lderness, and the forty days; but still more so, from the
internal feature,--the fact that the Saviour, in order to show the
tempter that He recognised in His own case a repetition of the stay in
the wilderness, opposed Him with a passage taken from the _locus
classicus_ concerning it, already quoted.--We now, moreover, cite the
parallel passages which serve as an explanation of the passage under
consideration, and as a confirmation of the explanation which we have
given. The most important is Ezek. xx. 34-38: "And I bring you _out
from the nations_, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye are
scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with
fury poured out. And I bring you into the _wilderness of the nations_,
and there will I plead with you face to face; like as I pleaded with
your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead
there with you, saith the Lord God. And I cause you to pass under the
rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant, and purge out from
among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me; out of the
land of your pilgrimage (the standing designation of Egypt in the
Pentateuch) I will bring them forth, and into the land of Israel they
shall not come, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Here also, the
stay in the wilderness appears as a state of trial, lying in the middle
between the abode among the nations (corresponding to the bondage in
Egypt, which was so not merely bodily, but spiritual also), and the
possession of Canaan. And the result of this trial is a different one,
according to the different condition of the individuals. Some shall be
altogether destroyed; even the appearance of the communion with the
Lord, which they hitherto maintained by having come out of the land
of pilgrimage along with the others, shall be taken away; whilst the
others, by the very means which brought about the destruction of the
former, shall be confirmed in their communion with the Lord, and be
more closely united to Him. Hosea, who, in consequence of the
personification of the Congregation of Israel, has the whole more
in view, regards chiefly the latter feature. A very remarkable
circumstance in Ezekiel, however, requires to be still more minutely
considered; because it promotes essentially the right understanding of
the passage before us. What is meant [Pg 259] by the "wilderness of the
nations?" Several interpreters think that it is the wilderness betwe