1848.] Lebny-Arab Encampment. 699 The Lebny mentioned above is no doubt the Lybon of the Itineraries, which was half way between Ba'albek and Jusia (Heliopolis and Laodicea). Conna is also mentioned as on the same route, and if elKaah (seen from the Kâmoâ) does not mark its site, I have no idea about its locality, unless Conna and Lebny are the same place. Both lay between Ba'albek and Jusia, and both were exactly the same distance from each, and considering the nature of the country-a continued valley shut in by the Lebanons-the conditions above specified seem to require the places to be identical. Girgius el-Makin in his Saracenic history says, that Akhshîd, sultan of Egypt, and Sief edDauleh, lord of Aleppo, divided Syria between them in A. D. 944, and dug a deep ditch across the plain from mountain to mountain, between Jusia and Lebny. All south belonged to the sultan, and the north to Sief ed-Dauleh. I did not notice any traces of this extraordinary ditch. But it may easily have been filled up during the nine centuries which have come and gone since the transaction. The plain of the Bukâh is much higher than the pass over the Ansairîyeh mountains, near Kulaat Husn. Indeed I suppose the water of the great fountain of Mar Marone, might be carried over this pass and conducted to the sea down the Nehar el-Kebeer. Night came down upon us, and we soon lost our path in a ploughed field. After wandering over the plain for two or three hours, enveloped in a dense fog, we stumbled upon an Arab encampment. We were in some danger of being torn to pieces by a combined attack from all the dogs of the tribe. Their owners finally effected a truce between us, and we were very kindly entertained by these children of the desert. They intend soon to strike their tents and remove to the plain east of Lake Kedes, as it is too cold to winter where they now are. The mistress of the tent was certainly very handsome, nor do these Arab ladies know anything about veils or seclusion. We were a great curiosity of course, and were obliged to spend much of the night in answering their inquiries, drinking their coffee, and smoking their nargelies. Of all the strange things we conversed about, not one can find a place in this journal, and with the early dawn, we bid them good bye, with many thanks for their hospitality. The village of Shât is not far from this encampment on the north, and Lake Lemone is about two hours distant, high up the mountain in the same direction. These Arabs call the lake, Yemone, and they spend a good deal of the summer in that neighborhood. 10th. Rode three hours rapidly, through the plain to a tel, called Allâk, where we stopped to breakfast, having examined en route the tall column described by Maundrell. "It was nineteen yards high, and five feet in diameter, of the Corinthian order. It had a table for an inscription on its north side, but the letters are now perfectly erased." As it was in 1696 so it is in 1846, a perfectly isolated column, with not another trace of a building for many miles in any direction. It is called el-Magazel—the spindle-by the natives. Ba'albek is some eight miles east of this Magazel. As I have been there repeatedly, I did not turn out of my course to visit it, but rode on to Zahley and there slept. 11th. Started early, and was at the foot of the mountains before the sun rose. A short distance off the road at the base of Jeble Knisch, is the small village Judeithah, where once stood a temple worth examination. There are other ruined temples on the salient spurs of the mountains which inclose the Bukâh, or in the side valleys which lead to their summits. Some of these have inscriptions, others have not, but I have neither space nor time to notice them at present. I reached Abeih at 12 o'clock, devoutly thankful to find all well and in peace. My own health has been perfect throughout this long ride over the burning plains of Syria, in her hottest and most Besides accomplishing the particular object of my mission, I have seen much of this interesting land, and have passed over routes very little frequented by modern tourists. unhealthy season. ARTICLE VI. COMMENTARY ON THE VISION OF EZEKIEL INTRODUCTORY TO HIS PROPHECY. By the late Professor Hävernick. Translated from the German by Edward Robie, Assistant Instructor in Hebrew, Theol. Seminary, Andover. [IN the last Number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, we inserted Prof. Hävernick's Introductory Observations to his Commentary on Ezekiel. We now give a specimen of the Commentary itself, embracing the first two chapters and a part of the third chapter. This passage, describing the solemn inauguration of the prophet to his work, is one of the most important and interesting in the whole compass of the prophetical writings. In order to derive satisfaction and profit from the explanation of this extraordinary vision, it is not necessary to accede to all the critical remarks and conclusions of the lamented author.-E.] 1848.] Time of the Vision-Character of the People. 701 THE glory of Jehovah is revealed to the prophet as coming from the North, in wonderful appearance upon the cherubim, chap. i. The prophet thereby becomes sure of his calling and qualification to go forth among his people as God's instrument, 2: 1-7. To this end, with the call which is given him, he receives at the same time a complete view of the work before him; its chief purport is the cry of woe against Jerusalem, the announcement of the punitive judgment of God. In order properly to appreciate this purport, it is necessary first of all to glance at the historical occasion of the same. The time is the fourth month of the fifth year of the reign of Zedekiah, 1: 1 sq. Under the sad reign of this fickle and hypocritical ruler, the misery which had already broken out upon Judah was hastening with rapid steps to its completion. Only a few in Jerusalem in those days of wretchedness had kept their vision pure and unclouded, and full of humility, were enabled to look deeper into the counsels of God which were becoming manifest to his people. The majority were seized with a wretched infatuation with regard to the destiny of the theocracy; a presumptuous arrogance, as if ruin were not to be thought of, had pervaded the royal court. To stand against all this, Jeremiah was called as a witness to the truth in Jerusalem, ch. xxviii. Already, because of the dependency of Zedekiah upon Babylon, there existed an active commerce between the exiles and their brethren at home, Ez. 33: 21. Accordingly, with the embassy of Zedekiah at the beginning of his reign to Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah sent a letter which is very