Page 26 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

20 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the
house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee
each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy
face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm
shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against
it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou
shalt not turn thee from pne side to another, till thou
hast ended the days of thy siege.” (Yer. 4—8.)
It is well known that this has given rise to much
debate and difference of judgment. First, the reading
of most MSS of the Septuagint misled the early
fathers, who read the more common Greek version,
as we see for instance in Theodoret; and the same
error appears in the Vulgate, though Jerome well
knew that there is no doubt as to the Hebrew, fol­
lowed by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. Next
the reckoning even of Jerome is from the ruin of the
revolted house of Israel in the reign of Pekah, when
the king of Assyria carried off the ten tribes to the
east. But I do not doubt that their view is sounder
who count the three hundred and ninety years of
Israel from Jeroboam, to whom Ahijah announced
from Jehovah the gift of the ten tribes rent out of the
hand of Solomon, and that the forty years of Judah
point to the reign of Solomon himself, which really de­
termined the ruin even of that most favoured portion of
the people, little as man might see under the wealth
and wisdom of the king the results of the idolatry
then practised. “ They have forsaken me,” was the
message of the prophet in that day, “ and have wor­
shipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians,
Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the