N 4H UM
neve: as with the voice of doves tabering upon their
breafis; mourning like doves, inwardly and fecretly, not daring to exprefs their forrow more publickly, becaufe of their enemies; but knocking and beat-— ing upon their breafts, as men do upon tabrets or drums, thereby expreffing the inward grief of their minds; fee Ezek, vii. 16.: y¥. 8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, 8c.) This was a very ancient city, built by Nim rod, as fome fay; or rather by Afbur, as appears from Gea. x. 10, 13. and it was: like a. fifh-pool, full of people, as it was in the times of Yonah, who for their number may, be compared both to water and to fifh; and likewife full of wealth and riches, which for their inftabiliry may be fignified by water alfo; and moreover, like a pool of. {tanding water, had never been liable to any commotions and difturbances, but had remained from the beginning in a tranquil and profperous flate 5 befides, fome regard may be had in a literal fenfe to its fituation, being watered by the river Tzgris, and which was for its profit and defence: fo fome copies of the Septuagint read the words, ** Nineveh <¢ is like a pool of water, the waters are her walls: and the Syriac verfion is, ‘* Nineveb is as a lake of “‘ water, and is among the waters;” fee ¥. 6:
yet they fhall flee away, the waters out of the pool, - the fluices being opened, or the banks broken down; or the people out of the city, breaches being made in its walls, or its gates opened, and the - enemy entring; when every one would flee for his life, and make his efcape in the beft manner he could: ftand, ftand, fhall they cry; either the generals and officers of the king of Afpria’s army, to the foldiers running away; or the more courageous inhabitants of the city, to thofe that were timorous and feized with a pannic, fleeing in the — utmoft confternation; or the enemy, as Kimchi, who fhall call to them to ftop, promifing to {pare their lives upon a furrender ot them to them: dx none foall look back; and ftand.to hear what is faid unto therm, but make the beft of their way, and flee with all their might and main. | ©:
¥. 9. Take ye the fpoil of filver, take the fpoil of
gold, 8cc.] Of which there was, a great quantity in this rich and populous city: ‘thefe are the words of the prophet, or of the Lord by the prophet, to the Medes and Chaldeans, to feize the ipoil of the city, now fallen into their hands; fuggefting that this was by the order and will of God, tho’ they _ faw it not: or of the generals of the army of the Medes and Babylonians; ‘giving leave to the com= ing enough for'them all, officers and private men < for there is none-end of -the fore, and glory, out of all the pleafant furniture; no end of the wealth which had been'hoarded up, and of their houfhold- goods'and rich ‘apparel, which their coffers, hot and wardrobes were full of, the value of Sak could not be told. ‘The king of Afyria, »perceiving that ‘he, his ‘family, and ‘he wealth were Tee fall into the hands of the enemy, caufed a pile of wood to be’raifed, and in it heaped his go ver, and royal‘apparél, and inclofing himfelf, - eunuchs and concubines ‘in it, fet £ a it, deftroyed ‘himfelf and ‘them. an rie "te were no lefs in this pile than a thoufand pe riads of talents of gold, which are about fourteen h m Gebhardus apud Burkium in loc.
millions fterling, and, ten times as many talents of filver, together with apparel and furniture unfpeakable; and yet after all this, the princes of the bylonjans and Medes carried off vaft quantities. The Babylonian prince loaded feveral fhips with. the afhes of the pile, and a large quantity of gold and filver, difcovered to him by an eunuch, a deferter; and the Median prince, what of the gold and filver left out of the pile, which were many talents, that fell into. his hands, he fent to Ecbatana, the royal city of Media °.
¥. 10.. She is empty, and void, and wafte, &c.] The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and ftript of all its treafures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houfes demolifhed, and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become an heap of rubbifh; fee the note on ch. i. 8. Various words are here ufed to afcertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant paronomafia or likenefs of founds, which our language will not exprefs: and the beart meiteth; the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; fee Pf. xxii. 14: and the knees fmite together, like people in a fright, and when a pannic has feized them; and as it was with Bel/bazzar, Dan. v. 6: and much pain is in all loins; Vike that of women in travail; - or of perfons in a fudden fright, which gives them a pain in their backs at once: and the faces of them all gather blacknefs,; like a pot, as the Yargum adds; being in great diftrefs and difconfolation, which make men appear in a difmal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy’; fee lion that continues in hunting with confidence, ‘* and there is none that terrifies.”
