that either Jehoahaz first, or afterwards Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, were peculiarly characterised by such a disposition. The whole we are to understand by the representation is, that like the lion among beasts, so they among men followed recklessly the bent of their own minds, and pursued, without let or hindrance, their sinful courses, regardless of the mischiefs which they might thereby bring upon the people they were bound to watch over and protect. Their conduct was as wayward, and the disastrous consequences that flowed from it, were as great, as if their object had been to tear in pieces, and spread desolation throughout the land. So that it was simply to mete to them according to their own measure, and reward them after their own doings, to allow the surrounding nations, first Egypt (in respect to Jehoahaz), and then Babylon, with her multitudinous hosts (in respect to the rest), to come and snare them as wild beasts, and lay them under perpetual arrest, "that their voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel." Thus these two foreign kingdoms, and more especially Babylon, became in a manner the grave of the earthly pomp and dominion of the princes of Israel.

The figurative representation now given, has respect more immediately to the character of the princes, and the punishment it both provoked, and was destined to receive. But to complete the gloomy picture, the prophet adds another, taken from the vine, chief of the fruit-bearing trees, as the lion is of the beasts of prey; having respect more especially to the royal house itself, and the contrast between its original, and its now altered and doomed condition. This royal house, the source of all the individual princes that sprung from it, is represented as, from the first, like a healthy and fruitful vine, planted beside streams of water for abundance of nourishment, so that she shot forth her branches, which were like so many royal sceptres, aloft in the air, and drew upon her the eyes of all on account of her imposing attitude and flourishing appearance. But, without saying how it is to be understood from the preceding delineation, on account of the corrupt fruit that was borne by those rods of command and rule-this vine becomes the object of irresistible fury, which plucks her up from the fertile situation she had hitherto occupied, dries up her fruit, breaks off and burns in the fire her once vigorous branches; and not only this, but trans

plants the tree itself into a dry and sapless region, where it could no longer flourish, and where the little fruitfulness that still appeared in it was to be devoured by a fire coming out of itself. For such was the wilful infatuation and folly of the royal house, that even when reduced and crippled on every hand by the punitive justice and restraining providence of God, it acted so as only to provoke further visitations of wrath, until it was rendered, like the vine-tree of the prophet, without either fruit to yield, or a rod of sufficient strength to form a sceptre to rule. In other words, the royal house of Israel, as to this earthly power and glory, becomes utterly wasted and gone; the fit theme only of a present and coming lamentation.

A doleful picture indeed, but how exactly accordant with the truth of things! Who but the unerring Spirit of God could have guided the hand of the prophet to exhibit so faithful a representation of the coming future? It might have been clear enough, to a discerning mind, from the signs of the times in which Ezekiel lived, that the princes of Israel were likely to be further shorn of their power by the king of Babylon, and possibly even carried captive to his dominions. But that their princely power and glory should thus actually expire-that the royal house of Israel itself should finally lose its place among the princedoms of the world, while yet the Lord should one day bring out of its seeming ruin a king, that should rise to the dominion in spite of all the powers of this world, and ultimately gather them all under his universal sway,-a train of events so peculiar and extraordinary as this, and so entirely corresponding with the future issues of Providence, could only have been tracked out beforehand by him who sees the things that are not, as though they were. But still, let us keep all in its proper place. This wonderful anticipation of the future regarding the house of David, was not intended merely, or even primarily, as a proof of Divine foresight to the church and the world, but rather as a grand demonstration, reaching from the past into the future, of the righteous principles of God's administration. It was to embody and exhibit these principles, in connection with the highest power and authority in the realm, that God originally chose out of Israel a royal house, to which he delegated, in a measure, his own rightful supremacy. But the seed of royalty forgot the nature of their calling, and abused, to

purposes of selfishness and corruption, the honour they had received from above. And, as in the case of the people at large, their falling away from the righteous purposes, for which, especially, they were planted in the land of Canaan, carried along with it the forfeiture of all their blessings, so in the house of David, their inveterate attachment to sinful and worldly aims must of necessity involve the extinction of all its rank and consideration among men. It must go down, engulphed in that worldly element to which it had so fondly and perversely wedded itself; and there must it lie, till, through the special interposition of Heaven, it should again revive in One, in whom the spiritual should so clearly bear the ascendancy over the earthly,-One who should make himself so peculiarly known as loving righteousness and hating iniquity, that none could fail to regard him as of one mind, in this respect, with God, and God himself should for ever anoint him with the oil of gladness above his fellows. We must ever keep this in view, as the main key to the mystery of God's work, the fundamental and all-pervading element of those wonderful and otherwise unaccountable evolutions in providence, which prophets were so early instructed to disclose to the people. And let it never be forgotten, that precisely as men enter into God's mind, and embrace the righteous principles on which the government of his kingdom is conducted, are they prepared either to fulfil the part assigned them, as members of the kingdom, or to enjoy the benefits which it provides for those who are destined to inherit it! For, as it is in righteousness the King of Zion is to reign and prosper, it can only be in proportion as we are imbued with his spirit of righteousness that we are fitted for taking part with him in what concerns the affairs of his kingdom, and for rising to a proper inheritance in its blessings.

