Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 3/19

for having assigned the hundred and fifty days to Israel, and the forty to Judah, he again joined together, as of one body and one kindred, the hundred and ninety days.

And thou shalt lie upon thy right side a second time, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Judah forty days: a day for a year have I appointed them to thee.

For greater was the transgression of him who is called Israel;

for having utterly departed from God, they at one time served the heifers, and at another worshipped idols of every kind.

And the forty days of Judah signify the forty years remaining of the seventy years.

For God had declared through the prophet Jeremiah that they should continue seventy years in Babylon;

but thirty years had already passed;

for it was in the thirtieth year of the captivity that the divine Ezekiel began his prophecy; and from the fifth year of the captivity of Jechoniah until the first year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian, the remaining forty years are completed.

And this it is possible to gather not only from the chronicles, but also to learn from the divine Scriptures;

for the blessed prophet Jeremiah, and the book of Chronicles, teach that in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, who is also Jechoniah, Evil-merodach lifted up his head, and brought him out of the prison-house in the year of his own reign;

and after him Belshazzar reigned over the Babylonians no long time;

he held power for about three years;

and he too governed but a short time.

And this took place in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, under whom Nehemiah, having become his cupbearer and having asked a favour of the king, reached Judaea with great eagerness, and accomplished all that has been mentioned.

And this the writing of Ezra plainly teaches.

But if anyone wishes to learn accurately the number of the years, let him take as the beginning of the reckoning the fifth year of the captivity of Jechoniah.

For from that point we have also reckoned the forty years;

in addition to these, twenty years of Xerxes, and nineteen of Artaxerxes;

for in the twentieth year he gave orders that the walls of the city should be rebuilt.

And let no one say that the building of Jerusalem in no way concerned Israel, which had of old been separated from the tribe of Judah;

for after the return the division did not remain, but all who had obtained the return continued in concord, having Jerusalem as their mother-city.

And toward the siege of Jerusalem, he says, thou shalt set thy face, and shalt make firm thine arm, and shalt prophesy against it.

The setting of the face signifies indignation, and the making firm of the arm signifies the chastisement to be brought upon them. Section 8.

And behold, I have laid bonds upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thyself from thy one side to thy other side, until the days of thy siege be accomplished.

It behoves thee to continue the appointed time upon each side without moving, so that they may learn the sentence brought against them.

And thou, son of man, take thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and thou shalt put them into one earthen vessel, and shalt make them into loaves for thyself, according to the number of the days which thou liest upon thy side;

a hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat them.

And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat them.

The prophet is enjoined toilsome things, receiving in himself the figure of those who are punished, and teaching the people, through the things he was commanded to do, of the famine that would come upon Jerusalem;

and such food is a sign of want;

and the weight, again, signifies scarcity.

For once a day, he says, thou shalt eat twenty shekels, which make three ounces and a little more, as those say who have accurately determined these weights and measures.

And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink.

And this again indicates the intensification of the want which the siege had caused;

and the hin was a measure among them;

the sixth part of which, according to the Syrian, held half a xestes;

and the prophet was commanded to drink this measure, that he might signify beforehand the scarcity of necessities that would come upon them from the siege.

And thou shalt eat them as a barley cake;

in balls of human dung shalt thou bake them before their eyes.

Thou shalt make into bread, he says, these seeds of every kind, as they are wont to prepare barley loaves;

and let human dung become the fuel of the fire for the baking, as an indication of the defilements that would befall them among the nations.

Thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations, whither I will scatter them.

For it was of necessity that, being captives and mingling with foreign nations, they should not order their life according to the Law, but should take from the mingling many occasions unto transgression.

And I said, 'By no means, O Lord God of Israel!'

'Behold, my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness, and I have not eaten anything that has died of itself or that has been torn by beasts from my birth until now, nor has any stale or profane meat ever entered into my mouth.'

For being good, and readily bending to those who make supplication—as indeed He did on that occasion—He commanded that cow's dung be used for the baking of the bread.

'Son of man, behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and in want, and drink water by measure and in dismay.'

'That they may be in want of bread and water.'

'And a man and his brother shall be brought to nought, and they shall waste away in their iniquities.'

But the punishment embraces what is just.

'For they shall waste away,' He says, 'in their iniquities'; for they shall pay, He says, the penalties for the offences in which they persisted.

