{"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":7,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["thine abominations--the punishment of thine abominations. \n\nshall be in the midst of thee--shall be manifest to all. They and thou shall recognize the fact of thine abominations by thy punishment which shall everywhere befall thee, and that manifestly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["An evil, an only evil--a peculiar calamity such as was never before; unparalleled. The abruptness of the style and the repetitions express the agitation of the prophet's mind in foreseeing these calamities.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["watcheth for thee--rather, \"waketh for thee.\" It awakes up from its past slumber against thee (Psa 78:65-66).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["The morning--so Chaldean and Syriac versions (compare Joe 2:2). Ezekiel wishes to awaken them from their lethargy, whereby they were promising to themselves an uninterrupted night (Th1 5:5-7), as if they were never to be called to account [CALVIN]. The expression, \"morning,\" refers to the fact that this was the usual time for magistrates giving sentence against offenders (compare Eze 7:10, below; Psa 101:8; Jer 21:12). GESENIUS, less probably, translates, \"the order of fate\"; thy turn to be punished. \n\nnot the sounding again--not an empty echo, such as is produced by the reverberation of sounds in \"the mountains,\" but a real cry of tumult is coming [CALVIN]. Perhaps it alludes to the joyous cries of the grape-gatherers at vintage on the hills [GROTIUS], or of the idolaters in their dances on their festivals in honor of their false gods [TIRINUS]. HAVERNICK translates, \"no brightness.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Repetition of Eze 7:3-4; sadly expressive of accumulated woes by the monotonous sameness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["rod . . . blossomed, pride . . . budded--The \"rod\" is the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar, the instrument of God's vengeance (Isa 10:5; Jer 51:20). The rod sprouting (as the word ought to be translated), &c., implies that God does not move precipitately, but in successive steps. He as it were has planted the ministers of His vengeance, and leaves them to grow till all is ripe for executing His purpose. \"Pride\" refers to the insolence of the Babylonian conqueror (Jer 50:31-32). The parallelism (\"pride\" answering to \"rod\") opposes JEROME'S view, that \"pride\" refers to the Jews who despised God's threats; (also CALVIN'S, \"though the rod grew in Chaldea, the root was with the Jews\"). The \"rod\" cannot refer, as GROTIUS thought, to the tribe of Judah, for it evidently refers to the \"smiteth\" (Eze 7:9) as the instrument of smiting.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Violence (that is, the violent foe) is risen up as a rod of (that is, to punish the Jews') wickedness (Zac 5:8). \n\ntheirs--their possessions, or all that belongs to them, whether children or goods. GROTIUS translates from a different Hebrew root, \"their nobles,\" literally, \"their tumultuous trains\" (Margin) which usually escorted the nobles. Thus \"nobles\" will form a contrast to the general \"multitude.\" \n\nneither . . . wailing-- (Jer 16:4-7; Jer 25:33). GESENIUS translates, \"nor shall there be left any beauty among them.\" English Version is supported by the old Jewish interpreters. So general shall be the slaughter, none shall be left to mourn the dead.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["let not . . . buyer rejoice--because he has bought an estate at a bargain price. \n\nnor . . . seller mourn--because he has had to sell his land at a sacrifice through poverty. The Chaldeans will be masters of the land, so that neither shall the buyer have any good of his purchase, nor the seller any loss; nor shall the latter (Eze 7:13) return to his inheritance at the jubilee year (see Lev 25:13). Spiritually this holds good now, seeing that \"the time is short\"; \"they that rejoice should be as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not\": Paul (Co1 7:30) seems to allude to Ezekiel here. Jer 32:15, Jer 32:37, Jer 32:43, seems to contradict Ezekiel here. But Ezekiel is speaking of the parents, and of the present; Jeremiah, of the children, and of the future. Jeremiah is addressing believers, that they should hope for a restoration; Ezekiel, the reprobate, who were excluded from hope of deliverance.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["although they were yet alive--although they should live to the year of jubilee. \n\nmultitude thereof--namely, of the Jews. \n\nwhich shall not return--answering to \"the seller shall not return\"; not only he, but the whole multitude, shall not return. CALVIN omits \"is\" and \"which\": \"the vision touching the whole multitude shall not return\" void (Isa 55:11). \n\nneither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life--No hardening of one's self in iniquity will avail against God's threat of punishment. FAIRBAIRN translates, \"no one by his iniquity shall invigorate his life\"; referring to the jubilee, which was regarded as a revivification of the whole commonwealth, when, its disorders being rectified, the body politic sprang up again into renewed life. That for which God thus provided by the institution of the jubilee and which is now to cease through the nation's iniquity, let none think to bring about by his iniquity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["They have blown the trumpet--rather, \"Blow the trumpet,\" or, \"Let them blow the trumpet\" to collect soldiers as they will, \"to make all ready\" for encountering the foe, it will be of no avail; none will have the courage to go to the battle (compare Jer 6:1), [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["No security should anywhere be found (Deu 32:25). Fulfilled (Lam 1:20); also at the Roman invasion (Mat 24:16-18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["(Eze 6:6). \n\nlike doves--which, though usually frequenting the valleys, mount up to the mountains when fearing the bird-catcher (Psa 11:1). So Israel, once dwelling in its peaceful valleys, shall flee from the foe to the mountains, which, as being the scene of its idolatries, were justly to be made the scene of its flight and shame. The plaintive note of the dove (Isa 59:11) represents the mournful repentance of Israel hereafter (Zac 12:10-12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["shall be weak as water--literally, \"shall go (as) waters\"; incapable of resistance (Jos 7:5; Psa 22:14; Isa 13:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["cover them--as a garment. \n\nbaldness--a sign of mourning (Isa 3:24; Jer 48:37; Mic 1:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["cast . . . silver in . . . streets--just retribution; they had abused their silver and gold by converting them into idols, \"the stumbling-block of their iniquity\" (Eze 14:3-4, that is, an occasion of sinning); so these silver and gold idols, so far from \"being able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath\" (see Pro 11:4), shall, in despair, be cast by them into the streets as a prey to the foe, by whom they shall be \"removed\" (GROTIUS translates as the Margin, \"shall be despised as an unclean thing\"); or rather, as suits the parallelism, \"shall be put away from them\" by the Jews [CALVIN]. \"They (the silver and gold) shall not satisfy their souls,\" that is, their cravings of appetite and other needs.