Ba- ¥. 12. Lhe lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, &c.] The metaphor is ftill continued; and the kings of Afpria are compared to lions that hunt for their prey, and having found it, tear it in pieces, and carry home a fufficiency for their whelps.. It is a notion that is advanced by fomé writers, as Herodotus °, that the lionefs, the ftrongelt and boldeft creature, brings forth but once in its life, and then but one; which Gellius 4 confutes by the teftimonies of Homer and Ariffotie; and it appears from the prophet here to be a falfe one, as well as from Ezek. xix. 2, 3. thus the Arians made war on other nations, and pillaged and plundered them, to enlarge their dominions, provide for their pofterity, and.enrich their children: and Strangled for bis lioneffes; that is, ftrangled other beafts, as the lion firft does, when it feizes a creature, and then tears it in pieces, and brings it to the fhe-lion in the den with its whelps. Thefe lioneffes defizn the wives and concubines of the kings of ffyria, among whom they parted the fpoils of their neighbours. So the Targum, “ kings “ bring rapine to their wives, and a prey to their * children;” that is, riches, which they have taken from others by force and rapine: thus Cicero * obferves of the kings of Perfia and Syria, that they had many wives, and gave cities to them after this manner; this city for their head-drefs, this for the neck, and the other for the hair; the‘expences of them: and filled his holes with prey, and bis dens with ravine; as the lion fills his dens and lurkingholes'with the prey he'has feized and ravened; fo the kings of Affyria filled’ their palaces, treafures,
Fael ii. 6. | magazines, towers, cities and towns with the wealth
¥. 11. Where is the dwelling of the lions? &c.} Of the kings of Afyria, comparable to lions for their ftrength, courage and cruelty, tyranny and oppreffion; fuch as Pul, Tiglath-Pilefer, Salmanefer,) and Sennacherib. So the Targum, “ where are the «< habitations of kings$” thefe are the words, either of the prophet, or of the people that had feen this city in its glory, and now fee it in’its ‘ruins; and fo defolate and wafte, as that it could fearcely be faid where it once ftood: and the feeding place of the young lions? the fons of the kings of Affyria, the princes of the blood, and who were of the fame blood, temper and difpofition of their anceftors, and were -born,’ brought up; and edu-) and riches they took. by force from other nations as the Targum, ‘¢ and they. filled their. treafuries ‘* with rapine, and their palaces with {poil.”” y¥. ‘13. Bebold, I am’ againft thee, faith the Lord ‘of hofs, &c.| Againft Nineveb, and the whole Affjriaz empire; for fuch rapine, violence and oppreffion their‘kings had been guilty of; -and if he, who is*the Lord of hofts, of all the armies of heaven and earth, was againft’ them, nothing but ruin muft inévitably enfue: or, J come unto thee *; or will ‘fhortly come unto thee, and reckon’ with thee for all this; will vifit thee in a -way “of wrath and‘ vengeance. The Targum is, « if
', gir I will fend’ my fury upon’ ee 2 and I cated in Nineveh the royal city. So the Targum, will burn ber chariots in the finoke, either thofe in
*« and the dwelling houfes of ‘the princes,”*or go- or go-| which ‘the inhabitants of Nineveh rode in great vernors: where the lion, even the old lion’ walked; fplendor about the city; or_thofe which were ufed not Nebuchadnezzar, as “Ferom, who entered into
1, réd into | in war with their enemies’ and this he would do Nineveb the den of thofe lions, or feat of the 4ffyin the fiioke; or,unto fmoke, as the Vulgate Latin rians, and took it, and walked about in it, as the;
verfion; or, into fmoke, as the Syriac'; eafily, conqueror and poffeflor'of it; but rather Nimrod that old lion and tyrant, if he was the firft founder of this city, as fome fay; tho’ it does not feem fo much to defign any particular perfon, but the kings of Afyria in general, even the moft cruel and favage, quickly,:at once, fuddenly, fo that they fhould | evaporate into fmoke, and be no more; or, with fire, as the Targum; that is, as Kimchi interprets it, ‘with a great fire, whofe fmoke is feen afar off; and may be. figuratively underftood of the fmoke as theold lion is. So the Targum in the plural num- of divine wrath, as Aben Ezra explains it: and ber, “© whither the kings went:” and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid; there were none to refift their power, curb their infolence, and put a ftop-to their cruelty and oppreffion; or make them ‘afraid of purfuing fuch’ methods. The Targum is, “* there they leave their children, even-as a! the fword fhall devour thy young lions; the {words of the Medes and Chaldeans fhall deftroy the princes, the fons of their king. The Zargum interprets this of towns or villages deftroyed thereby’: aud J will cut of thy prey tei the earth; cut them off that they fhould no more prey upon their neigh-
