The Divine judgments A.M4 eur 2253 3⚫ The fortress also shall cease | Maker, and his eyes shall have Gym IX. 4. from Ephrain, and the kingdom respect to the Holy One of from Damascus, and the remnant Israel. В. Конан., 13. of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. 4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth cars in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, waith the LORD God of Israel. 4 M cir. 3263. Olymp. IX. 4. B. C. eir. 741. cir. ann Romuli R. Roman., 13. 8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. 9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. 10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: 11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy 7 At that day shall a man look to his seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be • Chap vi 16; vili 44 Chap, x. 16. Jer. li. 33.Ch. xxiv. 13.- Mic. vii. 7. Or, sun images. Psa. lxviii. 19. Aroer, if Aroer itself is a city, makes no good sense. The Neptuagint, for ww aroer, read y adey ad, RIC TOY BIGva, for ever, or for a long duration. The Chaldee takes the word for a verb from my arah, translating it 12 cherebu, devastabuntur, "they shall be wasted." The Nyriac read Tyny adoo. So that the reading is very doubtful. I follow the Septuagint as making the plainest sense, Verse 3. The remnant of Syria-"The pride of Syria." For a shear," remnant," Houbigant reads new seeth," pride," answering, as the sentence seems evidently to require, to 1155 cabod, "the glory of Israel," The conjecture is so very probable that I venture to follow it. As the glory) 1333 bichhod," IN the glory," is the reading of eight MSS., and ten editions. Verse 4. In that day] That is, says Kimchi, the time when the ten tribes of Israel, which were the glory of Jacob, should be carried into captivity. One Thus Kimchi has explained it, and Le Clerc has followed him. Verse 9. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch the Hivites and the Amorites"] om hachoresh vehaamir. No one has ever yet been able to make any tolerable sense of these words. The translation of the Septuagint has happily preserved what seems to be the true reading of the text, as it stood in the copies of their time; though the words are now transposed, either in the text or in their Version; of Apogpasos nas of Euqo, "the Amorites and the Hivites." It is remarkable that many commentators, who never thought of admitting the reading of the Septuagint, understand the passage as referring to that very event which their Version expresses; so that it is plain that nothing can be more suitable to the context. "My father," says Bishop Lowth, "saw the necessity of admitting this variation at a time when it was not usual to make so free with the Hebrew text." Mr. Park reading of the Septuagint, "the Hivites and the Amorites." He thinks the difficult words should be thus rendered; he takes the whole verse: "And his forti Verse 5. As when the harvestman gathereth Ashurst is not satisfied with the prelate's adoption of the when one gathereth"] That is, the king of Annyrin shall sweep away the whole body of the people, as the reaper strippeth off the whole crop of corn; and the remnant shall be no tuore in proportion than the seat-fied cities shall be like the leaving, or what is left tered ears left to the gleaner. The valley of Rephaim naty caazubath, of or in a ploughed field, wnn hawear Jerusalem was celebrated for us plentiful harvest; choresh, or on a branch which they leave coram, before, it is here weed pontionlly for any huutul country. the children of Israel." Which he considers a plain MS, and we ancient litium, has 3 beesoph, "IN reference to the Mosaic laws relative to the not gleangathering," instrul of us cauph, "As the gathering," ing of their ploughed fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, Three R The altars, the work of his hands "The but leaving y ozeb, somewhat of the fruits, for the alters detinated to the work of his hands"] The con- poor of the land; Lev. ix. 9, 10; Deut, xxiv. 19-21, station of this wote, and the meaning of the sen- in the Hebrew. I fear that the text is taken by storm One MS. has col arey, Cards; the Hoe pho, is not obvious, all the ancient on both interpretations. the tam, mut mat of the modern, have mistaken it."all the cities;" and instead of win hachalash, "of 444 4, the work," stands in regimine the branch," six MSS. have n hachodesh, "of the til to go bubok, "altara," not in opposition to month." But this is probably a mistake. #po qe the alims of the work of their hand; that Verse 10. Strange slips-"Shoots from a foreign to of the whole, which are the work of their hands, soil." The pleasant plants; and shoots from a foreign The land shadowing A. M. cir. 3263. B. C. cir. 741. cir. annum Romuli, R. Roman., 13. B. C. cir. 74). M. cir. 3263. Olymp. IX. 4. cir. annum ka heap in the day of grief and | and they shall flee far off, and 12 Wo to the multitude of many people, which make a noise m like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! of n 13 The nations shall rush like the rushing many waters: but God shall rebuke them, Romuli, 14 And behold at evening-tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. ▲ Or, removed in the day of inheritance, and there shall be deadly Or, many.