Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the
mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto
him, upon a roll of a book. Jeremiah xxxvi; 1-4.
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah,
when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in
the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch; thou didst
say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted
in my sighing, and I find no rest.
Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus; Behold, that which I
have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck
up, even this whole land. And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek
them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord:
but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou
goesth. Jeremiah xlv, 1-5.
EZEKIEL PROPHESYING.
Ezekiel, the third of the great Hebrew prophets, was the son of the
priest Buzi. (Ezekiel i, 3). He was probably born about 620 or 630 years
before Christ, and was consequently a contemporary of Jeremiah and
Daniel, to the latter of whom he alludes in chapters xiv, 14-20 and
xxviii, 3. When Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. (2
Kings xxiv, 8-16; Jeremiah xxix, 1-2; Ezekiel xvii, 12; xix, 9), Ezekiel
was carried captive along with Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, king of Judah,
and thousands of other Jewish prisoners, to Babylonia, or as he himself
calls it, "the land of the Chaldeans." (Ezekiel i, 3). Here, along with
his exiled fellow-countrymen, he lived on the banks of the river Chebar
(Ezekiel i, 1-3), in a house of his own (viii, i). Here also he married,
and here, too, his wife, "the desire of his eyes," was taken from him
"with a stroke" (Ezekiel xxiv, 15-18). His prophetic career extended over
twenty-two years, from about 592 B.C. to about 570 B.C.
The book bearing his name is written in a mystical and symbolical style,
and abounds with visions and difficult allegories which indicate on the
part of the author the possession of a vivid and sublime imagination.
Ezekiel's authorship of it has been questioned. The Talmud attributes it
to the Great Synagogue, of which Ezekiel was not a member. It is
divisible into two portions. The first (chapters i-xxiv) was written
before, and the second (chapters xxv-xlviii) after, the destruction of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C, the eleventh year of the
prophet's captivity (Ezekiel xxvi, 1-2; XI, i). The present text is very
imperfect, being corrupted by the interpolation of glosses and other
additions by later hands.
Dore's picture represents the prophet uttering his oracles to his
fellow-exiles ("them of the captivity"), or to the "elders of Judah," or
"elders of Israel," on one of the occasions to which he himself alludes
(viii, I; xi, 25; xiv, I; xx, I).
THE VISION OF EZEKIEL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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