以西結書註釋 第 1 章 第 7/19 段

'For you indeed,' He says, 'trampled upon the compacts made with Me; yet not even this shall persuade Me to abandon you utterly, but having chastened you by discipline and taught you gratitude, I will call to remembrance those covenants which of old I made with you while you were still an infant';

and thus He calls the period of the sojourning in the wilderness.

And I will establish My covenant, an everlasting covenant. Not that of the Law, but that of grace;

not that through Moses, but that through the apostles;

for the one has that which is temporary, but the other that which is eternal.

And this He promised to do also through Jeremiah the prophet;

'But I will make with them a new covenant, giving My laws into their understanding, and upon their hearts I will write them.' This is the very covenant which here also He promises.

And you shall remember, He says, your ways, and you shall be utterly disgraced when you receive your sisters, your elder ones together with your younger ones.

'And you shall see these also, your sisters, enjoying this covenant together with you—or rather, yourself found to be with them.'

And I, He says, will raise up My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

The Gospel was proclaimed—then to all the nations;

but it shall also be proclaimed once again through the great Elijah before the consummation of the world.

'I therefore,' He says, 'will do all things, working out your benefit;

for from these things you shall come to know what sort were the deeds done by you against Me, and what sort were the good things bestowed by Me upon you.'

That you may remember, and be ashamed, and no longer have it in your power to open your mouth because of your dishonor, when I make propitiation for you according to all that you have done, says Adonai the Lord.

These same words the three youths also used in the furnace.

For making the people's transgressions their own, they said in prayer:

And now we cannot open our mouth;

for He who inspires the prophets is without falsehood.

For thus shall we be able to be far removed from the contrivances of sin, and to wait attentively upon God, and to enjoy the grace that comes from Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father belongs the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages.

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

Son of man, tell a tale, and speak a parable to the house of Israel.

He enjoins him to deliver the prophecy in enigmatic fashion, so that the hearers, not understanding the things spoken, might become more diligent in seeking after them, and might receive the interpretation from the prophet through inquiry.

The great eagle, the great-winged, long in extent, full of talons. By these words He hinted at Nebuchadnezzar, naming him 'great' because he had become much-talked-of, 'great-winged' as having extended his dominion over the widest bounds, 'long in extent' as being high-minded and arrogant;

and He called him 'full of talons' as having a great army, both cavalry and infantry, both light-armed and heavily-armed.

For the soldiers are as it were a king's talons, occupying the extremity of the body, because they are subject to the commanders, and are sharp and powerful for striking and tearing, like a wild beast, those who attempt to make resistance.

Who has, He says, the purpose to enter into Lebanon. Here He plainly taught that he did not come to Jerusalem of his own accord, but with the God of all invisibly setting him in motion and leading him;

for He called Jerusalem 'Lebanon,' not only as distinguished, but also as being at that time luxuriant, both in the multitude of its inhabitants and in the priests according to the Law and the prophets foretelling divine things.

And he entered in, He says, and took the choice things of the cedar.

(v. 4) He plucked off the topmost of its tender growth.

By these words He hinted at Jechoniah;

and He said 'choice things of the cedar' on account of the kingship, and 'topmost of the tender growth' not only because of his exalted rank, but also because of the youthfulness of his age;

for while still young, he both received the kingdom and endured the captivity.

He has set it down thus, since he had called him an eagle furnished with very many talons.

And he brought them, He says, into a city of Canaan, into a walled city he set them. By these words He signified Babylon;

and He named it 'Canaan' on account of the kinship of its ways.

And he took of the seed of the land, and gave it into a fertile field, that it might take rooting of plants;

beside much water he set it, in a place well-watered.

By this He indicated Zedekiah;

for having appointed him king in place of Jechoniah, he departed;

and he no longer names Jerusalem 'Lebanon,' but 'a fertile field,' because the kingdom had become more lowly.

And the phrase, 'beside much water he set it,' signifies the subjection, and the tribute imposed upon him.

It sprang up, He says, and became a feeble vine, and small in size, so that its branches appeared upon it, and its roots were beneath it;

and it became a great vine, and put forth suckers, and stretched out its trailing tendrils.

The last kingdom of the Jews became exceedingly feeble;

for having already thrice endured siege and enslavement, they were both driven into poverty and deprived of their multitude.

And the phrase, 'it stretched out its trailing tendrils,' does not signify its greatness, but its friendship toward the Egyptian.

