21 Hear now this, O "foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

26 For among my people people are found wicked men: "they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch

men.

16

27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

28 They are waxen "fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

19

30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

2

31 The prophets prophesy "falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will do in the end thereof?

ye

Verse 1. Broad places.'-This, no doubt, means the market-places, and other spacious areas in the city, where citizens used to meet for doing business with each other.

6. A lion out of the forest....a wolf of the evenings... a leopard,' etc.-A lion is scarcely a beast of the 'forest' in our sense of the term. Its haunt is rather in the burning desert plains and wide karroos, covered only with shrubby vegetation or low brushwood; and such districts are included in the signification of the Hebrew word " ya'ar. here translated forest. We are assured by Campbell and others, who have had much opportunity of observing the habits of the lion, that although its habits are nocturnal, they are much less exclusively so than those of the wolf, being, at least in South Africa, not unfrequently abroad in the daytime. The wolf much more rarely makes its appearance before sunset, and hence the distinct emphasis of the wolf of the evenings. The traveller just named says 'I never, when moving about in Africa, saw more than one wolf stalking about in daylight, and that was in a most forsaken part, where, to a great extent, the land was absolutely paved with flag-stones, the same as the side pavements in our streets; but when night came they were constantly howling and hovering around our encampment. The habit of the leopard, also, is to be slumbering in concealment during the day, but the darkness rouses him, and he comes forth seeking what he may devour. It is of the tiger species, and rather smaller. The text indicates that the wolves and leopards should have the boldness to prowl about their cities, as the wild beasts did about our waggons in the wilderness, so that it should be most hazardous for man or beast to venture outside their walls.' 10. Take away her battlements,' etc.-Instead of 'battlements,' ,' the Vulgate, followed by Blayney and others,

354

reads 'branches,' that is, particularly vine branches, which is certainly the usual meaning given to the word. But as the sense is better sustained by a reference to the walls of Jerusalem, Houbigant and others conclude in favour of that reading which the Seventy must have found in their copies when they translated, Leave her foundations, for they are the Lord's;' so also the Syriac and Arabic. This perhaps produces a clear sense: and it is a fact that the Babylonians did leave the foundations. The same sense may indeed be elicited from our version; for a command to destroy the battlements, because they were not the Lord's, may be understood as equivalent to an order to leave the foundations, because they were the Lord's.

27. A cage is full of birds.-There is no intimation in Scripture that the Hebrews kept singing birds in cages; although it might be hazardous, merely from this silence, to affirm that they did not. That nothing of the kind is here intended, is evident from the fact that the cage is described as full, which would not be the case were the birds kept to amuse by their singing. From this it is possible that the cage was one in which birds intended for food were kept to be fattened, or what we call a penn; and it was thus understood by the Targum, which renders, ‘a house or place of fattening.' It may, however, signify a cage in which birds taken by snares or hawking were put till it was full; and the Seventy, by rendering it a snare, seem to understand that it was a kind of decoy in which birds were put to ensnare others, until, with those already in it and those thus taken, it became full. One of these two last senses seems favoured by the context, and by the manner in which the illustration is applied. The word rendered 'cage' is the same as the basket' of Amos, viii. 1, 2; and, in fact, the cages used in the East are a sort of baskets, usually made from the mid-rib of the palm-frond.

CHAPTER VI.

1 The enemies sent against Judah 4 encourage themselves. 6 God setteth them on work because of their sins. 9 The prophet lamenteth the judgments of God because of their sins. 18 He proclaimeth God's wrath. 26 He calleth the people to mourn for the judgment on their sins.

O YE children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a 'comely and delicate woman.

3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and 'cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.

10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their 'ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

12 And their houses shall be turned unto

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

10

16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find "rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

20 12To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto

me.

21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the 13north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon. horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by

3 Isa. 57. 20. 4 Heb. be loosed, or, disjointed. 5 Chap. 7. 26. 8 Heb. bruise, or, breach. Chap. 3. 3, and 8. 12.

10 Isa. 8. 20. Mal. 4. 4. Luke 16. 29.

12 Isa. 1. 11, and 66. 3. Amos 5. 21. Mic. 6. 6, &c.

Verse 1. Beth-haccerem.'-This name means, literally, 'house of the vineyard.' Jerome says that the place was between Jerusalem and Tekoa. The Targum gives the signification, the house of the valley of vineyards.' This valley perhaps took its name from the town, which may have been on a summit of its confining hills. The valley of Beth-haccerem is also mentioned in the Mishnah, which says that its dust was red, and that it became hard when water was poured upon it. Kimchi understands the word Beth-haccerem to denote a high tower, such as those in which the keepers of vineyards watched. It was evidently some elevated station, a 'sign of fire' kindled on which could be seen afar. The passage clearly shews that it was customary among the Jews, as with other nations, in this manner to telegraph good or evil tidings from tower to tower and mountain to mountain. In the Agamemnon of Eschylus there is a fine passage describing such firesignals, and the process of transmission, with reference to that series which made known in Greece that Troy was taken. The passage is rather long, but does not admit of abridgment.

