Exposition of the Whole Bible

from thence beholds all the actions of men, and from whence his wrath is revealed againft their fins, and he gives vifible tokens of his difpleafure; _ and efpecially when he feems to come forth from thence in fome remarkable inftances of his power and providence, as follows:

¥. 32 For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place, &cc.} Out of heaven, the place of the houfe of his Shekinab or majefty, as the Targum, where his throne is prepared; where he keeps his court, ‘and difplays his, glory,;.from whence he removes, not by local motion, ‘ fince he is every where; but by fome manifeft exertion of his power,’ either on the behalf of -his* people, or in‘ taking: vengeance on his and their enemies; or on them finning a+ gainft him, in which fenfe it is probably to be underftood. It fignifies not change of place, but of. his difpenfations; going out of his former wonted method into another; removing, as ‘farchi has it, from the throne of mercies, to the throne of judg ment; doing not acts of mercy, ‘in which he delights, but-exercifing judgment, his’ ftrange work. So the Cadaliftic writers * obferve on the paffage, that “* it cannot’ be under{tood of place opty “* taken, according to J, xl. 12. ‘1 Kings viii. 27. “* for God is the place of the world, not thé world “< his place; hencé our wife men fo expound ‘the- ** text; he cometh forth out of the’ meafure of “« mercy, and goes into the’ meafure of juftice:”. or property of it. Some underftand this of his leaving the temple at Yeru/alem, and giving it u into the hands of the Chaldeans; but the form fenfe is beft': and will come down, and tread upon the bigh places of the earth; which are his foot- {tool; Samaria arid Jerafalem built on mountains, and all other high towers and fortified places, together with men of high looks and haughty countenances, who exalt themfelves like mountains, and fwell with pride:~ thefe rhe Lord ‘can eafily fubdue and humble, bring low and tread down liké the mire of the {treet; perhaps there may bé an alifion to the high places where idols’ were worfhipped; and which were the caufé’ of thé Lord’s wrath and vengeance, and-of his coming forth ih this unufual way in his providences. ~~"

¥. 4. And the mountains hall be molten under him, &c.] As Sinai was, when he defcended on ~ it, and as all nations will ‘be at the general ‘conflagration; but here ‘the words are to be taken, not- literally, but ‘figuratively, ‘for the kingdoms of Irael and Fudab, and for the kings, and princes, and great men in them, that lifted up their heads as high, and thought themfelves as fecure, as mountains; yet when the judgments of God fhould: fall upon them, their hearts would melt thro? 4. under him; as well ‘as all their glory and greatnefs' depart from them, and they be pas tee they ‘were before, ‘but levelled with the meancit fubject: and the valleys hall be cleft; have chafit made in them by the melting ‘of the ‘mountains, or by the flow of water from ‘the ‘hills: thefé m defign ‘the-lower fort of people, ‘who “fhall’ hav: their fhare in this calamity; the inhabitants of ti vallies and country-villages, who, tho? mean and low, fhiall be lower fill, ‘and ‘lofe that dit ftance, that liberty and thofe Si as valliés may -be cleft, and open, and’ fink into the lower parts of the earth; 10 it-is fignified thar ~ chi, Kimebi and Zacutus'; or rather from Morefoeth, from which More/beth-Gath, y. 14. is di- | ftinguithed; which ‘ferom *fays was in his time a fmall village in the land of Paleftine near Eleutheropolis. Some think thefe two cities to be one and the fame; but they appear to be different from the account of Yerom ' elfewherex The Aradic verfion reads it, Micah the fon of Morathi;. fo Cyrél in his commentary on this place, mentions it as the fenfe of fome, that Morathi was the father of the prophet; which can by no means be affented to: in the days of Fothain, Abaz, and Hezekiah,’ kings of Fudab by which it appears that he was cotemporary with Jaiah; Hofea, and Amos, tho’ they began to prophefy fomewhat fooner than he, even in the days of Uzziah; very probably he converfed with thefe prophets, efpecially Z/azab, with whom he agrees in many things; his ftyle is like his, and fometimes ufes the fame phrafes: he being of the tribe of Yudab, only mentions the kings of that nation, moft known to him; tho’ he prophefied againft J/rael, and in the days of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hojbea: which be faw concerning Samaria and Ferufalem, in the vifion of prophecy: Samaria was the metropolis of the ten tribes of J/rae/, and is put for them all 5, as Ferufalem was ‘of the tribes ot Fudab and Ben-, jamin, and is put for them. Samaria is mentioned firft, becaufe it was the head of the greateft body of people; and as it was the firft in tranfgreffion, it was the firft in punifhment.

