DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS, TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW. WITH A COMMENTARY, CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL. BT E. HENDERSON, D.D. WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, By E. P. BARROWS, HITCHCOCK PROFESSOR IN ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL BEMIHART. %vfoahtx: WARREN F. DRAPER. BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN. NEW rOKK: SHELDON & CO. PHILADELPHIA : SMITn, ENGLISH, AND COMPANY, CINCINNATI: GEO. a. ULANCHARD. 1864. DP 18 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, BY W. F. DRAPER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. ELECTROTYPED AND FEINTED »Y W. F. DRAPER, ANDOVEH, UaSS PUBLISHER'S NOTE. The increasing demand for the English edition of Dr. Henderson's Com mentary on the Minor Prophets, suggested an application to the author for permission to reprint it in this country. The following note contains his very kind and courteous consent : Mr. Draper: Dear Sir, — Impressed with a sense of your honorable conduct in con sulting me prior to the reprinting of a cheaper edition of my Commentary on The Minor Prophets, I feel no hesitation in granting you the sanctipn you desire, on the terms specified in your letter of November 4, 1836. I remain, clear Sir, Yours truly, , E. HENDERSON, D. D. Mortlake, Surrey, Nov'r 20, 1856. P. S. Enclosed you will find » list of corrections, copied from my husband's memoranda. S. H. Not only have the corrections referred to been made in the present edition, but it was found desirable, also, to verify all the quotations in the Oriental languages, so that the whole work has now been thoroughly revised. This, with other causes, has contributed to delay the publication till the present time. We have to regret that, meanwhile, the venerable author has ceased from his labors, and passed to his reward. It seems fitting that a short biographical sketch of his useful and event ful life should accompany this volume, as a tribute to his memory among those who will receive the benefits of his studies and labors, but who may not have access to the full biography prepared by his friends. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. The lamented death of the author of the present Commentary occurred while the plates were in process of preparation for an American edition of the work. It seems highly proper, therefore, that a brief sketch of his life and character be prefixed to it. The writer of this, not having access to original sources of information, has drawn his materials from the " Memoir of the Kev. E. Henderson," by his daughter, Thulia S. Henderson, which has lately been published in London. Ebenezek Henderson" was born on the 17th clay of November, 1784, at Dunfermline, an ancient borough in the eastern part of Scot land, situated in the county of Fife, a little north of the Firth of Forth, and well known as the residence of Anne of Denmark, and the birth place of King Charles the First. He was the youngest son of George and Jean Henderson. His father was an agricultural laborer, and be longed to the Secession-body of Scotch Presbyterians. " Two years at Dunfermline," the memoir tells us, " and one year and a half at Dun- dufF, formed the sum-total of his schooling " in the days of his boyhood. l Then, at twelve years old, it was resolved that he should be initiated into some trade. But it happened to him, as it has to others whom Providence had foreordained to fill religious and literary spheres, that one attempt after another proved abortive. First he was placed with an elder brother to learn the trade of a clock-and-watch-maker. But here he staid only long enough to gain such an insight intp the craft as was afterwards of no little use to him in his missionary wanderings, where recourse to a professed artisan for the rectification of his time piece was impossible. He was next placed as an apprentice to a boot- and-shoe-maker for the space of three years. Of his progress in this business nothing is known. Only it is certain that "he had not yet found the niche in which he was to take his stand." I Memoir, p. 13. VI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH For this a spiritual preparation was needed. This, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, he received in the deep religious awakening that took place in connection with the labors of Robert and James Haldane, the latter of whom visited Dunfermline in company with Mr. Aikman. "A saw-pit at the top of Chalmers' Street, and an open place in Woodhead Street, are remembered in connection with various out-door preachings to an assembled multitude. Many of the ungodly were awak ened, and the godly were stirred up to works of good-doing. Sunday Schools were established, and they rapidly flourished. Of the ' six ' that are recorded as having been in a prosperous state within the par ishes of Dunfermline as early as 1798, there was one in which were enrolled the names of Ebenezer Henderson and Douglas Cusine (pro nounced Cousin), — the two who are remembered as having borne the palm for diligence and attention."1 This little incident shows the original aptitude of our author for the pursuits of a scholar. The precise time of his first open profession of religion is not known. But there is abundant evidence that from this period he devoted himself with all his soul to the service of Christ. The needful preparation for future duty was freely granted him in the Sem inary in Edinburgh, which had been originated, and was still supported, by the generosity of Mr. Robert Haldane. The course of instruction was brief, extending only through two years. But this was then thought1 to be the utmost that was compatible with the urgent demand for home and foreign laborers. " Dr. Henderson always urged the importance of a prolonged collegiate course; and doubtless felt that had his own pre paratory studies been of longer continuance, he might have gone forth better equipped for his work." 2 So speaks the memoir ; to which may be added, that it was only by a severe and long process of self-training, continued after he left the 'Seminary, that he was enabled to qualify himself for the work of a translator of the holy Scriptures, and a com mentator on their contents, in which he became so distinguished. The class of 1803 — the fifth in order of institution — was the one which he joined. We need not be surprised when we find one of his surviving fellow-students bearing testimony that he was at that time "more of a linguist than a theologian ; more given to literature than to divinity." 3 No one can read his commentaries, so rich in oriental lore, without per ceiving at a glance that it was the side of sacred literature rather than of systematic theology to which he was drawn by the natural affinities of his mind. To him the memoir justly applies the remark made of one of his con temporaries, the late Rev. Alexander Dewar : " He could comprehend and l Memoir, p. 17. 2 P. 23. 3 Rev. JameB Kennedy, of Inverness. OF THE AUTHOR. VII seize the leading features of a complicated question, though he rarely, if ever, dealt in barren abstractions ; strong, broad good sense was a distin guishing element of his mind ; he was a man of facts and fundamental principles." ' In the vacations the seminary students were sent out on preaching- tours. We find him in the summer recess of 1804 appointed to visit the Orkney Islands, which lie off the northern extremity of Scotland. Thus was inaugurated that remarkable series of northern missions to which the providence of God, contrary to his own original intentions, had appointed him. In the second year of his seminary life he was called to the foreign service, in the following way : The Rev. John Paterson, pastor of a church at Cambuslang, and the Rev. Archibald McLaey, pastor at Kir- caldy, having been invited by the two Congregational churches in Edin burgh to go forth as missionary agents, resigned their charges, and came to Edinburgh for a brief course of preparatory study with special refer ence to the service to which they had devoted themselves. Their desti nation was India. But Mr. McLaey being by the circumstances of his family detained at home, Mr. Paterson's friends urged him to select from among the seminary students a man for his colleague. As he surveyed the assembled class, he said of Mr. Henderson, then but twenty-one years of age, and with whom he had no previous acquaintance, " This is the man for me." Thus commenced between the two missionaries a life long friendship. As soon as Mr. Henderson made known his willingness to embark in. this cause, his services were accepted, and the missionaries elect were set apart by the imposition of hands, with prayer and fasting, at an evening service in the Tabernacle, Leith Walk, on August 27, 1805. But God, who understood perfectly the sphere in which these his two servants could best labor, had destined both to a northern instead of a tropical field. Here the following extract from a letter which he wrote on .the subject some twelve years later, is perfectly in place : " When I originally devoted myself to the Redeemer's service, and entered on a course of study preparatory to engaging in it, I had no specific station or sphere of labor in view; but was determined, in re liance on his promised grace, cheerfully to proceed to whatever place he should be pleased to point out to me, whether at home in my native country, or among the heathen in a distant land. Accordingly, when our dear brother Paterson requested me to accompany him to India, it was a matter of no great difficulty for me to give my consent to his proposal." 2 1 Memoir, p. 25. 2 P- 37. VIII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH This delightful passage shows that he was willing to be guided. And let it be said, for the encouragement of all youthful candidates, that God will certainly guide all who are willing to be guided, into the field in which they can serve him to the best advantage. The two missionary brethren had marked out India for their field, but God sent them into northern Europe. The directors of the East India Company were at that time, as is well known, hostile to missionary labors among the people whom they ruled. Messrs. Carey and Marshman, with some coadjutors, were indeed carrying on their good work without molestation, but with no open sanc tion on the part of the directors. Such a sanction the Messrs. Haldane openly sought for themselves and others, and were decidedly refused, and the door was thus closed to their intended enterprise. " The British possessions," says "the memoir, "were not approachable by a Christian missionary in a British vessel. But there were Danish ships in which such men could embark; there were Danish settlements where they could effect a landing, and whence they could proceed to some neighboring dis tricts, whose governors might be disposed, if not to sanction, at least to ignore the efforts that might be made."1 They accordingly repaired to Copenhagen, in the hope of securing a passage thence to Serampore. But here disappointment awaited them. One vessel only was to sail that season, and every berth was preengaged. They offered to go in the steerage; even that was full. Meanwhile they found all around them a field white for the harvest. Although as yet ignorant of the Danish language, they had already commenced a service in the English tongue the second Sabbath after their arrival. Next they procured the translation into Danish of a tract entitled " The One Thing Needful," and forthwith set it in active cir culation. Their English congregation increased, and they had secured, early in November, the translation and printing of one thousand copies of the " Great Question Answered." Still hoping to be able the ensuing spring to embark for Serampore, they earnestly urged upon their friends at home the importance of not leaving their present field unoccupied when they should be withdrawn from it. In reply they received a letter inform ing them that but one of the two fields, India or Denmark, could be at present occupied, and urging that they should consent to remain in their present position. They complied ; and thus they found themselves, without any planning of their own, inaugurated into the Danish field. The two friends soon separated, Mr. Paterson remaining in Copenhagen, and Mr. Henderson going to Elsineur. 1 Memoir, p. 41. OF THE AUTHOR. IX At Elsineur he gave lessons, in private families and classes, in the English language, while at the same time he sedulously devoted himself to the acquisition of the Danish, and the other northern languages, which, when once mastered, would greatly enlarge the circle of his influence. As the sphere of, his vision widened, he turned his thoughts towards Sweden, and he and his companion determined to gain satisfactory information concerning the spiritual condition of this kingdom, as well as of Denmark. Mr. Hen derson repaired to Helsingburgh in the southern part of Sweden, with a supply of religious publications. Next, he and his colleague journeyed through Skonen, leaving tracts at Lund and Malmb, in the hands of such as were likely to translate them into Swedish. After this they undertook an exploring tour in Denmark. Crossing the Great Belt and the Little Belt, they advanced as far as the Moravian settlement at Christiansfeld, in Schleswig. In one respect this journey was of striking importance, by bringing them personally into connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and also turning their attention towards Iceland. Learning that the Funen Evangelical Society was purposing to print two thousand copies of the New Testament for their long-neglected fellow-subjects in Iceland, they ventured to suggest that five thousand instead of two thousand should be the number struck off for the first instalment. The Danes not having courage for this, it was determined that assistance should be sought from London. The two friends accordingly wrote directly to the managers of the Bible Society in the British metropolis, who agreed to defray the, cost of the additional three thousand copies. The war which took place in 1807 between England and Denmark, com pelled the two missionaries to withdraw to Sweden. Mr. Henderson took up his residence at Gottenburgh, while Mr. Paterson proceeded to Stockholm, where he was eminently successful in organizing systematic efforts for the circulation of Swedish Bibles and tracts. The ensuing summer of 1808, the two friends travelled in Sweden and Lapland, inquiring into the state of the parishes, and scattering the seeds of divine truth. Having reached Tornea, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, they entered Finland, and, turning around the gulf, proceeded till they were close upon Wasa, when the approach of a Russian army compelled them to a hasty retreat back around the head of the same gulf. In October they reached their respective stations, after a journey of two thousand three hundred miles. This tour gave them an affecting insight into the spiritual wants of the people. In many parishes there was on an average only one Bible in every eighth house, — the wealthy and middle classes only being able to possess a copy, while the cottagers remained, from poverty, destitute of this treasure. During all Mr. Henderson's residence in Denmark and Sweden, he was, 2 X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH along with his missionary labors, busily prosecuting his studies in Hebrew and Greek, as well as in German, Danish, and Swedish. We have already seen how he first became interested in the enterprise for furnishing Iceland with the word of God. Of the five thousand copies of the Icelandic New Tes tament that had been printed, as noticed above, fifteen hundred had been sent off before the breaking out of the war between England and Denmark. The remaining three thousand five hundred were lying in store, ready for shipment. For some time the prosecution of the enterprise was unavoidably interrupted. But at last, in 1810, it seemed possible to resume it. The Bible Society having authorized one of the two missionaries to visit Iceland in person, while the other should forward the printing of the Bibles that were to follow, Mr. Henderson was designated for the tour in Iceland. This occasioned a prehminary visit to England, where he spent the summer of 1810 among his old friends. He returned to Sweden in October, but various circumstances delayed his visit to Iceland, so that he was at liberty to spend two years more at Gottenburgh. " It was early in the year 1811, and probably as the result of arrangements made with the Edinburgh publisher, or with some Edinburgh friend, when in Scotland during the previous summer, that Mr. Henderson's earliest literary production, the first fruits of his German studies, left the press ; viz., a trans lation of Roos's ' Exposition of Daniel.' " * The rules laid down by Roos as canons for the interpretation of prophecy were adopted and adhered to by Dr. Henderson to the last ; and thus this initial work seems to have exerted an important influence upon him as an expounder of prophecy. But to return to the Icelandic Bible. Mr. Paterson was about to start for Russia on a Bible mission, and it became necessary, to expedite the work, that Mr. Henderson should obtain leave of entrance into Denmark, and then repair to Copenhagen, where he could urge on the printer and the reviser of the press in their daily work. His application the King of Denmark referred to the Chancery. The Chancery, after some delay, sent the petition back to his majesty, with a strong recommendation that it should be granted, and the royal assent was accordingly given. But annoying delays occurred in con nection with the printing that remained to be done, as well as heavy expenses arising from the depreciation of the Danish currency, and the exorbitant war prices charged upon every article of food. " The two years which were thus spent by him in the Danish capital, would have been tedious, had there not been great facilities in that city for the con tinuance of other labors. The translation of ' The Warning Voice,' and ' The End of Time ' into Icelandic, was effected beneath his eye, as also that of the tract entitled ' Serious Considerations ' into Danish. In preparation for 1 Memoir, p. 84. OF THE AUTHOR. XI his contemplated journey, he was studying the language and ecclesiastical history of Iceland." l So the memoir ; and in addition to this, it adds that he was also prosecuting vigorously the study of Hebrew. " A Morocco Jew," says he, in a letter dated Dec. 1, 1812, "who has a beautiful pronunciation, reads a Hebrew chapter with me the one day, and I read an English chapter with him the other. I begin to speak a little with him in Hebrew." 2 Having received a suggestion from his friend Mr. Paterson, when on a visit to him in Sweden in March 1814, that when his Icelandic mission was completed he " might find bible-work to do in the regions to the north and west of Russia," he imme diately began to turn his attention to the languages of those regions, About ¦ the same time, also, we find that he began the study of Arabic. He speaks of it as " remarkably easy, the structure being so much like the Hebrew, and there being so many Hebrew words in it." " The Grammar," he says, " will be an easy task. Its richness in words will be the principal difficulty." 3 An object which Mr. Henderson earnestly desired to see effected before leaving the country was the organization of the earliest Bible Society in Den mark. This good work he was permitted to see accomplished under very favorable auspices, one of the rooms of the episcopal palace being offered for the purpose, and the meeting being attended by several men of high eminence. Soon after " this launching of Denmark's life-ark," all the need ful preparations having been at last made, Mr. Henderson embarked for Iceland on the eighth of June, 1814. "The freight of Bibles," says the memoir, " had been subdivided, and the several packages forwarded during the spring to seven of the principal Icelandic ports, — an arrangement adopted by reason of the difficulty that would have attended their trans mission across the interior of the island. The treaty of Kiel, in January 1814, had effectually done away with the restrictions and risks incident to the late war ; and the Icelandic ship-owners had displayed a patriotic lib erality in conveying the books free of expense." 4 After a five weeks' pas sage, he arrived in safety at Reykiavik, on the south-western coast of Iceland, and was well received by Bishop Vidalin, by his step-son, Sysselmand Thor- grimson, by Mr. Knudsen the Danish merchant, and several men of note in the Icelandic metropolis. Mr. Henderson's printed account, entitled " Iceland, or the Journal of a Residence in that Island," 5 is so copious, and so well known to the public, that it is not necessary to enter into the details of his journeyings. Suffice it to say, that in three journeys, each from Reykiavik as a point of departure, he explored the whole island, travelling not less than two thousand six hun- 1 Memoir, p. 117. 3 P. 132. 5 In two vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1818- 2 P. 118. i P. 137. XII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH dred miles, ascertaining the spiritual condition of the people, and everywhere making efficient arrangements for the distribution of the word of God. " In almost every hamlet there was new proof that such effort was needed ; in each hamlet, proof also that the effort would meet with response on the part of willing purchasers. Here was a parish in which a folio Bible, greatly injured by use, had all its defective pages accurately supplied by the pen of a common peasant ; and there another, whose lent copy had so long been retained by the islanders of Grimsey, that the right of its possession had become a disputed point. One copy in an island ; two in a parish ; twelve among two hundred people ; six among two hundred and fifty ; a clergyman seeking for seventeen long years to possess a copy of his own, and hitherto unable to secure the treasure ; peasants who had offered, but offered in vain, to the amount of five-and-twenty shillings for a copy ; — such are the inci dents that crowd upon the page. The Testaments sent over in 1807 and 1812, were traced to their destination, but were found to have gone a very little way towards meeting the extensive demand. * * * The general intelligence of the people rendered their need of Scripture the more obvious. In a par ish of four hundred, where all who were above eight years old had been taught to read, there might well be a universal desire for the Book of books." 1 In the month of July, 1815, the initial steps were taken at Reykiavik which resulted in the formation of the Icelandic Bible Society, an institution which still exists, and, according to the latest communications, received several years since, had issued in all above ten thousand Bibles and Testaments. Having finished his work of exploration, Mr. Henderson sailed for Copenha gen, where he arrived Sept. 6, 1815. In bringing to a close the notice of this visit to Iceland, it is pertinent to add, that, while zealously and energeti cally executing his commission as agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, he improved every opportunity to make himself acquainted with the remarkable natural phenomena of that wonderful island. " He, in consequence, visited and inspected with ardent and indefatigable zeal the awfully sublime, yea, often terrific scenes, which abound in that land of volcanoes, in which often a strange conflict is seen between the elements of fire and water — between boiling hot springs and all the cold and freezing changes of snow and ice. There we find our traveller climbing up and descending mountains, standing between thundering masses of melting lava and rushing floods, and exhibiting an indomitable courage, amounting, in the opinion of his hardy Icelandic guides, to almost a provocation of dangers so immediate and threatening, that even a spectator at a distance could scarcely refrain from mingled feelings of admiration of his courage and calm self- possession, amidst surrounding scenes of horror, and of disapproval and 1 Memoir, p. 155. OF THE AUTHOR. XIII condemnation of a spirit of presumption, exposing health and life to needless risk and sacrifice. * * * Yet this very boldness, nay, rashness, enabled him to witness and describe scenes which few, if any, of his predecessors in travel had dared to approach so near, and to observe so closely."1 It should be added that Mr. Henderson, being a good Icelandic scholar, was thus enabled freely to converse with all classes of the native population, from the learned clergy and gentry to the illiterate farmer and day-laborer. " Thus joyfully and manfully proceeding on his errand of mercy, he was treated by high and low, by the clergy and the laity, in the most respectful manner. He was most kindly and hospitably entertained, often accompanied part of the way by those who had afforded him in their houses every accommodation and comfort in their power; or provided with safe guides, and dismissed with prayers, benedictions, and other affecting marks of the liveliest gratitude and Christian affection, by our Icelandic brethren, — and which they desired to evince to one who had been sent to them from a far distant nation as a mes senger of peace, and an angel of mercy, with the gift of that Holy Book, which had already proved to millions, and would in time to come prove to generations yet unborn, an inexhaustible source of the purest instruction, and the most solid consolation." 2 From his return to Copenhagen in September 1815, to October of the fol lowing year, Mr. Henderson was assiduously employed in journeying through Denmark and the adjacent regions of Pomerania and northern Germany, being, as he expressed it, " constantly on the wing." Wishing for a season of rest, he had already bespoken his passage to Leith,'in Scotland, with the hope of spending some time among his friends at home, when he received notice of an appointment to visit St. Petersburgh, on an agency for the Brit ish and Foreign Bible Society. A letter written to Mr. Paterson under date of October 22, 1816, gives a delightful revelation of his feelings in view of this sudden change in his plans, and of his whole-hearted devotion to the cause of Christ. He says : " What a complete change has instantaneously been effected in my plans ! I imagined my continental labors were at a close for this season ; had spent about eight days with my friends here in Altona ; bespoke my passage on board one of the smacks for Leith ; made every needful preparation for my departure, and was fondly dreaming of domestic enjoyments, when all at once I heard a voice behind me saying, ' This is the way, walk ye in it.' I ' turned to the voice that spake unto me,' and behold, my path was plain be fore me. Instead of Edinburgh, I was to regard St. Petersburgh as the place of my destination. On Sabbath last, after preaching my first sermon on 1 Rev. Dr. Steinkopff, as quoted in memoir, p. 105. 2 Dr. Steinkopff, as quoted above, p. 106. XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Lot's wife, I received two letters from London, one five, the other only six days old, urging the necessity of my repairing without a moment's delay to St. Petersburgh, with the view of strengthening your hands in the work of the Lord."1 Of course he complied without hesitation, and wrote to the committee in London : " Had I not come to the determination instantly to comply with your request, how could I have borne the cutting reflection, ' Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world ? ' " 2 In the middle of December we find him in the Russian capital, where his labors, after he had been duly initiated by Mr. Paterson (who was preparing for a temporary absence), date from about the commencement of the year 1817. Here he entered upon "another man's line of things made ready to his hand," for Mr. Paterson was an efficient Bible agent. " The task was multiform. It consisted in seeing to the corrections of the proofs as they left the press, and in superintending the town-issue of those Scriptures, or portions of Scripture, that were already in stock; in trans mitting copies, when needful, to the associations already formed in various parts of the empire, and in corresponding with the Astrachan and other mis sionaries about the translations or renditions that were yet needed. French, Greek, Moldavian, Georgian, Calmuc, and other Bibles were in progress. Archimandrites and princes had to be consulted ; translators had to be con ferred with ; paper, types, and binding had to be cared for ; the depot to be looked after; and committee-meetings, of several hours in duration, to be attended."3 How efficient was the Russian' Bible Society at this period, may be inferred from the fact, that in a letter dated St. Petersburgh, June 8, 1817, Dr. Hen derson states that from the establishment of the society, to the present time, its committee had " either published, or engaged in publishing, no fewer than forty-three editions'of the sacred Scriptures, in seventeen different languages, forming a grand total of one hundred and ninety-six thousand copies."4 Much of the success of the good cause he attributes to the warm patronage then extended by the Emperor Alexander to the Bible cause. An incident that occurred during this visit to St. Petersburgh deserves a passing notice, as a further illustration of his self-denying missionary spirit. He received in January 1817 a very urgent and unexpected call to join the mission which had been projected by the London Missionary Society to the town of Irkutsk, in Siberia. Immediately he set apart a day for solemn self- examination and prayer with reference to his duty. The record he has left of this, shows how deep down into his soul the true spirit of Christianity had penetrated. The result of this prayerful deliberation was a decision to go on 1 Memoir, p. 205. 2 P. 205. S p. 208. 4 P. 219. OF THE AUTHOR. XV the mission, though he thereby renounced the fondly-cherished hope of a visit to his native country. But scarcely was this determination formed before he was called to reconsider it, on account of the strenuous efforts of the Bible Society to retain him in their employment ; and this cost him a severer struggle than the first. But, with the same simplicity of purpose with which he had formed the resolve to go on the Irkutsk mission, he renounced it, and continued his labors in the service of the Bible Society. During the residence in St. Petersburgh that has just been noticed, he re ceived from Copenhagen a document, sealed with the triangle and the seven- stringed lyre of the Scandinavian Literary Society, nominating him one of its corresponding members. In the month of June following, a diploma was forwarded from Kiel, conferring upon him the title of Doctor in Philosophy. The return of Dr. Paterson, in August, left him at liberty to revisit his native land, where he arrived in December, taking Stockholm, Copenhagen, and other places belonging to the field of his former labors, on his route. The earliest news that reached Dr. Henderson upon his return to England was the tidings of his mother's death. His father's decease had occurred during his Icelandic explorations. Repairing to Edinburgh, he wrote the concluding part of his work on Iceland, and superintended the printing of the same. In the end of April, 1818, his volumes left the press, bearing a dedi cation to Prince Christian Frederic, of Denmark. So favorably were they received, that a second edition was soon called for, and an abridgment was published at a later date in the United States. Soon afterwards (May 19) he was united in marriage to Miss Susannah Kennion, the daughter of Mr. John Kennion, in whom he found a compan ion of cultivated mind and congenial spirit, every way worthy of himself. The ensuing summer he spent in travelling for the Bible Society through England and Scotland. On Monday, Sept. 28, he, with his companion, set sail from Leith, on his third continental journey. It was intended that after revisiting the Hanoverian and Holstein auxiliaries, he should winter at Co penhagen, then pass, via Norway, to St. Petersburgh, and finally take up his abode at Astrachan, on the Caspian Sea, where rooms were already assigned him in the Mission House, and whither the bulk of his luggage was at once forwarded, to await his expected arrival. Such was the plan. He was now in the zenith of his popularity and influence as a Bible agent, and to human appearance everything promised a favorable issue. But, as in the beginning of his missionary career, so now he had to learn once more that God's ways are not man's ways. To him it happened, as it has to many other eminent servants of God, that, in the full tide of success, a series of reverses was to be encountered, by which his Christian activity should be turned into another channel, where, doubtless, God saw that his labors could best subserve the XVI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH cause of his kingdom. When, in carrying out the plan above sketched, the time had arrived for his long-planned journey to Norway, he started from Gottenburgh on this expedition " in a small country conveyance, so low built that its structure naturally suggested a notion of perfect security. " It is hardly bigger than a wheelbarrow ; if it were upset, you could scarcely be hurt, was the remark casually made." * But he had that very day to learn that " Safety consists not in escape From dangers of a frightful shape." About mid-day, the little vehicle was upset, and the traveller's shoulder and the radius of the fore-arm were dislooated and otherwise injured. Unable to bear the motion of a carriage, he was conveyed to the river near by, and taken back along the Gotha Elf. Eventually, the bones in the fore-arm lost their power of flexion and rotation, and the delay which the accident had occasioned left no time for the journey to Norway. Dr. Henderson proceeded to St. Petersburgh, which place was reached on the 11th of September, 1819. The studies which occupied the closing months of 1819, like those of the preceding winter at Copenhagen, consisted in the mastering of the Turkish, Tatar, and Persic languages, all of which would be needed for his anticipated Astrachan labors, upon which he hoped to enter the ensuing season. But a delay of a whole year was occasioned by the death of Dr. Paterson's wife, which made it necessary that the bereaved hus band should have a temporary respite from his services at, the Russian capi tal. It was not till March 1821 that Drs. Paterson and Henderson could arrange to start with Mr. Seroff, one of the committee, on their projected visit of exploration. Leaving St. Petersburgh, they proceeded, by Novgorod and Tver, to Moscow ; thence, by Kalouga and Koursk, to Pultawa, the field so fatal to the Swedish hero ; thence, by Tchernigov and Kiev, to Odessa, on the Black Sea. After this they made an eight days' Crimean trip, spending the Sabbath at Akhtiar, the modern Sevastopol. Thence they journeyed eastward to Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, where Dr. Henderson was seized with an ague which clung to him with pertinacity during all the remainder of his journey. Crossing the Don, they entered Asia, and finally reached the long-looked-for Astrachan on the 13th of August, where a great part of Dr. Henderson's furniture and library were awaiting his permanent residence. Starting again from Astrachan, on the first of October, on their way towards Persia, they crossed the Caucasian mountains ; but, when they had advanced as far as Tiflis, their expedition was brought to a close by a differ ence of opinion between them and the Bible Society, which resulted in their tendering their resignation as its accredited agents. This had respect to Ali i Memoir, p. 239. OF THE AUTHOR. XVII Bey's Turkish version of the New Testament, with which the two friends were dissatisfied on grounds the validity of which was afterwards recognized, at least in a practical way, by tho managers of the Bible Society. Recross- ing the Caucasus, and ordering the goods which had arrived at Astrachan to be repacked and sent to St. Petersburgh, they hastened back to the Russian capital, which they reached early in February 1822. Here they were imme diately retained in the service of the Russian Bible Society. To this Dr. Henderson devoted the last three years of his residence in Russia. It was not long before symptoms of a deep-laid scheme of opposition to the Bible cause began to manifest themselves. The plot, according to Dr. Paterson, embraced not only Greek ecclesiastics, but others of high eminence, among whom he names Metternich, the great Austrian diplomatist. To trace the history of this conspiracy against the word of truth, would be out of place in the present brief notice. How successful it was in the end, we all know. The Emperor Alexander remained personally friendly to the agents ; but so limited had become the operations of the society, with no prospect of any enlargement in the future, that, in the spring of 1825, Dr. Henderson sought and obtained, through Prince Galitzin, the emperor's per mission to resign his office. No time was lost in making arrangements for the homeward voyage, and on the the 5th of July, 1825, he and his were safely landed in the British metropolis. Dr. Paterson tarried a little longer, but he too was compelled to withdraw ; and upon the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, all operations at the Bible House were speedily suspended, at least so far as concerned the distribution of the Scriptures to Russian subjects. " It only remains to be hoped," adds the memoir, " that the day may come when the second Alexander shall emulate the Christian graces and religious benevolence of the imperial relative whose name he bears; and that the house of Romanoff may yet be linked with Russia's highest and best pros perity."1 It ought to be added that, during his last three years' residence in St. Peters burgh, the Ethiopic was the language to which Dr. Henderson particularly devoted himself. " Among his papers, and dated April, 1823, is a neatly-executed collation of St. John's Gospel, in the Ethiopic, as preserved in manuscript in the Pub lic Imperial Library. His standard of comparison was the Ethiopic of the London Polyglott, and each instance of a various reading appears to be noted down in its order.'' 3 But he did not content himself with being simply a student of God's word, and an agent for its distribution. He sought opportunity to preach it also. Turning his attention to the English sailors at Cronstadt, he began to preach 1 Memoir, pp. 299, 300. 2 P. 276. XVIII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH there regularly beneath the Bethel flag, going out on Saturday and returning on the Monday's boat. The interest which he thus felt in seamen was cher ished after his return to his native land, and he was often employed in advo cating their cause on the platform or from the pulpit. With Dr. Henderson's return to England, his missionary labors, extending over a term of twenty years, were brought to a close. We are now to con template him in the character of a teacher and an author. The decease of Rev. Dr. Bogue, in October 1826, left vacant the Theological Tutorship of the Missionary College at Hoxton, which was under the supervision of the Directors of the London Missionary Society. On the recommendation of several friends, Dr. Henderson was invited to take prbvisional charge of the missionary students, until some permanent arrangement could be made. Here he so approved himself to the Directors, that, in the following spring, they agreed on inviting him to accept the permanent tutorship in that institution. Thus, by one of those easy movements which are so characteristic of God's providential government, he was quietly inducted into an office for the fulfil ling of whose duties he had been for years unconsciously qualifying himself. It was not, however, without hesitation, that he consented to occupy this re sponsible situation. In a letter addressed to the treasurer of the society, while the question of his acceptance was still pending, he says : " Though I can truly say that nothing would give me greater delight than to be in any way instrumental in preparing missionary candidates for the great and weighty office towards which their attention is directed, I do feel the duties and responsibilities attaching to the Theological Tutorship to be of so very serious a nature, that I should consider it the height of presumption in a mere stripling like myself to think of undertaking the task. " Surely, my dear sir, the Directors are not aware that the course of study which I enjoyed before leaving Scotland was extremely limited ; and that during the twenty years I have spent in foreign parts, my time has been so completely occupied with business of an altogether desultory kind, as to pre clude the possibility of my giving any attention to the study of systematic theology." 1 That the objection thus ingenuously stated by him was in itself weighty, need not be denied. The fact, however, that he so felt its weight, is the best evidence that the Directors acted wisely in disregarding it. Had he been one of those men who are always boasting of their limited advantages in early life, instead of assiduously occupying themselves, as he did, in making amends for what was then deficient by the diligent improvement of all the means at their disposal, he would not have merited the confidence of the Directors. But, understanding that he was one who could master any subject to which he gave 1 Memoir, pp. 307, 308. OF THE AUTHOR. XIX close attention, and who would spare no pains to fit himself for the conscien tious discharge of any duty ho might be prevailed on to undertake, they, by their deputation, overcame his scruples, and induced his consent. He brought to his work not only a true missionary spirit, but also a rich fund of experi ence. Hence he was able to enrich his lectures with apposite and forci ble illustrations, which gave pointedness and weight to the maxims that he inculcated. First of all he sought to elevate the standard of piety among the missionary students. " Tlie business," said he, " on which you go forth is of so unearthly a nature, — it has so immediately to do with God, the souls of men, and the eternal world, — that except you are influenced by motives drawn from these sources, you must inevitably fail of becoming efficient laborers in the missionary field. It is not to learn languages, translate books, or introduce the arts and sciences of civilized life, that you go to the heathen. Whatever of this description may engage your attention, is merely subordi nate and accessory. You go to instruct, to win, to save souls. To this everything must bend; to this everything must be laid under contribution. * * * And can you possibly expect to prove successful in such an enterprise, to enter heartily into it, or prosecute it with enthusiasm, vigor, and persever ance, if your spirit be worldly, and your affections low and grovelling?"1 While thus giving, as was meet, the foremost place to the culture of the heart, he assiduously strove to foster a taste for theological and linguistic acquirements. The following extracts, from the pen of one who had access to Dr. Henderson's class-room, will best illustrate his characteristics as a teacher : " As a teacher, he brought nothing into the class-room which had not been carefully and even elaborately prepared. * * * It was rather his intense application and indomitable industry, than any extraordinary talent, that distinguished him. If by genius is meant the undoubted possession of the creative or inventive faculty, then genius was not the property of my friend. If anything, he was rather wanting in imagination. * * * He never indulged much in illustration, and his illustrations never partook of the daring of genius. But if, on the other hand, ' genius is the instinct of enterprise,' and if the instinct of enterprise is labor, then, in this sense, my honored friend was the possessor of this mighty gift. * * * As Dr. Henderson was not a man who lived without a purpose, so neither was he a man to spend his hours without a plan. His time was faithfi lly divided ; and in each division he had his self-appointed round of duties and engagements, to which he devoted himself with unwearied and strenuous perseverance. His lectures were the result of extensive reading and careful investigation. * * *• He excelled in weighing evidence, and impressing upon it its relative value. His discrimi nation was clear, and his judgment was sound. He was wholly free from 1 Memoir, p. 319. XX BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH theory and speculation. He dealt with fact, not with fiction. He searched for data, not for opinions. His conclusions rested on the most solid basis. His theology was rather scriptural than scholastic ; and his prelections were rather practical than brilliant. * * * In the Oriental languages, and in Bib lical criticism, Dr. Henderson was at home. As a philologist, he had few equals in this country. He composed a Hebrew Grammar of his own, and allowed the students to copy it piecemeal from his own manuscript ; and in the reading and interpreting of the Hebrew Scriptures he revelled with un bounded delight. Equally wide and correct was his acquaintance with the cognate languages, and this knowledge eminently qualified him for a freer and more independent exhibition of the sacred text. " Himself a man of intense application and labor, and knowing from his own experience that there is no other path to success and to eminence, he loved the men who were willing to make the effort and endure the toil of an ascent. If he did not, like the immortal Chatham, trample difficulties under his feet, he could, in the exercise of a purer faith, at least smile at them. Sloth and sluggishness were alien to his own nature, and he had no sympathy with idleness in his students. * * * He had a high appreciation of merit. Like every one possessed of richer gifts and wider attainments, he was a man of generous soul ; and wherever he discovered the buddings and burstings of superior talent, he had at command his word of encouragement, or his smile of approval. He was not lavish in his expressions of praise ; but his whole manner embodied more than words ; it was only in those cases i» which the proofs of neglect and idleness were too plain to be denied, that his fine open brow ever became darkened with a frown, and that his utterance became more sharply pointed, and his words fell with a keener edge. Dr. Hender son was a strict disciplinarian, and so far as his influence reached, nothing was allowed to invade the majesty of law. Pie believed in God, and there fore he believed in order. Yet this never chilled those warmer charities which have their seat and centre in the heart." 1 After four years of labor in the Missionary College at Hoxton, Dr. Hen derson received, in Feb. 1830, an appointment to the Theological Tutorship in the Ministerial College at Highbury. This he accepted without hesitation, as it opened to him a wider sphere, and he knew that the missionary direc tors were contemplating the discontinuance of their institution, the number of missionary candidates not being such as to warrant the outlay incurred, and the different ministerial colleges being disposed to facilitate the entrance of missionary students within their walls. His connection with the college at Highbury was continued till the spring of 1850, when, upon the amalgamation of the three metropolitan colleges at 1 Rev. Eobert Ferguson, D.D., as quoted in the memoir, pp. 323—327. OF THE AUTHOR. XXI Homerton, Coward, and Highbury, his labors as a teacher in a public insti tution were brought to a close. Of his services at Highbury it is only neces sary to say that they were of the same general character as those at Hoxton. " He never forgot at Highbury," says his biographer, " that he had been tutor at Hoxton. It was seldom that he had not missionary students in one or other of his classes. Over all such he kept a jealous watch, lest their pulpit popularity should tempt them to retract their pledge, and withdraw their hand from the plough. For the benefit of such, he was always ready to spare an extra hour, if tuition in some Oriental language might be of profit to them in their future career." : Dr. Henderson's hospitalities to foreigners are well known, and remem bered with great delight. Many were the literary men, especially from the western hemisphere, who enjoyed the pleasure of his society for a few hours of profitable intercourse. In 1852, two years after his removal from the tutorship at Highbury, Dr. Henderson was induced to undertake the pastorate of the Independent Con gregation of Sheen Vale Chapel, at Mortlake, in Surrey. Upon the discharge of his pastoral duties he entered zealously, and with great delight. To preach Christ crucified was his chosen work, and during the whole period of his tutorship, he had continued it as he had opportunity. But the service evi dently exceeded his present strength. In September, 1853, after havin" held the pastorate for only a year and a quarter, he was compelled to relinquish it, and take his place as a private member among his people. From this time his health and mental vigor gradually declined, till, on the 16th day of May, 1858, he peacefully departed from this life, at Mortlake, the scene of his closing public labors, when he had now attained the age of seventy-three years. 1 It remains to take a brief survey of Dr. Henderson's labors as an author, especially as a commentator, in which character he is best known in the United States. During his labors at Hoxton he found time to carry through the press his " Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia." To the Congregational Mag azine he became a contributor, and occasionally furnished articles or reviews, drawn for the most part from materials that were lying ready for use. At Highbury he prepared and printed an elaborate examination of the cele brated passage, 1 Tim. iii. 16. It was entitled, "The Great Mystery of Godliness Incontrovertible." Upon the republication, in 1833, of "Buck's Theological Dictionary," he prepared for it five hundred new articles, while the already existing notices on Christian sects were carefully brought up to 1 Memoir, pp. 348, 349. XXII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH the date of this re-issue. Abbott's " Corner Stone " underwent revision at his hand, and the English editions of Prof. Stewart's Commentaries also passed under his eye. In 1836 appeared his well-known treatise on " Divine Inspiration," which has passed through several editions. At a later period, after his labors at Highbury had been brought to a close, he superintended the republication of five works from the pen of the Rev. Albert Barnes, prefixing prefaces of his own to two of them, viz., the Commentaries on the • books of Job and Revelation. The other works were, "Notes on the Book of Daniel," " The Way of Salvation," and " Essays on Science and The ology." Passing by other works of minor importance published or edited by him, we come to his Commentaries. The first of these, on the Prophet Isaiah, appeared in the year 1840, when the author was now fifty-six years of age. It was the result of long, patient, earnest study. This book had sometimes formed the basis of his readings with the fourth year's class at college, and he justly felt that something further was needed in the way of elucidating it. Vitringa was too prolix ; Lowth far from satisfactory, and abounding in many needless and conjectural emendations of the text. The modern Ger man commentaries were all more or less tainted with neology ; and the com mentaries of Barnes and Alexander, in this country, had not yet appeared. It is stated by the biographer that " some four or five years seem to have been occupied in the actual compiling of the volume." x This commentary, like all the succeeding, he terms, " critical, philological, and exegetical." In the first of these departments, criticism of the sacred text, he steadfastly abides by the ordinary text, where there is no overwhelming amount of man uscript evidence in favor of some other reading. In his philological remarks he makes an abundant yet sober use of the cognate languages, relying, first of all, on a collation of the several passages in which a given word occurs in the sacred text, and haying recourse to the cognate tongues only as a supple mentary aid. In the exegetical department it is, his aim to evolve the exact scope and force of the prophetic declarations as at first uttered, and under a full view of the circumstances that attended their utterance. The same general characteristics belong to the present commentary on the "Mirior Prophets," which appeared next in order, in the year 1S45. This is the most learned and elaborate of all his works. In the wonderful diversity of style and manner by which each of the twelve Minor Prophets is so clearly distinguished from all the rest, — a diversity very apparent in the English version, but displaying itself in its full beauty only to him who reads them in the original, — Dr. Henderson's pen found a fine field of ex ercise, which it did not fail to improve in a very thorough way. It is stated 1 Memoir, p. 390. OF THE AUTHOR. XXIII by the biographer that the popularity of this work among the students of the sacred text " has been fully as great as was that of his ' Isaiah,' - — among the Americans even greater." x This is due partly, perhaps, to its greater in trinsic merit, but still more to the paucity of commentaries on the Minor Prophets, that unite rich and varied learning with the pure evangelical spirit. It was after his retirement from Highbury that his commentaries on Jere miah and Ezekiel appeared — the former in 1851, the latter in 1855. These are of a less elaborate character. " The Commentary on Jeremiah contained, as it required, a proportion ately smaller number of notes than had been needful in the preceding vol umes. But the notes which it did thus contain have been deemed by no means inferior to those of an earlier date, either in thought or expression. * * * Xhe five lamentations, or elegies, of the prophet, are appropriately in cluded in the work." 2 Of the book of the prophet Ezekiel it can hardly be said that for its full illustration it required fewer notes than Isaiah or the Minor Prophets. The brevity of Dr. Henderson's commentary on this book is ascribed in the biography to the fact that " the tide of life was receding, and the fulness of life's labors was diminishing." 3 It must not be supposed, however, that the matter which it contains is of an inferior quality. It embodies the results mainly of his previous investigations, stated in a clear and perspicuous manner, though the biblical student could wish for fuller discussions of some points. To the above sketch, drawn from the materials furnished by the biography, with only here and there the addition of a passing reflection, it may be proper to add, by way of independent judgment, a single general criticism on Dr. Henderson as an expounder of prophecy. In perusing his commentaries, not a few will feel that he carries to an unwarrantable extent the principle of restricting the prophetic declarations and delineations to specific events. This makes necessary the assumption of very abrupt transitions backwards and for wards, where it would seem that the principle of a progressive fulfilment — " first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear " — ¦ would have the double advantage of being in harmony with all that we know of the plan of God's government, and also of carrying the interpreter consistently through 1 Memoir, p. 417. The present is a reprint from the English edition, with the exception of some few corrections furnished by Dr. Henderson himself. With the exception of the Ethiopic, the quotations from the cognate languages with which the commentary abounds, as also those from the Greek and Latin, have been corrected by a comparison with the original sources. 2 Memoir, pp. 433, 434. 3 P. 454. XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH passages in which the near and more remote future are manifestly blended. For example, in Isa. 4:1, the reference is undeniably to judgments near at hand ; in the verses that follow, the future glory and safety of the church are exhibited as following and effected by the mighty judgments of Jehovah cooperating with the efficacions working of his Spirit. Both passages are closely connected by the introductory words of verse 2 : In that day. 1 Dr. Henderson, in his commentary, makes a distinct chapter to begin with verse 2, remarking that, " having depicted the wickedness of the Jews, and the awful judgments with which it would be punished, the prophet devotes this short chapter (chap. 4 : 2 — 6) to an announcement of the glory and felicity of the Church in the time of the Messiah." His note on the two introductory words is the following: "2. swn. ci'3,crf or after that period. The prep. a does not always strictly express what is contained within any given time or space ; it also points out nearness, society, or accompaniment, that which is in connection with, or which follows upon something else. In prophetic vis ion, the two states of adversity and prosperity were so closely connected, that one period might be said to comprehend them both." The meaning of the last clause, taken in connection with what precedes, seems to be that the two states of prosperity and adversity are connected to the prophet's vision, because he does not discern the wide interval of time which actually sepa rates them. Would it not be a more exact statement to say that the prophet sees the two states of prosperity and adversity in connection, because they are thus connected in their inmost nature, being both parts of one indivisible whole, viz., the progress of God's people through severe discipline, to peace and universal victory ; that, therefore, the predicted calamities which should befall the Jews in connection with their first captivity, though having a true historic fulfilment, yet stand as the representatives of like calamities to be repeated in their history, and that of the Christian Church, which is their true heir, as often as their sins shall make it necessary ; and that the prom ised future glory of God's people, though having its perfect accomplishment only in the latter days of the Christian dispensation, yet includes in itself all previous deliverances and enlargements from the prophet's day onward, even as the perfect day includes in itself the morning dawn which ushers it in, and is a part of it ? To take another example : Dr. Henderson rightly regards Ezekiel's temple- vision as a symbolic representation, the model presented being ideal, not that of an actual structure to be literally realized in all its details in the coming future. But for limiting its direct reference to the resettlement of the Jews in their own land, and the literal restoration of their sanctuary privileges 1 ssinti cys. OF THE AUTHOR. XXV and sacrificial institutes in the metropolis of Canaan, he seems to have no good warrant. The resettlement of the land of Canaan, and the rebuilding of the city and temple after the captivity, were only a part, and a very small part, of the " good things to come " which the vision shadowed forth. Its fulfilment belongs to the whole history of the church from Ezekiel's day onward, and it will be completed only in that yet future day when God shall make good to the uttermost his ancient promise : " O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted ! behold I will lay thy stones with fair col ors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; and great shall be the peace of thy children." 1 Then shall the name of that spiritual city of God be called, in the fullest sense of the words, " The Lord is there." Such would be the general criticism which we should offer on Dr. Hender son's commentaries. At the same time we should warmly commend them to the diligent study of the Biblical scholar, as rich sources of instruction and profit. 1 Isaiah 54 til— 13. 4 GENERAL PREFACE, The Minor Prophets are first mentioned as the Twelve by Jesus the Son of Sirach.1 Under this designation, they also occur in the Talmudic tract, entitled Baba Bathra;2 and Jerome specifies, as the eighth in the second division of the sacred books of the Jews, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, which, he says, they call Thereasar.3 Melito, who is the first of the Greek Fathers that has' left us a catalogue of these books, uses precisely the same language.4 That they were regarded as forming one collective body of writ ings at a still earlier period, appears from the reference made by the proto- martyr Stephen to the Book of the Prophets,5 when quoting Amos v. 27. The same style is employed by the Rabbins, who call Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezek iel, and the Twelve, the Four Latter Prophets.6 They are also spoken of as one book by Gregory Nazianzen, in his poem, setting forth the component parts of the sacred volume.1 At what time, and by whom they were collected, cannot be determined with certainty. According to Jewish tradition, the collection of the sacred books generally is attributed to the men of the Great Synagogue, a body of learned Scribes, said to have been formed by Ezra, and continuing in exist ence till the time of Simon the Just, who flourished early in the third century before Christ. In the opinion of many, Nehemiah completed this collection, by adding to those books which had already obtained a place in the canon, such as had been written in, or near his own times.8 If this actually was the case, it cannot be doubted that he must have availed himself of the authority of Malachi in determining what books were really entitled to this distinction ; and this Prophet, who was the last in the series of inspired writers under the ancient dispensation, may thus be considered to have given to the canon the 1 Kal tuv b'wSeKa TptxprjTuv to. biTTa. ava&a.\oL e« tov rSirov avruv. Ecclu8. xlix. 10. 3 -lSJ> C"3!». 8 ^53> ^fi; or, as it is generally contracted, HO^ri. * twv ScuSe/ca iv fi.ovo$i[S\ia>. 5 KaSdis ytypairral iv BifUKcp twv TrpofpTjTuv, Acts vii. 42. s C'JTRS D^ias nsms. 7 Miav /i.4v slmv is ypcup-qv ot A^5e/.'a- 'Qa-qe k 'Afiais, Kal WLixaias b rpWos, 'Eirel^' 'Ia>r?A, eTr' 'Iwvas, 'A&Sias, Naoifyi T€, ' AfrfSaKovK -re Kal 2,ov Kal npocp-rjiuiv, Kal to. tov Aavld, Kal iirtffToKas jSacriAeW irepl a.va&e/i.d,T(iiv. 2 Mace. ii. 13. XXVIII GENERAL PREFACE. sanction of Divine approbation. Within a century and a half afterwards, they were translated into Greek, along with the rest of the sacred books, and have ever since obtained an undisputed place among the oracles of God. To these twelve prophetical books the epithet " Minor" has been applied, simply on the ground of their size, compared with those which precede them, and not with any view of detracting from their value, or of representing them as in any respect inferior in point of authority. The books are not arranged in the same order in the Hebrew and Septu- agint texts, and in neither is the chronology exactly observed, as may be seen from the following table, in which the mean time is assumed as the basis of the calculation : HEHREW. LXX. 1. Hosea. 1. Hosea. 2. Joel. 2. Amos. :i Amos. 3. Micah. 4 Obadiah. 4. Joel. f>. Jonah. 5. Obadiah. (i Micah. fi. Jonah. 7 JS'almm. 7. Nahum. X. Habakkuk. 8. Habakkuk '.' Zephaniah. 9. Zephaniah il). Haggai. 10. Haggai. II. Zechariah. II. Zechariah. 12 Malachi. 12. Malachi. CHRONOLOGICAL OKDEK. 1. Joel about 865 B.C. 2. Jonah "810 3. Amos " 790 4. Hosea "750 5. Micah " 730 6. Nahum "710 7. Zephaniah " 630 8. Habakkuk " 606 9 Obadiah " 590 10 HasRai " 620 11. Zecliariah "520 12. Malachi " 440 Newcome, Boothroyd, and some other translators, have adopted the order which appeared to them to be chronologically correct ; but in the present work that is retained which is found in the Hebrew Bible, and followed in the Vulgate, in all the authorized European versions, and in those of Michaelis, Dathe, De Wette, and others, simply on the ground of the facility of refer ence, which the other arrangement does not afford, but which is practically of greater importance than any advantage derivable from the change. The Minor Prophets have generally been considered more obscure and difficult of interpretation than any of the other prophetical books of the Old Testament. Besides the avoidance of a minute and particular style of de scription, and the exhibition of the more general aspects of events only, which are justly regarded as essentially characteristic of prophecy, and the exuberance of imagery, which was so admirably calculated to give effect to the oracles delivered by the inspired Seers, but which to us does not possess the vividness and perspicuity which it did to those to whom it was originally exhibited, there are peculiarities attaching more or less to each of the writers, arising either from his matteu, or from the manner of its treatment, which present difficulties of no ordinary magnitude to common readers, and many that are calculated to exercise the ingenuity, and, in no small degree, to per plex the mind of the more experienced interpreter. We are frequently left to guess historical circumstances from what we otherwise know of the features of the times, and sometimes we have no other means of ascertaining their character than what are furnished by the descriptive terms employed in the predictions themselves. Though in such cases general ideas may be collected GENERAL PREFACE. XXIX respecting the persons or things which are presented to view in tlie text, yet we want the historical commentary which would elucidate and give point to its various particulars. The accounts contained in the books of Kings and Chronicles are frequently too brief to furnish us with a key to many of the prophecies which were fulfilled during the period which they embrace ; while the pages of profane history only slightly touch, if they toucli at all, upon events which the scope and bearing of the predictions determine to periods within the range of subjects professedly treated of by its authors. Against none of these prophets has the charge of obscurity been brought with greater appearance of justice than against Hosea, whose prophecies are obviously, for the most part, mere compendia, or condensed notes of what he publicly delivered, though preserving,' to a considerable extent, the logical and verbal forms which characterized his discourses. Besides a profusion of metaphors, many of which are derived from sources little accordant with the dictates of occidental taste, we find in his book a conciseness of expression, an abruptness of transition, a paucity of connecting particles, and changes in person, number, and gender, to which nothing equal occurs in any of tlie other prophets. The visions of Zechariah also are not without their difficul ties ; but these arise, not from the language, which is remarkably simple in its character, but from the symbols which represent certain historical scenes and events. The period of time within which the authors of the books flourished, in cludes the entire prophetic cycle of more than four hundred years — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, having also lived in it. It is unquestionably the most eventful in the history of the Hebrews. It embraces the introduc tion of image-worship, and that of Phoenician idolatry, with all its attendant evils, among the Israelites ; the regicidal murders and civil wars which shook their kingdom to its centre ; the corruptions of the Jewish state in conse quence of its adoption of the idolatrous practices of the northern tribes ; the Assyrian and Egyptian alliances; the irruption of the Syrian, Assyrian, and Chaldean armies into Palestine; the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities; the Persian conquests ; the release of the Jews, and their restoration to their own land ; and the state of affairs at Jerusalem during the governorship of Nehemiah. Upon all these various events and circumstances, the predictions, warnings, threatenings, promises, and moral lessons, have, in a multiplicity of aspects, a more or less pointed and important bearing. Events subsequent to this period likewise form the subjects of prophetic announcement — such as the progress of Alexander the Great ; the successes of the Maccabees ; the corruptions which prevailed in the last times of the Jewish state ; the de struction of Jerusalem by the Romans ; the dispersion, future conversion, and restoration of the Jews ; and the universal establishment of true religion throughout the world. Intermingled with these topics, and giving to each a significance and interest which it could not otherwise have possessed, are some of the clearest and most illustrious predictions respecting the Messiah, in his divine and human, his sacerdotal and suffering, and his regal and all- conquering character that are to be found in the Old Testament. XXX GENERAL PREFACE. It is impossible seriously to peruse this collection of prophetical writings without discovering the Omniscient Eye to which all future events, with the most minute of their attendant circumstances, are present ; the Omnipotent Arm, which, in the most difficult cases, secures the accomplishment of the Divine purposes ; the glorious attributes of Jehovah as the Moral Governor of the universe, and the special Friend and Protector of his people ; the deep depravity of the human heart ; the multiform phases of moral evil ; and the just retributions which befall mankind in the present state of existence. These, and numerous subjects of a kindred nature, furnish abundance of matter " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," which, while it is able to make "men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus," is also admirably fitted to " make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 15—17. The principles on which the Author has proceeded in preparing the pres ent work are the same by which he was guided in composing his Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah. It has been his great aim to present to the view of his readers the mind of the Spirit as expressed in the written dictates of inspiration. With the view of determining this, he has laid under contribu tion all the means within his reach, in order to ascertain the original state of the Hebrew text, and the true and unsophisticated meaning of that text. He has constantly had recourse to the colleotion of various readings made by Kennicott and De Rossi ; he has compared the renderings of the LXX., the Targum, the Syriac, the Arabic, the Vulgate, and other ancient versions : he has availed himself of the results of modern philological research; and has conducted the whole under the influence of a disposition to place himself in the times of the sacred writers — surrounded by the scenery which they exhibit, and impressed by the different associations, both of a political and a spiritual character, which they embody. In all his investigations he has en deavored to cherish a deep conviction of the inspired authority of the books which it has been his object to illustrate, and of the heavy responsibility which attaches to all who undertake the interpretation of the oracles of God. In no instance has the ' theory of a double sense been permitted to exert its influence on his expositions. The Author is firmly convinced, that the more this theory is impartially examined, the more it will be found that it goes to unsettle the foundations of Divine Truth, unhinge the mind of the biblical student, invite the sneer and ridicule of unbelievers, and open the door to the extravagant vagaries of a wild and unbridled imagination. Hap pily the number of those who adhere to the multiform method of interpreta tion is rapidly diminishing ; and there cannot be a doubt, that, in proportion as the principles of sacred hermeneutics come to be more severely studied, and perversions of the word of God, hereditarily kept up under the specious garb of spirituality and a more profound understanding of Scripture, are discovered and exposed, the necessity of abandoning such slippery and un tenable ground will be recognized, and the plain, simple, grammatical and natural species of interpretation, adopted and followed. CONTENTS. PAGE Vhosea 1 JOEL 87 AMOS 123 OBADIAH .183 JONAH : . ... 196 MICAH i 216 NAHUM . 264 HABAKKUK .285 ZEPHANIAH 320 HAGGAI 340 ZECHARIAH 354 MALACHI 440 HOSEA. PREFACE. Respecting the origin of this prophet nothing is known beyond what is stated in the title, ver. 1. If, as is now generally agreed, Jeroboam II. died about the year b. c. 784, and Hezekiah began to reign about B. c. 728, it would appear from the same verse that the period of his ministry must have em braced, at the very least, fifty-six years. To some this has seemed incredible, chiefly on the ground that his prophecies are comprised within the compass of fourteen brief chapters. It must be remembered, however, that the prophets were not uninterruptedly occupied with the delivery of oracular matter. Sometimes considerable intervals elapsed between their communications, al though there can be no doubt that, having once been called to the office of public teachers, they devoted much of their time to the instruction of the people among whom they lived. Besides, there is no reason for believing the contents of the book are all that he ever uttered. They constitute only such portions of his inspired communications respecting the Israelites, as the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve for the benefit of the Jews, among whose sacred writings they were incorporated. Hosea was contemporary with Isaiah, Micah, and Amos, and, like the last- mentioned prophet, directed his prophecies chiefly against the kingdom of the ten tribes. From the general tenor of his book, and from the history of the times con tained in the Books of Kings, he manifestly lived in a very corrupt age. Idolatry, a fondness for foreign alliances, civil distractions, and vice of every description abounded, the impending judgments on account of which he was commissioned .to announce. Though he occasionally mentions Judah, yet the entire scene is laid in the land of Israel, where, there can be little doubt, he lived and taught. With the exception of the first and third chapters, which are in prose, the book is rhythmical, and abounds in highly figurative and metaphorical language.- The diction is exceedingly concise and laconic ; so much so, that Jerome justly describes him as " commaticus et quasi per sententias loquens." The sentences are in general brief and unconnected ; the unexpected change of person is of frequent occurrence ; number and, gender are often neglected ; and the sim iles and metaphors are frequently so intermixed, that no small degree of at tention is required in order to discover their exact bearing and force. He is more scanty in his use of the particles than the other prophets, which adds not a little to the difficulty of interpreting his prophecies. In many instances he is highly animated, energetic, and sublime. Of all the prophets he is, in point of language, the niost obscure and hard to be understood. 1 CHAPTER I. This chapter contains the inscription, ver. 1; a representation of the idolatrous kingdom of Israel under the image of a female, whom the prophet was ordered to marry, but who should prove false to h'im, 2, 3 ; and of the punishment with which it was to be visited, by the symbolical names of the prophet's children, together with a distinct intimation that the kingdom of Judah should not be involved in the same destruction, 4-8. It concludes with a gracious promise of the joint restoration of all the tribes, and their flourishing con dition in the land of their fathers, subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. The word of Jehovah, which was communicated to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah ; and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the word of Jehovah by Hosea. Jehovah said 1. The kings here mentioned are those specified in the inscription to the prophe cies of Isaiah, with the addition of Jero- ¦ boam, the son of Joash, commonly called Jeroboam the Second, to distinguish him from the son of Nebat. This monarch carried on very successful wars with his northern neighbors, and recovered out of their hands the territories of which they had taken possession; but though thus signally prospered, as an instrument in the hand of Jehovah, he was a wicked character, and greatly promoted idolatry in Israel. See 2 Kings xiv. 23-28. By -151, word, is meant the prophetic matter contained in the book. Thus the Targ. rxnn: cans. — n^rj is commonly rendered " came'" in such connection, but it seems preferable to retain its usual sig nification, only adding another verb, as communicated, imparted, or such like, to suit the English idiom. 2. na i is equivalent to nsi and is ren dered as a noun in the LXX., Targ., and Syr. It occurs in the absolute form lai.n, Jer. v. 13, with a similar reference to inspired matter. Some have attempted to show from the words ~\rf] -i3 the land, is put, by metonymy, for its inhabitants. The preposition ya has here the force of a negative, which strongly expresses the state of separation which had taken place. 3. That the names Gomer and Diblaim are to be taken symbolically, as Heng stenberg interprets, does not appear. His exposition of them is fanciful, as is that of Jerome, who takes pretty much the same view. The use of'-iV, to him, i. e. to Hosea, proves that the child was not of spurious origin. The word is wanting, indeed, in three of Kennicott's MSS., and one of De Rossi's, the Com plut. edition of the LXX., the Itala, and the Arab. ; but the omission in all prob ability originated in an attempt to render the phraseology comformable to that of verses 6 and 8. 4, 5. Vs^-if, Jezreel, i. e. God will scatter, from y-i_T , to scatter, disperse, as in Zech. x. 9 ; Targ. s»l"=!i. It was otherwise the proper name of a city in the tribe of Issachar, on the brow of the central valley in the great plain of the same name, and the royal residence of Ahab and his successors. It was t.ere Jehu exercised acts of the greatest cruelty, 2 Kings x. 11, 14, 17. These acts were speedily to be avenged in the extinction of the royal family, and the entire ces sation of the Israelitish state. It had been announced to Jehu that his sons should occupy the throne till the fourth generation, 2 Kings x. 30. Two of these generations had passed away by the time of the prophet — Jeroboam being the great grand-son. In the following gene ration, the prediction received its accom plishment. By the '« bow of Israel " is meant her military prowess, which was completely subdued by the Assyrian army. The valley here mentioned, after wards called Esdraelon, was famous for the battles fought there from the most ancient times. It consists of the broad elevated plain which stretches from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, near Mount Carmel, and is well adapted to military operations. Accordingly, Dr. E. D. Clarke observes, " Jews, Gentiles, Sara cens, Christian Crusaders, and Anti- Christian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Per sians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plains of Esdraelon, and have beheld the vari ous banners of their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon." It was, therefore, natural that the Israelites should endeavor to make a stand against the Assyrians in this valley ; but being overpowered by numbers were obliged to succumb to the enemy. Of this discom fiture, and the consequent dispersion of the ten tribes, the name of the prophet's son was symbolical. Cn HOSEA. 9 10 11 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter; and He said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruiiamaii ; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. And she weaned Lo-Ruhamah, and conceived, and bare a son. And He said, Call his name Lo-Asimi ; for ye are not my people, and I will not be yours. Nevertheless the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured nor numbered ; and it shall be, that in stead of its having been said to them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said to them, Ye are the, children of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel, be 6, 7. nam R5, Lo-Ruhamah, i. e. unpitied. V'Va: elsewhere signifies to forgive ; and were the verb preceded by the copulative i, it might be so rendered here, only supplying the negative t& from the preceding clause ; but as ¦>:}, but, excludes such repetition, the phrase must be rendered as in the translation. LXX. a.vriTu.(T(T6p.tvus avTiTa^o/^at avrois. Syr. JsotX Jjj Vfll ^ ruV>. Vulg. oblivione obliviscor eorum — reading sswa, which is found in De Rossi's MS. 596, at first hand, instead of sta. The king dom of Israel was never more to be re stored, though, in conjunction with the Jews, the scattered Israelites were to return to Canaan after the Babylonish captivity, ver. 11. It was to be very different with the Jewish power. Though likewise attacked, and threatened with utter extinction by Sennacherib, they were mercifully delivered by a divine interposition, without all human aid. And though they were afterwards carried away to Babylon, their civil polity was restored, which was not the case with the Israelites. nMPiVn. war, stands ellip- tically for nnnVo 'Was, warriors. 8. The mention here made of the weaning of Lo-Ruhamah, seems designed rather to fill up the narrative, than to describe figuratively any distinct treat ment of the Israelites. 9. 'toy t&, Lo-Ammi, i. e. not my peo ple, further sets forth the rejection of the ten tribes by Jehovah. Nothing could have been better calculated to make an impression upon the minds of his country men, than for the prophet thus to give to one child after another a name strongly significant of the disastrous circumstances to which they should be reduced. Instead of n 5.V ri'-s- 5«V, / will not be yours, i. e. your God, Houbigant and Newcome would read C"nVx sV, / am not your God : but though the antithesis is com mon, it admits of an ellipsis, just as in Ezek. xvi. 8, there is an ellipsis of nsiA. Comp. Ps. cxviii. 6. The MSS. and versions exhibit no variation. 10, 11. These verses contain a gra cious promise of the recovery of the descendants of the Israelites, along with those of their brethren the Jews, at the termination of the Babylonish captivity. Though entirely and for ever broken up as a distinct kingdom, yet, during the period of their residence in the regions of the East, whither they were to be transported, they should greatly multiply, and afterwards be reinstated in the priv ileges of adoption, as members of the theocracy. The eleventh verse teaches the reunion of all the tribes, and their return under Zerubbabel to their own land. That this prince is meant by the iPiN -i-N^, one head, must be maintained, HOSEA. Chap. II. gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one 12 head, and shall come up out of the land. For great shall be the day of Jezreel. Say ye unto your brethren, Ahau ; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. since the Messiah, who is by many sup posed to be intended, is nowhere spoken of as appointed by men, but always as the choice and appointment of God, '{")$, land, signifies, in this connection the country of Babylon, not excluding those other regions of the East in which the descendants of the different tribes were found. Vsy-in, Jezreel, is obvi ously used here in a different acceptation from that in which it is taken ver. 4. That of sowing is alone appropriate. Il lustrious should be the period when the tribes should again be sown in their own country. Comp. chap. ii. 22, 23 ; Jer. xxxi. 27. The principle on which part of ver. 10, and chap. ii. 23, are quoted, Rom. ix. 25, 26, and 1 Pet. ii. 10, seems to be that of analogy. As God had taken pity upon the ten tribes, who had become heathens, as it respects idolatrous and other practices, so he had pitied the Gentiles who had been in the same cir cumstances. What was said of the one class was equally descriptive of the other. CHAPTER II. The prophet proceeds in this chapter to apply the symbolical relation described in the pre ceding. He calls the Israelites to reform their wicked conduct, 1,2; threatens them with a series of calamities, the effect of which should be their repentance and return to the service of Jehovah, 3-15; and promises a gracious restoration to his favor, and the enjoyment of security and prosperity in their own land, 16-23. 1 Contend with your mother, contend ; 2 For she is not my wife, Neither am I her husband : That she may remove her lewdness from her face, And her adulteries from between her breasts. 1, 2. The individual members of the Israelitish state are here summoned to urge upon their nation the consideration of its wickedness in having departed from God. Of these the nation of the ten tribes was the es, mother. Cocceius, Dathe, Kuinoel, and Riickert, render "3, that, and interpret: Argue the point with your nation, and show her that in consequence of her wicked conduct all relations between us have ceased. The casual signification of the conjunction, however, seems preferable. The words which it introduces form a parenthesis ; and -iOrn, which, though future, is to be rendered potentially : that she may remove connects with wn, contend ye. The -. is, as frequently to be taken t(\mws. The repetition of wn is emphatic, as ducite in Virgil : — " Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin." By C^E^SSSi D'aiai, fornications and adulteries, are meant the tokens or indi cations of lewd character : — boldness of ClIAl'. II. HOSEA. Lest I strip her naked, And set her as in tlie day when she was born, And make her as the desert, And make her like a dry laud, And cause her to die with thirst. Upon her children I will have no mercy, For they are lewd children. Because their mother hath committed lewdness, Their parent hath acted shamefully ; For she said : I will follow my lovers, That give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my wine. countenance, and an immodest exposure of the breasts. Both forms are redupli cate, to express the enormity of the evil. What the prophet has in view is the reckless and unblushing manner in which the Israelitish nation practised idolatry. The LXX. have read "ssn, "from my face;" improperly in this connection, though a similar phrase occurs elsewhere. 3. A striking accumulation of synony mous denunciations for the purpose of describing the state of complete desti tution to which the idolatrous Israelites would be reduced by the infliction of divine judgments. They should be placed in circumstances analogous to those in which they had originally been in Egypt. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 4 ; xxiii. 25, 26, 28, 29. For lain comp. Jer. ii. 6. 4. Individuals might expect that they would escape, and not be treated as the nation in its collective capacity ; but Jehovah here declares, that he would treat them according to the demerits of their individual wickedness. For ¦-an c*aiat comp. q"mst "7.V;, ch. i. 2. The second noun is, as frequently, used ad- jectively. 5. "a, since or because, and ~-h, there fore, ver. 8, correspond to each other, the former marking the protasis, the latter the apodosis. The second "3 in troduces parenthetically an illustration of the statement made at the beginning of the verse. rryln is the feminine par ticiple of rrnn to conceive, be preqnant, Comp. -n-n'n, Song iii. 4. Accordmg to the Jewish exegesis, " p'n, Gen. xlix. 26, is used of male progenitors. The Targ. and Jarchi suppose teachers to be here meant ; but the term is merely a syno- nyme of DS, mother, in the preceding hemistich. Interpreters are not agreed respecting the rendering of r c " a in . In most instances in which the word occurs it certainly has the transitive significa tion; but here the intransitive seems more appropriate. Comp. Jer. vi. 15, where it is explained by vl-s -ay-in -a. Comp. also a"UTi, y~n, a"yr-n, as Iliph. intransitives. The paragogic n in -a is, elongating the future, is expressive ot a decided purpose, desire, or bent of mind ; it is my settled determination to follow those who richly supply my wants in return for my religious services. D" a - s« lovers, which is here employed meta phorically to denote idols, is seldom used except in a bad sense. This interpretation, which is that of Joseph Kimchi and Abarbanel, is more in keeping with the symbolical character of the prophecy, than that suggested by the Targ. -,-aa ¦pas ns>tai, which takes the word in the sense of idolaters, or idolatrous nations, such as Assyria, etc. Comp. as strictly parallel, Jer. xliv. 17-19. The lan guage indicates complete alienation of heart from Jehovah, the only giver of all good, and a blind confidence in, and devotion to the service of idols. Tha articles specified comprehend both the necessaries and the luxuries of ancient Hebrew life, yc— . oil, is much in use among the Orientals, both hi its simple HOSEA. Chap. II. Therefore, behold ! I will hedge up thy way with thorns, And will raise a wall, that she may not find her paths. And she shall eagerly pursue her lovers, but she shall not over take them ; And shall seek them, but shall not find them : Then shall she say : I will go and return to my first husband, For it was better with me then than now. Because she knew not that it was I that gave her The corn, and the new wine, and the oil ; And furnished her abundantly with silver and gold, Which they made into images of Baal : Therefore I will take back my corn in its time, And my new wine in its season ; And I will recover my wool and my flax, Designed to cover her nakedness. state, and as compounded with other in gredients. It is specially applied as ointment to the body after bathing. Comp. Psalm xxiii. 5 ; Prov. xxi. 17. ¦ -_-~a denotes here all kinds of artificial drink, being used in distinction from water. The Aldine edition of the LXX. reads 6 ohos fiov .¦ but the usual reading is iravra. bo~a [jlol Kaft^Ket, with which the Targ. and Syr. agree. The word occurs, Ps. cii. 10 ; Prov. iii. 8 ; and is evi dently derived from npt'j . Arab JLuj ; Eth. f| r*P • '° make to drink, to water. 6. For - in ^an -s the LXX. Arab, and Syr. read r r , but most likely in order to produce uniformity in the use of the affix. The metaphor here employed is borrowed from the condition of a trav eller whose progress is interrupted by a hedge thrown across his path, or who can no longer pass- through the gap of an enclosure which used to be in his way ; and who is consequently reduced to straits and difficulties. Turned out of his accustomed course, he is bewil dered, and strives in vain to extricate himself. Comp. Job xix. 8 ; Lam. iii. 7, 9. m-l, a wall, is pointed Sfi-a, in the editions 'of J. H. Michaelis, and Jahn, and this punctuation Hengstenberg at tempts, without success, to defend. The wall means the external hindrances which the captivity interposed between the ten tribes and the objects of their idolatrous attachment. 7. Convinced by bitter experience of the folly of idolatry, the Israelites would renounce it, and return to the service of Jehovah, ns in is intensive, and expresses the ardor of the pursuit. The Vau in niM8i, marking the apodosis, points out the consequence or result of the failure — a resolution to turn from idols to serve the living God. It might be rendered so that, but not in order that, as Manger proposes. Ts, then, designates the period previous to the apostasy of the ten tribes, when in reward for external obedience, they enjoyed temporal blessings Thus the Targ. si-iVs "P""" is 'h at: —is srn.sta^ n^£.s sV Tyais -ntenja - 8, 9. i and "jaV at the beginning of these verses stand in the same relation to each other as 'a and "|iV. verses 5th and 6th. Before jibs supply i vs. By Vya, Baal, the prophet means " images of Baal," the singular being used col lectively for the plural. Comp. ch. viii. 4, where B"Sx S, idols, correspond to -:a;a in the present ease. Hitzig would re strict -i-is, understood, to am, gold, sup posing the golden calves set up at Bethel and Dan to be meant ; but, as it does not appear that the name of Baal was ever applied to them, his interpre tation is groundless. See chap. viii. 4 ; which also clearly proves that by wy Chap. II. HOSEA. 10 And now I will expose her vileness before her lovers. And none shall deliver her out of my hand. 11 And I will cause all her joy to cease ; ^yaai we are not to understand the conse cration of the silver and gold to the ser vice of Baal, but the actual conversion of these precious metals into images of that idol, or at least into plating with which to cover such as were made of wood. 2 -Chron. xxiv. 7, to which Seeker appeals in favor of the former meaning of the phrase, is also to be so understood. The rendering of Gesenius, "which they offered to Baal," is equally objectionable; the phrase hrrnv, when thus used, being referred to sacrificial victims. Targ. Ktii ;iai "ia_y W3B. Hengstenberg at tempts to support the position that conse cration is meant ; but his reasons are al together futile. The very passage which he quotes as parallel (Ezek. xvi. 17, 18,) is directly opposed to his exegesis of the phrase. Baal was perhaps the most ancient of all the gods worshipped in the East. He was, according to Dr. Miinter, the re presentative of the sim, the generative power in the eastern mythology, and had associated with him Astarte, the female power, which was viewed as rep resenting the moon. Gesenius, however, is of opinion, that under these names the planets Jupiter and Venus were wor shipped. See on Isaiah xvii. 8. From the frequency with which his name oc curs in compound Phoenician names, as Hannibal, Hasdrubal, etc., the wor ship of Baal appears to have been com mon among that people ; and from them, especially the Tyrians, it was borrowed by the Israelites. Mention is made of this idolatry in the time of the Judges, see chap. ii. 11, 13; iii. 7; vi. 25; it became prevalent even in Judah in the days of Ahaz ; and, though abolished by the pious king Josiah, was revived by Manassch. In Israel it rapidly gained ground after the introduction of the wor ship of the golden calves by Jeroboam, and reached its height in the reigns of Ahab and Hosea. The verb avi, to return, turn back, is frequently used adverbially. So here innp.V1 2-,i-s, I will again take away, or take back, i. e. deprive of. The 2 meaning is, that instead of reaping the fruits of the earth, etc. as they expected at the usual season, they should be trod den down, consumed, or taken away by the Assyrian army under Shahnaneser. Jehovah vindicates his right to the vari ous articles specified, because they had been bestowed by his providence ; calling them his, with obvious reference to ver. 5, in which Israel had called them hers. The land and all it contained were spe cially his. Vaa ; Arab. J^^aj, liberatus fait, expresses the idea of rescuing or n>- coverinf/ what was unjustly held. The h in m'saV denotes end or purpose, and is quite in its place ; so that there is no ne cessity, with Houbigant, Dathe, Horsley, Newcome, Boothroyd, and others, to change it into b, out of deference to the LXX. who render tov p.^ KaKmrtw. 10. mVaa occurs only in this place, but is obviously equivalent to "Vaa, atro cious, shameful, detestable wickedness. Targ. ~:Vp, her shame, LXX. ttjv aKo^tapaiav . o o > au-rrjs; Syr. 01,^10? Q-S, nudatio in ma lum, pudenda. Castel. ; Arab. I g V. - r . her nakedness. Oecuring in immediate connection with the preceding rv.-y, nudity, it conveys the superadded idea of obscenity, i. e. by metonomy, the re sults or consequences of idolatrous con duct, a complete destitution of all the necessaries of life. Comp. Jer. xiii. 26 ; Nah. iii. 5. This exposure was to be made in the very presence of the idols which Israel had served, none of which should be able to afford deliverance. By a prosopopoeia, the idols are first endowed with the faculty of vision, and then their utter imbecility is strikingly set forth. 'ii-S, not only signifies won, but any one, and is frequently used of inanimate ob jects. In connection with sV, it signifies none. 11, 12, explain the denouncement made ver. 10. The country was to be desolated by the invaduig armies, and all 10 HOSEA. Chap. II. Her festivals, her new moons, and her sabbaths, And all her appointed assemblies. 12 I will also lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, Of which she said : They are my hire Which my lovers have given me : I will turn them into a forest, And the beasts of the field shall devour them. 13 I will avenge upon her the days of the Baals, On which she burned incense to them ; And decked herself with nose-rings and trinkets, And followed her lovers, And forgat me, saith Jehovah. the festivities and seasons of religious observance were to cease. The different terms here employed are those by which the seasons of worship, etc. appointed by Jehovah in the Mosaic law, are des ignated ; but it is not hence to be inferred that such were observed according to his appointment. The Israelites professed to worship him, but, at the same time, served other gods. While from habit they continued to keep them as portions of time unappropriated to the ordinary occupations of life, they were doubtless converted into seasons of carnal indul gence. The nouns are those of mul titude, and must be rendered in the plu ral, isai, and nasn, are likewise to be taken as collectives, or rather, as Horsley suggests, plantations of vines and fig- trees. These should be left uncultivated on the removal of the inhabitants into foreign regions. Comp. Is. v. 6 ; vii. 23, 24. riar-s, like ~2T$, is used only of the hire of a harlot, and is peculiarly appro priate in this connection. Thus Tan- chum on chap. viii. 9 ; — JcX/J L/0 ^J& JmaLl ,jjo iUitJJ- Comp. Is 17, 18. The wild beast is here to be taken literally, and not figuratively, as Abarbanel does, — supposing the heathen invaders to be meant. 13. B'Vsan, the Baals, i. e. the idols which they had set up to Baal in the cities and different parts of the country, as well as in their private houses. Hence the names Baal-Gad, Baal-Hermon, Baal- meon, etc. By t^Vyari ¦>»?- rs, are xxiii. meant the days specially devoted to the celebration of idolatrous rites. To cause grateful odors to ascend from the altars, was considered peculiarly acceptable to the objects of worship. It appears to have originated partly in the gratification afforded by agreeable smells, and partly in the custom of burning perfumes in rooms, etc. with a view to purify them from noxious vapors, era and rT>Vrj appear to be employed here to denote female ornaments generally ; though strictly taken, the former commonly sig nifies such rings as the oriental females wear in the nostril. See on Is. iii. 21. fvVn, from n^n, to be smooth, polished; Arab. 1 <¦>., ornavit monilibus mundove suo (mulierem,) y . 1 ~^ mundo ornata, denotes » trinket, necklace, or the like. Accordmg to Firuzabad : xj ovj Lfl jLoj^J! p. e-A^OjO \2* ii . 1 <\ cannot with any propriety be rendered " therefore " in this connection, if the following words are to be regarded as promissory of good, and not as con taining a further threatening of punish ment. And that they are to be so regarded, the subsequent context suffi ciently shows. This particle must there fore possess the force of the Arab. .»JU verumtamen, but yet, notwithstanding, never theless. It thus marks the unexpected transition from threats to promises, as Is. vii. 14; x. 24; xxvii. 9; xxx. 18, et freq. — nnB, of which PIPES is the Piel participle, signifies to open, be open, easily jiersuasible; hence in Piel, both in a good and a bad sense, to persuade, al lure, prevail upon by suitable induce ments. It is here necessarily to be taken in the sense of inducing or gaining over to that which is good, by the use of soothing and persuasive means, as the concluding words of the verse iphsti naV- hv abundantly prove. As the Is raelites were to be forcibly removed from their land by the king of Assyria, there is a singular want of propriety in assign ing to a, m rrpaVhi, its usual copulative power. It is obviously to be understood exceptively, or as introducing a kind of parenthetical sentence, expressive of what was to take place in the histoiy of the ten tribes previously to their conversion from idolatry ; and which, though it might seem severe, was indispensable for the attainment of that object. For this signification of i, See Ruth ii. 13 ; 1 Sam. i. 5 ; Eccles. ix. 16 ; Mai. ii. 14 ; and other instances in Noldius, No. 46. Bauer thinks the desert between Assyria and Judea is meant, through which the Israelites were to be conducted on their release; Duderlcin, Theol. Bihlioth. ex plains it of Judea itself, at that time desolate and waste. I imagine the country of Babylon is intended. Jehovah is here said to do what he would employ the Assyrians in doing. For the phrase aV Vy -.ai, see Is. xl. 2. When re duced to circumstances of affliction in the countries of the East, whither they were to be carried, Jehovah declares that he would administer consolation to them ; holding out to them the cheering pros pect of restoration, on their repentance to their native land. .15. The Israelites had altogether for feited their possessions ; nor could they acquire a new right to them except in the way of a fresh grant from the Lord. This grant he here promises them, as he had of old promised Canaan to their fathers w-hen in the wilderness. D'iM, thence, means, returning from the wilder ness ; just as site »" indicates the home ward direction of the exiles. To take D'i'n as a particle of time, which Gese nius proposes, is less suitable. " The val ley of Achor" lay in the vicinity of Jericho, and was noted in the sacred history for the judgment inflicted upon A than. From Is. Lxv. 10, it appears to have been a fertile and pleasant region ; and on this account alone it is thought by Calvin, Zanchius, Rivetus, and others, to be referred to by our prophet. Most of the Rabbins, however, and after them, many Christian interpreters, consider al lusion to be made to the name, which signifies trouble or molestation, and to this I incline. This valley had proved very inauspicious to the Hebrews on their former entrance into Canaan. They had been forced to turn their backs before 12 HOSEA. Chap. II. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, Even as in the clay when she came up from the land of Egypt. 16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, That thou shalt call me, Ishi ; And shalt no more call me, Baali. 1 7 For I will take away the names of the Baals from her mouth, And they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And I will make a covenant for them in that clay With the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, And with the reptiles of the ground ; the native inhabitants, and their hearts melted, and became as water, Josh. vii. 5, 8, 12, 24, 26. But on their return from the captivity, the exiles would pass through it with the undisturbed expec tation of a peaceable and joyful occu pation of the country. By napP F>C?.> a door of hope, is meant a hopeful' entrance into the holy land. — ~nay, the LXX. Syr. Arab, and Symm. take in the sig nification to be humbled or afficted ; and this idea is adhered to by Grotius, who combines it with that of singing : " In- telligc autem carmen fletus et precum ; " but that of celebrating the Divine good ness in songs of gratitude and joy, better suits the connection. The n in rateii, as before observed, indicates the homeward direction of the exiles — yet not without special reference to their approach to the valley of Achor. The point of comparison, as it respects the singing, seems to be the Song of Moses at the Red Sea. As the people then united in celebrating the goodness of Jehovah displayed in their deliverance, so should the returning Israelites do, on again taking possession of then- native land. 16, 17. The word hv a, Baal, had orig inally been used in its unexceptionable acceptation of husband, and is thus ap plied to Jehovah, Is. liv. 5 ; but as it had become common in its application by the Israelites to the heathen deities which they had worshipped, and besides, conveyed the idea of possession arid rule, rather than that of affection, God here declares that in future he would be called r-s, Ish, the name more usually employed to express the relation of hus band, and which was not liable to the same objections : - — ¦ " Sic mihi servitium video, dominamque paratam, Jam mihi libertas ilia paterna vale." Tibullus, fib. ii. Eleg. 4. Before ri-s, two MSS. the LXX. Aq. Syr. insert "*> ; while two MSS., and originaUy seven more, and four printed editions, omit it after ^s"ipti. — O'Vsa, is not here to be taken as a piufal ot ex cellency, but is used, according to its strict import, to denote the different im ages of Baal worshipped by the Israelites, such as Baal- Gad, Baal-Ammon, etc. Comp. Exod. xxiii. 13 ; Zech. xiii. 2. The prophecy was fully accomplished at the return from the Babylonish captivity. 18. Such should be the security of the returned exiles under the immediate care and protection of Jehovah, that every thing capable of injuring, them should be rendered perfectly harmless. The irrational animals should be re strained, as if under the bond of an inviolable compact; and the Assyrian armies should no more attack them. Some understand the former part of the verse figuratively — the different creatures there specified denoting men correspond ing to them in disposition ; but the language is rather to be regarded as hyperbolical, being merely intended to heighten the effect. Comp. Job v. 23 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 25. Before T,-ar,\.iz, supply "Vs. or ^-i-as, as in chap. i. f. Tai-g. -lay N^"!ir- — "!» -n si-sis a pregnant phrase^ meaning, / will 'break and remove auxtij from. a- id is here expressive of the Cu.i II. II 0 S E A . 13 The bow, and the sword, and the battle, I will break and remove from the laud, And will cause them to recline securely. 19 I will also betroth thee to myself forever ; I will even betroth thee to myself with righteousness and with justice, And with kindness, and with tender compassion. 20 Yea, I will betroth thee to myself with faithfulness: And thou shalt know Jehovah. 21 And it shall be in that day, I will respond, saith Jehovah, reclining posture in which the orientals indulge whenever they are released from active exertion. At the time predicted there would be no enemy or danger to break in upon their repose. "Ipsa? lacte domum referent distenta capella? Ubera, nee magnos metuent armenta leones. Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores. Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet, Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum." Virgil, Eclog. iv. 19, 20. teis signifies to contract a matrimonial alliance, and is here spe cially selected in order to impress the minds of the Israelites with a sense of the distinguished character of the Divine benignity. Though they had rendered themselves totally unworthy of his re gard, he declares that he would treat them as if they had never apostatized to idolatry. He would form a new con jugal relation, as with a female in her virgin state. The triple repetition of the verb expresses intensity of desire, and gives the strongest assurance to the party to which the promise is made. DVayV, for ever, is to be taken as Gen. xiii. 15 ; Exod. xxxii. 13 ; Is. xxxv. 10. The several particulars here enumerated further discover, by the amplification which they form, the great kindness of Jehovah to his people. By " righteous ness" and ••justice," is meant every equitable obligation which God could be expected to place himself under in die new conjugal relation — all that the Israelites could possibly expect in the way of supply from their Divine pro tector. To these, however, are added "kindness," and "tender compassion," which express the strong internal affec tion from which the former should pro ceed, and the high degree of interest which God would take in his recovered people. To remove every doubt from their minds, he crowns the whole by a gracious assurance that Ms engagements should be "faithfully" performed. n'Kfj"-' to o-TrXdyxva, lit. the bowels, but com monly employed figuratively to denote tender affection or love. Horsley's in terpretation of the terms in application to our Saviour, is, like most of his exegesis, in the highest degree fanciful, being totally unsupported by the scope and connection of the passage. The knowledge of Jehovah here predicated is not speculative, or a bare intellectual acquaintance with his character, but ex perimental, or that which results from the actual enjoyment of his love. Instead of na-,— fits, twenty-six MSS., originally thirteen more, now* two, and perhaps other two, two editions, supported by the Vulg., read nir.i. ''as "a, i. e. they shall know that I am Jehovah. 21, 22. One of the most beautiful instances of prosopopoeia to he found in Scripture. Comp. the address to the Nile in Tibullus, lib. i. Eleg. vii. ver. 25 : — "Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres, Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Jovi." ¦While second causes have here their 14 II 0 S E A . Chap. III. I will respond to the heavens, And they shall respond to the earth, 22 And the earth shall respond to the corn, and the new wine, and the oil, And they shall respond to Jezreel. 23 For I will sow her for myself in the land, And will have mercy upon Lo-RtJhamah, And will say to Lo-Aumi, Thou art my people ; And they shall say, My God ! appropriate place allotted to them, as so many connected links in the chain of Divine Providence, the sovereign in fluence of Hhe Great First Cause is strongly asserted by the emphatic repe tition of nays, I will respond to, or answer. It must, however, be observed, that this verb does not occur the first time in one of Kennicott's MSS. ; it has originally been wanting in another of De Rossi's ; and is omitted in the LXX. Syr. and Arab. One of De Rossi's MSS, omits nan'; csa nsss entirely; and another, the second nass originally. — Vsynt^, Jezreel, here means that which God Hath sown, i. e. his people whom he had scat tered, but whom he would again restore to their native soil. Comp. chap. i. ver. 4, and 11. 23. a is causal, introducing a decla ration which is designed to account for the appropriation of the name Jezreel at the end of the preceding verse. The metaphor is agricultural. The rest of the verse contains a repetition of what' is promised, chap. i. 10. CHAPTER III. This chapter contains a new symbolical representation of the regard of Jehovah for his peo ple, and. of their condition at a period subsequent to their re-establishment in Canaan at the- return from Babylon. The prophet is commanded to become reconciled to Gomer, though she had proved unfaithful to him, as predicted chap. i. 2, ver. 1. He obeys the command, and purchases her from the individual with whom she was living in adultery, but stipulates that she was to wait for a lengthened period before she could be restored to the enjoyment of her conjugal rights, 2, 3. In the two last verses, the symbolical pro ceeding is explained of a long period during which the Hebrews were to live without the celebration of their ancient rites, and at the same time be free from all idolatrous practices. The direct prediction respecting their conversion to the Messiah, ver. 6, clearly proves, that their condition during the present dispersion is intended. 1 And Jehovah said unto me ; Go again, love a woman beloved 1. -ns, again, obviously refers back to occasioned nearly the same diversity of chap. i. 2. The transaction here com- interpretation. To me there appears no manded, bearing so near a resemblance consistent method of explaining it but to what is enjoined in that chapter, has that which assumes an identity of the Ciiai-. i;i. II 0 S E A . 15 lay a friend, yet an adulteress, according as Jehovah loveth the children of Israel, though they have turned to other gods, and love grape cakes. So I bought her to myself for fifteen pieces female here specified with Gomer, whom the prophet had previously married. For, first, such construction is absolutely required by the analogy. It was Israel that stood in the relation of wife to Jehovah from first to last. No other nation was admitted to the same relation. Secondly, the female is one already married, but who had proved unfaithful ; which was precisely the case with Israel. Thirdly, except she had been the proph et's own wife, who had become un faithful to him, there would be no point in comparing his love to her with that borne by Jehovah to idolatrous Israel. Fourthly, a command to love the wife of another man, who, notwithstanding her infidelity was still attached to her, would be totally repugnant to every idea of moral justice and propriety. Lastly, the command is not rap., take, as in the for mer instance, chap, i 2, the usual formu la by which marriage is expressed ; but aans, love, i. e. renew thy kindness to her; receive her back into thy house and make kind provision for her. This view of the passage is decidedly adopted by Ewald in his Propheten des Alten Bunch-s, recently published. The words y-a r-aa_ns rri-s aaras t\\> r-£saa;a, are equivalent to, " Go, love thy wife, to whom, though an adulteress, thou art attached ; " but the indefinite form racs, a wife, is purposely selected, instead of a^rjisS. thy wife, in order to intimate the state of separation in which they lived. For the same purpose a-' -a, a friend or comjianion, is used, and not "i"S, her husband ; it being here employed not so much as a term of endearment, as indi cating that, whatever might be his dispo sition towards her, they were not living on the same terms as formerly. Comp. for this acceptation of s-i, Jer. iii. 26. The LXX. mistaking the word for an, evil, and taking i-aaras for the.Benon. raaras, render ayairoxrav irovnpa ; for which the o . o o . D 7 Syr. has jlfl*»5j '^«^\ 1-^AJI a | Aaa^i, an adulterous woman irho lov eth evil things. The words r-ajrsaa •>a:,a raa-\ are to be connected avu,. S>"a riaarasj and not with ar;s. The kind feeling of the prophet towards Iris faithless wife corresponded, as a type, to the love of God towards the idolatrous Israelitea. The sentence just quoted in part, a3 well as the words o"~"-N— Vs E-a2 C^ras, form only two out of numerous instances in- which Hosea uses the lan guage of the Pentateuch, as Hiivernick has shown in his Handbueh der histor- crit. Einleit. in das A. T. 1 Thai. 2 Ab- theil. p. 608. faas >; -i—i-s, have been variously interpreted. LXX. ir4pp.ara ,u6Ta aratpiSos or o-ratplSaiv, baked meats with raisins. Aq. renders the former word by wahata, evidently reading "i~'l. According to the Hexap. Syr. Theod. ' adopts the same rendering : OJ3A SVl-^. } *"l 1 S \>la>. Symm. aicdprous ; Vulg. . O P.. t- . > 7 vinacia uvarum ; Syr. (A^uSJ p'.iiia jilacenta uvis passis condita. Junius, Tremellius, and others, have flagons of wine, as in our common version. The word yaj-i-sis employed by Jonathan hi his Targ. on Exod. xvi. 31, to express the meaning of h"ri"Ss, a flat cake. The most probable derivation is from -it-s, to jiress, compress ,- and the meaning will be, pressed cakes of dried grapes. Such cakes are highly esteemed in the East, on account of their sweet taste, and doubtless formed part of the offerings presented to idols, and afterwards eaten at idolatrous feasts. 2. Because the purchase of wives was not uncommon, as- it still is, in eastern countries, (See Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, Art. LXXXV. Grant's Ncsto- rians, p. 214 ; Perkins's Eight Years in Persia, p. 236,) most expositors have supposed that such a transaction is in tended in this place. The fact, however, that the price here specified, one half in HOS Chap. III. of silver, and for an homer and an half of barley. And I said unto her : Thou shalt remain for me many days ; thou shalt not commit lewdness, nor become any man's ; and I also will remain for thee. For the children of Israel shall remain many clays money, and the other half in gram, was the exact amount of what was allowed for a female slave, Exod. xxi. 32, induces the belief that the payment was made by the prophet for the liberation of his own wife, who had become the property of the person with whom she had been living in adultery. The sum was too parsimonious to have been given as a. dowery. The signification of buying as attaching to raiaa, is sufficiently estab lished by Deut. ii. 6, and Job xl. 30, and the use of the Arab. | jf, Conj. vi. and viii., conduxit rem, LXX. ip.ia- 8ruo-duT)v. Hengstenberg's attempt to explain it here of digging, in the sense of boring the ear in token of a state of slavery, is unsuccessful. A "V, lethek, according to the Babbins, contained fifteen seahs, or half an homer. Theod. yopibp a\(piruv ; Symm. vWaoskos KpiSruv ; but the other Greek versions, rifilicopov, half u, cor, which was equal to an homer. The LXX. unaccountably have ve@e\ oivov. The repetition of C""ii'a, is not unusual in Hebrew, but the abbrevi ated form of expression is better English. 3. asaji properly signifies to sit, but likewise to dwell, remain, etc. ^atra sa> explains its meaning here to be a re fraining from all cohabitation with others. ¦>V, and apVs, are con-elates ; and iss fcsi forms an antithesis ; " while I, on the other hand," etc. As the wife of the prophet was to continue for a long time in a state of separation equally from paramours and from her husband, and he was likewise to form no connection with any other woman, so the Israelites should long live without serving either false gods or Jehovah ; while, on his part, he would enter into no national relationship to any other people. This application of the symbol is distinctly marked by "o, and by the resumption of aavh, ver. 4. The choice of the fuller preposition Vs, in TpVs, in preference (o h, seems designed to express the strength of affection with which the symbolical female was still to be regarded ; conse quently the powerful inclination of the Lord towards his unfaithful people. 4. This verse describes a period of great length, during which the Israelites were to have no civil polity, either under regal or princely rule ; no sacred sacri fice ; no idolatrous statue ; no mediating priest ; and no images or tutelary deities. This period cannot be that of then- dis persion previous to the return from Babylon ; for the restoration of the wife of the prophet prefigured the restoration which took place on that return, agree ably to chap. ii. 19, 20, 23. It is true that when they were brought back along with the Jewish exiles, the Israelites had no more any civil or ecclesiastical polity of their own ; neither did they relapse into idolatry: but still, as in common with their brethren, they were subject to the same political rule, and offered their sacrifices to Jehovah at Jerusalem, it follows that the days here predicted must be those which have succeeded to the times of the Asmonean dynasty, or the dispersion consequent upon the final destruction of Jerusalem. During the protracted period of more than eighteen centuries, (D-2-a_ £"a-J they have been precisely in the circumstances here pre dicted — separated from idolaters, and professedly, belonging to Jehovah, yet never acknowledged by him in a church relationship. They have neither had a civil ruler, nor any of the consecrated offices and rites of their ancient econ omy. Thus Kimchi on the passage, ¦psi BaTi aaa aaraasas r-.V.-n -ac- T- -"-si nisns "ta V.-.s-n -» sVa -.htz sV ;:h B---aa-i Crraa'--o ria»->aaa aafaas a~-:.- — " And these are the days of our pres ent captivity, for we have neither king no- prince of Israel, but are under the rule of the nations, even under the rule of their kings and their princes." This interpretation, which alone suits the views furnished of the subject by the Chap. III. HOSEA. 17 without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without a statue, and without an ephod, and without images. 5 Afterwards the children of Israel shall return, and shall seekJc- prophet, overturns the hypothesis of Dr. Grant, that the Nestorian Christians are the remains of the ten tribes. It camiot properly be said of them that they have continued B-aa-a D^M;, in a state of sepa ration from God, for they received the gospel in the earliest ages of Christianity. Some explain riaaT, both of legitimate sacrifices and of such as were offered to false gods ; but the grouping of this term with nasia, a statue, as Ties, ephod, fol lowing, is with ra^Snn, teraphim, clearly shows that the prophet meant the former restrictively. Kimchi briefly explains : Ty'a> raaaaan -psa VsV naiT ys, "without sacrifice to God, and without an image for idolatrous worship." From the pro hibition Lev. xxvi. 1 ; Deut. xvi. 22, and the history, 2 Kings iii. 2 ; xvii. 10 ; x. 26, 27, it is manifest that raaaaaB does not stand for altar, as the ancient versions render it, but denotes a statue or image of some false deity. Comp. Micah v. 13. ¦visa, the eplwd, was that part of the high priest's dress which was worn above the tunic and robe. It consisted of two pieces which hung down, the one in front over the breast, and the other covering the back, and both reaching to the mid dle of the thigh. They were joined to gether on the shoulders by golden clasps, set in precious stones, and fastened round the waist by a girdle. In the breast part was the yen, or pectoral, containing the Urim and Thummim, by which divine responses were vouchsafed to the Hebrews. According to the Jews, the ephod in its complete state ceased with the captivity : for they specify the Urim and Thummim among the five things with respect to which the first temple differed from the second. LXX. Upareia, priesthood, which I doubt not the Hebrew term was intended metonymically to denote in this place. D'Blin, the teraphim, were penates, or household gods. They were used at a very early period, as appears from the history of Rachel, Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, 32, 34, 35. Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 13; 2 Kings xxiii. 24; Ezek. xxi. 21; Zech. 3 x. 2. That they were not only kept as tutelary deities, but also consulted for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of future events, appears from several of the passages just quoted. Hence the render ing of the LXX. S7)A.wy. The etymology of the word is altogether uncertain. 5. At a period still subsequent to that of their existence in the state just de scribed, the Israelites (now amalgamated with the Jews,) are to be converted ^o the true worship and service of Jehovah, under the spiritual reign of our Saviour, the promised Messiah. To him they will then submit themselves, and richly enjoy the blessings of divine grace, communicated through his mediation. That Ta?', David, here means neither the royal house cf David, nor any human monarch of that name who is yet to reign over the Jews, as some have im agined, but the great Messiah himself, appears evident from Scripture usage. See Is. Iv. 3, 4 ; Jer. xxx. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24 ; xxxvii. 24, 25. As the name properly signifies The Beloved, it quite accords with <5 a.yain\rhs, Matt. iii. 17, and t> TjyaTrrip.ivos, Eph. i. 6. Thus the Targ. i-,i -aa srppaV i-yasre-a, " And they shall obey Messiah the Soil of David." The following ii the Rabbin ical interpretation : — saaVn "|ras aj— ass 1» Esa n-sa -i-,t s---n -,m bs sn-tn -i"tt» -aa-a San [n-ttt-i]. "The Rabbins say, that He is the king Messiah ; whether he be of the living, his name is David, and whether he be of the slain, his name is David." Berachoth Jerus. in Raym. Martini Pugio Fidei, Fol. 277. See also the Rabbinical Commentaries on the above passages hi Ezekiel. The use of aSs, in the phrase raara^-Vs airasa, and not i», or ¦>:£», the usual fomi, is in tended to show that the fear here speci fied is not of the kind which " hath tor ment," and which causes those who are under its influence to recede from its object, but such fear as attracts or in duces them to approach to it. This the addition a'aata aSsa " and to his good- 18 HOSEA. Chap. III. hovah their God, and David their king; and they shall trem blingly hasten to Jehovah and to his goodness in the latter day. ness," clearly shows. Comp. Micah vii. 17. As, however, the idea of fleeing or hastening from danger is also im plied in verbs signifymg to fear, I have rendered the words so as to include both. In this way Rabbi Tanchum: " They shall flee to him for help from all that may be feared." Comp. Jer. xxxi. 12. LXX. iKO-riiaovrai iirl Tip Kvpltp ko.1 iirl toTs aya&ois avrov. Ewald renders, und icerden beben zu Jahve und zu seinem Gute, u. s. w. ; and Hitzig explains, bebend in freudiger Jirwartung werden sie herbeieilen. While on the one hand the Jews, under the influence of alarm, shall be excited to flee from the wrath to come, they shall be attracted by the display of the divine goodness in the mediation. of Christ, to confide in Him for all the blessings of salvation. C»»ra ra^ifas, the last of the days, i. e. the days of the Messiah, as the Rabbins interpret the phrase. See on Is. ii. 2, where Kimchi says expressly, Capaa Vs rrtD»n raaaaai san D^wn roirisaa -ansae " wherever it is said, ' In the last of the days,' it means the days of the Mes siah." CHAPTER IV. The prophet now addresses himself more directly to the castigation of the flagrant evils which abounded in the kingdom of Israel during the interregnum which followed upon the death of Jeroboam, and the reigns of Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, and Bekahiah. He calls the attention of his countrymen to the divine indignation, and the causes of it, 1, 2 ; denounces the judgments which were about to be executed upon them, 3 ; describes their incorrigible character, especially that of the priests, 4-11 ; and expatiates on the grossness of their idolatrous practices, 12-14. A solemn warning is then given to the members of the Jewish kingdom not to allow themselves to be influenced by their wicked example, 15-19. 1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children "of Israel ! For Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; Because there is no truth, nor kindness, nor knowledge of God in the land. 1, 2s. The initiatory words are those of Hosea, summoning attention to the divine message which he was commis sioned to deliver. aSs-a'a1; i;a is equivalent to Vsn'ri naa, ch. v." i ; ass/ais1; ¦'oaw, ch. v. 9'; and frequently to VsVan and C-"aBs; and all these different epithets are used of the kingdom of the ten tribes in contradistinction to rHarp and ra^a ra-aana, which designate the tribes of JudaK and B enjamin. a > -> signifies here ground of complaint, or judicial pro ceeding. LXX. Kplo-is. The wickedness which abounded is first set forth nega tively, and then positively, under certain items ; and the infinitive absolute is em ployed with great effect, as expressing more emphatically, by its abstract form, Chap. IV. HO SEA. 19 There is nothing but swearing and lying, And murder, and theft, and adultery; They have burst forth, And blood reacheth to blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, And every one that dwelleth in it shall languish ; With the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven ; The fishes of the sea also shall be removed. Yet let no man contend with, nor reprove another ; For thy people are like those that contend with the priest. Therefore thou shalt fall by day, And the prophet also shall fall with thee by night; And I will destroy thy mother. the heinousness of the evils described. The force of this I have given in a free translation. Ewald improperly limits the signification of the verb ynE in this place to the act of breaking into houses ; but the metaphor seems rather to be taken from the bursting forth of a torrent, which, in its progress, spreads wider and wider, and sweeps all before it. The plural form B^tti, blood, has also a degree of emphasis, signifying much bloodshed. What the prophet means is, that murder was so common, that no space was left as it were between its acts. LXX. a'tp-ara iov?T "Van is, Is. v. 13, but strictly means that destitution of the true knowledge of God which was the source of the sins now about to be pun ished. This ignorance is principally charged upon the religious teachers of the nation, each of whom is directly addressed in sitasttny-ri raPS. Thus Pagninus, O sacerdos ; which Dathe also inserts in his text. The persons addressed pretended to be priests of Jehovah, though' they taught the people to combine with his worship that of pagan deities, or at least that of the golden calves, which, no doubt, paved the way for the universal spread of idolatry in Israel. The position adopted by Horsley, that the Jewish high-priest is intended, does not suit the connection. The third s in ajstasass, is not found in a great number of Kenni- cott's and De Rossi's MSS., nor in some of the earlier printed editions ; in others it is marked as redundant, and some few have i"ip -jtasns. The antitheses in this verse are pointed and forcible. ">a is understood as repeated in raateiro, and a before riSsis. 7. As the priests are obviously the nominative to the verbs in the three fol lowing verses, and form the subject of discourse in that which precedes, they must likewise be the persons spoken of in this. It has been queried whether the increase was in number, or in wealth, power, etc. Michaelis thinks the latter is meant? still the former may be in cluded, in harmony with the mention made of their children, ver. 6. In pro portion as they multiplied in numbers and grew in influence, they promoted the increase of idolatry : but the wealth and dignity (laaa) which they acquired, and which they thus prostituted, should be destroyed by foreigners, by whom they would be carried into captivity, cana, and tiaaa, form a slight paronomasia. ' 8. rast: fa here signifies sin-offering, as it frequently does in the Levitical code. So Kimchi ; and it is thus rendered in Pococke's Arab. Ms. xl U~> .aOyi' ¦ jj-O Ls c^-v*' an<^ Castalio, pM- cido. The priests greedily devoured what the people brought for the expiation of their sins ; and instead of endeavoring to put a stop to abounding iniquity, only wished it to increase, in order that they might profit by the multitude of the vic tims presented for sacrifice, cea sit 3, to lift up the animal soul for any thing, means to lust after it, long, or have a strong desire for it, Deut. xxiv. 15 ; Jer. Chap. IV. II 0 S E A . 21 9 Therefore it shall be, like people, like priest ; I will punish them according to their ways, And requite them for their deeds. 10 For they shall eat, but shall not be satisfied ; They shall commit lewdness, but shall not increase : Because they have ceased to regard Jehovah. 11 Lewdness and wine and new wine take away the heart. 12 My people consult their stock; Their staff announceth to them: xxii. 27. a in VaEj, is used distributively to express the tact that such was the character of each of the priests. The reading B"E:_, found in ten MSS., origi nally in seven more, and perhaps in one, and supported by the LXX. Syr. Targ. Vulg. and Arab., most probably origi nated in emendation. Not unfrequently a proposition commences with the plurai, and ends with the singular, and vice versd. 9. Comp. Is. xxiv. 2. The rank and wealth of the priests would not exempt them from sharing the same fate with the rest of the nation. 10. aVasa is a resumption of aa>as\ ver. 8. — -a an is here used intransitively as in ver. 18, v. 3, and is to be under stood literally of the sensual indulgences of the Israelitish teachers, as the verb aafaS'' shows. For the signification to abound in children, as attaching to this verb, see Gen. xxviii. 14. Saadius, Arnold, (Blumen althebraisch. Dichtk.) and Horsley, disjoin iMrci from the pre ceding verb, and connect it with the fol lowing nouns, thus : — " They have forsaken Jehovah, Giving heed to fornication," etc. But, notwithstanding the apparent force of the bishop's remarks, there is some thing so repugnant to Hebrew usage in the combination loavraa y;a fast ibaV, to observe fornication, and wine, and new wine, that it is altogether inadmissible. Though the verb "imid may in no other passage take nan"' for its object, yet it takes satti "Vara, lying vanities, i. e. idols, Ps. xxxi. 7 ; Jonah ii. 9 ; in which latter passage it is connected with aty, as in the present case. The division of the words found in our common version is that of the Hexap. Syr. n " ^ *¦¦ j * j v" ^ » I Q VlN, and the Slavonic ; and is ap proved by Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- come, Dathe, Boothroyd, De AVette, Hitzig, and Ewald. 11. This verse has the appearance of a moral adage. The influence of habits of impurity and intoxication in blunting the moral feefings, and weakening the intellectual powers, is a well-established fact in the history of man. " Nox et amor vinumque nihil modera- bile suadent ; Ilia pudore vacat, liber amorque metu." Ovid. ' Nox, vinum, mulier ; nihil perniciosus adolescentulo." Ovid. miciosi Plaut. There can be little doubt that the prophet has specially in view the impure and bacchanalian orgies which were con nected with the Syrian idolatry. For the prevalence of drunkenness in Ephraim see Is. xxviii. 1 ; Amos iv. 1. 12. The LXX., and most versions which follow them, connect i>sS with aV, at the end of the preceding verse ; a mode of construction adopted by Mi chaelis and Dathe, but otherwise dis approved by modern translators. The Syr. Targ. and Vulg. divide properly. Hosea here adduces proofs of the mental hebetude to which the sinful practices of the Israelitish people had reduced them — their application to their wooden idols and images for oracular counsel, and their use of rhabdomaney or divination by 22 HOSEA. Chap. IV. For a lewd spirit hath caused them to err ; They have lewdly departed from under their God. 13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, And offer incense upon the hills ; Under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant : Therefore your daughters commit lewdness, And your daughters-in-law adultery. 14 1 will not punish your daughters when they commit lewdness, Nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery ; For they themselves go aside with harlots, rods. Leo Juda : " ligno suo oracula quEerit." That by ys, wood, is here meant an idol made of such material, the connection shows. Comp. Jer. ii. 27 : x. 8 ; Hab. ii. 19. ;£» is properly « shoot or twig, then a rod, walking staff, etc. Occurring as it does here, in refer ence to an idolatrous or superstitious practice, it denotes such a staff employed for purposes of divination. Some have been of opinion that it is to be taken as strictly parallel to yy, and that a staff is meant which had the image of some god carved upon it ; but the use of the phrase aV "a^ao, announceth, pointeth out, shows that a divining rod is meant. Rhabdo- mancy (pafSSopavTila) was very common among the ancient idolaters, as it has been in later times in different countries of the East. The ancient Arabs consulted their gods in this way, taking two rods, on one of which was inscribed God bids, and on the other God forbids, and drawing them out of the case into which they were put, acted agreeably to the direction w-hich first came forth. See Pococke, Specimen. Hist. Arab. p. 327. Mai- monides quotes an ancient book entitled Siphri, in which a diviner is defined to be one who takes his staff, and inquires, Shall I go? or, Shall I not go? The Runic wands of the Scandinavian nations, on which were inscribed mysterious char acters, and which were used for magical purposes, appear to have originated in the more ancient divination of Asia. faaat raa^, lit. a spirit of whoredoms, i. e. a powerful impetus to commit acts of idolatrv. Instead of the simple form rayran, some few MSS. the Babyl. Tal mud, the Syr. Vulg. and Targ. read Da-' ran ; while the LXX. and Arab, read ssra'nl For eraTa'Vs rarawa, comp. Numb. v. 19, 20 ; Ezek. xxiii. 5 ; and IhravSpos, Rom. vii. 2. 13. Mountains and hills were selected by idolaters on which to erect their altars, and offer their sacrifices, on account of their supposed proximity to the host of heaven, which they worshipped. Tfu.t this custom was very ancient, appeals from the prohibition, Deut. xii. 2. For imitating it, the Hebrews are frequently reproved, Is. Ixv. 7 ; Jer. iii. 6 ; Ezek. xviii. 11. anan, being in Piel, ex presses the eagerness and frequency with which the Israelites offered their idola trous sacrifices. They also selected groves of oak, terebinth, etc., for purposes of superstition and idolatry, under whoee umbraceous cover they might at once be screened frorh the heat of the sun, and indulge in lascivious practices. The sacrifice of female virtue which was re quired in the religious service of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, seems clearly to be referred to in this and the following verse. naaaS, LXX. Aeti/o), the white poplar, from *a3, to be white. 14. Kuinoel, and others, taking saS, as standing for sVra, read the first part of the verse interrogatively, which is not unsupported by examples in Hebrew usage. It seems better, however, to under stand it here as a simple negative, and the meaning to be that, as the parents and husbands indulged in the flagitious practices here described, Jehovah would not make examples of the females, or suf fer them to be punished, as if they alone Chap. IV. HOSEA. 23 Aud sacrifice with prostitutes : And as for the undiscerning people, they shall be overthrown. 15 Though thou, 0 Israel, art lewd, Yet let not Judah be found guilty ; Come ye not to Gilgal, Neither go ye up to Beth-aven, Nor use the oath, " Jehovah liveth." were guilty ; but would punish with condign punishment their natural pro tectors, who not only abandoned them to seduction, but themselves rioted in the same wickedness. Thus Munster : " Du- rissime animadvertam in parentes et sponsos, ut filiaa et sponsa; eorum punitEe videantur esse extra poenam." The transition from the second to the third person, for the purpose of more graphi cally exhibiting the subject of discourse, is not without examples. See Is. xxii. 16. The use of the separate pronoun era, also adds to the emphasis of the language. TaS, in Piel, strongly marks the studied withdrawment of the Israelites from the assembled throngs, to such places as were devoted to scenes of impurity; while raat, in the same conjugation, signifies in this connection, to commit lewdness as an act of idolatrous devotion. Between raaa, and ria'j-ap, there seems to be this difference, that the former were ordinary females who prostituted themselves for gain, but the latter those who devoted themselves to the service of Astarte, by offering then- persons to be violated in her temples at the sacred festivals. See Sei dell de Diis Syris, Synt. ii. cap. 2 ; Her- odot. lib. i. cap. 199 ; Euseb. Vit. Con- stantin. lib. iii. cap. 35 ; Spencer de Leg. Heb. Kb. ii. cap. 22 and 23 ; Lucian de Dea Syi-a. Of this latter term, the mas. D,'i"ap> catamites, occurs, 1 Kings xiv. 24 ; xv. 12 : xxii. 47 ; and in the ancient book of Job, chap, xxxvi. 14, which shows at how very early a period such abominations obtained. It likewise occurs in both genders in the prohibition, Deut. xxiii. 18. To these practices the LXX. doubtless had respect in rendering the word T€T€ke ^le tiouse HOSEA. Chap. IV- 16 Since Israel is refractory, like a refractory heifer; Jehovah will now feed them, like a lamb in a large place. 17 Ephraim is joined to idols; Leave him to himself. 18 When their carousal is oyer they indulge in lewdness; Her shields are enamored of infamy. of iniquity. Comp. Amos iv. 4 ; v. 5. From the warning here given to the Jews not to participate with the Israelites in their idolatry, it is evident the proph ecy was delivered at a time when they were comparatively free from that evil. The prohibition not to swear by the for mula nana ,ra, respects the combination of the divine name with those of idols, or the profession of attachment to Jehovah, if the persons addressed were guilty of idolatry. Comp. Zeph. i. 5. That it was otherwise lawful to use it, appears from Jer. iv. 2. Comp. Deut. x. 20. 16. The metaphor is here taken from a heifer that obstinately refuses to be yoked. Thus the Syr. — lo J.y^O< It-^- For the force of "no, comp. Deut. xxi. 18. The latter hemistich contains the language of irony. As lambs are fond of ranging at large, but are in danger of being lost or devoured, so God threatens to remove the Israelites into a distant and large country, where they would be separated from those with whom they associated in idolatrous wor ship, and thus be left solitary and ex posed as in a wilderness. The phrase anyza nyn, to feed in a large place, is elsewhere used in a good sense, Is. xxx. 23. 17. C""aES, Ephraim, as the most nu merous and powerful of the tribes, and that in which the kingdom was estab lished, is put for all the ten. i a a ra, from inn, to be joined, closely united, adhere to, to be allied to by voluntary choice, Gen. xiv. 3. In this last sense the term is here used. The Israelites had volun tarily addicted themselves to the service of idols, and thus identified themselves with their interests. While the word aa-ay-y, idols, suggests the idea of their being merely the fabrication of human labor, it also intimates the pain or sorrow resulting from idolatry. The root has both significations. aV-raan strongly implies the obstinacy and incorrigible character of the ten tribes, and indig nantly abandons them to their fate. They are irreclaimably devoted to the gods of the heathen : let them take their own way, and reap the consequences of their perverse choice. Their case is des perate. Comp. Jer. vii. 1 6 ; Ezek. xx, 39. Thus Tanchum, Jarchi, Kimchi. Calvin, Tamovius, Zanchius, Coverdale, Drusius, Lively, Leo Juda, Pococke, Kuinoel, Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- come, Stuck, and Ewald. Others, as the Targ. Jerome, Mercer, Diodati, Grotius, Rosenmiiller, Maurer, etc., re gard the words as simply containing a warning to the inhabitants of Judah to keep aloof from, and take no part in the idolatries of the Ephraimites. The LXX. ttiriKev eavrcji CKavSaKa, reading hart in the preterite, and supplying the idea of idols from the preceding part of the verse. 18. Before n6, the particle BS, when, is to be supplied, which in poetry, for the sake of conciseness and energy, is frequently -omitted. For the acceptation past, passed aivay, over, etc. comp. 1 Sam. xv. 32, ra-.ten — \iz 18. Horsley, Ewald, and some others, are of opinion that - 0 means vapid, degenerated, sour, etc., but less aptly. The meaning is, that no sooner were their compotations over than they indulged in excessive lewdness. Instead of Csata, their drink, drinking bout, one of De Rossi's MSS. has originally read D*saata, dmmkards ; another Bsa_, their host; and one of Kennicott'sB^saO, Kabeans ; but none of these variation's suits the entire construction of the verse. The LXX. strangely, Tipiriae ximiws, which the Arab , as usual, follows. The impurity in which, when inflamed with Chap. V. HOSEA, 25 19 The wind hath bound her up in its wings, That they may be ashamed of their sacrifices. liquor, they indulged, was most probably that connected with the worship of Ve nus. To express the excess to which it was carried, the verb is first put in the infinitive absolute, and then repeated in the finite form, a an is not separately expressed in the LXX. the Arab, or in either of the Syriac versions ; though it cannot hence be inferred that it was not in the Hebrew text. It is wanting, how ever, in three of Kennicott's MSS. If it did not originate in some copyist having written the two last syllables of the pre ceding word over again, it must be re garded as having originally formed part of that word in the reduplicate form *>an aans.; in which, not only is the second syllable of the verb repeated (aanans), but the pronominal sufformative is 're tained in the middle of the word, and the first radical (s) rejected on that account in the reduplication. Such form is of extremely rare occurrence: "aarhtes lit. they destroy, destroy me, Ps. lxxxviii, 17, being the only other instance of the kind with which I am acquainted. In this way the form is partly accounted for by the ancient Jewish grammarian Abu- walid Ibn Jannahi, as quoted by Pococke. What confirms this view of the redupli cate form is the use of B'anan, a gemi nation somewhat resembling it, by our prophet, chap. viii. 13. The rendering give ye, as if it were the imperative of arP, proposed by Abenezra and Kimchi, and adopted by our translators, is not so suitable to the connection., Maurer ; mirifice amant ignominiam : Ewald ; es lieben lieben schmach seine Schilde. Kuinoel very unjustifiably omits a an in his Heb. Text, y Vja, shame, a collective abstract noun, expressive of the infamous acts connected with idolatrous worship. B'astt, shields, are tropically used for princes, as the natural protectors of their people, here and Ps. xlvii. 10. The femi nine suffix n, refers to y?s, understood ; the inhabitants being meant. 19. By an expressive figure, borrowed from the sudden force with which any thing is carried off by the wind, the prophet announces the suddenness and violence with which the ten tribes should be removed from their land. The com bination ria-i "E33, wings of the wind, is too firmly established in Hebrew usage, see Ps. xviii. 11; civ. 3, to allow either of the acceptations spirit or vanity being- given to nai, or that of borders to C",E:a in this place, ra.a i being of both genders', accounts for the masculine of the verb, and the feminine pron. affix. For wn a s, two of De Rossi's MSS., and the tat. and Alex, copies of the LXX. read nPS, which gives no suitable sense. In the distant countries of the Medes, by whom all image-worship was held in abomi nation, the exiles would be brought to a due sense of the wickedness and absurd ity of their conduct, a, in a»a"a, is used TtKucas. Jer. xlviii. 13. Sacrifices are here put by synecdoche for the whole system of idolatry in which they in dulged. For the reading Era ha teas, of their altars, adopted by Newcome, there is no authority except the Targ. and byr. CHAPTER V. This chapter commences with an objurgation of the priests and the royal family, as the principal seducers of the nation to idolatry, 1, 2. Then follows a description of the un blushing wickedness of the people, interspersed with denunciations of impending punish ment, 3-7. The approach of the divine judgments is ordered to be proclaimed, and their certainty declared, 8, 9. The prophet then abruptly turns to the two tribes and a half 26 HOSEA. Chap. V. whose guilt and punishment he denounces ; yet so as to show that his predictions were chiefly directed against the northern kingdom, the rulers of which, like those of Judah, instead of looking to Jehovah for deliverance from civil calamities, applied in vain for foreign assistance, 10-14. The 15th verse sets forth the certainty and the beneficial effects of the divine judgments. Hear this, O ye priests ! And hearken, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king ! For the sentence is against yo-u, Because ye are a snare at Mispah, And a net spread upon Tabor. The apostates slaughter to excess, But I will inflict chastisement on them all. 1. a'Si'iD'1 n^a, house of Israel, i. e. the ten tribes. ' altera rra, house of the king, i. e. the king 'and his court. From the references made to the idolatry and punishment of Judah in this and the following chapter, it would appear that the king whom Hosea had specifically in view was Pekah, the son of Remafiah ; since it was m the reign of Ahaz, who was contemporary with him, that idol wor ship was carried to such a height in that kingdom as to call for the calamities in flicted upon it by the confederate forces of Israel and Syria, as well as by the king of Assyria. By us-i-asn taV is not meant, as the Targ. interprets, ibllowed by Abenezra, Kimchi, Abarbanel, Pag- ninus, Junius, Tremellius, and others, that it belonged to them to know and execute justice, but that the judgment or punishment was directed against them. They had merited it, and it was now coming upon them. LXX. irpbs upas io-rl to Kpifia. Thus most Christian expositors. MSaaa, Mispah. As there were several places of this name, some degree of uncertainty attaches to it as occurring here ; but as the object of the prophet seems to be to set forth the means employed for seducing the whole of the ten tribes to idolatry, it is more probable that he had in his eye Mispah of Gilead, on the east of the Jordan, just as he specifies mount Tabor to the west of that river. See Judges x. 17 ; xi. 29. On both of these elevated positions false worship had been established for the pur pose of ensnaring the inhabitants of the adjacent regions. The means employed to bring them over to it are compared to the snares and nets used for catching birds and wild beasts upon the mountains. By metonymy, the leaders of the people are spoken of as such nets and snares, because of their bad example, and the influence which they otherwise exerted for evil. 2. i-raraJ, slaughtering, the infinitive absolute, with n paragogic, of taraw, to kill, for food or sacrifice. Here, from its close connection with the preceding verse, it has the latter signification. Some think murder is meant ; but this is less likely, though the verb is also used in this sense in other places. ap-};yn nunr, lit. they deepen to slaughter, V. e. by a peculiar idiom, they slaughter to excess, kill an immense number of sacrificial victims. Comp. n-jta ap-Kyn; Is. xxxi. 6. D"B», apostates, the Ben'oni participle of ia a -a, to turn aside, decline from the right way, apostatize; as B^sV, scoffers, from yaa>, to scoff. Comp. Ps. xl. 5, ata "Kip, those that turn aside to false hood ; and E-KO-n'cy, Ps. ei. 3. Two or three MSS., the edit, of Soncin,, and a few others, have ta instead of as, in our text. Syr. -t^Jc), seduxit, I^aJ-t^LSllD decUnatio, apostasia. The idolatrous Chap. V. HOSEA. 27 I know Ephraim, Israel is not hid from me ; Surely now thou committest lewdness, O Ephraim! Israel is defiled. They frame not their deeds To return to their God ; For a lewd spirit is within them, And they regard not Jehovah. The pride of Israel testifieth to his face; Therefore Israel and Ephraim shall fall through their iniquity ; Judah also shall fall with them. Israelites multiplied their sacrifices in order that they might enjoy prosperity under the protection of the deities to whom they offered them ; but Jehovah here declares that none of them should escape the punishment which he was about to inflict upon them. Before itaatt supply n'ns. The ancient versions are here greatly at fault, from their authors having supposed that the reference to hunters is still continued in this verse. 3. Ephraim, as distinguished from Israel, means the tribe of Ephraim, from which most of the apostate kings sprang, and in which idolatry most abounded. By Israel the other nine tribes are meant. As having incurred the more aggravated guilt, the former is here addressed in the second person. Two of Kennicott's MSS. indeed, and one of De Rossi's, originally read nraDTra ; and one of Kennicott's has nnsaqaa for sasaa, but both are, in all probability, from the hand of correctors, nstn is here used figuratively. The polluting influence of the Ephraimites was felt through the whole nation. To express an assertion more strongly the Hebrews put it first in the form of an affirmative, and then in that of a negative, nray, no 10, is not without emphasis ; 'pointing out the undeniable fact that they had been the cause of the spread of idolatry. 4. The language now changes to the plural, to express the character of the people generally. By some Cri'VVsaa is construed as the nominative to aap"', and rendered, their deeds do not permit them, etc. Thus the Syr. Abenezra, Drusius, etc. ; and among the moderns, Horsley, Tingstadius, Manger, Kuinoel, Stuck, Maurer, and Ewald. But in order to establish this construction, we should have to read taapi or crs aaP\ "per mitted them," the' accusative of the per son always folio whig the verb in such case. See Gen. xx. 6 ; Exod. iii. 19. In the present instance "|ra is used in the sense of placing, ordering, framing, like Ba'i) and rpto, as it is given in the common version, and rendered by Tan chum, Leo Juda, Mercer, Tamovius, Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, Noyes, and Hitzig. The meaning is, that the Is raelites did not reform, did not so regard then- wicked practices as to abandon them and return to the pure worship of Jehovah. 5. That a nay means to testify for or against any' person or thing, is obvious from its use, Gen. xxx. 33 ; Job. xvi. 8. It is properly a Judicial phrase, and re fers to the testimony given by a witness, either for or against another, according to circumstances. The rendering to be humbled, which is that of the LXX. Syr. Targ. Jarchi, and recently of Michaelis, Newcome, Noyes, and Maurer, cannot be philologically sustained. The addition a"a£a, to his face, gives emphasis to the phrase, openly, publicly, hi such a manner that he himself may see it, without the adduction of further evidence. That ysi signifies pride, insolence, notwith standing what Horsley asserts to the con trary, is sufficiently apparent from Prov. xvi. 18, and Is. xvi. 6. I should rather think, however, that by the term as here used, we are to understand the objects of which the ten tribes were proud, their 28 HOSEA. Chap. V. With their flocks and their herds, They may go to seek Jehovah, But they shall not find him : He hath withdrawn from them. They have proved false to Jehovah ; For they have begotten strange children : Now shall a month destroy them and their portions. splendid or magnificent idols, etc. As Jehovah is spoken of as 3p'_5>l "asJ, the excellency, or boast of Jacob', Amos' viii. 7, so the idols might be called yss Vs-i'ipi, the excellency, or proud boast of Israel. They gloried in them as the objects of their confidence and attach ment. These very gods, by their utter impotence, bear open witness that they could afford no help to those who trusted in them ; so that their worshippers could not but have been convinced of their folly, if their hearts had not become mor ally obscured by the practice of iniquity. The religion itself (Caa_y, their iniquity,) from which they expected safety, would prove the cause of their ruin. The words are repeated with a similar reference chap. vii. 10. The concluding line of the verse con tains an abrupt and unexpected appli cation of the threatening to the Jews. As they had suffered themselves to be influenced by the example of the Israel ites, they should also share in their punishment. The respective captivities of both are here threatened. On com paring this threatening with chap. iv. 15, it appears to have been delivered at a period considerably subsequent to that which is there spoken of, when the evils of idolatry had made some progress in the southern kingdom. To express more strongly the certainty of the event, the verb a>BB is put in the preterite ; whereas it had simply been used in the future 'ViBS"1, in reference to the Israelites. 6. The idolaters are here told that though in the hour of calamity they might bring their flocks and herds as propitiatory sacrifices to Jehovah in order to avert the punishment, it would be altogether in vain. yV rj signifies to draw or put off any person or thing, to withdraw one's self. Comp. the Arab. t\n 1 A^. salvus evasit, progressus est, and »1 A^. extraxit, exuit. Pococke's Arab. MS. has ajjjjuo «JLi- xJUt rt n 1 vi. God hath withdrawn his help from them. The Israelites and Jews could no longer reckon on the divine presence, and the effectual aid which that presence implied. 7. The prophet seems here to allude to the mention made of B'aaST ",73>.-> ant* D'aaar ya, lewd children, cliap. i.' 2; ii. 4. E"1T, strange, foreign, is selected in order to show that the idolatry was the result of intercourse with foreigners. The verb naa, to act unfaithfully, is also used of the breach of the matrimonial cove nant, Jer. iii. 20. This idea is expressed in the Arab. MS. of Pococke, v, as if heights or elevated places in general were meant ; but they are to be taken as proper names, just as Beth-aven and Benjamin are. They both lay in the tribe of Benjamin, see on Is. x. 29, as did also Bethel, here called Beth-aven. See on chap. iv. 15. Before ay^ris subaud. ays, the enemy "is behind thee," i. e. close upon thee. The fifth Greek version has Kara v6tov aov, to the south of thee ; but if the local signification were at all admissible, the west is the only sense in which the word could be understood. 9. Having apprised the Jews of the danger with which they were threatened, the prophet returns to describe the ca lamity which was to be inflicted upon the ten tribes ; and in the course of the following verses directs his discourse to the two kingdoms alternately. The nominative to n^nln is y^s, implied in D""aEs. — nraaan, primarily means proof 30 HOSEA. Chap. V- 10 The rulers of Judah are like those who remove the boundary; I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed, He is crushed in judgment ; Because he consented, He followed the order. 12 1 am as a moth to Ephraim,. And as rottenness to the house of Judah. 13 And Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound : or demonstration, from nap, to be before one, be clear, obvious ; in Hiph. to place before one in the way of evidence, con vince, convict, and then rebuke, chastise, punish. The word is synonymous with "lO-lia, ver. 2. The latter hemistich of the verse shows that the ten tribes were the scene of the prophet's ministry. niaasa, the feminine used for the neuter. 107 By the "princes" or "rulers of Judah," king Ahaz and his courtiers are intended. For Vaa.a '.a-Bsa, comp. Deut. xxvii. 17 ; any/? Vaa.a 5-B73 "al-Si Prov. xxii. 28 ; xxiii. 10 ; Job xxiv. 2. It was reckoned a flagrant offence to re move the marks by which the divisions of property were defined. The language seems to have become proverbial to desig nate unprincipled conduct. What the prophet here reprobates appears to be the means adopted by Ahaz and his sup porters to introduce idolatry into Judah. See 2 Kings xvi. 10-18. If the a be regarded as the Caph veritatis, it will strongly express the fact that these princes had actually removed the bound aries which separated the true religion from the false. Divine judgments are frequently compared to the overflowing of water from a river, a; EC, to pour out, expresses the fulness of their infliction. Comp. Zeph. iii. 8. mas, prop, effer vescence, flowing over, also denotes the greatness of the punishment. 11. taSt-aa yas"a, the genitive of cause, broken in pieces by ihejudgment, or pun ishment inflicted, a a: refers not to any divine commandment, but to the order issued by Jeroboam to worship the golden calves, 1 Kings xii. 28-33. Such an order his subjects avere bound by higher authority to have resisted; but they readily complied with it, and thus became prepared to indulge in all the gross idol atries to which this worship proved the introduction. From the circumstance that the LXX. have rendered the pas sage birlaw tuv fxaTaiwv, after vanities, it has been conjectured that they read saaai instead of as ; but it is more likely they intended to give the sense of the whole, rather than the signification of this particular word. They are followed by both the Syriac versions, and in part by the Targ. Jerome, on the other hand, has read the same letters which now stand in the text ; for he renders sordes, pointing the word as, and regarding it as merely a contracted form of sas or nsas, filthiness. 12. The reference in aus, Arab. jt£fi> ¦moth, is to the consumption of garments, Ps. xxxix. 12 ; Is. 1. 9 ; in ap-a, rotten ness, to that of wood. See Job xiii. 28, where both words occur together as here. The LXX. freely render the former by Tapax^h, tbe latter by neiirpov. The meaning is not that God was regarded as the moth and rottenness, i. e. with disgust ; but that he was the author of those judgments by which the idolaters should be consumed. 13. nsn, to see, has here the sense of feeling, experiencing, as in the phrases to see life, death, good, evil, etc. "17'w, lit. a bandage, fromoaa, to compress, bind as a wound, see Is. i. 6 ; hence, as here, a bandaged wound, corresponding to '•hn, sickness, disease, in the other member of the parallelism. For the use of such metaphors in application to the state of Chap. V. HOSEA. 31 14 15 Then Ephraim went to Assyria ; He sent to the hostile king ; But he could not cure you, Nor remove your wound from you. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, And like a young lion to the house of Judah ; I, even I will tear the prey, and depart ; I will carry it away, and there shall be none to rescue. I will depart, I will return to my place, Till they suffer punishment ; political affairs, comp. Is. i. 5, 6, iii. 7 ; Hos. vi. 1, vii. 1. After nVay, supply as its nominative, nyna. : Judah, from the preceding part of the verse, which forms an alternate quatrain; the third line connecting with the first, and the fourth with the second, a-i^ is not a proper name, but an appellative, signi fying one who contends, is contentious, hostile ; from a,_i, to strive with, quarrel, contend. The form is the apocopated future, and is contracted for ay^ "litis, he that acts hostilely. Tanchum (JoLo rt ^A H. the king that contended. «.'omp. a,l,^) Joiarib, Neh. xi. 5. Aq. SiKa^bfievov ; Symm. exSucov, or iic8ucn- t4jv; Theod. npirnv. Jerome, ad regem ultorem. De Wette, Der Mnig der riichen soil. That the king of Assyria is meant there can be no doubt. See chap. x. 6. He was ever ready to mix himself up with the affairs of neighboring states, in order to extend or consolidate his gigantic empire, and was justly regarded by the Hebrews as their most powerful adversary. The application made by the northern kingdom was that which took place in the reign of Menahem, when that monarch sent to Pul a thousand talents of silver for the purpose of en gaging him on his behalf, 2 Kings xv. 19. But this alliance proved of no real value ; for the subsidy was raised by op pression, and in the course of the fol lowing reign, Tiglath-pileser invaded and depopulated great . part of the country, ver. 29. The embassy from the king dom of Judah was that sent by Ahaz to Tiglath-pileser, when attacked by the malted kings of Syria and Israel, 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 21. nns as a verb, occurs only in this place ; but a noun derived from it is used Prov. vii. 22, in the sense of healing. If we may judge from the Syr. |01>u> recedere, fugere, Aph. liber are, it properly signifies to remove, relieve, and so with respect to a wound, to heal. LXX. oil p.i\ Siairaian ; "\ 7 aa ° Syr. /*l > tk\ JjO, neque sanabit. 14. No effort to recover a state of pros perity while the anger of Jehovah was excited against them, could possibly suc ceed. aTaaai, the black lion, and T>Ea, the young lion, are frequently employed to convey the ideas of strength and feroc ity, Ps. xci. 13. The reduplication »:s ¦-as is, as usual, emphatic. Comp. is; xliii. 25 ; xlviii. 15. nE"ita, prey, is un derstood after ayia and siaa. 15. As God's coming to a people, and being with them, implies their experi encing efficient protection and aid, so his .withdrawment of his presence implies the deprivation of these blessings, ets 8, like many other verbs, has a sensus pregnans ; conveying not only the idea of contracting guilt, but of suffering its consequences. The latter idea seems clearly to be con veyed in this passage. The Rabbins, in deed, and after them, Glassius, and many others, attempt to attach to the verb the superadded signification of acknowledging, which is that adopted by our translators ; but it is by no means supported by Lev. iv. 22 ; v. 5 ; Zech. xi. 5 ; the passages usually adduced in proof, "s -as vspa, to seek the face of any one, means to strive to obtain bis favor. See 1 Kings 32 HOSEA. Chap. VI. Then will they seek my face : "When they are in trouble, they will seek me early. x. 24; Prov. xxix. 26. The phrase prayer. Comp. Dan. ix. 3. irao is occurs very frequently in the Psalms, in synonymous witht-pa, but is only used reference to application to Jehovah in in poetic diction. CHAPTER VI. The nation, in both its divisions, is here introduced as taking up language suitable to the cir cumstances described in the concluding verses of the preceding chapter, 1-3 ; but however appropriate it was to the condition of the people, that it was not the result of sound and thorough conversion, appears from ver. 4, in which they are expostulated with on the ground of their inconstancy. Notice is then taken of the means, both of a moral and a punitive nature, that had been employed for their recovery, 5, 6; their deceitful and wicked conduct, especially that of the Israelites, is placed in a strong light, 7-10; and a special de nunciation of punishment is directed against the Jews, who flattered themselves with the hope that whatever might befall the northern tribes, no calamity would happen to them. 1 Comb, let us return to Jehovah, For he hath torn, but he will heal us ; He hath smitten, but he will bind us up. 2 He will restore us to life after two days : 1, 2. It has been disputed whether these words be those of the prophet ex horting his countrymen to repent and turn to God, or whether they are to be regarded as employed by themselves to give expression to their feelings of peni tence, their confidence in God for de liverance from punishment, and their resolutions of amendment for the future. The latter appears, from the bearing of ver. 5, to be the preferable interpretation. The intimate connection of the words with the preceding context, and the repe tition, in part, of its language, induces to the conclusion that the same subject is here continued, viz. the castigation of the Hebrew kingdoms on account of idolatry, and the effect produced by it. This connection the ancient versions have endeavored to establish by inserting a word corresponding to "ass's ; though it is not found in any Heb. MSS. From the apparent agreement of the language of ver. 2, with the circumstances of time connected with the death and resurrection of our Saviour, many interpreters, as Lactantius, Tertullian, Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Luther, CEcolampadius, Mer cer, Riberus, Tarnovius, Hammond, etc., have maintained that it is to these respect is had in the prophecy. I fully concur, however, in the judicious remarks of Calvin on this interpretation, " Sed sensus ille videtur mihi nimium argutus. Et semper hoc spectandum est nobis, ne volitemus in aere ; placent argutse specu lations primo intuitu, sed postea evanes- cunt. Ergo quisquis volet proficere in Scripturis, semper hanc regulam teneat, ut solidum sit quicquid colfigit sive in Chap. VI. HOSEA. On the third day he will raise us up, And we shall live before him. Then we shall know, we shall strive to know Jehovah ; Like the dawn, his going forth is fixed. Yea, he will come to us like the rain, Like the latter rain, which watereth the earth. prophetis, sive in Apostolis." The exe gesis of Grotius, Horsley, and many others, who regard the words as primarily applicable to the Jews, and secondarily, or allusively, to the resuiTection of Christ, is equally unsatisfactory. The simple meaning of the passage is, that on their conversion from the service of idols to that of Jehovah, the Hebrews should ex perience the removal of the national calamities with which they had been visited ; the nation which had been re duced to a state of political death would be resuscitated, and enjoy a renewal of its former prosperity. From the meta phor of disease, ver. 1, there is in ver. 2, an advance to that of actual death, and a consequent resurrection, in order to place their present and also their antici pated condition in a more striking light. For the use of the latter metaphor in application to the national affairs of the Jews, see Is. xxvi. 19 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 1- 14. "MoaaSsiri fi'ia, on the third day, is expletive of Ba.tt'»)a, after days, i..e. two days ; LXX. /icto, Sbo yfiepas. That a short period is meant, appears from two and two three being used to denote a few, or very few, 1 Kings xvii. 12 ; Is. vii. 21, xvii. 6. Comp. Luke xiii. 32, 33. The afflicted Hebrews confidently hoped that their punishment would be of brief dura tion, and that God would assuredly restore them to the enjoyment of his favor. Such enjoyment is expressed by living a'SEV, before him, experiencing his presence and blessing. The phrase contrasts with that employed chap. v. 15, and indicates the result of ys aajpa, there predicted. 3. In ry.iV fascia ray-,a', there is a rise from a resolution simply to acquire a true knowledge of Jehovah, to a determi nation to make such knowledge the object of earnest and unwearied pursuit; 5 The n of the elongated futures marks this bent or inclination of mind. To separate the verbs,, and connect the former with the preceding verse, as Horsley does, would quite destroy the force of the prophet's language. At the same time the a at the beginning of the verse is inferential, intimating that what follows would be the result of the divine inter position on behalf of the Hebrew people. Some few MSS. insert a before n£-na. yaa, to be fixed, established, certain. As certain and delightful as the dawn of the morning would be the coming forth of the favor of Jehovah after the dark night of adversity. This beautiful meta phor is taken from the sunrise. See, for such application of saaa, Ps. xix. 7. The other images were peculiarly appro priate in Palestine, where rain falls sel dom, except in spring and autumn. At these seasons it is heavy, and greatly contributes to the fertility of the soil, on which account its bestowment was re garded as among the most necessary of temporal blessings, and its absence a source of awful calamity. The former, commonly called nny, or rn.ato, the darting rain, from the root nT-, to dart, cast, etc. ; here D-i-an., the rain, by way of eminence ; the heavy, violent rain, as the word properly signifies. It falls from the middle of October till about the middle of December, and is called the early or former rain. LXX. verbs irptatfios, because the Jews commenced their year at that time. It prepares the ground for the reception of the seed. yJapVaa, the latter rain, LXX. verbs fyiuos, falls in the latter half of February and during the months of March and April, just before the harvest ; from which circumstance it receives its name — Bp \, signifymg to gather or collect, the late fruit. Comp. Op_V, to collect, Syr. 34 HOSEA. Chap. VI. "What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim ! What shall I do to thee, 0 Judah ! For your goodness is like the morning cloud, And like the dew which early departeth. For this cause I have hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth : Thy judgments went forth like the lightning. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice ; And the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. I*. nS, serotinus. Before rnaa supply "ates. 'il That the declarations contained in the preceding verses are not to be viewed as divine promises, but express the hopes and resolutions of the afflicted Hebrews, appears from the affecting expostulations here addressed to them, and the descrip tion of the temporary and evanescent character of their boasted reformation. Like a tender parent who is anxious, if possible, to reclaim a wayward child, Je hovah asks what other means could possi bly be employed for the recovery of his rebellious people. They had been tried both with mercies and judgments, but without effect. Comp. Is. v. 4-7. nBrj properly means kindness, benignity, mer cy ; here piety, religion, as Is. xl. 6. Syr. .Q^^T"!* \, your goodness ; Po- cocke's Arab. MS. *jC*J t>> y°ur relig ion. Theodoret not inaptly gives the meaning thus : t) Trap' vp.Giv yevop.evn ptTap-zXtla irpbaKatpos ivTi, Kal oil SiapK'fis. In Palestine, and other countries of the same latitude, the dense clouds which cover the heavens during the morning are all gone by nine or ten o'clock ; and the dews, however copious, early disappear. ? ,3'i-a3 is here, as frequently, to be taken adverbially ; early, in the morning. As the cognate Ethiop. \\ J\&* , signifies to carry a burden, and beasts of burden are usually loaded in the morning, the Hebrew D28) came in Hiphil to signify the doing of any thing at an early hour. ^Vn is not to be construed with naaiorj, but with Via. 5. The severity of the threatenings communicated through the instrumen tality of the prophets is compared to the incisions made in stone or wood with the axe, and those made in the human body with the sword. Comp. Is. xi. 4 ; Heb. iv. 12. After ¦'Pasn supply c or nfas- To make the pronominal affixes agree, the LXX. Syr. and Targ. read -taEt-B, " my judgments," and so likewise Dathe, Kuinoel, Boeckel, Newcome, Boothroyd, and Ewald, instead of aytiScaa, "thy judgments." Vulg. judicia thai Hexap. Syr. y-^' (>L*?0. There is no variety in the MSS., except that one of Kenni cott's, and originally one of De Rossi's, have 5|*!Bbm, "thy judgment," in the smgular! The reference of the affix is to aa;aS, ver. 4 ; and the meaning is, the judgments which belong to thee, which thou deservedst, and which were inflicted upon thee. The genitive is that of object. Comp. ^tassiaa, 1 Kings xx. 40; maecM, Jer. li. 9 ; and especially aj-tassiaa, Zeph. iii. 15. Thus Lyranus: "pcenae tibi inferendae." ss^, though future, is modified by the preceding preterite, and is to be rendered accordingly. ias has here the sense of lightning, as in Job xxxvii. 3, 15. The LXX. Syr. Targ. and Arab, supply a before nas. Sudden and awful as the lightning were the in flictions of merited punishment upon the idolatrous Hebrews. 6. nora means here true piety, of which mercy or charity is only a branch, fay.'a D^n'Vs coiTesponding to it in the second member of the verse, likewise means a practical knowledge of God, in opposition to that which is merely speculative. Comp. Jer. xxii. 16. The present is one ClIAP. VI. HOSEA. 35 7 But they are liko men that break a covenant : There they proved false to me. 8 As for Gilead, it is a city of evil-doers ; Marked with footsteps of blood. of several passages in the Old Testament, in which the comparative worthlessness of ceremonial observances is taught. See Is. i. 11-17; Ps. xl. 7-9, 1. 8-23; Mic. vi. 6-8. Comp. Matt. ix. 13. xii. 7. 7. Translators and commentators have been greatly divided respecting the pre cise meaning of Ets as occurring in this passage. Some, as Jarchi, Jerome, Leo Juda, Castalio, Grotius, Clarius, Manger, Tingstadius, Newcome, Rosenmiiller, Boothroyd, and Stuck, regard it as a proper name, and suppose the reference to be to the conduct of Adam in trans gressing the divine commandment ; while Kimchi, Munster, Vatablus, Tremellius, Beza, Drusius, Lively, Calvin, Rivetus, Piscator, Zanchius, CEcolampadius, Mer cer, Lowth, De Wette, Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, etc., take it to be an appellative, and interpret the passage of the treach erous violation of contracts among man kind'. In favor of the former view, it is alleged, that it places the guilt of the Is raelites in a much more aggravated light ; and Job xxxi. 33, Ps. lxxxii. 7, are ap pealed to in proof of a similar allusion. It is, however, very doubtful whether there be any such allusion in these pas sages ; and as to the force of the com parison, it seems sufficiently supplied by supposing men in general to be under stood, who break the engagements into which they have entered with each other. The Israelites had treated God as if he had been one of themselves, and as if the sanctions of his covenant were as little to be regarded as those of ordinary con tracts were by men of unprincipled char acter. If we except the three passages in question, it is universally admitted that there is no other, after the first chap ters of Genesis, in which oas is used as a proper name, or in which any reference is made to our first parent. The abso lute and indefinite form too in which ra*na occurs, (comp. on the other hand ¦Wia, "my covenant," chap. viii. 1,) shows, that both this noun and the pre ceding verb a lay, stand in immediate relation to ens, which, as very frequently, is a collective, and is thus used instead of a plural, which it nowhere exhibits. It may also be objected to the first, men tioned interpretation, that nowhere in Scripture is God said to have entered into a ra^ia, or covenant with Adam. The obligations under which he was placed are represented as those of a raaxaa, command or interdict, rather than any of a federal nature. D'isa. like Edom, the reading proposed by Michaelis, has found no supporters. Before aiay, supply "atss, of which there is frequently an ellipsis in Hebrew poetry. See Nol- dius, p. 103. — ES, there, points graphi cally to the northern or Israelitish king dom as the principal scene of idolatrous defection, and anticipates the regions more specifically referred to in the two following verses. 8. "rsVs, Gilead, is the nominative ab solute, and is here the designation of a city, in all probability Ramoth-Gilead, the metropolis of the mountainous region beyond Jordan, and south of the river Jabbok, known by the name of Gilead, Josh. xxi. 38 ; 1 Kings iv. 13. It was here that Jacob and Laban entered into a solemn covenant with each other, Gen. xxxi. 21, 23, 25. Burckhardt found ruins of cities on two mountains in that region, still known by the names of Djebel, Djelaad, and Djelaftd, one or other of which may have been that here mentioned. It was one of the cities of refuge, Deut. iv. 43 ; Josh. xx. 8 ; but appears from the present passage to have afterwards become notorious for idolatry and bloodshed. Some would restrict y X ^ h S b to idolaters, in imitation of the LXX. who render ipya(opevn paTaia; but it seems better to take the phrase in its more enlarged meaning, as including all manner of wickedness. Of this, indeed, idolatry has ever been found to be the fruitful parent. Various expla- 36 HOSEA. Chap. VI. 9 As troops of robbers lie in wait for a man, So is the association of priests : They commit murder in the way to Shechem ; Yea, they practise deliberate crime. 10 In the house of Israel I have seen what is horrifying ; There is the lewdness of Ephraim; Israel is polluted : 1 1 Also for thee, O Judah ! a harvest is appointed. nations of n a p >• have been advanced ; but the simplest is that which regards it as signifying traced, from apy, the heel, step, print of the foot, and describing the marks or traces of blood left by the feet of the murderers who resided there. Syr. . e ? ..< . r y U-oarj |J-'— -l—I. stained with blood. Jewish Span, immunda de sangre. To what historical facts the prophet refers we have no information, except perhaps that contained in 2 Kings xv. 25, from which it appears that fifty of the inhab itants of Gilead were implicated in the regicidal conspiracy against Pekahiah. 9. oao, Shechem, was another city of refuge, situated between Ebal and Ge- rizim. It still exists under the name of LT Jj(j, Nabloos, and has, from very ancient times been the seat of the religious community of the Samaritans. Having been for a time the residence of Jeroboam, 1 Kings xii. 25, its inhabitants became so corrupted, that the priests resident there banded together, waylaid, and murdered with impunity the persons who were fleeing to the asylum for refuge. The n in raBSau is that of direction, and connects in sense with *» The inter position of the verb arasy between these two nouns occasions no difficulty, since we have instances of nouns in construction being separated. See Gen. vii. 6 ; Is. xix. 8 ; Hos. xiv. 3.. Our common ver sion, and many others, following the Targ. "in C|na, one shoulder, translate naaaari, with one consent, which well suits the connection ; but is not borne out by Hebrew usage — the term occurring but once, Zeph. iii. 7, in this metaphorical acceptation, and then not nasa-ii as here, but ins taao. "an is generally consid ered to be an imitation of the Chaldee form of the Infin. in Piel, from nara, to wait, lie in wait for ; but it seems more likely to be the abbreviated form of the Piel Participle ">a n_B, the "a being dropped, as in faa-i, Eccles. iv. 2, and in several instances of the Pual Participles. See Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 316. its ^afaawill thus form the genitive of object. '1 hree MSS. substitute n for a ; and instead of the prepositive a, three MSS. and three printed editions' read a. Before ^an tyna there is an ellipsis of ajs, corres ponding to a in ^ana. — ttBT is used to denote presumptuous of deliberate wicked ness, from CteT ; Arab, ^jjj , proposuit sibi, to form a purpose, plan of action ; chiefly employed in a bad sense. LXX. avofila. Hitzig, Unthat. 10. n-ya!n_y», LXX. (pprntiS-q, occurs under the forms ra"n-iS» and ra-asi >'», Jer. v. 30, xxiii. 14, xviii. 13. It is ex plained immediately after of the atrocious idolatry which, through the influence of the tribe of Ephraim, had spread itself over the whole kingdom of Israel. 11. For the various interpretations which have been given of this verse see Tarnovius or Pococke. Ewald is the only modern that adopts branch as the rendering of "aiap, as Kimchi proposed, and explains it of the introduction of idolatry into Judah. How Horsley could assert that harvest is used in a good sense, as an image of the ingathering of the people of God, is inconceivable. See Jer. li. 33 ; Joel iii. 13 ; Rev. xiv. 15-20. Nowhere in prophecy does it appear to be used in this sense. In all probability, the punishment predicted is that recorded, 2 Chron. xxviii. 6-8. r«a is here used impersonally. Instead of \ \ , four MSS. originally two more, the Targ. and two Chap. VII. HOSEA. 37 old editions, read wV. The words iaa'i:a ias? naaa have no meaning, if con nected with the preceding, which form a concise apostrophical warning to the Jewish kingdom. They must, therefore, be transferred to the following context, with which they will be found to be in harmony. Thus Moerlius, Michaelis, Jahn, Eichhorn, Kuinoel, Stuck, De Wette, and Boothroyd, divide. CHAPTER VII. The prophet continues his description of the wickedness of the ten tribes. Eegardless of Je hovah, they persevered in falsehood and violence, 1, 2; flattered their rulers, and thereby obtained their sanction to their nefarious conduct, 3, 5; and indulged to the utmost in licentiousness, 4-7. The murder of their kings successively is predicted, and their hardi hood and folly are further set forth, 7-10. The prophet next adverts to their fruitless application for assistance to Egypt and Assyria, and their equally fruitless, because false professions of return to the service of God, 11-16. When I reversed the captivity of my people, When I healed Israel, Then was the iniquity of Ephraim revealed, ' And the wicked deeds of Samaria ; For they practised deceit ; The thief entered, And the banditti plundered in the street. And they considered not in their heart, 1. Some would render naas yasa "•If'J, "When I again lead my people into captivity ; " but altogether contrary to the established usage of the language. See Deut. xxx. 3 ; Ps. xiv. 7 ; Jer. xxxi. 23 ; Zeph. iii. 20. The words are ex plained by the following VsiirV "SBnaa, when I heal Israel, a and a frequently alternate with each other, when used of the time at which any thing is done. The restoration here mentioned is in all probability that of the two hundred thousand Jewish captives, to which refer- aice is made 2 Chron. xxviii. 8-15. The conduct of the Israelitish rulers upon that occasion held out some hope of improve ment in the character of the nation, and a consequent change in the Divine con duct towards it; and this expectation was confirmed by a temporary cessation of the judgments of God, during which they might be said to have been healed ; but it was soon entirely frustrated by the open increase of wickedness among them, n^.aaa has the force of then, on the contrary, become more manifest, etc. For Samaria, see on Is. xxviii. 1. Being the metropolis of the ten tribes, it was the head spring of that corruption of manners which overspread the kingdom. saai and yana lasE describe the act,s of violence that were committed by breaking into and plundering private houses, and those which were perpetrated on persons in the streets. The reference is not to foreign enemies, as Horsley and others expound, but to lawless Israelites. 2. For the phrase aVa -iKs, comp. the 38 HOSEA. Chap. VU. That I remembered all their wickedness : Now their deeds encompass them ; They are before my face. With their wickedness they cheer the king, And with their falsehoods the princes. They are all adulterers ; They are like an oven, heated by the baker j Who resteth from heating it, From the time he kneadeth the dough, Until it be leavened. On the day of our king, Arab, ajjji ~i Jli'» and _i Jli XmjJij ; and our, say to one's self. Ps. xiv. 1, et freq. Instead of oaaa^V, the form exhibited in the printed text, " to their heart," ten MSS., originally seven more, now one, perhaps another, and the Complut'. Bible, read taalaa, "in their heart." One of De Rossi's MSS. states in the margin that the latter reading is found in other copies. It is also sup ported by the Syr. Vulg. Targ. and Arab, versions. Both forms describe in ternal or mental conversation, only V indicates an endeavor to persuade. So far were the persons spoken of from bringing themselves to act on the -con viction, that God was privy to their wicked deeds, that they evinced the con trary disposition. Still, however, the phrase may best be rendered by think, consider, or the like. To the words Crraaiya? Caaaa, two interpretations have been given. They either mean, that the evil practices of the Israelites crowded round them as so many causes of punishment, as enemies surround and shut up the object of their attack ; or, that they crowded about them as so many witnesses to reveal the wickedness of their character. The latter would seem, from the following words, to be the true meaning. 3. Their rulers, instead of repressing, took delight in the immoral and irre ligious conduct of the people. 4. In this connection, fasaas is to be taken in its literal signification. Comp. Jer. ix. 1, xxiii. 10. For the conjecture of Stuck, that the word was originally D,S_SW, baked or cooked, there is no foundation. To place the violent and incontinent character of their lust in the strongest light, the prophet compares it to a baker's oven, which he raises to such a degree of heat, that he only re quires to omit feeding it during the short period of the fermentation of the bread. Such was the libidinous character of the Israelites, that their impure indulgences were subject to but slight interruptions. Comp. aKaTairabo-Tovs ap.apTias, 2 Pet. ii. 14. niva, in the feminine agrees with "a a a sa, which is of common gender. The latter word Gesenius derives from the Aram, yra, to smoke, and -i?a, fire. Comp. the Arab. J}-*-5' and Syr. pcJ.^ fornax, clibanus. The oven here referred to is not the pitcher-oven of the Arabs, but the larger kind, pretty much like our own, which was, as it still is, used in public bake-houses. faEstt ri"a*2 is elliptical for burning, having been kindled by the baker. Before raaas^ supply -»s . The meaning is, who only ceaseth from heating, etc. Most interpreters take TSM in the sense of stirring, rousing up, etc., and apply it to the stirring of the fire in the oven ; but it is preferable to regard it as the part, of -|i», Arab. .(_& to be hot, burning ; hence in Hiph. lo cause to burn, heat, etc. Thus the LXX. airb ttjs \oybs. The interpretation from the eity, given in the Syr. Targ. and Vulg. is altogether inappropriate. For the feminine form of the Infin. "irasBri, Comp. nVai.tt, Ezek. xvi. 5. 5. By ta'Yi is meant a festal day; either that of the king's birth, or, as the Chap. VII. HOSEA. 39 The princes are sick with the fever of wine; lie stretcheth out his hand with the scoffers. For though they approach with their heart warm as an oven, Yet it is in their plot ; Their baker sleepeth all the night ; In the mornino- it burnetii like a blazing fire. Targ. Jarchi and Kimchi give it, that of his inauguration. The preposition a is understood. Michaelis thinks the refer ence is to the accession of a new king to the throne. Instead of aaaV)?, our king, twenty-two MSS. and the Syr. read aayVn our kings; LXX. rjp.epat t&v f>a ju~a». y»» f.nfi is an instance of the construct state with a preposition intervening be tween the nouns. Comp. caiaa ,s,a:, Ezek. xiii. 2 ; y »» s'y r-yasi, Is. li. 21, andsee Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 679. The words mean the heat or fever produced by in toxication. While the courtiers thus indulged to excess, the monarch, for getting his dignity, participated in their cups, and joined in their scoffs. Because f>aS'V occurs nowhere else, Houbigant would have it changed into the usual form tPJ:V, most uncritically. Comp. yap and yap. Aq. x^vao-Taiv; LXX. less properly, Koip.av. The reduplicate form is intensive, and expresses the awfully profligate character of the per sons described. 6. I consider the prophet to be con tinuing in this verse his description of the abandoned courtiers, in imagery borrowed from that introduced ver. 4. In their intercourse with the monarch, they approached him with the warmest professions of loyalty ; but in private they were scheming how to get rid of him. The ringleader waited till he could conveniently carry the plot into exe cution : and speedily they effected the nefarious purpose. Were it not that all the ancient versions render aanp as a verb, I should have been inclined to point it iaip, and translate, "For their inward part is like an oven; their heart is in their plot." Comp. aans fvs"^ aa'ipaa, Jer. ix. 7. The rendering I have given, however, equally suits the connection. Though there is no word in the text corresponding to "warm," its insertion in the translation is fully justified by the comparison in *aaapa, like an oven, and the intensitive force of an p; in Piel. That this verb ever signifies to make ready or prepare, I do not find. All, attempts to justify the rendering of the LXX. and 7 Syr. aviKabSrnpav, )*1^», by the con jectural readings aann, aana:, and a nip, have proved abortive. According to the Hexapla, Symm. (H"^ ^p), Aq. and Theod. (OOJ..O? ,\_^iO), read as we now do ; as did likewise the Targ. aa-y.ns. — tnss, their balcer, (many MSS. and various printed editions have c ra"B s, which may also be regarded as a singular form, i taking the place of the third radical n, as in other nouns or participles derived from verbs in raV,) the Targ. and Syr. render yna.aan, .OOll^-O?, as if the reading were CSs, their anger. 'Etppalpi, found in the LXX. shows that the former must have been the reading of the MS. which they used, as the latter could not have so easily been mistaken for this proper name, "-n-ss, which Dathe proposes, and Kuinoel 40 HOSEA. Chap. VII. 7 They all glow as an oven, They devour their judges; All their kings have fallen : None among them calleth unto me. 8 Ephraim mixeth himself up with the nations ; Ephraim is a cake unturned. 9 Strangers devour his strength, But he knoweth it not ; Yea, gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, Yet he knoweth it not. adopts into his Heb. text, nowhere occurs in the sense, ira, furor, eorum. By "their baker" seems to be meant the leader of the conspiracy, whom some suppose to be Menahem, others Shallum, 2 Kings xv. 10-15 ; but I should rather infer from what is stated ver. 7, that the prophet mcludes all the conspiracies which took place in Israel. Having prepared the rest of the conspirators, he, like the baker, abided his time, when, of a sudden, the plot burst forth like a flame. 7. Comp. 2 Kings xv. o%3, all of them, corresponds to taia, ver. 4? aan,^ is the future in Kal of aati, to be warm, hot, etc. The prophet still continues the comparison. As the fire in the oven devours the fuel, so the persons spoken of destroyed those who were in authority.' aSs : is not to be taken in the sense ot fall ing off or apostatizing from God, as Jer ome, Ribera, Menochlus, Tirinius, and some others interpret, but in that of fall ing by the hands of murderers. This, a';as, they devour, in the preceding hemi- stifch, shows. The source of the evil, however, lay in apostasy from Jehovah, which had reached such a height, that none implored the Divine aid even when in calamity. 8. Ewald renders Waaiy, veraltet, " hath become old," which might seem to derive some support from the latter part of ver 9 ; but the verb can, with no propriety, be referred to any other root than aSaS a, Arab. JoJLj madefecit, com- mistus fuit, Syr. xs «-i\«t confudit,to mix by pouring, mix, confound, LXX. ovvep-lyvvTo. Syr. , Ax.. f\. Targ. iianSras. Comp. Psalm cvi. 35, where tyVaa'aarayry is similarly used of promis cuous intercourse with idolaters. That such intercourse generally, including the adoption of their idolatrous practices, and not specifically the entering into leagues with them, is meant, appears from the following clause, in which, to express the worthlessness of the Ephraimitish char acter, the people are compared to a cake, which, from not having been turned, is burnt, and good for nothing. The Arabs bake their bread on the ground or hearth, covering it with hot embers, and turning it every ten minutes or quarter of an hour, to prevent its being burnt. When neg lected it is unfit for food, and is thrown away. Such was the state of the apos tate Israelites. They had corrupted themselves, and were only fit for rejec tion. LXX. iyKpv(pias, bread baked in hot ashes, Cyril, twv iirl Ai&ois iirTopd- vwv aprwv. 9. D-1"!!, strangers, foreigners, i. e. the Syrians, Assyrians, etc. See 2 Kings xiii. 7; xv. 19, 20; xvii. 3-6. The state, drawing to its close, without the fact being observed by its citizens, is com pared to a person oh whose head gray hairs begin to make their appearance, without his becoming sensible of the ap proach of age. " Sparserit et nigras alba senecta co mas." 10-12. A repetition of part of chap. v. 5, which see. Though the apostate Israelites had abvmdant proof of the Chap. VII. HO SEA. 41 10 The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, Yet they turn not to Jehovah their God, Nor seek him for all this. 1 1 Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding ; They call in Egypt, they go to Assyria. 1 2 As they go, I will spread my net upon them, I will bring them down like the fowls of heaven : I will chastise them, As it hath been heard in their assembly. 13 Woe unto them ! for they have wandered from me ; Destruction unto them ! for they have rebelled against me. Though it was I that redeemed them, Yet have they spoken lies against me. 14 They cry not to me with their heart, But howl upon their beds: inefficiency of their idols, yet they re turned not in the exercise of true repent ance to God, who alone could deliver them in the hour of trouble, but formed alliances with foreign powers in the de lusive hope of protection. The simplicity of the dove is proverbial. Thus the Arabs, ^jo «Jj| ^b ^J^J»¦tJ ^1 ^\J|, there is nothing more simple than the dove. The word nn a S is here, however, used in a bad sense, as aV ys> without heart, i. e. without understand ing, shows. The point of comparison is the inconsiderate flight of the dove from one danger into another ; from the alarm which makes her leave her abode for the net of the fowler. Such would be the case with the Israelites. Jehovah had distinctly announced to them, that for eign alliances would prove their ruin ; yet they heedlessly rushed into destruc tion, "la-i-s stands either for nyis or •aa-i-sV. The spreading of the net refers to the taking of birds that are on the ground ; the bringing down, to those that are in the air, by the use of missile weapons. Instead of the Hiphil na'ti is, which occurs only here, the Soncin. edit. of the Prophets, and some few MSS. read C-itys in Piel, which may also be interpreted causatively. cratyV srasi-s , lit. according to the report to their assem- 6 bly, i. c. the public congregations, to which the Divine messages were delivered. God had given them sufficient warning by Moses and the prophets. The versions vary in rendering the last word, which has given rise to the conjectural readings ElrnaV, Dry s\, and nrassaS . Aq., however, renders, icara, a/coijr ttjs avva- ywyr\s. 13. That ias is denunciative and not plaintive, the following its plainly shows. 1 73 is often used of the flight of birds that wander from their nest, see Prov. xxvii. 8 ; Is. xvi. 2 ; Jer. iv. 25 ; and is here employed with reference to the silly dove, ver. 12. The redemption from Egypt, and that which, in numerous in- mstances, they afterwards experienced, Jehovah adduces in aggravation of then- guilt. Their preferring the service of idols to that of the true God, was not merely a practical denial of his all-suffi ciency, but a violation of the solemn pledge which they had given of undi vided obedience to his law, when, as stated, chap. vi. 1-3, they professed to return to him. 14. When pressed down by the calam ities which their sins had brought upon them, they cried to God for deliverance, but without any genuine repentance or sincere resolution to obey him in future. Cnaaa-iB- Vy, upon their beds, i. e. in the night-season, when their anxiety pre- 42 HO SEA. Chap. VII. For the sake of corn and new wine they assemble ; They rebel against me. 15 Though I instructed them, and strengthened their arms, Yet they devised evil against me. 16 They may turn, but it is not to the IVJost High ; They are like a deceitful bow ; Their rulers shall fall by the sword, vented them from sleeping. a^"aa>fa", the LXX. reading any airy, render Kare- TepvovTo, they cut themselves, supposing that in token of grief, or like the mad dened priests of Baal, 1 Kings xviii. 28, they inflicted wounds upon their bodies. This is also, in all probability, what the Syr. 7 translator intended by . *. A «-sA Vn But though aaaiJn; is found in six MSS. has been in eight more originally, and is the reading of two early editions, one of which is the Soneilf. of 1486, it is not sufficiently supported to warrant its adoption into the text. The Targ. Abul-walid, Jarchi, Abenezra, Kimchi, Munster, Piscator, Leo Juda, Junius, Tremellius, Boothroyd, Resenmiiiler, Maurer, and Gesenius, support the text ual reading, and render congregate. This decidedly agrees better with the follow ing -a anao;\. Instead of returning to Jehovah, the Israelites assembled before their idols to propitiate them by sacri fices, in order to obtain a fruitful harvest. Lee renders, they become withdraxcn, withdraw themselves, i. e. for idolatrous purposes. To mark more strongly the atrociousness of their apostasy, ^2,"against me," is employed, instead iaa:aa, of "from me," the preposition that otherwise fol lows laO, which is frequently used of apostasy from God to idolatrous practices. The whole phrase is in this case best ren dered by rebel against, as in our common version. 15. ">ty does not signify to bind, but to chastise or instruct. The LXX. in stead of rendering the last words of the preceding verse, have iiraib'evSrna-av. Po- cocke's Arab. MSS. (^o £ | Li I • . Those whose character is here described, had been instructed not only by words, but also in a more severe manner, by the judgments which had been inflicted upon them ; but that the former kind of in struction is meant, seems clear from the phrase yait pirt> '" strengthen the arm, i. e. to impart strength or power for the performance of any undertaking. Comp. Ezek. xxx. 24, 25, where both the im partation and the deprivation of such power are mentioned. What the a"a, evil, or wickedness was, which they cogitated, is not specified ; but it most likely con sisted in some new idolatrous alliance, such as that with Egypt, referred to in the next verse. LXX. irovnpa ; Targ. ¦jyj^a, evil things. *16. Vy sV aaaa-1, "convertuntseadnon- summum, i. e. ad non-deum, collect, non- deos, i. e. ad deos fictos, vanos." Maurer. Thus also Gesen. in voc. Va>_. Comp. for the use of this idiom, Is. x. 15, note. Hosea, who is fond of brevity, uses here and chap. xi. 7, V», instead of the longer form y^Vy, Most High. Kametz is used mstead of Pattach, on account of the accent. Arab. aJLfr alius, excelsus fuit, to be high in dignity. JLfc. altus, Pococke's Arab. MS. in chap. xi. 7. JLsJI ; Syr. joiJN,'] , God; one of De Rossi's MSS. Vs. What the apos tate Israelites worshipped, so far fiom being the Most High, was the direct opposite — wood or stone, the produce of the earth. The LXX. aireo-Tpd^no-av *.. y *> . ds ovSrh, and Syr. jj *V^ w ^ om S\ Vo ; Vw to the same effect, though giving the sense rather than an exact translation. The Latin translation of the Syr. nulla de causa, is quite erroneous. Most mod erns, less aptly, take Vy in its adverbial Cuap. VIII. HOSEA, 43 On account of the insolence of their language : This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. acceptation, and render, they return not upwards ; which yields, however, nearly the same meanmg. Thus Rosenmiiller, Winer, Manger, Stuck, and others. New- come's conjectural emendation, aVs a> s'aS that which cannot profit, has not been approved ; while the translation of Dathe, Pamitentiam agunt, sed non sinceram, though approved by Kuinoel, Tingstadius, and others, is not borne out by Hebrew usage, rpasi. ra-ip some render a slack bow, supposing that its inutility, owing to the absence of elasticity, is what is in tended ; but false or deceitful better suits the connection, and Ps. lxxviii. 57 ; and the reference is to something faulty in the construction of the bow, which causes it to shoot or throw out the arrow wide of the mark. Root ritt"a, Arab. _.«0\ 6 /> jecit, projeeit ; to throw, shoot, etc. "There seems no ground for the opinion of Ge senius, that the phrase is used poetically for treacherous bowmen, who feign fight in order to deceive. The Israelites hypo critically pretended to turn to Jehovah, but their actions took a different direction. Comp. n'M-a ^isiaj, a deceitful tongue, Ps. exx. 2, 3. The insolence (Aq. and Symm. ^ujSpfycntrij/,) of their language doubtless consisted in their proud boast of Egypt as a source of protection from the Assyrian invasion, which God was about to bring upon them. t.ay 'a, their derision, i. e. the subject of derision to the Egyptians, to whom they should in vain apply for help. Comp. 2 Kings xvii. 4 ; Is. xxx. 1-7, though the latter passage is immediately directed against a contemporaneous application on the part of the Jews. CHAPTER VIII. The prophet announces the sudden irruption of tlie Assyrians, 1; by whom the Israelites were to be punished, on account of their hypocrisy and apostasy, 2,3; their illegitimate government, and their idolatry, 4. He then exposes the folly of their idolatrous confi dence, and predicts their captivity, 5-10 ; remonstrates with them for their devotion to the worship of idols, in opposition to the express and numerous prohibitions of the evil contained in the divine law, 11, 12; and insists that their pretended service of Jehovah, while in reality they forgot him, so far from being of any avail to them, would only bring destruction upon them, 13, 14, 1 Put the trumpet to thy mouth ; "Like an eagle against the house of Jehovah;" 1 . It is not unusual for the prophets indicate the suddenness of the threatened without naming the invading foe, to invasion. a;n, palate, is here, as Job announce his approach. See Is. xiii. 2. xxxi. 30, Prov. viii. 7, put for the mouth. The words IB/at; ^ara-Vs.., to thy palate Comp. chap. v. 8. The LXX. (as k6\- the trumpet! are singularly abrupt, and trov aindv, bis yfi) appear to have read 44 HOSEA. Chap. VIH. For they have transgressed my covenant, They have rebelled against my law. 2 They may cry to me : " O my God ; We — Israel — acknowledge thee." 3 Israel hath rejected what is good; The enemy shall pursue him. 4 They made kings, but it was not from me ; -,Eya Dpra Vs, which makes no sense. The following words nan? rpa-Vst iJFSA which contain the announcement, are equally abrupt. The point of compari son is the rapidity of flight for which the eagle is celebrated, and which is fre quently employed to denote the speedy approach of an enemy. Comp. Deut. xxviii. 49 ; Jer. iv. 13, xlviii. 40 ; Lam. iv. 19. nan" fa1 a, the house of Jehovah, cannot here mean the temple at Jerusa lem, which is otherwise so designated, since the threatenings are specially de nounced against the kingdom of the ten tribes. It must, therefore, be taken to denote the people of Israel, the whole nation viewed as the family or church of God. Comp. chap. ix. 15 ; Numb. xii. 7 ; Heb. iii. 2 ; just as the christian church is called the house of God. 1 Tim. iii. 15, and of Christ, Heb. iii. 6. For irn'aa a-iay, comp. chap. vi. 7. The nominative to aiaS they have trans gressed, is nan: roa, the family, i. e. the members of the church, of Jehovah. The Israelites had violated the obligations of the theocracy, raya and man are synonymous. 2. apyT1 is the future used potentially and not with irony. ">n3s, " O my God," is construed as a distributive with the plural verb — each of the persons spoken of being regarded as using the language. Inattention to this has led the Syrian 7 KKV translator to render, , 81_S^ O our God. \ o Vs-i'ay, Israel, is in apposition with aya-yn1;, we acknowledge thee, and not the nominative to apyy, from which it is too far removed. It is entirely omitted in the LXX. Syr. and Arab, as it is in one of Kennicott's MSS., and originally in one of De Rossi's Vsitoi in*s, O God of Israel, the conjecture of Houbigant, is unnecessary. The present position of the word is more in keeping with the style~ of Hosea, and the use of it well agrees with the vain confidence which the un believing Israelites were ever prone to place in their relation to the patriarchs. 3. r>3T, Arab. Ajv corruptum fuit etfcetuit, to be corrupt, loathsome, and to reject as such. To treat as loathsome what was truly excellent, such as the worship of God and the practice of re ligion, argued an awfully depraved state of moral feeling. The use of Vs"itoi, Israel, finely contrasts with that made of it in the preceding verse, aaia, good, is, by Jerome, Abenezra, Kimchi, and others, taken for God himself, who is described as a^taay ato, good and doing good, Ps. cxix. 68. Deum summum bonum, fficolampadius. It seems, how ever, to be used in a more general accep tation. Before ays there is an ellipsis of the illative "ph. Forty-seven of De Rossi's MSS. and two more by correc tion ; eight of the most ancient, and sixty-two other editions ; the Syr. Vulg. and Targ. read te*na instead of a£-y\ exhibited in the Textus Receptus. See De Rossi's Scholia Critica. 4. Some think the kings and princes here referred to were Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea, and such of their partisans as were invested with au thority ; but from the allusions made in the following verses to the origination of image worship in Israel, it is more prob able that the entire series of Israelitish kings and rulers is intended. Though in the providence of God, and agreeable to the declaration of Ahiah the prophet, the ten tribes revolted from the house of David, and set up a separate and inde- Chap. VIII. HOSEA. 45 They set up princes, but I acknowledge them not : Of their silver and their gold they have made for themselves idols, In order that they may be cut off. 5 Thy calf, O Samaria ! is abominable ; Mine anger burnetii against them : How long shall they be incapable of purity ? 6 For it came from Israel, pendent kingdom, yet they were actuated merely by rebellious motives, and had no regard to a divine sanction, 1 Kings xi. 31-39, xii. 20. yy, signifies not only to know, but also to approve of that which is known, regard, allow, own. Job. ix. 21, xxxiv. 4 ; Ps. i. 6, et freq. LXX. ko.1 ovk iyvilipiaav fxot. Syr. jjo 7. . In V°inj and did not acquaint me, i. e. held no communications with me upon the subject. The Heb. however, will not bear this interpretation, a in both cases before sV, has the force of a relative, which must either be adopted in transla tion, or the personal pronoun must be supplied. For then- conversion of their silver and gold into idols, comp. chap. ii. 8. yiaqaS does not appear ever to be taken in a retrospective sense, and so to be referred to what goes before, but is always used with direct reference to what follows, raia1 •ajsaa's is, therefore, to be rendered, in order that they may be cut off; not so that they shall, etc. Comp. Jer. vii. 10, xliv. 8. In all such cases the preposition is employed to give pecu liar emphasis to the subject. The Israel ites could not seriously, or in reality, have intended their own destruction, but they acted as if they had ; and it would as suredly overtake them. The nominative to n -a ay may either be Israel, understood ; or it may have respect to the people col lectively. 5. The calf of Samaria was not any set up in that city, but that set up at Bethel with another at Dan, or both, if we take the noun as a collective, which its inhabitants, and those of the country generally, worshipped. The metropolis appears to be used here by synecdoche for the whole land occupied by the ten tribes ; but, at the same time, there can be little doubt that its inhabitants were pre-emi nent in their devotion to idolatry, naa, is used in its primary acceptation, to be loathsome, abominable. See on ver. 3. Such construction is preferable to that which would make "V.ay the accusative to ha.T, assuming nan1 understood to be the nominative, or that in our common version, which makes it the nominative, and Samaria in its pronominal reference the accusative. The introduction of the worship of the golden calves by Jeroboam, in imitation of Apis, at Memphis, and Mnevis, at Hefiopofis, which he must have seen during his residence in Egypt, paved the way for the imitation and adoption of the gross idolatries practised by the Phoenicians, Syrians, and Chal deans, nan? tj!* fa "an, the anger of Je hovah burnetii, is an anthropopathic mode of expression of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew Scriptures, denoting the un conquerable opposition of God to all moral evil, and the severity of the punishment with which it is visited, ca, against them, i. e. the Israelites who worshipped the golden calves. --^aa1 si ¦'faM — iy yip3, how long shall they be incapable of purity ? i. e. how long shall they be ob stinately attached to the impure service of idols, and reject the means by which they might be recovered from its stain and punishment. 6. The golden calf had its origin in Israel: it was not made by any of the surround ing idolaters. The a in sana is emphatic. n^n^ la "a a to, shall be or become flames, i. e. shall be burnt. S"aa» is a airat, \ey. and has no root in Heb. ; but comp. the Arab i_^w, accendit ignem, \^£jlw. ardor, flamma. As the calf was made by man, so it should by man be converted 46 HOSEA. Chap. VHI. The carpenter made it ; It is not God : Surely the calf of Samaria shall become flames. 1 Because they have sown wind, They shall reap the whirlwind. They shall have no stalk ; The growth shall produce no grain ; Should it peradventure produce it, Strangers shall swallow it up. 8 Israel is swallowed up ; They are now among the nations, Like a vessel in which is no delight. 9 For they went up to Assyria, Like a solitary wild ass : Ephraim hath given the hire of love. into fuel for the flames. It consisted, in all probability, of wood, thickly overlaid with gold. When taken as a present to the king of Assyria, (see chap. x. 6,) in stead of being worshipped or held in respect, it would be stripped of the gold, and consigned to the flames. The LXX. followed by the Arab. Horsley, and New- combe, improperly translate 'a Vsnto»», iv t$ 'lapaijK, Aj|«»wu| 3 in Israel, and join the words to those'bf the preced ing verse. 7. ntaEaO is the emphatic form of nsao, a tornado, whirlwind. Leo Juda, magnum turbinem. Comp. nfaws, Exod. xv. 16; nnsjWJ?, Ps. iii. 3. The nomina tive to hh is Vsito', understood ; but it is best to take it collectively, in harmony with the plural of the preceding verbs. Observe the paronomasia in ->Va naas naoyria; *-• The Israelites should be unsuccessful in all their undertakings ; and whatever partial gains they might acquire, would be eagerly seized by the Assyrians. 8. What Hosea had just foretold is here realized in prophetic vision. He sees them in a state of exile — the objects of contempt to their oppressors. Comp. Jer. xxii. 28. 9, 10. n^ai, to go up, is elsewhere used of foreigners .coming to the land of Israel; but is here employed ¦with singular pro priety of the Israelites going to Assyria, to intimate their depressed condition, and their acknowledgment of the superiority of the Assyrian power. The reference is not to their going into captivity, but to the embassy which they sent for the pur pose of obtaining aid from that quarter. iris stands for nn ass., the n of direction being omitted. The point of comparison in the " wild ass " is his untractableness, and his disposition to take his own way, in consequence of which he forsakes the society of others, and loves the solitari ness of the desert. See Job xxxix. 5-8. Thus it was with Israel. Despite of all the councils and warnings given them by the prophets, they persisted in enter ing into foreign alliances, nasi, to give presents, hire, etc. is purposely chosen, to convey the idea of a violation of the marriage contract by unlawful commerce with another party — the derivatives yns and naras, properly denoting a gift or reward given to a whore. See on chap. ii. 12. The aggravation of the evil is signified by representing the female as offering these rewards to her paramours to induce them to commit lewdness, in stead of her being prevailed upon by presents made by them. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 33, 34. Though in Hiphil, the verb has here the same signification as in Chap. VIII. HOSEA. 47 10 Yet though they have hired among the nations, I will now gather them; And they shall suffer in a little By reason of the tribute of the king of princes. 11 When Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, Kal. Can s, lit. loves, a plural not in use in English. Jerome, who renders, numera dederunt amatoribus, either read C^a ns which is found hi one of De Rossi's MSS., or he took fan s in a concrete sense, as our translators appear to have done, for which there is no neces sity. Instead of aaty at the beginning of ver. 10, two of De Rossi's MSS. the LXX . Syr. Vulg. Targ. and Arab, read a;ti,) as if from ajty ; according to which, the Israelites are represented as delivered over to, or placed in the power of the nations. The fifth Greek version, how ever, has a\\b. Kal Srav fU- .. > o ,,*» > The Syr. . . w cusoJ? f < n m Targ. :s leges T^ys Ms-ota. Vulg. multiplices leges meas. Pococke's Arab. MS. jj ' V*Jww A*l" irtol&vli*>">vs v6p.ovs. Symm. wKrjdros vipiev y.ov. B^s h, statutes, are understood, a* ri signifies not only to think, regard, etc., but also to treat in a manner corresponding to the estimation in which a person or thing is held. Tan chum, jj| v_^o jiilS' l$Jy> Joj XjJ I -XJ *Jt-S J» they reject them like a strange thing to which no regard is paid. 13. ">anan tot form the nominative absolute. i'anan.'my gifts, or offerings, i. e. such as they professedly offer to me. The word is contracted for ianany and is derived from ary, to give. It seems preferable to abide by this usual signifi cation of the verb, which it has likewise in Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic, than to follow Kimchi, who refers the noun to a root anan, to which he assigns the signification to burn, scorch, roast; or Ewald, who, appealing to the Chald. Sraan, and the Arab. v_jJ0 and . . g * tfi renders, raw offerings. ianan is a more choice term for raanaaa, or raaafiB. For the reduplicate form, comp. a'anans , chap. iv. 18 ; which word the LXX. Syr. and Targ. appear to have followed in this place ; of which Hitzig seems to approve. Aq., observant of the gemina tion, renders, bvalas ipipe (pipe &vaid(ov is a meiosis. Chap. IX. HOSEA. 49 14 Because Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and built temples, And Judah hath multiplied fortified cities ; Therefore will I send a fire into his cities ; And it shall consume the palaces of each. HP5>, now, is here used in the sense of speedily, shortly. From the references made chap. ix. 3, 6, xi. 11, it is clear that the last clause of the verse predicts the actual return of a number of the Israelites to Egypt, whither, in all prob ability, they fled when the kingdom was broken up by the Assyrians. The threat ening pointedly reminded them of the depressed condition in which their ances tors had been in that country. Comp. Deut. xxviii. 68. The LXX. add, «a! iv ' Aaavpiots aKafrapra cpdyovrai ; but the words are wanting in the Aldine edition, and in seven MSS. They have evidently found their way into the text from chap. ix. 3, where they stand in aocordance with the reading of all the Heb. MSS. 14. a in na-?',! marks the protasis ; in ipria^ap'a the apodosis. The naVa^n were doubtless idolatrous temples erected after the models of those in use among the Syrians and Phoenicians. See, for the word, my note on Is. vi. 1. Though idolatry had not made the same progress in Judah, the inhabitants nevertheless evinced a want of confidence in Jehovah by fortifying a number of cities, to which they trusted for defence. The masculine suffix in a^nya refers to Judah ; the fem inine in n^raaanns to each of the cities, taken singly. Ewald strangely asserts, that the words of this verse appear to have been inserted from some book of Amos no longer in existence ! Compare, however, for the latter distich, Jer. xlix. 27 ; Amos i. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, ii. 2, 5 ; and see note on Amos i. 4. CHAPTER IX. The prophet checks the propensity of the Israelites to indulge in excessive joy on account of any partial relief from their troubles, 1 ; predicts the failure of the crops, etc. in consequence of the Assyrian invasion, 2; their removal to Egypt and Assyria, where they should have no opportunity, even if they were inclined, to serve Jehovah according to their ancient ritual, 3-5 ; and the hopelessness of their returning to enjoy the property they had left be hind, 6. He then announces the certain infliction of the divine judgments, and points out the true character of the false prophets, by whom the people had been led astray to their ruin, 7, 8. Illustrative references are next made to the early history of the Hebrew nation, accompanied with appropriate comminations couched in varied forms, in order to render them more affecting, 9--17. 1 Caeey not thy joy, O, Israel ! to exultation, like the nations, 1. a>3,— V* — raas'ow- Vs, lit. rejoice not to exultation'. The LXX. Syr. Targ. and Vulg. read V"S aSs, exult not; but con trary to the usus loquendi, which requires 7 50 HOSEA, Chap. IX. For thou hast lewdly departed from thy God ; Thou hast loved the hire, On all the corn floors. Neither the floor nor the vat shall nourish them ; And the new wine shall fail therein. They shall not dwell in the land of Jehovah, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And in Assyria, they shall eat what is unclean. the verb following Vs to be in the future tense, as Seeker properly observes. Some find in the comparison " like the nations," an imitation of their idolatrous festivi ties ; but the language is rather predictive of the joyless condition to which the Is raelites were to be reduced. While those by whom they were surrounded and especially their Assyrian invaders, should indulge in unrestrained mirth, they should 'experience affliction and sorrow. There is most probably a reference to the joy occasioned by the league entered into with Pul, by which peace seemed to be secured. Their joy was to be of short duration, and therefore required to be moderate. Instead of £"tey_a, thirteen MSS., originally five more, one by cor rection, and five editions, read fasya. " among the nations," of which Rosen miiller, foDowing Abarbanel, approves. The prophet adds the reason why they should have -no cause for exultation — their abounding idolatries, by which they incurred the judgments of God. These idolatries they carried to such a pitch, that they erected shrines at their thresh ing floors, in order to offer at them the oblations of their grain. The crops were considered to have been bestowed by the idols in compensation for the worship rendered to them, (sec chap. ii. 5, 12, 13;) and are therefore spoken of as yns, a meretricious reward. 2 . For B n a , in reference to the failure of the productions of the earth, see Hab. iii. 17. The verb properly signifies to lie, de ceive, etc. ; figuratively, to fail. Twenty- six MSS., originally sixteen more, and perhaps two, three editions, with the support of the LXX. Syr. Targ. and Vulg. read ta, in them, i. e. them, the Israelites, mstead of tna, in her, the re ceived reading. It is, however, too plainly an emendation to entitle it to adoption. Nothing is more common than for our prophets to use first a plural, and then a singular suffix of the same subject : ac cordmg to the rule laid down by Tan chum, that when in a continued discourse a nation or people is spoken of, either in the feminine affix agreeing with nny, con gregation, or the masculine agreeing with C S, people, may be used ; as also, that the singular may be used of them, viewed as a body, and the plural, when they are regarded as consisting of distinct individ uals. See in Pococke. At the same time it is better in a translation to render them alike, as in the ancient versions just quoted. 3. Canaan was called nan^ yns, the land of Jelwvah, because he had appro priated it for an inheritance to those whom he had chosen to be his peculiar people. It was his gift to Abraham and his pos terity, to be enjoyed by them on condition of their fidelity in his service. For this end he attached to it his special blessing, Deut. xi. 10-12. Comp. Jer. ii. 7, xvi. 18; Ezek, xxxvi. 20. The return to Egypt being here mentioned in connec tion with an exile in Assyria, proves that it is to be taken literally, and that it is not designed to express a servitude similar to that of Egypt. See on chap. viii. 13. The fulfilment of this prediction in the history of the ten tribes, is nowhere mentioned in Scripture. No doubt the number that fled to Egypt was small, compared with the body of the nation carried into the Assyrian exile. By sttt: is meant prohibited food, meats pro nounced unclean by the Mosaic law. Comp. Ezek. iv. 13. To such necessity should they be reduced as captives. Chap. IX. HOSEA. 51 • 4 They shall not pour out wine to Jehovah, Neither shall their sacrifices please him ; They shall be to them as the bread of mourners, All that eat thereof shall be unclean : For their bread shall be for themselves ; It shall not come unto the house of Jehovah. 5 What will ye do on the day of assembly? On the day of Jehovah's festival ? 6 For, behold ! they go away from destruction, But Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them ; As for their coveted treasuries of money, nettles shall possess them : Thorns shall be in their tents. 4. ajoa is used of the pouring out of wine for a libation, Gr. crirevSeiv. Exod. xxx. 9. any, properly to mix, mingle, came to signify, sweet, agreeable, pleasing, from the circumstance, that what was pleasant to the taste, often consisted of mixed ingredients. D^aas taraV, bread, or food of sorrotos, i. e. such as was eaten by mourners for the dead, and conse quently regarded as unclean, on account of the contact in which they were sup posed to come with the dead body. See Numb. xix. 14, 15, 22 ; Jer. xvi. 7, 8 ; Ezek. xxiv. 17 ; Hagg. ii. 12, 13. In stead of feasting upon the sacrifices as their fathers had been accustomed to do, when they slew them according to the law, which was always an occasion of joy, they should be placed in circum stances in which no such sacrifices could be offered, and no such feasts enjoyed. Their food should all be common — CVSzh, for their soul, or life, i. e. merely for its sustenance ; not fit to be presented to the Lord. Thus Schmidius, Grotius, and others. 5. In captivity they would find it im possible to observe their solemn feasts — a great aggravation of their punishment. Comp. chap. ii. 11. The exposition of Jarchi, Abenezra, Kimchi, Mercer, Capito, and others, according to which, the day of punishment, represented under the idea of sacrifice, is meant, cannot be sus tained. 6. The prophet here specially describes those Israelites who should take alarm at the invasion of the country by the As syrians, and flee for safety into Egypt. They imagined that their stay there would only be temporary ; but it is predicted that they should no more return to their possessions, and be buried in their fathers' sepulchres, but should die in the land, and have their interment among the mummies of Egypt. For Memphis as the great necropolis of that countiy, see my note on Isaiah xix, 13. yap, to gather, is here used in reference to the removal of the soul at death, into the world of spirits, and is equivalent to etasa, Numb. xx. 26, or the full phrases 'tea;'- Vb> ntasa, and rryas- Vs tiDsa, to be gathered to one's people or fathers, which is always spoken of as something different from death and burial. Comp. Jer. viii. 2 ; Ezek. xxix. 5, in which latter passage ?|fcs, and yap, are used as syn- onymes. According to the signification of the cognate Arab. verb. [jaj3 ccpit, apprehendit manu rem, it conveys the idea of God's taking away the soul. Hence the phrase xJJIx^iaJs, mortuus est, literally, God took him ; and ijoj>3 simply, mortuus est (ad Dei misericordiam delatus). Freytag. "When it is said that Egypt should gather and Memphis bury the Israelitish fugitives, the meaning is that they should be removed out of this world, and that their bodies should be buried there. The personification is em ployed, as usual, for the sake of effect. tXinia, desire, covetousness ; that which is the object of desire, what is covetable, coveted, from "i»fa, to desire, covet. As 52 HO SEA. Chap. IX, 7 The days of punishment are come, The days of retribution are come ; Israel shall know it : The 23rophet is foolish, The man of the spirit is frantic, Because of the greatness of thy punishment, And because the provocation is great. the verb t»y" has a plural suffix, this noun is here to be taken as a collective, and rendered in the plural. The idea of treasury is supplied by the connection. -|ta is used generally of money, as in most other places, when ant, gold, is not com bined with it. Targ. ynssa hi»ra rna, the house of their desirable money. Symm. to. im&vpefifiara tov apyvplov avratv. Others, less aptly, explain the words of houses, palaces, etc. adorned with silver. On leaving those treasures which they could not carry with them, the Israelites would naturally bury them in the earth, which accounts for the very significant phrase, " the nettles shall inherit them." For the combination wawip oriaa:p and raan, comp. Is. xxxiv. 13. The whole verse is miserably translated by the LXX. 7. nip 2, visitation, punishment. Comp. Is. x. 3 ; ' 1 Pet. ii. 12. ayy, shall know ¦ experimentally. By the s^aa is obviously to be understood in this place, the false prophet or prophets by whom the people of the ten tribes were seduced from the right worship of Jehovah, who taught them to worship the golden calves, and otherwise encouraged them in their idol atrous practices. Thus Pococke's Arab. MS. S»jij _£tXj| he that pretends to prophesy ; "and Kimchi, "apaa "WSJ, lying prophets. With this, the phrase tynnviPS, the man of the spirit, is' syn onymous ; one pretending to inspiration, or professing to deliver oracles under the influence of a divine efHatus. LXX. o 7 &v&panros 6 7rveu/iaTo(p6pos. Syr. ja,^^ . ° > *. . P ,7 ^ U»Oa CIS | it * *~~)N* the man that is clothed, or endued with the spirit, only adding by way of explanation, but er roneously,] Sn i A°f . of folly. Comp. Mic.ii. 11. rial Tpsh '^s; 1 Cor. xiv. 37. et tis SoKei irpo(p7iTr]s eTvai % irvevuaTiKus ; 2 Pet. i. 2 1, inrb irvevp.aTOS aylov (j)ep6fi.evoi ; and see my Lectures on Divine Inspfra tion, p. 25. ssaiaa insane, frantic; Arab. »^ w locutus fuit rhythmice, to speak in an impassioned manner, like an in spired poet ; hence, from the violence of the gesticulations, tones, etc., to act like a madman, to be mad, insane. Comp. Jer. xxix. 26, where y.viaa airs and Kajraaa are synonymous. The meaning is, that the pretenders to inspiration, by whose false predictions of uninterrupted prosperity the people had been deluded, should be convicted oi folly, and reduced to a state of absolute frenzy by the inflic tion of the divine judgments upon the nation. Hosea introduces this declaration respecting the Israelitish prophets paren thetically, thereby giving force to his own prediction of impending calamity. The affix in ay ay refers to Vsnbi, to whom the prophet turns in the way of direct address. y» means here, not the crime, but its punishment. Comp. for this signification of the term, Is. v. 18, and my note there. In nana subaud. ia, because. The adjective nan, is here placed before its substantive for the sake of emphasis. See on Is. liii. 11. From the use of ftta -a in the sense of hating, evincing hostility, etc., there can be little doubt that the derivative nBBtoM, which occurs only in this and the following verse, has the signification of hostility, provoking conduct, provocation. That of snare or trap, which Gesenius assigns to it, is not borne out, even by the Syriac Jo_^L£ff which signifies vinxit, compe- divit, but not to ensnare. Comp. the Arab. A U ...^acies gladii ; acutiores et Chap. IX. HOSEA. 53 10 Ephraim expecteth help from my God ; The prophet is a fowler's snare in all his ways : The cause of provocation in the house of his god. They have deeply corrupted themselves, As in the days of Gibeah ; He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins. I found Israel, like grapes in the desert ; Like the first early fruit of the fig tree, at its commencement, fervidiores hominum. LXX. piavia ; Aq. iyK&o-nais \ AAA eKHTaais ; all of which convey the idea of great excitement, and yield support to the interpretation I have given. The idolatrous practices of the Israelites are meant, by which they pro voked the righteous indignation of Jeho vah. 8. tiinES nDaS, arenotin construction, and to be 'rendered as in most versions, " the watchman of Ephraim," to justify which construction various modes of exegesis have been resorted to ; among others that of Horsley, who would have the watchman to be Elijah. Nor can the rendering of Ewald be sustained, who gives the passage, Ein Spdher ist Ephraim gegen mein Gott. " Ephraim is a spy against my God." When tB> signifies against, it follows verbs of more active import. E. schaut nach Weissa- gungen aus neben meinem Gott; "Eph raim looks for prophecies besides my God," — the rendering of Hitzig, is equally objectionable. I quite agree with Gesenius and Lee, in assigning to nss in this place the signification of looking out, expecting, as in Ps. v. 4 ; Lam. iv. 17, in Piel. ny, with, is used elliptically for Eyn, from with, i. c. from. A sim ilar ellipsis undeniably occurs Job xxvii. 13. Vs— cs> yjn Q-is-pVn nT, this is the portion of the wicked man from (Qy, with,) God, as appears, not only from the synonymous phrase i^'iaq, "from the Almighty," in the corresponding hemi stich, but from the actual use of ya,from, in the parallel passage, chap. xx. 29. What the prophet asserts is, that the Ephraimites indulged in expectations of good from Jehovah, notwithstanding their dereliction of his worship in its pure and legitimate forms, and their adoption of the idolatrous practices of the heathen around them. In this they were encour aged by the false prophets, who caught them by their ensnaring doctrines, as is declared immediately after. nasB'vra is here used in the same acceptation "as in the preceding verse, only there is a me tonymy of the effect for the cause. By ain'Vs raia, "the house of his god," is not meant the temple or people of the true God, but the temple or temples in which the false worship was performed, which the prophets here reprobated were specially active in promoting. 9. anni- ap'Kyn, an instance of the constructio asyndcta. The former of the two verbs is to be rendered adverbially. For its use before infinitives, see on chap. v. 2. Mercer, " Quam corruptissimi sunt." ann-i may either be taken in transitively, or Bryant, ta;yfy;"Vy, or the like, must be supplied. So great was the depravity evinced by those whose conduct the prophet here describes, that it could only be paralleled by the atroc ity of the inhabitants of Gibeah, specified Judges xix. 22-30. 10. Vs^'a", Israel, here means the ancestors of the Hebrew nation. It has been asked, " How could God be said to find the Hebrews in the wilderness, since he conducted them into it from Egypt ? " To remove the difficulty, some very un warrantably explain the wilderness of Egypt itself; but others connect Q'ayya na-toa, like grapes in the desert, aiid explain satt of finding by experience, trial, etc. Such they were, proved them selves to be. in my judgment. And this seems to be the proper division and inter pretation of the words At the same 54 HOSEA. Chap. IX. I regarded your fathers ; But they came to Baal-peor, And separated themselves to the object of shame ; They became abominable, like the object of their love. 11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away, like a bird; There shall be no birth, no womb, no conception. 12 Yea, though they should rear their children, I would take them away from among men ; But woe to them ! when I depart from them. time na^K a,ysa ssaa occurs in reference to the "same 'subject,' Deut. xxxii. 10, where the verb must be taken in the sense of reaching with sufficient aid. Comp. the Eth. \\]P£(\\ venit; Arab. I ^ a perduxit, tractavit, negotium ; and chap. xiii. 5 ; Jer, xxxi. 2. The point of comparison in the verse is the delight with which a traveller enjoys grapes found in a desert, in which they were unex pected, and where they served most op portunely to quench his thirst ; or the early fig, which is accounted a great del icacy in the East. When Jehovah entered into covenant with the people of Israel at Sinai, they were regarded by him with delight, being free from idolatry, and engaging to adhere to his service. Comp. chap. xi. 1 ; Jer. xxxi. 3. The scene, however, was soon changed, nten, illi, these very persons. At Baal-peor, they proved faithless, and indulged in the very atrocities of which their posterity were guilty in the days of the prophet. For the transactions referred to, see Numb. xxv. 1-5. Priapism, which Hosea justly characterizes as in the highest degree abominable, was the worship peculiarly acceptable to the god of Peor. See Cal- met and Winer in voc. — n T3 signifies to separate one's self from any person or thing, and also, followed by h, to separate ordevote one'sself to some religious object. Hence the substantive niT3, a Nazarite, ny consecration, nraa is" the abstract for the concrete, and denotes the obscene or shameful idol which' the Moabites worshipped. D"aapo, lit. abominations, but used here adjectively, loathsome, abominable. Cans is properly the sub stantive, an. s — the points being changed on account of the suffix. Vulg. facti sunt abominabiles sicut ea, qua? dilexerunt. The Hebrews became as abominable as the impure idol whose rites they cele brated, yaps san yap» -aaasn, he that serveth an abomination, is himself an abomination. Kimchi's MS. note in Po- cocke. 11, 12. Si-aEs, Ephraim, is of the nominative absolute, which gives promi nence to the name, and its signification. As for Ephraim, (nyiSs, from n"a£, to be fruitful Gen. xii. 52,) such may be his name, but, etc. naaa, glory, is in contrast with naa, shame, in the preced ing verse. The lewd and idolatrous con duct of the Israelites should meet with a fit retribution. Instead of having an increase of children, that might grow up and become the glory of the land, those who might now be accounted such should speedily be removed into Assyria, and there would be nothing but sterility to characterize the nation. The preposition ia, prefixed to the three last substantives, is privative in signification. Itaa, womb, stands here for pregnancy, or for Xnefcctus in the womb. The order of the words presents an instance of the gradatio in- versa. S-tsa:, among men, as ^afflP ^TjteS ticaaa, "thy mother shall be childless among women," 1 Sam. xv. 33. Ewald and Hitzig translate inaoa, when I look away from them, contending that we should read o mstead of '» ; but no MS. is thus pointed, and the present punctu ation is so far supported by the LXX. (r) adp% g.ov, i. e -nasa), Aq. Vulg. and Targ. Three MSSVand one edit, have yataa, to which ya'sa is doubtless here equivalent. Many instances occur of the substitution of v for e, and vice versa. Chap. IX. HOSEA. 55 1 3 I see Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place ; But Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer. 14 Give them, O Jehovah ! — what wilt thou give f Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts. 15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal; Surely I have hated them there : On account of the wickedness of their deeds, I have driven them out of my house ; I will love them no more : All their princes are rebels. 16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up ; They shall produce no fruit : The meaning is, when I withdraw my protection from them ; no longer showing them any favor, but delivering them over to their enemies. For the abortive at tempt of Lyra to prove a corruption of the passage by the Jews, and to palm upon the rendering of the LXX . ^ odp£ p.ov it, aiirav, the doctrine of the incar nation of the Messiah, see Pococke. 13. After t^nss supply in-sn, from the following naa% ira"sn naisa. Though nsn commonly governs the accusative, yet, in Ps. Ixiv. 6, it is followed as here by the dative, without any difference of signification. LXX. els Sii)pav, reading, naa, instead of naaa. Aq. Symm. b.Kpi- Top.ov ; Theod. irerpav ; Arnoldi, and after him Hitzig, would derive n^S from the Arab. . ^o as signifying the Palm ; but it only signifies the root of that tree, or describes it as small in size, an accep tation which would ill suit the present connection. Ewald renders, Bild, image or likeness. The point of comparison is the beautiful situation of Tyre. See Ezek. xxvii. 3, xxviii. 12,13. The no tion of planting seems to have been sug gested by the name of Ephraim. See on the preceding verse. The territory occu pied by that tribe, and several of the other nine, was distinguished for its beauty and fertility ; and the prosperity of its inhabitants, who traded extensively with the Phoenician ports, was only surpassed by Tyre herself. Yet the fruit of this lovely region was only to be produced in order to its being destroyed. The inhab itants were to be slain in great numbers with the sword. The a> before the inriii- itive in siaanV, is future in signification, indicating what was about to be, or would be done. 14. These words strongly mark the effect produced upon the mind of the prophet by the contemplation of the wick edness of his people. In holy ardor of soul, he feels himself excited to impre cate what he had predicted ver. 11. Some, less appropriately, render n>s , not as an interrogative, but as signifying that which, i. e. give them whatever thou wilt. Barrenness was accounted a great misfortune among the Jews. 15. For Gilgal, see on chap. iv. 15. Bemg one of the chief places of idolatrous worship, the wickedness of the nation might be said to be concentrated in it. When God is represented as hating the wicked, it must be understood in regard to the odiousness of their moral character. and his infliction of positive punishment upon them on account of it. Hitzig considers ssto to be here used inchoa- tively. For the sense in which r"a, house, is to be taken, see on chap. viii. 1. Hatred and love are contrasted as here, Mai. i. 2, 3. In eayye Dn.y/w is a paronomasia. 16. The figurative language here em ployed is suggested by the meaning of the name Ephraim, as in verses, 11, 13. y-i-yi ism the future, while nan and 'i-ai are in the preterite, to mark the state of unfruitfulness as following upon 56 HOSEA. Chap. X Yea, though they should beget children, I will kill the beloved of their womb. 17 My God will abhor them, Because they have not listened to him : They shall be wanderers among the nations. the injury done to the tree. The resolu tion of the figure in the latter half of the verse possesses much force. Most of the MSS. and some few editions read, with the Keri, ^a mstead of iVa , which occurs, however, before a verb, Job xii. 18. For D""ia5.n», comp. on "usnn, ver. 6. 17. Though the pronominal affix in ¦>rias» is omitted by the LXX. and Arab. and'one of Kennicott's MSS., it is, in such connection, more in the style of Hosea than Di.riVs. The dispersion of the ten tribes is here expressly predicted. CHAPTER X. In this chapter the prophet continues to charge the Israelites with idolatry, anarchy, and want of fidelity, 1—4. He expatiates with great variety on the judgments that were to come upon them in punishment for these crimes, 5-11 ; and then abruptly turns to them in a direct hortatory address, couched in metaphorical language, horrowed from the mode of representation which he had just employed, 12. The section concludes with an appeal to the experience which they had already had of the disastrous consequences of their wicked conduct. 1 Israel is a luxuriant vine ; He putteth forth his fruit ; According to the increase of his fruit, He increased altars ; According to the excellence of his land, They prepared goodly statues. 1. The wickedness which manifested itself in idolatry, etc. is here traced to the abuse of the prosperity which God had conferred on the Israelites. Instead of spendmg the bounties of providence for the glory of God, they appropriated them to idolatrous uses, and that in proportion to the abundance of their bestowment. PT-^> LiM' multu8fudit,foecundusfuit, multum pluviam' demisit, florere ccepit planta, is here used to express the luxu riance of the vine, and not, as in our common version and some others, its un fruitfulness. The idea of emptying, which the verb also has, derived from that of pouring out entirely or abundantly the contents of a vessel, does not suit the present connection. LXX. eiiKk-npaTovaa, Chap. X. HOSEA. 57 Their heart is divided, they shall now be punished : He will cut off their altars, he will destroy their statues. Surely now shall they say : We have nocking ; » For we fear not Jehovah : As for the king then, what can he do for us ? They utter empty speeches ; Swearing falsely, making covenants ; Therefore judgment blossoms like the poppy On the ridges of the field. or, as in other copies, iyK\i)ii.aTovaa. Aq. HvvSpos. Symm. vKop-avovaa. Ynlg.fron- doso. Comp. Gen. xlix. 22 ; Ps. lxxx. 9-11; Ezek. xvii. 6. In every other instance ~.%i is construed as a feminine; but here the masculine name a^Nn'-oy Israel, required it to be taken as of that gender, nisi, to resemble, be equal to, sufficient; in Piel, like the Eth. n©Pi to bring to maturity, produce fruit, ft , in the phrase ^sV-njs? , is pleonastic, as in ft— aj >n, etc., but may here be rendered as a possessive pronoun. 2. pVra is here to be taken intransi tively, as in our common version, and refers, not to any difference of opinion among the Israelites respecting the claims of their numerous idols, but to their in sincerity in the service of Jehovah, — professing to worship him, while they likewise addicted themselves to the worship of idols. Thus Tanchum : — Swyfc aJJU Ij^ww^ "their mind and their understanding, and their opin ion are divided, while "they associate others with God." The acceptation to be smooth, which some propose, is to be re jected, on the ground that, though the verb is used in this signification of the tongue, it nowhere is of. the heart. For the meaning of BBS , see on chap. v. 15. The nominative to san, He, is tin'Vs, God, in "fiVs, chap. ix. 17. Jehovah is here said to do, what he would effect by means of the Assyrians, tyy is properly a sacrificial term, signifying to cut off the head of a victim, by striking it on the neck ; hence, to drop as blood from the 8 place thus struck ; and to drop generally. It is here, with much force, used metony- mically, in application to the destruction of the altars on which the animals were offered. Ewald renders, Er wird ihre altiire enthaupten ; " he will decapitate their altars." For the distinction between rnnaaaa and naasaq , see on chap. iii. 4. WP y , now, in this and the following verse, has the signification of soon, speedily. 3. The language of desperation is here put into the mouth of the apostate Israel ites, at the time of the infliction of divine judgment. Their king, to whom they had naturally looked for protection, was removed ; they had forfeited the favor of God, who was now become their enemy ; and, therefore, it was vain to expect help from an earthly monarch. Some think: the prophet refers to the time of anarchy during the interregnum, between the murder of Pekah and the accession of Hoshea. 4. nan nan, lit. to speak a word, or speech, i. e. what is merely such ; empty, false pretences. Comp. the Lat. verba dare. The prophet begins with the finite form of the verb, and then, for the sake of more specific description, changes it for the infinitive. Comp. Is. lix. 13. For naVs, as an absolute infinitive, in stead of ri'a-s, comp. naravj , Is. xxii. 13 ; pasn , chap. xiii. 20. nya, covenant, is here used as a collective lioun, and is to be rendered in the plural. Whether the false swearing and the entering into covenants refer to the conduct of the Israelites in regard to each other, or whether they respect their conduct in reference to foreign powers, has been dis puted. The latter would seem to be the more probable, since it is the making of 58 HOSEA. Chap. X. For the calves of Beth-aven, The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in fear ; The people thereof shall mourn on account of it; The priests thereof shall leap about on account of it — On account of its glory, Because it hath departed from it. It shall itself also be carried to Assyria, A present to the hostile king : Ephraim shall take disgrace, And Israel shall blush for his own counsel, covenants and not the breaking of them, of which the prophet speaks as something criminal. He seems to have in his eye the historical circumstances narrated 2 Kings xvii. 4. By usviq is meant the divine judgment which was to be inflicted upon the people of Israel. So Jarchi, ra-asnasa ynaO" 'tS';;;. This he com pares to the rapid and luxuriant growth of the poppy, which overruns the fields, and is destructive as a poison. Celsius, in his Hierobot. supports the common rendering hemlock, as the signification of tis-i ; but that of poppy, proposed by Gesenius, is preferable, both to such con struction of the term, and to that of colocynth advanced by fEdmann, or that of lolium or darnel suggested by Michaelis. The term is usually rendered poison in our common version ; sometimes gall. LXX. uypao-Tis. C-aftsa rather signify the ridges between the furrows than the furrows themselves. See Pococke. 5, 6. In these verses the object of idol atrous worship is spoken of, now in the plural, and now in the singular number, which Hitzig accounts for on the ground, that though the Israelites might have multiplied golden calves, that set up by Jeroboam would still be held in peculiar honor. Four MSS. have nays, calf, in the singular, which is also the rendering of the LXX. Syr. and an anonymous Greek version in the Hexapla. This reading is very uncritically adopted by Kuinoel, Dathe, Newcome, and some other moderns. For ys raia , Beth- aven, see on chap. iv. 15. yuj is a col lective. The nominative to the pronom inal affixes in afty, aasy, ainasa, etc. is the V: .a> , calf of Jeroboam, singled out from the rest., 'ilii, its people, those devoted to its worship. Comp. Numb. xxi. 29. tP"atea is only used in Hebrew to designate idolatrous priests, and occurs but twice besides, viz. 2 Kings xxiii. 5 i Zeph. i. 4 ; but in the Syriac j- V*n n kumro, signifies a priest of the true God. as well as one engaged in the service of idols. Gesenius derives the noun from na:a , to burn, be scorched, black, suppos ing the reference to be to the black dress of monks or ecclesiastics ; but this seems too modern to be entitled to adoption. The derivation of Iken, in his Dissert, de Cemarim, who refers the word to the Persic ^AS sacrum magorum ignicolarum cingulum, of which frequent mention is made in the Sadder of Zoroaster, is much more natural. Comp. the Chald. snasp "I aaap , a belt or girdle. Some think the Lat. camillus, an inferior order of priests, who attended upon and assisted the fla- mens, is derived from this root. Ewald renders the word by Pfaffen, which is used of priests by way of contempt, in German. Those who render a V'S-i , they rejoiced, which is the usual signification of the verb, supply n»S before it ; but the Vau conversive connects it so closely with Vas » as to render such supplement inconsistent with the construction. It is, therefore, better to revert to the primary signification of Vy , to move about, leap, dance, or the like. Comp. the Arab. iJLa* circumivit. Such would be the excitement of the idolatrous priests at the capture of their God, that they would leap about in a state of desperation, like those of Baal, 1 Kings xviii. 26. The ClIAP. X. HOSEA. 59 7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off; He is like a chip upon the surface of the water. 8 The high places of Ay en, the sin of Israel, are destroyed; Thorns and thistles shall grow upon their altars : They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; And to the hills, Fall upon us. 9 Since the days of Gilead, thou hast sinned, O Israel ! There they remain : Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gilead ? glory of the idol consisted in its ornaments, wealth, etc. ariaSCl is emphatic: itself also, i. e. the idol or golden calf. For the meaning of ani , Jareb, see on chap. v. 13. The worshippers of the golden calf would be ashamed of him, when they found that, instead of protecting them, be was himself carried into cap tivity. That n3'o-a is not to be changed into n3 'i- a , and rendered in a sound sleep, as Horsley does, nor into na-i-a , in this year, with Michaelis, the parallelism suf ficiently shows. 7. For the sake of emphasis, yna'ci is put absolutely. The whole phrase is equivalent to the king of Samaria, etc. That naay agrees with naVn, and not with yiab-ij, the gender shows. tjsp has nowhere the signification of foam or scum. It is derived from SjSp, Arab. i ii ->i-y f regit, to cut, cut off, and signi fies any chip or small fragment of wood. Comp. nEap , a fragment, Joel i. 7. Arab, i 6 . .A V fractus aborts ramus, ji,b,.f\y tenuitas arboris. LXX. " Rex tyrannus, scclestus. \J ACD'T' ' transgressio wqui et boni, scelus, perversitas. That the Targumist read the text as it now stands is clear from his rendering the word apftta , they went up. The words nya:. a c.y-i-P— ift naVy isa- Vy naarftxi are somewhat 60 HOSEA. Chap. X. 10 My desire is to punish them; The nations shall be collected against them, When they are bound for their two iniquities. 11 Ephraim is a well-trained heifer, loving to thresh; But I will pass on beside her fair neck ; I will place a rider on Ephraim : Judah shall plough, And Jacob shall break the clods. involved, but the meaning is obvious. Destruction should assuredly overtake the wicked Israelites, c, the verbal suffix in tycta, is anticipative of naVa* "oa. s'V stands for sA>n , the interrogatory 'nega tive. 10. ifaasaa, the LXX. have read ifasa; rendering if ^A&e ; or, according to the Alexandrian MS. and the editions of Aldus and Breitinger, iiK&ev. Of this Houbigant, Dimock, Newcome, Tings- tadius, and Boothroyd, approve, and adopt it as an emendation ; but contrary to all other authority, ancient or modern, and without necessity. " a prefixed is the Beth Essentia?, indicating the substantive char acter of the affection. See my note on Is. xxvi. 4. nas , to be strongly propense, desire greatly, expresses the irresistible inclination of infinite purity to punish sin. En as is the future in Kal of n&i , to chastise, punish, compensation having been made for the first radical ¦> , by in serting Dagesh in the 6. Qnax , the infinitive of ntas , to bind, bind as a pris oner or captive, which is the sense in which the word is here to be taken. Oroiy has occasioned great variety' of interpretation. Michaelis translates it plough-shares, attempting to derive it from the Arabic. Jarchi, Lively, and, among the moderns, Ewald, render eyes, " before their two eyes," i. e. openly ; but the word is always written e*ys when applied to real eyes, and only taaaiy when applied to fountains or artificial eyes. Some translate habitations; but most, furrows, which is the rendering adopted by Abenezra, Kimchi, Abulwalid, Tanchum, Munster, Vatablus, Zanchius, etc., after the Targum — some expound ing the passage one way, and some another. The only satisfactory exegesis is that founded on the Keri, Bras' a _S> apsft, for their two iniquities, i. e. the two golden calves which Jeroboam had erected, and which proved the source of all the evils which they had afterwards committed. They had many other idols, but these were the principal ; and they are called iniquities by a metonymy of the cause for the effect. Comp. ver. 8, where PSQra , sin, is similarly applied. This reading is in the text of a great many MSS. and is expressed in all the ancient versions. 1 1 . The general meaning of this verse seems to be, that the Ephraimites had been accustomed in the plenitude of their power to crush and oppress others, espec ially their brethren of the two tribes; but they were now themselves to be brought into subjection to the king of Assyria, by whom they should be placed in circumstances of great hardship in foreign countries. The metaphors are agricultural. For tea*, to tread or beat out the corn, partly by the feet of oxen, and partly by sledges with instruments adapted to the purpose, see on Is. xxviii. 27, 28. The i in ipans, is paragogic, as ipasji and ipaspn , Jer. xxii. 23 ; ira:a;i', chap. li. 13, though in these pas sages it has been left unpointed by the Masoretes. See Ewald, § 406. The form is otherwise the participle ran's. Vs na_5> signifies here to pass on beside one, as the driver does beside an ox in the yoke. Thus Jehovah would, in his providence, lead forth the Israelites, from the midst of their prosperity, to the toils and hard. ships of captivity. ti"_£s a-ans lit. I will cause to ride Ephraim, meaning I will place a ri der upon him — a conqueror, who shall lead him forth from his land. Thus Calvin, Zanchius, Lyra Tarnovius Chap. X. HOSEA. 61 12 Sow to yourselves for righteousness : Reap according to piety ; Break up for yourselves the fallow ground : For it is time to seek Jehovah, Till he come, and teach you righteousness. 13 Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; Ye have eaten the fruit of falsehood : Because thou trustedst in thy way — In the multitude of thy mighty ones. Eosenmuller, and Ewald. The judgments of God were not, however, to be confined to the northern kingdom: the southern should also be mvolved in them. In short, they should overtake the whole pos terity of Jacob. The prediction was ful filled during the two captivities, ft , in a? 1^.51 , is pleonastic. 12. Continuing his agricultural meta phors, the prophet here abruptly calls upon the nation to reform its mamiers. fcaft is the Dat. commodi. V in npyft points out the end or object to be obtained by sowing. Sow what will produce the fruits of righteousness. The second im perative is here equivalent to the future : " Sow, and ye shall reap ; " or the sub junctive, " Sow, so that ye may reap." That "torj , piety or goodness, is to be referred, not to God, but to man, its being parallel with npna? , righteousness, man ifestly proves. To change py a into ray-a , and join this word with va ,' preceding, as Newcome, following the LXX. and Arab., does, is unauthorized and inept. Thelsraelites had long neglected Jehovah: it was now high time to return to his fear ; and though they might not meet with immediate tokens of his favor, they were to persevere in seeking him, in the assur ance that he would be gracious to them. Such is the force of ny , until. This favor was to be manifested by his coming and communicating to them instruction re specting the only righteousness which could avail the guilty at his bar. That the words Daft pna nnay are not to be rendered he will grant you suitable rain, but, he will teach you righteousness, and that they contain a prophecy of the advent and prophetical office of the Messiah, has been maintained by Jerome, and many other mterpreters. In support of the rendering, He will teach you righteousness, •P 7 may be adduced the Syr. j^j ^ ffi fn r^f, o q ^ X ir, ..V^r-i till he come and shozv to you his righteousness ; Pococke's Arab. MS. _SJo ,.il —Jl JjmJI *5tX-CC ¦yis. till he come and guide you to righteousness. The Targ. to the same effect, ipya ft.api yaa yaV yaT, now he shall' be revealed, and shall bring righteousness to you; Vulg. cum venerit qui docebit vos justitiam. Thus also Dathe, Hitzig, Winer, and others. Kimchi remarks, fi PS asmp Cs Ki'it. cans nnaia sai san anasasa annan i-y-iV> pi a , there are those (of the Rabbins) who expound, If ye seek the Lord, to know his law and his commandments, he will come and teach you righteousness. And Aben- ezra asserts the same, in nearly the same words. Such construction of the passage seems, from the preceding use of npna , to be more apt, than to take p-ia abso lutely for npnaft , in due proportion, ad equately, fully, accordmg to the claims or necessities of your condition. See on Joel ii. 23. 13. Instead of following such a course as that to which they had just been ex horted, the Israelites had pursued one directly opposite, and "now reaped the disastrous consequences. The same met aphors are here continued, rna- "as, fruit of falsehood, seems rather to mean the effects of their false and hypocritical conduct in professing attachment to the true God, while they addicted themselves to the worship of other deities, than fal- 62 HOSEA. Chap. X. 14 Therefore a tumult shall arise among thy people, And all thy fortresses shall be destroyed, As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle : When the mother was dashed in pieces with her children. lacious and disappointing results. See ker would read y:y , in thy chariots, instead of ^an-aa', 'in thy way, on the LXX. iv Hp/iao-i aov, which reading is found in Compl. Aid. Barb. Reg. Laud. Cyrill. Ital. Ambros. Arab. Slav. Hexap. Syr. and a Copt. MS. ; and Kuinoel has actually adopted it into his Hebrew text. It is, however, unsupported by any Heb. MSS., or any of the ancient versions, and is justly to be rejected. Four MSS., originally two, the Syr. and Targ. read T\'~,1 "3 , in thy ways. The way of the Israelites was the wicked course of con duct which they had adopted in opposi tion to the will of God. Kimchi : swnn naaassna nynn "yn, the way of wickedness and bad religion. The Vat. copy of the LXX. has iv apapT^p.ao-t aov. Comp. Is. lvii. 10 ; Jer. ii. 23. 14. The prophet now denounces a severe threatening against his rebellious countrymen, foreshowing that they should be involved in all the horrors of war. QSp a , with s epenthetic, after the man ner of the Arab. j^oLs . or it may be regarded as merely a mater lectionis. Sorhe few MSS. and some others in the margin, read cpa . Twenty-four MSS., one originally, four of the early editions, and all the ancient versions, read ^ttva, thy people, mstead of Tfl?." a , thy peo ples. For minor varieties iii the readings, see Kennicott and De Rossi. The nom inative to Tijai is Va, taken as a collec tive, comprehending the whole. That "|afto, Shalman, and Vsans. P"a , Beth- Ariel, are proper names, is now univer sally admitted. The best interpretation of them is that given by Tanchum : ¦jafta; Lo|^ naws v_jCLo nsssaftw ,jjo v^T* *"' '^¦aVj |** I _j-§-» nssaaft» JLaJ. ya >'j> Lf raiaa JUb tSxJ! l$i| Jy*Jj tX.1? iva»t Vsans Vsans *jjJ| LgJ. "As for Shalman, it is a proper name, and is said to stand for Shalmanassar, king of As syria, only it is abbreviated ; and perhaps Shalmanssar is compounded of two names, one of which is omitted because it was well known : and Arbel is the name of a city, and is said to be that which is called Arbel at the present day." The abbrevi ation of proper names is not uncommon in Scripture, as anys, Coniah, for ya'ani, Jehoiachin, etc. It was this monarch that besieged Samaria for the space of three years, and took it in the ninth of Hoshea, b. c. 722, carrying the king and most of his subjects into exile. 2 Kings xvii. 1-6. To this interpreta tion it has been objected that our prophet wrote before the time of Shalmaneser, and therefore could not speak of his des troying Arbel as something that had already happened. It must, however, be recollected, that though Hosea prophesied before the time of that king, he contin ued to deliver his predictions as far down as the time of his successor Sennacherib, and must, therefore, have been well ac quainted with the previous Assyrian invasions. With respect to Vsans rna, or, as some MSS. read, ^ans, Beih-Ar- bel, commentators are divided in opinion. Some think that the Assyrian city Arbela, situated between the Lycus and the Tigris, _ celebrated for the victory obtained there by Alexander the Great over Darius, is meant ; but it is far more probable that the prophet refers to the 'Ap/S^Ao of 1 Mace. ix. 2, which Josephus places near Sephoris in Galilee; Eusebius, in the plain of Esdraelon. Of the battle here mentioned, no account indeed is giver. either in sacred or profane history ; but as the contemporaries of Hosea are sup posed to have been acquainted with it, there is reason to believe that it took place on the invasion of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian army. The ancient Chap. XI. HOSEA. G3 15 Thus shall he act towards you at Bethel, On account of your flagrant wickedness : In the morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off. versions of this clause of the verse are more or less at fault ; but have afforded abundant scope for the exercise of emen- datorial criticism. Bee Newcome, who renders, Like the destruction of Zalmunna by the hand of Jcrubbaal ; and supposes the reference to be to Jud. viii. hv here signifies with, in the sense of being super added. See Gen. xxviii. 9. xxxi. 50. 15. The nominative to ~'vv is Shalman in the preceding verse, or perhaps nani , Jehovah, understood, but not Vs— p,ia, Bethel, as in our common version, since this does not so well agree with what fol lows. The words contain a special pre diction against Bethel, where the wick edness of the Israelites had been most conspicuously exhibited. Qanyn pyn, lit. the wickedness of your wickedness, i. e. your excessive, or most flagrant wick edness. A rare example of a noun put in construction with itself repeated in the singular, in order to form the super lative degree. There is no necessity with Newcome, to resort to emendation. In stead of nnga , "in the morning," fif teen MSS., and perhaps one more, six originally, the Proph. of Soncin. 1486, the Venet edit, of 1818, in the margin, and the Vulg. read nrria, "like the morning." Were the following verb nayi to be taken in the sense of resem bling, being like, etc., the latter reading might possess some claim on our atten tion ; but as the idea of being destroyed best comports with the connection, that of the Textus Receptus is preferable. The difference of reading has arisen from the similarity of the letters a and a. The reference is to the suddenness with which Hoshea was to be seized by the king of Assjria, and an entire end put to the regal dignity. See 2 Kings xvii. 4. The doing of anything early or soon is frequently expressed by its being done in the morning. CHAPTER XL To aggravate his representations of the guilt of the Israelites, the prophet adduces the divine benefits conferred upon them from the earliest period of their history, 1 — 4. He then threatens them with unavoidable punishment on account of their obstinacy, 5, 6; but, all of a sudden, introduces Jehovah, compassionating his rebellious children, and promising them a restoration from their captivity in foreign lands, 7—11. 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, And called my son out of Egypt. 1. That these words relate to the na tion of Israel — being a description of what Jehovah had done for it ages before the prophet wrote, and not a prophecy of any future event, is so evident, that no person who impartially examines the preceding and following context, can for a moment call it in question. Nor but for their having been applied by the Evan gelist Matthew (ch. ii. 15.) to our Lord's 64 HOSEA. Chap. XI. According as they called them, they went from their presence, They sacrificed unto Baals, And burned incense to graven images. Though I taught Ephraim to walk, Taking them by their arms, Yet they knew not that I healed them. return from Egypt, would it ever have been imagined that they had or could have had any other reference. It is only, therefore, with respect to such application that any difficulty can exist respecting their exegesis ; and, in my judgment, there appears to be nothing in the N. T. application beyond the mere appropria tion of the language of the prophet, for the purpose of giving to Jewish readers a more vivid impression of the strikingly analogous circumstances of the sojourn of our Saviour in Egypt, and his return from it, to those of the ancient Israelites. The Evangelist does not affirm, that the words as used by Hosea were a prophecy of Christ ; he only adduces them, to show how aptly they described the his torical event which he was narrating, just as he does Jer. xxxi. 15, in applica tion to the murder of the infants at Beth lehem, and Ps. lxxviii. 2, in application to our Lord's teaching in parables. " He must be a stranger to the Hebrew writers, that does not know, that nothing is more common among them than such accom modations of the text upon all occasions. They abound in such applications ; I may say their Midrashim do very much ex ceed in them." Kidder's Demon, of the Messiah, Pt. n. p. 216. " Parodiarum in N. T. omnia sunt plena, e. g. Matt. ii. 15 and 23, ubi impleta dicuntur Scrip- tuns turn etiam, cum nulla historica aut typica est impletio, sed analogica tan- tum." Hottinger in Primit. Heidelberg, p. 80. See Surenhusii. $t/3\os KaTaM-ns, p. 338. Home's Introd. vol. ii. pp. 341, 342. Robinson's Greek Lex. in 'tva, C. 2, d. Instead of i;a'a> , the LXX. appears to have read ayaV; ; but instead of rtk TeKva avrov, his children, which is their reading, that of Aq. Symm. Theod. the Slavon. and Matthew, agree with the Hebrew text. The Hebrew people are also called the son of God in the same figurative sense, Exod. iv. 22, 23. The early period of their existence is frequently represented as their youth. See Is. liv. 13 ; Jer. ii. 2, iii. 24, 25, xxii. 21 ; Hos. ii. 15. 2. The use of the verb nip , to call, in the preceding verse, suggested the idea of the subsequent messages which had been delivered to the Israelites by the prophets, to which Hosea now appeals, in order to contrast with the means which had been employed for their reformation, the obstinate character of their rebellion. Before asnp . subaud. natisa , to corres pond to y£ . Thus the LXX. koA' ws. The nominative is the prophets, under stood. The very presence of the proph ets being an annoyance to them, they withdrew from it, that, unmolested, they might indulge in idolatry. 3. ipV.anP , an instance of the Tiphil conjugation", equivalent to Hiphil in sig nification, and, in all probability, formed by hardening the preformative n into p. Indeed, one of De Rossi's MSS. reads ipaSvan , instead of ipa^anp . There exist only two other instances in the Hebrew Bible, -viz. ran tap?) , Jer. xii. 5, and nnfiPaa , xxii. 15," if 'caypaaaBta, xxv. 34, is not to be so taken. Compare the Shaphel Conjugation in Syriac, in which language this very verb occurs in it. 7 the form ns>«™ ,-*. See Knos Chrest. Syr. p. 112. It is a denominative from Van , the foot, and signifies to cause, or teach to use the feet, or walk. Syr. and *¦ 7 Targ. 2lS>i ravjaaii I led, only the latter paraphrases, ya ryV-? ~!i\'M "a'U pinai i»1pTi , and I led, etc. by an angel sent from my presence. The use of the personal pronoun 155s before the verb gives additional force to the lan guage, pi's in Brtp, is the infinitive used as a gerund, as in Ezek. xvii. 5. Both Chap. XI. HOSEA. 65 4 I drew them with the bands of man, With the cords of- love ; I was also to them as those who lift up the yoke from their neck, I held out meat to them, I made them eat. 5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt ; Assyria shall be their king : Because they would not be converted. 6 The sword shall be whirled in their cities, It shall destroy their barriers, and devour, Because of their devices. the suffixes q and a refer to Ephraim. See on chap. ix. 2. Four MSS. for aip'y'nT , " his arms," read ip'y'na, "my arms," 'which is also hi another originally, and now in another, and in the Soncin. edition of 1486. It is also supported by the LXX. Syr. Vulg. Another MS. reads Craay-aT, but they are all correc tions of the original, and are only to be tolerated in translation. The metaphor taken from teaching children to walk is continued, as those who do so take hold of their arms to keep them from falling while they move their feet. It beauti fully expresses the condescension of God to the circumstances of his people, and the kind care which he exercised over them. Comp. Deut. i. 31, xxxii. 11. His healing them, refers to his recovering them from the calamities which they had brought upon themselves by their sins. 4. Cns iVara , the bands of man, are explained by the parallel phrase papa y nans , cords of love, i. e. humane, gentle, persuasive methods, such as men gener ally employ when they would induce to action. There seems to be still a reference to the case of children, who, when taught to walk, are not only held by the arms but also by soft cords or leading-strings, are led about, or drawn in a gentle man ner by those who have the care of them. The terms, however, naturally suggesting the idea of the ropes by which oxen are bound and led about, the metaphor is immediately changed into one borrowed from agricultural life, "aaa V'y ixpnaaa does not mean to remove the yoke en tirely, but to raise it from the neck and cheeks of the animal, so as to allow it freely to eat its food. This better suits 9 the following connection than the idea of taking the yoke off any place that may have been galled by it, hi order to afford relief. The V'y, yoke, not only included the piece of wood upon the neck, by which the animal was fastened to the pole, but also the whole of the harness about the head, which was connected with it. The yokes used in the East are very heavy, and press so much upon the animals, that they are unable to bend their necks. aiVs tasa. Ewald renders, und sanft gegen ihn, " and gently towards him," etc. ; but it is preferable to take tax as the apocopated future in Hiph. of nta: , to stretch out, extend, reach any thing to another. The verse sets forth the kind relief afforded to the Hebrew nation in Egypt, and the provision with which they were miraculously supplied in the wilderness. 5. avi-, to turn, return, which is used at the beginning of the verse in its proper acceptation, is employed at the close metaphorically to express conversion to God. The Israelites seem to have been very generally inclined to migrate for a time to Egypt, in order to enjoy the pro tection of its monarch ; the prophet as sures them that they should not carry their purpose into effect, but that they should be subject to the Assyrian rule, as a punishment for refusing to listen to the calls given them to repent and turn from their idolatries. 6. Most of the Rabbins take Van in the sense of resting, remaining; but it seems preferable to adopt the signification to turn, be turned, or whirled about, as a sword when it is brandished or when it is employed hi cutting down the enemy. 66 HOSEA. Chap. XL 7 For my people are bent upon defection from me ; Though they call them to the Most High, Yet none of them will exalt him. 8 How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim ? How shall I deliver thee over, O Israel ? How shall I make thee as Admah ? How shall I make thee as Zeboim ? My heart is turned within me ; All my feelings of compassion are kindled. 9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger ; I will no more destroy Ephraim ; Comp. the Arab, i )1 ~^ conversa fait res. V. se convertit ; versus mutatusque fuit. n""ia > barriers, Gesenius and Lee take metaphorically, as denoting chiefs or princes.7. cisaVra = DiaVsa , which one of De Rossi's MSS.' reads originally, the Pahul Part, of nVn , to hang, used here meta phorically in the sense of bending, or being propense to anything. The idea of doubt or suspense, which some attach to the word in this connection, ill agrees with the character of the Israelites as otherwise depicted in this book, naatoaa is always used in a bad sense, defection apostasy, etc. Comp. chap. xiv. 5. The suffix in ipaa'in is to be taken passively; defection which has me for its object, and cannot with any propriety be rendered as by Horsley, "my returning." For Vy— Vs, ad summum, see on chap. vii. 16 ; and for asnpi , on ver. 2. After Bayni, supply aps, him, from V? , the Supreme, preceding. Jehovah had been degraded by his being worshipped through the medium of images, and having idols associated with him ; yet none of his apostate people were inclined to raise him from this degradation, by rejecting them and celebrating His praise, as the sole and glorious object of adoration. Po- raocke's Arab. MS. ~wJ *-£a^°, there was not one of them that glorified the name of God. "a|y_ with a negative is to be rendered not one; without it, all alto gether, wholly, as in the following verse. 8, 9. Now follows one of the most affecting instances of the infinite tender ness of the divine compassion to be found in Scripture ; the point of which is en hanced by its being introduced immedi ately after a description of the odious conduct of the Israelites. It is, as Bishop Lowth characterizes it, exquisitely pa thetic. The repetitions and synonymous features of the parallelism greatly add to the effect. The words belong to the period after the subjugation of Samaria, and the carrying away of the Israelites by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, xviii. 9-12. They were designed to inspire the captives with hope in the mercy of God, and thus lead them to true repent ance. ^aJ.a?s , the LXX. render imep- aairiw aov ', Aq. oVAoj KVKKiiiaa ae ', Vulg. protegam te ; deriving the idea from the signification of the substantive y B , a shield; -but it is used of delivering" over enemies, Gen. xiv. 20. Symm. eKhdiam o-e. Before ^aytes is an ellipsis of ys , which had already been twice repeated. The destruction of Admah and Zeboim is only referred to as an example in one other case, viz. Deut. xxix. 23, and then in connection with Sodom and Gomorrah. To the awful catastrophe recorded Gen. xix. the sacred writers frequently appeal. in order to produce a sense of the evil of sin, and the severity with which it de serves to be punished; or when they would convey the idea of complete and irretrievable ruin. Comp. Is. i. 9, xiii. 19 ; Jer. xlix. 18 ; Lam. iv. 6 ; Amos. iv. 11 ; Matt. x. 15 ; 2 Pet. ii. 6 ; Jude 7. Some would render iaV ~>\v tiSraa , Chap. XI. HOSEA. 6T For I am God and not man, The Holy One in the midst of thee ; I will not come in wrath. 10 They shall follow Jehovah, when he roareth like a lion ; When he roareth, the children shall hasten from the sea. " my heart is turned against me," i. e. my pity rises in overpowering opposition to the determination to which I had come to inflict punishments ; but the phrase ology will scarcely bear such construction, though it cannot be questioned, that it is designed to express a powerful inward revolution. Comp. iVy laanp-naa, Ps. xiii. 6, 12, xliii. 5; inan i?"»'nets»Pn, cxiii. 4 ; na iaV iVy, Jer. viii. l'8;'in all which passages the preposition con veys the idea of mental contiguity, near ness, in, within, as ianpa iaV ^Sna , my heart is turned within hie, Lam. i. 20, incontestably shows. From the connec tion in which it occurs, in the last cited passage, it is obvious the phrase is there designed to express great mental distress. naaa is used in Niphal, of the stirrinys of natural affection, Gen. xliii. 30 ; 1 Kings iii. 26. The idea seems to be derived from the commotion produced by the kindling of a fire, and the heat or warmth in which it results. Tanchum explains thewordby LsO coneitatus full. LXX. cvveiapdxSrn, or, as in the Complut. Sierapdx^n- t^Baha , the same in effect as Q-aann , compassion, feelings of tender pity and affection. Targ. laann, my compassions. It is derived from nna , to be inwardly affected, whether with grief, pity, consolation, or anger. In the idea of displeasure with one's self, has originated the signification, to repent, which accounts for the renderings, p.na,ue\eia, pcenitudo, repentings, etc. See my note on Is. i. 24. The language is in the highest de gree anthropopathical. The 9th verse contains a declaration of the purpose of God founded upon his compassion, and quite in keeping with the manner in which expression had just been given to it. aa-ii in Pri»V aaas sV is, as fre quently to be taken adverbially. The captivity was the last judgment that was to come upon the ten tribes as a pun ishment for their idolatry. The render ing, "I will not enter into the city," affords no suitable sense, and would re quire the article nya , as indeed, one of De Rossi's MSS. reads; Bishop Lowth's translation, " though I inhabit not thy cities," (Lectures, vol. ii. p. 38.) is equally unsatisfactory with the interpretation of Jerome and Castalio : I am not like those who dwell in cities ; living after human laws, and deeming cruelty to be justice. Such construction Maurer states to be in his opinion " artificiosior quam ele- gantior. I, therefore, adopt the interpre tation hinted at by Jarchi, and since ap proved by Schroeder, Seeker, Dathe, Man ger, Tingstadius, Eichhom, De Wette, Noyes, Boothroyd, Gesenius, Maurer, and Ewald, which takes n"3> not in the sense of city, but of anyer or wrath ; compar ing the Arab. As. ferbuit cestu dies. Comp. Jer. xv. 8 ; Hos. vii. 7 ; and na> , an enemy, 1 Sam. xxviii. 16 ; Ps. exxxix. 20. The words are thus strictly parallel, and synonymous to ibis sVa_ , and not man. The derivation from , ^xi to which Michaelis assigns the signification angry. 5*ju ira in Deo, Orient. Bib. Pt. XIX. p. 9, is less appropriate, though the sense which he gives is the same. 10, 11. These verses contain gracious promises of the return of the Israelites to the true worship and service of God, and their restoration to their own land from the different places in which they had been scattered during the captivity. "Vn nani i"ans, to walk after Jehovah, is always used in the religious sense of ad dicting one's self to his worship, and keep ing his commandments, and is not to be interpreted, as Hitzig does, of a mere fol lowing of providence by taking advan tage of the opportunity that would be afforded of returning from Babylon. So the Targ. nn S3raVa3 nna , after the 68 HOSEA, Chap. XIL -11 They shall hasten, like a sparrow, from Egypt, And like a dove, from the land of Assyria: And I will cause them to dwell in their own houses, Saith Jehovah. worship of Jehovah. For the contrary, see ver. 2. As ss-i , to roar, like the lion, always conveys the idea of terror or awe, it cannot be here applied either to any invitation to the Jews as a people, or to the preaching of the gospel gen erally ; but must be referred to the awful judgments which God executed upon Babylon, Egypt, etc. through the instru mentality of Cyrus and his successors ; thereby opening the way for the libera tion of the Israelites who were found in these countries. Comp. Is. xxxi. 4 ; Jer. xxv. 30 ; Joel iv. 16 ; Amos i. 2, iii. 8. By fcii a , sons, or children, are meant the Israelites, who had been for a time rejected, but were again acknowledged in that character, because they were to be reinstated in the privileges of adoption. Comp. chap. i. 10. "inn is here preg nant with meaning — signifying to come or hasten under the influence of great agitation. The idea of trepidation, though implied, and connecting well with that of the roaring previously mentioned, is not so prominent as that of quick or nim ble motion. Excited to the utmost by the revolutions of empires, which allowed them to take possession of their native country, they would use all haste in re pairing thither. LXX. ixtTT^aovTai ; but in the following verse imceTeaovTai. Syr. > >. a'^jIj they shall move or be moved. " Sic Lat. trepidare etiam sumitur pro- festinare, observantibus Bocharto in Hie- roz, et Schultensio in Animadverss. philol. ad. Is. xix. 17." Winer, in voc. The same idea of velocity is further carried out by comparing the return of the Is raelites to the flight of birds remarkable for their swiftness, nasat is here used not in its generic sense of bird, but spe cifically of the sparrow, as the use of naai, dove, immediately after, shows. The oi , sea, is the Mediterranean, or the islands and other maritime regions in the west. Kimchi, ani'Bn , the west; Pococke's Arab. MS. ^jlvn*" ,.yjo < from the isles of the sea. Comp. 'is. xi. 11-16 ; a passage strictly parallel, only including the Jews as well as the Israelites. The three quarters of the globe here specified embrace all the coun tries mentioned by Isaiah ; and as the ten tribes form the subject of Hosea's discourse, the present prophecy furnishes an additional proof of their return also, after the Babylonish captivity. To argue, therefore, from this passage,- that they are still in existence, and are yet to be restored in their tribal capacity, is her- meneutically unwarranted. V» in the phfase En.ip.a- Vy , instead of a , seems to have special reference to the custom of the Orientals, who enjoy their time upon, rather than in their houses. jjsuJ CHAPTER XII. This chapter commences with renewed complaints against both Ephraim and Judah, more especially against the former, 1, 2. The conduct of their progenitor Jacob is then adduced in order to excite them to apply, as he did, for the blessings which they required, 3,4; to copy which they are further encouraged by the unchangeable character of Jehovah, 5, 6. The prophet next reverts to the deceitful and hypocritical character of the ten tribes, not withstanding the numerous means that had been employed to promote true piety, 7 — 10; renews his castigation of their idolatrous practices, 11; again appeals to the kindness of Chap. XII. HOSEA. 69 Ciod to the nation in its obscure origin in the person of Jacob, 12, 13 j and denounces anew the judgments that were to be inflicted upon it, 14. 1 Epheaim hath encompassed me with falsehood, And the house of Israel with deceit ; And as for Judah, he is still inconstant with God, Even with the Holy Ones. 1. The LXX. Vulg. Targ. and our common version join this verse to the preceding chapter ; but improperly — there being no connection whatever with the previous verses, whereas it is manifest from the renewed reference to Judah, ver. 3, that the three verses Ultimately cohere. The proper exegesis of this verse depends upon the signification assigned to nn , and the consequent application of "psKS. That the former cannot gram matically be referred either to -inn or fain , to subdue, bear rule, or to -a-p. , to descend, as Jerome renders it, is now agreed on all hands ; and there is no alternative left but to derive it from nan, which occurs only in three other passages, viz. one in Kal, Jer. ii. 31, and twice in Hiph. Gen. xxvii. 40, and Ps. Iv. 3. In the two first, the ideas of becommg or bemg unfaithful, rebelling, wandering at large, are obviously conveyed. In the third, the verb is applied figuratively to an agitated or unsettled state of mind, to which the notion of wandering seems much more natural, than that of mourn ing, which is that expressed by our trans lators. Thus also the derivative nanaa may best be rendered circumvagalio, erratio, Lam. i. 7, iii. 19. Compare the Arabic £ , pabulum ; ultra citroque ivit ; mobile fuit; discurrit hue illuc mulier apud vicinas suas. t> | ^j locus, quo in pascuis cameli modo prode- unt modo retrocedunt. Eth. ^dap. ; persequi, insurrexit, etc The significa tion dominatur, which has been given to nan, is altogether gratuitous. The mean ing of the prophet will, therefore, be, that Judah or the inhabitants of the southern kingdom acted with vacillancy in regard to Jehovah. So far were they from ad hering steadfastly to his covenant, and seeking their happiness in obedience to his will, that they resembled animals that are dissatisfied with their pasture, break loose, and run wildly up and down in search of what is more agreeable to their appetite ; or like a female who, discon tent at home, seeks for satisfaction by gadding about among her neighbors. The description applies to the state of things among the Jeavs towards the end of the reign of Jotham, and during that of Ahaz, who introduced a Syrian altar, , and other idolatrous objects, by which the people were tempted to infidelity towards Jehovah, but had not yet altogether re nounced his service. Hence the force of "is, yet, still. Though the idea of hostility implied in the verb would not justify the use of the preposition, a y , with, taken as in the phrases ty tnVa, cy ain , to fight with, contend with ; yet it well agrees with its use after verbs of acting towards, or in reference to any one, such as cy raan, dy aaa rasis, etc. " Thus Schroeder, Dathe, Eichhorn, De Wctte, Boothroyd, Kuinoel, Gesenius, Noyes, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald. Such con struction of the passage is fully borne out by ver. 3, which cannot be consist ently interpreted, if Judah were here represented as faithfully maintaining the principles of the theocracy. But if the signification which has been given to nn be alone justifiable, then it is evident ¦jastss , faithful cannot apply to Judah, but must be taken as qualifying ti'ianp , the adjective noun immediately preceding. To this it cannot be objected, that the one is in the plural, while the other is in the singular ; for we find a precisely sim ilar combination in p"^a EifiVs, tho 70 HOSEA. Chap. XII. Ephraim feedeth upon wind, He pursueth the east wind ; Every day he multiplieth falsehood and violence ; Yea, he maketh a covenant with Assyria, And oil is carried into Egypt. Jehovah hath also a controversy with Judah, And he will punish Jacob, according to his ways ; According to his deeds, he will recompense him. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And by his strength he strove with God ; righteous God, Ps. vii. 10. That QiaSanp, the Holy Ones, cannot here be applied either to human saints, or to angels, but must be interpreted of God himself, the law of parallelism clearly requires. Comp. Josh xxiv. 19, san Bminp trnVs ; Prov. ix. 10, na^a tuo-ip ry-i'; xxx."3, ray-aa yns ti-c;-i]a. Kimchi himself allows that Daiianp must be so understood in this place. Between the inconstancy of the Jews, and the faithfulness of God, the contrast was placed in a very striking point of view. They had never known him to fail in giving effect to any of his promises ; while they, on the contrary, had all along shown more or less of a fickle and roving disposition. The ancient versions exhibit considerable diversity of rendering in this place ; but none of them suggests a meanmg preferable to that just given, or warrants any alteration in the reading of the Hebrew. 2. By "the wind," and "the east wind," are meant empty, unsatisfying and pernicious objects. Such were the idolatrous confidence and foreign alliances of the Israelites. Ci"i|a , the LXX. ren der Kaiiaaiv, the Arab, t* » -"'-', *he Samoom, or scorching wind, called the " east wind," because it blows from the desert to the east of Palestine. See on Is. xxvii. 8. In proportion to the insin cerity and faithless conduct of the nation was the destruction which it brought upon itself. Such conduct was specially exhibited in the leagues that were formed, and the friendships that were entered into with the two most powerful of the an cient monarchies, yci, oil, was one of the most valuable productions of Canaan, and formed a profitable article of export ation. It is here spoken of as a present sent to the king of Egypt, doubtless among other costly articles, with a view to obtain a favorable hearing to the em bassy which was despatched to secure his aid against the Assyrians. 3. "Judah" and "Jacob" stand for the two kingdoms respectively, the latter name denoting the ten tribes, as Is. xvii. 4. The declaration here made manifestly shows, that in ver. 1 the conduct of Judah is to be viewed in an unfavorable light. At the same time the language of both verses in reference to that power is not so strong as that which is employed re specting Israel. 4, 5. Having introduced the name of Jacob in reference to his posterity, Hosea adverts to three interesting incidents in his personal history, with the view of encouraging his countrymen to apply themselves with all assiduity to the ser vice of God, who alone could, and would extricate them from the calamitous cir cumstances into which their sins had brought them. Though a]a y , from which the name a'pyi , Jacob, is derived, Arab. ^_jji£. e vestigio sequutus fuit, a calce venit, etc. signifies to come behind any one, take him by the heel, trip, circumvent, etc., it is obviously used here in a good sense, to denote the supernatural indica tion which his taking his brother Esau by the heel afforded of the superiority, which, in the course of divine providence, he and his posterity were to obtain. Gen. xxv. 22, 23, 26. To this effect the Targ. laei-a niaas "rVifas sV^a n» apy.: sVra in aras ya , was it not said of Jacob before Chap. XII. HOSEA. 71 5 Yea, he strove with the Angel and prevailed ; He wept and made supplication to him ; He found him at Bethel, and there lie spake with us ; he was born, that he should be greater than his brother? The Israelites were reminded of the promise, " The one peo ple shall be greater than the other peo ple ; " and had they acted on the faith of it, they wovdd have found that, with Jehovah on their side, they were not only stronger than the Edomites, but even than the Assyrian power itself. The idea of power having thus been suggested to the mind of the prophet, he was reminded of the, remarkable occurrence which took place at Peniel, when Jacob wrestled with the divine messenger of the covenant, and prevailed, nn'o , to put forth power, exercise rule as a prince, or commander, the verb from which Vsn'ffli , Israel, the other name of Jacob, is derived, is that employed Gen. xxxii. 29, where the lan guage is nearly identical with that used in these two verses. In the resumption of the subject, ver, 5. n'»i is employed, which, though equivalent to nn v in sig nification, must be referred to the root nam. Comp. Jud. ix. 22, and Hos. viii. 4. -ps properly signifies manly vigor. Here tjsVaa, the Angel, corresponds to Qina^ , God, ver. 4, and designates the Uncreated Angel, of whom we read so frequently in the Old Testament, to whom, as here, names distinctive of Deity are ascribed, and who is represented as possessing the divine attributes. See on Is. lxiii. 9, and Dr. M'Caul's Observa tions appended to his translation of Kim chi on Zechariah, chap. i. Vs specially points to the Angel as the object towards whom the- conflicting efforts of the pa triarch were directed. Of the circum stances of his weeping and making sup plication, no particular mention is made in Genesis, but they may be regarded as implied in the words, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." The struggle was not merely corporeal, it was also mental. The outward conflict was only a sign of that which was internal and spiritual. The prophet, as in the former reference, leaves the Israelites to make the application. If they would only now redeem their character as descendants of Israel, and show that they were entitled to the name, by sincerely and earnestly engaging in supplication to the God of their ancestor, they too should prevail, and obtain every necessary blessuig. The third reference is to the narrative Gen. xxviii. 11-22, which contains an account of the scene at Bethel, and the promises which God then made, not to the patri arch only, but also to his posterity. The nominative to saaa , he found, is God, and not Jacob, as Abenezra, Tanchum, and several others have attempted to maintain. The meanmg is, that Jehovah afforded to the solitary traveller the gra cious aid which his exposed situation ren dered desirable. Vs— rua , Bethel, is here the accusative of place, and is used with singular effect, in reference to the con trasted appropriation of it by the patri arch, and by his apostate posterity. The LXX. not perceiving this, have rendered it oIkos^CIv , the house of On, as elsewhere in this book. naasS, "with us," Aq. Symm. Theod. Syr. Tanchum, Abul- walid, and several moderns, render as if it were \is-j , " with him ; " but there is no variety of reading in the MSS., and as— is nowhere used of the third person singular. The LXX. have irpbs avTotis , to them, as if they had read fcfcy , which so far as pronunciation is concerned, goes to confirm the Masoretic punctuation. That the prophet here speaks per notvdaiv, identifying himself and his contempora ries with their progenitor, in whose loins they may be said to have been, when he received the gracious promises which re lated not to himself only, but also to his posterity, is the interpretation advocated by Manger, Horsley, Hitzig, Maurer, and Kosenmiiller. Comp. Ps. lxvi. 6 ; Heb. vii. 9, 10. On the other hand, Ewald, following Jarchi and Joseph Kimchi, ren ders the words a a 'as nana , he will speak with us, in the future, and considers the prophet to be announcing, that God would renew his communications at Bethel, pro vided the Israelites returned to obedience. 72 HOSEA. Chap. XIL 6 Even Jehovah the God of hosts : Jehovah is his memorial. But though this seems less entitled to adoption, it cannot be denied that his design in the adduction of this instance was to lead his people to repentance, in order that they might inherit the prom ised blessings. 6. a hi nania. is expletive. Ewald strangely gives to the combination the form of an oath : " bei Jahve," explain ing it in his note, " wahr ist das bei Jahve," By Jehovah it is true ! The incommunicable name is here introduced for the express purpose of showing that He who had made promises respecting the posterity of Jacob, would not prove unfaithful to his word. While iriVs raasaan , the God of hosts, LXX. Xlavro- Kparaip, conveys the idea of supreme and infinite power by which he is able to cany all his purposes into effect, his pe culiarly distinctive name nani , conveys that of immutable constancy', and, by implication, fidelity to his promises. Some refer the word to the root nan , to exist, be ; but that it is to be derived from the cognate and more ordinary verb of exist ence nin , appears evident from Exod. iii. 14, where, in the explanation of the name, the form of the future is not n ans , but ni.ns. But as a is nevertheless inserted in nani, which also retains i, prefbrmant of the third person singular, it is impossible not to acquiesce in the opinion, that the noun is made up of nin , He was, nan , He is, and n"-i , He will be. ' What confirms this hypothe sis, is the peculiar designation of God, Rev. i. 4, 8. 'O tiv Kal 6 j)v /cat 6 ipxiae- vos, He that is, and that was, and that is to come, which is merely a translation into Greek of these different forms of the verb. See Pococke on Joel i. 19. In this derivation Abenezra and other Rab bins concur ; and, accordingly the second article of the Jewish creed concludes with the words nan n"n aainVs a^aV Sana nhnia , " And he alone is our God ; He was, He is, and He shall be." It is a coincidence in no small degree remark able, that this threefold description of the divine existence obtained both among the ancient Egyptians and Brahmins. On the Saitic temple of Isis was the inscrip tion, 'Eyd> el/AL trav Tb yeyovbv Kal c-v Kal io~6p.evov, Kal rbv 4pibv ireirKov ovb'els ira> bvnTbs aveKaXvtye, " I am all that was, and is, and shall be, and no mortal hath ever uncovered my veil." Plutarch de Iside. In the Bhagavat the Supreme Being thus addresses Brahma : — " Even I was at first, not any other being ; that which exists unperceived ; Supreme : afterwards I am that which is ; and He who must remain am I." Asiat. Researches, vol. i. p. 245. Comp. Zeus ijv Zeis earl • Zevs eaaerai' Si p.eyd\e Zev. "Zeus was; Zeus is; Zeus shall be; 0 great Zeus ! " Pausan. Phoc. x. 12. Whether the name nani was in use before the time of Moses, has 'been, and still is matter of dispute. That the patriarchs were un acquainted with it, has been concluded from Exod. vi. 3, where God declares, that the name under which he revealed himself to them was in» Vs , God Almighty, but that he was not known to them by Ms name nana , Jehovah. Since, however, we meet with this name not only in the history of the patriarchs, but also expressly employed by them selves, as in Gen. xv. 2, xvi. 2, xxii. 14, xxiv. 3, xxvii. 7, xxiii. 20, 21, etc. it seems undeniable that they were acquainted with it ; so that what is meant by the words tnV "rasnaa sV nan- inoa.is, that God had not caused them to experience the im port of his name nani, Jehovah. For this signification of the phrase oa? *"!?> to know a name, or, to know, comp. Is. Iii. 6, Ixiv. 1 ; Jer. xvi. 21. It had special reference to something future — the fulfilment of the promises which he had given them ; and as these promises began to be fulfilled when he interposed for their deliverance from Egypt, there was singular propriety in its being selected as the name by which Moses was to an nounce him to his people, on opening his commission to them. The same futurity of reference may be said to have contin ued to attach to it all along till the advent of Messiah, in whom all the promises are Chap. XII. HOSEA. 73 1 Thou, therefore, return to thy God ; Observe mercy and judgment, And wait continually on thy God. 8 As for Canaan, deceitful balances are in his hand; He loveth to oppress. 9 Ephraim saith, Surely I am rich, I have acquired wealth ; In none of my labors am I chargeable with guilt. yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20 ; just as it is still prominently exhibited in 'O ipx&p-evos, The coming One, of the Apocalypse, which obviously respects the revelation of the Lord from heaven to fulfil the mystery of God. Such interpretation alone goes to fully justify the emphatic statement made in the text of our prophet, SnaT n'ini , compared with Exod. iii. 15, nVn'-aV inaa nt, in which the Most High declares, that this name was to be employed for the purpose of perpetu ating the knowledge of his character with respect to promised blessings. Comp. also Ps. cxxxv. 13. That it should have come into oral disuse among the Jews, could only have originated in a feeling of superstitious veneration, which led them to regard it as too sacred to be pro nounced without profanation. The ear liest trace of such superstition is thought to be found in the words, Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 9, dvo/xaala tov ayiov /xrj avve&ia&TJs, " use not thyself to the naming of the Holy One ; " but Philo de Nomin. mutat. makes express mention of it. Whenever the Jews meet with it in the text, they read "3 -is, Lord, instead of it, except when 'it follows ia'ns, in which case they point it nani, and read Q,;i. '£> God. Some are of opinion, that the present punctuation nani is merely that of ia'ns, the simple Sheva taking the place of Hateph-Patach, which only occurs in connection with gutturals ; but the employment of the two first syllables with precisely the same points in the formation of compound proper names manifestly goes to show that our present pronunciation is correct. Compare yo an i rrasani,' in.aani , etc. The change of the Segol into Kametz may be accounted for on the ground of the grave manner 10 in which the final syllable required to be accented, if it was not intended to stand for the second vowel of the preterite n~n. 7. An exhortation to duty derived from what God had been, and would still, in accordance with the significant aspect of his name, in continuance be, to those who served him in sincerity. 8. -S5a, Canaan, is the nominative absolute, introduced abruptly for the pur pose of graphically describing the real character of the Ephraimites. The word may, indeed, be rendered merchant, but then wis, man, must be supplied; -i-is "(Saa , a man of Canaan, meanmg a mer chant — the inhabitants of that country being the celebrated merchants of antiq uity. The prophet seems rather to place the names of Canaan and Israel in an tithesis ; in which there is great point, as the Israelites were accustomed to hold the Canaanites in the utmost contempt. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 3. Horsley renders a trafficker of Canaan, which weakens rather than strengthens the antithesis. The fraudulent practices of merchants were quite proverbial among the Jews. " As a nail sticketh fast in the joinings of the stones, so doth sin stick close be tween buying and selling." Ecclesiasti cus xxvii. 2. 9. The character assumed in the pre ceding verse is here directly applied, only the ten tribes are represented as flattering themselves that they had employed no illegal means in acquiring their affluence. asaaa" , they shall find, is used imperson ally.' "|ay is employed to denote the act of distortion or iniquity, SB rj its guilt or culpability. The words literally ren dered are, with respect to all my efforts, they shall not find attaching to me iniq uity which is sin; and the meaning is, 74 HOSEA. Chap. XII. 10 Yet I, Jehovah, am thy God from the land of Egypt; I will still cause thee to dwell in tents as on feast days. Ill have spoken to the prophets, I have multiplied visions ; And through the prophets I have used similitudes. might be punished. " The merchant imagines that it is not possible to get through business without some deceit ; but he takes care not to commit any gross or deadly act of delinquency, hoping that God will not be strict in regard to the rest."' — Michaelis. 10. Commentators have been greatly divided in opinion as to whether these words are to be taken as a promise, or as a threatening. Those who take the latter view interpret the living in tabernacles of such a life as those lead who have no settled habitations, like the Israelites in the wilderness, or like those who assem bled at the annual festivals, and who could only be accommodated in tents without the city. But, though such ex egesis might at first sight seem- to suit the connection, yet there is something so forced in comparing a state of captivity to that of the Hebrew nation during the celebration of the most joyful of all their festivals, that I am compelled to regard the verse as containing a promise of what God would still do for the Israelites on their repentance and reformation. Those who are familiar with the sudden and abrupt transitions which abound in Hosea, and the frequency with which he inter mingles promises with threatenings, will not be surprised at this unexpected assur ance of the divine clemency. The argu ment is this : the Israelites have indeed acted a most wicked and deceitful part, and justly deserve to be forever cast off from all participation in my favor ; but I am still, what I have been from the begin ning of their history, their covenant- God, and will yet cause them to renew their joy before me. That they were not to enjoy any such privilege in their apostate condition is taken for granted. The promise was fulfilled on the return from the captivity. 11. Jehovah adduces a further proof of the kindness of his disposition towards the nation — the abundant means of instruction which he had afforded them ; while at the same time, the language is so worded as to draw their attention to the messages which the prophets had delivered. These messages contained the most powerful dissuasives from idolatry, and the greatest encouragements to cleave unto the Lord. V? in innsn Disiann-Vy , following a verb of an nouncement, is equivalent to Vs , to, and is not to be pressed so as to make it sig nify the coming down or resting of inspir ation upon the prophets. Comp. Job xxxvi. 33. LXX. irpbs irpoip-fiTas. If Hosea was one of the earliest of the He brew prophets, whose books are now in our hands, reference must here be had to those who had flourished before his time, such as Ahijah the Shilonite, Shemaiah, Iddo, Azariah, Hanani, Jehu, Jahaziel, Eliezer, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Joel, and Amoz, not to include the hundred proph ets of the Lord whom Obadiah hid in a cave, after Jezebel had put a number to death. Not only had Jehovah made numerous communications of his will through the instrumentality of these messengers, but he had employed such modes in making these communications as were calculated at once to gain and secure attention. For y.tfl , see on Is. i. 1. .nasns from waa , to be like, resemble; in Piel, to liken, employ, similes, or com parisons ; or, in general, to use figura tive language. In such language, includ ing metaphor, allegory, comparison, pros opopoeia, apostrophe, hyperbole, etc., the prophets abound. They accommodated themselves to the capacity and under standing of their hearers by couching the high and important subjects of which they treated under the imagery of sensi ble objects, and invested them with a degree of life and energy which could only be resisted by an obstinate determi nation not to listen to religious instruc tion. Though nK-s is in the future, it borrows its temporal signification from Cha XII. HOSEA. 75 12 13 14 Yerily Gilead is iniquitous, Surely they are false : In Gilgal they sacrifice oxen ; Their altars are like the heaps On the ridges of the field. Jacob fled to the country of Syria ; Israel served for a wife ; And for a wife he kept the flocks. By a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt, And by a prophet he was kept. the two preceding verbs, i Fin an and iraiann , which are in the preterite. 12. 'qs is not used here as n particle expressing doubt : it rather expresses the certainty of what is affirmed, as ajs fol lowing, evidently shows. The two places here mentioned were celebrated in the history of the Hebrews : — Gilead, on account of the solemn agreement which Laban and Jacob entered into there with each other ; and Gilyal, on account of the general circumcision of the people, and the solemn observance of the pass- over when they had passed over Jordan. They are adduced by the prophet to re mind the Israelites of the sacred obliga tions under which they lay, and the sacred character which, as the peculiar people of God, they ought ever to sustain. Pointing, as it were, to the heap of stones which Jacob had erected in testimony of the transaction between him and Laban, Hosea asks, Is Gilead the scene of iniq uity ? Are its inhabitants actually wor shippers of idols ? And then he fear lessly charges them with idolatry. Both las and sa-ii are specially used of idols, hi order to express their nothingness and vanity. The abstract stands for the con crete. By nyVSi Gilead, is meant not merely the place, but its inhabitants. Comp. for the wickedness of the Gilead- ites, chap. vi. 8. V.aV.a , Gilgal, had also become desecrated by idolatrous practices, chap. iv. 15, ix. 15, which abounded to such an extent, that the number of the altars was like that of the heaps of stones which have been collected and left in various parts of the ridges of a field. In fc-'sJ, heaps, comp. Josh. vii. 26, there is an obvious reference to the name Va.V.a, Both are derived from VVs., to roll, roll stones, etc. For into icVln, comp. chap. x. 4. 13, 14. The argument of both these verses is the same, though it is only in the latter that it is expressly stated, viz. the divine goodness in preserving Jacob and his posterity. God was with the patriarch, according to his promise, and protected and prospered him all the time he was in servitude in Padan-aram ; and he likewise delivered his descendants from Egyptian bondage, and conducted them safely to the land of Canaan, ons , Aramaa, Syria, the high country, from Can , to be high ; here specially the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris, called on this account, D-nna ens Aram of the two rivers, LXX. Meaoirora/xta, Mesopotamia. Being lower than the rest of Syria on the west, it is here called ".as,, field, which corresponds to y.s, a level or plain, Gen. xlviii. 7 ; hence Padan-aram.. iia-j , to keep, is used without -|Sa , sheep, in the sense of keep ing a flock. See Gen. xxx. 31; 1 Sam. xvii. 20. To the verb as thus employed in its literal acceptation, ver. 13, the fig urative use in nn-i-5 , ver. 14, corresponds. The church of God is frequently com pared to a flock. The s-a: , prophet, here referred to was Moses, who was so Kar i\oxnv- See Exod. iv. 15, 16; Numb. xii. 6-8; Is. lxiii. 11, 12, The repeated reference to the Hebrew legisla tor in this character, was evidently in tended to impress the minds of the Israel ites with a conviction of the necessity of attending to the messages which the Lord sent to them by his prophets. 73 HOSEA. Chap. XIII. 15 Ephraim hath given most bitter provocation, Therefore will his Lord leave his blood upon him ; And bring back upon him his reproach. 15. Cinanaqfl , lit. bitterness, i. e. most hitter, or bitterly. The object of provo cation is not expressed, but ¦ that it is Jehovah is clear from the following clause. The blood of Ephraim was, in all prob ability, that of human victims which had been shed in the service of Moloch, vi -as, his Lord, is improperly applied by Hors ley to the king of Assyria. By araSnra , his reproach, is meant the disgraceful conduct of the ten tribes in abandoning the true God, as unworthy of their service, and transferring it to idols, tij - s is the nominative to oasai as well as to ant-i, and in our language the corresponding term Lord requires to be used before the former, and understood before the latter of the two verbs. CHAPTER XIII. After contrasting the prosperity of the tribe of Ephraim, during the period of its obedience to the divine laws, with the adversity which it had suffered in consequence of idolatry, 1, the prophet proceeds in the same manner, as in the preceding chapter, to intermingle brief descriptions of sin and guilt, 2, 6, 9, 12; denouncements of punishment, 3, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16; and promises of mercy, 4, 9, 14. 1 TVhe^ Ephraim spake, there was tremor ; He was exalted in Israel ; But he offended through Baal, and died. 1. Ephraim means here the tribe prop erly so called, in distinction from the other tribes of Israel, mentioned imme diately after. Such was the power and influence which it originally exercised over the rest, that they showed it the utmost deference. nnn,a oira£ \ey6- p.evov, but obviously cognate with tatan , Jer. xlix. 24, Syr. ) A^^i Targ. sn-ran, fear, trembling. In Pococke's Arab. MS. the words are rendered (\ j p when Ephraim spake, *j£j> ScN-CyJI trembling fell upon me?i. And so Tan chum, s^Lgj u^UJI ^1 t5**vJ! the mean- ing is, that men revered him, and trem bled at his word. The same construction is adopted by Jerome, Kimchi, Abarbanel, Munster, Vatablus, Clarius, Drusius, Lively, Grotius, Rivetus, Tingstadius, Dathe, Kuinoel, Horsley, De Wette, Maurer, Noyes, and Hitzig. It is im possible to approve the translation of Ewald: "Wie Efraim redete Empo- rung, es aufruhr machte in Israel," When Ephraim gave utterance to sedi tion, it produced rebellion in Israel. Neither nnn nor sua admit of being so translated. ' To take' Prya adverbially, and render it tremblingly,' or trembling, as in our common version, though it affords an apt sense in itself, is less suited ClIAP. XIII. HOSEA. 77 And now they continue to sin, And make for themselves molten images, Idols of their silver according to their skill ; All of them the work of artificers ; The men that sacrifice, say of them, Let them kiss the calves. to the connection, s'sa occurs in the sense oielevating one's self, Ps. lxxxix. 10 J Nah. i. 5, or being exalted. Hence s"'iua , a prince, a in Vs>a_a_ , has the force of, in union with, in the matter of, and marks the participation of the Ephraim ites in the service of Baal. na» , to die, is here to be taken in a civil or political sense ; to lose one's influence, become subject to misery, punishment, etc. It forms an antithesis to s'»a , to be exalted. No sooner did the Ephraimites forsake the true God and take up with idols than he inflicted judgments upon them, by which their power was weakened, and at last became entirely extinct — "ex quo peccavit, nulla jam est autoritate in pop- uloDei." GUcolampadius. "Vitaaerum- nosa et tristis pro morte censetur ; idcirco exules mortui dicuntur, et exilium sep- ulchri nomine notatur, Ezech. cap. 37." Rivetus. 2. This verse sets forth their persever ance in idolatrous practices, notwith standing the chastisements with which they had been visited, bts iri.ai, the LXX. Vulg. Jarehi, Abenezra, Abarba- nel, Tanchum, Calvin, Piscator, Leo Juda, and among the moderns, Schmid, J. H Michaelis, Horsley, Hitzig, Stuck, and J. Fr. Schroder, render sacrifice, or sacrifi- cers of men, on the principle, that the presentation of human sacrifices is meant. This, however, was called in question by Kimchi, who explains, tnsan tns 15a hatV , the men who come to sacrifice. To the same effect Munster, Piscator, Junius and Tremelius, Eivetus, Mercer, Glassius, Lively, Drusius, Bochart, our own and most of the authorized versions, Lowth, Newcome, Boothroyd, Noyes, De Wette, Gesenius, Maurer, and Ewald. The rule of syntax laid down by Gesenius respect ing this mode of construction, Lehrgeb. p. 678, is, that when a genitive following an adjective is a noun of multitude, or of the plural number, such adjective is particularly used in poetry for the pur pose of designating those of the mul titude to which the specified quality belongs. Instances are Isaiah xxix. 19, Cns iaa"as , the poor of men, i. e. those of men who are poor; Micah v. 5, Bns -aiBa, the anointed of men, i. e. such of men as are anointed. So in the present case, ens iraai, sacri- ficers of men, i. k. those of, or among men that sacrifice, which is merely a periphrasis for priests. Although, there fore, it is a fact, that the ten tribes did saciifice their children to Moloch, 2 Kings xvii. 17, it would be more than precarious to draw any such inference from the pres ent passage, especially as the prophet men tions the calves, of whose worship human sacrifices, so far as we know, formed no part, -pp-ii ciV.aS, let them kissthe calves. It was customary for idolaters to give the kiss of adoration to the objects of their worship. This was sometimes done by merely touching the lips with the hand, to which reference is made Job xxxi. 27. Comp. Lucian irepl Opxriaeais i. p. 918, edit. Bened. Minutius Felix, cap. 2, ad fin. Apuleius Apol. p. 496. At other times the idol itself was kissed by the worshippers. Comp. 1 Kings xix. 18. Thus Cicero tells us, that at Agri- gentum in Sicily there was a brazen image of the Tyrian Hercules whose mouth and chin were worn by the kisses of his worshippers — " non solum id ven- erari, verum etiam osculari solebant." Act. ii. in Verrem, lib. iv. cap. 43. Noth ing is more common in the Russian churches than for the devotees to kiss the picture of the virgin, or of St. Nicholas. The construction of the words an CnV ¦}ap'.ji tiVa,?. tns -raat E"ics is some what difficult. As usually divided they are interpreted thus : they, i. e. the Eph raimites, say of them, the images, let the sacrificers kiss the calves ; but it is better to take Cns iraai, the sacrificers, as in 78 HOSEA. Chap. XIII. 3 Therefore shall they be like the morning cloud, And like the dew which early departeth, Like chaff blown by a whirlwind from the threshing-floor, And like smoke from the window. 4 Yet I, Jehovah, have been thy God from the land of Egypt, Thou knewest no God besides me ; Nor was there any Saviour besides me. 5 I regarded thee in the wilderness, In the land of burning thirst. 6 As they were fed, so were they satiated ; They were satiated, and their heart was lifted up ; Therefore they forgat me : 1 So that I became to them as a lion, I watched for them as a leopard by the way. 8 I met them as a bear bereaved of her cubs, apposition with and exegetical of dn Ginaas, they say, i. e. they, the men that sacrifice, say to the people, let them kiss the calves. While the priests presented the sacrifices, they encouraged the wor shippers to come forward and kiss the objects of their adoration. 3. Comp. chap. vi. 4. ^nj, the thresh ing floor, being an open area, generally on an eminence, was peculiarly exposed to the wind, which earned off the chaff, on its being trodden out, or separated from the grain, raans, Aq. airb Karap'- jiaKTov, which Jerome explains, " foramen in pariete fabricatum per quod fumas egreditur;" Symm. inrris, bir^, an orifice; Theod. KairovSoxiiv, a hole for the passage of smoke. It is very common in the East for the light to be admitted, and the smoke to make its escape by the same passage or orifice in the wall. The idea of a speedy removal is that conveyed by all the images here employed. 4. Comp. chap. xii. 10. The long addition in the LXX. is totally unsup ported, and was -most probably inserted in that version by some scholiast. 5. Here ipyni , / knew, contrasts with yap in the preceding verse, only it is to be taken in the sense of knowing effect ively, taking notice of, caring for. Comp. Amos iii. 2. piaasVp, lit. thirstiness, great thirst, extreme drought, from asV , Arab. ^_j ji sitivit, Comp. anV , to burn, Arab. t_i,ff 1 arsit, sitivit, siti, arsit. Minister renders, " terra siti ardente." Comp. Deut. viii. 15. 6. epiynasa, according to their feed ing, i. e. in proportion to their enjoyment of the provision which I made for them, feeding them with manna from heaven, and afterwards abundantly supplying their wants. It is equivalent to, " as they were fed." For the rest of the verse comp. Deut. xxxii. 1 3-15. 7, 8. a in insa is inferential, showing that what follows was the result of what is stated in the preceding verse. The context requires the verb to be taken in the past time. The images here employed are of frequent occurrence. Comp. Job x. 16 ; Ps. vii. 2 ; Is. xxxviii. 13 ; Lam. iii. 10. "ittS , the leopard, so called from his spots or streaks. Arab. , \ macul- osus fuit, maculis punctisve respersus fuit; pardus. See Jer. xiii. 23, af fcn-n airananafa n»i. The leopard is noted' for his swiftness, ferocity, and especially his cruelty to man. He lurks in the dense thicket of the wood, and springs with great velocity on his victim. With respect to the bear, Jerome remarks, " Aiunt, qui, de bestiarum scripsere na- turis, inter omnes feras nihil esse ursa saevius, quum perdiderit catulos vel in- dignerit cibis." an being of common gender, the participle Vaai is put in the Chap. XIII. HOSEA. 79 And rent the caul of their heart ; I devoured them there, as a lioness ; The wild beast rent them hi pieces. 9 O Israel ! Thou hast destroyed thyself, Nevertheless in me truly is thine help. 10 Where is thy king now ? That he may save thee in all thy cities; And thy judges, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes, 111 gave thee a king in mine anger, And took him away in my wrath. masculine, though the female bear is meant. Comp. ciVaoaa aaiBaVs, Ps. cxliv. 14. n^iO is the' pericardium, or membrane which contains the heart in its cavity, and is thus fitly called its enclosure. ¦ For naffis , I watched, sixteen of De Rossi's MSS. and one in the mar gin, three ancient editions, and twenty- four others, the LXX. Syr. Vulg. and Arab, read na-is, Assyria, which some prefer, on account of the number of lions, panthers, tigers, etc. with which the re gions of southern Asia abound. The text would then read, as a leopard, in the way to Assyria; but the common reading is more in accordance with the spirit of the passage. 9. "ajPraffl , I take to be a noun with the suffix, thy destruction! i. e. (the de struction is thine own ; thou hast brought it upon thyself by thy sins. It is, there fore, equivalent to " thou hast destroyed thyself," and cannot be better rendered. Thus the Vulg. Perditio tua, Israel. Dathe, Ipsi estis o Israelitce! exitii vestri causa. Some, however, as Kimchi, sup ply V-ayn, the calf; others, *aV», thy king, from the following verse';' others, some other noun ; and take p rati to be the third person singular of Piel! Comp. for the form oVi, Deut. xxxii. 35; nan, Jer. v. 13; nan, Hos. i. 2 ; ntap, Jer. xliv. 2 1 . Newcome unwarrantably adopts the rendering of the Syriac, " I have de stroyed thee." Most of the moderns give a hostile sense to the a in the fol lowing ajnTya ia , against me, against thy help ; but, considering how frequently declarations of kindness are mixed up with charges of evil, and that some verb denoting rebellion would be required to support such construction, it seems pre ferable to give to ia the common adver sative signification of yet, nevertheless, and to regard the a in ajntsa as the Beth Essentia!, which renders the jahrase much more emphatic than the pronoun, or the substantive verb would have done. It is equivalent to, In me is thy real help. Other sources may be applied to, and they may promise thee assistance; but from me alone efficient aid is to be ex pected, and in me it is to be found. So our translators. See on Is. xxvi. 4. This exegesis is strongly supported, if not rendered absolutely necessary, by the pointed interrogations in the following verse. The LXX. tis fion&iio-ei ; turn ing ia into iaa , and omitting the second a altogether. Thus also the Syr. 10, 11. ins is in all probability a me tathesis for n'S , where ? It is thus ren dered by the LXX. Syr. Vulg. Targ. Abulwalid, Tanchum, Luther, Drusius, Mercer, Osiander, Rivetus, Castalio, and by most modern expositors. It is also so taken by Gesenius, Lee, Winer, and Fiirst ; and alone suits the connection. Comp. in support of this interpretation) the combination saES n»S , Jud. ix. 38 ; Job xvii. 15 ; Is. xix 12. One of Ken nicott's MSS. and perhaps another, one of De Rossi's in the margin, read n-s instead of "ns , though probably by cor rection. Another of De Rossi's has a note in the margin, stating that the word is so explained. The a ^y-a-aa-a is pleo nastic, except it be regarded as introduc ing the apodosis. ins is so intimately connected with the past transactions im- 80 HOSEA. Chap. XIH 12 The guilt of Ephraim is bound up, His punishment is laid up in store. 13 The pangs of a woman in labor shall come upon him ; He is an unwise son, Otherwise he would not remain long In the place of the breaking forth of children. 14 I will deliver them from the power of Sheol ; I will redeem them from death : plied in iV— nafl Pna?s, thou saidst, give me, that, though future in form, it can not with any propriety be rendered oth erwise than in the preterite. Some refer the circumstances here mentioned to the selection and removal of Saul ; but it is more in keeping with the specialty of the prophet's address to consider the long to be Jeroboam and his successors in the regal dignity ; and that the removal re gards the frequent changes which took place in the history of the Israelitish kings, which proved a source of great calamity to the nation. See 2 Kings xv. 12. The metaphors are here borrowed from the custom of tying up money in bags, and depositing it in some secret place, in order that it might be preserved. , The certainty of punishment is the idea conveyed by them. Comp. for the former, Job xiv. 17 ; and for the latter Deut. xxxii. 34, Job xxi. 19. 13. Another instance of two metaphors closely connected, the transition from the one to the other of which is, in the man ner of the Orientals, rapid and unexpected. See Dathe's very judicious note. It is not unusual in Scripture to compare the calamities of a people to the sorrows of childbirth. In addition to this the dan ger and folly of Ephraim in protracting repentance, in the midst of the afflictive circumstances in which he was placed, is fitly compared to the extremely critical condition of a child on the point of being born, but, owing to the want of strength on the part of the mother, or other causes, is detained in its passage from the womb. The LXX. ovtos & vibs o~ov & nas», the os uteri. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 3 ; Is. xxxvi. 3, lxvi. 9. Without a national irahiyyeveala, no prosperity could be ex pected. It was for the Israelites by true repentance to accelerate and ensure their deliverance from threatened destruction, and their enjoyment of a new period of peace and happiness. 14. The ideas of Sheol and Death were naturally suggested by the perilous cir cumstances described in the preceding verse. Extinction as a people is there ap prehended. Here it is viewed as having already taken place ; and a gracious prom ise is given of the restoration of the Is- Taelites, and the complete destruction of the enemies by whom they had been car ried into captivity. n»n ,from the hand, a common Hebraism for from the power. n-B properly signifies to redeem, or buy loose, by the payment of a price ; Vsa , to avenge the murder of a relative, and also to recover or redeem property by re payment. Both verbs, however, are used in a more extended signification, and especially in reference to the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt, and from the captivity in Babylon. ThatVassi, Sheol, and rays, Death, are here to be taken in a figurative sense, with applica tion to the state of the Israelites in the Assyrian and Babylonish captivity, de prived as they were of all political exist ence, and subject to the most grievous Chap. XIII. HOSEA. 81 Where is thy destruction, 0 Death ? Where is thine excision, 0 Sheol ? Repentance is hid from mine eyes. calamities, the exigency of the passage imperatively demands. Comp. Is. xxvi. 19. Respecting ins mterpreters are far from being agreed. Symm. the Vulg. Coverdale, Drusius, Tingstadius, Horsley, Dathe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Noyes, Ros enmiiller, Hesselberg, and Maurer, take it to be the first person future of the sub stantive verb nin, to be; whereas the LXX. Aq. the' fifth edition, (Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 55,) Syr. Arab. Abulwalid, Tanchum, Junius and Tremellius, Mer cer, Newcome, Boothroyd, Ewald, and Hitzig, consider it to be used as in ver. 1 0, for n »S irov, where ? With the latter authorities I concur, partly on the ground that it is not likely the prophet would employ the same word in the same form in two different acceptations in verses 10 and 14 ; and partly because I find ins nowhere used absolutely as an apocopated future ; but always with the Vau con- versive prefixed. See for the full form n-ns, chap. xiv. 6. To which add, that the interrogation is more in ieeping with the animated style of the passage. In stead of the plural Spnan , thy destruc tions, one hundred and twenty-two MSS. originally five more, now two, and four of the early editions read Span, thy de struction in the singular, nan, Arab. ^j £ death ; specially the plague, pesti lence ; the awful destruction of human life effected by it. Hence the LXX. mostly render it Sidvaros ; here SUn, but in all probability originally vW-n, for which Paul reads vIkos, only transposing v'ikos and Kevrpov, by which latter term the LXX. render aup, excision, cutting off, destruction. The cause of this transpo sition is obvious. The apostle had just quoted the passage in Isaiah, agreeably to the version of Theodotion, in which vinos occurs, whereby he was reminded of the same words as occurring in Hosea, and, under the influence of strong emo tion, he commences his quotation with vIkos prominently in his mind. Olshau sen thinks v!kos is a later form for vIkv. 11 Root aia]a , Arab. ._ . U V to cut, cxd off, destroy. That nan is the genuine read ing, and that ^ann , a goad, which some would substitute for it, in order to make the Hebrew correspond to Kevrpov, is to be rejected, may very conclusively be gathered from the similar occurrence of the words nan and aiija together, Ps. xei. 6. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 24. The import of this animated apostrophe, as used both by Jehovah in the prophet, and by the apostle, is, Where are now the effects of the destructive influence which you have exerted ? Your victims are recovered from your dominion : they are alive again, and shall no more be subject to your power. The speakers place them selves as it were in the period after the resuiTection : the former in that after the restoration from Babylon ; the other in that after the literal restoration of the dead to life at the last day. Both look back, and triumphantly exult over the conquerors. With respect to the appro priation of the words by the apostle in . reference to the doctrine of the final res urrection, it appears to be made, not in the way of proof, but merely to give ex pression, in the triumphant language of the prophet, to the animated feelings which had taken possession of his breast. His direct quotation in the way of argu ment is made from Is. xxv. 8, and con sists of the words KaTeirdfrn 6 Sidvaros els vIkos. It would, therefore, be improper to identify the subject of which he treats with that treated of by our prophet. "Neque enim ex professo semper locos adducunt apostoli, qui toto contextu ad institutum quod tractant pertineant : sed interdum alludunt ad unum verbum duntaxat, aliquando aptant locum ad sen- tentiam per similitudinem, aliquando abhibent testimonia. — Atqui satis con stat, Paulum illo 15 cap. 1 ad Corinth non citasse prophetae testimoniam ad con- firmandum illam doctrinam de qua dis- serit." Calvin in he. See also Horsley's critical note, tria , LXX. arapAcArjcns, HOSEA. Chap. XIH. 15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, Yet an east wind, a wind of Jehovah, Shall come up from the desert, And dry up his fountain ; And his spring shall become dry : He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 1 6 Samaria shall be punished, Because she hath rebelled against her God : They shall fall by the sword ; Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women shall be ripped up. Syr. ji\n «n , Vulg. consolatio ; but re pentance better suits the connection. It expresses the immutability of the divine purpose, which had the deliverance of his people for its object. Comp. Rom. xi. 29. Horsley strangely refers the re pentance to man, and not to God. 15. This and the following verse set forth the devastation fad destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was to precede the deliverance promised in that which precedes. While the promise was designed to afford consolation to the pious, and encouragement to the penitent, the threatening was equally necessary for the refractory and profane. San, he, refers to Ephraim, ver. 12. sin Si an o7ra£ Key. but obviously equivalent to nnsi , the Hiphil of nns , to be fruitful. It is here used with special reference to the name of B i"aSS, being the root whence it is derived, and' hot improbably exhibits S instead of n , because it forms the first letter of the noun. The tribe of Eph raim was the most numerous in regard to population, and was for a time in the most flourishing circumstances. That such is the signification of the verb, and that it is not to be rendered divide or separate, as in the ancient and several of the modern versions, nor act like a wild ass, which others exhibit, appears from the mention of a spring and a fountain, which naturally suggests the idea of a tree, the roots of which are plentifully supplied by their water. For Qinp , see on chap. xii. 2, and Is. xxvii. 8. ' rian nan", like o'n'as »s, Job. i. 19, is the genitive of cause, a wind caused, sent by or proceeding from Jehovah; not "a great wind," as some interpret. The Assyrian army is meant, nooi san, He, i. e. the Assyrian, couched under the meta phor of the destructive wind, shall plun der every valuable article belongmg to the Israelites. 16. [Chap. xiv. 1.] This verse begins the following chapter in the Hebrew Bible, but it more intimately coheres with the preceding context, DtusP, LXX. cupavur&iio-eTai, Vulg. pereat. The word signifies to b'e guilty of crime, and to be treated as guilty, to suffer punishment, be punished. Samaria as the metropolis, and the source of all the calamities which were coming upon the Israelites, is put as representing the whole nation ; but not to the exclusion of the peculiarly severe punishment which the inhabitants of that city had to expect, nnaa, some render to embitter, provoke bitterly; but rebelling, resisting, striking against any one, are the ideas more properly conveyed by the verb. Thus the LXX. avrear-n irpbs rbv &ebv au-rijs. The addition of the affix inrpn'Vs, "her God," gives great emphasis in such connection. Comp. chap. xii. 10, xiii. 4. The aggravations of sin are increased by the relations sus tained by the sinner. For the conclud ing portion of the verse, comp. 2 Kings viii. 12, xv. 16 ; Amosi. 13. That such cruelties were not unknown among other nations, see Iliad vi. 58 ; — jUtjS* tivriva yao-Tept yJyr'np Kovpov i6vra fj.ev Kapirbv xet\eaiv 7]/j.ojv, which is fol lowed by the Syr. and Arab, and is sup posed to have been borrowed by the apostle, 84 HOSEA. Chap. XIV. Assyria shall not save us ; We will not ride upon horses ; Neither will we say any more, " Our gods," To the work of our hands : For by thee the destitute is pitied. I will heal their apostasy ; I will love them freely ; For my anger is turned away from them. I will be as the dew to Israel ; Heb. xiii. 15. There is, however, no variety in the Hebrew MSS. ; while the Targum and all the other authorities sup port the textual reading. The LXX. have committed a similar mistake in ren dering n in B , her bullocks, robs Kapirovs avrris, her fruits, Jer. 1. 27. The con jecture of Pococke, that they used Kap- irbs in the sense of Kapiraipia, which they employ to express sackifice, oblation, etc., is less probable. See the important note of Horsley. The prophet's meaning is, We will render, in grateful return for thy forgiving and restoring mercy, the only sacrifices worthy of it — our tribute of thanksgiving and praise. For such use of tVizi , to requite, render back, comp. Ps. lvi. 12, ajV panaP CS'is, I will ren der thanks unto thee : so that the con struction proposed by some, "we will offer the sacrifices which our lips have vowed," cannot be regarded as unexcep tionable, even if it were in keeping with the spirit of the passage. The only par allels fully corresponding to it are Ps. li. 15-17, lxix. 31, 32. 3. Three of the sins to which the ten tribes were specially prone are here im plied : dependence upon the aid of the Assyrians ; application to Egypt for horses in direct violation of the divine command, Deut. xvii. 16; Is. xxxi. 1; and idol atry. These they now forever renounce, and avow their determination henceforth to trust in Jehovah alone ; adding as the reason of such determination, the expe rience which they had had of the divine favor in time of need, n'i-s is here used in a causal sense, because for, forasmuch as. Comp. Gen. xxxi. 29 ; Eccles. iv. 9. Capi, orphan is applied in this place metaphorically to the unprotected and destitute circumstances in which the Is raelites had been, while in a state of separation from the Lord. 4. nnaa-^te is not, with Horsley, to be rendered " 'their conversion," but their apostasy. See on chap. xi. 7. nana, lit. spontaneousness, willingness, is used adverbially for willingly, liberally, freely. It is derived from ana, Arab. ^_jJo histigavit, impulit, ad aliquid ; agilis in conficienda re promptusque vir; genero- sus ; and is expressive of the free, un merited, and abundant love of God towards repentant sinners, a s teas , " from him," i. e. Israel, the collective noun, ver. 2, resolved by the Syr. Lat. and other translators into a plural. 5, 6. The love of God to his people, and its effects in their happy experience, are here couched in similes borrowed from the vegetable kingdom. The dew is very copious in the East, and, by its refreshing and quickening virtue, sup plies the place of more frequent rains in other countries. Kimchi thinks that the constancy with which the dew falls is the point here more specially referred to, and to which the divine blessing is com pared, raaajiw, lilies, aboundin Palestine, even apart from cultivation. There are two kinds ; the common lily, which is perfectly white, consisting of six leaves, opening like bells ; and what the Syrians call [^ \V* a ,n a., the royal lily, the stem of which is about the size of a finger in thickness, and which grows to the height of three and four feet, spread ing its flowers in the most beautiful and engaging manner. Comp. Matt. vi. 29. To these productions the moral beauty of regenerated Israel is very aptly com- Chap. XIV. HOSEA. 85 He shall blossom as the lily, And strike his roots like Lebanon. 6 His suckers shall spread forth, And his beauty shall be as the olive tree, And his fragrance as Lebanon. 7 They that dwell under his shade shall revive as the corn, And shoot forth as the vine : Their fame shall be as the wine of Lebanon. 8 Ephraim shall say, What have I any more to do with idols ? pared. For Lebanon, see on Is. x. 34. The mountain stands here by metonymy for the trees which grow upon it, such as the celebrated cedars, whose roots striking far in depth and length into the ground, give them a firmness which no storms can shake. The ideas of strength and sta bility are those conveyed by the simile, whether we refer the roots to the trees, or, metaphorically, to the mountain it self; but the amplification in the follow ing verse renders the former the prefer able construction. *|aSn isoften used, not good merely of continued, but of increased action, and here denotes to spread out as the suckers or small branches of trees. The olive is frequently referred to, on account of its beautiful green, and the pleasing ideas associated with its produce. Though the former only is expressed, yet the idea of fragrance is implied, only it is with the strictest propriety extended in the following clause to the whole of Lebanon, on account of the number of odoriferous trees and plants with which it abounds. In these verses, the render ing frankincense, which Newcome prefers to Lebanon, is not to be admitted. The stability, extension, glory, and loveliness pf the church of God are forcibly set forth. 7. The Israelites are represented as again enjoying the protection of the Most High, and affording the most convincing proofs of prosperity, aaa is used as aux iliary to n a n ; both verbs, in such connec tion, signifying nothing more than revive, thrive again, or the like. The pronomi nal affix in aVa , his shade, refers to Je hovah ; but in anal , his celebrity, fame, to Israel, understood, as before, collec tively, but best rendered in the plural. 'iVaa ia*;i, the construct with the pre position, as in aa itaan , Ps. ii. 12. Mod ern travellers concur in their high com mendations of the excellence of the wmes of Lebanon. Von Troil, in particular, says, " On this mountain are very valu able vineyards, in which the most excel lent wine is produced ; such as I have never drunk in any country, though in the course of fourteen years I have trav elled through many, and tasted many wine3." 