- Psa. ix. 5. -P Psa. lxxxiii. 13; Hos. xiii. 3. sorrow. Or, noise. Jer. vi. 23. soil, are allegorical expressions for strange and idolatrous worship; vicious and abominable practices connected with it; reliance on human aid, and on alliances entered into with the neighbouring nations, especially Egypt; to all which the Israelites were greatly addicted, and in their expectations from which they should be grievously disappointed. Verse 12. Wo to the multitude] The three last verses of this chapter seem to have no relation to the foregoing prophecy, to which they are joined. It is a beautiful piece, standing singly and by itself; for neither has it any connexion with what follows: whether it stands in its right place, or not, I cannot say. It is a noble description of the formidable invasion and the sudden overthrow of Sennacherib; which is intimated in the strongest terms and the most expressive images, exactly suitable to the event. Like the rushing of mighty waters!] Five words, three at the end of the twelfth verse, and two at the beginning of the thirteenth, are omitted in eight MSS., with the Syriac; that is, in effect, the repetition contained in the first line of ver. 13 in this translation, is not made. After having observed that it is equally easy to account for the omission of these words by a transcriber if they are genuine, or their insertion if they are not genuine, occasioned by his carrying his eye backwards to the word D leammim, or forwards to Nyeshaon, I shall leave it to the reader's q Or, thistle down. איננו For [יי.e Verse 14. He is not-" He is no more." einennu ten MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, (three ancient,) ten of De Rossi's, and two editions, and the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Arabic, have 1]]` veeinenno. This 'particle, authenticated by so many good vouchers, restores the sentence to its true poetical form, implying a repetition of some part of the parallel line preceding, thus:— "At the season of evening, behold terror! לבזזינו And for Before the morning, and [behold] he is no more!" That spoil us] For row shoseynu, them that spoil us, fifteen MSS., one edition, and the Syriac have D shosenu, him that spoileth us. lebozezeynu, them that rob us, six MSS. and the Syriac have mah lebozzeno, him that robbeth us: and these readings make the place answer better to Sennacherib, according to Lowth's conjecture. Though God may permit the wicked to prevail for a time against his people, yet in the end those shall be overthrown, and the glory of the Lord shall shine brightly on them that fear him; for the earth shall be subdued, and the universe filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen! CHAPTER XVIII. This chapter contains a very obscure prophecy; possibly designed to give the Jews, and perhaps the Egyp tians, whose country is supposed to be meant, 1, 2, and with whom many Jews resided, an intimation of God's interposition in favour of Sion, 3, 4; and of his counsels in regard to the destruction of their common enemy, Sennacherib, whose vast army, just as he thought his projects ripe, and ready to be crowned with success, 5, should become a prey to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of heaven, Egypt should be grateful to God for the deliverance vouchsafed her, 7. A. M. cir. 3290. ณ Wo Or, outspread and polished. history to which it belongs, the person who sends the messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all obscure and doubtful.—L. Men should take warning B. C. cir. 714. Olymp. XVI. 3. a people terrible from their begin- 3 All ye inhabitants of the A. M. cir. 3290. land the rivers have spoiled! ensign on the mountains; and cir. anntun Numa Pompilit, R. Roman., 2. Heb. a na-fOr, whose land the rivers despise. Jer. i. 14; x. 18; xlvii. 2- d Or, a nation that meteth out, and treadeth down.