y. 2. Hear, all ye people, &c.] Or, the people all of them ™; not all the nations of the world, but the nations of J/rae/, fo called from their feveral tribes; tho’ fome * think the reft of the inhabitants of the earth are meant: thefe are the fame words which are ufed by Micaiab the prophet in the times of 4ab, long before this time, from whom they might be borrowed, 1 Kings xxii. 28. The phrafe in the Hebrew language, as ben ‘Ezra obferves, is very wonderful, and ferves to _ trike the minds, and excite the attention of men; it is like the words of a crier in a court of judicature, calling for filence: bearken, O earth, and all that therein is; or, its fulnefs®; the land of J rael and Fudah, the whole land of promife, and all the inhabitants of it; for to them are the following words directed: and let the Lord God be witne/s againft you, or in you®; the word of the Lord, as the Targum; let him who is the omnifcient God, and knows all hearts, thoughts, words and actions, let him bear witnefs in your con{ciences, that what I am about to fay is truth, and comes from him; is not my own word, but his; and if you difregard it, and repent not, let him be a witnets againft you, and for me, that I have prophefied in ‘his name; that I have faithfully delivered his meffage, and warned you of your danger, and reproved you for your fins, and have kept back nothing [have been charged and entrufted with: and now you are fummoned into open court, and at the tribunal of the great God of heaven and earth; let him be a witnefs againft you, of the many fins: you have been Builty of, and attend whilft the indictment is read, the charge exhibited, and the proof given by the Lord from his holy temple, from heaven, the habitation of his holinefs; whofe voice fpeaking from thence fhould be hearkened to; who thefe people fhould be in a more deprefied ftate and condition’: as wax before the fire; melts, and can’t ftand the force of it; fo the mountains fhould “melt at the prefence of the Lord, and kingdoms and ftates, and the greateft-and mightieft of men in them would not be able to ftand before the fiercenefs of his wrath; fee Pf. Ixviii.2: and as the waters that are poured down a fteep place; that run with great fwiftnefs, force and rapidity, and there’s no ftopping them; fo fhould the judgments of God come down upon the lower fort of people, the inhabitants of the valleys; neither high nor low would efcape the indignation of the Lord, or be able to ftand againft it, or ftand up under it. ¥. 5. For the tranfgreffion of facob is all this, and for the fins of the boufe of Ifrael, &c.} All this evil, all thefe calamities and judgements, fignified by the above metaphorical phrafes, thefe did not come by chance, nor without reafon; but were or would be inflicted according to the righteous judgment of God, upon the people of J/rae/ and Judah for their manifold fins and tranfgreffions, efpecially their idolatry: and fhould it be afked, twhat is the tranfereffion of Facob? what notorious crime has he been guilty of? or what is the iniquity the two tribes are charged with, that is the caule of fo much ‘feverity? the anfwer is, ‘Zs it not Samaria? the wickednefs of Samaria, the calf of Samaria? as in Hof: vii. 1. and viii. 6. that is, the worfhip of the calf of Samaria; is not that idolatry the tranfgreffion of Facob, or which the ten tribes have given into? it is; and a juft reafon for all this wrath to come upon them: or, who is the tranfgreffion of Facob*? who is the {pring and fource of it, the caufe, author, and encourager of it? are they not the kings that have reigned in Samaria from the times of Omri, with their nobles, princes and great men, who, by their edicts, influence and example, have encouraged the worfhipgof the golden calves? they are the original root and motive of it, and to them it muft beafcribed; they‘caufed the people to fin: or, as ‘the Zargum, ‘“* where have they of ‘the * houfe of Facod finned? is it not in Samaria?” verily it is, and from thence the metropolis of the nation, the fin has fpread itfelf all over it: and what are the high places of Fudah? or, who are they *? who have been the makers of thetn? who have fet them up, and encouraged idolatrous worfhip at them? are they not Ferufalem? are they not the king, the princes and priefts that dwell at erufalem? certainly they are; fuch as Abaz, and others, in whofe’ times this prophet lived; fee 2 Kings xvi. 4. or,as the Targum, << where did « they of the houfe of ¥adab commit fin? was it

