---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible"
author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 446 of 927
url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/446/
cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 446. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/446/"
---

# Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

*Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown*

The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation.

## 446. Ezekiel · 7 of 41

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/446/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/446/#p-N

[¶0] 10. creeping things ... beasts--worshipped in Egypt; still found portrayed on their chamber walls; so among the Troglodytæ.

[¶1] round about--On every side they surrounded themselves with incentives to superstition.

[¶2] 11. seventy men--the seventy members composing the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, the origination of which we find in the seventy elders, representatives of the congregation, who went up with Moses to the mount to behold the glory of Jehovah, and to witness the secret transactions relating to the establishment of the covenant; also, in the seventy elders appointed to share the burden of the people with Moses. How awfully it aggravates the national sin, that the seventy, once admitted to the Lord's secret council ([Psa 25:14]), should now, "in the dark," enter "the secret" of the wicked ([Ge 49:6]), those judicially bound to suppress idolatry being the ringleaders of it!

[¶3] Jaazaniah--perhaps chief of the seventy: son of Shaphan, the scribe who read to Josiah the book of the law; the spiritual privileges of the son ([2Ki 22:10-14]) increased his guilt. The very name means, "Jehovah hears," giving the lie to the unbelief which virtually said ([Eze 9:9]), "The Lord seeth us not," &c. (compare [Psa 10:11], ; ; , ). The offering of incense belonged not to the elders, but to the priests; this usurpation added to the guilt of the former.

[¶4] cloud of incense--They spared no expense for their idols. Oh, that there were the same liberality toward the cause of God!

[¶5] 12. every man in ... chambers of ... imagery--The elders ("ancients") are here the representatives of the people, rather than to be regarded literally. Mostly, the leaders of heathen superstitions laughed at them secretly, while publicly professing them in order to keep the people in subjection. Here what is meant is that the people generally addicted themselves to secret idolatry, led on by their elders; there is no doubt, also, allusion to the mysteries, as in the worship of Isis in Egypt, the Eleusinian in Greece, &c., to which the initiated alone were admitted. "The chambers of imagery" are their own perverse imaginations, answering to the priests' chambers in the vision, whereon the pictures were portrayed ([Eze 8:10]).

[¶6] Lord ... forsaken ... earth--They infer this because God has left them to their miseries, without succoring them, so that they seek help from other gods. Instead of repenting, as they ought, they bite the curb [Calvin].

[¶7] 14. From the secret abominations of the chambers of imagery, the prophet's eye is turned to the outer court at the north door; within the outer court women were not admitted, but only to the door.

[¶8] sat--the attitude of mourners ([Job 2:13]; [Is 3:26]).

[¶9] Tammuz--from a Hebrew root, "to melt down." Instead of weeping for the national sins, they wept for the idol. Tammuz (the Syrian for Adonis), the paramour of Venus, and of the same name as the river flowing from Lebanon; killed by a wild boar, and, according to the fable, permitted to spend half the year on earth, and obliged to spend the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was celebrated to him in June (hence called Tammuz in the Jewish calendar) at Byblos, when the Syrian women, in wild grief, tore off their hair and yielded their persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to the earth; the former feast being called "the disappearance of Adonis," the latter, "the finding of Adonis." This Phoenician feast answered to the similar Egyptian one in honor of Osiris. The idea thus fabled was that of the waters of the river and the beauties of spring destroyed by the summer heat. Or else, the earth being clothed with beauty, during the half year when the sun is in the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he departs to the lower. The name Adonis is not here used, as Adon is the appropriated title of Jehovah.

[¶10] 15-16. The next are "greater abominations," not in respect to the idolatry, but in respect to the place and persons committing it. In "the inner court," immediately before the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, where the priests advanced only on extraordinary occasions ([Joe 2:17]), twenty-five men (the leaders of the twenty-four courses or orders of the priests, [1Ch 24:18], , with the high priest, "the princes of the sanctuary," [Is 43:28]), representing the whole priesthood, as the seventy elders represented the people, stood with their backs turned on the temple, and their faces towards the east, making obeisance to the rising sun (contrast [1Ki 8:44]). Sun-worship came from the Persians, who made the sun the eye of their god Ormuzd. It existed as early as Job ([Job 31:26]; compare [De 4:19]). Josiah could only suspend it for the time of his reign ([2Ki 23:5], ); it revived under his successors.

[¶11] 17. put ... branch to ... nose--proverbial, for "they turn up the nose in scorn," expressing their insolent security [Septuagint]. Not content with outraging "with their violence" the second table of the law, namely, that of duty towards one's neighbor, "they have returned" (that is, they turn back afresh) to provoke Me by violations of the first table [Calvin]. Rather, they held up a branch or bundle of tamarisk (called barsom) to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun [Strabo, 1.15, p. 733]. Sacred trees were frequent symbols in idol-worship. Calvin translates, "to their own ruin," literally, "to their nose," that is, with the effect of rousing My anger (of which the Hebrew is "nose") to their ruin.

