Ezekiel 20

This chapter contains a rehearsal of the rebellions and idolatries of the Jews, from their going out of Egypt to that very day. The prophet afterward foretells their conversion and restoration. The last five verses contain a prophecy against Jerusalem. [chap. XX. (See the nolo on Jer. xxxiii. 22.) It might justly bo called the glory of all lands, because it was the place of God’s especial residence. (See Psal. xlviii. 2. Dan. xi. 16. dieucc, which we find recorded, Lev. xxvi. Deut. xxviii. xxix. 20, &c. xxxi. 17. xxxii. 22, &c. a mighty hand, &c] This some understand of God’s bringing his people out of the countries of the Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring nations, whither many of them were carried captive, or went as voluntary exiles before the general captivity, by the Chaldeans. (See Jer. xii. 14. xl. 11.) But I conceive it is rather to be understood of the general restoration of the Jewish nation from the several parts of the world where they are dispersed; an event often spoken of in the prophets. ■ (See vcr. 38. 41. and compare this and the following verses with several passages in the thirty-fourth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of this prophecy.) Vcr. 35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.] The wilderness of the people may be equivalent to the country where tliey sojourn; (vcr. 38.) so as to signify cither the several dispersions of the Jewish nation, or rather some particular place or country through which they arc to pass, in order to their return into their own land. The dissolution of a government is expressed in Scripture by a wilderness state. (Scexix.13.) The Jews going into captivity, are said to go out of the city, and dwell in the field: ( Micah iv. 10.) and the church under persecution is represented as flying into the wilderness, (Rev. xii. 14.) The phrase does like wise allude to the wilderness through which the Jews passed to the land of Canaan, in order to the trial of the obedient, and the destruction of the rebellious. (Compare ver. 3G. 38. xxxviii. 8. and Hos. ii. 14.) And there will J plead with you face to face,] I will convict you’of your crimes, so that you shall not be able to deny your guilt, but shall humbly acknowledge that you have deserved those punishments I have, or shall bring upon you. (Compare xvii. 20. xxxviii. 22. and see the note upon Jer. ii. 9.) Vcr. 36. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.] This relates to that solemn, sentence, confirmed by an oath, whereby God irreversibly doomed the rebellious Israelites to perish in the wilderness, and never to enter into the land of promise. (Numb. xiv. 28. &c.) Vcr. 37. And I will cause you to pass under the rod.] I will take an exact account of you, as a shepherd docs of his flock, and will sever between the good and the bad, between the sheep and the goats. (Sec xxxiv. 17.) The expression alludes to the custom of the shepherds, who number their cattle by striking every one of them with a rod. (See Lev. xxvii. 32. Jer. xxxiii. 13.) And I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.] I. will make you sensible that I have not forgotten my promises to your fathers, though you have forgotten your obligations to me, and the engagements implied in your entering into covenant with me. The words may be rendered, I will bring you into the discipline of the covenant; the Hebrew verbs yasar and asar being of promiscuous signification; and then the sense will be, I will revenge upon you the quarrel of my covenant, (Lev. xxvi. 25.) and assert my authority over you, by bringing you under chastisement, in order to your correction. (See Amos iii. 2.) Vcr. 38. And I will purge out from among you the rebels.] I will separate the righteous from the wicked, (sec ver. 37.) in order to destroy the latter, as I did the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness. (Numb. xiv. 29, 30,)> Compare Ezek. xi. 21. xxxiv. 17. 20. Dan. xii. 1. Amos ix. 9, 10. where it is expressly said, that only those shall be delivered, who are writte7i in the book of the living. I will bring them forth out oftte country where they sojourn; and they shall not enter into the land of Israel] See the note on ver. 35. The word country in the singular number may be equivalent to countries in the plnral, ver. 41. The sentence alludes, as the former does, to the judgment denounced upon the rebellious Israelites, that their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, and themselves never enter into the land of Canaan; which shall be only a portion for the righteous among them. This text, among many others, favours the opinion maintained by several authors, both ancient and modern, that the Jews, upon their conversion, shall return into their own land. (Compare xi. 14. xxviii. 25. see the note there, xxxiv. 13. xxxvi. 24.) of the whole produce, (see Ezek. xlv. 13.) The prophet here expresses the Christian worship by those religious oblations, which were proper to his own time; as the other prophets frequently describe the state of the. Christian church by representations taken from the Jewish temple and service. (See Isa. xix. 19. Ivi. 7. lx. 7; lxvi. 23.) And even the primitive Christians brought oblations out of the first-fruits of their increase, for the support of God’s ministers and service, out of which the elements of the eucharist, and the love-feast which followed it, were provided; as appears from several testimonies of the ancient fathers, particularly of Irenaeus, (lib. iv. cap. 32. 34.) who generally interpret those words of Christ, (Matt. v. 23.) If thou bring thy gift to the altar, &c. of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper.

