Commentary on the Holy Bible

Verse 1. The vision of Isatah] It seems doubtful whether this title belongs to the whole book, or only to the prophecy contained in this chapter. The former part of the title seems properly to belong to this particular prophecy; the latter part, which enumerates the kings of Judah under whom Isaiah exercised his prophetical office, seems to extend it to the whole collection of prophecies delivered in the course of his ministry. Vitringa — to whom the world is greatly indebted for his learned labours on this prophet, and to whom we should have owed much more if he had not so totally devoted himself to Masoretic authority — has, I think, very judiciously resolved this doubt. He supposes that the former part of the title was originally prefixed to this single prophecy; and that, when' the collection of all Isaiah's prophecies was made, the enumeration of the kings of Judah was added, to make it at the same time a proper title to the whole book. As such it is plainly taken in 2 Chron. xxxii. 32, where the book of Isaiah is cited by this title: " The vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz."

The prophecy contained in this first chapter stands single and unconnected, making an entire piece of itself It contains a severe remonstrance against the corruptions prevailing among the Jews of that time, powerful exhortations to repentance, grievous threatenings to the impenitent, and gracious promises of better times, when the nation shall have been reformed by the just judgments of God. The expression, upon the whole, is clear; the connection of the several parts easy; and in regard to the images, sentiments, and style, it gives a beautiful example of the prophet's elegant manner of wTiting; though perhaps it may not be equal in these respects to many of the following prophecies.

Verse 2. Hear, O heavens — " Hear, O ye heavens"'] God is introduced as entering into a public action, or pleading, before the whole world, against his disobedient people. The prophet, as herald or officer to proclaim the summons to the court, calls upon all created beings, celestial and terrestrial, to attend and bear witness to the truth of his plea and the justice of his cause. The same scene is more fully displayed in the

but Israel ° doth not know, my people ^ doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people s laden with iniquity, '' a seed of

noble exordium of Psa. 1., where God summons all mankind, from east to west, to be present to hear his appeal; and the solemnity is held on Sion, where he is attended with the same terrible pomp that accompanied him on Mount Sinai; —

"A consuming fire goes before him. And round him rages a violent tempest: He calleth the heavens from above. And the earth, that he may contend in judgment with his people." Psa. 1. 3, 4. By the same bold figure, Micah calls upon the mountains, that is, the whole country of Judea, to attend to him, chap. vi. 1,2: — "Arise, plead thou before the mountains. And let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the controversy of Jehovah; And ye, O ye strong foundations of the earth: For Jehovah hath a controversy with his people. And he will plead his cause against Israel."

With the like invocation, Moses introduces his sublime song, the design of which was the same as that of this prophecy, " to testify as a witness, against the Israelites," for their disobedience, Deut. xxsi. 21: —

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth." Deut. xxxii. 1.

This, in the simple yet strong oratorical style of Moses, is, " I call heaven and earth to witness against thee this day; life and death have I set before thee; the blessing and the curse: choose now life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed." Deut. xxx. 19. The poetical style, by an apostrophe, sets the personification in a much stronger light.

Halh spoken — " That speaketh"] I render it in the present time, pointing it 13T dober. There seems to be an impropriety in demanding attention to a speech already delivered. But the present reading may stand, as the prophet may be here understood to declare to the people what the Lord had first spoken to him.

/ have nourisrhed] The Septuagint have eytvvrica, " I have begotten." Instead of ^PiT^i giddalti, they read 'mS' yaladti; the word little differing from the other, and perhaps more proper; which the Chaldee likewise seems to favour; " vocavi eos filios." See Exod iv. 22; Jer. xxxi. 9. •

Verse 3. The ox knowcth] An amplification of the gross insensibility of the disobedient Jews, by comparing them with the most heavy and stupid of all animals, yet not so insensible as they. Bochart has well illustrated the comparison, and shown the peculiar force of it. " He sets them lower than the beasts, and even than the most stupid of all beasts, for there is scarcely any more so than the ox and the ass. Yet these acknowledge their master; they know the manger of their lord; by whom they are fed, not for their own, but for rupters! They have forsaken Anno oiymp. the Lord, they have provoked Ante Urbcm the Holy One of Israel unto his good; neither are they looked upon as children, but as beasts of burden; neither are they advanced to honours, but oppressed with great and daily labours. While the Israelites, chosen by the mere favour of God, adopted as sons, promoted to the highest dignity, yet acknowledged not their Lord and their God; but despised his commandments, though in the highest degree equitable and just." Hieroz. i., col. 409.

Jeremiah's comparison to the same purpose is equally elegant, but has not so much spirit and severity as this of Isaiah.

" Even the stork in the heavens knoweth her season;

And the turtle, and the swallow, and the crane, observe the time of their coming;

But my people doth not know the judgment of Jehovah." Jer. viii. 7.

Hosea has given a very elegant turn to the same image, in the way of metaphor or allegory: —

"I dre\* them with human cords, with the bands of love: And I was to them as he that lifteth up the yoke

upon their cheek; And I laid down their fodder before them."

Salomo ben Melech thus explains the middle part of the verse, which is somewhat obscure: " I was to them at their desire as they that have compassion on a heifer, lest she be overworked in ploughing; and that lift up the yoke from oif her neck, and rest it upon her cheek that she may not still draw, but rest from her labour an hour or two in the day."

But Israel] The Septuagint, Syriac, Aquila, Theodotion, and Vulgate, read 7^!^tJ''1 veyisracl, but Israel, adding the conjunction, which being rendered as an adversative, sets the opposition in a stronger light.

Doth not know] The same ancient versions agree in adding ME, which very properly answers, and indeed is almost necessarily required to answer, the words possessor and lord preceding. lapaj/zl dc MF ovK syva; Sept. " Israel autem me non cognovit;" Vulg. lapaij?^ 6e MOT ovk eyvo; Aquil., Theod. The testimony of so scrupulous an interpreter as Aquila is of great weight in this case. And both his and Theodolion's rendering is such as shows plainly that they did not add the word MOT to help out the sense, for it only embarrasses it. It also clearly determines what was the original reading in the old copies from which they translated. It could not be 'J^'T' yedani, which most obviously answers to the version of the Septuagint and Vulgate, for it does not accord with that of Aquila and Theodotion. The version of these latter interpreters, however injudicious, clearly ascertains both the phrase, and the order of the words, of the original Hebrew; it was j;^ sb TIIN SxiB''' vey- and more whole heart faint

5 "^ Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will ' revolt more the wliole head is sick, and the

Israel olhi lo yada. The word "fliN othi has been lost out of the text. The very same phrase is used by Jeremiah, chap. iv. 22, l^'T N*? ^IIX 'D>' arami othi lo yadau. And the order of the words must have been as above represented; for they have joined SnTiJ' yisrael, with TllN othi, as in rcgimine; they could not have taken it in this sense, Israel meus?ion cognovit, had either this phrase or the order of the words been different. I have endeavoured to set this matter in a clear light, as it is the first e.xample of a whole word lost out of the text, of which the reader will find many other plain examples in the course of these notes. But Rosenmiiller contends that this is unnecessary, as the passage may be translated, " Israel knows nothing: my people have no understanding."

The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read 'Si'l veammi, " and my people;" and so likewise sixteen MSS. 0? Kennicott, and fourteen of De Rossi.

Verse 4. Ah sinful nation — " Degenerate"] Five MSS., one of them ancient, read DMHiya moschathim, without the first ' yod, in honhal corrupted, not corrupters. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, Prov. xxv. 26.

Are corrupters — " Are estranged"] Thirty-two MSS., five ancient, and two editions, read ni!J nazoru; which reading determines the word to be from the root lit zur, to alienate, not from ^;3 nazar, to separate; so Kimchi understands it. See also Annotat. in Noldium, G8.

They are gone aioay backward — " They have turned their backs upon him."] So Kimchi explains it: " they have turned unto him the back, and not the face." See Jer. ii. 27; vii. 24. I have been forced to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal translation, " they are estranged backward," would have been unintelligible.

Verse 5. Why should ye he stricken any more — " On what part," &c. ]] The Vulgate renders nO Sj' <il meh, super quo, (see Job xxxviii. 6; 2 Chron. xxxii. 10,) upon what part. And so Abendana on Sal. hen Melech: " There are some who explain it thus: Upon what limb shall you be smitten, if you add defection 1 for already for your sins have you been smitten upon all of them; so that there is not to be found in you a whole limb on which you can be smhten." Which agrees with what follows: " From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it:" and the sentiment and image is exactly the same with that of Ovid, Pont. ii. 7, 42: —

Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum.

There is no place on you for a new stripe. Or that still more expressive line of Euripides; the great force and effect of which Longinus ascribes to even unto the head tlwre is no Anno oiymp.

soundness in it; but wounds, Ante Urbem and bruises, and putrefying sores; Conditam 7.

they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with " ointment.

its close and compressed structure, analogous to the sense which it expresses: —

" On what part will ye strike again 1 will ye add correction V This is addressed to the instruments of God's vengeance; those that inflicted the punishment, who or whatsoever they were. Ad verbum certee personae intelligenda; sunt, quibus ista actio qua; per verbum exprimitur competit; " The words are addressed to the persons who were the agents employed in the work expressed by the original word," as Glassius says in a similar case, Phil. Sacr. i. 3, 22. See chap. viii. 4.

Verse 5. The whole head is sick] The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousness. Or, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and the Church corrupted in its rulers and in its members.

Verse 6. They have not been closed, tjc. — " It hath not been pressed," &c.] The pharmaceutical art in the East consists chiefly in external applications: accordingly the prophet's images in this place are all taken from surgery. Sir John Chardin, in his note on Prov. iii. 8, " It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones," observes that " the comparison is taken from the plasters, ointments, oils, and frictions, which are made use of in the East upon the belly and stomach in inost maladies. Being ignorant in the villages of the art of making decoctions and potions, and of the proper doses of such things, they generally make use of external medicines." — Harmer^s Observations on Scripture, vol. ii. p. 488. And in surgery their materia medica is extremely simple, oil making the principal part of it. " In India," says Tavernier, " they have a certain preparation of oil and melted grease, which they commonly use for the healing of wounds." Voyage Ind. So the good Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wd^inds of the distressed Jew: wine, cleansing and somewhat astringent, proper for a fresh wound; oil, mollifying and healing, Luke x. 34. Kimchi has a judicious remark here: " When various medicines are applied, and no liealing takes place, that disorder is considered as coming immediately from G od."

