themselves from him from the time he had adopted them. Then, since they were bound by the blessing of redemption, although they thought themselves far removed from the sight of God, after they were cast into exile, he says he would be present to gather them from the land of their dwellings; that is, wherever they were dispersed to bring them out. Some suppose the phrase to include a promise of favor, because it is said, I will purge you; but the word to choose, as I prefer to render it, or to discern, means, that God will drag to light those who think they have obtained hiding-places in which they can escape his eyes. Although, therefore, they promise themselves complete exemption from God’s authority, he, on the other hand, pronounces them deceived, since he would collect them all together from the land of their habitations, although they were dispersed in different places. God’s threatenings are sufficiently evident from the second clause of the verse, they shall not come, says he, into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am Jehovah. He confirms what we saw before, that when liberty was granted them, they did not on that account become God’s Church, since he had another reason for ruling over them, namely, to chastise them severely for their wickedness. They shall not come, therefore, into the land of Israel; that is, they shall remain, and grow corrupt in the desert, as we know that to be a most severe punishment, when God swore, that except two persons, Caleb and Joshua, no one should enter the land of Canaan. (Numbers 14:23, 24.) So also in this passage, I will free you, that is, when your return to your country shall be evident, a new light shall seem to have shone forth, but yet reflect on what happened to your fathers; for although redeemed, they perished in the desert, and never possessed the land of Canaan. The same thing shall happen to you also:, since your return is only a prelude to my favor: but you shall never return to the land of Israel. But this is extended to those who returned and dwelt in their native land. But we said that Judea was a place of exile since the course of God’s favor was broken off, and God begun to plead with them afresh, even when he had led them from their captivity at Babylon. And you shall know that I am Jehovah: as we said yesterday, God is recognized by the reprobate, while they are compelled to acknowledged a judge whose fatherly clemency they had despised. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:39

Now again God expressly bears witness that he rejects the Israelites because they infected the pure worship of the law with their mixtures; for we said that they were deceived by a vain imagination when they thought God pleased with their obedience, while they worshipped him only halfheartedly. When they heaped up fictions, they thought this diligence would be pleasing to God, because they professed to acknowledge the true God as their redeemer. Here again he announces that he rejects all halfworship, since he wished to have the entire affections, and to admit no rival: Now, says he, O house of Israel, thus says Jehovah, Go each of you and serve your idols, just as if he would cast them off from his family. And yet we see that they were always under his dominion; and thus some kind of inconsistency arises when God rejects them from his sway, and yet retains them as his right. But the liberty which is now granted is to show them that it is in vain to worship God by halves.

This passage is peculiarly remarkable, since at this time many are deceived, while they rest upon their own inventions, and think that they best discharge their duty towards God when they partially obey his commandments, and then pile up a great heap of superstitions, partly received from their fathers and partly fabricated by themselves. Again, scarcely one in a hundred will be found who does not think it better partially to worship God than entirely to devote themselves to idols; and this indeed is true as far as man is concerned; for the impiety is more foul and detestable when men openly reject God, and divorce themselves from him, and devote themselves to idols, than if they partly worshipped God and partly idols. But in the meantime, we see that God pronounces that he cannot bear this profanation; and we must diligently notice the reason which is added; for when gross and palpable impiety is indulged in, God’s name is not so profaned as when clever men reconcile the pure worship of God with superstitions: and for this reason, that monstrous INDECISION ³ was in God’s sight worse than the papacy; and why so? for although the papists profane God’s name, yet their madness is at present so detected, that it openly appears that they are idolaters; but that invention mingled darkness with light, and infected the pure doctrine with its leaven. But God here exclaims that he could not endure this deception when men profess to worship him, for they defile themselves with superstitions, since profaneness is added to impiety, and both are the result of hypocrisy. The rest tomorrow.

PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since you have once redeemed us by the death of your only-begotten Son, that we may not interrupt the course of thy favor by our ingratitude; but may we so proceed in obedience to thy Gospel, that we may be brought at length to the perfection of that grace which is commenced within us, and may proceed more and more every day in true piety, till at length we are gathered into thy heavenly kingdom, and enjoy the inheritance promised and obtained for us by the same Christ our Lord. — Amen.

LECTURE SIXTY-FIFTH.

We yesterday saw the reason why God prefers that men should be entirely devoted to their superstitions rather than mingle them with the resemblance of true piety, since this is but a profanation of his holy name. He wishes to be kept separate from all idols. Hence it is not surprising that he loosens the reins from the Israelites, that they should cast themselves entirely on their idolatries; and he repeats again what he had said, that his name was profaned by gifts and idols, since the unbelievers pretended to worship him, but at the same time transferred his glory to idols. Hence he does not suffer himself to be trifled with in this way; so wherever offerings and idols occur, we should notice that all mixtures by which the pure simplicity of lawful worship is corrupted are condemned. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:40

God now directs his address to the elect, or the remnant in whom he wished his Church to survive. Thus far he has spoken of the whole body of the people: he says, although he should free them from the hand of the Gentiles, yet that redemption would be but partial, because they should perish in the desert, and never enjoy the promised land. On the whole, he shows that those to whom a free return to their own country was given were no less strangers than if they had been exiles at the time, and always remained outlaws, since their impiety prevented their restoration. God now addresses the true Israelites, who were not only naturally descended from their fathers, but were genuine and spiritual children, as Paul distinguishes between those sons of Abraham born according to the flesh and to promise. (Romans 9:7-9.) For this reason also it is said in Psalm 73. — And surely God is good to Israel — to those who are upright in heart for the Prophet here asserts that God is gracious towards the Israelites; but since many hypocrites boast themselves to be members of the Church, for the sake of correcting them, he restricts the sentence, and does not reckon any, as true Israelites except the upright in heart. So the same thing is repeated in Psalms 15 and Psalms 24. — Who shall ascend into the mount of the Lord? But the perfidious and the wicked did mingle themselves with the sincere worshipers; yet the Prophet excludes them from the list of the faithful, since he says that none should have a fixed station in God’s sanctuary unless the sound in heart and the clean in hand. In the same sense also the Prophet formerly taught, that although hypocrites proudly boasted themselves to be God’s people, yet their names were not written in the secret catalogue of the righteous. (Ezekiel 13:9.) We now see how well those things which seem inconsistent agree together, namely, that the Lord’s redeeming Israel from the tyranny of the Gentiles would not profit them, and yet, that they should come into the mountain of Israel and worship him sincerely. Israel is here placed before us in a twofold light: for many were Israelites in name; but here the Prophet is treating of the elect, whom Paul calls a remnant of grace. (Romans 11:5.)

In the mountain, says he, of my holiness, in the lofty mountain of Israel. He does not call the mountain high, because it was loftier than others, for we know that there were many lofty mountains in the land of Judea; and Zion was but a small hill; but we have elsewhere seen that it was preferred to lofty mountains, because it excelled in dignity. Here our Prophet does not regard the height of Mount Zion, but the singular glory with which it was adorned; as if he had said that God resided there, and his glory shone forth over all the loftiness of the world. Meanwhile I do not doubt that this epithet is obliquely opposed to the high places, which were consecrated everywhere, as we saw before. Since, therefore, the people had erected altars in all elevated places of all kinds, here God opposes one lofty mountain to all these, whose height had deceived those wretched men who thought themselves when there, nearer to heaven. This, therefore, is the reason why he calls it a high mountain. He says, there shall the whole house of Israel worship me, the whole, I say, in the land. It is not surprising that the whole house of Israel is placed here without exception, because, as I have said, the Prophet does not comprehend all those who boasted in that title, but he only means the pure worshipers of God, who were the spiritual children of Abraham. But here God describes the agreement in faith among all the faithful, as if he had said that the people would be fresh, and would not follow various speculations, as they formerly wandered, each after his own superstitions, but there should be one common rule for all. So we are taught by this passage that our worship does not please God except we are bent upon a simple agreement of faith, and the celebration of his name with our mouth. The impious often subscribe to different modes of belief, but they have no regard to God: but, here we must hold the principle, that God cannot be worshipped unless the doctrine of his law flourishes. The whole house of Israel, I say, in the land. He signifies by these words that the whole land of Israel, so long contaminated by much filth, should be so sacred that the pure and perfect worship of God should alone be beheld there. In the land, then, purged from all defilement’s by which it was before polluted, he adds a promise, there will I be propitious to you. We formerly saw that all the people’s sacrifices were rejected, and that for one reason, because they mixed them with their own inventions. Now, God pronounces that he would be propitious to them, because he will be purely worshipped, and his service shall no longer be vitiated by the perverse comments of men. We here see, therefore, that God’s complacency or favor is accompanied with a detestation of all superstitions, as we have often mentioned previously. As, therefore, God abominates whatever is added to the simple teaching of the law, so he asserts that he will be propitious where he is purely worshipped according to the law. He adds, and there will I require your oblations: the person is changed, but the sense flows on readily: he says, I will require your oblations: he puts one kind of oblation, but he includes them all, as will be seen at the end of the verse. Although I confess that two different kinds of offering are signified by the words, hmwrt, theromeh, and, hpwnt, thenopheh, yet they are often taken for any kind of offering when used separately, a part being put for the whole, as I have said. He says, then, that the offerings were grateful to him, and he implies that by the word requiring, because we have seen that the people’s gifts were refused when corrupted by foreign superstitions, and God is said to exact the gifts which he approves. And the first-fruits of your gifts, he says, that is, the flower or excellence of your gifts, in all your sanctifications, that is, in all my worship. It signifies, on the whole, when the Israelites betake themselves to the simple doctrine of the law, their obedience is so grateful to God, that their gifts please him, their offerings are taken into account, and their whole worship is accepted. It now follows —

EZEKIEL 20:41

He continues the same sentiment, namely, that the people’s worship would be acceptable, when those who had formerly been deceived by their superstitions had bidden them farewell, and follow the law only. He uses the word “savor,” according to the customary legal form, not because incense was pleasing to God, but because external ceremonies were no vain discipline for the people when they retained the truth. For surely incense of itself is of no consequence, but God wished in a palpable manner to testify that he did not reject the sacrifices which he had commanded. Hence, by these forms of speech, the Holy Spirit signifies that God was truly appeased when men approach him with sincere faith and repentance, and desire to be reconciled, and suppliantly pray for pardon by ingenuous confession of sin, and look up to Christ this is the savor which Moses everywhere teaches was sweet, to God. But as the incense of the law was always sweet, so all others were offensive, as we have already seen. The Prophet, therefore, adds nothing new here, but confirms his former teaching, that God delights in the pure and sincere worship of the faithful, when they try nothing but by his law. Afterwards, says he, I will lead you out frown the people, and will collect you frown the lands through which you have been dispersed. He repeats the same words which were formerly used, but with another sense and purpose; since, while he redeems alike the hypocrites and his elect, the offered liberty does not profit the hypocrites: because, wherever they might dwell, their station was in the wilderness; and even in the very bosom of the land of Canaan they were exiles, and their life was erratic, and they were without any enjoyment of the promised inheritance, but wandered in the desert, and through distant regions. For although they dwelt in the midst of a crowd, yet such was their condition that God had deservedly threatened them with remaining in the wilderness of the Gentiles even till death. But now, when he speaks of the elect and the faithful, he makes a difference between them and the hypocrites. For a question might otherwise arise, since all were apparently alike, What was the tendency of the promise, that some should be exiles and others return to their inheritance? For Daniel never returned to his country, and there is no doubt that other pious worshipers of God were at, the same time held back: but we know how sinful a multitude returned to Judea when the edict of Cyrus permitted them. For all were afterwards attentive to their own private business: the temple was neglected; God was defrauded of his first-fruits and offerings; they married strange wives; and mingled polygamy with their sacrifices. (Haggai 1:4.) We have already seen how sharply and severely the three last prophets inveigh against them. Since many returned into the land of Canaan in their unchanged state, and who had better remained in Chaldaea: for this reason the Prophet directs his discourse to the elect, and says that they should not only be brought back, but when restored, as if by stealth, their worship would be pleasing to God in the land. When, therefore, I shall have brought you forth, I shall be sanctified in you before the eyes of the Gentiles. God was in some sense sanctified in the wicked, because they became an illustrious specimen of his power when the Chaldaeans were slain, and his temple erected a second time. But here the Prophet, as I have said, separates the elect from the reprobate, since God was sanctified in them in a special manner, when a new Church emerged again, in which piety, true religion, and holiness of life flourished. When, therefore, such a spectacle was offered to the eyes of the Gentiles, then God asserted his glory among his faithful ones. Lastly, these passages are to be read conjointly, that he will be propitious to them, and will be pleased with their first-fruits and offerings, and he will be sanctified in the eyes of the Gentiles: as it is said in <19B402>Psalm 114:22, When Israel went out of Egypt, Israel was God’s power, and Judea his sanctification, or sanctity. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:42

42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.

For the sake of frightening them, he threatened that he would be conspicuous to the reprobate, saying, you shall know that I am Jehovah, — meaning, that he would be their judge: hence he was known to the reprobate by proofs of his anger or wrath. But now another kind of knowledge is denoted, namely, that which brings a sweet taste of paternal love: you shall know, says he, that I am, Jehovah your God, when I shall have brought you in again. He here shows his full and complete benefit towards the faithful, which we saw before was withheld from the reprobate. For they were brought back, because, without exception, all were permitted to return to their country; for then the yoke of an imperious tyranny was broken when they were freed from the dominion of the Chaldees, and the king of the Medes had permitted them to build the temple, and to dwell in the land of Canaan. All were set at liberty, as I have said; but that was the only favor conferred upon the wicked, since they all perished in the desert of the Gentiles: but God’s elect were led by the hand to the land of Israel, and there they really possessed the promised inheritance, since they dwelt there as sons and lawful heirs. The hypocrites returned, as I have said, but they never possessed the land by right of inheritance, for they wandered hither and thither in the desert, and although they resided at home, were always wandering exiles. We see, then, that a singular privilege is intended when it is said, I will be known by you, when I shall have brought you back from the nations and the lands through which you were dispersed, into the land concerning which I swore that I would give it to your fathers. Here a mark is inscribed, that the faithful may know that this promise was not common to all: for the dwelling in the land of Canaan of itself was not a matter of much consequence, but here a value is expressed, that they should arrive at that land as God’s heirs, and succeed their sacred fathers, to whom the inheritance was promised. As God swore that he would give the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this ought not to be restricted to them personally, as we very well know; and yet they were its true heirs and lords, as their sepulchers bear witness. They suffered vexation by constantly changing their settlements, and were never at rest in one residence. During life they were strangers, but their sepulcher was a proof of true and lawful dominion: and in this way they transmitted the hope of the promised inheritance to their posterity. Now, therefore, we see with what intention the Prophet here says that the land was promised to their fathers, that its value might raise the minds of the faithful to consider the magnitude of the benefit. It follows —

EZEKIEL 20:43

Here God shows that he would at length be propitious to his elect when they repented. Thus he signifies that there was no other means of reconciliation than by the intervention of repentance. And we must carefully remark this, as I have previously mentioned. For we know with what security all men usually indulge themselves, nor are the pious themselves affected with grief sufficiently serious, when God invites them to the hope of safety and at the same time offers pardon. They embrace indeed greedily what they hear, but meanwhile they bury their sins. But God wishes us to taste his goodness, that the remembrance of our crimes should be bitter, and also that every one should judge himself that he may obtain pardon from him. Now, therefore, we understand the Prophet’s intention. We saw a similar passage in Jeremiah: this teaching occurs throughout the Prophets, there, says he, you shall remember me. The circumstance of place is to be noticed, because the Prophet means that after the elect shall have returned to God’s favor, and he shall account them as true Members of his Church, then they thought to be mindful of their former life and to repent of their sins. As if he had said, as long as God afflicts you and you remain under the tyranny of the Gentiles in exile, the sense of your evils will compel you to groan, so the remembrance of your sins should return, since, whether you will or not, their punishment will ever be before your eyes, since they would be easily persuaded that their sentence was usual and common. But he shows them that the sons of God were not only mindful of their sins, when they feel themselves chastised by him, and experience shows his hostility, but when received into favor and in the enjoyment of their inheritance, they live under God’s wings, and he cherishes them as a tender offspring: when, therefore, the faithful are treated so humanely by God, yet the Prophet shows that in their condition they ought to be mindful of their sins, and all your works in which you have been polluted, says he. He now shows to what purpose they were to be mindful. For the wicked are compelled to call their sins to remembrance when God, by forcibly turning their attention to them, draws them to consider what they desire to bury in oblivion. But it is here said, you shall be confounded in your own sight. Since the Hebrew word fwq, kot, signifies to cut off, many interpreters take it for “ye shall be cut off;” that is, you shall judge yourselves worthy of destruction among those whom God will cut off and blot out of the earth. But this seems forced. Since the same word sometimes signifies to litigate, and to become abominable, I willingly take this meaning, that they shall be abominable, or contemptible, in their own sight: that is, they shall be so ashamed, as willingly and fully to acknowledge themselves utterly disgraced. Hence Ezekiel means that the faithful should suffer voluntary disgrace, that they may glorify God by the pure and genuine confession of their shame. If any one prefers to expound it, you shall be condemned or convinced, that sense will suit well enough; but I have already brought forward what seemed more simple. For I said that this was the fruit of penitence, when we he confounded before God and are vile and despicable in our own eyes, and when we not only suffer ourselves to be condemned by others, but inwardly reflect upon our own disgrace, and so of our own accord prostrate ourselves before God. This then is the fruit of penitence, this is true humility, flowing from genuine shame. At length it follows —

EZEKIEL 20:44

Here at length God pronounces that his glory would be chiefly conspicuous in the pity which he bestowed upon those who were desperate and abandoned, gratuitously and solely with respect to his own name. Hence Paul so specially celebrates; the grace of God in the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, as that mercy by which God deigns to call his own elect in a peculiar sense — his glory; for his glory extends farther than his pity. (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14.)

As thy name, so thy praise is extended through all lands, (Psalm 48:10)

for God deserves no less glory when he destroys the wicked than when he pities his own people. But Paul calls that gratuitous favor glory par excellence, by which God embraced his own elect when he adopted them. So also it is said in this passage, then you shall know that I am Jehovah, since I shall deal with you on behalf of my name, and not according to your sins. But when God wishes his glory to shine conspicuously in gratuitous pity, hence we gather that the enemies of his glory were too gross and open, who obscure his mercy, or extenuate it, or as far as they can, endeavor to reduce it to nothing. But we know the teaching of the papacy to be that God’s gratuitous goodness either is buried or enfolded in dark obscurity, or utterly vanish away: for they have invented a system of general merits which they oppose to God’s gratuitous favor. For they distinguish merits into preparations, good works acquiring God’s favor, and satisfactions, by which they buy off the penalties to which they were subjected. Afterwards they add what they call the suffrages of the saints; for they fabricate for themselves numberless patrons, and various reasonings are concocted for the purpose of obscuring God’s glory, or at least of allowing only a few sparks to be visible. Since therefore the whole papacy tends that way, we see that they professedly oppose God’s glory, and those who defend such abominations are sworn enemies of God’s glory.

For ourselves, then, let. us learn that we cannot otherwise worship God with acceptance unless we adopt whatever pleases him as pertaining to our salvation. For if we wish to come to a debtor and creditor account, or to consider that he is in the slightest degree indebted to us, we in this way diminish his glory, and as far as is in our power we despoil ourselves of that inestimable privilege which the Prophet now commends. Hence let us desire to acknowledge God in this way, since he treats us with amazing clemency and pity out of regard for his own name, and not according to our sins. And since that was said to his ancient people because they returned to the land of Canaan, how much more ought God’s gratuitous goodness to be extolled by us, when his heavenly kingdom is at this day open to us, and when he openly calls us to himself in heaven, and to the hope of that happy immortality which has been obtained for us through Christ?

PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since we have already entered in hope upon the threshold of our eternal inheritance, and know that there is a certain mansion for us in heaven after Christ has been received there, who is our head, and the first-fruits of our salvation: Grant, I say, that we may proceed more and more in the course of thy holy calling until at length we reach the goal, and so enjoy that eternal glory of which you afford us a taste in this world, by the same Christ our Lord. — Amen.

PRAISE TO GOD.

After finishing this last Lecture, that most illustrious man, JOHN CALVIN, the Divine, who had previously been sick, then began to be so much weaker that he was compelled to recline on a couch, and could no longer proceed with the explanation of EZEKIEL. This

accounts for his stopping at the close of the Twentieth Chapter, and not finishing the work so auspiciously begun. Nothing remains, kind Reader, but that you receive most favorably and graciously what is now sent forth to the world.

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BY THE EDITOR.

THE PROMISED CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS A COMPLETE APPARATUS CRITICUS HAS BEEN ARRANGED AS FOLLOWS

— (See Translator’s Preface, Volume 1) —

SECTIONS 1, 2, AND 3, — BEING INDEXES, ARE PLACED AT THE END OF THE VOLUME.

SECTIONS 4, 5, 6, AND 7, — NOW FOLLOW ONE ANOTHER.

SECTION 8 — IS PRECEDED BY ITS OWN “LIST OF CONTENTS.”

A COMPLETE SYNOPSIS

OF THE CONTENTS OF THE WHOLE OF EZEKIEL’S PROPHECIES.

1. THE PROPHET’S COMMISSION.

2. THE PROPHET’S UTTERANCES.

3. THE PROPHET’S CONSOLATIONS.

1. THE PROPHET’S COMMISSION.

EZEKIEL 1-3.

Section 1. Its Allegoric Character — the Whirlwinds — the Four Living Creatures — the Wheels — the Firmaments — the Throne and the Human Appearance seated thereon,…Ezekiel 1

Section 2. The Address — the Roll — the Abounding Lamentation….Ezekiel 2

Section 3. The Rebellion of the People, the Motion of the Living Creatures — the Charge as a Watchman — the Hand of Jehovah by the river Chebar,…Ezekiel 3

2. THE PROPHET’S UTTERANCES.

A. AGAINST THE JEWS,…EZEKIEL 4-24.

THE UTTERANCES AGAINST THE JEWS are divisible into those against Jerusalem — the Mountain and Land of Israel — the King — the False Prophets — the Elders of the People, with various repetitions, under different images.

Section 1. The Emblem of the Siege upon the Tile, Ezekiel 4:1-3 — that of Lying on the right and left side, Ezekiel 4:4-8 — that of Taking Food by Measure, Ezekiel 4:9-12 The Explanation, Ezekiel 4:13-17

Section 2. The Emblem of the Razor, Ezekiel 4:1-4 The Explanation, Ezekiel 5:5-17

Section 3. Against the Mountains of Israel, Ezekiel 6:1-15

Section 4. Against the Land of Israel, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Section 5. The Vision of the Image of Jealousy, Ezekiel 8:1-11 The Chamber of Imagery, Ezekiel 8:12-16 The Explanation, Ezekiel 8:17, 18

Section 6. The Vision of the man with the slaughter weapon,

Ezekiel 9:1-11

Section 7. The Vision of the Cherubim — their description and their motions, Ezekiel 10:1-22

Section 8. The Emblems of the Caldron and the Flesh, and its application to Jerusalem, Ezekiel 11:1-25

Section 9. The Emblem of the Prophet’s removing his Goods, and its Interpretation, Ezekiel 12:1-16

Section 10. The flattering Proverb of Israel rebuked, Ezekiel 12:1 7-28

Section 11. The Utterance against the False Prophets, boot male and female, Ezekiel 13:1-23

Section 12. Against the Elders of the People, Ezekiel 14:1-23

Section 13. Tim Emblem of the Vine used for Fuel, Ezekiel 15:1-8

Section 14. The Emblem of Israel as an Outcast infant nurtured by the Almighty, Ezekiel 16:1-14 Married, and yet committing Adultery, Ezekiel 16:15-34 This Wickedness denounced and punished, Ezekiel 16:35-59 The Almighty’s merciful relenting,

Ezekiel 16:60-63

Section 15. The Emblem of the Eagle and the Cedar, Ezekiel 17:110 The Explanation, referring to Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar, and Pharaoh, Ezekiel 17:11-24

Section 16. A Vindication of the Divine Justice, and Confutation of Israel’s Proverb, Ezekiel 18:1-32

Section 17. The Emblem of the Lioness and her Whelps, Ezekiel 19:1-9

Section 18. The Emblem of the Vine plucked up and consumed,

Ezekiel 19:10-14

Section 19. The Elders of Israel rebuked for their sins, Ezekiel 20:1-32

Section 20. The Divine Promises of Restoration, Ezekiel 20:3344

Section 21. The Word dropped toward the South, Ezekiel 20:4549

Section 22. The Prophet’s face set toward Jerusalem, Ezekiel 21:1-7

Section 23. The Sharp Sword and the Great Slaughter, Ezekiel 21:8-27

Section 24. The Sword drawn against the Ammonites, Ezekiel 21:9-8-32

Section 25. The Sins of Jerusalem and God’s Vengeance, Ezekiel 22:1-22

Section 26. The Woes uttered against False Prophets, Ezekiel 22:23-31

Section 27. The Adulteries of the People, Ezekiel 23:1-49

Section 28. The Parable of the Boiling Pot, Ezekiel 24:1-14 The Prophet’s severe Affliction, Ezekiel 24:15-27

B. THE UTTERANCES AGAINST GENTILES.

Section 1. Against the Ammonites, Ezekiel 25:1-7

Section 2. Against the Moabites, Ezekiel 25:8-11

Section 3. Against the Edomites, Ezekiel 25:12-14,

Section 4. Against the Philistines, Ezekiel 25:15-17

Section 5. Against Tyre, through Ezekiel 26, Ezekiel 27, and Ezekiel 28:1-19.