$7 bours; and what they had got fhould be taken away from them, and be of no ufe tothem: and the voice of thy meffengers foall no more be heard, in foreign courts, demanding homage and fubjection; exacting and collecting tribute; blafpheming the God of heaven, and menacing his people, as Rabjhakeb a mefienger of one of thefe kings did; and which is mentioned by moft of the Fewi/h commentators, as being then a recent thing.. Some render it, the voice, or noife of thy jaw-teeth”, ye! this chapter is contained the prophecy. of the deftru¢tion of Nineveh, and with it the whole Affjrian empire; the caufes of which, befides thofe before-mentioned, were the murders, lies and robberies it was full of, ¥. 1. for which it fhould be fwiftly and cruelly deftroyed, y¥. 2, 3. as alfo its whoredoms and witchcrafts, or idolatry, by which nations and families were feduced, y. 4. and hence fhe fhould be treated as an harlot; her nakednefs, expofed, and fhe caft out with contempt, and mocked at by all, ¥. 5, 6, 7. and all thofe things fhe placed her confidence in, are fhewn to be of no avail; as her fituation and fortrefles, as fhe might learn from the, cafe of.No Amon, y. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. nor the number. of her inhabitants, which were weak as women; nor even felf, ¥. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. nor. the. people fhe was in alliance with, who would now mock at her, her cafe being irrecoverable and _ incurable,
¥.1. Wo to the bloody city, &c.].:Nineveb, in which many murders were daily commited; imnocent blood fhed; the lives of men, taken away, under the colour of juftice, by falfe witnefies, and other unlawful methods; and which-was continu-!
ally making war with neighbouring nations, and fhedding their blood, which. it ftuck not at, to enlarge its-wealth and dominions; and, therefore wo is denounced againft it; and it is. threatened ‘with the righteous judgments of God, with.all “forts of calamity and diftrefs.: or, O. bloody city, ‘as the Septuagint; for the word ufed)is vocative, and expreflive of calling, as Aden Ezra and Kim-
_chi obferve: it is all full of lies and-robbery,, the palace and court; the houfes of noblemen. and “¢€ommon perfons were full of flattery and deceit; men of high degree were a. lie, and.men of low degree vanity, no man could truft-another,. or believe what he-faid; there.were no truth, “honetty, and faithfulnefs in conve:fation or commerce, their warehoufes were full of goods, got by rapine and violence; and their ftreets full of robbers and robberies: the prey departeth not; they:go on in making a.prey of their neighbours, in. pillaging and plundering their fubftance; they repent not of fuch, evil pra¢tices, nor defift from them. or becaule of the above fins they fhall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not ceafe plundering them. tll he has utterly ftript them of all they have, and who is reprefented in the next verfe, as juft at hand. hai + alluding to the dion’s breaking: the bones of its prey, which is done with a great noife; fignifying, that fuch cruelty and oppreffion the Affyrians hi been guilty of fhould be ufed no more; or rather, as R.fudah ben Balaam obferves, as it fignifies the - noife of the teeth devouring the prey, it is as if it was faid, I will cut off thy prey from the earth; and Ben Melech fays, that in the Perfan language, grinding ftones are expreffed by this worth and teethiare called grinders; fee Eccl. xiii 3, ~ *? i oyiy Qaaky
P..7 HR ¥..2. The noife of a whip, &c.} Of a horfeman or chariot-driver whipping his horfes to make {peed to Nineveh, and enter into it, fo near as to be heard by the inhabitants of it; and is thus reprefented in order to {trike terror into them: and the noife of the ratling of the wheels, that, is, of the chariots upon the ftones, whofe drivers drove Febu-like, making the utmoft hafte they could to get in firft, and feize the prey: and of the pranjfing borfes; or bounding fteeds upon a full gallop; either with horfemen on them riding full {peed to partake of the booty; or in chariots, in which they caper and pranfe, and fhake the ground:as, they go; hence it follows: and of the jumping cha-.
riots;.which, thro’ the {wiftnefs of the motion, feem to leap and dance as they. run along. _.
