--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 461 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/461/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 461. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/461/" --- # 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. ## 461. Ezekiel · 22 of 41 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/461/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/461/#p-N [¶0] 10. set apart for pollution--that is, set apart as unclean ([Le 18:19]). [¶1] 12. forgotten me--([De 32:18]; [Jr 2:32]; 3:21). [¶2] 13. smitten mine hand--in token of the indignant vengeance which I will execute on thee (see on [Eze 21:17]). [¶3] 14. ([Eze 21:7]). [¶4] 15. consume thy filthiness out of thee--the object of God in scattering the Jews. [¶5] 16. take thine inheritance in thyself--Formerly thou wast Mine inheritance; but now, full of guilt, thou art no longer Mine, but thine own inheritance to thyself; "in the sight of the heathen," that is, even they shall see that, now that thou hast become a captive, thou art no longer owned as Mine [Vatablus]. Fairbairn and others needlessly take the Hebrew from a different root, "thou shalt be polluted by ('in,' [Henderson]) thyself," &c.; the heathen shall regard thee as a polluted thing, who hast brought thine own reproach on thyself. [¶6] 18. dross ... brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, [Is 1:22], especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated ([Jr 6:29], ). [¶7] 23. From this verse to the end he shows the general corruption of all ranks. [¶8] 24. land ... not cleansed--not cleared or cultivated; all a scene of desolation; a fit emblem of the moral wilderness state of the people. [¶9] nor rained upon--a mark of divine "indignation"; as the early and latter rain, on which the productiveness of the land depended, was one of the great covenant blessings. Joel ([Joe 2:23]) promises the return of the former and latter rain, with the restoration of God's favor. [¶10] 25. conspiracy--The false prophets have conspired both to propagate error and to oppose the messages of God's servants. They are mentioned first, as their bad influence extended the widest. [¶11] prey--Their aim was greed of gain, "treasure, and precious things" ([Ho 6:9]; [Zep 3:3], ; [Mt 23:14]). [¶12] made ... many widows--by occasioning, through false prophecies, the war with the Chaldeans in which the husbands fell. [¶13] 26. Her priests--whose "lips should have kept knowledge" (Mal 2:7). [¶14] violated--not simply transgressed; but, have done violence to the law, by wresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it. [¶15] put no difference between the holy and profane, &c.--made no distinction between the clean and unclean ([Le 10:10]), the Sabbath and other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. "Holy" means, what is dedicated to God; "profane," what is in common use; "unclean," what is forbidden to be eaten; "clean," what is lawful to be eaten. [¶16] I am profaned among them--They abuse My name to false or unjust purposes. [¶17] 27. princes--who should have employed the influence of their position for the people's welfare, made "gain" their sole aim. [¶18] wolves--notorious for fierce and ravening cruelty ([Mi 3:2], [3, 9-11]; [Joh 10:12]). [¶19] 28. Referring to the false assurances of peace with which the prophets flattered the people, that they should not submit to the king of Babylon (see on [Eze 13:10]; [Eze 21:29]; [Jr 6:14]; , ; , ). [¶20] 29. The people--put last, after the mention of those in office. Corruption had spread downwards through the whole community. [¶21] wrongfully--that is, "without cause," gratuitously, without the stranger proselyte giving any just provocation; nay, he of all others being one who ought to have been won to the worship of Jehovah by kindness, instead of being alienated by oppression; especially as the Israelites were commanded to remember that they themselves had been "strangers in Egypt" ([Ex 22:21]; ). [¶22] 30. the hedge--the wall (see on [Eze 13:5]); image for leading the people to repentance. [¶23] the gap--the breach ([Psa 106:23]); image for interceding between the people and God ([Ge 20:7]; [Ex 32:11]; [Nu 16:48]). [¶24] I found none--([Jr 5:1])--not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. For Jeremiah, Baruch, &c., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people ([Jr 11:14]), as being doomed to wrath. None now, of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none "among them," that is, among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins ([Eze 22:25-29]), was morally able for such an office. [¶25] 31. their own way ... recompensed upon their heads--([Eze 9:10]; ; ; [Pr 1:31]; [Is 3:11]; [Jr 6:19]). ### Chapter 23 ### Eze 23:1-49. Israel's and Judah's Sin and Punishment Are Parabolically Portrayed under the Names Aholah and Aholibah [¶28] The imagery is similar to that in the sixteenth chapter; but here the reference is not as there so much to the breach of the spiritual marriage covenant with God by the people's idolatries, as by their worldly spirit, and their trusting to alliances with the heathen for safety, rather than to God. [¶29] 2. two ... of one mother--Israel and Judah, one nation by birth from the same ancestress, Sarah. [¶30] 3. Even so early in their history as their Egyptian sojourn, they committed idolatries (see on [Eze 20:6-8]; Joshua 24. 14). [¶31] in their youth--an aggravation of their sin. It was at the very time of their receiving extraordinary favors from God ([Eze 16:6], ). [¶32] they bruised--namely, the Egyptians. [¶33] 4. Aholah--that is, "Her tent" (put for worship, as the first worship of God in Israel was in a tent or tabernacle), as contrasted with Aholibah, that is, "My tent in her." The Beth-el worship of Samaria was of her own devising, not of God's appointment; the temple-worship of Jerusalem was expressly appointed by Jehovah, who "dwelt" there, "setting up His tabernacle among the people as His" ([Ex 25:8]; [Le 26:11], ; [Jos 22:19]; [Psa 76:2]). [¶34] the elder--Samaria is called "the elder" because she preceded Judah in her apostasy and its punishment. [¶35] they were mine--Previous to apostasy under Jeroboam, Samaria (Israel, or the ten tribes), equally with Judah, worshipped the true God. God therefore never renounced the right over Israel, but sent prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, to declare His will to them. [¶36] 5. when ... mine--literally, "under Me," that is, subject to Me as her lawful husband. [¶37] neighbours--On the northeast the kingdom of Israel bordered on that of Assyria; for the latter had occupied much of Syria. Their neighborhood in locality was emblematical of their being near in corruption of morals and worship. The alliances of Israel with Assyria, which are the chief subject of reprobation here, tended to this ([2Ki 15:19]; , ; ; [Ho 8:9]). [¶38] 6. blue--rather, "purple" [Fairbairn]. As a lustful woman's passions are fired by showy dress and youthful appearance in men, so Israel was seduced by the pomp and power of Assyria (compare [Is 10:8]). [¶39] horsemen--cavaliers. [¶40] 7. all their idols--There was nothing that she refused to her lovers. [¶41] 8. whoredoms brought from Egypt--the calves set up in Dan and Beth-el by Jeroboam, answering to the Egyptian bull-formed idol Apis. Her alliances with Egypt politically are also meant ([Is 30:2], ; ). The ten tribes probably resumed the Egyptian rites, in order to enlist the Egyptians against Judah ([2Ch 12:2-4]). [¶42] 9. God, in righteous retribution, turned their objects of trust into the instruments of their punishment: Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Esar-haddon, and Shalmaneser ([2Ki 15:19], ; , [6, 24]; [Ezr 4:2], ). "It was their sin to have sought after such lovers, and it was to be their punishment that these lovers should become their destroyers" [Fairbairn]. [¶43] 10. became famous--literally, "she became a name," that is, as notorious by her punishment as she had been by her sins, so as to be quoted as a warning to others. [¶44] women--that is, neighboring peoples.