Section 6. Against Zidon, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Section 7. Against Pharaoh, Ezekiel 29:1-7

Section 8. Against Egypt, Ezekiel 29:8-21

Section 9. Against Etillopia, Ezekiel 30:1-5

Section 10. Against the Upholders of Egypt, Ezekiel 30:6-19

Section 11. Against Pharaoh, Ezekiel 30:20-26

Section 12. Assyria as a Cedar of Lebanon, Ezekiel 31:1-9

Section 13. Its Fall and Destruction, Ezekiel 31:10-18

Section 14. A Bitter Lamentation over Egypt, Ezekiel 32:1-21

Section 15. A Bitter Lamentation over Assyria., Ezekiel 32:22, 23

Section 16. A Bitter Lamentation over Elam, Ezekiel 32:24, 25

Section 17. A Bitter Lamentation over Meshech and Tubal,

Ezekiel 32:26-28

Section 18. A Bitter Lamentation over Edom, Ezekiel 32:29-32 These Utterances are all most vividly and graphically portrayed. Allegories, Metaphors, and Parables are most appropriately interspersed with fiery Denunciations and awful Threatenings in consequence of gross iniquities.

3. THE PROPHET’S CONSOLATIONS.

A Series of Exhortations and Promises of Deliverance under Cyrus, a Description of the Temple, and a View of the Future Divisions of the Land under the Prosperous Reign of Messiah.

Section 1. The Prophet’s duty as a Watchman, Ezekiel 33:1-16

Section 2. A Vindication of God’s equity, Ezekiel 33:17-33

Section 3. A Reproof to the Shepherds of the People, Ezekiel 34:1-10

Section 4. The Almighty the Good Shepherd, Ezekiel 34:11-31

Section 5. The Desolation of Mount Seir, Ezekiel 35:1-15

Section 6. The Destruction of the Heathen, Ezekiel 36:1-7

Section 7. The Blessings on Israel, Ezekiel 36:8-38

Section 8. The Vision of the Dry Bones, Ezekiel 37:1-14

Section 9. The Rods of Judea and Ephraim, Ezekiel 37:15-20

Section 10. The Future Reign of David the King, Ezekiel 37:2128

Section 11. Prophecies against Gog and Magog, Ezekiel 38:1-23

Section 12. Judgments upon Gog, Ezekiel 39:1-16

Section 13. The Great Sacrifice on the Mountains, Ezekiel 39:1720

Section 14. Israel Restored from Captivity, Ezekiel 39:21-29

Section 15. The Vision of Measuring the Temple, Ezekiel 40:149

Section 16. The Measures and Ornaments, Ezekiel 41:1-26

Section 17. The Priests’ Chambers and the Outer Court, Ezekiel 42:1-20

Section 18. The Returning Glory of Jehovah, Ezekiel 43:1-9

Section 19. The Whole Fashion of The House, Ezekiel 43:10-12

Section 20. The Measurement of The Altar, Ezekiel 43:13-1 7

Section 21. The Sacrifices on The Altar, Ezekiel 43:8-27

Section 22. Various Ordinances for the Priests, Ezekiel 44:1-31

Section 23. The Apportionment of the Land, Ezekiel 45:1-8

Section 24. The Duties of the Priests, Ezekiel 45:9-25

Section 25. The Duties of the Prince and of the People, Ezekiel 46:1-25

Section 26. The Vision of the Rising Waters, Ezekiel 47:1-12

Section 27. The Divisions and Limits of the Land, Ezekiel 47:1323

Section 28. The Portions for the Tribes and the Priests, Ezekiel 48:1-29 Section 29. The various Gates of the City,. Ezekiel 48:30-35

These closing Visions and Consolations are singularly striking, and afford scope for copious illustration; but as our COMMENTATOR did not live to expound them, it would in become his Translator to obtrude on the reader his own research into these deep things of the Spirit of God.

A minute description of The Temple Scenery has been attempted by a learned Jew, SOLOMAN BENNETT, R.A. of Berlin, (Edit. London, 1834.) His work contains a most elaborate account of every interesting particular. Ezekiel 40, Ezekiel 41, and Ezekiel 42 are explained verse by verse; and a ground-plan and bird’s-eye view are subjoined.

These chapters are also explained by FRY on The Second Advent, volume 1. Section 13.

A TRANSLATION OF THE

FIRST TWENTY CHAPTERS

OF THE PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL,

AS MODIFIED BY THESE COMMENTARIES.

¹ NOW it came to pass in the thirtieth year, ⁴ in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

² In the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoiakim, ³ The word of Jehovah came to Ezekiel, son of Buzi the priest, in the and of the Chaldreans, near the river Chebar, and the land of Jehovah was upon him there.

⁴ And I looked, and, behold, tempestuous wind coming from the north; a great cloud, and a fire folding round itself, and a brightness was round about it; and out of the midst there was, as it were, the appearance of Hasmal in the midst of the fire.

⁵ And in the middle of this, was the likeness of four living creatures, and their aspect was the likeness of a man:

⁶ They had each four faces and four wings, ⁷ Their feet were straight, and the sole of their feet like that of a calf’s foot, (or round, volume 1,) and they cast forth sparks like the appearance of polished brass:

⁸ And they had human hands under their wings on their four sides; and they had four faces and wings.

⁹ And each wing was connected with the next wing: when they moved they did not turn back: each animal went forward in the direction of his face.

¹⁰ As to the likeness of their faces, these four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side; and on the left, these four had the face of an ox and the face of an eagle.

¹¹ Their faces, then, and their wings were extended ⁵ from above, and each wing was bound to its neighbor, and two covered their body.

¹² And each walked in the direction of its face; and wheresoever the spirit (or will,) proceeded, they proceeded they did not return in their course.

¹³ As to the likeness of the living creatures, their aspect was like coals of burning fire, like the appearance of lamps passing up and down between the living creatures: and the fire was ‘bright, and lightning’ issued from it.

¹⁴ And the living creatures ran and returned like lightning.

¹⁵ While I was; beholding’ the living creatures, behold one wheel on the earth, near each living, creature, at right angles, ⁶ at the face of each.

¹⁶ The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like chrysolite: and they were all alike’ and their appearance and their form were like one wheel within another.

¹⁷ When they moved forward, they went upon their four sides: they did not turn back when they proceeded.

¹⁸ And I beheld their circumferences, and their size, and their terribleness; and their strakes were full of eyes, round about these four.

¹⁹ And when the living creatures walked, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures were raised from the earth, the wheels were raised with them. ^{7 20} Withersoever the spirit led the living creatures, tither it also led the wheels: the wheels were raised up also with the living creatures, because their spirit was in the wheels also.

²¹ When the animals moved forward, the wheels did the same: they both were stationary and both elevated together; because the spirit of the animals was in the wheels.

²² Above the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of a firmament, as the appearance of terrible crystal stretched over and above their heads.

²³ And under the firmament their wings were straight, each towards its neighbor: and each living creature had two wings, which covered their bodies on this side and on that.

²⁴ And I heard the voice of their wings, like the voice of mighty waters, and like the voice of God’ the voice of their speech was like the sound of an army when they moved forward; and when they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁵ And there was a voice from the firmament over their heads when they stood and let down their wings.

²⁶ And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the vision of a sapphire stone: and above the likeness of the throne was an image like the aspect of a man upon it.

²⁷ And I saw, as it were, the color of amber, like the appearance of fire round about within it: from the appearance of his loins, both upwards and downwards, I saw the aspect of fire, and a brightness all round about him.

²⁸ Like the appearance of a bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the aspect of his brightness round about. This was a vision of the similitude of Jehovah’s glory: and I gazed at it, and fell upon my face, and heard a voice speaking unto me. And he said unto me, — ¹ Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.

² And the Spirit came to me when he addressed me, and placed me upon my feet: and I heard him address me; and he said unto me — ³ Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, To revolting tribes who have rebelled against me: They and their fathers have acted perfidiously against me, Even to this very day.

⁴ They are children of a hard face, and of a stiff heart. Therefore I send thee unto them; And you shall say to them — Thus says the LORD JEHOVAH.

⁵ And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will not, For they are a rebellious house, Yet shall know that a Prophet has been among them.

⁶ And you, son of man, be not afraid of them; Fear not their words, though they are rebellious, And are thorns towards time, and you dwellest with scorpions. Be not afraid of their language; Be not dismayed at their looks, Since they are a rebellious house.

⁷ And you shall utter my words unto them, Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; For they are rebels.

⁸ And you, son of man, hear what I say unto thee: Be not you rebellious like that. rebellious house; Open thy mouth, and eat what I put before thee.

⁹ Then I looked up, and, behold, a hand extended to me; And lo! a roll of a book was in it:

¹⁰ Then he spread it before my face; And lo! The roll was written behind and before, And the writing was lamentations, and morning, and wo.

¹ After that he said to me, Son of man, eat completely what you has found; namely, this roll, And go and speak to the house of Israel.

² So I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that roll.

³ And said to me, Son of man, Feed thy belly, and fill thy bowels with this roll which I give thee. So I ate it, and it was in my mouth Like honey for sweetness.

⁴ Then he said to me, Son of man! Go to the house of Israel and address them in my words, ⁵ Since you art not sent to a people profound in lip and hard of speech, You art sent to the house of Israel:

⁶ Not to many peoples profound in lip and heavy in speech, Whom you canst not understand; ⁸ Had I sent thee unto them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

⁷ But the house of Israel will not hear thee; Because they will not hear me; Since the whole house of Israel are hard of front and stout of heart.

⁸ Lo! I have made thy face hard against their faces, And thy forehead hard, against their forehead.

⁹ As an adamant, harder than flint, Have I made thy forehead: fear them not: Be not broken down at their presence, For they are a house of rebellion.

¹⁰ Moreover, he said to me, Son of man! All my words which I shall speak to thee, Receive in your heart and hear with your ears:

¹¹ And go — Judea thee to the captives, to the children of thy people, And speak unto them and tell them, — Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Whether they will hear, or whether they will not.

¹² Then the Spirit raised me up: and I heard behind me A voice of mighty rustling, which said, Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from his place!

¹³ 1 heard also the sound of the wings of the living’ creatures, Each kissing that of its companion, And the noise of the wheels beside them — the sound of a mighty shaking.

¹⁴ Then the Spirit raised me, and took me away, And I set forth in bitterness and indignation of spirit, And the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.

¹⁵ Then I came to the captives at Thel-abib, They were seated by the river Chebar: there they sat: And I also sat there seven days desolate in the midst of them.

¹⁶ Then it happened at the end of the seven days, Thai the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ¹⁷ Son of man! I have appointed thee a watchman over the house of Israel; Hence you shalt hear words from my mouth, And shall warn them from me.

¹⁸ When I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die: And you warnest him not, and speakest not unto him; And warnest him not from his wicked way to save his life: That wicked man shall die in his iniquity; But his blood. will I require at thy hand.

¹⁹ Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his impious and evil way, He shall die in his iniquity; But you has freed your own soul.

²⁰ If a just man shall turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity: And I put a stumbling-block before his face, he shall die: Because you has not warned him, he shall die in his sins, The righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; But his blood will I require at thy hand.

²¹ Then if you warn the righteous that he sin not, And he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned, You also has delivered your own soul.

²² Then the hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he said to me, Arise, go unto the plain, and there I will speak to thee.

²³ Then I arose, and went to the plain, and lo! The glory of Iehovah stood there, As the glory which I had beheld by the river Chebar:

²⁴ And I fell upon my face, and the Spirit entered into me, And placed me upon my feet, and addressed me, and said, Go — shut thyself within your house.

²⁵ And now — son of man! — lo! they shall put chains upon thee, And shall bind thee with them, and you shall not go forth into the midst of them:

²⁶ Then I will make thy tongue cleave to thy palate, And you shall be dumb, and be no longer a reprover to them: Because they are a house; of rebellion.

²⁷ But when I shall speak to thee, and shall open thy mouth, You shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, He who hears, may hear: he who forbears, may forbear; Since they are a house of rebellion. ^{9 1} Thou also, son of man! take thee a tile, And put it before thy face, And paint upon it the city Jerusalem:

² Lay siege against it, and build a tower against it: Cast a mound against it, and set a camp against it: Set battering-rams against it all round.

³ Then take an iron pan, and set it for a wall between thee and the city; Strengthen thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, And you shall besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ He you also on thy left; side, and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; According to the number of the days during which you shall he upon it You shall bear their iniquity.

⁵ For I have appointed unto thee the years of their iniquity, According to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: Thus shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶ And when you have finished those days, Then again you shall he on thy right side, And you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judea forty days; Each day for a year, as I have appointed thee.

⁷ Then you shall direct thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, And thine arm shall be uncovered, And you shall not prophesy against it.

⁸ Lo! I have put cords upon thee, And you shall not turn from side to side Until you have fulfilled the days of thy sieges.

⁹ Take you also wheat; and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, And put them in one vessel, and make it into bread for time, According to the number of the days on which you shall he on thy side: Three hundred and ninety days shall you eat it.

¹⁰ And the food which you shall eat by weight, Shall be twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat it.

¹¹ And water shall thou drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin: From time to time shall you drink it.

¹² Then you shall eat barley cake, and shall bake it With human dung before their eyes: And Jehovah said, ¹³ Even thus shall the children of Israel cat their defiled bread Among the Gentiles wither I have driven them.

¹⁴ Then I said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! Lo! my soul has not been polluted, And from my youth up never have I eaten What died of itself, or was torn to pieces; And abominable flesh has never entered my mouth.

¹⁵ Then he said, See! I have given thee The dung of oxen for that of men, And you shall cook thy bread with this. ^{10 16} Moreover, he said to me, Son of man! Lo! I break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; And they shall eat bread by weight and with fear; And shall drink water by measure and with astonishment, ¹⁷ So that bread and water shall fail them, And they shall be astonished one with another, And consume away in their iniquity. ^{11 1} And you, son of man f take thee a sharp sword, Take thee a barber’s razor, and pass it over thy head and thy beard: Then take thee a just balance and divide the hair.

² A third part you shall burn in the midst of the city, When the days of the siege are fulfilled; A third part shall you smite about with the sword; And another third shall you scatter to the wind; And I will unsheathe the sword after them.

³ Then you shall take a few of them, And bind them in thy skirts.

⁴ Then take some of them. and cast them into the fire, And burn them; for thence shall fire go forth Upon all the house of Israel.

⁵ Then says the Lord Jehovah, This is Jerusalem: In the midst of the nations and of the surrounding countries Have I placed her.

⁶ And she has changed my judgments into wickedness Beyond all the nations, and my statutes beyond all the surrounding people: They have despised my judgments, And have not walked in my statutes.

⁷ Therefore, thus says the, Lord Jehovah, Because of your multiplication more than the nations round about you, And your not walking in my statutes, and not keeping my judgments, And your not acting like the nations around you, ⁸ Wherefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I ant against thee, even I: And I will execute my judgments in the midst of thee Before the eyes of the Gentiles.

⁹ And I will execute against thee what I never yet have done, Nor will ever do in future, On account of all your abominations.

¹⁰ Therefore fathers shall devour their sons, And sons their fathers, in the midst of thee: I will execute judgments against thee, And disperse all thy remnants to all winds of heaven.

¹¹ Because I live, says the Lord Jehovah, Since you has polluted my sanctuary ¹² With all thy detestable and abominable things, Therefore I will break thee in pieces: My eye shall not spare, neither will I pity thee.

¹² A third part shall die of the pestilence, And be consumed by famine in the midst of thee; A third part shall be consumed by the sword round about thee; A third part will I disperse towards every wind, And will draw out a sword after them.

¹³ Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, And I will cause my burning anger to rest upon them; And I will enjoy consolation; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, Who have spoken in my zeal, when I shall have accomplished my fury on them.

¹⁴ Moreover, I will lay thee waste, And make thee a reproach among the nations around thee In the eyes of every passer by.

¹⁵ So you shall be a reproach and a reviling, A chastisement and an astonishment to the nations round about thee, While I shall execute judgments against thee In anger and burning, and furious rebukes. I Jehovah have spoken it.

¹⁶ When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine For their destruction, which I shall dart upon them to destroy them; ¹³

Then will I add famine against them, And will break their staff of bread.

¹⁷ Then will I send against you famine and wild beasts, And they shall bereave you: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; And I will cause the sword to come upon thee. ¹⁴ I Jehovah have spoken it.

¹ The word also of Jehovah came to me, saying, ² Son of man! set thy face towards the mountain of Israel, And prophesy against them, and say, ³ You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and the inns, To the rivers and the valleys: Behold! I will bring the sword against you, and destroy your high places;

⁴ And your altars shall be desolate, Your idols shall be broken; And I will cast down your slain before your idols.

⁵ Then I will place the carcass of the sons of Israel Before your idols; I will scatter them before the idols. I will sprinkle your bones round about your altars.

⁶ In all your habitations cities shall be desolate, ¹⁵And high places shall be reduced to devastation, That your altars may be wasted and desolated, And your idols may be broken up and abolished, And your images cut. down, and your works blotted out.

⁷ Then the slain shall fall in the midst of you, And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

⁸ Still, I will leave a remnant, that you may have some Who shall escape the sword among the nations, When you shall be scattered through the countries.

⁹ And the remnant shall remember me among the nations, Among which they shall become captives, Because I am. broken down with their adulterous heart, Which has departed from me, and with their eyes, Which are full of lust after their idols; And they shall loathe themselves for all the evils Which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹⁰ Then they shall know that I Jehovah said not in vain, I will cause them to suffer this evil. ^{16 11} Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Strike with thy hand, and stamp with thy feet, And say, Alas! for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, For they shall fall by the sword, and famine, and pestilence.

¹² He who shall be afar off shall die by the pestilence; He who shall be near shall fall by the sword; ¹⁷ He who shall remain and be besieged shall die through hunger; And I will fulfill my indignation upon them.

¹³ And you shall know that I am Jehovah, When their wounded shall be among their idols round about their altars, Upon every high hill, in, on all the heads of the mountains, Under every green tree and every thick oak, In the place where they offered the incense of sweet fragrance to all their idols.

¹⁴ So I will stretch out my hand upon them, And I will make the land desert and desolate — More than the desert of Diblathah, in all their dwellings; And they shall know that I am Jehovah.

¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ² You also, son of man, thus says the Lord Jehovah Concerning the land of Israel, All end, an end is come Upon the four quarters of the land.

³ Now an end is come upon thee, And I will send my indignation against thee, And I will judge thee according to thy ways, And I will put upon thee all your abominations.

⁴ Then mine eye shall not spare thee, nor will I pity thee; Because I will recompense thy ways upon thee, And thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee, And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

⁵ Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Lo! evil, and only evil shall come.

F579

⁶ An end is come — an end is come; It has watched against thee; behold! it is come.

⁷ The morning is come upon thee, e dweller in the land; The time is come; the day of tumult is near, and not the clamor of the mountains.

⁸ Now I will shortly pour out my indignation upon thee, And I will accomplish my anger against thee, And I will judge thee according to thy ways, And I will put upon thee all thine abominations.

⁹ Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I pity; According to thy ways will I put upon thee, And your abominations shall be in the midst of thee; And you shall know that I Jehovah am smiting thee.

¹⁰ Behold the day: behold it is come; The morning has advanced, the rod has flourished;

¹¹ Pride has flourished: violence has sprung up into a staff of impiety: None of them, nor yet their opulence, shall remain: There shall be no noise nor any lamentation for them:

¹² The appointed time is come; the day has approached: The buyer shall not rejoice; the seller shall not be sorrowful; Because indignation shall be on all their multitude.

¹³ Since the seller shall not return to his merchandise, And their life is yet among the living; Because the vision is concerning the whole multitude, ¹⁸ It shall not return; and no man shall strengthen his soul in his iniquity.

¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet; they have prepared all things; But none is gone out to battle, because my wrath Is upon the whole multitude.

¹⁵ The sword abroad; pestilence and famine at home. He that is in the field shall die by the sword; He that is in the city shall be consumed by famine and pestilence.

¹⁶ And the escapers of them shall escape, And shall be upon the inns like doves of the valleys, All mourning, ¹⁹ every one in his iniquity.

¹⁷ All hands shall be loosened; all knees shall flow like water.

¹⁸ And they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, And dread shall cover them, And shame shall be upon all faces, And baldness upon all heads.

¹⁹ They shall east their silver into the street, And their gold shall be an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold shall not deliver them In the day of. Jehovah’s wrath: They shall neither satisfy their souls nor fill their bellies, Because it was; the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

²⁰ As to the beauty of their ornaments, they turned it to pride, And they made the images of their abominations And of their defilement’s out of it (i.e., gold) ²⁰ Therefore I have east it from them.

²¹ And I will deliver it into the hand of strangers for a prey, And of the wicked of the land for a spoil; And they shall profane it.

²² My face also will I turn from them, For they will profane my secret place: And robbers will enter into it and profane it.

²³ Make a chain: — for the, land is fined With a judgment of bloods, The city, too, is full of violence.

²⁴ For I will bring on it the wicked among the Gentiles; And they shall possess their houses: I will also cause their pride to cease, And their sanctuaries shall be polluted.

²⁵ Destruction is come and they shall seek peace when there is none.

²⁶ Calamity shall come upon calamity, and rumor upon rumor; Then they shall seek a vision from a prophet; But the law shall perish from the priest, And counsel from the aged.

²⁷ The king shall mourn, and the princes shall be clothed with desolation, And the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: According to their ways will I act towards them, According to their judgments will I judge them. And they shall know that I am Jehovah.

¹ And it happened in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judea were sitting before my face, and there the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell upon me.

² I looked, and behold a likeness as the appearance of fire: From the appearance of its loins downwards, fire; And from its loins upwards, as the appearance of brightness, Like the figure of Hasmal.

³ And he sent the likeness of a hand, And raised ma by a lock of my head; And the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, And led me to Jerusalem in the visions of God, To the door of the inner gate looking towards the north; Where was the seat of the idol jealousy, causing jealousy.

⁴ Then lo! there was the glory of the God of Israel, According to the vision which I saw in the plain.

⁵ And said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now To the way of the north: So I raised my eyes towards the north, And lo! towards the north at the gate of the altar, That idol — jealousy — at the entrance.

⁶ And he said to me, Son of man, seest you their deeds? The great abominations which the house of Israel perpetrate here, That I should depart far from my sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and you shall see greater abominations.

⁷ Then he led m, to the door of the court, And I looked, and lo! an opening in the wall. Then he said to me, Son of man, dig now into the wall; And I dug in the wall, and behold a door.

⁸ Then he said to me, Enter and see the evil abominations which they do.

⁹ Then I entered and beheld, and lo! every likeness of a reptile, ¹⁰ And abominations of animals, and, all idols of the house of Israel, Were depicted on the wall round about.

¹¹ And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, And Jazaniah, son of Saphan, stood in the midst of them, Who stood before them, and to each r, censer in his hand, And a thick cloud of incense ascended.

¹² Then he said to, me, Has you seen, son of mall, What the elders of the house of Israel do in darkness, Each in the hidden places of his imagery? Who say, Jehovah does not see us; Jehovah has deserted the land.

¹³ Then he said to me, Turn thee again, And you shall see the great abominations which they do.

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Jehovah’s house, Which looks to the north: and lo! there sat women Lamenting for Thammuz.

¹⁵ Then he said to me, Son of man, turn thee again, And you shall see greater abominations than these.

¹⁶ Then he led me to the inner court of Jehovah’s house, And lo! at the gate of Jehovah’s temple, between the entrance and the altar, About five and twenty men, with their backs towards Jehovah’s temple, And their faces towards the east, worshipping the rising sun.

¹⁷ Then he said to me, Has you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judea To do these abominations which they have done there? Because they have fined the land with violence, And have returned to provoke me, And lo! they put the branch to their nose.

¹⁸ I also in return will deal in my fury: Mine eye shall neither spare nor pity; And when they cry in mine ears with a loud voice I will not hear them.

