{"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":3,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["honey for sweetness--Compare Psa 19:10; Psa 119:103; Rev 10:9, where, as here in Eze 3:14, the \"sweetness\" is followed by \"bitterness.\" The former being due to the painful nature of the message; the latter because it was the Lord's service which he was engaged in; and his eating the roll and finding it sweet, implied that, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he made God's will his will, however painful the message that God might require him to announce. The fact that God would be glorified was his greatest pleasure.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["See Margin, Hebrew, \"deep of lip, and heavy of tongue,\" that is, men speaking an obscure and unintelligible tongue. Even they would have listened to the prophet; but the Jews, though addressed in their own tongue, will not hear him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["many people--It would have increased the difficulty had he been sent, not merely to one, but to \"many people\" differing in tongues, so that the missionary would have needed to acquire a new tongue for addressing each. The after mission of the apostles to many peoples, and the gift of tongues for that end, are foreshadowed (compare Co1 14:21 with Isa 28:11). \n\nhad I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened-- (Mat 11:21, Mat 11:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["will not hearken unto thee: for . . . not . . . me-- (Joh 15:20). Take patiently their rejection of thee, for I thy Lord bear it along with thee.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Ezekiel means one \"strengthened by God.\" Such he was in godly firmness, in spite of his people's opposition, according to the divine command to the priest tribe to which he belonged (Deu 33:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["As . . . flint--so Messiah the antitype (Isa 50:7; compare Jer 1:8, Jer 1:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["receive in . . . heart . . . ears--The transposition from the natural order, namely, first receiving with the ears, then in the heart, is designed. The preparation of the heart for God's message should precede the reception of it with the ears (compare Pro 16:1; Psa 10:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["thy people--who ought to be better disposed to hearken to thee, their fellow countryman, than hadst thou been a foreigner (Eze 3:5-6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Act 8:39). Ezekiel's abode heretofore had not been the most suitable for his work. He, therefore, is guided by the Spirit to Tel-Abib, the chief town of the Jewish colony of captives: there he sat on the ground, \"the throne of the miserable\" (Ezr 9:3; Lam 1:1-3), seven days, the usual period for manifesting deep grief (Job 2:13; see Psa 137:1), thus winning their confidence by sympathy in their sorrow. He is accompanied by the cherubim which had been manifested at Chebar (Eze 1:3-4), after their departure from Jerusalem. They now are heard moving with the \"voice of a great rushing (compare Act 2:2), saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place,\" that is, moving from the place in which it had been at Chebar, to accompany Ezekiel to his new destination (Eze 9:3); or, \"from His place\" may rather mean, in His place and manifested \"from\" it. Though God may seem to have forsaken His temple, He is still in it and will restore His people to it. His glory is \"blessed,\" in opposition to those Jews who spoke evil of Him, as if He had been unjustly rigorous towards their nation [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["touched--literally, \"kissed,\" that is, closely embraced. \n\nnoise of a great rushing--typical of great disasters impending over the Jews.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["bitterness--sadness on account of the impending calamities of which I was required to be the unwelcome messenger. But the \"hand,\" or powerful impulse of Jehovah, urged me forward.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Tel-Abib--Tel means an \"elevation.\" It is identified by MICHAELIS with Thallaba on the Chabor. Perhaps the name expressed the Jew's hopes of restoration, or else the fertility of the region. Abib means the green ears of corn which appeared in the month Nisan, the pledge of the harvest. \n\nI sat, &c.--This is the Hebrew Margin reading. The text is rather, \"I beheld them sitting there\" [GESENIUS]; or, \"And those that were settled there,\" namely, the older settlers, as distinguished from the more recent ones alluded to in the previous clause. The ten tribes had been long since settled on the Chabor or Habor (Kg2 17:6) [HAVERNICK].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["watchman--Ezekiel alone, among the prophets, is called a \"watchman,\" not merely to sympathize, but to give timely warning of danger to his people where none was suspected. Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) speaks of standing upon his \"watch,\" but it was only in order to be on the lookout for the manifestation of God's power (so Isa 52:8; Isa 62:6); not as Ezekiel, to act as a watchman to others.