Commentary on the Holy Bible

Not many years after the destruction of Sennacherib's army before Jerusalem, by which the Egyptians were freed from the yoke with which they were threatened by so powerful an enemy, who had carried on a successful war of tliree years' continuance against them; the affairs of Egypt were again thro\vn into confusion by intestine broils among themselves, which ended in a perfect anarchy, that lasted some few years. This was followed by an aristocracy, or rather tyranny, of twelve princes, who divided the country between them, and at last by the sole dominion of Psammitichus, which he lield for fifty-four years. Not long after that followed the invasion and conciuest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by the Persians under Carabyses, the son of Cyrus. The yoke of the Persians was so grievous, that the conquest of the Persians by his presence, and the heart Oiymp. xvi. 3. of Egj'pt shall melt in the midst Nums; Pompiiii. of it. ^ '^°'"''"' -■

Alexander may well be considered as a deliverance to Egypt; especially as he and his successors greatly favoured the people and improved the country. To all these events the prophet seems to have had a view in this chapter; and in particular, from ver. 18, the prophecy of the propagation of the true religion in Egypt seems to point to the flourishing state of Judaism in that countr)', in consequence of the great favour shown to the Jews by the Ptolemies. Alexander himself settled a great many Jews in his new city Alexandria, granting them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians. The first Ptolemy, called Soter, carried great numbers of them thither, and gave them such encouragement that still more of them were collected there from different parts; so that PhUo reckons that in his time there were a million of Jews in that country.

Numse PompiUi, they shall fight every one against R. Roman., 2. j^jg brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

3 And the spirit of Egypt? shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will ''destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall 'seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have faradiar spirits, and to the wizards.

4.\iid the Egyptians will I >* give over ' into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over ihcm, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

5 "' And the waters shall fail from the sea, and tlie river shall be wasted and dried up.

6 And they shall turn the rivers far away;

These worshipped the God of their fathers; and their example and influence must have had a great effect in spreading the knowledge and worship of the true God through the whole country. See Bp. Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert, xii.

'N'erse 3. They shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them, that have familiar spirits, and

to the wizards.] anti tl)ei ^icijul a?hcn their;Spmu: l.urc;S, anJ) their bcbnnouris;, anb tljcii: bcbpl tIcpcrjS, anb Ilicit bcbnl;S.icri|tct;S, — Old Bible. The import of the original words has already been given where they occur in the Pentateuch. See Deut. xviii. 10, &c.

Verse 4. A cruel lord — " Cniel lords"] Nebuchadnezzar in the first place, and afterwards the whole succession of Persian kings, who in general were hard masters, and grievously oppressed the country. Note, that for n'i'p kasheh, lord, a MS. reads O't^p kashim, lords, agreeable to which is the rendering of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Verse 5. The river shall be wasted and dried up.] Tne Nile shall not overflow its banks; and if no inundation, the land must become barren. For, as there \s little or no rain in Egj-pt, its fertility depends on the overfiou-ing of the Nile.

Verse G. Shall turn the rivers far aioay — " Shall become putrid"] irrJTNn heeznichu. This sense of the word, which Simonis gives in his Lexicon, from the meaning of it in Arabic, suits the place much better than any other interpretation hitherto given; and that the word in Hebrew had some such signification, is probable from 2 Chron. xxix. 19, where the Vulgate renders it by polluit, polluted, and the Targum, by profaned, and made abominable, which the context be emptied and dried up: the oiymp. xvi. 3. reeds and flags shall wither. Num^'pompiiii,

7 The paper reeds by the R- Roman., 2. brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, " and be no rnore.

8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

9 Moreover they that work in pfine fla.v, and the5r that weave 1 networks, shall be confounded.

10 And they shall be broken in the ' purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds ' for fish.

1 1 Surely the princes of ' Zoan ai'e fools.

in that place seems plainly to require. The form of the verb here is very irregular; and the rabbins and grammarians seem to give no probable account of it.

Verse 8. The fishers also — "And the fishers"] There was great plenty of fish in Egypt; see Num. xi. 5. " The Nile," says Diodorus, lib. i., " abounds with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish." And much more the lakes. So Egmont, Pococke, &c.

Verse 9. They that u-ork in fine fax] nip'lty □•jltyj) pishtim sericoth, heckled flax, i. e., flax dressed on the heckle, or comb used for that purpose. The Vul gate uses the word pectentes, combing.

All that make sluices and ponds for fish — •" All that make a gain of pools for fish."] This obscure line is rendered by different interpreters in very different manners. Kimchi explains 'riJN agmey as if it were the same with m^y agemah, from Job xxx. 25, in which he is followed by some of the rabbins, and supported by the Septuagint: and •yJUl sechcr, which I translate gain, and which some take for nets or inclosures, the Septuagint render by ^u^ov, strong drink or beer, which it is well known was much used in Egypt; and so likewise the Syriac, retaining the Hebrew word XIDC sekra. I submit these very different interpretations to the reader's judgment. The Version of the Scptua gint is as follows: Kai •iravTEj oi toiouvccj tov ^uiJov Xuirji^i)<rovTai, xai ths 4-i>5(a5 irovsffouo'i' ".'Vnd all they that make barley wine shall mourn, and be grieved in soul."

Verse 1 1. The counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish — " Have counselled a

Xiicnffi Pompiiii, isli: liow say ye unto rharaoh, """ ^' I am tlie son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

12 "Where are they? where are thy wise men 1 and let them tell ihee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, " the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even " they ^ that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

14 The Lord hath mingled >' a ^ perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

brutish counsel"] The sentence as it now stands in the Hebrew, is imperfect: it wants the verb. Archbishop Seeker conjectures that the words ni'"l3 'ii'T yoatsey pharoh should be transposed; which would in some degree remove the difficulty. But it is to be observed, that the translator of the Vulgate seems to have found in his copy the verb!:;>'■ yaatsu added after Hi'lB pharoh: Sapientes consiliarii Pharaonis dederunt consilium insipiens, " The wise counsellors of Pharaoh gave unwise counsel." This is probably the true reading: it is perfectly agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, makes the construction of the sentence clear, and renders the transposition of the words above mentioned unnecessary. — L.

Verse 12. "Let them come"] Here too a word seems to have been left out of the text. After yoon rhachameycha, thy icise men, two MSS., one ancient, add ixn' yibu, let them come; which, if we consider the form and construction of the sentence, has very much the appearance of being genuine: otherwise the connective conjunction at the beginning of the next member is not only superfluous but embarrassing. See also the Version of the Septuagint, in which the same deficiency is manifest.

Let them tell thee notv — " And let them declare"] For IJ.'T' yidu, let them know, perhaps we ought to read 1J"1V yoditi, let them make known. — Seeker. The Septuagint and Vulgate favour this reading, livaTuiav, let them declare.

Verse 13. Are deceived — "They have caused," &c.] The text has lj.'nni vehithu, and they have caused to err. Fifty of Kennicott's M.SS., fifty-three of De Rossi's, and one of my own, ancient, thirtytwo editions, and the Vulgate and Chaldee, omit the 1 vau, and.

Stay — " Pillars"] r\;3 pinnath, to be pointed as plural pinnoth, without doubt. So Grotius, and so the ■Chaldee.

16 In that day shall Eg)T)t "■ ^°'"™- ^- '' be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, " which he shaketh over it.

17 And the land of Judah shall be a ten-or unto Egypt, every one that makelh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Eg}'pt '' speak " the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, The city ^ of destruction.

bam; so the Septuagint, and perhaps more correctly." — Seeker. So likewise the Chaldee.

Verse 15. The head or tail, branch or rush] R. D. Kimchi says, there are some who suppose that these words mean the dragon's head and tail; and refer to all those who are conversant in astronomy, astrology, &c.

Verse 16. Shall Egypt be — "The Egyiitians shall be"] VTV yihyu, they shall be, plural, MS. Bodl. Septuagint, and Chaldee. This is not proposed as an emendation, for either form is proper.

Verse 17. And the land of Judah] The threatening hand of God will be held out and shaken over Egypt, from the side of Judea; through which the Assyrians will march to invade it. It signifies that kind of terror that drives one to his wit's end, that causes him to reel like a drunken man, to be giddy through astonishment. Such is the import of Jn chag, and run chagah. Five MSS. and tivo editions have njnS lechagah.

the sun"] Dinn Ti' ir hacheres. This passage is attended with much difficulty and obscurity. First, in regard to the true reading. It is well known that Onias applied it to his own views, either to procure from the king of Egypt permission to buUd his temple in the Hieropolitan Nome, or to gain credit and authority to it when built; from the notion which he industriously propagated, that Isaiah had in this place prophesied of the building of such a temple. He pretended that the very place where it should be built was expressly named by the prophet, Dinn T> ir hacheres, the city of the sun. This possibly may have been the original reading. The present text has Oinn "i';' ir haheres, the city of destruction; which some suppose to have been introduced into the text by the Jews of Palestine afterwards, to express their detestation of the place, being much offended with this

Oiynip. XVI. 3. an altar to the Lord in the midst finmx Pompiiii, of the land of Egypt, and a pillar R. Roman., 2. ^j ^^^^ boidcr thereof to the Lord.

20 And '' it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Loud because of the oppressors, and he shall send ihcni a Saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

2 1 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and ' shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it.