'And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, sharp as a barber's razor, and get it for yourself, and you shall bring it upon your head and upon your beard; and you shall take a balance of weights and divide them.'

The sword hints at the punitive power; and the removal of the hair of the head and of the beard signifies the deprivation of comeliness; and the balance and the weights signify the justice of God's verdict—for nothing is left unweighed in His inscrutable judgements.

And the removal of the hair of the head and of the beard signifies the deprivation of comeliness.

And the balances and the weights signify the justice of God's decree.

For nothing is left unweighed in His unsearchable judgements.

'A fourth part you shall burn with fire in the midst of the city, at the fulfilment of the days of your siege; and you shall take a fourth part and burn it in the midst of it; and a fourth part you shall cut in pieces with the sword round about it; and a fourth part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.'

These things He Himself interprets a little later, calling them fire, famine, and death.

Therefore He commanded that the two fourth parts be given over to the fire, inasmuch as both this one and that one devour men after the manner of fire.

And by the sword He signified the assault of the enemies and the slaughters that would be wrought by them.

And by the scattering He signified the captivity and the dispersion that would come to pass, concerning which He added:

'And I will draw out a sword after them'; for even after becoming captives of the spear they endured countless kinds of death.

'And you shall take from there,' He says, 'a few in number, and you shall wrap them up in the fold of your garment.'

'And from these you shall take yet again, and you shall cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel.'

'From it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel.'

By these things He signifies those who were left behind, whom Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard left with Gedaliah, and who were again consumed in various ways:

now being destroyed by one another, now fleeing away into Egypt, and not desisting from their impiety.

And this the prophecy of Jeremiah clearly teaches us.

And the words, 'From it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel,' hint both at the wrath of the Babylonian which then came to pass, and at the destruction that was brought upon them in Egypt;

and it foretells also the seditions that arose after the return, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, on account of which they fell into those countless calamities.

'When you have done these things,' He says, 'declare also the causes of the punishment.'

'Thus says Adonai the Lord:'

'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the countries that are round about her.'

'And you shall say: She has changed my ordinances into lawlessness, worse than the nations that are round about her.'

The God of all chose the nation of the Jews, willing through them to bestow benefit upon all mankind;

and for this reason He also gave them a law that set them apart from all others, that from this too they might have their mark of distinction;

and He also gave them, for a dwelling-place, the middle regions of the inhabited world;

for toward the east and the north they had Asia, and toward the west Europe, joined to it by the sea;

For into these three portions the sons of Noah also divided the inhabited world.

'I have set Jerusalem, therefore,' says God, 'in the midst of the nations,' that they might draw the benefit that comes from her, and might learn from them all piety and good order;

but she did the very opposite;

for not only did she not impart to them the good order given by me, but she even partook of their impiety.

'Wherefore your manner has been from the nations that are round about you: you have not walked in my statutes, nor performed my ordinances; nay, you have not even acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you.'

For since you took upon yourselves the character of the nations, and became mingled with their practices, and spurned my ordinances and statutes, and using an excess of transgression outstripped in impiety the very nations from whom you learned it;

for this reason I will openly plead my cause against you, while the nations behold the tribunal and hearken to the trial;

that, since they were not benefited by your good order, they might at least through your punishment draw some benefit.

'And I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, because of all your abominations.'

And this came to pass both in the siege of the Babylonians and in that of the Romans, when the extremity of famine wrought the unholy deed.

'And I will execute judgements in you.' That is, I will judge you justly.

'And I will scatter all your remnant to every wind.' This saying needs no interpretation, since the events themselves cry it aloud.

By 'holy things' He calls not only the statutes, but also the temple that was set apart for Him, which they profaned by the setting up of idols;

and by 'objects of loathing' and 'abominations' He names the idols—'abominations' as being full of abomination, 'objects of loathing' as being full of all offensiveness.

Such is that which was said by Rebecca:

'I am weary in my soul because of the daughters of the Canaanites; if Jacob my son takes a wife of them, what good is life to me?'—that is, 'I utterly loathe the daughters of the Canaanites.'

'They always go astray in their heart.'

And again, concerning the transgressor, the same prophet says: 'But at wickedness he was not grieved'—that is, he did not loathe the wickedness.

'My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.' So great was the excess of the transgression, that the Merciful One does not endure to show mercy, and the Lover of mankind does not spare those who are being punished.

