Commentary on the Holy Bible

" Pier robe betray'd Through the clear texture every tender limb, Height'ning the charms it only seem'd to shade; And as it flow'd adown so loose and thin, Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin."

she 6e»io- " desolate ° shall ^ sit upon the ground.

looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy. See Juvenal, Sat. ii., 65, &c. Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved: —

".^Equum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem t

Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea V

Verse 24. Instead of siveet smell — "perfume."] A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatic ladies con sists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes; an attention to which is in some degree necessary in those hot countries. Frequent mention is made of the rich ointments of the spouse in the Son^ of Solomon, Cant. iv. 10, 11; — " How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse '.

The preparation for Esther's being introduced to King Ahasuerus was a course of bathing and perfuming for a whole year; " six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours;" Esth. ii. 12. See the notes on this place. A diseased and loathsome habit of body, instead of a beautiful skin, softened and made agreeable with all that art could devise, and all that nature, so prodigal in those countries of the richest perfumes, could supply, must have been a punishment the most severe and the most mortifying to the delicacy of these haughty daughters of Sion.

Burning iiislead of leauty — " A sunburnt skin."] Gaspar Sanclius thinks the words nnn ''2 ki thachath an interpolation, because the Vulgate has omitted them. The clause "'3' nnn ^3 ki thachath yoplii seems to me rather to be imperfect at the end. Not to mention that "3 ki, taken as a noun for aduslio, burning, is without example, and very improbable. The passage ends abruptly, and seems to want a fuller conclusion.

In agreement with which opinion, of the defect of the Hebrew text in this place, the Septuagint, according to MSS. Pachom. and 1 D. ii., and Marchal., which are of the best authority, express it with the same evident marks of imperfection at the end of the sentence; thus: Tavra coi avri na/.XuTzujuov — The two latter They were called multitia and coa (scil. vestimenta) by ' add (5ov. This chasm in the text, from the loss prothe Romans, from their being invented, or rather intro- bably of three or four words, seems therefore to be of duced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of long standing.

Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received ' Taking ''3 ki in its usual sense, as a particle, and at Rome, when luxury began to prevail under the em-.supplying "]S /ec/i from the <to( of the Se/Jtea^m^, it niighl perors. It was sometimes worn even by the men. but ^ possibly have been originally somewhat in this form; —

" May it not be 'T\3 cohey, ' lorinkles instead of beauty V as from nS'' yaphah is formed ■£!' yephi, yophi; from mo marah, ''10 men, &c.; so from T\7I2 cahah, to be wrinkled, 'HD cohey." — Dr. Jubb. The '3 ki is wanting in one MS., and has been omitted by several of the ancients.

Verse 25. Thy mighty men.] For ^mi3J geburathech an ancient M.S. has pnj gihborcch. The true reading, from the Sepluagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee, seems to be yil^J gibborayich.

ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah (Lam. ii. 8) has given it the first place among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country; —

"The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground, they are silent: They have cast up dust on their heads; they have

girded themselves with sackcloth; The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to the ground."

" We find Judea," says Mr. Addison, (on Medals, Dial, ii,) " on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a po.sture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: ' By the waters ot Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.' But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, tiiat fore tells the very captivity recorded on this medal." Mr- Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans: whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon. — L.

Several of the coins mentioned here by Mr. Addison are in my own collection: and to such I have already referred in this work. I shall describe one here. On the obverse a fine head of the emperor Vespasian with this legend, Imperator Julius C<zsar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia Potestate Pate) Patrice, Consul VIII.

On the reverse a tall palm tree, emblem of the land of Palestine, the emperor standing on the left, close to the tree, with a trophy behind him; on the right, Judea uncler the figure of a female captive sitting on the ground, with her head resting on her hand, the elbow on her knee, weeping. Around is this legend, Judea Capta. Senatus Consullo. However this prediction may refer proximately to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, I am fully of opinion that it ultimately refers to the final ruin of the Jewish state by the Romans. And so it has been understood by the general run of the best and most learned interpreters and critics.

The havoc occasioned by xoar, and those other calamities which the prophet had been describing in the preceding chapter, are represented as so terribly great that seven women should be left to one man, 1. Greablessedness of the remnant that shall be accounted worthy to escape these judgments, 'i-^. The privilege of the Gospel set forth by allusions to the glory and pomp of the Mosaic dispensation, 5, 6.

A ND " in that day sevenwomen shall take hold of one man, saying, We will bread, and wear our own apparel:

only " let us be called by thy name, "^ to take away " our reeat our own i proach.

2 In that day shall ' the branch

Verse 1. And seven loomen] The division of the chapters has interrupted the prophet's discourse, and oroken it off almost in the midst of the sentence. " The numbers slain in battle shall be so great, that seven women shall be left to one man." The prophet has described the greatness of this distress by images and adjuncts the most expressive and forcible. The young women, contrary to their natural modesty, shall become suitors to the men: they will take hold of them, and use the most pressing importunity to be married. In spite of the natural suggestions of jealousy, they will be content with a share only of the rights of marriage in common with several others; and that on hard conditions, renouncing the legal demands of the wife on the husband, (see Exod. xxi. 10,) and begging only the name and credit of wedlock, and to be freed from the reproach of celibacy. See chap

of the Lord be ^ beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall he excellent and comely ''for them that are escaped of Israel.

3 And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, ' shall be called holy, even every one that is ^ written ' among the living in

4 When "■ the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the

5 And the Lord will create upon '^°°'''^'"" ^- every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, ° a cloud and smoke by day, and "the shining of a flaming fire by night • for p upon all the glory shall he i a. defence.

6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and ' for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

Da tantum nomen inane Connubii; liueat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis Marcia. Luc.iN, ii. 312.

" This happened," says Ki/nchi, " in the days of Ahaz, when Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand men in one day; see 2 Chron. xviii. 6. The widows which were left were so numerous that the prophet said, ' They are multiplied beyond the sand of the sea,' " Jer. xv. 8.

Verse 2. The branch of the Lord — " the branch of Jehovah"] The Messiah of Jehovah, says the Chaldee. And Kimciti says, The Messiah, the Son of David. The branch is an appropriate title of the Messiah; and the fruit of the land means the great Person to spring from the house of Judah, and is only a parallel expression signifying the same; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by him. Compare chap. xlv. 8, where the same great event is set forth under similar images, and see the note there.

Them that are escaped of Israel — " the escaped of the house of Israel."] A MS. has SnT^:'' n-3 beith yisrael, the house of Israel.

Verse 3. Written among the limngl That is, whose name stands in the enrolment or register of the people; or every man living, who is a citizen of Jerusalem. See Ezek. xiii. 9, where, "they shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel," is the same with what immediately goes before, " they shall not be in the assembly of my people." Compare Psa. Ixix. 28; Ixxxvii. 6; Exod. xxxii. 32. To number and register the people was agreeable to the law of Moses, and probably was always practised; being, in sound policy, useful, and even necessary. David's design of numbering the people was of another kind; it was to enrol them for his army. Michaelis Mosaisches Recht, Part, iii., p. 227. See also his Dissert, de Censihus Hebrceorum.

Averse 4. The spirit of burning] Means tbe fire of God's wrath, by which he will prove and purify his people; gathering them into his furnace, in order to 4«> separate the dross from the silver, the bad from the good. The severity of God's judgments, the fiery trial of his servants, Ezekiel (chap. xxii. 18-22) has set forth at large, after his manner, with great boldness of imagery and force of expression. God threatens to gather them into the midst of Jerusalem, as into the furnace; to blow the fire upon them, and to melt them. Malachi, chap. iii. 2, 3, treats the same subject, and represents the same event, under the like images; —

" But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like the fire of the refiner, And like the soap of the fullers. And he shall sit refining and purifying the silver, And he shall purify the sons of Levi; And cleanse them like gold, and like silver; That they may be Jehovah's ministers, Presenting unto him an offering in righteousness."

This is an allusion to a chemist purifying metals. He Jirst judges of the state of the ore or adulterated metal. Secondly, he kindles the proper degree oifirc, and applies the requisite test; and thus separates the precious from the vile.

Verse 5. And the Lord U'ill create — One MS., the Septuagint, and the Arabic, have N'J'' yahi. He shall bring: the cloud already exists; the Lord will bring it over. This is a blessed promise of the presence of God in all the assemblies of his people.

Ecery dwelling place — " the station"] The Hebrew text has, every station: but four MSS. (one ancient) omit ^3 col, all; very rightly, as it should seem: for the station was Mount Zion itself, and no other. See Exod. xv. 17. And the Septuagint, Arabic, and MSS., add the same word h3 col, before nX'^prD mikraeha, probably right: the word has only changed its place by mistake. n'NlP^ mihrayeh, " the place where they were gathered together in their holy assemblies," says Sal hen Melech. But twenty-five of KennicotVs MSS., and twenty-two of De Rossi's, fifty-three editions, besides the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, have the word in the plural number.

A cloud and smoke by day] This is a manifest allusion to the pillar of a cloud and of fire, which attended the Israelites m their passage out of Egypt, and to the glory that rested on the tabernacle, Exod.

iiii. 21, xl. 38. The prophet Zechariah, chap ii. 5, applies the same image to the same purpose: —

" And I will be unto her a wall of fire round about; And a glory will I be in the midst of her."

That is, the visible presence of God shall protect her. Which explains the conclusion of this verse of Isaiah; where the makkaph between ^3 col, and 1133 cahod, connecting the two words in construction, which ought not to be connected, his thrown an obscurity upon the sentence, and misled most of the translators.