Of the three verbs in this sentence, one is in the singular number in the text; another is singular in two MS,S., (one of them ancient,) riB'^n chubbeshah; and the Syriac and Vulgate render all of them in the siugular number.

7 "Your country is desolate, j^our cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate.

p as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left « as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, ' as a besieged

Verses 7-9. Your country is desolate] The description of the ruined and desolate state of the country in these verses does not suit with any part of the prosperous times of Uzziah and Jothara. It very well agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged by the joint invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, and by the incursions of the Philistines and Edomites. The date of this prophecy is therefore generally fixed to the time of Ahaz. But on the other hand it may be considered whether those instances of idolatry which are urged in ver. 29 — the worshipping in groves and gardens — having been at all times too commonly practised, can be supposed to be the only ones which the prophet would insist upon in the time of Ahaz; who spread the grossest idolatry through tlie whole country, and introduced it even into the temple; and, to complete his abominations, made his son pass through the fii-e to Molech. It is said, 2 Kings xv. 37, that in Jotham's time " the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin — and Pekah." If we may suppose any invasion from that quarter to have been actually made at the latter end of Jotham's reign, I should choose to refer this prophecy to that time.

And your cUies3.Te burned. — Nineteen of Dr. Kenmcott's MSS. and twenty-tioo of De Rossi''s, some of my own, with the Syriac and Arabic., add the conjunction, which makes the hemistich more complete.

Verse 7. O'li zarim at the end of the verse. This reading, though confirmed by all the ancient versions, gives us no good sense; for " j'our land is devouredby strangers; and is desolate, as if overthrown by strangers," is a mere tautology, or, what is as bad, an identical comparison. Aien Ezra thought that the word in its present form might be taken for the same with D1I zcrem, an inundation: Schultens is of the same opinion; (see Taylor^s Concord.;) and Schindler in his Lexicon explains it in the same manner: and so, says Kimchi, some explain it. Abcndana endeavours to reconcile it to grammatical analogy in the following manner: " i3'1t zarim is the same with D^I zerem; that is, as overthrown by an inundation of waters: and these two words have the same analogy as mp kedem and D'Hp kadim. Or it may be a concrete of the same form with "^'Jiy shechir; and the meaning will be; as overthrown by rain pouring down violently, and causing a flood." On Sal. ben Mclech, in loc. But I rather suppose the true reading to be 0"»1 zercm, and have translated it accordingly: the word D'li zerim, in the line above, seems to have caught the transcriber's eye, and to have led him into this mistake. But this conjecture of the learned prelate is not confirmed by any MS. yet discovered.

Verse 8.,4.? a cottage in a vineyard — " As a shed in a vineyard"] A little temporary hut covered with boughs, straw, turf, or the like materials, for a shelter from the heat by day, and the cold and dews by night, for the watchman that kept the garden or vineyard during the short season the fruit was ripening, (see Job x.xvii. 18,) and presently removed when it had served that purpose. See Harmer's Observ. i. 454. They were probably obliged to have such a constant watch to defend the fruit from the jackals. " The jackal," {chical of the Turks,) says Hasselquist, (Travels, p. 227,) " is a species of mustela which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage; and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers." " There is also plenty of the cams vulpes, the fox, near the convent of St. John in the desert, about vintage tiine; for they destroy all the vines unless they are strictly watched." Ibid. p. 184. See Cant. ii. 15.

Fruits of the gourd kind, melons, water-melons, cucumbers, &c., are much used and in great request in the Levant, on account of their cooling quality. The Israelites in the wilderness regretted the loss of the cucumbers and melons among the other good things of Egypt, Num. xi. 5. In Egypt the season of luater-mclons, which are most in request, and which the common people then chiefly live upon, lasts but three weeks. See Hasselquist, p. 256. Tavermer makes it of longer continuance: L'on y void de grands carreaux de melons et de concombres, mais beaucoup plus de derniers, dont les Levantins font leur delices. Le plus souvent ils les mangent sans les peler, apr^s quoi ils vont boire une verre d'eau. Dans toute I'Asie c'est la nourriture ordinaire du petit peuple pendant trois ou quatre mois; toute la famille en vit; et quand un enfant demand k manger, au lieu qu'en France ou aillieurs nous luy donnerions du pain, dans le Levant on luy presente un concombre, qu'il mange cru comme on le vient de cueillir. Les concombres dans le Levant ont une bont^ particuliere; et quoiqu' on les mange crus, ils ne font jamais de mal; " There are to be seen great beds of melons and cucumbers, but a greater number of the latter, of which the Levantines are particularly fond. In general they eat them without t.aking oB" the rind, after which they drink a glass of water. In every part of Asia this is the aliment of the common people for three or four months; the whole family live on them; and when a child asks something to eat, instead of giving it a piece of bread, as is done in France and other countries, they present it with a cucumber, which it eats raw, as gathered. Cucumbers in the Levant are peculiarly excellent; and although eaten raw, they are seldom injurious." Tavcrnier, Relat. du Serrail, cap. xix.

As a lodge, d^c] That is, after the fruit was gathered; the lodge being then permitted to fall into decay. Such was the desolate, ruined state of the city.

A. M. cir. 3244. g ExCept the LoRD of hoStS

Aimo Oiymp. had left unto us a very small

Ante Urbem remnant, we should have been

as ' Sodom, and we should have been like imto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers ^ of Sodom; give ear unto the law of om- God, ye people of Gomorrah.

1 1 To what purpose is the multitude of your " sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I

.4.? a besieged city — " A city taken by siege"] So the lif iro?.ic ■^oliopKoviJ.cvrj; Septuagint: see also the Vulgate.

Verse 9. T/ie Lord of hosts — " Jehovah God of hosts"] As this title of God, niNDi" DIH' Yehovah tsebaoth, " Jehovah of hosts," occurs here for the first time, I think it proper to note, that I translate it always, as in this place, " Jehovah God of hosts;" taking it as an elliptical expression for j11N3i" TI/S niri'' Yehovah Elohey tsebaoth. This title imports that Jehovah is the God or Lord of hosts or armies; as he is the Creator and Supreme Governor of all beings in heaven and earth, and disposeth and ruleth them all in their several orders and stations; the almighty, universal Lord.

We should have been as Sodom] As completely and finaJly ruined as that and the cities of the plain were, no vestige of which remains at this day.

Verse 10. Ye rulers of Sodom — "Ye princes of Sodom"] The incidental mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse suggested to the prophet this spirited address to the rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem, under the character of princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Two examples of a sort of elegant turn of the like kind may be observed in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chap. xv. 4, 5, 12, 13. See Locke on the place; and see ver. 29, 30, of this chapter, which gives another example of the same.

And — li/ce unto Gomorrah. — The 1 van is added by thirty-one of KennicotCs MSS., twenty-nine of De Rossi's and one, very ancient, of my own. See on

Verse II. To what purpose, cjc. — "What have I lo do."] The prophet Amos has expressed the same sentiments with great elegance: —

" I hate, I despise your feasts; And I will not delight in the odour of your solemnities; Though ye offer unto me burnt-offerings And your meat-offerings, I will not accept: Neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatlings. Take away from me the noise of your songs; And the melody of your viols I will not hear. But let judgment roll down like waters; And righteousness like a mighty stream."

am full of the burnt-offerines of A. M- cir. 3244.

rams, and thefatof fed beasts; and Anno Olymp. I delight not in the blood of bul- Ante Urbem locks, or of lambs, or of'' he-goats. Conditam?.

12 When ye come "^to >' appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more ^ vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, ^ the calling of assemblies, I

So has Persius; see Sat. ii. v. 71-75: — " Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lanae," &c.

The two or three last pages of Plato's Euthyphro contain the same idea. Sacrifices and prayers are not profitable to the offerer, nor acceptable to the gods, unless accompanied with an upright life.

Verse 11. The fat of fed beasts, JfC.] The fat and the blood are particularly mentioned, because these were in all sacrifices set apart to God. The fat was alv\ays burnt upon the altar, and the blood was partly sprinkled, differently on different occasions, and partly poured out at the bottom of the altar. See Lev. iv.

Verse 12. When ye come to appear] Instead of ^1S^7 leraolh, to appear, one MS. has niNlS liroth, to see. See De Rossi. The appearing before God here refers chiefly to the three solemn annual festivals. See Exod. xxiii. 14.

Tread my courts (no more)] So the Septuagint divide the sentence, joining the end of this verse to the beginning of the next: Uarciv -jjv av7.riv fiov, ov ■KpoadrjccoBc; " To tread my court ye shall not add — ye shall not be again accepted in worship."

Verse 13. The new moons and Sabbaths — " The fast and the day of restraint"] mxi'i jlN cue vaatsarah. These words are rendered in many different manners by different interpreters, to a good and probable sense by all; but I think by none in such a sense as can arise from the phrase itself, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language. Instead of pN aven, the Septuagint manifestly read QIS tsom,v7jaTciav, "the fast." This Houbiganl has adopted. The prophet could not well have omitted the fast in the enumeration of their solemnities, nor the abuse of it among the instances of their hypocrisy, which he has treated at large with such force and elegance in his fifty-eighth chapter. Observe, also, that the prophet Joel, (chap. i. 14, and ii. 15,) twice joins together the fast and the day of restraint: — atsarah kiru tsom Jcaddeshu " Sanctify a fast; proclaim a day of restraint:" which shows how properly they are here joined together, mi';' atsarah, " the restraint," is rendered, both here and in other places of our English translation, " the solemn assembly." Certain holy days ordained by the law were distinguished by a particular

Anno oiymp. tv, evcn the solemn meeting. Ante Urbem 14 Youp " new moons and your Conditam 7. d appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto iil3; '^ I am

15 And *' when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: ^ yea, when ye '' make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of ' blood.''

16 ' Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; ■" cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; " seek judgment, ° relieve the oppressed, judge the fatlierless, plead for the widow.

charge that " no servile work should be done therein;" Lev. xxviii. 36; Num. xxLx. 35; Deut. xvi. 8. This circumstance clearly explains the reason of the name, the restraint, or the day of restraint, given to those days.

