Exposition of the Whole Bible

f Dictionary, in the word Caphtor.

prophecy concerning them, by the mouth of:former prophets, as J/aigb,. ch. xiv. 29, 31. and, by the mouth of the prefent prophet: O Genaan,: the land of the Philiftines; Paleftine was a part of Ca-. naan, the five lordthips of the. Phili/fiies beforementioned belonged originally to the Cenacuite, Too. Xii. 3. and thefe belonged to the Jand. of Ljrael, tho’ poffefed by them, out of which: now they fhould be turned, and the country wafted, as fo!- lows: [qwill even deftroy thee, that there hall be na inbabitant; fo great fhould be the defolation; all fhould be removed from it, either by death, or by captivity; at leaft there fhould be no fettled inhabicant. ¥. 6. And the fea-coaft foall be dwellings and cottages for fhepherds, &c.] That tract of land which Jay on the coaft of the Mediteranean fea, inhabited by the Pdiliftines, fhould now. become {0 deflate; that inftead of towns and cities full of ‘merchants and fea-faring perfons, and houfes full of inhabitants, and warehoufes full of goods, there fhould now only be feen a few, huts and cottages jor fhepherds to dwell in, to. fhelter them) from_ the heat by day, and where they watched their flocks by night, and took their proper repofe, and_reit. The laft word is by fome rendered, ditches; which were dug by them to receive rain-water for their ufe: or rather may fignify, cottages dug by /hepherds“; in fubterraneous places, whither they retired in the heat of the day, to fhelter them{elves from the fcorching fun; and fome of them were fo large as to receive their flocks alfo; fuch was the cave of Polyphemus, as Bochart’ obferves, in which the cattel, namely the fheep and goats, lay down and flept; and in Jceland fuch are ufed.to fecure them from the cold; where we are told », there are'caverns in the mountains capable of fheltering an hundred fheep or more; and whither they very cordially retreat in bad weather. Thefe holes are in fuch mountains as. have formerly burned, and are of infinite fervice to.them, both winter and fummer; in the winter for thelter, and in the fummer for very good paftures, which they find in plenty all around. - Such fort of huts and cottages as thefe, in hot countries, Ferom feems to have refpect unto, when fpeaking. of Jekoa, he fays.®, there is not beyond it any. little village, nor indeed any field-cottages like to ovens (fubterraneous ones, Calmet ° calls them) which. the.4/rcans call Mapalia: thefe, Sallufi » defcribes as of an oblong figure, covered. with tiles,and like -the keels of fhips, or. fhips. turned, bottom, upwards.; and according to Pliny 3, they were moveable, and carried from place to place in carts and waggons; and therefore cannot be fuch as before defcribed; and fo Dr. Shaw" fays, the Bedoween Arabs now, as their great anceftors the Arabians, live in tents called bhymas, from the fhelter which they. afford the inhabitants; and adds, they are the very fame which the ancients call mapalia: and folds for flocks; in which they put them to lie. down in at evening. The phrafes exprefs the great defolation of the land; that towns fhould be depopulated, andthe land lie untilled, and only be occupied, by thepoe ne ercs herds and their flocks,, who lead them from place to place, the moft convenient for them.

¥. 7. And the coaft frail be for the remnant of the boufe of Fudab, &c.| The fame tract of land, become fo defolate thro’ the Chaldeans, fhould in future time, when thofe that remained of the Fezws were returned from their captivity in Babylon, be inhabited by them. This was fulfilled in the times of the Maccabees, when the cities of Paleftine being rebuilt, were fubdued by the Yews,-and fell into their hands; and it is plain, that in the times of the apoftles thofe places were inhabited by the Fews, as Gaza, Afodod, and others, Aé7s viii. 26, 40. and perhaps will have a further accomplifhment in the latter day, when they fhall be converted, and return to their own land: they fhall feed thereupon, in the houfes of Afbkelon fhall they lie down in the evening; either the fhepherds fhall feed their flocks here, and caufe them to lie down in the evening, on the very fpet of ground where the houfes of Abkelon ftood. This place is very properly reprefented as on the fea-coaft; for fo it was; Philo * fays, who fome time dwelt there, that it was a city of Syria by the fea: or rather, the remnant of J/rae/ fhall feed and dwell here, and lie down in fafety; and this was made good in a fpiritual fenfe, when the apoftles of Chrift’ preached the gofpel in thofe parts, and were the inftruments of converting many; and there they fed them with the word and ordinancés, and caufed them to lie down in green paftures, in great éafe and fecurity: for the Lord their God foall vifit them, ina way of grace and mercy, bringing them out of Babylon into their own land, and enlarging their borders there; and efpecially by raifing up Chrift, the horn of falvation for them; and by fending his gofpel to them, and making it effectual to their converfion and falvation: and turn away their captivity, in a literal fenfe from Badylon,; and in a piritual fenfe from fin, fatan, and the law; and may have a further refpect to their prefent captivity in both fenfes.

