Notes from Hosea 8

This chapter, as that before, divides itself into the sins and punishments of Israel; every verse almost declares both, and all to bring them to repentance. When they saw the malignant nature of their sin, in the descriptions of that, they could not but be convinced now much it was their duty to repent of what was so bad in itself; and when they saw the mischievous consequences of their sin, in the predictions of them, they could not but see how much it was their interest to repent for the preventing of them.

• I. The sin of Israel is here set forth,
  • 1. In many general expressions (v. 1, 3, 12, 14).
  • 2. In many particular instances; setting up kings without God (v. 4), setting up idols against God (v. 4-6, 11), and courting alliances with the neighbouring nations, (v. 8-10).
  • 3. In this aggravation of it, that they still kept up a profession of religion and relation to God (v. 2, 13, 14).
• II. The punishment of Israel is here set forth as answering to the sin. God would bring an enemy upon them (v. 1, 3). All their projects should be blasted (v. 7). Their confidence both in their idols and in their foreign alliances should disappoint them (v. 6, 8, 10). Their strength at home should fail them (v. 14). Their sacrifices should have no reckoning made of them, and their sins should have a reckoning made for them (v. 13).

Notes from Hosea 7

In this chapter we have,

• I. A general charge drawn up against Israel for those high crimes and misdemeanors by which they had obstructed the course of God's favours to them (v. 1, 2).
• II. A particular accusation,
  • 1. Of the court-the king, princes, and judges (v. 3-7).
  • 2. Of the country. Ephraim is here charged with conforming to the nations (v. 8), senselessness and stupidity under the judgments of God (v. 9-11), ingratitude to God for his mercies (v. 13), incorrigibleness under his judgments (v. 14), contempt of God (v. 15), and hypocrisy in their pretences to return to him (v. 16). They are also threatened with a severe chastisement, which shall humble them (v. 12), and, if that prevail not, then with an utter destruction (v. 13), particularly their princes (v. 16).

Notes from Hosea 6

The closing words of the foregoing chapter gave us some hopes that God and his Israel, notwithstanding their sins and his wrath, might yet be happily brought together again, that they would seek him and he would be found of them; now this chapter carries that matter further, and some join the beginning of this chapter with the end of that, "They will seek me early,' saying, "Come and let us return.' But God doth again complain of the wickedness of this people; for, though some did repent and reform, the greater part continued obstinate. Observe,

• I. Their resolution to return to God, and the comforts wherewith they encourage themselves in their return (v. 1-3).
• II. The instability of many of them in their professions and promises of repentance, and the severe course which God therefore took with them (v. 4, 5).
• III. The covenant God made with them, and his expectations from them (v. 6); their violation of that covenant and frustrating those expectations (v. 7-11).

Notes from Hosea 5

The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the foregoing chapter, to discover the sin both of Israel and Judah, and to denounce the judgments of God against them.

• I. They are called to hearken to the charge (v. 1, 8).
• II. They are accused of many sins, which are here aggravated.
  • 1. Persecution (v. 1, 2).
  • 2. Spiritual whoredom (v. 3, 4).
  • 3. Pride (v. 5).
  • 4. Apostasy from God (v. 7).
  • 5. The tyranny of the princes, and the tameness of the people in submitting to it (v. 10, 11).
• III. They are threatened with God's displeasure for their sins; he knows all their wickedness (v. 3) and makes known his wrath against them for it (v. 9).
  • 1. They shall fall in their iniquity (v. 5).
  • 2. God will forsake them (v. 6).
  • 3. Their portions shall be devoured (v. 7).
  • 4. God will rebuke them, and pour out his wrath upon them (v. 9, 10).
  • 5. They shall be oppressed (v. 11).
  • 6. God will be as a moth to them in secret judgments (v. 12) and as a lion in public judgments (v. 14).
• IV. They are blamed for the wrong course they took under their afflictions (v. 13).
• V. It is intimated that they shall at length take a right course (v. 15).

The more generally these things are expressed of so much the more general use they are for our learning, and particularly for our admonition.

Notes from Hosea 4

Prophets were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and to warn them of the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed themselves; so the prophet is employed in this and the following chapters. He is here, as counsel for the King of kings, opening an indictment against the people of Israel, and labouring to convince them of sin, and of their misery and danger because of sin, that he might prevail with them to repent and reform.

