Page 126 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

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despair when the sorrow lies too deep for tears, and an
overwhelming sense of guilt compels men to abandon
hope !
It is not right to speak of the sacred writers intro­
ducing their own names into their productions. Do
those who so talk really believe that they were inspired
in the true and full meaning of the term ? If so, it
was God who led and authorized them to do so, as the
prophet here. “ Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: ac­
cording to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when
this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in that day when
I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory,
the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set
their minds, their sons and their daughters, that he
that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause
thee to hear it with thine ears ? In that day shall thy
mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou
shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be
a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am
Jehovah.” (Ver. 24—27.)

CHAPTER XXV.
W e have now a message from Jehovah which, while
connected with the foregoing denunciation of Israel and
especially of Jerusalem, forms a natural transition to
foreign nations that successively fall under divine judg­
ment. (Chaps, xxvi.—xxxii.) Ammon and Moab had
an unhappy and humiliating origin which gave them a
sort of spurious relation to Israel; Edom, if nobler