8. Several interpreters take Dines to be in the vocative sense, but, as it seems harsh to refer the words immediately fol lowing to Jehovah, it is better to regard it as a nominative absolute, and to supply na?si thus : — As for Ephraim — the tribe distinguished above all the rest for its addictedness to idolatry, and the fit rep resentative of the whole people - — his language in future shall be, etc. ForiV, to me, the LXX. read aV , to him, which facilitates the construction, and is adopted by Ewald, but without sufficient author ity, "as, I, is not without emphasis in this connection, in which mention is made of idols. ia» signifies to view with regard and care, care for, watch over. Eveiy provision should henceforth be made for the protection and prosperity of restored Israel, wan a, the cypress, with all its tall and fair ever-green ap pearance, not being a fruit-bearing tree, it is added with singular effect, that in this respect there existed a difference be tween the object and the subject of the metaphor. The children of Israel should not only enjoy protection and refreshment as the result of the divine favor, but rich 86 HOSEA. Chap. XIV. I have answered him, and will regard him ; I am like a green cypress ; From me thy fruit is found. Who is wise, that he may understand these things ; Prudent, that he may know them ? For the ways of Jehovah are right ; The righteous shall walk in them ; But the rebellious shall stumble in them. supplies of spiritual provision for their support. Such supplies were to be found in God alone. Manger thinks there is here a dialogistic parallelism, which he exhibits thus : — Ephraim. What have I further to do with idols ? God. I have answered him, and will regard him. Ephraim. I am like a green cypress. God. From me is thy fruit found. 9. These words form an epilogue or conclusion to the whole book. The in terrogation is employed for the purpose of excitement and to give energy to the truths conveyed. It is worthy of remark that this is the only verse in which the prophet uses Qipns, the righteous, or any synonymous term, in the course of his recorded prophecies. So awfully de praved were the times in which he lived, that the very character had. disappeared. The contrasted characters and states of the godly and the wicked are pointed and affecting. ^Vn , to walk, signifies here to go forward prosperously ; Vsja, to stumble, so as to fall to one's injury and utter ruin. " anfractu et liberam ab omni Hanc Justus teret, hoc semper se in calle tenebit, Felicique gradu ad requiem contendat amicam. At defectores videas impingere in iis« dem, Exitiumque sibi factis properare scelestis." — Rittershusius. JOEL. PREFACE. We possess no further knowledge of Joel than what is furnished by the title of his book, or may be gathered from circumstances incidentally men tioned in it. That he lived in Judah, and, in all probability, at Jerusalem, we may infer from his not making the most distant reference to the kingdom of Israel ; while, on the other hand, he speaks of Jerusalem, the temple, priests, ceremonies, etc. with a familiarity which proves them to have been before his eyes. With respect to the age in which he flourished, opinions have differed. Bauer places him in the reign of Jehoshaphat ; Credner, Winer, Krahmer, and Ewald, think he lived in that of Joash ; Vitringa, Carpzov, Moldenhauer, Eiehhorn, Holzhausen, Theiner, Rosenmiiller, Knobel, Hengstenberg, Gesen ius, and De Wette, in that of Uzziah ; Steudel and Bertholdt in that of Hez ekiah ; Tarnovius and Eckermann assign the period of his activity to the days of Josiah ; while the author of Sedar Olam, Jarehi, Drusius, Newcome, and Jahn, are of opinion that he prophesied in the reign of Manasseh. The most probable hypothesis is, that his predictions were delivered in the early days of Joash ; that is, according to Credner, B. c. 870 — 865. No reference being made to the Babylonian, the Assyrian, or even the Syrian invasion, and the only enemies of whom mention is made being the Phoenicians, Philistines, Edomites, and Egyptians, it seems evident that Joel was unacquainted with any but the latter. Had he lived after the death of Joash, he could scarcely have omitted to notice the Syrians when speaking of hostile powers, since they not only invaded the land, but took Jerusalem, destroyed the princes, and carried away immense spoil to Damascus, 2 Chron. xxiv. 23, 24. The state of religious affairs as presented to view in the book is altogether in favor of this position. No mention is made of idolatrous practices ; while, on the contrary, notwithstanding the guilt which attached to the Jews, on account of which Jehovah brought judgments upon the land, the principles of the theocracy are supposed to be maintained ; the priests and people are repre sented as being harmoniously occupied with the services of religion ; and Jerusalem, the temple and its worship, appear in a flourishing condition. Now this was precisely the state of things during the high-priesthood of Jehoiada, through whose influence Joash had been placed upon the throne. See 2 Kings xi. 17,18, xii. 2-16 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14. It will follow that Joel is the oldest of all the Hebrew prophets whose predictions have come down to us. The delivery of his prophecy was occasioned by the devastations produced by successive swarms of locusts, and by an excessive drought which pervaded the country, and threatened the inhabitants with utter destruction. This 88 PREFACE TO JOEL. calamity, however, was merely symbolical of another, and a more dreadful scourge — the invasion of the land by foreign enemies, on which the prophet expatiates in the second chapter. In order that such calamity might be re moved, he is commissioned to order an universal fast, and call all to repent ance and humiliation before God; to announce as consequent upon such repentance and humiliation, a period of great temporal prosperity ; to predict the effusion of the Holy Spirit at a future period of the history of his people ; to denounce judgments against their enemies ; and to foretell their restoration from the final dispersion. In point of style Joel stands preeminent among the Hebrew prophets. He not only possesses a singular degree of purity, but is distinguished by his smoothness and fluency ; the animated and rapid character of his rhythmus ; the perfect regularity of his parallelisms ; and the degree of roundness which he gives to his sentences. He has no abrupt transitions, is everywhere con nected, and finishes whatever he takes up. In description he is graphic and perspicuous ; in arrangement lucid ; in imagery original, copious, and varied. In the judgment of Knobel, he most resembles Amos in regularity, Nahum in animation, and in both respects Habakkuk ; but is surpassed by none of them. That what we now possess is all he ever wrote, is in the highest degree improb able : on the contrary, we should conclude from the cultivated character of his language, that he had been accustomed to composition long before he penned these discourses. Whatever degree of obscurity attaches to his book, is attributable to our ignorance of the subjects of which it treats, not to the language which he employs. CHAPTER I- After summoning attention to the unexampled plague of locusts with which the country hod been visited, 2 — 4, the prophet excites to repentance by a description of these insects, 5 — 7, and of the damage which they had done to the iields and trees, 8 — 12; calls the priests to institute a solemn season for fasting and prayer, 13, 14; and bewails, by anticipation, a more awful visitation from Jehovah, 15, while he further describes the tremendous effects of the calamity under which the country was suffering, 16 — 20. The word of Jehovah which was communicated to Joel, the son of Pethuel : Hear this, ye aged men ! Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land ! Did such as this happen in your days, Or, in the days of your fathers ? Tell your children of it, And let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. 1. Vs n-fa tbs fa'ani ian , the usual introductory formula employed to express the communication of divine revelations to the prophets, or the divinely inspired matter which they were commissioned to teach. Comp. Hos. i. 1 ; Mic. i. 1 ; Zeph. i. 1; Mai. i. 1. The name Vsai, Joel, Jerome interprets apxbpevos, id est incip- iens, referring it to the verb Vsi , which signifies to begin; but that he was not ignorant of another derivation is evident from his commentary, in which, after giving incipiens, he adds, vel est Deus. It is, however, beyond all doubt com pounded of nSni , in one of its more con tracted forms, and Vs , and signifies, Je hovah is God. Who Vsars, LXX. BoSrovrfX, Pethuel, the father of our prophet was, we are not informed. The introduction of his name was necessary in order to distinguish the present Joel from others of the same name, and can not be admitted in proof of his having been a prophet or some person of emi nence. It was common among the Hebrews, as it still is among the Orient als, to add the name of the father to that of the son. 12 2, 3. These verses contain an animated introduction to the following subject. PST, properly this, the feminine accord ing to the Hebrew idiom being used for the neuter, but it occurs here ellipticaily for Psaa , like this, such, the like, and refers to the astounding calamity of the locusts about to be described. a---:-j and 1"TNn frequently occur as parallel initi atives' in Hebrew poetry. See Gen. iv. 23 ; Deut. xxxii. 1 ; Is. i. 2. For the latter verb, ai-iipn is sometimes used. See Is. xxviii. 23; Mic. i. 2. n-:pT is here to be understood, not in the official sense of elders, but in that of aged men, as the connection shows. Those who were most advanced in years, and might be expected to have their memories stored with ancient occurrences, are appealed to for a parallel to the case referred, to. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 7 ; Job. xxxii. 7. taaas is often used in the sense of ances tors^ forefathers, nin n-V.a-;, like nsr, refers to the plague of locusts. E-:a -:a, children's children, is not unfrequent, but the language here employed by Joel is cumulative beyond example. Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur 90 JOEL. Chap. I. 4 That which the gnawing locust hath left, The swarming locust hath devoured : And that which the swarming locust hath left, ab illis." JEneid iii. 98. Kal irdibes iralStcv, Toi Kev p.eT6Tria&e yevwvrai. Iliad, xx. 308. 4. The plague, which occasioned the following discourses of the prophet, is now described in terse, though repetitious terms. This verse may be considered as the text on which he afterwards expati ates. Interpreters have found great diffi culty both in determining the precise signification of the several terms employed to describe the scourge, and the fight in which it was designed to be understood. While some are of opinion that different kinds of insects are meant, most are agreed in considering locusts to be in tended. Yet here again discordant views obtain : some insisting on different species of locusts, and others on different states of the same species. Credner, for in stance, in a work on our prophet, full of erudition, considers Dt a to be the migra tory locust ; nans the young brood ; pV> the young locust in the last state of trans formation; and Via n the perfect locust. The locust belongs to the genus of insects known among entomologists by the name of grylli, wliich includes the different species, from the common grasshopper to the devouring locust of the East. The largest of the latter is about three inches in length ; has two antenna?, or horns, about an inch long, and two wings, which, with their cases, are applied ob liquely to the sides of the body when in repose. The feet have only three joints, but are six in number. The two hind ones are much larger than the rest, and are formed for leaping. The locusts are of different colors, brown, gray and spot ted. In all stages, from the larvae to the perfect insect, the locusts are herbivorous, and do immense injury to vegetation. The subject so far as it occurs in Scripture, may be said to have been almost exhausted by the learned Bochart, in his Hierozoi- con, Pars Post. Lib. iv. cap. i. — viii. The fourth chapter he specially devotes to the explanation of the passages in Joel. See also G5dmann's Vermischtc- ' Sammlungen, and Credner's Joel. The first name, s a A , occurs only here and Amos iv. 9, and is rendered by the LXX. Kdp.iri) ; and by the Vulg. eruca, cater pillar. This interpretation is supported by the Targ. sVraa, the crawling inject, by which, however, may be meant the locust in its wingless state. The Syr. renders the word by LJoaLd locusta non alata. It is evidently derived from the same root with the Arab. .„•. -^ res- ecuit, amputavit ^\ I ,*^ secans ; Eth> irl^* • excidit, abscidit; Syr. Sol™, incidit ; Talmud. 1 t ; t , amputavit ; and expresses the knawing or cutting action of the sharp teeth of the locusts on the leaves, and even the bark of trees. Comp. Plin. Nat. Hist. fib. ii. cap. 29 : omnia vero morsu erodentes. nans is the gen eric name of the locust, so called from the almost incredible numbers which breed in different parts of the East ; being de rived from nan , to multiply, be numerous, etc. Comp. Jer. xlvi. 23, nansaq aan, more numerous than the locusts. From its migrating in swarms it is called by Forskal gryllus gregarius, and by Lin naeus, gryllus migratorius. By the LXX. the word is rendered seventeen times by axpls, the common locust ; thrice by f}povx°s> the umoinged locust, which browses on the grass ; once by epvo-tfsi], mildew; and once by a.TTe\a&os, the young or small locust. That nans is generic, appears from Lev. xi. 22, where we read, aaitaV nansn, the locust accord ing to its species. The third name, pV , from pV_i , equivalent to p ja V , to lick, des ignates the locust as licking off the leaves, and whatever is green on the trees, grass, etc. This derivation is preferable to that proposed by Michaelis, who refers the word to the Arab. iSj. properavit, volubilis Chap. I. JOEL. 91 The licking locust hath devoured ; And that which the licking locust hath left, The consuming locust hath devoured. fuit, or i sjj albus fuit, and thinks that the chafer is meant. In Nah. iii. 16, it is represented as winged, and in Jer. li. 27, it is described as nBO , rough, bristly, terrific. LXX. fipovx05 f°ur times ; &Kpls thrice. V* ri > the remain ing term comes from Von , to consume, devour. LXX. tspoi>x°s< or Ppouitos. 10 > 7 50 j, i if which Risius, the Archbishop of Damas cus, describes as resembling the locust, only differing from it, masmuch as it never migrates, and confines its ravages to the fruits and herbs, but leaves the trees untouched. It is also noted for the noise which it makes at night. A com parison of the different passages in which these names occur, renders it more than probable that they are here employed by the prophet, not with any reference to the species into which the locusts may be scientifically divided, but to designate four successive swarms, according to cer tain destructive qualities, by which, as a genus of insects, they are distinguished, and thereby to heighten the terror which his description was intended to produce. Just as Job accumulates the terms ni.ns, Vraii, rjiniea, vbiV_ and siaV, chap. iv. 10, 11, with a similar view. They are rather poetical synonymes, than distinctive of different species. At all events, that locusts are meant, may be inferred from the facts, that wherever p Vi. occurs, with the exception of a single passage, it occurs along with nans ; and that nans, which Moses uses hi describ ing one of the plagues of Egypt, Exod. X. 10-20, is not only employed by the Psalmist, lxxviii. 46, cv. 34, but also Vion and pV.i , as synonymous terms, for the sake of variety. Add to which that the verb Vara from which V'O rj is derived, is employed to express the action of the nans, Deut. xxviii. 38, nansn aaVcni, "the locust shall consume it." In the translation I have given the meanmg of the several names in terms expressive of the qualities suggested by each. The passage might otherwise be rendered with Noyes : — "That which one swarm of locusts left, a second swarm hath eaten ; And that which the second left, a third swarm hath eaten ; And that which the third left, a fourth swarm hath eatem" It is a question of greater importance : Are the statements of Joel in the first and second chapters to be understood literally of these insects, or figuratively of enemies that were to invade and lay waste the Holy Land ? The latter is the more ancient opinion. It is that of the Targum, the Jews whom Jerome con sulted, and Abarbanel ; and is, with vari ous modifications, adopted by the follow ing christian interpreters : Jerome, Eph raim Syrus, Theodoret, Cyril of Alexan dria, Hugo de St. Vincent, Ribera, San chez, a Lapide, Luther, Grotius, Markius, Bertholdt, Theiner, Steudel, and Hengs tenberg. On the other hand, Abcnezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, Lyranus, Vatablus, Joh. Schmidius, Jahn, Eichhorn, Rosenmiiller, von Coelln, Justi, Credner, and Hitzig, maintain that the language is to be un derstood literally of locusts. This inter pretation has certainly much in its favor, and if it could without violence be ap plied throughout, might fairly be adopted. But the announcement of a second and more awful judgment, chap. i. 15, ii. 1, 2 ; the distinct recognition of a foreign rule, ii. 17 ; and the assignment of the North as the native country of the enemy, ii. 20 ; present insuperable obstacles to its adoption. See on these verses. There seems no possibility of effecting a consist ent interpretation on any other principle than that laid down and defended by Cramer, Eckermann, and Holzhausen, viz : that in the first chapter, Joel describes a devastation of the country which had been effected by natural locusts ; but predicts in the second its devastation by 92 JOEL. Chap. L 5 Awake, ye drunkards! and weep; Howl, all ye drinkers of wine ! On account of the sweet wine, For it is made to cease from your mouth. 6 For a nation hath come up upon my land, Mighty and innumerable ; Their teeth are the teeth of a lion; They have the grinders of a lioness. political enemies, in highly- wrought met aphorical language, borrowed from the scene which he had just depicted. 5. "ipn the Hiph. of yap, is here used, like the cognate root yjai , Gen. ix. 24, in the sense of awaking from a sleep occasioned by wine. Since, however, the persons addressed had been deprived of the means of intoxication, the prophet is rather to be understood as borrowing the term from the state in which they had too often been found. B in a a 3 being parallel with -," -tab , drinkers of wine, does not here mean persons actually in toxicated, but such as were in the habit of using intoxicating liquors, and by implication, to excess. Thus Kimchi ; ¦ji-a nat-w-nV CiVinn trs, ye who are accustomed to make yourselves drunk with wine. It is derived from na'B , to drink to the full. Arab. jCw implevit, vas, ebrius fuit. Hence nao , strong, or in toxicating drink, whether wine itself, or, more commonly, liquor resembling wine, which is distilled from barley, honey, or dates,- and sometimes mingled with spices, By 6-OS , is meant the fresh wine, or juice of the grape, or other fruit, which has just been pressed out, and is remark able for its sweet flavor, and its freedom from intoxicating qualities. R. ta » , to tread, tread down, or out. Targ. naan fanaq, pure wine. It differs from njaniji, inasmuch as the latter term is confined to the juice of the grape ; and being derived from isni , to take possession of, indicates that however new, it had already obtained an inebriating quality. The locusts are here represented as specially attacking and destroying the vines and other fruit-trees, from the produce of Which these wines were prepared. To such they are known to be very destruc tive. Comp. Theocrit. Idyll. 5, 108, in which a shepherd beseeches them not to injure his vines : 'AKpiSes, as Tbv (ppayfibv inrepireb'TJTe rbv ap.6v, M^ fiev Kiafsdo-ea&e ras ap.irekas' ivrl yap ajSai. rana properly signifies to cut, cut off, but here, as wine is the subject spoken of, it must be taken in the sense of destroying, or causing lo cease. 6. i'ia , nation, especially used of for eign, barbarous and profane nations, and here selected on purpose to express the number and hostility of the locusts, and at the same time to prepare the minds of the Jews for the allegorical use made of these insects in chap. ii. If it had not been for some such end, the prophet might have adopted the term t» , people, which Solomon applies to the ants, Prov. xxx. 25, 26, and which would equally have conveyed the idea of multitude. Comp. chap. ii. 2. This metaphorical use of the term is common in the classics. See instances in Bochart and Gesen. Heb. Lex. in voc. ias. The Arabs employ %jc\ in a similar way. V» nVs is used in a hostile sense of an army, Is. vii. 1 ; but here figuratively of the locusts. In aans, "my land," the pronominal affix belongs to Jehovah, not to the prophet. Comp. Is. xiv. 25 ; Jer. xvi. 18 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 5, xxxviii. 16. Joel ii. 18. saas, strong, powerful. The strength of tlie locust consists in the immense numbers, which, forming themselves into compact bodies, darken the air, and advance for ward, one swarm after another, attacking whatever comes in their way. They may well be described as n£8to -psa , innu- Chap. I. JOEL. 93 7 They have laid waste my vine, And broken down my fig-tree ; They have completely stripped it, and thrown it down ; Its branches they have left white. merable. All who refer to them, both in ancient and modern times, speak of them in the same language. 'AKpidwv ir\5j&os apufrnTov. Agatharc. v. 27. " Immensae locustarum multitudines." Orosius, v. 11. Shaw speaks of "infi nite swarms following each other," Bar row states that those which he saw in South Africa, might literally be said to cover the ground for an area of 2000 square miles. A later writer in the Cape Town Gazette, describes a cloud of them as passing before him in a train of many millions thick, and about an hour in length ; and mentions further that, though millions perished in consequence of at tempts made to destroy them, their num ber appeared nothing decreased. And Dr. Bowring states in his Report, that some years ago the army of Ibrahim Pasha, in the attempt to extirpate an immense swarm, gathered up no less than 65,000 ardebs, equal to 325,000 bushels of English measure ! How appropriate the name nans ! What is innumerable is frequently compared to them by the sacred writers. See Jud. vi. 5, vii. 12 ; Ps. cv. 34; Jer. xlvi. 23; Nah. iii. 15. hisVrin, teeth, Gesenius considers as standing by transposition for naj'nVni and derives the noun from an obsolete root S>ra V , to bite ; but it may more prop erly be referred to the Arab. «Jj> longum fuit, and denotes the grinders or jaw- teeth of animals. The metaphor, how ever, has no respect to the size of the teeth of lions, but only to the terrible and complete destruction which they effect. Pliny, speaking of the locust, says : — " Omnia morsu erodentes et fores quoque tectorum." According to Fabricius, in his Genera Insectorum, p. 96, the teeth of the locust are three-forked and sharp. The same metaphor is used Rev. ix. 8, d56mes airruj/ ws Keovruv fjaav. 7. For the pronominal reference in ia E J and ifaasfa , see on ia"S in the pre ceding verse. The vines and fig-trees might be called Jehovah's, because, in a. special sense, the land on which they grew was his. The vine has, from time immemorial, abounded in Palestine. It often grows to a great size, and produces grapes of corresponding bulk. Schulz describes one at Beitshin, near Ptolemais, the stem of which was about a foot and a half in diameter, its height was about thirty feet, and by its branches and branch- lets, which had to be supported, it formed a hut upwards of thirty feet broad and long. The clusters of these vines are so large, that they weigh ten or twelve pounds, and the berries may be compared with our small plums. When such a cluster is cut off, it is laid upon a board about an ell and a half broad, and three or four ells long, and several persons seat themselves about it to eat the grapes. Rosenmiiller, In Bib. Cab. vol. xxvii*p. 223. Comp. Numb. xiii. 23, 24. Pal estine was equally celebrated for its fig- trees, which are not reared in gardens, as with us, but grow spontaneously in the open country. The figs were not only eaten fresh, but also preserved for food. ta'-B, to put, is often used with nouns instead of the simple forms of the verbs to which the nouns are related, naap , breakage, Arab. t_p ^j' fregit. i oj^V a branch broken off from a tree. See on Hos. x. 7. LXX. avyKXairpbs, Compl. .o o > KKaapAs. Syr. Uaiq concissio, di- vulsio. The locusts not only consume the fruit and leaves of the trees, but strip them of the very bark. — " Nee culmus, nee gramen ullum remaneat, et arbores frontibus et cortice tanquam vestibus nu- datse, instar truncorum alborum conspici- antur." Ludolf, Comment, p. 178. tpaVflft is here taken in its proper causa tive ' signification. What they do not 94 JOEL, Chap. 1. 8 Lament, as a virgin girded with sackcloth, On account of the husband of her youth. 9 The offering and the libation, Are cut off from the house of Jehovah : The priests howl, the ministers of Jehovah. 10 The field is laid waste, The ground mourneth ; For the corn is laid waste, devour, they so injure that it falls off the tree. Cjin'-B, branches, properly the intertwining tendrils of the vine, from v,n;B, to interweave. The vine, being the more valuable of the two kinds of trees, the suffix refers back to it ; and the fig- tree is treated as subordinate. ajiaVn , they have made or left white. 8. The land, under the metaphor of a female, is here addressed. iVs is the second person feminine of the Imperative in Kal of nVs, which usually means to swear, call on God as witness ; but here it takes the signification of the Syr iac U| ululavit, deploravit. . .^\ Lj^, ululatus, lamentum. The deri vation from Vs, God, in the sense God have mercy, is less natural. One of Ken nicott's MSS. reads iVas. LXX. v?pij- vfyrov. A country is frequently said to mourn, when it is subject to devastation. See Is. xxiv. 3 ; Jer. iv. 28, xii. 4 ; Hos. iv. 3. nV ana , a virgin, a young woman, affianced to a husband, and, in this sense, viewed as married to him. The idea of the strength of youthful affection, is that designed to be conveyed by the passage. In proportion to the force of such affec tion, would be the excessive degree of grief for his loss. Holzhausen thinks that she would also grieve niVana Vs, en account of her virginity, and compares Jud. xi. 38 ; but this the text does not suggest. LXX. vbpapn. Compl. irapStevos. Wrapping oneself in sackcloth was a token of deep mourning. Vsa , properly lord, master, possessor ; and secondarily hus band, because in the East, wives were, and still are, considered as the property rather than the companions of their hus bands. Comp. the Greek Kbpios "yuTOi- k6s; and for the application of avfy to one only betrothed, Matt. i. 19. Accord ing to the Roman law, consensus facit 9. To a pious mind the gloomiest view of external calamities will be taken from their influence upon the cause of God. The cessation of the usual solemnities of the temple worship, occasioned by the destruction of the fruits of the earth, must have occasioned great grief to the religious Jew. Jerome and others think that as the priests would be deprived of their regular support, by the cessation of the offerings, they mourned on that ac count ; but of this I should say with Maurer, " Vates hie non videtur cogi- tasse." nnaas, stands here for offerings in general, whether bloody or unbloody, — comp. Gen. iv. 4 ; LXX. Siima, — even when restricted in its signification to meat offering, such as consisted of meal, salt, oil, and incense, the proper sacrifices. Binar, are understood, as they were always "connected with them, except in the case of the sin and trespass- offerings. The libation, or drink-offering, was called ?[Sa , on account of its being poured out, from the root apaa , to pour. From the circumstance that Joel prefixes the article to E-araa, priests, but not to caas, husbandmen, and C-aaina, vine dressers, Credner argues that he must either have been personally related to them, or that prophets and priests must have been more closely united at the time hewrotethan afterwards. Comp. tianarr, ver. 13, ii. 17. diran'BM , ministers, is a more dignified official term than Bina?., servants, which is employed to denote common slaves, as well as persons in more elevated situations about a king. 10-12. The prophet enters here more minutely into a description of the devas- Chap. I . JOEL. 95 The new wine is dried up, The oil languisheth. 11 Be ashamed, ye husbandmen I Howl, ye vine-dressers ! On account of the wheat and the barley ; For the harvest of the field hath perished. 12 The vine is dried up, And the fig-tree languisheth ; tation occasioned by the locusts, uj anifl, new wine, which is already in a state of fermentation, and so intoxicating ; from St , to take possession of anything. See on ver. 5, where it is distinguished from o 7 D"SS. "Syr. | A^jjio, sic dictum, quod so possessorem hominis facit, ejus cerebrum occupando, ut ille non amplius sui compos sit. Sic Arab, vinum dicitur v a captivando, et \ULc, sitenendo et vinctum habendo." Winer in voc. nnc, field, and naa-js , ground, are syn- on'ymes ; but differ iii this respect, that the former denotes the open, free, unin- closed part of a country, Arab. |j^yu, extendit, dilatavit ; the latter, the rich red soil which is particularly fit for cul tivation. Hence nnten. Bis, a man of the field, means a hunter, Gen. xxv. 27 ; naansn »is, a man of the ground, an ag riculturist. Root Ens , to be red. The land is here, as frequently in the He brew prophets, made the subject of per sonification. Some would render o-aan, as applied to the new wine, to be ashamed : but occurring as it does in parallelism with VVas s , to droop, lan guish like plants, it is better to retain the primary motion of •ia", to become dry, dry up. Both vffti and nna_i stand for the vine and the olive tree, from which the wine and oil are obtained. In the second instance tiis'ln takes the sig nification of 'B Saa , to be ashamed, being another form of the Hiphil for eian. Both are used intransitively. The LXX. retaining the signification of iBa.i, im properly render Qnpavfrno-av yeaipyoi. ¦jaten, the pomegranate tree, is indigen ous in Palestine in Syria, and is reck oned one of its noblest botanical produc tions. It grows to the height of twenty feet, has a straight stem, spreading branches, lancet-formed leaves, with large and beautiful red blossoms. The fruit is of the size of an orange, brown in color, and affording a highly delici ous and cooling juice. It is also planted in gardens, and in the courts of the houses ; and its fruit is greatly improved by cultivation. It is still one of the trees most frequently seen in those coun tries. So celebrated were the dates of Palestine, that Pliny, speaking of the naim, date, or palm-tree, says, "Judaea vcro inclyta est vel magis palmis." It was adopted as a symbol of the country in coins struck under Vespasian and Domitian ; and is frequently referred to in the Old Testament. It sometimes reaches the height of an hundred feet, is remarkable for its straight, upright growth, and forms one of the most beautiful trees in the vegetable king dom. The fruit, which grows in clust- ters under the large leaves, is of an ex ceedingly sweet and agreeable taste, and, as an article both of sustenance and traffic, is of great value to the inhabi tants. In Abyssinia, the natives extract a juice from it which they manufacture into a spirituous liquor-resembling cham pagne. Its importance is here signifi cantly expressed by the particle tJ be ing used intensively before it. riaSP, Arab. -^Lftj'j the apple-tree. Rosen miiller derives the word from faE.S, to breathe, and in this Gesenius concurs, supposing the fragrant breath, i. e. smell 9G JOEL. Chap. I. The pomegranate, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, All the trees of the field are withered ; Yea, .joy is withered away from the children of men. 13 Gird ye, and mourn, 0 ye priests ! Howl, ye ministers of the altar! Enter, spend the night in sackcloth, Ye ministers of my God ! For the offering and the libation Are withholden from the house of your God. 14 Appoint a sacred fast, proclaim a day of restraint; Assemble the elders — all the inhabitants of the land, or scent, to have originated the name. The former of these writers adopts the opinion of Celsius, that the quince tree is specially intended ; but as the Arabs include under — LAi, oranges, lemons, peaches, apricots, etc., the Hebrew term is likewise in all probability generic in its signification. To give to his de scription the utmost latitude, Joel adds, nn'lETa ia S— Va , all the trees of the field, i. e. as Jerome explains "omnia ligna, vel infructuosa, vel fructifera ; " and, to bring it more home to the feelings of his countrymen, he represents the conse quence to be, the entire removal of their joy. Some improperly limit -|a;B'B to the joy of harvest. The construction ya 'Biaan, to dry away from, is what is usually termed pregnant, and more forcibly expresses the removal of the ob ject on which the verb terminates. 13. The prophet now addresses him self to the priests, and calls them first to personal mourning, and then, in the following verse, to institute a sacred fast, in order that such mourning might be general. After an.a|-| supply with the Syr. p'B, as in one" of Kennicott's MSS., or CTPift as in one of De Rossi's. Both forms occur in connection with the verb, which is not here to be restricted to mere girding, but rather signifies to wrap round one. Comp. Jer. iv. 8 ; Is. xxii. 12. nE8 , primarily to smite, strike, then to strike the breast, in token of mourning. See on Is. xxxii. 12. The LXX. always render it by KSirreaStai, except in two instances, in which they give it by KAaieiv, to weep. For raa-n iran'BM, comp. ot vcp &v, restraint, or be ing held back or prevented from labor : dai, day, or period, understood. See on Is. i. 13. Tlie Jews were to abstain from then- worldly avocations, and spend the portion of their time thus consecrated to the immediate and solemn duties of humiliation, confession, and prayer. t-apT, elders, in this connection, might be taken in an official sense, denoting those holding office among the people, who were expected to take the lead, and, by their example, to excite others to en gage in the religious solemnities ; but a comparison of this verse with chap. ii. 15, in which " children " and " suck lings are mentioned, would rather require us to understand the term as referring to age. The central point of convocation was the temple — the special theocratic residence of Him whose wrath was to be deprecated, and his mercy implored. ps.t, Arab. (Ji-^)' (J^1^; to "^ °wt' cry earnestly for help. LXX. KeKpa^ere iKreviis. " Ardentissimas fundite pre- ces." Rosenmiiller. 15. Joel now exclaims, rj\«h nns , alas ! for the day ! "0 infaustum et tristissimum ilium diem ! ™ Rosen miiller. To give intensity to the ex clamation, the LXX. have the triple otpoi, otpoi, otp.oi. That the ra-rai BtS day of Jehovah, i. e. the period of pun- 13 ishment, does not mean that of the plague of the locusts, but a more awful period still future, the term aan^, near, at hand, which is never used to denote the actual presence of anything, but its speedy approach, sufficiently proves. What the Jews were then suffering was only a prelude to still more dread ful calamities. For a nan -roa, which forms an elegant paronomasia, see on Is. xiii. 6, where the same form occurs. The ia is, as there, the Caph veritatis, and expresses the greatness of the evil. 16. The verb rraa is understood in the latter hemistich. The annual fes tivals were occasions of great rejoic ing. See Lev. xxiii. 40 ; Deut. xii. 12, 18. 17. This, and the three following verses, describe the drought which was simultaneous with the judgment of the locusts. It exhibits the singular phe nomenon of four anal \ey6p.eva within the short space which it occupies. For the elucidation of 2l> , some compare the Chaldee IBEX, to rot, but it is with more propriety referred to the Arab. i m*a£, siccus fuit; and so is of the same signification with ajai , to be dry, dried up. Thus Abulwafid. By the desiccating influence of the heat, the seeds that had been sown in the ground would lose all their moisture, and perish. That nanns mean seeds, or grains of corn, etc. seems satisfactorily determined ... ^ by the use of the Syr. ) 2.") '*£>¦> granum, Matt. xiii. 31 ; John xii. 24 ; 1 Cor. xv. 98 JOEL. Chap. I. The granaries are desolate, the store-houses are destroyed, Because the corn is withered. 18 How the cattle mourn ! How the herds of oxen are perplexed ! Because they have no pasture ; Yea, the flocks of sheep are destroyed. 19 To thee, O Jehovah ! I cry, For fire hath consumed the pastures of the desert, And a flame hath burnt all the trees of the field. 37, in the Peshito : and the signification of n n E , to separate, an action which takes place when, m sowing, the hus bandman scatters the seed in distmct grains. To the same effect Tanchum, «-£: s^tXaJI om,: grains prepared for sowing, so called they are scattered in the ground. liEnStt , clods, or lumps of earth. Comp. the I Arab. gleba terra ; terra diversa varia. Thus also ._;. <° signifies a mark on the body, occasioned by the contracting or drying up of the skin, and resembling a round lump of earth or dung. raanaasaa is synonymous with raanas , granaries ; and, according to the force of the local M prefixed, signifies places or houses containing store rooms, or granaries, in which grain was deposited. The Dagesh in the second » is euphonic. The simpler form nna»a, occurs Hag. ii. 19 ; and both are to be referred to the root na.a, to gather, collect. For the diver sified and unsatisfactory renderings of the ancient versions, see Pococke in he. The verbs E»'B and enn are here to be taken in the sense of being left or neg lected like places that have been laid waste or destroyed. 18. apa, in Niphal, expresses the per plexity to which any one is reduced who does not know how to extricate himself from difficulty. The brute creation are graphically represented as being in this condition from the total failure of pas turage. The ES before iss-i-ans is in tensive ; even the sheep, which subsist on herbage unsuitable for the oxen, are deprived of food. As the idea of pun ishment is conveyed by the verb E-bn , it was in all probability used by the pro phet, in order to teach the Jews that innocent creatures are involved in the consequences of guilt incurred by trans gressors. Comp. Exod. xii. 29 ; Jonah iii. 7. 19. It is not unusual for the Hebrew prophets to give expression to their own feelings, while describing the judgments that were brought upon their country. Comp. Is. xv. 5, xvi. 11, xxi. 3, 4, xxii. 4 ; Jer. xxiii. 9. It has been questioned whether "the "fire" and "flame" are here to be taken literally of the actual burning of the grass, which often hap pens in extreme heat, or whether they are used figuratively of the heat itself. The former is more probably the mean ing, raasa, Kimchi explains, nanapaa K'Bin, grassy places, places of pastur age; hence pasturage itself. It is de rived from naa, to be pleasant, (comp. nsa ) to dwell : but signifying in this connection the green, grassy spots, so eagerly desired by the cattle, and pleas ant both to man and beast. From the circumstance that such places would naturally be selected for occupancy by tents, dwellings, etc. the word came also to signify habitations. Comp. the Arab. . | diversatus fuit, hospitio excipit : c.w0, mansio, sedes commorationis. Chap. II, JOEL. 99 20 The very beasts of the field look up to thee, Because the streams of water are dried up, And fire hath devoured the pastures of the desert. 20. Ans, Arab. ^, Eth. ^O : ascendit : to look up with panting or earnest desire. Arab. y~~. f inclinatio, propensio in rem. The word beautifully expresses the natural action of animals parched with thirst, and deprived of all supply of water. They hold up their heads, as if their only expectation were from the God of heaven. LXX. ave- £S\etfiav. Comp. Ps. xiii. 2, where the force of dib— ip/Es-Vs is lost by the rendering of our common version, "after the water-brooks." It should be at or beside, as the Psalmist evidently intended to represent the deer standing on the brink of the channels in which water usually flowed, but which had become dry. To their pitiable condition he com pares his own circumstances when de prived of the usual means of spiritual refreshment. The idea of their crying to God, which the Syr. jv ; and the Rabbins attach to the word, is derived from such passages as Job. xxxviii. 41 ; Ps. civ. 21, cxlvii. 9, rather than from anything expressed by the word itself. CHAPTER II. The prophet reiterates his announcement of the approach of a divine judgment more terrific in its nature than that of the locusts, but employs language borrowed from the • appearance and movements of these insects, in order to make a deeper impression upon his hearers, whose minds were full of idea3 derived from them as instruments of the calamity under which they were suffering, 1-11. He then summons anew to humilia tion and repentance, 12-17 ; giving assurance that on these taking place, Jehovah would show them pity, destroy their enemy, and restore them to circumstances of great tem poral and religious prosperity, 18-27 ; and the chapter concludes with a glorious promise of the abundant effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic age, 28, 29, and a prediction of the Jewish war, and the final subversion of the Jewish state, 30, 31, in the midst of which such as embraced the worship and service of the Messiah should ex perience deliverance, 32. 1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion ! And sound the alarm in my holy mountain ! 1. To give the greater effect to the alarm here commanded to be sounded, Jehovah himself is introduced as speak ing. The persons addressed are the priests, on whom it devolved to blow with trumpets, r/ aikiriyl ipyavov eon 100 JOEL, Chap. II. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble ; For the clay of Jehovah cometh ; it is near. A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and dense obscurity ; Like the dawn spread over the mountains A numerous and mighty people : None such have ever been, Neither shall there ever be after them, During the years of successive generations. iro\efiov. Philo de Septenario. They were to warn all of the threatened judg ment. Comp. chap. i. 15, where the prophet anticipates what is now about to be the subject of a special descrip tion. 2. Synonymes are here accumulated to give intensity to the expression of the thought. The awful calamity which was to come upon the Jews is set forth under the metaphor of darkness, which is of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew Scriptures, when sufferings and misery are the subjects of discourse. Comp. Is. viii. 22, lx. 2 ; Jer. xiii. 16 ; Amos v. 18 ; Zeph. i. 15. In the present instance, however, there was a singular propriety in adopting the language, since the prophet was just going to introduce an allegory founded upon the fact, that swarms of locusts had come over the land, and intercepting, by their density, the light of the sun, had occasioned an universal darkness. See on ver. 10. Some interpreters have stumbled at the apparent incongruity of comparing the coming affliction with the ntTB, aurora, since the idea usually suggested by the figurative use of that term is joy, or prosperity; but as this idea is not ex clusively conveyed by the use of it, as it is also employed to express the cer-. tainty, Hos. vi. 3, and suddenness of anything, Hos. x. 15, so here the ob vious points of comparison are merely the suddenness and extent of the change produced by the diffusion of the rays of light, without any reference to the nature of the change itself. Joel now proceeds to introduce and describe the hostile army of the Assy rians in the same terms in which he had metaphorically described the locusts, chap. i. 6 ; only exchanging - \a, nation, for tjs , people, which is also used of foreign and idolatrous nations, Numb. xxi. 29 ; 1 Chron. xvi. 20 ; Jer. xlviii. 42. In this description, he not only transfers the metaphor back to the proper subject from which it was taken, but converts it into an allegory, and at considerable length, and in the most minute manner, exhibits the invasion, the formidable character, and the ravages of the bar barian foe. So perfectly is the allegorical veil woven throughout, that most com mentators have been able to discover nothing more than natural locusts in the passage. At the time in which the prophet delivered his message the locusts covered the land ; they were before his eyes ; the idea of them had so taken possession of his mind, that, considering the striking resemblance which they bore to an invading army, nothing was more natural than to exhibit the latter in sensible images taken from the scene by which both he and his hearers were surrounded. And, accustomed as they had been to the parabolic style of pro phecy, they could have been at no loss to discover, that when in this part of his discourse he appeared to speak of locusts, it was not natural but political locusts he had in view. While the de cidedly future aspect of the calamity, chap. i. 15, ii. 1, proves that it had not taken place at the time the words were delivered, a comparison of the language in the concluding part of verse 2, with II. JOEL. 101 Before them fire devoureth, And behind them a flame burnetii ; Before them the laud is like the garden of Eden, But behiud them a desolate wilderness : And there is no escape from them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, And they run like horsemen. that employed chap. i. 2, equally proves that a plague of locusts could not have been intended. We must, therefore, with the alteration of a single word, adopt the language of Jerome, " dum locustas legimus, Assyrios cogitamus." That the Assyrian invasion under Sen nacherib, and not that of the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, is meant, ap pears from the emmense number of the army, its entire destruction in the land of Palestine, and there being no refer ence whatever to the captivity in Baby lon, the omission of which is unimag inable, on the supposition that the lat ter of the two invasions was intended. The army of Sennacherib must have been the largest that ever entered Pa lestine, since only that division of it which invested Jerusalem, amounted to nearly 200,000 men, Is. xxxvii. 36. It was marching forward to the conquest of Egypt, and, like a swarm of locusts, covered the whole land. All the fortified cities of Judah were taken, Is. xxxvi. 1 ; the cultivated fields and vineyards were trodden down or consumed, xxxvii. 30 ; and nothing short of utter destruction seemed to await the inhabitants. The design of the Divine Spirit, to whose infinite mind the future event was present, in dictating the prediction in the language here employed, appears to have been, to deepen the impressions produced by the plague of locusts, and thereby to excite to that repentance and amendment of life, which alone could secure to the Jews the continuance of their national blessings. 3. A description of the desolate state to which Judea was to be reduced, in language borrowed from that given of the drought, chap. i. 19. a-JE--, before him, and a"n fas , behind him, are used to express universality ; ubicunque. Comp. 1 Chron. xix. 10. This construction is confirmed by what follows: -uiVs E.a iV nra-n- sV, and there is no escape from them, or, more literally, in reference to them. rnsiVs properly signifies those who have escaped in the war ; who have not been killed, or taken prisoners ; but it is also used of fruits of the earth which have not been destroyed, Exod. x. 5. The contrast between the beauty of Paradise and the desolation of a des ert, is exquisitely forcible and affect ing. 4. The allegory now becomes special and minute in its features, which are selected from the phenomena and opera tions of an invading army, the subject of which it is to be understood ; but having the invasion by the locusts as its basis, and therefore presenting these prominently to view, and comparing them to the army, which is thus stu diously concealed. On this principle there is no difficulty in accounting for the particle of comparison, so liberally used in this and the following verses. So strong is the resemblance of the head of the locust to that of a horse, that they are on this account called cavalettes by the Italians. This feature Theodoret thus notices : eX tis o.Kpi0a)s KariSoi ttj;/ Ketpa\}}v ttjs aKptbos, a^dSpa tt} tov 'lirirov ioiKviav evpi]ffei. In Eev. ix. 7, the locusts are compared to horses har nessed for battle : to. bp.oidp.aTa toiv aKpibaiv Ofioia 'iirirois r}TOip.aap.4vois els ir6\ep.ov. Such comparison is very com mon among the Arabs. The point of comparison in the second member of the parallelism, is the swiftness with which cavalary advance to the attack. 132 JOEL. Chap. II. 5 They bound like the rattle of chariots on the tops of the mountains ; Like the crackling of the flame of fire devouring the stubble ; Like a mighty people arranged for battle. 6 Before them the people tremble ; ! All faces withdraw their color. 1 They run like mighty men ; They scale the wall like warriors ; They all march in their courses, They break not their ranks. 8 They press not each other : , They march on, each in his path ; «¦ Though they fall among the missiles, They break not up. 9 They run eagerly through the city ; They run upon the wall ; 5 . np n is used of the rapid and bound ing course of chariots over a rough sur face, Nah. iii. 2. See also Rev. ix. 9. " — per purum tonantes Egit equos volucremque currum." Horace, Carm. i. 34, 7. " vaeuos dat in ae'ra saltus Succubiturque alte, similisque est cur- rus inani." Ovid. Metam. ii. 165. Speaking of the noise made by a swarm of locusts, Forsk'al says : " Transeuntes grylli super verticem nostrum sono magnfe cataractaa ferebant." To the same effect Morier: "On the 11th of June, while seated in our tents about noon, we heard a very unusual noise, that sounded like the rustling of a great wind at a distance. On looking up, we perceived an immense cloud, here and there transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun." It is however, not improbable, that the sound here referred to is that produced by the large hind legs of the locust in leaping. The comparison at the end of the verse, is to the clashing of arms, and the shouting of an army on the point of engaging in battle. 6. aVini, they tremble, from Vara,*" turn round, twist one's self, writhe with pain; then to tremble. Arab, i II ~>; med. "Wan, to be turned. nans2,«"srmW!> ruddiness of countenance. Arab. Aj, astuavit, efferbuit. nansB "ap, to with draw their ruddiness, or color, i. e. to change color, grow pale with terror. Nah. ii. 11. Comp. f|ba , to turn pale. The ancient versions concur in rendering the words, every face like the blackness of a pot; deriving the last word from naB; hence nans, pot, without s. Of the terror inspired by locusts, we cannot have a better proof than the Arabic proverb: 0 L=Ll jj-O £ya.|, more terrible than the hcusts. 7-9. Here the description quite excels in the graphic. The comparison to war riors is admirably carried out. First, their rapid advance upon the city is specified ; next, their sealing the walls in the most regular order ; then their consentaneous encounter with the troops of defence, their invulnerability, their progress through the streets, their climb ing the walls, and entering the win dows of the houses, are set forth in terms Chap. H. JOEL. 10ii They go up into the houses ; Tliey enter the windows like a thief. of singular and appropriate beauty. taay, Arab. Inf, fid it, vulneravit, t^nc fissus, lias here the significa tion of breaking tip the order or regu larity with which a body cf troops pro ceed when marching to the attack. Abenezra and Kimchi compare ra j , to to pervert, turn aside which comes nearly to the same thing. LXX. iKK^lvaiai. Syr. aAffiJ. Gesenius thinks the verb is here used in a sense cognate with the significations in Kal and Hiphil, to give or take a pledge; but the idea of exchange, change, is not clearly brought out. The regular military order with which the locusts advance, has been fre quently described. ' A0acrl\evrov yap 7] aKpls, iffTparevel pev yap 4£ evbs einaKTais Kehevaparos' i\dWTi*-°v. Cyril. The testimony of Jerome, as an eye-witness in Palestine, is peculiarly valuable : " Hoc nuper in hac provmcia vidimus. Quum enim locus- tarum agmina venirent, et aerem, quo inter ccelum et terram est, occuparent tanto ordine ex dispositione jubentis Lei volitant, ut instar tesserularum, quae in pavimentis artificis figuntur manu, suum hcum teneant, et ne puncto quidem, ut ita clieam, ungueve transverso declinent ad alteram." Morier also remarks on those which he saw : " They seemed to be impelled by one common instinct, and moved in one body, which had the appearance of bemg organized by a leader." Comp. Prov. xxx. 27, "ps ~'~." aia "an sa'a naisV, there isno kingto the locusts, yet they go foHh, all of them dividing, i. e. themselves into regular companies or swarms, with all the dis cipline of a well-ordered army, '-fn, signifies so to press upon one as to com pel him to move from his place. Not withstanding the immense crowds of the locusts, not only docs none of them break the ranks by deviating from the straight course which they pursue, but none forces his fellow from his rank. Their watchword may be said to be onward; for they never turn back. If they enter houses, they go straight through them, and out at the opposite side. Thus Abulphargius relates in his Chron. Syr. p. 134 : " postquam a latere meridionale domos intraverant, a latere septemtri- onale egrediebantur. ra Vi- , properly means any missile weapon thrown at an en emy, from nVc> to send or cast forth ; but it is also frequently used of the sword. Comp. the Arab. ^Xm, arma. ns a , is of somewhat difficult determi nation. The ground idea seems to be that of mediation, a being, or doing any thing between two ; hence -jp VVsrn , to make supplication for any one, ;'. e. by interposing between him and the party to whom the supplication is addressed. To this the signification derived from the Arab. JuLSj P°st, nearly approximates, as occurring in the Hebrew. Between, or among, will suit most of the passages in which the word occurs. See Winer and Credner. Taking nV"i' as a collective noun, the meanmg of faWn -y_ a Vsa, will be to fall among the missiles, i. e. to light, or come down among them ; and referring asa a" to the whole swarm, what it ex presses is, that they are not broJcen up, or intemtpted in their course. Compare a similar use of -as, to break, Dan. xi. 22. n-sa , in the city, i. e. any city or town that may lie in their way. Cred- ner's appeal to chap. iv. [iii.] 17, in proof that Jerusalem is specifically meant, can not be sustained, since that part of the prophecy relates to a totally different sub ject. The scene is rather the land of Judah, with its fortified cities, which were overrun and plundered by the As syrian troops. 104 JOEL, Chap. II. 10 Before them the earth trembleth, The heavens shake, The sun and the moon are darkened, And the stars withdraw their shine. Jehovah uttereth his voice before his army ; Surely his camp is very large ; Surely it is mighty, executing his order ; Surely the day of Jehovah is great, and very terrible : Who can endure it ? Now, therefore, saith Jehovah, Turn ye to me with all your heart, And with fasting and weeping and mourning ; 1 3 And rend your heart, and not your garments, And turn to Jehovah your God ; For he is pitiful and compassionate, 11 12 10, 11. Though the language here employed may in part admit of a literal application to the obscuration of the air by the locusts, yet it is, as a whole, to be regarded as a specimen of the highly wrought hyperbolical, which forms one of the more distinguishing features of Hebrew poetry, nani Vap, the voice of Jehovah, is here, as frequently, thunder, and not any word of command, as some have imagined. Com. Exod. ix. 23, 29, 33 ; Ps. xviii. 14 ; Ps. lxxvii. 18, 19. The locusts are called the Vifi., army of Jehovah, with further reference to the numbers and power of an army. One of the laws of Mohammed is thus expressed : t\A=> LgiU oSA-S !rLciu ^, rt f>if M{ sJUl, Ye shall not kill the locusts, for they are the army of God Almighty. Damir. And ^j. <¦ j i_>«, Lord of the locusts, is one of the names of God among the Mohammedans. The entire description closes with the brief but pointed interrogation, .aaV-ai ">», Who can endure it? to which the im- ' plied answer is, None. Comp. Mai. iii. 2, -s;a aa,— r-s VaVaaa ijia, and Jer. x. 10, a-ca-r D'j'ii aV-a'i sV. 12. Jehovah himself is here intro duced, urging the necessity of immediate humiliation, niny- QJi,is intensive. The a is that of consequence, deducing an argument from what had preceded ; ES is augmentative and emphatic, as usually in Joel ; and nans has special reference to the existing circumstances of the persons addressed, and the instant atten tion which the divine message required. The combination marks strong feeling in the speaker, and the urgent nature of the subject to which it is introductory. It is to be connected with in:> aa-i, and not with rrini Bay. 13. The prophet resumes his address, and founds upon the call of Jehovah, contained in the preceding verse, an exhortation to sincere inward repentance, which he supports by encouragements deduced from the benignity of the divine character. Pending the garments was usual on occasions of great mourning, see Gen. xxxvii. 29, 34 ; 1 Sam. iv. 12 ; 1 Kings xxi. 27 ; Ezra ix. 3, 5 ; Is. xxxvii. 1. This custom obtained not only among the Hebrews, but also among the Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. na>nn , is neither the plague of locusts, nor the invasion of the Assyrians, but the calamities in gen eral which God brings upon mankind. This interpretation the preceding con text requires. Chap. n. JOEL. 100 Long-suffering, and of great mercy, And repenteth of the evil. 14 Who knoweth ? He may turn and repent, And leave a blessing behind him — An offering and a libation, For Jehovah your God. 15 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, Appoint a sacred fast ; Proclaim a day of restraint. 16 Assemble the people : convene a sacred assembly; Collect the aged ; gather the children, And those that suck the breasts ; Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, And the bride from her nuptial bed. 17 Between the porch and the altar, Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep ; And let them say, Have pity, O Jehovah ! upon thy people, 14. The question s tV> im, who knoweth, while it suggests the idea of the great ness of the sin to be pardoned, also con veys that of the possibility of such par don, " aXX' €T( ko! vvv , Tavr' eXirots 'A^iA-tH* Sdt* * ' k-;k>38 Tina. Syr. jJ^t^Q ft No « i ¦ 7 JViViVi Vulg. ut dominentur eis na- tiones. Hexap. Syr. .OoT-i ^OOSllO jypVnV jiA.9 Thus also Kimchi, Ahenezra, Leo Juda, Junius and Tre- mellius, Jewish-Spanish, Lyranus, Dru sius, Calvin, Newcome, Dathe, Booth- royd, and Hengstenberg ; and there does not appear to be any reason why it could ever have been rendered other wise, but for the influence of the hypo thesis, that the preceding part of the prophecy relates to locusts, and not to political enemies. "Ideo ridiculum est quod multi putant contexti sermonem de locustis : illud prorsus alienum est a Prophetae mente." Calvin, in he. 18. sap, Arab. \J3; valde rubuit ; in Piel sap , to be jeahus, from the redness or flush by which the face is suffused, when a person is under the influence of passion. 19, 20. In the former of these verses, respect is had to the removal of the calamity, from which the Jews were suffering at the time the prophecy was delivered ; in the latter, that of the foreign enemy by whom the country was to be invaded. The article is placed before ¦jam can*n, and nnap, to give them prominence, as the principal objects which had suffered from the locusts, and which were now to be restored. The term laaEan , the Northern, Northlander, or, as Coverdale renders, Him of the North, is of prime importance in the interpretation of the prophecy. It has been urged against its having any refer ence to the locusts, that they visit Pales tine from the south, and not from the north ; but this objection can scarcely be regarded as valid, since, though they do not usually come from that quarter, yet they may be carried by a south wind across Arabia Deserta, and then, when to the north of Palestine, be driven south, or south-west into that country. That, however, which determines the question, is the addition of the patronymic i to ¦psa , indicating that the North was not merely the quarter whence the subject of discourse -came, but that its native country lay to the north of Palestine : just as laMipra , the Temanite, means the South ern, or he who dwells to the right of Pal estine ; insaa, a native Egyptian; in Arabic jS**' a Mcccite, »n nsa. And he is the king Messiah, who shall teach them the way in which they shall walk, and the works that they should do. The same, or a similar construction of the words is found in the Vulg. Rufinus, Jarchi, Pagninus, Munster, Leo Juda, Castalio, the Jewish-Spanish, Remigius, Rupertus, Vatablus, Ribera, Mercer, CEcolamp., Luther, and most of the early Lutheran interpreters ; and, among the modern, Pick and Hengstenberg, the latter of whom contends for it at con siderable length, and decidedly considers the passage to be one of tiie Messianic prophecies. That nn a W signifies teacher, is beyond all doubt, see 2 Chron. xv. 3 ; Job xxxvi. 22 ; Is. ix. 15, xxx. 20 ; and from the occurrence of the word in this place hi connection with np na , righteous ness, which is so frequently' referred to the Messiah both in the Old and New Testaments, there is something very plausible in the application of the term to him who is specially called by Malachi npTna oasa, The Sun op Righteousness, chap. iv. 4, i. e. the author of that illu mination of knowledge which has right eousness for its object. To such interpre tation, however, there appear to me to be the following insuperable objections : — First, it is repugnant to the circumstances of the context ; " non videtur tamen ferre hunc sensum circumstantia loci." Calvin; who says of the reason adduced in support of it, that it would be out of place to give such prominence to merely temporal blessings : " sed ratio ilia est nimis fri- gida ; " and goes on to show that, in ac cordance with the custom of the. pro phets, Joel begins with these inferior bless ings, and afterwards, in ver. 28, proceeds to treat of those which are spiritual. Sec ondly, the repetition of the same term, nn.aaa, immediately after, where, as all allow, it must be taken in the accepta tion of rain. And thirdly, the pecul- ClIAP. II. JOEL. 109 For he giveth you the former rain in due measure ; Yea, he causeth the heavy rain to descend for you — The former and the latter rain as before : 24 So that the floors shall be full of grain, iar force and coherence of the words, nn'Krr-ras, and \yapVna rnaM Baa. Tlie emphasis given to nn an, by prefixing not only the article n, but also the de terminating particle fas , shows that the prophet had some immediate and definite object in view, which we cannot imagine to have been any other than the autum nal rain, which was indispensable any year, and more especially after such a season of drought, to prepare the ground for nourishing the seed. It must have been an object of universal and anxious desire, and has, in consequence, a high degree of importance and prominence allotted to it in the text. See on the force of ras the Lexicons of Lee and Gesenius. The same consideration will account for the form, and the particular signification of npnaV in this place, The V is to be taken adverbially, as point ing out the rule or measure accordmg to which the rain was to be npna , so that the meaning will be, in just quantity, adequately, in the proportion suitable to the exigency of the case, pna , the root from which this noun is derived, signifies to be just, right ; to come up to certain claims, to be what a person or thing ought to be. Comp. Lev. xix. 36, where pns is used of weights and measures that were exact, or came up to the demands of the law. Some propose to render npnaV , bountifully, but this would give the Chaldee rather than the Hebrew sig nification. Ewald translates, the early rain for justification, and explains it of the Jews bemg again accounted right eous by God. To the objection of Hengs- tenburg, that if nnan in the first half of the verse does not designate a different divine benefit from ran a a in the* second, an idle tautology will ensue, it is only necessary to reply, that the words occur in parallelism, and that in the second instance nnan is merely a resumption for the sake of dividing the E'aj mentioned immediately before into its two regular divisions, the former and the latter. The term elsewhere used for the former or autumnal rain, which falls from the middle of October until the middle of December, is nna'\ lit. waterer, being the Benoni Participle of nm , to dart, cast, or scatter, as drops of water, nn-'a, however, which is the Hiph. Participle of the same verb, does occur in the same acceptation, Ps. Ixxxiv. 7. Comp. my note on Hosea vi. 3, where lua'pVn, the latter or vernal rain is also explained. The reading nnai, which is found in stead of the former n-.a'a, in twenty-three MSS., originally in eleven more, now in three, in the Jerusalem Talmud, and as Keri in the margin of two of De Rossi's Codices, is in favor of the rendering rain, which is that of all the early ver sions, but may possibly have originated in emendation. With respect to the latter occurrence of the word, there is no cm-pus, et omne id quod longum, largum et profundum est ; Chald. the body : ap plied to such rain as is heavy, or violent, and pours down as it were in a body. The verbs yri, and nna-il, are prophetic futures. To render •p'isna , in the first month, would involve a contradiction, 6ince only one of the two rams could happen in that month. It seems, there fore, necessary to suppose an ellipsis of a, the participle of comparison, and read - vi-sn aa , as formerly, or as in former times. Comp. Jer. i. 22 ; Jer. xxxiii. 11, where natesnaa is similarly used ; and for i a'csn , in the sense of former, 1 Sam. xvii. 30 ;'Hagg. ii. 3. Thus the LXX. Syr. Vulg. Arab. One of Kennicott's MSS. and perhaps another, reads •p'-ais-a. The ellipsis of a is not infrequent in the Hebrew Scriptures. 24. Here the happy results of the plentiful and seasonable rains are set 110 JOEL. Chap. II. And the vats shall run over with new wine and oil. 25 Thus he will make good to you the years Which the swarming locusts hath devoured, The licking locust, the consuming locust, and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent against you. 26 And ye shall eat plentifully and be satisfied, And praise the name of Jehovah your God, Who hath dealt wondrously with you : And my people shall never be ashamed. 27 Then shall ye know, that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I, Jehovah, am your God, and none else ; And my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass, afterwards, That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; forth. The a in asVaa, is consequential. api'iin , comp. the Arab. or! vii. Conj. impulsus fuit, fluxit, to cause to flow, or run over. For ap", see on Is. v. 2. 25. That the prophet has here in view the plague of locusts described in chap. i. cannot well be doubted. The names, though placed in a different order, are identical with those there specified. They are called God's great army, a, name still given to them by the Arabs. See on ver.- 11. Though the scourge lasted only one year, yet as they not only destroyed the whole produce of that year, but also what was laid up in store for future years, there is no im propriety in the plural form of C"SB, years. The term is used metonymically for the produce and supply of years. The loss of these Jehovah promises to recompense or make good by not only furnishing the Jews with an abundance of temporal enjoyments, but affording them the delightful experience of his presence and favor as their covenant God. This promise is amplified in verses — 26, 27, In which the future prosperity of the Jewish church is described in terms, which obviously characterize the period which succeeded that of the Babylonish captivity. The divine re compense was not merely to cover the evils sustained by the ravages of the locusts ; it was to extend to those which both the Assyrians and the Chaldeans were to inflict upon the nation. This interpretation is confirmed by what im mediately follows respecting the out pouring of the Holy Spirit. By God's being in the midst of his people, is meant the special manifestation of his presence in the communications of his favor. The resumption of 13s in ijsa, forms a beautiful anadiplosis. 28, 29. The prophet now proceeds to predict the impartation of richer gifts in future times than those temporal bless ings -which had just been promised to the Jews, "p— inns, afterward, LXX. pera Tavra, Hengstenberg would place in antithesis with -ja-iisna, ver. 23, which he renders first ; but trie latter phrase has reference to what had already taken place, and was not future to the time of the prophet, la-inns , though indefinite, is nearly equivalent in force to riinnts Bia»ra , Is. ii. 2, as appears from its hav ing been rendered by the apostle Peter iv reus io'xdrais ripepais, in the last days. Jarchi, saV nifasV, in futurity ; Abenezra, nsaaan fast Va jw n nas "ia as nas -nan nt-a 'na mrsV sin rainnsa nina pn ia inns nas naV train. "Rabbi Jeshua saith, All this is a prophecy of the future ; and Rabbi Moses the priest saith, If so, why does he say after this ? but it is the same as, Chap. II. JO EL. Ill 29 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions ; And even upon the male and the female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. and it shall come to pass in the latter days ;" in which interpretation Kimchi concurs, adding, ia Cnsnia nas® "EV sVa as-ira nrs nas .13s Vsn»i mp^ 13BV asanna aaa»n nas 15 naVw -anna annw yal sai nsinin rst inns Vas sana nas astann sVa naViu ns-m i.nas nsn ynsn nsVa ia nasas nuraan naaiV na-i r-s , " Because it is said, And ye shall know that I am hi the midst of you. What he says is, Now ye know, but not with a perfect knowledge, for ye will again commit sin before me ; but after this knowledge there shall come a time when ye shall know me with a perfect knowledge, and shall sin no more, namely, hi the days of the Mes siah." That the two phrases are iden tical in meaning, clearly appears from a comparison of Jer. xlviii. 47, with xlix. 6. See on Is. ii. 2. nEja signifies to pour out, to communicate in a plentiful and abundant manner, and is here used with the greatest propriety to denote the larger and richer supplies of divine in fluence, which were to be afforded to the church under the gospel dispensation. tnan, spirit, means here the influences and gifts of the Holy Spirit, as in numerous other passages, in which the Spirit is said to be put, given, etc. ; and these communications are described hi lan guage which shows that they were both to be more ageneral and more special in their character. In a more general point of view, they were to be bestowed upon n'"4-a— Va , all flesh, i. e. mankind generally, without distinction of nation or country. To restrict this phrase to the Jews, as is done by Abenezra, Kimchi, Albo, Hitzig, and others, is irreconcilable with Scripture usage, according to which it constantly signifies mankind gener ally, or the whole human race ; just as in Arabic, ^io and . LcJj I signify homo, humanum genus, and Adam is called w&aJ| «_aj, the father of flesh, i. c. of mankind. Credner would have the phrase to include the animal creation, than which no construction could be more preposterous in such connection, ' or more at variance with other passages in which the communication of the in fluences of the Spirit are limited to the human family. The influence, of which universality is here predicated, is the saving energy which is exerted by the Holy Spirit, in commencing, carrying on, and consummating the work of grace in the souls of men. It accom panies the presentation of divine truth to the mind, and removes the obstacles which the force of innate depravity opposes to the reception of the gospel. See my Lectures on Divine Inspiration. pp. 525-530. Besides the influence which was thus to be vouchsafed for the purposes of salvation, the prophet spe cifies that which should be more limited in its communication, consisting in the miraculous endowment of a certain number of Jews, of different classes and conditions, with the knowledge of divine things, and the ability infallibly to communicate them to others. The persons on whom these gifts were to be conferred are their " sons and daugh ters;", thefr "aged men," and their " youths ; " their " male " and " fe male servants ; " terms which are mani festly designed to teach that their bestowment was to embrace persons of different classes, ranks, and conditions of life. s.aa, Arab. Lo, indicavit, an- nunciavit, Eth. 7 /111 ? hcutus est, *\*j f~jp " vaticinatus est, prcedixit, is used not merely to denote the foretelling 112 JOEL. Chap. H. 30 And I will show prodigies in the heavens and in the earth, Blood and fire, and columns of smoke. 31 The suu shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, of the future events, but to express the giving of utterance to divine truth under a mfraculous impulse, or the pretending to such impulse, whether the utterance was made in the way of direct com munication, as was the case when the prophets addressed their hearers, or by the rehearsal or singing of sacred hymns under extraordinary divine impulse, as when Miriam sung at the Red Sea, Exod. xv. 20, 21 ; or when the sons of the prophets and Saul prophesied, 1 Sam. x. 5, 6, xix. 20-24. Comp. Acts xix. 6, xxi. 9 ; 1 Cor. xi. 4, 5, xiv. 1, 5, 6, 22, 24, 31, 39 ; which passages furnish strik ing illustrative examples of the fulfil ment of the prophecy of Joel. See also 1 Chron. xxv. 1-3 ; and Mede's works, Book I. Discourse xvi. That we are fully warranted to interpret it of the extraordinary supernatural gifts which were vouchsafed in the apostolic age, is placed beyond doubt by its allegation by Peter, in justification of the phenomenon which took place on the day of Pente cost. tovt6 icTi, this is the fact pre dicted by Joel, Acts ii. 16. The quo tation was the more apt, since the words of the prophet had just been read in the pentecostal service of the Synagogue- See my Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, p. 326. naaVri , dreams, and raaaiTri > visions, belonged to the different modes in which God revealed his will to the prophets. Numb. xii. 6 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15 ; Jer. xxiii. 25-28 ; Dan. vii. 1, 2. See my Lectures on Inspi ration, pp. 147-165. Though no ex press mention is made of dreams in the apostolic writings, yet repeated reference is to visions. See acts ix. 10, 12, x. 3, 17, xi. 5, xvi. 9, xviii. 9, xxvi. 19 ; 2 Cor. xii. 1 ; Rev. ix. 17. E aia , and even, indicates a rise in the prophecy, which was intended to exclude none, not even the lowest and most despised " servants," from a participation in the large bestow ment of divine influence. In beautiful harmony with this feature of the pro phecy is the special recognition of oi tttoixoI, the poor, in the New Testament. Therepetitioninan ns a; a. 2 -is 7 will pour out my Spirit, shows, that the influence of which, in general, they were to be partakers, was not merely that which consisted in the miraculous gifts, but also that ordinary and saving influence which is experienced by all believers. What incontrovertibly proves that the prophecy includes both a more ordinary, and a more extraordinary or miraculous divine agency, is the extension given to it by the apostle Peter, Acts ii. 38, 39 ; where he teaches that it was to comprehend " all that are afar off," i. e. the Gentiles, " even as many as the Lord our God shall call." 30, 31. In connection with this period of the rich enjoyment of divine influence, Joel introduces one of awful judgment, called as usual njnn Eai, the day of Jeho vah, the precursors of which he describes in very alarming language. That the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish polity is intended, most interpreters are agreed ; but there exists a diversity of opinion respecting the character of the language, some takhig it literally, as setting forth physical prodigies, such as those which Josephus relates to have taken place before the destruction of Jerusalem, and tremendous massacres and conflagrations in different parts of the country ; while others maintain that it is symbolical, and consequently is to be figuratively explained. The latter position is more in accordance with the style of prophecy, in which we not only find a fixed set of symbols, but also, very frequently, an accumulation of images is introduced for the purpose of producing a more powerful effect on the mind. See on Is. xiii. 10, xxxiv. 3—5. The heavens and the earth, Chap. II. JOEL. 113 Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. 32 And it shall come to pass, That whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be delivered : For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall bo the escaped, therefore, mean the political world, with its civil and religious establishments ; the sim and moon, the higher and supe rior ruling powers ; while the other images are employed to denote the disastrous prognosticatory changes that were to happen hi relation to both. ' Comp. Matt. xxiv. 29 ; Mark xiii. 24, 2.5 ; Luke xx. 25-27, where the subject is the same as that exhibited by Joel, and the symbolical language in a great mea sure parallel. Similar images are used by pagan writers, when describing the forerunners of civil wars, as, for instance, Lucanus, Pharsal. lib. ver. 529 : — Super igne minaces Prodigiis terras implerant, aethera, pontum. Ignota obscurae viderunt sidera noc- tes, Ardentemque polum flammis, coeloque volantes, Obliquas per inane faces, crinemque timendi. Sideris, et terris mutantem regna cometen. Fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra se- reno, Et varias ignis denso dedit aere for- mas." Eifis'ia, prodigies, whatever objects are unusual, portentous, or miraculous, in their character. The word is most prob ably aderivative from n£i, Arab. Conj. iii. ,*>«, eminuit, to be conspicuous, admi rable, wonderful. LXX. repara. It frequently occurs in combination with raans o-npela, signs. r>anM.i)?i , only occurs once besides, and, as here, in construc tion with 70S, viz. Song iii. 6 ; where, however, nineteen MSS. and originally another read nanafa , without the Yod, which is doubtless' the more correct or thography, the Yod having been inserted 15 as a help to the pronunciation. There can be little doubt that it is derived from na;n , to be erect, whence nap the palm- tree, from its tall and erect growth. Comp. the Chaldee nnBP, a, column of smoke; nateifl, Arab. v._(fili' and 8s«-iflLj', turris ; and nan, to rise like a column. The phrase will, therefore, be equivalent to vis inaas , of which we have the singular vis naas, Jud. xx. 40. LXX. aTpitia Kairvov ; but in Song iii. 6, areKexn Kairvov. Vulg. vaporem fumi. Targ. l,:f"! V""12"" columns of smoke, the singular of which is used Jud. xx. 40. Tanc. : saju'wyll ^Laa-jJI SJuL&i, pillars of smoke ascending up. Those who are familiar with the account given by Josephus of the disorders, convulsions, excesses, and rebellions, which preceded the subversion of the Jewish state, will readily admit, that the figurative lan guage here employed most appropri ately sets forth the awful circumstances of the inhabitants of Palestine at that period. To render more prominent the tremendous nature of the final judg ment of the Jews, when their city and polity were destroyed, it is not merely called raani ov, but Vansra nani nai Snaana, the great and fearful day oj Jehovah ; terms which are employed by the prophet Malachi, iv. 5, (Heb. iii. 23,) in reference to the same event. 32. The phrase nan* Qi-a snp.usually means to evoke Jehovah according to his true character, and designates such as he would regard in the light of accep table worshippers ; but on comparing the quotation of the words with direct reference to our Saviour, Rom. x. 13, With Acts ix. 14, 1 Cor. i. 2, it appears 114 JOEL. Chap. II. According as Jehovah hath promised, Together with those that are left, Whom Jehovah shall call. to be here employed as a periphrasis for those Jews who should embrace the faith of the Messiah, and render to him as nani, Jehovah, the same supreme worship which had been rendered to God by their pious ancestors. From the passage just quoted from the Acts, it is clear that the disciples of Christ were characterized as invokers of his name, i. e. as his wor shippers, before they were called Chris tians. The prophecy contains a gracious promise, that, however terrible might be the final catastrophe in which the un believers should perish, provision would be made for the safety of those who be lieved in the Messiah. And church his tory records its fulfilment ; for, on the approach of the Roman army, the chris tian inhabitants of Jerusalem took to flight, in compliance with the Saviour's warning, and retiring to Pella, on the eastern side of the river Jordan, found there a safe asylum, while the devoted city was being besieged and destroyed. — ob p.ev aWa. ko! tov \aov Trjs iv 'Upo- ao\iipois iKKKnaias, Kara Tiva xpvapibv toIs avr6&i SoKipots 81 6\iroKa\6\f/ea)S fio&evTa irpb tov iroXeuov, peravaffTrivai ttjs iroKecos, Kal Tiva Trjs irepalas ir6\iv oiKeiv KeKeKevcrpevov. neAAap avTi)v bvo- pa^ouaiv' iv rj twv els Xptarbv irem- aTevK6rwv airb ttjs 'Iepovo-a\ijfi aeraiKia- p.evaiv, k. t. A. Euseb. lib. iii. cap. v. nQiVs.is a collective noun, signifymg those who' have escaped ; in other words, 7} iv 'Iepoo-o\vpois iKK\i)oia, " the church in Jerusalem," as Eusebius phrases it in the above quotation, who not only made their escape from the impending calamity, but from the " untoward generation " to which they had belonged, Acts ii. 40; Is. iv. 3 ; so that the meaning is, not that there should continue to be deliverance for those who remained in Zion and Je rusalem during the infliction of the punishment, but that those who resided there should make their escape from it, having previously been delivered from the condition of those on whom it was inflicted. The words nan* naas "rasa, refer to the promise just made, oi n inea a, together with those that have been left, from nn'c, Arab. i>^-wj aufugit, vaga- iusquefuit, (J.Lw, and £«wCu, aufu- gens, to flee, make one's escape, survive a slaughter, or any other calamity. The reference seems not to be to converted Gentiles, as Schmidius, Michaelis, Holz- hausen, and others interpret, but to those Jews who did not perish in the national judgments, but were called into the church of Christ, snp , as employed in the last clause of the verse, signifies to call, in the sense of effectually prevailing upon any one to choose and participate in the blessings of the divine kingdom. Comp. KaAe'w, as used by Paul, Rom. viii. 28, 30, ix. 24 ; 1 Thess. ii. 12. Knp, the Participle here denotes the future. Chap. III. JOEL. 115 CHAPTER III. In this chapter the prophet returns from the parenthetic view which he had exhibited of the commencement of the Christian dispensation, and the overthrow of the Jewish polity, to deliver predictions respecting events that were to transpire subsequent to tlie Baby lonish captivity, and fill up the space which should intervene between the restoration of the Jews, and the first advent of Christ. He announces the judgment to be holden on their enemies after the return to Judea. 1, 2 ; specifies the reasons why they were to be punished, and expressly mentions by name the neighboring nations of Tyre, Sidon and Philistia, 3-6; promises the restoration of those Jews whom these states had sold into slavery, while they are threatened with slavery in return, 7, 8; summons the nations to engage in the wars in which they were to be destroyed, 9-15 ; shows, that since these con vulsions were brought about by the providence of Jehovah, whose earthly throne was at Jerusalem, his people had no ground for alarm, and would experience his protection, 16, 17; predicts times of great prosperity to them, 18; and concludes with special denuncia tions against Egypt and Idumea, with whose fate is placed in striking contrast the pro tracted existence of the Jewish polity, 19-21. Foe, behold ! in those days, and at that time, When I shall reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, And bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And will plead with them there, 1, 2. sinn nsaa raaann Qia» a , is a double mode of expression, employed to give greater prominence to the period. That the " days and time " here specified, are not identical with the period spoken of in the last five verses of the preceding chapter, is evident from their being con nected by the relative conjunction nips , with the following words, which relate to the restoration of the Jewish state. 13 , at the beginning of the verse, is pro perly rendered for, and refers back to chap. ii. 21-27, in which verses times of great temporal prosperity are prom ised to the Jews. With this prosperity was intimately connected the punishment of the nations by which they had been afflicted ; and, accordingly, such punish ment forms the subject of the present chapter. Instead of aa-is , the Keri sub stitutes a aius , in which it is supported by twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS. ; but the frequent occurrence of naaao aaa , in which the Kal form is to be taken causa- tively, shows that there was no necessity for the emendation. See Ps. xiv. 7, liii. 7, cxxvi. 7 ; Is. Iii. 8. Some in terpret the phrase of a general restora tion to circumstances of prosperity, with out any reference to previous circum stances of actual captivity, as in the case of Job xiii. 10 ; but considering its common application to the return from Babylon, and the express mention of the scattering of the nation among the heathen, ver. 2, it seems more natural to refer it to the same event in this place. That the restoration of the Jews from their present dispersion is meant, and that the judgments to be inflicted on the nations are those which are predicted, Eev. xvi. 14, 16, is rendered impossible 116 JOEL Chap. III. On account of my people, and Israel mine inheritance, Whom they have scattered among the nations, And have divided my land ; And have cast lots for my people, And given a boy for an harlot, And sold a girl for wine, That they might drink. And truly, what are ye to me, O Tyre and Zidon 1 by the introduction of the Tyrians, Si- donians, Philistines, etc. verses 4 and 19, since these states all received their punish ment prior to the advent of Christ. By tas-ian" pas, the valley of Jehoshaphat, some understand the narrow valley through which the brook Kedron flows, between the city of Jerusalem and the mount of Olives. To this valley or glen, in which is the celebrated burying-place of the Jews, the Rabbins have appro priated the name, and maintain, that in it the final judgment of the world is to be held ; — a conceit in which they have been followed by many Christian writers, as well as by the Mohammedans. Others suppose it to be a designation of the valley, otherwise called nana pas , the valley of blessing, 2 Chron. xx. 26 ; but as neither of these localities at all comport with the magnitude of the subject treated of by the prophet, we have no alternative but that of considering the words, not as constituting a proper name, or the name of any specific locality, but as symbolical in their import, and designed to charac terize the theatre of the bloody wars that took place after the Babylonish cap tivity, by which the hostile nations con tiguous to Judea had signal vengeance inflicted upon them. They literally sig nify, the valley where Jehovah judgeth, and mean the scene of divine judgments. The term valley appears to have been selected on account of such locality being mentioned in Scripture as the usual theatre of military conflict. This view of the subject is supported by the Targ. in which tlie words are not re tained, but translated sa"i jaVs n»ia, the plain of the distribution of judgment, and by the translation of Theodot. ri)v Xpav rr)s Kpiaeais. The nations to be punished are restricted, ver. 2, to such as should have scattered the Jews, and occupied thefr land. Comp. chap. ii. 17. 3. The Jews were frequently treated in the most ignominious manner by their enemies. Such conduct is here affect- ingly set forth. That it was customary to cast lots for those who were taken captive, see Obad. ver. 11 ; Nah. iii. 10. The giving of a boy for a whore, does not mean the exchange of the one for the other, but the payment of the captive for an act of sensual indulgence ; just as the selling of a girl for wine, means giving her in compensation for a draught of it. Comp. Gen. xxxviii. 17 ; comp. also Deut. xxii. 18, where naif "p.ris, the hire ofawhore, is coupled with aVa nifaa, the price of a dog ; and the Arabic prov erb, oo«J JLulV i.vJij the son of a whore hired with oil. Meid. xciv. Char- den mentions that when the Tartars came into Poland, they carried off all the chil dren they could, and, finding at length that they were not redeemed, sold them at the low price of a crown. In Min- grelia, he adds, they sell them for pro visions, and for wine. 4. Among the nations bordering on the country of the Jews, which had ren dered themselves particularly obnoxious to the divine wrath, were those on the west, for which see on Is. xxiii. and xiv. 28. iV Ctas na D-aa , and truly what are ye to me 1 Think ye 'that I make any account of you ? or that ye can success fully oppose yourselves to me ? The interrogation is altogether different in meaning, as it is in form, from the idiom Chap. III. JOEL. 117 And all the coasts of Philistia ? Will ye retaliate upon me ? If, indeed, ye retaliate upon me, Speedily and swiftly I will bring your retaliation Back upon your own head. Because ye have taken away my silver and my gold ; And my goodly objects of delight Ye have carried into your temples ; And have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem To the sons of the Javanites, That they might be removed far from their own border. Behold ! I will arouse them from the place Whither ye have sold them ; taVa ij— naaj, what have we in common f with which Kimchi compares it. rnViVj, , circuits, districts. Comp. Josh. xiii. 2, where the word is rendered coasts in our version. They were properly provinces, of which there were five in number, each governed by a "p. rj , prince, or hrd. V b> all, before raaViV.a , expresses contempt. ts, is not here correlate with ra , in Vaa.an, but puts a fresh case for the sake of ar gument. The case supposed, however, was true in fact. The interrogative n as sumes here the form of the article, as in several other places. See on Amos v. 25. Va: J , signifies to do good or evil to any one ; then to recompense him, either with good or evil ; to reward, retaliate. The mean ing here seems to be, that if these bor dering states, taking advantage of certain untoward circumstances in the history of the Jews, attempted to revenge the vic tories gained over them by the latter, they should be dealt with in the way of divine retaliation. Jehovah here speaks of what was done to his people as done to himself. Comp. Zech. ii. 8 ; Matt. xxv. 40. nnnn Vp, is an asyndeton. Comp. Is. v. 26, where the order of the words is reversed. 5. As in the preceding verse God had identified himself with his people, so here he speaks of thefr property as his. Some suppose the precious vessels belonging to the temple to be intended by i-ana d-aaara, but the articles of private property most highly esteemed by the Jews are more probably meant ; since it does not appear that ever the enemies specified by Joel plundered the temple at Jerusalem, though express mention is made of the plunder of the royal palace by the Phi listines, etc., 2 Chron. xxi. 17. Comp. Hos. xiii. 15 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19. It was customary to hang up or deposit in the idolatrous temples, as presents dedi cated to the gods, certain portions of the spoils taken in war. Arrian, ii. 24. Cur tius, iv. 2. 6. Ciaa-n i: a , the sons of 'the Javanites, i. e. the Grecians. Comp. utes 'Axataiv, of Homer ; and see on Is. lxvi. 19. Credner, Hitzig, and some others, think that the prophet refers to Javanites of Arabia Felix, mentioned Ezek. xxvii. 19 ; but the reasons they adduce in favor of their opinion are insufficient to establish the point. In Ezek. xxvii. 13, Javan is mentioned, along with Tubal and Me- shech, as trading in the persons of men with the merchants of Tyre. Slavery formed an important article of Phoenician commerce, and equally so of that carried on by the Greeks, to whom the former might easily convey the Jewish captives. So famous did the island of Delos become as a slave mart, that sometimes 10,000 were bought and sold in a single day. 7, 8. D'sa'a, Sabeans ; Pococke's Arab. MSS. j^jjf Jja ( , the people of Jemen. 118 JOEL. Chap. Ill And bring back your retaliation Upon your own head ; 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters Into the hand of the sons of Judah, And they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation ; For Jehovah hath spoken it. 9 Proclaim ye this among the nations ; Prepare war ; rouse the mighty ; Let all the warriors approach ; let them come up. 10 Beat your coulters into swords, And your pruning-hooks into spears ; Let the feeble say, I am mighty. 11 Hasten and come, all ye nations around, See on Is. Ix. 6. As the Sabeans traded with India, it is not improbable that P a nn , distant, may be designed to include that part of the East ; though it is said of the Queen of Sheba, that she came iK toiv rrepdraiv Tr)s yrjs, Matt. xi. 42. This prophecy was fulfilled before and during the rule of the Maccabees, when the Jewish affairs were in so flourishing a state, and the Phoenician and Philistine powers were reduced by the Persian arms under Artaxerxes Mnemon, Darius Ochus, and especially Alexander and his successors. On the capture of Tyre by the Grecian monarch, 13,000 of the in habitants were sold into slavery. When he took Gaza also, he put 10,000 of the citizens to death, and sold the rest, with the women and children, for slaves. Favorable, on the other hand, as he was to the Jews, there can be no doubt that he ordered the liberation of such of them as were captives in Greece. 9. rasT, this, refers to what immediately follows : the assembling of the different nations, in order to engage in the wars in which, in succession, they were, as political states, to be subdued and perish. is np , is not simply to prepare, as Kimchi explains it, but to prepare by the use of religious rites and ceremonies, such as the heathen employed when they undertook a military enterprise. 10. Here a state of things is presented to view, directly the opposite of what was to exist in the days of the Messiah, Is. ii. 4 ; Micah iv. 3. Such was to be the extent of the conflict, that, in the lack of a sufficient number of arms, the ordinary implements of husbandry would be converted into weapons. squalent abductis arva colonis, Et curoe rigidum falces conflantur in ensem." Virgil. Georg. i. 507. " Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila ligones, Factaque de rastri pondere cassis erat." Ovid. Fast. i. 699. 11. was, a airat, Key. in all probability the same in signification with siafi, to hasten. The ancient versions follow the LXX., who render, crwa&poi&m&e. Arab. ij&Lc , vitam duxit, vixit ; hence the idea of liveliness, activity, agility, etc, M rj : n , is the Imperative in Hiphil of fa ra: , to descend, go or come down. The place whither, is the scene of warfare, the valley of Jehoshaphat, implied in ritoc, which with the n is frequently the same in signification with no. The abrupt transition to Jehovah has a powerful effect. Whatever might be the individual views of those engaged in the conflict, they were the instruments of Divine Chap. in. JOEL. 119 And gather yourselves together ; Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah 1 1 2 Let the nations be roused, let them come up To the valley of Jehoshaphat ; For there I will sit to judge all the nations around. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe : Come, descend, for the wine-press is full, The vats run over ; For their wickedness is great. Multitudes ! multitudes In the valley of decision ! For the day of Jehovah is near, 13 14 wrath, and are on this account called the " mighty ones " of Jehovah. Comp. Is. x. 5-7. 12. To give prominence to the in terest which God had in what was to take place, the metaphor is here changed into that of a judicial process, in which he acts as judge, and gives a just deci sion against the enemies of his people. For aaB'jarai pttv, see on ver. 2. Here, as in that verse, the nations to be pun ished were those aiaaaa , circumjacent to Judea. 13. The prophet now employs meta phors taken from the harvest and the vintage, which strikingly express the havoc and destruction effected by war : the one denoting the slaughter or cutting down of armies, and the other the effu sion of their blood. The same images are similarly employed, Is. xvii. 5, 6, lxiii. 2 ; Lam. i. 15 ; and especially Rev. xiv. 14-20. V»M> a sickle, Arab. JLsXJLfl, Syr. 13.^0. In Arab, the root, i l„ signifies to cut. The sickles of the East, as represented on Egyptian monuments, pretty much resembled ours, only some of them were smaller, and had more the appearance of a knife hooked at the end. van, from n-p, to descend, some take to be used here in the acceptation of the Arab. _£», calcavit. Thus the LXX. iraTevre. But as in order to tread the grapes it was necessary to go down into the wine-press, it seems better to abide by the ordinary significa tion of the Hebrew verb, and to consider the action of treading to be implied, rather than expressed. At the close of the verse the metaphor is dropped, and the cause of the tlung signified is boldly presented to view. 14. Qiaan o'aan, multitudes, multi tudes, a Hebraism for immense multitudes. This rendering is preferable to that of tumults. In the preceding verses, the nations are called upon to assemble, and here the prophet, beholding them con gregated in obedience to the summons, breaks out into an appropriate exclama tion in regard to their number, yann, Piscator, the Geneva English, Calvin, Leo Juda, Michaelis, Justi, Holzhausen, and Credner, take in the sense of thresh ing. Kimchi, Tanchum, Abulwalid, Newcome, and some others, render ex cision; but the LXX. Theodot. Syr. Targ. Theodoret, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Fiirst, translate the word by decision or judgment, which seems more in keeping with the name of the valley, and the idea of a judicial process, set forth ver. 12. Comp. for the acceptation to de termine, decide, as attaching to the verb •fnn,l Kings xx. 40; Is. x. 22. The meanmg is the decision or doom of the nations to which the prophecy refers. The repetition of "annn pais , heightens the effect. 120 JOEL, Chap. III. In the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, And the stars shall withdraw their shine. 16 For Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, And utter his voice from Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth shall shake ; But Jehovah is a refuge for his people, A stronghold for the sons of Israel. 1 7 And ye shall know that I Jehovah am your God, ¦ Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; Then shall Jerusalem be holy ; Foreigners shall invade her no more. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, That the mountains shall drop new wine, And the hills shall flow with milk, 15. A figurative mode of representing the removal of the political rulers of the world. Comp. chap. ii. 10, 31. . 16. These words, as Chandler properly remarks, seem to intimate very plainly, that at least part of the judgments here threatened to be exerted upon the neighboring nations, should be executed by the Jews themselves. They doubtless refer to the victories obtained by Matta- thias, and his sons the Maccabeans. As king of the Jewish nation, Jehovah had his residence in Jerusalem, whence he caused his power to be exerted to the discomfiture of his enemies, and the de liverance and protection of his people. Comp. Ps. xviii. 13 ; Hab. iii. 10, 11. Mwp , to roar, is properly used of the lion, but is metaphorically applied to God, to express the terrible majesty with which he encounters his foes. Comp. Jer. xxv. 30 ; Amos i. 2. iii. 8. 17. sni, is here, as in Is. Iii. 6. Ix. 16 ; Hos. ii. 20, to be taken in the accep tation of experiencing, knowing by ex perimental proofs of the divine kindness. This the Jews did in the deliverances effected on their behalf, after the return from the captivity, especially on the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, and in the enjoyment of their national and re ligious privileges, till the termination of their polity. That the strong language at the close of the verse does not imply a state of immunity from invasion, to which there was absolutely to be no end, will appear on comparing Is. Iii. 1 , and Nah. i. 15. See my note on the former of these passages. From the death of Antiochus till the coming of the Messiah, no hostile power should take possession of the holy city. To express the perfect immunity from idolatry, by which Jeru salem should be characterized, i»np, holi ness in the abstract, is used. Comp. Obad. 17. By taint, strangers, or bar barians, foreign enemies are meant. 18. A splendid figurative represen tation of the extraordinary prosperity to be accorded to the Jewish people after the destruction of their enemies. Thus Tanchum in Pococke, s»L*&wl oli'jjJI. >_^vn,, Teku' a, Dr. Robinson found covering an extent of four or five acres on an elevated hill, not steep, but broad at the top, about two hours distant from Bethlehem. On approaching it, he describes the landscape as rocky and sterile, yet rich in pasturage, as was tes tified by the multitude of the flocks. (Palestine, ii. pp. 181, 182.) The sur rounding region, especially that in the direction of the Dead Sea, is called S.apEa. "aanaa , 2 Chron. xx. 20, and r) epepos SeKuie, 1 Mace. ix. 33. In this pas turing district, our prophet originally tended his flocks, and collected the syca more figs. For the dates here specified, see the Introduction. The prophecy is specially directed against Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes, though that of Judah, and likewise several foreign states, are also expressly denounced. We possess no data by which to fix the year in which the earthquake, here mentioned, occurred. Zechariah, chap. xiv. 5, refers to it as having happened in the days of Uzziah, but he does not specify the year. According to Josephus, it took place on occasion of the invasion of the sacerdotal office by that monarch, Antiq. ix. 10, 4. As earthquakes are by no means un common at Palestine, it must have been unusually severe to entitle it to the spe ciality of reference here employed. Some interpret asSn of a civil commotion, but without sufficient ground, as the connec tion Zech. xiv. 4, 5, shows. 2. Zion, or Jerusalem, being the cen tral point of the theocracy, was the spe cial residence of Jehovah, to whom the judgments afterwards denounced, are, in highly figurative language, immediately referred, jso., commonly employed to express the roaring of the lion, is here used to set forth the awful character of those judgments. Dathe, stumbling at the boldness of the figure, renders, Jova ex Zione dira pronunciat; thereby de stroying the poetical force of the lan guage. Comp. Jer. xxv. 30 ; Job xxxvii. 4. a in aVasa, marks the arjodosis. For EiJJ-in raatu, comp. ssn raiss, Is. xxm. 2. Van a , Michselis, Justi, and others take to be the Carmel, now called by the Arabs vJUo»^a Kurmul, which lies near Yutta, or Juttah, between two and three hours to the south of Hebron ; but though the mountainous region about that place was more in the proximity of the prophet, yet the established scripture reference to the fertility of the celebrated Mount Carmel in the tribe of Asher seems to entitle the latter to the preference. In fact, there does not appear to be any mountain deserving the name in the hill country of Judah. The hill of Maon, which is close by, is not less than two hundred feet higher than the site of the ruins of the castle of Kurmul. See Robinson, ut sup. pp. 193-200. Besides the identical phrase, Vana rjBsin, the summit of Carmel, which again occurs chap. ix. 3, in immediate connection with the sea, is employed in application to the western Carmel, 1 Kings xviii. 42. 3. Here begins a series of minatory predictions against different states, which extends to chap. ii. 8, where it merges in a continued denunciation of judg ments directed almost exclusively against the Israelites. Instead of proceeding at once to charge the ten tribes with the flagrant evils of which they had been guilty, Amos commences with the Sy rians, and after exposing their wicked- Chap. I. AMOS. 127 And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron ; 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, And it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. ness, and that of the Philistines, the Phoenicians, the Edomites, the Ammo nites, the Moabites, and the Jews, he conies to his proper subject, on which he dwells throughout the rest of the book. Having roused the indignation of those among whom he prophesied against sin as exhibited in others, he charges it home upon themselves. Each of the eight predictions is ushered in by the solemn nana nas iria, thus saith Jehovah ; and consists in part, in a repetition of the same symmetrical stanzas, with an intermixture of matter, varying according- to the nature of the subjects treated of. Interpreters differ in regard to the precise meaning of the use made by our prophet of the numerals three and four. Similar formula? are frequent in Hebrew. See Exod. xx. 5 ; Job v. 19, xxxiii. 14, 29 ; Prov. xxx. 15, 18, 21; Eccles. xi. 2; Is. xvii. 6 ; Mic. v. 4. Comp. the rpls ko.1 rerpaKis of Homer ; the Jerque qua- terque of Virgil ; and the ter et quater of Horace. The notion, that the two num bers are to be added, so as to bring out the perfect number seven, and thus to express the completeness or full measure of the iniquity, is not borne out by Hebrew usage. That the numbers are to be taken literally, as in Prov. xxx. where there is an enumeration of each of the particulars, is equally out of the question ; the specification of the prophet being, in each case, limited to a single act of wickedness. Nor can the con struction be admitted, I have not pun ished Damascus, etc. on account of three transgressions, but on account of a fourth I will punish her; since aaait-N sV, ob viously connects with both numerals. The only satisfactory mode of explication is, to regard the phrase as intensively proverbial, and designed to express mul tiplied or repeated delinquencies, of which the last, as the most atrocious, is uni formly described. The noun to which the suffix in ssa^i'S relates, is not ex pressed, either before or after the verb, on the principle, that the subject referred to would naturally suggest itself to the mind of the reader. It is anticipative of the sentence of punishment delivered in the following verses. Comp. Num. xxiii. 20, in which is an ellipsis of the noun nana, the idea of which is expressed by the verb.' Bp. Lowth proposes to render, "I will not restore it ; " but with out sufficient authority, raaatri aa-i, "to reverse the captivity," is the phrase em ployed in such case. In the phrase, " I will not reverse," is a litotes — the mean ing being, " I will certainly execute." For Damascus, which, as the metropolis, is put for the kingdom of Syria, see on Is. xvii. 1. The cruel treatment of the inhabitants of Gilead here referred to, is that to which they were subjected by Hazael and Benhadad, 2 Kings x. 32, 33. xiii. 3-7, both of which princes Amos mentions by name, ver. 4. It consisted in their being thrown before the thresh ing sledges, the sharp teeth of iron in the rollers of which tore and mangled their bodies. See on Is. xxviii. 27, and comp. 2 Sam. xii. 31, where we find the same punishment inflicted by David, by the law of retaliation, raaanr;, the LXX. render irptoai tntii)pdis, and add unwar rantably, ras iv yaaTpl ixovaas ', Symm. and Theod. rpoxois aitinpois. ujan, to thresh, is the very term used in the his tory of the transaction, 2 Kings xiii. 7- Gilead comprehended the whole of the territory beyond the Jordan, belonging to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh ; and as it bordered on the kingdom of the Sy rians, was particularly exposed to their attacks. 4. The Benhadad here mentioned was the son and successor of Hazael, and not the king of that name whom Hazael succeeded. Comp. 2 Kings viii. 7, 15, 128 AMO S. Chap. I. I will also break the barrier of Damascus, And cut off the ruler from the valley of Aven, And the sceptre-holder from Beth-Eden, And the people of Syria shall go captive to Kir, Saith Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah ; For three transgressions of Gaza, And for four I will not reverse it ; Because they effected a complete captivity To deliver it up to Edom, with xiii. 3, 24. A similar prediction was afterwards delivered by Jeremiah, chap. xlix. 27, from which and from Hos. viii. 14, it is evident that the phra seology employed by Amos here, and verses 7, 10, 12, 14, chap, ii. 2, 5, is not peculiar to that prophet. 5. According to the testimony of a native, whom Michaelis consulted, there is a most delightful valley called Oon, about four hours distant from Damascus, to wards the desert, which has given rise to a proverb, "Have you ever been in the valley of Oon ? " meaning, Have you ever been in a place of delight ? As, however, this has not been confirmed by any traveller, most expositors are inclined to refer the place to what is otherwise called laaaisn raspa, "the valley of Le banon," or cULJI, el Bukd'a, between the ridges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Here are the celebrated ruins of the tem ple of Baalbec, the Syrian Heliopolis, to which the LXX. have expressly referred ¦jas, Aven, only pronouncing it "ps, On — iK iretiiov 'Civ ; just as they have ren dered the latter word when it is employed to denote the city of the same name in Egypt, which was dedicated to the sun. The Hebrews in Palestine, to express their abhorrence of the idolatrous wor ship practised at both places, pronounced the word -ps , Aven, which properly sig nifies nothingness, vanity, and hence an idol, on account of its inutility. Comp. with the present passage Ezek. xxx. 17. a'i-I>i does not here denote inhabitant, or inhabitants generally, but as the parallel aaaara apaa/ip, sceptre-holder, shows, one who sits upon, or occupies a throne — a judge, prince, or king — the person exercising authority in the district specified. For the latter phrase, the pa>v ; nor with Justi, " a holy or pious captivity ; " nor with Grotius and Michaelis, captivitatem pa- cificam ; but the immense number of cap tives which were carried away from Judea in the reign of Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. The capture was indiscriminate and uni versal ; none escaped. Comp. for the phrase Jer. xiii. 19. What aggravated the guilt of the Philistines, was that they did not treat the Jews as prisoners of war, but sold them as slaves to the Edo mites, who were their bitterest enemies, and would treat them with the utmost cruelty. They were doubtless conveyed to Petra, the great emporium of com merce, and there sold to such as might purchase them. Comp Joel iii. 4-6. 7. citJ,7?re, is here metaphorically used for war, in carrying on which, however, it is often employed as one of the most destructive elements. Comp. Num. xxi. 28 ; Is. xxvi. 11. 8. For the meaning of attiai, see on ver. 5. Three others of the principal cities of the Philistines are now threat ened, naTjis, Ashdod, for which see on Is. xx. 1 ; ¦pVp'iss, Arab. ..v^JLwkftj Askelon, occupying a strong position on the top of a ridge of rock, which encir cles it, and terminates at each end in the 17 sea, and distant from Gaza about five hours in the direction of NN. E. ; and -,inpv, Ekron, now called by the natives y^X& , Alar, the most northerly of the five, and at some distance inland from the line of hills which run along the coast of the Mediterranean. See Dr. Robin son's Palestine, III. 21-25. The reason why Gath, the remaining city of the five, is not mentioned, is assigned by Kimchi to be, its having been already subdued by David ; but as it was afterwards occupied both by the Syrians, 2 Kings xii. 17, and the Philistines, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, it seems more natural to refer its omission to the fact of its reduction by ITzziah, in the days of our prophet, as narrated in the latter of the above passages. It is also omitted Zeph. ii. 4, 5. hv n- avi-n, to turn the hand upon, means to exert one's power anew, whether in the way of favor or of hostility. Hjre it is ob viously to be taken in the hostile sense. No part of Philistia was to remain un- visited by Divine judgments. Comp. Jer. xlvii. 4 ; Ezek. xxv. 16. In which of the reductions of the Philistines, the prediction received its fulfilment, we camiot determine. One of these took place during the reign of Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7 ; another in that of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 8 ; they were afterwards successively reduced by Psam- meticus, king of Egypt, by Nebuchad nezzar, by the Persians, by Alexander, and ultimately by the Asmoneans. 9. A similar charge is here brought against the Phoenicians, with the super added aggravation of a breach of an- 130 AMOS, Chap. I. And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because they delivered up a complete captivity to Edom, And remembered not the covenant of the brethren. 10 But I will send a fire into the wall of Tyre, And it shall devour her palaces. 11 Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of Edom, And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because he pursued his brother with the sword, And did violence to his pity, And his anger tore continually, And he retained his wrath for ever. 12 But I will send a fire into Teman, And it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah, ciunt faith. Comp. Joel iii. 4-6. The D'ris """I3.' covenant of brethren, mcludes the terms of friendship and mutual as sistance which were agreed upon between David and Hiram, 2 Sam. v. 11 ; and afterwards between Solomon and the same monarch, 1 Kings v. See espe cially ver. 12, (Heb. ver. 26,) where it is expressly stated, that raina anna-->3 DrTV?> " tneY two made a league," or covenant. 10. For Tyre, and the accomplishment of this prediction, see on Is. xxiii. 1 1. For Edom, and the fulfilment of the prophecy here pronounced against it, see on Is. xxxiv. 5. The guilt of the cruelties exercised by the Idumeans upon the Jews was greatly aggravated by the circumstance of their original relation ship, Obad. 10. and the unrelenting per petual character of their hatred, nno n'ttfl'i , lit. to spoil, or destroy compas sions .- i. e, so to repress all the tender feelings of pity, as to become hardened against objects of distress. Comp. the phrase, naian rTni, to destroy wisdom, Ezek. xxviii. 17. The LXX. Ital. Arab. Doderlein, Dathe, Vater, Justi, and some others, take caarrn, in the sense of Dran, the womb, and explain it either of preg nant females, or of the fruit of the womb, i. e. children ; but the plural is never used in this acceptation. Aq. air\dyxva abrov ; Symm. airKayxva fSm. The root Eran , Arab. *js*a, Syr. )cL»;, signifies to hve, in Piel, to regard with tender affection, to cherish feelings of compas sion towards any one. The n in nn»®> is generally considered to be an instance of a paragogie in the third person, hut it is preferable to construe it as the pro nominal feminine affix, agreeing with nnas in the nominative absolute. The absence of the Mappic forms no objec tion, as there are several instances of its omission where we might have ex pected it. The accent on the penul timate favors this construction, being occasioned solely by the absence of the Mappic. The verb, to be taken as a feminine, must be pointed nnaasj , but this would require nnas to be the subject in stead of the object, 'which would be in tolerably harsh. Comp. for the senti ment, and an elliptical form of the phra seology, Jer. iii. 5. The Hebrews speak of keeping a quality, whether good or bad, when they would express its prolonged or continued exercise. See Neh. ix. 32 ; Dan. ix. 4. 12. That Itoifa, Teman, was a city, seems evident from its being mentioned along with nn a a , Bozrah, for which see on Is. xxxiv. 6. Though Jerome speaks of it as a region, he mentions, in his Ono- masticon, a town of this name, at the distance of five miles from Pctra. On Chap. I. AMOS. 131 13 Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of the sons of Amnion, And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because they ripped up those who were pregnant in Gilead, That they might enlarge their border. 14 But I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, And it shall devour the palaces thereof ; With a shout in the day of battle, With a tempest in the day of the storm. the map of Burckhardt and Grimm, it is placed to the south of Wady Musa. It was doubtless the principal place in the district inhabited by the descendants of Teman, one of the grandsons of Esau, Gen. xxxvi. 11, 15, who were celebrated on account of their superior wisdom, Jer. xliv. 7. Comp. Obad. 8, 9, and Baruch iii. 22. Eliphaz, one of Job's friends, was a Temanite. The reason why no mention is made of Sela, or Petra, Cred ner thinks is to be found in the fact, that it had already been captured by Ama ziah, 2 Kings xiv. 7, of whose conquests in that direction advantage was taken by his son Uzziah, ver. 22 ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 2. 13. "pas 13 a, the Ammonites, descend ants of Lot, Gen. xix. 3, occupied the territory on the east of the Jordan, be tween the rivers Jabbok and Amon, but more in the direction of the Arabian desert. That portion of country which lay along the Jordan, of which they had possessed themselves, originally belonged to the Amorites, which accounts for its being given to the tribe of Gad, Josh. xiii. 25. They frequently annoyed the Hebrews, but were repelled by David and several of his successors. For the sake of plunder, they joined the Chal deans on their invasion of Judea ; and, even after the captivity, they evinced the same hostile disposition. They were severely chastised by Judas Maccabeus, 1 Mace. v. 6, 7. Justin Martyr speaks of them as still a numerous people in his day, 'AppavnZv eari vvv no\v irA?i&os. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 347. Ed. Paris, 1615. The atrocious cruelty here charged upon the Ammonites, appears to have formed no unusual part of the barbarities prac tised by the ancients in war. Comp. 2 Kings viii. 12, xv. 16; Hos. xiii, 16, (Heb. xiv. 1 ;) and my note on the last passage. See also 1 Sam. xi. 2. The object of the Ammonites was to effecc an utter extermination of the Israelites inhabiting the mountainous regions of Gilead, in order that they might ex tend their own territory in that direc tion. 14. nan , Rabbah, i. e. " the Great,-' was the metropolis of the country of the Ammonites, the extensive ruins of which have recently been discovered by Seetzen and Burckhardt on the banks of the river Moiet Amman, which empties itself into the Jabbok. The full form of the name was -pass aja nan, Deut. iii. 11, by which it was distinguished from Rabbah of Moab, and a city of the same name in the tribe of Judah. It is called VafiaSidpava by Polybius and Stephen of Byzantium ; but it otherwise went among the Greeks by the name of $iAa8e'A0m, which it derived from Ptolemy Philadelphus. It is now known by that of ,1 _ f Am man, the same given to it by Abulfeda in his Tab. Syr. p. 91. By nSranfa, is meant the tremendous shout which eastern ar mies give at the commencement of battle, partly to excite their courage, and partly to strike terror into the enemy. Comp. Exod. xxxii. 17 ; Josh. vi. 5, 20. Thus the Iliad, iii. 1, etc. — AvTap iire\ K6api)&ev &p' i}yep.6vea-' Xaav, Upvi&es lbs' 'Hvre irep K\ayyi] yepdvwv, k. r. A. 132 AM 0 S, Chap. II. 15 Their king shall go into captivity, He and his princes together, Saith Jehovah. nStj, hurricane, andnBSO, storm or temp est, mark the resistless force of the onset, and the utterly destructive consequences resulting from it. That they are poet ically applied to the warlike operations against Rabbah, is clear from nSSao Gai, the day of storm, being parallel with WanVn Bai, the day of battle. 15. caVtt, their king, the Syr. and Vulg. have understood of Malcam or Mil- corn, i. e. Moloch, an idol of the Ammon ites and Moabites ; but the LXX. and Targ. support the common rendering, which ain'3, his princes, following, would seem absolutely to require. It is true, this term might be taken figuratively to sig nify priests, as in Is. xliii. 28 ; and such interpretation might appear to be countenanced by the occurrence of V Jinb his priests, in the parallel prophecy of Jeremiah, chap. xlix. 3 ; but the use of ai-vr, his princes, immediately after by that prophet, shows that, if the former Jerm be not an interpolation, it denotes the idolatrous priests who were in attend ance upon the king, just as the princes were the chiefs and civil officers about the court. Ot iepeis avrav, which the LXX. have added in Amos, and which is copied in the Syr. and Arab., was probably borrowed from the passage in Jeremiah ; or it may have been inserted in the Greek text by some copyist before these other versions were made. The combination of 6i"ite, princes, with ta£ hv, judge, chap. ii. 3, confirms the above interpreta tion. CHAPTER II. In this chapter we have the continuation of charges and denunciations against different na tions, as the Moabites, 1-3 ; the Jews, 4, 5; and finally, the Israelites, who were to form the principal objects of the prophet's ministry, 6-8. Amos then proceeds to insist on their ungrateful conduct, notwithstanding the experience which they had had of distinguished favors at the hand of God, 9-13; and the futility of all hopes of escape which they might be led to entertain, 14-16. 1 Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of Moab, And for four, I will not reverse it ; 1 For Moab, see on Is. xv. The par ticular act here charged against the Moa bites is nowhere recorded. Michaelis is of opinion, that reference is had to 2 Kings iii. 27 ; but the prince there spoken of was the son of the king of Moab, and not the future heir to the Idumean throne. The wickedness appears to have consisted in a wanton violation of the sanctity of the tomb, by the disinterment and burning of the royal remains. It was indicative of an enmity which was not satisfied with inflicting every possible injury upon its Chap. II. AMOS. 133 Because they calcined the bones of the King of Edom. But I will send a fire into Moab, And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth ; And Moab shall die in the tumult, At the shout, at the sound of the trumpet, I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, And kill all the princes thereof with him, Saith Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of Judah, And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because they have despised the law of Jehovah, And have not kept his statutes ; And their false deities have caused them to err, After which their fathers walked. But I will send a fire into Judah, And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. victim while living, but pursued him even into the regions of the dead. Comp. Is. xxxiii. 12. 2. na^np, Kerioth ; LXX. tuv iroKewv avTu>v; Targ. Nana, the fortress or citadel; in all probability, the chief city, elsewhere called asn; nip , Kir-Moab, and here put in the plural, to describe its size, or ap pearance, as comprehending more than one. Comp. Jer. xlviii. 24, and on Is. xv. 1. "|-s-j, here means the tumult of battle. Is. xiii. 4 ; xvii. 12. 3. From the circumstance that UBjia, judge, and not TfVaa , king, is selected to describe the chief magistrate of Moab, it has not without reason, been supposed, that, at the time the prophet wrote, or. at least, at the time to which his prophecy refers, a change had taken place in the government of that country ; but whether it was occasioned by the extinction of the royal house, or the appointment of a ruler by a foreign power, it is impossible to decide. The reference which some have made to Ps. ii. 10, in proof that judge and king are identical, is not in point; for, though the terms as there used are so far synonymous, that they both designate persons high in office, yet there is an obvious distinction both as it respects the degree of their rank, and the nature of the offices with which they were invested. The connecting of the princes with Moab (nine) and not with the judge (ai-ato) as in chap. i. 15, goes to confirm the view just given. 4, 5. The charges brought against the Jews differ from any of the preceding, in the crimes which they involve having been committed directly against God, and not against man. They had become weary of his service, abandoned his worship, and addicted themselves to idolatrous practices. Between the syno- nymes here employed there is this dif ference of meaning: nnap, law, stands for the institute of Moses generally, of which the moral code formed the basis ; Qipn, statutes, for the ceremonial and judicial enactments. By Biata, lies, idols are meant, and the word is so rendered here in the Vulg. The LXX. have taken the same view of it, rendering it pdraia, vanities. Comp. for this acceptation Ps. xl. 5. Idols were so called because their pretensions and oracles were found ed on falsehood, and because they deluded with false hopes those who worshipped them. Instead of being weaned from 1C4 AMO S. Chap. II. 6 Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of Israel, And for four, I will not reverse it ; Because they sold the righteous for money, And the poor for a pair of sandals : 7 Who pant for the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, And turn aside the way of the afflicted ; A man and his father go in to the same damsel, In order to profane my holy name. 8 They stretch themselves upon pledged garments, Close to every altar ; their attachment to the gods which their ancestors had, at different times, served, the Jews became increasingly addicted to them, and thereby brought upon themselves the punishment inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar. 6. The prophet, having secured the attention of the Israelites by his predic tions against those communities which they regarded with feelings of hostility, comes now to his proper subject, which was to charge upon themselves the guilt which, in various ways, they, as a people, had contracted. Vsntoi , Israel, i. e. the Israelites, consisted, after the revolt in the time of Rehoboam, of the ten tribes, whose capital was Samaria, and whose worship, originally that of Jehovah, under the visible image of the golden calves, speedily merged in the basest and most licentious idolatry, naaa , to sell, has no reference, as some have thought, to the conduct of a corrupt judge, who for money gives a verdict against the in nocent, the term never being used to express any such act ; but describes the selling of a person into slavery. They even deprived the poor of their liberty for the most paltry consideration. Comp. chap. viii. 6. Q-Vsa , sandals, are greatly inferior in value to shoes, consisting merely of soles of leather or wood, fastened by two straps to the feet, one of which passes over the forepart of the foot, near the great toe, and the other round the ankle. 7. ta^tfi, signifies to breathe hard, to 8 pant, eagerly to desire, which well suits the connection, so that there is no neces sity, with Houbigant, Newcome, and others, to change the verb into fjas, to attack, bruise, etc. The meaning of the prophet is, that the persons whom he describes were so avaricious, that, after having robbed others of their property, and reduced them to a state of poverty, they even begrudged them the small quantity of dust which they had cast on then- heads in token of mourning. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 2 ; Job ii. 12. a, as inss'ia, is elsewhere used in the acceptation of' on or upon, and is here the more appro priately adopted, on account of the more usual preposition Vs having just been employed. Comp. chap. viii. 4. tjnn rrttfa, to turn, or thrust aside as to the' way ; i. e. to turn any one out of his right course, into a trackless region, where he can expect nothing but inconvenience, perplexity and danger ; here, to render the afflicted still more miserable. From the reference made hi the following verse to idolatrous deities and altars, it is most probable that nn S a - , the damsel here spoken of, was not an ordinary or common strumpet, but one who prosti tuted herself in honor of Astarte, atone of her shrines. LXX. t V abrijv iraitiioKriv. Such an act of daring profligacy was the more atrocious from its having been com mitted in a heathen temple, with the ex press design, as the prophet states, of do ing indignity to Jehovah. See Gesenius, Lex. in is_n, A) 2. To retain pledged raiment over night was expressly prohibited by the Chap. II. AMOS. 135 And drink the wine of the amerced In the house of their gods. 9 Yet it was I that destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose height was as the height of cedars, And who was strong as the oaks ; I destroyed his fruit above, And his roots beneath. 10 It was I also that brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you in the desert forty years, To inherit the land of the Amorite. 11 And I raised up of your sons to be prophets, Mosaic law, Exod. xxii. 26, 27, as it deprived the owner of his covering : to stretch one's selfupon it in an idol's temple was a great aggravation of the crime. CiVarj , pledged, lit. bound, held in bon dage, from Van, to bind. Arab. d*j*2>.} Syr. ]]^a*», debitum. It was not un usual for the heathen to sleep near the altars of their gods, that they might ob tain communications in dreams ; but as it was customary to eat in a recumbent posture, the stretching here referred to would rather seem to have respect to par ticipation in idolatrous feasts, especially as the drinking of wine in the temples is specified in the following line. C i aa ; S "p i , the wine of the amerced, means wine purchased with money exacted by the imposition of fines, r^a, for naaa, as frequently. Regardless of the sufferings of those whom they oppressed, the apos tate Israelites revelled in sensual indulg ences. 9. a in iaa'sa, is strongly adversative, and introduces the contrast between the Divine conduct and that of the Israelites. The signal benefits which, as a nation, they had received from Jehovah, ought to have attached them for ever to his service. The conjunction and pronoun are repeated for like effect, verse 10, inaasn , the Amorites, are here taken in a wide sense, as including all the inhabi tants of Canaan, on account of their be ing the largest and most powerful of the nations which occupied that country. Comp. Gen. xv. 16, xlviii. 22. In a more special point of view, they inhabited both sides of the Jordan, and particularly the mountains afterwards possessed by the tribe of Judah. Their gigantic height and extraordinary strength, to which reference is frequently made in the his tory of the Hebrews, are here beauti fully compared to cedaTS and oaks, the most majestic and sturdy trees of the forest. The Hebrew as well as the profane poets, often compare men to trees. Comp. Ps. xxxvii. 35, xcii. 12-15 ; Isa. x. 33, 34 ; Ezek. xvii. 3, xxxi. Six teen MSS., originally twelve more, and now five ; five of the oldest editions, and the Rabboth read oa/asaa, " before you," mstead of cn-asn, "before them," but these authorities, under all the circum stances of the text, are insufficient to wan-ant an alteration. 10. Jehovah goes back to still earlier, but no less remarkable displays of his kindness to the nation, showing that from the commencement of its history he had been its benefactor. Comp. Jer. ii. 6. nVs, to come or go up, is always used in Hebrew in reference to local or political elevation, and not, as Rosenmiiller as serts, to the North. The circumstance that many of the regions or places to which persons are said to have gone up, lay to the north of those from which they came, is purely accidental ; whereas the propriety of the use of the term lies in the fact of the mountainous character of the land of Canaan, while Egypt and the intervening regions were low and flat. 11. The prepositive iz in ca-aac, and Gainanaa:, is partitive, indicating that 13(3 AMOS. Chap. H. And of your young men to be Xazarites. Is it not even so, O ye sons of Israel ? Saith Jehovah. 12 But ye made the Nazarites drink wine, And ye charged the prophets, Saying, Prophesy not. 13 Behold, I will press you down, As the cart presseth which is full of sheaves. 14 And refuge shall fail the swift, The strong man shall not exert his strength, some or certain persons out of the num ber were selected. The Divine conde scension in the selection of any of their race to fill the offices here specified, laid them under additional obligatious to de vote themselves to the service of the true God ; and not only was thereby a dis tinguished honor conferred upon them, but such institutions furnished them with the means of religious instruction, and examples of holy living. For aiRiaa , the prophets, see on Hos. xii. 11. EinTS, Nazar'ites, LXX. rryiaapevos, els ayuw- pov, from naa , to separate, set one's self apart, abstain, were a class of persons among the Hebrews who ordinarily bound themselves by a voluntary vow to ab stain either for a time, or for the whole period of life, from wine and all in toxicating liquors, and everything made of the produce of the vine ; and not to shave their head nor touch any dead body. Sometimes persons were, before their birth, devoted by their parents to this abstinence ; as in the cases of Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. For the law of the Nazarite, see Num. vi. and Winer's Realworterb. The object of the institute appears to have been, to exhibit to the view of the nation the power of religious principle operating m the way of self-control, indifference to sensual gratification, and an entire con secration to the service of God. The importance which was attached to it in a moral point of view, is evident from those who thus exercised themselves in self-denial being classed along with the prophets. Respecting the undeniable- ness of the fact a pointed appeal is made at the close of the verse. 12. What could have been more flagrant than to tempt the pious to break their solemn vow, and attempt to induce the inspired ambassadors of Jehovah to withhold the communications of his will ? 13. Here commence the denunciations against the apostate Israelites. The Participle piSH, after nan, is future in signification. See on Is. vii. 14. pas occurs only here as a verb ; but that it signifies to press, oppress, etc., is clear from the signification of the derivatives nps, Ps. Iv. 4, and npsaaa, Ps. lvi. 2, as well as from the connection in which it here occurs. Comp. pas, and the Syr. >¦ . a . poV angustiatus est. La^± angus- lia, pressura. Comp. also the Arab. »Lc, retinuit, impedivit : , «<{-.{». accidentia fortunce, quce impediunt hom- inem. The verb is used transitively in both instances, according to the ordin ary signification of Hiphil. There is more force in speaking of a fully laden cart pressing the ground under it, than its being itself pressed by its contents. raran is to be taken in the sense of down, as in Job xl. 12. sV is pleonastic. The renderings of the LXX. and Vulg. iyii tcuXiu) viroKdrai vpaiv ', ego stridebo subter vos, though advocated by some, are less appropriate. Newcome translates the latter hemistich thus : " As a loaded corn- wain presseth its sheaves ; " but niaas is the objective case to nsVten , and not to p'Sfl. As the object of the verb, supply ynsn-nts. 14-16. Every attempt to resist or es cape from the evils that were coming upon the nation, would prove utterly Chap. III. AMOS. 137 15 Neither shall the mighty deliver himself; He that handleth the bow shall not stand, Aud the swift-footed shall not escape : Neither shall ho that rideth the horse deliver himself. 16 And he that is courageous among the heroes, Shall flee away naked in that day, Saith Jehovah. fruitless. This sentiment is expressed under various forms, which are obviously accumulated for the sake of effect, a at the beginning of ver. 14, is not merely conjunctive, but marks the consequence or result. Verse 15th is wanting in some of Kennicott and De Rossi's MSS. and in the Arab. ; but the omission is no doubt owing to the homoioteleuton of this and the preceding verse ; just as, for the same reason, the words corres ponding to visa tsijj^— s'b at the end of ver. 14 are omitted in the Alexandrian copy of the LXX. The preposition a in einaaja, gives to taaS i/Has, the force of the superlative. Comp. na:naa naai, the strongest of beasts, Prov. xxx. 30 ; fci'iia a nS * ." , the most beautiful of women, Song i. 8, v. 9, vi. 1 ; euAoyruieV?) iv yv- vai£lv, Luke i. 28. CHAPTER III. The prophet resumes the subject of the Divine goodness towards the Hebrew people, and grounds upon their misimprovement of it, the certainty of their punishment, ver. 1 ; he then, in a series of pointed and appropriate interrogations, illustrates this certainty, 3-6; which lie follows up by a vindication of his commission, 7, 8. Foreign nations are then summoned to witness the execution of judgment upon the kingdom of Israel, which would be signally severe, 9-15. 1 Heae ye this word, which Jehovah speaketh against you, O sons of Israel, Against all the family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt ; Saying : 1 Instead of Vsn'ffli isa, "sons of Is rael," forty-three MSS., one in the mar gin, originally seven, and five by correc tion, read Vs"Hbi riia, "house of Israel;" which reading is supported by the LXX. and Arab, versions. Both forms are em ployed in the book of Amos, but the for mer is the less frequent ; which awakens the suspicion that the latter has been in troduced here by way of correction. That 18 the phrase is intended to include the whole Hebrew people, is evident from the words which follow in apposition, and describe the distinguished favor conferred upon the entire race of Jacob. MnB-i-n, Eth. f")^,^ to spread out a tribe, or clan ; but here obviously used in a national sense, as in Jer. viii. 3, xxv. 9 ; Micah ii. 3. 138 AMOS. Chap. III. Only you have> I known of all the families of the earth, Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Will two walk together Except they be agreed ? Will the lion roar in the forest When he has no prey ? Will the young lion cry out from his den, 2. sni , to know, is here employed in the sense of knowing with the idea of volition, or goodwill ; to acknowledge, regard, care for, and by implication, to show favor to. Comp. Ps. i. 6, cxliv. 3 ; and yivdiaxai, John x. 14, xv. 17 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19. The Israefites alone were ac knowledged by Jehovah as his people, and as such treated with peculiar favor ; but in proportion to the distinction which they enjoyed, was the degree of punish ment which their ungrateful and rebel lious conduct merited. 3. In this and the three following verses, a series , of parabolic interroga tions are employed, highly calculated to produce conviction in the minds of those to whom they were addressed. They are familiar indeed, but so much the more appropriate and forcible. Instead of anSaa, the LXX. Arab, and Vulg. read as nas, with apparent reference to the sig nification of sni m the preceding verse. The primary signification of nyi , Syr. i^o condixit, constituit, Arab. /La., significavit affecturum alicui quid, is to point, point out, appoint a time or place, hence in Niphal, to meet by appointment ; to do anything by common consent ; to be agreed. This last seems to he the accep tation in which the verb is to be taken in this place: for to render, How can two set out upon a journey, except they meet by appointment ? would express that to be impossible, which is very often true in fact. Interpreters are divided in opinion respecting the persons to whom the num ber ciao, two, refers. Munster and some others think, that the prophets gen erally, or Joel and Amos in particular, are meant ; Vatablus, Drusius, Lively, New- come, Bauer, Rosenmiiller, Ackermann, and Maurer, explain it of God and the prophet ; while Clarius, Grotius, Danaeus, Marckius, Lowth, Harenberg, and Dahl, are of opinion that God and Israel are intended. The last construction of the passage best agrees with the bearing of the other interrogations. Between Jehovah and his apostate people there could no longer be any fellowship ; and mstead of the blessings which accrued to them from such fellowship, they had now nothing to expect but punishment. As they had walked contrary to him, so he would now walk contrary to them. They had broken his covenant, and must take the consequences. 4. The lion is quiet till he sees his prey, but roars at the sight of it, and thereby inspires it with such terror, that it is deprived of the power of escape. In like manner the young lion, which has been weaned, and is just beginning to hunt for prey, will he silent in his den, till it is brought near, when the smell of it will rouse him from his quiet. Poiret, in his Travels in Barbary, Strasb. 1789, vol. i. p. 283, states, that the lion has two different modes of hunting his prey. When not very hungry, he contents himself with watching behind a bush for the animal which is the object of his attack, till it approaches, when, by a sudden leap, he attacks it, and seldom misses his aim ; but if he is famished he does not proceed so quietly, but, im patient and full of rage, he leaves his den, and fills, with his terrific roar, the echoing forest. His voice inspires all living beings with fear and dread; no creature deems itself safe in its retreat ; all flee, they know not whither, and by this means, fall into his fangs. n"*s, the lion, and not n'Ea, the young lion, is the nominative to the verb naV. The certainty of destruction is. the point at CllAl'. III. AMOS. 139 Except he have taken it ? 5 Will the bird fall into an earth-snare, And there is no gin for it ? Will the snare spring from the ground, When nothing whatever is caught ; 6 Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, And the people not tremble ? Shall there be evil in a city, And Jehovah hath not inflicted it ? 7 Surely the Lord Jehovah inflicteth nothing, Except he reveal his purpose To his servants the prophets. 8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear ? which the prophet aims in the simili tude. 5. Between nS and -i-paaa there is no essential difference. The sense would have been the same had the latter word been omitted, and we had simply read, T.h vsi. ; but the insertion of the syno- nyme gives more force to the sentence, ni connects with nasa, as its antecedent. nVsi is to be taken as the future of Kal, and regarded as expressing the sudden spring of an elastic snare, or net, which, on the bird's touching it, suddenly rises and incloses it. Instruments were pre pared by the providence of God for the capture of the Israelites, which would certainly do their work : there would be no escape. 6. The prophet here closes his interro gatory appeals ; — first by a reference to the effect produced upon the inhabitants of a city by the sounding of the trumpet, as a signal of war ; and then, by directly ascribing the infliction of temporal ca lamities to Jehovah, as the punisher of sin. For nsn in the sense of temporal evil, or calamity, see Gen. xix. 19, xliv. 34, Exod. xxxii. 14 ; Ezek. vii. 5. Arab. ^. experimentum, calamitas affiic- tio. 7. Though the infliction of punish ment of his guilty people was determined hi his holy and righteous counsel, yet Jehovah would not proceed to excute it until he had given them full warning, and afforded such of them an opportunity of escaping as should repent and return to his service. He thus mixed mercy with judgment. n'^O, Theod. BouXri, counsel, purpose, decree; from -o_i, Aiab. J^,«, posuit, flrmiter statuit ; to found, lay a foundation, establish apian, ordain. It is rather, I imagine, on this acceptation of the verb that the idea of purpose or decree is based, than upon that of a divan, or an assembly of persons, sitting and deliberating on couches -. but see Gesenius in nao. As the Divine plan or purpose is necessarily secret till it be revealed, hence the acceptation secret came to be attached to the word. In this verse a high honor is vindicated to the pro phetical office. The holy men of God were, by inspiration, entrusted with a knowledge of the Divine purposes, in so far as it was necessary for them to divulge them to the world. riy?S i , is the frequent ative future, indicating what God is ac customed to do, and is best rendered by our present. For the sentiment, comp. Gen. xviii. 17. 8. With reference to what he had expressed ver. 4. and in keeping with the mode of representation which he had employed chap. i. 2, Amos formally announces the awful character of the message he had heard from the Lord, and the impossibility of withholding the communication. The roar of the lion is loud and terrific, especially in the solitary forests which form his proper domain. See on ver. 4. 140 AMO S. Chap. III. The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, who will not prophesy ? 9 Proclaim ye in the palaces of Ashdod, And in the palaces in the land of Egypt, And say : Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, And behold the great commotions within her, And the oppressions in the midst of her. 10 For they regard not the practice of rectitude, Saith Jehovah, That amass rapine and spoil in their palaces. 1 1 Therefore thus saith he Lord Jehovah : 9. aSiMpra, cause it to be heard, pub lish ye! those are addressed who had intercourse with the places here specified, and had thus an opportunity of conveying the message. Comp. 6 wcoiW elirdrw "Epxov ! Rev. xxii. 17. For Ashdod, see on chap. i. 8. It is here used syn- ecdochically for the whole of Philistia. Instead of nanatja, the LXX. have read nrisa, iv 'Ao-avptois, which Seeker at tempts to justify ! Fornaaa3ns^s_aS"a3v;ra, comp. Kijpv^are iiri tS>v oaipiiTaiv, Matt. x. 27. It was, and is still, custom ary in the East to assemble on the flat roofs of the houses. To the princes and courtiers thus assembled on their palaces, as well as to all within hearing, the invitation was to be conveyed. There is something exceedingly forcible in these heathen rulers, etc. being called to witness the enoi-mities that were prac tised in Samaria. If their judgment, pagans as they were, could not but be unfavorable, what must be the judgment of the holy and righteous God ? What the punishment which he must inflict ? Nothing can be more graphic than the description of the position which these foreigners were to occupy. They were to assemble -janasra inn Vs, upon the mountains of Samaria, ¦pnttizi, Samaria, the metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, was built on a round hill, near the mid dle of a large valley, surrounded by moun tains on every side, by which it was com pletely overlooked. From these eleva tions persons might distinctly see what was done in the city. That naan naaanaa and dip aws are intimately connected, and are both to be referred to the rich and powerful inhabitants of Samaria, appears evident from what is stated in the fol lowing verse. The latter term is prop erly the Pahul Participle, oppressed, but is here used as a noun, as in Job xxxv. 9 ; Eccles. iv. i. Comp. the forms VaaT., dwelling naaVw , kingdom. 10. astji sV, they know not, is not in tended to express simple ignorance, but that state of mind which is hostile to the entertainment of knowledge. The magnates of Samaria had no regard for the practice of what was just and right, but the contrary, nnas, rectitude, that which is straight, in opposition to what is crooked, distorted, or morally wrong. Comp Is. xxvi. 10, xxx. 10, lix. 14. aiyi Daan, violence and desolation, mean, by a metonymy of the cause for the effect, what has been obtained by violating the rights and desolating the property of others. Such spoils they accumulated in their palaces, but they should not enjoy them. On the contrary, as the prophet shows in the following verses, they should be plundered and carried away by the enemy. Dathe well ex presses the meaning of the verse : " Recte factis nequaquam delectantur, inquit Jo- va, sed thesaurqs in aedes suas congerunt vi atque injuria partos." 11. ns.the LXX., who are followed by Aq. and the Arab., preposterously render Tvpos, Tyre; one of De Rossi's MSS. reads na , and one of Kennicott's, n'aa. The Syr. Chald. tribulation, which Chap. III. AMO S. 141 There shall be an enemy, and that around the land ; And he shall bring down thy strength from thee, And thy palaces shall be 2>lundered. 12 Thus saith Jehovah : As the shepherd rescueth from the mouth of the lion Two legs, or the portion of an ear, So shall the sons of Israel be rescued, Who sit in Samaria on the corner of a bed, And in Damascus on that of a couch. has been adopted in many modern ver sions. Thus Dathe, Hesselberg, Dahl, Justi, and Hitzig. But Calvin, New- come, Michaelis, Struensee, Bauer, Ros enmiiller, Vater, and Noyes, translate enemy, which better suits the connection, as it supplies a proper nominative to the verb nin an, immediately following. Com. as to derivation, the Arab. «jfl, nocuit, noxa affecit, Icesit. The words, a-aaa na yntsn are abrupt and elliptical, but, for this very reason, possess more point. At na , supply nan, sai , or the like, a in aiaoa has the force of et quidem, or isque. The leading aiaa; , suggested by Houbi gant, considered probable by Newcome, and adopted by Bauer, is altogether un- sustained by any example of a similar case in verbs whose second and third radi cals are the same, "nsn aiata is equiv alent to ynsva- Vaa, 2 Kings xvii. 5. where the invasion by Shalmaneser is described, fs, strenyth, denotes what ever Samaria confided in, or made her boast of, such as her treasures, fortifi cations, warriors, etc. All was to be brought down into the valley, and what was capable of being removed, earned away by the enemy : i. e. Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria. A just retribution for the spoliations which her inhabitants had committed. 12. A very appropriate image is here boiTowed from a scene in pastoral life, such as the prophet himself may have witnessed. Nothing but a mere remnant of the Israelites should with difficulty escape from the enemy. Although a lion may not be induced to quit his prey, if he is hungry and has but just seized it, Is. xxxi. 4 ; yet if he has almost devoured it, leaving nothing but what is here spec ified, no difficulty would be found in ef fecting a rescue. For insn "Sn Va-, comp. ipfyvofrnv iK arlgxaros \eovros, 2 Tim. iv. 17 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35. Va occurs only this once, but signifies a part or piece; from Via , to separate. There is a species of goat in the East, the ears of which are often a foot in length, and broad hi proportion; so that more im portance would be attached to them by the shepherd, than would be the case with us in the West. The concluding words of the verse have greatly perplexed interpreters. Most of the moderns ex plain paiinn of the silk manufactured at Damascus, which from the name of the place, is called damask, and render tons pfflnna, in damask couches. AVhat has been supposed to confirm this ex planation of the term is the occurrence of the same word in Arabic, only with the letters, or similar letters transposed, as yaJLoi> (jjyJL«L> (j*,Uwt>, etc., all signifying silk. Gesenius has a long article on the word in his Thesaurus, p. 346 ; but fails in establishing the point of identity. Instead of p-jiacn with Shin, upwards of twenty of De Rossi's MSS. read, or have read, piste n with Sin ; which reading is also that of eighteen printed editions, and is the proper ortho graphy of the name of Damascus. What appears to have originated the above view of the word was the idea, that as the wealthy and voluptuous inhabitants of Samaria are supposed to be intended, there was a special propriety in adverting to the sumptuousness of the couches or 142 AMO S, Chap. IH. 13 Hear ye, and testify against the house of Jacob, Saith the Lord, Jehovah, the God of hosts, 14 Surely in the day when I punish the transgressions of Israel, I will punish the altars of Bethel ; The horns of the altar shall be cut down, And they shall fall to the ground. 15 I will also smite the winter-house with the summer-house, The ivory mansions shall perish, sofas on which they reclined. But this idea is totally alien from the bearing of the passage, which requires something to correspond to what had been expressed in the comparison of the fragments left by the lion. Besides, rasS signifies the outer or extreme corner, and not the inner, which is regarded as the seat of honor, so that the observations of Har- mer, chap. vi. Obs xxx., are totally in applicable, even if there were much point in them. The words are elliptical, and the parallelism, expressed in full, would stand thus : -¦era risea Tanaaas fiiasi'q . : icns nssa pvjasta C"ap»ri „ The persons referred to are the sick and infirm poor, who had nothing left but the side or part of a couch, and whom the king of Assyria would not think it worth his while to be at the trouble of removing. All the rest, the robust and active, the opulent and powerful, should be carried into captivity. For the fulfilment see 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, xviii. 9-12. The reason why Damascus is mentioned along with Samaria, is, that, at the time of the Assyrian invasion, that city was in the power of the Israelites, having been conquered by Jeroboam II. See 2 Kings xiv. 28. On the conquest, no doubt many belonging to the ten tribes went there to reside. 13. The same persons are here ad dressed, who were summoned from Phi listia and Egypt to witness the enormi ties practised in Samaria, ver. 9. They were now to testify to the facts of the case, that the punishment to be inflicted upon the inhabitants might be seen to have been richly deserved, a TSn, as frequently means to testify against any one. ha'saati inVs nan^ isn't!, LXX. Kvpios 6 ®ebs d liavroKpdraip '. an ac cumulation of Divine appellatives for the purpose of striking awe into the minds of the guilty. 14. Signal vengeance was to be taken upon the place whence all the evils which spread through the ten tribes originated. For Bethel, see on Hos. iv. 15. From the term raa-ten having the determina tive article, rendering it emphatic, while rainataa in the plural also occurs, it may be inferred that at Bethel, besides the great altar erected by Jeroboam, there was a number of lesser ones at which sacrifices were offered. Comp. Hos. viii. 11, x. 5. The nasnp, horns, were four projecting points in the shape of horns at the corners of ancient altars. They may be seen in the representations of those dug up by Belzoni in Egypt. As they were ornamental, the action here described was designed to express the contempt in which the altar would be held by the Assyrians. 15. Eastern monarchs and princes, as well as others of the great, have summer as well as winter residences. The latter are in cities and sheltered situations ; the former in forests, or upon mountains. ya, properly tooth, but used specially of the tusk of the elephant ; ivory. LXX. oXkoi i\e ; nns, nnn ; etc. The n at the end is not the femin ine termination, but simply paragogic, as in nans, Job xxxiv. 13, xxxvii. 12 ; Is. viii. 23; and nOnran, Judges xiv. 18. The noun will thus be the accusative ab solute, and the construction will be " cast down as to the palace," i. e. from it, over its walls, or the like. The place in which the princes had rioted, and in the strength of which they confided, should afford them no safety. 4, 5. The language of these verses is that of the keenest irony. The Israefites were addicted to the worship of the golden calf, and to that of idols, whereby they contracted guilt before Jehovah, and exposed themselves to his judg ments ; at the same time they hypo critically professed to keep up the ob servance of certain feasts which had been appointed by Moses. For Gilgal, 19 as a place of idolatrous worship, see on Hos. iv. 15. The opinion of Abenezra, approved by Rosenmiiller and Maurer, that by ci»i niVi'V, we are to under stand every third day, seems forced and unnatural. That the words by them selves might have this meaning is un questionable : but the idea of tithes being brought every third day is inadmissible, even into a passage so strongly ironical as the present. I cannot doubt that the prophet has in view the enactment recorded Deut. xiv. 29, xxvi. 12. cias-, days, mean, here, as Lev. xxv. 29 ; Judges xvii. 10, the fullest complement of days, i. e. a year, n tap is most probably the infinitive, used for the second plural of the imperative ; or it may be the second singular of the same. There is no necessity for attaching to "p;n , the meaning of violence, though Gesenius would justify it, on the ground of y ;z n being used, Ps. lxxi. 4, to designate an oppressor ; and because the rendering of the Chald. in this place is Baas, rapine or oppression. It is not impossible that the translator mistook "pen for fcKri, which has this signification. The point of reference is doubtless the ordinance, Lev. vii. 13, that, besides the unleavened cakes, the Hebrews were to offer " leav ened bread " with the sacrifice of thanks giving. "What the Israelites, therefore, are supposed to be in the habit of doing- was, so far as the material of the thing was concerned, not contrary to the law, but in strict accordance with its require ment. For cnans -(a, comp. aans its. •va, Jer. v. 3li "' 6. From this verse to the 11th inclu sive, Jehovah describes the different 146 AMOS. Chap. IV. 10 And want of bread in all your places, Yet ye have not returned unto me, Saith Jehovah. And though I have withholden the rain, Three months before the harvest ; And have caused it to rain upon one city, But upon another city I have not caused it to rain ; One portion was rained upon, And the portion upon which it rained not, withered : And two or three cities wandered to one city, To drink water, but have not been satisfied, Yet ye returned not to me, Saith Jehovah. I have smitten you with mildew and much blight ; Your gardens, your vineyards, and your figs, and your olives, The locusts hath devoured; Yet ye have not returned unto me, Saith Jehovah. I have sent among you the plague, such as that of Egypt ; I have slain your young men with the sword, corrective measures which he had em ployed for the purpose of effecting a change in the Israelites, and at the close of each mentioned in the series, the ob stinate impenitence, under the influence of which they persisted in their wicked courses, is emphatically marked by the declaration, : nani dns ins nsaa-ij— tiVa, yet ye returned not unto me, saith Jeho vah. Such repetition gives great force to the reprehension. Bijni "jaips, clean ness of teeth, and Qfih nah, lack of bread, are synonymous ; both expressing the famine with which the. natiCn has been visited ins, to me, the Chald. para phrases, ijnVasV, to my worship, or ser vice. 7, 8. The famine was followed by the judgment of drought, which at once pro duced sterility, and cut off the necessary supply of drink for man and beast. The rain that had been withheld, was the oa-Vaa , vernal, or latter rain, which falls in the latter half of February, the whole of March and April, and thus precedes the harvest, as here stated. See on Hos. vi. 3. Whatever rain fell was exceed ingly partial and insufficient. Instead of nuaaasn, the reading nuantj is found in two MSS. and is supported by the ren derings of the LXX. Arab, and Vulg. The textual reading must be taken im personally. QinS, cities, stands for their inhabitants. Comp. for a lengthened and graphic description of the judgment here specified, Jer. xiv. 1-6. 9. A bad harvest, arising from the destruction of the corn by the blighting influence of the east wind (-jijia, scorch ing, blasting, from zyrp, to fcorch; Chald. 5]lip, to burn; Arab. , iJLyul, niger, LXX. iripoiais. Arab. Ver. ,. w lj, the Simoom,) and the mildew, or smut. ¦ppni,Arab. ..Ajsyi^rubigo. naann, the infinitive absolute of nan in Hiphil, with the force of an adjective or an adverb. This word some improperly connect, as a construct noun, with the following substantives. Di 5 , a name given to the locust. See on Joel i. 4. 10. Though the plague has from timi? Chap. IV. AMO S. 147 Together with your captive horses : And I have made the stench of your camps to come up into your nostrils ; Yet ye have not returned unto me, Saith Jehovah. 11 I have overthrown some among you, As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ; And ye have been as a brand snatched from the burning ; Yet ye have not returned unto me, Saith Jehovah. 12 Therefore, thus will I deal with thee, 0 Israel! Forasmuch as I will do this to thee, Prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel ! immemorial been endemic in Egypt, and might so far be described as ains» ijnn , the way of Egypt; yet comparing Is. x. 26, in which the same phrase is used as here, it obviously means, as tlie Egyptians were treated, or as God punished them with the plague. See Exod. ix. 3, etc. Ca*taa8 ia-a, lit. the captivity of your horses : i. e. those taken and destroyed by the enemy. See 2 Kings xiii. 7. lesa the LXX. render iv irvpl, having read -isa, which is the pointing of three of De Rossi's MSS., and of three others originally ; as also of the Brixian edition. Aq. aairpiav. The a in aassaa, Houbi gant, Dahl, and some others would can cel, on the ground of its harshness, and its not having been expressed by the LXX. Arab. Syr. and Vulg. It is translated in the Targ., and is to be re tained, as an intensive particle, adding force to the preceding verb. Comp. the somewhat similar use of the Greek Kal. 11. a in caa is used partitively : inter, among, or the like ; indicating that the subverting was not total. na£nasa CifiVs, like God's overthrowing: prop erly Hiphil participle, but construed as an infinite. Comp. Deut, xxix. 22 ; Is. xiii. 19 ; Jer. 1. 40 ; 2 Pet. ii. 6 ; Jude 7. tainVs, which stands for the affix of the first personal pronoun, Newcome im properly converts into a superlative, and renders, "the great overthrow!" His remark on tag, as sometimes the sign of the genitive case, is likewise totally in applicable, as in the present case it can only mark the accusative. To what physical phenomena reference is here specifically made, it is impossible to de termine, owing to the absence of all his torical data. , Some think the earth quake, mentioned chap. i. 2, is intended ; but this is altogether out of the question, since the prophecy was delivered two years before that event. From the allu sion to fire, it has been deemed probable that some of the cities of the Israelites had been burnt, either by lightning from heaven, or by the army of the king of Syria. At all events, that the language is not to be understood figuratively is evident from the close connection of the verse with those preceding, each of which describes a separate physical calamity, and closes, as this one does, with a re prehension of the impenitence by which the nation continued to be characterized. nBnistt Vsa nas, a brand snatched from the burning, is proverbial, and expresses the narrow escape from utter extinction which had been experienced. Comp. Zech. iii. 2 ; and 1 Cor. ii. 15 : abris tie o-Qifrhaerai, oiirais tie ais tiia irupSs. 12. All the means that had been em ployed to reform the Israelites having proved ineffectual, they are here sum moned to prepare for the final judgment, which was to put an end to their na tional existence. To this judgment re- 148 AMOS, Chap. V. 13 For, behold ! it is He that formed the mountains; And created the wind ; And declareth to man what is his thought ; That maketh the morning darkness, And walketh upon the heights of the earth : Jehovah, God of hosts, is his name. ference is emphatically made in the terms na, thus, and nst, this. There is a brief resumption of the sentence de livered verses 2 and 3. That by -pan any such preparation is intended as would involve genuine and universal repentance, by which the threatened judgment jrfight have been averted, cannot be admitted in consistency with the bearmg both of the preceding and the following context. The removal of the Israelites, as a nation, is denounced as certain, and inevitable. It is rather to be understood as a^V pn , prepare thee, Jer. xlvi. 14. God is now com ing against you as the avenger of your wickedness. Consider how you shall meet, or endure the infliction. Comp. Ezek. xxii. 14 ; Heb. x. 31. Individ uals might by repentance obtain the forgiveness of their personal transgres sions, and thus have their minds brought into a state in which they would enjoy support and comfort in the midst of na tional calamity ; but this was all that could now be expected. 13. To give full effect to the preced ing call, one of the most sublime and magnificent descriptions of Jehovah, to be met with in Scripture, is here introduced. The participial form of the five verbs employed by the prophet greatly en hances the beauty of the passage ; but it cannot be successfully imitated in a translation. Some have doubted whether raan does not here signify spirit, rather than wind; but it seems more natural to take the term in the latter acceptation, on account of the close coherence of this clause of the verse with that immediately preceding. The rendering of the LXX. airayyeXKaiv els av&pieirovs rbv xPl(Tr6v avrov, announcing to men his anointed, has originated in their mistaking i n'-j,-— naa for ar-pOM. Theodoret, in commenting upon the version, thinks Cyrus is in tended, and not Christ, as we may other wise imagine the fathers would expound it. By into is not meant God's thought, or his purposes, as some have taken it, but the thoughts or meditations of man, of which alone the verb fa/to and its derivatives, when applied to intelligent beings, is used, n'as's is followed by a double accusative : that of the material out of which the thing is made, and that of the matter into which it is converted. It must, however, be observed, that up wards of twenty of Kennicott's MSS. read, or have read, nDisa, which is the reading-of the LXX. and Arab. Accord ing to this construction, the passage must be translated thus : " He that maketh the aurora and the darkness." CHAPTER V. Ajtee giving utterance to a brief elegy over the prostrate and helpless condition of the kingdom, which had just been predicted, 1-3, the prophet introduces Jehovah still ad dressing himself to the inhabitants ; calling upon them to relinquish their superstitious and idolatrous practices, and return to his service, 4-9. He then adverts the picture of wickedness which the nation exhibited, 10-13; repeats the call to cultivate habits of piety and righteousness, 14, 15; describes, in plaintive strains, the destruction that was coming Chap. V. AMO S. 149 upon the land, 16-20; exposes the inutility of ceremonial rites when substituted for moral rectitude, or combined with unauthorized worship, 21-26; and expressly threatens the Is raelites with transportation into the East, 27. Hear ye this word, which I utter concerning you — A lamentation, O house of Israel! The virgin of Israel is fallen ; She shall rise no more ; Prostrate upon her own land, There is none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The city that went out by a thousand, Shall have an hundred left ; And she that went out by an hundred, Shall have ten left To the house of Israel. 1. ns"p is properly an elegy, or song of mourning and lamentation, from -(ap, in Piel, to compose or chant such a song. It consisted of plamtive effusions poured forth by mourning relatives, or by per sons hired for the purpose, at funerals; and was distinguished for the tender, pathetic, broken and exclamatory nature of the expressions of which it was com posed, as well as the touching features of the subject which they were designed to embody. Of this mode of composition the Hebrew prophets frequently avail themselves, especially Jeremiah, who, besides introducing it into several of Iris prophecies, has left us a whole book of nairp, elegies, or lamentations. See Lowth, Lect. xxii. Fqi- the introduction of the present subject, comp. ni"p Sto Vs or Vs, Ezek. xix. 1, xxvii. 2. xxxii. 2, and the common oracular forms s'sa ssb, Vrn, etc. Some are of opinion that the elegy thus introduced extends to the end of the chapter, but it is far more likely that it consists merely of the plamtive exclamations contained in verse 2. Compare the beautiful lament of David on the death of Jonathan, 2 Sam i. 17-27. 2. The Israelitish state is called nVana, a virgin, because it had never been sub dued by any foreign prince. See on Is. xxiii. 12. The passages, Jer. xviii. 13, and Lam. ii. 13, which Rosenmiiller adduces agamst this interpretation of the term, are not in point, smce both refer to the character which Jerusalem sustained previous to the deplorable condition to which she had been reduced by the violence of the enemy. It cannot, there fore, be regarded as merely synonymous with raa, daughter, as idiomatically ap plied to describe the inhabitants of a city or state. This brief, but touching elegy describes the utterly prostrate and help less condition to which the Assyrians were to reduce the kingdom of the ten tribes. 3. The depopulated state of the coun try is here affectingly depicted. n"S, the city, stands by metonymy for its in habitants. The LXX. i) ir6Ms i( ?is e|6- iropeiovro x^""> anc^ s0 ^e other an cient versions. rsa'V, that went out, is used elliptically for nacnVaiV nsaa-Ti, that went forth to war. The population or size of a city was estimated according to the number of warriors it could fur nish. Thus the Scholiast on Iliad ix. 383, 384 : ov rb irKdros Taiv irvKoiv &e\el aepaivetv, ovtie yap apa irdvras i^tevai (jivalv aKKa. rb peye&os TljS irSKeus, Kal to irKrj&os twv avtipwv. 