Then He recounts the things already interpreted—how He will deliver a fourth part to famine, and again another portion to death;

then another portion to the slaughter by war, and the remaining fourth part to captivity, punishment again following upon these also.

'And my fury and my wrath shall be accomplished upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath upon them.'

The Divine is impassible and altogether free from wrath, but He employs human terms, thus designating His punitive operations.

And the words, 'My wrath shall be accomplished upon them,' mean 'it shall reach its end';

for it was to this end that I brought the chastisements also.

'And I will make you a desolation and a reproach to those round about you.'

This too is sufficient to cause bitter grief—that those who dwell in the neighbourhood, and who are continually at war with you, should laugh, and revel in your desolation.

'And your daughters that are round about you, in the sight of everyone that passes by.' By 'daughters' He calls the subject cities and villages.

'And you shall be full of groaning, and made manifest for chastisement and for destruction, both you and your daughters round about you among the nations that are round about you.'

'I will make you conspicuous,' He says, 'in your calamities, so that all who hear of your destruction, and that of the cities and villages subject to you, may groan and lament.'

'When I execute judgements in you in anger and in fury, in vengeance of wrath and in rebukes.' Then, showing the truthfulness of what has been said,

'I the Lord,' He says, 'have spoken.'

For the declaration of the Person is sufficient to demonstrate the truth.

'When I send out against them the arrows of famine, and they shall be for destruction;'

'and I will send them forth to destroy you, and I will marshal famine, and will break your staff of bread.'

(v. 17) 'And I will send upon you the sword, and evil beasts, and I will take vengeance upon you, and death and blood shall pass over you, and I will bring a sword upon you round about.'

He says the same things repeatedly, wishing to strike fear into his hearers, so that through dread of these grievous things they may turn to godliness, and he may not have to bring the threat to actual trial.

By 'evil beasts' he named the most savage Chaldeans, who came on in the manner of flesh-devouring beasts, slaughtering some, while taking others alive and carrying them off as captives of the spear.

'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and you shall say:'

The mountains are neither rational nor even animate, but are indeed without sensation;

yet he addresses himself to the inanimate things as a rebuke to the rational.

So too in the case of Jeroboam, the man of God directed his words to the altar.

'You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Adonai:'

'Thus says the Lord Adonai to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the ravines, and to the valleys:'

'Behold, I bring a sword upon you, and your high places shall be utterly destroyed.'

'And your altars shall be laid waste, and your sacred precincts shall be broken in pieces, and I will cast down your slain before your idols.'

For since in all these places they had raised up altars to the idols, he of necessity foretells the coming onslaught of the enemy, and the slaughters that would occur everywhere, and the sacking of the idolatrous precincts.

'And I will lay the corpses of the sons of Israel before the face of their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.'

He transferred his discourse from the inanimate to the rational, and threatens that he will fill the precincts of the idols with corpses, and the altars of the demons with human bones, teaching through the punishment that they gained nothing from the worship of the demons, nor did they enjoy any help from them in the calamities that befell.

'And the cities shall be made desolate, and the high places shall be laid waste, so that your altars may be utterly destroyed and made to bear their guilt, and shall be broken in pieces.' But 'made to bear their guilt,' Symmachus rendered as 'shall be made desolate.'

'And your idols shall be brought to an end, and your precincts shall be taken away, and your works shall be blotted out.' He showed the causes of the punishment;

for all these things, he says, I do, and I bring on the desolation, in order that I may quench the madness and frenzy over the idols.

'And your slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.'

So that the punishment is a teacher of the knowledge of God.

'And I will leave a remnant, so that there may be of you some who are preserved from the sword among the nations, in your dispersion throughout the lands.'

For since he said, 'You shall know that I am the Lord,' he of necessity shows those who would be benefited;

for those scattered from the captivity shall reap the benefit from the punishment.

'And those of you who are preserved shall remember me, there where they were led captive.'

Useful, therefore, is the instruction that is brought by God.

'For I have sworn concerning their heart that goes a-whoring, that has departed from me, and concerning their eyes that go a-whoring after their pursuits, that they shall lament before their own faces over the evils which they did in all their abominations.'

(v. 10) 'And they shall know that I am the Lord; not in vain have I spoken that I would do all these evils.'

Undeniable, he says, shall be their repentance, over the fact that they forsook me and loved the worship of the idols;

for this is what he here called 'fornication;'

and they shall learn through the very experience of it, that it was neither unjustly nor unprofitably that he wrapped them about with these punishments;

for their impiety demonstrates the justice, and their repentance the profit.

