and will gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord. 16. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. 17. And, as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? 19. And, as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. 20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them, Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle. 21. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; 22. Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall be no more a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. 23. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24. And I, the Lord, will be their God; and my servant David shall be a prince among them: I, the Lord, have spoken it. 25. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 26. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke*, and delivered them out of the hand of those that caused them to serve among them. 28. And they shall be no more a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth† devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. 29. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown; and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither shall they bear the shame of the nations any more. 30. Thus shall they know, that I, the Lord their God, am with them; and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. 31. And ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. XXXV. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Sir, and prophesy against it, 3. And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee a desolation and a desolation. 4. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. 5. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword, in the time of their iniquity in the end: 6. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee for blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. 7. Thus will I make mount Seir a desolation and a desolation; and cut off from it him that passeth out, and him that returneth. 8. And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy vallies, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. 9. I will make thee a perpetual * When I have broken the bands of their yoke.] "The same expression which is used concerning the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (Levit. xxvi. 13. Jerem. ii. 20.); their final restoration being represented as the greater deliverance of the two. See Jerem. xxiii. 7, 8." Mr. Lowth in loc. t The beasts of the earth.] Tyrannical empires; the nations mentioned in the former clause of the verse. See Mr. Lowth's Comment. on ver. 25. A plant of renown.] "The Messiah is often described under the name of the branch, and the rod of shoot growing out of the stem of Jesse." Mr. Lowth in loc. desolation, and thy cities shall not return and ye shall know, that I am the Lord. 10. Because thou hast said, These two nations, and these two countries, shall be mine, and we will possess it: whereas the Lord was there. 11. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. 12. And thou shalt know, that, I the Lord, have heard all thy contemptuous speeches which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. 13. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard. 14. Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. 15. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know, that I am the Lord. xxxvi. 1. And thou, son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel *, hear the word of the Lord: 2. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: 3. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people: 4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the vallies, to the desolate wastes and to the forsaken cities, which became a prey. *Ye mountains of Israel.] It is worthy of notice, that the present comparatively barren state of Palestine has not unfrequently been urged by infidels with contemptuous triumph against the scriptural descriptions of it as a land flowing with milk and honey, a land capable of supporting an astonishing degree of population. Here we behold their taunts anticipated with the decla ration, that He, who can make a fruitful land barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, can again with equal ease make a barren land fruit ful when he gathers his ancient people into the country of their fathers. Psalm. cvii. 33---37. See Bp. Newton's Dissert. viii. 3. and derision to the residue of the nations round about. 5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, which have appointed my land unto them for a possession, with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. 6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the vallies, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the nations: 7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the nations that are about you, they shall bear their shame. 8. But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel: for they are at hand to come. 9. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: 10. And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: 11. And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring forth fruit; and I will settle you you after old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know, that I am the Lord. your 16. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it-18. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them,-19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way, and according to their doings, I judged them. 20. And, when they entered unto the nations whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land. 21. And I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations whither they went. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went. 23. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know, that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God-31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God; be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel— xxxvii. 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones, 2. And caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 4. And he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones*, hear Dry bones.] The extreme accuracy of symbolical prophecy is very remarkable. St. John, wishing to describe the short extinction of the Smalcaldic witnesses which continued only three years and a half, describes them as being slain indeed, but as lying unburied during the space of three days and a half; after which life entered into them, and they stood again upon their feet (Rev. xi. 7-10. See my Dissert. on the 1260 years, vol ii. p. 60. 2d edit. p. 62.) Isaiah, on the other hand, exhibiting to us the long political extinction of Judah, represents his children, as not only dead, but buried. (Isaiah xxvi, 19.) While Ezekiel, treating both of the long extinction of Judah and the yet longer extinction of Israel, calls us to behold the resurrection of a heap of dry bones; of bones, all whose covering even of putrid flesh had long since decayed away; whose very sinews were wasted of bones altogether bare; and, not only altogether bare, but which had so long been bleaching, in the |