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 fe τ ἢ AGM T A Had eh 
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 δ δὲ 
 τ : SWAG debe Me 
 
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 Seas 
 
 Me Sivek 
 Nee adam 
 
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 Hever herd 
 
 Wo δ δον νον 
 PAA 
 
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 Carne heer) 
 
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 Was BD eds νεῖν! 
 eet 
 
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 Ve ey: 
 {18 gear. 
 
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 erate as ‘ Ρῃ 
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 <n OF PRINCES 
 
 
 
 
 BS1560 .H496 1858 
 
 Henderson, Ebenezer, 1784-1858. 
 
 Book of the twelve minor prophets : trans 
 from the cnginal Hebrew with a commen! 
 
μ ἣ 
 
 wu, : 
 ve 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 we 
 : i in, 
 | ᾿ 
 ' 7 
 νυ" ἣν 
 ὌΝ 
 
THE BOOK, ‘. 
 
 THE TWELVE 
 
 ΜΙΝΟΝΡΕΟΡΗ eS, 
 
 Translated from the Original Hebrote : 
 
 WITH A 
 
 COMMENTARY, 
 
 CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 E. HENDERSON, D.D. 
 
 
 
 Unam quandam ac certam et simplicem sententiam ubique 
 queerendam esse.—MELANCHTHON. 
 
 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 LONDON : 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 
 33, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLVIII. 
 
 4 
 a 
 ~~ 
 
LONDON: 
 R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
HOSEA. . 
 JOEL 
 
 AMOS 
 OBADIAH 
 JONAH 
 MICAH 
 NAHUM 
 HABAKKUK 
 ZEPHANIAH 
 HAGGAL . 
 ZECHARIAH 
 MALACHI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
ΠΥ Gat δὲ 100 
 
 ay Ἢ a os; 
 be & ΡΟ Cure ΜΝ ΔἸ τίς 
 
 i? ἢ att ἜΝ 
 
 ote Yaa Ἢ WP 
 yu Re bf 
 
 ) ἘΠῚ 
 
 ΓΗ EMAAR ἡ 
 THD, if A 
 
 
 
GENERAL PREFACE, 
 
 | 
 
 Tue Minor Prophets are first mentioned as the Twelve by 
 Jesus the Son of Sirach."| Under this designation, they also 
 occur in the Talmudic tract, entitled Baba Bathra;? 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 Zhereasar.’ Melito, who is the first 
 of the Greek Fathers that has left us a catalogue of these 
 books, uses precisely the same language.* That they were 
 regarded as forming one collective body of writings at a still 
 earlier period, appears from the reference made by the proto- 
 martyr Stephen to the Book of the Prophets,’ when quoting 
 Amos v. 25—27. The same style is employed by the Rab- 
 bins, who call Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, the 
 Four Latter Prophets.’ They are also spoken of as one book 
 
 1 Kal τῶν δώδεκα προφητῶν τὰ dara ἀναθάλοι ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτῶν, Kcclus. 
 xlix. 10. 
 2 wr DD, 
 3 ὋΣ IN; or, as it is generally contracted, 10/1. 
 * τῶν δώδεκα ἐν μονοβίβλιῳ. 
 ° Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν Βίβλῳ τῶν προφητῶν, Acts vil. 42. 
 DIN D8") AYINW, 
 
 b 
 
v1 GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 by Gregory Nazianzen, in his poem, setting forth the com- 
 ponent parts of the sacred volume.’ 
 
 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 existence 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.’ 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 
 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 that of those which precede them, and not with any view 
 
 * Μίαν μέν εἰσιν ἐς γραφὴν of Δώδεκα: 
 ᾽᾿Ωσηὲ κ᾽ ᾽Αμ ἧς, καὶ Μιχαίας ὃ τρίτος, 
 Ἔπεῖτ᾽ Ἰωὴλ, εἶτ᾽ ᾿Ιωνᾶς, ᾿Αβδίας, 
 Ναούμ τε, ᾿Αμβακούμ τε, καὶ Σοφονίας, 
 ᾿Αγγαῖος, εἶτα Ζαχαραίας, Μαλαχίας, 
 Μία μὲν οἶδε. Carmen xxxiii. 
 Καὶ ὡς καταβαλλόμενος βιβλιοθήκην, ἐπισυνήγαγε τὰ περὶ τῶν βασιλέων 
 
 3 ΄“ A ‘A a“ A 
 καὶ προφητῶν, καὶ τὰ τοῦ Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἐπιστολὰς βασιλέων περὶ ἀναθεμάτων. 
 
 2 Mace. ii. 13. 
 
 9 
 
 
 
GENERAL PREFACE. Vil 
 
 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 Septuagint 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 cal- 
 culation :— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HEBREW. | LEX, CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. 
 1, Hosea. 1. Hosea. bey 6] goatee: about 865 B.c. 
 2. Joel. 2. Amos. 2. Jonah.... — 810 
 3. Amos. 3. Micah. 3. Amos.... °“— 790 
 4, Obadiah. 4, Joel. AL TL OBO τ ΩΣ xizcs “WhO 
 ὃ. Jonah. ὃ. Obadiah. a: Micah... - 2) fou 
 6. Micah. 6. Jonah. 6. Nahum... — 710 
 7. Nahum. 7. Nahum. 7. Zephaniah. — 630 
 8. Habakkuk. 8. Habakkuk. 8. Habakkuk. — 606 
 9. Zephaniah, 9. Zephaniah. ὃ. Obadiah .. — 9590 
 10. Haggai. 10. Haggai. 10. Haggai... — 520 
 11. Zechariah. 11. Zechariah, Π Zechariah oo) 
 12. Malachi. 12. Malachi. 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 reference, 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 description, and the 
 
Vill GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 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 matter, or from the manner of 
 its treatment, which present difficulties of no ordinary mag- 
 nitude to common readers, and many that are calculated to 
 exercise the ingenuity, and, in no small degree, to perplex 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 respecting the persons or things which are presented 
 to view in the 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 touch 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, 
 
GENERAL PREFACE. ix 
 
 mere compendia, or condensed notes of what he publicly 
 delivered, though preserving, to a considerable extent, the 
 logical and verbal forms which characterised 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 the other prophets. The visions of 
 Zechariah also are not without their difficulties; 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, includes the entire prophetic cycle of more than 
 four hundred years—lIsaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, 
 having also lived in it. It is unquestionably the most eventful 
 im the history of the Hebrews. It embraces the introduction 
 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 kmgdom to its centre; the 
 corruptions of the Jewish state in consequence 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 Baby- 
 lonian 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 pre- 
 dictions, warnings, threatenings, promises, and moral lessons, 
 have, in a multiplicity of aspects, a more or less pointed and 
 
Χ GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 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 destruction 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 suffermg, and his regal and 
 all-conquering character, that are to be found in the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 It is impossible seriously to peruse this collection of pro- 
 phetical writings without discovermg 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 befal mankind in the present state of exist- 
 ence. ‘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, throughly furnished unto 
 all good works.” 2 Tim. ii, 15—17. 
 
GENERAL PREFACE. ΧΙ 
 
 The principles on which the Author has proceeded in pre- 
 " paring the present 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 contribution 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 collection 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 consulted the 
 best critical commentaries; he has availed himself of the 
 results of modern philological research ; and he 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. 
 Tn all his investigations he has endeavoured 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 per- 
 mitted 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 
 
xl GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 unbridled imagination. Happily the number of those who 
 adhere to the multiform method of interpretation 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, here- 
 ditarily kept up under the specious garb of spirituality and of 
 a more profound understanding of Scripture, are discovered 
 and exposed, the necessity of abandoning such slippery and 
 untenable ground will be recognised, and the plain, simple, 
 grammatical and natural species of interpretation, adopted and 
 
 followed. 
 
 
 
 *.* A Second Edition of this work being in demand, it 
 has been revised for the purpose, but is otherwise only a re- 
 print. The Author would have been glad to enrich it by 
 adding references to those new discoveries at Nineveh, and 
 still more recently at Memphis, which forcibly serve to illus- 
 trate the meaning and evidence the truthfulness of the 
 prophetic writings ; but being precluded by the infirmities of 
 advancing years from making such attempt, he must rest 
 content to re-issue the volume in its original form. 
 
ΠΟ υ HA. 
 
 Phyl? A Gk: 
 
 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 embraced, 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 be- 
 tween their communications, although 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 that the con- 
 tents 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 cotemporary with Isaiah, Micah, and Amos, and, 
 like the last-mentioned prophet, directed his prophecies chiefly 
 against the kingdom of the ten tribes. 
 
 B 
 
2 PREFACE TO HOSEA. 
 
 From the general tenour of his book, and from the history of the 
 times contained in the Books of Kings, it is manifest that he lived 
 ina 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 “ com- 
 maticus 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 similes and metaphors are frequently so intermixed, that 
 no small degree of attention 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 most obscure and hard to be un- 
 derstood. 
 
 
 
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 him, 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 condition in the 
 land of their fathers, subsequent to the Babylonish captivity, 9—12. 
 
 1 THe word of Jehovah which was communicated to Hosea, the 
 son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Heze- 
 kiah, kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam, the son 
 
 of Joash, king of Israel. 
 
 2 The beginning of the word of Jehovah by Hosea. 
 
 Jehovah 
 
 said to Hosea: Go, take thee a lewd woman, and lewd children, 
 
 1. The kings here mentioned are those 
 specified in the inscription to the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah, with the addition of 
 Jeroboam, the son of Joash, commonly 
 called Jeroboam the Second, to distin- 
 guish him from the son of Nebat. This 
 monarch carried on very successful wars 
 with his northern neighbours, and reco- 
 vered 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 pro- 
 moted idolatry in Israel. See 2 Kings 
 xiv. 23—28. 
 
 By 13), word, is meant the prophetic 
 matter contained in the book. Thus the 
 Targ. 722 0308,—i7T7 is commonly ren- 
 dered “came” in such connexion, 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. ἜΤ is equivalent to 723, and is ren- 
 dered as a noun in the LXX., Targ., and 
 Syr. It occurs in the absolute form 
 1270, Jer. v. 13, with a similar reference 
 to inspired matter. Some have attempted 
 to show from the words ΠῚ ΠΡ 737 non 
 yoima that Hosea was the first of the 
 prophets employed to convey Jehovah’s 
 messages to his ancient people; but 
 contrary to the import of the words, 
 which merely refer to the commence- 
 ment of the prophecies of Hosea. For the 
 use of the preposition 2 in such con- 
 nexion, see Numb. xii. 2; 2 Sam. xxill. 
 2. Comp. ἐν προφήταις, Heb. i. 1. 
 
 The transaction here described, and 
 that narrated chap. iii. 1, are clogged 
 
4 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 for the land hath committed great lewdness, in a state of sepa- 
 
 ration from Jehovah. 
 
 with almost insuperable difficulties; and, 
 as may be expected, have given rise to 
 very different modes of interpretation. 
 By most commentators, the things spe- 
 cified are considered to have actually 
 taken place in the outward history of the 
 prophet. Others, as Abarbanel, Kimchi, 
 Maimonides, Ruffinus, Cicolampadius, 
 Marckius, Pococke, and recently Heng- 
 stenberg, regard the whole in the light 
 of internal prophetic vision; while 
 Calvin, Luther, Osiander, Rivetus, Da- 
 neus, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, and others, 
 treat it as a species of parabolical repre- 
 sentation, in which the prophet appropri- 
 ates to himself imaginary circumstances, 
 aptly fitted to impress the minds of those 
 whom he addressed with a sense of their 
 wickedness, and the punishment to which 
 it exposed them. 
 
 To the last of these opinions it may 
 justly be objected that the language, 
 And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go,” &e. 
 is identical with that used Is. vii. 3; vill. 
 Vs xx. Ὁ; Jer. xi. 1—7; xvi. 1,2; xix.; 
 Ezek. iv. v. xii. xxiv.;. and in many 
 other passages, which cannot without 
 violence be understood parabolically. 
 Not the slightest hint is given, in the 
 present case, that the circumstances are 
 fictitious. Besides, it has been observed, 
 that there is no instance of any of the 
 prophets ever making himself the subject 
 of a parable. 
 
 The same objection lies with equal 
 force against the assumption, that the 
 things described were merely exhibited 
 internally to the mind of the prophet. 
 The Divine mandate was doubtless in- 
 ternal; but there is no intimation that 
 what follows was in vision, any more 
 than in the instances above quoted. On 
 the contrary, it is set forth as real 
 matter of fact. When internal scenic 
 representations were granted, the verbs 
 mm or ΠΝ, fo see, are always employed 
 to describe the experience of the person 
 who viewed them, which is not the case 
 here. See Is. vi.; Jer. xxiv. 1; Ezek. 
 
 literal interpretation, according to which 
 the transactions, though symbolical, were 
 
 real and outward in the history of Hosea. 
 Those, however, who adopt this view, 
 are not agreed on the subject of the 
 females specified :—some being of opi- 
 nion that only one is intended in both 
 passages ; others, two: some, that Gomer 
 was not a lewd character before the 
 prophet took her, but became such after- 
 wards ; others, that she was originally 
 unchaste: some, as ‘thomas Aquiias, 
 that he did not marry her at all, but 
 merely lived with her as a concubine! 
 Lyra and Newcome think that nothing 
 more is meant by “a wife of lewdness,” 
 than an Israelitess—one of those who 
 had become guilty of spiritual fornication 
 or idolatry. The position that Hosea 
 was commanded to marry an impure 
 female cannot be sustained, for two 
 reasons. First, the children were clearly 
 those afterwards described as born to the 
 prophet, and are spoken of as lewd as 
 well as their mother. Secondly, on the 
 supposition that Gomer had been guilty 
 of acts of impurity previous to her con- 
 nexion with the prophet, there would be 
 no congruity in constituting her a type 
 of Israel, who is represented as lewd 
 because she had lapsed into idolatry, in 
 violation of the marriage contract entered 
 into at Sinai. See Gesen. Lex.7n, No. 2. 
 Consistency of interpretation absolutely 
 requires the adoption of this view of the 
 subject, as is admitted both by Heng- 
 stenberg and Hitzig. The objections 
 otherwise produced by the former of 
 these authors against the literal character 
 of the transactions are more specious 
 than real. Besides being the most ob- 
 vious and natural, it has much to recom- 
 mend it on the ground of the public 
 notoriety which infidelity on the part of 
 the wife of a prophet must have created, 
 and its aptness to typify the conduct of 
 the Israelites towards Jehovah. It may 
 indeed be said, that his marrying a no- 
 toriously lewd character must have pro- 
 duced a much greater sensation. True; 
 but besides the encouragement which it 
 must have been calculated to give to the 
 formation of unhallowed and irreligious 
 connexions, it would not, as was just 
 observed, have been in accordance with 
 the design of the transaction, which was, 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 HOSEA. 5 
 
 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and 
 
 4 she conceived, and bare him a son. 
 him, Call his name JEZREEL ; 
 
 And Jehovah said unto 
 for yet a little while, and I will 
 
 avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will 
 5 cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. And it shall 
 come to pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in 
 
 the valley of Jezreel. 
 
 not to represent the character of the 
 Hebrews before the period of their na- 
 tional reception into alliance with Jeho- 
 vah, but their conduct as exhibited in the 
 pages of their subsequent history. The 
 phrases DPI IM OVI MY, a lewd woman 
 and lewd children, have the same import, 
 and are not to be interpreted as if the 
 mother alone were guilty, and the chil- 
 dren merely the product of her guilty 
 conduct. Comp. the phrase >&2 Ὑ chil- 
 dren of transgression, 1. 6. transgressors, 
 Is. lvl. 4. Thus as to sense the Targ. ; 
 
 and the Syr. «2150 4850, and chil- 
 
 dren that commit lewdness. Thus also 
 Rosenmiiller. Both are anticipative as 
 to the relation of the prophet, though 
 typical of what had already taken place 
 on the part of the ten tribes. Viewed 
 as a kingdom, they are represented as a 
 mother; and as individual subjects of 
 that kingdom, they are spoken of as her 
 children, The plural O23 is emphatic, 
 as DAI in DNA we, ὅθ. Comp.O72 1%, 
 chap. iv. 12, and ii. 4. That they are 
 otherwise to be identified appears from 
 the use of πῇ, take, which properly applies 
 only to the female, but here governs both 
 nouns, as Jerome observes, ἀπὸ κοινοῦ. 
 The reason of the symbolic action is 
 assigned at the close of the verse—the 
 atrocious conduct of the Israelites in 
 renouncing the pure worship of Jehovah, 
 and addicting themselves to idolatry. 
 Comp. Lev. xvii. 7 ; xx. 5, 6; Hos. iv. 12. 
 yw, the land, is put, by metonymy, for 
 its inhabitants. The preposition 72 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 *, fo him, 1.6. 
 
 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 Complut. 
 edition of the LXX., the Itala, and the 
 Arab.; but the omission in all proba- 
 bility originated in an attempt to render 
 the phraseology conformable to that of 
 verses 6 and 8. 
 
 4, 5. oxy, Jezreel, i.e. God will scat- 
 ter, from Yu, to scatter, disperse, as in 
 Zech. χ. 9; Targ. #7729. It was other- 
 wise 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 here 
 Jehu exercised acts of the greatest cru- 
 elty, 2 Kings x. 11, 14,17. These acts 
 were speedily to be avenged in the ex- 
 tinction of the royal family, and the 
 entire cessation 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 
 generation, the prediction received its 
 accomplishment. By the “ bow of 
 Israel” is meant her military prowess, 
 which was completely subdued by the 
 Assyrian army. The valley here men- 
 tioned, afterwards called Lsdraelon, 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 
 for military operations. Accordingly, 
 Dr. E. Τὴ. Clarke observes, ‘‘ Jews, Gen- 
 tiles, Saracens, Christian Crusaders, and 
 Anti-Christian Frenchmen, Egyptians, 
 Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, 
 warriors out of every nation which 15 
 under heaven, have pitched their tents 
 upon the plains of Hsdraelon, and have 
 
6 HOSEA. 
 
 CHAR, 1. 
 
 6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter; and He said 
 to him, Call her name Lo-RunAmAH; for I will no more have 
 mercy upon the house of Israel, but will utterly take them away. 
 
 7 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. 
 
 8 And she weaned Lo-RuUHAMAH, and conceived, and bare a 
 
 9 son. And He said, Call his name Lo-Ammr; for ye are not my 
 
 10 
 
 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 instead 
 
 beheld the various banners of their 
 nations wet with the dews of Tabor and 
 Hermon.” It was, therefore, natural 
 that the Israelites should endeavour to 
 make a stand against the Assyrians in 
 this valley; but being overpowered by 
 numbers, they were obliged to suecumb 
 to the enemy. Of this discomfiture, and 
 the consequent dispersion of the ten 
 tribes, the name of the prophet’s son 
 was symbolical. 
 
 6, 7. arm NX>, Lo-RUHAMAI, 1. 6. w- 
 pitied. 5 ὉΔΌΣ elsewhere signifies fo for- 
 give; and were the verb preceded by 
 the copulative }, it might be so rendered 
 here, only supplying the negative δ 
 from the preceding clause ; but as 3 dwt, 
 excludes such repetition, the phrase must 
 be rendered as in the translation. LXX. 
 ἀντιτασσόμενος ἀντιτάξομαι αὐτοῖς. Syr. 
 
 ons 13] Noe Sass. Vale. 
 
 oblivione obliviscar eorum—reading ΝᾺ 
 which is found in De Rossi’s MS. 596, at 
 first hand, instead of 822. The kingdom 
 of Israel was never more to be restored, 
 though, in ccnjunction with the Jews, 
 the scattered Israelites were to return to 
 Canaan after the Babylonish captivity, 
 ver. 1l. It was to be very different 
 with the Jewish power. Though like- 
 wise attacked, and threatened with utter 
 extinction by Seunacherib, they were 
 mercifully delivered by a divine inter- 
 position, 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. 91799, war, stands ellip- 
 tically for 7272 Hx, 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. ‘ar 8°, Lo-AmMtI, 1. 6. zot my people, 
 further sets forth the rejection of the ten 
 tribes by Jehovah. Nothing could have 
 been better calculated to make an im- 
 pression 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 oO mMTR?, 7 will not be yours, i.e. 
 your God, Houbigant and Newcome 
 would read 0279" 8), 7 am not your God: 
 but though the antithesis is common, it 
 admits of an ellipsis, just as in Ezek. 
 xvi. 8, there is an ellipsis of 72x. Comp. 
 Ps. exvii. 6. The MSS. and versions 
 exbibit 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 Hast, whither they were to be 
 transported, they should greatly multiply, 
 and afterwards be reinstated in the pri- 
 vileges 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 
 Ts Wx, ove head, must be maintained, 
 since the Messiah, who is by many sup- 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 HOSEA. 7 
 
 of its having been said to them, Ye are not my people, it shall 
 
 11 
 
 be said to them, Ye are the children of the living God. 
 
 Then 
 
 shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel, be 
 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, AMM1; and to 
 
 your sisters, RUHAMAH. 
 
 posed to be intended, is nowhere spoken 
 of as appointed by men, but always as 
 the choice and appointment of God. 
 Yr, land, signifies, in this connexion, the 
 country of Babylon, not excluding those 
 other regions of the East in which the 
 descendants of the different tribes were 
 found. xy, Jezreel, is obviously used 
 here in a different acceptation from that 
 in which it is taken ver. 4. That of 
 sowing is alone appropriate. Illustrious 
 should be the period when the tribes 
 should again be sown in their own 
 
 country. Comp. chap. ii. 22, 23; Jer. 
 xxx. 27. 
 
 The principle on which part of ver. 
 10, and chap. 11. 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 preceding. 
 
 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 favour, 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 zation of the 
 ten tribes was the Dx, mother. Cocceius, 
 Dathe, Kuinoel, and Rickert, 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 
 causal signification of the conjunction, 
 however, seems preferable. The words 
 which it introduces form a parenthesis ; 
 
8 HOSEA. 
 
 3 Lest I strip her naked, 
 
 (CHAP. II. 
 
 And set her as in the day when she was born, 
 
 And make her as the desert, 
 And set her like a dry land, 
 
 And cause her to die with thirst. 
 4 And upon her children I will have no mercy, 
 
 For they are lewd children ; 
 
 5 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. 
 
 and 70n}, which, though future, is to be 
 rendered potentially, that she may remove, 
 connects with 12%, contend ye. The 1is, 
 as frequently, to be taken τελικῶς. The 
 repetition of 12 is emphatic, as ducite 
 in Virgil :— 
 
 “Tucite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, 
 
 ducite Daphnin.” 
 
 By Spex?) D1, fornications and adul- 
 teries, are meant the tokens or indications 
 of lewd character :—boldness of counte- 
 nance, and an immodest exposure of the 
 breasts. Both forms are reduplicate, 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 °2, “from my face ;” 
 improperly in this connexion, though a 
 similar phrase occurs elsewhere. 
 
 3. A striking accumulation of syno- 
 nymous 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 127 comp. Jer. 11. 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 3 
 D3 comp. Ot, ch. i. 2 The 
 second noun is, as frequently, used ad- 
 jectively. 
 
 5. 3, siace or because and 132, there- 
 fore, ver. 6, correspond to each other, 
 the former marking the protasis, the 
 latter the apodosis. ‘The second 53 in- 
 troduces parenthetically an illustration 
 of the statement made at the beginning 
 of the verse. 7 is the feminine par- 
 ticiple of 5, fo conceive, be pregnant. 
 Comp. τσ, Song i. 4. According to 
 the Jewish exegesis, 7, 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 D8, mother, in the preceding 
 hemistich. Interpreters are not agreed 
 respecting the rendering of 7727. 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 %2Y Tayin 3, 
 Comp. also 27, YW, PNT, as Hiph. in-- 
 transitives. The paragogie 7 in 72x, 
 elongating the future, is expressive of 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. 027s, 
 lovers, which is here employed meta- 
 phorically to denote do/s, is seldom used 
 except ina bad sense. Thisinterpretation, 
 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. pa 
 72x OI, which takes the word in the 
 sense of idolaters, or idolatrous nations, 
 such as Assyria, ὅθ. Comp. as strictly 
 parallel, Jer. xliv. 17—19. The lan- 
 guage indicates complete alienation of 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 6 Therefore, behold ! 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 I will hedge up thy way with thorns, 
 
 And will raise a wall, that she may not find her paths. 
 
 ae) 
 
 take them ; 
 
 And she shall eagerly pursue her lovers, but she shall not over- 
 
 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. 
 8 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: 
 9 Therefore I will take back my corn in its time, 
 
 heart from Jehovah, the only giver of 
 all good, and a blind confidence in, and 
 dévotion to the service of idols. ‘The 
 articles specified comprehend both the 
 necessaries and the luxuries of ancient 
 Hebrew life. 2%, o7/, is much in use 
 among the Orientals, both in its simple 
 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. 
 ‘po denotes here all kinds of artificial 
 drink, being used in distinction from 
 water. The Aldine edition of the LXX. 
 reads ὁ οἶνός pov; but the usual reading 
 is πάντα ὅσα μοι καθήκει, with which 
 the Targ. and Syr. agree. The word 
 occurs, Ps. cil. 10; Prov. ii. 8; and is evi- 
 
 dently derived from 772; Arab. ὡς»; 
 Eth. pa@p : to make to drink, to 
 
 water. 
 
 6. For Ἵ- ἢ yt the LXX., Arab., and 
 Syr., read πῆς, 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 tra- 
 veller 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. 7B, @ wall, is pointed 7773, 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. 7277 is intensive, and expresses 
 the ardour of the pursuit. The Vau in 
 72x}, marking the apodosis, points out 
 the consequence or result of the failure 
 —a resolution to turn from idols to serve 
 the livmg God. It might be rendered 
 so that, but not ἐπ order that, as Manger 
 proposes. 18, ¢hen, designates the period 
 previous to the apostasy of the ten tribes, 
 when in reward for external obedience, 
 they enjoyed temporal hiessings. Thus 
 the Targ. P22 MOT, NIN D Ὁ I 
 Rye? TB ND. 
 
 8, 9. } and 722 at the beginning of 
 these verses stand in the same relation 
 to each other as 3 and 329, verses 5th 
 and 6th. Before ὙΦ supply 7x. By 
 2, Baal, the prophet means “ images 
 of Baal,” the singular being used col- 
 lectively for the plural. Comp. ch. vill. 
 4, where D22¥, idols, correspond to 573 
 in the present case. Hitzig would re- 
 strict, Wx, understood, to 30, 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. vii. 4; 
 which also clearly proves that by 772? %P 
 weare not to understand the consecration 
 
 σ 
 
10 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP, II. 
 
 And my new wine in its season ; 
 And I will recover my wool and my flax, 
 Designed to cover her nakedness. 
 10 And now I will expose her vileness before her lovers, 
 And none shall deliver her out of my hand. 
 
 of the silver and gold to the service 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 Secker appeals 
 in favour 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 ἢ THY, when thus used, being 
 referred to sacrificial victims. Targ. 
 xno? γὴν 772, Hengstenberg attempts 
 to support the position that consecration 
 is meant; but his reasons are altogether 
 futile. The very passage which he quotes 
 as parallel (Hzek. xvi. 17, 18,) is directly 
 opposed to the exegesis of the phrase. 
 Baal was perhaps the most ancient of 
 all the gods worshipped in the Hast. He 
 was, according to Dr. Minter, the re- 
 presentative of the sun, the generative 
 power in the Eastern mythology, and 
 had associated with him Astarte, the 
 female power, which was viewed as re- 
 presenting the moon. Gesenius, how- 
 ever, is of opinion, that under these 
 names the planets Jupiter and Venus 
 were worshipped. See on Isaiah xvii. 
 8. From the frequency with which his 
 name occurs in compound Pheenician 
 names, as Hannibal, Hasdrubal, &c., the 
 worship of Baal appears to have been 
 common among that people; and from 
 them, especially the Tyrians, it was 
 borrowed by the Israclites. Mention is 
 made of this idolatry in the time of the 
 Judges, see chap. ii. 11, 18; i. 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 Manasseh. In Israel it ra- 
 pidly gained ground after the intro- 
 duction of the worship of the golden 
 calves by Jeroboam, and reached its 
 height in the reigns of Ahab and Hoshea. 
 The verb 2%, fo return, turn back, is 
 frequently used adverbially. So here 
 AMD aws, [will again take away, or 
 
 take back, i.e. deprive of. The meaning 
 is, that instead of reaping the fruits of 
 the earth, ὅσο. as they expected at the 
 usual season, they should be trodden 
 down, consumed, or taken away: by the 
 Assyrian army under Shalmaneser. 
 Jehovah vindicates his right to the 
 various articles specified, because they 
 had been bestowed by his providence ; 
 calling them Ais, with obvious reference 
 to ver. 5, in which Israel had called 
 them hers. The land and all it con- 
 tained were specially his. 252; Arab. 
 
 (vas, liberatus fuit, expresses the idea 
 
 of rescuing or recovering what was un- 
 justly held. The > in M02? denotes end 
 or purpose, and is quite in its place; so 
 that there is no necessity, with Houbigant, 
 Dathe, Horsley, Newcome, Boothroyd, 
 and others, to change it into Ὁ, out of 
 deference to the LXX. who render rod 
 μὴ καλύπτειν. 
 
 10. ™522 occurs only in this place, 
 but is obviously equivalent to 7223, atro- 
 cious, shameful, detestable wickedness. 
 Targ. ADP, her shame; UXX. τὴν ἀκαθ- 
 
 a «DOL ο, "δι ᾿ 
 αρσίαν αὐτῆς ; Syr. σιαζῦ 5.9, nudatio 
 in malum, pudenda. Castel.; Arab. 
 Byge> her nakedness. Occurring in 
 
 immediate connexion with the preceding 
 my, nudity, it conveys the superadded 
 idea of obscenity, z.e. by metonymy, the 
 results or consequences of idolatrous 
 conduct, a complete destitution of all 
 the necessaries of life. Comp. Jer. xiii. 
 26; Nah. ili. 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 deliver- 
 ance. By a prosopopeeia, the idols are 
 first endowed with the faculty of vision, 
 and then their utter imbecility is stri- 
 kingly set forth. x, not only signifies 
 man, but any one, and is frequently used 
 of imanimate objects. In connexion 
 with οἷ, it signifies zone. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 11 
 
 11 And I will cause all her joy to cease ; 
 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. 
 
 11, 12, explain the denouncement 
 made ver. 10. The country was to be 
 desolated by the invading armies, and 
 all the festivities and seasons of religious 
 observance were to cease. The different 
 terms here employed are those by which 
 the seasons of worship, &c. appointed 
 by Jehovah in the Mosaic law, are de- 
 signated; but it is not hence to be in- 
 ferred that such were observed according 
 to his appointment. The Israelites pro- 
 fessed 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 doubt- 
 less converted them into seasons of carnal 
 indulgence. The nouns are those of 
 multitude, and must be rendered in the 
 plural. 753, and 72x27, 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. 63 vii. 
 23, 24. Tnx, like 7278, is used only of 
 the hire of a harlot, and is peculiarly 
 appropriate in this connexion. Thus 
 
 Tanchum on chap. viii. 9 :— du Be "Ὁ 
 es] ων al. Comp. Is. xxiii. 
 
 17,18. The wild beast is here to be 
 taken literally, and not figuratively, as 
 Abarbanel does,—supposing the heathen 
 invaders to be meant. 
 
 fectum. 
 
 13. O37, 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, &e. By oy37 ‘27ny, are 
 meant the days specially devoted to the 
 celebration of idolatrous rites. To cause 
 grateful odours 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, &c. with a view to purify them 
 from noxious vapours. 03 and mn 
 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. 
 my, from 795, to be smooth, polished : 
 
 Arab. o> ornavit monilibus mundove 
 
 ” 
 
 suo (mulierem,) ile, mundo ornata, 
 denotes a trinket, necklace, or the like. 
 
 According to Firuzabad: & ott. Le 
 Sl 4) οὐὐϊοδκοι ἔδλδο ue 
 
 quodcunque ornamentum vel e metallis 
 conflatum, vel e lapidibus pretiosis con- 
 Rosenm., the Syr., and Targ., 
 have pearls. That courtesans decked 
 themselves with the most costly orna- 
 
12 
 
 14 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP, IT. 
 
 Nevertheless, behold! I will allure her, 
 
 And, though I lead her into the desert, 
 Yet 1 will speak soothingly to her. 
 15 And I will grant her her vineyards from thence, 
 And the valley of Achor for a door of hope: 
 And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, 
 Even as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. 
 
 ments they could command is mentioned 
 by Juvenal, Sat. vi. :— 
 
 “ Meechis foliata parantur ; 
 
 Emitur his quicquid gracilis hue mit- 
 
 titis Indi.” 
 
 The prophet has in view the gay orna- 
 ments in which the Israelites decked 
 themselves on idolatrous holidays. Their 
 entirely abandoning themselves to the 
 service of idols, and their dereliction of 
 the God of their fathers, are brought 
 forward at the conclusion of this de- 
 scription of their conduct, in order to 
 heighten the aggravation of their guilt, 
 and render the announcement of the 
 kindly disposition of Jehovah towards 
 them, at the beginning of the following 
 verse, the more surprising. 
 
 14. 722 cannot with any propriety be 
 rendered “therefore ” in this connexion, 
 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 suflici- 
 ently shows. This particle must therefore 
 
 possess the force of the Arab. o> 
 
 verumtamen, but yet, notwithstanding, 
 nevertheless. It thus marks the unex- 
 pected transition from threats to promises, 
 as Is. vil. 14; x. 24; xxvii. 9; xxx. 18, 
 et freg—ms, of which 7m is the 
 Piel participle, signifies to open, Le open, 
 easily persuasible ; hence in Piel, both 
 
 were to be forcibly removed from their 
 land by the king of Assyria, there is a 
 
 singular want of propriety in assigning 
 to 1, in 7AM, 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 history 
 of the ten tribes previously to their con- 
 version from idolatry; and which, though 
 it might seem severe, was indispensable 
 for the attainment of that object. For 
 this signification of 1, see Ruth ii. 13; 
 1 Sam. i. 5; Eccles. ix. 16; Mal. ii. 14; 
 and other instances in Noldius, No. 46. 
 Bauer thinks the desert between Assyria 
 and Judzea is meant, through which the 
 Israelites were to be conducted on their 
 release: Déderlein, Theol. Biblhoth. 
 explains it of Judea itself, at that time 
 desolate and waste. I imagine the 
 country of Babylon is intended. Je- 
 hovah is here said to do what he 
 would employ the Assyrians in doing. 
 For the phrase 12 Ὁ 735, see Is. xl. 2. 
 When reduced to circumstances of af- 
 fliction in the countries of the Hast, 
 whither they were to be carried, Jehovah 
 declares that he would administer con- 
 solation to them; holding out to them 
 the cheering prospect 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 when in the wilderness. cv, 
 thence, means, returning {rom the wilder- 
 ness ; just as ™2U indicates the home- 
 ward direction of the exiles. To take 
 Dw as a particle of time, which Gesenius 
 proposes, is less suitable. “ ‘The valiey 
 of Achor” lay in the vicinity of Jericho, 
 and was noted in the sacred history for 
 the judgment inflicted upon Achan, 
 From Is. lxv. 10, it appears to have been 
 
CHAP. 11.} . 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 13 
 
 16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, 
 
 That thou shalt call me, IsHr; 
 
 And shalt no more call me, BAALI. 
 
 17 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 day 
 With the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, 
 
 a fertile and pleasant region; and on 
 this account alone it is thought by Calvin, 
 Zanchius, Rivetus, and others, to be re- 
 ferred to by our prophet. Most of the 
 Rabbins, however, and, after them, many 
 Christian interpreters, consider allusion 
 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 
 the native inhabitants, and their hearts 
 melted, and became as water, Josh. vil. 
 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 cecu- 
 pation of the country. By mpn ms, a 
 door of hope, is meant a hopeful entrance 
 into the holy land.—nn2y, the LXX., 
 Syr., Arab., and Symm., take in the sig- 
 uification to de humbled οὐ affticted ; aud 
 this idea is adhered to by Grotius, who 
 combines it with that of singing: “ In- 
 tellige autem carmen flettis et precum ;” 
 but that of celebrating the Divine good- 
 ness in songs of gratitude and joy better 
 suits the connexion. The 7 in 79¥, as 
 before observed, indicates the homeward 
 direction of the exiles—yet not without 
 special reference to their approach to 
 the valley of Achor. The poimt 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 their native land. 
 16, 17. The word 3, Baal, had ori- 
 ginally 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 
 
 
 
 from. 
 
 which they had worshipped, and besides, 
 conveyed the idea of possession and rule, 
 rather than that of affection, God here 
 declares that in future he would be 
 called x, 7157, the name more usually 
 employed to express the relation of 
 husband, and which was not liable to 
 the same objections :— 
 
 ‘Sie mihi servitium video, dominamque 
 paratam, 
 Jam mihi libertas illa paterna vale.” 
 Tibullus, lib. 11. Eleg. 4. 
 
 Before "x, two MSS., the LXX., Aq, 
 and Syr., insert δ; while two MSS., and 
 originally seven more, and four printed 
 editions, omit it after 8I?7.—D7P3, is not 
 here to be taken as a plural of excel- 
 lency, but is used, according to its strict 
 import, to denote the different images of 
 Baal worshipped by the Israelites, such 
 as Baal-Gad, Baal-Ammon, &e. Comp. 
 Exod. xxiii. 18; 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 72772, supply 
 2, or "S28, as in chap.i.7. Targ. "RP 
 NIW7.—}9 TX is a pregnant phrase, 
 meaning, 7 will break and remove away 
 124 is here expressive of the 
 
14 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 And with the reptiles of the ground ; 
 The bow also, and the sword, and the battle, I will break and 
 
 remove from the land, 
 
 And will cause them to recline securely. 
 
 19 
 
 I will also betroth thee to myself for ever ; 
 
 I will even betroth thee to myself with righteousness and with 
 
 justice, 
 
 And with kindness, and with tender compassion. 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 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. 
 
 *Tpse lacte domum referunt distenta 
 capellae 
 Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta 
 leones. 
 Tpsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula 
 flores. 
 Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba 
 veneni 
 Occidet: Assyrium vulgd nascetur 
 amomum.” Virgil, Kiclog. iv. 
 
 _ 19,20. ws 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 apostatised 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 whom the promise is made. 
 Driv), for ever, is to be taken as Gen. 
 xii. 10; 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 
 
 Yea, I will betroth thee to myself with faithfulness : 
 And thou shalt know Jehovah. 
 And it shall be in that day, 
 
 the 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 his engagements 
 should be “faithfully” performed. 02mm, 
 ta σπλάγχνα, 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 connexion 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 Mynx, twenty-six MSS., originally 
 thirteen more, now two, perhaps other 
 two, and two editions, supported by the 
 Vulg., read 737 28 °3,2.e. thou shalt know 
 that I am Jehovah. 
 
 21,22. One of the most beautiful 
 instances of prosopopeeia to be found in 
 Scripture. Comp. the address to the Nile 
 in Tibullus, lib. 1. Kleg. vii. ver. 25 :— 
 “Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat 
 
 imbres, 
 
 Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Jovi.” 
 
 While second causes have here their 
 
CHAP. 111.} 
 
 I will respond, saith Jehovah, 
 I will respond to the heavens, 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 15 
 
 And they shall respond to the earth, 
 
 22 
 the oil, 
 
 And the earth shall respond to the corn, and the new wine, and 
 
 And they shall respond to Jezreel. 
 
 23 
 
 For I will sow her for myself in the land, 
 
 And will have mercy upon Lo-RUHAMAH, 
 And will say to Lo-Ammt, 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 the Great First Cause is 
 strongly asserted by the emphatic repe- 
 tion of 7228, 7 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 
 mT ON2 7228 entirely; and another, the 
 
 second 7228 originally.—xrw, Jezreel, 
 here means ¢hat which God hath sown, 
 i.e. his people whom he had sca¢éered, 
 but whom he would again restore to 
 their native soil. Comp. chap. i. ver. 4, 
 and 11. 
 
 23. 1 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 represention of the regard of Jehovah 
 
 for his people, and of their condition at a period subsequent to their re-establish- 
 ment 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. 1. 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 proceeding is 
 explained of a long period during which the Hebrews were to live without the 
 celebration of their ancient rites, aud at the same time be free from all idolatrous 
 practices. The direct prediction respecting their conversion to the Messiah, 
 ver. 5, clearly proves, that their condition during the present dispersion is 
 intended. 
 
16 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP, III. 
 
 1 ΑΝΡ Jehovah said unto me: Go again, love a woman beloved by 
 afriend, yet an adulteress, according as Jehovah loveththe children 
 of Israel, though they have turned to other gods, and love grape 
 
 2 cakes. 
 
 1. HY, again, obviously refers back to 
 chap. i. 2. The transaction here com- 
 manded, bearing so near a resemblance 
 to what is enjoined in that chapter, has 
 occasioned nearly the same diversity of 
 interpretation. “Ὁ me there appears no 
 consistent method of explaining it but 
 that which assumes an identity of the 
 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 pro- 
 phet’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 Mp, fake, as in the 
 former instance, chap. i. 2, the usual 
 formula by which marriage is expressed ; 
 but 15x, Jove, 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 
 Bundes, recently published. 
 
 The words nbyy Y) NII Ms TIN TP, 
 are equivalent to, ‘‘ Go, love thy wife, to 
 whom, though an adultress, thou art 
 attached ;” but the indefinite form Mx, 
 a wife, is purposely selected, instead of 
 FQN, thy wife, in order to intimate the 
 state of separation in which they lived. 
 For the same purpose ὅν, a friend, or 
 companion, is used, and not 7x, her 
 husband ; it being here employed not so 
 much as a term of endearment, as indi- 
 cating that, whatever might be his dis- 
 position towards her, they were not living 
 
 So I bought her to myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and 
 
 on the same terms as formerly. Comp. 
 for this acceptation of τ, Jer. iii. 20. 
 The LXX. mistaking the word for δὴ, 
 evil, and taking 378 for the Benon. 7278, 
 render ἀγαπῶσαν πονηρὰ ; for which the 
 
 ο ρ o @ oO 
 Syr. has {Sous (Zg0, ‘ 122.3” 
 00 5 ᾿ ) 
 [dass , an adulterous woman who 
 
 loveth euil things. The words 2783 
 2) Ti, are to be connected with m7" 
 δα, and not with 29%. The kind feeling 
 of the prophet towards his faithless 
 wife corresponded, as a type, to the 
 love of God towards the idolatrous 
 Israelites. The sentence just quoted in 
 part, as well as the words Dox OB 
 Duns, form only two out of numerous 
 instances in which Hosea uses the lan- 
 guage of the Pentateuch, as Havernick 
 has shown in his Handbuch der histor.- 
 crit. Hinlett. in das A. 1. 1 Theil. 2 Ab- 
 theil. p. 608. Ὁ Ws, have been 
 variously interpreted. LXX. πέμματα 
 μετὰ σταφίδος or σταφίδων, baked meats 
 with raisins. Aq. renders the former 
 word by παλαιὰ, evidently reading Ὁ. 
 According to the Hexap. Syr., ‘Theod. 
 
 adopts the same rendering : ao lsc 
 fais SS Symm. ἀκάρπους ; Vulg. 
 
 00 7” vy 
 vinacia uvarum ; Sy. ἸλΑ 9] 9 [sad 9 
 
 placenta uvis passis condita. Junius, 
 Tremellius, and others, have flagons of 
 wine, as In our common version. The 
 word {wx is employed by Jonathan in 
 his Targ. on Exod. xvi. 31, to express 
 the meaning of Mx, @ flat cake. The 
 most probable derivation is from Wx, Zo 
 press, compress; and the meaning will 
 be, pressed cakes of dried grapes. Such 
 cakes are highly esteemed in the Kast, 
 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, as 
 
CHAP. III. | 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 17 
 
 3 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, 
 4 nor become any man’s: and I also will remain for thee. For the 
 children of Israel shall remain many days without a king, and 
 
 it still is, no uncommon thing in Kastern 
 countries, (see Michaelis on the Laws of 
 Moses, Art. LXXXV.; Grant’s Nesto- 
 rians, p. 214; Perkins’s Hight 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 
 money, and the other half in grain, 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 
 dowry. The signification of buying as 
 attaching to ΠΣ, is sufficiently esta- 
 blished by Deut. ii. 6, and Job xl. 30, 
 (Eng. version, xli. 6,) and the use of the 
 
 Arab. Is, Con}. vi. and vill., conduit, 
 
 rem, UXX. ἐμισθωσάμην. Hengsten- 
 berg’s attempt to explain it here of 
 digging, in the sense of boring the ear 
 in token of a state of slavery, 1s unsuc- 
 cessful. A 902, /ethek, according to the 
 Rabbins, contained fifteen seahs, or half 
 an homer. Theod. γομὸρ ἀλφιτῶν ; 
 Symm. θύλακος κριθῶν; but the other 
 Greek versions, ἠμίκορον, half a cor, 
 which was equal to an homer. The 
 LXX. unaccountably have νέβελ οἴνου. 
 The repetition of ONY, is not unusual 
 in Hebrew, but the abbreviated form of 
 expression is better English. 
 
 3. 2%, properly signifies ¢o σέ, but 
 likewise to dwell, remain, &e. 07m 8) 
 explains its meaning here to be a re- 
 fraining fromall cohabitation with others. 
 , and 7X, are correlates; and ‘28 03) 
 forms an antithesis; “while I, on the 
 other hand,” ὅθ. 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 connexion 
 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 3, and by the resumption of 
 avy, ver. 4. The choice of the fuller 
 preposition °8, in 728, Inspreference to ?, 
 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 their 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. 11. 19, 20, 23. It is true 
 that when they were brought back 
 along with the Jewish exiles, the Is- 
 raelites had no more any civil or eccle- 
 siastical 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 suc- 
 ceeded to the.times of the Asmoncan 
 dynasty, or the dispersion consequent 
 upon the final destruction of Jerusalem. 
 During the protracted period of more 
 than eighteen centuries, (O31 0") they 
 have been precisely in the circumstances 
 here predicted—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 con- 
 secrated offices and rites of their ancient 
 economy. Thus Kimchi on the passage, 
 Ὑ δ Ὁ PRT DTD TTIW 1927 1D DT TONY 
 NVA VAS OT mw 5 wn Ww NN 
 Dwi oM22—“And these are the days 
 of our present captivity, for we have 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (CHAP, Ti. 
 
 without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without a statue, and 
 5 without an ephod, and without images, Afterwards the children 
 of Israel shall return, and shall seek Jehovah their God, and 
 
 neither king nor 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 prophet, overturns the 
 hypothesis of Dr. Grant, that the Nesto- 
 rian Christians are the remains of the 
 tentribes. It cannot properly be said of 
 them that they have continued 0°23) D>, 
 in a state of separation from God, for they 
 received the gospel in the earliest ages 
 of Christianity. Some explain 733, both 
 of legitimate sacrifices and of such as 
 were offered to false gods; but the 
 grouping of this term with 722%, ὦ statue, 
 as Ts, ephod, following, is with D3, 
 teraphim, clearly shows that the prophet 
 meant the former restrictively. Kaimehi 
 briefly explains: 199 7229 Px ON) TI Pr, 
 * without sacrifice to God, and without 
 an image for idolatrous worship.” J'rom 
 the prohibition Lev. xxvi. 1; Deut. xvi. 
 22, and the history, 2 Kings iii. 2; xvii. 
 10; x. 26, 27, it 15 manifest that 7229, 
 does not stand for altar, as the ancient 
 versions render it, but denotes a statue 
 or image of some false deity. Comp. 
 Micah y. 13 (Hebr. 12.) ix, the ephod, 
 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 middle of the thigh. 
 They were joined together on the shoul- 
 ders by golden clasps, set in precious 
 stones, and fastened round the waist by 
 a girdle. In the breast-part was the 
 yor, or pectoral, containing the Urim 
 and Thummim, by which divine responses 
 were vouchsafed to the Hebrews. <Ac- 
 cording 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. iepareia, priesthood, 
 which I doubt not the Hebrew term was 
 intended metonymically to denote in this 
 place. DIN, 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. 138; 
 2 Kings xxiii. 24; Ezek. xxi. 21 (Hebr. 
 26); Zech. 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 rendering of the LXX. δήλων. 
 The etymology of the word is altogether 
 uncertain. 
 
 5. Ata 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 to 
 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 13, David, here means neither the 
 royal house of David, nor any human 
 monarch of that name who is yet to 
 reign over the Jews, as some have ima- 
 gined, but the great Messiah himself, 
 appears evident from Scripture usage. 
 See Is. lv. 8, 4; Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25. As the 
 name properly signifies Zhe Beloved, it 
 quite accords with ὁ ἀγαπητὸς, Matt. in. 
 17, and ὁ ἠγαπημένος, Eph. i. 6. Thus 
 the Targ. N77] ΝΙῸΣ prom, “And 
 they shall obey Messiah the Son of 
 David.” The following is the Rabbinieal 
 interpretation :—ODX NT NI JAX ΩΝ 
 TOW ὝΥΤ ΝῪΤ (PIT) OD ONY OW TNT NNT 7D, 
 “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.” Be- 
 rachoth Jerus. in Raym. Martini Pugio 
 Fidei, fol. 277. See also the Rabbinical 
 Jommentaries on the above passages in 
 Ezekiel. The use of >8, in the phrase 
 Mm ox 73, and not 79, or 28, the 
 usual form, is intended to show that the 
 fear here specified is not of the kind 
 which “ hath torment,” and which causes 
 those who are under its influence ἔθ 
 recede from its object, but such fear as 
 
CHAP. ΤΥ] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 19 
 
 David their king; and they shall tremblingly hasten to Jehovah 
 and to his goodness in the latter day. 
 
 attracts or induces them fo approach to 
 it. This the addition 52 5s}, ‘and fo 
 his goodness,” clearly shows. Comp. 
 Micah vii. 17. As, however, the idea 
 of fleeing or hastening from danger is 
 also implied in verbs signifying to fear, 
 I have rendered the word so as to 
 include both. In this way Rabbi Tan- 
 
 chum: Wal Le JS uy rau wes 
 
 “they shall flee to him for help from all 
 that may be feared.” Comp. Jer. xxxi. 
 12. LUXX. ἐκστήσονται ἐπὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ 
 καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς αὐτοῦ. Ewald 
 renders, wud werden beben zu Jahve und 
 
 zu seinem Gute, u.s.w.; and Hitzig 
 explains, bebend in freudiger Erwartung 
 werden sie herbeicilen. 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. 
 oma mony, 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, D2 55 
 mont ΠῚ NT DOT MMR WNW 
 ‘wherever it is said, ‘In the last of the 
 days,’ it means the days of the Messiah.” 
 
 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 Pekahiah. 
 
 He ealls 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, 2. The initiatory words are those 
 of Hosea, summoning attention to the 
 divine message which he was commis- 
 sioned to deliver. 987 5 is equivalent 
 to Nt m3, ch. v. 1; NT OID, ch. v. 9; 
 
 and frequently to xy and DMpS; and 
 all these different epithets are used of 
 the kingdom of the ten tribes in con- 
 tradistinction to 777m and ΠῚ ΓΞ, 
 which designate the tribes of Judah 
 
20 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (GHA. 17, 
 
 2 There is nothing but swearing and lying, 
 And murder, and theft, and adultery ; 
 
 They have burst forth, 
 And blood reacheth to blood. 
 
 3 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 ; 
 And the fishes of the sea also shall be removed. 
 4 Yet let no man contend with, nor reprove another ; 
 For thy people are like those that contend with the priest. 
 5 Therefore thou shalt fall by day, 
 And the prophet also shall fall with thee by night ; 
 And I will destroy thy mother. 
 
 and Benjamin. 2” signifies here ground 
 of complaint, or judicial proceeding. 
 LXX. κρίσις. The wickedness which 
 abounded is first set forth negatively, 
 and then positively, under certain items; 
 and the infinitive absolute is employed 
 with great effect, as expressing more 
 emphatically, by its abstract form, 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 72 in this 
 place to the act of breaking into houses; 
 but the metaphor seems rather to be 
 taken from the bursting forth of atorrent, 
 which, in its progress, spreads wider and 
 wider, and sweeps all before it. The 
 plural form 091, 4/ood, 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. 
 αἵματα ep αἵμασι μίσγουσι. Coverdale, 
 one bloudyiltynes foloweth another. And 
 Rittershusius powerfully in his poetical 
 metaphrase :— 
 
 ce 
 
 —— sic sanguine sanguis 
 Truditur, et scelerum nullus finisve 
 modusve est.” 
 
 See 2 Kings xv.; Micah vii. 2. 
 
 3. Comp. Is. xix. 8; xxiv. 4; Joel i. 
 10, 12. ἘΝ, in the Pulal Conj., is 
 usually employed after 728, in order more 
 forcibly to describe the calamitous state 
 of acountry. 3 here signifies with, ev- 
 tending to, accompanied by, and includes 
 
 what follows in the general predicate. 
 Comp. Gen. vii. 21. 7D, is cognate 
 with "p>, and signifies ¢o gather up, 
 away, back, take away, as well as simply 
 to collect together, Zeph. i. 2,3. LXX. 
 
 ἐκλείψουσιν; Syr. (dD ame; Targ. 
 
 pwR.—D, signifies not only what we 
 call the sea, but any lesser collection of 
 water, as pools, and even rivers. See 
 Ts. xix. 5. 
 
 4. 58 is here prohibitory, and ποῦ 
 simply negative, as some have rendered 
 it. The introduction of the sentence by 
 Ts, yet, nevertheless, is designed to show 
 the hopeless character of the persons 
 spoken of. All reproof on the part of 
 their friends or neighbours generally 
 would prove fruitless, seeing they had 
 reached a degree of hardihood, which 
 was only equalled by the contumacy of 
 those who refused to obey the priest, 
 when he gave judgment in the name of 
 the Lord, Deut. xvii. 12. The passage 
 is thus quite plain, and requires no 
 transposition or emendation of the words 
 as adopted by Houbigant, Newcome, 
 and Boothroyd. 773 "2 9 is the same as 
 if it were JIMS OM. Comp. Δ) 929 
 223, chap. v.10. All the ancient ver- 
 sions, except the LXX. and Aq. read 
 
 yor. The Hexap. Syr. has eas {Ses 
 pare? 
 
 5. By a sudden transition to the 
 second person, the prophet addresses 
 
CHAP. LY.] 
 
 6 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 21 
 
 My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge : 
 
 Because thou hast rejected knowledge, 
 I will also reject thee, so that thou shalt not be a priest to me ; 
 Because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, 
 
 IT also will forget thy children. 
 
 7 According to their increase, so they sinned against me ; 
 I will change their glory into shame. 
 
 And long for their iniquity. 
 
 himself directly to his guilty people, 
 and predicts their utter destruction. 
 D7, Kimchi, Drusius, Gicolamp., Gro- 
 tius, and Ewald, improperly render 
 “to-day.” As contrasted here with 
 mm, night, it is equivalent to D3, by 
 day. Comp. Neb. iv. 16, (ing. Version, 
 22.) That the article is not repeated 
 before 75, may be owing to the common 
 adverbial use of this noun without it. 
 The false prophets by whom the Israelites 
 had been encouraged in wicked practices 
 should render them no assistance in the 
 season of calamity, but should be them- 
 selves involved in the same common ruin. 
 mn, the LXX. renders ὡμοίωσα ; and 
 several translate, “I have reduced to 
 silence ;” but the verb is obviously used 
 in the sense of destroying, as 127) 18, 
 ver. 6. Comp. Zeph. i ll. By Fax, 
 thy mother, the Israelitish state is meant, 
 of which the citizens were the children. 
 See chap. ii. 1. Thus Kimchi, Jerome, 
 Grotius, Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, and 
 Maurer. Others, as Cornelius a Lapide, 
 Houbigant, Capellus, Pococke, Bauer, 
 and Newcome, suppose the metropolis 
 to be intended. 
 
 6. nv77 30, having here the article 
 before the noun, and occurring in con- 
 nexion with nY77, immediately following, 
 is not to be taken in the sense of xwnev- 
 pectedly, as 91"29 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 
 punished. This ignorance is principally 
 charged upon the religious teachers of 
 the nation, each of whom is directly 
 addressed In FOND NyAT TAX. Thus 
 Pagninus, O sacerdos; which Dathe 
 also inserts in his text. The persons 
 addressed pretended to be priests of 
 
 They devour the sin-offering of my people, 
 
 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 connexion. 
 The third 8 in FNONDN, is not found ina 
 ereat number of Kennicott’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 ἼΘΝΟΝ 
 ~p. The antitheses in this verse are 
 pointed and forcible. 9 is understood 
 as repeated in ΠΞ πὶ, and } before MDWx. 
 
 7. As the priests are obviously the 
 nominative to the verbs in the three 
 following verses, and form the subject 
 of discourse in that which precedes, 
 they must likewise be the persons spoken 
 of in this. Jt has been queried whether 
 the increase was in number or in wealth, 
 power, &c. 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 (722) which they acquired, 
 and which they thus prostituted, should 
 be destroyed by foreigners, by whom 
 they would be carried into captivity. 
 D393, and 0733, form a slight parono- 
 masia. 
 
 8. nNoM here signifies siz-offering, as 
 it frequently does in the Levitical code. 
 So Kimchi; and it is thus rendered in 
 
 Pococke’s Arab. MS. use sibs wo 
 wash and Castalio, piaculo. The 
 
22 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. Iv. 
 
 9 Therefore it shall be, like people, like priest ; 
 I will even 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. 
 
 ΠῚ 
 
 Lewdness and wine and new wine take away the heart. 
 12 My people consult their stock ; 
 
 Their staff also announceth to them: 
 
 priests greedily devoured what the people 
 brought for the expiation of their sins ; 
 and instead of endeavouring to put a 
 stop to abounding iniquity, only wished 
 it to increase, in order that they might 
 profit by the multitude of the victims 
 presented for sacrifice. 52 x02, fo lift 
 ap the animal soul for any thing, means 
 to lust after it, long, or have a strong 
 desire for it, Deut. xxiv. 15; Jer. xxii. 
 27. iin 152, is used distributively to 
 express the fact that such was the cha- 
 racter of each of the priests. The 
 reading 052, 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 inemendation. Not unfrequently 
 a proposition commences with the plural, 
 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. 28) is a resumption of 352s’, ver. 
 8.—nn7 1s here used intransitively, as 
 in ver. 18; v. 3, and is to be understood 
 literally of the sensual indulgences of 
 the Israelitish teachers, as the verb 227 
 shows. For the signification to abound 
 in children, as attaching to this verb, 
 see Gen. xxvill. 14. Saadius, Arnoldi, 
 (Blumen alt-hebraisch. Dichtk.) and 
 Horsley, disjoin 12%? from the preceding 
 verb, and connect it with the following 
 nouns, thus :— 
 
 “They have forsaken Jehovah, 
 Giving heed to fornication,” &c. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the apparent force 
 of the bishop’s remarks, there is some- 
 thing so repugnant to Hebrew usage in 
 the combination iw) PY mI Wwe, 20 
 
 observe fornication, and wine, and new 
 wine, that it is altogether inadmissible. 
 Though the verb Y28 may in no other 
 passage take 737 for its object, yet it 
 takes 81 20, lying vanities, i. e. idols, 
 Ps. xxxi. 7; Jonah ii. 9; in which latter 
 passage it is connected with 339, as in 
 the present case. The division of the 
 words found in ourcommon version is that 
 
 of the Hexap. Syr. can” μον» 
 
 S08; and the Slavonic; and is ap- 
 
 proved by Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- 
 come, Dathe, Boothroyd, De Wette, 
 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 feelings, and weakening the 
 intellectual powers, is a well-established 
 fact in the history of man. 
 
 “ Nox et amor vinumque nihil modera- 
 bile suadent : 
 Illa pudor vacat, liber amorque metu.” 
 Ovid. 
 ** Nox, vinum, mulier; nihil perniciosius 
 adolescentulo.” Plaut. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the pro- 
 phet has specially in view the impure 
 and bacchanalian orgies which were 
 connected with the Syrian idolatry. For 
 the prevalence of drunkenness in Eph- 
 raim, see Is. xxviii. 1; Amos iv. 1. 
 
 12. The LXX., and most versions 
 which follow them, connect ὯΝ with 2%, 
 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 
 
CHAP. 1Υ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 23 
 
 For a lewd spirit hath caused them to err ; 
 And 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 
 
 I 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, 
 
 the Israelitish people had reduced them 
 —their application to their wooden idols 
 and images for oracular counsel, and 
 their use of rhabdomancy or divination 
 by rods. Leo Juda: “ligno suo oracula 
 querit.” That by jy, wood, is here 
 meant an idol made of such material, 
 the connexion shows. Comp. Jer. ii. 
 27; x.8; Hab. ii. 19. p92 is properly 
 a shoot or twig, then a rod, walking staff, 
 &e. 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 9 12, announceth, pointeth out, 
 shows that a divining rod is meant. 
 Rhabdomancy (ῥαβδομαντεία) 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, drawing them out of the 
 cease into which they were put, and acting 
 agreeably to the direction which first 
 came forth. See Pococke, Specimen. 
 Hist. Arab. p. 327. Maimonides 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 characters, 
 and which were used for magical pur- 
 poses, appear to have originated in the 
 more ancient divination of Asia. ™ 
 
 on, lit. a spirit of whorédoms, 1. 6. a 
 powerful impetus to commit acts of idol- 
 atry. Instead of the simple form 7Yn7, 
 some few MSS., the Babyl. Talmud, the 
 Syr., Vulg., and Targ. read Orn; while 
 the LXX. and Arab. read «ny. For 
 DPX nom, comp. Numb. v. 19, 20; 
 Ezek. xxiii, 5; and ὕπανδρος, Rom. 
 Vii. 2. 
 
 13. Mountains and hills were se- 
 lected 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 wor- 
 shipped. That this custom was very 
 ancient, appears from the prohibition, 
 Deut. xii. 2. For imitating it, the 
 Hebrews are frequently reproved, Is, 
 Ixv. 7; Jer. τ Ὁ; Hzek. xvii. 11. 
 may’, being in Piel, expresses the eager- 
 ness and frequency with which the 
 Israelites offered their idolatrous sacri- 
 fices. They also selected groves of oak, 
 terebinth, ὅσο. for purposes of superstition 
 and idolatry, under whose umbrageous 
 cover they might at once be screened 
 from the heat of the sun, and indulge in 
 lascivious practices. The sacrifice of 
 female virtue which was required in the 
 religious service of the Phcenician god- 
 dess Astarte, seems clearly to be re- 
 ferred to in this and the following verse, 
 7329, LXX. λεύκη, the white poplar, from 
 122, to be white. 
 
 14. Kuinoel, and others, taking 8, as 
 standing for 8°, read the first part of 
 the verse interrogatively, which is not 
 unsupported by examples in Hebrew 
 usage. It seems better, however, to 
 understand it here as a simple negative, 
 and the meaning to be that, as the 
 
24 
 
 And sacrifice with prostitutes : 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 And as for the undiscerning people, they shall be overthrown. 
 15 Though thou, O Israel, art lewd, 
 Yet let not Judah be found guilty ; 
 
 Yea, come ye not to Gilgal, 
 
 Neither go ye up to Beth-aven, 
 Nor use the oath, ‘‘ Jehovah liveth.” 
 
 parents and husbands indulged in the 
 flagitious practices here described, Je- 
 hovah would not make examples of the 
 females, or suffer them to be punished, 
 as if they alone were guilty ; but would 
 visit with condign punishment their 
 natural protectors, who not only aban- 
 doned them to seduction, but themselves 
 rioted in the same wickedness. Thus 
 Munster: ‘ Durissime animadvertam in 
 parentes et sponsos, ut filize et sponse 
 eorum punite videantur esse extra 
 penam.” The transition from the second 
 to the third person, for the purpose of 
 more graphically exhibiting the subject 
 of discourse, is not without examples. 
 See Is. xxii. 16. The use of the sepa- 
 rate pronoun 07, also adds to the em- 
 phasis of the language. 78, 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 73, in the 
 same conjugation, signifies in this con- 
 nexion, to commit lewdness as an act of 
 idolatrous devotion. Between 33, and 
 nvw7P, 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 
 their persons to be violated in her tem- 
 ples at the sacred festivals. See Selden 
 de Diis Syris, Synt. 11. cap. 2; Herodot. 
 lib. 1. cap. 199; Kuseb. Vit. Constantin. 
 lib. 111. cap. 835; Spencer de Leg. Heb. 
 lib. 11. cap. 22 and 23; Lucian de Dea 
 Syra. Of this latter term, the mas. 
 ow, catamites, occurs, 1 Kings xiv. 
 94: 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 τετελεσμένων, initiated. Its deri- 
 vation from 17, fo be sacred, consecrated, 
 or destined to the service of the temple, 
 confirms our interpretation.—02) ; Syr. 
 
 ad, concitavit ; Arab. dod, conjecit 
 
 in terram aliquem; in Niph. fo be cast 
 down, overthrown, or the like. The verb 
 occurs only here, and Prov. x. 8, 10, 
 where see Schultens. 
 
 15. A solemn warning to the Jewish 
 kingdom to beware of mixing itself up 
 with that of Israel in the practice of 
 idolatry. Here 72, to commit lewdness, 
 is again used figuratively. Dts, properly 
 signifies to contract guilt, or become 
 subject to its consequences. 9273, Gilgal, 
 was a town situated between the Jordan 
 and Jericho, near the confines of the 
 kingdom of Samaria. It was regarded 
 as a holy place as early as the days of 
 Joshua, chap. v. 15 ; and sacrifices were 
 offered there to Jehovah in those of 
 Samuel, 1 Sam. x. 8, 18; xv. 21, 33. 
 In process of time, however, it came to 
 be converted into a place of idolatrous 
 worship, Amos iv. 4, 5; Hos. ix. 15; 
 xii. 1]. pus ma, Beth-aven, i.e. the 
 house of vanity or idols, a name given 
 by the minor prophets, by way of con- 
 tempt, to Bethel, i.e. the house of God, 
 a place sacred to true religion in the 
 time of the patriarchs, and the judges ; 
 but afterwards selected by Jeroboam as 
 the principal seat of the worship of the 
 golden calves, 1 Kings xii. 29, 32, 33 ; 
 xi. 1; Amos i. 14; vii. 10, 13; Jer. 
 xlviii. 13. It originally belonged to the 
 tribe of Benjamin, but was taken by that 
 of Ephraim, Judges i. 22—25. That 
 there was a city of the name of Beth- 
 aven near to Bethel, appears from Josh. 
 vii. 2, which may have suggested the 
 appropriation of the name to the latter. 
 LXX. οἶκον Ὧν, reading |x, the native 
 
CHAP. 1Υ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 25 
 
 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 over, they indulge in lewdness ; 
 Her'shields are enamoured of infamy. 
 
 name of Heliopolis. Ag. and Symm. 
 
 οἶκον ἀνωφελῆ; Theod. οἶκον ἀδικίας ; 
 
 and with this the Arab. agrees ut 
 
 4" 
 
 eal, the house 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 prophecy was delivered at a 
 time when they were comparatively free 
 from that evil. The prohibition not to 
 swear by the formula ‘7, respects the 
 combination of the divine name with 
 those of idols, or the profession of at- 
 tachment to Jehovah, if the persons ad- 
 dressed 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 
 
 Thus the Syr. «δὸ 23;So9 
 (p02: For the force of 0, 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 Is- 
 raelites into a distant and large country, 
 where they would be separated from 
 those with whom they associated in 
 idolatrous worship, and thus be left 
 solitary and exposed as in a wilderness. 
 The phrase 1192 7), to feed in a large 
 place, is elsewhere used in a good sense, 
 ice, 23. 
 
 17. ove, Ephraim, as the most nu- 
 merous and powerful of the tribes, and 
 that in which the kingdom was esta- 
 blished, is put for allthe ten. ὍΣ, from 
 10, to be joined, closely united, adhere to, 
 to be allied to by voluntary choice, Gen. 
 xiv. 8. In this last sense the term is 
 here used. The Israelites had volun- 
 
 yoked. 
 
 tarily addicted themselves to the service 
 of idols, and thus identified themselves 
 with their interests. While the word 
 Dasy, idols, suggests the idea of their 
 being merely the fabrication of human 
 labour, it also intimates the pain or sor- 
 row resulting from idolatry. The root 
 has both significations. 47727 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 
 desperate. Comp. Jer. vii. 16; Ezek. 
 xx. 90. Thus, Tanchum, Jarchi, Kimchi, 
 Calvin, Tarnovius, Zanchius, Coverdale, 
 Drusius, Liveley, Leo Juda, Pococke, 
 Kuinoel, Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- 
 come, Stuck, and Ewald. Others, as 
 the Targ., Jerome, Mercer, Diodati, 
 Grotius, Rosenmiller, Maurer, &c., 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. 
 ἔθηκεν ἑαυτῷ σκάνδαλα, reading 737 in 
 the preterite, and supplying the idea of 
 idols from the preceding part of the 
 verse. 
 
 18. Before 1p, the particle O8 when, 
 is to be supplied, which in poetry, for 
 the sake of conciseness and energy, is 
 frequently omitted. For the acceptation 
 past, passed away, over, ὅτ. comp. 1 Sam. 
 xv. 32, nya 1D. Horsley, Ewald, and 
 some others, are of opinion that 1D means 
 rapid, degenerated, sour, &e., but less 
 aptly. The meaning is, that no sooner 
 were their compotations over than they 
 indulged in excessive lewdness. Instead 
 of oNid, their drink, drinking bout, one 
 of De Rossi’s MSS. has originally read 
 msiip, drunkards; another Oxiz, their 
 host; aud one of Kennicott’s D829, 
 Sabeans ; but none of these variations 
 suits the entire construction of the verse. 
 
 1D) 
 
᾿ 
 
 26 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 19 The wind hath bound her up in its wings, 
 That they may be ashamed of their sacrifices. 
 
 The LXX. strangely, ἡρέτισε Χαναναίους, 
 which the Arab., as usual, follows. The 
 impurity in which, when inflamed with 
 liquor, they indulged, was most probably 
 that connected with the worship of 
 Venus. 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. 127 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, 
 however, in three of Kennicott’s MSS. 
 If it did not originate in some copyist 
 having written the two last syllables of 
 the preceding word over again, it must 
 be regarded as having originally formed 
 part of that word in the reduplicate form 
 137319"; in which, not only is the second 
 syllable of the verb repeated (327278), 
 but the pronominal sufformative is re- 
 tained in the middle of the word, and 
 the first radical (&) rejected on that 
 account in the reduplication. Such form 
 is of extremely rare occurrence : ‘202%, 
 lit. they destroy, destroy me, Ps. \xxxviii. 
 17, being the only other instance of the 
 kind with which 1 am acquainted. In 
 this way the form is partly accounted 
 for by the ancient Jewish grammarian 
 Abuwalid Ibn Jannahi, as quoted by 
 Pococke. What confirms this view of 
 the reduplicate form is the use of 02727, 
 a gemination somewhat resembling it, 
 by our prophet, chap. viii. 13. The 
 rendering give y2, as if it were the im- 
 perative of 3%, proposed by Abenezra 
 and Kimchi, and adopted by our trans- 
 lators, is not so suitable to the connexion. 
 
 Maurer; mirificé amant ignominiam : 
 Ewald; es lieben lieben Schmach seine 
 Schilde. Kuinoel very unjustifiably 
 omits 127 in his Heb. Text. 72, shame, 
 a collective abstract noun, expressive of 
 the infamous acts connected with ido- 
 latrous worship. 0229, shields, are tropi- 
 cally used for prices, as the natural 
 protectors of their people, here and Ps. 
 xlvii. 10. The feminine suffix 4, refers 
 to y3s, 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 1 °523, wings of the wind, is too 
 firmly established in Hebrew usage, 
 see Ps. xviii. 11; civ. 3, to allow either 
 of the acceptation spirz¢ or vanity being 
 given to 7, or that of borders to D2 
 in this place. ™™ being of both genders, 
 accounts for the masculine of the verb, 
 and the feminine pron. affix. For "nix, 
 two of De Rossi’s MSS., and the Vat. 
 and Alex. copies of the LXX. read 7x, 
 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 ab- 
 surdity of their conduct. 4, in 82, is 
 used τελικῶς. Jer. xlviil. 13. Sacrifices 
 are here put by synecdoche for the whole 
 system of idolatry in which they in- 
 dulged. For the reading Dniin, of 
 their altars, adopted by Newcome, there 
 is no authority except the Targ. aud Syr. 
 
 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 de- 
 scription of the unblushing wickedness of the people, interspersed with denun- 
 ciations of impending punishment, 3—7. The approach of the divine judgments 
 
CHAP. Υ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 27 
 
 is ordered to be proclaimed, and their certainty declared, 8,9. The prophet 
 then abruptly turns to the two tribes and a half 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—]4. The 15th verse sets forth the certainty and the 
 beneficial effects of the divine judgments. 
 
 
 
 1 Hear this, O ye priests! 
 
 And hearken, O house of Israel! 
 
 Give ear, likewise, O house of the king! 
 For the sentence is against you, 
 
 Because ye are a snare at Mizpah, 
 
 And a net spread upon Tabor. 
 
 2 The apostates slaughter to excess, 
 - But I will inflict chastisement on them all. 
 
 1. dst m3, house of Israel, i.e. the 
 ten tribes. 9297 ™3, house of the king, 
 1.6. 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 Remaliah ; 
 since it was in the reign of Ahaz, who 
 was cotemporary with him, that idol- 
 worship was carried to such a height in 
 that kingdom as to call for the calamities 
 inflicted upon it by the confederate forces 
 of Israel and Syria, as well as by the 
 king of Assyria. By wt 03> is not 
 meant, as the Targ. interprets, followed 
 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. πρὸς 
 ὑμᾶς ἐστὶ τὸ κρίμα. Thus most Christian 
 expositors. Ez, Mizpah. 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 Mizpah 
 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 posi- 
 tions false worship had been established 
 for the purpose of ensnaring the inhabi- 
 tants 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 ithe people are spoken of 
 as such nets and snares, because of their 
 bad example, and the influence which 
 they otherwise exerted for evil. 
 
 ὡς meme, slaughtering, the infinitive 
 absolute, with 7 paragogic, of OM, fo 
 kill, for food or sacrifice. Tlere, from 
 its close connexion 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. 721 
 pron, lit. they deepen te slaughter, i.e. 
 by a peculiar idiom, they slaughter to 
 excess, kill an immense number of sa- 
 crificial victims. Comp. 0 2.27; 
 Is. xxxi. 6. DY, apostates, the Benoni 
 participle of mw, fo turn aside, decline 
 Jrom the right way, apostatise ; as 0%», 
 scoffers, from ¥%, to scoff. Comp. Ps. 
 xl. 5, 3152 ‘OY, those that turn aside to 
 falsehood; and στῶν, Ps. ci. 3. Two 
 or three MSS., the edit. of Soncin., and 
 
28 
 
 3 I know Ephraim, 
 Israel is not hid from me; 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 Surely now thou committest lewdness, O Ephraim, 
 
 Israel is defiled. 
 4 They frame not their deeds 
 To return to their God; 
 
 For a lewd spirit is within them, 
 
 And they regard not Jehovah. 
 
 5 Yea, the pride of Israel testifieth to his face ; 
 Therefore Israel and Ephraim shall fall through their iniquity ; 
 Judah also shall fall with them. 
 
 a few others, have Ὁ instead of ¥, in our 
 
 text. Syr. wag ico]; seduvit, ]Zor—finso 
 
 declinatio, apostasia. The idolatrous 
 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 1p 
 supply ™x. The ancient versions are 
 here greatly at fault, from their authors 
 having supposed that the reference to 
 hunters is still continued ip this verse. 
 
 3. Ephraim, as distinguished from 
 Tsrael, 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 70217; 
 and one of Kennicott’s has 7x22 for 
 ΟΣ, but both are, in all probability, 
 from the hand of correctors. 27 is 
 here used figuratively. The polluting 
 influence of the Ephraimites was felt 
 through the whole nation. To ex- 
 press an assertion more strongly the 
 Hebrews put it first in the form of an 
 affirmative, and then in that of a nega- 
 tive. THY, zow, is not without emphasis; 
 pointing out the undeniable fact that, 
 they had been the cause of the spread 
 of idolatry. 
 
 4. The language here changes to the 
 
 plural, to express the character of the 
 people generally. By some Dv is 
 construed as the nominative to 2™, and 
 rendered, their deeds do not permit them, 
 &e. Thus the Syr. Abenezra, Drusius, 
 &c.; and among the moderns, Horsley, 
 Tingstadius, Manger, Kuinoel, Stuck, 
 Maurer, and Ewald. But im order to 
 establish this construction, we should 
 have to read OM, or DMN 12M, * per- 
 mitted them,’ the accusative of the 
 person always following the verb in such 
 case. See Gen. xx. 6; Hxod. ii. 19. 
 In the present instance 72 is used in 
 the sense of placing, ordering, framing, 
 like Dw and ™¥, as it is given in the 
 common version, and rendered by Tan- 
 chum, Leo Juda, Mercer, Tarnovius, 
 Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, Noyes, and 
 Hitzig. The meaning is, that the Is- 
 raelites did not reform, did not so regard 
 their wicked practices as to abandon 
 them and return to the pure worship of 
 Jehovah. 
 
 5. That 3 729 means fo testify for or 
 againstany person or thing, isobvious from 
 its use, Gen. xxx. 33; Job xvi. 8. It is 
 properly a judicial phrase, and refers to 
 the testimony given by a witness, either 
 Jor or against another, according to 
 circumstances. The rendering fo de 
 humbled, which is that of the LXX., 
 Syr., Targ., Jarchi, and recently of Mi- 
 chaelis, Newcome, Noyes, and Maurer, 
 cannot be philologically sustained. The 
 addition 13253, ¢o his face, gives emphasis 
 to the phrase, openly, publicly, in such a 
 manner that he himself may see it, 
 without theadduction of further evidence. 
 That ps2 signifies pride, cnsolence, not- 
 
CHAP. V.| 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 29 
 
 6 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. 
 
 withstanding what Horsley asserts to 
 the contrary, 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 under- 
 stand the objects of which the ten tribes 
 were proud, their splendid or magnificent 
 idols, 6. As Jehovah is spoken of as 
 apy, x2, the excellency or boast of Jacob, 
 Amos vill. 7, so the idols might be 
 called 281m 83, the excellency, or proud 
 hoast of Israel. They gloried in them 
 as the objects of their confidence and 
 attachment. These very gods, by their 
 utter impotence, bare open witness that 
 they could afford no help to those who 
 trusted in them; so that their worship- 
 pers could not but have been convinced 
 of their folly, if their hearts had not 
 become morally obscured by the practice 
 of iniquity. The religion itself (Οὐδ, 
 their iniquity,) from which they expected 
 safety, would prove the cause of their 
 ruin. The words are repeated with a 
 similar reference, chap. vil. 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 503 is put in the preterite ; whereas 
 it had ‘simply been used in the future 
 aie in reference to the Israelites. 
 
 The idolaters are here told that 
 {Raich 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. 2_signifies fo draw 
 or put off any person or thing, to 
 withdraw one’s self. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 vals, salvus evasit, progressus est, 
 and rt extraxit, exuit. Pococke’s 
 
 Arab. MS. has ptho ἀλδυπο oS au 
 
 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 im- 
 lied. 
 
 ; 7. The prophet seems here to allude 
 to the mention made of D223 ‘T>, and 
 m2 123, lewd children, chap. i. 2; 11. 4. 
 on, strange, foreign, is selected in order 
 to show that the idolatry was the result 
 of intercourse with foreigners. The 
 verb 123, fo act unfaithfully, is also used 
 of the breach of the matrimonial cove- 
 nant, Jer. 11. 20. This idea is expressed 
 
 in the Arab. MS. of Pococke, dex 
 | ls gyre a], they have broken the covenant 
 
 of God. 53 has here the signification of 
 itaque, and marks the consequence of 
 the conjugal infidelity just specified— 
 the production of a race of idolaters. 
 The relation of the words is well ex- 
 pressed by Stuck: “quoniam Deo infi- 
 deles sunt, propterea liberos peregrinos 
 habent.” HY, zo, is here to be taken, 
 not as determining the exact point of 
 present time, but the speedy and certain 
 arrival of the event. The term 07, 
 month, has greatly, and im my opinion, 
 very unnecessarily perplexed interpreters. 
 Houbigant at once cuts the knot by an 
 arbitrary emendation: ΠΤ DIN ANY, 
 omnino est legendum 90N7 28ND), zw7C 
 igilur absumet rubigo. Ue appeals to 
 
80 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 8 Blow ye the horn in Gibeah, 
 
 The trumpet in Ramah ; 
 Raise a shout at Beth-aven ; 
 
 He is behind thee, O Benjamin ! 
 9 Ephraim shall become desolate 
 
 Tn the day of punishment ; 
 Among the tribes of Israel 
 
 I have made known that which is sure. 
 
 the ἐρυσίβη of the LXX. as his autho- 
 rity; but ἐρυσίβη signifies mildew, with 
 which 727, a locust, the word he pro- 
 poses to substitute for 17, has nomanner 
 of affinity. That the same word which 
 is now in the Hebrew text was found in 
 it in the time of Aquila, is evident from 
 his rendering it veopnvia. Symm. and 
 Theod. have μήν. Michaelis, Dathe, 
 Kuinoel, and Staudlin, give to the word 
 
 the signification of the Arab. Hod> 
 
 what is ew and unexpected, and explain 
 it of a sudden calamity. Most moderns 
 take it in the sense of mew-moon, i. e. 
 either at the feast of the new moon, 
 when the Israelites were assembled to 
 worship ; or, at that time their calamities 
 should commence. It seems most na- 
 tural to abide by the usual meaning of 
 the term, and consider the prophet as 
 announcing, that within the space of 
 one month they should be visited with 
 merited punishment. The calamity pre- 
 dicted seems to have been that occasioned 
 by the invasion of Tiglath-pileser, who 
 ravaged the country, and carried into 
 captivity the tribes of Reuben and Gad, 
 the half-tribe of Manasseh, and that of 
 Naphtali, besides the inhabitants of 
 several cities in other parts of the 
 country, 2 Kings xv. 29; 1 Chron. v. 26. 
 That Judah also suffered on this occasion, 
 see 2 Chron. xxvii. 19—2]. op, 
 their portions, are commonly interpreted 
 to mean their possessions or property ; 
 hut I should rather think the prophet 
 has in view their idols, whom they re- 
 garded as the authors of their possessions 
 and enjoyments. See Is. lvii. 6, and my 
 Comm. on that verse. 
 
 8. An alarm is ordered to be given to 
 the southern kingdom of the approach 
 of the enemy. The verse intimately 
 coheres with the foregoing, and is not to 
 
 be taken for the commencement of a 
 new prophecy, as Jerome, Abarbanel, 
 Michaelis, Dathe, Manger, and others, 
 suppose. The difference between the 
 ἜΝ and the M227 seems to be, that the 
 former was the same as the 7), hora, 
 being made of the curved horn of 
 
 animals, Josh. vi. 5, 6, 8. Arab. Dy 
 
 lituus foraminibus instructus ; whereas, 
 the latter was made of metal, such as 
 the two silver trumpets which were em- 
 ployed for convoking the congregation, 
 Numb. x. 2; from 723, Arab. yes in 
 angustiam redegit ; angusto pectore pre- 
 ditus fuit. Gesenius considers the word 
 to be an onomatopoetic, imitating the 
 broken pulse-like sound of the trumpet, 
 (hdtzotzérah,) \ike the Latin taratantara, 
 and the German ¢rarara. Their shape 
 and size may be seen in the representa- 
 tions of the arch of Titus. Comp. Jer. 
 iv. 53 Joel, a. 1» Hoss vi. J. ΠΡ 
 Τ ΧΧ. render 7933, Gibeah, and 7, 
 Ramah, τοὺς βουνοὺς and τῶν ὑψηλῶν, 
 as if heights or elevated places in ge- 
 neral 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 *onx, 
 subaud. 3x, the enemy “is behind thee,” 
 i.e. close upon thee. The fifth Greek 
 version has κατὰ νότου σοῦ, to the south 
 of thee; but if the local signification 
 were at all admissible, the zest 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 
 
CHAP. Υ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 91 
 
 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 Lam as a moth to Ephrain, 
 
 And as rottenness to the house of Judah. 
 18 And Ephraim saw his sickness, 
 
 And Judah his wound ; 
 
 the ten tribes ; and in the course of the 
 following verses directs his discourse to 
 the two kingdoms alternately. The 
 nominative to ™IM is OX, implied in 
 DMpY.—NA, primarily means proof or 
 demonstration, from MD, 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 
 row, ver. 2. The latter hemistich of 
 the verse shows that the ten tribes were 
 
 10. By the “ princes ” or “rulers of 
 Judah,” king Ahaz and his courtiers 
 are intended. For 13 °»23, comp. 
 Deut. xxvii. 17, 72) 722 PDD WE; Prov. 
 xxi. 98; xxii. 10; Job xxiv. 2. It was 
 reckoned a flagrant offence to remove 
 the marks by which the divisions of 
 property were defined. The language 
 seems to have become proverbial to 
 designate unprincipled conduct. What 
 the prophet here reprobates appears to 
 be the means adopted by Ahaz and his 
 supporters to introduce idolatry into 
 Judah. See 2 Kings xvi. 10—18. If 
 the 3 be regarded as the Caph veritatis, 
 it will strongly express the fact, that 
 these princes had actually removed the 
 boundaries which separated the true re- 
 ligion from the false—Divine judgments 
 are frequently compared to the over- 
 flowing of water from a river. 5Y, ¢o 
 pour out, expresses the fulness of their 
 infliction. Comp. Zeph. iii. 8. Tay, 
 prop. effervescence, flowing over, also de- 
 notes the greatness of the punishment. 
 
 11. wee ps, the genitive of cause; 
 broken in pieces by the judgment, or 
 punishment inflicted. .% 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 were bound 
 by higher authority to have resisted; 
 but they readily complied with it, and 
 thus became prepared to indulge in all 
 the gross idolatries to which this worship 
 proved the introduction. From the cir- 
 cumstance that the LXX. have rendered 
 the passage ὀπίσω τῶν ματαίων, after 
 vanities, it has been conjectured that 
 they read xv instead of 12; but it is 
 more likely they intended to give the 
 sense of the whole, rather than the sig- 
 nification of this particular word. They 
 are followed by both the Syriac versions, 
 and in part by the Targ.: Jerome, ou 
 the other hand, has read the same letters 
 which now stand in the text; for he 
 renders sordes, pointing the word x, and 
 regarding it.as merely a contracted form 
 of Ni¥ or TN, filthiness. 
 
 12. The reference in ὧν, Arab. χὶς, 
 
 moth, is to the consumption of garments, 
 Ps. xxxix. 12; Is. 1. 9; in 39, rotten- 
 ness, to that of wood. See Job xiii. 28, 
 where both words occur together as here. 
 The LXX. freely render the former by 
 ταραχὴ, the latter by κέντρον. The 
 meaning is not that God was regarded 
 as the moth and rottenness, ἡ. e. with 
 disgust ; but that he was the author of 
 those judgments by which the idolaters 
 should be consumed. 
 
 13. 783, fo see, has here the sense of 
 Jeeling, experiencing, as in the phrases 
 to see life, death, good, evil, &e. 2, lit. 
 a bandage, from ὋΝ, to compress, bind as 
 a wound, see Is. i. 6; hence, as here, ὦ 
 bandaged wound, corresponding to "7, 
 
892 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. Vv. 
 
 Then Ephraim went to Assyria ; 
 And [Judah] sent to the hostile king ; 
 
 But he could not cure you, 
 
 Nor remove your wound from you. 
 
 14 
 
 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. 
 
 15 
 Till they suffer punishment ; 
 
 sickness, disease, in the other member of 
 the parallelism. For the use of such 
 metaphors in application to the state of 
 political affairs, comp. Is. i. 5, 6; ili. 7 ; 
 Hos. vi. 1; vil. 1. After 7204, supply 
 as its nominative 771, 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. 3Y, is not a proper 
 name, but an appellative, signifying oxe 
 who contends, is contentious, hostile ; 
 from 4, ¢o strive with, quarrel, contend. 
 The form is the apocopated future, and 
 is contracted for YY Ws, he that acts 
 
 hostilely. Tanchum pols. « Koy the 
 
 king that contended. Comp.2?*, Joiarib, 
 Neh. xi. 5. Aq. δικαζόμενον ; Symm. 
 ἔκδικον, or ἐκδικητήν; Theod. κρίτην. 
 Jerome, ad regem ultorem. De Wette, 
 Der konig der riéchen soll, 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 neighbouring states, in order 
 to extend or consolidate his gigantic 
 empire, and was justly regarded by the 
 Hebrews as their most powerful adver- 
 sary. 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 
 oppression, and, in the course of the 
 following reign, Tiglath-pileser invaded 
 and depopulated great part of the 
 country, ver. 29. The embassy from 
 
 I will depart, I will return to my place, 
 
 the kingdom of Judah was that sent by 
 Ahaz to Tiglath-pileser, when attacked 
 by the united kings of Syria and Israel, 
 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21. 
 m3, as a verb, occurs only in this place; 
 but a noun derived from it is used Prov. 
 xvil. 22, in the sense of healing. If we 
 
 may judge from the Syr. Jone recedere, 
 
 JSugere, Aph. liberare, it properly signi- 
 es ἕο remove, relieve, and so with 
 respect to a wound, fo heal.- LXX. οὐ 
 
 μή διαπαύσῃ ; Syr. arsed 16, neque 
 
 sanabit. 
 
 14. No effort to recover a state of 
 prosperity while the anger of Jehovah 
 was excited against them, could possibly 
 succeed. 7B, the black lion, and >), 
 the young lion, are frequently employed 
 to convey the ideas of strength and 
 ferocity, Ps. xci. 18. The reduplication 
 28 ἫΝ is, as usual, emphatic. Comp. Is. 
 xlii. 25 ; xlvili. 15. 7219, prey, is un- 
 derstood after 772 and Nw3, 
 
 15. As God’s coming to a people, and 
 being with them, implies their expe- 
 riencing efficient protection and aid, so 
 his withdrawment of his presence im- 
 plies the deprivation of these blessings. 
 ows, like many other verbs, has a sensus 
 preguans ; conveying not only the idea 
 of contracting guilt, but of suffering its 
 consequences. The latter idea seems 
 clearly to be conveyed in this passage. 
 The Rabbins, indeed, and after them, 
 Glassius, and many others, attempt to 
 attach to the verb the superadded signi- 
 fication of acknowledging, which is that 
 adopted by our translators ; but it is by 
 
CHAP. ΥὙἹ.] 
 
 Then will they seek my face: 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 When they are in trouble, they will seek me early. 
 
 no means supported by Lev. iv. 22; v. 
 5; Zech. xi. 5; the passages usually 
 adduced in proof. “5 ‘22 73, ¢o seek the 
 Jace of any one, means to strive to obtain 
 his favour. See 1 Kings x, 24; Proy. 
 
 xxix. 26. The phrase occurs very fre- 
 quently in the Psalms, in reference to 
 application to Jehovah in prayer. Comp. 
 Dan. ix. 3. 1 is synonymous with 
 wp2, but is only used in poetic diction. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The nation, in both its divisions, is here introduced as taking up language suitable 
 to the circumstances 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 inconstaney. 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 denunciation of punishment is directed against the Jews, who flattered 
 themselves with the hope that whatever might befal the northern tribes, no 
 
 calamity would happen to them, 11. 
 
 
 
 1 Comp, 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. 4, to be the preferable interpretation. 
 The intimate connexion of the words 
 with the preceding context, and the re- 
 petition, 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 connexion the ancient versions have 
 endeavoured to establish by inserting a 
 word corresponding to 7482; 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 re- 
 surrection of our Saviour, many inter- 
 preters,as Lactantius, Tertullian, Origen, 
 Jerome, Augustine, Luther, Cicolam- 
 
 FE 
 
94 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 On the third day he will raise us up, 
 
 And we shall live before him. 
 
 3 ‘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. 
 
 padius, Mercer, Ribera, Tarnovius, 
 Hammond, &c., 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 hoe spectandum 
 est nobis, ne volitemus in aére: placent 
 argute speculationes primo intuitu, sed 
 postea evanescunt. Ergo quisquis volet 
 proficere in Scripturis, semper hanc re- 
 gulam teneat, ut solidum sit quicquid 
 colligit sive in Prophetis, sive in Aposto- 
 lis.’ The exegesis of Grotius, Horsley, 
 and many others, who regard the words 
 as primarily applicable to the Jews, and 
 secondarily, or allusively, to the resur- 
 rection of Christ, isequally unsatisfactory. 
 The simple. meaning of the passage is, 
 that. on their conversion from the service 
 of idols to that of Jehovah, the Hebrews 
 should experience the removal of the 
 national calamities with which they had 
 been visited; the nation which had been 
 reduced to a state of political death 
 would be resuscitated, and enjoy a re- 
 newal of its former prosperity. From 
 the metaphor 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 
 anticipated 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. wo, on the third day, is 
 expletive of D9, after two days; 
 LXX. pera δύο ἡμέρας. That a short 
 period is meant, appears from ¢vo, 
 and ¢wo three being used to denote a 
 few, or very few, 1 Kings xvii. 12: Is. 
 vil. 21; xvii. 6. Comp. Luke xiii. 32, 33. 
 The afflicted Hebrews confidently hoped 
 that their pun shment would be of brief 
 duration, and that God would assuredly 
 restore them to the enjoyment of his 
 favour. Such enjoyment is expressed 
 by living, 1229, before him, experiencing 
 
 his presence and blessing. The phrase 
 contrasts with that employed chap. v. 15, 
 and indicates the result of °22 15732, there 
 predicted. 
 
 3. In ny} ADM ΠΡ), there is a rise 
 from a resolution simply to acquire a 
 true knowledge of Jehovah, to a deter- 
 mination to make such knowledge the 
 object of earnest and unwearied pursuit. 
 The 7 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 1 at the beginning of the 
 verse is inferential, intimating that what 
 follows would be the result of the divine 
 interposition on behalf of the Hebrew 
 people. Some few MSS. insert 1 before 
 mI. p23, to be fixed, established, 
 certain. As certain and delightful as 
 the dawn of the morning would be the 
 coming forth of the favour of Jehovah 
 after the dark night of adversity. ‘This 
 beautiful metaphor is taken from the 
 sunrise. See, for such application of 
 xzin, Ps.xix.7. The other images were 
 peculiarly appropriate in Palestine, where 
 rain falls seldom, 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 regarded as among the most neces- 
 sary of temporal blessings, and_ its 
 absence a source of awful calamity. 
 The former, commonly called ™W or 
 mm, the darting rain, from the root 7, 
 to dart, cast, &e.; here 0839, 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. 
 ὑετὸς πρώϊμος, because the Jews com- 
 menced their year at that time. It 
 prepares the ground for the reception of 
 the seed. wip, the latter rain, LXX. 
 
CHAP. ΥἹ. 
 
 HOSEA. 3 
 
 On 
 
 4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim! 
 What shall I do to thee, O Judah! 
 For your goodness is like the morning cloud, 
 And like the dew which early departeth. 
 5 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. 
 6 For I desired mercy and not sacrifice ; 
 And the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. 
 
 ὑετὸς ὄψιμος, falls in the latter half of 
 February and during the months of 
 March and April, just before the har- 
 vest; from which circumstance it receives 
 its name,—7, signifying ¢o gather or 
 collect, the late fruit. Comp. %7, ¢o 
 
 collect, Syr. feos, serotinus. Before 
 
 mY supply We. 
 
 4. 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 ex- 
 postulations here addressed to them, and 
 the description of the temporary and 
 evanescent character of their boasted 
 reformation. Like a tender parent who 
 is anxious, if possible, to reclaim a way- 
 ward child, Jehovah asks what other 
 means could possibly be employed for 
 the recovery of his rebellious people. 
 They had been tried both with mercies 
 and judgments, but without effect. Comp. 
 Is. ν. 4—7. 07 properly means hind- 
 ness, benignity, mercy ; here piety, re- 
 
 ligion, as Is. xl. 6. Syr. ydoZaaad; 
 your goodness ; Pococke’s Arab. MS. 
 eyo: your religion. 'Theodoret not 
 
 inaptly gives the meaning thus: ἡ παρ᾽ 
 ὑμῶν γενομένη μεταμέλεια πρόσκαιρος 
 ἐστι, καὶ ov διαρκής. 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. 0229 is here, 
 as frequently, to be taken adverbially ; 
 early, in the morning. As the coguate 
 
 Ethiop. fy AG : signifies ¢o carry a 
 
 burden, and beasts of burden vre usually 
 loaded in the morning, the Hebrew 028 
 came in Hiphil to signify the doing of 
 any thing at an early hour. 27 is not 
 to be construed with 02707, but with 70. 
 
 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. 19. After ‘p28 supply Ὁ or 
 ons. ‘To make the pronominal affixes 
 agree, the LXX., Syr., and Targ. read 
 Ew, “ my judgments,” and so likewise 
 Dathe, Kuinoel, Boeckel, Newceome, 
 Boothroyd, and Ewald, instead of Pues, 
 “thy judgments.” Vulg. judicia tua. 
 
 Hexap. Syr. os 12220. There is no 
 
 variety in the MSS., except that one of 
 Kennicott’s, and originally one of De 
 Rossi’s, have FED, “thy judgment,” 
 m the singular. The reference of the 
 affix is to ἢ», ver. 4; and the meaning 
 is, the judgments which belong to thee, 
 which ¢how deservedst, and which were 
 inflicted upon ¢hee. The genitive is 
 that of object. Comp. 7o2u, 1 Kings 
 xx. 40 ; ΠΕ ΒΟ, Jer. li. 9; and especially 
 pees, Zeph. ui. 15. Thus Lyranus: 
 “poene tibi inferende.” xx, though 
 future, is modified by the preceding pre- 
 terite, and is to be rendered accordingly. 
 ws has here the sense of lightning, as in 
 Job xxxvii. 3, 15. The LXX., Syr., 
 Targ., and Arab., supply 2 before 7. 
 Sudden and awful as the lightning 
 were the inflictions of merited punish- 
 ment upon the idolatrous Hebrews. 
 
 6. 707 means here ¢rwe piety, of which 
 mercy or charity is only a branch. ΓΡῚ 
 DvPS corresponding to it in the second 
 member of the verse, likewise means ὦ 
 
90 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 7 But they are like 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. 
 
 practical knowledge of God, in opposition 
 to that which is merely speculative. 
 Comp. Jer. xxii. 16. The present is one 
 of several passages in the Old Testament, 
 in which the comparative worthlessness 
 of ceremonial observances is taught. 
 See Is. 1. 11—17; Ps. xl. 7—9; 1, 8— 
 23; Mic. vi.6—8. Comp. Matt. ix. 13 ; 
 ΧΙ ἧς: 
 
 7. Translators and commentators have 
 been greatly divided respecting the pre- 
 cise meaning of DTS 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- 
 cressing the divine commandment: while 
 Kimchi, Munster, Vatablus, Tremellius, 
 Beza, Drusius, Liveley, Calvin, Rivetus, 
 Piscator, Zanchius, | (colampadius, 
 Mercer, Lowth, De Wette, Maurer, 
 Hitzig, Ewald, &c., take it to be an 
 appellative, and interpret the passage of 
 the treacherous violation of contracts 
 among mankind. In favour of the former 
 view, it is alleged, that it places the 
 guilt of the Israelites in a much more 
 aggravated light; and Job xxxi. 33, 
 Ps. lxxxii. 7, are appealed to in proof of 
 a similar allusion. It is, however, very 
 doubtful whether there be any such al- 
 lusion in these passages ; and as to the 
 force of the comparison, it seems sufli- 
 ciently supplied by supposing men in 
 general to be understood, who break the 
 engagements into which they have en- 
 tered 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 contracts were by 
 men of unprincipled character. If we 
 except the three passages in question, it 
 is universally admitted that there is no 
 other, after the first chapters of Genesis, 
 in which D8 is used as a proper name, 
 or in which any reference is made to 
 our first parent. The absolute and in- 
 definite form too in which 3 occurs, 
 
 (comp. on the other hand 3, “my 
 covenant,” chap. vill. 1,) shows, that 
 both this noun and the preceding verb 
 may, stand in immediate relation to D7, 
 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 mentioned 
 interpretation, that nowhere in Scripture 
 is God said to have entered into a ™ 3, 
 or covenant with Adam. The obligations 
 under which he was placed are repre- 
 sented as those of a ™3, command or 
 interdict, rather than any of a foederal 
 nature. ON, like Edom, the reading 
 proposed by Michaelis, has found no 
 supporters. Before ὅν, supply Ws, of 
 which there is frequently an ellipsis in 
 Hebrew poetry. See Noldius, p. 103.— 
 Dw, there, points graphically to the 
 northern or Israelitish kingdom as the 
 principal scene of idolatrous defection, 
 and anticipates the regions more spe- 
 cifically referred to in the two following 
 verses. 
 
 8. 153, 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. 
 xxxl. 91, 23, 25. Burckhardt found 
 ruins of cities on two mountains in that 
 region, still known by the names of 
 Djebel Djelaid, and Djelatd, 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 
 pS YYb to idolaters, in imitation of the 
 LXX. who render ἐργαζομένη μάταια ; 
 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- 
 
CHAP. VI. | 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 37 
 
 9 For 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 horritying ; 
 There is the lewdness of Ephraim ; 
 
 Israel is polluted : 
 1. 
 
 nations of 7272 have been advanced ; 
 but the simplest is that which regards it 
 as signifying ¢raced, from 37¥, 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. [$453 ϑ διὸ ὁ, 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 inhabitants of Gilead were impli- 
 cated in the regicidal conspiracy against 
 Pekahiah. 
 
 9. DIB, Shechem, was another city of 
 refuge, situated between Ebal and Ge- 
 rizim., It still exists under the name of 
 
 Cells Naploos, 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 xi, 25, its 
 inhabitants became so corrupted, that 
 the priests resident there banded to- 
 gether, waylaid, and murdered with 
 impunity the persons who were fleeing 
 to the asylum for refuge. The 7 in 
 79220 is that of direction, and connects 
 in sense with 777. The interposition of 
 the verb 77¥Y 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 version, and 
 many others, following the Targ. 17 ΠΣ, 
 one shoulder, translate 22%, with one 
 consent, which well suits the connexion ; 
 but is not borne out by Hebrew usage,— 
 the term occurring but once, Zeph. iii. 9, 
 in this metaphorical acceptation, and 
 
 Also for thee, O Judah! a harvest is appointed. 
 
 then not 7220 as here, but ἬΝ 02v,— 
 ‘27 is generally considered to be an imi- 
 tation of the Chaldee form of the Infin. 
 in Piel, from 734, fo τραϊέ, lie in wait for ; 
 but it seems more likely to be the ab- 
 breviated form of the Piel Participle 
 279, the being dropped, as in 13%, 
 Kecles. iv. 2, and in several instances of 
 the Pual Participles. See Gesen. Lehrgeb. 
 p- 910. wes 375 will thus form the ge- 
 nitive of object. - Three MSS. substitute 
 7 for’; and instead of the prepositive 3, 
 three MSS. and three printed editions 
 read 3. Before 0202 720 there is an 
 ellipsis of 13, corresponding to 5 in *273.— 
 m3 is used to denote presumptuous or 
 deliberate wickedness, from 02%; Arab. 
 
 oo proposuit sibi, to form a purpose, 
 
 lay ὦ deliberate plan of action ; chiefly 
 employed in a badsense. LXX. ἀνομία. 
 Hitzig, Unthat. 
 
 10. mew, LXX. φρικώδη, occurs 
 under the forms 777 and nw, Jer. 
 v. 80; xxill. 14; xviii. 13. It is explained 
 immediately after of the atrocious idol- 
 atry 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 dranch as the 
 rendering of V2, as Kimchi proposed, 
 and explains it of the introduction of 
 idolatry into Judah. How Horsley could 
 assert that Aarvest is used in a good 
 sense, as an image of the ingathering of 
 the people of God, is inconceivable. See 
 Jer. li. 38; Joel iii. 13; Rev. xiv. 15— 
 20. Nowhere in prophecy does it appear 
 to be used in other than a bad sense. In 
 all probability, the punishment predicted 
 is that recorded, 2 Chron. xxviii. 6 --- 8, 
 
38 
 
 mt is here used impersonally. Instead 
 of 72, four MSS. originally two more, the 
 Targ. and two old editions, read 72. The 
 words ὋΣ M29 ‘3702 have no meaning, if 
 connected with the preceding, which 
 form a concise apostrophical warning to 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 the Jewish kingdom. They must, there- 
 fore, be transferred to the following 
 context, with which they will be found 
 to be in harmony. ‘Thus Moerlius, Mi- 
 chaelis, Jahn, Eichhorn, Kuinoel, Stuck, 
 De Wette, and Boothroyd, divide. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The prophet continues his description of the wickedness of the ten tribes. 
 Regardless of Jehovah, 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 hardihood 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. 
 
 
 
 1 WueEn 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 ; 
 Yea, the thief entered, 
 
 And the banditti plundered in the street. 
 
 1. Some would render AY m2 ‘77a, 
 “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. 11. 20. The words are ex- 
 plained by the following "x72 ἜΘ, when 
 1 healed Israel. and 3 frequently alter- 
 nate with each other, when used of the 
 time at which any thing is done. The 
 restoration here mentioned is in all pro- 
 bability that of the two hundred thousand 
 Jewish captives, to which reference is 
 made, 2 Chron. xxviii. 8—15. The con- 
 duct of the Israelitish rulers upon that 
 
 occasion held out some hope of im- 
 proveinent in the character of the nation, 
 and a consequent change in the Divine 
 conduct 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. 932) has the force of then, on 
 the contrary, became more manifest, &e. 
 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. 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 a9 
 
 2 And they considered not in their heart, 
 That I remembered all their wickedness : 
 Now their deeds encompass them ; 
 
 They are before my face. 
 
 8 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 ; 
 
 Who resteth from heating it, 
 
 From the time he kneadeth the dough, 
 
 Until it be leavened. 
 
 sid and yma wtp describe the acts of 
 violence that were committed by break- 
 ing 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 22? vax, comp. the 
 
 Arab. avs ue MS, and du) us? Je 
 
 and our, say to oneself. Comp. 223, Ps. 
 xiv. 1. et freg. Instead of 02279, the form 
 exhibited in the printed text, “ ἐο their 
 heart,” ten MSS., originally seven more, 
 now one, perhaps another, and the 
 Complut. Bible, read 02393, “ iz 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 ? 
 indicates an endeavour 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 
 contrary disposition. Still, however, 
 the phrase may best be rendered by 
 think, consider, or the like. To the 
 words Dpy>y2 2332p, 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 irreli- 
 gious conduct of the people. 
 
 4. In this connexion, D282 is to be 
 taken in its literal signification. Comp. 
 Jer. ix. 1; xxiii. 10. For the conjecture 
 of Stuck, that the word was originally 
 DN, 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 
 requires to omit feeding it during the 
 short period of the fermentation of the 
 bread. Such was the libidinous cha- 
 racter of the Israelites, that their impure 
 indulgences were subject to but slight 
 interruptions. | Comp. ἀκαταπαύστους 
 ἁμαρτίας, 2 Pet. ii. 14, P53, in the 
 feminine, agrees with 25, which is of 
 common gender. ‘The latter word Ge- 
 senius derives from the Aram., }27, fo 
 smoke, and 3, fire. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 ype) and Syr. Ἰώ, 7ογηας, 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. 72 MwA is elliptical for 
 burning, having been kindled 4y the 
 baker. Before mize supply ws. The 
 meaning is, who only ceaseth from heat- 
 ing, &c. Most interpreters take YY? in 
 the sense of stirring, rousing up, ὅσ. 
 and apply it to the stirring of the fire in 
 
40 HOSEA. [CHAP. VII. 
 5 On the day of our king, 
 The princes are sick with the fever of wine ; “ 
 
 He stretcheth out his hand with the scoffers. 
 6 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 morning it burneth like a blazing fire. 
 
 the oven; but it is preferable to regard 
 it as the part. of vy, Arab. ye to be 
 
 hot, burning ; hence in Hiph. to cause 
 to burn, heat, ὅο. Thus the LXX. 
 ἀπὸ τῆς φλογὸς. The interpretation 
 jrom the city, given in the Syr., Targ., 
 and Vulg., is altogether inappropriate. 
 For the feminine form of the Infin. 
 ing, comp. Mar, Hzek. xvi. 5. 
 
 5. By OY is meant a festal day: 
 either that of the king’s birth, or, as the 
 Targ., Jarchi, and Kimchi give it, that 
 of his inauguration. The preposition 3 
 is understood. Michaelis thinks the re- 
 ference is to the accession of a new king 
 to the throne. Instead of 32, our 
 king, twenty-two MSS. and the Syr. 
 read 39222, our kings; UXX. ἡμέραι 
 τῶν βασιλέων ὑμῶν. YT is used in- 
 transitively. The LXX., Syr., Targ., 
 Vulg., Abarbanel, Leo Juda, Newcome, 
 Michaelis, and Boothroyd, refer this 
 verb to the root 1; but, not to insist 
 on its requiring in such case to be read 
 v7, there is something so intolerably 
 tame in the rendering, “The princes 
 began to be heated with wine,” that it 
 cannot be admitted as the language of 
 the prophet. Besides, 127 would like- 
 wise require to be changed into nan, 
 which would produce an anomalous in- 
 finitive. 20, dottle, less agrees with Ὁ 
 following than 727, heat. Comp. the 
 
 Arab. ἃ... ἀκα. p> ΠῸΠ is an in- 
 
 stance of the construct state with a pre- 
 position intervening between the nouns. 
 Comp. 0372 3), Wzek. xii. 2; Ny mow 
 rm, Is. li. 21, and see Gesen. Lehrgeb: 
 p. 679. The words mean the heat or 
 fever produced by intoxication. While 
 the courtiers thus indulged to excess, 
 the monarch, forgetting his dignity, par- 
 ticipated in their cups, and joined in 
 
 their scoffs. Because D2? occurs no- 
 where else, Houbigant would have it 
 changed into the usual form O22, most 
 uncritically. Comp. jx? and ys2. Aq. 
 χλευαστῶν ; LXX. less properly, λοιμῶν. 
 ‘The reduplicate form is intensive, and 
 expresses the awfully profligate character 
 of the persons 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 im private _ 
 they were scheming how to get rid of 
 him. The ringleader waited till he could 
 conveniently carry the plot into execu- 
 tion ; and speedily they effected the 
 nefarious purpose. Were it not that all 
 the ancient versions render 3742 as a 
 verb, I should have been inclined to 
 point it 439p, and translate, ‘‘ For their 
 inward part is like an oven; their heart 
 is in their plot.” Comp. i> Dw iaypD, 
 Jer. ix. 7. The rendering I have given, 
 however, equally suits the connexion. 
 Though there is no word in the text 
 corresponding to “warm,” its Insertion 
 in the translation is fully justified by the 
 comparison in W2m3, Vike an oven, and 
 the mtensive force of 272 in Piel. That 
 this verb ever signifies to make ready or 
 prepare, 1 do not find. All attempts to 
 justify the rendering of the LXX. and 
 
 Ἵ > , τ - 
 Syr. ἀνεκαύθησαν, Yaa, by the conjec- 
 
 tural readings 3297, 2298, and 3777, have 
 proved abortive. According to the 
 
 Hexapla, Symm. (Fay o> +), Aq. and 
 
 Theod. (6 402 disc), read as we 
 
 now do; as did likewise the Targ. 
 ‘INN. — OIE, their baker, (many MSS. 
 