And there was another great eagle, great-winged, and abundant in talons; and behold, this vine was entwining itself upon him, and its roots were toward him, and its branches it sent forth to him, that he might water it, together with the clod, from the stump of its planting.

In a good field, beside much water, this shall drink, that it may make shoots, and bear fruit, so as to be a great vine.

He calls the kings 'eagles' on account of their sovereignty;

for the creature is royal, and has obtained the sovereignty over the birds;

and by these He hinted at the king of the Egyptians.

This was Apries, and Jeremiah the prophet makes mention of him;

for it was to him that Zedekiah made his overtures, transgressing his oaths and the compacts which he had made with Nebuchadnezzar.

The phrase, 'It sent forth to him its branches,' signifies the wealth dispatched by Zedekiah to the king of the Egyptians.

'And it sent,' he says, 'to water it together with the clod of soil,' so that, he says, it might do battle in defence both of the king and of his subjects.

For he called the people a 'clod,' persisting in the figure, since he had also named the king a 'vine.'

Now the vine, planted in the earth, sends out its own roots, and from the earth draws its moisture.

Therefore, he says, Zedekiah sent the wealth of the Egyptians to their king, so that through his aid both he himself and the people might enjoy protection, that it might put forth shoots and bear fruit; and 'the vine remaining' means, not having cast off the dignity which it had received.

For the watering supplied by the Egyptian would not only bring it no benefit at all, but would even work rottenness in its roots and wither the shoots that grow from them.

And this indeed came to pass through the very course of events.

For Zedekiah, having taken courage in the Egyptian's assistance, transgressed the covenants he had made with Nebuchadnezzar.

But the latter, marching against him, took him captive, enslaved the people, and set the city on fire.

'And not with a mighty arm, nor with a great host, to pluck it out from its roots.' For the Egyptian, he says, will not send him a large army, and even this army will not only profit him nothing, but will even tear him up from the roots.

'By [Egyptian] aid,' but he will not enjoy it to the end.

'Will it not, as soon as the scorching wind touches it, be utterly dried up with drought; together with the clod, it will be dried up at its sprouting?' For at once, he says, when the Babylonian king arrives, both the king and all his subjects will be enslaved.

For here again he called the people a 'clod.'

And by the 'scorching wind' he means the Babylonian's expedition.

For just as he called the king a 'vine' and the people a 'clod' (for in it the vine had been planted),

so figuratively he called the Egyptian's help a 'watering';

and by the 'scorching wind' he means the assault of the Babylonian.

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

'Son of man, say to the rebellious house:'

'Do you not know what these things are? Say to them:'

'Behold, the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, and he will take its king and its princes, and lead them to himself into Babylon.'

The 'Behold, he comes' stands for 'Behold, he has come';

for meanwhile he is recounting things that had already happened; and he has gone through these matters concerning Jeconiah, speaking of things past, according to his own peculiar idiom, as though they had not yet come to pass.

And that he said those things concerning Jeconiah, who by now was already in the sixth year of his captivity, the words that follow teach us, in accordance with the teaching of the prophet himself.

'And he will take,' he says, 'of the seed of the kingdom, and will make with him a covenant, and will bring him under an oath;'

'and he will take the leaders of the land, that it may become a feeble kingdom, so as not to lift itself up at all, but to keep his covenant and to establish it.'

These things he said concerning Zedekiah, and they too had come to pass six years before.

Therefore the 'he will take, and will make a covenant, and will bring in' stand for 'he took, and made a covenant, and brought in.'

For in making the covenants with Zedekiah, he exacted from him the most dread oaths, that he should not transgress the terms agreed upon;

but he straightway trampled upon the oaths.

'And appointing him as king,' he says, he will take captive all who are laden with wealth.

This too the fourth book of Kingdoms and the second of Chronicles taught us;

and in like manner also the blessed prophet Jeremiah.

'And all these things,' he says, the Babylonian contrives, making the kingdom feeble, so that it may obey continually and have no pretext for revolt.

'And he will rebel against him, by sending men to Egypt, that they should give him horses and much people.'

The things which above he had spoken in a veiled and parabolic manner, here he taught plainly.

Then by way of a question he adds:

'Shall he prosper? Shall he who acts contrary and transgresses the covenant be saved? Shall he escape?' I have made use of you, he says, as judges: whether it is just that the one who has become a transgressor of oaths and covenants should escape justice and obtain deliverance;

but since you make no answer, I pronounce the verdict.

