{"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":40,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["visions of God--divinely sent visions. \n\nvery high mountain--Moriah, very high, as compared with the plains of Babylon, still more so as to its moral elevation (Eze 17:22; Eze 20:40). \n\nby which--Ezekiel coming from the north is set down at (as the Hebrew for \"upon\" may be translated) Mount Moriah, and sees the city-like frame of the temple stretching southward. In Eze 40:3, \"God brings him thither,\" that is, close up to it, so as to inspect it minutely (compare Rev 21:10). In this closing vision, as in the opening one of the book, the divine hand is laid on the prophet, and he is borne away in the visions of God. But the scene there was by the Chebar, Jehovah having forsaken Jerusalem; now it is the mountain of God, Jehovah having returned thither; there, the vision was calculated to inspire terror; here, hope and assurance.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["man--The Old Testament manifestations of heavenly beings as men prepared men's minds for the coming incarnation. \n\nbrass--resplendent. \n\nline--used for longer measurements (Zac 2:1). \n\nreed--used in measuring houses (Rev 21:15). It marked the straightness of the walls.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Measures were mostly taken from the human body. The greater cubit, the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, a little more than two feet: exceeding the ordinary cubit (from the elbow to the wrist) by an hand-breadth, that is, twenty-one inches in all. Compare Eze 43:13, with Eze 40:5. The palm was the full breadth of the hand, three and a half inches. \n\nbreadth of the building--that is, the boundary wall. The imperfections in the old temple's boundary wall were to have no place here. The buildings attached to it had been sometimes turned to common uses; for example, Jeremiah was imprisoned in one (Jer 20:2; Jer 29:26). But now all these were to be holy to the Lord. The gates and doorways to the city of God were to be imprinted in their architecture with the idea of the exclusion of everything defiled (Rev 21:27). The east gate was to be especially sacred, as it was through it the glory of God had departed (Eze 11:23), and through it the glory was to return (Eze 43:1-2; Eze 44:2-3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["the stairs--seven in number (Eze 40:26). \n\nthreshold--the sill [FAIRBAIRN]. \n\nother threshold--FAIRBAIRN considers there is but one threshold, and translates, \"even the one threshold, one rod broad.\" But there is another threshold mentioned in Eze 40:7. The two thresholds here seem to be the upper and the lower.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["chamber--These chambers were for the use of the Levites who watched at the temple gates; guard-chambers (Kg2 22:4; Ch1 9:26-27); also used for storing utensils and musical instruments.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["posts--projecting column-faced fronts of the sides of the doorway, opposite to one another.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["space--rather, \"the boundary.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["narrow--latticed [HENDERSON]. The ancients had no glass, so they had them latticed, narrow in the interior of the walls, and widening at the exterior. \"Made fast,\" or \"firmly fixed in the chambers\" [MAURER]. \n\narches--rather, \"porches.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["pavement--tesselated mosaic (Est 1:6). \n\nchambers--serving as lodgings for the priests on duty in the temple, and as receptacles of the tithes of salt, wine, and oil.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations (Kg2 23:11-12; Ch1 20:5), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions. Its compass was exactly defined, one hundred cubits; and the fine pavement implied it was to be trodden only by clean feet (compare Isa 35:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["The different approaches corresponded in plan. In the case of these two other gates, however, no mention is made of a building with thirty chambers such as was found on the east side. Only one was needed, and it was assigned to the east as being the sacred quarter, and that most conveniently situated for the officiating priests.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["and toward the east--an elliptical expression for \"The gate of the inner court was over against the (outer) gate toward the north (just as the inner gate was over against the outer gate) toward the east.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["The inner court and its gates. \n\naccording to these measures--namely, the measures of the outer gate. The figure and proportions of the inner answered to the outer.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["This verse is omitted in the Septuagint, the Vatican manuscript, and others. The dimensions here of the inner gate do not correspond to the outer, though Eze 40:28 asserts that they do. HAVERNICK, retaining the verse, understands it of another porch looking inwards toward the temple. \n\narches--the porch [FAIRBAIRN]; the columns on which the arches rest [HENDERSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["eight steps--The outer porch had only seven (Eze 40:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["posts--the Septuagint and Vulgate read, \"the porch,\" which answers better to Eze 40:31-34. \"The arches\" or \"porch\" [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["chambers . . . entries--literally, \"a chamber and its door.\" \n\nby the posts--that is, at or close by the posts or columns. \n\nwhere they washed the burnt offering--This does not apply to all the gates but only to the north gate. For Lev 1:11 directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and Eze 8:5 calls the north gate, \"the gate of the altar.\" And Eze 40:40 particularly mentions the north gate.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":43,"content":["hooks--cooking apparatus for cooking the flesh of the sacrifices that fell to the priests. The hooks were \"fastened\" in the walls within the apartment, to hang the meat from, so as to roast it. The Hebrew comes from a root \"fixed\" or \"placed.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":44,"content":["the chambers of the singers--two in number, as proved by what follows: \"and their prospect (that is, the prospect of one) was toward the south, (and) one toward the north.\" So the Septuagint.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":46,"content":["Zadok--lineally descended from Aaron. He had the high priesthood conferred on him by Solomon, who had set aside the family of Ithamar because of the part which Abiathar had taken in the rebellion of Adonijah (Kg1 1:7; Kg1 2:26-27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":47,"content":["court, an hundred cubits . . . foursquare--not to be confounded with the inner court, or court of Israel, which was open to all who had sacrifices to bring, and went round the three sides of the sacred territory, one hundred cubits broad. This court was one hundred cubits square, and had the altar in it, in front of the temple. It was the court of the priests, and hence is connected with those who had charge of the altar and the music. The description here is brief, as the things connected with this portion were from the first divinely regulated.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":48,"content":["These two verses belong to the forty-first chapter, which treats of the temple itself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":49,"content":["twenty . . . eleven cubits--in Solomon's temple (Kg1 6:3) \"twenty . . . ten cubits.\" The breadth perhaps was ten and a half; Kg1 6:3 designates the number by the lesser next round number, \"ten\"; Ezekiel here, by the larger number, \"eleven\" [MENOCHIUS]. The Septuagint reads \"twelve.\" \n\nhe brought me by the steps--They were ten in number [Septuagint].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 41\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE REMAINING CHAPTERS, THE FORTIETH THROUGH FORTY-EIGHTH, GIVE AN IDEAL PICTURE OF THE RESTORED JEWISH TEMPLE. (Eze. 40:1-49)\n\nbeginning of the year--the ecclesiastical year, the first month of which was Nisan. \n\nthe city . . . thither--Jerusalem, the center to which all the prophet's thoughts tended.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/40.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":40},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/41.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":41},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/39.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":39},"numberOfVerses":23}