For upon all the glory shall be a defence.^ Wiatever God creates, he must uphold, or it will fail. Ever} degree of grace brings with it a degree of power to maintain itself in the soul.

Vere 6. A tabernacle] In countries subject to violent tempests, as well as to intolerable heat, a portable tent is a necessary part of a traveller's baggage, for defence and shelter. And to such tents the words of the text make evident allusion. They are to be met with in every part of Arabia and Egypt, and in various other places in the East.

This chapter begins with representing, in a beautiful parable, the tender care of God for Ms people, and their unicorthy returns for his goodness, 1-7. The parable or allegory is then dropped; and the prophet, in plain terms, reproves and threatens them for their wickedness; particularly for their covetousness, 8— 10; intemperance, 11; a/id inattention to the learnings of Providence, 12. Then follows an enumeration of judgments as the necessary consequence. Captivity and famine appear with all their horrors, 13. Hades, or the irrave, like a ravenous monster, opens wide its jaws, and swallows down its myriads, 14. Distress lays hold on all ranks, 15; and God is glorified in the execution of his judgments, 16; till the whole place is left desolate, a place for the flocks to range in, 17. The prophet then pauses; and again resumes his subject, reproving them for several other si7is, and threatening them with woes andvengeancc, 18-24; after which he sums up the whole of his awful denunciation in a very lofty and spirited epiphonema or conclusion. The God of armies, having hitherto corrected to no purpose, is represented ivith inimitable majesty, as only giving a hist, and a swarm of nations hasten to his staridard, 25-27. Upon a guilty race, unpilied by heaven or by earth, they execute their commission; and leave the land desolate and dark, without one ray of comfort to cheer the horrid gloom, 28—30.

IVrOW will I sing to my wellbeloved asoiigof my beloved touching " his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in •> a

This chapter likewise stands single and alone, unconnected with the preceding or following. The subject of it is nearly the same with that of the first chapter. It is a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness; but it exceeds that chapter in force, in severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance by the Babylonian invasion.

Verse 1. Now roill I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved — " Let me sing now a song," &c.] A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word "I'ty shir, a song, after N3 na; which gives so elegant a turn to tlie sentence by the repetition of it in the next menil)er, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

A song of my beloved — " A song of loves"] 'in dodey, for □ "in dodim; status constructus pro ahsoluto, as the grammarians say, as Mic. vi. 16; Lam. iii. 1 4, 6G; so Archbishop Seeker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the D mem, of the plural, thus, /nn

2 And he ■= fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also "* made a wine press therein: " and

dodi. Dnn rcvw shirath dodim is the same with mn' Tiy shir yedidoth, Psa. xlv. 1. In this way of understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of making the author of the song, and the person to whom it is addressed, to be the same.

In a very fruitful hill — " On a high and fruitful hill."] Heb. 10U ]3 pp2 bekerenben shamen, "on a horn the son of oil." The expression is highly descriptive and poetical. " He calls the land of Israel a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey." — Kimchi on the place. The parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape or head; the Turks call it a nose. " Dorsum immane mari summo;" Virgil, a back, or ridge of rocks;—

" Hanc latus angustum jam se cogentis in arctum Hesperiee tenuem producit in sequora linguam, Adriacas flexis claudit qua comibus undas."

he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of

vious image for a mountain or mountainous eounlry. Solinus, cap. viii., says, " Italiam, ubi longius processerit, in cornua duo scindi;" that is, the high ridge of the Alps, which runs througlx the whole length of it, divides at last into two ridges, one going through Calabria, the other through the country of the Brutii.

" Cornwall is called by the inhabitants in the British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees like a horn, running out info promontories like so many horns. For the Britons call a horn corn, in the plural kern.'''' — Camden. " And Sammes is of opinion, that the country had this name originally from the Phsnicians, who traded hither for tin; keren, in their language, being a horn.''' — Gibson.

Here the precise idea seems to be that of a high mountain standing by itself; "vertex mentis, aut pars montis ab aliis divisa;" which signification, says I. H. Michaelis, Bibl. Hatlens., Not. in loc, the word has in Arabic.

Judea was in general a mountainous country, whence Moses sometimes calls it The Mountain, " Thou shall plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;" E-Xod. XV. 17. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;" Deut. iii. 25. And in a political and religious view it was detached and separated from all the nations round it. Whoever has considered the descriptions given of Mount Tabor, (see Reland, Palaistin.; Eugene Roger, Terre Sainte, p. 64,) and the views of it which are to be seen in books of travels, (Muundrell, p. 114; Egmonl and Heyman, vol. ii. p. 25; Thevenot, vol. i., p. 429,) its regular conic form rising singly in a plain to a great height, from a base small in proportion, and its beauty and fertility to the very top, will have a good idea of " a horn the son of oil;" and will perhaps be induced to think that the prophet took his image from that mountain.

Verse 2. And gathered out the stones — " And he cleared it from the stones"] This was agreeable to the husbandry: " Saxa, sunima parte terrae, et vites et arbores liedunt; ima parte refrigerant;" Columell. de arb. iii. " Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" Id. ii. 2. " Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt,] hieme rigent, estate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" Pallad. i. 6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls " exossatus ager," an unboned field; Sat. vi. 52.

The choicest vine — " Sorek"] Many of the ancient interpreters, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theod., have retained this word as a proper name: I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine; the former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors, quoted by Reland, Palajst., p. 589 and 986. And it seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eshcol, where the spies gathered the single cluster of grapes, which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff, being both near to Hebron were in the same neighbourhood, and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare Num. xiii. 22, 23; Judg. xvi. 3, 4. P. Nau supposes Eschol and Sorek to be only different names for the same valley. A^oyage Noveau de la Terre Sainte, lib. iv., chap. 18. See likewiss De Lisle's posthumous map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. See Bochart, Hieroz. ii., col. 725. Thei-enot,i. f. i06. Michaelis (note on Judg. xvi. 4, German translation) thinks it probable, from some circumstances of the history there given, that Sorek was in the tribe of Judah, not in the country of the Philistines.

The vine of Sorek was known to the Israelites, being mentioned by Moses, Gen. xlix. 11, before their coming out of Egypt. Egypt was not a wine country. " Throughout this country there are no wines;" Sandi/s, p. 101. At least in very ancient times they had none. Herodotus, ii. 77, says it had no vines, and therefore used an artificial wine made of barley. That is not strictly true, for the vines of Egypt are spoken of in Scripture, Psa. Ixxviii. 47; cv. 33; and see Gen. xl. 11, by which it should seem that they drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grape, which was called oivof afnrslivoc; Herodot., ii. 37. But they had no large vineyards, nor was the country proper for them, being Uttle more than one large plain, annually overflowed by the Nile. The Mareotic in later times is, I think, the only celebrated Egyptian wine which we meet with in history. The vine was formerly, as Hasselc/uist tells us it is now, " cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine, which is brought from Candia," &c. " They were supplied with wine from Greece, and likewise from Phcenicia," Herodot. iii. 6. The vine and the wine of Sorek therefore, which lay near at hand for importation into Egypt, must in all probability have been well known to the Israelites, when they sojourned there. There is something remarkable in the manner in which Moses, Gen. xlix. 11, makes mention of it, which, for want of considering this matter, has not been attended to; it is in Jacob's prophecy of the future prosperity of the tribe of Judah; —

" Binding his foal to the vine. And his ass's colt to his own sorek; He washeth his raiment in wine. And his cloak in the blood of grapes." I take the liberty of rendering nplty sorekah, for llp'iff soreko, his sorek, as the Masoretes do by pointing m'l^ iroh, for IT;' iro, his foal. Ti' ir, miglrt naturally enough appear in the feminine form; but it is not at all probable that pity sorek ever should. By naming particularly the vine of Sorek. and as the vine

Anno oiymp. have not done in it? wherefore, Ante Urbem when I lookcd tiiat it should bring '^°"^""° ''■ forth grapes, brought it forth wild belonging to Judah, the prophecy intimates the very part of the country which was to fall to the lot of that tribe. Sir John Chardin says, " that at Casbin, a city of Persia, they turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines." He speaks also of vines in that country so large that he could hardly compass the trunks of them with his arms. Voyages, torn, iii., p. 12, 12mo. This shows that the ass might be securely bound to the vine, and without danger of damaging the tree by browsing on it.

And built a tower in the midst of it] Our Saviour, who has taken the general idea of one of his parables. Matt. xxi. 33, Mark xii. 1, from this of Isaiah, has likewise inserted this circumstance of building a tower; which is generally explained by commentators as designed for the keeper of the vineyard to watch and defend the fruits. But for this purpose it was usual to make a little temporary hut, (Isa. i. 8,) which might serve for the short season while the fruit was ripening, and which was removed afterwards. The tower therefore should rather mean a building of a more permanent nature and use; the farm, as we may call it, of the vineyard, containing all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of the vineyard, and the making of the wine. To which image in the allegory, the situation, the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple, exactly answered. And so the Chaldee paraphrast very rightly expounds it: Et statui eos (Israelitas) ut plantam vines selectae et aedifieavi Sanctuarium meum in medio illoium. "And I have appointed the Israelites as a plant of a chosen vine, and I have built my sanctuary in the midst of them." So also Hieron. in loc. /Edificavit quoque turrim in medio ejus; templum videlicet in media civitate. " He built also a tower in the midst of it, viz., his own temple in the midst of the city." That they have still such towers or buildings for use or pleasure, in their gardens in the East, see Harmer''s Observations, ii. p. 241.