'Thus says the Lord Adonai:'

'Clap with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Aha, aha, over all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel; by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence shall they fall.'

When I, he says, pronounce sentence and condemn them to punishments of every kind, do you clap, and marvel at the justice of the verdict.

'They shall be slaughtered, even in the groves that were honoured by them.'

'And under every leafy oak,' he says, 'they gave a savour of sweet fragrance to all their idols.' He also points out the boundaries of the desolation.

And knowing that the continuous succession of grievous predictions was sufficient to soften even those who were exceedingly obstinate, he again in another manner foretells the sorrowful things.

'For the word of the Lord came to me,' he says, 'saying:'

'Thus says the Lord Adonai to the land of Israel:'

'An end is come, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.'

'The end is now come, and the end shall come upon you who dwell in the land.'

By 'the four corners of the land' he does not mean of the inhabited world, but of Israel;

as if to say, 'Your affairs have reached their end;'

for do not suppose that you will escape the evils that have been threatened, if you make no use of repentance;

for destruction shall proceed against you all.

'And I will send forth my wrath upon you, and I will judge you according to your ways.' Now is the time to say with the blessed Paul:

'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; for he will render to each one according to his works.'

For this is what he here also said:

'And I will judge you according to your ways.'

'And I will bring upon you all your abominations,' which is to say, 'You shall reap what you have sown, and you shall receive recompenses worthy of your deeds.'

'My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity.'

For whenever we fall into an immeasurable excess of lawlessness, and drive ourselves into an incurable sickness, we shut off from ourselves the mercy of God.

'Thus says the Lord Adonai:'

'One evil, an evil, behold it comes.'

'The end is come, the end is come;'

'it has been roused up against you; behold, the end is come.'

'The entanglement is come upon you who dwell in the land.'

Ineffable is the loving-kindness of God: he threatens the punishments, in order that he may not have to bring on the punishments;

but whenever we do not fear the threats, we receive them by actual experience;

which is exactly what these people also suffered, having heard indeed that 'the end is come,' yet not fearing the end;

and he calls 'one evil' the utter destruction that was brought on, and 'the entanglement' the bonds of sin;

for by the cords, he says, of his own sins is each one bound fast. And Isaiah too says:

'Woe to those who draw their sins along as with a long rope, and their iniquities as with the strap of a heifer's yoke.'

'The time,' he says, 'has arrived, the day has drawn near, not with tumults nor with birth-pangs.'

(v. 8) 'Now, close at hand, I will pour out my anger upon you.'

There shall be, he says, no postponement of the punishment, but its appointed time is present and stands over you.

Then again he narrates how they shall pay the penalties for their own wrongdoings.

And after a little he goes on to add:

'The rod has budded, and pride has sprung up, and it shall crush the support of the lawless one.' By 'the rod' he called the punishment, watered and made to blossom by their transgression;

and by 'pride' he named the impiety against God, which they persisted in practising to the utmost, despising the divine long-suffering;

Let not the buyer rejoice, nor let the seller mourn;

for wrath is upon the whole multitude thereof.

And the buyer shall no longer return to the seller.

That is to say, wishing to annul the contract; for all shall fall into equal evils, lamenting and groaning alike.

for all shall fall into equal evils, lamenting and groaning alike.

'Their life is yet in life, for the vision concerning the whole multitude thereof shall not return.' For though so many evils press upon them, he says, they do not renounce their life, nor does the prophetic vision seem trustworthy to all of them.

But they ought, he says, to have known that 'Man in the eyes of his life shall not prevail.' That is, matters do not by any means follow human hopes, but often a man who has hoped to live has found the outcome to be the opposite.

my wrath is upon the whole multitude thereof.

Since you suppose, he says, that the things foretold by me are false, make use of your trumpets, consider yourselves stronger than all;

but you shall gain no benefit from this;

for you shall not have those who are able to make war;

for I bring the manifold retribution upon all in common.

War, and the sword without, and famine, and death within.

He that is in the field shall die by the sword, but those in the city famine and death shall consume.

How then, he says, shall you be able to make war, hemmed in by evils so many and so great? Verse 16.

'And those who escape from them shall be saved,' he says, 'and shall be upon the mountains like mourning doves.'

For, lamenting and mourning, they shall be likened to moaning doves;

for the voice of doves seems to groan.

