Nid SEEST SM.
himfelf, as Kimchi; and fo the Targum, “ thithet ‘* fhall come upon thee people who are as ftrong “‘ as fire:” the fword fhall cut thee off: it foall eat thee up as the canker-worm;, that is, the word of the Medes and Chaldeans fhall utterly deftroy thee, as the canker-worm is deftroyed by rain or fire; or rather, as that creature deftroys all herbs, plants and trees it falls upon, and makes clear riddance of them, fo fhould it be with Nineveh: make thyfelf many as the canker-worm: make thyfelf many as the locuft,; which go in fwarms, innumerable, and make the air 4eavy in which they fly, and the earth on which they fall, as the word * fignifies. The locuft has one of its names, Arbab, in Hebrew, from the large numbers of them; fo a multitude of men, and large armies, are often fignified in fcripture to be like grafhoppers or locufts for their numbers; fee Fudz. vi. 5. and vii. 12. and Fer. xlvi. 23. So Sithaices king of Thrace is reprefented * as {wearing whilft he was facrificing,. that he would affift the Athenians, having an army that would come like locufts, that is, in fuch numbers; for fo the Greck Scholiaft on the place’ fays, the word ufed fignifies a fort of locufts: the fenfe is, gather together as many foldiers, and as large an army as can be obtained to meet the enemy, or caufe him to break up the fiege: and fo we find * the king of Afpria did; for perceiving his kingdom in great danger, he fent into all his provinces to raife foldiers, and prepare every thing for the fiege; but all to no purpofe, which is here ironically fugeefted. The word in the Mifnic Jan- — guage, as Kimchi obferves, has the fignification of {weeping; and fome render it, /weep as the locuft”, which {weeps away, and confumes the fruits: of the earth; fo {weep with the befom of deftruction, as Farchi, either their enemies, farcaftically fpoken, or be thou fwept by them.
y. 16. Thou haft multiplied thy merchants above the fiars of heaven, &c.] An hyperbolical expreffion, fetting forth the great number of merchants that were in Nineveh, and in the land of Affria; who either were the natives of the place, or came thither for the fake of merchandife, which ferve to enrich a nation, and therefore are encouraged to fettle; and from whom, ina time of war, much benefit might be expected; being’ able to furnifh with money, which is the finews of war, as well as to give intelligence of the defigns of foreign princes, they trading abroad: the cankerworm fpoileth, and fieeth away, or puts off © its cloaths, difrobes and changes its form or breaks out with force, as the Septuagint, out of its former worm-ftate, and appears a beautiful butterfly, and then flies away. ‘The word is rendered a caterpillar, P/ cv. 34. Yer. li. 14, 27. and what we tranflate fpcileth, is uled of ftripping or putting off of cloaths, 1 Sem. xix. 24. Cant. v. 3. and the fenfe may be, that tho’ their merchants were multiplied above the flars of heaven, in which there may be an allufion to the increafe of caterpillars, ¥. 15. yet, as the caterpillar drops its cloaths, and flies away, fo their merchants, thro’ fear of the enemy, would depart in hafte, or be fuddenly {tripped of their riches, which make themfelves wings, and fly away, Prov. xxiii. 5. - Thefe merchants, at their beginning might be low and mean, — but increafing, adorning and inriching themfelyes in a time of peace, fled away in a time of war: or, or, fpreeds itfelf *, and fies away; fo thele creatures.
{pread themfelves on the earth, and devour all they can, and then fpread their wings, and are gone; fuggefting, that in like manner the merchants of Nineveh would ferve them; get all they could by merchandife among them, and then betake them: {elves elfewhere; and efpecially in a time of war, which is prejudicial to merchandife; and hence nothing was to be expected from them, or any dependence had upon them.
¥. 17. Thy crowned men are as the locufts, &c.] Tributary kings, and hired officers, as fome think, who might be diftinguifhed by what they wore on their heads; or their own princes and nobles, who wore coronets or diadems; unlefs their religious perfons are meant, their nazarites and devotees, their prieits; thefe were like locufts for their number, fear and flight in time of danger, and for their fpoil of the poor; and fome locufts have been feen with little crowns on their heads, as thofe in Rev, ix. 7, which had on their beads as it were crowns like gold. In the year 1542 came locufts out of Turkifh Sarmatia, into Auftria, Silefia, Lufetia and Mifnia, which had on their heads little crowns *. In the year 1572 a vehement wind brought large troops of locufts out of Turky into Poland, which did great mifchief, and were of a golden colour‘; and Alianus ® {peaks of locufts in Arabia, marked with golden coloured figures; and mention is nrade in the Targum on Fer. li. 27. of the fhining locuft, fhining like gold: and thy captains as the great grajfhoppers; or, locufts of locufis*, thofe of the biggeft fize. The Vulgate Latin renders the word for captains, thy little ones, junior princes, or officers of lefs dignity and authority; thefe were, as the Targum paraphrafes it, as the worms of locufts; but rather as the locufts themfelves, many and hurtful: which camp in the hedges, in the cold day; in the cold part of the day, the night; when they get into the hedges of fields, gardens and vineyards in great numbers, like an army, and therefore faid to encamp like one: but when the fun arifeth, they flee away, and their place is uot known where they are; whither they are fled, as the Yargum; {o thefe captains or halfpay officers, {warmed in great numbers about the city, and in the provinces, whilft it was a time of peace, and they were indulged in floth, and enjoyed much eafe and profperity; but when war broke out, and the heat of it began to be felt, thefe difappeared, and went into their own countries, from whence they came, with the auxiliaries and hired troops; nor could they be found where they were, or be called upon to do their duty: this is true of locufts in a literal fenfe, who flee away when the fun rifes; hence the Arabs, as Bochart fays ', elegantly exprefs this by the word 4/aara; fignifying, that when the fun comes to the locuft, it goes away. According to Macrobdius *, both Apollo and Hercules are names for the fun; and both thefe are furnamed from their power in driving away Jocuits: Hercules was called Cornopion by the (Eteans, becaufe he delivered them from the locufts'; and pollo was called Parnopius by the Grecians, becaufe when the country was hurt by filentio, Buxtorf, Drufius.