'As I live, says the Lord Adonai;'

'surely in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant with him he transgressed, in the midst of Babylon he shall die;'

'and not with a great force, nor with a large multitude.'

The king of the Babylonians, though ignorant of me, he says, exacted the oaths from this man in my name;

but this man, though living under my laws, became a transgressor of the oaths.

'And Pharaoh will not wage war with an army mustered behind a palisade, nor with the building of siege-mounds, so as to cut off many souls.' And this too again the blessed prophet Jeremiah teaches us;

for when the Chaldeans were besieging Jerusalem, the king of the Egyptians came to the aid of the Jews;

and the Chaldeans, fearing this assault, withdrew;

but the God of all, through Jeremiah the prophet, counsels Zedekiah not to take courage in the Egyptian's help.

For straightway, he says, the king of Babylon will come and take the city. And these things too God speaks here through Ezekiel.

He will not reap the benefit of the Egyptian's alliance, but will pay the penalty for his transgression.

'And I will spread out my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and there I will enter into judgement with him concerning his iniquity, wherein he sinned against me in all his acts of desertion.'

'And all his chosen men, together with all his ranks, shall fall by the sword, and all their remnant I will scatter to every wind; and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken.'

Taking courage, he says, in the Egyptians' help, he trampled upon my oaths;

but I, using the expedition of the Chaldeans as a kind of net, will take him alive, and will send him off to Babylon, and his picked men and the best of his army I will deliver up to slaughter;

and those who escape from the war I will deliver over to death as prisoners of the spear; and by this very experience you shall learn that my words are not false.

For this is what he indicated when he said:

'And you shall know that I the Lord have spoken.'

(vv. 22, 23.) 'Thus says the Lord Adonai:'

'I myself will take of the choicest of the lofty cedar, from its summit, and will set it out from the head of its tender shoots; from the heart of its top I will crop off a shoot, and I myself will plant it upon a high mountain.'

'And I will hang it upon a lofty mountain of Israel, and I will plant it, and it will put forth a shoot, and bear fruit, and become a great cedar; and under it every bird will find rest, and every winged creature will rest beneath its shadow, and its branches will be restored.'

Israel is rebellious, and they have eyes and do not see, and they have ears and do not hear.

But if these things are not so, let them show us who this is that was taken from the choicest of the lofty cedar, from the heart of its top, and was planted first upon a high mountain, then hung upon a lofty mountain of Israel, and after being hung put forth a shoot and bore fruit and became a great cedar, so that every bird and every winged creature—not a quadruped, nor a reptile, but every bird and winged thing—rests beneath its shadow.

For if they should say these things were spoken concerning Zerubbabel, let them show upon what mountain Zerubbabel was hung, or that all the birds and winged creatures rested beneath his shadow;

for Zerubbabel merely continued to rule over the people who had returned together with him from the captivity, while the other nations not only did not obey him, but even waged war against him continually.

For which reason not even the building of the divine temple received a speedy completion.

But if the things spoken in no way fit Zerubbabel, they could hardly fit any other man.

And if they should attempt to draw the prophecy over to the Maccabees, their falsehood will easily be refuted.

For those men were not of the royal, but of the priestly tribe;

but here by 'cedar' he designates the royal line.

For indeed concerning Jeconiah he spoke thus:

'The great eagle, the one with mighty wings, plucked off the tender shoots of the cedar and carried them away to Babylon' — that is, the royal line.

And this the blessed Matthew teaches us with exactness;

'And after the removal to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel' — this same man who had become a captive;

and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;

and this is the man who, after the return, led the people;

'from the choice shoots of the lofty cedar, from its top' — that is, from the royal root itself;

for He built for Himself the human temple.

'And I will plant it upon a lofty mountain, I myself,' not the Babylonian;

and by 'lofty mountain' He calls the eminence of the Church;

for thus also Isaiah and Micah prophesied;

'And it shall come to pass,' he says, 'in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be made manifest, and the house of God upon the tops of the mountains,' and what follows.

Having thus shown His distinction through His miracles and through His preaching, He foretells also the Passion;

'And I will hang Him upon the mountain of Israel.' For it was with His own consent that the Passion was accomplished.

This the Lord Himself made plain when speaking with Pilate;

for when that man boasted, as having authority both to punish and to release, the Lord said:

'You would have no authority unless it had been given you from above.' Thus He named the permission as an effectual working.

'And I will hang Him upon the exalted mountain of Israel.' Lofty is Golgotha, where the saving Cross was fixed.

