Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Vers. 14-19. In conclusion, the prophet takes away from the city so heavily laden with guilt the last prop to its hope, — namely, reliance upon its fortifications, and the numerical strength of its population. — Ver. 14. " Draw thyself water for the siege! Make thy castles strong! tread in the mire, and stamp in the clay! prepare the brick-kiln! Ver. 15. There will the fire devour thee, the sicord destroy thee, devour thee like the lickers. Be in great multitude like the lickers, be in great multitude like the locusts f Ver. 16. Thou hast made thy merchants more than the stars of heaven; the licker enters to plunder, and flies away. Ver. 17. Thy levied ones are like the locusts, and thy men like an army of grasshoppers which encamp in the hedges in the day of frost; if the sun rises, they are off, and men knoio not their place: where are they V Water of the siege is the drinking water necessary for a long-continued siege. Nineveh is to provide itself with this, because the siege will last a long while. It is also to improve the fortifications (chizzeq as in 2 Kings xii. 8, 13). This is then depicted still more fully. Tit and chomer are used synonymously here, as in Isa. xli. 25. Tit, lit. dirt, slime, then clay and potters clay (Isa. I.e.). Chomer, clay or mortar (Gen. xi. 3), also dirt of the streets (Isa. x. 6, compared with Mic. vii. 10). P^H1"1? to make firm, or strong, applied to the restoration of buildings in Neh. v. 16 and Ezek. xxvii. 9, 27; here to restore, or to put in order, the brick-kiln (malben, a denom. from lebhendh, a brick), for the purpose of burning bricks. The Assyrians built with bricks sometimes burnt, sometimes unburnt, and merely dried in the sun. Both kinds are met with on the Assyrian monuments (see Layard, vol. ii. p. 36 sqq.). This appeal, however, is simply a rhetorical turn for the thought that a severe and tedious siege is awaiting Nineveh. This siege will end in the destruction of the great and populous city. E^, there, sc. in these fortifications of thine, will fire consume thee; fire will destroy the city with its buildings, and the sword destroy the inhabitants. The wh< 1 as a symbol of devastation and destruction! It is true that in the followii • used figure- ilso by no means a rare thing for propheti to give ■ new turn and application to a figure or limile. The thoughl is this: fire i will d N h and its inhabitanti like the all-consuming lo ven though the city itself, with its mass of houses and j> mid resem enormous swarm of hursts in and plund rs. That Nineveh was a very rich© mereial city may he inferred from its position, — namely, just at the poin ing to oriental notions, the east and just as afterward- Mosul, which was situated opposite, became great and powerful through its widely-extended trade (see Tuch, I.e. p. 31 sqq., and Strauss, in loc.)} The meaning of

1 M The point," says 0. Strauss (JVmevefl and the WbrdofOod% Berl 1855, p. 19), " at which Nineveh was situated was certainly the culmi- this verse has been differently interpreted, according to the explanation given to the verb jxisliat. Many, following the

(opfj.7)at anil expantus est of the LXX. and Jerome, give it the meanings to spread out the wing; whilst Credner (on Joel, p.

dressing one's self, and understand it as relating to the shedding of the horny wing-sheaths of the young locusts, liut neither the one nor the other of these explanations can be grammatically sustained. Pdshai never means anything else than to plunder, or to invade with plundering; not even in such pas- SSges as IIos. vii. 1, 1 Chron. xiv. *«) and 13, which Gesenius and Dietrich quote in support of the meaning, to Spread; and the meaning forced upon it by Credner, of the shedding of the wing-sheaths by locusts, is perfectly visionary, and lias merely been invented by him for the purpose of establishing his false interpretation of the different names given to the locusts in Joel i. 4. In the passage before us we cannot understand by the yeleq, which " plunders and flies away" (pdxhat vayyauph)^ the innumerable multitude of the merchants of Nineveh, because they were not able to fly away in crowds out of the besieged city. Moreover, the flying away of the merchants would be quite contrary to the meaning of the whole description, which does not promise deliverance from danger by flight, but threatens destruction. The yeleq is rather the innumerable army of the enemy, which plunders everything, and hurries away with its booty. In ver. 17 the last two clauses of ver. 15 are explained, and the warriors of Nineveh compared to an army of locusts. There is some difficulty caused by the two words ^"3J3p and Tp_pBBy the first of which only occurs here, and the second only once more, viz. in Jer. li. 27, where we meet with it in the singular. That they both denote warlike companies appears to be tolerably certain; but the real meaning cannot be exactly determined. &~\np with dagesh dir., as for example in ^i?P in Ex. xv. 17, is probably derived from ndzar, to separate, and not directly from nezer, a diadem, or na2lr, the crowned person, from which the lexicons, following nating point of the three quarters of the globe — Europe, Asia, and Africa; and from the very earliest times it was just at the crossing of the Tigris by Nineveh that the great military and commercial roads met, which led into the heart of all the leading known lands. "

king of that kingdom, bat a rhetorical personification of the holder of the imperial pov \ I! bepherdi and great men, upon whom tl.merit and del of the kingdom d the rojal conn. and generals.

through th the rulers (Hitzig), neither suiti the context, where the destruction of the army and the haying of the capital in ashes are predicted, nor the object of the whole prophecy, which does not t!. the fall of the kingdom through the car> m of its rulers, but the destruction the kingdom by a hostile army. Nam denotes I in Ps.