[¶12] 18. though they cry ... yet will I not hear--([Pr 1:28]; [Is 1:15]).

### Chapter 9

### Eze 9:1-11. Continuation of the Preceding Vision: The Sealing of the Faithful

[¶15] 1. cried--contrasted with their "cry" for mercy ([Eze 8:18]) is the "cry" here for vengeance, showing how vain was the former.

[¶16] them that have charge--literally, officers; so "officers" ([Is 60:17]), having the city in charge, not to guard, but to punish it. The angels who as "watchers" fulfil God's judgments ([Da 4:13], 17, 23; , ); the "princes" ([Jr 39:3]) of Nebuchadnezzar's army were under their guidance.

[¶17] draw near--in the Hebrew intensive, "to draw near quickly."

[¶18] 2. clothed with linen--([Da 10:5]; , ). His clothing marked his office as distinct from that of the six officers of vengeance; "linen" characterized the high priest ([Le 16:4]); emblematic of purity. The same garment is assigned to the angel of the Lord (for whom Michael is but another name) by the contemporary prophet Daniel ([Da 10:5]; , ). Therefore the intercessory High Priest in heaven must be meant ([Zec 1:12]). The six with Him are His subordinates; therefore He is said to be "among them," literally, "in the midst of them," as their recognized Lord ([He 1:6]). He appears as a "man," implying His incarnation; as "one" (compare [1Ti 2:5]). Salvation is peculiarly assigned to Him, and so He bears the "inkhorn" in order to "mark" His elect ([Eze 9:4]; compare [Ex 12:7]; [Re 7:3]; ; , ; ), and to write their names in His book of life ([Re 13:8]). As Oriental scribes suspend their inkhorn at their side in the present day, and as a "scribe of the host is found in Assyrian inscriptions accompanying the host" to number the heads of the slain, so He stands ready for the work before Him. "The higher gate" was probably where now the gate of Damascus is. The six with Him make up the sacred and perfect number, seven ([Zec 3:9]; [Re 5:6]). The executors of judgment on the wicked, in Scripture teaching, are good, not bad, angels; the bad have permitted to them the trial of the pious ([Job 1:12]; [2Co 12:7]). The judgment is executed by Him ([Eze 10:2], ; [Joh 5:22], ) through the six ([Mt 13:41]; ); so beautifully does the Old Testament harmonize with the New Testament. The seven come "from the way of the north"; for it was there the idolatries were seen, and from the same quarter must proceed the judgment (Babylon lying northeast of Judea). So [Mt 24:28].

[¶19] stood--the attitude of waiting reverently for Jehovah's commands.

[¶20] brazen altar--the altar of burnt offerings, not the altar of incense, which was of gold. They "stood" there to imply reverent obedience; for there God gave His answers to prayer [Calvin]; also as being about to slay victims to God's justice, they stand where sacrifices are usually slain [Grotius], ([Eze 39:17]; [Is 34:6]; [Jr 12:3]; ).

[¶21] 3. glory of ... God--which had heretofore, as a bright cloud, rested on the mercy seat between the cherubim in the holy of holies ([2Sa 6:2]; [Psa 80:1]); its departure was the presage of the temple being given up to ruin; its going from the inner sanctuary to the threshold without, towards the officers standing at the altar outside, was in order to give them the commission of vengeance.

[¶22] 4. midst of ... city ... midst of Jerusalem--This twofold designation marks more emphatically the scene of the divine judgments.

[¶23] a mark--literally, the Hebrew letter Tau, the last in the alphabet, used as a mark ("my sign," [Job 31:35], Margin); literally, Tau; originally written in the form of a cross, which Tertullian explains as referring to the badge and only means of salvation, the cross of Christ. But nowhere in Scripture are the words which are now employed as names of letters used to denote the letters themselves or their figures [Vitringa]. The noun here is cognate to the verb, "mark a mark." So in [Re 7:3] no particular mark is specified. We seal what we wish to guard securely. When all things else on earth are confounded, God will secure His people from the common ruin. God gives the first charge as to their safety before He orders the punishment of the rest ([Psa 31:20]; [Is 26:20], ). So in the case of Lot and Sodom ([Ge 19:22]); also the Egyptian first-born were not slain till Israel had time to sprinkle the blood-mark, ensuring their safety (compare [Re 7:3]; [Am 9:9]). So the early Christians had Pella provided as a refuge for them, before the destruction of Jerusalem.

[¶24] upon the foreheads--the most conspicuous part of the person, to imply how their safety would be manifested to all (compare [Jr 15:11]; [39:11-18]). It was customary thus to mark worshippers ([Re 13:16]; , ) and servants. So the Church of England marks the forehead with the sign of the cross in baptizing. At the exodus the mark was on the houses, for then it was families; here, it is on the foreheads, for it is individuals whose safety is guaranteed.

