its waters flow on in unfathomable depth.' And thus I dismiss my book, with heartfelt thanks and praise to God, who has bestowed on me the power and will to complete it, and I beseech Him that he would bless my endeavour to the glory of his holy

name.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

I. There is a prejudice, as ungrounded as it is wide-spread, which frequently leads to the complaint that, in reference to most of the prophets, only very meagre particulars of their lives are remaining, from which a well-constructed picture of their work cannot fitly be put together. The fault, however, lies principally in the false point of view from which particulars are sought of such a kind as (even if they were left to us) would amount to little or nothing for the understanding of that which is properly the prophetic work. Where the prophets passed a life which was outwardly much agitated, and was closely bound up with their prophetic calling, the particulars of it are not wanting; such is the case not only with the older prophets, namely, those of the kingdom of Israel, but also with the more recent, as Jeremiah. But where the work of the prophets was one especially of a spiritual kind, consisting in the preaching of the word, there the communication and preservation of this word itself is the delineation of their activity,-in strict propriety their prophetic biography. The latter is the case with Ezekiel. By the side of the scattered data of his external life those of his internal life appear so much the richer, the peculiar character of his work as a prophet, his higher divine destination in this respect.

When, in the year 599 B.C., Jehoiachin, after a reign of three months, was obliged to give himself up to the Chaldean king, and was carried into exile with the more distinguished Jews, the same lot befel Ezekiel," the son of Busi. He belonged to the more illustrious race of priests (i. 3), who were therefore especially exposed to this fate; comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 14. The close connection in which, according to ch. xi., the prophet appears to have stood to the more distinguished priesthood, testifies also to his priestly origin (see the remarks on this chapter). That he had left his native country very young is frequently assumed, but with little probability. The mature vigorous priestly spirit which prevails throughout his prophecies furnishes evidence of a greater age. Undoubtedly, he had for some considerable time performed the service of a priest in the temple, the plundering of which by

b This name was also borne by a Levite in the Old Testament. See 1 Chron. xxiv. 16.

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar he was witness to (2 Kings xxiv. 15). For he discovers the most accurate knowledge of the ancient sanctuary in its individual parts (comp. viii. xl.-xliii.), which must have been impressed in the deepest manner on his senses and on his memory. The comparatively not lengthened space of twenty-seven years, which, as far as we are informed, was that of his stay in exile (comp. i. 1 with xxix. 17), agrees also with this view, inasmuch as there is little probability that the prophet long survived this period.

Ezekiel was carried into the north of Mesopotamia, to the city Tel-Abib, on the banks of the Chebar. Here he was formally settled and married (comp. iii. 24; viii. 1; xxiv. 18). The place was especially worthy of note in consequence of the meeting together of the old exiles from the ten tribes with the more recent contemporaries of Ezekiel. A situation like this, which placed him in the midst of the exiles, was peculiarly appropriate to his function as prophet. Yet it was not till the fifth year of his banishment that Ezekiel found himself called by God to his prophetic office. An external event, the sending of Zedekiah to Babylon and the communication of the predictions of Jeremiah respecting Babylon, falls in with this call, and is connected with it. In a remarkable vision he receives his commission to come forth among his people his people as a prophet, and a disclosure of the principal matters to be announced to them.

The functions of the prophet commencing from this time appear before us in his book as forming a beautifully complete, a stately and harmonious whole. They fall into two great divisions, of which the destruction of Jerusalem forms the turning point (ch. i.xxxii. and xxxiii.-xlviii.). During the period before this catastrophe Ezekiel exercises especially the office of correction, after it that of consoling and promising.

