{"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":31,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Whom art thou like--The answer is, Thou art like the haughty king of Assyria; as he was overthrown by the Chaldeans, so shalt thou be by the same.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["He illustrates the pride and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must expect. \n\ncedar in Lebanon--often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare the similar image (Eze 17:3; Dan 4:20-22). \n\nwith a shadowing shroud--with an overshadowing thicket. \n\ntop . . . among . . . thick boughs--rather [HENGSTENBERG], \"among the clouds.\" But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the thick boughs, the large resources of the empire.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["waters . . . little rivers--the Tigris with its branches and \"rivulets,\" or \"conduits\" for irrigation, the source of Assyria's fertility. \"The deep\" is the ever flowing water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's resources, as the \"conduits\" are her colonies.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["when he shot forth--because of the abundant moisture which nourished him in shooting forth. But see Margin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["fowls . . . made . . . nests in . . . boughs--so Eze 17:23; Dan 4:12. The gospel kingdom shall gather all under its covert, for their good and for the glory of God, which the world kingdoms did for evil and for self-aggrandizement (Mat 13:32).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["cedars . . . could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other king eclipsed him. \n\nwere not like--were not comparable to. \n\ngarden of God--As in the case of Tyre (Eze 28:13), the imagery, that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria (Gen 2:10-14). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["I . . . made him--It was all due to My free grace.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["thou . . . he--The change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Here the literal supersedes the figurative. \n\nshall surely deal with him--according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is called \"the mighty one\" (El, a name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment (Dan 2:37-38).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["from his shadow--under which they had formerly dwelt as their covert (Eze 31:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["trees by the waters--that is, that are plentifully supplied by the waters: nations abounding in resources. \n\nstand up in their height--that is, trust in their height: stand upon it as their ground of confidence. FAIRBAIRN points the Hebrew differently, so as for \"their trees,\" to translate, \"(And that none that drink water may stand) on themselves, (because of their greatness).\" But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause, \"All that drink water,\" marks the ground of the trees' confidence \"in their height,\" namely, that they have ample sources of supply. MAURER, retaining the same Hebrew, translates, \"that neither their terebinth trees may stand up in their height, nor all (the other trees) that drink water.\" \n\nto . . . nether . . . earth . . . pit-- (Eze 32:18; Psa 82:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["covered the deep--as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, \"I made the deep that watered the cedar\" to wrap itself in mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of Assyria (Rev 17:15). \n\nfainted--literally, were \"faintness\" (itself); more forcible than the verb.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["hell--Sheol or Hades, the unseen world: equivalent to, \"I cast him into oblivion\" (compare Isa 14:9-11). \n\nshall be comforted--because so great a king as the Assyrian is brought down to a level with them. It is a kind of consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["his arm, that dwelt under his shadow--those who were the helpers or tool of his tyranny, and therefore enjoyed his protection (for example, Syria and her neighbors). These were sure to share her fate. Compare the same phrase as to the Jews living under the protection of their king (Lam 4:20); both alike \"making flesh their arm, and in heart departing from the Lord\" (Jer 17:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Application of the parabolic description of Assyria to the parallel case of Egypt. \"All that has been said of the Assyrian consider as said to thyself. To whom art thou so like, as thou art to the Assyrian? To none.\" The lesson on a gigantic scale of Eden-like privileges abused to pride and sin by the Assyrian, as in the case of the first man in Eden, ending in ruin, was to be repeated in Egypt's case. For the unchangeable God governs the world on the same unchangeable principles. \n\nthou shall lie in . . . uncircumcised--As circumcision was an object of mocking to thee, thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, slain by their sword [GROTIUS]. Retribution in kind (Eze 28:10). \n\nThis is Pharaoh--Pharaoh's end shall be the same humiliating one as I have depicted the Assyrian's to have been. \"This\" is demonstrative, as if he were pointing with the finger to Pharaoh lying prostrate, a spectacle to all, as on the shore of the Red Sea (Exo 14:30-31).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 32\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE OVERTHROW OF EGYPT ILLUSTRATED BY THAT OF ASSYRIA. (Eze. 31:1-18)\n\nthird month--two months later than the prophecy delivered in Eze 30:20.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/31.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":31},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/32.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":32},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/30.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":30},"numberOfVerses":16}