• I. He shows them what were the grounds of God's controversy with them, a general prevalency of vice and profaneness (v. 1, 2), ignorance and forgetfulness of God (v. 6, 7), the worldly-mindedness of the priests (v. 8), drunkenness and uncleanness (v. 11), using divination and witchcraft (v. 12), offering sacrifice in the high places (v. 13), whoredoms (v. 14, 18), and bribery among magistrates (v. 18).
• II. He shows them what would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish them for these things (v. 9). The whole land should be laid waste (v. 3), all sorts of people cut off (v. 5), their honour lost (v. 7), their creature-comforts unsatisfying (v. 10), and themselves made ashamed (v. 19). And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest judgment of all, they should be let alone in their sins (v. 17), they shall not reprove one another (v. 4), God will not punish them (v. 14), nay, he will let them prosper (v. 16).
• III. He gives warning to Judah not to tread in the steps of Israel, because they saw their steps went down to hell (v. 15).

Notes from Hosea 3

God is still by the prophet inculcating the same thing upon this careless people, and much in the same manner as before, by a type or sign, that of the dealings of a husband with an adulterous wife. In this chapter we have,

• I. The bad character which the people of Israel now had; they were, as is said of the Athenians (Acts 17:16), "wholly given to idolatry,' (v. 1).
• II. The low condition which they should be reduced to by their captivity, and the other instances of God's controversy with them (v. 2-4).
• III. The blessed reformation that should at length be wrought upon them in the latter days (v. 5).

Notes from Hosea 2

The scope of this chapter seems to be much the same with that of the foregoing chapter, and to point at the same events, and the causes of them. As there, so here,

• I. God, by the prophet, discovers sin to them, and charges it home upon them, the sin of their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, their serving idols and forgetting God and their obligations to him (v. 1, 2, 5, 8).
• II. He threatens to take away from them that plenty of all good things with which they had served their idols, and to abandon them to ruin without remedy (v. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-13).
• III. Yet he promises at last to return in ways of mercy to them for his own sake (v. 14), to restore them to their former plenty (v. 15), to cure them of their inclination to idolatry (v. 16, 17), to renew his covenant with them (v. 18-20), and to bless them with all good things (v. 21-23).

Notes from Hosea 1

The mind of God is revealed to this prophet, and by him to the people, in the first three chapters, by signs and types, but afterwards only by discourse. In this chapter we have,

• I. The general title of the whole book (v. 1).
• II. Some particular instructions which he was ordered to give to the people of God.
  • 1. He must convince them of their sin in going a whoring from God, by marrying a wife of whoredoms (v. 2, 3).
  • 2. He must foretel the ruin coming upon them for their sin, in the names of his sons, which signified God's disowning and abandoning them (v. 4-6, 8, 9).
  • 3. He must speak comfortable to the kingdom of Judah, which still retained the pure worship of God, and assure them of the salvation of the Lord (v. 7).
  • 4. He must give an intimation of the great mercy God had in store both for Israel and Judah, in the latter days (v. 10, 11), for in this prophecy many precious promises of mercy are mixed with the threatenings of wrath.

Notes from Daniel 12

After the prediction of the troubles of the Jews under Antiochus, prefiguring the troubles of the Christian church under the anti-christian power, we have here,

• I. Comforts, and very precious ones, prescribed as cordials for the support of God's people in those times of trouble; and they are such as may indifferently serve both for those former times of trouble under Antiochus and those latter which were prefigured by them (v. 1-4).
• II. A conference between Christ and an angel concerning the time of the continuance of these events, designed for Daniel's satisfaction (v. 5-7).
• III. Daniel's enquiry for his own satisfaction (v. 8). And the answer he received to that enquiry (v. 9-12).

Notes from Daniel 11

The angel Gabriel, in this chapter, performs his promise made to Daniel in the foregoing chapter, that he would "show him what should befal his people in the latter days,' according to that which was "written in the scriptures of truth:' very particularly does he here foretel the succession of the kings of Persia and Grecia, and the affairs of their kingdoms, especially the mischief which Antiochus Epiphanes did in his time to the church, which was foretold before (ch. 8:11-12). Here is,

• I. A brief prediction of the setting up of the Grecian monarchy upon the ruins of the Persian monarchy, which was now newly begun (v. 1-4).
• II. A prediction of the affairs of the two kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, with reference to each other (v. 5-20).
• III. Of the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes, and his actions and successes (v. 21-29).
• IV. Of the great mischief that he should do to the Jewish nation and religion, and his contempt of all religion (v. 30-39).
• V. Of his fall and ruin at last, when he is in the heat of his pursuit (v. 40-45).