* not in Ferufalem?” truly it was, and even in the. temple; here 4baz built an altar like that at Damafens, and facrificed on it, and {poiled the temple, and feveral of the veffels in it, 2 Kings xvi. 1o—18. ne x. 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an beap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard, &c.] ‘As a field plowed, ‘and laid in heaps; fee ch. tii. 12. or as ftones gathered out ofa field, and out of a vineyard ‘planted, and laid in‘a heap; fo fhould this city become a heap of ftones and rubbifh,

Cocceius; quis fuit caufa excelforum Jehudz? Burkius, fo Kimchi.

being utterly demolifhed; and this being’ done ac» cording to the will of God, and thro’ his inftigation of Salmanefer king of Afjria to it, and by his providence fucceeding his army that befi ee is faid to be done by him.° With this agrees the Vulgate Latin verfion, ** T will make Samaria as a “heap of ftones in a fiéld, when a vineyard jis “ planted;” fee Jf v: z. for the ‘city being deftroyed, cannot be compared ‘to the ‘plants of a Vineyard fet in good order, beautiful ahd thriving but as to heaps of ftones ‘in a field, fo to fuch in a vineyard; or to hillocks raifed up there for the plants of vines; and if thé comparifon is to plants themfelves, it muft be to withered ones, thar are good for nothing. The ‘note of fimilitude as, is not in the text; and the words may be read without it, I will make Samaria an heap of the field, plantings of a vineyard*, that is, it fhall be plowed up, and made an heap of; turned into a field, and vines planted on it; for which its fituation was very proper, being on an hill, where vines uféd to be planted, and fo fhould no more be inhabited as a city: and I will pour down the ftones thereof into the valley, the ftones of the buildings and walls of the city, which, being on a hill, when pulled down, rolled into the valley 3 and with as much {wiftnefs and force, as waters run down a fteep place, as in ¥. 4. where the fame word is ufed as here: and I will difcover the foundations thereof; which fhould be rafed up, and left bare not one ftone fhould be upon another; fo that there fhould be no traces and footfteps of the city remaining, and it fhould be difficult to know the place where it ftood. This is expreffive of the total defolation, and utter’ deftruction of it: this was not accomplifhed by Salmanefer when he took it; for tho’ he carried captive the inhabitants thereof, he put others in their room; but this was entirely fulfilled, not by Fonathan Maccabeus, tho” he is ‘faid* to befiege it, and level it with the sround; but by Fobu Hyrcanus; and the account, of the deftruction of it by him, as given by Fofephus “, exactly anfwers to this prophecy, and to Hof. xiii. 16. where its defolation is alfo predicted; he fays that Hyrcanus having befieged it a year, took it, and not content with this only, he utterly deftroyed it, making brooks to run thro’ it; and by digging it up, fo that it fell into holes and ‘caverns, infomuch that there were no figns nor trates of the city left. It was indeed afterwards rebuilt by Gabinius the Roman proconful of Syria, ‘and reftored by Auguftus Cefar to Herod, who ‘adorned and’fortified it, and called it by the name of Sebafie, in honour of Auguftus *; tho’ Benjamin of Tudela pre+ tends, that 4bad’s palace might be difcerned there in his time, or the. place known where it was, which js not likely; excepting this, his account is probable, ‘* From Zuwz (he fays %) is one day’s. ** journey to Sebafie, which ‘is Samarta, and ftil ‘¢ there may be perceived there the palace: ‘of “¢ Abab king of Irae, and it is ‘a fortified city “on a very high hill, and in it are fountains; ‘« and is a land of brooks of water, and gardens, *« orchards, vineyards and olive yards 3” but