11 And it shall come to pass in that day, the end of seven months shall they search. a Lev. xviii. 21. Ch. xx. 39.- b Ch xxxviii. 16, 23. e Rev. xvi. 17. xxi. 6.--d Ch. xxxviii. 17.——e e Or, javeOr, make a fire of them.--¤ Isai. xiv. 2.- -h Or, lins. defeat of Gog is to be in Israel: and it was there, according to this prophecy, that the immense army of Antiochus was so completely defeated. And I will not let them pollute my holy name any more] See on 1 Macc. i. 11, &c., how Antiochus had profaned the temple, insulted Jehovah and his worship, &c. God permitted that as a scourge to his disobedient people; but now the scourger shall be scourged, and he shall pollute the sanctuary no more. Verse 9. And shall set on fire-the weapons] The Israelites shall make bonfires and fuel of the weapons, tents, &c., which the defeated Syrians shall leave behind them, as expressive of the joy which they shall feel for the destruction of their enemies; and to keep up, in their culinary consumption, the memory of this great event. They shall burn them with fire seven years] These may be figurative expressions, after the manner of the Asiatics, whose language abounds with such descriptions. They occur every where in the prophets. As to the number seven, it is only a certain for an indeterminate number. But as the slaughter was great, and the bows, arrows, quivers, shields, bucklers, handstaves, and spears were in vast multitudes, it must have taken a long time to gather them up in the different parts of the fields of battle, and the roads in which the Syrians had retreated, throwing away their arms as they proceeded; so there might have been a long time employed in collecting and burning them. And as all seem to have been doomed to the fire, there might have been some found at different intervals and burned, during the seven years here mentioned. Mariana, in his History of Spain, lib. xi., c. 24, says, that after the Spaniards had given that signal overthrow to the Saracens, A. D. | mouths. That is, The multitude of Gog.--k Deut. xxi, 23. Ver. 14, 16.- -- Ch. xxviii, 22.- Heb. men of com tinuance. n Ver. 12. 1212, they found such a vast quantity of lances, javelins, and such like, that they served them for | four years for fuel. And probably these instruments obtained by the Israelites were used in general for culinary firewood, and might literally have served them for seven years; so that during that time they should take no wood out of the fields, nor out of the forests for the purpose of fuel, ver. 10. Verse 11. The valley of the passengers on the east of the sea] That is, of Gennesareth, according to the Targum. The valley near this lake or sea is called the Valley of the Passengers, because it was a great road by which the merchants and traders from Syria and other eastern countries went into Egypt; see Gen. xxxvii. 17, 25. See Calmet here. There shall they bury Gog and all his multitude] Some read, "There shall they bury Gog, that is, all his multitude." Not Gog, or Antiochus himself, for he was not in this battle; but his generals, captains, and soldiers, by whom he was represented. As to Hamon-gog, we know no valley of this name but here. But we may understand the words thus: the place where this great slaughter was, and where the multitudes of the slain were buried, might be better called Hamon-gog, the valley of the multitude of Gog, than the valley of passengers; for so great was the carnage there, that the way of the passengers shall be stopped by it. See the text. Verse 12. And seven months] It shall require a long time to bury the dead. This is another figurative expression; which, however, may admit of a good deal of literal meaning. Many of the Syrian soldiers had secreted themselves in different places during the pursuit after the battle, where they died of their wounds, of hunger, and of fatigue; so that The terrible defeat A. M. cir. 3417. Ol. XLVIII. 2. CHAP. XXXIX. 15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. 