CHAP. Υ11.]} 
 
 7 They all glow as an oven, 
 
 And they devour their judges ; 
 
 All their kings have fallen : 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 41 
 
 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, grey hairs are sprinkled upon him, 
 
 Yet he knoweth it not. 
 
 and various printed editions have OPS, 
 which may also be regarded as ἃ 51η- 
 gular form, ἡ taking the place of the 
 third radical 4, as in other nouns or 
 participles derived from verbs in “7,) 
 the ‘Targ. and Syr. render i724, 
 
 ιὄσιμ ὃ as if the reading were OEx, 
 
 their anger. Ἐφραΐμ, found ἴῃ 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. Ore, which Dathe proposes, 
 and Kuinoel adepts into his Heb. text, 
 nowhere occurs in the sense, za, 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 includes 
 all the conspiracies which took place in 
 Israel. Having prepared the rest of the 
 conspirators, he, like the baker, abided 
 his time, when on a sudden, the plot 
 burst forth like a flame. 
 
 7. Comp. 2 Kings xv. 053, all of 
 them, corresponds to 033, ver. 4. 2 15 
 the future in Kal of 090, ¢o be warm, 
 hot, &c. 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 autho- 
 rity. 22 15 not to be taken in the sense 
 of falling off or apostatizing from God, 
 as Jerome, Ribera, Menochius, Tirinius, 
 and some others interpret, but in that of 
 falling by the hands of murderers. This, 
 Wx, they devour, in the preceding hemi- 
 stich, 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 593m, veraltet, “hath 
 become old,” which might seem to de- 
 rive some support from the latter part 
 of ver. 9; but the verb can, with no 
 propriety, be referred to any other root 
 
 than %3, Arab. ah, madefecit, com- 
 
 n δὲ . 
 mistus fuit, Syr. SANS confudit, to 
 mix by pouring, "a, confound. UXX. 
 
 Υ 
 συνεμίγνυτο. Syr., ofl Sand]. Targ. 
 
 yaavnx. Comp. Psalm evi. 35, where 
 mr321 ww is similarly used of promis- 
 cuous intercourse with idolaters. That 
 such intercourse generally, including 
 the adoption of their idolatrous prac- 
 tices, and not specifically the entering 
 into leagues with them, is meant, appears 
 from the following clause, in which, to 
 express the worthlessness of the Ephraim- 
 itish character, the people are compared 
 to a eake, 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 neglected it is 
 unfit for food, and is thrown away. 
 Such was the state of the apostate Is- 
 raelites. They had corrupted themselves, 
 and were only fit for rejection, LXX. 
 ἐγκρυφίας, bread baked in hot ashes. 
 Cyril, τῶν ἐπὶ λίθοις ὀπτωμένων ἄρτων. 
 
 9. ON, strangers, foreigners, i. 6. the 
 Syrians, Assyrians, ὅθ, See 2 Kings 
 ἘΠῚ 7; xv. 19, 20; xvii, 3—6. The 
 state, drawing to its close, without the 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 10 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (CHAP, VII. 
 
 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, 
 
 Yet they turn not to Jehovah their God, 
 
 Nor seek him for all this. 
 11 
 
 For Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding ; 
 
 They call in Egypt, they go to Assyria. 
 
 12 
 
 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 
 
 Wo 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. 
 
 fact being observed by its citizens, is 
 compared to a person on whose head 
 grey hairs begin to make their appear- 
 ance, without his becoming sensible of 
 the approach of age. 
 
 “Sparserit et nigras alba senecta co- 
 mas.” Propertius. 
 
 10—12. A repetition of part of chap. 
 v. 5, which see. Though the apostate 
 Israelites had abundant proof of the 
 inefficiency of their idols, yet they re- 
 turned not in the exercise of true re- 
 pentance to God, who alone could 
 deliver them in the hour of trouble, but 
 formed alliances with foreign powers in 
 the delusive hope of protection. The 
 simplicity of the dove is proverbial. 
 
 we 
 Thus the Arabs, we ad, eae Led 
 
 a=, there is nothing more simple than 
 
 the dove. The word 7m'5 is here, how- 
 ever, used in a bad sense, as 23 7X, 
 without heart,i.e. without understanding, 
 shows. ‘The point of comparison is the 
 inconsiderate flight of the dove from 
 one danger into another, owing to 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 
 foreign alliances would prove their ruin; 
 yet they heedlessly rushed into destruc- 
 tion. WW stands either for THs or 
 λῶν, 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 Doyo», 
 which occurs only here, the Soncin. 
 edit. of the Prophets, and some few 
 MSS. read 0758 in Piel, which may also 
 be interpreted causatively. OnIy9 yas, 
 lit. according to the report to their as- 
 sembly, i.e. the public congregations, to 
 which the Divine messages were deli- 
 vered. 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 con- 
 jectural readings 007%), DN3Y?, and OnsY?. 
 Aq., however, renders, κατὰ ἀκοῆς τῆς 
 συναγωγῆς. 
 
 13. That “8 is denunciative, and not 
 plaintive, the following 7 plainly shows. 
 1 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. 11. The redemption from 
 Egypt, and that which, in numerous in- 
 stances, they afterwards experienced, 
 Jehovah adduces in aggravation of their 
 guilt. Their preferring the service of 
 idols to that of the true God, was not 
 merely a practical denial of his all-suf- 
 ficiency, 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 cala- 
 mities which their sins had brought upon 
 
CHAP. VII.] HOSEA. 43 
 14 Yea, they cry not to me with their heart, 
 
 But howl upon their beds : 
 
 For the sake of corn and new wine they assemble ; 
 
 They rebel against me. 
 15 Though 1 instructed them, and strengthened their arms, 
 
 Yet they devised evil against me. P 
 
 16 
 
 They may turn, but it is not to the Most High ; 
 They are like a deceitful bow; 
 
 Their rulers shall fall by the sword, 
 
 them, they cried to God for deliverance, 
 but without any genuine repentance or 
 sincere resolution to obey him in future. 
 oMmaaway, wpor their beds, i.e. in the 
 night-season, when their anxiety pre- 
 vented them from sleeping. 173m, the 
 LXX. reading 72m, render κατετέμ- 
 vovto, they cut themselves, supposing 
 that in token of grief, or, like the mad- 
 dened priests of Baal, 1 Kings xviiii28, 
 they inflicted wounds upon their bodies. 
 This is also, in all probability, what the 
 
 Syr. translator intended by ς-α.8, MS Mso, 
 
 But though 3m is found in six MSS., 
 has been in eight more originally, and 
 is the reading of two early editions, one 
 of which is the Soncin. of 1486, it is 
 not sufficiently supported to warrant its 
 adoption into the text. The Targ., 
 Abul-walid, Jarchi, Abenezra, Kimchi, 
 Muuster, Piscator, Leo Juda, Junius, 
 Tremellius, Boothroyd, Rosenmiiller, 
 Maurer, and Gesenius, support the tex- 
 tual reading, and render congregate. 
 This decidedly agrees better with the 
 following 12°40. Instead of returning 
 to Jehovah, the Israelites assembled 
 before their idols to propitiate them by 
 sacrifices, in order to obtain a fruitful 
 harvest. Lee renders, they become with- 
 drawn, withdraw themselves, i. e. for 
 idolatrous purposes. To mark more 
 strongly the atrociousness of their apo- 
 stasy, °3, “against me,” is employed, 
 instead of 292, “from me,” the prepo- 
 sition that otherwise follows Ὁ, which 
 is frequently used of apostasy from God 
 to idolatrous practices. The whole 
 phrase is in this case best rendered by 
 rebel against, as i our common version. 
 
 15. 122 does not signify ¢o dind, but 
 to chastise or instruct. The LXX. 
 
 instead of rendering the last words of 
 the preceding verse, or rather, perhaps, 
 
 . >? ped 
 confounding both verbs, have ἐπαιδεύ- 
 
 θησαν. Pococke’s Arab. MSS. Ul, 
 
 Kewl 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 instruction is meant, 
 seems clear from the phrase 2% Fx, Zo 
 strengthen the arm, 1. 6. to impart 
 strength or power for the performance 
 of any undertaking. Comp. Ezek. xxx. 
 24, 25, where both the impartation and 
 the deprivation of such power are men- 
 tioned. What the 27, evil, or wickedness 
 was, which they cogitated, is not speci- 
 fied; but it most likely consisted in 
 some new idolatrous alliance, such as 
 that with Egypt, referred to in the next 
 verse. LXX. πονηρά; Targ. 103, evil 
 things. 
 
 16. ὃν 8) xa, © convertunt se ad non- 
 summum, i. 6. ad non-deum, collect. non- 
 deos, i. 6. ad deos fictos, vanos.’” Maurer. 
 Thus also Gesen. in voc. 7%. Comp. for 
 the use of this idiom, Is. x. 15, note. 
 Hosea, who is fond of brevity, uses 
 here and chap. xi. 7, 7%, instead of the 
 longer form v2, Most High. Kametz 
 is used instead of Patach, on account of 
 
 the accent. Arab. alc, altus, excelsus 
 fuit, to be high in dignity. Cle» altus. 
 Pococke’s Arab. MS. in chap. xi. 7, 
 ut > Syr. las]? God ; one of De 
 
 Rossi’s MSS. 58. What tle apostate 
 
44 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 On account of the insolence of their language : 
 This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. 
 
 Israelites worshipped so far from being 
 the Most High, was the direct opposite, 
 —wood or stone, the produce of the 
 earth. ‘The LXX. ἀπεστράφησαν εἰς 
 
 οὐδὲν, and Syr. PSS Sau 
 
 450, to the same effect, though giving 
 
 the sense rather than an exact trans- 
 lation. The Latin translation of the 
 Syr., zulla de causa, is quite erroneous. 
 Most moderns, less aptly, take 5Y in its 
 adverbial acceptation, and render, ¢hey 
 return not upwards ; which yields, how- 
 ever, nearly the same meaning. Thus 
 Rosenmiller, Winer, Manger, Stuck, 
 and others. Newcome’s conjectural 
 emendation, 79 N>, that which cannot 
 profit, lias not been approved; while 
 the translation of Dathe, Panilentiam 
 agunt, sed non sinceram, though approved 
 by Kuinoel, Tingstadius, and others, is 
 not borne out by Hebrew usage. ep 
 m7 some render ὦ slack bow, supposing 
 that its inutility, owing to the absence of 
 elasticity, is what is intended ; but false 
 or deceitful better suits the connexion, 
 
 and Ps. Ixxvili. 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 3}, Arab. gey jecit, projecit ; 
 
 to throw, shoot, &c. There seems no 
 ground for the opinion of Gesenius, 
 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 di- 
 rection. Comp. 1221 fw, a deceitful 
 tongue, Ps. exx. 2, 3. The izsolence 
 (Aq. and Symm. ἐμβρίμησιν) 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. 0229, their derision, 1. 6. 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 im- 
 mediately directed against a contempo- 
 raneous application on the part of the 
 Jews. 
 
 CHAPTER. YY GEG 
 
 The prophet announces the sudden irruption of the 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 confidence, 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, 18, 14. 
 
CHAP. VIIL.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 45 
 
 1 Pur the trumpet to thy mouth: 
 “ Like an eagle against the house of Jehovah ;” 
 For they have transgressed my covenant, 
 And have rebelled against my law. 
 
 2 They may cry to me: “O my God; 
 We—lIsrael—acknowledge thee.” 
 
 3 Israel hath rejected what is good ; 
 [Therefore] the enemy shall pursue him. 
 
 4 They made kings, but it was not from me ; 
 
 1. It is not unusual for the prophets, 
 without naming the invading foe, to 
 announce his approach. See Is. xiii. 2. 
 The words "0 73x, to thy palate the 
 trumpet / are singularly abrupt, and in- 
 dicate the suddenness of the threatened 
 invasion. ‘JI, palate, is here, as Job 
 xxxi. 30, Prov. vii. 7, put for the mouth. 
 Comp. chap. v. 8. The LXX. (εἰς 
 κόλπον αὐτῶν ws γῆ) appear to have 
 read 18D) O77 ox, which makes no sense. 
 The followmg words Tym may 733, 
 which contain the announcement, are 
 equally abrupt. The point of compa- 
 rison is the rapidity of flight for which 
 the eagle is celebrated, and which is 
 frequently employed to denote the speedy 
 approach of an enemy. Comp. Deut. 
 xxviii. 49; Jer. iv. 13, xlviii. 40; Lam. 
 iv. 19. mim ma, 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. m1. 2; just as the Christian 
 church is called the house of God, 1 Tim. 
 iil. 15, and of Christ, Heb. ii. 6. For 
 2 ΤῸΝ, comp. chap. vi. 7. The nomi- 
 native to 122, ¢hey have transgressed, is 
 mm m3, the family, i. e. the members of 
 the church, of Jehovah. The Israelites 
 had violated the obligations of the theo- 
 eracy. ΤΠ and 7A are synonymous. 
 
 2. rr is the future used potentially, 
 and not without irony. ‘Dx, “O my 
 God,” is construed as adistributive with 
 the plural verb—each of the persons 
 spoken of being regarded as using the 
 language. Inattention to this has led 
 
 the Syrian translator to render aS 
 
 O our God. 8%, Israel, is in appo- 
 sition with ΤΟΣ, we acknowledge thee, 
 and not the nominative to ἌΡ, from 
 which it is too far removed. It is en- 
 tirely omitted in the |LXX., Syr., and 
 Arab., as it is in one of Kennicott’s 
 MSS., and originally in one of De Rossi’s. 
 beat ix, O God of Israel, the con- 
 jecture 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 unbelieving Israel- 
 ites were ever prone fo place in their 
 relation to the patriarchs. 
 
 op ΠΝ Arab: 22 δ,» corruptum fuit et 
 
 fetuit, 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 7%, 
 Israel, finely contrasts with that made 
 of it in the preceding verse. 39, good, 
 is, by Jerome, Abenezra, Kimchi, and 
 others, taken for God himself, who is 
 described as 2H 319, good and doing 
 good, Ps. exix. 68. Deum summum 
 bonum. Hicolampadius. It seems, how- 
 ever, to be used in a more general 
 acceptation. Before 2x there is an 
 ellipsis of the illative }22. Forty-seven 
 of De Rossi’s MSS. and two more by 
 correction ; eight of the most ancient, 
 and sixty-two other editions; the Syr., 
 Vulg., and Targ. read ‘5™ instead of 
 TY, exhibited in the Textus Receptus. 
 See De Rossi’s Scholia Critica. 
 
 4, Some think the kings and princes 
 here referred to were Shallum, Menahem, 
 
40 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP, VIII. 
 
 They set up princes, but I acknowledged 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 abominakhle ; 
 Mine anger burneth against them : 
 How long shall they be incapable of purity ? 
 
 6 For it came even from Israel, 
 
 Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea, and such of 
 their partizans as were invested with 
 authority; but from the allusions made 
 in the following verses to the origination 
 of image-worship in Israel, it 1s more 
 probable that the entire series of Is- 
 raelitish kings and rulers is intended. 
 Though in the providence of God, and 
 agreeably to the declaration of Aliah 
 the prophet, the ten tribes revolted from 
 the house of David, and set up a sepa- 
 rate and independent kingdom, yet they 
 were actuated merely by rebellious mo- 
 tives, and had no regard to a divine 
 sanction, 1 Kings xi. 831—39, xu. 20. 
 vt signifies not only ¢o kxow, but also 
 to approve of that which is known, 
 regard, allow, own. Job. ix. 215 xxxiv. 
 4; Ps. i. 6, et freq. LUXX. καὶ οὐκ 
 
 δ » Ὁ Qo 
 ἐγνώρισάν μοι. Syr. wad 090] tho, 
 and did not acquaint me, i.e. held no com- 
 munications with me upon the subject. 
 The Heb. however, will not bear this 
 interpretation. 1 in both cases before 
 85, has the force of a relative, which 
 must either be adopted in translation, or 
 the personal pronoun must be supplied. 
 For their conversion of their silver and 
 gold into idols, comp. chap. 11. 8. 29? 
 does not appear ever to be taken in a re- 
 trospective sense, and so to be referred 
 to what goes before, but is always used 
 with direct reference to what follows. 
 m5: 722? 1s, therefore, to be rendered, 
 in order that they may be cut off; not 
 so that they shall, &e. Comp. Jer. vii. 
 10; xliv. 8. In all such cases the pre- 
 position is employed to give peculiar 
 emphasis to the subject. ‘The Israelites 
 could not seriously, or in reality, have 
 intended their own destruction, but they 
 acted as if they had; and it would 
 assuredly overtake them. The nomi- 
 native to ™3 may either be Israel, 
 understood; or it may have respect to 
 the people collectively. 
 
 5. The calf of Samaria was not any 
 set up in that city, but the one 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-eminent in their devotion to idolatry. 
 ΤΣ is used in its primary acceptation, fo 
 be loathsome, abominable. See on ver. 3. 
 Such construction is preferable to that 
 which would make 7?2¥ the accusative 
 to 733, assuming 77 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 that of Apis, at Memphis, 
 and of Mnevis, at Heliopolis, which he 
 must have seen during his residence in 
 Keypt, paved the way for the imitation 
 and adoption of the gross idolatries 
 practised by the Phcenicians, Syrians, 
 and Chaldeans. im AX MN, the anger 
 of Jehovah burneth, is an anthropopathic 
 mode of expression of frequent occur- 
 rence in the Hebrew Scriptures, denoting 
 the unconquerable opposition of God to 
 all moral evil, and the severity of the 
 punishment with which it is visited. 
 ἘΞ against them, i.e. the Israelites who 
 worshipped the golden calves. 8) ‘nw 
 TR? V2", how long shall they be incapable 
 of purity ? i.e. how long shall they be 
 obstinately attached to the impure service 
 of idols, and reject the means by which 
 they might be recovered from its stain 
 and punishment ὃ 
 
 6. The golden calf had its origin in 
 Israel : it was not made by any of the 
 surrounding idolaters. The) in x17 is 
 emphatic. mn 0228, shall be or become 
 flames, i.e. shall be burned. 0229 is a 
 
CHAP. VIII. | 
 
 The carpenter made it ; 
 It is not God: 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 47 
 
 Surely the calf of Samaria shall become flames. 
 
 7 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. 
 
 ἅπαξ ey. and has no root in Heb.; but 
 comp. the Arab. Les , accendit ignem. 
 
 Lewis , ardor, flamma. As the calf 
 
 was made by man, so it should by man 
 be converted 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,) instead 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 Newcome, improperly translate 3 
 
 SI, ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, οὐ] κὸν, ix 
 
 Israel, and join the words to those of the 
 preceding verse. 
 
 7. TNE is the emphatic form of 750, 
 a tornado, whirlwind. Leo Juda, mag- 
 num turbinem. Comp. 12x, Exod. xv. 
 16; Any, Ps. 11. 3. The nominative 
 to 19 is 87 understood; but it is best 
 to take it collectively, in harmony with 
 the plural of the preceding verbs. 
 Observe the paronomasia in 2 ΠῸΞ 
 πο πῶ, 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 ina state of exile—the objects 
 of contempt to their oppressors. Comp. 
 Jer. xxii. 28. 
 
 9, 10. 75, ¢o go up, is elsewhere used 
 of foreigners coming to the land of 
 Israel ; but it is here employed with sin- 
 gular propriety 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 purpose of obtaining aid 
 from that quarter. 1x stands for συν, 
 the 7 of direction being omitted. The 
 point of comparison in the “ wild ass” 
 15 his untractableness, and his disposition 
 to take his own way, in consequence of 
 which he forsakes the society of others, 
 and loves the solitariness of the desert. 
 See Job xxxix.5—8. Thus it was with 
 Israel. Despite of all the counsels and 
 warnings given them by the prophets, 
 they persisted in entering into foreign 
 alliances. 129, ¢o give presents, hire, &c. 
 is purposely chosen, to convey the idea 
 of a violation of the marriage-contract 
 by unlawful commerce with another 
 party—the derivatives }298 and 20x, 
 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 
 
48 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 10 Yet though they have hired among the nations, 
 
 Τ will now gather them ; 
 
 And they shall suffer in a little 
 By reason of the tribute of the king of princes. 
 
 rewards to her paramours to induce 
 them to commit lewdness, instead 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 Kal. O27, lit. 
 loves, a plural not in use in English. 
 Jerome, who renders, munera dederunt 
 amatoribus, either read 0278, which is 
 found in one of De Rossi’s MSS., or he 
 took D258 in a concrete sense, as our 
 translators appear to have done, for 
 which there is no necessity. Instead of 
 xm at the beginning of ver. 10, two of 
 De Rossi’s MSS., the LXX., Syr., Vulg., 
 Targ., and Arab. read 32, as if from 12; 
 according to which the Israelites are 
 represented as delivered over to, or 
 placed in the power of the nations. 
 The fifth Greek version, however, has 
 ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅταν μισθώσηται ἔθνη, which 
 is preferable, as it 15 most likely that the 
 prophet repeated the verb he had just 
 used, and as the other rendering is less 
 suited to the connexion. AY, xow, 1. 6. 
 shortly. Comp. 222 immediately after. 
 The suffix in Dza7x, “I will collect 
 them,” belongs to 0939, the nations, and 
 not to the nominative to 72%, or the Is- 
 raelites. 22 is used in Piel in a bad as 
 well as in a good sense. Comp. Ezek. 
 xvi. 37. Thus Kimchi and Abarbanel. 
 Instead of affording any assistance, the 
 Assyrians would be collected against the 
 apostate Israelites, invade their land, 
 and carry them into captivity. Into 
 that state of suffering, imposed upon 
 them by the king of Assyria, they were 
 shortly to be brought, as a punishment 
 for their idolatrous desertion of the true 
 worship of God. oO 7 772 ΝΌΘ WY TM) 
 has been variously interpreted. Ge- 
 senius renders, “and they (the hostile 
 nations,) shall presently set them free 
 SJrom the burden of the king, 1. 6. trom 
 his oppressive yoke ;” but without any 
 suitable sense—the whole passage being 
 of a comminatory nature, and not pro- 
 missory of good. 977, the Hiph. of ὅπ, 
 has nowhere the signification of /oosing 
 
 or setting free. Nor is there any pro- 
 priety in taking it in the usual sense of 
 beginning, and so construing it with ©Y9, 
 as if the latter word were the infinitive 
 of the verb or, fo be diminished. The 
 
 ‘ancient versions refer to *7, as the 
 
 root, in the sense of waiting, desisting 
 Jrom, &e, LUXX. κοπάσουσι. Symm. 
 μενοῦσιν. Theod. διαλείψουσι.  Syr. 
 
 coud ΖΔ. Vulg.* quiescent. And in 
 
 this reference I concur, especially as ten 
 MSS. and forty-four editions, read 397 
 without the Dagesh in the Lamed: only 
 I would abide by the signification, fo de 
 in pain, affliction, which is that given to 
 the verb m our common version. Such 
 construction alone suits the connexion. 
 By some O° 722 are considered to be 
 an instance of asyndeton ; and twenty- 
 one MSS. and originally ten more, the 
 LXX., Aq., Syr., Vulg., Targ., and Talm. 
 Babyl. supply the copulative 1 before 
 ow. So Kimchi, Mercer, Grotius, 
 Houbigant, Dathe, Michaelis, Kuinoel, 
 Newcome, Tingstadius. It has been 
 doubted, however, whether, according 
 to this resolution of the word, they 
 should be referred to the native king 
 and princes, or to those of Assyria. 
 Some, as Maurer, take them to be the 
 nominative to 7), and make the sense 
 end with xw2, the burden or tribute, sup- 
 posing the heavy taxes imposed by the 
 Israelitish rulers to be intended. The 
 best sense is brought out by reading 
 Dw 722 in construction, the king of 
 princes, and applying the phrase to the 
 king of Assyria, who had many kings 
 and princes subject to his sway. Comp. 
 Is. x. 8. Thus Pococke’s Arabic MS., 
 Leo Juda, Drusius, Jun. and Tremel., 
 Piseator, Eichhorn, Boeckel, Goldwitzer, 
 Hitzig, and Ewald. The sw», burden, 
 was the tribute exacted by Menahem, 
 and paid to Pul, amounting to a thousand 
 talents of silver, 2 Kings xv. 19—22. 
 Comp. 8 7D2, tribute money, 2 Chron. 
 xvii. 11. 
 
CHAP. VIII. | 
 
 11 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 49 
 
 When Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, 
 
 They became to him altars to sin, 
 
 12 
 
 I may prescribe for him the numerous things of my law; 
 
 They are treated as a strange thing. 
 
 13 As for my sacrificial offerings, 
 They sacrifice flesh and eat it ; 
 
 Jehovah accepteth them not: 
 
 He will speedily remember their iniquity, 
 
 And will punish their sin: 
 They shall return to Egypt. 
 
 11. By multiplying altars, im oppo- 
 sition to the express prohibition, Deut. 
 xii, 13, 14, the Ephraimites not only 
 contracted great guilt, but paved the 
 way for the introduction cf other sins. 
 
 ag δ Υ͂ 
 Syr. lo 2 In τὰ ss; ad crimen ingens. 
 
 There is an easy but beautiful variation 
 in the repetition of the words. As used 
 the second time, 827 possesses consi- 
 derable emphasis. Comp. for a similar 
 instance of varied repetition, Is. xxvii. 5. 
 It shows how much the mind of the 
 prophet was affected by the wickedness 
 of his people. Some suppose that there 
 is a play upon the double meaning of 
 som as signifying fo siz, and fo ée 
 punished for sin, just as our Lord uses 
 νέκροι in two senses, Matt. viii. 22; but 
 the second signification cannot attach to 
 the verb in this connexion. 
 
 12. Fx, Keri 1728, is continuative 
 and potential, and is equivalent to, I 
 have prescribed, I still prescribe by my 
 prophets, and I may go on prescribing ; 
 it will be of no avail. Keri °2), in many 
 MSS. τι, the plural of 4, which is 
 properly the infinitive of 129, fo be great, 
 ‘numerous, ὅς. Here the idea of number 
 is evidently designed to express the 
 abundant provisions God had made in 
 his written law, and its enforcement by 
 the prophets, against the commission of 
 idolatry. According to the Chethiv ὅν, 
 we should render, “1 may prescribe to 
 him my laws by myriads ;” Ewald, by 
 thousands; Hitzig, by ten thousands. 
 
 The Syr. wa Gc i Ado. 
 
 Targ. 
 
 MAS VD, Vulg. multiplices leyes meas. 
 
 Pococke’s Arab. MS. asap Byte. 
 
 Aq. πληθυμένους νόμους. Symm. πλῆ- 
 θος νόμων pov. Opt, statutes, are un- 
 derstood. 27 signifies not only ¢o ¢hin/-, 
 regard, &c., but also to treat in a 
 manner corresponding to the estimation 
 in which a person or thing is held. 
 
 Tanchum, us als Lege 8: 
 
 Fay Δ 2, they reject them like a 
 
 strange thing to which no regard is 
 paid, 
 
 13. 2927 733 form the nominative ab- 
 solute. °2725, my gifts or offerings, i.e. 
 such as they professedly offer to me. 
 The word is contracted for °2727, and is 
 derived from 31%, ¢o give. It seems 
 preferable to abide by this usual signi- 
 fication of the verb, which it has likewise 
 in Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic, than 
 to follow Kimchi, who refers the noun 
 to a root 2929, to which he assigns tlie 
 signification to burn, scorch, roast ; or 
 Ewald, who, appealing to the Chald. 
 
 2777, and the Arab, 4» and gu, 
 
 renders, raw offerings. °1777 1s a more 
 choice term for M779, or Mina. For 
 the reduplicate form, comp. 227278, 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 gemination, renders, 
 θυσίας φέρε φέρε θυσιάζουσιν. Symm. 
 θυσίας ἐπαλλήλους, Theod. θυσίαν 
 μεταφορῶν ἐθυσίασαν. Jehovah rejected 
 the sacrifices that were offered, not 
 
 a 
 
δ0 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 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. 
 
 according to his own appointment, but to 
 gratify the carnal appetite of the wor- 
 shippers. Reference is had to the 
 sacrifices offered to him, as represented 
 by the golden calf. In Ds] ΝὉ is a 
 meiosis. AY, wow, is here used in the 
 sense of speedily, shortly. From the 
 references made chap. ix. ὃ, 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 probability, they fled when the king- 
 dom was broken up by the Assyrians. 
 The threatening pointedly reminded 
 them of the depressed condition in which 
 their ancestors had been in that country. 
 Comp. Deut. xxvill. 68. The LXX. add, 
 καὶ ἐν ᾿Ασσυρίοις ἀκάθαρτα φάγονται ; 
 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 
 
 accordance with the reading of all the 
 Heb. MSS. 
 
 14, 1 in 730 marks the protasis; in 
 *‘nTt) the apodosis. The ni27 were 
 doubtless idolatrous temples erected after 
 the models of those in use among the 
 Syrians and Pheenicians. 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 M3 refers to Judah; the femi- 
 nine in 72D 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; u. 2; 5; 
 and see note on Amos 1. 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, &c. 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 behind, 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. 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 51 
 
 1 Carry not thy joy, O Israel! to exultation, like the nations, 
 For thou hast lewdly departed from thy God; 
 
 Thou hast loved the hire, 
 On all the corn floors. 
 
 2 Neither the floor nor the vat shall nourish them ; 
 And the new wine shall fail therein. 
 
 3 They shall not dwell in the land of Jehovah, 
 But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, 
 And in Assyria, they shall eat what is unclean. 
 
 1. 22>x—mow sy, lit. rejoice not to ex- 
 wltation. The LXX., Syr., larg. and 
 Vulg. read 532 58, exult not; but con- 
 trary to the wsus loguendi, which requires 
 the verb following °8 to be in the future 
 tense, as Secker properly observes. Some 
 find in the comparison “ like the nations,” 
 an imitation of theiridolatrous festivities; 
 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 Ὀνϑυξ, thirteen 
 MSS., originally five more, one by cor- 
 rection, and five editions, read Dvava, 
 “among the nations,” of which Rosen- 
 miller, following 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, (see chap. ii. 
 5, 12, 13;) aud are therefore spoken of 
 as 208, a meretricious reward. 
 
 2. For ὉΠ, in reference to the failure 
 of the productions of the earth, see 
 Hab. iii. 17. The verb properly signi- 
 fies to lie, deceive, &c.; figuratively, /o 
 Jal. Twenty-six MSS., originally six- 
 teen more, and perhaps two, three 
 
 editions, with the support of the LXX., 
 Syr., Targ., and Vulg., read 03, ix them, 
 i.e. them, the Israelites, instead of ™, 
 tw her, the received reading. It is, 
 however, too plainly an emendation to 
 entitle it to adoption. Nothing is more 
 common than for our prophet to use first 
 a plural, and then a singular suffix of 
 the same subject: according to the rule 
 laid down by Tanchum, that when ina 
 coutinued discourse a nation or people 
 is spoken of, either the feminine affix 
 agreeing with 7, coxgregation, or the 
 masculine agreeing with OY, 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 individuals. 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 mim rx, the 
 land of Jehovah, 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 posterity, 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. 1O—12. Comp. Jer. 
 i. 7; xvi. 18; Ezek. xxxvi. 20. The 
 return to Egypt being here mentioned 
 in connexion 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. 18. The fulfilment of this 
 prediction in the history of the ten 
 tribes, is nowhere mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture. No doubt the number that fled to 
 Egypt was small, compared with the 
 body of the nation. carried into the 
 Assyrian exile. By 82 is meant pro- 
 
HOSEA. 
 
 LCHAR, (1m. 
 
 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 shali bury them ; 
 As for their coveted treasuries of money, nettles shall possess them: 
 
 Thorns shall be in their tents. 
 
 hibited food, meats pronounced unclean 
 by the Mosaic law. Comp. Hzek. iv. 13. 
 To such necessity should they be reduced 
 as Captives. 
 
 4. 92 is used of the pouring out of 
 wine for a libation, Gr. σπένδειν, Exod. 
 xxx. 9, 202, properly ¢o mia, mingle, 
 came to signify szeet, agreeable, pleasing, 
 from the circumstance, that what was 
 pleasant to the taste, often eonsisted of 
 mixed ingredients, Ox ἘΠῚ, dread, or 
 food of sorrows, 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; 
 Hzek. xxiv, 17; Hage. ii. 12,18. 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 cireum- 
 stances in which no such sacrifices could 
 be offered, and no such feasts enjoyed. 
 Their food should all be common,— 
 ore:), for their soul or life, i.e. merely 
 for their own 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. il. 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 sustained. 
 
 6. The prophet here specially de- 
 scribes those Israelites who should take 
 alarm at the invasion of the country by 
 the Assyrians, and flee for safety into 
 Egypt. They imagined that their stay 
 there would only be temporary; bat 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 
 country, see my note on Isaiah xix. 13. 
 y22, to yather, is here used in reference 
 to the removal of the soul at death into 
 the world of spirits, and is equivalent to 
 FON2, Numb. xx. 26, or the full phrases 
 WP NY FEN, and THIN NY FON, fo be 
 gathered to one’s people or fathers, 
 which is always spoken of as sometlgng 
 different from death and burial. Comp. 
 Jer. viti. 2; Ezek. xxix. 5, in which 
 latter passage ἤθει, and f27, are used as 
 synonymes. Aecording to the signi- 
 fication of the cognate Arab. verb, 
 
 VAS; cepit, apprehendit manu rem, it 
 conveys the idea of God’s taking away 
 the soul. Hence the phrase all] Aas, 
 mortuus est, literally, God took him ; and 
 (ae simply, mortuus est (ad Dei mise- 
 
 ricordiam delatus). Freytag. When it 
 is said that Egypt should gather and 
 Memphis bury the Israelitish fugitives, 
 the meaning is that they should be re- 
 moved out of this world, and that their 
 bodies should be buried there. The 
 
 ΄ 
 
CHAP. 1ΙΧΣ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 5d 
 
 7 The days of punishment are come, 
 The days of retribution are come ; 
 
 Israel shall know it: 
 The prophet is foolish, 
 
 The man of the spirit is frantic, 
 Because of the greatness of thy punishment, 
 And because the provocation is great. 
 
 personification is employed,* as usual, 
 for the sake of effect. 21, desire, 
 covetousness ; that which is the object of 
 desire, what is covetable, coveted, from 
 tan, to desire, covet. As the verb D037 
 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 connexion. 02 is used 
 generally of money, as in most other 
 places, when 3%, gold, is not combined 
 with it. Tare. pine) np m3, the house 
 of their desirable money. Symm. τὰ 
 ἐπιθυμήματα τοῦ ἀργυρίου αὐτῶν. 
 Others, less aptly, explam the words of 
 houses, palaces, &c. 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 >? or Br? and 
 mr, comp. Is. xxxiv. 13. The whole 
 verse is miserably translated by the 
 LXX. 
 
 7. 732, visitation, punishment. Comp. 
 15. χ. 3; 1 Pet. ii. 12. wr, shall know 
 experimentally. By the 8°22 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. Sa se, he that pretends to 
 
 prophecy ; and Kimchi, own, lying 
 prophets. With this, the phrase 7 Bx, 
 the man of the Spirit, is synonymous ; 
 one pretending to inspiration, or pro- 
 fessing to deliver oracles under the in- 
 
 fluence of a divine efflatus. LXX. 
 ἄνθρωπος ὃ πνευματοφόύρος. Syr. 
 
 Lads ad ΣΦΕΩΝ oN the man 
 
 that is clothed, or endued with the spirit, 
 only adding, by way of explanation, but 
 
 erroneously, | Zoagie>, of folly. Comp. 
 
 Mie. ii. 11, ™ 99 wey; 1 Cor. xiv. 37, 
 εἴ τις δοκεῖ προφήτης εἶναι ἢ πνευμα- 
 τικός; 2 Pet. i. 21, ὑπὸ πνεύματος 
 ἁγίου φερόμενοι; and see my Lectures 
 on Divine Inspiration, p. 25. pwn, 
 
 insane, frantic; Arab. te) locutus 
 
 Juit rhythmice, to speak in an impas- 
 sioned manner, like an inspired poet; 
 hence, from the violence of the gesti- 
 culations, tones, &c., to act like a mad- 
 man, to be mad, insane. Comp. Jer. 
 xxix. 26, where ΚΡ Ὁ Wx and Na3nP 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 of folly, and reduced to a state 
 of absolute frenzy by the infliction of 
 the divine judgments upon the nation. 
 Hosea introduces this declaration re- 
 specting the Israelitish prophets paren- 
 thetically, thereby giving force to his 
 own prediction of impending calamity. 
 The affix in ΣΝ refers to 81%, to whom 
 the prophet turns in the way of direct 
 address. ΤΣ, means here, not the crime, 
 but its punishment. Comp. for this 
 signification of the term, Is. v. 18, and 
 my note there. In 73) subaud. 3, 
 because. The adjective 42, is here 
 placed before its substantive for the sake 
 of emphasis. See on Is. 1Π|. 11. From 
 the use of DvP in the sense of hating, 
 evincing hostility, &c., there can be little 
 doubt that the derivative =u, which 
 occurs only in this and the following 
 verse, has the signification of hoséility, 
 provoking conduct, provocation. That 
 of sware or trap, which Gesenius assigns 
 to it, is not borne out, even by the 
 
54 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 | [CHAS ATX; 
 
 8 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. 
 9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, 
 
 As in the days of Gibeah ; 
 
 He will remember their iniquity, 
 
 He will punish their sin. 
 10 
 
 I found Israel, like grapes in the desert ; 
 
 Like the first early fruit of the fig tree, at its commencement, 
 
 Syriac YO.~., which signifies vinait, 
 compedivit, but not to ensaare. Comp. 
 the Arab. paw acies gladii ; acutiores 
 
 et fervidiores hominum. UXX. μανία; 
 Aq. ἐγκότησις ; AXA. ἔκστασις; all of 
 which convey the idea of great excite- 
 ment, and yield support to the interpre- 
 tation I have given. The idolatrous 
 practices of the Israelites are meant, by 
 which they provoked the righteous in- 
 dignation of Jehovah. 
 
 8, DYN MHZ, are not in 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, Hin Spaher ist 
 Efraim gegen meinen Gott; “ Kphraim 
 is a spy against my God.’ When ov 
 signifies against, it follows verbs of 
 more active import. Δ. schaut nach 
 Weissagungen aus neben meinem Gott ; 
 ‘Ephraim looks for prophecies besides 
 my God,’—the rendering of Hitzig, is 
 equally objectionable. I quite agree 
 with Gesenius and Lee, in assigning to 
 mz in this place the signification of 
 looking out, expecting, as in Ps. v. 4; 
 Lam. iv. 17, in Piel. OY, sth, is used 
 elliptically for O22, from with, 1.6. from. 
 A similar ellipsis undeniably occurs, Job 
 xxvil. 19, Dxoy ys DWP Mm, this ἐδ 
 the portion of a wicked man from (2%, 
 with,) God, as appears, not only from 
 the synonymous phrase 19, “rRom the 
 Almighty,” in the corresponding hemi- 
 stich, but from the actual use of 7, 
 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 encouraged by the false prophets, 
 who caught them by their ensnaring 
 doctrines, as is declared immediately 
 after. ton is here used in the same 
 acceptation as in the preceding verse, 
 only there is a metonymy of the effect 
 for the cause. By Vx ΓΞ, “ 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 pro- 
 moting. 
 
 9, ans sPaYT, an instance of the con- 
 structio asyndeta. The former of the 
 two verbs is to be rendered adverbially. 
 For its use before infinitives, see on 
 chap. v.2. Mercer, “Quam corruptis- 
 siml sunt.” 977 may either be taken 
 intransitively, or DIN, DPN, 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 
 atrocity of the inhabitants of Gibeah, 
 specified Judges xix. 22—30. 
 
 10. oxi, Zsrael, here means the an- 
 cestors 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 
 HKeypt?” ‘lo remove the difficulty, some 
 very unwarrantably explain the wilder- 
 ness of Egypt itself; but others connect 
 ἼΞΤΩΞ 2295, like grapes in the desert, 
 and explain 829 of finding by experience, 
 
 
 
CHAP. 1Χ.] 
 
 I regarded your fathers ; 
 But they came to Baal-peor, 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 55 
 
 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, 
 
 Τ would take them away from among men ; 
 But wo to them! when I depart from them. 
 
 trial, &c. Such they were, proved them- 
 selves to be in my judgment. And this 
 seems to be the proper division and in- 
 terpretation of the words. At the same 
 time 7272 S82 XE 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. OU HAF : venit ; Arab. 
 Lae, perduxit, tractacit negotium ; and 
 
 chap. xii. 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 
 unexpected, and where they served most 
 opportunely to quench his thirst ; or the 
 early fig, which is accounted a great 
 delicacy 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 idol- 
 atry, and engaging to adhere to his 
 service. Comp. chap. xi.1; Jer. xxxi. 3. 
 The scene, however, was soon changed. 
 mai, 711], 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 characterises as in 
 the highest degree abominable, was the 
 worship peculiarly acceptable to the god 
 of Peor. See Calmet and Winer in 
 voe.—2 signifies fo separate oneself 
 from any person or thing, and also, 
 followed by 3, to separate or devote 
 oneself to some religious object. Hence 
 the substantive 2, ὦ Nazarite; ™ 
 consecration. 02 is the abstract for 
 the concrete, and denotes the obscene 
 
 or shameful idol which the Moabites 
 worshipped. Dp, lit. abominations, 
 but used here adjectively, loathsome, 
 abominable. 02198 is properly the sub- 
 stautive, 17%—the points being changed 
 on account of the suffix. Vulg., facti 
 suit abominabiles sicut ea, que di- 
 lexerunt. The Hebrews became as 
 abominable as the impure idol whose 
 rites they celebrated. PW NT Ppw 77, 
 he that serveth an abomination, is him- 
 self an abomination. Kimchi’s MS. note 
 in Pococke. 
 
 11, 12. onyx, Aphraim, is of the 
 nominative absolute, which gives pro- 
 minence to the name, and its signifi- 
 
 cation. As for Ephraim, (DBs, from 
 m5, to be fruitful, Gen. xh. 52,) such 
 
 may be his name, but, ὅθ. 33, glory, 
 is in contrast with ma, shame, in the 
 preceding verse. The lewd and _ idol- 
 atrous conduct 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 ac- 
 counted such should speedily be removed 
 into Assyria, and there would be nothing 
 but sterility to characterise the nation. 
 The preposition », prefixed to the three 
 last substantives, is privative in signi- 
 fication. 123, womb, stands here for 
 pregnancy, or for the fetus in the womb. 
 The order of the words presents an 
 instance of the gradatio inversa. 0789, 
 among men, aS ΘΝ ONO MwA, “ thy 
 mother shall be childless among women,” 
 1 Sam. xv. 33. Ewald and Hitzig 
 translate “nwa, when I look away from 
 them, contending that. we should read & 
 instead of ©; but no MS. is thus pointed, 
 and the present punctuation is so far 
 supported by the LXX. (σάρξ pov, 
 
δ0 
 
 13 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP sIx 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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, 
 IT have driven them out of my house ; 
 
 I will love them no more: 
 
 ‘All their princes are rebels. 
 16 
 
 They shall produce no fruit : 
 
 1.6. 23), Aq., Vulg., and Targ. Three 
 MSS. and one edit. have "P03, to which 
 ‘v2 is doubtless here equivalent. Many 
 instances occur of the substitution of Ὁ 
 for Ὁ, and vice verséd. The meaning is, 
 when I withdraw my protection from 
 them; no longer showing them any 
 favour, but delivering them over to their 
 enemies. For the abortive attempt of 
 Lyra to prove a corruption of the passage 
 by the Jews, and to palm upon the ren- 
 dering of the LXX. σάρξ pov ἐξ αὐτῶν, 
 the doctrine of the incarnation of the 
 Messiah, see Pococke. 
 
 13. After D058 supply τ, from the 
 following 22°81 72N2, Though 79} 
 commonly governs the accusative, yet, 
 in Ps. Ixiv. 6, it is followed as here by 
 the dative, without any difference of 
 signification. LXX. εἰς θήραν, reading 
 ἜΣ, instead of Ws. Aq., Symm. ἀκρό- 
 τόμον; Theod. πέτραν; Arnoldi, and 
 after him Hitzig, would derive Wi from 
 
 the Arab. Jy? 85 signifying the Palm ; 
 
 but it only signifies the root of that tree, 
 or describes it as small in size, an ac- 
 ceptation which would ill suit the present 
 connexion. Hwald renders, Bild, image 
 or likeness. ‘Tle point of comparison is 
 the beautiful situation of Tyre. See 
 Hzek. xxvil. 3; xxviii. 12, 13. The 
 notion of planting seems to have been 
 suggested by the name of Ephraim. 
 See the preceding note. The territory 
 occupied by that tribe and several of 
 the other nine, was distinguished for 
 its beauty and fertility; and the pro- 
 sperity of its inhabitants, who traded 
 
 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up: 
 
 extensively with the Phcenician ports, 
 was only surpassed by that of Tyre her- 
 self. Yet the fruit of this lovely region 
 was only to be produced in order to its 
 being destroyed. The inhabitants were 
 to be slain in great numbers with the 
 sword. The ? before the infinitive in 
 wim, is future in signification, indicat- 
 ing 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 
 wickedness of his people. In holy ar- 
 dour of soul, he feels himself excited to 
 imprecate what he had predicted ver. 11. 
 Some, less appropriately, render 2, not 
 as an interrogative, but as signifying ¢hat 
 which, 1.6. give them whatever thou wilt. 
 Barrenness was accounted a great mis- 
 fortune among the Jews. 
 
 15. For Gilgal, see on chap. iv. 15. 
 Being one of the chief places of idol- 
 atrous 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 ac- 
 count of it. Hitzig considers 83 to be 
 here used inchoatively. For the sense 
 in which ™2, house, is to be taken, see 
 on chap. vii. 1. Hatred and love are 
 contrasted as here, Mal. i. 2, 3. In 
 DN DW is a paronomasia. 
 
 16. The figurative language here em- 
 ployed is suggested by the meaning of 
 the name Ephraim, as in verses 11, 18. 
 
CHAP. x.| 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 oF 
 
 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: 
 And they shall be wanderers among the nations. 
 
 pL is in the future, while 727 and wp 
 are in the preterite, to mark the state of 
 unfruitfulness as following upon the in- 
 jury done to the tree. The resolution 
 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, °2 instead of "3, which 
 occurs, however, before a verb, Job 
 
 xli. 18. For D727, comp. on 72M, 
 ver. 6. 
 
 17. Though the pronominal affix in 
 Tx is omitted by the LXX.and Arab. 
 and one of Kennicott?s MSS., it is, in 
 such connexion, more in the style of 
 Hosea than OF. The dispersion of 
 the ten tribes is here expressly pre- 
 dicted. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 In this chapter the prophet continues 
 anarchy, and want of fidelity, 1—4. 
 
 to charge the Israelites with idolatry, 
 
 He expatiates with great variety on the 
 
 judgments that were to come upon them in punishment of these crimes, 5—11 ; 
 and then abruptly turns to them in a direct hortatory address, couched in meta- 
 phorical language, borrowed 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, 
 
 13—15. 
 
 
 
 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, ὅσο. is here traced to 
 the abuse of the prosperity which God 
 had conferred on the Israelites. Instead 
 of spending 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. 723, Arab. (3, multum 
 Judit, focundus fuit, multum plurie 
 demisit, florere cepit planta, is here 
 used to express the luxuriance of the 
 vine, and not, as in our common version 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (CHAP τὰ 
 
 2 Their heart is divided, they shall now be punished : 
 He will cut off their altars, he will destroy their statues. 
 3 Surely now shall they say: We have no king ; 
 
 For we fear not Jehovah : 
 
 As for the king then ,what can he do for us ? 
 
 4 ΠΟΥ utter empty speeches ; 
 
 Swearing falsely, making covenants : 
 Therefore judgment blossoms like the poppy 
 
 On the ridges of the field. 
 
 and some others, its unfruitfulness. The 
 idea of emptying, which the verb also 
 has, derived from that of powring out 
 entirely or abundantly the contents of a 
 vessel, does not suit the present con- 
 
 nexion. LXX. εὐκληματοῦσα, or, as 
 in other copies, ἐγκληματοῦσα. Aq. 
 ἔνυδρος. Symm. ὑλομανοῦσα. ulg. 
 jrondosa. Comp. Gen. xlix. 22; Ps. 
 
 Ixxx. 9—11; Ezek. xvii. 6. In every 
 other instance 183 is construed as a femi- 
 nine; but here the masculine name 
 ow, Israel, required it to be taken as 
 of that gender. 71%, to resemble, be 
 equal to, sufficient ; in Piel, like the Eth. 
 
 TI@P, fo bring to maturity, produce 
 
 fruit. %, in the phrase 7%, is pleo- 
 nastic, as in 1-720, &c., but may here be 
 rendered as a possessive pronoun. 
 
 2. po is hereto be taken intransitively, 
 as in our common version, and refers, 
 not to any differences 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 :— 
 
 BAS au, “their mind and their under- 
 
 standing, and their opinion are divided, 
 while they associate others with God.? 
 The acceptation to be smooth, which 
 some propose, is to be rejected, on the 
 eround that, though the verb is used in 
 this signification of the ¢ongue, it nowhere 
 is of the kearf. For the meaning of 
 mex, see on chap. v. 15. The nomi- 
 native to 17, He, is Dx, God, in Dx, 
 chap. ix. 17. Jehovah is here said to 
 do, what he would effect by means of 
 
 the Assyrians. *Y is properly a sacri- 
 ficial term, signifying ¢o cut off the head 
 of a victim, by striking it on the neck ; 
 hence, fo drop as blood from the place 
 thus struck; and ¢o 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. Hwald renders, Hr wird thre 
 Altire enthaupten; “he will decapitate 
 their altars.’’ For the distinction between 
 nimav and mz, see on chap. iil. 4. 
 my, μοῖρ, 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 
 Israelites, at the time of the infliction 
 of divine judgment. Their king, to 
 whom they had naturally looked for 
 protection, was removed; they had for- 
 feited the favour of God, who was now 
 become their enemy; and, therefore, it 
 was vain to expect help from an earthly 
 monarch. Sone think the prophet refers 
 to the time of anarchy during the inter- 
 reenum, between the murder of Pekah 
 and the accession of Hoshea. 
 
 4, 123.733, 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 nis, as an absolute infi- 
 nitive, instead of 7x, comp. ninw, Is. 
 xxii. 13; mx), chap. xli. 20. 8, cove- 
 nant, is here used as a collective noun, 
 and is to be rendered in the plural. 
 Whether the false swearing and the en- 
 tering into covenants refer to the conduct 
 of the Israelites in regard to each other, 
 or whether they respect their conduct in 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 5 For the calves of Beth-aven, 
 
 HOSEA. 59 
 
 The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in fear ; 
 Surely the people thereof shall mourn on account of it ; 
 And the priests thereof shall leap about on account of it— 
 
 On account of its glory, 
 
 Because it hath departed from it. 
 6 It shall itself also be carried to Assyria, 
 
 A present to the hostile king: 
 
 iphraim shall take disgrace, 
 
 And Israel shall blush for his 
 
 reference to foreign powers, has been 
 disputed. The latter would seem to be 
 the more probable, since it is the making 
 of 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 v5 is 
 meant the divine judgment which was 
 to be inflicted upon the people of Israel. 
 So Jarchi, MaynE, po ὌΡΟΣ, This he 
 compares 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 sig- 
 nification of 81; but that of poppy, 
 proposed by Gesenius, is preferable, both 
 to such construction of the term, and to 
 that of colocynth advanced by @idmann, 
 or that of dolium or darnel suggested by 
 Michaelis. The term is usually ren- 
 dered poison in our common version; 
 sometimes gall. LXX. ἄγρωστις. O05 
 rather signify the ridges between the 
 furrows than the furrows themselves. 
 See Pococke. 
 
 5, 6. In these verses the object of 
 idolatrous 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 honour. Four MSS. 
 have παν, 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 uncri- 
 tically adopted by Kuinoel, Dathe, New- 
 come, and some other moderns. For 
 TS a, Beth-aven, see on chap. iv. 15. 
 
 own counsel. 
 
 }2B is a collective. The nominative to 
 the pronominal affixes in Y2Y, AY, 123, 
 &c. is the 72%, calf of Jeroboam, singled 
 out from the rest. SY, 25. people, those 
 devoted to its worship. Comp. Numb. 
 xxl. 29. O22 is only used in Hebrew 
 to designate ¢dolatrous priests, and occurs 
 but twice besides, viz. 2 Kings xxiii. 5; 
 
 Zeph. 1. 4; but in the Syriac {pscdo, 
 
 Lumro, signifies a priest of the true God, 
 as well as one engaged in the service of 
 idols. Gesenius derives the noun from 
 123, to burn, be scorched, black, swp- 
 posing 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 ys , sacrum magorun 
 
 ignicolarum cingulum, of which frequent 
 mention is made in the Sadder of Zoro- 
 aster, is much more natural. Comp. the 
 Chald. 107, NYP, a Selt or girdle. Some 
 think the Lat. caméllus, an inferior order 
 of priest, who attended upon and assisted 
 the flamens, is derived from this roof. 
 Ewald renders the word by P/afex, 
 which is used of priests by way of con- 
 tempt in German. Those who render 
 wn, they rejoiced, which is the usual 
 signification of the verb, supply ΣΝ 
 before it; but the Vau conversive con- 
 nects it so closely with 728, as to render 
 such supplement inconsistent with the 
 construction. It is, therefore, better to 
 revert to the primary signification of 
 23, to move about, leap, dance, or the 
 
 like. Comp. the Arab. εἰς. circumivit. 
 Such would be the excitement of the 
 
00 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. X. 
 
 7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off ; 
 He is like a chip upon the surface of the water. 
 
 8 And the high places of Aven, 
 
 the sin of Israel, are destroyed ; 
 
 Thorns and thistles shall grow upon their altars : 
 They shall also say to the mountains, Cover us; 
 And to the hills, Fall upon us. 
 9 Since the days of Gibeah, thou hast sinned, O Israel! — 
 
 There they remain : 
 
 Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah ? 
 
 idolatrons priests at the capture of their 
 god, that they would leap about in a 
 state of desperation, like those of Baal, 
 1 Kings xvii. 26. The glory of the 
 idol consisted in its ornaments, wealth, 
 &c. ink ἘΞ is emphatic: 7tse/f also, 1. 6. 
 the idol or golden calf. For the meaning 
 of 1%, Jareb, see on chap. v. 18. The 
 worshippers of the golden calf would be 
 ashamed of him, when they found that, 
 instead of protecting them, he was him- 
 self carried into captivity. That 723 is 
 not to be changed into 7243, and ren- 
 dered in a sound sleep, as Horsley does, 
 nor into 283, ἐμ this year, with Mi- 
 chaelis, the parallelism sufficiently shows. 
 
 7. For the sake of emphasis, }v2¥ is 
 put absolutely. The whole phrase is 
 equivalent to the king of Samaria, &e. 
 That 273 agrees with 7272, and not with 
 yi, the gender shows. 4372 has no- 
 where the signification of foam, or scum. 
 
 Tt is derived from 7Y2, Arab. aad, 
 Jregit, to cut, cut off, and signifies any 
 chip, or small fragment of wood. Comp. 
 ΠΕΣ, a fragment, Joel i. 7, Arab. 
 cares, fractus arboris ramus, kas, 
 LXX. φρύγανον. Syr. 
 
 Ae Jestucam. 'The comparison of the 
 
 tenuitas arboris. 
 
 king to a small chip of wood, which 
 cannot resist the force of the current, is 
 very beautiful and forcible. Spuma, 
 which is the rendering of the arg. 
 Jerome, Symm., Abulwalid, Tanchum, 
 and many moderns, is less apt, even if 
 it could be philologically sustained. 
 
 8. Ps, dven, is an abbreviation of the 
 full form pia, Beth-aven, or Bethel. 
 
 DONG, the occasion of sin to Israel. See 
 
 ver. 10. In the midst of the calamities 
 that should come upon the people, death 
 would be preferable to life. Comp. Rev. 
 ΠΡ. “ἰὸς 
 
 9. That reference is here made to the 
 transactions recorded Jud. xix. xx., there 
 can be no doubt. The prophet declares 
 that as a nation his people had all along, 
 from the period referred to, evinced a 
 disposition to act in the same rebellious 
 and unjust manner as the Gibeonites 
 had done. Comp. chap. ix. 9. The 
 words 119% DW, there they remain, con- 
 tinue, persist, graphically expressed the 
 character of the inhabitants in his day. 
 The Gibeonites were still, what they had 
 ever been, a wicked and abandoned 
 people. They are here singled out as a 
 fit specimen of the whole nation; and 
 are called πον 33, sons of wickedness, to 
 mark the enormity of their conduct. 
 Instead of my, the Brixian edition, 
 thirty-nine MSS., originally seventeen, 
 and perhaps a few more, have 7», the 
 common form, which is supposed to have 
 been changed by a simple transposition 
 of the letters. Albert Schultens, how- 
 ever, in his notes ad Harir. i. p. 15, 
 justifies the present reading by deriving 
 
 it from the Arab. Wt, modum excessit, 
 
 evtulit se; and Michaelis, in his Sup- 
 plem. by referring it to the Syriac, 
 
 cass}, and the Eth GA@: fidem 
 Jefellit, perfidus fuit. Comp. “25. δὰ» : 
 GAdr: Ler 
 CAO T : 
 
 scelus, perversitas. hat the Targumist 
 read the text as it now stands is clear 
 
 tyrannus,  scelestus. 
 
 transgressio aqui.et boni, 
 
CHAP, X.| 
 
 10 My desire is to punish them ; 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 61 
 
 The nations, therefore, shall be collected against them, 
 When they are bound for their two iniquities. 
 
 11 
 
 For 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. 
 
 from his rendering the word 37°, they 
 went up. The words T2072 Ty222 DPW? 
 my ἜΝ are somewhat involved, but 
 the meaning is obvious. Destruction 
 should assuredly overtake the wicked 
 Israelites. Ὁ, the verbal suffix in O2wn, 
 is anticipative of 7)9Y 723. 8? stands for 
 Non, the interrogatory negative. 
 
 10. °n383, the LXX. have read ὯΝ ; 
 rendering it ἦλθε; or, according to the 
 Alexandrian MS. and the editions of 
 Aldus and Breitinger, ἦλθεν. Of this 
 Houbigant, Dimock, Newcome, Ting- 
 stadius, and Boothroyd, approve, and 
 adopt it as an emendation; but contrary 
 to all other authority, ancient or modern, 
 and without necessity. 2 prefixed is the 
 Beth Essentia, indicating the substantive 
 character of the affection. See my note 
 on Is. xxvi. 4. ΤῊΝ, fo be strongly pro- 
 pense, desire greatly, expresses the irre- 
 sistible inclination of infinite purity to 
 punish sin. D8 is the future in Kal of 
 12, to chastise, punish, compensation 
 having been made for the first radical °, 
 by inserting Dageshin the Ὁ. Dex, the 
 infinitive of 18, fo bind, bind as a pri- 
 soner or captive, which is the sense in 
 which the word is here to be taken. 
 onyy has occasioned great variety of in- 
 terpretation. Michaelis translates it 
 plough-shares, attempting to derive it 
 from the Arabic. Jarchi, Liveley, and, 
 among the moderns, Ewald, render eyes, 
 “before their ¢wo eyes,’ i.e. openly; 
 but the word is always written DPy 
 when applied to real eyes, and only 
 m2» when applied to fountains, or arti- 
 ficial eyes. Some translate habitations ; 
 but most, furrows, which is the rendering 
 adopted by Abenezra, Kimehi, Abul- 
 walid, Tanchum, Munster, Vatablus, 
 Zanchius, &e., after the Targum—some 
 expounding the passage one way, and 
 some another. ‘The only satisfactory 
 
 exegesis is that founded on the Keri, 
 pny δ, for their two iniquities, 1. 6. 
 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 ixiguities by a metonymy of 
 the cause for the effect. Comp. ver. 8, 
 where MNET, siz, 15. similarly applied. 
 This reading is in the text of a great 
 many MSS. and is expressed in all the 
 ancient versions. 
 
 11. 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, 
 especially 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 hard- 
 ship in foreign countries. The metaphors 
 are agricultural. For wx, ¢o tread or 
 beat out the corn, partly by the feet of 
 oxen, and partly by sledges with instru- 
 ments adapted to the purpose, see on 
 Is, xxviii. 27, 28. .The > in ‘AIT, is 
 paragogic, as ‘AW and 17227, Jer. xxii. 
 23; 728, chap. li. 13, though in these 
 passages it has been left unpointed by 
 the Masoretes. See Ewald, § 406. The 
 form is otherwise the participle M2qk. 
 99 12Y signifies here fo 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 hardships of captivity. Os rmx, 
 lit. I will cause to ride Ephraim, meaning 
 I will place a rider upon him—a con- 
 queror, who shall lead him forth from 
 his land. Thus Calvin, Zanchius, Lyra, 
 Tarnovius, Rosenmiiller, and Ewald. 
 The judgments of God were not, how- 
 
62 
 
 12 
 Reap according to piety ; 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 lone κ᾿ 
 
 Sow to yourselves for righteousness ; 
 
 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. 
 
 ever, to be confined to the northern 
 kingdom: the southern should also be 
 involved inthem. In short, they should 
 overtake the whole posterity of Jacob. 
 The prediction was fulfilled during the 
 two captivities. 1, in 19 ὙΠῸ», is pleo- 
 nastic. 
 
 12. Continuing his agricultural meta- 
 phors, the prophet here abruptly calls 
 upon the nation to reform its manners. 
 ὩΣ) is the Dat. commodi. % in ΤΕ) 
 points out the end or object to be ob- 
 tained by sowing. Sow what will pro- 
 duce the fruits of righteousness. The 
 second imperative is here equivalent to 
 the future: “Sow, and ye shall reap ;” 
 or the subjunctive, ‘Sow, so that ye 
 may reap.” That 107, piety or goodness, 
 is to be referred, not to God, but to 
 man, its being parallel with "P13, right- 
 eousness, manifestly proves. ΤῸ change 
 ny) into ΠΡ, and join this word with 13, 
 
 receding, as Newcome, following the 
 
 XX. and Arab., does, is unauthorized 
 and inept. The Israelites 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 favour, they were to per- 
 severe in seeking him, in the assurance 
 that he would be gracious to them. 
 Such is the force of 1, wztil. This 
 favour was to be manifested by his 
 coming and communicating to them in- 
 struction respecting the only righteous- 
 ness which could avail the guilty at his 
 bar. That the words 022 ΡῚΞ 7) 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 main- 
 tained by Jerome, and many other in- 
 
 terpreters. In support of the rendering, 
 He will teach you righteousness, may be 
 
 adduced the Syr. Jomsco 12] ὡς 
 
 a» v ΕΣ 
 σιΖο 2.5] eas: till he come and 
 
 show to you his righteousness ; Pococke’s 
 
 * 
 Arab. MS. Sishys cs οἱ οἱ 
 Udell, 11 he come and guide you to 
 
 righteousness. The Targ. to the same 
 effect, 29 DIN] 23M V3, xow 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, 
 RD NIT S97 NN NYT Ts WIN Dx 97 
 prs ΣΙΝ mn, there are those (of the 
 Rabbins) who expound, If ye seek the 
 Lord, to know his law and his command- 
 ments, he will come and teach you right- 
 eousness. And Abenezra asserts the same, 
 in nearly the same words. Such con- 
 struction of the passage seems, from the 
 preceding use of 7778, to be more apt, 
 than to take ΡΤῈ absolutely for 77789, zz 
 due proportion, adequately, fully, ac- 
 cording 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 
 exhorted, the Israelites had pursued one 
 directly opposite, and now reaped the 
 disastrous consequences. The same 
 metaphors are here continued. 72793, 
 Jruit 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 
 fallacious and disappointing results. 
 
CHAP. Χ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 63 
 
 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. 
 
 Secker would read 3273, ἐμ thy chariots, 
 instead of 2073, ix thy way, on the 
 authority of the LXX. ἐν ἅρμασί σου, 
 which reading is found in Compl., Ald., 
 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 203, iz thy 
 ways. The way of the Israelites was 
 the wicked course of conduct which 
 they had adopted in opposition to the 
 willof God. Kimchi: ΠΌΝΟΝ ΤΙ yw 
 m1, the way of wickedness and bad 
 religion. The Vat. copy of the LXX. 
 has ἐν τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασί σου. 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. ONp}, with & epenthetic, after the 
 
 manner of the Arab. , ls; or it may 
 
 be regarded as merely a mater lectionis. 
 Some few MSS., and some others in the 
 margin, read ἘΠῚ, Twenty-four MSS., 
 one originally, four of the early editions, 
 and all the ancient versions, read *772°2, 
 thy people, instead of 7 2P3, thy peoples. 
 For minor varieties in the readings, see 
 Kennicott and De Rossi. The nomi- 
 native to TS is 55, taken as acollective, 
 comprehending the whole. That γον, 
 Shalman, and 98218 3, Beth-Arbel, are 
 proper names, is now universally ad- 
 mitted. ‘The best interpretation of them 
 
 is that given by Tanchum: 13) Ὁ lel, 
 wer «chy went gst οὐκ ram 3 
 i) ς ὅρον ὝΞΝΣΟΘΩ sls pos 
 Po fea Lense Lael tl 
 NE pl Le) Ossty hy μοὶ ts 
 ΝΣῚΝ ey) iJ. “As for Shalman, itisa 
 
 proper name, and is said to stand for 
 Shalmanassar, king of Assyria, only it 
 is abbreviated; and perhaps Shalmanas- 
 sar is compounded of two names, one of 
 which is omitted because it was well 
 known: and Beth-Arbel is the name of 
 acity, and is said to be that which is 
 called Arbel at the present day.” The 
 abbreviation of proper names is not un-~ 
 common in Scripture, as 323, Coniah, 
 for PRT, Jehoiachin, ὅθ. It was this 
 Assyrian monarch that besieged Samaria 
 for the space of three years, and took it 
 in the ninth of Hoshea, B.c. 722, carry- 
 ing the king and most of his subjects 
 into exile. 2 Kings xvii. l—6. To this 
 interpretation it has been objected that 
 our prophet wrote before the time of ᾿ 
 Shalmaneser, and therefore could not 
 speak of his destroying Arbelas something 
 that had already happened. It must, 
 however, be recollected, that though 
 Hosea prophesied before the time of 
 that king, he continued to deliver his 
 predictions as far down as the time of 
 his successor Sennacherib, and must, 
 therefore, have been well acquainted 
 with the previous Assyrian invasions. 
 With respect to 58278 ™3, or, as some 
 MSS. read, 528, Beth-Arbel, commen- 
 tators are divided in opinion. Some 
 think that the Assyrian city <Arbela, 
 situated between the Lycus and the 
 Tigris, celebrated for the victory ob- 
 tained there by Alexander the Great 
 over Darius, is meant; but it is far 
 more probable that the prophet refers to 
 the ᾿Αρβήλα 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 given either in sacred or pro- 
 fane history; but as the contemporaries 
 of Hosea are supposed to have been 
 acquainted with it, there is reason to 
 believe that it took place on the in- 
 vasion of the kingdom of Israel by the 
 Assyrian army. ‘The ancient versions 
 of this clause of the verse are more or 
 less at fault; but have afforded abundant 
 scope for the exercise of emendatorial 
 
64 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 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. 
 
 criticism. See Newcome, who renders, 
 Like the destruction of Zalmunna by the 
 hand of Jerubbaal; and supposes the 
 reference to be to Jud. vii. 7 here 
 signifies sith, in the sense of being 
 superadded. See Gen. xxvili. 9; xxx. 
 50. 
 
 15. The nominative to ΤῈΣ is Shalman 
 in the preceding verse, or perhaps ™™, 
 Jehovah, wnderstood, but not 8 ™3, 
 Bethel, as in our common version, 
 since this does not so well agree with 
 what follows. ‘The words contain a 
 special prediction against Bethel, where 
 the wickedness of the Israelites had 
 been most couspicuously exhibited. n>) 
 nny, lit. the wickedness of your wicked- 
 ness, 1.€. your excessive, or most flagrant 
 wickedness. A rare example of a noun 
 put in construction with itself repeated 
 in the singular, in order to form the 
 superlative degree. There is no ueces- 
 
 sity, with Newcome, to resort to emen- 
 dation. Instead of ws, “iz the 
 morning,” fifteen MSS., and perhaps 
 one more, six originally, the Proph. of 
 Soncin. 1486, the Venet. edit. of 1518, 
 in the margin, and the Vulg. read 11s, 
 “ike the morning.’ Were the fol- 
 lowing verb 793 to be taken in the sense 
 of resembling, being like, &e., the latter 
 reading might possess some claim on our 
 attention; but as the idea of being de- 
 stroyed best comports with the connexion, 
 that of the Textus Receptus is prefer- 
 able. The difference of reading has 
 arisen from the similarity of the letters 
 rand >. The reference is to the sud- 
 denness with which Hoshea was to be 
 seized by the king of Assyria, 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 XI. 
 
 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 on 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 
 nation of Israel—being a description 
 of what Jehovah had done for it ages 
 before the prophet wrote, and not a 
 
 propheey 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 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 65 
 
 2 According as they called them, they went from their presence, 
 
 They sacrificed unto Baals, 
 
 And burned incense to graven images. 
 8 Though I taught Ephraim to walk, 
 
 Taking them by their arms, 
 
 Yet they knew not that I healed them. 
 
 question. Nor but for their having been 
 applied by the Evangelist Matthew (ch. 
 ii. 15,) to our Lord’s return from Egypt, 
 would it ever have been imagined that 
 they had or could have any other refer- 
 ence. 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 appropriation of the language 
 of the prophet, for the purpose of giving 
 to Jewish readers a more vivid impres- 
 sion of the strikingly analogous circum- 
 stances of the sojourn of our Saviour in 
 Egypt, and his return from it, to those 
 of the ancient Israelites. The Lvan- 
 gelist 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 historical 
 event which he was narrating, just as 
 he does, Jer. xxxi. 15, in application to 
 the murder of the infants at Bethlehem, 
 and Ps. Ixxviii. 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 ¢hem than such accom- 
 modations of tlhe text upon all occasions. 
 They abound in such applications; I 
 may say their Midrashim do very much 
 exceed in them.” Kidder’s Demon. of 
 the Messiah, Pt. IT. p.216. “ Parodiarum 
 in N. T. omnia sunt plena, e. g. Matt. 
 1. 15 et 23, ubi cmplete dicuntur 
 Scripture tum etiam, cum nulla histo- 
 rica aut typica est impletio, sed analo- 
 gica tantum.” Ποίησον, Primit. 
 Heidelberg, p. 80. See Surenhusii, 
 βιβλος καταλλαγης, p. 338. Horne’s 
 Introd. vol. ii. pp. 341, 342. Robinson’s 
 Greek Lex. in ἵνα, Ο. 9, 4. Instead of 
 229, the LXX. appear to have read 122); 
 but instead of τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ, 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. 4; Jer. 1]. 
 9- in 94, 95 + xxi. 215 Hos. 1. 15. 
 2. The use of the verb x37, ¢o 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 lad been employed for their re- 
 formation, the obstinate character of 
 their rebellion. Before *?, subaud, 
 ὝΦΝΞ, to correspond to 72. Thus the 
 LXX. καθ᾽ ws. See on Is. lv. 9. The 
 nominative is the prophets, understood. 
 The very presence of the prophets being 
 an annoyance to them, they withdrew 
 from it, that, unmolested, they might 
 
 conjugation, equivalent to Hiphil in sig- 
 nification, and, in all probability, formed 
 by hardening the preformative 7 into ἢ. 
 Indeed, one of De Rossi’s MSS. reads 
 There exist 
 
 Sait: See Knés Chrest. Syr. p. 112. 
 
 It isa denominative from 72}, the foot, and 
 signifies to cause or teach to use the feet, 
 
 or walk. Syr. and Targ. Zi ma, 
 
 1 led, only the Jatter paraphrases, 8289 
 MIT DTP. ἸῸ 29 ΝΟΣ, and I led, ὅτο. 
 by an angel sent from my presence. The 
 use of the personal pronoun 228 before 
 the verb gives additional force to the 
 language. 2 in OR is the infinitive 
 used as a gerund, as in Ezek. xvii. 5. 
 Both the suffixes Ὁ and 1 refer to 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (CHAP. ’ ΧΙ. 
 
 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; 
 But Assyria shall be their king: 
 Because they would not be converted. 
 6 The sword, also, shall be whirled in their cities, 
 Yea, it shall destroy their barriers, and devour, 
 
 Because of their devices. 
 
 Ephraim. Sce on chap. ix. ὦ. Four 
 MSS. for Ynv's, “ dis arms,” read “NP, 
 “my arms,” which is also in 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 onivi; but they are 
 all corrections 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 beautifully expresses the condescen- 
 sion of God to the cireumstances of his 
 people, and the kind care which he ex- 
 ercised over them. Comp. Deut. i. 31; 
 xxxil. 1]. His healing them, refers to 
 his recovering them from the calamities 
 which they brought upon themselves by 
 their sins. 
 
 4, Dis 230, the bands of man, are ex- 
 plained by the parallel phrase 7278 niniy, 
 cords of love, 1. 6. humane, gentle, per- 
 suasive methods, such as men generally 
 employ when they would induce to 
 action. There seems to be still a re- 
 ference 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 manner 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 agri- 
 cultural life. “2 Ὁ ‘2122 does not 
 mean to remove the yoke entirely, 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 the fol- 
 
 lowing connexion than the idea of taking 
 the yoke off any place that may have 
 been galled by it, in order to afford 
 relief. The 59, 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 Hast 
 are very heavy, and press so much upon 
 the animals, that they are unable to bend 
 their necks. 8 Ox), Ewald renders, 
 und sanft gegen thn, “and gently towards 
 him,” &e.; but it is preferable to take 
 ὮΝ as the apocopated future in Hiph. 
 of 723, to stretch out, extend, reach any 
 thing to another. ‘lhe 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. 2%, to turn, return, which is used 
 at the beginning of the verse in its 
 proper acceptation, is employed at the 
 close metaphorically to express conver- 
 sion to God. The Israelites seem to 
 have been very generally inclined to 
 migrate for a time to Egypt, in order to 
 enjoy the protection of its monarch ; 
 the prophet assures 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 >7 in 
 the sense of resting, remaining ; but it 
 seems preferable to adopt the signifi- 
 cation to turn, be turned, or whirled 
 about, as a sword when it is brandished, 
 or when it is employed in cutting down 
 
CHAP. XI.| 
 
 HOSEA. 6 
 
 “I 
 
 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 1 give thee up, O Ephraim ? 
 
 How shall I deliver thee over, 
 
 O Israel ? 
 
 How shall I make thee as Admah ? 
 How shall I set 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. Gl, 
 
 conversa fuit res. V. se convertit ; versus 
 mutatusque fuit. O73, barriers, Ge- 
 senius and Lee take metaphorically, as 
 denoting chiefs or princes. 
 
 7. osmm = on, which one of De 
 Rossi’s MSS. reads originally, the Pahul 
 Part. of 737, fo hang, used here meta- 
 
 the enemy. 
 
 ττϑ 
 
 phorically in the sense of ending, or 
 being propense to any thing. The idea 
 of doubt or suspense, which some attach 
 to the word in this connexion, ill agrees 
 with the character of the Israelites as 
 otherwise depicted in this book. 72709 
 is always used in a bad sense, defection, 
 apostasy, &c. Comp. chap. xiv. 4, (Hebr. 
 5). The suffix in M2 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 2x, ad summum, see on chap. vil. 
 16; and for 37, on ver. 2. After 
 Dey, supply ink, Aim, from ὅν, 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. 
 
 Pococke’s Arab. MS. d=} wo re 
 all pal 3,9 
 
 one of them that glorified the name of 
 God. 7 with a negative is to be ren- 
 
 dered μού one; without it, all, altogether, 
 wholly, as in the following verse. 
 
 he, there was not 
 
 8,9. Now follows one of the most 
 affecting instances of the infinite ten- 
 derness of the divine compassion to be 
 found in Scripture ; the point of which 
 is enhanced by its being introduced 
 immediately after a description of the 
 odious conduct of the Israelites. It is, 
 as Bishop Lowth characterises it, ex- 
 quisitely pathetic. ‘The repetitions and 
 synonymous features of the parallelism 
 greatly add to the effect. ‘The words 
 belong to the period after the subjuga- 
 tion of Samaria, and the carrying away 
 of the Israelites by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 
 xvii. 5, 6; xvill. 9—12. They were de- 
 signed to inspire the captives with hope 
 in the mercy of God, and thus lead 
 them to true repentance. 72228, the 
 LXX. render ὑπερασπιῶ cov; Aq. 
 ὕὅπλω κυκλώσα oe; Vulg. protegam te ; 
 deriving the idea from the signification 
 of the substantive 329, ὦ shield ; but it 
 is used of delivering over enemies, Gen. 
 xiv. 20. Symm. ἐκδώσω oe. Before 
 Fox is an ellipsis of Px, which had 
 already been twice repeated. The de- 
 struction of Admah and Zeboim is only 
 referred to as an example in one other 
 case, viz. Dent. xxix. 23, and then in 
 connexion 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 
 deserves 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 °2? “YY 7273, “my 
 
68 
 
 For I am God and not man, 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 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. 
 
 heart is turned agaivst 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 construc- 
 tion, though it cannot be questioned, 
 that it is designed to express a powerful 
 inward revolution. Comp. ‘a7n—i9, 
 Ps. xiii. 6, 12, xliii, 5; ΠῚ Ὁ men, 
 exlii, 4; 17°22 %v, Jer. viii. 18; in all 
 which passages the preposition conveys 
 the idea of mental contiguity, nearness, 
 in, within, as ‘22 %2) FBR, my heart is 
 turned WITHIN me, Lam. 1. 20, incon- 
 testably shows. From the connexion in 
 which it occurs, in the last cited passage, 
 it is obvious the phrase is there designed 
 to express great mental distress. 23 is 
 used in Niphal, of ¢he stirrings of na- 
 tural affection, Gen. xlii. 30; 1 Kings 
 ii. 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 the word by ~(», concitatus 
 
 fuit. UXX. συνεταράχθη, or, as in the 
 Complut. διεταράχθη. O'D973, the same 
 in effect as DM, compassion, feelings of 
 tender pity and affection. Targ, ΠῚ, 
 my compassions. lt is derived from 073, 
 to be inwardly affected, whether with 
 grief, pity, consolation, or anger. In 
 the idea of displeasure with oneself, has 
 originated the signification, fo repent, 
 which accounts for the renderings, pera- 
 μέλεια, ponitudo, repentings, &e. See 
 my note on Is. i. 24. The language is 
 in the highest degree 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. 293 in nM) ry x) 
 15, as frequently, to be taken adverbially. 
 The captivity was the last judgment that 
 -was to come upon the ten tribes as a 
 ‘punishment for their idolatry. The ren- 
 dering, “I will not enter into the citv,” 
 
 affords no suitable sense, and would 
 require the article P32, as, indeed, one 
 of De Rossi’s MSS. reads. Bishop 
 Lowth’s translation, “though I inhabit 
 not thy cities,” (Lectures, vol. 11. p. 38,) 
 is equally unsatisfactory with the inter- 
 pretation of Jerome and Castalio: I am 
 not like those who dwell in cities, living 
 after human laws, and deeming cruelty 
 tobejustice. Such construction Maurer 
 states to be in his opinion “ artificiosior 
 quam elegantior.” I, therefore, adopt 
 the interpretation hinted at by Jarchi, 
 and since approved by Schroeder, Secker, 
 Dathe, Manger, Tingstadius, Eichhorn, 
 De Wette, Noyes, Boothroyd, Gesenius, 
 Maurer, and Ewald, which takes YY not 
 in the sense of city, but of anger or 
 
 wrath ; comparing the Arab. " » ferbuit 
 
 @stu dies. Comp. Jer. xv. 8; Hos. vii. 
 4; and W, az enemy, 1 Sam. xxviii. 16 ; 
 Ps. exxxix. 20. ‘The words are thus 
 strictly parallel, and synonymous to 8% 
 we, and not man. The derivation from 
 
 crak to which Michaelis assigns the 
 
 signification azgry, Ba, ira in Deo, 
 
 Orient. Bib. Pt. XIX. p. 9, is less appro- 
 priate, 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. 
 mm IR pI, fo walk after Jehovah, 15 
 always used in the religious sense of 
 addicting oneself to his worship, and 
 keeping his commandments, and is not 
 to be interpreted, as Hitzig does, of a 
 mere following of providence by taking 
 advantage of the opportunity that would 
 be afforded of returning from Babylon. 
 So the Targ. 7 some 103, after the 
 worship of Jehovah. For the contrary, 
 see ver. 2. As 38, fo roar, like the 
 
 we 
 
CHAP. ΧῚ].] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 69 
 
 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. 
 
 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 gene- 
 rally; but must be referred to the awful 
 judgments which God executed upon 
 Babylon, Egypt, &c. through the in- 
 strumentality of Cyrus and his succes- 
 sors; thereby opening the way for the 
 liberation of the Israelites who were 
 found in these countries. Comp. Is. 
 xxxi. 4; Jer. xxv. 380; Joel ii. 16; 
 Amos i. 2; iil. 8. By 023, sos, 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. 7 is here pregnant with mean- 
 ing—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 promi- 
 nent as that of quick or nimble 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 repairing thither. 
 LXX. ἐκστήσονται; but in the following 
 
 verse ἐκπέτεσονται. Syr. casozJ, they 
 
 “Sie Lat. tre- 
 pro /estinare, 
 
 shall move or be moved. 
 pidare etiam. sumitur 
 
 observantibus Bocharto in Hieroz. et 
 Schultensio in Animadverss. philol. ad 
 15. xix. 17.” Winer, zz voc. ‘he same 
 idea of velocity is further carried out by 
 comparing the return of the Israelites to 
 the flight of birds remarkable for their 
 swiftness. ‘2¥ is here used not in its 
 generic sense of dird, but specifically of 
 the sparrow, as the use of 73%, dove, 
 immediately after, shows. The 0, sea, 
 is the Mediterranean, or the islands and 
 other maritime regions in the west. 
 Kimchi, 9», the west ; Pococke’s Arab. 
 
 MS. yl py Bar Jrom 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 
 émbrace all the countries mentioned by 
 Isaiah; and as the ten tribes form the 
 subject of Hosea’s discourse, the present 
 prophecy furnishes an additional preof 
 of their return also, after the Babylonish 
 captivity. To argue, therefore, from 
 this passage, that they are still in ex- 
 istence, and are yet to be restored in 
 their tribal capacity, is hermeneutically 
 unwarranted. % in the phrase D772, 
 instead of 3, seems to have special re- 
 ference to the custom of the Orientals, 
 who enjoy their time wpon, rather than 
 im their houses. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 “This chapter~commences with renewed complaints against both Ephraim and 
 Judah, more especially against the former, 1, 2. The conduct of their pro- 
 genitor 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 
 
τὸ 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [Cus cman 
 
 encouraged by the unchangeable character of Jehovah, 5,6. The prophet next 
 reverts to the deceitful and hypocritical character of the ten tribes, notwith- 
 standing 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 God to the nation in its obscure origin in the person of Jacob, 
 12, 13; and denounces anew the judgments that were to be inflicted upon it, 14. 
 
 
 
 1 Epnrarm 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 faithful Holy Ones. 
 
 1. The LXX., Vulg., Targ., and our 
 common version, join this verse to the 
 preceding chapter; but improperly— 
 there being no connexion whatever with 
 the previous verses, whereas it 1s mani- 
 fest from the renewed reference to 
 Judah, ver. 3, that the three verses inti- 
 mately cohere. The proper exegesis of 
 this verse depends upon the signification 
 assigned to τὰ, and the consequent ap- 
 plication of jpx2. That the former 
 cannot grammatically be referred either 
 to ™ or 7, fo subdue, bear rule, or to 
 ty, to descend, as Jerome renders it, is 
 now agreed on all hands; and there is 
 no alternative left but to derive it from 
 ™, which occurs only in three other 
 _ passages, viz. once in Kal, Jer. 1]. 31, 
 and twice in Hiph. Gen. xxvii. 40, and 
 Ps. lv. 3. In the two first, the ideas of 
 becoming or being unfaithful, rebelling, 
 wandering at large, are obviously con- 
 veyed. 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 mourning, which is that 
 expressed by our translators. Thus also 
 the derivative 2 may best be ren- 
 dered circumvagatio, erratio, Lam. i. 7 ; 
 
 iii. 19. Compare the Arabic O},, Os)» 
 
 quesivit pabulum; wlfro citroque ivit ; 
 mobile fuit; discurrit huc illue mulier 
 
 Ν 
 pascuis cameli modo prodeunt modo re- 
 
 trocedunt, Eth @PR BR: persequi, 
 insurrevit, &e. The signification domi- 
 
 apud vicinas suas. » locus, quo in 
 
 natur, which has been given to 7, is 
 altogether gratuitous. The meaning 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 
 adhering stedfastly 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, dis- 
 contented at home, seeks for satisfaction 
 by gadding about among her neighbours. 
 The description applies to the state of 
 things among the Jews 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 alto- 
 gether renounced his service. Hence 
 the force of 1%, yet, still. Though the 
 idea of hostility implied in the verb 
 would not justify the use of the prepo- 
 sition DY, with, taken as in the phrases 
 py on, Dyin, fo fight with, contend 
 with ; yet it well agrees with its use 
 after verbs of acting ¢owards, or in 
 reference to any one, such as DY my, 
 Dy rio my, &e. Thus Schroeder, Dathe, 
 Hichhorn, De Wette, Boothroyd, Kuinoel, 
 Gesenius, Noyes, Hitzig, Maurer, and 
 Ewald. Such construction of the passage 
 is fully borne out by ver. ὃ, which can- 
 not be consistently interpreted, if Judah 
 were here represented as faithfully main- 
 taining the principles of the theocracy. 
 But if the signification which has been 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 2 Ephraim feedeth upon wind, 
 
 HOSEA. a 
 
 Yea, 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. 
 
 3 Jehovah hath also a controversy with Judah, 
 And He will punish Jacob, according to his ways; 
 
 According to his deeds, 
 
 He will recompense him. 
 
 4. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, 
 
 And by his strength he 
 
 given to 1) be alone justifiable, then it 
 is evident 7282, fuithful, cannot apply to 
 Judah, but must be taken as qualifying 
 Dwi, the adjective noun immediately 
 preceding. To this it cannot be ob- 
 jected, that the one is in the plural, 
 while the other is in the singular; for 
 we find a precisely similar combination 
 in PION, the righteous God, Ps. vii. 
 10. ‘That owp, 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, 
 it ow? oN; Prov. ix. 10, ow nya 
 mya; xxx. ὃ, τὲ ΟῚ ΠΡ, Kimchi 
 himself allows that Ow? must be so 
 understood in this place. Between the 
 inconstancy of the Jews, and the faith- 
 fulness of God, the contrast is placed in 
 a very striking point of view. They 
 had never found 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 ren- 
 dering in this place; but none of them 
 suggests a meaning 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 alli- 
 ances of the Israelites. O77, the LXX. 
 
 render καύσων, the Arab. ppenall, the 
 
 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 in- 
 
 strove with God; 
 
 sincerity and faithless conduet 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 ancient monarchies. 
 72%, oz/, was one of the most valuable 
 productions of Canaan, and formed a 
 profitable article of exportation. 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 
 favourable hearing to the embassy 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 in Is. 
 xvii. 4. The declaration here made 
 manifestly shows, that in ver. 1, the 
 conduct of Judah is to be viewed in an 
 unfavourable light. At the same time 
 the language of both verses in reference 
 to that power is not so strong as that 
 which is employed respecting Israel. 
 
 4, 5. Having introduced the name of 
 Jacob in reference to his posterity, 
 Hosea adverts to three interesting in- 
 cidents in his personal history, with the 
 
 ‘ view of encouraging his countrymen to 
 
 apply themselves with all assiduity to 
 the service of God, who alone could, 
 and would extricate them from the cala- 
 mitous circumstances into which their 
 sins had brought them. Though 372, 
 from which the name 37%, Jacob, is 
 
 derived, Arab. Age, e vestigio sequutus 
 Juit, a calce venit, &e. signifies to come 
 
 behind any one, take him by the heel, 
 trip, circumvent, &c., it is obviously used 
 
72 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 5 Yea, he strove with the Angel, and prevailed ; 
 He wept and made supplication to him ; 
 He found him at Bethel, and there He spake with us; 
 
 here in a good sense, to denote the 
 supernatural indication 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. X27 7 3p2 870 
 MY POT Vax Teme, was it not said of 
 Jacob before he was born, that he should 
 be greater than his brother? The Is- 
 raelites were reminded of the promise, 
 «The one people shall be stronger than 
 the other people;” and had they acted 
 on the faith of it, they would have found 
 that, with Jehovah on their side, they 
 were not only stronger than the Edom- 
 ites, 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 re- 
 markable occurrence which took place 
 at. Peniel, when Jacob wrestled with the 
 divine messenger of the covenant, and 
 prevailed. 7, ¢o put forth power, 
 evercise rule as a prince, or commander, 
 the verb from which xt, Jsrael, the 
 other name of Jacob, is derived, is that 
 employed Gen. xxxii. 29, (ng. version, 
 28,)where the language is nearly identical 
 with that used in these two verses. In 
 the resumption of the subject, ver. 5, ὩΣ 
 is employed, which, though equivalent to 
 Mm in signification, must be referred to 
 the root Vw. Comp. Jud. ix. 22, and 
 Hos. viii. 4.. 8 properly signifies manly 
 vigour. Here yx02, the Angel, corre- 
 sponds to ΘΝ, God, ver. 4, and desig- 
 nates 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. Ixili. 9, 
 and Dr. M‘Caul’s Observations appended 
 to his translation of Kimchi on Zech- 
 aria, chap. i. 8 specially points to the 
 Angel as the object towards whom the 
 conflicting efforts of the patriarch were 
 directed. Of the circumstances of his 
 weeping and making supplication, 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 descend- 
 auts 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 neces- 
 sary blessing. The third reference is to 
 the narrative, Gen. xxvili. ]1—22, which 
 contains an account of the scene at 
 Bethel, and the promises which God 
 then made, not to the patriarch only, 
 but also to his posterity. The nomi- 
 native to x32, he found, is God, and 
 not Jacob, as Abenezra, Tanchum, and 
 several others have attempted to main- 
 tain. The meaning is, that Jehovah 
 afforded to the solitary traveller the 
 gracious aid which his exposed situation 
 rendered desirable.  xm3, Bethel, is 
 here the accusative of place, and is used 
 with singular effect, in reference to the 
 contrasted appropriation of it by the 
 patriarch, and by his apostate posterity. 
 The LXX., not perceiving this, have 
 rendered it οἶκος Ὧν, the house of On, 
 as elsewhere in this book. ΣΡ, “with 
 us,” Aq., Symm., Theod., Syr., Tanchum, 
 Abulwalid, and several moderns, render 
 as if it were ἸῸΝ, “with him;” but 
 there is no variety of reading in the 
 MSS., and 32>, is nowhere used of the 
 third person singular. The LXX. have 
 
 .mpos αὐτοὺς, to them, as if they had 
 
 read cv, which, so far as pronunciation 
 is concerned, goes to confirm the Masor- 
 etic punctuation. That the prophet 
 here speaks per κοινώσιν, identifying 
 himself and his contemporaries with 
 their progenitor, in whose loins they 
 may be said to have been, when he 
 received the gracious promises which 
 related not to himself only, but also to 
 his posterity, is the interpretation ad- 
 vocated by Manger, Horsley, Hitzig, 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 79 
 
 6 Even Jehovah, the God of hosts: 
 
 Jehovah is his memorial. 
 
 Maurer, and Rosenmiiller. Comp. Ps. 
 xvi. 6; Heb. vii. 9,10. On the other 
 hand, Ewald, following Jarchi and 
 Joseph Kimchi, renders the words "37 
 wr, he will speak with us, in the future, 
 and considers the prophet to be an- 
 nouncing, that God would renew his 
 communications at Bethel, provided the 
 Israelites returned to obedience. But 
 though this seems less entitled to adop- 
 tion, it cannot be denied that his design 
 in the adduction of this instance was to 
 lead hispeople torepentance, in order that 
 they might inherit the promised blessings. 
 
 Ὁ. 1 in iT) is expletive. Ewald 
 strangely gives to the combination the 
 form of an oath: “bei Jahve,”’ ex- 
 plaining 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 ἫΝ 
 Mxizq, the God of hosts, UXX. Παντο- 
 κράτωρ, conveys the idea of supreme 
 and infinite power by which he is able 
 to carry all his purposes into effect, his 
 peculiarly distinctive name 717, conveys 
 that of immutable constancy, and, by 
 implication, fidelity to his promises. 
 Some refer the word to the root 74, fo 
 exist, be ; but that it is to be derived 
 from the cognate and more ordinary 
 verb of existence 7, appears evident 
 from Exod. 111. 14, where, in the expla- 
 nation of the name, the form of the 
 future is not MAY, but Ms. But as vis 
 nevertheless inserted in 71, which also 
 retains °, the preformant of the third 
 person singular, it is impossible not to 
 acquiesce in the opinion, that the noun is 
 made up of ΤῊ, He was, 0, He is, and 
 mM, He will be. What confirms this 
 hypothesis, is the peculiar designation 
 of God, Rev. i. 4, 8. Ὃ ὧν καὶ ὁ ἦν 
 καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, 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 Po- 
 cocke on Joel 1.19. In this derivation 
 Abenezra and other Rabbins concur; 
 and, accordingly, the second article of 
 the Jewish creed concludes with the 
 
 words A ΤῊ ΓΤ WTS 29 NM, “ And 
 He alone is our God ; Hr was, Hr 15, 
 and Hr suai BE.” It is a coincidence 
 in no small degree remarkable, that this 
 threefold description of the divine ex- 
 istence obtained both among the ancient 
 Egyptians and Brahmins. On the Saitic 
 temple of Isis was the inscription, 
 Ἐγώ εἶμι πᾶν τὸ γεγονὸς καὶ ὃν καὶ 
 ἐσόμενον, καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν πέπλον οὐδείς 
 πω θνητὸς ἀπεκάλυψε, “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 ΠΕ wHo most 
 REMAIN am I.” Asiat. Researches, vol. 1. 
 Ρ. 245. Comp. Ζεὺς ἦν Ζεὺς ἐστί: 
 Ζεὺς ἔσσεται: ὦ μεγάλε Zed. “Zeus 
 was; Zeus is; Zeus shall be; O great 
 Zeus!” Pausan. Phoc. x. 12. Whether 
 the name 737) was in use before the 
 time of Moses, has been, and still is 
 matter of dispute. That the patriarchs 
 were unacquainted with it, has been 
 concluded from Exod. vi. ὃ, where God 
 declares, that the name under which he 
 revealed himself to them was ‘TS x, 
 Gop AtmicHty, but that he was not 
 known to them by his name 717, 
 JEHOVAH. Since, however, we meet 
 with this name not only in the history 
 of the patriarchs, but also expressly 
 employed by themselves, as in Gen. xv. 
 Ys sqiib ts 6 Yea, ΤΠ: soe Be ΧΕ ἢ: 
 xxvill. 20, 21, &e., it seems undeniable 
 that they were acquainted with it; so 
 that what is meant by the words ‘ws 
 DM} AY. NO Tim, is, that God had not 
 caused them fo experience the import of 
 his name 717, Jenovan. For this sig- 
 nification of the phrase DY YT, fo huow a 
 name, or, to know, comp. Is. li. 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 announce him to 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 _ (CHAP. XII. 
 
 7 Thou, therefore, return to thy God ; 
 
 Observe mercy and judgment, 
 
 And wait continually on thy God. 
 g As for Canaan, deceitful balances are in his hand ; 
 
 He loveth to oppress. 
 
 9 And Ephraim saith, Surely I am rich, 
 
 I have acquired wealth ; 
 
 In none of my labours am 1 chargeable with guilt. 
 
 his people, on opening his commission 
 to them. The same futurity of reference 
 may be said to have continued to attach 
 to it all along till the advent of Messiah, 
 in whom all the promises are yea and 
 amen, 2 Cor. i. 20; just as it is stall 
 prominently exhibited in ‘O ἐρχόμενος, 
 Tue comine Ong, 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 pro- 
 phet, 723 7, compared with Exod. ii. 
 15, 41-492 33 7}. in which the Most High 
 declares, that this name was to be em- 
 ployed for the purpose of perpetuating 
 the knowledge of his character with 
 respect to promised blessings. Comp. 
 also Ps. exxxv. 19. That it should have 
 come into oral disuse among the Jews, 
 ean 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 
 earliest trace of such superstition is 
 thought to be found in the words, Ec- 
 clesiasticus xxl. 9, ὀνομασία τοῦ ἁγίου 
 μὴ συνεθισθῇς, “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 ΣΝ, Lorn, instead 
 of it, except when it follows ‘7%, in 
 which case they point it 7m, and read 
 os, Gop. Some are of opinion, that 
 the present punctuation 7 is merely 
 that of *218,.the simple Shevah taking the 
 place of Ilateph-Patach, which only 
 occurs in connexion 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 
 
 Nim, OI, ywim, &e. The change of 
 the Segol into Kametz may be accounted 
 for on the ground of the grave manner 
 in which the final syllable required to 
 be accented, if it was not intended to 
 stand for the second vowel of the pre- 
 terite ΠῚ, 
 
 7. An exhortation to duty derived 
 from what God had heen, and would 
 still, in accordance with the significant 
 aspect of his name, in continuance be, 
 to those who served him in sincerity. 
 
 8. ἸΏ, Canaan, is the nominative 
 absolute, introduced abruptly for the 
 purpose of graphically describing the 
 real character of the Ephraimites. ‘The 
 word may, indeed, be rendered merchant, 
 but then Mx, maz, must be supplied ; 
 22D Ox, a man of Canaan, Meaning ὦ 
 merchant—the inhabitants of that country 
 being the celebrated merchants of anti- 
 quity. The prophet seems rather to 
 place the names of Canaan and Israel 
 in antithesis; 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 frauduleut 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 between buying and selling.” 
 Ecclesiasticus xxvii. 2. 
 
 9. The character_assumed in the pre- 
 ceding verse is here directly applied, 
 only the ten tribes are represented as 
 flattermg themselves that they had em- 
 ployed no illegal means in acquiring 
 their affluence. .x 2, they shall find, 
 is used impersonally. ji is employed 
 to denote the act of distortion or iniquity ; 
 xm its guilt or culpability. The words 
 literally rendered are, with respect to all 
 
CHAP. ΧΙ1.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 ~I 
 Or 
 
 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, 
 11 I have also spoken to the prophets, 
 
 And haye multiplied visions ; 
 
 And through the prophets I have used similitudes. 
 
 my efforts, they shall not find attaching 
 to me iniquity which is sin; and the 
 meaning is, any fraudulent, transactions 
 for which I might be punished. ‘* The 
 merchant imagines if is not possible to 
 get through business without some de- 
 ceit ; 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.” —J/ichaelis. 
 
 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 taber- 
 nacles of such a life as those lead who 
 have no settled habitations, like the 
 Israelites in the wilderness, or like those 
 who assembled at the annual festivals, 
 and who could only be accommodated 
 in tents without the city. But, though 
 such exegesis might at first sight seem 
 to suit the connexion, yet there is some- 
 thing 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 fre- 
 quency with which he intermingles pro- 
 mises with threatenings, will not be 
 surprised at this unéXpected assurance 
 of the divine clemency. The argument 
 is this: the Israelites have mdeed acted 
 a most wicked and deceitful part, and 
 justly deserve to be for ever cast off 
 from all participation in my favour; but 
 I am still, what I have been from the 
 beginning of their history, their cove- 
 nant-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 in- 
 struction 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 idol- 
 atry, and the greatest encouragements 
 to cleave unto the Lord. ὃν ἴῃ ᾿ΠΞῚ 
 Dwi Y, following a verb of announce- 
 ment, is equivalent to 8, 40, and is not 
 to be pressed so as to make it signify 
 the coming down or resting of mspiration 
 upon the prophets. Comp. Job xxxvi, 
 30. LXX. πρὸς προφήτας. If Hosea 
 was one of the earliest of the Hebrew 
 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, She- 
 maiah, Iddo, Azariah, Hanani, Jehu, 
 Jahaziel, Eliezer, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, 
 Joel, and Amos, not to include the 
 hundred prophets of the Lord whom 
 Obadiah hid in a eave, after Jezebel 
 had put anumber to death. Not only 
 had Jehovah made numerous commun? 
 cations of his will through the instru- 
 mentality of these messengers, but he 
 had employed such modes in making 
 these communications as were calculated 
 at once to gain and secure attention. 
 For 7x7, see on Is. 1. 1. 7978, from 93, 
 to be like, resemble; in Piel, to liken, 
 compare, employ similes, OY comparisons ; 
 or, im general, to use figurative lancuage. 
 In such language, including metaphor, 
 allegory, comparison, prosopopeeia, apo- 
 strophe, hyperbole, &c. the prophets 
 abound. ‘They accommodated  them- 
 selves to the capacity and understanding 
 of their hearers by couching the high 
 and important subjects of which they 
 treated under the imagery of sensible 
 objects, and invested them with a degree 
 of life and energy which could only be 
 resisted by an obstinate determination 
 
~I 
 σὺ 
 
 Verily, Gilead is iniquitous, 
 Surely they are false: 
 
 In Gilgal they sacrifice oxen ; 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 (CHAP. XII. 
 
 Yea, their altars are like the heaps 
 
 On the ridges of the field. 
 13 
 Yea, Israel served for a wife ; 
 
 Jacob fled also to the country of Syria ; 
 
 And for a wife he kept the flocks. 
 
 14 
 
 By a prophet also Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt, 
 
 And by a prophet he was kept. 
 
 not to listen to religious instruction. 
 Though 77x is in the future, it borrows 
 its temporal signification from the two 
 preceding verbs, ‘7727 and ὭΣΤ, which 
 are in the preterite. 
 
 12. DX is not used here as a particle 
 expressing doubt; it rather expresses 
 the certainty of what is affirmed, as Js 
 following, 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 Gi/gal, on 
 account of the general circumcision of 
 the people, and the solemn observance 
 of the passover when they had passed 
 over Jordan. They are adduced by the 
 prophet to remind the Israelites of the 
 sacred obligations 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 iniquity? Are its inhabi- 
 tants actually worshippers of idols? And 
 then he fearlessly charges them with 
 idolatry. Both } and xv are specially 
 used of idols, in order to express their 
 nothingness and vanity. The abstract 
 stands for the concrete. By 3, Gilead, 
 is meant not merely the place, but its 
 inhabitants. Comp. for the wickedness 
 of the Gileadites, chap. vi. 8. 253, 
 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 Ὁ, heaps, comp. 
 Josh. vil. 26, there is an obvious refer- 
 ence to the name °273. Both are derived 
 from %3, fo roll, roll stones, &e. For 
 ‘TD 5, 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. 
 DW, dramea, Syria, the high country, 
 from 0%, to be high; here specially the 
 region between the Euphrates and the 
 Tigris, called, on this account, Ὁ) Dis, 
 Aram of the two rivers; LXX. Μεσο- 
 ποταμία, Mesopotamia. Being lower 
 than the rest of Syria on the west, it is 
 here called 71, field, which corresponds 
 to 738, a level or plain, Gen. xlvili. 7; 
 hence Padan-aram. 20, to keep, is 
 used without JX, sheep, in the sense of 
 keeping a flock. .See Gen. xxx. 31; 
 1 Sam. xvii. 20. To the verb as thus 
 employed in its literal acceptation, ver. 
 13, the figurative use in W203, ver. 14, 
 corresponds. The church of God is 
 frequently compared to a flock. The 
 812, prophet, here referred to was Moses, 
 who was so kar ἐξοχήν. See Exod. iv. 
 15, 16; Numb. xii. 6—8; Is. }xiui. 11, 12. 
 The repeated reference to the Hebrew 
 legislator in this character, was evidently 
 intended to impress the minds of the Is- 
 raelites with a conviction of the necessity 
 of attending to the messages which the 
 Lord sent to them by his prophets. 
 
CHAP. XIII. | 
 
 HOSEA. {τ 
 
 15 Ephraim hath given most bitter provocation ; 
 Therefore will his Lord leave his blood upon hin, 
 
 And bring back upon him his 
 
 15. own, lit. bétternesses, 1. 6. most 
 bitter, or bitterly. ‘The object of pro- 
 vocation is not expressed, but that 10 is 
 Jehovah is clear from the following 
 clause. The blood of Ephraim was, in 
 all probability, that of human victims 
 which had been shed in the service of 
 Moloch. v2, Ais Lord, is improperly 
 applied by Horsley to the king of Assyria. 
 
 reproach. 
 
 By in VW, Ais reproach, is meant the dis- 
 graceful conduct of the ten tribes in 
 abandoning the true God as unworthy 
 of their service, and transferring it to 
 idols. Y278 is the nominative to Ye! as 
 well as to 7%, 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 conse- 
 
 quence 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 intimations of mercy, 
 
 4, 5, 9, 14. 
 
 1 Wuen Ephraim spake, there was tremour, 
 
 He was exalted in Israel ; 
 
 But he offended through Baal, and died. 
 
 1. Ephraim means here the tribe pro- 
 perly so called, in distinction from the 
 other tribes of Jsrae/, mentioned imme- 
 diately after. Such was the power and 
 influence which it originally exercised 
 over the rest, that they showed it the 
 utmost deference. m7, a ἅπαξ λεγ.; 
 but obviously cognate with 24}, Jer. 
 
 six. 24, Syr. λω2:, Targ. 82M, 
 fear, trembling. In Pococke’s Arab. 
 MS. the words rendered Me 
 
 oll de ἰδ Suey pls) Qiks, 
 
 are 
 
 when Ephraim spake, trembling fell upon 
 men. And so Tanchum, i 
 ωἱ esr! 
 
 LollS ws wrens Saale ον», 
 the meaning is, that men revered him, 
 and trembled at his word. The same 
 construction is adopted by Jerome, 
 Kimehi, Abarbanel, Munster, Vatablus, 
 Clarius, Drusius, Liveley, Grotius, Ri- 
 vetus, Tingstadius, “Dathe, Kuinoel, 
 Horsley, De Wette, Maurer, Noyes, 
 and Hitzig. It is impossible to approve 
 the translation of Ewald: ‘“ Wie Efraim 
 redete Emporung, es Aufrubr machte in 
 
2 And now they continue to sin, 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 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. 
 
 Israel,” When Ephraim gave utterance to 
 sedition, it produced rebellion in Israel. 
 Neither ΠῚ nor ΔῸΣ admits of being so 
 translated. To take mm adverbially, 
 and render it tremblingly, or trembling, 
 as in our common version, though it 
 affords an apt sense in itself, is less 
 suited to the connexion. 822 occurs In 
 the sense of elevating oneself, Ps. \xxxix. 
 10; Nah. i. 5, or being exalted. Hence 
 wD, a prince. 3 in 7223, has the force 
 of, ix union with, in the matter of, and 
 marks the participation of the Ephraim- 
 ites in the service of Baal. 9, fo die, 
 is here to be taken in a civil or political 
 sense ; to lose one’s influence, become 
 subject to misery, punishment, &c. It 
 forms an antithesis to ΝΣ, fo 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 auto- 
 ritate in populo Dei.” Cicolampadius.— 
 “Vita erumnosa et tristis pro morte cen- 
 setur ; ideireco exules mortui dicuntur, et 
 exilium sepulchri nomine notatur, Ezech. 
 cap. 37.” Rivetus. 
 
 2. This verse sets forth their perse- 
 verance in idolatrous practices, notwith- 
 standing the chastisements with which 
 they had been visited. O78 παῖ, the 
 LXX., Vulg., Jarchi, Abenezra, Abar- 
 banel, Tanchum, Calvin, Piscator, Leo 
 Juda, and among the moderns, Schmid, 
 J. H. Michaelis, Horsley, Hitzig, Stuck, 
 and J. Fr. Schréder, render sacrifice, or 
 sacrificers of men, on the principle, that 
 the presentation of human sacrifices is 
 meant. This, however, was called in 
 question by Kimchi, who explains, 3 
 may ost ow, the men who come to 
 sacrifice. To the same effect Munster, 
 Piscator, Junius and Tremellius, Rivetus, 
 Mercer, Glassius, Liveley, Drusius, Bo- 
 chart, our own and most of the au- 
 thorized versions, Lowth, Newcome, 
 
 Boothroyd, Noyes, De Wette, Gesenius, 
 Maurer, and Ewald. The rule of syntax 
 laid down by Geseuius respecting this 
 mode of construction, Lelrgeb. 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 Is. xxix. 19, 
 DIN Vax, the poor of men, i.e. those of 
 men who are poor; Mic. v. 4, (Eng. ver- 
 sion 5,) O78 1202, the anointed of men. i.e. 
 such of men as are anointed. So in the 
 present case, DIS 2}, sacrificers of men, 
 1.6. those of or among men that sacrifice, 
 which is merely a periphrasis for priests. 
 Although, therefore, 1t is a fact, that 
 the ten tribes did sacrifice their chil- 
 dren to Moloch, 2 Kings xvii. 17, it 
 would be more than precarious to draw 
 any such inference from the present pas- 
 sage, especially as the prophet mentions 
 the calves, of whose worship human 
 sacrifices, so far as we know, formed no 
 part. pp ooay, let them kiss the 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 
 xxx. 27. Comp. Lucian περὶ Ορχήσεως 
 i. p. 918, edit. Bened.; Minutius Felix, 
 cap. 2, ad jin.; 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 
 venerari, verum etiam oscuw/ari solebant.” 
 Act ii. in Verrem, lib. iv. cap. 43. 
 Nothing 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 
 
CHAP. XIII. | 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 ἡ 
 we) 
 — 
 
 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, 
 And thou knewest no God besides me ; 
 
 Nor besides me was there any Saviour. 
 
 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: 
 
 7 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, 
 
 Pre OY OT OR Op ΘΠ is some- 
 what difficult. As usually divided, they 
 are interpreted thus: they, 2.6. the 
 EHphraimites, say of them, z.¢ the images, 
 let the sacrificers kiss the calves; but it 
 is better to take DIN ‘TH, the sacrificers, as 
 in apposition with, and exegetical of 
 ὍΣΟΝ OF, they say, i.e. they, the men 
 that sacrifice, say to the people, let them 
 kiss the calves. While the priests pre- 
 sented the sacrifices, they encouraged 
 the worshippers to come forward and 
 kiss the objects of their adoration. 
 
 3. Comp. chap. vi. 4. 713, the threshing 
 floor, being an open area, generally on 
 an eminence, was peculiarly exposed to 
 the wind, which carried off the chaff, on 
 its being trodden out, or separated from 
 the grain. πεῖ, Aq. ἀπὸ καταῤῥάκτου, 
 which Jerome explains, “ foramen in pa- 
 riete fabricatum, per quod fumus egre- 
 ditur;” Symm. ὀπῆς, on}, an orifice ; 
 Theod. καπνοδόχη, a hole for the pas- 
 sage 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 em- 
 ployed. 
 
 4. Comp. chap. xii. 10. The long 
 addition in the LXX. is totally unsup- 
 ported, and was most probably inserted 
 m that version by some scholiast. 
 
 5. Here yy, 7 knew, contrasts with 
 vin in the preceding verse, only it is to 
 be taken in the sense of knowing effec- 
 tively, taking notice of, caring for. Comp. 
 Amos ili. 2. nasa, lit. ¢hirstinesses, 
 great thirst, extreme drought, from 28, 
 
 Arab. WoY, sitivit. Comp. 29%, ¢o burn, 
 
 Arab. Wd, arsit, sitivit, siti arsit. 
 Munster renders, “ terra siti ardente.” 
 Comp. Deut. viii. 15. 
 