Theodoret, Hesselb., Str., and other-). Shdkhan^ a synonym of thdkhabhf to have lain down, to lie quietly (Judg. v. 17), used here of the rest of death. As the shepherds have fallen asleep, the tiock (i.e. th rian people) is scattered upon the mountains and perishes, hecause no one gathers it together. Being scattered upon the mountains, is easily explained from the figure of the flock (cf. Num. xxvii. 17; 1 Kings xxii. 17; Zech. xiii. 7), and implies destruction. The mountains are mentioned with evident reference to the fact that Nineveh is shut in towards the north by impassable mountains. Kehdh, a noun formed from the adjective, the extinction of the wound (cf. Lev. xiii. 6), i.e. the softening or anointing of it. Shebhery the fracture of a limb, is frequently applied to the collapse or destruction of a state or kingdom (e.g. Ps. lx. 4; Lam. ii. 11). ^jnrp HXDj i.e. dangerously bad, incurable is the stroke which thy destruction will all rejoic hear thereof. ~v,:,:,> the ti.iii. which fallen thee. Clapping and destruction of Nineveh (see Spiegel in Ii CycL). But if, according to these testimonies, the might of the

Assyrian empire was not so weakened by Sennacherib's overthrow in Jndahj that any hope could be drawn from that, according to human conjecture, of the speedy destruction of that empire; the prophecy of Nahum concerning Nineveh, which was littered in consequence of that catastrophe, cannot he taken as the production of any human combination: still can it be taken, as Bwald supposes, as referring to ik the first important - of Nineveh, under the Median king

Phraortes | Herod, i. 102)." For Herodotus says nothing about any siege of Nineveh, bat simply speaks of a war between

Phraortes and the Assyrians, in which the former lost his life. Nineveh was not really besieged till the time of Cyaxares (Uwakhshatra), who carried on the war with an incres army, to avenge the death of his father, and forced his way to Nineveh, to destroy that city, but was compelled, by the invasion of Ins own land by the Scythians, to relinquish the siege, and hasten to meet that foe (Her. i. 103). On the extension of his sway, the same Cyaxares commenced a war with the Lydian king Alvattes, which was carried on for five years with alternating success and failure on both sides, and was terminated in the sixth year by the fact, that when the two armies were standing opposite to one another, drawn up in battle array, the day suddenly darkened into night, which alarmed the armies, and rendered the kings disposed for peace. This was brought about by the mediation of the Cilician viceroy Syennesis and the Babylonian viceroy Labynetus, and sealed by the establishment of a marriage relationship between the royal families of Lydia and Media (Her. i. 74). And if this Labynetus was the same person as the Babylonian king Nabopolassar, which there is no reason to doubt, it was not till after the conclusion of this peace that Cyaxares formed an alliance with Nabopolassar to make war upon Nineveh; and this alliance was strengthened by his giving his daughter Amuhea in marriage to Nabopolassar's son Nebuchadnezzar (Nabukudrossor). The combined forces of these two kings now advanced to the attack upon Nineveh, and conquered it, after a siege of three years, the Assyrian king Saracus burning himself in his palace as the besiegers were entering the city. This is the historical kernel of the capture and destruction of Nineveh, which may be taken as undoubted fact from the accounts of Herodotus (i. 106) and the I from

- that time the 1 I his way it md S subduing all S to the £uj tia advance of th< 1.

transferred th< of the army becaase of bu own and infirmity, even to tl E > distinctly

These difficulties would not indeed be sufficient in themselves to overthrow the combination mentioned, provided that the year 610 could be fixed upon with certainty as the time when the Lydio-Median war was brought to a close. But that is not the; and this circumstance is decisive. The eclipse of the sun, which alarmed Cyaxares and Alvattes, and made them disposed for peace, must have been total, or nearly total, in Central Asia and Cappadocia, to produce the effect described. But it has been proved by exact astronomical calculations, that on the 30th September 610 B.C., the shadow of the moon did not

epithet rain, u ■ man who held ti. a prophet From the conclusion to the psalm in ch. iii., 4- T i the leader in the accompaniment to my playio instruments" } we learn that he w« iallyqualii to take part in the liturgical tinging of the temple, and therefore be) the Lei il ho were chan with the maintenance of the temple music, and, like the prophetsJer miah and Ezekiel, who sprang from priestly households, I 1 to the tribe of Levi. This is supported by the

