Verse 10. Verse 11. Verse 12. Verse 13.
Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, by the prophecy of whose mouth those who were asleep were awaked, even the dead which were in the valley of {n} Dura. Verse 10. I am my beloved’s, &c.] Jerusalem {o} said, All the time that I was walking in the way of the Lord of the world, he caused his shechinah to dwell with me, and his desire was towards me: but when I turned aside out of his paths, he removed his shechinah from me, and carried me away among the nations; and they ruled over me as a man rules over his wife. Verse 11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, &c.] When the people of the house of Israel sinned, the Lord carried them into captivity, into the land of Seir, the fields of Edom. The congregation of Israel said, I beseech thee, O Lord of the whole world, receive my prayer, which I have prayed before thee, in the cities of the captivity and in the provinces of the people.
Verse 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards, &c.] The children of Israel said one to another, Let us get up early in the morning, and let us go to the synagogue and to the school, and let us search in the book of the law, and see whether {p} the time of the redemption of the people of the house of Israel, who are like to a vine, is come, that they may be redeemed out of their captivity; and let us inquire of the wise men, whether the righteousness of the righteous, who are full of the commandments as pomegranates, is made manifest before the Lord; whether the time is come to go up to Jerusalem, there to give praise to the God of heaven, and to offer up the burnt-offerings, and the holy drink-offerings. Verse 13. The mandrakes give a smell, &c.] And when it is the pleasure of the Lord to redeem his people out of captivity, it shall be said to the King Messiah, Now is the end of the captivity completed, and the righteousness of the righteous is become sweet as the smell of balsam, and the wise men fix their habitations by the gates of the school; they study in the {q} words of the scribes, and in the words of the law. Arise now, take the kingdom which I have reserved for thee.
ENDNOTES — CHAPTER 7.
{a} That is, at the feast of the passover, at the feast of weeks or pentecost, and at the feast of tabernacles; see Exodus 23:14-17; 2 Chronicles 8:13. So the words are explained in Shirhashirim Rabba, and by Jarchi in loc.
{b} So the plate of gold was called, on which was inscribed “holiness to the Lord,” which was fixed to the fore-front of the mitre on Aaron’s forehead; see Exodus 28:36; 39:30. This plate was two fingers broad, and reached from ear to ear; “holiness to the Lord” was written upon it in great letters, standing out, and that either in one line or in two lines; if in two lines, “holiness” was written below, and “to the Lord” above; Maimon. Hilch. Cele Hamikdash, c. 9, s. 1, 2; Ceseph Mishna in ibid., and Jarchi in Exodus 28:36.
{c} The same is said of them in Zohar in Exodus, fol. 34, 3, and 38:2: see Genesis 2:10, and note on chapter 4:12.
{d} The great sanhedrin consists of seventy persons, besides the nasi or prince, at whose right hand sat Ab Beth Din, or the father of the house of judgment: before them sat the two scribes, and the rest of the sanhedrin took their places according to their age or dignity, and sat in a semicircular form, or, as they express it, hlwg[ ˆrwg yxjk cachatsi goren agullah, “as the half of a round corn floor,” to which they compare this assembly. So that both the prince and father of the court could see them all, Mishna Tract. Sanhedrin, c. 4, s. 3. Jarchi and Ez Chayim, ibid. Maimon. Milch. Sanhedrin, c. 1, s. 3, and Ceseph Mishna, ibid. Shemoth Rabba, Parash. 5. Vajikra Rabba, Parash. 11. R. Aben Ezra in loc. Midrash Echa Rabba Praefat. fol. 38, 4. Midrash Kohelet in chap. 1:11.
{e} This was the sanhedrin or great council, collected by Ezra the scribe, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, of which he was president. This assembly consisted of one hundred and twenty persons, of which these here mentioned were the chief. There are others reckoned with them by some, as the three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, Seraiah, Relaiah, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah: the last of this venerable body of men, they say, was Simeon the Just; who, about forty years after the building of the second temple, met Alexander the Great coming against Jerusalem, and appeased him. These men were called hlwdgh tsnk yvna anshey keneseth haggedolah, “the men of the great congregation,” because they restored the law to its pristine glory, and purged the Jewish Church from those corruptions which had crept into it during the captivity in Babylon. They are said to have received the oral law from the prophets, who had received it from the elders, and they from Joshua, and Joshua from Moses, and to have transmitted it down to posterity, Pirke Aboth, c. 1, s. 1, 2, and Jarchi, ibid. Maimon. Praefat. in lib. Yad. Vide Buxtorfii Tiberiad. in c. 10. {f} See note on chap. 4:5.
