{"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":24,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["set himself--laid siege; \"lay against.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["pot--caldron. Alluding to the self-confident proverb used among the people, Eze 11:3 (see on Eze 11:3), \"This city is the caldron and we be the flesh\"; your proverb shall prove awfully true, but in a different sense from what you intend. So far from the city proving an iron, caldron-like defense from the fire, it shall be as a caldron set on the fire, and the people as so many pieces of meat subjected to boiling heat. See Jer 1:13.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["pieces thereof--those which properly belong to it, as its own. \n\nevery good piece . . . choice bones--that is the most distinguished of the people. The \"choice bones\" in the pot have flesh adhering to them. The bones under the pot (Eze 24:5) are those having no flesh and used as fuel, answering to the poorest who suffer first, and are put out of pain sooner than the rich who endure what answers to the slower process of boiling.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["burn . . . bones--rather, \"pile the bones.\" Literally, \"Let there be a round pile of the bones.\" \n\ntherein--literally, \"in the midst of it.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["scum--not ordinary, but poisonous scum, that is, the people's all-pervading wickedness. \n\nbring it out piece by piece--\"it,\" the contents of the pot; its flesh, that is, \"I will destroy the people of the city, not all at the same time, but by a series of successive attacks.\" Not as FAIRBAIRN, \"on its every piece let it (the poisonous scum) go forth.\" \n\nlet no lot fall upon it--that is, no lot, such as is sometimes cast, to decide who are to be destroyed and who saved (Sa2 8:2; Joe 3:3; Oba 1:11; Nah 3:10). In former carryings away of captives, lots were cast to settle who were to go, and who to stay, but now all alike are to be cast out without distinction of rank, age, or sex.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["upon the top of a rock--or, \"the dry, bare, exposed rock,\" so as to be conspicuous to all. Blood poured on a rock is not so soon absorbed as blood poured on the earth. The law ordered the blood even of a beast or fowl to be \"covered with the dust\" (Lev 17:13); but Jerusalem was so shameless as to be at no pains to cover up the blood of innocent men slain in her. Blood, as the consummation of all sin, presupposes every other form of guilt.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["That it might cause--God purposely let her so shamelessly pour the blood on the bare rock, \"that it might\" the more loudly and openly cry for vengeance from on high; and that the connection between the guilt and the punishment might be the more palpable. The blood of Abel, though the ground received it, still cries to heaven for vengeance (Gen 4:10-11); much more blood shamelessly exposed on the bare rock. \n\nset her blood--She shall be paid back in kind (Mat 7:2). She openly shed blood, and her blood shall openly be shed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["the pile for fire--the hostile materials for the city's destruction.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["spice it well--that the meat may be the more palatable, that is, I will make the foe delight in its destruction as much as one delights in well-seasoned, savory meat. GROTIUS, needlessly departing from the obvious sense, translates, \"Let it be boiled down to a compound.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["set it empty . . . that . . . brass . . . may burn, . . . that . . . scum . . . may be consumed--Even the consumption of the contents is not enough; the caldron itself which is infected by the poisonous scum must be destroyed, that is, the city itself must be destroyed, not merely the inhabitants, just as the very house infected with leprosy was to be destroyed (Lev 14:34-45).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["herself--rather, \"she hath wearied Me out with lies\"; or rather, \"with vain labors\" on My part to purify her without being obliged to have recourse to judgments (compare Isa 43:24; Mal 2:17) [MAURER]. However, English Version gives a good sense (compare Isa 47:13; Isa 57:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["lewdness--determined, deliberate wickedness; from a Hebrew root, \"to purpose.\" \n\nI have purged thee--that is, I have left nothing untried which would tend towards purging thee, by sending prophets to invite thee to repentance, by giving thee the law with all its promises, privileges, and threats. \n\nthou shalt not be purged . . . any more--that is, by My gracious interpositions; thou shalt be left to thine own course to take its fatal consequences.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["go back--desist; relax [FAIRBAIRN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Second part of the vision; announcement of the death of Ezekiel's wife, and prohibition of the usual signs of mourning.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["desire of . . . eyes--his wife: representing the sanctuary (Eze 24:21) in which the Jews so much gloried. The energy and subordination of Ezekiel's whole life to his prophetic office is strikingly displayed in this narrative of his wife's death. It is the only memorable event of his personal history which he records, and this only in reference to his soul-absorbing work. His natural tenderness is shown by that graphic touch, \"the desire of thine eyes.\" What amazing subjection, then, of his individual feeling to his prophetic duty is manifested in the simple statement (Eze 24:18), \"So I spake . . . in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.