in Mizpah, the seat of Gedaliah's government, to retire with him towards the country of the Ammonites, a people 2 hostile to the Chaldeans. › Johanan raised a force to revenge this mad and cruel act, pursued Ishmael, overtook him, and recovered from him the people whom he had forced to follow him: but the assassin himself escaped with eight men to his place of refuge. 5 4 6 The succeeding event furnishes another signal instance of human infatuation. Johanan through fear of the Chaldeans, many of whom Ishmael had massacred together with Gedaliah, conceived a design of retreating to Egypt: but, before he executed this resolution, he formally consulted the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet answered him in the name of Jehovah, that, if Johanan and the people abode in Judea, God would build them and not pull them down, would plant them and not pluck them up; but, if they went to sojourn in Egypt, they should die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, and should become an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. Notwithstanding this awful assurance, and the many prophecies of Jeremiah which the most calamitous events had lately verified, Johanan defied the living God and his prophet, and madly adhered to his determination. Not long after the destruction of Jerusalem, the siege of Tyre was undertaken by Nebuchadnezzar. It continued for the space of thirteen years and many think that the 7 conquest of the Sidonians, Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, and Idumeans, coincided with this period; the Chaldean being able to make powerful detachments from his vast forces. After the reduction of that famous city, Nebuchadnezzar made his descent on Egypt, which he subdued and ravaged throughout and at this time Johanan, and his Jewish colonists, experienced the vengeance of the conqueror together with the Egyptians. So widely did Nebuchadnezzar spread his victories and devastations, that, according to the learned chronologer Marsham, this might justly be called the æra of the subversion of cities. How highly Grotius thought of Ezekiel, appears from the eulogium bestowed on him in the introduction to his commentary on that prophet. "He had great erudition and genius: so that, setting aside his gift of prophecy which is incomparable, he may deservedly be compared with Homer, on account of his beautiful conceptions, his illustrious comparisons, and his extensive knowledge of various matters, particularly of architecture." I : Bishop Lowth characterizes Ezekiel as "much inferior to Jeremiah in elegance; but as equal even to Isaiah in sublimity, though their style of composition is very different. For he is bold, vehement, tragical, wholly intent on exaggeration in his sentiments elevated, warm, bitter, indignant; in his images fertile, magnificent, harsh, and sometimes almost deformed; in his diction grand, weighty, austere, rough, and sometimes uncultivated: abounding in repetitions, not for the sake of ornament or gracefulness, but through indignation and violence. Whatever subject he undertakes to treat of, he pursues it diligently, he remains entirely fixed on it, and rarely deviates from his purpose; so that his reader is scarcely ever unable to discern the series and connection of his matter. Perhaps he is excelled in other respects by most of the prophets; but none in the whole compass of writers has ever equalled him in the manner of writing for which he seems to have been singularly qualified by nature, in force, impetuosity, weight, and grandeur. His diction is sufficiently perspicuous; almost all his obscurity lies in his matter: his visions are particularly obscure; and yet, as in Hosea Amos and Zechariah, they are interpreted by a narration which is plain and altogether historical. The greater part of Ezekiel, and what lies in the middle of his book, is poetical, whether we regard the matter or the diction: but he is for the most part so rude and void of composition in his sentences, that I am often doubtful what to determine in this respect." In another 2 place he thus expresses his opinion on the last topic: "There are some prophecies, weighty perhaps and elevated, but by no means composed in a poetical style and turn of sentences of which kind there is much in Ezekiel, who perhaps should be oftener placed among the orators than the poets." 3 He thinks that, with respect to style, we may justly assign to 1 Hebr. Præl. xxi. 279. 8°. 2d ed. 2 H. P. 261. 3 H. P. 279. Ezekiel the same rank among the Hebrews that Eschylus holds among the Greeks. He remarks that this prophet is almost always employed in exciting 1 the passion of terror: and, again, that it is customary with him to 2 inspire us with terror rather than to move our pity; especially in his two 3 lamentations on the city and king of Tyre. Thus also his two prophecies which denounce the fall of Pharaoh and Egypt, and his 5 poetical parables on the Princes of Judah and on Jerusalem, convey scarcely any signification of grief, but breathe a remarkable spirit of menace and terror. 