150 AMOS. Chap. V. 4 For thus saith Jehovah to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and live. 5 And seek not Bethel ; And go not to Gilgal ; Neither pass through to Beersheba ; For Gigal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nought. 6 Seek ye Jehovah, and live, Lest he rush down, like fire, upon the house of Joseph ; 4. While the divine judgments are not executed, there is still room for repent ance and reformation, iai , to seek, is very often used as a religious term, im plying application to God, or to a false deity, for assistance, direction, etc. and then generally to worship him, and have respect to his will. Ps. xxiv. 6 ; Is. viii. 19, lv. 6. Comp. Heb. xi. 6, iK{ln- Teiv rbv ®e6v. rf a is similarly used. ain, live ye, is employed as a second im perative, in order emphatically to ex press the certainty of the result that would ensue from compliance with the command given by the first. 5. A strong dissuasive from idolatry, derived from the predicted fall of the objects and places of false worship. sa-i nsa , Beersheba, lit. " the Well of the Oath ; " LXX. to ippeap tov ftpKov ; see Gen. xxi. 22-31. It was situated about twenty-five geographical miles south of Hebron, on the frontier of the Holy Land towards Idumea, and is still called by the Arabs «a**J! wO, Bir- es-seba'. Dr. Robinson fell in with its rums on the north side of a Wady of the same name, but found nothing bearing the marks of high antiquity, except two wells, one of which he ascertained to be forty-four feet and a half in depth to the surface of the water, and the other forty-two feet. As it lay in the extreme south of Palestine, the verb nas , to pass over or through, is most appropriate. From this verse, and from chap. viii. 14, it appears to have been a place of idol atrous resort, but wherein the idolatry consisted we are not told. In VsV.an nVji ra'is is a forcible paronomasia, though the words are from different roots. " Gilgal gallando gallabitur, si posset fingi aliquod tale verbum ; hoc est, vertetur volubili versione." Calvin, in he. There is likewise a play upon the word ¦) as , which is used to denote wickedness, idolatry, idol, nothing, etc. What had originally been Vs- hi a, Bethel, a house of God, but had by the Israelites been converted into ¦)as—hia , Beth-aven, a house of idolatry, see Hos. iv. 15, x. 5; should be reduced to "jis, aven nothing. 6. The prophet here repeats, for the sake of effect, the call which he had in troduced, ver. 4. raVa > which more com monly has the significations attaching to the Arab. ss-XjO. recti se habet res, £*-, aptusfuit, etc. has here that of the Syriac 7 tfi x descendit, perrupit. The gen- eral idea of motion, either forward or downward, seems to be conveyed by it, only, in certain cases, with the superad ded notion of violence or force. Thus nani nan aiVs hVaPa.is not improp erly rendered in our common version, " And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him." Dahl prefers the rendering perdidit, which he derives from the Arab. • ^JLiO, exitiale malum ; but the form ^ -fry 1 .n 5 ^ -an. a"r , r.izn , to be warm, hot, adopted by Castellus, Schultens, 152 AMOS. Chap. V. 9 That bringeth destruction suddenly upon the mighty, And destruction cometh ivpon the fortress. Parkhurst, and others, is to be rejected for that preserved in the Arab. r**Sl Conj. II. cumulum fecit ; hence, %jo »j, cumulus ; with which may be compared f^/S, socius, according to which the name expresses what is brought or bound together, especially in abundance. The name given to this constellation by the Arabs is Lj ^j an abundance or multi tude, from \yi, multus ac numerosus evasit, numerosus reddidit. For the same reason it was called by the Greeks XIKeidSes, according to one of the deriva tions of Eustathius on Homer, Iliad. xviii. 446 : Ai 8e irKeiuties ijroi airb Tr/s pnrpbs avraiv UKniovns ^ oti irAelovs dpov Kara piav avvayoiyr\v elai, n. -, . K. And most of the ancients express the same idea ; as Seneca, densi pleiadum greges ; Propertius, pleiadum chorus, etc. Ac cording to the Greek mythology, the Pleiades were seven daughters of Atlas, who, being pursued by Orion, were changed by Jupiter into doves, and hav ing been transplanted to the heavens, form the assemblage of the Seven Stars in the neck of Taurus. In the passage in the Iliad just referred to, they are por trayed on the shield of Achilles along with Orion, in the same order as in our prophet : UKrjldtias, &' ,rld3as re, t6 re a&evos 'Cipiw- vos. In the mythology of the Sabians or Mendaites |»V.nt, the Seven, and j^Ca»A, ) *~> nn nr the Seven Stars, cut no inconsiderable figure. See Nor- berg's Liber Adami. For V'Sa, see on Is xiii. 10. Both terms have been en tirely mistaken by the LXX. who render b iroioiv irdvra Kal peraaKevdfav, which is faithfully copied by the Arab. «jl_ta.J| y 1 1 g *. "&S. — haasVa_, the shadow of death, one of the very few Hebrew com pounds. See on Is. ix. 1. V is to be supplied before nViV_, as, indeed, it is in fourteen MSS., primarily in three more, and now by correction in one; in both the Soncin. editions ; in both of Bom- berg, 1518 in the margin, and in the appendix to Minister's, 1536. In Spiprin, there is a transition from the participial to the finite form of the verb. To render the clause uniform, the con struction would be, naVVV ca'i aparin. The passage quoted from Pindar, by Clemens Alexandrinus, is beautifully parallel : — 0e^> tie tivvarbv iK p.e\aivas Nuktos a.piaVTOv aipaat eiajs' KeKaivcp vecpel tie (TkIitov KaKv^al Kahapbv apepas aeKas. The following words are descriptive, not of rain, as Jerome, Theodoret, Kimchi, Drusius, Lively, Marckius, Dahl, and Rosenmiiller maintain, but of a deluge or inundation, the waters of which may emphatically be said to be poured over the earth. Thus Grotius, Clarius, Bauer, and likewise Lowth, though he admits the possibility of the other view being right. The Alex, reading of the LXX. 6 Srebs o iravroKpdraip is found in the Arab., in a Copt. MS., and in the Sla- von. Bible, has the support of three MSS., yet it is more likely an addition from chap. iv. 13, than otherwise 9. After the prophet had apparently completed his magnificent description of the Divine character, with the words anas nani, he appends in this verse 'an additional view of it, in order to make it tell more practically on the fears of those who boasted of the strength of Samaria. -1-3 Arab 1_3 nituit, fulgit aurora, "c •' not only conveys the idea of shining, be ing bright, cheerful, etc. but also that of suddenness, suggested by the rapidity with which the dawning light is diffused over the horizon. The Hebrews applied such terms figuratively to the sudden production of misery, as well as to that Chap. V. AMO S. 153 10 They hate him that reproveth in the gat6, And abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 11 Wherefore, because ye trample upon the poor, And take from him the tribute of corn : Though ye have built houses of hewn stone, Ye shall not dwell in them ; Though ye have planted pleasant vineyards, Ye shall not drink of their wine. 12 For I know that your transgressions are many, And. that your sins are great : Oppressing the righteous, Taking a bribe, And turning aside the poor in the gate. 13 Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time ; For it is an evil time. of happiness. See on Joel ii. 2. Winer, oriri faciens, inducens super potentes vastationem. The ancient versions are all at fault here. 10. Ewald thinks that by rpaaaa ns©3, the reprover in the gate, Amos himself is meant ; but, from the recurrence of sa'lB, and nS-i-a, in connection with tasstt, ver. 15, it is far more natural to interpret the phrase of a magistrate, sen ator, or judge. Comp. also ver. 12, and see on Is. xxix. 21. In ni»sa, which is to be taken adverbially, as Judges ix. 9, is an ellipsis of a. 11-13. o-ia is, 'in all probability, a faulty orthography of CD a, the Polal. of 6aa, Arab. LwJ, vilipendit rem, to tread down, trample upon, etc. De Rossi's co dex 380, reads ca Die a a with Sin. hSEM , what is raised, as a tax, tribute, etc. from S'»3 , to raise. Instead of remitting to the poor the tax which they were unable to pay, the rulers and proprietors rigidly exacted it, that they might consume it upon their lusts. But in whatever state and luxury they might have lived, and whatever preparations they might be making for further indulgences, Jehovah declares that they should not continue to enjoy them. The enemy would speedily remove them from all the ob jects on which they proudly doated, or from which they expected gratification. 20 For the contrary of the threatening, see Is. Ixv. 21, 22 ; Amos ix. 14. The ad jectives dian and Qiass, are placed be fore their substantives, because they are predicatives, and not qualificatives. Be fore both, the conjunction ia is to be supplied. The ellipsis was probably oc casioned by its having been used at the beginning of the verse. nBa is most commonly used in the Sense of Kvrpov, o.vrlAvTpov, random, or price of redemp tion, on which account Ewald and some others render it so here ; but the close connection in which the whole phrase stands with the perversion of justice, specified in the last clause of the verse, decides in favor of the signification bribe, bribery, which the word unquestionably has, 1 Sam. xii. 3. Targ. npan i-aaaaa , the mammon of falsehood. Syr. lr=c a bribe. LXX. aKKay/^ara. The other Greek versions, i^iKaapa. If pins inn's could be taken to mean, " shutting up, or imprisoning the righteous," then nsa might mean ransom ; but such usage does not obtain. The only course left for the pious to pursue in the midst of such atrocious perversion of order and justice, was that of quietly submitting to the hand of God, which they were taught to recognize in the permission of these evils, and patiently to abide the issue of 154 AMO S. Chap. V. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live ; And it shall be so ; Jehovah, God of hosts, shall be with you, According as ye say. 15 Hate evil and love good, And establish justice in the gate ; Perhaps Jehovah, God of hosts, may pity The residue of Joseph. 16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, God of hosts, the Lord: In all the broad places there shall be wailing ; And in all the streets, they shall say, Oh ! Oh ! They shall call the husbandman to mourning ; And all who are skilled in elegy to wailing. events. Any attempt, under these cir cumstances, to stem the current, or effect a reformation, or even to plead for private or public rights, would only aggravate their calamities. Vna sttri , the intelligent, prudent, is to be miderstood, in the best sense, of one who acts upon the princi ples of enlightened piety. 14, 15. Reiterated calls to reformation, in order to ensure the return of Divine favor. Both the, style and the sen timents have their parallel in Is. i. 16, 17. Notwithstanding the sad apostasies of the Israelitish people, they still had their profession of the religion of Jehovah to fall back upon, in case of necessity. They boasted that he was with them, but it was an empty pretence while their pro fession was insincere, being combined with the worship of idols. For the force of the conditional particle iVjik, perhaps, in such connection, compare Gen. xvi. 2, and el Spa, Acts viii. 22. Comp. also Joel ii. 13, where the same idea is expressed by snai 153, who know eth? 5j6ai hinS'ii, the remainder of Jo seph. For this use of the patronymic, see on ver. 6. Numerous as the Israel ites still were, they might well be called a remainder, in consideration of the" havoc made by Hazael, who, when " the Lord began to cut" them "short, smote them in all the coasts of Israel ; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Anion, even Gilead and Bashan." 2 King x. 32, 33. 16. iaVi therefore, refers not to the contents of verses 14, 15, but to verses 7, 10, and 12. We may suppose a con siderable pause to intervene before ver. 16. Foreseeing that the people would not repent, Jehovah here declares that the threatened punishment was inevitable. The slaughter involved in this punish ment would be general. Samaria, how ever, and its vicinity, seem specially intended. The position in which ij'ns is here placed, is altogether unusual.' Indeed, I am not aware that it is so found in any other passage. Yet I would not, with Newcome, cancel it, on the slender authority of seven MSS. the LXX. Arab, and Syr. It seems rather to have been purposely added, in order to give greater solemnity to the sentence which was to be pronounced, naarn, broad, or open places, or wide streets ih a city ; and distinguished from has an, which signify ordinary or narrow streets, such as are common in the East. Gr. irKarela. *a£a>3, strictly means a smiting of the breast, (LXX. Koirerbs,) from nEB, to beat, smite ; see on Is. xxxii. 12. Here, however, it is used to denote wailing or mourning in general, an an. Oh ! Oh ! This onomatopoetic I have rendered by the corresponding English interjection, which, when prolonged and swelled in the pronunciation, as it is by persons giving utterance to excessive grief, is much more appropriate than POOD Alas'. Alas! Alas! Syr. ,^g g\ ^o SI- Chald. 1 a 1 a ; Vulg. vis ! vce ! in other Chap. V. AMOS. 155 17 In all the vineyards there shall be wailing, For I will p*ass through the midst of thee, Saith Jehovah. , 18 Wo unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! What is the day of Jehovah unto you ? It shall be darkness and not light. 19 As when one fleeth from a lion, And a bear meeteth him ; Or he entereth the house, and leaneth his hand on the wall, And a serpent biteth him. 20 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light ; Even thick darkness, without any brightness ? Latin versions, eheu! eheul The nas, husbandmen, were to be called to partici pate in the mourning, not as Newcome, Rosenmiiller, and some others have thought, on account of the desolation of the fields, but either on account of the loudness of their rustic voices, or because the slaughter of the citizens of Samaria would be so great, that a suffi cient number would not be left to per form the funeral rites. Such construc tion of the meaning is required by the following parallelism: isnai— Vs ns_o?;a ina. There is no necessity for suppos ing that the words of this sentence have been transposed, and that they originally stood thus : nsew— Vs ina iSn-iia. The preposition Vs is understood before nSbtt, and asnp , as repeated to govern Vs, which it often does, as well as the ac cusative, ina, wailing, lamentation, from o hni, Syr. joi^, to utter lamentable cries. The persons here spoken of as " skilled in wailing," were mourners by profession, who were hired for the oc casion, and sung doleful tunes around the corpse of a deceased person, which they preceded when it was carried to the grave, giving utterance to dismal cries and howlings, beating their breasts, throwing ashes on their heads, and showing every artificial token of ex cessive grief. These were the mourn ers whom Solomon describes as going about the streets, Eccles. xii. 5. That females were especially employed on such occasions, appears from Jer. ix. 17- 19, where "n a is twice used as here by Amos. The same custom obtained among the Greeks and Romans. Thus Homer speaking of the funeral of Hector, says : ¦ ibv pev eireera Tp-nrois iv Kexeeaai &eaav, irapa tie eXaav aoitiobs, Oprjvoiv i^dpxovs, o'lre arovieo-aav aoiti^v 01 pev ap' iibpiiveov, iirl tie tjTevdxovTo yvvdtKes. Hiad. xxiv. 720, etc. See also Horace de Arte Poet. ver. 433. In his edition of Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. p. 42. Dr. A. Clarke gives a de scription of the ancient funeral solem nities of the Irish, and the translation of a song of wailing prepared for the occa sion, which bears a strong resemblance to those used by the Orientals. Comp. Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, second series, vol. ii. pp. 402-407. 17. The vineyards, which usually ex hibited scenes of rejoicing, should now be frequented by disconsolate mourners. For Jehovah's passing through the land, comp. Exod. xii. 12, 23 ; only in the latter case the punishment was miracu lously inflicted ; in the former, by the king of Assyria, as an instrument in the hand of God. 18-20. These verses intimately cohere with the preceding. The day of Jehovah means the time when his judgments should be inflicted. The Israelites could only have given expression sarcastically 156 AMO S. Chap. V. 211 hate, I loathe your festivals ; Neither do I delight in your days of restraint, ' 22 When ye offer to me holocausts and bloodless sacrifices, I will take no pleasure in them ; Neither will I regard the thank-offerings of your fatlings. 23 Take away from me the noise of the songs ; I will not hear the music of thy haijjs. to the wish that this day might soon reach them. It was an impious daring of Jehovah to do his worst. Comp. Is. v. 19 : Jer. xvii. 15. The prophet tells them plainly that it would be to them a day of unmitigated affliction. The fal lacy of every hope of escape is illustrated by two simple, but forcible comparisons, borrowed from the pastoraf life. Bochart regards the language as proverbial, and supports his opinion by two Arabic sto ries : the one beginning, J^ai- J^J s^sw ^f U. xS,} i_y^ LsLo-a! LSO^—J' ia La SJ ''A lion, pursuing a man, he took refuge in a tree, in the branches of which a bear having fixed himself, was plucking its fruit," etc. ; and the other, yx vJL&.» l_j»JO U_>t> jnVyl (C* LiLs aJiXj*., " A man fled froni a lion, and fell into a well, into which the lion went down after him. And there was a bear in the well," etc. Hierozo. lib. iii. cap. ix. pp. 810, 811. Kimchi tersely expresses the meaning thus, nns Vs nnsa assn, Ye shall go out of calamity into calamity. Comp. Job xx. 24 ; Is. xxiv. 18. The adjective Vss is explained by the follow ing words. It occurs only in this place ; but the substantives nVBS , Ves. dense ob scurity, are used in several passages of Job, the Psalms, and the prophets. ha'V-ES, however, in the sense of concealed, occurs Exod. ix. 32. Comp. the Arab. JL»|, oceidit sol, etc. Thus in Hariri, Con- sess. xv. the noun lj«j| is employed ^Uu^au. X.vlyi'1, " Extirpatio erudi- tionis et obliteratio ejus : Lunarumque ac Solium ejusdem occasus." nja , on the contrary, signifies to shine, be light ; and its derivative si: is used of the rising of the sun, Prov. iv. 18, and is contrasted with nVEs, ver. 19. 21-23. The same aversion from the ceremonial observances of the insincere and rebellious Israefites which Jehovah here expresses, he afterwards employed Isaiah to declare to the Jews, chap. i. 10-15. The two passages are strikingly parallel ; only the latter prophet ampli fies what is set forth in a more condensed form by Amos. It is also to be observed, that where Amos introduces the musical accompaniments of the sacrifices, Isaiah substitutes the prayers ; both concluding with the divine words, i33is=snas s'V saqi-, I will not hear. The verbs ihsa'M ip&SO follow each other immediately, for the sake of more emphatically expressing the Divine abhorrence. Com. sntt nasan 'V and it-s: nsa'B in Isaiah, hins sV, lit. I will not smell; but meaning here, I will take no delight in. nan as,, res traints, periods, days of restraint, or as semblies collected on such days. See on Is. i. 13. bVb, used here collectively for the plural aittVa. — iVsa nan , fit. remove from upon me ; conveying the idea of a burden which vexes and annoys the bearer. Isaiah expresses it in full : hnbV iVa> a-n , " They are a burden upon me." Comp. further for the force of the compound preposition, Exod. x. 28. The music here referred to was that performed at the Hebrew festivals by the Levites, before and during the Chap. V. AMO S. 157 24 Let justice roll on like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream. 25 Did ye not present sacrifices and offerings to me, offering of the sacrifices, and on other public occasions. 24. While no direction is given re specting the regulation of the sacrifices, in order that they might be presented in an acceptable manner, a special injunc tion is imparted in regard to justice and rectitude, on the principle that to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," 1 Sam. xv. 22. " Nee in victimis, licet optimse sint, auroque pra> fulgeant, Deorum est honos, sed pia ac recte mente venerantium." Seneca de Beneficiis, i. 6. That "jn"S, Arab. ,tJa'., perennis fuit, is to be here rendered per ennial, or everflowing, and not mighty, has been maintained by some interpre ters ; but a comparison of the several passages in which it occurs, goes to show that it is rather to be referred to .^wj'. I, valida, fuit, multus fuit, and is to be rendered great or mighty. It thus better corresponds with VV.l, roll, to roll on, used in the former hemistich. LXX. i>s Xeipdppois &/3arois. Syr. |A\ 1 j^j I A 1 . a V Vulg. quasi torrens fortis, Arab. ^ jj| ^(M^ll J^Xl, ^dJL^j like u, Wady that cannot be passed. The ideas of abundance and moral power are those conveyed by the prophet. I must differ from Prof. Lee, who (Heb. Lex. in voc. "his) renders, " for judgment rolleth (away) as the waters (roll away), and righteousness (disappears) like the mighty torrent." The verse as thus rendered ill suits the context, and is not in keeping with pa rallel passages in which, after a repre hension of hypocritical observances, the moral qualities of truth and righteous ness are required. The construction put upon it by Theodoret, Kimchi, Munster, Veil, and Hitzig, that the coming of the Divine judgments is intended, is, for the same reasons, to be rejected. 25-27. These verses have not a little perplexed expositors, both ancient and modern. The first difficulty lies in what is said respecting the presentation of sacrifices. Greve, Dahl, and Maurer, take the n in Din aan to be the article, and not the particle of interrogation, and render, the sacrifices and offerings ye presented to me, etc., viz. those pres cribed in the law : but now ye bear the shrine, etc. According to this mode of construction, the present idolatrous course of the Israelites is contrasted with their former obedience to the Divine will. In order, however, to justify this interpretation, the article must have been repeated before nraaa, which it is not. The insertion of the compensative Dagesh in the letter Zain cannot be pleaded in its favor, since there are several instances in which the interrogative n takes the form of the article, before- words beginning with Sheva, as ¦jaVn, Gen. xvii. 17 ; "an^n , Ezek. xviii. 29 ; Vansn, Joel iv. 4, etc. The ancient translators have all read in terrogatively. LXX. Mr/ cipdyia Kal &vo~las irpoartveyKaTe poi, k. t. A. ; Syr. > «. 7 *. Op> •>¦ , «... m O 7 .oASpD Ustuo Lmsi f.la_? . A Vulg. Numquid hostias et sacri- ficia obtulistis.mihi, etc. Targ, neaara snanaa lang yipanp ysanapa Vfiap.' And so almost all the moderns, some of whom suppose the force of the question to lie in i'a>, to me, taken emphatically, " Was it to me," etc. while others think that an absolute denial of the presenta tion of sacrifices in the wilderness is im plied in the words. In support of the latter opinion, it has been attempted to prove, that the Israelites could not have offered any sacrifices for want of cattle. Such a position, however, is contrary to the express declarations found in Exod. xii. 38, xvii. 3. xxxiv. 3 ; Lev. xvii. 1-9. Num. vii. passim, xx. 4, 19. The life which they led in the desert was that of Nomades, so that there could have been 158 AMOS. Chap. V. During forty years in the desert, 0 house of Israel? 26 And yet ye bare the shrine of your king, no lack of animals for sacrifice. The true construction of the passage is found ed on the principle, that not unfrequently in Hebrew the interrogation implies, and calls for an emphatic affirmative, either expressed or understood ; and is thus equivalent to a negative interroga tion in our language, and indeed to sVn in Hebrew. See 1 Sam. ii. 27, 28 ; Job xx. 4 ; Jer. xxxi. 20 ; Ezek. xx. 4. In the present case, as in these just cited, the persons addressed are supposed to admit the fact couched in the appeal ; but the question is so put in order the more forcibly to introduce the adversative sentence which follows in the 26th verse. The connection of the two verses is this : " Did ye not present sacrifices and offerings to me in the wilderness forty years, 0 house of Israel ? Yes ; and yet ye bare the shrine," etc. That the con junction a is frequently to be rendered and yet, but yet, or the like, see Gen. xvii. 21 ; Judges xvi. 15 : Ps. 1. 17 ; Is. liii. 7. What is here charged upon the ancient Israefites was their indulging in idolatrous practices while they pro fessedly attended to the ritual observ ances of the Mosaic law — the very sin which Amos was commissioned to charge upon their descendants in his day, and on account of which they were to be carried into captivity. The opinion of Forsayeth (quoted by Newcome), Dahl, and others, that the sin reproved in ver. 26 was exclusively that of those who lived in the time of the prophet, is less admissible than that which refers to their ances tors, yet so that the reproof was intended to be applied on their own case by those whom the prophet addressed. — The 26th verse has been very differently rendered, as well as variously interpreted. The translation of the LXX. is as follows : Kal hveXdiiere t^jv as-nv^v tov Mo\bx, Kal to i.arpov tov &eov bp&v "Paupav, tovs tvttovs aiiTuv, ois iirotiiaaTe iavrots ; as if the Hebrew had read, hs Eras'® a a ia»a eain'Vs aa-'a nsa ^V» naao : araV eh-'as nfcs ran.iaVs. No vestige, however, of any such order of the words is found in any Hebrew MS., or in any other monument of antiquity, except the speech of Stephen, as recorded by Luke, Acts vii. 43, which is an almost verbal quotation from the LXX. Theod. ren ders thus : Kal ijpare t))v b'pafftv tou $a- o-tKeais vpuv, apaOpaiffiv eitidiXaiv vfi&v, &CTpov tov freou itpwv ; so that he must have read the words as they now stand in the Hebrew text. The same may be said of the Syr., Vulg., and Targ., though their renderings differ from each other in one or two minor particulars. The re mark of Jerome on the discrepancies be tween the Hebrew text and the ancient Greek versions deserves to be quoted here : " Observandum est, apostolos et apostolicos viros in ponendis testimoniis de Veteri Testamento, non verba consid- erare sed sensum, nee eadem sermonum calcare vestigia, dummodo a sententiis non recedant." Comment, in he. Most interpreters follow the LXX. in giving haao by o-Knvii, a tent /-deriving it, like nao, and a;b, of the same signification, from ^ata, to intertwine, as branches, so as to form a booth or hut. Others, such as Jarchi, Calvin, Mercer, and Rosenmiiller, take it to mean an image or idol, and render, Siccuth your king. They explain it by referring to the Chald. Shaa, a wooden post, which they suppose formed the pedestal on which the idol stood, and so the word might be transferred to the idol itself. Ewald takes much the same view. The former derivation is alone admissible. The text appears to have had something of the texture, as it had the design of the o-ktivtjs iepas, sacred tent, in the Carthaginian camp, mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, fib. xx. cap. 25, and described as consisting iK ' KaAduov Kal x6pTOV> of reeds and grass. Comp. Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, sec ond series, vol. ii. pp. 270-276. Only, as it is certain Moses would not have tolerated anything of the kind if its size had been such as to bring it to his cognizance, it may be inferred, that it was only a small temple or shrine, which might easily be concealed in the interior Chap. V. AMOS. 159 And Chiun of your images, the star of your god, Which ye made for yourselves. of a tent. Such dimmutive temples were in use among the Egyptians, from whom no doubt the Hebrews took the idea. Herodotus, describing an idol worshipped at Papremis, says, to Se &ya\pa ibv iv NHfli MIKPfii £v\tv

Syr. v^n^VLo. Malcum, Aq. UeXxep, Vulg. Moloch, exhibit the word as the proper name of the god of the Ammonites, i. e. ^Va, also called DaVa, Milcom, 1 Kings xi. 5, and DaVa , Malcam, Zeph. i. 5 ; and, this construction some moderns have adopted ; but as TjVw., king, is also em ployed by the Hebrews hi application to idols, Is. xxxvii. 13, Zeph. i. 5, it is bet ter to retain its usual signification. The Phoenicians gave the title of cVs iVaa, king of the world, to the sun, . and rip "]Va=nnpVa, king of the city, to Hercules Comp. Zev tiva. Iliad, iii. 351, xvi. 233 ; and 'fj "va(, ?)KSte irap' iipeas herns, Herod. I. 159. In Ethiopic A '-P^Vl i Amlak, the proper name for God, is derived from C^ [\\\, im- peravit, rexit, and is applied in the plural to idols. The learned are generally agreed, that the Moloch of Scripture was the image of the planet Saturn, and thus identical with Chiun, mentioned by Amos in the following clause of the verse. The Phoenicians were in the habit of offering to him human sacrifices, especially children, to which honible custom repeated reference is made in the historical books of the Old Testament. See Michaelis on the laws of Moses, Art. ccxlvii. Suppl. No. 1115 ; Selden de Diis Syris, cap. vi. ; Spencer de Legibus Hebraaor. lib. ii. cap. 10 ; Gesenius, in his Thesaurus, sub voc. ; Winer, Rcal- worter-buch. oa.'BVs "\V3, Chiun of your images, i. e. represented by them ; the model after which they were made. While the idol so called, which the Hebrews carried about in a sacred shrine, was itself a symbol or representative of one of the heavenly bodies, it was in its turn represented by a number of copies, or smaller images, which they used as penates or household gods in the practice of astrology. Such appears to me to be the meaning of the words. To this construction, however, C. B. Michaelis, Vitringa, Rosenmiiller, Hesselberg, Heng stenberg, and others object, that it makes la=a u proper name, which, with the older grammarians, they allege cannot be put in regimen. But to this rule, it must be admitted, there are many excep tions, as hanrras, Tianra Vsa.na Vsa , C-s, nrnss aVa, na'sas nani, c;anp_, D'nr.a , etc. Nor can it justly be object ed that as haao is an appellative, "p- a being parallel to it. must necessarily be the same. The necessity of the case is not obvious. Both are mentioned as objects which the Hebrews carried about for idolatrous purposes, — the one, the portable temple of the idol ; the other the idol itself placed in this temple, of which numerous miniature resemblances were privately distributed throughout the camp. The LXX. unquestionably regarded the word as a proper name, whatever they may thereby have intend ed to designate. And this view of the subject is confirmed by aaa'a, a star, be ing put in apposition with Ta-a, in order to explain it, an explanation which can not apply, if by the latter term we un derstand merely the pedestal or stand on which the idol was placed. It is now 160 AMOS. Chap. V. 27 Therefore, I will carry you away captive beyond Damascus, almost a settled point, that by -,a*a , Chiun, the planet Saturn is meant. If we except the Syr., which reads .o\s, Kevon, the earliest authorities which we have for this interpretation of the passage are the rabbins Abenezra and Kimchi ; but their testimony as relating to a matter of fact is irrefragable, however slightingly Hengstenberg seems to treat it, Authen. des Pentat. p. 113. The former thus comments upon the passage : laia nVaa isaia san -a one ba Vssaioi ¦pioVa sani nVs aV aa-s ia inaw sani, "And as for the term Chiun, it is known in the Ara bic and Persic languages by the name Kivan, which is Saturn, to which they made an image." And the latter, in nearly the same words : ihaw aaaa san isaia OnBa Vssaoi -pwVa s-pa -aa, " It is the star Saturn, and thus he is called Kivan in the Arabic and Persic." ^yjS, Keiwan, seems to have been adopted from the latter into the former of these languages, in the Lexicons of which, as a foreign word, it is explained by vJLfe-'\, the usual name for Saturn in Arabic. It occurs in the Persian work entitled Dabistan, the author of which, describing the temples which the ancient Persians dedicated to the planets says : <^$*Xmi y ]\^j'mjS i^i»ji >-vj sLw«/, that "the image of Keiwan was of black stone." Lee's Hebrew Lex. in voc. nnifis. He speaks, in fact, of the ft ,m ^ .} shrine, and *jCo, image, of the planet, just as Amos does of naae and ¦jn-'sj. According to the Zendavesta the seven planets are Tir, Behram, Ac- huma, Anahid, Kewan, Gurtsher, and Dodidom Mushewer. Bundehesh. V. In the codex Nasaneus, containing the doctrines of the Sabaeans, which was published by Norberg, we find a list of the demons which rule these planets, added in the same page : \n .•, v"- t^S,-~, .nSiSp? jAlo V" oso o among whom V OaS Li-Alfl.4*, the fifth U Kivan, p, 54. It is afterwards IAoslJ ^o Uj| AlnS q V . V 1 ¦ « The demons of Kivan in ject lamentation, weeping and mourning into the hearts of men, and rob them of happiness." And we farther read, p. 212, avlLca \2.o±Xa "\ \° ," »^V • . . w« ¦ .m .. josi, "T° Kivan is attributed malice, because from it come diminution and want." Ascribing the same evil influence to Saturn, the Arabs likewise give to it the name of ,,,^\ ; ( I wO 5f I j the great disaster; and the idea frequently occurs in the Latin classics. See Lucan i. 650 ; Juven. vi. 569 ; Ma- crob. Saturn, i. 19. If the Hebrew -p-a be pointed -paia, the exact pronuncia tion of the name of the planet in the other Oriental dialects will be brought out, and thus the evidence of identity be complete. With respect to ' Vaupav, the rendering of the LXX., or ' Peipav, as it is to be spelt, on the authority of the best MSS., Acts vii. 43, there is every reason to believe that they mistook a for n, as they have done in other instances ; and so have given Rephan, instead of Kephan. That PH*AN should occur in the Arahico- Coptic table of the planets exhibited by Kircher in his Ling. iEgypt. Restit. p. 49, by no means proves that this was the ancient Egyptian name of Saturn ; for as that table is of no great antiquity, and as the other names are chiefly derived from the Greek, we may reasonably in fer that the one in question was copied from the Coptic version of this very pas sage of the LXX. At all events, no such name of a deity has yet been found in the Egyptian pantheon, aa-a, the Chap. VI. AMOS. 161 Saith Jehovah : God of hosts is his name. star, is expletive of ys . in so far as it in forms us that the figure of the idol was that of a star, and thus proves the idola trous worship to have been the Sabaean, with which the Hebrews became ac quainted during their stay in the Ara bian desert. 27. Instead of ptaanV nsVnaa , LXX. iireKeiva AapatrKov, " beyond Damas cus," with which all the other authori ties agree, Stephen has iireKeiva Ba/3v- Kavos, " beyond Babylon," Acts vii. 43, obviously by way of interpretation. nsVn naturally suggests the idea of remote ness, though it is sometimes used in re ference to what is at no great distance. Root Spn, Arab. ^JjB, recessit, Syr. .. «.. 7 xs *i\*i removit, elongavit. The n added is paragogic. While what Amos states is included in the statement made by the proto-martyr, the latter embraces what was known from fact to be the ful filment of the prophecy : the Israelites having been carried, not merely beyond Damascus, but beyond Babylon, into the country of the Medes. The chapter closes with a vindication of the supre macy of Jehovah above all the objects of Sabaaan worship : Saw hasas ira'Vs, God of Sabaoth is his name ! CHAPTER YI. This chapter embracea the character and punishment of the whole Hebrew nation. The inhabitants of the two capitals are directly addressed in the language of denunciation, and charged to take warning from the fate of other nations, 1, 2. Their carnal security, in justice, self indulgence, sensuality, and total disregard of the divine tbreatenings, arc next described, 3-6 ; after which tlie prophet announces the captivity, and the calamitous cir cumstances connected with the siege of Samaria, by which it was to be preceded, 7-11. He then exposes the absurdity of their conduct, and threatens them with the irruption of an enemy, that should pervade the whole country, 12-14. 1 Wo to them that are at ease in Zion, And to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria ; The distinguished men of the first nations, 1. Though chiefly directed agamst the northern of the two kingdoms, the language of this prophecy is so con structed as to apply to both : and in the present verse express mention is made of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who resembled those of Samaria in careless ness and carnal security, "las-a and ntaa are similarly connected and applied, Is. xxx. 9, 1 1 ; so that the rendering of the LXX. toii i£ov&evovai 'Siiiv, adopted by 21 Dathe, cannot be justified. For the primary meaning of "]S'i-, compare the cognate ytv, m Niphal, to lean, lean up on, trust. The reduplicate Nun expresses intensity, aapa has Here the acceptation of the Arab. v_*aAJ, rerum gentis ad ministrator, princeps gentis : from ^_^Jij, perfodit, creatus est ; creatus fuit dux. Whence also xjL&j, prefectura. The Hebrew phrase tria a'.a, to be marked, i; AMOS, Chap. VI. To whom the house of Israel come ! Pass over to Calneh, and see ; And go thence to Hamath the great ; Go down also to Gath of the Philistines : Were they better than these kingdoms ? Were their boundaries more ample than yours ? Wo to them that put off the day of evil, distinguished by name, is always used in reference to persons who had been chosen or designated for some special service. Num. i. 17 ; 1 Chron. xii. 31, xvi. 41 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15, xxxi. 19. . The term is here employed for the purpose of speci fying more particularly the leading men in the two kingdoms, whose profligacy and irreligion preeminently aggravated the national guilt. By aia'an hiasn we are not, with Newcome, to understand " the chief of the idolatrous nations," and that the persons spoken of were called after them, but the Hebrew nation, which is so called because it was the principal, or most distinguished of all the nations of the earth ; having been constituted the peculiar people of God, and possessing laws and privileges unknown to any other. It might well be said to occupy the first rank. Comp.-pVas Qias ni»sn, Num. xxiv. 20, where the reference is to the distinguished place which the Amale- kites held among the nations of Canaan. CnV is to be construed with t-a;aa, and not with nii.a, or with -ja'S and -p'nao. The people of Israel were in the habit of going up to their princes and leaders for the decision of differences, etc. They exerted an influence over the entire people. Both the LXX. and the Syr. are greatly at fault in the translation of this verse. 2. Three heathen cities are here selected as specimens of the greatness and prosperity of the nations to which they belonged, and the Israelites are challenged to institute a comparison of the circumstances of these nations and the extent of their territory, with those of their own, as also, to reflect on the present prostrate condition of the cities mentioned, in order that they might become sensible of the superiority with which Jehovah had distinguished them, and the greater punishment to which they had exposed themselves by their ungrate ful returns. For na Va, Calneh, and nan, Hamath, see on Is. x. 9. Hitzig at tempts to prove that by the latter name, snans, Ecbatana or Hamedan is meant ; but there is no reason to believe that the Hebrews had any knowledge of this city in the days of Amos. It is here called nan, great, not to distinguish it from other cities of the same name, but to ex press its size and magnificence. Comp. nan Tama, Sidon the great, Josh. xi. 8. hJ, Gath, was the chief city of one of the five satrapies of the Philistines, with whose name it is here associated, to distinguish it from Gath-Hepher, and Gath-Rimmon. It had more than once been reduced before the time of Amos, and disappeared at an early period from the annals of geography. No trace of it has been discovered by any modern trav eller. The n in tia atari has been regarded as the Article by the LXX., Syr., and Vulg. translators, and is thus found in twelve of De Rossi's MSS. ; but the more natural construction is that of the Targ. and most modern versions, which makes it interrogative. Before the ya of com parison is an ellipsis of nan ; and haaVaan , hV.sn , these kingdoms, must be understood as designating those of Is rael and Judah, with which the prophet had immediately to do, and to which he thus emphatically points. In this way only can an appropriate reference be found for the distinctive affixes in cV aaj and caVaaa. 3. Supply iin, wo to, from ver. 1. tinaan , the Targ. not inappropriately explains by "j"pn na, remove to a distance. The root is n ~ a , which in the other dia- Chap. VI. AMOS. 1C3 And bring near the seat of oppression ; 4 That lie upon beds of ivory, And are stretched upon their couches ; That eat lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall ; 5 That strike up songs to the sound of the lyre ; Like David they invent for themselves instruments of music ; 6 That drink in bowls of wine, And anoint with the first of oils ; But are not grieved for the destruction of Joseph! lects signifies to separate, remove as an object of disgust. Aq. oi airoKexaipurpe- voi, Symm. a.(pcapio-pevoi. The persons addressed could not bear the idea that the period of threatened punishment was impending ; they endeavored as much as possible to keep it out of view. Comp. Ezek. xii. 21-28. In striking antithesis to this, they are represented in the fol lowing hemistich, as acting in such a manner as speedily to bring it upon them. " Sed quam ccecus inest vitiis amor ? omne futurum Despicitur, suadentque brevem presentia fructum ; Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido, Dum mora supplicii lucro, serumque quod instat Creditur." Claud. Eutrop. lib. ii. I cannot agree with Jerome, Grotius, Newcome, Justi, and some others, in referring san hats, the seat or throne of oppression, to the rule of the king of Assyria : it is more natural to regard the prophet as describing the wickedness of the people themselves in yielding support to a system, of flagrant injustice and oppression, on the part of their own rulers and judges. Thus most expositors. na'i occurs nowhere else in the sense of throne ; but a-aji , of which it is properly the infinitive, is used in application both to kings and judges, as is also the par ticiple aaia'i. The term is synonymous with sB a, which is also used both of the throne and the bench, ti-sn is here taken by most interpreters to have the same signification as in Kal, to approach; but as in every other instance in which the verb is used in Hiphil it vmdicatcs to itself the causative acceptation, and in the present case is obviously intended to form a contrast to cinaa, which con veys the idea of removing to a distance, I must retain the rendering of our common version. Thus Hitzig and Ewald. The meaning is, that instead of putting array from them all illegal and oppressive judgment, they encouraged those who were guilty of them, by assisting in car rying them into execution. 4. For -|-j hatca, beds of ivory, see on chap. iii. 15 ; and comp. leeti eburnei of Horace, .and lecti eborati of Plautus. fcin~0 1 from nno, Arab. ^n,, libere dismisit, to be thrown negligently along, is descriptive of the self-indulgent mode in which the Orientals recline upon their sofas or couches, bemg stretched upon them at full length. The whole verse sets forth in well chosen expressions the luxurious habits of the opulent. LXX. Karao-iraTaKwvres. 5, 6. Un2 is a dira\ Key., and has been thought by Gesenius, Hitzig, and Ewald, to have been selected on purpose, instead of nat, to sing, in order to express the contempt in which the music deserved to be held. Such interpretation, how ever, does not appear to be philologically sustained, and ill suits the corresponding hemistich. According to the LXX. iiriKparovvTes, presiding over, or at, the verb is synonymous with na:, in Piel, to superintend, lead in music. Hence riaaa, the chief musician. Comp. the Arab, is^i, pravertit, prcecessit. The Oyi, 164 AMOS. Cuap. VI. 7 Therefore now they shall go captive at the head of the captives, And the shouting company of those that recline shall depart. 8 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, , Thus saith Jehovah, God of hosts, I abhor the splendor of Jacob, And I hate his palaces : Therefore will I deliver up the city, and all that is in it. 9 It shall be, that if ten men should be left in one house, persons reprobated were so passionately fond of song, that they could not be content to listen to the performances of professed musicians, but took the lead in striking up songs to the sound of the lyre. The reference to David, who was the sweet singer of Israel, and of whose musical instruments express mention is made Neh. xii. 36, is manifestly iron ical ; implying that, while that monarch devoted his musical talent to the glory of God, the dissipated grandees of Israel consulted only their personal gratification, and that of those who joined their giddy circle. D"pnaa, were properly basins, or boivls, of a larger size, used for sacrificial purposes, Exod. xxxviii. 3 ; Num. vii. 13, 19. The persons referred to, indulged to such excess, that ordinary cups were unsuited to their compotations. They likewise anointed themselves with the most precious oils, and evinced a total apathy in regard to the calamities to which their people had already been suhject, or the still more serious evils which threatened them. For the mean ing of "Da", Joseph, see on chap. v. 6. 7. rn-ag, Arab. ^.\yjo, vox,theshout or cry, in which the merrymakers in dulged over their cups. The persons giv ing the shout seem to be intended, and, as the term is also used in reference to a cry of lamentation, Jer. xvi. 5, it may be implied that their joy would be turned into sorrow. They are spoken of col lectively. Symm. eraipeia Tpv^rrrav. Those who had taken the lead in revelry and all manner of wickedness, were to be first in the procession of captives. In such a position, their disgrace would be more conspicuous. 8. The double form of asseveration here employed is unusual, and is strongly emphatic, asna, the Piel participle of asp , a root of the same signification with ay P. Compare for a similar interchange of these letters Vs..a and Vs.a , saa. and yai. Though the phrase ajas; y'ss, the excellency of Jacob, cannot be otherwise understood than -of God himself, as the only legitimate object of glorying on the part of his people, chap. viii. 7, yet, in the present instance, it is to be taken in application to the country and peculiar privileges of the Hebrews. It was once a country piously celebrated in song as the excellency of Jacob, Ps. xlvii. 5, and the peculiar object of divine regard ; but now defiled by the wickedness of its in habitants, it had become the object of his abhorrence. By n"S, the city, Amos had most probably Samaria in his eye. Hitzig attaches to in -.-van, the significa tion of Kal, to besiege, shut up, but the usual Hiphil signification better agrees with the following connection. sVa, fulness, conveys the idea of multitude, or great abundance, and comprehends here both the numerous inhabitants themselves, and the wealth and means of gratification hi which they abounded. Comp. Ps. xxiv. 1. For the accomplish ment of the prediction, see 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6. 9, 10. The scene is not necessarily laid in the city ; it might also have been realized in any of the towns or villages in the country that had been depopu lated by the Assyrians. It depicts, in the most affecting manner, the deplorable condition of the few that had escaped the enemy, and had now been attacked by the plague — a usual attendant on Chap. VI. AMOS. 165 They also shall die. 10 And one's relative, even ho that burnetii him shall take him up, To remove his bones out of the house ; And shall say to him that is in the innermost part of the house, Is there yet any with thee ; And he shall say, None ! Then shall he say, Hush ! For we must not mention the name of Jehovah. 1 1 For behold ! Jehovah hath commanded, And he will smite the great house with breaches, And the small house with fissures. war in the East. The prophet declares, that if as many as ten had been left in one house, which might be regarded as a rare instance, they should die, one after another, of this fatal disease, nan is not here to be taken in the special sense of uncle, but denotes any near relative on whom it devolved to attend to the funeral rites. Targ. n'a'np. Vulg. propinquus. In the present case, such would be the paucity of hands, that he would have to perform the whole him self. The copulative a, rirenxedto a£nca, is epexegetical, and is to be rendered. even, as in Zech. ix. 9. Instead of 5|nea, many both of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read correctly t]n ws. But comp. 7 7 '' the Syr. usi.27- Some have attempted to prove from this, and some other pas sages, that it was the practice of the Hebrews to burn their dead. But what is said 2 Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19 ; Jer. xxxiv. 5, obviously refers to the burning of spices, and not of dead bodies. 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, and our present text, exhibit special cases. In the former of these, the object was so to dispose of the corpses that it might not be in the power of the Philistines further to dis honor them ; while in the latter, it was either, as Grotius supposes, to prevent contagion, or to dispose of the body in the only way of which the circumstances of the time would allow. That by e-aas, not mere bones are meant, nor bodies so emaciated as to be nothing but skin and bone, which is Winer's opinion, but dead bodies, seems established beyond all doubt by a referenoe to Gen. 1. 25 ; - Exod. xiii. 19 ; 2 Kings xiii. 21 ; Jer. viii. 1,2. h'an -nan;a,is wellrendered in the Vulg. in penctralibus domus. See on Is. xiv. 13. Having burnt and re moved one body after another, the rela tive, discovering a patient in one of the innermost rooms or corners of the house, inquires whether he is the only survivor ? and on receiving for answer that he is, he suddenly enjoins silence upon him. There is some difficulty in dertermining what occasioned this injunction, and for what reason the Divine name was not to be mentioned. Most probably the patient bad begun to give vent to his feelings in expressions of praise to Jehovah, for sparing his life in the midst of such prevailing mortality ; when the other, from some superstitious notion, or from the supposed incongruity of prais ing God hi such circumstances, inter rupted his pious effusions, tisa n-aan, means to mention, or record with appro bation, as an object of trust. Comp. Josh, xxiii. 7 ; Ps. xx. 8. The phrase cannot, therefore, be construed into the language of despair — as if the person who gave utterance to the words be sought God to take him away likewise, and thus terminate the melancholy scene. Nor. for the same reason, can it imply, as Michaelis interprets, that he had confirmed what he had stated with an oath. 11. Grotius, Dahl, Justi, and Ewald, adopt the interpretation of the Targ., Jerome, and Cyril, that by the "great house " is meant the kingdom of Isiael, 166 AMOS, Chap. VI. 13 14 Shall horses run upon a rock ? Will one plough there with oxen ? Yet we have converted justice into poison, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. Ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, That say, Have we not by our own strength, Taken to ourselves horns ? But behold ! I will raise up against you, 0 house of Israel ! A nation, saith Jehovah, God of hosts ; And they shall oppress you, From the entrance of Hamath, To the river of the desert. and by the "small house" that of Judah; and comp. chap. ix. 8, 9, where the same participial form na.a.a is employed as here before another verb. ffO^, mean atoms, or the minute parts to which the materials of a building are reduced, when it is utterly destroyed. The word otherwise signifies the small drops of any liquid that is sprinkled, and is derived from Ban, to sprinkle, C-is'pa, are fis sures, or rents in an edifice, which threat en its fall. There was to be a markad dif ference in the treatment of the two king doms ; the one was to be utterly de stroyed, while the other, though greatly injured, was still to stand. Rosenmiiller, however, regards the interpretation as " arguta magis, quam vera." Calvin, Vatablus, Marckius, Cocceius, Lowth, Michfelis, and Maurer, likewise take the words literally, as applying to the houses both of the rich and the poor. The destruction, more or less, was to be uni versal. " Regum turres ac pauperum tabernas." Horace. This construction of the verse is con firmed by a comparison with chap. iii. 15. 12. The folly of expecting real pros perity while committing acts of injustice, is forcibly represented by comparing it to the absurdity of attempting to run horses upon a rock, or to plough it with oxen. To add to the strength of the representation, it is put in the interroga tive form, can 132 is to be taken im personally. 13. The participles, with the n demon strative, are again employed as in verses 3, 4, 5, 6. nan sV, non-re, what is so perishable and evanescent, that it may well be said to have no existence. Horns are the symbol of power and dominion. 14. Few instances will be found in Hebrew, in which the object of a verb is so far removed from it as la'jhere is from oijaa?.- Some have referred Vru nansn , the river of the Desert, to the Rhinocorura, otherwise called the river of Egypt ; and others to " the brook of the willows," Biansn nna , or the Wady el- Ahsa, which flows into the Dead Sea, near Zoar ; but it is obvious from 2 Kings xiv. 25, in which the limits here specified are described as constituting those of the kingdom of the ten tribes, that it must mean the brook Kidron, which falls into the Dead Sea to the south of Jericho. One of the names given to this sea is nansn ti , the Sea of the Desert; nanyn, the desert, forming what is now commonly called . «ju | , El- Ghor, or the low sterile region in which the valley of the Jordan ter minates, and which extends as far as the Elanitic Gulf. Chap. VII. AMOS. 167 CHAPTER VII.— VIII. 3. This portion of the book contains four symbolical visions respecting successive judgments that were to be inflicted on the kingdom of Israel. They were delivered at Hethel, ai.d in all probability at the commencement of the prophet's ministry. f Each of them, ns they follow in the series, is more severe than the preceding. The first presented to the mental eye of the prophet a swarm of young locusts, which threatened to cut off all hope of the harvest, 1-3; the second, a fire, which effected an univeisal conflagration, 4-C; the thiid, a plumb-line, ready to be applied to mark out the .edifices that were to be destroyed, T-'J; and the fourth, a basket of ripe fruit, denoting the near and certain destruction of the kingdom, viii. 1-3. The intervening eight verses, which conclude the seventh chapter, contain an account of the interruption of Amos by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, who've punishment is specially predicted. In point of style, this portion differs from that of the rest of the book, being almost exclusively historical and dialogistic. Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and, behold, he formed locusts at the beginning of the shooting up of the latter grass : and, behold, it was the latter grass after the king's mowings. And it came to pass, when they had entirely devoured the grass of the land, I said : 1. All the four visions aTe introduced in nearly the same language : iasnn na nana nani ijns. The repetition of nan, behold, is peculiar to this verse. In the latter of the two instances, it is employed for the sake of emphasis, instead of the substantive verb, iy, a name of the lo cust, occurring only here, and Nah. iii. 1 7, and synonymous with ras , Is. xxxiii. 4, Comp. the Arab. i«jLa and \ I, ~> loeusta, from La~», eyressus fuit, in reference to its coming forth out of the egg, which had been deposited in the earth to be hatched. The term is, there fore, strictly descriptive of the locust in its caterpillar state, and thus agrees with the use of the verb ir, to form, which is here used. Prof. Lee derives it from O^a, secuit. Credner on Joel, pp. 299-302, elaborately attempts to set aside the above derivation of Psochart, yet allows that the word denotes the insect in the first stage of its existence. The plural termination it, is found in several masculine nouns, as inn, i:aih., ¦sa-i-n , etc. ; but the anomaly has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for. See, however, Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 523. Lee's Heb. Gram. Art. 139, 4, 2d edit. -rr;V, an after-math, or second crop, which conies up immediately after the mowing of grass. ia;p_V, cognate with tapV, Arab. U a ', legit, collegit, signifies in Piel to gather the late fruit. Comp. the Syr. j * "V- serotinus, and ajipVa, the latter rain. The phrase T|Van_ i-t: may either mean the mowings ot the grass which grew on the royal domains, or the first mowings of that belonging to the people, to which the king tyrannically laid claim. Considering the character of the times, there can be little doubt that the latter are meant. 2. That the locusts here referred to are not intended to represent a literal swarm of these insects, but are to be taken figuratively, as denoting a hostile army, just as the fire in the second vision is to be regarded as symbolical of war, may be inferred from the figurative 168 AMOS, Chap. VII. O Lord Jehovah ! forgive, I beseech thee ! Who is Jacob, that he should stand ? For he is small. 3 Jehovah repented of this : It shall not be, saith Jehovah. 4 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and, behold, the Lord Jehovah called to contend by fire ; and it consumed the great abyss, and devoured the portion. 5 Then I said : O Lord Jehovah! desist, I beseech thee! Who is Jacob, that he should stand? • For he is small. 6 Jehovah repented of this : It also shall not be, saith the Lord Jehovah. 7 Thus he showed me, and behold the Lord stood upon a per- character of the two visions, ver. 7, and chap. viii. 1. Most probably the army of Pul, king of Assyria, is meant. The Israelites had been greatly reduced by repeated invasions on the part of the Syrian kings, and were on the point of being attacked by the Assyrians, but purchased their retreat with the sum of one thousand talents of silver. See 2 Kings xv. 19, 20. anyi capi ia, con cisely for Cap- ia ajasi i;3, who is Jacob, that he should stand ? meaning, how can he possibly sustain the threatened attack, reduced and weak as he is in resources. cap signifies to stand fast, continue, endure, as well as to rise. One of De Rossi's MSS., and another originally, read D a p i , and another capi , and thus the LXX. Syr. Symm. and Vulg. ; but less appropriately in such context. 3. Dna, Pick renders, gave consolation, which is not so suitable here as the signification, to repent. Such repentance is to be understood Seowpeirois, appear ing, as Veil observes, " in effectu, citra mutationem in effectu." Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 11 ; Jer. xiii. 10. Targ. -i a-hs h"Ta>an, the Lord turned away his wrath. rsTi the feminine pronoun, stands for the neuter of other languages. 4. s-p corresponds in form to naa'i, ver. 1. a-V , an abbreviated form of the Hiohil hifinitive, a-nnV. Comp. Is. iii. 13. The verb signifies to contend judici ally, to treat according to one's deserts, to punish. By the fire here spoken of we are not to understand a great heat which produced a drought in the land, but war, of which it is an appropriate symbol. See Num. xxi. 28 ; Judges ix. 15, 20 ; Is. Lxvi. 16. To express the extent of the threatened calamity, the fire, by a bold figure, is represented as drying up the ocean (nan oann), and consuming whatever was found on the dry land. This acceptation of pVn, a division, por- fion, or allotment of land, the antithesis requires ; still, however, the term is chosen with special application to the land of Canaan, which was divided to the chil dren of Israel as their portion. The de finite form of the noun pVnn- rs, indi cates as much. The invasion of the land of Israel by Tiglath-Pileser, and the first captivity of that people seem to be the subjects of the vision. See 2 Kings xv. 29 ; 1 Chron. v. 26. That in the former vision, the calamity had not been in flicted, the use of the verb nVta, forgive, intimates. In this, it had in part, as the use of Vnh, desist, obviously im plies. 5, 6. In these verses, as in vers. 2 and 3, we have a beautiful instance of the in fluence of prayer in averting or mitigat ing the judgments of God. Chap. VII. AMOS. 109 10 pendicular wall; and in his hand was a plumb-line. And Jehovah said to me, What seest thou, Amos ? And I said, A plumb-line. And the Lord saith : Behold, I will set a plumb-line In the midst of my people Israel ; I will pass by them no more. The high-places of Isaac shall be desolated, And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste ; And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, the 7, 8. This vision, and that described chap. viii. 1-3, differ from the two preceding, in the distinct and express application of the symbols to the punish ment of the Israelites. The Divine patience is exhausted. Jehovah takes active measures for executing his threat- enings, and at last inflicts the exter minating judgment on a people ripe for destruction. The prophet, in consequence, intercedes no more, ^as haan, a per pendicular wall, lit. a wall of the plum met, so called from the plumb-line being applied in order to secure its perpen dicularity, aps, which occurs only in these verses, properly signifies lead or tin. Arab. v*JLj| Syr. j "s 'otie dtvos AiiTuiv, Kal reKeuiv, &Xoxoi ti' aKKotai piyeUv. Iliad, b. iii. 300, 301. Every country, except Canaan, was re garded by the Hebrews as hsaia nans, a polluted land, though, at this time, their own land had become such. Is. xxiv. 5, where 55 his similarly used ; Jer. ii. 7. The land of Assyria is that to which Amos points. 172 AMOS. Chap. VIII. CHAPTER VIII, After giving an account of a fourth vision, in which was represented the ripeness for des truction at which the Israelites had arrived, and the certainty of such destruction, 1-3, the prophet resumes his denunciatory addresses to the avaricious oppressors of the peo ple, 4-7; predicts the overthrow of the nation, 8-10; and concludes with threatening a destitution of the means of religious instruction, 11-14. 1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and, behold, a basket of 2 ripe fruit ! And he said, What seest thou, Amos ? And I said, A basket of ripe fruit. Then said Jehovah to me : The end is come to my people Israel ; I will pass by them no more. 3 And the songs of the palace shall howl, In that day, saith the Lord Jehovah ; The carcasses are many! Throw them out anywhere ! Hush ! 4 Hear this ! ye that pant after the needy, 1. This vision may be regarded as a continuation of the subject with which the last concluded, in the development of which the prophet had been interrupted . c Al&ioiras, toI tiix&a. Setialarat, %axaT0L avtipaiv, Ot p.ev tivaopevov inrepiovos, oi l? avi- OVTOS. Odyss. i. 23, 24. For QiinaiVSi see on Is. xiv. 28. Gese nius hesitates between Crete and Cap- padocia, as designated by the Hebrew Caphtor, but inclines to the former. Thesaurus, p. 709. LXX. KairiratioKia. Cns, Aram, or Syria, put for the Syrians, i. e! the inhabitants of the countries about Damascus. They are here repre sented as having migrated from nip, Kir, the country lying on the river Kur, or Cyrus. See on Is. xxii. 6. 8, 9. a Bij.i». the eyes of a person are said to be in any one, when he keeps him steadily in view, in order either to do him good, or to punish' him. In the present instance, the phrase conveys the idea of hostility. Though the king dom of the ten tribes was to be utterly and forever destroyed, yet, as descend ants of their patriarchal ancestors, they should not become extinct. In the midst C;i.u\ IX. AMOS. 179 And I will destroy it from the face of the earth ; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, Saith Jehovah. 9 For, behold, I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, As one sifteth corn in a sieve, And not a grain faileth to the ground. 10 But all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, That say, The evil shall not reach nor overtake us. 11 In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is falling, And will close up its breaches ; of the wrath which their sinfulness should bring upon them, God would remember mercy, -a OSS is strongly adversative. nnaa, a sieve, which is used to separate the chaff and other refuse from the pure grain, is most probably derived from naa , to be many, from the number of small holes in it. LXX. Kmpbs. Aq. and Symm. K6aKivov. nana is used as a di minutive of naa, the smallest stone, 2 Sam. xvii. 13 ; here it signifies the small est grain or particle of corn. While the figurative language here employed ex presses the violence of the sifting process to which the Israelites should be sub jected in order that thefr idolatry and other sins might be removed from them ; it likewise sets forth the great care that would be exercised for their preserva tion. The universal character of their dispersion is likewise strongly marked. 10. Those are here specially intended, who scoffingly denied the possibility of the Assyrian conquest, namely, the dissipated magnates of Samaria. Such should perish in the war. nsa D'nph is unusual. Perhaps the meaning is, Shall not come forward, or advance in our rear, so as to cut off our re treat. 11. The Israelites now disappear from the scene, in order ' to give place to a brief but prominent exhibition of the restoration of the Jews from their de pressed condition, during the anticipated captivity in Babylon, and the great design of that restoration — the intro duction of the Messianic dispensation, during which the blessings of the cov enant of mercy was to be extended to the Gentile world. With this reference in view, the apostle James expressly quotes the prophecy, Acts xv. 15-17. The quo tation is made from the version of the LXX. ; but as regards verbality, differs fully as much from it, as the latter does from the Hebrew text ; his object being to give the general sense of the passage, and not the identical phraseology. It must further be observed that, though he quotes the entire passage, consisting of the 11th and 12th verses, his obvious design was to give prominence to what is contained in the latter, viz. the con version of the Gentiles, the very point required by his argument ; so that all attempts to apply what is said respect ing the booth of David to the Christian church, are unwarranted and futile. nian, David, is used by the prophet, not in its figurative, but in its proper mean ing, as denoting the Hebrew monarch of that name. By sann ca'i, that day, for which James has, quite indefinitely, pera. ravra, we are to understand the period of the dispersion of the Israelites among the nations, subsequent to the fall of their kingdom. Though that kingdom would never be restored, yet the Jewish polity would be re-established at Jerusalem. This polity is here called -a "an rare, the booth, or hut of David, to denote the reduced state of his family, and the affairs of the people. Comp. Is. xi. 1 , and my note there. When the prosir-v^v of that family is spoken of, the more 180 AMOS. Chap. IS And I will raise up its ruins, And build it as in the days of old. 12 That the remnant of Edom may be possessed, And all the nations upon which my name shall be called, Saith Jehovah that doeth this. dignified phrase, man hia, the house of David, is employed. See 2 Sam. iii. 1 ; 1 Kings xi. 38 ; Is. vii. 2, 13. man Vn.S, the tent, or tabernacle of David, Is. xvi. 5, would seem to express an intermediate state of things. That ma aa, David, is here to be understood of the Messiah, I cannot find. naO, tugurium, a hut, or booth, so called from its being constructed by interweaving the boughs and branches of trees with each other, and its thus forming a rude shelter from the storm. It was in such booths the Hebrews were to dwell during the seven days of haaShsn, the feast of booths, commonly called " the feast of tabernacles." See Levit. xxiii. 40-43. Root "ata, to weave, in terweave, protect. Still more definitely to mark the depressed condition of the Jewish kingdom, is described as r-Ve:> falling. The present participle is here, as frequently, used to denote an action which was happening at the time of narration, and which would be continued. About the time of Amos the Jewish af fairs had begun to decline ; and, though they occasionally and partially revived, yet, taken as a whole, they continued to deteriorate till the Babylonish invasion, when they were reduced to the deplorably fallen state in which they continued till the return from the captivity, when the restoration here predicted took place. From the phraseology employed by the prophet, the Rabbins derived one of the names which they give to the Messiah : iVeS na the son of the fallen. Thus in the Talmud, Sanhed. fol. 96, 2: "R. Nach- man said to R. Isaac : Hast thou heard when Bar-naphli comes ? To whom he said, Who is Bar-naphli. He replied, The Messiah : you may call the Messiah Bar-naphli ; for is it not written, In that day I will raise up, etc. ? " quoting the present verse of Amos. For other passages to the same effect, see Schoet- genii Horse Hebraica? et Talmud. The feminine suffix in Irtish 3 is to be re ferred to the different parts or cities of the kingdom, understood. The mas culine in a\h6nn, has man for its antece dent, and the feminine in hirpaa refers to nata. 1 2. The grand end of the restoration from the captivity in Babylon is now stated, viz. the introduction of the universal economy of the gospel. The church of God had formerly consisted of persons belonging to a particular nation : henceforth it was to comprehend those of all nations, even such as had been most hostile to its interests, whom God would call to be his people. ttih^, to take possession of, inherit, is here used figura tively of the influence for good which the church should exert over the Gentiles, bringing them within her pale, and using them for her holy and benevolent pur poses. In the words, >in ii ai-ia ~S")l, " thy seed shall possess," or " inherit the nations," Is. liv. 3, we have a strictly parallel prophecy, couched in the same language. Comp. also Is. xlix. 8, and Rom. iv. 13, where, in reference to the blesshfg of the Gentiles with faithful Abraham, that patriarch is called " the heir of the world." Among the first of the foreign nations that were to experi ence his beneficent influence, the Idu means are expressly mentioned. Owing to the enmity which had existed between them and the Jews, they had mutually harassed and wasted each other, in con sequence of which, and of invasions and wars on the part of other powers, nothing but nins'i-. a remnant, of the former was left. Of this remnant, a portion was pro selytized to the Jewish faith in the time of John Hyreanus, and the remainder amalgamated with the tribes of Arabia, ¦which embraced the Christian faith. It is to these last that specific reference CiiAr. IX. AMOS. 18J 1 3 Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, That the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him that soweth the And the mountains shall drop with new wine, And all the hills shall melt. is here made. attnn is to be taken impersonally, and rendered passively ; and the power of its future must be carried forward to snpa. The calling of a name upon any person or thing, de notes the assertion of the claims of the individual whose name is mentioned upon the person or thing specified. Qi'l^n- Va is the accusative, ns being understood as repeated, sunn ^saV Cans hinso- ns the LXX. have ren dered Situs iK^nT^ffaiaiv oi KaraKoiiroi ¦rap av&pc&irwv, or, as some MSS. read, iK^nriio-aai pe, as if their Hebrew text had been nns mnso ihsasnm yijah, thai the residue of men may seek me. Newcome supposes that the reading ins is a contraction for nani hs ; but though Tbv Kvpiov, which we find in the quotation, Acts xv. 17, might seem to favor this supposition, there is no evidence to prove that the contraction "i ns, so common in Rabbinical writ ings, is of such antiquity. Tbv Kvpiov I consider to be merely an interpreta tion of p.e. No Hebrew MSS. afford any countenance to the Greek transla tion, nor do any of the versions, except the Arabic, which, as usual, follows the LXX. For this reason, and regarding the latitude used by the writers of the New Testament when quoting from the Old, I cannot perceive how the passage can justly be charged with corruption. To which add, that the words as they stand in the Hebrew text, admirably suit the connection, as they equally do the argument of. the apostle ; though quoting, according to custom, from the Greek version, he adopted in the main the construction which it exhibits as sufficiently expressive of the fact which he had in view. 13. Comp. Levit. xxvi. 5. The lan guage imports the greatest abundance ; and this verse, with the two following, refer to a period subsequent to that of the calling of the Gentiles. This the in troductory phrasecisaciai nan, Behold, the days are coming, distinguished as it is from sann ca»a, In that day, ver. 11, the position of the prophecy, and other features which characterize it, sufficiently show. The verses are parallel with Is. lxi. 4, lxii. 8, 9, Ixv. 21-23 ; and are to be interpreted of the future restoration of the Jews to their own land, and their abundant prosperity in the latter day. For Snan ai?Ja, to draw out the seed, comp. sn-an apjaa, Ps. cxxvi. 6. Tlie idea seems to be that of conveying the seed with the hand from the sack or ves sel in which it was carried, yet not to the exclusion of the act of sowing. Comp. the Eth. ^f^n/\t jaculatus est sagit- tas. For oi&S, fresh or sweet wine, see on Joel i. 5. The metaphorical language here employed is at once, in the highest degree, bold and pleasing. The Hebrews were accustomed to con struct terraces on the sides of the mountains and other elevations, on which they planted vines. Of this fact the prophet avails himself, and represents the immense abundance of the produce to be such, that the eminences themselves would appear to be converted into the juice of the grape. " Subitis messor gaudebit aristis : Rorabunt querceta favis, stagnantia pas sim Vina fluent, oleique lacus." Claudian, in Rufn. lib. i. 382. How striking the contrast between the scene here depicted, and that which the face of Palestine has presented during the long period of the disper- 182 AMOS. Chap. IX. 14 I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel, And they shall build the desolate cities, and inhabit them ; And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them ; They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15 For I will plant them in their own land, And they shall no more be plucked up from their land Which I have given them, Saith Jehovah thy God. 14, 15. It is impossible to conceive of prophecy more distinctly or positively asserting the future and final restoration of the Jews to Canaan than that con tained in these verse?. Once and again they have been removed from that fa vored land, on account of their wicked ness ; but still it is theirs by Divine dona tion to their great progenitor. And when they return to the faith of Abraham, be holding in retrospection the day of the Messiah, which he saw and was glad, but deeply bewailing their guilt in having crucified him, and persevered for so many centuries in the rejection of his gospel, they shall regain possession of it, and re main its happy occupants till the end of time. OBADIAH. PREFACE, The prophecy of Obadiah, consisting only of twenty-one verses, is the shortest book of the Old Testament. Jerome calls him, parvus proplieta, versuum supputatione, non sensum. Of his origin, life, and circumstances, we know nothing ; but, as usual, various conjectures have been broached by the Rabbins and Fathers : — some identifying him with the pious Oba diah who lived at the court of Ahab ; some, with the overseer of the work men, mentioned 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1 2 ; and some, with others of the same name;- while there is no lack of legendary notices respecting the place of his birth, sepulchre, etc. See Carpzovii Introd. torn. iii. pp. 332, 333. That he flourished after the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, may be inferred from his obvious reference to that event, verses 11-14 ; for it is more natural to regard these verses as descriptive of the past, than as pro phetical anticipations of the future. He must, therefore, have lived after, or been contemporary with Jeremiah, and not with Hosea, Joel, and Amos, as Grotius, Huet, and Lightfoot, maintain. Sufficient proof of his having lived in or after the time of that prophet, has been supposed to be found in the almost verbal agreement between verses 1-8, and certain verses inserted in the parallel prophecy, Jeremiah xlix. ; it being assumed that he must have borrowed from him. This opinion, however, though held by Luther, Bertholdt, Von Coelln, Credner, Hitzig, and Von Knobel, is less probable than the contrary hypothesis, which has been advocated by Tarnovius, Schmidius, Du Veil, Drusius, Neweome, Eichhorn, Jahn, Schnurrer, Rosen miiller, Holzapfel, Hendework, Havernick, and Maurer. Indeed, a com parison of the structure of the parallel prophecies goes satisfactorily to show the priority of our prophet, as has been ably done by Schnurrer, in his Disputatio philologica in Obadiam, Tubing. 1787, 4to. Add to which, that Jeremiah appears to have been in the habit of partially quoting from preced ing prophets. Comp. Is. xv. xvi. with Jerem. xlviii. This view is confirmed by the opinion of Ewald, that both these writers copied from some earlier prophet, since he admits that Obadiah has preserved, in a less altered con dition, the more energetic and unusual manner of the original than Jeremiah. In brief, the portion in question is so entirely in keeping with the remainder of the book, that they must be considered as having been originally delivered by the same individual ; whereas Jeremiah presents it in the form of disjecta membra poeloz. In all probability the prophecy was delivered between the year B. c. 588, when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans, and the termination of the . 184 PREFACE TO OBADIAH. siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. During this interval, that monarch sub dued the Idumeans, and other neighboring nations. Of the composition of Obadiah, little, as Bishop Lowth observes, can be said, owing to its extreme brevity. Its principal features are animation, regularity, and perspicuity. The subjects of the prophecy are the judgments to be inflicted upon the Idumeans on account of their wanton and cruel conduct towards the Jews at the time of the Chaldean invasion ; and the restoration of the latter from captivity. The book may, therefore, be fitly divided into two parts : the first comprising verses 1-16, which contain a reprehension of the pride; self- confidence, and unfeeling cruelty of the former people, and definite predic tions of their destruction ; the latter, verses 17-21, in which it is promised that the Jews should not only be restored to their own land, but possess the territories of the surrounding nations, especially Idumea. The reason why the book occupies its present unchronological position in the Hebrew Bible, is supposed to be the connection between the subject of which it treats, and the mention made of " the residue of Edom," at the con clusion of the preceding book of Amos. OBADIAH. 185 OBADIAH. Thh prophecy commences by announcing the message sent in the providence of God to the Chaldeans, to come and attack the Idumeans, ver 1 ; and describes the humiliation of their pride. 2, 3 ; the impossibility of their escape by means of their boasted fastnesses, 4 ; and the completeness of their devastation, 5. It then proceeds with a sarcastic plaint over their deserted and fallen condition, 6-9; specifies its cause — their unnatural cruelty to wards the Jews, 10-14; and denounces a righteous retribution, 15, 16- The remaining portion fortells the restoration of the Jews, their peaceful settlement in their, own land, and the establishment of the kingdom of Messiah, 17-21. The Vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom : We have heard a report from Jehovah, And a messenger is sent among the nations : " Up ! let us rise against her to battle ! " Behold, I have made thee small among the nations ; 1. Eichhorn, Rosenmiiller, Jaeger, and Hendewerk, have raised unneces sary doubt respecting the genuineness of the title and introduction contained in this verse, which have been fully obviated by Schnurrer, Maurer, and Hit zig. For inn, see on Is. i. 1. nina's, Obadiah, " the servant of Jehovah," equivalent to Vsnas, Abdeel, Jer. xxxvi. 26; Arab. XjUI tX.A£, Abd-allah; Ger. Gottschalck. For Dans, Edom, see on Is. xxxiv. 5. The words aasass nsaas) nani nsa, we have heard a report from Jehovah, are not to be regarded as de signed to describe the reception of the Divine message by the prophet, but ex press the communication made to the nations by the ambassador sent to sum mon them to the attack upon Idumea, as the following clause shows. The nvaaa, report., or communication itself, is con tained in the last line of the verse. The plural form aasa-j, " we have heard," for which Jeremiah has ipsasaj, " / have heard," is so qualified by the passive verb hV? m tne second member of the parallelism, that it is equivalent to the passive form nsa-ia , hath been heard. 24 There is, therefore, no necessity to in quire whether Obadiah meant himself and other prophets, or whether he iden tified himself with his countrymen. All that is intended is the circulation of the hostile message in regard to Idumea ; and the tracing of the movement to the overruling providence of God, by which Nebuchadnezzar and his allies were led to turn their arms against that country. See Calvin, in he. nia, a messenger, or ambassador; Arab. »Lo, yj^o,ivit,pro- fectus est. LXX. irepioxhv, but in Jer. ayyeXovs ; Symm. here ayyeKlav. Com. Is. xviii. 2, and my note there, aaap, arise! up! like aaV, come! go! etc., is frequently used as a term of excitement. With it the address of the herald com mences; who, identifying himself with the nations which he summons, pro ceeds to employ the plural of the same verb in its strictly hostile sense, followed by the preposition Vs.. a ins, though properly masculine, is here viewed as "ns, a country ; hence the feminine suffix in n-Vs. 2. Here the masculine cni'ler is adopted, which is continued througnu t 186 OBADIAH. Thou art exceedingly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high ! That saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground ? Though thou shouldest soar like the eagle, And shouldest set thy nest among the stars, Thence I will bring thee down, saith Jehovah. the prophecy — av, people, being under stood. The past time of the verbs ex presses the certainty of the events ; and "a tap, small, and "ata, despised, are not designed to mark the comparatively limited and despicable character of Idumea, geographically considered, as Newcome interprets, but describe the miserable condition to which it was to be reduced by its enemies. 3. The Idumeans are taunted with the proud confidence which they placed in their lofty and precipitous mountain fastnesses, and the insolence with which they scouted every attempt to subdue them. These positions, strong by nature, and many of them rendered still more so by art, they deemed absolutely im pregnable. Such inaccessible places are appropriately called sVta- ash, cliffs of the rock, Syr. L^* rupee ; the Arab. I «cv — j confugit ; and hence the idea of refuge, which is secondary, and less proper to be adopted here. LXX. iv Jo > ) g . r, a 1 infortissima rape. Some in terpreters are of opinion that by sV_s, Sela, we are to understand the city of that name, otherwise called Petra, situ ated in "Wady Musa, and celebrated as the capital of Idumea. See on Is. xvi. 1. TheQiaSh ,eliffs, would, on this in terpretation, be the high and inaccessible rocks which beetled over that metropolis. I prefer taking the word in its literal acceptation, and view it as a collective, equivalent to the plural of the LXX. and other ancient versions, and thus describing the rocky character of the country generally, as well as that about Petra in particular. Instead of ajs-en, hath deceived thee, four of De Rossi's MSS. and originally two more, read ^s"'an ; but though this reading is sup ported by the LXX., Arab., Vulg., and Hexaplar Syr. it is inferior to that of the Textus Receptus, which has the suffrages of the Syr. and the Targ., especially as there are no other instances in which Si'isn is used in the sense of raising, or elevating. The i in laaii is simply a po etic paragogic, of which several examples occur in the Benoni participle. See. Gen. xlix. 11 ; Deut. xxxiii. 16 ; Is. xxii. 16 ; Micah vii. 14. In a naa there is a transi tion from the second person to the third, for the sake of more graphically pointing out the proud position of Edom. Comp. Is. xxii. 16. 4. By a bold but beautiful hyperbole, the Idumeans are told,- that, to what height soever they might remove, and how entirely they might imagine them selves to be beyond the reach of their enemies, Jehovah would dislodge them, and deliver them into their power. For the soaring of the eagle, and his building his nest on the inaccessible crags of the rock, comp. Job xxxix. 27, 281: naa avail ^ie— Vs— es iasja ai"a; "2a laVh:a'iiBi"sV^ ; n-aaaa s.Vc—-|-a— Vs " Is it at thy command the eagle soars, And erects his nest on high ? The rock he inhabits, and makes his abode On the point of the rock, a:ad the f-st- ncss." OBADIAH. 187 If thieves had come to thee, Or robbers by night (how art thou destroyed !) Would they not have stolen what was sufficient for them ? If vintagers had come to thee, Would they not have left some gleanings ? How is Esau explored ! tji'o Ewald and Hitzig take to be a passive participle ; but that it is the infinitive construct, is rendered certain by its having the preposition "|a before it, Job xx. 4. In the present instance, and in Num. xxv. 21, in which, as here, it is followed by arjsp, it stands eDiptically for Ci'-rn eis; which sufficiently accounts for the rendering of the LXX., Syr., Targ., and Vulg., which exhibit the second person singular of the verb. The term Ciaaia is to be understood literally of the stars, as the highest objects which present themselves to the eye, and not of the tops of the highest rocks, or even heaven itself, as some have maintained. ?fn"nas is a direct reply to the vaunting question, i:n.ina'i ha, ver. 3. Theodoret well expresses the sense thus : 'EireiS^i toIvvv, v * eavTois. Syr. nwA «iVn, sufficentia eorum. The apodosis is omitted ; but there is a beautiful propriety in leaving it to be supplied by those to whom the appeal was made. 6. The prophet here resumes bis strain of sarcastic plaint over the fall of Idumea, which he had abruptly adopted in the 188 OBADIAH. And his hidden places searched ! All thine allies have driven thee to the frontier ; Those who were at peace with thee have deceived thee ; They have prevailed against thee : They that ate thy bread have laid a snare under thee ; There is no understanding; in him ! preceding verse, repeating the Jjis there employed, which is again understood before asaa. The patronymic ai-s is con strued as a collective noun with the plural of the verb, and, at the same time, with the singular pronominal affix. In the translation I have been obliged to employ the singular in both cases. fasaaa, like Qiaasuaa, may either signify places where treasures are hidden, or the treasures themselves ; or the term may be explained of hiding places, to which men resort in order to elude an enemy. I prefer the last of these significations, as better agreeing with the persons of the Edomites, mentioned in the former hemistich ; though the hiding of their treasures is also naturally implied. The form is that of the Arabic passive i,J. \n 'jjg. Such places .abound in Idu mea. " Revera," says Jerome, " ut dica- mus aliquid de natura loci, omnis aus- tralis regio Idunueorum de Eleuthero- poli usque Petram et Ailam (haec est enim possessio Esau) in specubus habi- tatiunculas habet. Et propter nimios calores solis, quia meridiana provincia est, subteiraneis tuguriis utitur." In stead of the exclamatory form here employed, Jeremiah adopts that of direct personal assertion : ipEBh 13s- is ainnDa— ns irpVa, a'cs— ns; changing, at the same time, tan into q'wa, and a-assaa into ainnaai. 7. nVii, which in Kal has the signi fication to send, send away, signifies in Piel, to dismiss, eject, expel, conveying the superadded idea of compulsion or violence. Connected, as here, with ns , the verb implies expulsion beyond the frontier specified ; and the whole sen tence is descriptive of transportation into a state of captivity. Thus the Targ. ap"V^s saahP. ya, they shall lead thee captive from the border. By tjh.ana i»as. the men of thy covenant, are meant those who had formally pledged assistance to the Edomites ; confederates, allies ; by SB'V'i' i»SS> the men of thy peace, neigh boring states, which were on terms of peace and friendship with them. LXX. aiitipes eipnviKoi, those who were peace ably inclined towards them. Before ^anV supply ni-:s from the preceding — the men of thy bread; or iV.as, may be understood, those who eat thy bread ; and thus the phrase will be descriptive of dependents ; some of the poorer tribes of the desert, who subsisted on the bounty of the Edomites, and whose aid they might reasonably expect in case of. any emergency. Comp. Ps. xii. 10, where a similar combination of "a:nV Vas with laa'Viiiasis occurs ; though there the idea of familiarity, rather than that of de pendence, seems intended to be ex pressed. Five of De Rossi's MSS. and originally two more, read apsi'rn, instead of atas'-^n, as also one of the early editions, the LXX. and Arab. ; but the common reading is to be preferred. To aVai, thirty MSS.. originally eleven more, four by emendation, the Soncin. and Complut. editions, the Soncin. Prophets, and the Syr., prefix the copulative, which the dif ference of sense in the two verbs re quires. There is some difficulty in de termining the meaning of n'a'ta. LXX. tyeSpa ; Syr. Ij [Vn^. insidice, Vulg. insidim; Targ. sVph, offendiculum — all agreeing in the idea of treachery, or the employment of means by which one might be subverted or ensnared. This seems to be the only suitable meaning in this place, as the signification of wound, which attaches to the word, Jer. xxx. 13, Hos. v. 13, the other pas- OBADIAH. 189 Shall I not in that day, saith Jehovah, Cause the wise men to perish from Edom ? And the men of understanding from Mount Esau ? sages in which it occurs, will not, with any tolerable degree of propriety, apply. Two derivations have been proposed, the Arab. «-yo, distendit, equaliter, dis- tendit, to which Tingstadius appeals in Supplement, ad Lexx. Hebrr. p. 23 ; but which is far-fetched, as there is no proof that the verb is used in the sense of spreading out a net, or the like; and .|v mentitus fuit, . ,-. fallum, mendac- ium, with which the Hebrew naV, to decline from the way of truth, has been compared. The use of arnnh aai'»i, they place under thee, most naturally suggests the idea of a gin or trap, which may be said to deceive or act falsely by those who tread upon it ; so that the notions of treachery, plot, net, snare, may be combined in furnishing the true sig nification. Fiirst, who derives the word from nat, gives the significations thus : " circumligare, obligatio vulneris, fascia, hinc medicina ; moraliter : laqueorum connexio, perfidia fallax, insidiosa, frau- dulenta." To no quarter could the Idu means look for aid. Their allies, their neighbors, their very dependents, so far from assisting them, would act treach erously towards them, and employ every means, both of an open and covert nature, to effect their ruin. At the close of the verse, the prophet turns off again from the direct mode of address, and employs the third person, for the purpose of more emphatically exposing their folly in placing confidence in those who were totally unworthy of it. It would be highly uncritical, with the Targ., Hougi- bant, and Newcome, to change a a, in him, into -rj3, in thee. 8. The Idumeans confided, not only in the natural strength of their country, but in the superiority of their intel lectual talent. That they excelled in the arts and sciences, is abundantly proved by the numerous traces of them in the book of Job, which was undoubt edly written in their country. They were, indeed, proverbial for their naan, philosophy, for the cultivation of which, their intercourse with Babylon and Egypt was exceedingly favorable, as were like wise their means of acquiring informa tion from tlie numerous caravans whose route lay through thefr country, thus forming a chain of communication be tween Europe and India. Speaking of wisdom, the author of the book of Baruch says, in reference to their celeb rity as sages of antiquity, chap. iii. 22, 23 : " It hath not been heard of in Canaan, Neither hath it been seen in Teman. The Hagarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, The merchants of Merah and of Teman, The mythologists, and investigators of intelligence, None of these have known the ways of wisdom, Nor remembered her paths." These sages are here called ciaan, and their accumulated stores of wisdom are expressed by naaaaa, intelliyence, the term which had just been employed at the close of the preceding verse. The inter rogative sVh is here strongly affirmative ; and a in ipnasna is merely conversive. a'BS nn, the mount of Esau, is the moun tainous region of Seir, to the south of Palestine, now called jsl^ji, JLa^., Jebel Sherah, and SiwwJI, esh-Sherah, extending as far south as Akabah. It was originally inhabited by the Horites, or Troglodytse, so called because they dwelt in the caves of the mountains, whom the posterity of Esau expelled, and taking possession of the country, spread themselves as far towards the north as the borders of Moab. It was particularly to the more northerly portion of this reign that the name of JLt~» , Jebel, or Gebalene, was given. nn, mountain. 190 OBADIAH. 9 Thy mighty men, O Teman ! shall be dismayed, That every one may be cut off from mount Esau. 10 For the slaughter, for the injury of thy brother Jacob, Shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 1 1 In the day when thou didst take a hostile position, In the day when foreigners took captive his forces, And strangers entered his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, Even thou wast as one of them. being here, and verse 9th, obviously used in a collective sense I have translated it in the plural. 9. For la-P, Teman, see on Amos i. 12. Vtapa has been variously construed. Ewald unnaturally renders it, without battle. Schnurrer treats it as a participle in Pael or Poel, pointing it Vtspa or VtaVa, and regarding it as equivalent to the Arab. JLj'Liw, vir prcelio aptus. He would thus make it parallel with c in aa.a , mighty men, in the preceding hemistich. Rosenmiiller, De "Wette, and some others, translate, by slaughter. Leo Juda, most of the older modern translators, followed by Jaeger, Hesselberg, Hendewerk, and Maurer, render, propter ccedem, and suppose the prophet to be here assign ing the cause of the destruction of the Idumeans which he had just predicted, intending more fully to dilate on the subject in the following verse. To this construction, however, it must be ob jected, that it clogs the parallelism, which properly ends with ars nn, as in the verse preceding ; and also that the words Dana Vupaa are too closely allied, both in form and reference, to admit of such a pause as that which is introduced by the Soph-Pasuk. I, therefore, do not hesitate to follow the division of the verses adopted by the LXX., Syr., Hex aplar Syr., Vulg., Dathe, Lively, New- come, and Boothroyd, by which Vtafa is removed from verse 9th, and placed at the beginning of verse 10th. 10. "-ns Da naa Vta^a. Both nouns are in construction withaphS, and the genitive thus formed is that of object : the slaughter of, and the violence done to, thy brother. The Edomites had not only slain the Hebrews, but injured them in every possible way ; and their cruelties were highly aggravated by the considera tion, that those who were the objects of them were descended from the same com mon parent. Comp. Amos i. 11. Ja cob is used as a patronymic to denote the Jews. Two distinct periods in the future history of the Idumeans are here pointed out : that during which they should be the subjects of ignominy as a conquered people : and that during which they were to be entirely extinct. From the former they recovered about a cen tury before the Christian era ; but they were reduced by John Hyrcanus, and afterwards lost every vestige of their separate existence. 11. This and the three following verses contain a series of pointed expostulations, which, while they inculpate the Idu means, describe the various modes in which they had manifested their malice towards the Jews. Some have thought that n.aaa nas* means here to stand aloof, to assume a neutral position, whence one may observe the movements of two op posing parties ; but the declaration at the end of the verse, as well as what is stated in verses 13th and 14th, clearly shows that the phrase is to be taken in a hostile sense, as in 2 Sam. xviii. 13 ; Dan. x. 13. That Vin is not to be rendered wealth or riches in this passage, but forces, army, or the like may be inferred from re ference being made to the division of the substance of the citizens of Jerusalem by lot in the following hemistich. CanT and einaa describe the Chaldeans, by whom Jerusalem was taken. am is in Piel, contracted for ani_i. Comp. ?wa_, Lam. iii. 53. Instead of'anso, the read- OBADIAH. 191 12 Thou shouldest not have looked on in the day of thy brother, In the day of his being treated as an alien ; Thou shouldest not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah, Iu the day of their destruction : 1ST either shouldest thou have spoken insolently In the day of distress. 13 Thou shouldest not have entered the gate of my people, In the day of their calamity ; Thou, even thou, shouldest not have looked on their affliction, In the day of their calamity ; Xor stretched forth thy hand to their wealth, In the day of their calamity. ing of the text, many MSS., four of the earliest printed editions, and some more recent ones, exhibit a ins si, the full form, as proposed by the Keri. That the word may originally have been read as the sin gular, is clear from its occurrence in this number, ver. 13 ; but then, in both cases, it is to be taken as a collec tive. 12. The future forms nip- ''-ns, 'Lnn.ap— ''-ns has'siP-1-^, saan— Vs, nanV-i-h-Vs, nasn— Vs, and nion- Vs, are all qualified in signification, by the circumstance, that the speaker has a past event prominently in view, in reference to which he places himself and those whom he addresses in the time of its passing, and points out what was their duty in reference to it. They are prop erly subjunctives of negation, expressive of what should not have been done, and therefore have the usual force of the im perative. " Verba Hebrajorum saepe non actum, sed debitum vel officium signi- ficat." Glassii Philolog. Sacr. lib. iii. tract. 3, can. 6. Nicholson's Ewald, § 264. a nsn, means here to look upon with malignant pleasure, to feast one's eyes with the calamity of another. a]-ns Cai, the day of thy brother, is afterward explained by a'-aa, Dnas, nna, n-rs, which describe the calamit ous circumstances in which the Jews were placed. ei\ day, is often used to express a disastrous or calamitous period. -a:, which is taken actively to denote severe treatment, punishment, Job xxxi. 3, is here used passively of the experience of such treatment. Comp. the Arab. Jo, difficilis ac durus fuit ; gravis ac difficilis ; improbavit. The idea radically inherent in the term is that of treating any one as a stranger, i. e. an alien or enemy. -» V,- , to enlarge, or make great the mouth, Ger. den Mund voll nehmen .- to use insolent or contumelious language, such as those employ who exult over a fallen foe. Comp. Ezek- xxxv. 13. 13. C3j. in t— ins- Dl is emphatic. nsnVtBP, some take to be the third plu ral feminine, having for its object tini ; but the entire construction of the pas sage requires the second person singular masculine, ni-iih . The syllable na is added with a view to give intensity to the verb, as in Jud. v. 26 ; thus express ing the eagerness with which the Idu means seized upon the spoil. Rosen miiller is of opinion that the n is pa- ragogic, and the a epenthetic ; but Gesenius is rather inclined to compare it with the energetic Future of the Arabs. Lehrgeb. p. 801. LXX. p^ a: 7 D aweiriSrrj ; Syr. ^4.31 Q-L? j.£P.^ jj • Vulg. non emitteris ; Targ. snta"Basna. See for more instances of this intensive form Job xvii. 16; Is. xxviii. 3 ; Exod. i. 10. For the omission of t, hand, see 2 Sam. vi. 6 : Ps. xviii. 17. 192 OBADIAH. 14 Neither shouldest thou have stood at the pass, To cut off those of his that escaped ; Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his That were left in the day of distress. 15 For the day of Jehovah is near against all the nations ; As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee ; Thy deed shall come back upon thine own head, 16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, So shall all the nations drink continually ; Yea, they shall drink and swallow greedily, And shall be as though they had not been. 14. p«2 is commonly rendered biviam, a parting of a way, or a place where a road breaks off into two. I should rather think, from the idea of violence implied in pnS, that it signifies a break or dis ruption in a rock or mountain, through which a passage might be effected into the region beyond. Comp. oinn pnea, 1 Kings xix. 11. LXX. 5ieK0oXal. Syr. 0 7 7 j A nnVn a narrow passage between two mountains. In all probability, the reference is to the means employed to cut off the retreat of those Jews who at tempted to pass through Idumea on ' their way to Egypt, whither they fled from the Chaldeans. pn.En Vs nas, to stand at the ravine or pass, graphically describes the attitude of those who are watching in order to intercept a caravan, or a body of travellers, especially in the rugged mountainous regions to the south of Judea. The Idumeans not only in this way prevented the escape of the fugitives ; they earned them back as prisoners, and delivered them up to the enemy. 15. In this verse, the conquest of Idu mea and all the neighboring nations by Nebuchadnezzar is declared to be at hand. In the war which he was to carry on against them, due retribution would be rendered to the Edomites. Comp. Ps. exxxvii. 7, 8. For the phrase nan* DV» the day of Jehovah, see on Is. ii.' 12. 16. The Targ., Kimchi, Munster, Vata blus, Calvin. Michaelis, Hendewerk, and Hit zig, consider the Idumeans to be still addressed, and most of them explain their drinking on Mount Zion of the fes tivities with which they celebrated ths victory gained over the Jews. Grotius refers- the words to the same people, only he takes the verb nnsi in the bad sense, as denoting the drinking of the cup of divine wrath, and renders nn- Vs, iionp, on account of my holy mountain, which he explains thus : " propter Ju- dseam a vobis lacessitam." But it seems more natural to regard the words as di rected, by a sudden apostrophe, to the Jews, assuring them, that, though the sufferings to which they had been sub jected were great, still greater punish ment would be inflicted upon the hostile nations by which they had been attacked. The punishment which they suffered was only temporary ; that of their enemies would be perpetual. The structure of the passage requires the verb to be taken in the same sense in both parts of the verse. Such, in effect, is the construc tion put upon the words, Jer. xlix. 12. ^Compare also chap. xxv. 15-29. In this manner the verse is interpreted by Abenezra, Mercer, Tremellius, Drusius, Lively, Rosenmiiller, Schnurrer, De Wette, Hesselberg, and Maurer. In stead of man, continually, the reading aias, around, is exhibited in not fewer than seventy-eight MSS. ; in seventeen more originally ; in three others in the margin ; in seven of the earliest printed editions ; and a few other authorities : but all the ancient versions support that of the Textus Receptus, which, according OBADIAH. 193 17 But in Mount Zion shall be the escaped, And it shall be holy : And the house of Jacob shall enjoy their possessions. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, And the house of Joseph a flame ; And the house of Esau shall become stubble, And they shall set them on fire, and devour them ; So that there shall not be a relic of the house of Esau ; For Jehovah hath spoken it. 19 And they of the south shall possess Mount Esau, And they of the plain, the Philistines ; They shall also possess the country of Ephraim, to De Rossi, is found in all the most accurate and best MSS., both Spanish and German. In all probability aiao, was substituted by some copyist from Jer. xxv. 9. "What proves that the LXX. had the word niah in their Hebrew text, is their having mistaken it for na h , rendering it oXvov, wine. saV, to swal low or stick doion with greediness. Arab. y*i and ^gj. avidus ; I, ft I ^ multum aquse bibit. Comp. s'V the throat ; sVa, to swallow, etc. The idea intended to be conveyed by the use of the verb here is that of drinking com pletely off the cup of wrath, as a thirsty person would a vessel of water. 17. Obadiah here commences his pre dictions respecting the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity ; their re-occupancy of Canaan ; and the reign of the Messiah. While the sur rounding nations were to disappear, the Jews should regain possession of their holy city, and the land of their fathers. nlaiVs means such as had survived the captivity, tinp, holiness, i. e. holy, re fers to Mount Zion, which had been pol luted by the idolatrous Chaldeans. See on Joel iv. 17. Jseger and Hesselberg refer the suffix in DrP'sniB, their pos sessions, to the hostile nations spoken of in the preceding verse ; but less natur ally. 18. Though the houses of Jacob and Jeseph are here spoken of separately, it was not the intention of the prophet 25 to teach that the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel would be re-estab lished ; yet the special mention of Jo seph clearly shows that the ten tribes were to return at the same time, and, jointly with Judah and Benjamin, to possess the land of Palestine and the neighboring regions. See Is. xi. 12-14; Hos. i. 11. The restored Hebrews would unitedly subdue the Idumeans, which they did in the time of John Hyrcanus, who compelled them to be circumcised, and so incorporated them with the Jews, that they henceforward formed part of the nation. See Joseph. Antiquities, book xiii. chap. ix. 1. For the meta phorical language, comp. Num. xxi. 28 ; Is. x. 17 ; and, for the ground of it, Is. v. 24. 19. By a.aa , the south, or the southern part of Palestine, is meant those who should occupy it ; and by nVE'in, the plain, those "who should occupy the low country along the shore of the Medi terranean. LXX. Oi iv NayE/3 ; oi iv ttj "SeijiaKd. According to the relative positions of those who should take pos session of the different parts of the holy land, was to be the enlargement of their territory by the annexation of the adjoining regions, which had formerly been occupied by alien or hostile powers. As there is no subject specified before •pinaais in'a» hsi einas "naa rs, it would seem to be intimated that the regions of Ephraim and Samaria were to be oc cupied by the Jews and Israelites jointly, 191 OBADIAH And the country of Samaria; And Benjamin, Gilead. 20 And the captives of this host of the sons of Israel, That are among the Canaanites, As far as Zarephath. And the captives of Jerusalem, That are in Sepharad, Shall possess the cities of the south. without any regard to tribal distinctions : and the reason why the tribe of Benja min is mentioned, is merely on account of the proximity of Gilead to the terri tory which it originally possessed. That nnio is here employed to denote, not a plain or level country, but a region or district in general, is obvious from the nature of the territory to which refer ence is made. The mountainous country of Idumea is called cans into, Gen. xxxii. 1. 20, Vh , i. e. Viii. an army, host, etc., is here used to express the number of Israelitish captives which were found in Phoenicia, into which they had been sold at different times as slaves, and thence into Greece. See Joel iii. 6, 7. biassa is elliptical for C":sa_aa, which is the reading of three MSS. Before hEna ns, supply wini from the following. hEna, Zarephath, or Sarepta, now called tXJLiyo, Surafend, a town belonging to Sidon, and situated between that city and Tyre, close to the shore of the Medi terranean. According to the etymology of its name, it must have been a place for smelting metals. In the rocks along the foot of the hills, Dr. Robinson found many excavated tombs, which he makes no doubt once belonged to this ancient city. Palestine, vol. iii. p. 414. The name is still given to a large village on a hill at some little distance. What city or country is meant by nnEO, it has been hitherto found impossible' to de termine. The LXX. 'Ecppatid, which in all probability is a corruption of Xeippa- Sid. Aq., Symm. and Theod. aaif Hexap. Syr. ?i^jjff; but the Peshito j . l o wa] Spain, with which agrees si»Btas of the Targ. : an interpretation unanimously adopted by the Rabbins, who in like manner concur in interpret ing rEnS of France. Jerome, as in structed 'by his Jewish teacher, renders it the Bosphorus. Somo refer it to Sipphara in Mesopotamia, somo to Sparta, in Bupport of which hypothesis they appeal to 1 Mace. xii. 21 ; while others propose nnEta, Sephara, Gen. x. 30, or the town of 2,air(pa.p, mentioned by Ptolemy, as lying between the terri tory of the Homerites and Sabrcans. To judge from the other geographical rela tions stated in this and the preceding verse, we should conjecture, that some place to the south or east of Judea is intended. The following list of cities and places in the possession of the Jews in the time of Alexander Jannaaus is given by Josephus : Kara tovtov rbv Kaipbv tftin ra>v "Zhpaiv leal 'Itiovpaitav Kal oivlKaiv irSXeis elxov 'lovtiator irpbs SaKdaoy pev 'SrpdTUvos iripyov, 'AiroKKa- vtav, 'l6irirvv, 'idp-ueiav, "A^uirav, Tdfav, 'Av8rnti6va, "Paistoa» instead of Di^Hua'a, there is no difference in the meaning, the former reading being OBADIAH. 195 21 And deliverers shall come up in Mount Zion. To judge Mount Esau ; And the kingdom shall be Jehovah's. merely defective in orthography. The LXX., Aq., Theod., Syr., and Arab., ap pear to have read Qistiaa or eisiiaa in the passive, which is unsuitable to the connection. Jerome observes that the word is active. Such saviors, or de liverers are meant, as those who were raised up in the time of the Judges. There can be little doubt that the cele brated family of the Maccabees arc in tended, whose valiant princes governed the Jews for the period of an hundred and twenty-six years, during which time signal victories were gained over the Idumeans, as narrated 2 Mace. x. 15-23. Joseph. Antiq. book. xiii. chap. ix. 1. BE s; is here used in the sense of punishing, as in 1 Sam. iii. 13 ; and taE-s in the phrase a Cuasa ri»S, Exod. xii. 12 ; Num. xxxiii. 4. Comp. icpivoi, Acts vii. 7. The concluding words of the prophecy, naaVan naniV. nhana, re fer to he reign of the Messiah, called so frequently in the N. T. r\ fiaaiXeia tov &eov. Comp. Dan. ii. 44, vii. 27. But for the introduction of this kingdom, no restoration of the Jews would have taken place ; the temple would have remained in ruins, and the land a scene of desola tion. JONAH PREFACE. Against no book of Scripture have the shafts of infidelity and the sap ping arts of anti-supernaturalism been more strenuously directed than against that of the Prophet Jonah. As early as the days of Julian and Porphyry it was made the subject of banter and ridicule by the pagans, who accused the Christians of credulity for believing the story of the deliverance by means of a fish ; and, in modern times, while the enemies of revelation have evinced the same spirit, many of its pretended friends have had recourse to methods of interpretation, which would not only remove the book from the category of inspired writings, but, if applied to these writings generally, would annihilate much that is strictly historical in its import, and leave us to wander in the regions of conjecture and fable. Blasche, Grimm, and some others, suppose the whole to have been transacted in a dream ; but, as Eiehhorn justly observes,* there is not a single circumstance in the nar rative that would suggest such an idea ; and, besides, whenever any account is given of a dream in Scripture, the fact that such is the case, is always in timated by the writer. The manner in which the book commences and closes, is also objected to this hypothesis, which J. G. A. Miiller f scruples not to assert we are on no ground whatever (durch gar nichts,) warranted to adopt. The theory of an historical allegory was advanced and maintained with great learning, but, at the same time, with the most extravagant license of imagination, by the eceentrie Herman von der Hardt, Professor of the Oriental languages at the university of Helmstedt. f According to this author, Jonah was an historical person, but is here symbolical partly of Manasseh, and partly of Josiah, kings of Judah ; the ship was the Jewish state ; the storm, the political convulsions which threatened its safety ; the master of the ship, Zadok the high-priest ; the great fish, the city of Lybon on the Orontes, where Manasseh was detained as a prisoner, etc. Semler Michaelis, Herder, Hezel, Sfaudlin, Paulus, Meyer, Eiehhorn, Niemeyer, etc. have attempted to vindicate to the book the character of a parable, a fable, an apologue, or a moral fiction ; while Dereser, Nachtigal, Ammon, Bauer, Goldhorn, Knobel, and others, consider it to have had historical basis, and that it has been invested with its present costume in order that it might answer didactic purposes. On the other hand, Rosenmiiller, Ge- * Einleit. Band iv. § 575. t Palus Memorabilien. Stuck vi. p. 154. t JSnigmata prisci Orbis. Jonas in Luce, etc. Helmstedt. 1723, fol. For the full title of this remarkable book, see Rosenmiiller's Prolegom. PREFACE TO JONAH. 197 senius, De Wette, Maurer, and Winer, derived it from popular tradition ; some tracing it to the fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea monster, by Perseus, Apollod. ii. 4, 3 ; Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 662, etc. ; and some, to that of Hercules, who sprang into the jaws of an immense fish, and was three days in its belly, when he undertook to save Hesione, Iliad, xx. 145, xxi. 442; Diod. Sic. iv. 42; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. Cassand. 33; Cyrill Alex, in Jon. ii. Much as some of these writers may have in common with each other, there are some essential points on which they are totally at variance ; while all frankly acknowledge the difficulties which clog the subject. The opinion which has been most generally entertained, is that which ac cords to the book a strictly historical character ; in other words, which af firms that it is a relation of facts which actually took place in the life and experience of the prophet. Nor can I view it in any other light, while I hold fast an enlightened belief in the divine authority of the books compos ing the canon of the Old Testament, and place implicit reliance on the au thority of the Son of God. Into the fixed and definite character of the canon, I need not here enter, having fully discussed the subject elsewhere ; * but assuming that all the books contained in it possess the Divine sanction, the test to which I would bring the question, and by which, in my opinion, our decision must mainly be formed, is the unqualified manner in which the personal existence, miraculous fate, and public ministry of Jonah, are spoken of by our Lord. He not only explicitly recognizes the prophetical office of the son of Amittai ('IaivS toD ttoo^tou), just as he does that of Elisha, Isaiah, and Daniel, but represents his being in the belly of the fish as a real miracle (rb o-npeiov) ; grounds upon it, as a fact, the certainty of the future analogous fact in his own history ; assumes the actual execution of the commission of the prophet at Nineveh ; positively asserts that the inhabitants of that city repented at his preaching ; and concludes by declaring respecting himself, ,l Behold ! a greater than Jonah is here." Matt. xii. 39—41, xvi. 4. Now, is it conceivable, that all these historical circumstances would have been plaoed in this prominent light, if the person of the prophet, and the brief details of his narrative, had been purely fictitious ? On the same principle that the historical bearing of the reference in this case is rejected, may not that to the Queen of Sheba, which follows in the connection, be set aside, and the portion of the first .book of Kings, in which the circumstances of her visit to Solomon are recorded, be converted into an allegory, a moral fiction, or a popular tradition ? The two cases, as adduced by our Lord, are al together parallel ; and the same may be affirmed of the allusion to Tyre and Sidon, and that to Sodom in the preceding chapter. It may be said, indeed, that a fictitious narrative of the moral kind would answer the purpose of our Saviour equally well with one which contained a statement of real transactions ; just as it has been maintained, that the reference made by the Apostle James to the patience of Job, suited his pur- * Divine Inspiration, pp. 450-488. 193 PREFACE TO JONAH. pose, irrespective of the actual existence of that patriarch ; but, as in the one case, a fictitious example of patience would prove only a tame and frigid motive to induce to the endurance of actual suffering, so, in the other, a merely imaginary repentance must be regarded as little calculated to en- force the duties of genuine contrition and amendment of life. Certainly in no other instance in which our Saviour adduces passages out of the Old Testament for the purpose of illustrating or confirming his doc trines, can it be shown, that any point or circumstance is thus employed which is not historically true. He uniformly quotes and reasons upon them as containing accounts of universally admitted facts ; stamps them as such with the high sanction of his divine authority ; and transmits them for the confident belief of mankind in all future ages. It is only necessary further to add, that if the book had contained a para ble, the name of some unknown person would have been selected, and not that of a prophet to whom a definite historical existence is assigned in the Old Testament. On perusing the first sentence, every unprejudiced reader must conclude that there had existed such a prophet, and that what follows is a simple narrative of facts. The formula n'asV hani — ian inii is so' appropriated, as the usual introduction to real prophetical communication, that to put any other construction upon it would be a gross violation of one of the first principles of interpretation. Comp. 2 Chron. xi. 2 ; Is. xxxviii. 4 ; Jer. i. 4, 11, ii. 1, xiv. 1, xvi. 1, xxviii. 12, xxix. 30 ; Ezek. iii. 16 ; Hag. i. 1, 3, ii. 20; Zech. iv. 8. Against the plenary historical character of the book, the miraculous nature of some of the transactions has been objected ; but, referring for an investi gation of these transactions to the commentary, and taking for granted an interposition of miraculous agency in the deliverance of the prophet, when cast into the sea, may it not be fairly asked whether there is nothing in the circumstances of the case to justify such interposition ? The commission was most important in its own nature, but likewise most unusual, and con fessedly most hazardous in its execution ; one from which it was extremely natural for Jonah to shrink, and which required the most confirmatory evidence of its divine origin to induce him to act upon it. The miracle selected for the purpose of furnishing him with this evidence, however extra ordinary in itself, was in exact keeping with the circumstances in which he was placed ; and, in so far, was parallel with thpse wrought in connection with the mission of Moses, Exod. iii. iv. ; of Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. ; and of Christ and his apostles. And it is undeniable, that most of the writers who have called it in question, have either flatly denied the existence of all Scripture miracles, or attempted, in some way or other, to account for them on mere natural principles. The same mode of reasoning which goes to set aside one, will, if fully carried out, go to set aside all. That our prophet is the same who predicted the restoration of the ancient boundaries of the kingdom of the ten tribes, 2 Kings xiv. 25, is rendered certain by identity of name, parentage and office ; and as that prediction re ceived its accomplishment in the reign of Jeroboam II., it is obvious he must PREFACE TO JONAH. 199 at least have been contemporary with the monarch, if he did not flourish at a still more early period. He is justly considered to have been one of the most ancient of all the Hebrew prophets whose writings are contained in the canon. Whether Jonah composed the book himself, or whether it was written at a more recent period, has been matter of dispute. Of the circumstance, that he is spoken of in the third person, no account is to be made, since it is a style of writing frequently adopted by the sacred penmen, as it also is by profane authors. Nor can the occurrence of two or three Chaldee words, as na -SB, a ship, hcs to think, esta_, command, be justly objected against the early authorship ; for the prophet must have had considerable intercourse with persons who spoke foreign languages, which could not but exert some in fluence on his style. With respect to hi-Eta, as it is also the Syriac JA 1 . ow and Arabic sJuJuu, there is every reason to conclude that it 0 = ** was the nautical term in use among the Phoenicians, and so might have been adopted at an early period into all the cognate dialects, though they had other words by which to express the same thing. The use of the compound particles laVj and ik:a does not necessarily argue a late date, since there was nothing to prevent their being appropriated under the circumstances of the prophet, just as they came to be adopted, under somewhat similar cir cumstances, by other writers. The employment of w, the abbreviated form of ntfis, in Judges v. 7, is an undeniable example of its adoption at an early period ; and it is indeed very doubtful whether it be proper to regard it as a Chaldaism at all, though it is found in some portions of the Hebrew Scrip tures and not in others ! * It has also been alleged against the antiquity of the book, that the writer uses the substantive verb in the past tense, when describing the size of Nineveh, -Vans — rs hhin naaiaa, chap. iii. 3 ; as if the city had been destroyed before his time ; but the past tense is evidently employed for the simple purpose of preserving uniformity in the style of the narrative, and, as De Wette acknowledges, hedeutet nichts.] In point of style, the book is remarkable for the simplicity of its prose : the only portion of poetry is chap. ii. 3-10, which possesses considerable spirit and force, though some parts of it are evidently a repetition of certain sen tences in the Psalms of David, with which the prophet appears to have been familiar. Of the numerous traditions, both Jewish and Christian, which profess to give us information respecting Jonah, I would say with Luther, Das glauhe wer da will, ich glauhe es niclit. All that we learn from Scripture is, that his father's name was Amittai, and that his birth-place was Gath-hepher (na ^Ehn, 2 Kings xiv. 25 ; nEh. nna, Josh. xix. 13), a city in the tribe of Ze- bulon, from which latter circumstance it appears that he was an Israelite, and not a Jew. In this book the patience and clemency of God are strikingly contrasted * See Holden on Ecclesiastes, Introd. Dissert, pp. 10-13. t Lehrbuoh, } 237. 200 PREFACE TO JONAH. with the selfishness and unbelief of man ; and, as inserted in the canon of Scripture, it was no doubt primarily designed to teach the Jews the moral lessons, that the Divine regard was not confined to them alone, but was extended to other subjects of the general government of God ; that wicked ness, if persisted in, will meet with condign punishment; that God has no pleasure in inflicting such punishment, but delights in the repentance of the guilty; and that if pagans yielded so prompt a compliance with a single prophetic message, it behooved those who were continually instructed by the servants of Jehovah, seriously to reflect on the guilt which they contracted by refusing to listen to their admonitions. It has been usual to speak of Jonah as a type of our Saviour, and numerous points of resemblance have been attempted to be established between them, to the no small injury of the blessed character of the latter : whereas, there is nothing more in the passage of our Lord's discourse (Matt, xii.), from which the notion has been borrowed, than a comparison of his own consignment to the tomb for the same space of time which the prophet spent in the belly of the fish.* The record of the event in the Jewish Scriptures could never have suggested to its readers, before Christ made the reference, the subject in the anticipative illustration of which he applies it. * See the excellent remarks of the Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, M. A. on types, in his Congregational Lectures, Lect. VIII, CHAPTER I. We have here an account of the prophet's commission to preach at Nineveh, and his attempt to evade it by embarking for Spain, 1-3; an extraordinary storm by which he wasbafiled in his purpose; the alarm of the sailors, and the means which they adopted for their safety; the detection of Jonah; his being thrown into the sea; and his preservation in the belly of a fish, 4-17. 1 The word of Jehovah was communicated to Jonah, the son of 2 Amittai, saying : Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it ; for their wickedness is come up before me, 1. From the circumstance that the book commences with the conjunction a, commonly rendered and, some have inferred that it is merely the fragment of a larger work, written by the same hand ; but though this particle is most commonly used to connect the following sentence with something which precedes it, and is placed at the beginning of his torical books to mark their connection with a foregoing narrative, as Exod. i. 1 ; 1 Kings i. 1 ; Ezra i. 1 ; yet it is also employed inchoatively where there is no connection whatever, as Ruth i. 1 ; Esth. i. 1 ; and, as specially parallel, Ezek. i. 1. It serves no other purpose in such cases than merely to qualify the apocopated future, so as to make it represent the historical past tense. The proper names naai, Jonah, and 'Jans, Amittai, signify u. dove, and veracious or truthful, but why they were given to the prophet and his father we are not informed. 2. By an emphatic idiom, Cap, arise, is used before another verb, as a term of excitement, naaia Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite to the modem town of . Mosul. The name is generally allowed to signify " the residence of Ninus," from yi, Ninus, and naa, a dwelling ; but, according to Hebrew usage, the words should be reversed in order to bring out this meaning. By the Greek and Roman writers, it is called Nlros, 26 Nimis, after its founder, who must have been indentical with Nimrod, to whom the foundation of the city is ascribed, Gen. x. 11. For, that naas, Ashur, is there to be understood of the country so called, or Assyria, and not of a person of that name, is evident from ver. 22, where Ashur is mentioned as. a descen dant of Shem, and. not of Ham. The omission of the local n, which might have been expected to form nna'is, can not be brought as an objection, since it is frequently omitted. See Num. xxxiv. 4 ; Deut. iii. 1. In point of size, it might well be designated nVan.an n-sn, that great city, having been as stated chap. iii. 3, " three days' journey " in circum ference. If we reckon a day's journey at about twenty miles, which is the average rate of travelling in the East, it will give us sixty miles ; which, how immense soever it may appear, quite agrees with the estimate stated by Diodorus Siculus, ii. 3 : viz. 480 sta dia in circuit, 150 stadia in length, and 90 stadia in breadth. He further calls it Nivos peydxn, and adds, rnXi- Kavrqv tie iroXiv ovtiels varepov eKrare Kara re rb peye&os tov ireptfioXov, ical rty irepl ib Teixos peyaXoirpeireiav. Mailing every allowance for the large spaces occupied by gardens, etc., it must, according to the computation specified. chap. iv. 11, have contained a population of upwards of six hundred thousand souls, which is nearly equal to that of 202 JONAH. Chap. I. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish, from the presence of Jehovah ; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and paid the fare thereof, and went down into her, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah. Paris. As'it had long been the mistress of the East, and its situation was favor able for commerce, it possessed immense wealth, but was, at the same time, no torious for the most flagrant corruption of manners. After a siege of three years, it was taken by Arbaces the Mede, about the seventh year of T/zziah ; and a second time by the united forces of Cyaxares the Mede, and Nabopolassar, viceroy of Babylon, n. c. 626. niVs snp, make a proclamation against it. This proclamation consisted in the announce ment, that, within the space of forty days, the city should be destroyed. Vs the LXX. and Vulg. render in; and some would assign to the word the sig nification to, which Vs has, chap. iii. 3 ; but it better agrees with the flight of Jonah to ¦ retain that of against. The idea of his going to so great' a city for the purpose of denouncing punishment against its wicked population so appalled him that he shrunk from the task. It is also more in keeping with the reason assigned in the following clause of the verse. The phrase nani ia:V nVs, to go, or come up before Jehovah, is expressive of whatever is supposed specially to attract his notice, and require his interference. Comp. i;sV sa, Gen. vi. 13 ; iVs nsa, xix. 21. iiafrvKliv i\ peydXn ipyfjaAri ivairiov toC ®eov, Rev. xvi. 19. Ai iXenp-oavvai o~ov avefirjaav els pvnpi6avvov epirpoafiev tov Oeov, Acts x. 4. 3. For BiionP, Tarshish, see on Is. xxiii. 10. The Rabbins vacillate between Tarsus and Tunis. Jonathan has sar , the sea. Jonah resolved to make his escape into the most distant regions of the West. Com. Ps. exxxix. 7. nani ":2, which strictly means the face, person, or presence of Jehovah, is sometimes em ployed to denote the special manifestation of his presence, or certain outward and visible tokens by which he made himself locally known. Thus God promised that his presence (iSB), i, e. the sensible tokens of his presence, should accompany the Hebrews on their march to Canaan. Exod. xxxiii. 14. Comp. Ps. ix. 3, lxviii. 2, 8. It is also employed in reference to the place or region where such manifestations were vouchsafed, as Gen. iv. 14 ; where it obviously signifies the spot where the primitive worship was celebrated, and sensible proofs of the Divine favor were manifested to the worshippers. 1 Sam. i. 22, ii. 18 ; Ps. xiii. 3. In like manner, the place where Jacob had intimate communion with God, was called by that patriarch VsJpaE, the face, or manifestatwn of God, Gen. xxxii. 31. The interpretation, therefore, of David Kimchi, yisa sai Csto afflh "a nan aiVs nn»n sV ynsVnaanV Vsntr, nsaaa, lie imagined that if he went out of the land of Israel, the spirit of proph ecy would not rest upon him, is perhaps not wide of the mark. Jarchi to the same effect, ynsV naaha nnaffl na"a» "S», The Shekinah does not dwell out of the land. Though, as TSieodoret observes, he well knew that the Lord of the universe was everywhere present, yet he supposed that it was only at Jerusalem he became apparent to men ; inroXapfidvaiv tie Sums iv p6vy 'lepovo-aXrjp avrbv iroieioSal t^v iirapdveiav. For the reason of Jonah's flight, see on chap. iv. 2. n-n is used of going down to the sea-coast from any in land place, so that it cannot be inferred from the use of the term that it was at Jerusalem Jonah received his com mission. ¦Ei, Iapho, LXX. 'l6inrn, Arab. LiLa, Yapha, Jaffa, Joppa, a celebrated harbor on the east coast of the Medi terranean, at the distance of ten hours from Jerusalem, of which it is properly the seaport. However insecure, it was used as a harbor as early as the days of Solomon. 2 Chron. ii. 16. It was like wise thus appropriated in the Persian period, Ezra iii. 7 ; and was deemed so Chap. L JONAH. 203 But Jehovah caused a great wind to come down upon the sea, and there was a great tempest in the sea, and it was appre hended the ship would be wrecked. Theu the mariners were afraid, and cried, each to his god, and threw out the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten her of them ; but as for Jonah, he had gone down into the innermost part of the vessel, and lay fast asleep. important in the time of the Maccabees, that, when recovered from the Syrians, it was fortified, and afterwards under went various fates. Its present population amounts to about 7000 souls, si a, which usually signifies to come, come into, enter, is obviously here used in the acceptation go, go out. Com. Num. xxxii. 6. nnas, her hire, i. e. of the vessel, the fare which Jonah had to pay for a passage in her ; not, that he engaged the vessel, as Benjoin, after Jarchi, would have it. apVna iniV ann sano na pn, only what he was obliged to pay as his share. Abenezra. This fare, it has been thought, he paid beforehand, that he might secure his flight from the land of Judea ; but it may have been owing to a prudential condition on the part of the captain. The affix in D~ay refers to the ship's crew, understood. 4. The force of V"tah, to cause to come down at full length, on application to the storm, will appear on consulting Josephus, who, speaking of the dangerous naviga tion of Joppa, says : Kara, tovtov traXev- ovfft toIs a/irb rrjs '^irirvs virb rbv eai irvevpa fiiaiov iimriirrei' peKap$6peiov virb tSiv Taiiry irKai'i^opevov KaXeirai. " As they were driven about here, a violent wind fell upon them, which is called by those that sail there, the black north wind." De Bello Jud. iii. ix. 3. The whole section deserves to be read. Coverdale renders, " But the Lord hurled a greate wynde into the see." naih, the ship, i. e., by metonymy, the persons on board, thought she would founder. Thus Kimchi ; but Jarchi, sin aVisa h-an: hnaa-a, she appeared as if she should be a .c 7 brolcen. Syriac ^Jooi jaSfflAlo > o , n- <-, y'A \n \ was going to be broken, or was tossed, etc. LXX. iitivtivveve. It is best to render the verb imper sonally. 5. BinVa,man'«era, from hVa, salt, the quality of the water which they navigate. Syr. and Arab, the same. Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 9, 27, 29. Kimchi, c-i:aa-a;n "EE-n, those who handle the oars, with reference to the ancient mode of propelling vessels at sea. Being in all probability Phoe nicians, they had each his tutelary deity, whose interposition he invoked in the hour of danger. From the circumstance that D"Va signifies vessels, Benjoin infers, that the ship had not taken in a regular cargo, Jonah having paid the entire freight ; but iVa is used with such lati tude of signification in the Hebrew Scrip tures, that it may be understood of any kind of manufactured articles, such as those enumerated Ezek. xxvii. which formed the merchandise of Tyre. These the Phoenicians conveyed to Spain, whence they brought back cargoes of sil ver, iron, tin, and lead. That something more ponderous than a few vessels on the deck is meant, is evident from what follows hi the verse, iK$oKriv iirotriaavTo, the w'ords employed by the LXX. in translating which are the same which are used by Luke, Acts xxvii. 18. The dual form in na'EOn ¦ha-'". ; the sides or two sides of the vessel, is not to be pressed ; the word in this number being adopted in Hebrew usage to express a recess or remote part of any place. Comp. Ps. exxviii. 3 ; 1 Sam. xxiv. 4 ; Is. xiv. 15 ; the innermost part, best expresses the meaning. Kimchi otherwise explains it, 0"han"n ya hhs Vs, to one of the sides, and appeals to Judges xii. 7, and Zech. ix. 9, in proof of the plural being used instead of the singular. See Ge senius, Lehrgeb. p. 665. It has been ob- 204 JONAH. Chap. I. 6 And the captain went close up to him, and said to him : How is it, thou art fast asleep ? Arise, call to thy God ; perhaps God will think upon us, that we perish not, 7 And they said to each other : Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this calamity hath happened to 8 us : and they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. And they said to him : Tell us now on what account this calamity hath happened to us ? What is thine occupation ? And whence com- 9 est thou ? What is thy country ? And of what people art thou ? And he said to them : I am an Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the jected to the historical character of the book, that it is not to be supposed that the prophet could possibly have composed himself to sleep in the circumstances here described ; but nothing was more natural than for a person after the fa tigues of a journey, with a mind worn out by excessive anxiety, to be thrown in spite of himself, into such a condi tion. Cnn»;, which the LXX. render koI ipeyxe, is designed to qualify the preced ing verb, by expressmg the profound stupor into which Jonah had sunk. There is a singular beauty in putting naii, the name of the prophet, in the nominative absolute. «' But as for Jo nah " — while all were full of consterna tion, expecting every moment to become a prey to the raging elements, he lay perfectly unconscious of what was trans piring. For n:"E6, ship, which occurs only in this place, see the Preface. 6. Vahn lit. the master of the rope- men — Van being used as a collective. Com. annata an, chief of the body-guard, 2 Kings xxv. 8 ; C"Oin& an, chief of the eunuchs. Dan. i. 3. Kimchi explains thus : -eV »a nan' ver, 4. xxxi. 23. ver. 5. ¦nnas assa. ¦nnas issa ; Tp?.is naiaa ip*1M •T Jis niaains-sa Ixix. 2. ver. 6. s BBS- is oiaa asa c-B i;aEES SttJE; — is cxlii. 4. ver. 8. hoes iV_» tjusyina ii»E;iV.sstiShna xxxi. 7. ver. 9. tunasjn Cinaa'ca l satu—iVan. ! savj-iVan iii. 9. ver. 10. nsaiu-ira naniV. :naniVnhsasii On the supposition that Jonah was familiar with the Psalms, it was very natural for him to incorporate sentences taken from them with his own language. just as we frequently do in extempore prayer, without thinking of the portion of Scripture from which they are derived. Vassi a,taa, lit. the belly of Sheol, i. e. the vast and hidden receptacle of the de parted. Targ. saa'nn h-snsa>,/rom the lowest part of the abyss, but 'less properly. The remark of Jerome is : " Ventrum inferi alvum ceti intelligamus, quae tan- tee fuit magnitudinis, ut instar obtineret inform." Before nVwa, ver. 4, supply a. "ani, commonly used of a river, but Here it is to be understood of the strong current or stream of the sea, which flows like a river. There is no foundation for the opinion of Abenezra and Kimchi, that it was intended to describe the con fluence of the waters of a river with those of the sea. ¦pnsria-Va '.anas iVs Kal av irorapoio fieeSpa &Keavov, tiairep yeveais irdvreaai tItvk- toi. Iliad, xiv. 245. Chap. II. JONAH. 209 All thy breakers and thy billows passed over me. 5 Then I said : I am cast out from before thine eyes, Yet I will look again towards thy holy temple. 6 The waters press around me to the very life ; The abyss encompasseth Ine ; The weed is bound to my head. 7 I go down to the clefts of the mountains ; As for the earth, her bars are shut upon me for ever. But thou wilt bring up my life from destruction, O Jehovah my God ! Me > o 7 The Syriac reads, .. Sr, . Vn ..• Vn. thy mercy, which Green, on this authority alone, admits into the text ! 10. Deeply sensible of the merciful interposition of Jehovah on his behalf, Jonah now solemnly engages to give ex pression to his feelings of gratitude by accompanying his presentation of sacri fice with a song of praise, and faithfully performing his vows, of which we may conclude, the execution of his commission to go to Nineveh formed none of the least. The paragogic ,n in nhsai? is in tensive. Comp. Ps. iii. 3. In both pas sages, the deliverance is ascribed to Je hovah as its author, as the V in na-iV_ imports. On reviewing this prayer, and weigh ing the import of its several terms, it is obvious, that though Jonah was in a state of consciousness while in the belly of the fish, he had no idea that such was his situation. On the contrary, he ap pears to have been under the impres sion that he was engulfed in the sea, now forcibly carried along by its current, now entangled among its weeds, and now sinking into the profound ravines of its rocks. 11. Green and Boothroyd, on mere conjecture, remove this verse from its present position, and insert it before the hymn. Such a transposition Hitzig pro nounces to be violent, unnecessary, and in short, a perversion of the passage. It is not stated where the prophet was cast on shore, but in all probability it was somewhere on the coast of Palestine. According to some, the fish carried him, during the three days and three nights, down the Mediterranean, and through the Archipelago, and the Propontis, into the Euxine sea, and deposited him on the south coast, at the nearest point to Nineveh ! Not to mention how the Rabbins make him reach that city by the Tigris ! ! Chap. III. JONAH. 211 CHAPTER III. Tuischapt. contains an account of the renewal of the prophet's commission, 1, 2; his preach ing to the Ninevites, 3; 4; the universal humiliation and reformation effected by it, 6-9; and the reversal of the Divine sentence by which the city had been doomed to destruc tion, 10. 1 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to Jonah a second 2 time, saying : Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and make the 3 proclamation to it which I order thee. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nin eveh was a great city even to God, of three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city, a journey of one clay ; and he proclaimed, and said : Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, even to the 6 least of them. And the subject reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and put off his robe, and covered 7 himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. And a proclama- 3. Dih'VsV nVa'na "ps, a city great to God. This phrase has been variously ex plained. Some, with Kimchi, deem it merely a superlative form ; Gesenius con strues the V instrumentally, great through God, i. e. through his favor. Others con sider it to be equivalent to iaai-n'Vs i?eV, before God, Gen. x. 9. Thus the Targ. 17 aaanp . Of this last interpretation I approve, as it was most natural to refer the size of a city, to which the Hebrews could form no adequate conception, to the Divine estimation. I have accord ingly rendered the words literally, as our preposition to is often used to note opin ion or estimate. For the dimensions of Nineveh, as here given, see on chap. i. 2. The opinion of Abarbanel, that the diameter of the city is intended, is justly exploded. 4. It is impossible to determine how far Jonah penetrated into Nineveh, since it is probable that in making his an nouncement he would stop at different places, as the crowds might collect around him. 5. When din'^sa Tasn, believing in God, is spoken of in reference to such as had previously been ignorant of him, t must be taken as involving the recogni tion of his being and character as the true God, and not simply their giving credit to the announcements of his mes sengers. To express the latter, V 1"asn is employed. See Gen. xiv. 26 ; Is liii. 1. All, without distinction of age or rank, put on sackcloth, the usual attire of deep mourning. 6-8. Who the king of Assyria was at the time, is not certam. Pul, the first monarch of that empire mentioned by name in Scripture, did not begin to reign till b. c. 769. Some are of opinion that it was Sardanapalus ; if so, his repent ance was the more remarkable, for ac cording to the ancients he was pro- 212 J 0 X A II . Chap. III. tion was made through Nineveh, by order of the king and his grandees, saying, Let neither man nor beast, ox nor sheep, taste anything ; let them not feed, neither let them drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God ; and let them turn every one from his wicked way, and from the violence which is in their hands. 9 Who knoweth but that God may turn and repent, and turn away from the fierceness of his anger, that we perish not ? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their wicked way, and God repented of the evil which he had said he would inflict upon them, and he inflicted it not. verbially notorious on account of his pro fligacy. " Et venere, et coenis, et plumis Sarda- napali." Juvenal. Sat. iii. It is said that he composed for his epitaph, " Eat, drink, play ; after death there is no pleasure." The description of the mourning here given is very affect ing. That the irrational animals should be represented as partaking in it, is far from unnatural. " Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina : nulla neque amnem Libavit quadrupes, nee graminis attigit herbam." Virg. Eel. v. 24. " Post bellator equus, positis insignibus, iEthon It lacrymans, guttisque humectat gran- dibus ora." JEneid. xi. 89. Plutarch informs us that when Masistias, a Persian general, was slain, the horses and mules were shorn, as well as the Persians themselves. 9. The Jewish interpreters follow the construction put upon the words Snii laa, who knoweth, in the Targum : sni -ja yaah mnia hpsn, whoever is conscious that there are crimes in his hands ; only Kimchi proposes another, "ann snaKS ia naaasnn, He wlio knoweth the ways of repentance ; but it is obviously a formula expressive of great guilt, yet involving the hope of pardon. Comp. Joel ii. 14. 10. God is, anthropopathically said to repent, when he changes his mode of procedure, or acts differently from avhat his promises or threatenings had given reason to expect. The threatening in the present case having been conditional, was repealed on the performance of the implied condition. To what extent the repentance of the Ninevites was genuine in its character, and how long the refor mation of manners here specified lasted, we are not informed ; but there is reason to fear it was of short continuance, for after their city had been besieged for three years by Arbaces the Mede, it was taken and destroyed. Diod. Sic. ii. 26, etc. Thus fell the ancient Assyrian dynasty, and gave place to that of the Medes, which continued till the time of Cy ax ares, when Nineveh, which had been rebuilt, was again destroyed, and finally ceased to be an imperial residence. See Preface to the Book of Nahum. Chap. IV. JONAH. 213 CHAPTER IV. The selfish and repining spirit of the prophet, and the means employed by Jehovah to re prove and instruct him, are here set forth. 1 But Jonah was exceedingly displeased and vexed. And he 2 prayed to Jehovah, and said : Ah ! now, Jehovah ! was not this my word while I was yet in my own country ? Wherefore I an ticipated it by fleeing to Tarshish ; for I knew that thou art a gracious and merciful God, long-suffering, and of great kindness, 3 and repentant of the evil. And now, O Jehovah ! take, I pray thee, my life from me ; for my death were better than my life. 4 And Jehovah said to him : Art thou much vexed ? 1. Unwarrantable attempts have been made to soften down the character of Jonah, as exhibited in this chapter. The utmost that can be advanced in extenua tion of his conduct, is, the strong tinc ture of national prejudice with which his spirit appears to have been imbued. Com. Luke ix. 54. V nnn, however seems to be here used, 'not in the sense of being enraged or angry, but in that of being the subject of grief or sorrow. Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 11; 2 Sam. vi. 8. Grief and anger are passions nearly related ; and in illustration of this application of nnh, to burn, the following instances may be adduced : Tis CKavtiaXl^eTal, Kal ovk iyai ir v- povpai; 2 Cor. xi. 29. 'AAA' Si KaKovlKf) K do pai t^v Kaptiiav, Kal iroKK' virep rjparv toiv yvvaiKaiv &%&o- pai. Aristoph. Lysist. v. 9. '• Eheu disperii ! voltus neutiquam hujus placet. Tristis incedit, pectus ardet." Plant. Merest. Act iii. Sc. 4, v. 14. " Turn vero exarsit Juveni dolor ossibus ingens." JEneid. v. 172. And the declaration of Cicero : " Non angor, sed ardeo dolore." — Epist. ad Attic, vi. 9. 2. ""-, my word, i. e. what I spake within myself, my cogitation, dnf is here taken in the sense of doing anything in order to anticipate another. Jonah acknowledges that he used all despatch in his attempt to leave Palestine. The description of the Divine goodness here given agrees verbally with that exhibited Joel ii. 13. He recollected the numerous instances in which, instead of executing his threatenings, Jehovah had, in the exercise of his patience, borne with the guilty, and even interposed with illus trious acts of pardon ; and he was afraid of compromising his character by an nouncing what he had reason to expect might never take place. 4 r(V n~naarnn, most modern versions improperly render, " dost thou well," or, " is it right in thee to be angry r " their authors not adverting to the fact that the Hiph. Infinitive of aap is often used adverbially in the acceptation, greatly, exceedingly, thoroughly, or the like. See Deut. ix. 21, xiii. 15 ; 2 Kings xi. 18. In like manner the finite form r a snV naia.in, Jer. i. 12. Thus the LXX. el a(p65pa 7 /r, KeKvirvaai ffii ; the Syr. A . • ^ ^4 and the Targ. ajV C|"ph Kimchi explains, nsa "jV nnh as, Art thou much grieved ? and adds, at:-n 214 JONAH. Chap. IV. 5 And Jonah went out of the city, and sat to the east of the city, and there made a booth for himself, and sat under it in the 6 shade, till he should see what would happen in the city. And Jehovah God had appointed a ricinus plant, and he caused it to rise up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his affliction : and Jonah rejoiced exceedingly on account of the ricinus. 7 But God appointed a worm, at the rising of the dawn, on the 8 morrow, and it injured the ricinus, so that it withered. And it came to pass at the sun-rise, that God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he fainted, and requested that he might die ; for he said, My death were bet- ¦¦asn ptan aa-as", As for arm, it imports the strengthening of a subject. The renderings, Will grieving do thee any good ? and, Does beneficence offend thee ? are totally to be rejected. 5. We cannot determine on what day Jonah abandoned his labors among the Ninevites ; but it is evident from the conclusion of this verse, that it must have been before the lapse of the forty days specified in his announcements. 6. Vs» a I take to be the apocopated Future of Hiphil, having D'nVs nani for its nominative. ia'ip"p, the kikaion or ricinus plant (Ricinus communis, Linn.), commonly known by the name of Palma Christi. The word is the same as the Egyptian KIKI, and the Talmudic Kik, with the Hebrew termination. In Arabic it is called ,, 4-fj El-Kheroa, which is not to be confounded with &) El-Karra, the cucurbita, LXX. KoKo- KvvSrn. Our English rendering gourd is equally inappropriate. This plant is in digenous in India, Palestine, Arabia, Af rica, and the east of Europe, and on ac count of its singular beauty is cultivated in gardens. It is a biannual, and usually grows to the height of from eight to ten feet. It is chiefly remarkable on account of its leaves, which are broad, palmate, and serrated, and divided into six or seven lobes. Only one leaf grows on a branch, but being large, sometimes measuring more than a foot, and spread out in the shape of an open hand with the fingers extended, their collective shade affords an excellent shelter from the heat of the sun. It is of exceedingly quick growth, and has been known in America to reach the height even of thirteen feet in less than three months. When injured it fades with great rapidity. See on ver. 10, Celsii Hierobot. pt. ii. p. 273 ; Michaelis, Supplem. No. 2263 ; Rosenmiiller, in the Biblical Cabinet, vol. xxvii. p. 125 ; Michaelis, Bibel Ebersetz., note on the passage, where there is a plate with an excellent repre sentation of a ricinus. How much such a shrub, throwing its palmy branches over the small hut which the prophet had erected, must have contributed to his relief in the sultry environs of Nine- vah, may easily be imagined. His joy is emphatically described in the last clause of the verse. 8. The *a"np nan, or east wind, is the sultry and oppressive wind which blows in the summer months across the vast Arabian desert, and produces universal languor and relaxation. It resembles the Sirocco, only is free from its damp ness, and consequently more destructive to vegetation. Superadded, as in the present instance, to the heat of the morning sun, it is exceedingly oppres sive. According to the versions, n"-i-inn signifies withering ; otherwise, as derived from -iinh, it signifies to be quiet, silent, etc., which better agrees with the idea of sultriness. Chap. IV. JONAH. 2K 9 ter than my life. And God said unto Jonah : Art thou much 10 vexed on account of the ricinus? And he said: I am much vexed, even to death. And Jehovah said : Thou art affected on account of the ricinus, with which thou hadst no trouble, and which thou didst not rear, which came in a night, and perished 11 in a night ; and I, shonld not I be affected on account of Nine veh, that great city, in which are more than twelve times ten thousand human beings who cannot distinguish between their right hand and their left, and much cattle ! 9. The words nia — :S ¦>— nnh aa"n, the LXX. translate, 2 O 7 o . O | .'r.- ' n ); Vr,. the Lord of lords. It has been doubted whether by Va_"n a'-anp, his holy tempU, in this place, the temple at Jerusalem or heaven be meant ; but the language expressive of descent, which is employed in the following verse, would seem to determine the correctness of the latter interpretation. Comp. 1 Kings viii. 30 ; Ps. xi. 4. Jehovah would bear testimony against the He brews, not any longer by his prophets, as he now did, but by the judgments which he would inflict upon them. 3, 4. These verses are explanatory of Chap. I. M I C A II . 219 He will descend, and tread upon the heights of the earth. 4 The mountains shall be molten under him, And the valleys shall cleave asunder, Like wax before the fire, Like water poured down a precipice. 5 By the transgression of Jacob is all this, And by the sin of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob ? Is it not Samaria ? And what are the high places of Judah ? Are they not Jerusalem ? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field, that which precedes them, and set forth, in highly figurative language, the course of the Divine judgment, and the tre mendous consequences that would fol low. The terrible majesty and resistless power of Jehovah are expressed in im ages chiefly borrowed from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Comp. Amos iv. 13 ; Ps. 1. 3, xcvii. 5 ; Is. lxiii. 19, Ixiv. 2 ; Hab. iii. 5. For a striking image of the same nature, see Jer. 1. 25, 26, which cannot properly be explained, except on the principle of reference to a volcano. That of wax occurs Ps. lxviii. 3, xcvii. 5. Comp. " Quasi igni Cera super calido tabescens multa liques- cat." Liter, vi. 512. Some MSS. read nasasn, the hills, in stead of D-paasn, the valleys; but ob viously as an emendation : the latter being the more difficult reading, nn a a, a descent or precipice, from nn", to go, or come down. The events referred to were the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, and the invasion of Judah by the armies of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, by the latter of whom the Jews were carried away captive. The form sai nan marks the futurity of the event, and transmits a future significance to the following verbs. 5. Jacob and Israel are applied to both kingdoms in common, and are merely used as synonymes for the sake of variety. After explicitly declaring, that the awful punishment which was about to be in flicted was on account of the sins of the people generally, the prophet, by the forcible employment of double interrog- atives, the latter of which, being in the negative, greatly strengthens the appeal, traces these sins to their respective sour ces — metropolitan corruption. By me tonymy the effect is put for the cause. For -a used as a neuter, see on Jonah i. 8. For na'san the LXX., Targ., a con siderable number of MSS., and four of the earliest printed editions, have the sin gular. The Syr. and Vulg. agree with the Textus Receptus. n-ani naaa, the high places of Judah, were the elevated spots on mountains and hills on which the Jews erected chapels and altars for unlawful, and very often for idolatrous sacrifice, etc. 1 Kings xii. 3, xiv. 4 ; Ezek. vi. 6. That these existed at Jeru salem, see Jer. xxxii. 35 ; and for the length to which the practice was carried in the time of Ahaz, see 2 Kings xvi. 4. Instead of na'aa, the LXX., Syr., and Targ. translate, as if nstara, sin, were the true reading : What is the sin of Judah ? but though the latter word is found in one of Kennicott's MSS., and in the mar gin of another, it most probably origin ated in a desire to render the parallelism complete, and cannot be allowed to en croach upon the present text. 6. Both in this and the preceding verse Samaria is taken up first, because its destruction was to precede that of Jerusalem, and also, perhaps, to afford the prophet an opportunity of afterwards 220 MICAH. Chap, i The plantations of a vineyard : I will hurl her stones into the valley, And lay bare her foundations. All her images shall be broken to pieces, All her rewards shall be burnt with fire, And all her idols will I lay waste ; For with the reward of a harlot she collected them, And to the reward of a harlot they shall return. expatiating more at large on the state of things in Judah during the approaching invasion. So complete should be the overthrow of the northern capital, that its site would resemble a heap of stones or rubbish that had been gathered out of a field ; it would even be reduced to what we may suppose it originally to have been, a place for the cultivation of the vine. Vineyards were most com monly planted on the south sides of hills or momitains, on account of their exposure to the sun ; and in all pro bability that of Samaria had been appro priated to this purpose before it was purchased by Omri, 1 Kings xvi. 24. The stones of the city are graphically said to be hurled down into the deep valley below ; and that such was actually the case, the present phenomena of the ruins strongly attest. " The whole face of this part of the hill suggests the idea that the buildings of the ancient city had been thrown down from the brow of the hill. Ascending to the top, we went round the whole summit, and found marks of the same process everywhere." — Narrative of the Scottish Mission of Inquiry, pp. 293,294. inn»n,andQi"asa, ver. 4, are from the root nja, to flow, pour, or hurl down. For nVv* ninbi, comp. Ezek. xiii. 14. The very founda tions of the edifices were to be laid bare, great and ponderous as the stones might be. 7. The prophet now delivers a special prediction against the objects and accom paniments of the idolatrous worship, which drew down the judgment of God upon the devoted city. The CiVitaS were the images or idols, whether carved, graven or molten, which were erected in the temples, for the purpose of receiving religious adoration. LXX. to. yXvirra. p_tiK, properly means the wages or re- ward of prostitution; from nan, to give a present or reward. The word is here, as elsewhere, employed in application to idolatry, viewed as spiritual adultery or fornication. Comp. Is. xxiii. 17, 18 ; Ezek. xvi. 31, 34 ; Hos. ix. 1. Kim chi, Abarbanel, Michaelis, Maurer, and others, are of opinion that the riches, etc., of Samaria are thus spoken of, because her idolatrous mhabitants imagined, that they were rewards bestowed upon them by their gods for their zeal and devoted- ness to their service. It is more likely, however, that the rich gifts or presents are meant, which the apostate Israelites dedicated to their idols, and with which they adorned their temples. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 33, 34. Newcome seems to incline to the idea, that the rewards of harlotry, literally taken, are intended, ? because these were appropriated to the support of idolatry. QiasS is synony mous with ciVitaB ; only Hitzig "thinks, that a more costly kind of idols is meant by the term, such as were made of silver, and were of sufficient value to be carried away as spoil. The entire establishment of idolatry was to be broken up ; the idols were to be cut in pieces ; such as were of wood, to be burnt in the fire ; and what ever was costly was to be removed by the enemy to Assyria, there to be again devoted to idols. Instead of naap, three of De Rossi's MSS., three more originally, and perhaps one more, the Brixian and another ancient edition, without place or date, read naap in Pual, which two of Kennicott's exhibit with Vau Shurek instead of the Kibbutz. The Syr., Targ., and Vulg., likewise have the passive, but Chap. I. MICAH. 221 S Therefore will I wail and howl ; I will go stripped and naked ; I will* set up a wailing like the wolves, And a mourning like the ostriches. 9 For her wounds are desperate ; Surely it hath come to Judah ; He reacheth to the gate of my people, Even to Jerusalem. 10 Tell it not in Gath : in the plural. The LXX. render, avvi\- 707c ; which agrees with the common punctuation. 8. So terrible should be the destruc tion with which the northern kingdom would be visited, that it called for the most marked tones and signs of sorrow. In these the prophet declares he would indulge, that he might thereby affect the minds of his countrymen. naVis, with Yod, may have been occasioned by the preceding form nViVis ; but there are other verbs which do not reject it in the future, as npii, Ps. lxxii. 14. VVuzi, or, as the Keri has it, VVi'ii, some interpret of mental bereavement, a state in which the mind is despoiled of its reasoning powers ; but, combined as it here is with Di'iS, niked, it must be referred to the body, and was in all probability designed to -describe the feet as stripped of shoes. Thus the LXX. avviroSeros. The Syr. a ¦ . q ... for which compare q n ¦ , Is. xx. 2. For bijin, wolves, and nasi na'aa, os- • - ... 1-2- -.' triches, see on Is. xm. 22, and Pococke's very elaborate note on the present verse. The Arab, has here, .wajLucJI JUuO, like the wolves, and -| i^Laj \Xjjo iSs * a like Ihe jackals. The former Michaelis renders crocodiles, but less properly, on ac count of the combination. The ancient j-endering, dragons, is altogether to be rejected. Both kinds are selected on ac count of the piteously howling noice which they make, especially in. the night. 9. rrSMg, the Pahul Participle of ©as, to be desperately sick ; spoken of a wound, to be incurable. There is no necessity, with Michaelis, to have recourse to ro, and so to regard the form as the elongated future of the first person singular. The following noun, ninaaa, being in the plural, the same number might be ex pected in the Participle ; but it is a rule of Hebrew syntax, that when, as in this instance the predicate precedes the noun, the number of feminine plurals is fre quently neglected. Comp. Jer. iv. 14. What the prophet has in view is the irre trievable ruin in which the Israelites as a nation would be involved. But he not only beholds, in prophetic vision, the devastation of Samaria and its depend encies by the Assyrians ; he sees their invasion of Judah under Sennacherib, and thefr investment of Jerusalem Com. Is. x. 28-32. The nominative to nsa is the calamity implied in nini'aa : that to s.ja is ai-is, the enemy, understood. There is the utmost propriety in the dis tinctive use of the genders in this place ; for though the inhabitants of Judah suf fered from the Assyrian invasion, the calamity did not reach those of the capi tal : it was merely invested by the troops of Rabshakeh, and was relieved by their miraculous destruction. See Is. xxxvi. xxxvii. 10. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 20, where the words ani.an- Vs n.aa occur, though not in the same order of arrangement. The Philistines would hail with joy tidings of any disaster that might befall the Hebrews, and especially that occasioned by the Assyrian attack. Deeply, there fore, as the Jews might be afflicted, they are cautioned by Micah not to give such public expression to their grief as would reach the ears of their natural 222 MICAH. Chap. I. Weep not in Acco : At Beth-aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11 Pass on, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, naked and ashamed ; enemies, but to repair to Beth-Aphrah, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, and there deplore in secret the calamity which had overtaken the land. Reland, Harenberg, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, take aaa to be a contraction of a'asa, which Gesenius (Lex. sub. voc. aas) is inclined to adopt. According to this construction, the ren dering will be, weep not in Acco, i. e. Ptolemais, a maritime city in the tribe of Asher. Other instances of s being drop ped, we have in 13 for isa, Va for Vsa, etc. ; and certainly the parallelism with nsa, the continued list of the names of cities, and the regularity of the paro nomasias anijn — n.aa; aaan — aaa; rpaa nES nnssV, are all in favor of this in terpretation. Though Acco was allotted to the Asherites, they never took posses sion of it, Jud. i. 31, and its inhabitants are, therefore, appositely classed along with those of Gath, as taking pleasure in the reverses of the Israelites. The reading of the LXX. oi 'EvoKelp. p.$i, is in all probability a corruption of ot iv "AKei ja)j, which quite accords with the preced ing oi iv TeS) pii- The Arabic has *jdCI _S ,.tj jJI., And those who are in Akim. The name "Akv occurs in Strabo, xvi. 2, 25. The town is still called I _yf , Akka, by the Arabs, and is known to Europeans by the name of St. Jean d" Acre, which it obtained in the time of the crusades, and is celebrated in later times by its holding out a siege of sixty-one days by the French army, and its destruction by the explosion of a mag azine during the bombardment in 1840. It is situated on the north angle of a bay of the same name near the foot of Mount Carmel. nnssV raia, lit. the House of Aphrah, or simply nnSS, Oph- rah, Josh, xviii. 23 ; 1 Sam. xiii. 17, a city in the tribe of Benjamin. The V is here merely the sign of the genitive. The verb -Vs which occurs only in Hith- . pael, signifies to wallow or roll, as in dust, s, or the like. See Jer. vi. 26, xxv. 34 ; Ezek. xxvii. 30. While the He brews were not to expose the wretched ness of their condition to the contempt of foreigners, it became them to bewail it within their own borders. i-i'Vsnn, roll thyself, is to be preferred to inaVESan, I roll myself. It is the reading of the Keri, and many MSS. have it in the text. The Syr., Targ., and Vulg., have the third person plural, which is more easily traceable to id Venn than to in-sVenn. Besides, it seems more nat ural to connect this verb with inas in the following verse, than to suppose that the prophet resumes his lamentation ver. 8. Some take the verb to be the second feminine of the preterite, with the Yod paragogic ; but every difficulty is re moved by adopting the imperative. 11. In caV i"aa»» the second singular feminine of the verb is followed by the second plural masculine of the pronoun, on the principle that though the collec tive participial noun nawii is feminine, it was designed to include the mhabitants of both sexes. oaV is not redundant, as Justi asserts, but emphatic, as the Dativus incommodi. ni£», Shaphir, means fair or beautiful. Dr. Robinson states that there are still three villages of the name of Sawdfir, which are noted on the map as lying nearly halfway between Ashdod and Eleutheropolis, a position not much differing from that assigned by Eusebius and Jerome to Saphir. Palestine, vol. ii. p. 370. Hitzig and Ewald think that n"a'a, Shamir, is meant, which is enu merated among the cities of Judah, Josh. xv. 48, which Eusebius calls 2a o : * ° a * | Sin V/iV. inhabitress of Sha phir. To Samaria there seems no good reason to refer it, since all the other Chap. I. MICAH. 223 The inhabitant of Zaanan goeth not forth ; The wailing of Beth-ezel will take away continuance from yon. 12 Surely the inhabitant of Maroth pineth for her goods. Because evil hath come down from Jehovah, To the gate of Jerusalem. 