 _ 6. DNPy23, according to their feeding, 
 1.6. 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. 18—15. 
 
 7. 8. 1 in “381 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 em- 
 ployed are of frequent occurrence. 
 Comp. Job x. 16; Ps. vii. 9 ; 15. xxxviii. 
 13; Lam. iil. 10. ὍΣ, the leopard, so 
 called from his spots or streaks. Arab. 
 
 re maculosus fuit, maculis punctisve 
 
 respersus fuit ; pardus. See Jer. xiii. 23, 
 ya 2 ym. The leopard is noted 
 for his swiftness, ferocity, and especially 
 
HOSEA. 
 
 [πος ἘΤΤΙ 
 
 And rent the caul of their heart ; 
 Yea, I devoured them there, as a lioness ; 
 The wild beast rent them in 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. 
 ll 
 
 I gave thee a king in mine anger, 
 
 And took him away in my wrath. 
 
 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 
 seevius, quum perdiderit catulos vel 
 indiguerit cibis.” 25 being of common 
 gender, the participle 720 is put im the 
 masculine, though the female bear is 
 meant. Comp. D°7209 37D, Ps. exliv. 
 14, 3D is the pericardium, or mem- 
 brane which contains the heart in its 
 cavity, and is thus fitly called its en- 
 closure. For Wx, 7 watched, sixteen of 
 De Rossi’s MSS. and one in the margin, 
 three ancient editions, and twenty-four 
 others, the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and Arab. 
 read Wr, Assyria, which some prefer, 
 on account of the number of lions, 
 panthers, tigers, &c. with which the 
 regions 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. qn, 1 take to be a noun with 
 the suffix, thy destruction! 1.6. the de- 
 struction is thine own; thou hast brought 
 it upon thyself by thy sins. It is, 
 therefore, equivalent to “thou hast de- 
 stroyed thyself,” and cannot be better 
 rendered. Thus the Vulg. Perditio tua, 
 Israel. Dathe, Ipst estis ὁ Israelite ! 
 evitii vestri causa. Some, however, as 
 Kimchi, supply 25, ¢he calf; others, 
 922, thy king, {rom the following verse ; 
 others, some other noun; and take no 
 to be the third person singular of Piel. 
 Comp. for the form, 078, Deut. xxxii. 35 ; 
 aat, der. v. 138; Hos. 1. 2s wp, Jer. 
 
 xliv.21. Newcome unwarrantably adopts 
 the rendering of the Syriac, “I have 
 destroyed thee.” Most of the moderns 
 give a hostile sense to the 2in the fol- 
 lowing 7Y2"3, against me, against thy 
 help ; but, considermg 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 3 the common adver- 
 sative signification of yet, nevertheless, 
 and to regard the 2 in ΤΣ as the Beth 
 Essentia, which renders the phrase 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. Thus 
 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. ris βοηθήσει ; turning 
 ‘2 Into Ὁ, and omitting the second 3 
 altogether. Thus also the Syr. 
 
 10, 11. 778 is in all probability a me- 
 tathesis for ™s, where? It 15 thus 
 rendered 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 
 First ; and alone suits the connexion. 
 Comp. in support of this interpretation, 
 the combination si5x ms, Jud. ix. 38 ; 
 Job “xvii. 15; Is. xix. 12. One of 
 Kennicott’s MSS. and perhaps another, 
 one of De Rossi’s in the margin, read 
 
CHAP. ΧΙΠ.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 81 
 
 12 The guilt of Ephraim is bound up, 
 His punishment is laid up in store. 
 13 The pangs of a woman in labour 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 : 
 
 ™s instead of ‘7x, though probably by 
 correction. Another of De Rossi’s has 
 a note in the margin, stating that the 
 word is so explained. The ὃ in FU) 
 is pleonastic, except it be regarded as 
 introducing the apodosis. ‘AX is so in- 
 timately connected with the past trans- 
 actions implied in 72m HYD, thou saidst, 
 give me, that, though future in form, it 
 cannot with any propriety be rendered 
 otherwise 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 
 speciality of the prophet’s address to 
 consider the king to be Jeroboam and 
 his successors in the regal dignity ; and 
 that the removal regards 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 pre- 
 served. 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 meta- 
 phors closely connected, the transition 
 from the one to the other of which is, in 
 the manner 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 danger 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, detained 
 in its passage from the womb. ‘The 
 LXX, οὗτος ὁ vids σου 6 φρόνιμος has 
 doubtless originally been οὗτος ὁ vids 
 ov φρόνιμος. 53 introduces the contrary 
 of the preceding proposition, and is used 
 elliptically for the sentence, “For if it 
 were not so,’ &c. It may best be ren- 
 dered into English by otherwise, else, or 
 the like. ny, ¢ime,is here to be taken 
 adverbially, in the sense of for a time, 
 long, ὅθ. Winer, aliquod tempus, ali- 
 
 Comp. the Arab. yey? when 
 
 used in opposition to ( .: ee the 
 
 quamdiu. 
 
 os uteri. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 3; Is. 
 xxxvil. 3; Ixvi. 9. Without a national 
 παλιγγενεσία, no prosperity could be 
 expected. It was for the Israelites by 
 true repentance to accelerate and ensure 
 their deliverance from threatened de- 
 struction, and their enjoyment of a new 
 period of peace and happiness. 
 
 14. The ideas of Sheol and Death 
 were naturally suggested by the perilous 
 circumstances described in the preceding 
 verse. Extinction as a people is there 
 apprehended. Here it is viewed as 
 having already taken place; and a 
 gracious promise is given of the resto- 
 ration of the Israelites, and the complete 
 destruction of the enemies by whom 
 they had been carried into captivity. 
 22, from the hand, a common Hebraism 
 for from the power. “32 properly sig- 
 nifies to redeem, or buy loose, by the 
 payment of a price; °83, to avenge the 
 murder of a relative, and also to recover 
 or redeem property by repayment. Both 
 verbs, however, are used in a more ex- 
 tended signification, and especially in 
 reference to the deliverance of the 
 Hebrews from Egypt, and from the 
 captivity in Babylon. That x, Sheol, 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Where is thy plague, O Death? 
 Where is thy destruction, O Sheol ? 
 Repentance is hid from mine eyes. 
 
 and ny, Death, are here to be taken in 
 a figurative sense, with application to 
 the state of the Israelites in the Assyrian 
 and Babylonish captivity, deprived as 
 they were of all political existence, and 
 subject to the most grievous calamities, 
 the exigency of the passage imperatively 
 demands. Comp. Is. xxvi. 19. Re- 
 specting ‘4s, interpreters are far_from 
 being agreed. Symm., the Vulg., Cover- 
 dale, Drusius, Tingstadius, Horsley, 
 Dathe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Noyes, 
 Rosenmiiller, Hesselberg, and Maurer, 
 take it to be the first person future of 
 the substantive verb ™7, ¢o de; 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. 
 10, for τὴν, ποῦ, 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 
 ἫΝ nowhere used absolutely as an apo- 
 copated future; but always with the 
 Vau conversive prefixed. See for the 
 full form 7x, chap. xiv. 6. To which 
 add, that the interrogation is more in 
 keeping with the animated style of the 
 passage. Instead of the plural 722, 
 thy destructions, one hundred and twenty- 
 two MSS., originally five more, now two, 
 and four of the early editions, read 7723, 
 thy destruction, ἴῃ the singular. 33, 
 
 Arab. po death ; specially the plague, 
 
 pestilence; the awful destruction of 
 human life effected by it. Hence the 
 LXX. mostly render it θάνατος; here 
 δίκη, but in all probability originally 
 νίκη, for which Paul reads νῖκος, only 
 transposing νῖκος and κέντρον, by which 
 latter term the LXX. render 29), ez- 
 cision, cutting off, destruction. The cause 
 of this transposition is obvious. The 
 apostle had just quoted the passage in 
 Isaiah, agreeably to the version of 
 Theodotion, in which νῖκος occurs, 
 whereby he was reminded of the same 
 
 words as occurring in Hosea, and, under 
 the influence of strong emotion, he 
 commences his quotation with νῖκος 
 prominently in his mind.  Olshausen 
 thinks νῖκος is a later form for νίκη. 
 
 Root 357, Arab. Wokas, fo cut, cut off, 
 
 destroy. That 721 is the genuine read- 
 ing, and that }213, @ goad, which some 
 would substitute for it, in order to make 
 the Hebrew correspond to κέντρον, is to 
 be rejected, may very conclusively be 
 gathered from the similar occurrence of 
 the words 727 and 257 together, Ps. xci. 
 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 reco- 
 vered from your dominion: they are 
 alive again, and shall no more be subject 
 to your power. The speakers place 
 themselves as it were in the period after 
 the resurrection: 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 
 appropriation of the words by the 
 apostle in reference to the doctrine of 
 the final resurrection, it appears to be 
 made, not in the way of proof, but 
 merely to give expression, in the trium- 
 phant language of the prophet, to the 
 animated feelings which had taken pos- 
 session of his breast. His direct quo- 
 tation in the way of argument is made 
 from Is. xxv. 8, and consists of the 
 words, κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νῖκος. 
 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 
 sententiam per similitudinem, aliquando 
 adhibent testimonia.—Atqui satis con- 
 stat, Paulum illo 15 cap. 1 ad Corinth. 
 
CHAP. XIII. ] 
 
 15 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 83 
 
 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. 
 
 16 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. 
 
 epist. non citasse prophet testimonium 
 ad confirmandam illam doctrinam de 
 qua disserit.” Calvin iz loc. See also 
 Horsley’s critical note. ἘΠῚ, LXX. πα- 
 
 oon 
 ράκλησις, Syr. as, Vulg. consolatio ; 
 
 but repentance better suits the connexion. 
 It expresses the immutability of the 
 divine purpose, which had the deliver- 
 ance of his people for its object. Comp. 
 Rom. xi. 29. Horsley strangely refers 
 the repentance to man, and not to 
 God. 
 
 15. This and the following verse set 
 forth the devastation and 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 conso- 
 lation to the pious, and encouragement 
 to the penitent, the threatening was 
 equally necessary for the refractory and 
 profane. “7, fe, refers to Hphraim, 
 ver. 12. ΝΒ), a ἅπαξ dey. but obvi- 
 ously equivalent to =, the Hiphil of 
 m8, ¢o be fruitful. It is here used with 
 special reference to the name of DBs, 
 being the root whence it is derived, and 
 not improbably exhibits δὶ instead of 7, 
 because it forms the first letter of the 
 noun. The tribe of Ephraim was the 
 most numerous in regard to population, 
 and was for a time in the most flourish- 
 ing 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 natu- 
 rally suggest the idea of a tree, the roots 
 of which are plentifully supplied by 
 their water. For 0%, see on chap. xil. 
 2, and Is, xxvii. 8. mm”, like ty 
 ovsy, Job. 1. 16, 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. TOW xi, He, i.e. the Assyrian, 
 couched under the metaphor of the 
 destructive wind, shall plunder every 
 valuable article belonging to the Is- 
 raelites. 
 
 16. [Chap. xiv. 1.] This verse begins 
 the following chapter in the Hebrew 
 Bible, but it more intimately coheres 
 with the preceding context. Dtxn, LXX. 
 ἀφανισθήσεται, Vulg. pereat. The word 
 signifies to be 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 punishinent which the inhabitants 
 of that city had to expect. 79, some 
 render to embitter, provoke bitterly ; but 
 rebelling, resisting, striking against any 
 one, are the ideas more properly con- 
 veyed by the verb. Thus the LXX. 
 ἀντέστη πρὸς τὸν θεὸν αὐτῆς. The 
 addition of the affix in Tix, “ her 
 God,” gives great emphasis in such con- 
 nexion. Comp. chap. xii. 10; xiii. 4. 
 The aggravations of sin are increased 
 »by the relations sustained by the sin- 
 ner. For the concluding portion of the 
 verse, comp. 2 Kings vill. 12; xv. 16; 
 
84 
 
 Amos i. 18. That such cruelties were not 
 unknown among other nations, see Iliad 
 vi. 58 :— 
 
 
 
 μηδ᾽ ὅντινα γαστέρι μήτηρ 
 “ 7 , a , - 
 Κοῦρον ἐόντα φέροι, μηδ᾽ ὅς φύγοι" ;--- 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 and Horace, Carm. iv. Ode 6. The 
 construction FLY YT is ad sensu, 
 though not according to the strict rule 
 of grammar, and may have been _occa- 
 sioned by the form of ™2yY immediately 
 preceding, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 This chapter contains an urgent call to repentance, the supplication and confession 
 expressive of which are put in a set form of words into the mouths of the 
 
 penitents, 1—3. 
 
 To encourage them thus to return to God, he makes the most 
 
 gracious promises to them, 4—7 ; their entire abandonment of idolatry is then 
 predicted, and the divine condescension and goodness are announced, 8; and 
 the whole concludes with a solemn declaration, on the part of the prophet, 
 respecting the opposite consequences that would result from attention or 
 
 inattention to his message, 9. 
 
 
 
 1 Rerury, O Israel! to Jehovah thy God; 
 For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 
 2 Take with you words, and return to Jehovah ; 
 
 Say to him, 
 
 Forgive all iniquity, and graciously receive us, 
 Then we will render to thee the calves of our lips. 
 
 1, 2. The 7 of direction in the im- 
 perative 72% is, as usual, intensive, 
 marking a strong desire on the part of 
 the speaker that the action expressed by 
 the verb might take place. For the 
 emphasis attaching to the affix in Ps, 
 “thy God,” see on chap. xiii. 16. xx 
 WY is a phrase of such frequent occur- 
 rence with the meaning ¢o pardon ini- 
 quity, that it is surprising how Horsley 
 could insist upon its meaning to “ take 
 away the sinful principle within us—the 
 carnal heart of the old Adam.” His 
 construction of 24 mp, “accept as good, 
 what, so regenerate, we shall be enabled 
 
 to perform,” though sound divinity, is 
 equally indefensible on the ground of 
 philology. 32 is used adverbially, be- 
 nigne, in bonam partem ; and the mean- 
 ing is, graciously receive us back into 
 thy favour. With respect to the inter- 
 position of the verb 8wn, between 72 and 
 Py, it may be observed, that it is not a 
 solitary instance of such construction. 
 See on Is. xix. 8, and comp. Job xy. 10. 
 08, calves or bullocks, used here me- 
 taphorically for victims, sacrifices. The 
 word occurring in the absolute form, 
 some render 12 av 08, Sallocks our lips, 
 as if the two nouns were in apposition ; 
 
CHAP. XIV. |] 
 
 3 Assyria shall not save us ; 
 
 We will not ride upon horses ; 
 Neither will we say any more, 
 
 To the work of our hands: 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 “ Our gods,” 
 
 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. 
 y ang) 
 
 5 I will be as the dew to Israel ; 
 
 but there are instances of nouns thus 
 put, which cannot be explained other- 
 wise than in the construct, as to sense. 
 Thus Deut. xxxiii. 11, 92 DMD, the 
 loins of those who oppose him; Jud. v. 
 13, DY OAK, the princes of the people ; 
 Prov. xxii. 21, N98 OVS, words of truth. 
 Gesenius supposes the governing noun 
 to be mentally repeated, and that the 
 full form would be "ΒΞ 7 OB, bullocks, 
 the bullocks of our lips. Such construce- 
 tion in full he adduces in the instance 
 Exod. xxxviii. 21, nya pau yDwW7, the 
 tabernacle, the tabernacle of testimony. 
 Some would change 0 8 into 5, fruit, 
 on the ground of the reading found in 
 the LXX. ἀνταποδῶσομεν καρπὸν χειλέων 
 ἡμῶν, which is followed by the Syr. and 
 Arab., and is supposed to have been 
 borrowed by the apostle, Heb. xii. 15. 
 There is, however, no variety in the 
 Hebrew MSS.; while the Targum and 
 all the other authorities support the 
 textual reading. The LXX. have com- 
 mitted a similar mistake in rendering 
 mp, her bullocks, τους καρποὺς αὐτῆς, 
 her fruits, Jer. 1. 27. The conjecture of 
 Pococke, that they used καρπὸς in the 
 sense of κάρπωμα, which they employ 
 to express SACRIFICE, od/ation, &e., 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 O70, fo requite, render back, 
 comp. Ps. lvi. 18, 12 nm Ὁρῶν, 7 will 
 render thanks unto thee: so that the 
 construction proposed by some, “we will 
 offer the sacrifices which our lips have 
 vowed,” cannot be regarded as unex- 
 ceptionable, even if it were in keeping 
 with the spirit of the passage. The only 
 
 parallels fully corresponding to it are 
 Ps. li. 15—17; Ixix. 30, 81. 
 
 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; (Comp. Is. 
 xxxi. 1);—and idolatry. hese theynow 
 for ever renounce, and avow their deter- 
 mination henceforth to trust in Jehovah 
 alone; adding as the reason of such de- 
 termination, the experience which they 
 had had of the divine favour in time of 
 need, Ox is here used in a causal sense, 
 because, for, forasmuch as. Comp. Gen. 
 xxxl. 49; Hecles. iv. 9. Dim, orphan, 
 is applied in this place metaphorically 
 to the unprotected and destitute cireum- 
 stances in which the Israelites had been, 
 while in a state of separation from the 
 Lord. 
 
 4, D210 is not, with Horsley, to be 
 rendered “ their conversion,’ but their 
 apostasy. See on chap. xi. 7. 7233, lit. 
 spontaneousness, willingness, is used ad- 
 verbially for wéllingly, liberally, freely. 
 
 It is derived from 312, Arab Uods, 
 
 instigavit, impulit ad aliquid; agilis in 
 conficienda re promptusque vir; gene- 
 rosus ; and is expressive of the free, 
 unmerited, and abundant love of God 
 towards repentant sinners. 229, ‘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 
 
 
 
86 
 
 He shall blossom as the lily, 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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 
 compared. M2813, /i/ies, abound in Pa- 
 lestine, 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 lasso «Δι. the 
 
 royal lily, the stem of which is about the 
 size of a finger in thickness, and which 
 le to the height of three and four 
 eet, spreading 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 compared. 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 stability are 
 those conveyed by the simile, whether 
 we refer the roots to the trees, or, figu- 
 ratively, to the mountain itself; but 
 the amplification in the following verse 
 renders the former the preferable con- 
 struction. 727 is often used, not merely 
 of continued, but of increased action, 
 and here denotes ¢o spread out, as the 
 suckers or small branches of trees. Tlie 
 olive is frequently referred to, on account 
 of its beautiful green, and the pleasing 
 ideas associated withits 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 
 of 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 con- 
 vincing proofs of prosperity. 2 is 
 used as auxiliary to ™7; both verbs, in 
 such connexion, signifying nothing more 
 than revive, thrive again, or the like. 
 The pronominal affix in %¥, his shade, 
 refers to Jehovah; but in 2, 7s cele- 
 brity, fame, to Israel, understood as 
 before, collectively, but best rendered in 
 the plural. 451 °2u, the construet with 
 the preposition, as in 412 °O1n, Ps. ii. 12. 
 Modern travellers concur in their high 
 commendations of the excellence of the 
 wines of Lebanon. Von Troil, in par- 
 ticular, says, “On this mountain are 
 very valuable vineyards, in which the 
 most excellent wine is produced ; such 
 as I have never drunk in any country, 
 though in the course of fourteen years 
 I have travelled through many, and 
 tasted many good wines.” 
 
 8. Several interpreters take ὈΠῸΝ to 
 be in the vocative case, but, as it seems 
 harsh to refer the words immediately 
 following to Jehovah, it is better to 
 regard it as a nominative absolute, and 
 to supply YX’, thus: As for Ephrain— 
 the tribe distinguished above all the rest. 
 for its addictedness to idolatry, and the 
 fit representative of the whole people— 
 his language in future shall be, &e, 
 For ἡ, to me, the LXX. read 5°, to him, 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 87 
 
 I have answered him, and will regard him ; 
 
 I am like a green cypress ; 
 From me thy fruit is found. 
 
 9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things ? 
 Prudent, that he may know them ? 
 For the ways of Jehovah are right ; 
 The righteous, therefore, shall walk in them ; 
 But the rebellious shall stumble in them. 
 
 which facilitates the construction, and 
 is adopted by Ewald, but without suf- 
 ficient authority. 2, Z, is not without 
 emphasis in this connexion, in which 
 mention is made of idols. ὦ signifies 
 to view with regard and care, care for, 
 watch over. very provision should 
 henceforth be made for the protection 
 and prosperity of restored Israel. 013, 
 the cypress, with all its tall and fair 
 ever-green appearance, not being a 
 fruit-bearing tree, it is added with sin- 
 gular effect, that in this respect there 
 existed a difference between 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 favour, but rich supplies 
 of spiritual provision for their support. 
 Such supplies were to be found in God 
 alone. Manger thinks there is here a 
 pe ceistic parallelism, which he exhibits 
 thus :— 
 
 Eruraim. What have I further to do 
 with idols ? 
 
 Gop. I have answered him, and will 
 regard him. 
 
 Eruraim. 1 am like a green cypress. 
 Gop. 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 re- 
 mark that this is the only verse in which 
 the prophet uses D773, the righteous, or 
 any synonymous term, in the course of 
 his recorded prophecies. So awfully 
 depraved were the times in which he 
 lived, that the very character had dis- 
 appeared. The contrasted characters 
 and states of the godly and the wicked 
 are pointed and affecting. 924, fo walk, 
 signifies here fo go forward prosperously ; 
 5w2, to stumble, so as to fall to one’s 
 injury and utter ruin. 
 
 “ἐν. anfractu et libera ab omni 
 
 Hance justus teret, hoc semper se in calle 
 tenebit, 
 
 Felicique gradu ad requiem contendat 
 amicam. 
 
 At defectores videas impingere in 
 
 iisdem, 
 Exitiumque sibi factis properare sce- 
 lestis.” Rittershusius. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ᾿ ᾿ ἫΝ πη # og ta ἴον sri bs 
 φᾷ ; μος J a! saa er eh ‘tas 
 ~ aly alt ἢ Η ἔμνν ΤΡ +n) wat paid ᾽ εὐ Ἶ 
 εἶ ΠΝ Yank ek ‘ade be ra 
 ie ἢ» ἐφατρω μϑας sla ya ni : 
 apn αἴ: «ΤΠ Πρ δ. ΝΣ πο αεξε | by δ᾽. 
 
 ‘et sith ΑἹ ld with δι ΩΝ 
 
 eae ͵ ὙΠῸ 
 
 
 
 ἜΝ ᾿ ΠΥΡΩ͂Ν δὶ δον ὍΝ δι Bs ene ait. 
 Meee ng et afi P sds! ia WA Le αὐ ΚῚΣ 
 oe ar " may i i le ie Oe 
 ul SE ἀν in od th ὧν Weal he 
 Oe ee }ν» τ AAV ete Σ 
 ΤΣ ΩΝ ζῆ μὴν 915 Boga ae 
 onl Yo Pee Fh dy eb ἐμ. Ἔν 
 
 εὐ ὁ iene sth eee 
  ¢ ΠΥ a Ad nf Ἣν ΡΠ ; me baat 
 Ὺ Ἢ Bea iy γι} Aho πνοή ree ae 
 ane ἽΝ τ ἰτηῖπ μι ving ΥΝ ὦ 
 a) Bo aa UE ΜΑΙ Ε πόλεών, Sa δε ἯΙ 
 τῶν ΠΝ νυν γεν age ΦΗΣΙ ἀμ! τ 
 ἀπ σ᾽ NEAT LO SAP ΝΎ ΠΟ, pert aed 
 πα ΟΝ weil Tv wpa bing, | au ΑΙ pi <a 
 Ava’ COT ee A νυ». δος ᾿ Ἤν τ ἢ ἢν 
 [ ΠΝ ἷν ‘ ᾿ 
 ss RS CO ἐνὶ πο wali Whe tie a 
 
 Se: ᾿ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i. lta Sd Oe Ce ὡν “ᾧν ὑπ να tod % Paes 
 ᾿ Poy Ἂ Υ sig wie ὅν nel ray Ἢ fron ᾿ B= § ὧν ἣν ; 
 ΤΉ ΠΝ jit in oe a dp reo Η ἃ. μὴ he δὶ 'q edayhs nf ϑ ' 
 e-. al a Mis υὐὶ efi) cz Bh "Αἱ a) Mladen ta Haydn yy ak vary σ΄ 
 —_. ΠΣ, ih ee ar: 
 a | : at ΝᾺ 
 San sip BO DIE 
 νὴ deat oul wh ioe 
 ᾿ ΠΥ ett 
 
 2 2: τό" Bee ΜῈ μι 
 
 . oa 
 ee iy a ἡ τς 
 Ν ν΄. Υ > 
 
 
 
εἰν" ollie 
 
 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 mentioned init. 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, 
 &c. 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, Eichhorn, Holzhausen, Theiner, 
 Rosenmiiller, Knobel, Hengstenberg, Gesenius, and De Wette, in 
 that of Uzziah; Steudel and Bertholdt in that of Hezekiah; 
 Tarnovius and Eckermann assign the period of his activity to the 
 days of Josiah; while the author of Sedar Olam, Jarchi, 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 
 
 N 
 
00 PREFACE TO JOEL. 
 
 the only enemies of whom mention is made being the Pheenicians, 
 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 favour 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 re- 
 presented 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 inhabi- 
 tants with utter destruction. This 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 
 removed, he is commissioned to order an universal fast, and call 
 all to repentance 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 foretel their restoration 
 from the final dispersion. 
 
 In point of style Joel stands pre-eminent among the Hebrew 
 prophets. He not only possesses a singular degree of purity, but 
 
PREFACE TO JOEL. 91 
 
 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 connected, 
 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 re- 
 sembles 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 
 improbable: on the contrary, we should conclude from the culti- 
 vated 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 had been visited, 2—4, the prophet excites to repentance by a de- 
 scription of these insects, 5—7, and of the damage which they had done to the 
 fields 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 suffermg, 16—20. 
 
 1 THe word of Jehovah which was communicated to Joel, the 
 
 son of Pethuel: 
 2 Hear this, ye aged men! 
 
 Yea, give ear, all ye habitants of the land! 
 Did such as this happen in your days, 
 Or in the days of your fathers? 
 
 3 Teli your children of it, 
 
 And let your children tell their children, 
 And their children another generation. 
 
 1. 33 τὴ TANI, the more usual in- 
 troductory 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; Mal. i. 1. The name 5x, 
 Joel, Jerome interprets “ ἀρχόμενος, id 
 est, incipiens,” referring it to the verb 8°, 
 which signifies to degiz; 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 compounded of 737, in one of 
 its more contracted forms, and >x, and 
 signifies, Jehovah is God. Who nb, 
 
 LXX. Βαθουὴλ, Pethuel, the father of 
 our prophet was, we are not informed. 
 The introduction of his name was ne- 
 cessary in order to distinguish the 
 present Joel from others of the same 
 name, and cannot be admitted in proof 
 of his having been a prophet or some 
 person of eminence. It was common 
 among the Hebrews, as it still is among 
 the Orientals, to add the name of the 
 father to that of the son. 
 
 2, 3. These verses contain an ani- 
 mated introduction to the following 
 subject. Ost, properly ¢/zs, the femi- 
 nine according to the Hebrew idiom 
 being used for the neuter, but it occurs 
 here elliptically for ns13, like this, such 
 
CHAP. 1.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 4 That which the gnawing locust hath left, 
 The swarming locust hath devoured ; 
 And that which the swarming locust hath left, 
 
 the like, and refers to the astounding 
 calamity of the locusts about to be de- 
 scribed. YOU and PINT frequently occur 
 as parallel initiatives in Hebrew poetry. 
 See Gen. iv. 23 ; Deut. xxxii. 1 ; Is. i. 2. 
 For the latter verb, 2%77 is sometimes 
 used. See Is. xxviii. 23; Mic. 1. 2. 
 D271 is here to be understood, not in the 
 official sense of elders, but in that of 
 aged men, as the connexion shows. 
 Those who were most advanced in years, 
 and might be expected to have their 
 memories stored with ancient occur- 
 rences, are appealed to for a parallel to 
 the case referred to. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 
 7; Job xxxii. 7. MN is often used in 
 the sense of ancestors, forefathers. 7 in 
 my, like ΓΝ, refers to the plague of 
 locusts. 22°23, children’s children, is 
 not unfrequent, but the language here 
 employed by Joel is cumulative beyond 
 example. 
 
 “Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur 
 ab illis.” Aineid ini. 98. 
 καὶ παῖδες παίδων, Tol κεν μετόπισθε 
 
 γένωνται. Iliad xx. 308. 
 
 4. The plague, which occasioned the 
 following discourses of the prophet, is 
 now described in terse, though repe- 
 titious terms. This verse may be con- 
 sidered as the text on which he afterwards 
 expatiates. Interpreters have found 
 great difficulty both in determining the 
 precise signification of the several terms 
 employed to describe the scourge, and 
 the light 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 intended. Yet here again discordant 
 views obtain : some insisting on different 
 species of locusts, and others on different 
 states of the same species. Credner, 
 for instance, in a work on our prophet, 
 full of erudition, considers 533 to be the 
 migratory locust; 728 the young brood; 
 P2 the young locust in the last state of 
 transformation; and >07 the perfect lo- 
 cust. The locust belongs to the genus of 
 insects known among entomologists by 
 
 the name of gry//i, which includes the dif- 
 ferent species, from the common grass- 
 hopper to the devouring locust of the 
 East. The largest of the latter is about 
 three inches in length; has two antenne, 
 or horns, about an inch long, and two 
 wings, which, with their cases, are applied 
 obliquely 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 colours, brown, grey, and 
 spotted. In all stages, from the larva 
 to the perfect insect, the locusts are her- 
 bivorous, and do immense injury to vege- 
 tation. The subject, so far as it occurs 
 in Scripture, may be said to have been 
 almost exhausted by the learned Bochart, 
 in his Hierozoicon, Pars Post. Lib. iv. 
 cap. i—vili. The fourth chapter he 
 specially devotes to the explanation of 
 the passages in Joel. See also Cid- 
 mann’s Vermischte Sammlungen, and 
 Credner’s Joel. The first name, 03, 
 occurs only here and Amos iy. 9, and is 
 rendered by the LXX. κάμπη; and by 
 the Vulg. eruca, caterpillar. This in- 
 terpretation is supported by the Targ. 
 xm, the crawling insect, by which, how- 
 ever, may be meant the locust in its 
 wingless state. The Syr. renders the 
 
 On» ρ 
 word by Ϊ £oase, locusta non alata. 
 
 It is evidently derived from the same 
 
 root with the Arab. Sama resecuit, am- 
 putavit, pie secans ; Eth. "How: 
 excidit, abscidit ; Syr. Phy incidit ; 
 
 Talmudy 033, amputavit ; and expresses 
 the gnawing or cutting action of the 
 sharp teeth of the locusts on the leaves, 
 and even the bark of trees. Comp. 
 Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xi. cap. 29: omnia 
 vero morsu erodentes.—T2)x is the generic 
 name of the locust, so called from the 
 almost incredible numbers which breed 
 in different parts of the East; being 
 
94 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 The licking locust hath devoured ; 
 And that which the licking locust hath left, 
 The consuming locust hath devoured. 
 
 derived from 723, to multiply, be nume- 
 rous, &e. Comp. Jer. xlvi. 23, T2782 550, 
 more numerous than the locusts. From 
 its migrating in swarms it is called by 
 Forskal gryllus gregarius, and by Lin- 
 nus, gryllus migratorius. By the LXX. 
 the word is rendered seventeen times by 
 ἀκρὶς, the common locust; thrice by 
 βροῦχος, the unwinged locust, which 
 browses on the grass; once by ἐρυσιβη, 
 mildew; and once by arréAaBos, the 
 young or small locust. That 728 18 
 generic, appears from Lev. xi. 22, where 
 we read, 12°99 72980, the Locust according to 
 its species.—The third name, 72, from 7?%, 
 equivalent to 72, to lick, designates the 
 locust as Licking off the leaves, and what- 
 ever is green on the trees, grass, &c. 
 This derivation is preferable to that pro- 
 posed by Michaelis, who refers the word 
 
 to the Arab. Sy properavit, volubilis 
 
 fuit, or to ah, albus fuit, and thinks 
 
 that the chafer is meant. In Nah. i. 16, 
 it is represented as winged, and in Jer. 
 li. 27, it is described as 120, rough, 
 bristly, terrific. UXX. βροῦχος four 
 times ; ἀκρὶς thrice.—700, the remaining 
 term, comes from °D1, fo consume, devour. 
 LXX. βροῦχος, or βροῦκος. Vulg. 
 
 on v 
 rubigo, mildew. Syr. 13035, which 
 
 Risius, the Archbishop of Damascus, 
 describes as resembling the locust, only 
 differing from it, inasmuch as it never 
 migrates, and confines its ravages to the 
 fruits and herbs, but leaves the trees un- 
 touched. It is also noted for the noise 
 which it makes at night. A comparison 
 of the different passages in which these 
 names occur, renders it more than pro- 
 bable 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 
 certain destructive qualities, by which, 
 as a genus of insects, they are distin- 
 guished, and thereby to heighten the 
 
 terror which his description was intended 
 to produce. Just as Job accumulates the 
 terms TMs, τῶ, O-PHD, Hr and #23, chap. 
 iv. 10, 11, with a similar view. They 
 are rather poetical synonymes, than dis- 
 tinctive of different species. At all 
 events, that locusts are meant, may be 
 inferred from the facts, that wherever 
 ?? occurs, with the exception of a single 
 passage, it occurs along with 7298; and 
 that 7278, which Moses uses in describing 
 one of the plagues of Egypt, Exod. x. 
 12—20, is not only employed by the 
 Psalmist, Ixxviii. 46, ev. 34, but also 
 yom and Pp, as synonymous terms, for 
 the sake of variety. Add to which that 
 the verb 507, from which 707 is derived, 
 is employed to express the action of the 
 maw, Deut. xxviii. 98: ΠΡΊΝ WOM, “the 
 locust shall consume it.” In the trans- 
 lation I have given the meaning 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 eaten.” 
 
 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. Τὺ is that 
 of the Targum, the Jews whom Jerome 
 consulted, and Abarbanel ; and is, with 
 various modifications, adopted by the 
 following christian interpreters : Jerome, 
 Ephraim Syrus, Theodoret, Cyril of 
 Alexandria, Hugo de St. Victor, Ri- 
 bera, Sanchez, a Lapide, Luther, Gro- 
 tius, Marckius, Bertholdt, Theiner, 
 Steudel, and Hengstenberg. On the 
 other hand, Abenezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, 
 Lyranus, Vatablus, Joh. Schmidius, 
 Jahn, Eichhorn, Rosenmiller, von 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 95 
 
 5 Awake, ye drunkards! and weep ; 
 Yea, 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 ; 
 Yea, they have the grinders of a lioness. 
 
 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 favour, 
 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, 
 11. 17; and the assignment of the Worth 
 as the native country of the enemy, 
 11.20; present insuperable obstacles to its 
 adoption. See on these verses. There 
 seems no possibility of effecting a con- 
 sistent interpretation on any other prin- 
 ciple than that laid down and defended 
 by Cramer, Eckermann, and Holzhausen, 
 viz. that in the first chapter, Joel de- 
 scribes a devastation of the country 
 which had been effected by natural 
 locusts ; but predicts in the second, its 
 devastation by political enemies, in highly- 
 wrought metaphorical language, bor- 
 rowed from the scene which he had just 
 depicted. 
 
 5. yr, the Hiph. of y17, is here used, 
 like the cognate root fi, Gen. ix. 24, in 
 the sense of awaking from a sleep occa- 
 sioned 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 frorm the state in which they 
 had too often been found. o'38 being 
 parallel with 8, drinkers of wine, 
 does not here mean persons actually iz- 
 toxvicated, but such as were in the habit 
 of using intoxicating liquors, and by im- 
 plication, to excess. Thus Kimchi: 
 ee ‘own? O27 One, ye who are accus- 
 tomed to make yourselves drunk with wine. 
 It is derived from 12%, to drink to the 
 
 -1T? 
 
 full. Arab. yo implevit vas, ebrius fuit. 
 
 Hence 12%, strong, or intoxicating drink, 
 
 whether wine itself, or, more commonly, 
 liquor resembling wine, which is distilled 
 from barley, honey, or dates, and some- 
 times mingled with spices. By 0D», is 
 meant the fresh wine, or juice of the 
 grape, or other fruit, which has just been 
 pressed out, and is remarkable for its 
 sweet flavour, and its freedom from in- 
 toxicating qualities. R. Θ᾿, to tread, 
 tread down, or out. Targ. NY2 20, pure 
 wine. It differs from “VA, inasmuch as 
 the latter term is confined to the juice of 
 the grape; and being derived from ὅν, fo 
 take possession of, indicates that however 
 new,it had already obtained an inebriating 
 quality. The locusts are here repre- 
 sented as specially attacking and destroy- 
 ing the vines and other fruit-trees, from 
 the produce of which these wines were 
 prepared. To such they are known to 
 be very destructive. Comp. Theocrit. 
 Idyll. 5, 108, in which a shepherd 
 beseeches them not to injure his vines : 
 
 ᾿Ακρίδες, ai τὸν φραγμὸν ὑπερπαδῆτε τὸν 
 ἀμόν, 
 
 Μή μευ λωβάσησθε τὰς ἀμπέλος" ἐντὶ 
 γὰρ ἅβαι. 
 
 ΤῊΣ properly signifies to cut, et off, but 
 
 here, as wine is the subject spoken of, it 
 
 must be taken in the sense of destroying, 
 
 or causing to cease. 
 
 6. 3, zation, especially used of foreign, 
 barbarous, and profane nations, and here 
 selected on purpose to express the num- 
 ber 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 DY, 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 
 
JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP, I. 
 
 7 They have laid waste my vine, 
 
 And broken down iny fig-tree : 
 
 They have completely stripped it, and thrown it down ; 
 Its branches they have left white. 
 
 use of the term is common in the classics. 
 See instances in Bochart and Gesen. 
 Heb. Lex. iz voc. 3, The Arabs em- 
 
 ploy Χοὶ in a similar way. %2 ΤῊΝ is 
 
 used in a hostile sense of an army, 
 Is. vii. 1; but here figuratively of the 
 locusts. In 2x, “my land,” the prono- 
 minal affix belongs to Jehovah, not to the 
 prophet. Comp. Is. xiv. 25; Jer. xvi.18 ; 
 Ezek. xxxvi. 5; xxxvili. 16; Joel ii. 18. 
 See on Hos. ix. 8. Oi2Y, strong, power- 
 ful. The strength of the locust consists 
 in the immense numbers, which, forming 
 themselves into compact bodies, darken 
 the air, and advance forward, one swarm 
 after another, attacking whatever comes 
 in their way. They may well be de- 
 scribed as ΡΟ ps}, innumerable. All 
 who refer to them, both in ancient and 
 modern times, speak of them in the 
 same language. 
 
 ᾿Ακρίδων πλῆθος ἀμύθητον. 
 Agathare. γ. 27. 
 
 “Tmmense locustarum multitudines.” 
 Orosius, v. 11. Shaw speaks of “ in- 
 finite swarms following each other.” 
 Barrow 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 En- 
 glish measure! How appropriate the 
 name 7298! What is innumerable is fre- 
 quently compared to them by the sacred 
 writers. See Jud. vi. 5; vii. 12; Ps. ev. 
 34; Jer. xlvi. 23; Nah. iii. 15. nivdnn, 
 teeth, Gesenius considers as standing by 
 
 transposition for nvm, and derives the 
 noun from an obsolete root 202, fo bite ; 
 but it may more properly be referred to 
 
 the Arab. εὐ, longum fuit, and denotes 
 
 the grinders or jaw-teeth of animals. 
 The metaphor, however, 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, ὀδόντες αὐτῶν ὡς 
 λεόντων ἦσαν. 
 
 7. For the pronominal reference in 353 
 and ‘nn, see on ‘S38 in the preceding 
 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 vive has, from time imme- 
 morial, 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 
 branchlets, 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. 
 xii. 23, 24. Palestine was equally cele- 
 brated for its jig-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. 0, fo put, is often 
 used with nouns instead of the simple 
 forms of the verbs to which the nouns 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 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. 
 
 are related. xp, breakage, Arab. eas 
 
 Jregit. was , a branch broken off from 
 
 atree. See on Hos. x. 7%. ULXX. 
 συγκλασμός, Compl. κλασμός.  Syr. 
 oon 
 
 ac2> concissio, divulsio. The locusts 
 
 not only consume the fruit and leaves of 
 trees, but strip them of the very bark. 
 —“Nec culmus, nec gramen ullum re- 
 maneat, et arbores frondibus et cortice 
 tanquam vestibus nudate, instar trun- 
 corum alborum conspiciantur.” Ludolf, 
 Comment. p. 178. 7?e7 is here taken 
 in its proper causative signification. 
 What they do not devour, they so injure 
 that it falls off the tree. OPW, branches, 
 properly the ixtertiwining tendrils of the 
 vine, from 2, to interweave. The vine, 
 being the more valuable of the two kinds 
 of trees, the suflix refers back toit; and 
 the fig-tree is treated as subordinate. 
 avait, they have made or left white. 
 
 8. The land, under the metaphor of a 
 female, is here addressed. ὟΝ is the 
 second person feminine of the Impera- 
 tive in Kal of 75s, which usually means 
 to swear, call on God as witness; but 
 here it takes the signification of the 
 
 mn 
 
 Syriac ἢ] ululavit, deploravit. dats 
 tS ululatus, lamentum. The deri- 
 
 vation from 98, God, in the sense God have 
 mercy, is less natural. One of Kenni- 
 cott’s MSS. reads Y28. LXX. θρηνήσον. 
 A country is frequently said to mourn, 
 when it is subject to devastation. See 
 Is. xxiv. 4; Jer. iv. 28; xii.4; Hos. iv. 3. 
 TANI, 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 de- 
 signed 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 M2nx Ὅν, on 
 account of her virginity, and compares 
 Jud. xi. 38; but this the text does not 
 suggest. LXX. νύμφη. Compl. παρ- 
 6évos. Wrapping oneself insackcloth was 
 a token of deep mourning. ΡΞ, properly 
 lord, master, possessor ; and secondarily 
 husband, because in the East, wives were, 
 and still are, considered as the property 
 rather than the companions of their hus- 
 bands. Comp. the Greek κύριος yuvat- 
 κός ; and for the application of ἀνὴρ to 
 one only betrothed, Matt. i. 19. Ac- 
 cording to the Roman law, consensus 
 Jacit nuptias. 
 
 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 solem- 
 nities 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 de- 
 prived of their regular support, by the 
 cessation of the offerings, they mourned 
 on that account; but of this I should say 
 with Maurer, ‘‘ Vates hicnon videtur cogi- 
 tasse.” 129, stands here for offerings in 
 general, whether bloody or unbloody,— 
 eomp. Gen. iv. 4; LXX. @¥ova,—even 
 when restricted in its signification to 
 meat-offering, such as consisted of meal, 
 salt, oil, and incense, the proper sacri- 
 fices. 0723, are understood, as_ they 
 were always connected with them, except 
 in the case of the sin and trespass-ofler- 
 ings. The libation, or drink-offering, 
 was called 52, on account of its being 
 poured out, from the root 72, to pour. 
 From the circumstance that Joel pre- 
 fixes the article to D273, priests, but not 
 to ODS, hushandmen, and D2, vine- 
 dressers, (ver. 11,) 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 he wrote than afterwards. Comp. 
 
 ο 
 
98 
 
 10 The field is laid waste, 
 
 The ground mourneth ; 
 
 For the corn is laid waste, 
 
 The new wine is dried up, 
 
 The oil languisheth. 
 
 1} 
 Howl, ye vine-dressers ! 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. 1. 
 
 Be ashamed, ye husbandmen ! 
 
 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 ; 
 
 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. 
 
 m7737, ver.13; 1.17. ON WA, ministers, 
 is a more dignified official term than 
 Day, servants, which is employed to 
 denote common slaves, as well as per- 
 sons in more elevated situations about a 
 king. 
 
 10—12. The prophet enters here more 
 minutely into a description of the de- 
 vastation occasioned by the locusts. 
 winn, zew wine, which is already in a 
 state of fermentation, and so intoxica- 
 ting; from ὥν, to take possession of any 
 thing. See on ver. 5, where it is dis- 
 
 tinguished from D’DY. “ Syr. jas Iso, 
 
 sic dictum, quod se possessorem hominis 
 Jacit, eyus cerebrum occupando, ut 1116 
 non amplius sui compos sit. Sic. Arab. 
 
 vinum dicitur ἄλλον, a captivando, et 
 
 pe, a tenendo et vinctum habendo.” 
 
 Winer iz voc. iT, field, and Ix, 
 ground, are synonymes; but differ in 
 this respect, that the former denotes the 
 open, free, uninclosed part of a country, 
 
 Arab. |Sw, extendit,dilatavit; the latter, 
 
 the rich red soil which is particularly fit 
 for cultivation. Hence 717 Wx, @ man 
 of the field, means a hunter, Gen. xxv. 
 27; TINT Ox, a man of the ground, an 
 agriculturist. Root 07x, ¢o be red. The 
 land is here, as frequently in the Hebrew 
 prophets, made the subject of personi- 
 
 fication. Some would render ὉΔῚ, as 
 applied to the new wine, Zo be ashamed : 
 but occurring as it does in parallelism 
 with x, ¢o droop, languish like plants, 
 it is better to retain the primary notion 
 of Ox, to become dry, dry up. Both 
 win and 7. stand for the vzze and the 
 olive tree, from which the wine and oil 
 are obtained. In the second instance 
 wun takes the signification of wi, ¢o be 
 ashamed, being another form of the 
 Hiphil for 25. Both are used in- 
 transitively. The LXX. retaining the 
 signification of 2, improperly render 
 ἐξηράνθησαν yewpyot.—y1, the pome- 
 granate tree, is indigenous in Palestine 
 and Syria, and is reckoned one of its 
 noblest botanical productions. 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 colour, and 
 affording a highly delicious 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 countries. So celebrated 
 were the dates of Palestine, that Pliny, 
 speaking of the von, date, or palm-tree, 
 says, “ Judzea vero inclyta est vel magis 
 palmis.” It was adopted as a symbol 
 of the country in coins struck under 
 Vespasian and Domitian; and is fre- 
 quently referred to in the Old Testament. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 13 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 99 
 
 Gird ye, and mourn, O 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 ; 
 
 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 vege- 
 table kingdom. The fruit, which grows 
 in clusters under the large leaves, is of 
 an exceedingly sweet and agreeable 
 taste, and, as an article both of suste- 
 nance and traffic, is of great value to 
 the inhabitants. In Abyssinia, thie 
 natives extract a juice from it which 
 they manufacture into a spirituous liquor 
 resembling champagne. Its importance 
 is here significantly expressed by the 
 particle 53 being used intensively before 
 
 it. mem, Arab. ce: the apple-tree. 
 
 Rosenmiiller derives the word from ΠΕ), 
 to breathe, and in this Gesenius concurs, 
 supposing the fragrant breath, i.e. smell 
 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 ce: oranges, lemons, 
 
 peaches, apricots, &c. the Hebrew term 
 is likewise in all probability generic in 
 its signification. To give to his de- 
 scription the utmost latitude, Joel adds, 
 mwa wey 5, 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 ἡ to 
 the joy of harvest. The construction 
 yo wan, to dry away from, is what is 
 usually termed pregnant, and more 
 forcibly expresses the removal of the 
 object 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 127 supply with the Syr. 
 pw, as in one of Kennicott’s MSS., or 
 opw,as in one of De Rossi’s. Both 
 forms occur in connexion 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. xxil. 
 12. 750, primarily ¢o smite, strike, then 
 to strike the breast, in token of mourning. 
 See on Is. xxxii. 12. The LXX. always 
 render it by κόπτεσθαι, except in two 
 instances, in which they give it by 
 κλαίειν, to weep. For 7332 °n, comp. 
 of τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ παρεδρεύοντες, 
 1 Cor. ix. 18. Some think that xia, 
 come, is to be taken idiomatically as a 
 particle of exhortation, like 122) before 
 another verb, and appeal to chap. iv. 18, 
 (Hng. version, ili. 13,) for another instance 
 in our prophet. As, however, the verb 
 is, to say the least, not necessarily to be 
 so understood in that passage, and as 
 mention is made of the altar immediately 
 before, it appears more proper to take it 
 in the sense of entering, i.e. ito the court 
 of the temple, where, in the more imme- 
 diate presence of Jehovah, the priests 
 were to bewail their sins, and those of 
 the people. Thus the LXX. εἰσέλθετε, 
 and Kimchi, Wd Ow)“ ma wi, exter ye 
 the house of God, and there mourn. 
 Y? or p%, signifies ¢o spend or remain 
 over the night, and retains this signi- 
 fication in the present passage, though, 
 from the connexion, it is obvious not 
 one night only, but many nights are 
 meant. The priests were not only to 
 wear the habit of mourning during the 
 day, they were also to remain in it all 
 night. Ahab is said to have Jain in 
 sackcloth, when he humbled himself 
 before God, 1 Kings xxi. 27. LXX. 
 UTVWOATE. 
 
 14. wip, to hallow, consecrate; to 
 
100 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP, 1. 
 
 Assemble the elders—all ye inhabitants of the land, 
 To the house of Jehovah your God, 
 
 And cry unto Jehovah. 
 
 15 Alas for the day! 
 
 For the day of Jehovah is near, 
 And cometh as a mighty destruction 
 
 From the Almighty. 
 16 
 
 Is not the food cut off before our eyes ? 
 
 Are not joy and gladness from the house of our God ? 
 
 17 
 
 The seeds are become dry beneath their clods ; 
 
 The granaries are desolate, the store-houses are destroyed, 
 
 Because the corn is withered. 
 
 keep holy ; to appoint sacred or religious 
 services ; here, to zastitute a sacred fast, 
 by fixing the time and circumstances, 
 and preparing the people for its proper 
 observance. The Pual participle is used 
 even of warriors; seeon Is. xi. 3. The 
 interpretations of the Rabbius, Jarchi 
 and Kimchi, 1737, and Abenezra, 1727, 
 are defective, by leaving out the idea of 
 sacredness, which the verb always con- 
 veys. ‘3¥Y, restraint, or being held 
 back or prevented from labour: DY, day, 
 or period, understood. See on Is. i. 13. 
 The Jews were to abstain from their 
 worldly avocations, and spend the por- 
 tion of their time thus consecrated to 
 the immediate and solemn duties of 
 humiliation, confession, and _ prayer. 
 D273, elders, in this connexion, 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 engage 
 in the religious solemnities ; but a com- 
 parison of this verse with chap. 11. 15, 
 16, inwhich “children” and “sucklings” 
 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. 
 
 pry, Arab. Lj? ro: to cry out, ery 
 earnestly for help. UXX. κεκράξετε 
 ἐκτενῶς. ‘* Ardentissimas fundite pre- 
 ces.” Rosenmiiller. 
 
 15. Joel nowexclaims, D099 TIN, alas / 
 
 Jor the day! “0 infaustum et, tristissi- 
 mum illum diem!” Rosenmiiller. To 
 give intensity to the exclamation, the 
 LXX. have the triple οἴμοι, οἴμοι, οἴμοι. 
 That the mi DY, day of Jehovah, 1. 6. 
 the period of punishment, does not mean 
 that of the plague of the locusts, but a 
 more awful period still future, the term 
 anp, zear, at hand, which is never used 
 to denote the actual presence of any 
 thing, but its speedy approach, suffi- 
 ciently proves. What the Jews were 
 then suffering was only a prelude to still 
 more dreadful calamities. For 1 τῶ, 
 which forms an elegant paronomasia, 
 see on Is. xiii. 6, where the same form 
 occurs. The 2 is, as there, the Caph 
 veritatis, and expresses the greatness of 
 the evil. 
 
 16. The verb 73 is understood in the 
 latter hemistich. The annual festivals 
 were occasions of great rejoicing. See 
 Lev. xxii. 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 ἅπαξ λεγόμενα within 
 the short space which it occupies. For 
 the elucidation of 39, some compare 
 the Chaldee “5, fo rof, but it is with 
 more propriety referred to the Arab. 
 
 Lyte» siccus fuit ; and so is of the 
 same signification with x, to be dry, 
 dried up. ‘hus Abulwalid. By the 
 
 desiccating influence of the heat, the 
 seeds that had been sown in the ground 
 
CHAP. 1.] 
 
 18 How the cattle mourn! 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 101 
 
 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 burned all the trees of the field. 
 
 would lose all their moisture, and perish. 
 That mm mean seeds or grains οἵ 
 corn, &c. seems satisfactorily determined 
 
 by the use of the Syr. 12 942 , granum; 
 
 Matt. xiii. 31; John xii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 
 37, in the Peshito; and the signification 
 of ΤῈ, ¢o separate, an action which 
 takes place when, in sowing, the hus- 
 bandman scatters the seed in distinct 
 grains. To the same effect Tanchum, 
 
 G85 (AI Fell Boydell Coppell 
 
 vy] ΕΣ grains prepared for scwing, 
 so called because they are scattered in 
 the ground.— 572, clods, or lumps of 
 
 earth. Comp. the Arab. >, gleba 
 terre ; 3 > 4) terra diversa varia. 
 
 Thus also 397°; 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. i739 
 is synonymous with nZk, granaries ; 
 and, according to the force of the local 
 Ὁ prefixed, signifies places or houses 
 containing store-rooms, or granaries, in 
 which grain was deposited. The Dagesh 
 in the second Ὃ is euphonic. The 
 simpler form 72, occurs Hag. 11. 19; 
 and both are to be referred to the root 
 ἜΣ, to gather, collect. For the diver- 
 sified and unsatisfactory renderings of 
 the ancient versions, see Pococke zx Joc. 
 The verbs 020 and 077 are here to be 
 taken in the sense of being left or 
 neglected like places that have been 
 laid waste or destroyed. 
 
 18, 73, 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 03 before jkET-TW 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 Dx, 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 
 il. 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. xy..53 xvi... 11;, 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. 182, Kimchi explains, Oxo ny, 
 grassy places, places of pasturage; hence 
 pasturage itself. It is derived from ™3, 
 to be pleasant, (comp. 783,) to dwell: 
 but signifying in this connexion the 
 eee grassy spots, so eagerly desired 
 
 y the cattle, and pleasant both to man 
 and beast. From the circumstance 
 that such places would naturally be se- 
 lected for occupancy by tents, dwellings, 
 ὅσ. the word came also to signify hadi- 
 
 Comp. the Arab. 
 
 tations. 
 
 ΠΡῸΣ diver- 
 satus fuit, hospitio excepit: usyhe ᾽ 
 
 mansio, sedes commorationts. 
 
102 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. IL. 
 
 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. 2%, Arab. Eth. gC’): 
 (oie - 
 
 ascendit: to look up with panting or 
 earnest desire. Arab. ἄς» δ» inclinatio, 
 
 propensio in vem. 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. ἀνέ- 
 βλεψαν. Comp. Ps. xlii. 2, where the 
 force of DYER VY is lost by the ren- 
 dering of our common version, “after 
 
 the water-brooks.” It should be a 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 
 compares his own circumstances when 
 deprived of the usual means of spiritual 
 refreshment. The idea of their crying 
 
 to God, which the Syr. Le , and the 
 
 Rabbins attach to the word, is derived 
 from such passages as Job, xxxviil. 41, 
 Ps. civ. 21, exlvu. 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 bor- 
 rowed from the appearance and movements of these insects, in order to make a 
 deeper impression upon his hearers, whose minds were full of ideas derived from 
 them as instruments of the calamity under which they were suffering, 1—11. 
 He then summons anew to humiliation and repentance, 12—17 ; giving assu- 
 rance that on these taking place, Jehovah would show them pity, destroy their 
 enemy, and restore them to circumstances of great temporal and _ religious 
 prosperity, 1S—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 experience deliverance, 32. 
 
 1 Bow ye the trumpet in Zion! 
 And sound the alarm in my holy mountain! 
 
 1. To give the greater effect to the ing. The persons addressed are the 
 alarm here commanded to be sounded, priests, on whom it devolved to blow 
 Jehovah himself is introduced as speak- with trumpets. ἡ σάλπιγξ ὄργανον 
 
CHAP. ΤΙ 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 103 
 
 Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble ; 
 For the day of Jehovah cometh; it is near. 
 
 2 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. 
 
 ἔστι πολέμου. Philo de Septenario. 
 They were to warn all of the threatened 
 judgment. Comp. chap. i. 15, where 
 the prophet anticipates what is now 
 about to be the subject of special de- 
 scription. 
 
 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. 1. 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 17%, 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. 8, and suddenness of 
 anything, Hos. x. 15, so here the ob- 
 vious points of comparison are merely 
 the swddenness 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 3, zation, 
 for DY, people, which is also used of 
 foreign and idolatrous nations, Numb. 
 xxl. 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. 1. 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 
 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 cogitemus.” 
 
104 
 
 3 Before them fire devoureth, 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. IJ. 
 
 And behind them a flame burneth ; 
 Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, 
 But behind them a desolate wilderness : 
 And there is no escape from them. 
 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, 
 
 And they run like horsemen. 
 
 5 They bound like the rattle of chariots on the tops of the mountains; 
 
 That the Assyrian invasion under Sen- 
 nacherib, and not that of the Chaldeans 
 under Nebuchadnezzar, is meant, ap- 
 pears from the immense number of the 
 army, its entire destruction in the land 
 of Palestine, and there being no refer- 
 ence whatever to the captivity in 
 Babylon, the omission of which is un- 
 imaginable, on the supposition that the 
 latter 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. xxxvil. 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, xxxvil. 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. 252, before 
 him, and Ὑπὸ, behind him, are used to 
 express universality ; whicunque. Comp. 
 1 Chron. xix. 10. This construction 15 
 confirmed by what follows: 7% na 
 AMIN, and there is no escape from 
 them, or, more literally, i reference to 
 them. ‘2° properly signifies those who 
 have ped: in 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 desert, 
 is exquisitely forcible and affecting. 
 
 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 
 concerning 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 cavalette by 
 the Italians. This feature Theodoret 
 thus notices: εἴ τις ἀκριβῶς κατίδοι τὴν 
 κεφαλὴν τῆς ἀκρίδος, σφόδρα τῇ τοῦ 
 ἵππου ἐοικυῖαν εὑρήσει. In Rev. ix. 7, 
 the locusts are compared to horses har- 
 nessed for battle: τὰ ὁμοιώματα τῶν 
 ἀκρίδων ὅμοια ἵπποις ἡτοιμασμένοις εἰς 
 πόλεμον. Such comparison is very 
 common among the Arabs. The point 
 of comparison in the second member of 
 the parallelism, is the swiftness with 
 which cavalry advance to the attack. 
 
 5. Wis used of the rapid and bound- 
 ing course of chariots over a rough sur- 
 face, Nah. 11. 2. See also Rev. ix. 9. 
 
 “-- pner purum tonantes 
 Egit equos, volucremque currum.” 
 Horace, Carm. i. 34. 7. 
 
 τς vacuos dat in aéra saltus 
 Succutiturque alte, similisque est cur- 
 rus inani.” 
 
 
 
 Ovid. Metam. ii. 165, 
 
CHAP. I1.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 105 
 
 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 colour. 
 
 ~ 
 
 They run like mighty men ; 
 
 They scale the wall like warriors ; 
 Yea, they all march in their courses, 
 And 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 ; 
 
 Speaking of the noise made by a swarm 
 of locusts, Forskal says: ‘ Transeuntes 
 grylli super verticem nostrum sono 
 magne cataracte ferebant.” ΤῸ 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 liere 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. xT, they tremble, from 7, to turn 
 round, twist oneself, writhe with pain ; 
 
 then ¢o tremble. Arab. ()\\>, med. Wau, 
 
 to be turned. Sb, warmth, ruddiness 
 
 of countenance. Arab. ye a@stuavit, 
 
 efferbuit. se Υ3}, to withdraw their 
 ruddiness, or colour, i.e. to change colour, 
 grow pale with terror. Nah. 11. 11. 
 Comp. 02, to turn pale. ‘The ancient 
 versions concur in rendering the words, 
 every face like the blackness of a pot ; de- 
 riving the last word from ¥®; hence 773, 
 pot, without 8, Of the terror inspired 
 
 by locusts, we cannot have a better proof 
 
 than the Arabic proverb: uy dye 
 
 dsl, more terrible than the locusts. 
 
 7—9. Here the description quite 
 excels in the graphic. The com- 
 parison to warriors is admirably carried 
 out. First, their rapid advance upon 
 the city is specified; next, their scaling 
 the walls in the most regular order ; then 
 their consentaneous encounter with the 
 troops of defence, their invulnerability, 
 their progress through the streets, their 
 climbing the walls, and entering the 
 windows of the houses, are set forth in 
 terms of singular and appropriate beauty. 
 
 ay, Arab. hc, Jidit, vulneravit, \yssc, 
 
 Jissus, has here the signification of break- 
 ing up the order or regularity with which 
 a body of troops proceed when marching 
 to the attack. Abenezra and Kimchi 
 compare MY, fo pervert, turn aside, which 
 comes nearly to the same thing. LXX. 
 Syr. (2 ims: 
 thinks the verb is here used in a sense 
 cognate with the significations in Kal 
 and Hiphil, fo 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 
 frequently described. ᾿Αβασίλευτον yap 
 ἡ ἀκρὶς, ἐκστρατεύει μὲν yap ἐξ ἑνὸς 
 P 
 
 ἐκκλίνωσι. Gesenius 
 
100 
 
 They go up into the houses ; 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. 11. 
 
 They enter the windows like a thief. 
 
 10 
 The heavens shake, 
 
 Before them the earth trembleth, 
 
 The sun and the moon are darkened, 
 And the stars withdraw their shine. 
 
 Jehovah also uttereth his voice before his army ; 
 Surely his camp is very large ; 
 
 Surely it is mighty, executing his order ; 
 
 εὐτάκτως κελεύσματος" φασὶ δὲ αὐτὰς 
 στοιχηδὸν ἰέναι, καὶ ὡς ἐν τάξει διΐϊπτασ- 
 θαι, καὶ ἥκιστα μὲν ἀπονοσφίζεσξαι, περ- 
 ιέπειν δὲ οὕτως ἀλλήλας, ὡσανεὶ καὶ 
 ἀδελφαὶ, φύσεως αὐτῆς βραβευούσης τὸ 
 φιλάλληλον. Cyril. The testimony of 
 Jerome, as an eye-witness in Palestine, is 
 peculiarly valuable ; ‘‘ Hoc nuper in hae 
 provincia vidimus. Quum enim locus- 
 tarum agmina venirent, et aerem, qui 
 inter ccelum et terram est, occuparent, 
 tanto ordine ex dispositione jubentis Dei 
 volitant, ut instar tesserularum, quee in 
 pavimentis artificis figuntur manu, swum 
 locum teneant, et ne puncto quidem, ut 
 ita dicam, 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 being organized *by a 
 leader.” Comp. Prov. xxx. 27, Px 722 
 199 PRA NEN TW, there is no king to the 
 locusts, yet they go forth, all of them 
 dividing, i.e. themselves into regular 
 companies or swarms, with all the dis- 
 cipline of a well-ordered army. 77, 
 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 does 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 
 Abulpharagius relates in his Chron. Syr. 
 Ρ. 184: “postquam a latere meridionale 
 domos intraverant, a latere septem- 
 trionale egrediebantur.” ποῦ, properly 
 means any missile weapon thrown at an 
 
 enemy, from TW, ¢o send or cast forth ; 
 but it is also frequently used of the 
 
 arnida. 
 
 sword. Comp. the Arab. : 
 
 wai, is of somewhat difficult determi- 
 nation. The ground idea seems to be 
 that of mediation, a being or doing any- 
 thing between two; hence Wi %2N7, to 
 make supplication for any one, 2.6. by 
 interposing de¢ween him and the party 
 to whom the supplication is addressed. 
 To this the signification derived from the 
 
 Arab. dx, post, 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 Ποῦ as a collective 
 noun, the meaning of Two qa 52, will 
 be to fall among the missiles, i.e. to light, 
 or come down among them ; and referring 
 ΝΣ to the whole swarm, what it ex- 
 presses is, that they are not broken up, 
 or interrupted in their course. Compare 
 a similar use of 72%, fo break, Dan. xi. 22. 
 —3, in the city, 1.6. any city or town that 
 may lie in their way. Credner’s appeal 
 to chap. iv. [iil.] 17, in proof that Jeru- 
 salem is specifically meant, cannot be 
 sustained, since tha‘ part of the prophecy 
 relates to a totally different subject. The 
 scene is rather the land of Judah, with 
 its fortified cities, which were overrun 
 and plundered by the Assyrian troops. 
 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. 7 %p, the voice of 
 Jehovah, is here, as frequently, thunder, 
 
CHAP. I1.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 107 
 
 Surely the day of Jehovah is great, and very terrible : 
 
 Yea, who can endure it ? 
 12 
 
 Now, therefore, saith Jehovah, 
 
 Turn ye to me with all your heart, 
 And with fasting and weeping and mourning ; 
 
 13 
 
 And rend your heart, and not your garments, 
 
 And turn to Jehovah your God ; 
 For he is pitiful and compassionate, 
 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. 
 
 and not any word of command, as some 
 have imagined. Comp. Exod. ix. 23, 29, 
 33; Ps. xvii. 14 [13]; Ps. Ixxvi. 18, 19 
 [17,18]. The locusts are called the ὉΠ, 
 army of Jehovah, with further reference 
 to the numbers and power of an army. 
 One of the laws of Mohammed is thus 
 expressed : 
 
 . c . ‘ . Ϊ oF eee 
 a Ya) wie Leb ο τὶ 2, 
 Ye shall not kill the locusts, for they are 
 the army of God Almighty. Damir. And 
 
 ΠῚ --» Lord of the locusts, is one 
 
 of the names of God among the Moham- 
 medans. ‘The entire description closes 
 with the brief but pointed interrogation, 
 372) Ὁ, Who can endure it? to which the 
 implied answer is, None. Comp. Mal. 
 iii. 2, Inia DIM 93529 03, and Jer. x. 10. 
 ἸΏΡῚ DA ἢ, 
 
 12. Jehovah himself is here intro- 
 duced, urging the necessity of immediate 
 humiliation. ΠΡ ὩΣ, 15 intensive. The 
 Ὑ is that of consequence, deducing an 
 argument from what had preceded; 03 is 
 augmentative and emphatic, as usually 
 in Joel; and TAY bas 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 “Iy 22%, and 
 not with M7 ox}, 
 
 13. The prophet resumes his address, 
 and founds upon the call of Jehovah, 
 contained in the preceding verse, an ex- 
 hortation to sincere inward repentance, 
 which he supports by encouragements 
 deduced from the benignity of the divine 
 character. Rending the garments was 
 usual on occasions of great’ mourning, 
 see Gen. xxxvii. 29, 34; 1 Sam. iv. 12; 
 1 τηρϑύ αὶ. 27,5 Bara ixs 3945 5; Is: 
 xxxvil. 1, This custom obtained not only 
 among the Hebrews, but also among 
 the Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, 
 Greeks and Romans. 277, is neither 
 the plague of locusts, nor the invasion 
 of the Assyrians, but the calamities in 
 general which God brings upon man- 
 kind, This interpretation the preceding 
 context requires. 
 
 14. The question 1 Ὁ, 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 pardon. 
 
 a aT ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι καὶ νῦν, " 
 Ταῦτ᾽ εἴποις ᾿Αχιλῆϊ δαΐφρονι, αἴκε 
 , 
 πίθηται. 
 Τίς δ᾽ οἰδ᾽, εἴ κέν οἱ, σὺν δαίμονι, θυμὸν 
 > , 
 optvats, 
 Παρειπὼν ;” 
 
 
 
 Iliad xi. 789. 
 
 God’s leaving a blessing behind him, 
 pre-supposes his return to visit his people 
 m mercy. The first-fruits of prosperity 
 are due to Him through whose blessing 
 it is conferred. 
 
108 
 
 15 
 Appoint a sacred fast ; 
 Proclaim a day of restraint. 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 loHAP Ar. 
 
 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, 
 
 16 Assemble the people: convene a sacred assembly ; 
 Collect the aged ; gather the children, 
 And tbose 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, 
 And deliver not thine heritage to reproach, 
 
 That the nations should rule over them. 
 
 Why should they say among the people, 
 
 Where is their God ? 
 18 
 
 15, 16. Comp. ver. 1, and chap. 1. 14. 
 Here the distribution into classes is more 
 minute than in the latter of these pas- 
 sages. The mourning was to be univer- 
 sal. The 727, was the bridal couch, 
 richly provided with a canopy, curtains, 
 &e. Root 72, to cover, protect. See 
 for the force of the reference to the last 
 class mentioned, Deut. xxiv. 5. 
 
 17. dps, Arab. ων; prior, anterior ; 
 
 the mpovdos, or porch, before the temple, 
 more strictly taken. It was an hundred 
 and twenty cubits high, twenty broad 
 from north to south, and ten long from 
 east, to west. The 7319, altar, was that 
 of burnt-offering in the court of the 
 priests. Here, with their backs toward 
 the altar, on which they had nothing to 
 offer, and their faces directed towards 
 the residence of the Shekinah, they were 
 to-weep, and make supplication on behalf 
 of the people. O43 D2 7H, Jarchi, Secker, 
 Michaelis, Rosenmiuller, Justi, Credner, 
 Winer, Gesenius, Maurer, Noyes, 
 Hitzig, and Ewald, render, ¢hat the 
 nations should make a proverb of them ; 
 but such construction is totally unauthor- 
 ized by Hebrew usage. In upwards of 
 fifty instances, in which 3 989 occurs in 
 the Hebrew Bible, it is never once used 
 in the sense of employing derisive, or 
 satirical language, yut waiformly in that 
 
 Then Jehovah will be jealous for his land, 
 
 of likening, or of exercising rule or 
 dominion. In fact, the verb is nowhere 
 used either with or without the prepo- 
 sition in the signification of deriding. 
 It is the noun alone that is thus employed 
 in the forms 5&2 12, mT, DY, 377, to Le, 
 set, give, &e. for a derision. Hzek. xvi. 44, 
 forms no exception. The ancient ver- 
 sions all agree in the translation, that 
 the heathen should rule over them, UXX. 
 Tov κατάρξαι αὐτῶν ἔθνη. arg. 070"? 
 
 ~ ᾿ y; o 8 n ae 
 nvopy pma. Syr.[soSGs» [agiiaado 
 Vulg. κέ dominentur eis nationes. Hexap. — 
 Syr. [scsoS [1.25 coms coono. 
 
 Thus also Kimehi, Abenezra, Leo Juda, 
 Junius and Tremellius, Jewish-Spanish, 
 Lyranus, Drusius, Calvin, Newcome, 
 Dathe, Boothroyd, and Hengstenberg ; 
 and there does not appear to be any 
 reason why it could ever have been ren- 
 dered otherwise, but for the influence of 
 the hypothesis, 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 
 Prophet mente.” Calvin, zx loc. 
 
 18. sap, Arab. Us, valde rubuit ; in 
 
 Piel x27, ¢o de jealous, from the redness 
 or flush by which the face is suffused, 
 
CHAP. I1.| 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 109 
 
 And take compassion upon his people ; 
 
 19 
 
 Yea, Jehovah will answer, and say unto his people, 
 
 Behold! I will send you the corn, 
 
 And the new wine, and the oil, 
 
 And ye shall have abundance thereof ; 
 
 And I will no more deliver you to reproach among the nations. 
 
 20 
 
 I will also remove the Northern from you, 
 
 And drive him into a dry and barren land ; 
 His van towards the Eastern sea, 
 And his rear towards the Western sea ; 
 
 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 723, νυ, and "De, to give them 
 prominence, as the principal objects 
 which had suffered from the locusts, and 
 which were now to be restored. The 
 term °2529, 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 ° to 
 Ps, indicating that the North was not 
 merely the quarter whence tbe subject of 
 discourse came, but that its zative country 
 lay to the north of Palestine : just as 
 2nT, the Temanite, means the Southern, 
 or him who dwells to the right of Pales- 
 tine ; "22, a native Egyptian; in Arabic 
 
 So a Meccite, Lstidora Medinite, i.e. 
 a native or inhabitant of Mecca and 
 
 Medina. Now it is agreed on all hands, 
 that the native country of the locusts is 
 
 the regions of Arabia, the Lybian deserts, 
 and the Sahara of Egypt; so that ac- 
 cording to the wsus loquendi, they cannot 
 be meant by the term here employed. 
 Indeed, so much has this been felt by 
 some of those who have advocated the 
 hypothesis that locusts are intended, 
 that they have been under the necessity 
 of having recourse to far-fetched expe- 
 dients, in order to support it. Justi, 
 contrary to all analogy, proposes to ren- 
 der, “the locusts that march zorthwards,” 
 or to explain the term zorth of what is 
 dark, hostile, or barbarous ; which con- 
 struction of the meaning is, in part, 
 adopted by Hitzig. Maurer, on the other 
 hand, setting aside these and other 
 
 methods, has recourse to the Arab. Baad : 
 
 deposuit excrementum,and thence deduces 
 for ΒΞ, the signification of stercoreus, 
 or, in case this derivation should not be 
 
 approved, to ων» decorticare radendo, 
 
 and considers the reference to be either 
 to the injurious influence of their dung 
 on the trees, herbage, &c. or to their 
 stripping them of their verdure. 
 
 On the supposition that by ΞΕ, the 
 Northern, the Assyriaus are meant, every 
 difficulty vanishes. And that they may 
 with the strictest propriety be so termed, 
 is proved by Zeph. 1. 13: ‘And he 
 will stretch out his hand ΕΞ ΤΡ, upon the 
 North, and destroy Assyria, and will 
 make NVizeveh a desolation, and dry as a 
 wilderness.’ The Jews were accustomed 
 to call Assyria and Babylonia the North, 
 and the North country, because they lay in 
 that direction from Palestine. ‘‘ Queres, 
 quisnam hic Aquilonaris? S. Hieron., 
 Theodor., Remigius, Albertus et Hugo 
 
110 
 
 And his odour shall come up, 
 
 And his stench ascend, 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. IL. 
 
 Because he hath done great things. 
 
 Fear not, O land! rejoice and be glad, 
 
 For Jehovah doeth great things. 
 
 Fear not, ye beasts of the field! 
 
 For the pastures of the desert spring up,. 
 
 For the tree beareth its fruit ; 
 
 The fig-tree and the vine yield their strength. 
 23 Rejoice, ye sons of Zion! and be glad in Jehovah your God; 
 
 accipiunt Sennacherib, quem Dominus 
 longe fecit & Jerusalem: quia dum eam 
 obsideret, angelus Domini una nocte per- 
 cussit centum octuaginta quinque millia 
 militum, itaque eum fugere compulit. 
 4 Reg. xix. 35.”—A Lapide. 
 
 The geographical specification which 
 follows in the verse is designed to express 
 the universality of the destruction of the 
 Assyrians. They were to be dispersed 
 in every other direction but that from 
 which they had come. By 22777 0%, ¢he 
 Eastern Sea, is meant the Asphaltic lake ; 
 by jras7 On, the Western Sea, the Medi- 
 terranean ; and by ΠΡΟΣ ΤῸΝ YIx, ὦ dry 
 and desolate land, the deserts of Arabia. 
 Literally the words °25779, and }7S7, 
 signify what is defore and behind, and 
 are applied geographically in reference 
 to the Orientals who reckon the different 
 quarters according to the positions of 
 front and rear, right and left, while they 
 face the east, which is with them the 
 principal point of the compass. The 
 language of the prophet is figurative, the 
 metaphor being still borrowed from the 
 locusts, which perish when blown by a 
 storm into the sea, or the sandy desert. 
 Jerome refers to a similar scene, which 
 literally happened when he was in Pales- 
 tine. ‘Etiam nostris temporibus,” he 
 says, “vidimus agmina locustarum ter- 
 ram texisse Judeeam, quee postea,... vento 
 surgente, in mare primum et novissinum 
 precipitata sunt.” And he immediately 
 adds, what illustrates the statement of 
 Joel relative to the ascending of the 
 stench: ‘“ Cumque littora  utriusque 
 maris acervis mortuarum locustarum 
 quas aque evomuerant, implerentur, 
 putredo carum et foetor in tantum noxius 
 
 fuit, ut aerem quoque corrumperet, et 
 pestilentia tam jumentorum, quam homi- 
 num gigneretur.” 028 and 7), face and 
 end are here used in the military sense 
 of vau and rear, and cannot, without 
 violence, be interpreted of the swarm of 
 locusts, and a brood which succeeded 
 them. 7272, is a ἅπαξ Ney. comp. ΠΩ, Zo 
 
 be foul, putrid, to stink. Arab. Zx0, 
 
 sordes. Giving an account of the locusts, 
 Thevenot says, “ They live not above six 
 months, and, when dead, the stench of 
 them so corrupts and infects the air, that 
 it often occasions dreadful pestilences.” 
 The concluding words of the verse con- 
 vey the idea of moral agency, and can 
 with no propriety be interpreted of the 
 locusts. niwy) 927. LXX. ἐμεγάλυνε 
 
 wv > ~ Ν = 7 
 τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ. Syr. passa yaad 22]; 
 
 he exalted himself in acting. 'The phrase 
 is obviously used here in a bad sense, and 
 indicates the pride of the Assyrians ; 
 comp. 2 Kings xxi. 6, where ΤῸΝ 7297, 
 a similar idiom, occurs. As employed in 
 the following verse of our prophet, it is 
 placed in antithesis with the sense in 
 which it is here used, and is to be dif- 
 ferently understood: viz. of the great 
 things that God would do for his people, 
 comp. Ps. exxvi. 2, 3. 
 
 21—23. In these verses there is a 
 beautiful gradation. First, the land, 
 which had been destroyed by the enemy, 
 is addressed in a prosopopeela; then the 
 irrational animals which had suffered 
 from the famine; and lastly, the inhabi- 
 tants themselves. All are called upon 
 to cast off their fears, and rejoice in the 
 
CHAP. ΠΠ.Ἶ 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 111 
 
 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 : 
 
 happy change which Jehovah would 
 effect. Desolation, barrenness, and 
 famine, would disappear, and times of 
 prosperity and happiness return. ΤῈ 23, 
 Sous of Zion, properly the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, but here evidently used to 
 denote those of the land generally, of 
 which Jerusalem was the metropolis, and 
 Zion the centre of religious influence. 
 TZ? M49, is rendered in the Targ. }252 
 1313, your teacher in righteousness ; which 
 Abarbanel explains, MY ΠΡΟΤῚ FD NIM 
 Poy’ Vor Move nx) Pax. And 
 he ts the king Messiah, who shall teach 
 them the way in which they should walk, 
 and the works that they should do. he 
 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, 
 (Hcolamp., Luther, and most of the early 
 Lutheran interpreters; and, among the 
 moderns, Pick and Hengstenberg, the 
 latter of whom contends for it at con- 
 siderable length, and decidedly considers 
 the passage to be one of the Messianic 
 prophecies. That 9 signifies ¢eacher, 
 is beyond all doubt, see 2 Chron. xv. 3; 
 Job xxxvi.92; Is. ix. 15 ; xxx. 20); and 
 from the occurrence of the word in this 
 place in connexion with 772, 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 callee by Malachi 
 MIE wow, THE SuN or RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
 z.e. the author of that illumination or 
 knowledge which has righteousness for 
 its object. To such interpretation, how- 
 ever, there appear to me the following 
 insuperable objections :—First, it is 
 repugnant to the circumstances of the 
 context ; “non videtur tamen ferre hune 
 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 illa est nimis fri- 
 gida;” and goeson to show that, in accord- 
 ance with the custom of the prophets, Joel 
 
 begins with these inferior blessings, and 
 afterwards, in ver. 28, proceeds to treat, 
 of those which are spiritual. Secondly, 
 the repetition of the same term, 719, im- 
 mediately after, where, as all allow, if 
 must be taken in the acceptation of rain. 
 And thirdly, the peculiar force and co- 
 herence of the words, πόθ ΠΝ, and 
 wip mW D2, The emphasis given to 
 m9, by prefixing not only the article 4, 
 but also the determinating particle nx, 
 shows that the prophet had some imme- 
 diate and definite object in view, which 
 we cannot imagine to have been any 
 other than the autumnal rain, which was 
 indispensable any year, and more espe- 
 cially 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 import- 
 ance and prominence allotted to it in the 
 text. See on the force of mx the Lex- 
 icons of Lee and Gesenius. The same 
 consideration will account for the form, 
 and the particular signification of 77> 
 in this place. The 215 to be taken ad- 
 verbially, as pointing out the rule or 
 measure according to which the rain was 
 to be bestowed, which is declared to be 
 my, so that the meaning will be, zz just 
 quantity, adequately, im the proportion 
 suitable to the exigency of the case. 
 pry, the root from which this noun is de- 
 rived, signifies to be just, right ; to come 
 up to certain claims, ¢o be what a person 
 or thing ought to be. Comp. Lev. xix. 36, 
 where P72 is used of weights and mea- 
 sures that were exact, or came up to the 
 demands of the law. Some propose to 
 render 72729, bountifully, but this would 
 give the Chaldee rather than the Hebrew 
 signification. Ewald translates, the early 
 rain for justification, and explains it of 
 the Jews being again accounted right- 
 eous by God. To the objection of Hengs- 
 tenberg, that if 77 in the first half of 
 the verse does not designate a different 
 divine benefit from 7312 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 
 
JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP MIT. 
 
 So that the floors shall be full of grain, 
 
 And the vats shall run over with new wine and oil. 
 
 25 Thus I will make good to you the years 
 Which the swarming locust 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 shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, 
 Who hath dealt wondrously with you: 
 And my people shall never be ashamed. 
 
 27 Then shali ye know, that I am in the midst of Israel, 
 
 instance 712 is merely a resumption for 
 the sake of dividing the ΘΒ mentioned 
 immediately before into its two regular 
 divisions, the former and the /atter. The 
 term elsewhere used for the former or 
 autumnal raiz, which falls from the 
 middle of October until the middle of 
 December, is 9%, lit. the waterer, being 
 the Benoni Participle of Y, ¢o dart, 
 cast, or scatter, as drops of water. 749, 
 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. ὃ, where “p29, the 
 latter or vernal rain is also explained. 
 The reading τὺ", which is found in- 
 stead of the former 771, 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 favour 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 
 
 variety of reading. Ὁ, Arab. pone 
 Hs τ ἢ 
 
 corpus, 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 102, and 73), are prophetic 
 futures. To render Pox, ix the first 
 month, would involve a contradiction, 
 since only one of the two rains could 
 happen in that month. It seems, there- 
 fore, necessary to suppose an ellipsis of 3, 
 the particle of comparison, and read 
 W723, as formerly, or as in former times. 
 Comp. Is. 1. 26; Jer. xxxiit. 11, where 
 
 myBNI2D is similarly used; and for ἡ ΝΣ, 
 in the sense of former, 1 Sam. xvil. 30 ; 
 Hagg.ii.3. Thus the LXX., Syr., Vulg., 
 Arab. One of Kennicott’s MSS., and 
 perhaps another, reads jr#x1>. The el- 
 lipsis of 2 is not infrequent in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. 
 
 24. Here the happy results of the 
 plentiful and seasonable rains are set 
 forth. The Ὁ in 3873), is consequential. 
 
 pws, comp. the Arab. ον» propulit, 
 
 vil. Conj. tmpulsus fuit, flucit, to cause to 
 flow, or run over. For 32, see on Is. v. 2. 
 
 25. That the prophet has here in view 
 the plague of locusts described in chap. 1. 
 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. 1]. 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 Ὁ), 
 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 favour 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 characterise the 
 
CHAP. I1.] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 113 
 
 And that I, Jehovah, am your God, and none else ; 
 And my people shall never be ashamed. 
 
 28 
 
 (ILI. i.]—And it shall come to pass, afterwards, 
 
 That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; 
 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 Your old men shall dream dreams, 
 
 Your young men shall see visions ; 
 
 29 
 
 And even upon the male and the female servants 
 
 I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 
 
 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- 
 ee of the Holy Spirit. By God’s 
 
 eing in the midst of his people, is 
 meant the special manifestation of his 
 presence in the communications of his 
 favour. The resumption of 28 in °28), 
 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. Ns, afterward, LXX. 
 pera ταῦτα, Hengstenberg would place 
 In antithesis with ΤΟΝ, ver. 23, which 
 he renders first ; but the Jatter phrase 
 has reference to what had already taken 
 place, and was not future to the time of 
 the prophet. 727708, though indefinite, 
 is nearly equivalent in force to MTS 
 ovany, Is. 11. 2, as appears from its having 
 been rendered by the Apostle Peter 
 ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις, in the last 
 days. Sarehi, 822 TY, ἐμ futurity : 
 Abenezra, Nd 877 TN Nt 5 PD 9 WX 
 TAT P97 TTS ὝΩΝ 7109 12 ON WON TIT Th “Ἢ 
 Donnan: “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, aad tt shall come to pass in 
 the latter days ;”’ in which interpretation 
 Kimehi coneurs, adding, ONY) ΟΝ 2 
 TOW TT NV WIN TINY WX ὮΝ TW IPI 3 
 TYTN ONT Ts Dax 5) urn) ywN Dy 5 
 TY WOM ND TAN ΠΡ one wINw Ὁ} RD 
 De ΤΙΡῪ MINIT FIND 2 WoRIwW Pwo n> NIT 
 
 mm, “Because it is said, And ye shall 
 know that I am in 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, in the days of the Mes- 
 siah,” &c. That the two phrases are iden- 
 tical in meaning, clearly appears frou 
 a comparison of Jer. xlvin. 47, with 
 xlix.6. See on Is. ii. 2. JEU 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. 
 m™, 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, ὅσ. : and these 
 communications are described in lan- 
 guage which shows that they were both 
 to be more general and more special in 
 their character. In a more general 
 point of view, they were to be bestowed 
 upon W323, all flesh, i.e. mankind ge- 
 nerally, 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 gene- 
 rally, or the whole human race; just as 
 
 in Arabic, ὧν and Mal signify homo, 
 humanum genus, and Adam is called 
 peal »", the futher of flesh, i.e. of 
 
 mankind. Credner would have the 
 phrase to include the animal creation, 
 
 Q 
 
= wi 
 
 114 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP, 11. 
 
 30 And I will show prodigies in the heavens and in the earth, 
 Blood and fire, and columns of smoke. 
 
 than which no construction could be 
 more preposterous in such connexion, 
 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 ;” their “aged men,” and their 
 ‘youths; ” their “male” and “female 
 servants;” terms which are mani- 
 festly designed to teach that their 
 bestowment was to embrace persons of 
 different classes, ranks, and conditions 
 
 of life. 33, Arab. Ls, indicavit, an- 
 
 nunciavit, ἘΠ. “Egygy: locutus est, 
 TIP : vaticinatus est, predivit, is 
 
 used not merely to denote the foretelling 
 of future events, but to express the 
 giving of utterance to divine truth under 
 a miraculous 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; 
 xxl. 9; 1 Cor. xi. 4,5; xiv. 1, 5, 6, 22, 
 
 24, 31, 39; which passages furnish stri- 
 king 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 ; τοῦτό ἐστι, 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. nid, dreams, and 
 Mini, visions, belonged to the different 
 modes in which God revealed his will 
 to the prophets. Numb. xii. 6; 1 Sam. 
 xxvill. 6, 15; Jer. xxiii. 25—28; Dan. 
 vil. 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 there is repeated 
 reference to visions. See Acts ix. 10, 12; 
 x. 3, 17; x1.5; xvi. 9; xviil. 9; xxvi. 19; 
 2 Cor. xii. 1; Rev. ix. 17. 00, 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 of 
 πτωχοὶ, the poor, in the New Testament. 
 The repetition Tnx pEox, 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,” ἡ. 6. the Gentiles, “even 
 as many as the Lord our God shall call.” 
 
 30, 31. In connexion with this period 
 of the rich enjoyment of divine influence, 
 
CHAP. II. | 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 
 And the moon into blood, 
 
 Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. 
 
 Joel introduces one of awful judgment, 
 called as usual MM0d%, the day of Jehovah, 
 the precursors of which he describes in 
 very alarming language. That the de- 
 struction 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 taking 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 if 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 introduced for the purpose 
 of producing a more powerful effect on 
 the mind. See on Is. xii. 10; xxxiv. 
 3—5. The heavens and the earth, 
 therefore, mean the political world, with 
 its civil and religious establishments ; 
 the sun 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 in relation to both. 
 Comp. Matt. xxiv. 29; Mark xiii. 24, 25; 
 Luke xxi. 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. i. ver. 529 :— 
 
 -- - Superique minaces 
 Prodigiis terras implerunt, cethera, 
 pontum. 
 
 Tgnota obscure viderunt sidera noctes, 
 
 Ardentemque polum flammis, cceloque 
 volantes, 
 
 Obliquas per inane faces, crinemque 
 timendi 
 
 Sideris, et terris mutantem regna 
 cometen. 
 
 Fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra se- 
 reno, 
 
 Tt varias ignis densodedit aere formas.” 
 
 oni, prodigies, whatever objects are 
 unusual, portentous, or miraculous, in 
 their character. The word is most pro- 
 bably a derivative from ΠΕΡ, Arab. Cou). iil. 
 
 τι 
 
 39) eminutt, to be conspicuous, admi- 
 
 rable, wonderful. UXX. τέρατα. It 
 frequently occurs in combination with 
 Mink, σημεῖα, signs. MVDA, only occurs 
 once besides, and, as here, in construc- 
 tion with γῶν, viz. Song ii. 6; where, 
 however, nineteen MSS. and originally 
 another read nivan, without the Yod, 
 which is doubtless the more correct or- 
 thography, the Yod having been inserted 
 as a help to the pronunciation. There 
 ean be little doubt that it is derived from 
 van, fo be erect, whence 25, the palm- 
 tree, from its tall and erect growth. 
 Comp. the Chaldee 7y2n, a@ column of 
 
 smoke; 27, Arab. pel and Sys , tur- 
 
 vis ; and Wan, to rise like a column. The 
 phrase will, therefore, be equivalent to 
 yer "ney, of which we have the singular 
 γῶν may, Jud. xx. 40. LXX. ἀτμίδα 
 καπνοῦ; but in Song il. 6, στελέχη 
 καπνοῦ. ,Vulg. vaporem fumi. Targ. 
 OT pa, columns of smoke, the smgular 
 of which is used Jud. xx. 40. ‘Tan- 
 
 chum : kyl yes Esc], pillars 
 
 of smoke ascending up. 'hose who are 
 familiar with the account given by Jo- 
 sephus 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 M7 Ov, but P27) WT AM OY, che 
 great and fearful day of Jehovah ; terms 
 which are employed by the prophet 
 Malachi, iii.23 (Eng. iv. 5.), in reference 
 to the same event, 
 
116 
 
 32 And it shall come to pass, 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 That whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be 
 
 delivered : 
 
 For in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem shall be the escaped, 
 According as Jehovah hath promised, 
 Together with those who are left, 
 
 Whom Jehovah shall call. 
 
 32. The phrase Tim 01 877, usually 
 means fo invoke 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. 1. 2, it appears 
 to be here employed as a periphrasis for 
 those Jews who should embrace the faith 
 of the Messiah, and render to him as 
 mm, Jehovah, the same supreme worship 
 which had been rendered to God by their 
 pious ancestors. From the passage just 
 
 uoted from the Acts, it is clear that the 
 
 isciples of Christ were characterised 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. 
 —ov μὲν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς ἐν Ἵερο- 
 σολύμοις ἐκκλησίας, κατά τινα χρησμὸν 
 τοῖς αὐτόθι δοκίμοις δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως 
 δοθέντα πρὸ τοῦ πολέμου, μεταναστῆναι 
 τῆς πόλεως, καί τινα τῆς περαίας πόλιν 
 οἰκεῖν κεκελευσμένου. πέλλαν αὐτὴν ὀνο- 
 μάζουσιν" ev ἣ τῶν εἰς Χριστὸν πεπι- 
 στευκότων ἀπὸ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ μετῳκισ- 
 
 μένων, κι τ. Δ. Euseb. lib. iii. cap. v. 
 720"5, is a collective noun, signifying 
 those who have escaped ; τὰ other words, 
 ἡ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐκκλησία, “the church 
 in Jerusalem,” as Kusebius phrases it in 
 the above quotation, who not only made 
 their escape from theimpending 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 77 Vos Ws, refer 
 to the promise just made. OWN, Zo- 
 gether with those that have been left, from 
 
 τὺ, Arab. Ops , aufugit, vagatusque fuit, 
 
 os , and ὌΝ , aufugiens, to flee, make 
 
 one’s escape, survive a slaughter, or any 
 other calamity. The reference scems 
 not to be to converted Gentiles, as 
 Schmidius, Michaelis, Holzhausen, and 
 others interpret, but to those Jews who 
 did not perish in the national judgments, 
 but were called into the church of Christ. 
 x7, as employed in the last clause of the 
 verse, signifies fo call, in the sense of 
 effectually prevailing upon any one to 
 choose and participate in the blessings of 
 the divine kingdom. Comp. Καλέω, as 
 used by Paul, Rom. viii. 28, 30; ix. 24; 
 1 Thess. 11. 12. 8p, the Participle here 
 denotes the future. 
 
 
 
CHAP. 111.} JOEL. 
 
 117 
 
 CHAPTER III. [IV.] 
 
 In this chapter the prophet returns from the parenthetic view which he had ex- 
 hibited 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 the Babylonish captivity, and were to 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 neighbouring 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, J—15; shows, that since these 
 
 “convulsions were brought about by the providence of Jehovah, whose earthly 
 throne was at Jerusalem, his people had no ground for alarm, and would expe- 
 rience his protection, 16, 17; predicts times of great prosperity to them, 18 ; 
 and concludes with special denunciations against Egypt and Idumea, with whose 
 fate is placed in striking contrast the protracted existence of the Jewish polity, 
 
 19—21. 
 
 1 For, behold! in those days, and at that time, 
 When I shall reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 
 
 2 I will gather all the nations, 
 
 And bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
 And will plead with them there, 
 
 1, 2. NT ny Ma OMA, 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 1x, 
 with the following words, which relate 
 to the restoration of the Jewish state. 
 5, 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 pro- 
 mised 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 1x, the Keri sub- 
 stitutes 2s, in which it is supported by 
 
 twenty-five of Kennicott’s MSS.; but 
 the frequent occurrence of M23 2%, in 
 which the Kal form is to be taken causa- 
 tively, shows that there was no necessity 
 for the emendation. See Ps. xiv. 7; 
 hii, 7; exxvi. 1; Is. lii. 8. Some in- 
 terpret the phrase of a general resto- 
 ration to circumstances of prosperity, 
 without any reference to previous circum- 
 stances of actual captivity, as in the case 
 of Job (alii. 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, 
 Rey. xvi. 14, 16, is rendered impossible 
 
118 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. ILI. 
 
 On account of my people, and Israel mine inheritance, 
 Whom they have scattered among the nations, 
 
 And have divided my land ; 
 
 3 And have cast lots for my people, 
 
 And given a boy for an harlot, 
 
 And sold a girl for wine, 
 That they might drink. 
 
 4 And truly, what are ye to me, O Tyre and Zidon, 
 And all the coasts of Philistia? 
 
 Will ye retaliate upon me ? 
 
 by the introduction of the Tyrians, Si- 
 donians, Philistines, ὅσο. verses 4 and 19, 
 since thesestatesall received their punish- 
 ment prior to the advent of Christ. By 
 ὭΡ τ᾽ pry, 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 appropriated 
 the name, and maintain, that in it the 
 final judgment of the world is to be held; 
 —a conceit in which they have been fol- 
 lowed by many Christian writers, as well 
 as by the Mohammedans. Others sup- 
 pose it to be a designation of the valley, 
 otherwise called 7323 PY, the valley of 
 blessing, 2 Chron. xx. 26; but as neither 
 of these localities at all comports 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 desigued to charac- 
 terise 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 the words are not re- 
 tained, but translated x27 292 Ww», 406 
 plain of the distribution of judgment, 
 and by the translation of Theodot., τὴν 
 
 χώραν τῆς κρίσεως. The nations to be 
 punished are restricted, ver. 2, to such 
 as should have scattered the Jews, and 
 occupied their land. Comp. chap. 11. 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. xxxvuili. 17; comp. 
 also Deut. xxii. 19 (Eng. 18), where 
 mi ΠΣ, the hire of a whore, is coupled 
 with 173 wir, the price of a dog; and 
 
 the Arabic proverb, «Ὁ kal ω» 
 
 the son of a whore hired with oil. Meid. 
 xciv. Charden mentions that when the 
 Tartars came into Poland, they carried 
 off all the children they could, and, find- 
 ing at length that they were not re- 
 deemed, sold them at the low price of a 
 crown. In Mingrelia, he adds, they sell 
 them for provisions, and for wine. 
 
 4. Amoug 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. “Ὁ Dns 03), and truly what 
 are yetome? Think ye that I make any 
 account of you? or that ye can success- 
 fully oppose yourselves tome? The in- 
 terrogation is altogether different in 
 meaning, as it is in form, from the idiom 
 
CHAP. 110] 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 119 
 
 If, indeed, ye retaliate upon me, 
 Speedily and swiftly I will bring your retaliation 
 
 Back upon your own head. 
 
 5 Because ye have taken away my silver and my gold; 
 And my goodly objects of delight 
 Ye have carried into your temples ; 
 6 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. 
 7 Behold! I will rouse them from the place 
 
 Whither ye have sold them ; 
 
 And bring back your retaliation 
 
 Upon your own head ; 
 
 8 I will also seil your sons and your daughters 
 Into the hand of the sons of Judah, 
 
 ow on, what have we in common ? with 
 which Kimchi compares it. 71023, cir- 
 cuits, districts. Comp. Josh. xiii. 2, 
 where the word is rendered Jorders in our 
 version. They were properly provinces, 
 of which there were five In number, each 
 governed by a 19, prince, or lord. 73, 
 all, before mi>3, expresses contempt. 
 Dx, is not here correlate with 7, in 7237, 
 but puts a fresh case for the sake of ar- 
 gument. The case supposed, however, 
 was true in fact. The interrogative 7 as- 
 sumes here the form of the article, as in 
 several other places. See on Amos v. 25. 
 7°23, signifies to do good or evil to any one; 
 then to recompense lim, 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. 11. 8; Matt. 
 xxv. 40. 779 5p, isan asyndeton. Comp. 
 15. 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 their property as his. Some 
 suppose the precious vessels belonging to 
 the temple to be intended by 287 “1279, 
 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, &e., 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. DIT 33, the sous of the Javanites, 
 i.e. the Grecians. Comp. vies ᾿Αχαιῶν, 
 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 favour 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 Phcenician 
 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. Dx28, Sabe@ans ; Pococke’s Arab. 
 
 MSS. ε al, the people of Jemen. 
 
120 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 (CHAP, ITI. 
 
 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 ; 
 Beat your coulters into swords, 
 And your pruning-hooks into spears ; 
 
 10 
 
 let them come up. 
 
 Let the feeble say, 1 am mighty. 
 
 11 
 
 Hasten and come, all ye nations around, 
 
 And gather yourselves together ; 
 Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah! 
 12 Let the nations be roused, let them come up 
 
 See on Is. lx. 6. As the Sabeeans traded 
 with India, it is not improbable that 
 pin, distant, may be designed to include 
 that part of the Hast; though it is said 
 of the Queen of Sheba, that she came 
 ἐκ τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς, Matt. xii. 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 Pheenician 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 its 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. 
 Favourable, 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. ns, 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. 
 77, 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. i. 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. 
 
 ce 
 
 
 
 squalent abductis arva 
 colonis, 
 
 Et curve rigidum falees conflantur in 
 ensem.” 
 
 Virgil. Georg. i. 507. 
 
 “Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila 
 
 ligones, 
 Factaque de rastri pondere cassis erat.” 
 Ovid. Fast. i. 699. 
 
 11. ὧν, a ἅπαξ λεγ. in all probability 
 the same in signification with “7, /o 
 hasten. The ancient versions follow the 
 LXX. who render, συναθροίζεσθε. 
 
 Arab. Url vitam duxit, vivit ; hence 
 
 the idea of Jiveliness, activity, agility, &e. 
 nm, is the Imperative in Hiphil of 073, 
 to descend, go or come down. The place 
 whither, is the scene of warfare, the 
 valley of Jehoshaphat, implied in 79%, 
 which, with the 4, is frequently the same 
 in signification with Ὁ. 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 
 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 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 To the valley of Jehoshaphat ; 
 
 JOEL. 121 
 
 For there I will sit to judge all the nations around. 
 18 ῬῬαΐ ye in fhe 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 ! 
 
 14 
 
 For the day of Jehovah is near, 
 
 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, 
 
 he acts as judge, and gives a just deci- 
 sion against the enemies of his people. 
 For Dbwim poy, see on ver. 2. Here, as 
 in that verse, the nations to be punished 
 were those 2229, circumjacent to Judea. 
 
 13. The prophet now employs meta- 
 plors 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; 
 ]xiii, 2; Lam, i. 15; and especially Rev. 
 
 xiv. 14—20. 92, a sickle, Arab. Jt, 
 
 ec. In Arab. the root, J 
 
 signifies fo cut. The sickles of the Kast, 
 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. %7, from ΤΥ, ¢o descend, some take 
 to be used here in the acceptation of the 
 
 Arab. sty caleavit, Thus the LXX. 
 
 Syr. 
 
 maretre. 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 signification 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 thing signified is boldly presented 
 to view. 
 
 14. Di DT, multitudes, multitudes, 
 a Hebraism for zmmense 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 congregated in 
 obedience to the summons, breaks out 
 into an appropriate exclamation in regard 
 to their number. yx, Piscator, the 
 Geneva English, Calvin, Leo Juda, 
 Michaelis, Justi, Holzhausen, and Cred- 
 ner, take in the sense of (threshing. 
 Kimchi, Tanchum, Abulwalid, Newcome, 
 and some others, render excision ; but 
 the LXX., Theodot., Syr., Targ., Theodo- 
 ret, Dathe, Rosenmiller, Gesenius, Hit- 
 zig, 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 ¢o determine, decide, as at- 
 taching to the verb y70, 1 Kings xx. 40; 
 Is. x. 22. The meaning is the decision 
 or doom of the nations to which the pro- 
 phecy refers. The repetition of p77 poy, 
 heightens the effect. 
 
 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 executed upon the 
 neighbouring nations, should be executed 
 by the Jews themselves. They doubtless 
 refer to the victories obtained by Matta- 
 thias, and his sons the Maccabzeans. As 
 
 Rk 
 
122 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 And utter his voice from Jerusalem, 
 
 And the heavens and the earth shall shake ; 
 But Jehovah is a refuge for his people, 
 Even a stronghold for the sons of Israel. 
 
 17 
 
 And ye shall know that I Jehovah am your God, 
 
 Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain : 
 Then shall Jerusalem be holy ; 
 And 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, 
 
 And all the channels of Judah shall flow with water, 
 And a fountain shall go forth from the house of Jehovah, 
 And water the valley of Acacias. 
 
 king of the Jewish uation, 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. xvii. 13; Hab. iii. 10, 11. 
 INv, fo 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. 80; Amos i. 2; 1]. 8; Hos. xi. 10. 
 17. YP, is here, as in Is. lii. 6; lx. 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 an end, 
 will appear on comparing Is. lii. 1, and 
 Nah. 1.15. 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 characterised, 77, Aoli- 
 mess in the abstract, is used. Comp. 
 Obad. 17. By 0%, 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, ¥ chal 
 ola, eee.) sis, ““meta- 
 
 phorical language, denoting abundance 
 of plenty and blessings.” Comp. Is. xxx. 
 23—25; xliv. 3; and especially Amos 
 ix. 13. 
 
 “Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nec- 
 
 taris ibant, 
 Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.” 
 Ovid. Metam. i. 111. 
 
 Kat tore δὴ χαρὰν μεγάλην θεὸς ἀν- 
 δράσι δώσει. 
 
 Καὶ γὰρ γῆ καὶ δένδρα καὶ ἄσπετα 
 θρέμματα γαίης 
 
 Δώσουσι καρπὸν τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἀνθρώ- 
 ποισιν 
 
 Oivov, καὶ μέλιτος γλυκέως, λευκοῦ τε 
 γάλακτος, 
 
 Καὶ σίτου, ὅπερ ἔστι βροτοῖς κάλλιστον 
 ἄπαντων. 
 
 Sibyl. Orac. 
 
 Duwi 3, the valley of Shittim, i.e. Aca- 
 cias. There was a place of this name 
 in the country of Moab, Num. xxv. 1; 
 xxxill. 49; Josh. ii. 1; but most inter- 
 preters think that the valley is meant 
 through which the Kidron flows to the 
 Dead Sea. Consistency of interpretation 
 
CHAP. IIT. | 
 
 19 
 
 JOEL, 
 
 123 
 
 Egypt shall become desolate, 
 
 And Edom a desolate wilderness, 
 For the violence done to the sons of Judah, 
 Because they shed innocent blood in their land. 
 20 But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, 
 And Jerusalem to successive generations. 
 21 And I will regard their blood as innocent, 
 Which 1 have not regarded as innocent ; 
 
 And Jehovah shall dwell in Zion. 
 
 requires us to understand this part of 
 the verse figuratively of the most desert 
 and arid spots, such as the acaciais fond 
 of. Fertility was to go forth from the 
 presence of Jehovah into the whole land. 
 Viewed in this light, there is no incon- 
 gruity in representing the water as ex- 
 tending even across the Jordan, however 
 impossible it might be as ἃ physical 
 phenomenon. Comp. Ezek. xlvi. 1—12; 
 Zech. xiv. 8. 
 
 19. The wrongs done to the Jews 
 by the Egyptians and Idumzans, which 
 the prophet here declares were to be 
 avenged, were those committed at dif- 
 ferent times after the captivity. Pales- 
 tine suffered greatly during the wars 
 between the Syrian and Egyptian kings, 
 especially in the reign of Ptolemy Epi- 
 phanes, when the Jews exposed them- 
 selves to the indignation of that king by 
 siding with Antiochus the Great. In 
 the time of Cleopatra also, her son La- 
 thyrus gained a victory over the army 
 of Alexander Jannzeus, in which the Jews 
 lost upwards of thirty thousand men: 
 and who, to increase the terror of his 
 name, massacred the women and children, 
 cut their bodies in pieces, and boiled the 
 flesh. The Idumeans, though less for- 
 midable, never omitted any favourable 
 opportunity that offered of showing their 
 hostility to the Jews. ‘The condition to 
 which both these countries were speedily 
 reduced, and in which they have re- 
 mained to the present day, verifies the 
 prediction here delivered. Instead of 
 monw>, a number of MSS. exhibit the 
 synonymous ΠΡΌΣ, τη ‘22 DDN, the 
 violence of the sons of Judah, is the 
 Genitive of object, meaning the violence 
 done fo them. Comp. Obad. 10. 2 is 
 spelt 872 here and Jonah i. 14; but in 
 the present text, nine of Kennicott’s 
 
 MSS. and four of De Rossi's, with eight 
 more originally, read 72. Among these 
 are four Spanish MSS., two of which 
 De Rossi characterises as accuratissini. 
 The pronominal affix in ὈΞῚΝ, refers to 
 the Jews spoken of immediately before. 
 
 20. ὉΠ, is used passively, as in Is, 
 xii. 20. oviy and 1 7, are to be 
 limited by the subject of which they are 
 predicated. Thus the state of desolation 
 during the seventy years’ captivity in 
 Babylon, is said to be D2, for ever, 
 Jer. xviil. 16, 
 
 21. In the words ὙΠ 8? D7 YP, 
 there is an ellipsis of 12x, after 023, the 
 affix in which refers to the Jews, not to 
 their enemies. Almost all the inter- 
 preters have stumbled at 172, the verb 
 here employed, but they have generally 
 got over the difficulty, by giving to it the 
 signification of “M27, 7 have avenged—a 
 signification which nowhere attaches to 
 it in the Hebrew Bible. For the dif- 
 ferent explanations, see Pococke. ΠΏ), 
 
 Arab. ust purus, mundus fuit, 11. and 
 
 iv. mundavit. Syr. in Pael, sacrificavit, 
 libavit. In Niph. the Heb. verb signifies 
 to be morally pure, to be free from pun- 
 ishment ; in Piel, as here, to regard, pro- 
 nounce, or treat as innocent, to pardon. 
 The words were doubtless suggested by 
 ἘΣ 07 in the nineteenth verse, and are to 
 be rendered, 7 will regard their blood as 
 innocent, which I have not regarded as 
 innocent ; 1.6. 1 will pardon those whom 
 I have treated as guilty. My people, 
 whom I have punished on account of 
 their apostasies, I will henceforth regard 
 with favour and love. The affix Ὁ in 
 D7, corresponds to the same in O¥)8, 
 ver. 19.—}38, the Participle used with 
 futurity of signification. 
 
Be 
 
 Ni sii 
 
 ee: 
 ΕΗ onan 
 
 a) ἐν 0. Ὶ 
 
 ἜΑ 
 
 Oy ‘ist 
 
 fal fair 
 
 Syste 3- 
 
 ᾿ Penis elu 
 
 Tt wil Obs ie 59 διοίρεν᾽ eh τς 
 
 ΓΕ ees 5 bade ΤΙ ae pps 
 
 cal 
 
 P wil {liebe ite od 
 oie OF αὐ πεν ᾿ 
 
 Ω 
 
 εἶν fran ἡ ἀμ: Ἂν 
 ἶ {9 vn Τὴ 
 
 haat ity ΕΙΣ 
 its hviteronh- ἐν 
 Ά ahh ewe ja geod UE 
 ΤΟΥ Oat τ ἊΝ ΝΣ > 
 nifty OUP os mae 
 byl ay “tal δα 
 pitt cenit ng ἢ 
 wf (Ope πήγ Ἢ 
 δ ἔψυϊ Η͂ Ἥ otis 
 met cen ἩΜΉΙΝ 
 ae nar” 
 yh beeen 
 iivaty, ead 
 
 viii oe 
 , δ» ͵ al 
 ) nf ve “pth 7) 
 hwhh χ Hae Whew 
 γπλ by ἐν! ΧΕ Ε᾽ 
 ΛΎΤΝ IR 
 7 wi tol al ’ 
 y i ὌΝ mnt ἮΝ 
 rit: aah dai ἐν "ἱ bed ἢ 
 odd nitrray νοῦ ἐῶν Ἦν i Tp a 
 ἐν, IO ΘΑ, Ὲ ἐδ 
 ὙΠ DPR ee 
 ae 9 
 
 dj δ 
 
 ’ const 
 
 
 
PY Wien AD nite 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Amos (Heb. DID, burden, a word purely Hebrew, and not of 
 Egyptian origin, and the same as Amasis or Amosis, as Gesenius 
 conjectures) was, as we learn from the inscription, a native of 
 Tekoah, a small town in the tribe of Judah, at the distance of about 
 twelve miles south-east of Jerusalem. The country round being 
 sandy and barren, was destitute of cultivation, and fit only to be 
 occupied by those addicted to pastoral life. Among these our 
 prophet was originally found; and, though it was counted no 
 disgrace in ancient times, any more than it is at the present day in 
 Arabia, to follow this occupation, kings themselves being found in 
 it, (2 Kings ui. 4,) yet there is no reason to suppose that Amos 
 belonged to a family of rank or influence, but the contrary. No 
 mention is made of his father; but too much stress is not to be laid 
 upon this circumstance. That he had been brought up in poverty, 
 however, appears from the statement made chap. vii. 14; from 
 which also it is incontrovertible, that no change of circumstances 
 intervened which may be supposed to have been more favourable 
 to mental culture, but that he was called at once to exchange the 
 life of a shepherd for that of a prophet. 
 