Notes from Daniel 10

This chapter and the two next (which conclude this book) make up one entire vision and prophecy, which was communicated to Daniel for the use of the church, not by signs and figures, as before (ch. 7 and 8), but by express words; and this was about two years after the vision in the foregoing chapter. Daniel prayed daily, but had a vision only now and then. In this chapter we have some things introductory to the prophecy, in the eleventh chapter the particular predictions, and ch. 12 the conclusion of it. This chapter shows us,

• I. Daniel's solemn fasting and humiliation, before he had this vision (v. 1-3).
• II. A glorious appearance of the Son of God to him, and the deep impression it made upon him (v. 4-9).
• III. The encouragement that was given him to expect such a discovery of future events as should be satisfactory and useful both to others and to himself, and that he should be enabled both to understand the meaning of this discovery, though difficult, and to bear up under the lustre of it, though dazzling and dreadful (v. 10-21).

Notes from Daniel 9

In this chapter we have,

• I. Daniel's prayer for the restoration of the Jews who were in captivity, in which he confesses sin, and acknowledges the justice of God in their calamities, but pleads God's promises of mercy which he had yet in store for them (v. 1-19).
• II. An immediate answer sent him by an angel to his prayer, in which,
  • 1. He is assured of the speedy release of the Jews out of their captivity (v. 20-23). And,
  • 2. He is informed concerning the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ (of which that was a type), what should be the nature of it and when it should be accomplished (v. 24-27).

And it is the clearest, brightest, prophecy of the Messiah, in all the Old Testament.

Notes from Daniel 8

The visions and prophecies of this chapter look only and entirely at the events that were then shortly to come to pass in the monarchies of Persia and Greece, and seem not to have any further reference at all. Nothing is here said of the Chaldean monarchy, for that was now just at its period; and therefore this chapter is written not in Chaldee, as the six foregoing chapters were, for the benefit of the Chaldeans, but in Hebrew, and so are the rest of the chapters to the end of the book, for the service of the Jews, that they might know what troubles were before them and what the issue of them would be, and might provide accordingly. In this chapter we have,

• I. The vision itself of the ram, and the he-goat, and the little horn that should fight and prevail against the people of God, for a certain limited time (v. 1-14).
• II. The interpretation of this vision by an angel, showing that the ram signified the Persian empire, the he-goat the Grecian, and the little horn a king of the Grecian monarchy, that should set himself against the Jews and religion, which was Antiochus Epiphanes (v. 15-27).

The Jewish church, from its beginning, had been all along, more or less, blessed with prophets, men divinely inspired to explain God's mind to them in his providences and give them some prospect of what was coming upon them; but, soon after Ezra's time, divine inspiration ceased, and there was no more any prophet till the gospel day dawned. And therefore the events of that time were here foretold by Daniel, and left upon record, that even then God might not leave himself without witness, nor them without a guide.

Notes from Daniel 7

The six former chapters of this book were historical; we now enter with fear and trembling upon the six latter, which are prophetical, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which we dare not positively determine the sense of, and yet many things plain and profitable, which I trust God will enable us to make a good use of. In this chapter we have,

• I. Daniel's vision of the four beasts (v. 1-8).
• II. His vision of God's throne of government and judgment (v. 9-14).
• III. The interpretation of these visions, given him by an angel that stood by (v. 15-28).

Whether those visions look as far forward as the end of time, or whether they were to have a speedy accomplishment, is hard to say, nor are the most judicious interpreters agreed concerning it.

Notes from Daniel 6

Daniel does not give a continued history of the reigns in which he lived, nor of the state-affairs of the kingdoms of Chaldea and Persia, though he was himself a great man in those affairs; for what are those to us? But he selects such particular passages of story as serve for the confirming of our faith in God and the encouraging of our obedience to him, for the things written aforetime were written for our learning. It is a very observable improvable story that we have in this chapter, how Daniel by faith "stopped the mouths of lions,' and so "obtained a good report,' Heb. 11:33. The three children were cast into the fiery furnace for not committing a known sin, Daniel was cast into the lions' den for not omitting a known duty, and God's miraculously delivering both them and him is left upon record for the encouragement of his servants in all ages to be resolute and constant both in their abhorrence of that which is evil and in their adherence to that which is good, whatever it cost them. In this chapter we have,

• I. Daniel's preferment in the court of Darius (v. 1-3).
• II. The envy and malice of his enemies against him (v. 4, 5).
• III. The decree they obtained against prayer for thirty days (v. 6-9).
• IV. Daniel's continuance and constancy in prayer, notwithstanding that decree (v. 10).
• V. Information given against him for it, and the casting of him into the den of lions (v. 11-17).
• VI. His miraculous preservation in the lions' den, and deliverance out of it (v. 18-23).
• VII. The casting of his accusers into the den, and their destruction there (v. 24).
• VIII. The decree which Darius made upon this occasion, in honour of the God of Daniel, and the prosperity of Daniel afterwards (v. 25-28).