And also made a ivine-press therein. — "And hewed out a lake therein."] This image also our Saviour has preserved in his parable. 2T)' yckeh; the Septuagmt render it here 7:po7.>jinov, and in four other places vTvoXrivtov, Isa. xvi. 10; Joel iii. 13; Hag. ii. 17; Zech. xiv. 10, I think more properly; and this latter word St. Mark uses. It means not the wine-press itself, or culcatorium, which is called nj gath, or mi3 purah; but what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which by a conduit or spout received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least very convenient, to have the lake under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of the rock, for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must. Vini confectio instituitur

5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: ^ I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall. be eaten up; and break down

in cella, vel intimse domus camera quadam a ventorum ingressu remota. Kempfer., of Shiras wine. Amcen. Exot. p. 37G. For the wind, to which that country is subject, would injure the wine. " The wine-presses in Persia," says Sir John Chardin, " are formed by making hollow places in the ground, lined with masons'work." /farmer's Observations, i., p. 392. See a print of one in Kempfer, p. 377. Nonnus describes at large Bacchus hollowing the inside of a rock, and hewing out a place for the wine-press, or rather the lake; —

" He pierced the rock; and with the sharpen'd tool Of steel well-temper'd scoop'd its inmost depth: Then smooth'd the front, and form'd the dark recess In just dimensions for the foaming lake."

And he looked — " And he expected"] Jeremiah, chap. ii. 21, uses the same image, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive manner: —

" But I planted thee a sorek, a scion perfectly genuine; How then art thou changed, and become to me tlie degenerate shoots of the strange vine!"

Wild grapes — "poisonous berries."] □"iySD beushim, not merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous. By the force and intent of the allegory, to good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness, oppression. |3J geplien, the vine, is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is made, from the rest, calls it, Num. vi., 4, ["D ]3 j gephen haiyayin, the wine-vine. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 39—41. "And one went out into the field to gather potherbs; and he found a field vine, and ho gathered from it wild fruit, his lapful; and he went and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. And they poured it out for the men to eat: and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, There is death in the pot, 0 man of God; and they could not eat of it. And he said, Bring meal, (leg. inp kechu, nine MSS., one edition,) and he threw it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was nothing hurtful in the pot."

but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah ' his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold ^ oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

S Wo unto them that join ° house to house, that lay field to field, till there he no place, that ° they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

Lord of hosts, ' Of a truth many Anno oiymji houses shall be desolate, even Ante Urbem great and fair, without inhabi- Conduam 7. tant.

10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one " bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.

11 ' Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, tUl wine " inflame them!

12 And "the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but ™ they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.

From some such sorts of poisonous fruits of the grape kind Moses has taken these strong and highly poetical images, with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah: Deut. xxxii.

" I am inclined to believe," says Hasselquist, " that the prophet here, Isa. v. 2—4, means the hoary nightshade, solammi incamim; because it is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East; and the Arabian name agrees well with it. The Arabs call it anab el dib, i. e., wolf grapes. The D'tJ'lND beushim, says Rab. Chai., is a well known species of the vine, and the worst of all sorts. The prophet could not have found a plant more opposite to the vine than this; for it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them; wherefore they root it out: it likewise resembles a vine by its shrubby stalk;" Travels, p. 289. See also. Michaclis, Questions aux Voyageurs Danois, No. 64.

Verse 3. Inhabitants] 'UK" yoiAeiey, in the plural number; three MSS., [two ancient,) and so likewise the Sepluagint and Vxdgate.

"\'erse 6. There shall come up briers and thorns — " The thorn shall spring up in it"] One MS. has "vn^iTZ heshamir. The true reading seems to be "|i:3ty i:i bo.sAamir, which is confirmed by the Sepluagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Averse 7. And he looked for judgment] The paronomasia, or play on the words, in this place, is very remarkable; mishput, mishpach, tsedakah, tseultah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets, but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it. See chap.

Verse 8. Wo unto them that — lay field to field — " You who lay field unto field"] Read ia''1pn takribu, in the second person; to answer to the verb following. So Vulgate.

Verse 9. In mine ears. — " To mine ear"] The sentence in the Hebrew text seems to be imperfect in this place, as likewise in chap. xxii. 14, where the very same sense seems to be required as here. See the note there; and compare 1 Sam. ix. 15. In this place the Sepluagint supply the word riKovadij, and the Syriac i'sniyx eshtama, auditus est Jehovah in auribus meis, i. e., nSjJ niglah, as in chap. xxii. 14.

Many houses] This has reference to what -was said in the preceding verse: " In vain are ye so intent upon joining house to house, and field to field; your houses shall be lef' uninhabited, and your fields shall become desolate and barren; so that a vineyard of ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gallons) of wine, and the husbandman shaU reap but a tenth part of the seed which he has sown." Kimchi says this means such an extent of vineyard as would require ten yoke of oxen to plough in one day.

Verse 11. Wo unto them that rise up early] There is a likeness between this and the following passage of the prophet Amos, chap. vi. 3-6, who probably wrote before Isaiah. If the latter be the copier, he seems hardly to have equalled the elegance of the original: —

.\nno Olymp. gone into captivity, ^ because AnrJuTbem they have no knowledge: and Condiiam 7. ^ ^j^^jj. Jionourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

1 5 And * the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled,

1 6 but the Lord oi hosts Ante tirbcit shall be exalted in judgment, ^°'"'"""'"-

"Ye that put far away the evil day, And affect the seat of violence; Who lie upon beds of ivory, And stretch yourselves upon your couches; And eat the lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall; Who chant to the sound of the viol, And like David invent for yourselves instruments of music; Who quaff wine in large bowls, And are anointed with the choicest ointments: But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph."

Kimchi says, " they consider not the heavens nor their hosts; they pray not the morning nor the evening prayer unto the Lord."

Follow strong drink'] Theodorel and Chrysostom on this place, both Syrians, and unexceptionable witnesses in what belongs to their own country, inform us that "lj!y shechar (aiKs-pa in the Greek of both Testaments, rendered by us by the genera! term strong drink) meant properly palm wine, or date wine, which was and is still much in use in the Eastern countries. Judea was famous for the abundance and excellence of its palm trees; and consequently had plenty of this wine. " Fiunt (vina) et e pomis; primumque e palmis, quo Parthi et Indi utuntur, et oriens lotus: maturarum medio in aqua; congiis tribus macerate expressoque." Plin. lib. xiv. 19. "Ab his cariotte [palmaj] maxime celebrantur; et cibo quidem, sed et succo, uberrimse. Ex quibus prfficipiia vina orienti; iniqua ':apiti, unde porno nomen." Id. siii. 9. Kapoc: signifies stupefaction: and in Hebrew likewise the wine has its name from its remarkably inebriating quality.

Verse 13. And their honourable men — "And the nobles"] Tliese verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appethe as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Habakkuk, chap, ii. 5, uses the same image with great force: — the ambitious and avaricious conqueror

" Enlargeth his appetite like Hades; And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied."

and "^ God ' that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of ^ the fat ones shall strangers eat.

18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity witli cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cartrope:

But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide liis immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: " Therefore Sheol hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit." Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, Matt. xxi. 33.

Verse 17. The lambs — "And the kids"] O'lJ.^erim, " strangers." The Septuaginl read, more agreeably to the design of the prophet, □''13 carim, apvs^, " the lambs." O'TJ gedayim, "the kids," Dr. Durcll; nearer to the present reading: and so Archbishop Seeker. The meaning is, their luxurious habitations shall be so entirely destroyed as to become a pasttie for flocks.

After their manner — " Without restraint"] C31313 kedobram, secundum ductum eorum; i. e., suo ipsorum ductu; as their own will shall lead them.

Verse 18. With a cart-rope — "As a long cable"] The Septuagint, Aquila, Sym., and Theod., for '73113 bechabley, read ''S^nj /cechabley,u( axoivK^, or oxoivioic; and the Septuagint, instead of Nia? shav, read some other word signifying long; iJf cxoiviu /laKpu; and so likewise the Syriac, NO'iN arecha. Houbigant conjectures that the word which the Septuagint had in their copies was ^YW sarua, which is used Lev. xxi. 18, xxii. 23, for something in an animal body superfluous, lengthened beyond its natural measure. And he explains it of sin added to sin, and one sin drawing on another, till the whole comes to an enormous length and magnitude; compared to the work of a rope-maker still increasing and lengthening his rope, with the continued addition of new materials. " Eos propheta similes facit homini resliario, qui funem torquet, cannabc addita et contorta, eadem iterans, donee funem m longum duxerit, neque eum liceat protrahi longuis."' "An evil inclination," says Kimchi on this place, from the ancient rabbins, " is at the beginning like a fine hair-string, but at the finishing like a thick cart-rope." By a long progression in iniquity, and a continued accumulation of sin, men arrive at length to the highest degree of wickedness; bidding open defiance to God,

19 ' That say, Let him make Anno oiymp. speed, and hasten his work, that

Ante Urbem we may See it: and let the ^""'"'^ '• counsel of the Holy One of

20 Wo unto them f that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darluiess; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

2 1 Wo unto them that are s wise in their own eyes, and prudent ^ in their own sight!

22 ' Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

23 Which "^ justify the wicked for reward.

and scoffing at his threatened judgments, as it is finely expressed in the next verse. The Chaldee paraphrast explains it in the same manner, of wickedness increasing from small beginnings, till it arrives to a great magnitude.— ^L.

I believe neither the rabbins nor Bishop Lowth have hit on the true meaning of this place; the prophet seems to refer to idol sacrifices. The victims they offered were splendidly decked out for the sacrifice. Their horns and hoofs were often gilded, and their heads dressed out with fillets and garlands. The cords of vanity may refer to the silken strings by which they were led to the altar, some of which were unusually thick. The offering for iniquity was adorned with fillets and garlands; the sin-olTering with silken cords, like unto cart-ropes. Pride, in their acts of humiliation, had the upper hand.