¥. 8. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, &c.| ‘Two people that defcended from Lot, thro’ inceft with his daughters; and are therefore mentioned together, as being of the fame caft and complexion, and bitter enemies to the people of the Jews; whom they reproached and reviled, for the fake of their religion, becaufe they adhered to the word and worfhip of God: this they did when the fews were moft firmly ‘attached to the fervice of the true God; and the Lord heard it, and took notice of it; and put it down in the book of his remembrance, to punifh them for it in due time; even he who hears, and fees, and knows all things: whereby they have reproached my people; whom he had chofen, and avouched to be his people; and who were called by his name, and called on his name, and worfhipped him, and profeffed to be his people, and to ferve and obey him; and as fuch, and becaufe they were the people of God, they were reproached by them; and hence it was fo refented by the Lord; and there being fuch a near relation between God and them, he looked upon the reproaches of them as reproaches of himfelf: and magnified themfelves againft their border; either they fpoke reproachfully of the land of J/- rael, and the borders of it, and efpecially of the

inhabitants of the land, and particularly thofe that bordered upon them; or they invaded the borders - of their land, and endeavoured to add it to theirs; or as the Yews were carried captive by the Cbafdeans, as they pafled by the borders ot Adoab and Ammon, they infulted them, and jeered them, and expreffed great pleafure and joy in feeing them in fuch circumftances; fee Ezek. xxv. 3,8. Jarcbt reprefents the cafe thus; when the-children of JF rael went into captivity to the land of the Caaideans, as they pafled by the way of Ammon and Moab, they wept, and fighed, and ctied; and they diftrefled them, and faid, what do you afflict yourfelves for? why do ye weep? are not you going to the houfe of your father, beyond the river where your fathers dwelt of cld? thus jeering them on account of Abrebam’s being of Ur of the Chaldees. ¥. 9. Therefore as I live, faith the Lord of bofts, the God of I/rael, 8c.) ‘The Lord here fwears by himfelf, by his life; partly to thew how provoked he was at, and how grievoufly he refented the in- Juries done to his people; and partly to oblerve the certain fulfilment of what is after declared; and it might be depended upon it would furely be done, not only becaufe of his word and oath, which are immutable; but becaufée of his ability to do it, ‘as the Lord of boffs, of armies “above and below; and becaufe of the covenant-relation that fubfifted between him and J/-ce/, being their Gods and therefore would avenge the infults and injuries done them: furely Moab fhall be as Sedow, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, that is, fhould be utterly deftroyed, as thefe cities were; whofe deftruction is often made ufe of to exprefs the utter ruin and deftruétion of any other people; otherwife it is not to be fuppofed, that thefe countries ©