And this God is our God for ever and ever.

Notes from Daniel 5

The destruction of the kingdom of Babylon had been long and often foretold when it was at a distance; in this chapter we have it accomplished, and a prediction of it the very same night that it was accomplished. Belshazzar now reigned in Babylon; some compute he had reigned seventeen years, others but three; we have here the story of his exit and the period of his kingdom. We must know that about two years before this Cyrus king of Persia, a growing monarch, came against Babylon with a great army; Belshazzar met him, fought him, and was routed by him in a pitched battle. He and his scattered forces retired into the city, where Cyrus besieged them. They were very secure, because the river Euphrates was their bulwark, and they had twenty years; provision in the city; but in the second year of the siege he took it, as is here related. We have in this chapter,

• I. The riotous, idolatrous, sacrilegious feast which Belshazzar made, in which he filled up the measure of his iniquity (v. 1-4).
• II. The alarm given him in the midst of his jollity by a hand-writing on the wall, which none of his wise men could read or tell him the meaning of (v. 5-9).
• III. The interpretation of the mystical characters by Daniel, who was at length brought in to him, and dealt plainly with him, and showed him his doom written (v. 10-28).
• IV. The immediate accomplishment of the interpretation in the slaying of the king and seizing of the kingdom (v. 30, 31).

Notes from Daniel 4

The penman of this chapter is Nebuchadnezzar himself: the story here recorded concerning him is given us in his own words, as he himself drew it up and published it; but Daniel, a prophet, by inspiration, inserts it in his history, and so it has become a part of sacred writ and a very memorable part. Nebuchadnezzar was as daring a rival with God Almighty for the sovereignty as perhaps any mortal man ever was; but here he fairly owns himself conquered, and gives it under his hand that the God of Israel is above him. Here is,

• I. The preface to his narrative, wherein he acknowledges God's dominion over him (v. 1-3).
• II. The narrative itself, wherein he relates,
  • 1. His dream, which puzzled the magicians (v. 1-18).
  • 2. The interpretation of his dream by Daniel, who showed him that it was a prognostication of his own fall, advising him therefore to repent and reform (v. 19-27).
  • 3. The accomplishment of it in his running stark mad for seven years, and then recovering the use of his reason again (v. 28-36).
  • 4. The conclusion of the narrative, with a humble acknowledgment and adoration of God as Lord of all (v. 37).

This was extorted from him by the overruling power of that God who has all men's hearts in his hand, and stands upon record a lasting proof of God's supremacy, a monument of his glory, a trophy of his victory, and a warning to all not to think of prospering while they lift up or harden their hearts against God.

Notes from Daniel 3

In the close of the foregoing chapter we left Daniel's companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in honour and power, princes of the provinces, and preferred for their relation to the God of Israel and the interest they had in him. I know not whether I should say. It were well if this honour had all the saints. No, there are many whom it would not be good for; the saints' honour is reserved for another world. But here we have those same three men as much under the king's displeasure as when they were in his favour, and yet more truly, more highly, honoured by their God than there they were honoured by their prince, both by the grace wherewith he enabled them rather to suffer than to sin and by the miraculous and glorious deliverance which he wrought for them out of their sufferings. It is a very memorable story, a glorious instance of the power and goodness of God, and a great encouragement to the constancy of his people in trying times. The apostle refers to it when he mentions, among the believing heroes, those who by faith "quenched the violence of fire,' Heb. 11:34. We have here,

• I. Nebuchadnezzar's erecting and dedicating a golden image, and his requiring all his subjects, of what rank or degree soever, to fall down and worship it, and the general compliance of his people with that command (v. 1-7).
• II. Information given against the Jewish princes for refusing to worship this golden image (v. 8-12).
• III. Their constant persisting in that refusal, notwithstanding his rage and menaces (v. 13-18).
• IV. The casting of them into the fiery furnace for their refusal (v. 19-23).
• V. Their miraculous preservation in the fire by the power of God, and their invitation out of the fire by the favour of the king, who was by this miracle convinced of his error in casting them in (v. 24-27).
• VI. The honour which the king gave to God hereupon, and the favour he showed to those faithful worthies (v. 28-30).