 Though a native of the kingdom of Judah, he discharged the 
 functions of his office in that of Israel—a fact which is to be 
 
126 PREFACE TO AMOS. 
 
 accounted for, not, as Bertholdt conjectures, on the ground of some 
 personal relations, but by an express Divine commission to occupy 
 it as the scene of his labours. Eichhorn ingeniously supposes the 
 reasons of his selection to have been, that the appearance of a 
 foreign prophet was much more calculated to excite attention than 
 that of a native, and that such a prophet was more likely to com- 
 mand respect than any belonging to a kingdom in which impostors 
 and fanatics abounded. 
 
 The time at which he prophesied is stated in general terms, 
 chap. i. 1, to have been in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, 
 and Jeroboam 11., king of Israel, the former of whom reigned 
 B.C. 811—759, and the latter B.c. 825—784, but in which of these 
 years he was called to the office, and how long he continued to 
 exercise it, we are not told. Even if any dependence could be placed 
 upon the Jewish tradition, Joseph. Antiq. 1x. 10, 4, and Jerome 
 on Amos i. 1, that the earthquake mentioned here, and Zech. xiv. 5, 
 took place when Uzziah attempted to usurp the sacerdotal functions, 
 we should still be unable to fix the exact date, since it is uncertain 
 in what year the attempt was made. 
 
 That he was contemporary with Hosea, appears not only from 
 the dates assigned in both their books, but from the identical state 
 of affairs in the kingdom of the ten tribes, which they so graphi- 
 cally describe. Whether he flourished also in the days of Isaiah 
 and Micah cannot be determined. 
 
 As we have already found from the prophecy of Hosea, idolatry, 
 with its concomitant evils, effeminacy, dissoluteness, and immo- 
 ralities of every description, reigned with uncontrolled sway among 
 the Israelites in the reign of Jeroboam the son of Joash. It is 
 chiefly against these evils that the denunciations of Amos are 
 directed. 
 
 The book may properly be divided into three parts: First, sen- 
 tences pronounced against the Syrians, the Philistines, the Phoe- 
 nicians, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Jews, and 
 the Israelites, chapters i. and i. Second, special discourses 
 delivered against Israel, chapters i1i.—vi. Third, visions, partly of 
 a consolatory, and partly of a comminatory nature, in which refer- 
 ence is had both to the times that were to pass over the ten tribes, 
 
PREFACE TO AMOS. 127 
 
 previous to the coming of the Messiah, and to what was to take 
 place under his reign, chapters vii.—ix. 
 
 In point of style, Amos holds no mean place among the prophets. 
 The declaration of Jerome, that he was ¢mperitus sermone, has not 
 been justified by modern critics. On the contrary, it is universally 
 allowed that, though destitute of sublimity, he is distinguished for 
 perspicuity and regularity, embellishment and elegance, energy and 
 fulness. His images are mostly original, and taken from the 
 natural scenery with which he was familiar; his rhythmus is 
 smooth and flowing; and his parallelisms are in a high degree 
 natural and complete. In description, he is for the most part 
 special and local; he excels in the minuteness of his groupings, 
 while the general vividness of his manner imparts a more intense 
 interest to all that he delivers. In some few instances, as in 
 chapters iv. vi. and vil., the language approaches more to the prose 
 style, or is entirely that of narrative. 
 
 From chap. vii. 10—13, it appears that the scene of his ministry 
 was Bethel. Whether he left that place in consequence of the 
 interdict of Amaziah, the priest, we know not. According to 
 Pseudo-Epiphanius, he afterwards returned to his native place, 
 where he died, and was buried with his fathers; but no dependence 
 can be placed on the statement. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 After a chronological and general introduction, ver. 1, 2, this chapter contains a 
 heavy charge, accompanied with denunciations, against the Syrians of Damascus, 
 3—5; the Philistines, 6—8; the Phcenicians, 9, 10; the Idumeans, 11, 12; 
 
 and the Ammonites, 13—15. 
 
 
 
 1 THE words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoah, 
 which he saw concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah, king 
 of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, 
 king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 
 
 1. With the exception of the book of 
 Jeremiah, that of Amos is the only one 
 of the prophets commencing with 23, 
 «The words of—.” Comp., however, Hag. 
 i. 12. The meaning is, the subjects or 
 matters of oracular communication which 
 he was employed by the prophetic Spirit 
 to deliver, and which were now, under 
 the influence of the same Spirit, com- 
 mitted to writing. Their divine origin 
 is clearly determined by what is added, 
 m7 Wr, “which he saw,” 1.6. which were 
 supernaturally presented to his mental 
 vision. See on Is. i. 1. The preposition 
 ain 0722, does not denote distinction, 
 intimating that Amos was greater in 
 point of wealth or respectability than 
 the rest of the shepherds, as Kimchi 
 would have it, but simply that he was of 
 their number; he belonged to their con- 
 dition of life, and followed their ocen- 
 pation. The phrase 0°721 7 expresses, 
 in fact, nothing more than 77 ™7. Comp. 
 for similar usage, 1 Sam. xix. 24; Ps. 
 
 exviii. 7; and the Arabic | ley = Log, 
 
 7 occurs only here, and 2 Kings iii. 4. 
 By some it is supposed to denote the 
 shepherd or keeper of a species of sheep 
 
 and goats, distinguished by certain 
 marks, and to be derived from 73, fo 
 prick, or mark with punctures, and so to 
 distinguish by such marks. By others, 
 itis more properly referred for illustration 
 
 to the Arab. 335 genus ovium deforme 
 2 
 et brevipes ; and J\3, ovium, S33 appel- 
 
 tatarum, pastor. From the disesteem 
 in which such animals were held, arose 
 
 the proverb, j3itf of UN. more vile 
 
 than the Nikap. At the same time, as 
 their wool was valuable, they were kept 
 in great numbers. In both instances in 
 which the term occurs, it seems to be 
 used in a more general acceptation. Aq. 
 ἐν ποιμνοτρόφοις ; Symm. and the fifth 
 edit. ἐν τοῖς ποιμέσιν. The explanation of 
 Cyril is not inept : ᾿Αμὼς γέγονεν αἰπόλος 
 ἀνὴρ καὶ ποιμενικοῖς ἐθεσί τε καὶ νόμοις 
 ἐντεθραμμένος. The LXX. ἐν ᾽Ακκα- 
 ρείμ, mistaking it for the name of ἃ 
 place where they supposed the prophet to 
 have been when he received his Divine 
 communications. The ruins of Yipn 
 
 Arab. δ, Tek a, Dr. Robinson found 
 
CHAP.) T.]° 
 
 2 And he said: 
 Jehovah roareth from Zion, 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 And uttereth his voice from Jerusalem ; 
 Therefore the pastures of the shepherds mourn, 
 And the summit of Carmel withereth. 
 
 3 Thus saith Jehovah: 
 
 For three transgressions of Damascus, 
 
 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 de- 
 scribes 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 
 dipm av, 2 Chron. xx. 20, and ἡ ἔρεμος 
 Θεκωέ, 1 Macc. 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 
 m 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 in Palestine, it must have been 
 unusually severe to entitle it to the spe- 
 ciality of reference here employed. Some 
 interpret O21 of a civil commotion, but 
 without sufficient ground, as the con- 
 nexion Zech. xiv. 4, 5, shows. 
 
 2. Zion, or Jerusalem, being the cen- 
 tral point of the theocracy, was the special 
 residence of Jehovah, to whom the 
 judgments afterwards denounced, are, in 
 highly figurative language, immediately 
 referred. 28, 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 e Lione αἶγα pronunciat ; thereby 
 
 destroying the poetical force of the lan- 
 guage. Comp. Jer. xxv. 30; Job xxxvii. 4. 
 Ὑ in 38), marks the apodosis. For 
 Dy nisi, comp. NTI nisi, Ps, xxiii. 2. 
 2272, Michaelis, Justi, and others, take to 
 be the Carmel, now called by the Arabs 
 
 vey, 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, w/ sp. pp. 193—200. Besides 
 the identical phrase, 2727 ON, the sum- 
 mit of Carmel, which again occurs 
 chap. ix. 3, in immediate connexion 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. 11. 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 
 Syrians, and, after exposing their wicked- 
 ness, and that of the Philistines, the 
 Pheenicians, the Edomites, the Ammo- 
 nites, the Moabites, and the Jews, he 
 comes 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 
 
 5 
 
180 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 (CHAP. i. 
 
 And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
 
 Because they threshed Gilead with threshing-sledges of iron. 
 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, 
 
 And it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. 
 5 Twill also break the barrier of Damascus, 
 
 And cut off the ruler from the valley of Aven, 
 
 home upon themselves. Hach of the 
 eight predictions is ushered in by the 
 solemn TP wax 712, 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 ree and four. Similar 
 formulse are frequent in Hebrew. See 
 Exod. xx. 5; Job v. 19; xxxill. 14, 29; 
 Prov. xxx. 15, 18, 21, 29; Eccles. xi. 2; 
 Ts. xvii. 6; Mic. v. 5 (Heb. 4), Comp. the 
 τρὶς καὶ τετράκις of Homer; the ¢ergue 
 quaterque of Virgil; and the ter δέ 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, ὅσο. on account of three 
 transgressions, but on account of a fourth 
 I will punish her; since 228 8°, 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 22S 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 1273, the idea of which is expressed 
 
 by the verb. Bp. Lowth proposes to 
 render, “I will not restore it;” but with- 
 out sufficient authority. ma 1, “to 
 reverse the captivity,’ is the phrase em- 
 ployed in such case. In the phrase, “1 
 will not reverse,” is a litotes—the mean- 
 ing being, “1 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. 32,333, 
 xiil. 3—7; both of which prmces 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. τσ τ, the LXX. 
 render πρίοσι σιδηροῖς, and add unwar- 
 rantably, τὰς ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσας ; Symm. 
 and Theod. τροχοῖς σιδηροῖς. γα, fo 
 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 bor- 
 dered on the kingdom of the Syrians, 
 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 
 suceeeded. Comp. 2 Kings vil. 7, 15, 
 with xii. 38, 24. A similar prediction 
 was afterwards delivered by Jeremiah, 
 chap. xlix. 27, from which and from 
 Hos. vili. 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, thereis 
 a most delightful valley called Oo, about 
 four hours distant from Damascus, 
 
CHAP. 1.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 131 
 
 And the sceptre-holder from Beth-Eden ; 
 And the people of Syria shall go captive to Kir, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 6 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. 
 
 towards 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 }12277 nypa, “the valley of Lebanon,” 
 
 or kan}, οἱ Buka’a, between the ridges 
 
 of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Here are 
 the celebrated ruins of the temple of 
 Baalbec, the Syrian Heliopolis, to which 
 the LXX. have expressly referred px, 
 Aven, only pronouncing it }ix, On—ek 
 πεδίου Ὧν ; just as they have rendered 
 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 ps8, dven, which properly sig- 
 nifies zothingness, vanity, and hence an 
 idol, on account of its inutility. Comp. 
 with the present passage Ezek. xxx. 17. 
 avy does not here denote inhabitant, or 
 inhabitants generally, but as the parallel 
 OID PIAA, 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 σκηπτοῦχος of 
 Homer may be compared. 110 πὰ, Beth- 
 Eden was, ἴῃ. all probability, the locality 
 in the mountains of Lebanon, which 
 Ptolemy, v. 15, calls Παράδεισος ; where 
 the royal family had a palace, and where 
 one of its members usually resided. 
 The name is still given to a delectable 
 valley to the west of Damascus. The 
 Aram, or Syria, here referred to, is that 
 of which Damascus was the capital. By 
 v?, Kir, is meant the river and region 
 of the Cyrus in Iberia, now called Awr. 
 
 See on Is, xxii. 6; and for the accom- 
 plishment of the prediction in the suc- 
 cessful expedition of Tiglathpileser, king 
 of Assyria, 2 Kings xvi.9. The version 
 of the LXX. is here extremely faulty, 
 as the slightest comparison with the 
 original will show. 
 
 6. my, Arab. se » Ghuzzeh, Gaza, was 
 
 the southernmost of the five principal 
 eities of the Philistines, which formed 
 the capitals of so many satrapies of the 
 same names. It was situated at the dis- 
 tance of about an hour’s journey from 
 the south-east coast of the Mediterranean, 
 from which it was separated by low hills, 
 and tracts of sand. It was built upona 
 hill, and strongly fortified, as the name 
 imports. The modern city is built partly 
 on the hill, but mostly on the plain below ; 
 and, according to Dr. Robinson, contains 
 a population of about 15,000 souls. It 
 must have been a place of high an- 
 tiquity, for its name occurs in the gene- 
 alogical table, Gen. x.; and it occupied 
 so commanding a position, that it formed 
 the key to Palestine on the south. It 
 stands here by synecdoche for the whole 
 of Philistia. By ΠΟ Ὁ ma, we are neither 
 to understand, with the LXX. aixpa- 
 λωσίαν τοῦ Σαλωμὼν; nor with Justi, “a 
 holy or pious captivity ;” nor with Grotius 
 and Michaelis, captivitatem pacificam ; 
 but the immense number of captives 
 who 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 Kdo- 
 mites, who were their bitterest enemies, 
 and would treat them with the utmost 
 cruelty. They were doubtless conveyca 
 
192 
 
 { 
 
 9 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 But I will send a fire into the wall of Gaza, 
 And it shall devour her palaces ; 
 And I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod, 
 And the sceptre-holder from Ashkelon ; 
 And will turn back my hand upon Ekron ; 
 And the residue of the Philistines shall perish, 
 Saith the Lord Jehovah. 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah : 
 For three transgressions of 'T'yre, 
 And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
 Because they delivered up a complete captivity to Edom, 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 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. 
 
 to Petra, the great emporium of com- 
 merce, and there sold to such as might 
 purchase them. Comp. Joel 1. 4—6. 
 
 7. x, fire, 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 7, see on 
 ver. 5. Three others of the principal 
 cities of the Philistines are now threat- 
 ened, 17x, Ashdod, for which see on 
 
 15. xx. 1; pe, Arab. ures, Aske- 
 
 lon, occupying a strong position on the 
 top of a ridge of rock, which encircles 
 it, and terminates at each end in the sea, 
 and distant from Gaza about five hours, 
 in the direction of NN.E.; and j7y, 
 
 Ekron, now called by the natives pile, 
 
 Akir, 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.. Robinson’s 
 Palestine, iii. 21—25. The reason why 
 Gath, the remaining city of the five, is 
 not mentioned, is assigned by Kimehi 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 Uzziah, in the 
 
 days of our prophet, as narrated in the 
 latter of the above passages. It is also 
 omitted Zeph. 11. 4, 5. 99 Ὁ 280, 20 
 turn the hand upon, means to exert one’s 
 power anew, whether in the way of 
 favour or of hostility. Here 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 
 cannot determine. One of these took 
 place during the reign of Uzziah, 
 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7 ; another in that of 
 Hezekiah, 2 Kings xvii. 8. They were 
 afterwards successively reduced by Psam- 
 meticus, king of Egypt, by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, by the Persians, by Alexander, 
 and ultimately by the Asmonzans. 
 
 9. A similar charge is here brought 
 against the Phoenicians, with the super- 
 added aggravation of a breach of an- 
 cient faith. Comp. Joel iii. 4—6. The 
 DTN m3, 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 O25 N72 3979", 
 “they two made a league,” or covenant. 
 
 10. For Zyre, and the accomplishment 
 of this prediction, see on Is. xxiil. 
 
CHAP. 1. 
 
 ll Thus saith Jehovah : 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 133 
 
 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. 
 
 13 Thus saith Jehovah: 
 
 For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, 
 And for four, I will not reverse it; 
 
 11. For Adom, and the fulfilment of 
 the prophecy here pronounced against it, 
 see on Is. xxxiv.5. The guilt of the 
 cruelties exercised by the Idumzans 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. nw 
 Dm, lit. to spoil, or destroy compassions ; 
 i.e. so to repress all the tender feelings 
 of pity, as to become hardened against 
 objects of distress. Compare the phrase, 
 mo nw, to destroy wisdom, Hzek. 
 xxvul. 17. - The LXX.,. Ital.,. Arab., 
 Déoderlein, Dathe, Vater, Justi, and some 
 others, take D"DT), in the sense of ἘΠῚ, 
 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. σπλάγχνα 
 αὐτοῦ; Symm. σπλάγχνα ἴδια. ‘The 
 
 root O19, Arab. ar Syr. Pa. signifies 
 
 to love, in Piel, to regard with tender 
 affection, to cherish feelings of compas- 
 sion towards any one. The 7 in ποῦ, 
 is generally considered to be an instance 
 of a paragogic in the third person, 
 but it 15 preferable to construe it as the 
 pronominal feminine affix, agreeing with 
 may 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 favours this construction, being 
 occasioned solely by the absence of the 
 Mappic. The verb, to be taken as a 
 
 feminine, must be pointed 772%, but this 
 would require ΠΡ to be the subject in- 
 stead of the object, which would be in- 
 tolerably harsh. Comp. for the sentiment, 
 and an elliptical form of the phraseology, 
 Jer. ili. 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 jon, Zeman, was a city, seems 
 evident from its being mentioned along 
 with 23, 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, a: the 
 distance of five miles from Petra. On 
 the map of Burckhardt and Grimm, it is 
 placed to the south of Wady Misa. 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. 
 xlix. 7. Comp. Obad. 8, 9, and Baruch 
 ili. 22. LEliphaz, 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 
 im that direction advantage was taken 
 by his son Uzziah, ver. 22; 2 Chron. 
 Xxvi. 2. 
 
 18, ΤΡ 23, the Ammonites, descend- 
 ants of Lot, Gen. xix. 38, occupied the 
 territory on the east of the Jordan, be- 
 tween the rivers Jabbok and Arnon, but 
 more in the direction of the Arabian 
 
184 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP, I. 
 
 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. 
 
 15 
 He and his princes together, 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 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- 
 dans on their invasion of Judea; and, 
 even after the captivity, they evinced the 
 same hostile disposition. They were 
 severely chastised by Judas Maccabeeus, 
 1 Mace. v. 6,7. Justin Martyr speaks of 
 them as still a numerous people in his 
 day, ᾿Αμμανιτῶν ἔστι viv πολὺ πλῆθος. 
 Dial. cum Tryph. p. 947. 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 vii. 12; xv. 16; Hos. xiii. 16; 
 and my note on the last passage. See 
 also 1 Sam. xi. 2. The object of the 
 Ammonites was to effect an utter ex- 
 termination of the Israelites inhabiting 
 the mountainous regions of Gilead, in 
 order that they might extend their own 
 territory in that direction. 
 
 14. 733, 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 jay 23 723, Deut. ii. 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 ‘PaBa@dpzpava by 
 Polybius and Stephen of Byzantium ; 
 but it otherwise went among the Greeks 
 by the name of Φιλαδέλφεια, which it 
 
 Their king also shall go into captivity, 
 
 derived from Ptolemy Philadelphus. It 
 is now known by that of wes Amman, 
 
 the same given to it by Abulfeda in his 
 Tab. Syr. p. 91. By aya, is meant the 
 tremendous shouts which eastern armies 
 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, 90. Thus 
 the Iliad, ii. 1, &e.— 
 
 Αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κόσμηθεν Gy ἡγεμόνεσσιν 
 ἕκαστοι, 
 
 Τρῶες μὲν κλαγγῇ τ᾽, ἐνοπῇ τ᾽ ἴσαν, 
 ὄρνιθες ὥς" 
 
 "Hire περ κλαγγὴ γεράνων, kK. τ. A. 
 
 Wd, hurricane, and 2, storm or tempest, 
 
 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 7510 oY, 
 
 the day of storm, being parallel with 
 
 mama DY, the day of battle. 
 
 15, 0399, their king, the Syr. and Vulg. 
 have understood of Malcam or Milcom, 
 1. 6. Moloch, an idol of the Ammonites 
 and Moabites; but the LXX. and Targ. 
 support the common rendering, which 
 viv, his princes, following, would seem 
 absolutely to require. It is true, this 
 term might be taken figuratively to 
 signify priests, as in Is. xliii, 28; and 
 such interpretation might appear to be 
 countenanced by the occurrence of 1273, 
 his priests, in the parallel prophecy of 
 Jeremiah, chap. xlix. 3; but the use of 
 yw, his princes, immediately after by that 
 prophet, shows that if the former term 
 be not an interpolation, it denotes the 
 idolatrous priests who were in attendance 
 upon the king, just as the princes were 
 
CHAP. 11.} 
 
 the chiefs and civil officers about the 
 court. Οἱ ἱερεῖς αὐτῶν, which the LXX. 
 . have added in Amos, and which is copied 
 in the Syr. and Arab., was probably 
 borrowed from the passage in Jeremiah; 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 135 
 
 or it may have been inserted in the Greek 
 text by some copyist before these other 
 versions were made. The combination 
 of ONY, princes, with BW, judge, chap. 
 ii. 3, confirms the above interpretation. 
 
 CHAPTER ILI. 
 
 In this chapter we have the continuation of charges and denunciations against 
 different nations, 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 ex- 
 perience which they had had of distinguished favours 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 Tuus saith Jehovah: 
 
 For three transgressions of Moab, 
 
 And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
 
 Because they calcined the bones of the King of Edom. 
 2 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; 
 3 I will also cut off the judge from the midst thereof, 
 
 And kill all the princes thereof with him, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 1. For Moab, see on Is. xv. The 
 particular act here charged against the 
 Moabites is nowhere recorded. Michaelis 
 is of opinion, that reference is had to 
 2 Kings ii. 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 
 
 victim while living,but pursued him even 
 into the regions of the dead. Comp. Is, 
 xxxin. 12. 
 
 2. nip, Kerioth; LXX. τῶν πόλεων 
 αὐτῆς ; Targ. 8273, the fortress or citadel ; 
 in all probability, the chief city, elsewhere 
 called 3812 Vp, Air-Moab, and here put 
 in the plural, to describe its size, or 
 appearance, as comprehending more than 
 
 one. Comp. Jer. xlviii. 24, and on Is. 
 xv. 1. jv, here means the ¢wmul¢ of 
 battle. Is. xiii. 4; xvii. 12. 
 
 3. From the circumstance that 251%, 
 judge, and not 72, hing, is selected to 
 
186 
 
 4 Thus saith Jehovah : 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP, IT. 
 
 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. 
 5 But I will send a fire into Judah, 
 And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 
 
 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: 
 
 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 (7) and not with 
 the judge (Ὁ) 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: 77, Jaw, stands 
 for the institute of Moses generally, of 
 which the moral code formed the basis ; 
 op, statutes, for the ceremonial and 
 judicial enactments. By m2, dies, idols 
 
 are meant, and the word is so rendered 
 here in the Vulg. The LXX. have taken 
 the same view of it, rendering it μάταια, 
 vanities. Comp. for this acceptation, Ps. 
 xl. 5 (Eng. 4). Idols were so called be- 
 cause their pretensions and oracles were 
 founded on falsehood, and because they 
 deluded with false hopes those who wor- 
 shipped them. Instead of being weaned 
 from 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, asa people, 
 had contracted. 1, 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. 729, ¢o se//, has 
 no reference, as some have thought, to 
 the conduct of a corrupt judge, who for 
 money gives a verdict against the 
 innocent, the term neyer being used to 
 express any such act; but describes the 
 selling of a person into slavery. They 
 
CHAP. II. | 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 137 
 
 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 also upon pledged garments, 
 
 Close to every altar ; 
 
 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 the cedars, 
 
 even deprived the poor of their liberty 
 for the most paltry consideration. Comp, 
 chap. vill. 6. 00993, sazdals, 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. FN, signifies to breathe hard, to 
 pant, eagerly to desire, which well suits 
 the connexion, so that there is no neces- 
 sity, with Houbigant, Newcome, and 
 others, to change the verb into Mp, Zo 
 attack, bruise, ὅθ. 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 
 their heads in token of mourning. Comp. 
 2Sam.i.2; Jobu. 12. 3, as in ON73, 15 
 elsewhere used in the acceptation of oz 
 or wpon, and is here the more appro- 
 priately adopted, on account of the more 
 usual preposition >Y having just been 
 employed. Comp. chap. vill. 4..----Ἴ 1 737, 
 to turn, or thrust aside as to the way; 
 1.6. fo turn any one out of his right 
 course, into a trackless region, where he 
 can expect nothing but mconvenience, 
 perplexity and danger; here, fo render 
 the afflicted still more miserable. From 
 the reference made in the following 
 verse to idolatrous deities and altars, it 
 is most probable that ™y25, the damsel 
 here spoken of, was not an ordinary or 
 common strumpet, but one who pro- 
 stituted herself in honour of Astarte, at 
 one of her shrines. LXX. τὴν αὐτὴν 
 παιδίσκην. Such an act of daring pro- 
 
 fligacy was the more atrocious from its 
 having been committed in a heathen 
 temple, with the express design, as the 
 prophet states, of doing indignity to 
 Jehovah. See Gesenius, Lex. in 159, A) 2. 
 
 8. To retain pledged raiment over 
 night was expressly prohibited by the 
 Mosaic law, Exod. xxii. 26, 27, as it 
 deprived the owner of his covering: to 
 stretch oneself upon it in an idol’s temple 
 was a great aggravation of the crime. 
 Dan, pledged, lit. bound, held in bondage, 
 
 from %27, to bind. Arab. eve Syr. 
 oom debitum. It wasnot unusual for the 
 
 heathen to sleep near the altars of their 
 gods, that they might obtain communica- 
 tions 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 participation 
 in idolatrous feasts, especially as the 
 drinking of wine in the temples is 
 specified in the following line. ΝΣ 1», 
 the wine of the amerced, means wine 
 purchased with money exacted by the 
 imposition of fines. m3, for 23, as 
 frequently. Regardless of the sufferings 
 of those whom they oppressed, the 
 apostate Israelites revelled in sensual 
 indulgences. 
 
 9. Vin 238), 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. 
 ~yas7, the Amorites, are here taken m ἃ 
 wide sense, asincluding all the inhabitants 
 
 π 
 
138 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. IT. 
 
 And who was strong as the oaks ; 
 Yea, 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. 
 
 iD 
 
 And I raised up of your sons to be prophets, 
 
 And of your young men to be Nazarites. 
 Is it not even so, O ye sons of Israel ? 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 of Canaan, on account of their being 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. In consequence of their 
 gigantic height and extraordinary 
 strength, to which reference is frequently 
 made in the history of the Hebrews, they 
 are here beautifully compared to cedars 
 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. Sixteen MSS., originally twelve 
 more, and now five; five of the oldest 
 editions, and the Rabboth read 0225, 
 “before you,” instead of D772, “ before 
 them ;” but these authorities, under all 
 the circumstances of the text, are in- 
 sufficient to warrant 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. il. 6. 
 mv, fo come, or go up, is always used in 
 Hebrew in reference to local or political 
 elevation, and not, as Rosenmiller 
 asserts, 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 Ὁ in 02229, and 
 
 D272, is partitive, indicating that some 
 or certain persons out of the number were 
 selected. The Divine condescension in 
 the selection of any of their race to fill 
 the offices here specified, laid them under 
 additional obligations to devote them- 
 selves to the service of the true God; 
 and not only was thereby a distinguished 
 honour conferred upon them, but such 
 institutions furnished them with the 
 means of religious instruction, and 
 examples of holy living. For D3, the 
 prophets, see on Hos. xii. 11. ὟΣ, 
 Nazarites, (LXX. ἡγιασμένος, εἰς ἁγιασ- 
 pov), from 3, to separate, set oneself 
 apart, abstain, were a class of persons 
 among the Hebrews who ordinarily 
 bound themselves by a voluntary vow to 
 abstain either for atime, 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 Realwérterb. The object 
 of the institute appears to have been, to 
 exhibit to the view of the nation the 
 power of religious principle operating in 
 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. 
 
CHAP. 1π.} 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 139 
 
 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, 
 
 And the strong man shall not exert his strength, 
 Neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 
 
 15 
 
 And he that handleth the bow shall not stand, 
 
 Nor shall the swift-footed escape, 
 Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 
 
 16 
 
 And he that is courageous among the heroes, 
 
 Shall flee away naked in that day, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 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 >, after 735, is future 
 in signification. See on Is. vii. 14. pay 
 occurs only here as a verb; but that it 
 signifies ¢o press, oppress, &c., is clear 
 from the signification of the derivatives 
 my, Ps. Iv. 4, and 77939, Ps. Ixvi. 11, as 
 well as from the connexion in which it 
 here occurs. Comp. ΡΞ, and the Syr. 
 
 n Ὁ» 
 ρον» angustiatus est : tas? angustia, 
 pressura. Comp. also the Ar. ie, 
 retinuit, impedivit ; eye, accidentia 
 
 fortune, que impediunt hominem. The 
 verb is used transitively in both instances, 
 according to the ordinary 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. 7m is to be taken in the 
 sense of down, as in Job xl. 12. ΤΣ is 
 pleonastic. The renderings of the LXX. 
 
 and Vulg., ἐγὼ κυλίω ὑποκάτω ὑμῶν, 
 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 12 is the objective case 
 to 7727, and not to Prp. As the object 
 of the verb, supply YqS7s. 
 
 14—16. Every attempt to resist or 
 escape from the evils that were coming 
 upon the nation, would prove utterly 
 fruitless. This sentiment is expressed 
 under various forms, which are obviously 
 accumulated for the sake of effect. 1 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 corresponding 
 to 2 ὌΡΟΣ 5, at the end of ver. 14, are 
 omitted in the Alexandrian copy of the 
 LXX. The preposition 2 in 0223, gives 
 to 12? jax, the force of the superlative. 
 Comp. 2722 1423, the strongest of beasts, 
 Prov. xxx. 30; ow: nn, the most 
 beautiful of women, Songi. 8; v.9; vi. 1; 
 εὐλογημένη ev γυναιξίν, Luke i. 28. 
 
140 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 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, 1, 2; he then, in a series of pointed and appropriate interrogations, 
 illustrates this certainty, 8—6; which he 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 Hear 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: 
 
 2 Only you have I known of all the families of the earth, 
 Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 
 
 3 Will two walk together 
 Except they be agreed? 
 
 1. Instead of 997% 23, “ sons of Israel,” 
 . forty-three MSS., one in the margin, 
 originally seven, and five by correction, 
 read xq m3, “ house of Israel ;” which 
 reading is supported by the LXX. and 
 Arab. versions. Both forms are employed 
 in the book of Amos, but the former is 
 the less frequent; which awakens the 
 suspicion that the latter has been intro- 
 duced here by way of correction. That 
 the phrase is intended to include the 
 whole Hebrew people, is evident from 
 the words which follow in apposition, 
 and describe the distinguished favour 
 conferred upon the entire race of Jacob. 
 
 meta, Eth. ᾿ς, £ spread out, a 
 
 tribe, or clan ; but here obviously used in 
 a national sense, as in Jer. vili. 8; xxv. 
 9; Micah ii. 3. 
 
 2. ΚΡ, 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 favour to. Comp. Ps. i. 6; exliv.3; 
 and γινώσκω, John x. 14 ; xiv.17; 2 Tim. 
 
 ii. 19. The Israelites alone were ac- 
 knowledged by Jehovah as his people, 
 and as such treated with peculiar favour; 
 but in proportion to the distinction which 
 they enjoyed, was the degree of punish- 
 ment which their ungrateful and rebellious 
 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 1943, the LXX., Arab., and Vulg. read 
 22752, with apparent reference to the 
 signification of >? in the preceding verse. 
 The primary signification of ™, Syr. 
 
 io condixit, constituit, Arab. Ks, 
 
 significavit affuturum alicui quid, is to 
 point, point out, appoint a time or place; 
 hence in Niphal, ¢o meet by appointment ; 
 to do anything by common consent ; to be 
 agreed. This last seems to be the accepta- 
 
CHAP. 111.} 
 
 4 Will the lion roar in the forest 
 
 When he has no prey ? 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 141 
 
 Will the young lion cry out from his den, 
 
 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 ? 
 
 tion 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 
 number 0°28, ¢wo, refers. Munster and 
 some others think, that the prophets gene- 
 rally, or Joel and Amos in particular, are 
 meant; Vatablus, Drusius, Liveley, New- 
 come, Bauer, Rosenmiiller, Ackermann, 
 and Maurer, explain it of God and the 
 prophet; while Clarius, Grotius, Daneus, 
 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 
 instead 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 be 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 sud- 
 den leap, he attacks it, and seldom misses 
 his aim; if, however, 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. “ms, the 
 lion, and not Y23 the young lion, is the 
 nominative to the verb 122. The certainty 
 of destruction is the point at which the 
 prophet aims in the similitude. 
 
 5. Between 7 and ΟΡ. there is no 
 essential difference. The sense would 
 have been the same had the latter word 
 been omitted, and we had simply read, 
 τῷ ~81; but the insertion of the synonyme 
 gives more force to the sentence. 72 
 connects with ὝΕΣ, as its antecedent. 
 my 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, 
 
142 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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. 
 
 as a signal of war; and then, by directly 
 ascribing the infliction of temporal 
 calamities to Jehovah, as the punisher of 
 sin. For πρὶ in the sense of temporal 
 evil, or calamity, see Gen. xix. 19; xliv. 
 34; Exod. xxxil. 14; Ezek. vii. 5. Arab. 
 
 hs, experimentum, calamitas, afflictio. 
 
 7. Though the infliction of punish- 
 ment on his guilty people was determined 
 in his holy and righteous counsel, yet 
 Jehovah would not proceed to execute 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. 10, Theod. βουλὴ, counsel, 
 
 purpose, decree ; from 7D}, Arab. duvg; 
 
 posuit, firmiter statuit ; to found, lay a 
 foundation, establish a plan, ordain. Τὶ 
 is rather, 1 imagine, on this acceptation 
 of the verb that the idea of purpose or 
 decree is based, than upon that of adivan, 
 or an assembly of persons, sitting and 
 deliberating on couches : but see Gesenius 
 in 10. 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 
 hich honour 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 tothe world. wy, is the frequent- 
 ative future, indicating what God is 
 accustomed to do, and it 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. 
 
 9, wen, cause it to be heard, publish 
 ye! Those are addressed who had in- 
 tercourse with the places here specified, 
 and had thusan opportunity of conveying 
 the message. Comp. ὁ ἀκούων εἰπάτω" 
 Ἔρχου! Rev. xx. 17. For Ashdod, 
 see on chap. i. 8. It is here used 
 synecdochically for the whole of Philistia. 
 Instead of T1x32, the LXX. have read 
 σῦν, ἐν ᾿Ασσυρίοις, which Secker 
 attempts to justify! ἘῸΥ ΠΟ Ν 3» wan, 
 comp. κηρύξατε ἐπὶ τῶν δωμάτων, 
 Matt. x. 97. It was, and is still, cus- 
 tomary 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, &c. being called 
 to witness the enormities that were 
 practised in Samaria. If their judgment, 
 pagans as they were, could not but be 
 unfavourable, 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 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 145 
 
 10 For they regard not the practice of rectitude, 
 
 Saith Jehovah, 
 
 That amass rapine and spoil in their palaces. 
 
 11 
 
 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: 
 
 There shall be an enemy, and that around the land ; 
 And he shall bring down thy strength from thee, 
 And thy palaces shall be plundered. 
 
 12 Thus saith Jehovah: 
 
 As the shepherd rescueth from the mouth of the lion 
 Two legs, or the portion of an ear, 
 
 to assemble }i120 "7 ὅν, wpon the mountains 
 of Samaria. V2, Samaria, the me- 
 tropolis of the kingdom of Israel, was 
 built on a round hill, near the middle of 
 a large valley, surrounded by mountains 
 on every side,'by which it was completely 
 overlooked. From these elevations 
 persons might distinctly see what was 
 done in the city. That nin) nO. and 
 τρῶν 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 properly 
 the Pahul Participle, oppressed, but is 
 here used as anoun, as in Job xxxv. 9; 
 Eccles. iv. 1. Comp. the forms 3, 
 dwelling, 7, kingdom. 
 
 10. 227.8, 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. 733, rectitude, that 
 which is straight, in opposition to what 
 is crooked, distorted, or morally wrong. 
 Comp. Is. xxvi. 10; xxx. 10; lix. 14. 
 TWH DDN, 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 
 expresses the meaning of the verse: 
 “ Recte factis nequaquam delectantur, 
 inquit Jova, sed thesauros in edes suas 
 congerunt vi atque injuria partos.” 
 
 11. 1z, the LXX., who are followed 
 by Aq. and the Arab., preposterously 
 render Τύρος, Tyre; one of De Rossi’s 
 MSS. reads 12, and one of Kennicott’s, 
 wz. The Syr. Chald. tribulation, which 
 has been adopted in many modern 
 versions. Thus Dathe, Hesselberg, 
 Dahl, Justi, and Hitzig. But Calvin, 
 Newcome, Michaelis, Struensee, Bauer, 
 Rosenmiiller, Vater, and Noyes, translate 
 enemy, Which better suits the connexion, 
 as it supplies a proper nominative to the 
 verb17, immediately following. Comp. 
 
 as to derivation, the Arab. ~ 3, xocuit, 
 
 noxa affecit, lesit. The words, $787 VID Ww 
 are abrupt and elliptical, but, for this 
 very reason, possess more point. At 
 wz, supply 7377, 82, or the like. 1 in 220) 
 has the force of δέ quidem, or isque. The 
 reading 13>" suggested by Houbigant, con- 
 sidered probable by Newcome, and adop- 
 ted by Bauer, is altogether unsustained by 
 any example of a similar case in verbs 
 whose second and third radicals are the 
 same. 87 22D is equivalent to PIS%Da, 
 2 Kings xvii. 5, where the invasion by 
 Shalmaneser is described. 1, strength, 
 denotes whatever Samaria confided in, 
 or made her boast of, such as her 
 treasures, fortifications, warriors, &e. 
 All was to be brought down into the 
 valley, and what was capable of being 
 removed, carried away by the enemy, 
 z.e. Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria;—a 
 just retribution for the spoliations which 
 her inhabitants had committed. 
 
 12. A very appropriate image is here 
 borrowed 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 
 
144 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 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. 
 
 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, 
 
 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 speci- 
 fied, no difficulty would be found in effect- 
 ing arescue. For 72D Ὁ), comp. ἐῤῥύ- 
 σθην ἐκ στόματος λέοντος, 2 Tim. iv. 17; 
 1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35. 773 occurs only this 
 once, but signifies a part or piece ; from 
 513, fo separate. There is a species of 
 goat in the Hast, the ears of which are 
 often a foot in length, and broad in 
 proportion; so that more importance 
 would be attached to them by the shep- 
 herd, than would be the case with us in 
 the West. The concluding words of the 
 verse have greatly perplexed interpreters. 
 Most of the moderns explain p37 of the 
 silk stuff manufactured at Damascus, 
 which, from the name of the place, is 
 called damask, and render DY P73, in 
 damask couches. What has been supposed 
 to confirm this explanation of the term 
 is the occurrence of the same word in 
 Arabic, only with the letters, or similar 
 
 letters, transposed, as Lied: iris 
 aed &c., all signifying 571:. Gesenius 
 
 has a long article on the word in his 
 Thesaurus, p. 346; but fails inestablishing 
 the point of identity. Instead of pwr 
 with Shim, upwards of twenty of De 
 Rossi’s MSS. read, or have read, p27 with 
 Sin; which reading is also that of 
 eighteen printed editions, and is the 
 proper orthography 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 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, 782 signifies the 
 outer or eatreme corner, and not the 
 inner, which is regarded as the seat of 
 honour, so that the observations of 
 Harmer, chap. vi. Obs. xxx. are totally 
 inapplicable, even if there were much 
 point in them. The words are elliptical, 
 and the parallelism, expressed in full, 
 would stand thus : 
 man nxpa wows ODT 
 HDD MNba POPTA OWT 
 
 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 xvi. 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 address- 
 ed, who were summoned frem Philistia 
 and Egypt to witness the enormities 
 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. 295, as frequently 
 means to festify against any one. 31 ΣΝ 
 mivizd wx, LXX. Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὁ 
 Παντοκράτωρ: an accumulation 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 73737 having the determinative 
 
CHAP. IV. | 
 
 AMOS, 
 
 I will punish the altars of Bethel; 
 Yea, 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, 
 And the ivory mansions shall perish, 
 And the great houses shall come to an end, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 article, rendering it emphatic, while 
 nimav2 in the plural also occurs, it may 
 be inferred that at Bethel, besides the 
 great altar erected by Jeroboam, there 
 were many lesser ones at which sacri- 
 fices were offered. Comp. Hos, viii. 
 11; x. 5. The 2p, 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. 
 
 rs, propery tooth, but used specially of 
 the tusk of the elephant; ivory. LXX. 
 
 οἶκοι ἐλεφάντινοι. By ivory houses are 
 
 not meant houses or palaces composed of 
 
 that material, but richly ornamented * 
 with it. The ancients, used it for 
 
 decorating the ceilings, panels, doors, 
 
 &e., of their rooms, by eens it with 
 
 other costly articles. See 1 Kings xxii, 
 
 39; Ps.xlv.9. Odys. iv. 73. Diod. Sie. 
 
 iil. 47, Pausan. 1. 12. 4. Horat. lib. ii. Od. 
 
 18. 1. All these sumptuous palaces in 
 
 which the leaders of the people rioted, and 
 
 indulged in all manner of profaneness, 
 
 were to be completely destroyed. ΠΡ, ¢o 
 
 come to an end, cease. 'The rendering of 
 
 m2 ona, by “/arge houses,” is more 
 
 agreeable to the connexion than that of 
 
 “many houses,” though this is equally 
 
 expressed by the phrase. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 This chapter contains a continuation of the denunciation pronounced against the 
 Israelites, at the close of the preceding, 1—8; an ironical call to them to 
 persevere in their will-worship, which was the primary cause of their calamities, 
 4, 5; an enumeration of the different judgments with which they had been 
 visited, but which had effected no reformation, 6-—11; and a summons to them 
 to prepare for the last and most awful judgment, which the omnipotent Jehovah 
 
 was about to inflict upon them, 12, 13. 
 
 1 HEAR ye this word, ye kine of Bashan, 
 That are in the mountain of Samaria ; 
 
 1. γῶν, Bashan, was celebrated for the 
 richness of its pasturage, and its excellent 
 breed both of large and small cattle, 
 
 Deut. xxxii. 14; Ps.xxii. 12; Ezek. xxxix. 
 18. It lay on the east of the Jordan, 
 between Hermon and the mountains of 
 
 U 
 
AMOS. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 That oppress the poor ; that crush the needy ; 
 That say to their master, 
 Bring now, that we may drink. 
 
 2. he Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness : 
 Behold, the days are coming upon you, 
 When ye shall be taken away with hooks, 
 And your posterity with fish-hooks. 
 
 Gilead, and extended eastward as far as 
 the cities of Salchah and Edrei, which it 
 included. Some are of opinion, that by 
 porns, the kine, or cows of Bashan, the 
 proud and luxurious females of Samaria 
 are intended; and that they are in- 
 troduced on account of the corrupting 
 influence which, through their husbé 
 they exerted on the state of public aj 
 Of these may be mentioned, most Get 
 Rabbins, Theodoret, Liveley, Grépn 
 Michaelis, Vater, Dahl, Justi, Gesni 
 and Winer. Others, as the Targ., Jé ome, 
 Munster, Calvin, Vatablus, Qari 
 Drusius, Daneus, Mercer, Marckius, 
 Harenberg, Dathe, Rosenmillér, and 
 Maurer, maintain that the prophet has 
 the princes and rulers in view, whom he 
 describes in this debasing language, in 
 order to set forth the effeminacy, wanton- 
 ness, and obstinacy of their character. 
 At first view the former exposition might 
 appear to recommend itself for adoption; 
 but I am induced to give my adhesion 
 to the latter, chiefly on the ground, that 
 it is scarcely possible, otherwise, to 
 account for the repeated intermixture of 
 masculine forms with the feminine. 
 Thus we have 28, OPIN, TPIT, O22, 
 Dnx, all occurring very closely together. 
 Now, though it must be admitted that 
 there are instances in which the gender 
 is neglected, as in Ruthi., yet none of 
 them will bear comparison with the 
 present case. On the principle, that 
 males are the real, and females the 
 figurative subjects of discourse, it is easy 
 to perceive how the genders would be 
 used just as the one or the other were 
 prominently in the mind of the prophet. 
 Some translators suppress the figurative 
 language altogether, as Dathe: Axdite 
 hoc, vos divites et potentes Samaria ; but 
 such practice is quite unwarrantable, as 
 it destroys the effect of the prophetic 
 mode of representation. mzv5, one of 
 those onomatopoetic verbs, the very 
 
 
 
 
 sound of which strongly expresses the 
 character of the action which they are 
 intended to describe. It signifies to 
 break, crush, dash in pieces. Comp. the 
 
 Arab. : , contudit, fregit. γπὰ in 
 
 DPI, though plural in form, is smgular 
 
 = signification, and means the king of 
 irs—~Isracl, whom his courtiers and others, 
 
 jidulging in their compotations, im- 
 portuned for fresh supplies of wine, 
 reckless of the oppression and rapine by 
 which it might be procured. Comp. 
 Hos. vii. 5. 7 suffixed in 229, is the 
 7 directive, or optative. 
 
 2, 3. ‘Dis pleonastic. It is surprising 
 that so judicious an interpreter as Calvin 
 should attempt to vindicate the rendering 
 of WIR, Ais sanctuary, when that of hes 
 holiness is so natural and proper. Comp. 
 Ps. Ixxxix. 36, and 1x.°85 Το να 
 appeals to all that is involved in the 
 infinite excellence of his moral character 
 for the certainty of his punishing sin. 
 The Nominative to ΝΣ is the enemy, 
 understood; but as the verb is put in the 
 impersonal form, it is best rendered 
 passively. Déderlein and some others 
 object to the adoption, in this place, of 
 hooks and fish-hooks, as the signification 
 of ΓΞ and 7217 nivD, as too violent a 
 change of the figure; and propose that we 
 should retain the primary acceptation of 
 thorns, which they think is more in 
 keeping with the idea of cows. They ac- 
 cordingly render the passage: “Ye shall 
 be driven into thorny districts, and 
 among the gloomy thorn-bushes.” There 
 is, however, no necessity for supposing 
 that the prophet had the alleged idea in 
 his mind when he delivered the words, 
 but the contrary; and as fishing and 
 hooks are elsewhere employed figuratively 
 in reference to human beings, there can 
 be no real ground for rejecting such 
 tropical application of the disputed terms 
 in this place. See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11; 
 
CHAP. IV. | 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 147 
 
 3 And ye shall go out through the breaches, 
 
 Each one right before her ; 
 
 Ye shall even be thrown out of the palace, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 4 Come ye to Bethel, and transgress ; 
 At Gilgal, multiply transgression ; 
 Yea, bring your sacrifices every morning, 
 
 Your tithes every third year ; 
 
 5 Offer likewise incense of the leavened thank-offering ; 
 Proclaim also the voluntary offerings: publish them abroad ; 
 For ye love to have it so, O ye sons of Israel, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 Is. xxxvil. 29; Jer. xvi. 16; Ezek. xxix. 
 4. 722 Mx, each one right before her, 
 means, in a captive state, not being 
 permitted by the enemy to turn to the 
 right or the left. ΤΌΣΟ is pointed 
 mn2207 in De Rossi’s Spanish MS. 
 marked 23, which punctuation has been 
 adopted in Hahn’s small printed edition. 
 Comp. 9707, Dan. viii. 11. It is supported 
 by the LXX., Syr., Symm., Vulg., and 
 Arab., all of which versions exhibit the 
 passive. 7 at the end of the verb is that 
 of the fuller form of the pronoun 7258, 
 the fragment of which is used as a suffix. 
 It occurs but seldom in the preterite. Of 
 729777 almost every possible interpreta- 
 tion has been given. LXX. τὸ ὄρος τὸ 
 “Peupav; Cod. Vat. Ῥομμὰν ; in many 
 of the MSS. of Flamin. Nob. ’Apyava. 
 
 nn ¥ on 
 Syr- ua8o3]s [3ag. Chald. rove, 
 = : ’ : 
 the mountains of Armenia. Vulg. Armon. 
 
 Arab. after the LXX. idl i>. Aq. 
 
 ᾿Αρμανὰ ὄρος. Symm. Ἑρμηνίαν, doubt- 
 less for ᾿Δρμενίαν. Theod. ὄρος Movd. 
 Edit. quint. ὑψηλὸν ὄρος. Luther and 
 Vater, Hermon. Michaelis, Struensee, 
 Dathe, Bauer, De Wette, Armenia. 
 Justi and Hezel, Harem. Volborth, Wed. 
 Hitzig takes it to be a corruption of 
 minq, Hadadrimmon, which he ex- 
 plains of a place near Samaria where 
 Adonis was worshipped. Newcome cuts 
 the knot, and renders “ will utterly 
 destroy it.” The only satisfactory soiu- 
 tion of the difficulty presented by this 
 ἅπαξ dey. is that of Kimchi, which is 
 approved by Gesenius, Winer, and Lee, 
 
 viz. that 277 stands for js, a palace, 
 or citadel. Comp. the Arab. top>, a lofty 
 
 edifice, a pyramid. Changes in letters of 
 the same organ are not infrequent in 
 Hebrew, as PR, 71; pox, oT; AN, 
 72; TN, 17; &e. The Tat the end is not 
 the feminine termination, but simply 
 paragogic, as in 7278, Job xxxiv. 13; 
 xxxvil. 12; 15. νι: 23; (and eT, 
 Judges xiv. 18. The noun will thus. be 
 the accusative absolute, and the con- 
 struction will be, “cast down as to the 
 palace,” i.e. from tt, 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 Israelites 
 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 
 observance of certain feasts which had 
 been appointed by Moses. For Gilgal, 
 as a place of idolatrous worship, see on 
 Hos. iv. 15. The opinion of Abenezra, 
 approved by Rosenmiiller and Maurer, 
 that by Ὁ" now, we are to understand 
 every third day, seems forced and 
 unnatural. That the words by them- 
 selves might have this meaning is un- 
 questionable ; but the idea of ¢ithes being 
 brought every third day is inadmissible, 
 even in a passage so strongly ironical 
 as tle present. I cannot doubt that the 
 prophet has in view the enactment 
 
148 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. Iv, 
 
 6 And though I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your 
 
 cities, 
 
 And want of bread in all your places, 
 Yet ye have not returned unto me, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 7 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 : 
 8 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. 
 
 9 {Πᾶν smitten you with mildew and much blight ; 
 Your gardens, and your vineyards, and your figs, and your olives, 
 
 recorded Deut. xiv. 29; xxvi. 12. 02, 
 days, mean, here, as Lev. xxv. 29; 
 Judges xvil. 10, the fullest complement 
 of days, i.e. ayear. V8? 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 yon, the 
 meaning of violence, though Gesenius 
 would justify it, on the ground of jor 
 being used, Ps. lxxi. 4, to designate an 
 oppressor ; and because the rendering of 
 the Chald. in this place is D238, rapine or 
 oppression. It is not impossible that 
 the translator mistook for for Dan, 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 “ leavened 
 bread” with the sacrifice of thanksgiving. 
 What the Israelites, therefore, are sup- 
 posed to be in the habit of doing was, so 
 far as the material of the thing was con- 
 cerned, not contrary to the law, but in 
 strict accordance with its requirement. 
 For 05278 32, comp. }2 7208 ‘py, Jer. v. 31. 
 
 6. From this verse to the 11th in- 
 clusive, Jehovah describes the different 
 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 
 obstinateimpenitence, under the influence 
 
 of which they persisted in their wicked 
 courses, is emphatically marked by the 
 declaration, : TT ON; IY OPIN, yet ye 
 returned not unto me, saith Jehovah. 
 Such repetition gives great force to the 
 reprehension. D128 7173, cleanness of teeth, 
 and 07) 10m, lack of bread, are synony- 
 mous; both expressing the famine with 
 which the nation had been visited. "TY, 
 to me, the Chald. paraphrases, 2775, to 
 my worship, or service. 
 
 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 
 wipe, 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 exceedingly 
 partial and insufficient. Instead of ὙΠ, 
 the reading ὙΘῸΝ is found in two MSS., 
 and is supported by the renderings of the 
 LXX., Arab., and Vulg. The textual 
 reading must be taken impersonally. 
 oy, cities, stands for their inhabitants. 
 Compare 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 dlighting 
 influence of the east wind (PET, scorching, 
 
CHAP. IV.| 
 
 The locust hath devoured ; 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 149 
 
 Yet ye have not returned unto me, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 10 
 
 I have sent among you the plague, such as that of Egypt; 
 
 I have slain your young men with the sword, 
 Together with your captive horses ; 
 And I have even made the stench of your camps to come up 
 
 into your nostrils ; 
 
 Yet ye have not returned unto me, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 ll 
 
 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. 
 
 blasting, from τὸ, to scorch; Chald. τῷ, 
 to burn; Arab. cial » niger, LXX. 
 πύρωσις. Arab. Ver. ee , the Simoom,) 
 and by the mildew, or smut, (7x, Arab. 
 wtp , rubigo). M3247, the infinitive abso- 
 
 lute of 732) in Hiphil, with the force of an 
 adjective, or an adverb. This word some 
 improperly connect, as a construct noun, 
 with the following substantives. 033, a 
 name given to the docust. See on Joel 
 1. 4. 
 
 10. Though the plague has from time 
 immemorial been endemic in Egypt, and 
 might so far be described as Ὁ ἼΠ, 
 the way of Egypt ; yet comparing Is. x. 
 26, in which the same phrase is used as 
 here, it obviously means, as the Egyptians 
 were treated, or as God punished them 
 with the plague. See Exod. ix. 3, &e. 
 DOW IG, lit. the captivity of your 
 horses: i.e. those taken and destroyed 
 by the enemy. See 2 Kings xiii. 7. 
 tea the LXX. render ἐν πυρὶ, having 
 read ΝΞ, which is the pointing of three 
 of De Rossi’s MSS., and of three others 
 originally ; as also of the Brixian edition. 
 Aq. σαπρίαν. The in 0289, Houbigant, 
 Dahl, and some others would cancel, 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 retained, as an 
 intensive particle, adding force to the 
 preceding verb. Comp. the somewhat 
 similar use of the Greek καὶ. 
 
 11. 3 in 533 is used partitively : cinder, 
 among, or the like; indicating that the 
 subverting was not total. ὈΠῸΝ ΠΘΕΙΤΌΞ, 
 like God's overthrowing: properly the 
 Hiphil participle, but construed as an 
 infinitive. Comp. Deut. xxix. 22; Is. xiii. 
 19; Jer. 1. 40; 2 Pet. ii. 6; Jude 7. 
 ovx, 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 Mx, as sometimes the sign of 
 the genitive case, is likewise totally 
 inapplicable, as in the present case it 
 can only mark the accusative. To what 
 physical phenomena reference is here 
 specifically made, it is impossible to 
 determine, owing to the absence of all 
 historical data. Some think the earth- 
 quake, mentioned chap. i. 1, is intended; 
 but this is altogether out of the question, 
 since the prophecy was delivered two 
 years beforethatevent. Fromtheallusion 
 to fire, it has been deemed probable that 
 some of the cities of the Israelites had 
 been burned, 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 connexion of the 
 
AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Therefore, thus will I deal with thee, O Israel! 
 
 Forasmuch as I will do this to thee, 
 Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel! 
 
 13 
 And created the wind ; 
 
 For, behold! it is He that formed the mountains ; 
 
 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. 
 
 verse with those preceding, each of which 
 describes a separate physical calamity, 
 and closes, as this one does, with a 
 reprehension of the impenitence by which 
 the nation continued to be characterised. 
 mE Ww Sen ὌΝ, a brand snatched from the 
 burning, 15 proverbial, and expresses the 
 narrow escape from utter extinction 
 which had been experienced. Comp. 
 Zech. iii. 2; and 1 Cor. iii. 15, αὐτὸς δὲ 
 σωθήσεται, οὕτως δὲ ws διὰ πυρός. 
 
 12. All the means that had been 
 employed 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 
 national existence. To this judgment 
 reference is emphatically made in the 
 terms 73, ¢ius, and ns%, this. There is 
 a brief resumption of the sentence de- 
 livered, verses 2 and ὃ. That by fou 
 any such preparation is intended as would 
 involve genuineand universal repentance, 
 by which the threatened judgment might 
 have been averted, cannot be admitted 
 in consistency with the bearing 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 7? 327, 
 prepare thee, Jer. xlvi. 14. God is now 
 coming against you as the avenger of 
 your wickedness. Consider how you 
 shall meet, or endure the infliction. 
 Comp. Ezek. xxii. 14; Heb. x. 81. In- 
 dividuals 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 
 
 national calamity ; but this was all that 
 could now be expected. 
 
 13. To give full effect to the preceding 
 cal], one of the most sublime and mag- 
 nificent 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 
 m7 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. 
 ἀπαγγέλλων eis ἀνθρώπους τὸν χριστὸν 
 αὐτοῦ, announcing to men his anointed, 
 has originated in their mistaking mw ΤῸ 
 for on. 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 in? 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 mw and its 
 derivatives, when applied to intelligent 
 beings, is used. ‘wy 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 
 upwards of twenty of Kennicott’s MSS. 
 read, or have read, ΠΕΡῚ, 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.” 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 After 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 addressing himself to the inhabitants, callmg upon them to re- 
 linquish their superstitious and idolatrous practices, and return to his service, 
 4—9. He then adverts to 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 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 Israelites with transportation into the Hast, 27. 
 
 1 Hear ye this word, which I utter concerning you— 
 A lamentation, O house of Israel! 
 
 2 The virgin of Israel is fallen ; 
 
 She shall rise no more; 
 Prostrate upon her own land, 
 
 There is none to raise her up. 
 
 3 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah ; 
 The city that went out by a thousand, 
 
 1. 727? is properly an elegy, or song of 
 mourning and lamentation, from }?, in 
 Piel, to compose or chant such asong. It 
 consisted of plaintive 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 his 
 prophecies, has left us a whole book of 
 nin?, elegies, or lamentations. See Lowth, 
 Lect. xxii. For the introduction of the 
 present subject, comp. 28 777 NW, or *Y, 
 Ezek. xix. 1; xxvii. 2; xxxii. 2; and the 
 common oracular forms XW, YD Nv}, 
 &c. Some are of opinion that the elegy 
 thus introduced extends to the end of 
 the chapter, but itis far more likely that 
 
 it consists merely of the plaintive ex- 
 clamations contained in verse 2. Com- 
 pare the beautiful lament of David on 
 the death of Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1. 17—27. 
 
 2. The Israelitish state is called 77a, 
 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. 11. 13, which Rosenmiiller 
 adduces against this interpretation of the 
 term, are not in point, since 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 ΓΒ, daughter, as idiomatically ap- 
 phed to describe the inhabitants of a 
 city or state. This brief, but touching 
 elegy describes the utterly prostrate and 
 helpless condition to which the Assyrians 
 were to reduce the kingdom of the ten 
 tribes. 
 
 3. The depopulated state of the country 
 
152 
 
 Shall have an hundred left ; 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. Vv. 
 
 And she that went out by an hundred, 
 
 Shall have ten left 
 To the house of Israel. 
 
 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 Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, 
 And Bethel shall come to nought. 
 
 6 Seek ye Jehovah, and live, 
 
 is here affectingly depicted. VY, the city, 
 stands by metonymy for its inhabitants. 
 The LXX. ἡ πόλις ἐξ ἧς ἐξεπορεύοντο 
 χίλιοι, and so the other ancient versions. 
 nxe7, that went out, is used elliptically 
 for ποτ Ὁ» NNW, that went forth to war. 
 The population or size of a city was 
 estimated according to the number of 
 warriors it could furnish. Thus the 
 Scholiast on Iliad ix. 383, 384: οὐ τὸ 
 πλάτος τῶν πυλῶν θέλει σεμαίνειν, οὐδὲ 
 γὰρ ἅμα πάντας ἐξιέναι φησίν" ἀλλὰ τὸ 
 μέγεθος τῆς πόλεως, καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν 
 ἀνδρῶν. 
 
 4. While the divine judgments are not 
 executed, there is still room for repent- 
 ance and reformation. 1, fo seek, is 
 very often used as a religious term, im- 
 plying application to God, or to a false 
 deity, for assistance, direction, ὅσο. and 
 then generally to worship him, and have 
 respect to his will. Ps. xxiv. 6; Is. 
 viii. 19; lv. 6. Comp. Heb. xi. 6, 
 ἐκζητεῖν τὸν Θεόν. WP is similarly used. 
 ΤΙ, live ye, is employed as a second im- 
 perative, in order emphatically to express 
 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. 
 pip wi, Beersheba, lit. “ the Well of the 
 Oath ;” LXX. τὸ φρέαρ rod ὄρκου ; see 
 Gen. xxi. 22—31. It was situated about 
 twenty-five geographical miles south of 
 Hebron, on the frontier of the Holy 
 Land towards Idumeea, and is still called 
 
 by the Arabs ἐν} oh Bir-es-sebé. 
 
 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 122, ¢o pass 
 over, or through, is most appropriate. 
 From this verse, and from chap. vii. 14, 
 it appears to have been a place of idol- 
 atrous resort, but wherein the idolatry 
 consisted we are not told. In 2939, 
 m7 72 is a forcible paronomasia, though 
 the words are from different roots. “ Gil- 
 gal gallando gallabitur, si posset fingi 
 aliquod tale verbum; hoc est, vertetur 
 volubili versione.” Calvin, zz Joc. There 
 is likewise a play upon the word x, 
 which is used to denote wickedness, idol- 
 atry, idol, nothing, &c. What had origi- 
 nally been "3, Bethel, a house of God, 
 but had by the Israelites been converted 
 into jm, Beth-aven, a house of idolatry, 
 see Hos. iv. 15, and x. 5, should be re- 
 duced to PS, aven, nothing. 
 
 6. The prophet here repeats, for the 
 sake of effect, the call which he had in- 
 troduced, ver. 4. 28, which more com- 
 mouly has the significations attaching to 
 
 the Arab. ee, recte se habuit res, aptus 
 
 Juit, &e. has here that of the Syriac 
 y 
 
 Lads, 
 
 idea of motion, either forward or down- 
 ward, seems to be conveyed by it, only, 
 
 descendit, perrupit. The general 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 Lest he rush down, like fire, upon the house of Joseph ; 
 
 And it devour, and there be none in Bethel to quench it. 
 7 Ye who turn justice into wormwood, 
 
 And cast righteousness to the ground. 
 8 Seek Him that made the Pleiades and Orion ; 
 
 That turneth deathshade into morning ; 
 
 That maketh day dark as night ; 
 
 That calleth the waters of the sea, 
 
 in certain cases, with the superadded 
 notion of violence or force. Thus 
 mom yoy rem, Judg. xv. 14, is not im- 
 properly 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. 
 
 : sho, evitiale malum; but the form 
 
 ς 
 
 este, pate penetrans, vehemens, 
 
 might rather be compared. Jehovah is 
 often compared to fire. See Is. x. 17; 
 Lam. ii. ὃ, ὧν, being of common gen- 
 der, is the nominative to 7328, so that 
 the object of comparison takes the place 
 of mm, who is the subject, and the proper 
 nominative. ἩῸ ΓΞ, the house of Joseph, 
 is a less frequent designation of the ten 
 tribes, the principal of which was that of 
 Ephraim, the son of Joseph. It occurs 
 several times in the historical books, but 
 only twice besides in the prophets, viz. 
 Obad. 18; Zech. x.6. The name ΡΥ, 
 Joseph, by itself, is similarly employed, 
 Amos v. 15; vi.6. Comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 
 16. For 2°32, Bethel, the LXX., Arab., 
 and one of De Rossi’s MSS., read ΤᾺ 
 σήν, Beth Yisrael, which reading is 
 adopted by Newcome. One of Kenni- 
 cott’s MSS. has °s7™, Israel, which 
 Houbigant, Dathe, and Bauer, approve. 
 Jerome, Rosenmiiller, Dahl, Justi, 
 Struensee, and others, retain the re- 
 ceived reading, which is supported by 
 the Targ., Syr., and Vulg. Some would 
 connect 982 with 329, and render, 
 “there shall be none to quench Bethel ;” 
 but the verb 723 is never construed with 
 ?, which marks here the Dative of pos- 
 session. The true construction is, 
 ma29 NY PR}. The people of Israel put 
 their trust in the idols which they wor- 
 shipped at Bethel, but none of them 
 
 could remove the Divine judgments from 
 the land. 
 
 7. oD, ye that turn, is to be re- 
 ferred to 1017 and FLY ΓΞ in the preceding 
 verse. This construction is more natural 
 than that which would take PY ™3 alone 
 as the nominative, in the third person. 
 Such changes of person as that presented 
 in 1H, are too frequent to occasion any 
 difficulty ; nor is it always necessary to 
 express them in a translation. Ewald 
 takes an effectual method of removing 
 the supposed difficulty, by striking out 
 the verse, and inserting it atthe beginning 
 of verse 10. Of course, the whole will 
 then read very smoothly ; but the ques- 
 tion still remains, Did Amos so con- 
 
 nect the words ?—72»5, Arab. wo abegit, 
 
 execratus est, is the Hebrew name of 
 wormwood, aud is given to it on account 
 of its disgustingly bitter and injurious 
 quality. The LXX. now read ὁ ποιῶν 
 εἰς ὕψος κρίμα ; but there can be little 
 doubt that the original reading was 
 ἄψινθος. The meaning is, that the per- 
 sons spoken of so perverted their judicial 
 proceedings, as to render them both ob- 
 noxious and injurious to those whom they 
 affected. For yo2727, see on Is. 
 XXvill. 2. 
 
 8. Another sublime description of the 
 Most High, almost verbally identical 
 with that furnished Job. ix. 9. The 
 participles are to be referred to 717, 
 Jehovah, ver. 6, as their antecedent. 
 Newcome, following the Targ. and Syr., 
 inserts “that have forsaken” at the com- 
 mencement of the verse, but these 
 authorities are not sufficient to warrant 
 the addition, which, indeed, the text 
 does not require. The article, used as a 
 relative in NPT and 1297, is omitted 
 before TY and 754, because they are in 
 
 x 
 
154 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 And poureth them forth upon the surface of the earth ; 
 
 Jehovah is his name ; 
 
 9 That bringeth destruction suddenly upon the mighty, 
 
 And destruction cometh upon 
 
 construction. Two of the principal con- 
 stellations are selected from the heavenly 
 bodies as specimens of the effects of 
 Omnipotence. 2, the Pleiades, or 
 Seven Stars. This word occurs only here 
 and Job. ix. 9 ; xxxvilil. 31. The deriva- 
 tion from a supposititious root 723, cog- 
 nate with ow, 097, 790, fo be warm, hot, 
 adopted by Castellus, Schultens, Park- 
 hurst, and others, is to be rejected for 
 
 that preserved in the Arab. oe Con}. 
 11. cumulum fecit ; hence, Koss, cumu- 
 lus ; with which may be compared 4S, 
 
 socius, according to which the name ex- 
 presses what is brought or bound together, 
 
 especially iz abundance. The name given 
 
 to this constellation by the Arabs is Ly, 
 an abundance or multitude, from Iss multus 
 
 ac numerosus evasit, numerosus reddidit. 
 For the same reason it was called by the 
 Greeks Πλειάδες, according to one of the 
 derivations of LKustathius on Homer, 
 Iliad. xvili. 486: Ai δὲ πλειάδες ἤτοι 
 ἀπὸ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῶν Πληϊόνης ἢ ὅτι 
 πλείους ὁμοῦ κατὰ μίαν συναγωγήν εἶσι, 
 κι τὰ. And most of the ancients express 
 the same idea ; as Seneca, densi pleiadum 
 greges ; Propertius, pleiadum chorus, &e. 
 According to the Greek mythology, the 
 Pleiades were seven daughters of Atlas, 
 who, being pursued by Orion, were 
 changed by Jupiter into doves, and, 
 having 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 : 
 Πληΐϊάδας θ᾽, Ὑάδας τε, τό τε σθένος 
 ᾽Ωρίωνος. 
 In the mythology of the Sabians or 
 
 Mendaites, πε aaa, the Seven, and 
 
 539... 13.9.», the Scven Stars, cut 
 
 the fortress. 
 
 no inconsiderable figure. See Norberg’s 
 Liber Adami. For 703, see on Is. 
 xill. 10. Both terms have been entirely 
 mistaken by the LXX. who render 6 
 ποιῶν πάντα Kal μετασκευάζων, which is 
 
 faithfully copied by the Arab. yilaif 
 y cop y ὃ 
 ἄλλου W6.—ny23, the shadow of death, 
 
 one of the very few Hebrew compounds. 
 See on Is. ix. 1. > is to be supplied 
 before 79, as, indeed, it is in fourteen 
 MSS., primarily in three more, and now 
 by correction in one; in both the Son- 
 cin. editions; in both of Bomberg, 
 1518 in the margin, and in the appendix 
 to Munster’s, 1536. In 77, there is 
 a transition from the participial to the 
 finite form of the verb. To render the 
 clause uniform, the construction would 
 be, προ Dr yer. The passage quoted 
 from Pindar, by Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 is beautifully parallel :— 
 
 Θεῷ δὲ δυνατὸν ἐκ μελαίνας 
 Νυκτὸς ἀμίαντον ὧρσαι φῶς" 
 Κελαινῷ νέφει δὲ σκότου καλύψαι 
 Καθαρὸν ἀμέρας σέλας. 
 The following words are descriptive, not 
 of rain, as Jerome, Theodoret, Kimchi, 
 Drusius, Liveley, 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. ὁ θεὸς 6 παντοκράτωρ is found in 
 the Arab., in a Copt. MS., and in the 
 Slavon. 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 
 you mim, he appends in this verse an ad- 
 ditional view of it, in order to make it 
 tell more practically on the fears of those 
 who boasted of the strength of Samaria. 
 
 03, Arab. Uh), nituit, fulgit (aurora), not 
 cal 
 
CHAP. Υ.] 
 
 10 
 
 AMOS. 155 
 
 They hate him that reproveth in the gate, 
 
 And abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 
 
 1 
 
 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 
 And that your sins are great: 
 Oppressing the righteous, 
 Taking a bribe, 
 
 For I know that your transgressions are many, 
 
 And turning aside the poor in the gate. 
 oO fo) 
 
 13 
 For it is an evil time. 
 
 only conveys the idea of shining, being 
 bright, cheerful, &e. but also that of sud- 
 denness, suggested by the rapidity with 
 which the dawning light is diffused over 
 the horizon. The Hebrews applied such 
 terms figuratively to the sudden pro- 
 duction of misery, as well as to that of 
 happiness. See on Joel 11.2. Winer, 
 ΟΥ̓ faciens, inducens super potentes 
 vastationem. The ancient versions are 
 all at fault here. 
 
 10. Ewald thinks that by 259 Ὁ, 
 the reprover in the gate, Amos himself 
 is meant; but, from the recurrence of 
 mv, and 2, in connexion with wey, 
 ver. 15, it is far more natural to interpret 
 the phrase of a magistrate, senator, or 
 judge. Comp. also ver. 12, and see on 
 Is. xxix. 91. In D9", which is to be 
 taken adverbially, as Judges ix. 19, is 
 an ellipsis of 3. 
 
 1]—138. Dwa is, in all probability, a 
 faulty orthography of 0D3, the Polal. of 
 pia, Arab. Lad, vilipendit rem, to tread 
 down, trample upon, &e. De Rossi’s 
 codex 380, reads O20 via with Siz.—nxvn, 
 what is raised, asa tax, tribute, &e. from 
 803, 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 
 
 Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time ; 
 
 making for further indulgences, Jehovah 
 declares that they should not continue 
 to enjoy them. ‘The enemy would 
 speedily remove them from all the objects 
 on which they proudly doated, or from 
 which they expected gratification. For 
 the contrary of the threatening, see 
 15. Ixv. 21, 22; Amos ix. 14. The ad- 
 jectives 02) and OEY are placed_before 
 their substantives, because they are pre- 
 dicatives, and not qualificatives. Before 
 both, the conjunction’? is to be supplied. 
 The ellipsis was probably occasioned by 
 its having been used at the beginning of 
 the verse. ἘΞ. 15 most commonly used in 
 the sense of λύτρον, ἀντίλυτρον, ran- 
 som, or price of redemption, on which 
 account Hwald and some others render 
 it so here; but the close connexion in 
 which the whole phrase stands with the 
 perversion of justice, specified in the 
 last clause of the verse, decides in favour 
 of the signification bribe, bribery, which 
 the word unquestionably has, 1 Sam. 
 ΧΙ. ὁ. Targ. WI ND, the mammon of 
 
 Jalsehood. Syr. pasOn, a bribe. LXX. 
 
 ἀλλάγματα. The other Greek versions, 
 ἐξίλασμα. Τί pa = could be taken 
 to mean, “shutting up, or imprisoning 
 the righteous,” then 75 might mean 
 ransom ; but such usage does not obtain. 
 The only course left for the pious to 
 pursue in the midst of such atrocious 
 
150 
 
 14 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP, V. 
 
 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! 
 Yea, they shall call the husbandman to mourning ; 
 And all who are skilled in elegy to wailing. 
 
 perversion of order and justice, was that 
 of quietly submitting to the hand of God, 
 which they were taught to recognise in 
 the permission of these evils, and patiently 
 abiding the issue of events. Any 
 attempt, under these circumstances, to 
 stem the current, or effect a reformation, 
 or even to plead for private or public 
 rights, would only aggravate their 
 calamities. 72027, the intelligent, prudent, 
 is to be understood, in the best sense, of 
 one who acts upon the principles of 
 enlightened piety. 
 
 14, 15. Reiterated calls to reformation, 
 in order to ensure the return of Divine 
 favour. 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 "8, perhaps, in such 
 connexion, compare Gen. xvi. 2, and εἰ 
 dpa, Acts vill. 22. Comp. also Joel ii. 14, 
 where the same idea is expressed by 
 viv, who knoweth ?—F_Y NN, the re- 
 mainder of Joseph. For this use of the 
 patronymic, see on ver. 6. Numerous 
 as the Israelites still were, they might 
 well be called a remainder, in conside- 
 ration 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 Arnon, 
 even Gilead and Bashan.” 2 Kings x. 
 32, 33. 
 
 16. 135, 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 %28 15 
 here placed, is altogether unusual. 
 Indeed, 1 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. 532, 
 broad, or open places, or wide streets in 
 a city; and distinguished from 71217, 
 which signify ordinary or narrow streets, 
 such as are common in the Hast. Gr. 
 πλατεῖα. ΞΟ, strictly means a smiting 
 of the breast, (UuXX. kozerés,) from 
 1D, to beat, smite ; see on Is. xxxil. 12. 
 Here, however, it is used to denote 
 wailing or mourning in general. 47 40, 
 Oh! Oh! This onomatopoetic 1 have 
 rendered by the eorresponding English 
 interjection, which, when prolonged and 
 swelled in the pronunciation, as it is by 
 persons giving utterance to excessive 
 crief, is much more appropriate than 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 =] 
 
 17 And in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, 
 | For I will pass 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 
 And a bear meeteth him ; 
 Or he entereth the house, and 
 And a serpent biteth him. 
 Shall not the day of Jehovah 
 Even thick darkness, without 
 
 20 
 
 Alas! Alas! Syyr. oe wee ; Chald. 
 
 11; Vulg. v¢/ ve! in other Latin 
 versions, eheu / eheu! The hushandmen, 
 (728) were to be called to participate in the 
 mourning, notas Newcome, Rosenmiiller, 
 and some others have thought, onaccount 
 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 sufficient number would not be 
 left to perform the funeral rites. Such 
 construction of the meaning is required 
 by the following parallelism: 720 
 12 yx, There is no necessity for 
 supposing that the words of this sen- 
 tence have been transposed, and that 
 they originally stood thus: 72 27 
 aa02 x. The preposition 78 is understood 
 before ΒΡ; and ἸΏ, as repeated to 
 govern >, which it often does, as well 
 as the accusative. ‘92, wailing, lamen- 
 
 Syr. |aa, fo ater 
 
 lamentable crics. The persons here 
 spoken of as “skilled in wailing,” were 
 mourners by profession, who were hired 
 for the occasion, and sang 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 show- 
 ing every artificial token of excessive 
 grief. These were the mourners whom 
 Solomon describes as going about the 
 streets, Eccles. xii.5. That females were 
 especially employed on such occasions, 
 
 m7) 
 
 TT) 
 
 tation, from 
 
 As when one fleeth from a lion, 
 
 leaneth his hand on the wall, 
 
 be darkness and not light ; 
 any brightness ? 
 
 appears from Jer. ix. 17—19, where ‘72 
 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 : 
 
 TOV μὲν ἔπειτα 
 Τρητοῖς ἐν λεχέεσσι θέσαν, παρὰ δ᾽ εἷσαν 
 
 ἀοιδοὺς, 
 
 , es σ / 
 Θρήνων ἐξάρχους, οἵτε στονόεσσαν 
 
 ἀοιδὴν 
 
 oi A ay 9 20 , pees δὲ , 
 t μεν ap € pr veoy, επι O€ στενάχοντο 
 γῦυναικες. Iliad. xxiv. 719, &e. 
 
 See also Horace de Arte Poet.ver. 431, &c. 
 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. il. 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. Zhe day of Jehovah 
 means the time when his judgments 
 should be inflicted. The Israelites could 
 only have given expression sarcastically 
 to the wish that this day might soon 
 reach them. It was an impious daring 
 
158 
 
 21 I hate, I loathe your festivals ; 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [iCELATP. Vs 
 
 Neither do I delight in your days of restraint. 
 22 When ye offer to me holocausts and bloodless sacrifices, 
 J will take no pleasure in them ; 
 Neither will I regard the thank-offerings of your fatlings, 
 23 Take away from me the noise of thy songs, 
 For I will not hear the music of thy harps. 
 24 But let justice roll on like water, 
 
 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 fallacy 
 of every hope of escape is illustrated by 
 two simple, but forcible comparisons, 
 borrowed from the pastoral life. Bochart 
 regards the language as proverbial, and 
 supports his opinion by two Arabic stories : 
 
 the one beginning, Ll! dead dn! 
 
 . “᾿ “ “(i 
 lop? shay 0 lehatl (day “Alion, 
 pursuing aman, he took refuge in a tree, 
 
 in the branches of which a bear having 
 fixed himself, was plucking its fruit,” 
 
 &e.; and the otlier, Be: b>) Pp 
 
 Lo pal a Lbs, τιν aan fled from 
 
 a lion, and fell into a well, into which 
 the lion went down after him. And there 
 was a bear in the well,” &c. Hierozo. 
 lib. ili. cap. ix. pp. 810, 811. Kimehi 
 tersely expresses the meaning thus, 
 mz Ox Mz wen, Ve shall go out of 
 calamity into calamity. Comp.Job xx. 24; 
 Is.xxiv.18. The adjective 758 is explained 
 by the following words. It occurs only 
 in this place ; but the substantives 75x, 
 2, dense obscurity, are used in several 
 passages of Job, the Psalms, and the 
 Prophets. 7px, however, in the sense 
 of concealed, occurs Exod. ix. 82. Comp. 
 
 the Arab. Js), occidit sol, &e. Thus in 
 Hariri, Consess. xv. the noun Jil is 
 employed : sil, ἄρνα Os el er) 
 ἄραι, x Lal, “ Extirpatio eruditionis et 
 
 obliteratio ejus: Lunarumque ac Solium 
 ejusdem occasus.’ 23, on the contrary, 
 signifies fo shine, be light; and its 
 derivative 723 is used of the rising of the 
 sun, Prov. iv. 18, where it is contrasted 
 with 75x, ver. 19. 
 
 21—23. The same aversion from the 
 ceremonial observances of the insincere 
 and rebellious Israelites 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 amplifies 
 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, POW 3 ταν ον N%, 
 I will not hear. The verbs ‘FOND Nsw 
 follow each other immediately, for the 
 sake of more emphatically expressing the 
 Divine abhorrence. Comp.°? 87 72257 and 
 *OD) TNIV in Isaiah. N, lit. 7 will not 
 smell ; but meaning here, L will take no 
 delight in, O82, restraints, periods, days 
 of restraint, or assemblies collected on 
 such days. See on Is.i. 15. 02%, used 
 here collectively for the plural Dx276.— 
 2 WT, lit. remove from upon me ; con- 
 veying the idea of a burden which vexes 
 and annoys the bearer. Isaiah expresses 
 it in full: τοῦ ὃν v7, “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 
 offering of the sacrifices, and on other 
 publie 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 
 
CHAP, Υ.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 And righteousness like a mighty stream. 
 
 25 Did ye [not] present sacrifices 
 
 and offerings to me, 
 
 During forty years in the desert, O house of Israel ? 
 
 rectitude, on the principle that “to obey is 
 better than sacrifice, and to hearken than 
 the fat of rams,” 1 Sam. xv. 22. “Nec in 
 victimis, licet optimee sint, auroque pre- 
 fulgeant, Deorum est honos, sed pia ac 
 recta mente venerantium.’’ Seneca de Be- 
 
 neficiis, i. 6. That js, Arab. wry peren- 
 
 nis fuit, is to be here rendered perennial, 
 or everflowing, and not mighty, has been 
 maintained by some interpreters ; but a 
 comparison of the several passages in 
 which it occurs, goes to show that it is 
 
 rather to be referred to ων» validus 
 
 Suit, multus fuit, and is to be rendered 
 great or mighty. It thus better corre- 
 sponds with 3, rod/, to roll on, used in 
 the former hemistich. LXX. ὡς χειμάῤῥους 
 
 ° y ~ 
 ἄβατος. Syr. peeves Los yel 
 Vulg. quasi torrens fortis. Arab, 
 
 s al Ὁ Ie 
 Naw F gall golf he like a 
 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. js") 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 parallel passages, in which, after a 
 reprehension 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 7 in D'7237 to be the article, and not 
 the particle of interrogation, and render, 
 the sacrifices and offerings ye presented to 
 me, &¢e., viz. those prescribed in the law: 
 but now ye bear the shrine, &. According 
 to this mode of construction, the present 
 
 idolatrous course of the Israelites is 
 coutrasted with their former obedience 
 to the Divine will. In order, however, 
 to justify this interpretation, the article 
 must have been repeated before 7779, 
 which it is not. The insertion of the 
 compensative Dagesh in the letter Zain 
 cannot be pleaded in its favour, since 
 there are several instances in which the 
 interrogative 7 takes the form of the 
 article, before words beginning with 
 Sheva, as 327, Gen. xvii. 17; °2279, Ezek. 
 Xvilil. 29 ; 20377, Joel iv. [ Eng. 111.] 4, &e, 
 The ancient translators have all read in- 
 terrogatively. LXX. Μὴ σφάγια καὶ 
 θυσίας προσηνέγκατέ μοι, κ. τ. λ.; 
 v ~ oO a n~ 
 
 Ἄ - ~ ρ v 
 ὅτ. οδ ο jrp3a00 Jud» ᾿ξαδν» 
 was: Vule. Numguid hostias et sacri- 
 
 8 q 
 
 ficium obtulistis mihi, ὅσο. ὃ Targ. 0220 
 NTI DIB, PRIW P22) PHP. And so 
 almost all the moderns, some of whom 
 suppose the force of the question to lie 
 in °?, fo me, taken emphatically, “ Was 
 it to ΜῈ," &e.; while others think that 
 an absolute denial of the presentation of 
 sacrifices in the wilderness is implied 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. Sucha 
 position, however, is contrary to the 
 express declarations found in Exod. xii. 
 38; xvil. 3; xxxiv. 3; Lev. xvii. 1—9. 
 Num. vil. passim ; xx. 4,19. The life 
 which they led in the desert was that of 
 Nomades, so that there could have been 
 no lack of animals for sacrifice. The 
 true construction of the passage is founded 
 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 toa negative interroga- 
 tion in our language, and indeed to 8°7 
 in Hebrew. See 1 Sam. ii. 27, 28; Job 
 xx. 4; Jer. xxxi. 20; Ezek. xx. 4. In 
 the present case, as in those 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 
 
160 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 26 And yet ye bare the shrine of your king, 
 
 sentence which follows in the 26th verse. 
 The connexion of the two verses is this : 
 “Did ye not present sacrifices and 
 offerings to me in the wilderness forty 
 years, O house of Israel? Yes; and yet 
 ye bare the shrine,” ὅθ. That the con- 
 junction 1 is frequently to be rendered 
 and yet, but yet, or the like, see Gen. 
 xvii. 21; Judges xvi. 15; Ps. 1.17; Is. 
 lili, 7. What is here charged upon the 
 ancient Israelites 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), Dalil, 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 it to their ances- 
 tors, yet so that the reproof was intended 
 to be applied to 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 ἀνελάβετε τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ Μολὸχ, 
 καὶ τὸ ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν Ῥαιφὰν, 
 τοὺς τύπους αὐτῶν, ovs ἐποιήσατε 
 ἑαυτοῖς; as if the Hebrew had read, 
 DEPOT PPD ODT 1319 MY} 77D Map nx ON wa 
 :D2) omy ws. No vestige, however, of 
 any such order of the words is found in 
 any Hebrew MS., or in any other monu- 
 ment of antiquity, except the speech of 
 Stephen, as recorded by Luke, Acts vii. 
 43, which is an almost verbal quotation 
 from the LXX. It is thus rendered by 
 Theod.; Kat ἤρατε τὴν ὅρασιν τοῦ βασι- 
 λέως ὑμών, ἀμαύρωσιν εἰδώλων ὑμῶν, ἄσ- 
 τρον τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν; 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 remark 
 of Jerome on the discrepancies between 
 the Hebrew text and the ancient Greek 
 version deserves to be quoted here: 
 *Observandum est, apostolos et apo- 
 stolicos viros in ponendis testimoniis de 
 Veteri Testamento,non verba considerare 
 sed sensum, nec eadem sermonum calcare 
 
 vestigia, dummodo a sententiis non 
 recedant.” Comment. iz loc. Most in- 
 terpreters follow the LXX. in giving 
 m2D by σκηνὴ, a tent; deriving it, like 
 73D, and 9, of the same signification, 
 from 20, ¢o 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. “720, ὦ 
 wooden post, which they supposed 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 tent appears to 
 have had something of the texture, as it 
 had the design of the σκηνὴν ἱερὰν, 
 sacred tent, in the Carthaginian camp, 
 mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, lib. xx. 
 cap. 65, and described as consisting ἐκ 
 καλάμου καὶ χόρτου, of reeds and grass. 
 Comp. Wilkinson’s Ancient Egypt, se- 
 cond series, vol. ii. pp. 270—275. 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 cog- 
 nizance, it may be inferred, that it was 
 only a small temple or shrine, which might 
 easily be concealed in the interior of a tent. 
 Such diminutive temples were in use 
 among the Egyptians, from whom no doubt 
 the Hebrews took the idea. Herodotus, 
 describing an idol worshipped at, Papre- 
 mis, says, (lib. ii. 63.) τὸ δὲ ἄγαλμα ἐὸν 
 ev NHQi MIKPQ ξυλίνῳ κατακεχρυσω- 
 μένῳ προεκκομίζουσι τῇ προτεραίῃ ἐς 
 ἄλλο οἴκημα ἱρόν, ‘The image, being in 
 a small temple of gilt wood, they carry 
 out on the previous day to another sacred 
 habitation.”” Compare the ναοὶ ἀργυροῖ, 
 shrines, or small temples of Diana, 
 mentioned Acts xix. 24. That any 
 connexion is to be traced between m0, 
 Siccuth, and mi22 N30, Succoth-benoth, 
 2 Kings xvii. 90, the tents in which the 
 daughters of the Babylonians prostituted 
 themselves in worship of Venus, does not 
 appear. 02229, your king, thus Symm., 
 Theod. and Leo Juda, and most 
 moderns; but the LXX. Modox, Syr. 
 
 yoaao, Malcum, Aq. Μέλχεμ, Vulg. 
 
 Moloch, exhibit the word as the proper 
 nameof the god of the Ammonites, 2. 6. 79, 
 
CHAP. Υ.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 161 
 
 And Chiun of your images, the star of your god, 
 Which ye made for yourselves. 
 
 * also called 2359, Milcom,1 Kings xi.5,and 
 0399, Malcam, by our translators, Zeph. i. 
 5; and this construction some: moderns 
 have adopted. As, however, 722, £izg, is 
 also employed by the Hebrews in appli- 
 cation to idols, Is. xxxvii. 13, and may be 
 so read in Zeph. i. 5, it seems better to 
 retain its usual signification. The Phee- 
 niciaus gave the title of Dy 7, king of 
 the world, to the sun, and Mp Ἴ)ΞΞ ΠΡΌ, 
 king of the city, to Hercules. Comp. 
 Zev ava, Iliad. iii. 851; xvi. 233; and 
 Ἂ “ναξ ἦλθε παρ᾽ ἡμέας ἱκέτης, Herod. 
 
 τ] τ In AQGoa ym}, 
 
 Amlak, the proper name for God, is 
 
 Ethiopic 
 
 derived from GU AP}, imperacit, revit, 
 
 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 Chiu, mentioned by Amos in the 
 following clause of the verse. The 
 Pheenicians were in the habit of offering 
 to him human sacrifices, especially 
 children, to which horrible custom 
 repeated reference is made in the his- 
 torical books of the Old Testament. See 
 Michaelis on the laws of Moses, Art. 
 eexlvii. Suppl. No. 1115; Selden de 
 Diis Syris, cap. vi.; Spencer de Legibus 
 Hebreor. lib. ii, cap. 10; Gesenius, in 
 his Thesaurus, szb. voc.; Winer, Real- 
 worter-buch. od2222 32, Chinn of your 
 images, 1. 6. 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 astrolatry. Such appears to me to 
 be the meaning of the words. To this 
 construction, however, C. B. Michaelis, 
 Vitringa, Rosenmiiller, Hesselberg, 
 Hengstenberg, and others object, that it 
 makes j*2 a 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 
 exceptions, as DI? NAGY, oT bya, 72 bya, 
 
 DIT DIS, ANY 297, ΓὴΝῸΣ AM, &e, Nor 
 can it justly be objected that as ™20 is an 
 appellative, 1559 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. unques- 
 tionably regarded the word as a prop r 
 name, whatever they may thereby have 
 intended to designate. And this view of the 
 subject is confirmed by 2315, @ star, being 
 put in apposition with 772, im order to 
 explain it, an explanation which cannot 
 apply, if by the latter term we understand 
 merely the pedestal or stand on which 
 the idol was placed. It is now almost a 
 settled point, that by 1.3, Chzun, the 
 planet Saturn is meant. If we except 
 
 the Syr., which reads col 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 : YT {Y2 ΠΟῪ 
 YOY 3 NIW NIT FRVI NIT DID Da Wow pwr 
 pos 1, “ And as for the term Chin, it is 
 known in the Arabic and Persic lan- 
 guages by the name A’van, which is 
 Saturn, to which they made an image.” 
 And the latter, in nearly the same words: 
 JRVD DIB ONVAW? WWII NPI 12} Δ 3515 NW, 
 It is the star Saturn, and thus he is 
 called Ativan in the Arabic and Persic.”’ 
 
 was 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 Jj; 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: 
 
 ¥ 
 
162 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 97 Therefore, I will carry you away captive beyond Damascus, 
 Saith Jehovah: God of hosts is his name. 
 
 show thw ἢ ων» et x, 
 that “the image of Keiwan was of black 
 stone.” (Lee’s Hebrew Lex. a voc. 
 
 mx.) He speaks, in fact, of the wle, 
 shrine, and Ke , image, of the planet, just 
 
 as Amos does of ™22 and 73. According 
 to the Zendavesta the seven planets 
 are Tir, Behram, Achuma, Anahid, 
 Kewan, Gurtsher, and Dodidom Mus- 
 hewer. Bundehesh V. In the codex 
 Nasareus, containing the doctrines of 
 the Sabseans, which was published by 
 Norberg, we find a list of the demons 
 which rule these planets, among whom 
 
 πὶ ζαλοῦ,, the fifth is Kivan, p. 54. 
 It is afterwards added in the same page : 
 Ἰδῶϑο Jaca (8.9 Nads}oas 
 (oan S> coda jAScasolo 
 Jong co faa} daa 
 ὌΝΩΝ a , “The demons of Kivaz inject 
 
 lamentation, weeping, and mourning into 
 the hearts of men, and rob them of 
 happiness.” And we farther read, p. 212, 
 
 misc? |Zoais Ad SS aod 
 fey>O fata fo, “To Kiran 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 owl 
 
 psa the great disaster; and the idea 
 
 frequently occurs in the Latin classics. 
 See Lucan. i. 650; Juven. vi. 569 : 
 Macrob. Saturn. i. 19. If the Hebrew 
 1”) be pointed 03, 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 ‘Papav, the rendering 
 of the LXX., or Ῥέφαν, as it is to be spelt 
 on the authority of the best MSS., (comp. 
 Acts vil. 43,) there is every reason to be- 
 lieve that they mistook 3 for, as they 
 have done in other instances; and so 
 have given Rephan, instead of Kephaz. 
 That PH®AN should occur in the Arabico- 
 Coptic table of the planets exhibited by 
 Kircher in his Ling. Hgypt. 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 
 infer that the one in question was copied 
 from the Coptic version of this very 
 passage of the LXX. At all events, no 
 such name of a deity has yet been found 
 in the Egyptian pantheon. 2253, the star, 
 is expletive of 73, in so far as it informs 
 us that the figure of the idol was that of 
 a star, and thus proves the idolatrous 
 worship to have been the Sabzan, with 
 which the Hebrews became acquainted 
 during their stay in the Arabian desert. 
 
 27. Instead of poet) mez, LXX. 
 ἐπέκεινα Δαμασκοῦ, “beyond Damas- 
 cus,” with which all the other authorities 
 agree, Stephen has ἐπέκεινα Βαβυλῶνος, 
 “beyond Babylon,” Acts vii. 43, obviously 
 by way of interpretation. 7897 naturally 
 suggests the idea of remoteness, though 
 it is sometimes used in reference to what 
 is at no great distance. Root x2, Arab. 
 
 . μὰ v 
 ων», recessit, Syr. ὡς σιΐίσι, removit, 
 
 elongavit. The ΤΠ added is paragogic. 
 While what Amos states is includedin the 
 statement made by the proto-martyr, the 
 latter embraces what was known from 
 fact to be the fulfilment 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 supremacy of Jehovah above all the 
 objects of Sabzean worship: 1283 Γῆν" wbx, 
 God of Sabaoth is his name ! 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 163 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 This chapter embraces 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, injustice, self-indulgence, sensuality, and total disregard of 
 the divine threatenings, are next described, 3—6; after which the prophet 
 announces the captivity, and the calamitous circumstances 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 of nations, 
 To whom the house of Israel come! 
 
 1. Though chiefly directed against 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. 88 and M3 
 are similarly connected and applied, Is. 
 xxxil. 9, 11; so that the rendering of the 
 LXX. rots ἐξουθενοῦσι Σιὼν, adopted by 
 Dathe, cannot be justified. For the 
 primary meaning of 8%, compare the 
 cognate }2¥, in Niphalt Zo lean, lean upon, 
 
 trust. The reduplicate Nun expresses 
 intensity. 
 
 ap has here the acceptation 
 of the Arab. Lan, rerum gentis ad- 
 ministrator, princeps gentis : from WA), 
 perfodit, creatus est; creatus fuit duc. 
 
 Whence also 4133, prefectura. The 
 
 Hebrew phrase 082 172, fo be marked, dis- 
 tinguished by name, is always used in refer- 
 ence to persons who had been chosen or 
 designated for some special service. Num. 
 
 1.17; 1 Chron. xii. 31; xvi. 41; 2 Chron. 
 ΧΧΥΠ 15; xxxi. 19. The term is here 
 employed for the purpose of specifying 
 more particularly the leading men in 
 the two kingdoms, whose profligacy and 
 irreligion preeminently aggravated the 
 national guilt. By 5137 mos 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 prixcipal, or most 
 distinguished of all the nations of the 
 earth: having been constituted the 
 poouies people of God, and possessing 
 aws and privileges unknown to any 
 other. It might well be said to occupy the 
 Jirst rank. Compare 7222 043 nN, Num. 
 xxiv. 20, where the reference is to the 
 distinguished place which the Amale,; 
 kites held among the nations of Canaan. 
 D7? is to be construed with Θ 305, and not 
 with 033, or with ΡῈ and joo. The 
 people of Israel were in the habit of 
 going up to their princes and leaders for 
 the decision of differences, &c. The lat- 
 ter thus exerted an iniluence over the 
 
104 
 
 2 Pass over to Calneh, and see; 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. ΥἹ. 
 
 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 ? 
 3 Wo to them that put off the day of evil, 
 
 And bring near the seat of oppression ; 
 
 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 7292, Calneh, and 20, 
 Hamath, see on Is. x. 9. Hitzig attempts 
 to prove that by the latter name, 87x, 
 Echatana 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 
 m2, great, not to distinguish it from 
 other cities of the same name, but to 
 express its size and magnificence. Comp. 
 my yivs, Sidon the great, Josh. xi. 8. 03, 
 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 tra- 
 veller. The Tin 12107 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 75 of com- 
 parison is an ellipsis of 737; and m2}a97 
 men, these kingdoms, must be understood 
 
 as designating those of Israel and Judah, 
 with which the prophet had immediately 
 to do, and to which be thus emphatically 
 points. In this way only can an appro- 
 priate reference be found for the dis- 
 tinctive affixes in D273 and 093913. 
 
 3. Supply “7, wo ¢o, from ver. 1. 
 D707, the Targ. not inappropriately 
 explains by PR, remove to a distance. 
 The root is 72, which in the other dialects 
 signifies ¢o separate, remove as an object 
 of disgust. Aq. of ἀποκεχωρισμένοι, 
 Symm. ἀφωρισμένοι. The persons ad- 
 dressed could not bear the idea that the 
 period of threatened punishment was 
 impending; they endeavoured 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 follow- 
 ing hemistich, as acting in such a manner 
 as speedily to bring it upon them. Thus 
 Claudian ; 
 
 “Sed quam ccecus inest vitiis amor! 
 omne futurum 
 Despicitur, suadentque brevem preesentia 
 fructum ; 
 Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido, 
 Dum mora supplicii lucro, serumque, 
 quod instat, 
 Creditur.” Lutrop. \ib. 1]. 
 I cannot agree with Jerome, Grotius, 
 Newcome, Justi, and some others, in 
 referring DDT nT, 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. 
 ΤΣ occurs nowhere else in the sense of 
 throue ; but 2%, of which it is properly 
 the infinitive, is used in application both 
 to kings and judges, as 15 also the par- 
 ticiple 23". The term is synonymous 
 with ΝΞ, which is also used both of the 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 4 That lie upon beds of ivory, 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 And are stretched upon their couches ; 
 
 That eat lambs from the flock, 
 
 And calves from the midst of the stall; 
 
 οι 
 
 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 J oseph ! 
 7 Therefore now they shall go captive at the head of the captives, 
 
 And the shouting company of 
 
 throne and the bench. 27 is here 
 taken by most interpreters to have the 
 same signification as in Kal, fo approach ; 
 but as in every other instance in which 
 the verb is used in Hiphil it vindicates 
 to itself the causative acceptation, and 
 in the present case is obviously intended 
 to form a contrast to 0°22, which conveys 
 the idea of removing to a distance, 1 
 must retain the rendering of our common 
 version. ‘Thus Hitzig and Ewald. The 
 meaning is, that instead of putting away 
 from them all illegal and oppressive 
 judgments, they encouraged those who 
 were guilty of them, by assisting in 
 carrying them into execution. 
 
 4. For yO nim», beds of ivory, see on 
 chap. iii. 15; and comp. lect? eburni of 
 Horace, and /ecti eborati of Plautus. 
 Do, fromm», Arab. 
 
 1, Oo , liberé dimisit, 
 to be thrown negligently along, is de- 
 scriptive of the self-inthilaant mode in 
 which the Orientals recline upon their 
 sofas or couches, being stretched upon 
 them at full length. The whole verse 
 sets forth in well-chosen expressions the 
 luxurious habits of the opulent. LXX. 
 κατασπαταλῶντες. 
 
 5, 6. ὉῈΞ [5 ἃ ἅπαξ λεγ., and has been 
 thought by Gesenius, Hitzig, and Ewald, 
 to have been selected on purpose, instead 
 of 733, fo 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. 
 ἐπικρατοῦντες, presiding over, or at, the 
 verb is synonymous with 723, in Piel, to 
 
 those that recline shall depart. 
 
 Hence 
 Comp. the 
 
 superintend, lead in music. 
 M229, the chief musician. 
 
 Arab. oy , prevertit, pracessit. The 
 
 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. OVW, were properly Jasons, or 
 bowls of a larger size, used for sacrificial 
 purposes, Exod. xxxvill. 3; Num. vii. 
 13, 19. The persons referred to, indulged 
 to such excess, that ordinary cups were 
 unsuited to their compotations. They 
 lixewise anointed themselves with the 
 most precious oils, and evinced a total 
 apathy in regard to the calamities to 
 which their people had already been 
 subject, or the still more serious evils 
 which threatened them. For the mean- 
 ing of 72¥, Joseph, see on chap. v. 6. 
 
 7. Txy9, Arab. rae je 000; the shout or 
 
 cry, in which the merrymakers indulged 
 over their cups. The persons giving 
 the shout seem to be intended, and, as 
 the term is also used in reference to a 
 ery of lamentation, Jer. xvi. 5, it may 
 be implied that their joy would be turned 
 into sorrow. They are spoken of col- 
 
100 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 8 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, 
 Thus saith Jehovah, God of hosts, 
 I abhor the splendour of Jacob, 
 
 And I hate his palaces: 
 
 Therefore will I deliver up the city, and all that is in it. 
 9 Yea, it shall be, that if ten men should be left in one house, 
 
 They also shall die. 
 
 10 And one’s relative, even he that burneth him, shall take him up, 
 To remove his bones out of the house ; 
 
 lectively. Symm. ἑταιρεία τρυφητῶν. 
 Those who had taken the lead im 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. 2879, the Piel participle of 
 ayn, a root of the same signification with 
 ava. Compare fora similar interchange 
 of these letters 583 and 223, 822 and D3. 
 Though the phrase 3pt2 }8?, ¢he excel- 
 lency of Jacob, cannot be otherwise un- 
 derstood than of God himself, as the 
 only legitimate object of glorying on the 
 part of his people, chap. vill. 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 (Eng. 
 4), and the peculiar object of divine re- 
 gard; but now, defiled by the wickedness 
 of its inhabitants, it had become the object 
 of his abhorrence. By Vy», the city, Amos 
 had most probably Samaria in his eye. 
 Hitzig attaches to’n7:07, the signification 
 of Kal, ¢o besiege, shut up, but the usual 
 Hiphil signification better agrees with 
 the following connexion. 2, fulness, 
 conveys the idea of multitude, or great 
 abundance, and comprehends here both 
 the numerous inhabitants themselves, 
 and the wealth and means of gratification 
 in which they abounded. Comp. Ps. 
 xxiv. 1. For the accomplishment 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 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. "ἦτ 
 is not here to be taken in the special 
 sense of wzcle, but denotes any near 
 relative on whom it devolved to attend 
 to the funeral rites. Targ. TNR. Vulg. 
 propinguus. In the present case, such 
 would be the paucity of hands, that he 
 would have to perform the whole him- 
 self. The copulative 1, prefixed to 15709, 
 is epexegetical, and is to be rendered 
 even, as in Zech. ix. 9. Instead of 720%, 
 many both of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s 
 MSS. read correctly 2. But compare 
 Ψ, 
 
 vy 
 the Syr. a,m. 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; and 
 Jer. xxxiv. 5, obviously refers to the burn- 
 ing of spices, and not of dead bodies. 
 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, and our present text, ex- 
 hibit 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- 
 honour them ; while in the latter, it was 
 either, as Grotius supposes, to prevent 
 contagion, or to dispose of the body in 
 the only way which the circumstances 
 of the time would allow. That by ΘῈΣ, 
 not mere Jozes 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 reference to Gen. 1. 25; 
 Exod. xui. 19; 2 Kings xu. 21; Jer. 
 
CHAP. ΥἹ.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 167 
 
 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. 
 11 For behold! Jehovah hath commanded, 
 
 And he will smite the great house with breaches, 
 
 And the small house with fissures. 
 
 12 
 
 Shall horses run upon a rock ? 
 
 Will one plough there with oxen ? 
 Yet ye have converted justice into poison, 
 And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. 
 
 13 
 That say, 
 
 vill. 1, 2. maa NDy3, is well rendered 
 in the Vulg. iz penetralibus domus. See 
 on Is. xiv. 18. Having burned 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 ὃ 
 and on receiving for answer that he is, 
 he suddenly enjoins silence upon him. 
 There is some difficulty in determining 
 what occasioned this injunction, and 
 for what reason the Divine name was 
 not to be mentioned. Most probably 
 the patient had 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 in such circumstances, inter- 
 rupted his pious effusions. OWa ὝΞΙΠ, 
 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 con- 
 firmed what he had stated with an oath. 
 
 11. Grotius, Dahl, Justi, and Ewald, 
 adopt the interpretation of the arg., 
 Jerome, and Cyril, that by the “great 
 house” is meant the kingdom of Israel, 
 and by the ‘“‘sma// house ” that of Judah; 
 
 Ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, 
 
 and comp. chap. ix. 8, 9, where the 
 same participial form 72 is employed 
 as here before another verb. Ὁ , mean 
 atoms, or the minute parts to which the 
 materials of a building are reduced, when 
 it is utterly destroyed. The word other- 
 wise signifies the small drops of any 
 liquid that is sprinkled, and is derived 
 from 0D}, to sprinkle. OY Pi, are fissures, 
 or rents in an edifice, which threaten its 
 fall. There was to be a marked differ- 
 ence in the treatment of the two king- 
 doms ; the one was to be utterly de- 
 stroyed, while the other, though greatly 
 injured, was still tostand. Rosenmiiler, 
 however, regards this interpretation as 
 “arguta magis, quam vera.’ Calvin, 
 Vatablus, Marckius, Cocceius, Lowth, 
 Michaelis, 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. 
 ——‘ Pauperum tabernas, 
 Regumque turres.”—Horace. 
 
 This construction of the verse is con- 
 firmed by a comparison with chap. iii. 15. 
 
 12. The folly of expecting real pro- 
 sperity 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 re- 
 presentation, it is put in the interrogative 
 form. in is to be taken impersonally. 
 
 13. The participles, with the 7 demon- 
 
168 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. VIT. 
 
 Have we not, by our own strength, 
 
 Taken to ourselves horns ? 
 
 14 But behold! I will raise up against you, O 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. 
 
 strative, are again employed as in verses 
 3, 4, 5, 6.—27 8%, zon-re, what 1s 50 
 perishable and evanescent, that it may 
 well be said to have πὸ 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 3 here is 
 from O79. Some have referred 72927973, 
 the river of the Desert, to the Rhinoco- 
 rura, otherwise called the river of Egypt; 
 and others to “the brook of the willows,” 
 m2w7 1M, or the Wady el-Ahsa, which 
 flowsinto the Dead Sea, near Zoar; butit 
 
 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 72327 Ὁ», the Sea of 
 the Desert ; 12997, the desert, forming 
 
 what is now commonly called 55) 
 Li-Ghor, or the low sterile region in 
 which the valley of the Jordan ter- 
 
 minates, and which extends as far as the 
 Elanitic Gulf. 
 
 ———— 
 
 CHAPTER VIL—VIIL 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 Bethel, and in all probability at the commencement of the prophet’s 
 ministry. Hach of them, as 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—8; the 
 second, a fire, which effected an universal conflagration, 4—6 ; the third, a plumb- 
 line, ready to be applied to mark out the edifices that were to be destroyed, 
 7—9; 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, whose 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. 
 
 1 ‘Tus 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. 
 
 1. All the four visions are introduced 737 7) 24x. The repetition of 727, 
 in nearly the same language: ‘977.75 dehold, is peculiar to this yerse. In the 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 169 
 
 2 “And it came to pass, when they had entirely devoured the 
 
 grass of the land, I said: 
 
 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. 
 
 latter of the two instances, it is employed 
 for the sake of emphasis, instead of the 
 substantive verb. °23,a name of the lo- 
 cust, occurring only here, and Nah. ii. 
 17, and synonymous with 33, Is. xxxiil. 
 
 4. Comp. the Arab. ole and ilies, 
 locusta, from Le egressus fuit, Mm 
 
 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 7, fo form, which is 
 here used. Prof. Lee derives it from 
 
 Lom, secuit. Credner on Joel, pp. 
 
 299—302, elaborately attempts to set 
 aside the above derivation of Bochart, 
 yet allows that the word denotes the 
 insect in the first stage of its existence. 
 The plural termination ’>, is found in 
 several masculine nouns, as ‘9, 1250, 
 ‘ion, ὅσο. ; but the anomaly has not yet 
 been satisfactorily accounted for. See, 
 however, Gesen. Lelirgeb. p. 523. Lee’s 
 Heb. Gram. Art. 139, 4; 2d edit. wp, 
 an after-math, or second crop, which 
 comes up immediately after the mowing 
 of grass. ὅρη, cognate with 07, Arab. 
 al, legit, collegit, signifies in Piel fo 
 gather the late fruit. Comp. the Syr. 
 
 Oo 
 δοδ, serotinus, and Dip, the latter 
 
 rain. The phrase 77373 may cither 
 mean the mowings of 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 ithe 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 15 to be regarded as symbolical of 
 war, may be inferred from the figurative 
 character of the two visions, ver. 7, and 
 chap. vill. 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. 3p¥2 D929, concisely 
 for DPD APY, who is Jacob, that he 
 should stand? meaning, How can he 
 possibly sustain the threatened attack, 
 reduced and weak as he is in resources. 
 mp signifies fo stand fast, continue, 
 endure, as well as 20 rise. One of De 
 Rossi’s MSS., and another originally, 
 read Oy, and another Ὁ, and thus the 
 LXX., Syr., Symm., and Vulg.; but less 
 appropriately in such context. 
 
 3. O02, Pick renders gave consolation, 
 which is not so suitable here as the 
 signification, to repent. Such repentance 
 is to be understood θεοπρεπῶς, appear- 
 ing, as Veil observes, “in effectu, citra 
 mutationem in affectu.” Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 
 11; Jer. xlii. 10. Targ. 743 » Yr, the 
 Lord turned away his wrath. Des, the 
 feminine pronoun, stands for the neuter 
 of other languages. 
 
 4. stp corresponds in form to 3¥, 
 ver. 1.—2%, an abbreviated form of the 
 Hiphil infinitive, 279. Comp. Is. iii. 18, 
 
 Z 
 
170 
 5 Then I said: 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Ο 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- 
 8 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 said : 
 Behold, I will set a plumb-line 
 In the midst of my people Israel ; 
 I will pass by them no more. 
 
 The verb signifies to contend judicially, 
 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; 
 Ts. Ixvi. 16. To express the extent of 
 the threatened calamity, the fire, by a 
 bold figure, is represented as drying up 
 the ocean (721 017m), and consuming 
 whatever was found on the dry land. 
 This acceptation of 727, a division, por- 
 tion, 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 children 
 of Israel as their portion. The definite 
 form of the noun P2T7Nsy, indicates 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 7%, forgive, 
 intimates. In this, it had in part, as the 
 use of 910, desist, obviously implies. 
 
