A remnant B. C. 593. CHAPTER XV. B. C. 593. shall be delivered. A. M. 3411. ments upon Jerusalem, the sword, || their doings: and ye shall be com- A. M. 3411 and the famine, and the noisome forted concerning the evil that I have beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all and beast? that I have brought upon it. 22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and y Chap. vi. 8. Chap. xx. 43. causing a scarcity of food in the deserts, or by some Verses 22, 23. Yet, behold, therein-In Jerusalem itself, though marked for utter ruin; in Judea, though condemned to suffer unexampled desolations; shall be left a remnant―That shall not be cut off by any of those sore judgments before mentioned, but shall escape and be brought forth into Chaldea, to be your companions in captivity; both sons and daughtersThat shall be the seed of a new generation. And ye 23 And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD. a Jer. xxii. 8, 9. shall see their ways and their doings-"Ye shall be made sensible of their guilt and reformation." Their sufferings shall be made instrumental in bringing them to a due sense of the greatness and aggravations of their former iniquities, and you shall hear || them make a free and ingenuous confession of them, and an humble profession of repentance for them, with promises of amendment, and you shall see instances of this amendment, and be witnesses of the good their affliction has done them, and how prudently and patiently they carry themselves under it. And ye shall be comforted-" By their confession of their idolatries, by a conviction of my justice, and by the spirit of allegiance to me, which they shall propagate."-Bishop Newcome. Concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem-Ye shall the less grieve when you are made sensible they were not punished beyond what their sins deserved, and that their sufferings have had a salutary influence on their spirit and conduct. This consideration will compose your minds, and make you give glory to || God, and acknowledge his judgments to be righteous, though they touch you very nearly in the destruction of your friends and country. And they shall comfort you when ye see their ways, &c.— When you see them repenting of their sins and reforming their lives, humbling themselves before God, || justifying his conduct toward them, and quietly accepting the punishment of their iniquity. And ye shall know that I have not done without cause-Not without a just provocation, and yet not without a gracious design; all that I have done in it-In Jerusalem and among its inhabitants. When afflictions have done their work, and have accomplished that for which they were sent, then will appear the wisdom and goodness of God in sending them, and God will not only be justified, but glorified in them. CHAPTER XV. To reconcile Ezekiel himself, and his hearers, to the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, God here shows that it was as proper that they should be destroyed as that an unfruitful vine should be cut up and burned We have, (1,) The parable or similitude, showing that when the vine is barren it is unfit for any use, 1–5. (2,) The awful application of it to the Jews, 6-8 3 617 The wicked compared EZEKIEL. to a fruitless vine. A. M. 3411. AND the word of the LORD came || yet for any work, when the fire hath A. M. 3411. B. C. 593. unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? 3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? 4 Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. 1Is it meet for any work? 5 Behold, when it was whole, it was 2 meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet NOTES ON CHAPTER XV. Verses 1-5. What is the vine more than any tree? -The house of Israel is often compared to a vine, which when fruitful is very profitable and valuable, but when barren is very worthless and contemptible. Of this the prophet reminds the Jews to humble them, and awaken them to a sense of the importance of bringing forth the fruits of righteousness. Or, than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? -One single branch of a tree in the forest is of more use and value than the whole vine-tree is, except for its fruit. Some, however, render this latter clause, If its branch is as the trees of the forest; that is, if it brings forth no fruit. Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?-There are some fruit-trees, the wood of which, if they do not bear fruit, is of much use, and may be made to turn to a good account; but the vine is not one of these; its wood is of no use in building, or in making any piece of furniture or domestic utensil; nor indeed is it fit for any of the purposes for which the wood of other trees is used. It will not afford even a pin to drive into a wall or post, on which you may safely hang any weight: and, therefore, if the vine do not bring forth grapes it is good for nothing. Behold, it is cast into || the fire for fuel-When, for its barrenness, it is cut down, it is only fit to be burned. The fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it, &c.