Commentary on the Holy Bible

roll, and ^ write in it with a man's

The prophecy of the foregoing chapter relates directly to the kingdom of Judah only: the first part of it promises them deliverance from the united invasion of the Israelites and Syrians; the latter part, from ver. 17, denounces the desolation to be brought upon the kingdom of Judah by the Assyrians. The sixth, seventh, and eighth verses of this chapter seem to take in both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. " This people that rcfuseth the waters of Shiloah," may be meant of both: the Israelites despised the kingdom of Judah, which they had deserted, and now attempted to destroy; the people of Judah, from a consideration of their own weakness, and a distrust of God's promises, being reduced to despair, applied to the Assyrians for assistance against the two confederate kings. But how could it be said of Judah, that they rejoiced in Rezin, and the son of Remaliah, the enemies confederated against them 1 If some of the people were inclined to revolt to the enemy, (which however does not clearly appear from any part of the history or the prophecy,) yet there was nothing like a tendency to a general defection. This, therefore, must be understood of Israel. The prophet denounces the Assjiian invasion, which should overwhelm the whole kingdom of Israel under Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser; and the subsequent invasion of Judah by the same power under Sennacherib, which would bring them into the most imminent danger, like a flood reaching to the neck, in which a man can but just keep his head above water. The two next verses, 9 and 10, are addressed by the prophet, as a subject of the kingdom of Judah, to the Israelites and Syrians, and perhaps to all the enemies of God's people; assuring them that their attempts against that kingdom shall be fruitless; for that the promised Immanuel, to whom he alludes by using his name to express the signification of it, for God is with vs, shall be the defence of the house of David, and deliver the kingdom of Judah out of their hands. He then proceeds to warn the people of Judah against idolatry, divination, and the like forbidden practices; to which they were much inclined, and which would soon bring down God's judgments upon Israel. The prophecy concludes at the si.rlh verse of chap. ix. with promises of blessings in future times by the coming of the great deliverer already pointed out by the name of Immanuel, whose person and character is set forth in terms the most ample and magnificent.

And here it may be observed that it is almost the constant practice of the prophet to connect in like manner deliverances temporal with spiritual. Thus tho

A. M. cir. 3262. -fitnesses to record, •= Uriah the Anno oiyrap. priest, and Zechariah the son of

^""'^'"^■" ^'^- 3 And I d went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to ine, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 ' For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father and my mother, ^ the ^ riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

5 The Lord spake also unto A- *i; cir. 3263.

6 1' orasmch as this people Romuii, Regis refuseth the waters of "^ Shiloah ^°""'"' "' that go softly, and rejoice ' in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringelh up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even ^ the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

eleventh chapter, setting forth the kingdom of Messiah, is closely connected with the ieyilh, which foretells the destruction of Sennacherib. So likewise the destruction of nations, enemies to God, in the thirty-fourth chapter, introduces the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ in the thirly-fiflh. And thus the chapters from xl. to slix. inclusive, plainly relating to the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, do in some parts plainly relate to the greater deliverance by Christ.

^^erse 1. Tahe thee a great roll — " Take unto thee a large mirror"] The word [vbj gillayon is not regularly formed from ^'^J galal, to roll, but from nSj galah, as tni! pidyon from mi3 padah, '^ViD killayon from dSd calah, p'pj nilikayon from npJ nakah, ]v'7J.' elyon from nV alali, &c., the ' yod supplying the place of the radical n he. TVTi galah signifies to shoie, to reveal; properly, as Schroederus says, (De A''estitu Mulier. Hebr. p. 294,) to render clear and bright by rubbing; to polish, 'it^^l gillayon, therefore, according to this derivation, is not a roll or volume: but may very well signify a polished tablet of metal, such as was anciently used for a mirror. The Chaldee paraphrast renders it by ni7 luach, a tablet, and the same word, though somewhat differently pointed, the Chaldee paraphrast and the rabbins render a mirror, chap. iii. 33. The mirrors of the Israelitish women were made of brass finely polished, Exod. x.vxviii. 8, from w'hich place it likewise appears that what they used were little hand mirrors which they carried with them even when they assembled at the door of the tabernacle. I have a metalline mirror found in Herculaneum, which is not above three inches square. The prophet is commanded to take a mirror, or brazen polished tablet, not like these little hand mirrors, but a large one; large enough for him to engrave upon it in deep and lasting characters, U^lJiN' a"in3 becherct enosh, with a workman's graving tool, the prophecy which he was to deliver, a^n chcret in this place certainly signifies an instrument to ivrite or engrave with: but D'ln charit, the same word, only differing a little in the form, means something belonging to a lady's dress, chap. iii. 22, (where however Ji—e MSS. leave out the ' yod, whereby only it differs from the word in this place,) either a crisping-pin, which might be not unlike a graving tool, as some will nave it, or a purse, as others infer from 2 Kings v. 23.

It may therefore be called here E'lJS iO">n cheret enosh, a icorkman's instrument, to distinguish it from i3in TWi< cheret ishshah, an instrument of the same name, used by the leomen. In this manner.he was to record the prophecy of the destruction of Damascus and Samaria by the Assyrians; the subject and sum of which prophecy is here expressed with great brevity in four words, t3 E'n Sh'iS "in"3 maher shalal hash baz; i. e., to hasten the spoil, to tahe quickly the prey; which are afterwards applied as the name of the prophet's son, who was made a sign of the speedy completion of it; Maher-shalal-hash-baz; Haste-to-ihe-spoil, Quick-lothe-prey. And that it might be done with the greater solemnity, and to preclude all doubt of the real delivery of the prophecy before the event, he calls witnesses to attest the recording of it.

The prophet is commanded to take a great roll, and yet four tcords only are to be written in it. 13 Cn '7^!!' im maher shalal hash baz, Make haste to the spoil; fall upon the prey. The great volume points out the land of Judea; and the few words the small number of inhabitants, after the ten tribes were carried into captivity.

The words were to be \vritten with a man^s pen; i. e., though the prophecy be given in the visions of God, yet the writing must be real; the words must be transcribed on the great roll, that they may be read and publicly consulted. Or, lyijX £3in cherot enosh, the pen or graver of the weak miserable man, may refer to the already condemned Assyrians, who though they should be the instruments of chastening Damascus and Samaria, should themselves shortly be overthrown. The four words may be considered as the commission given to the Assyrians to destroy and spoil the cities. Make haste to the spoil; Fall upon the prey, &c.

Verse 4. For before the child] For my father and my mother, one MS. and the Vulgate have his father and his mother. The prophecy was accordingly accomplished within three years; when Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, went up against Damascus and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin, and also took the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and carried them captive to Assyria, 2 Kings xv. 29; xvi. 9; 1 Chron. v. 26.

Verse 6. Forasmuch as this people refuseth — " Because this people have rejected"] The gentle waters

of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O " Immanuel.

9 ° Associate yourselves, O ye people, " and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

1 Chap. XXX. 28. ^ Heb. the fulness of the breadth of thy land xhall be the xtretchings out of his wings. "Chapter vii. 14.

of Shiloah, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God; and is finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring down like a mighty flood upon all these apostates of both kingdoms, as a punishment for their manifold iniquities, and their contemptuous disregard of his promises. The brook and the river are put for the kingdoms to which they belong, and the different states of which respectively they most aptly represent. Juvenal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the importation of Asiatic manners, says, with great elegance, that " the Orontes has been long discharging itself into the Tiber:" —

And Virgil, to express tlie submission of some of the Eastern countries to the Roman arms, says: —

But the happy contrast between the brook and the river gives a peculiar beauty to this passage of the prophet, w-ilh which the simple figure in the Roman poets, however beautiful, yet uncontrasted, cannot contend.

Verse 8. He shall reach even to the?ieci] He compares' Jerusalem, says Kiinchi, to the head of the linman body. As when the waters come up to a man's neck, he is very near drowning, (for a little increase of them would go over his head,) so the king of Assyria coming up to Jerusalem was like a flood reaching to the neck — the whole country was overflowed, and the capital was in imminent danger. Accordingly the Chaldce renders reaching to the neck by reaching to Jerusalem.

Verse 9. Associate yourselves — " Know ye this"] God by his prophet plainly declares to the confederate adversaries of Judah, and bids them regard and attend to his declaration, that all their efforts shall be in vain. The present reading, 1>'1 ron, is subject to many difficulties; I follow that of the Septuagint, >y\ dcu, yvure.

speak the word, ' and it shall Romuii, Regis not stand: 'for God is with ""'"''"• "• us.

1 1 For the Lord spake thus to me ' with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom " this people shall say, A confederacy; ' neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

Archbishop Seeker approves this reading. 1^'T deu, know rje this, is parallel and synonymous to iriNH haazinu, give ear to it, in the next line. The Scptuagint have likewise very well paraphrased the conclu sion of this verse: " When ye have strengthened yourselves, ye shall be broken; and though ye again strengthen yourselves, again shall ye be broken;" taking inn chottu as meaning the same with niliyj, ye shall be broken.

Verse 11. With a strong hand — " As taking me by the hand"^ Eleven M.S.S., ((wo ancient,) o( Kennicott''s, thirtij-fourof De Rossi''s,an<i seven editions, read npinS kcchezkath; and so Symmachus, the Syriac, and Vul gate. Or rather with a strong hand, that is, with a strong and powerful influence of the prophetic Spirit.

