Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

neither shall the Arab pitch tent there; nor shall the shepherds cause their flocks" to lie there," v. 20. No language could more strongly depict its utter desolation. It was not only never again to be inhabited as a city, but no family or even individual was to reside in it from generation to generation. The Arabs that were for a long series of ages to have possession of the neighboring territory, were not even in their marches to pitch tent there; and the shepherds that were to pasture their flocks in the surrounding plains, were not to cause them to lie down there. But it was not only to be shunned by human beings; it was to become the abode of wild and worthless animals, that choose the most solitary and dismal scenes for their residence.

"But creatures

30. Metaphor in the use of full. of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of howls, and there shall the daughters of the ostrich dwell, and wild goats shall gambol there," v. 21.

31. Elliptical metaphor in the use of daughters for the female young or brood of the ostrich.

32. Metaphor in the use of near, which is an adjective of place instead of time. "And wolves shall howl in his houses, and jackals in their luxurious palaces. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged," v. 22. The sym

bolic Babylon of the Apocalypse is in like manner to become, on its fall, the dwelling of the most odious moral beings. "Great Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."-Chap. xviii. 2.

This example shows that the exposition of the figures of such a prophecy, is an exposition of nearly its whole sense; and that it presents the scenery of the prediction, the actors, the actions, the events, and the impressions which they make on those who witness and share in them, with a vividness and beauty to which unfigurative language is altogether unequal. As compared to such a composition, a plain literal description is but what, in painting, a mere outline sketch is to a delineation exhibiting the whole figure in its living attitude and colors, and indicating the thoughts and passions that glow in the features and beam from the eyes; so an interpretation of such a prediction that neglects its figures is but what a dry sketch is to a full and life-like picture is but what a withered landscape, a leafless forest, is to a wide scene of cultivated fields, orchards, and wooded hills, when arrayed in the fresh verdure, and decked with the gorgeous blossoms of spring.

What is the figure in verse 1? How does it appear that it is not a metaphor? Was the prediction communicated to the prophet? What is the figure, verse 2? Who was addressed? Who is addressed in verse 3 What figure is used? Is it appropriate and lofty? What is the first figure, verse 4? What was it that the prophet heard? What is the second? What is the character of the verse? What figure is used, verse 5? What figure occurs first in verse 6? What was the day of Jehovah ? What words are used figuratively, verse 6? What figure besides is there in it? By what figure is "melt" used, verse 7, and what does it express? What nouns are used by a figure, verse 8, and how? What verb in it is used by a figure, and how? What figure is the third in the verse? What is the fourth? What does the last imply? Explain the figure, verse 9? What figure is used, verse 10 Explain it. Name and explain the figures, verse 11. Is there any figure in verse 12 Name and explain the chief figure, verse 13. What is its character? What other figure is there in it?

figures, verses 14, 15. occur, verses 17, 18

What is taught by them?

Point out the

What figures

Explain them. Explain the first figure,

verse 19. Explain the second figure, verse 19? What is taught, verse 20! What figures occur, verse 21? What word is used by a figure, verse 22? Explain it.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE RESULTS OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES IN THE
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

THE knowledge and observance of the laws of figures in the interpretation of the Scriptures, especially of the prophetic parts, are necessary, not only to unfold their sense with adequate certainty and vividness, but to rescue them from misconstructions and perversions to which the ordinary method of exposition subjects them. As the figures which we have enumerated and explained are the only figures of language, and the laws which we have stated are their only laws, the common method of interpretation, which assumes that there are other species of figures, and other laws of their construction, mistakes literal for tropical language often, confounds the different figures with each other, and disregards their proper nature—involves the most serious errors. Of these, one of the most frequent is the disregard

of the peculiar office which the figures fill, and ascription to them of an undefined, vague, and indeterminable power. To get rid of the grammatical sense of passages, interpreters often pronounce them figurative, without determining what their figures are, if they involve any, or showing what effect they have on their meaning, as though their being tropical, if they are so, were a proof, on the one hand, that their philological is not their true meaning; and, on the other, that their real sense is either vague and uncertain, or else left to be determined by conjecture or fancy. The result accordingly is, a rejection of their true meaning, and the substitution of a false one in its place. If such passages were really figurative, these interpreters should be able to show what the specific tropes are that exist in them, and constitute them figurative; and prove, by their proper laws, that they are the vehicle of that special sense which they ascribe to them. That they do not, and cannot do this, is at once a proof of the error of their construction, and of their want of a just understanding of the nature and laws of figurative language. Instead of rendering the meaning of propositions obscure and uncertain, the very office of tropes is to exemplify and illustrate the objects to which they are applied by analogies, and set forth the thoughts which are meant to be

« PreviousContinue »