as we have stated in a previous note, is used proverbially for the removal of an afflicted condition in general, and the appointment of a happy and prosperous one. Its application to the case of Job-"and the Lord turned the captivity of Job" (chap. xlii. 10), puts this beyond a doubt. And even here, though the import of the phrase appears to be rendered more express by specifying a return to the former state, yet when it is spoken of Sodom and her neighbour cities, as well as of Samaria and Jerusalem, and their neighbour cities, it manifestly could not be intended to intimate specifically and properly a return from exile, and a re-inhabitation of the old places. This was obviously impossible in the case of Sodom and the cities of the plain. The promise is simply one of restored prosperity-the approaching tide of desolation should again be turned back, and a state of prosperity and happiness, as of old, be appointed. Not that exactly which had been, line for line; but what, in the altered circumstances of another time, might be regarded as corresponding to it. "The safe and prosperous condition of former times," says Hävernick justly, "is the determinate form, under which the prophet descries also the future; but presently again this appears arrayed in so ideal a splendour, that that very form bursts asunder, and a new world in reality comes into view. There is the old God, with his old gifts of love; but the subjective condition has become quite different, and hence the old blessings are also of a new kind, and the whole state, in consequence, rises into something far more elevated and glorious than the old one." It is as if an assurance were given to a child, whose family had become enveloped in misfortune, that he should live to see the former prosperity return again; but meanwhile he himself springs to manhood, and, having now other wants to satisfy, and higher relations to fill than formerly, the revived prosperity must bring new and nobler gifts within his reach, to place him on the same relative position he originally occupied. In short, the bringing back of the captivity, and returning to the former state, as applied to the covenant-people, indicates nothing as to the outward form of things to be enjoyed, but points only to their nature and character, as similar to what already had been. And in regard to the manner of accomplishing the promised good, by coupling Sodom and Samaria with Jerusalem in the happy prospect, it must be borne in mind that the

representation is figurative; it is the truth represented and embodied in an ideal history; and nothing more can fairly be deduced from the particular trait now referred to, than that the covenant-people, as they had, in the aggravation and magnitude of their guilt, sunk below the most depraved nations around them, so they might expect the return of God's favour and blessing only when they came to view their case in its real enormity, and cherish on account of it a suitable feeling of abasement. They must be ready to put themselves on a level with the lowest, as the necessary condition of their being visited anew with honour and enlargement. Hence, it is entirely out of place here to move any question, with some commentators, as to the building anew of Sodom and the other cities of the plain. This were to turn the figure into a reality, and also to transfer the subject itself from the moral region of God's government toward men, to the merely natural region of his providential arrangements respecting the material world. And if it is out of place to move such a question regarding Sodom, it is equally unnecessary, at least, regarding Samaria and Jerusalem. It is the kind, not the precise form of things, which is to be kept in view; and the promise of good here given for the future might be brought to a full accomplishment, and carried even to its highest perfection, though the cities of Judah and Israel should continue, like those of the plain, monuments of desolation and ruin. For the happiness and glory of the covenant-people, which alone is to be regarded here, however it might be connected with them, might also be attained without them; and so far from being necessarily tied to them, may even be found in largest measure, while the old things in that respect are gone into utter oblivion.

The closing verses, while they carry forward substantially the same line of thought, in respect especially to the necessity of profound humiliation on the part of the people, and the purposed manifestation of rich grace on the part of God, also render prominent a remarkable difference between those represented by this ideal woman, and others. With all her guilt and baseness, she still had what they had not, and what in the day of returning grace would bring them to her, rather than send her to them for blessing-she had the covenant of God, which, however it had been suffered to fall into abeyance, had never been repudiated by him. "And I remember," the Lord says, "my covenant

M

with thee, in the days of thy youth, and I establish for thee an everlasting covenant." That covenant made with them in the days of their youth, as to its promise of blessing, was God's word, which he could not suffer to pass unfulfilled. And though there was in this respect an Old and a New, yet so little was there of contrariety between them, when rightly understood, that the one was properly, as here represented, the root of the other; the Old, the germ out of which all the coming good was to spring and develope itself. A glorious rise, indeed, was to take place from a lower to a higher, when the Old passed into the New; but by no means an antagonism, as from bad to good. The better things to come, when they appeared, merely filled up and completed what had been shadowed forth and promised in the Old; and precisely by being thus filled up and completed, did the covenant become what it is here called, an everlasting one. Grace reigns now in a manner it never did before, and the blessing rests upon better promises, because there is a much fuller manifestation of Divine power and goodness for them to rest on. And on this account there is no longer the same room for the former breaches and desolations to enter; the inheritance is made sure for ever to all the seed of blessing.