 5, 6. In these verses, as in vers. 2 and 
 3, we have a beautiful instance of the 
 influence of prayer in averting or 
 mitigating the judgments of God. 
 
 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 conse- 
 quence, intercedes no more. P28 N27, a 
 perpendicular wall, \it. a wall of the plum- 
 met, so called from the plumb-line being 
 applied in order to secure its per- 
 pendicularity. 28, which occurs only in 
 these verses, properly signifies /ead or tin. 
 
 Arab. 2b), Syr. 15, plumbum. Aq. 
 
 γάνωσις, stannatura. The lie and 
 plummet were used not only when houses 
 were building, but also when they were 
 to be destroyed. See 2 Kings xxi. 13; 
 Is. xxviii. 17 ; xxxiv. 11; Lam..8. The 
 LXX. and Symm. ἀδάμας, which the 
 Syr. also exhibits. In the explanation 
 of the vision, it is expressly stated, that 
 the plummet was to be applied to the 
 people of Israel in order to mark them 
 out for destruction; and its being placed 
 in the midst of them denoted, that this 
 destruction was not to be confined to 
 a part only of the kingdom, as it had 
 been in the case of Tiglath-Pileser’s 
 invasion, but that it should reach the very 
 centre. This took place when Shal- 
 maneser, the successor of that king, after 
 a siege of three years, took Samaria, put 
 an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, 
 and carried them away captive into 
 Assyria, 2 Kings xvii. 3, 5, 6, 23. 729, 
 lo pass, pass on oY away, means, mM 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 171 
 
 9 But 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 king 
 
 of Israel, saying: Amos hath formed a conspiracy against tlie, 
 in the midst of the house of Israel: the land cannot contain 
 
 And Israel shall surely be led away captive from his land. 
 
 And Amaziah said to Amos: Seer! Go, flee to the land of Judah, 
 
 10 
 
 11 all his words. For thus hath Amos said: 
 Jeroboam shall die by the sword ; 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 application to sin, fo pass it by, to forgive, 
 not to punish it. Prov. xix. 11; Micah 
 vii. 18. See on this latter passage. 
 
 9. A definite prediction of the destrue- 
 tion which was to overtake the places of 
 idolatrous worship, and the royal house 
 by which that worship had been esta- 
 blished and supported. These are spe- 
 cially mentioned, because to them, as the 
 procuring causes, the destruction was to 
 be traced. For the meaning of 193, 
 high places, see on Is. lxv.7. OWI, the 
 parallel term, denotes the temples, or 
 structures, consecrated to the worship of 
 idols. Comp. 37, ver. 13.—77”, instead 
 of p=, is not peculiar to our prophet ; 
 the same orthography is found Ps. ev. 9; 
 Jer. xxxili. 26. There is no reason 
 whatever to suppose that the word was 
 purposely so written, or that it was 
 intended to be taken otherwise than as 
 a proper name; yet the LXX. have 
 βωμοὶ tod γέλωτος ; so the Syr. like- 
 wise. Michaelis finds a paronomasia in 
 it; Dahl, an instance of irony; and even 
 Calvin thinks that the name was used by 
 Amos μιμητικῶς. It is here, and ver. 16, 
 parallel with 87, and denotes the ten 
 tribes. 
 
 10, 11. Verses 10—17 contain an 
 interesting historical episode. As there 
 were doubtless many priests who con- 
 ducted the idolatrous services at Bethel, 
 y7 must here be understood κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν 
 of the chief or high priest, attached to 
 the royal temple. In the spirit which 
 has characterised a false priesthood in 
 every age, Amaziah brings against 
 the prophet the groundless charge of 
 treason. That %27) is to be rendered 
 
 and eat there bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy no more 
 
 contain, and refers to number and not 
 to atrocity; appears from %, a//, being 
 employed before the following noun, 
 Comp. for this signification of the verb in 
 Hiphil, 1 Kings vii. 26, 37; Ezek. xxiii. 
 32. In the Syr. in which a verb signify- 
 ing ¢o endure is used, * is omitted, as 
 not suiting the Oriental idiom. 
 
 12, 18. It does not appear that the 
 king took any notice of the message that 
 was sent him, so that Amaziah was left 
 to try what the interposition of his own 
 authority would effect. He addressed 
 the prophet by the title Hh, seer, most 
 probably with contemptuous reference to 
 his visions ; though it was adopted in the 
 later Hebrew, as equivalent to 822, and 
 corresponds in signification to 785, which 
 was anciently used, 1 Sam. ix. 9. Not 
 imagining that Amos could be actuated 
 by any higher principle than that of 
 selfishness, which reigned in his own 
 heart, the priest advised him to consult 
 his safety by fleeing across the frontier 
 into the kingdom of Judah, where he 
 might obtain his livelihood by the unre- 
 strained exercise of his prophetical gifts. 
 The words 4773 92, though pleonastic, 
 are emphatic. At all events, he could 
 not be permitted any longer to prophesy 
 in the city of Bethel, which was 
 distinguished not only as the principal 
 seat of the king’s religion, but also as 
 being one of his royal residences. Though 
 the ordinary residence of the Israel- 
 itish monarchs was at Samaria, yet as 
 they went at certain stated seasons to 
 Bethel to worship the golden calf, they 
 had had a palace built there for their 
 accommodation. 
 
AMOS. 
 
 [ CHAP. ‘VII. 
 
 at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and a royal residence. 
 
 And Amos answered and said to Amaziah: I am no prophet ; 
 
 neither am I the son of a prophet; but I am an herdsman, and 
 
 a cultivator of sycamores. 
 
 And Jehovah took me from follow- 
 
 ing the flock ; and Jehovah said to me: Go, prophesy to my 
 
 16 people Tsrael. 
 
 And now, hear the word of Jehovah. Thou 
 
 sayest, Prophesy not against Israel; and, Drop nothing against 
 
 17 the house of Isaac. 
 
 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: 
 
 Thy wife shall commit lewdness in the city, 
 
 14. Amos modestly but firmly repels 
 the charge of selfishness, by declaring, 
 that he was not a prophet by profession ; 
 that he had not been educated with a 
 view to such profession; that he was a 
 person of rustic habits; and that his 
 Divine mission was altogether of an 
 extraordinary character. 2273, the soa, 
 i.e. pupil or disciple of a prophet. In 
 all probability some of the schools of the 
 prophets, of which we read in the first 
 book of Samuel, were still in existence, 
 in which young men were educated, who 
 devoted themselves to the service of the 
 theocracy iin the eapacity of public 
 instructors, and to these, or to more 
 private studies, under the guidance of 
 some prophet, Amos may be supposed 
 to refer. 713, strictly taken, means an 
 ox-herd ; but as Wl came, in a larger 
 acceptation, to denote cattle in general, 
 it might signify a keeper of any kind of 
 cattle. There is, therefore, no occasion, 
 with some, to suppose that the word was 
 originally 73, as in chap. i, 1. 033 
 occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew 
 Seriptures ; but the Arab. 9, signifies 
 
 a white fig, and the Eth. (RCE: both 
 the fig-tree and its fruit. As, however, 
 the participial form of the word is that 
 which denotes agency, it must mean one 
 who is occupied with, or cultivates figs. 
 The particular mode in which the ancients 
 cultivated fig-trees, the LXX. appear to 
 have had in their eye, when they rendered 
 it by κνίζων, a xipper or scratcher ; for 
 we are informed by Theophrastus, that 
 iron nails or prongs were employed to 
 make incisions or scratches in the tree, 
 that by letting out some of the sap, the 
 fruit might be ripened: πέπτειν οὐ 
 δύναται ἂν μὴ ἐπικνισθῇ" ἀλλ᾽ ἔχοντες 
 ὄνυχας σιδηροῦς ἐπικνίζουσιν' ἃ δ᾽ ἂν ἐπι- 
 
 κνισθῇ, τεταρταῖα πέπτεται, ἵν. 2. See 
 also Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 14; Forskal, 
 Flor. Egypt. p. 182. Dp, sycamores, 
 a species of tree, abounding in the Kast, 
 pretty much resembling the mulberry 
 tree, the fruit of which is similar to the fig. 
 It is, however, very inferior in quality, 
 and is only eaten by the poorest class of 
 the people. From this circumstance it 
 may be inferred that Amos occupied an 
 humble station in life previous to his 
 being called to prophesy in Israel. 
 
 15, 58822 is used both in a good and in 
 a bad sense, and is here to be rendered 
 indefinitely, fo prophesy to. The pro- 
 nominal suffix im “.Y, “my people,” is 
 not without emphasis. ‘lhe Israelites 
 were Jehovah’s by right ; he still claimed 
 his propriety in them; and, by the 
 ministry of his prophet, would have 
 recovered them to his service. 
 
 16. Instead of listening to the prohi- 
 bition of Amaziah, and retiring from his 
 sphere of duty, Amos continued to dis- 
 charge the duties of his office at Bethel; 
 but before proceeding to give an account 
 of another vision which he had had, he 
 directs a pointed prediction against the 
 idolatrous priest by whom he had been in- 
 terrupted. 727, Zo distil, to cause to come 
 down in pleasing and flowing discourse ; 
 here parallel with 833, fo prophesy. Comp. 
 Ezek. xxi. 2, 7 (Πρ. version, xx. 46, 
 and xxi. 2); Micah ii. 6, 11. Syr. 
 
 adn, Arab. (la, Eth. 20M = stil- 
 
 lavit, WING, : percolavit. 
 
 17. Between 7m ΟΝ in this verse, and 
 Yok TPR in ver. 16, isa marked antithesis. 
 733) is not to be understood of voluntary 
 acts of infidelity on the part of the wife 
 of Amaziah, but of the violence to which 
 she would have to submit on the part of 
 
CHAP. VIII. | 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 1735 
 
 And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword ; 
 Thy land, also, shall be divided by line, 
 
 And thou shalt die in a polluted land: 
 
 And Israel shall surely be taken away captive from his land. 
 
 the enemy. This being done ὝΨΞ, zz the 
 
 city, i.e. openly and publicly, was a 
 
 great aggravation of the evil. 
 
 ὯΩδέ σφ᾽ ἐγκέφαλος xappadis ῥέοι, ὡς 
 ὅδε οἶνος 
 
 Αὐτῶν, καὶ τεκέων" ἄλοχοι δ᾽ ἄλλοισι 
 
 μιγεῖεν. Iliad. iii. 300, 301. 
 
 Every country, except Canaan, was re- 
 garded by the Hebrews as 7820 77x, a 
 polluted land, though, at this time, their 
 own land had become such. Is. xxiv. 5, 
 where ὭΣΤ is similarly used; Jer. ii. 7. 
 The land of Assyria is that to which 
 Amos points. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 After giving an account of a fourth vision, in which was represented the ripeness 
 for destruction 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 people, 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  ‘Txus 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. 
 
 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 
 
 by Amaziah. 393, Syr. jap, a 
 cage, or basket ; Arab. wag » taserto 
 
 loro inter duas corii partes consuit ; 
 KMS, lorum vel Jilamentum lignosum 
 
 palne, quo consuitur: what is braided 
 from twigs, such as wicker-work. Υ 
 
 is used both of swmmer, and of the fruit 
 which is gathered in summer. It is to 
 the ripeness of the fruit at this season 
 that prominence is here designed to be 
 given. The verb occurs but once in 
 
 Heb., viz. Is. xviii. 6. Arab. 8, media 
 
 estas: \\8, admodum Serbuit, e@estiva 
 
 habuit. 
 
 2. The paronomasia in “? and ΥἹ is 
 marked and forcible. Comp. Ezek. vil. 6: 
 TLD TT PIN PRT PET ΝΞ ΝΒ PP. 
 
174 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 3 And the songs of the palace shall howl, 
 In that day, saith the Lord J ehovah ; 
 
 The carcasses are many ! 
 Throw them out any where! 
 
 Hush! 
 
 4 Hear this! ye that pant after the needy, 
 That ye may destroy the poor of the land, 
 
 or 
 
 That we may sell corn ? 
 And the sabbath, 
 
 That we may open out grain ? 
 
 Making the ephah small, 
 And the shekel great, 
 
 Saying, When will the new moon be over, 
 
 And falsifying the balances for deceit. 
 6 That we may purchase the poor for money, 
 
 3. Instead of the pathetic elegies 
 loudly and continuously poured forth at 
 the princely funerals, nothing was to be 
 heard but the frantic howl, announcing, 
 but instantly checked in announcing, the 
 greatness of the disaster. Into such 
 howling the joyous songs of the palace 
 were to be converted. Symm. ὀλολύ- 
 ἕξουσιν ai gdai. The dead bodies were 
 to be cast forth indiscriminately, without 
 any regard to the places where they 
 might lie; and even this was not to be 
 effected without exposing those who 
 ees it to the attacks of the enemy. 
 
 ence silence was to be enjoined. Some 
 improperly render °27, femple. For ὉΠ, 
 comp. chap. vi. 10. 
 
 4. The prophet resumes his usual 
 style of direct comminatory address. 
 Comp. chapters iv., v., and vi. For δῦ, 
 see on chap. 11. 7. ™M282=Ma387), ¢o cause 
 to cease, bring to an end, annihilate, 
 destroy. The \in ΓΞ is to be taken 
 τελικῶς, as denoting the end or aim of 
 the oppressions practised by the ava- 
 ricious Israelites. 
 
 5. From this and other passages it is 
 obvious that the Israelites, notwithstand- 
 ing their idolatrous practices, still kept 
 up the observance of the times and 
 seasons appointed in the law of Moses. 
 179 and 129 V207, lit. to break a breaking, 
 but meaning /o sell grain, is sup- 
 posed. to be so named from its being 
 broken to pieces when ground at the 
 
 ‘ 
 
 mill. Some, however, think the name is 
 derived from its being broken up or 
 separated by a measure into portions, 
 with a view to sale; while others are of 
 opinion that it is so called because it 
 breaks or puts an end to hunger, com- 
 paring Ps. civ. 11. By 732 708, opening the 
 corm, is meant opening the sacks or 
 granaries in which it was kept, and 
 bringing it out for sale. ‘Thus the LXX., 
 Syr., and Targ. The 75s, ephah, was a 
 corn measure, containing three seahs, 
 and, according to Josephus, equal to the 
 Attic medimnus, or somewhat above three 
 English pecks. It is uncertain whether 
 the word be originally Hebrew, or 
 whether it be Egyptian. 70, from 7%, 
 
 to weigh, Arab. (33, ponderosus fuit, 
 
 gravitatem et pondus exploravit, is here 
 used of weights in general. It was 
 originally any piece of metal weighed as 
 an equivalent for what was bought; but 
 came afterwards to signify standard 
 money, and differed in value, according 
 as it was of silver or gold, and as it was 
 estimated by the sacred or the royal 
 standard,- Exod. xxx. 13; 2 Sam. xiv. 
 26. For the sake of greater emphasis, 
 instead of saying, fo make or to use 
 deceitful balances, the verb mY, fo bend, 
 twist, pervert, is employed, which, in 
 point of meaning, is pleonastic. LXX. 
 ποιῆσαι ξυγὸν ἄδικον. 
 
 6. See chap. ii. 6. ἘΦ, from 52, ¢o 
 
CHAP. ΥἹΠ11.} 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 175 
 
 And the needy for a pair of sandals ; 
 And sell the refuse of the grain ? 
 7 Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob: 
 I will never forget any of their deeds. 
 8 Shall not the land tremble for this, 
 And every one that dwelleth therein mourn ? 
 Yea, shall not all of it rise like the river ? 
 And shall it not be driven, and subside, 
 
 Like the river of Egypt ? 
 
 9 It shall also come to pass in that day, 
 
 Saith the Lord Jehovah, 
 
 That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, 
 And will darken the land in the clear day. 
 
 fall; what has fallen off, refuse, chaff, 
 &e 
 
 7. The iniquitous conduct of the Is- 
 raelites having been minutely described, 
 the severe punishment which they. had 
 merited is now threatened. 72° yi3, the 
 excellency of Jacob, has been variously 
 interpreted. The Targ., Grotius, Dahl, 
 Newcome, and Bauer, understand the 
 excellence conferred upon Jacob; Justi 
 and Ewald, very preposterously, the pride 
 or haughtiness of the people; the Rab- 
 bins and some others, the temple; but 
 the only appropriate construction of the 
 phrase, in this connexion, is that which 
 refers it to Jehovah /imse/f, in whom 
 alone the Hebrews gloried while they 
 adhered to the purity of his worship, and 
 in whom they still ought to glory. ‘Thus 
 
 » ἂν - Nv. Φ ρ 
 the Syr. ease naacZ fajdo, 
 
 the Lord, the Mighty One of Jacob; 
 Munster, Vatablus, Mercer, Drusius, 
 Liveley, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer. 
 Comp. chap. vi. 8, where 1522 Y2e4) occurs 
 instead of the present phrase, which, 
 however, is also there used in a bad 
 sense. Mos Ox, if J forget, is the usual 
 formula of swearing, implying that it 
 should not take place. %, in this con- 
 nexion, implies both totality, and the 
 single items of which that totality is 
 made up. Comp. Ps. ciii. 2. 
 
 8. The guilt of the people was so 
 enormous, that it was sufficient to induce 
 an entire subversion of the existing 
 state of things. ΤῸ express this more 
 
 strongly, the land is metaphorically re- 
 presented as rising and swelling like the 
 Nile, and again falling like the same 
 river. Of course, the idea of the heav- 
 ing and subsiding of the ground during 
 an earthquake is what is intended, as 
 the beginning of the verse shows. For 
 the sake of energy and impression, the 
 interrogative form is, as frequently, em- 
 ployed. That 183, by an elision of the 
 letter Yod, is a defective form of 3, is 
 evident from the parallel passage, chap. 
 ix. 5. Fifteen MSS., originally two more, 
 and perhaps other three, and one of the 
 early editions, read "2 in full. For the 
 origin and meaning of the word, see on 
 Is. xix. 6. 23 is used in Niphal, to ex- 
 press the violent agitation of the sea 
 when raised by the wind, Is. lvii. 20. 
 It here denotes the rise of the Nile, 
 which is generally above twenty feet. 
 For ΠΡῸΣ, the Keri and a great many MSS. 
 in the text, read “YP, which is un- 
 doubtedly genuine. The root »?¥ occurs 
 in a similar connexion, chap. ix. 5. It 
 signifies to sizk down, or subside. 
 
 9. Some think the prophet here pre- 
 dicts the total eclipse of the sun, which 
 took place at one of the great festivals 
 in the year that Jeroboam died, (see 
 Usher’s Annals, a.m. 3213); but what- 
 ever there may be in the language bor- 
 rowed from such an event, consistency 
 of interpretation requires it to be taken 
 metaphorically, as descriptive of a change 
 from circumstances of prosperity to those 
 of adversity. Comp. Jer. xv. 9; Ezck. 
 Xxxil. 7—]0, 
 
176 AMOS. 
 
 10 I will turn also your festivals into mourning, 
 And all your songs into lamentation ; 
 And I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, 
 And baldness upon every head ; 
 Yea, I will make it as the mourning for an only son, 
 And the end of it a bitter day. 
 
 11 ~ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, 
 
 [CHAP 
 
 aval: 
 
 When I will send a famine into the land; 
 ‘ Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, 
 But of hearing the words of Jehovah. 
 12 And men shall wander from sea to sea, 
 And shall run up and down, from the North even to the East, 
 
 Seeking the word of Jehovah, 
 
 But they shall not find it. 
 
 13 In that day the fair virgins shall faint, 
 And the young men also, for thirst ; 
 14 That swear by the sin of Samaria, 
 
 10. The Hebrew festivals were occa- 
 sions of great joy, and were no doubt on 
 this very account kept up among the ten 
 tribes after they had lost their religious 
 importance. The calamitous result of 
 the Assyrian invasion under Shalma- 
 neser is here most graphically de- 
 picted. Comp. Is. xv. 2; Jer. xlvii. 37; 
 Ezek. vii. 18. The death of an_only 
 son was regarded by the Hebrews as the 
 most mournful of events. Comp. Jer. 
 vi. 26; Zech. xii. 10. The pronominal 
 reference in TAY and AMIE is FIX un- 
 derstood. 2 in 19 O13, is the Caph veri- 
 tatis. 
 
 «Nunc et amara dies, et noctis amarior 
 
 umbra est ; 
 Omnia jam tristi tempora felle madent.” 
 Tibullus, lib. ii. Eleg. iv. 11. 
 
 11, 12. The Israelites now despised 
 the messages of the prophets, and by a 
 just retribution, in addition to all- their 
 other calamities, they should experience 
 a total withdrawal of all prophetic com- 
 munications. Comp. Ezek. vii. 26; 
 Micah iii. 7. In whatever direction they 
 might proceed, and whatever efforts they 
 might make to obtain information rela- 
 tive to the issue of their trouble, they 
 should meet with nothing but disappoint- 
 ment. M9, svn-rise, is used, where 
 
 geographically we should have expected 
 ee or 223, the south; but the term may 
 
 ave been chosen in order to intimate 
 the complete alienation of Israel from 
 Judah, in consequence of which no one 
 would think of repairing to Jerusalem 
 for oracular information. ‘That any 
 transposition of the words has taken place, 
 Icannot, with Houbigant and Newcome, 
 suppose. It is, however, just as probable 
 that the cardinal points were not in- 
 tended to be strictly marked, but that 
 the object was to indicate generally the 
 hopelessness of the attempts mentioned. 
 The Athnach is improperly placed under 
 m9, instead of under 1001, as the Vau 
 prefixed to jp and the form of the 
 verb show. 
 
 13. ΝῸΞ in this verse, is to be under- 
 stood of the natural fhirst to be expe- 
 rienced by the inhabitants of Samaria 
 during the siege predicted in the pre- 
 ceding verses. 725220, properly means, 
 they shall feel themselves involved in dark- 
 ness, Which is physically true of those 
 who are seized with syncope. The root 
 
 roy, Arab. Walz, signifies fo cover, en- 
 velope ; here, with darkness, understood. 
 After 059727 subaud. 327m. 
 
 14, ἡγνοῦ ποῦν, the sin or crime of Sa- 
 marta; 1.6. the golden calf and other 
 
CHAP. 1Χ.] 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 177 
 
 And say, By the life of thy god, O Dan! 
 And, By the life of the way of Beersheba! 
 Yea, they shall fall, and rise no more. 
 
 objects of unlawful worship which were 
 the occasion of sin and guilt to the Is- 
 raelites. Hitzig thinks that Astarte is 
 specifically meant ; but the term was 
 doubtless intended to comprehend the 
 calf at Bethel, the religious veneration 
 of which led to the grosser forms of 
 idolatry. At the same time, 71%x, Astarfe, 
 is spoken of, 2 Kings xiii. 6, in distine- 
 tion from the worship specially instituted 
 by Jeroboam. See on Is. xvii. 8. The 
 god of Dan was the other golden calf, 
 erected by Jeroboam in Dan, 1 Kings 
 xi. 26—28. By vidosa 7, Kimchi, 
 Michaelis, and Bauer, understand lite- 
 
 rally the way or pilgrimage to Beer- 
 sheba; but the phrase being parallel 
 with the two former instances, in which 
 objects of false worship are meant, it 
 must here be taken in the same sense. 
 Hence the LXX. render, ζῇ ὁ θεός cov. 
 Strictly speaking, it denotes the way or 
 mode of worship, or the worship itself, 
 that was performed at Beersheba. Comp. 
 Ps, exxxix. 24; Acts ix.2; xix. 9, 23. 
 See on chap. v. 5. 7 is a formula of 
 swearing: By the life of-——, or, As sure 
 as such an one lives, and was peculiarly 
 absurd and sinful when applied to in- 
 animate objects. 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 This chapter commences with an account of the fifth and last vision of the prophet, 
 in which the final ruin of the kingdom of Israel is represented. This ruin was to 
 be complete and irreparable ; and no quarter to which the inhabitants might flee 
 for refuge, would afford them any shelter from the wrath of the Omnipresent 
 and Almighty Jehovah, 1—6. As a sinful nation, it was to be treated as if it had 
 never stood in any covenant-relation to him; yet, in their individual capacity, as the 
 descendants of Abraham, how much soever they might be scattered and afflicted 
 among the heathen, they should still be preserved, 7—10. The concluding part 
 of the chapter contains a distinct prophecy of the restoration of the Jewish 
 church after the Babylonish captivity, 11; the incorporation of the heathen, 
 which was to be consequent upon that restoration, 12; and the final establish- 
 ment of the Jews in their own land in the latter day, 13—15. 
 
 
 
 1. Isaw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said : 
 Smite the capital, that the thresholds may shake ; 
 And break them in pieces, on the heads of them all ; 
 
 1. By the Targ., Calvin, Drusius, Gro- 
 tius, Justi, Rosenmiller, and Hengs- 
 tenberg, the scene of this vision is laid 
 in the temple at Jerusalem; by Cyril, 
 
 Munster, Tarnovius, Schmidius, Lowth, 
 Michaelis, Dahl, Bauer, Hitzig, and 
 Ewald, inthe idolatroustempleat Bethel ; 
 and, in my opinion, rightly. Calvin 
 
 AA 
 
178 AMOS. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Their posterity I will also slay with the sword ; 
 None of their fugitives shall make his escape, 
 Nor shall any that slip away be delivered. 
 
 2 Though they break through into Sheol, 
 Thence shall my hand take them ; 
 Though they climb up to heaven, 
 Thence will I bring them down. 
 
 3 Though they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel, 
 There I will search them out and take them ; 
 Though they conceal themselves from mine eyes in the bottom 
 
 of the sea, 
 
 There 1 will command the serpent, and he shall bite them. 
 4 ‘Though they go into captivity before their enemies, 
 
 There I will command the sword, and it shall kill them: 
 
 Yea, I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, 
 
 And not for good. 
 
 does not show his usual tact in objecting 
 to this interpretation, on the ground that 
 it represents Jehovah as indirectly ap- 
 proving of superstition; for, though the 
 true God was seen beside the idolatrous 
 altar, it was not for the purpose of re- 
 ceiving homage, but of commanding 
 that the whole of the erection and wor- 
 ship at Bethel should be destroyed. 
 No argument in favour of Jerusalem 
 can be built on the use of the article 
 in Tav7, “ the altar,’ but the contrary. 
 The idolatrous objects to which sacrifices 
 were offered at Bethel, having been 
 mentioned in the preceding verse, nothing 
 is more natural than a reference here to 
 the altar on which they were presented. 
 7p, an ornamented head or capital of 
 a column, in the shape of a sphere, or 
 bowl surrounded by flowers. It is 
 usually derived from 72, ¢o cover, and 
 12, to crown. LXX. ἱλαστήριον, mis- 
 taking the word for m2. When used of 
 the ornamental part of the golden can- 
 dlestick, they render it σφαιρωτήρ. For 
 Ded, see on Is. vi. 4; the similarity, in 
 some respects, between which passage 
 and the present, appears to have sug- 
 gested the idea that the temple at Jeru- 
 salem is here meant. The temple was 
 to be smitten both above and below, to 
 indicate its entire destruction. ovya, 
 break them, i.e. the capitals, &c., upon 
 
 the head of all the worshippers. It 
 does not appear that UX. and MON are 
 here used antithetically. The latter de- 
 notes the children of those who perished 
 in the attack upon the idolatrous temple. 
 When threatened by the Assyrians, they 
 would flock in crowds to Bethel, to im- 
 plore protection from the golden calf, 
 and, while thus assembled, they should 
 perish, along with the vain object of their 
 trust; they should, in fact, be buried in 
 the ruins. 
 
 2—4., These verses exhibit a beautiful 
 series of supposed cases of attempt at 
 escape from the judgments of God, and 
 the utter futility of every attempt of the 
 kind. x8 and DW, are, as usual, em- 
 ployed as extreme points of opposition. 
 Comp. Job xi. 8; Ps. cxxxix. 8; Is. xiv. 
 13—15 ; Matt. xi. 23.2727 ws. Not 
 only was Mount Carmel celebrated on 
 account of its general fertility, but also 
 on account of the dense forests and large 
 caverns with which it abounded. These, 
 together with its height, which is about 
 twelve hundred feet, afforded the fittest 
 possible places of concealment. Richter, 
 in his pilgrimage, p. 65, says: ‘‘ Mount 
 Carmel is entirely covered with green ; 
 on its swmmits are pines and oaks, and 
 further down, olive and laurel trees, 
 &c. These forests would furnish safe 
 hiding-places, equally with the caves, 
 
CHAP. 1X.] 
 
 AMOS. 179 
 
 5. For it is the Lord Jehovah of hosts, 
 That toucheth the earth, and it melteth, 
 And all that dwell in it mourn ; 
 Yea, it riseth, all of it, like the river, 
 And subsideth like the river of Egypt. 
 6 He that buildeth his upper chambers in the heavens, 
 And foundeth his vaults upon the earth ; 
 That calleth to the waters of the sea, 
 And poureth them out on the surface of the earth ; 
 
 Jehovah is his name. 
 
 7 Are ye not as the Cushites to me, 
 O sons of Israel? saith Jehovah. 
 
 which are chiefly on the west side facing 
 the sea.” OT rmp, the bottom of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, forms a striking con- 
 trast to the summit of Carmel, which 
 
 beetles above it. 2712, Arab. pe terra 
 
 a@quabilis ; when spoken of a house, the 
 Soundation or floor ; here the bottom or 
 basis, on which the sea rests. For ὉΠ), 
 sea-serpent, see on Is. xxvii. 1. 
 
 τ: -Immensis orbibus angues 
 Incumbunt pelago, pariterque ad littora 
 tendunt.” Aineid. ii. 204. 
 
 
 
 The Ὁ in Dvn, in verses 3 and 4, loses 
 its proper prepositive signification, as in 
 yove, m2, NINN, &c. and merely denotes 
 position or place. 
 
 5, 6. A sublime description of the al- 
 mighty and uncontrollable power of 
 Jehovah. For the reference to the Nile, 
 see on chap. viii. 8. Instead of Ἰγ 9, 
 the Keri and not a few MSS. read ynior 
 in full. Comp. roy, Ps. civ. 3, 13. 
 
 5 ΄ 5» c , , 
 Αἰθέρος οἶκον ὑπέρτατον---ναιετάεις. 
 Oppian. Halieut. i. 410. 
 
 - ᾿] , lol ΄ \ 7 
 Θεοῦ οἰκητήριον τοῦ κοσμου TO ἄνω. 
 
 Aristot. 
 mx, a body or mass, the parts of which 
 are firmly compacted; Arab. dle, 
 
 fornix firme compaginis et structure ; 
 an arch or vault ; obviously used of the 
 17, or hemispheric expanse or vault of 
 heaven; which, from its appearing to 
 the eye to rest upon the earth, is here 
 
 said to be founded upon it. To render 
 it, with the Targ., congregation, and apply 
 it to the Chureh, as a body of believers, 
 firmly united together, is altogether un- 
 suitable to the connexion, ‘The render 
 ing of the LXX., Syr., and Arab., would 
 seem to indicate that Mx2¥ 77 originally 
 stood in the text, at the end of ver. 6; 
 but only one of De Rossi’s MSS. has 
 this reading at first hand. 
 
 7. By appealing to the fact, that, in 
 his providence, he had removed different 
 nations from their original abodes, and 
 settled them elsewhere, Jehovah repels 
 the idea, which the Israelites were so 
 prone to entertain, that, because he had 
 brought them out of Egypt, and given 
 them the land of Canaan, they were pe- 
 culiarly the objects of his regard, and 
 could never be subdued or destroyed. 
 He now regarded, and would treat them 
 as the Cushites, who had been trans- 
 planted from their primary location 
 in Arabia, into the midst of the bar- 
 barous nations of Africa. D3, Cush- 
 ites, are here the inhabitants of the 
 African Cush, or Ethiopia. See on Is. xviii. 
 
 1, 2. Arab. ual cb» Abyssinians. 
 
 5» , ‘\ A w+ 
 Αἰθίοπας, τοὶ διχθὰ δεδαίαται, ἔσχατοι 
 > a 
 ἀνδρῶν, 
 , 
 Οἱ μὲν δυσομένου vrepiovos, οἱ δ᾽ ave- 
 
 ὄντος. Odyss. i. 23, 24. 
 
 For o»mts, see on Is. xiv. 28. Gese- 
 nius hesitates between Crete and Cap- 
 padocia, as designated by the Hebrew 
 Caphtor, but inclmes to the former. 
 
180 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Did I not bring Israel from the land of Egypt ὃ. 
 The Philistines also from Caphtor ? 
 
 And the Syrians from Kir 2 
 
 8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah areuponthe sinful kingdom, 
 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, J will command, 
 
 And will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, 
 
 As one sifteth corn in a sieve, 
 
 And not a grain falleth 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. 
 
 111] 
 
 In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is falling, 
 
 And will close up its breaches ; 
 
 Thesaurus, p. 709. LXX. Καππαδοκία. 
 ons, dram, or Syria, put for the Syrians, 
 i.e. the inhabitants of the countries 
 about Damascus. ‘They are here repre- 
 sented as having migrated from V?, A77, 
 the country lying on the river Aw, or 
 Cyrus. See on Is. xxii. 6. 
 
 8,9. 3 OY. The eyes of a person are 
 said to be iz any one, when he keeps 
 him steadily in view, in order either to 
 lo him good, or to punish hin. In 
 the present instance, the phrase conveys 
 the idea of hostility. Though the king- 
 dom of the ten tribes was to be utterly 
 and for ever destroyed, yet, as descend- 
 ants of their patriarchal ancestors, they 
 should not become extinct. In the midst 
 of the wrath which their sinfulness should 
 bring upon them, God would remember 
 mercy. °2 OSX is strongly adversative. 
 723, a sieve, which is used to separate 
 the chaff and other refuse from the pure 
 grain, is most probably derived from 
 123, fo be many, from the number of small 
 holes in it. LXX. λικμὸς. Aq. and 
 Symm. Κόσκινον. We, the smallest stone, 
 is used as a diminutive of vz, 2 Sam. 
 xvii. 13; here it signifies the smallest 
 grain ox particle of corn. While the figu- 
 rative language here employed expresses 
 the violence of the sifting process to 
 which the Israelites should be subjected 
 in order that their idolatry and other 
 sins might be removed from them, it 
 
 likewise sets forth the great care that 
 would be exercised for their preservation. 
 The universal character of their disper- 
 sion 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. ὍΔ O°F77 is 
 unusual. Perhaps the meaning is, Shall 
 not come forward, nor advance in our 
 rear, so as to cut off our retreat. 
 
 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 introduc- 
 tion of the Messianic dispensation, during 
 which the blessings of the covenant of 
 mercy were to be extended to the Gentile 
 world. With this reference in view, the 
 apostle James expressly quotes the pro- 
 phecy, Acts xv. 15—17. The quotation 
 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 llth and 12th verses, his obvious 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 And I will raise up its ruins, 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 181 
 
 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. 
 
 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 respecting 
 the booth of David to the Christian 
 church, are unwarranted and futile. 77, 
 David, is used by the prophet, not in its 
 figurative, but in its proper meaning, as 
 denoting the Hebrew monarch of that 
 name. By sm 0V, that day, for which 
 James has, quite indefinitely, μετὰ ταῦτα, 
 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 1720, 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 prosperity 
 of that family is spoken of, the more 
 dignified phrase, V1 .™3, the house of 
 David, is employed. See 2 Sam. iii. 1; 
 1 Kings xi. 38; Is. vii. 2,13. 111 Tk, 
 the tent, or tabernacle of David, Is. xvi. 5, 
 would seem to express an intermediate 
 state of things. That T, David, is here 
 to be understood of the Messiah, I cannot 
 find. 2D, tugurium, a hut, or booth, so 
 called from its being constructed by 
 interweaving the boughs aud 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 i207 37, 
 the feast of booths, commonly called 
 *‘the feast of tabernacles.’” See Levit. 
 xxi. 40—43. Root le to weave, tn- 
 terweave, protect. Still more definitely 
 to mark the depressed condition of the 
 Jewish kingdom, it is described as 793, 
 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 
 
 affairs 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 : 
 ἜΣ 13, the son of the fallen. Thus in the 
 Talmud, Sanhed. fol. 96,2: “ἘΠ. 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, &e.?” quoting the 
 present verse of Amos. For other 
 passages to the same effect, see Schoet- 
 genil Hore Hebraice et Talmud. The 
 feminine suffix in 772% is to be referred 
 to the different parts or cities of the 
 kingdom, understood. The masculine 
 in yn517, has 17 for its antecedent, and 
 the feminine in Tm refers to 730. 
 
 12. 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 toa 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. ty, 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, oy Dva Fy, “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 
 blessing of the Gentiles with faithful 
 
182 
 
 13 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 [CHAPMIX. 
 
 Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, 
 
 That the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, 
 And the treader of grapes him that soweth the seed ; 
 And the mountains shall drop with new wine, 
 
 And all the hills shall melt. 
 
 Abraham, that patriarch is called “ the 
 heir of the world.’ Among the first of 
 the foreign nations that were to experi- 
 ence this beneficent influence, the Idu- 
 meeans are expressly mentioned. Owing 
 to the enmity which had existed between 
 them and the Jews, they had mutuaily 
 harassed and wasted each other, in con- 
 sequence of which, and of invasions and 
 wars on the part of other powers, nothing 
 but M8, a remnant, of the former was 
 left. Of this remnant, a portion was pro- 
 selytized to the Jewish faith in the time 
 of John Hyrcanus, and the remainder 
 amalgamated with the tribes cf Arabia, 
 which embraced the Christian faith. It 
 is to these last that specific reference 
 is here made. WW is to be taken 
 impersonally, and rendered passively ; 
 and the power of its future must be 
 carried forward to 837). The calling of 
 a name upon any person or thing, 
 denotes the assertion of the claims of 
 the individual whose name is mentioned 
 upon the person or thing specified. 
 3113 is the accusative, πὸ being under- 
 stood as repeated. DYN N Nw’ Wy wd? 
 the LXX. have rendered, ὅπως ἐκζη- 
 τήσωσιν οἱ κατάλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων, 
 or, as some MSS. read, ἐκζητήσωσι με, 
 as if their Hebrew text had been Ὁ} 
 DIN MMW MRaw Tn, that the residue of 
 men may seek me. MNeweome supposes 
 that the reading ‘DX is a contraction for 
 mins ; but though τὸν Κύριον, which 
 we find in the quotation, Acts xv. 17, 
 might seem to favour this supposition, 
 there is no evidence to prove that the 
 contraction “8, so common in Rabbin- 
 ical writings, is of such antiquity. Tov 
 Κύριον I consider to be merely an 
 interpretation of we. No Hebrew MSS. 
 afford any countenance to the Greek 
 translation, 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 con- 
 nexion, 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 expres- 
 sive 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, 
 refers to a period subsequent to that of 
 the calling of the Gentiles. This the 
 introductory phrase ΘΝ 0") 727, Behold, 
 the days are coming, distinguished as it 
 is from N77 OVA, Ix that day, ver. 11, the 
 position of the prophecy, and other 
 features which characterise it, sufficiently 
 show. The verses are parallel with 
 Is. Ixi. 4; Ixii. 8, 9; Ixv. 21—23; andare 
 to be interpreted of the future restoration 
 of the Jews to their own land, and their 
 abundant prosperity in the latter day. 
 For 237 70, fo draw out the seed, comp. 
 vw wo, Ps. exxvi. 6. The idea seeins 
 to be that of conveying the seed with 
 the hand from the sack or vessel in 
 which it was carried, yet not to the 
 exclusion of the act of sowing. Comp. 
 
 the Eth σὰ : jaculatus est sa- 
 
 gittas. For 00», 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 them- 
 selves would appear to be converted into 
 the juice of the grape. 
 
 
 
 « Subitis messor gaudebit aristis: 
 Rorabunt querceta favis, stagnantia 
 passim 
 
 Vina fluent, oleique lacus.” 
 Claudian, in Rufin. lib. i. 382. 
 
CHAP. IX. | 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 183 
 
 14 And 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 1 have given them, 
 
 Saith Jehovah thy God. 
 
 How striking the contrast between the 
 scene here depicted, and that which the 
 face of Palestine has presented during 
 the long period of the dispersion ! 
 
 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 verses. Once and again 
 they have been removed from that 
 favoured land, on account of their 
 
 wickedness; but still it is theirs by 
 Divine donation to their great progenitor. 
 And when they return to the faith of 
 Abraham, beholding in retrospection the 
 day of the Messiah, which he saw and 
 was glad, but deeply bewailing their 
 guilt in having crucified him, and per- 
 severed for so many centuries in the 
 rejection of his gospel, they shall regain 
 possession of it, and remain its happy 
 occupants till the end of time. 
 

 
 
 iv Pia 
 
 ἂν “ἢ τὸ γς κ᾿ 
 Wat, Mf, ‘Ge oi Ἶ εἰ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ἷ AT. hee " fe Mia 
 Yd) awake ν 
 me niin ne ἡ 
 
 ΝΣ i Ἢ 
 
 
 
 ae igs λν ὦ si νὰ 
 
OBA DIA HT. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE prophecy of Obadiah, consisting only of twenty-one verses, 
 is the shortest book of the Old Testament. Jerome calls him, 
 parvus propheta, versuum supputatione, non sensuum. 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 Obadiah who lived at the 
 court of Ahab; some, with the overseer of the workmen, men- 
 tioned 2 Chron. xxxiv. 12; and some, with others of the same 
 name; while there is no lack of legendary notices respecting the 
 place of his birth, sepulchre, &c. See Carpzovii Introd. tom. iii. 
 pp- 332, 333. 
 
 That he flourished after the capture of Jerusalem by the Chal- 
 deans, 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 prophetical 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 
 
 ΒΒ 
 
186 PREFACE ΤῸ OBADIAH. 
 
 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 con- 
 trary hypothesis, which has been advocated by ‘Tarnovius, 
 Schmidius, Du Veil, Drusius, Newcome, Eichhorn, Jahn, Schnurrer, 
 Rosenmiiller, Holzapfel, Hendewerk, Hiivernick, and Maurer. 
 Indeed, a comparison 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 Dissertatio Philologica in Obadiam, 
 Tiibing. 1787, 4to. Add to which, that Jeremiah appears to have 
 been in the habit of partially quoting from preceding prophets. 
 Comp. Is. xv., xvi., with Jerem. xlvii. 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 condition, 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 both 
 must be considered as having been originally delivered by the 
 same individual; whereas Jeremiah presents it in the form of 
 disjecta membra poete. 
 
 In all probability the prophecy was delivered between the year 
 B.C. 588, when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldzans, and the 
 termination of the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. During this 
 interval, that monarch subdued the Idumzans, and other neigh- 
 bouring 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 Idumzans 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 predictions of 
 
PREFACE TO OBADIAH. 187 
 
 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 
 Tdumza. 
 
 The reason why the book occupies its present unchronological 
 position in the Hebrew Bible, is supposed to be the connexion 
 between the subject of which it treats, and the mention made of 
 “the residue of Edom,” at the conclusion of the preceding book of 
 Amos. 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 The 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 towards the Jews, 10—14; 
 and denounces a righteous retribution, 15, 16. The remaining portion foretels 
 the restoration of the Jews, their peaceful settlement in their own land, and the 
 establishment of the kingdom of Messiah, 17—21. 
 
 1 Tue 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!” 
 
 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 
 Hitzig. For ὙΠ, see on Is. i. 1. 729, 
 Obadiah, “the servant of Jehovah,” 
 equivalent to 872¥, Abdeel, Jer. xxxvi. 26 ; 
 
 Arab. ad] δας, dbd-allah ; Ger. Gottes- 
 
 schalck. For os, Edom, see on Is. 
 xxxiv. 5. The words Mim np ΡΟ AYTDD, 
 we have heard a report from Jehovah, 
 are not to be regarded as designed to 
 describe the reception of the Divine 
 message by the prophet, but express the 
 communication made to the nations by 
 the ambassador sent to summon them 
 to the attack upon Idumea, as the 
 following clause shows. ‘The πυγοῦ, 
 report, or communication itself, is con- 
 
 tained in the last line of the verse. The 
 plural form 2B, “we have heard,” 
 for which Jeremiah has *py2v, “7 have 
 heard,” is so qualified by the passive 
 verb πρὸ in the second member of the 
 parallelism, that it is equivalent to the 
 passive form 7¥D03, hath been heard. 
 There is, therefore, no necessity to 
 inquire whether Obadiah meant himself 
 and other prophets, or whether he 
 identified himself with his countrymen. 
 All that is intended is the circulation of 
 the hostile message in regard to Idumza; 
 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, iz loc. V8, a messenger, or 
 
 ambassador ; Arab. ye yee , twit, pro- 
 
 fectus est. UXX. περιοχὴν, but in Jer. 
 ἀγγέλους; Symm. here ἀγγελίαν. Comp. 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 189 
 
 2 Behold, I have made thee small among the nations ; 
 Thou art exceedingly despised. 
 
 3 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 ? 
 
 4 Though thou shouldest soar like the eagle, 
 And shouldest set thy nest among the stars, 
 Thence I will bring thee down, saith Jehovah. 
 
 Is. xviii. 2, and my note there. 99), 
 arise! up! like 332, come! go! &e., is 
 frequently used as a term of excitement. 
 With it the address of the herald 
 commences ; who, identifying himself 
 with the nations which he summons, 
 preeeeds to employ the plural of the 
 same verb in its strictly hostile sense, 
 followed by the preposition ἢ. πο, 
 though properly masculine, is here 
 viewed as J 8, a country; hence the 
 feminine suffix in Ty. 
 
 2. Here the masculine gender is 
 adopted, which is continued throughout 
 the propheey—tY, people, being under- 
 stood. The past time of the verbs ex- 
 presses the certainty of the events; and 
 Por, small, and 3, 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 Idumeeans 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 
 impregnable. Such inaccessible places 
 are appropriately called »2D-2Nn, cliffs of 
 
 On 
 
 the rock, Syr. 1 ee rupes ; the Arab. 
 
 =>, confugit ; and hence the idea of 
 
 refuge, which is secondary, and less 
 proper to be adopted here. LXX. ἐν 
 
 oO ΕΣ 
 ταῖς ὀπαῖς τῶν πετρῶν. Syr. Jasos 
 
 2 ¥i 
 loeae » in fortissina rupe. Some in- 
 ae 
 
 terpreters are of opinion that by >, 
 Sela, we are to understand the city of 
 that name, otherwise called Petra, 
 situated in Wady Misa, and celebrated 
 as the capital of Idumea. See on Is, 
 xvi. 1. The O27, c//#s, 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 7Xwwo, 
 hath deceived thee, four of De Rossi’s 
 MSS. and originally two more, read 
 πῶσ, 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 
 ww is used in the sense of raising, or 
 elevating. The ἡ in 25} 15 simply a poetic 
 paragogic, of which several examples 
 occur in the Benoni participle. See Gen. 
 xlix. 1] ; Deut. xxxii. 16; Is. xxii. 16; 
 Micah vii. 14. In 172% 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. 
 Ts. xxite 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 
 
190 
 
 5 If thieves had come to thee, 
 
 OBADIAH. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 the soaring of the eagle, and his building 
 his nest on the inaccessible crags of the 
 rock, comp. Job xxxix. 27, 28: 
 WW) WAN PP OY-ON 
 #32 DY 5) 
 WE) PEE 27 
 i TPA VID py 
 
 “Ts 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, and the fast- 
 ness.” 
 
 ow, Ewald and Hitzig take to be a passive 
 participle ; but that it is the infinitive 
 construct, is rendered certain by its 
 having the preposition }'2 before it, Job 
 xx. 4. In the present instance, and in 
 Num. xxiv. 21, m which, as here, it is 
 followed by 732, it stands elliptically for 
 pYyn ow ; which sufficiently accounts for 
 the rendering of the LXX., Syr., Targ., 
 and Vulg., which exhibit the second 
 person singular of the verb. The term 
 D233 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. 
 TNS Is a direct reply to the vaunting 
 question, ὅτ Ὁ, ver. 3. Theodoret well 
 expresses the sense thus: ᾿Επειδὴ τοίνυν, 
 φησὶ ταύταις θαῤῥών ἀλαζονεύῃ καὶ 
 μέγα φρονεῖς ὡς ἀχείρωτος, εὐάλωτόν 
 σε καταστήσω καὶ εὐχείρωτον τοῖς 
 ἐχθροῖς, καὶ τῶν πολεμίων οὐ διαφεῦ ξῃ 
 τὰς χεῖρας, οὐδὲ εἰ δίκην ἀετοῦ μετέωρος 
 ἀρθείης, kK. τ. X. 
 
 5. ‘The Idumeans are here taught, that 
 their devastation would be complete. 
 This prophetic intelligence is com- 
 municated in the form of interrogative 
 illustrations, derived from customs with 
 which they were familiar. The manner 
 in which they should be treated would be 
 very different from that adopted by 
 private thieves, or bya pay of maraud- 
 ing nomades, who usually seize as much 
 
 as they can, and especially what they 
 have set their minds on, in the hurry of 
 the moment, leaving the rest of the 
 property to its possessors. They should 
 even fare worse than the vines, on which 
 the vintagers, though they cut down the 
 bunches generally, still left some that 
 might be gleaned afterwards. In Jere- 
 miah, the order of the illustrations is 
 reversed, the vintagers being taken first. 
 mI) 118, nxight-robbers. Insucha country 
 as Idumeea, a predatory attack could only 
 have been attempted in the night, espe- 
 cially on such places as were most 
 strongly fortified by nature, and com- 
 manded a view of the immediately 
 surrounding regions. Hitzig thinks the 
 prophet has Petra specially in his eye, 
 on account of its having been the great 
 emporium of that part of the world. 
 Instead of 79 °770 Dx 7282 0233 DN, Jere- 
 miah has only 723 0223 Ox, which is less 
 forcible. He also substitutes 397147 for 
 1229, The position of the words 70972 Px, 
 How thou art destroyed, has offended fas- 
 tidious critics, some of whom would re- 
 move them to the beginning of the verse, 
 and others to the commencement of the 
 following. What might be accounted 
 their natural place would be the end of 
 the present verse; but the prophet, 
 struggling to give expression to the feel- 
 ing which agitated his mind, breaks in 
 upon his illustrations with the interjected 
 exclamation, and then carries them on to 
 a close. The words are omitted by Jere- 
 miah. 727 has two leading significations : 
 to be like; and, according with the Arab. 
 
 eo , vulneravit, perdidit, it farther means 
 
 to cause to cease, destroy, ἕο. LXX. 
 ποῦ ἂν ἀπεῤῥίφης ; having read 10273, 
 a verb, which nowhere occurs in Niphal. 
 om, their sufficiency, i.e. what was 
 requisite for supplying their preseut 
 wants, or such a quantity as they had 
 sufficient strength to remove. LXX. 
 
 a y- 
 ta ἱκανὰ ἑαυτοῖς. Syr. coor lmso 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 6 How is Esau explored! 
 
 191 
 
 And his hidden places searched ! 
 
 7 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! 
 
 sufficientia eorum. The apodosis is 
 omitted; but there is a beautiful pro- 
 priety in leaving it to be supplied by 
 those to whom the appeal was made. 
 
 6. The prophet here resumes his strain 
 of sarcastic plaint over the fall of Idumea, 
 which he had abruptly adopted in the 
 preceding verse, repeating the ἿΣ there 
 employed, which 1s again understood 
 before 3222. The patronymic YY 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. 
 DY, like Oo, may either signify 
 places where treasures are Aidden, or the 
 treasures themselves; or the term may 
 be explained of Aiding-places, to which 
 men resort in order to elude an enemy. 
 1 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 
 
 slate . Such places abound in Idumea. 
 
 * Revera,” says Jerome, “ut dicamus ali- 
 quid de natura loci, omnis australis regio 
 Idumzorum de LEleutheropoli usque 
 Petram et Ailam (hee est enim possessio 
 Esau) in specubus habitatiunculas habet. 
 Et propter nimios calores solis, quia 
 meridiana provincia est, subterraneis 
 tuguriis utitur.” Instead of the exclama- 
 tory form here employed, Jeremiah 
 adopts that of direct personal assertion : 
 ΠΟΘ ON WI ny Haw; changing, 
 at the same time, 27 into AT, and 
 eee nto VIE. 
 
 7. 728, which in Kal has the signi- 
 fication ¢o send, send away, signifies in 
 Piel, fo dismiss, eject, expel, conveying 
 the superadded idea of compulsion or 
 violence. Connected, as here, with 7, 
 
 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. 
 PAS Non po, they shall lead thee cap- 
 tive from the border. By 1 3, the 
 men of thy covenant, are meant those 
 who had formally pledged assistance to 
 the Edomites, confederates, allies ; by 
 Fad wow, the men of thy peace, neigh- 
 bouring states, which were on terms of 
 peace and friendship with them. LXX. 
 ἄνδρες εἰρηνικοί, those who were peace- 
 ably inclined towards them. Before 
 7209 supply "O28 from the preceding— 
 the men of thy bread ; or "22%, 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. xli. 10, where 
 a similar combination of ‘979 28 with 
 Ὁ 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 ΤΠ ὉΠ, instead 
 of 7xN7, as also one of the early editions, 
 the LXX., and Arab. ; but the common 
 reading is to be preferred. To >, 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 
 determining the meaning of "2. LXX. 
 
 ἔνεδρα; Syr. lalscs, insidie; Vulg. 
 insidia ; Targ. SRA, 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 
 
102 
 
 OBADIAH. 
 
 8 Shall I not in that day, saith Jehovah, 
 Cause the wise men to perish from Edom ? 
 And the men of understanding from the mountains of Esau ? 
 
 in this place, as the signification of wound, 
 which more or less attaches to the word, 
 Jer. xxx. 13, Hos. v. 13, the other pas- 
 sages in which it occurs, will not, with 
 any tolerable degree of propriety, apply. 
 Two derivations have been proposed, 
 
 the Arab. Dar 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 
 
 nya , mentitus fut, Jyj> Sallum; men- 
 
 dacium, with which the Hebrew ™, ¢o 
 decline from the way of truth, has been 
 compared. The use of ATID wy, they 
 place under thee, most naturally suggests 
 the idea of a giz 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. Furst, who derives the word 
 from 4, gives the significations thus : 
 “circumligatio; obligatio vulneris ; fascia; 
 hinc, medicina ; moraliter, /agueorum 
 connexio, perfidia fallax, insidiosa, frau- 
 dulenta.’ "Yo no quarter could the Idu- 
 means look for aid. Their allies, their 
 neighbours, 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 rum. 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., 
 Houbigant, and Newcome, to change 
 ja, ix him, into 3, ἐμ 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 227, 
 philosophy, for the cultivation of which, 
 their intercourse with Babylon and Egypt 
 was exceedingly favourable, as were 
 likewise their means of acquiring infor- 
 mation from the numerous caravans 
 whose route lay through their country, 
 thus forming a chain of communication 
 between Europe and India. Speaking 
 of wisdom, the author of the book of 
 Baruch says, in reference to their cele- 
 brity as sages of antiquity, chap. 11]. 
 22, 23 :— 
 “ΤῸ hath not been heard of in Canaan, 
 Neither hath it been seen in Teman. 
 The Hagarenes that seek wisdom upon 
 earth, 
 The merchants of Meran and of Teman, 
 The mythologists, aud investigators of 
 intelligence, 
 None of these have known the ways of 
 wisdom, 
 Nor remembered her paths.” 
 
 These sages are here called 0237, and 
 their accumulated stores of wisdom are 
 expressed by 7239, cntelligence, the term 
 which had just been employed at the 
 close of the preceding verse. The inter- 
 rogative N07 is here strongly affirmative; 
 and ) in ‘A72N7) is merely conversive. 
 Yr 7, ¢hé mount of Esau, is the 
 mountainous region of Seir, to the south 
 
 of Palestine, now called δ᾽ ὦ ie 
 Jebel Sherah, and δ᾽ ἐμ! , esh-Sherah, 
 
 extending as far south as Akabah. It 
 was originally inhabited by the Horites, or 
 Troglodyte, (so called becausethey dwelt 
 in the caves of the mountains,) whom 
 the posterity of Esau expelled, and then 
 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 
 
 region that the name of >, Jebel, or 
 
 Gebalene, was given. ὙΠ, mountain, 
 being here, and verse 9th, obviously used 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 193 
 
 9 Thy mighty men, O Teman! shall be dismayed, 
 That every one may be cut off from the mountains of Esau. 
 10 For the slaughter, for the injury of thy brother Jacob, 
 Shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 
 11 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. 
 
 in a collective sense, I have translated it 
 in the plural. 
 
 9. For jon, Zeman, see on Amos i. 12. 
 Sop has been variously construed. Ewald 
 unnaturally renders it, without battle. 
 Schnurrer treats it as a participle in 
 Pael or Poel, pointing it 7822 or 78), 
 and regarding it as equivalent to the 
 
 Arab. sie vir prelio aptus. He 
 
 would thus make it parallel with 023, 
 mighty men, in the preceding hemistich. 
 Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and some others, 
 translate, dy slaughter. Leo Juda, most 
 of the older modern translators, followed 
 by Jaeger, Hesselberg, Hendewerk, and 
 Maurer, render, propter caedem, and 
 suppose the prophet to be here assigning 
 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 W277, as in 
 the verse preceding; and also that the 
 words ΘΠ ΟΡ 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., Hexa- 
 plar Syr., Vulg., Dathe, Liveley, New- 
 come, and Boothroyd, by which 797 is 
 removed from verse 9th, and placed at 
 the beginning of verse 10th. 
 
 10. #78 Dom HRD. Both nouns are 
 _ in construction with 77x, and the geni- 
 tive 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 
 common parent. Comp. Amos i. 1]. 
 Jacob 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 
 century 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 Idumzans, 
 describe the various modes in which they 
 had manifested their malice towards the 
 Jews. Some have thought that 722 Ty 
 means here to stand aloof, to assume a 
 neutral position, whence one may observe 
 the movements of two opposing 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. 18. That 
 > is not to be rendered wealth or riches 
 in this passage, but forces, army, or the 
 like, may be inferred from reference being 
 made to the division of the substance of 
 the citizens of Jerusalem by lot in the 
 following hemistich. Ὁ and 022 de- 
 scribe the Chaldeans by whom Jerusalem 
 was taken. 77 is in Piel, contracted for 
 vm. Comp. 3, Lam. iii. 53. Instead of 
 yw, the reading of the text, many MSS., 
 four of the earliest printed editions, and 
 some more recent ones, exhibit VP, the 
 full form, as proposed by the Keri. 
 That the word may originally have been 
 read as the singular, is clear from its 
 
 cc 
 
194 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 OBADIAH. 
 
 Thou shouldest not have looked on in the day of thy brother, 
 In the day of his being treated as an alien; 
 Nor shouldest thou have rejoiced over the sons of Judah, 
 In the day of their destruction : 
 Neither shouldest thou have spoken insolently 
 In the day of distress. 
 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 afiliction, 
 In the day of their calamity ; 
 
 Nor stretched forth thy hand to their wealth, 
 
 In the day of their calamity. 
 14 
 
 Neither shouldest thou have stood at the pass, 
 
 To cut off those of his that escaped ; 
 
 occurrence in this number, ver. 13 ; but 
 then, in both cases, it is to be taken as 
 a collective. 
 
 12. The future forms 877>x, MDA ON 
 THON, RADON, Maw oe, ToyAos, and 
 ὍΘΙ Ν, 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 
 properly subjunctives of negation, ex- 
 pressive of what should not have been 
 done, and therefore have the usual force 
 of the imperative. “ Verba Hebreorum 
 seepe non actum, sed debitum vel officium 
 significant.” Glassii Philolog. Saer. lib. iii. 
 tract. 3, can. 6. Nicholson’s Ewald, 
 § 264, 327, means here fo look upon 
 with malignant pleasure, to feast one’s 
 eyes with the calamity of another. 
 pie oY, the day of thy brother, is after- 
 wards explained by 4723, D738, MY, Ox, 
 which describe the calamitous circum- 
 stances in which the Jews were placed. 
 nv, day, is often used to express a 
 disastrous or calamitous period. 122, 
 which is taken actively to denote sevcre 
 treatment, punishment, Job. xxxi. 8, is 
 here used passively of the experience of 
 
 such treatment. Comp. the Arab. yo 
 difficilis ac durus fuit ; gravis ac dificilis ; 
 
 improbavit. The idea radically inherent 
 in the term is that of treating any one 
 
 as a stranger, 7. 6. as an alien or enemy. 
 m 3737, 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. Hzek. xxxv. 18. 
 
 13. ἘΣ in TAND? isemphatic. TWN, 
 some take to be the third plural feminine, 
 having for its object Or ; but the entire 
 construction of the passage requires tlie 
 second person singular masculine, Twn. 
 The syllable 72 is added with a view to 
 give intensity to the verb, as in Jud. 
 v. 26; thus expressing the eagerness 
 with which the Idumeans seized upon 
 the spoil. Rosenmiiller is of opinion 
 that the 7 is paragogic, and the 2 epen- 
 thetic ; but Gesenius is rather inclined 
 to compare it with the energetic Future 
 of the Arabs. Lehrgeb. p. 801. LXX. 
 
 9 2 
 
 ~a~ 
 μὴ συνεπιθῇ; Syr. waa 02 ἢ; 
 
 Vulg. πολ emitteris; Targ, NmoWwiNT. 
 See for more instances of this intensive 
 form, Job xvii. 16; Is. xxviii. 3; Exod. 
 i. 10. For the omission of Ὁ, hand, see 
 2 Sam. vi. 6; Ps. xviii. 17. 
 
 14. PB is commonly rendered diviam, 
 a parting of a way, or a place where a 
 xoad breaks off into two. I should rather 
 think, from the idea of violence implied 
 in P28, that it signifies a dreak or disrup- 
 tion in a rock or mountain, through 
 which a passage might be effected into 
 the region beyond. Comp. O77 7259, 
 1 Kings xix. 11. LXX. διεκβολαί. Syr. 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 195 
 
 Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his 
 That were left in the day of distress. 
 
 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. 
 
 2) vg 
 jd aa, a narrow passage between two 
 
 mountains. In all probability, the refer- 
 ence 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. pye7 9 Toy, fo 
 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 carried them back as 
 prisoners, and delivered them up to the 
 enemy. 
 
 15. In this verse, the conquest of 
 Tdumea and all the neighbouring nations 
 by Nebuchadnezzar is declared to be 
 at hand. In the war which he was 
 to carry on against them, due retribu- 
 tion would be rendered to the Edom- 
 ites. Comp. Ps. cxxxvii.7,8. For the 
 phrase 7) DY, the day of Jehovah, see 
 on Is. 11. 12. 
 
 16. The Targ., Kimchi, Munster, Vata- 
 blus, Calvin, Michaelis, Hendewerk, and 
 Hitzig, consider the Idumeeans to be still 
 addressed, and most of them explain 
 their drinking on Mount Zion of the 
 festivities with which they celebrated the 
 victory gamed over the Jews. Grotius 
 refers the words to the same people, 
 only he takes the verb 7 in the bad 
 sense, as denoting the drinking of the 
 cup of divine wrath, and renders 174y 
 oR, on account of my holy mountain, 
 which he explains thus: *‘ propterJ udzam 
 a vobis lacessitam.” But it seems more 
 natural to regard the words as directed, 
 Ὀγ a sudden apostrophe, to the Jews, 
 
 assuring them, that, though thesufferings 
 to which they had been subjected were 
 great, still greater punishment 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, 
 Liveley, Rosenmiller, Schnurrer, De 
 Wette, Hesselberg, and Maurer. Instead 
 of 12h, continually, the reading 20, 
 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 to 
 De Rossi, is found in all the most 
 accurate and best MSS., both Spanish 
 and German. In all probability 222 was 
 substituted by some copyist from Jer. 
 xxv. 9. What proves that the LXX. 
 had the word Tn in their Hebrew text, 
 is their having mistaken it for ‘an, 
 rendering it οἶνον, wine. 19, to swallow 
 or suck down with greediness. Arab. 
 
 ys and ost avidus ; (x3 us multum 
 
 aque ὁ]. Comp. 2°, the throat; >, 
 to swallow, &c. The idea intended to be 
 conveyed by the use of the verb here 
 is that of drinking completely off the 
 cup of wrath, as a thirsty person would 
 a vessel of water. 
 
196 
 
 17 
 And it shall be holy ; 
 
 OBADIAH. 
 
 But in Mount Zion shall be the escaped, 
 
 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, 
 
 And the country of Samaria ; 
 
 And Benjamin, Gilead. 
 
 20 And the captives of this host of the sons of Israel, 
 
 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. 
 m5 means such as had survived the 
 captivity. yp, holiness, i.e. holy, refers 
 to Mount Zion, which had been polluted 
 by the idolatrous Chaldeans. See on 
 Joel ii. 17. Jaeger and Hesselberg 
 refer the suffix in DID, their posses- 
 sions, to the hostile nations spoken of in 
 the preceding verse ; but less naturally. 
 
 18. Though the houses of Jacob and 
 Joseph are here spoken of separately, it 
 was not the intention of the prophet 
 to teach that the two kingdoms of 
 Judah and Israel would be re-esta- 
 -blished; yet the special mention of 
 Joseph 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 
 neighbouring 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 metaphorical 
 language, comp. Num. xxi. 28; Is. x. 17 ; 
 and, for the ground of it, Is. v. 24. 
 
 19. By 123, the south, or southern 
 part of Palestine, is meant those who 
 should occupy it; and by 7250, ¢he 
 plain, those who should occupy the low 
 country along the shore of the Medi- 
 terranean. LXX. Oi ἐν NayéB; of ἐν 
 τῇ Σεφηλά. According to the relative 
 positions of those who should take 
 possession 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 
 PMD ATO nx Ox TTY nx, it would seem 
 to be intimated that the regions of 
 Ephraim and Samaria were to be occupied 
 by the Jews and Israelites jointly, with- 
 out any regard to tribal distinctions : 
 and the reason why the tribe of Benjamin 
 is mentioned, is merely on account of the 
 proximity of Gilead to the territory 
 which it originally possessed. That 
 mw 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 reference 
 is made. The mountainous country of 
 Idumeea is called D118 77, Gen. xxx. 4 
 (Eng. version, 3). 
 
 20. 7, 1,6. 20, az army, host, &e., is 
 
OBADIAH. 
 
 197 
 
 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. 
 21 And deliverers shall come up in Mount Zion, 
 
 here used to express the number of 
 Israelitish captives who were found in 
 Pheenicia, into which they had been sold 
 at different times as slaves, and thence 
 into Greece. See Joel iii. 6, 7. 02223 is 
 elliptical for 5°22223, which is the reading 
 of three MSS. Before mW 7, supply 
 acy from the following. NEw, Zarephath, 
 
 or Sarepta, now called ME po, Surafend, 
 
 a town belonging to Sidon, and situated 
 between that city and Tyre, close to the 
 shore of the Mediterranean. 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. 11]. 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 80, it has been hitherto found 
 impossible to determine. The LXX. 
 Ἐφραθά, which in all probability is a 
 corruption of Σεφραθά. Aq.,Symm., and 
 
 Theod., capapad. Hexap. Syr.2,2}a, 
 but the Peshito [rsa Spain, with 
 
 which agrees NY9EDN of the Targ.: an 
 interpretation unanimously adopted by 
 the Rabbins, who in like manner concur 
 in interpreting ΠΡῚΝ of France. Jerome, 
 as instructed by his Jewish teacher, 
 renders it the Bosphorus. Some refer it 
 io Sipphara in Mesopotamia, some to 
 Sparta, in support of which hypothesis 
 they appeal to 1 Mace. xii. 21; while 
 others propose 50, Sephara, Gen. x. 30, 
 or the town of Sarpap, mentioned by 
 Ptolemy, as lying between the territory 
 of the Homerites and Sabeans. 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 Janneus is 
 given by Josephus: xara τοῦτον τὸν 
 καιρὸν ἤδη τῶν Σύρων καὶ ᾿Ιδουμαίων καὶ 
 Φοινίκων πόλεις εἶχον οἱ “lovdaiov πρὸς 
 θαλάσσῃ μὲν Στράτωνος πύργον, Ἀπολλω- 
 νίαν, ᾿Ιόππην, ᾿Ιάμνειαν, " ACwrov, Tatar, 
 ᾿Ανθηδόνα, Ῥαφίαν, Ρινοκούρουραν᾽" ἐν δὲ 
 τῇ μεσογείᾳ κατὰ τὴν ᾿Ιδουμαίαν,Αδωρα, 
 καὶ Μάρισσαν, καὶ Σαμάρειαν, ἹΚαρμήλιον 
 ὄρος, καὶ τὸ ᾿Ιταβύριον ὄρος, Σκυθόπο- 
 λιν, Τάδαρα, Ταυλανίτιδα, Σελεύκειαν, 
 Τάβαλα, Μωαβίτιδας, ᾿Εσσεβὼν, Μή- 
 δαβα, Λεμβᾶ, ᾿Ορώνᾳας, Γελίθωνα, Zapa, 
 Κιλίκιον αὐλῶνα, Πέλλαν" ---λλας τε 
 πόλεις πρωτευούσας τῆς Συρίας, αἱ ἦσαν 
 kateotpappevat.—Antig. book xiii. ch. 
 xv. 4. 
 
 21. Though forty-four MSS., besides 
 several others at second hand, and eight 
 printed editions, read OYw instead of 
 py win, there is no difference in the 
 meaning, the former reading being 
 merely defective in orthography. The 
 LXX., Aq., Theod., Syr., and Arab., ap- 
 pear to have read OY or OY” in the 
 passive, which is unsuitable to the 
 connexion. Jerome observes that the 
 word is active. Such saviours or de- 
 liverers are meant, as those who were 
 raised up in the time of the Judges. 
 There can be little doubt that the 
 celebrated family of the Maccabees are 
 intended, whose valiant princes governed 
 the Jews for the πέτα 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. ‘50 is here used in the 
 sense of punishing, as in 1 Sam. iii. 13 ; 
 and ©50 in the phrase .3 Ὁρῶ πῶν, 
 Exod, xii. 12; Num. xxxiii. 4. Comp. 
 κρίνω, Acts vil. 7, The concluding words 
 of the prophecy, 73.97 Ti) TON, refer 
 to the reign of the Messiah, called so 
 
198 OBADIAH. 
 
 To judge mount Esau ; 
 And the kingdom shall be Jehovah’s. 
 
 frequently in the N. T. ἡ Βασιλεία have taken place; the temple would 
 τοῦ Θεοῦ. Comp. Dan. ii. 44; vil. 27. have remained in ruins, and the land 
 But for the introduction of this king- a scene of desolation. 
 
 dom, no restoration of the Jews would 
 
Oe IN ake Er. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 AGAINST no book of Scripture have the shafts of infidelity and 
 the sapping 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 Eichhorn justly observes,* 
 there is not a single circumstance in the narrative that would sug- 
 gest such an idea; and, besides, whenever any account is given of 
 a dream in Scripture, the fact that such is the case, is always 
 intimated by the writer. The manner in which the book com- 
 mences and closes, is also objected to this hypothesis, which 
 J. G. A. Miillert scruples not to assert we are on no ground 
 
 * Hinleit. Band iv. § 575, + Paulus Memorabilien. Stiick vi. p. 154. 
 
200 PREFACE TO JONAH. 
 
 _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 eccentric Hermann von der Hardt, Professor 
 of the Oriental languages at the university of Helmstedt.* Accord- 
 ing 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 con- 
 vulsions 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, &c. Semler, Michaelis, 
 Herder, Hezel, Stiudlin, Paulus, Meyer, Eichhorn, Niemeyer, &c. 
 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 an 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, Gesenius, De Wette, Maurer, and Winer, 
 derive it from popular tradition: some tracing it to the fable of 
 the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea monster, by Perseus, 
 Apollod. 11. 4, 3; Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 662, &c.; 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. 98; 
 Cymrill 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 accords to the book a strictly historical character; in other 
 words, which affirms 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 composing the canon of the Old 
 
 * Mnigmata prisci Orbis. Jonas in Luce, &c. Helmstedt. 1723, fol. For the 
 full title of this remarkable book, see Rosenmiiller’s Prolegom. 
 
PREFACE TO JONAH. 201 
 
 Testament, and place implicit reliance on the authority 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 recognises the prophetical office of the son of 
 Amittai [Ἰωνῷ τοῦ προφήτου), just as he does that of Elisha, Isaiah, 
 and Daniel, but represents his being in the belly of the fish as a 
 real miracle (τὸ σημεῖον) ; 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, “ Behold! a greater 
 than Jonah is here.” Matt. xii. 89—41; xvi. 4. Now, is it con- 
 ceivable, that all these historical circumstances would have been 
 placed 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 on which the historical bearing of the reference 
 in this case is rejected, may not that to the Queen of Sheba, which 
 follows in the connexion, 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 
 altogether 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 purpose, 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 
 
 * Divine Inspiration, Lect. IX. pp. 450—488, 
 DD 
 
903 PREFACE TO JONAH, 
 
 induce to the endurance of actual suffering, so, in the other, a 
 merely imaginary repentance must be regarded as little calculated 
 to enforce the duties of genuine contrition and amendment of life. 
 
 Certainly in no other instance in which our Saviour adduces pas- 
 sages out of the Old Testament for the purpose of illustrating or 
 confirming his doctrines, can it be shown, that any point or cir- 
 eumstance 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 con- 
 fident belief of mankind in all future ages. 
 
 It is only necessary further to add, that if the book had contained 
 a parable, 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 spxo—7 JT} 741 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. xxxvin. 4) Jer. 12. 125 ae 1 Sev xvi. AS ΣΎ de 
 xxix. 30; Ezek. 11.,.16; Hag. i. 1,3; 11..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 investigation 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 
 confessedly 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 extraordinary in itself, was in exact keeping 
 with the circumstances in which he was placed ; and, in so far, was 
 
9 
 
 PREFACE TO JONAH. 203 
 
 parallel with those wrought in connexion 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 
 ealled 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 received its accomplishment in the 
 reign of Jeroboam II., it is obvious he must at least have been 
 contemporary with that monarch, if he did not flourish at a still 
 more early period. He is justly considered to have been, with the 
 exception of Joel, 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 penman, as it also is by profane authors. 
 Nor can the occurrence of two or three Chaldee words, as ΓΘ Ὁ, 
 a ship, NWY, to think, DY, 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 influence on his style. With respect to DD, 
 
 . . e = . nee . 
 as it is also the Syriac |Aasam, and Arabic aimw, there is every 
 
 reason to conclude that it was a nautical term in use among the 
 Pheenicians, 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 ὴ Φ 
 and wa 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 
 sunilar circumstances, by other writers. The employment of uv’, the 
 
204 PREFACE TO JONAH. 
 
 abbreviated form of IW, in Judges ν. 7, 15 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 Scriptures 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, MPITITDY ANNI AY, 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 uni- 
 formity in the style of the narrative, and, as De Wette acknow- 
 ledges, bedeutet nichts.t 
 
 In point of style, the book is remarkable for the simplicity of its 
 prose: the only portion of poetry is chap. 11. 3—10 (Eng. version, 
 2—9), which possesses considerable spirit and force, though some 
 parts of it are evidently a repetition of certain sentences 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 glaube wer da will, ich glaube es nicht. All that we 
 learn from Scripture is, that his father’s name was Amittai, and 
 that his birth-place was Gath-hepher (TSM y3, 2 Kings xiv. 25; 
 75M 13, Josh. xix. 13), a city in the tribe of Zebulon, 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 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 wickedness, 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 behoved those who were continually 
 
 * See Holden on Ecclesiastes, Introd. Dissert. pp. 10—13. 
 + Lehrbuch, § 237. 
 
PREFACE TO JONAH. 205 
 
 instructed by the servants of Jehovah, seriously to reflect on the 
 euilt which they contracted by refusing to listen to their admoni- 
 tions. 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 was baffled in his purpose ; the alarm of the sailors, and the means 
 which they adopted for their safety ; the detection of Jonah; and his being 
 
 thrown into the sea, 4—16. 
 
 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 }, 
 commonly rendered azd, 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 
 historical books to mark their connexion 
 with a foregoing narrative, as Hxod.1.1; 
 1 Kings i. 1; Ezra i. 1; yet it is also 
 employed inchoatively where there is no 
 connexion whatever, as Ruthi.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 
 mY, Jonah, and ΟΝ, Amittai, signify 
 a 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, O77, arise, 
 is used before another verb, as a term 
 of excitement. 22, NInEvEH, the 
 ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, 
 was situated on the eastern bank of the 
 Tigris, opposite to the modern town of 
 Mosul. The name of Nuxieh or Nine- 
 vouh is still given to a village on the 
 spot where there have recently been 
 discovered walls of brick and earth, ex- 
 
 tending over a surface of about 30,000 
 feet, and enclosing an irregular quad- 
 rangle, which appears to have formed 
 the chief part of the ancient city. The 
 whole area is covered with bricks, tiles, 
 and terra-cottas with cuneiform inscrip- 
 tions. The name is generally allowed 
 to signify “the residence of Ninus,” 
 from 7.3, Vinus, and 73, 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 Nivos, Nizus, after 
 its founder, who must have been identical 
 with Nimrod, to whom the foundation 
 of the city is ascribed, Gen. x. 1]. For, 
 that 1x, Asshur, is there to be under- 
 stood of the country so called, or Assyria, 
 and not of a person of that name, is evi- 
 dent from ver. 22, where Asshur is meu- 
 tioned as a descendant of Shem, and not 
 of Ham. ‘I'he omission of the local 7, 
 which might have been expected to form 
 Tex, cannot be brought as an objection, 
 since it is frequently omitted. See 
 Numb. xxxiv. 4; Deut. iii. 1. In point 
 of size, it might well be designated 
 m7 Vy, that great city, having been, 
 as stated chap. iii. 3, “three days’ 
 journey” in circumference. 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 ; 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 207 
 
 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. 
 
 which, how immense soever it may 
 appear, quite agrees with the estimate 
 stated by Diodorus Siculus, 11. 3: viz. 
 480 stadia in circuit, 150 stadia in length, 
 and 90 stadia in breadth. He further 
 calls it Nivos μεγάλη, and adds, τηλι- 
 καύτην δὲ πόλιν οὐδεὶς ὕστερον ἔκτισε 
 κατά τε τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ περιβολοῦ, καὶ 
 τὴν περὶ τὸ τεῖχος μεγαλοπρέπειαν. 
 Making every allowance for the large 
 spaces occupied by gardens, &c., 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 
 Paris. As it had long been the mistress 
 of the East, and its situation was favour- 
 able for commerce, it possessed immense 
 wealth, but was, at the same. time, 
 notorious forthe most flagrant corruption 
 of manners. After a siege of three 
 years, it was taken by Arbaces the Mede, 
 about the seventh year of Uzziah; anda 
 second time by the united forces of 
 Cyaxares the Mede, and Nabopolassar, 
 viceroy of Babylon, 8.0. 626. τὴν 87, 
 make a proclamation against it. This 
 proclamation consisted in the announce- 
 ment, that, within the space of forty 
 days, the city should be destroyed. ὃϑ 
 the LXX. and Vulg. render zz; and 
 some would assign to the word the 
 signification ¢o, which 8 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 74°25? πον, fo go, or 
 come up before Jehovah, is expressive of 
 whatever is supposed specially to attract 
 his notice, and require his interference. 
 Comp. 722782, Gen. vi. 13; 28783, xviii. 
 21. Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη ἐμνήσθη ἐνώπιον 
 τοῦ Θεοῦ, Rev. xvi. 19. Αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι 
 σου ἀνέβησαν εἰς μνημόσυνον ἐνώπιον 
 τοῦ Θεοῦ, Acts x. 4. 
 
 3. For www, Tarshish, see on Is. 
 xxii. 10. The Rabbins vacillate between 
 Tarsus and Tunis. Jonathan has §3, 
 the sea. Jonah resolved to make his 
 escape into the most distant regions of 
 the West. Comp. Ps. exxxix. 7. 7 "25, 
 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 Ais presence (22), 1.6. the sensible 
 tokens of his presence, should accompany 
 the Hebrews on their march to Canaan. 
 Exod. xxxiil. 14. Comp. Ps. ix. 3; 
 Ixvil. 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 in which the primitive worship 
 was celebrated, and sensible proofs of 
 the Divine favour were manifested to 
 the worshippers. 1 Sam. 1. 22; 11. 18 ; 
 Ps. xlii. ὃ. In like manner, the place 
 where Jacob had intimate communion 
 with God, was called by that patriarch 
 2225, the face, or manifestation of God, 
 Gen. xxx. 3] (Eng., 30). The inter- 
 pretation, therefore, of David Kimchi, 
 ND IND ASW ONT PIN RE? ONW Iw 5 
 ANI MM wy mon, he imagined that if he 
 went out of the land of Israel, the spirit 
 of prophecy would not rest upon him, is 
 perhaps not wide of the mark. Jarchi 
 to the same effect, T2721 THD AYIW prow 
 yx, The Shekinah does not dwell out of 
 the land. Though, as ‘Theodoret ob- 
 serves, he well knew that the Lord of 
 the universe was everywhere present, 
 yet he supposed that it was only at Jeru- 
 salem he became apparent to men; dzro- 
 λαμβάνων δὲ ὅμως ἐν μόνῃ τῇ lepov- 
 σαλὴμ αὐτὸν ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν. 
 For the reason of Jonah’s flight, see on 
 chap. iv. 2. ΤῊ is used of going down 
 to the sea-coast from any inland place, 
 so that it cannot be inferred from the 
 use of the term that it was at Jerusalem 
 Jonah received his commission. ΠΡ 53 
 
208 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 4  ButJehovah caused a great wind to come down upon the sea, 
 and there was a great tempest in the sea, and it was apprehended 
 5 the ship would be wrecked. Then 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. 
 
 TWIT AWD 79 Jo2 ow NTO, Kimchi. 
 Ἐν, Tapho, UXX. Ἰόππη, Arab. bb, 
 Yapha, Jaffa, Joppa, a celebrated harbour 
 on the east coast of the Mediterranean, 
 at the distance of ten hours from Jeru- 
 salem, of which it is properly the sea- 
 port. However insecure, it was used 
 as a harbour as early as the days of 
 Solomon, 2 Chron. ii. 16. It was like- 
 wise thus appropriated in the Persian 
 period, Ezra ili. 7; and was deemed so 
 important in the time of the Maccabees, 
 that, when recovered from the Syrians, 
 it was fortified, and afterwards underwent 
 various fates. Its present population 
 amounts to about 7000 souls. 813, which 
 usually signifies to come, come into, enter, 
 is obviously here used in the acceptation 
 go, go out. Comp. Numb. xxxii. 6. 720, 
 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. 
 yond γ AMT TW [ΤῸ PY, 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 δυάδα; but it 
 may have been owing to a prudential 
 condition on the part of the captain. 
 The affix in Dav refers to the ship’s 
 crew, understood. 
 
 4. The force of 07, fo cause to come 
 down at full length, m application to the 
 storm, will appear on consulting Josephus, 
 who, speaking of the dangerous naviga- 
 tion of Joppa, says: κατὰ τοῦτον cadev- 
 ουσι τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιόππης ὑπὸ THY ἕω 
 mvevpa βίαιον ἐπιπίπτει" μελαμβόρειον 
 ὑπὸ τῶν ταύτῃ πλωϊζομένων καλεῖται. 
 “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. ὃ, 
 The whole section deserves to be read. 
 Coverdale renders, “ But the Lord hurled 
 a greate wynde into the see.” 4227, ¢e 
 
 ship, 1.e., by metonymy, the persons on 
 board, thought she would founder. Thus 
 Kimchi; but Jarchi, M2) 87 Ὑ ΝΣ 107), 
 she appeared as if she would be broken. 
 
 Syr. 07> 2080S Lon jaamAso: 
 
 was going to be broken, or was tossed, &e. 
 LXX. ἐκινδύνευε. It is best to render 
 the verb impersonally. 
 
 5. omy, mariners, from ΠΡΌ, salt, the 
 quality of the water which they navigate. 
 Syr. and Arab. the same. Comp. Hzek. 
 xxvil. 9, 27, 29. Kimchi, DM 1wn7 ~wern, 
 those who handle the oars, with reference 
 to the ancient mode of propelling vessels 
 at sea. Being in all probability Pha- 
 nicians, they had each his tutelary deity, 
 whose interposition he invoked in the 
 hour of danger. From the circumstance 
 that 0°72 signifies vessels, Benjoin infers, 
 that the ship had not taken in a regular 
 cargo, Jonah having paid the entire 
 freight ; but °?2 is used with such latitude 
 of signification in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 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 
 Pheenicians conveyed to Spain, whence 
 they brought back cargoes of silver, 
 iron, tin, and lead. That something 
 more ponderous than a few vessels on 
 the deck is meant, is evident from what 
 follows in the verse, ἐκβολὴν ἐποιήσαντο ; 
 the words, employed by the LXX. in 
 translating which, are the same used by 
 Luke, Acts xxvii. 18. The dual form 
 in TPEETNTY, 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 (Eng., 3); Is. xiv. 15; 
 the innermost part best expresses the 
 meaning. Kimchi otherwise explains it, 
 ὈΠΣΎ Ὁ nm 5x, to one of the sides, and 
 appeals to Judges xji. 7, and Zech. ix. 9, 
 
CHAP. I. ] 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 209 
 
 6 And the captain went close up to him, and said to him: How 
 is it, thou art fast asleep? Arise, call upon thy God, perhaps 
 Gop 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 tous? What is thine occupation? And whence comest 
 9 thou? Whatis thy country? And of what people art thou? And 
 
 in proof of the plural being used instead 
 of the singular. See Gesenius, Lehrgeb. 
 p. 665. It has been objected to the his- 
 torical 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 fatigues of a journey, 
 with a mind worn out by excessive 
 anxiety, to be thrown, in spite of him- 
 self, into such a condition, D0, which 
 the LXX. render καὶ ἔρεγχε; is designed 
 to qualify the preceding verb, by ex- 
 pressing the profound stupor into which 
 Jonah had sunk. There is a singular 
 beauty in putting 72°, the name of the 
 prophet, in the nominative absolute. 
 * But as for Jonah”’—while all were full 
 of consternation, expecting every moment 
 to become a prey to the raging elements, 
 he lay perfectly unconscious of what was 
 transpiring. For 220, ship, which 
 occurs only in this place, see the Preface. 
 
 6, 9am, lit. the master of the rope- 
 men—t being used as a collective. 
 Comp. 01720 01, chief of the body-guard, 
 2 Kings xxv, 8; DOND, chief of the 
 eunuchs, Dan. i. 3. Kimchi explains 
 thus: PVN pawrw > OI DP) Dw 
 oma 2 pn Yan, “the ship-men are 
 called rope-men, because they draw and 
 loosen the ropes of the mast, according 
 to their skill”? UXX. Πρωρεὺς. Vulg. 
 gubernator. MbvnI, to show oneself con- 
 siderate, to think of, set one’s mind upon ; 
 ‘in Kal, to invent, fabricate, produce 
 splendid work; hence the noun nvy, 
 artificial work, Song v. 14. ‘The idea 
 of shining seems to be a secondary mean- 
 ing; see Jer. v. 28. Comp, mimry, 
 thoughts, Ps. exlvi. 4. The verb has 
 the signification of thinking, purposing, 
 
 &e. both in Chaldee and Syriac. LXX, 
 Tare. py, Syr vase 
 
 to deliver. HHitzig prefers the idea of 
 shining, being friendly, gracious, and the 
 like. Having found that their heathen 
 deities rendered them no assistance, the 
 crew were anxious to try the effect of 
 supplication on the part of Jonah to the 
 God of the Hebrews, either from the 
 supposition that he was stronger than 
 their own gods, or that he might be dis- 
 pleased with the prophet, and required 
 to be placated. It deserves to be noticed, 
 that the word for God is here used with 
 the article Ox, which is certainly de- 
 signed to give emphasis to it; Gop—the 
 true God. Comp. Deut. iv. 35, 97 Tim 
 DENT, and 1 Kings xviii, 39, δ nim 
 DYPNT NT Tim oN. Are we to infer 
 from this circumstance, that the captain 
 was a worshipper of Jehovah ? 
 
 7—9. The casting of lots was com- 
 mon among the nations of antiquity, 
 not only when they wished to know 
 some future event, but also when they 
 would determine cases of difficulty, and 
 especially criminal causes, in which no 
 witnesses could be obtained. The mode 
 of using them is not described in Scrip- 
 ture, but from the verb 53, 57, ¢o fall, 
 cause to fall, being commonly employed, 
 it is probable it was by shaking the lots 
 in some box or vase, and then causing 
 them to fall on the ground, Comp. 
 Prov, xvi. 33, where "27, to throw down, 
 is used, in connexion with 77, the dosom, 
 or large fold of the garment in front of 
 the body; intimating, that lots were also 
 mixed there for the sake of secrecy. 
 wrwa, lit. for that which is to whom, i. 6. 
 "2 723, for whose guilt. The words in 
 
 διασώσῃ. 
 > 
 
 ver. 8, 22 NNW TYTT 5 TWwNa, are omitted 
 
 E Εἰ 
 
210 
 
 10 
 
 ll 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 JONAH, [CHAP. 1. 
 
 he said to them: [am an Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God 
 of heaven, who made the sea, and the dry land. And the men 
 were greatly afraid, and said to him: What is this thou hast 
 done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence 
 of Jehovah, because he had told them. They further said to him: 
 What shall we do to thee, that the sea may cease from raging 
 against us? for the sea groweth more and more tempestuous. 
 And he said to them: Take me up, and throw me into the sea, 
 and the sea shall cease from raging against you; for 1 know it 
 is on my account this great tempest is upon you. 
 
 And the men rowed hard to regain the land; but they could 
 not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 
 
 14 And they cried to Jehovah, and said: O now, Jehovah! let us 
 
 in two of Kennicott’s MSS., in the Son- 
 cin. edition of the Prophets, and in the 
 Vatican copy of the LXX.; and Kenni- 
 cott’s MS. 154, omits 2?; most probably 
 both by emendation, in order to avoid 
 the repetition of what had been said in 
 ver. 7. We should rather have expected 
 ΤῸ} 13, “on account of what;” but 2 
 may be taken in a neuter sense, like the 
 
 corresponding Gt): in Ethiopic, as, 
 
 indeed, it is in the phrase 72 "9, “ What 
 is thy name?” Jud. xiii. 17. Comp. 
 also 1 Sam. xviii. 18, τ Ὁ, “‘ What is my 
 life?” Micah i. 5, 3py. yw" and nina Ὁ 
 mm, “What is the sin of Jacob ? -- 
 ** What ave the high places of Judah ὃ ἢ 
 
 Hexaplar Syr. }aSo QALY, 07 account 
 
 of what. Leo Juda: “unde sit nobis 
 hoe malum.” The seamen were anxious 
 to learn every particular connected with 
 the history of Jonah, in order that they 
 might discover the real cause of the 
 storm. NY, fo fear, followed by the 
 accusative, signifies to cherish feelings 
 of reverence, to reverence, honour, T&Ce, 
 and is not here to be interpreted in the 
 sense of being afraid, which would have 
 required the preposition y2 before the 
 object in such a case as the present. 
 
 10. my nxI™Md, what is this thou hast 
 done? is not put for the purpose of ob- 
 taining information respecting his flight, 
 for it is immediately added, that he had 
 previously informed them of it, but is a 
 
 formula which is intended to produce a 
 strong feeling of disapprobation in the 
 breast of him to whom it is addressed, 
 conveying, at the same time, the idea of 
 surprise that he could have been guilty 
 of such conduct. Comp. Gen. iii. 13; 
 xii. 18; xx. 9. The question shows that 
 what Jonah had said respecting the 
 character of the true God, had made a 
 deep impression upon the minds of the 
 sailors. 
 
 11. They had clearly the conviction, 
 that as the prophet was the cause of the 
 storm, some step must be taken in order 
 to get rid of him; but how to dispose of 
 him they knew not. That they wished, 
 if possible, to save his life, is clear from 
 the sequel. °22 ΡΠ conveys the idea of 
 subsiding, so as no longer to bear down 
 upon with violence, and graphically de- 
 scribes the threatening attitude of a 
 tempestuous sea, rising above the ships 
 that are exposed to it. γι properly sig- 
 nifies ¢o settle down, be still, cease from 
 raging. 0) 7247, lit. going and storming, 
 meaning, to go on, increase, become more 
 and more tempestuous; a common idiom 
 in Hebrew. Comp. Exod. xix. 19; 
 1 Sam. ii. 26; xvii. 41; Esth. ix. 4; Prov. 
 iv. 18. 
 
 18. 109, ¢o dig, or break forcibly through 
 anything, is strongly expressive of the 
 great effort made by the seamen to avoid 
 sacrificing the life of Jonah. LXX. 
 παρεβιάζοντο. At POI? supply το τ ΠΝ, 
 
 14. An affecting prayer for pagans 
 to present to the true God! The 
 
CHAP, 11.] 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 211 
 
 not perish, we beseech thee, for this man’s life; and lay not in- 
 nocent blood to our charge: for thou, O Jehovah! hast done as 
 
 15 it pleased thee, 
 16 
 
 And they took up Jonah, and threw him into 
 the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men 
 
 feared Jehovah greatly, and offered a sacrifice to Jehovah, and 
 
 made vows. 
 
 words, T7285 ΜΓ TT ΓΝ, are "peculiarly 
 earnest and tender. 72x, the same as 
 ἈΝ, which Gesenius takes to be com- 
 pounded of 7x, of/ and 83, the usual 
 particle of entreaty. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 ῶ ὁ), obsecro. The Keri marks 8 in 8¥2as 
 
 redundant, and a great number of MSS. 
 read 2. 52, /ife, means here life that 
 is taken away, having ‘720%, cxnocent 
 blood, corresponding to it in the follow- 
 ing clause. Comp. Deut. xix. 21; 
 2 Sam. xiv. 7. Coverdale, well as to the 
 sense, “this man’s death.’ The refe- 
 rence is not to anything that Jonah had 
 done, but to what they were about to do 
 to him. ἣν 01403, to give blood upon, 
 means to charge with murder. Syr. 
 
 ΕΝ ο 
 «5.4.2 Ul, “pute not. The sense is, 
 
 Let us not be found guilty of killing an 
 innocent person. In the concluding 
 words of the verse, they refer the whole 
 affair to the mysterious providence of 
 God. They had not been brought into 
 their present circumstances by any con- 
 
 duct of their own; nor could they 
 account for the guilt of Jonah, since 
 he was chargeable with no act of immo- 
 rality. Yet he was the object of Divine 
 displeasure. 
 
 15, 16. They now proceed calmly, 
 though with great reluctance, to act in 
 accordance with what they had been led 
 to regard as the will of the Most High. 
 The calm appears to have taken place 
 instantaneously. According to the 
 Rabbins, Grotius, and some others, they 
 did not actually offer a sacrifice, but 
 only purposed to do it before Jehovah, 
 z.e.at Jerusalem; but it is more natural 
 to conclude that they sacrificed some 
 animal that was on board, and vowed 
 that they would present greater proofs 
 of their gratitude when they returned 
 from their voyage. Michaelis thinks 
 they intended to perform their γον 
 when they reached Spain. 
 
 “Quin, ubi transmisse steterint trans 
 zequora classes, 
 
 Et pesitis aris jam vota in litore solves.” 
 
 Mneid. iii. 403. 
 
 ----.Ὁὁ.-.- 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 With the exception of the first and last verses, which give an historical account of 
 the fate of Jonah as preserved by a great fish, this chapter contains a brief but 
 beautiful hymn of deliverance. It was in all probability composed immediately 
 after his reaching the dry land, but embodies some of the leading topics 
 in reference to which he called upon Jehovah during his stay in the deep. 
 
 
 
 1 (ὕπαρ. 1. 17.) Now Jehovah had appointed a great fish to 
 
 swallow Jonah. 
 days and three nights. 
 
 1. (Chap.i.17, in our common version.) 
 
 It has been supposed by some that the 
 
 And Jonah was in the bowels of the fish three 
 
 the prophet, though, according to Rabbi 
 Tarphon, it was MN ‘M Now AND, 
 
 fish here spoken of was created at the prepared for the purpose at the creation 
 
 moment for the purpose of swallowing 
 
 of the world; but there is nothing in the 
 
212 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 (CHAP. IT; 
 
 2 And Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the bowels of the 
 
 3 fish; and said, 
 
 original word 732 which at all suggests 
 the idea of creation or production. Like 
 
 the Arab. ust certa quantitate certoque 
 
 modo definivit alicui rem ; decretus fuit ; 
 it properly signifies to appoint, order, 
 arrange, and the like, so that all that can 
 be legitimately inferred from its use in 
 this place, is, that, in the providence of 
 God, the animal was brought to the 
 spot at the precise time when Jonah was 
 thrown into the sea and ifs instrumen- 
 tality was wanted for his deliverance. 
 In other words, it was the result of a 
 special pre-arrangement in the Divine 
 plan, according to which the move- 
 ments of all creatures are regulated, and 
 rendered subservient to the purposes 
 of God’s universal government. LXX. 
 προσέταξε. Comp. chap. iv. 6—8. On 
 the subject of the fish itself, various 
 opinions have been broached. Mutianus, 
 and after him Hermann yon der Hardt, 
 would have it to be nothing more than 
 an inn, with the sign of “The Whale,” 
 into which Jonah was received after 
 having been cast on shore! Less, pro- 
 posed the theory of a ship with this 
 name, which happened to be close by, 
 and rescued the prophet; while Thaddeus 
 supposed that, on being thrown out of 
 the vessel, he lighted upon a large fish, 
 on which he rode for the time specified, 
 and was at last cast on shore! ‘Till the 
 time of Bochart it was commonly sup- 
 posed to have been the dalena, or whale 
 properly so called, owing to a mis- 
 interpretation of κῆτος, Matt. xii. 40, 
 which signifies any great fish in general. 
 With much ingenuity that learned author 
 endeavours to prove, that it must have 
 been the carcharias, or dog-fish, whieh, 
 though not the size of a whale, yet has 
 so large a gullet, and so capacious a 
 stomach, that one of them has been found 
 to contain a warrior, clad in all his 
 armour. Bochart, Hierozo. p. ii. lib. v. 
 cap. xii, Others have supposed that it 
 was a shark, a species of fish abounding 
 in the Mediterranean, exceedingly vora- 
 cious, and in the belly of which whole 
 men have been found. See Parkhurst’s 
 Greek Lexicon, svb. voc. Kiros. But 
 we may well acquiesce in the decision of 
 
 Rosenmiiller: ‘Tota hee de pisce Jone 
 disquisitio vana videtur atque inutilis.” 
 The Scriptures leave it entirely undecided 
 to what species of marine animals the 
 fish belonged; merely stating that it was 
 2.4, a great fish, one sufficiently large 
 for the occasion. Much has been written 
 to relieve the transaction of the miracu- 
 lous; but that it is physically possible 
 for a human subject, which has been 
 accustomed for years to breathe the vital 
 air, to exist without respiration, or upon 
 the foul air ina fish, for the length of 
 time here specified, has never been 
 proved, The position of Abenezra is 
 the only one that can, with any con- 
 sistency, be maintained: m7? D182 72 PSX 
 {D2 TOYA PY NTA ANN TDI TIT ὙΨΊΩΣ, 
 “No man has the power of living in the 
 bowels of a fish for a single hour: how 
 much less for such a number of hours, 
 except by the operation of a miracle.” 
 The transaction was, as Kimcelii observes, 
 DIT yo Wr, oxe of the miracles. As 
 such it is unequivocally recognised by 
 our Lord, when he calls it a σημεῖον, a 
 sign or token of divine interposition, a 
 supernatural event, manifestive of the 
 power of God, Matt. xii. 39; and it 
 behoves all his disciples implicitly and 
 cordially to receive his decision. For 
 the period of “three days and three 
 nights,”’ see Whitby on Matt. xii. 40. 
 
 2. For 2m, comp. 29m, 1 Sam. 
 ii. 1. Some of the Rabbins, Hezel, and 
 others, would argue from the use of 79, 
 Jrom, out of, and not 3, iz, before ὙΠ, 
 that the prayer of Jonah was not pre- 
 sented while he was in the belly of the 
 fish, but after his deliverance ; but this 
 interpretation is justly rejected both by 
 Abenezra and Kimchi. ‘The preposition 
 marks the place from which he directed 
 his thoughts to the Most High. Comp. 
 Ὁ yoId, ver. 3; DONG, Ps. cxxx. 1; 
 asa, Ps. exvili. 5. The final 7 in 
 7277 is not feminine, as has been sup- 
 posed, and upon which assumption 
 certain Rabbins have built the theory, 
 that a still larger female fish swallowed 
 that in which Jonah was preserved ; 
 but the 7 paragogic, which corresponds 
 to the status emphaticus of the Aramaic, 
 and is designed to strengthen the termi- 
 
 > 
 
CHAP. I1.] 
 
 JONAH, 
 
 213 
 
 I cried because of my distress to Jehovah, 
 
 And he answered me ; 
 
 From the interior of Sheol I cried out: 
 
 Thou heardest my voice. 
 
 4 Thou didst cast me into the deep, 
 
 Into the midst of the seas ; 
 
 So that the current surrounded me; 
 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. 
 
 ΄ 
 
 nation. For other instances in which it 
 is added, at the same time that the noun 
 takes the article, comp. 70997, Judges 
 xiv. 18; th97, Ps. exvi. 15. ‘The position 
 of the accent is of no account. 
 
 3, 4. The hymn which commences 
 here is partly descriptive, partly pre- 
 eatory, and partly eucharistical. These 
 two verses are introductory, as is clear 
 from the use of *FYOX 128), ver. 5, and give 
 expression to the feelings and pious 
 exercise of the prophet in the awful 
 circumstances into which he had been 
 brought. That the language, not only 
 of the prayer, but also of the introduction, 
 is in part borrowed from the Psalms, 
 appears from the following comparison ; 
 
 Jonah ii. 3. 
 Trp ὍΣ Ὁ TAS ὮΝ 
 ἘΠῚ ! . ᾿ τῇ εγὼ ° T'r 
 
 Psalm exx. 1; 
 DD TOT 
 
 3199091 ὁ ΠΩΣ 
 ΧΙ]. 8. ver. 4. 
 ἱ Ὁ2) τυ ΟὟ ὃ: by ΠΡ λυ 5 -Ὁ: 
 Ἂν pA PSI Ὗν pay PW 
 ie. se 
 XXX1. 23. ver. 5. 
 
 ANYON ON) 
 
 : ΣΝ Ἴ3Ὸ ἜΤ) 
 
 Ixix. 2. 
 2ST 079 ἽΝ 
 exlii. 4. 
 Oran oY Ferma 
 TAY UY FYING 
 Xxxi. 7. 
 iI Dawa 
 i. 9. 
 
 sym TA) 
 ir 7 τ - 
 
 ἼΔΟΝ ὈΝῚ 
 PPP TaN AN 
 
 ver. 6. 
 PPI TW DMD “AEDs 
 
 ver. 8. 
 3°] Oy FyeynTa 
 SiS oo ee ey 
 
 ver. 9. 
 PRN MIT OVID 
 
 ver. 10. 
 
 : mim mya 
 ι΄ - νὰ καὶ 3 
 
 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. 
 ANDY P23, lit. the belly of Sheol, i.e. the vast 
 and hidden receptacle of the departed. 
 Targ. DIA MyIND, from the lowest part 
 of the abyss, but less properly. The 
 remark of Jerome is: * Ventrem inferi 
 alvum ceti intelligamus, que tante fuit 
 magnitudinis, wt instar obtineret inferni.” 
 Before 729, ver. 4, supply 3. ὙΠ is 
 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 confluence 
 of the waters of a river with those of the 
 sea, 
 
 Vea - ce 
 ————kKal αν ποταμοιο ῥέεθρα 
 3 -~ 4 ἢ ΄ 
 Ὡκεανοῦ, οσπερ yeveots παντεσσι τέτυκ- 
 
 ται. Iliad. xiv. 945. 
 
 Μέσσῳ yap μεγάλοι ποταμοὶ καὶ δεινὰ 
 ῥέεθρα, 
 
 ᾿Ωκεανὸς μὲν πρῶτα. Odyss. xi. 1ὅ0. 
 
 Τὴν δὲ κατ᾽ ᾿Ωκεανὸν ποταμὸν φέρε 
 
 κῦμα ῥόοιο. Lbid. 638. 
 
 5. Having described his condition, 
 the prophet now proceeds to give the 
 words of his prayer. 7) ‘PY 722, to be 
 before the eyes of Jehovah, means to be 
 the object of his special notice and care, 
 Jonah had fled from the Divine presence 
 
214 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 [CHAP. IL. 
 
 6 The waters press around me to the very life ; 
 
 The abyss encompasseth me ; 
 
 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! 
 
 8 When my soul was overwhelmed within me, 
 
 I remembered Jehovah ; 
 
 And my prayer came in unto thee, 
 
 Into thy holy temple. 
 
 in Canaan, but now he feels that he is 
 expelled even from the abodes of life, 
 and cut off, as it were, from the regard 
 of that Providence which watches over 
 the children of men. Still he does not 
 abandon himself to despair. He con- 
 fidently expects to be restored to the 
 enjoyment of his privileges in the temple 
 at Jerusalem, and there to render thanks 
 to God for his deliverance. Green 
 would supply the negative 8? before ἢ ΕἾΝ, 
 and Hitzig would point Js, J, for 7x, 
 how ; but both without any authority. 
 Such sudden transitions from fear to 
 hope are frequently expressed in Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 6. warm, even to, or to the very soul, 
 i.e. the animal life; meaning, to the 
 extinction of life. PO, is the alga, or 
 weed, which abounds at the bottom of 
 the sea, and from which the Arabian 
 Gulf takes the name of ἢ», the sea of 
 weeds. (Kimchi explains it by x23, the 
 papyrus, or bulrush. Gesenius refines 
 too much, when he attaches to 37 in 
 this place the idea of binding round the 
 head like a turban. Assuredly Jonah 
 had no such idea in his mind. He rather 
 describes how he felt, as if entangled by 
 the sedge or weeds through which he 
 was dragged. 
 
 7. D2SP, sections, cuttings, clefts, from 
 
 ΒΞ ¢o cut; Arab. Cas, abscidit, 
 
 resecuit. Thus the LXX. σχισμὰς 
 ὀρέων. Vulg. extrema montium. 'Varg. 
 wo PY, the roots of the mountains. 
 The word describes the deep indentations 
 or clefts made in the roots of mountains 
 which project into the sea, or those 
 
 divisions which are found in the rocks 
 at its bottom. ὙΠ, the earth, is 
 emphatically put in the nominative 
 absolute, as the object to which the 
 affections of the prophet still clung. 
 He was expelled from it, as from a 
 habitation, and its bars had been sbut 
 upon him, so that he could not return. 
 Gesenius takes the bars to be those of 
 Sheol; but as we have *xw7yw, the 
 gates of Sheol, 15. xxxviii. 10, the phrase 
 here must have been 172 ον, and not 
 772 yrs, if such had been the meaning. 
 v2 is put elliptically for 12 ΘΔ, the 
 verb 20 being obviously implied. Jonah 
 adds, 02109, for ever, to express the 
 impossibility of his ever again reaching 
 the dry land, by any effort of his own. 
 Yet, exposed as he momentarily was to 
 death in the region of corruption (ΠΤ, 
 the pit, or grave), he confidently ex- 
 presses his hope that God would restore 
 him. He asserts his interest in Jehovah 
 by calling him “zs God.” 
 
 8. The prophet here resumes his de- 
 scription of the circumstances of distress 
 to which he was reduced, his application 
 to Jehovah, and the answer which he 
 received to his prayer. The composition 
 of this and the following verses, like that 
 of verses 3 and 4, belongs to a period 
 subsequent to his deliverance ; yet while 
 describing his condition, he occasionally 
 directs his language to Jehovah, towards 
 whom, as his deliverer, his thoughts 
 naturally rose. ern, to be in a 
 state of fwintness, swoon, from *2¥, to 
 cover, to involve in darkness, overwhelm. 
 LXX. well, as it respects the sense: Ἔν 
 τῷ ἐκλείπειν ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ τὴν ψυχήν μου. 
 
CHAP. III. | 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 215 
 
 9 They that regard lying vanities 
 
 Forsake their Benefactor. 
 
 10 Butasforme, I willsacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving ; 
 What 1 have vowed I will perform : 
 Salvation belongeth to Jehovah. 
 
 11 =And Jehovah commanded the fish, and it vomited forth Jonah 
 
 upon the dry land. 
 
 9. A striking description of idolaters, 
 but which may also be extended to all 
 who prefer created objects, in any shape, 
 to God. 0d30n, lit. their mercy or good- 
 ness ; by metonymy for their Benefactor: 
 i.e. God, the author and source of all 
 goodness: the Supreme Good. Comp. 
 Ps. exliv. 2, where David calls God his 
 ton. The word properly signifies Aindness 
 or denignity,and most appropriately desig- 
 nates Him who is good to all, and whose 
 tender mercies are over all his works. 
 
 on ρ Ψ 
 
 The Syriac reads, y LO1SOaeeS0, 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 
 expression 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 7 in ΠΏΣ 15 
 intensive. Comp. Ps. iii. 3. In both 
 passages, the deliverance is ascribed to 
 Jehovah as its author, as the ? in 77% 
 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 
 appears 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 
 pronounces 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 Huxine 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! ! 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 This chapter contains an account of the renewal of the prophet’s commission, 1, 2 ; 
 his preaching to the Ninevites, 3, 4; the universal humiliation and reformation 
 effected by it, 5—9; and the reversal of the Divine sentence by which the city 
 
 had been doomed to destruction, 10. 
 
 1 <Awnp the word of Jehovah was communicated to Jonah a 
 2 second time, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and 
 
216 
 
 JONAH. [CHAP. III. 
 
 make the proclamation to it which I order thee. And Jonah 
 arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. 
 Now Nineveh was a great city even to God, of three days’ 
 journey. And Jonah began to enter the city, a journey of one 
 day ; and he proclaimed, and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh 
 shall be overthrown. 
 
 And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and proclaimed a 
 fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, even to 
 the least of them. And the subject reached the king of Nineveh, 
 and he rose from his throne, and put off his robe, and covered 
 himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. And a proclama- 
 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. But 
 let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily 
 
 8, Disb abiayy, a city great to God. 
 This phrase has been variously explained. 
 Some, with Kimchi, deem it merely a 
 superlative form; Gesenius construes 
 the > instrumentally, great through God, 
 i.e. through his favour. Others consider 
 it to be equivalent to DVN 22, défore 
 God; as, Gen. x. 9. Thusthe Targ. Ὁ O7}.. 
 Of this last interpretation I approve, as 
 it was most natural to refer the size of a 
 city, of which the Hebrews could form 
 no adequate conception, to the Divine 
 estimation. I have accordingly rendered 
 the words literally, as our preposition Zo 
 is often used to note opinion 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, The LXX. here read “Ere τρεῖς 
 ἡμέραι, καὶ Νινευὴ καταστραφήσεται, 
 which Theodoret considers to have arisen 
 from an error of transcription. Jerome 
 says, “Miror cur ita translatum sif, 
 quum in Hebreo nec literarum, nec 
 syllabarum, nec accentuum, nec verbi, 
 sit ulla communitas.’ For further 
 authorities on the subject of this dis- 
 crepancy, consult Dr. Burgess’s Introd. 
 to the metrical homily of Ephraem Syrus 
 
 on “the Repentance of Nineveh,” p. 
 xxiv.; Lond. 1853. 
 
