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Preface.
In this volume I have endeavoured to present the substance of Ezekiel's prophecies in a form intelligible to students of the English Bible. I have tried to make the exposition a fairly adequate guide to the sense of the text, and to supply such information as seemed necessary to elucidate the historical importance of the prophet's teaching. Where I have departed from the received text I have usually indicated in a note the nature of the change introduced. Whilst I have sought to exercise an independent judgment on all the questions touched upon, the book has no pretensions to rank as a contribution to Old Testament scholarship.
The works on Ezekiel to which I am chiefly indebted are: Ewald's Propheten des Alten Bundes (vol. ii.); Smend's Der Prophet Ezechiel erklärt (Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch zum A. T.); Cornill's Das Buch des Proph. Ezechiel; and, above all, Dr. A. B. Davidson's commentary in the Cambridge Bible for Schools, my obligations to which are almost continuous. In a less degree I have been helped by the commentaries of Hävernick and Orelli, by Valeton's Viertal Voorlezingen [pg vi] (iii.), and by Gautier's La Mission du Prophète Ezechiel. Amongst works of a more general character special acknowledgment is due to The Old Testament in the Jewish Church and The Religion of the Semites by the late Dr. Robertson Smith.
I wish also to express my gratitude to two friends—the Rev. A. Alexander, Dundee, and the Rev. G. Steven, Edinburgh—who have read most of the work in manuscript or in proof, and made many valuable suggestions.