That Ezekiel is a very obscure writer is asserted by all who have. attempted to explain his prophecies. The ancient Jews considered them as inexplicable, and the council of the Sanhedrim once deliberated long on the propriety of excluding them, on this account, from the canon (Calmet, Prmf. ad Ezech.); but to prevent this exclusion, Rabbi Ananias undertook to explain completely the vision of Jehovah's chariot (i. and x.); and his proposal, it is said, was accepted by the council. One of the reasons alleged for rejecting Ezekiel from the canon was that he teaches, in direct contradiction to the Mosaic doctrine, that I children shall not suffer punishment for the offences of their parents (xviii. 2-20). (See Hueti, Demonstratio Evang., prop. 4, de Prophet. Ezech.) St. Jerome considers Ezekiel's visions and expressions very difficult to be understood, and says that no one under the age of thirty was permitted to read them. (Hieron. proem. in lib. Ezeoh.) Much remains likewise to be done to restore the original Hebrew text to a state of purity. Michaelis, Eichhorn, Newcome, and many other commentators, have written copiously on the peculiarities of Ezekiel's style. Grotius (' Prief. ad Ezech.) speaks of it with the highest admiration, and compares the prophet to Homer. Michaelis admits its bold and striking originality, but denies that sublimity is any part of its character, though the passion of terror is highly excited. Bishop
Lowth (` Prmlect. Heb.Poet.')regards Ezekiel as bold, vehement, tragical; wholly intent on exaggeration ; in sentiment fervid, bitter, indignant ; in imagery magnificent, harsh, and almost deformed ; in diction grand, austere, rough, rude, uncultivated; abounding in repetitions from indignation and violence. This eminent judge of Hebrew literature assigns to the poetry of Ezekiel the same rank among the Jewish writers as that of 1Eschylus among the Greeks ; and in speaking of the great obscurity of his visions, he believes it to consist not so much in the language as in the conception. Eichhorn (the peculiar character of whose criticism we have noticed under that article) regards the Book of Ezekiel as a series of highly-wrought and extremely artificial poetical pictures. In accordance with the doctrines of the German rationalism, he considers the prophecies as nothing more than the poetical fictions of a heated oriental imagination of a similar nature with the poetry of the Book of Revelations. The same character of thought and expression is exhibited in the writings of the two other greater prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah. (Compare Ezek. xvi. 4 to 37; xxiii. 17-21 ; Isaiah, xxviii. 7, 8 ; xxxvi. 12.)