Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/864

Rh 828 E Z E E Z E a card between the two eyes, and causing a slight con vergence of the eyes, the two images are brought upon corresponding points of the two retinae, the image will at once be seen in relief. Consult regarding the physiology of the eye, as the most com plete treatise on the subject, Helmholtz s Optique Physiologique, 1867 ; one of the best of the older treatises is Mackenzie On the Eye and Vision, 1841 ; in the first-mentioned treatise, a full list is EZEKIEL (WW i.e., *?$ p*tf, God will strengthen, or ?$ Pin*, God will prevail; Ic^e/a^A; Ezechiel] was the son of Buzi a priest, probably of the line of Zadok, who appears to have lived in Jerusalem, and to have held a position of some prominence there. According to an ancient and not impossible interpretation of his own words (chap. i. 1), Ezekiel was born in 624 B.C. This interpretation is at least preferable to that which reckons &quot;the thirtieth year&quot; from a hypothetical era of Nabopolassar ; but it is not free from all objection, and if it fail us we have no data for precisely determining the prophet s age. Notwithstanding the expression made use of by Josephus (vrais a&amp;gt;/, Ant., x. 7, 3) we may reasonably assume, however, that he had at least attained to early manhood, and already had read and observed much, when, along with King Jehoiachin and many other prisoners of the better class (2 Kings xxiv. 1 2-1 6 ; Jer. xxix. 1 ) he was carried into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in 599 B.C. With others of his com patriots he was settled at a place called Tel-Abib (&quot; Corn- hill&quot;), on the banks of the river Chebar, by which most probably the Nahr-Malcha or &quot; Grand &quot; Canal of Nebuchadnezzar is meant, though some still think of the Chaboras (modern Khabur), an affluent of the Euphrates more to the north. 1 We are left almost wholly to precarious inference and conjecture for all further de tails of his history. We learn incidentally, indeed, from his writings that he was a married man living in a house of his own, and that his wife died in the ninth year of his exile. But of the nature of his ordinary employments, if he had any, we are not informed. His life, as a priest whose heart was thoroughly absorbed in priestly work, could hardly fail to be tinged with sadness, condemned as it was to be spent in an &quot; unclean land &quot; far away from &quot; the inheritance of the Lord.&quot; He seems to have been of a brooding temperament, and to have passed much of his time in silence and solitude. A recent writer (in the Studien u. Kritiken for 1877) has ingeniously sug gested and endeavoured to show that he was an invalid, suffering much from some chronic nervous malady. In the fifth year of his exile (594 B.C.) he had a remarkable vision, of which he has given a very full description in the opening chapters of his book. On this occasion he was divinely called to the prophetic office. Thenceforward, for a period of at least 22 years, both orally and in writing, he continued to discharge prophetic functions at frequent if somewhat irregular intervals ; and whatever may have been the force and bitterness of the opposition he originally had to face, he ultimately, as a &quot; watchman &quot; and acknowledged leader of public opinion, came to exercise an incalculably powerful influence in keeping alive the Jewish national feeling, and also in quickening and purifying the religious hopes and aspirations of his time. The last date mentioned in his writings is the 27th year of his exile (572 B.C.). It is not probable that he lived long after that time. Nothing authentic, however, has been handed down to us as to the time, place, or manner of his death. Several unimportant 1 Bleek (EM. 221, note), is probably wrong in identifying both y? and Chaboras with the TQn of 2 Kings xvii. 6, which is most probably the Khabur, a tributary of the Tigris (Delitzsch. Jesaja, p. 16, note). given at the end of each section of all the more important works and monographs bearing on the physiology and optical arrange ments of the eye, up to 1867. A very valuable bibliographical account is one recently published by J. Plateau, entitled Biblio graphic analytique des principaux plienomtncs subjective de la Vision dcpuis les temps anciensjusqiCd lafinduXVIIIe siede, suivicd une bibliographic single pour la partie ecoulee du siede actuel: extrait du tome xlii. dcs Memoires dc V Academic royalc des sciences, des lettrcs, ct des beaux-arts de Belrjique, 1877. (J. G. M.) traditions may be found in the work of the Pseudo- Epiphanius, De vit. et mort. proph., in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, and elsewhere. In the present Massoretic canon the book of Ezekiel stands third in order among those of the so-called Nebi im Abarouim (latter prophets), being preceded by those of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and followed by that of the twelve minor prophets. In the list of canonical books given in the Talmud (Bala bathra, 14, 2) it is the second of the four, being followed by &quot; Isaiah &quot; and &quot; the twelve.&quot; Its arrangement is unusually simple, the chronological cor responding for the most part with the natural order. Its three divisions date respectively from before, during, and after the siege of Jerusalem. 1. The first 24 chapters carry the reader from the time of the prophet s consecration down to the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, i.e., from 594 to 590 B.C. They are made up of some 29 distinct oracles, all of which, with the trifling exception of xxi. 33-37 [28-32], have direct reference to the religious and political condition of Ezekiel s compatriots in Babylonia and in Palestine. First in order stands the famous &quot;chariot&quot; (comp. 1 Ch. xxviii. 18) vision, which has been so variously estimated, both from the aesthetic and from the theological point of view, by different critics. Rightly interpreted, as a mere description, it cannot justly be called vague or obscure, and it is hard to account foi the strange stories told of the difficulties felt by the Jews in expounding it. The prophet sees in a storm-cloud coming out of the north a group of four living creatures (cherubs), each with four wings and four different faces. Together they are borne upon four wheels which are full of eyes. Resting upon their heads is a firmament, supporting a sapphire throne, whereon is seated a man-like figure, which is almost hidden in a blaze of light. Hereupon Ezekiel receives and eats the bitter-sweet roll in which are written &quot; lamentations and mourning and woe ; &quot; he is now ready to go forth to his fellow-countrymen fearlessly declaring the truth as it is revealed to him, however unwelcome it may be. The recorded oracles that follow belong to the fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth years of his exile. They can be understood only when viewed in connexion with this general history of that period. Soon after his accession to the throne, Zedekiah, the uncle and successor of Jehoiachin, had begun to intrigue against his suzerain the king of Babylon, and had entered into secret relations with the king of Egypt. Ezekiel, like his older contemporary Jere miah, had insight and sagacity enough to see the unwisdom of such a policy. By various symbolical actions (iv. 1-8; iv. 9-17; v. 1-4; vi. 11; xii. 1-16; xxi. 11 [6]), and also by unequivocal words, he repeatedly declared the certainty of the doom that was impending over Jerusalem, Judah, and all the mountains of Israel ; he insisted on the uselessness of any struggle against Babylon, and distinctly predicted Zedekiah s captivity, blindness, and death. In language of the severest invective he rebuked the sins and idolatries, worse than those of Sodom, which had brought this inevi table ruin upon the land and people of the Lord ; at the same time he held forth the hope of ultimate restoration and final happiness for both Judah and Ephraim at the end of &quot;forty years,&quot; under the guidance of the coining prince