I will slay all, he says, each in his own iniquities. Not unjustly shall I bring the punishment, but I shall exact from each the penalties he deserves.

All hands shall be enfeebled, and all thighs shall be defiled with moisture.

Each is a sign of cowardice.

And they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, and astonishment shall cover them, and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon every head.

For when, he says, they see the cloud of the evils that are coming upon them, and no help appearing from anywhere, then, giving up, they shall cast away their weapons of war and take up the garb of mourning;

wherefore he also made mention of sackcloth and of a shaven head;

for these things those who mourn at such a time are wont to practise.

And their silver shall be cast into the streets, and their gold shall be despised.

Then he also teaches the reason for the contempt of their possessions.

For their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. For seeing that the possession of silver and gold is useless, they shall despise them lying cast away, no longer keeping the former watch over them.

Their souls shall not be satisfied, and their bellies shall not be filled;

for it became the torment of their iniquities.

For what profit shall gold or silver afford them, when famine wars against them, and the scarcity of necessities presses upon them, on account of which their bellies are empty of food while their souls crave nourishment, and it becomes the torment and examination of their iniquities? Then again he teaches the causes of the punishment.

The choice things of adornment they set for pride, and made from them images of their abominations and detestable things.

For gold and silver and precious stones they took as material both of arrogance and of impiety, fashioning for themselves costly adornment therefrom, and expending most of it upon the making of idols.

For this cause, he says, I have given them to them for uncleanness.

(verses 21, 22.) And I will deliver them into the hands of strangers to plunder them, and to the pestilent ones of the earth for spoil, and they shall profane them.

And I will turn away my face from them.

By the pestilent ones of the earth he called the Babylonians, who were most savage and lawless, and nurtured in every impiety;

To these, he says, I will hand over the gold and silver idols that you fashioned, and the costly adornment that you made for yourselves.

that is, They shall use your precious idols for another purpose.

And they shall defile my place of oversight, and they shall enter into them without restraint, and they shall profane them.

(verse 23.) And they shall make confusion.

By his 'place of oversight' he names the temple consecrated to him, from which he seemed to oversee Israel and to account it worthy of his providence.

But I will hand over, he says, not only their idols to the Babylonians, but also the temple consecrated to me, from which I exercised oversight of you.

And they shall enter into it without restraint; that is, not sanctified nor cleansed according to the law, nor having first received circumcision, but with their blood-stained gear, clad in the armour of war, slaying within, and daring to violate the very sanctuaries.

And I will bring the wicked ones of the nations, and they shall inherit their houses, and I will turn away the arrogance of their strength, and their holy things shall be defiled.

And he did not say, 'My holy things,' but 'Their holy things';

that is, the things consecrated to me by them, of which I had no need;

but for the sake of their diligence I accepted them.

But now again, because of their transgression, I will overlook these things as they are defiled and trampled underfoot.

Atonement shall come, and you shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

Woe upon woe shall there be, and tidings upon tidings.

Evils shall follow one upon another for them, and evil rumour shall succeed evil rumour.

And vision shall be sought from a prophet, and law shall perish from a priest, and counsel from elders. These things prevail among them even now, to this very day;

for neither is the priesthood administered among them according to the laws, and the grace of prophecy has been quenched.

The king shall mourn, and the ruler shall clothe himself with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be paralysed.

This Jeremiah teaches us more clearly, when he expounds the events concerning Zedekiah and his flight.

According to their ways I will do to them, and by their judgments I will avenge myself upon them, and they shall know that I am the Lord. These penalties, he says, I will exact from them, demanding the reckonings for the offences they committed.

to whom belongs glory unto the ages of ages.

Chapter 1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in the house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me.

wherefore everywhere he notes the time precisely.

and this he made clear by saying, 'The elders of Judah were sitting before me.' Then he adds:

And the hand of the Lord Adonai came upon me. He calls the working of the divine Spirit the hand of the Lord.

And I looked, and behold, a likeness as of a man; from his loins and downward, fire; and from his loins upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the look of amber.

The one whom he had beheld upon the Cherubim, this same he now sees apart from the Cherubim;

for at one time he appears to him in a fearful manner, at another gently, ordering all things according to the need;

for his is the voice, 'I have multiplied visions, and in the hands of the prophets I have been likened.' I was not seen according to my essence;

wherefore the prophet also says that he saw a likeness.