Then the resurrection after the Passion, and the springing forth of the preaching;

'And I will plant it, and it shall put forth a shoot and shall bear fruit' — which the whole inhabited world, gathering and feeding upon it, hopes for as eternal life.

'And every bird shall rest beneath it.' Then more clearly: 'And every winged creature shall rest under its shadow.' Nothing beastlike, nor creeping and grovelling upon the ground, but whatever is winged and traverses the air and has its impulse toward the things above.

For such are those nourished in the faith: sending their mind upward, picturing to themselves the heavenly things, and sitting under the shadow of the greatest cedar.

'And its branches,' he says, 'shall be restored.' This He added because of the desolation of Jerusalem at that time;

that is, Do not fix your gaze upon the desolation of the city that will come after the captivity;

for this eternal King, setting out from thence, shall reign, and from her shall take branches;

and He signifies the apostolic company.

'And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord, who bring low the high tree and exalt the low tree, who dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish again.'

'I the Lord have spoken and will do it.'

'All men shall know,' He says, 'that it is easy for Me both to bring low the lofty and to lift up the lowly, to dry up what is moist and to show the withered as flourishing.'

For when they see, after the desolation of the city, a shoot springing up out of her according to the prophecy of Isaiah;

'For there shall come forth,' he says, 'a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall spring up out of the root'; and when they see this One displayed as King of the whole inhabited world, all shall know that I am the Lord who foretells and adds the deed to the word.

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

'Son of man, what is this proverb of yours in the land of Israel, wherein men say, The fathers ate an unripe grape, and the children's teeth were set on edge? As I live, says Adonai the Lord, this proverb shall no longer be used in Israel.'

'For all souls are Mine;

as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son;

all souls are Mine, and the soul that sins, it shall die.'

To some it seems that the prophecy passes over to another subject;

but it is possible to see that what is said accords with what was said before.

Having made mention of Zedekiah's transgression, and having foretold beforehand the dominion over the inhabited world that would come from the royal seed, he necessarily teaches the people not to make use of the proverb that accuses God of injustice — namely, that when the fathers ate the unripe grape the children's teeth were set on edge, or, according to Symmachus, were made numb.

'For behold,' He says, 'though the kings of that time were transgressors, the seed that comes from them shall rule the inhabited world.'

'For neither will I endure to demand from the children the reckoning for what the fathers transgressed;

for all souls are Mine, and the soul that sins, it shall pay the penalty.'

Then He teaches us what are the kinds of righteousness, and how it is possible both to enjoy life and to be delivered from punishment.

'But the man who is righteous, who executes judgment and righteousness'

That is, one who holds the scales of justice in equal balance.

'He who keeps himself,' He says, 'far from the service of idols';

for on the mountains were their sacred precincts established.

'And he shall not lift up his eyes to the abominations of the house of Israel.' That is, if he does not follow the evil devices of Israel;

and by these words likewise He indicated both impiety and lawlessness.

'And he shall not defile his neighbour's wife, nor draw near to a woman in her separation.' It behooves him, He says, neither to plunder another's bed, nor to approach her who is in her flux of blood;

for this too was forbidden by the Law.

'And he shall not oppress any man, and he shall restore to the debtor his pledge, and he shall not seize plunder.'

'From all covetousness,' He says, 'may he be seen to be free.'

Then the heightening of virtue;

'He shall give his bread to the hungry, and shall clothe the naked with a garment.' For it is not enough not to plunder, but one must also make the needy sharers of one's goods.

'He shall not give his silver at interest, nor take any increase.'

For these too are kinds of covetousness.

'He shall turn back his hand from injustice.' Concisely He forbade lawlessness.

'And he shall execute true judgment between a man and his neighbour.' If he appear a righteous judge, not casting his vote for favour or out of enmity;

'And he has walked in My ordinances, and has kept My statutes to do them';

'this man is righteous; he shall surely live, says Adonai the Lord.'

He who has done all the aforesaid things, He says, and is free from all that is forbidden, shall both be honoured with the title of the righteous, and shall reap the fruits of life.

'And if he beget a son who is a pestilence, shedding blood and committing sins,'

'in the way of his righteous father he does not walk.' But he wrought each of the things already forbidden, and travelled the opposite road;

'this man,' He says, 'has committed lawlessness.'

'He shall not live; he has done all these lawless things; he shall surely be put to death; his blood shall be upon him.'

The transgressor, He says, shall gain nothing from his father's virtue, having chosen for himself a life contrary to that man's, but shall pluck the fruits of his own sowings.

