{"id":74220,"date":"2020-05-04T15:46:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T12:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74220"},"modified":"2020-05-04T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T12:46:57","slug":"ezekiel-the-riddlemonger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ezekiel-the-riddlemonger\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezekiel The Riddlemonger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"74220","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"473","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But God has all the answers\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the opening of this chapter, Ezekiel was given, prophetically, yet another parable that he was instructed to deliver to \u201cthe brushland of the south\u201d (2). God will be a blazing fire that will be so all-consuming that it will destroy damp trees along with dry ones (3). Curiously, Ezekiel responded by saying: \u201cAh, Lord God! They say of me: He is just a riddlemonger\u201d (5), a challenge to God reminiscent of Moses whose early messages were similarly ignored by the Israelites, leading him to lose faith in his own mission (Exodus 6:12). Here, God\u2019s response was to provide His own explanation of that parable: The fire is His sword; the damp trees are the righteous; the dry trees are the wicked; and \u201cMy sword shall assuredly be unsheathed against all flesh\u201d (9).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rashi identified \u201cthe south\u201d with \u201cthe Land of Israel that is south of Babylonia, and \u201cthe brushland\u201d (literally: the field of the forest) with the Temple that\u2014after its destruction\u2014would resemble a desolate field roamed by foxes. Eliezer of Beaugency identified the south\u2014somewhat more particularly\u2014with Judah, which is situated in the south of the Land of Israel, and the brushland, implicitly, with Jerusalem in which one might find noblemen resembling the lofty trees of the forest. Radak cited, as proof text: \u201cFrom the north shall the catastrophe begin\u201d (Jer. 1:14), Jeremiah\u2019s initial prophecy of impending doom descending upon Israel from Babylonia to its north, thereby confirming Jerusalem as the object of Ezekiel\u2019s instruction, too, along with placing his prophecy firmly into the company of Jeremiah, with whom he was contemporary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Malbim spotted an ongoing connection in the continuation of the chapter, explaining:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSet your face\u201d (2): This is what prepared him to know which direction to face while prophesying about the siege of Jerusalem (v.13 ff.). Here, he told how Nebuchadnezzar engaged in divination to determine whether to turn left\u2014towards Rabat Ammon\u2014or right\u2014to Jerusalem. The lot fell to the south, which was to his right, to wit: \u201cIn his right hand came up the omen against Jerusalem\u201d (27).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going southward from Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar could have attacked either Ammon, which was situated to his west, or left, or Jerusalem, which lay to his right, or east. His choice may have appeared to him to be relatively random, but we know that it was preordained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":74221,"id":74221,"title":"ez21-riddle","filename":"ez21-riddle.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez21-riddle.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ezekiel-the-riddlemonger\/ez21-riddle\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez21-riddle","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74220,"date":"2020-05-04 12:46:34","modified":"2021-05-23 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