-were to be deftroyed, or were deftroyed in like manner by fire from heaven; the fimilitude lies in other things after expreffed: even the breeding of nettles, and falt-pits, and a perpetual deflation, fignifying, that the countries of AZab and Ammon fhould be wafte, barren and uheultivated, as the above places were, where nothing but nettles grew, as do in great abundance in defolate places; and where falt-pits fhould be, ‘or heaps‘ef falt, as Kinchi interprets it and wherever falt is found, as Pliny * fays, it isa barren place, and produces nething; tho’ Herodotus * {peaks of places'where were hillocks of falt, and-very fruitful; and where the people ufed falt in manuring and impfoving their ground; which muft be accounted for by the ditference of climate and foil: this paflape is produced by Re/ai#d ”, to prove that the lake A/pPeItites is not the place, as is commonly béli¢ved, where Sodom and Gonimorab ftood;° fince thofe cities were not overflown or immerfed in, and covered with water, but were deftroyed by fite and brimftone, and fo became defolate; and Had no herbs and plants, but nettles, and fuch like things 5 ard. fuch thefe countries of Moab and Ammon thould be, and ever remain fo, at leaft fora long time; - and efpecially fhould be défolate and uninhabited by the former pofléffors-of ‘it; fee Dewt, xxix. 23. this was fulfilled about five years after the deftruction of Ferufalem, when Nebuchadnezzar, as Fofephus * relates, led his army into Cale/yria, and made war upon the Ammonites and Moabites, and faub-— jected them to him, who were the inhabitants of it, as the fame writer fays ’: the refidue of thy Peo-

ple foall {poil them, and the remnant of my people foall poffe/s them, that is, the Fews, the remnant of them that returned from Badylen: now thefe, dn the times of the Maccabees, and thofe that deicended from them, feized on feveral places in thefe countries, and poffefled them; for atter thefe countries had been fubdued, and made defolate by Nebuchadnezzar, they became confiderable nations again. ‘Jofepbus * fays, the Moabites in his time were a great nation; tho’ in the third century, as Origen * relates, they went under the common name of Arabians; and even long before the times of Fofepbus, they were called Arabian Moabites, as he himielf obferves; when he tells us, that Aexander Yanneus fubdued them, and impofed a tribute on them; and who alfo gives us an account of the cities of the Moadites, which were taken, and demolifhed by them, as Effebon, Medaba, Lemba, Oronas, Telithon, Zara, the valley of the Cilicians, and Pella; thefe he deftroyed, becaufe the inhabitants would not promife to conform to the rites and cuftoms of the Fews >; tho’ Fofephus ben Gorion, who alfo makes mention of thefe cities as taken by the fame prince, fays‘*, he did not demolifh them, bediine they entered into a covenant, and were circumcifed; and he {peaks of ten: fortified cities of the king of Syria, added at the fame time to the kingdom of J/rae/, not deftroyed: likewife the children 6f Ammon, after their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, became a powerful people: we read of the country of the Ammonites in 2 Mac. iv. 26. and in the times of Fudas Maccabeus, Timotheus their general got together a {trong and numerous army, which being worfted by ‘fudas, he took their city Fa/oron (or afer, 1 Maccab. v. 6.) earried their wives and children captive, and burnt their city *; and this people, as well as the Moabites in the third century, as before obferved, were fwallowed up under the general name of Arabians; and neither of them are any more; all which has fulfilled this prophecy, and thofe of Feremiah and Amos concerning them: this likewife in a fpiritual fenfe might have a further accomplifhment in the firft times of the gofpel, when it was preached in thefe countries by the apoftles, and churches were formed in them; and may be {till further accomplifhed in the latter day, when thofe parts of the world fhall be poffeffed by converted Fews, and by Gentile chriftians. Kimchi owns it may be interpreted as future, of what fhall be in the times of the Meffiah.

y¥. 10. This fhall they have for their pride, &c.] This calamity fhall come upon their land, the land of the Moabites and Ammonites, for their pride, which often goes before a fall; and has frequently been the caufe of the ruin of kingdoms and ftates, and of particular perfons; and indeed feems to have been the firft fin of the apoftate angels, and of fallen man. Of the pride of Moad fee I/- xvi. 6: becaufe they have reproached, and magnified themfelves againft the people of the Lord of bofts; they looked with difdain upon ‘them, as greatly below them; and fpoke contemptibly of them, of their nation, and religion; and made themfelves great, and fet up themfelves above them, opened their mouths wide, and gave their tongues great liber- ‘ties in blafpheming and reviling them: what was done to them, is taken by the Lord as done to himfelf; fee ‘Yer, xlviii. 42.