P 45¥” dormi:nt, Pifcator; fo Ben Melech interprets it, the reft of death.
5st locufts, he drove them out of it; as Pat/anias ™ relates; who obferves, that they were drove out they knew, but in what manner they fay not; for his own part he fays, he knew them thrice deftroyed at mount Sipy/us, but not in the fame way 3 one time a violent wind drove them out; another time a prodigious heat killed them; and a third time they perifhed by fudden cold; and fo, according to the text here, the cold fends them to the hedges, and the heat of the fun obliges them to quit their ftation.
¥. 18. Thy foepherds flumber, O king of Affrria; &c,] Who this king of Afria was is not eafy to fay; fome think E/arhaddon, who is the laft of the kings of Affria the feriptures fpeak of; according to Diodorus Siculus *, Sardanapalus was the laft of thefe kings, and in him the Afprian monarchy ended; tho’ according to Alexander Polyhiftor °, Saracus, perhaps the Chyniladanus of Piolemy, was king when Nineveh was deftroyed: it is very likely that Sardanepalus and Saracus defign the fame perfon, tho’ fet at a great diftance by hiftorians 5 fince the fame things are faid of the one as of the others particularly that when they faw their danger; they burnt themfelves and theirs in the royal palace at Nineveh; nor is it probable, that the fame city with the empire fhould be deftroyed and fubverted twice by the fame people, the Medes and Babylonians uniting together; and it is remarkable, that the double deftruction of this city and empire is related by different hiftorians; and thofe that fpeak of the one, fay nothing of the other: but this king, be he who he will, his cafe was very bad, his /hepherds flumbered, his minifters of ftate, his counfellors, fubordinate magi- {trates in provinces and cities, and particularly in Nineveh; his generals and officers in his army were carelefs and negligent of their duty, and gave them= felves up to floth and eafe; and which alfo was his own character, as hiftorians agtee in; or they were dead, flumbering in their graves, and fo could be of no feryice to. him: thy nobles fhall dwell in the duft,; be brought very low, into a very mean and abject condition;' their honour fhall be laid in the duft, and they be trampled upon by every one: or, they fhall fleep®; that is, die, and be buried, as the Vulgate Latin renders it: or, fhall dwell in filence, as others’; have their habitation in the filent grave, being cut off by the enemy; fo that this prince would have none of his mighty men to truft in, but fee himfelf ftript of all his vain confidences: thy people is fcattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them; like fheep without a fhepherd, which being frighted by beafts of prey, run here and there, and there is none to get them together, and bring them back again; fo the fubjects of chis king, being terrified at the approach of the Medes and Babylonians, forfook their cities, and fled to the mountains; where they were fcattered about, having no leader and commander to gather them together, and put them in regular order to face and oppofe the enemy. So the Targum interprets it, ‘* the people of thine armies.”
¥. 19. There is no healing of thy bruife, &c.} Made by the fatal blow given to the empire by the
582 N AHO Mot Chi 9, 195 the taking of Nineveh, the ruin of it was irreparable and irrecoverable; the city of Nineveh was no more, and the Afyrian empire funk, and never rofe again: or, there is no contraétion of thy bruife"
as when a wound is healed, or near it, the fkin round about is wrinkled and contracted. The Tar- and ufed with violence and cruelty? what province or city but have felt the weight of thine hand, have _ been haraffed with wars, and diftreffed with tributes — and exactions? and therefore it is no wonder they _ rejoice at thy fall. The deftruétion of this city, — and fo of the whole empire, is placed by Dr. Pri-_ gum is, ‘there is none that grieves at thy breach;” fo the Syriac verfion; fo far from it, that they rejoiced at it, as in a following claufe: thy wound is grievous; to be borne; the pain of it intolerable; an old obftinate one, inveterate and incurable: or, is weak, or fickly*,; which had brought a ficknefs and weaknefs on the ftate, out of which it would never be recovered: all that bear the bruit of thee the fame, the report of the deftruction of Nineveh, and of the ruin of the Afjrien empire, and the king of it, /ball clap the bands over thee, for joy fo far were they from lending an helping hand in the time of diftrefs, that they clapped both hands together, to exprefs the gladnefs of their hearts at hearing fuch news: for upon whom hath not thy wickednefs paffed continually? to which of thy neighbours haft thou not been troublefome and injurious? which of them haft thou not opprefied,
FSMD YN nulla eft contraétio, deaux in the 29th year of Fofiah’s reign, and in the year 612 before Chrift; and by what ‘Yo/ephus fays*, it appears to have been but a little while before Fofiah was flain by Pharaoh- Necho, who came out with an army to Euphrates, to make war upon:the Medes and Babylonians; who, he fays, had overturned the Afyrian empire; being jealous, as it feems, of their growing power. Learned men juftly regret the lofs of the Afyriaca of Abydenus, and of the hiftory of the Ajyrians by Herodotus, who promifed * it; but whether he finifhed it or no, is not certain; however it is not extant; and in one place, fpeaking of the Medes attacking Nineveh, and taking it, he fays”, but how they took it, I fhall fhow in another hiftory; all which had they come to light, and been continued, might have been of fingular ufe in explaining this prophecy. |