If I could approve of any translation of these two words which I have met with, it should be that of the Spanish version of the Old Testament, made for the use of the Spanish Jews: Tortura y ilelenimento, " it is a pain and a constraint unto me." But I still think that the reading of the Septuagint is more probably the truth.

Your hands — " For your hands"] kl yap x^^PH — Sept. Manus enim vestra: — Vulg. They seem to have read D3'T ''2 ki ycdeychem.

Verse 16. Wash yoii\ Referring to the preceding verse, " your hands are full of blood;" and alluding to the legal washings commanded on several occasions. See Lev. xiv. 8, 9, 47.

Verse 17. Relieve the oppressed — "Amend that ■which is corrupted"] j'ran niJ^N ashcru chamois. In rendering this obscure plirase I follow i?c>cAar^, (Hieroz. Part i., lib. ii., cap. 7.,) though I am not perfectly satisfied with this explication of it.

Verse 18. Though your sins he as scarlet] •'VO shani, " scarlet or crimson," dibaphum, twice dipped, or double dyed; from TSW shanah, ttcrare, to double, or to do a thing twice. This derivation seems much more probable than that which Salmasius prefers, from pty shanan, acucre, to whet, from the sharpness and strength of the colour, ofv^oinKov; -jhr) tela, the same; properly the ivorm, vermiculus, (from whence vermeil,) for this colour was produced from a worm or insect which grew in a coccus or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, (see Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. 8,) like the aochineal worm in the opuntia of America. See Ul- son together, saith the Lord: Anno oiymp.

though your sins be as scarlet, Ante Urbem 1 tiiev shall be as white as snow; ^°"'''''^"' ^-

though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye sliall be devoured with the sword: ■■ for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

2 1 ^ How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 ' Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mi.xed with water:

loa's Voyage, book v., chap, ii., note to page 342. There is a shrub of this kind that grows in Provence and Laiguedoc, and produces the like insect, called the kermes oak, (see Miller, Diet. Querciis,) from kermez, the Arabic word for this colour, whence our word crimson is derived.

" Neque amissos colores Lana refert medicata fuco,"

says the poet, applying the same image to a different purpose. To discharge these strong colours is impossible to human art or power; but to the grace and power of God all things, even much more difficult, are possible and easy. Some copies have D'Jtyj keshanim, " like crimson garments."

Though they be red, <^c.] But the conjunction 1 vau is added by tioenly-one of KennicotC s, and by forty-two of De RossVs MSS., by some early editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. It makes a fuller and more emphatic sense. " And though they be red as crimson,^^ &c.

Verse 19. Ye shall eat the good of the land] Referring to ver. 7: it shall not be " devoured by strangers."

Verse 20. Ye shall be dcvorircd with the sword — " Ye shall be food for the sword"] The Septuagint and Vulgate read DDTJNn tochalchem, '• the sword shall devour you;" which is of much more easy construction than the present reading of the text.

TheChaldee seems to read 1^3xn D'lN 3in3 bechereh oyeb teachelu, " ye shall be consumed by the sword of the enemy." The Syriac also reads 3in3 bechereh, and renders the verb passively. And the rhythmus seems to require this addition. — Dr. Jubb.

Verse 2 1. Become a harlot] See before, tlie Discourse on the Prophetic Style; and see Lowth's Comment on the place, and De Sacr. Poes. Ilebr. Prsel. xxxi.

Verse 22. Wine mixed loith water] An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the pej-

23 "Thy princes are rebellious, and ■' companions of thieves: ■" every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they

judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24 Therefore saith the Lord,

Quintse 1. Ante Vrbem Conriitam 7.

pie of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, " They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." " Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils!e prennent tout pur, i la facon des Levantins, qui ne le mfelent jamais avec de Teua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de grand traits." Voyage, part ii., liv. ii., chap. 10. " lis (les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des Chretiens, qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout k fait ridicule." Ibid, part i., chap. 24. " The Turks never mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Christians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridiculous."

It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity,) myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupifying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt: —

Homer. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220. " Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul, Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl; Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage: Charm'd witli that virtuous draught, the exalted mind All sense of wo delivers to the wind." Pope.

Such was the " spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned Cant. viii. 2. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, mav be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amten. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15.

Thus the drunkard is properly described, Prov. xxiii. 30, as one " that seeketh mixed wine," and " is mighty to mingle strong drink," Isa. v. 22. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isaiah Ii. 17, the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33,) containing, as wine is turbid: it is full of a mixed liquor, and he pourelh out of it;" or rather, " he poureth it out of one vessel into another," to mix it perfectly, according to the reading expressed by the ancient versions, D" Ss HTO "^i'l vaiyagger mizzeh al zeh, and he pours it from this to that, " verily the dregs thereof," the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, " all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."

R. D. Kimchi says, " The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet was circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold notwithstanding for pure wine."

Verse 23. Companions of thieves — "Associates"] The Septuagint, Vulgate, and four JISS., read -"lan chabrey, without the conjunction 1 vau.

Verse 24, Ah, I icUl ease me — " Aha! I will be eased"] Anger, arising from a sense of injury and affront, especially from those who, from every consideration of duty and gratitude, ought to have behaved far otherwise, is an uneasy and painful sensation: and revenge, executed to the full on the offenders, removes that uneasiness, and consequently is pleasing and quieting, at least for the present, Ezekiel, chap. v. 13, introduces God expressing himself in the same manner: —

" And mine anger shall be fully accomplished; And I will make my fury rest upon them; And I will give myself ease."

This is a strong instance of the metaphor called anthropopathia, by which, throughout the Scriptures, as well the historical as the poetical parts, the sentiments, sensations, and affections, the bodily faculties, qualities, and members, of men, and even of brute animals, are attributed to God, and that with the utmost liberty and latitude of application. The foundation of this is obvious; it arises from necessity; we have no idea of the natural attributes of God, of his pure essence, of his manner of existence, of his manner of acting: when therefore we would treat on these subjects, we find ourselves forced to express them by sensible images. But necessitv leads to beauty; this is true of metaphor in general, and in particular of this kind of metaphor, which is used with great elegance and sublimity in the sacred poetry; and what is very remarkable, in the grossest instances of the application of it, it is generally the most striking and the most sublime. The reason seems to be this: when the images are taken from the superior faculties of the human nature, from the purer and more generous affections, and applied to God, we are apt to acquiesce in the notion; we overlook the

St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the | metaphor, and take it as a proper attribute; but when utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction the idea is gross and offensive, as in this passage of in terms, KeKcpacficvov oKparov, merum mixtum. pure \ Isaiah, where the impatience of anger and the pleasure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerfiil in- I of revenge is attributed to God, we are immediately gredients; Rev. xiv. 10. " In the hand of Jehov.ih,"! shocked at the application: the impropriety strikes us. saith the psalmist, Psa. lixv. 8, " there is a cup, and the I at once; and the mind, casting about for something in

Ante Urbem me 01 mine adversaries, and Cooditam 7. aygnge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and * purely * purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26 And T will restore thy judges '' as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward " thou shalt be called. The city

the Divine nature analogous to the image, lays hold on some great, obscure, vague idea, which she endeavours to comprehend, and is lost in immensity and astonishment. See De Sacr. Poesi. Hebr. Prael. xvi. sub. Jin., where this matter is treated and illustrated by examples. Verse 25. / will turn my hand upon thee] So the common version; and this seems to be a metaphor taken from the custom of those who, when the metal is melted, strike off the scoriae with their hand previously to its being poured out into the mould. I have seen this done with the naked hand, and no injury whatever sustained.

Purge away thy dross — " In the furnace'"] The text has 133 cabbor, which some render " as with soap;" as if it were the same with n">33 kchorith; so Ktmchi; but soap can have nothing to do with the purifying of metals. Others, " according to purity," or " purely,"' as our version. Le Clerc conjectured that the true reading is "WJO kechur, " as in the furnace;" see Ezek. xxii. 18, 20. Dr. Durell proposes only a transposition of letters 133 to the same sense; and so likewise Archbishop Seeker. That this is the true reading is highly probable.

Verse 26. / u:ill restore^ " This," says Kimchi, " shall be in the days of the Messiah, in which all the wicked shall cease, and the remnant of Israel shall neither do iniquity, nor speak lies." What a change mast this be among Jews!

Afterward — " And after this"] The Septtiazint, Syriac, Chaldee, and eighteen MSS., and one of my own, very ancient, add the conjunction 1 vau, and.

Verae 27. With judgment — " In judgment"] By the exercise of God's strict justice in destroying the obdurate, (see ver. 2S,) and delivering the penitent in righteousness; by the truth and faithfulness of God in performing his promises."

Verse 29. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks — " For ye shall be ashamed of the ilexes"] Sacred

groves were a very ancient and favourite appendage of idolatry. They were furnished with the temple of the god to whom they were dedicated, with altars, images, and every thing necessary for performing the various rites of worship offered there; and were the scenes of many impure ceremonies, and of much abominable superstition. They made a principal part of the religion of the oid inhabitants of Canaan; and the Israelites were commanded to destroy their groves, among other monuments of their false worship. The Israel-

27 Zion shall be redeemed Ante Urbem with judgments, and '^her con- ^°"''"'"" " verts with righteousness.

28 And the ^ destruction ' of the transgress ors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of « the oaks

ites themselves became afterwards very much addicted to this species of idolatry. '• V\Tien I had brought them into the land. Which I swore that 1 would give unto them; Then they saw every high hill and every thick tree; And there they slew their victims; And there they presented the provocation of their

offerings; And there they placed their sweet savour; And there they poured out their libations."

" On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice; And on the hills they burn incense; Under the oak and the poplar; And the ilex, because her shade is pleasant."'

