Dionysius: “After the Lord had, in the preceding chapter, manifoldly rebuked the Jewish people, He now comforts it with renewed promises, as a good physician, who after a bitter draught employs sweet and soothing remedies; as that most loving Samaritan poured in wine and oil.” The chapter falls into... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS - Jerome: “At each word and sentence, in which good things, for their greatness, almost incredible are promised, the prophet premises, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts,” as if he would say, Think not that what I pledge you are my own, and refuse me not credence as man. What... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM RETURNED - Dionysius: “Without change in Myself, I am turned to that people from the effect of justice to the sweetness of mercy, “and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,” in the temple and the people, indwelling the hearts of the good by charity and grace. Christ also, Very God and Very Ma... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL YET DWELL OLD MEN AND OLD WOMEN - Dionysius: “Men and women shall not be slain now, as before in the time of the Babylonish destruction, but shall fulfill their natural course.” It shall not be, as when “He gave His people over unto the sword; the fire consumed their young men and their... [ Continue Reading ]
IF IT SHOULD BE MARVELOUS IN THE EYES OF THE REMNANT OF THIS PEOPLE IN THOSE - (not these) days, shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also? saith the Lord of hosts Man’s anticipations, by reason of his imperfections and the chequered character of earthly things, are always disappointing. God’s doings,... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SAVE MY PEOPLE FROM THE EAST COUNTRY AND FROM THE WEST COUNTRY - Dionysius: “that is, the whole world; for Israel had been scattered in every part of the world.” God had said to Israel, “I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up, and t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL DWELL IN THE MIDST OF JERUSALEM - Not the literal Jerusalem; for this would not contain the Jews from all quarters of the world, whom, as they multiplied, the whole land could not contain; but the promised Jerusalem, the Jerusalem, which “should be inhabited as towns without walls,” to wh... [ Continue Reading ]
LET YOUR HANDS BE STRONG - The fulfillment of God’s former promises are the earnest of the future; His former providences, of those to come. Having then those great promises for the time to come, they were to be earnest in whatever meantime God gave them to do. He speaks to them, “as hearing in thes... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS NO HIRE FOR MAN - Literally, “hire for man came not to pass.” It was longed for, waited for and came not. So little was the produce, that neither laborer nor beast of burden were employed to gather it in. NEITHER WAS THERE PEACE TO HIM WHO WENT OUT OR CAME IN BECAUSE OF THE AFFLICTION, BET... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW - The words imply a contrast of God’s dealings, rather than a contrast of time. “I am not to the remnant of this people.” He had said, “I will be to them God;” so now He does not say that He will not do to them, “as in former days,” but “I am not to the remnant” of this people as heretofore.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE SEED SHALL BE PEACE - o“Your seed shall be peace and a blessing, so that they will call it ‘a seed of peace.’” The unusual construction is perhaps adopted, in order to suggest a further meaning. It is a reversal of the condition, just spoken of, when there was “no peace to him that went, or... [ Continue Reading ]
AS YE WERE A CURSE AMONG THE NATIONS, O HOUSE OF JUDAH AND HOUSE OF ISRAEL, SO I WILL SAVE YOU - The ten tribes bore the name of Israel, in contrast with the two tribes with the name of Judah, not only in the history but in the prophets; as Hosea says, “I will no more have mercy upon the house of Is... [ Continue Reading ]
AS I THOUGHT TO PUNISH YOU - (Literally, to do evil to you) “and repented not.” In like way God says in Jeremiah, “I have purposed and will not repent.” Jeremiah 4:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO HAVE I TURNED AND PURPOSED IN THESE DAYS TO DO WELL UNTO JERUSALEM - Dionysius: “God, to be better understood, speaketh with the feelings and after the manner of men, although, in the passionless and unchangeable God, there is no provocation to anger, nor turning, implying change in Himself.” So... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT YE SHALL DO - He exhorts them to the same duties, to which the former prophets had exhorted their fathers, Zechariah 7:9, and, as before, first positively to truth and peace; then to avoid everything contrary to it. “Judgment of peace” must be judgment which issues in peace... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THESE THINGS DO I HATE - Literally, emphatic, “For they are all these things which I hate.” This is the sum of what I hate; for they comprise in brief the breaches of the two tables, the love of God and of man.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FAST OF THE FOURTH MONTH - On the ninth day “of the fourth month” of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, Jerusalem, in the extremity of famine, opened to Nebuchadnezzar, and his princes sat in her gate; in the “tenth month” of his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar began the siege. Ezekiel was bidden “on its tenth... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL YET BE THAT - The promises are those which God had already made by Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2 ff) and Micah (Micah 4:1 ff). Yet where was the show of their fulfillment? The Jews themselves, a handful: the temple unfinished; its completion depending, in human sight, upon the will of their pagan mast... [ Continue Reading ]
THE INHABITANTS OF ONE CITY SHALL GO TO ANOTHER - It is one unresting extension of the fairly, the restlessness of faith and love. Osorius: “They shall not be satisfied with their own salvation, careless about the salvation of others; they shall employ all labor and industry, with wondrous love, to... [ Continue Reading ]
TEN MEN OF ALL LANGUAGES OF THE NATIONS - Ten is the symbol of a whole, all the numbers before it meeting in it and starting again from it. The day of Pentecost was to be the reversal of the confusion of Babel; all were to have one voice, as God had said, “It (the time) shall come to gather all nati... [ Continue Reading ]