Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition) (continued)
J7ie Feast of the Fowls. EZEKIEL XL. A Piclure of the Realored Timplt.
should be left to pollute the land. The seven years (seven being the sacred nmiiber) spent on this work, implies the completeness of the cleansing, and the people's zeal for puiity. How different from the ancient Israelites, who
11. 26). The restorations of Israel heretofore have been jiartial ; tliere must lie one yet future tliat is to be unn*>-i .«</(Hosea 1. 11). 2«. After tliat they have borne thtir shame-the punishment of their sin: after they have become sensible of their guilt, and ashamed of it (ch. 20. 43; 36. 31). 27. sanctifled in them—vindicated as holy in my dealings with them. 28. The Jews, having no dominion, settled country, or fixed property to detain tliem, may return at any time without difficulty (cf. Ilosea 3. 4, left not merely the arms, but the heathen themselves, to remain nraonf; them [Fairbairn] (Judges 1.27, 28 ; 2. 2, 3; Psalm 106. 34-36). The desolation by Antiochus began in the one hundred and forty-first year of the Seleucidfe. From this date to 1-18, a period of six years and four montlis
5). 29. pourefl out my Spirit upon . . . Israel—the sure forerunner of their conversion (Joel 2. 28 ; Zechariah 12.
days," Daniel 8. H), when the temple worship was restored (1 Maccabees 4. 52), God vouchsafed many triumphs to His people; from this time to the death of Antiochus, early In 149, a period of seven montlis, tlie Jews had rest from Antiochus, and purified their land, and on the twenty-flftli day of the ninth month celebrated the EnciBnia, or feast of dedication (John 10. 22) and purification of the temple. The whole period, in round numbers, was seven years. Mattathias was the patriotic Jewish leader, and his third son, Judas, the military commander under whom the Syrian generals were defeated. He retook Jerusa lem and purified the temple. Simon and Jona-
10). The pouring out of His Spirit is a pledge that He will hide His face no more (2 Corinthians 1.22; Ephesians 1.
14; Philippians 1. 6). CHAPTER XL,
Ver. 1^9. The Remaining Chaps., 40.-48., give an Ideal Picture of the Restored Jewish Temple. The arrangements as to the land and the temple are, in many particulars, different from those subsisting before the captivity. There are things in it so improbable physically as to preclude a purely UteraX interpretation. Tiio general truth seems to hold good that, as Israel served tlie nations for his rejection of Messiah, so shall they serve him in the person of Messiah, when he sliall acknowledge Messiah (Isaiah 60. 12; Zechariah 14. 17-19 ; cf. Psalm 72. 111. The ideal temple exhibits, under Old Testament forms, used as being those then familiar to the men whom Ezekiel, a priest himself, and one who delighted in sacrificial images, addresses, not the precise literal outline, but the essential character of the worship of Messiah as it sliall be when He shall exercise sway in Jerusalem among His own people, the Jews, and thence to the ends of the earth. The very fact tliat the wliple is a vision (v. 2), not an or»l face-to-face communication sucli as that granted to Moseg (Numbers 12. 6-8), implies that the directions are not to be understood so precisely literal as those given to the Jewtli.m, his brothers, succeeded him: the independence of the Jews was secured, and the crown vested in the Asmonean family, in which it continued till Herod the Great. 11. place . . . of graves—Gog only found a grave where he luid expected the spoil* of conquest, valley—so vast were to be the masses that notliing but a deep valley would suffice for their corpses. tUe passengers on the east of tine sea—those travelling on the high road, east of the Dead Sea, from Syria to Petra and Egypt. The publicity ol the road would cause many to observe God's judgments, as the stench (as English Version translates) or the jiuiltitude of graves (as Henderson translates, "it shall slop the passengers") would arrest the attention of passersby. Tlieir grave would be close to that of their ancient prototypes, Sodom and Gomorrah in the Dead Sea, both alilte t)eing signal instances of God's judgments. 13. I... glorlfted—in destroying tlie foe (ch. 28. 22). 14. wltli tlie passengers—the men employed continually in the burying were to be helped by tliose happening to pass by; all were to combine, after tlie end of seven montlis slinll tliey searcli—to see if the work was complete. [Munstek.] 