¥.11. The Lord will be terrible unto them, 8cc.] To the Moeabites and Ammenites, in the execution of his judgments upon them, and make their proud hearts tremble; for with him is terrible ma- Jefty; he is terrible to the kings of the earth, and cuts off the fpirit of princes, ¥od xxxvii. 22. P/, Ixxvi. 12. or, as Kimchi obterves, this may be underftood of the people of God reproached by the Moalites and Ammonites, by whom the Lord js to be feared and reverenced with a godly and filial fear: fo it may be rendered, the Lord is to be feared by them*, and to this inclines the Targum, * the ‘* fear of the Lord is to redeem’ them:” for he will famifb all the gods of the earth; particularly of thofe countries mentioned in the context, the Pé4iliftines, Moabites, Ammonites, Ethiopians, and Affyrians; as Dagon, Chemofo, Moloch, Be!, and others; called gods of the earth, in diftinétion from the God of heaven, to whom they are oppofed; and becaufe made of earthly matter, and worthipped by earthly and carnal men; thefe the Lord, who is above them, and can deftroy them at pleafure, threatens to famifb,; or to bring /eanne/s* upon them, as the word fignifies; to bring them into a confumption, and caufe them to. pine away gradually, by little and little, till they are no more; and that by reducing the numbér of their worfhippers, fo that they fhall not have the worfhip and honour paid them, nor the facrifices offered to them, fuppofed by the heathens to be the food of their gods; and this being the cafe, their priefts would be itarved, and become lean, who uled to be fat and plump. The Septuagint verfion renders it, be wil defirey all the gods of the uations of the earth; which is approved of by Noldius, and preferred by him to other verfions. This had its accomplifhment in part, when thefe nations were fubdued by Nebuchadnezzar, for idols were ufually demolifhed, when a kingdom was taken; and more fully, when the gofpel was {pread in the Gentile world by the apoftles of Chrift, and firft minifters of the word; whereby the oracles of the heathens were ftruck dumb, and men were turned every where from the worfhip of idols; the idols themfelves were deftroyed, and their temples demolifhed, or converted to better ufes; and will have a ftill -greater accomplifhment in the latter day, at the. converfion of the ews, and the bringing in the fulnefs of the Gentiles, when the worfhip of idols will ceafe every where. The Syriac verfion renders it, a// the kings of the earth, very wrongly: and men fhall worfbip him every onz from bis place; or, in bis place*®; that is, every man fhall worfhip the true God in. the place where he is; he fhall not go up to Yerxfalem to worfhip, but in every place lift up holy hands to God, pray unto him, praife and ferve him; the worfhip of God will be univerfal; he’ll be king over all the earth, and his name and fervice one, and fhall not be limited and confined to any particular place, AZa/. i. 11: even all the ifles of the heathen; or Gentiles, not only thofe places, which are properly ifles, as ours of Great-Britain and Ireland, tho’ there may be a particular refpeét had to fuch, and efpecially to ours, who have been very early and long fa- voured with the gofpel, and yet will be; but all laces beyond the feas, or which the Fews went to y fea, they called ifles. ©

¥. 12. Ye Ethiopians alfo, &c.] Or, as for ye Ethiepians alfo*,; not the Ethiopians in Africa, beyond Egypt, at a diftance from the land of J/rael, and the countries before-mentioned; but the inhabitants. of Arabia Chufea, or Ethiopia, which lay near to Moab and Ammon; thefe fhould not efcape, but fuffer with their neighbours, who fometimes diftrefiled the people of the Yews, and made war with them, being nigh them; fee 2 Chron. xiv. 9. and xxi. 16: they Jhall be flain by my fword, or, the flain of my fword are they’; R. Faphet thinks here is a defect of the note of fimilitude as, which fhould be fupplied thus, ye are, or fhall be, the Slain of my fword, as they; as the Moadites and Ammonites; that is, thefe Ethiopians fhould be flain, as well as they, by the fword of Nebuchadnezzar; which is called the {word of God, becaufe he was an inftrument in the hand of God, for punifhing the nations of the earth. This was fulfilled very probably when Egypt was fubdued by Nebuchadnezzar, with whom Eihiopia was.confederate, as well as near unto it, Jer. xlvi.1. The deftruction.of thefe by the Afprians. is predicted I XX. 4. ¥. 13. And be will firetch out his hand againft the north, &c.] Either the Lord, or Nebuchadnexzar his {word; who, as he would fubdue the nations that lay fouthward, he would lead his army northward againft the land of Afyria, which lay to the north of Fxdec, as next explained: and defiroy Afpria; that famous monarchy, which had ruled over the kingdoms of the earth, now fhould come to an end, and be reduced to fubjection to the king of Babylon: and will make Nineveh a defolation; which was the capital city, the metropolis of the Afyrian monarchy: Nabum prophefies at large of the deftruction of this city: and dry like a wildernefs; which before was a very watry place, fituated by rivers, particularly the river Tigris; fo that it was formerly like a pool of water, Ned. ii. 6, 8. but now fhould be dry, like an heath or defert. Dr. Prideaux places the deftruction of Nineveh in the 29th year of Fofah’s reign; but bifhop Ujfer earlier, in the 16th year. of his reign; and if fo, then Zephaniah, who here prophefies of it, muft begin to prophefy in the former part of Fofiah’s reign.

