Page 198 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

192 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
true meaning; and the Greek versions of Theodotion and
Symmaehus did not abandon but confirm it. It is im­
possible on any just principles to deny that the JSoptua-
gint and those who hold with it rightly give ilpx0VTa
jc.t. \. for I am aware that the Chaldee
• T
Targum of Jonathan and the Greek version of the Jew
Aquila take it, like our English Bible, as “ the chief
prince/' the Vulgate as prince of the head or chief (like
our margin), the Syriac as “ ruler and chief,” the Ara
bic as “ prince of the princes,” &c.
But none of these affords a tolerable or even intelli­
gible meaning, save the latter two which desert the
text. It is true that when the context requires it
to be a common appellative, means “ head” or “ chief
but it is this sense which in the present instance brings

land upon the mountains of Israel: and one king shall be king to
them all: they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be
divided into two kingdoms any more. And they shall dwell in the
land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein their fathers
have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their
children’s children for ever. And the nations shall know that I the
Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst
of them for evermore.’
“ Can the Gentiles wTho have embraced the Christian faith believe"
that they are the Israelites to whom the prophet alludes? Are tho
nations ever termed Judah and Ephraim ? Or have the}' been di­
vided into two kingdoms ? Neither reason nor plain sense is the
foundation of the persuasion that the land of which the prophet
speaks is spiritual; that it is the church signified when he assures
the people of Israel of their return to their own land—to that happy
count:/ which they had before possessed in the land of Canaan,
that which the Lord had given to their ancestors. Can the moun­
tains where the people were to assemble be spiritual ? Fiction never
went so far in metamorphosis.”