{"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":28,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Ezekiel ironically alludes to Ithbaal's overweening opinion of the wisdom of himself and the Tyrians, as though superior to that of Daniel, whose fame had reached even Tyre as eclipsing the Chaldean sages. \"Thou art wiser,\" namely, in thine own opinion (Zac 9:2). \n\nno secret--namely, forgetting riches (Eze 28:4). \n\nthat they can hide--that is, that can be hidden.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["(Psa 62:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Because, &c.--resumptive of Eze 28:2.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["therefore--apodosis. \n\nstrangers . . . terrible of the nations--the Chaldean foreigners noted for their ferocity (Eze 30:11; Eze 31:12). \n\nagainst the beauty of thy wisdom--that is, against thy beautiful possessions acquired by thy wisdom on which thou pridest thyself (Eze 28:3-5). \n\ndefile thy brightness--obscure the brightness of thy kingdom.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["the pit--that is, the bottom of the sea; the image being that of one conquered in a sea-fight. \n\nthe deaths--plural, as various kinds of deaths are meant (Jer 16:4). \n\nof them . . . slain--literally, \"pierced through.\" Such deaths as those pierced with many wounds die.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["yet say--that is, still say; referring to Eze 28:2. \n\nbut, &c.--But thy blasphemous boastings shall be falsified, and thou shalt be shown to be but man, and not God, in the hand (at the mercy) of Him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["deaths of . . . uncircumcised--that is, such a death as the uncircumcised or godless heathen deserve; and perhaps, also, such as the uncircumcised inflict, a great ignominy in the eyes of a Jew (Sa1 31:4); a fit retribution on him who had scoffed at the circumcised Jews.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["sealest up the sum--literally, \"Thou art the one sealing the sum of perfection.\" A thing is sealed when completed (Dan 9:24). \"The sum\" implies the full measure of beauty, from a Hebrew root, \"to measure.\" The normal man--one formed after accurate rule.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["in Eden--The king of Tyre is represented in his former high state (contrasted with his subsequent downfall), under images drawn from the primeval man in Eden, the type of humanity in its most Godlike form. \n\ngarden of God--the model of ideal loveliness (Eze 31:8-9; Eze 36:35). In the person of the king of Tyre a new trial was made of humanity with the greatest earthly advantages. But as in the case of Adam, the good gifts of God were only turned into ministers to pride and self. \n\nevery precious stone--so in Eden (Gen 2:12), \"gold, bdellium, and the onyx stone.\" So the king of Tyre was arrayed in jewel-bespangled robes after the fashion of Oriental monarchs. The nine precious stones here mentioned answer to nine of the twelve (representing the twelve tribes) in the high priest's breastplate (Exo 39:10-13; Rev 21:14, Rev 21:19-21). Of the four rows of three in each, the third is omitted in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the Septuagint. In this, too, there is an ulterior reference to Antichrist, who is blasphemously to arrogate the office of our divine High Priest (Zac 6:13). \n\ntabrets--tambourines. \n\npipes--literally, \"holes\" in musical pipes or flutes. \n\ncreated--that is, in the day of thine accession to the throne. Tambourines and all the marks of joy were ready prepared for thee (\"in thee,\" that is, \"with and for thee\"). Thou hadst not, like others, to work thy way to the throne through arduous struggles. No sooner created than, like Adam, thou wast surrounded with the gratifications of Eden. FAIRBAIRN, for \"pipes,\" translates, \"females\" (having reference to Gen 1:27), that is, musician-women. MAURER explains the Hebrew not as to music, but as to the setting and mounting of the gems previously mentioned.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["anointed cherub--GESENIUS translates from an Aramaic root, \"extended cherub.\" English Version, from a Hebrew root, is better. \"The cherub consecrated to the Lord by the anointing oil\" [FAIRBAIRN]. \n\ncovereth--The imagery employed by Ezekiel as a priest is from the Jewish temple, wherein the cherubim overshadowed the mercy seat, as the king of Tyre, a demi-god in his own esteem, extended his protection over the interests of Tyre. The cherub--an ideal compound of the highest kinds of animal existence and the type of redeemed man in his ultimate state of perfection--is made the image of the king of Tyre, as if the beau ideal of humanity. The pretensions of Antichrist are the ulterior reference, of whom the king of Tyre is a type. Compare \"As God . . . in the temple of God\" (Th2 2:4). \n\nI have set thee--not thou set thyself (Pro 8:16; Rom 13:1). \n\nupon the holy mountain of God--Zion, following up the image. \n\nin . . . midst of . . . stones of fire--In ambitious imagination he stood in the place of God, \"under whose feet was, as it were, a pavement of sapphire,\" while His glory was like \"devouring fire\" (Exo 24:10, Exo 24:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["perfect--prosperous [GROTIUS], and having no defect. So Hiram was a sample of the Tyrian monarch in his early days of wisdom and prosperity (Kg1 5:7, &c.). \n\ntill iniquity . . . in thee--Like the primeval man thou hast fallen by abusing God's gifts, and so hast provoked God's wrath.