-"A very apt representation of the state of Judea, when both its extremities were consumed by the ravages of the destroyer, and the middle of it, where the capital city stood, was threatened every moment with destruction from the enemy." Is it meet for any work? Is it worth any body's while to save it from being burned for any use! If a piece of solid timber be kindled, somebody, perhaps, may snatch it out of the fire, and say it is a pity to burn it, for it may be put to some better use; but if the branch of a vins be on fire, and, as usual, both the ends of it and the middle are kindled together, nobody goes about to save it for when it was whole it was meet for no work, much less when the fire has almost devoured it. Just so, the parable implies, it was of no use or consequence to save the Jewish nation from devoured it, and it is burned? B. C. 593. destruction, were it possible to do it, which had so little answered the design of God, in making them his people, and had been of so little use in promoting his glory among the surrounding nations. Verses 6-8. As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given for fuel-That is, as the vine-tree, when barren and fruitless, like the wild trees of the forest, is given for fuel, being fit for nothing else; or as a vine, when barren and cut up, is thrown among other wood which is intended to be fuel for the fire; so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem-So will I destroy them by the Chaldeans, among other nations which are destroyed by them. For they are so degenerated, and grown so corrupt and wicked, that they are of no use any longer in the world; but are rather injurious to civil society, and therefore are only fit to be consumed. And I will set my face against them-To thwart all their counsels and confound their schemes, as they have set their faces against me to contradict my word and defeat my designs: or, I will look upon them with indignation. They shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them-The end of one judgment shall be the beginning of another; and their escape from one only a reprieve till another come. They shall go from misery in their own country to misery in Babylon. They that kept themselves out of the way of the sword, perished by famine or pestilence: when one descent of the Chaldean forces upon them was over, and they thought, Surely the bitterness of death is past; yet soon after these enemies returned again with double violence till they had made a full end. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set my face against them-You that are in Chaldea, when you shall hear what mischiefs, one after another, are heaped on Jerusalem, shall know that I am Jehovah, a God of almighty power, that it is my wrath and vengeance that is poured upon them. Observe, reader, God shows himself to be the Lord by the destruction of his implacable enemies, as well as by the deliverance of his obedient people. And, observe also those against whom he sets his face, though they may come out of one trouble little hurt, will fall into The spiritual origin CHAPTER XVI. of the apostate Israelites. another; though they come out of the pit, will be || poral judgments, and seem to die in peace, yet taken in the snare, Isaiah xxiv. 8; though they there is an everlasting fire that will devour them; escape the sword of Hazael, will fall by that of for when God judgeth, first or last, he will overJehu, 1 Kings xix. 17: for evil pursues sinners. || come, and will be known by the judgments which he Nay, though they go out from the fire of tem- executeth. CHAPTER XVI. In the foregoing chapter Jerusalem was compared to an unfruitful vine, which was fit for nothing but the fire: in this chapter she is compared to an adulteress, that in justice deserved to be abandoned and exposed. The prophet therefore is commanded to show the people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they had to complain of the judgments already come and coming upon them. Here, therefore, in a long discourse, are set forth, (1,) The despicable and deplorable beginnings of their church and nation, 3–5. (2,) The many honours and favours God had bestowed on them, 6-14. (3,) Their treacherous and ungrateful departures from him to the service and worship of idols, here represented by the most impudent whoredom, 15–34. (4,) A threatening of terrible destroying judgments, which God would bring upon them for this sin, 35-43. (5,) An aggravation both of their sin and of their punishment, by comparing them with the sin and punishment of Sodom and Samaria, 44-59. (6,) A promise of mercy in the close, which God would show to a penitent remnant, 60–63. A. M. 3411. AG с GAIN the word of the LORD came || land of Canaan; thy father was an A. M. 3411. NOTES ON CHAPTER XVI. Verse 2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations-Her foul sins and multiplied transgressions, especially her idolatries, or spiritual adulteries, and unexampled folly in her lewdness. "This might probably be done by way of letter, as Jeremiah signified the will of God to the captives at Babylon. God here particularly upbraids Jerusalem for her iniquities, because it was the place he had chosen for his peculiar residence; and yet the inhabitants had defiled that very place, nay, and the temple itself with idolatry; the sin particularly denoted by the word abomination." "Nothing can give us a greater horror of the crimes of Jerusalem than the manner in which Ezekiel speaks here. This city must certainly have carried her impiety to the greatest height, to merit reproaches so lively and strong." See Lowth and Calmet. B. C. 593. Houbigant, indeed, whom Bishop Newcome inclines to follow, prefers deriving the word from 7, to dig, referring to Isa. li. 1, and then the sense will be, thy origin, or thy rise, and thy nativity, is of the land of Canaan. If understood of the city of Jerusalem, the assertion is strictly true. It was a Canaanitish city, or strong hold, possessed and inhabited by the Jebusites, till David took it from them: see 2 Sam. v. 6. The father, therefore, of this city, might be properly said to be an Amorite, and its mother a Hittite; these names comprehending all the idolatrous nations of Canaan, of which the Jebusites were a branch. Or if the Jews or Israelites be intended, their progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sojourned in the land of Canaan long before the possession of it was given to their posterity; and the two latter were natives of that country. But as those are said to be our parents, in Scripture language, Verse 3. Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusa- whose manners we imitate, the Jews or Israelites, lem-Unto the whole race of the Jews, and espe- may be here represented as being of Canaanitish cially to the natives and inhabitants of that proud origin, because they followed the manners of the city, who thought it a singular privilege to be born idolatrous inhabitants of that country, rather than or to live there, counting it a more holy place than those of the pious patriarchs: see verse 45; John the rest of the land of Canaan. Thy birth and thy viii. 44; Matt. iii. 7. There is an expression of the nativity-The LXX. render it, H piša σ8 kaι n yeveois, same import in the history of Susannah, verse 56, thy root and thy generation, and so also the Vulgate. that seems to be borrowed from this passage, O thou The word rendered birth, or root, however, seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty hath deseems rather to mean, commerce, or dealings, ap-|ceived thee, and lust hath perverted thy heart. pearing to be derived from D, to sell. Accordingly Verse 4. As for thy nativity, &c.-" Jerusalem is Buxtorf translates it commercia tua, thy dealings. here represented under the image of an exposed in The honours and favours B. C. 593. B. C. 593. A. M. 3411. 5 None eye pitied thee, to do any || upon thee, behold, thy time was the A. M. 3411. of these unto thee, to have compassion time of love; and I spread my skirt upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant that thou wast born. with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine. 6 ¶ And when I passed by thee, and saw thee 3 polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea,|| I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. 6 9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. 10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. 11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. and leave them there. Heb. bloods. Gen. xxiv. 22, -7 Heb. nose, Isa. iii. 21. fant, whom God preserved from destruction, brought To the loathing of thy perup, espoused and exalted in sovereignty. But she hy, to the despising of thy proved faithless and abandoned; and therefore God || soul, or life. The Vulgate reads, in abjectione anithreatens her with severe vengeance, but graciously mæ tuæ in die qua nata es; in the casting away of promises that afterward he would fulfil his early || thy soul, or life, in the day in which thou wast born. covenant with her. The allegory is easily under-|| The sense seems to be, In contempt of thee as unstood; and has much force, liveliness, and vehemence lovely and worthless; and in abhorrence of thee as of eloquent amplification. The images are adapted loathsome to the beholder. This seems to have to a people immersed in sensuality."-Bishop New-reference to the exposing of the male children of come. Thy navel was not cut-The navel-string, the Israelites in Egypt. And it is an apt illustration by which thou wast held to the body of thy mother, of the natural state of the children of men. In none took care to cut. By this and the other meta- || the day that we were born; we were shapen in iniphorical expressions in this and the next verse, the quity; our understandings darkened, our minds prophet hints how despised a people Israel was, and alienated from the life of God; and polluted with in what a forlorn condition when they went first into sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God. Egypt. Neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee-Hebrew, yh, ad aspectum meum, as Buxtorf renders it, that is, when I first beheld thee, or, ut jucunda aspectu esses, that thou mightest be|| pleasant to behold. Some render it, To make thee shine. The meaning is, to cleanse thee from the pollutions of thy birth. Thou wast not salted at all -It seems it was then customary to rub new-born infants over with salt; probably to dry up the hu-manded: he gave that life: he spake, and it was mours of their bodies. All the expressions here used allude to the custom observed by the eastern nations at the birth of their children; and "the de- || sign of the prophet is to mark out that state of impurity wherein the Hebrews were found in Egypt, plunged in idolatry and ignorance, and oppressed with cruel servitude." Verses 6, 7. And when I passed by thee-While as yet no body took so much care of thee as to wash thee from thy native filthiness, I took pity on thee; as a traveller that passes by and sees an infant lie exposed; and I provided all things necessary for thy support. God here speaks after the manner of men. I said unto thee, Live-This is such a command as sends forth a power to effect what is com done. I caused thee to multiply, &c.-The prophet in this verse describes the Israelites increasing in Egypt, under the metaphor of a female child growing up to maturity: compare Exod. i. 7. Thou art come to excellent ornaments—Hebrew, O" "wa, to ornaments of ornaments, that is, thou wast adorned with the choicest blessings of Divine Providence. Verse 5. None eye pitied thee, &c.-The cruelty Or, as Dr. Waterland renders it, "Thou didst arrive of the Egyptians, who ought, in gratitude for the to the perfection of beauty." Thy breasts were services they had received from Joseph, to have fashioned, &c.--Thou didst come to woman's estate. been as parents to the Israelites, seems to be here Verses 8-12. Now when I passed by thee, &c.