John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: May 29

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: May 29

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Character of Ezekiel’s Prophecies

Ezekiel 8

It is a remarkable peculiarity of Ezekiel, that he, more than any other prophet, makes us acquainted with the usages of different and remote nations in regard to the subject of his utterances. The different modes in which the several prophets produce their declarations on the very same subjects, and the different style in which they illustrate them, as well as the color they receive from the character and the condition of the writer, and from the external influences to which they were subjected, are fully as great and as distinctive as among any equal number of uninspired writers—and clearly show, that the sacred writers were allowed to invest their utterances, with the qualities of their own tone of mind, habits of thought, and means of observation. The fact exists in their writings, and cannot be otherwise accounted for. But this is rendered quite compatible with that fulness of inspiration which their introductory formula of, “Thus saith the Lord,” necessarily supposes, by assuming that the Divine Spirit was graciously pleased to secure the intellectual sympathy of the prophet in the work to which he was called, by imparting its communications in the form, and with the circumstances, most congenial to his own mind and tastes, and in the form which enabled him the more readily to grasp its purport, and to identify himself with it in the act of its transmission through him to those for whom it was intended.

Some people do not like to speak of the distinctive peculiarities of the matter and manner of each prophet’s utterances, lest they should thereby bring into question the completeness of their inspiration: but the thing does undeniably exist; and under the view of this important matter which we take, it becomes quite allowable and proper to mark out the distinguishing qualities which the Lord’s messengers evince in their writings. This we have freely done as occasion required. And as attention has been called to the subject by the peculiarity we have indicated, it may be well to consider some other points in which the writings of Ezekiel are distinguished from those of the other prophets.

We may then say, that the prophecies of Ezekiel are full of images, of comparisons, of allegories, of parables, of personifications, and of descriptions, in which the prophet depicts his objects with such abundance of details and richness of colors, as leave little or nothing for the imagination of the reader to supply. When he launches the thunders entrusted to his hand against the crimes and prevarications of an apostate people, it is always with a vehemence and a warmth of feeling which no other prophet equals. In the ardor with which he burns, the crimes which arrest his attention are represented in all their blackness and deformity, and his diction seems then to take the hideous hues of the vices which he censures.

The standard description of Ezekiel’s characteristics is still that of Lowth; and, although open to question in some points, it is, as a whole, correctly discriminating. He says: Note: We cite Gregory’s translation, which had Lowth’s own sanction. But those who can, had better look to the original Latin, which, in this part at least, is rich in felicitously discriminating epithets; imperfectly represented in the translation. “Ezekiel is much inferior to Jeremiah in elegance; in sublimity he is not even excelled by Isaiah: but his sublimity is of a totally different kind. He is deep, vehement, tragical; the only sensation he affects to excite is the terrible; his sentiments are elevated, full of fire, fervid; his imagery is crowded, magnificent, terrific, sometimes almost to disgust; his language is pompous, solemn, austere, rough, and at times unpolished; he employs frequent repetitions, not for the sake of elegance, but from the vehemence of passion and indignation. Whatever subject he treats of, that he sedulously pursues; from that he rarely departs, but cleaves as it were to it, whence the connection is in general evident and well preserved. In many respects he is perhaps excelled by the other prophets; but in that species of composition to which he seems by nature adapted—the forcible, the impetuous, the great and solemn—not one of the sacred writers is superior to him. His diction is sufficiently perspicuous: all his obscurity consists in the nature of his subjects. Visions (as, for instance, among others, those of Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah) are necessarily dark and confused. The greater part of Ezekiel, towards the middle of the book especially, is poetical, whether we regard the matter or the diction.”

The general sentiment of Biblical scholars scarcely supports Lowth in comparing the sublimity of Ezekiel with that of Isaiah. It seems to be agreed that neither sublimity nor elegance are the distinguishing characteristics of the diction of this prophet. The style is generally prosaic, without that parallelism which we have formerly indicated as of the essence of Hebrew poesy. The amplification of his images, and the luxuriancy of his details, rarely convey to the soul that sentiment of sublimity by which it is ravished and transported. His real character is that of abundance, fecundity, impetuosity, vehemence, and exaggeration. He turns the same idea over and over in all its different aspects, that it may enter more sharply and deeply into the soul. He rather neglects regularity and elegance, as well as the simply natural in style and expression, in order that he may astonish, alarm, and strike the imagination by his terrible tableaux. He passes abruptly from the figurative to the literal, and from the literal to the figurative, without any manner of notice to the reader. If to our severe taste some of these images appear extravagant and unnatural, it is only necessary to reflect, that the contemporaries of the prophet were doubtless accustomed to strong and exaggerated imagery; and that allegories more regular and nicely studied, would, however pleasing to us, have failed to excite and nourish eastern imaginations. The most esteemed Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian poems are full of images and figures more strange and gigantic than any to be found even in Ezekiel; and this proves, that in order to judge rightly of the Hebrew poets, it is needful to place ourselves in the East, among a people whose imaginations are infinitely more ardent and more exalted than our own. But although Ezekiel does often—more often than any other prophet—employ figures which may appear to us exaggerated and unnatural, his book contains many pieces of figurative description, from which the severest taste formed on modern occidental rules and habits, cannot withhold its admiration. However, all such discussions regarding the style and manner of the sacred writers, must be written and read under the caution given by one of Ezekiel’s translators: Note: Archbishop Newcome. “The holy prophet is not to be considered merely as a poet, or as a framer of those august and astonishing visions, and of those admirable poetical representations, which he committed to writing; but as an instrument in the hands of God, who vouchsafed to reveal himself through a long succession of ages, not only in divers parts, constituting a magnificent and uniform whole, but also in divers manners—as by voice, by dreams, by inspiration, and by plain or enigmatical vision.”

The point to which, as characteristic of Ezekiel, we began by directing attention, seems never to have been noticed. We owe to him the clearest account of the forms of idolatry among different nations, to be found in any one portion of the Bible; the fullest and most interesting account of early commerce, and the productions of different countries, that exists in all ancient literature, and which to this day forms the basis of all historical speculation on the subject; and he has furnished us with a remarkable description of the usages of sepulture in nations far apart. All this admits of interesting corroborations from modern researches; and they cannot fail to suggest that Ezekiel was a man of cultivated mind and enlarged observation, who had noted, with a degree of interest unusual for a Jew in that age, the circumstances tending to illustrate the condition and sentiments of different nations, which he could ascertain by inquiry, which had been given to him by report, or which enforced and voluntary travel had brought under his personal notice.