¥. 14. And flocks fhall lie down in the midft of her, &c.] In the midft of the city of Nineveh; in the ftreets of it, where houfes ftood, and. people in great numbers walked; but now only fhould be feen the cottages of fhepherds, and flocks of fheep feeding, or lying down, as is before ob-, ferved of the fea-coaft of the Philiftines, ¥. 6: all ihe beafts of the nations, that is, all forts of beafts, efpecially wild beafts, in the feveral parts of the world, fhould come and dwell here; inftead of kings and princes, nobles, merchants, and the great men thereof, who once here inhabited, now there fhould be beafts of prey, terrible to come nigh unto; for thefe are to be underftood properly and literally, and not figuratively of men, for their favagenefs and cruelty, comparable to beafts: doth gladio meo ipfi, Montanus.

the cormorant andthe bittern fhall lodge in the upper lintels of it; of the doors of. the houfes in Niweveb > or, on its pomegranates *; the figures of thefe being often put on chapiters, turrets, pina-"

cles, pillars, and pofts. in buildings,- and over porches of doors; and on thefe thofe melancholy and doleful creatures here mentioned, which delight in folitary places, fhould take up their abode. The cormorant is the fame with the corvus aquaticus, or fea-raven, about the fize of a goofe; it builds not only among rocks, but often on trees: what is called the /hagge, is a fpecies of it, or.the lefler cormorant, a water-fowl common.on our northern coats; is fomewhat larger than a common duck, and builds on trees, as the common cormorant '. Bochart ™ takes it to be. the pelicen, which is here meant; and indeed whatever bird it is, it feems to have its name from vomiting; and this.is what naturalifts * obferve of the pelican, that it fwallows down fhell-fith, which being kept a while in its: ftomach, are heated, and then, it cafts them up, which then open eafily, and it.picks out the flefh of them: and it feems to delight injdefolate places, fince it is called the pelican of the wildernefs, Pf cit. 6. IUfdore fays °, it.is an. Agyptian bird, dwelling in the defert, by..the river Vile, from whence it has its name; for it,ts called Cano. pus egyptus, and the Vulgate Latin verfion renders the word here, Oxocrotalus, the fame with the pelican; and Mentanus tranflates it, the pelican; and fo do others. The Jitterm is a bird of the heron kind; it is much the fize of a,common-heron; Jit is ufually found in fedgy and. reedy places,. near water, and fometimes in hedges;.it makes a very remarkable noife, and -from, the: fingularity of it, the commen people imagine it fticks its beak in a reed, or in the mud, in order to make it; hence it is fometimes called the mire-drum?. It isefaid, it will fometimes make a. noife like a bull, or the - blowing of a horn, fo as to be heard half a Ger- fome called Botaurus, as if Bootaurus, becaufe it imitates the bellowing of a bull?.. The Ligurine verfion renders it, the caftor, or beaver.‘ 5 but Bochart * takes it to be the hedge-hog; and fo the word is rendered in the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic verfions, and by others; which is a folitary creature, and drives away all other animals from fociety with it, by its prickles: sheir voice foall fing in the windows; of defolate houfes, the inhabitants being gone, who ufed to be feen looking out of them; but now. thefe creatures be-