22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he

shall return even to the Lord, Olymp. xvi. 3. and he shall be intreated of Numa; Pumpilii, them, and shall heal them.

schismatical temple in Egypt. Some think the latter to have been the true reading; and that the prophet himself gave tliis turn to the name out of contempt, and to intimate the demolition of this Hieropolitan temple; Avhich in effect was destroyed by Vespasian's orders, after that of Jerusalem, " Videtur propheta consulto scripsisse Din heres, pro Dtn cheres, ut alibi scribitur px n'3 ieith aven pro Ss n'3 beith El: lyx rvi^2 ish bosheth pro h'J2 V>'^ isk baal, &c. Vide Loivth in loc." — Seeker. " It seems that the prophet designedly wrote Din lieres, destruction, for Din cheres, the sun: as elsewhere JIX iTD beith aven the house of iniquili/, is wTitten for /N n'3 beith El, the house of God; iT^3 ty'« ish bosheth for S;'3 5?'N ish baal," &c. But on the supposition that D^nn "IT air haheres is the true reading, others understand it differently. The word Din heres in Arabic signifies a lion; and Conrad Ikenius has wTitten a dissertation (Dissert. Philol. Theol. XVI.) to prove that the place here mentioned is not Heliopolis, as it is commonly supposed to be, but Leontopolis in the Heliopolitan Nome, as it is indeed called in the letter, whether real or pretended, of Onias to Ptolemy, which Josephus has inserted in his Jewish Antiquities, lib. xiii. c. 3. And I find that several persons of great learning and judgment think that Ikenius has proved the point beyond contradiction. See Christian. Midler. Satura Observ. PhUolog. Michaelis Bibliotheque Oriental, Part v., p. 171. But, after all, I believe that neither Onias, Heliopolis, nor Leontopolis has any thing to do with this subject. The application of this place of Isaiah to Onias's purpose seems to have been a mere invention, and in I onsequence of it there may perhaps have been some rlfair management to accommodate the te.\t to that purpose; which has been carried even farther than the Hebrew te.xt; for the Greek version has here been either translated from a corrupted text, or wilfully mistranslated or corrupted, to serve the same cause. The place is there called ffoXij Acsi^x, Me citi/ of righteousness; a name apparently contrived by Onias's party to give credit to their temple, which was to rival

23 In that day '^ shall there be a highway out of Eg\'pt to Assyria, and the AssjTian shall come into Egypt, and the Egj^ptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.

24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with AssyTia, even a blessing in the midst of the land:

25 Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and AssyTia ^ the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

that of Jerusalem. Upon the whole, the true reading of the Hebrew test in this place is very uncertain; fifteen MSS. and seven editions have Din cheres, the city of Hacheres, or, of the sun. So likewise Symmachiis, th^ Vvlgate, Arabic, Septuagint, and Complutensian. On the other hand, Aquila, Thcodotion, and the Syriac read Din heres, destruction; the Chaldce paraphrase takes in both readings.

The reading of the text being so uncertain, no one can pretend to determine what the city was that is here mentioned by name; much less to determine what the four other cities were which the prophet does not name. I take the whole passage from the 18th verse to the end of the chapter, to contain a general intimation of the future propagation of the knowledge of thi-. true God in Egypt and Syria, under the successors of Alexander; and, in consequence of this propagation, of the early reception of the Gospel in the same countries, when it should be published to the world. See more on this subject in Prideaux^s Connect. An. 145; Dr. Owcn''s Inquirj' mto the present state of the Septuagint Version, p. 41; and BryanCs Observations on Ancient History, p. 134. — L.

Verse 19. An altar to the Lord] nixri" tsebaoth, " of hosts," or Yehovah tsebaoth, is added by eight MSS. of good repute, and the Syriac Version.

Verse 23. Shall there be a highway^ Under the latter kings of. Persia, and under Alexander, Egypt, Judea, and AssjTria lived peaceably under the same government, and were on such friendly terms that there was a regular, uninterrupted intercourse between them, so that the Ass;,Tian came into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and Israel became the third, i. e., was in strict union with the other two; and was a blessing to both, as affording them some knowledge of the true God, ver. 24.

Verse 25. Bles.ied be Egypt — As.syria — and Israel] All these countries shall be converted to the Lord. Concerning Egypt, it was said, chap, xviii. 7, that it should bring gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem. Here it is predicted, ver. 19, that there shall be an altar to the Lord in Egypt itself; and that they, with the countries shall be all, and perhaps at no verj' distant Assyrians, shall become the people of God with the time from this, converted to the faith of our Lord Jesus Israelites. This remains partly to be fulfilled. These i Christ.

The Prophet Isaiah a sign to Egypt and Cash or Ethiopia, that the captives and exiles of these countries shall be indignantly treated by the king of Assyria, 1-6.

2 At the same time spake the Lord ''by- Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose tlie " sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy slioe from thy foot. And he did so, "^ walking naked and barefoot.

3 And the Lord said. Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years "for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

Tartan besieged Ashdod or Azotus, which probably belonged at this time to Hezekiah's dominions; see 2 Kings xviii. 8. The people expected to be relieved by the Cushites of Arabia and by the Egyptians. Isaiah was ordered to go uncovered, that is, without his upper garment, the rough mantle commonly worn by the prophets, (see Zech. xiii. 4,) probably three days, to show that within three years the town should be taken, after the defeat of the Cushites and Egyptians by the king of Assyria, wliich event should make their case desperate, and induce them to surrender. Azotus was a strong place; it afterwards held out twenty-nine years against Psammitichus, king of Egypt, Herod, ii. 157. Tartan was one of Sennacherib's generals, 2 Kings xviii. 17, and Tirhakah, king of the Cushites, was in alliance with the king of Egypt against Sennacherib. These circumstances make it probable that by Sargon is meant Sennacherib. It might be one of the seven names by which Jerome, on this place, says he was called. He is called Sacherdonus and Sacherdan in the book of Tobit. The taking of Azotus must have happened before Sennacherib's attempt on Jerusalem; when he boasted of his late conquests, chap, xxxvii. 25. And the warning of the prophet had a principal respect to the Jews also, who were too much inclined to depend upon the assistance of Egy^t. As to the rest history and chronology affording us no light, it may be impossible to clear either this or any other hypothesis, which takes Sargon to be Shalmaneser or Asarhaddon, &c., from all difficulties.

— L. Kimchi says, this happened in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.

4 So shall the king of Assyria \^^ '^^^ f^- lead away ^ the Egyptians prison- Oiymp. xvi. 3. ers, and the Ethiopians captives, Numje Pompiiii, young and old, naked and bare- R- Roman., 2. foot, s even with their buttocks uncovered, to the ^ shame of Egypt.

5 ' And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt thei: glory.

6 And the inliabitant of this ^ isle shall say in that day. Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

probable that the prophet walked uncovered and barefoot for three years; his appearing in that manner was a sign that within three years the Egv'ptians and Cushites should be in the same condition, being conquered and made captives by the king of Assyria. The time was denoted as well as the event; but his appearing in that manner for three whole years could give no premonition of the time at all. It is probable, therefore, that the prophet was ordered to walk so for three days to denote the accomplishment of the event in three years; a day for a year, according to the prophetical rule. Num. xiv. 34; Ezek. iv. 6. The words nD'O' ^'h'lit shalosh yamim, three days, may possibly have been lost out of the text, at the end of the second verse, after ^in' yacheph, barefoot; or after the same word in the third verse, where, in the Alexandrine and "Vatican copies of the Septuagint, and in MSS. Pachom. and i. D. n. the words rpia s-i], three years, are twice expressed. Perhaps, in.stead of \i/hw □'3' shalosh yamim, three days, the Greek translator might read O'Jty tyStS shalosh shanim, three years, by his own mistake, or by that of his copy, after ^n' yacheph in the third verse, for which stands the first Tfia err), three years, in the Alexandrine and Vatican Septuagint, and in the two M.SS. above mentioned. It is most likely that Isaiah's walking naked and barefoot was done in a vision; as was probably that of the Prophet Hosea taking a wife of whoredoms. None of these things can well be taken literally.

From thy foot] "|'Sj1 ragleycha, thy feet, is the reading of thirty-four of KennicolCs and De Rossi's MSS., four ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic.

Prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians at the time of a greatfestival, 1-9. Short application of the prophecy to the Jeics, partly in thepersonofGod, and partly in hisown, 10. Obscure prophecy respecting Dumah, 11, 12. Prophecy concerning the Arabians tobe fulfilled in avery short time after its delivery, 13—17

HTHE burden of the desert of the sea. As 'whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it R. Roman. 2. Cometh fiom the desert, from a terrible land.

2 A '' grievous vision is declared unto me; ^ the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously,

The first ten verses of this chapter contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. It is a passage singular in its kind for its brevity and force, for the variety and rapidity of the movements, and for the strength and energy of colouring with which the action and event are painted. It opens with the prophet's seeing at a distance the dreadful storm that is gathering and ready to burst upon Babylon. The event is intimated in general terms, and God's orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses, in the strongest terms, the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise oi the city at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity, ver. 3, 4. Then, in his own person, describes the situation of things there, the security of the Babylonians, and in the midst of their feasting the sudden alarm of war, ver. 5. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; he sees two companies marching onward, representing by their appearance the two nations that were to execute God's orders, who declare that Babylon is fallen, ver. 6—9.

But what is this to the prophet, and to the Jews, the object of his ministry! The application, the end, and design of the prophecy are admirably given in a short, expressive address to the J e ws, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet; " O my threshing— " " 0 my people, whom for your punishment I shall make subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff from the corn, the bad from the good, among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery, and oppression will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors."— L.

Verse 1. The desert of the sea\ This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it.

Herodotus, lib. i. 184, says that ".Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole

3 Therefore are " my loins filled with pain: f pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman tiiat travaileth: I was bowed down

country like a sea." And Abydenus, (quoting Megasthenes, apud Euseb. Preep. Evang. IX. 41,) speaking of the buUding of Babylon by Nebuchadonosor, says, " it is reported that all this part was covered with water, and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles, and surrounded Babylon with a wall." When the Euphrates was turned out of its channel by Cyrus, it was suffered still to drown the neighbouring country; and, the Persian government, which did not favour the place, taking no pare to remedy this inconvenience, it became in time a great barren morassy desert, which event the title of the prophecy may perhaps intimate. Such it was originally; such it became after the taking of the city by Cyrus; and such it continues to this day.