fince his time it is become tore ruinous. “Mr. Maun* drel, who fomie yeats ago Was upon the fpot, gives quis defeStio Jacdbi? Cocceius; quis {celus a fuller account of it’, ‘ this great city (he fays *) <¢ js now wholly converted into gardens; and all << the tokens that remain, to teftify that there has ever been fuch a place, are only on the north fide, a large {quare piazza, encompafied with pillars; and on the eaft, fome poor remains of a great church, faid to be built by the emprels Helena, over the place where St. ‘ohn Bapiijt <¢ was both imprifoned and beheaded.” So fay others’, ‘* the remains of Seda/fe, or the ancient Samaria, tho’ long ago laid in ruinous heaps, and a great part of it turned into plowed-land and garden-ground, do ftill retain {ome monuments of its ancient grandeur, and of thofe noble edifices in it, with which king Hered caufed it to be adorned;” and then mention the large fquare piazza on the north, and the church on the eaft. It was twelve miles from Dothaim, and as many from Merran, and four from Atharoth, according to Eu/ebius®, and was, as Fofephus < fays, a day’s journey from Ferufalem. Sichem, called by the Turks, Naplus, is now the metropolis of the country of Samaria; Samaria, or Sebafte, being utterly deftroyed, as fays Petrus a Valle, a traveller in thofe parts.

y¥. 7. And all the graven images thereof hall be beaten to pieces, &c.] By the Afyrian army, for the fake of the gold and filver of which they were made, or with which they were adorned, as was ufually done by conquerors to the gods of the nations they conquered; thefe were the calf of Samaria, and other idols; and not only thofe in the city of Samaria, but in all the other cities of J/- vael, which fell into the hands of the Afyrian monarch; fee {7 x. 11: and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire; this the Targum alfo interprets of idols; fuch as efcaped the plunder of the foldiers, fhould be burnt with fire: Kimchi, by bires, underftands the beautiful garments, and other ornaments, with which they adorned their idols, which were gifts unto them; and they committing fpiritual adultery with them, thefe are compared to the hire of an harlot: or it may defign their fine houfes, and the furniture of them, all their fubftance and riches, which they looked upon as obtained by entring into alliances with idolatrous nations, and as the hire and reward of their idolatry; all thefe fhould be confumed by fire, when the city was taken: and all the idols thereof will I lay defolate; fuch as.were not broke to pieces, nor burnt, fhould be thrown down, and trampled upon, and made no account of, or carried away with other fpoil. The Targum interprets it of the houfes or temples of their idols, which fhould be demolifhed. By this and a preceding claufe it appears, that befides the golden calf, there were other idols worfhipped in Samaria. In the times of Abad, was the image of Baal, with others, for which he built an altar and a temple in Samaria, and a grove, 1 Kings xvi. 315 325 33. 2 Kings x. 26, 27. and at the time it was taken by Salmanefer, there were idols in it, as appears from J/, x. 10, 11. and xxxvi. 19. and there were ftill more, after a colony of the Badylozians and others were introduced into it; the names

} Ch... ¥. 7 The firft of thefe is thought, by Seldens, to be — Venus; and the two laft, both by him and Bragnius‘, to be the fame with, Moloch, having «the “ fignification of a king in them, as that word nifies, and children being burnt unto them: they are all difficult to be underftood. The account the Jews * give of them is, that Succoth-Benoth were images of a hen and chickens; Nergal, a c Afbima, a goat without hair; Nibbaz, or Nibchan, as fometimes read, a dog; and Tartak, an als 5 Adrammelech, a mule, or a peacock; and dnammelech, a horfe, or a pheafant., And it was not unufual for fome of thefe creatures to be worfhipped by the heathens, as a cock by the Syrieus, and others; a goat, by the Mendefiens, and the dog Anubis, perhaps the fame with Nidbaz, by the Egyptians*. And tho’ the inhabitants of Samaria might be better inftructed, after Manajeb and other jews