{"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":23,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Even so early in their history as their Egyptian sojourn, they committed idolatries (see on Eze 20:6-8; Jos 24:14). \n\nin their youth--an aggravation of their sin. It was at the very time of their receiving extraordinary favors from God (Eze 16:6, Eze 16:22). \n\nthey bruised--namely, the Egyptians.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Aholah--that is, \"Her tent\" (put for worship, as the first worship of God in Israel was in a tent or tabernacle), as contrasted with Aholibah, that is, \"My tent in her.\" The Beth-el worship of Samaria was of her own devising, not of God's appointment; the temple-worship of Jerusalem was expressly appointed by Jehovah, who \"dwelt\" there, \"setting up His tabernacle among the people as His\" (Exo 25:8; Lev 26:11-12; Jos 22:19; Psa 76:2). \n\nthe elder--Samaria is called \"the elder\" because she preceded Judah in her apostasy and its punishment. \n\nthey were mine--Previous to apostasy under Jeroboam, Samaria (Israel, or the ten tribes), equally with Judah, worshipped the true God. God therefore never renounced the right over Israel, but sent prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, to declare His will to them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["when . . . mine--literally, \"under Me,\" that is, subject to Me as her lawful husband. \n\nneighbours--On the northeast the kingdom of Israel bordered on that of Assyria; for the latter had occupied much of Syria. Their neighborhood in locality was emblematical of their being near in corruption of morals and worship. The alliances of Israel with Assyria, which are the chief subject of reprobation here, tended to this (Kg2 15:19; Kg2 16:7, Kg2 16:9; Kg2 17:3; Hos 8:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["blue--rather, \"purple\" [FAIRBAIRN]. As a lustful woman's passions are fired by showy dress and youthful appearance in men, so Israel was seduced by the pomp and power of Assyria (compare Isa 10:8). \n\nhorsemen--cavaliers.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["all their idols--There was nothing that she refused to her lovers.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["whoredoms brought from Egypt--the calves set up in Dan and Beth-el by Jeroboam, answering to the Egyptian bull-formed idol Apis. Her alliances with Egypt politically are also meant (Isa 30:2-3; Isa 31:1). The ten tribes probably resumed the Egyptian rites, in order to enlist the Egyptians against Judah (Ch2 12:2-4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["God, in righteous retribution, turned their objects of trust into the instruments of their punishment: Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Esar-haddon, and Shalmaneser (Kg2 15:19, Kg2 15:29; Kg2 17:3, Kg2 17:6, Kg2 17:24; Ezr 4:2, Ezr 4:10). \"It was their sin to have sought after such lovers, and it was to be their punishment that these lovers should become their destroyers\" [FAIRBAIRN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["became famous--literally, \"she became a name,\" that is, as notorious by her punishment as she had been by her sins, so as to be quoted as a warning to others. \n\nwomen--that is, neighboring peoples.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Judah, the southern kingdom, though having the \"warning\" (see on Eze 23:10) of the northern kingdom before her eyes, instead of profiting by it, went to even greater lengths in corruption than Israel. Her greater spiritual privileges made her guilt the greater (Eze 16:47, Eze 16:51; Jer 3:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Eze 23:6, Eze 23:23). \n\nmost gorgeously--literally, \"to perfection.\" GROTIUS translates, \"wearing a crown,\" or \"chaplet,\" such as lovers wore in visiting their mistresses.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["one way--both alike forsaking God for heathen confidences.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["vermilion--the peculiar color of the Chaldeans, as purple was of the Assyrians. In striking agreement with this verse is the fact that the Assyrian sculptures lately discovered have painted and colored bas-reliefs in red, blue, and black. The Jews (for instance Jehoiakim, Jer 22:14) copied these (compare Eze 8:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["exceeding in dyed attire--rather, \"in ample dyed turbans\"; literally, \"redundant with dyed turbans.