As ivhirlwinds in the south — " Lilie the southern tempests"] The most vehement storms to which Judea was subject came from the desert country to the south of it. " Out of the south cometh the whirlwind," Job xxxvii. 9. " And there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house," Job i. 19. For the situation of Idumea, the country (as I suppose) of Job, see Lam. iv. 2 1 compared with Job i. 1, was the same in this respect with that of Judea: — - " And Jehovah shall appear over them.

And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning,

And shall march in the whirlwinds of the south." Zech. ix. 14.

Verse 2. The treacherous dealer dealeth treacher. ously, and the spoiler spoileth — " The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed."] T313 Tjnn "mtv IT ViVni habboged boged vehashshoded shoded. The MSS. vary in expressing or omitting the 1 ran, in these four words. Ten MSS. of Kennicott are without the 1 van in the second word, and eight M.SS. are without the 1 van in the fourth word; which justifies Symmachus, who has rendered them passively: 6 aJsruv aiirSiTai xai 0 TaXairrupi^uv raXaiTrupfi. He read "WW 11J3 bagxid shadud. Cocceius (Lexicon in voce) observes that the Chaldee ver\' often renders the verb TJ3 bagad, by V2 bazaz, he spoiled; and in this place, and in xxxiii. 1, by the equivalent word DJX nnas, to press, give trouble; and in chap. xxiv. 10 both liy DjX anas and 113 bazaz; and the Si/riac in this place renders it by dSq lalam, he oppressed.

All the sighing thereof have I made to cease — " I XOl

NumzePompiiii, 4 ' My heart panted, leanul- "■ ^°'"''"- -■ ness affrighted me: i' the night of my pleasure hath he ' turned into fear unto me.

5 ^ Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me. Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

7 ^ And he saw a chariot with a couple of liorsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:

9 And, behold, here cometli a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, p Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and 1 all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

10 '0 my threshing, and the - scorn of my floor: tliat which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

1 1 ' The biu-den of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

have put an end to all her vexations"] Heh. " Her sighing; that is, the sigliing caused by her." So Kimchi on the place: " It means those ivho groaned through fear of him: for the suffi.Kes of the nouns refer both to the agent and the patient. All those who groaned before the face of the king of Babylon he caused to rest;" Chald. And so likewise £■/)/»•«« Syr. in loc, edit. Assemani: " His groans, viz., the grief and tears which the Chaldeans occasioned through the rest of (he nations."

A'erse 5. Prepare the table — " The table is prepared"] In Hebrew the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute, as in Ezek. i. 14: " And the animals ran and returned, ^^W\ NIST ratso veshob, like the appearance of the lightning;" just as the Latins say, currere et reverti, for currebant et revertebantur. See chap, xxxii. 11, and the note there.

Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.] Kimchi observes that several of the rabbins understood this of Belshazzar's impious feast and death. The king of a people is termed the shield, because he is their defence. The command, ^4.noi>!^ the shield, is the same with. 4nom< n new king. Belshazzar being now suddenly slain, while they were all eating and drinking, he advises the princes, whose business it was, to make speed and anoint another in his stead.

Verse 7. And he saw a chariot, <^c. — " And he saw a chariot with two riders; a rider on an ass, a rider

on a camel"] This passage is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term 23~\ recheb, which is used three times, and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal: or a compan\' of chariots, or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with 'tto sorts of riders; riders on asses or mules, and riders on camels; or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel. However, so far it is pretty clear, that Darius and Cyrus, the Medes and the Persians, ire intended to be distinguished by the two riders on the two sorts of cattle. It appears from Herodotus, i. 80, that the baggage of Cyrus' army was carried on camels. In his entragement with Crcpsus. he took off the bag-

gage from the camels, and mounted his horsemen upon them; the enemy's horses, offended with the smell of the camels, turned back and fled. — L.

Verse 8. And he cried, A lion — " He that looked out on the watch"] The present reading, n'lN aryeh, a lion, is so unintelligible, and the mistake so obvious, that I make no doubt that the true reading is riNin haroeh, the seer; as the SyWoe translator manifestly found it in his copy, who renders it by Npn duka, a watchman

Verse 9. Here cometh a chariot nf men, <^c. — "A man, one of the two riders"] So the Syriac understands it, and Ephrem Syr.

A'erse 10. O my threshing] "O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chalf from the wheat!" The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God's enemies. Of the different ways of threshing in use among the Hebrews, and the manner of performing them, see the note on chap, xsviii. 27.

Our translators have taken the liberty of using the word threshing in a passive sense, to express the object or matter that is threshed; in which I have followed them, not being able to express it more properly, without departing too much from the form and letter of the original. " Son of my floor," Hib. It is an idiom of the Hebrew language to call the efl^ect, the object, the adjunct, any thing that belongs in almost any way to another, the soji of it. " O my threshing." The prophet abruptly breaks off the speech of God; and instead of continuing it in the form in which he had begun, and in the person of God, " This I declare unto you by my prophet," he changes the form of address, and adds, in his own person, " This I declare unto you from God."

Verse 1 1. The burden of Dumah — " The oracle concerning Dumah."] Pro TT^n Dumah, Codex R. Meiri habet iizinx Edom; and so the Septuagiiit. Vid,

13" The burden upon Arabia. In the forest

Kimchi ad h. 1. Biblia Michaelis, Hala;, 1720, not. ad 1. See also De Rossi. Bishop Lowth translates the prophecy thus: —

A voice crieth to me from Seir: Watchman, what from the night ■? Watchman, what from the nights

12. The watchman replieth: — The morning cometh, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye: come again.

This differs very little from our coimnon Version. One of KennkolCs MSS., and one of my own, omit the repetition, " Watchman, what from the night!"

This prophecy, from the uncertainty of the occasion on which it was uttered, and from the brevity of the expression, is extremely obscure. The Edomites as well as the Jews were subdued by the Babylonians. They inquire of the prophet how long their subjection is to last: he mtimates that the Jews should be delivered from their captivity; not so the Edomites. Thus far the interpretation seems to carry with it some degree of probability. What the meaning of the last line may be, I cannot pretend to divine. In this difficulty the Hebrew MSS. give no assistance. The MSS. of the SepluaginI, and the fragments of the other Greek Aversions, give some variations, but no light. This being the case, I thought it best to give an exact literal translation of the whole two verses, which may serve to enable the English reader to judge in some measure of the foundation of the various interpretations that have been given of them.

The burden of Dumah. — R. D. Kimchi says, " His father understood this of the destruction of Dumah (one of the cities of the Ishmaelites) by the inhabitants of. Scir; and that they inquired of the prophet to loiow the particular time in which God had given them a commission against it. The prophet answered: The morning — the time of success to you, cometh, is just at hand; and the night — the time of utter destruction to the inhabitants of Dumah, is also ready."

I have heard the words applied in the way of general exhortation. 1. Every minister of God is a xeatchman. He is continually watching for the safety and interests of his people, and looking for the counsel of God that he may be properly qualified to warn and to comfort. 2. Such are often called to denounce heanj jndscments; they have the burden of the word of the Lord to denounce against the impenitent, the hackslider, the lukewarm, and the careless. 3. When the watchman threatens judgments, some are awakened, and some mock: Watchman, what of the night? " What are the judgments thou threatenest, and when are they to take place 1" 4. To this question, whether seriously or tauntingly proposed, the watchman answers: 1. The morning cometh — there is a «wn« of repentance granted; a tnoming of God's long-stcffering kindness now appears: and also the night — the time in which God will no longer wait to be gracious, but will cut you off as cumberers of the ground. 2. But if you will inquire seriously how you are to escape God's judgments, inquire ye. 3. There is still a door of hope; continue to pray for mercy. 4. Return from your iniquities. 5. Come to God, tlirough Christ, that ye may obtain salvation.

cle concerning Arabia"] This title is of doubtful authority. In the first place, because it is not in many of the MSS. of the Septvaginl; it is in MSS. Pac'hmn. and i. D. 11. only, as far as I can find with certainty. Secondly, from the singularity of the pluaseology; for xro massa is generally prefixed to its object without a preposition, as "733 NB.'3 ma.^sa babel; and never but in this place with the preposition 2 beth. Besides, as the word 2iyj baarab occurs at the very beginning of the prophecy itself, the first word bufone, it is much to be suspected that some one, taking it for a proper name and the object of the prophecy, might note it as such by the words mj.'3 VSSr^ massa baarab written in the margin, which he might easily transfer to the test. The Septuagint did not take it for a proper name, but render it £v toj 0{u;7.t.j io'*jpaff, " in the forest, in the evening," and so the Chaldee, which I follow; for otherwise, the forest m Arabia is so indeterminate and vague a description, that in effect it means nothing at all. This observation might have been of good use in clearing up the foregoing very obscure prophecy, if any light had arisen from joining the two together by removing the separating title; but I see no connexion between them.

The Arabic Version has, " The prophecy concerning the Arabians, and the children of Chedar."

This prophecy wa.s to have been fulfilled within a year of the time of its delivery, see ver. 16; and it was probably delivered about the same time with the rest in this part of the book, that is, soon before or after the 14th of Hezekiah, the year of Sennacherib's invasion. In his first march into Judea, or in his return from the Egyptian expedition, he might perhaps overrun these several clans of Arabians; their distress on soimsuch occasion is the subject of this prophecy. — L.

Verse 14. The land of Tema — "The southern country"] GaifAav, Sept.; Austri, Vulg. They read p-n teiman, which seems to be right; for probably the inhabitants of Tema might be involved in tin' same calamity with their brethren and neighbours ol Kedar, and not in a condition to give them assistance, and to relieve them, in their flight before the enemy, with bread and water. To bring forth bread and water is an instance of common humanity in such cases of distress: especially in those desert countries in which the common necessaries of life, more par- 1 ticularly water, are not easily to be met with or prci-

R. Roman., 2. g-^v^ords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. 16 For liius hath the Lord said unto me, cured. Moses forbids the Ammonite and Moabite to be admitted into the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation. One reason which he gives for this reprobation is their omission of the common offices of humanity towards the Israelites; " because they met them not with bread and water in the way, when they came forth out of Egypt," Deut. xxiii. 4.