The prophet, as a true watcher of Israel, to which the Lord had called him, had before his eyes not simply the small, contracted circle lying nearest to himself, in which he moved, but the whole of the theocracy. His chief aim, therefore, is in the first instance directed to Jerusalem, continuing presumptuous and secure in its sins, and hurrying onwards inevitably to destruction. It is one chief business of the prophet in the first period of his work to set forth clearly on all sides the whole, full meaning of this judgment, and to point out all the causes which inevitably occasioned or accelerated it. God's decision is a decision as unchangeable as it

Theodoret (p. 880, ed. Schulze) erroneously concludes from chap. xxiv. that Ezekiel was a Nazarene. Through an oversight also Josephus (Ant. x. 6. 3) represents the carrying away of Ezekiel as having taken place under Jehoiakim.

is righteous-with this ground-thought most of his discourses at this time are filled; a long-continued cry of woe; an energetic mighty word, in which already the thunders of the coming judgment re-echo.

Through this announcement the prophet showed his relation to the theocracy in general, that which had become to him a higher commission in reference to it. Such a message concerned also the exiles amongst whom he was placed. To these also that announcement of the judgment was a loud call to repentance, which must find so much the more sympathy as the judgment had here already appeared. Also among the exiles it had the effect of beating down with mighty words the foolish and carnal hopes of those to whom the ruin of Jerusalem and the destruction of the sanctuary yet appeared to be a thing inconceivable and impossible. It availed also to prevent among them the despondency which, strengthened by the proud, scornful language of the Jews who remained behind (comp. e. g. xi. 15), seemed ready to sink under the feeling of misery and the desolate thought of being far from Jehovah and from the land of their fathers, and which regarded itself, alone, as given up to the whole severity of the divine judgment. Also in Babylon, finally, there were not wanting those whose hearts were set on the continuance, above all things, of their idolatrous and sinful course; who, therefore, had no right feeling in regard to the ways and works of God, and who mocked at his justice; against this carnal security and obduracy the earnest word of the prophet was directed, pointing out to them and urging their return to God. Thus, going forth on all sides from the idea of the judgment as from a definite middle point, the solicitude and activity of the prophet were employed, where the need was greatest and most sensibly felt for the immediate present. With this magnificent survey, accurately comprehending the whole, the prophet unites most intimately a tender, loving concern for that which is individual, the most scrupulous regard to the individual condition and circumstances of his neighbourhood, which he penetrates with accurate view, and estimates so carefully that we receive no more vivid picture of the internal condition of the exiles than that which we obtain from Ezekiel.

But Ezekiel fixes his eyes not merely on the condition of the theocracy in itself but also on its connection with the heathen world. After he has, during a long time, directed his earnest preaching of repentance to Israel, he directs his view to the heathen (see ch. xxv.-xxxii.). For in this respect also the prophet will be found a true announcer of the divine righteousness. Through his word addressed to the mightiest, wisest, and proudest nations of the earth, may be clearly seen the relation in which heathenism,

heathenism, surely and for ever perishing, stands to the theocracy, which, though now included in the defeat, is yet ripening for an eternal victory over the world.

The great catastrophe, the middle point of the prophet's preaching hitherto, has happened; Jerusalem is destroyed, the sanctuary lies in ashes. The word of the Lord had received its accomplishment: an exceedingly deep and powerfully agitating impression had been called forth by the terribleness of this accomplishment: a new spiritual period began to dawn among the people. And, therefore, now the prophet lets the word of promise decidedly prevail. Beyond the present, with its depressing sorrows, the view must be raised to a future rich in blessings. The eye of faith must be immovably directed to the inexhaustible fullness of divine grace in this faith must Israel become strong in his God, patient in tribulation, and rejoicing in hope. And, as formerly, the prophet has brought to light, and surveyed on all sides, the mass of corruption and the whole evil of the present, so now he pourtrays the whole development of the future deliverance in the richest and most sublime pictures.

