XXXIII. This chapter consists of two communications (Ezekiel 33:1). The first of them is without date, but at least a very probable conjecture may be formed of the time when it was uttered. In Ezekiel 33:21, it is said that Ezekiel was informed in the morning by a fugitive from Jerusalem of the dest... [ Continue Reading ]
SET HIM FOR THEIR WATCHMAN. — The same figure as in Ezekiel 3:17; Ezekiel 33:2 form the introduction to this renewed commission, and closely correspond to Ezekiel 3:17. Yet these verses have also a distinct retrospective object, and explain to the people why he had hitherto spoken to them so much of... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? — Formerly, when the prophet had given them warning of impending judgments, the people had refused to believe: now, however, when those judgments had been realised, they despaired, and cried out, “If all this is in punishment for our sins, how can there yet be any hope for u... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE NO PLEASURE. — Comp. Ezekiel 18:28; Ezekiel 18:32. Ezekiel meets the despair of the people by the assurance, long before given in another connection, that the Creator and Father of all can have no pleasure in the death of any, and adds an earnest exhortation to repentance that they may be sav... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE TWELFTH YEAR. — Comp. 2 Kings 25:8; Jeremiah 52:12. It was now a year and five months since the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and this seems to be a long time to be occupied in carrying the news to Chaldea. The news itself must have reached Babylon long since, but Ezekiel was... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS UPON ME. — The sentence becomes clearer by translating this in the _pluperf.: The hand of the Lord had been_ (_already_)_ upon me. _... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE WORD. — There is no reason to doubt that the following prophecy was uttered immediately after the arrival of the fugitive; but there may have been a short interval. None of the prophecies from this point to the close of Ezekiel 39 are dated. Ezekiel 40-48 form one continuous prophecy, which... [ Continue Reading ]
INHABIT THOSE WASTES. — It is said in 2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22; Jeremiah 52:16, that the poor of the people were left in the land for vine-dressers and for husband. men, and that these were joined by fugitive Jews from Moab and Ammon and other places. It is to these that the present part of this... [ Continue Reading ]
YE EAT WITH THE BLOOD. — The people who remained in the land went on as before in their course of sin. The crimes here charged upon them (Ezekiel 33:25) are the same as those all along alleged against them, and Jeremiah gives a sad picture of their open rebellion against the express commands of God... [ Continue Reading ]
YE STAND UPON YOUR SWORD. — Not to engage in war, which cannot here be thought of, but to take part in individual crimes of violence.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FORTS — is rather, in the natural fastnesses in which the land abounded.... [ Continue Reading ]
MOST DESOLATE. — When the people of the northern kingdom had been carried into captivity, the land had been re-populated by colonies brought from various quarters by the king of Assyria, for the ten tribes were not to return; but now the land of Judah was to be left utterly desolate and uninhabited,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF THY PEOPLE. — The few remaining verses of this chapter are concerned with those in exile — perhaps not so much those who had been with Ezekiel all along as fresh captives of a worse moral character now just brought from Jerusalem. Yet of them all alike it was still true that they wer... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE PEOPLE COMETH. — In the original, _according to the coming of a people_ — _i.e.,_ in crowds. In the following clause, “as my people,” there is an emphasis on the pronoun, as the true people of God. Such was their outward bearing, while their inward disposition was far different.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THIS COMETH TO PASS. — “This” refers to what the prophet is commissioned to utter. By the fulfilment of his prophecies of judgment they had already been brought to an outward recognition of his authority; it remained that by the fulfilment of the prophecies yet to come their hearts, or at least... [ Continue Reading ]