 5. When 0°79x2 PONT, believing in God, 
 
 is spoken of in reference to such as had 
 
 reviously been ignorant of him, it must 
 
 e taken as involving the recognition of 
 his being and character as the true God, 
 and not simply their giving credit to the 
 announcements of his messengers. ΤῸ 
 express the latter, ? 287 is employed. 
 See Gen. xlv. 26; Is. lili. 1. All, with- 
 out distinction of age or rank, put on 
 sackcloth, the usual attire of deep mourn- 
 ing. 
 
 6—8. Who the king of Assyria was 
 at the time, is not certain. Pul, the 
 first monarch of that empire mentioned 
 by name in Scripture, did not begin to 
 reign till 8. ο. 769. Some are of opinion 
 that it was Sardanapalus; if so, his re- 
 pentance was the more remarkable, for 
 according to the ancients he was pro- 
 verbially notorious on account of his 
 profligacy. 
 
 ‘Wt venere, et ccenis, et plumis Sarda- 
 napali,” Juvenal. Sat. x. 362. 
 
 It is said that he composed for his 
 epitaph, “ Lat, 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. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 217 
 
 unto God; and let them turn every one from his wicked way, 
 
 9 and from the violence which is in their hands. 
 
 Who knoweth 
 
 but that God may turn and repent, and turn away from the 
 
 10 
 
 fierceness of his anger, that we perish not. And God saw their 
 
 works, that they turned from their wicked way, and God re- 
 pented of the evil which he had said he would inflict upon them, 
 
 and he inflicted it not. 
 
 “Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus 
 
 Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla 
 neque amnem 
 
 Libavit quadrupes, nee graminis attigit 
 herbam.” Virg. Eel. ν. 24. 
 
 “ Post bellator equus, positis insignibus, 
 Aithon 
 
 It lacrymans, guttisque humectat gran- 
 dibus ora.” Aineid. xi. 89. 
 
 Plutarch informs us that when Masistias, 
 
 a Persian general, was slain, tlhe horses 
 
 and mules were shorn, as well as the 
 
 Persians themselves. 
 
 9. The Jewish interpreters follow the 
 construction put upon the words ν᾽ Ὁ, 
 who knoweth, in the Targum: YP 72 
 PRT wTa MSI, whoever is conscious that 
 there are crimes in his hands; only 
 Kimchi proposes another, ‘277 Dw Ὁ 
 mown, He who 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 what 
 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. 11. 26, 
 &e. Thus fell the ancient Assyrian 
 dynasty, and gave place to that of the 
 Medes, which continued till the time of 
 Cyaxares, when Nineveh, which had 
 been rebuilt, was again destroyed, and 
 finally ceased to be an imperial residence. 
 See Preface to the Book of Nahum. 
 
 -----.. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.” 
 
 The selfish and repining spirit of the prophet, and the means employed by Jehovah 
 to reprove and instruct him, are here set forth. 
 
 
 
 1,2 Bur Jonah was exceedingly displeased and vexed. And he 
 
 prayed to Jehovah, and said : 
 
 1. Unwarrantable attempts have been 
 made to soften down the character of 
 τ Jonah, as exhibited in this chapter. The 
 utmost that can be advanced in extenua- 
 tion of his conduct, is, the strong tincture 
 of national prejudice with which his 
 spirit appears to have been imbued. 
 Comp. Luke ix. 54. 777, however, seems 
 to be here used, not in the sense of heing 
 
 Ah! now, Jehovah ! was not this 
 
 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 7, 
 to burn, the following imstances may be 
 adduced :— 
 
 Tis σκανδαλίζεται, καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ πυ- 
 
 ροῦμαι ;---ὦ Cor. xi. 29, 
 ἘΣ F 
 
- 218 
 
 : JONAH. [CHAP. Iv. 
 
 my word while I was yet in my own country? Wherefore 1 
 anticipated it by fleeing to Tarshish ; for I knew that thou art 
 a gracious and merciful God, long-suffering, and of great kind- 
 ness, 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. And Jehovah said to him: Art thou much vexed ? 
 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 
 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. 
 
 ᾿Αλλ᾽ ὦ Καλονίκη κάομαι τὴν καρδίαν, 
 Καὶ πολλ᾽ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῶν γυναικῶν, 
 ἄχθομαι. Aristoph. Lysist. v. 9. 
 
 ** Wheu disperii! voltus neutiquam hujus 
 placet. 
 
 Tristis incedit, pectus ardet.” 
 Plaut. Mercat. Act ii. Se. 4, v. 24. 
 
 “Tum vero exvarsit juveni dolor ossibus 
 ingens,” Aneid. v. 172. 
 
 And the declaration of Cicero: “ Non 
 angor, sed ardeo dolore.’—Epist. ad 
 Attic. vi. 9. 
 
 2. “23, my word, i.e. what I spake 
 within myself, my cogitation. O77 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 
 Joelii.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- 
 nounciug what he had reason to expect 
 might never take place. 
 
 4. ἢ) 777 20°77, most modern versions 
 improperly render, “ dost thou well,” or, 
 “is it right in thee to be angry ?” their 
 authors not adverting to the fact that the 
 Hiph. Infinitive of 22) 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 Mx1) ΠΟΤ, 
 Jer. 1.12. Thus the LXX. εἰ σφόδρα 
 
 v Oo 
 λελύπησαι σύ; the Syr. Lago ad 
 o 
 
 go: and the Targ. 2 ΠΣ STA. Kimehi 
 
 explains, 182 7 MT oN, Art thou much 
 grieved? and adds, piv pnt wy 307, 
 As for 19, 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 labours 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. 1 I take to be the apocopated 
 Future of Hiphil, having Ox 7 for 
 its nominative. τ, the kikaion or 
 ricinus plant (Ricinus communis, Linn.), 
 commonly known by the name of Palma 
 Christi. The word is the same as the 
 Hgyptian KIKI, and the Talmudic A7é, 
 with the Hebrew termination. In Arabic 
 it is called ey! , Hl-Kheroa, which is 
 
 not to be confounded with € pl , H- 
 
 Karra, the cucurbita, UXX. Κολοκύνθη. 
 Our English rendering gourd is equally 
 inappropriate. ‘This plant is indigenous 
 in India, Palestine, Arabia, Africa, and 
 the east of HKurope, and on account of 
 its singular beauty is cultivated in 
 
CHAP. 1Υ.] 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 219 
 
 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 
 
 9 better than my life. 
 
 And God said unto Jonah: Art thou 
 
 much vexed on account of the ricinus? And he said: I am 
 
 10 
 
 much vexed, even to death. 
 
 And Jehovah said: Thou art 
 
 affected on account of the ricinus, with which thou hadst no 
 
 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. 11. 
 p- 273; Michaelis, Supplem. No. 2263; 
 Rosenmiller, in the Biblical Cabinet, 
 vol. xxvii. p. 125; Michaelis, Bibel 
 Uebersetz., 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 
 Nineveh, may easily be imagined. His 
 joy is emphatically described in the last 
 clause of the verse. 
 
 8. The D720, or east wind, is the 
 sultry and oppressive wind which blows 
 in the summer months across the vast 
 Arabian desert, and produces universal 
 Janguor 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 oppressive. 
 According to the versions, MO sig- 
 nifies withering ; otherwise, as derived 
 
 from 1, it signifies to be quiet, silent, 
 &¢e., which better agrees with the idea 
 of sultriness. 
 
 9. The words πη ν᾿ YT WT, the 
 LXX. translate, Σφόδρα λελύπημαι ἐγὼ 
 ἕως θανάτου, which nearly agree with 
 those of our Lord, Mark xiv. 34. 
 
 10. 597, properly signifies ¢o be affected 
 by the sight of anything; hence to 
 Jeel concern on account of it, to take 
 pity or compassion. I have employed 
 the passive form of our verb fo affect, 
 in order to present in the translation a 
 word equivalent to that which is here 
 used in the original. There seems no 
 necessity for taking the Hebrew verb in 
 two acceptations. The formula, 72429 
 Tay MEDD mT, lit. which was the son of a 
 night, and perished the son of a night, is 
 obviously intended to express the extra- 
 ordinary rapidity with which the ricinus 
 put forth its leaves and afterwards 
 withered. That the tree itself was 
 instantaneously produced, cannot be 
 proved from this mode of speech, any 
 more than from the use of the verb 779, 
 ver. 6; otherwise we should be obliged, 
 for the sake of consistency, to maintain, 
 that the whole tree was miraculously 
 destroyed, and had entirely disappeared 
 during the night. ™7 and 7328 are strictly 
 antithetical. But, as all that was re- 
 quired in the one case, was that the 
 broad spreading leaves should wither, so 
 asno longer to afford protection to Jonah, 
 though the trunk remained ; so all that 
 was necessary in the other was to give 
 to the tree which had been previously 
 produced, such an extraordinarily accele- 
 rated power of germination, that the 
 leaves, which would otherwise have re- 
 quired some longer time to come to 
 
220 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 (CHAP. IV. 
 
 trouble, and which thou didst not rear, which came in a night, 
 
 11 
 
 and perished in a night: and I, should not I be affected 
 
 on account of Nineveh, 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 ? 
 
 maturity, were brought to perfection in 
 the course of a night. 43, ὦ soz, is used 
 idiomatically to express what is pro- 
 duced, or exists, during the time pre- 
 dicated of it. Thus it is resolved in the 
 Targ. 728 82QTk WNP NT PTD NY, 
 which this night was, and in another night 
 perished. 
 
 11. The peculiar force of the appeal 
 hes in the immense number of rational 
 creatures which must have perished had 
 Nineveh been destroyed. Estimating 
 the age of the children at about three 
 years, and assuming them to have formed 
 a fifth part of the population, which is 
 the allowance generally made, we shall 
 
 have six hundred thousand as the number 
 of inhabitants. In order to enhance this 
 number, and render it more affecting, 
 that of the irresponsible children is esti- 
 mated; and if this did not produce a 
 suitable impression upon the mind of 
 the prophet, the number even of irra- 
 tional animals is adverted to, the latter 
 being far superior in point of mechanism 
 and utility to the shrub for which he 
 was so much concerned. 
 
 There is something in the abrupt man- 
 ner in which the book closes which is 
 highly calculated to produce its effect on 
 the mind of a reflecting reader. 
 
 
 
MICA H. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 AccorDING to the introductory statement, chap. 1. 1, Micah 
 was a native of Moresheth, which some take to be the same as 
 Mareshah, ver. 15; but it is rather the town called Moresheth-Gath, 
 ver. 14, which, according to Jerome, lay in the vicinity of the city 
 of Eleutheropolis, to the west of Jerusalem, and not far from the 
 border of the country of the Philistines. 
 
 His name, DD, Micah, or, as it is given in full in the Chethib, 
 Jer. xxvi. 18, 73D, Micaiah, signifies, who ts like Jehovah ? 
 
 The time at which he flourished is stated in the introduction to 
 have been that of the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; ὦ, 6. 
 somewhere between B. Ο. 757 and B. Cc. 699; in addition to which 
 statement, we have a positive testimony to his having prophesied 
 in the days of Hezekiah, Jer. xxvi. 18, where chap. iii. 12 is 
 verbally quoted. He must, therefore, have been a contemporary 
 . of Isaiah and Hosea, and is not to be confounded with Micaiah the 
 son of Imlah, 1 Kings xxi. 8, who flourished upwards of a hun- 
 dred_years before the reign of Jotham. 
 
 Hartmann and Hichhorn would refer the period of his ministry 
 to the reign of Manasseh; but their hypothesis is justly rejected 
 
229 PREFACE TO MICAH. 
 
 by Jahn, Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and Knobel, on the ground, that 
 all the circumstances brought to view in his prophecies, perfectly 
 harmonize with the state of things in the days of the kings whose 
 names are here specified. The unrestrained licence given to idol- 
 atry in the reign of Ahaz, will sufficiently account for the numerous 
 gross and crying evils for which Micah reproves the Jews, without 
 our having recourse to the atrocities perpetrated in that of Ma- 
 nasseh. It is true, Hezekiah issued orders, that idolatry should be 
 put down, and the worship of the true God re-established; but 
 there is no reason to believe that the reformation was carried out to 
 the full extent of his wishes. The relations also of the Hebrews 
 to the powerful empires of Assyria and Egypt, are in exact accord- 
 ance with the history of the same times. 
 
 The prophecies of Micah are directed partly against Judah, and 
 partly against Israel; but by far the greater number are of the 
 former description. He predicts the destruction of the kingdom 
 of Israel, and of Samaria its capital; the desolation of Jerusalem 
 by the Chaldeans, and the consequent captivity of the Jews; the 
 restoration of the Jewish state; the successes of the Maccabees ; 
 and the advent and reign of the Messiah. He also administers 
 reproof to different ranks and conditions of men, and furnishes 
 some striking representations of the Divine character. 
 
 His style is concise, yet perspicuous, nervous, vehement, and 
 energetic ; and, in many cases, equals that of Isaiah in boldness 
 and sublimity. He is rich and beautiful in the varied use of 
 tropical language; indulges in paronomasias ; preserves a pure and 
 classical diction; is regular in the formation of his parallelisms ; 
 and exhibits a roundness in the construction of his periods which 
 is not surpassed by his more celebrated contemporary. Both 
 in administering threatenings and communicating promises, he 
 evinces great tenderness, and shows that his mind was deeply 
 affected by the subjects of which he treats. In his appeals he 
 is lofty and energetic. His description of the character of Jehovah, 
 chap. vil. 18—20, is unrivalled by any contained elsewhere in 
 Scripture. 
 
 Several prophecies in Micah and Isaiah are remarkably parallel 
 with each other ; and there is frequently an identity of expression, 
 
PREFACE TO MICAH. 223 
 
 which can only be fairly accounted for on the ground of their 
 having been contemporaneous writers, who were not strangers 
 to each other’s prophecies, and their having, in a great measure, 
 had the same subjects for the themes of their ministry. See 
 on Isaiah 11. 2—4. 
 
 The book may be divided into two parts: the first consisting 
 of chapters i.—v.; and the second, the two remaining chapters, 
 which are more general and didactic in their character. 
 
 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The prophet commences by summoning universal attention, while, in sublime 
 language, he describes the descent of Jehovah to punish the nation, 1—5; he 
 predicts the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians, which he pathetically 
 laments, 6—S8 ; and then the advance of Sennacherib against Jerusalem, 9—12; 
 concluding with an enumeration of certain towns of Judah, the inhabitants of 
 which had more especially enjoyed his ministry, but were to share in the 
 desolating effects of the Assyrian invasion, and ultimately, with the whole land, 
 
 those of the Babylonian captivity, 13—16. 
 
 
 
 1 THE word of Jehovah which was communicated to Micah the 
 Morashthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings 
 of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 
 
 2 Hear, all ye people! 
 
 Attend, O earth! and its fulness ! 
 And let the Lord Jehovah testify to you, 
 The Lord from his holy temple. 
 
 1. Ὁ, contracted MHI, a gentilic, 
 and not a patronymic, as some have 
 imagined. See the introduction, and on 
 ver. 14. 
 
 2. It is not a little remarkable, that 
 Micah should adopt as the first sentence 
 of his prophecy, that with which his 
 namesake concluded his denouncement 
 against Ahab, 1 Kings xxii. 28. Hengs- 
 tenberg is of opinion that he quoted the 
 words designedly, in order to show that 
 his prophetic agency was to be considered 
 as a continuation of that of his prede- 
 cessor, who was so zealous for God, and 
 that he had more in common with him 
 
 than the bare name. The words DD, 
 peoples, and 8, earth, are by many, 
 and recently by Hitzig, confined to the 
 tribes and land of the Hebrews; but the 
 sublimity of the style, and the parallel 
 passages, Deut. xxx. 28, xxxil. 1, and 
 Is. i. 2, induce to the conclusion, that 
 the prophet had all the inhabitants of the 
 globe in his eye. Thus Justi, Maurer, 
 and Ewald. 093, all of them, is an 
 instance of irregular construction, in 
 which the third person is put for the 
 second, 0352, all of you. ‘The same con- 
 struction is repeated in 78, which the 
 LXX. render according to the sense, 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 225 
 
 3 For, behold! Jehovah is coming forth from his place ; 
 
 Yea, he will descend, and tread upon the heights of the earth. 
 4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, 
 
 And the valleys shall cleave asunder, 
 
 Like wax before the fire, 
 
 Like water poured down a precipice. 
 
 rn 
 
 5 By the transgression of Jacob is all this, 
 
 And by the sin of the house of Israel. 
 What is the transgression of Jacob ? 
 
 Ts it not Samaria ? 
 
 And what are the high places of Judah ? 
 
 Are they not Jerusalem ? 
 
 καὶ πάντες of ἐν αὐτῇ. Comp. Amos 
 vi. 8; Is. xlii. 10. Instead of Tim ‘nx, 
 four of Kennicott’s MSS. read Dx TT ; 
 and, instead of *18 repeated, upwards of 
 fifty of his and De Rossi’s read 737; but 
 as the former cannot be altered on the 
 slight authority by which it is supported, 
 so it would be unwarrantable to adopt 
 the latter reading, since the second 
 ΣΝ is manifestly a repetition of the 
 
 first. LXX. Κύριος κύριος. Syr. <8 
 {25380 the Lord of lords. It has 
 
 been doubted whether by 72°27, Ais 
 holy temple, 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 
 vill. 830; Ps. xi. 4. Jehovah would bear 
 testimony against the Hebrews, 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 
 that which precedes them, and set forth, 
 in highly figurative language, the course 
 of the Divine judgment, and the tre- 
 mendous consequences that would follow. 
 ᾿ The terrible majesty and resistless power 
 of Jehovah are expressed in images 
 chiefly borrowed from earthquakes and 
 volcanic eruptions. Comp. Amos iv. 13; 
 ἘΞ τον 5; Is) Ἰσῖν eo 
 Hab. ii. 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 voleano. 
 That of wax occurs Ps. lxviii. 8; xevii. 5. 
 Comp., 
 ** Quasi igni 
 Cera super calido tabescens multa liques- 
 cat.” Tuer. vi. 515. 
 
 Some MSS. read niva27, the hills, instead 
 of DPODT, the valleys, but obviously as 
 an emendation, the latter being the 
 more difficult reading. 49, a descent 
 or precipice, from 1X, 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 Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, by the latter of whom the 
 Jews were carried away captive. The 
 form ΝΞΛ 7377 marks the futurity of the 
 event, and transmits a future significance 
 to the following verbs. 
 
 5. Jacob and Israel ave 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 
 inflicted was on account of the sins of 
 the people generally, the prophet, by the 
 forcible employment of double interro- 
 gatives, the latter of which, being in the 
 negative, greatly strengthens the appeal, 
 traces these sins to their respective 
 sources—metropolitan corruption. By 
 metonymy, the effect is put for the cause. 
 For ‘2 used as a neuter, see on Jonahi. 8. 
 Formsen the LXX., Targ., aconsiderable 
 number of MSS., and four of the earliest 
 printed editions, have the singular. The 
 
 GG 
 
226 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field, 
 The plantations of a vineyard ; 
 T will moreover hurl her stones into the valley, 
 
 And lay bare her foundations. 
 
 7 All her images also shall be broken to pieces, 
 All her rewards shall be burned 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. 
 
 Syr. and Vulg. agree with the Textus 
 Receptus. 7PM nina, 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, 
 &c. 2 Kings xii. 3; xiv. 4; Ezek. vi. 6. 
 That these existed at Jerusalem, 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 
 nina, the LXX., Syr., and Targ. translate, 
 as if ΝΠ, siz, were the true reading: 
 What is the sin of Judah? but though 
 the latter word 1s found in one of Kenni- 
 cott’s MSS., and in the margin of 
 another, it most probably originated ina 
 desire to render the parallelism complete, 
 and cannot be allowed to encroach 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 
 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 mountains, 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. 727, (like 029, 
 ver. 4,) is from the root 723, ¢o flow, pour, 
 or hurl down. For 7228 77), comp. 
 Ezek. xiii. 14. The very foundations 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 D902 were 
 the images or idols, whether carved, 
 graven or molten, which were erected in 
 the temples, for the purpose of receiving 
 religious adoration. LXX. τὰ γλυπτά. 
 }2>8, properly means the wages or reward 
 of prostitution ; from ΠΣ, 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. xxii. 17, 18; 
 Ezek. xvi. 31, 34; Hos. ix. 1. Kimehi, 
 Abarbanel, Michaelis, Maurer, and 
 others, are of opinion that the riches, &., 
 of Samaria are thus spoken of, because 
 her idolatrous inhabitants 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. 
 
OHAP, I] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 227 
 
 8 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. 
 
 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. D22¥ 15 synonymous 
 with o2D2; only Hitzig thinks, that a 
 more costly kind of idols is meaut 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 burned 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 7237, three 
 of De Rossi’s MSS., three more originally, 
 aud perhaps one more, the Brixian and 
 another ancient edition without place 
 or date, read 7237 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 
 in the plural. The LXX. render συνή- 
 yaye; 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 ihese the prophet declares he would 
 indulge, that he might thereby affect the 
 minds of his countrymen. 73x, with 
 Yod, may have been occasioned by the 
 preceding form 7778; but there are 
 other verbs which do not reject it in the 
 future, as W, Ps. Ixxii. 14. ° 2%, or, as 
 * the Keri has it, 2%, some interpret of 
 mental bereavement, a state in which the 
 mind is despoiled of its reasoning powers; 
 but, combined as it here is with DnY, 
 naked, it must be referred to the body, 
 and was in all probability designed to 
 describe the feet as stripped of shoes. 
 
 Thus the LXX. ἀνυπόδετος. The Syr. 
 Rew for which compare ΠΣ, Is. xx. 2. 
 
 For 03m, solves, and 732) ΓΞ, ostriches, 
 see on Is. xili. 21, 22, and Pococke’s very 
 elaborate note on the present verse. The 
 
 Arab. has here, heel Le. like the 
 rab. has here ee te ἢ 
 wolves, and a) wooly Cbe Mike the 
 
 jackals. The former Michaelis renders 
 crocodiles, but less properly, on account 
 of the combination. The ancient render- 
 ing, dragons, is altogether to be rejected. 
 Both kinds are selected on account of 
 the piteously howling noise which they 
 make, especially in the night. 
 
 9, mx. the Pahul Participle of ὧν, 
 to be desperately sick ; spoken of a wound, 
 to be incurable. There is no necessity, 
 with Michaelis, to have recourse to 3, 
 and so to regard the form as the elongated 
 future of the first person singular. The 
 following noun, 7129, being inthe plural, 
 the same number might be expected in 
 the Participle; but it is arule of Hebrew 
 syntax, that when, as in this instance, 
 the predicate precedes the noun, the 
 number of feminine plurals is frequently 
 neglected. Comp. Jer. iv. 14. What 
 the prophet has in view is the irretriev- 
 able rum 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 theirivestment of Jerusalem. Comp. 
 Is. x. 28—32. The nominative to 783 
 is the calamity implied in THiD2: that to 
 2) Is IWS, the enemy, wnderstood. There 
 is the utmost propriety in the distinctive 
 use of the genders in this place; for 
 
228 
 
 10 Tell it not in Gath ; 
 Weep not in Acco: 
 At 
 
 though the inhabitants of Judah suffered 
 from the Assyrian invasion, the calamity 
 did not reach those of the capital: it was 
 merely invested by the troops of Rab- 
 shakeh, and was relieved by their mira- 
 culous destruction. See Is. xxxvi., xxxvil. 
 
 10. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 20, where the 
 words 172598 n232 occur, though not in 
 the same order of arrangement. The 
 Philistines would hail with joy tidings 
 of any disaster that might befal 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 
 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 122 to 
 be a contrac‘ion of 1223, which Gesenius 
 (Lex. szb voc. 13.) is inclined to adopt. 
 According to this construction, the 
 rendering will be, weep not in Acco, i. 6. 
 Ptolemais, a maritime city in the tribe 
 of Asher. Other instances of » being 
 dropped, we have in Ἢ for °P3, 53 for 73, 
 &e.; and certainly the parallelism with 
 nz3, the continued list of the names of 
 cities, and the regularity of the paro- 
 nomasias 13A—N7a ; *2AA—N93; MEY? M12 
 “5Y, are all in favour of this interpreta- 
 tion. Though Acco was allotted to the 
 Asherites, they never took possession 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. of ᾿Ενακεὶμ μὴ, is in all 
 probability a corruption of of ev” Akeu μὴ, 
 which quite accords with the preceding 
 οἱ ἐν Τὲθ μή. The Arab. has sl 
 
 ᾿ ss] ud And those who are in Akim. The 
 
 name ”Axy occurs in Strabo, xvi. 2, 25. 
 
 The town is still called Ke, Abka, by the 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 eth-aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 
 11 Pass on, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, naked and ashamed ; 
 
 ΠΡ. Si 
 
 Arabs, and is known to Europeans by 
 the name of δέ. 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 magazine 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. ΓΞ 
 mey?, lit. the House of Aphrah, or simply 
 mar, Ophrah, Josh. xvii. 23; 1 Sam. 
 xii. 17; a city in the tribe of Benjamin. 
 The > is here merely the sign of the 
 genitive. The verb 28, which occurs 
 only in Hithpael, signifies to wallow or 
 roll, as in dust, ashes, or the like. See 
 Jer. vi. 265 xxv. 34; Hzek. xxvii. 30. 
 While the Hebrews were not to expose 
 the wretchedness of their condition to 
 the contempt of foreigners, it became 
 them to bewail it within their own 
 borders. o22n0, roll thyself, is to be 
 preferred to στ, [roll myself. It is 
 the reading of the Keri, and many MSS. 
 have it in the text. The Syr., Targ., and 
 Vulg., have thethird person plural, which 
 is more easily traceable to 227 than to 
 mmbenT. Besides, it seems more natural 
 to connect this verb with ΤΡ 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 032 “ay, the second singular 
 feminine of the verb is followed by the 
 second plural masculine of the pronoun, 
 on the principle that though the collective 
 participial noun ΠΥ is feminine, it was 
 designed to include the inhabitants of 
 both sexes: 032 is not redundant, as 
 Justiasserts, but emphatic, as the Dativus 
 incommodi.—V2o, Shaphir, means fair 
 or beautiful. Dr, Robinson states that 
 there are still three villages of the name 
 of Sawafir, which are noted on the map 
 as lying nearly half way between Ashdod 
 and Eleutheropolis, a position not much 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 229 
 
 The inhabitant of Zaanan goeth not forth ; 
 
 The wailing of Beth-ezel will take away continuance from you. 
 12 Surely the inhabitant of Maroth pineth for her goods, 
 
 Because evil hath come down from Jehovah, 
 
 To the gate of Jerusalem. 
 
 differing from that assigned by Eusebius 
 and Jerome to Saphir. Palestine, vol. ii. 
 p- 370. Hitzig and Ewald think that 
 ynw, Shamir, is meant, which is enu- 
 merated among the cities of Judah, Josh. 
 xv. 48, which Eusebius calls Σαφείρ. 
 The Chald. of the Targ. veda pam p32? Ny 
 is very improperly rendered in the Latin, 
 *‘Transite vobis qui habitatis ἐμ pulchri- 
 tudine,’ though the LXX. had translated 
 the word hy καλώς. The Syr. has 
 
 Ψ 2 a» ρ 
 9.49 | Z5aSas, whabitress of Shaphir. 
 
 To Samaria there seems no good reason 
 to refer it, since all the other places 
 specified in the connexion were in 
 Judah. mernmy, lit. zakedness, shame, 
 for shamefully naked, 7.e. entirely so. 
 Comp. as to form, pIz7uy, Ps. xlv. 5. 
 What 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. 10. For the naked 
 condition in which captives were re- 
 moved, see on Is. xx. 4. ΝΞ, Zaauan, 
 in all probability the same as 722, Zexan, 
 a city in the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 37. 
 It properly signifies the place of flocks ; 
 but to form a paronomasia with it, the 
 prophet employs the verb 82; 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. ἸΝΞ, 828, and 732, which 
 are only different modes of expressing 
 sheep or flocks. The inhabitants of this 
 city, under the influence of fear, did not 
 venture forth from their retirement to 
 condole with their neighbours who had 
 been taken prisoners by the enemy; or, 
 they did not come forth to their rescue. 
 LXX. Σενναὰρ. Aq. Σεναάν. 7287 3, 
 Beth-ezel, in all probability the same as 
 dex, Azel, Zech. xiv. 5; but where the 
 town so called was situated, we are not 
 informed. To judge from the connexion, 
 it must have been in the vicinity of 
 Shaphir and Zaanan, and not near 
 
 Samaria, as Ephraim Syrus conjectured. 
 The words inT3y D3) MP BNI M3 TED have 
 greatly perplexed interpreters. Some 
 regard 7202 as the Aramaic Infinitive, 
 and connect it with the preceding xx; 
 and, supposing 2x, the. enemy, wnder- 
 stood, to be the nominative to "Pp, 
 explain 772” of a military post. But 
 this construction affords πὸ tolerable 
 sense. Others render 712Y, measure, 
 conjecture, and the like, contrary to all 
 usage. For other interpretations, see 
 Pococke, zz Joc. It seems best to abide 
 by the idea suggested by the root τῶν, to 
 remain, continue, endure, and interpret, 
 As for the wailing of Beth-ezel, it taketh 
 away its continuance from you; 1. 6. 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 neighbourhood escaped. Gesenius 
 thinks that in 52s there is an allusion to 
 
 the Arabic etymology ol, jirmly, or 
 
 deeply rooted in the earth, as what was 
 so might be expected to continue ; but 
 this is very doubtful. 
 
 12. Of nN, Aaroth, (bitiernesses,) we 
 have nowhere any account. ΠΡ, 
 Maarath, Josh. xv. 59, 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. 
 10? 7, Newcome, after Houbigant, 
 changes into ny2? 75m, and renders, 7s 
 sick unto death ; but altogether without 
 authority. The meaning is, that the 
 inhabitants were pained or grieved on 
 account of the property of which they 
 had been robbed by the enemy, Thus 
 
280 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish ! 
 (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 ! 
 
 Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, De Wette, and 
 Hesselberg. The former 3 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. 
 51 and %22, form a paronomasia. 2, 
 
 signifies a fleet courser. Arab. US), 
 
 cucurrit. D7 is in the masculine, though 
 connecting with ΠΑ 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. ey ligavit. As a noun ἘΠῚ sig- 
 
 nifies Groom, because this shrub was used 
 for bmding. 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- 
 hoved the inhabitants to use all despatch 
 in removing their families, and what 
 property they could take with them, toa 
 distance. Lachish was besieged by Sen- 
 nacherib before the threatened attack on 
 Jerusalem, 2 Kings xviii. 14. 
 
 14, oY is used of the presents or 
 dowry sezx¢ with a wife, 1 Kings ix. 16, 
 and of letters of divorce sev¢ with her 
 when she is dismissed by her husband. 
 In the accepiation ἐξαποστελλομένους, 
 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 connexion between Lachish and 
 Moresheth-Gath; the former city, having 
 been taken by the Assyrians, was no 
 longer able to afford protection orsupport 
 to the latter. The nominative to ‘277 is 
 ΤΣ in the preceding verse. Y is equi- 
 valent, in this connexion, to 8, mw, 
 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. 
 rx, Achzib. There were two cities of 
 this name, one on the sea-coast, between 
 Acco aud Tyre, now called by the Arabs 
 
 yl, H-Zib, Josh. xix. 29; Jud. i. 31; 
 
 and the other in the tribe of Judah, 
 between Keilah and Mareshah, Josh. 
 xv. 44. That the latter is here intended, 
 is evident from the connexion; forthough, 
 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 in 2 Chron. 
 xxvill. 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 
 ΔῈ, Chezib, Gen. xxxvill. 5. By an ele- 
 gant paronomasia, 7728 M3, the houses of 
 Achzib, are said to become 28, deceitful. 
 Comp. 2328 973, a deceitful torrent, 1. 6. 
 one which having dried up, disappoints 
 the hope of the traveller. Job vi. 15—19; 
 
 Jer. xv. 18. Arab. WodS, fefellit, irritus 
 
 vanusque fuit. The expectations of 
 further aid from the families, or inhabi- 
 tants of that place, should prove fruitless. 
 
 15. °28 is a defective reading of 838, 
 which many MSS. have in the text. In 
 oy and Wy2 is another paronomasia. 
 Muareshah \ay iw the plains of Judah, 
 
CHAP, II.] 
 
 MICAH. - 
 
 231 
 
 He shall come to Adullam, the glory of Israel. 
 
 16 Make bald thy head, and shave it because of thy darling children ; 
 Enlarge thy baldness like that of the eagle ; 
 For they are gone into captivity from thee. 
 
 Josh. xv. 44. It was fortified by Reho- 
 boam, 2 Chron. xi’ 8, and was famous 
 for the victory obtained over the Ethio- 
 pians by Asa, 2 Chron. xiv. 9, 10. 
 According to Josephus, Antiq. xii. 8, 6, 
 it had been in the power of the [dumeans, 
 but was retaken by Alexander the son 
 of Aristobulus, Antiq. xii. 15, 4; xiv. 
 1,4. The possessor or occupier here 
 predicted is Sennacherib, who took 
 Mareshah and the other fortified cities 
 of Judah, 2 Kings xviii. 18. To point 
 him out with greater emphasis the article 
 is used: ID, “ Zhe possessor.” O37Y, 
 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- 
 pendent upon it, Neh. xi. 80. Of 129 
 oxy various interpretations have been 
 given; such as the wealth or riches of 
 Israel, their multitude, their nobility, 
 their weight of calamity, ὅθ. 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 Dd», dAdullam, and express 
 the superior situation of the place and 
 its neighbourhood. 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. 28, /and, is to be 
 supplied, rather than ΤΣ 3, daughter of 
 Zion. Baldness, and cutting off the 
 beard, are tokens of mourning in the 
 East, as they were among the nations 
 of antiquity. Ezra ix. 3; Job i. 20; 
 Jer. vil. 29; xvi. 6; xlviil. 37. “ Regulos 
 quosdam barbam posuisse, et uxorum 
 capita rasisse, ad indicium maximi luctus.” 
 Suetonius, in his Life of Caligula, chap. v. 
 “When Khaled ben Walid ben Mogairah 
 died, there was uot 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. 11. p. 5. 
 One species of eagle is called the bald 
 eagle, from the cireumstance of its having 
 its head almost entirely bald; but they 
 all more or less exhibit baldness during 
 the moulting season. 02220, delights, 
 
 from 22, Arab. κιλῶ, amatorius frmine 
 
 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. 
 
 woes 
 
 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 the truth, but wished for predictions of 
 good, and shows that no such predictions could reasonably be expected by 
 them, 6—1] ; concluding, however, with gracious promises of restoration after 
 
 the captivity, 12, 13. 
 
MICAH. 
 
 (CHAP me 
 
 1 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. 
 2 They also covet fields, and take them by force, 
 And houses, and take them away: 
 They also oppress a man and his house, 
 
 A man and his possession. 
 
 3 Wherefore thus saith Jehovah: 
 Behold! I devise an evil against this family, 
 From which ye shall not withdraw your necks, 
 
 Neither shall ye walk haughtily ; 
 
 For it shall be an evil time. 
 
 ‘A Wompaiis exo. | Ini thesverbs 
 1m, yp, and Mwy, is evidently a grada- 
 tion. The first describes the conception 
 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. lviil. 2; 
 Hos. xi. 9. The Tin Wy is the feminine 
 used as a neuter, to agree with the 
 nouns }}8 and δ, as forming a neuter 
 plural accusative. The phrase “2 7 °8 
 occurs also Gen. xxxi. 29; Prov. 11. 27; 
 and with the negative, Deut. xxvill. 32; 
 Neh. v. 5. It is rendered by the LXX. 
 οὐκ ἦραν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν χεῖρας αὐτῶν, 
 which the Syr.gives without the negative: 
 
 oo v δ » Vv o 
 mS ZoS (Ocs a Naso, and 
 ἐν esr 
 
 lift up their hands to God. Vulg. quoniam 
 contra Deum est manus eorum. Some 
 consider the words to be equivalent to 
 the Devtra mihi Deus of Virgil, and 
 appeal to Job xi. 6, and Hab. i. 11, 
 where, however, the phraseology is 
 different; while others take > to be the 
 shorter form of the demonstrative pro- 
 noun 78. But the true meaning seems to 
 be that given in our common version, 
 according to which 8 is to be taken in 
 its literal signification of power, strength, 
 &e. Thus Pococke, Rosenmiiller, Bauer, 
 Dathe, De Wette, Gesenius, Hitzig, and 
 Ewald, after the Targ. i172 NTT MX Ny, 
 and Kimehi, D207 poy) orl ΤῸ Ὁ 53, 
 because there is power in their hand to 
 oppress the poor. Just as the LXX, 
 
 render, ἰσχύει ἡ χεὶρ, Gen. xxxi. 29, and 
 Deut. xxvii. 89. That 53 is to be taken 
 causatively, and not conditionally, is 
 evident from the connexion. 
 
 2. Before D°n2 repeat 27299. Fifty-two 
 MSS., six by correction, two originally ; 
 four ancient and nineteen other printed 
 editions; the Alex. MS. of the LXX., 
 the Targ., Vulg., and Arab., omit 1 be- 
 fore Wx. The parallelisms in this verse 
 are very elegant. 
 
 3. 207 and 7) correspond here to 
 207 and Y2 in ver. 1. MET. Rosen 
 miller 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 ili. 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. DW, thence, 
 has the force of a pronoun in this place. 
 
 om 
 
 LXX. ἐξ ὧν. Syr. craSo. Comp. Gen. 
 iii. 23; 1 Kings xvii. 13; Ezek. v. 3. So 
 oppressive should be the yoke, that it 
 would be impossible for them to hold 
 themselves erect. LXX. ὀρθοί. Targ. 
 mp1 TMDip2. The term 79% is selected 
 with special reference to the elated and 
 haughty manner in which they had 
 conducted themselves. It is properly 
 a substantive, from 0%, ¢o be high, but 15 
 here used adverbially. 
 
CHAP. ΤΙ. ἢ 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 4 In that day shall one sing a ditty respecting you, 
 And employ a doleful lamentation, 
 And say: We are utterly destroyed. 
 He hath changed the portion of my people, 
 How hath he withdrawn it from me! 
 To an apostate he hath divided our fields! 
 5 Therefore thou shalt not have one to cast the line by lot, 
 In the congregation of Jehovah. 
 6 Prophesy not; those shall prophesy 
 Who will not prophesy of these things: 
 
 Reproaches are incessant. 
 
 4. For 72 x2, see on Is. xiv. 4. The 
 verb is here used impersonally. That 
 this Mashal was to be employed by the 
 Jews themselves, and not by their 
 enemies, is evident from its tenor, as it 
 follows in the verse. 02%, therefore, is 
 not to be rendered against you. but on 
 your account. ὙΠ “72 72, ndhd, néhi, 
 nihyah, form an elegant paronomasia 
 There can be no doubt that “72, /amenta- 
 tion, is derived from 172, to lament ; but 
 whether 772 be likewise derived from it, 
 and consequently merely the feminine of 
 “72, or whether it be the Niphal of the 
 substantive verb 77, ¢o de, is disputed. 
 The harshness that would arise from 
 rendering the words, Oxze shall lament 
 with a lamentation, it is done! militates 
 against the latter derivation; whereas, 
 by taking all the three words as cognates, 
 having the same signification, the sentence 
 is at once easy and forcible. The relative 
 position of the verbs 8&2, 773,and Vx, con- 
 firms this construction. Thus the LXX. 
 and Vulg. καὶ θρηνηθήσεται θρῆνος ἐν 
 μέλει, οὐ cantabitur canticum cum suavi- 
 tate. And the Arab., employing for the 
 two first words terms cognate with 
 
 the Hebrew, oe oo τ ΤῊΣ 
 
 is the feminine of ‘73, just as ποὺ 
 is of 128, and ΤῚΣ of ‘22. The femi- 
 nine is added to the masculine for the 
 sake of emphasis; comp. Is. ii. 1, only 
 there the nouns are joined by the co- 
 pulative 1. The three verbs above 
 specified are used impersonally. The 
 nominative to the following verbs, 1", 
 20), and pm, is Jehovah, understood. 1, 
 
 Syr. iho, to buy ; in Aphel pedo}, to sell, 
 or deliver an article into the hand of 
 
 the purchaser ; Arab. jbo hue illue com- 
 
 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. 2359 is a verbal noun, 
 from the Pilel of 293, fo turn, turn back ; 
 here used in a bad sense, one who has 
 turned back, or away from God; apo- 
 state, rebel, idolater. Comp. Is. xlvii. 10; 
 lvii. 17; Jer. xlix. 4. The idolatrous 
 king of Babylon is meant. 
 
 5. }22is arepetition of that used at the 
 beginning of ver. 3, and for the same 
 purpose. The nominative to ἢ", thee, is 
 BY, 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 any portions of the 
 land for inheritance. According to 
 Hitzig, the words are addressed by the 
 ungodly Jews to Micah himself, and 
 intimate that they would put him and 
 his family to death for prophesying 
 against them. 
 
 6. The words 79x) 3"27N) PHD wy ΓΝ, 
 which contain a smooth and elegant 
 paronomasia, are very enigmatical, but 
 must either 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 
 
 EE: 
 
294 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 7 What language, O house of Jacob! 
 Is the Spirit of Jehovah shortened ? 
 
 Are these his operations ? 
 Do not my words benefit him 
 
 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 declare that those 
 only should be permitted to prophesy to 
 them who abstained from denunciations 
 of evil. The former requires %x° to be 
 supplied before Ppoe:; the latter, Ww 
 before ES”, The formula ? E77 is 
 used ver. 11, both in reference to the 
 persons to whom the prediction is 
 addressed, and to that which is the 
 subject of the prophecy : 72) 7? Fras, “1 
 will prophesy fo 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 paragogic 
 } in p52: 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 beginning, or 
 in the middle. See Gen. xviii. 28— 
 31; Exod. xviii. 20; Deut. vii. 3; 
 1 Sam. 11 22; Ps.-xi. 2; Ixviii. 13; Is. 
 vil. 12. For ye) see on Amos vii. 16. 
 In the concluding words of the verse, 
 nWa73 3) N89, literally, calummnics depart not, 
 the Jews indignantly tax the prophets 
 with exposing them to contempt by 
 incessant castigation and reproof. Of 
 this interpretation Maurer observes, “ ut 
 facillima et simplicissima per se est, ita 
 ad nexum est aptissima.” ‘The verb oc- 
 curring first, is in the masculine 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 absence of auspicious pre- 
 dictions could possibly be ascribed to 
 
 that walketh uprightly ? 
 
 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 expe- 
 rience had ever verified, that the Divine 
 communications were productive οἵ 
 good to men of sincere and consistent 
 piety ? In ὌΝ the 7 is used as a quali- 
 fying demonstrative with all the force of 
 an indignant exclamation, in order to 
 point out the flagrant character of the 
 language employed by the Israelites. 
 Ewald; “Odes Wortes!” 77x is the 
 Pahul Part. signifying what is said or 
 spoken, and with the 7 prefixed, O dic- 
 tum! Almost all the versions and Lexi- 
 cons assign to this participle the signifi- 
 cation of betxg called or named ; but this 
 notion attaches to the verb only in Niphal, 
 which, in such case, is uniformly followed 
 by the preposition 9. See Is. iv. 3; xix. 
 18; Hos. i. 1 (Eng. i. 10), The LXX., 
 Aq., Vulg., and Targ., have read 7289, 
 which is found in four of Kennicott’s 
 MSS.—As ™ 137, short of breath or 
 spirit, is contrasted with O28 Ts, long- 
 suffering, Prov. xiv. 29, and is obviously 
 equivalent to DYB8 ὝΞῃ, δία, ver. 17, 
 (comp. 17 Wp, Exod. vi. 9,) most of the 
 moderns render in the present instance, 
 Is Jehovah prone to anger ? but prophecy 
 being the subject to which reference had 
 just been made, it is more natural to 
 understand 73m 1m, the Spirit of Jehovah, 
 in its appropriated meaning, as designa- 
 ting the Divine Author of prophetic 
 communications; and to take the verb 
 in the sense of weakness or inability. 
 Comp. 2787, short of hand, Is. xxxvii. 
 27.—7x, these, like 7s, ver. 6, refers to 
 the judgments which the Lordhad threat- 
 ened to inflict. The interrogative form, 
 as frequently, requires a decided negative ; 
 such judgments are not Jehovah’s usual 
 operations. Comp. Is. xxvui. 21; Lam. 
 il. 88; Mic. vii. 18. In 7217 Wa, the 
 substantive, which is used adverbially, is 
 placed first, for the sake of emphasis, 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 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. 
 9 'The women of my people ye thrust out from their darling home ; 
 From their children ye take away my glory for ever. 
 
 10 
 
 Arise! depart! for this is not the place of your rest ; 
 
 Because of pollution it will destroy, 
 And the destruction shall be grievous. 
 
 and on this account also it takes the 
 article, which properly belongs to 927. 
 A similar instance of transposition occurs 
 in 727 WR, Job xxxi. 26, where the sub- 
 stantive is likewise used adverbially. 
 For the meaning of the phrase, comp. 
 bh 297, Prov. ii. 7; 3722 925, Is. lvii. 2. 
 8. \ at the beginning of this verse is 
 strongly adversative. Very different 
 was the character of those whom the 
 prophet was now reproving. 7 nx, 
 properly yesterday, is taken by some to 
 signify dately ; but it is more in keeping 
 with the spirit of the passage to render 
 it anciently, of old, or the like. See on 
 Is. xxx. 33, The rebellious conduct of 
 the Hebrew nation was no new thing. 
 It had characterised every period of its 
 history. LXX. ἔμπροσθεν. Abulwalid, 
 contrary to the usage of the language, 
 divides the word into M8 and 5%, and ren- 
 ders, ox thecontrary. Thusalsothe Vulg.— 
 The > in 25x? is expressive of manuer ; 
 comp. P7127, Is. xxxii.1. 99 is selected 
 to correspond in alliteration with 97>nx, 
 and is here equivalent to ‘25>, or °Y?. 
 It refers, not to ὙΠ immediately follow- 
 ing, but to the persons of those who were 
 plundered. Though divided by the 
 accent, 7270 and 778 are to be regarded 
 as asyndeta; the former signifying the 
 large loose garment 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 robbery of which, under 
 the circumstances described, was a mat- 
 ter 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 themselves of what was less 
 costly. Comp. Matt. v. 40. For πρὸ 
 
 (by transposition of the first two letters 
 of 720%, which is much more frequently 
 
 in use,) comp. the Arab. &Lu%, vestimen- 
 tum, pec. totum corpus tnvolvens, from 
 eke, circumdedit. Before ' repeat 
 
 the preposition Ὁ. The passive par- 
 ticiple is here used intransitively to de- 
 scribe those who were returning after 
 having defeated their enemy in battle, 
 and who might therefore be considered 
 perfectly secure. Even they were way- 
 laid by their countrymen and neighbours, 
 and robbed of the spoils which they 
 had taken in war. 
 
 9. In ΤΡ and Ty, there is, as fre- 
 quently, 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. 115, 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. 
 11. 8. DAY?, for ever, 1. Θ. never to make 
 restitution. Some think there is refer- 
 ence to the command to restore the 
 pledge before sun-set, Exod. xxii. 26, 
 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, 
 x2 ΛΟ» are to be so understood here, 
 
236 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 11 If any one, conversant with wind and falsehood, hie, saying: 
 I will prophesy to thee of wine and strong drink, 
 Even he shall be the prophet of this people. 
 
 I will surely gather thee entirely, O Jaeob! 
 
 I will surely collect the remainder of Israel ; 
 I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah, 
 Like a flock in the midst of their pasture ; 
 
 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 ἃ res¢, or place of 
 quiet enjoyment, after their fatigues and 
 troubles in the wilderness, Num. x. 33; 
 Deut. xii. 9; Ps. χουν. 11. Before nx, 
 supply ya. The definite article in T7297 
 is equivalent to the pronominal affix 03, 
 and is to be rendered accordingly. A 
 land may be said to destroy its inhabi- 
 tants, when it withholds from them the 
 means of subsistence, and forces them 
 to leave it. With such reference it is 
 described as devouring themand spewing 
 them out of it, Lev. xviii. 28; xx. 22; 
 xxvi. 388; Ezek. xxxvi. 12—14. The 
 comparison of these passages shows the 
 propriety of the Piel πη, and renders 
 unnecessary the passive forms 7377 and 
 ‘mm, which some have proposed. For 
 
 $722, comp. the Arab. vere morbidus fuit; 
 
 only its significations would seem to be 
 taken from the idea of a violent or deadly 
 disease. Thus 32 707, a grievous curse, 
 1 Kings 11.8. Geseunius, in his Thesaurus, 
 renders $722 720, perditio gravissima. 
 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. ΤῸ those who did, 
 they would give a ready ear. As ΠῚ 
 signifies both wizd 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. 1 J is otherwise 
 equivalent to 1 x, Hos. ix. 7, and 324 
 ἫΝ to Wwa vax, Jer. v. 31. Dathe thinks 
 this verse would better fit in after ver. 6, 
 but there is no authority for the trans- 
 position ; and, besides, there is a singular 
 propriety in bringing forward the crown- 
 ing sin of the Jews, viz. their preferring 
 false prophets to the faithful messengers 
 of Jehovah, just before introducing the 
 glorious prediction of their restoration 
 from captivity in the following verse. 
 12, 13. Theodoret, Kimehi, Calvin, 
 Drusius,. De Dieu, Grotius, Tarnovius, 
 and others, consider these verses to be a 
 denunciation of punishment, and not a 
 promise of deliverance ; while 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 italics, 
 within brackets. Most modern inter- 
 preters, however, and among them 
 Rosenmiller, 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 favour 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 period to which the 
 prophecy has respect. Most Christian 
 expositors explain it of the appearance 
 of Christ, and his collecting of believers 
 
CHAP. 11} 
 
 They shall be in commotion, 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 237 
 
 Because of the multitude of men. 
 
 13 
 
 The Breaker is gone up before them ; 
 
 They break through and pass to the gate ; 
 
 They go out at it; 
 
 Yea, their King passeth on before them, 
 
 Even Jehovah, at their head. 
 
 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 
 restorationof 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 
 inspired announcement. The deliverance 
 predicted is the same to which reference 
 is made chap. iv. 10, 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. xi. 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 Md, the remainder, which 
 had been left in the land at the time of 
 the Assyrian invasion. ΤῸ express the 
 great extent of the population after the 
 return, it is compared to the large 
 collections 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 772, sheep-fold, but this 
 signification of the word is totally un- 
 supported by usage, and is not allowed 
 by Lee. The LXX., mistaking 2 for 
 the preposition, translate, ἐν θλίψει. It 
 
 is seldom we meet with tke article 
 prefixed to a noun taking the pronominal 
 affix, as in 9277; yet see Josh. vii. 21; 
 vil. 338. By yu87, the Breaker, some 
 understand Cyrus; but the identity of 
 structure between this sentence and the 
 two with which the verse closes, compels 
 us to interpret the term of Jehovah 
 himself, who, through the instrumentality 
 of that monarch, removed every obstacle 
 which prevented the return of the 
 Hebrews to their own land. When his 
 providence so visibly interposed, it was 
 easy for them to break down the minor 
 barriers which had confined them’ in 
 Babylonia, and triumphantly to march 
 out through the gates of the hostile city. 
 To intimate that they should suffer 
 molestation from no enemy by the way, 
 God is represented as going before them, 
 like a monarch at the head of his army; 
 Just as he was said to go before his people 
 when they went up from Egypt, Deut. 
 i. 30. In the illustrious Deliverer here 
 exhibited, Rosenmiiller recognises the 
 Messiah: “ Perruptor, δεικτικῶς, est 
 evim cum 7 demonstrativo. Loquitur 
 ergo de certa quadam persona, et anto- 
 nomastice sic dicta, que mox vocabitur 
 0322, rex illorum et Tim, ut non sit 
 dubium, Nostrum de Messiacogitasse, seu 
 divino illo heroe, quo auspice, devictis 
 omnibus Judeorum hostibus, aureum 
 seculum orbem beabit.” And to his 
 interpretation I accede, only restricting 
 the work of the Messiah, as here predicted, 
 to his leading forth the Jews from 
 Babylon. Comp. Exod. xxxiii. 14; Is. 
 Ixui. 9, in which we are taught that the 
 Divine Logos delivered, and conducted 
 the Israelites through the wilderness. 
 
238 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP, III. 
 
 CHAPTER ITI. 
 
 Having inserted in the two preceding verses a gracious prediction for the comfort 
 of the few pious who might be living in the midst of the ungodly, the prophet 
 proceeds to expatiate at greater length against the latter, directing his discourse 
 
 especially to the civil and ecclesiastical 
 
 so baneful an influence upon the nation. 
 Ver. 1—4, an objurgation of the princes; 5—7, that of the prophets ; 
 and 8—1], that of princes, prophets, and priests together. 
 
 parts. 
 
 officers, who, by their example, exerted 
 The chapter may be divided into three 
 
 The chapter closes 
 
 with a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, 12. 
 
 1 Anp I said: Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob! 
 And ye judges of the house of Israel ! 
 Is it not yours to know justice ? 
 
 Who hate good and love evil ; 
 
 Who strip their skin from off them, 
 And their flesh from off their bones. 
 
 Yea, who devour the flesh of my people, 
 
 And flay their skin from off them ; 
 
 Who break aiso their bones in pieces, 
 And separate them as in the pot, 
 
 And as flesh in the midst of the cauldron. 
 
 1—3. The > in ἘΞ) 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. τὴ is 
 here used, not of merely speculative 
 knowledge, but of that which is practical. 
 It was the province of the magistrates to 
 exercise their judicial authority for the 
 protection of the innocent, and the 
 punishment of evil-doers. But instead 
 of thus discharging the duties of their 
 
 oflice, they were themselves perpetrators 
 of the most flagrant acts of oppression 
 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 3 and 
 73, immediately preceding, which are 
 obviously employed as abstract neuters. 
 
CHAP. 111. 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 239 
 
 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. 
 
 or 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah respecting 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. 
 
 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, 
 
 And the diviners confounded ; 
 
 Yea, they shall all cover their beard ; 
 For there shall be no response from God. 
 
 Though many MSS. read δ with the 
 Keri, yet there are others which exhibit 
 mY}, the proper pointing of the Chethib. 
 No codex supports the emendation 
 ΓΞ instead of Wx2. The LXX. may, 
 or may not have so read. The etymology 
 of N73? is uncertain, but that it signifies 
 a vessel for boiling in is clear from its 
 being here parallel with v0, and in 
 1 Sam. ii. 14 with 13, 77 and 178. 
 
 4. τῷ, then, and NTT ny3, at that time, 
 are anticipative of the period of divine 
 judgment. The infliction of such judg- 
 ment is implied, not expressed. The more 
 emphatically to convey an impression 
 of its certainty, the prophet takes it for 
 granted. God is said to hear or answer 
 prayer, when he grants what is suppli- 
 cated; and to hide his face, when he 
 disregards or affords no relief to the 
 suppliant. 2x2, with the LXX., Syr., 
 Justi, Dathe, and others, I take to be 
 causal, as in Num. xxvii. 14; 1 Sam. 
 XXvili. 18; 2 Kings xvii. 26. 
 
 5. prwa O22, 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. 249 y27 
 ROD MIND BAN WIrjMw j?, They prophesy 
 peace to him who feeds them with dinners 
 of flesh. The phrase is purposely selected 
 in order satirically to expose the selfish- 
 ness of the deceivers. For the meaning 
 of tp, fo 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 
 do not imply that they ever had really 
 received any such oracles: they merely 
 professed to have received them. 1 is 
 here to be taken privatively, and not in 
 the signification of 04, propter, &c., as 
 interpreted by some. The obscuration 
 of the heavenly bodies, or of the light of 
 day, is frequently employed by the 
 prophets, as it is by oriental writers 
 generally, to denote affliction or calamity. 
 Amos viii, 9. opt, LXX., in 2 Sam. 
 
240 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, 
 
 And of judgment and might ; 
 . c 
 
 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, 
 
 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 : 
 
 xix. 24 (Hebr. 25), μύσταξ, the mustache 
 or beard, which is beld in high estimation 
 in the East, and in exhibiting which, 
 properly grown and trimmed, the Orien- 
 tals greatly pride themselves. ΤῸ hide 
 it, therefore, by covering it, was regarded 
 as a striking mark of shame or sorrow. 
 See Lev. xiii. 45; 2 Sam. xix. 24 (25); 
 Hzek. 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 0>s), and the pronoun 
 228, are here emphatic. 15, means the 
 supernatural power necessary for the 
 general discharge of the prophetic office ; 
 comp. δύναμις, Luke i. 17; xxiv. 49; 
 Acts i. 8 ; ΒΦ, a sense of moral rec- 
 titude, distinguishing clearly between 
 right and wrong, and impelling to the 
 advocacy and maintenance of such 
 actions, as are conformable to the Divine 
 law; and 7}33, 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, 823228, as he also does chap. 
 vi. 1. The remaining verses of the 
 chapter furnish a noble specimen of that 
 bold and uncompromising fidelity which 
 characterised his ministry. 
 
 10. 733, the LXX., Syr., Targ., and 
 Vulg., render in the plural, butno Hebrew 
 codex exhibits the variation. The authors 
 of these versions doubtless regarded the 
 participle as a collective, which mode of 
 construction we must adopt, or, with 
 Michaelis, we must suppose that the 
 prophet had Shebna, Is. xxii. 15—18, 
 Jehoiakim, orsomeother particular prince 
 in his eye; the former interpretation is 
 preferable. 023, d/ood, 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 027 and ΠΡ are used 
 as parallels, with the same participle, 723. 
 
 11. 17%, 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 378, 
 priests, were authorized by that law to 
 act in the capacity of ordinary religious 
 teachers, does not appear. Their being 
 thusemployed by Jehoshaphat is narrated 
 as something altogether extraordinary, 
 2 Chron. xvii. 7—9. Besides attending 
 to the ceremonial observances, they had 
 devolved upon them the decision of con- 
 
CHAP. III. ] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 241 
 
 Is not Jehovah in the midst of us ? 
 No calamity shall come upon us. 
 
 12 Surely on your account 
 
 Zion shall be ploughed as a field, 
 
 Jerusalem shall become heaps, 
 
 And the mountain of the house woody heights. 
 
 troversies, Deut. xvii. 8--11 ; xxi. 5; 
 Ezek. xliv. 24; cases of leprosy, divorce, 
 ὅτ. Lev. x. 11. They were to lay down 
 the law in such cases, and pronounce 
 the final sentence. Comp. Mal. ii. 7; 
 Deut. xxxiii. 10; and see Michaelis 
 on the Laws of Moses, Art. lii. They 
 are here associated with the judges, 
 because in certain cases they gave a 
 joint verdict; and in the time of the 
 prophet were equally avaricious and cor- 
 ruptible. The verb obdp, ¢o divine, 
 being 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 
 favour 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. We 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 
 beautifymg 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 
 occupied by the inhabitants generally in 
 the centre and the north; and “the 
 mountain of the house,” Moriah on the 
 east. Instead of 79, the Chaldee ter- 
 mination, five MSS., five others originally, 
 and the Babylonian Talmud, read D»Y. 
 man, the house, i.e. κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν, the 
 
 temple. That which was their boast 
 and confidence, was to be converted into 
 a wilderness. "¥% signifies not only 8 
 forest, but also a thicket of shrubs, a 
 rough or rugged locality, from the Arab. 
 
 asper, salebrosus fuit; difficilis incessu 
 ) ? ᾽ 
 
 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 in- 
 stance of prophetic boldness, Jer. xxvi. 
 18,19. The ploughing of the city by 
 the enemy, which has its parallel in 
 Horace, lib. 1. 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 Deylingii 
 Observationes Sacer. pt. v. pp. 448, 450. 
 Robinson’s Palestine, vol. 1]. pp. 2, 8. 
 The circumstance, however, that what 
 Micah predicts relates to the city as 
 distinguished from the temple, clearly 
 militates against this 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 either of the 
 more distant devastations under Titus 
 and Adrian, but the more proximate one 
 under Nebuchadnezzar. For the ac- 
 complishment, see Neh. ii. 17; iv. 2; 
 Lam. v. 18. 
 
 
 
 wou 
 
242 MICAH. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 By a sudden transition, as at chap. ii. 12, the prophet passes from his denunciation 
 of punishment 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 sub- 
 jects, 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 
 existence, and reign over them for ever, 6—8. The intermediate invasion of 
 Judea, the captivity in Babylon, and the liberation of the Jews, are next de- 
 picted, 9—11. Upon which follows a prediction of the victories which they 
 should gain over their enemies in the times of the Maccabees, and of the reverse 
 which took place on the establishment of Herod by the Roman power, 12—14. 
 
 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, 
 To the house of the God of Jacob, 
 That he may teach us his ways, 
 And that we may walk in his paths; 
 
 1—8. On the general identity of this verbal discrepancies, which are few and 
 prophecy with Is. ii, 2—4, see the note trivial, will be best seen on consulting 
 on that passage, to which the reader is Newcome, who exhibits the Hebrew 
 also referred for the interpretation. The text of both prophets in parallel columns. 
 
CHAP. IV. | 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 243 
 
 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, 
 And collect the outeasts, 
 
 And those whom I have afflicted. 
 
 The sense is the same throughout. 
 Twenty MSS., originally ten more, one 
 by correction, and the Complut. edition, 
 read YN instead of Vox. For δ) δ, 
 thirty-six MSS., probably another, seven 
 originally, and six by correction, together 
 with four of the early editions, read 
 81; and for xv five MSS., four originally, 
 and now one, read x, 
 
 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. ii. 10. 
 For astate of things precisely the reverse, 
 see my Biblical Researches and Travels 
 in Russia, &c. p. 436. 
 
 5. Many interpreters have been 
 puzzled 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 
 bya 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.” 
 
 wpe! 
 Calvin, zz Joc. They witnessed the 
 
 eagerness with which the idolatérsaround = se 
 
 them devoted themsélves to the service 
 of their gods 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. 3 is here a 
 formula of concession: de it so that, 
 although, or the like. Comp. for this 
 use of the particle, Gen. viii. 21; Exod. 
 ΧΠ|. 17; Josh. xvi. 18; Deut. xxix. 18. 
 “2 Dwa 727, to walk in the name of any one, 
 means to frame one’s conduct according 
 to his will, to act by his authority, and 
 in accordance with his character. 0¥, 
 name, is often used for the person him- 
 self. Comp. the phrases ΠῚ ΤΣ 7773 37; 
 mm “nme 71, to walk in the way of, to 
 follow Jehovah. It seems here to be 
 specially employed in reference to reli- 
 gious worship. Comp. Zech. x. 12. 
 6—8. That the subject of these verses 
 is the restoration from Babylon, and the 
 re-establishment of the Jewish state, 
 
 
 
244 MICAH. [CHAP. Iv. 
 
 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 kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. 
 
 and not any spiritual gathering of men 
 generally to the church of God, is placed 
 beyond dispute by the prediction that the 
 scattered and afflicted remnant of Israel 
 was again to become a strony nation, 
 ver. 7, and by the use of the phrase 
 MNT Twn, 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 number, 
 amounting only to 42,360; but they 
 rapidly increased, and in the time of the 
 Maceabees not only became an inde- 
 pendent state, but acquired such power 
 that they vanquished the formidable 
 Syro-Grecian armies. The Asmonean 
 family possessed supreme authority from 
 Mattathias to Herod the Great. ΤῸ the 
 above interpretation no valid objection 
 ean be taken on the ground that Jehovah 
 is said, ver. 7, to reign for ever over 
 those who were to be assembled. τὴν, 
 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; 
 xxvil. 21 ; xxviii. 433 Lev. iii. 17. It is 
 even employed to denote the period of the 
 seventy years’ captivity, Jer. xviiil.16. For 
 m7 and 7:7, comp. Zeph. ii. 19; 
 Ezek. xxxiv. 16. 485027 is the Niphal 
 participle of 839, ¢o be removed. Syr. 
 
 tr? 
 
 - v 
 Sauls: elongavit, removit. Arab. 
 
 δ 11., vecessit, abscessit. Having 
 
 employed metaphors taken from the 
 treatment of sheep, Micah calls the 
 Jewish people in their collective capa- 
 city, 112, a flock. Comp. Mm Ὑτν, the flock 
 of Jehovah, Jer. xiii. 17 ; and in refer- 
 
 ence to the strength of Jerusalem, and 
 the watchful care exercised by the 
 government, he characterises her as 
 vy ὙΠ), the tower of the flock. Some, 
 indeed, think with Jerome, that a place 
 of this name, to which reference is made 
 Gen. xxxy. 2], and which that father 
 says lay about a mile distant from Beth- 
 lehem, is intended; but, from its being 
 in apposition with }s7na 59, 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 %5%, 
 comp. Is. xxxil. 14; 2 Chron. xxvii. 3; 
 xxx. 14; Neh. i. 26, 27, in which 
 last passage 97299, the tower, is mentioned 
 along with it, which is doubtless identical 
 with y73, Is. xxxii. 14. The word is 
 derived from %, ¢o swell, become tumid. 
 
 Arab. hae, tumore laboravit, pinguedo 
 
 circa perineum capri, &e. Tov ᾿Οφλᾶν 
 καλούμενον ὑψῆλαν. Joseph. de Bell. 
 Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6, ὃ 3. The LXX., 
 Aq., Symm., Syr., and Vulg., confound 
 the word with 8, thick darkness. The 
 Targum applies the passage to the 
 Messiah 29207 079,72 WHET TTT NIM AN} 
 Ha? NMI NTHY ἢ) PPST Nm, “dad 
 thou, O 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 Yo, Gen. xxxv. 21: 7207 SINR 
 NDDV FADD NIM NIN YANN THY, “ the place 
 JSrom 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 ad hominem in reasoning with 
 the Jews. > in 72) is a periphrasis of the 
 genitive. 
 
CHAP. IV. | 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 245 
 
 9 Why, now, dost thou ery aloud ? 
 
 Ts there no king in thee ? 
 
 Have thy counsellors perished ? 
 That pains should have seized thee 
 
 Like a woman in travail ? 
 10 
 
 Like a woman in travail ; 
 
 Be in pain, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, 
 
 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, 
 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, 
 
 9. THY 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 7521, which is the usual 
 form. The prophet plunges at once into 
 the circumstances of consternation in 
 which the inhabitants of Jerusalem would 
 be placed ontheapproach 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.” yyv the LXX. treat as a col- 
 lective: ἡ βουλή cov. 
 
 10. 173, instead of ‘3, 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 likewise expressly foretold by Isaiah, 
 the contemporary of Micah, chap. xxxix. 
 7; xlin. 14; xlviii. 20. The repetition of 
 DY, there, is emphatic. The inhabitants 
 
 of Jerusalem, when removed from the 
 city, should be located inthe open country, 
 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 neighbours of the Jews 
 are no doubt specially intended. Comp. 
 Lam. ii. 16; Ezek. xxxv; Obad. 12, 13. 
 These defiled Jerusalem, when they shed 
 the blood of her citizens and profaned 
 her sacred places. 2737 is used, like 
 3 789, 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 ἘΠῚ with the dual masculine, 
 comp. 2 Sam. x.9; Job xx. 10. Nothing 
 is more common in Arabic than to employ 
 the feminine form of the verb when the 
 agent is any thing irrational or inanimate. 
 The singular number is employed as the 
 simpler form of the verb. It may be 
 observed, however, that, instead of ΣῊΝ 
 in the plural, four MSS., two of the most 
 ancient editions, the Syr., Targ., and 
 Vulg., read =2Y in the singular. The 
 LXX. have the plural. Both 7277 and 
 wm are optative in force. 
 
 12. 797 is a nominative absolute, used 
 
240 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Neither do they understand his purpose ; 
 For he shall collect them as sheaves into the threshing-floor. 
 
 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 ; 
 And thou shalt devote their gain to Jehovah, 
 Even their substance to the Lord of all the earth. 
 
 14 
 We are besieged! 
 
 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 manner in which this 
 process is carried on, see on Is. xxvii. 
 27, 28. 
 
 13. A continuation of the metaphor. 
 Conip. for a real parallel, Is. xli, 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 7}, horm, 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 punish- 
 img enemies. The Orientals give to 
 
 Alexander the Great the epithet of 3 
 eh pb bicornis; end the kings of 
 
 Macedon were actually in the habit of 
 wearing the horns of a ram in their 
 casques. 217 I take to be the second 
 person feminine, the Yod being a frag- 
 ment of the old form of the personal 
 pronoun ‘Ps, regularly preserved in the 
 Syriac. Compare, for other instances, 
 ‘mow, Ruth iii. 3; 7227, Jer. xxxi. 21, 
 though they are pointed with a Sheva, 
 and the Keri directs that they should be 
 read now and m2. The LXX., Aquila, 
 
 Assemble yourselves now, O daughter of troops! 
 
 Symm., Theodot., the Syr., and Vulg., 
 all have the second person. O07, Arab. 
 
 τ 
 promiscui 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 173, ¢roop, to be a 
 collective. 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 Wn TNA, comp. Gen. xlix. 19. 
 The common acceptation of 773, is Zo cut 
 or make incisions ; but that it also signi- 
 fies to assemble as troops, see Jer. v. 7. 
 
 =, prohibuit ; sacrum, quod ron est 
 
 on 
 Syr. | hy ὦ portion or detachment of 
 
 an army. Though at dv the enemy is 
 understood, it is better to construe it 
 impersonally, and give it in our language 
 in the passive. In 03% and DW is 
 another paronomasia. Most understand 
 by the ww, 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 be used collectively. The position 
 
CHAP. V.| 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 247 
 
 With a rod they have smitten on the cheek 
 
 The judge of Israel! 
 
 of Hengstenberg and some others, that 
 it is selected on purpose 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 
 28, with which it forms the paronomasia, 
 Though the LXX. have rendered the 
 term by φυλᾶς, Aq., Symm., and Theod., 
 have κριτήν, The siege in question 
 
 Michaelis thinks was that by Sosius, the 
 Roman general, B.c. 37, when Antigonus, 
 the last of the Asmonzan dynasty, was 
 obliged to submit to the superior power. 
 Whether this prince be specifically in- 
 tended I shall not determine. So much 
 is certain, that he was most con- 
 temptuously treated by Sosius; see 
 Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib, i. cap. xvill. 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 foretels, in a 
 very explicit manner, 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 an- 
 nounced, 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 threatenings 
 both against the Jews in the time of Micah, and the enemies by whom they 
 
 were to be punished, 9—14. 
 
 1 Awnp thou, Bethlehem Ephratha ! 
 Art small to be among the thousands of Judah, 
 
 1. Michaelis remarks, “If not even a 
 word were found in Matt. 11. 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 formerly made by 
 the Jewish Sanhedrim, in their official 
 reply to Herod, Matt. ii. 5,6; and is 
 admitted both by the Rabbinical and 
 the rationalistic interpreters, though, as 
 
 might be expected, they differ as to the 
 person of the Messiah. 
 
 whose name was announced long ago, 
 JSrom the days of old.’ The position of 
 Theodore of Mopsuesta, 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 zdeal Messiah 
 
248 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. Y. 
 
 Yet from thee shall He come forth to me 
 
 To be Ruler in Israel, 
 
 sufliciently convenient in explaining this 
 and other passages, as it relieves them 
 from all investigation in regard to positive 
 historical personality. O7773, Beth- 
 Iehem, \iterally, the house of Bread. 
 
 Arab. psy 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 
 celebrated as the birth-place of David, the 
 first of the line of Jewish kings. 75x, 
 Ephrath, Gen. xlviii. 7, or, as it is, com- 
 monly written, with the 7 paragogic, 
 ampy, Lphratha, appears from the pas- 
 sage just cited to have been the original 
 name of the place. This word has much 
 the same signification as Beth-lehem, 
 being derived from 78, to be fruitful ; 
 and no doubt the place received both 
 names from the fertility of the region. 
 Dr. Robinson observes respecting the 
 present aspect 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. 11. p. 161. 
 The names occur as parallels in the 
 stanza, Ruth iv. 11 :— 
 TDIENT TTD) 
 On) mB OU NI 
 
 It was likewise called Bethlehem Judah, 
 Judges xvii. 7; xix. 1; Ruth i. 1; Matt. 
 i. 5; inorder, it is thought, to distinguish 
 it from another place of the same name 
 in the tribe of Zabulon, Josh. xix. 15. 
 ‘Yrs, as well as 7x, 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 3, which is of that 
 gender, being strongly prominent to the 
 view of the prophet. Pococke, in the 
 notes to his Porta Mosis, chap. ii., and in 
 his commentary on the passage, labours 
 hard to support the opinion of Tanchum 
 and Abulwalid, that ye has the two 
 contrary significations of /iftle and great ; 
 
 but the opinion rests upon nothing 
 beyond the construction which these 
 writers have put upon the term as occur- 
 ring in Jer. xlviil. 4, and Zech. xiil. 7, 
 which passages, when closely examined, 
 admit of no other signification being 
 attached to the word but that of Jitéle, 
 of small note, or esteem, though it may 
 seem to be supported by the Targumic 
 rendering }731070 in the former of these 
 passages, and by ποιμένας, the reading of 
 the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX., and 
 
 SSS that of the Syriac, in the latter. 
 
 In none of the cognate dialects has the 
 word the signification of greatness or 
 dignity. nn? ys is literally Wttle in 
 respect of being, little to exist, or be 
 reckoned. There is no occasion to resort 
 to the hypothesis that > here forms a 
 comparative, and is equivalent to 79. 
 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 MiNEW, families, or 
 clans, the chiliads or thousands of which 
 had heads or princes, to whom, from this 
 circumstance, was given the name of 
 Dypbe Ww, OHS wen, priaces and heads of 
 thousands. It is highly probable that at 
 the time to which the prophecy refers, 
 if not in that of the prophet, 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, &c. 
 It is spoken of in the New Testament as 
 Κώμη, ὦ village, or hamlet, John vii. 42. 
 In the present day its inhabitants are 
 rated at eight hundred taxable men. See 
 Dr. Robinson, wf svp. Yet, small and 
 inconsiderable as Bethlehem was, it was 
 to have the distinguished honour of 
 giving birth to the Messiah. 
 
 “0 sola magnarum urbium 
 Major Bethlem, cui contigit 
 Ducem salutis ecelitus 
 Incorporatum gignere.” 
 Prudentius, Hymn. Epiph. 77. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 249 
 
 Whose comings forth have been of old, 
 
 From the ancient days. 
 
 Between the former and the latter 
 half of the verse is a marked antithesis. 
 In this respect, 83 and YDXz4D, corre- 
 spond; the former, designating the 
 future coming forth of the Illustrious 
 Ruler here predicted, when he should 
 actually assume human nature; the latter, 
 his ancient comings forth, when he created 
 the world, and 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 Mixz19, 
 and regard the term as referring to the 
 Davidic extraction of the Messiah. This 
 signification is likewise strenuously main- 
 tained by Hengstenberg ; but, instead of 
 finding any reference to the ancient 
 family of David, he adopts the opinion 
 that the object of the prophet is to teach 
 the eternal existence of the Messiah. 
 His position, however, is perfectly un- 
 tenable, 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, 7. 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. 
 72 before O72 and in D2» Ὁ, 15 used in 
 its temporal acceptation, marking the 
 terminus a quo. The LXX. ἔξοδοι 
 
 αὐτοῦ am ἀρχῆς ἐξ ἡμερῶν αἰῶνος. 
 σι δ σ᾿ σι ν 
 Syr. 80 [Nemes «ἕο maatco 
 
 17] δ v 
 Wess wala’ “ Whose going forth is 
 Srom the beginning, from the days of the 
 ages.” Vulg. “Et egressus ejus ab initio, a 
 _ debus eternitatis.” The Arab. though 
 unwarrantably free as a version, gives 
 
 pretty much the true sense: ἀξ- πὸ 
 
 pail eu! ΤΟΙΣ el pl us “ Whose 
 goings forth in Israel are from the days 
 of the age.” It is, however, not unlikely, 
 
 that the words Jz) pul us? , have crept 
 
 into the text from the preceding clause. 
 Though 277 is used of past duration ab- 
 solutely in reference to God, Deut. 
 XXxill. 27, yet itis most frequently em- 
 ployed to denote past, especially ancient 
 time, and is synonymous with Ov», with 
 which it occurs in poetic parallelisms. 
 
 Comp. the Arab. rod » precessit ; tem- 
 
 ΤΣ 
 pus antiguum. Syr. SO -0> ante, coram. 
 
 In Ps. xliv. 2, D032 ‘2 occurs, just 
 as Diy ὋΣ does in the present verse; 
 and in Ps. Ixxvii. 6 we have ὉΠ om 
 and ov2%iy nim corresponding to each 
 other. Comp. also Micah vii. 14, 20; 
 Mal. ili. 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 
 ancient times, for the accomplishment of 
 the Divine purposes, he not obscurely 
 teaches. Thus Piscator: “ Verto egres- 
 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 
 term 710, Ruler, here employed, is that 
 used by David in his Messianic Ode, 
 2 Sam. xxiii. 3 :— 
 PAE OTe? gin 
 ONT OND dw 
 
 Comp. Jer. xxx. 21 :— 
 2299 IVAN ΓΤ 
 NE? Dp dun 
 oe WII) PHIM 
 jad ΓΝ TW ΠῚ ΜΉΤ Ὁ 3 
 Thm ON? ve ΠΥΡῸΣ 
 
 Comp. also Is. xi. 1—4. , 4o 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 
 
 K K 
 
250 
 
 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. 
 3 And he shall stand, and feed in the strength of Jehovah, 
 In the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God. 
 
 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 
 obviously given from memory, and not 
 with any view to verbal accuracy. 
 
 2. Notwithstanding the glorious pro- 
 spect afforded by the promise of the 
 Messiah, it was not to supersede thie 
 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- 
 establishment of the theocracy, others who 
 resided in the Hast were induced to fol- 
 low, and multitudes returned from Egypt 
 and other parts, before the Christian era. 
 The words 772 77Y are susceptible of 
 two interpretations. They may either 
 be referred to the Jewish ehurch, 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 Secker, Michaelis, 
 Hartmann, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Maurer, 
 and Ewald. This construction of the 
 passage alone suits the entire connexion. 
 Τὸ 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 
 person, had been predicted, ver. 1: the 
 prophet, who, as already noticed, was 
 contemporary with Isaiah, and in all 
 probability was acquainted with his 
 celebrated prophecy respecting the >, 
 15. 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 view 
 is further confirmed by the use of 
 the pronominal affix in "7s, 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, 
 referring 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 Judsea, in order that they might 
 be there to receive him, when he should 
 come forth to be ruler in Israel. The 
 preposition Ὁ conveys here the idea of 
 superaddition. The foreign Jews were 
 to be gathered iz addition to those who 
 had already been collected. It is 
 thus more expressive than. That the 
 phrase xt 33, ¢he children of Israel, 
 is 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 1s thus 
 appropriated after the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, the period to which the propheey 
 refers. It is well known that the Macca- 
 beean coins bear the inscription, NW" pw, 
 the Shekel of Israel. Comp. for this use 
 of the term °87%, ver. 1 of the present 
 chapter. 
 
 3. The verb ΤῸΝ signifies not simply 
 to stand, but also to stand firm, to endure, 
 continue. This latter acceptation is 
 
CHAP. Ὑ.] 
 
 And they shall continue ; 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 251 
 
 For now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth. 
 4 And This Same shall be the peace. 
 When the Assyrian 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 ; 
 
 adopted here by many, who think it 
 better suits the character of the predicted 
 king, who is otherwise represented as 
 sitting upon his throne, and not standing. 
 But, as the following verb 7¥9, 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. ]xi. 5. The pastoral metaphor 15 
 beautifully expressive of royal care and 
 protection. Comp. Iliad i. 263: 
 
 Oloy Πειρίθοόν τε, Apvavrd τε, ποιμένα 
 λ ᾿) 3 
 αῶν, 
 
 where the scholiast has, βασιλέα ὄχλων. 
 See for this use of the Hebrew verb ΠΡῚ, 
 2 Sam. v.2; vil. 7. The power and glory 
 of the Messiah here predicted are those 
 with which, as Mediator, he is invested. 
 Comp. Is. xi. 2; Matt. xxvii. 18; Heb. 
 ii. 7—9. Jehovah being called “his 
 God,” intimates his subordinate official 
 relation. Comp. John xx. 17. If 08 
 mim, 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 
 revealed himself to mankind. The no- 
 minative to 31%) must be the subjects 
 over whom Messiah reigns, understood. 
 These were to consist not of believing 
 Jews only, but likewise of believing 
 Gentiles in the remotest regions of the 
 elobe, as it follows in the verse. Comp. 
 for JX 125s, “the ends of the earth,’ in 
 reference to the amplitude of the king- 
 dom of Christ, Ps. ii. 8; xxii. 28; ]xxi. 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 122, fo feed, two MSS. and some 
 printed editions read 783, fo see, while 
 the LXX. and Arab. exhibit both read- 
 ings; and that three MSS. and another 
 originally, the Syr., Targ., and Vulg., 
 read 12707) or 120%), they shall return, or 
 be converted, instead of the current 
 reading 230%, they shall remain. The 
 LXX. have ὑπάρξουσι. 
 
 4,5. The wordsovammn, And This 
 Same shall be the peace, are intimately 
 connected with the preceding words, but 
 have no relation to those which follow, 
 except in so far as the victories there 
 assumed were to pave the way for that 
 state of the Jewish affairs during which 
 the Messiah was to appear in the world. 
 πὶ, 7115, This Same, is used emphatically, 
 with reference to the Messiah, who had 
 just been spoken of. Comp. for ἃ similar 
 use of the pronoun, Gen. v. 29; Exod. 
 xv. ὃ. Di, peace, is put, by metonymy, 
 for the author and introducer of re- 
 conciliation. Comp. Gen. xlix. 10; Is. 
 ix. 5 (Eng. version, 6); Zech. ix. 10; 
 Eph. ii. 14, 17; Col. i. 20. 05x, signifies ¢o 
 restore things to their former state, to make 
 restitution ; in Hiph. to restore, or cause 
 
 to be at peace. Comp. the Arab. eos 
 
 reinteyrare, sanare. The substantive is 
 without the article, as frequently in the 
 prophetic writings, when the object is to 
 impart energy to the language, by con- 
 densing the mode of expression. If 
 vty be taken to signify the ancient 
 Assyrian empire, the reference will be 
 to the threatened invasion in the time of 
 the prophet; but this construction ill 
 suits the connexion, in which respect is 
 had to the more distant future; and 
 
202 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP, V. 
 
 And there shall be deliverance from the Assyrian, 
 When he shall invade our land, 
 And when he shall tread our borders. 
 
 what follows, relative to the resistance 
 of the Jews, does not agree with any 
 successful events in the history of that 
 people during the Assyrian rule. I 
 cannot, therefore, but think, that the 
 term is employed by our prophet to 
 denote the empire of the Seleucide, 
 founded by Seleucus, one of the generals 
 of Alexander the Great, by whom he 
 was invested with the government of 
 Babylonia and Media, and who, under 
 the title of King of Syria, subjugated 
 all the countries from the Hellespont 
 to India and the Jaxartes. On the 
 same principle that Darius is called 
 ux 70, the king of Assyria, Kara vi. 22, 
 though that empire had long ceased to 
 exist, the title might be applied to 
 Scleucus and his successors. ΤῸ them, 
 during the period of their reign, belonged 
 “the land of Assyria,” which is also here 
 called “the land of Nimrod,’ because, 
 according to the proper rendering of 
 Gen. x. 11, that monarch went forth 
 from Babylon into the country of Assyria, 
 where he built Nineveh and other cities 
 there named. According to this in- 
 terpretation, the prophecy in these two 
 verses relates to the noble and success- 
 ful opposition which the Maccabees 
 offered to Antiochus Epiphanes, when 
 he marched against Jerusalem, pillaged 
 the temple, and desecrated every object 
 sacred in the estimation of the Jews. 
 By rousing a spirit of patriotic piety in 
 the breasts of their countrymen, they 
 not only recovered their sacred city from 
 the enemy, but, after a series of the 
 most brilliant victories, drove him to the 
 gates of his own fortified cities, and 
 finally succeeded in securing the national 
 independence. It is to this protracted, 
 but triumphant struggle, that reference 
 is made, Dan. xi. 32. The assertion of 
 Hartmann, that 82> Wx is not Hebrew 
 inits construction, and that, consequently, 
 Wx is to be connected with Didw, 15 
 without foundation; for we meet with 
 the very same construction in Tx ix we 
 x5. 93, Numb. vi. 2. Thus also in Arab. 
 
 Sol) gl de 1,8) 16] asia. 
 
 Label, “two cities, when their inhabitants 
 
 are of one accord,’ Locman, Fable I. The 
 numbers seven and eight appear to be used 
 to denote saenmmecle a full and sufficient 
 number, as in Kecles. xi. 2; “Give a 
 portion to seven, and also to eight.” 
 Comp. also Job v. 19; Prov. vi. 16; 
 xxx. 15, 18, 21> Amos 1: 3.65005 ue: 
 So the Greek τρὶς καὶ τετράκις, and the 
 Latin ¢er guaterque. Were they to be 
 taken literally, there would be no great 
 difficulty in selecting the number from 
 the Maccaban period; but the com- 
 parison of the above passages shows that 
 such a process would be unwarranted. 
 OD, shepherds, and DIS DI, princely 
 men, are synonymous, signifying those 
 who took the lead in opposing the 
 enemy, aud who administered the affairs 
 of the Jews at the time. Because JO2 
 also signifies fo pour out a Libation, 
 Michaelis is inclined to render the 
 phrase D8 12°03, sacrifices of men, and to 
 interpret it of such as sacrificed their 
 life in defence of their country. Not 
 only, however, is the parallelism opposed 
 to this construction of the meaning, but 
 also the use of 0°3°D2 in other passages. 
 Thus Josh. xiii. 21, p02, princes 
 (Com. Ver. dukes) of Sihon ; and Ezek. 
 xxx. 30, PE 5.2 79W, there are the 
 princes of the north. he title properly 
 signifies azointed, those who had been 
 consecrated to their office by anointing 
 with oil; and thus is equivalent to 
 ov. In the present instance it is 
 
 used tropically, without any reference 
 Υ 
 
 (a eo ΄- 
 to {118 ceremony. Syr. [4.2]5 [1.9 309- 
 
 Targ. 8028 12929; Arab. oti} we (bes 5 
 great men. 2}, to feed, being here used 
 in connexion with “the sword,” must be 
 taken metaphorically, and means to con- 
 sume, devastate, or the like. ‘To refer 
 ww to YY1 as its root, is altogether in- 
 admissible. The repetition in these two 
 verses possesses peculiar elegance. 27 
 is used impersonally. Instead of 123 in 
 the singular, 332-in the plural, is the 
 reading of thirty-four MSS., originally 
 
CHAP. Y. | 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 253 
 
 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 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, 
 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. 
 
 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 5, the dew, and DYN, the rain ; 
 and the sudden raising up of the Jews 
 was to be as entirely a work of Divine 
 providence, and independent of human 
 aid, as the production of these material 
 elements. ‘The seventh verse describes 
 the formidable character of the Jews in 
 reference to the hostile nations by which 
 they were attacked. For the accu- 
 mulation and the rise in the meaning 
 of the verbs 77%2) 097) 122, comp. Exod. 
 XV. 9: DW PON PES AMS. 
 
 . 8. Here the prosperous aspect of the 
 
 prophecy closes. The words are ad- 
 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 country- 
 men by the Babylonish conquest and 
 captivity. They had, contrary to the 
 express command of the Lord, Deut. 
 xvil. 16, kept up a formidable body of 
 cavalry, and war-chariots; trusted in 
 their fortified cities ; encouraged sorcery, 
 and indulged in abominable idolatry. 
 These were all to be removed, when the 
 Jewish state was broken up; and after 
 God had employed the heathen in punish- 
 ing 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. ii. 6—22. 
 For 23, see on Is. xlvii. 9; for D221P9, 
 comp. 0239, Is. ii. 6; and for ΟΝ, 
 see on Is. xvii. 8. As OY had already 
 occurred in the acceptation of cities, 
 ver. 10, we should scarcely expect it to 
 
 
 
254 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 10 I will cut off the cities of thy land, 
 
 And rase all thy fortresses. 
 11 
 
 I will cut off the sorceries from thy hand, 
 
 And thou shalt have no diviners. 
 
 of thee, 
 
 I will cut off thy graven images and thy statues from the midst 
 
 And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. 
 
 13 
 And destroy thy cities. 
 14 
 
 Τ will break down thine images of Astarte from the midst of thee, 
 
 And I will execute vengeance in anger and in wrath, 
 
 Upon the nations which have not been obedient. 
 
 be again used, ver. 13. To remove the 
 difficulty Michaelis compares the word 
 
 with the Arab. ye arbor semper virens ; 
 Arnold, with the Arab. J spelunca 5 
 
 others propose to read OY, woods, 1.6. 
 eroves, supposing the initial Yod to have 
 been absorbed by that with which the 
 preceding word terminates ; while others 
 would change the word into O°, wif- 
 nesses, understanding thereby the statues 
 &e. belonging to idol-worship. There 
 seems, however, to be no absolute 
 necessity for departing from the signifi- 
 cation cities, only we thereby understand 
 such as were specially appropriated to 
 idolatrous uses, as Jerome suggests. 
 Comp. 21ma VY, the city of the house, 
 or temple of Baal, 2 Wings x. 25, by 
 which is meant aseparate part of Samaria, 
 where the temple was situated. This 
 construction is required in order to form 
 a parallelism with ΟΝ, 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 translated 
 enemies. Some refer the relative Wx, 
 at the end of ver. 14, to 072, and in- 
 terpret, wxheard of vengeance, but it Is 
 more natural to connect it with 0°53, 
 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 
 from the Jews, to listen to the in- 
 structions which had been tendered to 
 them. Thus the Targ. JERS 137 NOI ΘΝ 
 apr, “ the peoples that have not received 
 the doctrine of the law.’ WUXX. ἐν τοῖς 
 ἔθνεσιν, ἀνθ᾽ ὧν οὐκ εἰσήκουσαν. Syr. 
 
 v δ ay “- a g 
 QSSoe ts wea] [scSés, the peoples 
 who have not hearkened. Jn the same 
 
 way Michaelis, Hartmann, Justi, Dathe, 
 Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald. 
 
 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 does in a very affecting manner, by calling a public court, in which the 
 
 inanimate creation is summoned to supply evidence, 1, 2. 
 
 An appeal is then 
 
 made by Jehovah to the accused party, respecting his kindness to the nation 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 from the earliest period of its history, 3—5. 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 255 
 
 Convicted of guilt, the people are 
 
 represented as deeply anxious to obtain, at any cost, reconciliation 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 
 
 obligations 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 traces 
 the evil to its true source—the idolatries of the kingdom of Israel, 16. 
 
 1 HEAR 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 ; 
 For Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, 
 
 And will contend with Israel. 
 
 3 Omy people! What have I done to thee ? 
 And with what have I wearied thee ? 
 
 Testify against me. 
 
 4 Nay, I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, 
 
 1, 2. It is not unusual with the pro- 
 phets ‘to make appeals respecting the 
 enormity of human guilt to the inanimate 
 parts of creation, as if it were impossible 
 for it not to inspire them with life, and 
 call them forth as intelligent witnesses of 
 what hath taken place in their presence. 
 See Deut. xxxii.1; Is.i.2; Jer. 11.12, 18. 
 By a similar personification the moun- 
 tains and durable foundations of the earth 
 are here summoned to appear in the 
 court of heaven. Jehovah, however, 
 instead of bringing forward the charge, 
 abdicates, as it were, his right, and leaves 
 it to the guilty party to state the case. 
 Comp. Is. xli. 26. In the appeal to 
 the lofty and ever-during mountains, in 
 which the puny affairs of man could 
 excite no prejudice, and which might 
 therefore be regarded as quite impartial 
 judges, there is something inexpressibly 
 sublime. O77 nx 4, does not mean, 
 contend with the mountains, as if they 
 were the party to be accused, but to 
 carry on the cause in their presence. 
 
 ny is here to be taken in the signification 
 of apud, coram, and is equivalent to 
 1252, before, just as the forms DANY PANT, 
 Gen. v. 24, and OF 325} Po, xlviii. 15, 
 are identical in meaning. 02x, or as it 
 is spelt 0°20°8 in a great many MSS., and 
 in four early editions, standing absolutely, 
 must be taken as a substantive, and not 
 as an adjective qualifying Υὲ προ, Arab. 
 
 ΠΝ stetit, constitit ; wh petra. εὐ 9 
 
 est omne id, quod durat, et permanet sua 
 im sede. Schultens, Origg. Hebr. p. 112. 
 Instead of ¥I8 "1019, the foundations of 
 the earth, the Arabs call the mountains 
 
 οδϑ»»δὶ ob}, 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, 81. He had demanded of them 
 
256 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 And redeemed thee from the house of slaves ; 
 And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. 
 
 or 
 
 consulted, 
 
 O my people! remember now how Balak the king of Moab 
 
 And how Balaam the son of Beor answered him ; 
 
 [Remember what happened] 
 From Shittim to Gilgal, 
 
 That ye may know the benefits of Jehovah. 
 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? 
 
 nothing that was unreasonable. 3 at 
 the beginning of ver. 4, is very ex- 
 pressive, and is eqnivalent to ay, on the 
 contrary, or the like. Instead of having 
 done any thing 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 132125, the prophetess, Exod. xv. 20, 
 because she led the female chorus which 
 rehearsed the inspired song of Moses. 
 The Targ. on Micah adds : 802) 7YHN%, Zo 
 instruct the women. Comp. Numb xii. 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 com- 
 pelled, contrary to the cherished desire 
 of his heart, to pronounce blessings upon 
 them instead of curses. See Numb. 
 XXii., XXU1., xxiv. The words Ty Dw} 
 22233, from Shittim to Gilgal, are not 
 to be. construed with those imme- 
 diately 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 mar- 
 ginal gloss; but have merely to supply 
 the ellipsis ™ ™, what happened, and 
 repeat 133, remember, from the first clause 
 of the verse. To this effect the Targ. 
 
 ¢ 
 . 
 
 NORRIE TY PED WI PI) NPAPHN ΚΣ. NI, 
 ** Were not mighty deeds performed for 
 you from the plain of Shittim to the 
 house of Gilgal?” hus also Munster, 
 Vatablus, 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 
 committed with the Midianitish women. 
 twenty-four thousand Israelites were 
 destroyed. The evil was so great that 
 it might have caused the Lord to abandon 
 them entirely; but he mercifully spared 
 them as a 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, Gi/ga/ 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. Ti nip73, 
 the benefits of Jehovah. Comp. Jud. v.11; 
 1 Sam. xii. 7; Ps. xxiv.5. In this way 
 the phrase is interpreted by Tanchum, 
 Grotius, Drusius, and by most of the 
 moderns. Calvin observes: “Per Justitias 
 intelligit beneficia quemadmodum multis 
 aliis locis ;” and paraphrases thus : “ Ut 
 ipsa experientia tibi demonstret quam 
 verax, quam beneficus, quam misericors 
 semper fuerit Deus erga genus vestrum.” 
 
 6,7. The Jews, convicted of guilt, 
 are represented as most anxious to pro- 
 pitiate the Divine favour. They could 
 
CHAP, VE.| 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 7 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 ? 
 
 8 He hath showed thee, O man! what is good: 
 And what doth Jehovah require of thee, 
 
 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 
 neighbours. How much soever they 
 might formerly have grudged the expense 
 of prescribed offerings, they are now 
 willmg to bring the most costly and 
 abundant, rams by thousands, and oil 
 suflicient to fill myriads of rivers ; nay, 
 what is more, human victims, and of 
 these the most endeared, their own 
 offspring. In your m2 man, myriads of 
 torrents of otl, is a double hyperbole, 
 quite in the style of the Orientals. For 
 nian, as thus used, comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 7; 
 and for γο 2Π2, Job xx. 17; xxix. 6. The 
 fact of the presentation of human sacri- 
 fices is fully established in the ancient his- 
 tory of all nations. This barbarous cus- 
 tom was especially prevalent among the 
 Pheenicians, 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 Phcenician neigh- 
 bours. Eusebius, in his Preepar. Evangel. 
 lib. iv. 16, enters at length into the 
 subject ; and adduces a passage from 
 Philo Byblius which has a special bearing 
 ‘upon the present text: "Eos ἦν τοῖς 
 παλαιοῖς, ἐν ταῖς μεγάλαις συμφοραῖς 
 τῶν κινδύνων, ἀντὶ τῆς πάντων φθορᾶς 
 TO ἨἩΓΑΠΉΜΕΝΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΤΈΚΝΩΝ 
 τοὺς κρατοῦντας ἢ πόλεως ἤ ἔθνους, εἰς 
 σφαγὴν ἐπιδιδόναι, λύτρον τοῖς τιμωροῖς 
 δαίμοσι. “It was customary among the 
 
 ancients, on calamiious or dangerous 
 emergencies, for the rulers of the city or 
 the state, to prevent the destruction of 
 all, to offer up the most dearly beloved of 
 their children, as a ransom to divine 
 vengeance.” ἮΝ is the future in Niphal 
 of the root "23, to bend, bow oneself down. 
 Comp. Ps. lvii. 7; exlv. 14. Instead of 
 you~IM, rivers of oil, the LXX. who have 
 χιμάρων πιόνων, or, as the Alex. MS. 
 reads, ἀρνῶν, have read yov7om, fat 
 sheep ; which rendering is followed by 
 the Vulg. and Arab., but is unsupported 
 by any other authority. The translator 
 was evidently misled by an improper 
 view of the parallelism. 
 
 8. The questions put in the prece- 
 ding verses do not involve anything 
 like irony, as Rosenmiiller and Maurer 
 imagine, but manifestly argue a deep 
 anxiety about an atonement, and at the 
 same time the grossest ignorance of what 
 was necessary to constitute that atone- 
 ment. In replying to them, the prophet 
 first of all shows, that the ignorance of 
 the people was culpable. They had been 
 furnished with revelations of the mind of 
 God upon the subject. 7 127, He (i. e. 
 Jehovah) hath shown or manifested it to 
 thee; or, the verb may be taken im- 
 personally, and rendered in the passive : 
 It hath been shown thee. No MS. supports 
 vax, 7 will show, the reading of the Syr., 
 Vulg., and Arab. Had they searched 
 the Divine records they could not have 
 failed to discover, that, whatever pre- 
 scriptions relative to sacrifices had been 
 delivered to them, they had never been 
 taught to attach to them any moral 
 eflicacy, but the contrary. Both reason 
 and revelation combined to invest them 
 with an ulterior reference. What that 
 reference really was, the Apostle plainly 
 teaches us, Heb. x. 1: Skudy yap ἔχων 
 ὃ νόμος τῶν μελλόντων ΑΓΑΘΩΝ :— 
 the 1277 of the prophet. Comp. 
 Heb. ix. 23, where the sacrifice of 
 Christ is, by way of eminence and dis- 
 
 L L 
 
258 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 But to do justice, and love mercy, 
 And be diligent in walking with thy God? 
 9 he voice of Jehovah crieth to the city, 
 
 tinction, called κρείττονες θυσίαι. OF 
 this, the only intrinsically valuable 
 atonement, the Levitical sacrifices, were 
 ὑποδείγματα, instructive examples, OY 
 types, which were intended to suggest 
 and foreshadow it; and, connected as 
 they were with the progressive develop- 
 ments, which, from time to time, were 
 made of the sacerdotal character and 
 the personal oblation of the Great De- 
 liverer promised from the beginning, 
 the worshippers were without excuse if 
 they did not, like Abraham, rejoice in 
 the anticipation of his day. Having 
 referred the inquirer to the revealed 
 method of reconciliation, with a tacit 
 intimation of the importance of availing 
 himself of it, Micah proceeds to describe 
 the conduct which alone could meet with 
 the Divine approval. The piety required 
 by Jehovah, he sums up under three 
 heads: strict equity in all our transac- 
 tions with our fellow-men; a heart set 
 on doing them good, according to the 
 claims which they have upon us; and 
 diligent attention to every thing belong- 
 ing to converse with God. Comp. Deut. 
 x. 12, 138. See also, as contrasting a 
 right state of the heart and life with 
 ceremonial services, 1 Sam. xv. 22; Is. 
 i. 11—20; Jer. vii. 21—23; Amos 
 v. 22—24; Hos. vi. 6. A still more 
 compendious description of genuine re- 
 ligion is given by our Lord, under the 
 threefold division of κρίσις, ἔλεος and 
 πίστις, Matt. xxiii. 23; or, as Luke 
 has for the last, ἡ ἀγάπη rod Θεοῦ, 
 chap. xi. 42, which shows how com- 
 
 letely mistaken Campbell is in referring 
 it to the social virtues, and rendering it 
 fidelity. There can be little doubt that 
 Christ had the passage of Micah in his 
 
 eye. 2%, Arab. rhe, fecit, elaboravit in 
 ve aliqua; paravit ; also, txdustrius et 
 Oo 
 solers ; Syr. JaSo 3 astutus, callidus ; 
 =x 
 
 Eth. g3q, validus, constans fuit ; to 
 be apt, ready, diligent, to bend the mind 
 
 to anything ; here, to apply it carefully 
 and sedulously to devotional and other 
 spiritual exercises, which are essential to 
 communion with God. Thus the LXX. 
 ἕτοιμον εἶναι ; Theod. ἀσφαλίζου: the 
 fifth Greek version, φροντίζειν ;. the Syr. 
 
 peAs, paratus; Vulg. solicitum. The 
 
 idea of humility, which is that adopted 
 in our common version, seems to have 
 
 been derived from the Arab. Kany te, 
 
 to train one’s horse, 7.e. by rendering 
 him sawbmissive and patient of restraint ; 
 
 hence 4 : οι 8 bene exer= 
 whe Us “ 
 
 citatus. See A. Schultens on Prov. xi. 2. 
 While this grace is an indispensable 
 attribute of true religion, and lies indeed 
 at its very foundation, it is only one of 
 the several important qualities of which 
 it is composed. The term employed by 
 the prophet comprehends them all. 
 Michaelis renders, mt gewissenhafter 
 Sorgfalt, * with eonscientious solicitude.” 
 The comment of Jerome is not unworthy 
 of notice :—“ Ita preecipitur ut preeparati 
 simus ambulare cum Domino Deo nostro, 
 nulla hora dormire, nullo tempore securi 
 esse debemus, sed semper expectare 
 patremfamilias venientem, et diem for- 
 midare judicii, et in nocte hujus seculi 
 dicere: ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat.” 
 v227 is the Hiphil Infinitive, used ad- 
 verbially. Bps. Butler and Lowth, Mr. 
 Peters, and some others, are of opinion 
 that the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses 
 contain a dialogue between Balak and 
 Balaam; but there does not appear to 
 be sufficient ground for it. The con- 
 nexion of these verses with verse fifth 
 is not so close as they suppose. 
 
 9. On the ground of the foreseen 
 determination 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. 
 
CHAP, VI. | 
 
 MICAH. 259 
 
 (And he who is wise will regard thy name) 
 Hear ye the rod, and Him who hath appointed it. . 
 
 ὝΣ5 for v7), ¢o the city, i.e. Jerusalem, 
 by way of eminence. As she was pre- 
 eminent in privilege, so she was also 
 in regard to wickedness and guilt. ™yn 
 Gesenius refers to an obsolete root 7%, 
 which he thinks may probably have 
 meant to stand, stand out, and so to be. 
 From such a root both this noun, and 
 w, being, subsistence, substance, may 
 most naturally be derived. ‘The signi- 
 fications will then be, that which really 
 is, something solid or substantial, real 
 wisdom, wealth, power, security, deliver- 
 ance, or whatever else best agrees with 
 
 the context. Comp. the Arab. sy 
 
 in the acceptations juvit restituitque 
 egrotum medicina; abundavit opibus 
 
 vir 5 ἄν 19, opulentia, abundantia opum ; 
 
 us» largitus est. The noun is used in 
 parallelisms with 7937, wisdom, 72%, coun- 
 sel, THY, assistance, 19, strength, \X2, a 
 shield, ἕο. The LXX., who render it by 
 ἀληθὲς, βοήθεια, ἰσχὺς, σωτηρία, ἀσφά- 
 λεια, βουλὴ, give in the present text the 
 verb σώσει, as if they had read yin, 
 from Yv ; but they may, after all, have 
 attached the same signification to 2. 
 
 eo 
 The Syr. has Jaa2Sa., doctrine; the 
 
 Targ. 8592, 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 another, one corrected, and 
 one in the margin, the LXX., Syr., Targ., 
 Vulg., and <Arab., we read 720 Ἐν, 
 those who fear thy name, the passage will 
 best be rendered, there will be safety or 
 deliverance, i.e. for such. In this case 
 we have to supply the substantive verb, 
 and the ellipsis of 3, 4o or for. On the 
 other hand, if we retain the current 
 reading 720 ANN, he shall see thy name, 
 we must, with our own, and other 
 translators and interpreters, understand 
 wx before Mn, and take the noun in 
 the signification solid, or sound wisdom. 
 That ox is frequently to be thus under- 
 stood before abstract nouns, comp. Ps. 
 cix. 4, Tn ww, Tam prayer, for Wx 
 
 men, J ama man of prayer; Prov. xiii. 6, 
 Oxon, siz, for NNET wx, the man of sin, i.e. 
 the sinner ; xix. 15, 7282, indolence, for 
 mv we, the man of indolence, ὅσο. What 
 greatly favours the reading Ὁ ΠῚ is 
 its occurring only in this place, whereas 
 PIS Nv, and other forms of XY with OY, 
 are of frequent occurrence. It was 
 quite natural for copyists and punctators 
 to substitute the common for the uncom- 
 mon, but not the latter for the former. As 
 to the ancient versions, the LXX. may, 
 as frequently, have translated from 
 hearing, and thus have mistaken the 
 pronunciation of my for that of sy, 
 which it so nearly resembled. The com- 
 mon reading bests suits the connexion. 
 Before announcing his message, the 
 prophet parenthetically 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 approach- 
 ing calamities. The zame of the Lord 
 is frequently used to express the sum 
 total of the Divine attributes, and often 
 stands for God himself. 78}, signifies 
 not merely fo see, but to recognise 
 practically, to experience ; 1 Sam. xxiv. 
 12; Ps. xxxiv. 13 ; Ixxxix. 49; Lam. ii. 1. 
 Contrasted with 720 πον, see Is. xxvi. 10, 
 mim msg mp3, mn, the LXX., Syr., 
 Vulg., and, among the moderns, New- 
 come and Ewald, take to signify ¢ribe, or 
 collectively ¢ribes, and render in the 
 vocative. The Targ. adopts a metaphor- 
 ical signification, corresponding to that 
 which attaches to 62%8—rendering, N27 
 xin, O King and Prince! The accepta- 
 tion rod, as emblematical of punishment, 
 is best suited to the connexion. Comp. 
 Is. ix. ὃ (English version 4); x. 5, 24. 
 m1 is also variously translated and ex- 
 plained: some deriving it from the root 
 mY, to adorn; some from %Y, fo testify ; 
 some adopt the signification of the Arab. 
 
 des, minutus fuit ; while others would 
 
 read "1%, congregation. There is no 
 necessity for departing from the ordinary 
 
200 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Are there still, in the house of the wicked, treasures of wickedness, 
 
 And the accursed scanty ephah ? 
 11 Can I be innocent with wicked balances, 
 And with a bag of deceitful weights ? 
 
 Whose rich men are full of violence, 
 
 And her inhabitants speak falsehood ; 
 Yea, their tongue in their mouth is deceitful. 
 
 I will surely smite thee incurably, 
 
 Rendering thee desolate on account of thy sins. 
 
 14 
 
 signification of τὸ), ¢o fiz, appoint. The 
 only real difficulty lies in the feminine 
 suliix 4, which does not grammatically 
 agree with 722; but even this may be 
 removed by taking the suffix as a neuter, 
 or as referring to 7Y3, the calamity, wn- 
 derstood. Comp. Jer. ix. 11. Ewald, 
 hore Gemeine und wer sie bestellt ! “ Ἰοὺ 
 the community hear, and he that appoints 
 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 
 specified as a sample of those which 
 abounded, and on account of which the 
 Divine judgments were to be brought 
 upon the land. For Ἣν at the beginning 
 of a sentence, comp. Gen. xix. 12. 
 Forty-nine MSS., thirteen more origi- 
 nally, and perhaps one other, with one 
 in the margin, read ΝΠ, ¢he man, in- 
 stead of Ox; and this is also the reading 
 of the Soncin., the Brixian, and five 
 other printed editions, and has the ap- 
 proval of Jarchi, Abenezra, and Abar- 
 banel, but it affords no suitable sense ; 
 and, with t7 in Kennicott’s MS. 201, 
 must be regarded as the result of inter- 
 pretation. Owing to the same cause, 
 numerous MSS. and editions have ΝΠ. 
 The LXX., Syr., and Vule.,-have read 
 wsi, the fire; but there cannot be any 
 doubt, that it is only another form of 
 wy, 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. 
 
 mx, Syr. Lal, Arab. uy), est, exsistit. 
 
 The ellipsis of 2 before ™2 is not un- 
 
 Thou mayest eat, but thou shalt not be satistied, 
 
 frequent. The Hebrews were much 
 given to the falsification of their weights 
 and measures, though such conduct was 
 repeatedly prohibited by the law, Lev. 
 xix. 85, 86; Deut. xxv. 13—16; and 
 elsewhere severely condemned in their 
 sacred writings. See Prov. xi. 1; xx. 10; 
 and, for the practice, comp. Ezek. xlv. 
 9,10; Hos. xii. 7; Amos vill. 5. 7375, 
 accursed, from OY, to be angry, indignant. 
 This participial form presents the object 
 as suffering the effects of anger, or as 
 marked with the Divine displeasure. 
 maw, ver. 11, the LXX., Syr., and Targ., 
 have read in the third person 73%, though 
 the two last render it in the plural. As 
 the MSS. show no variation, the present 
 reading must be retained; 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 question, for the sake of 
 effect, into the mouth of one of them- 
 selves, 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 Wx, whose, ver. 12, is VY, 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 29, I have begun, or, I 
 will begin, as if it were the Hiphil of 7, 
 but it is that of 720, to be in pain, sick, 
 &c. As here used with the infinitive of 
 m3, fo smite, inflict punishment, it gives 
 intensity to the threatening, and expresses 
 the incurable nature of the punishment. 
 
 14. πὸ is not to be referred, with 
 
CHAP. VH.] 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 261 
 
 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 ; 
 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. 
 
 Simonis and Gesenius, to the Arab. 
 ι.» 5» fame exinanitus fuit, but to 
 Sate .; sequior, et imbecillis, infirmus ; and 
 was most likely intended to express what 
 we find in the Syr. }2;aSo. * the 
 
 diarrhea shall be within thee.’ The 
 LXX. taking πὸ for π᾿, renders, καὶ 
 συσκοτάσει ἐν σοί. 207 is the apocopated 
 Hiphil of 203, ¢o remove, and expresses 
 the attempt to save goods by removing 
 them out of the’ way of the enemy. 
 All the ancient versions have adopted 
 the signification of »w7 with Ὁ, Zo seize, 
 lay hold on, but that conjugation of 223, 
 has also the signification, ¢o remove any 
 thing. See Job xxiv. 2. 
 
