Page 128 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

122 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
Theodoret seems to me more light who views them as
the Ishmaelites, who should, on the great overthrow of
the actual state by Nebuchadnezzar, pitch their tents,
and tend their flocks and herds, and in short pass their
nomad life in the land of those who triumphed at the
desecration of Jehovah’s sanctuary and the desolation
of Israel’s land, and the captivity of Judah. Perhaps
it may have been the former thought which influenced
our translators in giving “ palaces” where encampments
or villages would seem correct. It was a greater blow
thus to become a possession of the wandering Bedouins
than simply to have fallen under the towers and strength
and skill of the Babylonians. The sons of Ammon
have been destroyed, for man irreparably, and spite of
any passing history of Greeks or Bomans.
But they are not alone. Moab was no less hostile.
Their mountain fastnesses, their proud fortifications,
should prove vain when God’s time came; and it was
soon coming. “ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Be­
cause that Moab and Seir do say, Behold the house of
Judah is like unto all the heathen; therefore, behold,
I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his
cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the
country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,
unto the men of the east with the sons of Ammon, and
will give them in possession, that the sons of Ammon
may not be remembered among the nations. And I
will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall
know that I am Jehovah.” (Yer. 8—11.) How true
it is that God resists the proud; and we have heard of
Moab’s pride, which He the more resented because
they ventured to say, as they would have fain believed,