Chapter XXXIII
Ver. 1-33. Renewai, of Ezekiel's Commission, now THAT HE IS again TO ADDRESS MIS COUNTRYMEN, AND IN A NEW Tone. Heretofore his functions had been chiefly threatening; from this point, after the evil had got to its worst in the overthrow of Jerusalem, the consolatory element preponderates. 3. to the children of thy people— whom he iiad been forbidden to address from ch. 24. 26,27, till Jerusalem was overthrown, and llie "escaped" came with tidings of the judgment being completed. So now, in v.
((,'h. 10.) Ezekiel has before his eyes Isaiah 14.9, &c.
Kliall speak to Iiim—with "liim" join, "with them that
hi^lp him ;" sfiall speak to tiim and his helpers with a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves. 23. her . . . liis —the abrupt change of gender is, because Ezekiel has In view at one time the kingdom (feminine), at another the monarch " Asshur," or Assyria, is placed first in punishment, aa oeing first in guilt. 33. in tlie sides of tlie i)it K>'palchies in the East were caves hollowed out of the
21, the tidings of the fact having arrived, he opens his heretofore closed lips to the Jews. In the interval he had prophesied as to foreign nations. The former part of the chapter, from v. 2 to 20, seems to have been imparled to Ezekiel on the evening previous {v. 22), being a preparation for the latter part (v. 23-.'J3) imparted after the tiiiing-s had come. This accounts for the (irst part standing without intimation of the date, whicIi was properly reserved for the latter part, to wliich the forme:' was tlie anticipatory introduction. [Fairbairn.] watchman—tlie first nine verses exhibit Ezekiel's office as a spiritual watchman ; so inch. 3. 16-21; only liere the duties of the earthly watchman (cf. 2 Samuel 18.21,25; 2 Kings 9. 17) are detailed
•oek, and the bodies were laid in niches formed at the
(;ides. Madubr needlessly departs from the ordinary meaning, and translates, "extremities'' (cf. Isaiah 14. 13,
15). wiiicli caused terror—they who alive were a terror
Ui others, are now, in the nether world, themselves a terrible olfjecl to behold. 34. Elam—placed next, as having been an auxiliary to Assyria. Its territory lay in Persia. In Abraham's time an independent kingdom (Genesis If.
I). Famous for its bowmen (Isaiah 22. 6). borne tUeir 8haiiLe—the just retribution of their lawless pride. Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 49. 34-38). 35. a bed —a sepulchral niche, all . . . slain by . . . sword, &c.
first, and then the application is made to the spiritual Wiitcliman's duty (cf. Isaiah 21. 0-10; Hosea 9.8; Habakkuk 2. 1). "A man of their coasts" is a man specially chosen for the otlice oi/i o/ their luhole number. Ho Judges
(v. 21, 23, 24). The very monotony of the phraseology gives to the dirge an awe-inspiring effect. 36. Mesliecli, Tubal —nortliern nations: tlie Moschi and Tiljareni, between the Black and Caspian Seas. Herodotus, 3. 94, mentions them as a subjugated people, tributaries to Darius HystHrtpes (see ch. 27. 13). 37. tUey sliall not lie with the inigUty— i. e., they shall not have separate tombs such as mighty conquerors have: but shall all be heaped together in one pit, as is the case with the vanquished. [Grotius.] Haveknick reads it interrogatively, "Shall they not lie witli the mighty that are fallen?" But English Version is Kupi)orted l)y the jjarallel (Isaiah 14. 18, 19), to which Ezekiel refers, and which represents them as not lying as mighty kings lie in a grave, but cast out of one, as a carcass trodden under foot, with . . . weapons of war ftUuding to the custom of burying warriors with their arms {1 Maccabees 13. 29). Though lionoured by tlie laying of " their swords under their heads," yet l?ie punishment of " their iniquities shall be upon their bones." Their swords shall thus attest their shame, not their glory (Matthew 26.