It is holy"] "Ityp kesher. Both the reading and the sense of this word are doubtful. The Septuagint manifestly read T['ii>T> kashah; for they render it by aO^ripov, hard. The Syriac and Chaldee render it STia merda, and 11T3 incrod, rebellion. How they came by this sense of the word, or what they read in their copies, is not so clear. But the worst of it is, that neither of these readings or renderings gives any clear sense in this place. For why should God forbid his faithful servants to say with the unbelieving Jews, It is hard; or. There is a rebellion; or, as our translators render it, a confederacy? And how can this be called "walking in the way of this people?" ver. 11, which usually means, following their example, joining with them in religious worship. Or what confederacy do they mean! The union of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel against Judah \ That was properly a league between two independent states, not an unlawful conspiracy of one part against another in the same state; this is the meaning of the word "MOp kesher. For want of any satisfactory interpretation of this place that I can meet with, I adopt a conjecture of Archbishop Seeker, which he proposes with great diffidence, and even seems immediately to give up, as being destitute of any authority to support it. I will give it in his own words: — " Videri potest ex cap. v. 10, et hujus cap. 13, 14, 19, legendum lyip vel \S^-\p kadosh, eadem sententia, qua UTiSn Elohcynu, Hos. xiv. 3 Sed nihil necesse est. Vide eniin Jer. xi. 9; Ezek. xxii. 25. Optime tamen sic responderent huic versiculo versiculi 13, 14." The passages of Jetemiali

14 And 5' he shall be for a sanctuar j^; but for ^ a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

1 5 And many among them shall ^ stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that

and Ezekiel above referred to seem to me not at all to clear up the sense of the word ^typ kesher in this place. But the context greatly favours the conjecture here given, and makes it highly probable: " Walk not in the way of this people; call not their idols holy, nor fear ye the object of their fear:" (that is, the ae- Sarj/iara, or gods of the idolaters; for so fear here signifies, to wit, the thing feared. So God is called " The fear of Isaac," Gen. xxxi. 42, 53:) " but look up to Jehovah as your Holy One; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; and he shall be a holy Refuge unto you." Here there is a harmony and consistency running through the whole ^ntence; and the latter part naturally arises out of the former, and answers to it. Idolatry, however, is full of fears. The superstitious fears of the Hindoos are very numerous. They fear death, bad spirits generally, and hobgoblins of all descriptions. They fear also the cries o{ jachalls, owls, crotos, cats, asses, vultures, dogs, lizards, &c. They also dread different sights in the air, and are alarmed at various dreams. See Ward's Customs. Observe that the difference between "yillVl hesher and 'iV\p kadosh is chiefly in the transposition of the two last letters, for the letters T resh and T dalcth are hardly distinguishable in some copies, printed as well as MS.; so that the mistake, in respect of the letters themselves, is a very easy and a very common one. — L.

Verse 14. And he shall be for a sanctuary — "And, he shall be unio you a sanctuary"] The word □d'? lachem, unto you, absolutely necessary, as I conceive, to the sense, is lost in this place: it is preserved by the Vulgate, " et erit vobis in sanctificationem." The Septuagint have it in the singular number: carai aoi ei( uyiacfiov, it shall he to thee. Or else, instead of t^^p■^ mikdash, a sanctuary, we must read iyplD mokesh, a snare, which would then be repeated without any propriety or elegance, at the end of the verse. The Chaldee reads instead of it DSIffO mishpat, judgment; for he renders it by |JJ113 purean, which word frequently answers to DU'iTJ mishpat in iiis paraphrase. One MS. has instead of pS;! ly^p■3 mikdash ideeben, pSv CHv lahem leeben, which clears the sense and construction.

for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwellelh in Mount Zion.

19 And when they shall say unto you, f Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards s that peep, and that mutter should not a people seek unto their God? for the living ^ to the dead?

20 ' To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because ^ there is 'no hscht in them.

But the reading of the Vulgate is, I think, the best remedy to this difficulty; and is in some degree authorized by UTv! lahem, the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

Verse 16. Among my disciples.^ ^lUl^ belimmndai. The Septuagint render it rov fXTi jxaBeiv. Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 308, thinks they read nn70, that it be not understood, and approves of this reading. — Abp. Seeker.

Verse 19. Should not a people seek — " Should they seek"] After tJ'^^■ yidrosh, the Septuagint, repeating the word, read lyiTn hayidrosh: Ovk e6voc Tvpoc Geoi' vcKpovc; Should not a nation seek unio its God? Why should you seek unto the dead concerning the living? and this repetition of the verb seems necessary to the sense; and, as Procopius on the place observes, it strongly expresses the prophet's indignation at their folly.

Verse 20. To the laio and to the testimony — " Unto ' the command, and unto the testimony."] " Is not ^^l;?^ teudah here the attested prophecy, ver. 1-41 and perhaps miH iorah the command, ver. 11-15 1 for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human, command; see Prov. vi. 20, and vii. 1, 2, where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept." — Abp. Seeker. So Deschamps, in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: " Tenons nous a I'instrumcnt authentique mis en dep6t par ordre du Seigneur," " Let us stick to the authentic instrument, laid up by the command of the Lord." If this be right, the sixteenth verse must be understood in the same manner.

Because there is no light in them — " In which there is no obscurity."] irTiV shachor, as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun intJ' shachar signifies darkness, gloominess, Joel ii. 2, if we may judge by the context: —

"A day of darkness and obscurity; Of cloud, and of thick vapour;

As the gloom spread upon the mountains: A people mighty and numerous." Where the gloom, "inty shachar, seems to be the same u-ith the cloud and thick vapour mentioned in the line preceding. See Lam. iv. 8, and Job xxx. 30. See this meaning of the word in'i? shachar well supported in Christ. Muller. Sat. Observat. Phil. p. 53, Lugd. Bat. 1752. The morning seems to have been an idea wholly incongruous in the passage of Joel; and in this of Isaiah the words in which there is no morning (for so it ought to be rendered if -int? shachar in this place signifies, according to its usual sense, morning) seem to give no meaning at all. " It is because there is no light in them," says our translation. If there be any sense in these words, it is not the sense of the original; which cannot justly be so translated. Qui n'a rien d'obscur, " which has no obscurity." — Deschamps. The reading of the Septuaginl and Syriac, "[rw shochad, gift, affords no assistance towards the clearing up of any of this difficult place. R. D. Kimchi says this was the form of an oath: " By the law and by the testimony such and such things are so." Now if they had sworn this falsely, it is because there is no light, no illumination, -VW shachar, no scruple of conscience, in them.

Verse 2 1. Hardly bestead — " Distressed"] Instead of rwni niksheh, distressed, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Symmachus manifestly read S^DJ nichshal, stumbling, tottering through iceakness, ready to fall; a sense which suits verv well with the place.

And look upward—" And he.shall cast his eyes upward."] The learned professor Michaelis, treating of this place (Not. in de Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Pr<el. ix.) refers to a passage in the Koran which is similar to it. As it is a very celebrated passage, and on many accounts remarkable, I shall give it here at large, with the same author's farther remarks upon it in another place of his Writings. It must be noted here that the learned professor renders Oli nibbal, lyyn hibbit, in this and the parallel place, chap. v. 30, which I translate he look-

22 And " they shall look unto oiymp. IX. 4.

and darkness, ° dimness of anguish; and they shall he driven to darkness.

eth, by it thundereth, from Schultens, Orig. Ling. Hebr. Lib. i. cap. 2, of the justness of which rendering I much doubt. This brings the image of Isaiah more near in one circumstance to that of Mohammed than it appears to be in my translation: —

" Labid, contemporary with Mohammed, the last of the seven Arabian poets who had the honour of having their poems, one of each, hung up in the entrance of the temple of Mecca, struck with the sublimity of a passage Ln the Koran, became a convert to Mohammedism; for he concluded that no man could write in such a manner unless he were Divinely inspired.

" One must have a curiosity to examine a passage which had so great an effect upon Labid. It is, I must own, the finest that I know in the whole Koran: but I do not think it will have a second time the like effect, so as to tempt any one of ray readers to submit to circmncision. It is in the second chapter, where he is speaking of certain apostates from the faith. ' They are like,' 'saith he, ' to a man who kindles a light. As soon as it begins to shine, God takes from them the light, and leaves them in darkness that they see nothing. They are deaf, dumb, and blind; and return not intcj the right way. Or they fare as when a cloud, fuU of darkness, thunder, and lightning, covers the heaven. When it bursteth, they stop their ears with their fingers, with deadly fear; and God hath the unbelievers in his power. The lightning almost robbeth them of their eyes: as often as it flasheth they go on by its light; and when it vanisheth in darloiess, they stand still. If God pleased, they would retain neither hearing nor sight.' That the thought is beautiful, no one will deny; and Labid, who had probably a mind to riatter Mohammed, was lucky in finding a passage in the Koran so little abounding in poetical beauties, to which his conversion might with any propriety be ascribed. It was well that he went no farther; otherwise liis taste for poetry might have made him again an infidel." Michaelis, Erpenii Arabisehe Grammatilc abgekm-zt, Vorrede, s. 32.

This chapter contains an illustrious prophecy of the Messiah. He is represented under the glorious figure of the sun, or light, rising on a benighted world, and diffusing joy and gladness wherever he sheds his beams, 1-3. His conquests are astonishing and miraculous, as in the day of Midian; and the peace which they procure is to be permanent, as denoted by the burning of all the implements of war, 4, 5. The person and character of this great Deliverer are then set forth in the most magnificent terms which the language of mankind could furnish, 6. The extent of his kingdom is declared to be universal, and the duration of it eternal, 7. The prophet foretells most awful calamities which were ready to fall upon the Israelites on account of their manifold impieties, 8-21.

Romuii, Regis wai HI her vexation, when at the ^°""'"- '^- 1= first he hghtly afflicted the land of Zebukin, and the land of Naphtali, and '■ afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee '' of the nations.

2 ^ The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the lirrht shined.

joy: they joy beiore thee accord- Romuii. Regis ing to the joy in harvest, and as R"™"-. i^- men rejoice s when they divide the spoil.

4 '^ For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the ' staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of "^ Midian.

5 ' For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; "• but " this shall be with burning and " fuel of fire.

Verse 1. Dimness — " Accumulated darkness"] Either nmiO menuddechah, fem. to agree with n'73S aphelah; or mJOD '?ilN aphel hammemiddach, alluding perhaps to the palpable Egyptian darkness, Exod.

The land of Zehihm] Zebulun, Naphtali, Manasseh, that is, the country of Galilee all round the sea of '^ennesareth, were the parts that principally suffered m the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-pileser; see 2 Kings XV. 29; 1 Chron. v. 26. And they were the first that enjoyed the blessings of Christ's preaching the Gospel, and exhibiting his miraculous works among them. See Mede^s Works, p. 101, and 457. This, which makes the twenty-third verse of chap. viii. in the Hebrew, is the Jiist verse in chap. ix. in our authorized version. Bishop Loivth follows the division in the Hebrew.