Verse 19. Let the counsel of the Holy One] Tryphiodorus has an expression something like this: —

" This expression, jjlvOe (3ovXij, is, I believe, something uncommon; but it is exactly paralleled and explained by a passage in Isaiah, chap. v. 19. The Septuagint has expressed it in the very sstme words with Tryphiodorus: aai tXOoi 7/ i3ov?, ij rov ayiov luparjA, cva yvufitv." — Merricfs note, ad loc.

Verse 22. Mighty to drink wine] " They show not," says Kimchi, " their strength in combating their enemies, but in drunkenness and debauchery."

Verse 24. The flame — " The tongue of fire"] " The flame, because it is in the shape of a tongue; and so it is called metaphorically." Sal. ben Melee. The metaphor is so exceedingly obvious, as well as beautiful, that one may wonder that it has not been more '

24 Therefore 'as -the fire;Sru"bem devoureth the stubble, and the J>»ditam7^ flame consumeth the chaff, so ° their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 ° Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and ^ the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were "■ torn in the midst of the streets. ^ For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

frequently used. Virgil very elegantly intimates, rather than expresses, the image: —

Eece levis summo de vertiee visus Iilli Fundere lumen apex; tactuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci. ^n. ii. 682. " Strange to relate! from young lulus' head A lambent flame arose, which gently spread I Around his brows, and on his temples fed."

And more boldly of jEtna darting out flames from its i top:—

Interdumque atram prorumpit ad sthera nubem, Turbine fumantem piceo, et candente favilla: Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit. Mn. iii. 574. " By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high. By turns hot embers from her entrails fly, And flakes of mountain flames, that lick the sky."

The disparted tongues, as it were of fire, Acts ii. 3, which appeared at the descent of the Holy Spirit, on the apostles, give the same idea; that is, of flames shooting diversely into pyramidal forms, or points, like tongues. It may be farther observed that the prophet in this place has given the metaphor its full force, in applying it to the action of fire in eating up and oevouring whatever conies in its way, like a ravenous animal whose tongue is principally employed in taking in his food or prey; which image Moses has strongly exhibited in an expressive comparison: " And Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now shall this collection of people lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field," Num. xxii. 4. See also 1 Kings xviii. 38.

Their root shall be. as rottenness'] p'SD cammak, like mak; whence probably our word muck, dung, was derived.

Verse 25. The hills did tremble — " And the mountains trembled"] Probably referring to the great earth-'

Anno oiymp. ensign to the nations from far, Ante Urbem and wiU ' hiss unto them from ^°"'^""" ''■ "the end of the earth: and,

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither "■ shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchct of their shoes be broken:

28 ^ Wliose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted

quakes in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in or not long before the time of the prophet himself, recorded as a remarkable era in the title of the prophecies of Amos, chap. i. 1, and by Zechariah, chap. xiv. 5.

Verse 26. He zcill — hiss — " He will hist"] " The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, cvpia/iaai, by a hiss or a whistle." — Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In chap. vii. 18, the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: —

" Jehovah shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."

On which place see Deut. i. 44; Psa. cxviii. 12; and God calls the locusts his great army, Joel ii. 25; Exod. xxiii. 28. See Huet, Quest. Alnet. ii. 12. pTjf sharak or shrai, he shall whistle for them, call loud and shrill; he shall shriek, and they (their enemies) shall come at his call.

With speed] This refers to the nineteenth verse. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed, and to hasten his work of vengeance, so now God assures them that with speed and swiftly it shall come.

Verse 27. None — among them] Ktmchi has well illustrated this continued exaggeration or hyperbole, as he rightly calls it, to the following effect: " Through the greatness of their courage, they shall not be fatigued with their march; nor shall they stumble though they march with the utmost speed: they shall not slumber by day, nor sleep by night; neither shall they ungird their armour, or put off their sandals to take their rest. Their arms shall he always in readiness, their arrows sharpened, and their bows bent. The hoofs of their horses are hard as a rock. They shall not fail, or need to be shod with iron: the wheels of their carriages shall move as rapidly as a whirlwind."

Neither shall the girdle] The Eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them. When their business was finished they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity; and to unloose the girdle is to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action. God

29 Their roaring shall be like Ante Urbcm

lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one '■ look unto the land, behold darkness and ^ sorrow, ^ and the '' light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

promises to unloose the loins of kings before Cyrus, chap. xlv. 1. The girdle is so essential a part of a soldier's accoutrement, being the last that he puts on to make himself ready for action, that to be girded, fui'- vvadai, with the Greeks means to be completely armed and ready for battle: —

To de eifdvvai ra 6~7.a SKalovv ol Tray.aioi C<^vi'VG9aL. Pausan. Boeot. It is used in the same manner by the Hebrews: " Let not him that girdeth himself boast as he that unlooseth his girdle," 1 Kings xx. 1 1; that is, triumph not before the war is finished.

Verse 28. Their horses^ hoofs shall be counted like flint — " The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant"] The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and was unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especiall}' those that treat of horse medicine, who could not have passed over a matter so obvious and of such importance that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horse-shoes of leather and iron which are mentioned; the silver and gold shoes with which Nero and Poppaa shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason the strength, firmness and soliditv of a horse's hoof was (>f much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the ^''''''"'"'"''■f l~~oi, of Homer, and Virgil's solido graviter sonal ungula cornu. And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horses' hoofs by making the pavement on which he stands in the stable with round-headed stones. For want of this artificial defence to the foot which our horses have, Amos, chap. vi. 12, speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock as to plough up the same rock with o.xen: —

These circumstances mu-.t be taken into consideration in order to give us a lull notion of the propriety and force.of the image by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, which made a great part of tlie strength of the Assyrian army. Xenop. CjTop. lib. ii.

Like a whirlwind] nSlDJJ cassuphah, like the stormy tiUist. Here sense and sound are well connected.

Verse 30. If one look unto the land-, dSfC. — " And these shall look to the heaven upward, and down to the earth"] ytnh 133:1 venibbat laarels. Kai eiiPj'keipovrai fif Tin' I'l'"- So the Septtiagint, according to the A'atican and Alexandrian copies; but the Complutensian and Aldine editions have it more fully, thus: — Kat €/ii3^c-ipovTai etc rov ovpavov avu, Kai Karu; and the Arabic from the Septuagint, as if it had stood thus: — Kat efijiTisfovTai si; rov ovpavov, icai ttf rrjv yriv Karu, both of which are plainly defective; the words etc rqv yrjv, unto the earth, being wanted in the former, and the word avu, above, in the latter. But an ancient Coptic version from the Septuagint, supposed to be of the second century, some fragments of which are preserved in the library of St. Germain des Prez at Paris, completes the sentence; for, according to this version, it stood thus in the Septuagint: — Kat efilS?.f:^'ovrat ei; rev ovpavov avu, nai ti; ttjv yrjv naru; " And tliey shall look unto the heavens above and unto the earth beneath," and so it stands in the Septuagint MSS., Pachom. and i. D. ii., according to which they must have read their Hebrew text in this manner; — noo'? ]'"ix'71 n^oS D'^DK'^ t32Jl. This is probably the true reading, with which I have made the translation agree. Compare chap. viii. 22; where the same sense is expressed in regard to both particulars, which are here equally and highly proper, the looking upwards, as well as down to the earth: but the form of expression is varied. I believe the Hebrew text in that place to be right, though not so full as I suppose it was originally here; and that of the Septuagint there to be redundant, being as ful' as the Coptic version and MSS. Pachom. and i. D '. represent it in this place, from wliich I suppose it has been interpolated.

Darkness^" The gloomy vapour"] The Si/r-iac and Vulgate seem to have read n'7i3"(;'D bearphalach; but Jarchi explains the present reading as signifying darkness; and possibly the Si/riac and Vulgate may have understood it in the same manner.

This chapter, by a particular designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, 1-S, introduces, icith great solemnity, a declaration of the whole tenor of the Divine conduct in reference to his people, who, on account of their unbelief and impenitence, should for a very long period be given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, 9, 10; arid visited with such calamities as would issue in the total desolation of their country, and their general dispersion, 11, 12. The prophet adds, however, that under their repeated dispersions, {by the Chaldeans, Romans, c^c.,) a small remnant would be preserved as a seed from which will be raised a people, in whom will be fulfilled all the Bivine promises, 13.

As this vision seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps rnay not be so; for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, iirst and last, he wrote, 2 Chron. xxvi. 22; which is usually done by a contemporary prophet; and the phrase, in the year that Uzziah died, probably means after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase (chap, xiv. 28) means after the death of Ahaz. Not that Isaiah's prophecies are placed in exact order of time. •Chapters ii., iii., iv., v., seem by internal marks to be.antecedent to chap. i.; they suit the time of Uzziah, nr the former part of Jotham's reign; whereas chap. 1. can hardly be earlier than the last years of Jotham. See note on chap. i. 7, and ii. 1. This might be a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general dedication of ihe whole course of God's dispensations

2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and •^ with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

in regard to his people and the fates of the nation; which are even now still depending, and will not be fully accomplished till the final restoration of Israel.

In this vision the ideas are taken in general from royal majesty, as displayed by the monarchs of the East; for the prophet could not represent the inefipble presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The particular scenery of it is taken from the temple. God is represented as seated on his throne above the ark, in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. This is called by God himself " the place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet," Ezek. xliii. 7. "A glorious throne exalted of old, is the place of our sanctuary," saith the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 12. The very posture of sitting is a mark of state and solemnity: Sed et ipsum verbum sedere regni significat potestatem, saith Jerome, Comment, in Eph. i. 20. See note on chap.