6 He places the first commendation of parable in the use of known and fit images, the signification of which is plain and determinate : and asks, “What can be more accurate in this way than 7 the useless vine delivered over to the fire, under which image the ungrateful people of God are more than once represented? what, than the whelp of the lioness falling into a pit? by which how appositely are the captive princes of Judah marked out! What, than the beautiful, tall, and most flourishing 9 cedar of Libanus, hiding its head in the clouds, but at length cut down and left; which exhibits the glory and fall of the Assyrian king in as lively colours as a picture? I shall subjoin one example more;-I mean that similitude under which the love of God to his people, and their allegiance to him, are expressed by colours taken from the holy covenant of marriage: which image Ezekiel has pursued with much freedom in 10 two parables." He quotes the following allegory, under which the fall of Pharaoh is threatened, as an instance of the dangerous and daring style in the application of a well known metaphor by which darkness is made to represent calamity; a topic on which the Hebrew poets give the full reins to poetical boldness: 11 * I will cover the heavens when I quench thee, And I will clothe the stars thereof with black: * The reader will observe that some parts of Ezekiel are here metrically disposed, which in the body of the following work are represented as prose. There is great difficulty in determining whether many parts of this prophet should be poetically I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon shall not give her light. All the shining lights of the heavens will I clothe with black over thee, And will set darkness upon thy land, Saith the Lord Jehovah. 1 He thus compares the description of the Egyptian multitude brought down to the pit, with similar images in Isaiah's triumphal ode over the King of Babylon: 3" Ezekiel has excellently furnished the same scene [of the Hebrew Infernum poeticum] with the same ornaments of adjuncts; and has displayed a remarkable instance of that exaggeration which is deservedly esteemed the characteristic of this poet." The same eminent writer, in his commentary on Isaiah, observes that the image, I have set my face as a flint, "is expressed with great force by Ezekiel, in his bold and vehement manner. Lo, I have made thy face firm against their faces, As an adamant, firmer than flint, have I made thy forehead: C. iii. 8, 9. He introduces this as "a strong instance of the metaphor called Anthropopathia ;" by which, from the necessity of expressing the divine attributes by sensible images, the qualities of men are ascribed to God: Thus shall mine anger be accomplished; And I will cause my fury to rest upon them, 6 C. v. 13. He considers" the description of well established peace, by the image of beating swords into ploughshares and spears into pruninghooks, as very poetical;" and in his judgment "the prophet Ezekiel has presignified the same great event with equal clearness, though in the more abstruse form of an allegory; from an image, suggested by arranged or not. But as a poetical distribution obtains in the passages quoted from the critics referred to, a like division was observed in all the quotations, for the sake of uniformity in this introductory part. 1 the former part of the prophecy, happily introduced, and well pursued. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : I will take from the highest branch of a lofty cedar, and will set it; From the top of its young twigs I will crop off a tender one, and will plant it; Upon a mountain which is high and eminent, In a lofty mountain of Israel, will I plant it; And under it shall dwell every fowl of every wing; That I Jehovah have brought low the high tree, Have dried up the green tree, And have made the dry tree to flourish. I Jehovah have spoken, and will do it. C. xvii. 22-4. "The severity of God's judgments," says the same 2 writer, “Ezekiel has set forth at large, after his manner, with great boldness of imagery, and force of expression. God threatens to gather them into the midst of Jerusalem, as into a furnace; to blow the fire upon them, and to melt them: Son of man, the house of Israel Is become unto me as dross : All of them are as brass, and tin, and iron, Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Into the midst of Jerusalem. As men gather silver, and brass, and iron, And lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, To blow the fire upon it, to melt it; So will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, Yea, I will collect you, And will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, So shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; Have poured out my fury upon you." C. xxii. 18-22. 2 P. 41. |