¹ He cried also in mine ear with a loud voice, saying, Let the rulers of the city approach, Every one with his weapon of destruction in his hand.

² And lo! six men coming from the way of the higher gate, which is towards the north, And each had his slaughter-weapon in his hand; And one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, With a writer’s inkhorn at his side: Then they went in and stood near the brazen altar.

³ Then the glory of the God of Israel ascended from the cherubim Above which it rested, to the threshold of the house, And cried to the man clothed in linen, with the inkhorn at his side;

⁴ Then Jehovah said to him, Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, And make a sign upon the foreheads of the men who sigh And cry for all the abominations which they suffer in the midst of it.

⁵ But to the others he said in my hearing, Go you after, him through the city, and smite; Let not your eye spare, and do not pity:

⁶ Old and young, girl, boy, and woman slay to the death; Yet approach not any who bears the sign, And begin from my sanctuary. Then they began at the elders who were in front of the house.

⁷ And he said to them, Pollute the house, and fill the altars with the slain: Go you forth. And they went forth, and made a slaughter in the city.

⁸ And it happened while they were slaying that I was left: Then I fell upon my face, and cried out and said, Aha! Lord Jehovah, wilt you slay all the relics of Israel By pouring forth your anger upon Jerusalem?

⁹ Then he said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judea Is great beyond measure, and the land is full of blood, And the city is full of perversity: because they said, Jehovah has deserted the land: Jehovah regardeth it not.

¹⁰ As for me also, mine eye shall not spare them, I will not pity them their ways will I recompense on their heads.

¹¹ And lo! the man clad in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, Returned and made his report., saying, I have done as you did command me.

¹ Then I looked, and lo! above the firmament, which was above the head of the cherubim, As it were a sapphire-stone, Like the appearance of a throne which was seen above them.

² Then he spoke to the mall clad in linen garments, and said, Go in to the midst of the wheels under the cherub, And fill thy palms with coals of fire from the midst of the cherubim, And scatter them over the cry. And he went in my sight.

³ And the cherubim stood on the right of the house when the man came. And a cloud fined the inner court.

⁴ Then the glory of Jehovah was raised above the cherub towards the threshold of the house; And the house was fined with cloud, And the court was fined with the brightness of Jehovah’s glory.

⁵ Then the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard to the outer court, Like the voice of the Omnipotent God when he speaketh.

⁶ And it happened when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, Saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from the midst of the cherubim; Then he went in and stood beside the wheel.

⁷ And one cherub stretched His hand from the midst of the cherubim, To the fire which was in the midst of the cherubim, And he took it, and put it into the palms of the man clothed in linen; Then he took it and departed.

⁸ And there appeared in the cherubim themselves, The likeness of a man’s hand under their wings.

⁹ Then I looked, and lo! four wheels near the cherubhis, One wheel by one cherub, another wheel near another cherub: And the appearance of the wheels was like the stone tharsis.

¹⁰ And as for their aspect, the appearance of each was the same, ²¹ As if a wheel was in the midst of a wheel.

¹¹ When they moved, they went on their four sides; They did not return in going forward, Since they moved towards the direction of their head; They did not return as they went.

¹² And their whole body, and backs, and hands, and wings, The four wheels, indeed, themselves were full of eyes all round. is He cried to the wheels in my hearing, O wheel!

¹⁴ And each living creature had four faces: The face of the first that of a cherub; The face of the second that of a. man; Of the third that of a lion; and the fourth an eagle’s.

¹⁵ And the cherubim were raised up. This is the living creature which I saw by the river Chebar.

¹⁶ Then when the cherubim moved, the wheels moved near them; And when the cherubim raised their wings aloft From the earth, The wheels did not turn away from the side of them.

¹⁷ When the living creatures stood, they stood; When they were lifted up, the wheels also were raised: Because the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸ Then the glory of Jehovah went forth from the threshold of the house, And stood over the cherubim.

¹⁹ Then the cherubim raised their wings, and went up from the earth in my sight: When they went forth, the wheels also went before them, And each stood above the threshold of the east gate of Jehovah’s house; And the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰ It is the very living creature which I saw Under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; And I knew them to be cherubim.

²¹ Each had four faces apiece, and four wings; And the likeness of the hands of a man under their wings.

²² And the likeness of their faces was that which I saw at the river Chebar, Both their appearance and themselves: ²² Each moved towards his own face.

¹ Then the spirit raised me up, and brought me To the eastern gate of Jehovah’s house; and lo! At the threshold of the gate, five and twenty men; Then I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah, son of Asur; And Pelthiah, son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

² Then he said to me, Son of man, these men divine vanity, And plan perverse counsel in this city;

³ Who say, It is not near; let us build houses: The city is the caldron, and we are the flesh:

⁴ Wherefore, prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man.

⁵ Then the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and said to me, Say, Thus saith Jehovah, Thus have you spoken, O house of Israel, The mountings of your spirit, I know them:

⁶ You have multiplied your slain in this city, And you have fined its streets with the slain.

⁷ Wherefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, Your slain, Whom you placed in the midst — they shall be the flesh, And the city the caldron; and I will cast you forth from the midst of it:

⁸ You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, saith the Lord Jehovah:

⁹ And I will eas, you out of the midst of it. And will deliver you h, to the hand of strangers, And will exercise judgments against you.

¹⁰ Then you shall fall by the sword: in the border of Israel Will I judge you; and you shall know that I am Jehovah.

¹¹ It shall not be your caldron, And you shall not be in the midst of it for flesh; In the border of Israel will I judge you.

¹² And you shall, Know that I am Jehovah; Because you ha, re not; walked in my statutes, And have not executed my judgments; But you have done according to the judgments of the nations around you.

¹³ And it happened, while I prophesied, That Phalatias, the son of Benaiah, died: Then I fell upon my face, and cried with loud voice, and said, Ah! Lord Jehovah! will you consume the remnant of Israel!

¹⁴ Then the word of Jehovah came to me again, saying, ¹⁵ Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, Thy kindred, and all the whole house of Israel, To these the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Depart you far from Jehovah, the land is given as an heritage to us.

¹⁶ Wherefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because you have been east far away among the Gentiles, And dispersed through the lands, Therefore will I be to them a sanctuary of fewness ²³

In the lands to which they have come.

¹⁷ Wherefore you shall say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will gather you out of the peoples, and collect you out of the lands To which you have been driven, and I will give you the land of Israel.

¹⁸ And they shall come there, and take away all its idols, And all its abominations out of it.

¹⁹ Then I will give them one hear, and will put a new Spirit within them; And I will take away the stony heart from their flesh, And will give them a heart of flesh:

²⁰ That. they may walk in my statutes, And keep my judgments, and do them: Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹ Then I will repay on their own head the way of those Whose heart walks after, heart of foulness ²⁴ and grossness, Saith the Lord Jehovah.

²² Then the cherubim raised their wings, and the wheels beside them, And the glory of the God of Israel was over above them.

²³ And the glory of Jehovah ascended out of the midst of the city, And stood over the mount on the east of the city.

²⁴ Then the spirit raised me, and brought me to Chaldsea, To the captivity, In a vision, in t. he Spirit of God. Then the vision which I saw went up from me.

²⁵ And I spoke to the captivity All the words of Jehovah which he had shown me.

¹ The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, ² Son of man, you dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house: They have eyes to see, and they see not; They have ears to hear, and they hear not, Because their house is revoking.

³ And you, son of man, make thyself vessels for removal, And remove in the day-time before their eyes: Then you shall move from thy place to another in their sight, Since perhaps they may consider, for they are a rebellious house ⁴ And bring forth vessels like vessels for removal In the day-time in their sight: And you shall go forth at even in their sight, Like a departure into captivity.

⁵ In their sight; you shall dig thyself a wall, And carry out (thy goods) by it:

⁶ In their eyes upon thy shoulder shall you carry (them); In darkness shall you go forth: You shall cover thy face, and not look upon the ground, Because I have placed thee as a sign to the house of Israel.

⁷ Then I did as I was commanded. My vessels I carried forth like vessels for captivity In the daytime; Then in the evening I dug through the wall by my hand; ²⁵ In the darkness I led them forth, Upon my shoulder I carried them in their sight.

⁸ Then in the morning the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ⁹ Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to thee, ¹⁰ What doest you? Say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This burden ²⁶ relates to the prince in Jerusalem, And to all the house of Israel in the midst of them.

¹¹ Say unto them, I am your portent: As I have done, so shall it be done to them: They shall be taken away and led into captivity.

¹² Then the prince in the midst of them Shall carry on his shoulder in the darkness, And go forth through the wall, Through which they have dug for carrying out by it: He shall cover his face so as not to look upon the ground.

¹³ Then I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare: Then I will lead him away to Babylon in the land of Chaldea; Yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.

¹⁴ And all who are about him to help him, and all his garrison, Will I scatter to every wind, and I will unsheath my sword after them ^{27 15} Then they shall know that I ant Jehovah, After I shall have scattered them among the nations, And shall have dispersed them through their lands.

¹⁶ And I will make the remnant of them but few By the sword, and famine, and pestilence; That they may narrate all their abominations Among the Gentiles to whom they come; And they shall know that; I am Jehovah.

¹⁷ Moreover, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ¹⁸ Son of man, eat thy bread with trembling, and drink thy water With tumult and anxiety: And you shall say to the people of the land, ¹⁹ Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the dwellers at Jerusalem, And on the land of Israel, They shall eat their bread in torture, ²⁸

And shall drink their water in desolation, That the land rosy be spoiled of its fullness, On account of the violence of all its inhabitants.

²⁰ And inhabited cities shall be reduced to solitude, And the land laid waste; and you shall know that I am Jehovah.

²¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ²² Son of man, What is this proverb of yours in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prostrated, and all prophecy has ceased? Wherefore you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will make this proverb cease, And they shall no more use this proverb in Israel; But rather say to them, The days are at hand, And the word of every vision.

²⁴ Because there shall no longer be any lying vision, Nor any flattering divination in the midst of the house of Israel.

²⁵ Since I Jehovah will speak: And the word which I shall speak, I will also perform; It shall no longer be prolonged: Since in your days, O exasperating house, The word which I shall speak, I will perform, says the Lord Jehovah.

²⁶ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ²⁷ Son of man, behold the house of Israel say, The vision which he saw is extended to many days, And he prophesieth for times afar off.

²⁸ Wherefore you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, It shall not be put off any longer; All the words which I have spoken, even every word, Will I fulfill, says the Lord Jehovah.

CHAPTER 13.

¹ And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ² Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel That prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear you the word of Jehovah;

³ Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Wo unto the foolish prophets, Who walk after their own spirit, and have seen nothing! ^{29 4} Like foxes in the deserts, are thy prophets, O Israel.

⁵ You have not gone up to the broken places, Nor repaired the hedge around the house of Israel, To stand in the battle in the day of Jehovah.

⁶ They have seen vanity, they have divined a he, Saying, Jehovah says, and Jehovah has not sent them; And they caused men to hope for the confirmation of their word.

⁷ Have you not seen a vision of vanity, and spoken a divination of is? And yet you say Jehovah says it, and I have not spoken it.

⁸ Wherefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, ³⁰ Because you have spoken vanity, and have seen a he, Wherefore behold! I am against t. hem, Says the Lord Jehovah.

⁹ And my hand shall be against the prophets who see vanity and divine a lie: They shall not be in the counsel of my people, And shall not be written in the catalogue of the house of Israel, And they shall not return to the land of Israel; And you shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁰ Because, even because, they have deceived my people, By saying, Peace, and there was no peace: And one built up a wall, and, behold, others daubed it with untempered mortar:

¹¹ Say to those who daub it with untempered mortar, It shall fall: There shall be an inundating shower: And I will send hailstones; And the breath of whirlwinds shall rend it.

¹² Lo! the wall shall fall: shall it not be said to you, Where is the daubing with which you have daubed it?

¹³ Besides, thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will make it fall: ³¹

There shall be the breath. of tempests in my wrath, And an inundating shower in my anger, And hailstones in my fury to consume them.

¹⁴ Then I will overthrow the wall which you have daubed with untempered mortar, And I will bring it down to the ground; Then its foundation shall be discovered when it shall fall, And you shall be consumed in the midst of it; And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

¹⁵ I will also satisfy mine indignation upon the wall As well as upon its daubing, and will say to them, The wall is gone, and the daubers of it are no more.

¹⁶ The prophets of Israel prophesied concerning Jerusalem, And saw a vision of peace for it; Yet there is no peace, says the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁷ Son of man, do you set thy face against the daughters of thy people, Who prophesy out of their own heart, and prophesy against them, ¹⁸ And you shall say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Wo to those who sow pillows to all armholes, And make coverings for the head of every stature, To hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people? And will you preserve your own souls alive?

¹⁹ Will you profane me before my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, To slay the souls that were not dying, And to give life to the souls that were not alive, By deceiving my people who listen to your is?

²⁰ Because thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold! I am against your pillows by which you there hunt souls for their escape; And I will tear them from your arms, And set free the souls which you have hunted, that they may escape.

²¹ I will also rend your coverings, and deliver my people out of your hands; They shall no longer be a prey in your hands; And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

²² Because you have grieved the heart of the just by falsehood, And I have not grieved him; And you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, So that he should not be converted from his evil way ²³ For saving his life: wherefore you shall not see a he Nor divine a divination any more; For I will rescue my people from your hands: And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

¹ Then men came to me from the elders of Israel, And sat before my face.

² Then came the word of Jehovah to me, saying, ³ Son of man, these men have set their idols up in their heart, And have put a stumbling block of iniquity before their face. Shall I verily be inquired of by them?

⁴ Wherefore speak unto them, and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel, who setteth up his idols in his heart, And has put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, And has come to the Prophet; I Jehovah Will answer him according to the multitude of his idols; ^{32 5} That I may seize the house of Israel in their own heart, Because they have entirely separated themselves from me by their idols.

⁶ Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Turn you, Even turn yourselves from your idols; And turn your faces from all your abominations.

⁷ For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers sojourning in Israel, Who is separated ³³ from following after me, And has set up his idols in his heart, And put the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, And cometh to the Prophet to inquire of me through him; I Jehovah will answer him for myself.

⁸ Then will I set my face against that man, And set him for a sign and a proverb, And I will cut him off from the midst of my people; And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

⁹ And when a prophet is deceived in uttering his speech, I Jehovah have deceived that prophet; And I will stretch forth my hand upon him, And will blot him out of the midst of my people Israel.

¹⁰ They shall also bear their iniquity; As the iniquity of the inquirer, so shall be the iniquity of the prophet;

¹¹ That the house of Israel may stray from me no more, Neither be polluted any more with all their wickedness; That they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the Lord Jehovah.

¹² Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ¹³ Son of man, when a land has acted wickedly against me, ³⁴ And I shall stretch out my hand upon it, And shall break the staff of its bread, And shall send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast:

¹⁴ Though these three men were in it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, They shall deliver but their own souls in their righteousness, Says the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁵ If I cause an evil beast to pass through the land, And it bereave it and lay it waste, So that no man can pass through on account of the beast:

¹⁶ Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, If they shall deliver their own souls, They alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be laid waste.

¹⁷ Or if I make a sword pass through that land, And I say to the sword, Pass through the land, So that: man. and beast may be cut off from it:

¹⁸ And these three men are in the midst of it, As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, They shall not deliver their sons and their daughters, Since they alone shall be set free.

¹⁹ Or if I shall send a pestilence upon that land, And pour out my wrath upon it in blood, To destroy from it man and beast:

²⁰ And Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it, As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, They shall not deliver either son or daughter; They shall free their own soul in their righteousness.

²¹ Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, How much more when I send my four grievous judgments against Jerusalem, The sword, and famine, and evil beast, to destroy from it man and beast?

²² And lo! the remnant that is left in it, ³⁵ The remnant of those who go forth, namely, sons and daughters, They shall go forth unto you: And you shall see their ways and their works, And you shall console yourselves for all the evil Which I have brought upon Jerusalem, Yea, all that I have brought upon her.

²³ Then shall you be comforted when you shall see their ways and their works: And you shall know that I have not done in vain Whatever I have done in it, says the Lord Jehovah.

¹ Then came the word of Jehovah unto me, saying, ² Son of man, What is the wood of the vine Better than any branching-tree among the trees of the wood?

³ Shall wood be taken from it to form any work? Or will it make a peg to hang any vessel thereon?

⁴ Behold, it is east into the fire for burning; The fire devoured both ends of it, and its middle is burnt ³⁶ Is it useful for any purpose?

⁵ Lo! when it was entire, it was not used for any purpose: How much less when the fire has consumed it, And it is burnt up, shall it be useful for any purpose?

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, Which I have cast into the fire for fuel, So have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

⁷ Then will I set my face against them; They shall pass through fire, and fire shall consume them; And they shall know that I am Jehovah, When I have set my face against them.

⁸ Then will I make the land desolate, Because they have transgressed with transgression ³⁷ Says the Lord Jehovah.

¹ Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ² Son of man, lay open to Jerusalem her abominations.

³ Thus shall you say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem, Thy source and thy birth-place was the land of Canaan; Thy father was an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite.

⁴ Then as to thy nativity, in the day of thy birth, Thy navel was not cut: you was not washed with water To supple thee: you was not salted with salt, ³⁸ Nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.

⁵ No eye pitied thee, to do unto thee any one of these things, In considering thee; and you was cast forth On the surface of the field, to the disgrace of thy person, in the day of thy birth.

⁶ Then I passed near thee and saw thy defilement’s, And I said to thee in thy bloods, Live; Yea, I said to thee in thy bloods, Live.

⁷ Then I made thee grow as a germ of the field, And you did increase and flourish; You became remarkably beautiful; ³⁹ Thy breasts became prominent and your hair profuse, Yet you was naked and bare.

⁸ Then I passed by and saw thee: and lo! the time, the time for love: Then I stretched out my skirt over thee, And covered thy nakedness; and I swore to thee, And made a covenant with thee, And you was mine, saith the Lord Jehovah.

⁹ Then I washed thee with water, and cleansed thy blood from thee, And anointed thee with oil. and clothed thee in a Phrygian robe;

¹⁰ Then I shod thee with badgers’ skin, and dressed thee in fine linen; Then I arrayed thee in silk, and adorned thee with ornaments, ¹¹ And put bracelets on thy hands, and a chain round thy Deck.

¹² Then I put a ring through thy nose, ⁴⁰ and earrings in your ears, And a crown of comeliness on thy head.

¹³ I adorned thee with gold and silver, and clothed thee with fine linen, And silk and broidered work you did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; And you was beautiful exceedingly, And you did proceed prosperously to thy kingdom.

¹⁴ Then thy fame went forth among the nations for beauty, Because you was perfect in the beauty Which I caused unto thee, says the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁵ But you did trust in thy beauty, and commit fornication through thy renown, And did pour out thy fornications to every passer by;

¹⁶ His it was. — Then you has taken of thy garments, And made thee high places sprinkled with spots, And has committed fornication upon them: They do not come, and it shall not be.

F603

¹⁷ You has also taken vessels of thy beauty of my gold And of my silver which I had given thee; And you has made for thyself images of men, And has committed fornication with them.

¹⁸ Then you has taken of thy variegated garments, And has clothed them: and my oil and mine incense Has you set before them.

¹⁹ My bread also which, I gave thee, fine flour and oil, And honey with which I fed thee, You has set it before them for a sweet savor; And so it has happened, says the Lord Jehovah.

²⁰ Then you has taken thy sons and thy daughters which you has borne to me, And has slain them to be devoured: Are then thy fornications a small thing?

²¹ Then you has slain my sons, and caused them to be thrown to idols. ^{41 22} And in all your abominations and thy lewdness You has not remembered the days of thy youth, When you was naked and bare, and defiled in thy bloods.

²³ So after all thy wickedness it has happened to thee, Wo! wo! unto thee, says the Lord Jehovah.

²⁴ Then you has built a high place for thyself, And has made thee a raised spot in every street.

²⁵ At the head of every way you has built thy high place; Then you has made thy beauty abominable, And has spread thy feet to every passer by, And has multiplied thy lewdness’.

²⁶ You has also committed adultery with the Egyptians Thy neighbors, great of flesh: and over and over again Has committed lewdness to irritate me.

²⁷ Then lo! I stretched out my hand over thee, And I diminished thy portion, and delivered thee up To the lust of the daughters of the Philistines, who hated thee, And were ashamed of your abandoned ways.

²⁸ Then you has committed adultery with the sons of Ashur, Since you was not satisfied, you has been lewd with them; Yet even then you was not, satisfied.

²⁹ Then you has increased thy lewdnesses In the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; And even this did not satiate thee.

³⁰ How soft is your heart, says the Lord Jehovah, Since you doest all the work of a bold abandoned woman!

³¹ Since you has raised your high place at the head of every way, And has made thy lofty place in every celebrated spot; And has not been like a harlot in scorning hire. ^{42 32} An adulterous woman receiving strangers instead of her husband!

³³ To all harlots men give a reward; But you has given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And you has hired them to come to thee from all sides ³⁴ For thy fornications — for in thy lewdness You have inverted the custom of other women; Since there is no fornication like thine: Because you has given instead of receiving a gift, Then you has acted contrary to others.

³⁵ Wherefore, O harlot, hear Jehovah’s word!

³⁶ Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because thy shamelessness is poured out, And thy baseness detected in thy lewdness towards thy lovers, And towards all the idols of your abominations, And in the bloods of thy children whom you has given to them;

³⁷ Wherefore lo! I will assemble all thy lovers Whom you has attracted, and all whom you has loved and hated; I will assemble them from all around thee, And I will lay bare thy nakedness before them, And they shall behold all thy turpitude.

³⁸ Then will I judge thee with the judgment of adulteresses, And of those who pour out blood; and I will give thee The blood of fury and of jealousy.

³⁹ And I will give thee into their hand, And they shall pull down thy high place, And destroy thy raised places, and shall spoil thee of thy robes; They shall also take the vessels of thy glory, And send thee away, naked and bare.

⁴⁰ Then they shall stir up a crowd against thee, And stone thee with stones, and thrust at thee with swords.

⁴¹ Then they shall burn thy houses with fire, And shall execute judgments against thee in the eyes of many women: Then will I cause thee to cease from fornication, Neither shall you offer a gift any more.

⁴² And I will cause my fury towards thee to rest, And my jealousy shall depart from thee, And I will rest and be no longer angry.

⁴³ Because you has not remembered the days of thy youth, But has provoked me in all those things; I will even recompense thy way upon your head, Says the Lord Jehovah; since you has taken no thought For all your abominations. ^{43 44} Lo! every user of proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, Saying, As the mother is, so is the daughter.

⁴⁵ You art the daughter of thy mother, who has east away her husband and her sons; And the sister of thy sisters, who loathe their husbands and children; Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite:

⁴⁶ And your elder sister is Samaria, and her daughters those who dwell at thy left hand; And thy younger sister, who dwells at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

⁴⁷ Yet you has not walked in their ways, And you has not done according to their abominations, As if it had been a very small firing, And you has been more corrupt than they in all thy ways.

⁴⁸ As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, If Sodom thy sister and her daughters have done As you and thy daughters have done.

⁴⁹ Lo! this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, Pride, fullness of bread, and security of ease Belonged to her and her daughters and she did not lay hold Of the hand of the poor and needy; but she was haughty, ⁵⁰ And did abomination before me, Hence I took them away as it pleased me. ^{44 51} And Samaria has not committed half of thy sins; But you has multiplied your abominations beyond them, And has justified thy sisters in all the abominations which you has done.

⁵² Bear you, then, thy disgrace by which you has pleaded for thy sister, By thy crimes which you has committed beyond them; They are justified more than you be you then ashamed, And bear thy disgrace, since you has justified thy sisters.

⁵³ Yet will I turn the captivity, yea, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, And the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, And the captivity of thy captivities in the midst of them, ⁵⁴ That you mayest bear thy reproach, and mayest be ashamed Of all that you has done in consoling them.

⁵⁵ And thy sisters Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, And Samaria and her daughters shall return to theirs, And you and thy daughters shall return to yours.

⁵⁶ Then thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thee, In the day of thy pride, before thy wickedness was detected;

⁵⁷ As in the time of thy reproach from the daughters of Syria, And from all around of the daughters of the Philistines, Who despised thee round about.

⁵⁸ As for thy depraved thoughts and abominations, You has borne them, says Jehovah.

⁵⁹ For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will also do to thee as you has done, Who has despised the oath and broken the covenant.

⁶⁰ Yet I will remember my covenant with thee In the days of thy youth, and I will establish a perpetual covenant with thee.

⁶¹ Then you shall remember thy ways and be ashamed, When you shall receive thy sisters, both elder and younger than thyself; And I will give them unto thee for daughters, But not by thy covenant.

⁶² For I will establish my covenant with thee, And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

⁶³ That you mayest remember and be ashamed, And not open thy mouth any more because of thy disgrace, When I am propitious to thee for all thy deeds, Says the Lord Jehovah.

¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ² Son of man, put forth an enigma and utter a proverb to the house of Israel;

³ And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, A mighty eagle, with great wings, long feathers, and full of plumage, Of various colors, came to Mount Lebanon, And took the highest branch of a cedar;

⁴ He cropped off the top of its young twigs, And carried it into the land of the merchant; He planted it in a city of merchants.

⁵ He took also of the seed of the land, And put it in a fruitful field; He planted it near many waters, like a willow. ^{45 6} Then it grew and became a luxuriant vine, low of stature, So that its branches turned towards the eagle, And its roots were under him; and it became a vine, And brought forth branches, and sent out boughs.

⁷ There was also another large eagle, ⁴⁶ of great wings and of copious plumage, And lo! this vine bent its roots towards him, And sent forth its branches towards him, That he might water it from the beds of his plantation.

⁸ In a good soil near many streams was it planted, That it should produce leaves and bring forth fruit, So as to be a magnificent vine.

⁹ Say you, Thus says the, Lord Jehovah, Shall it prosper? Shall not one pluck up its roots and cut down its fruits, And dry up all its branches, that it may wither? Then it shall not be for a great arm or much people To take it ⁴⁷ away from its roots.

¹⁰ Yet, behold, when planed, shall it prosper? Shall it not completely wither when the east wind has touched it.? Upon the beds of its plantation shall it wither.

¹¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ¹² Say, I pray thee, to the rebellious house, Know you not what this means? Say, Lo! the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, And has taken away its king and its elders, and carried them with him to Babylon;

¹³ Then he took from the royal seed, and struck an agreement with him, And made him descend to an oath; Then he took also the mighty of the land;

¹⁴ That the kingdom should be low, and not raise itself up, And keep its agreement and stand in it.

¹⁵ But he rebelled against him, by sending his ambassadors To Egypt, that horses and much people might be given him: Shall he who doeth these things prosper and escape? Shall he who breaks the treaty get off?

¹⁶ As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, if he shall not die In the place of the king who made him reign, Whose oath he has despised, and whose treaty he has made vain, In the midst of Babylon.

¹⁷ Neither with a mighty army nor a great host Shall Pharaoh meet with him in battle, By throwing up a mound and by building a tower, to cut off many souls.

¹⁸ Through breaking the covenant he has despised his oath, And, behold, he has stretched forth his hand, And has done all this, and shall not escape.

¹⁹ Besides, thus says the Lord Jehovah, As I live, If I do not recompense on his own head My oath which he has despised, and my covenant which he has broken, ²⁰ Then I will stretch my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare; And I will lead him to Babylon, and will plead with him there, Concerning the transgression which he has transgressed against me.

²¹ And all his fugitives,. with all his forces, shall fall by the sword; And the remnant shall be scattered to every wind; And you shall know that I Jehovah have spoken.

²² Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will take from the top of the lofty cedar, And I will tear off a tender branch from its twigs and will set it: And I will plant it on a lofty and elevated mountain;

²³ On a lofty mountain of Israel will I plant it; And it shall bring forth a bough and bear fruit, and shall be a tall cedar; ⁴⁸ Then every bird shall dwell under it; Every winged thing shall shelter itself under the shadow of its branches.

²⁴ Then all the trees of the field shall know that I am Jehovah, Who humble the high tree and raise aloft the low tree; I dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree fruitful I Jehovah have spoken and have done it.

¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ² What mean you by using this proverb ⁴⁹ about the land of Israel, Saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge?

³ As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, You shall not hereafter Use this proverb any more in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, So the soul of the son is mine. The soul which has sinned shall die itself.

⁵ But if a man have been just, and done judgment and justice, ⁶ And have neither eaten upon the mountains, nor raised his eyes To the idols of the house of Israel, and have not polluted His neighbor’s wife, nor approached a female when separated;

⁷ If he have not afflicted any one, and have restored to the debtor his pledge, Have not seized the prey, have given his bread to the hungry, And have covered the naked with a garment:

⁸ Have not given upon usury, and have taken no increase, Have withdrawn his hand from iniquity, And have done justice faithfully between man and man;

⁹ Have walked in my statutes, and kept my judgments, to do the truth ⁵⁰ He is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁰ But if he beget a son, who is a robber and a shedder of blood, And who doeth to his brother ⁵¹ any one of these things, ¹¹ And has not done all these precepts of the law, But has eaten on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor’s wife;

¹² Has oppressed the poor and needy, has spoiled by violence, Has not restored the pledge, has lifted up his eyes unto idols;

¹³ Has done abomination, has given on usury and taken increase; Shall he live? He shall not live; he has done all these abominations; He shall surely die: his blood shall be on him.

¹⁴ And lo! if he beget a son, and he see all the wickedness which his father has committed, And feared, and hath not done according to them;

¹⁵ Has not eaten upon the mountains, and has not raised his eyes To the idols of the house of Israel, and has not defiled his neighbor’s wife; Hath oppressed no one, has not taken a pledge, ¹⁶ Hath not spoiled by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, And has covered the naked with a garment;

¹⁷ Has withdrawn his hand from the poor, Has not received increase and usury, has done my judgments, Has walked in my decrees; he shall not die Through the ]iniquity of his father; he shall surely live.

¹⁸ His father, — because by oppressing he has oppressed, And has snatched the prey from his brother, And has done that which is not good in the midst of the people, ó Behold, he shall die in his iniquity.

¹⁹ And you say, Why? shall not the son bear his father’s iniquity? Because the son has done judgment and justice, And has kept all my statutes and has done them, Therefore shall he surely live.

²⁰ The soul which has sinned, that shall die. The son shall not bear the father’s iniquity, And the father shall not bear the son’s iniquity; The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, And the impiety of the impious shall be upon him.

²¹ Then, if the wicked man shall withdraw from all the wickedness which he has done, And have kept all my sayings, and have done justice and judgement, He shall surely live — he shall not die.

²² All the transgressions which he has committed Shall not come into memory to him; But in his righteousness; which he has done shall he live.

²³ Do I earnestly desire the death of the wicked, says the Lord Jehovah? Do I not desire that he turn from his evil ways and live?

²⁴ Then, if a just man turn aside from his justice, And do iniquity, according to all the abominations Which the wicked man has done, shall he live? All his righteous deeds shall not come into remembrance? ⁵² In the transgression which he has transgressed, And in the wickedness which he has wickedly done, In them shall he die — yet you have said — ²⁵ The way of the Lord is not upright. Hear you then, O house of Israel, is not my way upright? Are not your ways perverse? ^{53 26} If the just man has turned aside from his justice, And has done iniquity, and has died in it, In his own iniquity which he has committed shall he die.

²⁷ And if the wicked man has turned aside from the wickedness which he has done, And has done judgment and justice, he shall preserve his soul alive. ^{54 28} Then, if he have seen and have turned away from all the wickedness Which he has done, he shall surely live — he shall not die.

²⁹ Yet, the house of Israel have said, The way of the Lord is not upright. Are not my ways upright, O house of Israel? Are not your ways perverse?

³⁰ Wherefore I will judge each of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah. Turn you, and depart from all your transgressions, And let not iniquity be your snare.

³¹ Cast away from you all your iniquities whereby you have transgressed; And make you a new heart and a new spirit: For why will you die, O house of Israel?

³² Since I do not delight in the death of the dying, Says the Lord Jehovah — wherefore turn you, and live.

¹ Wherefore take you up this mournful strain against the princes of Israel, ² And say, Why did thy mother — a lioness — Lie down among lions? she brought up her whelps In the midst of lions.

³ Then she bore one of her whelps, and he was made a lion: Then he learnt to seize his prey, and he devoured men.

⁴ Then the Gentiles heard of him; he was taken in their pit, And they led him in chains into the land of Egypt.

⁵ Then she saw what she had hoped for, and how her hope had perished; And she took another of her whelps, and made him a lion.

⁶ Then he walked in the midst of lions, and became a lion; And he learnt to seize the prey, and devoured men.

⁷ Then he harassed their palaces and destroyed their cities; And the land was rendered desolate, and all its fullness, By the voice of his roaring.

⁸ Then the nations set themselves against him From all sides and regions, and spread their net over him. He was taken in their pitfall: and they put him in ward, ⁹ And brought him in chains to the king of Babylon. They led him into strongholds, that his voice Might be no longer heard in the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Thy mother, when she bore thee, ⁵⁵ was planted like a vine near the waters: She was fruitful and branching beside many waters.

¹¹ And the rods of her strength were for scepters for rulers, And her stature was elevated, and appeared aloft In the multitude of her branches.

¹² Then she was torn in fury, and cast on the ground; And the east wind dried up her fruit; Her strong rods were broken off and dried up; The fire consumed them; and now she is planted ¹³ In the desert, in a land of dryness and thirst.

¹⁴ Then a fire went forth from the rod of her branches, and devoured her fruit; And there was not a rod of strength in her — a scepter for ruling. This is the lamentation, and shall be for a wailing.

¹ It occurred in the seventh year, the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, Men from the elders of Israel came to consult Jehovah, And sat before my face. And the word of Jehovah ² Came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, ³ And say unto there, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Are you come. to inquire of me? As I live, If I will be sought by you, saith the Lord Jehovah, ⁴ Wilt you judge them, wilt you judge them, son of man? Explain to them the abominations of their fathers;

⁵ Then you shall say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day on which I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand To the seed of the house of Jacob, and was known to them in the land of Egypt, Then I raised my hand to them, saying, I am Jehovah your God:

⁶ In that day I lifted up my hand towards them, To bring them from the land of Egypt into a land which I espied for them, Flowing with milk and honey, desirable beyond all lands.

⁷ Then I said to them, Cast you away every one the abominations of his eyes, And pollute not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I Jehovah am your God; and they rebelled against me, ⁸ And were unwilling to hear me: they did not cast away The idols of their eyes: they did not desert the idols of Egypt: Then I said that I would pour out my wrath upon them; To fill up nay fury against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

⁹ But, I acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations, In the midst of which they were; in whose sight I was known to them, By bringing them forth from the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ Then I led them out from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the desert.

¹¹ And I gave them my decrees, and made known my judgments unto them, Which if a man do, he shall live in them.

¹² Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths for a sign between me and them, That they might know that I am he who sanctifieth them.

¹³ But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the desert: They walked not in my decrees, And despised my judgments, Which if a mall do, he shall live in them. And my sabbaths they greatly violated: Then I said I would pour out my wrath in the desert to consume them.

¹⁴ Then I acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned In the eyes of the nations, in whose sight I led them out.

¹⁵ Yet I lifted up my hand to them in the desert, That I should not lead them into the land which I had given them, Flowing with milk and honey, the desire of all lands, ¹⁶ Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my decrees, And polluted my sabbaths; because their heart walked after their idols.

¹⁷ Then mine eye spared them, so that I did not destroy them, And did not consume them in the desert.

¹⁸ Then I said unto their sons in the desert, Walk you not in the decrees of your fathers, And keep not their judgments, and pollute not yourselves with their idols:

¹⁹ I Jehovah am your God, walk you in my decrees, And keep my judgments, and do them:

²⁰ And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, That you may know that I Jehovah am your God.

²¹ Then these sons became rebels against me: They walked not in my decrees, 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, To accomplish my fury against them in the desert.

²² Then I withdrew my hand, and acted for my name’s sake, That it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations, Before whose sight I led them out.

²³ I also lifted up my hand to them in the desert To scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the lands;

²⁴ Because they did not perform my judgments, And despised my statutes, and violated my Sabbaths; And their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.

²⁵ I therefore gave them decrees that were not good, And judgments by which they could not live;

²⁶ And I contaminated them in their gifts, By casting away every first-born offspring, To destroy them, that. they may know that I am Jehovah.

²⁷ Wherefore, speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Hither to your fathers Have dishonored me in this by prevaricating greatly against me:

²⁸ For I introduced them into the land, for which I raised my hand to give it them; And they saw every high inn, and every branching tree: Then they sacrificed there their offerings, And offered there the irritation of their oblation, And placed there the odor of their sweet fragrance, And poured out there their libations.

²⁹ Then said I unto them, What is the high place to which you approach? For its name is called “Lofty” unto this day.

³⁰ Wherefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Are you polluted after the way of your fathers? And do you commit adultery after their idols?

³¹ For in offering your gifts, and in passing your sons through the fire, You pollute yourselves in all your idols unto this day Then shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel! As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, if I shall be inquired of by you.

³² That also which comes it to your mind shall not happen, Since you say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands, ³³ To serve wood and stone. As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, If I will not rule over you with a strong hand, and an extended arm, and in fury poured forth.

³⁴ And I will lead you out from the people, and collect you from the lands Through which you were dispersed, by a strong hand, and with an extended arm, ³⁵ And with fury poured forth. Then I will lead you into the desert of the Gentiles, And will plead with you there face to face.

³⁶ As I pleaded with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, So will I dispute with you, says the Lord Jehovah.

³⁷ Then I will make you pass under the rod, And bring you within the bond of a covenant:

³⁸ Then will I purge out from among you the rebels, And the transgressors against me from the land of their habitation Will I bring the impious, and they shall not enter the land of Israel; And you shall know that I am Jehovah.

³⁹ As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord Jehovah, Go you, let each serve his idols, since you do not hear me, And the name of my sanctity profane no longer ⁴⁰ With your gifts and your idols, since in the mountain of my sanctity, In a lofty mountain of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah, There shall the whole house of Israel worship me; All, I say, in the land there will I be propitious to them; And there will I require your oblations, And the first-fruits of your gifts in all your purification’s.

⁴¹ In the odor of sweet fragrance will I be propitious to you, When I shall have brought you from the people, And gathered you from the lands through which you will be dispersed; And I will be sanctified in you in the eyes of the nations.

⁴² Then shall you know that I am Jehovah, When I shall have brought you back into the land of Israel, Into the region about which I raised my hand to give it to your fathers.

⁴³ And there I will remember your ways, and all your works, In which you were polluted; and you shall be confused in face350

Through all your wickedness which you have committed.

⁴⁴ Then shall you know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have done among you According to. my name, not according to your evil ways, Nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah.

AS CALVIN’S LATIN TRANSLATION ends here, so the version by the Translator comes naturally to a close. It has not been thought necessary to re-translate from the original the remainder of EZEKIEL, as the previously quoted labors of Newcome and Rosenmuller are sufficiently accessible and explanatory.

A LIST OF THE CHIEF INTERPRETERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

1. JEWISH COMMENTATORS.

Schelomoh Jarchi Ben Jizchak, commonly called Solomon Jarchi, son of Isaac, known to the Jews by the word Raschi, made up of the initials of yjry hmlç ybr, Rabbi Schelomoh Jarchi, was an eminent commentator on the whole of the Old Testament. the was born at Troyes, in Champagne, a province of France, and died A.D. 1180. His chief value arises from his having collected the best traditionary interpretations of his ancestors from the earliest times.

David Kimchi, son of Joseph, known to the Jews by the name of Radak, from the initial letters of yjmq rwd ybr, Rabbi David Kimchi, was a Spaniard. Though he lived so lately as the twelfth ten bury, his interpretation is much valued by both Jews and. Christians for its grammatical accuracy. His commentary on Ezekiel is found in the Rabbinical Writings, edited by Buxtorf, A. D. 1618. Basil, 2 volumes.; and also 1724, Amsterdam.

Isaac Abarbanel, a Portuguese Jew, born at Lisbon, A.D. 1437, and died in Apulia, A.D. 1508. His comments on Ezekiel appeared first at Pesaro, in Italy, A.D. 1520; and then again at Amsterdam, A.D. 1641. He is highly esteemed for his extensive erudition and his clear style.

Shelomoh Ben Melech, a Spaniard, who lived at Constantinople in the middle of the sixteenth century. Under the title, The Perfection of Beauty, he wrote an elaborate commentary on the Old Testament, Constantinople, A.D. 1554, It was reprinted at Amsterdam, A.D. 1661 and 1685, fol., with the additions of Jacob Abendana. Tympius and Danzius have illustrated the manner in which he has improved upon or misunderstood D. Kimchi, according to Wolf, Bibliothec. Hebr., volume 4 pages 989, 991.

These references to Jewish interpreters will enable the reader to judge how far their opinion on the sense of a passage is decisive. It must be remembered that they all lived more than a thousand years after the Christian era., and that consequently they are not to be esteemed of decisive authority.

Further information may be obtained from Jo. Christ. Wolf’s Bibliotheca Hebraee, volume 2. page 368, and elsewhere. Le Long and Boerner’s Bib. Sac. ab. A. G. Masch, pt. 1. p. 135; and De Rossi’s Annal. Hebrews Typ., Parmae, 1795, page 131; and Hartwell Horne, volume 2. part 2, where he has chiefly followed Carpzov.

2. THE EARLY FATHERS.

Origin (between A.D. 185 and 254) appears to have commented very voluminously on Ezekiel, as, from the fragments which remain, it appears that the twentieth volume only reached to chap. 11. Jerome has translated fourteen homilies of Origen’s on Ezekiel into Latin, which are found in his works. Edit., Vallarsii, Venet. 1736, tom. 5 page 877; and in De La Rue’s collected edition of Origen’s Works, volume 3. page 325.

Ephrem of Edessa, who lived about A.D. 370, wrote a Commentary on this Prophet in Syriac, which is found in volume H of his works, as edited by Pet. Benedict, in Syriac and Latin, at Rome, 1740, fol.

Eusebius Hieronymus — the well-known Jerome — wrote fourteen books of Comments on Ezekiel. See his works, edit. Martiani, volume 3, and Valarsii, volume 5 Rosenmuller esteems his interpretations highly, and often quotes them at length. Smith’s Biographical Dictionary, Art. Ineronymus, page 465, states, that the fourteen books of his Comments on this Prophet were written at intervals, between A.D. 411 and 414, having been commenced immediately after his Comments on Isaiah, but repeatedly broken off. See also the prolegomena to the 126th Epistle to Marcellinus, etc.; the Benedictine edition, volume 3. page 1072.

Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, in Syria, who lived about A.D. 420, wrote a Commentary on Ezekiel, found in his works, edited by Jac. Sirmond, volume 2 page 300; and in the edit. Halen., volume 2 part 2.

3. COMMENTATORS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

Jo. Cecolampadh Commentarius in Ezekielem. Argentorati, 1534, 4to; Basileae, 1548, fol.

Victorini Strigelh Ezechiel Propheta ad Ebraicam veritatem recognitus, et argumentis atque scholiis illustratus. Lipsiae, 1564, 1575, 1579, 8vo.

Hectoris Pinti Commentarius in Ezechielem. Salmanticae, 1568, fol.; Antverp, 1570, 1582; Lugduni, 1581, 4to; Ibid. 1584, fol.; Colon., 1615, 4to.

Phil. Heilbrunner Ezechielis Prophetae vaticinia illustrata. Lavingae, 1587, 8vo.

Hieron. Padri Et Jo. Bapt. Villalpandi, in Ezechielem Explanationes. Romae, 1596, 3 vols. fol.

This work is much praised and quoted by Rosenmuller. The first volume contains the Comments of Pradus on the first six-and-twenty chapters: he died before it was published; so that his coadjutor edited it, and compiled the two latter volumes. They had access to a Catena Patrum Graecorum in Ezechielem, preserved in the Vatican Library, which they inserted, translated into Latin by a member of their own order; and they enriched their work with valuable illustrations of the city and temple at Jerusalem. A full description of the work will be found in den Nachrichten von einer Hallischen Bibliothek, part 8 page 18, and foll.

Amandi Polani A Polansdorf Commentaria in Ezechielem. Basileae, 1601, 4to; and 1608, 4to.

A digest of public lectures delivered in the old Academy at Basil.

Franc. Junh Commentaria in Ezechielem Prophetam. Genevae, 1609, fol.; and 1610, 8vo.

Jo. Maldonati Commentarii in Ezechielem. Moguntiae, 1611, small 4to.

This work, by a learned Jesuit, is very explanatory. The Latin translation is good, and the Jewish interpretations freely used. Many Hebrew words we have found well explained.

Gasper Sancth Commentarius in Ezechielem. Lugduni, 1612, 1619, fol.

Jac. Brandmulleri Commentarius in Ezechielem. Basil. 1621, 4to.

An Exposition of the Prophecy of Ezekiel. By GEORGE GREENHILL. London, 1645. 5 vols. 4to.

Doctrinal and practical lectures delivered to a congregation at Stepney by the writer, a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. Excellent of its kind, but not critical. Various editions, originally published at different times, from 1645 to 1658.

Jo. Cocceh Commentarius in Ezekielem. 1668, 4to.

4. LATER COMMENTATORS.

George Calixti Scholae Propheticae ex Prelectionibus in…Ezekielem collectae. Quedlinburgi, 1715, 4to.

Das Zeugniss Iesu aus dem Propheten Ezechiel durch den Geist der Weissagung dargethan von WILHELM PETERSEN. Francofurti, 1719, 4to.

Jo. Frid. Starckh, V.D.M., Francofurtani, Commentarius in Prophetam Ezechielem. Francof. ad Moen., 1731, 4to.

A laborious, useful, and practical Commentary.

George Costard Dissertationes H. Critico-Sacrae quarum prima explicata Ezech. ch. 13:18. Oxon. 1752, 8vo.

Ezechiel aufs Neue aus dem Hebraischen ubersetzt, und mit kurgen Anmerkungen fur unstudirte Leser begleitet von JOH. CARL. VOLBORTH. Goett. 1787.

For an account of this work, see Eichhorn’s Allgem. Biblioth. der Bib. Lit., volume 1. page 807.

An Attempt towards an Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Prophet Ezekiel. By WM. NEWCOME, D.D., Bishop of Waterford, and afterwards Archbishop of Armagh. Dublin, 1788, 4to.

This is an invaluable work: to the mere English reader of this Prophet. Tegg, in his edition of 1836, 1 volume 8vo, page 294, has rendered it very accessible: it is safe, sound, and judicious, with excellent notes. See also Eichhorn Bibl., volume 2. page 131; and J. D. Michaelis Neue orient. u. exeget. Bibli., pt. 6 page 87.

Hermanni Venema Lectiones Academicae ad Ezechielem. Part 1 usque ad cap. 21 Edidit. Jo. Hen. Verschuir. Leovard, 1790, 4to, 2 parts. See again, Eich. Bibl., volume 3. page 694.

Jo. Godofr Eichhorn die Biblischen Propheten, volume 2 and volume 3. Ezekielis Vaticinia. Gotting. 1818, 1819.

The Temple of Ezekiel; viz., an Elucidation of the 40th and following Chapters. By SOLOMON BENNETT, R.A., of Berlin. London, 1824. 4to.

Em. F. Rosenmuller’s Scholia in Ezekielem. 2 vols. 8vo, 2d edition. 1826. Lipsiae.

Invaluable. The Editor is much indebted to it for many references to other valuable works.

Havernick’s Introduction to Ezekiel, translated from the German by the Revelation F.W. Gotch, M.A. See Kitto’s Journal of Sacred Literature, No. 1, January 1848; also the Article “Ezekiel” — Kitto’s Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature.

A NOTICE OF THE ANCIENT VERSIONS AND CODEXES

WHICH CONTAIN EZEKIEL’S PROPHECIES.

The Arabic Version Of Ezekiel. It was made from the Septuagint, and is contained in the London Polyglot,,. It agrees throughout with that Greek text which exists in the Alexandrine Codex, now in the British Museum. It was executed from Hesychius’s edition of the Septuagint, and is valuable for the comparison of cognate words and phrases with the Hebrew.

The Chaldee Version, said to have been made by Jonathan, the son of Uzziel, is found in the London Polyglott, and is praised in Buxtorf’s Rabbinical Commentaries.

The Alexandrine Codex is esteemed the most ancient MS. existing, written probably in the fourth century, though some authorities place it much later. ⁵⁶ The book of Ezekiel was translated for this version during the reign of Ptolemy Philometer. Of all the prophets, Jeremiah seems the best executed: then Amos, and Ezekiel, and Isaiah the worst of all, except Daniel. Edited by Jo. Ern. Grabe, 1707-1720. 4 vols. fol. Oxon.

The Codices Of Kennicott And De Rossi. Only some of them contain Ezekiel; that formerly belonging to the learned Reuchlin (No. 154) contains this Prophet, with a Targum also. The Codex Norimburgensis, (No. 198,) written about A.D. 1290, is noticed here only for the order in which Ezekiel is placed: it is neither that of the Masorites nor the Talmudists. Again, in Codex No. 224, the order is Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah.

The Codex Romanus Or Vaticanus is of great antiquity. A facsimile of this MS. was made for Dr. Grabe in 1704, and Horne has given an accurate specimen of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1:1-3. This facsimile is at long the MSS. of the Bodleian Library. Cardinal Anton. Carasa executed an edition under the auspices of Pope Sixtus V. Rome, 1587. Fol.