Verse 17. The archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar — " The mighty bowmen of the sons of Kedar"] Sagittariorum fortium, Vulg.; transposing the two words, and reading Hiyp "lUJ gihborey kesheth; which seems to be right. The strong men of the bow, the most excellent archers.

17 And the residue of the ^- ^°°"'"' ^- number of '' archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it.

For the Lord — hath spoken it — " For Jehov.ih hath spoken it."] The prophetic Carmina of Marcius, foretelling the battle of Cannee, lib. xxv. 12, conclude with the same kind of solemn form: Nam mihi tta Jupiter fatus est; " Thus hath Jupiter spoken to me." Observe that the word QSJ naam, to pronouce, to declare, is the solemn word appropriated to the delivering of prophecies: " Behold, I am against the prophets, saith (ONJ naam, pronounceth) Jehovah, who use their tongues, H^XJ lOXn vaiyinamu neum, and solemnly pronounce. He hath pronounced it;" Jer. xxiii. 31. What God says shall most assuredly come to pass; he cannot be deceived.

Prophecy concerning Jerusalem, 1-14. Sentence against Shebna, who was over the household, 15-19. Prophecy concerning Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, 20, 21. From Eliakim, Isaiah, {agreeably to the mode universally adopted in the prophetical writings, of making the things then present, or which were shortly to he accomplished, types or representations of things to be fulfilled upon a larger scale in distant futurity,) makes a transition to the Messiah, of whom Eliakim was a type, to whom the words will best apply, and to ivhom some passages in the prophecy must be solely restrained, 20—24. The sentence against Shebna again confirmed, 25.

AgM.ciV 329|. fpHE burden of the valley of Olymp. XVII. 1. vision. What aileth thee now,

This prophecy, ending with the fourteenth verse of this chapter, is entitled, " The oracle concerning the valley of vision," by which is meant Jerusalem, because, says Sal. ben Melech, it was the place of prophecy. Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was buUt upon two opposite hills,.Sion and Acra, separated bv a valley in the midst. He speaks of another broad valley between Acra and Moriah, Bell. Jud. v. 13, vi. 6. It was the seat of Divine revelation; the place where chiefly prophetic vision was given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the holy place. The prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Sennacherib; or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Vitringa is of opinion that the prophet has both in view: that of the Chaldeans in the first part, ver. 1-5, which he thinks relates to the flight of Zedekiah, 2 Kings xxv. 4, 5; and that of the xVssyrians in the latter part, which agrees with the circumstances of that time, and particularly describes the preparations made by Hezekiah

2 Thou that art full of stirs, a ^^^.''ll?iftumultuous city, " a joyous city: oiymp. xvii. i. thy slain men are not slain with Numa? Pompiiii, the sword, nor dead in battle.

Verse 1. Art — gone up to the house-fops — "Are gone up to the house-tops"] The houses in the east were in ancient times, as they are still, generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall: see Deut. xxii. 8. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favours, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, (1 Sam. is. 25, see also the Septuagint in that place,) they perform their devotions, Acts x. 9. The house is built with a cour* within, into which chiefly the windows open; those that open to the street.are so obstructed with lattice-wort that no one either without or within can see through tliem. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen

4 Therefore, said I, Look away from me; " I '' will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. '

5 ' For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity ^ by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.

6 s And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and '^ Kir ' uncovered the shield.

or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one has occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it is to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. " What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top," saith our Saviour, Matt. x. 27. The people running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John ChardirCs M.S. note on this place is as follows: " Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en alluraant des lumieres, le peuple monte sur les terrasses." " In festivals, in order to see what is going forward, and in times of sickness, in order to indicate them to neighbours by lighting of candles, the people go up to the house-tops."

Verse 3. All thy rulers — are hound hy the archers — "All thy leaders — -are fled from the bow"] There seems to be somewhat of an inconsistency in the sense according to the present reading. If the leaders were bound, noN usseru, how could they flee away? for their being bound, according to the obvious construction and course of the sentence, is a circimistance prior to their flight. I therefore follow Houhigant, who reads non hnseru, remoti sunt, " they are gone off." iSj falu, Iransmigraverunt, Chaldee; which seems to confirm this emendation.

Verse 6. Chariots of men — "The Syrian"] It is QOt easy to say what OiN 3DT recheb adam, a chariot of men, can mean. It seems by the form of the sentence, which consists of three members, the first and the third mentioning a particular people, that the second should do.so likewise. Thus Q't»"i3i ais 3D13 ierecheb aram uparashim, " with chariots the Syrian, and with horsemen:" the similitude of the letters T daleth and 1 resh is so great, and the mistakes arisini^ from it are so frequent, that I readily adopt the correction of Hcmhigant, QlX aram, Syria, instead of □!« adam.

7 And it shall come to pass, that a, '^; ^j_; 3292- ''thy choicest valleys shall be full Oiymp. xvii. i.

01 chariots, and the horsemen Numa Pompiia, shall set themselves in array 'at ' """^ ' '*' the gate.

8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour " of the house of the forest.

9 "Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10 And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down, to fortify the wall.

11 "Ye made also a ditch between the two

man; which seems to me extremely probable. The conjunction 1 van, and, prefixed to t^'Vl'^2 parashim, horsemen, seems necessary in whatever way the sentence may be taken; and it is confirmed \>y Jive JISS., (one ancient,) four of De Rossi's, and two ancient of my own; one by correction of Dr. KennicotCs, and three editions. Kir was a city belonging to the Medes. The Medes were subject to the Assyrians in Hezekiah's time, (see 2 Kings xvi. 9, and xvii. 6:) and so perhaps might Elam (the Persians) likewise be, or auxiliaries to them.

Verse 8. The armour — "The arsenal"] Built by Solomon within the city, and called the house of the forest of Lebanon; probably from the great quantity of cedar from Lebanon which was employed in the building. See 1 Kings vii. 2, 3.

Verse 9. Ye gathered together the waters — " And ye shall collect the waters"] There were two pools in or near Jerusalem, supplied by springs: the upper pool, or the old pool, supplied by the spring called Gihon, 2 Chron. xxxii. 30, towards the higher part of the city, near Sion, or the city of David, and the lower pool, probably supplied by.SUoam, towards the. lower part. \\Tien Hezekiah was threatened with a siege by Sennacherib, he stopped up all the waters of the fountains without the city; and brought them into the city by a conduit, or subterranean passage cut through the rock; those of the old pool, to the place where he bad a double wall, so that the pool was between the two walls. This he did in order to distress the enemy, and to supply the city during the siege. This was so great a work that not only the historians have made particular mention of it, 2 Kings xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 2, 3, 5, 30; but the son of Sirach also has celebrated it in his encomium on Hezekiah. " Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water," Ecclus. xlviii.

Verse 1 1. Unto the maher thereof — " To him thai hath disposed this "] That is, to God the Author and

12 And in that day did the Lord God of hosts 1 call to weeping, and to mourning, and ' to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and

Disposer of this visitation, the invasion with which he now threatens you. The very same expressions are applied to God, and upon the same occasion, chap, xsxvii. 26: —

" Hast thou not heard of old, that I have disposed it; And of ancient times, that I have formed it V

Verse 13. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrmo loe shall die.] This has heen the language of all those who have sought their portion in this life, since the foundation of the world. So the poet: —

Heu, heu nos miseri! quam totus homuncio nil est!

Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet orcus.

Ergo vivamus, dum licet esse, bene. Alas, alas! what miserable creatures are we, only the

semblances of men! And so shall we be all when

we come to die. Therefore let us live joyfully while

Domitian had an image of death hung up in his dining-room, to show his guests that as life was uncertain, they should make the best of it by indulging themselves. On this Martial, to flatter the emperor, whom he styles god, wrote the following epigram: —

Frange thoros, pete vina, tingere nardo. Ipse jubet mortis te meminisse Deus. Sit down to table — drink heartily — anoint thyself with

spikenard; for God himself commands thee to remember death.

" Eat, drink, and play, while here ye may: No revelry after your dying day."

St. Paul quotes the same heathen sentiment, 1 Cor. IV. 32: " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

Anacreon is full in point, and from him nothing better can be expected: —

"While no tempest blots your sky, Drink, and throw the sportful dye: But to Bacchus drench the ground,

14 ' And it was revealed mine ears by the Lord of hosts. Surely this iniquity "^ shall not be purged from you till ye die, sailh the Lord God of hosts.

15 Thus saith the Lord God of hosts. Go, get thee unto this treasurer, eve7i unto '' Shebna, ■" which is over the house, and say,

Ere you push the goblet round;

Lest some fatal illness cry,

' Drink no more the cup of joy.' " Addison.

Verse 14. It was revealed in mine ears — -"The voice of Jehovah"] The Vulgate has vox Domini; as if in his copy he had read niil' Sip kol Yehovah; and in truth, without the word SlD kol, voice, it is not easy to make out the sense of the passage; as appears from the strange versions which the rest of the ancients, (except the Chaldee,) and many of the moderns, have given of it; as if the matter were revealed in or to the ears of Jehovah: sv roij aio'i Ku^iou, in the ears of the Lord, Septuagint. Vitringa translates it, Revelatus est in auribus meis Jehovah, " Jehovah hath revealed it in mine ears;" and refers to 1 Sam. ii. 27; iii. 2 1: but the construction in those places is different, and there is no speech of God added; which here seems to want something more than the verb nSjJ nigleh to introduce it. Compare chap. v. 9, where the text is still more imperfect.

The Lord God of hosts] niN3S D'H' 'JIS Adonai Yehovah tsebaoth. But "jlN Adonai, Lord, is omitted by two of KennicotCs and Be Rossi's MSS., and by two of my own; by three editions, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

Verse 15. Go — unto Shebna] The following prophecy concerning Shebna seems to have very little relation to the foregoing, except that it might have been delivered about the same time; and Shebna might be a principal person among those whose luxury and profaneness is severely reprehended by the prophet in the conclusion of that prophecy, ver. 11—14.

