{"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":38,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["His high-sounding titles are repeated to imply the haughty self-confidence of the invader as if invincible.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["turn thee back--as a refractory wild beast, which thinks to take its own way, but is bent by a superior power to turn on a course which must end in its destruction. Satan shall be, by overruling Providence, permitted to deceive them to their ruin (Rev 20:7-8). \n\nhooks into thy jaws-- (Eze 29:4; Kg2 19:28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Persia . . . Libya--expressly specified by APPIAN as supplying the ranks of Antiochus' army.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Gomer--the Celtic Cimmerians of Crim-Tartary. \n\nTogarmah--the Armenians of the Caucasus, south of Iberia.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Irony. Prepare thee and all thine with all needful accoutrements for war--that ye may perish together. \n\nbe . . . a guard unto them--that is, if thou canst.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["thou shall be visited--in wrath, by God (Isa 29:6). Probably there is allusion to Isa 24:21-22, \"The host of the high ones . . . shall be gathered . . . as prisoners . . . in me pit . . . and after many days shall they be visited.\" I therefore prefer English Version to GROTIUS rendering, \"Thou shalt get the command\" of the expedition. The \"after many days\" is defined by \"in the latter years,\" that is, in the times just before the coming of Messiah, namely, under Antiochus, before His first coming; under Antichrist, before His second coming. \n\nthe mountains of Israel . . . always waste--that is, waste during the long period of the captivity, the earnest of the much longer period of Judea's present desolation (to which the language \"always waste\" more fully applies). This marks the impious atrocity of the act, to assail God's people, who had only begun to recover from their protracted calamities. \n\nbut it is brought . . . and they shall dwell--rather, \"And they (the Israelites) were brought . . . dwelt safely\" [FAIRBAIRN]. English Version means, \"Against Israel, which has been waste, but which (that is, whose people) is now (at the time of the invasion) brought forth out of the nations where they were dispersed, and shall be found by the invader dwelling securely, so as to seem an easy prey to him.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["cloud to cover the land--with the multitude of thy forces.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["an evil thought--as to attacking God's people in their defenseless state.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["dwell safely--that is, securely, without fear of danger (compare Est 9:19). Antiochus, the type of Antichrist, took Jerusalem without a blow.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["midst of the land--literally, \"the navel\" of the land (Jdg 9:37, Margin). So, in Eze 5:5, Israel is said to be set \"in the midst of the nations\"; not physically, but morally, a central position for being a blessing to the world: so (as the favored or \"beloved city,\" Rev 20:9) an object of envy. GROTIUS translates, \"In the height of the land\" (so Eze 38:8), \"the mountains of Israel,\" Israel being morally elevated above the rest of the world.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Sheba, &c.--These mercantile peoples, though not taking an active part against the cause of God, are well pleased to see others do it. Worldliness makes them ready to deal in the ill-gotten spoil of the invaders of God's people. Gain is before godliness with them (1 Maccabees 3:41). \n\nyoung lions--daring princes and leaders.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["shalt thou not know it?--to thy cost, being visited with punishment, while Israel dwells safely.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me--So in Exo 9:16, God tells Pharaoh, \"For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["thou he of whom I have spoken in old time--Gog, &c. are here identified with the enemies spoken of in other prophecies (Num 24:17-24; Isa 27:1; compare Isa 26:20-21; Jer 30:23-24; Joe 3:1; Mic 5:5-6; Isa 14:12-14; Isa 59:19). God is represented as addressing Gog at the time of his assault; therefore, the \"old time\" is the time long prior, when Ezekiel uttered these prophecies; so, he also, as well as Daniel (Dan. 11:1-45) and Zechariah (Zec. 14:1-21) are included among \"the prophets of Israel\" here. \n\nmany years--ago.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["fury shall come up in my face--literally, \"nose\"; in Hebrew, the idiomatic expression for anger, as men in anger breathe strongly through the nostrils. Anthropopathy: God stooping to human modes of thought (Psa 18:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["great shaking--an earthquake: physical agitations after accompanying social and moral revolutions. Foretold also in Joe 3:16; (compare Hag 2:6-7; Mat 24:7, Mat 24:29; Rev 16:18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["fishes--disturbed by the fleets which I will bring. \n\nfowls, &c.--frightened at the sight of so many men: an ideal picture. \n\nmountains--that is, the fortresses on the mountains. \n\nsteep places--literally, \"stairs\" (Sol 2:14); steep terraces for vines on the sides of hills, to prevent the earth being washed down by the rains. \n\nevery wall--of towns.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["every man's sword . . . against his brother--I will destroy them partly by My people's sword, partly by their swords being turned against one another (compare Ch2 20:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["plead--a forensic term; because God in His inflictions acts on the principles of His own immutable justice, not by arbitrary impulse (Isa 66:16; Jer 25:31). \n\nblood . . . hailstones, fire-- (Rev 8:7; Rev 16:21). The imagery is taken from the destruction of Sodom and the plagues of Egypt (compare Psa 11:6). Antiochus died by \"pestilence\" (2 Maccabees 9:5).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 39\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE ASSAULT OF GOG, AND GOD'S JUDGMENT ON HIM. (Eze. 38:1-23)\n\nGog--the prince of the land of Magog. The title was probably a common one of the kings of the country, as \"Pharaoh\" in Egypt. Chakan was the name given by the Northern Asiatics to their king, and is still a title of the Turkish sultan: \"Gog\" may be a contraction of this. In Ezekiel's time a horde of northern Asiatics, termed by the Greeks \"Scythians,\" and probably including the Moschi and Tibareni, near the Caucasus, here (\"Meshech . . . Tubal\") undertook an expedition against Egypt [HERODOTUS, 1.103-106]. These names might be adopted by Ezekiel from the historical fact familiar to men at the time, as ideal titles for the great last anti-Christian confederacy. \n\nMagog-- (Gen 10:2; Ch1 1:5). The name of a land belonging to Japheth's posterity. Maha, in Sanskrit, means \"land.\" Gog is the ideal political head of the region. In Rev 20:8, Gog and Magog are two peoples. \n\nthe chief prince--rather, \"prince of Rosh,\" or \"Rhos\" [Septuagint]. The Scythian Tauri in the Crimea were so called. The Araxes also was called \"Rhos.\" The modern Russians may have hence assumed their name, as Moscow and Tobolsk from Meshech and Tubal, though their proper ancient name was Slavi, or Wends. HENGSTENBERG supports English Version, as \"Rosh\" is not found in the Bible. \"Magog was Gog's original kingdom, though he acquired also Meshech and Tubal, so as to be called their chief prince.\"\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/38.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":38},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/39.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":39},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/37.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":37},"numberOfVerses":19}