For further particulars as to the apocryphal legends, Delitzsch, l>< tlabaeuei propk, vita atgus cttaU commtntat^ ad. ii., Lpa, l s L3, bakkuk's life. All that can be gathered with any certainty from hii own writings is that he prophesied before the arrival of the Chaldsaani in Palestin before the victory gained by Nebuchadneaaar over Pharaoh Necho at Carchemiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakina (Jer. ilvL 2 i, since he annoances the bringing np of this people to execute judgment upon Judah a- something still in the future (eh. i. 5 sou.). Opinions are divided as to the precise date at which be lived. Leaving out of right the opinions of those who deny the supernatural character of prophecy, and therefore maintain that the prophet did not prophesy till the ( 'haldseans a ere coining against Jerusalem after the defeat of Necho, or had already arrived there, the only question that can arise is, whether Habakknk lived and laboured in the reign of Josiah or in the closing years of Manasseh. Many have found a decisive proof that he lived in the reign of Josiah in eh. i. 5, viz. in the fact that the prophet there foretels the ChaldsBan judgment as a work which God will perform during the lifetime of the persons to whom his words are addressed (ain your days''); and they have inferred from this that we must not at any rate go beyond Josiah's reign, because the prophet is not speaking to the children, but to the adults, i.e. to those who have reached the age of manhood. But the measure of time by which to interpret BIW3 cannot be obtained either from Joel i. 2, where the days of the persons addressed are distinguished from the days of the fathers and grandchildren, or from Jer. xvi. 9 and Ezek. xii. 25; but this expression is quite a relative one, especially in prophetic addresses, and may embrace either a few years only, or a complete lifetime, and even more. Now, as there were only thirty-eight years between the death of Manasseh and the first invasion of the Chaldaeans, the Chaldaean judgment might very well be announced during the last years of that king to the then existing generation as one that would happen in their days. We are precluded from placing the announcement in the time immediately preceding the appearance of the Chaldaeans in Hither Asia, say in the first years of Jehoiakim or the closing

'2. Tin. Hook oi Habauuk contains neither a collection of oracles, nor the condensation into one discourse of the essential contents of several prophetic addresses, but one single prophecy arranged in two parts. In the first part (ch. i. and ii.), under the form of a conversation between God and the prophet, we have first of all an announcement of the judgment which God is about to bring upon the degenerate covenant this as a sec tition for help, is not merely an exprcaaion of the let's I reonal desire fur the removal of the prevailing mrighteon | but the prophet laments, in the name of the righteous, i.e. the believers in the nation, who had to suffer

I. ok roun<l. whether any such judgment has ever occurred;" hut. •• L k ibont an the nations, for it is thence that the terrible storm will burst that is about to come upon you" (cf. Jcr. xxv. 32, xiii. 2 The first and ordinary view, in support of which Lam. i. 12,

settled there, they affei i grew into a cultivated people, and as a conquering nation e\ i^reat influence in the history of the world, simply rests upon a most precarioa prctation of an obscure pi in Isaiah (Isa. xxiii. 18), and thai which is vain an«l worthh - Hos. xii. _. cf. J< bat not for mischief.

th< r Be will do thi punish; not that he baa any doubt on the bat that he shows bo ill into despair on account of die great calamity which it I': • i Dgfa Faith star Is firm,..;i(l

■pie shall not perish- This hope rests upon two foundations: viz. (1) from time immemorial Jehovah is Israel's God; and

1 '" Ti 7" Calvin, " whoever desires to fight bravely with the Ungodly, let him first settle the matter with God Himself, and, as it were, confirm and ratify that treaty which God has set before us, namely, that we are His people, and He will be a God to us in return. And because God makes a covenant with us in this manner, it is necessary that our faith should be well established, that we may go forth to the conflict with all the ungodly."

the fact that in ym. 2 and 3 the prophet describes the moral; raviry of Israel in the same words as those which he here applies to the conduct of the Chalda-ans. The persons intended are rather the godly portion of Israel, who have to share in the expiation of the sins of the ungodly, and suffer when they are punished (Delitzsch). This fact, that the righteous is swallowed his enterprii r this capture of men, and sacrifices and burns in. he attributes to the m which he has emp] »yed the honour due to G< L There is no allusion in these words to the custom of the Scythian and S iromatians, who are said by Herodotus (iv« D) to have symbol of Mars. What the Chaldsaan made into his god, is ezpr. in wr. 11, namely, his own ] ower, M He who boasts of a thing, and is glad and joyous on account of it, hut does not thank the trw 1 -!. makes himself into an idol, gives himself the glory, and docs not rejoice in God, hut in his own m t, for thereby (~v-~-. by net and yarn) his portion {chelqti) is fat, Le, the portion of this booty which falls to him, and fat is his food (nK"P is a neuter Substantive). The meaning is, that lie thereby attains to wealth and prosperity. In vcr. 17 there is appended to this the question embracing the thought: Shall he therefore, because he rejoices over his rich booty, or offers sacrifice to his net, empty 1. to throw it in afresh, and proceed continually to destroy nations in so unsparing a manner? In the last clause the figure passes OVOT into a literal address. The place of the imperfect is now taken by a periphrastic construction witli the infinitive: Shall lie constantly be about to slay? On this construction, see Ges. § 132, 3, Anm. 1, and Ewald, § 237, c. ^En* N? is a subordinate clause appended in an adverbial sense: unsparingly, without sparing.