Notes from Daniel 2

It was said (1:17) that Daniel had understanding in dreams; and here we have an early and eminent instance of it, which soon made him famous in the court of Babylon, as Joseph by the same means came to be so in the court of Egypt. This chapter is a history, but it is the history of a prophecy, by a dream and the interpretation of it. Pharaoh's dream, and Joseph's interpretation of it, related only to the years of plenty and famine and the interest of God's Israel in them; but Nebuchadnezzar's dream here, and Daniel's interpretation of that, look much higher, to the four monarchies, and the concerns of Israel in them, and the kingdom of the Messiah, which should be set up in the world upon the ruins of them. In this chapter we have,

• I. The great perplexity that Nebuchadnezzar was put into by a dream which he had forgotten, and his command to the magicians to tell him what it was, which they could not pretend to do (v. 1-11).
• II. Orders given for the destroying of all the wise men of Babylon, and of Daniel among the rest, with his fellows (v. 12-15).
• III. The discovery of this secret to him, in answer to prayer, and the thanksgiving he offered up to God thereupon (v. 16-23).
• IV. His admission to the king, and the discovery he made to him both of his dream and of the interpretation of it (v. 24-45).
• V. The great honour which Nebuchadnezzar put upon Daniel, in recompence for this service, and the preferment of his companions with him (v. 46-49).

Notes from Daniel 1

This chapter gives us a more particular account of the beginning of Daniel's life, his original and education, than we have of any other of the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, began immediately with divine visions; but Daniel began with the study of human learning, and was afterwards honoured with divine visions; such variety of methods has God taken in training up men for the service of his church. We have here,

• I. Jehoiakim's first captivity (v. 1, 2), in which Daniel, with others of the seed-royal, was carried to Babylon.
• II. The choice made of Daniel, and some other young men, to be brought up in the Chaldean literature, that they might be fitted to serve the government, and the provision made for them (v. 3-7).
• III. Their pious refusal to eat the portion of the king's meat, and their determining to live upon pulse and water, which, having tried it, the master of the eunuchs allowed them to do, finding that it agreed very well with them (v. 8-16).
• IV. Their wonderful improvement, above all their fellows, in wisdom and knowledge (v. 17-21).

Notes from Ezekiel 48

In this chapter we have particular directions given for the distribution of the land, of which we had the metes and bounds assigned in the foregoing chapter.

• I. The portions of the twelve tribes, seven to the north of the sanctuary (v. 1-7) and five to the south (v. 23-29).
• II. The allotment of land for the sanctuary, and the priests (v. 8-11), for the Levites (v. 12-14), for the city (v. 15-20), and for the prince (v. 21, 22). Much of this we had before, ch. 45.
• III. A plan of the city, its gates, and the new name given to it (v. 30-35), which seals up, and concludes, the vision and prophecy of this book.

Notes from Ezekiel 47

In this chapter we have,

• I. The vision of the holy waters, their rise, extent, depth, and healing virtue, the plenty of fish in them, and an account of the trees growing on the banks of them (v. 1-12).
• II. An appointment of the borders of the land of Canaan, which was to be divided by lot to the tribes of Israel and the strangers that sojourned among them (v. 13-23).

Notes from Ezekiel 46

In this chapter we have,

• I. Some further rules given both to the priests and to the people, relating to their worship (v. 1-15).
• II. A law concerning the prince's disposal of his inheritance (v. 16-18).
• III. A description of the places provided for the boiling of the sacrifices and the baking of the meat-offerings (v. 19-24).

Notes from Ezekiel 45

In this chapter is further represented to the prophet, in vision,

• I. The division of the holy land, so much for the temple, and the priests that attended the service of it (v. 1-4), so much for the Levites (v. 5), so much for the city (v. 6), so much for the prince, and the residue to the people (v. 7, 8).
• II. The ordinances of justice that were given both to prince and people (v. 9-12).
• III. The oblations they were to offer, and the prince's part in those oblations (v. 13-17). Particularly in the beginning of the year (v. 18-20) and in the passover, and the feast of tabernacles (v. 21-25). And all this seems to point at the new church-state that should be set up under the gospel, which, both for extent and for purity, should far exceed that of the Old Testament.

Notes from Ezekiel 44

In this chapter we have,

• I. The appropriating of the east gate of the temple to the prince (v. 1-3).
• II. A reproof sent to the house of Israel for their former profanations of God's sanctuary, with a charge to them to be more strict for the future (v. 4-9).
• III. The degrading of those Levites that had formerly been guilty of idolatry and the establishing of the priesthood in the family of Zadok, which had kept their integrity (v. 10-16).
• IV. Divers laws and ordinances concerning the priests (v. 17-31).

Notes from Ezekiel 43

The prophet, having given us a view of the mystical temple, the gospel-church, as he received it from the Lord, that it might appear not to be erected in vain, comes to describe, in this and the next chapter, the worship that should be performed in it, but under the type of the Old-Testament services. In this chapter we have,

• I. Possession taken of this temple, by the glory of God filling it (v. 1-6).
• II. A promise given of the continuance of God's presence with his people upon condition of their return to, and continuance in, the instituted way of worship, and their abandoning idols and idolatry (v. 7-12).
• III. A description of the altar of burnt-offerings (v. 13-17).
• IV. Directions given for the consecration of that altar (v. 18-27).