'Twas Vulcan, sending forth the blazing light
From Ida's grove, and thence along the way
Hither the estafette of fire ran quick:
Fire kindled fire, and beacon spoke to beacon,
Ida to Lemnos, and the Hermæan ridge:
Next Athos, craggy mountain, Jove's own steep,
Took the great torch held out by Vulcan's isle.
Standing sublime, the seas to overcast,

Shone the great strength of the transmitted lamp;
And the bright heraldry of burning pines
Shone with a light all golden like the sun
Rising at midnight on Macistus' watch-tower:
Nor did Macistus not bestir him soon,
Oppress'd with sleep, regardless of his watch;
But kindled fires, and sent the beacon blaze
To distance far beyond Euripus' flood,
To watchmen mounted on Messapian hills:
They answer'd blazing, and pass'd on the news,
The grey heath burning on the mountain top.
And now the fiery unobscured lamp,
At distance far shot o'er Asopus' plain;
And up the steep, soft rising like the moon,
Stood spangling bright upon Citharon's hill.
There rose, to give it conduct on the road,
Another meeting fire; nor did the watch
Sleep at the coming of the stranger light,
But burnt a greater blaze than those before;
Thence o'er the lake Gorgopis stoop'd the light,
And to the mount of Ægiplancton came,

And bade the watch shine forth, nor scant the blaze.
They, burning high with might unquenchable,
Send up the waving beard of fire aloft,

Mighty and huge, so as to cast its blaze
Beyond the glaring promontory steep

Athwart the gulf Saronic all on fire;

Thence stoop'd the light, and reach'd our neighbour watch-tow'r,

Arachne's summit; and from thence derived, Here to the Atrida's palace, comes this light From the long lineage of the Idæan fire.'

SYMMONS.

9. As a grape gatherer into the baskets.'-Harmer doubts that a basket can be intended by the word ↳ sal, since it would not retain the liquor draining from the bruised grapes. But he is mistaken, since close-wrought baskets are still much used by grape-gatherers in even the vine countries of Europe, although sometimes a wooden dosser is employed (see Redding On Wines, p. 25). They are very careful that the grapes shall not be bruised. The form of the baskets in which the Egyptian grape-gatherers put the grapes may be seen in the cuts at the end of Nehemiah.

20. The sweet cane from a far country.'-See the note under Exod. xxx. 23.

29.

The bellows.'-Bellows are scarcely at all used in the East, except by workers of metal. The mouth is there much employed for common purposes, where bellows would be used in England. When a stronger blast was required than could be given by blowing naturally with the mouth, a hollow reed, and subsequently a metal tube, seems to have been at first employed, through which the blast from the mouth was impelled. In the figures of Rosellini, from Egyptian paintings, we sometimes observe such tubes in action, some of them terminating in a sort of funnel. The most complicated and apparently effective implement of this class is shewn in our cut, from Rosellini. The manner of the operation in these bellows is best seen here. The men are heating a vessel over a charcoal fire, to each side of which is applied a pair of bellows. These are worked by the feet, the operator standing upon and pressing them alternately, while he pulls up each exhausted skin by a string he holds in his hand. In one instance the man has left the bellows, which are raised as if full of air; which would imply a knowledge of the valve. Our common bellows, consisting of two boards joined together by a piece of leather, were known very early to the Greeks; and it also appears, from a representation on an ancient Roman lamp, engraved in Montfaucon, that even the wooden bellows were not anciently unknown; although Beckmann affirms that they were invented in the seventeenth (or perhaps the sixteenth) century, by the Germans.

The lead is consumed of the fire, etc.-The description here given by the prophet seems to be very well explained by the process called' cupellation;' in which the precious metal, known to be combined with metals of a baser kind, is put, together with a due proportion of lead, into a shallow crucible, made of burnt bones, called a cupel; after which the fusion or melting of the two metals is effected by exposing them to a considerable degree of heat in a muffle, or a small earthen oven, fixed in the midst of a furnace. The lead, during this exposure, vitrifies or becomes converted into a glassy calx, which dissolves and attracts all the imperfect metals, and leaves the precious

anger.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; "Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

12

23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and "I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and 16 went backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants

17

the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

1

26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.

:

28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth "correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

31 And they have built the "high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

21

32 ¶ Therefore, behold, the days "come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

23

33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

34 Then will I cause to "cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride for the land shall be desolate.

11 Isa. 1. 11. Chap. 6. 20. 15 Or, stubbornness.

20

Amos 5. 21.

2 Kings 23. 10. Chap. 19. 5. Chap. 16. 4, and 34. 20. Hos. 2. 11.

16 Heb. were.

Verse 18. Make cakes to the queen of heaven.'-The heathen writers consider that the first offerings to their gods consisted of the simple products of the field; then, as a further progress, of cakes baked with salt, and honey, oil, and wine; to which, in due course, followed animal sacrifices. Some of the idols, however, always continued to be honoured with cakes only; and others, to whom animal victims were offered, received also offerings of cakes. Horace finely alludes to the practice:

'A graceful cake, when on the hallow'd shrine
Offer'd by hands that know no guilty stain,
Shall reconcile th' offended powers divine,
When bleeds the pompous hecatomb in vain."

The act of these apostate Israelites was thus notoriously

idolatrous; but it may be hard to say whether this cake offering was intended as a substitute for an animal sacrifice, or as a presentation offering, to be laid before the idol, like the shew-bread in the Temple, of which it was perhaps a most profane imitation. Our present cut, from specimens in Mr. Salt's collection, will be considered interesting, as shewing the forms which the Egyptians gave to their cakes, and which probably offer a resemblance to the present and other cakes mentioned in Scripture.

There has been some discussion as to the idol intended by the title of the queen of heaven;' but that it was Ashtaroth, or the moon, is the most common and seems the most probable opinion.

32. They shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.”—