The Syro. Estranghelae Version is a translation into Syriac of Origen’s Hexaplar edition of the Septuagint A MS. exists in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. It contains Scholia of the Greek and Syrian fathers, and various valuable annotations. Matth. Norberg edited from it the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, in 1787, 4to, Londini Gothorum; giving it the title of Codex Syriaco-Hexaplaris Ambrosiano-Mediolanensis. See Eichhorn’s account of it in his Allgem. Bib. der Bibl. Lit., volume 1 page 837, and foll.

The Vulgate Version needs mention here only to point out the differences in rendering Ezekiel between the editions of Sixtus 5. and Clement 8. In Ezekiel 14:22, the former has egredientur, which is correct, and the latter ingredientur.

Among The Five Gothic Mss. discovered by Ang. Mai, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, amidst the CODICES RESCRIPTI, the homilies of Gregory the Great on this Prophet were found written over various portions of St. Paul’s Epistles. These homilies were executed before the eighth century.

DISSERTATIONS

ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS,

TREATED OF IN THESE LECTURES.

1 — ON THE CHERUBIM. Ezekiel 1:1.

2 — CALVINUS JUDAIZANS AN ORTHODOXUS?

3 — CALVIN’S SEVERITY TOWARDS THE JEWS.

4 — THE FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS OF EZEKIEL.

5 — ON EATING THE ROLL. a Ezekiel 3:1. THE GREAT RUSINNG. b Ezekiel 3:12. ON TEL-ABIB. g Ezekiel 3:12.

6 — JERUSALEM PAINTED ON A BRICK. a Ezekiel 4:1. THE THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS. b Ezekiel 4:5.

7 — THE SEPTUAGINT ORDER. Ezekiel 7:3-13.

8 — THE IMAGE OF JEALOUSY. Ezekiel 8:1-14.

9 — THE MAN IN THE LINEN GARMENT. Ezekiel 9:2.

10 — THE COALS SCATTERED OVER THE CITY. Ezekiel 10:2.

11 — THE FIVE-AND-TWENTY EVIL COUNSELLORS. Ezekiel 11:1.

12 — THE FALSE PROPHETS. a Ezekiel 13:1. IN THE PRINCIPLE OF ACCOMMODATION. B IN THE PHRASE PROSTITUERUNT DEUM. g Ezekiel 13:19.

13 — ISRAEL AN ADULTERESS. a Ezekiel 16:1. CAPTIVE ISRAEL AND PAPAL ROME. b Ezekiel 16:20. ON THE WORD NEPHESH, SOUL. g Ezekiel 16:27. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND THE NEW TESTAMENT. d Ezekiel 16:61.

14 — THE GREAT EAGLE. a Ezekiel 17:3. THE LOFTY BRANCH OF THE TALL CEDAR. b Ezekiel 17:22.

15 — THE EATING SOUR GRAPES. a Ezekiel 18:1. USURY AND INTEREST. b Ezekiel 18:8. PERPLEXING AND THORNY QUESTIONS. g Ezekiel 18:20.

16 — THE SABBATH A SACRAMENT AND A MYSTERY. Ezekiel 20:13, 14.

DISSERTATION FIRST.

ON THE CHERUBIM.

THE Visions recorded in the first and tenth chapters of this Prophet have received much illustration, and yet remain involved in great obscurity. It seems desirable to supply some information, even at the risk of being tedious and minute. The living creatures of the first chapter are called in the ninth and tenth — cherubim. The derivation of the word is a point of some importance. Castell, in his elaborate Lex. Hept., connects it with the Chaldee root brk, kereb, signifying “to plough,” and quotes Ezekiel 1:10, where “an ox” occurs, “a strong animal, of great labor, especially in ploughing; and being used for the expiation of sins, becomes a type of Christ, who is there perhaps to be understood; for as the ox is the leader of the herd, so Christ is the head of the faithful.” Josephus says they were animals never seen by any one. (Antiq., lib. 3. chapter 6, and lib. 8 chapter 2.) The Arabic root of the same three letters, kereb, signifies anxiety and oppressive labor, anxit animum, invertit aratio terram; while the cognate forms of the Syriac signify ploughing and laborious effort. “The most probable,” says Gesenius, “among the many derivations of this word which have been proposed, is that from the Syriac, potens magnus fortis.” Professor Lee writes, in evident despair, “It would be idle to offer anything on the etymology: nothing satisfactory having yet been discovered. Castell, Simonis, Gesenius, etc., may be consulted by those who wish to see what has been said on this subject.” The cherubic form has been fully portrayed by our Commentator; and by engravings in the Cyclopcedia of Biblical Literature we are enabled to compare Egyptian and Persian winged symbols with those of the Hebrews. A sculptured bas- relief of a winged human figure as it existed before the time of Moses, and placed by the Egyptians over their sacred arcs, is worthy of comparison with the descriptions of Scripture. The Persian bas-relief at Moung-Aub, is a human figure arrayed in an embroidered robe, “with such quadruple wings as the vision of Ezekiel ascribes to the cherubim, with the addition of ample horns, the well-known symbols of regal power.” The opinions of divines relative to their design and signification are very diversified. Among the ancients Philo supposed them to signify the two hemispheres, the flaming sword showing the motion of the planets, and the lion and the man being Leo and Aquarius, the signs of the Zodiac. Irenaeus (Adv. Heres. 3:11) treats them as emblems of the four elements, the four quarters of the globe, the four gospels, and the four covenants. Tertullian (Apolog. cap. 47.) referred them to the torrid zone, while Justin Martyr treats Ezekiel’s figures as relating to Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like the ox, with his hand like a lion’s, and his nails like the claws of a bird, (Quaest. et Respons. 44. page 325, edit. Heidelbergae, 1593;) and that they were consolatory to the captive Israelites by setting before them the prospect of their own return, and their oppressor’s downfall. The analogy to the four gospels, as presented to us by Irenaeus, is peculiarly ingenious, and worthy of perusal. Spencer, in his Ritual Observances of the Hebrews, has ingeniously explained their form and description. (Lib. 3. Dissert. 5 cap. 3. and 4 section 2.) Grotius considers them to represent “the properties of God, and his actions towards his people,” (Annot. in Vet. Test.;) and Doederlin, while conceding the praise of ingenuity to the conjectures of his author, yet treats his speculations as the abortion rather than the legitimate offspring of a luxuriant fancy. (Vogel’s edit. Grot. continued by Doeder., volume 2 page 247.) Further information as to the views of ancient writers has been collected by Rosenmuller, on Ezekiel 1:10, edit. see. Lipsiae, 1826. The translation of Houbigant may be consulted, and Spencer on the Laws and Ritual of the Hebrews, lib. 3. Dissert. 5, chapter 1, and folk The various readings on which different translations are founded are rendered very accessible to the English reader by the simple and comprehensive notes of Archbishop Newcome.

It is interesting to observe the way in which the learned Jesuit Maldonatus comments on this first: chapter. He interprets the four visions separately first, the tempest; next, the figure of the four animals; the third, the form of the wheels; and the fourth, the firmament., and the man sitting on the throne. He objects to the allegorical interpretation of Origen and in school, and considers that. the tempest signifies the calamities which the Chaldaeans caused to the Jews and their city. By the whirlwind, the nearness of the calamities is pointed out; and by the north wind, its rapidity and destructive force. Some, he says, refer it to Babylon, making it symbolize the manners of the Chaldaeans, which were rough and boisterous. The great cloud seems to him to signify the army of the king of Babylon; and the fire, his wrath and fury: the surrounding brightness is an indication of the divine majesty, and the amber color is an image of God himself. Jerome takes the amber as a symbol of pity, since amber has an attractive power, and by placing it in connection with the army of the king of Babylon, it implies that God directed every event concerning the captivity. Gregory and others interpret the amber of Christ.

THE SECOND VISION he considers more difficult; he first gives the views of other interpreters, and then brings forward his own formed divino beneficio, meditando, legendo, orando. Origen (Hom. 1. in Ezekiel) takes the four living creatures for the four affections of man’s nature: the man representing the reasoning faculty, the lion the inflammable passions, the ox concupiscence, and the eagle, as it soars upwards, the divine spirit, within us. St. Ambrose (Lib. 3. de virinibus) refers them to prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. Jerome and Gregory understand them of the four evangelists; and the details respecting the wheels, the wings, and the sparks of fire, are consistently interpreted. Catina Syrius refers them to the camp of Israel in the desert: the face of a man meaning all Israel, that of a lion the tribe of Judea, that of an ox the tribe of Levi, and that of an eagle God looking down from above, and taking vengeance on the people. Theodoret (Comment. in loc.) considers them to represent the majesty and glory of God resident in these cherubim. It appears that in his day the opinion of Jerome was most popular; and it was necessary to give many reasons why the four evangelists were not signified by this vision. Philosophical interpreters also existed, no unworthy predecessors of the German rationalists. They supposed all things indiscriminately signified by these representatives of animated nature, while some preferred the changes of the events of providence to the manifestations of external nature. His own opinion he records as follows: that the cherubim represent four heathen kingdoms, Chaldean, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Tyrian. He supposes them placed under the firmament, and under the sapphire throne, to indicate the supreme power of the Almighty over all things. The wings are the human guards by which kings protect themselves; the hands represent human industry, strength, and labor; the fire indicates the Spirit of God in kings; and the various motions forwards and backwards show the changes in governments and the perturbations of empires, all under the control of a supreme governor. This scheme is well fortified by passages of Scripture, and has the merit of great exactness and ingenuity. ⁵⁷

We now turn to a very different interpreter — Oecolampadius. His comments of this chapter is essentially spiritual. He sees in it a representation of God judging the world through Christ. The great truths of revelation he sees obscurely shadowed forth under carnal and Jewish images; and he is anxious to point out the spiritual reign of Christ as promulgated by these outward and visible representations of God’s glory. He refers these visions, first of all, to the Jews and their captivity; but he claims for them the office of tangibly illustrating the abiding glory of the universal assembly of the faithful. “The universal Church,” he says, “has three parts’ first, its head is Hasmal, represented as an old man seated on a throne next, animals, the just or living members, are those more perfect in the Church, adorned with a variety of gifts’ the wheels are the weaker and more ordinary members, which belong to the body, and form the common herd of believers, who belong to the more solid parts of the Church, since they are under the influence of the same Spirit, although they have not attained that fullness of which St. Paul speaks, and have not drunk into the peculiar and interior spirit of the Gospel.” ⁵⁸ He then confesses the great difficulty of ascertaining the correct interpretation’ he rejects all Jewish comments, and approves of the spiritualizing method of referring it to the coming kingdom of Christ. The whirlwind, for instance, he asserts to be a figure of the devastation which preceded Christ’s first coming, and shall also signalize his second advent- the great cloud expresses God’s judgments on the world, and the fire the process of trial through which all things are to pass. Hasmal he regards as the name of an angel or fiery living one speaking, and blames Jerome for following the Septuagint, and translating it electrum.

This spiritually-minded reformer has furnished a valuable exposition of the mystery contained in the vision recorded in the tenth chapter, which is worthy of notice. The likeness of a man upon the throne he assumes to be our Savior, whose reign is supreme “in the consciences of his elect.” Most properly is he called Hasmal, “‘quod de eo admirabunda taciturnitate, et per cogitationes arcanas magnifica loquamur, opus dei in illo admirantes.” The cherubim are beneath him, because he is adored by angels, and has spirits for his messengers and attendants. The firmament, he says, is grace offered through Christ, which strengthens the hearts of the elect by being infused with in them. The living creatures, their wheels and machinery for motion, represent the progress of the Church, suffering as yet under corruption, but waiting and groaning for the redemption of the body. In each living creature all qualities are bound together; for the four faces represent the spiritual endowments of advancing Christians; the same animal is a man in judgment, a lion in patient endurance, a calf in usefulness and guileless sincerity, and an eagle in prompt and cheerful obedience to its lord the wings are faith and divine love, which veil the face, which is conscience, and of this there are four kinds corresponding Lo the human, the leonine, the infantile, and the aquiline appearances. “It is the property of a good conscience to by raised upwards towards God when confirmed in grace, and, forgetful of thing’s past to be more and more anxious to reach the firmament of grace.” The hands under each wing represent those good works by which living faith and active love manifest their divine power; while the wheels signify the inferior members of the Church, who, though not attaining to the same righteous standard, are animated by a similar spirit. The feet being straight and equable, and turning easily and constantly in all directions, are said to signify the messengers of God proclaiming’ his salvation throughout the world, and “bearing” all things to all men, that they may bring many profitably to Christ.” The sound produced by the motion of the wings means the fame of salvation arriving at, distant regions; and when the Prophet hears the voice exhorting the wheels, it seems to him to say, “O wheels, follow with alacrity the spirit of the living creature within you; let; nothing; delay you; let nothing tear you from the fourfold figure, which is the body of Christ; for if you cleave to this, even in its lowest part, you shall be raised up together with it.” The motion of each animal, in the direction of its face, signifies every Christian acting according to his conscience; and although there are differences of gifts, and each exercises his own independently, yet all follow one common leader, being animated by a common spirit. Thus the companion of Zuingle spiritualizes the passage with much consistency and at great length, affording a singular example of the method of throwing the light of matured Christian experience upon a scene so exclusively Jewish. To enable us to decide whether the view of Calvin or (Ecolampadius is the correct one, we must state some general principles, which will be found in the following section.

DISSERTATION SECOND.

CALVINUS JUDAIZANS AN ORTHODOXUS?

“CALVINUS JUDAIZANS” was the title of a work published at Wittemberg, A.D. 1595, by AEgidius Hunnius. It contained a sharp censure for applying to the temporal state and circumstances of the Jews those prophecies which were supposed to refer spiritually to the Christian Church. The year, however, did not pass away before David Pareus replied, under the title of “Calvinus Orthodoxus.” And all who have perused his comments on this Prophet. must vindicate him from the charge of favoring Judaism, and applaud him for wisely neglecting all allegorical significations and mystical expositions. While it will be impossible to discuss the whole question of prophetic interpretation, it will be necessary to state some general views by which we thought to be guided.

The prophecies of the Old Testament were in many instances a divinely provided introduction to the events of the New. In them we may see the outlines of the process by which God was ever educating man for ultimate restoration to His image. They contain a suggestive method of destruction by palpable signs and. wonders, which addressed the soul through their influence on the senses. Their value to the Jew was very different from that to the Christian. To the former they were the highest revelation attainable, while for us they do not reveal a single attribute or purpose of Deity which is not more fully made known through the Gospel dispensation. The Hebrew visions stand to us in the relation of porch to temple, and of dawn to day. They are to the Christ. tan a divine first lesson-book, and contain a series of condescending instructions suited to a low stage of religious and mental life. They were specially appropriate to the people to whom they were bestowed, and of a structure and material h:: accordance with the dispensation to which they ministered. They were prefigurative and preformative throughout. They were preparatory and thus far excellent, but not “chiefest of all” because not. permanent. Like the scaffolding, the growing blade, the finished portrait, they fail in comparison with the stately building, the ripened corn, the living person. Now Calvin avoids the extremes of the merely literal system and of the mystical allegories of the double sense. The former system treats the Old Testament as if it were all written at the same time, and every part of it addressed equally to all men. It excepts the ceremonial observances, and then considers that every sentence is reconcilable with all the rest by a spiritual process of traditionary reasoning. It is sternly opposed to all discrimination between the records of different eras; it admits of nothing gradual, variable, or local. Of the latter system we have an excellent example in the quotation just made from the comparison of Zuingle. He sees Christ and justification by faith everywhere. Not only must Hasmal — a mere color — be an emblem of the Son of God, but all who cannot receive this are branded as unenlightened. The truths which he has received through the gospel are so vividly impressed upon his soul and so thoroughly leaven his spirit, that he sees everything scriptural by this bright light of his inner man. His deficiency is of judgment, not of grace. The question thought not to be, what series of Christian doctrine can be grafted upon the cherubic emblem, but what truths it was intended to convey to the soul of the Prophet and the people, — surely not those of the Augsburgh Confession of Faith. We have to guard against a twofold error: on the one hand, a merely critical and rationalistic interpretation which never proceeds beyond the surface; and, on the other, against a fanciful exposition of figurative language, as if in every case the doctrines, the graces, and the experiences of the New Covenant were intended to be revealed to Hebrew prophets.

Apposite, indeed, was the exclamation of the Jew, when he said of Ezekiel, “Doth he not speak parables?” He had to take a the and draw a city upon it; to shave his head, and divide the her into three significant parts; and the Jew might fairly ask, How is all this to benefit his soul? It could only do so by appealing to the spiritual principle in man’s soul. As the Prophet must eat the roll, so we must to comprehend the meaning of divine emblems, that they may become to us the bread of life. There is a husk around many a spiritual fruit, and often times a stone within it, which seems devoid of nutriment; but still this is the way in which it pleases our heavenly Father to nourish us. All signs, emblems, and sacraments of any true religion are beneficial to us only when we spiritually perceive their inward and animating grace. All that is outward in form and ceremony and machinery is only the vehicle, not the substance, of our support as God’s children, and our growth in his likeness. This foundation truth must be laid firmly as a bashes for every portion of the superstructure. The carnal mind never did and never can comprehend the things of the Spirit of God. The power of understanding the meaning must come from the same Deity who sends the vision. On this broad rock of truth we may build every sound interpretation of all the figurative language of Scripture. This principle we may gather from the way in which the early Christian writers explain the symbols of Holy Writ. St. Chrysostom, for instance, treats clearly the lesson we should learn from the seraph’s taking the coal from the altar and touching the Prophet’s lips with its hallowed fire. ⁵⁹ St. Ambrose seems scarcely satisfied with the image — bread of life: he must “eat life.” “Whoso then,” says he, “eateth life cannot die. How should he die whose food is life?” ⁶⁰ “and this bread,” he adds, “is the remission of sins.” St. Augustine speaks of “angels feeding on the eternal word,” and of “men eating angels’ food.” ⁶¹ Language like this implies the struggle of the spiritual mind to express itself fully through the medium of carnal language; and what were the Shechinnah and the Seraphim, the Urim and the Thummim, the live goat and the slain goat, but symbols receiving all their significance from the Divine truths which they conveyed to the soul? The worship of the one God through the appointed Mediator was ever the same in its hidden essence, and ever must be, while it is ever varying in its, form, according to the divers needs of our frail humanity. It is flexible exceedingly to the eye and the ear, and[unchangeable only in its living spirit. All nature, organic and inorganic, has been used to illustrate it and communicate it, but this never has made, nor can make, the unseen visible. Still the question will recur, Where must we draw the line between the human and the divine in these prophetic visions? No man can draw such a line with accuracy except for himself. Let all who doubt this assertion try to divide mind from matter in the living man. Many have attempted it, and their failures remain to mark the narrow lib, its of their knowledge and the assumed regions of their ignorance. The matured Christian instincts of the cultivate worshipper will be every man’s best guide under the promised teaching of the Holy Spirit. An infallible interpreter is not for us in the flesh; the interpreting Spirit must dwell within us, otherwise we shall see nothing but the outward aspect of the gorgeous vision. The inspiration within must harmonize with that without., which is not verbal but ideal. The heaven-wrought ideas of the Hebrew Prophets protect themselves.

We do not require either a verbal or literal theopneustia: the truths themselves by their own imperishableness defeat the mortality of the language with which they are associated. They reverberate and percolate through all the pages of the mighty record; they hide themselves obscurely in one chapter only to emerge more clearly in another; they diverge in one book only to recombine in another; so that to the sympathizing soul Scripture is ever a self-sufficing interpreter. Hence we are not careful to defend Calvin’s interpretations as faultless: theology as a science has advanced rapidly during three hundred years; and while some of his expositions have become antiquated, we still uphold him as “orthodoxus.” The law of development operates in the moral as well as in the physical universe. “Draw a cordon sanitaire,” says a modern reviewer, “against dandelion or thistle-down, and see if the armies of earth would suffice to interrupt this process of radiation, which yet is but the distribution of weeds. The secret implications of the truth have escaped at a thousand points in vast arches above our heads, rising high above the garden wall, and have sown the earth with memorials of the mystery which they envelop.” ⁶²

A second principle which we must bear in mind is, that every prophetic revelation was expressly adapted to the capacity of its original recipients. The extrinsic agency is always transitory. We of later generations learn enough if we profit by the latent and permanent essence. Hence the interpretation of the cherubim by the four evangelists is utterly untenable: and all such suppositions are indexes of a state of mind wholly incompetent to unfold prophetic mysteries. The very occurrence of hundreds of crude guesses like this, implies the necessity of submitting the prophetic emblems to some general laws of exposition. The highest criticism and the profoundest scholarship should be applied to them, that we may at once ignore all traditions which are proved to be corruptions. These prophecies presuppose a moral responsibility in the people to whom they were addressed; and hence they were fitted to awaken this feeling when dormant, to frighten it when morbidly perverted, and to animate it when righteously sensitive. Calvin’s assertion that the living creatures and the wheels imply that God by his angels guides the physical motions of the earth, the air, and the sea, (Ezekiel 1:21,) is altogether untenable. Revelation does not teach anything which human philosophy can discover. It manifests its whole aim and essence to be moral, lying in that region of our nature which is under the sway of the conscience, and the will rather than of the intellect. These emblematic visions appeal to the affections and aspirations of soul, to the energies of reverence and faith, of wonder and of love. They have to do with what is infinite and unseen, the immeasurable and the unattainable. Hence they are rather divine agencies for quickening, stimulating, and directing man’s highest nature. They assist us towards attaining a true idea of God, they show us our own insignificant vileness and littleness, and suggest the possibility of an atonement of these two. They stir up our attention to the threatenings and the promises of an Invisible Person, which can influence us only by being believed, and enforce the commands of ineffable wisdom, which can benefit us only by being obeyed. They present to our thoughts the idea of condescending mediation, the infinitely holy condescending to purify and to abide with the morally unclean. They may further imply the general providence over the chosen race, as well as the special guidance of individuals; the molding into its preordained shape all their future history, and yet not sensibly controlling the will of agents left responsible for their every action. No discoveries of science can ever interfere with such an interpretation as this, and those who adopt it need never fear the necessity for changing it when the progress of physical knowledge must lead us to alter our views of other interpretations. It, belongs to a region of our nature completely separable from that which comprehends either the niceties of language, or the laws of the physical universe. There is a wide gulf, deep and impassable, between the moral and the intellectual departments of our nature. The imperfect state of physical science at the time of the Reformation is a sufficient apology for the mistakes of reformers; but their ignorance is not pardonable in us. We need not Judaize, and yet we may be apt scholars in all Hebrew lore, and orthodox interpreters of the Sacred Word of the Most high.

DISSERTATION THIRD.

CALVIN’S SEVERITY TOWARDS THE JEWS.

IN addition to the charge of Judaizing, our author has been accused of dwelling too copiously on our Prophet’s severity towards the Jews. And if we can read the signs of the times in modern publications, there is reason to fear that various delusions are abroad on this subject. There are those who treat, the Jews as in the present day, so peculiarly favored by God, that they invest them with the halo of a special sanctity. Reverencing as Christians thought the designs of the Almighty in past ages, they entertain far too exalted ideas of the personal holiness of the agents by whom those designs were accomplished. Old Testament characters are too often treated as “saints,” when they have few moral or religious qualities which entitle them to that sacred appellation. And regarding the people as a body, it is scarcely possible to find anywhere worse specimens of moral culture. If we estimate responsibility according to the amount of light and guidance and privilege, then, indeed, Tyre and Sidon were far less culpable than Hebron and Jerusalem. How opposite, for instance, is their history to what might have been expected from reading the book of Deuteronomy. Instead of binding their written law “as frontlets between their eyes,” no ancient nation were so careless of its sacred books. The Hindus cling tenaciously to their shasters, while Israel utterly neglected their Mosaic code. One would have supposed that they would have been superstitiously careful of the five books of their inspired leaders. Why should they not have multiplied copies of them? Why not have constituted the Levites the authorized guardians and expounders of them? From the time of Joshua to David there is no notice of the existence of any sacred books which now belong to us: and more than this, reference is made to other records not now existing. And after Solomon’s temple was solemnly dedicated, how soon ten of the tribes relapsed into the grossest idolatry; and even in Judea, how remarkable is the occurrence in Josiah’s time. The very priests seem to have been ignorant of the existence of a written copy of the law. The unexpected discovery of one has such an effect upon the king and the people, that it led to a thorough restoration of the national worship; and you, we find a command that every king should write for himself a copy of the law from that preserved by the priests. Both kings and priests seem to have neglected their duty; and even the prophets do not charge them with this crime among others. The loss of the original autographs is never mentioned; nor have we the slightest inn, of what became of the second original of the two stone-tables. During the short. period of their captivity they lost their spoken language and the characters in which it was written, so that on their return they were obliged to read Hebrew through an interpreter. Was not this an unmatched instance of wan, of reverence for the will of Jehovah? When a nation could act with such deliberate carelessness and irreverence a, various epochs, can we be surprised at their falling into the grossest depths of immoral profanity? When the divine records have been thus despised, all folly and all wickedness is possible for such a people, and both are generated with a fearful rapidity. How different, then, is their real history from what one might expect of a people chosen by the Almighty as his earthly representatives of religion before the heathen! They were miraculously trained to typify and receive the Messiah, and yet they constantly appear to be frustrating the very purpose of their choice. If we speak of the mass of the nation, they seem in every respect to have thrown away their privileges, and to have sudiously incurred God’s anger, and to have determined to brave his vengeance. Under such a view of the ancient people, no language of Calvin’s can be too strong; and it is only to obviate the consequences of modern erroneous suppositions that it becomes necessary to defend him. In stimulating the compassion of the Christian Church towards the salvation of Jews at present existing, the most fallacious views are sometimes presented of their past history and their loveliness in God’s sight. To be beloved for their fathers’ sake by no means implies ally innate moral loveliness in the conduct of those fathers; and every erroneous view of Jewish history, and every false interpretation of Jewish prophecy, does but Judaize the Christian Church, and prevent it from going onwards to perfection, by keeping it in trammels to either exploded prejudices or to unwise innovations. False views of the Jewish history are now so very common, that they naturally create a distaste for that emphatic condemnation of their conduct which prevails through these Lectures.