Verse 3. And not increased the joy — " Thou hast increased their joy"] Eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and six of De Rossi's, two ancient, read iS lo, it, according to the Masoretical correction, instead of nS lo, not. To the same purpose the Targum and Syriac.

The joy in harvest] l';:p3 nnoM hesimchath bakkatsir. For Ti'pn hakkatsir one MS. of Kennicott's and one of De Rossis have Ti'p katsir, and another T^fpn hakkatsir, " the harvest;" one of which seems to be the true reading, as the noun preceding is in regimine.

Verse 5. Every battle of the warrior — " The greaves of the armed warrior"] |XD pND seo7t soen. This word, occurring only in this place, is of very doubtful signification. Schindler fairly tells us that we may guess at it l)y the context. The Jews have explained it, by guess I believe, as signifying battle, conflict: the Vulgate renders it violenta pradatio. But it seems as if something was rather meant which was capable of becoming fuel for the fire, together with the garments mentioned in the same sentence. In Syriac the word, as a noun, signifies a shoe, or a sandal, as a learned friend suggested to me some years ago. See Ijuke XV. 22; Acts xii. 8. I take it, therefore, to mean that part of the armour which covered the legs and feet; and I would render the two words in Latin by caliga caligati. The burning of heaps of armour, gathered from the field of battle, as an offering made to the god supposed to be the giver of victory, was a custom that prevailed among some heathen nations; and the Romans used it as an emblem of peace, which perfectly well suits with the design of the projihet in this place. A medal struck by Vespasian on finishing his wars both at home and abroad represents the goddess Peace holding an olive branch in one hand, and. with a lighted torch in the other, setting fire to a heap of armour. Virgil mentions the custom: — " — Cum priinam aciem Prfeneste sub ipsa Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos."

jEn. lib. viii., ver. 561. " Would heaven, (said he,) my strength and youtli recall, Such as I was beneath Prseneste's wall — • Then when I made the foremost foes retire. And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire." Drvden. See Addison on Medals, Series ii. 18. And there are notices of some such practice among the Israelites, and other nations of the most early times. God promises to Joshua victory over the kings of Canaan. " Tomorrow I will deliver them up all slain before Israel:■ thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire," Josh. xi. 6. See also Nahum ii. 13. And the psalmist employs this image to express complete victory, and the perfect establishment of peace: — - " He maketh wars to cease, even to the end of the land: He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; And burneth the chariots in the fire." — Psa. xlvi. 9. mhi^ agaloth, -properlf plntistra, impedimenta, the haggage-wagons: which however the Se/)<Mff£fini and Vulgate render sctita, " shields;" and the Chaldee, " round shields," to show the propriety of that sense of the word from the etymology; which, if admitted, makes the image the same with that used by the Romans.

Ezekiel, chap, xxxix. 8—10, in his bold manner, has carried this image to a degree of amplification which I think hardly any other of the Hebrew poets would have attempted. He describes the burning of the arms of the enemy, in consequence of the complete victory to lie obtained bv the Israelites over Gog and Magog: —

Romuii, Regis ' the government sliall be upon Roman., 14. j^jg ghoulder: and his name shall be called ' Wonderful, Counsellor, ' The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The "Prince of Peace.

" Behold, it is come to pass, and it is done, Saith the Lord Jehovah. This is the day of which I spoke: And the inliabitants of the cities of Israel shall go forth, And shall set on fire the armour, and the shield. And the buckler, and the bow, and the arrows. And the clubs, and the lances; And they shall set them on fire for seven years. And they shall not bear wood from the field; Neither shaU they hew from the forest: For of the armour shall they make their fires; And they shall spoil their spoilers, And they shall plunder their plunderers." R. D. Kimchi, on tliis verse, says this refers simply to the destruction of the Assyrians. Other battles are fought man against man, and spear against spear; and the garments are rolled in blood through the wounds given and received: but this was with burning, for the angel of the Lord smote them by night, and there was neither sword nor violent commotion, nor blood; they were food for the fire, for the angel of the Lord consumed thera.

Verse 6. The government shall be upon his shoulder] That is, the ensign of government; the sceptre, the sword, the key, or the like, which was borne upon or hung from the shoulder. See note on chap. xxii. 22.

And his name shall be called] "HJ '7X El gihbor, the prevailing or conquering God.

The everlasting Father — " The Father of the everlasting age"] Or IJ' '^N Ahi ad, the Father of eternity. The Septtiagint have filyaXris /3ouXi)j AyyiXog, " the Messenger of the Great Counsel." But instead of n>' "JX Abi ad, a M.S. of De Rossi has ^Iy2X Abezer, the helping Father,\ evidently the corruption of some Jew, who did not like such an evidence in favour of the Christian Messiah.

Prince of Peace] uh'^ ~W sarshalom, the Prince of prosperity, the Giver of all blessings.

A MS. of the thirteenth century in Kenmcott^s collection has a remarkable addition here. " He shall be a stumbling-block, nSa'DOn; the government is on his shoulder." This reading is nowhere else acknowledged, as far as I know.

Verse 7. Of the increase] In the common Hebrew Bibles, and in many MSS., this word is written with the close or final □ nanoS. But in tweloe of Kennicolt's MSS., and tioelve of De Rossi''s, it is written with the open n mem; but here it is supposed to contain mysteries, viz., that Jerusalem shall be shut up, closed, and confined, till the days of the Messiah.

end, upon the throne of David, and Romuii, Regis upon his kingdom, to order it, "•°""'°- '^- and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The " zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Christ, with an enumeration of those characters in which he stands most nearly related to mankind as their Saviour; and of others by which his infinite majesty and Godhead are shown. He shall appear as a child, born of a ivoman, born as a Jew, under the law. but not in the way of ordinary generation. He is a Son given— the human nature, in which the fulness of the Godhead was to dwell, being produced by the creative energy of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. See Matt. i. 20, 31, 23, 25, and Luke i. 35, and Isa. vii. 1 4, and the notes on those passages. As being God manifested in the jlesh, he was wonderful in his conception, birth, preaching, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension; loonderful in his person, and wonderful in his working. He is the Counsellor that expounds the law; shows its origin, nature, and claims; instructs, pleads for the guilty; and ever appears in the presence of God for men. He is the mighty God; God essentially and efficiently prevailing against his enemies, and destroying ours. He is the Father of eternity; the Origin of all being, and the Cause of the existence, and particularly the Father, of the spirits of all flesh. The Prince of peace — not only the Author of peace, and the Dispenser of peace, but also he that rules by peace, whose rule tends always to perfection, and produces prosperity. Of the increase of his government — this Prince has a government, for he has all power both in heaven and in earth; and his goverrunent increases, and is daily more and more extended, and will continue till all things are put under his feet. His Idngdom is ordered — every act of government regulated according to wisdom and goodness; is established so securely as not to be overthrown; and administered in judgment and justice, so as to manifest his wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and truth. Reader, such is that Jesus who came into the world to save sinners! Trust in Him!

Chap. ix. 8-chap. x. 4. This whole passage reduced to its proper and entire form, and healed of ihe dislocation which it suffers by the absurd division of the chapters, makes a distinct pifephecy, and a just poem, remarkable for the regularity of its disposition and the elegance of its plan. It has no relation to the preceding or following prophecy; though the parts, violently torn asunder, have been, on the one side and the other, patched on to thera. Those relate principally to the kingdom of Judah; tliis is addressed exclusively to the kingdom of Israel. The subject of it is a denunciation of vengeance awaiting tlieir crimes. It is divided into four parts, each tlu-eatening the particular i)unishment of some grievous offence — of their priile, of their perseverance in their vices, of their im-

'^°'"''"-' "'^ 9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change the?n into cedars.

1 1 Therefore the Lord shall set up the

piety, and of their injustice. To which is added a general denunciation of a farther reserve of Divine wrath, contained in a distich, before used by the prophet on a like occasion, chap. v. 25, and here repeated after each part. This makes the intercalary verse of the poem; or, as we call it, the burden of the song.

" Post hoc comma (cap. ix. 4) interponitur spatium unius lineae, in Cod. 2 et 3: idemque observatur in 245, in quo nullum est spatium ad finem capitis ix." Kennicott, Var. Lect.

" After this clause (chap. ix. 4) is interposed the space of one line in Cod. 2 and 3. The same is likewise observed in Cod. 245, in which no space exists at the end of chap, ix."

Verse 8. Lord — " Jehovah"] For 'JTS Adonai, thirty MSS. of KennicotCs, and many of De Rossi's, and three editions, read niD'' Yehovah.

Verse 9. Pride and stoutness of heart — "Carry themselves haughtily"] Ijn'l veyadeu, " and they shall know;" so ours and the Versions in general. But what is it that they shall know'! The verb stands destitute of its object; and the sense is imperfect. The Chaldee is the only one, as far as I can find, that expresses it otherwise. He renders the verb in this place by UI^'TilNl veithrabrabii, " they exalt themselves, or carry themselves haughtily; the same word by which he renders in^J gahehu, chap. iii. 16. He seems, therefore, in this place to have read innVl vaiyighehu, which agrees perfectly weU with what follows, and clears up the difficulty. Archbishop Secher conjectured n^Tl vayedahberu, referring it to ion'7 lemor, in the next verse, which shows that he was not satisfied with the present reading. Houligant reads 1J71^1 vaiyereu, et pravi facti sunt, they are become ■wicked, which is found in a MS.; but I prefer the reading of the Chaldee, which suits much better with the context.

Houbigant approves of this reading; but it is utterly unsupported by any evidence from antiquity: it is a mere mistake of 1 resh for T daleth; and I am surprised that it should be favoured by Houbigant.