After receiving an answer to this supplicatory cry, the prophet receives a command from God: to write the oracle in plain characters, because it is indeed certain, but will not be immediately fulfilled (vers. 1-3). Then follows the word of God, that the just will live through his faith, but he that is proud and not upright will not continue (vers. 4, 5); accompanied by a fivefold woe upon the Chaldaean, who gathers all nations to himself with insatiable greediness (vers. 6-20).

Vers. 1-3 form the introduction to the word of God, which

P™0 kkuk, predicts the ju upon the power of the world, which the ' h will bring to completion.

f in an insatiable manner, as in ch. i. 6, 7, ami 1."; 17. Tb< -ss the contii ithering op of the form two larger divisions, by a re/rain which closes the first and fourth, as well as by the promise explanatory of the threat in which the third and fifth strophes terminate; of which two divisions the first threatens the judgment of retribution upon the insatiableness of the Chaldaean in three woes (ver. 5b), and the second in two woes the judgment of retribution upon his um« fundamental thought a* that tipfeanml by J«a »h in Iaa. aldaen, rit thr description of his pri.1 Fettl itaelf in a un led upon the ruins of the pto-

The reaembtaaot between the eon' is strophe and the woe pronounced upon Jeboiakim

»ccd beyond all possible doubt ban the devastation of Lebanon it also attributed to I at it is I our propoecy.

x. 1). At the same time, it might be taken as a simple declaration in itself, though still standing ander the influence of the kOi; in which cas I K*" would have to be supplied in thought, like KDtrn in ver. 10. And even in this instance the sentence is not subordinate to the preceding one, as Luther follows Rashi in assuming ("and still only heaps much slime upon him ll Si 00- parallelism i rthrow of the Chald by nations that I not been subdued But, as I h lias correctly obsen this view makes the prophet contradict not only himself, but the whole of the prophetic view of the world-wide dominion of Nebuchadnezzar. According to ver. 5o, the Chaldaan has grasped to himself the dominion over all nations, and consequently there cannot be any nations left that he has not plundered. Moreover, the Chaldsean, or Nebuchadnezzar as the head of the Chaldaean kingdom, appears in prophecy (Jer xxvii. 7, 8), as he does in history (Dan. ii. 38, iii. 31, v. 19; throughout, as the ruler of the world in the highest sense, who

Ul -"- ■'". tap, bia (the Chaldsean's) nest, is neither his capital nor his palace or royal; but the setting op of his nest on high is a Bgore denoting the founding of his government, ami securing it against attacks. As the eagle builds its n on high, to protect it from harm (cf. Job xxxix. 27), so d the Chaldsean seek to elevate and strengthen his rule by robbery and plunder, that it may never be wrested from his family

more fully led in the ition of the wrong, we ha at that it is of Jehovah, is onli'ivd or inflicted by Him, that the nations wearv them-

The 1 before W\ introduces the declara-. of what it is that comes fr m Jehovah. Wl Kfcn (is it

fied with robbing men and nations, and with oppn and ill-treating them, the Chaldsean committed wickedness upon the cedars and cypresses also, and the wild animals of Lebanon,

I will a] to manifest II implied in the words, K He it in H ouch as the holj temj Inch He I and Ruler world, and from which B the

Him, submit silently I i Him, and wait for His judgment Com] Zeph. i. 7 and Zech. ii. 1 7, where the same command i> borro from this | I to the expectation of judgment.

DH is hardly an j -?, but an interjection, from which the verb hdsdh is formed, But if the whole earth mutt ■ silence when He appears as Judge, it is all over with the vered in the greatest excitement, or with a rapid chancre of emotion, dkhyrammu (see Clanaa on Ps, vii. 1 j EwalcL Delitzach, and others); }. Vt&& ^ after dithyrambs, or lyrical ode, which is the outpouring of the heart of the con. gation, a revelation of what G< 1 Himself had not revealed to him ling to ch. ii. 3. Nevertheless the view which lies at the foundation of this application of our passage, viz. that the work of God, for the manifestation of which the prophet is praying, falls in the centre of the years of the world, has this deep truth, that it exhibits the overthrow not only of the im-