— tion of line, and treading under foot. NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII. Verse 1. Wo to the land] hoi arets! This interjection should be translated ho! for it is properly a particle of calling: Ho, land! Attend! Give ear! Shadowing with wings-"The winged cymbal"] 3 tsiltsal kenaphayim. I adopt this as the most probable of the many interpretations that have been given of these words. It is Bochart's: see Phaleg, iv. 2. The Egyptian sistrum is expressed by a periphrasis; the Hebrews had no name for it in their language, not having in use the instrument itself. The cymbal they had was an instrument in its use and sound not much unlike the sistrum; and to distinguish it from the sistrum, they called it the cymbal with wings. The cymbal was a round hollow piece of metal, which, being struck against another, gave a ringing sound the sistrum was a round instrument, consisting of a broad rim of metal, through which from side to side ran several loose laminæ or small rods of metal, which being shaken, gave a like sound. These, projecting on each side, had somewhat the appearance of wings; or might be very properly expressed by the same word which the Hebrews used for wings, or for the extremity, or a part of any thing projecting. The sistrum is given in a medal of Adrian, as the proper attribute of Egypt. See Addison on Medals, Series iii. No. 4; where the figure of it may be seen. The frame of the sistrum was in shape rather like the ancient lyre; it was not round. If we translate shadowing with wings, it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings. The second verse seems to support this interpretation. Vessels of bulrushes, gome, or rather the flag papyrus, so much celebrated as the substance on which people wrote in ancient times, and from which our paper is denominated. The sails might have been made of this flag but whole canoes were constructed from it. Mat sails are used to the present day in China. The Vulgate fully understood the meaning of the word, and has accordingly translated, in vasis papyri," in vessels of papyrus." Reshi vesselig.-Old MS. Bib. This interpretation does not please Bp. Lowth, and for his dissent he gives the following reasons :— tians, an intimation of God's counsels in regard to the destruction of their great and powerful enemy. Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia—“Which borders on the rivers of Cush"] What are the rivers of Cush? whether the eastern branches of the lower Nile, the boundary of Egypt towards Arabia, or the parts of the upper Nile towards Ethiopia, it is not easy to determine. The word 1 meeber signifies either on this side or on the farther side; I have made use of the same kind of ambiguous expression in the translation. Verse 2. In vessels of bulrushes-"In vessels of papyrus"] This circumstance agrees perfectly well with Egypt. It is well known that the Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships, or boats, made of the reed papyrus. Ex ipso quidem papyro navigia texunt. PLINY, Xiii. 11. Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro. Go, ye swift messengers] To this nation before mentioned, who, by the Nile, and by their numerous canals, have, the means of spreading the report in the most expeditious manner through the whole country: go, ye swift messengers, and carry this notice of God's designs in regard to them. By the swift messengers are meant, not any particular persons specially appointed to this office, but any of the usual conveyers of news whatsoever, travellers, merchants, and the like, the instruments and agents of common fame. These are ordered to publish this declaration made by the prophet throughout Egypt, and to all the world; and to excite their attention to the promised visible interposition of God. Scattered" Stretched out in length"] Egypt, that is, the fruitful part, exclusive of the deserts on each side, is one long vale, through the middle of which runs the Nile, bounded on each side to the east and west by a chain of mountains seven hundred and fifty miles in length; in breadth from one to two or three days' journey: even at the widest part of the Delta, from Pelusium to Alexandria, not above two hundred and fifty miles broad. Egmont and Hayman, and Pococke. Peeled- "Smoothed"] Either relating to the practice of the Egyptian priests, who made their bodies smooth by shaving off their hair, (see Herod. ii. 37;) or rather to their country's being made smooth, perfectly plain and level, by the overflowing of the Nile. Meted out" Meted out by line"] It is generally In opposition to other interpretations of these words which have prevailed, it may be briefly observed that by tsiltsel is never used to signify shadow, nor is canaph applied to the sails of ships. If, therefore, the words are rightly interpreted the winged cymbal, meaning the sistrum, Egypt must be the country to which the prophecy is addressed. And upon this hy-referred to the frequent necessity of having recourse to pothesis the version and explanation must proceed. I farther suppose, that the prophecy was delivered before Sennacherib's return from his Egyptian expedition, which took up three years; and that it was designed to give to the Jews, and perhaps likewise to the Egyp mensuration in Egypt, in order to determine the boundaries after the inundations of the Nile; to which even the origin of the science of geometry is by some ascribed. Strabo, lib. xvii. sub init. Trodden down] Supposed to allude to a peculiar God's interposition in B. C. cir. 714. Olymp. XVI. 3. hear ye. A. A: M. cir. 3290. when he bloweth a trumpet, will consider in my dwelling 4. M. cir. 3290 place