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["warning . . . speakest to warn--The repetition implies that it is not enough to warn once in passing, but that the warning is to be inculcated continually (Ti2 4:2, \"in season, out of season\"; Act 20:31, \"night and day with tears\"). \n\nsave--Eze 2:5 had seemingly taken away all hope of salvation; but the reference there was to the mass of the people whose case was hopeless; a few individuals, however, were reclaimable. \n\ndie in . . . iniquity-- (Joh 8:21, Joh 8:24). Men are not to flatter themselves that their ignorance, owing to the negligence of their teachers, will save them (Rom 2:12, \"As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law\").\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["wickedness . . . wicked way--internal wickedness of heart, and external of the life, respectively. \n\ndelivered thy soul-- (Isa 49:4-5; Act 20:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["righteous . . . turn from . . . righteousness--not one \"righteous\" as to the root and spirit of regeneration (Psa 89:33; Psa 138:8; Isa 26:12; Isa 27:3; Joh 10:28; Phi 1:6), but as to its outward appearance and performances. So the \"righteous\" (Pro 18:17; Mat 9:13). As in Eze 3:19 the minister is required to lead the wicked to good, so in Eze 3:20 he is to confirm the well-disposed in their duty. \n\ncommit iniquity--that is, give himself up wholly to it (Jo1 3:8-9), for even the best often fall, but not wilfully and habitually. \n\nI lay a stumbling-block--not that God tempts to sin (Jam 1:13-14), but God gives men over to judicial blindness, and to their own corruptions (Psa 9:16-17; Psa 94:23) when they \"like not to retain God in their knowledge\" (Rom 1:24, Rom 1:26); just as, on the contrary, God makes \"the way of the righteous plain\" (Pro 4:11-12; Pro 15:19), so that they do \"not stumble.\" CALVIN refers \"stumbling-block\" not to the guilt, but to its punishment; \"I bring ruin on him.\" The former is best. Ahab, after a kind of righteousness (Kg1 21:27-29), relapsed and consulted lying spirits in false prophets; so God permitted one of these to be his \"stumbling-block,\" both to sin and its corresponding punishment (Kg1 22:21-23). \n\nhis blood will I require-- (Heb 13:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["hand of the Lord-- (Eze 1:3). \n\ngo . . . into the plain--in order that he might there, in a place secluded from unbelieving men, receive a fresh manifestation of the divine glory, to inspirit him for his trying work.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["glory of the Lord-- (Eze 1:28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["set me upon my feet--having been previously prostrate and unable to rise until raised by the divine power. \n\nshut thyself within . . . house--implying that in the work he had to do, he must look for no sympathy from man but must be often alone with God and draw his strength from Him [FAIRBAIRN]. \"Do not go out of thy house till I reveal the future to thee by signs and words,\" which God does in the following chapters, down to the eleventh. Thus a representation was given of the city shut up by siege [GROTIUS]. Thereby God proved the obedience of His servant, and Ezekiel showed the reality of His call by proceeding, not through rash impulse, but by the directions of God [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["put bands upon thee--not literally, but spiritually, the binding, depressing influence which their rebellious conduct would exert on his spirit. Their perversity, like bands, would repress his freedom in preaching; as in Co2 6:12, Paul calls himself \"straitened\" because his teaching did not find easy access to them. Or else, it is said to console the prophet for being shut up; if thou wert now at once to announce God's message, they would rush on thee and bind them with \"bands\" [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["I will make my tongue . . . dumb--Israel had rejected the prophets; therefore God deprives Israel of the prophets and of His word--God's sorest judgment (Sa1 7:2; Amo 8:11-12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["when I speak . . . I will open thy mouth--opposed to the silence imposed on the prophet, to punish the people (Eze 3:26). After the interval of silence has awakened their attention to the cause of it, namely, their sins, they may then hearken to the prophecies which they would not do before. \n\nHe that heareth, let him hear . . . forbear--that is, thou hast done thy part, whether they hear or forbear. He who shall forbear to hear, it shall be at his own peril; he who hears, it shall be to his own eternal good (compare Rev 22:11).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 4\n\n"]}],"introduction":"EZEKIEL EATS THE ROLL. IS COMMISSIONED TO GO TO THEM OF THE CAPTIVITY AND GOES TO TEL-ABIB BY THE CHEBAR: AGAIN BEHOLDS THE SHEKINAH GLORY: IS TOLD TO RETIRE TO HIS HOUSE, AND ONLY SPEAK WHEN GOD OPENS HIS MOUTH. (Eze. 3:1-27)\n\neat . . . and . . . speak--God's messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before he \"speaks\" it to others (see on Eze 2:8). Symbolic actions were, when possible and proper, performed outwardly; otherwise, internally and in spiritual vision, the action so narrated making the naked statement more intuitive and impressive by presenting the subject in a concentrated, embodied form.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/3.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":3},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/4.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":4},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/2.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":2},"numberOfVerses":22}