Verse 10. The bricks] "The eastern bricks," says Sir John Chardin, (see Harmer's Observ. I., p. 176,) '' are only clay well moistened with water, and mixed with strave, and dried in the sun." So that their walls are commonly no better than our mud walls; see Maundrell, p. 124. That straw was a necessary part in the composition of this sort of bricks, to make the

1 2 The SjTians before and the Romisii, Regis

devour Israel ^ with open mouth. ^ For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

1 3 For '' the people tiu-neth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the

14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from

parts of the clay adhere together, appears from Exod. i. These bricks are properly opposed to hewn stone, so greatly superior in beauty and durableness. The sycamores, which, as Jerome on the place says, are timber of little worth, with equal propriety are opposed to the cedars. " As the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it e«uld therefore stand in no competition at all (as it is observed, Isa. ix. 10) with the cedar, for beauty and ornament." — Shaw, Supplement to Travels, p. 96. We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores, 1 Kings X. 27, where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores in the vale for abundance. By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech, they boast that they shall easUy be able to repair their present losses, suffered perhaps by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath pileser; and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever.

Some of the bricks mentioned above lie before me. They were brought from the site of ancient Babylon. The straw is visible, kneaded loith the clay; they are very hard, and evidently were dried in the sun; for they are very easily dissolved in water.

Averse 1 1. The adversaries of Rezin against him — " The princes of Retsin against him"] For '"(X tsarey,' enemies, Houbigant, by conjecture, reads 'IK' sarey, princes; which is confirmed by thirty of KennicotCs and De Rossi's MSS., (two ancient,) one of my own, ancient; and 7iine more have S tsaddi, upon a rasure, and therefore had probably at first '"liy sarey. The princes of Retsin, the late ally of Israel, that is, the Syrians, expressly named in the next verse, shall now be excited against Israel.

The Septuagint in this place give us another variation; for fST Retsin, they read |rs in har tsiyon, ojoj 2iuv, Mount Sion, of which this may be the sense; but Jehovah shall set up the adversaries of Mount Sion against him, (i. e., against Israel,) and will strengthen his enemies together; the Syrians, the Philistines, who are called the adversaries of Mount Sion. See Simonis Lex. in voce "[3D sachach.

Verse 12. With open mouth — " On every side."] T^a "733 bechol peh, in every corner, in every part of their country, pursuing them to the remotest extremities, and the most retired parts. So the Chaldee ins ^33 hechol athar, in every place.

^°°"'"- '^- ble, he is the liead; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

16 For ° the ''leaders of this people cause them to err; and " they that are led of them are "^ destroyed.

17 Therefore the Lord ^ shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: '' for every one is a hypocrite and an evil doer, and every mouth speaketh ' folly. '' For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

1 8 For wickedness ' burneth as the fire: it

colt and De Rossi read QV2 beyom, in a day; and another has a rasure in the place of the letter 3 beth.

Verse 18. For wickedness'] Wickedness rageth like a fire, destroying and laying waste the nation: but it shall be its own destruction, by bringing down the fire of God's wrath, which shall burn up the briers and the thorns; that is, the wicked themselves. Briers and thorns are an image frequently applied in Scripture, when set on fire, to the rage of the wicked; violent, yet impotent, and of no long continuance. " They are extinct as the fire of thorns," Psa. cxviii. 13. To the wicked themselves, as useless and unprofitable, proper objects of God's wrath, to be burned up, or driven away by the wind. " As thorns cut up they shall be consumed in the fire," Isa..'cxxiii. 12. Both these ideas seem to be joined in Psa. Iviii. 9: —

" Before your pots shall feel the thorn. As well the green as the dry, the tempest shall bear V them away."

The green and the dry is a proverbial expression, meaning all sorts of them, good and bad, great and small, &c. So Ezekiel: " Behold, I wUl kindle a fire, and it shall devour every green tree, and every dry tree," chap. xx. 47. UHerbelot quotes a Persian poet describing a pestilence under the image of a conflagration: " This was a lightning that, falling upon a and shall kindle in the thickets of OijTnp. x. 3. the forest, and they shall mount up RomuU, Regis

19 Through the \vi-ath of the Lord of hosts is "" the land darkened, and the people shall be as the " fuel of the fire: " no man shall spare his brother.

20 And he shall p snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, i and they shall not be satisfied: ■■ they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

21 Manasseh, Epluraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. ' For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

forest, consumed there the green wood with the drv." See Harmers Observations, Vol. 11., p. 187.

Verse 20. The flesh of his own arm — " The flesh of his neighbour"] " Tou /Spaj^iovos tou aSsXtpou auTou, the Septuagint Alexand. Duplex versio, quarum altera legit li't reo, qiuB vox extat, Jer. vi. 21. Nam >'1 rea, aSiX^pos, Gen. xliii. 33. Eecte ni fallor.^^ — Secker. I add to this excellent remark, that the Chaidee manifestly reads IJTT reo, his neighbour, not IJ/MT zeroo, his arm; for he renders it by n'3''"'p karibeyh, his neighbour. And Jeremiah has the very same expression: iSjN^ IHi'l njy^ jywi veish besar reehu yochelu, " and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbour," chap. xix. 9. This observation, I think, gives the true reading and sense of this place: and the context strongly confirms it by explaining the general idea by particular instances, in the following verse: " Every man shall devour the flesh of his neighbour;" that is, they shall harass and destroy one another. " Manasseh shall destroy Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh;" -which two tribes were most closely connected both in blood and situation as brothers and neighbours; "and both of them in the midst of their own dissensions shall agree in preying upon Judah." The common reading, " shall devour the flesh of his own arm," in connexion with what follows, seems to make either an inconsi-steney, or an anticlimax; whereas by this correction the following verse becomes an elegant illustration of the foregoing. — L.

God's judgments against oppressive rulers, 1-4. The prophet foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army. That mighty monarch is represented as a rod in the hand of God to correct his people for their sins; and his ambitious purposes, contrary to his own intentions, are made subservient to the great designs of Providence, 5-11. Having accomplished this work, the Almighty takes account of his impious vauntings. 12-14; and threatens utter dcttruction to the small and great of his army, represented by the thorns, and the glory of the forest, 15-19. This leads the prophet to comfort his country.

men with the promise of this signal interposition of God in their favour, 20-27. Brief description of the march of Sennacherib tou'ords Jerusalem, and of the alarm and terror which he spread every where as he hastened forward, 28—32. The spirit and rapidity of the description is admirably suited to the subject. The affrighted people are seen feeing, and the eager invader pursuing; the cries of one city are heard hy those of another; and groan swiftly succeeds to groan, till at length the rod is lifted over the last citadel. In this critical situation, however, the promise of a Divine interposition is seasonably renewed. The scene instantly changes; the uplifted arm of this mighty conqueror is at once arrested and laid low by the hand of heaven; the forest of Lebanon, {a figure by which the immense Assyrian host is elegantly pointed out,f IS hewn down by the axe of the Divine vengeance; and the mind is equally pleased with the equity of tht. judgment, and the beauty and majesty of the description, 33, S'l.

TX/'O unto them that " decree unrighteous decrees, and "" that wTite grievousness which they have prescribed;

2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and tliat they may rob the fatherless!

3 And ° what will ye do in '' the day of visitation, and in the desolation luhich shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

4 Without me they shall l^ow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. " For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

5 '' 0 s Assyrian, '" the rod of mine anger, ' and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

6 I will send him against ^ a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I 1 give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and "" to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Verse 2. My people] Instead of ^a>' ammi, my people, many M.SS., and one of my own, ancient, read loy ammo, his people. But this is manifestly a corruption.

Verse 4. Without me] That is, without my aid: they shall be taken captive even by the captives, and shall be subdued even by the vanquished. " The ■* yod in ^r\^2 bilti is a pronoun, as in Hos. xiii. 4." — Kimchi on the place. One MS. has 'ri'73'7 lebilti.

As the people had hitherto lived loithout God in worship and obedience; so they should now be without his help, and should perish in theu" transgressions.

A'erse 5. O Assyrian — " Ho to the Assj-rian"] Here begins a new and distinct prophecy, continued to the end of the twelfth chapter: and it appears from rer. 9—1 1 of this chapter, that tliis prophecy was delivered after the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser; which was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah: and as the former part of it foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army, which makes neither doth his heart think so; Oiymp. xvi. 4 but it is in his heart to destroy NumsEPompilii and cut off nations not a few. R. Roman., 3. S ° For he saith. Are not my princes altogether kings?

9 Is not P Calno 1 as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as ■■ Damascus?

1 0 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

1 1 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work Hipon Mount Zion, and on Jerusalem, ' I will " punish the fruit " of the stout heart of the king of AssjTia, and the glory of his high looks.

13 '^ For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for

the whole subject of this chapter, it must have been delivered before the fourteenth of the same reign.

The staff in their hand — " The staff in whose hand"] The word Nin hu, the staff itself, in this place seems to embarrass the sentence. I omit it on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of the Scptuagint: nine MSS., (tivo ancient,) and one of my own, ancient, for Nin ncni umatteh hu, read inoo maltehu, his staff. Archbishop SscArr was not satisfied with the present reading. He proposes another method of clearing up the sense, by reading UV2 beyom, in the day, instead of DT3 beyadam, in their hand: "And he is a staff /» the day ofmiae indignation."

I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inliabitants ' Hke a vahant man:

14 And ''mj' hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

1 5 Shall ^ the axe boast itself against him that hewcth tiierewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? ^as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up *" itself, as if it were no wood.

16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his "fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

1 8 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of "his fruitful field, 'both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth.

19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be?few, that a child may write them.

that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, ''shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21 'The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

22 ■'For though thj' people Israel be as the

Tu'elve MSS. agree with the Keri in reading T'aO kabbir, without the N aleph. And Sal. ben Melee and Kimchi thus explain it: " them who dwelled in a great and strong place I have brought down to the ground."

Verse 15. No wood — ^" Its master."] I have here given the meaning, without attempting to keep to the expression of the original, yy «'? lo ets, " the nowood;" that which is not wood like itself, but of a quite different and superior nature. The Hebrews have a peculiar way of joining the negative particle nS lo to a noun, to signify in a strong manner a total negation of the thing expressed by the noun.