Of what particular kinds the trees here mentioned are, cannot be determined with certainty. In regard to TTtlK ellah, in this place of Isaiah, as well as in Hosea, Celsius (Hierobot.) understands it of the terebinth, because the most ancient interpreters render it so; in the first place the Septuagint. He quotes eight places; but in three of these eight places the copies varv, some having t'ipvc, the oak, instead of repc3tv6of, the terebinth or turpentine tree. And he should have told us, that these same seventy render it in sixteen other places by (Jpif, the oak; so that their authority is really against him; and the Septuagint, " slant pro quercu," contrary to what he says at first setting out. Add to this that Symmachus, Theodotion, and Aquila, generally render it by ipv^, the oak; the latter only once rendering it by repe^ivBoc, the terebinth. His other arguments seem to me not very conclusive; he says, that all the qualities of n^S ellah agree to the terebinth, that it grows in mountainous countries, that it is a strong tree, long-lived, large and high, and deciduous. All these qualities agree just as well to the oak, against which he contends; and he actually attributes them to the oak in th& very next section. But I think neither the oak nor the terebinth will do in this place of Isaiah, from the last circumstance which he mentions, their being deciduous, where the prophet's design seems to me to require an evergreen, otherwise I the casting of its leaves would be nothing out of the I common established course of nature, and no proper image of extreme distress and total desolation, parallel i to that of a garden without water, that is, wholly burnt

AnnoOlymp. ye shall be confounded for the An"ri>!>em gardens that ye have chosen. Conditam 7. 30 Foryc shallbc as an oaliwhose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

up and destroyed. An ancient, who was an inhabitant and a native of this country, understands it in like manner of a tree blasted with uncommon and immoderate heat; velut arhores, cum frondes a:stu tonrente dccusserimt. £^/)/irem Syr. in loc, edit. Assemani. Compare Psa. i. 4; Jer. xvii. 8. Upon the whole I have chosen to make it the ilex, which word Yossius, Etymolog., derives from the Hebrew nSx ellah, that whether the word itself be rightly rendered or not, I might at least preserve the propriety of the poetic image. — L.

By the ilex the learned prelate means the holly, which, though it generally appears as a sort of shrub, grows, in a good soil, where it is unmolested, to a considerable height. I have one in my own garden, rising three stems from the root, and between twenty and thirty feet in height. It is an evergreen.

Verse 2 9. For they shall be ashamed — " For ye shall be ashamed"] 1^130 teboshu, in the second person, Vulgate, Chaldee, three MSS., one of my own, ancient, and one edition; and in agreement with the rest of the sentence.

Verse 30. Whose leaf — " Whose leaves"] Twentysix of Kennicott's, twenty-four of De RossVs, one ancient, of my own, and sei-cn editions, read n^Sj' aleyha, in its full and regular form. This is worth remarking, as it accounts for a great number of anomalies of the like kind, which want only the same authority to rectify them.

As a garden that hath no water — " A garden wherein

is no water."] In the hotter parts of the Eastern countries, a constant supply of water is so absolutely necessary for the cultivation and even for the preservation and existence of a garden, that should it want water but for a few days, every thing in it would be burnt up with the heat, and totally destroyed. There is therefore no garden whatever in those countries but what has such a certain supply, either from some neighbouring river, or from a reservoir of water collected from springs, or filled with rain water in the proper season, in sufficient quantity to afford ample provision for the rest of the year.

Moses, having described the habitation of man newly created as a garden planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, adds, as a circumstance necessary to complete the idea of a garden, that it was well supplied with water, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;" Gen. ii. 10: see also xiii. 10.

That the reader may have a clear notion of this matter, it will be necessary to give some account of the management of their gardens in this respect.

" Damascus," says Maundrell, p. 122, " is encompassed with gardens, extending no less, according to common estimation, than thirty miles round; which makes it look like a city in a vast wood. The gardens are thick set with fruit trees of all kinds, kept fresh

^ as tow, ' and the maker of it as Anno Oij-mp.

a spark, and they shall both burn Ante XTrbem together, and none shall quench Conditam 7.

and verdant by the waters of the Barrady, (the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients,) which supply both the gardens and city in great abundance. This river, as soon as it issues out from between the cleft of the mountain before mentioned into the plain, is immediately divided into three streams; of which the middlemost and biggest runs directly to Damascus, and is distributed to all the cisterns and fountains of the city. The other two (which I take to be the work cf art) are drawn round, one to the right hand, and the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens, into which they are let as they pass, by little currents, and so dispersed all over the vast wood, insomuch that there is not a garden but has a fine quick stream running tlirough it. The Barrady is almost wholly drunk up by the city and gardens. What small part of it escapes is united, as I was informed, in one channel again on the southeast side of the city; and, after about three or four hours' course, finally loses itself in a bog there, without ever arriving at the sea." This was likewise the case in former times, as Straho, lib. xvi., Pliny, lib. v. 18, testify; who say, " that this river was expended in canals, and drunk up by watering the place."

" The best sight," says the same Maundrell, p. 39. " that the palace of the emir of Beroot, anciently Berytus, affords, and the worthiest to be remembered, is the orange garden. It contains a large quadrangular plat of ground, divided into sixteen lesser squares, four in a row, with walks between them. The walks are shaded with orange trees of a large spreading size. Every one of these sixteen lesser squares in the garden was bordered with stone; and in the stone work were troughs, very artificially contrived, for conveying the water all over the garden; there being little outlets cut at every tree for the stream as it passed by to flow out and water it." The royal gardens at Ispahan are watered just in the same manner, according to Keinpfer^s description, Amosn. Exot., p. 193.

This gives us a clear idea of the D^D 'jSd palgey mayim, mentioned in the first Psalm, and other places of Scripture, " the divisions of waters," the waters distributed in artificial canals; for so the phrase properly signifies. The prophet Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 8, has imitated, and elegantly amplified, the passage of the psalmist above referred to: —

" He shall be like a tree planted by the water side, And which sendeth forth her roots to the aqueduct..She shall not fear, when the heat cometh; But her leaf shall be green;

And in the year of drought she shall not be anxious. Neither shall she cease from bearing fruit."

From this image the son of Sirach, Ecclus. xxiv. 30, 31, has most beautifully illustrated the influence and the increase of religious wisdom in a w-ell preparsd

" I also come forth as a canal from a ri~er, And as a conduit flowing into a paradise. I said, I will water my garden. And I will abundantly moisten luy border: And, lo! my canal became a river, And my river became a sea." This gives us the true meaning of the following elegant proverb, Prov. x.xi. 1: — "The heart of the king is like the canals of waters

in the hand of Jehovah; Whithersoever it pleaseth him, he inclineth it." The direction of it is in the hand of Jehovah, as the distribution of the water of the reservoir through the garden by different canals is at the will of the gardener. " Et, cum exustus ager morientibus sstuat herbis, Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam Elicit: ilia cadens raucum per levia murmur Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia lemperat arva." Virg., Georg. i. 107. "Then, when the fiery suns too fiercely play, And shrivelled herbs on withering stems decay. The wary ploughman on the mountain's brow Undams his watery stores; huge torrents flow; And, rattling down the rocks, large moisture yield. Tempering the thirsty fever of the field." Drvden. Solomon, Eccles. ii. 5, 6, mentions his own works of this kind: —

"I made me gardens, and paradises; And I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made me pools of water.

To water with them the grove flourishing with trees." Maundrell, p. 88, has given a description of the remains, as they are said to be, of these very pools made by Solomon, for the reception and preservation of the waters of a spring, rising at a little distance from them; which will give us a perfect notion of the contrivance and design of such reservoirs. " As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other;

being so disposed that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular, the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some diflerence between them; the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second, two hundred, and the third, two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall and plastered; and contain a great depth of water."

The immense works which were made by the ancient kings of Egvpt for recovering the waters of the Nile, when it overflow-ed, for such uses, are well known. But there never was a more stupendous work of this kind than the reservoir of Saba, or Merab, in Arabia Felix. According to the tradition of the country, it was the work of Balkis, that queen of Shebi who visited Solomon. It was a vast lake formed by the collection of the waters of a torrent in a valley, where, at a narrow pass between two mountains, a very liigh mole or dam was built. The water of the lake so formed had near twenty fathoms depth; and there were three sluices at different heights, by which, at whatever height the lake stood, the plain below might be watered. By conduits and canals from these sluices the wafer was constantly distributed in due proportion to the several lands; so that the whole country for many miles became,a perfect paradise. The city of Saba, or Merab, was situated immediately below the great dam; a great flood came, and raised the lake above its usual height; the dam gave way in the middle of the night; the waters burst forth at once, and overwhelmed the whole city, with the neighbouring towns and people. The remains of eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwellings, and the beautiful valley became a morass and a desert. This fatal catastrophe happened long before the time of Mohammed, who mentions it in the Koran, chap, xxxiv. ver. 15. See also Sale, Prelim, s. i. p. 1 0, and Michaelis, Quest, aux Voyag. Dan. No. 94. Niebuhr, Descrip. de 1' Arable, p. 240. — L.

^Prophecy concernmg the kingdom of the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentile world, 1-5. Great wickedness and idolatry of the unbelieving Jews, 6-9. Terrible consternation that will seize the loicked, who shall in vain seek for rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of God in the day of his judgments, 10—17. Total destruction of idolatry in consequence of the establishment of Messiahs kingdom, 18-21. An exhortation to put no confidence in man, 22.

iW cir. 3244. rpjjE word that Isaiah the son

Anno oiymp. of Amoz saw concerning

Ante ririiem Juclah and Jerusalem.

The prophecy contained in the second, third, and fourth chapters, makes one continued discourse. The first five verses of chap. ii. foretell the kingdom of Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into it. From the sixth verse to the end of the second chapter is foretold the punishment of the tain of the Lord's house shall Anno oiymp.

"* be established in the top of the Ante Uibem

unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God's protection; and moreover the destruction of idolatry, in consequence of the establishment of Messiah's kingdom. The whole of the third chapter, with the first verse of the fourth, is a prophecy of the calami- anizTs rax ie 3itx? efetr izit eera^L.

Anno oijrmp. tlic law, and the word of die

4 And he shall judge among

the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and ^ tliey shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into ' pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, * neitlier shall ihej' learn war any more.

6 Therefore thou hast forsaken ^""'"^ ^- thy people the house of Jacob, because lliey be replenished " from " the east, euid ° are soothsayers like the Philistines, ^ and they i please themselves in the children of strangers.

7 ' Their land also is full of silver and gold.

Have dried np the green tree;

And have made the dry tree to flourish:

I Jehovah have spoken it, and will do it."

