three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one. It shall be eighteen thousand reeds round about. And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there. 184 i-iii. BOOK I For the Vision of Ezekiel, and the threefold commis sion of his Call, see Introduction, pages xxvi-vii. iii. The Opening of the Mouth. The interpretation of this followed above (Introduction, page xxvii) is different from that usually given (e.g. by Davidson, Driver). The usual view is that the 'dumbness' is a restraint of prophecy, such as confinement to the prophet's house, the result of failure through the rebellious spirit of the people; and the 'opening of the mouth' is the cessation of that restraint upon the fall of Jerusalem and its confirmation of Ezekiel's position. It must be observed that (1) there is not a word of support in the text for the idea that Ezekiel exercised his ministry before the divine word of this section iii; (2) no difference in kind can be traced between his mode of ministry before and after the fall of the city. This interpretation would never be suggested except in view of two passages cited below. 6 The interpretation here followed is that alike the 'dumbness' and the opening of the mouth' attach to Ezekiel's ministry throughout, and are not distinctive of different periods. He is in this, the third phase of his Call, commanded to forego the public life of the popular prophets — behold, they shall lay shut thyself within thine house and wait in his house for the people who are in earnest to visit him there; and even then he is to wait as one dumb for a moment of inspiration and I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb. but when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, etc. This is in accordance with all that appears in the record: we repeatedly find deputations of the people thus waiting in the prophet's house for the inspiration to come. [Compare pages 26, 46, 71. The words on page 95 So I spake unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died: and I did in the morning as I was commanded— suggest strongly that such deputations would visit the prophet's house every morning; and again the words on page 133— And they [the children of thy people] come unto thee as the people cometh, etc. suggest habitual gatherings.] On the other hand, there is no trace of Ezekiel exercising his office in public like the other prophets. [For the single apparent exception see note to II. i.] The two passages which have lent support to the other interpretation are as follows. And thou, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters, that in that day he that escapeth |