" How hast thou given help (n3 xS*? lelo choach) to the no-strength \ And saved the arm (li» nS lo oz) of the no-power? ^ow hast, thou given counsel (rrazin x'?'? lelo chochmali) to the no-wisdom V Job xxvi. 9, 3.

Amos vi. 13. That is, in your fancied strength, which is none at all, a mere nonentity.

" For I am God, (ty's \A1\ veto ish,) and no-man; The Holy One in the midst of thee, yet do not frequent cities." Hos. xi. 9. "And the AssjT-ian shall fall by a sword (jj^'S x*? lo ish) of no-man; And a sword of (DIN sS lo adam) no-mortal, shall devour him." Isa. xxxi. 8. " Wherefore do ye weigh out your silver (DPlS NlS^ 6elo lechem) for the no-bread." Isa. Iv. 2.

So here S;? xb lo ets means him who is far from being an inert piece of wood, but is an animated and active being; not an instrument, but an agent.

Verse 16. The Lord — "Jehovah."] For'inx^rfonai, fifty-two MSS., elecen editions, and two of rny own, ancient, read niiT Yehovah, as in other cases.

And under his glory'l That is, all that he could boast of as great and strong in his army, {Sal. ben Melee in loc.,) expressed afterwards, ver. 18, by tlie glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field.

A''erse 17. And it shall bum and devour his thorns — " And he shall burn and consume his thorn."] The briers and thorns are the common people; the glory of his forest are the nobles and those of higliest rank and importance. See note on chap. ix. 17, and compare Ezek. XX. 47. The fire of God's wrath shall destroy them, both great and small; it shall consume them from the soul to the flesh; a proverbial expression; soul and body, as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; " as a firebrand plucked out of the fire," Amos iv. 11; iis 5:a ■ffupoj, so as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 15; as a man when a house is burning is forced to make his escape by running through the midst of the fire.

I follow here the reading of the Septuaginl, a'X'33 DDJ kemash noses, ug o ipsuyuv awo (pXayog xaiou.£v/;s, as he who fees from the burning fiame. Symmachus also renders the latter word by CfSuyuv, fli/ing.

^^erse 21. The remnant shall relurn — unio the mighty God.] 1i; j 'jX Elgihbor, the mighty or conijuering God; the Messiah, the same person mentioned in ver. 6 of the preceding chapter.

endeavoured to keep to the letter of the text as nearly

sand of the sea, ^ yet a remnant "" of them shall return: " the consumption decreed shall overflow ° with righteousness.

23 p For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

24 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of liosts, 0 my people that dwellest in Zion, ibe not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, "■ and shall lift up his staff against tliee, after the manner of ^ Egypt.

25 ' For yet a very little while, ^ and the in-

qChap. xxxvii. 6. 'Or, but he shall lift up his staff for thee.

26 And the Lord of hosts shall Numse Pompilii, stir up ' a scourge for him ac- oman., cording to the slaughter of "^ Midian at the rock of Oreb: and ^ as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the man ner of Egypt.

that y his burden ^ shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed be cause of '^ the anointing.

as I can in this obscure passage; but it is remarkable that neither the Sepluagint, nor St. Paul, Rom. ix. 28, who, except in a few words of no great importance, follows them nearly in this place, nor any one of the ancient Versions, take any notice of the word t]aK' shoteph, overflowing; which seems to give an idea not easily reconcilable with those with which it is here joined. /. S. Mcerlius (Schol. Philolog. ad Selecta S. Cod. loca) conjectures that the two last letters of this word are by mistake transposed, and that the true reading is DSB? shophet, judging, with strict justice. The Sepluagint might think this sufficiently expressed by £v iJixaiocfuvy), in righteousness. One MS., with St. Paul and Sepluagint Alex., omits U lo in ver. 22;

.uxty-nine of KennicotCs and seventeen of De Rossi's

The learned Dr. Bagot, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Bristol and Norwich, in some observations on this place, which he has been so kind as to communicate to me, and which will appear in their proper light when he himself shall give them to the public, renders the word ^V^^D kilayon by accomplishment, and makes it refer to the predictions of Moses; the blessing and the curse which he laid before the people; both conditional, and depending on their future conduct. They had by their disobedience incurred those judgments which were now to be fuUy executed upon them. His translation is. The accomplishment dctcrmiiird m'crflmos with justice; for it is accomplishid, iiiul (Inil irhich is determined the Lord God of hosts doLih III t/ic midst of the land. — L. Some think that

the words might be paraphrased thus: The determined destruction of the Jews shall overflow with righteousness, (nplS tsedakah,) justification, the consequence of the Gospel of Christ being preached and believed on in the world. After the destruction of Jerusalem this word or doctrine of the Lord had free course, — did run, and was glorified.

Verse 24. After the manner of Egypt — "In the way of Egypt."] I think there is a designed ambiguity in these words. Sennacherib, soon after his return from his Effyptian expedition, which, I imagine, took him up three years, invested Jerusalem. He is represented by the prophet as lifting up his rod in his march from Egypt, and threatening the people of God, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done when they pursued them to the Red Sea. But God in his turn vvill lift up his rod over the sea, as he did at that time, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt; and as Sennacherib has imitated the Egyptians in his threats, and came full of rage against them from the same quarter; so God will act over again the same part that he had taken formerly in Egypt, and overthrow their enemies in as signal a manner. It was all to be, both the attack and the deliverance, 1"^^^ hederech, or "[Till kederech, as a MS. has it in each place, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt.

Verse 26. And as his rod was upon the sea — " And like his rod which he lifted up over the sea'"] The Jewish interpreters suppose here an ellipsis of 3 ie, the particle of similitude, before inUO mattehu, to be supplied from the line above • so that here are two similitudes, one comparing the destruction of the Assyrians to the slaughter of the Midianites at the rock of Oreb; the other to that of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Alen Ezra, Kimchi, Sal. ben Melee.

" And it shall come to pass in that day. His burden shall be removed from off thy shoidder; And his yoke ofl" thy neck: Yea, the yoke shall perish from off your shoulders."

On which he gives us the following note: I follow here the Sepluagint, who for piy 'JiJO mippeney shamen read DO'DDtffD mishshichmeycJiem, OLiro Tuv ufAuv ufAwv, from your shoulders, not being able to make any good sense out of the present reading. I will add here the marginal conjectures of Archbishop Seder, who appears, like all others, to have been at a loss for a probable aa

Oiymp. XVI. 4. passed to Migron; at Michmash

Numa- PompiUi, he hath laid up his carriages: R. Roman., 3. ' gQ They are gone over the

'* passage: they have taken up their lodging at

Geba; Ramah is afraid; ■■ Gibeah of Saul

lim: cause it to be heard unto ^ Laish,? O

poor Anathoth. 31'' Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebira gather themselves to flee.

terpretation of the text as it now stands. " 6. leg. U2V/ shakam \ forte legend. pB' 'J3n mibbeney shamen, vide cap. V. 1. Zech. iv. 14: Et possunt intelligi Judai uncti Dei, Psa. cv. 15, vel Assyrii, D'JOB'D mishmannim, hie ver. 16, ut dicat propheta depulsum iri jugum ah his mipositum: sed hoc durius. Vel potest legi '"31;' ■'Jin mippeney shami."

Verse 38. He is come to AiatK\ A description of the march of Sennacherib's army approaching Jerusalem in order to invest it, and of the terror and confasion spreading and increasing through the several places as he advanced: expressed with great Ijrevity, but finely diversified. The places here mentioned are all in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; from Ai northward, to Nol westward of it; from which last place he might probably have a prospect of Mount Sion. Anathoth was within three Roman miles of Jerusalem, according to Eusehius, Jerome, and Josephus. Onomast. Loe. Hebr. et Antiq. Jud. X. 7, 3. Noh was probably still nearer. And it should seem from this passage of Isaiah that Sennacherib's army was destroyed near the latter of these places. In coming out of Egypt he might perhaps join the rest of his army at Ashdod, after the taking of that place, which happened about that time, (see chap. xx.;) and march from thence near the coast by Lachish and Libnah, which lay in his way from south to north, and both which he invested till he came to the north-west of Jerusalem, crossing over to the north of it, perhaps by Joppa and Lydda; or still more north through the plain of Esdraelon.

Verse 29. They are gone over the passage — " They have passed the strait"] The strait here mentioned is that of Michmas, a very narrow passage between two sharp hills or rocks, (see 1 Sara. xiv. 4, 5,) where a great army might have been opposed with advantage by a very inferior force. The author of the Book of Judith might perhaps mean this pass, at least among others: " Charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into

Nob that day: he shall ^ shake Oiymp. xvi. 4 his hand against the mount of Numaj Pompiiii, ithe daughter of Zion, the hill ^- """"'"- ^

33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and " the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall " by a mighty one.

Judea; and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most," Judith iv. 7. The enemies having passed the strait without opposition, shows that all thoughts of making a stand in the open country were given up, and that their only resource was in the strength of the city.

Their lodging} The sense seems necessarily to require that we read nh lamo, to them, instead of uS lanu, to us. These two words are in other places mistaken one for the other. Thus chap. xliv. 7, for loS lamo, read lj'7 lanu, with the Chaldee; and in the same manner Psa. Ixiv. 6, \\dth the Syriac, and Psa. Ixxx 7, on the authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.

Verse 30. Cause it to he heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth — " Hearken unto her, O Laish; an.swer her,

O Anathoth!"] I follow in this the Syriac Version. The prophet plainly alludes to the name of the place, and with a peculiar propriety, if it had its name from its remarkable echo. " ninJi' anathoth, responsiones: eadem ratio nominis, quee in nJJ' iT3 beith anath, locus cchus; nam hodienum ejus rvdera ostenduntur invalle, scil. in medio montium, ut referunt Rolerlus in Itiner. p. 70, et Monconnysius, p. 301." Simonis Onomasticon Vet. Test. — L. Anathoth — Answers, replies;

for the same reason that Bethany, TIJi' n'3 ieith anath, had its name, the house of echo; the remains of which are still shown in the valley, i. e., among the mountains.