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["filled the midst of thee--that is, they have filled the midst of the city; he as the head of the state being involved in the guilt of the state, which he did not check, but fostered. \n\ncast thee as profane--no longer treated as sacred, but driven out of the place of sanctity (see Eze 28:14) which thou hast occupied (compare Psa 89:39).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["brightness--thy splendor. \n\nlay thee before kings--as an example of God's wrath against presumptuous pride.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["thy sanctuaries--that is, the holy places, attributed to the king of Tyre in Eze 28:14, as his ideal position. As he \"profaned\" it, so God will \"profane\" him (Eze 28:16). \n\nfire . . . devour--As he abused his supposed elevation amidst \"the stones of fire\" (Eze 28:16), so God will make His \"fire\" to \"devour\" him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Zidon--famous for its fishery (from a root, Zud, \"to fish\"); and afterwards for its wide extended commerce; its artistic elegance was proverbial. Founded by Canaan's first-born (Gen 10:15). Tyre was an offshoot from it, so that it was involved in the same overthrow by the Chaldeans as Tyre. It is mentioned separately, because its idolatry (Ashtaroth, Tammuz, or Adonis) infected Israel more than that of Tyre did (Eze 8:14; Jdg 10:6; Kg1 11:33). The notorious Jezebel was a daughter of the Zidonian king.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["shall be sanctified in her--when all nations shall see that I am the Holy Judge in the vengeance that I will inflict on her for sin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["no more . . . brier . . . unto . . . Israel--as the idolatrous nations left in Canaan (among which Zidon is expressly specified in the limits of Asher, Jdg 1:31) had been (Num 33:55; Jos 23:13). \"A brier,\" first ensnaring the Israelites in sin, and then being made the instrument of punishing them. \n\npricking--literally, \"causing bitterness.\" The same Hebrew is translated \"fretting\" (Lev 13:51-52). The wicked are often called \"thorns\" (Sa2 23:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Fulfilled in part at the restoration from Babylon, when Judaism, so far from being merged in heathenism, made inroads by conversions on the idolatry of surrounding nations. The full accomplishment is yet future, when Israel, under Christ, shall be the center of Christendom; of which an earnest was given in the woman from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon who sought the Saviour (Mat 15:21, Mat 15:24, Mat 15:26-28; compare Isa 11:12). \n\ndwell safely-- (Jer 23:6).\n\nThis is the last of the world kingdoms against which Ezekiel's prophecies are directed, and occupies the largest space in them, namely, the next four chapters. Though farther off than Tyre, it exercised a more powerful influence on Israel.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 29\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PROPHETICAL DIRGE ON THE KING OF TYRE, AS THE CULMINATION AND EMBODIMENT OF THE SPIRIT OF CARNAL PRIDE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF THE WHOLE STATE. THE FALL OF ZIDON, THE MOTHER CITY. THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL IN CONTRAST WITH TYRE AND ZIDON. (Eze. 28:1-26)\n\nBecause, &c.--repeated resumptively in Eze 28:6. The apodosis begins at Eze 28:7. \"The prince of Tyrus\" at the time was Ithobal, or Ithbaal II; the name implying his close connection with Baal, the Phœnician supreme god, whose representative he was. \n\nI am a god, I sit in . . . seat of God . . . the seas--As God sits enthroned in His heavenly citadel exempt from all injury, so I sit secure in my impregnable stronghold amidst the stormiest elements, able to control them at will, and make them subserve my interests. The language, though primarily here applied to the king of Tyre, as similar language is to the king of Babylon (Isa 14:13-14), yet has an ulterior and fuller accomplishment in Satan and his embodiment in Antichrist (Dan 7:25; Dan 11:36-37; Th2 2:4; Rev 13:6). This feeling of superhuman elevation in the king of Tyre was fostered by the fact that the island on which Tyre stood was called \"the holy island\" [SANCONIATHON], being sacred to Hercules, so much so that the colonies looked up to Tyre as the mother city of their religion, as well as of their political existence. The Hebrew for \"God\" is El, that is, \"the Mighty One.\" \n\nyet, &c.--keen irony. \n\nset thine heart as . . . heart of God--Thou thinkest of thyself as if thou wert God.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/28.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":28},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/29.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":29},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/27.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":27},"numberOfVerses":18}