16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land. 17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, 'Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. g they were not all found and buried till seven months after the defeat of the Syrian army. This slow process of burying is distinctly related in the three following verses, and extended even to a bone, ver. 15; which, when it was found by a passenger, the place was marked, that the buryers might see and inter it. Seven months was little time enough for all this work; and in that country putrescency does not easily take place; the scorching winds serving to desiccate the flesh, and preserve it from decomposition. Verse 17. Gather yourselves—to my sacrifice] This is an allusion to a custom common in the East: when a sacrifice is made, the friends and neighbours of the party sacrificing are invited to come and feast on the sacrifice. Verse 18. Ye shall-drink the blood of the princes of the earth] I need not mention the custom of the Scandinavians: they were accustomed to drink the blood of their enemies out of the skulls of the dead. But this is spoken of fowls and beasts here-rams, lambs, and goats. The feast shall be as grateful and as plenteous to the fowls and beasts, as one made of the above animals, the fattest and best of their kind (because fed in the fertile fields of Bashan), would be to the guests of him who makes a sacrifice. of Gog and his army. 21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. A. M. cir. 3417. B. C. cir. 587. Ol. XLVIII. 2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman.. cir. annum 30. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. 25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; 26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. X y 27 When I have brought them again from - Deut. xxxi. a Ver. 7, 28. Ch. xxxvi. 18, 19, 20, 23.17. Isai. lix. 2.- t Lev. xxvi. 25. uCh. xxxvi. 19. w Ch. xx. 40. ▾ Jer. xxx. 3, 18. Ch. xxxiv. 13. xxxvi. 21. Hos. i. 11.- - Dan. ix 16.—y Lev. xxvi. 5, 6.-—2 Ch. xxviii. 25, 26. Verse 19. And ye shall eat fat-and drink blood] Who shall eat and drink, &c.? Not the Jews; though Voltaire says they ate human flesh, and are invited here by the prophet to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their enemies; which is a most unprincipled falsehood. It is the fowls and the beasts that God invites, ver. 17: "Speak to every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, assemble yourselves-that ye may eat flesh and drink blood;" nor are the persons altered in all these verses, 17, 18, 19, 20: so the assertion of Voltaire is either through brutish ignorance or Satanic malice. Verse 25. Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob] Both they and the heathen shall know that it was for their iniquity that I gave them into the hands of their enemies and now I will redeem them from those hands in such a way as to prove that I am a merciful God, as well as a just God. Verse 26. After that they have borne their shame] After they shall have borne the punishment due to a line of conduct which is their shame and reproach, viz. idolatry. Verse 27. When I have-gathered them] Antiochus had before captured many of the Jews, and sold them for slaves; see Dan. xi. 33. the people, and gathered them am sanctified in them in the 28 Then shall they know that I am the Lord their GOD, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I Ch. xxxvi. 23, 24. xxxviii. 16. Ch. xxxiv. 30. Ver. 22. Heb. by my causing of them, &c. Verse 28. And have left none of them any more there.] All that chose had liberty to return; but many remained behind. This promise may therefore refer to a greater restoration, when not a Jew shall be left behind. This, the next verse intimates, will be in the gospel dispensation. restoration to the Jews. have gathered them unto their d 29 Neither will I hide my A. M. cir. 3417. face any more from them: for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. d Isai. liv. 8.- Le Joel ii. 28. Zech.xii. 10. Acts ii. 17. is, I will pour out my Spirit ; see the notes on chap. xxxvi. 25--29, where this subject is largely considered. This Spirit is to enlighten, quicken, purify, and cleanse their hearts; so that, being completely changed, they shall become God's people, and be a praise in the earth. Now, they are a proverb of reproach; then, Verse 29. For I have poured out my Spirit] That they shall be eminently distinguished. A NEW PLAN OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. [For an explanation of this plan, and of the accompanying map of the division of the Land of Canaan, see at the end of Chap. xlviii.] The description of EZEKIEL. CHAPTER XL. the new temple. The prophecy or vision, which begins here, continues to the end of the Book. The Temple of Jerusalem lying in ruins when Ezekiel had this vision (for its date is the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar), the Jews needed consolation. If they were not promised a restoration of the temple, they would not feel so great an interest in returning home. It is thought by some that no model of Solomon's Temple had remained. To direct them, therefore, in the dimensions, parts, order, and rules of their new temple might be one reason why Ezekiel is so particular in the description of the old; to which the new was conformable