Ezekiel seems here to stand between God and Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord did when the sanctuary was first set up.

Notes from Ezekiel 42

This chapter continues and concludes the describing and measuring of this mystical temple, which it is very hard to understand the particular architecture of, and yet more hard to comprehend the mystical meaning of. Here is,

• I. A description of the chambers that were about the courts, their situation and structure (v. 1-13), and the uses for which they were designed (v. 13, 14).
• II. A survey of the whole compass of ground which was taken up with the house, and the courts belonging to it (v. 15-20).

Notes from Ezekiel 41

An account was given of the porch of the house in the close of the foregoing chapter; this brings us to the temple itself, the description of which here given creates much difficulty to the critical expositors and occasions differences among them. Those must consult them who are nice in their enquiries into the meaning of the particulars of this delineation; it shall suffice us to observe,

• I. The dimensions of the house, the posts of it (v. 1), the door (v. 2), the wall and the side-chambers (v. 5, 6), the foundations and wall of the chambers, their doors (v. 8-11), and the house itself (v. 13).
• II. The dimensions of the oracle, or most holy place (v. 3, 4).
• III. An account of another building over against the separate place (v. 12-15).
• IV. The manner of the building of the house (v. 7, 16, 17).
• V. The ornaments of the house (v. 18-20).
• VI. The altar of incense and the table (v. 22).
• VII. The doors between the temple and the oracle (v. 23-26).

There is so much difference both in the terms and in the rules of architecture between one age and another, one place and another, that it ought not to be any stumbling-block to us that there is so much in these descriptions dark and hard to be understood, about the meaning of which the learned are not agreed. To one not skilled in mathematics the mathematical description of a modern structure would be scarcely intelligible; and yet to a common carpenter or mason among the Jews at that time we may suppose that all this, in the literal sense of it, was easy enough.

Notes from Ezekiel 40

The waters of the sanctuary which this prophet saw in vision (47:1) are a proper representation of this prophecy. Hitherto the waters have been sometimes but to the ankles, in other places to the knees, or to the loins, but now the waters have risen, and have become "a river which cannot be passed over.' Here is one continued vision, beginning at this chapter, to the end of the book, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions of scripture in all the book of God. The Jews will not allow any to read it till they are thirty years old, and tell those who do read it that, though they cannot understand every thing in it, "when Elias comes he will explain it.' Many commentators, both ancient and modern, have owned themselves at a loss what to make of it and what use to make of it. But because it is hard to be understood we must not therefore throw it by, but humbly search concerning it, get as far as we can into it and as much as we can out of it, and, when we despair of satisfaction in every difficulty we meet with, bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough, and wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. These chapters are the more to be regarded because the last two chapters of the Revelation seem to have a plain allusion to them, as Rev. 20 has to the foregoing prophecy of Gog and Magog. Here is the vision of a glorious temple (in this chapter and ch. 41 and 42), of God's taking possession of it (ch. 43), orders concerning the priests that are to minister in this temple (ch. 44), the division of the land, what portion should be allotted for the sanctuary, what for the city, and what for the prince, both in his government of the people and his worship of God (ch. 45), and further instructions for him and the people, ch. 46. After the vision of the holy waters we have the borders of the holy land, and the portions assigned to the tribes, and the dimensions and gates of the holy city, ch. 47, 48. Some make this to represent what had been during the flourishing state of the Jewish church, how glorious Solomon's temple was in its best days, that the captives might see what they had lost by sin and might be the more humbled. But that seems not probable. The general scope of it I take to be,

• 1. To assure the captives that they should not only return to their own land, and be settled there, which had been often promised in the foregoing chapters, but that they should have, and therefore should be encouraged to build, another temple, which God would own, and where he would meet them and bless them, that the ordinances of worship should be revived, and the sacred priesthood should there attend; and, though they should not have a king to live in such splendour as formerly, yet they should have a prince or ruler (who is often spoken of in this vision), who should countenance the worship of God among them and should himself be an example of diligent attendance upon it, and that prince, priests, and people, should have a very comfortable settlement and subsistence in their own land.
• 2. To direct them to look further than all this, and to expect the coming of the Messiah, who had before been prophesied of under the name of David because he was the man that projected the building of the temple and that should set up a spiritual temple, even the gospel-church, the glory of which should far exceed that of Solomon's temple, and which should continue to the end of time. The dimensions of these visionary buildings being so large (the new temple more spacious than all the old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem of greater extent than all the land of Canaan) plainly intimates, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, that these things cannot be literally, but must spiritually, understood. At the gospel-temple, erected by Christ and his apostles, was so closely connected with the second material temple, was erected so carefully just at the time when that fell into decay, that it might be ready to receive its glories when it resigned them, that it was proper enough that they should both be referred to in one and the same vision. Under the type and figure of a temple and altar, priests and sacrifices, is foreshown the spiritual worship that should be performed in gospel times, more agreeable to the nature both of God and man, and that perfected at last in the kingdom of glory, in which perhaps these visions will have their full accomplishment, and some think in some happy and glorious state of the gospel-church on this side heaven, in the latter days.

