_It came to pass in the seventh year_, &c. Namely, of Jehoiakim's captivity. All the prophecies recorded from the eighth chapter to this, probably belong to the sixth year of that captivity. _Certain of the elders came to inquire_, &c. Came to me, as the prophet of God, to inquire what would be the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilt thou judge them_ Or, rather, _Wilt thou not judge them?_ Wilt thou not reprove, or condemn them? Wilt thou not denounce my judgments against them? _Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers_ The abominable crimes of which their fathers have been guilty, and which they themselves, an... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the day when I chose Israel_ When I entered into a solemn covenant. _And lifted up my hand_, &c. That is, _sware_ unto them, this being a gesture used in swearing: see the margin, and notes on Genesis 14:22, and Psalms 144:8. “Among the Jews the juror held up his right hand toward heaven; which... [ Continue Reading ]
_To bring them into a land that I had espied for them_ Which I chose out of all others to bestow it upon them. So God is said _to go before them, to search out a place to pitch their tents in, Deuteronomy 1:33_. The expressions import, that every step the people took, till their settlement in the la... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes_ The idols to which your eyes are lifted up. One of the chief allurements to the worship of images is, that by way of indulgence to men's imagination, they exhibit a visible object of adoration. This was what the Israelites were so fond of, when t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of Egypt_ Removed all obstacles, furnished them with all necessaries, went before them, and showed them the way they should go, Exodus 13:17; _And brought them into the wilderness_ It was not Moses's error, though Pharaoh thought so, Exodus 14:3, but the pecu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moreover, I gave them my sabbaths_ Including the weekly sabbaths, the sabbatical years, and all the solemn days of divine worship, in which no servile work was to be done: _to be a sign between me and them _ A sign of their being peculiarly my people, and to distinguish them from all other people,... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the house of Israel_ Not a few, but the generality of the people; _rebelled against me_ Were undutiful, disobedient, contumacious, and even openly and repeatedly rebellious; _in the wilderness _ Where they were receiving daily and great mercies from me; where they were on their way to Canaan, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I said unto their children in the wilderness_ In the plains of Moab; _Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers_ Imitate not their superstitious usages, nor retain their foolish and wicked customs, but walk in the statutes of your God. This refers to the many pathetical exhortations contained... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore I gave them statutes that were not good_, &c. This some understand of the ceremonial law, as if it were given purely to be a check and restraint to that perverse people, consisting of numerous rites and observances, many of which had no intrinsic good in them. “But I conceive,” says Lowth... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore, son of man, speak_, &c. Here the prophet proceeds with the story of their rebellions for their further humiliation, and shows that they persisted in them after they were settled in the land of Canaan. _Thus saith the Lord, Yet in this_, &c. Or, _Moreover in this, your fathers have blasph... [ Continue Reading ]
_Say unto the house of Israel_ To the elders now sitting before thee, and through them to the rest of their brethren; _Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers_ After all that God hath said to and against you by a succession of prophets, and done against you by a series of judgments, yet wil... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely with a mighty hand_, &c. I will no longer try to reclaim you by the gentle methods of patience and forbearance, but will govern you, as masters do bad servants, by stripes and corrections; and by this means cure you of your inclinations to the heathen customs and idolatries. _And I will brin... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will cause you to pass under the rod_ Of punishment. I will bring you under the chastisement due to you for breaking my covenant. Or there may be an allusion to the custom of numbering flocks and herds, by striking them with a rod: and so the sense will be, “I will take an exact account of you, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_As for you, O house of Israel, go ye, serve_, &c. Go at present, and serve your idols; persist in your idolatries, agreeably to the stubbornness of your hearts. An indignant concession. _And hereafter also_, _if ye will not hearken unto me_ And continue to do so if you are resolved not to do accord... [ Continue Reading ]
_For in my holy mountain_, &c. The holy hill of Zion, holy through God's appointing it for the place of his temple. _The mountain of the height of Israel_ See Ezekiel 17:23; Micah 4:1. Though mount Zion was not one of the highest mountains of Israel, yet God manifesting his presence there in his tem... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there shall ye remember your ways_ There, in my holy mountain, in Zion, when you are restored to your own land; and more especially in the Christian Church, when, in consequence of your conversion, you enter into it, and enjoy the privileges of it, ye shall remember and be humbled on account of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moreover, the word of the Lord_, &c. Here we have a new prophecy, with which Houbigant, following many learned commentators, begins the xxist chapter, and that very properly; for what is contained in that chapter is only an explanation of what is contained in the remainder of this. _Son of man, set... [ Continue Reading ]