DISSERTATION FOURTH.

ON THE FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS OF EZEKIEL.

THE most cursory observers of Ezekiel’s peculiarities must notice the highly figurative character of his visions. The princes of Israel are whelps, their mother a lioness. A great eagle comes down with one fell swoop upon the mountains of Lebanon, and plucks off the topmost boughs of its lofty cedars. Here we have to connect what logicians call the protasis with the APODOSIS, and out of the sensible similitude to ascertain the mystical explanation. The canon laid down by Glasse is of constant utility: — “ In parabolis, si integre accipiantur, tria, sunt: radix, cortex, et medulla sive fructus. Radix est scopus in quem tendit parabola. Cortex est similitudo sensibilis, quae adhibetur, et suo sensu literali constat. Medulla seu fructus est sensus parabolae mysticus, seu ipsa res ad quam parabolae fit accommodatio, seu quae per similitudinem propositam significatur.” Philologia Sacra, lib. 2 pars. 1 tr. 2, sect. 5, canon 3: Lipsiae, 1725. It only is it necessary to ascertain the literal meaning of the figurative expression, but we must always proceed one step farther before we can profi, by the metaphor. The medulla — the res ipsa — is still to be discovered, and this alone it is which brings profit to the soul. We must not only comprehend the figure and its literal interpretation, but we must take one step beyond this, and comprehend what divines call the mystical sense. We may attain to the “science of correspondences” without adopting the fancies of Emmanuel Swedenborg; but what he diligently and erroneously thought we must endeavor to find. With VanMildert, in his Bampton Lectures, we use the word mystical in its true and classical rather than in its present and popular meaning; and though we have no special affection for the word:. we contend earnestly with the lecturer for the idea which it expresses. This inner sense will not, from its very nature, be crippled by the details of the natural allegory. The very essence of spiritual thought is mobility and indefiniteness. The great master of Roman eloquence has wisely observed — “Non enim res tota toti rei necesse est similis sit: sed ad ipsum, ad quod conferetur, similitudinem habeat, oportet.” ⁶³ The same idea is expressed by Saurin in his Historical Discourses — “Non seulement il n’est pas necessaire que chacun de leur membres ait une veu particuliere, qui se rapporte directement au but de celui qui la propose: il faut meme que ce but soit en quelque sort cache sous des images etrangeres destinees a l’enveloper.” ⁶⁴ As the correct elucidation of these points is of the greatest importance, every light which can be thrown on them has its value. Bishop Warburton, for instance, in the midst of his elaborate and in-digested paradoxes, is led to discuss the nature of types and symbols, visions and figures, and he treats them with clearness, precision, and ability. He lays the foundation for their use in the compound nature of man. He shows how the Egyptians, Mexicans, and Chinese, communicated ideas through the senses by signs, hieroglyphics, and picture-writing of all kinds. He quotes Ezekiel 31 as a striking instance of well-applied metaphor: “for men,” says he, “so conversant in matters, still wanted sensible images to convey abstract ideas.” ⁶⁵ He adduces Ezekiel 24, as an instance of a parable purposely used “to throw obscurity over the information,” just as the tropical hieroglyphic was turned into the tropical symbol. He treats the “dark saying” of Ezekiel 17:2, as a riddle more involved than a parable; “for the nature of God’s dispensations required enigmas, and the genius of those times made them natural.” The course of his argument leads him to comment at full length on the celebrated vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, ⁶⁶ and to discuss the logical value of the assertion, “All words that are used in a figurative sense must be first understood in a literal.” Perhaps it may be better to say, All figures of speech are intended to convey to the mind an image of something real, and they are useless to us unless we thus apprehend their literal meaning. But Warburton did not see the next step in the process of deriving spiritual destruction from the visions of the Holy Spirit of God. He was not spiritually enlightened, and failed to do more than expound the letter of Scripture. We need, besides this, the divine teaching of the Holy Spirit, that we may apprehend what Bishop Van Mildert calls, in his celebrated Bampton Lectures, the mystical sense. “The importance” says Bishop Horne, in his preface to the Psalms, “of the mystical interpretation can hardly be called in question;” “without it, the spirit and power of many passages will almost wholly evaporate.” The learned Rambach, in his Sacred Hermeneutics, (page 81,) has adduced several instances in confirmation of these observations. The spiritual man only can thus pierce through the letter, and grasp the very marrow of God’s word: the carnal mind is in this respect utterly blind, for these things are only spiritually discerned. The word mystical may seem fanatical to some, but, taken in its scholastic sense, it is easily appreciable by all who know anything of profound criticism. Rambach has justly laid it down — ” Est regula theologorum, sensum mysticum non esse argumentativum.” (Just. Hem. Sac., p. 72.) It appeals not so much to the intellect as to the conscience, not to the mental comprehension, but to the heaven-born life of the soul; and if this be wanting, all argument on the point is thrown away. The spiritual interpretation may be abused, like all other good things. Cocceius, for instance, affords a remarkable instance of this error, as well as some of the Puritan Divines; but no sensible man denies the value of a possession because some are foolish enough to misuse it. ⁶⁷

On all sides we have to tread with the utmost caution, and may well listen to the voice of Jerome on Galatians 1. “Nec putemus in verbis Scripturarum esse Evangelium, sed in sensu. Non in superficie, sed in medulla: non in sermonum foliis, sed in radice rationis.” But even this view, truthful as it seems, may be abused; for in our own day we find the anti-materialism of the universe denied. Who would suppose, that at the close of the first half of this nineteenth century we should hear of a publication, bearing’ the ominous title, “The Anti-Materialist: Denying the reality of Matter, and Vindicating’ the Universality of Spirit?” ⁶⁸ If this were the whole title, it would not concern us here; but when it is added, “proved chiefly by a reference to Holy Writ,” with another sentence, implying that such speculations can settle the points in dispute between those who affirm and those who deny the orthodoxy of Established Churches, such assumptions cause us to sigh over the endless follies of our nature. Such reasoners first of all assume what is Holy Writ., and then apply their own previously-conceived notions to distort and derange it. The very title of such a work implies the greatest possible irreverence for the Divine Oracles; the most unjustifiable assumptions, and the most unfair contrasts. “The universality of spirit” is strictly and essentially co-existent with “the reality of matter.” Every word which we have uttered in this short epilogue is intended to uphold and illustrate such a proposition’ it is only necessary to append to it, that through material existences — as trees, cities, food, and clothing — we become capable of comprehending the wants, the nourishment, and the nature of our spiritual manhood. Suitable in every respect; is the judicious reasoning of Origen, which sixteen centuries have rather confirmed than confuted. “If ever, in reading Holy Scripture, you encounter an idea which becomes to thee a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense, accuse only thyself: doubt not that this stone of stumbling and rock of offense has an important meaning: νοήματα — food for thy mind. Begin by believing, and you shall soon find, under this imaginary source of offense, abundant utility.” He then compares the skillful interpreter of Scripture to an intelligent botanist, knowing the different uses and properties of various plants, and shows how every “holy and spiritual botanist of the word of God” will find the virtue of the word, without esteeming the slightest portion of it either redundant or superfluous. ⁶⁹ The preceding Lectures are a good illustration of the sagacious wisdom of these remarks.

DISSERTATION FIFTH

A. ON EATING THE ROLL.

Ezekiel 3:1

THIS method of conveying destruction is peculiarly Oriental. Jarchi, for instance, writes: “Parabolica est locutio, ac si dicat: attende aurem tuam et audi.” The Septuagint translate, rpsAtlgm, megleth-sepher, volumen libri by liv βιβλίου, which does not seem sufficiently accurate. Both Fuller, in his Miscell. S.S., book 2nd, chapter 10, and Vossius de Sept. Int. agree with Jerome in remarking the inaccuracy. Pro involuto libro, he says, 70 capitulum libri transrulerunt; capitulum intelligamus exordium. The opinion of J. H. Maii, Jun., is preferred by Rosenmuller, viz., that, hlnm, menleh, signifies the roller on which the volumes of the Ancients were rolled, as we learn from Maimonides, in his hrwt rps, sepher-toreh, chapter 9:2, 14. The writing on both sides was very uncommon the Greeks call it ὀπισθόγραφον, which is illustrated by Juvenal, Sat. 1:5, 6.

*— aut summi plene jam margine libri* *Scriptus, et in tergo, necdum finitus Orestes?*

The Chaldee paraphrast explains the sense of eating the roll correctly — “anima tua saturabitur;” and in this way the Prophet was to be strengthened to become literally “firm of forehead, and hard of heart,” for contending with “peoples deep of lip and heavy of tongue.” This firmness is represented by the gem, rymç, shemir, which Bochart terms smiris, adamant according to Jerome, since the corresponding Arabic word is samoor. See also Schindler’s Lex. Pentag. col. 1897, and R. Sal. Jarchi in loc., who gives the view of the Jerusalem Targum.

B. THE GREAT RUSHING.

EZEKIEL 3:12.

The physical disturbances accompanying the prophetic visions are worthy of notice. It is impossible to reduce them to any class of natural phenomena. The Prophet is suddenly removed by the Spirit into the midst of the exiles; in extasi, says Rosenmuller — “the mind was separated from the body by a divine instinct.” Oecolampadius considers that he seemed to be seized as by a wind,” and “thought he heard the voice of a great tumult” “The glory of the Lord,” he adds, “came out of its place, and left the temple and the people,” “and the Church and heavenly Jerusalem praise the Lord for this act of his grace.” He then comments most spiritually on this removal of the visible glory from the natural temple, taking it as an instance of populus credentium, being at all times locus Dei. Maldonatus takes the same view when he writes, “I seemed to be seized by the Spirit, or an angel, and. to be transferred to Jerusalem.” He considers it too Rabbinical to treat the Spirit as if it were merely wind, and the voice only thunder, as R. David and Jonathan do. tie prefers the opinion of Jerome to that of the Jewish interpreters. R. Sal. Jarchi implies that the Spirit really raised him: “Deus praecepit Spiritui ut eum portaret ad locum ubi Judaei exules degebant.” As to the last word in this verse, wmwqmm, memkomo, it seems to refer to the place where the vision was seen: scil. personent ejus laudes per mundum universum, uti Malachi 1:5. If the whole scene is treated simply as a vision offered to the Prophet’s mind through his senses, it becomes very intelligible and impressive.

G ON TEL-ABIB.

EZEKIEL 3:15.

We notice these words simply to caution the reader against overallegorizing. There can be no doubt that it is the name of a place; as, açrj lt, tel chersha, and jlm lt, tel melech, in Ezra and Nehemiah. Syrian villages often have the name of tel, which simply means inn or mountain. Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 149) observes this: but Jerome and Cocceius, who adopt the allegorizing system, are not content with this. The former takes. the words for “a heap of new fruits,” which is symbolical of the state of the Israelites: the latter translates “the time of new fruit;” both interpretations being systematically erroneous. As the Chebar runs into the Euphrates from Mount Masius, the captives were situated up the river to the north of Babylon. A various reading, too, in this verse has been the source of some perplexity. The common text (chetib) has rçaw, vasher, derived from, arç, shera, habitavit, commoratus est; but some MSS. adopt bçaw, vasheb, “and I sat” (keri); according to Kennicott and De Rossi, “etiam Hispanici, Soncinensis Bibliorum editio, Brixiensis et Complutensis.” The Septuagint adopts the former reading; and Vogel, in his edit. of Capell. Crit. Sac., page 231, adopts the latter. The sense will then be, “And I dwelt, since they dwelt there, I even dwelt.” Both Dathe and Rosenmuller reject this, and agree with Calvin’s version. His critique on the word µmç, shemem, Ezekiel 3:15, is quite in accordance with the English version, and with foreign comments. Newcome paraphrases thus: “Astonished at the commission with which I was entrusted; and affected by the overpowering splendor of the visions.” The Chaldee has qtç, shethek, “silent.” Maldonatus adds, “so that I could not speak for seven days.”

DISSERTATION SIXTH.

A. JERUSALEM PAINTED ON A BRICK.

EZEKIEL 4:1

Bishop Warburton (book 4 section 4 of his Divine Legation) has ably discussed the Oriental and Egyptian methods of symbolical writing. He explains Ezekiel’s method of hieroglyphics, volume 2. page 57, edit. 1837. Oecolampadius comments very practically on this exercise of the ars σκιογραφίκη. “The Church is besieged by its enemies, because it is a despiser of God’s word. Heretics erect the towers of human traditions, and oppose the tower and doctrine of David, since it is not defended by any shield. They set up human righteousness, and are not subject to that of God.” The whole passage is worthy of perusal, and is in striking contrast with the sober and unimaginative comment of Calvin. The custom of writing on bricks is thus noticed by Pliny: “Epigenes informs us that the Babylonians had inscribed their observations on the stars for 720 years on burnt bricks, coctilibus laterculis.” Hist. Nat., book 8 section 57. The chief point of interest in this narrative is its visionary character. The best commentators agree that none of these actions were real the lying on the left side for 390 days was only in a vision. the left hand is supposed to refer to the ten tribes, as Samaria was situated to the left of Jerusalem. In the 4th verse, “you shall bear the punishment of their iniquity,” is correctly interpreted by Newcome, “you shall presignify the punishment which they shall bear.” This is the only sense which similar passages can have — St. Paul having shown us, that the picture-writing of the Jewish law had its real fulfillment in the work of Messiah.

B THE THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS.

EZEKIEL 4:5

There is a difference in the number of days between the Hebrew text and that of the Septuagint. The latter assigns but 190 days to the kingdom of Israel, and yet agrees with the Hebrew in assigning forty days to the kingdom of Judea. Theodoret, in his comment on the passage, explains the Septuagint as follows. Although in the reign of Rehoboam the people were divided, yet they are considered as one nation, being separate, and yet conjoined. When, therefore, the Prophet had assigned 150 days to Israel and 40 to Judea, he combines them again, and makes 190 days. These forty days represent the forty years which remained of the original seventy. Thirty years of captivity were now passed for Ezekiel began to prophesy in the thirtieth year of the captivity; and Jeremiah shows us, that in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jeconiah, Eviladmarodach raised his head and led him from his prison-house in the first year of his reign. Then came Baltasar, and Darius the Mede; whence the forty days of Judea signify the forty remaining years and the 150 concerning Israel indicate the 150 years after the building of the city, and its becoming fined with inhabitants. This happened in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, in the time of Nehemiah. Beginning, then, at the fifth year of Jeconiah’s captivity, we shall find it forty years to the first year of Cyrus the Persian, then twenty-nine years for the reign of Cyrus, seven for Cambyses, thirty-five for Darius Hystaspes, twenty for Xerxes, and nineteen for Artaxerxes, since in the next year the walls were built. The Israelites participated in this return for though formerly destined from the tribe of Judea, they were afterwards united, and all inhabited their common metropolis together.

Jerome also notices this difference of numbering, being surprised that the common reading in his day was 190 years; while the Hebrew text,, and Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, all read 390 years, and even those copies of the Septuagint which are not, vitiated. Some, he adds, compute it from the baptism of our Savior to the end of the world; others again from the destruction of Jerusalem, in the reign of Vespasian, to a period of prosperity for the once favored nation. The events of history have shown the fallacy of these computations. Ephrem, in his comments on this passage, speaks of the 430 years as beginning with the reign of Solomon, and as extending to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Jerome’s method of computing this period is worthy of notice. He dates its commencement from the reign of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, (2 Kings 15:29,) and its close during the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, who is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. He reckons the length of the reign of each thing in succession, and satisfies himself that he has computed the number which he finds it the prophets, since he reckons this historical period to consist of 389 years and four months. The sleeping on the right side for forty days he interprets, from Nebuchadnezzar’s carrying away Jehoiakim to Babylon, to the first, year of the sway of Cyrus, under whom the Jews obtained their freedom. The writers on Biblical Chronology do not acquiesce in this computation. J. G. Frank commences the period with the revolt under Jeroboam, and concludes it with the destruction of Solomon’s temple. Jeroboam’s first year agrees with the year 3215 of the Jubilee period, and the destruction of the kingdom of Israel in 3470. “If, therefore,” says he, “you add 390 years to 3214, the date of Jeroboam’s revolt, you will obtain 3604 Jub. per., corresponding to the destruction of Solomon’s temple.” ⁷⁰

The Hebrew commentators, R. Solomon and David, do not suppose that a time of punishment for sin is represented, but the time during which it was committed, and so they date the beginning of the period during the early judges, and close it in the reign of Hosea. (Ecolampadius adopts this comment with approval, but Maldonatus pronounces it to be erroneous, “for the Prophet is not speaking of their sins, but of their punishment.” Grotius supposes it to represent the time of God’s patient endurance of the sins of the people. The settlement of this question depends upon the use of the phrase ˆw[ açn, nasa ghon, to bear iniquity, or the punishment of iniquity. The word is used in both senses; it occurs in Genesis 4:13, and Genesis 19:15; Psalm 69:27, where the authorized version and the marginal readings imply that our translators were aware of the twofold use of the word. The idea of “punishment” seems most suitable here; and the adoption of this translation would cause us to neglect the Jewish interpretation, and to count the years forward from the times of Ezekiel, and to seek for the fulfillment of the prophecy in those events of Israel’s history which were then future.

DISSERTATION SEVENTH.

THE SEPTUAGINT ORDER.

EZEKIEL 7:3-13

THESE verses are much confused in the SEPTUAGINT, and this seems to have been the case in Jerome’s time. The Greek Codexes of the Alexandrian version do not agree, as we find from Theodoret and the Arabic version. Theodoret and the Chaldee paraphrast follow the Hebrew order; and the latter, from ynyg, gnini, “my eye,” puts yrmym, mimri, “my word,” for the sake of avoiding “these anthropomorphic phrases.” The thirteenth verse evidently refers to the year of jubilee. Both Theodoret and the Vulgate translate correctly, and Jerome explains it satisfactorily. There is a difference in reading between the Hebrew and the Septuagint here also; the last clause is sufficiently important to note these differences. Jerome explains it thus’ “Non proderit homini iniquitas sua, nec ei praebebit aliquam similitudinem.” The translation of the Syriac is, “et vir iniquitate sua non conservabit vitam suam;” and of the Chaldee paraphrast, “quisque sibi in peccatis suis sibi placet, et dum viri permanent, poenitentiam non apprehendent.” The Syriac reading makes the sense as follows: “Neither shall any strengthen his life by his iniquity.”

DISSERTATION EIGHTH.

THE IMAGE OF JEALOUSY.

EZEKIEL 8:1-14

THE singularity of the Vision of this chapter renders it worthy of special notice. It illustrates very strikingly the difference between the worship of Judaism and of the Gospel. The contrast is so remarkable, that every inference from it respecting Christian obligation must be most indirect. These “visions of God” occurred to the Prophet in the place of his captivity. Jerusalem and its temple, and its chambers of imagery, are all brought rapidly before his mind. Theodoret and Jerome maintain that the Prophet was not removed to Jerusalem, but that the scene was presented to his mind in a trance. Newcome continues the trance to the twentyfourth verse of chapter 11, Ezekiel 11:24. The appearance of fire in the second verse (Ezekiel 8:2) is supposed by some to be better changed to “man,” by reading çya, aish, for ça, eesh, with various codexes of the Septuagint, the Complutensian edition of the Arabic version; but, in the second clause, rhz, zohar, signifies the brightness of a star, just as zoharat, in Arabic and Amharic, means the planet Venus. In the Complutensian and Aldine editions of the Septuagint it is translated “breeze,” or “light air,” according to the view of Theodotion. The best translation seems to be, to take the first clause as “the appearance of a man,” and the second as “the appearance of brightness.”

This remarkable vision is a singular instance of the manner in which the Almighty instructed his prophets. The sixth year of (Ezekiel 8:21) is to be understood of the reign of Jeconiah. “The appearance of fire” thought most probably to be “of a man;” (Ezekiel 8:2) for ça, ash, “fire,” may have been substituted for, çwa, aish, “a man.” The Septuagint, Theodoret, the Complutensian and Arabic versions, all take it so; but the De Rossi does not find it in any of the codexes; and only one of Kennicott’s (No. 89) has çwa, aish. Still the best, modern critics prefer it. Ezekiel 8:3. When the Prophet is taken by a lock of his hair,

Kimchi supposes it to signify the violence by which the exiles of Judea would be treated; but all modern writers suppose that this was only a vision: ouj τοίνυν σωματικὴ η̈ν μετάθεσις οὐδὲ τῶν τῆς σαρκὸς ὀφθαλμῶν ἡ Θεωρία “there was no bodily change of place, nor any real view by the eyes of the flesh,” says Theodoret. The first object presented to the visionary eye of the Prophet was an idolatrous image, metaphorically denominated “jealousy,” from the provocation which the idolatries of the people occasioned. The derivation of the word “Tammuz” (Ezekiel 8:14) is obscure. It is supposed to refer to Adonis, as worshipped by the Syrians. Lucian de Dea, Syria, volume 3, and Maerobii Saturnalia, chapter 21., illustrate this point; but what “The IMAGE of JEALOUSY,” which rivaled Jehovah and provoked his anger, really was, cannot be determined; most probably it was a statue of Moloch or Baal. Selden “on the Syrian Deities” enters at large on the subject. ⁷¹ The whole of this scenery Bishop Warburton pronounces to be Egyptian, and versed as he was in Egyptian antiquities, his judgment is deserving of notice. “They contain.” says he, “a very lively and circumstantial description of the so celebrated mysteries of His and Osiris.” ⁷² The rites were celebrated in a subterraneous place by the Sanhedrim or elders of Israel, and the paintings on the wall correspond with the descriptions of the mystic cells of Egypt. The woman “weeping for Tammuz” (Ezekiel 8:13) he treats as a Phoenician superstition, while the worship of “the sun towards the east” (Ezekiel 8:15) is a Persian custom. “When the Prophet is bid to turn from the Egyptian to the Phoenician rites, he is then said to look towards the north, which was the situation of Phoenicia witch regard to Jerusalem. consequently, he before stood southward, the situation of Egypt with regard to the same place. And when from thence he is bid to turn into the inner court of the Lord’s house, to see the Persian rites, this was east, the situation of Persia. With such exactness is the representation of the whole vision conducted.” He sees “these three capital superstitions” portrayed again in Ezekiel 16, when the Egyptians are described as “great of flesh.” This phrase Warburton considers to apply to Egypt, because it was “the grand origin and invention of idolatry.” The “mark upon the forehead,” in Ezekiel 9:4, he treats as an expression of God’s special and particular providence. Jehovah was their Tutelary Deity, and their sin was immeasurably heightened by the theocratic privileges which they preeminently enjoyed. Hence this learned writer is enabled to press into his service Ezekiel 14:13, and Ezekiel 25:8, while he forcibly illustrates both the language and the idea of the Prophet. His view is confirmed by a passage in Diodorus Sieulus, who, in lib. 1 p. 59, edit. Wess., records: “Round the room in Thebes where the body of King Osymanduas seemed to be buried, a multitude of chambers were built, which had elegant paintings of all the beasts sacred in Egypt.” Notices of the worship of the Persians will be found in Perronius’s Itinerary, p. 665, and D’Auquetil’s Voyages, tab. 3. n. 3, 4. Hebenstreit has written a dissertation on the rites of Bacchus to illustrate this chapter; and Hyde’s Religion of the Ancient Persians, lib. 1 chap. 27 edit. Oxon., 1760, may be consulted with advantage.

