{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"EZK","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Ezekiel","commonName":"Ezekiel","introduction":"The name Ezekiel means \"(whom) God will strengthen\" [GESENIUS]; or, \"God will prevail\" [ROSENMULLER]. His father was Buzi (Eze 1:3), a priest, and he probably exercised the priestly office himself at Jerusalem, previous to his captivity, as appears from the matured priestly character to be seen in his prophecies, a circumstance which much increased his influence with his captive fellow countrymen at Babylon. Tradition represents Sarera as the land of his nativity. His call to prophesy was in the fifth year from the date of his being carried away with Jehoiachin (see Kg2 24:11-15) by Nebuchadnezzar, 599 B.C. The best portions of the people seem to have been among the first carried away (Eze 11:16; Jer 24:2-7-8, Jer 24:10). The ungodly were willing to do anything to remain in their native land; whereas the godly believed the prophets and obeyed the first summons to surrender, as the only path of safety. These latter, as adhering to the theocratic principle, were among the earliest to be removed by the Chaldeans, who believed that, if they were out of the way, the nation would fall to pieces of itself. They were despised by their brethren in the Holy Land not yet captives, as having no share in the temple sacrifices. Thus Ezekiel's sphere of labor was one happier and less impeded by his countrymen than that of Jeremiah at home. The vicinity of the river Chebar, which flows into the Euphrates near Circeslum, was the first scene of his prophecies (Eze 1:1). Tel-Abib there (now Thallaba) was his place of residence (Eze 3:15), whither the elders used to come to inquire as to God's messages through him. They were eager to return to Jerusalem, but he taught them that they must first return to their God. He continued to prophesy for at least twenty-two years, that is, to the twenty-seventh year of the captivity (Eze 29:17), and probably remained with the captives by the Chebar the rest of his life. A treatise, falsely attributed to EPIPHANIUS, states a tradition that he was killed at Babylon by a prince of his people whom he had reproved for idolatry.\n\nHe was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel. The former had prophesied for thirty-four years before Ezekiel, and continued to do so for six or seven years after him. The call of Ezekiel followed the very next year after the communication of Jeremiah's predictions to Babylon (Jer 51:59), and was divinely intended as a sequel to them. Daniel's predictions are mostly later than Ezekiel's but his piety and wisdom had become proverbial in the early part of Ezekiel's ministry (Eze 14:14, Eze 14:16; Eze 28:3). They much resemble one another, especially in the visions and grotesque images. It is a remarkable proof of genuineness that in Ezekiel no prophecies against Babylon occur among those directed against the enemies of the covenant-people. Probably he desired not to give needless offence to the government under which he lived. The effect of his labors is to be seen in the improved character of the people towards the close of the captivity, and their general cessation from idolatry and a return to the law. It was little more than thirty years after the close of his labors when the decree of the Jews' restoration was issued. His leading characteristic is realizing, determined energy; this admirably adapted him for opposing the \"rebellious house\" \"of stubborn front and hard heart,\" and for maintaining the cause of God's Church among his countrymen in a foreign land, when the external framework had fallen to pieces. His style is plain and simple. His conceptions are definite, and the details even of the symbolical and enigmatical parts are given with lifelike minuteness. The obscurity lies in the substance, not in the form, of his communications. The priestly element predominates in his prophecies, arising from his previous training as a priest. He delights to linger about the temple and to find in its symbolical forms the imagery for conveying his instructions. This was divinely ordered to satisfy the spiritual want felt by the people in the absence of the outward temple and its sacrifices. In his images he is magnificent, though austere and somewhat harsh. He abounds in repetitions, not for ornament, but for force and weight. Poetical parallelism is not found except in a few portions, as in the seventh, twenty-first, twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth through thirty-first chapters. His great aim was to stimulate the dormant minds of the Jews. For this end nothing was better suited than the use of mysterious symbols expressed in the plainest words. The superficial, volatile, and wilfully unbelieving would thereby be left to judicial blindness (Isa 6:10; Mat 13:11-13, &c.); whereas the better-disposed would be awakened to a deeper search into the things of God by the very obscurity of the symbols. Inattention to this divine purpose has led the modern Jews so to magnify this obscurity as to ordain that no one shall read this book till he has passed his thirtieth year.