3 And " one cried unto an-

iii. 2. St. John, who has taken many sublime images from the prophets of the OM Testament, and in particular from Isaiah, hath exhibited the same scenery drawn out into a greater number of particulars; Rev. iv The veil, separ.ating the most holy place from the holy or outermost part of the temple, is here supposed to be taken away; for the prophet, to whom the whole is exhibited, is manifestly placed by the altar of burnt-offering, at the entrance of the temple, (compare Ezek. xliii. 5, 6,) which was filled with the train of the robe, the spreading and overflowing of the Divine glory. The Lord upon the throne, according to.St. John, (chap. xii. 41,) was Christ; and the vision related to his future kingdom, when the veil of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glorj' of God, revealed to all mankind: which is likewise implied in the hymn of the seraphim, the design of which is, saith Jerome on the place, Ut mysterium Trinitatis in una Divinitate demonstrent; et nequaquam templum Judaicum, sicut prius, sed omnem terram illius gloria plenam esse testentur; " That they may point out the mystery of the Trinity in one Godhead; and that the Jewish temple alone should not be, as formerly, the place of the Divine glory, for the whole earth should be filled with it." It relates, indeed, primarily to the prophet's own time,.and the obriuration of the Jews of that age, and their punishment by the Babylonish captivity; but e.xtends in its full latitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the Gospel, (see Matt. xiii. 14; John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 26; Rom. xi. 8,) the desolation of their country by the Romans, and their being rejected by God. That nevertheless a holy seed — a remnant, should be preserved; and that the nation should spread out and flourish again from the old stock. — L.

Verse 1. The Lord] Fifty-oyieUSS. o{ KennicoU's, and fifly-four of Be Rossi's, and one edition; in the 8th \eise, fnrt)j-four MSS. of Kennicott's, and/oWysix of De Rossi's, and one edition; and in the Uth verse, thirtij-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and one edition, for "jns Adonai, " the Lord," read mn'' " Jehovah," which is probably the true reading; (compare ver. 6;) as in many "other places, in which the superstition of the Jews has substituted 'ns Adonai for nirr Yehovah. One of my own MSS., a very ancient and large folio, to which the points and the masora have been added by a later hand, has niH' Yelwuah in the 1st and 8lh verses, in the teeth of the masora, which orders it in hoth places to be read ':tn Adonai.

Verse 2. Alove it stood the seraphim] □"inKr seraphim, from '\-W seraph, to hum. He saw, says Kim-

4 And the posts of the ' door moved at the voice of him that cried, and ^ the house was filled with smoke.

5 ' Then said I, Wo is me

chi, the angels as flames of fire, that the depravity of that generation might be exhibited, which was worthy of being totally burnt up.

He covered his feet — " He covereth his feet"] By the feet the Hebrews mean all the lower parts of the body. But the people of the East generally wearing long robes, reaching to the ground, and covering the lower parts of the body down to the feet, it may hence have been thought want of respect and decency to appear in public and on solemn occasions with even the feet themselves uncovered. Kempfer, speaking of the king of Persia giving.audience, says. Rex in medio supremi atrii cruribus more patrio inflexis sedebat: corpus tunica investiebat fl.ava, ad suras cum staret protensa; discumbentis vero jiedes discalceatos pro nrbanitate patrta operiens. — Amcen. Exot. p. 227. " The kmg sat on the floor cross-legged, as is the custom of the country. He was covered with a yellow garment, which reached down to the feet when standing, but covered the feet for decency when sitting with his slippers off." Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: Grande marque de respect en orient de se cacher les pieds, quand on est assis, et de baisser le visage. Quand le souvram se monstre en Chine et ^ Japon, chacun se jette le visage contre terre, et il n'est pas permis de regarder le roi; " It is a great mark of respect in the East to cover the feet, and to bow down the head in the presence of the king."

Verse 3. Holy, holy, holy] This hymn, performed by the seraphim, divided into two choirs, the one singing responsively to the other, which Gregory Nazian., Carm. 18, very elegantly calls Zvfi6uiw, avn- (buvov, a}yE?MV araaiv, is formed upon the practice of alternate singing, which prevailed in the Jewish Church from the time of Moses, whose ode at the Red.Sea W'as thus performed, (see Exod. xv. 20, 21,) to that of Ezra, under whom the priests and Levites sung alternately,

' O praise Jehovah, for he is gracious; For his mercy endureth for ever;" Ezra iii. II. See De Sac. Pocs. Ilebr. Pral. xix., at the beginning.

Verse 5. Wo is me! for I am undone] TITDIJ nidmeythi, I am become dumb. There is somethinoexceedingly affecting in this complaint. I am a man of unclean lips; 1 cannot say. Holy, holy, holy! which the seraphs e.xclaim. They are holy; I ain not so: they see God, and live; I have seen him, and must die, because I am unholy. Only the pure in heart shall see God; and they only can live in his presence for ever. Reader, lay this to heart; and instead of boasting of thy excellence, and trusting in thy might, or comforting thyself in thy comparative innocence, thou wilt also be dumb before him, because thou liast

6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, " having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off ° the altar:

7 And he p laid i it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

S Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for

damain, silere, " to be silent;" and so it is rendered by the Syriac, Vulgate, Symmachus, and by some of the Jewish interpreters, apud Sal. b. Melee. The rendering of the Syriac is ^JN "".'in tavir ani, stupens, attonitus sum, " I am amazed." He immediately gives the reason why he was struck dumb: because he was a man of polluted lips, and dwelt among a people of polluted lips; and was unworthy, either to join the seraphim in singing praises to God, or to be the messenger of God to his people. Compare Exod. iv. 10; vi. 12; Jer. i. 6.

Verse 6. A live coal\ The word of prophecy, which was put into the mouth of the prophet.

From off the altar'] That is, from the altar of burntofferings, before the door of the temple, on which the fire that q^me down at first from heaven (Lev. ix. 24; 2 Chron. vii. 1) was perpetually burning. It was never to be extinguished, Lev vi. 12, 13.

Verse 9. And he said] 'h li, to me, two MSS. and the Syriac. Thirteen MSS. have nxl raah, in the regular form.

Verse 10. Mahe the heart of this people fat — " Gross"] The prophet speaks of the event, the fact as it would actually happen, not of God's purpose and act by his ministry. The prophets are in other places said to perform the thing which they only foretell: —

" Lo! I have given thee a charge this day

And Ezekiel says, " When I came to destroy the city;" that is, as it is rendered in the margin of our version, " when I caine to prophesy that the city should be destroyed;" chap, xliii. 3. To hear, and not understand; to see, and not perceive; is a cora-

9 And he said. Go, and tell Ant'e'^UAem this people, ' Hear ye "^ indeed Conduam 6

but understand not; and see ye " indeed, but perceive not.

1 0 Make '■' the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: '' lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

1 1 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, ^ Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be ^ utterly desolate,

mon saying in many languages. Demosthenes uses it, and expressly calls it a proverb: uare to tiic trapoi- /ua; iipuirai pjj opav, Kai aKovovrac pr/ aKOVctv; Contrc. Aristogit. L, suh. Jin. The prophet, by the bold figure in the sentiment above mentioned, and the elegant form and construction of the sentence, has raised it from a common proverb into a beautiful rnashal, and given it the sublime air of poetry.

Or the words may be understood thus, according to the Hebrew idiom: " Ye certainly hear, but do not understand; ye certainly see, but do not acknowledge." Seeing this is the case, make the heart of this people fat — declare it to be stupid and senseless; and remove from them the means of salvation, which they have so long abused.

And shut — " Close up"] ^TBTI hasha. This word Sal. ben Melee explains to this sense, in which it is hardly used elsewhere, on the authority of Onlcclos. He says it means closing up the eyes, so that one cannot see; that the root is i'la' shava, by which word the Targum has rendered the word HD tach, Lev. xiv., 42, n";: nx noi vetach eth heith, " and shall plaster the house." And the word n£3 tach is used in the same sense, Isa. xliv. 18. So that it signifies to close up the eyes by some matter spread upon the lids. Mr. Harmer very ingeniously applies to this passage a practice of sealing up the eyes as a ceremony, or as a kind of punishment used in the East, from which the image may possibly be taken. Observ. ii. 278.

With their heart — "With their hearts"] U2'721 ubilehaho, fifteen MSS. of KennicotCs and, fourteen of Be Rossi's, and Ivio editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

12'' And the Lord have re moved men far away, and there

13 But yet in it shall he a tenth, ■= and it

A'erse 11. Be utterly desolate — "Deleft"] For riNtyn tlshaeh, the Scptuagint and Vulgate read IXBT* ^hshaer.

Verse 13. A tenth] This passage, though somewhat ibscure, and variously explained by various interpreters, has, I think, been made so clear by the accomplishment of the prophecy, that there remains little room to doubt of the sense of it. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land, the poorer sort left to be vinedressers and husbandmen, under Gedaliah, 2 Kings xxr. 12, 22, and the dispersed Jews gathered themselves together, and returned to him, Jer. xl. 12; yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, contrary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably perished there. Again, in the subsequent and more remarkable completion of the prophecy in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dissolution of the commonwealth by the Romans, when the Jews, after the loss of above a million of men, had increased from the scanty residue that was left of them,

shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose <■ substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so " the holy seed shall he the substance thereof

and had become very numerous again in their country; Hadrian, provoked by their rebellious behaviour, slew above half a million more of them, and a second time almost extirpated the nation. Yet after these signal and almost universal destructions of that nation, and after so many other repeated exterminations and massacres of them in different times and on various occasions since, we yet see, with astonishment, that the stock still remains, from which God, according to his promise frequently given by his prophets, will cause his people to shoot forth again, and to flourish. — L.