{g} See note on ver. 2.
{h} The Jewish year consisted of twelve lunar months, and sometimes they intercalated a thirteenth month, which they called Veadar, or the second Adar, which was always done by the direction and at the pleasure of the sanhedrin; as also the fixing of the beginning of the months, by the phasis or first appearance of the moon, Maimon. Hilch. Kiddush Hachodesh, c 1, s. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; c. 4, s. 1, 9, 10, 11, 13, and c. 5, s. 1, 2, 3, 4. The men of the tribe of Issachar were famous for their knowledge in these things, Bereshith Rabba, Parash. 72, Bemidbar Rabba, Parash. 13. Midrash Esther Parash. 4, and Kimchi in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
{i} Jarchi relates out of the Midrash, that from the house of the forest of Lebanon, which Solomon built, a man might number all the houses which were in Damascus.
{k} So these words are paraphrased in Shirhashirim Rabba in loc., and in Vajikra Rabba, Parash. 31.
{l} When the priests blessed the people, they stretched out their hands and lifted them above their heads, with their fingers spread out; only the high priest never lifted up his above the plate of gold upon the mitre; and though, at the time of blessing, the priests and people stood face to face, right over against each other, yet the priests never looked upon the people, but kept their eyes upon the ground, as in the time of prayer; nor might the people look in the faces of the priests, lest their minds should be disturbed thereby; which ceremony the Targumist here refers to, Maimon. Hilch. Tephila, c. 14, s. 3, 7, 9. Bemidbar Rabba, Parash. 11. Targum Jon. in Num. 6:23.
{m} The same is said in Targum Jerus. in Genesis 22:1. Bereshith Rabba, Parash. 56. Bemidbar Rabba, Parash. 15. Pirke Aboth, c. 5, s. 3, and Jarchi, ibid.; where he, out of Pirke Eliezer, has given us an account of them in this following order, viz., 1st. Nimrod sought to kill him, and he was hid in a field thirteen years. 2. He cast him into Ur of the Chaldees, or into a furnace of fire. 3. He banished him from the land of his nativity. 4. The Lord brought a famine in his days. 5. Sarah was taken into the house of Pharaoh. 6. The kings came and carried Lot his brother’s son away captive. 7. It was shown him between the pieces, that four kingdoms should rule over his children. 8. He was commanded to circumcise himself and his children. 9. To put away Ishmael and his mother. And 10. To slay his son Isaac.
{n} In this valley Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image. Daniel 3:1. And here the Jews say the children of Ephraim were slain, who went out of Egypt before the time; as also the Israelites, whom the Chaldeans slew when they carried them captive, and that this is the valley Ezekiel was brought into by the Spirit of the Lord, Ezekiel 37:1; and these the dry bones he prophesied over, which lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army, Targum Jon. in Exodus 13:17. R. Saadiah Gaon in Dan. 3:1. Jarchi in Ezekiel 37:1.
{o} That is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or the Shulamite, the Church, as in chap. 6:13. The Church is frequently called so in the Old Testament, and likewise in the New, see Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2, 10.
{p} The Jews vainly expect the time of redemption by the Messiah to be future, when it is past many hundred years ago, as they might easily learn from the book of the law and the prophets; particularly from Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49:10, from Haggai’s in Haggai 2:6-8, and from Daniel’s weeks in Daniel 9:24-26. See this fully proved in a book called “The prophecies of the Old Testament respecting the Messiah considered,” &c. Chap. 3.
{q} The words of the scribes are mentioned before the words of the law, and are, indeed, by the Jews, preferred unto them. They say the words of the beloved, i.e., the wise men, are better than the wine of the law; so they paraphrase the words in Song of Solomon 1:2: they assert that the law cannot be understood without the words of the scribes; that the oral law is the foundation of the written law, and not the written law the foundation of the oral law; and that he that transgresses the words of the wise men as much deserves death, as though he had been guilty of idolatry, murder, or adultery, or profanes the Sabbath; nay, that if these say their right hand is their left, and their left hand is their right, they are obliged to hearken to them, Shirhashirim Rabba, in c. 1, 2. Bemidbar Rabba, Parash. 14. Matteh Dan. Dialog. 3, fol. 31, 3. Jarchi in Deuteronomy 17:11. Vide Buxtorf, Recensio Operis Talmud. pp. 222, 223, &c.