like a clear heat * upon Olymp. XVI. 3. herbs, and like a cloud of dew Numa Pompilii, in the heat of harvest. cir. annum Numa Pompilii, 4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I ¡Or, regard my set dwelling. method of tillage in use among the Egyptians. Both Herodotus, (lib. ii.,) and Diodorus, (lib. i.,) say that when the Nile had retired within its banks, and the ground became somewhat dry, they sowed their land, and then sent in their cattle, (their hogs, says the former,) to tread in the seed; and without any farther care expected the harvest. The rivers have spoiled-"The rivers have nourished"] The word 1 bazeu is generally taken to be an irregular form for bazezu, "have spoiled," as four MSS. have it in this place; and so most of the Versions, both ancient and modern, understand it. On which Schultens, Gram. Heb. p. 491, has the following remark :-" Ne minimam quidem speciem veri habet bazau, Esai. xviii. 2, elatum pro 1113 bazazu, deripiunt. Hæc esset anomalia, cui nihil símile in toto linguæ ambitu. In talibus nil finire, vel fateri ex mera agi conjectura, tutius justiusque. Radicem 13 baza olim extare potuisse, quis neget? Si cognatum quid sectandum erat, ad i bazah, contemsit, potius decurrendum fuisset; ut 1812 bazeu, -pro 112 bazu, sit enuntiatum, vel vi baziv. Digna phrasis, flumina contemnunt terram, i. e., inundant." “ baza, Arab. extulit se superbius, item subjecit sibi: unde præt. pl. INI bazeu, subjecerunt sibi, i. e., inundarunt."-Simonis' Lexic. Heb. k Or, after rain. cir. annum R. Roman., 2 "Heaven in loud thunders bids the trumpet sound, And wide beneath them groans the rending ground." POPE. Verse 4. For so the Lord said unto me-"For thus hath JEHOVAH said unto me"] The subject of the remaining part of this chapter is, that God would comfort and support his own people, though threatened with immediate destruction by the Assyrians; that Sennacherib's great designs and mighty efforts against them should be frustrated; and that his vast expectations should be rendered abortive, when he thought them mature, and just ready to be crowned with success; that the chief part of his army should be made a prey for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, (for this is the meaning of the allegory continued through the fifth and sixth verses ;) and that Egypt, being de of God of the wrongs which she had suffered, should return thanks for the wonderful deliverance, both of herself and of the Jews, from this most powerful adversary. Like a clear heat-" Like the clear heat"] The same images are employed by an Arabian poet : Solis more fervens, dum frigus; quumque ardet A learned friend has suggested to me another explanation of the word. xi baza, Syr., and xr beiza, Chald., signifies uber, " a dug," mamma, “a breast;"livered from his oppression, and avenged by the hand agreeably to which the verb signifies to nourish. This would perfectly well suit with the Nile: whereas nothing can be more discordant than the idea of spoiling and plundering; for to the inundation of the Nile Egypt owed every thing; the fertility of the soil, and the very soil itself. Besides, the overflowing of the Nile came on by gentle degrees, covering without laying. waste the country: “Mira æque natura fluminis, quod cum cæteri omnes abluant terras et eviscerent, Nilus tanto cæteris major adeo nihil exedit, nec abradit, ut contra adjiciat vires; minimumque in eo sit, quod solum temperet. Illato enim limo arenas saturat ac jungit; debetque illi Ægyptus non tantum fertilitatem terrarum, sed ipsas.-Seneca, Nat. Quæst., iv. 2. take the liberty, therefore, which Schultens seems to think allowable in this place, of hazarding a conjectural interpretation. It is a fact that the Ganges changes its course, and overruns and lays barren whole districts, from which it was a few years back several miles distant. Such changes do not nourish but spoil the ground. I Verse 3. When he lifteth up an ensign—“When the standard is lifted up"] I take God to be the Agent in this verse; and that by the standard and the trumpet are meant the meteors, the thunder, the lightning, the storm, earthquake, and tempest, by which Sennacherib's army shall be destroyed, or by which at least the destruction of it shall be accompanied ; as it is described Which is illustrated in the note by a like passage from another Arabian poet :— Calor est hyeme, refrigerium æstate. Excerpta ex Hamasa; published by Schultens, at the end of Erpenius's Arabic Grammar, p. 425. Upon herbs-" After rain"]" aur here signifies rain, according to what is said Job xxxvi. 11: 'The cloud scatters his rain.””—Kimchi. In which place of Job the Chaldee paraphrast does indeed explain 118 auro by matereyh; and so again ver. 21 and chap. xxxvi. 