18. 2, "five men from their coasts;" also the Hebrew of Genesis 47. 2; implying the care needed in the olioict! of the watchman, the spiritual as well as the temporal (Acts
I. 21, 22, 24-26; 1 Timothy 5. 22). 3. the sword—invaders, An appropriate illustration at the time of the invasion cf Judea by Neliuchadnezzar. l. blood . . . upon his own head—metaphor from sacrificial victims, on tlie lieads of wliich they used to lay their hands, praying that their guilt should be upon the victims. 6. his iniquity-his negligence in not maintaining constant watehlulness, as they ouglit to do who are in warfare. The thing signified here appears from under the image. 7. I have set thee a watcliman—application of the image. Ezekiel's appointment to be a watchman spiritually is far more solemn, aa
It is derived from God, not from tlie people. 8. tiiou shalt surely die—by a violent death, the earnest of everlasting death ; the qualification being su]iposed, " if thou dost not repent." 9. Blood had by this time been slied (u. 21), but Ezekiel was clear. 10. be upon us— ('. e., their guilt reinaia on us. pine away in them— i f we suffer the penal ty 1 iii eatened for thein in ch. 24. 23, according to the law (Leviticus
62), being the instruments of their violence, the penalty of which they are paying. 38. Yea, thou — Thou, too, Egypt, like them, shaltlieasouevanquislied. 39. princes —Edoni was not only governed by Jiings, but by subordinate "princes" or "dukes" (Genesis SC. 40). with their might. notwithstanding their might, they shall be brought down (Isaiah 34. 5, 10-17; Jeremiah 49. 7, 13-18). lie witli tlicunoircujucised—though Edom was circumcised, bei ng descended from Isaac, he shall lie with the unoircumcised, much more shall Egypt, who had no hereditary right to circumcision. 30. princes of tlic norUi—Sijria, which is still called by the Arabs the north; or the Tyrians, north of Palestine, conquered by Nebuchadnezzar (chs.
20. 39). how should we . . . live !—as thou dost promise in i>. 5 (of. cli. 37. 11; Isaiah 49. 14). 11. To "meet the Jews' cry of despair in v. 10, Ezekiel here cheers them by the assurance tliat God has no pleasure in their death, but that they should repent and live (2 Peter 3. 9). A yearning tenderness manifests itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; .yet with it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the honour of God's authority. God's righteousness is vindicated as in ch. 3. 18-21; and IS., by the statement that each should be treated with the closest adaptation of God's justice to his particular case. 13. itot fall ... in the day that he turnetk—(2 Chronicles 7. 14 ; see ch. 3. 20; 18. 24). 15. give again that lie had robbed —(Luke 19. 8). statutes of life—in tlie obeying of wliich
2*)., 27., 28). [GuoTiua.] Zidonians—who shared tiie fate of Tyre (ch. 28. 21). with their terror they are ashamed of tlieir mlf.fht— i.e., notwithstanding the terror whicli tliey inspired in their contemporaries. "Might" is connected by Maureb thus, "Notwithstanding the terror which resulted from their might." 31. comforted— with
tlie melancholy satisfaction of not being alone, but of having other kingdoms companions In his downlall. This Bhall be his only comfort—a very poor one! 33. my terror—the reading of the Margin or Keri. The Hebrew text or Chetib is " liis terror," which gives good sense (ti. 'l'>, 30). "My terror" implies that God puts His terror on Pharaoh's multitude, as they put "their terror" on others,
life is promised (Leviticus 18. 5). If the law h u^ tailed to give lite to man, it has not been the fault of t;ie law, but of man's sinful inability to keep it (Romans 7. Ill, 12; (Ja latians 3. 21). It hecnnws life-giving through Christ's righteous obedience to it (2 Corintliians 3. 6). 17. Tiie way of
tlie Lord—The Lord's way of dealing in His moral gov ernmeut. 31. twelfth year . . . tenth month—a yeai
God'f Judgments upon Jerusalem. EZEKIEL XXXIV. Reproof 0/ the False Shejiheras.
" Idolatry," and therefore associated with impure carnal love, as both alike transfer the heart's afl'ection from the Creator to the creature (Matthew 13.22; Ephesians 5.5,
and a half after the capture of the city (Jeremiah 39. 2; 52,
o. 6', ill the eleventh year and fourth mouth. The one who (scaped (us foretold, eh. 24. 26) may have been so long on
1 Timothy 6. 10). 33. very lovely song— /a., a "song of loves:" a lover's song. They praise thy eloquence, but care not for the subject of it as a real and persona! thing;
the road through fear of entering the enemy's country
I Henuek-SON]; or, the singular is used for the plural in a
cioUective sense, "the escaped remnant." Cf. similar
Just as many do in the modern Church. [Jekome.J play well on an Instrument—Hebrew singers accompanied the "voice" with the harp. 33. when this ecmeth to pass—when my predictions are verified. 1», it will come—rather, " lo it is come " (see i. 22). know—exijerimeutally, and to their cost.
phrases, "the escaped of Moab," Isaiah 15.9; "He that escnpeth of them," Amos 9. 1. Naturally the reopening
of the prophet's mouth for consolation would be deferred
till the r<umber of the escaped remnant was complete : the removal of'such a large number would easily have occupied seventeen or eighteen months. 33. In the e-vcnlng —(see jVo/e, v. 2.) Thus the capture of Jerusalem was Known to Ezekiel by revelation, before the messenger came, my moutb . . . no more dumb viz., to my countrymen ; as foretold (ch 24. 27), He spake (v. 2-20) in the evening before the tidings came. 34. tliey that Inhabit