The word "rvTiJl venathatti, in this passag-e, ver. 22, as the sentence now stands, appears incapable of being reduced to any proper construciion or sense. None of the ancient versions acknowledge it, except Theodotion, and the Vulgate; and all but the latter vary very much from the present reading of this clause. Houhiganfs correction of the passage, by reading instead of 'nnjl vcnathatti, ilpJVI vcyonekcth, and a tender scion — which is not very unlike it, perhaps better pJVi ret/onci, with which the adjective I"! rack will agree without alteration — is ingenious and probable; and I have adopted it in the above translation. — L.

Verse 3. To the house] The conjunction l vau is added by nineteen of Kennicott's, thirteen of Dc Rossi's MSS., one of my own, and two editions, the Scptuagint, Si/rioc, Vulgate, Arabic, and some copies of the Targum; axd to the house. It makes the sentence more emphatic.

He ttiU teach us of his tcays] Unless God grant a revelation of his will, what can we know!

We tci2l trait in Jtis paths] Unless we purpose to walk in the light, of what use can that light be to us?

For out of Zion shiiU go forth the law] In the house of God, and in his ordinances only, can we expect to hear the pure doctrines of revelation preached.

2. We must use the proper means in order to know this will. 3. We should know it in order to do it. 4. We should do it in order to profit by it. 5. He •who will not walk in the light when God vouchsafes it, shall be shut up in everlasting darkness. 6. Every man should help his neighbour to attain that light, life, and felicity: " Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."

Verse 4. Neither shall they learn tear any more.] If wars are necessary, how deep must that /a^/ be that renders them so! But what a reproach to humanity is the trade of war! Men are regularly instructed in it, as in any of the necessary arts. " How to dislodge most souls from their frail shrines ply"] Seven MSS. and one edition, for ip-SC' yaspihu, read in'2D' yaspichu, " and have joined themselves to the children of strangers;" that is, in marriage or worship. — Dr. JrsB. So Vvlg., adhaserunt. Comp.are chap. xiv. 1. But the very learned professor Chevalier Michaclis has explained the word inSD' yesupachu. Job xxx. 7, (German translation, note on the place,) in another manner; which perfectly well agrees with that place, and perhaps will be found to give as good a sense here. TT3D saphiach, the noun, means corn springing up, not from the seed regul.arlj' sown on cultivated land, but in the unlillcd field, from the scattered grains of the former harvest. This, by an easy metaphor, is applied to a spurious brood of children irregularly and casually begotten. The Scptuagint seem to have understood the verb here in this sense, reading it as the Vulgate seems to have done. This justifies their version, which it is hard to account for in any other manner: *:<" rrKva voXXa o?..?.o6«?.a eyevridri airoif. Compare Hos. v. 7, and the Scptuagint there. But instead of 'n'7'31 ubeyaldry, " and in the children,'" two of Kennicott's and eight of Dc Rossi's MSS. have 'n'?"!!! uchcyaldcy, " and as the children." And they sin impudently as the children of strangers. See De Rossi.

And are sootlisaycrs — " They are filled with diviners"] Heb. " They are filled from the cast:" or " more than the east." The sentence is manifestly imperfect. The Scptuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee, seem to have read Dip'iD kemikkedem; and the latter, witli another word before it, signifying idols; " they are filled with idols as from of old." Houbigant, for Dipa mikkcdcm, reads orp"? mikkcscrn, as Brcnttus had proposed long ago. I rather think that both words together give us the true reading: CpO mikkedem, D^pO mikkcscrn, " with divination from the east;" and that the first word has been by mistake omitted, from its similitude to the second.

A'erse 7. Their land is also full of horses — " And his land is filled with horses"] This was in direct contradiction to God's command in the law: " But he (the king) shall not multiply horses to himself; nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; neither sh.all he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold," Deut. xvii. 1 G, 17. Uzziah seems to have followed the example of Solomon, see I Kings x. 26-29, who first transgressed in these particulars; he recovered the port of Elath on the Red Sea. and with it that commerce which in

8 ^ Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

10 'Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.

1 1 The " lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed

Solomon's days had " made silver and gold as plenteous at Jerusalem as stones," 2 Chron. i. 15. He had an army of 307,500 men, in which, as we may infer from the testimony of Isaiah, the chariots and horse made a considerable part. " The law above mentioned was to be a standing trial of prince and people, whether they had trust and confidence in God their deliverer." See Bp. S/ie7-loc/i''s Discourses on Prophecy, Dissert, iv., where he has excellently explained the reason and effect of the law, and the influence which the observance or neglect of it had on the affairs of the Israelites.

Verse 8. Their land also is full of idols — " And his land is filled with idols"] Uzziali and Jotham are both said, 2 Kings xv. 3, 4, 34, 35, "to have done that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" that is, to have adhered to and maintained the legal worship of God, in opposition to idolatry and all irregular worship; for to this sense the meaning of that phrase is commonly to be restrained; " save that the high places were not removed where the people still sacrificed and burned incense." There was hardly any time when they were quite free from this irregular and 'unlawful practice, which they seem to have looked upon as very consistent with the true worship of God; and which seems in some measure to have been tolerated, while the tabernacle was removed from place to place, and before the temple was built. Even after the conversion of Manasseh, when he had removed the strange gods, and commanded.Tudah to serve Je- Hov.\H the God of Israel, it is added, ".Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still on the high places, yet unto Jehovah their God only," 9 Chron. xxxiii. 17. The worshipping on the high places therefore does not necessarily imply idolatry; and from what is said of these two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, we may presume that the public exercise of idolatrous worship was not permitted in their time. The idols therefore here spoken of must have been such as were designed for a private and secret use. Such probably were the teraphim so often mentioned in Scripture; a kind of household gods, of human form, as it should seem, (see

1 2 For the day of the Lord Ame Urbem

that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.

1 3 And upon all ■" the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

14 And '^ upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,

1 6 J" And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all ^ pleasant pictures.

1 Sam. xix. 13, and compare Gen. xxxi. 34,) of different magnitude, used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.

Verse 9. Boweth down — " Shall he bowed down"] This has reference to the preceding verse. They bowed themselves down to their idols, therefore shal' they be bowed down and brought low under the avenging hand of God.

Verse 10. "When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror."] On the authority of the Septuagmt, confirmed by the Arabic and an ancient MS., I have added here to the text a line, which in the 19th and 21st verses is repeated together with the preceding line, and has, I think, evidently been omitted by mistake in this place. The MS. here varies only in one letter from the reading of the other two verses; it has ■ClSi baarets, instead of yiNn haarets. None of De Rossi's MSS. confirm this addition. The line added is. When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror.

Averse \\. Be humbled'] " ntyi hn'^il shaphel veshach, read niy l'73tJ' shaphelu shach.^' — Dr. Durell. Which rectifies the grammatical construction. No MS. or version confirms this reading.

Verses 13—16. And upon all the cedars — "Even against all the cedars"] Princes, potentates, rulers, captains, rich men, etc. — So Kimchi. These verses afford us a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal characteristic of the parabolical or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which the prophets deal so largely, namely, their manner of exhibiting things Divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, religious, historical, in the way of metaphor or allegory. Of these nature furnishes much the largest and the most pleasing share; and all poetry has chiefly recourse to natural images, as the richest and most powerful source of illustration. But it may be obser\'ed of the Hebrew poetry in particular, that

18 And "^ the idols he shall utterly abolish.

19 And they shall go into the '' holes of the rocks, and into the caves of ■= the earth, ^ for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he arisetli ^ to shake terribly the

in the use of such images, and in the application of them in the way of illustration and ornament, it is more regular and constant than any other poetry whatever; that it has for tlie most part a set of images appropriated in a manner to the explication of certain subjects. Thus you will find, in many other places besides this before us, that cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan, are used in the way of metaphor and allegory for kings, princes, potentates of the highest rank; high mountains and lofli/ hills, for kingdoms, republics, states, cities; towers and fortresses, for defenders and protectors, whether by counsel or strength, in peace or war; ships of Tarshish and works of art, and invention employed in adorning them, for merchants, men enriched by commerce, and abounding in all the luxuries and elegances of life, such as those of Tyre and Sidon; for it appears from the course of the whole passage, and from the train of ideas, that the fortresses and the ships are to be taken metaphorically, as well as the high trees and the lofty mountains.

S/u/js of Tarshish] Are in Scripture frequently used by a metonymy for ships in general, especially such as are employed in carrying on traffic between distant countries, as Tarshish was the most celebrated mart of those limes, frequented of old by the Phcenicians, and the principal source of wealth to Judea and the neighbouring countries. The learned seem now to be perfectly well agreed that Tarshish is Tartessus, a city of Spain, at the mouth of the river Ba;tis, whence the Phoenicians, who first opened this trade, brought silver and gold, (Jcr. x. 9; Ezek. xxvii. 12,) in which that country then abounded; and, pursuing their voyage ■still farther to the Cassiterides, {Bocharl, Canaan, i. c. 39; Hcut. Hist, de Commerce, p. 191,) tlie islands of Scilly and Cornwall, they brought from thence lead and tin.

Tarshish is celebrated in Scripture, 2 Chron, viii. 17, 18, ix. 21, for the trade which Solomon carried on thither, in conjunction with the Tyrians. Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings xxii. 48, 2 Chron. xx. 36, attempted afterwards to renew their trade. And from the account given of his attempt it appears that his fleet was to sail to Ezion-geber on the Red Sea; they must therefore have designed to sail round Africa, as Solomon's fleet had done before, (see Hvet, Histoire de Commerce, p. 32,) for it was a three years' voyage.

cast ' his idols of silver, and his Annouhmp. idols of gold, ^ which they made Ante ui-bcm each one for himself to worship, '^°"''"'"" ''■ to the moles and to the bats;

21 ' To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, " for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majest)' when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

22 " Cease ye from man.whose " breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

(2 Chron. ix. 21,) and they brought gold from Ophir, probably on the coast of Arabia; silver from Tartessus; and ivory, apes, and peacocks, from Africa. " 'ISIX Afri, Africa, the Roman termination, Africa terra, ly'iyin Tarshish, some city or country in Africa. So the Chaldee on 1 Kings xxii. 49, where it renders ty'tyin Tarshish by np'"i£]X Aphricah; and compare 2 Chron. xx. 36, from whence it appears, to go to Ophir and to Tarshish is one and the same thing." — Dr. Jubb. It is certain that under Pharaoh Necho, about two hundred years afterwards, this voyage was made by the Egyptians; Herodot. iv. 42. They sailed from the Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, and they performed it in three years, just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pto?/, Nat. Hist., ii. 67, that the passage round the Cape of Good Hope was known and frequently practised before his time, by Hanno the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in its glory; by one Eudo.xus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt; and Ccelus Antipater, a historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies that he had seen a merchant who had made the voyage from Gades to Ethiopia. The Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, near three hundred years ago, recovered this navigation, after it had been intermitted and lost for many centuries. — L.

