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Conquest of the Assyrians

A. M. cir. 3262.

B. C. cir. 742.

Anno Olymp.

Nonæ 3. Ante Urbem Conditam 12.

C

ISAIAH.

witnesses to record, Uriah the
priest, and Zechariah the son of
Jeberechiah.

over Israel predicted.

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Roman, 13.

3 And I went unto the pro-refuseth the waters of Shiloah
that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Re-
maliah's son ;

phetess; and she conceived, and bare a son.
Then said the LORD to me, Call his name
Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

e

7 Now therefore, behold, the LORD bringeth

4 For before the child' shall have know-up upon them the waters of the river, strong

ledge to cry, My father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

c2 Kings xvi. 10.—d Heb.approached unto. See ch. vii. 16. Or, he that is before the king of Assyria shall take away the eleventh chapter, setting forth the kingdom of Messiah, is closely connected with the tenth, which foretells the destruction of Sennacherib. So likewise the destruction of nations, enemies to God, in the thirty-fourth chapter, introduces the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ in the thirty-fifth. And thus the chapters from xl. to xlix. inclusive, plainly relating to the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, do in some parts plainly relate to the greater deliverance by Christ.

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a workman's instrument, to distinguish it from cheret ishshah, an instrument of the same name, used by the women. In this manner he was to record the prophecy of the destruction of Damascus and Samaria by the Assyrians; the subject and sum of which prophecy is here expressed with great brevity in four words, 12 n bhun maher shalal hash baz; i. e., to hasten the spoil, to take quickly the prey; which are afterwards applied as the name of the prophet's son, who was made a sign of the speedy completion of it; Verse 1. Take thee a great roll-" Take unto thee Maher-shalal-hash-baz; Haste-to-the-spoil, Quick-toa large mirror"] The word r gillayon is not regu-the-prey. And that it might be done with the greater larly formed from 41 galal, to roll, but from 1 galah, solemnity, and to preclude all doubt of the real delivery as 17 pidyon from padah, killayon from of the prophecy before the event, he calls witnesses to

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII.

.elyon attest the recording of it עליין ,nakah נקה nikkayon from נקיון ,calah כלה

the spoil; fall upon the prey. The great volume points out the land of Judea; and the few words the small number of inhabitants, after the ten tribes were carried into captivity.

i.

cherot enosh,

The words were to be written with a man's pen ; e., though the prophecy be given in the visions of God, yet the writing must be real; the words must be transcribed on the great roll, that they may be read and publicly consulted. Or, the pen or graver of the weak miserable man, may refer to the already condemned Assyrians, who though they should be the instruments of chastening Damascus and Samaria, should themselves shortly be overthrown. The four words may be considered as the commission given to the Assyrians to destroy and spoil the cities. Make haste to the spoil; Full upon the prey, &c.

from hy alah, &c., the yod supplying the place of the The prophet is commanded to take a great roll, radical he. galah signifies to show, to reveal; and yet four words only are to be written in it. properly, as Schroederus says, (De Vestitu Mulier. 13 maher shalal hash baz, Make haste to Hebr. p. 294,) to render clear and bright by rubbing; to polish. gillayon, therefore, according to this derivation, is not a roll or volume: but may very well signify a polished tablet of metal, such as was anciently used for a mirror. The Chaldee paraphrast renders it by luach, a tablet, and the same word, though somewhat differently pointed, the Chaldee paraphrast and the rabbins render a mirror, chap. iii. 23. The mirrors of the Israelitish women were made of brass finely polished, Exod. xxxviii. 8, from which place it likewise appears that what they used were little hand mirrors which they carried with them even when they assembled at the door of the tabernacle. I have a metalline mirror found in Herculaneum, which is not above three inches square. The prophet is commanded to take a mirror, or brazen polished tablet, not like these little hand mirrors, but a large one; large enough for him to engrave upon it in deep and lasting characters, I becheret enosh, with a workman's graving tool, the prophecy which he was to deliver. n chcret in this place certainly signifies an instrument to write or engrave with: but charit, the same word, only differing a little in the form, means something belonging to a lady's dress, chap. iii. 22, (where however five MSS. leave out the yod, whereby only it differs from the word in this place,) either a crisping-pin, which might be not unlike a graving tool, as some will have it, or a purse, as others infer from 2 Kings v. 23.

