29

30

saw every high hill, and every thick tree; and there they * offered their sacrifices, and there they presented † their provoking oblation, and there they placed their sweet savour, and there they poured out their drink-offerings. Then I said unto them, What is || the high place whereunto ye § go? [Nevertheless, the name thereof is called Bama, [that is, the high place,] unto this day.]

Therefore say unto the house of Israel; Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Are ye polluted ** after the manner of your fathers? And do ye commit fornication ++ after their 31 abominations? And, in that ye offer your gifts, in that ye make your sons to pass through the fire, are ye polluted with all your idols unto this day? And shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, ‡‡ I will not be enquired of by you.

*H. sacrificed.

H. the provocation of their oblation.
H. the savour of their rests.

|| H. Bama.

H. are coming. **H. in the way.

tt Or, according to.

H. if I will be inquired of.

28. -poured out their drink-offerings.—The Hebrew phrase is expressed in V. 6. libaverunt libationes suas: ἔσπεισαν τὰς σπονδὰς αὐτῶν.

29. Then I said unto them &c.- MSS. edd. "What is this idolatrous high place, to which ye go rather than to my sanctuary? And yet, notwithstanding my reproof, the name continues, and the practice, unto this day." But it may be doubted whether the six last words of this verse have not been taken into the text from the margin, where they anciently stood as a note. "All the old versions have this verse, which yet seems out of its place here. If the verse should stand, it relates to something not to be explained now." Secker.

30.

on v. 4.

-Are ye polluted.-Or, Are ye not polluted? See Mr. Lowth

-after the manner.—7777 1 MS." according to the way."

31. daughters."

31.

-your sons.-One MS. and 2 edd. read

-unto this day.-Six MSS. and 1 in the margin add

day."

32

And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families 33 of the countries, † serving wood and stone. As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out will I 34 reign over you. And I will bring you forth from the

people, and I will assemble you from the countries, wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a 35 stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the desert of the || people, and there § will 36 I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the desert [when I brought them out] of the land of Egypt; so will I plead with you, saith the 37 Lord Jehovah: And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you under the chastisement of the covenant. I will also purge out from among you the rebels, and the transgressors against me; I will bring

38

VV. 32—38. The Israelites shall continue the people of Jehovah. He will shew himself their God by punishing them. After their captivity, they shall be restored to their land. But the most rebellious shall be destroyed. 35.

-the desert.—Between Judea and Babylon, through which ye shall pass into captivity. But some think that the barren lands, in which the Babylonians planted these captives, are meant. "The desert of the people is the desert in the neighbourhood of the Chaldeans and of other nations." Michaelis.

—plead with you.-Punish you in the face of the world, and fill you with conviction that my punishments are just.

36.

-the desert.-After this word ó. MS. Alex. ed. Ald. and Arab. add when I brought them out s'n. Hallet. iii. 16.

37.

-the rod.—Of punishment; and will bring you under the chastisement due to you for breaking my covenant. But there may be an allusion to the custom of numbering flocks and herds by striking them with a rod; and of thus severing some for preservation, and some for slaughter. See Lev. xxvii. 32: and Mr. Lowth.

39

them forth out of the country* where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

And as for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Go ye, serve ye every one his idols: yet hereafter ye shall surely hearken unto me, and ye shall not pollute mine holy name any more with your gifts and 40 with your idols. For in mine holy mountain, in ‡ a lofty

mountain of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, there shall all the house of Israel serve me, even all of them, in the land: there will I accept them: and there will I require your heave-offerings, and the first-fruits of your presents, in all

*H. of their sojournings.

† Or, offerings.

H. a mountain of loftiness.

38.

-but they shall not enter.—117, or 182', MSS. V. ó. Ar. Syr. Chald. Houb.

I think that those are referred to, who, after the murder of Gedalialı, went into Egypt, called here the land of their sojourning. Some of these were to be carried into Chaldea with the captive Egyptians: Jer. xliii. 11: though the greater part were to be consumed: Jer. xliv. 12. Some of the obstinately rebellious Jews might also sojourn in other neighbouring countries subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, as Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, &c. and might thence be taken into captivity.

The small number who returned from Egypt into Judea were righteous men; and not such as are here called rebels and transgressors.

VV. 39–44. In allusion to v. 32, God foretels that, however idolatrous the Israelites were at present, at their restoration they should all of them serve him, with remorse for their past transgressions, and with acknowledgements of his power and mercy.

39. -Go ye, serve ye &c.-Go at present, and serve your idols; persist in your idolatries, agreeably to the stubbornness of your hearts. An indignant concession. Hallet, vol. iii. 16, prefers the reading of ó. égápate, 17'211, cast away, for 12y, serve.

-surely.-The original is equivalent to ons so. I am not a God of truth if ye shall not hearken unto me, and if ye shall not pollute &c. 40.

-serve me.—"

MSS.

-even all of them.-1 3 MSS. and 2 in the marg.

It is obvious to conjecture

. Either of these readings is satisfac¬

41

*

your holy things. In your sweet savour I will accept you, when I bring you forth from the † people, and when I assemble you from the countries, wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified because of you in the 42 sight of all the nations. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country concerning which I ‡ lifted up mine hand that I would give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe || yourselves for all your evils which ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I deal with you for my name's sake; not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

43

44

45

46

THE word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying:

Son of man, set thy face toward the way of the south, and drop thy word against the south, and prophesy against 47 the forest of the south field; and say to the forest of the

tory. All of the house of Israel that are restored shall serve me in Jerusalem. There shall be no separation of tribes, no calves in Dan and Bethel. 40, 41. We may point thus: " and the first fruits of your presents. In all your holy things, in your sweet savour, I will accept you." 41.

-because of you.The nations shall consider me as a great and holy God, when they observe my deliverance of you and your obedience

46. -forest of the south. Ezekiel was in the northern part of Chaldea; and therefore Judea was to the south of him. Secker supposes that a city is called a forest rather from its inhabitants than its buildings. In this v. there are three Hebrew words for the south; which are rendered in V. by Auster, Africus, and ager meridianus.

south, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah :

Lo, I will kindle in thee a fire, and it shall devour in thee every green tree, and every dry tree: the flaming

*

flame shall not be quenched, and all faces shall be burnt 48 therein from the south to the north. And all flesh

shall see that I Jehovah have kindled it: it shall not be 49 quenched. Then said I: Ah, Lord Jehovah! they say † of me, Doth he not speak parables?

47. —every green tree &c.—The righteous and the wicked. C. xxi. 3. Luke xxiii. 31. Many of these two classes were alike to be led into captivity; though in other respects a great difference was made between them. See Bp. Lowth on Isai. ix. 17.

-the flaming flame.-Flamma succensionis. V. rightly. nan is a substantive. Job. xv. 30. Cantic. viii. 6.

-from the south to the north." The length of Jerusalem extended itself from south to north." Michaelis.

48.

-it shall not be quenched.— and it &c. ó MS. A. Ar. Syr.

1 MS. 1 ed.

Devoted kingdoms are elsewhere represented under the image of a forest, which God threatened to burn or cut down. See Isai. x. 18, 34. Jer. xxi. 14. xxii. 7. xlvi. 23. Zech. xi. 2. See also Isai. xxxvii. 24.

49. —Doth he not speak parables?—Hence we learn that Ezekiel's, parabolical manner had been objected to him. God therefore commands him, c. xxi, to utter plainly what, v. 47, 48, he was here instructed to deliver parabolically.