 15. my. Oil was expressed from 
 the olive, by stamping or treading it out 
 with the foot, in the same way as grapes 
 were trodden. Hence the name Ὁ ΠΣ, 
 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. 
 sama. is best rendered impersonally, 
 though it refers to DY, 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. yy, ix order that. The 
 Hebrews did not, indeed, commit the 
 wickedness described with the intention 
 of bringing upon themselves divine 
 punishment ; but the punishment was as 
 certainly connected with the sin, in the 
 purpose of God, as if its infliction had 
 been the end at which they aimed. 
 anwm vay nw, 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 aggravation of their guilt 
 from the relation in which they stood to 
 Jehovah. The LXX. have λαῶν, which 
 intimates that they either read D"DY, or 
 “av as a defective masculine plural. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Before concluding, the prophet once more reverts to the wickedness of his people, 
 which he depicts with the darkest colours, 1-—6. He then represents them in 
 their state of captivity, brought to repentance, and confidently expecting the 
 
MICAH. 
 
 262 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Divine interposition, which would be rendered the more conspicuous by the com- 
 plete 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 inhabitants, 13. 
 Turning to Jehovah, he prays for the undisturbed and prosperous condition 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, 16, 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. 
 
 
 
 1 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. 
 2 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. 
 3 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 preposi- 
 tion 3 in V23.N5)2 ἘΌΝ 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- 
 Jruit, and the gleanings of the vintage. 
 For 7933, the early fig, see on 15. xxviii. 4. 
 The prophet compares 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. 
 Dw, rendered in most of the versions 
 destruction, signifies also a zet, which is 
 so called from its enclosing or shutting 
 up whatever it catches. Occurring, as 
 it here does, in connexion with the verb 
 nz, fo hunt, it is preferable to take it in 
 this acceptation. The Orientals employed 
 the net for hunting, as well as for fishing. 
 The word is here in the accusative case. 
 
 3. This verse is very differently ren- 
 dered by translators. The version of it 
 which 1 have given appears to express 
 as literally as possible the ideas, which, 
 it is generally admitted, the prophet 
 intended to convey. 207 is frequently 
 used to express the doing of any thing 
 well, skilfully, aptly, and the like. Here 
 it is intransitive. Hwald, with Michaelis, 
 Vogel and Déoderlein, mistakes the 
 meaning of the clause altogether, when 
 he explains it of endeavouring by bribery 
 to prevail upon the magistrates to pro 
 nounce that to be good which in itself is 
 
CHAP. VII. | 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 263 
 
 And the judge also, for a reward ; 
 And the great man gives utterance to the desire of his soul ; 
 They combine to act perversely. 
 
 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. 
 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 ; 
 
 evil. xiv, which he is obliged to con- 
 vert into 8%, a Pual form, of which no 
 example occurs in the Hebrew language, 
 can only refer to the avaricious passion 
 of theruler. It is, 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 85% supply 773; and after OB, wee, 
 The substantive 735, like the Arab. 
 
 sy desideravit, voluit, has here the 
 
 signification, wish, desire. will. See 
 Schultens on Prov. x. 3; and the Koran 
 
 oo 3 “ of . 
 ii. 81: gag ἢ lo Op) mice Ls] 
 25), “and whenever a messenger cometh 
 
 to you with that which your souls desire 
 not.’ Comp. Ps. lii. 9; Prov. xi. 6; and 
 for the cognate Ὁ85 Mx, Deut. xii. 15, 20. 
 —niy, signifies to intertwine, bind to- 
 gether, as the branches of trees, ropes, &c.; 
 here, metaphorically, to effect by united 
 
 effort. Comp. the Arab. Wats, miseuit, 
 
 ~ y 
 commiscuit, Syr. elas, concordavit. 
 
 Dathe: conjunctis viribus exsequuntur. 
 The princes, judges, and great men, con- 
 spired to set aside all law and right in 
 their treatment of the poor of the land. 
 The suffix 7 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, hine 
 fit ut grassetur furiosacrudelitas, quoniam 
 conspirant inter se et gubernatores et qui 
 
 volunt 5101 acquirere peccandi licentiam : 
 quasi contexerent inter se funes, con- 
 firmant hoe modo pravitatem.” 
 
 4. Both 2%, good, and %, upright, are 
 here used superlatively. Comp. for this 
 use, Gen. xlv.23; Is. 1.19; Exod. xv. 4. 
 It frequently occurs in Arabic. PI is 
 now allowed to designate a species of 
 thorn, and not a brier. As the Ὁ now 
 stands before 4309, 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. xli. 24; 
 or it may have originally belonged as a 
 suffix to the preceding noun 1%, in which 
 case 02 and 07 must have corre- 
 sponded to each other, leaving an ellipsis 
 of the 3 which had just been used in 
 pam. By “the day of thy watchmen,” 
 the period of calamity predicted by the 
 prophets is meant. With this, the 
 following 7772, visitation, is explicatively 
 parallel. For 4329 DY, a day of per- 
 plexity, see on Is. xxii. 5. The reference 
 in Ὁ 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. pos, Arab. al, Janiliaris 
 
 socius, from sl}, conjunvit, sociavit, 
 &., a familiar, and, by implication, 
 a confidential, friend. 290, LXX. 
 ἀτιμάζει. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 15. The 
 root 722, primarily signifies fo wither, fall 
 off as leaves, and tropically to act wickedly, 
 
264 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 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. 
 
 7 But I will look for Jehovah ; 
 
 I will wait for the God of my salvation ; 
 
 My God will hear me. 
 
 co 
 
 Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy ! 
 
 Though I have fallen, I shall rise again ; 
 Though I sit in darkness, Jehovah is my light. 
 9 1 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. 
 
 irreligiously, as one that has fallen off 
 from God. Comp. 723, Ps. xiv. 1. 7233, 
 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. 
 —d)Xorplous ἀλλήλων εἶναι πάντας τοὺς 
 μὴ σπουδαίους, καὶ γονεῖς τέκνων, καὶ 
 ἀδελφοὺς ἀδελφῶν, οἰκείους οἰκείων. Diog. 
 Laert. vii. 99. In language strikingly 
 similar, Ovid describes the iron age : 
 
 “ Vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hos- 
 pite tutus, 
 
 Non soror a genero; fratrum quoque 
 gratia rara est. 
 
 Imminet exitio vir conjugis, illa mariti ; 
 
 Lurida terribiles miscent aconita no- 
 vercie, 
 
 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 distance from the land of their 
 fathers, they are brought to repentance, 
 and the exercise 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. 753, here used in Piel, 
 signifies to dook out for an answer to 
 prayer, divine aid, ὅθ. Comp. Ps. v. 4. 
 
 8, 9. Who is the enemy intended by 
 the prophet, cannot be positively decided. 
 Some interpreters think Babylon; others, 
 Edom. For the former, see Jer. 1]. 11; 
 for the latter, Obad. 12; for both, Ps. 
 exxxvil. 7, 8. 9237-73, daughter of Baby- 
 lon, or DIN"Na, daughter of Edom, for 
 Babylon and Edom themselves, is under- 
 stood in the feminine participle nx, 
 mine enemy. For the idiom, see on 15. 
 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 9th verse contains a 
 beautiful specimen of submissiveness and 
 patient endurance of suffering, from an 
 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. 7218, righteousness, is here 
 to be understood with reference to the 
 kindness or favour which God was to 
 show to his people, in strict accordance 
 with the tenour of his promises, rather 
 than to the punishment of their enemies. 
 
CHAP. Υ11.] 
 
 10 Mine enemy also shall see it, 
 And shame shall cover her. 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 265 
 
 She that said to me, Where is Jehovah thy God? 
 
 Mine eyes shall behold her ; 
 
 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 
 From Assyria to Egypt, 
 
 Even from Egypt to the river, 
 
 In that day they shall come to thee 
 
 From sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 
 
 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: ΤῊΝ MM Px, where 15 Jeho- 
 φαΐ thy God? The feminine suffix refers 
 to jrz"na, daughter of Zion, understood. 
 
 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. 77, 
 statute, decree, order, appointment (LXX. 
 νόμιμα, Symm. ἐπιταγὴ, Theod. πρόσ- 
 ταγμα), 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; some 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 
 hic non patitur se ita violenter torqueri.” 
 Secker, Newcome, Vogel, Déderlein, and 
 others, join p7 to Pim, and form a re- 
 duplicate verb 777M of the whole; with 
 whom, as to meaning, Gesenius agrees, 
 who rejects 7 altogether, 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 ?7}, fo be distant, 
 remove to a distance, &c., by the geo- 
 graphical specifications contained in 
 verse 12th. The subject of both verses 
 is sufficiently proved to be identical, by 
 
 the repetition of 37 DY, that day, which 
 indisputably is the Θ᾿", 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, reassembling at Jeru- 
 salem, 8122 Ἴπν, The most natural con- 
 struction is, that the decree of God 
 respecting the political changes that 
 were to take place, was not to be con- 
 fined to Babylon, but was to be extended 
 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 preposi- 
 tion 3, iz, before DY, day, in all the three 
 instances in which it here occurs. } be- 
 fore TIP 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. 2 is 
 used impersonally: ‘‘oxe, they shall 
 come : ᾿ it is rendered in the plural in 
 the LXX., Targ., and Arab., and one of 
 Kennicott’s MSS. reads PY. That 71 
 has originally been "1}, the parallelism, 
 compared with other instances of its 
 occurrence, sufliciently shows. The 
 change of 7into Ἢ, and vice versd, by 
 transcribers, owing to their great resem- 
 blance to each other, is very common. 
 For example in ΠΕΡῚ and m9, 1 Chron. 
 i, 6; O27 and 0274, ver. 7; OM and 
 on, Ps. liv. 5; ὙΠῸ and Ww, Ixxxi. 7; 
 prt and pry, Prov. x. 32; and especially 
 as corresponding to the present case, 72 
 and IY, Ps. exxxix. 20, where the 
 latter reading is found in fifteen MSS., 
 has been originally in eleven more, and 
 is in one printed edition. No objection 
 can be taken from the preposition 
 
 MM 
 
266 MICAH. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 13 Nevertheless the land shall be desolate 
 On account of her inhabitants, 
 Because of the fruit of her doings. 
 
 14 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. 
 
 assuming the poetic form ‘TY, while in 
 the following sentence we have WY; the 
 1 Sam. xi. 7. It is also worthy of notice, 
 that the LXX. have read ΤΠ at the 
 beginning of the verse, as if it had been 
 72, having rendered it ai πόλεις σου. 
 By 29, I understand Hyypt, and not 
 fortification. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 24, 
 Is. xix. 6, on which see my note. 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. 773, the river, 
 κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν, i.e. the Eupbrates, cor- 
 responding in the parallelism to Wx, 
 Assyria. The Syr. and Targ. have mis- 
 taken ΝΣ in M29, for Zyre; as the latter 
 has 22, for Armenia. The concluding 
 words of the verse, 77 WM 0% Oy, stand 
 irregularly for Wy) WD Ow) om, Tt 
 does not appear that any specific moun- 
 tains 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 pro- 
 phetic illustration of these verses, see 
 on Is. xix. 23—25. 
 
 13. The conjunctive Ὑ in 77 is used 
 antithetically to introduce a sentence 
 predictive 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 γα, the land, of Baby- 
 lonia; 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 Testament, 
 it is prophetic in its aspect. The Jewish 
 people are frequently spoken of under 
 the metaphor of a flock, and Jehovah 
 as their shepherd. See Ps. Ixxx. 1; 
 xev. 7; 0. 3. They are also often repre- 
 sented as his special heritage, Deut. 
 iv. 20; vii. 6; xxxii. 9. Some understand 
 1729 Ὁ, dwelling alone or solitarily, as 
 descriptive of the condition of the Jews 
 in captivity, and Y, forest, of the dangers 
 and annoyances to which they were 
 exposed while in that state. That it 
 rather refers to the security and pro- 
 sperity of their restored condition may 
 fairly be concluded from the meaning 
 of similar language in other passages. 
 Thus, in the celebrated prophecy of 
 Balaam, Numb. xxiii. 9, which, in all 
 probability, Micah had in view, we read, 
 IWIN NX) ONIN FW WI Oy, Behold! the 
 people shall dwell alone, and shall not 
 be reckoned among the nations. Comp. 
 Deut. xxxiil. 28; Jer. xlix. 31; and for 
 Ὁ, as used figuratively for a place 
 of safety and cool repose, see Hzek. 
 χχχῖν. 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 un- 
 disturbed tranquillity. 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 Medi- 
 terranean, 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 
 
CHAP, VII.] 
 
 15 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 267 
 
 As in the days of thy coming forth from Egypt, 
 
 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. 
 17 
 
 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 our God; 
 Yea, they shall be afraid of thee. 
 
 18 Who isa God like thee, 
 
 Pardoning iniquity, and passing by transgression, 
 In regard to the remnant of his heritage ? 
 He retaineth not his anger for ever, 
 Because he delighteth in mercy. 
 19 He will again have compassion upon us, 
 
 and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 
 Numb. xxxii.; Deut. ii. 12—17. Comp. 
 as strictly parallel, Jer. 1. 19. 
 
 15. The answer of Jehovah to the 
 prophet’s prayer, assuring the nation, 
 that the same Almighty power which 
 had interposed in so remarkable a manner 
 for their deliverance from Egypt, would 
 again wonderfully appear on their behalf. 
 Comp. Jer. xvi. 14, 15. Such changes 
 of person as in ἢ, ¢Ay, and 13, him, are 
 common. The reference in both is to 
 the people of the Jews. 
 
 16. The 7933, 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 Tremellius, 
 Tarnovius, Stokes, and some others, have 
 imagined. ‘he latter half of the verse 
 most graphically describes the silence, 
 astonishment, and utter consternation, 
 with which they should be seized. Comp. 
 Jud. xviii. 19; Job. xxi. 5; Ps. evil. 42 ; 
 Is. lii, 15. 
 
 17. An equally graphic description of 
 the state of degradation and terror to 
 which the enemies were to be reduced. 
 Comp. Ps. Ixxii. 9; Is. xlix. 23; Ixv. 25. 
 For oom, crawlers, or reptiles, comp. 
 Deut. xxxii. 24. ‘The distinctive use of ὅν, 
 to, and 2, from or of, as here used, shows 
 that there is not a change of person in 
 
 722, and that the affix 7 refers, not to Je- 
 hovah, 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 58 18, to exercise 
 reverential regard towards God, Hos. iii.5. 
 Combined with the circumstances under 
 which the nations were to acknowledge 
 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 YOE VY 72Y, passing by transgression, 
 is a metaphor, taken from the conduct of 
 atraveller 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 un- 
 observant of sin, or that it is regarded 
 by him as a matter of little or no import- 
 ance, but that he does not mark it in 
 particular cases with a view to punish- 
 ment; that he does not punish, but for- 
 give. Comp. Prov. xix. 11, Amos vii. ὃ, 
 in which latter passage the verb alone 15 
 
208 
 
 He will subdue our iniquities ; 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 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 swear to our fathers 
 
 From the days of old. 
 
 used. The opposite is expressed by 120 
 Ty, to watch iniquity, Ps. exxx. 3, 2. 6. to 
 keep it in view in order to punish it. 
 mv, remnant, does not necessarily imply 
 a small or inconsiderable number, 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 
 captivity. ΥὙἘΠ, fo delight, according to 
 the Arab. aaa flexit, inflexit ignum, 
 
 projecit, properly expresses the dent or 
 propension of the mind, or what we 
 commonly call its zzclination towards an 
 object; hence desire, affection, delight. 
 The combined force of ἼΘΙ yan, bent on 
 kindness, is wnimitable, the primary idea 
 of 707 being that of eager desire or love 
 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 for- 
 
 cised towards them anew. All the 
 meaning found by Rosenmiiller, Gesenius 
 and Maurer, in Ἰ ΠΝ 022, is that of dis- 
 regarding or not avenging; but there is 
 no ground for rejecting the radical idea 
 of trampling under foot as enemies. Sin 
 must ever be regarded as hostile to man. 
 
 Tt is not only contrary to his interests, 
 but it powerfully opposes and combats 
 the moral principles of his nature, and 
 the higher principles implanted by grace ; 
 and but for the eounteracting energy of 
 divine influence, must prove victorious. 
 Without the subjugation of evil pro 
 pensities, 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 cCnken, ¢hezr sins, five MSS. read 
 wWOXVM, owe sins, which is the reading 
 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 
 Jehovah, was only preliminary to the 
 infinitely greater display of these attri- 
 butes 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 
 searcely any variation, in the inspired 
 song of Zacharias, with direct applica- 
 tion to Him of whom his son had just 
 been born to be the forerunner, Luke 
 i. 72, 73. Before the names of the 
 patriarchs, a verb signifying to declare, 
 promise, or the like, is understood. 
 
 ry 
 
ΝΠ ὍΝ: 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Owi1neG 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 kingdoms of Israel and Judah, by the Assyrian 
 power, chap. 11. ὃ (Eng. version, 11, 2) ; the final invasion of Judah 
 by that power, 1. 9, 11; and the conquest of Thebes in Upper 
 Egypt, ii. 8—10. But the removal of the glory of the Hebrew 
 kingdoms, 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. xxvii. Sargon, who ap- 
 pears to have succeeded Shalmaneser, not satisfied with the 
 reduction of Pheenicia by that king, and fearing lest Egypt should 
 prevail upon the conquered provinces of the west to join her in 
 a confederacy against him, undertook an expedition 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 
 
270 PREFACE TO NAHUM. 
 
 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 Tremellius, and Justi, place him in the reign 
 of Manasseh, and some, as Ewald, would make him contemporary 
 with Josiah ; but Bp. Newton, Eichhorn, Bertholdt, Rosenmiiller, 
 Newcome, Horne, 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 one 
 hundred years before its accomplishment; for Nineveh was over- 
 thrown, and the Assyrian power destroyed, by the joint forces of 
 Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, in the reign of Chyniladanus, B.c. 625. 
 
 Considerable difference of opinion obtains with respect to the 
 birth-place of the prophet. That wPONT, 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 honour of having given birth to Nahum. The one, 
 ἜΧΟΝ , Llkosh, is situated in Koordistan, on the east side of the 
 
 Tigris, about three hours’ journey 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 Chaldxan 
 or Nestorian Christians, and is a place of great resort by Jewish 
 
PREFACE TO NAHUM,. ὉΤῈ 
 
 pilgrims, who firmly believe it to be the birth-place and the burial- 
 place of the prophet, to whose tomb they pay special respect. Itis, 
 however, generally 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 names of towns in Britain to 
 those which they have erected in America and Australia. The 
 other place is Elcest, 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 account of Hebrew 
 places ;7and Cyrill (ad cap. i. 1) is positive as to its situation being 
 in Palestine.t It has been thought, and not without reason, by 
 some, that Capernaum, Heb. DIM) 7D5, 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 ἡ ἰδία πόλις of our Lord, though he was 
 born at Bethlehem. 
 
 Where 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, 
 &c., which he evidently borrowed from the lips of Isaiah. Comp. 
 nippy ΤΠ Tay sous, 1. 8, and mvt si ΓΙ, ver. 9, with 
 Tay Aww, Is viii. 8, and My Md, Is. x. 23; APIO TPA 
 ΠΡ ΞΘ, ii, 11, with ΠΡ 2) PINT ppia, Is. xxiv. 1; 
 
 *« Porro quod additur, Nawm Elcesei, quidam putant Eleeseum patrem esse Naum, 
 et secundum Hebream traditionem etiam ipsum prophetam fuisse; quum Elcesi usque 
 hodie in Galilza viculus sit, parvus quidem et vix ruinis veterum edificiorum indicans 
 vestigia, sed tamen notus Judzis, et mihi quoque a circumducente monstratus.”— 
 Hieron. Pref. in Naum. 
 
 + --πιοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑλκεσέ' κώμη δὲ αὕτη πάντως που τῆς Ἰουδαίων χώρας. 
 
272 PREFACE TO NAHUM. 
 
 τ δὸς δὴν COAL 
 
 8; phy Pov Wry ὧν pay Mon, iu 1, with 
 οὐ wowing awa Ὁ) AN ΟΡ HNN, 15. lit, 7, &e. 
 
 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 pre- 
 dicts ; and the joyful restoration of both the captivities to their 
 own land, and the enjoyment of their former privileges. His 
 object obviously was, to inspire his countrymen with the assurance, 
 that, however alarming their circumstances might appear, exposed 
 as they were to the formidable army of the great Eastern conqueror, 
 not only should his attempt fail, and his forces be entirely de- 
 stroyed, 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 
 imagined, 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 pro- 
 portion of his book, in the variety, freshness, richness, elegance, 
 and force of his imagery. The rhythm is regular and singularly 
 beautiful ; and with the exception of a few foreign or provincial 
 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 impressive. 
 
CHAPTER Ἱ 
 
 The 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—8. 
 
 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—14. 
 
 
 
 1 THE SentTence oF NINEVEH: 
 The Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 
 2 Jehovah is a jealous and avenging God; 
 Jehovah is an avenger and furious ; 
 Jehovah is an avenger with respect to his adversaries ; 
 Yea, he keepeth his anger for his enemies. 
 
 1. For the meaning of 8», see on 
 Is. xili. 1 ; and for the historical cireum- 
 stances connected with Nizeveh, see on 
 Jonah i. 2. Between the time of the 
 prophet just referred to and that of 
 Nahum, there must have elapsed a period 
 of above one hundred years.—The in- 
 scription consists of two parts; the 
 former of which is supposed by some 
 to be from a later hand. If genuine, 
 we should rather have expected the 
 order to be reversed. 
 
 2. The exordium, which begins here 
 and reaches to ver. 8, is highly magnifi- 
 cent. The repeated use of the Incom- 
 municable Name, and of the participle 
 DP, 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 images 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 
 intensive love. How inferior the other- 
 wise sublime description given of the 
 anger of Jove by Ascliylus: 
 
 \ ῃ ἕξ 
 χθὼν σεσάλευται 
 βρυχία δ᾽ ἡχὼ παραμυκᾶται 
 fod A > ee) δ 
 βροντῆς, ἕλικες δ᾽ ἐκλάμπουσι 
 ~ , 
 στεροπῆς ζάπυροι, στρόμβοι δὲ κόνιν 
 εἷἱλίσσουσι᾽ σκιρτᾷ δ᾽ ἀνέμων ἃ 
 πνεύματα πάντων, εἰς ἄλληλα 
 , 
 στάσιν ἀντίπνουν ἀποδεικνύμενα. 
 
 Prom. vinctus, 1089. 
 
 sip, jealous, from 2), to be warm, (now, 
 burn with zeal, anger, jealousy. The 
 
 NWN 
 
274 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [CHAP. I, 
 
 3 Jehovah is long-suffering, but great in power, 
 And he will by no means treat them as innocent: 
 Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, 
 And the clouds are the dust of his feet. 
 
 4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, 
 And 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 also heaves at his presence, 
 Even the world and all that inhabit it. 
 6 Before his indignation who can stand ? 
 And who can subsist in the heat of his anger ? 
 
 term is here used ἀνθρωποπαθὼς, princi- 
 pally in the last of these acceptations, 
 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. 97 v3, lit. ὦ 
 lord, or master of fury, an idiom by which 
 the possession of an attribute or quality is 
 frequently expressed. Comp. ΠΥ 723, 
 a master of dreams, i.e. a dreamer ; Ya 
 poe a master of the tongue, i.e. eloquent. 
 
 n these verses the prophet appears to 
 have an eye specially to the judgments 
 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. 3, properly signifies to watch, 
 observe, in a bad sense, to mark for 
 
 punishment. Arab. pe oculos con- 
 
 vertit ad rem; ye custodem et observa- 
 
 torem egit. Comp. Ps. ciii. 9; Jer. iii. 
 5, 10... and 9, Ps. exxx. 3. 
 
 3. TPN 7D, 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., ἀθῶον οὐκ ἀθωώσει. 
 Comp. Exod. xx. 7; xxxiv. 7. The idea 
 conveyed 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. 728, 
 signifies light dust or powder, what is 
 easily raised. 
 
 4. What is here predicated of Jehovah 
 is attributed to our Saviour, Luke 
 vill. 24: ἐπετίμησε---τῷ κλύδωνι τοῦ 
 ὕδατος. The action involves omnipo- 
 tence. 793% is a contracted form of the 
 Piel, for *782™, as 72 for 72, Lam. 
 iii. 38, in both of which the radical 
 Yod gives its vowel to the preformative 
 letter. 
 
 5. There is no authority for render- 
 ing xwm, fo be burnt up: none of the 
 MSS. or ancient versions directing us to 
 any root signifying ¢o 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 2710, vastata est, but the 
 LXX. render ἀνεστάλη. Symm. ἐκινήθη. 
 
 The Syr. DS}, shaketh. NVulg. con- 
 
 tremuit. The root is 83, fo raise, lift 
 up ; intransitively, to lift up oneself ; and 
 appropriately expresses here the raising 
 or heaving of the ground by an earth- 
 quake. 
 
 6. The pouring out of wrath, like fire, 
 would seem to be a comparison taken 
 from voleanoes, which pour out furiously 
 their streams of liquid fire over the 
 
CHAP. δ 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 218 
 
 His fury is poured out like fire, 
 And the rocks are overthrown by him. 
 7 Jehovah is good, a fortress in the day of distress ; 
 And knoweth those that trust in him. 
 8 But with an overflowing inundation 
 He will effect a consummation of her place, 
 And darkness shall pursue his enemies. 
 9 What devise ye against Jehovah ? 
 He will effect a consummation ; 
 
 Distress shall not twice arise. 
 
 circumjacent 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- 
 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. 
 v7, to know, is here, as frequently, taken 
 in the sense of kxowing with regard, 
 kindness, or love. Comp. Ps. 1. 6; 
 exliv. 3; Amos. 111. 2. In 129 FWA, the 
 metaphor of a river impetuously over- 
 flowing 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 hostile and powerful army. It 
 is used by Isaiah, chap. viii. 8, to de- 
 scribe the resistless entrance of the 
 Assyrian army into Palestine; and here 
 Nahum appropriates the language for 
 the purpose of describing the triumphant 
 progress of the Medo-Babylonian troops 
 when advancing 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. xii. 2; and comp. 720, ver. 11 
 of the preseut chapter. See Nord- 
 
 heimer’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 
 feminine pronominal affix in ΠΡ, “ her 
 place,” ὦ. ὁ. the place of Nineveh, the 
 YP, city, or metropolis of Assyria, the 
 overthrow of which the prophet was 
 afterwards to describe, and which he 
 here merely touches upon by way of 
 auticipation. The use of D179, place, is 
 not without emphasis. Comp. chap. 
 il. 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. *v. cap.xx. Lucian, 
 speaking of it, says, ἡ Nivos μὲν ἀπόλω- 
 Aev ἤδη, καὶ οὐδὲν ἴχνος ἔτι λοιπὸν αὐτῆς, 
 οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἴπῃς ὅπου ποτ᾽ ἦν. Dialog. 
 entitled ᾿Επισκοποῦντες. Bochart, re- 
 ferring to the city of the name mentioned 
 by Ammianus, expresses himself thus: 
 ‘* Merito dubitatur an restaurata fuerit eo 
 in loco, in quo prius condita.” In the 
 Hebrew MSS., there is no various reading 
 of 79572; but the rendering of the LXX., 
 τοὺς ἐπεγειρομένους, and of Δ4., ἀντιστα- 
 μένων, supported by Theod. and the 
 filth Greek version, would indicate, that 
 their authors read ΤῸ or Pood'pNn, in 
 favour of which YZ in the tollowing 
 hemistich might be adduced. 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 in daring to oppose themselves 
 to Jehovah. On which he repeats what 
 he had declared in the preceding verse 
 
210 
 
 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. 
 
 11 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 : 
 
 respecting the total destruction of the 
 Assyrian power, and adds, for the special 
 encouragement of the Jews, that itshould 
 never annoy them again. ‘The parallel 
 to this brief apostrophe we have more 
 at length, Is. xxxvil. 23—29. For the 
 force of DY, ¢wice, comp. NX) NOX DYE 
 Ὁ mtx, 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 appre- 
 hended from them by the Jews, appears 
 from ver. 12 to be the true construction 
 of the meaning. 
 
 10. However strong and vigorous the 
 Assyrian army might be, its complete 
 destruction would easily be effected by 
 Jehovah. Ὁ, ¢o, 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 
 impenetrable front to those who would 
 enter it. Such were the celebrated 
 military phalanxes of antiquity, con- 
 sisting 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 resist 
 the action of fire—No account is to 
 be made of the reading δ, princes, 
 
 which Newcome adopts from the Targ. 
 and Syr. It is found in no Heb, MS.— 
 228, to eat,is often used to express 
 consumption by fire. The application 
 of the language im this and the preceding 
 verse to the literal inundation of the 
 Tigris, the drunkenness of the Assyrian 
 camp, and the burning of the palace, 
 &e., at Nineveh by Sardanapalus, as 
 related by Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11.) 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. 790, from thee,O Nineveh! in the 
 feminine. Sennacherib, whose machina- 
 tions against Jehovah had been adverted 
 to ver. 9, is here intended. ‘The Heb. 
 oa, frequently rendered in our common 
 version Gelial, properly signifies worth- 
 lessness, inutility, and by implication, 
 badness in a moral sense, wickedness. 
 Hence the idiomatic combinations, 078 
 23, a man of Belial, a wicked man; 
 maya, a son of Belial, a bad man; 
 yeaa, a daughter of Belial, a wicked 
 woman. The word is compounded of 
 “a, without, and >, profit. 
 
 12. Another description of the for- 
 midable appearance of the hostile army, 
 accompanied with a prediction of its 
 sudden and complete annihilation, the 
 flight of Sennacherib, and the future 
 immunity of the Jews from an inyasion 
 on the part of the Assyrians. 0220, 
 complete, expresses the unbroken con- 
 dition of the army of the enemy, and 
 their being fully provided with every 
 thing requisite for the successful siege 
 of Jerusalem. The word may also be 
 designed to convey the idea of mental 
 
CHAP, I.] 
 
 Though I have afflicted thee, 
 I will afflict thee no more. 
 
 NAHUM, 
 
 277 
 
 13. For now I will break his yoke from off thee, 
 
 And burst thy bands asunder. 
 And with respect to thee, Jehovah hath commanded : 
 
 14 
 
 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 ; 
 
 completeness, ¢.e. in this connexion, 
 security, martial courage. Thus Kimchi, 
 WWI) NSIT 72. 2. DIND TNE NY, they are 
 not afraid of man, for they have subdued 
 all the countries. Ἷ3, as used the second 
 time, signifies thus, so, in this state, as 
 thus constituted. The change of number 
 from the plural 43113, “¢hey are, or shall 
 be cut down,” to 12¥, “he passeth away,” 
 is obviously intended to distinguish 
 between the overthrow of the Assyrian 
 army, and the immediate departure of 
 Sennacherib to his own land. The 
 nominative to ἊΨ is 3 yr’ in the 
 preceding verse. 33, fo 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, 36; Is. xxxvil. 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. New- 
 come, almost entirely on the authority of 
 the LXX., improperly changes Ὁ) Dx 
 IY} 3422 790 DF] 73} Into 19 OF ὉΠ 58 ON 
 ay 13} 72, “Though the Ruler of many 
 waters has thus ravaged, and thus 
 passed through.’ That these ancient 
 translators did, from hearing 023% ox 
 read as 0% ἈΠῸ, render, κατάρχων 
 ὑδάτων πολλῶν, there can be no doubt; 
 but then, they place the words in apposi- 
 tion with τάδε λέγει κύριος ; and make 
 the Lord, and not the king of Assyria, 
 to be “the ruler of many waters.” The 
 Syr., following the LXX., only changing 
 
 the singular into the plural, has τς 
 fiw [iso cased “respecting the 
 
 heads of many waters.” 529 is merely 
 
 a defective reading of 7:¥, 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 71278 TaN AT aT, 
 Celebrate thy festivals, O Judah ! perform 
 thy vows, chap. li. 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 after- 
 wards to be inflicted upon them by others. 
 
 13. The suffix 7 has here the same 
 reference as in the preceding verse, and 
 wT in ὙΠΟ, “Ais yoke,” to the king of 
 Assyria. Comp. Is. x. 27; Jer. ii. 20. 
 For 1725, some think the LXX. and 
 Vulg. read 729, 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 
 perpetuated, that his favourite idols 
 should be destroyed, and that the very 
 temple in which he worshipped them 
 should become 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 pre- 
 dicted by Nahum, the destruction of 
 Nineveh. The Medes being great ene- 
 mies to idolatry, those of them who 
 composed the army of Cyaxares would 
 take singular pleasure in destroying the 
 idols which they found in the chief 
 temple at Nineveh. No mention is made 
 
218 
 
 J will make it thy grave, 
 Because thou art worthless. 
 
 in history of the sepulture of Senna- 
 cherib, but we are expressly told, 
 2 Kings xix. 37, Is. xxxvu. 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. 
 ὈΠῸΝ stands elliptically for 22s, 7 well 
 make it, i.e. the temple of thy gods, thy 
 grave. Some take 9%, thou art light, 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [ CHAP. 11’ 
 
 in the same sense in which the Chaldee 
 nm is used Dan. v. 27, but without 
 sufficient ground in Hebrew usage. 
 In application to persons it always sig- 
 nifies to be the object of shame or dis- 
 grace. Though to be buried in a temple 
 naturally conveys to our minds the idea 
 of honourable interment, it is otherwise 
 here, owing to the peculiar circumstances 
 of the case. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 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 Hebrew 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—1]1. In 
 a beautiful allegory he then, with trimmphant 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, 14. 
 
 
 
 1 Brenoip! 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 who should arrive 
 from the East, announcing to the in- 
 habitants 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 
 accords with the spirit and bearing of 
 the immediate connexion to apply them 
 
 to what took place on the miraculous 
 deliverance of Jerusalem, recorded Is. 
 xxxvil. 36. They are almost identical, 
 so far as they go, with the language of 
 Isaiah, chap. 111. 7, relative to the return 
 from Babylon. During the Assyrian 
 invasion, the inhabitants of Judah were 
 cut off from all access to the metropolis ; 
 now, they would be at liberty to proceed 
 
CHAP. I1.] 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 Q The disperser hath come up before thee ; 
 Keep the fortress, watch the way, 
 
 Make fast the loins, 
 
 Strengthen thee with power to the utmost. 
 
 8 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. 
 
 4 The shield of his heroes is dyed red, 
 The warriors are clothed with scarlet ; 
 
 thither as usual, in order to observe 
 their religious rites. 9°93, Belial, doubt- 
 less means the same as 22 YP‘, wicked 
 counsellor, chap. 1. 11; 1.6. as there 
 explained, Sennacherib. Restricted as 
 the declaration here made must neces- 
 sarily be to this monarch, the passage 
 is nowise at variance with the fact, that 
 Manasseh was for a time in the power 
 of the Assyrians, 2 Chron. xxxii. 11. 
 
 2. Most moderns adopt the interpreta- 
 tion of Jerome, who is of opinion, that 
 the prophet here turns to Nineveh, and 
 directs the attention of her monarch to 
 the approach of the Medo-Babylonish 
 army. I rather think with Abarbanel, 
 Kimchi, Jarchi, Hezel, Dathe, and others, 
 that the words are addressed to Heze- 
 kiah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 for the purpose of inspiring them with 
 courage to hold out during the Assyrian 
 
 attack. 2, (from yx, Arab. Cass, 
 
 aliit, peregrinatus fuit, to scatter,disperse,) 
 properly signifies the Disperser, and is 
 appropriately applied to the king of 
 Assyria, by whose army the inhabitants 
 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 j22 from y52, fo break in pieces, 
 disperse, &c., rendered in our common 
 version 4attle-aze. The address is beauti- 
 fully abrupt, and derives great force 
 from the use of the Infinitive instead of 
 the Imperative of all the four verbs 
 which here occur. The fuller forms 
 would be 72m 133, ΠΕΣ ΠῈΣ, Ke. Wy? 
 72 form a paronomasia. 
 
 3. Further to encourage the inha- 
 bitants of Jerusalem, a promise is here 
 given of the restoration of the Hebrew 
 people to their former independence and 
 glory. py ps3, &., 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, and 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 
 restored, partly on the destruction of 
 the Assyrians, and completely on the 
 return from Babylon. 2%, fo return, 
 has here the force of the Hiphil vu, ¢o 
 restore, as in Numb. x. 36; Ps. Ixxxv. 5. 
 Connected as this verb is with the future, 
 implied in the abbreviated form "3, &c., 
 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 effected 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. 
 XXxvil. 31, 32. 
 
 4. The prophet now proceeds to de- 
 scribe the siege and capture of Nineveh, 
 which involved the downfal of the 
 Assyrian empire. The formidable, ter- 
 rific, and invincible appearance of the 
 Medo-Babylonish army is first noticed. 
 wy23, Ais heroes, i.e. the mighty men 
 of Cyaxares. The suffix is the less fre- 
 
280 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 The chariots are furnished with fiery scythes, 
 
 In the day of his preparation ; 
 
 And the cypresses are brandished. 
 
 quent form, instead of Y=, but represents 
 more of the primitive pronoun Nw, of 
 which both are fragments. D789 is the 
 Pual participle of D1x, ¢o de red ; and is 
 applied to the shields, to intimate that 
 they were dyed red. The bull’s hide 
 ath which they were commonly covered 
 was easily suseeptible of this process ; 
 and, on being anointed with oil, would 
 shine brightly. See on Is. xxi. 5. This 
 interpretation of the word, which is con- 
 firmed by the meaning of the corre- 
 sponding participle, in the following 
 hemistich, is preferable to that which 
 would make it express the idea of fiery, 
 sparkling, or the like. “ Bloodstained” 
 is altogether to be rejected. The LXX. 
 mistaking Dax’) for DIND, preposterously 
 render ὅπλα δυναστείας αὐτῶν ἐξ avOpa- 
 πων. Ove, lit. are crimsoned, 1s a 
 ἅπαξ λεγ., but is the Pual participial 
 form, and is evidently derived from ¥2)7, 
 the name specially used to denote the 
 coccus, Or worm which was used in 
 dyeing, to give to cloth a deep scarlet 
 colour. The manufacture of such stuffs 
 was chiefly carried on by the Tyrians and 
 Lydians. The LXX. have also mis- 
 taken this word for ΡΟ, ἐμπαίζοντας, 
 in which they are followed by the Syriac. 
 Pollux describes the Medes as wearing 
 a cloth called Sarages, which was of 
 searlet colour, striped with white; 
 Sapayns, Μήδων τὶ φόρημα, πορφυροῦς, 
 μεσόλευκος χιτών, Lib. vii. cap. 13. 
 -τ- 5 Osi, with fiery scythes. That n2 
 stands here by transposition of the two 
 first letters for N53, cannot be admitted ; 
 the plural of 15, a lamp, or torch, being 
 always O'S), in the masculine, so that 
 the Syr., Targ., &c., give an erroneous 
 interpretation. 792, iron, steel. Syr. 
 
 aes the same. Comp. the Arab. 
 Nos, secuit, in partes concidit. N43, 
 JSerrum durum, chalybs. hic, 6 chalybe 
 confectus (de gladio). For the manufac- 
 
 ture of swords of the finest steel, not 
 only Damascus but certain 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, Chalyds, is derived 
 from the Chalybes, a people bordering 
 on the Kuxine sea. It is doubtless what 
 the prophet Jeremiah means by }12¥9 973, 
 tron from the North, and which he dis- 
 tinguishes from 13, 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 
 downwards; or inserted parallel to the 
 axle into the felly of the wheel, so as to 
 revolve, when the chariot was put in 
 motion, with more than thrice the velo- 
 city of the chariot itself; and sometimes 
 also projecting from the extremities of 
 the axle.’ Dr. William Smith’s Dict. 
 of Greek and Roman Antiquities, art. 
 Falx. The ἅρματα δρεπανηφόρα were 
 justly reckoned among the most terrific 
 implements of ancient warfare, as they 
 mowed down all that came in their way. 
 In the x, fire, of these scythes is a 
 reference to the coruscations produced 
 by their excessive brightness and the 
 rapidity of their motion. Instead of 
 ΝΞ, “with fire,’ seven MSS., originally 
 one more, and the Soncin.. edition of 
 the Prophets, read x3, “like fire.” 
 The suffix in 1727 may either form an 
 accusative to 1397, 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 
 own, eypresses, 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 ΟΞ, horsemen, 
 rendering it of ἱππεῖς, which Michaelis 
 is inclined to prefer, and Newcome has 
 actually adopted. There is, however, 
 
CHAP. II. | 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 281 
 
 5 '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. 
 6 He remembers his nobles ; 
 They stumble in their march ; 
 
 no just cause for stumbling at the bold- 
 ness of the figure. Homer, describing 
 the spear of Achilles, calls it an ash : 
 
 Ἔκ δ᾽ apa σύριγγος πατρώϊον ἐσπάσατ᾽ 
 ἔγχος, 
 
 Βριθὺ, μέγα, στιβαρόν" τὸ μὲν οὐ δύνατ᾽ 
 ἄλλος ᾿Αχαιών 
 
 Πάλλειν, ἀλλά μιν οἷος ἐπίστατο πῆλαι 
 ᾿Αχιλλεὺς, 
 
 Πηλιάδα ΜΈΛΙΗΝ, κ. τ. λ. 
 
 Iliad. xix. 387—890. 
 
 Hesiod also designates the lance ἐλάτη, 
 a pine, Scut. Here. 188; and Virgil 
 uses the fir for the spear of Camilla: 
 
 ——— “ cujus apertum 
 Adversi longa transverberat chiete pec- 
 tus.” Aineid. xi. 667. 
 
 YY, a ἅπαξ λεγ., from the root Wl, 
 Syr. WSs, tremuit, to move tremulously, 
 
 wave, shake ; hence ὅν and MyYIn, trem- 
 bling, Zech. xii. 2; Ps. lx. 5. ‘The refer- 
 ence seems to be to the custom of the 
 spear-men to wave their lances before 
 engaging in battle, for the purpose 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. niz57 signifies not merely 
 streets, as being 7thout the houses of a 
 city, but also the owt-fields or commons 
 without the city itself. Comp. Job. v. 10; 
 Ps. cxliv. 13; Prov. viii. 26. In like 
 manner M37}, as its parallel, denotes 
 any wide or open spaces in the suburbs 
 without the gates. Comp. 2 Chron. 
 xxxii. 6; Ps. exliv. 14. 2707 signifies 
 to act the part of a madman, to show 
 oneself violent, to rage, and the like. The 
 reduplicate form pype7ne is obviously 
 intended to give great force to the 
 expression; on which account, to render 
 
 it run up and down is too weak. I have 
 added furiously, which makes this hemi- 
 stich better agree with the preceding. 
 Nor is the reduplication of the third radi- 
 cal of $0, fo run, in Piel, 221%, without 
 a corresponding degree of energy. It 
 expresses the rapid zig-zag course of the 
 chariots, resembling the quick flashing 
 of lightnmg. As 12) is masculine, the 
 feminine suffix in }TXY2 must be taken 
 for a neuter, or regarded as an instance 
 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 
 officers, the generals commanding in 
 the provinces are intended; but itis 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. 721 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 occupy 
 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 7 in ΠΤ, eight of De Rossi’s MSS., 
 another originally, the Brixian, and 
 another ancient edition, exhibit the local 
 7, which is supported by the Targ., Syr., 
 and Arab. By the 720, protector, or 
 protection, here mentioned, some under- 
 stand the vzxea, or the testudo, military 
 coverings used by the besiegers of a city, 
 under the shelter of which they might 
 safely carry on their operations in under- 
 
 00 
 
282 
 
 They hasten to her wall, 
 And the defence is prepared. 
 7 The flood-gates are opened, 
 And the palace is dissolved, 
 Though firmly established. 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 8 She is made bare; she is carried up, 
 While her handmaids moan like doves, 
 
 And smite upon their hearts. 
 
 mining, or otherwise destroying the 
 walls. As, however, the term is here 
 applied to something employed by those 
 who acted on the defensive, it cannot be 
 so interpreted. In all probability, some 
 kind of breastwork, composed of the in- 
 terwoven boughs and branches of trees, 
 erected between the towers upon the 
 walls, is intended. According to Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, Nineveh had fifteen hun- 
 dred towers, each of which was two 
 hundred feet high. 422 signifies 4o weave, 
 intertwine, fence, and the like, and so to 
 protect, shelter. UXX. καὶ ἑτοιμάσουσι 
 
 00 oO 
 τὰς προφυλακὰς αὐτῶν. Syr. {Asas, 
 
 fortifications. Targ. #2}, towers. 
 
 7, 8. Though it is not unusual in He- 
 brew to represent invading armies or mul- 
 titudes 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 suffi- 
 cient ground to depart from the literal 
 meaning. By m3, rivers or streams, 
 are meant the canals dug from the Tigris, 
 which intersected the city, and more 
 especially 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 be- 
 siegers, the waters of the Tigris rushed 
 in, and, completely inundating the royal 
 residence, dissolved and ruined it. The 
 verb 2122 describes the physical effects of 
 the inundation, not metaphorically those 
 produced by the event upon the minds 
 of the inhabitants. 227, ver. 8, has 
 occasioned a great diversity of inter- 
 pretations. Gesenius, dissatisfied with 
 all those derived from its being the 
 
 Hophal of 223, ¢o place, settle, fix, has 
 recourse to a new root, 223, which he bor- 
 
 rows from the Arab. , r 3, fluxit, stil- 
 
 lavit aqua, a 5, fudit, effudit ; and 
 
 then removing the word to the end of the 
 preceding verse, reads thus, 293 9277 
 az, the palace is dissolved and made to 
 flow away. That the verb is to be 
 connected with the preceding 22, the 
 gender at once shows; but there is no 
 necessity for departing from the usual 
 signification of 322, fo place, fiz, stand 
 jirmly ; 11 Hiph. to cause to stand, esta- 
 blish. However strongly the palace 
 might have been constructed, it would 
 not be able to resist the fury of the water. 
 . has here the force of though, and 
 though. Comp. FANN, Mal. 11. 14. 
 The nominative to the feminines 793 and 
 mm is Nineveh understood. ‘The first 
 of these verbs some render, zs carried 
 into captivity ; but this signification is 
 confined to the Kal and Hiphil conju- 
 gations. 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 followimg and deploring 
 her fate. That the queen of Nineveh her- 
 self, supposed to be here called Huzzad, is 
 intended, is a position which cannot be 
 sustained, though adopted by several in- 
 terpreters, and recently by Ewald. Per- 
 sons are never introduced by name into 
 prophecy, except for some important 
 purpose, as in the case of Cyrus. For 
 272, to pant, sigh, moan, comp. the Arab. 
 
 a graviter, continuo anhelavit, via 
 
CHAP. 11.] 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 283 
 
 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 
 There is no end to the store ; 
 
 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold ; 
 
 There is abundance of all covetable vessels. 
 
 ΠῚ 
 
 Emptiness and emptiedness and void, 
 
 Heart-melting and tottering of knees ; 
 There is intense pain in all loins, 
 And all faces withdraw their colour. 
 
 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. 
 
 ν᾽ 
 ae spiritu ; Syr. rea lamarit, 
 rugrt. 
 
 9. The comparison of the population 
 of Nineveh to a collection of water is 
 here appropriate. 7°92 is an anti- 
 quated mode of expressing the feminine 
 pronominal affix—the absolute form of 
 the pronoun being retained instead of 
 the fragmental 7 being attached to the 
 noun, XT D2= 7a"; lit. from her days, 
 z.e. during the whole period of her ex- 
 istence, or, from the most ancient time. 
 The prophet compares the royal city to 
 a 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 
 3 gives force to the diction. 7227, from 
 72, in Hiphil, ¢o set up, prepare ; any- 
 thing laid up, prepared, and ready for 
 use, as costly garments, ornaments, &c. 
 Comp. Job. xxvil. 16. LXX. τοῦ κόσμου 
 αὐτῆς. Vulg. divitiarum. Targ. 35x, 
 treasures. 132, followed by y2, 15. here a 
 nominative absolute: as for the abuu- 
 dance, it consists of, ὅσ. 
 
 1]. The three synonymes, 7793, 77379, 
 72229, all from roots signifying ¢o 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 desolation—the idea here 
 intended to be conveyed. Gesenius 
 considers them to be onomatopoetic, imi- 
 tating the sound of emptying out a 
 bottle. Comp. Is. xxiv. 1, for the ety- 
 mology of the verbs p232=713 and 722; and 
 forasimilar use of words varied in form, 
 but nearly alike in sound, Is. xxiv. 3, 4; 
 xxix. 2; Ezek. xxxili, 29; xxxv. 3; 
 
 Zeph. i. 15. 73720, an intensive form, 
 from 7, ¢o be in pain. For S88 see on 
 Joel 11. 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 
 figurative. Comp. for the metaphor, Is. 
 v. 29; Jer. ii. 15. 899, in ver. 12, has 
 the force of that which ; “1, ver. 13, a suffi- 
 ciency, supply, &c. *%2 and ΠΡ are 
 employed idiomatically in the two gen- 
 ders to express different kinds of prey. 
 Comp. Is. 11. 1. For 753 the Targ. has 
 xno, with fire. The meaning is, that 
 such should be the number of chariots 
 
284 NAHUM. [CHAP. IIT. 
 
 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 ; 
 And I will burn her chariots into smoke ; 
 The sword also shall devour thy young lions, 
 T will likewise cut off thy prey from the land : 
 And the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more. 
 
 consumed, that the smoke arising from can be little doubt that it is a defective 
 the fire in which they were to be burned, reading, 73289, for 77x72. Comp. 7353, 
 should be visible to all. Comp. Ps. Ps. cxxxix. 5. The Syr. and LXX. 
 xxxvii. 20. The MSS. and editions differ have read 7:72", “ thy works.” 
 
 in their punctuation of 722x%, but there 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The prophet, resuming his description of the siege of Nineveh, 1—3, traces it to 
 her idolatry as its cause, 4, and the divine denunciations which he had intro- 
 duced chap. ii. 14, he repeats, ver. 5—7. He then, to aggravate her misery, 
 points her to the once formidable and celebrated, but now conquered and deso- 
 late Thebes, 8—10, declaring that such should likewise be her fate, 11—138; 
 calls upon her sarcastically to make every preparation for her defence, but 
 assures her that it would be of no avail, 14, 15; and concludes by contrasting 
 with the number of merchants, princes, and generals, which she once 
 possessed, the miserable, remediless state of ruin to which she was to be 
 reduced, 16—19. 
 
 
 
 1 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 ; 
 
 1. A portraiture of the atrocious cha- 2, 3. The description which the pro- 
 racter of the Ninevites. ΡΒ 72 form phet here gives of the approach of the 
 an asyndeton. The non-removal of the enemy, his attack on the city, and the 
 prey refers to the fact, that the Assyrians slaughter of the besieged, is exquisitely 
 
 ad not restored the ten tribes. graphic. Every translator must acknow- 
 
CHAP. III. | 
 
 ‘NAHUM. 
 
 285 
 
 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 the carcasses ; 
 They stumble over their carcasses : 
 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot, 
 The very graceful mistress of enchantments ; 
 Who sold nations through her fornications, 
 And tribes through her enchantments. 
 5 Behold! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts; 
 And I will throw up thy skirts upon thy face, 
 And show the nations thy nakedness, 
 
 And the kingdoms thy shame. 
 
 6 Yea, I will cast abominable things upon thee, 
 
 And disgrace thee ; 
 
 And will make thee a gazing-stock. 
 
 ledge with Jerome: “Tam _ pulchra 
 juxta Hebraicum et picture similis ad 
 prelium se preparantis exercitus de- 
 scriptio 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. 
 177 occurs only here, but in Judges v. 22, 
 we find Yyax nm, the charges of his 
 mighty warriors, in connexion with D%D, 
 ᾿ the war-horse. It would seem to have 
 
 some affinity to the Arab.” ὡς Ἦν celeriter 
 wi 
 
 tucessit, and expresses the coursing or 
 prancing of the cavalry, when rapidly 
 advancing to the attack. Their eager- 
 ness the LXX. expresses by render- 
 
 yo 
 ing it διώκοντος. Syr. 42.» ebullivit, 
 
 anhelavit. D. Kimehi: ™22 Dim ΠΟΤ 
 wm, the powerful trampling or prancing 
 of the horse and his course. The col- 
 lectives require to be rendered in the 
 plural. 7 is not to be understood as 
 repeated before 010 and the following 
 substantives. Instead of 182) or U7, 
 as it is read in some of the old editions, 
 the Keri, many MSS., and the Soncin., 
 Brix., and Complut. editions, read »>w3), 
 
 which is favoured by the renderings of 
 the LXX. and Vulg. 
 
 4. The idolatrous practices of the Nine- 
 vites, and the means which they employed 
 to seduce others to worship their gods, are 
 here represented as the principal cause 
 of their destruction. At the same time, 
 the commerce, luxury, ὅσο. which they 
 carried to the greatest height, are not to 
 be excluded ; for in making contracts and 
 treaties with the more powerful of their 
 neighbours, they not only employed these 
 as inducements, but did not scruple to 
 deliver into their power, nations and 
 tribes that were unable to defend them- 
 selves. Comp. Joel iii. 3, 6B—8; Amos 
 i. 6. The metaphor of an unchaste female, 
 and the seductive arts which she employs, 
 is not unfrequent 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 
 ancient mode of punishing strumpets, by 
 stripping them of all their gaudy attire, 
 and exposing them, covered with mud 
 and 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 3 in *84) is the Caph veritatis. LXX., 
 
 εἰς παράδειγμα. 
 
280 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 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 ? 
 gs Ατ thou better than No-Ammon, 
 
 That dwelt in the rivers, 
 That had water around her ; 
 
 7. [85 carries out the idea implied in 
 4, ver. 6. It is in the plural, but is fol- 
 lowed by a singular verb, to agree with 
 5. Comp. for the sentiment Is. li. 19. 
 
 8. poss, Vo Amon, Egyp. NOT 
 
 ASRLOVN, the line, or portion of Amon ; 
 
 thus etymologically the LXX. μερίδα 
 ᾿Αμμών, though in Hzek. xxx. 15, they 
 render Διόσπολις, 7. 6. the residence or 
 possession of the Egyptian deity known 
 by the name of Jupiter Ammon. The 
 statement of Macrobius, that he was the 
 representative of the sun, is confirmed 
 by the name of Amon-Re, i. 6. “ Amon, 
 the Sun,” being given to him in Egyp- 
 tian inscriptions. On Kgyptian 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 
 x30 Wx, Amon of No, where, as well as in 
 the present passage in Nahum, our trans- 
 Jators have regarded 7128 as equivalent to 
 yo7, a multitude. Bochart, Schroeder, 
 and some others, have contended that 
 Διόσπολις, near Mendes, in Lower Egypt, 
 is intended, but all the later commen- 
 tators are in favour of Thebes. The 
 Targum preposterously renders, 877720228 
 nna, Alexandria the Great, which Je- 
 rome, 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 Διόσπολις, 15 
 the celebrated Teves, the ancient capital 
 of Upper Egypt, situated on both sides 
 of the Nile, about two hundred and sixty 
 miles south of Cairo. It was renowned 
 for its hundred gates, and was of such 
 extent, that its remaining ruins still de- 
 scribe a circuit of twenty-seven miles: 
 
 ——_————. οὐδ᾽ ὅσα Θήβας 
 > , μὲ “ / bd ΄ 
 Αἰγυπτίας ὅθι πλεῖστα δόμοις ἐν κτήματα 
 κεῖται, 
 
 Αἵ θ᾽ ἑκατόμπυλοί εἰσι, διηκόσιοι δ᾽ av 
 
 ἑκάστην 
 » , > “- 4 a A 
 Avépes ἐξοιχνεῦσι σὺν ἵπποισιν καὶ 
 ὄχεσφιν" 
 
 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 
 and superior description. Fragments of 
 colossal obelisks and statues are found 
 in every direction. The stupendous 
 colonnade at Luxor is in the highest 
 degree imposing; but the grand hall of 
 the temple at Karnac is of surpassing 
 interest. Wilkinson, in his Thebes, 
 p- 174, describes it as “one hundred and 
 seventy feet by three hundred andtwenty- 
 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 
 hundred and twenty-two of smaller or 
 rather less gigantic dimensions, forty- 
 one feet nine inches in height, and 
 twenty-seven feet six inches in circum- 
 ference, distributed in seven lines on 
 either side of the former.” The walls 
 of the temples are covered with hiero- 
 elyphies, chiefly representing the vic- 
 tories gained by the Egyptian kings over 
 theirenemies. One of the walls exhibits 
 the result of the expedition of Shishak 
 against Jerusalem, 1 Kings xiv. 25, &c.; 
 2 Chron. xii. 2—9, in the leading away 
 of the Jewish captives. 
 
 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 B.c. 714. See on Is. xx. It was 
 afterwards taken by Cambyses, B.c. 525, 
 and its ruin completed by Ptolemy 
 Lathyrus, B.c. 81. According to the 
 
CHAP. ut] 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 287 
 
 Whose strength was in the sea? 
 
 Her wall was on the sea. 
 
 9 Cush strengthened her, and Egypt, 
 
 With countless hosts ; 
 
 Put and the Lybians were thine auxiliaries. 
 
 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 honourable men, 
 And all her great men were bound with chains. 
 
 ΤΙ 
 
 representation 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 Ὁ", sea, is 
 meant the Nile; see on Is. xix. 5; by 
 Dn, streams, the same as N72, Nah. 
 li. 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 & with 0%, thus, 
 D2 Ὁ", and renders from sea to sea, which 
 he attempts to justify by appealing to 
 Micah vii. 12, but the cases are not pa- 
 rallel. 1 stands elliptically for 77. The 
 preposition Ὁ in D2 expresses the mate- 
 rial 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 pos- 
 sessed immense military resources in her 
 African auxiliaries. For 0», Cush, 
 see on Is. xi. 1]. ww, Put, Egyp. 
 
 PAIAT, the region immediately to 
 the west of Lower Egypt, and con- 
 terminous with Lybia Proper, with the 
 inhabitants of which, 7”, it is here 
 mentioned. Gesenius derives the name 
 from JIT or cbrT, a bow, and thinks 
 the people were so called from their 
 
 Thou also shalt be drunken, 
 
 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, 
 15. 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. Β. iz voc. On, Lybians, the in- 
 habitants of Africa to the south and 
 west of the former country, stretching 
 as far as Numidia. Hitzig, on Is. Ixvi. 19, 
 has endeavoured in vain to establish the 
 hypothesis that the people of Nubia are 
 meant. Comp. 2 Chron. xii. 3; xvi. 8. 
 psn, Hyypt, is here taken for Lower 
 Egypt, as distinguished from the Upper, 
 of which Thebes was itself the capital. 
 There is no reason, with some, to change 
 the 7 in J2UL3 into 4, though the LXX. 
 and Syr. have the third person. The 
 prophet concludes his description by 
 apostrophizing Thebes. 3 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 cruelties and indignities 
 usually inflicted by the victors, what 
 was there in Nineveh to claim exemption? 
 Instead of 12%, fo drink, be intoxicated, a 
 mode of speech not uncommon in the 
 prophets, denoting participation in severe 
 punishment, Newcome, without autho- 
 rity, reads 12¥, fo hire, and renders, thou 
 
288 
 Thou shalt hide thyself, 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 [CHAP. 111. 
 
 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. 
 
 Draw water for the siege ; 
 Strengthen thy fortifications ; 
 
 14 
 
 Enter the mire, and tread the clay ; 
 
 Repair the brick-kiln. 
 15 
 The sword shall cut thee off ; 
 
 There shall the fire consume thee, 
 
 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. 
 17 
 
 Thy princes were as the swarming locusts, 
 
 And thy satraps as the largest locusts ; 
 That encamp in the hedges in the cold day: 
 
 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. 18; for the latter, Is. xix. 16 ; 
 Jer. 1. 37. 0%, with, in the phrase ΘΝ 
 onD2 OY, denotes accompaniment, &e.; 
 the phrase itself is equivalent to D2x8n 
 poypaa oF) Wx. Thus the LXX.; συκαῖ 
 σκοποὺς ἔχοντες. Comp. for this rare 
 use of the preposition, 1 Sam. xvii. 42. 
 ΠΣ, Michaelis translates thy fugitives ; 
 but as fugitives are always represented 
 as perishing by the sword, and never by 
 fire, the signification barriers must be 
 retained. 
 
 14. The prophet ironically summons 
 the Ninevites to make every effort in 
 the way of preparing for a long and 
 vigorous defence of the metropolis itself. 
 As water is one of the first necessaries, 
 it behoved them to see to it, that the 
 
 cisterns, &c., were well filled. They 
 were also to put the fortifications in a 
 perfect state. 
 
 15—17. 0%, there, points emphatically 
 to the fortified city. The nominative to 
 ἼΒΞΙΙΤ is the masculine noun ὩΣ, people, 
 z.e. the inhabitants ; that to 2307, the 
 feminine YY, city, understood. Instead, 
 however, of @2n7, six MSS., originally 
 four more, and one by correction, read 
 207. For the names of the locusts 
 which here occur, see on Joel i. 4, and 
 Amos vii. 1. The reduplication »2}3 343, 
 locust of locusts, is designed to express 
 the largest or most formidable of that 
 kind of insect. For the plural form 
 ‘243, see on Amos vil. 1. 0°39 is a ἅπαξ 
 Aey., derived from 73, fo consecrate, 
 separate and devote to a high or noble 
 office; hence 13, prince, “33, consecra- 
 tion, diadem. It denotes here the princes, 
 crowned with diadems, who formed the 
 glory of the Assyrian court. Thus 
 Kimchi: ows Oy Mer ὋΣ) WwRr DD, 
 “Princes with diadems and crowns on 
 
CHAP. III. ] 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 The sun ariseth, then they flee, 
 And the place where they are is unknown. 
 
 18 
 Thy nobles have lain down ; 
 
 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria! 
 
 Thy people are dispersed upon the mountains, 
 And there is none that collecteth them. 
 
 1 
 Thy wound is grievous ; 
 
 There is no alleviation of thy ruin ; 
 
 All that hear the report of thee 
 
 Shall clap their hands at thee, 
 
 For upon whom did not thy wickedness unceasingly pass ? 
 
 their heads.” The Arab. phe. monitor, 
 
 i.e. counsellor, is less apt, as the com- 
 parison to the locusts shows. Six of De 
 Rossi’s MSS. and three ancient editions 
 omit the Dagesh in the Nun. The 
 parallel term ODO occurs only here, 
 and in Jer. li. 27, in the singular 7050. 
 It is obviously a foreign word, and is in 
 all probability compounded of what we 
 
 still find in the Persie, οὔ, or wt; 
 
 strength, power, and oy 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. zz voc. Dr. 
 Lee prefers deriving it from the Chald. 
 1D, egregius, and WW, 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 
 the following verse, refer to the king of 
 Assyria. The OY, shepherds, were the 
 
 satraps or viceroys appointed to govern 
 the provinces under the king of Assyria ; 
 the oI were the zobles, who, as 
 parallel with the DY4, are to be regarded 
 under the same image. See Jer. xxv. 34, 
 where principals would have been better 
 than prizcipal in our common version. 
 }2U, corresponding to 52, they slumber, 
 is a vor pregnans, implying, not only 
 that they had lain down, but that they 
 were taking rest or were asleep. ‘E is 
 cognate with y%®, to scatter, disperse ; 
 
 Arab. Lis, propagata et multiplicata sunt 
 
 pecora; but is not to be substituted for 
 it, as some propose. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 Ue, pastum noctu incesserunt cameli 
 
 aut oves size pastore. The figure is 
 carried on throughout the verse. 
 
 19. 7DBpR, lit. nothing of infirmity, 
 by litotes, for powerful, great is thy 
 breach. ‘The deliverance of the king 
 of Nineveh was utterly hopeless. Nothing 
 remained but for the prophet to announce 
 his end, and the joy which the surround- 
 ing states would express at the irre- 
 trievable ruin of an empire, whose iron 
 sway had been so extended, and whose 
 cruel oppressions had been uninter- 
 mitting. 
 
1 ΡΟ ΡΠ ἢ Ce Lee 
 Ψὴ ΟΡΝΑ ΤΙ πὰ 
 
 ant bad a ae 
 “hyde nd μὲ ania 
 ‘ 4 ive fey me ] 
 ah shag nan Dea 
 
 
 
HABAKKU K. 
 
 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 inscription to Bel and the 
 Dragon in the LXX., which has been preserved from the Tetrapla 
 of Origen, in the Codex Chisianus, ἐκ προφητείας Ἀμβακοὺμ υἱοῦ 
 Ἰησοῦ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Λευί, 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, Eichhorn, Horne, 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. 1. was com- 
 posed under Jehoiakim, chap. 11. under Jehoiachin, and chap. 111. 
 under Zedekiah, is altogether gratuitous. The whole forms one 
 prophecy, and does not admit of being thus dissected. 
 
293 PREFACE TO HABAKKUK. 
 
 The book embraces the wickedness of the Jews which demanded 
 the infliction 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 immediately 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 descriptions 
 graphic and pointed. The parallelisms are for the most part 
 regular and complete. The lyric ode contained in chap. 111. 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 M1929, i. 9, OA, ii. 6, and WOPP, ii. 16, are 
 peculiar to this prophet. 
 
 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The prophet commences by briefly, yet emphatically and pathetically, setting forth 
 
 the cause of the Chaldzan invasion, 
 
 which was 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 punishment of such wickedness, 5; describes, in a 
 very graphic manner, the appearance, character, and operations of the invaders, 
 6—11; and then, by a sudden transition, expostulates with God, on account 
 of the severity of the judgment, which threatened the annihilation of the Jewish 
 
 people, 12—17. 
 
 1 THe SENTENCE, which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 
 2 How long shall I ery, O Jehovah, and thou hearest not ? 
 How long shall I cry to thee of violence, and thou savest not ? 
 
 1. For the signification of xt2, see on 
 15. xiii. 1 ; and for the form 7727, com- 
 pare Wwe, Jer. ν. 80; xxi. 14. 
 
 2. The evils complained of in this and 
 the two following verses, are, by many 
 interpreters, cousidered to be those con- 
 sequent upon the invasion of Judea by 
 the Chaldeans. Such a construction, 
 however, breaks up the symmetry of 
 the connexion, as marked by ver. 5, and 
 leaves out of view the wickedness of 
 the Jews as the cause of the calamity, 
 contrary to the universal custom of the 
 Hebrew prophets. They were the in- 
 testine broils, litigations, and acts of 
 oppression, which sprang up in the 
 kmgdom of Judah, 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. xxu. 3, 13. The argument 
 
 in favour of the contrary hypothesis, 
 derived from the recurrence of the words 
 Dan, Nv, &c., and the phrase Ὁ xz, 
 &c., in the following part of the chapter, 
 with undoubted application to the Chal- 
 deans, 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 7287, how long, upon the 
 Preterite and Future tenses 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 D2”, violence, occurs 
 without a preposition, Hitzig thinks it 
 was what was done to the prophet him- 
 self; but it is better, with Kimchi, to 
 suppose an ellipsis of 122, or, to supply " 
 Ὁ, on account of, because of, with the 
 
294 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 3 Why dost thou permit me to see wickedness, 
 
 And beholdest misery ? 
 
 Destruction and violence are before me, 
 Contention and strife exalt themselves. 
 4 On this account the law faileth, 
 And true judgment goeth not forth ; 
 Because the wicked circumvent the righteous, 
 
 Targum. Comp. Job xix. 7; Jer. xx. 8. 
 yw and pt are synonymous, but the latter 
 is the more expressive of the two. 
 
 3. Some, regarding 2879 and 30 as 
 strictly parallel, understand the suffix 3 
 to be omitted in the latter verb, and 
 render: Why dost thou cause me to sce 
 wickedness, and make me look upon 
 wrong? but 37, though the Hiplhil 
 conjugation, is never used in a causative 
 sense. Besides, °722?, and not 34, is the 
 proper synonyme, corresponding to ‘877. 
 Between the two clauses, the prophet 
 introduces Jehovah, with whom he ex- 
 postulates, as an inactive spectator 
 of the evil, because his providence did 
 not interfere for its removal, aud 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 
 punishment of the wicked. sv 779 has 
 been variously explained. The LXX., 
 taking ἡ Ὁ for p12, render it ὁ κριτὴς 
 λαμβάνει; which the Syr. explains, 
 
 ore So ie: the judge taketh a 
 
 bribe. Abenezra translates thus: 77 
 DONT NW? We T7191 I wir, and there are 
 men of strife and contention who lift up 
 their head. The structure of the sentence, 
 however, obliges us to regard xt” as 
 parallel to "7%, so that it stands in the 
 same relation to 7172, that the substantive 
 verb does to 3, The nouns in both 
 cases are nominatives to the verbs, and 
 x2 is here to be taken intransitively in 
 the sense of ewalting or raising oneself up. 
 Comp. Ps. lxxxix. 10; Hos. xiii. 1; Nah. 
 i. 5. Thus Dahl, combining the two 
 nouns, Und Hader, und Gezank erheben 
 sich; and Perschke, Bs gibt Streit, und 
 Zwist erhebet sich. The language is 
 descriptive of the prevalence 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 obtained by perver- 
 sion of law. 
 
 4. 20%, 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 
 energy, it is sald 289, ἐξ chilleth, groweth 
 Jrigid, 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, N22) ΝΕ ΝῊ 
 ΒΘ, may either be rendered, judgment, 
 1.6. what is strictly and properly such, 
 righteous judgment, xever goeth forth ; 
 or, judgment goeth not forth according to 
 truth ; 222, signifying to perpetuity, for 
 ever, (and, with a negative, xever, like 
 DY? N,) and also truly, according to truth. 
 Comp. the Arab. eo sincerus, fidelis 
 
 Juit; and the Eth. 5 ξεν : purus, 
 
 mundus fuit. The latter signification of 
 the word is that adopted by the Syr. 
 on» oO vi o = v δ ᾿ 
 }Z0s5}D fae» caaa flo, aad judg- 
 ment yoeth not forth in purity; and is 
 approved by Scheltinga, Hesselberg, 
 Wolf, Rosenmiiller, De Wette, Winer, 
 Gesenius, Lee, aud Ewald, chiefly on 
 the ground of 9272 BED, wrong or per- 
 verted 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 ajudge. In the time of the prophet, 
 justice was utterly corrupted, in con- 
 sequence of which there was no security 
 either for person or property. YA22, 
 from 103, fo 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. E22, dis- 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 Therefore perverted judgment 
 
 or 
 
 And be ye greatly astonished ; 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 goeth forth. 
 
 Look among the nations, and behold! 
 
 For I will perform a work in your days, 
 Which ye will not believe, though it should be told you. 
 
 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. 
 
 torted, perverse, wrong, from the root "2Y. 
 Comp. the Syr. τ το pervertit, Arab. 
 sie, constrinait, distortos habuit pedes ; 
 alae, distortio lingua in loquendo. Τ ΧΧ. 
 
 κρίμα διεστραμμένον. 
 
 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 
 necessary 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 dominions 
 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. πρὸ and O37 are frequently 
 combined as here for the sake of effect. 
 The phrase 0%33, among the nations, is 
 translated by the LXX., of καταφρονηταὶ, 
 ye despisers, in which they are followed 
 by the Syr. and Arab.; and this rendering 
 is adopted by Paul in his quotation of 
 
 the verse, Acts xiii. 41. On the other 
 hand, the Targ. ΝΟΌΣ Hn, Aq., Symm., 
 Theod.,and the Vulg. aspicite in gentibus; 
 which is sustained by all the Heb. MSS. 
 that have been collated, except five of 
 Kennicott’s, which have 03, zations, 
 without the preposition. To account for 
 the rendering of the LXX., some are of 
 opinion that instead of 023, they must 
 have read 0°23, D243, or O'2; others, 
 with Pococke,in his Porta Mosis, chap. iii., 
 suggest asupposititious root, 823, the cor- 
 
 Cd ese) 
 responding Arab, |x), signifying, énjustus 
 
 Suit ; superbe, insolenter se gessit : most 
 unjustifiably insisting on the preference 
 of some such reading to that of the 
 Hebrew text. With respect to the quota- 
 tion, Acts xili. 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 regards the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by the Romans, and the 
 incredulity of the nation in reference to 
 that event. “Paulus fideliteraccommodat _ 
 in usum suum Prophets verba, quia 
 sicuti semel minatus fuerat Deus per 
 prophetam suam Habacuc, ita etiam 
 semper fuit suisimilis.” Calvin, zz Joc. The 
 double form, 797 WANT, is used for in- 
 tensity. “257 is the Hithpael for *72AN7, 
 Comp. ‘12% TDI, Is. xxix. 9, and my 
 note on that verse. Before "58 subaud. ‘2x. 
 
 6. Now follows a lengthened and 
 fearful description of the character and 
 operations of the instrument which Je- 
 hovah would employ in executing his 
 work, 07°27, which has unquestion- 
 ably the force of the future, must be 
 referred to the special raising wp of the 
 Chaldeans to undertake the expedition 
 against Juda, and not to their orga- 
 nization as a political power, since they 
 had already been upwards of twenty 
 
296 
 
 7 It is terrible and dreadful ; 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Its judgment and its dignity are from itself. 
 8 Swifter than leopards are its horses, 
 
 And lighter than evening wolves ; 
 
 Its horse also 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 faces is like the east wind ; 
 And it collecteth the captives as sand. 
 
 10 
 And princes are a laughter to 
 
 years in possession of such power under 
 
 abopolassar. On this account, some 
 prefer rendering the phrase, Behold / I 
 will excite. For an account of this 
 people, see on Is. xxii. 19. In 1227) ὝΞΙΤ 
 is a paronomasia. By 79, differ, the 
 fierce and cruel disposition of the Chal- 
 deeans is expressed, comp. Jer. 1.42; by 
 ἜΠΟΣ, rash, hasty, the rapidity or im- 
 petuosity of their operations. In the 
 latter part of the verse, their widely ex- 
 tended conquests under Nebuchadnezzar 
 are clearly predicted. 
 
 7. mew, the LXX. render λῆμμα, 
 
 Symm, δόγμα, Vulg. onus, Syr. loyas 
 
 vision, Targ. 73, decree or sentence, all 
 deriving it from 83, in the sense of 
 ΤΡ ΝΣ, fo lift up, or utter anything with 
 - the voice, and regarding it as equivalent 
 to xv, from the same root. ‘The sig- 
 nification decree, though approved by 
 Hesselberg, De Wette, Winer, and Ge- 
 senius, is less appropriate than that of 
 dignity, which is that of our common 
 version, and which is adopted by Hitzig, 
 Maurer, and Ewald. Comp. Gen. xlix. 3; 
 Job xiii. 11; Ps. Ixii. 5. mv nowhere 
 occurs in reference to a judicial decree. 
 What the prophet has in view appears to 
 be the self-assumed political superiority 
 of the Chaldeans in the Babylonian 
 empire. As they had raised themselves 
 to this dignity, so they would permit 
 none to share in their counsels and de- 
 terminations, but would act in the most 
 arbitrary manner, 
 8. Frequent reference is made in 
 
 For it maketh a mockery of kings, 
 
 τ: 
 
 Scripture to the “evening wolves,” on 
 account of the sudden ravages which, 
 in the keenness of their hunger, they 
 commit on the flocks at that time 
 of the day. See Gen. xlix. 27; Jer. 
 v. 6; Zeph. ui. 3; and comp. Virgil’s 
 Georg. il. 537; iv. 433; and the Aueid, 
 i. 355; ix. 59. The LXX. render im- 
 properly, λύκους τῆς ᾿Αραβίας. 2, 
 from the root 8, having here the signi- 
 fication of the Arab. Us superbivit, 
 
 gloriatus fuit, describes the proud and 
 spirited mien of the horses composing 
 the Chaldean cavalry. Comp. the inimi- 
 table description of the Arabian war- 
 horse, Job xxxix. 19—24. The meaning 
 of the two last lines of the verse is, that 
 the eagerness of the cavalry to plunder 
 the Jews should be so great, that they 
 would make no account of the fatigue 
 occasioned by the length of their march. 
 
 9, 10. 753 is the less correct ortho- 
 graphy of 153, which occurs several times 
 in the course of the Hebrew Bible. The 
 affix refers to ‘3, ver. 6. So great was 
 to be the invading army, that it would 
 seem as if it were composed of the 
 entire nation. Considerable difficulty 
 has been experienced in the interpreta- 
 tion of the words, 7277 DNB ND. By 
 the LXX., the ἅπαξ ey. 7929 Is ren- 
 dered ἀνθεστηκότας ; by Symm. πρόσο- 
 
 wus; by the Syr. 10 pan aspect; by 
 
 the Targ. 2272, front, what is opposite to 
 anything. ‘The Vulg. omits the word 
 altogether, obviously on the principle of 
 its being sufficiently expressed by facies 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 It smileth at every fortress ; 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 bo 
 co 
 “1 
 
 Yea, it heapeth up earth, and taketh if. 
 
 11 Then it gaineth fresh spirit ; 
 
 It passeth onward, and contracteth guilt, [saying, | 
 Is this his power through his God ? 
 
 immediately following. With these 
 Abenezra and Kimchi agree; and thus 
 also generally, Munster, Vatablus, Pag- 
 ninus, Castalio, Calvin, and others. On 
 the other hand, Gesenius derives the 
 word from the supposititious root 023, 
 
 Arab. 
 
 renders it host, troop; but, as Lee 
 observes, the host of their faces is any- 
 thing but Hebrew phraseology. Rosen- 
 miller, Lee, Maurer, Hitzig, and Ewald, 
 derive it from the same root im the signifi- 
 cations, dmpetus, desire, a striving after ; 
 Ger. streben : while our own, and some 
 other modern translators, adopt the idea 
 of absorption, supping up, &e., from the 
 signification of 893, 823. Considering 
 the marked and independent coincidence 
 of the ancient versions above quoted, 
 borne out, as they are, by the Arab. 
 
 >, to congregate, heap up, and 
 
 Ls adparuit, quod de re quavis ex- 
 
 trinsecus apparet, corpus rei, seu res 
 individua exstans et conspicua, 1 cannot 
 but regard aspect or appearance as the 
 term best adapted to convey the meaning 
 of the prophet. ΠΌΤ, in every other 
 passage in which it occurs, has the 
 signification of eastward, and it is taken 
 in this acceptation by Abarbanel, Park- 
 hurst, Dahl, Wolff, and Hitzig, who 
 explain it either of the direction in which 
 the Chaldeans would return home with 
 their booty, or of their first coming down 
 along the coast of the Mediterranean, 
 and then turning direct east upon the 
 Jews. Both constructions are forced. 
 Gesenius renders forwards, and gives 
 the whole sentence thus : the host of their 
 faces is forwards. Here again I prefer 
 the rendering of Symm. ἄνεμος καύσων ; 
 the Tare. 82177 O77 19, the Vulg. ventus 
 urens, which, or east wind, its equivalent, 
 is the rendering of many of the moderns. 
 It is true, that the east wind is elsewhere 
 uniformly expressed by OR, without the 
 7; but this letter seems clearly to be 
 here used. paragogically, just as it is in 
 
 mies, 7332, 12, the primitive forms of 
 which are jifx, 323, δ, In some instances, 
 indeed, it is the 7 directive, indicating 
 motion towards the quarter specified, 
 but in others it has lost all such power. 
 For the east wind, or samoom, see on 
 Is. xxvil. 8. Nothing could more ap- 
 propriately describe the terrific appear- 
 ance of the destructive Chaldean army, 
 than this phenomenon, which occasions 
 awful devastation in the regions over 
 which if passes. The collecting of the 
 captives dike sand, which the prophet im- 
 mediately adds, corroborates the opinion 
 that the samoom is intended, as it is 
 frequently accompanied with whirlwinds 
 of sand collected and carried with great 
 rapidity across the desert. The 10th 
 verse sets forth the haughty, fearless, 
 and irresistible character of the Chal- 
 deans. The last clause of the verse 
 describes the throwing up of walls or 
 batteries before fortified cities, from which 
 to attack them. 82 seldom. signifies 
 fine dust ; it is more commonly used of 
 earth generally, including clay, mire, &. 
 
 11. 38, τότε, usually rendered then, 
 has here the foree of ¢herewpon, marking 
 the transition from what had just been 
 described to what immediately follows, 
 and their intimate connexion with each 
 other. is the accusative to ὭΣΤ, which 
 denoting ¢o succeed, exchange, change, 
 renew, &¢., the phrase means, to assume, 
 or gain a fresh accession of courage or 
 military spirit. For this signification of 
 ™, comp. Josh. ii. 11; ν. 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 re- 
 sistance 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 OE xxxvies 9:20 = Ps. xxix: 10 ; 
 exv. 2. The aggravated guilt which they 
 contracted (2x) lay in their vilifying 
 
 QQ 
 
298 
 
 12 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 Art not Thou from eternity, 
 
 [CHAR cn 
 
 O Jehovah! my God, my Holy One? 
 
 We shall not die: 
 
 O Jehovah! thou hast appointed it for judgment, 
 O Rock! thou hast ordained it for correction. 
 
 13 
 
 Thou art of purer eyes than to regard evil ; 
 
 And thou canst not behold injustice. 
 
 Why dost thou behold the plunderers ? 
 
 Why art thou silent when the wicked destroyeth 
 Him that is more righteous than he? 
 
 14 
 
 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, 
 
 As the reptiles which have no ruler ? 
 
 It bringeth up all with its hook, 
 It gathereth them into its net, 
 
 Yea, it collecteth them into its drag ; 
 Therefore it rejoiceth and exulteth. 
 
 Jehovah, by speaking of him as in- 
 eapable 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 in- 
 terpreters, and gives peculiar force to 
 the interrogatory appeal in that which 
 follows. The ellipsis of 48) is of frequent 
 occurrence in Hebrew. ‘The absence of 
 the inierrogative 7 is more seldom; but 
 comp. Gen. xxvii. 24, ΠῚ TAY for ΠῚ TDN7 ; 
 2 Sam. vii. 19, nn, and this is, for Τὰ ἘΠῚ, 
 and is this; and xvi. 17, FINN AION ΠῚ, 
 “ This is thy kindness to thy friend,” 
 for, Is this, &e. 
 
 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 
 Jehovah, 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 
 3, Hock, is elsewhere used metapho- 
 rically of God, I have retained it in the 
 translation. See on Is. xxvi. 4. It is here 
 parallel to mv. The Tikkun Sopherim 
 nyon δ is unsupported by any authority. 
 
 13. Habakkuk resumes the expostu- 
 latory mode of address which he had 
 
 employed, verses 2,3. The 0°23, 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 
 3299, but it is expressed in Aq., Symm., 
 Theod., the Targ., and Vulg. Wicked 
 as the Jews were, they were righteous 
 incomparison 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. 9) is 
 used of aquatic animals, such as crabs 
 and other shell-fish, Ps. civ. 25, a sense 
 which the parallelism and connexion 
 here require. 
 
 15—17. 72 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. ‘27, an unusual punctuation 
 for m7. The hook, the net, and the 
 drag, are separately mentioned, to in- 
 dicate that every means would be 
 employed in taking captives, and what- 
 ever else came in their way. To their 
 
CHAP. 11: 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 299 
 
 16 Therefore it sacrificeth to its net, 
 And burneth 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 ? 
 
 arms, signified by these implements of 
 fishers, they rendered divine honours, 
 ascribing to them solely the success 
 which they had in war. Comp. Justin. 
 43.3. ‘Ab origine rerum pro dils immor- 
 talibus veteres hastas coluere.” Lucian 
 in Trag. Σκύθαι μὲν ἀκινάκῃ θύουσι. By 
 the emptying of the net, ver. 17, is 
 
 meant the depositing of the captives, 
 &c., in Babylon, in order to go forth to 
 fresh conquest and plunder. It isstrongly 
 implied in the questions with which the 
 chapter concludes, that God would not 
 permit the Chaldzeans 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 refer- 
 ence 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 assurance, that though the prophecy should 
 not be fulfilled immediately, yet it would certainly 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 Chaldeans, and their 
 insatiable lust of conquest, are next set forth, 5; on which the proper xw», 
 sentence, or prophetical denunciation, commences, in the form of a taunt on the 
 part of the nations, in which they anticipate the downfal of that hostile power, 
 6—8 ; and the punishment of its rapacity, 9—11; of its cruelty and injustice, 
 with a special view to the universal spread of true religion, 12—14; of its 
 wanton and sanguinary wars, 15—17, and of its absurd and fruitless idolatry, 
 18,19. The last verse of the chapter beautifully contrasts with the two pre- 
 ceding, by representing Jehovah as the only God, entitled to universal submission 
 and homage, 20. 
 
 
 
 1 I wit stand upon my watch-post, 
 And station myself upon the fortress, 
 
 1. ΓΟ ΦῸ properly signifies observance, 
 guard, watch, from ὑοῦ, to watch, observe, 
 preserve, &c., but here, as a concrete, 
 
 the place, or post of observation. Comp. 
 Is. xxi. 8, where it is similarly used, 
 with 7220 for its parallel, Thus the 
 
900 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 And will look out to see what he will say to me, 
 
 And what I shall reply in regard to my argument. 
 2 And Jehovah answered me, and said : 
 
 Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, 
 
 That he who readeth it may run. 
 
 yr 
 
 Syr. callaos, my place. From the use 
 
 of %22 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, says, 
 ‘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 
 approbation. 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 favourable to the recep- 
 tion of supernatural ecmmunications. 
 mz, fo look about, from which 753, a 
 speculator, watchman, is derived, (as like- 
 wise 7829, a watch-tower,) is employed, 
 as here in Piel, to express the looking 
 out for an answer to prayer, Ps. v. 4. 
 The paragogic 7 of the Futures, marks 
 the intensity of his desire. The for- 
 mula 2 723, which the Syr. and Targ. 
 
 render GSS QXsoho er Shon, in 
 
 the sense of speaking or conversing with 
 a person, the LXX. give by λαλήσει ἐν 
 ἐμοὶ, “will speak zz me.? That the 
 preposition 2 is here purposely used, in 
 preference to >8, 3, DY, or nx, to denote 
 the zxternal mode of the Divine com- 
 munication which the prophet received, 
 has been maintained by some who com- 
 pare SI TIM ON, “the Spirit of Jeho- 
 
 vah spake zz me,” 2 Sam. xxii. 2; Num. 
 xii. 6, 8; and particularly Zech. 1. 9, 18, 
 DAs 1. O.7 Saved, 4 5s) We, Ἰ τ 1: 
 where the interpreting angel that ad- 
 dressed him in vision is uniformly styled 
 2 Ὥπι ye, the Angel that spake in me, 
 which the LXX. as uniformly render 
 ὃ λαλῶν ἐν ἐμοί. This view was an- 
 ciently expressed by Jerome, who says, 
 “Sed et hoc notandum, ex eo quod dix- 
 erat, Ut videam quid loquatur in me, 
 propheticam visionem et eloquium Dei 
 non extrinsecus ad Prophetas fieri, sed 
 intrinsecus et interiori homini respon- 
 dere.” The same construction is put 
 upon the phrase by Delitzsch, in his 
 able commentary on our prophet. But 
 it seems after all more than doubtful 
 whether any such construction can fairly 
 be put upon the phrase in most of 
 the passages in which it occurs. In 
 2 Sam. xxii. 2 it may be admitted, though 
 through or by will equally well suit. The 
 other declarations made Num. xu. 6, 
 show that it cannot there be so under- 
 stood; while what is thus stated con- 
 cerning Moses, taken in connexion with 
 1 Sam. xxv. 39, and the passages in 
 Zechariah, goes to prove that if any 
 stress at all is to be laid upon the pre- 
 position, it must be regarded as con- 
 veying the idea of familiar or intimate 
 communication. In mma, the suffix is 
 not to be taken passively, but actively ; 
 i.e. the nn, argument, complaint, re- 
 proof, or in what way soever the word 
 may be rendered, was not any employed 
 by others, but that which the prophet 
 himself had employed in the preceding 
 chapter. What he was desirous of ob- 
 taining, was an answer to the statement 
 which he had there made respecting the 
 Divine conduct in permitting the Chal- 
 deans to multiply their conquests with- 
 out end. Maurer: “causa querimonise 
 mee.” 
 
 2. ji, the véston, or prophetic matter 
 which was about to be communicated to 
 the prophet. That the idea of digging, 
 boring, or graving, is to be attached to 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 HABAKKUK., 
 
 901 
 
 3 For the vision is still for an appointed time, 
 But it shall speak at the end, and not lie ; 
 Though it should delay, wait for it, 
 
 For it will surely come, and not tarry. 
 
 s3, the position of the verb in such con- 
 nexion clearly forbids. Had the cha- 
 racter of the writing been durability, 
 such an idea might fitly have been ex- 
 pressed by a word signifying to grave or 
 dig deep, into a hard substance; but as it 
 is unquestionably legibility that is in- 
 tended, we are compelled to understaud 
 the verb as relative to 23, and that either 
 as a new Imperative, or as an adverbial 
 Infinitive qualifymg it. In the latter 
 case the clause should be rendered, 
 Write the vision, and that clearly. ‘Vhus 
 the LXX.: Τράψον ὅρασιν, καὶ σαφῶς. 
 The Targ. has 8 20) xns922 83, with 
 which the Syr. so far agrees, rendering 
 
 the verb by i 52 to explain. Comp. 
 
 oT Wa — nIn2, write—very plainly, 
 Deut. xxvii. 8. The command, there- 
 fore, has respect to the size, and not to 
 the depth of the writing. niu, fadles, 
 having the article, Hwald thinks the 
 prophet refers to the tables which were 
 openly exhibited in the market-place, 
 on which public announcements were 
 graven in large and clear characters, in 
 common use among the people. The 
 article, however, may only designate the 
 tables which were to be employed for 
 the purpose. It may merely indicate 
 these as definite in the mind of the 
 speaker. This is often the case in 
 Hebrew, when it cannot be rendered by 
 the definite article in other languages. 
 For the writing tablets of the ancients, 
 see on Is. vill. 1. The LXX. have 
 πυξίον, boxwood. The reason why the 
 prophecy should be easily legible, is 
 stated to be, that whosoever read it 
 might run and publish it to all within 
 his reach. It was a joyful message to 
 the Jews, involving as it did the de- 
 struction of their oppressor, and their 
 own consequent deliverance. Compare 
 Dan. xii. 4, NYT TaN) OF wut, “Many 
 shall run to and fro,” viz. with the ex- 
 planation of the prophecy when unsealed, 
 and knowledge shall be increased.” 
 The two passages are remarkably pa- 
 rallel as to their general meaning, though 
 
 the times and events to which they 
 refer are totally different. Comp. also 
 Rey. xxii. 17, Kat ὁ ἀκούων εἰπάτω" 
 Ἔρχου! γι, fo run, is equivalent to 
 82}, fo prophesy, Jer. xxiii. 21, obviously 
 on the principle that those who were 
 charged with a divine message were to 
 use all despatch in making it known. 
 The common interpretation, indeed, re- 
 presents the meaning to consist in the 
 writing being so large as to be easily 
 read even by persous who were hasting 
 past it. But in order to bear this con- 
 struction, the words must read thus: 
 Yu ja say wer, that the runner, or, he 
 that runneth, may read it. Besides, such 
 an addition would scarcely be requisite 
 after 183, and certainly would not corre- 
 spond to the force of }22?, iz order that, 
 with which the hemistich commences. 
 
 ὃ. The particles 3, and } in 15, are 
 correlative. 121, from 72, to fiz, appoint, 
 denotes, in such connexion, a season or 
 period of time definitely fixed in the 
 purpose of God for the occurrence of 
 the predicted events. It is frequently 
 employed by Daniel in this acceptation, 
 along with yp, ¢he end, or termination 
 of the state of the things comprehended 
 in the prophecy. Comp. Dan. viii. 17, 
 19; xi. 27, 35; and somewhat similar 
 phraseology, chap. vill. 26; x. 14. The 
 term obviously implies that the period 
 was still future, which is also expressed 
 by the use of ἦν, still, yet. This adverb 
 is too closely connected in sense with 
 win, to admit of the rendering of Mi- 
 chaelis: ‘ There will still come a vision, 
 which shall determine the time ;” which 
 he refers to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 
 seventy years. ΠῈΣ has been variously 
 
 translated. LXX. ἀνατελεῖ; Syr. Ί 2b 
 
 to come; Vulg. apparebit ; Targ. j2™>, 
 prepared. As, like its cognates T= and 
 ΠΕΣ, the root ™5, of which 7 is the 
 future in Hiphil, signifies ¢o breathe, 
 blow, puff, Michaelis, Bauer, Staudlin, 
 De Wette, Hesselberg, Maurer, Winer, 
 Hitzig, Ewald, and Hengstenberg, in his 
 Psalns, vol. i. p. 255, contend, that it is 
 
802 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP, IT. 
 
 4 Behold the proud! his soul is not right within him ; 
 
 here to be taken in the acceptation of 
 panting, hasting, eagerly moving forward 
 to an object, and that the meaning is, 
 that the prophecy hastened to its accom- 
 plishment. Such construction, however, 
 requires us to attach to ¥z the idea of 
 the object or objects on which ἃ pro- 
 phecy terminates,—the end or extreme 
 point, beyond which its import does not 
 extend. But the word nowhere occurs 
 in this acceptation, but, as Delitzsch has 
 shown, it always designates, in a pro- 
 phetico-chronological sense, the time of 
 the end, whatever may be the compass 
 of events to which reference may be had. 
 Besides, ~?2 and 712? are so obviously 
 parallel, that they do not admit of being 
 differently construed. 72 here, is only 
 an abbreviation of the phrase ὙΠ ΠΡ, Dan. 
 viii. 17, of which we have again a varied 
 form in ¥27Yi0?, ver. 19. J therefore 
 agree with Abarbanel, Jarchi, Kimchi, 
 Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Rosenmiiller, 
 Wolff, and Delitzsch, in assigning to 
 mm in this place the acceptation of speak- 
 ing, breathing out words, in which accep- 
 tation the verb is used Prov. xii. 17; 
 xiv. 5, 25; xix. 5,9. This interpretation 
 derives support from the antithetical 
 332) 89}, in which the idea of speaking is 
 obviously implied. The meaning of the 
 verse will accordingly be, that though 
 the destruction of the Chaldean power, 
 about to be predicted, was not to take 
 place immediately, yet it was definitely 
 fixed in the Divine counsel, and would 
 infallibly happen at the termination of 
 
 oan) ND? ΝΞ, 
 is emphatic, denoting the certainty of 
 the event. ΤΙ, signifies fo stay long, 
 and intimates that the predicted event 
 would not be protracted to any great 
 length. Instead of 71s) δ, upwards of 
 forty of Kennicott and De Rossi’s MSS., 
 four ancient editions, the LXX., Aq., 
 Syr., Targ., and Vulg., read 1) 8, 
 
 4. Most interpreters apply the former 
 hemistich of tlis verse to the Chaldxans, 
 supposing the denunciation against them 
 to begin here; but its coherence with 
 
 the preceding verse is too close to admit 
 of this construction, while the latter 
 hemistich, were such application ad- 
 mitted, would awkwardly interrupt the 
 prophecy at its very commencement. 
 On the other hand, the whole verse 
 most naturally and appropriately applies 
 to the Jewish people, and contains 
 a description of those who would 
 proudly reject the prophetic vision, 
 and of those who would give it a 
 cordial reception: the two members 
 forming a marked and striking anti- 
 thesis. Ἔν, of which 75» may either be 
 the third feminine singular of Pual, or a 
 noun formed from that part of the verb, 
 occurs elsewhere only in Hiphil, Num. 
 xiv. 44; but it is evident, from the use 
 of the derivative "ἜΣ, as denoting a 
 swelling, tumour, mount, hill, &e., and 
 the comparison of the context of both 
 passages, that it is employed metapho- 
 rically to express the idea of mental 
 inflation, elation, pride, presumption, or 
 the like. Such Hebrew usage supports 
 the relation of the verb to the Arab. 
 
 sae, tumore laboravit, rather than to 
 ae, neglexit vel omisit rem, per so- 
 
 cordiam non curavit, for which Pococke 
 contends at great length in his Porta 
 Mosis; though the rendering of the 
 LXX. ὑποστείληται, and that of Aquila, 
 νωχελευόμενου, may both be referred to 
 the radical notion conveyed by this 
 root. Its reference to %x, fo set, become 
 dark, as proposed by Abarbanel, and 
 approved by Deutsch and Wolff, cannot 
 be sustained. Nor must it be overlooked, 
 that though the following words, 77 No 
 ja 12, are not to be regarded as epexe- 
 getical of the term in question, they 
 nevertheless appear to have been sug- 
 gested by it. ‘2 signifies not only to 
 be s¢raight or right, in opposition to being 
 crooked, but also, even, level, plain, smooth, 
 in opposition to what is rough, rugged, 
 and dificult. See 1 Kings vi. 35; Hzra 
 vill. 21; Ps. v. 9; Prov. xxiii. 31, where 
 oyoa IM means, gocth sweetly or 
 pleasantly down, or as Jerome gives it, 
 ingreditur blande; De Dieu, subit facil- 
 
 lime. Comp. the Arab. yp facilis fuit 
 
CHAP. I. | 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 303 
 
 But the righteous shall live by his faith. 
 
 res ; fucilitas, lenitas. Of the reading 
 mo, found in one of Kennicott’s MSS., 
 or 7599, 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. los, wickedness, 15 
 
 founded upon a mistake of 732Y for Ty. 
 m5Y I consider to be an abstract noun, 
 used elliptically for TY Ox, a man of 
 arrogance or presumption, and so to be 
 rendered adjectively, the proud, presump- 
 tuous, &e. For instances of similar 
 ellipsis, comp. 7%2n ὍΝ, 7 am prayer, for 
 TMA xe, [am a man of prayer, Ps. 
 cix. 4; i, arrogance, for J YX, man of 
 arrogance, i.e. arrogant, Jer. 1. 31, 32; 
 Max nine, thou art delights, Dan. ix. 23, 
 for THN nina wr, thou art a man of 
 delights, 1. 6. greatly beloved, as it 1s 
 expressed in full, chap. x. 11,19. See 
 on Micah vi. 9. The term is thus 
 strictly antithetical to PZ, the just, in 
 the following hemistich, precisely as the 
 predicate 32 152 MIN), his soul is not 
 right within him, is to WM Inys3, by his 
 faith he shall live. With respect to this 
 latter point of antithesis,it must beevident, 
 that, as 77, the latter predicate, signifies 
 not merely 70 live, but to live well, be 
 happy, the former must convey the idea 
 of its opposite. This was clearly per- 
 ceived by Luther, who often discovers a 
 wonderful sagacity in seizing upon the 
 meaning of a passage, though in his 
 translation he may not adhere to the 
 strict significations of single words. He 
 renders the words thus: Siehe, wer hals- 
 starrig ist, der wird keine Ruhe in seinem 
 Herzen haben. “ Behold, he who is stub- 
 born shall have no tranquillity in his heart.” 
 So also Gesenius: “Lo, the lofty-minded, 
 his soul is not tranquil within him.” 
 Maurer: “Nonplanus, complanatus, com- 
 positus, tranquillus, &., est animus ejus.” 
 To this interpretation I adhere, as best 
 meeting the exigency of the passage. 
 While those Jews who, elated by false 
 views of security, refused to listen to the 
 Divine message, should have theirsecurity 
 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 ani- 
 mam, id est vitam, non rectam, sed dis- 
 tortam, anxiam, miseram, et infelicem; 
 justus autem in fide et spe sua agit vitam 
 rectam, puta letam, quietam, sanctam et 
 felicem.” 43, iz, or within him, is added 
 to show that the verb > is not to be 
 taken here as referring to any thing of 
 an objective character, such as the Divine 
 estimation, agreeably to the meaning of 
 the phrase Tm *py2 Wh, 70 Le 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 constructions, 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 Hebrew, 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, ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ 
 ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ. ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πιστεώς 
 μου ζήσεται. ‘lo such rendering, its 
 quotation by Paul in Heb. x. 38 gives 
 no sanction, since he not unfrequently 
 quotes passages from that version, con- 
 taining renderings to which there never 
 could have been anything corresponding 
 in the Hebrew 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 μου after πίστις. Nor, it must 
 further be observed, is it his intention 
 either here, or in Rom. i. 17, and Gal. 
 il. 11, in employing the words, ὁ δίκαιος 
 ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται, to maintain, that the 
 doctrine of justification by faith in Christ 
 is taught by Habakkuk; he merely 
 applies the principle laid down by the 
 prophet, respecting the instrumentality 
 of faith in securing the safety and happi- 
 ness of the pious portion of the Jewish 
 people, to the subject of which he is 
 treating—the influence of faith in the 
 gospel scheme of salvation. As ΡΞ is 
 
804 
 
 5 Moreover wince is treacherous ; 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 (CHAP. IT. 
 
 The haughty man stayeth not at home, 
 Because he enlargeth his desire as Sheol; 
 He is even as death, and cannot be satisfied ; 
 He gathereth for himself all the nations, 
 And collecteth for himself all the people. 
 
 6 Shall not all these utter an ode against him, 
 
 the nominative absolute, 1n2%2~3 cannot 
 be connected with it, except in regard to 
 the pronominal reference, but. must be 
 joined with ™M, as for the righteous, he 
 shall live by his faith. From the circum- 
 stance, however, that the two former 
 words are, in most MSS. and editions, 
 joined by the accents Merca and Tiphea, 
 while the latter, 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 quota- 
 tion, Rom. i. 17, Gal. iii. 11, the Apostle 
 connects ἐκ πίστεως with ὁ δίκαιος, and 
 not with ζήσεται ; but as quoted by him, 
 Heb. x. 38, the former division of the 
 words alone suits the connexion, in 
 which his object evidently is to show the 
 necessity of faith as a means of per- 
 severance under all the afflictions and 
 persecutions of the Christian life. See 
 Owen on the passage. 
 
 5. The two first lines of this verse 
 partake of the nature of a proverb, being 
 expressed in a short and pithy manner, 
 and admitting of general application. It 
 is, however, obvious from the connexion 
 with what follows, that they are in- 
 troduced with special reference to the 
 Chaldzan power, the nefarious conduct 
 of which the prophet immediately pro- 
 ceeds to describe. The phrase 7252 727, 
 wine is a deceiver, has its parallel, Prov. 
 XX. 1, 27 Y), wine is amocker. VT occurs 
 only here, and Prov. xxi. 24, where, from 
 its connexion with 1, proud, as its syno- 
 nyme, it clearly signifies elated, haughty. 
 LXX. ἀλαζών. Chald. 1, as used by 
 the Rabbins, swperbivit. See Buxt. ix 
 voc. Thus also in the Nazaraan Syr. 
 
 Υ 
 sora, Ethpa.swperivit. There is, there- 
 
 fore, no necessity for recurring to the 
 Arab., the attempted derivations from 
 
 which are very precarious. The in- 
 troductory particles 3 8) are designed 
 to connect the proper propheey with 
 what had just been developed of the 
 vision, as that which formed the most 
 important part of it. ἫΝ is expressive of 
 addition, and °2 of certainty. That the 
 prophet had 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 que ebrietatem 
 sequuntur effusi sunt;” Curtius, v. 1. 
 How strikingly was the deceptive cha- 
 racter of wine exemplified in the case of 
 Belshazzar! 73, primarily signifies to 
 dwell, remain at rest, which signification 
 better suits the present passage than the 
 secondary one of being decorous, proper, 
 &¢e., adopted by the Vulg., Ewald, and 
 some others. Still it isa question, whether 
 the not remaining tranquil is to be viewed 
 as a voluntary or as an involuntary act. 
 The Targ., Rashi, Kimchi, Ben-Melec, 
 De Wette, Justi, Maurer, and Delitzsch, 
 refer it to the forcible ejection of 
 the Babylonians: Abenezra, Abarbanel, 
 Rosenmiiller, Wolff, Wahl, Gesenius, and 
 Hitzig, to their restless disposition, by 
 which they were continually impelled to 
 go forth upon new expeditions for con- 
 quest. The latter seems, from what 
 follows, to be the preferable interpreta- 
 tion. For 15) Siwd> 247, see on Is. 
 v. 14, and comp. Prov. xxvil. 20; xxx. 
 15,16. The insatiable desireof conquest, 
 which specially showed itself in the reign 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, is here forcibly pre- 
 dicted. ov: >2 and OMT > must be 
 restricted to all the nations with which 
 the Jews were familiar. 
 
 6. Comp. Is. xiv. 4, and see my notes 
 on 70 as there occurring. 73°72 occurs 
 only here, and Prov. i. 6, in which verse 
 also all the three synonymes °W2, 73°79, 
 
CHAP. 11.} 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 305 
 
 Even 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! 
 
 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. 
 
 and 777 are found. It properly signifies 
 derision, taunt, scorn, from ¥1, to stammer, 
 speak barbarously or unintelligibly ; hence 
 to mock, deride ; and thus the substantive 
 obtained the acceptation, aunt, taunting 
 song. LXX., (in Prov.) σκοτεινὸν λόγον, 
 here πρόβλημα. In later Hebrew, the 
 word is used to denote poetry in general. 
 mT means oratio inflexa, perplexa; an 
 enigma ; highly figurative and difficult lan- 
 guage, requiring acuteness and ingenuity 
 fully to understand it. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 Olas Sy> superavit negotii dificultatem. 
 
 Delitzsch not unaptly instances the words 
 wry, ver. 6, P23, ver. 7, and γ 7 ἢ, ver. 
 16, as enigmata of this description. The 
 derisive ode or song commences im- 
 mediately, and occupies the rest of the 
 chapter. It consists of five stanzas, 
 composed of three verses each. Every 
 stanza has its distinct and appropriate 
 subject ; and, with the exception of the 
 last, they all commence with ‘7, zo, the 
 denunciative interjection ; and have each 
 a verse at the close, beginning with 5; 
 thus forming an organic whole of singular 
 force and beauty. ὍΝ is to be taken 
 impersonally or collectively. wa has 
 beenvariously interpreted. Several of the 
 Rabbins, the Syr., Vulg., and after them 
 Luther, andother translators, take it to be 
 compounded of Ἀν, dense, and ™», clay, 
 which ten of Kennicott’s MSS. read as 
 two words, and most commentators 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 iY, fo exchange, 
 give a pledge; in Hiph., to lend on a 
 pledge. The signification of the noun 
 is thus correctly given by Lee: “az 
 accumulation of pledges in the hand of 
 an unfeeling usurer.” The form is that 
 
 of 75? as in 997 from 527; Y122 or W3 
 from 722 ; 7D from 2D; MEY from Bw. 
 The reduplication expresses intensity or 
 augmentation. Maurer, “copia pigno- 
 rum captorum,” an interpretation 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 accumulated the property 
 of others, and from whom it would again 
 be taken. Comp. Deut. xxiv. 10—13, 
 for the use of 02¥, and the law against 
 cruelty in usurers. The hypothesis of 
 Delitzsch, that 22 is, as an enigmatical 
 term, to be understood both as a com- 
 pound, and as a quadriliteral, is not in 
 keeping with his usual good sense. 
 
 7. 208, suddenly, corresponds to ‘M277, 
 how long? in the preceding verse, and 
 not improbably refers to the unexpected- 
 ness of the attack made upon Babylon 
 by the Medes and Persians. See on Is. 
 xxi. 3, 4. 7) properly signifies fo dite, and 
 thus it is rendered in most versions. Some 
 translate, oppress ; but, since it likewise 
 signifies ¢o lend on usury, there can be 
 little doubt the prophet intended it to 
 be understood in this acceptation, as a 
 striking antithesis to Ὅταν at the close 
 of the preceding verse. Comp. the Aram. 
 
 v 
 12, aa, momordit, usuras exegit. Arab. 
 
 U7? the same. The like mode of 
 
 RR 
 
306 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 8 Because thou hast plundered many nations, 
 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. 
 
 1l 
 
 For the stone crieth out from the wall, 
 
 And the brick from the timber answereth it: 
 
 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. xvii. 28. 
 
 8. The remainder of the nations con- 
 sisted of those who had escaped the 
 devastation 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 
 metropolis. Y D2 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 Y¥3 YZ3a 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 transac- 
 tions with each other. Hence it came 
 to be applied, in a bad sense, to such as 
 were greedily occupied with such transac- 
 tious, and its derivative 53, to signify 
 wicked gain, lucre. ‘To mark it, in the 
 present instance, as specially atrocious, 
 D1, wicked, is added. 3, house, stands 
 here for the royal family ; yp, zes¢, 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 nizp, the infinitive of 
 m2, the ancient versions have read mixp, 
 the preterite of yz?. The infinitive may 
 
 either follow in construction PY. pre- 
 ceding, or the following xan. I have 
 adopted the latter, and rendered it parti- 
 cipially. It properly denotes the direct 
 aim of the action predicated by the pre- 
 ceding finite verb. For the last clause, 
 comp. Prov. vil. 86; xx. 2. 
 
 11. An exquisite instance of bold and 
 daring personification, by which the 
 materials, 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 sub- 
 servient to the scenes of wickedness that 
 were enacted in their presence. Comp. 
 Luke xix. 40. The Targ. adds to the 
 first line, 72 D387 5Y, because violence has 
 been done to it. ὉῈΞ occurs only here, 
 but from the signification of the cognate 
 
 v 
 
 Syr. mas, conneruit, it has been sup- 
 
 posed to mean the cross beam by which 
 the walls of a building are held together. 
 Thus Symm., Theod., and the 5th version, 
 σύνδεσμος ; LXX. κάνθαρος, scarabeus ; 
 but which some think was originally καν- 
 θήριον, which Vitruvius explains as 
 
 signifying a cross beam. Arab. Sy) 
 Sa ys 
 According to the Mishnah, the word 
 signifies α half brick, which Parchon 
 also gives as the meaning. He thus 
 describes it; W292 PY OrDP 029) 5 DD 
 DPI OFA OI OW 33, small bricks pre- 
 pared in the kiln, like pottery, and used 
 
 , the pin from the wood. 
 
CHAP. II.] | 
 
 12 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 307 
 
 Wo to him that buildeth a town through bloodshed, 
 
 And establisheth a city through injustice. 
 
 13 
 
 Behold! is it not from Jehovah of hosts ? 
 
 So that the people shall labour for the very fire ; 
 Yea, the nations shall weary themselves for mere vanity. 
 
 14 For the earth shall be filled 
 
 With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, 
 
 As the waters cover the sea. 
 15 
 
 Wo to him that giveth drink to his neighbour, 
 
 Pouring out thy wrath, and making him drunk ; 
 In order to look upon their nakedness. 
 
 in building edifices. This interpretation 
 is confirmed by the rendering of Aquila, 
 μάζα, 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 explains 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 YP, from or out of the wood, 
 except we take the preposition as in- 
 dicating the material of which the beam 
 consisted. In this latter case, the words 
 should be rendered, And the wooden 
 beam answereth it; but against such 
 construction the parallel V7, 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 
 enlarge the royal city, were procured in 
 the bloody wars in which he had 
 engaged; and the works themselves 
 were carried up by people from different 
 parts of the empire, and by captives 
 from other nations. ‘The preposition }2 
 prefixed in 7™ nx, points out the ulti- 
 mate cause of the destruction of the 
 Babylonian empire—the overruling pro- 
 vidence of God, who, in order to give 
 prominence to his resistless omnipotence, 
 is designated Mixiz i, Jehovah of hosts. 
 For this epithet, see on Is. i. 9. 72 is 
 not a poetic form for 3, but is intensive, 
 1, signifying sufficiency, abundance. The 
 preposition here points out the final issue 
 or result of the labour and fatigue con- 
 
 nected with the erections in question, 
 the conflagration and depopulation of 
 the city of Babylon. The last two 
 lines of ver. 13 are found in Jer. li. 58; 
 only tx and ~ have exchanged places, 
 ΒΨ stands for ©, and the defective 
 form 32) for 922). For the destruction 
 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 ii. 10, applies the pro- 
 phecy 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. 0%, sea, is used for the bed of the 
 sed. 
 