Ezekiel 20:1

XX.ND it came to pass in the seventh year, &c. Of Jehoiachin’s captivity. (Compare i. 2. viii.l.) All the prophecies recorded from the eighth chapter to this probably belong to the sixth year of that captivity. Certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, &c] See the note on viiL 1.

Ezekiel 20:3

1 will not be inquired of by you. You shall not receive such an answer as you expect, but such as your hypocrisy, deserves. (See ver. 31. xiv. 3, 4.),

Ezekiel 20:4

Wilt thou judge them?. Wilt thou plead for them? as our margin reads, or defend their cause? But the words may perhaps be more significantly translated, Wilt thou not judge them? i.e. Wilt thou not reprove or condemn them? Noldius observes in his Concordance, p. 233. that he, the particle of interrogation, which answers the Latin particle an, is often equivalent to the negative annon, and is to be translated, Is it not? (See ver. 30. of this chapter, and xxxviii. 17.) In which sense it is understood by our translators, 2 Sam. xxiii, 17. and so it should be rendered 1 Sam. ii. 27, Did I not plainly appear to tlie house of thy father? &c. Son of man] See ii. 1.

Ezekiel 20:5

In the day when I lifted np my hand to the seed of the house of Jacob. When I entered into a solemn covenant with them, pursuant to the oath which I had sworn to their fathers. (See Exod.vi.8.) Lifting up the hand was a ceremony used in taking an oath, (see Gen. xiv. 22.) and thereupon applied to God himself, Deut. xxxii. 40. The same expression is used ver. 6. 15. 23. 42. of this chapter. The same ceremony in taking an oath is mentioned by Homer, And made myself known tmto them] By appearing unto Moses, and shewing myself present among them by the wonders I wrought for their deliverance, V Saying, I am the Lord your God] I am the God whom you ought to serve, and none else, (^ee Exod. xx. 2, 3.)

Ezekiel 20:6

Into a land which Iliad espied for them. I performed the office of a spy, before those that were sent to search out the land, Numb. xiii. 16. and chose it out of all others to bestow it upon them. So God is said to go before them to search out a place to pitch their tents in, Deut. i.,33. Numb. x. 33. The expressions in both places import, that’ every step the people took, till their settlement in the land of Canaan, was under the immediate care and conduct of Providence. Flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands] Judea is often called a land flowing with milk and honey, both upon account of its own fruitfulness, the seed sown frequently bringing forth a hundred-fold; (see Gen, xxvi.12. Matt. xiii. 8.) and alsofromGod’s parti cularbless r ingnponit. (Sec Deut. xi. 12.) The great numbers of inhabitants which it nourished is an evident proof of its fertility.

Ezekiel 20:7

Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes. Lift not up your eyes to idols. (See xviii. 6.) One of the chief allurements to the worship of images is, that, by way of indulgence to men’s imaginations, they exhibit a visible object of adoration. This was what the Israelites were so fond of, when they said to Aaron, “Make us gods to go before us/’ Exod. xxxii. 1. And defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt.] The Israelites, while they dwelt in Egypt, learned the idolatries of that country. (See xxiii. 3. 8. Lev. xvii. 7. xviii. 3. Deut. xxix. 10. Josh. xxiv. 14.) Some learned men suppose that the golden calf was copied from the Egyptian idolatry. (See Selden, de Diis Syris, Syntagm. lib. i. cap. 4.)