The influence which in this ministry the prophet exercised over his contemporaries was of the highest importance. As in the days of Elias and Elisha, the prophets supplied in the kingdom of Israel the absence of a true sanctuary, and sought as far as possible to occupy the place of the lacking priests of Jehovah —so the priest Ezekiel, by virtue of his prophetic calling, afforded to the deserted exiles a living witness that the Lord had not abandoned them, and that even for them a sanctuary existed (comp. xi. 16), in which they might perceive the gracious presence of God. The more imposing the public appearance of Ezekiel was, and the more desolate and troublous the time of his appearance, the more powerful must be the influence which he exercised. We see proof of this in those accounts which show that the people and their elders, even from the earliest period of his appearing, collected round the prophet and listened to his word. (Comp. viii. 1; xi. 25; xiv. 1; xx. 1; xxiv. 18, seq.; xxxiii. 31, 32.) On this Vitringa very properly remarks in his treatise De Synagoga Vetere, p. 332; Supponit Deus in tota hac oratione sua ad prophetam (scil. xxxiii. 31), populum solitum esse statis vicibus ad Ezechielem venire; coram ipso considere; ipsius coargutiones recipere cum reverentia et ab ipso solemniter instrui cognitione

d Comp. also the beautiful picture of the impression analogous to this which the second destruction of Jerusalem could not but make, as given by Rothe, Die Anfange d. Christl. Kirche, i. p. 341, seq.

See Hengstenberg, On the Authenticity of the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 185, seq. Ryland's translation.

viarum Dei. Propheta igitur Ezechiel considerabatur ut doctor populi publicus, qui in ædibus suis, ut in schola quadam publica, conventus instituebat, ibique coram frequenti concione divinam interpretabatur voluntatem, oratione facunda." Nor is this influence of Ezekiel to be looked upon as one that was merely transitory and confined to the time then present, but as one that continued, and was much more comprehensive. If we may consider that the book of Daniel exerted the most important influence on the formation of the religious views of later Judaism, it belonged to Ezekiel to exert such an influence in an analogous manner on the time present to the prophet, the period of the exile. If we perceive among the exiles such a remarkable change, and if the colony on its return home manifests an aim so strikingly different from that of the earlier people, a cleaving to the law with a solicitude and constancy that did not previously appear;-an essential portion of this phenomenon is to be attributed to the exertion so rich in influence of one man, Ezekiel. Without such a positive influence on the people, the unity which they preserved during even such a period, and which, afterwards, they guarded with the greatest decision and tenacity, would be scarcely explicable. But to the prophet himself was unquestionably permitted that which was denied to a Jeremiah, that he should live to see the beginning of this regeneration and conversion of the unhappy people.

Even subsequent ages, and especially the Fathers, are full of admiration of the prophet, and speak with enthusiasm of the wonderful power of his writings. (Comp. Sirach xlix. 8.) By Gregory Nazienzen, e. g., he is called, Ὁ τῶν προφητῶν θαυμασιώ τατος καὶ ὑψηλότατος, as well as ὁ τῶν μεγάλων ἐπόπτης καὶ ἐξηγήτης μυστηρίων καὶ θεαμάτων. (See the passages quoted in Carpzov. Introd. ii. p. 197.) From such a feeling of veneration, though certainly proceeding in a wrong direction, have sprung the apocryphal writings which were attributed to this prophet, and which, as it seems, came very early into circulation, and were quoted even by Tertullian and Clemens Alexandrinus.h

II. In the prophecies of Ezekiel we find a character of very

"It is taken for granted in the whole of this address of God to the prophet (xxxiii. 31), that the people were accustomed to come to Ezekiel at stated times, to sit before him, to receive his reproofs with reverence, and by him to be formally instructed in the knowledge of the ways of God. The prophet Ezekiel, therefore, was considered as a public teacher of the people, who held meetings in his house as in a sort of public school, and there, before a crowded audience, interpreted the Divine will in eloquent discourse.'

go

'The most wonderful and most exalted of the prophets the eyewitness and interpreter of the great mysteries and visions.'

See Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigr. V. T. i. p. 1118, sq.

definite