\n\nRABBI HANANIAS is said to have satisfactorily solved the difficulties (Mischna) which were alleged against its canonicity. Ecclesiasticus 49:8 refers to it, and JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 10.5.1]. It is mentioned as part of the canon in MELITO'S catalogue [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.26]; also in ORIGEN, JEROME, and the Talmud. The oneness of tone throughout and the repetition of favorite expressions exclude the suspicion that separate portions are not genuine. The earlier portion, the first through the thirty-second chapters, which mainly treats of sin and judgment, is a key to interpret the latter portion, which is more hopeful and joyous, but remote in date. Thus a unity and an orderly progressive character are imparted to the whole. The destruction of Jerusalem is the central point. Previous to this he calls to repentance and warns against blind confidence in Egypt (Eze 17:15-17; compare Jer 37:7) or other human stay. After it he consoles the captives by promising them future deliverance and restoration. His prophecies against foreign nations stand between these two great divisions, and were uttered in the interval between the intimation that Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem and the arrival of the news that he had taken it (Eze 33:21). HAVERNICK marks out nine sections:--(1) Ezekiel's call to prophesy (Eze. 1:1-3:15). (2) Symbolical predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem (Eze. 3:16-7:27). (3) A year and two months later a vision of the temple polluted by Tammuz or Adonis worship; God's consequent scattering of fire over the city and forsaking of the temple to reveal Himself to an inquiring people in exile; happier and purer times to follow (Eze. 8:1-11:25). (4) Exposure of the particular sins prevalent in the several classes--priests, prophets, and princes (Eze. 12:1-19:14). (5) A year later the warning of judgment for national guilt repeated with greater distinctness as the time drew nearer (Eze. 20:1-23:49). (6) Two years and five months later--the very day on which Ezekiel speaks--is announced as the day of the beginning of the siege; Jerusalem shall be overthrown (Eze. 24:1-27). (7) Predictions against foreign nations during the interval of his silence towards his own people; if judgment begins at the house of God, much more will it visit the ungodly world (Eze. 25:1-32:32). Some of these were uttered much later than others, but they all began to be given after the fall of Jerusalem. (8) In the twelfth year of the captivity, when the fugitives from Jerusalem (Eze 33:21) had appeared in Chaldea, he foretells better times and the re-establishment of Israel and the triumph of God's kingdom on earth over its enemies, Seir, the heathen, and Gog (Eze. 33:1-39:29). (9) After an interval of thirteen years the closing vision of the order and beauty of the restored kingdom (Eze. 40:1-48:35). The particularity of details as to the temple and its offerings rather discountenances the view of this vision being only symbolical, and not at all literal. The event alone can clear it up. At all events it has not yet been fulfilled; it must be future. Ezekiel was the only prophet (in the strict sense) among the Jews at Babylon. Daniel was rather a seer than a prophet, for the spirit of prophecy was given him to qualify him, not for a spiritual office, but for disclosing future events. His position in a heathen king's palace fitted him for revelations of the outward relations of God's kingdom to the kingdoms of the world, so that his book is ranked by the Jews among the Hagiographa or \"Sacred Writings,\" not among the prophetical Scriptures. On the other hand, Ezekiel was distinctively a prophet, and one who had to do with the inward concerns of the divine kingdom. As a priest, when sent into exile, his service was but transferred from the visible temple at Jerusalem to the spiritual temple in Chaldea. \n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 1\n\n","order":26,"numberOfChapters":48,"sha256":"77a36f7a59a5d4db239b980af31f7a75c9b226da690c4d0154330b6770f5cfc5","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":48,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/48.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":48},"totalNumberOfVerses":932},"chapter":{"number":22,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["sheddeth blood . . . that her time may come--Instead of deriving advantage from her bloody sacrifices to idols, she only thereby brought on herself \"the time\" of her punishment. \n\nagainst herself-- (Pro 8:36).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["thy days--the shorter period, namely, that of the siege. \n\nthy years--the longer period of the captivity. The \"days\" and \"years\" express that she is ripe for punishment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["infamous--They mockingly call thee, \"Thou polluted one in name (Margin), and full of confusion\" [FAIRBAIRN], (referring to the tumultuous violence prevalent in it). Thus the nations \"far and near\" mocked her as at once sullied in character and in actual fact lawless. What a sad contrast to the Jerusalem once designated \"'the holy city!\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Rather, \"The princes . . . each according to his power, were in thee, to shed blood\" (as if this was the only object of their existence). \"Power,\" literally, \"arm\"; they, who ought to have been patterns of justice, made their own arm of might their only law.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["set light by--Children have made light of, disrespected, father . . . (Deu 27:16). At Eze 22:7-12 are enumerated the sins committed in violation of Moses' law.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["men that carry tales--informers, who by misrepresentations cause innocent blood to be shed (Lev 19:16). Literally, \"one who goes to and fro as a merchant.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["set apart for pollution--that is, set apart as unclean (Lev 18:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["forgotten me-- (Deu 32:18; Jer 2:32; Jer 3:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["smitten mine hand--in token of the indignant vengeance which I will execute on thee (see on Eze 21:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["(Eze 21:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["consume thy filthiness out of thee--the object of God in scattering the Jews.