identifying the creature with the Creator. And, judging from present appearances, there is too much reason to conclude that, precisely as before Christ came to execute judgment upon Jerusalem, a rage for worldly saviours was one of the reigning delusions of the time, so as the period draws on for his coming to execute judgment upon the world, a like rage will prevail for a worldly gospel,-one that will seek to confound heaven and earth, God and man, and, in a manner, possibly even more daring and presumptuous than in the Papacy, will dispose man to "exalt himself in the temple of God, and show himself that he is God." What need, then, for those who would escape the condemnation of the wicked, to look well to the foundation of their faith, and to see that this stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the word of God! How careful should each be to dwell beside the fountain of Israel! For times of trial manifestly are coming, in which they only who are taught of God, and kept by the power of his Spirit, can expect to resist the swelling tide of delusion, and maintain even the appearance of godliness.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FALSE IN PROPHECY, ITS CHARACTER AND DOOM.

A VERY close connection exists between the subject of this chapter and the one immediately preceding. The former had denounced the false expectations of the people respecting the safety of Jerusalem; this denounces the persons who were the chief instruments in feeding these expectations. And in this case, still more directly than in the other, Ezekiel stretches out the hand to Jeremiah, and comes forward as a second, though perfectly independent witness, to reiterate and confirm the testimony already delivered in substance by his fellow-servant in Judea. One of the sorest trials- and, indeed, one of the most baffling difficulties Jeremiah had there to contend with-arose from the false pretenders to the prophetical gift, who were corstantly delivering, in the name of God, messages which tended only to foster prevailing sins, and to lend the appearance of a

"Mine heart within

Divine sanction to the popular delusions. me is broken," he says, in chap. xxiii. 9, "because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man.” It is more than probable, that most of these false prophets were perfectly conscious of the fraud they were practising upon the people, and laid claim to Divine communications only as a pretext for more readily securing their own selfish, though shortsighted purposes. But it seems evident, especially from what is written in Jeremiah, that there were, at least, some who had become the dupes of their own delusions, and were fully as much fanatics as knaves. A crafty diviner, who plays upon the credulity of others, for the sake of his own gain or aggrandisement, will always be careful to make his announcements run in such a strain, that while they obviously tend to feed the desires and prejudices of the persons he addresses, they at the same time furnish no clear and definite grounds for detecting his hypocrisy. And whenever such vain pretenders to a supernatural insight into the Divine will begin to hazard deliverances, which admit of being distinctly falsified as well as confirmed by approaching events in Providence, we may be sure that the spirit of fanaticism has risen to the ascendant in their bosoms, and that, if they deceive others, they have themselves already been deceived.

Such, unquestionably, was the case at Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah. Not only were there persons, in considerable numbers, who prophesied falsely, and gave forth general assurances of continued peace (Jer. v. 31; vi. 14; xiv. 13), but there were also those who, in the most confident tone, held out the promise of specific events in the immediate future, and fixed the period of their fulfilment. Thus Hananiah of Gibeon said to Jeremiah, in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people-" Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon. And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon" (chap. xxviii. 2-4). No man in his senses would have ventured on such a circumstantial prediction, unless he had

himself firmly believed it; for he was plainly committing his entire credit as an authorized ambassador of Heaven, to contingencies over which he had no control, and which might shortly take a turn that would expose him to reprobation as an arrant impostor. By whatever process the persuasion may have been reached, we cannot doubt that he had become thoroughly persuaded in his own mind of the truth of his prediction, before he proclaimed it in the public ear. And we must keep in mind the fact, that there were such self-deceived impostors at Jerusalem -a fact, as we shall see, pointedly referred to in this chapter of Ezekiel-both to understand correctly the circumstances of the time, and to derive from them the improvement they are fitted

to convey.

It is to be further borne in mind, that while the spirit of false prophesying chiefly prevailed in Judea, it had also extended to the banks of the Chebar. There it, no doubt, existed in comparative feebleness, having few of the outward stimulants to nurse it into activity and strength, which were supplied in abundance by the peculiar position and circumstances of Jerusalem; and it probably did little more than re-echo the utterances which proceeded from its centre of influence in Judea. Yet that there was such a spirit at work also on the banks of the Chebar, is manifest alone from the letter addressed by Jeremiah to the captives, in which he charged them "not to be deceived by their prophets and their diviners that were in the midst of them, for they prophesied falsely in the Lord's name;" and he even mentioned three persons by name, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah, who were acting the part of false prophets among them (chap. xxix. 8, 9, 21, etc.) So that the evil against which the communication in this chapter is directed, was not without its abettors in the immediate neighbourhood of Ezekiel, although, in the rampant and offensive form here delineated, it was to be found only in Jerusalem, and the word, therefore, must be regarded as directly and primarily intended for the use of those who still resided there. For this reason, also, it is, that the word of Ezekiel joins itself so closely to similar words previously delivered by Jeremiah on the spot, and in the very language employed, bears unmistakeable references, especially to the 23d chapter of that prophet's writings.