Verse 33. Shall lop the bough with terror] DISS purah; but miS purah, wine-press, is the reading of twenty-six of Kennicolfs and twenty-three of De Rossi''s MSS., four ancient editions, with Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Chaldee.

Verse 34. Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one] Tisa beaddir, the angel of the Lord, who smote them. Kimchi. And so Vitringa understands ii. Others translate, " The high cedars of Lebanon shall fall:" but the king of Assyria is the person who shall l>e overthrown.

The Messiah represented as a slender twig shooting up from the root of an old withered stem, which tvnder plant, so extremely weak in its first appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and mighty, 1-4. Great equity of the Messiah's government, 5. Beautiful assemblages of images by xvhich the great peace and happiness of his kingdom are set forth, 6-8. The extent of his dominion shall be ultimately that of the whole habitable globe, 9. The prophet, borrowing his imagery from the exodus from Egypt, predicts, with great majesty of language, the future restoration of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, (viz., the whole of the twelve tribes of Israel,) from their several dispersions, and also that blessed period when both Jews and Gentiles shall assemble under the banner of Jesus, and zealously unite in extending the limits of his kingdom, 10-16.

A ND " there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Nvimae Pompilii, *■ Jcsse, and " a Branch shall grow ^ '^°°"'"- ^- out of his roots:

2 "■ And the Spu-it of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

3 Aiid sliall make him of quick " understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears;

NOTES ON CHAP. XL The prophet had described the destruction of the Assyrian army under the image of a mighty forest, consisting of flourishing trees growing thick together, and of a great height; of Lebanon itself crowned with lofty cedars, but cut down and laid level with the ground by the axe wielded by the hand of some powerful and illustrious agent. Li opposition to this image he represents the great Person who makes the subject of this chapter as a slender twig shooting out from the trunk of an old tree, cut down, lopped to the very root, and decayed; which tender plant, so weak in appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and prosper. This contrast shows plainly the connexion between this and the preceding chapter, which is moreover expressed by the connecting particle; and we have here a remarkable instance of that method so common with the prophets, and particularly with Isaiah, of taking occasion, from the mention of some great temporal deliverance, to launch out into the display of the spiritual deliverance of God's people by the Messiah; for that this prophecy relates to the Messiah we have the express authority of St. Paul, Rom. xv. 12. "He joins this paragraph, with respect to the days of the Messiah, with the fidelity that was in the days of Hezekiah." — Kimchi, in ver. 1. Thus in the latter part of Isaiah's prophecies the subject of the great redemption, and of the glories of the Messiah's kingdom, arises out of the restoration of Judah by the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and is all along connected and interraLxed with it.

4 But f with righteousness shall '^ ^ ^jj- "^^^f he judge the poor, and s reprove Oiymp. xvi. i. with equity for the meek of the NumffiPom^iii. earth: and he shall ''smite the R- Roman., 3. earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

5 And ' rigliteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins

6 '' The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

Verse 4. With the rod of his mouth— '^ By the blast of his mouth "] For ay!12 beshebet, by the rod, Houbigant reads n^ty^ beshebeth, by the bla.'it of his mouth, from yi'l nashab, to blow. The conjecture is ingenious and probable; and seems to be confirmed by the Septuagint and Chaldee, who render it by the ivord of his mouth, which answers much better to the correction than to the present reading. Add to this, that the blast of his mouth is perfectly parallel to the breath of his lips in the next line.

Verse 5. The girdle — "The cincture"] All the ancient Versions, except that of Symmachus, have two different words for girdle in the two hemistichs. It is not probable that Isaiah would have repeated "niN azer, when a synonymous word so obvious as ~ljn chagor occurred. The tautology seems to have arisen from the mistake of some transcriber. The meaning of this verse is, that a zeal for justice and truth shall make him active and strong in executing the great work which he shall undertake. See note on chap.

Verse 6. The wolf also shall, cj-c. — " Then shall the wolf," &c.] The idea of the renewal of the golden age, as it is called, is much the same in the Oriental writers with that of the Greeks and Romans: — the wild beasts grow tame; serpents and poisonous herbs become harmless; aU is peace and harmony, plenty and happiness: —

'^- 7 And the cow and the bear lymp xvi. 4. shall feed; their young ones Numffi Ponipiiii, shall lie down together: and the "■ "°°'^"' ^- lion shall eat straw like the:x.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned cliild shall put his hand on the ' cockatrice' den.

9 ■" They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for " the earth shall be full

" The serpent's brood shall die. The sacred ground Shall weeds and noxious plants refuse to bear."

ViRG. Eclog. iv. 22. " Nor shall the flocks fear the great lions." Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum, Nee giegibus nocturnus obambulat: acrior ilium Cura doniat: tiniidae damae cervique fugaces Nunc interque canes, et circum tecta vagantur. ViRG. Georg. iii. 537. " The nightly wolf that round the enclosure prowled, To leap the fence, now plots not on the fold: Tamed with a sharper pain, the fearful doe And flying stag amidst the greyhounds go; And round the dwellings roam, of man, their former

Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile. Nee intumescit alta viperis humus.

HoR. Epod. xvi. 51. " Nor evening bears the sheepfold growl around, Nor EJning vipers heave the tainted ground."

Theoc. Idi/l. xxiv. 84. There shall be a time when the ravenous wolf shall see the kid lying at ease, and shall feel no desire to do it an injury.

I have laid before the reader these common passages from the most elegant of the ancient poets, that he may see how greatly the prophet on the same subject has the advantage upon the comparison; how much the former fall short of that beauty and elegance, and variety of imagery, with which Isaiah has set forth the very same ideas. The wolf and the leopard not only forbear to destroy the lamb and the kid, but even take their abode and lie down together with them. The oalf, and the young lion, and the fatling, not only come together, but are led quietly in the same band, and that by a little child. The heifer and the she-bear not only feed together, but even lodge their young ones, for whom they used to be most jealously fearful, in the same place. All the serpent kind is so perfectly harmless, that the sucking infant and the newly weaned child puts his hand on the basilisk's den, and plays upon the hole of the aspic. The lion not only abstains from preying on the weaker anim,i1s. but becomes tame and domestic, and feeds on straw like the ox. These are

10 "And in that day 'there NumiPompiiii, shall be a root of Jesse, wliich «■ Ko""*". 3 ' shall stand for an ensign of the people; lo it shall the 1 Gentiles seek: and "^ his rest shall be ^ glorious.

1 1 And it shall come to pass ' in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the

all beautiful circumstances, not one of which has been touched upon by the ancient poets. The Arabian and Persian poets elegantly apply the same ideas to show the eSects of justice impartially administered, and firmly supported, by a great and good king:^

" Through the influence of righteousness, the hungry wolf Becomes mild, though in the presence of the white kid." Ibn Onein.

' Jones, Poes. Asia/. Comment., p. 38C. The application is extremely ingenious and beautiful: but the exquisite imagery of Isaiah is not equalled.

Verse 7. In this verse a word is omitted in the text, nn'' yachdav, together; which ought to be repeated in the second hemistich, being quite necessary to the sense. It is accordingly twice expressed by the Septuagint and Sijriac.

Verse 8. The cochatrice'' den.^ This is supposed, both by the Targum and by Kimchi, to mean the pupil of this serpent's eye. " WTien," says Kimchi, " he is in the mouth of his den, in an obscure place, then his eyes sparUe exceedingly: the child, seeing this, and supposing it to be a piece of crystal, or precious stone, puts forth his hand to take it. \^niat would be very dangerous at another time, shall be safe in the days of the Messiah; for the serpent will not hurt the child."

Verse 10. A root of Jesse, which shall slnnd, &c. — " The root of Jesse, which standeth," &c.] St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah, Rev. v. 5, and xxii. 16, where Christ hath twice applied it to himself Seven MS.S. have Trilj,' orned, standing, the present participle. Radix Isaei dicitur jam stare, et aliqL antum stetisse, in signum populorum. — A'itringa. " The root of Jesse is said to stand, and for some time to have stood, for an ensign to the people." Which rightly explains either of the two readings. The one hundred and tenth psalm is a good comment on this verse. See the notes there.

A'erse 1 1. And it shall come to pass in that day] This part of the chapter contains a prophecy which certainly remains yet to be accomplished.

The Lord — " Jehovah"] For 'nN Adonai, thirtythree MSS. of Kennicotl's, and many of De Iiossi\^, and two editions, read niiT Ychovah.

^B.'^c.cir.m' second time to recover the rem- Oiymp. xVi. 4. nant of his people, which shall

Numas Ponipiiii, DC leit, "^ irom Ass}Tia, and from ^- '^°"""' '■ Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ciish, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 And lie shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together 'the dispersed of Jtidah from the four " corners of the earth.

1 3 ^' The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Epliraim.

14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of

Verse 15. The Lord — shall smite it in the seven streams.—'' Smite with a drought"] The Chaldee reads 2nnn hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have f|i],aw(rt-|, the word by which they commonly render it. YvXg. desolahjt; " shall desolate." The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read in:)mn hidrichahi, " shall make it passable," adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed bv any MS. ^

Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord's shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for " he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land," Exod. xiv. 31. The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense. Josh. xv. 2, 5; xviii. 19. The Latins gave

15 And the Lord ^ shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, " and make men go over ^ dry shod.

16 sAnd there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall" be left, from Assyria; >> like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of

the s.ome name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuemproducitincEquoralinguam. LucAN.ii. 613. He shall smite the river in its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the NUe, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by jeueramoM^Ai.- but i?. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, wliich is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below. Herodotus, lib. i. 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cjtus of the Scriptures and Xenophon,) which may somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it mto seven streams. " Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off."

Prophelic hymn of praise for the great mercies vouchsafed to the children of Israel in their deUvcranc, frcm the great Babylonish captivity, and for redemption by the Messiah, 1-6.

This hymn seems, by its whole tenor, and by many e-xpressions in it, much better calculated for the use

of the Christian Church than for the Jewish, in any circumstances, or at any time that can be assigned.