Shebna fhe scribe, mentioned in the history of Hezekiah, chap, xxxvi., seems to have been a different person from this Shebna, the treasurer or steward of the household, to whom this prophecy relates. The Eliakim here mentioned was probably the person who, at the time of Sennacherib's invasion, was actually treasurer, the son of Hilkiah. If so, this prophecy was delivered, as the preceding, (which makes the former part of the chapter,) plainly was, some time before the invasion of Sennacherib. As to the rest, history affords us no information.

" And say unto him"J Here are two words lost out of the text, which are supplied by two of Dr. Keyinicotfs MSS., one ancient, which read r'jX niDXI vea?narta elaiv, and thou shalt say unto him; by the Septuagint, xai eiirov auTU, and in the same manner bv all the ancient versions. It is to be observed that

16 Wliat hast thou here? and whom hast tlioii lierc, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre

out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth a habitation for himself in a rock?

17 Behold, Mhe Lord will carry thee away with " a mighty captivity, *" and will surely cover thee.

thee like a ball into a ■= large country: there

shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy

glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.

19 And I will di-ive thee from thy station,

LORD who covered thee with an exceltmt covering, and clothed thee gorgeously, shall surely, «S£C.; ver. 18.

and from thy state shall he pull thee down.

•20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant '' Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit tliy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall " open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.

this passage is merely historical, and does not admit of that sort of ellipsis by -rthich in the poetical parts a person is frequently introduced speaking, without the usual notice, that what follows' was delivered by him.

Verse 16..-1 sepulchre on high — in a rock} It has been observed before, on chap, xiv., that persons of high rank in Judea, and in most parts of the east, were generally buried in large sepulchral vaults, hewn out in the rock for the use of themselves and their families. The vanity of Shebna is set forth by his being so studious and careful to have his sepulchre on high — in a lofty vault; and that probably in a high situation, that it might be more conspicuous. Hezekiah was buried, nSj'oS lemalah, sv ava/Satfsi, Sept.: in the chiefest, says our translation; rather, in the highest part of the sepulchres of the sons of David, to do him the more honour, 2 Chron. xxxii. 33. There are some monuments still remaining in Persia of great antiquity, called Nahi Riislam, which give one a clear idea of Shebna's pompous design for his sepulchre. They consist of several sepulchres, each of them hewn in a high rock near the top; the front of the rock to the valley below is adorned with carved work in relievo, being the outside of the sepulchre. Some of these sepulchres are about thirty feet in the perpendicular from the valley; which is itself perhaps raised above half as much by the accumulation of the earth since they were made. See the description of them in Chardin, Pietro delta Valle, Thevenot, and Kempfer. Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii., mentions these ancient monuments, and calls them the sepulchres of the kings of Persia. — L.

Verse 17. Cover thee] That is, thy face. This was the condition of mourners in general, and particularly of condemned persons. See Esther vi. 12; vii. 8.

Verse 21. To the inhnhitanls] ^ysvh leyosheley, in the plural number, four of Dr. KennicotCs MSS., (two ancient,) and two of De Rossi's, with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Verse 22. And the hey of the house of David will I lav "po" lii^ shoulder] As the robe and the baldric.

mentioned in the preceding verse, were the ensigns of power and authority, so likewise was the key the mark of oiSce, either sacred or civil. The priestess of Juno is said to be the key-bearer of the goddess, xksiSo\j-xpS 'Hpaj- JEschyl. Suppl. 299. A female high in office under a gr^at queen has the same title: —

KaXXidor) xXsi5ou;;(oj OXufA'TiaiSoff ^a(iCKs\rig. " Callithoe was the key-bearer of the Olympian queen." Auctor Phoronidis ap. Clem..ilex. p. 418, edit. Potter. This mark of office was likewise among the Greeks, as here in Isaiah, borne on the shoulder; the priestess of Ceres, xaTu/xa5iav sp^s xXaiOa, had the hey on her shoulder. Callim. Ceres, ver. 45. To comprehend how the key could be borne on the shoulder, it will be necessary to say something of the form of it: but without entering into a long disquisition, and a great deal of obscure learning, concerning the locks and keys of the ancients, it wUi be sufficient to observe, that one sort of keys, and that probably the most ancient, was of considerable magnitude, and as to the shape, very much bent and crooked. Aratus, to give his reader an idea of the form of the constellation Cassiopeia, compares it to a hey. It must be owned that the passage is very obscure; but the learned Huetius has bestowed a great deal of pains in explaining it, Animadvers. in Manilii, lib. i. 355; and I think has.succeeded very well in it. Homer, Odyss. xxi. 6, describes the key of Ulysses' storehouse as evxafiirrig, of a large curvature; which Eustathins explains by saying it was S^i'TravoSiSfjC, in shape like a reaphooh. Huetius says the constellation Cassiopeia answers to this description; the stars to the north making the curve part, that is, the principal part of the key; the southern stars, the handle. The curve part was introduced into the key-hole; and, being properly directed by the handle, took hold of the bolts within, and moved them from their places. We may easily collect from this account, that such a key would lie very well upon the shoulder; that it must be of some considerable size and weight, and could hardly be commodiously carried otherwise. Ulvsses' key was of brass, and the

23 And I will fasten him as

24 And they shall hang upon liim all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from

handle of ivory: but this was a royal key. The more common ones were probably of wood. In Egypt they have no other than wooden locks and keys to this day; even the gates of Cairo have no better. Baumgarten, Peregr. i. 18. T/(e«enoi, part ii., chap. 10. But was it not the representation of a key, either cut out in rloth and sewed on the shoulder of the garment, or embroidered on that part of the garment itself? The idea of a huge key of a gate, in any kind of metal, laid across the shoulder, is to me very ridiculous.

In allusion to the image of the key as the ensign of power, the unlimited extent of that power is expressed with great clearness as well as force by the sole and exclusive authority to open and shut. Our Saviour, therefore, has upon a similar occasion made use of a like manner of expression. Matt. xvi. 19; and in Rev. iii. 7 has applied to himself the very words of the prophet.

Verse 23. A nail] In ancient times, and in the eastern countries, as the way of life, so the houses, were much more simple than ours at present. They had not that quantity and variety of furniture, nor those accommodations of aU sorts, with which we abound. It was convenient and even necessary for them, and it made an essential part in the building of a house, to furnish the inside of the several apartments with sets of spikes, naUs, or large pegs, upon which to dispose of and hang up the several movables and utensils in common use, and proper to the apartment. These spikes they worked into the walls at the first erection of them, the walls being of such materials that they could not bear their being driven in afterwards; and they were contrived so as to strengthen the walls by binding the parts together, as weU as to serve for convenience. Sir John Chardin's account of this matter is this: — " They do not drive with a hammer the nails that are put into the eastern walls. The walls are too hard, being of brick; or, if they are of clay, too mouldering; but they fix them in the brick-work as they are building. They are large naUs, with square heads like dice, well made, the ends being bent so as to make them cramp-irons. They connmonly place them at the windows and doors, in order to hang upon them, when they like, veils and curtains." Harmer's Observ. i., p. 191. And we may add, that they were put in other places too, in order to hang up other things of various kinds; as appears from this place of Isaiah, and from Kzek. xv. 3, who speaks of a pin or nail, " to hang any vessel thereon." The word used here for a nail of this sort is the same by which they express that instrument, the stake, or large pin of iron, with which they fastened down to the ground the cords of their tents. We see, therefore, that these nails

25 In that day, saith the Lord Numse PompUii, of hosts, shall the i- nail that is ^ ^°'"''"' ^- fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that xoas upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it.

were of necessary and common use, and of no small importance in all their apartments; conspicuous, and much exposed to observation; and if they seem to us mean and insignificant, it is because we are not acquainted with the thing itself, and have no name to express it but by what conveys to us a low and contemptible idea. " Grace hath been showed from the Lord our God," saith Ezra, chap. is. 8, " to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place:" that is, as the margin of our Bible explains it, " a constant and sure abode."

" He that doth lodge near her (Wisdom's) house, Shall also fasten a pin in her walls."

The dignity and propriety of the metaphor appears from the Prophet Zechariah's use of it: —

" From him shall be the corner-stone, from him the naU, From him the battle-bow. From him every ruler together." Zech. x. 4. And Mohammed, using the same word, calls Pharaoh the lord or master of the 7iails, that is, well attended by nobles and oflicers capable of administering his affairs. Koran, Sur. xxxviii. 11, and Ixxxix. 9. So some understand this passage of the Koran. Mr. Sale seems to prefer another interpretation.

Taylor, in his Concordance, thinks m' yathed means the pillar or post that stands in the middle, and supports the tent, in which such pegs are fixed to hang their arms, &c., upon: referring to Shaw's Travels, p. 287. But HiT yathed is never used, as far as appears to me, in that sense. It was indeed necessary that the pillar of the tent should have such pegs on it for that purpose; but the hanging of such things in this manner upon this pillar does not prove that "lir yathed was the piUar itself.

A glorious throne — " A glorious seat"] That is, his father's house and all his owti family shall be gloriously seated, shaU flourish in honour and prosperity; and shaU depend upon him, and be supported by him.

Verse 24. All the glory] One considerable part of the magnificence of the eastern princes consisted in the great quantity of gold and silver vessels which they had for various uses. " Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in Solomon's days;" 1 Kings x. 21. "The vessels in the house of the forest of Lebanon," the armoury of Jerusalem so called, " were two hundred targets, and three hundred shields of beaten gold." Ibid. ver. 16, 17. These were ranged in order upon the walls of the armoury, (see Cant. iv. 4,) upon pins worked into the walls on purpose, as above mentioned. Eliakim is considered as a principal stake of this sort, immovably fastened in the waU for the support of all vessels destined for common or sacred uses; that is, as tlie principal support of the whole civil and ecclesiastical polity. And the consequence of his continued power will be the promotion and flourishing condition of his family and dependants, from the highest to the lowest.