\" The Assyrians delighted in ample, flowing, and richly colored tunics, scarfs, girdles, and head-dresses or turbans, varying in ornaments according to the rank. \n\nChaldea, . . . land of their nativity--between the Black and Caspian Seas (see on Isa 23:13). \n\nprinces--literally, a first-rate military class that fought by threes in the chariots, one guiding the horses, the other two fighting.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["sent messengers . . . into Chaldea-- (Eze 16:29). It was she that solicited the Chaldeans, not they her. Probably the occasion was when Judah sought to strengthen herself by a Chaldean alliance against a menaced attack by Egypt (compare Kg2 23:29-35; Kg2 24:1-7). God made the object of their sinful desire the instrument of their punishment. Jehoiakim, probably by a stipulation of tribute, enlisted Nebuchadnezzar against Pharaoh, whose tributary he previously had been; failing to keep his stipulation, he brought on himself Nebuchadnezzar's vengeance.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["alienated from them--namely, from the Chaldeans: turning again to the Egyptians (Eze 23:19), trying by their help to throw off her solemn engagements to Babylon (compare Jer 37:5, Jer 37:7; Kg2 24:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["my mind was alienated from her--literally, \"was broken off from her.\" Just retribution for \"her mind being alienated (broken off) from the Chaldeans\" (Eze 23:17), to whom she had sworn fealty (Eze 17:12-19). \"Discovered\" implies the open shamelessness of her apostasy.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Israel first \"called\" her lusts, practised when in Egypt, \"to her (fond) remembrance,\" and then actually returned to them. Mark the danger of suffering the memory to dwell on the pleasure felt in past sins.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["their paramours--that is, her paramours among them (the Egyptians); she doted upon their persons as her paramours (Eze 23:5, Eze 23:12, Eze 23:16). \n\nflesh--the membrum virile (very large in the ass). Compare Lev 15:2, Margin; Eze 16:26. \n\nissue of horses--the seminal issue. The horse was made by the Egyptians the hieroglyphic for a lustful person.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["calledst to remembrance--\"didst repeat\" [MAURER]. \n\nin bruising--in suffering . . . to be bruised.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["lovers . . . alienated-- (Eze 23:17). Illicit love, soon or late, ends in open hatred (Sa2 13:15). The Babylonians, the objects formerly of their God-forgetting love, but now, with characteristic fickleness, objects of their hatred, shall be made by God the instruments of their punishment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Pekod, &c.-- (Jer 50:21). Not a geographical name, but descriptive of Babylon. \"Visitation,\" peculiarly the land of \"judgment\"; in a double sense: actively, the inflicter of judgment on Judah; passively, as about to be afterwards herself the object of judgment. \n\nShoa . . . Koa--\"rich . . . noble\"; descriptive of Babylon in her prosperity, having all the world's wealth and dignity at her disposal. MAURER suggests that, as descriptive appellatives are subjoined to the proper name, \"all the Assyrians\" in the second hemistich of the verse (as the verse ought to be divided at \"Koa\"), so Pekod, Shoa, and Koa must be appellatives descriptive of \"The Babylonians and . . . Chaldeans\" in the first hemistich; \"Pekod\" meaning \"prefects\"; Shoa . . . Koa, \"rich . . . princely.\" \n\ndesirable young men--strong irony. Alluding to Eze 23:12, these \"desirable young men\" whom thou didst so \"dote upon\" for their manly vigor of appearance, shall by that very vigor be the better able to chastise thee.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["with chariots--or, \"with armaments\"; so the Septuagint; \"axes\" [MAURER]; or, joining it with \"wagons,\" translate, \"with scythe-armed wagons,\" or \"chariots\" [GROTIUS]. \n\nweels--The unusual height of these increased their formidable appearance (Eze 1:16-20). \n\ntheir judgments--which awarded barbarously severe punishments (Jer 52:9; Jer 29:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["take away thy nose . . . ears--Adulteresses were punished so among the Egyptians and Chaldeans. Oriental beauties wore ornaments in the ear and nose. How just the retribution, that the features most bejewelled should be mutilated! So, allegorically as to Judah, the spiritual adulteress.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["strip . . . of . . . clothes--whereby she attracted her paramours (Eze 16:39).