'^- ""'"'" ' ^- 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw '' water out of the wells of salva-

4 And in that day shall ye say, 'Praise the Lord, ' call upon his name, s declare his

The Jews themselves seem to have applied it to the times of Messiah. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles they fetched water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Shiloah, springing at the foot of Mount Sion without the city: they brought it through the watergate into the temple, and poured it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay upon the altar, with great rejoicing. They seem to have taken up this custom, for it is not ordained in the law of Moses, as an emblem of future blessings, in allusion to this passage of Isaiah, " Ye shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of salvation," expressions that can hardly be understood of any benefits afforded by the Mosaic dispensation. Our Saviour applied the ceremony, and the intention of it, to himself, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, promised, and to be given, by him. The sense of the Jews in this matter is plainly shown by the following passage of the Jerusalem Talmud; " Why is it called the place or house of drawing V (for that was the term for this ceremony, or for the place where the water was taken up) " Because from thence they draw the Holy Spirit; as it is wTitten, And ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation." See Wolf. Curffi Philol. in N. T. on John vii. 37, 39. — L. The

water is Divine knowledge, says Kimchi, and the loells the teachers of righteousness. The Targ-urn renders this in a very remarkable manner: " Ye shall receive with joy (rnn lir!'\Hule}ihan chadalh) a new doctrine from the chosen among the righteous." Docs not this mean the Gospel, the neia covenant? And did not the Targuraist speak as a prophet?

Verse 1. Though thou tvast angry — "For though thou hast been angry"] The Hebrew phrase, to which the Septuagint and Vulgate have too closely adhered, is exactly the same with that of St. Paul, Rom. vi. 17: "But thanks be to God, that ye were the slaves of sin; but have obeyed from the heart;" that is, " that whereas, or though, ye were the slaves of sin, yet ye have

5 ' feing unto the Lord; lor he Numae Pompiiii, hath done excellent things: this R- Roman., 3 is known in all the earth.

6 '' Cry out and shout, thou • inhabitant of Zion: for great is " the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

Verses. The Lord JEHOVAH] The word H' FaA read here is probably a mistake; and arose originally from the custom of the Jewish scribes, who, when they found a line too short for the word, wrote as many letters as filled it, and then began the next line with the whole word. In writing the word TWXy Yehovah, the line might terminate with Tf Yah, the two first letters; and then at the beginning of the next line the whole word nin" Yehovah would be WTitten. This might give rise to nin' H' Yah Yehovah. The Yah is wanting here in two of Dr. KcnnicolCs MSS., in one ancient MS. of my owuy and in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. See Houbigant and De Ro.i.ii.

My song] The pronoun is here necessary; and it is added by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, who read 'mai zimrathi, as it is in a MS. Two RISS. omit rr Yah, see Houbigant, not. in loc. Another MS, has it in one word, Tvn'y^'i zimrathyah. Seven others omit T[\rv Yehovah. See Esod. xv. 2, with Var. Lect. Kennicott.

Verse 4. Call upon his name] ntya iSTp kiru bishmo, invoke his name. Make him your Mediator, or call the people in his name. Preach him who is the Root of Jesse, and ivho stands as an ensign for the nations. Call on the people to believe in him; as in him alone salvation is to be found.

Verse 6. Thou inhabitant of Zion] Not only the Jewish people, to whom his w-ord of salvation was to be sent first; but also all members of the Church of Christ: as in them, and in his Church, the Holy One of Israel dwells. St. Paul, speaking of the mystery which had been proclaimed among the Gentiles, sums it up in these words: " vi'hich is Christ in vou, the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present everyman perfect in Christ Jesus;" Col. i. 27, 28. Well, therefore, may the inhabitant of Zion cry out and shout, and proclaim the greatness of her Redeemer.

God mustereth the armies of his wrath against the inhabitants of Babylon, 1-6. The dreadful consequences of this visitation, and the terror and dismay of those who are the objects of it, 7-16. The horrid cruelties that shall be inflicted upon the Babylonians by the Medes, 17, 18. Total and irrecoverable desolation of Babylon, 19-32.

This and the following chapter, — striking off the five last verses of the latter, which belong to a quite difterent subject, — contain one entire prophecy, foretelling the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; delivered probably in the reign of Ahaz, (see Vilringa, i. 380,) about two hundred years before its accomplishment. The captivity itself of the Jews at Babylon, which the prophet does not expressly foretell, l)ut supposes, in the spirit of prophecy, as what was actually to be effected, did not fully take place till about one hundred and thirty years after the delivery of this prophecy: and the Medcs, who are expressly mentioned chap. xiii. 17, as the principal agents in the overthrow of the Babylonian monarchy, by which the Jews were released from that captivity, were at this time an inconsiderable people; having been in a state of anarchy ever since the fall of the great Assyrian empire, of which they had made a part, under Sardanapalus; and did not become a kingdom under Deioces tiU about the seventeenth of Hezekiah.

The former part of this prophecy is one of the most beautiful examples that can be given of elegance of composition, variety of imagery, and sublimity of sentiment $■».! diction, in the prophetic style; and the latter part consists of an ode of supreme and singular excellence.

The prophecy opens with the command of God to gather together the forces which he had destined to this service, ver. 2, 3. Upon which the prophet immediately hears the tumultuous noise of the different nations crowding together to his standard; he sees them advancing, prepared to execute the Divine wrath, irer. 4, 5. He proceeds to describe the dreadful consequences of this visitation, the consternation which will seize those who are the objects of it; and, transferring unawares the speech from himself to God, ver. 11, sets forth, under a variety of the most striking images, the dreadful destruction of the inhabitants of Babylon which will follow, ver. 11-16, and the everlasting desolation to which that great city is doomed, ver. 17-29.

The deliverance of Judah from captivity, the immediate consequence of this great revolution, is then set forth, without being much enlarged upon, or greatly amplified, chap. xiv. 1, 2. This introduces, with the greatest ease and the utmost propriety, the triumphant song on that subject, ver. 4-28. The beauties of which, the various images, scenes, persons introduced, and the elegant transitions from one to another, I shaU here endeavour to point out in their order, leaving a few remarks upon particular passages of these two chapters to be given after these general observations on the whole.

A chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their surprise and astonishment at the sudden downfall of Babylon; and the great reverse of fortune that had befallen the tyrant, who. like his predecessors, had

oppressed his own, and harassed the neighbouring kingdoms. These oppressed kingdoms, or their rulers, are repre.sented under the image of the fir trees and the cedars of Libanus, frequently used to express any thing in the political or religious world that is super-eminently great and majestic: the whole earth.shouteth for joy; the cedars of Libanus utter a severe taunt over the fallen tyrant, and boast their securit)"" now he is no more.

The scene is immediately changed, and a new set of persons is introduced. The regions of the dead are laid open, and Hades is represented as rousing up the shades of the departed monarchs: they rise from their thrones to meet the king of Babylon at his coming; and insult him on his being reduced to the same lowestate of impotence and dissolution with themselves. This is one of the boldest prosopopoeias that ever was attempted in poetry; and is executed with astonishing brevity and perspicuity, and w"ith that peculiar force which in a great subject naturally results from both. The image of the state of the dead, or the infcmum poeticum of the Hebrews, is taken from their custom of burying, those at least of the higher rank, in large sepulchral vaults hewn in the rock. Of this kind of sepulchres there are remains at Jerusalem now extant; and some that are said to be the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. See Maundrell, p. 76. You are to form to yourself an idea of an immense subterranean vault, a vast gloomy cavern, all round the sides of which there are cells to receive the dead bodies; here the deceased monarchs lie in a distinguished sort of state, suitable to their former rank, eac'r c n his oirii couch, with his arms beside him, his sword at his head, and the bodies of his chiefs and companions round about him. See Ezek. xxxii. 27. On which place Sir.John Chardin's MS. note is as follows: " En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leurs ep^es sous leurs tetes, et leurs autres armes k leur cote; et on les enterre de mesme, leurs armes posees de cette fagon." In Mingrelia they always sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides; and they bury their dead with their arms placed in the same manner. These illustrious shades rise at once from their couches, as from their thrones; and advance to the entrance of the cavern to meet the king of Babylon, and to receive him with insults on his fall.

The Jews now resume the speech; they address the king of Babylon as the morning-star fallen from heaven, as the first in splendour and dignity in the political world, fallen from his high state; they introduce him as uttering the most extravagant vaunts of his power and ambitious designs in his former glory. These are strongly contrasted in the close with his present low and abject condition.

Immediately foUows a different scene, and a most happy image, to diversify the same subject, to give it a new turn, and an additional force. Certain persons

4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, s like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of tlie battle.

5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

6 Howl ye; ^ for the day of the Lord is at hand; ' it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

are introduced who light upon the corpse of the king of Babylon, east out and lying naked on the bare ground, among the common slain, just after the taking of tlie city; covered with wounds, and so disfigured, that it is some time before they know him. They accost him with the severest taunts; and bitterly reproach liim with his destructive ambition, and his cruel usage of the conquered; which have deservedly brought him this ignominious treatment, so diiferent from that wliich those of his rank usually meet with, and which shall cover his posterity with disgrace.

To complete the whole, God is introduced, declaring the fate of Babylon, the utter extirpation of the royal family, and the total desolation of the city; the deliverance of his people, and the destruction of their enemies; confirming the irreversible decree by the awful sanction of his oath.

I believe it may with truth be affirmed, that there is no poem of its kind extant in any language, in which the subject is so well laid out, and so happily conducted, with such a richness of invention, with such variety of images, persons, and distinct actions, with such rapidity and ease of transition, in so small a compass, as in this ode of Isaiah. For beauty of disposition, strength of colouring, greatness of sentiment, brevity, perspicuity, and force of expression, it sl<tnds, among all the monuments of antiquity, unrivalled.—L.

^'e^se 1. The burden of Bahylon] The prophecy that foretells its destruction by the Medes and Persians: see the preceding observations.

Verse 2. Exalt Ike voice\ The word urh lahem, ' to them," which is of no use, and rather weakens the sentence, is omitted by an ancient M.S., and the Vulgate.