Vessels of flagons — " Meaner vessels"] D'S^J nebalim seems to mean earthen vessels of common use, brittle, and of little value, (see Lam. iv. 2; Jer. xlviii. 12,) in opposition to nUJN aganoth, goblets of gold and sil- "er used in the sacrifices. Exod. sxiv. 6.

Verse 25. The nail that is fastened] This must be understood of Shebna, as a repetition and confirmation of the sentence above denounced against him.

\Vh.4T is said of Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ver. 20-24, is very remarkable; and the literal meaning is not easy to be understood. From chap. Lx. 6, and from Rev. iii. 7, it seems to belong to our Lord alone. The removal of Shebna from being over the treasure of the Lord's house, ver. 19, and the investiture of Eliahim with his robe, girdle, office, and government, ver. 20, &c., probably point out the change of the Jewish priesthood, and the proclaiming of the unchangeable priesthood of Christ. See Psa. ex. 4. Eliakim signifies The resurrection of the Lord; or, My God, he shall arise. Hilhiah signifies The Lord my portion or lot. The key of David, shutting and opening, &c., may intend the way of salvation through Christ alone. For the hope of salvation and eternal life comes only through Eliakim, the resurrection of Jesus Clirist from the dead.

It is said, ver. 24, " They shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house" — for, in Jesus Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and the offspring and the issue, D'NVNSn hatstseetsaim from Ni" yatsa, to go out, — the suckers from the root; the sideshoots, the apostles and primitive ministers of his word. The issue, nii"i31.'n hatstsephioth, probably means Xheissue''sissue; sotheTargum. The grandchildren, all those who believe on the Lord Jesus through their word.

" The nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed," ver. 25, Kimchi refers not to Eliakim, but to Shebna, ver. 17-19. By, " They shall hang upon him all vessels of small quantity and large quantity," has been understood the dependence of all souls, of all capacities, from the lowest in intellect to the most exalted, on the Lord Jesus, as the only Saviour of all lost human spirits.

As the literal interpretation of this prophecy has not been found out, we are justified from parallel texts to consider the whole as referring to Jesus Christ, and the government of the Church, and the redemption of the world by hhn. Nor are there many prophecies which relate to him more clearly than this, taken in the above

Prophecy denouncing the destruction oj Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, delivered ujnoards of one hundred and twenty years before its accomplishment, at a period when the Tynans were in great prosperity, and the Babylonians in abject subjection to the Assyrian empire; and, consequently, when an event of so great magnitude was improbable in the highest degree, 1-14. Tyre shall recover its splendour at the termination of seventy years, the days of one king, or kingdom, by which must be?neant the time allotted for the duration of the Babylonish empire, as otherwise the prophecy cannot be accommodated to the event, 15-17. Supposed reference to the early conversion of Tyre to Christianity, 18.

is laid waste, so that there is no

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII. ^>rse 1. The burden of Tyre] Tyre, a city on the coast of Syria, about lat. 32° N. was built tivo thousand seven hundred and sixty years before Christ. There were ttco cities of this name; one on the continent, and the other on an island, about half a mile from the shore; the city on the island was about four miles in circumference. Old Tyre resisted Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years; then the inhabitants carried, so to speak, the city to the forementioned island, ver. 4. This new city held out against Alexander the Great for seven months; who, in order to take it, was obliged to fill up the channel which separated it from the main land. In A. D. 1289 it was totally destroyed by the sultan of Egypt; and now contains only a few huts, in which about fifty or sixty vrretched families exist. This desolation was foretold by this prophet and by Ezekiel, one thousand nine hundred years before it took place!

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish] This prophecy denounces the destruction of Tjie by Nebueliadnpzzar. It opens with an address to the TjTian negotiators and sailors at Tarshish, (Tartessus, in Spain.) a place which, in the course of their trade, they greatly frequented. The news of the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; " for the Tyrians," says Jerome on ver. 6, " when they saw they

oiyiiip. xvi. 2. sea, have replenished. ^■u^.liE PompTui, 3 Andby great waters the seed ^- ^°"'™- ^- of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and "• she is a mart of nations.

4 Be thou ashamed, 0 Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, ncitlicr do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

5 " As at the report concerning Egj^pt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

had no other means of escaping, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage and in tlie islands of the Ionian and jEgean sea.'' From wlience the news would spread and reach Tarshish; so also Jarchi on the same place. This seems to he the most probable interpretation of this verse.

Verse 2. Be still — " Be silent"'] Silence is a mark of giief and consternation. See chap, xlvii. 5. Jeremiah has finely expressed this image: —

" The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground,

girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to

Verse 3. The seed of Sthor — " The seed of the Kile"'] The Nile is called here Shichor, as it is Jer. ii. ] 8, and 1 Cliron. xiii. 5. It had this name from the blackness of its waters, charged with the mud which it brings down from Ethiopia when it overflows, Et viridem JEgyptum nigra feciindat arena; as it was called by the Greeks Melas, and by the Latins Melo, for the same reason..See Servius on the above line of Virgil, Georg. iv. 291. It was called Siris by the Ethiopians, by some supposed to be the same with Shichor. Egypt, by its extraordinary fertility, caused by the overflowing of the Nile, supplied the neighbouring nations with corn, by which branch of trade the Tyrians gained great wealth.

Verse 4. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon] Tyre is called, ver. 12, the daughter of Sidon. "The Sidonians," says Justin, xviii. 3, " when their city was taken by the king of Ascalon, betook themselves to their ships,.und landed, and built Tyre." Sidon, as the mother city, is supposed to be deeply affected with the calamity of her daughter.

Nor bring up virgins — " Nor educated virgins.'"] ■no"Dni veromamli; so an ancient MS. of Dr. Kennicotl\'i, prefixing the 1 vau, which refers to the negative preceding, and is equivalent to xSl velo. See Deut. xxiii. 6; Prov. xxx. 3. Two of my ovm MSS. have 1 uau in thf margin.

7 Is this your ^ joyous city, ^ M. dr 3280 whose antiquity is of ancient Oiymp. xVi, 2 days? her own feet shall carry -^umx Pompiiii, her e afar off to sojourn. ^ ^°""'"' '"

8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tjrre, '' the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

9 The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, ' to stain the pride of all glory, a7id to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

10 Pass tlirough thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more ^ strength.

11 He stretched out his band over the sea.

Verse 7. Whose antiquity is of ancient days — " ^ATiose antiquity is of the earliest date"] Justin, in the passage above quoted, had dated the building of Tyre at a certain number of years before the taking of Troy; but the number is lost in the present copies. Tyre, though not so old as Sidon, was yet of very high antiquity: it was a strong city even in the time of Joshua. It is called "'i' "X3'D TJ." ir mibtsar tsor, " the city of the fortress of Sor,"' Josh. xix. 29. Interpreters raise difficulties in regard to this passage, and will not allow it to have been so ancient; with what good reason I do not see, for it is called by the same name, " the fortress of.Sor," in the history of David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 7, and the circumstances of the history determine the place to be the very same. See on ver. 1.

Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.] This may belong to the new or insular Tyre; her own feet, that is, her own inhabitants,.$hall carry her — shall transport the city, from the continent to the island. " But the text says, it shall be carried far off; and the new city was founded only half a mile distant from the other." I answer, pin"iO mcrachok does not alwa3's signify a great distance, but distance or interval in general; for in Josh. iii. 4 pim racKok is used to express the space between the camp and the ark, which we know to have been oidy tico thousand cubits. Some refer the sojourning afar off to the extent of the commercial voyages undertaken by the Tyrians and their foreign connexions.

the daughter of Tarshish; perhaps because. Tyre being ruined, Tarshish was become the superior city, and might be considered as the metropolis of the Tyrian people; or rather because of the close connexion and perpetual intercourse between them, according to that latitude of signification in which the Hebrews use the words son and daughter to express any sort of conjunction and dependence whatever. n?0 mezach, a girdle, which collects, binds, and keeps together the loose raiment, when applied to a river, may mean a mound, mole, or artificial dam, which contains the waters, and

he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hatli given a commandment ' against "' tlie merchant city, to destroy the " strong holds thereof.

1 2 And he said, ° Thou shalt no more rejoice, 0 thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, p pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this

up the palaces thereof; and he brought it

14 "■ Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for youi strength is laid waste.

prevents them from spreading abroad. A city taken by siege and destroyed, whose walls are demolished, whose policy is dissolved, whose wealth is dissipated, whose people is scattered over the wide country, is compared to a river whose baidcs are broken down, and whose waters, let loose and overflowing all the neighbouring plains, are wasted and lost. This may possibly be the meaning of this very obscure verse, of wliich I can find no other interpretation that is at all satisfactory. — L.

verse is extremely obscure; the obscurity arises from the aml)iguity of the agents, which belong to the verbs, and of the objects expressed by the pronouns; from the change of number of the verbs, and of gender in the pronouns. The MSS. give us no assistance, and the ancient Versions very little. The Chaldcc and Vulgate read nioiy samoah, in the plural number. I have followed the interpretation which, among many different ones, seemed to be most probable, that of Perizonius and Vitringa.

