expressions. Some of his expressions are circumlocutory, and some passages are so prolix as to become wearisome."

The passages relating to foreign nations are distinguished by a more energetic tone, and by a more animated style, which has a tendency to rhythm, but also by borrowed passages, as the following parallels will show:

-

Jer. xlviii.

"CONCERNING MOAB."

Isa. xv. xvi.

"CONCERNING MOAB."

3 "A cry is heard from Horo- 5 "In the way

of Horonaim they
raise a cry of despair,
For they ascend the heights of
Luhith weeping.

2 On every head is baldness,
And every beard is shorn.
In their streets they gird
themselves with sackcloth;
On the tops of their houses,
and in their public walks,
Every one howleth.

34 From wailing Heshbon to 4 Heshbon and Elealeh utter a

a

Chap. xxv. 10, (comp. xvi. 9, vii. 34;) xxiii. 15, (comp. viii. 14, ix. 14;) xlix. 22, 24, (comp. xxx. 6, xxii. 23, xiii. 21, vi. 24, iv. 31;) xxxii. 33, vii. 24, ii. 27; xliv. 4, xxxv. 15, xxix. 19, xxvi. 5, xxv. 4, vii. 25; xliv. 13, 18, xlii. 16, sq., xxxviii. 2, xxxiv. 17, xxxii. 36, xxix. 17, xxvii. 13, xxi. 7, 9, xviii. 21, xv. 2, xiv. 12, xliv. 22, xxvi. 3, xxv. 5, xxiii. 2, 21, xxi. 12, iv. 4; xxiii. 17, xviii. 12, xvi. 12, xi. 8, ix. 13, vii. 24, iii. 17; xlix. 37, xliv. 30, xxxiv. 20, xxi. 7. Comp. § 216, b.

Chap. viii. 3, xxiv. 8, xxxix. 9; v. 17, viii. 1, sq., xvii. 25, sq., xxi. 5, 7, xxii. 25, xxiii. 37, sq., xxiv. 9, xxv. 18, xxvii. 9, xxix. 18, xxxi. 27, xxxii. 32, 44, xxxiii. 10, 13, xlii. 18, xliv. 9, 12. Comp. § 218, b.

For even the waters of Nim- 6 For the waters of Nimrim

36 Therefore doth my heart 11 Therefore shall my bowels

15 Behold, I will make thee

small among the nations,

Despised among men," &c.

a

Eichhorn thinks the higher rhythmical tone which so strikingly pervades the oracles against foreign nations, arises from the prophet's copying the words of other writers. But perhaps it is better to explain it from the greater elevation of spirit which the subject brought with it. Besides, the discourse elsewhere rises to the same height, whenever he threatens in a decided manner. (v. vi.) His admonitions, on the contrary, usually sink down to prose. There are other imitations or reminiscences of older writers, — of Isaiah, Job, and the Psalms."

In his visions, Jeremiah's use of symbols is poor and weak, and also in his frequent symbolical actions, (xiii. xviii. xix. 1-13, xxvii. xxxii. xxxv.,) which, for the most part, are fictitious. The last two alone are emphatic. The language bears the marks of its age, and is very much degenerated."

19.

Ps. cxxxv. 7. [?]

Ps. lxxix. 6. [?]

Isa. v. 2.

Job iii.

Isa. xxiv. 17, 18. [?]

is, is, for N, DAN; i. 16, xix. 10, xx. 11.
72; ii. 33, (comp. iii. 4, 5, iv. 19, et al.), for;

; אָתִינוּ

; xxv. 3. ; xlvi. 8., for iii. 22. Substantives in 5, and 7, as

of acc.; xl. 2. 77, 8, 7, Day, Day,

", for ; iv. 30.

my, nh, &c. See

Aug. Knobel, Jeremias Chaldaizans; Vratisl. 1831, 8vo. [Knobel, Heb. Proph. vol. ii. p. 264, sqq.]

CHAPTER III.

EZEKIEL."

§ 221.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS LIFE AND TIMES.

EZEKIEL, Son of the priest Buzi, and a younger contemporary of Jeremiah, was carried into exile by the Chaldeans, with King Jehoiachin, or Jechoniah, and a portion of the people. This took place eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He was carried to Mesopotamia, to the River Chaboras. According to i. 2, he was carried away in the first captivity, mentioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 14, sqq., and Jer. xxix. 2. Josephus erroneously says Ezekiel was carried away in

the time of Jehoiakim."

In the fifth year of his residence there, seven years

• Joa. Ecolampadii Comment. in Ezech.; Bas. 1543, fol.

Victorin. Strigeli Ezech. Proph. ad Hebr. Veritat. recogn. et Argumentis et Scholiis illustr.; Lips. 1564, 1575, 1579.

Casp. Sanctii Comm. in Ezech. et Dan.; Lug. Bat. 1619, fol.

Hieron. Pradi et Jo. Bapt. Villalpandi in Ezech. Explanatt. et Apparatus Urbis ac Templi Hieros. Commentariis illustratus; Rom. 1596-1604, 3 vols. fol.

Jo. Fr. Starkii Comm. in Ezech.; Fref. 1731, 4to.

Herm. Venema Lectiones acad. ad Ezech. pt. i. c. i.—xxi. Præf. Verschuir ; Leov. 1790, 4to.

Will. Newcome, An Attempt toward an Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Prophet Ezekiel; Dubl. 1788, 4to. Rosenmülleri Schol. in Ezech. Maurer, l. c. See the Elenchus Interprett. in Rosenm. Schol. in Ezech.

B [Here Clemens Alex. thinks he was visited by Pythagoras. Strom. i. p. 304, ed. Sylburg. See also Huetius, Demons. Ev.; Amst. 1680, Prop. iv.

vol. i. p. 131, sq., p. 78, sqq.]

before the destruction of Jerusalem, he appeared as a prophet, as he says in i. 1: "Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year [of Nabopolassar, 595 B. C.]. ... I saw visions of God." So far as we know, he prophesied until about the twenty-seventh year of his captivity, that is, until the sixteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, (572 B. C.;) for this is the last date he mentions. (xxix. 17.) It is not known whether he prophesied later or not, or when he closed his life." He was held in much respect by the exiles, and afforded them a point of union. (vii. 1, xiv. 1, xx. 1.)

§ 222.

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.

Ezekiel amongst the exiles, as Jeremiah at home, had to contend with the spirit of obstinacy and impatience, and vain hopes, which were nourished by the false prophets. (Jer. xxvii. xxix. Ezek. xiii.) His chief theme, (i.-xxiv.,) as well as that of Jeremiah, is the unavoidable destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people, which he represents as the well-merited punishment of the apostasy of Israel, and in particular of the idolatry which he so bitterly reproaches, (vi. viii. 9—18, xiv. 1—8, xx. xxiii. :) only once (xxi. 33-37) there is a threat against the Ammonites.

After several prophecies -some of which belong to a later period-against foreign nations, and respecting Nebuchadnezzar's victories, (xxv.-xxxii.,) the prophet continually applies himself to the circumstances of his

a Rosenmüller, in loc.

See the apocryphal accounts respecting him in Carpzov, p. 200, and Bertholdt, p. 1479, sqq.