DISSERTATION NINTH.

THE MAN IN THE LINEN GARMENT.

EZEKIEL 9:2

CALVIN (Ezekiel 9:2) does not altogether reject the idea that this person prefigured Messiah. Theodoret’s view seems judicious. “θηε dress of the seventh person was that of a priest: for he did not belong to those who punished, but to those who redeemed those worthy of preservation.” In Jerome’s day it was thought to represent the Savior, “who is a priest,” says he, and quotes <19B004>Psalm 110:4, very appropriately. C. D. Michaelis has remarked the customary method of carrying the inkhorn in the East in the present day. Syl. Com. Theol. Edit. Pott., volume 2. page 75. The fourth verse explains the reason why it was carried. Calvin’s allusion to the use of the mark wt, tho, (Ezekiel 9:3, 4,) is fully explained by Origen, as quoted by Montfaucon in his notes to the Hexapla. The invention which Calvin calls “puerile” is recorded by Jerome, who made good use of Origen, and added other conjectures. Rosenmuller has quoted in full the passages to which Calvin merely alludes. Pradus and Vitringa have also amply illustrated the point.

On Ezekiel 9:9, Calvin translates correctly “fined with bloods.” (Ezekiel 9:9,) Although this is the common reading, it is not without exception., smj, chemes, “violence,” has been found instead of µymd, demim, “bloods.” A Jewish critic of some note, R. Sal. Norzi, published a critical commentary in 1742, at Mantua, and states that the reading “violence” is found in one accurate and ancient MS., and in one ancient edition. Kimchi attests the same thing; but neither De Rossi nor Kennicott were able to verify the statement. This destruction was to begin at the sanctuary, or, as the Septuagint and Theodoret understand it, with the holy ones, (ajpo τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ,) meaning the priests, who were the leaders in the desecration of the temple worship. Pradus agrees with Calvin in the reason given for the slaughter of the priests and elders first. (Ezekiel 9:6.) Although the person mentioned in Ezekiel 9:11 is clothed as before, yet the Septuagint omits the word “linen,” using simply ποδὴρη: Theodotion is satisfied with the Hebrew word Baddein, and Aquila has stola. There is a marginal reading, too, suggested by the Masoretes; but most of the codexes of Kennicott and Be Rossi support the received text, as well as the Soncine and Complutensian editions, and the Babylonian Talmud. Calvin’s translation and interpretation of this chapter is in accordance with the researches of modern critics. Maldonatus may be consulted for the opinions of Jewish writers on important words and phrases.

DISSERTATION TENTH.

THE COALS SCATTERED OVER THE CITY.

EZEKIEL 10:2

JEROME, explains this scattering of the coals over the city as a symbol of its punishment and cleansing by fire, and quotes Isaiah 10:17, in support of his interpretation; and in accordance with <19C003>Psalm 120:3, he calls them “hot burning coals,” the penalty of “the false tongue” — remedium lingua, atque mendacii, and justifies his idea of purifying by Isaiah 6. S. Jarcin explains as follows: “Sanctus ine Benedictus dixit Gabrieli, qui petiit a cherubino, ut ine sibi daret prunes quo ini paululum refrigescerent leviusque efticerentur decretum pcena, quoad Judmos sive urbem Heirosolyroam;” and refers to the commentary of Abarbenel, fol. 170, col. 4 reed. Maldonatus supposes the coals to indicate not the cleansing but the destruction of the city; and their collection by the angel at the command of God, and “from amidst the wheels,” implies that this burning did not arise by chance and by man’s design, but by God’s providence and commandment. At Ezekiel 10, we have already referred to OEcolampadius, but as his comments are most spiritual, and very inaccessible to the ordinary student of prophecy, we shall quote a few explanatory passages here. The sprinkling of the coal, he thinks, to be an image of the burning city,” quod ex neglecto aut certo male administrando cultu.” Has real he supposes to represent “those celestial tabernacles into which the Great high Priest entered once by his own blood, after procuring eternal redemption.” In the whole vision he sees “Christ the head of his body, in which the law and spirit of life is included,” and “how the golden consummation of the elect turns its face towards Christ. For the are of the Church contains all its parts most elegantly (elegantissime).” He sees Christ in all parts of the Scriptures, as their end, scope, and spirit; and especially the man clothed in linen he says is “Christ acting in this dispensation on the outside of the eternal tabernacles which he at length entered with his blood.” The third verse refers to “that judgment which Christ as man shall exercise by God’s authority.” The voice of the wings signifies “horrenda vox mah ingruentis,” and the motion of the wheels “summa in administratione concordia.” To us these comments seem very fanciful, as it is obvious that any writer may put forth similar guesses according to his own private though fallible judgment. The cherubim on the right side Jerome considers as representing those holy and exalted beings who dwell at God’s right hand, while evil spirits dwell on his left hand. Michaelis, however, with less display of fancy, takes a simpler new, not dwelling on reproaching punishment, but upon the departure of God’s glory from the temple and city. See Sylog. Corn. Theol., volume 5 page 134; Eichhorn die Bibl. Proph., part 2:page 456; and Pradus in loc. especially on Ezekiel 10:20.

DISSERTATION ELEVENTH.

THE FIVE-AND-TWENTY EVIL COUNSELLORS.

EZEKIEL 11:1

IT is very probable, says Pradus, that as there were twenty-four rulers, and as many regions into which Jerusalem was divided, and a chief over them all, so the magistracy of the city is here brought before us. He recognizes the analogy to the twenty-four elders in the Apocalypse. But there seems to be no authority for this division of the city into twentyfour “regions” or wards. See on this point Jahn Bibl. Arch., part 2 volume 2 section 187. The conduct of these evil counselors is well portrayed by Theodoret. Some commentators take this third verse as a question, so do the Arabic and Syriac versions, “Is it. not near?” but Calvin’s view is the best, and he is supported by good authorities. Jarcin understands the prophetic denunciations to be intended, “ina mala de quibus prophetic vaticinantur nec in propinqua est poena.” The death of Pelatiah (in Ezekiel 11:13,) as well as the 12th verse, (Ezekiel 11:12) are omitted in the Roman and Alexandrian codexes; and in the Arabic version of the London and Paris Polyglotts. See Wakon’s Proleg. 14:21. There are some minor variations in the readings of Theodoret, the Complutensian edition, and the Syriac version. From the concluding verses of the chapter, the old commentators understand that the prophets were not bodily transferred to either Jerusalem or Chaldeea. The whole scene is called an “ecstasy.” The Spirit of God acting on that of the Prophet, and enduing him with this celestial eye sight.

DISSERTATION TWELFTH.

A THE FALSE PROPHETS.

EZEKIEL 13:1

THE very existence of such a chapter as this suggests some instructive reflections. It may first remind us of the great moral difference between the position of the Jew and our own. The existence of prophets implies the corresponding possession of miraculous witness. A new prophet was a new herald of a fresh truth; and before he could claim attention he was called upon to show his new credentials. The false prophets had in reality no such proofs that they were sent, of God, and yet by speaking smooth things they succeeded in deluding the people. If surprised at the possibility of such complete success, we may be reminded of similar instances in the practice of medicine in our own day among the uneducated. How blindly they rush to any clever impostor who settles among them with no better credentials than his ready skin and his audacious pretensions. The more unenlightened men are the more they catch at any prophet who asserts roundly and audaciously his mission from God. Now the Jew was called upon not to inquire first into the doctrine taught, but into “the sign” worked by the teacher — his first inquiry was to be not what God had revealed, but whom he has commissioned to teach it. Our position is rather the reverse. St. Paul assures us, that if an angel from heaven were to teach any other gospel than that taught by him we are to reject it. We, then, the readers of the Old Testament prophecies, are not to find in them a revelation of the Gospel, but, pointing to the coming Author of the Gospel. “Search the Scriptures,” but for what? “they testify of Me.” Types are fulfilled in the great Antitype — shadows become substance, and dimness splendor. This chapter of Ezekiel makes the teacher and his authority the subject of questioning, not the matter of his instructions. His coming in his own name is his first and all absorbing sin. However smooth his after communications, this is the great test of his unholy imposture. The Reformers, in the earnestness of their zeal, often append such chapters as these directly to themselves and their enemies. This led them to deal forth the wrath of God with too indiscriminating a name, and has given rise to the assertion that their system was a compound of “Moses and the Inquisition.” ⁷³ CEcolampadius, for instance, designates the false teachers of his day, “pinlauti, indocti, stulti, somniatores, caeci, vuloes dolosae, rapaces, in desertis et it neglectis locis agentes, timidi, et canes muti.” ⁷⁴

Whenever there is a strict parallel between true and false teachers in our own times, such language may be justifiable, but where the right of private judgment is so largely exercised by ourselves, it is but consistent to allow others an equally extensive sphere for its operation. Contending earnestly for the faith and the truth is possible, without the accumulation of strong epithets on the heads of others.

B ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ACCOMMODATION.

EZEKIEL 13

Our Commentator, in various passages throughout this Prophet, finds it necessary to introduce the principle of accommodation. And as this necessity has been so largely insisted on by succeeding interpreters, we may well attempt to discover the true method of applying so elastic a principle. For instance, in this thirteenth chapter, on Ezekiel 13:9, he says — “Ezekiel here accommodates his language to the common usage of mankind,” attemperat sermonera; and also, “pro modulo et ruditate roentis nostrae;” on Ezekiel 13:16, he asserts that false prophets are so called “improprie,” not implying any want of propriety in using the name; but showing that the name only is intended, and that the reality is not asserted. The formidable list. of German writers on this important point, collected by Wegscheider in his Institutiones Theologicae, page 99, Hal. 1826, shows it to be worthy of our attentive notice; for when once we permit ourselves to resolve everything into “dictio gnomica et parabolica,” we may refine away the force and meaning of the prophecies altogether. While we confine ourselves to the topic immediately before us, a few general suggestions may be here thrown out. 1. In judging of the correctness of Calvin’s language, we should remember the peculiar intellectual tendencies of the Reformers, in consequence of their religious antagonism to the prevailing doctrines of their day. They saw all around them the grosset superstitions; they lived among a people who believed in a real and permanent moral efficacy, proceeding from sacred rites and ceremonies. They naturally supposed an analogy to exist between the false teachers of Rome then rampant, and of Israel once beloved. The majority of the divines of the day were in all their habits of thought and reasoning — realists; that is, they treated abstract religious ideas as if they were undoubted realities. “Grace,” for instance, must be something infused, and must be received only through one holy rite, and communicated fresh and fresh, in union with the elements of another. The schoolmen, who taught that our nature was actually stained and polluted by the propagation of original infection, held also that the laver of regeneration actually washed away this original. depravity: if, in after life, fresh pollution was incurred, then through penance and the eucharist, fresh grace was transfused by actual and corporal union with the real body and blood of Christ. The language of Dr. M’Hale in the present day states the peculiarity of a sacrament to be, that it impresses an indelible character. ⁷⁵ Chateaubriand speaks of those “who receive their God” at the altar, “while each incorporates with his own flesh and blood the flesh and blood of his God.”

F640

This is Realism run to seed’ and against all this the Nominalist contended, not by denying the spiritual realities, but by looking for them in the right places. In the fourteenth century the University of Paris was famous for its learning, its resources, and influence over the mind of Europe. The majority in power and rank were Realists. At length William Occam, an English friar, assailed their philosophy, and damaged their religious influence. Himself a disciple of the great Scotus Erigena, he gathered around him a band of devoted adherents, and became in philosophy what Luther and Calvin afterwards were in religion. He succeeded sufficiently to attract the notice of the reigning pope, John 22nd. who was sharp-sighted enough to see that if Nominalism spread Romanism must perish. Hence by his command in 1339, the University of Paris publicly condemned and denounced the philosophy of Occam. ⁷⁶ As usual, when the man is denounced, the principles take root and flourish. In another age, Luther and Melancthon own him as their master and their guide. The former calls him “Carus maister meus;” the latter “Deliciae quondam nostrae.” ⁷⁷

The next century finds the disputes at Paris as fierce as ever. The famous Gerson and his persevering disciples caused their enemies to respect their mental sway, till Rome again interfered. In 1743, the Bishop of Avrancis felt the philosophy of the schools, on which the false doctrines of Rome were built: in danger, and then he persuaded Louis 11th, the ruling monarch of France, to order their writings to be seized and their persons imprisoned. But as time passed on, the king relented, for about eight years afterwards he revoked his edict, and restored the party to their former philosophical position. The Reformers lived amidst this perversion of ideas on religious subjects, and their writings show them to be unconsciously tinged with the sentiments of the Realists. The schoolmen, for instance, still argued for a corporeal propagation of what was termed fomes or concupiscentia, calling it a qualitas corporis, derived either from contagione pomi, or afflatu serpentis. ⁷⁸ While the Lutherans took one step in the right direction, the Zuinglians added another: and the influence of the prevailing opinions of their day is very perceptible in the tone in which the Reformers comment on the prophets. Calvin, for instance, is remarkable for his sound common-sense view of difficulties: if an apparent inconsistency occurs, he is ready at once with his phrases, forma loquendi, per concessionem, ironice, καταχρηστικῶς, improprie, all implying his own riglit to use his private, judgment in solving a difficulty according to his pleasure. He often finds it necessary to exercise it. In Ezekiel 20:28, he ventures to suppose a phrase used in a sense directly contrary to its obvious meaning; and in verses 5-8, (Ezekiel 20:5-8,) he treats the Prophet’s words as “translatiae locutiones.” His desire to identify the prophetic teaching with the law of Moses on the one side, and with the precepts of the gospel on the other, leads him to invent these varying schemes for avoiding the literal meaning. The inexperienced student will learn wisdom by allowing the Law, the Prophets, and the Apostles, to speak their own separate language, and gradually to develop the designs and the character of God without either confusion or distortion. Still, the use of the word improprie must not mislead us; it does not signify “improperly” in the ordinary sense, but is used as in and proprie in Latin. It implies that a phrase does not bear the meaning which it seems to have it denies the Realist’s view of a question, and asserts that of the Nominalist. For instance, righteousness infused is the doctrine of one school; righteousneiss imputed that of the other the text of the fifty-fifth lecture speaks the language of the former; the comment of Calvin that of the latter. The Reformers have taught us to look for spiritual realities where only they can be found, and to deny their necessary connection with outward observances and tangible elements, whether under the temple rites, or the prophetic visions, or the apostolic ordinances.

G ON THE PHRASE “PROSTITUERUNT DEUM.”

EZEKIEL 13:19

The remarks of the last article apply directly to Calvin’s language respecting the Almighty’ he says flint the wicked “defile his glory, “corrupt his justice, and “prostitute even God himself,” (Ezekiel 13:19,)and then “drown in the lowest abyss of hell the whole world when disappointed of their gains.” This is the language of Realists, who suppose it possible for men thus to treat either the Almighty or their fellowcreatures. The anathemas of the Council of Trent are founded on the same fallacious bashes, and the strong language of the vulgar savors of the same innate belief. The modern reader at once supplies the word “name” after the offensive verb “to prostitute.” Calvin probably understood it so, bur, he did not write it to. His phraseology is largely tinctured with the errors of his times, though he has written enough to be correctly interpreted by himself. When we moderns think on the subject for a moment, we admit that no man can defile God’s glory, or corrupt his justice, or devote his fellow-sinner to the lowest abyss: we take any such expressions as simply denoting the views of the speakers or writers about matters immeasurably beyond them. If we more thoroughly understood the teaching of Locke and the continental Nominalists respecting abstract ideas, we should live without any fears of the success of those who unchurch all sects but their own, and who assert the cleansing efficacy of suffering, and the possibility of discovering the whole body of Catholic tradition. With us, for instance, altars are not ονψ prohibited, but impossible. They are now a mere nametheir reality is confined to the one altar, the Cross. It is equally as impossible to prostitute God as to erect an altar. The reader of these COMMENTARIES must have observed that Calvin’s idea of God is rather more familiar than infinite he introduces his name into the minutest concerns, and thinks of him not as acting by general and settled laws, but as personally and constantly intervening between the conduct and the destined of men. He naturally transfers the conceptions and instincts of morality and holiness which he finds within himself to the Almighty — he clothes his idea of an awful Spirit with the attributes of a human conscience he imagines his Deity a divine man, purified, exalted, and unlimitedly endowed. Our acquaintance with the physical sciences leads us to see the Great Supreme acting through the visible universe by fixed and undeviating laws: so we expect that revelation will unfold to us laws of similar harmony, although apparently disturbed by the anomaly of rebellion and the mystery of sin. But Calvin without hesitation supposes ]the to interfere perpetually with the ordinary processes of our animal nature. For instance, in the 14th verse of this chapter, he supposes the Almighty to withdraw from the ordinary bread of this life its usual nourishment by way of punishing the wicked. He is said to break the staff of bread by puffing it up, and depriving it of its power of affording aliment to the body. He repeats this singular comment as the correct explanation of the language of Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3. (Ezekiel 14:14.) It may be perfectly true, that “unless God breathes into the bread the virtue of nourishment the bread is useless;” but where is the proof that he withdraws this nourishing power when the bread is tasted by the ungodly? The ignorance of the Reformers of those physical laws by which it pleases the Almighty that the natural universe should be governed, was very injurious to them as commentators on sacred writ’ they were constantly in danger of being like men who write on glass with diamonds, and thus obscure light with scratches. And not. only so, when Calvin speaks of “a secret virtue infused into the bread,” he adopts the language of the Realists: he assumes the existence of a quality which is philosophically incorrect. A disciple of Locke will be aware that this supposed virtue is only an abstract idea existing in the mind of man and not in the bread, and that it is only an admissible form of speech when it is understood as a general term for the aggregate of those chemical agents and properties which are realities. If God then withdraws this “infused virtue,” it is only a form of saying that he withdraws or suspends certain chemical agencies’ and who will now confidently assert this to be his method of interfering with the never-ceasing operations of his creation? So in Ezekiel 13:14, the action of Pinnehas, Numbers 25, is said to be infectum aliqto vitio. This again is the language of the Realists, and is erroneous. His work could not be infected morally either way it must have been his mind or his affections. The language erroneosly transfers moral attributes to the deed instead of to the man.

And here it may appositely be stated, that a correct exposition of the Prophecies never requires any violation of either physical or moral truth. Faith in the unity and supremacy of truth is one form of faith in God. The prophecies are rather illustrated than obscured by our increasing knowledge of the material universe. No true success in prophetic interpretations can be attained without a hearty reliance on the unity and majesty of all truth, without a calm confidence that contradictions are only apparent, and if we cannot explain them now, they will become clear hereafter. Reason, in its calmest and clearest vision, can be superseded only by being surpassed; feeling, in its tenderest mood, must still be ennobled by trust; and conscience must witness audibly and reverently to our need of the Spitit’s mysterious guidance “into all truth.”

Throughout the. Prophet Ezekiel, Calvin is nobly consistent in pleading for God’s justice. There is no instinct more deeply seated in the human soul than this, — the Godlike must be just nothing can be permanently opposed to this essential principle. It must sooner or later be vindicated, and bring a certain measure of retribution, which must follow hard upon its transgression. Still many traditional modes of thought concerning the Almighty occur in these COMMENTARIES, which modern information has very largely modified. God’s handwriting is now legible in many ways, where of old it was a blank. If his interposition is not now recognized in cherubs, and wheels, and burning flame, we are more conscious of the natural wonders developed in the dewdrop and the flower. Our age believes so many things of which the Reformers were ignorant, and disbelieves so much on which they laid stress, that we are in danger of overlooking the existence of great primeval truths, which constitute the essential religious life in man in all ages unchangeably. Veneration for what we believe God to be must be at the foundation of all diety; and imitation of what we believe God to do must ever be the substance of all duty. ‘The first qualification for persuing Ezekiel with advantage is the spiritual purification of self; and in this attainment Calvin materially assists us, by setting before us large conceptions of the Almighty’s character, and mature judgments of his purposes.

DISSERTATION THIRTEENTH.

A ISRAEL AN ADULTERESS.

EZEKIEL 16:1

THE allegory which runs through this chapter is by no means an unusual one in the Prophets. The beginning of Ezekiel 16:3 has occasioned some variety of remark. OEcolampadius takes hrwkm, mekoreh, meaning “birth,” “origin,” for hrwgm, megoreh, meaning “dwelling;” as Calvin translates it habitationes. Houbigant derives it from hrk, kereh, “to dig,” which Newcome prefers: it may come from rkm, meker, “to sell,” and thus means “dealings;” but this is not so appropriate here. Rosenmuller reviews these derivations, adding as another, viz. formationes; but approves of the sense “origin,” effossione, from rwk, cor, “to dig.” This is clearly the best, the Jews having constantly before them the digging out of a rock — as in Isaiah 51:50. Both Theodoret and Jerome explain Ezekiel 16:3 with precision’ the former has — ἀραῖς γὰρ ὁ Canaan ὑπεβλήθη καὶ δουλείαν ὑπὸ τοῦ προπάτορος Νῶε κατεδικάσθη; the latter writes — Cham quippe, pater Chanaan, princeps fuit gentis Aegvptiae . . . radicem Ierusalem terram AEgypti esse dicemus. In Ezekiel 16:4 the salting and swaddling the body is said to represent the Almighty’s care of the people when under Egyptian bondage. The custom of throwing the skirt over the female is alluded to by Theocritus Idyll. 18:19; and a fragment of Euripides preserved by Stobaeus. This cleansing from pollution is explained by the Chaldee paraphrast to mean the deliverance from Egypt. Those who are curious in the various articles of clothing in Ezekiel 16:10 to 14 may consult Schroeder de Vestitu Mul., chapter 14 page 221; Bochart Hieroz., part 1 lib. 3.; Jablonskii Opuscula, t. 1 p 290, etc.; and J. D. Michaelis in Suppl., page 1565. “The images of men,” (Ezekiel 16:17,) Jerome interprets of the idols of Bel, Chemosh, and Ashtoreth, which were made out of the sacred gold and silver of the temple. The passing through the fire, (Ezekiel 16:21,) the Vulgate renders consecrans illos; but Aquila, Synmachus, and Theodotion take the same view as Calvin. Theodoret interprets the 26th verse of the grossness of the Egyptian idolatry in worshipping the ibis, the cow and the crocodile. The punishment of the Jews (Ezekiel 16:36-43) is figuratively predicted by similar language, which Theodoret clearly illustrates — ouj γυναῖκας τὰς γυναῖκας ὀνομάζει ἀλλὰ τροπικῶς τὰς πόλεις ούτω καλεῖ ἐπαιδὴ καὶ αὐτὴν πόλιν οϋσαν δίκην γυναικὸς eijv τὸ δικαστήριον εἰσάγει The comment of OEcolampadius on Ezekiel 16:20 and Ezekiel 16: 23 is copious and instructive.

B CAPTIVE ISRAEL AND PAPAL ROME.

Ezekiel 16:20

In commenting on this verse, Calvin draws a striking comparison between the Jews of Ezekiel’s day and the Romanists of his own. And as the controversy with Rome is at present a subject of absorbing interest, it is very important to ascertain the exact views of the Reformers as to that giant apostacy. The parallel between them seems to our Reformer most complete. He allows both to be true Churchs, while he condemns them as breakers of God’s covenant. Both Israel and the Papacy are still said to be under covenant with God; so, had “our baptism requires no renewal” (Ezekiel 16:20,) yet still the devil reigns in the Papacy without quite extinguishing God’s grace. The Church is there amidst all its corruptions; otherwise Antichrist could not sit in God’s temple. The papal priests are said to imitate the Jewish in all things, even to the material of which the surplice is made. The priests of Rome are called “papales sacrifici” — the language of the Realists; which is erroneous, bee,, use it admits too much. It asserts that they offer sacrifice: the Protestant denies the fact, and disallows the term. In the controversy with Rome, we should be more careful than even Calvin in the terms we employ. To allow the analogy here pointed out, is to allow too much. While we assert, that the pretense to sacrificial functions is a gross imposture, we must the same time refuse their claim to be acknowledged as priests. We must instantly erect the standard of nominalism, showing that there is but one high Priest, but one sacrifice, and one altar in the religion of Christ. This is real — all the rest mere accommodation. On this ground, too, Calvin’s view of the covenant actually remaining among them, and of their being such a temple that Antichrist can be seated therein, Hs very questionable. It is necessary that the reader should see the consequences of allowing too much to the advocates of the papacy: there are many reasons, on which we cannot enter here, for believing that St. Paul did not refer in any way to Papal Rome by the phrase, “the temple of God ‘“ and if this be conceded, then Calvin’s argument concerning Antichrist falls to the ground. It is very important to be aware of the tinge which the theological language of the sixteenth century gave to all the writings of that stirring age.