A tenth, rTTK^i^ asinijah. The meaning, says Kimchi, of this word is, there shall yet be in the land ten kings from the time of declaring this prophecy. The names of the ten kings are Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim, and Zedchiah; tlien there shall be a general consumption, the people shall be carried into captivity, and Jerusalem shall be destroyed.

For □; lam, in them, above seventy MSS., eleven of KennicotCs, and thirty-four of De Rossi's, read 713 iah, in it; and so the Septuagint.

The king of Judah and the royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving accounts of the mva sion of the kings of Syria and Israel, the prophet is sent to assure them that God would make good his promises to David and his house; so that, although they might be corrected, they could not be destroyed, while these prophecies remained to be accomplished, 1-9. The Lord gives Ahaz a sign that the confederacy against Judah shall be broken, which sign strikingly points out the miraculous conception of the Messiah, who tvas to spring from the tribe of Judah, 10-16. Prediction of very heavy calamities which the Assyrians would inflict upon the land of Judea, 17—25.,

days of '^ Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of

The confederacy of Rezin, king of.Syria, and Pehah, king of Israel, against the kingdom of Judah, was formed in the time of Jotham; and perhaps the effects of it were felt in the latter part of his reign; see 2 Kings XV. 37, and note on chap. i. 7-9. However, in the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they jointly invaded Judah with a powerful army, and threatened to destroy or to detlirone the house of David. The king and royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving advices of their designs, Isaiah is sent to them to support and comfort them in their present distress, by assuring them that God would make good his promises to David and his house. This makes the subject of this, and the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapters, in which there are many and great difficulties.

Chap. vii. begins with an historical account of the occasion of this prophecy; and then follows, ver. 4—16, a prediction of the ill success of the designs of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah; and from thence to the end of the chapter, a denunciation of the calamities to be brought upon the king and people of Judah by the Assyrians, whom they had now hired to assist them. Chap. viii. has a pretty close connection with the foregoing; it contains a confirmation of the prophecy before given of the approaching destruction

Anno oiymp. David, Saying, Syria ° is con- Ante Urb'em federate with Ephraim. And his ^°"'^'""" ^'^- heart was moved, and the heart

of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wmd.

3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go fortli now to meet Ahaz, thou, ^ and ' Shearjasliub thy son, at the end of the f conduit of the upper pool in the s highway of the fuller's field;

4 And say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, ^ neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of

of the kingdoms of Israel and Syria by the Assyrians, of the denunciation of the invasion of Judah by the same Assyrians. Verses 9, 10, give a repeated general assurance, that all the designs of the enemies of God's people shall be in the end disappointed, and brought to naught; ver. 11, &c., admonitions and threatenings, (I do not attempt a more particular explanation of this very difficult part,) concluding with an illustrious prophecy, chap. ix. 1-6, of the manifestation of Messiah, the transcendent dignity of his character, and the universality and eternal duration of his kingdom.

Averse 4. The Syriac omits DtNl vearam, " and Syria;" the Vulgate reads lUIN "yTO melech aram, "king of Syria:" one or the other seems to be the true reading. I prefer the former: or, instead of pi ^D^X1 vearam uben, read p npSl vepehach ben, and pekah son, MS.

Verse 5. Because — Remaltah] All these words are omitted by one MS. and the Synac; a part of them also by the Septuagint.

Verses 8, 9. For the head of Syria, t^f.]

" Though the head of Syria be Damascus, And the head of Damascus Retsin; Yet within threescore and^fe years Ephraim shall be broken, that he be no more a people: And the head of Ephraim be Samaria; And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son.

" Here are sir lines, or three distichs, the order of which seems to have been disturbed by a transposition, occasioned by three of the lines beginning with the same word K'NIl verosh, " and the head," which three lines ought not to have been separated by any other line intervening; but a copyist, having written the first

6 Let us go up agamst Judah, Ante Urbem and i vex it, and let us make a '^°"'^'"^'" '^- breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal;

7 Thus saith the Lord God, '' It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

8 ' For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the liead of Damascus is Rezin: and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, ™ that it be not a people.

9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Reinaliah's son. " If "ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

of them, and casting his eye on the third, might easily proceed to write after the Jirst line beginning with t!'X^l verosh, that which ought to have followed the third line beginning with K'NII verosh. Then finding his mistake, to preserve the beauty of his copy, added at the end the distich which should have been in the middle; making that the second distich, which ought to have been the third. For the order as it now stands is preposterous: the destruction of Ephraim is denounced, and then their grandeur is set forth; whereas naturally the representation of the grandeur of Ephraim should precede that of their destruction. And the do struction of Ephraim has no coherence with the grandeur of Syria, simply as such, which it now follows: but it naturally and properly follows the grandeur of Ephraim, joined to that of Syria their ally.

" The arrangement then of the whole sentence seems originally to have been thus: —

Though the head of Sj-ria be Damascus; And the head of Damascus Retsin; And the head of Ephraim be Samaria, And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son Yet within threescore and five years Ephraim shall be broken that he be no more a people."

Threescore and Jive years] It was sixty-five years from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, when this prophecy was delivered, to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Lsrael by Esarhaddon, who carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, and who planted the country with new inhabitants. That the country was not wholly stripped of its inhabitants by Shalmaneser appears from many passages of the history of Josiah, where Israelites are mentioned as still remaining there, 9 Chron. xxxiv. 6, 7, 33; xxxv. 18; 2 Kings xxiii. 19, 20. This seems to be the best explanation of the chronological difficulty in this place, which has much embarrassed the commentators: see Usserii Annal.

Ante"uriiem 1 1 1 Ask thee a sign of the

Lord thy God; ' ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

13 And he said, Hear ye now, 0 house of David, Is it a small thing for you to weary

" That the last deportation of Israel by Esarhaddon was in the sixty-fifth year after the second of Ahaz, is probable for the following reasons: The Jews, in Seder Olam Rabba. and the Talraudists, in D. Kimchi on Ezek. iv., say, that Manasseh king of Judah was carried to Babylon by the king of Assyria's captains, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, in the twenty-second year of his reign; that is, before Christ 676, according to Dr. Blair's tables. And they are probably right in this. It could not be much earlier; as the king of Assyria was not king of Babylon till 680, ibid. As Esarhaddon was then in the neighbourhood of Samaria, it is highly probable that he did then carry away the last remains of Israel, and brought those strangers thither who mention him as their founder, Ezra iv. 2. But this year is just the sixty-fifth from the second of Ahaz, which was 740 before Christ. Now the carrying away the remains of Israel, who, till then, though their kingdom was destroyed /oc/y^i-e years before, and though small in number, might yet keep up some form of being a people, by living according to their own laws, entirely put an end to the people of Israel, as a people separate from all others: for from this time they never returned to their own country in a body, but were confounded with the people of Judah in the captivity; and the whole people, the ten tribes included, were called Jews." — Dr. Jubb. Two MSS. have twenty-five instead of sixty -fioe; and two others omit the word five, reading only sixty.

If ye wilt not believe — " If ye believe not"] " This

clause is very much illustrated by considering the captivity of Manasseh as happening at the same time with this predicted final ruin of Ephraim as a people. The near connection of the two facts makes the prediction of the one naturally to cohere with the prediction of the other. And the words are well suited to this event in the history of the people of Judah: ' If ye believe not, ye shall not be estabhsbed;' that is, unless ye believe this prophecy of the destruction of Israel, ye Jews also, as well as the people of Israel, shall not remain established as a kingdom and people; ye also shall be visited with punishment at the same time: as our Saviour told the Jews in his time, ' Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;' intimating their destruction by the Romans; to which also, as well as to the captivity of Manasseh, and to the Babylonish captivity, the views of the prophet might here extend. The

14 Therefore the Lord himself Amc Urhom shall give you a sign; ^ Behold, a "'" "'^'"

virgin shall conceive, and bear ' a son, and " shall call his name '' Immanuel.

15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose thfi good.

close connection of this threat to the Jews with the prophecy of the destruction of Israel, is another strong proof that the order of the preceding lines above proposed is right." — Dr. Jubb.

" If ye believe not in me." — The exhortation of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 20, to his people, when God had promised to them, by the prophet Jahaziel, victory over the Moabites and Ammonites, is very like this both in sense and expression, and seems to be delivered in verse:

" Hear me, O Judah; and ye inhabitants of Jeru- 'salem; Believe in Jehovah your God, and ye shall be

Where both the sense and construction render very probable a conjecture of Archbishop Seder on this place; that instead of 'D ki, we should read '3 bi. " If ye will not believe in me, ye shall not be established." So likewise Dr. Durell. The Chaldee has, " If ye will not believe in the words of the prophet;" which seems to be a paraphrase of the reading here proposed. In favour of which it may be farther observed, that in one MS. "3 ki is upon a rasure; and another for the last n'? lo reads N^l velo, which would properly follow '3 bi, but could not follow '2 ki.

Some translate thus, and paraphrase thus: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Or, If ye do not give credit, it is because ye are unfaithful. Ye have not been faithful to the grace already given: therefore ye are now incapable of crediting my promises.

Verse 11. /n the depth — "Go deep to the grave"] So Aquila, Symmachus, Thcodotwn, and the Vulgate

Verse 14. The Lord — Jehovah"] ¥ox'i-[ii Adonai, twenty-five of KeanicotCs M.S.S., nine ancient, and fourteen of De Rossi's, read niD' Yehovah. And so ver. 20, eighteen MSS.