Ezekiel 20:8

Tlien I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, — in the midst of the lajid of Egypt. Such a threatening as this is no where recorded in Scripture, no more than that which follows, ver. 23. of this chapter. Without question God might have justly cut them off in Egypt, for the idolatries and other sins they had there committed, and never exerted his power for their deliverance.

Ezekiel 20:9

But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted, &c. This is elsewhere assigned as the reason why God did not punish the Israelites according to their deserts: viz. because it would turn to God’s dishonour in the judgment of the heathen world, as if he were not able to make good those gracious promises he had given them. (See xxxvi. 21, 22. Exod. xxxii. 12. Numb. xiv. 13, &c. Deut. ix. 28.) This was a proper consideration to check the vain presumption of the Jews, who imagined that God’s gracious dealings with them were owing to their own deserts. (See ver. 44. of this chapter, and xxxvi. 22.)

Ezekiel 20:11

And I gave them my statutes. A favour not afforded to other nations. (Seo Deut. iv. 8. Psal. cxlvii. 20.) Such a treasure as David prizes above thousands of gold and silver, Psal. cxix. 72. Winch if a man do, he shall even live in them.] By life is meant, in the Old Testament, all that happiness which is contained in the literal sense of the promises belonging to that covenant. (Compare ver. 25. Deut. xxx. 15, &c. Psal. Ixix. 32. Amos v. 4.) Under these were mystically comprehended the promises of a better life, wherein God will bestow upon his servants the peculiar marks of his favour. (See Psal. xvi. 11.) These promises were made over to the Jews, upon condition of their punctual obedience to the whole law: (Lev. xviii. 5. xxvi. 3, &c. Deut. xxvii. 2G.) and several persons, under that dispensation, arc styled blameless, by reason of the sincerity of their obedience, though it was not perfect or unsinning. (See Luke i. 6. Philip, iii. 6.) But if we understand the forementioned condition in its rigorous sense, as implying an exact and unsinning obedience, and as the word life contains the promise of eternal life under it, which promise the Jews expected and hoped to obtain: (see Matt. xix. 1G, 17. Acts xxxvi. 6, 7.) 1 say, the condition of the old covenant thus expounded, as it was impossible to be performed, so no person could lay claim to eternal life by virtue of any promise therein contained. From whence St. Pay! infers the necessity of seeking to Christ, and laying lioldof the promises of his gospel, for the obtaining justification and eter nal life. (Gal. iii. 12. 21.)

Ezekiel 20:12

Moreover I gave them my sabbatlts, to be a sign between me and them, &c. The setting apart tho seventh day for God’s worship, was a sign of his setting apart the Jews to be his peculiar people, and the worshippers of the true God, who in six days made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day. (See Exod. xxxi. 13. 17. Nehem. ix. 14.) The sabbath likewise was instituted as a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, and the rest they enjoyed afterward. (See Deut. v. 15.)

Ezekiel 20:13

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the ivilderness. See Numb. xiv. 22. Psal. lxxviii. 40. xcv. And my sabbatlts they greatly polluted.] Particularly in their going to gather manna on that day, against my express command, confirmed by an extraordinary descent of the manna on the day foregoing, (Exod. xvi. 25, &c.)

Ezekiel 20:14

But I wrought for my name’s sake, &c. See ver. 9.

Ezekiel 20:15

Yet also I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness, that I ivould not bring them into the land tvhich I had given them. I solemnly swore (sec ver. 5.) they should not enter into that rest which I had designed for them. (See Numb. xiv. 28. Psal. xcy. 11. cvi. 26.)

Ezekiel 20:16

For their heart went after their idols. They still had a hankering after the idolatries they had learned in Egypt, to which they added new idols, which they had seen in the countries through which they travelled; viz. the idols of the Midianites, Amorites, &c. (See Numb. xv. 39. xxv. 2. Deut. xxix. 16, 17. Amos v. 25, 26. compared with Acts vii. 42.)

Ezekiel 20:17

Nevertheless mine eyes spared them, &c. Sec Psal. lxxviii. 38.

