nsideration, only in so far as it is a
product and consequence of justice, which is an attribute of the King,
and is by him [Pg 95] infused into the life of the nation. In vers.
1-50, the thought is: "God gives righteousness to His King, and in
consequence of it, righteousness and the fear of God become indigenous
to the people, and these again bring peace in their train."

Every word in Ezekiel is taken from Gen. xlix. and Ps. lxxii. From the
latter are taken the words, "judgment," and "I will give it." (Compare
Ps. lxxii. 1: "Give the King thy judgments.") The combination of these
two passages points out their close connection, and indicates that Ps.
lxxii. is to be viewed as a comment. _Onkelos_, who thus translates the
passage in Gen. xlix., "Until Messiah comes, to whom the kingdom is
due, and Him the people shall obey," has very properly only
supplemented the declaration of Jacob from Ezekiel, or, at least, has
taken thence the explanation of Shiloh.

But, at the same time, the words [Hebrew: awr li hmwpT], which, on the
basis of Ps. lxxii., Ezekiel puts in the place of [Hebrew: wilh],
allude to the letters of the latter word which forms the initials of
the words in Ezekiel. That [Hebrew: w] is the main letter in [Hebrew:
awr], is shown by the common abbreviation of it into [Hebrew: w]; and
that the [Hebrew: i] in [Hebrew: wilh] is unessential, is proved by the
circumstance that the name of the place is often written [Hebrew: wlh],
and that even in Gen. xlix. 10, a number of manuscripts have this
orthography.

"From the allusion to a prophecy so well known, and so frequently used,
the brevity of the prophecy in Ezekiel is to be explained. It forms a
most powerful conclusion and resting-point for the prophetic
discourse." (_Haevernick_.)

There cannot be any doubt that Ezekiel found in Gen. xlix. 10, the
prophecy of a personal Messiah. They, therefore, who assert that no
such prophecy is contained in our passage, must, at the same time,
assert that Ezekiel misunderstood it; yea, even more, that, even as
early as at that period, a false view of that passage was generally
prevalent. For, the manner in which Ezekiel alludes to it presupposes
that, at that time, the view which found in it a personal Messiah was
generally held. If we observe still further, that Ezekiel connected the
allusion to Ps. lxxii. with that to Gen. xlix., we cannot hesitate for
a moment to admit that he understood the name Shiloh to be Rest-