— hinted at. Thou wast cast out in the open field-This second passing by may be understood of God's Thou wast exposed to perish. It was the custom to lay those children, whom their parents would not take the trouble of bringing up, in the open fields, || visiting them in Egypt, and calling them out. Behold, thy time, &c.-The time of thy misery was the time of my love toward thee. And I spread Psa. xlviii. 2.- m Lam. ii. 15. n 15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauand playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. Isa. i. 21; lvii. 8; Jer. ii. 20; iii. 2, 6, 20; Chap. xxiii. 3, 8, 11, 12; Hos. i. 2. Verses 13, 14. Thus wast thou decked with gold, &c.-With ornaments the most costly and splendid. And thy raiment was of fine linen, &c.—Which was of the manufacture of Egypt, and one of the principal ornaments of women, as well as of great men. Thou didst eat fine flour, honey, and oil— Thy country afforded all manner of plenty and delicacies: see Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. Thou wast exceed|| ing beautiful-This may refer to the beauty of the buildings of Jerusalem, and in particular of the temple. And thou didst prosper into a kingdom— Thou didst increase in majesty and dominion, and became superior to the nations around. Bishop Newcome renders this clause, Thou didst prosper into a queen, that is, didst become the reigning city, the mistress of many subject provinces. And thy renown went forth, &c., for thy beauty-Through thy power and riches thou wast able to procure every thing beautiful and desirable, so that thou didst soon become famous among the heathen nations around; or, perhaps, the words may refer to the excellent laws by which they were governed, and the various privileges of their church and state. which rendered their nation more perfect in beauty than any other in the world. Indeed, we can name nothing that would be to the honour of a people, but it was found in Israel in David and Solomon's time, when that kingdom was in its zenith of prosperity, power, and glory; piety, learning, wisdom, justice, victory, peace, wealth, were found there in perfection, and all sure to continue if they had kept close to God. It was perfect, saith God, through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee-That is, through the beauty of their holiness, as they were a people devoted to God. This was it that put a lustre upon all their other honours, and was indeed the perfection of their beauty. Observe, reader, sanctified souls are truly beautiful in God's sight, and they themselves may take the comfort of it; but God must have all the glory, for whatever comeliness they have is that which God has put upon them. n Deut. xxxii. 15; my skirt over thee-I espoused thee and took thee under my protection as a husband doth his wife, Ruth iii. 9. And covered thy nakedness-Enriched || thee with the spoils and possessions of the Egyptians and Canaanites: see verses 10, 11. Yea, I entered into covenant with thee-This was done in mount Sinai, when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed and ratified. Those to whom God gives spiritual life, he takes into covenant with himself. By this covenant they become his, his subjects and servants, which speaks their duty: and at the same time his portion and treasure, which speaks their privilege. Then I washed thee with water-It was a very ancient custom among the eastern people to purify virgins who were to be espoused. And I anointed thee with oil―Thus also were women, on some occasions, prepared for their nuptials. The washings and purifications of the law are probably intended to be signified by these metaphorical expressions; and the priesthood by the anointing with oil here spoken of. I clothed thee also with broidered work-Or, with needlework of divers colours. The expression may refer to the rich garments of the priests, and the covering and hangings of the tabernacle; or it may denote the gifts and graces bestowed upon them. And shod thee with badgers' skins--Or, with sandals of a purple colour, as Bochart expounds the word vnn. The eastern people had an art of curiously dressing and colouring the skins of badgers, of which they made their neatest shoes, for the richest and greatest personages. "This and the following verses allude to those parts of women's attire which serve not only for use but for ornament also; and import that God did not only provide the Jews with necessaries, but likewise with superfluities." I decked thee also|| with ornaments—This and the following expressions are descriptive of the great wealth and felicity of the Jewish people, particularly under David and Solomon. I put bracelets upon thy hands, &c.Ornaments which none but persons of better quality used to wear, Gen. xxiv. 47; Prov. i. 9. And I put a jewel on thy forehead-The same which is called a nose-jewel, Isa. iii. 21. And a beautiful crown upon thy head-"Crowns, or garlands, were used in times of public rejoicing; from whence is derived that expression of St. Paul, A crown of rejoicing, 1 Thess. ii. 19: compare Isa. xxv. 10. Virgins were sometimes adorned with crowns; and they were commonly put upon the heads of persons newly married, Cant. iii. 11."-Lowth. Verses 15-19. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty-Houbigant translates this, "But thou, trusting in thy beauty, didst play the harlot, degenerating from thy renown:" as if he had said, Thou didst abuse those honours, privileges, and advantages which I had bestowed upon thee, and didst make them an occasion of pride, of self-confidence, and of forsaking me thy benefactor, and serving idols. It was chiefly by their frequent and scandalous idol |