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["Thus . . . make . . . lewdness to cease--The captivity has made the Jews ever since abhor idolatry, not only on their return from Babylon, but for the last nineteen centuries of their dispersion, as foretold (Hos 3:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["(Eze 23:17-18; Eze 16:37).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["take away . . . thy labour--that is, the fruits of thy labor. \n\nleave thee naked--as captive females are treated.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["her cup--of punishment (Psa 11:6; Psa 75:8; Jer 25:15, &c.). Thy guilt and that of Israel being alike, your punishment shall be alike.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["break . . . sherds--So greedily shalt thou suck out every drop like one drinking to madness (the effect invariably ascribed to drinking God's cup of wrath, Jer 51:7; Hab 2:16) that thou shalt crunch the very shreds of it; that is, there shall be no evil left which thou shalt not taste. \n\npluck off thine own breasts--enraged against them as the ministers to thine adultery.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["forgotten me-- (Jer 2:32; Jer 13:25). \n\ncast me behind thy back-- (Kg1 14:9; Neh 9:26). \n\nbear . . . thy lewdness--that is, its penal consequences (Pro 1:31).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["A summing up of the sins of the two sisters, especially those of Judah. \n\nwilt thou judge--Wilt thou (not) judge (see on Eze 20:4)?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["the same day--On the very day that they had burned their children to Molech in the valley of Gehenna, they shamelessly and hypocritically presented themselves as worshippers in Jehovah's temple (Jer 7:9-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["messenger was sent--namely, by Judah (Eze 23:16; Isa 57:9). \n\npaintedst . . . eyes-- (Kg2 9:30, Margin; Jer 4:30). Black paint was spread on the eyelids of beauties to make the white of the eye more attractive by the contrast, so Judah left no seductive art untried.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["bed--divan. While men reclined at table, women sat, as it seemed indelicate for them to lie down (Amo 6:4) [GROTIUS]. \n\ntable--that is, the idolatrous altar. \n\nmine incense--which I had given thee, and which thou oughtest to have offered to Me (Eze 16:18-19; Hos 2:8; compare Pro 7:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":42,"content":["Sabeans--Not content with the princely, handsome Assyrians, the sisters brought to themselves the rude robber hordes of Sabeans (Job 1:15). The Keri, or Margin, reads \"drunkards.\" \n\nupon their hands--upon the hands of the sisters, that is, they allured Samaria and Judah to worship their gods.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":43,"content":["Will they, &c.--Is it possible that paramours will desire any longer to commit whoredoms with so worn-out an old adulteress?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":45,"content":["the righteous men--the Chaldeans; the executioners of God's righteous vengeance (Eze 16:38), not that they were \"righteous\" in themselves (Hab 1:3, Hab 1:12-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":46,"content":["a company--properly, \"a council of judges\" passing sentence on a criminal [GROTIUS]. The \"removal\" and \"spoiling\" by the Chaldean army is the execution of the judicial sentence of God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":47,"content":["stones--the legal penalty of the adulteress (Eze 16:40-41; Joh 8:5). Answering to the stones hurled by the Babylonians from engines in besieging Jerusalem. \n\nhouses . . . fire--fulfilled (Ch2 36:17, Ch2 36:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":48,"content":["(Eze 23:27). \n\nthat all . . . may be taught not to do, &c.-- (Deu 13:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":49,"content":["bear the sins of your idols--that is, the punishment of your idolatry. \n\nknow that I am the Lord God--that is, know it to your cost . . . by bitter suffering.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 24\n\n"]}],"introduction":"ISRAEL'S AND JUDAH'S SIN AND PUNISHMENT ARE PARABOLICALLY PORTRAYED UNDER THE NAMES AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH. (Eze. 23:1-49)\n\ntwo . . . of one mother--Israel and Judah, one nation by birth from the same ancestress, Sarah.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/23.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":23},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/24.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":24},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/22.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":22},"numberOfVerses":41}