13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, 0 inhabitant of Lachish ! places specified in the connection were in Judah. n-aa—n"ns, lit. nakedness, shame, for shamefully naked, i. e. entirely so. Comp. as to form, pna— nias, Ps. xiv. 5. AVhat is here predicted is, that the inhabitants of Shaphir were to be led away as captives by the Assyrians ; only for the sake of effect the Imperative is used. See on Is. vi. 1,0. For the naked condition in which captives were re moved, see on Is. xx. 4. lass, Zaanan, ' i i- in all probability the same as ^aa:, Zenan; a city in the tribe of Judah, Josh. xy. 37. It properly signifies the place of flocks; but to form a paronomasia with it, the prophet employs the verb sai ; or the peculiar orthography of the noun may have been adopted in order to make it correspond in appearance and sound with the verb. Comp. ifis, ss'a, and naa, which are only different modes of express ing sheep or flocks. The inhabitants of this city, under the influence of fear, did not venture forth from their retirement to condole with their neighbors who had been taken prisoners by the enemy, or they did not come forth to their rescue. LXX. ^evvaap. Aq. ~XevaAv. Vssn nia, Beth-ezel, in all probability the same as Vss, Azel, Zech. xiv. 5, but where the town so called was situated, we are not informed. To judge from the connec tion, it must have been in the vicinity of Shaphir and Zaanan, and not near Samaria, as Ephraim Syrus conjectured. The words caa n£i Vssn nia nsca a'cnas have greatly perplexed interpre ters. Some regard nsaa as the Aramaic Infinitive, and connect it with the pre ceding nsai; and, supposing aia's, the enemy, understood, to be the nominative to n£", explain nnas. of a military post. But this construction affords no tolerable sense. Others render nnas, measure, conjecture, and the like, contrary to all usage. For other interpretations, see Pocockc, in he. It seems best to abide by the idea suggested by the root nas, to remain, continue, endure, and interpret, As for the wailing of Beth-ezel, it taketh away its continuance from you ; i. e. the inhabitants of that city cease to mourn on your account. The Shaphirites are addressed, as having gone at once into captivity and oblivion. Most likely their city was larger and more populous, and on this account was attacked by the Assyrians, while the smaller towns in the neighborhood escaped. Gesenius thinks that in Vas there is an allusion to the Arabic etymology ^Xj^a\,firndy, or deeply rooted in the earth, as what was so might be expected to continue ; but this is very doubtful. 12. Of na'-aa, Maroth, (bitternesses,) we have nowhere any account, nnsaj, Maarath, Josh. xv. 50, to which New- come refers, appears to have been a dif ferent place. From the relation in which it is here put to Jerusalem, it probably lay between the afore-men tioned towns and the capital, against which a great army under Rabshakeh proceeded from Lachish, and doubtless plundered all that came in their way. aatA nVn, Newcome, after Houbigant, changes into n aa V nV n , and renders, is sick unto death ; but altogether without authority. The meaning is, that the inhabitants were pained pr grieved on account of the property of which they had been robbed by the enemy. Thus Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Hesselberg. The former -a is not causa tive, but is used, as frequently at the beginning of a verse, to express certainty. For the last clause, compare ver. 9. 13. For Lachish, see on Is. xxxvi. 2. wan and-i-aV, form a paronomasia, -ian, 224 MICAH. Chap, I. (She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion) Surely in thee were found the transgressions of Israel. 14 Therefore thou shalt give a divorce to Moresheth-Gath ; The houses of Achzib shall prove false to the kings of Israel. 15 Farther, I will bring the possessor to thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah ! He shall come to Adullam, the glory of Israel. signifies a fleet courser. Arab, i^yi \. cueurrit. b'nn is in the musculine, though connecting with na/iai in the feminine, because placed first in the order of the words. The word occurs only here, but obviously has the signification of the Arab. *j\, ligavit. As a noun En'n signifies broom, because this shrub was used for binding. In the middle clause of the verse there is a change of person from the second to the third, but in the last clause the second is resumed. For a similar instance, in which, for the sake of graphic effect the third person is thus abruptly introduced, see Is. xxii. 16. Lachish appears to have formed the link of idolatry between Israel and Judah. Lying on the frontier of the former kingdom, she was the first city in Judah that was led away by the sin of Jeroboam, and from her the infection spread, till at length it reached Jerusalem itself. In the prospect of a sudden attack, it be hooved the inhabitants to use all despatch in removing their families, and what property they could take with them, to a distance. Lachish was besieged by Sen nacherib before the threatened attack on Jerusalem, 2 Kings xviii. 14. 14. DinaVa is used of the presents or dowry sent with a wife, 1 Kings ix. 16, and of letters of divorce sent with her when she is dismissed by her husband. In the acceptation i^airoareXKopevovs, messengers, as given by the LXX., it nowhere occurs. The term appears to be here employed metaphorically to de note the breaking up, or dissolution of all connection between Lachish and More sheth-Gath ; the former city having been taken by the Assyrians, was no longer able to afford protection or support to the latter. The nominative to i;nn, is na-i-a'i in the preceding verse. Vs. is equivalent, in this connection, to Vs. rsnaa, Moresheth, the birth-place of Micah, (see Preface) is here said to belong to Gath, most probably because it was in its vicinity, and under its jurisdiction, when in possession of the Philistines. anas, Achzib. There were two cities of this name, one on the sea-coast, between Acco and Tyre, now called by the Arabs ^Jl Ez-Zib. Josh. xix. 29 ; Jud. i. 31 ; and the other in the tribe of Judah, between Keilah and Mareshah, Josh. xv. v 44. That the latter is here intended, is evident from the connection ; for though, at first view, the mention of the kings of Israel might lead us to suppose that a city bordering on the northern kingdom is meant, yet the fact that Israel is sometimes put for the whole people of the Hebrews, and sometimes even for the kingdom of Judah, as 2 Chron. xxviii. 19, proves, that the mere use of the term can form no objection to this construction of the passage. It was most probably the same place that is called ansa, Chezib, Gen. xxxviii. 5. By an elegant paronomasia, anas ina, the houses of Achzib, are said to become aaas, deceitful. Comp. atas Vraa, a de ceitful torrent, i. e. one which, having dried up, disappoints the hope of the trav eller. Job vi. 17-19; Jer. xv. 18. Arab. 1^35, fefellit, irritus vanusque fecit. The expectations of further aid from the families, or inhabitants of that place, should prove fruitless. 15. ias is a defective reading of sias, which many MSS. have in the text. In Chap. II. MICAH. 225 16 Make bald thy head, and shave it because of thy darling child ren ; Enlarge thy baldness like that of the eagle ; For they are gone into captivity from thee. cinai and nana is another paronomasia. Mareshah lay in the plains of Judah, Josh. xv. 44. It was fortified by Reho boam, 2 Chron. xi. 8, and avas famous for the victory obtained over the Ethio pians by Asa, 2 Chron. xiv. 9, 10. Ac cording to Josephus, Antiq. xii. 8, 6, it had been in the power of the Idumeans, but was retaken by Alexander the son of Aristobulus, Antiq. xiii. 15, 4, xiv. 1, 4. The possessor or occupier here predicted is Sennacherib, who took Ma reshah and the other fortified cities of Judah, 2 Kings xviii. 14. To point him out with greater emphasis the article is used: -i-na»n, " The possessor." trVns, Adullam, was another city of Judah in the same direction, and near the former, Josh. xv. 35. It was a royal residence in the time of the Canaanites, Josh. xii. 15 ; was fortified by Rehoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 7 ; and had villages de- pi*ident upon it, Neh. xi. 30. Of n;=a Vsn-ir various interpretations have been given ; such as the wealth or riches of Israel, their multitude, their nobility, their weight of calamity, etc. Some take the words to be in the nominative, some in the accusative, and some in the vocative case. The most natural con struction is that of our common version, according to which they are in apposi tion with tins, Adullam, and express the superior situation of the place and its neighborhood. Thus also Schmidius, Rosenmiiller, and Hesselberg. 16. The prophet concludes this geo graphical part of his denunciations by addressing himself to the land of Judah, and calling upon her to put on signs of deep-felt grief on account of the removal of her inhabitants, yns, land, is to be supplied, rather than -,a»a na, daughter of Zion. Baldness, and cutting off tho beard, are tokens of mourning in the East, as they were among the nations of antiquity. Ezra ix. 3 ; Job i. 20 ; Jer. vii. 21, xvi. 6, xlviii. 37. "Regulos quosdam barbam posuisse et uxorem cap ita rasisse, ad indicium maximi luctus." Suetonius, hi his Life of Caligula, chap. v. "When Khaled ben Walid ben Mogairah died, there was not a female of the house of Mogairah, either matron or maiden, who caused not her hair to be cut off at his funeral." Harmer's Observ. iii. p. 5. One species of eagle is called the bald eagle, from the circumstance of its having its head almost entirely bald ; but they all more or less exhibit baldness during the moulting season, c'iasn, delights, from i:s, Arab. s±X£., amatorius, fai- mince gestus, to delight, be delighted, live delicately. It is in the former of these acceptations that the noun is here used. As but few of the inhabitants of Judah could have been carried away by Sen nacherib, it is obvious the prophet must have a much more desolating calamity in view in this verse, viz., the Babylonish captivity. CHAPTER II. Having announced the punishments which were to be inflicted upon his people for the evils in which they indulged, Micah now proceeds to specify some of these evils, 1, 2; and renews his denunciations, 3~5. He then censures those who could not endure to hear 29 226 MICAH. Chap. II. the truth, but wished for predictions of good, and shows that no such predictions could reasonably be expected by them, 6—11 ; concluding, however, with gracious promises of restoration after the captivity, 12, 13. Wo to those who devise wickedness, And fabricate evil upon their beds ; In the morning light they effect it, Because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and take them by force, And houses, and take them away : They oppress a man and his house, A man and his possession. Wherefore thus saith Jehovah : Behold ! I devise an evil against this family, 1. Comp. Is. x. 1, 2. In the verbs a'iri, Vs3, and nxs, is evidently a gra dation. The first describes the concep tion of the evil purpose in the mind ; the second, the preparation or maturing of the scheme ; and the third, the carrying of it into effect. Comp. Ps. Iviii. 3 ; Is. xii. 4; Hos. xi. 9. The n in nateyi is the feminine used as a neuter, to agree with the nouns -]is and sn, as forming a neuter plural accusative. The phrase "s a; Vs occurs also Gen. xxxi. 29 ; Prov. iii. 27 ; and with the negative, Deut. xxviii. 32 ; Neh. v. 5. It is rendered by the LXX. ovk jjpav irpbs rbv &ebv x^ipas avrmv, which the Syr. gives without the negative: oaTA.,^ ^ ' .0 P., 7 O ]31_^ /"iV, and lift up their hands to God. Vulg. quoniam contra Deum est manus eorum. Some consider the words to be equivalent to the Dextra mihi Deus of Virgil, and appeal to Job xii. 6, and Hab. i. 11, where, however, the phrase ology is different ; while others take Vs to be the shorter form of the demonstra tive pronoun nVs. But the true mean ing seems to be that given in our com mon version, according to which Vs is to be taken in its literal signification of power, strength, etc. Thus Pococke, Rosenmiiller, Bauer, Dathe, De Wette, Gesenius, Hitzig, and Ewald, after the *CjlO Targ. Tin-T-a si/Pi n-s -ns, and Kim chi, cnjsn pa»sV e-ra na v ia, be cause there is power in their hand to oppress the poor. Just as the LXX. render, laxve i V XE'p> Gen. xxxi. 29, and Deut. xxviii. 32. That ia is to be taken causatively, and not conditionally, is evident from the connection. 2. Before cipa repeat rr.izri- Fifty- two MSS., six by correction, two origin ally ; four ancient and nineteen other printed editions ; the Alex. MS. of the LXX., the Targ., Vulg., and Arab., omit a before -jis. The parallelisms in this verse are very elegant. 3. arn and nsn correspond here to iaa;n and sn in ver. 1. nns'jias Rosen miiller and Maurer understand to signify " certum genus hominum nequam et per- versum ; " as if the prophet intended to single out such of the people as com mitted the atrocious acts specified ver. 2 ; but it is more likely that the whole people, viewed as rebellious and corrupt, is meant. See on Amos iii. 1. The figure of a yoke is here employed for the purpose of expressing the heavy and oppressive nature of the bondage to which the He brews were to be subjected. D'j»' thence, has the force of a pronoun in this place. LXX. ;i, c'B\ and pa-rji, is Jehovah, understood. a y naaa, Syr. - Vs. to buy ; in Aphel ¦ . V.i| , to sell, or deliver an article into the hand of the purchaser ; Arab. vLo, hue illua mota fuit res, transivit. The verb is here employed to convey the idea of a change of masters, or the passing of the land of the Hebrews into the power of their enemies, aaaic is a verbal noun, from the Pilel of aa-ai, to turn, turn back; here used in a bad sense, one who has turned back, or away from God ; apos tate, rebel, idolater. Comp. Is. xlvii. 10, lvii. 17 ; Jer. xlix. 4. The idolatrous king of Babylon is meant. 5. iaV is a repetition of that used at the beginning of ver. 3, and for the same purpose. The nominative to t[V, thee, is CS, people, occurring in the preceding verse ; and the denunciation relates to their being completely at the disposal of their enemies : none of themselves being permitted to allot to them portions of the land for inheritance. According to Hitzig the words are addressed by the ungodly Jews to Micah himself, and 228 MICAH. Chap. II. Prophesy not ; those shall prophesy Who will not prophesy of these things : Reproaches are incessant. What language, O house of Jacob ! Is the Spirit of Jehovah shortened ? Are these his operations ? Do not my words benefit him that walketh uprightly ? intimate that they would put him and his family to death for prophesying against them. 6. The words "jasiai. aaiaap— ^s nVsV a3iai_—sV, which contain a smooth and elegant paronomasia, are very enig matical, but must neither be rendered, " Prophesy not, they say to those who should prophesy : they shall not prophesy to such." Or : " Prophesy not ; they shall prophesy who will not prophesy of such things." In the former case the interdicting language of the rebellious to the prophets is simply given, and then we have the Divine declaration, that it should be as they desired. They should be judicially abandoned to their own ways ; and, as they would not hearken to the prophets when they predicted evil, they should be deprived of their ministry altogether, and not receive from them any predictions of good. In the latter, the language is entirely that of the people, by which they not merely stop the mouths of the true prophets, but de clare that those only should be permitted to prophesy to them who abstained from denunciations of evil. The former re quires ni-s h to be supplied before ya-Hi ; the latter, n-;s before a£i^;— sSV. The formula V q-in is used ver. 11, both in reference to the persons to whom the pre diction is addressed, and to that which is the subject of the prophecy: 'qV spas V-i> " I will prophecy to thee of wine." Though contrary to the Masoretic division of the words, I prefer the second of the above modes of construction, as being the easier of the two. The use of the para- gogic ¦) in ",aE"t3i forms no objection ; for though it is most commonly found at the end of a sentence, yet there are many instances in which it occurs at the be ginning, or in the middle. See Gen. xviii. '28-31 ; Exod. xviii. 26 ; Deut. viii. 3 ; 1 Sam. ii. 22 ; Ps. xi. 2, Lxviii. 13 ; Is. viii. 12. For CpEn, see on Amos vii. 16. In the concluding words of the verse, na'cVa ;,S- sV, literally, ca lumnies depart not,' the Jews indignantly tax the prophets with exposing them to contempt by incessant castigation arm re proof. Of this interpretation Maurer observes, " ut facillima et simplissima per se est, ita ad nexum est aptissima." The verb occurring first, is in the mas culine singular, though the noun is a feminine plural. See Gesen. § 144. Ward's edit. 7. The prophet boldly meets the charge expressed in the concluding clause of the preceding verse by asking, Whether the absenoe of auspicious predictions could possibly be ascribed to any deficiency on the part of the Spirit of prophecy ? whether the judgments denounced were operations in which Jehovah delighted, and were • not rather procured by the wickedness of those on whom they were to be inflicted ? and whether it was not a fact which experience had ever verific d, that the Divine communications were productive of good to men of science and consistent piety ? In nansn the n is used as a qualifying demonstrative with all the force of an indignant exclama tion, in order to point out the flagrant character of the language employed by the Israelites, -a-cs is the Pahul Part. signifying what is said or spoken, and with the n prefixed, O dictum ! Almost all the versions and Lexicons assign to this participle the signification of being called or named; but this notion attaches to the verb only in Niphal, which, in such case, is uniformly followed by the preposition V. See Is. iv. 3, xix. 18 ; Hos. ii. 1. The LXX., Aq., Vulg., and Chap. II. MICAH. 229 8 But of old my people hath risen up as an enemy ; Ye strip off the vestment as well as the robe From those who walk along securely, From those who are returning from battle. D The women of my people ye thrust out from their darling home ; From their children ye take away my glory for ever. Targ., have read nnsn, which is foimd in four of Kennicott's MSS. Ewald : » O des Wortes ! " As nan nap, short of breath or spirit, is contrasted with a;->s Ci£s, long-suffering, Prov. xiv. 29, and is obviously equivalent to Ci£S -ap, ver. 17, (comp. nan "~p, Exod. vi. 9,j most of the moderns render in the present in stance, Is Jehovah prone to anger? but prophecy bemg the subject to which re ference had just been made, it is more natural to understand nani nan, the Spirit of Jehovah, hi its appropriated meaning, as designating the Diving Au thor of prophetic communications ; and to take the verb in the sense of weakness or inability. Comp. ni ^'sjp, short of hand, Is. xxxvii. 27. nVs, these, like nVs, ver. 6, refers to the judgments which the Lord had threatened to in flict. The interrogative form, as fre quently, requires a decided negative ; such judgments are not Jehovah's usual opera tions. Comp. Is. xxviii. 2 1 ; Lam. iii. 33 ; Mic. vii. 18. In apVan nsi»n, the substantive, which is used adverbially, is placed first, for the sake of emphasis, and on this account also it takes the article, which properly belongs to rVa'n. A similar instance of transposition occurs in nV.h -p i, Job xxxi. 26, where the sub stantive is likewise used adverbially. Eor the meaning of the phrase, comp. Dh "a Via, Prov. ii. 7; an'aa ajV'n, Is. lvii. 2. ' 8. a at the beginning of this verse is strongly adversative. Very different was the character of those whom the prophet was now reproving. Vanr-s, properly yesterday, is taken by some' to signify lately ; but it is more in keeping with the spirit of the passage to render it an ciently, of old, or the like. See on Is. xxx. 33. The rebellious conduct of the Hebrew nation was no new thing. It had characterized every period of its history. LXX. epirpooSrev. Abulwahd, contrary to the usage of the language, divides the word into ns and Van, and renders, on the contrary. Thus also the Vulg. The V in aipsV is expressive of manner ; comp. pnsV, Is. xxxii. 1. Vann is selected to correspond in allit eration with Vanr-s, and is here equiv alent to -:eVjs, of Vsis. It refers, not to nns immediately following, but to the persons of those who were plundered. Though divided by the accent, r.ttVtt- and nns are to be regarded as asyndeta; the former, signifying the large loose gar ment which was worn immediately over the tunic, and which being indispensable to the Orientals, is placed first, for the sake of emphasis ; the latter, the costly robe of fur, or other rich stuff, the rob bery of which, under the circumstances described, was a matter of course. So great was the rapacity of the lawless characters spoken of, that they were not satisfied with the more valuable part of the dress, but likewise possessed them selves of what was less costly. Comp. Matt. v. 40. For nacV\o (by transposi tion of the first two letters of nV)3-a, which is much more frequently in use,) comp. the Arab. y,l ^; vestimentum, pec. totum corpus involvens, from \JLjfc. circumdedit. Before ¦ays repeat the pre position as. The passive participle is here used intransitively to describe those who were returning after having defeated their enemy in battle, and who might there fore be considered perfectly-secure. Even they were waylaid by their countrymen and neighbors, and robbed of the spoils which they had taken in war. 9. In npjasa and n"VV s, t'lere k, as 230 MICAH. Chap. H. 10 Arise ! depart ! for this is not the place of your rest ; Because of pollution it will destroy. And the destruction shall be grievous. 11 If any one, conversant with wind and falsehood, lie, saying : I will prophesy to thee of wine and strong drink, Even he shall be the prophet of this people. frequently, a transition from the plural to the singular pronoun. As the prophet refers to war, it is most likely he intended by the " women," the widows of those who had fallen in battle, and who ought to have been objects of special sympathy and care. Instead of which, both they and their fatherless children were expelled from their homes, and robbed of their property. in~n, my ornament, collec tively for the ornamental clothes which they wore, and with which they had been provided by Jehovah. The Holy Land, and everything connected with it, was his, so that whatever was enjoyed by its inhabitants, was to be regarded as peculiarly a Divine gift. Comp. Hos. ii. 8. DVaaV, for ever, i. e. never to make restitution. Some think there is refer ence to the command to restore the pledge before sun-set, Exod. xxii. 25, but this is doubtful. 10. As the Imperative is frequently used by the prophets to express more strongly the certainty of a prediction than a simple future would have done, ^aVa anap are to be so understood here. See on Is. vi. 10. Hitzig preposterously considers the words to be addressed by the pitiless Jews to the persons whom they oppressed by expelling them from their homes. They are obviously to be viewed as the language of Jehovah, threatening them with a removal from their own country, which they had pol luted by their crimes, to a foreign and heathen land. Canaan was . conferred upon the Hebrews as a rest, or place of quiet enjoyment, after their fatigues and troubles in the wilderness, Num. x. 33 ; Deut. xii. 9 ; Ps. xcv. 11. Before nst, supply y?s. The definite article in nnaaan is equivalent to the pronominal affix Ca, and is to be rendered accord ingly. A land may be said to destroy its inhabitants, when it withholds from them the means of subsistence, and forces them to leave it. With such reference it is described as devouring them and spew ing them out of it, Lev. xviii. 28, xx. 22, xxvi. 38 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 12-14. The comparison of these passages shows the propriety of the Piel Varan, and renders unnecessary the passive forms Va ran and Vann, which some have proposed. For VTr?j comp. the Arab. jjOyC morbus fuit, only its signfications would seem to be taken from the idea of a violent or deadly disease. Thus nan.na nVVp, a grievous curse, 1 Kings ii. 8. Gesenius renders "nna Van, corruptio vehemen- tissima. 11. Micah reverts to the subject of smooth and flattering predictions, which he had spoken of ver. 6, and shows that so corrupt had the people become, that no prophet might expect to be acceptable to them who did not sanction their sinful indulgences. To those who did, they would give a ready ear. As nan signifies both wind and spirit, there is great force in representing those who pretended to inspiration as walking or being familiar with the wind : so utterly worthless was the instruction which they communicated. nan ~Vn is otherwise equivalent to nan -i-is, Hos. ix. 7, and ip/i- TjVh to -p-ja saa, Jer. v. 31. Dathe thinks this verse would better fit in after ver. 6, but there is no authority for the transposition ; and, besides, there is a singular propriety in bringing forward the crowning sin of the Jews, viz. their preferring false prophets to the faithful messengers of Jehovah, just before intro ducing the glorious prediction of their restoration from captivity in the follow- Chap. II. MICA II . Zii 12 I will surely gather thee entirely, O Jacob ! I will surely collect the remainder of Israel ; I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah, Like a flock in the n.idst of their pasture ; They shall be in commotion, Because of the multitude of men. 13 The Breaker is gone up before them ; They break through and pass to the gate ; 12, 13. Theodoret, Kimchi, Calvin; Drusius, De Dieu, Grotius, Tamovius, and others, consider these verses to be a denunciation of punishment, and not a promise of deliverance ; wliile Struensee, Hezel, Michaelis, and Forsayeth (in Newcome) regard them as the language of the false prophets, continued from ver. 11. Ewald, who takes the same view, thinks they were originally written by Micah on the margin of his manu script, and has printed them in ItalicSj within brackets. Most modern inter preters, however, and among thim Rosenmiiller, Dathe, Justi, Hartmann, Maurer, and even Hitzig, are unanimous in viewing them as predictive of the restoration of the Jews after their disper sion. The manner in which the prophet concludes the preceding verse, proves that he had finished what he had to deliver respecting the favor shown to false prophets ; and his sudden and abrupt transition to better times is so entirely in accordance with the manner of the prophets, that the last-mentioned interpretation at once recommends itself as the true. The point most difficult to determine is the point to which the i prophecy has respect. Most Christian expositors explain it of the appearance of Christ, and his collecting of believers into his church ; but this construction is altogether arbitrary, resting on no other foundation than the principle of giving a spiritual interpretation to whatever may, by possibility, be so interpreted. So far is there from being anything in the phraseology of the text to warrant such appropriation of it, that the very terms compel to an adoption of the literal sense. Kimchi, Jarchi, and the Jews generally, as also several modern Christian writers, maintain, that the prophecy relates to the future literal re storation, of the Jews under the Messiah. For my part, I cannot but regard the more immediate restoration from the literal Babylon as the theme of the in spired announcement. The deliverance predicted is the same to which reference is made chap. iv. 1 0, the scene of which is there expressly declared to be Babylon. " Jacob " stands here for the ten tribes, as in Is. xvii. 4 ; Hos. xii. 2 ; and " Israel " for the kingdom of Judah, as in Obad. 18, 2 Chron. xii. 1, xix. 8, xxi. 2, 4. The two tribes and a half being few com pared with the ten, might well be de scribed as ni^sas, the remainder, which had been left in'the land at the time of the Assyrian invasion. To express the great extent of the population after the return, it is compared to the large col lections of sheep in the folds of Bozrah ; a region celebrated for the abundance of its flocks. The Targ., Vulg., Gesenius, Winer, Hitzig, and Ewald, render nnaa, sheep-fold, but this signification of the word is totally unsupported by usage, and is not allowed by Lee. The LXX., mistaking a for the preposition, translate, iv &Ki is expressive of duty or obligation ; what the persons spoken of were bound to do, and what might naturally be expected from them in the station which they filled, s-p is here used, not of merely speculative knowledge, but of that which is prac tical. It was the province of the mag istrates to exercise their judicial author ity for the protection of the innocent, Chap. III. MICAH. 233 And separate them as in the pot, And as flesh in the midst of the kettle. 4 Then they may cry to Jehovah, But he will not answer them, But will hide his face from them at that time ; Because they have corrupted their doings. 5 Thus saith Jehovah resvjecting the prophets, Who cause my people to err ; Who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace ; But against him that putteth not into their mouth They prepare war. 6 Surely ye shall have night without vision ; Ye shall have darkness without divination ; Yea, the sun shall go down upon the prophets, And the day shall become black over them. and the punishment of evil-doers. But instead of thus discharging the duties of their office, they were themselves perpe trators of the most flagrant acts of op pression and cruelty. Their inhuman conduct is very forcibly described by the prophet, in language borrowed from the process of slaying and preparing animals for food, and the feasting consequent thereon. Comp. Ps. xiv. 4 ; Prov. xxx. 14. The pronominal affixes in ver. 2, refer to the people, understood, and not to a a u and nsn, immediately preceding, which are obviously employed as abstract neuters. Though many MSS. read sn. with the Keri, yet there are others which exhibit nsn, the proper pointing of the Chethib. No codex supports the emen dation ns-iia instead of n'jjsa.. The LXX. may, or may not, have so read. The etymology of n n Vp_ is uncertain, but that it signifies a vessel for boiling in is clear from its being here parallel with vta, and in 1 Sam. ii. 14 with nva, nan and na-s. 4. ts, then, and S"nn dS.a, at that time, are anticipative of the period of divine judgment. The infliction of such judgment is implied, not expressed. The more emphatically to convey an impres sion of its certainty, the prophet takes it for granted. God is said to hear or an swer prayer, when he grants what is sup- 30 plicated ; and to hide his face, when he disregards or affords no relief to the sup pliant. na.'Sa, with the LXX., Syr., Justi, Dathe, and others, I take to be causal, as in Num. xxvii. 14 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 18 ; 2 Kings xvii. 26. 5. cnpaiiia C"a-J:n, who bite with their teeth, the antithesis requires to be under stood in the sense of eating the food supplied by the people. While such supplies were granted, the false prophets predicted prosperity ; but if they with held them, measures of a hostile nature, under a religious pretext, were adopted against them. Thus the Targ. V^a an ya n snVii inaVs laann noan ^ani- laanVi They prophecy ^peace to him who feeds them with dHineirs of flesh. The phrase is purposely selected iii_order satirically to expose the selfishness of the deceivers. For the meaning of "ii", to sanctify, as here used, see on Is. xiii. 3 ; Joel i. 14 ; and comp. Jer. vi. 4. 6, 7. So completely should the pre dictions of the false prophets be dis proved by the judgments that were to be brought on the nation, and so painfully should they themselves experience these judgments, that they could no longer have the effrontery to practise their deceptions. Under such circumstances they could not pretend to deliver any divine oracle to the people. The words 234 MICAH. Chap. III. 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, And the diviners confounded ; They shall all cover their beard ; For there shall be no' response from God. 8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, And of judgment and might ; To declare unto Jacob his transgression, And to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, I beseech you, ye heads of the house of Jacob ! And judges of the house of Israel! Who abhor justice, And pervert all equity ; 10 Building Zion with blood, do not imply that they ever had really received any such oracles : they merely professed to have received them, a is here to be taken privatively, and not in the signification of ob, propter, etc., as interpreted by some. The obscuration of the heavenly bodies, or of the light of day, is frequently employed by the proph ets, as it is by oriental writers generally, to denote affliction or calamity. Amos viii. 9. rs-i-, LXX., in 2 Sam. xix. 25, pvarat,, the mustache or beard, which is held in high estimation in the East, and in exhibiting which, properly grown and trimmed, the Orientals greatly pride themselves. To hide it, therefore, by covering it, was regarded as a striking mark of shame or sorrow. See Lev. xiii. 45 ; 2 Sam. xix. 25 ; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 22. 8. Full of conscious sincerity, and of his divine commission, in the execu tion of which he was sustained by the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit, and zealous for the glory of God, and the recovery of his people, Micah avows his readiness, with all boldness, to an nounce to them his inspired message re specting their sins. His' character and conduct formed a perfect contrast to those of the false prophets. The com pound particle cVaSa, and the pronoun ¦a:'s, are here emphatic, na, means the supernatural power necessary for the gen eral discharge of the prophetic office ; comp. tiivapus, Luke i. 17, xxiv. 49 ; Acts i. 8 ; taS'itt, a sense of moral rec titude, distinguishing clearly between right and wrong, and impelling to the advocacy and maintenance of such ac tions, as are conformable to the Divine law ; and nnaa.a, moral courage, or a bold and intrepid spirit, inciting its possessor to throw aside all timidity in defending the cause of God and truth. Comp. 2 Tim. i. 7. 9. The prophet now proceeds to de liver in full the message which he had commenced, ver. 1, employing the same formula, S3- aSno, as he also does chap. vi. 1. The remaining verses of the chapter furnish a noble specimen of that bold and uncompromising fidelity which characterized his ministry. '10. na.a, the LXX., Syr., Targ., and Vulg., render in the plural, but no He brew codex exhibits the variation. The authors of these versions doubtless re garded the participle as a collective, which mode of construction we must adopt, or, with Michaelis, we must sup pose that the prophet had Shebna, Is. xxii. 16-18, Jehoiakim, or some other particular prince in his eye ; the former interpretation is preferable, tinn, blood, used for the wealth obtained by shedding the blood of its owners. Comp. Jer. xxii. 13 ; Ezek. xxii. 27 ; Hab. ii. 12, in the latter of which passages fBa and nVa? are used as parallels, with the same par ticle, naia. Chap. III. MICAH. 235 And Jerusalem with wickedness. 11 Her heads judge for reward, And her priests teach for hire ; Her prophets also divine for money ; Yet they lean upon Jehovah, saying : Is not Jehovah in the midst of us ? No calamity shall come upon us. 12 Surely on your account Sion shall be ploughed as a field, 11. in'ii, is a gift or bribe given to a judge to obtain freedom from punish ment. Receiving bribes was strictly prohibited by the Mosaic law, Exod. xxiii. 8 ; Deut. xvi. 19. That the rjiana, priests, were authorized by that law to act in the capacity of ordinary re ligious teachers, does not appear. Their being thus employed by Jehoshaphat is narrated as something altogether- extra ordinary, 2 Chron. xvii. 7t$. Besides attending to the ceremonial observances, they had devolved upon them the de cision of controversies, Deut. xvii. 8-11, xxi. 5 ; Ezek. xliv. 24, cases of leprosy, divorce, etc. Lev. x. 11. They were to lay clown the law in such cases, and pro nounce the final sentence. Comp. Mai. ii. 7 ; Deut. xxxiii. 10 ; and see Mi chaelis on tfie Laws of Moses, Ar,t. Iii. They are here associated with the judges, because in certam cases they gave a joint verdict ; and in the time of the prophet were equally avaricious and cor ruptible. The verb trap, to divine, be ing only used of false prophets, shows that those reproved by Micah were of that description. Comp. Jude 11. With all their wicked perversion of right, they hypocritically claimed an interest in the favor of God, and scouted the idea that, the calamities denounced by his true prophets could ever overtake them. Comp. -Jer. vii. 4, 8-11, where the same presumptuous confidence in the Divine presence in the temple, is exposed and condemned. , 12. AVe have here at last an awful epiphonema. in which the destruction of the metropolis is expressly and par ticularly predicted. The wicked leaders of the people were now building and beautifying it, by expending upon it their unrighteous gains, ver. 10 ; but the time was coming when it should be completely desolated. " Zion " desig nates the site of the city of David on the south ; " Jerusalem," the houses oc cupied by the inhabitants generally in the centre and the north ; and " the mountain of the house," Moriah on the east. Instead of ys, the Chaldee ter mination, live MSS., five others origin ally, and the Babylonian Talmud, read tai-s., 'np.an, the.hodge, i. e. Kar Qoxty, the temple. That which was their boast and confidence, was to be converted intrf a wilderness, ns' signifies not only a forest, but also a thicket of shrubs, a . rough or rugged locality, from the Arab. asper, salebrosus fuit ; difficilis fv ineessu, asper locus. . The whole verse contains a description of utter ruin and desolation. The enunciation of such a prophecy evinced the greatest intrepidity on the part of Micah, and is quoted as an instance of prophetic boldness, Jer. xxvi. 18, 19. The ploughing of the city by the enemy, which has its parallel in Horace, lib. i. Od. 16, " Imprimeretque muris Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens," has by some' interpreters been referred to what is recorded in the Talmud, noticed by Jerome, and repeated by Maimonides, that Titus Annius Rufus, an officer in the Roman army, tore up with a ploughshare the foundations of the temple ; but little or no credit is to be given to the story. See Deylingij 236 MICAH. Chap, IV. Jerusalem shall become heaps, And the mountain of the house woody heights. Observationes Sacr. pt. v. pp. 448, 450, Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. pp. 2, 8. The circumstance, however, that what Micah predicts, relates to the city as distinguished from the temple, clearly militates against the application of his language. Equally inapposite as to the fulfilment of the prophecy are the appeals to the present partially cultivated state of Mount Zion, since the destruction to which it points was not the more distant devastations under Titus and Adrian, but the more proximate under Nebu chadnezzar. For the accomplishment, see Neh. ii. 17, iv. 2 ; Lara. v. 18. CHAPTER IV. By a sudden transition, as at chap. ii. 13, the prophet passes from his denunciation of pun ishment, to a description of the glorious state of the church subsequent to the restoration from the captivity in Babylon. He predicts the establishment of the kingdom of Christ upon the ruins of idolatry, and the accession of the Gentiles, 1, 2; the peaceful nature of his reign, 3, and the security of his subjects, 4. He then abruptly introduces his captive countrymen, who, having been recovered to the worship of the true God, declare, that, however the idolaters around them might adhere to their several systems of creature- worship, they would never renounce the service of Jehovah, 5. The Most High promises - to gather even the weakest of them from their dispersions, restore their national exist ence, and reign over them for ever, 6-8. The intermediate invasion of Judea, the cap tivity in Babylon, and the liberation of the Jews, are next depicted. 9—11. Upon which follows a prediction of the victories which they should gain over their enemies in the time of the Maccabees,and of the reverse which took place on the establishment of Herod by the Roman power. 1 And it shall come to pass in the last of the days, That the mountain of Jehovah's house Shall be established on the summit of the mountains, And be elevated above the hills, And the people shall flow to it. 2 Yea, many nations shall go, and say : Come let us go- up to the mountain of Jehovah, 1-3. On the general identity of this prophecy with Is. ii. 2-4, see the note on that passage, to which the reader is also referred for the interpretation. The verbal discrepancies, which are few and trivial, will be best seen on consulting Newcome, who exhibits the Hebrew text of both prophets in parallel columns. The sense is the same throughout. Twenty MSS., originally ten more, one by correction, and the Complut. edition, read a^Vs instead of a"Vs. For as'a- sV, thirty-six MSS., probably another, seven originally, and six by correction, together Chap. IV. MICAH. 237 To the house of the God of Jacob, That he may teach us his ways, And that we may walk in his paths ; For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 3 And he shall arbitrate among many people, And give decision to many distant nations, So that they shall beat their swords into coulters, And their spears into pruning-knives ; Nation shall not raise a sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more. 4 And they shall sit each under his vine, and under his fig-tree, And none shall make him afraid ; For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it. 5 Though all the people should walk Each in the name of his god, Yet we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God, For ever and ever. 6 In that day, saith Jehovah, I will gather the halting, with four of the early editions, read sVa; and for as-zP five MSS., four originally, and now one, read si\ 4. This beautiful addition, which is not in Isaiah, appears to have been a common adage among the Hebrews to express a state of complete outward security. 1 Kings- iv. 25 ; Zech. iii. 10. For a state of things precisely the re verse see my Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, etc. p. 436. 5. Many interpreters have been puz zled how to reconcile the statement made in the beginning of this verse with the prediction contained in verse 2 ; and Hartmann goes so far as to assert, that it was originally a marginal gloss, written by a different pen, and afterwards inserted in the text. The difficulty will be re moved, if we consider the words to be those of the Jews during their dispersion. " Hie spectanda est diversitas temporis." Calvin, in he. They witnessed the ea gerness with which the idolaters around them devoted themselves to the service of their gods — an eagerness which led them to despair of their ever being reclaimed ; and they nobly resolved that nothing should ever again move them to abandon the service of Jehovah ; but that, with equal earnestness, they would addict themselves to his worship, and the observance of his laws, ia is here a formula of concession : be it so that, althouyh, or the like. Comp. for this use of the particle, Gen. viii. 21 ; Exod. xiii. 17 ; Josh. xvii. 18 ; Deut. xxix. 18. "s Q'i'a ^Vn, to walk in the name of any one, means to frame one's conduct accord ing to his will, to act by his authority, and in accordance with his character. ' Ca, name, is often used for the person him self. Com. the phrases nani apana T;Vn ; nani inns T\\~, to walk in the way of, to folhw Jehovah. It seems here to be specially employed in reference to relig ious worship. Comp. Zech. x. 12. 6-8. That the subject of these verses is the restoration from Babylon, and the reestablishment of the Jewish state, and not any spiritual gathering of men gen erally to the church of God, is placed beyond dispute by the prediction that the scattered and afflicted remnant of Israel 238 MICAH. Chap. IV. And collect the outcasts, And those whom I have afflicted. 7 And I will make the halting a remnant. And those that had been far removed a strong nation : And Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion, From henceforth, and for ever. 8 And thou, O tower of the flock ! O hill of the daughter of Zion ! To thee it shall come, Even the former rule shall come, The kino-dom of the daughter of Jerusalem. was again to become a strong nation, ver. 7, and by the use of the phrase na»snn nVasaaan, the former rule, ver. 8, which can only be interpreted of the theocratic government at Jerusalem. When the Hebrews first returned to their own land, they were few in num ber, amounting only to 42,360 ; but they rapidly increased, and in the time of the Maccabees not only became an inde pendent state, but acquired such power that they vanquished the formidable Syro- Grecian armies. The Asmonaean family possessed supreme authority from Mattathias to Herod the Great. To the above interpretation no valid objection can be taken on the ground that Jehovah is said, ver. 7, to reign for ever over those, who were to be assembled. cVas, eternity, or long indefinite duration, whether applied to the past or the future, must always be determined by the nature of the subject. It is very often used of the Mosaic institutes, Exod. xii. 14, 17, xxvii. 21, xxviii. 43 ; Lev. iii. 17. It is even employed to denote the period of the seventy years' captivity, Jer. xviii. 16. For nsV'an and nnnsn, comp. Ezek. xxxiv. 16; Zeph. iii. 19' nsVnsn is the Niphal participle of sVn, to be removed. Syr. \or!ii81, elongavit, removit. Arabic ^J,$0 IL, recessit, abscessit. Having employed metaphors taken from the treatment of sheep, Micah calls the Jewish people, in their collective capa city, n-is, a flock. Comp. nani n-S, the jlock of Jehovah, Jer. xiii. 17 ; and in reference to the strength of Jerusalem, and the watchful care exercised by the government, he characterizes her as ~,ty Vnaa, the tower of the flock. Some, indeed, think with Jerome, that a place of this name, to which reference is made Gen. xxxv. 21, and which that father says lay about a mile distant from Beth lehem, is intended ; but, from its being in apposition with ¦jiax— pa Ve's, mound of the daughter of Zion, a fortified hill or elevation on the eastern part of Mount Zion, and here put for the whole, such interpretation is inadmissible. For Ve's, comp. Is. xxxii. 14 ; 2 Chron. xxvii. 3, xxxiii. 14 ; Neh. iii. 26, 27, in which last passage Vn.-ara, the tower, is mentioned along with it, which is doubtless identi cal with -jna, Is. xxxii. 14. The word is derived from Vss, to swell, become tumid. Arab. JLft£ , tumore laboravit, pinguendo circa perinceum capri, etc. 'tbv 'OifiXav KaXoiipevov inf/rjXav. Joseph, de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6, § 3. The LXX., Aquil. Symm., Syr., and Vulg., confound the word with Vbs, thick darkness. The Targum applies the passage to the Mes siah : ya n'aun Vsn'Bin sn""f K PS_a sn-ns ~V "pi'sn HP-aaa iaa'n En" SiniaV snaaVa?, "And thou, 0 Messiah of Israel, who art hid on account of the sins of the congregation of Zion, to thee the kingdom will come ; " but there is no more foundation for this interpretation, than for that of Jonathan on -ns— Vi;«i Gen. xxxv. 21 : n^ns "annn Snrs S'aai taa'oa sni'in saVa iVsnsn, "the Chap. IV. MICAH. 239 9 Why, now, dost thou cry aloud ? Is there no king in thee ? Have thy counsellors perished ? That pains should have seized thee Like a woman in travail ? 10 Be in pain, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion ! Like a woman in travail ; For now thou shalt go forth from the city, And shalt dwell in the field, Thou shalt even go to Babylon ; There thou shalt be delivered, There Jehovah shall redeem thee, From the hand of thine enemies. 11 And now many nations are gathered against thee, place from which King Messiah is to be revealed at the end of the days," whatever use may be made of it in the way of argu- mentum an hominem in reasoning with the Jews. V in naV is a periphrasis of the genitive. 9. -ns is not here used in its temporal signification, but merely as a particle designed emphatically to draw attention to what follows. Five MSS. and another originally, supported by the LXX. and Targ., read nns-, which is the usual form. The prophet plunges at once into the circumstances of consternation in which the mhabitants of Jerusalem would be placed on the approach of the Chaldean army. The questions relative to a king and his council are put ironically, and provoke the answer, " Yes, we have, but they are nothing worth : they cannot protect us, nor contrive any means of escape." ysp> the LXX. treat- as a col lective : ii 0ovXi) trov. 10. -na, instead of inaa, for the sake of euphony. Comp. in reference to childbirth, Job xxxviii. 8 ; Ps. xxii. 10. Having employed the metaphor of a parturient female, the prophet carries it on in this verse, strikingly depicting the condition of anguish and distress which the Jews had to anticipate before they should enjoy deliverance. The Baby lonish captivity, and its happy termina tion, are predicted in express terms. Both were like wise expressly foretold by Isaiah, the contemporary of Micah, chap, xxxix. 7, xliii. 14, xlviii. 20. The repetition of to, there, is emphatic. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, when removed from the city, should be located in the open coun try, till the whole were collected, and then they should all be conveyed to Babylon. 11. The nations here referred to were those which composed the army of Nebuchadnezzar, or which joined that army in its attack upon Jerusalem. The more immediate neighbors of the Jews are no doubt specially intended. Comp. Lam. ii. 16 ; Ezek. xxxv. ; OHad. 12,,13. These defiled Jerusalem when they shed the blood of her citizens and profaned her sacred places, a ntn is used, like a nsn, Obad. 12, in an emphatic sense, to denote the malignant delight with which the enemies of the Jews feasted on their calamities. For the use of the feminine singular trap with the dual masculine, comp. 2 Sam. x. 9 ; Job xx. 11. Nothing is more common in Arabic than to em ploy the feminine form of the verb when the agent is anything irrational or in animate. The singular number is em ployed as the simpler form of the verb. It may be observed, however, that, in stead of a:-:-s in the plural, four MSS., two of the most ancient editions, the Syr. and Targ., read aaa'S in the singular. The LXX. have the plural. Both q:nn and ann are optative in force. 240 MICAH. Chap. IV. That say : Let her be profaned ! And : Let our eyes look upon Zion. 12 But, as for them, they know not the designs of Jehovah, Neither do they understand his purpose : For he shall collect them as sheaves into the threshing-floor. 13 Arise ! thresh, O daughter of Zion ! For I will make thy horn iron, And thy hoofs copper, And thou shalt beat in pieces many nations ; Thou shalt devote their gains to Jehovah, And their substance to the Lord of all the earth. 14 Assemble yourselves now, O daughter of troops ! We are besieged ! 12. nan is a nominative absolute, used for the sake of emphasis. The enemies of the Jews had not the most distant idea, that the object of Jehovah in permitting his people to be so treated was to recover them from idolatry, and thus prepare them for a triumphant restoration: The metaphor taken from the process of threshing out grain is frequently used by the prophets to denote the complete destruction of a people. Comp. Jer. li. 33. For the mariner in which this process is carried on, see on Is. xxviii. 27, 28. 13. A continuation of the metaphor. Comp. for a real parallel, Is. xii. 15, 16. There is, however, a very natural instance of mixed metaphor, derived from the destructive power lodged in the horn of the ox, though it is not employed in threshing, which greatly adds to the force of the passage. That yap, horn, should here be employed to signify the horny substance forming the hoof of the ox, cannot be admitted. Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 11. The horn was a symbol of power exercised in subduing and pun ishing enemies. The Orientals give to Alexander the Great the epithet of « £ ..wAJyiLU, bicornis ; and the kings of Macedon were actually in the habit of wearing the horns of a ram in their casques, 'pa-inn I take to be the sec ond person feminine, the Yod being a fragment of the old form of the personal pronoun ips, regularly preserved in the Syriac. Compare, for other instances, ipna, Ruth iii. 3 ; inaVn, Jer. xxxi. 21, though they are pointed with a Sheva, and the Keri directs that they should be read pa's and paV_n. TheLXX., Aquila, Symm., Theodot., the Syr., and Vulg., all have the second person, onn, Arab. , . ^ nrnhibuit : sacrum, quod non est. promiscue usus ; to make sacred, devote, whether in a good or a bad sense. As conquerors used to consecrate a portion of their spoils to their deities by hanging them up in their temples, so the triumph ant Hebrews would employ the riches which they acquired by their victories in beautifying the temple of Jehovah, and supporting his worship. The Maccabean times are specially referred to. 14. I consider nna, troop, to be a col lective. Jerusalem is called a daughter of troops, on account of the great body of military quartered within her walls, and in the surrounding districts. That it is Jerusalem, and not the enemy, that is addressed, the close coherence of the forms with those of the preceding context sufficiently shows. For the paronomasia in n-na- na ¦aaitip, comp. Gen. xlix. 19. The common acceptation of n-a, is to cut or malts incisions ; but that it also signi fies to assemble as troops, see Jer. v. 7. Syr. | ?0^-i a portion or detachment of Chap. V. MICAH. 24 L With a rod they have smitten on the cheek The judge of Israel ! an army. Though at e's the enemy is understood, it is better 'to construe it impersonally, and give it in our language in the passive. In tan-j and tas-s is another paronomasia. Most understand by the ta£r, judge, Zedekiah, who was treated contumeliously by the Baby lonians ; but it seems preferable to refer it to some of the chief rulers of the Jews at the time of the siege of Jerusalem described by the prophet ; or the term may he used collectively. The position of Hengstenberg and some others, that it is selected on puipose to mark a period during which no king of the house of David reigned, might be allowed, were it not for the influence of the foregoing ua-i, with which it forms the parono masia. Though the LXX. have rendered the term by i/wKas, Aq., Symm., and Theod., have Kpnrjv. The siege in ques tion Michaelis thinks was that by Sosius, the Roman general, 33. c. 37, when An- tigonus, the last d¥ the Asmonsan dy nasty, was obliged to submit to the su perior power. Whether this prince be specifically intended I shall not determine. So much is certain, that he was most contemptuously treated by Sosius ; see Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. xviii. 2. CHAPTER V. Having just adverted to the calamitous circumstances in which the Jews should be placed at the commencement of the reign of Herod, the prophet foretells in a very explicit man ner, the birth of the Messiah, which was to take place during the lifetime of that king, 1. A prediction is then introduced respecting the final dealings of God towards the nation previous to that illustrious event, 2, on which the permanent and universal nature of the new dispensation is announced, 3. The subject of the victories of the Jews over the Syro-Grecian armies is again taken up, 4-8; and the chapter concludes with threaten- ings both against the Jews in the time of Micah, and the enemies by whom they were to be punished, 9-15. 1 And thou, Bethlehem Ephratha ! Art small to be among the thousands of Judah, 1. Michaelis remarks, " If not even a word was found in Matt. ii. 5, 6, ex planatory of our text, I should believe the subject to be Christ, who was born in the reign of Herod. The whole thread of the prophecy in the preceding chapter leads me to him, and the time of his birth." The Messianic application of the prophecy was formally made by the Jewish Sanhedrim, in their official reply to .Herod, Matt. ii. 5, 6 ; and is 31 admitted both by the Rabbinical and the rationalistic interpreters, though, as might be expected, they differ as to the person of the Messiah. The Targum has, mas iannV sn-i-n pa£i "a;-:; Tj:n n-ns n-nau ¦- Ve-sprr; Vs yc\vo snVs ina'in "pnpap.V^, "From thee the Messiah shall come forth before me, to exercise dominion over Israel, whose name was announced long ago, from the days of 242 M I C A II . Chap. V. Yet from thee shall He come forth to me To be Ruler in Israel, old." The position of Theodore of Mop- suesta, Grotius, Dathe, and some others, that Zerubbabel was intended, is now given up by all ; and most interpreters of the German school find their "notion of an ideal Messiah sufficiently con venient in explaining this and other passages, as it relieves them from all in vestigation in regard to positive histori cal personality. EnV- n'a, Bethlehem, literally, the House of Bread. Arab. a «c\ 1 ^^ Beit Lahm, the House of Flesh. It was a small town in the tribe of Judah, built on the slope of a ridge, about six Roman miles to the west by south of Jerusalem, and originally cele brated as the birth-place of David, the first of the line of Jewish kings. nnES- Ephrath, Gen. xlviii. 7, or, as it is com monly written, with the n paragogic, nnnES, Ephratha, appears from the pas sage just cited to have been the original name of the place. The word has much the same signification as Beth-lehem, being derived from nns, to be fruitful ; and no doubt the place received both names from the fertility of the region. Dr. Robinson observes respecting the present aspects of the town : " The many olive and fig orchards, and vine yards round about are marks of industry and thrift ; and the adjacent fields, though stony and rough, produce never theless good crops of grain." Biblical Researches in Palestine, vol ii. p. 161. The names occur as parables in the stanzas, Ruth iv. 11 : — nnnasa V-n— n'-rsa - ; a-V rraa ear- snpa It was likewise called Bethlehem Judah, Judges xvii. 7, xix. 1 ; Ruth i. 1 ; Matt. ii. 5, in order, it is thought, to distinguish it from another place of the same name in the tribe of Zabulon, Josh. xix. 15. n_sa, as well as nns, is of the masculine gender, contrary to rule in Hebrew, but in accordance with Arabic usage, in which the names of cities are sometimes put in the masculine. In the present instance, however, the change was doubt less occasioned by naa, which is of that gender, being strongly prominent to the view of the prophet. Pocockc, in. the notes to his Porta Mosis, chap, ii., and in his commentary on the passage, labors hard to support the opinion of Tanchum and Abulwalid, that n"sa has the two contrary significations of little and great ; but the opinion rests upon nothing be yond the construction which these writ ers have put upon the term as occur ring in Jer. xlviii. 4, and Zech. xiii. 7, which passages, when closely examined, admit of no other signification being attached to the word but that of little, of small note, or esteem, though it may seem to be supported by the Targumic rei - dering yniaauVJ in the former of these passages, and by iroipivas the reading of the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX., and j .V\V. that of the Syriac, in the latter. In none of the cognate dialects has the word the signification of greatness or dignity. Pa"nV n'SS is literally little in respect of being, little to exist, or be reckoned. There is no occasion to resort to the hypothesis that V here forms a comparative, and is equivalent to yc What the prophet asserts is, that Beth lehem was positively little in point of size or population, to rank with the other subdivisions of the tribe of Judah. Comp. 1 Sam. xxiii. 23. The tribes were subdivided into f -in S'?n, families, or clans, the chiliads or thousands of which had heads or princes, to whom, from this circumstance, was given the name of c-sVs — 'to, ea-eVs "i'Sn, princes and heads of thousands. It is highly probable that at the time to which the prophecy refers, if not in that of the pro phet, the place might not have been able to muster a thousand men. No mention is made of it among the cities of Judah enumerated Josh, xv., though, with many others, it is found in the text of the LXX. Nor does it occur in the list, Neh. xi. 25, Chap. V. MICAH. 243 Whose comings forth have been of old, From the ancient days. etc. It is spoken of in the New Testa ment as Kdipn, a village, or hamlet, John vii. 42. In the present day its inhabit ants are rated at eight hundred taxable men. See Dr. Robinson, ut sup. Yet, small and inconsiderable as Bethlehem was, it was to have the distinguished honor of giving birth to the Messiah, " O sola magnarum urbium Major Bethlem, cui contigit Ducem salutis coclitus Licorporatum gignere." Prudentius, Hymn. Epiph. 77. Between the former and the latter half of the verse is a marked antithesis. In this respect, sap and a'nsaaa, corres pond ; the former, designating the future coniing forth of the Illustrious Ruler here predicted, when he should actu ally assume human nature ; the latter, his ancient comings forth, when he created the world7~aria appeared to Moses and the patriarchs, and revealed to them the Divine will. The idea conveyed by the noun must be identical with that ex pressed by the verb. Abenezra, Abar- banel, Grotius, Hartmann, Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, give origines as the signification of nasaia, and regard the term as refer ring to the Davidic extraction of the Mes siah. This signification is likewise stren uously maintained by Hengstenberg ; but, instead of finding any reference to the ancient family of David, he adopts the opinion that the object of the prophet fs to teach the eternal existence of the Mes siah. His position, however, is perfectly untenable, since nothing can be more in congruous than the ascription of locality to eternity, which he expressly does in the translation, " his goings forth (in the sense of places of going forth), are the ancient times, the days of eternity, i. e. the very ancient times." None of the passages which he alleges proves the local signification ; they all describe the act, not the place or time of egress. ¦ps before en", and in cVps "aapn, is used in its temporal acceptation, marking the terminus a quo. The LXX. Qotioi abrov air' apxrts i% ypepaiv aiaivos. byriac _'_o JAaaaj ^- in •"' •" ~n [VflVv . . Vw'ff . . "Whose going forth is from the beginning, from the days of the ages." Vulg. "Et egressus ejus ab in itio, a diebus mternitatis." The Arab. though unwarrantably free as a ver sion, gives pretty much the true sense : .-S&lXJI r^Lslj "Whose goings forth in Israel are from the days of the age." It is, however, not unlikely, that the words uLjIwujI —£, have crept into the text from the preceding, clause. Though Cnp is used of past duration absolutely in' reference to God, Deut. xxxiii. 27, yet it is most frequently employed to de note past, especially ancient time, and is synonymous with fcVpS, with which it occurs in poetic parallelisms. Comp. the Arab. ,»iXi', pracessit; tempos anti- o quum. Syr. 'xj.ji ante, coram. In Ps. xliv. 2, Crp i»i occurs, just as eV:s "a" does in the present verse ; and in Ps. lxxvii. 6 we have cafi; r."c~ and ErnVaS naa'i corresponding to each other. Comp'. also Micah vii. 14, 20 ; Mai. iii. 4. That the dogma of eternal generation or emanation is taught by ¦our prophet, does not appear ; but the : actual preexistence of our Saviour, and his active comings forth, in the most an- , cient times, for, the accomplishment of J the Divine purposes, he not obscurely \ teaches. Thus Piscator : " Verto egres- -i siones, nempe egressiones a Deo Patre ad sanctos Patres Adamum, Noachum, Abrahamum, Isaacum, Jacobum, quibus apparuit seseque familiari sermone pate- fecit." For the interpretation of Calvin, that the eternal decree respecting the future birth of the Messiah is intended, there is no foundation whatever. The 244 MICAH. Chap. V. 2 Nevertheless he will give them up Till the time when she who is to bear hath brought forth, And the rest of his brethren Shall return to the sons of Israel. term V'ian, Ruler, here "employed, is that used by David in his Messianic Ode, 2 Sam. xxiii. 3 : — pina c-sa V'fiaa : D-n'Vs nsnp V-i-an Comp. Jer. xxx. 21 : — asaa an-ns -,-' sai anpa aV-aasa iVs aa^aa aipanpna a'aV ns ana; nr- san "as "a ; nini csa i'a>s ni-;,V Comp. also Is. xi. 1-4. iV, to me, is not without emphasis. The Messiah was to come for the express purpose of carrying into effect the will of his Father in the salvation of men ; and though Israel is specially mentioned as the sphere of his rule, it is not to the exclusion of the Gentile world, as ver. 3, and numerous passages in other prophets clearly show. For the verbal discrepancies between the Hebrew text of Micah, and the quo tation Matt. ii. 6, the reader is referred to the commentators on the latter pas sage. It may suffice to remark here, that the Hebrew words cannot with any propriety be rendered interrogatively, as some have proposed, and that the quo tation in question, made by the Sanhe drim, and not by the evangelist, is ob viously given from memory, and not with any view to verbal accuracy. 2. Notwithstanding the glorious pros pect afforded by the promise of the Messiah, it was not to supersede the state of suffering to which the nation was to be previously reduced on account of its sins. Into that state it was to be brought by the Chaldeans, and was not to be fully restored till about the time of his birth. The return from Babylon was only partial at first ; but, encouraged by the prosperity which attended the re- establishmcnt of the theocracy, others who resided in the East were induced to fol low, and multitudes returned from Egypt and other parts, before the Christian era. The words nnVi nnVp.i are susceptible of two interpretations. They may either be referred to the Jewish church, and regarded as descriptive of her deliver ance from suffering, set forth under the metaphor of a travailing woman ; or, they strictly and literally apply to the mother of the Messiah. The former interpretation is adopted by Lipman, Munster, Vatablus, Grotius, Drusius, Dathe, Justi, and others ; the latter by the greater number of expositors— among other moderns, by Seeker, Michaelis, Hartmann, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald. This construction of the passage alone suits the entire connection. It would appear altogether incongruous to introduce a tropical designation of the church, in a verse in which the Jewish people are more than once spoken of in language strictly literal. The birth of the Messiah, in so far as regards its place, and the preexistence of his per son, had been predicted ver. 1 : the ' prophet, who, as already noticed, was contemporary with Isaiah, and in all probability was acquainted with his cele brated prophecy respecting the rttVar, Is. vii. 14, now further adverts to the interesting fact by a somewhat indefi nite, but by no means obscure refer- - ence to his virgin mother. This vieav is further confirmed by the use of the pronominal affix in a^ns, which un questionably belongs to the Messiah, the immediate antecedent, and not, as a collective, to Israel, as given in the LXX. and Targ. By his " brethren " cannot be meant the Gentile believers, , which some interpreters have alleged, refemng in proof to Ps. xxii. 22 ; Heb. ii. 11 ; but his brethren according to the flesh, those who still remained in foreign parts, but who were to be brought back to Judea, in order that they might Chap. V. MICAH. Li-J 3 And He shall stand, and feed in the strength of Jehovah, In the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God. And they shall continue ; For now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth. 4 And This Same shall be the peace. r ¦.-,.,. (.-¦<- When the -Vssvrian shall invade our land, And tread our palaces, We will raise against him seven shepherds, And eight anointed men. 5 And they shall afflict the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod at the entrances thereof: A t • fu-- be there to receive him, when he should come forth to be ruler in Israel. The preposition Vs conveys here the idea of superaddition. The foreign Jews were to be gathered in addition to those who had already been collected. It is thus more expressive than Vs. That the phrase ' s, the children of Israel, U not here to be taken in its distinctive application to the ten tribes, but denotes the descendants of Jacob generally, may be inferred from the fact, that it is thus appropriated after the Babylonish cap tivity, the period to which the prophecy refers. It is well known that the Mac- cabrcan coins bear the inscription, Vp» Vs-.«i, the Shekel of Israel. Comp. for this use the term Vsn'w, ver. 1 of the present chapter. 3. The verb nas signifies not simply to stand, but also to stand firm, to endure, continue. This latter acceptation is ad opted here by many, who think it bet ter suits the character of the predicted king, who is otherwise represented as sil ting upon his throne, and not standing. But, as the following verb nsn, signifies to feed a flock, there -is the greatest propriety in presenting him to view in the attitude of the good shepherd, who stands, that he may survey the whole of his sheep, and be in readiness to defend them against all attacks. Comp. Is. lxi. 5. The pastoral metaphor is beautifully expressive of royal care and protection. Comp. Iliad i. 263 : O'lov Tleipl&o6v re, Apvavrd re, iroiueva Xawv, where the scholiast has, flaaiXea ixKaiv. See for this use of the Hebrew verb nsn, 2 Sam. v. 2, vii. 7. The power and glory of the Messiah here predicted are those with which, as Mediator, he is invested. Comp. Is. xi. 2 ; Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Heb. ii. 7-9. Jehovah being called " his God," intimates his subordinate official relation. Comp. John xx. 17. If e-j nani, the name of Jehovah, be not here a periphrasis for Jehovah himself, it may \ be regarded as descriptive of his attri butes, or the character in which he hath y revealed* himself to mankind. The nom inative to aari- must be the subjects over avhom Messiah reigns, understood. These were to consist not of believing Jews only, but likewise of believing Gen tiles in the remotest regions of the globe, as it follows in the verse. Comp. for yns 'tis, "the ends of the earth," in reference to the amplitude of the king dom of Christ, Ps. ii. 8, xxii. 28, lxxii. 8. The verb conveys the idea of security and permanence. Such was to be the character of the new dispensation. It remains to add on this verse, that instead of nsn, to feed, two MSS. and some printed editions read nsn, to see, while the LXX. and Arab, exhibit both read ings ; and that three MSS. and another originally, the Syr., Targ., and Vulg., read a^aapa or aa^i", they shall return, or be converted, instead of the current reading aasra, they shall remain. The LXX. have birdp£oj\} ^ ^ lyiij-l til ( two cities when their inhabit ants are of one accord," Locman, Fable I. The numbers seven and eight appear to be used to denote indefinitely a full and sufficient number, as in Eccles. xi. 2. " Give a portion to seven, and also to eight. Comp. also Job v. 18 ; Prov. vi. 16, xxx. 15, 18, 21 ; Amos i. 3, 6, 9, etc. So the Greek Tpls ko.1 rerpdms, and the Latin ter quaterque. Were they to be taken literally, there would be no great difficulty in selecting the number from the Maccabean period ; but the com- Chap. V. M I C A II . 247 6 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, Like the dew from Jehovah ; Like the small rain upon herbs, Which waiteth not for man, And tarrieth not for the sons of man. 7 Yea, the remnant of Jacob shall be. among the nations, In the midst of many people, Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, Which, if he pass through, treadeth down and rendeth, And there is none to deliver. 8 Thy hand shall be high against thine adversaries, parison of the above passages shows that such a process would be unwarranted. QiSn, shepherds, and ens "apsaa, princely men, are synonymous, signifying those who took the lead in opposing the enemy, and who administered the affairs of the Jews at the time. Because -co also signifies to pour out a libation, Michaelis is inclined to render the phrase C-s "a-Ca, sacrifices of men, and to interpret it of such as sacrificed their life in defence of then- country. Not only, however, is the parallelism opposed to this construction of the meaning, but also the use of E-a-Oa in other passages. Thus Josh. xiii. 21, larrta "apco, princes (Comp. Ver. dukes) of Sihon ; and Ezek. xxxii. 30, apEa -a-oa na-j, there are the princes of the north. The title properly signifies anointed, those who had been consecrated to their office by anointing with oil ; and thus is equivalent to a-ni'i-n. In the present instance it is used tropically, without any reference to .0 D p 7 the ceremony. Syr. LaJ|;> Llo'joj. Targ. s^as ianan.; Arab. (jj0 L^iox /ujUut, great men. nsn, to feel, being here used in connection with " the sword," must be taken metaphorically, and means to consume, devastate, or the like. To refer ^i^~) to ssn as its root, is altogether inadmissible. The repetition in these two verses possesses peculiar elegance. V-sn is used impersonally. Instead of asVaaa in the singular, aa"Vaa:, in the plural, is the reading of thirty - four MSS., originally four more ; the Soncin., Brixian, and Complut. editions ; the Soncin. Prophets, and all the ancient versions. 6, 7. The former of these verses depicts the beneficial influence which the re mainder of the nation, after its restora tion, should exert, by spreading the knowledge of the true God among the nations in the midst of which they were situated ; their signal victories against such formidable armies, attracting atten tion to Him whom they worshipped, and to whom they ascribed their success. During the existence of the new Jewish state, the members of the theocracy had much intercourse with foreigners, multi tudes of whom became proselytes to the faith of Jehovah, and were thus prepared to receive the gospel, when preached by the apostles. The idea of number lies both in Vta, the clew, and t^a^an, the rain ; and the sudden raising up of the Jews was to be as entirely a work of Di vine providence, and independent of human aid, as the production of the ma terial elements. The seventh verse des cribes the formidable character of the Jews in reference to the hostile nations by which they were attacked. For the accumulation and the rise in the mean ing of the verbs qipja ran a -as, comp. Exod. xv. 9 : \S-j -Vns .a-tos a'-ns . 8. Here the prosperous asnect of the prophecy closes. The words are ad- 248 MICAH. Chap. V. And all thine enemies shall be cut off. 9 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, That I will cut off thy horses from the midst of thee ; And I will destroy thy chariots. 10 I will cut off the cities of thy land, And raze all thy fortresses, 111 will cut off the sorceries from thy hand, And thou shalt have no diviners. 12 I will cut off thy graven images and thy statues from the midst of thee, And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. 13 I will break down thine images of Astarte from the midst of thee, And destroy thy cities. dressed optatively to Jehovah, and may be considered as those either of the prophet, or as designed to be adopted by the Jewish church. Comp. Is. xxvi. 11. Her enemies were the enemies of Jehovah. 9-14. The prophet now returns to times nearer his own, and predicts the beneficial moral changes that were to be effected in the condition of his coun trymen by the Babylonish conquest and captivity. They had, contrary to the express command of the Lord, Deut. xvii. 16, kept up a formidable body of cavalry, and war-chariots ; trusted in their fortified cities ; encouraged sorcery, and jndulged in abominable idolatry. These were all to be removed, when the Jewish state was broken up ; and after God had employed the heathen in pun ishing his apostate people, they in their turn should be punished for their obsti nate adherence to idol worship, notwith standing the testimony borne against their conduct by the Jews who lived among them. This portion of the chapter is strikingly parallel with Is. xlvii. 6-22. '-'or c-sca, see on Is. xlvii. 9; forD-aa-'sa, imp. c-aa's, Is. iii. 6; and for Qini-is, see on Is. xvii. 8. As C"na) had already occurred in the acceptation of cities, ver. 1 0, we should scarcely expect it to be a sain used ver. 13. To remove the difficulty Michaelis compares the word with the Arab, jj }f- arbor semper virens ; Arnold, with the Arab. »l_c, speluncus ; others propose to read Linyi, woods, i. e. groves, supposing the initial Yod to have been absorbed by that with which the preceding word terminates ; while others would change the word into tins, witnesses, understanding thereby the statues etc., belonging to idol-wor ship. There seems, however, to be no absolute necessity for departing from the signification cities, only we thereby un derstand such as were specially appro priated to idolatrous uses, as Jerome suggests. Comp. Vvan nia -py, the city of the house, or temple of Baal, 2 Kings x. 25, by which is meant a separate part of Samaria, where the temple was situ ated. This construction is required in order to form a parallelism with Oinvis, images of Astarte, occurring immediately before in the verse. In all the ancient versions the word is rendered by cities, except the Targum, in which it is trans lated enemies. Some refer the relative -cs at the end of ver. 14 to.npa, and in terpret, unheard of vengeance, but it is more natural to connect it with taipa, nations, the immediate antecedent, and to regard the prophet as describing the refusal of the pagans, who had enjoyed opportunities of learning the true religion Chap. VI. MIC A II . 249 14 And I will execute vengeance in anger and in wrath, Upon the nations which have not been obedient. from the Jews, to listen to the instruc- ? . .f a? ^ 7 a a . "><-V' tions which had been tendered to them. y' a^'0^ VI 'rf-f* K*1 ^ \ Thus the Targ. TSVaS aViap_ sV'i S>aas the peoples who have not hearkened. In snina's, "the peoples that have not re- the same way Michaelis, Hartmann, Justi, ceived the doctrine of the law." LXX. Dathe, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald. iv rots eSveatv, av& wv ovk eiai\KOvffav. CHAPTER VI. It was not sufficient for the prophet to predict the punishments that were to be inflicted on the Jews; he was required to press the subject upon their attention, which he docs in a very affecting manner, by calling a public court, in which the inanimate creation is sum moned to supply evidence, 1, 2. An appeal is then made by Jehovah to the accused party, respecting his kindness to the nation from the earliest period of its history, 3-5. Con victed of guilt, the people are represented as deeply anxious to obtain, at any cost, recon ciliation with God, 6, 7 ; and are pointed by the prophet to the only source whence it was to be obtained ; while, at the same time, they are reminded of the high properties and ob ligations of true piety, 8. He next demands attention to the threatened judgments, 9; specifies some of the crimes on account of which they were to be brought upon them, 10-12; repeats the threatening, 13; shows the blasting effects of the Divine wrath upon all their undertakings, 14, 15; and traoes the evil to its true source — the idolatries of the kingdom of Israel, 16. 1 Hkae ye now what Jehovah saith : Arise ! plead in the presence of the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice. 2 Hear, O ye mountains ! Jehovah's controversy, And ye rocks, the foundations of the earth ; 1, 2. It is not unusual with the pro- abdicates, as it were, his right, and leaves phets to make appeals respecting the en- it to the guilty party to state the case. ormity of human guilt to the inanimate Comp. Is. xliii. 26. In the appeal to parts of creation, as if it were impossible the lofty and ever-during mountains, in for it not to inspire them with life, and which the puny affairs of man could call them forth as intelligent witnesses of excite no prejudice, and which might what hath taken place in their presence, therefore be regarded as quite impartial See Deut. xxxii. 1 ; Is. i. 2 ; Jer. ii. 12, 13. judges, there is something inexpressibly By a similar personification the moun- sublime. C"nnn ns a"n, does not mean, tains and durable foundations of the earth contend with the mountains, as if they are here summoned to appear in the were the party to be accused, but to court of heaven. Jehovah, however, carry on the cause in their presence. instead of bringing forward the charge, rs is here to be taken in the signification 250 MICAH. Chap. VI. For Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, And will contend with Israel. O my people ! What have I done to thee ? With what have I wearied thee ? Testify against me. Nay, I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, And redeemed thee from the house of slaves ; And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. O my people ! remember now how Balak the king of Moab con sulted, And how Balaam the son of Beor answered him ; [Remember what happened] From Shittim to Gilgal, That ye may know the benefits of Jehovah. of apud, coram, and is equivalent to ¦:eV, before, just as the forms ajV-nn t-riV>™ ns, Gen. v. 24, and ajVnnn t-n'as ¦:sV, xlviii. 15, are identical in meaning, cans, or as it is spelt carps in a great many MSS., and in four early editions, standing absolutely, must be taken as a substantive, and not as an ad jective qualifying "-is in.C-'a. Arab. ,wj'| stetit, consistit ; .Lit, petra. . j-| est omne id, quod durat, et per- manet sua in sede. Schultens, Origg. Hcbbr. p. 112. Instead of yns inoaas, the foundations of the earth, the Arabs call the mountains jA.^SI OLi'.t, the stakes, or posts of the earth. 3, 4. The Israelites are asked, in the kindest and most affecting style, what ground of complaint they had against Jehovah, which could have induced them to act the part they did. Comp. Jer. ii. 5, 31. He had demanded of them nothing that was unreasonable, ia at the beginning of ver. 4, is very expres sive, and is equivalent to nay, on the contrary, or the like. Instead of having done anything to alienate them, God had shown the utmost kindness to them from the beginning ; not only rescuing them from Egyptian bondage, but providing them with inspired leaders, Miriam is mentioned, on account of the prominent part she took in celebrating the Divine interposition for their deliverance. She is called ns*a:n, the prophetess, Exod. xv. 20, because she led the female chorus which rehearsed the inspired song of Moses. The Targ. on Micah adds : spraV nsn:sV, to instruct the women. Comp. Numb. xi. 2. 5. The kindness of Jehovah to his people was manifested, not only in furnishing them with inspired teachers, but also in counteracting the designs of Balak, who wished to engage the pro phetic influence of Balaam against them ; for that avaricious prophet was compelled, contrary to the cherished desire of his heart, to pronounce blessings upon them instead of curses. See Numb. xxii. xxiii. xxiv. The words ns c-asn ya V.iVj, from Shittim to Gilyal, are not to be constructed with those immediately preceding ; for Balaam did not cross over Jordan to Gilgal, but was slain in the land of Midian, as we read Numb. xxxi. 8. Nor are we, with Ewald, to suppose them to be a marginal gloss; but have merely to supply the ellipsis n"n na, what happened, and repeat nat, remember, from the first clause of the verse. To this effect the Targ. -pa -a.a sVn n-a ns yav -ajj-aa y'aV sn-a^ns sV.aV.a, " Were not mighty deeds per formed for you from the plain of Shittim to the house Gilgal ? " Thus also Mun- Chap. VI. MICAH, 251 6 With what shall I come before Jehovah ? With what shall I bow to the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings ? With calves of a year old ? V Will Jehovah be satisfied with thousands of rams? With ten thousand rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression ? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? ster, Vetablus, Grotius, Calvin, Dathe, De Wette, Michaelis, Hartmann, and others, There was a peculiar propriety in specify ing these two places. Shittim was the name of a valley in the country of Moab, where on account of the impurities com mitted with the Midianitish women, twenty-four thousand Israelites were de stroyed. The evil was so great that it might have caused the Lord to abandon them entfrely ; but he mercifully spared them as ¦¦ people, miraculously divided the Jordan to afford them a passage, and gave them actual possession of Canaan, the land promised to their fathers. In proof of this last act of the Divine goodness, Gilgal is singled out from other places, because it was there they made their first encampment in the promised land. It was situated between Jericho and the Jordan, but no trace of its site now remains, nan^ n'pns, the benefits of Jehovah. Comp. Jud. v. 1 1 ; 1 Sam. xii. 7 ; Ps. xxiv. 7. In this way the phrase is interpreted by Tanchum, Grotius, Drusius) and by most of the moderns. Calvin observes : " Per Jus- titias intelligit beneficia quemadmodum nmltis aliis locis ; and paraphrases thus : " Et ipsa experientia tibi demonstret quam verax, quam beneficus, quam mi- sericors semper fuerit- Deus erga genus vestrum." 6, 7. The Jews convicted of guilt, are represented as most anxious to pro pitiate the Divine favor. They could not deny the charges that had been brought against them ; nor could they put in any plea of justification. They stood condemned before God and the universe. The language which they employ is not such as the prophet would have taught them, but such as well accorded with the notions which were prevalent among them, some of which had been learned from their heathen neighbors. How much soever they might formerly have grudged the expense of prescribed offerings, they are now will ing to bring the most costly and abund ant, rams by thousands, and oil sufficient to fill myriads of rivers ; nay, what is more, human victims, and of these the most endeared, their own offspring. In ¦ps/i- ^Vna_ na'aan, myriads of torrents of oil, is a double hyperbole, quite in the style of the Orientals. For n-i^an, as thus used, comp. 1 Sam xviii. 7 ; and for laaa— Vns, Job xx. 17. The fact of the' presentation of human sacrifices is fully established in the ancient history of all nations. This barbarous custom was especially prevalent among the Phoe nicians, and was by them introduced into the north of Africa, where it con tinued till the proconsulate of Tiberius. According to Porphyry, the book of Sanchoniathon was full of examples of such sacrifices. That they obtained among the idolatrous Israelites is clear from Jer. xix. 5, xxxii. 35, who offered their children to Moloch or Saturn, after the example of their Phoenician neigh bors. Eusebius, in his Prsepar. Evangel. lib. iv. 16, enters at length into the subject ; and adduces a passage from Philo Byblius which has a special bear ing upon the present text : "E&os ij" rots iraXaiois, iv rats peydXais o~vp.ipopa.7s toiv Kivtiiivaiv, avrl tt\s irdvraiv *X*0, to train one's horse, i. e. by rendering him submissive and patient of restraint ; hence mjj^a iui~S,equus bene exercitatus. See A. Schultens on Prov. xi. 2. Wliile this grace is an in dispensable attribute of true religion, and lies indeed at its very foundation, it ' is only one of the several important quali ties of which it is composed. The term employed by the prophet comprehends them all. Michaelis renders, mit geiois- senhafter sorgfalt, "with conscientious solicitude." The comment of Jerome is not unworthy of notice ; — "Ita praeci- pitur ut praaparati simus ambulare cum Domino Deo nostro, nulla hora dormire, nullo tempore securi esse debemus, sed semper expectare patremfamilias venien- tem et diem formidare judicii, et in nocte hujus seculi dicere : ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat." Sa.an is the Hiphil In finitive, used adverbially. Bps. Butler and Lowth, Mr. Peters, and some others, are of opinion that the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses contain a dialogue be tween Balak and Balaam ; but there does not appear to be sufficient ground for it. The connection of these verses with verse fifth is not so close as they suppose. 9. On the ground of the foreseen de termination of the Jews, notwithstand ing their present professions of repent ance, to persevere in a line of conduct diametrically opposite to that required by the Most High, the prophet proceeds to summon their attention to the certainty of the judgments that were to be inflicted. i-yV for n"snV, to the city, i. e. Jeru salem, by way of eminence. As she was preeminent in privilege, so she was also hi regard to wickedness and guilt. n--i-.n Gesenius refers to an obsolete root n\a'-, which he thinks may probably have; meant to stand, stand out, and so to be. From such a root both this noun, and vji, being, subsistence, substance, may most naturally be derived. The signi fications will then be, that which reattg is, something solid or substantial, real wisdom, wealth, power, security, deliver ance, or whatever else best agrees with the context. Comp. the Arab. /£, . , in the acceptations juvit restituitque regro- tum medicina ; abundavit opibus vir ; jlLaO,, opuUntia, abundantia opum ; ,— 1&», largitus est. The noun is used in parallelisms with naan, wisdom, nas, counsel, nntS, assistance, as, strength, ¦pa, a shield, etc. The LXX., who render it by aK-n&es, floi}Steia, laxbs, oannpia, cur&dKeia, fiovK}-, give in the present text the verb oiiirei, as if they had read sptsan, from yz* ; but they may, after all, have attached the same signification to n'i". The Syriac has j \ a Kn .. doctrine ; the Targ. s»EVas teachers. The construction of the word here will depend upon the reading of the following verb. If, with seven MSS., originally one more, and apparently an other, one corrected, and one in the mar gin, the LXX., Syr., Targ., Vulg., and Arab., we read tja/ii "spp, those who fear thy name, the passage will best be ren dered, there will be safety or deliverance, i. e. for such. In this case we have to supply the substantive verb, and the ellip sis of V, to or for. On the other hand, if we retain the current reading nsn"* 254 MICAH, Chap. VL 10 Are there still in the house of the wicked treasures of wicked ness, And the accursed scanty ephah ? 11 Can I be innocent with wicked balances, And with a bag of deceitful weights ? 12 Whose rich men are full of violence, And her inhabitants speak falsehood ; ^is's, he shall see thy name, we must, with our own, and other translators, un derstand bis before n»aan, and take the noun in the signification solid, or sound wisdom.' That bis is frequently to be thus understood abstract nouns, comp. Ps. cix. 4, nien i;s, I am prayer, for nVan -s^s ¦DS, I am a man of prayer ; Prov. xiii. 6, nsan, sin, for nsiari'J'S, the man of sin, i. e. the sinner ; xix. 15. nVas, indolence, for nVaS bis, the man of indolence, etc. What greatly favors the reading apsB "sni is its occur ring only in this place, whereas aajna isni, and other forms of snp with a-jj, are of frequent occurrence. It was quite natural for copyists and punctators to substitute the former for the latter, but not the latter for the former. As to the ancient versions, the LXX. may, as fre quently, have translated from hearing, and thus have mistaken the pronuncia tion of nsni for that of is-p, which it so nearly resembled. The common read ing best suits the connection. Before an nouncing his message, the prophet paren thetically declares, that, whatever might be the treatment it would receive from the bulk of the people, the truly wise would regard it as God's message, and having special respect to his revealed character as thereby disclosed, would find in it security and consolation in the approaching calamities. The name of the Lord is frequently used to ex press the sum total of the Divine attri butes, and often stands for God himself. nsn. signifies not merely to see, but to recognize practically, to experience. 1 Sam. xxiv. 12 ; Ps. xxxiv. 13, lxxxix. 49 ; Lam. iii. 1. Contrasted with nsni ¦^ai, see Is. xxvi. 10; nan" nasj nsn- Va. ntaas, the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and among the moderns, Newcome and Ewald, take to signify tribe, or collectively tribes, and render in the vocative. The Targ. adopts a metaphorical signification, coiTespond ing to that which attaches to la as — rendering, sa-tsVaJa saVas, 0 King and Prince! The acceptation rod, as em blematical of punishment, is best suited to the connection. Comp. Is. ix. 3, x. 5, 24. nns 7 is also variously translated and explained : some deriving it from the root nns, to adorn; some from nas, to testify ; some adopt the signification of the Arab. (\g. . , minatus fuit ; while nns, congregation. There is no necessity for departing from the ordinary signifi cation of ns", to fix, appoint. The only real difficulty lies in the feminine suffix n, which does not grammatically agree with riHas ; but even this may be re moved by taking the suffix as a neuter, or as referring to nsn, the calamity, un derstood. Comp. Jer. ix. 11. Eavald, htire Gemeine und wer sie bestellt! "let the community hear, and he that ap points it," understanding thereby the king as principal ruler. Hitzig and Maurer, as in our common version, both make Jehovah- the nominative to the verb. Comp. Jer. xlvii. 7. 10 — 12. Several crimes are here speci fied as a sample of those which abounded, and on account of which the Divine judgments were to be brought upon the land. For -.-y at the beginning of a sentence, comp. Gen. xix. 12. Forty- nine MSS., thirteen more originally, and perhaps one other, with one in the mar gin, readc-sn the man, instead of-asn; and this is also the reading of the Son- Chap. VI. M I C A II . 255 Their tongue in their mouth is deceitful. 13 I will surely smite thee incurably, Rendering thee desolate on account of thy sins. 14 Thou mayest eat, but thou shalt not be satisfied, For thou shalt be inwardly depressed ; Thou mayest remove, but thou shalt not rescue, Or what thou rescuest I will give to the sword. 15 Thou mayest sow, but thou shalt not reap ; ein., the Brixian, and five other printed editions, and has the approval of Jarchi, Abenezra, and Abarbanel, but it affords no suitable sense ; and with Bin in Ken nicott's MS. 201, must be regarded as the result of interpretation. Owing to the same cause, numerous MSS. and editions have osn. The LXX., Syr., and Vulg., have read BSn, the fire ; but there cannot be any doubt, that it is only another form of Bin, there being merely an omission of the Yod, as there clearly is, 2 Sam. xiv. 19 ; and the Aleph corresponds to the same letter in the cognate forms : Chald. n^s, Syr. A^j, Arab. /pj|, est, exsistit. The ellipsis of a before nna is not unfrequent. The Hebrews were much given to the falsification of their weights and mea sures, though such conduct was repeat edly prohibited by the law, Lev. xix. 35, 36 ; Deut. xxv. 13-16 ; and else where severely condemned in their sac red writings. See Prov. xi. 1, xx. 10 ; and for the practice, comp. Ezek. xiv. 9, 10 ; Hos. xii. 8 ; Amos viii. 5. naast, accursed, from tST, to be angry, indig nant. This participial form presents the object as suffering the effects of anger, or as marked with the Divine displeasure. nats, ver. 11, the LXX., Syr,, and Targ., have read in the third person nan, though the two last render it in the plural. As the MSS. show no va riation, the present reading must be re tained ; but as this verb is never used transitively in Kal, we cannot refer the nominative to God, and interpret it of his inquiring whether he could treat the persons in question as innocent, but must regard the prophet as putting the ques tion, for the sake of effect, into the mouth of one of themselves, and making him ask, how he could possibly lay claim to the character, while he had none but instruments of fraud in his possession ? the antecedent to navs, whose, ver. 12, is n"sn, city, ver. 9. ' 13. in this, and the following verses, severe judgments are threatened against the people on account of their iniquitous practices. The LXX., Syr., Vulg., and Arab., render iniVnn, I have begun, or, I will begin, as if it were the Hiphil of V V n , but it is that of n V n , to be in pain, sick, etc. As here used with the infini tive of nan, to smite, inflict punishment, it gives intensity to the threatening, and expresses the incurable nature of the pun ishment. 14. nr"> is not to be referred, with Simonis and Gesenius, to the Arab. , .;',, ^ - fame exinanitus fuit, but to i«, sequior, et imbecillis, infirmus ; and was most likely intended to express .0 7 0. what we find in the Syr. j ^; «nVo " the diarrhoea shall be within thee." The LXX. taking ajn/i-i for aaai-np, renders, Kal aK ordaei iv aoi. sa n is the apocopated Hiphil of ;aa, to remove, and expresses the attempt to save goods by removmg them out of the way of the enemy. All the ancient versions have adopted the signification of a •'•in with b, to seize, lay hold on, but that conjugation of a'bj, has also the signification, to remove any thing. See Job xxiv 2. 15. n-a "nnn. Oil was expressed from the* olive, by stamping or treading it out with the foot, in the same way as £») 256 MICAH. Chap. VII. Thou mayest tread the olive, but thou shalt not pour out the oil; And the grape of the new wine, but the wine thou shalt not drink ; 16 The statutes of Omri are strictly kept, And all the work of the house of Ahab, And ye walk in their counsels ; That I may make thee desolate, And the inhabitants thereof an object of hissing ; Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. grapes were trodden. Hence the name yaw na>, Gethsemane, or the oil-press, Matt. xxvi. 36. Oil is indispensable to oriental comfort, being used for anointing the body, and perfuming the garments. It is also a very common ingredient in food. 16. Hartmann stumbles at the intro duction of this verse ; but it is quite in the manner of the prophet, to recur to the wicked character of his people. nan.Bi is best rendered impersonally, though it refers to ns, people, understood. Hithpael is here intensive of Piel. Omri is specially mentioned, because he was the founder of Samaria and the wicked house of Ahab, and a supporter of the superstitions of Jeroboam, 1 Kings xvi. 16-28. isaV, in order that. The He brews did not, indeed, commit the wicked ness described with the intention of bring ing upon themselves divine punishment ; but the punishment was as certainly con nected with the sin, in the purpose of God, as if its infliction had been the end at which they aimed, asvsn -as rsnn, ye shall bear the reproach of my people, i. e. your own reproach, that which you have deserved ; only the meaning is so expressed, in order to derive a high aggra vation of their guilt from the relation in which they stood to Jehovah. The LXX. have Ka&v, which intimates that they either read cias, or i as, as a de fective masculine plural. CHAPTER VII. Before concluding, the prophet once more reverts to the wickedness of his people, which he depicts avith the darkest colors, 1-6. He then represents them in their state of cap tivity, brought to repentance, and confidently expecting the Divine interposition, which would be rendered the more conspicuous by the Complete destruction of their enemies, 7-10. The restoration of Jerusalem, and the conversion of the hostile nations, are next predicted, 11, 12; while the previous desolation of Judea is traced to the sins of the in habitants, 13. Turning to Jehovah, he prays for the undisturbed and prosperous con dition of the restored nation, 14; to which a gracious response is given, 15. The over throw of the nations hostile to the Jews, and their reverence for Jehovah, are then pointed out, 10, 17 ; and the prophecy closes with a sublime and exulting appeal to his gracious character, 18, and an assurance that the covenant people should experience the full accomplishment of the sacred engagements into which he had entered with their progenitors, 19, 20. Chap. VII. MICAH. 257 Alas for me ! For I am as when they gather the summer fruit. As when the vintage is gleaned : There is no cluster to eat, No early fig which my soul desireth. The pious hath perished from the land. And there is none upright among men ; They all lie in wait for blood ; They hunt each other into the net. For evil their hands are well prepared ; The prince asketh, 1. In no part of his prophecy does Micah so fearfully describe the universal corruption of manners which prevailed among the Jews as in the first six verses of this chapter. The picture is peculiarly applicable to their character in the wicked reign of Ahaz, during which the prophet flourished, and was awfully anticipative of that which they again exhibited during the reigns immediately preceding the captivity. The preposition a in n-a:a nVVsa yip — ECsa, denoting time as well as comparison, the two nouns in construction must be rendered as if they were verbs; though a literal translation would be, the gatherings of the summer fruit, and the gleanings of the vintage. For nnaaa.tte early fig, see on Is. xxviii. 4. The prophet com pares the strong desire which he felt to meet with a single pious man, to that eagerness with which the traveller looks in vain for one of those delicious figs after the summer has advanced. 2. Comp. Ps. xii. 1, xiv. 2 ; Is. lvii. 1. Cnn, rendered in most of the versions destruction, signifies also a net, which is so called from its enclosing or shutting up whatever it catches. Occurring, as it here does, in connection with the verb naa, to hunt, it is preferable to take it in this acceptation. The Orientals em ployed the net for hunting, as well as for fishing. The word is here in the ac cusative case. 3. This verse is very differently ren dered by translators. The version of it which I have given appears to express as literally as possible the ideas, which, 33 it is generally admitted, the prophet in tended to convey. S"Bin is frequently used to express the doing of anything well, skilfully, aptly, and the like. Here it is intransitive. Ewald, with Michae lis, Vogel and Doderlein, mistakes the meanmg of the clause altogether, when he explains it of endeavoring by bribery to prevail upon the magistrates to pro nounce that to be good which in itself is evil. Vsp'B, which he is obliged to con vert into Vsa'j, a Pual form, of which no example occurs in the Hebrew language, can only refer to the avaricious passion of the ruler. It it, therefore, the -wicked ness of their governors and judges, and not that of the people themselves, which the latter clauses of the verse describe. After Vs-'b supply nra'B ; and after tssb, ut pa. The substantive nan, like the Arab. -JC, desideravit, voluit, has here the sig nification, wish, desire, will. See Schul tens on Prov. x. 3 ; and the Koran ii. 87 : ^U. L^LXil 3 Ui J, ( and whenever messenger cometh to you with that which your souls desire not." Comp. Ps. Iii. 9 ; Prov. xi. 6 ; and for the cognate be: ras, Deut. xii. 15, 20. nas, sig nifies to intertwine, bind together, as the branches of trees, ropes, etc. ; here, me taphorically, to effect by united effort. Comp. the Arab, i^y^ft, miscuit com- miscuit, Syr. , $ «nV. concordavit. 258 MICAH. CHAr. VII. And the judge also, for a reward ; And the great man giveth utterance to the desire of his soul; They combine to act perversely. 4 The best of them is like a prickly thorn ; The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge ; The day of thy watchmen, thy visitation cometh ; Now shall be their perplexity. 5 Place no faith in a companion ; Trust not a familiar friend ; From her that lieth in thy bosom Guard the doors of thy mouth. 6 For the son despiseth his father ; The daughter riseth up against her mother ; The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law : A man's enemies are the members of his own family. Dathe : conjunctis viribus exequuntur. The princes, judges, and great men, con spired to set aside all law and right in their treatment of the poof of the land. The suffix n is to be taken as a neuter, and refers to the injustice practised by the rulers. Thus Calvin : " Deinde com- plicant ipsam pravitatem : hoc est hinc fit ut grassetur furiosa crudelitas, quoniam conspirant inter se et gubernatores et qui volunt sibi acqufrere peccandi licentiam : quasi contexerent inter se funes, con- firmant hoc modo pravitatem." 4. Both aaaa, good, and nai, upright, are here used superlatively. Comp. for this use, Gen. xiv. 23 ; Is. i. 19 ; Exod. xv. 4. It frequently occurs in Arabic. pnn is now allowed to designate a species of thorn, and not a brier. As the tt now stands before naaaa, it must be taken as an emphatic comparative, which derives its force, not from any adjective ex pressed, but from the noun to which it is prefixed, as in Ps. lxii 10 ; Is. xii. 24 ; or it may have originally belonged as a suffix to the preceding noun nai- , in which case "-a-'to and rnirp must have corres ponded to each other, leaving an ellipsis of the a which had just been used in pnna. By "the day of thy watchmen," the period of calamity predicted by the prophets is meant. With this, the fol lowing nnapS, visitation, is explicatively parallel. For naaaa Dai, a day of per plexity, see on Is. xxii. 5. The reference in c is not to the watchmen, improperly interpreted by some of false prophets ; nor is it to be confined to the persons of rank and office described ver. 3 ; but to the people generally. 5,6. t]aVs, Arab. oLul, familiaris soeius, from in t[ conjunxit, sociavit, etc., a familiar, and, by implication, a confidential, friend. Vaa nas , LXX. &Tipd(ei. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 15. The . root Vaa, primarily signifies to wither, fall off as leaves, and tropically to act wickedly, irreligiously, as one that has fallen off from God. Comp. Vaa, Ps. xiv. 1. nVaa, an atrocious deed, Gen. xxxiv. 7 ; Jud. xix. 23, 24. The state of things here described is that of the most wretched perfidiousness, anarchy, and confusion, in which the most intimate could have no confidence in each other, and the closest ties of relationship were violated and contemned. Comp. Jer. ix. 2-6. — aKXoTplovs aXKijXcav elvai irdvras Tobs jU7/ airovtiaiovs, Kal yoveis reKvuiv, Kal atieXipovs atieXtbaiv, otKelovs oiKeiaiv. Diog. Laert. vii. 32. In language strikingly similar, Ovid describes the iron age : Chap. VII. MICAH. 259 1 But I will look for Jehovah ; I will wait for the God of my salvation ; My God will hear me. 8 liejoice not over me, O mine enemy 1 Though I have fallen, I shall rise again ; Though I sit in darkness, Jehovah is my light. 9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, Because I have sinned against him ; Till he plead my cause, and give effect to my sentence; He will bring me forth to the light ; I shall behold his righteousness. 10 Mine enemy also shall see it, And shame shall cover her. She that said to me, Where is Jehovah thy God ? Mine eyes shall behold her ; «' Vivitur ex rapto ; non hospes ab hos- pite tutus, Non soror a genero ; fratrum quoque gratia rara est. Imminet exitio vir conjugis, ilia mariti ; Lurida terribiles miscent aconita no- vercse, Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos." Metamorph. i. 144. Our Saviour appropriates the words to the treacherous and cruel treatment which he taught his disciples to expect from their nearest relatives, Matt. x. 35, 36 ; Luke xii. 53. 7. Having described the wickedness of the Jews, the prophet abruptly changes the scene, and introduces them to view in that state of captivity in Babylon in which it was to issue. There, at a dis tance from the land of their fathers, they are brought to repentance, and the ex ercise of true piety ; and seeking again to their covenant God, they express the fullest confidence that he would in due time deliver them from banishment. nSa, here used in Piel, signifies to look out for an answer to prayer, divine aid, etc. Comp. Ps. v. 4. 8, 9. Who the enemy intended by the prophet is, cannot be positively decided. Some interpreters think Babylon ; others, Edom. For the former, see Jer. 1. 11 ; for the latter, Obad. 12 j for both, Ps. cxxxvii. 7, 8. Vaa—na, daughter of Babylon, or Qasprs, daughter of Edom, for Babylon and Edom themselves, is understood in the feminine participle naps, mine enemy. For the idiom, see on Is. i. 8. The Jews understand Rome as professing Christianity to be meant by the enemy. See Pococke on verses 9th and 10th. "Light" and "darkness" are used, as frequently, for prosperity and adversity. The 9 th verse contains a beau tiful specimen of submissiveness and pa tient endurance of suffering, from a humbling conviction of the demerit of sin ; accompanied by the firm persuasion, that when the chastisement had answered its end, Jehovah would graciously afford deliverance, np n a , righteousness, is here to be understood with reference to the kindness or favor which God was to show to his people, in strict accordance with the tenor of his promises, rather than to the punishment of their enemies. 10. The deliverance of the Jews was to be the occasion of the destruction of their foes, who, because the former had no visible object of worship, and had been delivered into their power, taunt ingly asked : tpnVs nani •>£, where is Jehovah thy God? The feminine suffix refers to "p-ia- na, daughter of Zion, un derstood. 260 MICAH. Chap. VII. She shall now be trodden upon as the mire of the streets. 11 In the day when thy walls shall be rebuilt, In that day the decree shall be extended ; 12 In that day they shall come to thee From Assyria to Egypt ; Even from Egypt to the river, From sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 11, 12. Micah resumes the language of prophecy, and, addressing Jerusalem, announces her restoration, and the way that would be paved for the conversion of the surrounding hostile nations to the true religion. Such appears to me to be the meaning of these verses, which have been very variously interpreted. pn, statute, decree, order, appointment, LXX. vipipa, Symm. iirnayr], Theod. irp6- araypa, some refer to the tyrannical enactments of the Babylonians ; some to the order of Artaxerxes, Ezra iv. 21 ; some to the punishment decreed upon the enemies of the Jews ; spme to the idolatrous statutes, with which the Jews complied ; some to the boundary of the Holy Land ; and some to the preaching of the gospel among all nations, of which last interpretation Calvin says : " Sed locus hie non patitus se ita violenter tor- queri." Seeker, Newcome, Vogel, Dod- erlein, and others, join ph to pnni, and form a reduplicate verb pnpnn, of the 'whole ; with whom, as to meaning, Gesenius agrees, who rejects ph alto gether, and renders, dies ille procul abest. Thesaur. p. 1284. What would seem to determine the meaning of the term, as here used, is the light thrown upon pnn, to be distant, remove to a distance, etc., by the geographical specifications, con tained in verse 12th. The subject of both verses is sufficiently proved to be identical, by the repetition of san aa'i, that day, which indisputably is the bp'i, day, spoken of at the beginning of verse 11th. Whatever the decree or command was, the effect of its promulgation was to be the coming of foreigners from different regions to the Jewish people, reassemb ling at Jerusalem, saa" ^|'".S. The most natural construction is, that the decree of God respecting the political changes that were to take place, was not to be confined to Babylon, but was to be ex tended to all the countries round about Judea, in consequence of which great numbers would become proselytes to the Jewish faith. There is an ellipsis of the preposition a, in, before Ea'i, day, in all the three instances in which it here oc curs, a before aapns is not pleonastic, but is used, as in several other instances, after words which imply condition or time. See Exod. xvi. 6 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 27. Saai is used impersonally : " one, they shall come ; " it is rendered in the plural in the LXX., Targ., and Arab., and one of Kennicott's MSS. reads asaa-. That -nsa has originally been ¦"isa, the pa rallelism, compared with other instances of its occurrence, sufficiently shows. The change of n into n, and vice versa, by transcribers, owing to their great resem blance to each other, is very common. For example in ns"" and nEpn, 1 Chron. i. 6 ; cianan and Q-an-'n, ver. 7; c-na and t'-l, Ps. liv. 5; nana and nana, lxxxi. 7 ; y.sni and -|-sn", Prov. x. 32 ; and especially as corresponding to the present case, aapps and ""*, Ps. exxxix. 20. The latter reading is found in fif teen MSS., has been originally in eleven more, and is in one printed edition. No objection can be taken from the preposi tion assuming the poetic form "ns, while in the following sentence we have ns ; the same variety appears in "nns and -ns, 1 Sam. xi. 7. It is also worthy of notice that the LXX. have read a|--s at the beginning of the verse, as if it had been npS, having rendered it at ir6Xeis ¦rov. By na'ac, I understand Egypt, and not fortification. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 24, Is. xix. 6, on which see my note. Chap. VII. M I C A II . 2C1 13 14 15 Nevertheless the land shall be desolate On account of her inhabitants, Because of the fruit of their doings. Feed thy people with thy crook, The flock of thine heritage ; That dwell alone in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in ancient days. As in the days of thy coming forth from Egypt, Upon this construction, Assyria and Egypt are contrasted, just as they are Is. xix. 23, where the same subject is treated of in almost the.same language, nna, the river, xar i^oxiiv, i. e. the Euphrates, corresponding in the parallelism to navss. Assyria. The Syr. and Targ. have mis taken naa in naaaa, for Tyre ; as the lat ter has 1573, for Aimenia. The conclud ing words of the verse, -nn nna c»a a- a, stand irregularly for nnas a C" — isa Ciaa -n — :sa. It does not appear that any specific mountains are intended ; the prophet describes in general terms the natural boundaries of the countries from which the persons spoken of were to come. For a prophetical illustration of these verses, see on Is. xix. 23-25. 13. The conjunctive a in nn*n a is used antithetically to introduce a sentence pre dictive of what should take place previous to the arrival of the events mentioned in the verses immediately preceding. It has the force of but yet, nevertheless, or the like. However bright the prospects which opened upon the Jews in futurity, they were not to forget the punishment that was to intervene, but ought to repent of their sins, to which it was to be traced as its cause. Some interpret fpsn, the land, of Babylonia ; but this construction seems less apt. 14. In the believing anticipation of the fulfilment of the Divine promises made to the covenant people, Micah addresses a prayer to Jehovah, which, though brief, is distinguished for the poetical elevation of its style, and the appropriateness of its petition. Like many other prayers in the Old Testa ment, it is prophetic in its aspect. The Jewish people are frequently spoken of under the metaphor of a flock, and Je hovah as their shepherd. See Ps. lxxx. 1. xcv. 7, e. 3. They are also often re presented as his special heritage, Deut. iv. 20, vii. 6, xxxii. 9. Some understand - n s V ¦ ; a B, dwelling alone or solitarily, as descriptive of the condition of the Jews in captivity, and -;p, forest, of the dangers and annoyances to which they were ex posed wliile in that state. That it rather refers to the security and prosperity of their restored condition may fairly be concluded from the meaning of similar language in other passages. Thus, in the celebrated prophecy of Balaam, Num. xxiii. 9, which, in all probability, Micah had in view, we read, yz'i' naaV ts — ;n a-inni sV cv.-aa, Behold! the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reck oned among the nations. Comp. Deut. xxxiii. 28 ; Jer. xlix. 31 ; and for -sp_, as used figuratively for a place of safety and cool repose, see Ezek. xxxiv. 25. The meaning of the prophet is, that on being brought back to their own land, they should no longer be mixed with, and exposed to enemies, but live by themselves in a state of undisturbed tran quillity. For instances of the paragogic Yod affixed to participles, see Gen. xlix. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 16; Obad. 3; Zech. xi. 17. That the Carmel here mentioned must be the celebrated mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean, see on Amos i. 2. The regions of Bashan and Gilead, on the east of the Jordan, were likewise celebrated for their rich pasturage, and were, on this account, chosen by the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Numb, xxxii. ; Deut. iii. 12-17. Comp. as strictly parallel, Jer. 1. 19. 15. The answer of Jehovah to the prophet's prayer, assuring the nation, 262 MICAH. Chap. VII, I will show them marvellous things. 16 The nations shall see it, and be ashamed of all their power; They shall lay their hands upon their mouth ; Their ears shall become deaf. 11 They shall lick dust like the serpent ; Like reptiles of the earth they shall tremble from their hiding- places ; They shall turn with fear towards Jehovah ; They shall be afraid of thee. 18 Who is a God like thee, Pardoning iniquity, and passing by transgression, In regard to the remnant of his heritage ? lie retaineth not his anger for ever, Because he delighteth in mercy. He will again have compassion upon us, that the same Almighty power which hud interposed in so remarkable a man ner for their deliverance from Egypt, would again wonderfully appear on their behalf. Comp. Jer. xvi. 14, 15. Such changes of person as in T|, thy, and aa, him, are common. The reference in both is to the people of the Jews. 16. The nnaa.a, power, spoken of, is that of the hostile nations, of which they were so proud, and which they regarded as invincible, and not that of the Jews when restored, as Junius and Tremcllius, Tarnovius, Stokes, and some others, have imagined. The latter half of the verse most graphically describes the silence, astonishment, and utter consternation, with which they should be seized. Com. Jud. xviii. 19 ; Job xxi. 5 ; Ps. cvii. 42 ; Is. Hi. 15. 17. An equally graphic description of the state of degradation and terror to which the enemies were to be reduced. Comp. Ps. lxxii. 9 ; Is. xlix. 23, Ixv. 25. For C"Vni, crawlers, or comp. Deut. xxxii. 24. The distinctive use of Vs, to and ya, from or of, as here used, shows that there is not a change of person in -p:a, and that the affix aj refers, not to Jehovah, but to the people of the Jews, The fear ultimately produced in the minds of their enemies was to be a religious fear or veneration which should attract them towards Jehovah as its object. Comp. for this construction of Vs nraE, to exer cise reverential regard towards God, Hos. iii. 5. Combined with the circumstan ces under which the nations were to ac knowledge the supremacy of Jehovah, was their standing in awe of the political power of the Jews. See on Is. xix. 17. 18. Impelled by strong feelings of gratitude at the anticipated deliverance of his people, the prophet breaks out into a strain of .the sublimest praise and admiration, and gives a description of the gracious character of God, unrivalled by any contained in the Scriptures. The phrase sbt-Vs -as, passing by trans gression, is a metaphor, taken from the conduct of a traveller who passes on without noticing an object to which he does not wish to give his attention. The idea which it communicates is not, that God is unobservant of sin, or that it is regarded by him as a matter of little or no importance, but that he does not mark it in particular cases with a view to pun ishment; that he does not punish, but forgive. Comp. Prov. xix. 11, Amos vii. 8, in which latter passage the verb alone is used. The opposite is expressed by laS -):b, to watch iniquity, Ps. cxxx. 3, i. e. to keep it in vieav in order to punish it. ninSB, remnant, docs not necessarily imply a small or inconsiderable number, Chap. VII, MICAH. 263 19 Ho will subdue our iniquities ; Yea, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt grant the truth to Jacob, The kindness to Abraham, Which thou didst sware to our fathers From the days of old. but merely conveys the general notion of a surviving body of men : here it means those of the Jewish nation who should be alive at the termination of the cap tivity. "En, to delight, according to the Arab. -jqJizs. , flexit, inflexit, lignum, projecit, properly expresses the bent or propension of the mind, or what we commonly call its inclination towards an object ; hence desire, affection, delight. The combined force of nan "En, bent on kindness, is inimitable, the primary idea of nan being that of eager desire or hve towards an object. It is the term which is so often rendered loving -kindness in our common version. 19. This verse may be regarded as containing a beautiful epiphonema, in which the people of the Jews exultingly avow their full confidence in the forgiv ing mercy and subduing power of their God. aaB, to turn, in asasnpai a?B-, is, as usual before another verb, employed adverbially to signify again. God had often pitied and delivered his people. It is here intimated that his compassion was not exhausted, but should be exer cised towards them anew. All the mean ing found by Rosenmiiller, Gesenius and Maurer, in Jijirasis Baa, is that of dis regarding or not avenging, but there is I no ground for rejecting the radical idea of trampling under foot as enemies. Sin must ever be regarded as hostile to man. It is not only contrary to his interests, but it powerfully opposes and combats the moral principles of bis nature, and the higher principles implanted by grace; and but for the counteracting energy of divine influence, must prove victorious. Without the subjugation of evil propen sities, pardon would not be a. blessing. If the idolatrous and rebellious disposi tion of the Jews had not been subdued during their stay in Babylon, they would not have been restored. The total and irrevocable forgiveness of sins is forcibly expressed by casting them into the depths of the sea. What is deposited there is completely hid from the view, and cannot in any way affect us. Instead of crsEn, their sins, five MSS. read wnsiari, our sins, which is the read ing of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and Arab. It may, however, only be a correction ; the change of person we have frequently had occasion to notice. 20. The return from captivity, while it furnished a striking specimen of the covenanted fidelity and kindness of Je hovah, was only preliminary to the in finitely greater display of these attributes in the mission of the Messiah, the Seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. The words of this verse are quoted, with scarcely any variation, in the inspired song of Zacharias, with direct application to Ilim of whom his son had just been born to be the forerunner, Luke i. 72, 73. Be fore the names of the patriarchs, a verb signifying to declare, promise, or the like, is understood. NAHUM. PREFACE. Owing to the paucity of information respecting the prophet Nahum, little can be said in regard to his life and times. All that we know of him personally is, that he was the native of a town or village called Elkosh, chap. i. 1. The only historical data furnished by the book itself with respect to the period at which he flourished, are the following : the humiliation of the king doms of Israel and Judah, by the Assyrian power, chap. ii. 3 ; the final in vasion of Judah by that power, i. 9, 11; and the conquest of Thebes in Upper Egypt, iii. 8-10. But the removal of the glory of the Hebrew king doms, to which reference is made, could only be that which was effected by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, by whom the Israelites were carried into captivity ; when the Jews also were harassed and spoiled by the Syrians, as well as impoverished by the large sum of money paid by Ahaz to the former of these monarchs. See Is. vii.-ix. ; 2 Chron. xxviii. Sargon, who appears to h.ave succeeded Shalmaneser, not satisfied with the reduction of Phoenicia by that king, and fearing lest Egypt should prevail upon the conquered prov inces of the west to join her in a confederacy against him, undertook an ex pedition into Africa ; and, though history is silent as to the event, it would appear from chap. iii. 8-10, that the expedition proved so far successful, that he took Thebes, the celebrated metropolis of Upper Egypt. It was by his successor, Sennacherib, that the last attempt was made by the Assyrians to crush the Jewish people, which issued in the total defeat of their army. Now, since the last of these events took place in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, and the circumstances connected with it are clearly referred to by Nahum, partly prophetically, and partly as matter of historical notoriety, chap. i. 9-13, it follows that he must have lived in, or about the year B. c. 714. Jarchi, Abarbanel, Grotius, Junius and Tremelius, and Justi, place him in the reign of Manasseh, and some, as Ewald, would make him contem porary with Josiah ; but Bp. Newton, Eiehhorn, Bertholdt, Kosenmiiller, Newcome, Home, Gesenius, de Wette, Jahn, Gramberg, Winer, Maurer, and Knobel, unanimously agree with Jerome in referring his ministry to the latter half of the reign of Hezekiah. Neither the opinion of Josephus, that he foretold the destruction of Nineveh in the reign of Jotham, nor that of Clement of Alexandria, that he lived between Daniel and Ezekiel, has met with any supporters. But if, as is highly probable, he flourished in one of the latter years of Hezekiah, his prophecy must have been delivered nearly PREFACE TO NAHUM. 265 one hundred years before its accomplishment ; for Nineveh was overthrown, and the Assyrian power destroyed, by the joint forces of Cyaxarcs and Na- bopolassar, in the reign of Chyniladanus, n. c. 625. Considerable difference of opinion obtains with respect to the birth-place of the prophet. That iBpVsn, the Elkoshite, was designed to point out the place of his nativity, and not his paternity, as the Targumist interprets, is evident from a comparison of the form with similar instances of the Yod affixed, 1 Kings xvii. 1 ; Jer. xxix. 27 ; Micah i. 1. There are two cities of the name of Elkosh, each of which has had its advocates, as that which may lay claim to the honor of having given birth to Nahum. The one, ,i»jut, Elkosh, is situated in Koordistan, on the east side of the Tigris, about three hours' jour ney to the north of Mosul, which lies on the same side of the river, opposite to Nunia, supposed to be the site of ancient Nineveh. It is inhabited by Chaldean or Nestorian Christians, and is a place of great resort by Jewish pilgrims, who firmly believe it to be the birth-place and the burial-place of the prophet, to whose tomb they pay special respect. It is, however, gener ally thought that the tradition which connects this place with his name is of later date ; and that it owes its origin to the Jews or the Nestorians, who imagined that he must have lived near the principal scene of his prophecy ; and that the name had been transferred to the place from a town so called in Palestine just as our colonists have given the name of towns in Britain to those which they have erected in America and Australia. The other place is Elcesi, or Elkesi, a village in Galilee, which was pointed out to Jerome as a place of note among the Jews, and which, though small, still exhibited some slight vestiges of more ancient buildings.* Eusebius mentions it in his ac count of Hebrew places ; and Cyrill (ad cap. i. 1,) is positive as to its situation being in Palestine.! It has been thought, and not without reason, by some, that Capernaum, Heb. nana -,2a, most properly rendered the village of Nahum, derived its name from our prophet having resided in it, though he may have been born elsewhere in the vicinity, just as it is said to have been r) Itiia ir6xis of our Lord, though he was born at Bethlehem. AVhere the prophet was when he delivered his predictions, is not specified ; but, from his familiar reference to Lebanon, Carmel, and Bashan, it may be inferred that he prophesied in Palestine ; while the very graphic manner in which he describes the appearance of Sennacherib and his army, chap. i. 9-12, would seem to indicate that he was either in, or very near to Jerusalem at the time. What goes to confirm this supposition, is the number of terms, phrases, etc., which he evidently borrowed from the lips of Isaiah. Comp. riws.1 nVa nas rflB, i. 8, and nto'ssa- nVa, ver. 9, with nasi Sjub, Is. viii. 8, and -vs nVa, Is. x. 23; nprVaasa njaaaa niaaa, ii. 11, with fpTVaaa ynsn jap.aa, * " Porro quod additur, Naum Elcesaii, quidam putant Elcesieum patrem esse Naum, et secundum Hebrseam traditionem etiam ipsum prophetam fuisse; quum Elcesi usque hodie in Galihca viculus sit, parvus quidem et vix minis veterum jedificiorum indicans vestigia, Bed tamen notus Judceis, et mihi quoque a circumducente monstratus." — Hieron. Prof, in Naum. t tov airb ttjs 'EA/cetre* uwp.ii 8e airri irdvrais irov Trjs 'lovtiaiav x^pas. 34 266 PREFACE TO NAHUM. i Is. xxiv. 1 ; cia,raa-Vaa nVnVrr, ii. 11, with nVnVra ¦ana asVa, Is. xxi. 3 ; oaVi- spaBas -Baa iV:,n ni-,nn-Vs nan, ii. 1, with iV>»i Qinnn-Vs. aasa—a DaVa spa/sas -'Baa, Is. Iii. 7, etc. The subject of the prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, which Nahum introduces, after having in the first chapter, and at the beginning of the second, depicted the desolate condition to which, in the righteous providence of God, the country of the ten tribes had been reduced by the Assyrian power ; the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib, whose destruction, and that of his army, he predicts ; and the joyful restoration of both the captivities to their own land, and the enjoyment of their former privileges. His object ob viously was, to inspire his countrymen with the assurance, that, however alarming their circumstances might appear, exposed as they were to the for midable army of the great eastern conqueror, not only should his attempt fail, and his forces be entirely destroyed, but his capital itself should be taken, and his empire overturned. The book is not to be divided into three separate parts, or prophecies, composed at different times, as some have im agined, but is to be regarded as one entire poem, the unity of which is plainly discoverable throughout. The style of Nahum is of a very high order. He is inferior to none of the minor prophets, and scarcely to Isaiah himself, in animation, boldness, and sublimity ; or, to the extent and proportion of his book, in the variety, fresh ness, richness, elegance, and force of his imagery. The rhythm is regular and singularly beautiful ; and with the exception of a few foreign or provin cial words, his language possesses the highest degree of classical purity. His description of the Divine character at the commencement is truly majestic ; that of the siege and fall of Nineveh inimitably graphic, vivid and impres sive. CHAPTER I , Ttce prophet opens with a sublime description of the attributes and operations of Jehovah, with a view to inspire his people with confidence in his protection, 2-S. The Assyrians are then unexpectedly addressed and described, 9-11; and their destruction, together with the deliverance of the Jews connected with that event, are set forth in the language of triumph and exultation, 12-15. The Sextexce of Xtxeveh : The Book of the Vision of Xahum the Elkoshite. Jehovah is a jealous and avenging God; Jehovah is an avenger and furious ; Jehovah is an avenger with respect to his adversaries ; 1. For the meaning of srs, see on Is. xiii. 1 ; and for the historical circum stances connected with Nineveh, see on Jonah i. 2. Between the time of the prophet just referred to and that of Na hum, there elapsed a period of about one hundred and fifty years. The inscrip tion consists of two parts ; the former of which is supposed by some to be from a later hand. If genuine, we should rather expect the order to have been reversed. 1. The exordium, which begins here and reaches to ver. S, is highly magnifi cent. The repeated use of the Incom municable Name, and of the participle -':. avenging or avenger, gives great force to the commencement. Nothing can exceed in grandeur and sublimity the description which the prophet fur nishes of the Divine character. The attributes of infinite purity, inflexible rectitude, irresistible power and bound less goodness, set forth and illustrated by imases borrowed from the history of the Hebrews, the scenery of Palestine, and the more astounding phenomena of nature, present to view a God worthy of the profoundest reverence, the most unbounded confidence, and the most in tensive love. How inferior the other wise sublime description given of the anger of Jove by -Eschylus : X^aiv aeaaKevrai' fSpvx'ia ^ ifX^ irapapuuKarai fspavrris, eXiKes 8' iKXapirovai o-repoirTis £dmipoi, OTp6^ot tie k6viv eixiaoovai' o~Ktfna 5* avepwv wevpara irdvraiv, els a\XX7]Xa rrraaw avriirvovv airotieiKwpeva. P)-om. rinctus, 10S9. Sa:a, jealous, from s:", to be warm, £nXote, bum with zeal, anger, jealousy. The term is here used av$ponrma&ais, principally in the last of these accepta tions, though not to the entire exclusion of the others. The term describes a keen feeling of injured right, coupled with a strong inclination to see justice done to the parties concerned, nan Vsa, lit. it hrd, or master of fury, an idiom by which the possession of an attribute or quality is frequently expressed. Com . r - -¦-- V s x a master of dreams, i. e. a dreamer ; Vsa, VbV-, a master of the tongue, i. e. elo quent. In these verses the prophet ap pears to have an eye specially to the judg ments which God had brought upon his country by means of the Assyrians, both when they carried away the ten tribes, and now when they had again rushed into the land, and taken the fortified cities of Judah. -as:, properly signifies to watch, observe, in a bad sense, to mark for punishment, Arab. . N\ oculos con- ¦f*>, 268 NAHUM. Chai-. I. He keepeth his anger for his enemies.- 3 Jehovah is long-suffering, but great in power ; He will by no means treat them as innocent : Jehovah hath his way in the whirl-wind and in. the storm, And the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, He parcheth up all the rivers : Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, And the bloom of Lebanon languisheth. 5 The mountains quake at him, And the hills are melted ; The earth heaves at its presence, The world and all that inhabit it. 6 Before his indignation who can stand ? And who can subsist in the heat of his anger ? His fury is poured out like fire, And the rocks are overthrown by him. ? Jehovah is good, a fortress in the day of distress ; And knoweth those that trust in him. 8 But with an overflowing inundation vertit ad rem ; . U'v custodem et obser- vatorem egit. Comp. Ps. ciii. 9 ; Jer. iii. 5, 12 ; and nasri, Ps. cxxx. 3. 3. nfJi sV npa, holding pure will not hold pure, i. e. will not treat as innocent those who are guilty, but, on the con trary, punish them according to their demerit. LXX. aSowv ovk a&oi&ai. Com. Exod. xx. 7, xxxiv. 7. The idea con veyed by the metaphor, the clouds are the dust of his feet, is exceedingly sublime. Large and majestic as the clouds may be, in reference to God, they are but as the most minute particles of dust raised by the feet in walking, pas, signifies light dust or powder, what is easily raised. 4. What is here predicated of Jehovah is attributed to our Saviour, Luke viii. 24 : iiriripno'e — rip KX6tiaivi tov iitiaros. The action involves omnipotence. anB a » a is a contracted form of the Piel, for an-iapa., as nap a for n.app;, Lam. iii. 33, in both of which the radical Yod gives its vowel to the preformative letter. 5 There is no authority for rendering s'Bna, to be burnt up .- none of the MSS. or ancient versions directing us to any root signifying to burn. The verb is likewise thus rendered in our common version, 2 Sam. v. 21, but the marginal reading is, took them away. The Targ. indeed has naann, vastata est, but the LXX. render iveaTaKn. Symm. iKivi\2rn. 7 O The Syr. Aj^V shaketh. Vulg. con- tremuit. The root is S3 a, to raise, lift up ; intransitively, to lift up one's self; and appropriately expresses here the raising or heaving of the ground by an earthquake. 6. The pouring out of wrath, like fire, would seem to be a comparison taken from volcanoes, which pour out furiously their streams of liquid fire over the cir cumjacent regions. The breaking in pieces of the rocks, in the following hemistich, confirms this idea. Comp. Jer. li. 25, 26. 7, 8. There is a marked antithesis in these two verses, in the course of which the prophet arrives at his main topic, the destruction of Nineveh. Ver. 7 beauti- Chai\ I. NAHUM. 269 He will effect a consummation of her place, Ami darkness shall pursue his enemies. What devise ye against Jehovah ? He will effect a consummation ; Distress shall not twice arise. fully depicts the safety and happiness of those who make God their refuge, how severe soever may be the calamity which threatens or may have overtaken them ; and Was primarily intended to administer comfort to the pious Jews in the prospect of the Assyrian attack by Sennacherib. S-p, to know, is here, as frequently, taken in the sense of knowing with regard, kindness, or hve. Comp. Ps. i. 6, cxliv. 3 ; Amos iii. 2. In nas qiaja, the met aphor of a river impetuously overflowing its banks, rushing into the adjacent country, and passing through, carrying all before it, is employed to denote the ruthless invasion of a country by a hos tile and powerful army. It is used by Isaiah, chap. viii. 8, to describe the re sistless entrance of the Assyrian army into Palestine ; and here Nahum appro priates the language for the purpose of describing the triumphant progress of the Medo-Babylonian troops when ad vancing towards Nineveh. He not only beholds, in prophetic vision, their approach to the devoted city, but announces its complete destruction. It is usual with the prophets, as it is with the Oriental poets, when powerfully affected, to introduce into their discourse persons or objects as acting, without having previously named them. See on Is. xiii. 2 ; and comp. ¦^aa, ver. 11 of the present chapter. See Nordheimer's Heb. Gram., \ 867. They, as it were, take it for granted, that every one must, like themselves, clearly perceive the reference. On this principle there can be no difficulty in accounting for the fem inine pronominal affix in naa pa, " her place," i. e. the place of Nineveh, the --S, city, or metropolis of Assyria, the overthrow of which the prophet was af terwards to describe, and which he here merely touches upon by way of anticipa tion. The use of Qa'pa, place, is not without emphasis. Comp. chap. iii. 17. Those who desire to see the difference of opinion existing both among ancient and modern writers respecting the actual site of Nineveh, may consult Bochart, Phaleg. lib iv. cap. xx. Lucian, speaking of it, says, ri Niras pev 6.ir6XaiXev tjtii}, Kal ouSef Xxvos e t i Xeiirbv au-ri/s, outi' av eXirns iiirov iror' f\v. Dialog, entitled 'EmaKOirovvTes. Bochart, referring to the city of the name mentioned by Ammianus, expresses him self thus : Merito dubitatur an restaurata fuerit eo in loco, in quo prius condita." In the Hebrew MSS. there is no various reading of na-ipa ; but the rendering of the LXX., robs iiriyeipopevovs, and of Aq., avrurTapevaiv, supported by Theod. and the fifth Greek version, would indi cate, that their authors read niJSpT or n"asa:pna, in favor of which aiaps in the following hemistich might be ad duced. The Syriac, however, Vulg., and Symm., read with the received text. 9. By a sudden apostrophe Nahum here turns to the invaders, and boldly challenges them to account for their temerity hi daring to oppose themselves to Jehovah. On which he repeats what he had declared in the preceding verse respecting the total destruction of the As syrian power, and adds, for the special en couragement of the Jews, that it should never annoy them again. The parallel to this brief apostrophe we have more at length, Is. xxxvii. 23-29. Eor the force of Q"ass, twice, comp. nns CSS a'V na-iis sVi, 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. That the renewal of the affliction does not refer to any supposable future overthrow of the Assyrians, as Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Ewald, and others maintain, but to any further calamity to be apprehended 270 NAHUM. Chap. I. 10 For though they are closely interwoven as thorns, And thoroughly soaked with their wine, They shall be consumed like stubble fully dry. 1 1 From thee he came forth, The deviser of mischief against Jehovah, The wicked counsellor. 12 Thus saith Jehovah : Though they are complete and so very numerous, Yet in this state they shall be cut down, And he shall pass away : from them by the Jews, appears from ver. 12 to be the true construction of the mean ing. 10. However strong and vigorous the Assyrian army might be, its complete destruction would easily be effected by Jehovah, ns, to, even to, is here used as a comparative particle of degree : to the same degree as, or like thorns. Comp. 1 Chron. iv. 27. Briers and thorns are employed by the prophets to denote the soldiers composing a hostile army. See Is. x. 17, xxvii. 4. The metaphor is here taken from a thicket of thorns, the prickly branches of which are so closely intertwined as to present an impenetra ble front to those who would enter it. Such were the celebrated military pha lanxes of antiquity, consisting of bodies of troops armed with long spears, and arranged in the form of a square. The other metaphor is taken from drunkards who drench or saturate themselves with wine, and denotes the degree of moisture which those thorny warriors possessed, and by which they were prepared to re sist the action of fire. No account is to be made of the reading t"iB, princes, which Newcome adopts from the Targ. and Syr. It is found in no Heb. MS. a ay, to eat, is often used to express con sumption by fire. The application of the language of this and the preceding verse to the literal inundation of the Tigris, the drunkenness of the Assyrian camp, and the burning of the palace, etc., at Nineveh by Sardanapalus, as related by Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii., is not justified either by the import and usage of the terms, or by chronology, the catastrophe described by Nahum not having taken place till long after the time of that monarch. 11. 'rfit'p, fropi thee, O Nineveh ! in the feminine. Sennacherib, whose machina tions against Jehovah had been adverted to ver. 9, is here intended. The Heb. Vs;Va, frequently rendered in our com mon version Belial, properly signifies worlhlessness, inutility, and by implica tion, badness in a moral sense, wickedness. Hence the idiomatic combinations, ens Vs»Va, a man of Belial, a wicked man ; VspVa — |', u. son of Belial, a bad man ; Vs iV a- r a , a daughter of Belial, a wicked woman. The word is compounded of iVa, without, and Vs;, profit. 12. Another description of the formid able appearance of the hostile army, ac companied with a prediction of its sud den and complete annihilation, the flight of Sennacherib, and the future immunity of the Jews from an invasion on the part of the Assyrians. C-aV-s, complete, ex presses the unbroken condition of the army of the enemy, and their being fully provided with everything requisite for the successful siege of Jerusalem. The word may also be designed to convey the idea of mental completeness, i. e. in this connection, security, martial courage. Thus Kimchi, Va Ba tnnstt annE1 sV asaa naa--Sn, they are not afraid of man, for they have subdued all the coun tries, yz, as used the second time, sig nifies thus, so, in this state, as thus con- Chap. I. NAHUM. 271 13 14 Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now I will break his yoke from off thee, And burst thy bands asunder. And with respect to thee, Jehovah hath commanded : There shall no more be sown any of thy name ; From the house of thy gods I will cut off the graven and the molten image ; stituted. The change of number from the plural a-taja, " they are, or shall be cut down," to nas, "he passeth away," is obviously intended to distinguish be tween the overthrow of the Assyrian army, and the immediate departure of Sennacherib to his own land. The nominative to nas is Vs»Va ysp'i in the preceding verse. ttj, to cut, or mow down, is a metaphor derived from the hay harvest, and forcibly sets forth the sudden and entire destruction of an army. See for the historical facts, 2 Kings xix. 35 j Is. xxxvii. 36, 37. At the close'of the verse, Jehovah directs the discourse to his people, graciously assuring them that, though he had employed the Assyrian power to punish them, he would do so no more. Newcome, almost entirely on the authority of the LXX., improperly changes apsa "|aa Qian "jap ciaVi cs -aa;- into iaa Vtj -js C-an tnas Via Os nas, " Though the Ruler of many waters has thus ravaged, and thus passed through." That these ancient transla tors did, from hearing ciaVni Cs read as a its Via, render, Kardpxoiv vtidTaiv iroXKav, there can be no doubt ; but then, they place the words in apposi tion with rdtie Keyei Kbpios \ and make the Lord, and not the king of Assyria, to be " the ruler of many waters." The Syr. following the LXX., only changing « v the singular into the plural, has x^ V « .. 7 ».. 7 1 respecting the heads of many waters." ^ n a S is merely a defective reading of Tprp-iS, which is found in a number of MSS., and in some editions. The object of the verb is Judah, understood, which Jehovah here kindly addresses, and not Nineveh, as Michaelis and Hitzig suppose. The Jews are addressed as a female, as they are in the words iaVij Celebrate thy festivals, O Judah ! perjorm thy vows. Chap. ii. 1. On the introduc tion of a predicate without previous men tion of the subject, see on ver. 8. The meaning is, that the Jews were to be no more afflicted by the Assyrians, and not that Divine judgments were never af terwards to be inflicted upon them by others. 13. The suffix aj has here the same reference as in the preceding verse, and an in antsa, " his yoke," to the king of Assyria. Comp. Is. x. 27 ; Jer. ii. 20. For anas a, some think the LXX. and Vulg. read anaa, which is the reading of several MSS. ; but they both signify a staff or pole ; only the former denotes what is placed on the neck, in order to bear a burden. 14. "We have here another apostrophe to the Assyrian monarch, announcing to him, that his dynasty should not be per petuated, that his favorite idols should he destroyed, that the very temple in which he worshipped them should be come his grave. When it is said, that " no more of thy name shall be sown," the meaning is not, that none of his sons should succeed him in the government, but that his dynasty should cease on the arrival of the event predicted by Nahum. the destruction of Nineveh. The Medes being great enemies to idolatry, those of them who composed the army of Cyax- 272 NAHUM. Chap. II. I will make it thy grave, Because thou art worthless. ares would take singular pleasure in des troying the idols which they found in the chief temple at Nineveh. No mention is made in history of the sepulture of Sennacherib, but we are expressly told, 2 Kings xix. 37, Is. xxxvii. 38, that he was slain by two of his sons while in the act of worship in the temple of Nisroch his god ; and there can be no doubt that it is to this event reference is here made. c-bs stands elliptically for auap'BS, I will make it, i. e. the temple of thy gods, thy grave. Some take ra"'sp_> thou art light, in the same sense in which the Chaldee Vp_n is used Dan. v. 27, but without sufficient ground in Hebrew usage. In application to persons it al ways signifies to be the object of shame or disgrace. Though to be buried in a temple naturally conveys to our minds the idea of honorable interment, it is otherwise here, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the case. CHAPTER II. After prophetically describing the joyful announcement of the overthrow of the Assyrian power, 1 ; and calling upon the Jews manfully to defend Jerusalem against the attack of Sennacherib, in the assurance that there would be a glorious restoration of the whole He brew people, 2, 3; the prophet arrives at his main subject, the destruction of Nineveh, the siege and capture of which he portrays with graphic minuteness, and in the most sublime and vivid manner, 4-11. In a beautiful allegory he then, with triumphant sarcasm, asks where was now the residence of the once conquering and rapacious monarch? 12, 13; after which, Jehovah is introduced, expressly declaring that he would assuredly perform what he had inspired his servant to predict. Behold ! upon the mountains are the feet of him that an- nounceth good, That publisheth peace : Celebrate thy feasts, O Judah ! perform thy vows, For the wicked shall no more pass through thee ; He is entirely cut off. 1. Some interpreters refer these words to the messengers which should arrive from the East, announcing to the inhabi tants of Judah the joyful intelligence of the destruction of Nineveh, which had been briefly hinted at in the course of the preceding chapter ; but it better ac cords with the spirit and bearing of the immediate connection to apply them to what took place on the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem, recorded Is. xxxvii. 36. They are almost identical, so far as they go, with the language of Isaiah, chap. Iii. 7, relative to the return from Babylon. During the Assyrian in vasion, the inhabitants of Judah were cut Char II. NAHUM. 273 The disperser hath come up before thee ; Keep the fortress, watch the way, Make fast the loins, Strengthen thee with power to the utmost. For Jehovah will restore the excellency of Jacob, As he will the excellency of Israel ; Though the emptiers have emptied them, And destroyed their branches. The shield of his heroes is dyed red, off from all access to the metropolis ; now, they would be at liberty to proceed thither as usual, in order to observe their religious rites. VappVa, Belial, doubtless means the same as Vs* , wicked counsellor, chap. i. 11 ; i. e. as there ex plained, Sennacherib. Restricted as the declaration here made must necessarily be to this monarch, the passage is no wise at variance with the fact, that Ma nasseh was for a time in the power of the Assyrians, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. 2. Most moderns adopt the interpreta tion of Jerome, who is of opinion, that the prophet here turns to Nineveh, and di rects the attention of her monarch to the approach of the Medo-Babylonish army. I rather think with Abarbrinel, Kimchi, Jarchi, Hezel, Dathe, and others, that the words are addressed to Hezekiah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the purpose of inspiring them with courage to hold out during the Assyrian attack. -.¦¦Sis, from ras. Arab. 1^9: abiit, peregrinatus fuit, to scatter, disperse, properly signifies the Disperser, and is appropriately applied to the king of As syria, by whose army the mhabitants of the different countries which it invaded were scattered from their abodes. Some prefer rendering the word by hammer, and compare Prov. xxv. 18, and Jer. li. 20, in the latter of which passages we have y-ns from VS.;. to break in pieces, disperse, etc., rendered in our common version battle-axe. The address is beauti fully abrupt, and derives great force from the use of the Infinitive instead of the 35 Imperative of all the four verbs which here occur. The fuller forms would be nan -aaa, nsan nsa, etc., nnpaa n'y.-a form a paronomasia. 3. Further to encourage the inhabi tants of Jerusalem, a promise is here given of the restoration of the Hebrew people to then- former independence and glory, a'psp ¦aps.a, etc., is not to be in terpreted of the pride of the Hebrews, nor of the proud and insulting conduct of their enemies towards them ; but, as in Ps. xlvii. 5 ; Amos vi. 8, it means the land of Canaan, as distinguished above all other countries. This land, as the prophet immediately adds, had been spoiled by the Assyrians, who had not only carried away the ten tribes into captivity, but taken the fortified cities of Judah ; but it was again to be re stored, partly on the destruction of the Assyrians, and completely on the return from Babylon, ai, to return, has here the force of the Hiphil a*a;n, to restore, as in Numb. x. 36 ; Ps. lxxxv. 5. Con nected as this verb is with the future, implied in the abbreviated form n-'a:, etc., in the preceding verse, it is to be rendered in this tense. Jacob and Israel are, as frequently, put for the people of the two kingdoms. The devastation ef fected by the Assyrians is described by a metaphor taken from the pruning of vines, or the cutting off of the young twigs or shoots. Parallel to the promise made in this verse is that given by Isaiah, chap, xxxvii. 31, 32. 4. The prophet now proceeds to de scribe the siege and capture of Nineveh, 274 NAHUM. Chap. II. The warriors are clothed with scarlet ; The chariots are furnished with fiery scythes, In the day of his preparation ; And the cypresses are brandished. which involved the downfall of the As syrian empire. The formidable, terrific, and invincible appearance of the Me- do- Babylonish army is first noticed. aninpa.i, his heroes, i. e. the mighty men of Cyaxares. The suffix is the less frequent form, mstead of v, but repre sents more of the primitive pronoun san, of which both are fragments, ansa is the Pual participle of c-as, to be red; and is applied to the shields, to intimate that they were dyed red. The bull's hide with which they were commonly covered was easily susceptible of this process ; and, on being anointed with oil, would shine brightly. See on Is. xxi. 6. This interpretation of the word, which is con firmed by the meaning of the correspond ing principle, in the following hemistich, is preferable to that which would make it express the idea oi fiery, sparkling, or the like. " Bloodstained is altogether to be rejected. The LXX. mistaking tnsa for ansa, preposterously render oirKa tivvaaTeias avrwv iz avSptviraiv. taaa'sVna, lit. are crimsoned, is a aira£ Key., but is the Pual participial form, and is evidently derived from sVaP, the name specially used to denote the coccus, or worm which was used in dying, to give to cloth a deep scarlet color. The manufacture of such stuffs was chiefly carried on by the Tyrians and Lydians. The LXX. have also mistaken this word for c-V>sna, ipirai(ovTas, in which they are followed by the Syr. Pollux describes the Medes as wearing a cloth called Sa- rages, which was of scarlet color, striped with white ; ^apayns, Mntiwv ti cfioprjpa, iropipvpovs, peaoXevKos xlTWV- Eib. i. cap. 13. nnVs -ssa, with fiery scythes. That nnVE stands here by transposition of the first two letters for nnsV, cannot be admitted ; the plural of n"£V, a lamp, or torch, being always cpn'sV, in the masculine, so that the Syr., Targ., etc., give an erroneous interpretation. nnVs, , ii 7 iron, steel. Syr. ) Xc the same. Com. Arab. (JoLi, secuit, in partes conci- dit. 3^1a-j, ferrum durum, chalybs. <3aJLftj05 e chalybe confectus, de gladio. For the manufactory of swords of the finest steel, not only Damascus but cer tain towns on the east of the Caucasus have long been celebrated ; and that this compound metal is of high antiquity, is universally allowed. Its name, Chalybs, is derived from the Chalybes, « people bordering on the Euxine sea. It is doubtless what the prophet Jeremiah means by "psaa Vana, iron from the North, and which he distinguishes from Vana, common iron, chap. xv. 12. Now there appears to be no part of the war- chariots entitled to the character of irons flashing with fire, but the falces or scythes, which were " fixed at right angles to the axle, and turned down wards, or inserted parallel to the axle into the felly of the wheel, so as to re volve, when the chariot was put in mo tion, with thrice the velocity of the chariot itself; and sometimes also pro jecting from the extremities of the axle." Dr. William Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities, art. Falx. The ap- para tipeiravnipopa were justly reckoned among the most terrific implements of ancient warfare, as they mowed down all that came in their way. The -is fire of these scythes was the coruscations pro duced by their excessive brightness and the rapidity of their motion. Instead of isa, " with fire," seven MSS., origin ally one more, and the Soncin. edition of the Prophets, read -asa " like fire." The suffix in a="an may either form an Chap. II. NA HUM. 275 The chariots dash madly on the commons, They run furiously in the open places ; Their appearance is like that of torches, They flash like lightnings. He remembers his nobles ; They stumble in their march ; accusative to aann, or the genitive of an agent not mentioned — the hostile com mander. The latter construction is pre ferable, as it refers the day of his pre paration to the period fixed upon by the general for commencing the attack. It would only be then that the scythes would be fixed in the chariots : it being not only useless but dangerous to have them attached at other times. By C"B"'na, cypresses, are meant spears or lances, the staves of which were made of the branches of the cypress. The LXX., followed by the Syr. and Arab., have taken the word for fivanS, horsemen, rendering it oi imreis, which Michaelis is inclined to prefer, and Newcome has actually adopted. There is, however, no just cause for stumbling at the boldness of the figure. Homer, describing the spear of Achilles, calls it an ash .- 'Ek ti' b\pa avptyyos rrarpdi'iov io~iraaar' eyxos, Bp&u ue-ya a"nj8a/>oV to pev ob tivvar' &XXos 'AxaiSiv TldXXeiv, &XXa pev oios enttrraTO irrjXai 'Ax'XXeus, Tl-nXidtia MEAIHN, «-. t. X. Iliad, xix. 387—390. Hesiod also designates the lance ixdrn, a pine, Scut. Here. 188 ; and Virgil uses the fir for the spear of Camilla : " cujus apertum Adversi longa. transverberat abiete pec tus." JEneid. xi. 667. aVsnn, a airaf Xey., from the root Vsn, Syr. "^.^j, tremuit, to move tremu lously, wave, shake ; hence Vsn and nVsnn, trembling, Zech. xii. 2 ; Ps. Ix. 5. The reference seems to be to the cus tom of the spear- men to wave their lances before engaging in battle, for the pur pose of evincing their eagerness for the contest. 5. This verse Ewald explains of the preparations made by the Ninevites for the defence of the city ; but the war- chariots could not be used within the walls : they could only be effective in the open field, nia an signifies not merely streets, as being without the houses of a city, but also the out fields or commons without the city itself. Comp. Job v. 10 ; Ps. cxliv. 13 ; Prov. viii. 26. In like manner naahn, as its parallel, denotes any wide or open spaces in the suburbs without the gates. Comp. 2 Chron. xxxii. 6 ; Ps. cxliv. 14. VVannn signi fies to act the part of a madman, to shoiv one's self violent, rage, and the like. The reduplicate form lapB-nii is obviously intended to give great force to the ex pression ; on which account, to render it run up and doion is too weak. I have added furiously, which makes this hemi stich better agree with the preceding. Nor is the reduplication of the third radical of aaa-, to run, in Piel, aaaana, without a coiTesponding degree of energy. It expresses the rapid zig-zag course of the chariots, resembling the quick flash ing of lightning. As aan is masculine, the feminine suffix in "(npsna must be taken for a neuter, or regarded as an in stance of neglected gender. 6. The king of Nineveh is here repre sented as roused from a profound stupor ; and, contriving the necessary means of defence, as first of all turning his atten tion to his principal officers, whom he summons to their posts. Michaelis, Maurer, and others, think that by these 276 NAHUM. Chap. II. They hasten to her wall, And the defence is prepared. The flood-gates are opened, And the place is dissolved, Though firmly established. 'She is made bare ; she is carried up, While her handmaids moan like doves, And smite upon their hearts. officers, the generals commanding in the provinces are intended ; but it is more likely the prophet means the military leaders within the city, since it is repre sented in the preceding verses as already invested by the enemy ; and they are spoken of as hastening to the wall, and not to the city, which the former inter pretation would require, naa is here used, not in the sense of simply recollecting, or calling to mind, but with the acces sory idea of carrying out or giving effect to the recollection, in regard to the object of remembrance. It therefore implies, that the monarch ordered them to oc cupy each his place in the defence of Nineveh. On receiving the orders, they make such haste, that they and their troops stumble while marching to the walls. Instead of n in nna an, eight of De Rossi's MSS., another originally, the Brixian, and another ancient edition, ex hibit the local n, which is supported by the Targ., Syr., and Arab. By the "as, protector, or protection, here mentioned, some understand the vinea, or the tes- tudo, military coverings used by the be siegers of a city, under the shelter of which they might safely carry on their operations in undermining, or otherwise destroying the walls. As, however, the term is here applied to something em ployed by those who acted on the defen sive, it cannot be so interpreted. In all probability, some kind of breastwork, composed of the interwoven boughs and branches of trees, erected between the towers upon the walls, is intended. Ac cording to Diodorus Siculus, Nineveh had fifteen hundred towers, each of which was two hundred feet high, ajata sig nifies to weave, intertwine, fence, and the like, and so to protect, shelter. LXX. Kal eroipdaovai ras irpo(f>vXaKa.s avTuv. Syr. . o o o | A 1 a V. fortifications. Targ. s»Vaias, towers. 7. Though it is not unusual in He brew to represent invading armies or multitudes of people under the image of floods or waters, an interpretation adopted here by Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and others, there does not appear to be suf ficient ground to depart from the literal meaning. By nanna, rivers, or streams, are meant the canals dug from the Tigris, which intersected the city, and more es pecially those which afforded a supply of water for the defence of the palace. The gates or sluices of these canals were doubtless strongly constructed, to prevent a greater influx of water than what was required ; but having upon the present occasion been burst open by the besiegers, the waters of the Tigris rushed in, and. completely inundating the royal resi dence, dissolved and ruined it. The verb s'ibs describes the physical effects of the inundation, not metaphorically those produced by the event upon the minds of the inhabitants. 8. aa.n has occasioned a great diver sity of interpretations. Gesenius, dissat isfied with all those derived from its be ing the Hophal of aaa, to place, settle, fix, has recourse to a new root, aaa, which he borrows from the Arab. v_/-»o, aqua, _ fudit, effndit; and, Chap. II. NAHUM. 9 Though Nineveh hath been like a pool of water, From the most ancient time, Yet they are fleeing : " Stop ! stop ! " but none looketh back. 10 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold ; There is no end to the store ; There is abundance of all covetable vessels. 11 Emptiness and emptiedness and void, Heart-melting and tottering of knees ; , There is intense pain in all loins, And all faces withdraw their color. then removing the word to the end of the preceding verse, reads thus, jiaa Vapnn aana, the palace is dissolved and made to flow away. That the verb is to be con nected with the preceding .aaaa, the gen der at once shows ; but there is no neces sity of departing from the usual signifi cation of aaa, to place, fix, stand firmly ; in Hiph. to cause to stand, establish. However strongly the place might have been constructed, it would not be able to resist the fury of the water, a has here the force of though, and though. Comp. ajnnara S'na, Mai. iii. 14. The nom inative to the femmines nnVa, and nnVsn is Nineveh understood. The first of these verbs some render, is carried into cap tivity ; but this signification is confined to the Kal and Hiphil conjugations. It here describes the ignominy with which the Ninevites were treated, when, stripped of everything, they were forced from their capital, Comp. Is. xlvii. 3. Nineveh is represented as' a queen degraded from her dignity ; and led away captive by the enemy ; her female slaves following and deploring her fate. That the queen of Nineveh herself, supposed to be here called Huzzab, is intended, in a position which cannot be sustained, though adopt ed by several interpreters, and recently by Ewald. Persons are never introduced by name into prophecy, except for some important purpose, as in the case of Cy rus. For sna , to pant, sigh, moan, comp. the Arab. -^ a'y , graviter, continuo an- helavit, vix interrupto spiritu ; Syriac 7 w, otJi clamavit, rugiit. 9. The comparison of the population of Nineveh to a collection of water is here appropriate. shn iaspa is an anti quated mode of expressing the feminine pronominal affix — the absolute form of the pronoun being retained instead of the fragmental n being attached to the noun, S"n ¦aspte-- nnspas ; lit. from her days, i. e. during the whole period of her ex istence, or, from the most ancient time. The prophet compares the royal city to u reservoir of water, on account of the confluence of people from the surround ing provinces. All who could make their escape, now took to flight, and no entreaties could induce them to remain. 10. Nahum here apostrophizes the victorious enemy. They had now only to possess themselves of the immense riches which had been abandoned by the inhabitants, or which they might plunder at pleasure. The repetition of the verb aaa gives force to the diction, naaan, from las, in Hiphil, to set up, prepare ; anything laid up, prepared, and ready for use, as costly garments, ornaments, etc. Comp. Job xxvii. 16. LXX. roi Kiapov au-rijs. Vulg. divitiarum. Targ. s*naas. treasures, naa, followed by ia, is here a nominative absolute : as for the abund ance, it consists of, etc. 11. The three synonymes fajaaaa npaa -piaa, all from roots signifymg to 278 NAHUM. Chap. III. 12 "Where is the den of the lionesses ? And the feeding-place of the young lions ? Where the lion and the lioness walked, The lion's cub also, and none disturbed them. 13 The lion tore for the supply of his cubs, And strangled for his lionesses ; He filled his dens with prey, And his habitations with rapine. 14 Behold ! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts; I will burn her chariots into smoke ; The sword shall devour thy young lions, And I will cut off thy prey from the land : The voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more. empty, empty out, are exquisitely chosen, and from their increase in length, as well as from their similarity both in sound and meaning, give great force to the expres sion of total desolafion — the idea here intended to be conveyed. Gesenius con siders them to be onomatopoetic, imitat ing the sound of emptying out a bottle. Comp. Is. xxiv. 1, for the etymology of the verbs pp_a— paa and pVa ; and for a similar use of words varied in form, but nearly alike in sound, Is. xxiv. 3, 4, xxix. 2 ; Ezek. xxxiii 29 ; Zeph. i. 15. nVnVn.an intensive form, from Van, to be in pain. For nanss see on Joel ii. 6. 12-14. A beautiful allegory, setting forth the rapacious, irresistible, and lux urious character of the king of Assyria, and the destruction of Nineveh, the seat of his empire, with all his armies, and their means of supply. In the last verse the literal is intermixed with the figura tive. Comp. for the metaphor, Is. v. 29 ; Jer. ii. 15. san, in ver. 12, has the force of that which ; in, ver. 13, a sufficiency, supply, etc. q-B and n£na are em ployed idiomatically in the two genders to express different kinds of prey. Comp. Is. iii. 1. For visa the Targ. has snisa, with fire. The meaning is, that such should be the number of chariots consumed, that the smoke arising from the fire in which they were to be burnt, should be visible to all. Comp. Ps. xxxvii. 20. The MSS. and editions dif fer in their punctuation of nSSsVa, but there can be little doubt that it is a de fective reading -.aasVas, for na-asVa. Comp. nasa, Ps. cxxxix. 5. The Syr, and LXX.' have read npnasVa, "thy works." CHAPTER III The prophet, resuming his description of the siege of Nineveh, 1-3, traces it to her idolatry as its cause, 4, and repeats the divine denunciations which he had introduced chap. ii. 13, ver. 5-7- He then, to aggravate her misery, points her to the once formidable and cele brated, but now conquered and desolate Thebes, 8-10, declaring that such should likewise Chap. III. NAHUM. 279 be her fate, 11-13; calls upon her sarcastically to make every preparation for lu-r'defonce, but assuring her that it would be of no avail, 14, 15; and concludes by contrasting wiih the number of merchants, princes, and generals, which she once possessed, the ui^erubiL', remediless state of ruin to which she avas to be reduced, 16-19. I Wo to the city of blood ! She is wholly filled with deceit and violence ; The prey is not removed. 2 The sound of the whip,- and the sound of the rattling of the wheels, The horses prancing, and the chariots bounding ; 3 The mounting of horsemen, the gleaming of swords, And the lightning of spears ; The multitude of slain, And the mass of corpses ; There is no end to tlie carcasses ; They stumble over their carcasses : 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot, The very graceful mistress of enchantments ; 1 . A portraiture of the atrocious char acter of the Ninevites. pns -ina form an asyndeton. The non-removal of the prey refers to the fact, that the Assyrians had not restored the ten tribes. 2, 3. The description which the prophet here gives of the approach of the enemy, his attack on the city, and the slaughter of the besieged, is exquisitely graphic. Every translator must acknowledge with Jerome : " Tarn pulchra juxta Hebraicum et pictura similis ad prcelium se prepar- antis exercitus descriptio est, ut omnis meus sermo sit vilior. ' The passage is unrivalled by any other, either in sacred or profane literature. Comp. however Jer. xlvii. 