In this chapter we have,

• I. A general account of this vision of the temple and city (v. 1-4).
• II. A particular account of it entered upon; and a description given,
  • 1. Of the outside wall (v. 5).
  • 2. Of the east gate (v. 6-19).
  • 3. Of the north gate (v. 20-23).
  • 4. Of the south gate (v. 24-31) and the chambers and other appurtenances belonging to these gates.
  • 5. Of the inner court, both towards the east and towards the south (v. 32-38).
  • 6. Of the tables (v. 39-43).
  • 7. Of the lodgings for the singers and the priests (v. 44-47).
  • 8. Of the porch of the house (v. 48, 49).

Notes from Ezekiel 39

This chapter continues and concludes the prophecy against Gog and Magog, in whose destruction God crowns his favour to his people Israel, which shines very brightly after the scattering of that black cloud in the close of this chapter. Here is,

I. An express prediction of the utter destruction of Gog and Magog, agreeing with what we had before (v. 1-7).
II. An illustration of the vastness of that destruction, in three consequences of it: the burning of their weapons (v. 8-10), the burning of their slain (v. 11-16), and the feasting of the fowls with the dead bodies of those that were unburied (v. 17-22).
III. A declaration of God's gracious purposes concerning his people Israel, in this and his other providences concerning them, and a promise of further mercy that he had yet in store for them (v. 23-29).

Notes from Ezekiel 38

This chapter, and that which follows it, are concerning Gog and Magog, a powerful enemy to the people of Israel, that should make a formidable descent upon them, and put them into a consternation, but their army should be routed and their design defeated; and this prophecy, it is most probable, had its accomplishment some time after the return of the people of Israel out of their captivity, whether in the struggles they had with the kings of Syria, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, or perhaps in some other way not recorded, we cannot tell. If the sacred history of the Old Testament had reached as far as the prophecy, we should have been better able to understand these chapters, but, for want of that key, we are locked out of the meaning of them. God had by the prophet assured his people of happy times after their return to their own land; but lest they should mistake the promises which related to the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual privileges of that the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual privileges of that kingdom, as if from them they might promise themselves an uninterrupted temporal prosperity, he here tells them, as Christ told his disciples to prevent the like mistake, that in the world they shall have tribulation, but they may be of good cheer, for they shall be victorious at last. This prophecy here of Gog and Magog is without doubt alluded to in that prophecy which relates to the latter days, and which seems to be yet unfulfilled (Rev. 20:8), that Gog and Magog shall be gathered to battle against the camp of the saints, as the Old-Testament prophecies of the destruction of Babylon are alluded to, Rev. 18. But, in both, the Old-Testament prophecies had their accomplishment in the Jewish church as the New-Testament prophecies shall have when the time comes in the Christian church. In this chapter we have intermixed,

I. The attempt that Gog and Magog should make upon the land of Israel, the vast army they should bring into the field, and their vast preparations (v. 4-7), their project and design in it (v. 8-13), God's hand in it (v. 4).
II. The great terror that this should strike upon the land of Israel (v. 15, 16, 18-20).
III. The divine restraint that these enemies should be under, and the divine protection that Israel should be under (v. 2-4 and v. 14).
IV. The defeat that should be given to those enemies by the immediate hand of God (v. 21-23), which we shall hear more of in the next chapter.

