literally performed. But (2) there is another kind of symbolical action intended to impress in private upon the prophet's mind the truth which he is to enforce upon others by the description of the action as by a figure. When this is part of an ecstatic vision, no one will look for a literal interpretation. Independently of the actual impossibility of eating a roll of parchment, we see at once the propriety of a spiritual interpretation. In addressing the ear, it is common to employ metaphor in order to convey ideas, and in addressing the bodily or mental sight (as in visions), metaphor is replaced by symbolical actions, which are to the seer as real as if they literally took place, of which he neither knows nor heeds whether they literally take place or no. In ch. iv. and v. we have no mention of a vision, and the actions are certainly not impossible. To portray a siege upon a tile, was common in Chaldæa (see note on ch. iv. 1), the baking of the cakes might easily have been done; but if we examine the actions a little more closely, a strictly literal interpretation is seen to be incapable of being maintained. The division of the hair by a sword or knife, seems a trifling act for the prophet to have performed privately in his own house, although we can see its force when announced as a figure of that which he was to foretell. The lying on one side for so long a period is scarcely conceivable, and when we observe that on the one hand it is said that he should not move from one side to another (iv. 8), and on the other hand that in the course of the 390 days, he is to take grain and prepare it for food, we must modify any literal explanation. To this must be added that between the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year (i. 2), and the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year (viii. 1), there is not room for the 430 days except on the supposition of an intercalary month in the fifth year. Again, in v. 2, the seer is directed to burn the third part of his hair in the midst of the city. It is manifestly impossible that this could have been literally done, the prophet being an exile on the banks of Chebar. Another instance of the same kind occurs in xxi. 19 where the seer is directed to appoint (lit. to mark) two ways, for the king of Babylon to choose. Here, there can be no doubt of the figurative character of the action prescribed. The same conclusion will be arrived at, by comparing these with similar actions noticed by other prophets, e.g. the bonds and Jokes in Jer. xxvii. 2, and the wine-cup of fury (Jer. xxv. 15); comp. also Ezek. vii. 23 make thee a chain. It is enough to suppose that when the prophet was bidden to do such acts, they were impressed upon his mind with all the vividness of actual performance. In spirit, he grasped the sword and scattered the hair and saw herein the coming events thus symbolized. They would only have lost force by substituting bodily for mental action. The command of God gave to the sign the vividness of a real transaction, and the prophet communicated it to the people, just as it had been stamped on his own mind, with more impressiveness than could have been conveyed by the language of ordinary metaphor. In ch. xxiv. we have, side by side, specimens of the two kinds of figurative action in the prophecies of Ezekiel. The first is, we are told, a parable (xxiv. 3) of a boiling pot. Even without such notice it would have been somewhat hard to conceive that Ezekiel actually set a cauldron on the fire, and put in it the choice pieces of the chief of the flock, and yet the action is described exactly as if it were literally performed. Besides, we have in this case the figurative language extending alike to the sign and to the thing signified. The pot is to be set on the fire (xxiv. 3), and in the explanation of the parable it is said, Set it (her, the city) upon the coals (xxiv. 11). This then may help us to see the figurative nature of other actions similarly detailed. On the other hand, the second prophecy in ch. xxiv. rests upon what we can scarcely view otherwise than a real event. It would be a very forced interpretation to say that Ezekiel's wife did not die, but that her death was merely put in as a supposition, wherefrom to draw a moral. Assuming, then, that the simple fact did take place, we have an instance of the manner in which the prophet was made in the very circumstances of his domestic life a sign to the people among whom he dwelt (xxiv. 24). Difficulties have arisen, because interpreters have not chosen to recognize both these modes of prophesying; and so some, who would have all literal, have had to accept the most strange and unnecessary actions as real, while others, who would have all figurative, have had arbitrarily to explain away the most plain historical statement. There may be a difference of opinion as to which class one or other figure may belong, but after all, the determination is not important, the whole value of the parabolic figure residing in the lesson which it is intended to convey. 