3. nnpa occurs only here, but in Judges v. 22, we find ainnas Mini, the charges of his mighty warriors, in connection with eao, the war-horse. It would seem to have some affinity to the Arab, Zf A ecleriter and expresses the coursing or prancing of the cavalary, when rapidly advancing to the attack. Their eagerness the LXX. ex presses by rendering it SuIikovtos. Syr. 7 ° . . i : q v ebullivit, anhelavit. D. Kimchi : arapVrn naaa cata- ro-ni, the power ful trampling or prancing of the horse and his course. The collectives require to be rendered in the plural. V-'p is not to be understood as repeated before c*.o and the following substantive. Instead of aV-sai or aV-sai, as it is read in some of the old editions, the Keri, many MSS., and the Soncin., Brix., and Complut. editions, read aV-i-aa, which is favored by the renderings of the LXX. and Vulg. 4. The idolatrous practices of the Nine vites, and the means which they cm- ployed to seduce others to worship their gods, are here represented as the princi pal cause of their destruction. At the same time, the commerce, luxury, etc. which they carried to the greatest height, are not to be excluded ; for in making contracts and treaties with the more powerful of thefr neighbors, they not only employed these as inducements, but did not scruple to deliver into their power, nations and tribes that were un- 280 NAHUM. Chap. III. Who sold nations through her fornications, And tribes through her enchantments. 5 Behold ! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts : I will throw up thy skirts upon thy face, And show the nations thy nakedness, And the kingdoms thy shame. 6 I will cast abominable things upon thee, And disgrace thee ; And will make thee a gazing-stock. 7 And every one that seeth thee shall flee from thee And shall say, Nineveh is destroyed ! Who will commiserate her ? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee ? 8 Art thou better than No-Atnmon, That dwelt in the rivers, That had water around her ; able to defend themselves. Comp. Joel iii. 3, 6-8 ; Amos i. 6. The metaphor of an unchaste female, and the seductive arts which she employs, is not unfre- quent in the prophets. 5, 6. The language of commination here used, is suggested by the metaphor of an harlot, employed in the preceding verse. It would seem to refer to an an cient mode of punishing strumpets, by stripping them of all their gaudy attire, and exposing them, covered with mud a id filth, to the gaze of insulting spec tators. The abhorrent character of the figure constitutes the very reason of its selection. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 37-41. The a in isna is the Caph veritatis. LXX. e I s irapdtieiypa. 7. "spa carries out the idea implied in ish, ver. 6. It is in the plural, but is followed by a singular verb, to agree with Va. Comp. for the sentiment Is. li. 19. 8. -pas si, No Amon, Egyp. JJOZ, c\JUlO'X*n? the lion, or portion of Amon, thus etymologically the LXX. pepttia, 'Appiiv, though in Ezek. xxx. 15, they render AiiairoXis, i. c. the residence or possession of the Egyptian deity known by the name of Jupiter Amnion. The statement of Macrobius, that he was the representative of the sun, is confirmed by the name of Amon-Re, i. e. " Amon, the Sun,", being given to him in Egyp tian inscriptions. On Egyptian monu ments this god is represented by the figure of a man sitting upon a chair, with a ram's head, or by that of an entire ram. In Jer. xlvi. 25, we have saa "ias, Anion of No, where, as well as in the present passage in Nahum, our translators have regarded y'as as equiv alent to y'an, i* multitude. Bochart, Schroeder, and some others, have con tended that Ai6airoXis, near Mendes, in Lower Egypt, is intended, but all the later commentators are in favor of Thebes. The Targum preposterously ren ders, snan s»nnaDaVs, Alexandria the Great, which Jerome, deferring to his Rabbi, has adopted in the Vulg. The city, which from its being the principal seat of his worship, was called by the Greeks AioairoXts, is the celebrated Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, sit uated on both sides of the Nile, about two hundred and sixty miles south of Cairo. It was renowned for its hundred ClIAP. III. NAHUM. 281 Whose strength was in the sea ; Her wall was on the sea ? 9 Cash strengthened her, and Egypt, With countless hosts ; Put and the Lybians were thine auxiliaries. gates, and was of such extent, that its remaining ruins still describe a circuit of twenty-seven miles : ovo* '6aa &fj&as Alyvirrtas, bSn irXeiara 56puns iv kt^oto Keirai, A't &' eKardpirvXoi eloi, tiivK6aioi ti' av' eKaar-nv 'Avipes i£oixvevat o~vv Xiriroariv koI oXxetr- tfnv. Iliad, ix. 381. Of the magnificent ruins, the most re markable are the temples of Luxor and Karnac, on the eastern side of the river. The architecture is of the most gigantic aud superior description. Fragments of colossal obelisks and statues are found in every direction. The stupendous colon- ade at Luxor is in the highest degree imposing ; but the grand hall of the temple at Karnac is of surpassing inter est. Wilkinson, in his Thebes, p. 174, describes it as " one hundred and seventy feet by three hundred and twenty-nine, supported, by a central avenue of twelve massive columns, sixty-six feet high, (without the pedestal and abacus,) and twelve in diameter, besides one hun dred and twenty-two of smaller or rather less gigantic dimensions, forty-one feet nine inches in height, and twenty-seven feet six inches in circumference, distri buted in seven lines on either side of the former." The walls of the temples are covered with hieroglyphics, chiefly re presenting the victories gained by the Egyptian kings over their enemies. One of the walls exhibits the result of the ex pedition of Shishak against Jerusalem, 1 Kings xiv. 25, etc. ; 2 Chron. xii. 2-9, in the leading away of the Jewish cap tives. Of the conquest of this famous city, here referred to by Nahum, no mention is made in profane history, but it not improbably took place on the advance of the Assyrian army under Sargon, in the year l). c. 7 14. See on Is. xx. It was afterwards taken by Cambyses, v.. c. 525, and its ruin completed by Ptolemy La- thyrus, B. c. 81. According to the re presentation of our prophet, Nineveh, could not vie with it either in point of grandeur or of strength. They both possessed the advantage of mighty rivers for their defence — a circumstance to which he gives a special prominence, as it was that on which the inhabitants placed great dependence. By t", sea, is meant the Nile ; see on Is. xix. 5 ; by Q"n's", streams, the same as nan-:, Nah. ii. 7, viz. the canals by which the water of the river was carried round or through the principal parts of the city. Ewald proposes to connect c with c»a, thus, t«s ci, and renders from sea to sea, which he attempts to justify by appealing to Micah vii. 12, but the cases are not pa rallel. V"ra stands elliptically for nV"n. The preposition as in a--a expresses the material out of which the defence was made ; and the triple reference to the Nile as a sea, in this verse, indicates the great importance which attached to it as a means of protecting the city. 9. Not only was Thebes strong by nature and art, and in the number of her native troops ; she also possessed immense military resources in her African auxil- ilaries. For saa, Cush, see on Is. xi. 11. t-aa, Put, Egypt. (ficMdV.T, the region immediately to the west of Lower Egypt, and conterminous with Lybia Proper, with the inhabitants of which, it is here mentioned. Gesenius de rives the name from TUT or $S"T'j 30 282 NAHUM. Chap. III. 10 Yet she became an exile, She went into captivity ; Her young children also were dashed in pieces, At the top of all the streets ; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with chains. 11 Thou also shalt be drunken, Thou shalt hide' thyself, Thou also shalt seek a refuge from the enemy. 12 All thy fortresses are like fig-trees with early figs ; If they shake them, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 Behold ! thy people are as women in the midst of thee ; The gates of thy land shall be thrown 'wide open to thine enemies ; Fire shall consume thy barriers, 14 Draw water for the siege ; a bow, and thinks the people were so called from their being expert as archers. That they were descended from Ham, see Gen. x. 6. Josephus speaks of them as Mauritanians, Antiqq. i. 6, 2 ; and the river of the same name, which he de scribes as flowing through their country, is called Fut by Pliny, v. 1, and Phtuth by Ptolemy, iv. 1 . They are spoken of as forming part of the Egyptian army, Jer. xlvi. 9, and as being in the Syrian marine, Ezek. xxvii. 10. Winer's Real W. B. ii. p. 308. ciaaV, Lybians, the inhabitants of Africa to the south and west of the former country, stretching as far as Nurhidia. Hitzig, on Is. lxvi. 19, has endeavored in vain to establish the hypothesis that the people of Nubia are meant. Comp. 2 Chron. xii. 3, xvi. 8. ci"aaa, Egypt, is here taken for Lower Egypt, as distinguished from the Upper, of whicji Thebes was itself the capital. There is no reason, with some, to change the aj in appnisa into n, though the LXX. and Syr. have the third person. The prophet concludes his description by apostrophizing Thebes, a is the Beth essentia. 10, 11. If the celebrated metropolis of Egypt, with all its means of defence, was captured, and its inhabitants sub jected to all the cruelities and indignities usually inflicted by the victors, what was there in Nineveh to claim exemption? Instead of -api, to drink, be intoxicated, a mode of speech not uncommon in the prophets, denoting participation in severe punishment, Newcome, without author ity, reads na'B, to hire, and renders, thou shalt become an hireling. In 1 Sam. ii. 5, to which he refers, the latter, and not the former verb, occurs. 12, 13. Two figures strikingly expres sive of the extreme ease with which the Assyrians should be subdued. For the former, see on Is. xxviii. 4 ; and comp. Rev. vi. 13 ; for the latter, Is. xix. 16 ; Jer. 1. 37. ts, with, in the phrase BiasP tin aaa cs denotes accompaniment, etc. ; the phrase itself is equivalent to C':sti fcinaaa DnV n-rs. Thus the1 LXX. avKai crKoirovs exovres. Comp. for this rare use of the preposition, 1 Sam. xvii. 42. npnpna, Michaelis translates thy fugitives, but as fugitives are always re presented as perishing by the sword, and never by fire, the signification barriers must be retained. 14. The prophet ironically summons the Ninevites to make ever)* effort in Chap. III. N A HUM. 283 Strengthen thy fortifications ; Enter the mire, and tread the clay ; Repair the brick-kiln. 15 There shall the fire consume thee, The sword shall cut thee off; It shall consume thee like the licking locust ; Be thou numerous as the licking locusts ; Be thou numerous as the swarming locusts. 16 Thou hast increased thy merchants more than the stars of heaven ; The licking locusts spread themselves out, And took their flight. 1 7 Thy princes were as the swarming locusts, And thy satraps as the largest locusts ; That encamp in the hedges in the cold day ; The sun ariseth, then they flee, And the place where they are is unknown. IS Thy shepherds slumber, 0 king of Assyrja ! the way of preparing for a long and vigorous defence of the metropolis itself. As water is one of the first necessaries, it behooved them to see to it, that the cisterns, etc., were well filled. They were also to put the fortifications in a perfect state. 15-17. Zv, there, points emphatically to the fortified city. The nominative to ¦*aann is the masculine noun is,peo]jle, i. e. the inhabitants ; that to nsa.-n, the feminine n-S city, understood. In stead, however, of naann, six MSS., originally four more, and one by correc tion, read -naann. For the names of the locusts which here occur, see on Joel i 4, and Amos vii. 1. The reduplication ¦aas aaa, locust of hcusts, is designed to express the largest or most formidable of that kind of insect. For the plural form ¦a*:,, see on Amos vii. 1. a"i7:a is a Sira| Xey., derived from ~tj, to consecrate, separate and devote to a high or noble office; hence n-Ta, prince, --;, consecra tion, diadem. It denotes here the princes, crowned with diadems, who formed the glory of the Assyrian court. Thus Kim chi : an-ssn Vs n-tasa nta -bs aza ¦-.•-, "Princes with diadems and crowns on their heads." The Arab. «. JiJjO, moni tor, i. e. counsellor, is less apt, as the comparison to the locusts shows. Six of De Rossi's MSS. and three ancient edi tions omit the Dagesh in the Nun. The parallel term cinssaa occurs only here, and in Jer. li. 27, in the singular -asa. It is obviously a foreign word, and is in all probability compounded of what we still find in the Persic, «Li' or strength, power, and ^u, chief, captain, prince. It occurs in the Targum of Jonathan, Deut. xxviii. 12, as the name of a superior angel. For other deriva tions see Gesen. Thesaur. in voc. Dr. Lee prefers deriving it from the Chald. aaa, egregius, and -b, dux. Whatever might be the power of these princes and generals, and whatever number of troops they might have at their command, they would on the approach of the enemy, betake themselves to flight, and leave Nineveh to her own defence. No trace of them would be found. 18. The masculine suffixes in this and SS4 NAHUM. Chap. III. Thy nobles have lain down ; Thy people are dispersed upon the mountains, And there is none that collected them. 19 There is no alleviation of thy ruin; Thy wound is grievous ; All that hear the report of thee Shall clap their hands at thee, For upon whom did not thy wickedness unceasingly pass ? the following verse, refer to the king of Assyria. The a -S n , shepherds, were the satraps or viceroys appointed to govern the provinces under the king of Assyria ; the aza'n'ns were the nobUs, who as parallel with the Dish, are to be regarded under the same image. See Jer. xxv. 34, where principals would have been better than principal in our common version. yzv, corresponding to aaa, they slumber, is a vox pregnans, implying, not only that they had lain down, but that they were taking rest or were asleep, b ;e is cognate with yas, to scatter, disperse, Arab. Lc*i, propagata et multiplicata sunt pecora, but is not to be substituted for it, as some propose. Comp. the Arab. i wJO, pastum noctu incesserunt cameli aut oves sine pastore. The figure is car ried on throughout the verse. 19. nna "pSi lit. nothing of infirmity, by litotes, for powerful, great is thy breach. The deliverance of the king of Nineveh was utterly hopeless. Noth ing remained but for the prophet to an nounce his end, and the joy which the surrounding states would express at the irretrievable ruin of an empire, whose iron sway had been so extended, and whose cruel oppressions had been unin- termitting. - HABAKKUK. PREFACE. Or the prophet Habakkuk, we possess no information but what is purely apocryphal. The position of Delitzsch, founded upon the subscription, chap. iii. 19, that he was of the tribe of Levi, and engaged in the temple service, is too precarious to warrant its adoption. The statement made in the inscrip tion to Bel and the Dragon in the LXX., which has been preserved from the Tetrapla of Origen, in the Codex Chisianus, iK trporp-nTeias 'ApfiaKovp vioi 'l-n- aoi) iK ttjs (>ivXr)s Aevi, may be nothing more than conjecture. Considerable difference of opinion obtains respecting the time at which he flourished — the Rabbins ; Grotius, Kalinsky, Kofod, Jahn, and Wahl, placing him in the first years of Manasseh ; Friedrich, De Wette, Bertholdt, Justi, and Wolf, in the period of the exile ; while Usher, Newcome, Eiehhorn, Home, Winer, Maurer, and Ewald, are of opinion that he prophesied in the reign of Jehoiachin, about 608 — 604 before Christ. This last hypothesis seems best supported, since the Chaldeans are spoken of chap. i. 5, 6, as being upon the point of invading Judah, but not as having actually entered it. The position of Rosenmiiller, that chap. i. was composed under Jehoiakim, chap. ii. under Jehoiachin, and chap. iii. under Zedekiah, is altogether gratuit ous. The whole forms one prophecy, and does not admit of being thus dis sected. The book embraces the wickedness of the Jews which demanded the inflic tion of punishment, the infliction of this punishment by the Chaldeans, the destruction of the latter in their turn, and an ode composed by the prophet in anticipation of the consequent deliverance of his people. Its position im mediately after Nahum is most appropriate, setting forth the judgments of God inflicted by and upon the Chaldeans, just as the latter treated of those to be inflicted upon the Assyrians. The two prophets take up separately what Isaiah had expatiated upon at large. In point of general style, Habakkuk is universally allowed to occupy a very distinguished place among the Hebrew prophets, and is surpassed by none of them in dignity and sublimity. Whatever he may occasionally have in common with previous writers, he works up in his own peculiar manner, and is evidently no servile copyist or imitator. His figures are well chosen, and fully carried out. His expressions are bold and animated ; his descrip tions graphic and pointed. The parallelisms are for the most part regular and complete. The lyric ode contained in chap. iii. is justly esteemed one of the most splendid and magnificent within the whole compass of Hebrew poetry. See the introduction to that chapter. The words nte.aa, i. 9 tt-tsas, ii. 6, and "|aV|a"p_, ii. 16, are peculiar to this prophet. CHAPTER I. Vhe prophet commences by briefly, yet emphatically and pathetically, setting forth the cause of the Chaldean invasion, which avas to form the burden of his prophecy — the great wickedness which abounded in the Jewish nation at the time he flourished, 2-4, He then introduces Jehovah summoning attention to that invasion as the awful punish ment of such wickedness, 5; describes, in a very graphic manner, the appearance, char acter, and operations of the invaders, 6-11; and then, by a sudden transition, expostu lates with God, on account of the severity of the judgment, which threatened the anni hilation of the Jevvi6h people, 12-17. 1 The Sentence, which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 How long shall I cry, O Jehovah ! And thou hearest not ? How long shall I cry to thee of violence, and thou savest not ? 3 Why dost thou permit me to see wickedness, And beholdest misery ? 1. For the signification of sisas, see on Is. xiii. 1 ; and for the form pa pan, com pare nanSB, Jer. v. 30, xxiii. 14. 2. The evils complained of in this and the two following verses, are, by many interpreters, considered to be those con sequent upon the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans. Such a construction, however, breaks up the symmetry of the connection, as marked by ver. 5, and leaves out of view the wickedness of the Jews as the cause of the calamity, con trary to the universal custom of the He brew prophets. They were the intestine broils, litigations, and acts of oppression, which sprang up in the kingdom of Ju dah, after the death of the pious reformer Josiah, and had been long the subject of complaint on the part of Habakkuk. That such was the state of things at that time is evident from Jer. xxii. 2, 13. The argument in favor of the contrary hypothesis, derived from the recurrence of the words easra, Vass, etc., and the phrase tas-sa sa^,, etc., in the following part of the chapter, with undoubted appli cation to the Chaldeans, is of no weight, since they are rather to be regarded as modes of expression familiar to the prophet, than indicative of identity of subject. The influence of naTS — is, how long, upon the Preterite and Future ten ses in this verse, so modifies them as to give them the force of a present time, though the one includes what had taken place down to such time, and the other, the possibility of its being still carried forward into the future. Because aa n , violence, occurs without a preposition, Hitzig thinks it was what was done to the prophet himself ; but it is better, with Kimchi, to suppose an ellipsis of naasap or, to supply Vs, on account of, because of, with the Targum. Comp. Job xix. 7 ; Jer. xx. 8. saiii and psp, are syno- nymes, but the latter is the more expres sive of the two. 3. Some, regarding -ijsnn and ta-an as strictly parallel, understand the suffix ¦a to be omitted in the latter verb, and render : Why dost thou cause me to see wickedness, and make me hole upon wrong? but tran, though the Hiphil conjugation, is never used in a causative sense. Besides, inaa.V, and not taian, is the proper synonyme, corresponding to Chap. I. HABAKKUK. 287 Destruction and violence are before me»; Contention and strife exalt themselves. On this account the law faileth, And true judgment goeth not forth ; Because the wicked circumvent the righteous, Therefore perverted judgment goeth forth. ¦asnn. Between the two clauses, the prophet introduces Jehovah, with whom he expostulates, as an inactive spectator of the evil, because his providence did not interfere for its removal, and it was allowed, unavenged, to take its course. The expostulation thus gains in force, and scope is afforded for the striking contrast, ver. 5, in which the Most High is represented as interposing for the pun ishment of the wicked. sb* -]ana has been variously explained. The LXX., taking "ana for ipna, render it d /coitus Xapfidvei ; which the Syriac explains, Win 1 1 .«¦ the judge taketh a bribe. Abenezra translates thus ; ipnia c-asn asBp -v-;s "janasa ai-i i,?:g, and there are men of strife and contention who lift up their head. The structure of the sentence, however, obliges us to re gard sbi as parallel to ¦-¦!, so that it stands in the same relation to Tanas, that the substantive verb does to ain. The nouns in both cases are nominatives to the verbs, and s'bs is here to be taken intransitively in the sense of exalting or raising one's self up. Comp. Ps. lxxxix. 10 ; Eos. xiii. 1 ; Nah. i. 5. Thus Dahl, combining the two nouns, Und Hader, und Gezank erheben sich ; and Perschke, Es gibt Streit, und Zwist erhebet sich. The language is descriptive of the prev alence of a litigious spirit, in consequence of which no one was permitted quietly to possess or enjoy his rights. What was not seized upon by main force, was ob tained by perversion of law. 4. yz— Vs, therefore, on this account, refers not to the state of things set forth in the verse immediately preceding, but to Jehovah's forbearing to punish, spoken of ver. 2. Of the law, which ought to have been maintained in all its vital en ergy, it is said a:En, it chilleth, groweth frigid, languisheth, faileth ; by which is meant, that it was not enforced, but left, as it were, to grow stiff and torpid, from want of use. The words, na:V sa — sVa aaSBa, may either be rendered, judgment, i. e., what is strictly and properly such, righteous judgment never goeth forth ; or, judgment goeth not forth according to truth ; naa.V, signifying to perpetuity, for ever, and, with a negative, never, like cVisV sV, and truly, according to truth. Comp. the Arab. ^n_iOJ, sincerus fidelis fuit; and the Eth. A/^/TJ ; purus, mundus fuit. The latter signification of the word is that adopted by the Syr. -PS- 7 .0 3: 7 .2 I^OaC'LC M-t? ' "° 1 M0' ancl judgment goeth not forth in purity ; and is approved by Sheltinga, Hesselberg, AVolf, Rosenmiiller, De Wrette, Winer, Gesenius, Lee, and Ewald, chiefly on the ground of Vfsa taSBa, wrong or perverted judgment, occurring, as a con trasted formula, at the close of the verse. By the going forth of judgment is meant the publication of legal decisions delivered by a judge. In the time of the prophet, justice was utterly corrupted, in conse quence of which there was no security either for person or property. n"n:a, from nna, to surround, is here used in a bad sense, to express the ensnaring of a person by fraud and artifice ; it depicts the windings of intrigue, and is best rendered by circumvent. Thus Dathe : cum impius pium circumvenit. Vrsa, distorted, perverse, wrong, from the root 288 HABAKKUK. Chap. I. 5 Look among the nations, and behold ! Be ye greatly astonished ; For I will perform a work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it should be told you. 6 For, behold ! I will raise up the Chaldeans, That bitter and impetuous nation ; Which traverseth the wide regions of the earth, To seize upon habitations belonging not to it. VpS. Comn. the Svr. ^ n\. oervertit. Arab. OL&C, constrinxit, distortos habuit pedes ; xAJLc , distortio lingua in h- quendo. LXX. npipa titearpapuevov. 5. By a sudden apostrophe Jehovah calls upon the Jews, in anticipation of the punishment which their sins deserved, and which should assuredly be inflicted upon them, to direct their attention to the events that were taking place among the surrounding nations. Nabopolassar had already destroyed the mighty empire of Assyria and founded the Chaldeo- Babylonian rule ; he had made himself so formidable, that Necho found it ne cessary to march an army against him, in order to check his progress ; and though defeated at Megiddo, he had, in conjunction with his son Nebuchad nezzar, gained a complete victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish. These events were calculated to alarm the Jews, whose country lay between the domin ions of the two contending powers ; but, accustomed as they were to confide in Egypt, and in the sacred localities of their own capital, Is. xxxi. 1 ; Jer. vii. 4, and being in alliance with the Chaldeans, they were indisposed to listen to, and treated with the utmost incredulity, any predictions which described their over- ' throw by that people. Such overthrow God claims as his work, though he might employ men as his instruments in effect ing it. nsn and uian are frequently combined as here for the sake of effect. The phrase Ciaan, among the nations, is translated by the LXX., ol KaTatpovnral, in which they are followed by the Syr. and Arab. ; and this render ing is adopted by Paul in his quotation of the verse, Acts xiii. 41. On the other hand, the Targ. S'aasa ¦'an, Aquila, Symm., Theod., and Vulg. aspieite in gentibus, which is sustained by all the Heb. MSS. that have been collated, ex cept five of Kennicott's, which have Q-a a. nations, without the preposition. To ac count for the rendering of the LXX., some are of opinion that instead of raiaaa, they must have read Dinaa, C^na'a, or 31T ia ; others, with Pocoeke, in his Porta Mosis, chap, iii., suggest a supposititious root, saa , the corresponding Arabic Lis, signifying, injustus fuit, superbe, insolenter se gessit ; most unjustifiably insisting on the preference of some such reading to that of the Hebrew text. With respect to the quotation, Acts xiii. 41, it was obviously made by the apostle on account of the exact similarity of the case of the Jews in his day, both as re gards the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the incredulity of the nation in reference to that event. " Pau- lus fideliter accommodat in usum suum Prophetse verba, quia sicuti semel mina- tus fuerat Deus per prophetam suam Habacuc, ita etiam semper fuit sui sim- ilis." Calvin, in he. The double form, anan anann, is used for intensity. anann is the Hithpael for anannn. Comp. anana ananasnn, Is. xxix. 9, and my note on that verse. Before Vsb sub- aud. "as. 6. Now follows a lengthened and fear ful description of the character and op- Chap. I, HABAKKUK. 289 7 It is terrible and dreadful ; Its judgment and its dignity are from itself. 8 Swifter than leopards are its horses, And lighter than evening wolves ; Its horses spread proudly along ; Yea, its horse that come from afar : They fly like an eagle hastening to devour. 9 It cometh entirely for violence ; The aspect of their feces is like the east wind ; It collecteth the captives as sand. erations of the instrument which Jehovah would employ in executing his work. E-pa ¦::", which has unquestionably the force of the future, must be referred to the special raising up of the Chaldeans to undertake the expedition against Ju dea, and not to their organization as a political power, since they had already been upwards of twenty years in posses sion of such power under Nabopolassar. On this account, some prefer rendering the phrase, Behold! 1 will excite. For an account of this people, see on Is. xxiii. 23. In nnaana nasn is a paronomasia. By na, bitter, the fierce and cruel dis position of the Chaldeans is expressed ; comp. Jer. 1. 42 ; by nnaa, rash, hasty, the rapidity or impetuosity of their op erations. In the latter part of the verse, their widely extended conquests under Nebuchadnezzar are clearly predicted. 7. Jisb, the LXX. render Xijppa, Symm. S6ypa, Vulg. onus, Syr. | which denoting to succeed, exchange, change, renew, etc., the phrase means, to assume, or gain a fresh accession of corn-age or military spirit. For this sig nification of raan, comp. Josh. ii. 11, v. 1. Elated by the fortresses they had taken, and the victories they had won in heathen countries, the Chaldeans are represented as passing onwards into Judea ; and treating with contempt the puny resist ance made to them by the Jews, asking sarcastically, " Is this all your boasted power conceded to you by the God in whom you confide ? " Comp.' Is. x. 10, 11, xxxvi. 19, 20; Ps. lxxix. 10, cxv. 2. The aggravated guilt which they contracted (EBS) lay in their vilifying JehcfVah, by speaking of him as incapa ble of protecting his people. This simple construction of the verse at once frees it from the numerous difficulties with which it has been clogged by interpreters, and gives peculiar force to the interrogatory appeal in that which follows. The ellip sis of - as V is of frequent occurrence in Hebrew. The absence of the interroga tive n is more seldom ; but comp. Gen, xxvii. 24, nt nPS for nt rtnsn ; 2 Sam. vii. 19, ns'T, this es, for ns-Tn, is this; and xvi. 17, ^S.n— ns ^n8ri nt, " This is thy kindness to thy friend," for, Is this, etc. 12. The contemptuous manner in which the enemy had treated the Most High calls forth an impassioned appeal from the prophet, in which he vindicates the eternal existence and purity of Je hovah, as that God who had formerly wrought deliverance for his people, and who was now employing the Chaldeans, not for their annihilation, but only for their punishment and correction. Since nas, Rock, is elsewhere used metaphori cally of God, I have retained it in the translation. See on Is. xxvi. 4. It is here parallel to n^n ". The Tikkun Soph- erim naan sV is unsupported by any au thority. 13. Habakkuk resumes the expostula- tory mode of address which he had em ployed, verses 2, 3. The C-naia, plun derers, were the Chaldeans who had been the allies of the Jews, but now treated them with violence. Comp. Is. xxi. 2, and xxiv. 16. The LXX., Syr., and Arab., have nothing corresponding to aaasa: but it is expressed in Aquil., Sym., Theod., the Targ., and Vulg. Wicked as the Jews were, they were righteous in comparison of the Babylonians. Comp. for the sentiment, Ezek. xvi. 51. 52. 14. God is often said to do what he permits to be done by others. Ban is 292 HABAKKUK. Chap. II As the reptiles which have no ruler ? 15 It bringeth up all with its hook, It gathereth them into its net, It collecteth them into its drag ; Therefore it rejoiceth and exulteth. 16 Therefore it sacrificeth to its net, And burnetii incense to its drag ; Because through them its portion is fat, And its food fattened meat. 17 Is it for this it emptieth its net, And spareth not to slay the nations continually ? used of aquatic animals, such as crabs and other shell-fish, Ps. civ. 25, a sense which the parallelism and connection here require. 15-17. nVa is allowed by all to be here the accusative, though it was, in the same position, the nominative, ver. 9. Converting the simile employed in the preceding verse into a metaphor, the prophet describes the rapacity of the Chaldeans, the indiscriminate and uni versal havoc which they would effect, and their proud confidence in their own prowess. nVsn, an unusual punctuation for nVsn. The hook, the net, and the drag, aire separately mentioned, to indi cate that every means would be em ployed in taking captives, and whatever else came in then- way. To their arms, signified by these implements of fishers, they rendered divine honors, ascribing to them solely the success which they had in war. Comp. Justin. 43. 3. " Ab origine rerum pro diis immortalibus ve- teras coluere.' Lucian in Trag. "Sw&eu pev aKivaSry Sliovai. By the emptying of the net, ver. 17, is meant the depositing of the captives, etc., in Babylon, in order to go forth to fresh conquest and plunder. It is strongly implied in the questions with which the chapter concludes, that God would not permit the Chaldeans to proceed in their selfish conquests without a check, but the answer is reserved for the sequel. CHAPTER II This chapter contains an introductory statement respecting the waiting posture in which the prophet placed himself, in order to obtain a divine revelation in reference to the fate of his people and of the Chaldeans, their oppressors, 1; a command which he received to commit legibly to writing the revelation which was about to be made to him, 2; an assur ance, that though the prophecy should not be fulfilled immediately, yet it would cer tainly be at length accomplished, 3; and a contrasted description of the two different classes of the Jews to whom it was to be communicated, 4. The insolence of the Chal deans, and their insatiable lust of conquest, are next set forth, 5; on -which the proper Ci'ttJW . sentence, or prophetical denunciation, commences, in the form of a taunt on the part of the nations, in which they anticipate the downfall of that hostile power, 6-8; and the punishment of its rapacity, 9-11; of its cruelty and injustice, with a special view to Chaf. II. II A B A K K U K . the universal spread of tvuo rcMglon, 12-H; of ita wanton and sanguinary wars, V, 17. and of its absurd and fruitless idolatry, IS, 19. The last verse of tlie chanter beautifully contrasts with the two preceding, by representing Jehovah as the only liod, entitled to universal submission and homage. 1 I will stand upon my watch-post, And station myself upon the fortress, And will look out to see what he will say to me, And what I shall reply in regard to my argument. 1. n^K/saa properly signifies observance, guard, watch, from -oiie, to watch, observe, preserve, etc., but here, as a concrete, the place, or post of observation. Comp. Is. xxi. 8, where it is similarly used, with nS aaa for its parallel. Thus the Syr. V . .Anm. my place. Prom the use of ¦a a aaa in the corresponding hemistich, it is obvious that the post of a sentinel or watchman appointed to keep an eye upon what may transpire without a for tified city, is that from which the idea is here borrowed. It has been ques tioned whether our prophet has any real locality in view, or whether the words are to be understood metaphorically. The former is advocated by Hitzig, who after describing it as a high and steep point, such as a tower, and comparing 2 Kings ix. 17, 2 Sam. xviii. 24, 6ays *( Here, in a solitary position, far from the bustle and noise of men, with his eye directed towards heaven, and his col lected spirit fixed upon God, he looks out for revelations." "With the excep tion, however, of Wolff, who preceded him, the hypothesis has met with no ap probation. All that the passage seems to teach is, that Habakkuk, anxious to ascertain the Divine purpose relative to the enemies of his people, brought his mind into such a state of holy ex pectancy as was favorable to the reception of supernatural communications, nsa, to look about, from which nSaa, a spec ulator, watchman, is derived, as likewise nsaaa, a ivaich-tower, is employed, as here in Piel, to express the looking out for an answer to prayer, Ps. v. 4. The paragogic n of the Futures, marks the intensity of his desire. The formula a lap, which the Syr. and Targ. render 7 , t> 7 . .Vn v'V V^Vw. -aas Vtcrp, in the sense of speaking or conversing with a person, the LXX. give by XaX^aei iv ipol, " will speak in me." That the preposition a is here purposely used, in preference to'Vs, V, cs, or ns, to denote the internal mode of the Divine com munication which the prophet received, has been maintained by some who com pare "aa — ap n'aa- na", " the Spirit of Jehovah spake in me," 2 Sam. xxiii. 2 ; Num. xii. 6, and particularly Zech. i. 9, 13, 14, ii. 2, 7, iv, 1, 4, 5, v. 5, 10, vi. 4, where the interpreting angel that ad dressed him in vision is uniformly styled -a "2-^n ^nV"::-, the Angel that spake in me, which the LXX. as uniformly ren der i'-a;a a^Vnrp means, goeth sweetly or pleasantly down, or as Jerome gives it, blande ; De Dieu, subit f aril- lime. Com. the Arab. r««J, facilis fuit res ; facilitas, lenitas. Of the reading nsVas, found in one of Kennicott's MSS., or nsVs, as it is written in another, no account is to be made, though in his Dissert. Gen. § 72, that author prefers it to that which is attested by all the other codices. The Syr. Vj nV. wicked ness, is founded upon a mistake of nVss. for nVas. nVss I consider to be an ab stract norm, used elliptically for -s'N nV^S» a man of arrogance or presumption, and so to be rendered adjectively, the proud, presumptuous, etc. For instances of similar ellipsis, comp. nVfin 'as, I am prayer, for nVsn "irs *i#, I am a man of prayer, Ps. cix. 4; "p"*, arrogance, for "p-it 'a-s, man of arrogance, i.e. ar rogant, " Jer. 1. 31, 32; Dan. ix. 23. nns na-iaan, thou art delights, for ib-s nns natain, thou art a man of delights, i. e. greatly beloved, as it is expressed in full, chap. x. 11, 19. See on Micah vi. 9. The term is thus strictly antithetical to p,-a, the just, in the following hem istich, precisely as the predicate ~"ra"— s'V a'a aa-aa_, his soul is not right within him, is to n"n-1 "V: ai:sa, by his faith lie shall live. With respect to this latter point of antithesis, it must be evident, that, as n^n, the latter predicate, signifies not merely to live, but to live well, be happy, the former must convey the idea of its opposite. This was clearly perceived by Luther, who often discovers a wonderful sagacity in seizing upon the meanmg of a passage, though in his translation he may not adhere to the strict significations Chap. II. II A B A K K U K. :97 5 Moreover wine is treacherous : of single words. He renders the words thus : Siehe wer halsstarrig ist, der wird keine Ruhe in seinem Herzen haben. " Behold he who is stubborn shall have no tranquillity in his heart." So also Gesenius : " Lo, the lofty-minded, his soul is not tranquil within him." Mau rer : " Non planus, complanatus, com- positus, tranquillus, etc., est animus ejus." To this interpretation I adhere, as best meeting the exigency of the pas sage. While those Jews who, elated by false views of security, refused to listen to the Divine message should have their security disturbed, and their minds agitated by the calamities with which they would be visited, such as lived righteously before God and men, should experience true happiness in the exercise of faith in that message, and others which God might communicate to them by his prophets Thus a Lapide : " Incredulus habet animam, id est vitam, non rectam, sed distortam, anxiam, mis- eram, et infelicem ; Justus autem in fideet spe sua agit vitam rectam, puta laetam, quietam, sanctam et felicem." aa, in, or within him, is added to show that the verb -IB* is not to be taken here as referring to anything of an objective character, such as the Divine estimation, agreeably to the meaning of the phrase ij'jra -a-ia, nan*., to be right in the sight of Jehovah, but must be understood as marking the subjective sphere of the predicate. For the fullest view of the various construc tions, both logical and philological, that have been put upon this verse, I refer the more curious reader to Delitzsch. From the discrepancy existing between the He brew, and the version of the LXX., some have argued a corruption of the former, and have proposed emendations ; but the difference has arisen either from a desire on the part of these translators to render the sense plainer, or from their mistaking one letter for another that is similar. They render, iav inroareiX-nTai ovk evtioKei ij tyvxh aov iv avrcp. 6 tie titKaios i k irar- Teus pov fto-erai. To Buch rendering, its quotation by Paul in Heb. x. 38, gives no sanction, since he not unfrequently quotes passages from that version containing ren derings to which there never could have been anything corresponding in the He brew text. In the present instance he takes a liberty with the version itself, placing the latter part of the verse first, and the former last, and omitting pov after iritrris. Nor, it must further be ob served, is it his intention either here, or in Rom. i. 17, and Gal. iii. 11, in em ploying the words, 6 5'iHaios iK irio-reas (iio-erai, to maintain, that the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ is taught by Habakkuk ; he merely appfics the principle laid down by the prophet respecting the instrumentality of faith in securing the 6afety and happiness of the pious portion of the Jewish people to the subject of which he is treating — the in fluence of faith in the gospel scheme of salvation. As p""is is the nominative absolute, an: flaga cannot be connected with it, except in regard to the pronom inal reference, but must be joined with n^np, as for the righteous, he shall live by his faith. From the circumstance, however, that the two former words are, in most MSS. and editions, joined by the accents Merca and Tiphca, wliile the lat ter, as a disjunctive, separates the second from the third, it might seem that the Rabbins construed the clause thus : but the just by his faith, shall live. And this construction would seem to confirm the hypothesis that in his quotation, Rom. i. 17, Gal. iii. 11, the Apostle connects eV irloreois with 6 SiKaios, and not with (fioe- rai ; but as quoted by him, Heb. x. 38, the former division of the words alone suits the connection, in which his object evidently is to show the necessity of faith as a means of perseverance under all the afflictions and persecutions of the chris tian life. See Owen on the passage. 5. The two first lines of this verse partake of the nature of a proverb, being 38 298 HABAKKUK. Chap. II. The haughty man stayeth not at home, Because he enlargeth his desire as Sheol ; He is even as death, and cannot be satisfied ; He gathered for himself all the nations, And collecteth for himself all the people, 6 Shall not all these utter an ode against him, A song of derisive taunt against him, and say : Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his ! How long ? And ladeth himself with many pledges ! expressed in a short and pithy manner, and admitting of general application. It is, however, obvious from the connection with what follows, that they are intro duced with special reference to the Chal dean power, the nefarious conduct of which the prophet immediately proceeds to describe. The phrase xaaa V-m, vvine is a deceiver, has its parallel, Prov. xxx. 1, *p-"n V V, wine is a mocker. nnnn occurs only here, and Prov. xxi. 24, where, from its connection with -it, proud, as its syn onyme, it clearly signifies elated, haughty, LXX. aXa(wv. Chald. ¦anp, as used by the Rabbins, superbivit. See Buxt. in voc. Thus also in the Nazaraian Syr. 7 !»t» , . Ethpa. superbivit. There is, there fore, no necessity for recurring to the Arab., the attempted derivations from which are very precarious. The intro ductory particles *a qsa are designed to connect the proper prophecy with what had just been developed of the vision, as that which formed the most important part of it. qs is expressive of addition, and ^a of certainty. That the prophet has his eye upon the intem perance to which the Babylonians were greatly addicted, there can be little doubt. Comp. Dan. v.; with Herod, i. 191; Xenoph. Cyrop. vii. 5, 15. " Babylonii maxime in vinum et quse ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt." Curtius, v. 1. How strikingly was the deceptive cha racter of wine exemplified in the ease of Belshazzar ! naa, primarily signifies to dwell, remain at rest, which signification better suits the present passage than the secondary one of being decorous, propel-, etc., adopted by the Vulg. , Ewald, and some others. Still it is a question, whether the not remaining tranquil is to be viewed as a voluntary or as an involuntary act. The Targ., Rashi, Kimchi, Ben-Melee, De Wette, Justi, Maurer, and Delitzsch, refer it to the . forcible ejection for the Babylonians : Abenezra, Abarbanel, Ro senmiiller, Wolff, Wahl, Gesenius, and Hitzig, to their restless disposition, by which they were continually impelled to go forth upon new expeditions of con quest. The latter seems, from what follows, to be the preferable interpreta tion. For a-jEa V-'s'sa a* n in, see on Is. v. 14, and comp. Prov. xxvii. 20, xxx. 15. The insatiable desire of conquest, which specially showed itself in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, is here forcibly pre dicted, c^aatn- Va and c-aaSTa-Va must be restricted to all the nations with which the Jews were familiar. 6. Comp. Is. xiv. 4, and see my notes on Vcn as there occurring. na^Vpo oc curs only here, and Prov. i. 6, in which verse also all the three synouymes V'sJaa, na-'Vaa, and ni^n are found. It properly signifies derision, taunt, scorn, from yaV, to stammer, speak barbarously or unintelligibly ; hence to mock, deride ; and thus the substantive obtained the acceptation, taunt, taunting song. LXX. o-Koreivbv x6yov. In the later Hebrew the word is used to denote poetry in gen eral. niTa means oratio infiexa, per- Chap. II. II A B A K K U K . 299 7 Shall not they rise up suddenly that have lent thee on usury ? And awake that shall shake thee violently ? And thou shalt become their prey. 8 Because thou hast plundered many nations, plexa, an enigma, highly figurative and difficult language, requiring acuteness and ingenuity fully to understand it. Comp. the Arab, i>l^, A . ~- ; supera- vit negotii difficultatem. Delitzsch not unaptly instances the words ta-uas, ver". 6, Tpaaa, ver. 7, and -pVppp, ver. 16, as enigmata of this description. The derisive ode or song commences imme diately, and occupies the rest of the chapter. It consists of five stanzas, the three first of which are composed of three verses each, the fourth of four verses, and the last of two. Each stanza has its distinct and appropriate subject ; and with the exception of the last, they all commence with •nn, wo, the denuncia tive interjection ; and have each a verse at the close, beginning with -a ; thus forming an organic whole of singular force and beauty, lassn is to be taken im personally or collectively, ta-uas has been variously interpreted. Several of the Rabbins, the Syr., Vulg., and after them Luther, and other translators, take it to be compounded of as , dense, and tai-a, clay, which ten of Kennicott's MSS. read as two words, and most commenta tors who follow them suppose riches or earthly goods to be meant : but it is more in accordance with the grammatical form of the word to regard it as a quadriliteral noun, from the root laas, to exchange, give a pledge; in Hiph., to lend on a pledge. The signification of the noun is thus correctly given by Lee : " an ac cumulation of pledges in the hand of an unfeeling usurer." The form is that of V-Vtap. as in V"Van from Van; n,nra or T-iaia from as: ; -p-i.aa from ¦n.ao ; -p-3-a> from -E'i. The reduplication ex presses intensity or augmentation. Mau rer, copia pignorum captorum, an inter pretation already given by Nic. Fuller in his Miscell. Sac. lib. v. cap. viii. The Chaldean power is thus represented as a rapacious and cruel usurer, who had ac cumulated the property of others, and from whom it would again be taken. Comp. Deut. xxiv. 10-13, for the use of laas, and the law agamst cruelty in usurers. The hypothesis of Delitzsch, that ta-taas is, as an enigmatical term, to be understood both as a compound, and as a quadriliteral, is not in keeping with his usual good sense. 7. sns, suddenly, corresponds to ¦na; — rs, how long ? in the preceding verse, and not improbably refers to the unexpectedness of the attack made upon Babylon by the Medes and Persians. See on Is. xxi. 3, 4. 7^3 properly sig nifies to bite, and thus it is rendered in most versions. Some translate, oppress ; but, since it likewise signifies to lend on usury, there can be little doubt the prophet intended it to be understood in this acceptation, as a striking antithesis to ta-taas at the close of the preceding 7 verse. Comp. the Aram, na:, As J momordit, usuras exegit. Arab. . jO«j', the same. The same mode of speech was not unknown both to the Greeks and Romans. Aristoph. Nub. i. 12, tiaKv6pevos virb toiv XRe^v. Lucan. i. 171, usura vorax. The meanmg is, that as the Babylonians had cruelly amassed the property of others, so other nations, like devouring usurers, would unmerci fully deprive them of all they had ac quired, asp*- , defective for aap"!, as in Jud. xvi. 20. aapsTSTK, the Phil. participle of sat, to shake, agitate. The reduplicate form conveys the idea of violent or excessive agitation. The allu sion is to the violent seizure of a debtor by his creditor. See Matt, xviii. 28. 8. The remainder of the nations con- 300 HABAKKUK. Chap. II. All the remainder of the people shall plunder thee ; Because of the blood of men, and of the violence done to the earth, To the city and all that dwell in it. 9 Wo to him that procureth wicked gain for his house, That he may establish his nest on high, To be preserved from the power of calamity. 10 Thou hast devised what is a disgrace to thy house, Cutting off many people, and sinning against thyself. 11 For the stone crieth out from the wall, And the brick from the timber answereth it ; sisted of those who had escaped the de vastation of the Chaldeans. The terms man, earth, and city, are to be understood generally, and are not to be restricted to the Jews, with their country and its me tropolis. "7.s— BKn is the genitive of object. 9. In the stanza, comprising this and the two following verses, the avarice and selfishness of the Chaldeans are de nounced. The phrase saa saa is very common in Hebrew. The verb denotes to cut, or break off, as the Orientals, especially the Chinese do, pieces of silver and other metals in their money trans actions with each other. Hence it came to be applied, in a bad sense, to such as were greedily occupied with such transac tions, and its derivative saa, to signify wicked gain, lucre. To mark it, in the present instance, as specially atrocious, S-_, wicked, is added. n*a, house, stands here for the royal family ; -(p , nest, for the arx regia, to express its inaccessible height, the allusion being taken from the nest of the eagle, which is built on high rocks, difficult of access. See Job xxxix. 27, and comp. Numb. xxiv. 21 ; Jer. xlix. 16. 10. " Thou hast devised disgrace to thy house," means thy schemes and projects shall issue in the infamy of thy family. Instead of naap, the infinitive of nap, the ancient versions have read naap, the preterite of yap. The infini tive may either follow in construction nasp preceding, or the following sta'ari. I have adopted the latter, and rendered it participially. It properly denotes the direct aim of the action predicted by the preceding finite verb. For the last clause, comp. Prov. viii. 36, xx. 2. 11. An exquisite instance of bold and daring personification, by which the ma terials used in the construction of the royal palace, and other sumptuous build ings, at Babylon, are introduced as re- sponsively complaining of the injustice which they had suffered, either in their having been taken from their original owners, or in their being made subser vient to the scenes of wickedness that were enacted in their- presence. Comp. Luke xix. 40. The Targ. adds to the first line, n-V Oasn Vs, because violence has been done to it. a- ed occurs only here, but from the signification of the 7 cognate Syr. . mo ^. connexuit, it has been supposed to mean the cross beam by which the walls of a building are held together. Thus Sym., Theod., and the 5th vers., avvtieapos, LXX. Kav&apos, searabceus, but which some think was originally Kav&iipiov, which Vitruvius ex - plains as signifying a cross-beam. Arab. JJjJ!, SjSXJaJI ^x, the pin from the wood. According to the Mishnah, the word signifies a half brick, which Parchon also gives as the meaning. He thus describes it: c*:iap caaV "E fc"E2 tna c-:aaa t>nn ¦'Vaa -(aaaa -patss Cn.vr. II. II A B A K K U K . 301 12 13 14 15 Wo to him that buikleth a town through bloodshed, And establisheth a city through injustice. Behold ! is it not from Jehovah of hosts ? So that the people shall labor for the very fire ; Yea, the nations shall weary themselves for mere vanity. For the earth shall be filled With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, As the waters cover the sea. Wo to him that giveth drink to his neighbor, Pouring out thy wrath, and making him drunk ; In order to look upon their nakedness. C*a*:an, small bricks prepared in the kiln, like pottery, and used in building edifices. This interpretation is confirmed by the rendering of Aquila, p.d£a, what is baked, and by the abundant use of bricks by the Babylonians, which are still visible in the ruins of their city. Citing this passage in the Taanith, Rashi ex plains it to be "half a brick which is usually laid between two layers of wood," Delitzsch. That it was not the wood itself is evident from the following "yas, from or out of the ivood, except we take the preposition as indicating the material of which the beam consisted. In this latter case, the words should be rendered, And the wooden beam answereth it ; but agamst such construction the parallel "ppa, out of the wall, is an insuperable objection. 12, 13. The subject of the third stanza, which begins here, was naturally sug gested by the concluding verse of the preceding. The riches which enabled the king of Babylon to rebuild and en large the royal city, were procured in the bloody wars in which he had en gaged ; and the works themselves were carried up by people from different parts of the empire, and by captives from other nations. The preposition ya prefixed in nan1; nstt. points out the ultimate cause of the destruction of the Babylonian em pire — the overruling providence of God, who, in order to give prominence to his resistless omnipotence, is designated na'saa n^ra1, Jehovah of hosts. For this epithet, see on Is. i. 9. i-aa is not a poetic form for a, but is intensive, -it, signifying sufficiencg, abundance. The preposition here points out the final issue or result of the labor and fatigue con nected with the erections in question, the conflagration and depopulation of the city of Babylon. The last two lines of verse 13 are found in Jer. li. 58; only »s and p'-i have exchanged places, aEs*a stands for ass", and the defective form asara for as3•";,. For the destruc tion by fire, comp. Jer. li. 30, 58 ; for her desolation, ver. 43. Hitzig, from the mere circumstance of the use of the same terms Micah vii. 10, applies the prophecy to Jehoiakim ! 14. This verse is clearly predictive of the gospel dispensation, to the introduc tion of which the destruction of the Babylonian power was indispensable, in asmuch as it involved the deliverance of the Jews from captivity, and their re-occupation of their own land before the advent of the Messiah. See on Is. xi. 9, 11, the former of which verses contains a similar prediction of the same event, c1 sea, is used for the bed of the sea. 15. The commencement of the fourth stanza. Though the idea of the shame less conduct of drunkards, here depicted, may have been borrowed from the profli gate manners of the Babylonian court, yet the language is not to be taken lit- 302 HABAKKUK. Chap. II 16 Thou art filled with shame, not with glory ; Drink thou also, and show thyself uncircumcized ; The cup of Jehovah's right hand shall come round to thee, And great ignominy shall be upon thy glory. erally, as if the prophet were describing such manners, but, as the sequel shows, is applied allegorically to the state of stupefaction, prostration, and exposure, to which the conquered nations were re duced by the Chaldeans. See on Is. li. 17, 20 ; and comp. Ps. lxxv. 8 ; Jer. xxv. 15-28, xlix. 12, li. 7 ; Ezek. xxiii. 31, 32 ; Rev. xiv. 10, xvi. 9, xviii. 6. Snsn is a collective, and thus is equiva lent to amy-), in the plural, which is required to agree with the suffix in Cnpnasu. The latter noun is derived from "i as Arab. . (_£ to be naked, as its synonyme nans is from nns. In^nnn is a change from the third person to the second, for the sake of effect. There not being anything in the ancient Greek versions coiTesponding to the a|, is no ground for its rejection, since their au thors frequently took liberties even when professedly most verbal. naan is not the construct of nasn. or na:n, bottle, but of nasn, heat, or wrath. Comp. •naana s"aB?t>"a, Is. lxiii. 6, and li. 17 ; Jer. xxv. 15 ; Rev. xvi. 19. Delitzsch attempts in vain to set aside the signifi cation of pour, as inhering in the root nES ; Arab. s±Juu, effudit. Cognate ^Eaii. Targ. cjVt. nari is the infinitive used instead of the . participle. The language of the concluding clause of the verse is expressive of the deep est humiliation on the one hand, and of the most haughty wantonness on the other. 16. The preposition in "raaa? is nega tive, as in aaau s-a nans, Ps. Iii. 5. The full force of the hemistich is, " Thou art satiated, but it is with shame, not with glory." Kimchi and others, com paring nVs-inn a-a, Is. li. 17, and qa Vs-i, Zech. xii. 2, suppose that in Vn.Sn, be thou uncircumcised, there is a trans position of the letters s and n, and that the verb has origuially been Vspan, reel or stagger. And thus the LXX. (Kaptiia caXevSrnri Kal erefaaSbjTi) have interpreted it, and have been followed by the Arab., Syr., and Vulg. There is, however, such a manifest agreement with bnpna'SB, pudenda eorum, at the close of the pre ceding verse, that the interpretation can not be admitted. In the mouth of a He brew no term could have expressed more ineffable contempt. Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 36. As the Chaldeans had treated the nations which they conquered in the most disgusting manner, so they, in their turn, should be similarly treated. To express the certainty of the event, the verbs are in the imperative. See on Is. vi. 10. aaan is the future in Niphal, and conveys the idea of the cup of suf fering being transferred from one nation to another, each in its turn, being made to drink of it. Comp. Jer. xxv. 6 ; Lam. iv. 21. TpVppp, the Vulg. renders, vomi- tus ignominia?, as if compounded of "p for s"p, vomit, and 1'Vp, shame. In nine MSS. it is read as two words, and this etymology is approved by most Jew ish and Christian interpreters. It is, however, more in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, to regard it as a reduplicate form of ")"Vp, em ployed for the sake of intensity, after the form hp^p '¦ only instead of ip'VpVp we have the softer "piVp-p. Comp. the Syr. ]3 * ' for t^VaVa. Thus the LXX. &t<- .0 7 pila; Syr. liii. ; Targ. saVp. The glory of the Babylonians was to be com pletely eclipsed by the deep disgrace in which they should be involved. CllAP. II. II A B A K K U K , 303 17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, As the destruction of beasts terrifioth them ; Because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the earth, To the city, and all that dwell in it. 18 What profitcth the graven image which its maker graveth — The molten imago, and the teacher of falsehood ? In which the maker of his work trusteth — Making dumb idols. 19 Woe to him that saith to the wood, Awake ! Wake up ! to the dumb stone. It teach ! There it is, 17. "paaV Cera and yps-eaqn are genitives of object. That Lebanon is not here to be understood literally, but figur atively, of Jerusalem, seems fully estab lished by the prophetic style in other passages, especially Jer. xxii. 23 ; Ezek. xvii. 3, 12 ; Zech. xi. 1. The aptness of the figure consists partly in the circum stance, that cedars from that mountain were employed in the construction of the temple and other houses in Jerusalem, 1 Kings vi. 9, 10, 18, vii. 2, ix. 10, 11 ; 2 Chron. i. 15 ; and partly in its stateli- ness and grandeur as the metropolis. Against this interpretation, the objections do not apply which Delitzsch makes to the opinion of those who maintain that by Lebanon the land of Palestine is meant. nSa, to cover, is used emphati cally to express the completeness of the destruction which should overtake the Chaldeans. Similar violence to that which they had exercised should be brought upon themselves. The a in iv a is a particle of comparison, retaining, indeed, its ordinary conjunctive power, but also introducing a clause designed to illustrate the preceding. Of this idiom, the following are instances; VaasV Cis tps i--x," q "on ^aaanVa", Man is born to trouble, and (as) birds of prey fly aloft, Job v. 7. nst^ ?jrip iraapp -pVn its— 'a VasV. For the ear trieth words, and (as) the palate tasteth food. This construc tion entirely obviates the difficulty which necessarily attaches to the attempts that have been made to interpret the n a Kara, beasts, of the inhabitants of Palestine. The prophet compares the confusion and destruction which should come upon the enemy of the Jews to those experienced by the wild beasts when brought into circumstances from which they cannot escape. rnn signifies to be broken, brolcen in pieces, destroyed, confounded, terrified. In the present form "n"l"i", the Yod is substituted for the Dagesh in the regular form -nn", as ^B-nra for apsnn, Is, xxxiii. 1. The Nun appended is not paragogic, but the verbal suffix of the third feminine plural, agreeing with naa:na. There is no sufficient ground for changing •) into -[, though the authors of some of the ancient versions may have thus read. For the last clause, see on verse 8. 18, 19. These verses expose the folly of idolatry to which the Babylonians were wholly addicted. It might be sup posed, from all the other stanzas having been introduced by a denunciatory ¦-'-, wo, that a transposition has here taken place, and that the nineteenth ought to be read before the eighteenth : and Green has thus placed them in his trans lation ; but there is a manifest propriety in anticipating the inutility of idols, in close connection with what the prophet had just announced respecting the down fall of Babylon, before delivering his HABAKKUK. Chap. HI. Overlaid with gold and silver, But there is no breath at all within it. 20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple ; Keep silence before him all the earth. denunciation against their worshippers themselves, ia, in both instances, is used as a relative pronoun, as in Gen. iii. 19. iv. 25 ; Is. lvii. 20. The idol is called " a teacher of falsehood," on account of the lying oracles that were connected with its worship. For these verses, com pare Is. xliv. 9-20 ; Jer. x. In the latter part of the nineteenth verse, the language is highly and pointedly ironi cal. n-ap'"1 San, it teach ! is an em phatic form of putting a question which requires a negative reply. nnp> forms a paronomasia with nppaa in the preceding verse, san nan, there it is. Such is the force of the interjection njn in this place — it not being followed as usual by the accusative, but for the sake of mak ing the idol more prominent, by the nominative case. 20. In striking contrast with the utter nihility of idols, Jehovah is here intro duced, at the close of the prophecy, as the invisible Lord of all, occupying his celestial temple, whence he is ever ready to interpose his omnipotence for the de liverance and protection of his people and the destruction of their enemies. Comp. Is. xxvi. 21. Such a God it becomes all to adore in solemn and pro found silence. Ps. lxxvi. 8, 9 ; Zeph. i. 7 ; Zech. ii. 13. CHAPTER III. Though forming a distinct whole, this chapter is intimately connected with the two pre ceding, the subjects contained in which it presupposes, and is evidently designed to afford consolation to the Jews during the national calamities there anticipated. It exhibits a regular ode beginning with a brief but simple and appropriate exordium; after which follows the main subject, which is treated in a manner perfectly free and unrestrained, as the different topics rose one after another in the powerfully excited mind of the prophet ; and finishes with an epigrammatic resumption of the point first adverted to in the intro duction, and the practical lesson which the piece was intended to teach. "With respect to the body of the ode, interpreters are greatly divided in opinion. The Fathers generally, and after them many Catholic commentators, and among Protestants, Cocceius, Bengel, Roos, and others, apply the whole chapter, with certain modifications, to New Testament times, and subject it to all the uncertainty of imaginary interpreta tion. But the principal point of disagreement relates to the theophania, or Divine inter position, so sublimely set forth, ver. 3—15- According to the Targum, Abarbanel, Aben ezra, Tarnovius, Munster, Clarius, Drusius, Schnurrer, Herder. Michaelis, Green, Lowth, Tingstadius, Eiehhorn, Justi, Hesselberg, Ackermnnn. and Ewald, the prophet adverts to the wonderful displays of the power and majesty oi' God during the early history of the Hebrews. Maurer, Hitzig, and Delitzsch, on the other hand, contend that tlie future in terposition of Jehovah for the destruction of the Chaldeans, is what he exclusively con templates. The last-mentioned author has not only gone at great length, and with much minuteness, into the subject, but appears to have exhausted all his critical and exegetical Cuap. III. H A 15 A K K U K . 303 ingenuity in his attempt to establish his hypothesis. Taking for granted that S:ii" , ver. 3, cannot, by any possibility, be construed otherwise than to express the strict futurity of the advent predicated, he proceeds to show, from what he considers to be the or ganic structure of the ode; from the connection of "pyic- and T;:_r:» ver. 1G; and from certain features of the picture itself, that what he calls the lyric-prophetical view is alone to be admitted. I must, howe.er, confess, that after a careful examination of his argu ments, I can discover nothing in them that goes to overturn the historical position adopted by the numerous writers above mentioned. That nothing in the shape of a reg ular and specific recital of distinct facts is exhibited in the tableau, cannot fairly be urged against this interpretation, since such a recital would ill accord with the enthusi asm and impetuosity which are so characteristic of the ode as a species of poetry. The abrupt and rapid transitions of the prophet did not admit of more than a slight, though sublimely figurative allusion, to one or two localities, which it was necessary to specify, in order to call up the general scene of events to the mind of the reader: all the rest is left to be supplied by his familiar acquaintance with the sacred national records. What he aims at is to produce a powerful impression by condensing, within the shortest pos sible limits, a view of the magnolia Dei, as exhibited in these records. And this he does by giving utterance to the total impression which they produced upon his own mind, rather than by furnishing a detailed historical description. Regarding the composition in this light, the obscurity and apparent incoherence which attach to certain parts of it are at once accounted for. As parallels to this ode, we may adduce Deut. xxxiii. 2 — 5; Jud. \ . 4, 5; Ps. lxviii. 7, 8, lxxvii. 13—20, cxiv.; Is. lxiii. 11—14. That the Holy Spirit availed himself, so to speak, of some of these passages in presenting the subject to the view of the prophet, there can, I think, be little doubt. The agreement in point of phraseology, especially as it respects Ps. lxxvii. is most palpable. Some, indeed, have maintained the priority of our ode to the Psalm; but Delitzsch has proved, by an elaborate collation of passages and expressions, that this hypothesis is entirely without foundation, and that Habakkuk had the Psalm brought to his mind, just as he had the song of Moses called up to his recollection. The following description of this sublime ode, by the master pen of Bishop Lowth, is not more beautiful than ju?t: "The prophet, indeed, illustrates this subject throughout with equal magnificence; selecting from such an assemblage of miraculous incidents. the most noble and important, displaying them in the most splendid colors, and embel lishing them with the sublimest imagery, figures, and diction, the dignity of which is so heightened and recommended by the superior elegance of the conclusion, that were it not for a few shades, which the hand of time has apparently cast over it in two or three passages, no composition of the kind, would, I believe, appear more elegant or more per fect than this poem." Lect. xxviii. Whether the hand of time has really cast any shades over it will appear in the sequel. That it was designed for use in public worship, appears both from the inscription and the subscription, as well as from the musical term nV S, Selah, occurring verses 3, 9. 13. The chapter begins with the title and introduction, ver. 1, 2. Habakkuk then repre sents Jehovah as appearing in glorious majesty on Sinai, 3, 4; describes the ravages of the plague in the desert, 5 ; the consternation into which the nations were thrown by the victorious approach of the Hebrews to Canaan, and their wars with the inhabitants, 6—10; specially refers to the celestial phenomenon at Gibeon, 11; and then sets forth the auspicious results of the interposition of God on behalf of his people, 12 — 15. The pro phet concludes by resuming the subject of the introduction, 16 ; and strongly asserting his unshaken confidence in God in the midst of anticipated calamity. 17 — 19. 1 A prater of Habakkuk, the prophet : with triumphal music. 1. t::l?i usually rendered prayers, supplications, etc., or not. Hence it is ap- cbmprehends all kinds of devotional com- plied to all the Psalms of David collect- position, whether abounding in petitions, ively, Ps. lxxii. 20 ; and is otherwise 39 306 HABAKKUK. Chap. III. 2 O Jehovah ! I heard the report of thee, I was afraid ; O Jehovah ! revive thy work in the midst of the years ; only used in the inscriptions of Psalms xvii. Ixxxvi. xc. cii. cxiii. The term is derived from V^S, to separate, distin guish ; cognate to riht ; and so to form an opinion or judgment, to judge, give a verdict. In Hithpael the verb signifies to apply to a judge for a favorable decis ion, to supplicate, pray, etc. ; and is em ployed at the commencement of the song of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 1. Though the only precatory sentences are those con tained in ver. 2, yet there are several in stances of direct address to God, which impart to the ode one of the characteris tic feature of prayer. The Lamed pre fixed in p;p3h\ is that of authorship. , after the man ner of elegies, but there seems no reason deducible either from the present ode or from the Psalm, why they should be thus characterized, or why they should be sung to a plaintive tune, but the con trary. Others, as Wahl, Justi, Gesenius, derive the word from the Syriac j in Pael, >__£ff> cecinit, whence j A nm carmen, cantus, to which it has justly been objected, that it is too vague and indefinite to admit of adoption. The LXX , indeed, have ij/dxpos in the Psalm, and here citiijs ; but without any apparent reference to the specific meaning of the term. Other philologists more reason ably content themselves with r:.v, an in digenous Hebrew verb in common use, signifying to err, wander, reel, etc. This interpretation Aquila, Symm., and the fifth Greek version' so far support, ren dering iirl ayvonpdrav, which Jerome adopts, on the principle that ns» signi fies to sin through ignorance. To this derivation Hengstenberg has recently given his adhesion (Comm. on Psalms, vol. i. p. 144), but most preposterously affirms, that in our ode the sins cr crimes of the Chaldeans are intended. There is nothing either in the Psalm or in the song of Habakkuk to warrant the ap propriation of any such signification of the term. The most probable explana tion is that given by Delitzsch, who is of opinion that y^-xs means a dithyram- bos, or cantio erratica, a species of rhyth mical composition, which, from its enthu siastic irregularity, is admirably adapted for songs of victory or triumph. It is obvious, however, from the estab lished use of the preposition Vy upon, after the manner of, or accompanied with, in, the titles of the Psalms, that the plu ral n'S^ar, to which, in like manner, it is here prefixed, must be understood as describing a corresponding kind of music with which the ode was to be accompa nied. The translation of Theodotion, virep twv eKovaiaapSiv, i. e. as Jerome in terprets the words, pro voluntariis, has, in all probability, some such reference. 2. The Sizv, report of Jehovah, here referred to by the prophet, does not mean what God had communicated to him, but a report respecting Jehovah, or the punishment which he had threatened to inflict upon the Jews for their sins. The genitive is that of object. That it cannot refer to what follows in the ode is certain, since the exhibition there giv en of the Divine interposition for the overthrow of the enemies of his people was calculated to inspire the prophet with joy, and not with the fear of which Chap. III. I1ABA K KUK. 307 In the midst of the years make it known : In wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman ; The Holy One from mount Paran : Pause. he declares he was conscious. His prayer also, that while punishment was being inflicted, God would exercise pity, shows that the Jews, and not the Chaldeans, were to be the subjects of the infliction. It may, therefore, be regarded as certain, that what he has in view is the predic tion chap. i. G-ll. The fear with which the prophet was seized, he particularly describes ver. 16. By ^[Vye, thy work, Abarbanel, Kimchi,Schnurrer, Justi, and some others, understand the Jews, on the ground that they are designated the Vs.3, work of Jehovah's hands, Is. xiv. 11; but the simple occurrence of the same word, irrespective of the specific claims of the connection, cannot justify such a con struction of the meaning. In chap. i. 5, the term is used of the Divine judgment upon the Jews, as it also is Is. v. 12, and of that upon their enemies, Ps. Ixiv. 9. This latter sense, which involves the ex ercise of the power and goodness of God on behalf of his people, alone suits the present context. Comp. Ps. xc. 16. What the prophet prays for is the re newal of such interposition. This he expresses by the strong term rf n > quick en, restore to life, which suggests the idea of a cessation of the avenging and delivering power of the Most High. It had been, in regard to its exertion, as if it had been dead, and required to be called forth afresh into action. Thus Jarchi: siej rippviw tiok-i- ^se fn*~ft n^i'.-ia 13SW n-sn-3W an"= -s"=isn iih inaiBrn irmis "tt-.Vs lrp-n c=. Thy former work, when thou didst avenge us of our enemies, in the midst of the years of the calamity in which we live, revive it, i. e. rouse it up, cause it to return. Comp. Is. li. 9, 10. No stress is to be laid on the phrase C-S'j) ="?.!?. 3;> *» the midst of the years, from which Bengel deduced so much fanciful support to his chronological calculations; maintaining that the middle point of the years of the world is meant. D^aii are unques tionably the years, or period of affliction, which was to come upon the Jewish peo ple. 2"ip.2 is not to be taken in the strict acceptation of the middle point of any given period of time, but is, as fre quently, only a more emphatic preposi tive form, instead of a, in. The meaning, therefore, simply is, During the period of suffering, or, in the course of our punishment by the Chaldeans, interpose for our deliverance. Symm. iprbs twv iviavT&v. To give pathos to the lan guage, the phrase is repeated ; and ypn -'p is added, as synonymous with srrMri, the suffix of which is to be understood, though not expressed. The verb si, to know, is here used in the sense of expe riencing, knowing by experience, crn, the infinitive, is to be regarded as an ac cusative. Comp. Ps. xxv. 6: ^pBfn- ist nten t^iyn *a t|*78rii fi'in*. It is merely necessary to exhibit the version of this verse as now found in the text of the LXX. to show that it can only have originated in the amalgamation of dif ferent readings, some of them probably marginal glosses, and that it would be most unwarrantable to attempt any cor rection of the Hebrew text by it : Kvpie, eiaaKiiKOa tijv a.Koi]V aov, Kal i(pofir}&nv, KaTavo-fjaa to. ipya aov Kal i^ear-nv iv peaw tii/o £t£aiv yvwa&rfari iv rip iyyi^eiv to. eTV iiriyvaio'&rio'fl iv rb irapeivai rbv Kaipbv avatieix&rfay, iv rip Tapax&rjvai rr\v tyvxyv pov, iv bpyrj iXeovs p-vnafoja-y. 3. pi'Vs is not used by any of the minor prophets except Habakkuk, and by him only here, and chap. i. 11. It occurs four times in Daniel, and once in Isaiah, but never in Jeremiah or Ezekiel. There is no foundation whatever for the 308 II A B A K K U K . Chap. III. His splendor covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. position assumed by Gesenius and some others, that this use of the singular be longs to the' later Hebrew, though it is allowed to belong to the poetic diction. It is employed forty times in the book of Job, one of the most ancient specimens of Hebrew composition extant, and twice by Moses, Deut. xxxii. siiip, Holy, which is here parallel to "i'-N , God, also occurs in this application to express the absolute purity of the Divine Being, Job vi. 10; Is. xl. 25 ; and in the plural, t^'iip, Prov. ix. 10, xxx. 3; Hos. xii. 1. Delitzsch contends, that, as sh* is uninfluenced by any preceding preterite, it cannot possibly be taken otherwise than as strictly future in signification, as it is in form. But this is not the only instance in which the future stands ab solutely at the commencement of a sen tence or paragraph, yet clearly indicating a past transaction. Thus Num. xxiii. 7, Ens-- jm , pVa ijris;; Jud. ii. 1, nVi's tauten tar's ; 2 Sam. iii. 33, rvKart "i;a!« rA-a\ *>as ; Job iii. 3, Cii nasi *ai^>p,K ; Ps.lxxx. 9, ypop c-istett yzy. The idiom, in these and similar cases, is sufficiently accounted for on the princi ple that the speaker places himself, in imagination, anterior to the action ex pressed by the verb, and thus, regarding it as still future, puts the verb in that tense. Having prayed that God would remember the mercy which he had shown to his people in ancient days, the prophet has his mind carried back to their affliction in Egypt, in their deliv erance from which that mercy was sig nally displayed; and assuming that as his point of observation, he proceeds at once to describe the Theophania as fu ture in regard to such position. The past, thus implied, though not expressed, as completely modifies a future tense, as if a preterite, or any qualifying particle, had preceded it. "'C"P> Teman, the LXX. retain as a proper name : the Targ., Syr,, Theod., Vulg., and many modern versions read, tlie south. The word is doubtless to be taken as desig nating the country to the south of Judea, and east of Idumea, in which latter country Mount Paran ("pss in) was situated. Some, indeed, have endeavored to indentify this mountain with Sinai, on the ground that yJwAi —t>t«, Wady Pheiran, which extends north-west from Sinai, is the same as "pss ">s-o, the desert of Paran, mentioned in Scripture. But although this desert might have stretched so far towards the south-west as to touch upon the Wady, and so give it the name, it is certain, from Paran being mentioned in connection with Kadesh and Beersheba, that the wilderness of that name extended to the southern con fines of Palestine, including the moun tainous region to the west of the Ghor, or great valley stretching from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic gulf. In 1 Kings xi. 18, it is spoken of as lying between Mi- dian and Egypt. From Sinai occurring along with Seir and Paran, Deut. xxxiii. 2, and with Seir and the country of Edom, Jud. v. 4, 5, it is probable that Habakkuk here alludes to the regions to the south of Palestine generally, as the theatre of the Divine manifestations to Israel, only, like Moses and Deborah, specifying the two points nearer to that country. In this view, his omission of Sinia, which they notice, is not of mate rial moment. The glorious displays of the power and majesty of Jehovah which had been made in that quarter occupied his thoughts, and inspired him with feel ings of the most exalted devotion, ribo, Selah. This word, which occurs thrice in this ode, and seventy-three times in the Psalms, has been variously inter preted. That it is a musical sign is now almost universally admitted. It is found at the end of certain sections, or stropes, and always at the close of a verse, Chap. III. II A B A K K U K . 109 4 The brightness was like that of the sun, Rays streamed from his hand, Yet the concealment of his glory was there. except Hab. iii. 3, 9 ; Ps. Iv. 20, lvii. 4 ; where however, as always, it ends the hemistich. Sometimes it occurs at the end of a Psalm, as Ps. iii ix. and xxiv. The current, and apparently the tradi tionary interpretation, is that of the Targ. yahv\ ; Aq. &ei; Symm. some times els rbv ai&va; Theod. sometimes els TeXos ', the Y. Greek version, Stairav- tos ; but Symm. and Theod. most com monly coincide with the LXX., who uniformly render, tiidy§\ O^yfijj". Comp. the cog nate a r.» . Thus Gesenius, Lee, Maurer, Ewald, Heidenheim, Hesselberg, Del itzsch. The primary idea conveyed by ~P3 is that of bounding, springing up, as a person does when overtaken by sud den fear. In ssijr' we have all the force of intensive verbs, heightened in effect by the harsh sound of the redupli cated Tzade. fsB signifies to break or dash in pieces, and also to scatter, dis perse. For ip-na and D^-y risaa , comp. Gen. xlix. 26 ; Deut. xxxiii. 15. ".b t^'y r*"a*Vn, His ancient ways, I consider to be epexegetical of the preced ing ; and nia^n is to be taken in the same sense as C2ii in the sentence Vs — 'aii n^aisi s;n , Job xl 19, which describes the hippopotamus as " the first or principal of the ways of God," i. a. his creative acts, his works. The words may be resolved into iV -ris tViy nia-Vn, or into iiaVis rpa^Vn . The mountains which Jehovah had created of old, and which had resisted the revolutions of ages, were now shattered in pieces, and dissipated like dust before him. The irresistibility of his power, and the utter imbecility of the most formidable ene mies of his people, are the ideas conveyed by the language of the prophet. 7. i)S rnn, "under affliction," is more expressive than "psa , "in afflic tion," as it suggests the idea of a heavy load hy which those spoken of were op pressed, yiip, Cushan, is now generally admitted to be the same as v^t , Cash, as y&'rb , Lotan, Gen. xxxvi. 20, is only another form of uV' , Lot ; but whether it be intended to designate the African or the Arabian Cush is disputed. Ge senius, Maurer, Delitzsch, and others, contend for the former ; but the connec tion of the name with that of y-iz., Midian, is decidedly in favor of the latter. For a satisfactory refutation of the position adopted by Gesenius, that Cush, and all the tribes connected with this name, are only to be sought in Africa, see Robinson's Calmet, art. Cush. That any reference to Cushan-rishathaim, Jud. iii. 10, is in tended, does not appear. Midian appears to have stretched from the eastern shores of the Elanitic Gulf to Mount Sinai, and the frontiers of Moab. Edrisi speaks of a town called ,.^ji)uc, Madian, about five days' journey from Ailah, or Akabah, and six from Tubuk. The " tents" and " curtains" describe the nomadic mode of life as still found among the Bedawin of the Arabian des erts. riiy^i"1 , the coverings of the tents, so called from their tremulous motion when hanging down like curtains and affected by the wind. The word is here used merely as a synonyme of C^Vns , tents ; and both are put by metonymy for the persons dwelling in them. 8. The prophet rising in his graphic description of the ancient manifestations of Jehovah, now by a bold apostrophe inquires why the rivers were affected by them ? Was it on account of any cause in the rivers? The implied answer is, No ; and the true cause is assigned at the 312 HABAKKUK. Chap. III. Was thine anger against the rivers ? Was thy wrath against the sea ? That thou didst ride upon thy horses, In thy chariots of victory. 9 Naked and bared was thy bow, " Sevens of spears" was the word : Pause. Thou didst cleave the earth into rivers. close of the verse — the safe and victori ous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and their introduction into Ca naan, rvjrfi is in the vocative, and the subject of the verb rrtrl is "^BN, in the second hemistich. D"in3 , the rivers, mean the waters of the Red Sea, and the Jordan, which were dried up to allow them to pass over on foot. The former is not indeed a river, but may not in aptly be included under the term, on account of the floiving of the tide, which is said to rise at Suez to about the height of seven feet. On the miraculous divis ion of the sea, recorded Exod. xiv., it was made to go or flow back the whole night, ver. 21. For the application of 1—3 to the stream tide of the Mediter ranean, See Jonah ii. 4. That the rivers of Cush should be intended is altogether out of the question. Specifically, how ever, to mark out the Red Sea, it is after wards expressly called C in the third hemistich. Comp. as parallel with the present verse, Exod. xv. ; Ps. lxxvii. 13, cxiv. 3, 5. Jehovah is here, and in the following verses, represented as a mighty and victorious warrior, giving orders to his army, and, in triumphant progress, carrying all before him. Comp. Exod. xv. 3, xiv. 14. Cjs , anger, and may , wrath, are synonymes, only the latter is the stronger of the two, signifying unre strained indignation ; from lay , to pass over, or beyond a boundary. By " horses" and " chariots," there is no necessity for our understanding either the angels, or thunder and lightning, as some would interpret. They are merely figurative expressions, designed to carry out the metaphor adopted from military opera tions. In the phrase riSfv* iprfaanM, supply ^y , upon, before the former word, and repeat fi»asi» , chariots, before the latter. Comp. for instances of similar construction, ^"- , Ezek. xvi. 27. — nyTO' has in such con nection, the specific signification of vic tory, though the idea of salvation or deliverance, as the result, is not to be lost sight of. 9. The combination -i'sri ~"1S, which forms a paronomasia, determines the sig nification of isis , as here employed, to be that of being bare or naked, and not that of rousing or exciting. For though the Piel iipy is used of the lifting up of a spear, there would be no propriety in thus applying it to a bow : whereas the substantive -;">.?. , nakedness, having just been employed, nothing was more natural than to add lii'Si, to be bared i!iy being thus cognate in signification with ri-9 , from which r^iy is derived, and with iiy . n"iy is used adjectively, as in my niy s\si , Ezek. xvi. 7. -isFi, is not the second, but the third per son singular in Niphal, having for its nominative rip , which is of the com mon gender. Some of the moderns have explained rrip. , of the rainbow, than which nothing can be conceived more incongruously out of place in a passage containing a sublime poetical description of warlike operations. The making bare the bow, refers to the removal of the cover in which it was carefully wrapped, to prevent its receiving injury, or of such a leathern case as the ywpvrbs, Kaypvrbs corytus, of the Greeks and Romans. Of the following words, ikn r'lKB t'lya;: , Chap. III. II A B A K K U K . 313 10 The mountains saw thee, they were in pain ; The inundation of water overflowed ; The abyss uttered its voice, It raised its hands on high. upwards of one hundred different inter pretations have been proposed. That which I have adopted appears to me best to suit the connection. It keeps up the spirit of the poem, and is fully justified on the simplest and most legitimate ety mological grounds. Thatrpya'i cannot signify oaths, is determined by the cir cumstance that " the oaths of the tribes," the rendering of our common version, affords no tolerable . sense as here intro duced, whether we regard the tribes as the persons swearing, or as those to whom oaths were sworn. The other sig nification of ry^aia , is seven, a heptade, or what is made up of seven. It is else where literally applied only to this num ber of weeks; but in connection with language so highly figurative as that of our prophet in the present chapter, no objection can reasonably be taken against its being used otherwise than as a desig nation of time. It appears to have been appropriated by him, to express the per fection, fulness, or abundance, of the number, instead of the usual numeral rar or ryaa, when employed symboli cally as a sacred and indefinite number. rr-iU signifies a tribe, but also, as v^v , 2 Sam. xviii. 14, a lance or spear ; and that the latter signification is that in which Habakkuk here uses it may be inferred from his using it in this accep tation in the 14th verse. Thus the Syr. |jj_ # -);x has been variously rendered by word, promise, epicinium, commander, etc. I take it in the first of these signi fications, as specifically designating the military order, or word of command. Compare Ps. lxviii. 12. -«- -,rp -jis , "the Lord gave the word," etc. Thus, IBS, like the Arab, yol, signifies to order, command. The meaning of the 40 prophet will therefore be, that Jehovah prepared his how for battle, and ordered numerous spears to be produced ; in other words, that he brought the most formid able and effective instrumentality to bear against the enemies of his people. The nominative to yfan is not v-s , as some would construe the words, but ni"1: mi derstood from the suffix in ^n-i:p_. Comp. 13-Ba E-ns y^ap , Ps. Ixxviii. 15. Before rviins -supply b or a ; to cleave into rivers. The effect of the Di vine command is sublimely represented under the idea of that which is frequently produced by earthquakes, when immense quantities of water gush out of the fis sures, and flow like rivers through the country. The whole verse is distin guished for its sublimity and beauty ; and the sentiment conveyed in the two first lines was regarded as so weighty that a nVa , Selah, or pause, is added, to give time for its producing its proper effect be fore supplementing the concluding line. 10. The mountains being the most prominent objects on the surface of the globe, Habakkukreiterates, in a somewhat different form, what he had expressed, ver. 6, in order to preserve the impression of the tremendous character of the trans actions, to illustrate which they had been figuratively introduced. In the former case nsi is used of Jehovah ; in this, of the mountains, which are, by a bold fig ure, represented as inspired with life, and capable of taking sensible cognizance of the manifestations of Deity. To express the instantaneous character of the effect, sVm'' , they quaked, is put in the future. The root Vsin or V"n properly signifies to twist, writhe, as with pain, and is fre quently used of a woman in travail. It is also employed in the sense of quaking or trembling, which idea is conveyed by it in this place. 314 HABAKKUK. Chap. III. 1 1 Sun and moon stood back in their habitation At the light of thine arrows which flew, At the glittering brightness of thy lance. 12 Indignant thou didst march through the earth; Wrathful thou didst tread down the nations. 13 Thou wentest forth for the deliverance of thy people, " Silvarum juga coepta moveri Adventante Deo." Virgil. Ce Ci" , o torrent of water, i. e. an ex tremely heavy rain, in contradistinction from ii a Dit , a hail storm, Is. xxviii. 2. cii > elevation, is used adverbially. By sm^ , the elongated pronominal form of tt* , its hands, is meant the waves of the ocean. cinSi , the ocean, its antecedent, is of both genders. The whole of nature is here exhibited as thrown into consternation at the ap proach of God. ' The mountains tremble ; the heavens pour down sweeping torrents of rain ; the sea roars, and causes its bil lows to " run mountains high." Comp. Ps. lxxvii. 17. 11. rii"1 "itt'a form an asyndeton, and are probably so put for the sake of effect. In many MSS., however, the ellipsis of the i is supplied. The paragogic n in nVat , is that of direction or motion, and the 'idea which it conveys, as here used with the verb iizs , is not that the sun and moon remained stationary in a part of the firmament, which is represented as their dwelling or habitation, but that they stood back or withdrew into that locality. It was usual with the Arabian astronomers to assign houses or chambers to the celestial orbs. Thus Jyuo, man- sio, domus, is the name of the signs of the Zodiac; and ,yjj\ Joli, the circle of the palaces which the sun occu pies. Job, likewise, speaks of -(b,i "nfl, the chambers of the south, antithetically with the northern constellations, ch. ix. 9 ; as also of rp--i; , chap, xxxviii. 32, the same as rp'-.To, inns or lodgings, 2 Kings xxiii. 5. That specific reference is made to what is recorded Josh. x. 12, is, after the Targ., very generally admit ted ; but, though it were granted that the event there described may have sug gested the language of the prophet, yet the point of view in which he presents the heavenly luminaries is altogether dif ferent. In the history, the construction to be put upon their standing still or being arrested in their course, is obvi ously their continuing to shine, in order to afford light to Joshua, while following up his victory over the enemy ; whereas, in the present connection, they are sub limely introduced as retiring into their abode before the brighter refulgence of the arrows and lances employed in the conflict. So completely were they eclipsed by this refulgence, that it seemed as if they had set. Schnurrer and Justi inter pret the language of their remaining in their habitation, in the sense of not ris ing, but the n of motion is directly opposed to such construction. The b in lisV and mjV is the dative of cause, as in ^aV i"IR". rsi^ , " at, or owing to this, my heart trembled," Job xxxvii. 1. Supply urs before i\-brr , which is put in Piel for the purpose of marking the velocity of the motion of the arrows. The words lis and waj, which are else where used of the light of the sun and the moon respectively, are here trans ferred to the glitter of the weapons spec ified. 12. iya , to march, is used of the sol emn and majestic proceeding of Jehovah before the Hebrews, Judges v. 4 ; Ps. lxviii. 8. "i'sp , to thresh or tread down, is applied metaphorically to the destruc tion of enemies, Micah iv. 13. 13. Having described, in language of Chap. III. HABAKKUK. 315 For the deliverance of thine anointed ; Thou dashedst in pieces the head of the house of the wicked, Laying bare the foundation to the very neck : Pause. the most sublime and terrible import, the manifestations of Jehovah in reference to his enemies, Habakkuk now proceeds to specity in express terms the end which they were designed to answer, viz., the deliverance and safety of his chosen peo ple ; and then depicts their fatal effects in the destruction of every hostile power. The second yv - V is employed instead of the infinitive yp'isinV , and thus governs the accusative -""SB- rs :. These last words Aq. and the author of the fifth Greek version render els o-wrnplov avv Xpurrip aoo, and the Vulg. in salutem cum Christo tuo, which has led many in terpreters, both ancient and modern, to refer rv'^B , the anointed, to our Sa viour. This construction of the passage is adopted even by Delitzsch, on the prin ciple that as the term here designates the regal office of those who were of the Davidic dynasty, and Christ is repre sented as the greatest king of that family, consequently The Anointed by way of eminence, he is to be regarded as included in the prophetic reference. By the law of parallelism, however, we are compel led to identify ^nptB , thine anointed, with T\ B.y , thy people, in the preceding hemistich. The noun is thus a collective, and is rendered in the plural by the LXX. robs xparrois aov, or, as in the Alex. MS., tovs iKXeKTois aov. The plural t|"Rp'i'B is actually found in two of Kennicott's MSS., and apparently in two more : in one of De Rossi's and two more originally. It is denied, indeed, by Delitzsch, that tp'f'B , anointed, is ever used of the people of Israel ; and cer tainly none of the passages which have usually been adduced in support of this application of the term, can be fairly vin dicated to it, except, perhaps, Ps. xxviii. 8, where 'rvira corresponds to yzb or yzvb , according to the reading of six MSS., originally three more, and the rendering of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., Arab. Still, as the Hebrews were Csna raVBM, a kingdom of priests, Exod. xix. 6, they may with as much propriety be said to have been anointed, as the patriarchs are, 1 Chron. xvi. 22 ; Ps. cv. 15. The term, as thus applied, expresses their destination. The Dagesh forte is found in the initial i of -jsi in some editions, and is one of the few in stances of its occurrence in this letter, contrary to rule. Comp. 1 Sam. i. 6, x. 24 ; 2 Kings vi. 32 ; Prov. iii. 8, xiv. 10 ; Song v. 2 ; Jer. xxxix. 12; Ezek. xvi. 4. Delitzsch accounts for it on the principle of the word being short, and occurring after a Milel. The prepositive B in tvaB intimates, that the ruler here spoken of as the head, was not merely over the house, which the simple con struct form would have expressed, but that he sprung/»-o»i it. It is most prob able that one or other of the Canaanitish kings is intended ; perhaps Jabin, whose city Hazor is said to have beeni'Si , the head oi all the confederate kings, Josh. xi. 10 ; and was the most formidable of all the kings with whom the Hebrews had to contend, Judges iv. 3, 13. The general sense of the concluding hemistich is apparent ; but considerable difficulty attaches to the interpretation of -sji, neck, as here connected with lis \ , foun dation. This connection is so strongly marked by the force of the preposition iy , even to, that the former substantive cannot be separated from the latter, and referred to some supposable higher part of the figurative building. It must, from the structure of the language, describe the very lowest part of the foundation, or that on which the foundation itself rests ; but how either of these could be called the neck, it is impossible to con ceive. There is, therefore, very great probability in the conjecture of Cappel- 316 HABAKKUK. Chap. III. 14 Thou piercedst with his own spears the chief of his captains, That rushed on like a tempest to scatter me ; Whose joy it was to devour the poor in secret. 15 Thou wentest with thy horses through the sea, The boiling up of many waters. 16 I heard, and my inward parts trembled, lus, which has been approved by Herder, Green, and some others, that instead of is; a , neck, the text originally read n a, rock, which makes all plain. Both words are derived from the same root; and isa a occurs with the s , Neh. iii. 5. All the MSS. and versions support the pres ent reading, ri-y is the infinitive abso lute, which is often employed in the prosecution of a statement, instead of the finite form of the verb. The histor ical facts which the prophet here poeti cally describes, appear evidently to be those narrated Josh. xi. ; Judges iv., in volving the complete destruction of the Canaanitish nations, and more especially the discomfiture of Sisera, celebrated by Deborah in her splendid triumphal song, Judges v. 14. After a solemn pause, marked by r:Vo . Selah, Habakkuk prosecutes his subject, which still embraces the discom fiture of the enemies of Israel. TUB , his own spears, the same as rpUB , ver. 9. Interpreters are divided in regard to the signification of itiB , or, as it is in the Keri, and in the text of a great number of MSS., and of four of the early edi tions, v v i B . The traditionary interpre tation is that of villagers, or the inhabi tants of the country ; hence hordes, which Delitzsch adopts, and explains it of armies or soldiers. Thus the Vulg., capiti bellatorum ejus. Perschke, Ge senius, Ewald, and other moderns, how ever, derive the word from the Arab. \yi, segregavit, discrevit, modum prm- scripsit, statuit, etc., and explain it of judges, captains, etc., which appears to be the more appropriate meaning. Thus the LXX., tivvdo-rai ; the Syr. j 1 7i . \ * . just as the former in the Vatican codex render the cognate noun y\~~fi , Judges v. 7, 11, by tivvarol, and the Vulg. by fortes. The pronominal suffix refers to yil , the wicked, in the preceding verse. Before ipy&p. supply ivjs . In using the first personal suffix singular in the fol lowing verb, the prophet so identifies himself with his people as to represent what was aimed at them as designed for him. Comp. ch. i. 12. The nominative to ma^y is THIS , his captains. In the last hemistich, the object of compar ison is the robber who lies in wait for the poor defenceless traveller, and exults when he sees him approach. Such was the exultation of the Canaanitish chiefs . when the Israelites entered the country. Comp. Ps. x. 8—10. 15. ?|*CpO must either be taken as an accusative absolute, as to thy horses ; or it must have a a supplied before it. The latter I have adopted as the easier mode of resolving the form. iBn describes here the boiling up or foaming of the sea in a storm. The immediate connection, however, shows, that what the prophet has in view is not the Red Sea, but the hostile army of the Canaanites, which presented a furious and impenetrable as pect to the Hebrews. Through this army Jehovah is represented as walking with his warriors, as if a general were coolly to march his cavalry through the thick est of a proud and vaunting foe, which he knew would prove utterly powerless in the attack. Comp. Ps. ii. 4, where Jehovah is said to smile at the puny attempts of his enemies. 16. Having finished the poetic rehear sal of the mighty acts of Jehovah on behalf of his people in ancient times, Ciu III. HABAKKUK. 317 At the sound my lips quivered ; Rottenness entered my bones, I trembled hi my place : Yet I shall have rest in the day of distress, When the people that shall attack us come up. 17 Though the fig-tree should not blossom, which he had composed in order to inspire the pious with unshaken confidence in him as their covenant God, Habakkuk reverts to the fear which had seized him on hearing of the judgments that were inflicted upon his country by the Chal deans. -:ua T;iPi isisksS is a varied repetition of "risip^ tJ.i'B-o iflSWW Mir-P , ver. 2. Instead of there entering into a description of his feelings, he broke out in an earnest prayer that God would exercise pity toward Israel, from which there was an easy transition to the an cient Divine interpositions. He now describes those feelings in very forcible and affecting language. Vlp , the voice, is to be referred to the Divine threatening recorded chap. i. 6. The quivering of the prophet's lips is merely expressive of the effect of the fear with which he was seized, and has no reference to his delivery of the threatening, itfhn , lit erally under me, i. e. my under parts, limbs, or the like. Comp. the Arab. i^im^VJ, pars inferior. LXX. vttok- aTaidiv pov irapdxSrq i\ ?{« pov. The 7 > Syr. . . g'JQ «^ my knees. Jarchi and Kimchi -BipBa , in my place. h53S irs has been variously rerldered, " That I may rest ;" " That I must expect ;" " 0 that I might rest ;" " Yet I shall rest," or " have rest." The last construction is alone suitable. 1'JJs , which the LXX. have entirely omitted, is here a conjunc tion, connecting the following clauses with those which are antecedent to it, but obviously intended to qualify what had been there expressed. It thus forms a particle of transition from one class of circumstances to another of a different character. See Noldius, sub voce. Deep ly as the prophet was affected, and over powering as were the feelings of appre hension with which he anticipated the awful calamity that was coming upon his people, he did not abandon himself to despair, but, on the contrary, consoled his mind with the assurance, that God, in whom he trusted, would keep him in perfect peace in the day of trial. Noth ing can be more uncritical than the emendation of haps into npas , proposed by Houbigant, the verb riia or rra hav ing no such signification as that which he ascribes to it. The preposition b in nia E-.-V and n^yVis to be taken as signifying the time when the events were to happen ; in ei'V it is the sign of the genitive ; so that ty^ ini^y is equivalent to cy MiVy , the coming up of the people. The infinitive is the infinitive construct. By the people, the Chaldeans are meant. They are, as usual, said to come up, be cause of the elevated position of Jerusa lem, both in a local and a religio-political point of view. Comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 1. Before S|3ip:p supply lyis . The verb ifj, like its cognate iij , signifies to cut, or break in upon an enemy, attack. Hence the substantive ir,i5, a troop or band of warriors, chiefly used of such as engage in plundering expeditions. It is the very term employed in the account given us of the fulfilment of the proph ecy, 2 Kings xxiv. 2 ; " And the Lord sent against him cfsS ""mj— rs , the bands of the Chaldeans," etc. 17, 18. From a statement of the as surance which he possessed of the mental tranquillity which he should enjoy dur ing the anticipated calamity, Habakkuk rises to a triumphant assertion of the holy joy and exultation which would be HABAKKUK. Chap. III. And there should be no produce on the vines ; Though the fruit of the olive should fail, And the fields should yield no food ; Though the flocks should be cut off from the fold, And there should be no cattle in the stalls : 18 Yet I will exult in Jehovah ; I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. 1 9 Jehovah the Lord is my strength ; He will make my feet like those of gazelles, vouchsafed to him amidst all the desola tion to which his country might be sub jected. The desolation here so graphi cally and forcibly described, is that which was to be effected by the Chaldeans, whose army would consume or destroy the best and most necessary productions of the land ; not only seizing upon the cattle, and devouring the fruits of the earth, but so injuring the trees as to ren der them incapable of yielding any pro duce. The passage contains the most beautiful exhibition of the power of true religion to be found in the Bible. The language is that of a mind weaned from earthly enjoyments, and habituated to find the highest fruition of its desires in God. When every earthly stream is dried up, it has an infinite supply in his all-sufficient and exhaustless fulness. No affliction, however severe or trying, can cut the believer off from this blessed re source. On the contrary, its tendency is to bring him into closer contact with it. prto 3>M is not the labor bestowed upon the olive-tree, but the fruit which the tree produces. Comp. the phrase i"> b nts, to make or produce fruit. The irregular construction of the singular masculine rfrS with the feminine plural niBia is to be accounted for on the principle, that in the mind of the prophet both number and gender had merged in the totality and impressiveness of his subject. Comp. VVbs riBii, Is. xvi. 8. It is what is commonly called, constructio ad sensum. Some would refer i-'Bipi to an obsolete root r -a , which they take to be cognate with C]i -j , to burn; but it seems preferable to regard it as a deriva tive like ri'v , both signifying a smooth or level field, such as was prepared for grain or vines : from tjjj , to break, and mil , to be level, as ground is which is broken up and levelled by the plough, the hoe, and the harrow. " r a is here used in transitively, and is equivalent to the Ni phal iT.a:. n^5tt stands for sVa» , just as n-fi-a for sii», and HttiSB for sipa or iiKWpB. The root is sVa , to shut up, confine. ritiVss and riV-as are syno- nymes in the elongated future — the n directive expressing the strong bent of the mind towards the exercise. The words "Vvi "n'isa are rendered in the Vulg. in Deo Jesu meo ! The LXX. have iirl tw ©e$ t<£ (raiTrjpi pov. 19. The formula "j-is hirr , instead of -irp *3'is , is of infrequent occur rence. Comp. Ps. lxviii. 21, cxl. 8. The language of this verse is found in Ps. xviii. 33, 34 ; and in part, Deut. xxxii. 13 ; Is. Iviii. 14. It expresses the con fident hope that Jehovah would prove the support and defence of the prophet, and of all who made Him the object of their trust, and that he would grant them complete deliverance from their enemies, and restore them to the full and undis turbed possession of their own land. r^V^s , the gazelle, is so swift-footed, that grey-hounds are liable to be killed by over-exertion in the chase. "^iBa , my high places, stands for 'ais riBa , the heights of my country. Except for purposes of warfare, the elevated parts Chap. III. HABAKKUK. 319 And cause me to walk on my heights. To the precentor, with my stringed instruments. of a land are the last that are occupied. The present is the only instance in which a musical direction is placed at the end of a psalm or ode. ns:.Bi , which oc curs fifty-five times in the titles to the Psalms, is derived from the root n.BS , to overcome, excel, take the lead, direct,super- intend, preside, etc. It is used in refer ence to the prefects or overseers, whom Solomon appointed over the workmen, 2 Chron. ii. 2, 18 ; and specially of the masters or directors of the music em ployed in the temple, 1 Chron. xv. 2 1 ; Neh. xii. 42. By the LXX. nsattV is almost always rendered els rb reXos ; Aq. rip viKOiroup ; Symm. iirivlKiov ; Theod. els rb v'ikos ; Targ. sria-sV . In 2 Chron. ii. 17, however, the LXX. render the noun by ipyotiuiHTns, and ver. 1, and xxxiv. 13, by iiriaTarns. The form is that of the participle in Piel, the V tak ing the Patach of the article — a circum stance which shows that it cannot be, as some have supposed, an infinitive, ns na 3 (from "].j3 , -as , to strike the strings, play on a stringed instrument, and then, generally, to perform either vocal or in strumental music, but chiefly the latter) signifies what is thus performed : music, melody, song, and also the stringed in struments with which it was accompan ied. The preposition i is 'that of accom paniment. Delitzsch infers from the use of the affix in "riis-a: , my music, that the prophet himself was to take an active part in the performance of it ; and further, from this circumstance, that he was of the tribe of Levi, and engaged in carrying on the temple music. But these inferences cannot be sustained, since, if the reasoning were valid, it would equally prove that Hezekiah must have belonged to that tribe, and been thus officially en gaged : for he uses the very same form : Tpia^as , " my stringed instruments," Is. xxxviii. 20. On what ground either the prophet or the king claimed these instru ments, it is impossible to determine. The conjecture of Schnurrer, that -rpa-:.: was originally TO'as , and that the termina tion -ri— is merely paragogic as in Tai , is overturned by the fact, that this para gogic form is never found except when the word in which it appears is in the construct state. ZEPHANIAH. PREFACE. All that we know of Zephaniah is furnished by the title to hia book, in which it is stated that he was the son of Cushi, grandson of Gedaliah, great grandson of Amariah, and great great grandson of Hezekiah. As in no other instance do we find the pedigree of a prophet carried so far back, it has not unfairly been inferred that he belonged to a family of considerable respecta bility.* Whether, however, the Hezekiah there mentioned were the king of that name, or some other person of note so called, cannot be determined with certainty. The circumstance that the words, " king of Judah," are not added to the proper name, rather militates against the position 'that he was descended from that monarch, since this addition always occurs when pri mary reference is made to any of the Jewish kings ; and, what is specially to the present point, when such reference is made to Hezekiah. See Prov. xxv. 1 ; Is. xxxviii. 9. The number of generations also forms an objection against the hypothesis, since it is scarcely possible to make room for them in the short space of time which elapsed between Hezekiah and Josiah. As our prophet is stated, chap. i. 1, to have received his prophecies in the days of Josiah, he must have flourished between the years b. c. 642, and b. c. 611. This statement is corroborated by certain circumstances in the book itself. For instance, he- predicts the fall of Nineveh, and the overthrow of the Assyrian empire ; consequently he must have prophesied prior to the year B. c. 625, when these events took place ; i. e., in the former half of the reign of Josiah. The mention, too, of the destruction of " the remnant of Baal," chap. i. 4, evidently implies, that the abolition of idolatry had been carried on to a considerable extent, but had not yet been completed. Now this ex actly tallies with the state of things in Judah from the twelfth to the eigh teenth year of Josiah ; for though this monarch began, in the former of these years, to effect a reformation, it was not till the latter that it was prosecuted with more successful results. If, therefore, we suppose that Zephaniah de livered his predictions between these two terms, we shall not be wide of the mark. To the objection, that no mention is made of him or his labors in the historical books, which we might expect on the ground of the valuable -ser vice he must have rendered to the zealous monarch, it is sufficient to reply, * Ovk &o"npos wv rb Kara, crdpKa yevos. — Cyril, Prof, ad Zeph. PREFACE TO ZEPHANIAH. 321 that the same objection would lie against the prophetical existence of Jere miah at the same period, though we know that he then flourished at Jerusa lem, under the very eye of his sovereign. The mention made of " the king's sons," chap. i. 8, cannot be urged in favor of a later date ; for it is altogether uncertain whether we are not to understand by the phrase the princes of the royal house generally, or such of the royal children as should be alive at the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy. The connection and manner in which they are introduced favor the latter construction. The predictions contained in the book are chiefly directed against the Jews, on account of their idolatry, and other sins of which they were guilty. The awful judgments to be executed upon them and the neighboring nations by the Chaldeans are denounced with great force and effect. Hitzig, indeed, has re cently revived the opinion advocated by Cramer and Eiehhorn, that the inva sion of these countries by the Scythians, about the year b. c. 630, whose incur sion into Western Asia is described by Herodotus, i. 102, is what the prophet has in his eye ; but the Jews appear to have been so little affected by their pro gress, that it by no means corresponds to that of the enemy described by Zephaniah, in the course of which not only Judea, but the adjacent countries were to be entirely laid waste. His predictions received their accomplish ment during the successes of Nebuchadnezzar. Towards the close of the book the restoration and prosperity of the Jewish people are introduced. In respect to style, Zephaniah is not distinguished either for sublimity or elegance. His rhythm frequently sinks down into a kind of prose ; but many of the censures that have been passed upon his language are either without • foundation, or much exaggerated. In point of purity it rivals that of any of the prophets. He has much in common with his contemporary Jeremiah, and some, after Isidore, have regarded him as his abbreviator. A careful com parison of the two, however, proves the futility of this hypothesis. Occa sionally he borrows the language of former prophets. Comp. chap. ii. 14, with Is. xiii. 21, xxxiv. 11 ; chap. ii. 15, with Is. xiii. 8. 41 CHAPTER I . The prophet begins by announcing the universality of the judgments which God was about to bring upon the land, 2, 3 ; specifies the different classes of transgressors whose conduct had merited the infliction of these judgments, 4 — 6 ; and calls attention to the speedy ap proach, and the features of the period of punishment, which he intermingles with further descriptions of the character of the ungodly, 7 — 13. He then dwells upon the awfully calamitous nature of the visitation, and points out the impossibility of escape, 14 — 18, 1 The word of Jehovah which was communicated to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah ; 2 I will utterly take away everything from the face of the land, Saith Jehovah. 3 I will take away man and beast ; I will take away the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea, And the cause of stumbling along with the wicked ; And I will cut off man from the face of the land, Saith Jehovah. 4 I will also stretch forth my hand against Judah, 1. See the Preface. 2, 3. qos , which is variously em ployed in Scripture in the sense of gath ering, collecting, etc., is here used, as in Jud. xviii. 25 ; 1 Sam. xv. 6 ; Ps. xxvi. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 29, to denote tlie taking away by death, or other violent means ; to destroy. Thus Jarchi, yy>\'zi "p-sy , its signification is destruction." What clearly shows this, is the use of the cog nate verb CjiB, to scrape, or sweep off, in the form t3pas=H.6s, which the Rabbi just mentioned erroneously takes to be the Hiphil of qss , by elision for qess . The latter verb is never used in Hiphil ; but the same combination of the two verbs in the infinitive and finite forms occurs Jer. viii. 13, CBpas q CS . Com pare for similar usage i^'ispi -iiis , Is. xxviii. 28 ; san sas , Jer. xlix. 9. The enumeration of particulars is designed to augment the fearful and universal char acter of the punishment. rSvi-a does not appear to differ in this connection from Vi'i-aB , a stumbling block, cause of moral offence, what occasions, excites to, ,,»> 7 or promotes sin. Syr. j] n j. >An ; Symm. ™ aitavtiaXa. There can be no doubt that the different objects and rites of idol atrous worship are what the prophet has in view. Thus Jarchi, miT rvniay Cn. The repetition of c is shows the proph ecy had special reference to human be ings, as the guilty party. The particle ns before wb-1 has the signification of with, together with, thus denoting accom paniment. Comp. Jud. i. 16. The idols and their worshippers were to be involved in one common destruction. Newcome improperly renders ns as a sign of the genitive. 4. To' stretch forth the hand against any one, means not merely to threaten, but to exert one's power to his injury. n,tri CipBn , this place, means Jerusa- Chap. I. ZEPHANIAH. 323 And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; And will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, The name of the idolatrous with that of the other priests ; And those that worship the host of heaven on the roofs, And those that worship and swear to Jehovah, And swear by their king ; lem. By Vl'an "S'ii , the remnant, or rest of Baal, we are to understand the statues, images, etc, dedicated to the chief domestic and tutelary god of the Phoeni cians, to whose worship the Hebrews were addicted as early as the time of the Judg es (ii. 13), and among whom it afterwards spread more and more, especially in the ten tribes. Altars and high places were reared to this deity by Manasseh, even in the temple of Jehovah itself, 2 Kings xxi. 3, S, 7; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3, 7. These Josiah destroyed in the reformation which he undertook in the twelfth year of his reign, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4 ; but it appears from this passage of our prophet, com pared with 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8, that idols continued to be worshipped, most prob ably in places which were more remote from public observation, or which had been formed after the destruction of the others, and the cessation of the reforma tion referred to. Marckius and Gesen ius interpret the phrase Vy.an 1S2 , of the people of Baal, but this seems less probable. The phrase corresponds to niViaB in the preceding verse, and is in like manner immediately followed by the ns of accompaniment, pointing out the persons that encouraged idolatry. For is'a the LXX., who have to. bvipaTa, must have read ni»ia , or they may have been misled by the c » following, c v , however, is found in two of Kennicott's MSS., and in the margin of another. Upwards of twenty MSS., four ancient editions, and all the versions read csj rsp instead of cs ns . Eor ciBan, the idolatrous priests, see on Hos. x. 5. Both in the ancient and in the latter Hebrew, the term yn a is used of the priests of idols, as well as of those belonging to Jehovah. See Gen. xii. 45, 50 ; 1 Kings xiii. 2, 33 ; 2 Kings x. 19, xi. 18. It may to some appear doubtful whether the former be not here intended ; but as such are undeniably included in the c^iBa , it is more probable that in using the term b'1:"; , the prophet had in his eye those who wei'e professedly priests of the true God, but who, instead of checking, or endeavoring to eradicate idolatry, encour aged it by their indifference, or the incon sistency of their conduct in other respects. Comp. Jer. ii. 8, v. 31. The Targ. ren ders -pn^i^a Sy ¦jinTiVs , their wor- shippers with their priests. Neither were he left in the land by the Chaldeans. Their very names were to be forgotten. 5. Having directed his prophecy against the priests, the prophet now denounces those of the people who indulged in idol atrous practices. He first takes up those who were the votaries of Sabiism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies : a sys tem which had, at an early period, be come extensively prevalent, and contin ued to exert its influence, not only over the nomades of Arabia, but over the philosophers and wise men of the East ; but which, in whatever form or degree it obtained, had the lamentable effect of deifying the creature, and obscuring the existence, claims, and glory of the Crea tor. That it was adopted, and its rites practised to a great extent by the Jews, appears from 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6 ; Jer. vii. 17, 18, xliv. 17—19, 25. The n'v.i , roofs or house-tops, in the East are flat, and are used for various purposes. The idolaters may have chosen them for se crecy in the time of the prophet, or they may have selected them for the purpose of obtaining a fuller view of the plane- 324 ZEPHANIAH. Chap. I, 6 And those that have turned back from Jehovah, And that neither seek Jehovah nor apply to him. V Keep silence before the Lord Jehovah, For the day of Jehovah is near ; For Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath consecrated those whom he hath invited. 8 And it shall come to pass on the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, That I will punish the princes and the king's sons, And all that wear foreign apparel. tary objects of their worship. Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29. The planet to which they specially burnt incense on the roofs of their houses is supposed to have been the Moon, or it was more probably Venus, called n^B'in naVn » " the Queen of heaven," Jer. vii.' 17, 18, 19, 25. The prophet next instances a mongrel class of worshippers, such as professed attach ment to Jehovah, as the national God, but, at the same time, were devoted to the , service of Moloch, whom in reality, they regarded and honored as their king. Eor the forms T\b;a, CaV« , SiVa , eaaVtt , see on Amos v. 26, and Gesenius under the word tj bja . Instead of immediately connecting these opposite objects of wor ship with the participle S'llPBHri , as he had done in the preceding clause, Zephaniah stops short, as if uncertain how to describe the persons whom he had in view, and then proceeds to characterize them as combining, by acts of solemn profession, the worship of the true God with that of Moloch. Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 21. a yapis , to swear by a deity, means to acknowledge him in a public, solemn, and binding manner ; openly to pledge one's self to his service. 6. This verse is more comprehensive in its import, being descriptive of all who were in any way guilty of defection from Jehovah, and lived in total neglect of him and his ways. 7. Eor C':£» an , comp. Hab. ii. 20 ; Zech. ii. 13. In the symbolical lan guage of prophecy, a sacrifice denotes the slaughter or destruction of an army or people. In the words Tsip o'ipn , he hath consecrated his called ones, how ever, there is no allusion to guests invited to partake of a sacrificial feast, as there unquestionably is Ezek. xxxix. 17 — 20 ; Rev. xix. 17, 18. The Q'S-p , called ones, were the Chaldeans, who, as the Divine army, or the instruments of his retributive justice, were called into the field against the enemies of the Most High. In this sense Cyrus is said to have been called, Is. xii. 9, xlviii. 15. Comp. also Is. xiii. 3, and my note there, in which viip , to sanctify, consecrate, is explained of the selection of troops for war, and the religious rites engaged in when they set out upon the military ex pedition. 8. That by the phrase TiVbti •'ia , the sons of the king, we are to understand the immediate children of Josiah, does not appear. He could not have had sons of an age sufficiently mature at the time the prophet uttered his prediction, to allow of their contracting guilt to such a degree as that which the connection nec essarily requires ; for he could not him self have been above seventeen years old. It may either mean the princes of the royal house generally, or the children of the king who should be on the throne at the time of the accomplishment of the prophecy. That the latter supposition is the more probable, appears from 2 Kings xxv. 7, where it is stated, that the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. By those that wore for eign attire, the prophet means the rich and great generally, who, in violation of an express ordinance relative to national Chap. I. ZEPHANIAH. 325 9 I will also punish all who leap over the threshold in that day, Who fill the house of their lord with violence and deceit. 10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, That there shall be the sound of crying from the fish-gate, And of wailing from the second, And of great destruction from the hills. 11 Howl, ye inhabitants of the Mortar ! For all the people of Canaan are destroyed ; All who are laden with money are cut off. costume, which was designed to preserve them distinct from other people, Numb. xv. 37 — 40, arrayed themselves in the more costly and gorgeous garb of idola ters, and thus more easily mixed with them in the performance of their idola trous rites. 9. Because the priests of Dagon ab stained from treading on the threshold of his temple, 1 Sam. v. 5, it has been by some inferred that Zephaniah alludes here to some such superstitious custom as practised by the Jews. Thus the Targ. issvjVe iswija yzibrra* bz> , all who walk in the laws of tlie Philistines. But this construction has little to support it beyond the simple occurrence of the word IFisa , threshold, in both passages ; for in Samuel it is merely said, spiip s^ — "|i.M 1P£B , " they tread or walk not over the threshold of Dagon ;" whereas the lan guage of the prophet, y&sfaT—bs_ aViin , " him that leapeth over the threshold," is expressive of a more violent action ; and as the parallel hemistich shows, charac terizes the eagerness with which the ser vants of the great rushed out of their palaces in order to seize upon the property of others, and thereby increase the wealth of their masters. If we may apply the signification of the cognate word in Arab. ^S-l ii, principio, or sub finem noctis iter fecit, we should interpret the term as denoting their setting out on their pred atory expeditions under cloud of night. Thus, as to the general sense, the Syr. ]lo|.£3 pdAa orn^s, all who com mit violence and plunder. Kimchi ex plains the word of their forcibly entering the houses of the poor, and robbing them of their goods. 10, 11. These verses describe the state of Jerusalem when besieged by Nebu chadnezzar. tS^J^ri iy'i , the fish-gate, occurs 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14 ; Neh. iii. 3, xii. 39 ; but there is nothing in these passages by which we can determine its exact position. Erom the name it might be inferred, that it was situated either on the north or the north-east side of the city, that being the direction from which those would arrive who brought fish from Tiberias and the Jordan, and corresponded to what is now called the Damascus Gate, or to that of St. Stephen. It was from this side, being that which was most ac cessible, that Jerusalem was attacked by the enemy. That ns/JB , the second, is not to be referred to iyuj , gate, as its antecedent, but to i'y , city, understood, appears from Neh. xi. 9, where we have in full n:p)B i-yn , the second city, i. e. the second division of the city. Ewald renders the word by Neustadt, " New town." In all probability it was what was afterwards called Akra, or the lower city, which lay to the north of the an cient city on Mount Zion, and was sep arated from it by the Tyropceon, a valley which ran down between them to the present pool of Siloam. In our common version the word is improperly rendered college, 2 Kings xxii. 14, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 22, after the interpretation of the Bab- bins. The niya J , hills, here mentioned, were not those around the city, such as 326 ZEPHANIAH. Chap. I. 12 And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lights, And punish the men who are hardened on their lees, Who say in their hearts, Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil. in And their wealth shall become a spoil, And their houses a desolation ; They may build houses, but they shall not inhabit them, And plant vineyards, but they shall not drink the wine of them. 14 The great day of Jehovah is near ; the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Evil Counsel, etc., but Zion, Moriah, Ophel, and other elevated localities within the walls, occupied by the temple, the royal palace, and the houses of the richer por tion of the inhabitants. The prophet graphically represents the progress of the Chaldeans, from the gate at which they entered, into the second division of the city, until they had ultimately taken possession of the whole, and destroyed the principal buildings. This destruction is very appropriately expressed by the noun iai" , from ias , to break, break in pieces, 2 Kings xxv. 4, 8, 9. ipa-B is not a proper name, as the article prefixed shows, but an appellative, signifying mor tar, from Bti2 , to bray, pound. See Prov. xxvii. 22. It appears to have been applied, from its resemblance to that ves sel, to one or other of the valleys in or about Jerusalem. Theod. iv rip /Bc&et. Aq. els rbv Bxpov. According to the Targum, linpi sVria, it was that through which the brook Kidron flows. Others think it was the Tyropceon, the locality of the bazaars, where the mer chants carried on their business. Prom what follows in the verse, the latter is most probably the true interpretation. It is thought by some that the term was purposely chosen by the prophet, on ac count of its resemblance in sound to liipB , a holy place, and that Jerusalem itseif is meant ; but this word is exclusive ly appropriated to the tabernacle, or tem ple, and other sacred places, and never to the city, though it is called ajipri VJ> , the Holy City, just as it is still known in the East by the names . uutNJiJ!, El-Kuds, and . ,,,i\ n't If ouU, Beit- el-Mukeddes, of similar signification. By T?sa fi? > the people of Canaan, the prophet does not mean the inhabitants of Canaan generally, nor Phoenician mer chants in particular, who earned on trade with those of Jerusalem, but ironically the Jerusalem merchants themselves, who not only resembled the former in their modes of acquiring gain, but adopted their idolatrous manners and customs. See on Hos. xii. 8. 12. The Divine judgments were to reach those who practised wickedness in the most hidden places, and in the most covert manner. This is metaphorically expressed by searching out with lights what is concealed in the dark. The metaphor following is taken from the firm crust which is formed on the surface of fermented liquors when they have been long left in an undisturbed state. SEp , signifies, to contract, become con crete, hard, etc., and strikingly expresses the hardened state of the rich who have settled down into infidelity and atheism. Comp. Jer. xlviii. 11. Their practical denial of a superintending and govern ing providence is expressed in so many words at the end of the verse. It is here implied that those of whom the prophet speaks would go on building and planting till the judgment of God overtook them, and deprived them of all their property. Comp. Matt. xxiv. 38, 39. 14. mB is not the participle in Piel, ClIAP. I. ZEPHANIAH. 327 It is near and hastcth greatly ; The sound of the clay of Jehovah: There the mighty man shrieketh bitterly. 15 That day is a day of indignatu n, A day of trouble and distress, A day of desolation and ruin, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and obscurity ; 16 A day of the trumpet and the war-shout, Against the fortified cities, And against the lofty towers. 17 And I will bring trouble upon men, So that they shall walk as the blind ; Because they have sinned against Jehovah, Their blood shall be poured out as dust, And their flesh shall be as dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to rescue them In the day of Jehovah's indignation ; But the whole land shall be consumed By the fire of his jealousy: For a consummation altogether sudden will he make with the affirmative Mem rejected, but the infinitive of the same conjugation, used as an abbreviated form of ina map . IB , bitter, is here used adver bially. So irresistible should be the at tack of the Chaldeans, that the Jewish warrior would be compelled to abandon himself to shrieks of hopeless grief. 15, 16. A beautiful amplification, for the purpose of aggravating the character of the calamity. Passages somewhat similar occur in the prophets, but none equal to this. nppiaai ma , as well as tisi'-B? ns», are instances of parono masia. Comp. Job xv. 24, xxx. 3, xxxviii. 27. ninasni niaEri form a Hendiadys, and describe the high towers or turrets, at the angles of fortified walls. Gesenius assumes an obsolete root -|:e , to separate, divide into classes, as that from which na E , a turret, is derived ; but there is no occasion to depart from its usual derivation from the Piel of n-g , to cause to turn. It thus signifies what is at the turning, corner, or angle of a building, and that whether at the top or the bottom. Tacitus, describing the walls of Jerusalem, says : " Per artem obliquos et introrsum sinuatos, ut latera oppugnantium ad ictus, patescerent." Hist. lib. v. cap. 11, § 5. 17. tArk , or, as in some MSS. and editions, qhV , flesh. Arab. *.S\J, °aro. Boot a~V , to eat. *jE_s> may, by zeugma, be made to govern qb^rV as well as rye-, , but it is preferable to supply the substan tive verb after QB5 nV . For the latter figure, comp. Job xx. 7. 18. cs — Cs, also — also, meaning both the one and the other. As here with a negative, neither — nor. "Fire" 328 ZEPHANIAH. Of all the inhabitants of the land. Chap. II. is often used figuratively to denote war, 16, xxvi. 11. ^s is to be taken in the because of its devastating effects. Is. x. sense of wholly, entirely, altogether. CHAPTER II A solemn admonition is now given to the Jewish people to repent during the short space of time that would be allotted to them before the Chaldean invasion, 1, 2: followed by an exhortation to the pious to persevere in their devotedness to God, and the interests of righteousness, 3. The prophet then proceeds to foretell the destruction of those nations which had always been hostile to the Jews, as the Fhilistines, 4 — 7 ; the Moabites and Ammonites, 8 — 10 ; parenthetically, the idols of the nations, 11 j the Ethiopians, 12 ; and the Assyrians, 13—15. 1 Bend yourselves, and be ye bent, O nation not desired ! 2 Before the birth of the decree ; The day passeth away as chaff; Before there come upon you the burning anger of Jehovah ; Before there come upon you the day of anger of Jehovah. ' 1. roip^ vi'iiipnn , the Hithpolel and Kal conjugations joined for the sake of intensity. Comp. Is. xxiv. 19. The words have been variously rendered. LXX. avvdx^nTe Kal avvtie^nre. Vulg. convenite et congregamini. De Wette, priifet euch, ja prjifet. Gesenius, collect yourselves and be ye collected; i. e. col lect your thoughts, look into your own mind, prove yourselves ; thus agreeing with De Wette, after the interpretation of Pagninus, Vatablus, Cocceius, and others. Ewald, erbleichet und bleichet. Most refer to vvf^ as the root, which sig nifies in Poel to collect stubbh, wood, etc. ; but it is never used with respect to human beings. I prefer deriving it from -rip , to bend, be bent. Arab. . v«»JJ. II. incur- vavit arcus more ; incurvatus fuit senex. Hence nip. , a bow, from its being' bent. Bend yourselves, and be ye bent, will then be the proper rendering. Comp. the use of nrrjj , to bow down, Is. Ix. 14. The prophet calls the Jews to deep humility before God on account of their manifold sins. Because CjCa signifies to be pale, Gesenius renders the words s^ *is~ tjDaa , 0 nation not ashamed! but qoa never denotes to be pale from a feeling of shame, but as the effect of desire, the verb everywhere else expressing the idea of pining, longing, being intensely desir ous of any object. The phrase qaas k-> , not desired, is here used by litotes for abominated, hated. 2. The Divine decree or purpose of punishment announced in the preceding chapter, is here tropically represented as a pregnant female near the time of her delivery. The words ti^ las yiaa , aj Chap. II. ZEPHANIAH. 329 Seek ye Jehovah, all ye humble of the land, Who perforin his judgments; Seek righteousness, seek humility, If perhaps ye may be hid In the day of the anger of Jehovah. For Gaza shall be forsaken, And Askelon a desolation ; As for Ashdod, they shall drive her out at noon-day, And Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe to the inhabitants of the line of the sea ! The nation of Kerethites ! The word of Jehovah is against you ; O Canaan ! the land of the Philistines, I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. chaff the day passeth, do not refer to the coming of the period of calamity, but the rapid lapse of the time of repentance. The image of chaff is always used of that which flies quickly away, never of what comes to any one. They are in troduced parenthetically. The sentence njirp qs flirt capVy sia-j-sV ciua is wanting in six of Kennicott's MSS., probably in two more, and originally in eight of De Rossi's. It is also omitted in the Arabic version. The declaration, with the trifling change of a single word, is properly repeated for the sake of emphasis. 3. The prophet here addresses himself to the afflicted and humble among his people, from whom some hope of a better state of things might be expected. ^;5S , rendered perhaps, is not intended to ex press a doubt respecting the safety of the pious, but the extreme difficulty of escap ing the threatened judgment. The poor of the land were left by Nebuzar-adan to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. 2 Kings xxv. 12. 4. The connective force of the particle ¦'a ,for, with which this verse commen ces, lies in the universality of the calam ity which was about to come, not upon the Jews only, but upon all the nations with which they had been brought into contact. There would be no country to 42 which they might flee for safety, for all were to be visited by the Chaldeans. For the cities of the Phdistines here specified, see on the parallel prophecy, Amos i. 6 — 8; and Is. xx. 1. c^ina , the me ridian or noon, being the hottest part of the day, is generally spent by the Orien tals in sleep, and is the less likely time for any military operations to be carried on. 2 Sam. iv. 5 ; Jer. vi. 4, xv. 8. The paronomasias, nar.ty nty and "p^r.s -pyn , are not to be overlooked. 5. This and the two following verses contain an amplification of the predic tion against the Philistines. c»n Van, LXX. rb axoivirrpa tt\s haXaaans, the line of the sea, i. e. the region or coast along the sea-shore, and so called from the custom of using a cord or line in meas uring off or dividing a territory. Comp. with the same application, t)»n qirt , the coast of the sea, Jer. xlvii. 7 ; Ezek. xxv. 16. By Q'nia '"is, nation of Cretians, we are not to understand the actual in habitants of Crete, but the Philistines, a nation descended from those who origi nally emigrated from that island, and took possession of the south-west coast of Palestine. a'naiVs , the name of the Philistines, properly signifies the emigrants, from v Vs. Eth. ^-"^11) 333 ZEPHANIAH. Chap. II. 6 And the line of the sea shall be pastures, With cisterns for shepherds, And folds for sheep. 7 Tea, the line shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah. Thereupon shall they feed ; In the houses of Askelon shall they lie down at even ; For Jehovah their God shall visit them, And reverse their captivity. 8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, And the revilings of the sons of Amnion, Who have reviled my people, And carried themselves haughtily against their border. 9 Wherefore, as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, The God of Israel : Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, And the sons of Amnion as Gomorrah ; A region of overrunning brambles and salt pits, And a perpetual desolation ; The remnant of my people shall plunder them, And the residue of my nation shall possess them. 10 This shall happen to them for their pride, Because they reproached and carried themselves haughtily, Against the people of Jehovah of hosts. to rove, migrate. According to Stephen 7. Instead of being any longer annoyed of Byzantium, Gaza was originally by the Philistines, the Jews, restored to called Minoa, after Minos, king of their land, would occupy the territory as Crete, who, with his two brothers, Ara- described in the preceding verse. kus and lthadamanthus, undertook an 8 — 10. Comp. the parallel prophecies expedition to the coast, and gave the city against Moab, Is. xv. xvi. ; Jer. xlviii. ; his own name. Comp. Deut. ii. 23 ; 1 Amos ii. 1 — 3 ; and Ammon. Jer. xlix, Sam. xxx. 14 ; Jer. xlvii. 4 ; Ezek. xxv. 1 — 6 ; Amos i. 13 — 15. bs_ Visn means 16 ; Amos ix. 7. ys,yz> , Canaan, which to carry one's self haughtily against any is not only employed to designate the one. There is no occasion to supply ns whole country taken possession of by the or any other noun. The suffix in cViias Hebrews, but more specially Phoenicia, has lay for its antecedent. The fbrmu- is here to be understood as restricted to las *3S Ti , I living, or as I live, ver. 9, the country of the Philistines. and -in- "h, Q"n'is "n, as Jehovah, 6. It is thought by some that there is as God liveth, are solemn modes of ex- an allusion to n-nia in the word nia , pression, by which the Divine Existence which properly signifies wells or cisterns, is pledged for the certainty of the dec- from nia , to dig. Instead of continu- larations which they introduce. ptDKH , ing to be a thickly populated and well a drawing, or extending out, from psa , cultivated country, the land of the Phil- cognate tpua , to draw out, extend. As istines should be converted into a region connected with bramble, it denotes the fit only to be occupied by nomades. overspreading, or overrunning of that ¦ Chap. II. ZEPHANIAH. 331 11 Jehovah is to be feared above all the gods of the earth, For ho will cause them to waste away ; And all the inhabitants of the maritime regions Shall worship him — each from his place. 12 Also ye, O ye Cushites ! Shall be slain by my sword. 13 And he will stretch forth his hand over the north, And destroy Assyria ; He will also make Nineveh waste, An arid region like the desert. 14 And flocks shall lie clown in the midst of her ; All the wild beasts of the nations ; Both the pelican and the porcupine Shall take up their abode in her capitals ; A voice shall sing in the windows. shrub. nVa niaa , a pit or excavation, such as are found in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, in which, when it overflows in spring, its water is collected, and pure salt obtained by evaporation. The idea conveyed by both metaphors is that of sterility and desolation. 11. This verse connects so slightly with the preceding, and, as the former part is usually rendered, affords so little suitable a sense, that I cannot but regard the suffix in D""'-?. as possessing an an- ticipative pronominal reference to Tfis yisn , the gods of the earth, with re spect to whom Jehovah was to show him self worthy of exclusive veneration by effecting their destruction. In Hebrew poetry the pronoun or pronominal affix frequently occurs before the noun. See on Is, xxviii. 26. While announcing the destruction of the surrounding idol atrous nations, the prophet was inspired to predict the gradual, but certain des truction of idolatry universally through out the earth. The period predicted should be one in which all peculiarity of local worship would cease, and Divine worship be acceptable wherever presented in sincerity and truth. Comp. Mai. i. 11 ; John iv. 21—24 ; 1 Cor. i. 2. For the phrase QnpVy Si'i3 , comp. Ps. xcvi. 4. The a prefixed in iaipaa, expresses simply the locality in which the persons spoken of resided. Compare n^aa , Vsbb , tb»b , sppa , etc. nti , Arab. (v., to make thin, lean, diminish, cause to waste away, and to destroy. LXX. i^oXo&pevaei. The knowledge and wor ship of the true God were to be extended not only over the vast continental regions of the globe, but over those which border ed on, or existed in the sea. In b' n i>k , the isles, or maritime regions, there is, as usual, a special reference to the West ; though in connection with Va, all, the universality of such regions is intended. The passage is strictly Messianic, smce the accomplishment of the prediction has been, and is being effected by means of the gospel. 12. For "isa, Cush, see on Is. xi. 11, xviii. 1. The prophecy received its ful filment when Nebuchadnezzar invaded and conquered Egypt, with whose mili tary operations and fate the Ethiopians were more or less mixed up. Jer. xlvi. 9; Ezek. xxx. 5, 9. There is, indeed, reason to think that Egypt herself is de signed to be included in the term as here employed. 13 — 15. From the remote South into 332 ZEPHANIAH. Chap. III. Desolation shall be in the thresholds, For the cedar-work is laid bare. 15 This is the exulting city which dwelt securely,. Which said in her heart, I am, and besides me there is none. How she is become desolate ! A resting-place for wild beasts ! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, He shall shake his hand. which the prophet had carried his hear ers, he turns suddenly back to the North, where there still existed a mighty em pire, which must of necessity be over thrown, before the Divine sword, i. e. the arms of Babylon, could reach the coun tries against which he had denounced the judgments of God. This empire was the Assyrian, which was drawing towards its end, and was actually subverted when Nineveh was taken and destroyed by Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, e. c. 625. It is this catastrophe, with its disastrous consequences, which Zephaniah so graph ically describes in these verses. So com pletely was the celebrated metropolis of the ancient world to be desolated, that not even the Nomades would seek a tem porary shelter among her ruins. They should only be inhabited by the wild beasts of the desert. That by tP"PJ?. we are to understand herds of savage ani mals, and not flocks of sheep, goats, etc., is apparent from the mention made in the parallelism of -'-.v-inTi-Va , every wild beast of the nation. "PS , nation, has by some been thought to stand poetically for a collection of animals, just as gy , peo ple, does, Prov. xxx. 25, 26 ; but it is rather to be regarded as Synonymous with yps , land, country ; only restricting it to the particular country in which Nin eveh had been situated ; so that the phrase will be equivalent to yis— -IT n , Gen. i. 24. The LXX. render iravra rb, SrnpiaTris yiis. Targ. si a FnTi ^a , all the beasts of the field. The i in ' - * r\ is merely paragogic. For nsp_ and i s p , see on Is. Xxxiv. 1 1, Some interpret V ¦ p of the Arab ij«_£, the demon of the des ert, and convert ai h, desolation, into ai 3?, raven, but without sufficient ground. See Maurer, who, in opposition to Hitzig, takes both words in their usual accepta tion. -IS, the Piel of rns> , is here used impersonally, and is best rendered in the passive, litnsa. , chapiter, see on Amos ix. 1. By nTis is meant the wainscoting and fine carved cedar work with which the walls, ceiling, etc, of the houses were ornamented. For the lan guage of pride and carnal security ex pressed in ver. 15, comp. Is. xlvii. 8. CHAPTER III. Hating digressed to predict the fate of the surrounding nations, Zephaniah returns to his own countrymen, and specially directs his prophecy against Jerusalem, the leading per sons in which had persevered in wickedness in spite of all the warnings which they had CllAC. III. ZEPHANIAH. o«_»o received 1-7, After addressing the pious members of the theocracy, and eiicoura-imr them to wait for the development of tlie Diviue purposes, 8, lie proceeds to predict" the conversion of the Gentiles, 9, and of the Jews, 10; describes their character when con verted, 11— 13; congratulates them on their deliverance, and enjoyment of the presence of their heavenly King, 14—17; and concludes by adverting to the circumstances con nected with their return to Palestine after their conversion 18—20. 1 Wo to the rebellions and polluted, The oppressing city ! 2 She listened not to the voice, She received not instruction ; She trusted not in Jehovah, She drew not near to her God. 3 Her princes in the midst of her Are roaring lions ; Her judges are evening wolves ; They gnaw no bones in the morning. 4 Her prophets are vain-glorious, Hypocritical men ; Her priests profane what is sacred ; They do violence to the law. 1. It has been thought by some that in nsiiB, rebellious, as here applied to Jerusalem, there is a play upon the name of n»l«, Moriah, on which the temple was built. If so, it was calculated to suggest to the minds of the Jews the gross inconsistency of their laying claim to any connection with that sacred place, while they obstinately refused to obey the law of God. The root is sim , cognate with ni5i , to prove refractory, rebel. The LXX. rendering the word by iiri- V s is a change, by no means uncommon, of the second person to the third. In Va there is an ellipsis of a, according to. Chap. III. ZEPHANIAH. 330 8 Nevertheless, wait for me, saith Jehovah, In the day when I rise for the prey ; For my determination is to assemble the nations, To gather the kingdoms ; To pour out upon them my fury, All the heat of my anger ; For by the fire of my jealousy The whole earth shall be consumed. 9 For then I will turn to the nations a pure language, That the)' may all invoke the name of Jehovah ; That they may serve him with one accord. bs_ ip_S is not to be here taken in the sense of punishing, but of appointing for punishment. Comp. Jer. xv. 3. The ap pointed and threatened judgments should be averted from Jerusalem, if the inhab itants would only turn from their evil ways, and walk in the fear of the Lord. Such was the announcement which he graciously made to them by his servants the prophets ; but, instead of reforming, they addicted themselves more sedulously and entirely to the practice of iniquity. C-a'in , to rise early, is frequently used in the Hebrew Scriptures in a tropical sense, to indicate that a person does any thing with preparedness or full purpose of mind. The primary idea conveyed by the verb seems to be that of placing the burdens on the shoulders of camels, etc., before setting out on a journey, which, in the East, is done very early in the morning. Root eapj , shoulder, Eth. ^\rf\<^ t bajulavit. /^ftr/l*7"' \ onus imposuil humeris. 8. Most expositors interpret the words 'b Jian , expect or wait for me, as if they were addressed to the profligate charac ters described in the preceding verse, but this construction is admissible only on the principle of their being applied iron ically, since the phrase is never used except in a good sense. Yet even this but ill suits the entire connection. I consider them to form an apostrophe to the pious among the Jews, calling upon them to look forward, amid all the calam ities which were approaching, to the glo rious period which these calamities were designed to usher in, and which the prophet specially describes in the follow ing verses. The LXX. , and all the other Greek versions, as also the Syr., render iy , by testimony or witness ; a significa tion which only attaches to the letters when pointed -iy . The signification of prey is more appropriate here. Compare for this signification Gen. xlix. 27;. Is. xxxiii. 23. What is meant by rising up to the prey is explained in the following clause of the verse. Indeed, the very derivation of the word fromniy , to pass on in a hostile manner, to rush upon, at tack ; Arab. | ^\^ , irruit in aliquem ; i^i\&.y inimici, hostcs ; at once sug gests the ideas of conflict and destruc tion. 9. From this verse to the end of the book the prophecy relates exclusively to Messianic times. The n~"-a r-.tv , pu rified lip or language, means the profes sion of pure religion, a language freed from the polluted names of idols, and of every abomination connected with their worship. As this was to be realized by the nations, the c-;:y , as distinguished from the Jews, it follows that the spread of Christianity, and the consequent sub version of idolatry throughout the world, are here specifically predicted. This pre diction, however, has hitherto been only partially fulfilled. By the gospel, indeed, idolatry has been dislodged from many 336 ZEPHANIAH. Chap. III. 10 From beyond the rivers of Cush, My suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed, Shall bring my offering. parts of the globe, but its place has to a great extent been occupied by the pollu tions of antichristian systems of worship, while vast regions are still the scenes of varied and most degrading idolatrous abominations. And, as to the unity so strikingly expressed by ins ca.3 ¦ one shoulder, whatever there may be of that real substantial unity which binds all true believers to Christ as their Head, and to one another as members of the same family, there is still a deplorable want of the visible manifestation of one ness in obeying the laws of Christ, and obeying the ordinances of his house. These laws are spoken of as a burden, Matt. xi. 20 ; Acts xv. 28 ; Rev. ii. 24 ; and the metaphor here employed by the prophet is taken from two persons jointly carrying a burden between them, shoulder to shoulder. Compare the use of bpoSrv- patibv, Acts i. 14 ; ii. 1, 46 ; iv. 24 ; v. 12 ; xv. 25 ; Rom. xv. 6. "What has pre vented the outward visibility of the unity of believers has been, that some of them have added burdens of their own to that of the Redeemer, while others have sub mitted to those imposed by men profess ing to be acting by his authority, but who have had no Scripture warranty for their pretensions. Until there is a return to an unanimous adherence to the simplicity which is in Christ, there can be no sucn unity as that taught in this verse. Yet for such the Bible teaches us to look ; and it behooves every Christian to do whatever lies in his power, in order to bring about so blessed a consummation. Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 14, M?) yiveaSre ere- po&yovvres inrttrrois ', and 1 Cor. i. 10, i?Te 5e KaTijprto-pevot iv tQ avrip voc Kal iv rfj abry yvdipy. 10. Having foretold the conversion of the Gentiles, the prophet in this verse predicts that of the Jews ; quite in ac cordance with other passages of Scrip ture, in which they are placed in juxta position with each other. ^i.n y , my suppliants, from iny , to burn incense to a divinity ; pray, supplicate. Arab. . f<*i r ¦ bonos odores spiravit. Syr. AV. fumavit odore suavi. Comp. Rev. t, 8, where the prayers of saints are called &vpidp.aTa, odors or incense, and Ps. cxli. 2, where David compares his prayer to nipjp , the Hebrew synonyme for incense. AVho the worshippers are, the prophet ex plains in the following words : iap2— na , the daughter of mg dispersed, i. e. by a common Hebrew idiom, my dispersed people, the Jews ; and the locality in which we are directed to look for them is v 5 a — in : V ia y , beyond the rivers of Cush, i. e. Ethiopia or Abyssinia itself, the rivers of which enclose it on the north. See on Is. xviii. 1, where the same phraseology occurs,, but u here the Ethiopians, and not the Jews, are the subjects of the prophecy. It is a well ascertained fact, though all the historical circumstances with which it is connected have not yet been brought to light, that there has long existed in the west of Abyssinia, a people called Falashas, or emigrants (from the Eth. ^f~\|l { to migrate; hence ^-^|1 J a sojourn er, stranger, the root from which ipoVs , Philistine, is derived, and for the same reason), who maintain that they derived their origin from Palestine, and all of whom profess the Jewish religion. They are identified, as to physical traits, not with the African races living in Ethio pia, but with the tribes of Arabia. They have their own government conceded to them by the Negus, or king Of Ethiopia. When Bruce was there they had a Jew ish king named Gideon, and his queen, Judith. Considering how greatly the Chap. in. ZEPHANIAH. 337 II In that day thou shalt not be ashamed On account of all thy doings, By which thou hast transgressed against me ; For then I will remove from the midst of thee Thy proud exultcrs ; And thou shalt no more be haughty in my holy mountain. 12 And I will leave in the midst of thee An humble and poor people. And they shall trust in the name of Jehovah. 13 The residue of Israel shall not commit injustice ; They shall not speak lies ; Xeither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth ; But they shall feed and lie down, And none shall make them afraid. 14 Rejoice, O daughter of Zion ! Shout, 0 Israel! Be joyful and exult with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem ! 15 Jehovah hath removed thy judgments ; Christianity of Abyssinia has been mixed up with Judaism, there is every reason to believe that most of the early converts in that country belonged to this very peo ple. That the Falashas are part of the dispersed people whose conversion is here predicted, I can have no doubt. They are singled out as a separate portion of the scattered seed of Abraham, most probably on account of the peculiar cir cumstances in which they have lived during the dispersion. Their bringing of Jehovah's offering does not necessarily imply that they are, on their conversion, to come with gifts to Jerusalem ; all that is intended may only be mint: nn:£ , the pure offering, which, under the new dispensation, was to be presented in ev ery place. See Mai. i. 11 ; and comp. ver. 9. 11—13. These verses contain a des cription of restored and regenerated Is rael. The not being ashamed of their sinful practices does not mean their not feeling a compunctious sense of their intrinsie odiousness and demerits, but is expressive of the great change that 43 should take place in the outward con dition of the Jews. That condition into which they have been brought by their obstinate rebellion against Jehovah and his Messiah, is one of disgrace. When recovered out of it, all the marks of shame and infamy shall be removed. The Pharisaic spirit of pride, and the vain confidence in the temple and the temple worship, which proved the ruin of the nation, shall be taken away. The converted residue shall be a people hum ble and poor in spirit, Matt. v. 3, xi. 5, and of a truly righteous and upright character ; and having fled for refuge to the hope set before them in the gospel, shall be safe under the protecting care of their heavenly Father. 14. A call to the converted Israelites, restored to their own land, and especially to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to exult in their distinguished experience of the Divine loving-kindness. 15. This and the following verses fur nish the reasons why the Jews should indulge in exultation. n:~ , in Kal, to turn ; in Piel, to cause to turn out of the 338 ZEPHANIAH, Chap. III. He hath cleared away thine enemies ; The King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of thee, Thou shalt see calamity no more. 16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not O Zion ! let not thy hands be feeble ; 17 Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, The Mighty One, that will save ; He will rejoice over thee with gladness, He will be silent in his love ! He will exult over thee with a shout of joy. 18 I will gather those that are grieved for the festivals, (They were of thee ;) Burdened with reproach for her sake. 19 Behold ! I will deal with all thine oppressors at that time, way, remove, destroy. Instead of tia*N, thine enemy, thirty -two MSS., originally six more, and two by correction, read Ti^y N, thine enemies, which reading is also supported by two early editions, the Babyl. Talmud, and all the versions. For 'Sin , sixty-eight MSS., and among these some of the most accurate Spanish, read isit; . In the full en joyment of the presence of their God, the converted Jews should have nothing to fear. 17. A beautiful description of the de light which Jehovah shall take in his recovered people, and of their consequent and continuous happiness. The phrase inansa •i,~rip_ has occasioned some dif ficulty to interpreters. Houbigant, after the LXX. and Syr., and following him Newcome, and recently Ewald, propose toreadi^-inp , "he will renew his love;'' but this verb nowhere occurs in Hiphil, and the conjectural emendation is wholly unnecessary. ii_n , to be dumb, keep silence, has the same signification in Hi phil, to be silent, not to speak, and is here very appropriately employed to express the non-remembrance of iniquity. Justly as God might set the sins of his people before them, he, in the exercise of his love, makes no mention of them, having freely forgiven them for the sake of the atonement made by his only-begotten Son. Comp. Ps. xxxii. 2 ; Jer. xxxi. 34; Ezek. xxxiii. 16. 18. na" ,of which Q-ana is the Niphal participle, has two significations, that of being pained or grieved, and that of be ing separated, removed, etc. Both deri vations may be supported by the Arab. ~^ , , chluit, and Conj. iv. procul a se avovit. The former, which is here most approved, fully meets the exigency of the passage, and may be said to imply the latter. The Jews, in a state which ren dered it impossible for them to celebrate their sacred festivals at Jerusalem, are represented as filled with grief when they reflected on the privileges of their ances tors. iypto, festival, is here a noun of multitu de. rrbs, on her account, is intro duced, for the sake of emphasis, between the words nSiri ns'sa , the lifting up, or utterance of reproach, which would otherwise have appeared in the construct state. By metonymy, the Jews, who are the objects of such reproach, are intended. Comp. Micah vi. 16. The feminine suf fix in np'?.S refers to Jerusalem or Zion, understood : the change of person is, as frequently, for the sake of effect. The various reading Tj'Vy , though supported by more than twelve MSS., the Targ. and Syr., is most probably an emendation. 19. ns n'ss , means to deal with, in Chap. Ill, ZEPHANIAH. 339 And will save her that halteth, And collect the expelled, And make them a praise and a name, In every country where they have been put to shame 20 At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I collect you ; Yea, I will make you a name and a praise Among all the nations of the earth, When I reverse your captivity in their sight, Saith Jehovah. the way of retribution or punishment. Vulg. interficiam. Targ. sipa:,. -ray Sis ty , / will make an end of. The restora tion of the Jews is uniformly represented as taking place in connection with the destruction of those nations that are hos tile to the cause of God, and that shall, in a special manner, oppose the accom plishment of his purpose respecting the final deliverance of that long depressed and scattered, yet beloved people. Comp. Is. lix. 17—21, lxvi. 15, 16. nyp», halting, and nrjii , driven away, cast out, express the deplorable circumstances of the Jews during the dispersion ; and the verbal forms indicate that such shall be their condition till the time of resto ration. The illustrious character of that restoration, however, shall redound to the celebrity of the covenant people in all the countries where they have been the objects of reproach and ignominy, y is , land, is used collectively for niais, lands, and DW=iar yis , the land of their shame, means the countries in which they have been the objects of contumely and disgrace. Ezek. xxxiv. 29. The occur rence of the article in yisn , which is in construction with on v a , is contrary to rule, but is otherwise not without exam ples. See Josh. iii. 17; 1 Sam. ii. 13; 2 Kings vii. 13. In such cases, however, the article is generally repeated before the following noun. See Josh. viii. 11 ; Jer. xxv. 26. Some would account for the irregularity by an understood repeti tion of the noun, thus, yis yisn- Vaa tFraa . 20. After cans s^as supply eaaiga. The i in ny a 5 is exegetical. The period of the reintroduction of the Jews into their own land is here rendered distin- guishingly prominent by repeated and pointed reference. So wonderful, how ever, shall be the circumstances connected with the event, that they shall scarcely believe it when it happens, how greatly and how long soever they may have de sired it. Jehovah, to remove all doubts, declares that he will bring it about before their eyes ; i. e. it shall certainly become the object of their delightful contempla tion. HAGGAI PREFACE. It is generally thought that the prophet Haggai was among the Hebrew exiles who returned with Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest, from Baby lon in the year B. c. 536, when Cyrus granted them their liberty, and ordered them to be furnished with what was necessary for the restoration of the temple at, Jerusalem. His book itself vouches for the fact that he proph esied in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, who ascended the Persian throne B. c. 521. Having been interrupted in building the temple by an interdict, which the Samaritans obtained from Smerdis the usurper, the Jews became in some measure indifferent to the work ; and when Darius came to the throne, an event which must have deprived the prohibition of all authority, instead of vigorously recommencing their labors, the more influential persons among them pretended that, as the prophecy of the seventy years applied to the temple as well as to the captivity in Babylon, and they were only yet in the sixty-eighth year, the proper time for rebuilding it had not arrived, and gave their whole attention to the erection of splendid mansions for themselves. To rouse them from their selfish indifference to the claims of religion, Haggai and Zechariah were commissioned, in the second year of Darius, i. e. B. c. 520, to deliver to them rousing appeals from Jehovah. These appeals had the desired effect, and the work proceeded with vigor. The book is made up of five messages, which were all delivered, at suc cessive periods, within the short space of three months. They are so exceed ingly brief, that they are, not without reason, supposed to be only a summary or epitome of the original discourses. The style of Haggai is not distinguished by any peculiar excellence ; yet he is not destitute of pathos and vehemence, when reproving his countrymen for their negligence, and exhorting them to the performance of duty. To these, the interrogatory form which he frequently adopts, in no small degree contributes. He is not without elevation when predicting the future. Cer tain portions of the book are purely historical ; and the rest, though exhibit ing more or less of the parallelism of members which characterizes the usual prophetic style, are but faintly rhythmical. The phrases, n'.n'' qm nisaa ; caaaV Wb , are frequently repeated, nin1 &s a occurs not less than thrice in a single verse, chap. ii. 4. •psa iinba. , ii. 3; b$» nn.t«, ii, 6; Qins -ps , ii. 16, are peculiar, and indicate the Chaldee age. CHAPTER I The prophet calls the attention of the principal civil and ecclesiastical authorities to the negligence of the people in not building the temple, 1—4; directs that of the people to this as the cause of their want of outward prosperity, 5—11 ; and subjoins a notice respect ing the success with which the delivery of his message was accompanied. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord was com municated through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying : 1. The Darius here mentioned is Da rius the son of Hystaspis, of the family of the Ach£emenida3, who, in consequence of an oracle, was raised to the throne of Persia, on the death of the usurper Smer- dis, B. c. 521, and reigned thirty-six years. That this must be the monarch intended is obvious from the facts, that Darius the Mede, mentioned Dan. v. 31, ix. 1, lived before the return of the Jews from Baby lon ; and that Darius Nothus and Darius Codomannus flourished, the former nine ty-three years after the completion of the temple, and the latter at a much later period. Darius Hystaspis is represented by Herodotus as a mild and benevolent ruler. He protected the Jews from the opposition of their enemies, and carried into effect the edict of Cyrus, Ezra vi. The name aipi- , Daryavesh, or, as it appears in the cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis, Daryawus, is derived by Lassen (iib. d. Keilfbrm. Inschriften, p. 158), from the root darh, to preserve, with the affirma tive awu, the * being the sign of the nom inative; and thus signifies conservator. Comp. Herodotus, vi. 98, where the sig nification kplei-ns, coercer, is given to the name. The date in the prophecy is taken from the reign of this monarch, because at the time he swayed his sceptre over all the countries with which the Jews were brought into contact, from Lybia in Egypt, and the frontiers of Europe, to the Oxus and the Indus on the east. The months specified by Haggai and Zechariah are those not of the Persian, but of the Hebrew year. See Zech. i. 7, vii. 1, viii. 19. Zerubbabel, whose Chal dee name was Sheshbazzar, Ezra i. 8, v. 14 ; comp. v. 16, iii. 8, 10, was the grand son (12 is used by Haggai in its more extended signification) of Shealtiel, of the royal house of David, 1 Chron. iii. 9 — 19. Cyrus committed to his care the sacred vessels of the temple, and ap pointed him governor of the colony which returned to Judea. The title of n ns , prefect or governor, by which he is designated, is applied to persons bear ing rule in provinces or divisions of the Persian empire of less extent and importance than satrapies. Comp. the Pracrit. Pakkha, and the present Turk ish Pusha, though the latter word, Li i_j , Basha, is rather to be referred to . £,Ls, Bash, head, commander, ruler. Joshua the high priest is repeatedly mentioned in the book of Zechariah, as presiding over the Jewish affairs at the same time with Zerubbabel. That V-isn yr.z- , the high priest, is to be connected, not with the more proximate, but with the more remote noun, i. e. with y-j'n" , Joshua, is clear, not only from the sim- 34; HAGGAI. Chap. I. