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and in favour]

CHAP. XXXVI.

myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.

13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.

14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.

15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumeà, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD. (N)

CHAP. XXXV1.

ALSO, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:

2 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha! even the ancient high places are our's in possession:

3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallow

CHAP. XXXV.

[of Israel. ed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, aud to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;

5 Therefore thus saith the Lord Gon; Surely in the fire of my jealonisy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen.

7 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Gon; I have lifted up nine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.

8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye

EXPOSITION.

(N) Ezekiel resumes his prophecy against Edom.-Edom is here distinguished by the name of Mount Seir, which was the heritage of Esau, where he dwelt; (See Deut. ii. 5.) God had already (ch. xxv. 12.) devoted Edom to destruction on account of its "perpetual hatred against Israel, as we have before observed; for though other nations, as well as the Jews, are promised

the recovery of their freedom after the fall of Babylon, no such favour is in reserve for Edom. Accordingly the nation has been annihilated; many thousands of them being destroyed by Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc. v.); and by this they were so weakened, that Hyrcanus, his nephew, compelled them to embrace the Jewish religion; after which we hear no more about them. (See Bishop Newton on the Proph. Diss. III.)

NOTES.

CHAP. XXXVI. Ver. 2. Ancient high placesthat is, Zion and Jerusalem. Boothroyd.

Ver.3. Ye are taken up. &c.-Heb. "Are made to come up on the lip of the tongue;" i, e. because ye are made the theme of talkers, or gossippers. See chap. xxxiii. 30),——And are an infamy-Newcome, "And in the defaming of the people;" i. e. the common topic of the slanderer.

Ver. 5. With the joy, &c.-See chap. xxxv. 10, 12. Ver. 6, 7. Behold, I have spoken, &c.-Abp. Newcome says these verses may be thus pointed; "Behold I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury. Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen, therefore thus saith the Lord," &c.—I have lifted up mine hand-that is, "I have sworn."

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shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown :

10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded.

11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings : and he shall know that I am the LORD.

12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no inore henceforth bereave them of men. 13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

15 Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither

CHAP. XXXVI.

[restoration shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD. (O)

¶ 16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed

woman.

18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake,

EXPOSITION.

(0) Ver. 1 — 15. Farther Judgments against Edom and Judah, with the latter's restoration. The Edomites (or Idumeans), during the Babylonish captivity, appear to have taken possession of the mountainous parts of Judea, and the fortified places on its borders, intending to exclude the Jews from returning at the conclusion of their captivity. The Prophet therefore uses the bold figure of prosopopia (or personification), and ascribing to them feelings similar to his own, congratulates them on the prospect of being rid of their tyrannical and idolatrous possessors, and of re

turning to their former state of fruitfulness and verdure, of which the crimes of the people had deprived them.

As we are now about to consider the final restoration of the Jews, a question here arises, whether their conversion is to take place before or after their return to their own land? But as it is promised even in this chapter, that when the children of Israel return to the Lord it shall be with one heart, and that a new heart, and under divine influences, we conceive this to be scarcely reconcileable with their coming back in a state of impenitence and unbelief. But see Rom. xi. 25, &c.

NOTES.

Ver. 8. At hand to come- that is, to come back from Babylon.

Ver. 12. No more bereave them of men-that is, by thine idolatries.

Ver. 13. Thou land devourest up men.-See Num. xiii. 32.

Ver. 15, The shame- Newcome," The reproach."

Ver. 20. To them - Newcome, "Concerning them." The Hebrew admits of both scuses: they were doubtless pointed at by the heathen, and re proached, not only with their captivity, but with their idolatry, as the cause of it.

Ver. 23. In you-Boothroyd," By you."

to the house]

CHAP. XXXVII.

which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judginents, and do them.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 1 will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe your

[of Israel. selves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations.

32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GoD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men and they shall know that I am the LORD. (P)

CHAP. XXXVII.

THE hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.

EXPOSITION.

(P) Ver. 16-38. Israel's conversion and restoration. We have above expressed our opinion that the Jews will return to their own land a converted people; and indeed we scarcely know any other motive that could induce them to return. The rich among them are the money-merchants of Europe, and have no taste for agriculture, nor wish to change their situation: the poor are reduced to the most sordid and mercenary habits: aud by their own accounts, a great part of both rich and poor are sunk into principles of infidelity,

and weary of waiting for their Messiah. Nothing, therefore, short of the influences of God's Holy Spirit, vouchsafed in some remarkable inauner and degree, can be sufficient to excite them to brave the danger and fatigue of returning from the most distant parts of the world.

We must remember also, that this return implies a cordial and complete reconciliation with the converted Gentiles; for the blessings here promised are to the spiritual seed of Abraham and of the promise. (Rom, ix. 6-8.).

The valley]

EZEKIEL.

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6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into

[of dry bones. them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ve know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions :

17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying,

EXPOSITION-Chap. XXXVI. Continued.

Beside the important theological points to which we have just adverted, one principle is here strongly stated, which appears to have influenced the divine Being under every dispensation, and to have formed the leading motive of the Almighty's conduct toward every class of his creatures. "Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, but for mine holy name's

sake." That creatures can merit of their Creator by obedience enjoined on then, is inconsistent with common sense: that sinners, who have disobeyed, can do this, is one of the most flagrant absurdities that can be broached. That salvation is of grace and of grace alone, is one of the first principles of Christianity. (Luke xvii. 9, 10; Rom. xi. 5, &c.)

NOTES.

CHAP. XXXVII. Ver. 4. Prophesy upon-Newcome, "Over."

Ver. 11. We are cut off, &c.-Newcome," (As for) us, we are cut off."

Ver. 12. Out of your graves.-The Jews, in their

dispersion, considered themselves as dead, and buried from the world.

Ver. 16. Take one stick-or rod. See Num. 12 Ver. 18. What thou meanest by these-Hed ̈ these (are) unto thee."

Judah and Israel]

CHAP. XXXVII.

Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will

CHAP. XXXVII.

[to be re-united. save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes and do them.

25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my ser vant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

27 My tabernacle also shall be with them yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (Q)

EXPOSITION.

(Q) The vision of the resurrection of dry bones, and the parable of the two staves.Under the emblem of dead and dry bones is represented the hopeless state of the Jews in their captivity, and especially in their general dispersion. But God, contrary to every human probability, restores flesh to these bones, and renews to them life and vigour ; to intimate not only the return of that people from the Babylonish captivity, but also their restoration and conversion in the latter day, by the efficacy of the Spirit of grace, which will be to them as life from the dead. The accomplishment of the former event may be considered as au earnest of the general restoration here promised to the whole house of

Israel. These, according to the significant emblem of the union of the two sticks or. staves, representing Ephraim and Judah, will be united in one kingdom, which will enjoy both the land of Canaan, and the blessings of the gospel, under the Messiah. The vision of the dry bones reviving is also considered by some as having a remote view to the general resurrection; at least it supposes that the doctrine of a resurrection was at that period received among the Jews, who still retain it, and consider this chapter as referring not only figuratively to their return from their dispersion, but to a literal resurrection of their nation, (which they call the first resurrection, Rev. xx. 5.) prior to the general resurrection of mankind; so Maimonides, Abarbanel, &c. (See Levi's Dissert. vol. ii. p. 271.)

NOTES.

Ver. 22. One king-namely, Messiah. Ver.24.compared with Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; Hos. i. 11: Ver. 26. A covenant of peace. Isa. liv. 10; Eph. ii. 14-18.

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