[¶25] sigh and ... cry--similarly sounding verbs in Hebrew, as in English Version, expressing the prolonged sound of their grief. "Sigh" implies their inward grief ("groanings which cannot be uttered," [Ro 8:26]); "cry," the outward expression of it. So Lot ([2Pe 2:7], ). Tenderness should characterize the man of God, not harsh sternness in opposing the ungodly ([Psa 119:53], ; [Jr 13:17]; [2Co 12:21]); at the same time zeal for the honor of God ([Psa 69:9], ; [1Jo 5:19]).

[¶26] 5. the others--the six officers of judgment ([Eze 9:2]).

[¶27] 6. come not near any ... upon whom ... mark--([Re 9:4]). It may be objected that Daniel, Jeremiah, and others were carried away, whereas many of the vilest were left in the land. But God does not promise believers exemption from all suffering, but only from what will prove really and lastingly hurtful to them. His sparing the ungodly turns to their destruction and leaves them without excuse [Calvin]. However, the prophecy waits a fuller and final fulfilment, for [Re 7:3-8], in ages long after Babylon, foretells, as still future, the same sealing of a remnant (one hundred forty-four thousand) of Israel previous to the final outpouring of wrath on the rest of the nation; the correspondence is exact; the same pouring of fire from the altar follows the marking of the remnant in both (compare [Re 8:5], with [Eze 10:2]). So [Zec 13:9]; , distinguish the remnant from the rest of Israel.

[¶28] begin at ... sanctuary--For in it the greatest abominations had been committed; it had lost the reality of consecration by the blood of victims sacrificed to idols; it must, therefore, lose its semblance by the dead bodies of the slain idolaters ([Eze 9:7]). God's heaviest wrath falls on those who have sinned against the highest privileges; these are made to feel it first ([1Pe 4:17], ). He hates sin most in those nearest to Him; for example, the priests, &c.

[¶29] ancient men--the seventy elders.

[¶30] 8. I was left--literally, "there was left I." So universal seemed the slaughter that Ezekiel thought himself the only one left [Calvin]. He was the only one left of the priests "in the sanctuary."

[¶31] fell upon my face--to intercede for his countrymen (so [Nu 16:22]).

[¶32] all the residue--a plea drawn from God's covenant promise to save the elect remnant.

[¶33] 9. exceeding--literally, "very, very"; doubled.

[¶34] perverseness--"apostasy" [Grotius]; or, "wresting aside of justice."

[¶35] Lord ... forsaken ... earth ... seeth not--The order is reversed from [Eze 8:12]. There they speak of His neglect of His people in their misery; here they go farther and deny His providence ([Psa 10:11]), so that they may sin fearlessly. God, in answer to Ezekiel's question ([Eze 9:8]), leaves the difficulty unsolved; He merely vindicates His justice by showing it did not exceed their sin: He would have us humbly acquiesce in His judgments, and wait and trust.

[¶36] 10. mine eye--to show them their mistake in saying, "The Lord seeth not."

[¶37] recompense their way upon their head--([Pr 1:31]). Retribution in kind.

[¶38] 11. I have done as thou hast commanded--The characteristic of Messiah ([Joh 17:4]). So the angels ([Psa 103:21]); and the apostles report their fulfilment of their orders ([Mr 6:30]).

### Chapter 10

### Eze 10:1-22. Vision of Coals of Fire Scattered over the City:

[¶41] Repetition of the Vision of the Cherubim.

[¶42] 1. The throne of Jehovah appearing in the midst of the judgments implies that whatever intermediate agencies be employed, He controls them, and that the whole flows as a necessary consequence from His essential holiness ([Eze 1:22], ).

[¶43] cherubim--in [Eze 1:5], called "living creatures." The repetition of the vision implies that the judgments are approaching nearer and nearer. These two visions of Deity were granted in the beginning of Ezekiel's career, to qualify him for witnessing to God's glory amidst his God-forgetting people and to stamp truth on his announcements; also to signify the removal of God's manifestation from the visible temple ([Eze 10:18]) for a long period ([Eze 43:2]). The feature ([Eze 10:12]) mentioned as to the cherubim that they were "full of eyes," though omitted in the former vision, is not a difference, but a more specific detail observed by Ezekiel now on closer inspection. Also, here, there is no rainbow (the symbol of mercy after the flood of wrath) as in the former; for here judgment is the prominent thought, though the marking of the remnant in [Eze 9:4], shows that there was mercy in the background. The cherubim, perhaps, represent redeemed humanity combining in and with itself the highest forms of subordinate creaturely life (compare [Ro 8:20]). Therefore they are associated with the twenty-four elders and are distinguished from the angels ([Re 5:1-14]). They stand on the mercy seat of the ark, and on that ground become the habitation of God from which His glory is to shine upon the world. The different forms symbolize the different phases of the Church. So the quadriform Gospel, in which the incarnate Saviour has lodged the revelation of Himself in a fourfold aspect, and from which His glory shines on the Christian world, answers to the emblematic throne from which He shone on the Jewish Church.

[¶44] 2. he--Jehovah; He who sat on the "throne."