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : This people say, The time is not come, The time for the house of Jehovah to be built. Yea, the word of Jehovah was communicated through Hag gai the prophet, saying : Is it time for you, 0 ye, To dwell in your wainscoted houses, And this house lie waste ? Xow, therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, but brought in little ; Ye have eaten, but not had enough ; Ye have drunk, but not' to the full; Ye have put on clothing, but none is warm; ilar coherence of r n£ , but from all other instances in which offices and genealogi cal statements are blended. 2. Simple as are the words sis ny sV "i:irs, the construction is somewhat difficult, owing to the position of the infinitive si. Either we must, with Hitzig, give to the former ny the points ry^nP?, now, as in Ps. Ixxiv. 6 ; Ezek. xxiii. 43 ; or convert s'a into sa of the preterite, as one of De Rossi's MSS. reads, and agreeably to the rendering of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., Targ., and Arab. ; or, what is preferable, regard s'a as put absolutely for the purpose of more em phatically expressing the sentiment that the time was not yet really come in which to erect the temple. As two of the seventy years' captivity had yet to elapse, the colony which had arrived at Jerusalem encouraged themselves in their neglect of present duty, by assuming that the building of the temple was included in the calculation, and that, till the full time had expired, they were under no obligation to recommence the work. 4. Repeating the word r y, time, which he had employed twice, verse 2, the prophet makes an appeal full of point and cogency to those whom he addresses. The use of ens before eaV adds to the force of the language. -(eo signifies to cover, cover over, wainscot, or overlay with boards, so that what is predicated of the houses is not to be confined to the ceiling, but must be extended to the walls which were thus covered, at once for comfort and ornament. How beau tifully the feelings of David, 2 Sam. vii. 2, contrast with those of the persons re proved by Haggai. 5. The i in nPyi is inferential, while npy is employed, not in its temporal acceptation, but argumentatively, as in Ps. ii. 10. ESP-.1T" bs_ &aaa^ ffa'v, lit. place your heart upon your ivays, an idiomatic, but very expressive mode of speech. Comp. ver. 7, and ii. 18, twice, in the elliptical form Eaaa^ ii)s"\b . 6. san, V'Sst, Sna and iriaV , are historical infinitives, which carry forward the force of the finite form in ftP»~T at the commencement of the verse, and, at the same time, give a greater degree of prominence to the actions which they ex press. Nothing prospered, and nothing could be expected to prosper, while the Jews were living in the flagrant neglect of their duty. They had brought prop erty with them from Babylon, with which they had erected splendid houses for themselves, but God blasted their agricultural and other expectations ; and they had nothing in prospect but a sea- Chap. I. HAGGAI. 343 And he that carneth wages, earneth them To put them into a purse with holes. 7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Consider your ways. 8 -Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, And build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, That I may be glorified, saith Jehovah. 9 Ye looked for much, but, behold ! little ; And ye brought it homo, and I blew upon it. Wherefore ? saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house which lieth waste, And ye run each to his own house. 10 Therefore, it is on your account the heavens withhold the dew, And the earth withholdeth her jjroduce. 11 And I have called for drought, son of scarcity and want. The necessa ries of life were already become so dear, that those who wrought for day's wages parted with all that they earned, as if they had put it into a bag or purse with holes, a!) p2 , bored or perforate d. 7. A Teiteration of the exhortation contained in ver. 5. 8. The reason why the Jews are called to provide wood only is thought by Jer ome to be, that the walls of the temple remained standing; but this hypothesis is contradicted by repeated statements in the books of Ezra and Zechariah, as well as in Haggai ii. 18, in which express mention is made of laying its founda tions. It rather seems to have been on account of the time which would be nec essary to procure the article in question from Lebanon, since it required first to be hewn down, and afterwards trans ported by sea to Joppa. By inn > the mountain, Rosenmiiller thinks Moriah is meant ; Hitzig, the mountainous country in the vicinity of Jerusalem ; but it is more natural to interpret the term of Lebanon, whence the wood was actually fetched. It is true the Jews themselves did not go to that mountain for the tim ber ; it was conveyed by the Zidonians and Tyrians, Ezra iii. 7 ; but persons are often said to do' what they perform through the instrumentality of others. Eor "jaasp , the textual reading, which should be pointed laasi , the Keri has n~a asp . The copula l marks here the end to be obtained, or the result that would follow the performance of the enjoined duty. In such cases the future has the force of a potential mood. 9. njs , the infinitive absolute, as in ver. 6. Even the small crop which was reaped had no sooner been brought into the barns or granaries, than it was dis sipated. Their running each to his own house is expressive of the eagerness with which the Jews pursued their own affairs, and sought for self-indulgence. -n"a and in -a stand here in striking contrast. 10. capVy is not to be referred to the heavens, and so rendered over you, but on your account, for your sake. Comp. QaVV aa yzb , Micah iii. 12. The mean ing is, on account of your neglecting to build the temple. The preposition in ?rt3K , following sVa , signifies with re spect to, but does not require to be trans lated. 11. In the use of ap'n, drought, there is an obvious reference to am , dry, waste, desolate, verses 4 and 9. They form a paronomasia. The lengthened 'U4 HAGGAI. Chap. II. 12 Upon the land, and upon the mountains, Upon the grain, and upon the new wine, Upon the oil, and upon what the ground bringeth forth, Upon man and upon beast, And upon all the labor of the hands. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Josedech the high priest, and all the residue of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him ; and the people feared Jehovah. Then spake Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, in the mes sage of Jehovah to the people : I am with you, saith Jehovah. And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedech the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, and they came and did the work in the house of 15 Jehovah of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. 13 14 amplification is employed in order to add to the force of the threatening. The LXX., supposing it to be incongruous to speak of bringing a drought upon man and beast, read ain instead of ai'n, and rendered the word by pdxaipav, a sword, not adverting to the circumstance that the latter term was still less applicable to the other subjects here enumerated. "What the prophet threatens is a univer sal drought, the effects of which would specially be experienced by living crea tures. 12. The prophet now describes the happy effect which was produced by the message which he had just delivered. All the people who had returned united with their rulers in rendering obedience to the Divine command. 13. To encourage them to proceed in the path of obedience on which they had entered, Haggai delivers to them the brief, but most cheering promise, ^ss nin1' ts: tapis , I am with you, saith Jehovah. 14. rtn I'j'n i ^ excite, or stir up the spirit of any one (comp. Ezra i. 1, 5), means to render him inclined effectively to undertake the performance of any act, or to pursue a certain line of conduct. 15. From the date here assigned it appears, that most of the month elapsed before the work was fairly undertaken. Several of the early editions of the He brew Bible, as also the London Polyglot, improperly place this verse at the begin ning of the next chapter. CHAPTER II. This chapter contains three different oracles of the prophet. The first, designed to encour age the people and their leaders to proceed with the building of the temple, by considera tions derived from the Divine presence, 1—4; from their national covenant continuing in Chap. II. HAGGAI. 34<5 force, and that of the prophetio and gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, 6; from the advent of the person and kingdom of the Messiah, 6, 7; and from tlie universal proprie torship of Jehovah, the glory of tho Messiah, and the reconciliation which lie should effect, 8, 9. The second oracle cautions them against intermission in their labors, by showing that if they did so, nothing they did could be acceptable to God, 11 — 14; and by referring them to the infelicitous state of their affairs before the late revival, 15—18; and promises them prosperity, 19. Tlie third is addressed to Zerubbabel individually, to ani mate and encourage him in conducting the work. 1 Ix the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month", the word of Jehovah was communicated through Haggai the 2 prophet, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying: 3 Who is there among you that remaineth, That saw this house in its former glory ? And how do ye see it now ? Is it not, compared with it, as nothing in your eyes ? 4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel ! saith Jehovah ; And be strong, O Joshua ! son of Josedech, the high priest ; Be ye strong, also, all ye people of the land ! Saith Jehovah of hosts, and work : For I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts. 5 The covenant which I made with you, 1, 2. This oracle was delivered nearly with eaa , but connects with the inter- a month after the rebuildmg of the tem- rogative' ^M . The phrase ysa iiiiisB is pie had commenced, and was evidently peculiar, but not difficult of resolution, designed to remove the despondency in the word for temple being understood. which some of the people indulged, and 4. The comparison instituted in the to animate them to prosecute the work. preceding verse, so far from being de- 3. It appears from Ezra iii. 13, that signed to discourage those to whom the there were many present at the laying of appeal was made, was on the contrary the foundation of the second temple, who intended to inspire them with confidence had seen the first. To such of them as in their covenant God, whose prerogative were still alive, few as they must have it is to call things that are not as though been, Haggai appeals respecting the dis- they were. It is tacitly implied, that parity between the two, in regard to the whatever might be the estimate they rough and unpromising appearance of the might make of the work, it was very new structure, contrasted with the ele- different with respect to his. Comp. gant and splendid aspect of that of Sol- Zech. viii. 6. And what is here only omon, previous to its destruction by the implied is expressly declared ver. 9. Chaldeans, is-i-sn is not in apposition 5. The government of lain- ns has 44 346 HAGGAI. Chap. II. When ye went forth out of Egypt, And my Spirit remain among you : Fear not. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Yet once, within a little, And I will shake the heavens, and the earth, And the sea, and the dry land, unnecessarily puzzled interpreters. Ewald thinks the sentence is incomplete, and would supply mar , remember. Hengs tenberg actually supplies the word in a parenthesis. Maurer endeavors to make it out to be an accusative modi s. norma, and explains, secundum Mud verbum : and connects it with the preceding verse, thus : I am with you, according to that word, etc. ; and so our own translators, after Calvin. Rosenmiiller would supply ? ay from the preceding verse. The par ticle ns I consider to be prefixed to iai-, in order to give it a greater degree of prominence, and to be equivalent to that or the same covenant, etc. ; while ia-n— ns, together with ¦<|-s?i» form the nominative to the participle niMj); only, as separated from it by the inter vening prelieate "isi 'Wia T3$, the participle is put in the feminine singular, to agree with ^n?i, the nearer antece dent. For this use of ns before the nominative, though rare, see Neh^ix. 19. if.ey- ns is— s^ l^yn, the pillar of cloud did not depart, etc. ; ver. 34, si»s sV — su-aVcp- nsi , And our kings — have not kept, etc. : Dan. ix. 13, S3-Vy nsa ns,-n nyin- Va ns, All this evil hath come upon us. 121 , word or matter, is here employed to denote the Sinaic Covenant, as the accompanying verb nia , to cut, or make u, covenant obviously shows. Notwithstanding the flagrant violation of that covenant of which the Jews had been guilty, on ac count of which they had been punished in Babylon, it still continued in all its force. They possessed it in its written form, and thus had the pledge which Jehovah had given them, that he was their covenant God, and would confer blessings upon the obedient. They also had his rn 1 > the spirit of inspiration in the prophets who were raised up in the midst of them to declare his will, and call to the discharge of duty, Ezra, v. 1 ; and of efficient influence to induce them to listen to, and enable them to comply with such call, Zech. iv. 6 ; Hag. i. 14. 6. In this and the following verse the Jews are encouraged to proceed with the work by the assurance that Jehovah would, as the Governor among the na tions, in a brief space, exert his Almighty power in effecting a great revolution in the state of the kingdoms of this woild, preparatory to the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah. This mighty change is first described in the usual fig urative language of prophecy, as a con vulsion of the physical universe, and then literally as a convulsion of all nations. In the phrase tsyn nns "liy , it is only the numeral nns which occasions any difficulty. The combination toypa "i'y, yet a little, i. c. time, occurs more than once. See Ps. xxxvii. 10 ; Is. xxix. 17; Jer. li. 33. But that here presented be ing peculiar to this passage, naturally suggests some peculiarity in the mean ing. Most supply cys , time, after the LXX. cti aira£, quoted and reasoned upon, Heb. xii. 26, 27, and the Syr. .-¦Si \fM ^oi- Comp. for nns. CSS. , one time, once, Josh. vi. 3 ; 1 Sam. xxvi. 8 ; and for the ellipsis of ays , where nhs stands by itself, as here, Exod. xxx. 10 ; Job. xl. 5 ; Ps. lxii. 12, lxxxix. 36. And certainly, as tayn , lit tle, is designed to express brevity of time, ClIAP. II. HAGGAI. 347 7 Yea, I will shake all the nations, And the things desired by all the nations shall come ; nothing can be more appropriate than such construction. Hengstenberg labors hard to bring the idea of brevity of time out of nns, but fails to produce any examples to confirm his hypothesis. "What the prophet has in view appears to be the convulsions which were yet to take place in the Persian and Greek empires, some of which were soon to commence, but all of which were more proximately, or more remotely connected ' with the complete establishment of the Jews in their own land, and the splendor of their temple as erected by Herod. The previous convulsion, implied in the phrase yet once, does not appear to be the shak ing, etc., which took place at the giv ing of the law on Sinai, but the violent change which had lately taken place in the condition of the Babylonian empire, just as that yet to come is not to be ex tended to the downfall of the Roman empire, the destruction of Antichrist, etc., but must be confined to events which were to happen before the com ing of Christ. We have only to call to mind the wars of the Persians in Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, and other parts ; and those of Alexander and his succes sors which followed, till the period when the establishment of the power of the Romans at length gave peace to the world, in order to read, in legible char acters, the fulfilment of the present prophecy. Nor does the comment of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews require any other application of it. His object is to show that the dispensation or kingdom of the Messiah is stable and immovable; and in order to illustrate his point, he introduces, by way of con trast, the natural phenomena which took place, on the promulgation of the Sinaic covenant, as described by Moses, and the political phenomena predicted by Haggai, all of which indicated the mutable char acter of the elements upon which they were exerted. That the prophet intended to include the dissolution of the Jewish state in his prediction, does not appear ; indeed, the reference to such an event must have increased the despondency of his people, instead of inspiring them with hope and courage, which formed his only object in addressing them. 7. Having figuratively set forth the great political changes which were still to take place among the nations before the introduction of the kingdom of the Messiah, Haggai here repeats his predic tion in literal terms, and then at once announces the arrival of the eagerly ex pected blessings of that kingdom. The passage has long been regarded as one of the principal prophecies relative to the time of the Redeemer's advent. That it was so applied by some of the early Jewish Rabbins, is undeniable. Thus in the chapter of the Talmudic treatise Sanhedrin, entitled pVn , the following interpretation is given as that of Rabbi Akiba, who flourished before the time of Jerome: Vsi'irV C-V ins r-.zb-a vs-a •33n maVn in-,s msVi iam insV h"»n sa'i "isi cbb to-Sia, For a little I will give the kingdom to Israel, after our desolation, and after the king dom, behold I will shake heaven and earth, and Messiah shall come. The rendering of the Vulg. supports the same view : " Et veniet Desideratus eunctis Gentibus." Leo Juda : -' Et veniet qui desideratur ab omnibus gentibus." Dathe : " Et deinde veniet gentibus om nibus expetendus." On the other hand, Kimchi, Vatablus, Calvin, Ribera, Dru sius, Gataker, Vitringa, and others, ren der : " The Gentiles shall come with their delightful things," i. e. their silver, gold, precious stones, etc. Some, violently, " Come to the desire," etc., meaning thereby Jerusalem. Most of the mod erns, rejecting this construction as alto gether unwarranted, translate after the LXX. TJ|ei to iKXeKra. irdvrwv twv ihviov, "the choice things," or ".the pleas- £43 HAGGAI. Chap. II. And I will fill this house with glory, Saith Jehovah of hosts. ant things of all nations shall come." Ewald : " dass die liebsten aller Volker kommen :" i. e. " That the most lovely of all people may come." Hengsten berg, who renders, " the beauty of all the heathen," is at great pains in en deavoring to make good his translation, which he interprets of what he says is always beautiful among them — all then- costly good things. But he fails alike in his attempt to set aside the idea of desire as expressed by niKn , and in that to prove that the prophet here fore tells the rich contributions which the heathen would bring into the church. That the root n;n , primarily and most commonly signifies to desire or covet, both in a good and a bad sense, must be evi dent to every one who will take the trouble to consult the Hebrew concord ance ; and that nicn , which is derived from it, signifies desire, an object of de sire, see the Lexicons of Gesenius and Lee. This acceptation must be vindi cated to 1 Sam. ix. 20. n-v»n— Va "abn Vsils1 ; to 2 Chron. xxi. 20, men sVa ; and to Dan. xi. 37, cii-s r-Kfi. The want of concord in rinn 5 san t"i.T-— Va , the verb expressing the predicate, being in the plural masculine, while ni?;n , the subject of the proposi tion, is in the singular feminine, occa sions no small difficulty, and presents an insuperable objection to the usual Mes sianic interpretation. That sisa should have been produced by zeugma with Q"ii,n , is totally unsupported by anal ogy, just as a plural of excellence in verbs is equally without example. The only practicable solution warranted by grammatical usage, consists in assuming niBrj to be a collective noun, convey ing a plural idea, the gender of which not having yet presented itself to the mind of the prophet when he enunciated the verb, he naturally expressed it in the masculine as the more worthy gender. The construction in such cases is ad sen- sum ; i. e. it is not formal, but logical. The proper translation, therefore, of evsrr— Va ti"Bn ssai will be, And, or, And then the things desired by all nations shall come. The Genitive being the Gen itive of object, must be thus expressed. Now these objects of desire on the part of all nations, cannot mean their riches, for no such riches were brought to Jeru salem by all the nations — the gifts bestowed by some few of the heathen princes after the time of Alexander not in any degree exhausting the force of the language here employed. Neither could the prospect of contributions in more re mote future time have operated in the way of encouragement upon the minds of those whom the prophet addressed, so as to induce thein to proceed with their work. The objects in question, there fore, must have been of a higher order — to peXX6vra aya&d, the good things to come, i. e. the blessings of the New Cov enant. There was found to pervade the minds of the heathen, a deep and dark feeling of the necessity of supernatural light and influence. Bewildered in the mazes of error and superstition, they could find nothing satisfactory respecting the Divine Being, pardon, emancipation from the power of moral evil, and a fu ture state of existence ; and more or less earnestly desired to obtain information in regard to these important and necessary points. To adduce only one testimony from among many to be found in ancient pagan writers. Socrates, endeavoring to satisfy the mind of Alcibiades on the subject of acceptable worship, says : avay- Kaiov oZv iun irepipeveiv ews &v tis p.ddy ws tiei irpbs Zyeobs Kal irpbs av&pwirous tiia- KeicrSai, It is tlierefore necessary to wait till some one may teach us how it behooves us to conduct ourselves, both towards the gods and men. To which Alcibiades re sponds : ir6re olv irapearai b xpdvos ovtos w ^wKpares ', Kal ris b iraitievawv ', tftiiara yap &v pot tioKW Itieiv tovtov rbv &v&pwirov ClIAP. II, HAGGAI. 349 8 Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, Saith Jehovah of hosts. 9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of tlie former, Saith Jehovah of hosts. ris iarw ; When shall that time arrive, O Socrates ? and who shall that Teacher bs ? for most eagerly do I wish to see such a man. — Plato, Alcibiades, ii. near the end. And, as the time of the Redeem- ir's advent drew near, there was a gen- ( ral expectation of a Teacher and Deliv erer, not only in the Jewish nation, but throughout the world. To Christ, as the Light of the world, and to the spiritual blessings which flow through his media tion, the prophecy strictly applies ; and, with this reference, was admirably cal culated to stimulate the Jews to persever ance in building the temple, with which was inseparably connected the restoration of their ancient polity, during the exist ence of which the Messiah was to appear. The " glory" with which the temple was to be filled, was not the rich and splen did furniture, etc., but a resplendence, consisting in the manifestation of Jeho vah himself. Comp. Zech. ii. 5, with Ezek. xliii. 4, 5 ; Exod. xl. 34, 35 ; 1 Kings viii. 11. 8. The Jews needed to be under no concern about the means requisite for the erection of the temple. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, so that whatever amount of earthly riches was wanted, he would in his providence sup ply. The declaration contained in this verse is introduced parenthetically, to re lieve their minds from any momentary anxiety, arising out of the circumstances in which, as a poor and despised people, they were placed. 9. The LXX. refer the terms iii nsn, the latter, and yasin , the former, not to n,"n n^an , this house, but to iiaa , the glory. And thus Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald ; but Ezra iii. 12, determines to the contrary. The glory here pre dicted was to be greater than that of the former temple, not merely in degree, but in kind. That the second temple, even as renewed and beautified by Herod, at all equalled in magnificence that of Sol omon, there is no reason to believe. This must appear on comparing the descrip tion given of the former by Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. xv. cap. xi., with tUat furnished of the latter, 1 Kings vi. vii. 13 — 50. In point of size, indeed, the temple of Herod exceeded the structure erected by the celebrated Jewish mon arch ; but this was all. The statement made by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. iv. 8, that it was the most admirable of all the works he had seen or heard of, does not include Solomon's temple, but has respect to other erections in different parts of the world. But if the second house was inferior in point of sumptu- ousness to the former, and wanted, as the Jews admit, the Brim and Thummim, the ark, the pot of manna, Aaron's rod, and the visible glory, which was the symbol of the Divine presence, it follows that the greater glory by which it was to be distinguished, must denote something altogether different in kind, and which could only be supplied by Him, in whose person the glory of God appeared, 2 Cor. iv. 6, who is the " Brightness of the Di vine glory," Heb. i. 2 ; whose glory was beheld as that of the only-begotten of the Eather, John i. 14 ; who could say of himself, " that in this place is one greater than the temple," Matt. xii. 6 ; and who sat in it daily teaching, Matt. xxvi. 55. In support of this interpretation, and in deed of the Messianic character of the entire prophecy, ver. 7, 9, the declara tion made in the concluding clause of the latter verse may with all propriety be adduced. When "peace" is spoken of in an absolute sense, in the prophets, it 350 HAGGAI. Chap. II. And in this place I will give peace, Saith Jehovah of hosts. 10 On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah was communicated through 1 1 Haggai the prophet, saying : Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Ask now the priests as to the law, saying : If any one should carry 12 sacred flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touch with his skirt bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any eatable, shall it be 13 holy ? And the priests answered and said, ~No. Then said Haggai ; If any one who is unclean on account of a dead body, should touch any of these, shall it be unclean ? And the priests 14 answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then Haggai continued, and said : Thus hath this people, and thus hath this nation been, Before me, saith Jehovah ; denotes the reconciliation between God and sinful men, to be effected by the Messiah. Comp. Is. ix. 6, 7, liii. 5, lvii. 19 ; Micah v. 5 ; Zech. vi. 13 ; with Luke ii. 14 ; Acts x. 36 ; Rom. v. 1 ; Eph. ii. 14, 17. This peace was to be granted n,T.n C'ptea , in this place, i. e. in Jerusalem. It was there the Messiah made peace through the blood of his cross, Col. i. 20. It has with some been matter of dispute, whether the temple erected by Zerubbabel, and that built by Herod, are to be regarded as identical, or whether the latter is not to be consid ered as a third temple. Strictly and architecturally considered, that of Herod was entirely new, for he caused that of Zerubbabel to be taken down to the very foundations ; but in the popular and re ligious language they were identical ; just as Josephus speaks of those built by Sol omon and Zerubbabel as one, Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. iv. 8. Accordingly nothing is more customary than for Jewish writers to speak of only the first and the second temple. In the present verse, Haggai is to be understood as speaking in an archi tectural sense, inasmuch as the second temple was then being actually built. 10. This prophecy was delivered rather more than two months after that con tained in the preceding verses of the chapter. 11 — 13. To convince his countrymen of the impossibility of their conduct be ing well-pleasing to God, and of their obtaining his blessing, while in any one point they neglected to comply with his will, the prophet directs them to consult the priests on two legal questions ; the one, relative to the communication of ceremonial sanctity to any object, by its having been brought in contact with what had been sanctified ; and the oth er, respecting the communication of cer emonial impurity by" one who was him self impure. The former was denied ; the latter affirmed. Whatever the Jews might otherwise rightly perform, would not compensate for their neglect in build ing the temple; on the contrary, their neglect in this matter would taint or viti ate all their other actions. Comp. in illustration of these questions, Lev. vi. 27 ; Numb. vi. 6, xix. 13 ; in which lat ter passages the abbreviated form bes , a dead body, is expressed in full by vti nra , or by n w — las-nsn »es ¦ 14. The application of the legal decis ions of the priests to the case of the Jews, who had neglected the building of the temple. It describes them, not as they Chap. II. HAGGAI. 351 And thus hath been every work of their hands, And what they have offered there hath been unclean. 15 And now consider, I beseech you, From this day and backward, Before one stone was laid upon another In the temple of Jehovah. 16 Since these days were, One came to a heap of twenty sheaves, And there were but ten ; One came to the vat to draw fifty purahs, And there were but twenty. 17 1 smote you with blight, and mildew, and hail, In all the labors of your hands ; Yet ye turned not to me, Saith Jehovah. 18 Consider, I beseech you, From this day backward, From the twenty-fourth clay of the ninth month, From the day when the temple of Jehovah was founded, Consider ! 19 Is the seed still in the granary? now were, engaged in the work, but as they had been, and is designed to put them upon their guard against falling back into the same state. The adverb Ci- , there, points graphically to the altar, which had been erected at Jerusalem, and which was, in all probability, within view of the audience which the prophet ad dressed. Ezra iii. 3. 15 — 17. The Jews are earnestly ex horted to reflect upon the state of their affairs during the period in which they had intermitted the work. God had frowned upon them, and rendered them infelicitous. r&S-a , a substantive, with the local n , used adverbially. Properly it signifies upward, being derived from nVy , to ascend ; but used, as here, of time, it means back, backwards. In cn'-n , the word pa;, days, is under stood, sa is to be taken impersonally. At E "i VS nBi S , a heap of twenty, sup ply nisVs or D^l»y , sheaves. niflS, which is used for the wine-press itself, Is. lxiii. 3, is here employed to denote a liquid measure in which the wine was drawn out. LXX. perpnri)s. The quan tity being unknown, I have retained the original word. For ver. 17, comp. Amos iv. 9, where we have the words ,1-J Dnai- sV , ye turned not unto me, instead of ^Vs tans-"ps , used by Hag gai, in which there is an ellipsis of the participle D,a» • For this use of ns, as a nominative, or as indicating the sub ject of discourse, see on ver. 5. In ver. 18, the exhortation is once and again re iterated for the sake of effect; and to render it still more definite, the exact date is added to the formula nin ni»n , this day, which had been employed ver. 15. nVyn is here to be taken, as in that verse, in reference to past time, and not, as the Vulg., Hitzig, etc., in reference to the future. 19. To the question put at the begin ning of the verse, a negative is to be given. The seed was no longer in the 352 HAGGAI. Chap. II. And as yet the vine, and the fig-tree, And the pomegranate, and the olive have borne nothing ; From this day will I bestow the blessing. And the word of Jehovah was communicated a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying : 21 Speak to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, saying : I will shake the heavens and the earth, I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, And overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them ; The horses, also, and their riders shall come down, Each by the sword of another. In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel ! the son of Shealtiel, My servant, saith Jehovah, 20 22 23 granary. It had been sown in the course of the month, and there were no signs of its springing up any more than there were of the produce of the fruit-trees. Jehovah had formerly blasted their har vest ; but now that the people were dili gently engaged in building his temple, they might confidently calculate upon one of plenty. He gives them a positive promise to this effect. The repetition of nt n ci»n — ya,from this day, which had been twice used in the preceding verses, gives emphasis to the declaration. iy , usually signifying until, is here employed in the sense of while, or as yet, as in Judges iii. 26 ; 2 Kings ix. 22 ; Job. i. 18, where it corresponds to iiy in verses 16 and 17. 20 — 23. These verses contain a special message to Zerubbabel, in which there is a repetition of the prediction, some what amplified, respecting the revolutions that were about to take place, which had been delivered in verses 6 and 7. In ver. 22, the verb lip , to go or come down, is equvialent to VB5 , to fall. That the promise made, ver. 23, cannot be viewed as having respect to Zerubbabel in his in dividual capacity, has been thought to be quite obvious from the fact, that he lived upwards of an hundred years before the time of Alexander, who overturned the Persian throne, and subdued the rest of Asia ; but the predicted convulsions did not commence with the conquests of that monarch. Many of them took place dur ing the reign of Darius, whose arms were carried not only into Scythia, Asia Mi nor, and Greece, but, according to Her odotus, into India. It is, therefore, not at all improbable that Zerubbabel sur vived several of these wars, and thus lived in the beginning of Sinn c'v", that day, or the period in the course of which the prophecy was to be fulfilled ; and as the Persians occasionally experi enced serious reverses, as, for instance, in the Scythian expedition, it was natural for the Jews who were under the protec tion of Darius, to have their minds un settled by apprehensions respecting the ultimate state of their affairs. To inspire them with confidence, Jehovah here as sures their governor of his regard and protection amid all the commotions that might take place in the surrounding na tions. npV , to take, is merely employed for the purpose of introducing the action expressed by the following verb. Eor cnina ^pm, I will place thee as a sig net, comp. Song viii. 6 ; Jer. xxii. 24. Cnin, from nnn , to seal, or close by sealing, signifies a ring with the seal or signet in it, with which the impression Chap. II. HAGGAI. 353 And will make thee as a signet ; For in thee I take pleasure, Saith Jehovah of hosts. was made. Seals were commonly made of silver, but sometimes of the most pre cious stones, and, consequently, held in high estimation by their owners. Being worn on one of the fingers of the right hand, they were likewise objects of con stant inspection and care. Li all these points of view Zerubbabel was to be re garded by God. He was to be an object of his incessant care and delight. The latter idea is more definitely expressed by the addition inina ^2 ma , sig nifying not only to try objects, and then to select what is valuable, but also to take pleasure in what is thus selected. 45 ZECHARIAH. PREFACE. Zechariah was of a sacerdotal family. His father Berechiah was a son of Iddo, one of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua from Babylon. Neh. xii. 4. When he is said to have been the son of Iddo, Ezra v. 1, vi. 14, the word ia is used, according to a common Hebrew idiom, in the sense of grandson. He must have been born in Babylonia, and been young, rather than otherwise, at the time of his arrival in Judea. He was contem porary with Haggai, and, like him, received his prophetic commission in the second year of Darius Hystaspis, B. c. 520, only the latter began his ministry two months earlier. Both prophets were employed in encouraging Zerubba bel and Joshua to cany forward the building of the temple, which had been intermitted through the selfish and worldly spirit of the returned exiles — a spirit which they boldly and variously reproved. The most remarkable portion of the book is that containing the first six chapters. It consists of a series of visions which were vouchsafed to the prophet in the course of a single night, in which, by means of symbolical representations, the dispensations of Divine Providence relative to the na tions that had oppressed the Jews, the entire removal of idolatry from the latter, the re-establishment of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the certainty of the Messiah's advent, were strikingly and impressively revealed. The next portion contains the seventh and eighth chapters, and contains an answer to a question which the inhabitants of Bethel had proposed re specting the observance of a certain fast, together with important ethical matter necessarily arising out of the subject. The remaining six chapters contain predictions respecting the expedition of Alexander the Great along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt ; the Divine protection of the Jews both at that time, and in that of the Maccabees ; the advent, sufferings, and reign of the Messiah ; the destruction of Jerusa lem by the Romans, and dissolution of the Jewish polity ; the sufferings of the Jews during the dispersion ; their conversion and restoration ; and the sacred character of their worship, in which the Gentiles shall join, after the destruction of the wicked confederacy which will be opposed to their final establishment in Canaan. The authenticity of this last portion has been, and still is, strongly con tested. Not only has it been denied to be the production of Zechariah, but PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 355 it has been broken up into fragments, the independent authorship of which has been vindicated to as many anonymous authors. The first who ventured upon such a denial was Joseph Mede, whose opinion was adopted by Ham mond, Kidder, Winston, and Bridge, and more recently by Seeker and New- come in this country, and on the continent by Fliigge, Dddcrlein, J. D. Michaelis, Seiler, Eiehhorn, Bauer, Bertholdt, Forberg, Rosenmiiller, Gram berg, Hitzig, Credner, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel. The authenticity, on the other hand, has been maintained by Carpzovius, Blaney, Jahn, Beckhaus, Koester, Hengstenberg, and Burger. The principal objection is taken to the language and character of the materials, as being very different from those which are found to distinguish what is universally allowed to have been written by Zechariah. To this, however, it has been replied, that granting such to be the case, there may have elapsed a long period of time between the composition of the former and latter portions of the book, during which any observable change in the style of the prophet might have taken place. It is evident, from there being no reference whatever in the chapters in question to the completion of the temple and the restoration of the Jewish affairs after the captivity, that, if they had not been written previously, they must have been composed long after these events had become matter of history, and in circumstances alto gether different from those which occupied the attention of the prophet at the commencement of his ministry. That these chapters were written long before, and, indeed, during the ex istence of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, is a position maintained by most of those who dispute their authenticity ; but it is based upon too feeble and precarious a foundation to recommend it to the adoption of any who will impartially examine into all the circumstances of the case. The mere men tion of Judah and Ephraim, upon which so much stress is laid, can yield it no real support. Not the smallest hint is anywhere dropped which would lead us to infer the existence, at the time, of a separate political or religious estab lishment in the northern part of Palestine ; nor is there anything, but the contrary, to induce the conclusion that a king reigned in Judah in the days . of the author. That Ephraim should be spoken of as existing after the cap tivity, cannot be matter of surprise, when it is considered, that a very large, if not the larger, portion of the ten tribes availed themselves of the liberty granted by the Persians to the Jews in Babylon, and likewise returned to the land of their fathers. This view of the subject is confirmed by the applica tion of the term " Israel" to all the tribes, chap. xii. 1, just as it is used in the identical formula Mai. i. 1. Compare Mai. ii. 11, 12, iii. 6. The few refer ences to a return relate to those Jews which were in a state of banishment or slavery under the Graco-Syrian and Graseo-Egyptian kings. The histor ical circumstances connected with the Egyptian expedition of Alexander are so strongly marked in the prophetic announcements, that they cannot without violence be identified with any previous events. The absence, too, of the slightest allusion to the Babylonish captivity, either in the way of threatening or warning, while the prophet minutely describes the character of the Jewish 356 PREFACE TO ZKCIIA1UAII. rulers, and the condition of the Jewish people, in immediate connection with the sufferings of the Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the conse quent fate of the people, goes convincingly to show that the captivity must have taken place, and that the whole of this portion of the book has respect . to times future to those in which he flourished. So strongly, indeed, has this feature of the case presented itself to Eichhctn, and other sharp-sighted crit ics, that, rejecting, as their neology compelled them to do, all ideas of actual prophecy, they scruple not to affirm that the disputed chapters must have been composed in the days of Alexander, Antiochus, Epiphanes, or Hyrcanus I. It also deserves notice that no reference whatever is made to the exist ence of royal government among the Jews, at the time the author wrote, or to any circumstances in the history of that people previous to the captivity. When, therefore, the difference both in regard to time and subject-matter are taken into consideration, it must be regarded as sufficient to account for any difference of style that may be detected. It is, however, after all, a question whether there really does exist such a difference in this respect, as that to which it has become so fashionable to appeal. Be it that the intro ductory formulas which occur in the first eight chapters do not occur in the last six, the objection, if fully carried out, would go in like manner to dis member the Book of Amos, and assign its composition at least to three differ ent authors. The first two chapters of that prophet, it may be alleged, cannot have been written by the same person that wrote the three which fol low, since in the former every prediction is ushered in by the marked formula, " Thus saith Jehovah," whereas in the latter no such formula occurs, but another equally marked : " Hear ye this word." And upon the same princi ple, the seventh and eighth chapters must have come from the pen of a third writer, since the distinguishing formula there is, " Thus hath Jehovah showed me." The very peculiar character of the first six chapters of Zechariah, is such as to exclude all comparison of any other portion with it, while the more adorned and poetical style of the concluding chapters, which is so admirably adapted to the subjects treated of, ought equally to be regarded as exempting them from the category of comparison. In these no dates were requisite, . though they were in the former, in which they occupy their appropriate place in necessary connection with the events which transpired at the time. With respect to the titles, chap. ix. 1, and xii. 1, they are precisely such as might be expected to mark the strictly prophetic matter to which they are prefixed. The exactly parallel title, Malachi, i. 1, naturally suggests the idea, that they belong to a common period, especially as nothing analogous is found in any of the earlier prophets. On the whole, I cannot but regard the objections to the authenticity of the disputed chapters as the offspring either of a holy jealousy for the honor of the Evangelist Matthew, who attributes chapter xi. 12, 13, to Jeremiah, and not to Zechariah,* or of a spirit of wanton and unbridled hypercriticism, * See Comment, on the passage. PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 357 which would unsettle everything, in order to satisfy the claims of certain favorite principles of interpretation that may happen to be in vogue. In point of style, our prophet varies, according to the nature of his subjects, and the manner in which they were presented to his mind. He now expresses ' himself in simple conversational prose, now in poetry. At one time he abounds in the language of symbols ; at another in that of direct prophetical announcement. His symbols are, for the most part, enigmatical, and require the explanations which accompany them. His prose resembles most that of Ezekiel ; it is diffuse, uniform and repetitious. His prophetic poetry possesses much of the elevation and dignity to be found in the earlier prophets, with whose writings he appears to have been familiar ; only his rhythnius is some times harsh and unequal, while his parallelisms are destitute of that symmetry and finish, which form some of the principal beauties of Hebrew poetry. CHAPTER I. Ik the first six verses, which serve as a general introduction to the whole book, the prophet is charged to warn the Jews by the consequences which resulted from the impenitence of their forefathers, not to be backward in complying with the Divine will. We have then the first of the prophetic visions, with which Zechariah was favored, containing a symbolical representation of the tranquil condition of the world at the time, 7 — 11 ; fol lowed by an expostulation respecting the desolate state of Judea, 12, 13, and gracious promises of its restoration, 14 — 17. The last four verses set forth, by appropriate symbols, in a second vision, for the encouragement of the Jews, the destruction of the hostile pow ers by which they had been attacked, at different periods of their history. 1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah (the son of Bere chiah, the son of Iddo,) the prophet, saying ; 2 Jehovah hath been greatly disrjleased with your fathers. 3 Say therefore unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, And I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. 1. See preface, and on Haggai i. 1. 2 The special object which the prophet has in view in this and the following verses, is to call those Jews who had re turned from Babylon to Jerusalem, to repent of the selfish negligence which they evinced in regard to the building of the temple. Comp. Hag. i. 4, 5, 7. This repentance is urged upon them by the consideration of the severe punish ment which had overtaken their fathers. The argument is of the kind called en- thymeme, in which the antecedent only is expressed, and the consequent proposi tion is left to be supplied by the reader. "Jehovah hath been very angry with your fathers, and so he will be with you, except ye repent and reform your con duct." qap -^p . The construction of a verb with a noun derived from it, is found in other languages, as pdXe(rS?rai paxhv, gaudere gaudium ; but its fre quency in the Hebrew is such as to entitle it to be regarded as one of its idioms ; and, generally, it expresses aug mentation or intensity. Hence the LXX. render here, wpyia&n — bpyhv peydxnv ; and the Syr. fa\ f i o) y ;. In ver. 15, the intensity is still more strongly marked by the addition of Viii , great: — SjSp i3g_ Viii -|Spp . The persons addressed in napnpas , your fathers, are the Jews to whom the prophet had been sent. There is no occasion, with Blay- ney, to suppose that the text is defective. 3. The i in n-tasi is not merely con- tinuative, but argumentative, and infer ential. For the defective form CnVs , twenty-eight MSS., and three editions read Qn"Vs in full. The phrase n'lni nisaa , Jehovah of hosts, is of unusually frequent occurrence in the eight first chapters of this book, and in that of Haggai, written about the same time. In the last six chapters, however, it oc curs not fewer than nine times. See on Is. i. 9. Its use appears to have been designed to inspire the mind with un shaken confidence in the supreme and Chap. I. ZECHARIAH. 359 Be not like your fathers, To whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Turn now from your evil ways, And from your evil practices ; But they did not hearken, Neither did they give heed to me, saith Jehovah. As for your fathers, where are they ? And as for the prophets, do they live forever? But my words, and my decrees, Which I gave in charge to my servants the prophets, irresistible power of God. The 1 in asa-s- marks the apodosis, and has the force of and then, or in that case. Comp. James iv. 8. 4. The prophets here referred to are those who lived before the captivity, and the fathers are those who lived in their time, whose wicked practices had brought upon the nation that dire calamity. The appropriation of the phrase c-spa: Caii'Si , the former prophets, as a des ignation of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, is of much later date. The returned Jews are here re minded that the same announcement which was made to them had been made to their ancestors, and that they might have escaped all the evil by a timely repentance, to which Zechariah now ur gently calls them. The former i in Da-V-Vyn is marked in the margin as redundant, and is omitted in the text of more than twenty MSS. and some print ed editions. The plural of VV yn , viz. e-VV sk , is the only form in which the word occurs. Comp. ver. 6. 5. Jerome refers fc-s-asn to the false prophets by whom the Jews who lived before the captivity had been deceived — an interpretation which appears to have been suggested by Jer. xxxvii. 1 9 : " Where are now your prophets, which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land ?" The most nat ural construction of the verse, however, is that which connects it closely with what goes before, and identifies " the prophets" here spoken of with " the for mer prophets" there mentioned, just as the " fathers" in both verses correspond to each other. The question, Qn— n»s, where are they? is equivalent to 5»;"s, they are not ; i. e. in the land of the living. This the following question clearly shows. In Hebrew, simple inter - rogatives frequently imply the contrary : so that the language of the prophet is equivalent to " your fathers are no more, neither do the prophets live forever." The latter declaration seems to involve the idea, " but my words never fail," as it follows in ver. 6. This had been proved by the fulfilment of the Divine threatenings in the mournful experience of their fathers, and would again be proved in theirs, except they repented, which idea is amplified in the following verse. 6. "fn , my decrees, i. e. my firm and determined purposes to punish your fath ers, if they did not repent, which I com municated to them by the prophets. The root is ppn , to hack, out. cut letters, etc., in stone or other hard substances. Thus laws were originally written on tablets, and hung up for public inspection. The confession made in this verse is that which the captives were compelled to make bv the sufferings which they en dured in Babylon. How far their navin , conversion, extended we are not informed. 3G0 ZECHARIAH. Chap. I Did they not overtake your fathers? So that they turned and said, According as Jehovah of hosts proposed to do to us, According to our ways, and according to our practices, So hath he dealt with us. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah (the son of Bere chiah, the son of Iddo), the prophet, saying : I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, It is, however, generally admitted that, as regards the great body of the nation, it involved the entire abandonment of idolatry. That yya is here to be strictly taken as signifying to turn, return from evil to good, and not according to its idiomatic usage before another verb, as simply expressing the repetition of the action described by such verb, is required by the exigency of the passage, ni'sa and ")d are correlates ; the a repeated, qualifies a subordinate, but important part of the proposition. 7. From this part of the book to chap. vi. 8, we have a series of eight symboli cal visions, the language of which is exceedingly simple, but, in many cases, the interpretation is matter of no small difficulty. The general plan on which it is constructed, is, first to present to view the symbol or hieroglyphic, and then, on a question being put respecting its import, to furnish the interpretation. Though the visions are described as dis tinct from each other, the one following the other in regular succession, yet they are so closely connected as to form one grand whole ; and, as we learn from ver. 8, were all presented to the mind of the prophet in the course of a single night. The period of these nocturnal revelations was between two and three months after the prophet first received his commission. Comp. ver. 1. uaa , Shebat, is the eleventh month of the Jewish yejr, ex tending from the new moon in February to the new moon in March. Like other names of the months, the word is Chal dee; Syr. , A ^ a : Arab. 1c\juu and JC\juw. The etymology is not certain ; but the resemblance of the word to the Hebrew taao , a shoot, rod, staff, sug gests the idea of the month being so caUed because it was that in which the trees began to put forth their shoots or sprouts. As the following statement does not contain the identical words merely of the communications made to the prophet, but an account of the scenes with all their accompanying circumstan ces, the formula -iksV must be taken as signifying, " to the following effect," " as follows," or the like. 8. It has been doubted whether the article n in nW.n is to be regarded as definitely marking the particular night on which the visions were vouchsafed to the prophet, or whether it is not rather to be taken as expressing the adverbial determination of the noun — in the night, or, by night. The latter seems prefer able. Comp. nV»Va. , Job v. 14. The person here described as riding upon a red horse, is spoken of as B^s , a man, i. e. in the shape or appearance of a man ; for that an angel, and not a human be ing, is intended, is evident from verses 11 and 12, in which he is expressly called " the angel of Jehovah." And that he was no ordinary angel, but the Divine Mediator, the Angel of the Covenant, Chap. I. ZECHARIAH. 3G1 and he stood among the myrtles in the shade, and behind 1 nn and of the presence of Jehovah, will not be denied by any who have rendered themselves familiar with the attributes and circumstances in connection with which the Person so designated is pre sented to view, both in our prophet and in other parts of the Old Testament. One of the most remarkable of these circumstances, is his being identified with Jehovah himself. This Gesenius, so far from denying, or attempting to explain away, expressly asserts both in. his Thesaurus, and in the last edition of his Hebrew Lexicon, under the word ^sVq . "Sometimes," he writes, "the same divine appearance, which at one time is called nin" TjsVn , is afterwards called simply nin1 , as Gen. xvi. 7, et seq. coll. v. 13 ; xxii. 11 ; coll. 12 ; xxi. 11, coll 16; Exod. iii. 2, coll. 5; Jud. vi. 14, coll. 22 ; xiii. 18, coll. 22. This is to be so understood, that the Angel of God is here nothing else than the invisi ble Deity itself, which thus unVeils itself to mortal eyes; see J. H. Michaelis de Angelo Dei, Hal. 1702. Tholuck, Com ment, zum Ev. Johannis, p. 36. Hence Oriental translators, as Saadias, Abusai- des, and the Chaldee-Samaritan, where- ever Jehovah himself is said to appear upon earth, always put for the name of God, the Angel of God." See the very satisfactory observations of Dr. M'Caul on this subject, in his translation of Kim chi on Zechariah, pp. 9 — 27, in which he has shown that there is but one being who is called in Scripture nin"1 ^sV'2 , the Angel of Jehovah ; that the proper name of this one Being is nin ^ , Jeho vah ; that this Being says of himself, dis tinctly and unequivocally, that He is the God whom Jacob worshipped, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; and that some of the Rabbins themselves have been compelled to admit the facts. See also Dr. J. Pye Smith's Scripture Testi mony to the Messiah, vol. i. pp. 445 — 463 ; and Stonard on Zechariah, pp. 15 — 19. In the Babylonian Talmud, San-• 46 hedrin, fol. 93, col. 1, the following brief exposition is given of the man here re ferred to by the prophet : " This man is no other than the Holy One, blessed be He ; for it is said, ' The Lord is a man of war.' " The position of this Captain of the Lord's host, is staled to be " among the myrtles which were in the shady val ley." Many conjectures have been ad vanced respecting both the myrtles and the valley, but, in my opinion, they are all gratuitous, since it does not appear that these objects were designed to be symbolically understood, but are merely added as incidental circumstances, to give vivacity and force to the represen tation. nV?i-"£ being always used, like nViaa and nVsa, of depth in reference to water or mire, it is clear from the con nection that such cannot be the significa tion of nV'-"/3 , which is a derivative, not from V i a , to sink, be deep, but from VV a , to be shaded, darkened ; hence the shade or shady place, probably that of a moun tain. Such derivation is indicated by the Dagcsh compensative in the Lamed, and is supported by the renderings of the 7 LXX. and Syr. KaracKluv, .^ ^ sig nifies to throw, cast, stretch, the particu lar manner of which is to be determined by the context. Here that of casting down, or effecting an overthrow, is the mode most naturally suggested. The signification to handle, exercise the hand, which some have proposed, is less apt, ¦ji , hand, being derived from the verb, and not the verb from the noun. *("ps , land, is here, as frequently, put for its inhabitants. CHAPTER II. In a third vision, a man with a measuring line is represented as going forth to take the di mensions of Jerusalem with a view to its restoration to its former condition, ver. 1—3; an act which is virtually declared to be unnecessary, by the prediction that such should be the increase of the population, and such their prosperity, that the city should extend, like umvalled towns, into the surrounding localities j and that, under the immediate pro tection of Jehovah, walls would be altogether unnecessary, 4, 5. In the faith of this prophetic announcement, and with a view to their escape from the judgment which was still about to be inflicted upon Babylon, the Jews which remained in that city are sum moned to return from their captivity, 6, 7; an assurance of Divine protection, and of the destruction of their enemies, is given them, 8, 9; and they are cheered by the promises, that Jehovah would again make Jerusalem his residence, and effect, in connection with the restoration of his people, the conversion of many nations to the true religion, 10, 12. A solemn ball to universal reverence concludes the scene. Then I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold ! a man vision- iii. houses, but of the whole extent of the 1 — 4. (Heb. ii. 5 — 7.) The measure- city. Jerusalem is not here considered ment here specified was not that of the as already rebuilt, as Stonard supposes. Chap. H. ZE CHAR I AH. 367 with a measuring line in his hand. And I said : Whither art thou going ? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see how much is the breadth thereof, and how much is the length thereof. And, behold ! the angel who spake with me went forth, and another angel came forth to meet him. And ho said to him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited into the open country, Because of the multitude of men and cattle in the midst of her. And I will be to her, saith Jehovah, A wall of fire around, And will be the glory in the midst of her. The dimensions are those of the city be fore its destruction by the Chaldeans, and were now being taken, in order to ascer tain the extent of the work that was to be effected in its complete restoration. The symbolical action was calculated to encourage the Jews to proceed with the building of the temple which they had commenced. "Who the measurer was has been disputed. Jarchi, J. H. Michaelis, Bosenmiiller, are of opinion that the angelus interpres is intended. Hengs tenberg thinks that, in all probability, he is none other than the Angel of Jehovah himself. But for neither of these opin ions is there sufficient foundation, any more than there is for the supposition of Blayney, that he was Nehemiah. He appears to be merely an additional per son introduced in the scenic representa tion, for the purpose of calling forth, by the significant action which he was about to undertake, the important information contained in the following part of the chapter. s::S as twice used here, has reference to two different localities : in the former instance, in which it is em ployed of the interpreting angel, the presence of the prophet is the terminus a quo ; in the latter, that of the Angel of Jehovah. In opposition to the hypoth esis of the Babbins, Vatablus, Bibera, a Lapide, Drusius, Blayney, Bosenmiiller, Hengstenberg, and Knobel, who main tain that Zechariah himself is meant by ibn ^y:n , this young man, and argue from it, that the prophet was of youth ful age at the time he had the vision, I cannot but concur with Stonard, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, in thinking, that the person intended is the man with the measuring line, spoken of vers. 1, 2. The verb y i n , run, implies the necessity of despatch, which could only have been occasioned by the intended procedure of the measurer. He is arrested in his prog ress, and virtually told, that the former dimensions of the city would be totally inadequate to contain the number of its inhabitants. eVam"' sen ritifi , lit. Jerusalem shall dwell, or inhabit open places, i. e. the inhabitants will not con fine themselves within her walls, but will occupy the localities in the open country around. Thus Symm. aTeixio-rais ; Jar chi and Jerome, nKin TN,2' absque muro. Comp. 1 Sam. vi. 18, where "T-.Sr "Eis, the country village, is contrasted with "SlK.vj , a fortified city. See also Esth. ix. 19 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 11. 5. '^Heb. ver. 9.) Though "the wall of fire," and " the glory," are doubtless both to be taken figuratively, the former denoting certain protection, and the lat ter, illustrious displays of the Divine presence in affording all needful supplies of grace, strength, and comfort, we are not hence to conclude with Stonard, that more is meant by the city than the literal Jerusalem, as the centre of the restored theocracy. The entire connection, and all the circumstances of the prophecy, demand this limitation. 368 ZECHARIAH. Chap. II. Ho ! ho ! flee from, the north country, saith Jehovah, For as the winds of heavert Have I spread you abroad, saith Jehovah. Ho ! deliver thyself, 0 Zion ! That dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 6, 7. (Heb. 10, 11.) It is generally thought that the urgent calls here given to those Jews who still remained in Babylon, were designed to induce them to leave that deyoted city before its ap proaching siege and capture by Darius. In all probability many of them had acquired wealth, and might have been induced to remain in the enjoyment of their possessions. It was necessary that such should take the alarm, and, with the rest of their countrymen, avail them selves without delay of the opportunity they now had of returning to their own land. The urgency of the call is ex pressed by the repetitious form, iirt "'in, Ho ! Ho ! which occurs, so far as I am aware, in no other part of Scripture. The verbs csp , arise, S"av, hear, or the like, being readily suggested by the interjec tion, will account for the use of the con junctive Vau in !|6ap . The land of the north is Babylon, and the regions adja cent. See Jer. vi. 22, xvi. 15. Between the former and the latter clause of the verse there seems, at first sight, a palpa ble discrepancy. How, it may be asked, could the scattering of the Jews like the four winds of heaven be a reason why those, in particular, who lived in the north quarter should return ? But this apparent incoherence has originated in the supposition that the prophet here asserts the dispersion of that people into the four quarters of the globe. Had this, however, been his meaning, he would have employed b after the verb, as in Ezek. xvii. 31. Nor can such construc tion be supported by substituting the various reading a , viz. 1'ansa , instead of s ; for the words could then only properly be rendered, " I have scattered you by," and not " in" or " into the four winds." This reading, though supported by fifteen MSS., originally by seven more, and perhaps by another, by thirteen print ed editions, and by the Syr. and Vulg., is inferior in point of authority to that of the Textus Beceptus. The meaning seems to be, that the scattering of the Hebrew people had been so violent and extensive, that it could only be fitly compared to the force and effect of the combined winds of heaven being brought to hear upon any object susceptible of dispersion. The scattering had been most severely felt by those resident at the time of the vision in Babylon, and other regions in that quarter ; on which account it is de scribed with special reference to them. "a is here used, not as a causative, but as a concessive participle, as in Gen. viii. 21 ; Exod. xiii. 17. Nothing can be more forced, or unsuited to the connec tion, than the interpretation, which as sumes that inionS is future in significa tion, and that the words contain a pre diction of a future spreading abroad of the Jews as missionaries among the heathen. What can be conceived more incongruous, than a return of the Jews from Babylon, induced by the motive of a still more extended dispersion among the nations of the earth, without the smallest hint of this as their destination ! By ^»s , Zion, are meant the inhabi tants of Jerusalem, at that time still in Babylon. The words ^aa— na na'i'':1 are not in apposition, but in construction, and are equivalent to Habitatrix Babelis. For this idomatic use of na see on Is. i. 8. Comp. B^nsw- na na-j'^ , Jer. xlvi. 19. 8. (Heb. 12.) Some suppose the proph et to be the person who here speaks of himself as having been sent ; others, the Chap. II. ZECHARIAH. 509 After the glory he hath sent me To the nations which spoiled you ; Surely he that toucheth you Toucheth the pupil of 'his eye. 9 For, behold ! I will shake my fist at them, angel mentioned ver. 4 ; but that the Messiah is intended, must be inferred from what is predicated of him, ver. 9, that he would shake his hand at the nations which had afflicted the Jews. 'Comp. Is. xlviii. 16, where the divine mission of the Second Berson of the Trinity is described in parallel language. Blayney, Newcome, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, strangely concur in rendering ~:rfby "iaa nrs , He hath sent me after glory, in the sense of, with a view to acquire it. In no other pas sage, however, is nns employed, except as an- adverb or preposition of place or time ; nor is it ever connected as a prep osition with nV'j. This verb is not even here construed with it, but with the prep osition Vs immediately following. It can only, therefore, be employed to denote the posteriority of the mission specified to the restoration of the glorious presence of the manifested Jehovah to his recovered people. Thus the LXX. .DP - 7 O birlaw So^ovs. Syr. j ;n.| ,A«S> after the glory, which is falsely rendered in the London Folyglott, ad prosequendum honorem. Targ. "pKSi s-ip-1 "ina ¦pa^Vy nsn*sV , after the glory which he hath promised to bring to you. Vulg. post gloriam. Such exegesis is most naturally suggested by the use of i-pa , glory, ver. 5. After what had been there promised should have been accomplished, the Divine Legate had a commission to punish the nations in the immediate vicinity of the Holy Land, such as the Moabites, Idumeans, Ammonites, Philis- tines, and Syrians, by whom the Jews had been attacked and plundered on va rious occasions, and especially on that of the Chaldean invasion. The Jews in Babylon needed, therefore, to be under 47 no apprehension from these enemies, and might return with confidence to their own land. The tender regard which Jehovah cherished for them, is expressed with exquisite beauty in the concluding clause of the verse. No member of the body is more susceptible of pain, or more vigilantly protected, than the eye, espec ially the pupil, or aperture through which the rays of light pass to the retina, naa, in the phrase ys naa , the pupil of the eye, Gesenius now derives from aa: , to bore, make hollow, and considers it to stand for naa: , u hole gate, like the Arab. (_)Ls ; but his former etymology is preferable, according to which it is to be derived from n^a , Arab. l_j(_j, dixit baba, Gr. irainrd^eiv, to say papa, spoken of a child. Hence the Arab. «j«j, boo- boo (the origin of our English booby), pu- ellus, boy. The phrase thus corresponds to the other Hebrew mode of expressing the same thing, yj -pr*s , the little man of the eye, Deut. xxxii. 1 0 ; Prov. vii. 2 . Both modes of expression, ,.yj^£. c_;a_3 and .^j-AxJ! jjLuol. are used in Ara bic ; and the Arabs say in language quite parallel to that of the prophet, y£. | «^0 dearer to me than the pupil of mine* eye. Both modes are more expressive than the , Latin of Catullus ; multo quod carius illi est oculis, or, ni te plus oculis meis ama- rem. The pronominal affix in \:~s , his eye, is to be referred to nisa- r'yrr , Jehovah of hosts, at the beginning of the verse, the nominative to -:nV'? > and not with Kimchi, Blayney, Stonard, and oth ers, to the enemy himself. 9. (Heb. 13.) For the phrase -rrp:B, comp. Is. xi. 15, xix. 16. It is indica- ZECHARIAH. Chap. II. And they shall be a spoil to their slaves : And ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me. 10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion ! For, behold ! I come, And I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. 11 And. many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, And shall become my people ; And I will dwell in the midst of thee, And thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto thee. 12 And Jehovah shall possess Judah his portion, In the holy land ; And shall again take pleasure in Jerusalem. 13 Let all flesh be silent before Jehovah, For he is roused from his holy habitation. tive of the threatening attitude of Jeho vah when about to inflict vengeance upon his enemies. By Cnp-iaj), their slaves, are meant the Jews, whom the nations, either by capture or purchase, had brought into a state of slavery. Comp. Is. xiv. 2. j'tt , here and in ver. 11, signifies, as frequently, to know by expe rience. 10, 11. (Heb. 14, 15 ) The divine res idence here predicted, must be interpreted of that which took place during the so journ of the Son of God in the land of Judea. The almost entire identity of the language here employed, with that used chap. ix. 9, where, in like manner, the daughter of Zion is called to hail the advent of her King, compels to this con clusion. Comp. Ps. xl. 7 ; Is. xl. 9,10. So evidently is this the only fair con struction of the meaning, that Kimchi himself refers the passage 'ite-a -rnyV h'BK- , to future events in the times of the Messiah, The phrases s^nn c'vn > cnn c^n'ri, that day, those days, fre quently point out the period of his man ifestation and reign. With this appear ance and residence of the Messiah are connected, as their consequents, the ex tensive conversion of the heathen nations and their being constituted a people de voted to his service and glory. The rep etition of the prediction relative to his residence in Zion, is designed to express the certainty of the event. 12. (Heb. 16.) As mention had just been made of the adoption of the nations to be the people of the Messiah, the prophet, to preclude the idea, that the Jews were no more to enjoy that privilege, proceeds to describe a future period, dur ing which they should again be the ob jects of the Divine favor and delight. Restored to the Holy Land, they shall again be the possession of the Lord. Comp. Exod. xxxiv. 9 ; Deut. iv. 20, ix. 26, 29, xxxii. 9. The ideas suggested by their being the possession of Jehovah are those of their being the objects of his regard and care. Ps. xxviii. 9. 13. (Heb. 17.) A call to universal reverence and submission in prospect of the wonderful interpositions of Jehovah on behalf of his church. Comp. Ps. lxxvi. 8, 9 ; Zeph. i. 7. ClIAP. III. ZECHARIAH. 371 CHAPTER III. Iw this chapter a fourth vision is described, in which Joshua the high priest is represented as occupying his official position in the Divine presence at Jerusalem, hut opposed in his attempt to recommence the service of Jehovah, by Satan, who accused him of being dis qualified for tlie discharge of his functions, ver. 1. The accusation is met by a reprimand, drawn from tlie Divine purpose to restore Jerusalem, and the narrow escape which the priesthood had had from total extinction, 2. The guilt attaching to the high priest, in his representative capacity, and its removal, is next figuratively set forth, 3—5. He hns ihcu a solemn charge delivered to him, followed hy a conditional promise, 6,7; after which we have a prediction of the Messiah, as a security that the punishment of the Jews would be entirely removed, their temple completely restored, and a period of prosperity intro duced, 8—10. 1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of Jehovah, and the Adversary standing on his right hand to oppose him. VISION rv. 1. The nominative to ''JSip.l is the interpreting angel, understood. Comp. ch. i. 9. As the phrase *izb nny, to stand before, is sometimes used of appear ing before a judge, Numb. xxxv. 12 ; Deut. xix. 17; 1 Kings iii. 16; it has been inferred that we have here the rep resentation of a judicial transaction, an exegesis which is supposed to derive con firmation from the circumstance of an accuser being mentioned in the following verse. But as the person here described is the high priest, and the phrase in ques tion is that which is appropriated to ex press the position of the priests when ministering to Jehovah, Deut. x. 8 ; 2 Chron. xxix. 11; Ezek. xliv. 15; it is more natural to conclude that Joshua is here represented as having entered the'new temple which was in the course of erec tion, and taken his position in front of the altar before the holy of holies. The high priest not only entered the most sacred place once a year on the day of atonement, but was authorized to perform all the duteis of the ordinary priests ; so that he may here be conceived of as about to offer sacrifice for the people, when he was opposed by Satan. That the altar of burnt offering was erected before the building of the temple was proceeded with, is clear, from Ezra iii. 2, 3, 6, 7. The T-.'fS ^S^B, before whom Joshua stood, was no other than nin1 himself, as ver. 2 evidently shows. It has been matter of dispute, whether by yj'ifn we are here to understand the great enemy of God and man 6 avritiiKos, 1 Pet. v. 8 ; 6 naTiiywp, Rev. xii. 18 ; or, whether a hu man adversary or adversaries are intended. Those who advocate the latter position think that Sanballat, or some other ene my of the Jews, is meant ; hut the em phatic form of the term, investing it, as it does, with the nature of a proper name (Gesen. Heb. Gram. § 107, 2), decidedly favors the former interpretation. We find this name given to the chief of the evil spirits in the book of Job, the most ancient in the Bible. See chap. i. and ii. Some have compared Ps. cix. 6, but the parallel term yain is against such construction in that passage. From the identity of the phraseology, however, which represents the adversary as taking his place at the right hand of the accused, it has been concluded, that it was cus tomary in the Jewish courts for the accu ser to assume this position. What the ground of opposition on the part of Satan was, we are not here informed ; but if 372 ZECHARIAH. Chap. III. And Jehovah said to the Adversary, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Adversary ! Even Jehovah that taketh delight in Jerusalem, rebuke thee ; Is not this a brand snatched from the fire ? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and he stood before the Angel. And he answered and spake to those that stood before him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from him. And he said to him, See f I have caused thine iniquity to pass the construction put by some eminent commentators upon Jude 9, which re solves "the body of Moses," there men tioned, into the Jewish church, and supposes the apostle to refer to the passage before us, be the true one (and of this I cannot entertain a doubt), it will follow, that the character of the Jewish people, as not having been legally purified from their idolatries, and the backwardness which they evinced in re building the temple, were urged as pleas against them. It is true, the opposition is said to have been made to Joshua ; but it must be remembered that he appears here, not in his personal, but in his offi cial character, as the representative of the whole body of the people. 2. Almost all the commentators, even Maurer and Hitzig, agree in the opinion, that the incommunicable name r,~-' , Jehovah, is here given to the angel spoken of in the preceding verse. See on ch. i. 8. So obvious did this appear to the Syriac translator, from the spirit of the context, i. 7 7 -O 0 that he renders owsjilo j . ; Vm. the Angel of the Lord, a rendering which Newcome would, very uncritically, have admitted into the text. The interpreta tion of Rosenmiiller, " vocatur legatus de nomine principis sui," is a pure fiction, and directly opposed to Scripture usage. The verb isa signifies to chide, rebuke, so as to silence those who are the objects of the reproof, and restrain them from carrying their designs into effect. It is repeated for the sake of emphasis, to express the absolute certainty that the machinations of Satan should prove utter ly abortive. In the reference to the Divine choice of Jerusalem, there is a recogni tion of the promise, ch. i. 17, ii. 12. The pointed interrogation has respect to Josh ua, and forcibly, though tacitly, conveys the idea, that his deliverance, and that of the people whom be represented, from the destruction which threatened them in Babylon, was the result of sudden and efficient interposition on the part of Jehovah. It was not, therefore, for a moment to be supposed that he would now withdraw his favor from them, and abandon them to their enemies. He had rescued them, in order that they might be preserved. 3, 4. Because the Romans used to clothe persons who were accused in a sordid dress, Drusius and others have imagined that the idea of a criminal is still kept up. That the filthy garments in which Joshua appeared were symbol ical of the guilt and punishment of the Jews, seems beyond dispute ; just as their removal, and his investment with splen did attire, indicates a state of restoration to the full enjoyment of their religious privileges. ns-,a , filth, is used meta phorically to denote the moral pollution contracted by sin. See Prov. xxx. 12; Is. iv. 4. He is represented as appearing in the squalid garments in which he had returned from a state of captivity in Babylon, and as having restored to him the gorgeous dress of the high priest. n'la^nis , costly or splendid habiliments, such as were worn on special 6ccasions, and put off as soon as the occasion was over. See on Is. iii. 22. Those who are here commanded to change the dress of Chap. III. ZE CH ARI AH. 5 away from thee, and I will invest thee with costly habiliments. lie then said, Let them place a pure mitre upon his head. And they placed the pure mitre upon his head, and invested him with 6 the habiliments. Then the Angel of Jehovah stood up. And the Angel of Jehovah protested to Joshua, saying : 7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : It thou wilt walk in my ways, And if thou wilt observe my charge, Then thou shalt both judge»my house, Joshua are not, as Ewald supposes, atten dant priests, but attendant angels. The nominative to ",ypn and i--.zb is nin1 , and not y-.-'in' . y\v -rzrn does not mean, as Gesenius interprets, to let in iquity or sin pass by, but to remove its guilt or punishment, and thus effectively to remit or forgive. This guilt or pun ishment is represented as having lain as a heavy load upon Joshua, and to have been removed Vss, from upon him. -•a'-n is not to be changed into 'iaVs , as in the Targ. and Syr., but is to be re garded as a not unusual elliptical form of the idiomatic 'jaVs iraVn . 5. The punctuation nasi is obviously incorrect, since it introduces the prophet as taking a part in the transactions ex hibited in the vision, which is altogether foreign to the position he occupied. The word should be pointed -ibsi , and has been so read by the Targ., Syr., and Vulg. translators. C|*3a , tiara, or tur ban, is used instead of rti-'a , the term employed in the Pentateuch to denote this part of the high priest's dress. LXX. Kitiapis. At c--i;a the adjective C--.ni: is to be supplied from the preceding, or the article may be understood, i-c's is more appropriately rendered "stood up," than, as in our common version, " stood by." The latter rendering presents the Angel of Jehovah to view as a simple spectator ; the former in the solemn pos ture of one who is about to deliver an important charge. And this, as the fol lowing verses show, was precisely the character in which he appeared. He had been sitting upon his throne, but now rises to announce the divine decree re specting the responsible duties which devolved upon Joshua in his sacerdotal capacity. I do not agree with Dr. Ston ard, who supposes that the Angel as sumed the character and position of a witness. The participial form of the verb is adopted for the purpose of vary ing the style. 6, 7. "ns, as here used in Hiphil, sig nifies, to make a solemn declaration. LXX. tiiepaprbparo. Targ. and Syr. ^'nas. Vulg. contestabatur. ^i':ri; , my charge, means the laws, prescriptions, or rites, which I have given in charge, namely, the Mosaic Institute. Obedi ence to this the high priest was bound to render himself, and upon him supremely devolved the obligation to see that it was obeyed by others, rpaph; , from -c-a , to guard, keep, observe, is frequently used by Moses to denote the office, duty, or charge, to which the priests were to at tend. See Lev. viii. 25 ; Numb. i. 53, iii. 28, 31, 32, 38. By the "house" of the Lord here, we are not to understand the temple, as some have imagined, hut the people of Israel, viewed as composing his household or family. Comp. Numb. xii. 7 ; Hos. viii. 1, ix. 15. -p" , to judge, is always employed in reference to per sons ; never with respect to things. There appears to he in the declaration here made, an anticipation of the part which the sacerdotal family of Joshua was to take in the government of the Jewish state e-aVni: is the Hiphil par ticiple of rj'-n . just as f,:Vr--,; is of cbn , Jer. xxix. 8 ; and c-- -sri of -,\s , 574 ZECHARIAH. Chap. III. And keep my courts, And I will give thee guides among these who are standing by. Hear now, O Joshua ! the high priest, Thou and thy companions that sit before thee ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. It must, therefore, signify those who cause to go or walk, leaders, conductors, guides. Who these were we are not informed, farther than that they were standing in the pres ence of the Angel, and were pointed at by him. Some have thought that the subordinate priests who attended upon Joshua are intended ; but such interpre tation is altogether unsuitable to the dig nified character which, as high priest, he sustained. As none but superior beings could be his leaders or conductors, it fol lows that the angels must be meant. This view is confirmed by the circum stance of their being represented as ¦' standing," namely, in the presence of Jehovah, ready to execute his behests, whereas the subordinate priests are spoken of in the following verse as " sit ting' ' before Joshua. The import of the promise is, that he and his successors in office should enjoy the care, direction, and aid of celestial spirits in the manage ment of the national affairs. Munster, Vatablus, Rosenmiiller, Ewald, and Hit zig, take z'-b-'q to be the plural of the noun n b -L , a walk, or walking place ; but this affords no appropriate sense, ex cept it be referred to the heavenly state — a construction put upon the clause by the Targum, Kimchi, and several Chris tian interpreters, but which is little suited to the language of the connection, and is a mode of representation otherwise for eign to Scripture. 8. The companions of Joshua were the ordinary priests, who were associated with him for the purpose of carrying on the service of the temple. They are rep resented as " sitting before" him, not at the time the words are addressed to him, for they are spoken of in the third per son, but usually, when consulting to gether about religious matters. On such occasions he occupied a more elevated seat or throne as their president, while they sat on chairs or benches before him. By nE'i'- ^'^':.s , men of sign, or portent, are meant symbolical men, persons pre figuring, or foreshadowing some person or persons still future. Comp. Is. viii. 18, xx. 3: Ezek. xii. 6, xxiv. 27. That only one person is here referred to as typified by the Jewish priests, and that this one person is none other than the Messiah, the following clause of the verse incontrovertibly shows. In their sacerdo tal character, and in the presentation of sacrifices before Jehovah, they foreshadr owed the High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, and the one sacrifice which he offered for sins, when he presented himself as a propitiatory victim in the room of the guilty. For the derivation of nsin , see on Joel ii. 30. Though nten , they are, refers immediately to the subordinate priests, we are not to suppose that Joshua is excluded, or that he was not a symbolical person as well as they. This use of the third person of the pro noun instead of the second is not with out example. See Zeph. ii. 12. The author of the Targum admits that by ritta , Branch, the Messiah is meant. His words are, ^V:,n-T sn^rra '-ar n" , " My Servant, the Messiah who shall he revealed." The same interpretation is found in other Jewish authorities, as both Kimchi and Rashi admit. Some few Christian interpreters, among whom Gro tius and Blayney, adopting the opinion of the two Rabbins just mentioned, suppose Zerubbabel to be intended ; but in my opinion very preposterously, for that prince was already in existence, and in the full exercise of his official duties ; whereas the person to whom Jehovah refers had not yet appeared. Even Ges enius, Hitzig, and Maurer, make no scru- ClIAP. III. ZECHARIAH. 375 (For they are typical persons) For, behold! I will introduce my servant THE BRANCH. 9 For, behold ! the stone which I have laid before Joshua, Upon the one stone shall be seven eyes : Behold ! I will form the sculpture thereof, pie in applying the title to the Messiah. It is that given to him, Is. iv. 2 ; Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15 ; and Zech. vi. 12 ; and is equivalent to Son. See on Is. iv. 2, where it is shown that in the writings of the ancient Persians, " the branch" of any one means his son, or one of his pos terity. The verb nas , from which the noun is derived, signifies to spring forth or up, as plants ; but the LXX. have adopted the word avaroX)), which ex presses the sun-rise. Hence the Saviour is called avarcX'q Q ilxj/ovs, " the Day- spring from on high," Luke i. 78. Comp. Mai. iv. 2, where np- a ira nrp.l , "the Sun of righteousness shall arise," is ren- . dered by the LXX. avareKei '-qKios tiiKai- oavv-ns. The Vulg. adducam servum meum orientem. For *-iay , my servant, as a designation of the Messiah, comp. Is. xiii. 1—7, xlix. 1—9, 1. 5—10, Iii. 13 — liii. ; and see my Comm. on the first of these passages. 9. Most interpreters regard this verse as u continuation of the subject treated of at the close of the preceding, and ex plain the -)as , stone, of the Messiah in accordance with such passages as Ps, cxviii. 22; Is. xxviii. 16. This view is largely insisted upon by Stonard ; but what, in my judgment, renders it alto gether untenable, is the circumstance that the stone is spoken of as having been laid before, or in the presence of, Joshua — language which can with no propriety be employed with reference to the Messiah. Neither can the reference be to lasn ^pan , the plummet, spoken of ch. iv. 1 0, that being represented as in the hand of Zerubbabel, and not placed or laid be fore his associate in the government. I cannot, therefore, imagine any other stone to be here intended than the foundation stone of the temple, which had been laid by Zerubbabel in the presence of Joshua and his brethren the priests, who celebra ted the joyful event in songs of praise to Jehovah. Ezra iii. 8 — 13. Wnen it is said, that upon this "one stone" were " seven eyes," we are not to conclude that they were exhibited upon it. The meaning is, that they were directed towards it, or intent and fixed upon it, as an object cf special attention and care. While with us an eye is the hieroglyphic of Divine Providence, the Hebrews, to express the perfection of knowledge and wisdom in which all its affairs are conducted, employed the hie roglyphic of "seven eyes,' — seven, in the Oriental style, denoting fulness or perfection. Such symbolic representa tions were common among the Persians. Comp. Rev. i. 4, v. 6. Jehovah here de clares, that the erection of the temple, the commencement of which had been made, in the course of his . providence, by the laying of the foundation, should be an object of his special care and re gard. For Vy yj . the eye beiny upon any person or thing, as denoting the exercise of kind and vigilant care, see Ps. xxxii. 8. The attempt of Vitringa and Blayney to explain e*;"y , of foun tains, and so apply the passage to liv ing waters flowing from Christ as the antitype of the rock smitten in the wil derness is a complete failure. The sin gular yv, signifies, indeed, fountain as well as eye, but it is a settled principle of Hebrew grammar than when foun tains are intended, the plural feminine is uniformly employed, just as the dual n *;."!¦¦ is as uniformly and exclusively used to express eyes. See for the princi ple, Gesen. Lehrgeb. pp. 539, 540. That the dual is employed to express things that exist in pairs, even when more 76 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IV. Saith Jehovah of hosts ; And I will remove the punishment of that land in one day. 10 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, Ye shall each invite his neighbor, Under the vine, and under the fig tree. than two is intended, see on Is. vi. 2. nnns rinss sja. Behold! I will form the sculpture thereof; lit. " I will open the opening thereof." What kind of architectural ornaments are hereby in tended, it is impossible to say ; but that they were cut out or engraven in the foundation-stone, the exigency of the place requires, except we regard the stone as here used by synecdoche for the whole temple, in which case reference will be had to the finishing off of the structure, the foundation of which had been laid in the presence of Joshua. LXX. bpvoaw 7 .o 7 . o $6&pov. Syr. cXi^S^ jjj wttA-S |si, "Behold, I open the gates of it." sisn is here used in Kal, but with a causative signification : to remove, cause to depart. "¦y is to be understood, not of iniquity, but of the punishment of iniquity — the troubles and sufferings to which the Jews were subjected on account of it. Thus the iniquity of Sodom, Gen. xix. 15, was the punishment to be inflicted upon it ; and that of Babylon, Jer. li. 6, the same. The land of Judea had borne its punishment during the captivity, but was now to be occupied and cultivated. To sufferings the Jews were still exposed on the part of their enemies, who caused an interruption of the building of the temple, and prevented the comfortable settlement of the people in their own land. For their encouragement Jehovah promises to put an end to their distress, ins. ti'a , in one day ; i. e. soon, in the shortest space of time. S'nn yp.sn is specifically the land of Palestine. 10. A promise of the tranquillity and social enjoyment that were to be experi enced by the restored Hebrews. CHAPTER IV. Under the symbol of a golden candlestick is represented the pure and flourishing state of the Jewish church as restored after the captivity, 1—3. The signification of this symbol the prophet is left to find out, 4, 5 ; only a clue is given him in the message which he was commissioned to deliver relative to the completion of the temple, in spite of the formid able difficulties which interposed, and to the Messiah who was to come after the temple was in a finished state, G,fl. lie was further instructed to announce the certainty of the former event, on the ground that Zerubbabel, who superintended the work, was under the special care of Divine Providence, which should so arrange the course of human affairs as to render them subservient to the undertaking, 8—10 Under the additional symbol of two olive trees, which supplied the candlestick with the necessary oil, are rep resented Joshua and Zerubbabel, the two principal official persons in the new state, 11 — 14. 1 Axd the angel who spake with me awoke me again, like one VISION' v. 1. We are not to conclude from the use of the verb ~;v at the beginning of this verse, that the communicating angel had removed to a distance from the prophet, and now returned to him. Chap. IV. ZECHARIAH. 377 2 who is waked out of his sleep. And he said to me, What dost thou see ? And I said, I see, and behold ! a candlestick wholly of gold, and its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps When employed by itself, ai© certainly signifies to return; but, according to a. common Hebrew idiom, when used be fore another verb, it merely indicates the repetition of the action expressed by such verb. See Gen. xxvi. 18, xxx. 31 ; 2 Kings i. 11, 13. Connecting the verb in this manner with i;-i-yi , reference will be had, not to any absence of the angel, but to his renewed excitement of the prophet to give his attention to another vision which was to be presented to his view. He had become so absorbed in the contemplation of the preceding vision, that he required to be roused, as in the case of a person in profound sleep. 2. Instead of the second -inti-ii , a vast number pf the MSS. read correctly "KS l , as the word is found also in some of the earliest editions. Many MSS. and several printed editions exhibit nbi without Mappick in the n, and thus bring the word into accordance with the feminine form, as occurring in the fol lowing verse. It has been thus read by the LXX. and Syr. ; still it seems prefer able to regard it as a masculine noun, and read n's:y , with the pronominal affix. It signifies an oil-cup, bowl, or basin, and was placed at the top of the candlestick for the purpose of supplying with oil the small tubes or pipes leading to the sev eral lamps. Considerable difficulty has been found in endeavoring to account for the double numeral form nsaai nsa» , seven and seven. Some think the num ber is to be multiplied by itself, and ren dered forty-nine; but this is not only abhorrent from the representation other wise given of the candlestick, but is un warranted by Hebrew usage. Others, as Stonard, take the words in a distribu tive sense, and make the number to be fourteen, understanding by seven and seven, twice seven. To this hypothesis, however, the copulative Vau forms an 48 insuperable objection, since it conveys the idea not of distribution merely, but also that of diversity or variety. The instance adduced from 1 Kings viii. 6.5, is not exactly parallel, as the noun is there repeated, which is not the case in Zechariah ; nor, so far as I can find, do we meet with any instance parallel to nipapa nyaii -saw . Our translators remove the one seven, and place it before " lamps ;" but such construction is alto gether unwarranted, and, indeed, they appear to have placed only a qualified reliance upon it, for they render in the margin, seven several pipes. There is every reason to suspect that the former sis a si is an interpolation which has found its way into some ancient MSS. and been copied into all the rest. This suspicion is confirmed by two circumstances. The word occurs only once both in the IXX. and the Vulg. The former renders : Kal eiTTa, iiraputTTpities rois Xvxvois rots iirdvw avrris ; the latter, et septem infusoria lucernis, quce erant super caput ejus. The other circumstance is, that, as in con formity to the number of lamps belong ing to the candelabrum in the tabernacle, Exod. xxv. 37, from which the symbol was evidently borrowed, it is expressly stated, that there were only n«~3 nsasi, seven lamps attached to that presented to view in the vision, we cannot conceive of there being to each two pipes or conduc tors for the oil. The c^:p , reeds or tubes of Moses, Exod. xxv. 32, 33, 35, xxxvii. 18, and the nipava , pipes or tubes of Zechariah, both signify the same objects, viz., those used for conveying the oil into the lamps. The latter word is derived from pa' to pour or flow. Vulg. infosoria. That the candlestick was sym bolical of the Jewish church cannot be doubted. Comp. Rev. i. 20 ; xi. 4, where the same symbol is used in reference to Christian churches. The idea which it 378 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IV. 3 upon it, and seven pipes to the lamps which are upon the top of it. And two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of 4 the bowl, and one on the'left side of it. And I addressed my- 5 self farther to the angel who spake with me, saying, What are these, my lord ? And the angel who spake with me answered 6 and said to me, Dost thou not know what these are ? And I said, No, my lord. And he answered and spake to me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying : Not by might, nor by power, But by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. 7 Who art thou, O great mountain ? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain : conveys is that such churches are placed in the world for the sake of its illumina tion. Thus it was with the Jewish church in the midst of the surrounding darkness of Paganism ; and thus it hath been with Christian churches in every age of their history. 3. Of what the two olive-trees were emblematical, we learn from ver. 14. 4,5. n: s , like airoKpivopai in the New Testament, signifies to proceed or begin to speak, as well as to answer. It is obvi ously thus used at the beginning of ver. 4. Comp. chap. i. 10. While the angel had it in commission to explain what was meant by these trees, he was to reserve the explanation till after he had made certain communications relative to the building of the temple, and the advent of Messiah. 6. From the purport of the message which the prophet was to deliver to Ze rubbabel, it may be inferred that he was laboring under despondency, produced by the consideration of the powerful opposi tion with which he had to contend, the greatness of the undertaking in which he had embarked, and the inadequacy of the human means which he had at his disposal. Between Vri and na there is no clearly defined difference of meaning. They are both used equally of physical and of mental and moral power ; and are here employed as synonymes, to express the idea that human might, of whatever description, was of no account with the Almighty ; that he can effect his pur poses by few as well as by many, by those whom the world accounts foolish as well as by those of superior intellect ; and that it is by the exercise of his own spiritual agency exciting to action, and sustaining and giving efficiency to it, that its per formance is secured. There seems to be here a reference to what we read, Hag gai, ii. 5 : " My Spirit remaineth among you : fear ye not." The truth, however, is of universal application, and is clearly taught in the New Testament in refer ence to the conversion of sinners, 1 Cor. iii. 6 ; 2 Cor. x. 4 ; Eph. i. 19 : Col. i. 1 2. 7. However lowly the feelings enter tained by Zerubbabel, he is here taught by the sublime and noble figure of the depression of a large mountain into a level plain, that none of the ^formid able impediments which he apprehended, should, in the smallest degree, obstruct his progress —a , who, sometimes refers to things, yet so as to include the idea of the human agency connected with them. Before ^Yi^nV supply n"n or n*nP . The interpretation of Stonard, who ap plies the mountain to the Christian church, is altogether forced and inept. By n-i-snn -,as is meant, not any stone uniting the two sides of a building at the top, but the lapis angularis, or founda tion stone, on which at the angle both rest, and which, being necessarily much Chap. IV. ZECHARIAH. 379 And lie shall bring forth the Chief Stone, With shouts of Grace ! Grace to it ! 8 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to me saying, 9 The hands of Zerubbabel have founded this house, And his hands shall finish it : And ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me to you. 10 For who hath despised the day of small things? larger and more ponderous, as well as more serviceable than any other, was fully entitled to the distinctive character of the chief or principal stone. The foundations of the literal temple having already been laid by Zerubbabel, it must be obvious, that the language is merely borrowed from that event, and that his attention is directed to Him of whom David had prophesied as nas tis-i las , the chief or principal corner stone, Ps. cxviii. 26, and who is called in the New Testament, Ke(/>aX}) yavias, and A&os aKpoywviaios. Symm. renders : t&v XiSov rbv &npov; Theod. rbv Xl&ov rbv irpwrov, Aq. rbv Xl&ov rbv irpwreiiwvTa ; all con veying the idea of the primary or prin cipal stone of the building. The LXX. mistaking rris-.n for nsHp , render, rbv Xi&ov tt)s KXnpovopias. The nominative to snain is not Zerubbabel, but Jehovah. This was perceived by the Targumist, who puts the same Messianic interpreta tion upon the passage, paraphrasing it thus: way ->'Ksp w-npssra n; T.'-i'P smaVn Vaa uiVss-i ya.^T'^ • And 'ie shall reveal his Messiah, who was named of old, and he shcdl rule over all king doms. The introduction of this stone was to be accompanied with acclamations of " Grace, Grace to it." n-is-sp , shouts or acclamations, from ns v , to make u noise, shout aloud, cry as a crowd ; hence the noun came to signify the shouting of a multitude. The repetition of in, favor or grace, is for the sake of inten sity ; and the ascriptions of this favor to the stone (r,b) implies that it was pos sessed of this quality, and was to be the medium or means of its conveyance to others. This prediction was clearly ful filled in our Redeemer. " Grace," or favor, " was poured through his lips." Ps. xiv. 8. At his birth the r'»S'i'n , acclamations of the heavenly choir, Mere, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men." Luke ii. 14. As he approached Jerusalem, the multitudes were loud in their acclaims of " Hosanna to the Son of David. Blesssed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest." Nor is the phrase, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," of unf'requcnt occur rence in the New Testament. The usual application of the words to the comple tion of the work of grace in the soul of a believer, or to the addition of the last convert to the church, is quite incongru ous. Whatever grace is possessed by the people of God is altogether derived, and is not to be ascribed to themselves, but to him to whom alone they are indebted for its communication. It may farther be observed, that perhaps the repetition in the phrase yn "in, Grace, Grace, may have been intended to express the infinite value of the Corner Stone. In Prov. xvii. 8, we read that " a gift is -,- -,as , a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it ;" and one of the qualities of a stone laid for a foundation in Zion is, that it is npp- , precious. Is. xxviii. 16. 9, 10. ;-&- is the Preterite of Piel. Saa signifies to cut, cut off, bring to an end, finish, in which last acceptation it . is here-used. The verse contains a posi tive assurance that the temple should be completed by Zerubbabel. " The day of small things" means the short period which had elapsed since the Jews had begun to rebuild the temple, and the 3S0 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IV. For those seven eyes of Jehovah Which run to and fro through the whole earth rejoiced, When they saw the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. 11 Then I proceeded and said to him, What are these two olive- trees on the right side of the candlestick, and on the left of it ? 12 And I proceeded a second time, and said to him, What are the two branches of the olive-trees, which, by means of the two 13 tubes of gold, empty the golden liquid out of themselves ? And 14 he spake to me, saying, Knowest thou not what these are ? And commencement, which had been incon siderable and inauspicious. The efforts bore no proportion to the magnitude of the undertaking, and could only provoke the scorn and contempt of unbelievers. ta is derived from Tta , as aa is from aaa ; only with the signification of T?a andnra , to despise. -, ra otherwise sig nifies to plunder, spoil. With the human estimate of the enterprise, forcibly ex pressed in the interrogative form, that of Jehovah is strikingly contrasted. His eyes rejoiced when they saw the work marked out by Zerubbabel with the plum met. This instrument was called "jas ;--ian , the stone of separation, because it consisted of the alloy of lead or tin, which was separated by smelting from the silver ore with which it was com bined. The Vau prefixed in i sn l is to be rendered when, as in ^Vasi, Judges xix. 1. The nominative to n sn i n mate i is nss— nsai , with which nin^ ¦¦spy , as expletive, is in apposition. This, which appears to me to be the only tenable con struction, is that given in the margin by our Translators. It relieves the passage from the burden of fanciful conjectures which had been advanced in regard to the meaning, and brings out the simple but encouraging truth, that, how much soever men might despise the commence ment of the work in which Zerubbabel and his compatriots were engaged, it was the object of peculiar regard and delight to Divine Providence, which was ac quainted with all human designs, and from its universal activity could not only defeat the machinations of enemies, but command the agency of those who should help forward the cause of truth and right eousness. Comp. chap. iii. 9 ; 2 Chron. xvi. 9 ; Prov. xv. 3. 11, 12. It is not a little remarkable that the prophet had to put the question three times respecting the two olive-trees, before he received any reply ; first, ver. 4 ; a second time ver. 1 1 ; and a third time ver. 12. The question is varied each time, and becomes at last minute and particular. The reason seems to he, that it could scarcely be conceived pos sible for him not to understand their symbolical reference to the two most re markable persons with whom he was con versant, Joshua and Zerubbabel. nVasi , a branch. LXX. KXdtios, so called from its resemblance to an ear of grain. nn:s, a tube or canal, through which oil or any other liquid is poured. The etymology of this quadriliteral is uncertain. LXX. pv^wTiipes. With the tubes the two branches were exhibited as connected, to indicate the source whence the candle stick was supplied with oil. By anisi . the gold, is meant the oil, which is so called because its purity and brightness resembled those of gold. 14. nnsin~,:2 "2s; , two sons of oil, i. e. two anointed ones, Joshua and Ze rubbabel, who are so called, because, when installed into office, they had oil poured upon their heads as a symbol of the gifts and . influences of the Holy Spirit, which alone could fit them rightly to discharge their important functions. Their services to the new state were of such ,value that they might well be rep- ClIAP. V. ZECHARIAH. 381 I said, No, my lord. Then he said, These are the two anointed ones, that stand before the Lord of tlie whole earth. i resented as furnishing it instrumentally »;sVs r-ni;j'n , who stand before. The with what was necessary for enabling it phrase expresses the posture of servants to answer the purposes of its establish- waiting to receive orders from their mas- ment. V? E'mij-si is elliptical for — ters. CHAPTER V, The two visions exhibited in this chapter are of a very different character from any of the foregoing, and were designed to furnish striking and instructive warnings to such of the Jews as might refuse to render obedience to the law of God, and might not have been thoroughly weaned from idolatry. In verses 1 — 4, is the description of a flying roll, pre sented to the view of the prophet, on which were inscribed the threatenings of the Divine law, which still remained in all their force, and were ever ready to ,be executed upon transgressors. In verses 5—11, the means are emblematically set forth which Jehovah had employed for the entire removal of idolatry from the Holy Land, and its abandon ment to mingle with its native elements in Babylon — the laud of graven images. 1 And I again raised my eyes, and looked, and, behold ! a fiy- 2 ing roll. And he said to me, What seest thou ? And I said, I see a flying roll, the length of which is twenty cubits, and the VISION VI. 1. For the adverbial use of Sip see on chap. iv. 1. ntjn , a volume or roll, from the root ^_j , to roll. The ancients wrote upon the inner bark of trees, which was rolled up for the sake of convenience, and for the better preservation of the writing. They also used rolls of papyrus and of the dressed skins of animals. Aq. and Theod. render the word by tiapSiepa, a skin or parchment ; Symm. by KeipaKls, the term by which the LXX. have ren dered it, Ps. xl. 8. Mistaking r\bya for b>"a , they have here translated it tipeira- vov, a scythe or sickle. 2. The roll here described was of large limensions, more than ten yards in ¦ngth, by upwards of five in breadth. To compose such a roll several skins had to be sewed together, as we find to be the case with the Jewish Megillahs, or rolls containing the Pentateuch and other portions of the Old Testament, read in the synagogue at the present day. One of these synagogue rolls, pre served in the British Museum, contains the Pentateuch, written on forty brown African skins. In the Rabbinical divi sion of the books of the Old Testament, the title of the five Megilloth is given to those of the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther; but in Ps. xl. 8, the term n'iitt is applied by way of eminence to the roll or book of the law. The large size of the roll seems to have been intended to indicate the number of the curses which it con tained. The circumstance, that the di- 382 ZECHARIAH, vChap. V. breadth of it ten cubits. And he said to me, This is the curse which goeth forth over the face of the whole land ; for every one that stealeth shall be cleared away on this side, according to it, and every one that sweareth shall be cleared away on that side, according to it. I bring it forth, saith Jehovah of hosts, and it shall enter the house of him that stealeth, and the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall continue iu the midst of his house, and destroy it, and its wood, and its stones. mensions of the roll correspond to those of the porch of the temple, 1 Kings vi. 3, seems rather to be accidental than in tended to convey any specific instruction. The participle nES , flying, expresses the velocity with which the judgments de nounced in the volume would come upon the wicked. 3. nVsn nst , this is, or signifies, rep resents the curse, a phrase altogether parallel with that used by our Lord when instituting the sacred supper : tovto etrri rb awtia pov ; in Heb. nST "n»"i , this is, i. e. represents my body. nVs , curse, is to be taken as a collective, comprehending all the curses denounced against transgressors of the Divine law. After nsa'vn supply nin? "sbVb , " from the presence of Jehovah." Be cause n"}31 n,"B , on this side and on that, is used when the writing of the law on both sides of the tables is spoken of, Exod. xxxii. 15, Abenezra, Kimchi, Ro senmiiller, Hengstenberg, and some other interpreters, have argued in favor of the position, that the roll, like that of Ezek. ii. 9, 10, was also written in this man ner ; hut the immediate construction of the pronoun with n~3 in both instances shows that it cannot, be maintained. Reference is had to the place where the transgressor may be. From that place, whether on the right hand or on the left, he should be swept away by the Divine judgment. Nowhere should he find pro tection. The curse went forth over the whole land. It has been properly re marked, that an individual example of transgression is selected from each of the two tables of the law : a:;rt , he who stealeth, standing for those who break the rule of duty in regard to their neighbor ; and sarssi , he who sweareth, for those who are guilty of a violation of such du ties as have immediate reference to God. nSpi is not to be taken here in the sense of treating as innocent, but with the sig nification of emptying, clearing, sweeping clean away. Comp. Is. iii. 26 ; Jer. xxx. 11. It is in the Niphal conjugation, the form of which is the same as that of Piel. The ancient translators are at fault here, having mistaken np: for tp_: . Thus the LXX. iKtiiK-nSiiio-eTai ; Symm. ti'mnv Sday. Nor can the rendering of Ston ard, "il.-adeth not guilty," be sustained. niias , like, or according to it, if fully expressed, would be aina -isjsa , accord ing as it is written, referring to the curse or threatening inscribed upon the roll. Thus Jerome, sicut ibi scriptum est. 4. The pronominal affix in npnsapn refers to nVsn in the preceding verse. np;-;^ saisa is an aggravation of saii: . The punctuation of nih is irregular for n:V , the third feminine of the preterite of yib, which one of De Rossi's MSS. exhibits, y.h not merely signifies to turn aside and spend the night in any place, but also to remain permanently. See Ps. xlix. 13. v,n^a=!|nni3 . A like curse was pronounced by the Delphic oracle against perjury : Kpaiirvbs tie perepxeral, elaSKe iraaav, 'Zvppdpy-as bKeaei yevefyv Kal oXkov fiirapTtt. Herodot. vi. 86. Chap. V. ZECHARIAH. 383 5 Then the angel who spake with mo came forth, and said to me, liaise thine eyes, now, and look what this is that cometh 6 forth, xind I said, What is it ? And ho said, This is the ephah that cometh forth. He said, moreover, This is their appearance 7 in all the land. And, behold ! a round piece of lead, and there 8 was a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said, VISION VII. 5. ss»i , came forth, i. e. came again into view to explain the new vision. 6. The ephah was one of the larger Jewish corn measures, containing about an English bushel, or seven gallons and a half. The LXX. give it simply by rb perp6v. Symm. leaves it untranslated, o'vpl, which presents it pretty much in its Egyptian form, which was Ql JY\I. Comp. the Arab. mo.. Some have supposed that it is not to be specifically understood of the measure so called, on the ground that such a measure could not have contained the woman mentioned ver. 7 ; but the assumption is altogether gratuitous, since there is no necessity for maintaining that the female represented was actually in appearance of the ordi nary size. There is equally little foun dation for the interpretation of the Tar gum, that the use of false measures was intended by this item of the vision. C:-s , their eye, has been variously re garded by different translators and expos itors. The LXX., Arab., and Syr., have read CD'iy. , their iniquity, which many think much more suited to the connec tion, but this reading is supported by only one of De Rossi's MSS. It is clear from what Jerome says on the subject, that the text was the same in his day as we have it at present. The latter read ing is adopted by Houbigant, Newcome, and others of the same school. That ¦ps signifies appearance, or that which presents itself to the eye, is fully estab lished by reference to Lev. xiii. 55 ; Numb. xi. 7 ; Ezek. i. 4, 7, x. 9 ; and this signification is appropriately appli cable in the present passage. Hengsten berg, taking the word in its primary acceptation, considers the meaning to be that their eye was universally set on evil ; it was the effort of the whole people to fill up the measure of their sins, and thereby bring upon themselves a full measure of divine punishment. When it is said that the ephah (for this is the nominative to the latter nsr , this is), was their appearance, the language is metonymical; the container being used for the thing contained, i. e. nsi-^n. wickedness, or idolatry, as further ex plained, ver. 8. 7. The iaa contracted for nana , what is round or globular, from -oa , to go round, was the heaviest weight in use among the Hebrews, being equal to 3000 shekels, or, according to Jahn, 125 pounds, English troy weight. Luther renders it here by centner, or hundred weight ; but it is obviously to be taken, not in its strict estimate as a measure, but in its etymological import, as sig nifying a flat, roundish lump or cake of lead, yet not without some respect to its heaviness, in consideration of the end it was designed to serve — the security of the woman in the vessel over which it was placed. To express the idea of weight it is called -jas , a stone, in the following verse, nss.0 is the feminine participle in Niphal. nsT , does not re fer to the talent or weight going before, but to n'is immediately following, and is equivalent to there was. The woman was placed in the ephah in order to bo conveyed to Babylon. 8. By nS'in in this place is meant idolatry, which was the most flagrant kind of wickedness with respect to God, and the fruitful parent of every other 3S4 ZECHARIAH. Chap. V. This is wickedness. And he threw her down in the midst of the ephah, and threw the weight of lead on the mouth of it. 9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and, behold ! two women came forth, and the wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they bore away the ephah be- 10 tween earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel who sjiake 1 1 with me, Whither are these conveying the. ephah ? And he said to me, To build for it a house in the land of Shinar ; for it shall be set up, and placed there on its own base. species of iniquity. To mark it more emphatically, the article is prefixed. •npViin , as used both times, conveys the idea of a forcible action. In the preceding verse the woman is represented as already sitting in the midst of the ephah; the action here described may either be carried back to a period pre ceding the vision, or it may be intended to indicate what was further done, in order to cause her to occupy a lower position in the vessel, so as to allow of the leaden cover being thrown over her. The latter is the more probable inter pretation. Jarchi is of opinion that the feminine suffix in n"£ , her mouth, refers to the woman ; but it can alone with propriety be referred to the ephah. 9. The two females here mentioned are regarded by Maurer and Hengsten berg as merely belonging, by way of col oring, to the symbol as such, two persons being required to carry so large a measure as the ephah. I should rather, however, infer that the Assyrian and Babylonian powers are intended, by which, as instru ments, God removed idolatry in the per sons of the apostate Hebrews out of the holy land. By their having the wind in their wings is conveyed the idea of the celerity of their motion. n~-eri , the stork, so called from the affection which both the parent bird and her young show to each other. Aq., who frequently gives the etymology of Hebrew words, renders it 'Epatiios, in which he is followed by Theod. and Symm. This Greek term is derived from epws, love. The large wings of the stork greatly accelerate its flight, when aided by the wind. In n :teP" is an elision of the letter s , the third radi cal, for n:steni, which is found in a great number of MSS. and some of the earliest printed editions. 10. Instead of the defective orthogra phy n'laVite, many MSS. and some edi tions read in full, n'«a-V'va. 11. ~S3V yp.S , the land of Shinar, is rendered in the LXX. yf BaftvKwvos, and in the Targ. Vaa n2"-n= , which is the proper interpretation. : sn is to be con strued with n- a, andnrpsn withns-s, including the idea of the woman, or of idolatry, of which she was the symbol. To the latter also the affix in nnsaw belongs. In this striking hieroglyphic we are taught how idolatry, with all its accom panying atrocities, was removed from the land of the Hebrews, which it had des ecrated, to a country devoted to it, and where it was to commingle with its native elements, never to be re-imported into Canaan. How exactly has the pre diction been fulfilled ! From the time of the captivity to the present, a period of more than two thousand years, the Hebrew people have never once lapsed into idolatry! The whole vision was intended to convince them of the great ness of the evil. Chap. VI. ZECHARIAH. 385 CHAPTER VI Having warned the Jews against indulging in the evil practices which had occasioned their removal to Babylon, Jehovah now, in another vision, exhibits to their view the warlike and unsettled state of political affairs in the immediate future, during the reigns of Darius, and his successors, 1—8. Most commentators seem to have concurred in the opinion ex pressed by Munster : " Ila;c visio est valde obscura.'* The symbols are in themselves simple, consisting of four chariots drawn by horses of different colors, which issue from between two mountains of copper, 'and proceed in different directions with respect to the land of Palestine. That they betoken certain dispensations of Divine Providence, in reference to the nations by which the Jews were immediately surrounded, and by whose fate they were more or less affected, appears to be the most consistent position that can be assumed in interpreting them, especially as such is the application of similar symbols elsewhere in the prophetic records. The colors of the horses denote, as usual, the character of these dispensations, as either calamitous, prosperous, or mixed. Comp. chap. i. 8; Rev. vi. This vision, which is the last, is followed by a splendid prophecy of the Messiah in his co-ordinate offices of Priest and King, to typify which the symbolical action of making two crowns and placing them upon the head of Joshua, is ordained by Divine authority, 9-15. 1 Axd I raised my eyes again, and looked, and, behold ! four chariots came forth from between two mountains, and the moun- 2 tains were mountains of copper. In the first chariot were red 3 horses ; and in the second chariot black horses ; and in the third chariot white horses ; and in the fourth chariot were piebald 1. For the idiom stesp a'asi , see on ch. iv. 1. Considering that the events referred to are those of war, it is most natural to infer that war-ehariots are here intended. By mountains of copper are meant solid, strong and durable mountains, such as those in which cop per and other metals are ordinarily found. Comp. Jer. i. 18. Of what these moun tains were designed to be the symbols, or whether they are introduced merely as an ornamental part of the vision, have been matters of dispute. I am strongly inclined to regard them as emblems of the Medes and Persians, and thus cor responding to the two horns of the ram which are employed by Daniel to denote the same people. See chap. viii. 3, 4. From between these, or from the power ful empire which they formed, the instru ments of Divine Providence were to pro ceed to execute his purposes in punishing the nations. That mountains are em ployed in the figurative language of prophecy to signify kingdoms or govern ments, see Is. ii. 2, xii. 15 ; Jer. li. 25 ; Dan. ii. 35. 2, 3. The red horses are symbolical of war and bloodshed ; the black, of general calamity and distress ; the white, of vic tory and prosperity ; and the piebald grays, of a dispensation, mixed in its character, partly prosperous, and partly adverse. The last word, COT , would seem most naturally to be referrible to the root yayi , to be strong, active, etc. ; and this mode of solution would at once be satisfactory were there no qualifying circumstances in the immediate context to require another interpretation. But as all the other terms here employed in describing the horses are expressive of colors, we should expect something of the same character to be intended by the 49 386 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VI. 4 gray horses. I then proceeded and said to the angel who spake 5 with me, What are these, my lord ? And the angel answered and said to me, These are the four spirits of heaven, coming 6 forth from presenting themselves before the Lord of the whole earth. That and the black horses in it are going forth into the north country ; and the white go forth to the west of them ; and word in question. I, therefore, prefer adopting a derivation from the Arab. iyn jat. leviter splenduit, and regard it as qualifying cm a , immediately pre ceding. Thus, the Targ. ¦p;ct3p , ash- colored gray ; so that the most appropri ate rendering of the two terms will be spotted, or piebald grays. 5. Though the phrase phi-rip yapis CK'sn is that employed chap. ii. 10, (Heb.) to denote the four quarters of the horizon, yet, that it cannot have this meaning in the present instance, is evi dent from its being added that the nhnsn are such as had taken their station, or presented themselves before the Lord, in order to receive their commissions for the execution of his will. In our common version, therefore, the words are properly rendered as to the meaning, spirits of the heavens ; or, as we now commonly say, celestial spirits, thereby meaning angels. These are represented, as in Job i. 6 ; ii. 1, as employed by God to carry into effect his high behests, which they receive in his immediate presence, and then proceed to the different quarters of the globe in which the special opera tions of Divine Providence are to be car ried forward. 6. By VlSS "p.S , the north country, we are to understand, as usual, the land of Babylon. Comp. Jer. iii. 18, vi. 22, x. 22, xlvi. 10; Zech. ii. 10. Though that empire had been subdued by Cyrus, yet the Babylonians revolted in the be ginning of the fifth year of Darius, on which that monarch besieged them with all his forces ; and, after much devasta tion, completely depopulated it, and re duced it to solitude. To set forth sym bolically this fearful event, black-colored horses are represented as conveying into the country the executioner of the Divine indignation upon that devoted people. It is remarkable that the red-colored horses, which had been introduced into the vision, ver. 2, are entirely passed over. The reason may, perhaps, be, that, disastrous as was the final destruction of Babylon, it was unaccompanied with anything like the quantity of bloodshed which characterized the battles of con flicting armies in the open field, though at the commencement there was every appearance of much blood being shed. Notwithstanding, therefore, the chariot with the red horses appeared along with the others, it seems to be intimated, by no further notice having been taken of it, that it was not employed. The white horses, denoting victory and prosperity, point out the successes of Darius in dif ferent parts of Greece, which, though checked by the battle of Marathon, con tributed to the strengthening of his power in that quarter. The phrase, tnpn ris-Vs, literally means behind them, but geo graphically, to the west of them. That it is to be so taken here, the use of Vt< , to, corresponding with the use of the same preposition after the verb, both be fore and after in the verse, sufficiently shows. The dappled horses were sym bolical of the varied condition of the Persian affairs, which followed the bat tle of Marathon, especially the changes which took place on the death of Darius, and the expedition of Xerxes for the re duction of Egypt. This last circumstance is particularly pointed at in the reference, ¦B,Pn ",'"S , the country of the Soutji. That by "pa'Si , Teman, we are not here to understand the city or region so called on the east of Idumea, but a land to the Chap. VI. ZECHARIAH. 387 7 the piebald go forth to the south country. And the grays went forth, and asked to go to walk to and fro through the land ; and he said, Go, walk to and fro through the land ; and they walked to and fro through the land. 8 Then he summoned me and said to me, See, those that went to the north country have appeased my anger in the north country. 9 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to me, saying : 10 Take from the captivity, from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from south of Palestine, is obvious from the article being prefixed, and from a com parison of the use of the term in such passages as the following, Job ix. 9 ; Is. xliii. 6. It is synonymous with ya'' , on the right hand, which geographically means the South, and here specifically signifies Egypt, to express which Daniel uses the word a.13 , chap. xi. 40. 7. yisfj , the land here referred to, but not described by any qualifying epithet, must be understood of the country of Palestine, the peculiar features of the dispensation of Providence with respect to which are marked by two circumstan ces : the gray color of the horses, which indicated the mixed state of the Jewish affairs till the time of Artaxerxes Mne- mon ; and the form of the verb T\b~ , to go or walk, which is in Hithpael, and signifies to go about, or to walk up and down. They were not to he molested by the hostile incursion of foreign armies, but neither were they to be free from annoyances. Accordingly, we find them involved in troubles by Sanballat, and other chiefs of the Samaritans ; and, as the Persian army marched through Pal estine to attack the Egyptians in the reign of Darius Nothus, the inhabitants must have been exposed to numerous inconveniences, which they could not but feel the more severely, owing to their having only just begun to take possession of their patrimonial inheritances. On the other hand, the appointment of Ne hemiah to be governor of Judea, and other favors conferred by the Persian monarch, were calculated to mitigate their distress, and inspire them with the hope of a complete and happy restora tion to the enjoyment of their ancient privileges. These dappled horses supply the place of the red, specified ver. 2, but are omitted in the explanation, ver. 6, so that the number of chariots is still four. 8. The nominative to pST'i must either be Jehovah, or the Angel of Jeho vah, understood as the pronominal affix in ^n?n , "my anger," shows. That among other significations nil has that of anger, see Jud. viii. 3 ; Eccles. x. 4 ; Is. xxxiii. 11. The phrase, nin np:n, to cause anger to rest, is equivalent to Traft ri,:n , Ezek. v. 13, xvi. 42, xxiv. 13 ; and means to satisfy, pacify. The final judgment having been inflicted upon Babylon, the Divine displeasure should no more be manifested hi that direction. The tendency of the whole vision was to assure the Jews of the care and pro tection of their covenant God, and thus lead them to exercise confidence in him, while prosecuting the restoration of the temple and their former institutions. 9 — 11. Here commences a separate prophecy, calculated, like the preceding vision, to stimulate the Jews in their work. That what was commanded was actually performed by the prophet, and that it was not done in vision, seems the only tenable construction that can be put upon it. The infinitive rrhpV , at the beginning of the 9th verse, is to be taken in connection with the finite form of the same verb at that of the 11th, both having anti ~ea for their object. 388 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VI. 11 12 Jedaiah, who are come from Babylon, and enter thou on that day, yea, enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah ; yea, take silver and gold, and make crowns, and place them upon the head of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest; and spieak to him, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying : The preposition which is prefixed to the following nouns is not to be taken partitively, as if some of the captivity, and one of each of the families, the heads of which are supposed to be here speci fied, were meant, but is used in its pri mary and most common signification. The persons named appear to have form ed a deputation from the nVia , captives still remaining in Babylon, who had sent them with contributions in gold and sil ver to help forward the building of the temple at Jerusalem. These deputies had deposited their gifts in the house of Josiah, to which the prophet is com manded to repair and take what was necessary for making the two crowns which were to be placed on the head of the high priest. It is not improbable that Josiah was public treasurer at the time. The language of Zechariah is here more heavy and verbose than usual, which has occasioned some difficulty to interpreters. Instead of Vaatt 1 sa —is, two of Kennicott's MSS., the LXX., Syr., and Targ., read sa in the singular, and restrict the declaration to Josiah, mentioned immediately before ; but there can be little doubt that this various read ing is merely an emendation of some copyist, who took Josiah, and not the three persons spoken of at the beginning of the verse, to be the subject of the pred icate. To remove the ambiguity, our translators have properly connected the words immediately with the names of the persons to whom they belong. Heng stenberg contends that only one crown is intended, and that the plural form f'ya S , is to be referred to several small crowns or diadems of which it consisted. With many other interpreters, he ad duces in support of the opinion the 5ia- tiripaia iroKKa, many downs, which are described as being upon the head of the Saviour, Rev. xix. 12 ; but the reference there is purely to the crown of 'a con queror, composed of many diadems, which Christ is represented as wearing, as a symbol of the numerous victories he had won over the enemies of his church. It appears, however, essential to the thing signified, namely, the priest ly and regal offices, that they should have been distinct crowns, in which case either the one may have been placed upon the head of Joshua after the other, or they may have been joined together so as to form a double crown, and so placed upon his head at once. What favors the latter view of the subject is the circum stance, that the plural n *¦ D S is construed with n"nn , the singular of the substan tive verb, ver. 14. Maurer not inaptly illustrates this by a reference to the triple crown or the tiara of the popes, by which they arrogate to themselves a higher de gree of dignity than that of Him whose servants they profess to be. 12. The symbolical action performed upon Joshua as representative of the Messiah is here followed by an explan atory prophecy, in which his person, offices, and work are distinctly set forth. For the signification of htea , Branch, see on Is. iv. 2. That the Messiah is meant must be evident to all who will impar tially compare Is. iv. 2 ; Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15 ; Zech. iii. 8. Thus the Targ, expounds : i-ns nia/a snpwq snaa sn ¦V:,n-'T , "Behold the Man, Messiah is his name ; who is to be revealed." The same view is taken by Moses Hadarsan : nin "iv as ¦& "ps ca» t-ps ^ss^snan rva-^ l-ninai iko naa »'s , "The Redeemer ^hom I will raise up from you shall have no father, as it is said ; Behold the man, whose name is Zemach, Chap. VI. ZECHARIAH. 389 Behold the man whose name is THE BRANCH, For he shall grow up out of his place, And he shall build the temple of Jehovah. 13 Even he shall build the temple of Jehovah, And ho shall bear the glory ; and he shall grow up from his place." The Rabbins Jarchi, Abenezra, and Kim chi, and after them, Bauer and Ewald, suppose Zerubbabel to be intended The last-mentioned writer, after the example of Eiehhorn and Theiner, conjectures that, instead of s~pn* -isna , on the head of Joshua, the text has originally read, sp.pn-' -is^a? Vaa-iT 'i-s-a , on the head of Zerubbabel, and on tlie head of Joshua. But who does not perceive that this conjecture is to be traced to the mere love of hypothesis. Maurer scruples not to regard it as doing violence to the pas sage. The application of the words to Zerubbabel is decidedly rejected by Abar- banel, notwithstanding his bigoted hos tility to the Messianic interpretations. The words of the text can apply to no one who was not a priest ; for it is ex pressly declared that such was to be the official character of him who is the sub ject of discourse. And that neither Joshua nor any of his descendants could be meant, is evident from the fact, that they could not exercise the regal power, none of them being entitled to occupy the throne. Simon Maccabfeus, to whom Michaelis applies the prophecy, never filled the kingly office ; he was merely commander of the army, and civil gov ernor, subject to the kings of Syria. In stead of building the temple, as is here predicted of the Branch, he erected a splendid palace for himself on the moun tain on which the temple stood. Nor did the work of repairing it, after it had been pillaged by Antiochus Epiphanes, devolve upon him, but upon his brother Judas. Besides, the declaration that the Branch should be invested with the honor or glory connected with the building of the temple, would be at variance with the uniform ascription of the glory of all great undertakings to Jehovah and not to man, wherever in Scripture such works are represented as carried on under the special direction of the Most High. In the phrase, masi vpnntta, and he shall sprout forth from his place, while there is a direct reference to the name haa, here given to the Messiah, there seems to be no very indistinct allusion to the miraculous conception, vpnn , his place, the place which was peculiar to him. The interpretation, that " under him there shall be growth," which is adopted by Cyril, Jerome, Luther, Calo- vius, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, apply ing it to the church, the body of believers, or the affairs of Messiah's kingdom, is to be rejected on the ground of its not being warranted by Scripture usage. By Va'n nin" , the temple of Jehovah, which the Messiah was to build, the material tem ple then in the course of erection cannot be understood, for that was to be carried on and completed by Zerubbabel, chap. iv. 9. But, as we have just seen, Zerub babel and the Branch are not identical. We are, therefore, compelled to interpret the phrase in application to the New Testament church, which is frequently spoken of as a temple, 1 Cor. iii. 17; 2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph ii. 22 ; 2 Thess. ii. 4 ; and respecting which the Messiah him self declares, " Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. xvi. 18. 13. The repetition Vapn-ns n:a" ssim nin"* is not, as has been conjectured, to be ascribed to an error of some tran scriber, and on the authority of the LXX., Arab., and Syr., to be expunged as superfluous, but is singularly in its place, as giving a high degree of em phasis to the statement made respecting the personal work of the Messiah. The 390 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VI. 14 And he shall sit and rule upon his throne, And shall be a priest upon his throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both. And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah, and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in erection of the spiritual temple was to be effected exclusively through his media tion. With the declaration, that he should " bear the glory," compare Ps. xxi. 5, cii. 16 ; Is. Iii. 13 ; Heb. ii. 9. The declaration has reference to the crowns, the insignia of glory and ma jesty, which were to be placed on the head of Joshua. In the following clauses of the verse the union of the regal and sacerdotal offices in the person of the Messiah is distinctly set forth, thus ex hibiting the peculiar feature of the Mel- chizedekian priesthood, Gen. xiv. 18 ; Ps. ex. 4 ; Heb. v. 6, 10, vi. 20, vii. While our Lord continues to officiate in the heavenly temple as the Great High Priest of his people, ever living to make intercession for them, he exercises his mediatorial rule over the world and the church — ¦ that over the former being rendered subservient to the administra tion of that which he exercises over the latter. Vitringa, Reuss, Dr. McCaul, and others, refer the pronominal affix in ¦saa , " his throne," to Jehovah, or the Deity absolutely considered, but, in my opinion, without sufficient ground. The natural construction requires the person who is prominently before the reader to be the object of reference. The render ing of Newcome, Hitzig, and Ewald, " and a priest shall be upon his throne," is forced and unwarranted ; the Vau clearly connecting the substantive verb with the preceding verbs s'sr and n:a' , the nominative to which is s * n , the Branch, or Messiah. The nominatives to e-pH , "them both," are neither Je hovah and the Messiah, as maintained both by ancient and by many modern interpreters, among others, Cocceius, De Dieu, Vitringa, Bengel, Beuss, Dr. Mc Caul, and Dr. J. Pye Smith ; nor Jews and Gentiles, as Dr. Stonard strangely interprets; but the nana, priesthood, and the bviz'a , regal dignity, which had just been mentioned as unitedly exercised by the Branch. Thus Jerome, Marckius, Drusius, Lowth, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, Hengstenberg, and others. The reason assigned by Dathe forms an insurmount able objection to the first opinion : " Quo- niam enim Deus in toto hoc loco loqui tur, affixum tertiae personam in cn":a non potest ad Jovam referre." The same objection lies against the reference of the affix in iisea to Jehovah. By nay chV'i , the counsel or purpose of peace, is to be understood the glorious scheme of reconciliation between God and man, effected by the joint exercise of the sacer dotal and regal offices of the Lord Jesus Christ. Comp. Is. ix. 6 ; Micah v. 5 ; Eph. ii. 14—17; Col. i. 20, 21; Heb. xiii. 20. 14. Helem is, in all probability, the same as Heldia, ver. 10, and Hen another name of Josiah, there also mentioned. There seems no ground for rendering in , favor, and interpreting it of the hos pitality shown to the deputies by Josiah ; the construction adopted by Hengsten berg, Maurer and Ewald. The words tVnV np.rim n-iasn , the crowns shall be to Helem, etc., do not mean that they were to belong to the persons specified, but that they were to be for a memorial to them of the symbolical act that had just taken place, and were for this pur pose to be deposited in the temple, where it is possible they remained till the Mes siah, as high priest and king of his peo ple, had taken possession of his mediato rial throne, when temple, and crowns, and the whole Jewish polity, were taken or destroyed by the Romans. Chap. VII. Z E C II A R I A II . 391 15 the temple of Jehovah. And those who are far off shall co:r.e and build in the temple of Jehoyah ; mid ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me to you. And it shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of Jehovah your God * * * * 15. This verse contains a striking unfinished, their rejection in consequence prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, of unbelief is forcibly implied. It is a together with a solemn warning to the striking instance of airoo-iwir-nai. Jews, in which, the sentence being left CHAPTER VII, This and the following chapter are occupied with replies to questions which had been pro posed for solution, relative to certain fasts which the Jews had observed, but which they supposed might no longer be binding after the restoration of their prosperity, 1—3. From this circumstance Zechariah is commanded to take occasion to reprove them for their selfish observance of the days appointed for fasting. 4 — 7; to enforce attention to the weightier matters of the law. 8 — 10 ; and to warn them, by placing before them the rebel lious conduct of their fathers, and the punishment with which it had been visited. 11 — 14. 1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius the king, that the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah on 2 the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev ; when Bethel sent Sherezer, Regem-melech and his men, to conciliate 1. The occurrence here described took place two years later than those described in the preceding chapters. iVoa , Chis lev, the name of the ninth month of the Hebrews, which corresponds to part of November and part of December. Some think it is of Persic origin, but the idea of torpor, riqidity, stiffness, which is con veyed by the Heb. Vaa , is sufficient to justify its being referred to this root ; such being the character assumed by na ture in the course of this month. The a prefixed may be regarded as the Beth essentia. 2. The words Vsp-n-'a fkv^\ have occasioned considerable perplexity to in terpreters. Some of the earlier Jews took Bethel to be the name of a person. Lightfoot supposes that it means the con- grf gation of the Jews who had remained in Babylon. To the same effect Mich aelis, " The congregation of God at Sha rezer," though he acknowledges he had no idea of the geographical position of the city so called. Hengstenberg and Maurer think the people of the Jews are intended. ' The Vulg., Grotius, Dathe, Newcome, De Wette, and Arnheim, sup ply Vs before the word, and render, "to the house of God." The LXX., Syr., Targ., Drusius, Blayney, Hitzig, and Ewald, regard it as the name of the city so called, in the tribe of Benjamin ; only the ancient versions just specified repre- 392 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VII. the regard of Jehovah, speaking to the priests which were in the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying : Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these many years ? Then the word of Jehovah of hosts was communicated to me, saying : Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, even those seventy years, was it at all to me that ye fasted ? And when ye ate, and when ye drank, was it not sent it as the place to which the deputa tion was sent. Against the interpreta tion which explains it of the temple, there lies the insuperable objection, that that sacred edifice is uniformly called ^^^;, n*a , the house of Jehovah, — never Vs- n*a , the house of God; and that it should have been so designated after the recovery of the Jews from idolatry is altogether incredible, considering the in famy attached to the city so named. I entirely concur in the last opinion, which refers it to the city of Bethel, which is used by metonymy for its inhabitants. The word occupies its proper place as the nominative to the verb, which cannot here be taken impersonally, as such con struction would exclude all reference to those who sent the deputation, a cir cumstance not to be reconciled with the express specification of the names of the persons who composed it. rVsnV , lit. to stroke the face, to ingratiate onselfwith another, conciliate his regard. 3. The city having been introduced in the preceding verse as sending the depu tation, speaks here in the first person sin gular. Comp. 1 Sam. x. 10 ; 2 Sam. xx. 19 ; Zech. viii. 21. The question related to the continuance of the fast in the fifth month, which had been insti tuted to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. As the city was now being restored, it was pre sumed there would no longer be any necessity for keeping up the humiliating memorial, naasn is not simply, Shall I fast? but, Shall I continue to fast? The following words indicate, that it was felt to be a tedious and irksome per formance of duty. The persons speaking were thoroughly weary of it. n t a n , the infinitive in Niphal of nip , to separate, consecrate, vow; in Niphal, to abstain from food, and the ordinary employments of life. 5, 6. Though the question had been proposed by the leading men of a single city only, yet the burden was generally felt, on which account the prophet is directed to address the Divine reply to all the inhabitants of the land, the priests not excepted, who appear to have been desirous of getting rid of the fast as well as others. Their fasts had not been per formed from a purely religious motive, but were relf-righteous and hypocritical. While they observed them, they neg lected the weightier matters of the law. At -pEO is an ellipsis of the finite form of the same verb. In "as ':?bs chan there is a double idiom, which renders it peculiarly emphatic. Not only is the finite form used after the infinitive of the same verb ; but the nominative of the personal pronoun is employed after the usual verbal suffix. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 34. ^s ea nana . The fast in the seventh month was in commemoration of the murder of Gedaliah, and those who were with him at Mispah. See 2 Kings xxv. 25, 26; Jer. xii. 1—3. Neither in fasting nor in feasting had the Jews any regard to Jehovah, but did all from self-interested motives. The feasting referred to is that which took place on the festival days, which were always days of rejoicing. Chap. VII. ZECHARIAH. 393 7 ye that ate, and ye that drank ? Are not these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at peace, and her cities around her, when both the south and the plain were inhabited ? 8 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah, saying, 9 Thus spake Jehovah of hosts, saying : Execute true judgment, And show kindness and mercy one to another; 10 Oppress not the widow and the orphan, The stranger and the poor ; And think not in your heart of the injury Which one hath done to another. 1 1 But they refused to attend, And turned their back rebelliously ; They made their ears heavy, That they might not hear. 12 They made their heart an adamant, That they might not hear the law, Nor the words which Jehovah sent by his Spirit Through the former prophets ; And there was great wrath from Jehovah of hosts. 13 And it came to pass, When he called and they would not hear, So they called, and I would not hear, Saith Jehovah of hosts, 7. The former prophets had taught the Hos. xiv. 3. No one was to harbor any worthlessness of attention to meats and feelings of resentment against another drinks while God was forgotten, .and the for any injury he might have done him. weightier matters of his law neglected. 11. t|tia yni , to give the shoulder, is If the Jews had listened to, and com- equivalent to turning the back upon any plied with, the messages of the prophets, one. The cause of such action is traced none of the evils which had come upon to a refractory, rebellious, and intractable them would have been inflicted. For disposition. The n prefixed in jh»'?» " the former prophetsj" see on chap, is privative. i. 4. By the "south and the plain," are 12. ni«a signifies both a thorn and a meant the southern and western parts of diammd< from the Arab. to pierce> Judah. J*f 9. -tts is here to be taken in the Here the idea of hardness is that con- strictly past tense, as the beginning of veyed by its use. Inc-s-aan -pa hn;na the 1 1th verse clearly shows. the double agency by which the Divine 10. Though -ij-s intervenes between will was communicated is recognized — PS-i and vns they are to be regarded that of the inspiring Spirit, and that of as in construction. Comp. Is. xix. 8 ; the instruments inspired. 50 394 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VIII. 14 But tossed them among all the nations which they knew not, And the land was desolate after them ; No one passed through or returned, For they had made the land of delight desolate. 14. cnsas is an anomalous form, the land of delight, Canaan. Comp. Jer. after the Aramaean manner, according iii. 19. Maurer proposes to take sua' »»'_ to which Zere is placed where there impersonally. Others more properly con- would otherwise be a movable Sheva. sider the Jews to be the nominative, who Regularly, it would.be Cnsos . It is by their crimes, had brought judgments of the Piel conjugation, r.-raft yps , upon the land. CHAPTER VIII. This chapter is a continuation of the subject introduced and treated of in the preceding. Having shown the awful consequences of disregarding the Divine will, which had been clearly announced by the prophets, God promises the renewal of his favor towards those who had returned from the captivity. Kestored to purity, 3, Jerusalem should enjoy security and prosperity to a degree far exceeding the conceptions of those whom the prophet addressed, 4 — 6. Those who were still in heathen countries should be brought back, and share in the general prosperity, 7—17 The chapter closes with a direct answer to the question relating to the fasts, and a prediction of the great number of proselytes that should be made to the true religion by the display of the Divine goodness towards the Jews, 18—23. 1 And the wrord of Jehovah was communicated to me, saying ; 2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : I have been zealous for Zion with great zeal, Yea, with great indignation have I been zealous for her. 3 Thus saith Jehovah, I am returned to Zion, And will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem ; And Jerusalem shall be called, The city of truth, And the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain. 4 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 1.' Before ni:sV the word ¦'Vs , to me, is found in thirty-three Heb. MSS. ; it has been in ten more originally, and is now in three by correction ; it is the reading of the Soncin., Brixian, and Complutensian editions, and is supported by the Syr. and Targ. 2. Comp. i. 14, 15. 3. Comp. Is. i. 26, and the remarks there made on the idiomatic use of s-ip , to call. 4, 5. These verses beautifully depict the security and happiness of the inhab itants of Jerusalem. Longevity and a ClIAP. VIII. ZECHARIAH. 39-J Aged men and aged women shall yet bo sitting in the streets of Jerusalem, Each man with his staff in his hand for very age ; 5 And the streets of the city shall be .tilled With boys and girls, playing in the streets of it. 6 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Though it should be wonderful In the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, Should it also be wonderful in my eyes ? Saith Jehovah of hosts. 7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Behold, I will deliver my pieople From the land of the rising, And from the land of the setting of the sun, 8* And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, And they shall become my people, And I will become their God, In truth and in righteousness. 9 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : numerous offspring were specially prom ised under the old dispensation, but uni formly in connection with obedience to the law. Deut. iv. 40, v. 16, 33, vi. 2, xxxiii. 6, 24; Is. Ixv. 20. The idea conveyed by E'pnBB in such connection is exquisite. What can be more grati fying to the uncorrupted simplicity of human feelings, than to witness a num ber of young children enjoying their innocent gambols ? For a contrary state of things, see Jer. vi. 11, ix. 21. 6. sVs , though like its cognate nVs , is not used in Kal, yet, from its significa tions in Niphal, Piel, Hiphal, and Hith pael, it cannot be doubted that it must have conveyed the idea of separation, dis tinction, difficulty; hence in Niphal, it signifies to be distinguished, to stand out prominently, from common events, to be impossible to human power, to be mirac ulous. rhsVa; , the participial noun, is often uSed for miraculous occurrences. Cnn D"'-*a , in those days, i. e. at the time when I fulfil my promise. To jus tify the rendering of our common version, " in these days," the Hebrew should have been nVsn n^n^a . See ver. 9. 7 . The east and west are here put as parts for the whole. The meaning is, I will deliver my people from every region whither they have been scattered. Were there any reason to believe that the prophecy has respect to » restoration of the Jews yet future, there would be a singular propriety in the use of siaj; , '-B"n , the setting of the sun, the Jews being now, for the most part, found in countries to the west of Jerusalem ; but there is every reason to conclude that it has an exclusive reference to what was to take place soon after it was delivered. Vast numbers were carried away captive after the time of Alexander. Not fewer than 100,000 were carried by Ptolemy to Egypt, and were settled in Alexan dria and Cyrene. The words nppiaap resa belong to both the members of the sentence, and express the reality and sincerity . of the relation on both sides. 9. cap~p n:ptnn , let your hands be 396 ZECHARIAH. Chap. VIII. Let your hands be strong, Ye that hear in these days These words from the month of the prophets, Which were spoken on the day when the foundation was laid Of the house of Jehovah of hosts, The temple, in order to its being built 10 For before those days There was no hire for man, Neither was there any hire for beast ; And to him that went out or came in There was no peace, because of the enemy : Yea, I sent all men each against another. 11 But now I will not be as in the former days To the residue of this people, . Saith Jehovah of hosts. 12 For the seed shall be prosperous, The vine shall yield her fruit, And the earth shall yield her produce, And the heavens shall yield their dew, And I will cause the residue of this people To possess all these things. 13 And it shall come to pass, As ye have been a curse among the nations, O house of Judah, and house of Israel, strong, a figurative mode of expression, denoting, courage, resolution, effort. Jud. vii. 11 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 21. The prophets here referred to were Haggai and Zech ariah. See Ezra v. 1, 2. The words which the people heard were those of consolation and encouragement. Haggai ii. 18, 19. After nrs subaud. 5-iapi . 10. Such was the danger to which the Jews were exposed before the actual commencement of building the temple, that all intercourse between the city and the country was interrupted. The Sa maritans pressed sore upon them, and annoyed them in every possible way. See Ezra iv. 1 — 5. By ia is not meant affliction, Srxtyis, tribulatio, as the Eng., LXX., and Vulg. ; but the enemy, or as we have it, ¦pK'aasi nsn' "ia , theenc mies of Judah and Benjamin. Ezra iv. 1 In the last clause of the verse reference is had to the intestine broils and conten tions which prevailed. 11, 12. nnsp stands forcibly in con trast with ->:sV at the beginning of the preceding verse. The providence of God brought about a complete change in the circumstances of the Jews who had re turned. As they obeyed his voice and prosecuted his work, he gave them out ward tranquillity, and prospered their agricultural pursuits. After q"|W'~ Sn", , the seed of prosperity, i. e. healthy, pros perous seed, such as would not fail, sup ply n"n", there_shall be. Their fields should not be trodden down by the ene my, nor suffer from drought, mildew, locusts, and other calamities. 13. By the Jews being a curse and a blessing, is not meant that they were the Chap. VIII. ZECHARIAH. 397 So I will deliver you, and ye shall be a blessing : Fear not, let your hands be strong. 14 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts : As I purposed to afflict you, When your fathers provoked me to wrath, Saith Jehovah of hosts, and I repented not ; 15 So again I have purposed, in these days, To do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah : Fear ye not. 16 These are the things which ye shall do ; Speak truth one to another ; Execute true and sound judgment in your gates. 17 And think not in your hearts of the injury Which one hath done to another ; And love not the false oath ; For all these are things that I hate, Saith Jehovah. 18 And the word of Jehovah of hosts was communicated to me, 19 saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become joy and gladness to the instruments of communicating either evil rial, ritual, or ceremonial observances that or good to the nations, but that they Jehovah delighted, but in the love and themselves experienced either the one practice of moral rectitude. The " gate" or the other. They were subjects of the was, and still is, the forum in the East. curse and the blessing. " The house of tlhVji bS'in means sound, wholesome Israel," or the ten tribes, as distinguished judgment, niis , in ver. 17, is wanting from "the house of Judah," shared in in three MSS., originally in two more, the happy fulfilment of the prophecy, and now by correction in one; in the It follows, that they also returned to LXX. Syr. and Arab. Palestine, nVsn D'Ki^a , in the very days 19. Now follows a formal reply to to which it refe'rs. AH attempts to dis- the question just referred to. The fast cover them at more recent periods have of the fourth month was on account of proved utterly fruitless ; and the idea the taking of Jerusalem, Jer. xxxix. 2, that they must still exist somewhere in hi. 5 — 7 ; that of the tenth was in com- the world, and are still to be restored in memoration of the commencement of their tribal state, has arisen from a mis- the siege, Jer. Iii. 4. For the other two construction of those prophecies which fasts, see on chap. vii. 3 and 5. The refer to the return from Babylon. Jews are distinctly informed that these 14, 15. An amplification of what had fasts should be turned into festivals of been stated in the preceding verse. joy. The i in nnsni is adversative, 16, 17. These verses contain a virtual having the force of — but in order that and instructive reply to the question rel- ye may enjoy the predicted and promised .'•ive to the celebration of the fast, chap, blessing, see that ye be sincere before me, vii. 3. It was not in such merely exter- and live in harmony among yourselves. 398 ZECHARIAH, Chap. VIII. house of Judah, even cheerful festivals ; but love ye truth and 20 peace. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 21 There shall yet come people, And the inhabitants of many cities, And the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to conciliate the regard of Jehovah, And to seek Jehovah of hosts : I will go, even I also. 22 Yea, many people and mighty nations shall come To seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, And to conciliate the regard of Jehovah. 23 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : In those days ten men, Out of all the nations, Shall take hold, shall even take hold 20. The prophecy concludes with the announcement that, in consequence of- the distinguished favor shown to the Jewish people after their restoration to their own land, multitudes of Gentiles should be induced to embrace the worship of Jehovah. Just before the appearance of Christ, the heathen began powerfully to feel the emptiness of their false relig ions, and the unsatisfactoriness of their systems of philosophy , and many of them, who were Vrought into contact with the people of God, found in their religion, with all its imperfections, a satisfaction which they had sought in vain from any other quarter. It is evident, from various parts • of the Acts of the Apostles, that proselytes were numerous in their day. Between ij; and nais , supply n'.n1 . Two MSS., the LXX.' and Arab, read c^an , many, after e^teS , which in all probability existed originally in the text. 21. The second nhs is equivalent to 1"?.f7.'5 ¦ Comp. Exod. xvii. 12, xviii. 4. 23. lis is redundant. Ten is put as a round number, or a definite for an in definite, but indicating many rather than few. Comp. Gen. xxxi. 7 ; Mic. v. 5. cian n'j'-iV Vau > of all the languages of the nations, means, of all the nations speaking different languages. Comp. nhJ'i/Vni Cian- Va , allthe nations and the languages, Is. lxvi. 18. See also Gen. x. 5, 20 ; Dan. iii. 7 ; Rev. v. 9, vii. 9, xiii. 7. To take hold of the skirt, is not intended to convey the idea of entreaty, or the gesture of application for assistance, but is significant of a feel ing of inferiority, and a desire to enjoy the happy privileges possessed by another. The Gentile nations would be anxious to participate in the blessings of the theoc racy. The repetition of the verb p_ n is emphatic, m-' •£•¦>£ , a man, a Jew, is merely a periphrasis for a Jew. Comp. ctW/p 'lovSaios, Acts x. 28. The prophecy is generally regarded as having respect to something yet future, and is often in terpreted of the instrumentality of the Jews when converted in effecting the conversion of the world. I can find no such reference in the passage. " Jerusa lem" cannot be understood otherwise than literally, just as the term " Jew" is to be so understood ; but, according to our Lord's doctrine respecting the New Dispensation, that city is no longer the place where men are exclusively to wor ship the Father, John iv. 21—23. In cense and a pure offering are now pre sented to his name in every place where his people assemble in the name of Jesus CltAP IX. ZE CHARIAH. 399 Of the skirt of a Jew, saying, We will go with you ; For we have heard that God is wdth you. and with a view to his glory, Mai. i. 10, 11. It was otherwise before the advent of Christ. Jerusalem was the place which Jehovah had chosen to put his name there, and thither all his true wor shippers were expected to come to the great festivals, in whatever country they might reside. Thus, the treasurer of Candace went all the way from Abys sinia, Acts viii. 27 ; and thus numbers from all parts of the Roman empire as sembled in that city at the first Pentecost after our Saviour's resurrection. As the Hellenistic Jews and the Gentile prose lytes travelled along in companies, they could not but excite the curiosity of the pagans through whose countries and cities they passed ; and celebrated as the metropolis of Judea had become for the favors conferred upon it by some of the greatest monarchs of the times im mediately gone by, and for the prosperity and warlike prowess of the Jewish peo ple, it was impossible that it should not attract the attention of the surrounding nations to the character and claims of the God who was there adored, and who accorded such blessings to his worship pers. CHAPTER IX. For the arguments in opposition to, and those in favor of, the authenticity of that portion of the book of Zechariah which begins with this chapter, and comprises it and the re maining chapters, see the Preface. Having in prophetic vision exhibited some of the more remarkable events connected with the continued rule of the Persians, Zechariah now proceeds to predict those which were to take place under that of the Greeks, during the military expeditions of Alexander and his successors, in so far as they had a bearing upon the afluirs of the Jews. lie describes the conquest of Syria after the battle of Issus, 1; and the progress of the army of Alex ander along the coast of the Mediterranean, involving the capture of the principal cities of the Phoenicians and Philistines, but leaving the Jews unmolested, through the protect ing care of Jehovah, 2 — 8. He then contrasts with the character and military achieve ments of that conqueror the qualities which should distinguish the Messiah and his king dom, whom he expressly predicts, 9, 10. After which he resumes the thread of his his torical discourse, and describes the wars of the Maccabees with Antiochus Epiphanes, and the victory and prosperity with which they were followed, 11—17. 