Ezekiel 20:18

But I said unto their children in the ivilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, &c. This refers to the many pathctical exhortations contained in the book of Deuteronomy, particularly those in the twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first, and thirty-second chapters, which were uttered after that rebellious generation were all consumed, according as God had threatened them: (see Numb. xiv. 32, 33. xxvi. 64, 6o.) and were designed as warnings to succeeding generations. (See Deut. xxxi. 16. 21.)

Ezekiel 20:21

Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me. See Numb. xxi. 5. xxv. 2. Deut. ix. 24. xxix. 18, 19. xxxi. 27. Psal. lxxviii. 32. They polluted my sabbaths.’] Profaning the sabbath and committing idolatry are often joined together: (see ver. 16. 24. xxii. 8, 9. xxiii. 37, 38.1 Maccab. i. 45.) one great end of instituting the sabbath being to preserve the Jews from falling into idolatry. (See ver. 12.) Tlien I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, &c] God did punish the posterity of that rebellious generation very severely for their sins, particularly for their idolatry and fornication in the matter of Peor, Numb. xxv. 5. 9.

Ezekiel 20:23

I lifted up my liand unto them also in the wilderness, that I ivould scatter them among the heathen, &c. St. Jerome observes upon the place, that we do not. read of any particular threatening denounced against the children of that rebellious generation. But the words may relate to those general denunciations against their disobe-

Ezekiel 20:25

Wherefore I gave them also statutes^ that were not good, &c. This some understand of the ceremonial law, as if it were given purely to be a check and restraint to that perverse people, consisting of numerous rites and observances, many of which had no intrinsic goodness in them. But I conceive the statutes here spoken of to be of a different nature from those mentioned ver. 11. because they have a quite contrary character given them; therefore I take the words to import, that God, in a just judgment for their disobedience to his own laws, gave them up to a reprobate mind, and suffered them to walk after the idolatrous and impious customs of the heathens round about them. And whereas, by obeying the laws and ordinances which he had given them, they might have lived happily, (ver. 11.) they became slaves to the vile and cruel practices of the heathen idolatries, so as to offer up their very children in sacrifice to idols, to the utter destruction of themselves and their posterity, (ver. 26.) This will appear to be the sense of the text, if we compare it with ver. 39. and with Deut iv. 28. xxviii. 36. Jer. xvi. 13. in which texts God threatens them as a punishment for their neglect of his worship, to disperse them into the heathen countries, and thereby deprive them of an opportunity of serving him in public, and expose them to the peril of being seduced to idols/ Just as David complains to Saul of the hardship of his exile, that it did lay him open to the temptation of serving the heathen gods, (1 Sam. xxvi. 19.)

Ezekiel 20:26

And I polluted them in their oivn gifts. I suffered them to pollute themselves (so the form hiphil is elsewhere used in the sense of permission: see the note on Isa.Ixiii. 17.) in those very gifts which by the law they were to dedicate to my service. (See ver. 31. and xvi. In that they caused to pass through the fire all that opens the womb.] In offering their first-born sons in sacrifice to Moloch; the expression of passing through the fire is explained in the note upon Jer. xxxii. 35. TJiat T might make them desolate.’] Their sin brought its own punishment along with it, destroying the hopes of families, and bringing them to utter desolation. To the end that they might know that I am the Lord.] See the note upon vi. 7.