CHAPTER XX.

A DISPLAY OF THE PEOPLE'S LONG-CONTINUED SINFULNESS AND THE LORD'S LONG-SUFFERING MERCY AND GOODNESS.

A NEW series of prophecies begins here, and stretches to the close of the twenty-third chapter It commences with a definite period of time, marked as the seventh year, fifth month, and tenth day of the month (nearly a year later than the last previous date given), and took its rise in a specific occasion. The entire series is of a peculiarly dark, objurgatory, and threatening character, interspersed with only some occasional gleams of light and distant prospects of a still coming good. No substantial amendment had been produced by the earlier communications of the prophet, and the contemporary efforts of other servants of God. Hence the guilt having become so much greater, and the time drawn nearer for the execution of judgment, the burden which the prophet had to deliver was but the more fearfully charged with intimations of brooding woe.

The occasion of this series of discourses was furnished by certain of the elders of Israel coming to inquire of the Lord at the mouth of the prophet. What might be the precise object of their inquiry is kept in the background, as it was also on a former occasion (chap. xiv.). There can be little doubt, however, that it had respect, in some shape, to the then depressed and suffering condition of the covenant-people, and implied, at least, if it did not openly express, a desire to ascertain something more definite about God's purposes respecting them. But here again, a preliminary objection arose from the moral state of the persons inquiring, which was such as precluded them from any right to expect a friendly response from God to their desire for further information. Regarding, as they did, iniquity in their heart, the Lord could not hear them. He, therefore, at the outset, denounced the presumption of such persons in coming to inquire at his servant, and called upon the prophet to do toward them the part of a judge, by charging upon them the rebellious spirit of their fathers, and showing how little either

they or their fathers had received in chastisement from God, compared with what they had deserved.

Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the fifth (month) of the seventh year, in the tenth of the month, that some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me. 2. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 3. Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Have ye come to inquire of me? As I live, I shall not be inquired of by you, saith the Lord Jehovah. 4. Wilt thou not judge them? wilt thou not judge, Son of man? Make them to know the abominations of their fathers. 5. And thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day that I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand to the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand to them, saying, I am Jehovah, your God. 6. In that day I lifted up my hand to them, that I should bring them forth from the land of Egypt to a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. 7. And I said to them, Cast ye, every man, away the pollutions of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Jehovah, your God. 8. And they rebelled against me, and were not willing to hearken to me; they did not, every man, cast away the pollutions of his eyes, nor forsake the idols of Egypt; and I said that I would pour out my wrath upon them, that I would accomplish my anger in them within the land of Egypt. 9. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it might not be polluted in the eyes of the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known, to bring them forth from the land of Egypt. 10. And I led them forth from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. 11. And I gave to them my statutes, and my judgments I made known to them, which if a man do, he shall live in them. 12. And I also gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah, who sanctifies them. 13. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not walk in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them; and they grievously profaned my sabbaths; and I said that I should pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness to consume them. 14. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it might not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. 15. And also I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given, flowing with milk and honey, the most

The interrogative has here the force of a command, the being equivalent to the usual, Wilt thou not? And the interrogation is repeated to show the strength of feeling on the part of God, and the urgency of the occasion. Wilt thou not do it? Wilt thou not do it? Why delay? There is here the loudest call for the exercise of judgment; do it promptly.

2 It is, literally, the ornament or beauty of all lands; and from being applied to Canaan before the Israelites took possession of it, the epithet must, of course, be understood in its natural sense, as denoting the native excellence and desirableness of the country. The same epithet is applied in Isa. xiii. 19, to Babylon as a kingdom, and several times in Daniel to Palestine (ch. viii. 9, xi. 16). We may understand by it, not so properly the absolute superiority of Canaan, as its relative superiority, considered as the abode and heritage of the Lord's people.