32 CHAPS. IV. and V. The coming siege of Jerusalem and dispersion of its inhabitants foretold under divers symbols. If we accept the 5th year of Jehoiachin's captivity (as is most probable), for the year in which Ezekiel received this communication, we may observe that it was a time at which such an event would, according to human calculation, have appeared improbable. Zedekiah was the creature of the king of Babylon, ruling by his authority in the place of Jehoiachin, who was still alive; and it could scarcely have been expected that Zedekiah would have been so infatuated as to provoke the anger of the powerful Nebuchadnezzar. It is indeed to infatuation that the sacred historian ascribes the act (2 K. xxiv. 20), God in this way carrying out His purpose of punishing the iniquity of the people by the folly of their king. 1. take thee a tile] Rather, a brick. Sun-dried or kiln-burnt bricks' were from very early times used for building walls throughout the plain of Mesopotamia. (See on Gen. xi. 3.) Pliny tells us of astronomical observations of 720 years recorded upon bricks (Hist. Nat.' vII. 57). Jerome speaks of a similar practice in his day. Recent discoveries have brought to light an immense number of such bricks at Nineveh and Babylon. They are sometimes stamped with what appears to be the device of the king in whose reign they were made, often covered with a kind of enamel on which various scenes were portrayed. Among the subjects depicted on such bricks discovered at Nimroud, now in the British Museum, are (1) Part of a walled tower or fort; (2) A castle with angular, battlements. "These, with other fragments," says Layard, "evidently belong to the same period, and probably to the same general subject, the conquest of some distant nations by the Assyrians" (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon,' ch. VII. p. 167). In the ruins of Babylon itself similar fragments are found in great numbers (ibid. ch. XXII). the city] Rather, a city. 2. lay siege against it] By a common figure the prophet is represented as doing that which he portrays. Comp. Jer. i. 10, and below, xxxii. 18, cast them down; and also xliii. 3. The leading features of a siege are thus depicted. The mount is earth heaped up so as thee, and pourtray upon it the city, 2 And lay siege against it, and to enable the besiegers to place themselves on the camp] encampments (the Hebrew noun is plural), which is more literal and more expressive, for it denotes various hosts in various positions around the city. fort] Tower used in assault. It was customary in sieges to construct towers of vast height, sometimes of 20 stories, which were wheeled up to the walls to enable the besiegers to reach the battlements with their arrows; in the lower part of such a tower there was commonly a battering-ram. (See Gosse's 'Assyr.' p. 301, 304.) These towers are frequently represented in the Assyrian monuments. battering rams] A far better translation than the alternative given in the margin. Heb. 'car.' The first meaning of this word is lamb (Deut. xxxii. 14, and elsewhere), here it is translated battering-rams with an alternative marginal rendering chief leaders; in xxi. 22 the same Hebrew word occurs twice, and is rendered in one case captains, marg. battering-rams-in the other battering-rams. There can be little doubt that an engine of war is here meant. The invention of batteringrams has been ascribed by some to the Greeks at the siege of Troy (Plin. 'Hist. Nat.' VII. 57), though Homer makes no mention of them. Vitruvius and Tertullian ascribe the invention to the Tyrians, whence it has been supposed that Nebuchadnezzar, in his siege of Tyre, acquired the knowledge of these machines which he afterwards turned against Jerusalem (see Gosse's Assyria,' p. 303); but the recent discoveries of Assyrian monuments prove that these engines of war had a far higher antiquity. In the N. W. Palace of Nimroud, the probable date of which was the Twelfth Century before Christ (see Vaux's Nin. and Per.' p. 456; Gosse's 'Assyria,' p. 50), bas-reliefs have been discovered with representations of towers and battering-rams employed against city walls— (Layard's 'Nin.'11. 368, 1849). At Kouyunjik, the palace of Sennacherib, there is a monument of the siege of an important city, in which no less than seven battering-rams are employed (Layard's 'Nin. and Bab.' p. 149). These engines seem to have been beams suspended by chains generally in moveable towers, and to leaders. have been applied against the walls in the way familiar to us from Greek and Roman history. The head of the beam in the earliest monuments was in the form of a mace, but in the more recent was pointed like a pike's head. (See Gosse, 'Assyria,' p. 300.) The name ram was probably given to describe their mode of operation-no Assyrian monument yet discovered exhibits the ram's head of later times. It is possible that this form was suggested to the Greeks by the ancient name of the engine. 3. an iron pan] The Hebrew word is used in Lev. ii. 5, vi. 21, vii. 9; 1 Chro. xxiii. 29, "an iron plate," on which bread was baked. It has been thought that this represented the "wall of the city," or "the circumvallation of the beleaguering host," or again "the impenetrable barrier, which the black sins of the people have interposed between themselves and God," in whose place now the prophet stands (see Isai. lix. 2). But it seems more in character with the rest of the chapter to understand this verse, as depicting under another figure the coming siege. On Assyrian sculptures from Nimroud and Kouyunjik there are sieges of cities with forts, mounts and rams; and together with these we see a kind of shield set up on the ground, behind which archers are shooting. See Layard's Nin.' II. 345. Such a shield would be fitly represented by the flat plate here spoken of. Ezekiel was directed to take such a plate (part of his household furniture) and place it between him and the representation of the city. a sign to the house of Israel] This sign was not necessarily acted before the people, but may simply have been described to them as a vivid representation of the event which it foretold (see Note at end of the preceding Chapter). The prophet here applies the general term Israel to the kingdom of Judah. So also iii. 7, 17, V. 4, viii. 6, and elsewhere. So in the Books of Chronicles written in the time of or after the captivity, 2 Chro. xxi. 2, Jeboshaphat, king of Israel, and xxviii. After the captivity of the ten tribes the kingdom of Judah represented the whole nation, and we find both Hezekiah and Josiah calling on such of the tribes of Israel as had been left in the VOL. VI. Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: "so shalt thou & Numb. bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. land to join their brethren of Judah in keeping a most solemn Passover (2 Chro. xxx. 1, Xxxv. 18). Hence prophets writing after this event constantly address their countrymen as the house of Israel without distinction of tribes. See Introd. § 6. It is only on such occasions as below (vv. 5, 6) that the distinction between Israel and Judah is kept up. 4. The siege being thus represented, the condition and suffering of the inhabitants are to be prefigured. They are exhibited by the condition of one, who, bound as a prisoner or oppressed by sickness, cannot turn from his right side to his left. The prophet was in such a state. shalt bear their iniquity] The scapegoat was to bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited (Lev. xvi. 21, 22), in order that their sins might thus be removed and be remembered no more-so was the prophet, in a figure, to bear their iniquities for a fixed period, in order to shew that, after the period thus foretold, the burden of their sins should be taken off, and the people be forgiven. 5. according to the number of the days] Ezekiel is manifestly referring to Num. xiv. 34, where the years of wandering in the wilderness correspond to the number of days that the spies searched the land. What were the years which these days were to represent? Some conceive that they were the years during which Israel and Judah sinned, and they reckon in various ways the number of these years, dating for instance in the case of Israel from Jeroboam's rebellion (as in the heading of our English Bibles), to the time at which Ezekiel wrote, a period corresponding with tolerable accuracy to the 390 years; in the case of Judah from Josiah's reformation, at which time previous sins are supposed to have been blotted out, and a fresh start commenced. Eichhorn, Die Bibl. Propheten,' Pt. II. p. 369, quoted by Rosenmüller, But it seems more in accordance with the other signs, to suppose that they represent not that which has been, but that which shall be. The number of years in the whole is 430, the number assigned of old for the affliction of the descendants of Abraham (Gen. xv. 13; Exod. xii. 40). Hosea had already predicted с 14. 34. a repetition of the history of Israel in the afflictions about to come upon them for their sins. Once more should they suffer the misery of bondage in a strange land. Ephraim shall return into Egypt (Hos. viii. 13, ix. 3. Comp. Amos viii. 7, 8). The forty years apportioned to Judah bring to our minds at once the forty years passed in the wilderness; and as these were years not only of punishment, but also of discipline and were preparatory to restoration, so it seems that Ezekiel would intimate the difference between the punishments of Israel and of Judah, the one of much longer duration with no definite hope of recovery, the other imposed with the express purpose of the renewal of mercy. The LXX. read 190 instead of 390, and so miss entirely the reference to the past. The chosen people were to enter upon a new commencement of their history, to which they should be introduced, as of old, by exile and oppression. 7. thou shalt set thy face]-not "actually turn thy face to the portrayed siege," but rather, "direct thy mind to that subject." thine arm shall be uncovered] In eastern countries a man put forth his arm from the loose sleeve which generally concealed it, in order to wield a weapon. Hence the arm bared or uncovered was a sign of the execution of vengeance (Isai. lii. 10). 8. I will lay bands upon thee] There seems a reference by way of contrast to iii. 25. The people put constraint upon the prophet to hinder him from exercising his office. The Lord will put constraint upon him, to cause him to exercise it. In the retirement of his house, figuratively bound and under constraint, he shall not cease to proclaim the doom of the city. till thou hast ended the days of thy siege] The prophet is described as besieging the city because he prefigures and predicts it (vv. 2, 3); the days of thy siege are therefore those during which thou shalt thus foretell the approaching calamity. 9. Two things are prefigured in the remainder of this chapter, (1) the hardships of t from side. thee from one side to another, till Heb. thou hast ended the days of thy siege, side to 9 ¶ Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and 'fitches, and Or, s put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. 