The Chaldeans, Chasdim, are supposed to have had their origin, and to have taken their name, from Chesed, the son of Nachor, the brother of Abraham. They were known by that name in the time of Moses, who calls Ur in Mesopotamia, from whence Abraham came, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, Ur of the Chaldeanx. And Jeremiah calls them an ancient nation. This is not inconsistent with what Isaiah here says of them: " This people was not," that is, they were of no account, (see Deut. xxxii. 21;) they were not reckoned among the great and potent nations of (he world tiU of later times; they were a rude, uncivilized, barbarous people, without laws, without settled habitations; wandering in a wide desert country (D"S tsiyim) and addicted to rapine like the wild.Vrabians. Such they are represented to have been in the time of Job, chap. i. 17, and such they continued to be till Assur, some powerful king of Assyria, gathered them together, and settled them in Babylon in the neighbouring country. This probably was Ninus, whom I suppose to have lived in the time of the Judges. Tn this, with many eminent chronologers, I follow the authority of Herodotus, who says that the Assyrian monarchy lasted but^ce hundred and tirenty years. Ninus got possession of Babylon from the Cuthean Arabians; the successors of Nimrod in that empire collected the Chaldeans, and settled a colony of them there to secure the possession of the city, which he and his successors greatlv enlarged and ornamented. They had perhaps been useful to him in his wars, and might be likely to be farther useful in keeping under the old inhabitants of that city, and of the country belonging to it; according to the policy of the Assyrian kuigs, who generally brought new people into the conquered countries; seelsa. xxxvi. 17; 2 Kings xvii. 6, 2i. The testimony of Dicaearchus, a Greek historian contemporary with Alexander, {apud. Steph. de Urbibus, in voc. XaXSaio;,) in regard to the fact is remarkable, though he is mistaken in the name of the king he speaks of He says that " a certain king of Assyria, the fourteenth in succession from Ninus, (as he might be, if Ninus is placed, as in the common chronologyy eight hundred years higher than we have above set liini,) named, as it is said, Chaldtcus, having gathered together and united all the people called Chal • deans, built the famous city, Babylon, upon the Euphrates."— L.

A''erse 14. Howl, ye ships] The Prophet Ezekiel hath enlarged upon tliis part of the same subject with great force and elegance: —

They shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit on the ground;

The renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants!

And the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure." Ezek. x.\vi. 15-18.

is, of one kingdom; see Dan. vii. 17, viii. 20. Nebuchadnezzar began his conquests in the first year of his reign; from thence to the taking of Babylon by C:yrus arer seventy years, at which time the nations subdued by Nebuchadnezzar «ere to be restored to liberty.

""B.^c.ciJif- that Tyre shaU be forgotten oiymp. XVI. 2. seventy years, according to the

Numa; Pompiiii, days 01 one King: alter the end — ""'^"•' ^' of seventy years "shall Tyre sing as a harlot.

16 Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

17 And it shall come to pass after the end

These seventy years limit the dtiration of the Babylonish monarchy. Tyre was taken by him towards the middle of that period; so did not serve the king of Babylon during the whole period, but only for the remaining part of it. This seems to be the meaning of Isaiah; the days allotted to the one king or kingdom, are seventy years; T}Te, with the rest of the conquered nations, shall continue in a state of subjection and desolation to the end of that period. Not from the beginning and thi-ough the whole of the period; for, by being one of the latest conquests, the duration of that state of subjection in regard to her, was not much more than half of it. " All these nations," saith Jeremiah, XXV. 11, "shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." Some of them were conquered sooner, some later; but the end of this period was the common term for the deliverance of them all.

There is another way of computing the seventy years, ftom the year in which Tyi-e was actually taken to the nineteenth of Darius Hystaspis; whom the Phoenicians, or Tyrians, assisted against the lonians, and probably on that account might then be restored to their former liberties and privileges. But I think the former the more probable interpretation. — L.

Will Visit 1 yre, and she shall turn Oiymp. xvi. 2 to her hire, and ' shall commit Numiprp^Ui fornication with all the kino— R- Roman., 1. doms of the world upon the face of the earth. 18 And her merchandise and her hire "shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat suiBciently, and for ^ diu-able clothing.

" Nor harlot minstrel sings, when the rude sound Tempts you with heavy heels to thump the ground."

Fr.incis. Sir John Chardin, in his MS. note on this place, says: — C'est que les vielles prostitutes, — ne font que chanter quand les jeunes dancent, et les animer par I'instrument et par la voix. " The old pro-stitutes do nothing but sing, while the young ones dance; and animate them both by vocal and instrumental music."

Verse 17. After the end of seventy years] Tyre, after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, recovered, as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Chi-istian early with the rest of the neighbouring countries. St. Paul himself found many Christians there. Acts xxi. 4. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishoprics under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians in 1124; but in 1280 was conquered by the Mamelukes, and afterwards taken from them by the Turks in 1517. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay; is now a mere ruin, a bare rock, " a place to spread nets upon," as the Prophet Ezekiel foretold it should be, chap, x.xvi. 14. See Sandy's Travels; Vitringa on the place; Bp. Neicton on the Prophecies, Dissert, xi.

■Dreadful judgments impending over the people of God, 1-4. Particular enumeration of the horrid impieties which provoked the Divine vengeance, 5, 6. Great political wretchedness of the transgressors, 7-12. The calamities shall be so great that only a small remnant shall be left in the land, as it were the fleaninn-s of the vintage, 13. The rest, scattered over the different countries, spread there the knowledire of God 14—16. Strong figures by which the great distress and long captivity of the transgressors arc set forth 17-22. Gracious promise of a redemption from captivity; and of an extension of the liinn-doyn of God in the latter days, attended with such glorious circumstances as totally to eclipse the light and splendour of the previous dispensation, 23.

gEHOLD, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and ^turneth it upside down, and scatter-

«Heb. pervertelh t lie face thereof.

From the thirteenth chapter to the twenty-third inclusive, the fate of several cities and nations is de-

2 And it shall be, as with the Nnt-P™™iii, people, so with the '' priest;

lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4 The earth niourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, ° the haughty people of the earth do languish.

5 ''The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore hath ^ the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

7 '' The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh.

struction of the foreign nations, enemies of Judah, the prophet declares the judgments impending on the people of God themselves for their wickedness and apostasy, and the desolation that shall be brought on their whole country. The twenty-fourth and the three following chapters seem to have been delivered about the same time: before the destruction of Moab by Shalraaneser; see chap. XXV. 10, consequently, before the destruction of Samaria; probably in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. But concerning the particular subject of the twenty-fourth chapter interpreters are not at all agreed: some refer it to the desolation caused by the invasion of Shalinaneser; others to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar: and others to the destruction of the city and nation by the Romans. Vitringa is singular in his opinion, who applies it to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Perhaps it may have a view to all of the three great desolations of the country, by Shalmanescr, by Nebuchadnezzar, and by the Romans; especially the last, to which some parts of it may seem more peculiarly applicable. However, the prophet chiefly employs general images; such as set forth the greatness and universality of the ruin and desolation that i.s to be brought upon the country by these great revolution.', involving all orders and degrees of men, changing entirely the face of things, and destroying the whole polity, both religious and civil; without entering into min\ite circum.stances, or necessarily restraining it by particular marks to one great event, exclusive of others of the same kind. — L.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIV. Verse 4. The worldlanguishctK] The vforld is the same with the land: that is, the kingdoms of Judah Vol. IV. ( 8

9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

1 1 Tliere is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

1 2 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land ainong the people, '' there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, thej' shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

Verse 5. The Imos — " The law"] miH tnrafi, singular: so read the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee.

Verse 8. The mirth, &c.] |lNiy sheon, the noise. |1NJ geon, the pride, is the reading of three of De Rossi''s MSS., with the Septuagint and Arabic.

Verse 9. Strong drink — "Palm wine"] This is the proper meaning of the word "iDty shechar, ffixsja. See note on chap. v. 11. All enjoyment shall cease: the sweetest wine shall become bitter to their taste.

Verse 11. All joy is darkened — "All gladness is passed away "] For n^"'}' arebah, darkened, read n"l3> aberah, passed away, transposing a letter. HouhiganI, Seeker. Five of Dr. KennicotVs and fre of Dc Rossi''s MSS., several ancient, add IJ cnl, nil, after '\ilVZ"2 mesos: the Septuagint adds the same word before it.

Verse 14. They shall lift iip their voice — " But these shall lift up their voice"] That is, they that escaped out of these calamities. The great distresses brought upon Israel and Judah drove the people away, and dispersed them all over the neighbouring countries: they fled to Egypt, to Asia Minor, to the islands and the coasts of Greece. They were to be found in great numbers in mo.st of the principal cities of these countries. Alexandria was in a great measure peopled by them. They had synagogues for their worship in many places, and were greatly instrumental in propagating the knowledge of the true God among these heathen nations, and preparing them for the recci)tion of Christianity. This is what the prophet seems to mean by- US

15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the ' fires, even " the name of the Lord God of Israel

1 6 From the ° uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, "Myleamiess, my leanness.

17 1 Fear, and the pit, and the 'snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall come to pass, that he whc

the celebration of the name of Jehovah in the waters, m the distant coasts, and in the uttermost parts of the land. D"0 mayim, the loaters; u(5up, Sept.; iSaTa, Thcod.; not D"3 miyam from the sea.

Verse 15. In the isles of the sea — "In the distant coasts of the sea.'"] For □"1N3 beurim, in the valleys, I suppose we ought to read D "x:! beiyim, in the isles, which is in a great degree justified by the repetition of the word in the next member of the sentence, with the addition of DTI haiyam, the sea, to vary the phrase, exactly in the manner of the prophet. D"N iyim is a word chiefly applied to any di.stant countries, especially those lying on the Mediterranean Sea. Others conjecture D^liS'n biorim, □"1713 beharim, □■a>!3 beummim, 3"Di'3 beammim, D"^l^!! bechorim, □•"11X3 beurim, a 1N3 bar, illustrati. — Le Clerc. Twenty -three MSS. of Kennicotfs, many of De Rossi^s, and some of my own, read 2■^1X3 beorim, in the valleys. The Septuagint do not acknowledge the reading of the text, expressing here only the word D"N iyim, £u Taij vrj^oij, in the islands, and that not repeated. But MSS. Paehom. and I. D. II. supply in this place the defect in the other I opies of the Septuagint thus, Aia Touro jj 5o|a Ku- Jiou stfrai £v raij viiiToij T'ijj SaXatfrf-/);- Ev Taij vjjtfo/S -0 ovo(;.a rou Kupiou ©jou ItfparjX £v(5o|ov stfTai' " Therefore the glory of the Lord shall be in the isles of the sea: in the islands shall the name of the Lord God of Israel be glorified." Kimchi says, that by D""I1N3 beurim, in the valleys, is meant the cities, because they were generally built in valleys. The Vulgate has in doctrinis, and so my old M,S., xn tet\)ia$i^. Coverdale translates. Praise the name of the Lord God of Israel in the valleys and in the floodis. It should not be rendered in the fires; none of the ancient Versions understood it thus. According to wiiich the Septuagint had in their Hebrew copy D"!<3 beiyim, repeated afterwards, not D'1X3 betirim.

