7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

9 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

10 Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.

11 And I gave them my statutes, and 'shewed them my judgments, 'which if a man do, he shall even live in them.

12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

14 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths for their heart went after their idols.

:

20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.

23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;

24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

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26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.

27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

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28 For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.

29 Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? and the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.

30 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?

31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the

8 Exod. 20. 8, and 31. 13, &c., and 35, 2. 12 Heb. trespassed a trespass.

Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by

you.

32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

33¶ As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:

34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.

37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:

38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me there will 14 Or, a delivering.

I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the "firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.

16

41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.

43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

45 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;

47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

48 And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.

49 Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?

Verse 37. To pass under the rod.'-There is probably here an allusion to the custom followed in marking out the tenth animal from the flock or herd, for sacred uses, and which has been mentioned in the note to Lev. xxvii. 2.

46. Toward the south.'-That is, towards Judæa,

16 Heb, savour of rest.

which lay to the south-west of the river Khabur, near which Ezekiel resided. We have already mentioned the Oriental neglect of all but the cardinal directions in their statements of the relative bearings of different places.

CHAPTER XXI.

1 Ezekiel prophesieth against Jerusalem with a sign of sighing. 8 The sharp and bright sword, 18 against Jerusalem, 25 against the kingdom, 28 and against the Ammonites.

AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north:

5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath it shall not return any more.

6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees 'shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.

8¶ Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

9 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:

10 It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.

11 And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.

12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: 'terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: 'smite therefore upon thy thigh.

13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.

15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.

16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

13 14

22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.

23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, "to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are Is come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,

26 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.

27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it : and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

28 ¶ And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering :

29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee,

4 Jer. 31. 19.

7 Or, glittering, or, fear.

11 Or, knives.

6 Heb. hand to hand.

10 Heb. mother of the way. 15 Or, for the oaths made unto them.

whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity. 31 And I will pour out mine indignation

17 Or, cause it to return.

upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of 18brutish men, and skilful to destroy.

32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.

18 Or, burning.

Verse 14. Smite thy hands together.'-Smiting the hands together in a marked and emphatic manner is in the East equivalent to a confirmatory oath, establishing the certainty of the fact asserted in the declaration made. It is probably so to be understood here-the prophet being directed to establish by this well known act of strong assertion, the irrevocable certainty of his denunciations. Compare v. 17, in which the Lord says: I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest.

21. The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way...to use divination.'-In what follows we have a remarkable allusion to some of the principal processes by which the ancient heathen sought to obtain the direction and sanction of the gods they worshipped; and by a recourse to which, rulers and military commanders often relieved themselves from the responsibility of deciding, on doubtful occasions, their own course of action. The object of the present divination being to ascertain whether Nebuchadnezzar should first direct his arms against Jerusalem or against Rabbath-Ammon, the ceremonies were performed at the parting of the way, where it of course became necessary that his march should assume a definite object and direction.

'He made his arrows bright.'-Here is a clear reference to the very widely diffused ancient superstition of Belomancy, or divination by arrows. This was exhibited after various methods, some of which were little other than simple lots, under supposed divine control. The most common process was to mark a number of arrows, corresponding to the alternatives, with the names of the nations or places which were the subject of consideration. The arrows were then shaken together in a quiver, and the marks on the one first drawn forth decided the prefer ence. Jerome thinks this process was here intended. Not unlike it was a method in use among the Arabs, and which they employed on all occasions, whether public or private. The arrows were three in number, unfeathered, and called achdad or azlam. Upon one of them was written Command me, Lord;' upon the second, 'Forbid, or prevent, Lord;' and the third was blank. These were put into a bag, which was held by the diviner, by whom also the lot was drawn. If the first was drawn, it conveyed of course an affirmative response; the second intimated a negative; and, when the blank arrow appeared, a second drawing was made. There was another method, in which an arrow was shot perpendicularly into the air, and the direction in which it fell indicated the road which was to be taken. As the prophet mentions that the arrows were made bright for the occasion, some writers imagine that this divination consisted in the inspection of the appearances which their polished heads might exhibit. În an account (in Purchas) of the capture of the ship 'Jacob,' of Bristol, by the Algerine pirates, in 1621, we are informed that every large ship had on board a sort of wizard or diviner, by whom the commander was guided in his determinations. When two great ships appeared in sight, the captain of the vessel in which the narrator was held prisoner was afraid to chase them, apprehending that they might prove Spanish men-of-war; on such occasions the diviner is consulted :- Then have they two arrows and a curtleaxe, lying upon a pillow, naked; the arrows are one

for the Turks and the other for the Christians; then the witch readeth, and the captain, or some other, taketh the arrows in their hand by the heads; and if the arrow for the Christians cometh over the head of the arrow for the Turks, then do they advance their sails, and will not endure the fight, whatsoever they see; but if the arrow of the Turks is found, in the opening of the hand, upon that of the Christians, then will they stay and encounter with any ship whatsoever.'