Ezekiel 20:27

Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, &c. Or, Moreover in this, &c. The prophet proceeds to speak of other instances of idolatry which their fathers were guilty of after their settlement in the land of Canaan; and in which their posterity imitated them. TJien they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, &c] Offering sacrifice upon mountains or high places was a piece of service at first perfonned by tho Jews to the true God, before the temple was built: (see 1 Kings iii. 2.) and afterward was permitted for that purpose by godly kings, who were zealous inputting down all sorts of idolatry. (Sec 1 Kings xv. 14. xxii. 43. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 17.) But by degrees those places became appropriated to idolatrous worship, and upon that score are severely condemned. (See vi. 13. xviiL 6. 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Isa. Ivii. 5.) Tliere they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savour.] This is to be understood of their meat-offerings, being distinguished from their sacrifices already mentioned. The word in the Hebrew is mincha, which might more properly be rendered bread-offering, as appears by the several kinds of it reckoned up Lev. ii. and answers to the mola or fartum of the Romans. The meat-offering was particularly styled an offering of a siveet savour; (see xvi. 19.) but being offered to idols, it became abominable, and was turned into a provocation. Ver. 2i). What is the high place whereunto ye go? &c] The word Bamah signifies an altar as well as a high place: (see the note on xvi. 16.) so the sense seems to be, What name is this altar called by, which you frequent? meaning, it is likely, the very altar belonging to the temple; is it not called Bamah at this very time? which word properly denotes a, high place. An evident token that idolatry is so much practised among you, that it hath occasioned the changing the very names of the places and things dedicated to God’s worship. So that instead of the word Mizbeacli, the name which God appropriated tq his own altar, the place Js usually called Bamah, a name taken from an idolatrous custom. Or the words may be expounded of some noted high place, which the Jews frequented to perform their idolatrous worship: and then the sense will be to this purpose: What is this high place, or Bamah, which you frequent? Who bid you call it so? I named my altar Mizbeach; but this place had its name from the heathen idolatry, and it still retains it.

Ezekiel 20:30

Areye polluted after themanner of your fathers? &c. The reproof would be more vehement if the words were rendered thus, Are ye not polluted after the manner of your fathers, and do ye not commit whoredom? &c.?. e. Do ye not walk in your fathers’ sins and idolatries? notwithstanding all the warnings I have given you, and the severe instances of my displeasure against their practices, which ought to have terrified you from following their ill example. The particle of interrogation often implies a negative in it, as hath been observed upon the fourth verse of this chapter; to which sense the Vulgar Latin renders this verse, Certe in viis patrum vestrorum polluimini, &c.

Ezekiel 20:31

For when you offer your gifts, &c. See ver. 26. And shall I be inquired of by you?] Sec ver. 3. "

Ezekiel 20:32

And that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, &c. We find by the Scripture history that the Jews had all along a fond desire of worshipping the gods of their neighbours, and could not bear that imputation of singularity which their peculiar way of worship exposed them to. They thought likewise by this means to live more undisturbedly among the heathens, whither they were led captive. God tells them here, that he will prevent this purpose of theirs from taking effect. And we find, from the very time of their return from the Babylonish captivity, they have been very cautious of committing idolatry, and scrupulous of making the least approaches towards it.

Ezekiel 20:33

Surely with a mighty hand, and stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I ride over you. I will no longer try to reclaim you by the gentle methods of patience and forbearance, but will govern you as masters do ill servants, by stripes and corrections,’ and by this means cure you of your hankering after the heathen customs and idolatries.

Ezekiel 20:34

And J will bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries tvherein ye are scattered with

Ezekiel 20:39

As for you, O house of Israel. You of the present generation. Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, &c] An ironical permission, full of indignation and rebuke, sharply upbraiding them for despising those many warnings God had given them: and implying, that he was now resolved to forsake them, and give them up to strong delusions, as a just judgment for their abuse of the means of grace so long offered to them, and still rejected by them. (Compare Amos iv. 4. Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12. Rom. i. 28. 2 Thess. ii. 11. and see the note upon ver. 25. of this chapter.) But pollute ye my name no more with your gifts, and. with your idob.] Whilst you offer your gifts, and make a present of your children to idols, (see ver. 26. 31.) do not call yourselves any longer my servants, nor pretend to pay your devotions in my temple, and thereby bring a reproach upon my name and worship. (See xxiii. 37 — 39.)