But when, He says, one begets a son, and the son sees all the sins of his father which he did, and fears, and does not act according to them,

in that he freed himself from the worship of idols, and shared not in the lawlessness of the house of Israel, and plotted not against another's marriage, and hated every kind of covetousness, but offered to the needy such care as he could — driving away the hunger of some, and clothing others and delivering them from nakedness — and kept together all the commandments,

'This man,' He says, 'shall not die in the iniquities of his father, but he shall surely live.'

For neither is it just that this man be exacted penalties for that man's lawlessness.

But his father, he says, since he oppressed with oppression, and seized plunder, and did what was contrary in the midst of the people, has also died in his own iniquity.

In your judging you wish that the son of the transgressor should undergo punishment on behalf of the father, and you ask one another, Why then has he not paid the penalty for his father's transgressions? But I say to you: Because the son has done judgment, and righteousness, and mercy, and has kept all my ordinances and performed them, he shall surely live. Since he did not walk the same road as his father, but preferred my way to that of his father, he has found an end worthy of that way.

But the soul that sins, that same soul shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of his own father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of his own son.

He has again set forth the same things more plainly and concisely:

And if the lawless man turn away from all his lawless deeds which he has done, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and righteousness, and mercy, he shall surely live, and shall not die.

And none of all his transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; in his righteousness which he has done, he shall live.

So far, he says, am I from exacting penalties from one man on behalf of another, that even the very transgressor of the law, though he should have wrought ten thousand lawless deeds, if he changes, and practises repentance, and chooses the way of righteousness, I will both receive him and count him worthy of life.

Then he makes plain his own goodness.

I will surely not desire the death of the lawless man, says the Lord Adonai, but rather that he turn from his evil way, and live. I do not desire, he says, the death of the lawless man, but his repentance.

For I did not fashion the nature of men in order that I might punish them, but that I might impart life.

And the facts bear witness to the words;

for he would not have inspired prophets, and sent apostles, and given written laws, and promised good things, and threatened Gehenna, if he wished to punish;

but he would have allowed men to be carried along as they please.

But now he continually does all these things, in order that he may free them from the terrors that have been threatened.

And that the things spoken are not mere words, but facts, both things that have happened and things that are happening — the divine Scripture is witness.

For Hezekiah, born of an impious father, Ahaz, not only did not pay the penalty on behalf of his father, but even became most illustrious through his own piety.

But the all-prosperous Manasseh, having walked a course diametrically opposed to his begetter, gained no benefit from his father's piety;

yet having made use of repentance, he enjoyed salvation.

But Amon, his son, having emulated his father's wickedness but no longer his repentance, ended his life miserably;

while his child Josiah, having abhorred his father's impiety, and having adorned his soul with every form of virtue, was numbered in the roll of the saints, having drawn no injury from his father's lawlessness;

but his children, not having emulated him, but having lived with all impiety, paid the penalties of their own offences, reaping no advantage from their father's love of God.

Come then, let us return to the sequence of the interpretation.

And when the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and does injustice according to all the iniquities which the lawless man did, if he do them, he shall surely not live;

all his righteous acts which he did shall surely not be remembered;

in the transgression whereby he transgressed, and in his sins which he committed, in these he shall die.

Just as, he says, if any of the transgressors, having abhorred his former life, should choose the opposite, I will receive his repentance, and count him worthy of life;

so, if any of the righteous, having utterly abandoned the way of righteousness, should turn to the other, he will lose all his former course, and will find an end suited to that way;

for in his sins he shall die.

which the lawless man did — since even some of the pious stumble, but rising again they walk that same way, and by using repentance they attain salvation;

but those who wholly depart from it gather the fruits of the opposite way.

And you have said, he says, The way of the Lord is not straight;

Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not straight? Is it not your way that is not straight? Seeing this my righteous verdict, he says, do you dare to accuse it of injustice? And yet you ought to make the accusation against yourselves, that, seeing such righteousness in the judge, you choose injustice.

Then he again recounts the same things concisely: both that the righteous man who turns to the opposite shall be given over to the death of sin, and that the sinner who again practises repentance, and chooses to walk through every virtue, shall reap life from his repentance.

And seeing these things, he says, the house of Israel says:

The way of the Lord is not right;

Is the way of the Lord not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your way that is not right? The very facts, he says, cry aloud that my judgments are upright and just, but your purpose is full of lawlessness.

Having thus threatened, and having pronounced the just verdict, he turns his word to exhortation.