15. First "aW tlie people of the land" engaged in the burying for seven months; then special men were erriployed, at the end of the seven months, to search for any still left uiihuried. The passers-by helped them by setting up a mark near any such bones, in order to keep others from being defiled by casually touching them, and that tlie buriers might come and remove them. Denoting the minute care to put away every relic of heathen pollution from the Holy Land. 16. A city in the neighbourhood was to receive the name Hamonah (multitude) to commemorate the overthrow of the multitudes of the foe. [Henderisli lawgiver. The description involves things which, taken litei-ally, almost involve natural impossibilitieis. The square of the temple, in ch. 42. 20, is six times as largo as the circuit of the wall enclosing the old temple, and larger than all the earthly Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives three and a half miles and 140 yards to his temple square. The boundaries of the ancient city were about two and a half miles. Again, the city in Ezekiel has an area between three or four thousand square miles, including the holy ground set apart for the prince, priests, and Levites. This is nearly as large as the whole of Judea west of the Jordan. As Zion lay in the centre of the ideal city, the onehalf of the sacred portion extended to nearly thirty miles south of Jerusalem, i. e., covered nearly the whole southern territory, which reached only to the Dead Sea (ch. 47.
, SON,] The multitude of the slain shall give a name to the city of Jerusalem after the land shall have been cleansed. [GuoTius.] Jerusalem shall be famed as the conqueror of multitudes. 17. (Revelation 19. 17.) sacrifice—anciently worshippers feasted on the sacrifices. Tlie birds and beasts of prey are invited to the sacrificial feast provided by God (cf. Isaiah 18. 6; 34. 6; Zephaniah 1. 7; Mark 9. 49). Here this sacrifice holds only a subordinate place in the
19), and yet five tribes were to have their inheritance on that side of Jerusalem, beyond the sacred portion (ch. 48.
2.3-28). Where was land to be found for them there ? A breadth of but four or five miles apiece would be left. As the boundaries of tlie land are given the same as under Moses, these incongruities cannot be explained away by supposing physical changes about to be effected in the land such as will meet the difliculties of the purely literal interpretation. The distribution of the land is in equal portions among the twelve tribes, without respect to their relative numbers, and the parallel sections running from east to west. There is a difficulty also in the supposed separate existence of the twelve tribes, such separate trilieships no longer existing, and it being hard to imagine how they could be restored as distinct tribes, mingled as they now are. So the stream that issued from the east threshold of the temple and flowed into the Dead .Sea in the rapidity of its increase and the quality of its waters, l icture, and so is put last. Not only shall their bones lie long uiiburied, but they shall be stripped of the flesli by beasts and birds of prey. 18." rams . . . lambs . . . goats—by these various animal victims used in sacrifices are me.ant various ranks of men, princes, generals and B<)ldiers (cf. Isaiah 34. 6). fatllngs of Baslian—ungodly raen of might (Psalm 22. 12). Bashaii, beyond Jordan, was lamed for its fat cattle. Fat implies prosperity which often makes men refractory towards God (Deuteronomy
'XL 14, 15). 20. my table-the field of battle on the mountains of Israel (ch. 38. 8, 20). cliariots— i. c, charioteers.
is unlike anything ever known in Jude.a or elsewliere in the world. Lastly, the catholicity of the Chrislian dispensation, and the spirituality of its worship, seem incompatible with a return to the local narrowness and "beggarly elements" of tlie Jewish ritual and carnal ordinances, disannulled "because of the unprofitableiie.ss tliereof" IFaikbairn], (Galatians -1.3, 9; 6. 1 ; Hebrews 9.
So the house of Israel shall know . . . Lord—Ijy niy interposition for tliem. So, too, the heathen shall be led to fear the name of the Lord (Psalm 102. 15). ^3. hid. . . my face—(Deuteronomy 31. 17; Isaiah 59. 2). 25. bring again the captivity—restore from calamity to prosperity, the whole house of Israel-so "all Israel" (Koiiians