came to refide among them in after-times, {till they retained idolatrous practices; and even in the times of our Lord, they were ignorant of the true object of religious worthip, Fobn iv. 22. and they are charged by the Fews/ writers‘ with worfhipping the image of a dove on mount Gerizzimy’and alfo fuch ftrange gods, the Teraphim, which Facob hid under the oak at Sichem; however, let their idols be what they will they worfhipped, they are now utterly deftroyed, according to this prophecy. For jhe gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they foall return to the hire of an bar~ lot; as all the riches of Semeria and its inhabitants, were gathered together as the reward Of their idolatry, as they imagined, fo they fhould return to idolaters, the Ajyrians; to Nineveh, called the well-favoured harlot, Nah. iii. 4. the metropolis. of the Ajyrian empire; and to the houfe or temple of thofe that worfhipped idols, as the Targum 5 with which they fhould adorn their idols, or ufe them in idolatrous worfhip: or the fenfe in general is, that as their riches were ill-gotten, as the hire of a harlot, and which never profpérs, fo theirs fhould come to nothing;.as it came, fo it fhould go: according to our proverb, lightly come, lightly go. The allufion feems to be to harlots proftituting themfelves in the, temples of idols, which was common among the heathens, as at Comana and Corinth, as Strabo * relates; and particularly among the Badylonians and Arians, which may. ° be here referred to: for Herodotus ' fays, it was a law with the Babylonians, that every woman of that country, fhould once.in her lifé fit in the temple of Venus, and lie, with a ftrange man: here. women ufed to fit-with a crown upor their heads; nor might they return home, until fome ftranger threw money.into their laps, and took them out of the temple, and lay with then and he that caft it muft fay, I implore the goddets eta the money, be it what it would, for dt_was cc fign of his mourning: fometimes, in fuch cafes, they rent their garments; at other times they ftripped themfelves of them, and walked naked, as Tfaiah did, ch. xX. 3, 4. he went about like a mad man, one difturbed in his mind, bereft of his fenfes, becaufe of the defolation coming upon J/- rael; and without his cloaths, as fuch perfons often do: fo the word rendered firips fignifies, as the Fewifh commentators obferve. This lamentation, and with thefe circumftances, the prophet made in his own perfon, to fhew the reality and certainty of their ruin, and to reprefent to them the defolate condition they would be in, deftitute of all good things, and to affect them with it; as well as to expres the fympathy of his heart, and thereby to affure them that it was not out of ill-will to them, or a fpirit of revenge, that he delivered fuch a meflage: or this he did in the perfon of all the people, fhewing what they would do, and that this would be their cafe fhortly. So the Targum, ‘ for ‘* this they fhall wail and howl, and go naked a- ‘* mong the fpoilers.” J will make a wailing like the dragons as in their fight with elephants, at which time they make a hideous noife"; and whofe hiffings have been very terrible to large bodies of men. tlianus fpeaks of a dragon in India, which when it perceived Alexander’s army near at hand, gave fuch a prodigious hifs and blaft, that it greatly frighted and difturbed the whole army: and he relates of another, that was in a valley near mount Pelleneus, in the ifle of Chios, whofe hiffing was very terrible to the inhabitants of that place: and Bochart * conjectures, that this their hiffing is here referred to; and who obferves of the whale, that it has its name from a word in the Hebrew tongue, which fignifies to lament; and which word is here ufed, -and is frequently ufed of large fifhes, as whales, fea-calves, dolphins, &c, which make a great noife and bellowing, as the fea-calf; particularly the balena, which is one kind of a whale, and makes fuch a large and continued noife, as to be heard at the diftance of two miles, as Rondeletius * fays; and dolphins are faid to make a moan and groaning like human creatures, as