What it must have cost the patriotic prophet to write this chapter passes our power to imagine. The Jew was naturally and pardonably proud of his country and of its history. No thoughtful Jew could, indeed, be insensible to imperfections and flaws in the national character, to stains upon the nation's annals. But in this passage of his prophecies the dark shading is relieved by no gleam of light. Israel is depicted as bad from the days of Egyptian bondage down to the days of Babylonian captivity. The figurative language employed is such as could only be justified by facts most discreditable to the character of the Hebrew people. That there were exceptions to the rule, Ezekiel was well aware. But the rule was that the people were, at every stage of their existence, prone to depart from the God to whom they owed every privilege, every blessing; that they resisted no temptation to idolatry; that they were incessantly provoking the anger and just condemnation of the theocratic king. To complete the horror of the representation, the northern and southern tribes are alike included in the indictment and in the guilt. Penetrating beneath the faithful but very repulsive, yet necessary and just, similitude employed by the prophet, to the moral and spiritual lessons thus conveyed, we may trace the story of the inexcusable infidelity of Judah and Israel as related without exaggeration by one of their own race.

I. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS COMMON TO JUDAH AND ISRAEL. We have but to turn to the Books of Kings and of Chronicles to see that in this respect the northern and southern kingdoms were alike, if not equally, guilty. In the record we find, notwithstanding certain remarkable exceptions in the case of Judah, that kings and people continually forsook their Divine Deliverer and rightful King, and addicted themselves to the degrading idolatries practiced by the surrounding nations.

II. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH COMMENCED IN THE NATION'S YOUTH, DURING THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. The record of the wanderings in the wilderness is a sufficient proof of this. The worship of the golden calf is a well-known instance of the readiness of Israel to fall back into the Egyptian idolatry, which, it might have been supposed, they had forever left behind them when they crossed the Red Sea, and witnessed the powerlessness of the gods of Egypt to save Pharaoh and his mighty but misguided host.

III. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS REPEATED WHEN ISRAEL WAS BROUGHT INTO CONTACT WITH THE ASSYRIANS. In the frank and painful language of the prophet is depicted the fatal readiness of the Israelites to yield themselves to the seductions of the Oriental idolatries, and even to go out of their way to court the corruption which they should have eschewed. Compared with the pure and stately rites instituted by Divine command, and celebrated in the temple courts of Jerusalem, the worship of the Assyrians was inexpressibly degrading. The length of time during which the Hebrews had enjoyed peculiar privileges increased their culpability in transferring, at this period, the allegiance they owed to the true God from him to the contemptible idols of Assyria.

IV. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH ALIENATED HIM FROM THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN. As the soul of a husband is estranged from the adulteress who has deserted him, so the Lord declared his soul to be alienated from her whom he had signalized by his favor. Israel had forsaken the one incomparably holy and gracious God, and had attached herself to the lords many and the gods many of the surrounding peoples; and such conduct could not but raise a barrier between Jehovah and the nation that had shown such insensibility to his favor, and such readiness to yield to the advances of his enemies.

V. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS PUNISHED THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE VERY PEOPLE THROUGH WHOSE INSTIGATION IT WAS COMMITTED. How remarkable the threat, "I will raise up thy lovers against thee!" By Assyria Judah and Israel were corrupted; and by Assyria they were chastened. They alienated the Lord, and yet found no help from the false gods for whose sake they had deserted him.

VI. PARTNERS IN DISLOYALTY WERE PARTNERS IN PUNISHMENT. Alike they sinned, and alike they suffered. They incurred the same fate, and from the same sword. Samaria and Judah alike endured the sorrows of the Eastern captivity and the shock of the Eastern armies.

VII. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS SEVERELY DEALT WITH. In various figures, each with its own dark shade of significance, the prophet portrays the impending fate of the guilty, apostate nations. They were mutilated; they were compelled to drink the cup of astonishment and desolation; they were consumed with fire and slain with the sword.

VIII. THE AIM OF THUS PUNISHING DISLOYALTY WAS TO BRING IT TO AN END. "Thus will I cause lewdness [i.e. idolatry] to cease out of the land, that all women [i.e. nations] may be taught not to do after your lewdness."

IX. JEHOVAH THUS VINDICATES HIS OWN CLAIM TO THE LOYALTY OF ALL MEN, AVENGING HIMSELF UPON THOSE WHO WRONG HIM. "Ye shall know that I am the Lord God." His honor he will not give unto another. To our reverence and our obedience, to our devotion and service, our Creator and Redeemer has an indisputable and indefeasible claim; and this he will assuredly assert and maintain. He will be honored, both by the condemnation of the unfaithful and rebellious, and by the salvation of the penitent, the submissive, and the loyal. - T.

I. THE SYMBOL SUGGESTED.

1. The "cup" is sometimes the emblem of joy and gladness (Psalm 23:5); but here of indignation and wrath, in allusion probably to a very ancient method of punishing criminals — a poisoned cup.

2. The cup is sometimes afflictive dispensations (Psalm 73:10); and though the Lord's people are made to drink deeply of it, yet the dregs only are reserved for the wicked (Psalm 75:8).

3. The cup is significant of future and eternal misery, hence called "the cup of wrath" (Revelation 16:19). The wrath of God and of the Lamb is put into it; the cup has been filling for many years; it will never be emptied. It is also called "the cup of fury," as containing the inexpressible fierceness of Divine indignation (Jeremiah 25:15).

II. THE DESCRIPTION AFFORDED — "Much."

1. It contains all the sins that we have ever committed, and these, if not now repented of, will fill us with ceaseless remorse.

2. It contains all the curses of that law which we have violated.

3. It is the everlasting vengeance of God. A lost estate, lost liberty, or lost friends may be regained; but the loss of the soul is irreparable.

(Homilist.).