"From the allusion to a prophecy so well known, and so frequently used, the brevity of the prophecy in Ezekiel is to be explained. It forms a most powerful conclusion and resting-point for the prophetic discourse." (_Hävernick_.) There cannot be any doubt that Ezekiel found in Gen. xlix. 10, the prophecy of a personal Messiah. They, therefore, who assert that no such prophecy is contained in our passage, must, at the same time, assert that Ezekiel misunderstood it; yea, even more, that, even as early as at that period, a false view of that passage was generally prevalent. For, the manner in which Ezekiel alludes to it presupposes that, at that time, the view which found in it a personal Messiah was generally held. If we observe still further, that Ezekiel connected the allusion to Ps. lxxii. with that to Gen. xlix., we cannot hesitate for a moment to admit that he understood the name Shiloh to be Rest-maker, Peace-maker; only, that on the ground of Ps. lxxii., he mentions the cause instead of the effect. He had, moreover, the stronger reason for designating the bearer of peace as the bearer of judgment, [Pg 96] because, in his time, the want of judgment had evidently produced the absence of peace, and the general confusion, misery, and destruction. "As in Gen. xlix. the Patriarch sees a light rising at a far distance, and spreading its brightness over the darkness of centuries, so in Ezekiel also, the same ray of glorious hope lightens through the dark night of confusion and unutterable misery in which he sees himself enveloped." _Kurtz_, S. 266, has altogether denied the connection of the passage in Ezekiel with Gen. xlix. These two passages are, as he thinks, altogether different, inasmuch as Ezekiel announces destruction and desolation which shall continue until He comes to whom is the judgment, while Gen. xlix., when understood of a personal Messiah, announces dominion which shall continue until Shiloh comes. But Ezekiel does not contradict Gen. xlix. 10. He gives only the supplement necessary for preventing this passage from being considered as a permission to sin, and from becoming a support of false security. Ezekiel, too, assumes a continuation of the dominion. If that were not concealed behind the destruction, how could "the coming of Him to whom is the judgment" be pointed out as the limit of that destruction? The tree indeed is cut down, but the root remains in its full vigour.