XV.
(1) Then said the Lord unto me. — With a bold and terrible anthropomorphism, the prophet again speaks as if he heard the voice of Jehovah rejecting all intercession for the apostate people. The passage reminds us of the mention of Noah, Daniel, and Job, in Ezekiel 14:14, as “able to deliver their own souls only by their righteousness.” Here Moses (Exodus 32:11; Numbers 14:13-20) and Samuel (1 Samuel 7:9; 1 Samuel 12:23) are named as having been conspicuous examples of the power of the prayer of intercession.
Cast them out of my sight. — i.e., from my presence, from the courts of the Temple which they profane. That would be the answer of Jehovah, even if Moses and Samuel “stood before Him” (the phrase, as in Jeremiah 35:19, has a distinctly liturgical meaning), ministering in the Courts of the Temple.