Id, and daah to pit the wicked wh. to destroy the poor. The introduction to this description b closely connected with Dent xxxiii. 8« As M lea depicts tl. tnce of the Lord at Sinai as a light differences, he changes the preterite N2 (Jehovah came from Sinai) into the future iftajj He will come, or comes, to indicate at the very outset that he is about to describe not a past, but a future revelation of the glory of the Lord. This he sees in the form of a theophany, which is fulfilled before his mental eye; hence W2J does not describe what is future, as being absolutely so, but is something progressively unfolding itself from the trembling; but it denotes the accusative j: and fJKfl the does will His gl or j but it is the pi therefore to "on both sid " I' Litxt th). As the disc of the sun is raOTOUnded by a splendid radiance, 10 the coming of supposed when it is affirmed of Moses, tliat on coining from the presence of Jehovah his face was radiant, or emitted r '""*. Ex. xxxiv. 29, 30). This interpretation of the words is established beyond all doubt, not only by the faWO of the original passage in Deut. xxxiii. 2, but also by the expressions hi do thou f any i f the earth, and it cann< I wn that i 1 in the of with tli. M the

>lve themselves into dust, and the hills sink down, pass away, and vanish (compare the similar description in Nahum in parallelism with D^y rrfyai} are the primeval mountains, as being the oldest and firmest constituents of the globe, which have existed from the beginning py *3D, Job xx. 4), and were formed at the creation of the earth (Ps. xc. 2; Job xv. 7;

To the.1 the n by the in \ i ■. v ii of t! ution of the judgment that Thy wrai ' thai 7 pon Thy hero equipped for conflict* so thai he aska Him what is the object of 11 wrath. The question u merely ■ poetical turn given to ■ lively composition, which and is simply introduced to forth the greatni I the wrath of

1 i is kindled over the rivers, His fury over the sea. The first clause ft" tin- question is imperf d: Jehovah u not the subject, but a vocative, or an appeal, sine ft, when predicated of G xmstrued with ^. The subject follows in the double clause, into which the question divides itself, in IBM an. I Vrov* Here the indefinite trnm is defined by tnnia, Hann'hdrimj the rivers, are not any particular riven, such as the arms of the Nile in Lower Egypt, or the rivers of Ethiopia, the Nile and Astaboras, the }t<r/t<)rc KhdsA (Isa. xviii. 1; Zeph. iii. 10: see Delitzsch), hut the rivers of the earth generally; and "the sea" (hayydm) is not the Eted Sea, hut the world-sea, as in Nahum i. 4 (ef. Ps. lxxxix. 10, Job xxxviii. 8). It is true that this description rests upon the two facts of the miraculous dividing of the Ped Sea and of the Jordan (Ex. xv. 18; Ps. cxiv. 3, 5); but it rises far above these to a description of God as the Judge of the world, who can smite in His wrath not only the sea of the world, but all the rivers of the earth. rnap is stronger than ^K, the wrath which passes over, or breaks through every barrier. Kl, quod, explaining and assigning the reason for the previous question. The riding upon horses is not actual riding, but driving in chariots with horses harnessed to them, as the explanatory words "thy chariots" fprosno) clearly shows, and as rdkhahh (to ride) always signifies when predicated of God (cf. Deut. xxxiii. 26, Ps. Ixviii. 34, civ.,3). Y'shudh is governed by marlfblwtliekhd, with the freedom of construction allowed in poetry, as in

2 Sam. xxii. 33, Ps. lxxi. 7, whereas in prose the noun is generally repeated in the construct state (vid. Gen. xxxvii. 23, and Ewald, § 291, b). Yeshudh signifies salvation, even in this case, and not victory, — a meaning which it never has, and which

I will make mine arrows drank with blood, and my i the blood of the slain and the captiv n the hairy bead of the enemy.91 That Habakknk ably evident, if we compare «jrrcn ~}2 in ver. 11 with •Tin prja in Dent xxxii. 41, and observe the allusion in PBH rVSB 'J'Ni and vrm thh in Ten. 18 and 14 to 3$K rrtpia a%h in Dent xxxii. 42. From this promise the words of the prophet, which are so enigmatical in themselves, obtain the requisite light to

. from th- ment of the flood* Ver, LO and /<) point! to th;> divine judgment of the olden time, both the coming of the thou I i an waters i. xlix. 2">: Dent ixxiiL 13), the at the flood (Gen. til 11 i; and n<>t the ocean of n9aa viii. '21. To this maai of water, which is called t'hom from its ing depth, the prophet attri1. which it utters,

-.press the loud, mighty roaring of the waters as they rush fortli from the bursting earth. As at the time of the flood, which was a type of the last judgment (Isa. xxiv. 18), the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep were opened, so that the upper and lower waters, which are divided by the firmament, rushed together again, and the earth returned, as it were, to its condition before the second day of creation; so lxxxix. 39. ' iii Pa, cv. 15 it is not the fa I who are also irrtto is the divinely-anointed king of Israel; not, however, this or that historical king— say Josiah, Jehoiakim, or even Jehoiachin— but the Davidic king absolutely, including corners for the defenceless traveller, and look forward with rejoicing for the moment when they may be able to murder him.

