*H And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the east gate of the house of the Lord, which looketh towards the rising of the sun: and behold in the entry of the gate five and twenty men: and I saw in the midst of them Jezonias the son of Azur, and Pheltias the son of Banaias, princes of the people.
Ver. 1. Me. The prophet in Chaldea, saw in spirit what was doing at Jerusalem. W. — Men. Magistrates. Prado. T. M. — Jezonias, perhaps mentioned C. viii. 11. C.
*H Saying: Were not houses lately built? This city is the caldron, and we the flesh.
Ver. 3. Built, &c. These men despised the predictions and threats of the prophets; who declared to them from God, that the city should be destroyed and the inhabitants carried into captivity: and they made use of this kind of argument against the prophets, that the city so far from being like to be destroyed, had lately been augmented by the building of new houses; from whence they further inferred, by way of a proverb, using the similitude of a cauldron, out of which the flesh is not taken till it is thoroughly boiled and fit to be eaten, that they should not be carried away out of their city, but there end their days in peace. Ch. — They thought themselves secure, (W.) and laughed at the menaces of Jeremias, i. 15. C. — Heb. "The destruction is not soon coming. Let us build;" (Pagn. M.) or, "It is not time to build." C.
*H You have killed a great many in this city, and you have filled the streets thereof with the slain.
Ver. 6. Slain, under Manasses, &c. T.
*H Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain, whom you have laid in the midst thereof, they are the flesh, all this is the caldron: and I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof.
Ver. 7. Cauldron. I will explain the prediction, which you turn to ridicule. Those whom you have slain, are like the flesh (C.) boiled. H. — But you shall be treated still worse, being led captives and slain. C. — They feared wars, but had no dread of captivity. W.
*H You shall fall by the sword: I will judge you in the borders of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ver. 10. Israel. They pretended that they should die in peace in Jerusalem: God tells them it should not be so, but that they should be judged and condemned, and fall by the sword in the borders of Israel; viz. in Reblatha, in the land of Emath, where all their chief men were put to death by order of Nabuchodonosor. 4 K. xxv. and Jer. lii. 10. 27. Ch.
*H And you shall know that I am the Lord: because you have not walked in my commandments, and have not done my judgments, but you have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you.
Ver. 12. But you. Some copies of Sept. have, "neither have you done." C. v. 7.
*H And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pheltias the son of Banaias died: and I fell down upon my face, and I cried with a loud voice: and said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God: wilt thou make an end of all the remnant of Israel?
Ver. 13. Pheltias, the prince, (v. 1. H.) or false prophet, whose death Ezechiel does not bewail, but fears the great destruction of the people; (W. M.) though, if Pheltias died impenitent, his death might justly call for tears. H. — This happened in a vision. Yet (C.) he probably died suddenly about his time. Lyran.
*H Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy kinsmen, and all the house of Israel, all they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said: Get ye far from the Lord, the land is given in possession to us.
Ver. 15. Thy brethren, &c. He speaks of them that had been carried away captives before, who were despised by them that remained in Jerusalem; but, as the prophet here declares to them from God, should be in a more happy condition than they, and after some time return from their captivity. Ch. — David had been insulted in like manner. 1 K. xxvi. 19. C.
*H Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because I have removed them far off among the Gentiles, and because I have scattered them among the countries: I will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come.
Ver. 16. A little. Heb. "for a short time, a sanctuary," or temple. They shall find all things in me. The Christian Church was never more pure than during the first persecutions, when her children could not assemble freely, or build temples. C. — God will never totally abandon her. Jer. iv. 27. &c. W.
*H And they shall go in thither, and shall take away all the scandals, and all the abominations thereof from thence.
Ver. 18. Scandals: idols. They relapsed no more into idolatry, (C.) as a nation, though some fell in the persecution of Epiphanes. H.
*H And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh:
Ver. 19. One. Sept. "another." They have read (C.) acher for echad, "one." H.
* Footnote * Jeremias 31 : 39
And the measuring line shall go out farther in his sight upon the hill Gareb: and it shall compass Goatha,*H But as for them whose heart walketh after their scandals and abominations, I will lay their way upon their head, saith the Lord God.
Ver. 21. Head. I will punish them as their crimes deserve. C.
*H And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood over the mount that is on the east side of the city.
Ver. 23. Mount Olivet, whence he might behold the conflagration of the city, before his ascent into heaven. M. — He leaves his habitation by degrees, to shew how Jerusalem would be treated, and the Jews suffer after the ascension of our Saviour. Theodoret well observes, that the person on the throne represented Him, the upper part of the body being different from the lower, (C. i. 26.) to denote the two natures. C.