Notes from Ezekiel 37

The threatenings of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, which we had in the former part of this book, were not so terrible, but the promises of their restoration and deliverance for the glory of God, which we have here in the latter part of the book, are as comfortable; and as those were illustrated with many visions and similitudes, for the awakening of a holy fear, so are these, for the encouraging of a humble faith. God had assured them, in the foregoing chapter, that he would gather the house of Israel, even all of it, and would bring them out of their captivity, and return them to their own land; but there were two things that rendered this very unlikely:-

I. That they were so dispersed among their enemies, so destitute of all helps and advantages which might favour or further their return, and so dispirited likewise in their own minds; upon all these accounts they are here, in vision, compared to a valley full of the dry bones of dead men, which should be brought together and raised to life. The vision of this we have (v. 1-10) and the explication of it, with its application to the present case (v. 11-14).
II. That they were so divided among themselves, too much of the old enmity between Judah and Ephriam remaining even in their captivity. But, as to this, by a sign of two sticks made one in the hand of the prophet is foreshown the happy coalition that should be, at their return, between the two nations of Israel and Judah (v. 15-22). In this there was a type of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Samaritans, in Christ and his church. And so the prophet slides into a prediction of the kingdom of Christ, which should be set up in the world with God's tabernacle in it, and of the glories and graces of that kingdom (v. 23-28). (MHC)

Notes from Ezekiel 36

We have done with Mount Seir, and left it desolate, and likely to continue so, and must now turn ourselves, with the prophet, to the mountains of Israel, which we find desolate too, but hope before we have done with the chapter to leave in better plight. Here are two distinct prophecies in this chapter:-

I. Here is one that seems chiefly to relate to the temporal estate of the Jews, wherein their present deplorable condition is described and the triumphs of their neighbours in it; but it is promised that their grievances shall be all redressed and that in due time they shall be settled again in their own land, in the midst of peace and plenty (v. 1-15).
II. Here is another that seems chiefly to concern their spiritual estate, wherein they are reminded of their former sins and God's judgments upon them, to humble them for their sins and under God's mighty hand (v. 16-20). But it is promised,
1. That God would glorify himself in showing mercy to them (v. 21-24).
2. That he would sanctify them, by giving them his grace and fitting them for his service; and this for his own name's sake and in answer to their prayers (v. 25-38).

Notes from Ezekiel 35

It was promised, in the foregoing chapter, that when the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, should come, especially the time for sending the Messiah and setting up his kingdom in the world, God would cause the enemies of his church to cease and the blessings and comforts of the church to abound. This chapter enlarges upon the former promise, concerning the destruction of the enemies of the church; the next chapter upon the latter promise, the replenishing of the church with blessings. Mount Seir (that is, Edom) is the enemy prophesied against in this chapter, but fitly put here, as in the prophecy of Obadiah, for all the enemies of the church; for, as those all walked in the way of Cain that hated Abel, so those all walked in the way of Esau who hated Jacob, but over whom Jacob, by virtue of a particular blessing, was to have dominion. Now here we have,

I. The sin charged upon the Edomites, and that was their spite and malice to Israel (v. 5, 10-13).
II. The ruin threatened, that should come upon them for this sin. God will be against them (v. 3) and then their country shall be laid waste (v. 4), depopulated, and made quite desolate (v. 6-9), and left so when other nations that had been wasted should recover themselves (v. 14, 15).

Notes from Ezekiel 34

The iniquities and calamities of God's Israel had been largely and pathetically lamented before, in this book. Now in this chapter the shepherds of Israel, their rulers both in church and state, are called to an account, as having been very much accessory to the sin and ruin of Israel, by their neglecting to do the duty of their place. Here is,

I. A high charge exhibited against them for their negligence, their unskillfulness, and unfaithfulness in the management of public affairs (v. 1-6 and v. 8).
II. Their discharge from their trust, for their insufficiency and treachery (v. 7-10).
III. A gracious promise that God would take care of his flock, though they did not, and that it should not always suffer as it had done by their mal-administrations (v. 11-16).
IV. Another charge exhibited against those of the flock that were fat and strong, for the injuries they did to those that were weak and feeble (v. 17-22).
V. Another promise that God would in the fulness of time send the Messiah, to be the great and good Shepherd of the sheep, who should redress all grievances and set every thing to rights with the flock (v. 23-31).

Notes from Ezekiel 33

The prophet has now come off his circuit, which he went as judge, in God's name, to try and pass sentence upon the neighbouring nations, and, having finished with them, and read them all their doom, in the eight chapters foregoing, he now returns to the children of his people, and receives further instructions what to say to them.

I. He must let them know what office he was in among them as a prophet, that he was a watchman, and had received a charge concerning them, for which he was accountable (v. 1-9). The substance of this we had before, 3:17, etc.

II. He must let them know upon what terms they stand with God, that they are upon their trial, upon their good behaviour, that if a wicked man repent he shall not perish, but that if a righteous man apostatize he shall perish (v. 10-20).

III. Here is a particular message sent to those who yet remained in the land of Israel, and (which is very strange) grew secure there, and confident that they should take root there again, to tell them that their hopes would fail them because they persisted in their sins (v. 21-29).

IV. Here is a rebuke to those who personally attended Ezekiel's ministry, but were not sincere in their professions of devotion (v. 30-33). (MHC)