But it is time to come to the more particular examination of the

passage itself. It naturally falls into two principal parts-the one bearing respect to the false prophets, and the other to the false prophetesses. Each of these again admits of a twofold division a first part, delineating the operations and symptoms of the false spirit in question, and a second, disclosing the judgment of God upon those who yielded themselves to its sway.

Ver. 1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto the prophets out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. 3. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing. 4. As foxes in the deserts have been thy prophets, O Israel. 5. Ye have not gone up into the breach, nor have ye drawn a wall around the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. 6. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, Jehovah saith; and Jehovah hath not sent them, and hoped to establish their word.1 7. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and spoken a lying divination? And ye say, Jehovah saith, and I have not spoken. 8. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovab, Because ye have spoken vanity and seen a lie, therefore behold I am against you, saith the Lord Jehovah. 9. And my hand will come upon the prophets who prophesy vanity and divine falsehood; in the council of my people they shall not be, nor shall they be written in the book of the house of Israel; and into the land of Israel they shall not come; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah. 10. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying Peace, and there was no peace; and the one (viz., the people) build a wall, and the others (viz., the prophets) plaster it with whitewash: 11. Say unto them who plaster it with whitewash, and it shall fall:

1 This last clause is rendered in the authorised version," and they made others to hope, that they would confirm the word." But with, as Häv. remarks, always means to expect or hope for something. The correct interpretation, therefore, is that which refers the hope to the prophets themselves. Secker: "They hoped to establish the word." Michaelis: "They hoped, that their words would be fulfilled." Hitzig's attempt to change the reference" Jehovah has not sent them, that they should hope for the confirmation of their words"-is quite arbitrary, and has been resorted to merely because he thought the prophets could not be so self-deceived. But there are sufficient grounds, as we shall show, for holding that they were so. And such expressions as those in Jeremiah: "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran, I have not spoken by them, yet the people said," "They say the burden of the Lord" (ch. xxiii. 21, 34), betoken the working of a strong spirit of delusion.

2 “Daub with untempered mortar" is the phrase used for this operation in the authorised version, as in many others, ancient and modern. It partly, however, suggests a false idea. The word, when used in a physical sense, such as is usually laid on the outside of walls. Hitzig renders expressly, and not improperly, that the false prophets, countenancing the

is simply coating, or whitewash, Jarchi est terra similis câlci. chalk. The idea intended is,

:

There is coming a flood of rain, and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall break forth. 12. And lo! the wall falls: shall it not be said to you, where is the plastering with which ye plastered it? 13. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I cause to break forth a stormy wind in my wrath, and a flood of rain shall come in mine anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume. 14. And I destroy the wall, which ye have plastered with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground; and its foundations are discovered, and it falls, and ye are consumed in the midst of it; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. 15. And I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that plastered it with whitewash, and will say unto you, The wall is not, and they are not that plastered it; 16. The prophets of Israel, that prophesy to Jerusalem, and see a vision of peace for her, while there is no peace-saith the Lord Jehovah.

17. And thou, son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, that prophesy out of their own heart, and prophesy against them. 18. And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the women that sew cushions (or coverings) upon all the joints of the hands, and make coverings upon the head of every stature, to catch (as a hunter) souls. Will ye catch the souls of my people, and save your own souls alive?2 19. And will

people in their delusions, sought merely to make the outside fair-to give to the fabric the people raised a showy and promising appearance, while still there was not real solidity or inherent strength. Hence St Paul's word to the high-priest, "Thou whited wall," Acts xxiii. 3, and the "whited sepulchre," of our Lord, in Matt. xxiii. 27.

1 The verb commonly signifies to cleave or rend asunder; in the Piel to cleave, for example, wood, or tear an object, like a wild beast. Hence it has here commonly been understood of rending or breaking down the wall. But the object of the rending is not expressed; and in ver. 13, it seems plainly to be applied in the causal form, to the wind itself: I make it rend or break forth. It is best, therefore, to understand it in the same sense also in v. 11. The Latins use the quite similar phrase, ventus frangit, for a violent gale. In Greek also 'g is often applied to the breaking forth of storms and showers.

2 It is scarcely possible to make out with certainty the precise meaning of some of the expressions in this verse-reference being made to customs, of which we have no exact description. What is meant by the cushions, or pillows (as it is in the common translation, and in the Rabbins pulvinar longius), was probably some sort of soft covering or tapestry, used for purposes of luxury. They are said to have been sewed for "all the joints of the hands"-so the words literally mean; referring, probably, to the wrists and elbow-joints. By comparing Jer. xxxviii. 12, and xli. 9, we learn that it was used of shoulder or elbow-joints; and in ver. 20 here, the articles of dress are spoken of as going to be torn from the arms of the wearers. The headdresses, or kerchiefs on every stature seem to be the mantles or coverings, with which the women of the east envelope their heads, and which are sometimes made, both of large dimensions, and of costly workmanship. And as it would certainly be a peculiar expression "coverings upon the head of every stature," if by every stature were meant persons of different heights, it is better, per