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["take thine inheritance in thyself--Formerly thou wast Mine inheritance; but now, full of guilt, thou art no longer Mine, but thine own inheritance to thyself; \"in the sight of the heathen,\" that is, even they shall see that, now that thou hast become a captive, thou art no longer owned as Mine [VATABLUS]. FAIRBAIRN and others needlessly take the Hebrew from a different root, \"thou shalt be polluted by ('in,' [HENDERSON]) thyself,\" &c.; the heathen shall regard thee as a polluted thing, who hast brought thine own reproach on thyself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["dross . . . brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isa 1:22, especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated (Jer 6:29-30).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["From this verse to the end he shows the general corruption of all ranks.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["land . . . not cleansed--not cleared or cultivated; all a scene of desolation; a fit emblem of the moral wilderness state of the people. \n\nnor rained upon--a mark of divine \"indignation\"; as the early and latter rain, on which the productiveness of the land depended, was one of the great covenant blessings. Joel (Joe 2:23) promises the return of the former and latter rain, with the restoration of God's favor.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["conspiracy--The false prophets have conspired both to propagate error and to oppose the messages of God's servants. They are mentioned first, as their bad influence extended the widest. \n\nprey--Their aim was greed of gain, \"treasure, and precious things\" (Hos 6:9; Zep 3:3-4; Mat 23:14). \n\nmade . . . many widows--by occasioning, through false prophecies, the war with the Chaldeans in which the husbands fell.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Her priests--whose \"lips should have kept knowledge\" (Mal 2:7). \n\nviolated--not simply transgressed; but, have done violence to the law, by wresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it. \n\nput no difference between the holy and profane, &c.--made no distinction between the clean and unclean (Lev 10:10), the Sabbath and other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. \"Holy\" means, what is dedicated to God; \"profane,\" what is in common use; \"unclean,\" what is forbidden to be eaten; \"clean,\" what is lawful to be eaten. \n\nI am profaned among them--They abuse My name to false or unjust purposes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["princes--who should have employed the influence of their position for the people's welfare, made \"gain\" their sole aim. \n\nwolves--notorious for fierce and ravening cruelty (Mic 3:2-3, Mic 3:9-11; Joh 10:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Referring to the false assurances of peace with which the prophets flattered the people, that they should not submit to the king of Babylon (see on Eze 13:10; Eze 21:29; Jer 6:14; Jer 23:16-17; Jer 27:9-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["The people--put last, after the mention of those in office. Corruption had spread downwards through the whole community. \n\nwrongfully--that is, \"without cause,\" gratuitously, without the stranger proselyte giving any just provocation; nay, he of all others being one who ought to have been won to the worship of Jehovah by kindness, instead of being alienated by oppression; especially as the Israelites were commanded to remember that they themselves had been \"strangers in Egypt\" (Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["the hedge--the wall (see on Eze 13:5); image for leading the people to repentance. \n\nthe gap--the breach (Psa 106:23); image for interceding between the people and God (Gen 20:7; Exo 32:11; Num 16:48). \n\nI found none-- (Jer 5:1) --not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. For Jeremiah, Baruch, &c., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people (Jer 11:14), as being doomed to wrath. None now, of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none \"among them,\" that is, among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins (Eze 22:25-29), was morally able for such an office.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["their own way . . . recompensed upon their heads-- (Eze 9:10; Eze 11:21; Eze 16:43; Pro 1:31; Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19).\n\nThe imagery is similar to that in the sixteenth chapter; but here the reference is not as there so much to the breach of the spiritual marriage covenant with God by the people's idolatries, as by their worldly spirit, and their trusting to alliances with the heathen for safety, rather than to God.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 23\n\n"]}],"introduction":"GOD'S JUDGMENT ON THE SINFULNESS OF JERUSALEM. (Eze. 22:1-31)\n\nSee Eze 20:4; that is, \"Wilt thou not judge?\" &c. (compare Eze 23:36). \n\nthe bloody city--literally, \"the city of bloods\"; so called on account of murders perpetrated in her, and sacrifices of children to Molech (Eze 22:3-4, Eze 22:6, Eze 22:9; Eze 24:6, Eze 24:9).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/22.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":22},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/23.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":23},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/21.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":21},"numberOfVerses":22}