\" \n\nstroke--a sudden visitation. The suddenness of it enhances the self-control of Ezekiel in so entirely merging individual feeling, which must have been especially acute under such trying circumstances, in the higher claims of duty to God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Forbear to cry--or, \"Lament in silence\"; not forbidding sorrow, but the loud expression of it [GROTIUS]. \n\nno mourning--typical of the universality of the ruin of Jerusalem, which would preclude mourning, such as is usual where calamity is but partial. \"The dead\" is purposely put in the plural, as referring ultimately to the dead who should perish at the taking of Jerusalem; though the singular might have been expected, as Ezekiel's wife was the immediate subject referred to: \"make no mourning,\" such as is usual, \"for the dead, and such as shall be hereafter in Jerusalem\" (Jer 16:5-7). \n\ntire of thine head--thy headdress [FAIRBAIRN]. JEROME explains, \"Thou shalt retain the hair which is usually cut in mourning.\" The fillet, binding the hair about the temples like a chaplet, was laid aside at such times. Uncovering the head was an ordinary sign of mourning in priests; whereas others covered their heads in mourning (Sa2 15:30). The reason was, the priests had their headdress of fine twined linen given them for ornament, and as a badge of office. The high priest, as having on his head the holy anointing oil, was forbidden in any case to lay aside his headdress. But the priests might do so in the case of the death of the nearest relatives (Lev 21:2-3, Lev 21:10). They then put on inferior attire, sprinkling also on their heads dust and ashes (compare Lev 10:6-7). \n\nshoes upon thy feet--whereas mourners went \"barefoot\" (Sa2 15:30). \n\ncover not . . . lips--rather, the \"upper lip,\" with the moustache (Lev 13:45; Mic 3:7). \n\nbread of men--the bread usually brought to mourners by friends in token of sympathy. So the \"cup of consolation\" brought (Jer 16:7). \"Of men\" means such as is usually furnished by men. So Isa 8:1, \"a man's pen\"; Rev 21:17, \"the measure of a man.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["what these things are to us--The people perceive that Ezekiel's strange conduct has a symbolical meaning as to themselves; they ask, \"What is that meaning?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["excellency of your strength--(compare Amo 6:8). The object of your pride and confidence (Jer 7:4, Jer 7:10, Jer 7:14). \n\ndesire of . . . eyes-- (Psa 27:4). The antitype to Ezekiel's wife (Eze 24:16). \n\npitieth--loveth, as pity is akin to love: \"yearned over.\" \n\nProfane--an appropriate word. They had profaned the temple with idolatry; God, in just retribution, will profane it with the Chaldean sword, that is, lay it in the dust, as Ezekiel's wife. \n\nsons . . . daughters . . . left--the children left behind in Judea, when the parents were carried away.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["(Jer 16:6-7). So general shall be the calamity, that all ordinary usages of mourning shall be suspended.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["ye shall not mourn . . . but . . . pine away for your iniquities--The Jews' not mourning was to be not the result of insensibility, any more than Ezekiel's not mourning for his wife was not from want of feeling. They could not in their exile manifest publicly their lamentation, but they would privately \"mourn one to another.\" Their \"iniquities\" would then be their chief sorrow (\"pining away\"), as feeling that these were the cause of their sufferings (compare Lev 26:39; Lam 3:39). The fullest fulfilment is still future (Zac 12:10-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["sign--a typical representative in his own person of what was to befall them (Isa 20:3). \n\nwhen this cometh--alluding probably to their taunt, as if God's word spoken by His prophets would never come to pass. \"Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now\" (Jer 17:15). When the prophecy is fulfilled, \"ye shall know (to your cost) that I am the Lord,\" who thereby show My power and fulfil My word spoken by My prophet (Joh 13:19; Joh 14:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["\"The day\" referred to in these verses is the day of the overthrow of the temple, when the fugitive \"escapes.\" But \"that day,\" in Eze 24:27, is the day on which the fugitive brings the sad news to Ezekiel, at the Chebar. In the interval the prophet suspended his prophecies as to the Jews, as was foretold. Afterwards his mouth was \"opened,\" and no more \"dumb\" (Eze 3:26-27; compare Eze 24:27; Eze 33:21-22).\n\nIf Israel was not spared, much less the heathen utterly corrupt, and having no mixture of truth, such as Israel in its worst state possessed (Pe1 4:17-18). Their ruin was to be utter: Israel's but temporary (Jer 46:28). The nations denounced are seven, the perfect number; implying that God's judgments would visit, not merely these, but the whole round of the heathen foes of God. Babylon is excepted, because she is now for the present viewed as the rod of God's retributive justice, a view too much then lost sight of by those who fretted against her universal supremacy.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 25\n\n"]}],"introduction":"VISION OF THE BOILING CALDRON, AND OF THE DEATH OF EZEKIEL'S WIFE. (Eze. 24:1-27)\n\nEzekiel proves his divine mission by announcing the very day, (\"this same day\") of the beginning of the investment of the city by Nebuchadnezzar; \"the ninth year,\" namely, of Jehoiachin's captivity, \"the tenth day of the tenth month\"; though he was three hundred miles away from Jerusalem among the captives at the Chebar (Kg2 25:1; Jer 39:1).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/24.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":24},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/25.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":25},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/23.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":23},"numberOfVerses":22}