A land of traffic] Chaldea.

A city of merchants] Babylon; for which this city was the most celebrated of all the cities of the east. Its situation procured it innumerable advantages; its two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Persian Gulf, gave it communication with the richest and the most distant nations.

Ezek. 17:1-10 Mighty conquerors are aptly likened to birds or beasts of prey, but their destructive passions are overruled to forward God' designs. Those who depart from God, only vary their crimes by changin one carnal confidence for another, and never will prosper.

Ezek. 17:11-21 The parable is explained, and the particulars of the history of the Jewish nation at that time may be traced. Zedekiah ha been ungrateful to his benefactor, which is a sin against God. In ever solemn oath, God is appealed to as a witness of the sincerity of his that swears. Truth is a debt owing to all men. If the professors of the true religion deal treacherously with those of a false religion, their profession makes their sin the worse; and God will the more surely an severely punish it. The Lord will not hold those guiltless who take his name in vain; and no man shall escape the righteous judgment of God wh dies under unrepented guilt.

Ezek. 17:22-24 The unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of none effect. The parable of a tree, used in the threatening, is her presented in the promise. It appears only applicable to Jesus, the So of David, the Messiah of God. The kingdom of Satan, which has borne s long, so large a sway, shall be broken, and the kingdom of Christ which was looked upon with contempt, shall be established. Blessed be God, our Redeemer is seen even by the ends of the earth. We may fin refuge from the wrath to come, and from every enemy and danger, unde his shadow; and believers are fruitful in him __________________________________________________________________

Original Hebrew