Averse 18. Shall utterly abolish — " Shall disappear"] The ancient versions and an ancient MS. read IS^n'' yachulpu, plural. One of my MSS. reads fyhw yachaloph, probably a mistake for 13'7n" yachalpv.

Verses 19-21. Into the holes of the rocks — " Into

caverns of rocks"] The country of Judea being mountainous and rocky, is full of caverns, as appears from the history of David's persecution under Saul. At Engedi, in particular, there was a cave so large that David with six hundred men hid themselves in the sides of it; and Saul entered the mouth of the cave without perceiving that any one was there, 1.Sam. xxiv. Josephus, Antiq., lib. xiv., c. 15, and Bell. Jud., lib. I. c. 16, tells us of a numerous gang of banditti, who. having infested the country, and being pursued by lie rod with his army, retired into certain caverns almost inaccessible, near Arbela in Galilee, where they were with great difliculty subdued. Some of these were natural, others artificial. " Beyond Damascus," says

Strabo, lib. xvi., "are two mountains called Trachones; from whicli the country has the name of Trachonitis; an;! from hence towards Arabia and Iturea, are certain rugged mountains, in whicli there are deep caverns, one of which will hold four thousand men." Tavernier, Voyage de Perse, part ii., chap. 4, speaks of a grot, between Aleppo and Bir, that would hold near ihree thousand horse. " Three hours distant from Sidon, about a mile from the sea, there runs along a high rocky mountain, in the sides of which are hewn a multitude of grots, all very little differing from each other. They have entrances about two feet square: on the inside you find in most or all of them a room of about four yards square. There are of these subterraneous caverns two hundred in number. It may, with probability at least, be concluded that these places were contrived for the use of the living, and not of the dead. Strabo describes the habitations of the Troglodytae to have been somewhat of this kind." — Maundrell, p. 118. The Horites, who dwelt in Mount.Seir, were Troglodytae, as their name, D'ln horim, imports. But those mentioned by Strabo were on each side of the Arabian gulf. Mohammed (Koran, chap. XV. xxvi.) speaks of a tribe of Arabians, the tribe of Thamud, " who hewed houses out of the mountains, to secure themselves." Thus, " because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves and strong holds," Judg. vi. 2. To these they betook themselves for refuge in times of distress and hostile invasion: " V< hen the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits," 1 Sara. xiii. 6,

and see Jer. xli. 9. Therefore "to enter into the rock, to go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth," was to them a very proper and familiar image to express terror and consternation. The prophet Ilosea, chap. x. 8, hath carried the same image farther, and added great strength and spirit to it; " They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; And to the hdis, Fall on us;"

which image, together with these of Isaiah, is adopted by the sublime author of the Revelation, chap. vi. 15, 16, who frequently borrows his imagery from our prophet. — L.

Verse 20. Which they made each one for himself to ivorship — " Which they have made to worship"] The word l'? lo, for himself, is omitted by two ancient MSS., and is unnecessary. It does not appear that any copy of the Septuagint has it, except MS. Pachom, and MS. i. D. il., and they have havToi^, DdS lahem, to themselves.

To the moles] They shall carry their idols with them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habitation. Bellonius, Greaves, P. Lucas, and many other travellers, speak of bats of an enormous size, as inhabiting the Great Pyramid. See Harmcr, Obs., vol. ii., 455. Three MSS. express nilDISn chapharperoth, the moles, as one word.

Verse 22. Cease ye from mon] Trust neither in him, nor in the gods that he has invented. Neither he, nor they, can either save or destroy.

The u'holc of this chapter, with the first verse of the next, is a prophecy of those calamities that should be occasioned by the Babylonish invasion and captivity. These calamities are represented as so great and so general, that even royal honours, in such a state, are so far from being desirable, that hardly any can be got to accept them, 1-7. This visitation is declared to be the consequence of their profanity and guilt; for lohich the prophet farther reproves and threatens them, 8—15. Particular amplification of the distress of the delicate and luxurious daughters of Zion; whose deplorable situation is finely contrasted with their former prosperity and ease, 16—26.

Verse 1. The stay and the staff — " Every stay and support"] Hebrew, " the support masculine, and the fiupport feminine:" that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. " Al kanitz, wal-kanitzah; the wild beasts, male and female. Proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting: i. e., I siezed the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schullens observes, is explained Isa. iii. 1, literally, the male and female stay: i. e., the strong

2 "^ The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the

The Hebrew words nj;"iyoi ["iJO mashen umashe nah come from the same root [j.'2/ shaan, to lean against, to incline, to support; and here, being masculine and feminine, they may signify all things necessary for the support both of man and woman. My old MS. understands the staff and stay as meaning particular persons, and translates the verse thus: — Ho forsotli, tfic aorXisciji;!) aor'O of ■JBoostfs scijal lion atocit fto

ancient. 3 The captain of fifty, and the

* honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the ° eloquent orator.

4 And I will give ' children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly

The two following verses, 2, 3, are very clearly explained by the sacred historian's account of the event, the captivity of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: " And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all

against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

6 When a man shall lake hold

of his brother of the house of his

father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:

7 In that day shall he s swear, sayiirg, I will not be a '■ healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.

8 For Jerusalem ' is ruined, and Judah is

The preceding and following verses show, that his whole deportment, in regard to the prophet, was full of submission and humility.

Aiid let this ruin be tender thy hand — " And let thy hand support"] Before IT nnn tachath yadecha, a MS. adds Ti'TiTs tihyeh, " let it be;" another M.S. adds the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten i in the same place, p'3 npn tahach beyadecha, which thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none [latter seems to be a various reading of the two preremained save the poorest Sort of the people of the land," 3 Kings xxiv. 14. Which is supplied by our version. Verse 4. / ivill give childreri to be their princes — " I will make boys their princes"] This also was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes, from the death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and temple, and the taking of Zedekiah, the last of them, by Nebuchadnezzar.

Babes shall rule over them.] JBnntenniiscljc men sclnil lovtiscMpcn to Jem — Old MS.'Bible.' ceding words, inaking a very good sense; " Take into thy hand our rumous state." Twcniy-one MSS. of KennifotCs, thirteen of Be Rossi's, one of my own, ancient, and three editions of the Babylonish Talmud have I'T yadeycha, plural, " thy hands."

Verse 7. In that day shall he swear — " Then shall he openly declare"] The Septuagint, Si/riac, and Jerome, read NIVI veyissa, adding the conjunction, which seems necessary in this place.

/ xvill not be a healer] E am not a lecje. — Old M.S. Bible. Leech was the ancient English word for a interpreters seem to have read nOO mihbeith, from the house; tov oikciov rov narpo; avrov, Septuagint; domesticum patris sui, Vulgate; which gives no good sense. But the Septuagint MS. i. T>. ii. for oiiceiov has oiKov. And, his brother, nf his father^ s house, is little better than a tautology. The case seems to require that the man should apply to a person of some sort of rank and eminence; one that was the head of nis father's house, (see Josh..xii. 14,) whether of the house of him who applies to him, or of any other; VDN n"3 B?N"1 rosh beith ahaiv, the chief, or head of liis father's house. I cannot help suspecting, therefore, that the word K'NI rosh, head, chief, has been lost out of the text.

Saying] Before nSriW sinilah, garment, two MSS., one ancient, and the Babylonish Talmud have the word TDS7 lemor, saying; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee. I place it with Houhigant, after rhow simlah.

Thou hast clothing — " Take by the garment"] That is, shall entreat him in an humble and supplicating manner. " Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, Let us go with you; for we have heard that God is with you," Zech. viii. 23. And so in Isa. iv. 1, the same gesture is used to express earnest and humble entreaty. The behaviour of

For in my house is neither bread nor clothing — " For in my house is neither bread nor raiment"] " It is customary through all the East," says Sir J. Chardin, " to gather together an immense quantity of furniture and clothes; for their fashions never alter." Princes and great men are obliged to have a great stock of such things in readiness for presents upon all occasions. " The kings of Persia," says the same author, " have great wardrobes, where there are always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for presents, and sorted," Harmcr, Observ., II. 11 and 88. A great quantity of provision for the table was equally necessary. The daily provision for Solomon's household, whose attendants were exceedingly nunierons, was proportionably great, 1 Kings iv. 32, 23. Even Nehemiah, in his strait circumstances, had a large supply daily for his table; at which he received a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides those that came from among the neighbouring heathen, Neh. v. 17, 18.

This explains the meaning of the excuse made by him that is desired to undertake the government. lie alleges that he has not wherewithal to support the dignity of the stiition, by such acts of liberality and hospitality as the law of custom required of persons of superior rank. See Harmer''s Observations, I. 340. II. 88.

Saul towards Samuel was of the same kind, when he pears to be of very doubtful form, from the printed laid hold on the skirt of his raiment, 1 Sam. xv. 27 I editions, the MSS., and the ancient versions. The

9 Tlie show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as ^ Sodom, they hide it not. Wo unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto them-

10 Say ye to the righteous, ' that it shall be well u-ith him: ™ for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

first yod in '3'J? erjney, which is necessary according to the common interpretation, is in many of them omitted; the two last letters are upon a rasure in two MSS. I think it should be p>' anan, " a cloud," as the Syriac reads; and the allusion is to the cloud in which the glory of the Lord appeared above the tabernacle; see Exo'd. xvi. 9,10; xl. 34-38; Num. xvi. 41,42. Either of the readings gives a very good sense. The alUi.sion may be to the cloud of the Divine presence in the wilderness: or the eyes of the Lord may be meant, as they are in every place beholding the evil and the good. And he cannot look upon iniquity but with abhorrence; therefore, the eyes of his glory might be well provoked by their crimes.