Verse 16. But I said] The prophet speaks in the person of the inhabitants of the land still remaining there, who should be pursued by Divine vengeance, and suifer repeated distresses from the inroads and depredations of their powerful enemies. Agreeably to what he said before in a general denunciation of these calamities: —

" Though there be a tenth part remaining in it; Even this shall undergo a repeated destruction." Chap. vi. 13. See the note there. — L.

My leanness, my leanness— Ot, my secret; so the has a strange connexion of uncouth sounds: 'n T^NI nj3 D-Ija nJ31 nj3 D'IJU •''7 ^IN -S -n -h Vaomer, ra^i li razi li, oi li, hogedim bagadu, ubfged bogedim bagadu. Tliis may be equalled by the translation in my Old MS. Bible: ^Uiiti jE?citie, mji pnbcpc thinge to me: mn pribcric tljingc to mc: luoo to mc::£lje latnc bccphjingc thci brckcn: anij in latoc brcfcpnge of tlje Dljcrbon tljingiff, tijcn btchcii tljc InVoe.

The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously — " The plunderers plunder"] See note on chap. xxi. 2.

If they escape one calamity, another shall overtake

" As if a man should flee from a lion, and a bear should overtake him: Or should betake himself to his house, and lean

his hand on the wall, And a serpent should bite him." Amos v. 19. " For," as our Saviour expressed it in a like parabolical manner, " wheresoever the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gathered together," Matt. xxiv. 28. The images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts, which were anciently in use. The terror was a line strung with feathers of all colours, which fluttering in the air scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit which was prepared for them. Nee est mirum, cum maximos ferarum greges linea pennis distincta contineat, et in insidias agat, ab ipso effectu dicta formido. Seneca de Ira, ii. 12. The pit or pitfall, /oi.-ea; digged deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, turf, &c., in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The.mare, or toils, indago; a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and then drawn in by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up, and entangled in them. — L.

For '71"<r3 mikkol, a MS. reads 'J£j:3 inippeney, as it is in Jer. xlviii. 44, and so the Vulgate and Chaldee. But perhaps it is only, like the latter, a Hebraism, and means no more than the simple preposition 0 mem. See Psa. cii. 6. For it does not appear that the terror was intended to scare the wild beasts by its noise. The paronomasia is verj' remarkable; ^^i) pachad, nn3 pachath, ■]•) pach: and that it was a common proverbial form, appears from Jeremiah's repeating it in the same words, chap, xlviii. 43, 44.

Verse 18. Out of the midst of the pit — " From the pit"] For "|irirD mittoch, from the midst of a MS. reads fO min, from, as it is in Jer. xlviii. 44; and so likewise the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Oiymp. XVII. 1. shall fall into the pit; and he that Num» Pompiiii, comcth up out of the midst of

for ^ the windows from on high are open, and ' the foundations of the earth do shake.

19 "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved e.xceedingly.

20 The earth shall "reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and tiie transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

A''erse 19. The earth — " The land"] ^'isn haarets, forte delcndum n he, ut ex pracedente ortum. Vid. seqq. — Seeder. " Probably the n he, in yiNH haarets, should be blotted out, as having arisen from the preceding."

'\'^erse 21. On high — upon the earth.] That is, the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which shall be destroyed. The nation shall continue in a state of depression and dereliction for a long time. The image seems to he taken from the practice of the great monarchs of that time; who, when they had thrown their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them; but let them lie a long time in that miscral)!e condition, wholly destitute of relief, and disregarded. God shall at length revisit and restore his people in the last age: and then the kingdom of God shall be established in such perfection, as wholly to obscure and eclipse the glory of the temporary, typical, preparative kingdom now subsisting.

Verse 23. Before his ancients gloriously'] JEn tlje jSigt of tlicit olbe men Ije jfcljal ben gloriftcti. Old MS. Bible.

" The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analog}' between the world natural and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic. Ac-

21 And it shall come to pass A-M; cir. 3292.

in that day, that the Lord shall Oiymp. xvii. i.

" punish the host oi the high Numis Pompiiii, ones that are on high, ^ and the ^- ''°'""' ' ^- kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 Ajid they shall be gathered together, '' as prisoners are gathered in the ^ pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be '^ visited.

23 Then the * moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall " reign "^ in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and » before his ancients gloriously.

e Or, there shall be glory before his ancients.

cordingly the whole world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people; or so much of it as is considered in prophecy: and the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens and the things therein signify thrones and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and the earth with the things thereon, tlfe inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called hades or hell, the lowest or most miserable part of them. Great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, are put for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passi?ig ateay of an old one, or the beginning and end of a world, for the rise and ruin of a body politic signified thereby. The sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdoms of the world politic; the moon, for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate princes and great men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ: setting of the sun, moon, and stars, darkening the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom." Sir I. Newton's Observations on the Prophecies, Part I., chap. 2.

These observations are of great consequence and use, in explaining the phraseology of the prophets.

The short glance which the prophet gave at the promised restoration of the people of God and the Messiah's kingdom, in the close of the preceding chapter, makes him break out into a rapturous.song of praise in this, where, although he alludes to temporal mercies, such as the destruction of the cities which had been at wat with Zton, the ruin of Moab, and other signal interpositions of Divine Providence in behalf of the Jews: yet he is evidently impressed with a more lively sense of future and much higher blessings under the Gospel dispensation, in the plenitude of its revelation, of which the temporal deliverances vouchsafed at various times to the primitive kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the prototypes, 1-5. These bU'isings arc described under the figure of a feast made for all nations, 6; the removing of a veil from their faces, 7; the total extinction of the empire of death by the resurrection from the dead, the exclusion of ali^orrow, and the final overthrotv of all the enemies of the people of God, 8-12.

Num'a: Pompllii, thy name; '' for thou hast done R. Roman., 4. yifonderful things; "= thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made '' of a city a heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

3 Therefore shall the strong people ° glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, ^ a re-

It does not appear to me that this chapter has any close and particular connexion with the chapter immediately preceding, taken separately, and by itself. The subject of that was the desolation of the land of Israel and Judah, by the just judgment of God, for the wickedness and disobedience of the people: which, taken by itself, seems not with any propriety to introduce a hymn of thanksgiving to God for his mercies to his people in delivering them from their enemies. But taking the whole course of prophecies, from the thirteenth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, in which the prophet foretells the destruction of several cities and nations, enemies to the Jews, and of the land of Judah itsetf, yet with intimations of a remnant to be saved, and a restoration to be at length efiected by a glorious establishment of the kingdom of God: with a view to this extensive scene of God's providence in all its parts, and in all its consequences, the prophet may well be supposed to break out into this song of praise; in which his mind seems to be more possessed with the prospect of future mercies than with the recollection of the past.- — -L.

Verse 1. Thy counsels of old?ae faithfulness and iruth.^ Tlial is, All thy past declarations by the prophets shall be fulfilled in their proper time.

Verse 2. A city — "The city"] Nineveh, Babylon, Ar, Moab, or any other strong fortress possessed by the enemies of the people of God.

For the first t;V3 mcir, of a city, the Syriac and Vulgate read "Vi'n hair, the city; the Septuagint and Chaldee read □"■!>' arim, cities, in the plural, transposing the letters. After the second 1'J'D meir, a MS. adds '7J7 lagol,for a heap.

A palace of strangers — " The palsce of the proud ones"] For □"If zarim, strangers, MS. Bodl. and another read mi zedim, the proud: so likewise the Septuagint; for they render it aifsfSuv here, and in ver. 5, as they do in some other places: see Deut. xviii. 20, 22. Another MS. reads D'li" tsarim, adversaries; which also makes a good sense. But D"ll zarim, strangers, and □'!! zedim, the proud, are often confounded by the great similitude of the letters T daleth and T resh. See Mai. iii. 15, iv. 1; Psa..xix.

5 Thou shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a drj^ place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in s this mountain shall ^ the Lord of hosts make unto ' all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

Verse 4. As a storm against the wall — " Like a winter-storm."] For lip kir, read lip kor: or, as TJ" ir from Ti;? arar, so Tp kir from Tip karar. — Capellus.

Verse 5. Of strangers — " Of the proud"] The same mistake here as in ver. 2: see the note there. Here D'TI zedim the proud, is parallel to D'S'lj,' aritsim, the formidahle: as in Psa. liv. 5, and l.xxxvi. 14.

The heat with the shadow of a cloud — " As the heat by a thick cloud"] For Din choreh, the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, and two MSS. read yT\3 kcchorei; which is a repetition of the beginning of the foregoing p,araUel line; and the verse taken out of the paralle form, and more fully expressed, would run thus: " As a thick cloud interposing tempers the heat of the sun on the burnt soil; so shall thou, by the interposition of thy power, bring low and abate the tumult of the proud, and the triumph of the formidable."

Shall the Lord of hosts make tmto all people a feast] Salvation by Jesus Christ. A feast is a proper and usual expression of joy in consequence of victory, or any other great success. The feast here spoken of is to be celebrated on Mount Sion; and all people, without distinction, are to be invited to it. This can be no other than the celebration of the establishment of Christ's kingdom, which is frequently represented in the Gospel under the image of a feast; " where many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;" Matt. viii. 11. See also Luke xiv. 16; xxiv. 29, 30. This sense is fuUy confirmed by the concomitants of this feast expressed in the next verse; the removing of the veil from the face of the nations, and the abolition of death: the first of which is obviously and clearly explained of the preaching of the Gospel; and the second must mean the blessing of immortality procured for us by Christ, " who hath abolished death, and through death hath destroyed him that had the power of death."