He looked in the liver.'-This form of divination, called Hepatoscopia, constituted the principal part of those presages which were derived from observations made upon the internal parts of animals slain for sacrifice. Indeed, so important was the liver esteemed in this view, that the whole system of divination by entrails sometimes took the name of Hepatoscopia from this its principal part. The liver was the first part inspected, and, if this appeared very bad, no observations were made on the other parts; any favourable appearances which they offered not being in this case thought worthy of attention. If the liver exhibited its natural healthy colour and condition, or if, further, its head was large, or if it was double, or there were two livers, and if the lobes inclined inwards, the signs were highly favourable, and success in any proposed object was deemed to be ensured. But nothing but dangers and misfortunes were foreboded when there was too much dryness, or a band between the parts, or if it was without a lobe, and still more when the liver itself was wanting a prodigy which is said to have sometimes happened. The omens were also considered full of evil when the liver had any blisters or ulcers, if it was hard, thin, or discoloured, had any humour upon it, or if, in boiling, it became soft or was displaced. The signs which appeared on the concave part of the liver concerned the family of the person offering the sacrifice; but those on the gibbous side affected his enemies: if either of these parts were shrivelled, corrupted, or in any way unsound, the omen was unfortunate, but the reverse when it appeared sound and large. The place between the parts, in the middle, was called the gate, and it was regarded as most unfavourable when this part was closed or compressed. Hence the soothsayers warned Caracalla to take care of himself, because the gates of the liver were closed.' It was also considered most unfortunate if the liver happened to be cut in slaying or opening the victim.

22. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem. -This is altogether a most extraordinary example of the want of plan and definite objects in ancient Oriental warfare; and others of a similar kind might be produced. Here the king stops at a place where two roads met, to learn by divination, or by lot, to which side his arms should be turned; and the lot having fallen upon Jerusalem, he marches against that city. This uncertainty of purpose appears the more surprising when we reflect on the large bodies of men which these old conquerors brought into the field, and for whose wants it seems difficult to understand that any provision could be made unless the seat of the war had been previously determined To appoint battering rams against the gates.'-The word is simply the name of the 'ram '-the word 'battering' being added to point the sense, and, we doubt not,

correctly, although it has been questioned that the battering-ram could be known so early. But, when an engine is not only called by the same name which it bore among the Greeks and Romans ( car, kρíos, aries, ' ram'), but is so mentioned as to shew that it was applied to an exactly similar use, it seems as clear as possible that a battering engine called a ram, that is, a battering-ram, was used by the Babylonians. That it was employed by the Jews themselves is perhaps unlikely, as it is only mentioned by Ezekiel, and by him only as used in the warlike operations of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem. That the Romans themselves considered the invention of the battering-ram to be of very high antiquity appears from the report, preserved by Pliny, that it was invented by Epeus during the siege of Troy; but, as nothing of the kind is mentioned by Homer, it is perhaps better to follow Vitruvius and Tertullian, who ascribe it to the Tyrians; and, as Nebuchadnezzar, who besieged Jerusalem, besieged also Tyre, there may be very good reason

to suspect that the Tyrians became acquainted with the engine from its having been used against them by the Babylonians. [APPENDIX, No. 69.]

Respecting the form of the Babylonian engines and their mode of action we know nothing, unless from the probability that, from the similarity of name and use, they were not unlike those which we find employed in aftertimes by the Romans, and of which some representations remain. The name seems to have been derived from the mode in which the machine acted resembling the butting of a ram, and, this analogy having been suggested, it was, rather fancifully, thought of completing it by giving the form of a ram's head to that of the instrument.

There were three kinds of battering-rams:-1. One that was held in suspension, like a scale-beam, by means of cables or chains in a frame of strong timber. This must have been easier to work and apparently of greater power than the others, as a very heavy body suspended in the air requires no great strength to move it with