. in a >imilar way, viz. as;i conjunction with the verb in the first person, in Ezek. xxix. 29, A | A, to rest, not to rest in the grave ( Lather and others), nor to h mi quietly ox endure

G. Maurer), but to wait quietly or silently. For it could hardly occasion such consuming pain to a God-fearing man as that which the prophet experienced, to bear misfortune quietly,

5 (set? at rate are also formed from rcminjsoeneea of Pa. rriii.: the first clan

■ of v. -. -, so as to enable him to make a sudden attack upon the enemy, a» nue him \

:\ which the Lord had placed him, by giving him the victorv OTOf fa:nies» An<l Hahakkuk uses tin itive raeaion in the same sense) with the simple ohangi:~-v:r into,::~" iftar Dent dddiL 89, to ml for the beetow- neither as signifying the high places of the enemy, nor the high places at home, nor high places generally. The figure must be taken as a whole; and according to this, it simply denotes the ultimate triumph of the people of God over all oppression on the part of the power of the world, altogether apart from the o-. and the Shera by a short vowel which is regulated by the full vowel that follow-; they have also changed the a into o, a< in the ease of ToBoXlov for Gfdalydh in ch. i. 1. Nothing further is known concerning the prophet's life. The state-

• ] nah'i reformation," as a well-founded one. According to to more | iccoont given in the Cbronicli, J< nab com meneed the reformation of worship in the twelfth year of his reign (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3-7), and in the eighteenth year be had the temple repaired It was then that the book of the law was discovered, the reading of which affected the king so much, that he not only appointed a solemn passover, but after the rated y presupposes the o the trin;..\::.j., it can only have been uttered after the

:iat when human efforts have done their utmost ajithosjt securing the desired result, Jehovah poses » follows with t. by the form, inasmti thought in ch. i. 18, M Ail the earth shall he devoured by the fire of Hi> whole earth, upon all the heathen nations, and upon Judah and Jerusalem, in the followii ler: In the first part of his prophecy be tin*. h of the judgment upon

1 1 i in. The remnant I 1 rael * ill be m into a humble nation oi 1 1 tin- destruction of the wicked ind being ihelb red by il G 1, it will • •• in undisturbed happiness, and be exalted to " i d in their totalil picturei Il Ith the announcement rsal judgment upon the whole world,

I of nations on account of i:: J hovah; but it treats throughout of the and terrible d • th, on which the fire of the wrath the whole earth (ch. i. 14-18, ii. 2, iii. <s). But the judgment, as a revelation of the wrath of God on account of the general corruption of the world, does not form the centre of gravity or the sole object of the whole of the predictions of our prophet. The end and goal at which they aim are rather the establishment of divine righteousness in the earth, and the judgment is simply the means and the way by which this the aim of all the development of the world's history is to be realized. This cornea clearly out in the second ami third sections. Jehovah will manifest Himself terribly to the nations, to destroy all the gods of the earth, that all the islands of the nations may worship Him (eh. ii. 11). By pouring out His wrath upon nations and kingdoms, Ho will turn to the peoples a pure lip, BO that they will Call upon His name and serve Him with one shoulder (iii. 8, 9). The idolaters, the wicked, and the despisers of God will be destroyed out of Judah and Jerusalem, that the righteousness of Jehovah may come to the day (iii. 1-7). The humble, who do God's righteousness, are to seek Jehovah, to strive after righteousness and humility, and to wait for the Lord, for the day when lie will arise, to procure for Himself worshippers of His name anions the nations through the medium of the judgment, and to gather together His dispersed people, and make the remnant of Israel into a sanctified and blessed people of God (iii. 11-20).

It is in this comprehensive character of his prophecy that we find the reason why Zephaniah neither names, nor minutely describes, the executors of the judgment upon Judah, and even in the description of the judgment to be inflicted upon the heathen nations (ch. ii. 4-15) simply individualizes the idea of " all the nations of the earth," by naming the nearer and more remote nations to the west and east, the south and north of Judah. He does not predict either this or that particular judgment, but extends and completes in comprehensive generality the judgment, by which God maintains His kingdom on the earth. This peculiarity in Zephaniah's prophecy has been correctly pointed out by Bucer (in his commentary, 1528), when he says of the book before us: u If any one wishes all the secret oracles of the prophets to be given in a brief compendium, let him read through this brief Zephaniah." There are many respects in which Zephaniah links his prophecy to those of the earlier prophets, both in subject-matter and expression; not, however, by resuming those prophecies of theirs which had not been fulfilled, or were not exhausted, during the period of the Assyrian judgment upon the nations, and announcing a fresh and more perfect fulfilment of them by the Chaldseans, but by reproducing in a compendious form the fundamental thoughts