Ezekiel 20:40

For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel. In the Christian church, called God’s holy mountain, in allusion to the temple at Jerusalem, built upon Mount Moriah. (See the notes upon xvii. 23. Isa. ii. 2.) The prophet speaks here of the Jews as converted and united to the Christian church; though some learned men are willing to believe, that, upon their conversion and return to their own country, certain privileges shall belong to the earthly Jerusalem, as the metropolis of that nation. (See Isa. Ixv. 18, 19. lxvi. 20. Jer. iii. 17. Joel iii. 17, &c.) There shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me.] There shall be no more any such separation among you, as was when the ten tribes forsook the worship of God at Jerusalem. (See xxxvii. 22, 23.) There will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings and the first-fruits of your oblations, &c] Requiring signifies the same with accepting, by a. metonymy of the cause for the effect; jiist as seeking is sometimes used for finding. (See Isa. Ixv. 1.) In the same sense God is said not to require such instances of worship, in which he takes no delight, (Isa. i. 11.) Offerings signify in general every thing devoted to God’s service, so as to comprehend tithes under it, (Numb, xviii. 21. 2G.) The first-fruits were offered out of the fruits of the earth which were first ripe: of this kind was a sheaf of the corn, which w r as first reaped, (Lev. xxiii. 10.) part of the dough which was first baked, (Numb. xv. 20.) and, in general, the first of all the ripe fruits, Numb, xviii. 12, 13. (Compare xliv. 30. with this text.) This was computed to amount to the sixtieth part

Ezekiel 20:41

I’will accept you with your sweet savour. This is mentioned in opposition to the sweet savour of their offerings to idols: (ver. 28.) When I bring you out of the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered.’] Or, as it may better be translated, When I Jiave brought you out of the people, &c. (Compare xi. 17. xxxiv. 13, xxxvi. 24. xxxviii. 8.) AndLwill be sanctified in you before the heathen.] I will procure honour to my name by the wonderful works, whether of justice or mercy, which I will shew towards you. (Compare xxviii.22. 25. xxxvi. 23. xxxviii. 23. xxxix.27.)

Ezekiel 20:42

And ye shall know that I am the Lord. An epiphonema often used in this prophet by way of conclusion of some severe denunciation: (see vi. 7.) but in this and the forty-fourth verse, and some other places, added after the promises of grace and favour, by which God makes his power known unto the world, as well as by his judgments. (See xxxvi. 23. xxxviii. 23.) ■ When I shall bring you [or; shall have brought you] into the country for which I lifted up my hand.] Sec* ver. 5.

Ezekiel 20:43

And there shall ye remember your ways and your doings. The prophets suppose that the conversion and restoration of the Jews shall be accompanied with a general repentance, and a deep remorse for their former misdoings. (See xvi. 61. and the note there.) Andye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight.] See vi. 7. xvi. 63. xxxvi. 31.

Ezekiel 20:44

When I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, &c. When I have exerted my power in your deliverance, moved thereto not by any deserts of yours, but purely out of regard to my own honour, and the promises made to your fathers. (See xxxvi. 22.)

Ezekiel 20:46

Set thy face towards the south. Direct thy looks and thy speech (see iv.7. vi. 2.) towards the land of Israel, and particularly towards Jerusalem/which lay southward ofChaldea. (See i. 4. xxi. 2.) Drop thy word towards the south.] The gift of prophecy is compared to rain, or the dew of heaven, which makes every thing fruitful. (Sec Dcut. xxxii. 2.) Such is the benefit of sound doctrine wherever it is received. (Compare Job xxix. 22, 23. Micah ii. 6.) And prophesy against the forest of the south field.] By the forest of the south field is meant Jerusalem; the word forest being taken metaphorically in the prophets for a city; because its stately buildings resemble tall cedars standing in their several ranks. (Compare Jer. xxi. 14. xxii. 7. Zcch. xi. 1.)

Ezekiel 20:47

I” will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree. Fire is often taken in a general sense for God’s severe judgments: (compare xix. 13. xxii. 21. 31. xxx. 8.) but it may here particularly denote the destruction of Jerusalem by fire; which the text saith shall devour both the green trees and the dry; i. e. the righteous as well as the wicked. (See xxi. 3.) The righteous are elsewhere compared to green and flourishing trees, and the wicked to dry and withered ones, such as are only fit for the fire. (See Psal.i. 3. Luke xxiii. 31. John xv: And all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt therein.] The destruction shall reach from one end of the land to the other. (See xxi. 2. 4.)

Ezekiel 20:49

Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?. They make this an argument for disregarding what I say, that I use so many similitudes and metaphorical expressions, that they cannot discover my meaning. (Compare xii. 9.) Whereupon God commands him in the next chapter to speak the same thing in plain terms.