10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels exile, (2) the straitness of a siege. To the people of Israel, separated from the rest of the nations as holy, it was a leading feature in the calamities of their exile that they must be mixed up with other nations, and eat of their food, which to the Jews was a defilement (comp. Amos vii. 17; Dan. i. 8). In their exile should be fulfilled the prophecy of Hosea, They shall not dwell in the Lord's land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria (Hos. ix. 3). beans] The word occurs only once more in Scripture (2 S. xvii. 28); lentiles (2 S. xvii. 28; Gen. xxv. 34); millet (Hebr. dochan) occurs only here. There is a species of millet called dukban in use among the Arabs to this day; fitches, see note on Exod. ix. 32. "It is a species of wheat with shorn ears" (Smith's 'Dict.'). The English word fitches is used in our A. V. in Isai. xxviii. 25, where the Hebrew word is not the same as here, but the equivalent of black cummin. in one vessel] It was especially forbidden in the Law to sow the ground with mingled seeds (Lev. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 9). Hence to mix all these varied seeds was an indication land, where precautions against such mixing that the people are no longer in their own of seeds were prescribed. three hundred and ninety days] The days of Israel's punishment, because here is a figure of the exile which concerns all the tribes, not of the siege which concerns Judah alone (see above, v. 3). The dates given in 2 K. xxv. I-3 do not admit of the notion that the siege of Jerusalem lasted 390 days. 10. thy meat...shall be by weight] This part of the figure belongs to the siege. Meat consists of grain. So the offering of flour is is a general term for food, which in this case and below, xlv. 24). Instead of measuring, called in our A. V. a meat-offering (Lev. ii. 1, it was necessary in extreme scarcity to weigh it (Lev. xxvi. 26; Rev. vi. 6). twenty shekels a day] The shekel contained about 220 grains, so that 20 shekels would be about lb. a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. II Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. 12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. 13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them. 14 Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been pol-1 luted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. have given thee cow's dung for man's 16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff Lev. 26. of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall chap. 5. 16. eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: 17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity. AND ND thou, son of man, take thee sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon 15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I thine head and upon thy beard: then from time to time] Thou shalt receive and eat it at the appointed intervals of a day and at no other time. In 1 Chro. ix. 25, we have the same phrase with the same meaning, the intervals there being of seven days. 11 water by measure] This probably corresponds to the water of affliction (1 K. xxii. 27; Isai. xxx. 20). The measure of the bin is variously estimated by Jewish writers. According to Josephus, it is equal to 4449 gal. according to the Rabbinists, .7381 gal. The 6th part of a bin will be according to the former about ths, according to the latter ths of a pint. The lesser estimate is most suitable here. 12. Another of the usual calamities of a sege is want of fuel. In eastern countries where fuel is scarce the want is supplied by dried cow-dung laid up for the winter. barley cakes] were baked under hot ashes without an oven, as is the custom in the East to this day. The dung therefore was to be burnt to ashes, and the ashes so employed. 13. The defilement is here expressed by a very strange figure. All the ceremonial ordinances in relation to food were, no doubt, intended to keep the nation free from idolatrous usages; everywhere among the heathen idol feasts formed a leading part in their reIgious services, and idol meats were partaken of in common life. Their dispersion among the Gentiles must have exposed them to much which they regarded as common and unclean (comp. Lev. xx. 25; Acts x. 14). In the case of Cornelius, St Peter's objection was set aside because the time had come for 14. Comp. Exod. xxii. 31 and Dan. i. 8. abominable flesh] Flesh that had become xix. 7, flesh of the offering if kept to the corrupt and foul by overkeeping. Thus, Lev. third day was forbidden to be eaten by the priests as abominable. 16. The seer reverts to the general subject of the siege and declares that God will break the staff of bread. Bread is so called because it is that on which mainly the support of life depends. Comp. Isai. iii. 1; Ps. civ. 15. with astonishment] With dismay and anxiety at the calamities which are befalling them. CHAP. V. 1. a sharp knife] The word here rendered knife is used either for a sword (as in v. 2) or for any sharp cutting instrument (Josh. v. 3). Here the LXX. and Vulg. render it "sword." Our translators perhaps wished to simplify the action. If the view in Note at end of ch. iii. be taken, all difficulty is removed. But even if the action were literal, the use of an actual sword would best enforce the symbolical meaning. Our translators have also neglected the suffix (it) to the second take: take thee a sharp sword, for a barber's razor thou shalt take it thee. cause it to pass] The head represents the & 14. 13. |