1 The sentence of the word of Jehovah, Against the land of Hadrach, 1. For the signification of s'eh , see on Is. xiii. 1. The combination spa -•r,r — ia- , occurs only here, chap. xii. 1, and Mai. i. 1. As -,ai occurs in the sense of oracle, and sire signifies what is takei\ up and uttered by the voice, the 400 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IX. And Damascus shall be its resting place, When towards Jehovah shall be the eye of man, And of all the tribes of Israel. phrase might be rendered, The announce ment of the orach of Jehovah ; but it is better for the sake of uniformity to re tain the term sentence, which I have adopted in my translation of Isaiah. "With respect to Tp-rj., Hadrach, it is uncertain whether it was intended to denote a country, a city, or a king. The last is the most probable, on the ground that it is not likely that the name either of a country or its metropolis, in a region near Damascus, would have entirely dis appeared from the pages of history. But no such name has been found in any Arabic work either of history or geogra phy. Joseph Abassus, indeed, a native of that country, informed Michaelis that there was a place so called at the dis tance of some miles from Damascus ; that it was now of small consequence, but had once been a city of great celebrity ; but there is every reason to believe that if he did not intend to impose upon his learned interrogator, the place he had in view was ^snpts , in Arabic i^jLCvOl, called by Eusebius 'ASpaa, and by Pto lemy "Atipa. It lay about thirty miles from Damascus. The same remark ap plies to the statement of Rabbi Jose, mentioned by Kimchi in his Comm. on this verse, that he was from Damascus, and that there was a place there, of which the name was Hadrach. The Rabbins consider the term to be a compound appel lative of the Messiah, who was to be n n , sharp or sevwe towards the Gentiles, but ^ n , tender towards Israel ! Hengsten berg, who treats on the subject at large in his Christology, vol. ii. pp. 69 — 77, Keith's Translation, denies that it is a proper name at all, and regards it as a symbolical appellation of the Persian em pire, which he thinks Zechariah would not designate by its proper name for fear of offending the government under which he lived. His reasoning in support of his hypothesis is very unsatisfactory, and his construction of •'•cf-, -\> ^eI- "• b 's perfectly ridiculous. I am compelled to acquiesce in the opinion, that a king of this name is meant, as the most probable of those that have been advanced, es pecially as the phrase, " the land of a king," is not without example in Scrip ture ; see Neh. ix. 22 ; and very much suspect that the word "p-in, Hadrach, is after all only a corruption of inn , the common name of the kings of Syria, though such corruption must have taken place at a very early period, for it was found in the copy from which the version of the LXX. was made. The affix in hnn:ia is na-i in the preceding hemi stich. Damascus was to be the place in which the Divine word or sentence was to rest or settle ; in other words, where the threatened punishment would perma nently be inflicted. That ancient city was taken by Alexander the Great after the battle at Issus, and formed part of the kingdom of the Seleucidoe, from whom it passed into the hands of the Romans. The native rule, which thus ceased on the Greek conquest, was never afterwards recovered. Several commen tators, following the ancient versions, render the words, ens "\'S, n*.n"V "a Vsns"> 'BS'ji Vap , for the eye of Jeho vah is upon men and all the tribes of Israel, and explain them with reference to the universal judgments which the providence of God had brought or would bring upon the people in and around Palestine. But it is more natural to regard -ps in construction with ' i;o ens, The reference will then be to the effect produced upon the minds of others as well as of the Israelites, by the success and progress of the army of Alexander. Apprehensive of danger, they should be compelled to look to Jehovah alone for deliverance. When Alexander threat- Chap. IX. ZECHARIAH. 401 Hamath also which is contiguous to it ; Tyre and Zidon, though she be very wise. Yea, though Tyre hath built a fortress for herself, And heaped up silver as dust, And fine gold as the mud of the streets ; Behold, Jehovah will dispossess her, And strike her wealth into the sea, And she herself shall be burned with fire. Askelon shall see it and be afraid ; Gaza also, and shall be in great pain ; ened to punish the Jews on account of the refusal of Jaddua the high priest to swear fealty to him, they were thrown into the greatest consternation, and of fered many sacrifices and prayers to God for deliverance, "a is here used as a particle of time. 2. Hamath was the capital of a king dom of the same name, which lay be tween Zobah and Rehob, and to the north of Damascus. It was called by the Greeks Epiphania, but is now known by its ancient name, which it has all along retained among the natives. That the kingdom was conterminous to that of which Damascus, was the metropolis is here expressed by na- Vasn s the fem inine affix referring to y-is , land, in the preceding verse. The whole of Syria was subjugated by the Greeks, or sub mitted to Alexander. Tyre and Zidon, which lay directly in the way of that monarch, as he marched along the coast of the Mediterranean towards Egypt, are next mentioned. See on Is. xxiii. The latter city voluntarily surrendered, and had Ahdolonymus appointed as viceroy. Though originally the chief of all the Phoenician cities, and the mother of many colonies, yet at the time here referred to, she had "become far inferior to Tyre, and quite sunk in comparison with her ; on which account the predi cate nsn w:an, she is very wise, though, in point of position, it might seem to be long to Ylia , Zidon, is nevertheless to be referred ton's, Tyre, as the more im portant of the two cities. The Tyrians, 51 who had long been celebrated for their worldly wisdom, Ezek. xxviii. 3, 4, 5, 12, 17, gave a specimen of it on the approach of the Grecian monarch. On his intimating that he wished to offer sacrifice in the temple of Hercules, they replied that the ancient and true temple of that god was at Old Tyre on the con tinent, and sent him a crown of gold in testimony of their respect for so great a conqueror : hoping by these means to induce him to pass on without visiting their island. 3. This verse is graphically descriptive of the insular and strongly fortified posi tion of New Tyre, at the distance of seven hundred paces from the shore, and of the immense stores of wealth which it contained as the great emporium of Phoenician commerce. Ezek. xxvti. 4. Instead of -:'-s , many MSS., and some of them the best of the Spanish, read n^n* , which I have adopted as the true lection. Here is set forth the con quest of Tyre by Alexander, who con structed a causeway with the rubbish of Old Tyre from the shore to the island, and after a siege of seven months took the city by storm, put eight thousand of the inhabitants, who had not taken flight to Carthage, to the sword, sold thirteen thousand into slavery, crucified two thousand, and after plundering the city, burnt it to ashes. Jahn's Heb. Com monwealth, sect. 70. 5. It may easily be imagined what terror the news of the fall of Tyre must have struck into the inhabitants of the 402 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IX. And Ekron, because her expectation hath made her ashamed ; The king shall perish from Gaza, And Askelon shall not be inhabited. A foreigner shall sit as ruler in Ashdod, And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will remove his blood from his mouth, And his abominations from between his teeth ; And he, even he, shall be left for our God, And shall be as a prince in Judah, And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite. cities further along the coast southward, who knew the destination and route of the victorious army. The prophet ac cordingly precedes the march of the conqueror from Phoenicia into Philistia. The principal cities of the Philistines are here enumerated. Gath only is omitted, owing, probably, to its being farther inland, and thus lying somewhat out of the route of the army. For Ash kelon, see on Amos i. 8. For Gaza and Ekron, on Amos i. 6. Ekron, lying farthest north of these cities, is repre sented as exercising confidence in Tyre. While that city withstood the attack, she might expect Alexander to be arrested in his course, and hope that he would give up his plan of invading Egypt. But when it fell, her hopes were gone. History is silent respecting the fate of these cities on occasion of the present expedition, but of Gaza it is recorded, that it resisted, and was captured after a siege of two months. Not fewer than ten thousand of the inhabitants were put to death, and the rest were sold into sla very. Betis, the commander or governor of the city, was bound to a chariot with thongs thrust through the soles of his feet, and in this manner dragged around the city. It is not improbable, that it is specially to this circumstance that the words n,"yia "pV.n nas , the king shall perish from Gaza, refer. The title of king is frequently used in Scripture in a subordinate sense, to denote any chief ruler or governor. See Gen. xiv. 2. 6. For Ashdod, see on Amos i. 8. The word nTEB , which occurs only here and Deut. xxiii. 2, has been considered of uncertain etymology. Lee thinks it may probably be a compound of y: , from, CS , a people, and n" , a foreigner ; but this conjecture, however ingenious, is not warranted by Hebrew usage. In Deut. the LXX. render it by 4k n6pvns, one born of a whore, but nXXoyeveis, a differ ent race or people, best suits both pas sages. See Blayney. According to the form, it must be regarded as the Hiphil participle of nTM , a root not occurring in the Hebrew Scriptures, but signifying in more modern Hebrew, to mix. Comp. the Arab. *(X*, corruptus fuit. Heng stenberg renders, rabble. By -psa , the pride of the Philistines, we are to under stand the splendor of their cities, espec ially of their temples. 7. This verse contains a prediction of the future conversion of the Philistines to the knowledge and service of the true God. The pronominal affix i refers to iTca , the foreign prince, as does ssin , he, further on in the verse. Their aban donment of idolatry, and their embrac ing the true religion, is represented by their no longer drinking blood, and eat ing things sacrificed to idols, both of which were common among the pagans, but prohibited by the Mosaic law, Numb. xxv. 2 ; Lev. vii. 26, xvii. 10, 12 ; and by the apostles, Acts xv. 29. It is implied that what the ruler did, would be done by the citizens subject to his power. He was to belong to God, as one who had Chap. IX. ZECH ARIAH. 403 8 And I will encamp about my house because of the army, Both when it passeth through, and when it returneth ; And no oppressor shall pass through them any more. For now do I look with mine eyes. 9 Bejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem ! Behold thy King will come to thee ; llighteous, and having salvation, joined himself to him by an act of self- dedication. Comp. Is. xliv. 5, lvi. 3. On his becoming a Jewish proselyte, he should be regarded as sustaining the dig nity of one of the princes of Judah ; no distinction should exist between them. The same idea is expressed in the paral- 1.1 clause. The Jebusites were the orig inal inhabitants of Jerusalem, who, on their subjugation by David, were incor porated among the Jews, and enjoyed their privileges. 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, etc. 8. For naa , the Keri has the proper orthography sa a , a host, or army. Je hovah here promises to afford protection to the Jews (called, as in Hos. viii. 1, r-~- n"a , the house of Jehovah). They were not to be injured by the army of Alexander, either on its march to or from Egypt, a promise which was fulfilled to the letter ; for wliile that monarch pun ished the Samaritans, he showed great favor to the Jews. Nor was any foreign oppressor to invade their land, as the Assyrians and Chaldeans had done, dur ing the period which was to intervene before the adveht of the Messiah, pre dicted in the verse immediately follow ing. They were, indeed, subject to much suffering, both from the Egyptian and the Syrian kings, especially from Antiochus Epiphanes, but their nationality was not destroyed, and the evils to which they were exposed only paved the way for the Maccabean victories, and the establish ment of the Asmonean dynasty. For this preservation they were indebted to the providence of God which watched over them for good. This is emphatically expressed in the last clause of the verse. 9. From the great Grecian conqueror, and the temporal protection which Je hovah would accord to his people, the prophet abruptly, and in the most sub lime and animated strain, calls the atten tion of the Jews to a Royal Personage of a very different character, the Mes siah, meek and righteous, the Prince and pattern of peace, and the Author of spiritual salvation to all his subjects. His advent was to be accompanied by such glorious results, that it was to be hailed with the most joyful anticipation. That the subject of the prophecy is the Messiah, is not only established by the inspired authority of the Evangelist Mat thew, chap. xxi. 4, but has the suffrages of all the early Jewish authorities. It was not till the twelfth century that it was otherwise interpreted. Thus the Book of Zohar: rrviz. bv -ens :--;•;;-- -rcr, '-." ra-.-T ¦:" . "On this account it is said of Messiah, Lowly and riding upon an ass ;" a statement which is re peated in the same work. The same construction is put upon the passage by Joshua Ben Levi, Saadias Gaon, and others. The testimonies will be found in "Wetstein on Matt. xxi. 4, who says in reference to them : " Magno consensu Juda?i dictum Zacharia? de Messia inter- pretantur." And Solomon Jarchi has the ingenuousness to acknowledge, ms r-.'V'z- V" sVs ",-f.zb -riS,that"it is impossible to interpret it of any other than the Messiah." Of Him as the king of Zion it is predicted that he should be p"-a, righteous, a quality frequently ascribed to him in the Old Testament. See Is. xiv. 21, liii. 11 ; Jer. xxiii. 5, 404 Z E C II A E I A I-I . Chap. IX. Lowly, and riding upon an ass, Even upon a colt the foal of an ass. xxxiii. 15 ; Mai. iv. 2. With respect to S'i'J , or, as it is pointed in some copies, sv'-,:, of which Kimchi approves, on the ground of its being the preterite con verted into the future by the i conversive, most modern commentators construe it as strictly passive in signification, and the more orthodox interpret it with ref erence to Christ's deliverance from the grave,- after his sufferings upon the cross, rendering the passage, " righteous and saved." But to such construction it must be objected, first, that the passive signification does not suit the connection. If the people had been the nominative to the verb, this signification would have been admissible ; but it is the king who is here described, and to speak of him as saved or delivered without any reference to previous danger or suffering, would be most inappropriate. There is, therefore, a real exigentia loci : the context imper atively requires the verb to be understood in an active sense. Secondly, though the usual signification of Niphal is passive, yet there are numerous instances in which verbs of that conjugation have a reflexive signification, which represent the agent as showing himself possessed of the qual ity of the action, or in which the signifi cation is purely active, especially verbs, which are not used in Kal. Thus nns:, to show one's self glorious ; y^bs , to show one's self obstinate, to murmur, complain ; sap , to prophecy ; r,oaa , to desire great ly ; a"l"3 , to approach ; satis , to swear ; yc'is , to obey, show one's self obedient ; -yti: , to lean, etc. And thus in the present case stihs , showing himself a Saviour, having salvation, saving, a Sa viour. Thirdly, that the verb is so to be interpreted here the combination of the term with p"-ia, righteous, clearly show's ; for it occupies the same position in rela tion to that adjective, which the active jarticiple aa-i, riding, docs to -sy , hwly, in the following clause of the verse. As in the latter case the Messiah's riding upon an ass was a proof or manifestation of his humility, so, in the former, his actually having salvation for others was a manifestation of his possessing that righteousness which was indispensable for the justification of the guilty. See 1 Cor. i. 30; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Phil. iii. 8, 9 ; 1 John ii. 2. As the one feature con trasted with the haughty character of the Grecian conqueror, so the other con trasted with the cruelties that were in flicted by him on the cities which he captured. The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Fourthly, all the ancient versions render the verb actively. LXX. aw{\wv, Targ. p-nS , Syr. j_ooi»S' Vulg. Saloator. That vy , is here to be taken in the sense of meek, hwly, and not in that of poor, or afflicted, the connection sufficiently shows. Thus the LXX. irpavs. Jn proof of the mild and gentle character of the Messiah's reign, he is represented as rid ing upon an ass, which, though not in the East the degraded and despised ani mal which it is with us, being used by princes and other persons of rank, is nevertheless comparatively so as it re gards the horse, and specially contrasts with the war-horse in the following verse. It was proverbially the symbol of peace, so that what the prophet here describes was at once calculated to inspire the mind with the conviction that the King of whom he spake was none other than the Prince of Peace, predicted Is. ix 6. The l in -py Vypi , " and upon a colt," is exegetical of the preceding. Comp. Gen. xlix. 11. nuns, she-usses, does not, as Michaelis would have it, convey the idea of the pedigree of the colt, as one of excellent breed, whose mothers could be traced back through several genera tions, but is merely an idiomatic form, the plural being used for the singular. Comp. tii"S "nn , mountains, of Ara- Chap. IX. ZECHARIAH. 405 10 And I will cut off the chariots from Ephraim, And the horse from Jerusalem ; The battle-how also shall be cut off; And he shall speak peace to the nations ; And his rule shall be from sea to sea, And from the river to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit 11 rat, i. e one of the mountains, etc., Gen. viii. 4 nyV.' jny , cities of Gilead, i. e. one of them, Jud. xii. 7. For the ful filment of the prophecy, see Matt. xxi. 4, and the Commentators on that pas sage. 10. This verse contains a distinct an nouncement of the nature and extent of the Messiah's reign. Instead of leading forth the Jews to battle and conquest, as their Rabbins have long taught them to believe, he was in his providence com pletely to disarm them, and render them incapable of engaging in hostile conflict. How literally this was accomplished their history subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans convincingly shows. The reign of the Messiah was not to be that of a worldly conqueror, like Alexander, nor was it to be confined, as to its boundaries, within the narrow limits of Palestine ; but it was to be that under which the inestimable blessing of peace was preeminently to be enjoyed ; it was to embrace the Gentiles, who had been excluded from the common wea'th of Israel ; and, in point of extent, was to cover a vastly greater portion of terri tory than ever was possessed by the war rior of Macedon. On the circumstance that Ephraim is here mentioned, no valid argument can be built in favor of the hypothesis that this prophecy must have been delivered before the captivity of the ten tribes, since it is evidently the design of the prophet merely to describe the whole land of Canaan, the northern part of which still went by the ancient name, in contradistinction from Judah, which is here designated from Jerusalem, the capital. c^Vti na~ , to speak peace, means to announce the message of the reconciliation effected by the Messiah. From the express inclusion of the c"i.i, nations, among those who were to enjoy the benefits of the spiritual reign of the King of Zion, it is manifest that what ever may have been the originally re stricted sense of ny nnsBJ a :y e»ra yps — CSS , as descriptive of the utmost bounds of the Hebrew kingdom, the words must here be taken in the widest possible extent of meaning, just as in Ps. lxxh. 8, where it is declared in the con nection, that all nations should serve the Messiah. 11. Having been led by his predic tions respecting the expedition of Alex ander in the direction of E^ypt, to exhibit in boldest contrast the character and reign of the Prince of Peace, Zecha riah returns to the subject which he had in hand — the state of the Jewish people in the times succeeding the captivity in Babylon. c.\, also, connects what fol lows with verses 6 — 8. The feminine pronoun ns refers to "]'va— na, or cVtiiin — na , ver. 9. The covenant here called nn'na , thy covenant, means the covenant made with the Hebrews at Sinai, and ratified by the sprinkling of the blood of the victims slain upon the occasion. By that act the nation was consecrated as a peculiar people to Jeho vah, and taken under his special protec tion. The covenant is called theirs, because it had their government and happiness for its object. In virtue of the blood then shed, it is here declared that their covenant God would release such 406 ZECHARIAH. Chap. IX. In which there is no water. 12 Return ye to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope, Even to-day I declare I will render to thee double ; 13 For I have bent Judah for myself, I have filled the bow with Ephraim, And raised up thy sons, 0 Zion ! Against thy sons, 0 Greece ! And made thee as the sword of a hero. of them as were still captives in foreign lands. By ti'npos is meant, not pris oners whom the Jews had taken, but such of their own nation as were in the condition just described. After the death of Alexander many thousands of Jews were in a state of exile in Egypt, and many thousands more in that of actual slavery in Greece and other parts of the East. Their condition is described as that of prisoners confined in dungeons, which were commonly cisterns without water. See Jer. xxxviii. 6 ; Gen. xxxvii. 24. In consequence of the mud which remained in them, they were exceedingly noxious to health, and those consigned to them were considered as subjects of the deepest misery. -nnVi; is not here the proper preterite, as some interpreters construe it, but the prophetic future, which is thrown into the form of the preterite to express the certainty of the event. 12. With the Divine promise of release is connected the duty of the captives to embrace the opportunity afforded .them of returning to their own land, where they should enjoy the protection and favor of the Most High, -p-aa occurs only in this place. It is derived from - a a , to cut off, to prevent the approach of an enemy, to erect an inaccessible fortification; hence the signification of the noun, strong-hold, or fortress. LXX. oxvpwpa. It forcibly contrasts with nha, the pit, in the preceding verse, and for this reason is not to be interpreted of Jerusalem considered as again fortified, but is used figuratively to express the security and prosperity which those should enjoy who returned from captiv ity. Though captives, their condition was not hopeless. They were not to abandon themselves to despair, but to exercise confidence in the promise of God that he would assuredly deliver them, nor were they to wait for the arrival of any distant period when they might return as a body ; even then |Bi;ri tj) they might individually avail themselves of the invitation, and share in the blessings. The abundance of these blessings is expressed by the term nsrn , double, which is elsewhere simi larly employed to convey the idea of full or ample compensation, Is. lxi. 7. There is no foundation for the opinion of Mich aelis, adopted by Blayney, who takes TiK to be a noun having the significa tion of ns» , something precious, and not the participle of Hiphil. 13. The declaration here made, that Jehovah would lead forth the Hebrews to military operations, and crown these operations with success, cannot be recon ciled with the statement made ver. 10, on any other principle but that which refers them to two totally different peri ods of time. The one, as explained above, is predictive of the condition to which the nation was to be reduced after the advent of Messiah, instead of having become, under his reign, as they vainly expected, the conquerors of the world ; the other sets forth the successful wars in which they would engage with the Grecian rulers of Syria under the com mand of the Maccabees. The prophecy is parallel with that of Daniel, chap. xi. 32. For the fulfilment see 1 Mace. i. Chap. IX. ZECHARIAH. 407 14 Aqd Jehovah shall appear on their behalf, And his arrows shall go forth as lightning ; Yea, the Lord Jehovah shall blow the trumpet, And march in the storms of the south. 15 Jehovah of hosts shall protect them, And they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones ; They shall drink, they shall be noisy, as1 those who drink wine; They shall be full as the bowl, As the corners of the altar. 16 And Jehovah their God shall save his people, He shall save them as sheep in that day ; For they shall be as the stones of a crown, Carrying themselves highly over his land. 62, ii. 41—43, iii. 33, etc. By a bold and expressive figure, the Hebrews are represented as the bows and arrows of Jehovah, the military implements which he would employ in resisting and over coming the Grecians under Antiochus Epiphanes. By y~ *sa , the sons of Greece, we are to understand, not the Greeks resident in Ionia or Greece, but those composing the army of the mon arch just mentioned. Grotius remarks, that at the time here referred to, the Jews were accustomed to call the kings both of Syria and Egypt, -p — 5Vm , kings of Greece, because they were of Grecian extraction. 14. Here commences a number of special promises of Divine interposition and protection. Considering what the Jews had experienced from hostile ar mies, it was necessary to disarm their fears by such assurances, that God was on their side. He is represented as ap pearing in the thunderstorm, with the lightnings of which his arrows are com pared, and with the noise of its thunders, the sound of his trumpet, summoning to the attack. For " the storms of the south," see on Is. xxi. 1. 15. After >)Vas , they shall eat, supply •visa , flesh, i. e. of their enemies; and after i ni supply ct , their bhod. This highly figurative language is frequently employed in Scripture to express the de struction of enemies in battle. y~ ina , like wine, is elliptical for y — ^n-i!~h5:a , like those who drink wine. Before *xn , thirty-two MSS., originally four more, three by correction, eight printed edi tions, and the Babbins Nathan, Kimchi, and Abarbanel, supply the conjunctive 1. By yVp ^sas , sliny-stones, the ene mies are meant, as clearly appears from the contrasted form of expression, -;as -n , stones of a crown, descriptive of the Jews, in the following verse. The phrase conveys the idea of feebleness and con tempt. The stones used for slinging are otherwise of no use or value. Carrying forward the idea of blood, reference is made to pn?n, the bowl, which was used to receive that of the sacrifices, and to ri" ¦ T , the corners of the altar, on the horns of which it was sprinkled. Abun dant as was the blood thus shed and sprinkled should be that of the enemies of the Hebrews. 16. For "tey ",saa , as sheep, his peo ple, comp. ^>sy -|saa . The words are neither in construction, nor in apposition, but are to be separated, so as to connect Vsy with yp-i'-n , understood as repeated from the beginning of the verse. By -T: — sas, crown stones, are meant the precious stones or gems which were set in crowns, and were of great value. The elevation of these, and consequently of the crown which contained them, was 408 ZECHARIAH, Chap. X. 17 For how great is his goodness ! and how great his beauty ! Corn shall cause the young men to thrive, And new wine the maids. strongly indicative of victory. For 80: in the acceptation of being high, comp. the Arab. ^^, elevavit rem; in the viii. Conj. elatus fuit; i\n \. elevatus thronus. 17. The affix in iasts and i-E^ is most naturally to be associated with that in hnK-is at the close of the preceding verse, and referred to Jehovah. The meaning is, the goodness and beauty which he bestows. Compare Jer. xxxi. 12 ; Ps. xxv. 7. aaps1 > though occur ring in the latter half, is common to both parts of the sentence. Piel has here the causative power of Hiphil. The root is ass , to sprout, germinate, grow up. The prophet refers to the plenty which there should be in the land after the destruc tion of the enemy. The drinking of must by young females is peculiar to this passage; but its being here expressly sanctioned by Divine authority, furn ishes an unanswerable argument against those who would interdict all use of the fruit of the vine. ¦i'in',;n , new wine or must, so called from •in-' , to take posses sion of, because when taken to excess, it gains the mastery over the person who indulges in it. CHAPTER X. This chapter continues the subject with which the preceding concluded. The Hebrews are exhorted to apply to Jehovah for the constant supply of temporal blessings, 1, and are warned against an imitation of the conduct of their forefathers, who had recourse to false oracles, on account of which they and their rulers had been carried into captivity, 2, 3 Promises are then made of government by rulers of their own nation, and the vic torious operations of their armies, 4, 5 ; the complete re-establishment of the theocracy, 6. 7; the restoration of such of the nation as still remained in foreign countries, espec ially in the East, and in Egypt, 8—11; and the chapter concludes with an assurance of the security and happiness which they should enjoy under the divine protection, 12. Ask ye from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain : Jehovah maketh the lightnings, And giveth them the heavy rain, To every one grass in the field. Surely the household gods spake vanity, 1. This verse stands in the closest tifid rain. Comp. Job xxxvii. 6, where connection -with the preceding. t^'PTn, the same words occur, only their order lightnings, the precursors of rain. *uip , is inverted. c--\- , lit. rain of heavy rain, i. t. plen- 2. C'Einr , the teraphim, or house- Chap. X. ZECHARIAH. 40 t° Hve in comfort, and considers it as signifying the indicators or givers of pleasure or happiness ; Lee to the Eth. rp'/2Y' t reliquus, superfuit, and thinks relics are meant. They appear to have had the form of the human body, and to have been consulted as oracles. See on Hos. iii. 4. The preterites and futures, which are intermixed, are all to be taken in the strictly past time, reference being had to the evils which had prevailed among the Jews, on account of which they had been carried away to Babylon, and against any further indulgence in which they are here warned. They were exposed afresh to the influence of idola trous practices by their intercourse with the Syro-Grecian and Egyptian troops, which repeatedly traversed the land. Antiochus Epiphanes actually set up a heathen idol in the temple at Jerusalem, and ordered temples and altars to be erected in the different cities throughout the country. 3. The verb ip3 is here used both in a good and a bad sense ; followed by the preposition bv , it signifies to visit for evil, to punish ; governing the accusative, to visit with good. The 1 in bs_ ¦ is prop- 52 erly the i conversive, so that -i» pss is to be rendered in the preterite, to agree with nnn . By "he-goats" are meant the chiefs or leaders of the nation. !]:;¦- all the versions render, as if it had been i,lSf , in the preterite, which the con nection requires. The " shepherds" and " he-goats" are used synonymously of the civil rulers. In the middle of this verse is a sudden transition from the calami tous condition to which the Jews had been reduced as a punishment for their sins, to that of prosperity and military prowess to which they were raised in the time of the Maccabees. In the preceding chapter they had been set forth under the images of the bows and arrows ; here they are represented under that of the battle-horse. The horse selected by the commander of an army on which to ride at its head, was stately and richly capar isoned. The a in er,ca_ is the Caph ver- itatis. 4. 5 3teM thrice repeated, possesses much emphasis. The nominative is sur,; in the preceding verse. • The Hebrews were not now to be subject to governors of foreign extraction or appointment, but were to be independent, enjoying the ben efits of a native rule. By nss , corner stone, is meant the prince or governor, on whom the political edifice may be said metaphorically to rest. The word is derived from n:S , to turn, and primarily 4iO ZECHARIAH. Chap. X. From him shall go forth each and every ruler. 5 And as heroes shall they trample the enemy In the mud of the streets in battle ; They shall fight, for Jehovah is with them, And put to shame the riders on horses. 6 I will strengthen the house of Judah, And deliver the house of Joseph, And will, settle them, because I have pitied them; And they shall be as if I had not cast them off; For I Jehovah am their God, and will answer them. Y And Ephraim shall be as a hero, And their heart shall rejoice, as those who drink wine ; Their sons shall see it and be glad ; Their heart shall exult in Jehovah. 8 I will whistle for them and gather them, signifies a turning-point, angle or corner of a building'. With us a nail would be an insignificant image, but nnp , the Ori ental nail, is a large peg in the inside of a room, wrought into the wall when the house is built, and on which is hung all kinds of household stuff, together with the different implements of war. See on Is. xxii. 23. One of these, the bow, is mentioned immediately after, and stands for the whole, luais is used here simply in the sense of ruler. Compare the Eth. 5. Supply c"a-.s, enemies, as the ob ject to C"Sia, trampling, and compare Is. xiv. 25, lxiii. 6. Q"&ao 'aah refer to the numerous cavalry which composed the chief strength' of the Syro- Grecian army (see 1 Mace. iii. 39), but which were put to the route by a mere handful of Jews. 6. " The house of Joseph" stands for the ten tribes, in contradistinction to those of Judah and Benjamin, to which is given the name of " Judah" as the more important of the two. It is clear from the reference thus made, that part, if not most of all the tribes, returned and took possession of their patrimonial lands after the captivity. Q-n-ai'-n is a mixed form, supposed by Kimchi, Abarbanel, and some others, to have been artificially compounded of Q\naig;n, the Hiphil of a?ii, to return, and ff>na',c-,n , the Hiphil of atp , to sit or dwell, in order to express in one word both verbs as used by Jeremiah, nin nhpten-^s*n*nir:anp, ntaaV dina-in-, , chap, xxxii. 37 ; but it is far more probable that the word is a corruption of Qinajj'ln , introduced through inadvertence by some transcri ber. Such is, indeed, the reading of many MSS. and of four printed editions, and is supported by the LXX. Karomew. The reading Q-ha'sn , has the support of the Syr., Vulg., and Targ., but is less suitable to the connection. 7. As the state of things here described was brought about by the heroic conduct of Ephraim, it is obvious the return from the captivity cannot be intended, for the Hebrews were altogether passive on that occasion. The reason why special men tion is here made of the ten tribes may be their longer rejection by the Lord, and the exiled state in which many of them still were in the days of the prophet. Q'nES , as a collective noun, is the nom inative to n-ni . For -p-_— isa see on chap. ix. 15. 8 . An express promise of the restora tion, settlement, and increase of the ten CllAP. X. ZECHARIAH. 411 For I have redeemed them, And they shall increase, as they did increase. 9 Though I have scattered them among the nations, Yet they shall remember mo in the distant regions, And shall live with their children and return. 10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, And gather them from Assyria ; And I will bring them to the land of Bashan and Lebanon, And room shall not be found for them. 11 And he shall pass over the sea, He shall cleave and smite the waves of the sea, And all the deeps of the river shall dry up ; The pride of Assyria shall be brought down, And the sceptre of Egypt shall depart. tribes, many of whom 'were still at that time in a state of exile. They were to be brought back to Palestine, and placed in a condition in which they should be able to act valiantly in defence of their country. The verb piv signifies to whis tle, or give a shrill sound, as those who keep bees do, who, by means of a whis tle, or pipe, call them out from and back to their hives. See on Is. v. 2G. Jose phus informs us, that two hundred years after the time here referred to, Galilee was peopled to an amazing extent, stud ded with cities, towns, and villages ; and adds, that the villages were not what were usually called by that name, but contained, some of them, fifteen thou sand inhabitants. Jewish Wars, book iii. ch. iii. § 2. 9. The first two Vaus are employed antithetically, the former having the sig nification of though or indeed; the lat ter, that of but or yet. ynt cannot here mean saved, as Hengstenberg contends, but must be rendered scattered, which the verb primarily signifies, and the con nection here requires. The last clause of the verse indicates the settled enjoyment of chartered privileges as before the dis persion, when the Hebrews should return to their own land. 10. We have no historical account of any specific removal of any belonging to the ten tribes into Egypt, but it cannot he doubted that, as in the case of the Jews in the time of Jeremiah, many of them betook themselves to that country for refuge on the invasion of Tiglath- pileser; and when Ptolemy attempted to seize the whole of Syria, and carried away 100,000 captives, whom he settled in Alexandria and Cyrene, vast numbers of them must have consisted of the descendants of those Israelites who had returned from the Eastern captivity. Those who had remained in the East were also to return. Comp. Is. xi. 11. saii? has here the signification of there being sufficient or enouyh, as in Kal, Numb. xi. 22 ; Jud. xxi. 14. C'lpB , room, or place, is understood. So great should be the number of inhabitants, that the territory, however ample and fertile, would not be able to furnish them with the necessary supplies. 11. There is here an allusion to the original deliverance of the Hebrew peo ple at the Red Sea. Comp. Is. xi. 15. The Divine interposition in behalf of those who were still in Egypt is not ex pressly compared with what then took place, but such comparison is implied. nna has been variously rendered. The .ID 5, LXX. o-Tevrj, Vulg. freto, Syr. jj.^oj. angustia, Calvin, affiictio, Hengstenberg, 112 ZECH A R I A II , Chap. XI. 12 And I will strengthen them through Jehovah, And they shall walk up and down in his name, Saith Jehovah. tlie distress, Blayney, Tyre, Hitzig, Zara, by which he understands the Nile. The difficulty is at once removed by taking n- a as a verb, with the Aramaic signifi cation of sna , 1 5 , cut, cleave, divide. O Comp. the Arab. ,4^0, resecuit, ampu tavit. In which ease three verbs, having Jehovah understood as their nominative, will follow in regular order: Q»a nayi n*1'^ d'3 nani nna. And he shall pass over the sea ; he shall cleave and smite the waves of the sea. The last words are literally, he shall smite the sea into waves ; or, as to the sea, he will smite its loaves. Comp. Exod. xiv. 16, 21 ; Is. xi. 15, 16. That by " the river," the Nile, and not the Euphrates, is meant, the use of the Egyptian word n^s? places beyond dispute. See on Is. xix." 6. With respect to n vz-s , Ashur, it may justly be queried whether the Syro-Greek kingdom be not intended — that kingdom occupying not only the territory which belonged to ancient As syria, but extending still further towards the east. The pride of that power, as well as the Egypto- Greek sceptre, was to be swept away. 12. The phrase, a'ia ^V-nn , to walk in the name of a deity, is a Hebrew mode of speech, descriptive of a course of action pursued in accordance with his character and will. Comp. Micah iv. 5. CHAPTER XI. It is obvious, from the nature of the predictions contained in this and the following chap ters, that they must have been delivered at a time subsequent to the erection of the tem ple. As they are exclusively occupied with denunciations of evil against the Jews, with. the exception of interjected prophecies of the Messiah, and one relative to tlie final deliv erance of the covenant people, they must have dispirited rather than encouraged those who were engaged in building the sacred edifice. It may be said, indeed, that there were many carnal and secure persons among the Jews, who required to be warned, and that the following denunciations were designed for their benefit; but, as the predictions do not re*late to the times-in which those persons lived, it is not conceivable how they could have so appropriated them as to derive effectual advantage from them. Besides, they contain no instances of direct address, or personal application of the truths delivered, such as we find in the other prophets when addressing themselves to their contemporaries for their immediate benefit. It may, therefore, be concluded, that they were communi cated by Zechariah on some occasion or occasions of which we have no knowledge. The scenes here depicted lay in the more distant future. In the present chapter the prophet furnishes a bold figurative description of the destruction of the temple by the Romans, and the utter consternation into which the priests and rulers of the people should thereby be thrown, 1 — 3. He then describes certain symbolical actions performed by him in vision, by which he personated the Messiah who had been promised as the Shepherd of his peo ple, setting forth his commission to teach and rule them, 4; their deplorable condition in consequence of the rapacious disposition of their lead-ers, 5; and the judgments that should overtake them in consequence of their wickedness, 6. Under the emblems of two staves the relation of the whole nation to God, as their protector, and the relation of the different tribes among themselves are exhibited, and the cessation of these relations is pointed out by the act of breaking the staves, 7—14. The three last verses set forth the character of Herod, and the judgment of God upon him for his wickedness. ClIAP. XI. ZECHARIAH. 413 Open, 0 Lebanon ! thy gates, That the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, ye cypresses ! for the cedars have fallen, Because the magnificent are destroyed : Howl, ye oaks of Bashan ! for the fortified forest hath down. There is the sound of the howling of the shepherds, Because their magnificence is destroyed ; There is the sound of the roaring of young lions, Because the pride of Jordan is destroyed. come 1. Some interpret this verse literally of the locality so called ; others under stand it figuratively, but apply it either to Jerusalem, or to the whole land of Palestine. The construction which most commends itself is that which applies it to the temple restrictively. Such is the ancient rabbinical interpretation. To the same effect is the remarkable declaration of Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai ; " O sanctuary, sanctuary ! why dost^thou trouble thyself? I know of thee that thine end-is to be left desolate, for Zech ariah, the son of Iddo, has prophesied against thee long ago. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars." Talmud, Bab. Yoma. fol. 39, col. 2. This interpretation seems to be referred to by Josephus, in his Jewish Wars, hk. vi. ch. v. § 3. The temple might with all propriety be figuratively called Lebanon, not only because the cedars with which it was built were brought from that mountain, but be cause as Lebanon was the most stately and magnificent of all in the vicinity of Palestine, so the temple was the most glorious of all objects in or about Jeru salem. Its gates were kept carefully shut against all who had no right to thread its courts. Now it was to become a prey to the flames. Tlie prediction received its literal fulfilment in spite of the utmost solicitude of the Roman general to pre serve the edifice. In vain did he attempt to save it from the flames, so that in a ..¦iort time it was entirely consumed. 2. sima , the cypress, was greatly in ferior to the cedar, but was employed for the floor and ceilings of the temple. "The oaks of Bashan" were also used for purposes of building. These terms, however, are likewise to be interpreted figuratively of the priests and rulers of the temple, its superior and inferior offi cers, together with the judges of the people, n^-s is used both of animate and inanimate objects. It is here em ployed to denote those who were elevated in dignity and magnificent in apparel. Comp. -,ssn mpns. By nr.aan ij;, the fortified or inaccessible forest, is meant Jerusalem, the houses of which were nu merous and close together as the trees of ¦ the forest, and round which the Jews had thrown up a wall of great strength. Comp. Micah iii. 12. For niiaa , many MSS., and two early editions, read n'aa , which is only another form to express the same thing. 3. The Jewish rulers are called "shep herds," with reference to their office, and " young lions," in regard to their fierce and rapacious disposition. The n~ ?s , was the magnificence of the temple of which they boasted. Comp. Mark xiii. 1 ; Luke xxi. 5. "-prn -p.S5 , the pride of Jordan, i. e. the thickets which orna ment its banks, and furnish excellent lairs for lions, has the same figurative reference, and is selected to correspond to the young lions immediately preceding. Comp. Jer. xii. 5, xlix. 19. The leaders of the Jews are represented as indulging in loud waitings of despair, on account of the destruction of their temple and polity. 414 ZE C HA RI A II. Chap. XI. 4 Thus saith Jehovah my God, Feed the sheep of slaughter ; 5 Whose possessors kill them, and are not held guilty ; And each of those who sell them saith, Blessed be Jehovah, I am enriched ; And none of whose shepherds spareth them. 4, 5. The prophet now proceeds to point out the cause of the destruction which he had figuratively described, and that of the people which was connected with it — the obstinate refusal of their rulers to receive the doctrine of the Mes siah. By nipnn isa , the sheep of slaughter, are meant the people devoted to destruction. Comp. nnau "sa, Ps. xliv. 23. At the fall. of Jerusalem not fewer than 1,100,000 Jews perished, and near a million and a half altogether in the course of the war. It has been questioned, who is the person directed in this verse to assume the office of a shepherd, and who declares, ver. 7, that lie performed the duties of that office? Frischmuth, Marckius, Michaelis, and others, are of opinion that it is the Mes siah, and, unquestionably, if ultimate reference be had to him, this is the true interpretation ; but it is equally clear that the prophet is to be regarded as having received the commission, and performed, in vision, what was enjoined upon him. What proves this, is the putting into the hands of the same per son the instruments of a foolish shep herd, ver. 15, an action which can with no propriety be referred to the Messiah. On this principle, most of the difficulties connected with the exegesis of the inter vening verses vanish. Zechariah had all the transactions presented to his view in prophetic vision, but what he describes was actually done, not in his own per sonal history, or in any outward occur rences between him and the Jews of his time, but in the personal history and office of the Messiah whom he person ated. He did not really feed or teach those who were to be slain, but the Messiah and his apostles did ; and had the Jews believed their message, the awful calamity would have been averted. The hypothesis of a prophetic vision was first advanced by Maimonides, and is ably supported by Hengstenberg, in his Christology, and by Dr. McCaul, in his translation of Kimchi on our prophet. That by the buyers and sellers of the Jewish people, we are not to understand the Romans, but their own unprincipled teachers and rulers, the facts of the case show. The corresponding term enpyn, their shepherds, is merely expletive of what the same persons were officially. The avarice of the Pharisees was exces sive, yet they had the barefaced' hypoc risy to thank God for their ill gotten wealth, and because they were not pun ished, they imagined they might perse vere with impunity. The construction of the plural nouns ¦jri.~s.j5 > "nmajs, and Cn-yn, with the singulars mito and Vlisn;, cannot, with any propriety, be accounted for on the principle advanced by Hengstenberg, that Jehovah himself was the principal actor, and that the wicked rulers were merely his instru ments. 'It is only a more emphatic mode of construction, by which each of th.e Individuals specified in the plural is rep resented as performing the action, see Gen. xxvii. 29 ; Exod. xxxi. 14 ; Prov. iii. 18. The masculine affix pri refers to the people, strictly so taken ; the fem inine -n , to them considered under the idea of the sheep that were to be fed, ¦jsa being of the common gender. There is, therefore, no ground for correcting the text by changing enpyn into ¦)-*"!> n, the reading of fifteen MSS. and some printed editions. Chap. XI. -ZECHARIAH. 415 6 For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah, But behold ! I will deliver the men, Each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; And they shall destroy the land, And I will not deliver them out of their hand. 1 And I fed the sheep of slaughter, truly miserable sheep ! 6. The particle ^a ,for, connects what follows with the command, ver. 4. The Jews were no longer to have Divine pity extended to them, but were to be aban doned to all the evils of civil discord, and to the oppressions of a foreign rule. That the king here referred to was the Roman emperor, is obvious from the acknowl edgment of the Jews themselves : " We have no king but Caesar." John xix. 15. The verb nna , to beat, or dash in pieces, is' most appropriately chosen to express the destructive measures adopted by the Romans, by which the Jewish polity was broken up. The nominative is the troops of the foreign ruler that had just been spoken of. 7. The prophet declares, in the name of the Messiah, that he executed the task committed to him. This was ful filled during the personal ministry of our Lord, "san ¦'»:» ".ap^ have been variously rendered. LXX. els rty > ... D O 7 Xavaavinv Syr. 'V^LLo jAli^Le. D O .0 t, 1 y\q 1.1a. the little ones on account of the collection of the sheep. Vulg. propter hoc 6 paupere egregis. Leo Juda, adeoque pauperes gregis. Tremellius and Junius, vos inquam, 6 pauperes gregis. Schmid, J. H. Michaelis, Newcome, Hit zig, and others, propter vos, o miseri gre gis. Maurer, pavi igitur miserrimus ovi um. Arnheim, fitrroabr bie e(enbe3* ten ber £eerbe. Ewald, roirfitch bie intgiucflicbgtett ©chafe. The only real difficulty lies in the word yzb . The LXX. have read it, and the following word, as one, thus, i-syss^ , and made Canaanite of it. This rendering is adopted by Blayney, only he attaches to the term the idea of merchant, which it sometimes has [among those who traf- fic/ced with the flock), and explains it of the buyers and sellers of the flock, de scribed ver. 5. The interpretation is so far specious, and is approved by Jahn, but cannot be philologically sustained. Some take "\sb for the infinitive in Hi- phal of 'na , which furnishes no tolerable sense ; others, for the dative of the sec ond personal feminine pronoun, suppos ing the Segol to have been changed into a Tzere, but this is liable to the same objection. Most regard it as the particle "iV , and construe it either with its cau sal, or its adversative signification ; but neither do any of the interpretations thus brought out satisfactorily meet the exi gencies of the case I cannot help think ing that the b is here redundant, as it is in many instances, and that we must construe "|a , as in ver. 1 1 , where it occurs without the b • The term is properly a participial noun, derived from "!p, in the sense of the Arab. ,.,«5^ esse, and implies realitg, certainty, or the like, but admits of being variously ren dered, according to the context in which it is found. See Lee's Heb. Lex. in voc. And thus it is understood by Kimchi, Jarchi, Castalio, De Dieu, Drusius, Storr, Dathe, Arnheim, De "Wette, and Ewald. Even were the V retained, the same result would be brought out, the rendering in this case being, with respect to truth, i. e. truly ; just as in na:V , with respect to perpetuity, i. c. forever. The words ¦)ssn. "»ss are the superlative of con- 416 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XI. And I took to myself two crooks ; the one I called Grace, and 8 the other I called Bands, and I fed the sheep. And I cut off the three shepherds within one month; and my soul loathed 9 them, and their soul also rejected me. So that I said : I will not feed you ; That which is dying, let it die ; And that which is being cut off, let it be cut off; And as for the rest, let them eat each the flesh of another. struction, as in C'ij -Sn , the most wicked of nations, Ezek. vii. 24 ; n nan T'ihna , the choicest of his cypresses, Jer. xxxvii. 7 ; or, what is quite parallel with the present case, ^san ^npsa , ren dered in our common version, the least of the flock. The article is as usual to be referred to the former of the two nouns, and both might be rendered, the most miserable of sheep, or the most mis erable sheep. Such was the state to which the Jewish people were reduced in the days of our Lord. They were iaiivXpevoi Kal ippipevoi, wael irp6fiara p-h, exovra iroipeva. Matt. ix. 36. They were worried and harassed in every possible way, irp60ara arroXwxSra, Matt. x. 6. The two staves were symbolical of the different modes of treatment which the Hebrews had experienced under the guidance and protection of the provi dence of God. One of them was called csj, Grace, or Favor, to indicate the kindness of Jehovah to them in restrain ing the surrounding nations from over powering them, and carrying them again into captivity. See ver. 10. To the other was given the namerof 6"^ah, which Drusius, Marckius, the Dutch translators, and others, render Binders, but better, Bands, expressing the ties which unite parties together. The LXX., Aq., Symm., axolviapa ; \n\g. funiculi ; Maurer, conjuncti, fwderati. Reference is had to the fraternal confederacy into which the Jews and Israelites had en tered with each other after the return from Babylon. See ver. 14. The last clause of the verse is a repetition of the fust, for the sake of emphasis. 8. Who " the three shepherds" here definitely pointed out were, cannot be determined with certainty. All kinds of interpretations have been given, from Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, suggested to Jerome, by his Hebrew Rabbi, to the Roman emperors Galbus, Otho, and Vi- tellius, in Calmet. The only construc tion which is at all entitled to any notice, is that which regards the language as descriptive of the three orders of rulers in the Jewish state — the priests, the teachers of the law, and the civil magis trates. These were the persons of influ ence by whom the affairs of the nation were conducted, and to whose wicked ness, which reached its culminating point when they crucified the Lord of Glory, the destruction of the state is to be ascribed, ins nnp. , one month, doubt less refers to the last period of the siege of Jerusalem, when everything was thrown into confusion, and all authority came to an end. in: , (o hide, conceal; in Hiphil, as here, a the punctuation of the plural. *Vi s , foolish, by implication wicked, as wickedness is often represented in Scripture as folly. 16. C"BB is employed here, like simi lar verbs in Hiphil, to denote not any direct moral excitement to action, but the operation of concurring circumstan ces, under the Divine government, in consequence of which certain events are brought about by responsible human agency, n'linasn , those that are per ishing, the Niphal participle . of -iria , 420 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XI. But he will eat the flesh of the fat, And will break off their hoofs. 1 7 Woe to the worthless shepherd, that leaveth the flock ; The sword shall be upon his arm, And upon his right eye ; His arm shall be utterly palsied, And his right eye utterly darkened. which in Hiphal and Niphal signifies to cut off or be destroyed, nya is not to be taken in the sense of young, as it is interpreted by Kimchi and Hitzig, since it is never so used, except with reference to human beings, but signifies expulsion, that which has been cast out, by impli cation, strayed, wandered. Comp. the Arabic »L*j, repulsus, infugam versus. naa an , that which standeth still, aaa properly signifies to set or place, in Ni phal, to stand, stand firm, be strong, firm, sound ; and thus the LXX. here dXoKXn- pov, but this interpretation is quite at variance with the exigency of the place, which requires the idea of weakness rather than strength to be expressed. And this the verb naturally suggests, reference being had to the standing, or standing still of sheep that are obliged, through weakness or faintness, to lag behind. Comp. the Arabic . , .n \ ; posuit, fixit, and then dolore affecit, las- sus fuit, laboravit. Such it devolves upon the shepherd to provide with nec essary nourishment, or, as it is here ex pressed, VaVa , to sustain, furnish with provisions. Root V^a, to measure grain. The words pn2i ^npo-S are expres sive of the greatest cruelty, being de scriptive of an act which must not only occasion the most acute pain, but disable the animals, and prevent their going about in quest of pasture. Who the ruler here depicted is, cannot with certainty be determined. If taken as pointing to an individual king, there is none to whom it will more aptly apply than to Herod, who was totally regard less of the real interest of the Jews, and whose reign was marked by the perpe tration of the most shameful and barba rous cruelties. What goes to confirm this view is the circumstance of his being said to be raised up " in the land." 17. This denunciation seems to be di rected against the wicked rulers of the Jews who might be in office between the time of the prophet, and that of the dis solution of the Jewish state, rather than against the person referred to in the pre ceding verse. The i in *y h is not the pronominal affix, but the poetic para- gogic, as in the following "STs, and other participles. See Gen. xlix. 11 ; Deut. xxxiii. 16; Ps. cxiv. 8, cxxiii. 1. V*^sn "y~, the -ivorthless or good-for- nothing shepherd. Comp. Job xiii. 4. The root must unquestionably have been VVs . Comp. Vsa from VVs ; a^ao from aaja . The character described is that of negligence, arising from the total absence of a sense of official claims, and of personal responsibility. The rest of the verse from anrj. onward, is to he taken optatively. The doom imprecated is truly awful — an utter deprivation of power and intelligence. Chap. XII. ZE CHAR I AH, 421 CHAPTER XII. This chapter contains a series of predictions, which relate to the future restoration of the scattered people of the Jews, the destruction of whose national polity, and their conse quent wretchedness, had been so graphically set forth in that which precedes it. On their return to their owu land, Jerusalem shall prove formidable to the nations that oppose them, 2 — I, having a regular government, by which, in reliance upon Jehovah, the inhab itants shall be protected, 5, 6. To prevent the inhabitants of the metropolis from glory ing over their brethren in the country, the latter shall be first delivered from their inva ders, 7 ; but Jerusalem being the principal point of attack, special promises of deliverance are made to it, 8, 9. When the Jews shall have been collected, and delivered from the opposing powers, there will bo a remarkable effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit. in consequence of which a 6eason of great and universal mourning, on account of the crucifixion of the Messiah, will be observed, each family bewailing separately the guilt entailed upon it by the nefarious deed. 10—14. As might he expected to be the case with unfulfilled prophecy, a considerable degree of obscurity necessarily attaches to certain portions of this and the two following chapters; but the leading features of the Divine dealings with the Jews in times yet future, are marked with a sufficient degree of distinctness to enable us to form a general idea of the circumstances in which they will be placed. The Sentence of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel ; Saith Jehovah, who streteheth forth the heavens, Who layeth the foundations of the earth, And formeth the spirit of man within him : Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of intoxication To all the people around ; 1. That sten does not necessarily involve a sentence of judgment, see on Is. xiii. 1 ; and for the entire phrase, nin^ nan san , see on chap. ix. 1. That it cannot be so taken here is manifest from the connection. Hengstenberg, in order to establish the contrary hypothe sis, is obliged to have recourse to the des perate resort of interpreting Israel of the enemies of God ! The term is obviously employed in its original acceptation, as designating the whole Hebrew people. With no other reference could it have been introduced. To remove all the doubts which unbelief might suggest respecting the possibility of the deliver ance here predicted, a sublime descrip tion is given of the omnipotent Creator by whom it would be effected, than which no introduction could have been more appropriate. For a -is- np. n ns.'i, compare riaT7?p tw*/ irvevpdrwv, Heb. xii. 9, and Numb. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16 ; and for the several predicates, Is. xiii. 5. 2. Vyn C|8 , some render a shaking threshold, in imitation of the LXX. ws irp6&vpa aaXevopeva, and interpret the declaration here made of the concussion which Jerusalem should receive from the attack of the enemy ; but it is more nat ural to regard the phrase as only another form for ni;nm 6'a, Is. li. 17, 22, by which is meant a cup filled with intoxi cating liquors, causing those who drink it to reel and stagger to their injury. Root bsi , to shake, reel, stagger. The attempt of Hengstenberg to deny that SO is ever used to denote a cup, is a com- 422 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XII. And also with Judah it shall be thus, In the siege of Jerusalem. 3 And it shall be in that day, I will make Jerusalem A burdensome stone to all people, All that lift it shall be cut in pieces : Yet all the nations of the earth shall be gathered against it. 4 In that day, saith Jehovah, I will smite every horse with consternation, And his rider with madness ; But upon the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, Wliile I will smite every horse of the people with blindness. 5 And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart, My strength is the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Through Jehovah of hosts their God. plete failure, as must be obvious to any one who will take the trouble to consult the Concordance. The second part of the verse has occasioned no small per plexity to interpreters. The chief diffi culty is created by the position of the preposition is nnsin— i». The Tar; the phrase cap B., Jerome, Kim chi, Drusius, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Mau rer, and Ewald, suppose the meaning to be, that the inhabitants of Judah would be compelled to join the enemies in the attack upon Jerusalem, and with them share in the punishment : making Vyn- qa the nominative to nnr . But this interpretation ill suits the context, in the whole of which Judah is repre sented as triumphant, and not as placed in the degrading position of auxiliaries in a war against its own capital. I con sider the preposition to be here used for the purpose of conveying the idea of addition or accompaniment, so that, con necting Judah with Jerusalem, it repre sents the former, as well as the latter, as a cup of intoxication to the invaders. See for this use of V? . Gen. xxxii. 12 ; Exod. xxxv. 22 ; Job xxxviii. 32. In support of this interpretation, see espec ially ver. 6. Th3 same result will be brought out, if we take bs_ in the accep tation in reference to, with respect to; thus : " And with respect to Judah it shall also be in the siege ;" i. e. Judah shall also be a cup, etc. 3. Another metaphor employed like the preceding to represent the victory which the Jews shall obtain over their enemies, whose attack will only issue in their own injury. Jerome mentions it as a custom, which still obtained in his time, in Palestine, for young men to try their strength by lifting enormous stones so high from the ground, as to place them upon their heads. It may be from such an exercise that the metaphor is borrowed, uniu describes the cuts or gashes made by the sharp edges or cor ners of the stones thus employed. Though exposed to the punishment here predicat ed, the nations shall confidently advance to the attack. The confederacy against the Jews will be universal in its charac ter. 4. While Jehovah will specially inter pose for the discomfiture of the enemy by rendering their cavalry incapable of performing any effective service, he will exercise the greatest watchfulness over his people. 5. nans is a substantive, but occurs only this once. The LXX. have read sans , and render evp-fiaopev. The suc cessful resistance offered to the enemy by Chap. XII. ZECHARIAH. 423 6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah Like a lire pot among sticks of wood, And like a torch of fire in a sheaf, And they shall consume all the people around, On the right hand and on the left ; For Jerusalem shall occupy her place in Jerusalem. 7 And Jehovah shall deliver the tents of Judah first, . In order that the splendor of the house of David, And the splendor of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, May not be magnified above Judah. S In that day Jehovah shall jjrotect the inhabitants of Jerusalem : So that he that stumbleth among them in that day shall be as David, And the house of David shall be as God, As the Angel of Jehovah before them. the inhabitants of the metropolis, will inspire those of the country with the assurance, that, through the Divine aid, they shall obtain deliverance, ^b , which is the Dative of advantage, stands col lectively for ab . Two MSS. and the Targ. read ¦'affl'V, but no doubt from correction. In two other MSS. ^b is omitted. 6. Jerusalem, in the first instance, stands for the inhabitants. After the Jews shall have completely routed their enemies, they shall dwell in peace in their own land, and in the city of their ancient solemnities. Houbigant proposes to change cVc?^. > as occurring the sec ond time, into ciVi-a , but, like most of his other conjectures, the change is not based upon any authority. One MS., the Arab, and the Greek MS. Pachom, omit the word altogether. 7. The inhabitants of the country being more exposed to the evils of the war than those in the fortified city, shall be the first to experience the Divine help. Standing in antithesis with the capital, their comparative helplessness is clearly implied; and the reason for the preference being given to them is assigned to be the prevention of that spirit of pride and self- exaltation, in which the inhabitants of a royal metrop olis are too prone to indulge. The read ing nitsna , "as at the first," which is found in two MSS., and is the original reading of three more, and is favored by the LXX., Arab., Syr., and Vulg., is not entitled to consideration. 8. A gracious promise of Divine assis tance, supported, with admirable effect, by a beautiful climax. From the circum stance, that the LXX. have in several instances rendered c-n';s, by angels, some interpreters have supposed that the term is to be so understood here. The more enlightened moderns, however, dis card this signification altogether. See Gesenius, Thesaurus Ling. Heb. p. 95, and Lee's Heb. Lex. p. 32. What clearly shows that no such idea can attach to the word in this place is the corrective phrase, n'"in? ¦qsVtta , as the Angel of Jehovah, immediately follow ing. The house of David was to be as God, yet not as God in the abstract, of which no proper conception can be form ed, but as God manifested to men in his glorious forthcomings under the ancient dispensation; in the Divine Person of the Son, who went before the children of Israel as their Almighty leader and Pro tector, and to whom are vindicated the 424 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XI!, 9 And it shall be in that day, I will seek to destroy all the nations That come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour out upon the house of David, And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and of gracious supplications, And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced, sum total of the Divine attributes. See Exod. xxxii. 34 ; where the words -asV;; ""("¦eV p|Vp form the type of nin* TjsVn Cnp:E'-> , here adopted by Zechariah. Compare also Exod. xxxiii. 15, xxiii. 21; Is. lxiii. 9 ; Mai. iii. 1 ; and my Comment, on Zech. i. 1 1 . 9. ^'•z-r.b 'i'pas , I will seek to de stroy, is spoken more humano, but con veys no idea of weakness in the speaker. " Summo studio ero attentus. Calvin. 10. We have here a clear and definite prophecy of the future conversion of the Jews, in consequence of a special and extraordinary outpouring of the influ ences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing that has hitherto taken place in the history of that people can be regarded as in any degree answering to the description here furnished, not even the numerous con versions that accompanied the Apostolic preaching on the day of Pentecost, and subsequently as narrated in the Acts. By nm , spirit, is not meant a gracious and prayerful disposition produced in the minds of the Jews, but the Divine influence itself by which that disposition will be created. It is called " spirit" by metonomy of cause for effect, y and D"3"3nn are from the same root, y_ti , to regard with favor, exercise mercy, etc. The verb na: , here used in Hiphil, is intensive in signification : to look to, or regard with fixed attention, to contem plate with deep interest, and with believ ing expectation. Such is the nature of that act of the mind which is exerted by every converted sinner, when the Sa viour is spiritually discerned. In the case of the Jews there will be a special recognition of him as the Messiah whom their ancestors crucified, and whose deed they have appropriated by their personal unbelief and opposition to the truth of the Gospel, but whom they will then regard as all their salvation and all their desire. The textual reading "Vs , in the phrase "Vs a-an, "they shall look to Me," has been the subject of much con troversy. It is found in most MSS., and among these the best, and is sup ported by the LXX., Aq., Symm., Theod., Syr., Targ., Vulg., and Arab. It is the more difficult reading, and one which has always proved revolting to the mind of a Jew, as there is no other ante cedent to whom it can be referred than nin*, Jehovah, verses 1 and 4. In order to avoid this reference, Kimchi gives to the following words, its ns *np "i, the interpretation, because they pierced, leaving it undetermined who was pierced. But this construction is altogether inadmissible, as it deprives the verb of its accusative case, which is expressed in every other instance in which it occurs. It has accordingly been condemned by Abenezra, Abarbanel, Alschech, and other Rabbins. The ren dering given to np_*i by the LXX. Karwp- XwavTo, they insulted, has been eagerly seized upon by some, especially by Thei ner, Rosenmiiller, Eiehhorn, Gesenius, De Wette, Winer, and by none more than Maurer, who is at great pains to prove that, like aps and aa: , the verb -pn is to be taken in the metaphorical sense of blaspheming or cursing. Against such interpretation it is justly objected that this verb, which occurs in ten other passages, is never used except in the lit eral acceptation of piercing the body. It Chap. XII. ZECHARIAH. 425 And they shall lament for him, As one lamenteth for an only son, And be in bitterness for him, As one is in bitterness for a first-born. is thus used in chap. xiii. 3, of this very book. The same objection lies against the metaphorical sense of grieving or provoking, which even Calvin adopted, though he admits that the prophecy was literally fulfilled in Christ. That the passage has a Messianic ref erence has been admitted both by the ancient and the more modern Jews. In the Gemara of Jerusalem, written some time in the third century, we read : "pnn B'bb bv -n-EOn nr ^ks -in "pmcs snn na* Vs i-rEOn nt n»s nsmm . Two opinions are expressed: one states that they mourned on account of Messiah, and another that they mourned on account of corrupt nature. A similar passage occurs in the Gemara of Babylon, Tract Succoth, fol. 52, col. 1, in which the words of Zechariah are cited, after the declaration respecting the mourning : tier" -,a rTitra Vs nrsn ysxh siaVsa snnss . May he be in peace who refers it to Messiah the son of Joseph, who shall be slain. See also the commentaries of Abarbanel and Abenezra, who give the same interpretation, as also does the Tal- kut Chasdash, fol. 24 : -p-i-o 'nns -a sa" wa "nns r,ai" "a f'va sins nsi" n"-n -p rrtsw ir'rn -i-n . For after they have pierced Jonah, who is Messiah the son of Joseph, then David will come, Messiah the son of David. Hengsten berg's Christol. vol. iii. p. 222. The fiction of two Messiahs, one the son of Joseph, who should suffer and die, and another the son of David, who should prove victorious and reign forever, was invented purely with a view to reconcile those passages which describe the Mes siah now as suffering, and now as reign ing in glory, and thus to evade the Chris tian application of them to our Saviour. It only remains to inquire how the Jews, who did not acquiesce in the 54 interpretation adopted by Kimchi, have endeavored to get rid of the pronominal reference in "Vs . To this the reply is ; By changing the reading into i"Vs, which, however, they did not at first venture to insert into the text, hut merely gave it as the Keri, or corrected reading in the margin. This Keri, however, is only found in sixteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. ; but at length a more daring step was taken by receiving it into the text itself, in which it is found in thirty-four of Kennicott's MSS., orig inally in three more, perhaps in five others, and now by correction in six ; in six of De Rossi's own, in two more originally, now in five others, and in twenty collated by him in other libra ries. Of this insertion a serious com plaint is made by Raymundus Martini, in his Pugio Fidei, p. 411, Leipsic, 1687, fol. And so ashamed have Lipmann, Abarbanel, and other Rabbins been of it, that they pass it entirely by in their con troversies with the Christians, or candidly acknowledge that it is not to be regarded as forming any part of the sacred text. It is much to be regretted, that while it has been rejected by the best Jewish and Christian critics, the most free-thinking of the German school not excepted, it should have been adopted by Newcome and Boothroyd, who accordingly trans late : " They shall look unto Him whom they have pierced." It is true, they may seem to have the sanction of the Evangelist John, who quotes the passage thus : "O^iovrai els ov e^eKevrnaav, xix. 37, and employs the words, ko.1 o'lrives abr6v i\eKevTi\aav, Rev. i. 7 ; but it must he obvious that he gives the prophecy historically, as having been literally ful filled in Jesus of Nazareth, without de signing to exhibit the exact wording of the prophet. See on Zech. xi. 12, 13. 426 ZECHARIAH, Chap. XII, 11 In that day there shall be great lamentation in Jerusalem, As the lamentation of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon, 12 And the land shall lament, every family apart ; The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart ; The family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart ; 13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; The family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart ; 14 All the families that are left, Every family apart, and their wives apart. It might be supposed that "Vs being the true reading, "Vs , and not vVs , would be required in the following sentence; but the use of the expletive phrase ns nis , necessarily led to the change of construction. nKn is the infinitive of Hiphil, which carries forward the de scription instead of the finite form. It is here used intransitively ; the root is nnw . The verb nso signifies primarily to beat ; then, as a sign of intense grief, to smite or beat the breast. There being usually great wailing and lamentation connected with such significant action in the East, it is also used to denote the noise made by mourners. The instances selected for illustration are of the most tender and touching kind. 11. To represent the greatness and universality of the lamentation which he describes, the prophet compares it to the greatest ever known among the Jews, viz. that which took place on the death of the excellent king Josiah, the result of the wound which he received at Hadad-rimmon. 2 Kings xxiii. 29 ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 23—25. See also the Lamentations of Jeremiah, composed on the occasion. Hadad-rimmon was the name of a place in the great plain of Esdraelon, near Megiddo, and was prob ably so called after the Syrian idol of that name. In the time of Jerome it was called Maximianopolis. 12 — 14. In these verses the universal character of the mourning is described, while, at the same time, its particular and individual features are likewise set forth. To show that all will be the sub jects of it, the prophet begins with the descendants of David, and then proceeds to those of the priests, on account of the influence which their example would have on the rest of the people. Instead of Shimei, the LXX. have 2vpewv, sup posing that a tribal division was in tended ; and some have thought that yiteS , Shammua, one of the sons of David, 2 Sam. v. 14, is meant ; but it is more natural to regard the individual as one of the sons of Levi, who is classed along with that patriarch, just as Na than, one of the sons of David, is with him, ver. 12. For "s»'i , Shimei, see Numb. iii. 18, 21, in which latter verse "S»sn nnEsn , the family of the Shi meites, occurs just as in Zechariah. It is implied in the. last verse, that some families shall have become extinct at the period referred to. The men and women mourning apart has reference to the Jew ish custom, according to which not only did the females dwell in separate apart ments from the males, but also worship ped separately. Chap. XIII. ZECHARIAH. 427 CHAPTER XIII. This chapter contains a continuation of the prophecy respecting the future conversion of the Jews, ver. 1 ; predictions relating to the entire abolition of idolatry and false doctrine, 2—6; a resumption of tlie subject of the Messiah's sull'erings, 7; and an account of the destruction of the greater part of the Jews during the Roman war, the preservation of the rest, and their ultimate restoration, 8, 9. In that day there shall be a fountain opened To the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, For guilt and for uncleanness. And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the earth ; And they shall not be remembered any more. And I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit To pass away from the earth. 1. This verse is intimately connected with the subject of the concluding verses of the preceding chapter. It is designed to relieve the anxious and troubled minds of the penitents there described, n'^pn , a well, or fountain, from n?.p, to dig; not, perhaps, without reference to chap. xii. 10. nsun , guilt, from sun, to. miss a mark or way, to sin ; hence the substantive comes to signify the guilt contracted by sinning, the punishment to which it exposes the transgressor, and a sin offering, for the purpose of making expiation. That it is here to be taken in the sense of guilt, is shown by the accompanying term nns , uncleanness, or the impurity contracted by sin. That moral, and not ceremonial guilt and pol lution are intended, the circumstances of the case evince; and the Jews are taught, that their deliverance from these is not to be effected by the Levitical sacrifices and purifications, but by the cleansing influence flowing from the death of the Messiah. See Heb. ix. 13, 14 ; 1 John i. 7. The verse exhibits the two grand doctrines of the gospel : justification and sanctification. The fountain here spoken of was opened when the Redeemer presented his sacrifice on the cross ; but the Jews, with compara tively few exceptions, after the apos tolic age, have shut it against them selves by their impenitence and unbelief. When, however, these shall be removed by the outpouring of Divine influence, promised, chap. xii. 10, they shall find it nns: , opened, full, and overflowing with all spiritual blessings. 2. As no idolatry has existed among the Jews since their return from Babylon, and it is in the highest degree improbable that they will ever fall into it again, "psn should not be rendered, as in our common version, the land, but the earth ; so that this and the following verses de scribe the total extinction of that horrible evil, and all the other systems of supersti tion and false religion which now impose upon the human family, together with those who teach and defend them. By ns^an n!in, the spirit of impurity, is meant a person pretending to inspiration, and in league with Satan, the god of this world, to whom, in contradistinction to -'7*71 ri5n, the spirit of holiness, the 428 Z E C II AR I AH. Chap. XIII. So that should any one still prophesy, His father and his mother — his parents Shall say to him, Thou shalt not live ; For thou speakest falsehood in the name of Jehovah ; And his father and his mother — his parents \ Shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall be in that day, That the prophets shall be ashamed, Every one of his vision, when he prophesieth ; And they shall not wear a hairy garment to deceive. But each shall say, I am not a prophet, I am a tiller of the ground ; For I have been in a state of slavery from my youth. Then shall it be said to him, What are these wounds in thy hands ? And he will say, Those with which I have been wounded in the house of my friends, designation may well be applied. Com pare irvevpa irb&aivos, Acts xvi. 16 ; rb irvevpa rrjs irXdvns, 1 John, iv. 6 ; and especially, Kal e« rod aToparos tov yj/evtio- irpotftyrov rrvevpara Tpia aicd^apra, Rev. xvi. 13. 3. There is in this verse a recognition of the law against those who seduced others to idolatry, Deut. xiii. 6 — 11. c"-iV'i, parents. i\^, signifies both to beget, and to bear children. The evil here denounced will not be connived at even by the nearest relatives. The ten- derest parental feelings shall give place to the infliction of merited punishment. 4, 5. The shame with which false teachers shall be covered is here set forth. The hairy mantle, the garb of the ancient prophets, and that of certain orders of monks still, which is assumed in order to inspire the multitude with an impression of the superior sanctity of those by whom they are worn, shall be thrown aside, as dangerous to appear in. The false prophets wished to pass off as those who had really been invested with a Divine commission. The form of the infinitive 'insapn , is according to the analogy of verbs in 'nV . To the singular nasi , at the beginning of ver. 5, each of the prophets previously men tioned is the nominative. "3Dpn , lit. one sold me as a slave, but taken in con nection with the following, -niiya;:, from my youth, it signifies to be held in a state of slavery, to be a slave. The speaker declares that he had always been in a condition of life with which the exercise of the prophetic office was alto gether incompatible. Ens , which some translators have preposterously retained as the proper name, Adam, is here used impersonally, precisely as the German man, and is best rendered into English by the passive of the accompanying verb. 6. This verse is commonly applied to the sufferings of Christ, but without any further ground than its mere proximity to that which follows, in which he and his sufferings are clearly predicted. In no tolerable sense could the Jews be called his C"ansx> , hvers, or friends ; on the contrary, they hated both him and his Father. The words connect with the preceding thus : The false prophet, though he might rid himself of his idol- Chap XIII. Z E C II A R I A II . 4::9 Awake, O sword ! .against my shepherd, And against the man who is united to me, Saith Jehovah of hosts: atrous vestments, would not be able to efface the marks that had been made on his hands in honor of the idol which he served, yet as it was customary to cut and maim the body, especially the hand, in token of grief for departed rel atives, he might hope to escape detection by attributing his scars to the latter cause. 7. Various opinions have been formed respecting the person here referred to. Calvin thought he was Zechariah him self, as representative of all the prophets, and that the prophecy referred only in directly to Christ. Grotius, Eiehhorn, Bauer, and Jahn, apply it to Judas Mac cabeus ; Maurer to Jehoiakim ; Ewald to Pekah ; Hitzig to the pretended prophets spoken of in the preceding verses ! The only satisfactory solution of the question is that which regards the words as di rectly and exclusively prophetic of the person and sufferings of the Messiah. This solution is induced not only by our Saviour's express appropriation of them to himself, Matt. xxvi. 31, but also by the manifest identity of the subject treated with that exhibited chap. xi. 4, 7, 10 — 14. The same subject there handled is resumed, and treated, just as it is there, in connection with the down fall of the Jewish state. The prophecy contained in this and the following verses has no coherence with what immediately precedes, and was evidently delivered upon a different occasion. A new sec tion may, therefore, be considered as commencing here, though it only extends to chap. xiv. 5. The language employed is altogether peculiar. Not only is the Messiah designated the Shepherd of Jehovah, to indicate the relation in which he stood to the Father in the economy of redemption, but he is de scribed as 'in-K?. nas , the man of his vnion ; i. e. conjoined or closely united to him. The term translated man, is not that usually employed in Hebrew, which in such construction would merely be idiomatic, but nas, a strong, or mighty man, one who is such by way of eminence. f-:s is used elsewhere only in the Pentateuch, namely, in Lev. v 21, xviii. 20, xix. 11, 15, 17, xxiv. 19, xxv. 14, 15, 17 ; in all which passages it is employed to denote persons who were united together under common laws, for the enjoyment of common rights and privileges. It is derived from nBS , cognate with crs , to bind, bind together, unite in society ; Aralj. _ , communis fuit, communem fecit rem : hence the derivates h? > a people, i. n. those united for their common inter- terest ; n>as , conjunction, communion, association ; OS , the conjunction with, indicating accompaniment, society. The renderings of the versions vary. LXX. dvtipa iroXirnv pov. Aq. livtipa avpOvXav pov. Symm. &vtipa tov Kaoii pov. .0 7 Theod. Hvtipa irXnaiov pov. Syr. j ¦ «n D . .Kr, ^«. the man my friend. Targ. a-V "B";1? w"npapi ""nan sa-tsVs , the ruler his companion, his associate who is like him. Vulg. virum cohwrentem mihi. Leo Juda, virum coaqualem mihi. Heng stenberg, a man, my nearest relation. Burger, mon confident. De Wette, ben 9J?amt meine3 ©leidhcn, the man my equal. Arnheim, belli inline, ben id) mir jttge^edt, the man whom I have associated with myself. The two last are the more remarkable, coming, as they do, the one from a Rationalist, and the other from a Jew. The idea expres sed by the latter I conceive to be pre cisely what was intended by the Holy Spirit, by whom the words were indited. But of whom can this association be predicated, except of Him whose human 430 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XIH. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, But I will turn back my hand upon the little ones. 8 And it shall be that in all the land, Saith Jehovah, Two parts therein shall be cut off and expire, But the third part shall be left in it. 9 And I will cause the third part to go through the fire, nature was assumed into the most inti mate and perfect union with the Divine — Immanuel, who was one with the Father, and who could say, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father ! The union or association is that of the two natures, and not that of the Divine nature or substance. This the use of the word nas , man, clearly proves. To the objection, that the words cannot be ap plied to our Saviour, since he was not cut off by a sword, it has been sufficiently replied, that ann , sword, is here used figuratively for any means of taking away human life, just as in Exod. v. 21 ; 2 Sam. xii. 9, compared with 2 Sam. xi. 24. That the wicked Jews are intended, see Ps. xvii. 13, where the wicked are called the sword of Jehovah. They are regarded as in a state of sleep or inac tivity, and are summoned to perpetrate the awful deed. According to an idiom common in the Hebrew prophets, the imperative is used instead of the future, in order to express with greater force the certainty of the event. See my note on Is. vi. 10. For a parallel instance of the personification of the sword, see Jer. xlvii. 6, 7. As a-;Jn is feminine, and ^n masculine, Hitzig would refer the latter to the human agent handling the sword, but the irregularity in point of gender is sufficiently accounted for by the remote ness of the antecedent, ^n , smite, is quoted, Matt. xxvi. 31, as if it were ^s, I will smite, the first person singular of the future in Hiphil. There is no diver sity of reading in the Hebrew MSS., but the Aid. and Pachom. MSS. of the LXX. read irard^ov, instead of iraTa^w, which the EvangeUst Matthew and Mark have copied. The difference is unimpor tant, yet there seems to be more propriety in the reading ^n , with reference to the sword addressed in the preceding clause, than in connecting this verb, whatever may be supposed to have been its form, with what follows in the verse. Com paring the present verse with chap. xi. 4, 7, and especially with what is pre dicted in the two following verses of the present chapter, in which the same sub ject is continued, it is evident the ")s a , sheep, or flock, cannot be restricted to the. disciples of Christ. The circumstances, however, in reference to which our Sa viour appropriated the prophecy, afforded a striking type of the dispersion of the Jewish people, which is that intended by Zechariah. The disciples as Jews formed part of the flock which the good shep herd was commissioned to feed, but they, together with the Jewish Christians, con verted by their ministry, who formed the first church at Jerusalem, were the C"nsa, little ones, on whom the Lord promises to turn back his hand, in order to protect them in the time of calamity. That the phrase V» n" a-i-n , to turn, or turn back the hand, upon any one, is used in a good as well as in a bad sense, see on Is. i. 25. 8, 9. In these verses are predicted the destruction of two-thirds of the inhabi tants of Judea by the Roman arms, and by the famine and pestilence, the usual concomitants of war in the East, and the preservation of the remaining third part, which, after having been submitted to very trying and afflictive processes, should come forth out of the furnace a regenerated and spiritual people. The* Chap. XIV. ZECHARIAH. 431 And will refine them as silver is refined, And will try them as gold is tried ; It shall invoke my name, and I will answer it , I will say, It is my people ; And it shall say, Jehovah is my God. former was fulfilled not only during what is commonly called the Jewish war, but also, to a fearful extent, under more than one of the succeeding emperors ; the processes pointed at in the latter have been more or less carried forward ever since, but are, it is to be hoped, soon to terminate in the conversion of the Jews to God. Then shall they enter into a new relation to him, according to the terms of the better covenant, Jer. xxxi. 33; Heb. viii. 10, 11. CHAPTER XIV. Is the first two verses of this chapter the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the calamities consequent upon that event are set forth; after which the destruction of the forces composing the hostile army is predicted, 3. A promise of special interposition in behalf of the people of God is then given, by which effectual provision is made for their escape, 4, 5. The prophet next describes a period of great calamity, which is to give place to one of unmixed and perennial happiness, 6, 7 ; when the means of spiritual life and enjoyment shall be universal and continual, 8; and the true God the exclusive object of obedience and worship, 9; and while every barrier to the free intercourse of Christians throughout the world shall be removed, special honor will be conceded to Jerusalem as the metropolis of converted Israel, 10, 11. The dreadful judgments to be inflicted on their liual enemies, and the complete discomfiture of these enemies, are depicted, 12 — 15: after which follow predictions respecting an annual visit which all the nations shall pay to Jerusalem, 16; the punishment of those which neglect to perform it, 17 — 19; and the universally holy character which shall distinguish her inhabitants, their occupations and services, 20, 21. 1 Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2 For I will collect all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, 1. For the phraseology nl-'V sa ci" , comp. Is. xxii. 5. The criticism of Heng stenberg, who denies that it is equivalent to nin' ci" sa , is without any founda tion. By the day of Jehovah is meant the period of the infliction of judgment. See, in reference to the same event which is here predicted, Joel ii. 31, iii. 14 ; Mai. iv. 1, 5. By the spoil of Jerusalem is meant all that her inhabitants had accu mulated, and which would be fit spoil for the enemy, especially the treasures of the temple. Notwithstanding all that was consumed by fire, the plunder ob tained by the Romans was so great, that gold fell in Syria to half its former value. 2. All the nations here mean soldiers from all the different nations forming 432 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XIV. And the city shall be taken, And the houses plundered, and the women ravished ; And half the city shall go forth into captivity, But the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 And Jehovah shall go forth, And fight with those nations, As in the day when he fought In the day of battle. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day On the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east ; And the mount of Olives shall be split in its midst, Toward the east and toward the west, Into a very great valley ; Half of the mountain shall recede towards the north, And half of it towards the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of my mountains, For the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal ; Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from the earthquake, In the days of Uzziah, king of Judah ; the Roman empire, which composed the army of Titus. The verse contains a fearful description of the capture of Jerusalem under the command of that general. After its destruction, the more distinguished, handsome, and able-bodied Jews were sold into slavery, or con demned to work in the mines ; but the poorer and more contemptible sort were permitted to remain among the ruins. As usual, where nsViWP occurs in the text the Keri has naa a an , for the sake of euphemism. The latter word has found its way into a great many MSS. 3. The Roman power was doomed in its turn to destruction. Formidable as it might appear, Jehovah would in his providence overthrow it, as he had done the enemies of his people in former ages. Comp. Exod. xiv. 14, xv. 3, etc. 4, 5. These verses convey, in language of the most beautiful poetical imagery, the assurance of the effectual means ot escape that should be provided for the truly pious. We accordingly learn from Eusebius, that on the breaking out of the Jewish war, the Christian church at Jerusalem, in obedience to the warning of our Saviour, Matt. xxiv. 16, fled to Pella, a city beyond Jordan, where they lived in safety. As the mount of Olives lay in their way, it is represented as cleaving into two halves, in order to make a passage for them. Comp. chap. iv. 7. "in is not to be considered as the less usual form of the masculine plural, but as a proper plural with the pronom inal affix. Jehovah calls them his, be cause he had formed them, by cleaving Olivet into two. The valley lay between them. Vas was the proper name of a place, close to one of the gates on the east side of Jerusalem, to which the cleft or valley was to extend westward, so as at once to admit those who should flee from the enemy. Most commentators think of some locality to the east of the mount of Olives, but far less aptly. The word properly signifies to join or be joined to, be at the side, near. Its prox imity to the city must have originated the name. For Cnc:i , ye shall flee, we find the reading Bns:i , shall be stopped up, in four of De Rossi's MSS. and in Chap. XIV. Z E C II A R I A II , 433 For Jehovah my God shall come, And all the holy ones with thee. And it shall be in that day That there shall not be the light of the precious orbs, But condensed darkness. But there shall be one day, the margin of Bomberg's Hebrew Bible ; but, though supported by the LXX., Arab., Targ., Symm., and the other Greek interpreters, it is utterly to be re jected, as unsuited to the connection. The very opposite of what would thus be expressed, is required. Yet it is adopted by Blayney and Boothroyd ! We have nothing in Scripture relative to the earth quake here referred to except as a date, Amos i. 1. Instead of ^izv , with thee, nearly forty MSS. and all the versions lead fas , with him; and instead of O*'- np , the holy ones, one MS., the Syr., Arab., and Targ., read r-inp , his holy ones. To refer 'tjbji , with the Rabbins, Drusius, and Blayney, to Jerusalem, is quite inadmissible, since such construc tion affords no tolerable sense. The change of person was occasioned by a sudden transition in the mind of the prophet to the Lord, whom he addresses as present. For the application of this part of the prophecy, compare the par allel prediction of our Lord himself, Matt. xxiv. 30, 31, where those whom Zecha riah designates Q"»np , holy ones, are called robs dyyeXovs airrov. That a fu ture personal and pre-millennial advent of the Redeemer is here taught, I cannot find. 6. Now follows the prediction of a period of unmitigated calamity, which may be regarded as comprehending the long centuries of oppression, cruelty, mockery, and scorn, to which the Jews have been subjected ever since the de struction of Jerusalem. It has also, for the most part, been a period during which the gross darkness of superstition and delusion has reigned over the land of their fathers. ¦pssp". n^np" have been 55 variously rendered and interpreted. LXX. \f/ixos ko.1 irdyos. Vulg. frigus et gelu. Syr. j ^ , s U-i^ j^i • cold and ice. Thus also Maurer, and several other moderns. But whatever connec tion there may be between the absence of light and the production of cold and ice in the depth of winter, the contrast is not so natural as that between h>ht and darkness. Besides, n'lnp- cannot with any show of truth be rendered colfl. It is an adjective plural from the root np_^ , to be precious, valuable, costly. The idea of cold rests upon no better author ity than a mere Rabbinical conjecture embodied in the Keri of Prov. xvii. 27, which exhibits fti-\ -£• , instead of -pi rpn , the proper and only term suitable in such connection. That ni-p" may fitly be understood as designating the celestial luminaries, whence we obtain what, in common parlance, we call " the precious light of heaven," will appear on comparing Job xxxi. 26, where the moon is described as ^Vh "p" , walking pre ciously or splendidly across the heavens. AVith Prof. Lee, (Heb. Lex. p. 633,) I read n'i-p" -psin construction, placing the accent on the latter of the two words, instead of retaining it over the former. l'is~p properly signifies congelation, con densation, excessive density, from ssp , to draw together, contract, become thick, dense, and the like. Blayney renders, thick fog. The textual reading •p.sEp" , they shall withdraw themselves, is inferior to that of the Keri ¦pss;*" , which is found in the text of one hundred and thirty-four of Kennicott's MSS., and in twenty-two more originally, in nine of De Rossi's Spanish MSS., which are 434 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XIV. (It is known to Jehovah), When it shall not be day and night ; For at the time of the evening there shall be light. 8 And it shall be in that day That living waters shall proceed from Jerusalem, Half of them to the Eastern sea, And half of them to the Western sea ; In summer and in winter shall it be. reckoned the best in the Soncin., Brix- ian, and Complutensian editions, and in Machzors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. None of the ancient versions employ a verb. 7. Another period is here predicted, but one entirely different from the pre ceding — a day altogether unique, Qi" nns , one peculiar day, the only one of its kind. See Gesenius in nns , No. 5. Its peculiarity is to consist in the absence of the alternations of day and night. It is to be all day — a period of entire freedom from war, oppression and other outward evils which 'induce affliction and wretchedness, interrupt the peace of the church, and prevent the spread of truth and righteousness. Nb{ yap ovk earai iKei, Rev. xxii. 25. any— ns , the time of the evening, does not refer to the close of the happy period just described, but to that of the preceding period of afflictive darkness. At the very time when a dark and gloomy day is expected to give way to a night of still greater darkness and obscurity, light shall sud denly break forth, the light of the one long day, which js to be interrupted by no night. That this period is that of the Millennium, or the thousand years, the circumstances of which are described Rev. xx. 3 — 7, I cannot entertain a doubt. The time of its commencement has been variously but fruitlessly calcu lated. The knowledge of it the Father hath reserved in his own power. " It is known to Jehovah," and, by implication, to him alone. 8. c-»n era, living, i. e. running, perennial, refreshing, and salubrious wa ter, in opposition to that which is stag nant and noxious. ":'"Bi£n n1 , the Eastern sea, i. e. the Asphaltitic Lake ; and ¦ppnsn Q" , the Western sea, i. e. the Mediterranean ; so called because when a person resident at Jerusalem faces the East, which is the primary point of the horizon with the Orientals, the Dead Sea is before him, -J. and the Mediterranean (linns) behind him. The more important portions of the globe lying to the east and west of Jerusalem, there is an obvious propriety in the selection of these two directions. The declaration that these waters are to flow Cinha? "• £3 , is expressive of con stancy. They shall neither be dried up by the heat of summer, nor congealed by the frost of winter. The LXX. have iv Stepei Kal iv tapi, " in summer and in spring," which is to be accounted for on the ground that what was winter in more northerly regions, was spring in Egypt, in which country that version was made. In the figurative language of Scripture, water is not only used as an emblem of purification, but also for the purpose of representing the means of spiritual life, refreshment, and fertility — the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel. The de scendants of Abraham, restored to their own land, and become his children in the faith, will go forth, full of zeal and spir itual activity, as missionaries to other na tions, to promote revivals in the churches of Christ by rehearsing what great things God hath done for them, and to carry on the work of conversion among those na tions and tribes that shall not then have been turned to the Lord. Chap. XIV. ZECHARIAH. 435 9 And Jehovah shall become king over all the earth : In that day Jehovah alone shall be, And his name alone. 10 And all- the earth shall be changed As it were into the plain from Geba to Rimmon, South of Jerusalem ; And she shall be exalted, And be inhabited in her place, From the gate of Benjamin To the place of the former gate, To the gate of the corners ; And from the tower of Hananeel To the king's wine-vats. 9. In consequence of the universal spread of the Gospel, the multiplicity of heathen gods will be swept away from the face of the earth, the unity of Jeho vah universally acknowledged, and the glorious harmony of those attributes which constitute his one Divine charac ter ('l53"i , his name) clearly discovered, and heartily adored. According to the ordinary mode of translating the words nns yam nns n'vp n"np , there shall be one Lord and his name one, they may seem clogged with little or no difficulty, as the true God is thus set forth in oppo sition to the " gods, many and lords many" of the heathen ; but we have only to introduce the incommunicable name Jehovah into the translation when the greatest incongruity at once appears. If we then render, there shall be one Je hovah, the conclusion is inevitable, that previous to the predicted period, there must have existed more Jehovahs than one. Or, if we render, Jehovah shall be one, we make the passage teach either that Jehovah was not one before, or, that he will no longer be three, or triune — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the undivided unity of the Godhead. All ambiguity, however, will at once be re moved, if nns be taken adverbially, and rendered only, alone, or the like. And thus I conceive it must be rendered in the primary article of the inspired creed of the Hebrews : nns nin" ij'n'Vs n^n1; , Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone. The doctiine, therefore, taught in the present verse is simply that Jehovah shall be the only existing object of religious worship and obedience, and no charac teristics but his be any longer recognized as divine. 10, 11. These verses intimate that every obstruction shall be removed which prevents the free and full flow of the living waters throughout the world". What is high shall be levelled, and what is low shall be elevated. This idea was suggested by the natural impossibility of water flowing in a westerly direction from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean, owing to the hilly country which intervenes. In ab" we have a rather unusual sig nification of aab , to be turned, i, e. changed. The verb n,En is ordinarily used to express what is here intended. yas ; Geba, was a Levitical city in the tribe of Benjamin, near to Gibeah, on the northern border of the kingdom of Judah. "(ifan , Rimmon, was a town in the tribe of Simeon, in the south of Pal estine, and to be distinguished from the rock Rimmon, to the north-east of Mich- mash, nansn , the Arabah, is the level or plain of the Jordan, extending from the lake of Tiberias to the Elanitic gulf, though in the present day this name is only applied to that part of it which lies 436 ZECHARIAH. Chap. XIV. 11 And they shall dwell in her, And there shall be no more curse, And Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. 12 And this shall be the plague With which Jehovah will plague all the people That shall fight against Jerusalem ; Their flesh shall consume away While they stand upon their feet, And their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, And their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. 13 And it shall be in that day That there shall be great confusion from Jehovah among them, So that each shall seize the hand of another, And his hand shall be raised against the hand of another ; 14 And Judah also shall fight in Jerusalem, And the wealth of all the nations around shall be collected, Gold, and silver, and garments, in great abundance. 15 And the plague of the horses, The mules, the camels, and the asses, And all the cattle which shall be in those camps, Shall be even as this plague. 16 And it shall be to the south of the Dead Sea. The nom inative to nrasn and napi^ , is not "nsn , but oVa-n", immediately preceding. For the orthography of nMSn , comp. Hos. x. 14, and other passages in which the s is inserted as a mater lectionis. Great un certainty exists relative to the exact posi tion of some of the places here mentioned. Cnn is used as in Mai. iii. 24, in the ac ceptation, curse, LXX. avd&epa. Comp. irav Karavd&epa ovk earai en, Rev. xxii. 3. There will be no more any civil or na tional punishments inflicted on account of sin, these having been rendered unnec essary by the universal prevalence of righteousness and truth. 12—15. The hostile powers whose pun ishment is here denounced are those which shall form the great final confederacy. Com. Is. lix. 18; Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix. ; Rev. xix. The representation of the punisjiment is the most horrible that can be imagined — a living skeleton, rapidly wasting away ! From what is stated ver. 14, it appears that the Jews (— nt)— " , Judah), shall not only defend themselves at Jerusalem, but make a successful attack upon the enemy, a cnV: > when used in reference to place, signifies to fight at or in such place. LXX. irap- aid^erai iv 'lepovaaKiip. ~d y n a — iwriV: , Jud. v. 19. The collection of the wealth of the surrounding nations, refers to the gathering of the rich spoil of the contingents furnished by them to ' compose the hostile army. The entire encampments of the enemy, including the cavalry and beasts of burden, were all to share in the awful catastrophe. Whether God will employ the plague and other destructive diseases for the annihilation of the enemies of his peo ple, time must show. The genitive in nin". n^tinn , is that of cause, a conster nation sent or produced by Jehovah. 16 — 18. nssia ~"v "iia , lit. from tlie Chap. XIV. ZECHARIAH. 437 That the whole residue of all the nations That shall come up against Jerusalem, Shall go up from year to year To worship the king, Jehovah of hosts, And to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that those who go not up Of the families of the earth to Jerusalem, sufficiency of a year in a year, i. e. when time has fully satisfied the claims of one year and enters upon another. It is only an idiomatic mode of expressing from year to year, or annually. What is here predicted is expressly restricted to the particular nations which shall have engaged in the last great attack upon the Jews. And, though the language of the following verse may appear to be more general, yet the circumstances of the context require the restriction to be carried forward beyond the limits of the present. Still, however, even with this restriction, the prophecy cannot, without manifest absurdity, be interpreted of the totality of the inhabitants of the nations in question. Let steam vessels and rail roads be multiplied to any imaginable extent, the idea of the possibility of con veying such immense numbers to Pales tine cannot be entertained. Or, suppos ing them to have been conveyed thither, few of them would after all have an opportunity of worshipping at Jerusalem during the short period allotted for the Feast of Tabernacles. Not only would the country be too small to contain their encampments, and to furnish them with necessary provisions, but the pressure, noise, and bustle of the crowds would be such as to destroy everything in the shape of devotional propriety and enjoy ment. I cannot, therefore, but take the meaning to be, that the nations in ques tion will go up to Jerusalem in the per sons of their representatives, just as in former times the Jews resident in foreign countries had those who went to the annual festivals in their name, or on their behalf. Why the Egyptians should be specially introduced, ver. 18, it is diffi cult to determine, except it be, that as their country is watered by the Nile, and is not dependent for fertility upon rain falling in the country itself, they might be considered as exempt from the threat ened plague of drought. But, if the rains fail in Ethiopia, it will in effect be the same as if they fail in Egypt itself. After the words C"npVy sVi , the repe tition of c v j.n , the rain, from the end of the preceding verse, is understood. It is worthy of notice, that the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is the only one of all the Jewish festivals which is rep resented in this prophecy as being ob served at the period therein specified. No mention is made of the great day of Atonement, the Passover, the Pentecost, etc. These have all been superseded by their fulfilment as types in the substan tial blessings of the Christian economy. Their re-establishment would be a denial of the reality or efficacy of their anti types. It may, however, be asked, Why should the Feast of Tabernacles form an exception? To this it may be replied, first, that such a festival may be observed without any compromise of the principles of the New Dispensation. Secondly, it may be considered as peculiarly adapted to the retrospections of the converted Jews, who will have to commemorate the sojourn of their fathers, not merely for forty years in the wilderness, but their sojourn for two thousand years in the countries of the dispersion. And thirdly, it may serve as a striking me mento to them, that, though they have been restored to the rest of Canaan, they are still only strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, and that there yet remaineth a rest for the people of God. In this 438 ZECHARIAH, Chap. XIV. To worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, Upon them there shall be no rain. 18 And if the family of Egypt should not go up, nor come, Upon them also there shall be none ; There shall be upon them the plague, With which Jehovah shall plague the nations, That will not go up To celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, And the punishment of all the nations That will not go up To celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 20 In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness to Jehovah ; And the pots in the house of Jehovah Shall be as the bowls before the altar. point of view, believing Gentiles, who may go up to the festival, can find no difficulty in celebrating it with them to their mutual edification. That the sac rifices which were offered at that feast, or any other animal sacrifices, will then be renewed, is a position, to maintain which would be to counteract the express design, and contradict the express decla rations of the dispensation of grace. It may be said, that Ezekiel gives a full description of the re-establishment of the sacrificial system and of the whole of the temple worship. Nothing can be more certain. But when was this re- establishment to take placer Any one who will only cursorily examine the commencement of the fortieth chapter of that prophet will at once perceive, that, though it follows immediately after chapters relating to the destruction of Gog and Magog, it was nevertheless de livered to the prophet not fewer than thirteen years afterwards, and may, therefore, naturally be expected to refer to a subject altogether different. That subject I conceive to be the restoration of the temple and the temple worship after the return from Babylon — a sub ject which cannot but have lain near the heart of the exiles, and worthy to be made the theme of prophecy, but which is nowheie else referred to in the hook of Ezekiel. Difficulty there may be in making the measurements there given agree with those specified by Josephus as the dimensions of the second temple ; but far greater difficulties attach to every attempt to refer them to a temple still future, or to view them as wholly em blematical. 19. The connection shows that nsKfi is not here to be taken in the sense of sin, but of the punishment of sin. Comp. Lam. iii. 38, iv. 6. 20. The nissM were small metallic plates, suspended from the necks or heads of horses and camels, for the sake of ornament, and making a tinkling noise by striking against each other like cymbals. Root VVs , to tingle, tinkle. As the inscription nin"^ fflnp, Holiness to Jehovah, was the sacred symbol en graven upon the golden crown of the Jewish High Priest, the design of the prophecy is evidently to teach, that when the Jews shall be restored to their own land, there shall be no greater degree of holiness attaching to what was formerly accounted most sacred, than what will attach to the ornamental trappings of the horses. Devotion of person and Chap. XIV. ZE CHAR I AH. 4C9 21 Yea every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah Shall be holiness to Jehovah of hosts ; And all who slaughter shall come, And take of them and boil in them, And there shall no more be a Canaanite In the house of Jehovah of hosts in that day. property to the service of God will be the only holiness then recognized. Cere monial sanctity shall no longer exist. The same thing is expressed in the sec ond clause of the verse. The tessels in which the flesh was cooked, and which were accounted the meanest about the temple, shall, as to the degree of holiness, be upon a par with those which had been destined for the most sacred pur pose, namely, the reception of the blood of the sacrificial victims. All distinction shall be done away. 21. The same idea is here more fully carried out. Not only the common uten sils used by the priests, but those em ployed for cooking in private houses, both at Jerusalem and throughout the country, shall all be regarded as equally holy. From its being expressly stated, that the flesh of the animals to be slaugh tered is to be boiled in the pots, and no mention is made of the sprinkling of the blood, it must be inferred that killing for food, and not for sacrifice, is what the prophet has in view. Considering what stumbling-blocks a mercenary and covet ous priesthood has ever proved to the world, and to what a fearful extent the ministry in holy things has been made a matter of merchandise, there is great force in the declaration with which the prophet closes : " There shall no more be a Ca naanite in the house of Jehovah !" By ";y;a , Canaanite, is meant a merchant ; the Phoenicians, who inhabited the north ern part of Canaan, having been the most celebrated merchants of antiquity. See for this acceptation of the term. Job xl. 30 ; Prov. xxxi. 24 ; Is. xxiii. 8. It is here used metaphorically. MALACHI. Malachi (""sVm , Messenger), is the last of all the Hebrew prophets, but we are left in profound ignorance respecting his personal history, and can only judge of the circumstances of his times from what is contained in his book. According to the tradition of the synagogue, he lived after the proph ets Haggai and Zechariah, and was contemporary with Nehemiah. This statement is fully borne out by the affinity of the book written by the prophet, with that written by the patriot. Both presuppose the temple to have been already built. The same condition of the Jews is described. They both condemn foreign marriages, and enforce the due payment of tythes, which had been neglected. They likewise correct abuses which had crept in with respect to the sacrifices, and reprove their countrymen for their want of sympathy with the poor. In all probability, Malachi occupied the same place with respect to Nehe miah, which Haggai and Zechariah did with respect to Zerubbabel. That the former was assisted in the discharge of his duties by prophets, may be inferred from the charge brought against him by Sanballat, Neh. vi. 7. He may therefore be conceived of as having flourished somewhere about the year B. c. 420. His book is composed of a series of spirited castigations, in which the persons accused are introduced as repelling the charges, but thereby only affording occasion for a fuller exposure, and a more severe reproof of their conduct. Both priests and people are unsparingly reprimanded, and while they are threatened with divine judgments, encouragement is held out to such as walked in the fear of the Lord. His predictions respecting John the Baptist, the Messiah, and the destruction of the Jewish polity, are clear and unequivocal. Considering the late age in which he lived, the language of Malachi is pure ; his style possesses much in common with the old prophets, but is dis tinguished more by its animation, than by its rhythmus or grandeur. CHAPTER I. With a view to work a conviction of ingratitude in the minds of his countrymen, the prophet begins by setting forth the peculiar favor which Jehovah had shown to them as a people in contradistinction to the Edomites, 1 — 5. He then reproaches the priests for their unworthy conduct in presenting the refuse of the animals in sacriilce, 6 — 8; charges them with a mercenary spirit, and threatens to reject them, and supply their place with true worshippers from among the most distant heathen, 9 — 11; and concludes with a re newed reprimand, and the denunciation of a curse upon those who practised deception with respect to the offerings, 12—14. 1 The Sentence of Jehovah's oracle to Israel by Malachi. 2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah, Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us ? Was not Esau brother to Jacob ? saith Jehovah, Yet I loved Jacob, 1. For the formula n'^n" nan sten, see on Zech. ix. 1. That -asVa , Mal achi, is the proper name of the prophet, and not a mere official appellative, as the LXX., Vitringa, and others, interpret, may safely be inferred from the analogy of the title with others prefixed to the prophetical writings. As for the form of the name, Vitringa, Hiller, Michaelis, and Gesenius, take it to be compounded of ~sVi: and ft" , of which they consider " to be a contraction, and accordingly explain the name as meaning The Mes senger of Jehovah. To this, however, it has been objected, that no examples of an abbreviation of the Divine name to this extent are to be found ; and, there fore, it has been deemed more natural to regard the " as the pronominal affix of the first person singular, and to render, My Messenger. This latter solution has been adopted by Hengstenberg, who labors in vain to establish a connection between the name of the prophet, and the same word as occurring in its official signification, chap. iii. 1. The form ap pears to be really nothing more than an instance of what Ewald calls " the last and newest mode of deriving adjectives from nouns," and denoting origin or source. Compare "nay , "n»sy , "nna , "n'te, "'"ia:, "V.i.n, etc. Vspyip, Israel, is here used to denote the whole of the twelve tribes, which had returned to their native land, Jer. 1. 4, 5, 19, 20. 2, 3. The sovereign benevolence of Jehovah, and the ingratitude of the Hebrews in the time of the prophet, are strikingly contrasted. To the petulant question, " Wherein hast thou loved us ? " which is only the first of a series which are put in the course of the book, the answer is direct and conclusive — in showing greater kindness to their pio- genitor Jacob, than he had done to his brother Esau. The temporal advantages of Palestine vrf re vastly superior to those of Idumea, which was comparatively a sterile and desert country ; and the Jews had, besides, experienced distinguished favor in having been restored to their land, and had prosperity conferred upon them, while the Edomites, who had suf fered from the invasion of their country by the Chaldeans, five years after the capture of Jerusalem, had not been re stored. It is to the desolations occa sioned by this invasion that reference is 56 442 MALACHI. Chap. I. 3 But I hated Esau, And made his mountains a desolation, And his heritage abodes of the desert. 4 Because Edom saith, We are impoverished, But we will rebuild the desolate places ; Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They may build, but I will overthrow ; And men shall call them, The border of wickedness, And, The people against whom Jehovah is indignant forever. 5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, Let Jehovah be magnified, from the border of Israel.^ 6 A son honoreth his father, And a servant his master : If then I be a father, where is my honor ? And if I be a master, where is my fear ? Saith Jehovah of hosts to you, O ye priests, That despise my name ; yet ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name ? made ver. 3. ss'-i1, to hate, is here used in a comparative sense, qualifying the preceding verb ans , to love. As the opposite of love is hatred, when there is only an inferior degree of the former exhibited, the object of it is regarded as being hated rather than loved. See for this idiom, Gen. xxix. 30, 31; Deut. xxi. 15, 16 ; Prov. xiii. 24 ; Matt. vi. 24 ; Luke xiv. 26, compared with Matt. x. 37. n'lan is considered by some to be the feminine of C"an , and is rendered serpents, jackals, or the like ; but it is preferable to adopt the derivation from the Arabic, Lo, subslitit, habitavit. Hence jj'Ljii>> habitatio, mansio. By the "habitations of the desert," are meant deserted, ruined dwellings, such as are still found in great abundance in Idumea. The phrase is parallel to naia» in the preceding hemistich, and corre sponds to the n'lan n, , waste places, or ruins, ver. 4. 4, 5. Every attempt on the part of the Idumeans to recover themselves, and en joy permanent prosperity, should prove abortive, and their continually depressed condition should afford additional proof to the Israelites of the kindness of God towards his own people. Vsiaa , bound ary, is here used in the sense of territory, or the space marked out by the surround ing boundaries. Comp. Gen. x. 19 ; Numb. xxi. 24. Vsi'ffl" ViaiV Vsa, according to Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Mau rer, and Ewald, means beyond the He brew territory, — construing the words with Vn i" , but it seems more natural to connect them with inttsn rns . Ye who dwell upon the land of Israel shall say from the locality you occupy, and to which, through Divine goodness, ye have been restored, Jehovah be magnified. The V prefixed to Vias , adds nothing to the force of the preceding preposition. See Gesen. in Vspa • 6. Upon the fact of the respect usually shown by inferiors to their superiors, Je hovah had a right to expect that honor and reverence which corresponded to the high position which he occupied as Au thor and Moral Governor of the universe. These having, however, been withheld, ClIAP. I. MALACHI. 443 1 In offering polluted bread upon my altar ; But ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee ? In your saying, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. 8 When ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? And when ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Present it now to thy governor ; Will he be satisfied with thee, Or accept thy person ? saith Jehovah of hosts. 9 Now, then, conciliate the regard of Jehovah, that he may pity us: This hath been by your means ; Will he accept your persons? saith Jehovah of hosts. 1 0 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors ? Yea, ye will not kindle the fire on my altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of hosts, Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11 But from the rising of the sun to its setting, My name shall be great among the nations ; And in every place, incense shall be offered to my name, And a pure offering ; chiefly owing to the irreligious and pro fane conduct of the priests, the charge is principally laid against them. 7. That cnV , bread, or food, is here to be taken as the Arab. [X -g\ t. caro, in the sense of animal flesh, is obvious, from its being presented on the fiat): , altar of sacrifice, to which also the ybv , tabh, must be referred, and not to the table of shew-bread. Contempt of sacred things involves contempt of Him to whom they appertain. 8. Another argumentum ad hominem. The priests had the effrontery to present to Jehovah what they would not have dared to offer to their civil governor. To offer animals with any blemish, was expressly prohibited in the law. Lev. xxii. 22, 24 ; Deut. xv. 21. 9. How much soever the words nsyi ssan"" Vs-»:s S3--Vn. , may at first sight appear to contain a serious exhorta tion to the priests to repent of their wicked conduct, and to pray for the Di vine favor to themselves and the people, yet the connection requires them to be understood ironically. No prayers or supplications of theirs could avail any thing while they presented such unlaw ful sacrifices. This is expressly declared in the form of a pointed interrogation at the close of the verse. tp;s can s'W"n is a more emphatic form, mstead of eap:B s'f;n. 10, 11. The rendering of the LXX., adopted by Newcome, " Surely the doors shall be closed against you," cannot be admitted. The authority for the change of "B , who, into "a , surely, is of no weight ; and the verb niO is never con strued with a , in order to express the idea of exclusion. Such was the avari cious disposition of the priests, that they would not perform even the most trivial services without payment. How could such expect to be acceptable to God? These verses contain an explicit predic tion of the rejection of the Jewish wor ship, and of the reception of the Gen tiles to perform spiritual worship in the Church of the Lord. His name, which the priests had treated with contempt, 444 MALACHI. Chap- II. For my name shall be great among the nations, Saith Jehovah of hosts. 12 But ye have profaned it by your saying, The table of Jehovah is polluted, And its fruit, even his food, is contemptible. 13 Ye have also said, What a weariness ! And have contemned it, saith Jehovah of hosts ; And ye have brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick, Yea, ye have brought the offering ; Should I accept it at your hand ? saith Jehovah. 14 But cursed be the deceiver, who hath a male in his. flock, And voweth, and sacrificeth to Jehovah that which is corrupt ; For I am a great king, saith Jehovah of hosts, And my name shall be feared among the nations. ver. 6, should receive universal homage among the nations that had been addicted to idolatry, and who were now the ob jects of abomination on the part of the Jews. The sacrificial terms are transfer red from their original application to ceremonial objects and acts, to such as are spiritual, agreeably to the nature of the new economy. Comp. John iv. 20—24; Heb xiii. 10, 15, 16; 1 Pet. ii. 5. All that Hitzig can discover in these verses is, that God was worshipped by all nations, under the different names of Jehovah, Ormuzd, Zeus, etc. ! ! ! 12 — 14. A renewal of the charge against the priests, nearly in the same words. nsVnia is an abbreviated form for nsVn nra . Comp. n«n , Exod. iv. 2 ; caitt, Is. iii. 15. inis, it, after annsn, . refers to iVs.8 in the preceding verse, and is not to be changed into "nis, me, as proposed in the Tikkune Sopherim. The \ in nSEn- nspi is omitted in ninety- three MSS., in seven printed editions, and in all the versions except the Syriac. Though it is not said that the nn:K , meat offering, consisted of inferior in gredients, yet it is either implied, or the idea is intended to be conveyed, that the presentation of the other sacrifices ren dered this, however pure in itself, unac ceptable to God. Hitzig and Maurer regard nnin to be a contraction of the feminine nnn-iio ; but I should rather think it ought to be pointed nni'M , as in Lev. xxii. 25, where it occurs, in ap plication to the same subject, in the mas culine gender. Many MSS. and some of the early editions read nSn"V instead of ":'-!sV , which has no doubt been sub stituted for it by some superstitious Jew ish scribe. CHAPTER II. The prophet continues to urge the charge against the priests, warning them that if they did not reform, they should be deprived of all enjoyment, and rendered the objects of shame and contempt, 1 — 4. The original institution, and the sacred nature and obliga tions of the priestly office, are then brought forward, with which to contrast the base- Cn\p. II. MALACHI. 44-J ness of their conduct in violating its responsibilities,; and the section closes with tinolhcr threatening of punishment, 6— 9. In a new suction tlie prophet takes up the subject of divorce, and marriage with foreign women, und severely reproves tho priests for the evil example which they had set iu this respect, 10—16. They are finally charged with teaching immoral doctrine, 17. 1 And now, unto yon- is this charge, O ye priests ! 2 If ye will not hearken, nor lay it to heart, To give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of hosts ; I will send the curse among you, and will curse your blessing Yea, I will curse them singly, Because ye lay it not to heart. 3 Behold ! I will rebuke the seed to your hurt, And I will scatter dung upon your faces, The dung of your festivals ; And ye shall be taken away with it. 4 And ye shall know that I have sent you to this charge, Because my covenant was with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 5 My covenant of life and peace was with him, And I gave them to him, For the fear which he showed for me, And the awe in which he stood of my name. 2. n"isten is emphatic, and doubtless has reference to Deut. xxvii. 15, etc. The feminine suffix in n"nins is to be taken distributively, with reference to the man a , blessings, immediately pre ceding. 3. The V in n?V is that of the Dati- vus incommodi, " to your detriment or disadvantage." y-T , seed, is not to be changed into y'inT. , and rendered shoul der, as Houbigant and Newcome do, merely on the authority of the LXX. There is great force in the reference to the dung of the festivals, as the maw, which contained it, belonged to the priests, Deut. xviii. 3. Vs in rVs has the signification of with, together with, as in Lam. iii. 41. Such usage, however, is rare, s'r; is to be taken imperson ally. 4. ynp , to know, has here the signi fication, to know by experience, to feel the consequences of transgression. Erom the words which follow, we must infer that knowledge issuing in reformation of conduct is meant. On no other condi tion could the Levitical covenant con tinue in force. 5. In this and the following verses the prophet forcibly contrasts with the base and unworthy conduct of the priests, the noble character of their progenitor, with whom officially Jehovah had entered into covenant. The reference, however, is not to Levi personally, but to Phinehas, Numb. xxv. 12, 13, where we have an account of this covenant, there called CiV*^ "n^a , my covenant of peace, and tV'y nsna n"na, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Both ideas are expressed in the present verse, and the meaning is, that the covenant was secured in perpetuity. Before EiVsn-. 3"»nn. the word n"na is understood from ths 446 MALACHI. Chap. II. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth ; No iniquity was found in his lips ; He walked with me in peace and uprightness, And turned many from iniquity. 1 For the lips of the priest should preserve knowledge, And men should seek the law at his mouth, For he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts. 8 But, as for you, ye have departed from the way, Ye have made many to stumble in the law ; Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts, 9 Therefore have I also rendered you contemptible and base to all the people ; Forasmuch as ye have not observed my ways, And have acted partially in the law. 10 Have we not all one Father ? preceding, s-pu, fear or reverence, is here the accusative absolute, nns is the Niphal of nnn, , to be terrified, dismayed. This verb is here purposely employed to express the extraordinary degree of pro found and holy awe with which Phine- has was inspired when zealously vindi cating the honor of Jehovah. 6, 7. A comprehensive and beautiful description of the character and spiritual duties of Phinehas, which ought to have been realized in the persons and minis trations of all his successors in office, and which suggests topics of the most serious self-examination to all who engage in the work of the Christian ministry. The higher and more important functions of the sacerdotal office are here recognized, to the exclusion of such as were merely ceremonial. These the priests in the days of Malachi had neglected, while they discharged the latter in a perfunc tory and niggardly manner. That nnin is not here to be rendered doctrine, but is to be taken in its appropriated sense of law, appears from the use of the term in the two following verses, n V ¦ y is in the accusative case, with which san: , as in other instances of passive verbs,' does not agree in number. See Gesen. Gram. § 140, 1 b. The priests were the ordinary expounders of the law to the people ; it was only on special and extraordinary occasions that the prophets gave their decision. Each of them was, therefore, to be regarded as 'qsVja , a messenger, or interpreter of the Divine will. 8. The character of the priests whom Malachi was sent to reprove was the very reverse of that exhibited by Phi nehas. Not only did they violate the law themselves, but, as is universally the case, induced others by their bad exam ple to violate it likewise. They thus forfeited all right to the sacerdotal im munities of the Levitical covenant. 9. "Sg-Qii is strikingly antithetical to oPS at the beginning of ver. 8. The priests are here threatened with a retri bution corresponding to their base and contemptible character, an additional and aggravating feature of which is added, viz partiality in the decisions which they gave on points of law. Instead of Qyn , thepeople, twenty-three MSS., and a few printed editions, the LXX., Targ., Arab., and Hexapl. Syr., read rj"tey n , the peo ples or nations, but much less appropri ately. 10. The prophet now proceeds to ad minister reproof to the people, and espec ially to the priests, for their flagrant Chap. II. MALACHI. 447 I lath not one God created us ? Wherefore do we act unfaithfully one to another, Profaning the covenant of our fathers? 1 1 Judah hath acted unfaithfully ; And an abominable thing hath been done in Israel and in Jeru salem ; For Judah hath profaned that which was holy to Jehovah, That which he loved, And hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12 Jehovah will cut off the man that doeth this, Him that watcheth, and him that answereth, From the tents of Jacob, And him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah of hosts. violation of the law, which prohibited in termarriages with foreigners. See Exod. xxxiv. 16 ; Deut. vii. 3. Eor the his torical account of this violation, see Ezra ix. 1, 2 ; Neh. xiii. 23—31. That by n-s as , one Father, we are to under stand1 Jehovah, and not Abraham, or Jacob, as some have supposed, is deter mined by the force of the parallelism, in which we have the corresponding and elucidatory phrase nns Vs , one God. As the Jews put away their wives, that they might marry others, they are here distinctly taught that both males and females stood in the same relation to God as their common Father and Creator. He had an equal propriety in them, and when the men acted the part for which they are here reproved, they acted un justly by their Maker. But, in addition to this, they broke the covenant made with their fathers, which interdicted such practices, ns , brother, is not here to be pressed, as if reference were had to the father of the female who had been re pudiated. i"nsa *j"s is the usual idiom, one against another. Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 6. The questions so pointedly put at the commencement of this verse are highly condemnatory of that degradation which is experienced by Oriental females. Not only do most of the Mohammedans deny them the privilege of immortality, but the Jews universally to this day give thanks every morning — the man, that God has not made him a woman ; and the woman, that God has made her '^"ana , according to his pleasure. 11. The nominative to niJ3 is yns , understood in n~".n" . By n"n- v-p, the holiness of Jehovah, is meant the people of the Hebrews, who were sep arated to be a people devoted to his ser vice. Comp 'i -; ' n yn \ , the holy seed, Ezra ix. 2 ; and nln"V Vspyir lsnp. Is rael is holiness, i. e. holy to Jehovah, Jer. ii. 3. Eor ans nis comp. Ps. xlvii. 5. "The daughter of a strange god" means an idolatress, a female addicted to the worship of a false deity. 12. n:in ns has been variously ren dered. The LXX. mistaking ny for -,v , have ecus Kal Taireivwfrjj. Vulg. magis- trum et discipulum. Targ. -a nas n- , 7 7 \. 7 son and son's son. Syr. • «-i\w ai j_2^o S1^S> both his son and his son's son. Thus also Abarbanel, Sachs, Ewald, and others. The phrase is obviously, from its very form, like -a;p "|"3 , aspy- a;ay , proverbial, and has its parallel in the Ara bic ,_ *jlS\jO ^« cli> Lg_5 jj*-Jj, There is not in the city a caller, nor is there a responder. Life of Timur, quoted by Gesenius in his Thesaur. p. 1001. Turkish, olys- *# >J L?«! *^ 448 MALACHI. Chap. II. 13 And this ye have done a second time, Covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, With weeping and groaning, So that there is no longer any regard paid to the offering, Nor is it favorably received at your hand, 14. Yet ye say, Wherefore ? Because Jehovah was witness Between thee and the wife of thy youth ; To whom thou hast acted unfaithfully, Though she was thy companion and covenanted wife. 15 Yet did he not make one ? Though he had the residue of the spirit ; And why the one ? That he might seek a godly seed ; Therefore take heed to your spirit, That none act unfaithfully to the wife of his youth. j Jol, both the watcher, and the an swerer. The meaning is, that none should be left alive ; all should be cut off. Ge senius thinks that the reference is prob ably to the Levites who kept watch in the temple by night, and who called and responded to each other at certain inter vals; but the mention that is made of " the tents of Jacob" immediately after, shows that the words are not to be thus restricted, ny is the participle of nay, to wake, be awake. 13. n"3» is to be taken strictly in the sense of a second time. Measures had been adopted to cure the evil in the time of Ezra, chap. ix. x. ; but the Jews had relapsed into the same sin of marrying foreign wives in that of Nehemiah, and it is this latter which the prophet here reproves. Neh. xiii. 23 — 31. The lan guage implies an aggravation of the offence. The crying and weeping were those of the Jewish wives who had been repudiated by their husbands. 14. The legitimate marriages had been contracted with special appeal to Jehovah as witness of the transaction. The phrase ^-"i y; n'is , the wife of thy youth, has reference to the early marriages among the Hebrews. In Poland, at the pres ent day, they marry at the age of thir teen and fourteen, and the females still younger. 15, 16. Michaelis, Hitzig, Maurer, and Hengstenberg, concur in the opinion ex pressed in the Targum, and adopted by most of the Rabbins, that by nns , one, and nnsn , the one, Abraham is intend ed ; and maintain, that what is here stated, was designed to repel an objection raised by the priests, viz., that Abraham took an Egyptian female in addition to Sarah. The prophet, according to them, admits the fact, but denies the conse quence, by showing that Abraham still retained the Spirit of God, because his object in contracting this alliance was to obtain the seed which God had promised him, and not to gratify carnal parsion, to which the evil here condemned was to be traced. Ewald refers nns , one, to God, considering the term to be used here in the same sense as in ver. 10, but fails in giving a satisfactory explanation of the passage. Nor does the other in terpretation at all do justice to its claims ; so that we are shut up to the conclusion, that by nnsn , the one, we are to under stand nns naa , the one flesh, or conju- Chap. III. MALACHI. 449 16 For I hate divorce, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, And for a man to cover over his garment with violence, Saith Jehovah of hosts ; Therefore take heed to your spirit, That ye act not unfaithfully. 17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ? In your saying, Every one that doeth evil Is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them ; Or, Where is the God of justice ? gal body into which the first couple were formed, Gen. ii. Instead of forming only two into one, the Creator might have given to Adam many wives. There was no lack of spiritual existence from which to furnish them with intelligent souls. When he gave to Eve such an existence, he did not exhaust the immense fountain of being. There remained all with which the human race hath been furnished throughout its generations. What, then, the prophet asks, was the design of the restriction ? to this he replies, the secur ing of a pious offspring. Divorces and polygamy have ever been unfavorable to the education of children. It is only by the harmonious and loving attention be stowed by parents upon their children, that they can be expected to be brought up in the fear of God. The reply bore hard upon the priests who had married idolatrous wives. In such a connection there was everything to counteract and destroy the interests of piety. 16. s:pu should be pointed s:o , with the personal pronoun ";s understood. By BnaV , garment, it is now generally admitted we are to understand the xvife, who had the most glaring injustice done to her by giving her a divorce, or by taking one or more in addition to her. Thus the Arab, iihjj, texit, induit; i ja/LaJi vestimentum, " conjux turn mu- her viri, turn vir mulieris, quod sibi invi- cem pro tegumento sunt." Freytag. Ac cordingly we read in the Koran, Sur. 183, respecting the wives : . ^XjJ wSO j^J u^LaJ |VA-«J. *.£}» they are your garment, and you are theirs. In the ecclesiastical language of the East; matrimony was called rb Stv-nrbv Kal tiov- KtKbv Ipdriov. 17. The old objection taken against the providence of God from the afflic tions of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked. CHAPTER III. This chapter commences with a lucid prophecy of John the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Messiah, and of the Messiah himself, who was, as he had long been, the object of de lightful expectation to the Jews, 1. The aspect of his advent in regard to the wicked, and especially to the ungodly priesthood, is next introduced, together with the severe judgments that were to be brought upon the nation, 2—6- The people are then reproved for having withheld the legal tithes and offerings, and are promised a profusion of bless ings in case of repentance, 7—12. To the infidel objection that there is no utility in relig- 57 450 MALACHI. Chap. III. ion, seeing the wicked prosper, while the godly are oppressed, the prophet replies by pointing to the day of retribution, when all should be treated according to their charac ter, which would then be fully disclosed, 13—18. 1 Behold ! I will send my messenger, And he shall prepare the way before me, And suddenly there shall come to his temple The Lord whom ye seek, 1. That by ^asVn , my messenger, we are to understand John the Baptist, is placed beyond dispute by the appro priation of the words of the prophecy to him, Mark i. .1. Comp. Is. xl. 3. Hengstenberg strangely gives in to the notion of Eiehhorn and Theiner, that the collective body of the prophets is intended, though he thinks that the idea of the messenger chiefly concentrates in John. Not one of his five reasons is at all satisfactory. The office of this mes senger is described as preparing the way for the Messiah. The language is bor rowed from the custom of sending pio neers before an Eastern monarch, to cut through rocks, and forests, and remove every impediment that might obstruct his course. n:£ , which in Kal is never transitive, signifies in Piel to clear, clear away, pul in order, prepare. This John did by preaching repentance, and an nouncing the near approach of the king dom of God. Comp. chap. iv. 5. In this prophecy of the Messiah are three palpable and incontrovertible proofs of his divinity. Eirst, he is identified with Jehovah : " he shall prepare the way be fore me" — " saith Jehovah." Second ly, He is represented as the Proprietor of the temple. Thirdly, He is charac terized as "n"isn , The Sovereign, a title nowhere given in this form to any except Jehovah. In its anarthrous state the noun -p-is is applicable to any owner, possessor, or ruler, and it is ap plied in the construct state to Jehovah as "ppsn- Va "ITS, the Possessor of the whole earth, Josh. iii. 11, 13 ; but when it takes the article, as here, it is used Kar i^oxhv, and exclusively of the Di vine Being. See Exod. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23. Is. i. 24, hi. 1, x. 16, 33, xix. 4 ; See Dr. J. Pye Smith's Messiah, vol. i. pp. 442 — 444. Abenezra thus explains the term, and identifies the Sovereign Lord with the Angel spoken of immedi ately after : '•jsVn sin -naan sin TH^rr Visa cyan ¦'S mnan , The Lord is both the Divine Majesty, and the Angel of the Covenant, for the sentence is doubled. It is likewise admitted in Mashmiah Je- shua, fol. 76, -jVtt Vy "pisn w-ieV iees h^ffittn , The Lord may be explained of the King Messiah ; and Kimchi not only, with Abenezra, identifies the Lord and the Angel, but applies both to the Mes siah : sim n^ttttn "jVn sin •jnsn n,_ian *;sVtt , The Lord is the King Messiah, he is also the Angel of the Cov enant ; though, in order to elude the Christian application of the passage, he suggests another interpretation, accord ing to which Elijah is meant. It has been questioned, whether the phrase n^nan tjsVn., the Messenger of the Cov enant, is to be viewed retrospectively or prospectively ; in other words, whether it be the Old or the New Covenant to which reference is made. Considering the fact, that in such parallel forms as n^nan nVnV, the tables of the covenant. rrnan "ins, the ark of the covenant. mnan ISO , the book of the covenant rV'-ian an, the blood of the covenant. etc., the ancient dispensation which Je Chap. III. MALACHI. 451 Even tho Messenger of the covenant, in whom ye delight, Behold ! he shall come, saith Jehovah of hosts. But who may endure the day of his coming ? And who may stand when he appeareth ? For he is like the fire of the refiner, And like the soap of the fullers ; And he shall sit, refining and purifying the silver ; He shall purify the sons of Levi, And refine them like gold and like silver, That they may present to Jehovah an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Be pleasing to Jehovah, hovah granted to the Hebrews at Sinai is intended, it would seem natural to in fer that n^-ian ^sVn is to be understood in the same way. This view of the sub ject would seem to be corroborated by the circumstances, that a ^spp? , Angel or Messenger, who is said to possess the Divine name, i. e. whatever is distinctive of Deity, is frequently spoken of under that economy; that He is represented as leading the Israelites out of Egypt, giving them the law, and superintend ing the whole of the theocracy. All the theophanies or manifestations of the in visible Deity were made in his Person. He was the proper nuncius sent to reveal the will of the Eather. Moses was only a Sepuiruv, lay , or servant employed by him, while he was God manifested in glory. I can put no other consistent construction upon such passages as the following: Gen. xlviii. 15, 16; Exod. iii. 2—15, xxiii. 20, 21; Is. lxiii. 9; Zech. i. ii. iii. vi. ; Acts vii. 38 ; Heb. xi. 26, xii. 26. In strict consistency with the representations of Scripture, therefore, the Messiah may be called the Messenger of that ancient economy of which he was the Founder and Head. Most interpreters, however, understand the New Covenant, or the dispensation of grace, with special reference to Heb. ix. 15, where our Saviour is called Bra- »7)K77S xairqs pealrns, the Mediator of the New Covenant; among others, Grotius, Rosenmiiller, and Gesenius. The Jews may be said to have sought and delighted in the Messiah, because he was the object of national expectation and desire, though the great body of them formed no higher conception of him than that of an earthly monarch, under whose reign they should enjoy a profusion of temporal blessings. When it is declared that he should come " suddenly" to his temple, it is not im plied that he was to come in or near the times of the prophet, but merely that his coming would be sudden and unex pected in the circumstances under which it took place. 2 — 4. Employing a strong metallurgic metaphor, the prophet shows that the Covenant Messenger would be very dif ferent from that which the carnal Jews expected. Instead of flattering their prejudices, and gratifying their wishes, he would, by his pure and heart-search ing doctrines, subject their principles and conduct to the severest test. Those of the priests should be specially tried. The object he was to have in view in this trial, was their purification, that they might serve him in righteousness. Matt. iii. 12 ; John xv. 3. And such was the result with respect to many of them. " A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith," Acts vi. 7. The influence of their conversion upon the people must have been very great, though we have no information respecting it in 452 MALACHI. Chap. III. As in the days of old, And as in the former years. 5 But I will draw nigh to you for judgment, And will be a swift witness Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, And against those who swear to a falsehood, And against those who wrest the wages of the hireling, The widow and the orphan, Who turn aside the stranger as to his right, And fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. 6 Because I am Jehovah, I change not ; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 7 Even from the days of your fathers Ye have departed from my statutes, and have not kept them; Return to me, and I will return to you, Saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherewith shall we return ? 8 Will a man defraud God ? Yet ye have defrauded me. But ye say, Wherein have we defrauded thee ? In the tithes and the oblations. 9 Ye are cursed with the curse ; For ye — the whole nation — have defrauded me. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, the Acts. The religious services of the 6. As the incommunicable name nin", churches composed of Jewish converts in Jehovah, implies a futurity of reference Jerusalem and throughout Judea, are with respect to the communication of represented as peculiarly well-pleasing to blessings (see on Hos. xii. 5), the Divine God. Eor the meaning of nnsn , offer- immutability secured the preservation of ing, as here used, comp. chap. i. 10, 11. the Jewish people from destruction, not- 5. Malachi here returns to his own withstanding their flagrant wickedness, times, and threatens his ungodly con- till he had accomplished all his purposes temporaries with divine judgment, speed- of mercy. ily to be executed upon them. Magic 7. The V in "'BpnV is prosthetic, with greatly prevailed among the Jews after somewhat of its temporal signification. the captivity, as did also the other crimes There was still mercy in store for the here specified. How much they obtained Jews, if they only would repent. in the time of our Lord, we learn from 8. yap , which occurs only in out the Evangelists and Josephus. The prophet, and in Prov. xxii. 23, signifies prophet traces them all back to their to cover^ fo anything covertly, defraud. true source — absence of the fear of God. „ , . , „ . , .. i .. ... „, , . Comp. the Arab. «Aa, retrahit, *j\S, After cyaBaap, , the phrase 'B'fa is (__• ' (_; found in nineteen MSS., in some printed occultus. editions, and in the LXX., Syr., Hexapl., 9- ComP- chap. ii. 2. and Arab. !"• 1" — b- — iy , usque ad defectum Chap. III. MALACHI. 453 That there may be meat in my house, And try ine now with this, saith Jehovah of hosts, Whether I will not open for you the windows of heaven, And pour out a blessing for you, Till there shall be a superabundance. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; Neither shall your vine in the field be unfruitful, Saith Jehovah of hosts. 12 And all the nations shall pronounce you happy, For ye shall be a delightful land, Saith Jehovah of hosts. 13 Your words against me have been hard, saith Jehovah; But ye say, What have we spoken against thee ? 14 Ye have said: It is vain to serve God ; And what profit is it that we keep his ordinance, And that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts ? 15 For now' we pronounce the proud happy ; They also that work wickedness are built up ; They even tempt God, yet they are delivered. 16 Then they that feared Jehovah Conversed one with another ; And Jehovah hearkened, and heard, sufficientia, i. e. not as Gesenius explains awful specimens of their hard speeches it, till my abundance be exhausted, are here exhibited, in which the usual which being impossible, the phrase is objection against the rectitude of Provi- equivalent to, forever, without end ; but dence is dressed up in ¦ some of its more where sufficiency can have no more taking forms. Comp. Job xxi. 14, 15 ; place, more than sufficient, superabund- ps. Ixxiii. 1 — 14. -]na is here used like antly. To this effect Jerome, Winer, roj in the bad sense' of tempting, or De Wette, Hitzig, and Maurer. braving the Most High by presumptuous 11. By the Vas, devourer, noxious speeches and conduct. The walking afiimals and insects are meant, especially mournfully has reference to their goin<* the locusts, Vsa; properly signifies to about in sackcloth and ashes, pretending rause abortion, render childless, and met- to sorrow on account of their sins, i-ip , aphorically, to make barren or unfruit- to be dirty, to go about in filthy gar- ful, when spoken of trees. ments, like persons who mourn ; such 13 — 15. pTI-i signifies to bind fast, being universally the custom in the East. make firm, and, in a bad sense, to be 16. ts , then, specially marks the time hard, obstinate, or the like. Such was in which the impious conversations were the language of the Jews against Jeho- being held. Here^api: beautifully con- vah. Comp. Jude 15, irepl irdvrav twv trasts with the same term in the thir- onXnpwv wv ixdxvaav nar' abrov. Some teenth verse. The verb is in Niphal, to 454 MALACHI. Chap. HI. And a book of remembrance was written before him, For those that feared Jehovah, And thought upon his name. 17 And they shall be a peculiar treasure to me, saith Jehovah of hosts, In the day which I have appointed ; And I will be kind to them As a father is kind to his son who serveth him. 18 Then shall ye again perceive the difference Between the righteous and the wicked, Between him that serveth God, And him that serveth him not. express the reciprocal or conversational character of the language. As the un godly did not confine their hard speeches to the mere utterance of them to such individuals as they might happen to meet, but made their infidel objections the subject of mutual discussion, so the pious are here represented as holding mutual converse respecting the interests of truth and godliness. It does not ap pear that Niphal ever has the frequenta tive signification, expressed in our com mon version. The writing of' a book of remembrance is a metaphor borrowed from the custom at the Persian court of entering in a record the names of any who have rendered service to the king, with an account of the nature of such service. See Esther vi. 1, 2. 17. nVje is to be construed with STji "V , and rivs is connected by means of n-as with fc-p . The phrase c'v ntey , to make a day, which occurs chap. iv. 3 ; Ps. cxviii. 24, means to fix, ordain, ap point, such a period for the execution of a special purpose, n bi 0 , signifies pri vate, special, or peculiar property. VjO , like the kindred root -i JO , has the pri mary signification of shutting up, closing, and then, secondarily, that of getting, or acquiring, what is shut up, in order to its being carefully preserved. Hence the idea of what is peculiarly valuable or precious. The term is applied to the people of Israel, Exod. xix. 5 ; Deut. vii. 6, xiv. 2, xxvi. 18. It is used of the choice treasure of kings, etc., Eccles. ii. 8. It is expressive of the high estima tion in which God holds his people, and, in this connection, of their perfect safety in the day of judgment. 18. a*|W is used idiomatically in con nection with nsn to express the repeti tion of the action, the idea of which is conveyed by the latter verb. Notwith standing the charge brought by the wicked against the providence of God, as if he treated all alike, the righteous had already had opportunities of perceiv ing from observation and experience, that the position was false, viewed in applica tion to the entire state and circumstan ces of the different characters ; but they should have another and most convinc ing proof in the salvation of all who loved and feared the Lord, and in the overthrow and destruction of his ene mies. Chap. IV. MALACHI. 455 CHAPTER IV. Most editions of the Hebrew Bible, and most of tho MSS., exhibit this concluding portion of the hook as a continuation of the third chapter. Not a few MSS., however, leave a blank spncc before it, and several editions make a separate chapter of it. As this division obtains in all the versions, it is more convenient to retain it. The chapter continues the threatenings against the Jewish unbelievers, 1; exhibits a lumi nous prophecy of the Messiah, and the prosperity of his people, 2, 3; and concludes with a solemn cay to the Jews, to observe the institutes of the old economy, till the forerunner of the Messiah should appear, when the Jewish polity should be destroyed, and a new and better dispensation established, 4—6. Foe, behold ! the day cometh, it shall burn as an oven, And all the proud, and every one that doeth wickedly, shall be stubble, And the day that cometh shall burn them up, Saith Jehovah of hosts ; That it may not leave them either root or branch. But unto you that fear my name, The Sun of righteousness shall arise, 1. Instead of nsv-t T,vS, nearly eighty MSS., the most ancient and sev eral other editions, the Babylon, Talmud, the LXX., Syr., and Targ., read •¦vs nyin in the plural. The phrase v-}V tpy'-i , root or branch, is proverbial, and signifies any, the least remnant. The persons referred to were to be consigned to utter destruction. The Targhum has na nap na , son or son's son. 2. The term BB'J , Sun, is metaphor ically applied to God, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, on account of that luminary being the most glorious and beneficent object which meets the human eye. It is with good reason supposed to be thus used of the Messiah in the declaration, 2 Sam. xxiii. 4 : •jjw-i-nntp ij;.3 nisa,?, " And as the morning light he shall arise — a Sun." In the present verse there can be no doubt with respect to the application. Our Lord is elsewhere called n'^s , Light, which in Hebrew poetry is used of the sun, as the source of light. See Is. ix. 1, xlix. 6 ; John i. 9, viii. 12. What the sun is to the natural world, that the Messiah is to the moral. The mvaluable spiritual blessings which he dispenses are all comprehended under the two heads here specified — righteousness and moral health. Comp. Is. lvii. 19. Both of these are indispensably requisite to the happiness of our guilty and depraved race, and from no other quarter can they - be obtained, than from Him, "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifieation, and re demption." 1 Cor. i. 30. By " wings " we are to understand the beams of the sun, on account of the velocity and ex pansion with which they spread over the 456 MALACHI. Chap. IV, And there shall be healing in his wings ; And ye shall go forth and leap as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked ; Surely they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day which I have appointed, saith Jehovah of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, Which I gave him in charge in Horeb for all Israel, The statutes and the judgments. Behold ! I will send to you Elijah the prophet, earth. Comp. Ps. cxxxix. 9. Those for whose immediate benefit the Sun of righteousness was to arise, were such as " feared the name " of Jehovah — like Simeon, who was SUaios Kal eiiXafiiis, righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Luke ii. 25. sa'' , to go forth, is here used in the sense of escaping from the judgment to be in flicted upon the unbelieving part of the Jewish nation. This the Jewish Chris tians did when they left Jerusalem, and proceeded to Pella, where they were pre served in safety, v ¦ 3 , signifies to spread, take a wide range, and is used of the proud prancing of horses, and as here of the leaping and sporting of calves. The simile is designed to convey the ideas of freedom from outward restraint, and the enjoyment of self-conscious hilarity. 3. This verse expresses the depressed condition to which the Jews were to be reduced after the destruction of their polity, contrasted with the prosperous condition of those who embraced Chris tianity, and who were no longer subject to oppression on the part of their unbe lieving brethren. 4. As the law and the prophets were to remain in force till the appearance of John the Baptist, no prophet intervening after Malachi to make any further com munications of the Divine will, it was necessary to pay the closest attention to the enactments and observances of the Mosaic institute. That there were no more inspired messengers under the Old Economy may be inferred, not only from the nature of the injunction here given, especially as taken in connection with the promise of a new messenger in the following verse, but also from Ecclesias- ticus xlix. 10, where, after mentioning Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the author closes with rwv SwtieKa irpocpnTwv, the twelve prophets, as the last in the category. 5. The coherence of this verse with the first clause of chap. iii. is too palpa- able to be overlooked. Accordingly, the Jews in the time of Jerome interpreted the messenger of Jehovah there predic ted, of Elijah the Tishbite, as they ex plain the present verse to this day, be lieving, that as the ancient prophet as cended into heaven both as to body and soul, he is destined to reappear in the same upon earth before the advent of Messiah the Son of David. That Elijah here presented to view is to be understood ideally and not historically, and that the individual personally intended is John the Baptist, are positions the certainty of which is rendered indubitable by the repeated declarations of our Lord. When John denied that he was Elias, John i. 2 1 , he is to be understood as making the denial in reference to the personal sense of the term as employed in the question that had been proposed to him. The historical theory is entirely set aside by the express testimony of the angel, Luke i. 17, according to which all that is meant by Malachi is, that the forerunner of the Messiah was to come " in the spirit and power of Elias." Like that prophet, he was to be endowed with extraordinary Chap. IV. MALA C HI. Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah conic : 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, power and energy, to fit him for the great work of reformation which his ministry was designed to effect. Adverting to the erroneous Jewish notion, which even then obtained, relative to the appearance of Elijah in person, our Lord says of John, " If ye will receive it, avrbs ianv 'HXlas 6 peXXwv epxecr&ai, he is Elias who was to come," Matt. xi. 17. And when the disciples asked him, "Why do the Scribes then say that Elias must first come ? he replied, Elias shall, indeed, first come and restore all things! But I say unto you that 'HKias tftiv %X&e, Elias is already come, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed." Matt. xvii. 10 — 13. Upon the circum stance that our Lord uses the future tense, epx^rai, shall come, some Chris tian interpreters have attempted to estab lish the hypothesis, that the prophecy is still to be fulfilled before his second ad vent ; but he is obviously speaking in the style of language employed by the prophet, to whom the event was future, and in adaptation to the opinion of the Scribes, though he immediately corrects what was erroneous in their notion, de claring that the event was no longer future, but had actually taken place in the person and ministry of John. It is truly surprising that any should persist in giving to the prophecy an aspect still future, in the very face of an exposition at once positive and infallible. That John the Baptist was S"a: , a prophet, Christ admits, though he at the same time declares, that he was " more than a prophet." Matt. xi. 9. The "great and terrible day of Jehovah " was the dreadful period of his judgment, effecting the destruction of Jerusalem by the Ro mans. Comp. Joel ii. 31. 6. The design of the ministry of John is described as consisting in the produc tion of universal peace and concord. Eamily feuds had increased to an enor- 58 mous extent by the time of John the Baptist, the removal of which by genu ine repentance and reformation of con duct might be taken as a specimen of the airoKardaraais, or restoration of things to a better state throughout Judea. Some have proposed to take the preposi-- tion Vy , to, as equivalent to c y , with, u signification which it sometimes has, and so to explain the passage as simply pre dicting the universality of the conver sion spoken of; but such an interpreta tion would introduce an intolerable tau tology into the language of the prophet, and be at variance with the construction put upon it by the angel, Luke i. 17, in which only one member of the sentence is quoted. With respect to the extent of the effects produced by John's ministry, there can be no doubt it was very great. Not only did immense multitudes come to his baptism, confessing their sins, but the great body of the common people appear to have been prepared by him for the labors of our blessed Lord him self, and thus the foundation was laid for the recovery of tens of thousands from Judaism to the faith of the gospel, previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. See Acts xxi. 20. The prophecy, and with it the entire Old Testament, closes with the awful alternative — the denunciation of the Divine curse, to be realized in the ex termination of the impenitent Jews from their own land. Cnn. signifies utter de struction, from tin „ to shut or stop up, exclude from common use, place under a ban, devote to destruction. It is one of the most fearful words in use among the Jews, and was specially applied to the ¦extermination of the Canaanites, whose cities were razed to the founda tions, and their inhabitants utterly de stroyed. Under this ban, the land of Palestine has lain ever since the capture 458 MALACHI. Chap. IV And the heart of the children to the fathers, Lest I come and smite the land with a curse. of Jerusalem ; and the sufferings to incomparably more dreadful is the New which, in consequence, the Jews have Testament enn — ANAQEMA, MAP AN been subjected are truly appalling ; but ABA ! 1 Cor. xvi. 22. WARREN F. 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