in figure and parts, though inferior in magnificence, on account of the poverty of the nation at the time. Whatever was august or illustrious in the prophetic figures, and not literally fulfilled in or near their own times, the ancient Jews properly considered as belonging to the time of the Messiah. Accordingly, upon finding that the latter temple fell short of the model of the temple here described by Ezekiel, they supposed the prophecy to refer, at least in part, to the period now mentioned. And we, who live under the Gospel dispensation, have apostolical authority for the assertion that the temple and temple-worship were emblematic of Christ's church, frequently represented in the New Testament under the metaphor of a temple, in allusion to the symmetry, beauty, and firmness of that of Solomon; to its orderly worship; and to the manifestations it had of the Divine Presence. This chapter commences with the time, manner, and end of the vision, 1-5. We have next a description of the east gate, 6-19, the north gate, 20-22, and the south gate, 24-31. A further description of the east gate, 32-34, and of the north gate, 35-38. Account of the eight tables, 39-43; of the chambers, 44-47; and of the porch of the temple, 48, 49. A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Ol. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. N the five and twentieth year | in the selfsame day the hand IN of our captivity, in the be- of the LORD was upon me, and ginning of the year, in the brought me thither. tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, a Ch. xxxiii. 21.- b Ch. i. 3. NOTES ON CHAP. XL. с A. M. 3430. Olymp. Ll. 3 Anno Servi Talli, R. Roman, 5. 2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and c Ch. viii. 3.- d Rev. xxi. 10. people might more easily repair it, agreeably to this Verse 1. In the five and twentieth year of our cap-model. The prophet's applying himself to describe tivity] According to the date here given, this prophecy was delivered on Tuesday, April 20, A. M. 3430, in the twenty-fifth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and fourteen years after the taking of Jerusalem. this edifice was a motive of hope to the Jews of seeing themselves one day delivered from captivity, the temple rebuilt, and their nation restored to its ancient inheritance. Ezekiel touches very slightly upon the description of the temple or house of the Lord, which comprehended the holy place or sanctuary, and which are so exactly described in the Books of Kings. and apartments, of the temple, concerning which the history of the kings had not spoken, or only just taken notice of by the way. The temple here described, by Ezekiel is, in all probability, the same which he saw before his captivity, and which had been burned by the Chaldeans four-He dwells more largely upon the gates, the galleries, teen years before this vision. On comparing the Books of Kings and Chronicles with this Prophet, we shall find the same dimensions in the parts described by both; for instance, the temple, or place which comprehended the sanctuary, the holy place, and the vestibule or porch before the temple, is found to measure equally the same both in Ezekiel and the Kings. Compare 1 Kings vi. 3—16, with chap. xli. 2, &c. The inside ornaments of the temple are entirely the same; in both we see two courts; an inner one for the priests, and an outer one for the people. Compare 1 Kings vi. 29–36; 2 Chron. iv. 9; and Ezek. xli. 16, 17, and xlviii. 7-10. So that there is room to suppose that, in all the rest, the temple of Ezekiel resembled the old one; and that God's design in retracing these ideas in the prophet's memory was to preserve the remembrance of the plan, the dimensions, the ornaments, and whole structure of this divine edifice; and that at the return from captivity the This is the judgment of Calmet; and although every Biblical critic is of the same opinion, yet more labour is spent on rebuilding this temple of Ezekiel than was spent on that built by Solomon! The Jesuits, Prada and Villalpand, have given three foliɔ volumes on this temple, with abundance of cuts, where the different parts are exhibited after the finest models of Grecian and Roman architecture! But still the building is incomplete. Now, of what consequence is all this to the Christian, or to any other reader? I confess I see not. While, then, we have the exact dimensions and accurate description in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, of that built by Solomon, in imitation of which this plan by Ezekiel was drawn, we need not be very solicitous about the manner of measuring and describing used by the prophet; as, |