Verse 4. For before the child] For my father and my mother, one MS. and the Vulgate have his father and his mother. The prophecy was accordingly ac complished within three years; when Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, went up against Damascus and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin, and also took the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and carried them captive to Assyria, 2 Kings xv. 29; xvi. 9; 1 Chron. v. 26.

Verse 6. Forasmuch as this people refuseth" Because this people have rejected"] The gentle waters

Exhortation to

A. M. cir. 3263.
B. C. cir. 741.

cir. annum

CHAP. VIII.

8 And he shall pass through 10 Take counsel together, Olymp. IX. 4. Judah; he shall overflow and go and it shall come to naught; Romuli, Regis over, he shall reach even to the speak the word, Roman., 13. neck; and the stretching out not stand: for of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy us. land, O Immanuel.

9 • Associate yourselves, O ye people, P and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, (and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

1 Chap. xxx. 28. Heb. the fulness of the breadth of thy land shall be the stretchings out of his wings.- Chapter vii. 14. • Joel iii. 9, 11.-P Or, yet.

and it shall God is with

trust in Goa.

A. M. cir. 3268.

B. C. cir. 741.

Olymp. IX. 4. Romuli, Regis

cir. annum

Roman., 13.

t

11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom "this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

4 Job v. 12.
39; Rom. viii. 13.-
1 Pet. iii. 14, 15.
Archbishop Secker approves this reading. w deu,
know ye this, is parallel and synonymous to "
haazinu, give ear to it, in the next line. The Septua-
gint have likewise very well paraphrased the conclu
sion of this verse: "When ye have strengthened
yourselves, ye shall be broken; and though ye again
strengthen yourselves, again shall ye be broken;" tak-
ing in chottu as meaning the same with 1, ye
shall be broken.

Chap. vii. 7.- Chap. vii. 14; Acts v. 38,
Heb. in strength of hand.- Lu Ch. vii. 2.

of Shiloah, a small fountain and brook just without Je-
rusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the
use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state
of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced. in
its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of
God; and is finely contrasted with the waters of the
Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of
the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring
down like a mighty flood upon all these apostates of
both kingdoms, as a punishment for their manifold ini-
quities, and their contemptuous disregard of his pro-
mises. The brook and the river are put for the king-
doms to which they belong, and the different states of
which respectively they most aptly represent, Juve-gate.
nal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the
importation of Asiatic manners, says, with great ele-
gance, that "the Orontes has been long discharging.
itself into the Tiber:"-

Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes.
And Virgil, to express the submission of some of the
Eastern countries to the Roman arms, says :-

Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis.

Æn. viii. 726. "The waters of the Euphrates now flowed more humbly and gently.”

But the happy contrast between the brook and the river gives a peculiar beauty to this passage of the prophet, with which the simple figure in the Roman poets, however beautiful, yet uncontrasted, cannot contend. Verse 8. He shall reach even to the neck] He compares Jerusalem, says Kimchi, to the head of the human body. As when the waters come up to a man's neck, he is very near drowning, (for a little increase of them would go over his head,) so the king of Assyria coming up to Jerusalem was like a flood reaching to the neck-the whole country was overflowed, and the capital was in imminent danger. Accordingly the Chaldee renders reaching to the neck by reaching to Jerusalem.

Verse 9. Associate yourselves—“ Know ye this"] God by his prophet plainly declares to the confederate adversaries of Judah, and bids them regard and attend to his declaration, that all their efforts shall be in vain. The present reading, wrou, is subject to many difficulties; I follow that of the Septuagint, w deu, yvwrε.