'• by M ind the earli< the dispersion of the whole nation among the heathen. On tl and of the doni the Romans, which an fter it and took its place, and in whose | m r Jo lah oontinned the retorn of one portion of the exiles to the land of their fat] and after the ration of the temple and the city of Jenno daring the Persian rul | that the city of God trodden down by the heathen even to the time of th< -ruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, whereby the desolation of the holy land, which continues to the present day, was produced, and the dispersion of the Jews to all quarters of the globe accomplished, and both land and people were laid under the ban, from which Israel can only be liberated by its conversion to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all nations, and from which it will assuredly be redeemed by virtue of the promise of the faithful covenant God. For the exegetical literature, aee my Lehrbuch der Einleitung, pp. 305-6.

Vera, 4 7. The judgment coming upon the whole earth with all its inhabitants will fall I.lv upon Jodah and the remnant 0 MM of the consecrate with the priests. Ver. 5. And thou who wcreJna the army of heaven upon the roofs, and the worshippers who swear to Jehovah. and who swtar Ini their kinrj. Ver. 6. And those who draw back from Jehovah, and laftfl <& not seek Jehovah, and did not inquire

Jehovah, drawing hack from Him, turning the back upon God, is just the same as not seeking Jehovah, or not inquiring after Him. The persons referred to are the religiously indifferent, those who do not trouble themselves about God, the despisers of God.

This judgment will speedily come. Ver. 7. "Be silent before the Lord Jehovah! For the day of Jehovah is near, for Jehovah has prepared a slaying of sacrifice, He has consecrated His called" The command, " Be silent before the Lord," which is formed after Hab. ii. 20, and with which the prophet summons to humble, silent submission to the judgment of God, serves to confirm the divine threat in vers. 2-6. The reason for the commanding Hush! (keep silence) is given in the statement that the day of Jehovah is close at hand (compare Joel i. 15), and that God has already appointed the executors of the judgment. The last two clauses of the verse are formed from reminiscences taken from Isaiah. The description of the judg- tMat "■ that d the Egyptian in thefa of those who adopted for ind conform 1 thero-

BOt for estemab of this kind, hut it vident to them that 4 H the dress, so t! rt f that is to say, the dot! re witneam in their eel of the n inclinations of the heart." In ver. 9a many commentators find a condemnation of an idolatrous use of foreign customs; regarding the leaping over the threshold as an imitation of the priests of Da^on, who adopted the custom, according to 1 Sam. v. 5, of leaping over the threshold when they entered the temple of that idol. But an imitation of that custom could only take place in temples of Dagon, and it appears perfectly inconceivable that it should have been transferred to the threshold of the king's palace, unless the king was regarded as an incarnation of Dagon,— a thought which could never enter the minds of Israelitish idolaters, since even the Philistian kings did not hold themselves to be incarnations of their idols. If we turn to the second hemistich, the thing condemned is the filling of their masters' houses with violence; and this certainly does not stand in any conceivable of Jerusalem by Titus, i can no doubt that similar things occurred at the Chalds n-

QUest The ex; d to search with candle- (cf. Luke xv. 8)

jure denoting the most minute search of the dwelling and hiding-places of the despisers of God. These are described M men who sit drawn together upon their lees (KB{^ lit. to draw one's self together, to coagulate). The figure is borrowed from

furthnear approa I u-rrible character of the

l For neither the majeaty erf God, nor H» poruiiBMl or glory, eoontoto in M9 imaginary aplandoor. but in altogether hey cannot be nevered fro: *ence, It is tna

the wo: *ke care of the human ra

. ween good and m the wretched, to pumah all

Crimea, to reatrain unjust Tiolence »« would d, xl of

othing but ao idoL"— Calvul

of the walls of the fortifications (2 Chron. xxvi. 1

In the midst of this tribulation the sinners will perish without counsel or help. Yer. 17. "And J make it strait and tlteij will walk like blind men, because they have sinned ayainst of Jehovah's wrath." The summons in ver. 1 is addressed to the whole of Judah or Israel. The verb A, possibly saved (cf. Amos v, 1 low still tion to the threat of ji. at commencing with ito in As the mentioning of the nanus of the four Philistian caj at Josh. xiii. 3) is simply an individualizi; for the Philistian territory and people, so the 111 of Philistia are mentioned primarily for the pur. I indivi- arti •!•, is not the mbject; for, if it. it would at least have had the article. It is rather a | subject in be supplied from ver. n*: uThe Philistian tract of land by tlie i will become a tract ot land or possession for the remnant of the house of Judah, the portion of the people of God rescued on Amos i. I -: 7} it things agu threat of punishment is announced in rer, 8 as i: a solemn oatl ihall > them as to plunder, but they will make them into their own propertj slaves (cf. Isa. xiv. 2, lxi. 5). jfc is ^3 with the suffix of tin- first person, only one of the two being written. In ver. 10 the