Verse 3. I have commanded my sanctified ones] 'lS'\p:imekuddashai, the persons consecrated to this very purpose. Nothing can be plainer than that the verb

' pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall " be amazed " one at another; their faces shall be as ° flames.

9 Behold, p the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with WTath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy 1 the sinners thereof out of it.

10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light • the sun shall be "■ darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

a'^p kadash, " to make holy," signifies also to consecrate or appoint to a particular purpose. Bishop Lowth translates, " my emroUed warriors." This is the sense.

Verse 4.' Of the battle — " For the battle."] The Bodleian MS. has nonSoS lemilchamah. C)tus's army was made up of many different nations. Jeremiah calls it an " assembly of great nations from the north country," chap. 1. 9. And afterwards mentions the Idngdoms of " Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, (i. e. Armenia, Corduene, Pontus or Phrygia, Vitring.,) with the kings of the Medes," chap. Ii. 27, 28. See Xenophon. Cyrop.

Verses. They come from a far country] The word l'IN'3 meerets is wanting in one MS. and in the Syriac: " They come from afar."

From the end of heaven] Kimchi says, Media, " the end of heaven," in Scripture phrase, means, the east.

Verse 8. And they shall be afraid — " And they shall be terrified"] I join this verb, iSn^Jl venibhalu, to the preceding verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate.

Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them — "Pangs shall seize them"] The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read QirriN' yochezum, instead of JliriN'' yochezun, which does not express the pronoun them, necessary to the sense.

Verse 10. For the stars of heaven — " Yea, the stars of heaven"] The Hcljrew poets, to express happiness, prosperity, the instauration and advancement of states, kingdoms, and potentates, make use of images taken from the most striking parts of nature, from the heavenly bodies, from the sun, moon, and stars: which they describe as shining with increased splendour, and never setting. The moon becomes like the meridian sun, and the sun's light is augmented sevenfold; (see Isa. XXX. 36;) new heavens and a new earth are created, and a brighter age commences. On the contrary, the overflow and destruction of kingdoms is represented by opposite images. The stars are obscured, the moon withdraws her light, and the sun shines no more! The earth quakes, and the heavens tremble;

NuniEe Poinpiiii, their iniquity; ^ and 1 will cause R. Roman., 4. ^[^g aiTogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

1 3 ' Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the eaith shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in " the day of his fierce anger.

14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as

And the moon shall not cause her light to shine] This in its farther reference may belong to the Jewish polity, both in Church and state, which should be totally eclipsed, and perhaps shine no more in its distinct state for ever.

Verse 11. I will punish the ivorld — "I will visit the world"] That is, the Babylonish empire; as r] oixou(AcV»), for the Roman empire, or for Judea, Luke ii. 1; Acts xi. 28. So the im/ceriws orlis Romanus, for the Roman empire; Salviati. lib. v. Minos calls Crete his world: " Creten, quas meus est orbis;" Ovid. Metamorph. viii. 9.

Verse 12. I will make a man more precious than fine gold — loedge of Ophir.] The Medes and Persians will not be satisfied with the spoils of the Babylonians. They seek either to destroy or enslave them; and they will accept no ransom for any man — either for tyUX enosh, the poor man, or for ms adam, the more honourable person. All must fall by the sword, or go into captivity together; for the Medes, (ver. 17,) regard not silver, and delight not in gold.

Verse 14. "And the remnant"] Here is plainly a defect in this sentence, as it stands in the Hebretv test; the subject of the proposition is lost. What is it that shall be like a roe chased 1 The Septuagint happily supply it, oi xaraXEXsifjijiEvoi, TKiy shear, the remnant. A MS. here supplies the word SBT yosheb, the inhabitant; which makes a tolerably good sense; but 1 much prefer the reading of the

They shall — turn — "They shall look"] That is, the forces of the king of Babylon, destitute of their leader, and all his auxiliaries, collected from Asia Minor, and other distant countries, shaU disperse and flee to their respective homes.

Verse 15. Every one that is found — " Every one that is overtaken"] That is, none shall escape from the slaughter; neither they who flee singly, dispersed and in confusion; nor they who endeavour to make their retreat in a more regular manner, by forming compact bodies: they shall all be equally cut off by the

■^ they shall every man turn to his Oiymp. xvii. i. own people, and flee every one Numap'om^iiii, into his own land. R. Roman., 4.

15 Every one that is found shall be tlirust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

1 6 Their children also shall be "' dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

17 '^Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

sword of the enemy. The Septuagint have understood it in this sense, which they have well expressed: —

" Whosoever is caught shaU be overihromi. And aU that are collected together shall fall by the sword." Where, for 'f,TTri&-/\t!STa.t, MS. Pachom has sxxsv^»i(j'J^-ai, et 01 r Cod. Marchal. in margine, et MS. i. D. ii. exx£vr'>i^r]()'5Tai, which seems to be right, being properly expressive of the Hebretv.

Verse 17. Which shall not regard silver — "Who shall hold silver of no account"] That is, who shall not be induced, by large offers of gold and silver for ransom, to spare the lives of those whom they have subdued in battle; their rage and cruelty will get the better of all such motives. We have many examples in the Iliad and in the jEneid of addresses of the vanquished to the pity and avarice of the vanquishers, to induce them to spare their lives.

Est domus alta: jacent penitus defossa talenta Cffilati argenti: sunt auri pondera facti Infectique mihi: non hie victoria Teucrum Vertitur; aut anima una dabit discrimina tanta. Dixerat: ^Eneas contra cui talia reddit: Argenti atque auri memoras quE multa talenta Gnatis parce tuis. ^En. x. 526.

" High in my dome are silver talents rolled. With piles of laboured and unlaboured gold. These, to procure my ransom, I resign; The war depends not on a life like mine: One, one poor life can no such difference yield, Nor turn the mighty balance of the field. Thy talents, (cried the prince,) thy treasured store Keep for thy sons." Pitt.

It is remarkable that Xenophon makes Cyrus open a speech to his army, and in particular to the Medes, who made the principal part of it, with praising them for their disregard of riches. Av5p=s Mji&i, xo.i vav- TS; 01 ■7ra|ov<r£j, syu ufAttf oiSa. iutpug, on outs ^^y](jia- Tuv 5so|x;voi rfuv Ejxoi f|j]X^STS- " Ye Medes, and others who now hear me, I well know that you have not ac-

20 ''It shall never be inhabited, Numi'pompiiii, neither shall it be dwelt in from ^- "°'"''"- ^- generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall

companied me in this e.xpedition with a view of acquiring wealth." — Cyrop. lib. v.

Verse 18. Their boics also shall dash — "Their bows shall dash"] Both Herodotus, i. 61, and Xenophon, Anab. iii., mention, that the Persians used large bows To|a (jijyaXa: and the latter says particularly that their bows were three cubits long, Anab. iv. They were celebrated for their archers, see chap, x.xii. 6; Jer. xlix. 35. Probably their neighbours and allies, the Modes, dealt much in the same sort of arms. In Psa. xviii. 34, and Job xx. 24, mention is made of a bow of steel; if the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits' length, and proportionably strong, the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting of the inhabitants (for they are joined with the fruit of the womb and the children) in the general carnage on taking the city. njBTnjT terattashnah, shall be broken or shivered to pieces. This seems to refer, not to D'li'J nearim, young men, but to nintVp keshathoth, their bows. The bows of the young men shall be broken tn pieces.

Verse 19. And Babylon] The great city of Babylon was at this time rising to its height of glory, while the Prophet Isaiah was repeatedly denouncing its utter destruction. From the first of Hezekiah to the first of Nebuchadnezzar, under whom it was brought to the highest degree of strength and splendour, are about one hundred and twenty years. I wUl here very briefly mention some particulars of the greatness of the place, and note the several steps by which this remarkable prophecy was at length accomplished in the total ruin of it.

It was, according to the lowest account given of it by ancient historians, a regular sqazre, forty-five miles in compass, inclosed by a wall tico hundred feet high and fifty broad; in which there were a hundred gates of brass. Its principal ornaments were the temple of Belus, in the middle of which was a tower of eight stories of building, upon a base of a quarter of a mile square, a most inagnificent palace, and the famous hanging gardens, which were an artificial mountain, raised upon arches, and planted with trees of the largest as well as the most beautiful sorts.

Cyrus took the city by diverting the waters of the Euphrates which ran through the midst of it, and

entering the place at night by the dry channel. The river being never restored afterward to its proper course, overflowed the whole country, and made it little better than a great morass; this and the great slaughter of the inhabitants, with other bad consequences of the taking of the city, was the first step to the ruin of the place. The Persian monarchs ever regarded it with a jealous eye; they kept it under, and took care to prevent its recovering its former greatness. Darius Hystaspes not long afterward most severely punished it for a revolt, greatly depopulated the place, lowered the walls, and demolished the gates. Xerxes destroyed the temples, and with the rest the great temple of Belus, Herod, iii. 159, Arrian. Exp. Alexandri, lib. vii. The building of Seleucia on the Tigris exhausted Babylon by its neighbourhood, as well as by the immediate loss of inhabitants taken away by Seleucus to people his new city, Sirabo, lib. xvi. A king of the Parthians soon after carried away into slavery a great number of the inhabitants, and burned and destroyed the most beautiful parts of the city, Valesii Excerpt. Dindori, p. 377. Strabo (ibid.) says that in his time great part of it was a mere desert; that the Persians had partly destroyed it; and that time and the neglect of the Macedonians, while they were masters of it, had nearly completed its destruction. Jerome {in loc.) says that in his time it was quite in ruins, and that the walls served only for the inclosure for a park or forest for the king's hunting. Modern travellers, who have endeavoured to find the remains of it, have given but a very unsatisfactory account of their success. What Benjamin of Tudela and Pietro della Valle supposed to have been some of its ruins, Tavernier thinks are the remains of some late Arabian building. Upon the whole, Babylon is so utterly annihilated, that even the place where this wonder of the world stood cannot now be determined with any certainty! See also note on chap, xliii. 14.