Immanuel.] For 'jSIJSJ' Immanuel, many MS.S. and editions have '7X Ijrjj' immanti El, God with us.

know"]." Though so much has been written on this important passage, there is an obscurity and inconsequence which still attends it, in the general run of all the interpretations given to it by the most learned. And this obscure incoherence is given to It by the false rendering of a Hebrew particle, viz., S le, in Wi'l'* ledato. This has been generally rendered, either ' th

1 6 " For before the child shall

Anno oiymp. kiiow to refuse the evil, and Ante Vrbcm choose the good, the land that

he may know,' or ' till he know.' It is capable of either version, without douht; but either of these versions makes ver. 15 incoherent and inconsistent with ver. 16. For ver. 16 plainly means to give a reason for the assertion in ver. 15, because it is subjoined to it by the particle '3 ki, for. But it is no reason why a child should eat butter and honey till he was at an age to distinguish, that before that time the land of his nativity should be free from its enemies. This latter supposition indeed implies what is inconsistent with the preceding assertion. For it implies, that in part of that time of the infancy spoken of the land should not be free from enemies, and consequently these species of delicate food could not be attainable, as they are in times of peace. The other version, ' that he may know,' has no meaning at all; for what sense is there in asserting, that a child shall eat butter and honey that lie may know to refuse evil and choose good? Is there any such effect in this food 1 Surely not. Besides, the child is thus represented to eat those things, which only a state of peace produces, during its whole infancy, inconsistently with ver. 16, which promises a relief from enemies only before the end of this infancy; implying plainly, that part of it would be passed in distressful times of war and siege, which was the state of things when the prophecy was delivered.

" But all these objections are cut off, and a clear, coherent sense is given to this passage, by giving another sense to the particle '7 le, which never occurred to me till I saw it in Harmer's Observat., vol. i., p. 299. See how coherent the words of the prophet run, with how natural a connection one clause follows another, by properly rendering this one particle: ' Behold this Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel; butter and honey shall he eat, when he shall know to refuse evil, and choose good. For before this child shall know to refuse evil and choose good, the land shall be desolate, by whose two kings thou art distressed.' Thus ver. 16 subjoins a plain reason why the child should eat butter and honey, the food of plentiful times, when he came to a distinguishing age; viz., because before that time the country of the two kings, who now distressed Judea, should be desolated; and so Judea should recover that plenty which aUends peace. That this rendering, which gives perspicuity and rational connection to the passage, is according to the use of the Hebrew particle, is certain. Thus ip3 niJ3'7 liphnoth boker, ' at the appearing of morning, or when morning appeared,' Exod. xiv. 27; 7DNn n>'7 leeth haochel, 'at meal-time, or u'hen it was time to eat,' Ruth ii. 1 4. In the same manner, 1J"l"^7 ledato, ' at his knowing, that is, lohen he knows.'

" Harmer (ibid.) has clearly shown that these articles of food are delicacies in the E.nst, and, as such, denote a state of plenty. See also Josh. v. 6. They thcrel'ore naturally express the plenty of the country. |

17 J-The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not coine from the day that ^ Ephraim departed

as a mark of peace restored to it. Indeed, in ver. 22 it expresses a plenty arising from the thinness of the people; but that it signifies, ver. 15, a plenty arising from deliverance from war then present, is evident; because otherwise there is no expression of this deliverance. And that a deliverance was intended to be here expressed is plain, irom calling the child which should be born Immanuel, God with us. It is plain, also, because it is before given to the prophet in charge to make a declaration of the deliverance, ver. 3-7; and it is there made; and this prophecy must undoubtedly be conformable to that in this matter." — Dr. Juib.

The circumstance of the child's eating butter and honey is explained by Jarc/ii, as denoting a state of plenty: " Butter and honey shall this child eat, because our land shall be full of all good." Comment in locum. The infant Jupiter, says Callimachus, was tenderly nursed with goat's milk and honey. Hymn, in Jov. 48. Homei; of the orphan daughters of Pandareus: —

Kofuaae Se dC kt^podirri Tvpu, aai fisTiin y2.VKepL>, Kai ijScL oivcj.

Odyss. XX., 68 " Venus in tender delicacy rears

With honey, milk, and wine, their infant years."

Tpv^tjl earn' evdeiii;; '• This is a description of delicate food," says Euslalhius on the place.

Agreeably to the observations communicated by the learned person above mentioned, which perfectly well explain the historical sense of this much disputed passage, not excluding a higher secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of the prophecy is this: " that within the time that a young woman, now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a child, and that child should arrive at such an age as to distinguish between good and evil, that is, within a few years, (compare chap. viii. 4,) the enemies of Judah should he destroyed." But the prophecy is introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign is so marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing in them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a common child required, or even admitted; that we may easily suppose that, in minds prepared by the general expectation of a greaS Deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested; especially when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah. Who could this be.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord ^ shall

other than the heir of the throne of David; under which character a great and even a Divine person had been promised 1 No one of that age answered to this character except Hezekiah; but ho was certainly born nine or ten years before the delivery of this prophecy. That this was so understood at that time is collected, I think, with great probability, from a passage of Micah, a prophet contemporary with Isaiah, but who began to prophesy after him; and who, as 1 have already observed, imitated him, and sometimes used his expressions. Micah, having delivered that remarkable prophecy which determines the place of the birth of Messiah, " the Ruler of God's people, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting;" that it should he Bethlehem Ephratah; adds immediately, that nevertheless, in the mean time, God would deliver his people into the hands of their enemies: " He will give them up, till she, vvho is to bear a child, shall bring forth," Mic. v. 3. This obviously and plainly refers to some known prophecy concerning a woman to bring forth a child; and seems much more properly applicable to this passage of Isaiah than to any others of the same prophet, to which gome interpreters have applied it. St. Matthew, therefore, in applying this prophecy to the birth of Christ, does it, not merely in the way of accommodating the words of the prophet to a suitable case not in the prophet's view, but takes it in its strictest, clearest, and most important sense; and applies it according to the original design and principal intention of the prophet. — L.

After all this learned criticism, I think something is still wanting to diffuse the proper light over this important prophecy. On Matt. i. 23 I have given what I judge to be the true meaning and right application of the whole passage, as there quoted by the evangelist, the substance of which it will be necessary to repeat here; —

At the time referred to, the kingdom of Judah, under the government of Ahaz, was reduced very low. Pekah, king of Israel, had slain in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand persons in one day; and carried away captives two hundred thousand, including women and children, together with much spoil. To add to their distress, Rezin, king of Syria, being confederate with Pckah, had taken Elath, a fortified city of Judah, and carried the inhabitants away captive to Damascus. In this critical conjuncture, need we wonder that Ahaz was afraid that the enemies who were now united against him must prevail, destroy Jerusalem, end the kingdom of Judah, and annihilate the family of David 1 To meet and remove this fear, apparently well grounded, Isaiah is sent from the Lord to Ahaz, swallowed up now both by sorrow and by unbelief, in order to assure him that the counsels of his enemies should not stand; and tliat they should be utterly discomfited. To encourage Ahaz, he commands him to ask a sign or miracle, which should be a pledge in hand, that God should,

hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

in due time, fulfil the predictions of his servant, as related in the context. On Ahaz humbly refusing to ask any sign, it is immediately added, " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son; and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat," &c. Both the Divine and human nature of our Lord, as well as the miraculous conception, appear to be pointed out in the prophecy quoted here by the evangelist: He shall be called w'U'Di.' Imm.vnu-el; literally. The strong God with us: similar to those words in the New Testament: The word which tuas God — was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; John i. 1, 14. And Godvxis manifested in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. So that we are to understand God ioith us to imply, God incarnated — God in human nature. This seems farther evident from the words of the prophet, ver. 1 5: Butter and honey shall he eat — he shall be truly -/nan — grow up and be nourished in a human natural icay; which refers to his being with us, i. 6., incarnated. To which the prophet adds, That he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good; or rather. According to his knowledge, in^'l'? ledato, reprobating the evil, and choosing the good; this refers to him as God, and is the same idea given by this prophet, chap. liii. 1 1: By (or in) his knowledge, ini'l2 hedato, (the knowledge of Christ crucified,) shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall hear their offences. Now this union of the Divine and human nature is termed a sign or miracle, niX oth, i. e., something which exceeds the power of nature to produce. And this miraculous union was to be brought about in a miraculous ivay: Behold, a virgin shall conceive: the word is very emphatic, no'7i'n haalmah, the virgin; the only one that ever was, or ever shall be, a mother in this way. But the Jews, and some called Christians, who have espoused their desperate cause, assert that " the word naV almah does not signify a virgin oidy; for it is applied Prov. xxx. 19 to signify a young married woman." I answer, that this latter text is no proof of the contrary doctrine: the words no'?;'^ 13J "j"n derech geher healmah, the way of a man with a maid, cannot be proved to mean that for which it is produced. Besides, one of De Rossi's MSS. reads VD^i^'a bealmaiv, the loay of a strong or stout man (^3J geher) in his youth; and in this reading the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic agree; which are followed by the first version in the English language, as it stands in a MS. in my own possession: tijc tocfr oC a man in f)f.s lua):fnB iiouti): so that this place, the only one that can with any probability of success be produced, were the interpretation contended for correct, which I am by no means disposed to admit, proves nothing. Besides, the consent of so many versions in the opposite meaning deprives it of much of its influence in this question. The word rTDS>' almah, comes from zhy alam, to ht

