Page 52 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

46 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

after the manners of the heathen that are round about
you.” (Yer. 1—12.)
There appears no sufficient reason in the similarity of
the number twenty-five for identifying the scoffers here
described with the sun-worshippers between the porch
and the altar of chapter viii. Here the leaders at least
were princes of the people, not of the sanctuary or of
the priests. As the previous scene set forth the
religious apostasy, so this the audacity and infidelity of
their civil chiefs, though in the door of the gate of
Jehovah’s house. They were the evil counsellors who
thwarted His word through the prophet to Zedekiah.
Jeremiah exhorted the Jews in Jerusalem to submission
under the king of Babylon, and the captives to build
houses and plant gardens and raise up families in their
exile, praying for the peace of the city, till the seventy
years were accomplished and a remnant should return
to Jerusalem. The false prophets predicted smooth
things both at home and abroad, in every way fomen­
ting rebellion under the colour of patriotism and
* pretending Jehovah’s name while encouraging to insub­
jection under His humbling hand.
Verse 3 is somewhat obscure and has given occasion
to much difference of version and interpretation in
detail, while the general truth seems plain enough. In
the Septuagint it is taken interrogatively: ‘‘Have not
the houses been newly built ?” So nearly the Vulgate.
Gesenius and Ewald follow in somewhat similar style:
“ Is it not near, the building of houses ?” Rosenmiiller,
De Wette, and Young, on the contrary, take it thus:
“ It is not near to build h o u sesth at is, the time of
peace for such work is far off, meaning that they were