Verse 11. With a strong hand-"As taking me by the hand"] Eleven MSS., (two ancient,) of Kennicott's, thirty-four of De Rossi's, and seven editions, read pin kechezkath; and so Symmachus, the Syriac, and 'Vul

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Or rather with a strong hand, that is, with a strong and powerful influence of the prophetic Spirit. Verse 12. Say ye not, A confederacy-"Say ye not, It is holy"]p kesher. Both the reading and the sense of this word are doubtful. The Septuagint manifestly read up kashah; for they render it by oxλnpov, hard. The Syriac and Chaldee render it merda, and 15 merod, rebellion. How they came by this sense of the word, or what they read in their copies, is not so clear. But the worst of it is, that neither of these readings or renderings gives any clear sense in this place. For why should God forbid his faithful servants to say with the unbelieving Jews, It is hard; or, There is a rebellion; or, as our translators render it, a confederacy? And how can this be called "walking in the way of this people ?" ver. 11, which usually means, following their example, joining with them in religious worship. Or what confederacy do they mean? The union of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel against Judah? That was properly a league between two independent states, not an unlawful conspiracy of one part against another in the same state; this is the meaning of the word op kesher. want of any satisfactory interpretation of this place that I can meet with, I adopt a conjecture of Archbishop Secker, which he proposes with great diffidence, and even seems immediately to give up, as being destitute of any authority to support it. I will give it in his own words:" Videri potest ex cap. v. 16, et hujus cap. 13, 14, 19, legendum p vel vip kadosh, eadem sententia, quan Eloheynu, Hos. xiv. 3. Sed nihil necesse est. Vide enim Jer, xi. 9; Ezek. xxii. 25. Optime tamen sic responderent huic versiculo versiculi 13, 14." The passages of Jeremiah

For

Exhortation to

A. M. cir. 3263.
B. C. cir. 741.
Olymp. IX. 4.

cir. annum

Romuli, Regis
Roman., 13.

ISAIAH.

13 w
Sanctify the LORD of
hosts himself; and let him be
your fear, and let him be your
dread.

14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many among them shall a stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

16.

8.

trust in God.

A. M. cir. 3263.

B. C. cir. 741.

Olymp. IX. 4.

cir. annum

Romuli, Regis

Roman., 13.

hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. 19 And when they shall say unto you, Scek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards' that peep, and that mutter : should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

20 To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word, it is

17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that because there is no light in them.

w Num. xx. 12. Psa. lxxvi. 7; Luke xii. 5.-y Ezek. xi. Chap. xxviii. 16, Luke ii. 34; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. Matt. xxi. 44; Luke xx. 18; Rom. ix. 32; xi. 25.

b Chap. liv. 8.

Hab. ii. 3; Luke ii. 25, 38. Heb. ii. 13.—e Psa. lxxi. 7; Zech. iii. 8.1 Sam. xxviii. 8; chap. xix. 3. Chap. xxix. 4.-Psa. cvi. 28.- -Luke xvi. 29.- Mic. iii. 6. 1 Heb. no morning.

But the reading of the Vulgate is, I think, the best remedy to this difficulty; and is in some degree authorized by □ lahem, the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

Verse 18. Lord of hosts.] One MS. reads
Elohey tsebaoth, God of hosts.