Pliny* and Solinus‘ report: and Peter Gillius relates, from his own experience, that lodging one night in a veffel, in which many dolphins were taken, there were fuch weeping and mourning, that he could not fleep for them; he thought they, deplored their condition,with mourning, lamentation, and a large flow of tears, as men do, and therefore could not help pitying their cafe; and while the fifherman was afleep, took that which was next him, that feemed to mourn moft, and caft it into the fea; but this was of no avail, for the reft increafed their mourning more and more, and feemed plainly to defire the like deliverance; fo that all the night he was in the midft of moft bitter moaning: wherefore Bochart, who quotes thefe inftances, elfewhere * thinks, that the prophet compares his

¥. 8. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go Stript and naked, &c.| To his fhirt, putting off his upper garment; the rough one, fuch as the prophets ufed to wear; which he did as the greater mourning with the mourning of thete creatures, rather than with the hiffing of dragons. Some * think crocodiles are here meant; and of them it 1s reported *, that when they have eat the body of a creature, which they do firft, and come to the head, they weep over it with tears; Hence the proverb of crocodiles tears, for hypocritical ones; but it can’t well be thought furely, that the prophet would compare his mourning to that of fuch a creature. The learned Pocock thinks it more reafonable, that the jackalls are meant, called by the Arabians, Ebn Awi, rather than dragons; a creature of a fize between a fox and a wolf, or a dog and a fox, which makes a dreadful howling in the night; by which travellers unacquainted with it, would think a company of women or children were howling, and goes before the lion as his provider. And mourning as the owls; or daughters of the owl’; which is a night-bird, and makes a very frightful noife, efpecially the fcriech-owl. The Targum interprets it of the oftrich*; and it may be meant either of the mourning it makes when its young are about to be taken away, and it expofes itfelf to danger on their account, and perifhes in the attempt. #/ianus * reports, that they are taken by fharp iron {pikes fixed about their neft,when they are returning to their young, after having been in queft of food for them; and tho’ they fee the fhining iron, yet fuch is their vehement defire after their young, that they fpread their wings like fails, and with great fwiftnefs and noife rufh into the neft, where they are transfixed with the fpikes, and die: and not only Vatadblus obferves, that thefe creatures have a very mournful voice; but Bochart » has fhewn from the Arabic writers, that they frequently cry and howl; and from Yobn de Laet, who affirms, that thofe in the parts about Brafi/ cry fo loud, as to be heard half a mile; and indeed they have their name from crying and howling. The Targum renders it by a word which fignifies pleafant; and fo Onkelos on Lev. xi..16. by an antiphrafis, becaufe its voice is fo very unpleafant. Or fince the words may be rendered, rhe daughters of the oftrich *, it ‘may be underftood of the mourning of its young, when left by her, when they make a hideous noife and miferable moan, as fome obferve ‘. ¥. 9. For her wound is incurable, &c.] Or ber The ruin of Samaria, and the ten tribes, was inevitable; the decree being gone forth, and they hardened in their fins, and continuing in their impenitence; and their deftruction was irrevocable; they were not to be reftored again, nor are they to this day; nor will be, till the time comes that all J/rae/ fhall be faved: or jhe is grievoufly fick of ber wounds, juft ready to die, upon the brink of ruin, and no hope of faving her; this is the caufe and reafon of the above lamentation of the prophet:: and what increafed his grief and forrow the more was, for it is come unto Fudah; the calamity has reached the land of Fudab; it {topped not with J/rael or the ten tribes, but fpread itfelf into the two tribes of Fudah and Benjamin, for the Affyrian army having taken Samaria, and carried Lf/rael captive, in a fhort time, about