¥..3. The horfeman lifteth up both the bright fword, and the glittering [pear, &c.| Or; the flame of the fword, and: the lightning of the fpear™; he rides with a drawn fword, ‘which being brandifhed to. and: fro, looks like a flame of fires: or with a {pear made of polifhed iron, or fteel, which, when vibrated and moved to and fro, glitters like lightning; a large number of which entring the city, mutt be terrible to the inhabitants of it: aad there is a multitude of flain, and a. great number of carcafes; of dead men lying in the ftreets, pierced and flain with the bright {word and glittering pear of the, Medes and Chaldeans: and there. is' none end that there,was no. telling: them’:, they fiumble, spon their corpfes the Ninevites in fleeing, and-endeavouring.to, make their efcape, and the Medes and Chaldeans purfuing them,., 4/5 ( eeWoai ls
¥.As: Because of the multitudes of the whoredoms of the, well-favoured harlot, &c.] Meaning, Ni- well built one; full of ftately,and beautiful buildings,, the feat of the kings of Afjria, and the metropolis.,of the nation,yand:abounded with wealth and riches perhaps here may be an allufion to the name, ofthe city, and to. the fignification.of its for Ninevehmay have! its name from the, beauty of it; and | be,read in Hebrew 73 ‘ND Or 1532, and may, fignify a beautiful or pleafant habitation; fo Hillerus * and Cocceius ’ give the etymology of it; which agrees with,its delightful fituation on the banks;of.the river Tigris, and the ftately- in it, asthe king’s. palace, and others; juft Zion is {aid to be beautiful. for fitnation, tbe ju the whole earth, Pf. xlviii..2. and. the epithet. of well-favoured, well agrees with an harlot, whofe
© pom pray san and fammam gorem hailw, Pifcator;. flammam gladii & fulgur hafte, beauty is engasing and enfnaring, as Lois, and others; particularly Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, from whom it is venerally thought Nineveh had its nameé, was firft an harlot, and one of exceeding beauty, who furpaffed all others in it; on account of which fhe was beloved by the king of Affyria, and after a fhort time made his wife, and then he delivered the government of the kingdom to her’; yea Sardanapalus the laft, and at this time the prefent king of the Afjrians, was very effeminate, ufed to drefs himfélf ia womens cloaths, imitate a woman’s voice, and paint his face, and even his whole body; and by other tricks and enticements of harlots, made himfelf more lafcivious, and behaved more lewdly, than any harlot *; in jhort, all the Afyrian women mutt be harlots, fince they were obliged once in their life-time to lie with a ftvanger in the temple of Venus, whom the Affyrians call Mylitta, as Herodotus and Strabo‘ relate; to all which here may be an allufion: and particularly the inhabitants of this city had all the arts of addrefs and infinuation to deceive others, as harlots have; and both men and women very probably were given to whoredom and adultery in a literal fenfe, as is generally the cafe where luxury and intemperance abound; and efpecially were erofsly guilty of idolatry, which in fcripture is frequently expreffed by whoredom and adultery; worfhipping Bel, Nifroch, and other deities. and which was highly provoking to God; and therefore for thefe things, his judgments came upon them, before and after-defcribed: the miftre/s of cwitcherafts; thoroughly verfed in fuch wicked and devilith practices, literally underftood; fee J. xlvii.
9, 12. for the Afjrians, as well as the Babylonians and Chaldeans, were addicted to fuch diabolical arts, as appears from a paffage in Theocritus *, which Grotius has alfo quoted; where one is reprefented, faying, that fhe kept in her box or cheft very pernicious poifons, which fhe had learned from an Affyrian gueft. The allufion feems to be to phil. tres, and other tricks ufed by harlots to befot young men, and bewitch and captivate them: likewife this city and its inhabitants were well verfed in all the arts of flattery, deceit and carnal policy; and in all the charms of wealth, riches, luxury and fenfuality, the pomp of fuperftition and idolatry, to draw in kingdoms and _ nations into fubjection to them: that felleth nations thro’ ber whoredoms, and families thro her witchcrafts; enflaved whole kingdoms, and brought them under her power and dominion, to be her vaffals; and was the inftrument, not only of corporal fervitude, but of their felling themfelves to work wickednels, by committing {piritual fornication or idolatry, into which multitudes were led by her influence and example, and particularly the kingdoms and families of J/rael and Judah, fee 2 Kings xvi. 10. Ezek. xxiii. 5, 7, 11, 12. In thefe whoredoms and witchcrafts, as well as in her blood-thirftinefs, lies and oppreffion, Nineveh was a type of the whore of Rome, fee Rev. xvii. 12, 5, 6. and xviii. 23. y. 5. Bebold Iam againft thee, faith the Lord of bofis, &c.] Becaufe her doings were againft him; fee the note on ch, ii. 13: and I will difcover thy fRirts upon thy face; turn up the fkirts of her gar-