and Ezekiel above referred to seem to me not at all to clear up the sense of the word op kesher in this place. But the context greatly favours the conjecture here given, and makes it highly próbable: “Walk not in the way of this people; call not their idols holy, Verse 16. Among my disciples.] "phɔ belimmudai. nor fear ye the object of their fear:" (that is, the σɛ- The Septuagint render it rov μn μabεiv. Bishop ChanBacuara, or gods of the idolaters; for so fear here dler, Defence of Christianity, p. 308, thinks they read signifies, to wit, the thing feared. So God is called, that it be not understood, and approves of this "The fear of Isaac," Gen. xxxi. 42, 53 :)" but look reading.-Abp. Secker. up to JEHOVAH as your Holy One; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; and he shall be a holy Refuge unto you." Here there is a harmony and con- Verse 19. Should not a people seek-" Should they sistency running through the whole sentence; and the seek"] After 7 yidrosh, the Septuagint, repeating latter part naturally arises out of the former, and an- the word, read 7 hayidrosh: Ovк εlvоç tрos Dεov swers to it. Idolatry, however, is full of fears. The avтov εktnσovσl; ti ekÝNTпσovσi πeρi twv (WVTWV TOVS superstitious fears of the Hindoos are very numerous. VEкpovç; Should not a nation seek unto its God? Why They fear death, bad spirits generally, and hobgoblins should you seek unto the dead concerning the living? of all descriptions. They fear also the cries of jackalls, and this repetition of the verb seems necessary to the owls, crows, cats, asses, vultures, dogs, lizards, &c. sense; and, as Procopius on the place observes, it They also dread different sights in the air, and are strongly expresses the prophet's indignation at their alarmed at various dreams. See WARD'S Customs. folly. Observe that the difference between wp kesher and Verse 20. To the law and to the testimony—“ Unto kadosh is chiefly in the transposition of the two last the command, and unto the testimony."] "Is not letters, for the letters resh and daleth are hardly teudah here the attested prophecy, ver. 1-4? distinguishable in some copies, printed as well as MS.; so that the mistake, in respect of the letters themselves, is a very easy and a very common one.-L.

קדש

and perhaps torah the command, ver. 11-15? for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human, command; see Prov. vi. 20, and vii. 1, 2, where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept."-Abp. Secker. So Deschamps, in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: "Tenons nous à l'instrument authentique mis en dépôt par ordre du Seigneur," "Let us stick to the authentic instrument, laid up by the command of the Lord." If this be right, the sixteenth verse must be understood in the same manner.

Verse 14. And he shall be for a sanctuary-" And he shall be unto you a sanctuary"] The word D lachem, unto you, absolutely necessary, as I conceive, to the sense, is lost in this place: it is preserved by the Vulgate, "et erit vobis in sanctificationem.” The Septuagint have it in the singular number: oral ooi Eiç ayiaopov, it shall be to THEE. Or else, instead of pmikdash, a sanctuary, we must read up mokesh, a snare, which would then be repeated without any propriety or elegance, at the end of the verse. The Chaldee reads instead of it v mishpat, judgment; for he renders it by jyn purean, which word frequently may judge by the context :— answers to D mishpat in his paraphrase. One MS.

להם לאבן,mikdash alechen מקדש ולאבן has instead of

lahem leeben, which clears the sense and construction.

Because there is no light in them—“ In which there is no obscurity."] shachor, as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun shachar signifies darkness, gloominess, Joel ii. 2, if we

"A day of darkness and obscurity ;

Of cloud, and of thick vapour;

Exhortation to

A. M. cir. 3263.
B. C. cir. 741.

Olymp. IX. 4.
Romuli, Regis

cir. annum

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A. M. cir. 3263. Olymp. IX. 4. Romuli, Regis

B. C. cir. 741.

cir. annum

21 And they shall pass through and their God, and look upward. it, hardly bestead and hungry: 22 And they shall look unto and it shall come to pass, that the earth; and behold trouble when they shall be hungry, they and darkness, dimness of anshall fret themselves, and curse their king guish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

Roman., 13.

m Rev. xvi. 11.

As the gloom spread upon the mountains: A people mighty and numerous.” Where the gloom, shachar, seems to be the same with the cloud and thick vapour mentioned in the line preceding. See Lam. iv. 8, and Job xxx. 30. See this meaning of the word shachar well supported in Christ. Muller. Sat. Observat. Phil. p. 53, Lugd. Bat. 1752. The morning seems to have been an idea wholly incongruous in the passage of Joel; and in this of Isaiah the words in which there is no morning (for so it ought to be rendered if shachar in this place signifies, according to its usual sense, morning) seem to give no meaning at all. "It is because there is no light in them," says our translation. If there be any sense in these words, it is not the sense of the original; which cannot justly be so translated. Qui n'a rien d'obscur, “which has no obscurity.”—Deschamps. The reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, my shochad, gift, affords no assistance towards the clearing up of any of this difficult place. R. D. Kimchi says this was the form of an oath: "By the law and by the testimony such and such things are so." Now if they had sworn this falsely, it is because there is no light, no illumination, shachar, no scruple of conscience, in them.

