shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those that made bondmen of 35 them. And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up unto them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither 40 bear the contempt of the nations any more. And they shall know, that I Jehovah, their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people," saith the Lord Jehovah. "And ye my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God," saith the Lord Jehovah.

The Vision of Dry Bones

Although strong in his own belief that Jehovah would restore at least the faithful of his people to their own land, what evidence could Ezekiel bring to convince the disappointed and hopeless ones in the community that the future promised hope. Years passed. The people lost their spirit, and to many Jehovah seemed but a name. Those who hoped with Ezekiel feared that all national feeling would be lost before opportunity for return could come, for such an opportunity might be expected only in the breaking-up of the Babylonian empire. All save the prophet lost heart. He vividly pictured his faith in the power of Jehovah to revive even the dry and bleaching bones of the Hebrew nation in captivity, and to fulfil his promises to the faithful.

The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Jehovah, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in 5 the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord Jehovah, thou knowest." Again he said unto me, "Speak to these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.

Ezek. 37:1-14 (Am. Standard Rev. Ver., with revisions).

2 This vision seems like a dream, rather than a literary device. It appears to bring into new relations the prophet's despair over his people and the power of Jehovah.

1

10 Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah."

So I spoke as I was commanded: and as I spoke, there was 15 a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, "Speak unto the wind, and say to the wind, Thus saith the 20 Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O wind, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." So I spoke as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Then he said unto me, "Son of man, these bones are the 25 whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore speak,

and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves,2 and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of 30 Israel. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith 35 Jehovah."

How long Ezekiel continued his labors we do not know. Whether he lived to see the death of Nebuchadnezzar and the succession of his son Evil-Merodach, under whom the captive Hebrew king, Jehoiachin, was liberated and treated as a royal prisoner, we cannot say. He need have reached no great age to have seen the assassination of Evil-Merodach in 558, and the succession in one year, 554 B.C., of three different kings of Babylon. But his work as we have it reflects no such turbulent conditions, but rather the serene contemplation of one who dwells upon his visions of the

1 Clean cut off: We are dead as a nation, nothing can revive us.

2 Not literally, but figuratively. The exiles buried in exile among the nations of the world, viz., in Egypt, Babylonia, and elsewhere would be gathered together in their old home, and the nation now dead would be restored to new life, prosperity and power.

future with delight. The later chapters of his book are devoted to a most elaborate description of the new Jerusalem of his dreams, in which he pictures a wonderful temple, with perfect worship of the Holy God, in the midst of a land where "waters fail not," and "trees bring forth fruit every month," and where no man, be he stranger or homeborn, shall oppress his brother, and none shall fail in his duty to Jehovah.

Ezekiel as a man seems to stand aloof from the people. His messages are couched in stately phrases, in sharp contrast with the broken utterances of Jeremiah's sympathetic heart. Perhaps his early training in the exclusive circle of the temple priests had made him something of an aristocrat. None the less was he able to interpret Jehovah in a new light. No longer would the prophets of Israel address their promises to a nation, nor even to those individuals alone who had been true to Jehovah, but to every member of the Hebrew community who of his own free will should choose the way of Jehovah and walk in it. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" was supplemented by "the soul that repents and turns from its evil way shall live and his sin shall be remembered no more." And so by this transition step the God of the Hebrews might in time come to be understood as extending his forgiveness and blessing to men of other nations should they freely choose to serve him.'

I Can we appreciate the increase in the estimate of the value of human life, which is bound up in the idea that Jehovah considers and deals with each individual man according to his own acts? That which Jehovah valued could not be disregarded by This was the chief contribution of Ezekiel. How does it compare in value with the contributions of the prophets who preceded him?

men.

CHAPTER XIII

ISAIAH OF BABYLON

To Nebuchadnezzar Babylonia owed more than her wonderful city and her monumental buildings. Largely by his military genius the empire had been wrested from the Assyrians, and by his political sagacity and consideration for his vassal states the otherwise unrelated parts of the empire were held together in more or less loyal cohesion during his reign of forty-three years. At his death he bequeathed a well-ordered and powerful empire to his son Evil-Merodach.

One of the acts of this new king was the liberation of Jehoiachin who had been confined in Babylonian prisons since the coming of the first deportation. We can easily see that in the bitterness of their disappointment at the fall of Jerusalem the Jews may have become restive, especially since the new king was known to be weak in character and rule. After a brief reign of two years EvilMerodach was assassinated by his brother-in-law, who followed much more closely the policy of Nebuchadnezzar. For four years this new king labored, building great temples and palaces and guarding himself well against the conspiracies which he feared. Then he died, leaving his throne to his son, a mere child, who within nine months was murdered by his nobles.

Nabonidus,3 a prince of Babylon, was chosen king by the conspirators. His interests were chiefly religious, and he spent his energies in building new temples and renovating old ones, making collections of old gods and manufacturing new ones, at the same time neglecting his kingdom and its affairs, deeming it impossible that one who devoted himself to the gods so faithfully should ever lack their support and favor.

See chap. xi, p. 153.

2 Evil-Merodach: See Table of Historical Events, p. 169.

3 Nabonidus: See Table of Historical Events, p. 169. Nabonidus left the government of the city chiefly to his son Bel-shar-uzur, who carried on the government without the title. He joined the king of Egypt in an alliance against Cyrus of Persia. When Cyrus entered Babylon as conqueror the son of Nabonidus was killed and he himself was banished to Karamania.

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