Page 70 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

64 KOTES ON EZEKIEL.

their own souls by their righteousness, saitli the Lord
Jehovah.
“ If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the landr
and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man
may pass through because of the beasts: though these
three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovahy
they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they
only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.
“ Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say,
Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and
beast from it: though these three men were in it, as I
live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they shall deliver neither
sons nor daughters, but they only shall bo delivered
themselves.
“ Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour
out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man
and beast: though Noah, Daniel and Job, were in itr
as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they shall deliver
neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their
own souls by their righteousness.” (Ver. 13—20.)
The prophet hears the awful sentence that, when the
last excess of evil brings any one of God’s strokes of
judgment on a land, the three saints, whose intercession
appears at critical points of the divine history of man,
could not avail to deliver save their own souls by their
righteousness (for it is a question here of government
in this world, not of grace for eternal life). If famine
were inflicted, if wild beasts, if a sword, if a pestilence,
not even Noah nor Daniel nor Job should save son or
daughter beyond themselves. But what should it be
when all four sore plagues are sent by God on Jerusa*
lem? Who could screen the guilty people? ‘‘For