30. This meaning of the word seems to make the best sense in this place; it is to be wished that it were better supported. In the heat of harvest-"In the day of harvest."] For on bechom, in the heat, fourteen MSS., (several ancient,) the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate read Dr beyom, in the day. The mistake seems to have arisen from ɔ kechom in the line above. The prophecy A. M. cir. 3290. 5 For afore the harvest, when and all the beasts of the earth A. M. cir. 2000. Olymp. XVI. 3. the bud is perfect, and the sour shall winter upon them. B. C. cir. 714 Olymp. XVI. 3. cir. anU DA Numa Pompala, 7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto ; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion. m Or, outspread and polished; see ver. 2. 1 See Psa. lxviii. 31; Ixxii. 10; chap. xvi. 1; Zeph. iii. 10; | Mal. i. 11.rian army. Upon which wonderful event it is said, 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, that "many brought gifts unto Jehovah to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was magnified of all nations from henceforth." It is not to be doubted, that among these the Egyptians distinguished themselves in their acknowledgments on this occasion. Verse 5. The flower-" The blossom"] Heb. her blossom; nitstsah, that is, the blossom of the vine, ¡ gephen, vine, understood, which is of the common gender. See Gen. xl. 10. Note, that by the defective punctuation of this word, many interpreters, and our translators among the rest, have been led into a grievous mistake, (for how can the swelling grape become a blossom?) taking the word n nitstsah for the predicate; whereas it is the subject of the proposition, or the nominative case to the verb. Of a people" From a people"] Instead of Dy am, a people, the Septuagint and Vulgate read DyƊ meam, from a people, which is confirmed by the repetition of Verse 7. The present-" A gift"] The Egyptians it in the next line. The difference is of importance; were in alliance with the kingdom of Judah, and were for if this be the true reading, the prediction of the fellow-sufferers with the Jews under the invasion of admission of Egypt into the true Church of God is not their common enemy Sennacherib; and so were very so explicit as it might otherwise seem to be. Hownearly interested in the great and miraculous deliver-ever, that event is clearly foretold at the end of the ance of that kingdom, by the destruction of the Assy- next chapter.-L. CHAPTER XIX. ་ Prophecy concerning Egypt, in which her lamentable condition under the Babylonians, Persians, &c., is forcibly pointed out, 1–17. The true religion shall be propagated in Egypt; referring primarily to the great spread of Judaism in that country in the reign of the Ptolemies, and ultimately to its reception of the Gospel in the latter days, 18-22. Profound peace between Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, and their blessed condition under the Gospel, 23-25. A. M. cir. 3290. a B. C. cir. 714. Olymp. XVI. 3. B. C. cir. 14. THE burden of Egypt. Be- of Egypt shall be moved at A. M. cir. 3290. Olymp. XVI. 3. hold, the LORD b brideth upon his presence, Numa Pompilii, a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt and the idols cir. annum R. Roman., 2. a Jer. xlvi. 13; Ezek. xxix., xxx. and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. cir. annum Numa Pompilii, R. Roman., 2. b Psa. xviii. 10; civ. 3. Exod. xii. 12; Jer. xliii. 12. Not many years after the destruction of Sennache- Alexander may well be considered as a deliverance to rib's army before Jerusalem, by which the Egyptians Egypt; especially as he and his successors greatly fawere freed from the yoke with which they were threat-voured the people and improved the country. To all ened by so powerful an enemy, who had carried on a these events the prophet seems to have had a view in successful war of three years' continuance against them; this chapter; and in particular, from ver. 18, the prothe affairs of Egypt were again thrown into confusion phecy of the propagation of the true religion in Egypt by intestine broils among themselves, which ended in seems to point to the flourishing state of Judaism in a perfect anarchy, that lasted some few years. This that country, in conséquence of the great favour shown was followed by an aristocracy, or rather tyranny, of to the Jews by the Ptolemies. Alexander himself settwelve princes, who divided the country between them, tled a great many Jews in his new city Alexandria, and at last by the sole dominion of Psammitichus, granting them privileges equal to those of the Macewhich he held for fifty-four years. Not long after that donians. The first Ptolemy, called Soter, carried great followed the invasion and conquest of Egypt by Ne- numbers of them thither, and gave them such encourbuchadnezzar, and then by the Persians under Cam-agement that still more of them were collected there byses, the son of Cyrus. The yoke of the Persians from different parts; so that Philo reckons that in his was so grievous, that the conquest of the Persians by time there were a million of Jews in that country. |