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["beauty of his ornament--the temple of Jehovah, the especial glory of the Jews, as a bride glories in her ornaments (the very imagery used by God as to the temple, Eze 16:10-11). Compare Eze 24:21 : \"My sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes.\" \n\nimages . . . therein--namely, in the temple (Eze 8:3-17). \n\nset it far from them--God had \"set\" the temple (their \"beauty of ornament\") \"for His majesty\"; but they had set up \"abominations therein\"; therefore God, in just retribution, \"set it far from them,\" (that is, removed them far from it, or took it away from them [VATABLUS]). The Margin translates, \"Made it unto them an unclean thing\" (compare Margin on Eze 7:19, \"removed\"); what I designed for their glory they turned to their shame, therefore I will make it turn to their ignominy and ruin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["strangers--barbarous and savage nations.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["pollute my secret place--just retribution for the Jews' pollution of the temple. \"Robbers shall enter and defile\" the holy of holies, the place of God's manifested presence, entrance into which was denied even to the Levites and priests and was permitted to the high priest only once a year on the great day of atonement.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["chain--symbol of the captivity (compare Jer 27:2). As they enchained the land with violence, so shall they be chained themselves. It was customary to lead away captives in a row with a chain passed from the neck of one to the other. Therefore translate as the Hebrew requires, \"the chain,\" namely, that usually employed on such occasions. CALVIN explains it, that the Jews should be dragged, whether they would or no, before God's tribunal to be tried as culprits in chains. The next words favor this: \"bloody crimes,\" rather, \"judgment of bloods,\" that is, with blood sheddings deserving the extreme judicial penalty. Compare Jer 51:9 : \"Her judgment reacheth unto heaven.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["worst of the heathen--literally, \"wicked of the nations\"; the giving up of Israel to their power will convince the Jews that this is a final overthrow. \n\npomp of . . . strong--the pride wherewith men \"stiff of forehead\" despise the prophet. \n\nholy places--the sacred compartments of the temple (Psa 68:35; Jer 51:51) [CALVIN]. God calls it \"their holy places,\" because they had so defiled it that He regarded it no longer as His. However, as the defilement of the temple has already been mentioned (Eze 7:20, Eze 7:22), and \"their sacred places\" are introduced as a new subject, it seems better to understand this of the places dedicated to their idols. As they defiled God's sanctuary, He will defile their self-constituted \"sacred places.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["peace, and . . . none-- (Th1 5:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Mischief . . . upon . . . mischief-- (Deu 32:23; Jer 4:20). This is said because the Jews were apt to fancy, at every abatement of suffering, that their calamities were about to cease; but God will accumulate woe on woe. \n\nrumour--of the advance of the foe, and of his cruelty (Mat 24:6). \n\nseek a vision--to find some way of escape from their difficulties (Isa 26:9). So Zedekiah consulted Jeremiah (Jer 37:17; Jer 38:14). \n\nlaw shall perish--fulfilled (Eze 20:1, Eze 20:3; Psa 74:9; Lam 2:9; compare Amo 8:11); God will thus set aside the idle boast, \"The law shall not perish from the priest\" (Jer 18:18). \n\nancients--the ecclesiastical rulers of the people.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["people of the land--the general multitude, as distinguished from the \"king\" and the \"prince.\" The consternation shall pervade all ranks. The king, whose duty it was to animate others and find a remedy for existing evils, shall himself be in the utmost anxiety; a mark of the desperate state of affairs. \n\nclothed with desolation--Clothing is designed to keep off shame; but in this case shame shall be the clothing. \n\nafter their way--because of their wicked ways. \n\ndeserts--literally, \"judgments,\" that is, what just judgment awards to them; used to imply the exact correspondence of God's judgment with the judicial penalties they had incurred: they oppressed the poor and deprived them of liberty; therefore they shall be oppressed and lose their own liberty.\n\nThis eighth chapter begins a new stage of Ezekiel's prophecies and continues to the end of the eleventh chapter. The connected visions at Eze. 3:12-7:27 comprehended Judah and Israel; but the visions (Eze. 8:1-11:25) refer immediately to Jerusalem and the remnant of Judah under Zedekiah, as distinguished from the Babylonian exiles.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ezekiel Chapter 8\n\n"]}],"introduction":"LAMENTATION OVER THE COMING RUIN OF ISRAEL; THE PENITENT REFORMATION OF A REMNANT; THE CHAIN SYMBOLIZING THE CAPTIVITY. (Eze. 7:1-27)\n\nAn end, the end--The indefinite \"an\" expresses the general fact of God bringing His long-suffering towards the whole of Judea to an end; \"the,\" following, marks it as more definitely fixed (Amo 8:2).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/7.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":7},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/8.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":8},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EZK/6.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EZK","chapter":6},"numberOfVerses":23}