Verse 21. Hardly bestead—" Distressed"] Instead of op niksheh, distressed, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Symmachus manifestly read ] nichshal, stumbling, tottering through weakness, ready to fall; a sense which suits very well with the place.

n Chap. y. 30.-—————o Chap. ix. 1.

Roman., 13.

eth, by it thundereth, from Schultens, Orig. Ling. Hebr. Lib. i. cap. 2, of the justness of which rendering I much doubt. This brings the image of Isaiah more near in one circumstance to that of Mohammed than it appears to be in my translation:

"Labid, contemporary with Mohammed, the last of the seven Arabian poets who had the honour of having their poems, one of each, hung up in the entrance of the temple of Mecca, struck with the sublimity of a passage in the Koran, became a convert to Mohammedism; for he concluded that no man could write in such a manner unless he were Divinely inspired.

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"One must have a curiosity to examine a passage which had so great an effect upon Labid. It is, I must own, the finest that I know in the whole Koran: but I do not think it will have a second time the like effect, so as to tempt any one of my readers to submit to circumcision. It is in the second chapter, where he is speaking of certain apostates from the faith. They are like,' saith he, ‘to a man who kindles a light. As soon as it begins to shine, God takes from them the light, and leaves them in darkness that they see nothing. They are deaf, dumb, and blind; and return not into the right way. Or they fare as when a cloud, full of darkness, thunder, and lightning, covers the heaven. When it bursteth, they stop their ears with their fingers, with deadly fear; and God hath the unbelievers in his power. The lightning almost robbeth them of their eyes: as often as it flasheth they go on by its light; and when it vanisheth in darkness, they stand still. If God pleased, they would retain neither hearing nor sight.' That the thought is beautiful, no one will deny; and Labid, who had probably a mind to flatter Mohammed, was lucky in finding a passage in the Koran so little abounding in poetical beauties, to which his conversion might with any propriety be ascribed. It was well that he went no farther; otherwise his taste for poetry might have made him again an infidel." Michaelis, Erpenii Arabische Grammatik abgekurzt, Vor

And look upward—“ And he shall cast his eyes upward."] The learned professor Michaelis, treating of this place (Not. in de Sacr. Poës. Hebr. Præl. ix.) refers to a passage in the Koran which is similar to it. As it is a very celebrated passage, and on many accounts remarkable, I shall give it here at large, with the same author's farther remarks upon it in another place of his writings. It must be noted here that the learned professor renders nibbat, 'n hibbit, in this and the parallel place, chap. v. 30, which I translate he look-rede, s. 32.

CHAPTER IX.

This chapter contains an illustrious prophecy of the Messiah. He is represented under the glorious figure of the sun, or light, rising on a benighted world, and diffusing joy and gladness wherever he sheds his beams, 1-3. His conquests are astonishing and miraculous, as in the day of Midian; and the peace which they procure is to be permanent, as denoted by the burning of all the implements of war, 4, 5. The person and character of this great Deliverer are then set forth in the most magnificent terms which the language of mankind could furnish, 6. The extent of his kingdom is declared to be universal, and the duration of it eternal, 7. The prophet foretells most awful calamities which were ready to fall upon the Israelites on account of their manifold impieties, 8–21.

A prediction of

A. cir. 3264.

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B. C. cir. 740. NEVERTHELESS the dim- 3 Thou hast multiplied the

Olymp. X. 1.

cir. annum

Romuli, Regis

Roman, 14.

4. M. cir. 3264.

B. C. cir. 740.

Olymp. X. 1

Cir. annum

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Roman., 14.

ness shall not be such as nation, and not increased the was in her vexation, when at the joy: they joy before thee accordfirst he lightly afflicted the landing to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 h For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood;

of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and • afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee d of the nations.