19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in ^ the holes of the rocks, and upon

hid, be concealed: and we are told, that " virgins were so called, because they were concealed or closely kept up in their fathers' houses till the time of their marriage." This is not correct: see the case of Rebecca, Gen. xxiv. -IS, and my note there; that of Rachel, Gen. xxix. 6, 'J, and the note there also;' and see the case of Miriam, the sister of Moses, Exod. ii. 8, and also the Chaldee paraphrase on Lam. i. 4, where the virgins are represented as going out in the dance. And see also the whole history of Rutli. This being concealed or kept at home, on which so much stress is laid, is purely fanciful; for we find that young unmarried women drew water, kept sheep, gleaned publicly in the fields, &e., &c., and the same works they perform among the Turcomans to the present day. This reason, therefore, does not account for the radical meaning of the word; and we must seek it elsewhere. Another well-known and often-used root in the Hebrew tongue will cast light on this subject. This is nSj galah, which signifies to reveal, make manifest, or uncover; and is often applied to matrimonial connections in different parts of the Mosaic law: vhj! alam, therefore, may be considered as implying the concealment of the virgin, as such, till lawful marriage had taken place. A virgin was not called rTD*?;' almah, because she was concealed by being kept at home in her father's house, which is not true; but, literally and physically, because as a woman she had not been uncovered — she had not known man. This fully applies to the blessed virgin, see Luke i. 34. '• How can this be, seeing / know no man?" And this text throxvs much light on the subject before us. This also is in perfect agreement with the ancient prophecy, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," Gen. iii. 15; for the person who was to destroy the work of the devil was to be the progeny of the ivoman, without any concurrence of the ma7i. And hence the text in Genesis speaks as fully of the virgin state of the person from whom Christ, according to the flesh, should come, as that in the prnphet, or this in the evangelist. According to the original promise there was to be a seed, a human being, who sliould destroy sin: but this seed or human being, must come from the woman alone; and no ivoman alone could produce such a human being without being a virgin. Hence, A virgin shall bear a son. is the very spirit and meaning of the original text, independently of the illustration given by the prophet; and the fact recorded by the evangelist is the proof of the whole. But how could that be a sign to Ahaz, which was to take place so many hundreds of years after 1 I answer, the meaning of the prophet is plain: not only Rezin and Pekah should be unsuccessful against Jerusalem at that time, which was the fact; but Jerusalem, Judea, and the house of David should be both preserved, notwithstanding their depressed state, and the multitude of their adversaries, till the time should come when a virgin should hear a son.

20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a ^ razor that is

This is a most remarkable circumstance — tlie house of David could never fad, till a virgin should conceive and bear a son — nor did it: but when that incredible and miraculous fact did take place, the kingdom and house of David became extinct! This is an irrefrao-able confutation of every argument a Jew can offer" in vindication of his opposition to the Gospel of Christ. Either the prophecy in Isaiah has been fulfilled, or the kingdom and house of David are yet standing. I3ut the kingdom of David, we know, is destroyed: and where is the man, Jew or Gentile, that can show us a single descendant of David on the face of the earth? Tha prophecy could not fail: the kingdom and house of David have failed; the virgin, therefore, must have brought forth her son, and this son is Jesus, the Christ. Thus Moses, Isaiah, and Matthew concur; and facts the most unequivocal have confirmed the whole! Behold the wisdom and providence of God!

Notwithstanding what has been said above, it may be asked. In what sense could this name, Immanuel, be applied to Jesus Christ, if he be not truly and properly GOD! Could the Spirit of truth ever design that Christians should receive him as an angel or a mere man; and yet, in the very beginning of the Gospel history, apply a character to him which belongs only to the most high God? Surely no. In what sense, then, is Christ God with us ^ Jesus is called Immanuel, or God with us, in his incarnation; God united to our nature; God with man, God in man; God with us, by his continual protection; God with us, by the influences of his Holy Spirit, in the holy sacrament, in the preaching of his word, in private prayer. And God with us, through every action of our life, that we begin, continue, and end in his name. He is God with us, to comfort, enlighten, protect, and defend us, in every time of temptation and trial, in the hour of death, in the day o{ judgment; and God with us and in us, and we with and in him, to all eternity.

Verse 17. The Lord shall bring — " But Jehovah will bring"] Houhigant reads N'^'l vaiyahi, from the Septuagint, aXla sTra^ei 6 Ofof, to mark the transition to a new subject.

Even the king of Assyria.] Houhigant supposes these words to have been a marginal gloss, broun-ht into the text by mistake; and so likewise Archbishop Seeker. Besides their having no force or effect here, they do not join v/ell in construction with the words preceding, as may be seen by the strange manner in which the ancient interpreters have taken them; and they very inelegantly forestall the mention of the king of Assyria, which comes in with great propriety in the 20th verse. I have therefore taken the liberty of omitting them in the translation.

Verse 18. Hiss for the fly — " Hist the fly"] See note on chap. v. 26.

Ante Urbem tlic liead, aiiil llie hair 01 tlie ^°"'^''''"' '^- feci: and it shall also consume the beard,

that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep:

22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give that he shall eat " butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left '' in the land.

23 And it sliall come to pass in that day,

A'erse 19. Holes of the rocks — "Caverns"] So the Scpluaginl, Syriac, and Vulgale, whence Houbigant supposes the true reading to be D'SSnjn hannachaloli7n. One of my oldest MSS. reads D'''7l'7njn hannachalolwi.

Verse 20. The river] That is, the Euphrates: "in^n hanahar. So read the Septuagint and two MSS.

Shall the Lord shave with a razor thai is hired — " Jehovah shall shave by the hired razor"] To shave with the hired razor the head, the feet, and the beard, is an expression highly parabolical, to denote the utter devastation of the country from one end to the other; and the plundering of the people, from the highest to the lowest, by the Assyrians, whom God employed as his instrument to punish the Jev\s. Ahaz himself, in the first place, hired the king of Assyria to come to help him against the Syrians, by a present made to him of all the treasures of the temple, as well as his own. And God himself considered the great nations, whom he thus employed as his mercenaries; and paid them their wages. Thus he paid Nebuchadnezzar for his services against Tyre, by the conquest of Egypt, Ezek. xxi.v. 18-20. The hairs of the head are those of the highest order in the state; those of the feet, or the lower parts, are the common people; the beard is the king, the high priest, the very supreme in dignity and majesty. The Eastern people have always held the beard in the highest veneration, and have been extremely jealous of its honour. To pluck a man's beard is an instance of the greatest indignity that can be offered. See Isa. 1. 6. The king of the Ammonites, to show the utmost contempt of David, " cut off half the beards of his servants, and the men were greatly ashamed; and David bade them tarry at Jericho till their beards were grown," 2 Sam. X. 4, 5. Nicbuhr, Arabic, p. 275, gives a modern instance of the very same kind of insult. " The Turks," says Thevenot, " greatly esteem a man who has a fine beard; it is a very great affront to take a man by his beard, unless it be to kiss it; they swear by the beard." Voyages, i., p. 57. D^Arvieux gives a remarkable instance of an Arab, who, having received a wound in his jaw, chose to hazard his life, rather at a thousand suverlmgs, ^ it Ante Urbom shall even be for briers and ^°"''"'"" '^- thorns.

24 With ^ arrows and with bows shall?nen come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

25 Ando?2 all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

than suffer his surgeon to take off his beard. Memoires, tom. iii., p. 214. See also Niebuhr, Arabic, p. fil.

The remaining verses of this chapter, 21—25, contain an elegant and very expressive description of a country depopulated, and left to run wild, from its adjuncts and circumstances: the vineyards and cornfields, before well cultivated, now overrun with briers and thorns; ijmch grass, so that the few cattle that are left, a young cow and two sheep, have their full range, and abundant pasture, so as to yield milk in plenty to the scanty family of the owner; the thinly scattered people living, not on corn, wine, and oil, the produce of cultivation; but on milk and honey, the gifts of nature; and the whole land given up to the wild beasts, so that the miserable inhabitants are forced to go out armed with bows and arrows, either to defend themselves against the wild beasts, or to supply themselves with necessary food by hunting.

A VERY judicious friend has sent me the following observations on the preceding prophecy, which I think worthy of being laid before the reader; though they are in some respects different from my own view of the subject.

To my correspondent, as well as to many learned men, there appears some diflicuhy in the text; but I really think this is quite done away by that mode of interpretation which I have already adopted; and as far as the miraculous conception is concerned, the whole is set in the clearest and strongest light, and the objections and cavils of the Jews entirely destroyed.

Prediction respecting the conquest of Syria and Israel by the Assyrians, 1-4. Israel, for rejecting the gentle stream of Shiloah, near Jerusalem, is threatened to be overflowed by the great river of Assyria, manifestly alluding by this strong figure to the conquests of Tiglath-pilescr and Shalmaneser over that kingdom, 5-7. The invasion of the kingdom of Judah by the Assyrians under Sennacherib foretold, 8. The prophet assures the Israelites and Syrians that their hostile attempts against Judah shall be frustrated, 9, 10. Exhortation not to be afraid of the icrath of man, but to fear f he displeasure of God, 11-13. Judgments which shall overtake those who put no confidence in Jehovah, 14, 15. The prophet proceeds to warn his countrymen against idolatry, divination, and the like sinful practices, exhorting them to seek direction from the word of God, professing in a beautiful apostrophe that this was his own pious resolution. And to enforce this counsel, and strengthen their faith, he points to his children, lohose symbolic names toere signs or pledges of the Divine promises, 16-20. Judgments of God against the finally impcnilcnt, 21, 22.