Verse 9. The show of their countenance^ Bishop Lovvth has it the steadfastness of their countenance — they appear to be bent on iniquity, their eyes tell the wickedness of their hearts. The eye is the index of the mind. Envy, hatred, malice, malevolence, concupiscence, and murder, when in the heart, look most intelligently out at the eye. They tell the innocent to be on their guard; and serve the same purpose as the sonorous rings in the tail of the rattlesnake — they announce the presence of the destroyer.

They declare their sin as Sodom] Impure propensities are particularly legible in the eyes: whoever has beheld the face of a dehauchee or a prostitute knows this; of these it may be said, they wish to appear what they really are. They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness.

They have reicarded evil unto themselves.] Every man's sin is against his own soul. Evil awaiteth sinners— and he that offends his God injures himself

Verse 10. Say ye to the righteous] p"\':i'l letsaddik; the S lamed is added here by one MS. and the Chaldee. The righteous is the person, 1. Who fears God. 2. Departs from evil. 3. Walks according to the testimony of God. 4. And expects and prepares for a glorious immortality.

" Pronounce ye." — The reading of this verse is very dubious. The Septuagint for nox irnru read 1DN3 neasor, or both, 1DXJ IIDN imru neasor, and IjS D1!D x'? O hi lo tob lanu. &7iauficv top fiiKaiov, 6ti dvaxpnoTo^ i/fiv ean. Perhaps, for nON imru, the

12^5 for my people, p children Ante Urbem are their oppressors, and women " "* '' rule over them. 0 my people, i they "^ which lead thee cause thee to err, and ' destroy the way of thy paths.

13 The Lord standeth up 'to plead, and standeth to judge the people.

14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have " eaten '' up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

true reading may be nCN ashsheru, " bless you;" or ■"lE'N n jN imru ashrey, " say ye, blessed is." The Vulgate and an ancient MS. read in the singular number, SjS'' yochel, comedat, " he shall eat."

" It shall be well with him; — niD O ki tob, " that good." Say nothing to such but good. He is a good man, he does nothing but good, and has a good God to deal with, from whom he expects nothing but goodness. It shall be w-ell with such in all circumstances of life. 1. In prosperity. 2. In adversity. 3. In sickness. 4. In health. 5. In death. 6. In judgment. And, 7. Through eternity. In every case, occurrence, and circumstance, he shall eat the fruit of his doings — he shall derive benefit from being a righteous man, and walking in a righteous way.

Verse 11. Wo unto the icicked] j'tyiS Icrasha, the man who is, 1. Evil in his heart. 2. Evil in his purposes. 3. Evil in his life. As he is wicked, he does that which is wicked; and is influenced by the wicked one, of whom he is the servant and the son. It shall be ill with him, y\ ra; in a single word say to him — evil! Of him you can speak no good; and to him you can speak no good — all is evil, in him — lefore him — after him — round about him — above him — below him. Evil in time — evil through eternity!

The reward of his hands.] What he has deserved he shall get. He shall be paid that for which he has laboured, and his reward shall be in proportion to his work. O, what a lot is that of the wicked! Cursed in time, and accursed through eternity!

Verse 12. Err — "Pervert"] li'S:3 billeu, "swallow." Among many unsatisfactory methods of accounting for the unusual meaning of this word in this place, I choose Jarchi's explication, as making the best sense. " Read ibSn billalu, ' confound.' Syriac.'' — Dr. Judd. " Read iSnn heholu, ' disturb or trouble.' " — Seeker. So Septuagint.

This verse might be read, " The collectors of grapes shall be their oppressors; and usurers {noshim, instead of nashim, women) shall rule over them."

Anno Olyrap. '" beat my people to pieces, and Ante I'rbem grind the faccs of the poor? saith ^°"'''''^"' ''■ the Lord God of i;osts. 16 Moreover the Lord saith, Because the

Verse 15. And grind the faces] The expression and the image is strong, to denote grievous oppression; but is exceeded by the prophet Micah, chap. iii. 1-3: —

" Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob, And ye princes of the house of Israel: Is it not yours to linow what is right \ Ye that hate good and love evil: Who tear their skins from off them, And their flesh from off their bones; Who devour the flesh of my people; And flay from off them their skin; And their bones they dash in pieces; And chop them asunder, as morsels for the pot: And as flesh thrown into the midst of the caldron."

In the last line but one, for IB'ND keasher, read, by the transposition of a letter, INtyD Usher, with the Septuagint and Chaldee.

Verse 16. And wanton eyes — " And falsely setting off their eyes with paint"] Hebrew, falsifying their eyes. I take this to be the true meaning and literal rendering of the word; from "ipU' shakar. Tlie Masoretes have pointed it, as if it were from Ip'vy sakar, a different word. This arose, as I imagine, from their supposing that the word was the same with Ipo sakar, Chaldee, " intueri, innuere oculis;" or that it had an affinity with the noun Sip'D sikra, which the Chaldeans, or the rabbins at least, use for stibium, the mineral which was commonly used in colouring the eyes. See Jarchi's comment on the place. Though the colouring of the eyes with stibium be not particularly here expressed, yet I suppose it to be implied; and so the Chaldee paraphrase explains it; stibio linitis oculis, " with eyes dressed with stibium." This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times; and they retain the very same to this day.

Pietro della Valle, giving a description of his wife, an Assyrian lady born in Mesopotamia, and educated at Bagdad, whom he married in that country, ( Viaggi, Tom. I., Lettera 17,) says, "Her eyelashes, which are long, and, according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibium, (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, Jer. iv. 30; Ezek. xxiii. 40; and in Xenophon, of Astyages the grandfather of Cyrus, and of the Medes of that time, Cyropted. lib. i.,) give a dark, and at the same time a majestic, shade to the eyes." "Great eyes," says Sonrfyj, Travels, p. 67, speaking of the Turkish women, "they have in principal repute; and of those the blacker they be the moi;e amiable; insomuch that they put between the eyelids and the eye a certain black powder, with a fine long i)pncil, made of a mineral, brought from the kingdom of Fez, and called Alcohole; which by the not disagreeable staining of the lids doth better set forth the whiteness of the eye; and though it be and walk with stretched forth Anno oiymp necks and '■ wanton eyes, walk- knie Urbem ing and y mincing as they go, ^°°'''"^"' "^- and making a tinklins with their feet:

troublesome for a time, yet it comforteth the sight, and repelleth ill humours." A'is ejus (stibii) astringe ac refrigerare, principalis autem circa oculos; namque ideo etiam plerique Platyophthalmon id appellavere, quoniam in calliblepharis mulierum dilatat oculos; et fluxiones inhibet oculorum exutcerationesque. " It is astringent in its virtue, and refrigerant, and to be chiefly employed about the eyes, and it is called Platyophthalmon, for being put into those ointments with which women beautify their eyes, it dilates them, removes defluxions, and heals any ulcerations that may be about the eyelids." — Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 6. Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes Attollens oculos. Juv. Sat. ii. 93.

One his eyebrows, tinged with black soot. Lengthens with an oblique bodkin, and paints. Lifting up his winking eyes.

" But none of those [Moorish] ladies," says Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 294, fol., "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with alkahol, the powder of lead ore. This operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of tlie thickness of a quill; and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids, over the ball of the eye." Ezekiel, chap, xxiii. 40, uses the same word in the form of a verb, yyj nbnj cachalt eynayik, " thou didst dress thine eyes with alcohol;^^ which the Septuagint render eaTijJii^ov rovf, 06- Oa?.fiovc aov, "thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium;" just as they do when the word "jliJ phuch is employed: compare 2 Kings is. 30; Jer. iv. 30. They supposed, therefore, that "jli) phuch and 7n3 cachal, or in the Arabic form, alcahol, meant the same thing; and probably the mineral used of old for this purpose was the same that is used now; which Dr. Shaiv {ibid. note) says is " a rich lead ore, pounded into an im palpable powder." Alcoholados; the word rinpty3 meshakkeroth in this place is thus rendered in an old Spanish translation. — Sanctius. See also RusseWs Xat. Hist, of Aleppo, p. 102.

The following inventory, as one may call it, of the wardrobe of a Hebrew lady, must, from its antiquity, and the nature of the subject, have been very obscure even to the most ancient interpreters which we have of it; and from its obscurity must have been also peculiarly liable to the mistakes of transcribers. However it is rather matter of curiosity than of importance; and is indeed, upon the whole, more intelligible and less corrupted than one might have rcason,abIy expected. Clemens Alexaudrinus, Pajdag. lib. ii., c. 12, and Julius Pollux, lib. vii., c. 22, have each of them preserved from a comedy of Aristophanes, now lost, a similar catalogue of the several parts of tlie dress and ornaments of a Grecian lady; which, though much more

Anno oiynap. smitc willi ^ a scaD thc crown of Ante Urbem tlie head of the daughters of Condiiam 7. 21011, and the Lord will ^discover •> their secret parts.

capable of illustration from otlier writers, though of later date, and quoted and transmitted down to us by two different authors, yet seems to be much less intelligible, and considerably more corrupted, than this passage of Isaiah. Salmasius has endeavoured, by comparing the two quotations, and by much critical conjecture and learned disquisition, to restore the true reading, and to explain the particulars; with what success, 1 leave to the determination of the learned reader, whose curiosity shall lead him to compare the passage of the comedian with this of the prophet, and to examine llie critic's learned labours upon it. Exercit. Plinian, p. 1148; or see Clem. Alex, as cited above, edit. Potter, where the passage, as corrected by Salmasius, is given.

yich. Gud. Schroederus, professor of oriental languages in the University of Marpurg, has published a very learned and judicious treatise upon this passage of Isaiah. The title of it is, " Commentarius philologico-Criticus de A''estitu Mulierum Hebra3arum ad lesai iii. ver. 16-24. Lugd. Bat. 1745." 4to. As I think no one has handled this subject with so much judgment and ability as this author, I have for the most part followed him, in giving the explanation of the several terras denoting the different parts of dress, of w^hich this passage consists; signifying the reasons of my dissent, where he does not give me full satisfaction.