2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath them but this shall be with burning and fuel light shined.

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Verse 1.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX.

Either
aphelah; or
ing perhaps to the palpable Egyptian darkness, Exod.

x. 21.

of fire.

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to the god supposed to be the giver of victory, was a Dimness" Accumulated darkness"] custom that prevailed among some heathen nations; menuddechah, fem. to agree with and the Romans used it as an emblem of peace, which aphel hammenuddach, allud-perfectly well suits with the design of the prophet in this place. A medal struck by Vespasian on finishing his wars both at home and abroad represents the goddess Peace holding an olive branch in one hand, and, with a lighted torch in the other, setting fire to a heap of armour. Virgil mentions the custom :"-Cum primam aciem Præneste sub ipsa Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos." En. lib. viii., ver. 561.

The land of Zebulun] Zebulun, Naphtali, Manasseh, that is, the country of Galilee all round the sea of Gennesareth, were the parts that principally suffered in the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-pileser; see 2 Kings xv. 29; 1 Chron. v. 26. And they were the first that enjoyed the blessings of Christ's preaching the Gospel, and exhibiting his miraculous works among them. See Mede's Works, p. 101, and 457. This, which makes the twenty-third verse of chap. viii. in the Hebrew, is the first verse in chap. ix. in our authorized version. Bishop Lowth follows the division in the Hebrew.

"Would heaven, (said he,) my strength and youth
recall,

Such as I was beneath Præneste's wall-
Then when I made the foremost foes retire,
And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire.”
DRYDEN.

And there are
Israelites, and
God promises

See Addison on Medals, Series ii. 18.
notices of some such practice among the
other nations of the most early times.
to Joshua victory over the kings of Canaan.

"To

Verse 3. And not increased the joy-" Thou hast increased their joy"] Eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and six of De Rossi's, two ancient, read 1 lo, it, according to the Masoretical correction, instead of lo, not. To the same purpose the Targum and Syriac. The joy in harvest] ya kesimchath bak-morrow I will deliver them up all slain before Israel: katsir. For pa bakkatsir one MS. of Kennicott's and thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire," Josh. xi. 6. See also Nahum ii. 13. one of De Rossi's have katsir, and another hakkatsir, "the harvest ;" one of which seems to be the the psalmist employs this image to express complete true reading, as the noun preceding is in regimine. victory, and the perfect establishment of peace :— "He maketh wars to cease, even to the end of the land:

קציר

הקציר

Verse 5. Every battle of the warrior-" The greaves of the armed warrior"] ¡ND ¡IND seon soen. This word, occurring only in this place, is of very doubtful signification. Schindler fairly tells us that we may guess at it by the context. The Jews have explained it, by guess I believe, as signifying battle, conflict: the Vulgate renders it violenta prædatio. But it seems as if something was rather meant which was capable of becoming fuel for the fire, together with the garments mentioned in the same sentence. In Syriac the word, as a noun, signifies a shoe, or a sandal, as a learned friend suggested to me some years ago. See Luke xv. 22; Acts xii. 8. I take it, therefore, to mean that part of the armour which covered the legs and feet; and I would render the two words in Latin by caliga caligati. The burning of heaps of armour, gathered from the field of battle, as an offering made

66

And

He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;

And burneth the chariots in the fire."-Psa. xlvi. 9. hay agaloth, properly plaustra, impedimenta, the baggage-wagons: which however the Septuagint and Vulgate render scuta,“ shields;" and the Chaldee,“ round shields," to show the propriety of that sense of the word from the etymology; which, if admitted, makes the image the same with that used by the Romans.

Ezekiel, chap. xxxix. 8-10, in his bold manner, has carried this image to a degree of amplification which I think hardly any other of the Hebrew poets would have attempted. He describes the burning of the arms of the enemy, in consequence of the complete victory to be obtained by the Israelites over Gog and Magog :( 5* )

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