Zion (Hitsig) i bat their going to Jerusalem ii implied in the ana (from), though it is not brought prominentia out, i unessential to the thought With regard to the fulfilment, Bueer has correctly observed, that u the worship of Jekovah on the part of the heathen is not secured without sanguinary wars, that the type may not be tak<n for the fact itself, and the shadow for the body.... But the true completion of the whole in the kingdom 0f Christ takes place here in spirit and in faith, whilst in the future age it will be consummated in all its reality and in full fruition." Theodoret, on the other hand, is too one-sided in his view, and thinks only of the conversion of

1 that this ki. boi to the from I rth, it is r 1 by the ts as situated in the north. On v If, see

~"-,_-, in the midst of the city which has 1" rt, there but *(T\ r. literally of all the animals of tl. a) nation.

The meaning can onlv he, "all kinds of animals in crowds or in a mass.91 ^J is used here for the mass of animals, just as it is in Joel i. 6* for the multitude of locusts, and as Ey is in Prov. xxx. 35, 3G for the ant-people; and the genitive is to be taken as in apposition. Ever}' other explanation is exposed to much greater objections and difficulties. For the form ^n^n^ see at Gen. i. 24. Pelicans and hedgehogs will make their homes in the remains of the ruined buildings (see at Isa. xxxiv. 11, on ciou lit in its ruin. v. I,a common man: the band, embodyio light, "Away with her, she has ti«»n to repentance, the prophet tarns to J< rn il< m a tin, that be maj hold op I the hardened sinners the ns of this city, in which Jehovah daily proclaims His right, and shows the ity for the judgment, as the only way that is left by which I >n for I led in ver. 1 is indisputably i f from the explanation which follows in vera. 2-4 of the predic pplied to the city addressed in ver. 1. By the position of the indeterminate licates ninto and r\J<- l> fore the subject to which the hoi. the threat acquires greater emphasis, ntrrto is not formed from the hophal i t ~^~ (eVi^uvifc, LX X., (!j r., Cocc), hut is the participle hal of n^o = mo or mo t<> straighten one's self, and hold ones self against B person, hence to be rebellious Delitzsch on Job, vol. ii. p. 2, note). *V{03, stained with sins and abominations (cf. Isa. lix. 3). Yondk does not mean columba, but oppressive (as in Jer. xlvi. 16, 1. 16, and xxv. 38), as a participle of ydndh to oppress (cf. Jer. xxii. 3). These predicates are explained and vindicated in vers. 2-4, viz. first of all ntnio in ver. 2. She gives no heed to the voice, sc. of God in the law and in the words of the prophets (compare Jer. vii. 28, where ni.T pip occurs in the repetition of the first hemistich). The same thing is affirmed in the second clause, " she accepts no chastisement." These two clauses describe the

the nation sunk in unrighteousness, knows no disgrace, to mal b> ashamed of its miad i r. 6 Jehovah n introduced as speaking, to set before the nations in the most rnipTesah manner the judgments in which He has manifested His righteousness. The two hemistichs are formed uniformly, tion to (ch, ii. 3), to seek the Lord and His right Thfl Lord calls npon them, to wait for Him.

lai/liuvdh is only used for waiting in a believing attitude for the Lord and I lis help (Ps. xxxiii. 20: I^a. viii. 17, xxx. 18, lxiv. 3), The ll is still more precisely defined by fU1 Diy, for the day of my rising up for prey. TJJ? does not mean eU fiaprvpiov ■=*!£? (LXX., Syr.), or for a witness (fiitzig), which does not even yield a suitable thought apart from the alteration in the pointing, unless we " combine with the witness the accuser and judge" (Hitzig), or, to speak more correctly, make the witi interprete I it after Jewish comment who referred the words to the coming of tl. iah, "who m the] hope will

. will devoor the earth with the fire 11/ il when tl. ithered together, and the fury

(iod will gather together the nat! 1 sift and convert them by severe judgmental To give the reason for the terrible character and universality of the judgment, the thought is repeated from ch. i. 18 that u all the earth shall be devoured in the fire of His real." In what follows, the aim and fruit of the judgment are given; and this forms an introduction to the announcement of salvation.

The confessors of His name, whom the Lord will procure for Himself among the nations through the medium of the judgment, will offer to Him 1 1 is dispersed nation as a sacrifice (vers. 0, 10). And the rescued remnant of Israel, in their humility, will trust in the Lord, and under the pastoral fidelity of their God have no more foe to fear, but rejoicing in the blessed fellowship of the Lord, be highly favoured and glorified (vers. 11-20).