characteristic for the condition of the Babylonian Jews at that time. These were in a state of no less grievous self-deception than those who were left at home. By an appeal to earlier prophecies, Jeremiah strikes down their proud expectations of a speedy deliverance, zealously kindled by the word of false prophets, 29: 1–23. This letter embittered the spirit of the exiles against the prophet to a passionate degree; they even sent to the high priest in Jerusalem a demand for his punishment, 29: 24 sq. But the ground on which those hopes were based was by no means an altogether vain one or arbitrarily invented. Splendid prophecies, especially those of Isaiah with regard to the destruction of Babylon as a punishment for her haughtiness and violence towards the theocracy, were in the hands of all. Without such a possession, which in those days infatuation and despair knew how to appropriate and misinterpret, the remarkable and peculiar phenomenon is not to be explained, that, after the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, and after the severest strokes from the rod of Divine wrath which the Jews themselves had experienced, they still with invincible strength preserved such hopes of the future. So much the more important, therefore, was it for Jeremiah, in order to remove every suspicion that either through fear of man, or because he was bribed by the enemy, he was endeavoring to promote the voluntary submission of the people to the Chaldean yoke, to express clearly and definitely his relation to those earlier prophecies, and to justify himself with regard to his own calling. He took advantage of a journey of Zedekiah to Babylon to send to the exiles his own prophecies respecting Babylonia, and which presuppose the earlier ones, especially those of Isaiah. This took place through the mediation of Seraiahas it seems a brother of Baruch, and therefore friend of the prophet— in the fourth year of Zedekiah, 51: 59, precisely in that period in which we find the prophetic activity of Ezekiel to have commenced. According to the instruction of the prophet, Seraiah, as soon as he had made an end of reading the book, was to bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, for a sign that thus Babylon should sink and never rise again. This event cannot possibly have been without reference to the entrance of Ezekiel upon his prophetic office. The feeling which after this event again spread among the people and won increased power, was that former sense of security in the hope of a speedy deliverance from Babylon. Moreover the embassy, at whose head was the king himself, and which expressed to the Babylonian court only the disposition of submission; was it not a new surety for the quiet continuance of the Jewish relations, which indeed oppressed for the moment, yet according to the sanguine and carnal hopes of the majority, were to take a prosperous and joyous turn by the destruction of the oppressor? Then it was high time that the people in Babylonia should know what it meant, that a true prophet () was among them, 2: 5, who, unconcerned about those expressions of the sinful popular consciousness, punished the same, and pointed to the way of God. So Ezekiel appeared upon the bank of the Chebar as the successor of Jeremiah. His soul, scorning the spirit of the age, is full only with the thought of God's judgments upon Jerusalem. In the pressure of circumstances, there is for him the inner necessity for his public appearance as a prophet; an uncontrollable power of divine inspiration seizes him; he feels himself strong in the same, and able to accomplish his difficult work, to live for his new and unusual calling; beholding the glory of the Lord, he knows with immovable certainty how this will be manifested and hallowed in Israel; he goes forth to fulfil his commission. Thus the manner in which the prophet receives his call involves also his instructions and the purport of what he was to announce. 1848.] The Representation rests on the Pentateuch. 703 He wishes for nothing else, he knows no other part to perform in life than that with which Jeremiah appeared upon the stage. The words of Jeremiah, 1: 14, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land," are also the fundamental theme of the inauguration of Ezekiel, 1: 4. 2: 10. But the manner in which the prophet has apprehended this thought, and become inwardly assured of it, is peculiar, and we have to inquire, how he arrived at that mode of representing the theophany and the inauguration connected with it? Ezekiel's mode of representation, as was to be expected from a man who had become great in sacerdotal service, rests upon the Pentateuch. The scenery described in our chapter, had its origin in those magnificent theophanies with which in the earlier time the lawgiver was favored, and which were the ideal of all the later revelations of God to his prophets. Ex. 25: 22. Num. 7: 89. Moses heard the voice of Jehovah from the mercy-seat out of the midst of the cherubim; cf. 1: 26 sq. with Ex. 24: 10. The place of atonement for the whole people is the special dwelling place of the Deity, where he makes himself known as the Holy One of Israel, and reveals himself in his glory as the actually present God. Here the idea of Deity appears as reality; what he is in his essence appears in his relation to and for his covenant people. The relation of God to man appears in full and clear light as that of the Creator preserving his love to his creatures, in order to sanctify and save them. Around the ark of the covenant are seen forms in the posture of reverential adoration, holy symbols of the creation represented in their noblest ideal appearance. To them is imparted the power of life which flows from God, and has in God its constant source, and thus the cherubim are the symbolical bearers of that Divine fulness of life which is manifested in creation.1 The place of God's sanctifying influence, is thus at the same time the true place of life, and as such, the place where God reveals himself. There the pious Jew with an eye of faith beheld the mediation between God and the world; God as the one holy and living God, not in a formless abstraction, but manifesting himself in the most real living symbol. Thence are primarily derived those poetic views, according to which Jehovah, when he is thought of as imparting of his fulness of life, and as actively present among his creatures, is regarded as sitting enthroned upon cherubs; cf. especially Ps. 99: 1, where "The LORD reigneth" corresponds to "he sitteth upon the Cf. the excellent development of the meaning of the cherubim in the Mosaic sanctuary by Bahr, Symbolik I. s. 311 ff. 340 ff. |