But the more that everything appears to stand in the grace and loving-kindness of God, the more is there to abase and humble the partakers of the blessing: especially when they consider the freeness with which grace not only comes from the bosom of God, but also sheds forth its abundance on the worst and the vilest. Those who had been sisters to Judah in guilt and punishment, were now also to become partners with her in experiences of blessing, and were to be given to her for daughters--because through her they should attain to the inheritance of blessing. Yet "not by thy covenant," it is added, lest she should again arrogate the glory to herself; not by virtue of any transaction or league of her own framing, such as of old she was ever attempting to form; not by any such covenant of thine, but by mine the Old, and yet New-the everlasting covenant, which I make with you, and establish for the good of the world.”1

Such must be held to be the meaning here. The "not by thy covenant," cannot possibly refer to the old covenant made with Israel, as contradistinguished from the new, for God had already traced to that covenant as its fountain-head, all the grace and blessing that was to be conferred. And,

And so, as the result of all, "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord; to the end thou mayst remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee (or, when I grant forgiveness to thee) for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah."

So may it be also in our experience. Let the humbling and salutary lessons, so strikingly brought out in this wonderful history, take such deep and abiding hold of our hearts, that we shall ever be careful to avoid the evil, and follow after the good. And especially since God has now laid open to us the marvellous riches of his grace, and called us to the inheritance of his kingdom, may he never allow us to forget how unworthy we naturally are of such singular goodness, and how often, by our light and sinful behaviour, we have provoked him to withdraw it again ; so that we may give to him all the glory, and may set our hearts more upon that better country, where imperfection shall be for ever done away, and the strivings between nature and grace shall be wholly unknown,

CHAPTER XVII.

THE PARABLE OF THE TWO GREAT EAGLES, AND THE CROPPING OF THE CEDAR OF LEBANON.

Ver. 1. And the word of Jehovah came to me saying: 2. Son of man, put forth a riddle, and utter a parable (or similitude) to the house of Israel. 3. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the great eagle, large of wing, with long pinions and full plumage, having many colours, came to Lebanon, and pluckt the topmost branch1 of the cedar. 4. The top of his young twigs he cropt off, and brought it to a land of traffic, in a city of merchants he set it. 5. And he took of the seed of the land, and committed it to a fruitful

as Calvin justly remarks here, while there were important differences between the two covenants, as noticed by Jeremiah in chap. xxxi. and xxxii., yet the new covenant so sprung from the old, that it is well-nigh the same in substance, though different in form.

1 The term is peculiar to Ezekiel, but from the use of it here, and in chap. xxxi. 3-14, there can be no doubt, that it means the summit, or topmost branch-the woolly part of the tree at the farthest extremity.

field; took (it) beside great waters, set it (as) a willow. 6. And it grew, and became a spreading vine, of low stature, for turning (i. e. of a kind naturally fitted for turning from its need of support) its branches toward him (viz., the eagle that planted it), and its roots were under him: and it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot out twigs. 7. And there was another great eagle, large of wing and with full plumage; and behold this vine bent her roots toward him, and sent forth her branches to him, that he might water it out of the garden bed, in which it was planted. 8. Upon a good field, beside copious streams was it planted, that it might bring forth branches, and might bear fruit, so as to become a goodly vine. 9. Say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, shall it flourish? will he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither? All its sprouting leaves shall wither, and without great strength or many people to lift it up by the roots. 10. And behold, though planted, shall it flourish? Shall it not utterly wither as soon as the east wind touches it? Upon the plot where it grew shall it wither.

11. And the word of Jehovah came to me saying: 12. Say now to the rebellious house, know ye not what these things be? say, Behold the King of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes, and brought them along with him to Babylon. 13. And he took of the royal seed, and made a covenant with it, and brought it under an oath; and the mighty of the land he also took. 14. That the kingdom might be in a low condition, that it might not lift itself up, that it might keep his covenant and establish it. 15. But he rebelled against him, in sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he flourish? Shall he escape who does this? And shall he break the covenant and escape e? 16. As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely in the place of the king that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, in the midst of Babylon shall he die. 17. Neither shall Pharaoh with mighty power and a great host accomplish for him by war, by casting up mounds, and by building towers, to cut off many souls. 18. And he despised the oath, to break the covenant, and lo! he gave his hand; yea he did all these things; he shall not escape. 19. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, As I live, surely my oath which he despised, and my covenant which he broke, that will I bring upon his own head. 20. And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and I will reckon with him there for his treacherous dealing toward me. 21. And all his fugitives, with all his bands, shall fall by the sword, and those that are left of them shall be scattered to every wind; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken.

22. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I take (namely, when those things have taken place) of the topmost branch of the high cedar, and set-from the top of its shoots, I pluck off a slender one, and I plant it upon a moun

1 We have here also another word peculiar to Ezekiel, EE, which is usually rendered willow; and in that sense has the support of Jewish authority. Indeed, this is the only Rabinnical meaning of the term. If any modification whatever were allowable, it might be supposed, with Hitzig, to denote generally a water-plant, a shrub or tree naturally growing in, or beside waters. It was probably applied as a designation of the willow on this account, being derived from, to flood or overflow. Set where it was the cedar-twig became a willow for growth, and a spreading, luxuriant vine for fruitfulness.