20. The tires, and the fetters, and the zones. And the perfume-boxes, and the amulets,

22. The embroidered robes, and the tunics, And the cloaks, and the little purses, ulcer; And instead of well-girt raiment, rags; And instead of high-dressed hair, baldness; And instead of a zone, a girdle of sackcloth; And sun-burnt skin, instead of beauty. The daughters of Zion — walk] What is meant by these several kinds of action and articles of dress cannot be well conjectured. How our ancestors understood them will appear from the following, which is the translation of these verses in my old MS. Bible: —

16. <ri)c tiouattcrfs ot Snon tocntrn toitl) strfsjtit out nccfes, nnU in bctbrs (winking) of ecflcn, gcclicn anti flapiicticn toitl) iion'afs for (oiic, aiii) flccBrn; nii'D toitl) tiitirc fret in curiious aoL'infl flccljEn:— 17. tfic Horli scfjall full!) make ijalliU tljc to4) of tjc iouQljtvis o£ Sboh: anti t1)c aovD t1)c lirr ot litin scfial nafccn. Sintl for ouvncmcntc sclial tic stiicnscjiii).

18. Ju tliat t!<-i», tlic Jlovti sclial lion atotn tiic our= nrmcnt of Srfioon anli r)oo.sis; 19. anli liccsfs, anli iiroclif.^-, anU armcrrclis, anti mjtrfs; 20. anli coomlifs, ant) vrlianiis antr vcbcrsfs at tlir iicmmiis, anU oiinmcnt liovis anil crcrinQi,5; 21. anli riiiigis anli icmnnLs in tl)c trouiit Jionannflf; "■ anli cfiaiinsinflc cloltifs, anl3 litil jiallis, anil scljcctis, anli iirnnns; 23, anl) sriictocvis, anil nrcftc Urvcijciiiis, anli fulctis, anli voUctrs; 34. anli tlicr.sciial be for stoot smcl, stiuikc, anli for Qiivliil, a Ittil coorlj; anl) for crisp Jcr, liallfOncssc; aiilj for liVEst booiili an Jcnv.

Some of these things are hard to be understood, though I think this version as good as that of the very learned bishop; but there is little doubt that articles of clothing and dress bore these names in the fourteenth century.

Verse 17. The Lord xinll smite — "Will the Lord humble"] TarrEivudei, Septuagint; and so Syriac and Chaldee. For HDiy sippach they read SiJty shaphal. Instead of 7^^X\'Yehovah,m3.^y MSS. have 'JTX Adoimi.

Will discover their secret parts — " Expose their nakedness"] It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; and, the worst of all, to the intolerable heat of the sun. But this to the w-omen was the height of cruelty and indignity; and especially to such as those here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the.superfluities of ornamental dress; and even whose faces had hardly ever been exposed to the sight of man. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of captives. Nahum, chap. iii. 5, 6, denouncing the fate of Nineveh, paints it in very strong colours: — hosts: And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face; And I will expose thy nakedness to the nations; And to the kingdoms thy shame. And I will throw ordures upon thee; And I will make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-

Verse 18. Ornaments about their feet — "The ornaments of the feet rings"] The late learned Dr. Hunt, professor of Hebrew and Arabic in the University of Oxford, has very well explained the word DDJ' both verb and noun, in his very ingenious Dissertation on Prov. vii. 22, 23. The verb means to skip, to bound, to dance along; and the noun, those ornaments of the feet which the Eastern ladies wore; chains or ringa_

20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the ^ tablets, and the ear-rings.

which made a tinkling sound as they moved nimbly in walking. Eugene Roger, Description de la Terre Sainte, Liv. ii. ch. 2, speaking of the Arabian women, of the first rank in Palestine, says, — " Au lieu de brasselets elles ont de menottes d'argent, qu'elles portent aus poignets et aux pieds; oil sont attachez quan-

22 Tlie changeable suits of apparel, '' and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins.

Vere 21. Nose-jewels — " The jewels of the nostril."] f]}*!! 'DIJ nizmey haaph. Schroeilerus explains this, as many others do, of jewels, or strings of pearl hanging from the forehead, and reaching to the upper part of tite de petits annelets d'argent, qui font mi cliquetis i the nose; than which nothing can be more ridiculous, comme d'une cymbale, lorsqu'elles cheniinent ou se mouvent quelque peu." See Dr. HunCs Dissertation; where he produces other testimonies to the same purpose from authors of travels. Hindoo women of ill fame wear loose ornaments one above another on their ankles, which at every motion make a tinkling noise. See W.\RD.

And their cauls — " the net-works"] I am obliged to

differ from the learned Schroederus almost at first setting out. He renders the word □'O'^a' shebisim by soUculi, little ornaments, bulla?, or studs, in shape representing the sun, and so answering to the following word □'J^^^y saharonim, tunulte, crescents. He supposes the word to be the same with CI3"iy"3iy shemishim, the ' rjod in the second syllable making the word diminutive, and the letter "D mem being changed for 3 heth, a letter of the same organ. How just and well founded his authorities for the transmutation of these letters in the Arabic language are, I cannot pretend to judge; but as I know of no such instance in Hebrew, it seems to me a very forced etymology. Being dissatisfied with this account of the matter, I applied to my good friend above mentioned, the late Dr. Hunt, wlio very kindly returned the following answer to my inquiries: —

" 1 have consulted the Arabic Lexicons, as well MS. as printed, but cannot find □''D'Du;.shebisim in any of them, nor any thing belonging to it; so that no help is to be had from that language towards clearing up the meaning of this difficult word. But what the Arabic Menies, the Syriac perhaps may afford; in which I find the verb 'il12V! shabas, to entangle or interweave, an etymology which is equally favourable to our marginal translation, net-works, with i^y\3 sbabats, to make chequer work, or embroider, (the word by which Kimchi and others have explained O'^'j^ shabis;) and has moreover this advantage over it, that the letters K? sin and 0 samech are very frequently put for each other, but i" tsaddi and D samech scarcely ever. Aben Ezra joins W2'2V) shebisim 3.nA D'DI!;' achastm, which immediately precedes it, together; and says that D^^W shabis was the ornament of the legs, as OJy eches was of the feet., His words are, h'a D3J7 nD D'pW h^ D'e>D!\ D'3K"

Verse 20. The tablets] The words!?i)jn 'n3 botlei/ hannephesh, which we translate tablets, and Bishop Lowth, perfume boxes, literally signify houses of the soul; and may refer to strong-scented bottles used for pleasure and against fainting; similar to bottles with as such are seldom seen on an Asiatic face. But it appears from many passages of Holy Scripture that the phrase is to be literally and properly understood of nose-jewels, rings -set with jewels hanging from the nostrils, as ear-rings from the ears, by holes bored to receive them.

Ezekiel, enumerating the common ornaments of women of the first rank, has not omitted this particular, and is to be understood in the same manner, chap. xvi. 11, 12. See also Gen. xxiv. 47; — "And I decked thee with ornaments;

And in an elegant proverb of Solomon, Prov. xi. 22, there is a manifest allusion to this kind of ornament, which shows it to have been used in his time: — "As a jewel of gold in the snout of a swine; So is a woman beautiful, but wanting discretion." This fashion, however strange it may appear to us, was formerly and is still common in many parts of the East, among women of all ranks. Paul Lucas, speaking of a village or clan of wandering people, a little on this side of the Euphrates, says, (2d Voyage du Levant, tom. i., art. 24,) " The women, almost all of them, travel on foot; I saw none handsome among them. They have almost all of them the nose bored; and wear in it a great ring, which makes them still more deformed." But in regard to this custom, better authority cannot be produced than that of Piciro della Valle, in the account which he gives of the lady before mentioned, Signora Maani Gioerida, his own w ife. The description of her dress, as to the ornamental parts of it, with which he introduces the mention of this particular, will give us some notion of the taste of the Eastern ladies for finery. " The ornaments of gold and of jewels for the head, for the neck, for the arms, for the legs, and for the feet (for they wear rings even on their toes) are indeed, unlike those of the Turks, carried to great excess, but not of great value: for in Bagdad jewels of high price are either not to be had, or are not used; and they wear such only as are of little value, as turquoises, small rubies, emeralds, carbuncles, garnets, pearls, and the like. My spouse dresses herself with all of them according to their fashion; with exception, however, of certain ugly rings

23 Tlie glasses, ' and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.

24 And it shall come to pass, tJiat instead of sweet smell there shall be stink: and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well-set hair ''baldness; and instead

of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and. burning instead of beauty.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy ^mighty in the war.

26 "And her gates shall lament and mourn; and

of very large size, set with jewels, which, in truth, very absurdly, it is the custom to wear fastened to one of their nostrils, like buffaloes: an ancient custom, however, in the East, which, as we find in the Holy Scriptures, prevailed among the Hebrew ladies even in the time of Solomon, Prov. xi. 22. These nose-rings, in complaisance to me, she has left off; but I have not yet been able to prevail with her cousin and her sisters to do the same; so fond are they of an old custom, be it ever so absurd, who have been long habituated to it." Viaggi, Tom. i., Let. 17.

It is the left nostril that is bored and ornamented with rings and jewels. More than one hundred drawings from life of Eastern ladies lie now before me, and scarcely one is without the nose-jewel: both the arms and wrists are covered with bracelets, arm-circles, &c., as also their legs and feet; the soles of their feet and palms of their hands coloured beautifully red with henna, and their hair plaited and ornamented superbly. These beautiful drawings are a fine comment on this

Verse 23. Tlie glasses] The conjunction 1 van, and — AND the glasses, is added here hy forty-three of KennicotCs and ihirty-four of De RossPs MSS., and one of my own, ancient, as well as by many editions.

Verse 23. And the veils. — " The transparent garments."] Ta 6iait>av7i AoKuvma, Sept. A kind of silken dress, transparent, like gauze; worn only by the most elegant women, and such as dressed themselves elegantius quam necesse esset probis, " more elegantly than modest women should." Such garments are worn to the present day; garments that not only show the shape of every part of the body, but the very colour of the skin. This is evidently the case in some scores of drawings of Asiatic females now before me. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: Ea^j/ra de, t, 7/c av ^a'XwTa upa dia- AafiTToi: —