G ON THE WORD “NEPHESH,” SOUL.

EZEKIEL 16:27

Calvin expresses himself rather hastily when he says (Ezekiel 16:27,) this word çpn, nepesh, means “lust,” or desire, “appetite.” It occurs eighteen times in these twenty chapters of Ezekiel; and in every case except this, when our version reads “will,” it is properly translated “soul,” or “person.” As the word is in itself exceedingly important, and occurs some hundred times throughout the Old Testament, it is desirable to ascertain how far it admits of so many various meanings. We thought to lay it down as a general rule, that the usual sense of a word is not to be departed from without extreme necessity; and there seems none here for deviating from the ordinary meaning. Both Castell and Shindler, in their Lexx., give all the various uses of the word at full length; and both Gesenius and Lee fall into the error of stating too great a variety of meanings without giving the reasons for such discordant senses. Its original meaning is “breath;” and as “life” was supposed to reside in the breath, hence it expresses anything that has life, any living energy or mental activity, so that “the soul” is said to hunger and thirst, to fast and become cold. (See Proverbs, Psalms, and Job.) Schroeder de Vestitu Mulierum, and Gesenius, both give the sense of “fragrance” on Isaiah 3:20. The Rabbis distinguish three kinds of nepish in man, the vegetative, the brutal, and the intellectual. This description is philosophically correct, since it is now ascertained that “the life” of man strictly partakes of the elements of vegetable and animal vitality, together with the intellectual power and the moral sentiments, usually termed.” soul in modern divinity. Connecting this word with bl, leb, “heart,” we observe that Gesenius agrees with Calvin on Ezekiel 16:30, that it signifies “the seat of intelligence.” The Hebrews supposed that the human heart “was actually the seat of the affections;” these are now known to ‘act through the brain, and hence the old phraseology of “giving the heart to God” should be allowed to become obsolete. There is no proof that the word nephesh implied this immortal principle in man; the hunting souls, and slaying them, as in the thirteenth chapter, refer to the destruction of life. In the time of the translators, and in the distant counties of England at this day, the word “soul” is used where more refined speakers use the word “person.” For instance, in Ezekiel 18, “the soul that shineth it shall die,” may be reduced to modern English by saying, “the person who sins shall die himself.” It is by no means necessary, in Ezekiel 16:27, to deviate, with Calvin and our translators, from the ordinary sense; it is readily rendered, “and delivered thee up to the persons who hate thee, viz., the daughters,” etc. Thus two English words only are required as the correct equivalent for nephesh throughout Ezekiel — a point on which we thought to insist, as giving certainty and definiteness to any version of the Prophet’s language.

D THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND THE NEW TESTAMENT.

EZEKIEL 16:61

It is worthy of notice, that in Calvin’s time, as in our own, appeals were frequently made to the teaching of “the primitive Church.” The Reformers were especially anxious to ascertain what the primitive Church really taught, and to compare it with Holy Scripture they did not repose implicitly on its dicta, because they looked upon the phrase as an idea rather than a reality. Here again the necessary collision between realism and nominalism arises. There is no such thing as the primitive Church in the sense in which it was used in Calvin’s day, and has been revived in our own. The words stand for an abstract idea, comprehending many single churches, and stating what is held to be common to all. For instance, the Church at Antioch was in reality the primitive Gentile Church; its doctrines, discipline, and worship, were realities, and, could they be ascertained accurately, would present to our minds a destined and definite object; but any representation of doctrines and ceremonies said to be common to many Churches, and thus spoken of as appertaining to the primitive Church, is a mental deduction after the process of selection and assortment has been carried on. We have to guard against the erroneous view of the Realist, lest we should look to the primitive Church “to reveal what is to be believed, rather than to teach what has been revealed.” See an admirable letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury to Rev. W. Maskell.

Although Calvin’s language throughout this chapter is precise and correct, yet he inadvertently falls now and then into that of the earliest. On Ezekiel 16:29 he uses the phrase “guttam pietatis in animis” — the erroneous language of his Romanist adversaries. Piety, he knew well enough, was not a thing infused into man — righteousness infused is the doctrine of realism — righteousness imputed is nominalism: the former has of late been revived and systematized by Newman and Ward; while the latter has the inspired sanction of the Pauline Epistles. In his comments on this verse, our Reformer uses the word “testament” and “covenant” for the same idea. It is better to avoid this partial confusion. The word “testamentum” should properly be applied to the record, which informs us of the “foedus.” Grotius has expressed the difference accurately. with him “testamentum” is equivalent to “libri feoderis,” and, as accuracy in theological expressions is most desirable, it is wiser to translate διαθήκη in every instance by “covenant,” and to confine the word testament most strictly to the written record. This will aid us in keeping before our minds the covenant between the Almighty and his living Church; we shall appreciate our position as children of the New Covenant, and avoid the error of regarding the Old Testament., with it’s laws, and ceremonies, and sacrifices, as binding upon us, who are no longer “children of the bond woman, but of the free.”

DISSERTATION FOURTEENTH.

A THE GREAT EAGLE.

EZEKIEL 17:3

THE allegory of “THE GREAT EAGLE” is well sustained throughout this chapter. A golden eagle with extended wings was the standard of the king of Persia in the time of Cyrus, (Xenoph. Cyrop., lib. 7 chap. 1,) and it was probably adopted from the Assyrian empire. The length of its wing is supposed by Grotius to apply to the widely-extended empire of Nebuchadnezzar. Kimchi interprets “the variegated color like a peacock” of the majesty and dignity of his kingdom; but Michaelis agrees with Calvin. The interpretation of Lebanon, to which Calvin objects, is adopted by Jerome and Theodoret; but Rosenmuller agrees with our Author. He also takes the word ˆ[nk, ken-men, (Ezekiel 17:4,) exactly in Calvin’s sense, quoting Proverbs 31:24, “quod incolae ejus terrae, utpote maris accolae, mercaturae erant deditissimi.” See also Dathe’s edit. of Glass. Phil. Sac., p. 1184. The sense which Calvin disapproves is adopted by the Septuagint, the Roman Codex, the Arabian version, Theodoret, and the Chaldee paraphrast. The criticism in the note to verse 8 is correct; and the interpretation generally is in accordance with the explanations of Jarcin, Kimchi, Jerome, Michaelis, Grotius, and other critics ancient and modern. Newcome has noticed some various readings, and others are easily gathered from De Rossi, and the different versions and codexes; but they are not of sufficient interest, to need further detail.

B THE LOFTY BRANCH OF THE TALL CEDAR.

EZEKIEL 17:22

The interpretation of Ezekiel 17:22 is worthy of remark. Kimchi and Grotius think that Zerubbabel is intended here, but Rosenmuller agrees with Calvin in referring it to Christ. The Chaldee paraphrast and Jarchi apply it to “King Messiah.” (See Talm. Schabba,, fol. 30, and Cholin, fol. 139, b., and R. Abendana ad Michal Jopin.) Calvin’s supposition, however, that where the prophets speak of “this hope of freedom to the elect,” it should be dated from the rebuilding of the temple, and continued to the end of Christ’s kingdom, is incorrect. It causes him, Lo date this kingdom from the rebuilding of the temple, in forgetfulness of the many disasters which happened to the people between the times of Ezra and of our Lord. The building of the second temple was not an event of any immediate spiritual import to the Jews’ it was followed by overwhelming temporal disasters; so that the reign of Messiah did not commence till the Mediator of the New Covenant was revealed, and “the new kingdom of the heavens” fully heralded into the world at large.

DISSERTATION FIFTEENTH.

THE EATING SOUR GRAPES.

EZEKIEL 18:1

THE proverb of the fathers eating sour grapes and the children’s teeth being set on edge, requires a few remarks, in consequence of the conjectures of some modern writers on sacred subjects. Andrew Norton, in his elaborate notes on “The Genuineness of the Gospels,” ⁷⁹ has attempted to show a discrepancy between Ezekiel and the Pentateuch. He compares this proverb with the language of Exodus, Exodus 20, where God is said to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children. he then quotes the Talmud as objecting to Ezekiel’s prophecies, as contradictory to the Pentateuch and thus he insinuates that the two passages cannot be reconciled. If this be so, it is further implied that the Divine authority of either Exodus or Ezekiel is doubtful. But there seems no reason to conclude these two passages to be contradictory. The circumstances under which they were spoken give the tone and meaning to each. Moses enunciates a general law of God’s moral government, which we see carried out every day before our eyes. Let the parent of a family, by honest industry and religious conduct acquire for himself the esteem and respect of his fellow-men, then it follows by an established law of God’s providence, that his family gain honorable advantages by their parent’s reputation. But let a parent by intemperance and dishonesty bring disgrace and poverty on himself, and it is equally a law of providential government that his children will suffer by his misconduct. The wickedness of the father will often fall dreadfully on his unconscious offspring. This is an undeviating, an irreversible law applicable at all times, and daily operating before us in ten thousand instances. But the Jews attempted to excuse their own sins by throwing them on their fathers. The generation which Ezekiel addressed were personally blameworthy; the language of this passage was theirs it is the language of a false excuse — an attempt to charge the Almighty with unfairness, that they might throw the blame from themselves. No argument, then, can be drawn from its occurrence contrary to the Divine authority of the Pentateuch. Ezekiel records the language and chastises it, thereby upholding the authority of the law, and vindicating rather than destroying the unity of the Divine records. The destruction to be received from the chapter has been well pointed out by the present Archbishop of Canterbury, in his “Apostolic Preaching.” — Sixth edit., page 69.

A translation of a work: of the Professor of Biblical Criticism at Heidelberg having been published in London, it becomes desirable to notice the result of his critical labors on this chapter of our Prophet. G. L. Bauer, in his “Theologie des alten Testaments,” has the following comment “The whole book of Ezekiel is an illustration of the Judaic belief, that Jehovah is the King and Governor of his people Israel. He rewards and punishes them: blesses them with prosperity, and afflicts them with adversity. Ezekiel teaches (in direct opposition to the Mosaic doctrine that God will visit the sins of the fathers. upon the children unto the third and fourth generation), that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father that moral conduct will ensure to the individual length of days that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him, and that the soul that shineth he shall die. The eighteenth chapter is the most beautiful and the most useful in the book, but it has reference exclusively to God’s conduct towards his own people.” Here we have the usual mixture of Neologian wisdom and folly. There is no real contrast between Moses and this Prophet. Moses states a general law of God’s moral government of mankind, and Ezekiel protests against an abuse of that doctrine. The Jews of his day wished to throw all the blame on their fathers, and to charge the Almighty with unfairness in punishing’ them for the faults of their ancestors. They forgot their own personal share in rebellion against the Most high. Nor is it the slightest objection that “it has reference exclusively to God’s conduct towards his own people.” Here the Jews are specially addressed, and the principle is readily applicable to all mankind as soon as it is shown that they are under similar relations to the Almighty as the Jews. The writer who cannot see how easily Moses and Ezekiel are reconciled has but very slight pretensions to occupy a divinity chair; he may make hasty assertions, and give shrewd guesses; but his opinion thought to be well weighed before it is reckoned either valuable or trustworthy. Bauer’s criticisms on various passages of this Prophet are by no means so objectionable as those on the other Old Testament writers; though he is open to the charge of exercising that “fertile imagination” ⁸⁰ which he brings so irreverently against Ezekiel.

A question of still larger import arises naturally out of their own defense of this eighteenth chapter; namely, what degree of authority have the laws of the Old Covenant over us, the children of the New? If, on the one hand, the reasonings of Professor Norton, as contained in the notes to his second volume of his “Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels” are unsound, the following assertion of a writer, in reply to the Queen’s Professor of Modern History at Cambridge is unwise — “One inspired declaration is all that is needed, and whether it be found in the Old Testament or in the New, is all one to us Christians; it is God’s word, and God’s word cannot deceive.” ⁸¹ It is clear enough that the Old Testament is God’s word — but is it so to us? Is its authority the same “to us Christians” as that of the New? He who would avoid Judaizing must answer in the negative: he who best understands the nature of our New Covenant in Christ Jesus will destined carefully between the authority of the inspired records of the two covenants over the conscience of the disciples of the new kingdom of the heavens. When we speak of Holy Writ collectively, as contrasted with all uninspired compositions, it is emphatically the Word of God; but when we are attempting to define the relation in which each Testament separately stands to ourselves, we must not hastily adopt the mere popular language of the day. By doing so, we are unable to repel the assaults of the worldly wise, and are in danger of lowering the value of the Sacred Oracles in the eyes of the scientific inquirers of our times.

To the scholar who is acquainted with the difficulties which are reviewed by Professor Norton, the following observations will appear elementary; but as there are some simple-minded believers who may be perplexed by the specious arguments of the skeptic, a few remarks may be instructive. First of all, we should not treat the Old Testament as one book all written at the same time. It should be divided into various portions corresponding to the periods in which each book was written. The Pentateuch, for instance, should be studied separately from the Prophets; while the interval of nearly 1000 years, between the death of Moses and the visions of Ezekiel, should be constantly borne in mind. The Pentateuch, but not exactly as we have it, was the Word of God for Jews — its authority as a law to Christians was never admissible. St. Paul’s whole life was a protest against this going back again to Moses, instead of going forward to Christ. The ministration of death was exchanged for a dispensation of life while God’s moral law remains unchangeable, its authority rests on other grounds to us than the thunders of Sinai and the tables of stone. Thus, again, the prophetic announcements were direct and special for Israel and Judea; but they contain guidance and warning for us only when we are placed in a similar position morally before God. Ezekiel, for instance, is a watchman to us only so far as it can be shown that our sins, needs, and responsibilities are similar to those of the Hebrews. It must be uttered again and again that we are discipled into the New Covenant of which St. Paul was a chief herald unto us Gentiles; and our highest attainment is to stand fast in the liberty wherewith our Redeemer has made us free. Wherever there is a spiritual analogy between our state and that of the captives at Chebar, Ezekiel is for us; his stirring voice is for our reproof and destruction in righteousness; but wherever the difference of condition is so great that this analogy fails, then Ezekiel is only indirectly our monitor from heaven. The light from heaven is reflected directly upon us through Jesus and his Apostles, and only obliquely through Moses and the Prophets. ⁸²

By the expression of this view of the value of the Old Testament to us, we do but give form and voice to the feelings which exist in the minds of many earnest and thoughtful Christians. They cannot receive all that is in the Old Testament as equally binding on them with what is revealed in the New. Their cannot sympathize with the antagonist of the Queen’s Professor of History: they feel that many proposed solutions of acknowledged difficulties are superficial and evasive rather than selfevident and satisfactory. Such obstacles are not necessarily connected with the Christian verities, they are not essential portions of our religion: we may safely confess ourselves ignorant of the true solution, without endangering a single particle of “the faith once delivered to the saints.” By upholding the Pentateuch as the Word of God to the Jews of former ages, we defend and enforce its inspiration and suitability for its original time and purpose; by treating the prophecies of the era of the Captivity as spoken originally to the people alive at the time, we vindicate the Divine inspiration of the Prophet., and we prepare our own minds to receive intelligently any indirect destruction which may be applicable to ourselves. The integrity of the Jewish canon is thus acknowledged and preserved, while we are free to inquire how far its sacred books are instructive for all times and all nations. The whole life and ministry of St. Paul taught one invariable truth on this important question, and its significant witness was clear and emphatic to our higher privileges and nobler aims under the New Covenant in Christ Jesus our Lord.

B USURY AND INTEREST.

EZEKIEL 18:8

The manner in which this subject is treated illustrates our remarks on the non-application of the Jewish law to Christian duties. Calvin is evidently at a loss how to distinguish between lawful and unlawful interest. He does not clearly say that one law was applicable to the Jew and another to us. Usury may be sinful, but not because it was forbidden to Israel of old. The comment on this verse is not based upon principles in accordance with the New Covenant. It may fairly be stated that this eighteenth chapter is not law to us; our duties depend upon another foundation. The law which is to decide what is “interest” and what “usury,” must rest upon the golden rule of doing unto others as we would that they should do unto us. If we be formed after the image of Christ, we shall educate conscience, and cultivate justice and mercy, and decide these points by a different standard from that of the Jewish law; and when Calvin states “in lege ea est perfectio ad quam nihil possit accedere,” he does not state the sense in which he uses ‘qege,” and seems to confine it to the Mosaic precepts. This instance is sufficient to show the true use which we are to make of the Old Testament, and to guard us against a misapplication of its statements.

A singular instance of the fallacy of applying the Old Testament directly to the events of the world in the present day occurs in the State Trials in the reign of James the Second. In the case of the East India Company 5 Sandys, a question arose respecting the right of the King’s subjects to trade with nations eastward of the Cape of Good Hope without the King’s license. Holt, afterwards the celebrated Chief-Justice, argued his point with more, zeal than discretion. He gravely cites the doctrine of Lord Coke, that “infidels are perpetual enemies;” and then, in the same breath, quotes the book of Judges, to show by analogy, that as the Jews were restrained from merchandise with the Canaanites, so Christians thought to be restricted in their dealings with Pagans. ⁸³ One instance out of many may suffice to remind us, that the assumption that Christians are in all cases to act according to God’s commands to the Jews, is the bashes of modern Judaism; and the frequency of such reasonings, though supported at times by the writings of some of our venerable Reformers, calls loudly for the voice of another Paul to proclaim, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free.”

The imprudent manner in which some commentators have connected the incidents of the Old Testament with the doctrine of the New is readily illustrated by a passage in the first epistle to the Corinthians by Clement of Rome. In quoting the narrative of Rahab receiving the spies before the destruction of Jericho, he adverts to their suggesting the hanging out a scarlet thread from her house, and then adds directly, “making: it manifest that by the blood of the Lord redemption shall be to all those who believe and trust upon God. You see then, beloved, that there was not only faith, but prophecy in the woman.” ⁸⁴ if this method of illustration be considered allegorical, and as only suggestive of a remote comparison, it is tolerable; but if it be intended to imply any typical connection between the accident of the scarlet color and the redemption through Messiah, it is irreverent and inappropriate in the extreme. The learned Wotton defends Clement by the example of his master, Paul, and quotes Justin Martyr, who treats the same event “as a symbol of the blood of Christ.” ⁸⁵

Guided by such illustrious names, the Reformers often adopted the same “spiritualizing” system. The sounder and soberer criticism of later days has instructed us not to adopt the imaginations of men as if they were inseparably bound up with the supreme word of God. The following extract is worthy of notice, as illustrating the principles for which we contend: —

“The same freedom of thought [as that of Λυτηερ on topics not strictly theological formed a prominent feature in the character of Calvin. A curious instance of it occurs in one of his letters, ⁸⁶ where he discussed an ethical question of no small moment in the science of political economy, ‘How far it is consistent with morality to accept of interest for a pecuniary loan?’ On this question, which, even in Protestant countries, continued till a very recent period to divide the opinions both of divines and Lawyers, Calvin treats the authority of Aristotle and that of the Church with equal disregard. To the former he opposes a close and logical argument not unworthy of Mr. Bentham: to the latter he replies, by showing that the Mosaic law on this point, was not a moral, but a municipal prohibition — a prohibition not to be judged of from any particular text of Scripture, but upon the principles of natural equity.” [^f652]

G PERPLEXING AND THORNY QUESTIONS.

EZEKIEL 18:20

In this and the following verses Calvin pronounces rather too dogmatically upon matters which are beyond human comprehension. He strives to reconcile statements apparently contradictory, and in doing so enunciates principles which cannot be positively determined. For instance, the will of an infant, before its birth, is said to be “perverse and rebellious against God,” Ezekiel 18:20. Although we are reminded (Ezekiel 18:23) that God’s secret counsels are inscrutable to us, yet the assertion is hazarded that he “has devoted the reprobate. to eternal destruction, and wishes them to perish.” Some effort is made to reconcile the freeness of this will with the certainty of the destruction the knot is said to be “easily untied;” but the experience of nearly three centuries has proved that these exciting disputes have not been satisfactorily settled: they are still what they are called in Ezekiel 18:25, “perplexing and thorny questions,” and must remain so till the promise is accomplished, that faith shall be exchanged for sight. It does not seem desirable to enter upon these abstruse points when commenting upon a Hebrew Prophet: the revelation to Ezekiel was far different in its subject-matter from that to St. Paul: there is no necessity for supposing either that the evangelical doctrines were fully made known to the Prophets, or that their language is verbally binding upon us — the offspring of the far-off Gentiles.

In these “Dissertations” we only venture to suggest some general principles of correct interpretation, and to point out some errors into which our Reformer has fallen, partly through the infirmity natural to man, and partly through the philosophical systems and the false divinity current in his times. While he so evidently surpassed his own age in stern and devoted piety, and avoided the fanciful conjectures in which many of the Reformers indulged; Calvin is at times open to the charge of teaching dogmatically questions which have never been decided by Revelation. Let us bear with him on this point, while we profit by his judicious and instructive lectures; remembering that within the fringes of his shadow his modern revilers are not worthy to tread.

Another instance of perplexity occurs in Ezekiel 20:39. The “Indecision” refers to the decree of the Emperor Charles V. called “The Interim.” Calvin’s hatred of it was sincere but injudicious. It was a first step to better things. See Mosheim, cent. 16 sect. 1, and the authorities quoted in Maclaine’s note.

DISSERTATION SIXTEENTH

THE SABBATH A SACRAMENT AND A MYSTERY.

EZEKIEL 20:13, 14

We have already cautioned the modern reader of Calvin not to be startled at his assertion, that “the Sabbath is Sacrament.” We have in these days become so thoroughly imbued with the notion that; there can be but two Sacraments, that we reject at once the possibility of, third. This causes us again to call the reader’s attention in detail to the principles expressed in the note to the 20th verse of this chapter.

A number of words occur in theological discussions which are not met with in Holy Scripture. Among these are the words Sacramentum, Persona, Trinitas, Unitas. If these were merely translations of equivalent Greek words found in the New Testament, all difficulty would cease; but they are not although they express the ideas of the Apostles correctly, if taken in the sense in which they were originally used. The Protestant of these later times, if he would understand them aright, should study their use in the Schoolmen, and by the leading writers of the Church of Rome, and then, approach the writings of the Reformers. Lawrence’s Bampton Lectures have already been mentioned: besides these, Bishop Davenant’s Determinationes of theological questions, when Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, are a valuable specimen of the subject-matter of theological dispute in the days immediately preceding his own. (See edit. 1634, and also 1639, in Lib. of Queen’s Coll., Cam.) The greatest mistakes have been committed by English writers on Theology in consequence of their unconscious subjection to a traditional phraseology. It may fairly be called a slavery to words. They have lost sight of realities, through anxiety for a verbal orthodoxy. This h, s led them to look for spiritual realities where riley are not to be found. In tracing the cause of this, we find it to arise from our receiving so many of our theological expressions through the Latin Vulgate. And not only are the words, but the ideas, of the Reformers tinctured by their education under the religious philosophy which they rejected. Calvin, for instance, in Ezekiel 20:16, uses the phrase “guttam pietarts;” in Ezekiel 20:20, “guttam fidei;” and in Ezekiel 20:19, “suis commentis inficiunt legem ipsius,”: the two former expressions implying that piety and faith are qualities within the soul, measurable by quantity’ and the latter, that the fictions of man can in any way affect the purity of the law of God. Instances of this kind are here pointed out, that we may be aware of the principle on which Calvin’s expressions on many interesting points frequently rest. Other words as well as sacramentum are used by Calvin in a sense rather different from their modern meaning:. For example, virtus and virtutes, doctrina and religio, occur throughout these Lectures, and sometimes need a circumlocution for their English equivalents. In Ezekiel 20:29 religio occurs for respect paid to idols, and “mysterium” must be taken rather in its classical than its familiar meaning. The Greek μυστηριόν was translated “sacramentum” in the copies used by Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ambrose. Tertullian accordingly calls the doctrines of the Trinity and of our Lord’s Incarnation “sacramenta.” Prudentius uses it for “the whole Christian doctrine,” as St. Paul does the word μυστηρίον. 1 Corinthians 4:1. It is sufficient to point out this difference in the use of terms, that no reader may judge Calvin hastily, but rather be led to discover the error or the unsoundness in himself. Those Reformers who were more strenuous Nominalists than Calvin, did not deny the realities of the faith but they thought for them where they are only to be found: not in rites, and words, and creeds, and ceremonies, but in the inner soul of man; in our moral and spiritual nature; in the character and revelation of God; in the teachings and guidings of the Holy Spirit; and in the renewed lives and peaceful deaths of all who are new-created in Christ Jesus their Lord.

EZEKIEL FOOTNOTES

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

[yqr, rekiang. — Calvin.

“Therefore I heard a voice.” — Calvin.

TRANSLATION

NOTICE OF THE ANCIENT VERSIONS

DISSSERTATIONS