 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- ἡ 
 gate manners of the Babylonian court, 
 yet the language is not to be taken 
 literally, as if the prophet were describing 
 such manners, but, as the sequel shows, is 
 applied allegorically to the state of stupe- 
 faction, prostration, and exposure, to 
 which the conquered nations were reduced 
 by the Chaldeans. See on Is. li. 17, 20; 
 and comp. Ps. Ixxv. 8; Jer. xxv. 15—28; 
 xlix. 12; li. 7; Ezek. xxiii. 31,32; Rev. 
 xiv. 10; xvi. 6; xviii. 6. 7177 isacollective, 
 and thus is equivalent to #7) in the 
 
808 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 16 Thou art filled with shame, not with glory; 
 Drink thou also, and show thyself uncircumcised ; 
 The cup of Jehovah’s right hand shall come round to thee, 
 And great ignominy shall be upon thy glory. 
 17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, 
 As the destruction of beasts terrifieth them ; 
 
 plural, which is required to agree with 
 the suffix in oF Yn. The latter noun 
 
 is derived from Ὃν, Arab. je to be 
 
 naked, as its synonyme HY is from 
 my. In FMT is a change from the 
 third person to the second, for the 
 sake of effect. There not being any- 
 thing in the ancient Greek versions cor- 
 responding to the 4, is no ground for 
 its δ ἀν oe since their authors fre- 
 quently took liberties even when pro- 
 fessedly most verbal. mom is not the 
 construct of M97 or non, dottle, but of 
 mM, heat, or wrath. Comp. 972 DN), 
 Is. Ixiii. 6, and li. 17; Jer. xxv. 15; 
 Rev. xvi. 19. Delitzsch attempts in vain 
 to set aside the signification of pour, as 
 
 inhering in the root m2; Arab. αὐ 
 
 “Tr? 3 
 
 efudit. Cognate ἼΞῶ. Targ. AB. De 
 is the infinitive used instead of the 
 participle. The language of the con- 
 cluding clause of the verse is expressive 
 of the deepest humiliation on the one 
 hand, and of the most haughty wanton- 
 ness on the other. 
 
 16. The preposition in 7239 is nega- 
 tive, as in 21) νὰ Hany, Ps. 1. 5. The 
 full force of the hemistich is, “Thou art 
 satiated, but it is with shame, not with 
 glory.” Kimchi and others, comparing 
 mp7 ΟἾΞ, Is. li. 17, and oy AD, Zech. 
 ΧΙ. 2, suppose that in “WH, de thou 
 uncircumcised, there is a transposition 
 of the letters » and >, and that the verb 
 has originally been 5v77, reel or stagger. 
 And thus the LXX. (καρδία σαλεύϑητι 
 kat σείσθητι) have interpreted it, and 
 have been followed by the Arab., Syr., 
 and Vulg. There is, however, such a 
 manifest agreement with OID, nadenda 
 eorum, at the close of the preceding 
 verse, that the interpretation cannot be 
 admitted. In the mouth of a Hebrew 
 no term could have expressed more in- 
 effable contempt. Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 36. 
 
 As the Chaldeans had treated the nations 
 which they conquered in the most dis- 
 gusting 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. 
 rion is the future in Niphal, and conveys 
 the idea of the cup of suffering being 
 transferred from one nation to another, 
 each, in its turn, being made to drink of 
 it. Comp. Jer. xxv. 26; Lam. iv. 21. 
 WP, the Vul. renders, vomitus ignominia, 
 as if compounded of Ὑ for Ν᾿, vomit, and 
 ἡ, shame. In nine MSS. it is read as 
 two words, and this etymology is ap- 
 proved by most Jewish and Christian 
 interpreters. It is, however, more in 
 accordance with the genius of the 
 Hebrew language, to regard it as a re- 
 duplicate form of 792, employed for the 
 sake of intensity, after the form Ὁ} : 
 only instead of 71729? we have the softer 
 
 fy. Comp. the Syr. iy 
 
 Thus the LXX. dria; Syr. lids ; 
 
 for O°S>%, 
 
 Targ. 8297. The glory of the Babylonians 
 was to be completely eclipsed by the 
 deep disgrace in which they should be 
 involved. 
 
 17. 232 DoT and YINDNN are genitives 
 of object. That Lebanon is not here to 
 be understood literally, but figuratively, 
 of Jerusalem, seems fully established by 
 the prophetic style in other passages, 
 especially Jer. xxii. 23; Ezek. xvii. 
 3, 12. The aptness of the figure con- 
 sists partly in the circumstance, that 
 cedars from that mountain were em- 
 ployed 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 stateliness and 
 grandeur as the metropolis. Against 
 this interpretation, the objections do 
 not apply which Delitzsch makes to 
 the opinion of those who maintain that 
 
CHAP, 11. 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 309 
 
 Because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the earth, 
 To the city, and all that dwell in it. 
 
 18 
 
 What profiteth the graven image which its maker graveth, 
 
 The molten image, and the teacher of falsehood ? 
 In which the maker of his work trusteth— 
 
 Making dumb idols. 
 19 
 Wake up! to the dumb stone. 
 It teach! There it is, 
 Overlaid with gold and silver, 
 
 Wo to him that saith to the wood, Awake! 
 
 But there is no breath at all within it. 
 20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple ; 
 
 by Lebanon the land of Palestine is 
 meant. 52, ¢o 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) in ὙῚ 
 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: 79 2»? DIN 
 
 AY ay A122, Man is born to trouble, 
 AND (as) birds of prey fly aloft, Job v. 7. 
 52 OY? FM yA py Wk, Hor the ear 
 trieth words, AND (as) the palate tasteth 
 Sood, xxxiv. 3. This construction entirely 
 obviates the difficulty which necessarily 
 attaches to the attempts that have been 
 made to interpret the nin73, deasts, 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. nnn, 
 signifies to be broken, broken in pieces, 
 destroyed, confounded, terrified. In the 
 present form ἡ), the Yod 1s substituted 
 for the Dagesh in the regular form jAM, 
 as 9207 for Fond, Is. xxxiii. 1. The 
 Nun appended is not paragogic, but the 
 verbal suffix of the third feminine plural, 
 agreeing with ninga, There is no suf- 
 ficient ground for changing ]} into 7, 
 though the authors of some of the ancient 
 versions may have thus read. For the 
 last clause, see on ver. 8. bs 
 
 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 ‘in, 
 wo, that a transposition has here taken 
 ae and that the nineteenth ought to 
 
 e 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 connexion with what the prophet 
 had just announced respecting the down- 
 fal of Babylon, before delivering his de- 
 nunciation against their worshippers 
 themselves. °3,in both instances, is used 
 as a relative pronoun, as in Gen. iii. 19; 
 iv. 25; Is. lvii. 20. The idol is called 
 “ἃ teacher of falsehood,” on account of 
 the lying oracles that were connected 
 with its worship. For these verses, 
 compare Is. xliv. 9—20; Jer. x. In 
 the latter part of the nineteenth verse, 
 the language is highly and pointedly 
 ironical. MN, 72¢ teach? is an em- 
 phatic form of putting a question which 
 requires a negative reply. 7 forms a 
 paronomasia with 2 in the preceding 
 verse. 17 7325, there 1186. Such is the 
 force of the interjection 737 in this place 
 —not being followed as usual by the 
 accusative, ‘hut for the sake of making 
 the idol more prominent, by the nomi- 
 native 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 
 
810 HABAKKUK. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Keep silence before him all the earth. 
 
 celestial temple, whence he is ever ready Comp. Is. xxvi. 21. Such a God it 
 to interpose his omnipotence for the de- becomes all to adore in solemn and pro- 
 liverance and protection of his people, found silence. Ps. Ixxvi. 8, 9; Zeph. 
 and the destruction of their enemies. i. 7; Zech. ii. 13. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Though forming a distinct whole, this chapter is intimately connected with the two 
 preceding, the subjects contained in which it presupposes, and is evidently de- 
 signed 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 introduction, 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 uncer- 
 tainty of imaginary interpretation. But the principal point of disagreement 
 relates to the theophania, or Divine interposition, so sublimely set forth, ver. 3— 
 15. According to the Targum, Abarbanel, Abenezra, Tarnovius, Munster, 
 Clarius, Drusius, Schnurrer, Herder, Michaelis, Green, Lowth, Tingstadius, Hich- 
 horn, Justi, Hesselberg, Ackermann, and Ewald, the prophet adverts to the won- 
 derful displays of the power and majesty of God during the early history of the 
 Hebrews. Maurer, Hitzig, and Delitzsch, on the other hand, contend that the 
 future interposition of Jehovah for the destruction of the Chaldeans, is what he 
 exclusively contemplates. 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 ingenuity in his attempt to establish his 
 hypothesis. Taking for granted that Niz, 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 organic structure of the 
 ode; from the connexion of προ and 329m), ver. 16; and from certain features 
 of the picture itself, that what he calls the lyric-prophetical view is alone to be 
 admitted. I must, however, confess, that after a careful examination of his 
 arguments, 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 regular and specific recital of distinct facts is exhibited in the 
 tableau, cannot fairly be urged against this interpretation, since such a recital 
 
CHAP. III. | HABAKKUK. Sik 
 
 would ill accord with the enthusiasm 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 sup- 
 plied by familiar acquaintance with the sacred national records. What he aims at 
 is to produce a powerful impression, by condensing, within the shortest possible 
 limits, a view of the magualia 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. v. 4,5; 
 Ps. Ixviii. 7, 8; Ixxvii. 13—20; exiv.; Is. Ixiii, 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. Ixxvii., 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 just: “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 colours, and embellishing 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 perfect 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 inscrip- 
 tion and the subscription, as well as from the musical term 730, Se/ah, occurring 
 verses 3, 9, 13. 
 
 The chapter begins with the title and introduction, ver. 1, 2. Habakkuk then 
 represents Jehovah as appearing in glorious majesty on Sinai, 8, 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 bebalf of his people, 12—15. The prophet concludes by resuming the 
 subject of the introduction, 16; and strongly asserting his unshaken confidence in 
 God in the midst of the anticipated calamity, 17—19. 
 
 ἃ 
 
312 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 (CHAP. III. 
 
 1 <A PRAYER of Habakkuk, the prophet: with triumphal music. 
 2 O Jehovah! I heard the report of thee ; I was afraid : 
 O Jehovah! revive thy work in the midst of the years ; 
 
 1. mn, usually rendered prayer, com- 
 prebends all kinds of devotional com- 
 position, whether abounding in petitions, 
 supplications, &c., or not. Hence it is 
 applied to all the Psalms of David 
 collectively, Ps. Ixxii. 20; and is other- 
 wise only used in the imscriptions of 
 Psalms xvil., Ixxxvi., ΧΟ.) cii., exlii. The 
 term is derived from 22, ¢o separate, 
 distinguish ; cognate to 722; and so fo 
 form an opinion or judgment, to judge, 
 give a verdict. In Hithpael the verb 
 signifies to apply to a judge for a favour- 
 able decision, to supplicate, pray, ὅτ. ; 
 and is employed at the commencement 
 of the song of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 1. 
 Though the only precatory sentences 
 are those contained in ver. 2, yet there 
 are several instances of direct address 
 to God, which impart to the ode one of 
 the characteristic features of prayer. 
 The Lamed prefixed in 727) is that 
 of authorship. ni*2%v. That this is a 
 musical term seems beyond dispute, 
 from similar terms occurring in the 
 titles of the Psalms, such as Mn31Y, 
 pox mar by, &c. For the explanation of 
 the noun, which only occurs here, and 
 in the singular }72%, in the title of Ps. vii., 
 different. methods have been proposed. 
 Bauer, Herder, Perschke, De Wette, 
 Rosenmiiller, Lee, Hitzig, and Maurer, 
 
 . δε 
 have recourse to the Arabic gee 
 
 anxius, tristis, mestus fuit, and render 
 miF2wY, after the manner of elegies, but 
 there seems no reason deducible either 
 from the present ode or from the Psalm, 
 why they should be thus characterised, 
 or why they should be sung to a plaintive 
 tune, but the contrary. Others, as Wahl, 
 Justi, Gesenius, derive the word from 
 
 the Syriac he in Pael, MWD, cecinit, 
 
 ~ 
 am, carmen, cantus, to 
 
 SS 
 which it has justly been objected, that 
 it is too vague and indefinite to admit of 
 adoption. The LXX., indeed, have 
 ψαλμὸς in the Psalm, and here ὠδὴ ; 
 
 whence ne 
 
 but without any apparent reference to 
 the specific meaning of the term. Other 
 philologists more reasonably content 
 themselves with 723, an indigenous 
 Hebrew verb in common use, signifying 
 to err, wander, reel, &c. This inter- 
 pretation Aquila, Symm., and the fifth 
 Greek version so far support, rendering, 
 ἐπὶ ἀγνοημάτων, which Jerome adopts, 
 on the principle that 720 signifies to siz 
 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 or crimes of the 
 Chaldeans are intended. There is nothing 
 either in the Psalm, or in the song of 
 Habakkuk, to warrant the appropriation 
 of any such signification of the term. 
 The most probable explanation is that 
 given by Delitzsch, who is of opinion 
 that 73 means a dithyrambos, or cantio 
 erratica, a species of rhythmical composi- 
 tion, which, from its enthusiastic irregu- 
 larity, is admirably adapted for songs of 
 victory or triumph. It is obvious, how- 
 ever, from the established use of the pre- 
 position ὅν, upon, after the manner of, or 
 accompanied with, in the titles of the 
 Psalms, that the plural ‘320, to which, 
 in like manner, it is here prefixed, must 
 be understood as describing a correspond- 
 ing kind of music with which the ode 
 was to be accompanied. The translation 
 of Theodotion, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἑκουσιασμῶν, 
 i.e. as Jerome interprets the words, pro 
 voluntariis, has, in all probability, some 
 such reference. 
 
 2. The ὑοῦ, 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 threat- 
 ened 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 given 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 
 
CHAP. Π1.} 
 
 HABAKKUK., 
 
 313 
 
 In the midst of the years make it known : 
 
 In wrath remember mercy. 
 8. God came from Teman ; 
 
 Even the Holy One from Mount Paran: Pause. 
 
 of which he declares he was conscious. 
 His prayer also, that while punishment 
 was bictig 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 prediction chap. i. 6—11. 
 The fear with which the prophet was 
 seized, he particularly describes ver. 16. 
 By 7 vB, thy work, Abarbanel, Kimehi, 
 Schnurrer, Justi, and some _ others, 
 understand the Jews, on the ground 
 that they are designated the %%2, work 
 of Jehovah’s hands, Is. xlv. 11; but the 
 simple occurrence of the same word, 
 irrespective of the specific claims of the 
 connexion, 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, 
 }xiv. 10. This latter sense, which involves 
 the exercise of the power and goodness 
 of God on behalf of his people, alone 
 suits the present context. Comp. Ps. 
 xe. 16. What the prophet prays for, 
 is the renewal of such interposition. 
 This he expresses by the strong term 
 mr, quicken, restore to life, which sug- 
 gests the idea of a long 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: xD wn 
 THT AD IPI Iwo Ww) Ye] ANT PONT 
 WPM wy WD wT ΠῚ OMNw UNV, 
 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, 1. 6. rouse it up, cause it to return. 
 Comp. Is. li. 9, 10. No stress is to be 
 laid on the phrase O28 2973, ἐμ the midst 
 of the years, from which Bengel deduced 
 so much fanciful support to his chrono- 
 logical calculations; maintaining that 
 the middle point of the years of the 
 worldis meant. The 0°2% are unquestion- 
 ably the years, or period of affliction, 
 
 which was to come upon the Jewish 
 people. 23923 is not to be taken in the 
 strict acceptation of the middle point of 
 any given period of time, but is, as 
 frequently, only a more emphatic pre- 
 positive form, instead of 3, iz. 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. 
 ἐντὸς τῶν ἐνιαυτῶν. To give pathos to 
 the language, the phrase is repeated ; 
 and yin is added, as synonymous with 
 wn, the suffix of which is to be under- 
 stood, though not expressed. The verb 
 Ὁ, to know, is here used in the sense 
 of experiencing, knowing by experience. 
 om, the infinitive, is to be regarded 
 as an accusative. Comp. Ps. xxv. 6: 
 mT OPA 5 spIOM mM spam. It 15 
 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 
 different readings, some of them probably 
 marginal glosses, and that it would be 
 most unwarrantable to attempt any 
 eorrection of the Hebrew text by it: 
 Κύριε, εἰσακήκοα τὴν ἀκοήν σου, Kai 
 ἐφοβήθην. κατενόησα τὰ ἔργα σου, καὶ 
 ἐξέστην" ἐν μέσῳ δύο ζώων γνωσθήσῃ, 
 ἐν τῷ ἐγγίζειν τὰ ἔτη ἐπιγνωσθήσῃ᾽ ἐν 
 τῷ παρεῖναι τὸν καιρὸν ἀναδειχθήσῃ, ἐν 
 τῷ ταραχθῆναι τὴν Ψυχήν μου, ἐν ὀργῇ 
 ἐλέους μνησθήσῃ. 
 
 3. ΠΝ 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 what- 
 ever for the position assumed by Gesenius 
 and some others, that this use of the 
 singular belongs 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 com- 
 position extant, and twice by Moses, 
 Deut. xxxii. wi, Holy, which is here 
 
 BS 
 
914 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 His splendour covered the heavens, 
 And the earth was full of his praise. 
 
 parallel to 458, 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, oD, Prov. 
 ix. 10; xxx. 3; Hos. xii. 1. Delitzsch 
 contends, that, as 812 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 absolutely at 
 the commencement of a sentence or 
 paragraph, yet clearly indicating a past 
 transaction. Thus Num. xxii. 7, 872 
 p22; Jud. ii, 1, Oye ONY TDN; 
 2 Sam. ii. 33, 28 nv, 232 M027; Job 
 iii. 3, 12 Tax DY TaN’; Ps, Ixxx. 9, DN yD 
 yon. The idiom, in these and similar 
 cases, is sufficiently accounted for on 
 the principle that the speaker places 
 himself, in imagination, anterior to the 
 action expressed 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 
 deliverance from which that mercy was 
 signally displayed ; and assuming that 
 as his point of observation, he proceeds 
 at once to describe the Theophania as 
 future 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 parti- 
 cle, had preceded it. pom, Zeman, the 
 LXX. retain as a proper name: the 
 Targ., Syr., Theod., Vulg., and many 
 modern versions read, ¢he south. The 
 word is dopbtless to be taken as desig- 
 nating the country to the south of Judea, 
 and east of Idumea, in which latter 
 country Mount Paran (7x27) was 
 situated. Some, indeed, have endeavoured 
 to identify this mountain with Sinai, on 
 
 the ground that wl usely Wady 
 
 Pheiran, which extends north-west from 
 Sinai, is the same as [ND 127, Zhe desert 
 of Paran, mentioned in Scripture. But 
 although thisdesert 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 connexion with Kadesh and Beer- 
 sheba, that the wilderness of that name 
 extended to the southern confines of 
 Palestine, including the mountainous 
 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 Midian 
 and Egypt. From Sinai occurring along 
 with Seir and Paran, Deut. xxxii. 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 Smai, which 
 they notice, is not of material 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 feelings 
 of the most exalted devotion.—720, Selah. 
 This word, which occurs thrice in this 
 ode, and seventy-three times in the 
 Psalms, has been variously interpreted. 
 That it is a musical sign 15 now almost 
 universally admitted. It is found at the 
 end of certain sections, or strophes, and 
 always at the close of a verse, except 
 Hab. iii. ὃ, 9; Ps. lv. 20; lvl. 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 traditionary 
 interpretation, is that of the Targ. p22? ; 
 Aq. ἀεί; Symm., sometimes, eis τὸν αἰῶνα; 
 Theod., sometimes, εἰς réAos; the fifth 
 Greek version, διαπαντός; but Symm. and 
 Theod. most commonly coincide with 
 the LXX., who uniformly render, διά- 
 ψαλμα. This last translation is de- 
 cidedly entitled to the preference, in 
 so far as it confines the idea to the 
 music, though the exact meaning even 
 of this Greek term has been matter of 
 dispute. Suidas, however, seems to come 
 nearest to the mark, when he gives as 
 its meaning μέλους ἐναλλαγή, a change 
 
CHAP. 111. 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 315, 
 
 4 For the brightness was like that of the sun ; 
 Rays streamed from his hand: 
 Yet the concealment of his glory was there. 
 
 of the modulation, and with him Hesy- 
 chius agrees, explaining it by μέλους 
 διαλλαγή. The hypothesis that 730 is 
 merely an abbreviation, consisting of 
 the initial letters of three Hebrew words, 
 is altogether gratuitous, there not being 
 the least shadow of evidence that the 
 Jews, in ancient times, ever employed 
 abbreviations. Pfeiffer, in his work, Die 
 Musik der Alten Hebr. p. 17, proposes 
 
 to explain the term by the Arab. hs, 
 
 membrum, or section; Prof. Lee, by 
 
 isle, ὅλ, which he renders, Dez invo- 
 
 eatio,and derives from UY Lo, he blessed ; 
 
 but neither of these derivations will suit 
 all the passages in which it occurs. 
 Indeed, d/ess / or praise / would come 
 in most incongruously in such con- 
 nexions as Ps. vii. 5; xxxix. 5, 11; 11]. 8. 
 Of the two Hebrew roots to which the 
 word has been referred, 70, ¢o raise, 
 elevate, and 720, which, besides signify- 
 ing fo raise, has been supposed to be 
 equivalent to 2%, fo rest, pause, the 
 latter, on the whole, seems to deserve 
 the preference. There are several in- 
 stances in which the letter © has been 
 softened into Ὁ, as in FT and ym; Ww 
 and 72D; just as, in most cases, we find 
 
 it expressed in Arabic by _ yw. This 
 
 derivation, in which Gesenius finally 
 acquiesced, has been approved of by 
 Delitzsch and Hengstenberg. The term 
 may be regarded as a substantive, sig- 
 nifying silence or pause ; designed, in all 
 probability, to command a cessation of 
 the song or chant, while the instruments 
 either repeated what had just been 
 played, or introduced an interlude be- 
 tween the parts. At the end of a psalm 
 it may have been intended to prevent 
 a repetition on the part of the singers, 
 while the instrumental music continued. 
 Having, by a solemn pause, prepared 
 the mind for the contemplation of the 
 manifested glory of Jehovah, the prophet 
 proceeds to describe this glory in the 
 most sublime and magnificent language. 
 
 By 377 is never meant splendour or 
 brightness, as the Targ., Kimehi, and 
 Hitzig interpret; nor does it here express 
 the actual praises of the inhabitants of 
 the earth produced by the effulgence of 
 Deity, for the effect of this effulgence is 
 described, ver. 6, to be fear and trem- 
 bling; but matter of praise, or the glory 
 which was calculated to call forth uni- 
 versal adoration. 
 
 4. By ὖν we are not here to under- 
 stand /ight simply, but the swz as the 
 source of light, Comp. Job xxxi. 26 ; 
 xxxvii. 21. The Kametz of the article 
 in > renders the noun more definite. 
 mam, which Heidenheim would connect 
 with J.87, and Hitzig with in37A, in the 
 preceding verse, can have no other 
 nominative than 723, which, like other 
 substantives in the Oriental languages, 
 expressive of fire or light, is conceived 
 to be of the feminine gender, or it may 
 be regarded as neuter in signification, 
 and so taking the feminine of the verb. 
 That by O27, horns, we are here to 
 understand rays, is obvious from the 
 connexion ; from the comparison of the 
 rising sun scattering his rays upon the 
 earth to the gazelle, Ps. xxi. 1; and 
 from its being common with the Arabs 
 to compare them to the horns of that 
 
 animal. Thus the Arab. wy” cornu 
 
 animalis, latus vel superior pars solis, pri- 
 mi radii solis. Kamoos and Djauhari. 
 Hence, the verb 722 signifies to emit rays, 
 Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30, 35. Though in the 
 dual, the noun, like others of that 
 number which describe objects naturally 
 existing in pairs, is here expressive of 
 the plural. Comp. 092 vinx, Lev. xi. 23; 
 mw wo, 1 Sam. ii. 138; ὈΣΞἼ3 3, Ezek. 
 xxi. 12; my my28, Zech. 111. 9; and see 
 my note on Is. vi. 2. The phrase 179, 
 Jrom his hand, is equivalent to 122, from 
 him ; and a verb of flowing, streaming, 
 or the like, must be supplied. 1 is the 
 dative of possession. OY, there, refers 
 to the scene of splendour just described, 
 which, though so excessively bright, 
 instead of exhibiting the Divine glory, 
 
816 
 
 5 Before him went the plague ; 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 And the burning pestilence followed him. 
 
 6 He stood, and made the earth to tremble ; 
 He looked, and caused the nations to shake ; 
 Yea, the old mountains were shattered in pieces, 
 The ancient hills sank down— 
 
 His ancient ways. 
 
 only veiled or concealed it. Comp. Ps. 
 civ. 2. The LXX., Syr, Aq. and 
 Symm., have read 00, and he put, in- 
 stead of 0%), and there, and are followed 
 by Hitzig and Maurer, but this render- 
 ing is less apt. ἷ in such connexion 
 denotes majesty or glory rather than 
 power. Comp. Ps. exxxii. 8; Ixxviil. 61. 
 For mY many MSS. read ‘sy, the regular 
 affix. Whether the substratum of the 
 vivid representation here furnished of 
 the glorious majesty of Jehovah be the 
 symbol of the Divine presence exhibited 
 upon Mount Sinai, Exod. xxiv. 17, or 
 the Shekinah which accompanied the 
 Hebrews through the desert, chap. xvi. 
 7, 10; Lev. ix. 23; Exod. xl. 35, &e., 
 cannot be determined. See on ver. 3. 
 5. Ft, from νι, to inflame, has two 
 leading significations, that of /ightning, or 
 flame, and that of hot, or burning fever. 
 The latter is required in the present 
 case to correspond to 123, plague, in the 
 preceding hemistich: a circumstance 
 which forbids the adoption of the pre- 
 carious rendering, dirds of prey, though 
 supported by the Syr., Δ4., Symm., 
 Theod., the fifth Greek version, Michae- 
 lis, Schnurrer, Herder, Kofod, Dahl, Ro- 
 senmiiller, and others ; as well as that of 
 lightning, adopted by Kalinsky, Wahl, 
 Bauer, and others ; and durning coals, as 
 in our common version. Thus Kimchi: 
 WONT) 73} MIW Maa 2 Pry wT wd FW 
 TNO) NWOT TOM ee NTP TNT Aw 
 m7, ze. “FM corresponds to 727, the 
 same thing being expressed in different 
 words. The word has the same significa- 
 tion Deut. xxxii. 24, and denotes the 
 fever, which consists in a burning heat, 
 and speedily causes death.” The Vulg. 
 has, “Et egredietur diabolus ante pedes 
 ejus!*? 529) 88° or J, means to ¢rack or 
 Jollow any one. Here it is opposed to 
 1289, before him. What the prophet has 
 in view, would seem to be the plagues 
 
 with which the enemies of the Hebrews 
 were visited, of which we have an in- 
 stance 1 Sam. v. 9, 11. 
 
 6. To) Toy, forms an easy and elegant 
 paronomasia, and, at the same time, 
 exhibits one of the boldest, most abrupt, 
 and sublime turns to be found in sacred 
 poetry. While Jehovah is marching 
 forth for the deliverance of his people, 
 he stops all of a sudden in his progress, 
 the immediate effects of which are uni- 
 versal consternation and terror. Nature, 
 in her strongest and most ancient forma- 
 tions, is broken in pieces before him. The 
 inhabitants of the earth tremble at his 
 look. 775? may either be the Poel of 
 172, to measure, or the Pilel of 72, which, 
 
 like the Arab. Oe, signifies ¢o de agitated. 
 
 The latter derivation best suits the con- 
 nexion. LXX. ἐσαλεύθη ἡ γῆ. Targ. 
 
 RYN DIN, Arab. (94,3) Weczcy. Comp. 
 
 the cognate 6. Thus Gesenius, Lee, 
 Maurer, Ewald, Heidenheim, Hessel- 
 berg, Delitzsch. The primary idea con- 
 veyed by 102 is that of bounding, springing 
 up, as a person does when overtaken by 
 sudden fear. In 1282. we have all the 
 force of intensive verbs, heightened in 
 effect by the harsh sound of the redupli- 
 cated Tzade. 2 signifies fo break 
 or dash in pieces, and also fo scatter, 
 disperse. Kor WNT and dy ΠΡ, 
 comp. Gen. xlix. 26; Deut. xxxiii. 15. 
 5 ony nian, His ancient ways, L consider 
 to be epexegetical of the preceding ; and 
 ΓΤ is to be taken in the same sense as 
 D271 in the sentence 987277 ΠΝ Sn, 
 Job xl. 19, which describes the hippo- 
 potamus as “the first or principal of 
 the ways of God,” ὁ. e. his creative acts, 
 his works. The words may be resolved 
 into 19 Wx OY MD, or into WAY MDT. 
 The mountains which Jehovah had 
 created of old, and which had resisted 
 
CHAP. 111.] 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 317 
 
 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble; 
 The tent-curtains of the land of Midian trembled. 
 8 Was it against the rivers it burned, O Jehovah ? 
 Was thine anger against the rivers ? 
 Was thy wrath against the sea? 
 That thou didst ride upon thy horses, 
 
 In thy chariots of victory. 
 
 the revolutions of ages, were now shat- 
 tered in pieces, and dissipated like dust 
 before him. The irresistibility of his 
 power, and the utter imbecility of the 
 most formidable enemies of his people, 
 are the ideas conveyed by the language 
 of the prophet. 
 
 7. ὯΝ 009, “ander affliction,” is more 
 expressive than })83, “zz affliction,” as it 
 suggests the idea of a heavy load b 
 which those spoken of were oppressed. 
 ys, Cushan, is now generally admitted 
 to be the same as 3, Cush, as yo, 
 Lotan, Gen. xxxvi. 20, is only another form 
 of 2%, Lot ; but whether it be intended 
 to designate the African or the Arabian 
 Cush, is disputed. Gesenius, Maurer, 
 Delitzsch, and others, contend for the 
 former: but the connexion of the name 
 with that of }1, Midian, is decidedly 
 in favour of the latter. For ἃ. satis- 
 factory 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 Robin- 
 son’s Calmet, art. Cush. That any re- 
 ference to Cushan-rishathaim, Jud. iii. 
 10, is intended, does not appear. Midian 
 appears to have stretched from the east- 
 ern shores of the Elanitic Gulf to Mount 
 Sinai, and the frontiers of Moab. Edrisi 
 
 speaks of a town called οὐδ, 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 
 deserts. my, 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 Dk, 
 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 close of the verse—the safe and vic- 
 torious deliverance of the Israelites from 
 Egypt, and their introduction into Ca- 
 naan. M7 is in the vocative, and the 
 subject of the verb ΤῊ is EX, in the 
 second hemistich. 073, 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 flowing of the tide, which 
 is said to rise at Suez to about the height 
 of seven feet. On the miraculous 
 division of the sea, recorded Exod. xiv., 
 it was made to go or flow back the whole 
 night, ver. 21. For the application of 
 172 to the stream-tide of the Mediter- 
 ranean, see Jonah il. 4. That the rivers 
 of Cush should be intended, is altogether 
 out of the question. Specificaliy, how- 
 ever, to mark out the Red Sea, it is 
 afterwards expressly called & in the third 
 hemistich. Comp. as parallel with the 
 present verse, Exod. xv.; Ps. Ixxvil. 13 — 
 19; exiv.3,5. Jehovah is here, and inthe 
 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. δ, azger, and 72%, 
 wrath, are synonymes, only the latter is 
 the stronger of the two, signifying unre- 
 strained indignation; from 72¥, 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 
 
318 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 9 Naked and bared was thy bow, 
 “ Sevens of spears” was the word: Pause. 
 Thou didst cleave the earth into rivers. 
 
 metaphor adopted from military opera- 
 tions. In the phrase TY: yNI3y2, sup- 
 ply 52, wpon, before the former word, and 
 repeat M2279, chariots, before the latter. 
 Comp. for instances of similar construc- 
 tion, 27 Ἔν, 2 Sam. xxii. 33. 19 °DIM, 
 Ps. Ixxi. 7; 723 720, Ezek. xvi. 27.— 
 mys has, in such connexion, the specific 
 signification of victory, though the idea 
 of salvation or deliverance, as the result, 
 is not to be lost sight of. 
 
 9, The combination yn AMY, which 
 forms a paronomasia, determines the 
 signification of ὍΣ, as here employed, 
 to be that of being dare or naked, and 
 not that of rousing or exciting. For 
 though the Piel Y is used of the lifting 
 up of a spear, there would be no_pro- 
 priety in thus applying it to a bow: 
 whereas the substantive ™y, zakedness, 
 having just been employed, nothing was 
 more natural than to add "9, to be bared 
 —wv being thus cognate in signification 
 with τοῦ, from which ™y is derived, 
 and with WY. My is used adjectively, 
 as in My) Do A), Ezek. xvi. 7. WYN Is 
 not the second, but the third person 
 singular in Niphal, having for its no- 
 minative M7, which is of common 
 gender. Some of the moderns have 
 explained πῦρ, 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 ywpuros, 
 κωρυτὸς, corytus, of the Greeks and 
 Romans. Of the following words, niv28 
 yok ΠΡΌ, upwards of one hundred differ- 
 ent interpretations have been proposed. 
 That which I have adopted, appears to 
 me best to suit the connexion. It keeps 
 up the spirit of the poem, and is fully 
 justified on the simplest and most legiti- 
 mate etymological grounds. That nivaw 
 cannot signify oaths, is determined by 
 the circumstance that “the oaths of the 
 tribes,” the rendering of our common 
 version, affords no tolerable sense as 
 
 here introduced, whether we regard the 
 tribes as the persons swearing, or as 
 those to whom oaths were sworn. The 
 other signification of TY, is seven, a 
 heptade, or what is made up of seven. 
 It is elsewhere literally applied only to 
 this number of weeks ; but in connexion 
 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 adesignation of time. It appears 
 to have been appropriated by him to 
 express the perfection, fulness, or abun- 
 dance, of the number, instead of the 
 usual numeral Y38 or TY20, when em- 
 ployed symbolically as a sacred and 
 indefinite number. ‘2 signifies a ¢ribe, 
 but also, as 02%, 2 Sam. xviii. 14, a 
 lance or spear; and that the latter sig- 
 nification is that in which Habakkuk 
 here uses it, may be inferred from his 
 using it in this acceptation in the 14th 
 
 verse. Thus the Syr. Ble has 
 
 been variously rendered by word, promise, 
 epinicium, commander, ὅθ. I take it in 
 the first of these significations, as speci- 
 fically designating the military order 
 or word of command. Compare Ps. 
 Ixviii. 19. 2k Ty, “the Lord gave 
 the word,’ &c. Thus x, like the Arab. 
 
 yal, signifies to order, command. The 
 
 meaning of the prophet will therefore 
 be, that Jehovah prepared his bow for 
 battle, and ordered numerous spears to 
 be produced; in other words, that he 
 brought the most formidable and effec- 
 tive instrumentality to bear against the 
 enemies of his people. The nominative 
 to Yp2M is not YX, as some would construe 
 the words, but 77 understood from the 
 suffix in FSP. _ Comp. 73722 ONS LPH, 
 Ps. Ixxviii. 15. Before 772 supply ? or 
 2; to cleave ἐμέο rivers. The effect of 
 the Divine command is sublimely re- 
 presented under the idea of that which 
 is frequently produced by earthquakes, 
 when immense quantities of water gush 
 out of the fissures, and flow like rivers 
 
CHAP. 11.] 
 
 HABAKKUK, 
 
 319 
 
 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. 
 
 11 Sun and moon stood back in their habitation, 
 At the light of thine arrows which flew, 
 At the glittering brightness of thy lance. 
 
 through the country. The whole verse 
 is distinguished for its sublimity and 
 beauty ; and the sentiment conveyed in 
 the two first lines was regarded as so 
 weighty that a 790, Sedah, or pause, is 
 added, to give time for its producing its 
 proper effect, before supplementing the 
 concluding line. 
 
 10. The mountains being the most 
 prominent objects on the surface of the 
 globe, Habakkuk reiterates, in a some- 
 what different form, what he had ex- 
 pressed, ver. 6, in order to preserve the 
 impression of the tremendous character 
 of the transactions, to illustrate which 
 they had been figuratively introduced. 
 In the former case 78} is used of Jeho- 
 vah: in this, of the mountains, which 
 are, by a bold figure, represented as 
 inspired with life, and capable of taking 
 sensible cognizance of the manifestations 
 of Deity. ‘To express the instantaneous 
 character of the effect, 39%, they quaked, 
 is put in the future. The root 7 or 77 
 properly signifies ¢o ¢wist, writhe, as with 
 
 ain, and is frequently used of a weman 
 im travail. It is also employed in the 
 sense of quaking or trembling, which 
 idea is conveyed by it in this place. 
 *“Juga ccepta moveri silvarum,—adven- 
 tante Deo.”—Virgil.™ 04, a torrent 
 of water, i.e. an extremely heavy rain, in 
 contradistinction from 20%, a hail- 
 storm, Is, xxvii. 2. 01, elevation, is 
 used adverbially. By 27", the elongated 
 pronominal form of ™3, ifs hands, are 
 meant the waves of the ocean. dim, 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 tor- 
 rents of rain; the sea roars, and causes 
 its billows to “run mountains high.” 
 Comp. Ps. Ixxvii. 17. 
 
 11. Ty tow form an asyndeton, and 
 are probably so put for the sake of effect. 
 In many MSS., however, the ellipsis of 
 the) is supplied. The paragogic 7 in 
 mu, is that of direction or motion, and 
 the idea which it conveys, as here used 
 with the verb 7Y, 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 sie, 
 
 mansio, domus, is the name of the signs 
 
 of the Zodiac; and oo! ENS, the 
 
 circle of the palaces which the sun 
 occupies. Job, likewise, speaks of 17 
 y20, the chambers of the south, anti- 
 thetically with the northern constella- 
 tions, ch. ix. 9; as also of nin, chap. 
 XxXvill. 382, the same as mi, zzus or 
 lodgings, 2 Kings xxiii. 5. That specific 
 reference is made to what is recorded 
 Josh. x. 12, is, after the Targ., very 
 generally admitted; but, though it were 
 granted that the event there described 
 may have suggested the language of the 
 prophet, yet the point of view in which 
 he presents the heavenly luminaries is 
 altogether different. In the history, 
 the construction to be put upon their 
 standing still or being arrested in their 
 course, is obviously their continuing to 
 shine, in order to afford light to Joshua, 
 while following up his victory over 
 the enemy; whereas, in the present 
 connexion, they are sublimely intro- 
 duced as retiring into their abode before 
 the brighter refulgence of the arrows 
 and lances employed in the conflict. 
 So completely were they eclipsed by 
 
320 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP, III. 
 
 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, 
 For the deliverance of thine anointed ; 
 
 this refulgence, that it seemed as if they 
 had set. Schnurrer and Justi interpret 
 the language of their remaining in their 
 habitation, in the sense of not rising, 
 but the 7 of motion is directly opposed 
 to such construction. The ? m 7x? and 
 
 and 7123, which are elsewhere used of the 
 light of the sun and the moon respec- 
 tively, are here transferred to the glitter 
 of the weapons specified. 
 
 12. ws, to march, is used of the 
 solemn and majestic proceeding of Jeho- 
 vah before the Hebrews, Judges v. 4; Ps. 
 Ixvili. 8. wr, to thresh or tread down, 
 is applied metaphorically to the de- 
 struction of enemies, Micah iv. 13. 
 
 18. Having described, in language of 
 the most sublime and terrible import, 
 the manifestations of Jehovah in refer- 
 ence to his enemies, Habakkuk now 
 proceeds to specify in express terms the 
 end which they were designed to answer, 
 viz. the deliverance and safety of his 
 chosen people; and then depicts their 
 fatal effects in the destruction of every 
 hostile power. The second >t) is em- 
 ployed instead of the infinitive 2d), 
 and thus governs the accusative FTW] Ny, 
 These last words Aq., and the author of 
 the fifth Greek version, render eis σω- 
 τηρίαν σὺν Χριστῷ σου, and the Vulg. 
 in salutem cum Christo tuo, which has 
 led many interpreters, both ancient and 
 modern, to refer πῦρ, the anointed, to 
 our Saviour. This construction of the 
 passage is adopted even by Delitzsch, 
 on the principle that as the term here 
 designates the regal office of those who 
 were of the Davidic dynasty, and Christ 
 is represented as the greatest king of 
 that family, consequently ‘luz ANoInTED 
 by way of eminence, he is to be regarded 
 as included in the prophetic reference. 
 By the law of parallelism, however, we 
 
 are compelled to identify Mw, thine 
 anointed, with 72Y, thy people, in the 
 preceding hemistich. The noun is thus 
 a collective, and is rendered in the plural 
 by the LXX. τοὺς χριστούς σου, or, as 
 in the Alex. MS., τοὺς ἐκλεκτούς cov. 
 The plural ye 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, in- 
 deed, by Delitasch, that τ, anointed, 
 is ever used of the people of Israel; and 
 certainly none of the passages which 
 have usually been adduced in support 
 of this application of the term, can be 
 fairly vindicated to it, except, perhaps, 
 Ps. xxviil. 8, where 9 corresponds to 
 409, or PY) according to the reading of 
 six MSS., originally three more, and the 
 rendering of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and 
 Arab. Still, as the Hebrews were 12292 
 o3, a kingdom of priests, Exod. xix. 6, 
 they may with as mueh propriety be 
 said to have been anointed, as the 
 patriarchs are, 1 Chron. xvi. 22; Ps. 
 ev. 15. The term, as thus applied, 
 expresses their destination. The Dagesh 
 forte is found im the initial Ἢ of Os in 
 some editions, and is one of the few 
 instances of its occurrence in this letter, 
 contrary to rule. Comp. 1 Sam. i. 6; 
 x. 94; 2 Kings vi. 32; Prov. ii. 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 pre- 
 positive Ὁ in ΠΣ intimates, that the 
 ruler here spoken of as the head, was 
 not merely over the house, whieh the 
 simple construct form would have ex- 
 pressed, but that he sprung from it. It 
 is most probable that one or other of 
 the Canaanitish kings is intended; per- 
 haps Jabin, whose city (Hazor) is said to 
 have been ts», the head of all the con- 
 federate kings, Josh. xi. 10; and who 
 was the most formidable of all the kings 
 with whom the Hebrews had to contend, 
 Judges iv. 2,3,13. The general sense of 
 the concluding hemistich is apparent ; 
 
CHAP. π|. 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 321 
 
 Thou dashedst in pieces the head of the house of the wicked, 
 Laying bare the foundation to the very neck: Pause. 
 
 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. 
 
 but considerable difficulty attaches to 
 the interpretation of Wiz, zeck, as here 
 connected with i, foundation. This 
 connexion is so strongly marked by the 
 force of the preposition TY, evex fo, that 
 the former substantive cannot be sepa- 
 rated 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 conceive. 
 ‘There is, therefore, very great cae 
 in the conjecture of Cappellus, which 
 has been approved by Herder, Green, 
 and some others, that instead of 1x, 
 neck, the text originally read ὍΣ, rock, 
 which makes all plain. Both words are 
 derived from the same root ; and Wiz 
 occurs without the 8, Neh. iii. 5. All the 
 MSS. and versions, however, support 
 the present reading. ΠῚ is the infinitive 
 absolute, which is often employed in the 
 prosecution of a statement, instead of 
 the finite form of the verb. The histori- 
 eal facts which the prophet here poeti- 
 cally describes, appear evidently to be 
 those narrated Josh. xi.; Judges iv., 
 involving the complete destruction of 
 the Canaanitish nations, and more espe- 
 cially the discomfiture of Sisera, cele- 
 brated by Deborah in her splendid 
 triumphal song, Judges v. 
 
 14. After a solemn pause, marked by 
 m0, Selah, Habakkuk prosecutes his 
 subject, which still embraces the dis- 
 comfiture of the enemies of Israel. 129, 
 his own spears, the same as M9, ver. 9, 
 Interpreters are divided in regard to 
 the signification of 148, or,°as it is in 
 the Keri, and in the text of a great 
 number of MSS., and of four of the 
 early editions, n=. The traditionary 
 interpretation is that of w7//agers, or the 
 
 inhabitants of the country; hence hordes, 
 which Delitzsch adopts, and explains it 
 of armies or soldiers. Thus the Vulg., 
 capiti bellatorum ejus. Perschke, Gese- 
 nius, Ewald, and other moderns, how- 
 ever, derive the word from the Arab. 
 
 ip segregavit, discrevit, modum prescrip- 
 
 sit, statuit, &c., and explain it of judges, 
 captains, &c., which appears to be the 
 more appropriate meaning. Thus the 
 
 LXX., δυνάσται; the Syr. σῶν; 
 
 just as the former in the Vatican codex 
 render the cognate noun ἢ, Judges 
 v. 7, 11, by δυνατοὶ, and the Vulg. by 
 fortes. The pronominal suffix refers to 
 rw, the wicked, im the preceding verse. 
 Before "2> supply Wx. In using the 
 first personal suffix singular in the 
 following 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 nomi- 
 native to ONY is MH», his captains. In 
 the last hemistich, the object of com- 
 parison 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. ΤῸ: must either be taken as an 
 accusative absolute, as to thy horses ; or 
 it must have a 3 supplied before it. The 
 latter I have adopted as the easier mode 
 of resolving the form. ‘27 describes 
 here the boiling up or foaming of the 
 sea in a storm. ‘The immediate con- 
 nexion, 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 impene- 
 trable aspect to the Hebrews. Through 
 this army Jehovah is represented as 
 
 PE 
 
922 
 
 10 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP, II. 
 
 I heard, and my inward parts trembled, 
 
 At the sound my lips quivered ; 
 
 Rottenness entered my bones, 
 
 I trembled in 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, 
 
 walking with his warriors, as if a general 
 were coolly to march his cavalry through 
 the thickest 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 re- 
 hearsal of the mighty acts of Jehovah 
 on behalf of his people in ancient times, 
 which he had composed in order to 
 inspire the pious with unshaken con- 
 fidence in him as their covenant God, 
 Habakkuk reverts to the fear which had 
 seized him on hearing of the judgments 
 that were to be inflicted upon his country 
 by the Chaldeans, °202 19m) ‘Ayo is 
 a varied repetition of QU ‘AYDw Ti 
 oxy, ver. 2. Instead of there entering 
 into a description of his feelings, he broke 
 out in an earnest prayer that God would 
 exercise pity towards Israel, from which 
 there was an easy transition to the 
 ancient Divine interpositions. He now 
 describes those feelings in very forcible 
 and affecting language. p, the voice, 
 is to be referred tothe 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. ‘A179, literally 
 under me, i.e. my under parts, limbs, or 
 
 the like. Comp. the Arab. Cis, pars 
 inferior, XX. ὑποκάτωθέν pov éra- 
 , cq y - 
 ράχθη ἡ ἕξις pov. The Syr. Gstes 
 my knees. Jarchi and Kimehi, 73, 
 in my place. ™28 7x has been variously 
 rendered, “That I may rest ;” “That I 
 must expect ;” “Ὁ that I might rest ;” 
 “ Yet 1 shall rest,” or “have rest.” The 
 last construction is alone suitable. Wx, 
 which the LXX. have entirely omitted, 
 is here a conjunction, 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, sz voce. Deeply as the prophet 
 was affected, and overpowering as were 
 the feelings of apprehension 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. Nothing can be more 
 uncritical than the emendation of ΤῸΝ 
 into ™28, proposed by Houbigant, the 
 verb ΤῚΣ or ΠῚ having no such significa- 
 tion as that which he ascribes to it. The 
 preposition ? in 770%? and ni?y? is to be 
 taken as signifying the time when the 
 events were to happen; in OY) it is the 
 sign of the genitive; so that DY? nioy is 
 equivalent to OY nity, the coming up of 
 the people. The infinitive is the infini- 
 tive construct. By the people, the Chal- 
 deans are meant. They are, as usual, 
 said to come up, because of the elevated 
 position of Jerusalem, both in a local 
 and a religio-political point of view. 
 Comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 1. Before 1” 
 supply 72x. The verb 7, like its cognate 
 ΤΊΣ, signifies to cut, or break in wpon an 
 enemy, attack. Hence the substantive 
 3, a ¢roop or band of warriors, chiefly 
 used of such as engage in plundering 
 expeditions. It is the very term em- 
 ployed in the account given us of the 
 fulfilment of the prophecy, 2 Kings 
 xxiv. 2: “And the Lord sent against 
 him oT) ΤΣ, the dands of the 
 Chaldeans,” &c. 
 
 17, 18. From a statement of the as- 
 surance he possessed of the mental tran- 
 quillity which he should enjoy during 
 
CHAP. 111.] 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 323 
 
 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 : 
 
 Yet I will exult in Jehovah ; 
 
 I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. 
 
 19 
 
 Jehovah the Lord is my strength ; 
 
 He will make my feet like those of gazelles, 
 
 the anticipated calamity, Habakkuk rises 
 to a triumphant assertion of the holy 
 joy and exultation that would be vouch- 
 safed to him amidst all the desolation to 
 which his country might be subjected. 
 The desolation here so graphically and 
 forcibly described, is that which was 
 to be effected by the Chaldeeans, 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 render 
 them incapable of yielding any produce. 
 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 
 resource. On the contrary, its tendency 
 is to bring him into closer contact with 
 it. my is not the /wbour bestowed 
 upon the olive-tree, but the fruit which 
 the tree produces. Comp. the phrase 
 ἽΒ πῶν, fo make or produce fruit. The 
 irregular construction of the singular 
 masculine TY with the feminine plural 
 nin is to be accounted for on the prin- 
 ciple, that in the mind of the prophet 
 both number and gender had merged 
 in the totality and impressiveness of his 
 subject. Comp. x nioTe, Is. xvi. 8. 
 It is what is commonly called, con- 
 structio ad sensum. Some would refer 
 nit to an obsolete root 078, which they 
 take to be cognate with 1, fo bura ; 
 but it seems preferable to regard it as 
 
 a derivative like 71¥, both signifying a 
 smooth or level field, such as was pre- 
 pared for grain or vines; from 77%, fo 
 break, and ὙΠῸ, to be level, as ground is 
 which is broken up, and levelled by the 
 plough, the hoe, and the harrow. “3 is 
 here used intransitively, and is equiva- 
 lent to the Niphal 122. 7929 stands for 
 R229, just as 7 for XW, and mp7 for 
 NUP or Wop. The root is 92, to shut 
 up, confine. MP8 and 7738 are syno- 
 nymes in the elongated future—the 7 
 directive expressing the strong bent of 
 the mind towards the exercise. The 
 words ‘yd: x2 are rendered in the 
 Vulg. iz Deo Jesu meo! The LXX. 
 have ἐπὶ τῷ Oc τῷ σωτῆρί pov. 
 
 19. The formula ‘x 7, instead of 
 mm 218, is of infrequent occurrence. 
 Comp. Ps. Ixviii. 21; exl. 8. The language 
 of this verse is found in Ps. xviii. 33, 34; 
 and in part, Deut. xxxii. 13; Is. lviii. 14. 
 It expresses the confident 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 undisturbed 
 possession of their own land. 2x, the 
 gazelle, is so swift-footed, that grey- 
 hounds are liable to be killed by over- 
 exertion in the chase. 03, my high 
 places, stands for "278 v3, the heights of 
 my country. Kxeept for purposes of 
 warfare, the elevated parts of a land are 
 the last that are oecupied.—The present 
 is the only instance in which a musical 
 direction is placed at the end of a psalm 
 or ode. 12292, which occurs fifty-five 
 times in the titles to the Psalms, 
 is derived from the root 22, fo over- 
 come, excel, take the lead, direct, super- 
 
824 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [CHAP. IIL, 
 
 And cause me to walk on my heights. 
 To the precentor, with my stringed instruments. 
 
 intend, preside, &. 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- 
 
 2 Chron. ii. 18, however, the LXX. 
 render the noun by ἐργοδιώκτης ; in 
 ver. 2, and xxxiv. 13, by ἐπιστάτης. 
 The form is that of the participle in 
 Piel, the > taking the Patach of the 
 article—a circumstance which shows that 
 it cannot be, as some have supposed, an 
 infinitive. 222 (from 722, 132, to strike 
 the strings, p/ay on a stringed instrument, 
 and then, generally, to perform either 
 vocal or instrumental music, but chiefly 
 the latter) signifies what is thus per- 
 formed, music, melody, song, and also the 
 stringed instrumeuts with which it was 
 
 accompanied. The preposition 2 is that 
 of accompaniment. Delitzsch infers from 
 the use of the affix in ‘D223, 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 
 engaged; for he uses the very same 
 form: °D)223, “ my stringed instruments,” 
 15. xxxvill. 20. On what ground either 
 the prophet or the king claimed these 
 instruments, it is impossible to determine. 
 The conjecture of Schuurrer, that 722 
 was originally ‘p22, and that the termi- 
 nation ‘“Y> is merely paragogic, as in 
 21, is overturned by the fact, that this 
 paragogic 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 his 
 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 must have belonged to a family of considerable respectability.* 
 Whether, however, the Hezekiah there mentioned were the king of 
 that name, or some other person of note so called, cannot be deter- 
 mined 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 primary 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. 
 xxxvil. 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 Heze- 
 kiah and Josiah. 
 
 As our prophet is stated, chap. i. 1, to have received his pro- 
 phecies in the days of Josiah, he must have flourished between the 
 year B.C. 642, and B.c. 611. This statement is corroborated by 
 
 * Ovk ἄσημος ὧν τὸ κατὰ σάρκα yevos.—Cyril, Pref. ad Zeph. 
 
326 PREFACE TO ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 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; ὦ, 6. 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 exactly tallies with the state of things in 
 Judah from the twelfth to the eighteenth 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 
 delivered 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 labours in the historical books, which we might expect 
 on the ground of the valuable service he must have rendered to the 
 zealous monarch, it is sufficient to reply, that the same objection 
 would lie against the prophetical existence of Jeremiah at the same 
 period, though we know that he then flourished at Jerusalem, under 
 the very eye of his sovereign. The mention made of “the king’s 
 sons,” chap. i. 8, cannot be urged in favour 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 connexion and manner in which they are introduced 
 favour 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 neighbouring nations by the Chaldeans are denounced with 
 great force and effect. Hitzig, indeed, has recently revived the 
 opinion advocated by Cramer and Eichhorn, that the invasion of 
 these countries by the Scythians, about the year B.C. 630, whose 
 incursion into Western Asia is described by Herodotus, i. 105, is 
 what the prophet has in his eye; but the Jews appear to have been 
 so little affected by their progress, that it by no means corresponds 
 to that of the enemy described by Zephaniah, in the course of 
 
PREFACE TO ZEPHANIAH. 327 
 
 which not only Judea, but the adjacent countries were to be entirely 
 laid waste. His predictions received their accomplishment during 
 the success 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 exagge- 
 rated. 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. 
 Occasionally he borrows the language of former prophets. Comp. 
 chap. 11. 14, with Is. xii. 21; xxxiv. 11; and chap. ii. 15, with 
 Is. xlvu. 8. 
 
 
 
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 trans- 
 gressors whose conduct had merited the infliction of these judgments, 4—6; and 
 calls attention to the speedy approach, and the features of the period of punish- 
 meut, 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, 14d—1S. 
 
 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 J will utterly take away every thing from the face of the land, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 ὃ. I will take away man and beast ; 
 I will take away the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea ; 
 And the causes of stumbling along with the wicked ; 
 And I will cut off man from the face of the land, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 1. See the Preface. 
 
 2, 3. FDS, which is variously employed 
 in Scripture in the sense of gathering, 
 collecting, &c., is here used, as in Jud. 
 Xvill. 25; 1 Sam. xv. 6; Ps. xxvi. 9; 
 Ezek. xxxiv. 29, to denote the taking 
 away by death, or other violent means ; 
 to destroy. Thus Jarchi, 152 vx, “Its 
 signification is destruction.” What 
 clearly shows this, is the use of the cog- 
 nate verb 0, ¢o scrape, or sweep off, in 
 the form ἢ θὰ FEY, which the Rabbi just 
 mentioned erroneously takes to be the 
 Hiphil of 48, by elision for ἤν, The 
 latter verb is never used in Hiphil; but 
 the same combination of the two verbs 
 
 in the infinitive and finite forms occurs 
 Jer. vill. 18, ὈΡΘῸΝ Ox. Compare for 
 similar usage 21T Winx, Is. xxviii. 28; 
 xen) x2), Jer. xlviii.9. The enumeration 
 of particulars is designed to augment 
 the fearful and universal character of 
 the punishment. 2020 does not appear 
 to differ in this connexion from %2, ὦ 
 stumbling-block, cause of moral offence, 
 what occasions, excites to, or promotes 
 
 δ a v 
 sin. Syr. Jamas ; Symm. τὰ σκάν- 
 
 dada. There can be no doubt that the 
 different objects and rites of idolatrous 
 worship are what the prophet has in 
 view. Thus Jarchi, nv MIv oF, ~The 
 
 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 329 
 
 4 1 will also stretch forth my hand against Judah, 
 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 ; 
 
 I= 
 
 5 And those that worship the host of heaven on the roofs, 
 
 And those that worship and swear to Jehovah, 
 
 And swear by their king ; 
 
 repetition of O78 shows the prophecy 
 had special reference to human beings, 
 as the guilty party. The particle ny 
 before DYw> has the signification of wth, 
 together with, thus denoting accompa- 
 niment. Comp. Jud. i. 16. The idols 
 and their worshippers were to be involved 
 in one common destruction. Newcome 
 improperly renders M8 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. 
 mo Dipan, this place, means Jerusalem. 
 By 927 we, the remnant, or rest of Baal, 
 we are to understand the statues, images, 
 &e., dedicated to the chief domestic and 
 tutelary god of the Pheenicians, to whose 
 worship the Hebrews were addicted as 
 early as the time of the Judges, (ii. 18,) 
 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, 5,7; 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, 
 compared with 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8, that 
 idols continued to be worshipped, most 
 probably 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 re- 
 formation referred to. Marckius and 
 Gesenius interpret the phrase 927 ποῦ, 
 of the people of Baal, but this seems 
 less probable. The phrase corresponds 
 ᾿ to nin820 in the preceding verse, and is 
 in like manner immediately followed by 
 the ms of accompaniment, pointing out 
 the persons that encouraged idolatry. 
 For wa the LXX., who have ra ὀνόματα, 
 must have read ni, or they may have 
 
 been misled by the 0% following. 0%}, 
 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 "ΠῚ 
 DY instead of OW-nY. For 07057, the 
 idolatrous priests, see on Hos. x. 5. 
 Both in the ancient and in the latter 
 Hebrew, the term j7> is. used of the 
 priests of idols, as well as of those be- 
 longing to Jehovah. See Gen. xli. 45, 
 50; 1 Kings xiii. 2, 33; 2 Kingsx. 19; 
 xi. 18. It may to some appear doubtful 
 whether the former be not here intended ; 
 but as such are undeniably included in 
 the D’y22, it is more probable that in 
 using the term 0°203, the prophet had in 
 his eye those who were professedly 
 priests of the true God, but who, instead 
 of checking, or endeavouring to eradi- 
 cate idolatry, encouraged it by their in- 
 difference, or the inconsistency of their 
 conduct in other respects. Comp. Jer. 
 ii. 8; v.31. The Targ. renders ji2 
 pry. ov, their worshippers with their 
 priests. Neither were to be 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 idolatrous practices. He 
 first takes up those who were the vo- 
 taries of Sabiism, or the worship of 
 the heavenly bodies: a system which 
 had, at an early period, become exten- 
 sively prevalent, and continued to exert ~ 
 its influence, not only over the nemades 
 of Arabia, but over the philosophers and 
 wise men of the Hast; but which, in 
 whatever form or degree it obtained, 
 had the lamentable effect of deifying 
 the creature, and obscuring the exist- 
 ence, claims, and glory of the Creator. 
 That it was adopted, and its rites prac- 
 tised to a great extent by the Jews, 
 
 Ur U 
 
990 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 6 And those that have turned back from Jehovah, 
 And that neither seek Jehovah nor apply to him. 
 7 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. 
 g 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. 
 
 appears from 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6; Jer. 
 vii. 17, 18; xliv. 17—19, 25. The mi33, 
 roofs or house-tops, in the East are flat, 
 and are used for various purposes. ‘The 
 idolaters may have chosen them for 
 secrecy in the time of the prophet, or 
 they may have selected them for the 
 purpose of obtaining a fuller view of the 
 planetary objects of their worship. Jer. 
 xix. 18; xxxii. 29. The planet to which 
 they specially burned incense on the roofs 
 of their houses is supposed to have been 
 the moon, or it was more probably 
 Venus, called oyavan239, “the Queen 
 of heaven,” Jer. vil. 17, 18; xliv. 17—19, 
 25. The prophet next instances a mon- 
 erel class of worshippers, such as pro- 
 fessed attachment to Jehovah, as the 
 national God, but, at the same time, 
 were devoted to the service of Jfoloch, 
 whom, in reality, they regarded and 
 honoured as their king. For the forms 
 7), D379, 0579, D370, see on Amos. v. 26, 
 and Gesenius under the word 25. In- 
 stead of immediately connecting these 
 opposite objects of worship with the 
 participle DyAweT, as he had doue in 
 the preceding clause, Zephaniah stops 
 short, as if uncertain how to describe 
 the persons whom he had in view, and 
 then proceeds to characterise them as 
 combining, by acts of solemn profession, 
 the worship of the true God with that 
 of Moloch. Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 21. 
 a vawi, to swear by a deity, means to 
 acknowledge him in a public, solemn, 
 and binding manner; openly to pledge 
 oneself 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. For 0°38 07, comp. Hab. ii. 20; 
 Zech. 11. 13. In the symbolical language 
 of prophecy, a sacrifice denotes the 
 slaughter or destruction of an army or 
 people. In the words SR OIpT, he 
 hath consecratéd his called ones, how- 
 ever, there is no allusion to guests invited 
 to partake of a sacrificial feast, as there 
 unquestionably is, Wzek. xxxix. 17—20; 
 Rev. xix. 17,18. The O77, called ones, 
 were the Chaldeans, who, as the Divine 
 army, or the instruments of his retribu- 
 tive justice, were called into the field 
 against the enemies of the Most High. 
 In this sense Cyrus is said to have been 
 called, 15. xli. 9; xlvili. 15. Comp. also 
 Ts. xii. 3, and my note there, in which 
 wip, 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 expedition. 
 
 8. That by the phrase 979723, 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 con- 
 nexion necessarily requires ; for he could 
 not himself 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 ac- 
 complishment of the prophecy. That 
 the latter supposition is the more pro- 
 bable, 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 
 foreign attire, the prophet means the 
 rich and great generally, who in viola- 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 331 
 
 9 Τ 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 crashing from the hills. 
 
 int 
 
 Howl, ye inhabitants of the Mortar! 
 
 For all the people of Canaan are destroyed ; 
 All who are laden with money are cut off. 
 
 tion of an express ordinance relative to 
 national 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 
 idolaters, and thus more easily mixed 
 with them in the performance of their 
 idolatrous 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 
 Tare. ἈΠΌ pI PIT 73, all who 
 walk in the laws of the Philistines. But 
 this construction has little to support it 
 beyond the simple occurrence of the 
 word jn, threshold, in both passages ; 
 for in Samuel it is merely said, —1377 8? 
 par ynad ov, “they tread or walk not over 
 the threshold of Dagon;” whereas the 
 language of the prophet, jREDT- oy 2157, 
 “him that leapeth over the threshold,” 
 is expressive of a more violent action ; 
 and, as the parallel hemistich shows, 
 characterises the eagerness with which 
 the servants 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. en principio (or sub 
 jinem) noctis iter fecit, we should in- 
 terpret the term as denoting their setting 
 
 out on their predatory expeditions under 
 cloud of night. Thus, as to the general 
 ~ » oO ~ » 
 
 sense, ‘the Syr. floods «οσιὰ 5 
 
 πολ, δ 
 ]19}.3.ο; all who commit violence and 
 
 plunder. Kimehi explains 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. D397 Ww, the fish-gate, occurs 
 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14; Neh. iii. 3; xi.39; 
 but there is nothing in these passages 
 by which we can determine its exact 
 position. From 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 cor- 
 responded to what is now called the 
 Damascus Gate, or to that of St. Stephen. 
 It was from this side, being that which 
 was most accessible, that Jerusalem was 
 attacked by the enemy. That 7209, the 
 second, is not to be referred to Ww, gate, 
 as its antecedent, but to VY, c7/y, under- 
 stood, appears from Neh. xi. 9, where 
 we have in full 1209 VYT, the second city, 
 i.e. the second division of the city. 
 Ewald renders the word by Neustadt, 
 * Newtown.” In all probability it was 
 what was afterwards called Akra, or the 
 lower city, which lay to the north of the 
 ancient city on Mount Zion, and was 
 separated 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 interpreta- 
 tion of the Rabbins. The nivaa, A2//s, 
 here mentioned, were not those around 
 the city, such as the Mount of Olives, 
 the Mount of Evil Counsel, &c., but 
 Zion, Moriah, Ophel, and other elevated 
 localities within the walls, occupied by 
 the temple, the royal palace, and the 
 houses of the richer portion of the in- 
 
992 
 
 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 heart, 
 
 Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil. 
 
 13 
 
 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 ; 
 It is near and hasteth greatly ; 
 
 The sound of the day of Jehovah: 
 There the mighty man shrieketh bitterly. 
 
 habitants. The prophet graphically re- 
 presents 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 ap- 
 propriately expressed by the noun 72%, 
 from "20, fo break, break in pieces, 
 2 Kings xxv. 4, 8, 9. m2 is not a 
 proper name, as the article prefixed 
 shows, but an appellative, signifying 
 mortar, from ©n2, fo bray, pound. See 
 Prov. xxvil. 22. It appears to have been 
 applied, from its resemblance to that 
 vessel, to one or other of the valleys in 
 or about Jerusalem. Theod. ἐν τῷ Bader. 
 Aq. εἰς τὸν ὅλμον. According to the 
 Targum, 771 8273, it was that through 
 which the brook Kidron flows. Others 
 think it was the Tyropcon, the locality 
 of the bazars, where the merchants 
 carried on their business. From 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 
 account of its resemblance in sound to 
 ΠΡΌ, a holy place, and that Jerusalem 
 itself is meant; but this word is ex- 
 clusively appropriated to the tabernacle, 
 or temple, and other sacred places, and 
 never to the city, though it is called 
 WPI WY, the Holy City, just as it is still 
 known in the Hast by the names 
 
 wal], ΕΚ Ως, and Ue Kad} Ue Ay, 
 
 Beit-el-Mukeddes, of similar signification. 
 By jv22 Or, the people of Canaan, the 
 prophet does not mean the inhabitants 
 of Canaan generally, nor Pheenician 
 merchants in particular, who carried on 
 trade with those of Jerusalem, but ironi- 
 cally the Jerusalem merchants them- 
 selves, 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 meta- 
 phorically 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 un- 
 disturbed state. 82, signifies, fo con- 
 tract, become concrete, hard, &c., 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 governing providence 
 is expressed in so many words at the 
 end of the verse. 
 
 18. 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. 79 is not the participle in Piel, 
 
CHAP. I.| 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 That day is a day of indignation, 
 
 A day of trouble and distress, 
 
 A day of desolation and ruin, 
 
 A day of darkness and gloom, 
 
 A day of clouds and obscurity ; 
 
 A day of the trumpet and the war-shout, 
 Against the fortified cities, 
 
 And against the lofty towers. 
 
 333 
 
 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. 
 
 1s 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 
 -Of all the inhabitants of the land. 
 
 with the affirmative Mem rejected, but 
 the infinitive of the same conjugation, 
 used as an abbreviated form of 72) 17. 
 12, ditter, is here used adverbially. So 
 irresistible should be the attack 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. 722273, as well as 
 TMi AND, are instances of paronomasia. 
 Comp. Job xv. 24; xxx. 3; xxxvili. 27. 
 mim m7 form a Hendiadys, and 
 describe the high towers or turrets, at 
 the angles of fortified walls. Gesenius 
 assumes an obsolete root 722, fo separate, 
 divide into classes, as that from which 
 m5, a turret, is derived; but there is no 
 occasion to depart from its usual deriva- 
 tion from the Piel of 722, fo 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 oppugnan- 
 tium ad ictus patescerent.” Hist. lib. v. 
 eap. 11. § 5. 
 
 17. 37), or, as in some MSS. and 
 
 editions, Om, flesh. Arab. > Caro. 
 
 Root 09%, fo eat. 2 may, by zeugma, 
 be made to govern 09°77? as well as 03, 
 but it is preferable to supply the sub- 
 stantive verb after 02°79. For the latter 
 figure, comp. Job xx. 7. 
 
 18. 0:—n3, also—also, meaning both 
 the one and the other. As here with a 
 negative, zeither—nor. “Fire” is often 
 used figuratively to denote war, because 
 of its devastating effects; Is. x. 16; 
 xxvi. 11. ἫΝ is to be taken in the sense 
 of wholly, entirely, altogether. 
 
334 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. 11. 
 
 CHAPTER IZ. 
 
 A solemn admonition is now given to the Jewish people to repent during the short 
 space of time that would be allotted 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 fore- 
 
 tel the destruction of those nations which had always been hostile to the Jews, 
 as the Philistines, 4—7; the Moabites and Ammonites, 8—10; parenthetically, 
 the idols of the nations, 11; the Ethiopians, 12; and the Assyrians, 13—15. 
 
 1 BeEnp 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 the anger of Jehovah. 
 
 1. 3p) WipnT, the Hithpolel and 
 Kal conjugations joined for the sake of 
 intensity. Comp. Is. xxiv. 19. The 
 words have been variously rendered. 
 LXX. συνάχθητε καὶ συνδέθητε. Vulg. 
 convenite (et) congregamini. De Wette, 
 prifet euch, ja priifet. Gesenius, collect 
 yourselves, and be ye collected ; i.e. collect 
 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 SUP as the root, which signifies 
 in Poel to collect stubble, wood, &e.; 
 but it is never used with respect to 
 human beings. I prefer deriving it 
 from wip, to bend, be bent. Arab. 
 
 Us? Il. incurvavit arcus more; in- 
 
 curvatus fuit senex. Hence Πῦρ, a bow, 
 from its being dent. Bend yourselves, 
 
 and be ye bent, will then be the proper 
 rendering. Comp. the use of m7, fo 
 bow down, 15. |x. 14. The prophet calls 
 the Jews to deep humility before God 
 on account of their manifold sins. Be- 
 cause ἨῸΞ signifies fo be pale, Gesenius 
 renders the words 09) N? 37, O nation 
 not ashamed ! but 22 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, long- 
 ing, being intensely desirous of any 
 object. The phrase 7933 8°, zot 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 DY ἊΨ ΥἹῸΣ, 
 as chaff the day passeth, do not refer to 
 the coming of the period of calamity 
 
CHAP. 11.] 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 3 Seek ye Jehovah, all ye humble of the land, 
 
 Who perform his judgments ; 
 
 Seek righteousness, seek humility, 
 
 If perhaps ye may be hid 
 
 In the day of the anger of Jehovah. 
 
 4 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. 
 
 5 Wo 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. 
 
 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 introduced parenthetically. The 
 sentence M1? δ PT OY NTN? OWA 15 
 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 him- 
 self to the afflicted and humble among 
 his people, from whom some hope of a 
 better state of things might be expected. 
 ὯΝ, rendered perhaps, is not intended 
 to express a doubt respecting the safety 
 of the pious, but the extreme difficulty 
 of escaping 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 
 5, for, with which this verse commences, 
 lies in the universality of the calamity 
 which was about to come, not upon the 
 Jews only, but upon all the nations with 
 which they had been brought into con- 
 tact. There would be no country to 
 which they might flee for safety, for all 
 were to be visited by the Chaldeans. 
 For the cities of the Philistines here 
 specified, see on the parallel prophecy, 
 
 Amos i. 6—8; and Is. xx. 1. onny, 
 the meridian or noon, being the hottest 
 part of the day, is generally spent by 
 the Orientals 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, 720Y τῆν and 
 WL Pw, are not to be overlooked. 
 
 5. This and the two following verses 
 contain an amplification of the prediction 
 against the Philistines. 027 537, LXX. 
 TO σχοίνισμα τῆς θαλάσσης, the line of 
 the sea, 1.6. the region or coast along the 
 sea-shore, and so called from the custom 
 of using a cord or line in measuring off 
 or dividing a territory. Comp. with the 
 same application, 037 411, the coast of the 
 sea, Jer. xlvii. 7; Ezek. xxv. 16. By 
 mn 43, zation of Cretians, we are not 
 to understand the actual inhabitants of 
 Crete, but the Philistines, a nation 
 descended from those who originally 
 emigrated from that island, and took 
 possession of the south-west coast of 
 Palestine. om, the name of fhe 
 Philistines, properly signifies the emi- 
 
 grants, from SB, Eth. GALT, fo rove, 
 
 migrate. According to Stephen of By- 
 zautium, Gaza was originally called 
 Minoa, after Minos, king of Crete, who, 
 with his two brothers, Arakus and 
 Rhadamanthus, undertook an expedi- 
 tion to the coast, and gave the city his 
 own name. Comp. Deut. ii. 23; 1 Sam. 
 
336 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 6 And the line of the sea shall be pastures, 
 
 With cisterns for shepherds, 
 And folds for sheep. 
 
 7 Yea, the line shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah, 
 
 Thereupon shall they feed ; 
 
 In the houses of Askelon shall they le 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 Ammon, 
 
 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 Ammon 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. 
 
 xxx. 14; Jer. xlvii. 4; Ezek. xxv. 16; 
 Amos ix. 7. 4222, Canaan, which is not 
 only employed to designate the whole 
 country taken possession of by the 
 Hebrews, but more specially Pheenicia, 
 is here to be understood as restricted to 
 the country of the Philistines. 
 
 6. It is thought by some that there is 
 an allusion to O92 in the word N43, 
 which properly signifies wells or cisterns, 
 from ™3, ¢o dig. Instead of continuing 
 to be a thickly populated and well culti- 
 vated country, the land of the Philistines 
 should be converted into a region fit 
 only to be occupied by nomades. 
 
 7. Instead of being any longer annoyed 
 by the Philistines, the Jews, restored to 
 their land, would occupy the territory 
 as described in the preceding verse. 
 
 8—10. Comp. the parallel prophecies 
 against Moab, Is. xv., xvi.; Jer. xlviii. ; 
 Amos ii. 1—3; and Ammon, Jer. xlix, 
 
 1—6; Amos i. 13—15. 
 to carry oneself haughtily against any 
 one. There is no occasion to supply 
 7 or any other noun. The suffix in 
 D522 has ‘oY for its antecedent. The 
 formulas 28, 7 living, or as I live, 
 ver. 9, and Tim 1, ORT, as Jehovah, 
 as God liveth, are solemn modes of 
 expression, by which the Divine Exist- 
 ence is pledged for the certainty of the 
 declarations which they introduce. 7X2, 
 a drawing, or extending out, from Pod, 
 cognate 72, fo draw out, extend. As 
 connected with dramble, it denotes the 
 overspreading or overrunning of that 
 shrub. ΠΡΟ ΤΡ, 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 colleeted, and pure 
 salt obtained by evaporation. The idea 
 conveyed by both metaphors is that of 
 sterility and desolation. 
 
 op S327 means - 
 
 ν᾽ 
 
 τελῶν 
 
 » 
 Tr 
 
CHAP. II. ] 
 
 11 Jehovah is to be feared above 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 337 
 
 all the gods of the earth, 
 
 For he will cause them to waste away ; 
 And all the inhabitants of the maritime regions 
 Shall worship him—each from his place. 
 
 Also ye, O ye Cushites! 
 Shall be slain by my sword. 
 "19 
 And destroy Assyria ; 
 
 And he will stretch his hand over the north, 
 
 He will also make Nineveh waste, 
 
 An arid region like the desert. 
 14 
 
 And flocks shall 116 down 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, 
 Desolation shall be in the thresholds, 
 
 For the cedar-work is laid bare. 
 
 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 D2Y as possessing 
 an anticipative pronominal reference to 
 PINT, the gods of the earth, with 
 respect to whom Jehovah was to show 
 himself worthy of exclusive veneration 
 by effecting theirdestruction. 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 idola- 
 trous nations, the prophet was inspired 
 to predict the gradual, but certain de- 
 struction 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 
 he acceptable wherever presented in 
 sincerity and truth. Comp. Mal. i. 11; 
 John iv. 21—24; 1 Cor. 1. 9. For the 
 phrase ὈΠῸΝ ΝΣ, comp. Ps. xevi. 4. The 
 prefixed in 125792 expresses simply the 
 locality in which the persons spoken of 
 resided. Compare ™329, 99, ['2%2, 077, 
 &e. im, Arab. li to make thin, lean, 
 
 diminish, cause to waste away, and to 
 destroy. UXX. ἐξολοθρεύσει. The 
 
 knowledge and worship of the true God 
 were to be extended not only over the 
 vast continental regions of the globe, 
 but over those which bordered on, or 
 existed in the sea. In 037 »x, the isles, 
 or maritime regions, there is, as usual, a 
 special reference to the West; though 
 in connexion with %, a//, the universality 
 of such regions is intended. The passage 
 is strictly Messianic, since the accom- 
 plishment of the prediction has been, 
 and is being effected by means of the 
 gospel. 
 
 12. For t5, Cush, see on Is. xi. 11; 
 xviil. 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 designed 
 to be included in the term as here 
 employed. 
 
 18—15. From the remote South into 
 which the prophet had carried his 
 hearers, he turns suddenly back to the 
 North, where there still existed a mighty 
 empire, which must of necessity be 
 overthrown, before the Divine sword, 1.6. 
 the arms of Babylon, could reach the 
 countries against which he had denounced 
 
 x xX 
 
338 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. LI. 
 
 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. 
 
 the judgments of God. This empire 
 was the Assyrian, which was drawing 
 towards its end, and was actually sub- 
 verted when Nineveh was taken and 
 destroyed by Cyaxares and Nabopo- 
 lassar, B.C. 625. It is this catastrophe, 
 with its disastrous consequences, which 
 Zephaniah so graphically describes in 
 these verses. So completely was the 
 celebrated metropolis of the ancient 
 world to be desolated, that not even the 
 Nomades would seek a temporary shelter 
 among her ruins. They should only be 
 inhabited by the wild beasts of the 
 desert. That by D772 we are to under- 
 stand herds of savage animals, and not 
 flocks of sheep, goats, &c., is apparent 
 from the mention made in the parallelism 
 of sx, every wild beast of the nation. 
 43, zation, has by some been thought to 
 stand poetically for a collection of 
 animals, just as OY, people, does, Prov. 
 xxx. 25, 26; but ‘it is rather to be 
 regarded as synonymous with ys, and, 
 
 country ; only restricting it to the par- 
 ticular country in which Nineveh had 
 been situated; so that the phrase will 
 be equivalent to yim, Gen. 1. 24. 
 The LXX. render πάντα τὰ θηρία τῆς 
 γῆς. Targ. sua nyT 55, all the beasts of 
 the field. The 1 in iT 15 merely 
 paragogic. For ΠΝ and 5p, see on 
 Is. xxxiv. 11. Some interpret οἷν of the 
 
 Arab. οὐ; the demon of the desert, and 
 
 convert 117, desolation, into MY, raven, 
 but without sufficient ground. See 
 Maurer, who, in opposition to Hitzig, 
 takes both words in their usual accepta- 
 tion. την, the Piel of 7¥, is here used 
 impersonally, and is best rendered in 
 the passive. 73, chapiter, see on 
 Amos ix. 1. By “8 is meant the 
 wainscoting and fine carved cedar work 
 with which the walls, ceiling, &c., of 
 the houses were ornamented. For the 
 language of pride and carnal security 
 expressed in ver. 15, comp. Is. xlvii, 8. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Having digressed to predict the fate of the surrounding nations, Zephaniah returns 
 to his own countrymen, and specially directs his prophecy against Jerusalem, 
 the leading persons in which had persevered in wickedness in spite of all the 
 warnings which they had received, 1—7. After addressing the pious members 
 of the theocracy, and encouraging them to wait for the development of the 
 Divine purposes, 8, he proceeds to predict the conversion of the Gentiles, 9, 
 and of the Jews, 10; describes their character when converted, 11—13; con- 
 gratulates 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, 1S—20. 
 
CHAP. ITI. 
 
 ZEPHANTAH. 
 
 339 
 
 1 Wo to the rebellious 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. 
 
 5 Jehovah, the righteous One, is in the midst of her ; 
 
 1. It has been thought by some that 
 in “TWH, rebellious, as here applied to 
 Jerusalem, there is a play upon the 
 name of πονῶ, 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 connexion with that sacred place, 
 while they obstinately refused to obey 
 the law of God. The root is 812, cognate 
 with 779, ¢o prove refractory, rebel. The 
 LXX. rendering the word by ἐπιφανὴς, 
 illustrious, have doubtless mistaken it 
 as coming from 783, {0 see; as the Syr. 
 
 oc: 
 likewise has done, rendering | \\2 po 
 $x) 
 
 noted, celebrated. 3°, the Benon. par- 
 ticiple of ΠΡ, to rage, be cruel, oppressive, 
 &c. What the prophet has in his eye 
 is the rage and cruelty with which the 
 idolatrous inhabitants persecuted such 
 as adhered to the worship and service 
 of Jehovah, as well as their oppression of 
 the widows, orphans, &c. See Jer. xxii. 3. 
 
 2—4. Not only did the inhabitants 
 generally refuse to receive instruction 
 . from the Lord, and alienate their affec- 
 tions from him and his service, but the 
 rulers, both civil and _ ecclesiastical, 
 evinced the grossest dereliction of duty, 
 and the most flagrant inconsistency of 
 character. 3? ὩΣ, evening wolves, i.e. 
 wolves which come forth from the forests 
 
 or other lurking places in the evening, 
 and, greedy with hunger, seize or devour 
 during the night, whatever animals they 
 fall in with. Comp. Hab. i. 8; λύκοι 
 νυκτερινοὶ, Oppian. Cyneget. 3, 266. 
 The voracious and insatiable cupidity 
 of the judges is further expressed by 
 Pa? Ὁ. 89, nothing is craunched in the 
 morning ; i.e. all is devoured in the 
 night, and not so much as a bone left 
 to be gnawed in the morning. D2 is 
 here used impersonally. Thus, as to the 
 sense, the LXX. and Vulg. οὐχ ὑπελί- 
 movto ; non relinquebant. ‘The prophets, 
 instead of evincing that gravity and 
 humility which became those who pro- 
 fessed to deliver Divine messages, were 
 ome, light and vain-glorious persons, 
 trifling with the most serious subjects, 
 and carrying themselves haughtily to- 
 wards others. The verb ἘΠΕ properly 
 signifies to oil up like water. Comp. 
 Gen. xlix. 4; Jud. ix. 4; Jer. xxiii. 32. 
 
 Arab. = superbivit. The priests were 
 
 equally corrupt. They made no dis- 
 tinction between the holy and profane, 
 and distorted the meaning of the law, 
 when expounding it to the people. Comp. 
 Ezek. xxi. 26, where similar language 
 is used, and explained. 
 
 5. Jehovah had his residence in the 
 temple, connected with the daily worship, 
 in which were those unfailing revela- 
 
940 
 
 He doeth no injustice ; 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP, III. 
 
 Every morning he bringeth his judgment to light, 
 
 It is not lacking ; 
 
 But the unjust know no shame. 
 
 6 I have cut off the nations ; 
 
 Their corner-stones are laid waste ; 
 
 I have made their streets desolate, 
 
 Without any one passing through them. 
 
 Their cities are destroyed ; they are without a man ; 
 
 There is no inhabitant. 
 7 Isaid: Only fear me; 
 Receive instruction ; 
 
 That her habitation might not be cut off, 
 According to all that I had appointed concerning her : 
 
 But they rose up early ; 
 
 They corrupted all their doings. 
 8 Nevertheless, wait for me, saith Jehovah, 
 
 tions of the rectitude of his character 
 that, brought to view a glorious pattern, 
 which it was the duty of the Jews to 
 imitate; but, hardened in wickedness, 
 they were conscious of no feelings of 
 shame. 32 9733, iz the morning, in the 
 morning, i.e. according to a common 
 Hebrew idiom, every morning. 
 
 6. Besides the plentiful instruction 
 with which the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
 had been furnished by the public in- 
 stitutions that existed among them, and 
 from which they might conclude what 
 punishment they had to expect if they 
 persisted in sin, they had examples from 
 which to take warning in the desolate 
 condition to which other nations had 
 been reduced on account of their wicked- 
 ness. Under the long and happy reign 
 of Josiah, the Jews enjoyed rest and 
 tranquillity until the last year, while 
 other neighbouring nations were laid 
 waste; for it was during his reign that 
 the great incursion of the Scythians 
 into western Asia took place, while 
 Judsea was spared. Michaelis. 722 is 
 here to be taken in its literal acceptation 
 of corner-stone, but the ruin or desola- 
 tion of the building resting upon it is 
 implied. ΠΕΣ is the Niphal of 773, ¢o 
 cut down, lay waste. 
 
 7. ἜΝ and ‘77M are both futures used 
 
 for imperatives. In ΠΥ Ὸ and MY is a 
 change, by no means uncommon, of the 
 second person to the third. In % there 
 is an ellipsis of 3, according to. 7 "7B 
 is not to be here taken in the sense of 
 punishing, but of appointing for punish- 
 ment; comp. Jer. xv. 8. The appointed 
 and threatened judgments should be 
 averted from Jerusalem, if the inhabit- 
 ants 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. 
 mp7, to rise early, is frequently used 
 in the Hebrew Scriptures in a tro- 
 pical sense, to indicate that a person 
 does anything 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, &c., before setting out on a 
 journey, which, in the East, is done very 
 early inthe morning. Root 02¥, shoulder. 
 
 Eth. py yaw : Jajulavit. APY PIV: 
 
 onus imposuit humeris. 
 
 8. Most expositors interpret the words 
 12m, expect or wait for me, as if they 
 were addressed to the profligate charac- 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 341 
 
 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 they may all invoke the name of Jehovah ; 
 That they may serve him with one accord. 
 
 ters described in the preceding verse ; 
 but this construction is admissible only 
 on the principle of their being applied 
 ironically, since the phrase is never 
 used except in a good sense. Yet even 
 this but ill suits the entire connexion. 
 I consider them to form an apostrophe 
 to the pious among the Jews, calling 
 upon them to look forward, amid all the 
 calamities which were approaching, to 
 the glorious period which these calami- 
 ties were designed to usher in, and 
 which the prophet specially describes in 
 the following verses. The LXX., and 
 all the other Greek versions, as also the 
 Syr., render 1¥, by ¢estimony or witness ; 
 a signification which only attaches to 
 the letters when pointed πὸ, The sig- 
 nification of prey is more appropriate 
 here. Compare for this signification 
 Gen. xlix. 27; Is. xxxuii. 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 from ΤΡ, ¢o pass on in a hostile 
 manner, to rush upon, attack; Arab. 
 Vdc, erruit in aliquem; Code, inimici, 
 hostes ; at once suggests the ideas of 
 conflict and destruction. 
 
 9. From this verse to the end of the 
 book, the prophecy relates exclusively to 
 Messianic times. The 7791 ΠΕ, purified 
 lip or language, means the profession 
 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 ΩΡ, as distinguished 
 from the Jews, it follows that the spread 
 of Christianity, and the consequent sub- 
 version of idolatry throughout the world, 
 
 are here specially predicted. This 
 prediction, however, has hitherto been 
 only partially fulfilled. By the gospel, 
 indeed, idolatry has been dislodged from 
 many parts of the globe, but its place 
 has to a great extent been occupied by 
 the pollutions of antichristian systems of 
 worship, while vast regions are still the 
 scenes of varied and most degrading 
 idvlatrous abominations. And, as to 
 the unity so strikingly expressed by 
 Ts DIY, 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 oneness in obeying the 
 laws of Christ, and observing the or- 
 dinances of his house. These laws are 
 spoken of as a burden, Matt. xi. 30; Acts 
 xv. 28; Rey.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 ὁμοθυμαδὸν, Acts 
 1,14; ii. 1, 46; iv. 24; v. 12: xv. 25; 
 Rom. xv. 6. What has prevented the 
 outward visibility of the unity of be- 
 lievers 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 pro- 
 fessing to act 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 such unity as that taught in 
 this verse. Yet for such the Bible 
 teaches us to look; and it behoves every 
 Christian to do whatever lies in his 
 
942 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. IT. 
 
 10 From beyond the rivers of Cush, 
 My suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed, 
 
 Shall bring my offering. 
 ΠῚ 
 On account of all thy doings, 
 
 In that day thou shalt not be ashamed 
 
 By which thou hast transgressed against me ; 
 For then I will remove from the midst of thee 
 
 Thy proud exulters ; 
 
 And thou shalt no more be haughty in my holy mountain. 
 
 12 
 An humble and poor people, 
 
 And I will leave in the midst of thee 
 
 And they shall trust in the name of Jehovah. 
 
 power, in order to bring about so blessed 
 a consummation. Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 14, 
 Μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες ἀπίστοις ; 
 ‘and 1 Cor. i. 10, ἦτε δὲ κατηρτισμένοι 
 ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοὶ καὶ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ. 
 10. Having foretold the conversion 
 of the Gentiles, the prophet in this 
 verse predicts that of the Jews; quite 
 in accordance with other passages of 
 Scripture, in which they are placed in 
 juxta-position with each other. ὮΝ, 
 my suppliants, from %0Y, to burn incense 
 to a divinity ; pray, supplicate. Arab. 
 
 yet bonos odores spiravit. Syyr. AS 
 
 Jumavit odore suavi. Comp. Rev. v. 8, 
 where the prayers of saints are called 
 θυμιάματα, odours or incense, and Ps. 
 exli. 2, where David compares his prayer 
 to nyop, the Hebrew synonyme for zz- 
 cense. Who the worshippers are, the 
 prophet explains in the following words: 
 snprna, the daughter of my dispersed, i. 6. 
 by a common Hebrew idiom, my dis- 
 persed people, the Jews; and the locality 
 in which we are directed to look for 
 them is W277 22, Leyond 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 where 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. @ AP]: 70 
 
 migrate ; hence ᾧ ΔΙ, = a sojourner, 
 stranger, the root from which ΘΒ, 
 Philistine, is derived, and for the same 
 reason), who maintain that they de- 
 rived their origin from Palestine, and 
 all of whom profess the Jewish reli- 
 gion. They are identified, as to phy- 
 sical traits, not with the African races 
 living in Ethiopia, but with the tribes 
 of Arabia. They have their own go- 
 vernment conceded to them by the 
 Negus, or king of Ethiopia. When 
 Bruce was there they had a Jewish king 
 named Gideon, and his queen, Judith. 
 Considering how greatly the 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 people. 
 That the Falashas are part of the dis- 
 persed people whose conversion is here 
 predicted, [ 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 
 circumstances 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 7717 7739, the 
 pure offering, which, under the new 
 dispensation, was to be presented in 
 every place. See Mal.i.11; and comp. 
 ver. 9. 
 
 11—138. These verses contain a de- 
 scription of restored and regenerated 
 Israel. The not being ashamed of their 
 sinful practices does not mean their not 
 
CHAP. 111.} 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 343 
 
 13 The residue of Israel shall not commit injustice ; 
 
 They shall not speak lies ; 
 
 Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth ; 
 But they shall feed and le down, 
 And none shall make them afraid. 
 
 14 
 Shout, O Israel! 
 
 Rejoice, O daughter of Zion! 
 
 Be joyful and exult with all thy heart, 
 
 O daughter of Jerusalem ! 
 15 
 
 Jehovah hath removed thy judgments ; 
 
 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. 
 
 feeling a compunctious sense of their 
 intrinsic odiousness and demerits, but is 
 expressive of the great change that 
 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 
 humble and poor in spirit, Matt. v. 3; 
 xi. 5; and of a truly righteous and up- 
 right character; who, having fled for 
 refuge to the hope set before them in 
 the gospel, shall be safe under the pro- 
 tecting 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 
 furnish the reasons why the Jews should 
 indulge in exultation. 728, in Kal, fo 
 turn ; in Piel, to cause to turn out of 
 the way, remove, destroy. Instead of 
 728, thine enemy, thirty-two MSS., origi- 
 nally six more, and two by correction, 
 read TIX, thine enemies, which reading 
 is also supported by two early editions, 
 the Baby]. Talmud, and all the versions, 
 For ‘x1, sixty-eight MSS., and among 
 these some of the most accurate Spanish, 
 read Ὄπ, In the full enjoyment of 
 the presence of their God, the con- 
 yened Jews should have nothing to 
 ear. 
 
 17. A beautiful description of the 
 delight which Jehovah shall take in his 
 recovered people, and of their con- 
 sequent and continuous happiness. The 
 phrase in2qxa wimp has occasioned some 
 difficulty to interpreters. Houbigant, 
 after the LXX. and Syr., and following 
 him Newcome, and recently Ewald, 
 propose to read wim, “he will renew 
 his love;” but this verb nowhere occurs 
 
844 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 18 J 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, 
 
 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, 
 
 in Hiphil, and the conjectural emenda- 
 tion is wholly unnecessary. 1, fo be 
 dumb, keep silence, has the same signi- 
 fication in Hiphil, to be silent, not to 
 speak, and is here very appropriately 
 employed to express the non-remem- 
 brance 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 ouly-begotten Son. Comp. 
 Ps. xxxii. 2; Jer. xxxi. 34; Hzek. 
 xxxii. 16. 
 
 18. 1x, of which O72 is the Niphal 
 participle, has two significations, that of 
 
 being pained or grieved, and that οἵ. 
 
 being separated, removed, &c. Both 
 derivations may be supported by the 
 
 Arab. 55} doluit, and Con). iv. procul 
 
 a se removit. 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 rendered if impossible for them 
 to celebrate their sacred festivals at 
 Jerusalem, are represented as filled 
 with grief when they reflected on the 
 privilegesof their ancestors. 1, festival, 
 is here a noun of multitude. 2%, on 
 her account, is introduced, for the sake 
 of emphasis, between the words ΠΡ 
 mE, the lifting up, or utterance of re- 
 proach, 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 
 suffix in 72 refers to Jerusalem or 
 Zion, understood : the change of person 
 is, as frequently, for the sake of effect. 
 The various reading 72%, though sup- 
 
 ported by more than twelve MSS., the 
 Targ., and Syr., is most probably an 
 emendation. 
 
 19. nx πον, means ὅο deal with, in the 
 way of retribution or punishment. Vulg. 
 tnterficiam. arg. DY ΝΥ ΤᾺΝ ΚΝ, 7 
 will make an end of. The restoration of 
 the Jews is uniformly represented as 
 taking place in connexion with the de- 
 struction of those nations that are hostile 
 to the cause of God, and that shall, na 
 special manner, oppose the accomplish- 
 ment of his purpose respecting the final de- 
 liverance of that long depressed and scat- 
 tered, yet beloved people. Comp.'Is. lix. * 
 17—21; Ixvi. 15,16. 728, halting, and 
 m3, 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 restoration. 
 The illustrious character of that restora- 
 tion, however, shall redound to the 
 celebrity of the covenant-people in all 
 the countries where they have been the 
 objects of reproach and ignominy. x, 
 land, is used collectively for M278, lands ; 
 and DAw: ys, the land of their shame, 
 means the countries in which they have 
 been the objects of contumely and dis- 
 grace. Ezek. xxxiv. 29. The occurrence 
 of the article in ὙΠ, which is in con- 
 struction with DmWa, is contrary to rule, 
 but is otherwise not without examples. 
 See Josh. iii. 17; 1 Sam. ii.13; 2 Kings 
 vii. 18. 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, D982 ws PINT. 
 
 20. After DINYw IN supply DIN32. 
 The Ὁ in nY2 is exegetical. The period 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 ZEPHANIAH. 
 
 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 your sight, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 of the re-introduction of the Jews into 
 their own land is here rendered dis- 
 tinguishingly prominent by repeated 
 and pointed reference. So wonderful, 
 however, 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 desired it. Jehovah, to re- 
 move all doubts, declares that he will 
 bring it about defore their eyes ; i.e. it 
 shall certainly become the object of 
 their delightful contemplation. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 4 
 ἡ rob Asie? 2.8 oP o> 
 
 L wiva ager tte τὐ ναῦν ἡ - tah veal “aol 19 aettio 
 
 mrad»! wise, (privbns 
 
 ay, eat eat ω πο ΟΝ on fe Ὁ ah 
 ΚΟ Steg... Ue rm 
 
 1 tate — ; ἡ} wl 
 
 ἮΡΑ ῦ alt asin ὙΠ ἌΣ ΠΝ ' 
 ay ta edb te flay abal hyd abt diniito nl} ite (ra La 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ie a ὡς ἀμ ᾿ ae ψάρι rn oa ΒῚ 
 : ἐν Lesa ‘ : a π᾿. 
 Saad, CA a ee me : τ 
 Ae A, τὸν an ee Geet sha σι". 
 wed να. δ». SIRE Sees 2 ee 7 
 wah 2 > is 70... 4 a», aps : ATi wu! , ep 
 x it ay) j 7 es 3 raf? “ww ng weds ee p 
 ἮΝ ll (ici oe δι νόου ili Ω 
 ry ΜΗ ‘ - a’ 7 ᾿ a? Ao 1e Sth a 
 τ ail ne pi tirds siete’ Kegs ty egal 
 die Gen, BU 3 Sco me ἐν» ἤν Gere ὃ AS @, τω, ᾿ 
 ees, “ee eee ek 
 τ - oy ων ἦν: κεἰ." Ψ Ἢ αἰὼν Peirce 1 —_ 
 Bata ae φ τὐμά να δα 
 Ὁ ὯΝ Υ ᾿ <> ey Cal Αι ὁ κα TR τωλα eee ἡ 
 
 Cerne as) Oe Mees 
 
 
 
ΕΠ Agi (αν iGrn Ἄν»: 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Ir is generally thought that the prophet Haggai was among the 
 Hebrew exiles who returned with Zerubbabel, and Joshua the 
 high priest, from Babylon in the year B.C. 536, when Cyrus granted 
 them their liberty, and ordered them to be furmshed with 
 what was necessary for the restoration of the temple at Jeru- 
 salem. His book itself vouches for the fact that he prophesied 
 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 labours, 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 they 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, ἡ, 6. B.C. 520, to deliver to them rousing appeals 
 from Jehovah. These appeals had the desired effect, and the work 
 proceeded then with vigour. 
 
948 PREFACE ΤῸ HAGGAI. 
 
 The book is made up of five messages, which were all delivered, 
 at successive periods, within the short space of three months. 
 They are so exceedingly 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 excel- 
 lence; yet he is not destitute of pathos and vehemence, when re- 
 proving 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. Certain portions 
 of the book are purely historical; and the rest, though exhibiting 
 more or less of the parallelism of members which characterises the 
 usual prophetic style, are but faintly rhythmical. The phrases, 
 NINAY FAIA DON), and ΕΞ ΞΕ) Ww, are frequently repeated. 
 Mi) DSI occurs not less than thrice in a single verse, chap. i. 4. 
 
 PRD WDS, i. 3; OPO NIN, 1.6; DIN PR, a. 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 respecting the success with which the delivery of his message 
 
 was accompanied, 12—15. 
 
 
 
 1. 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 communicated 
 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 
 Darius the son of Hystaspis, of the 
 family of the Achemenide, who, m 
 consequence of an oracle, was raised to 
 the throne of Persia, on the death of 
 the usurper Smerdis, 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, and ix. 1, lived be- 
 fore the return of the Jews from Baby- 
 lon; and that Darius Nothus and Darius 
 Codomannus flourished, the former 
 ninety-three years after the completion 
 of the temple, and the latter at a much 
 later period. Darius Hystaspis is re- 
 presented 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 13, Dary- 
 avesh, or, as it appears in the cuneiform 
 inscriptions of Persepolis, Daryawus, is 
 derived by Lassen (ib. ἃ. Keilform. 
 Inschriften, p. 158), from the root darh, 
 to preserve, with the affirmative awz, 
 
 the s being the sign of the nominative ; 
 and thus signifies coxservator. Comp. 
 Herodotus, vi. 98, where the signification 
 ἑρξείης, 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. 
 1. 7; vil. 1 ; vili.19. Zerubbabel, whose 
 Chaldee name was Sheshbazzar, Ezra 
 i. 8; v.14; comp. v.16; ui. 8, 10, was 
 the grandson (732 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 appoimted him governor of 
 the colony which returned to Judea. 
 The title of 772, prefect or governor, by 
 which he is designated, is applied to 
 
300 
 
 2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 HAGGAT. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 This people say, The time is not come, 
 The time for the house of Jehovah to be built. 
 3.  Yea,the word of Jehovah was communicated through Haggai 
 
 the prophet, saying: 
 4 Is it time for you, O ye, 
 
 To dwell in your wainscoted houses, 
 
 And this house le waste ? 
 
 5 Now, therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 
 
 Consider your ways. 
 
 6 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 ; 
 
 persons bearing rule in provinces or 
 divisions of the Persian empire of less 
 extent and importance than satrapies. 
 Comp. the Pracrit. Pakkha, and the 
 present Turkish Pasha, though the latter 
 
 word |), Basha, is rather to be referred 
 
 to Urb, 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 
 imam 20, the high priest, is to be con- 
 nected, not with the more proximate, 
 but with the more remote noun, z.e. with 
 rain, Joshua, is clear, not only from the 
 similar coherence of 778, but from all 
 other instances in which offices and 
 genealogical statements are blended. 
 
 2. Simple as are the words ΠΡ ἘΞ ΠΡ X? 
 yn), the construction is somewhat difficult, 
 owing to the position of the infinitive 83. 
 Hither we must, with Hitzig, give to 
 the former ΤΡ the points AY=TAY, x07, as 
 in Ps. Ixxiv. 6; Ezek. xxii. 48; or con- 
 vert 83 into 82 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 832 as put absolutely 
 for the ,purpose of more emphatically 
 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 ny, ¢ime, which 
 he had employed twice, verse 2, the 
 propbet makes an appeal full of point 
 and cogency to those whom he addresses. 
 The use of DAN after 022 adds to the 
 force of the language. 20 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 beauti- 
 fully the feelings of David, 2 Sam. vii. 2, 
 contrast with those of the persons re- 
 proved by Haggai! 
 
 5. The } in 7m») is inferential, while 
 my is e»mloyed, not in its temporal 
 acceptation, but argumentatively, as in 
 Ps. 11. 10. op IVT 232) wD, lit. place” 
 your heart upon your ways, an idiomatic, 
 but very expressive mode of speech. 
 Comp. ver. 7, and ii. 18, twice, in the 
 elliptical form 0232? 72". 
 
 6. 827, 5128, IND and i332, are historical 
 infinitives, which carry forward the force 
 of the finite form in DAY at the com- 
 mencement of the verse, and, at the 
 same time, give a greater degree of 
 prominence to the actions which they 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 HAGGAI. 
 
 351 
 
 And he that earneth wages, earneth them 
 To put them into a purse with holes. 
 
 “J 
 
 Consider your ways. 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, 
 And build the house, and 1 will take pleasure in it, 
 That 1 may be glorified, saith Jehovah. 
 
 9 Ye looked for much, but, behold! little; 
 And ye brought it home, and I blew upon it. 
 Wherefore ? saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 Because of my house which leth 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 produce. 
 
 11 
 
 express. Nothing prospered, and nothing 
 could be expected to prosper, while the 
 Jews were living in the flagrant neglect 
 of their duty. They had brought property 
 with them from Babylon, with which 
 they had erected splendid houses for 
 themselves, but God blasted their agri- 
 cultural and other expectations; and 
 they had nothing in prospect but a season 
 of scarcity and want. ‘The necessaries 
 of life were already become so dear, that 
 those who wrought for days’ wages 
 parted with all that they earned, as if 
 they had put it into a bag or purse with 
 holes. 33, dored or perforated. 
 
 7. A reiteration of the exhortation 
 contained in ver. 5. 
 
 8. The reason why the Jews are called 
 to provide wood only is thought by 
 Jerome 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 ex- 
 press mention is made of laying its 
 foundations. It rather seems to have 
 been on account of the time which would 
 be necessary to procure the article in 
 question from Lebanon, since it required 
 first to be hewn down, and afterwards 
 transported by sea to Joppa. By 779, 
 the mountain, Rosenmiiller thinks Moriah 
 is meant; Hitzig, the mountainous 
 country in the vicinity of Jerusalem ; 
 
 And I have called for drought, 
 
 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 timber ; it was conveyed by the 
 Zidonians and Tyrians, Ezra ili. 7; but 
 persons are often said to do what they 
 perform through the instrumentality of 
 others. For 7258), the textual reading, 
 which should be pointed 7228), the Keri 
 has 77238). The copula 1 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, 735, 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. ‘2 and 
 in’a stand here in striking contrast. 
 
 10. D> is not to be referred to the 
 heavens, and so rendered over you, but 
 on your account, for your sake. Comp. 
 039222 122, Micah 11. 12. The meaning 
 is, on account of your neglecting to 
 build the temple. The preposition in 
 70, following Ν 5, signifies with respect 
 to, but does not require to be trans- 
 lated. 
 
 11, In the use of 297, drought, there 
 
352 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 HAGGAT. [CHAP. I. 
 
 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 labour 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 message 
 of Jehovah to the people, saying: 
 
 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 Jehovah 
 of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, 
 
 in the second year of Darius the king. 
 
 is an obvious reference to 3, dry, waste, 
 desolate, verses 4 and 9. They form a 
 paronomasia. The lengthened amplifica- 
 tion 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 217 instead of 237, and ren- 
 dered the word by ῥομφαίαν, 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 an uni- 
 versal drought, the effects of which 
 would specially be experienced by living 
 creatures. 
 
 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, 
 Mm De? DIAN ww, Lam with you, saith 
 Jehovah. 
 
 14. mm vy, to 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 
 Hebrew Bible, as also the London Poly- 
 glot, improperly place this verse at the 
 beginning of the next chapter. 
 
CHAP. II.] HAGGAT. 353 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 This chapter contains three different oracles of the prophet. ‘The first, designed to 
 encourage the people and their leaders to proceed with the building of the 
 temple, by considerations derived from the Divine presence, 1—4; from their 
 national covenant continuing in force, and that of the prophetic and gracious 
 influences of the Holy Spirit, 5 ; from the advent of the person and kingdom of 
 the Messiah, 6, 7; and from the universal proprietorship of Jehovah, the glory 
 of the Messiah, and the reconciliation which he should effect, 8,9. The second 
 oracle cautions them against intermission in their labours, by showing that if 
 they did so, nothing they did could be acceptable to God, 10—14, and by re- 
 ferring them to the infelicitous state of their affairs before the late revival, 15—18 ; 
 and promises them prosperity, 19. The third is addressed to Zerubbabel 
 individually, to animate and encourage him in conducting the work, 20—23. 
 
 1 Inthe seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the 
 word of Jehovah was communicated through Haggai the prophet, 
 
 2 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 ; 
 
 1, 2. This oracle was delivered nearly 
 a month after the rebuilding of the 
 temple had commenced, and was evi- 
 dently designed to remove the despon- 
 dency in which some of the people 
 
 -Indulged, and to animate them to pro- 
 secute the work. 
 
 3. It appears from Hara ili. 12, that 
 there were many present at the laying 
 of the foundation of the second temple, 
 who had seen the first. To such of them 
 as were still alive, few as they must have 
 
 been, Haggai appeals respecting the 
 disparity between the two, in regard to 
 the rough and unpromising appearance 
 of the new structure, contrasted with 
 the elegant and splendid aspect of that 
 of Solomon, previous to its destruction 
 by the Chaldeans. .8%27is not in appo- 
 sition with 023, but connects with the 
 interrogative 2. The phrase PX? 112 
 is peculiar, but not difficult of resolution, 
 the word for temple being understood. 
 4. The comparison instituted in the 
 
 ZZ 
 
354 
 
 HAGGAI. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 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, 
 When ye went forth out of Egypt, 
 And my Spirit remain among you: 
 
 Fear not. 
 
 6 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, 
 
 preceding verse, so far from being de- 
 signed to discourage those to whom the 
 appeal was made, was on the contrary 
 intended to inspire them with confidence 
 in their covenant God, whose prerogative 
 it is to call things that are not as though 
 they were. It is tacitly implied, that 
 whatever might be the estimate they 
 might make of the work, it was very 
 different with respect to his. Comp. 
 Zech. viii. 6. And what is here only 
 implied is expressly declared ver. 9. 
 
 5. The government of 12377nN has un- 
 necessarily puzzled interpreters. Hwald 
 thinks the sentence is imcomplete, and 
 would supply 121, vemember. Hengsten- 
 berg actually supplies the word in a 
 
 arenthesis. Maurer endeavours to make 
 it out to be an accusative modi 5. norme, 
 and explains, secundum illud verbum: 
 and connects it with the preceding verse, 
 thus : “Tam with you, according to that 
 word,” &c.; and so our own translators, 
 after Calvin. Rosenmiiller would supply 
 swy from the preceding verse. The 
 particle ns I consider to be prefixed to 
 1277, in order to give it a greater degree 
 of prominence, and to be equivalent to 
 that or the same covenant, &c.; while 
 ἜΤ ΤΣ, together with >, form the 
 nominative to the participle N73Y; only, 
 as separated from it by the intervening 
 predicate 2) m2 Wy, the participle is 
 put in the feminine singular, to agree 
 with 7, the nearer antecedent. For 
 this use of 78 before the nominative, 
 though rare, see Neh. ix. 19. θυ ΤΣ 
 TON) pwn, the pillar of cloud did not 
 
 depart, &e.; ver. 34, WY 8) —ay Ion), 
 
 And our kings—have not kept, &e. : 
 Dan. ix. 18, 3729 793 NNT AY Os, All 
 this evil hath come uponus. ΣΤ, word or 
 matter, is here employed to denote the 
 Sinaic Covenant, as the accompanying 
 verb 73, fo cut, or make a covenant, 
 obviously shows. Notwithstanding the 
 flagrant violation of that covenant of 
 which the Jews had been guilty, on 
 account 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 7, the spirit of inspiration in the 
 prophets who were raised up in the midst 
 of them to declare his will, and call them 
 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 
 nations, in a brief space, exert his Al- 
 mighty power in effecting a great revolu- 
 tion in the state of the kingdoms of this 
 world, preparatory to the establishment 
 of the kingdom of the Messiah. This 
 mighty change is first described in the 
 usual figurative language of prophecy, 
 as a convulsion of the physical uni- 
 verse, and then literally as a con- 
 vulsion of all nations. In the phrase 
 myo nN ty, it is only the numeral 
 nox which occasions any difficulty. The 
 
CHAP. II. | 
 
 HAGGAT. 
 
 355 
 
 7 Yea, I will shake all the nations, 
 And the things desired by all the nations shall come ; 
 
 combination 22 ἢν, yet a little, i.e. time, 
 occurs more than once. See Ps. xxxvii. 
 10; Is. xxix. 17; Jer. li. 33. But that 
 here presented being peculiar to this 
 assage, naturally suggests some pecu- 
 iarity in the meaning. Most supply 028, 
 time, after the LXX. ἔτι ἅπαξ, quoted 
 and reasoned upon, Heb. xii. 26, 27, and 
 Υ ρ a» 
 
 the Syr. —] | pao 202. Comp. for 
 
 MTN OYE, one time, once, Josh. vi. 3; 
 1 Sam. xxvi. 8; and for the ellipsis of 
 orp, where nx stands by itself, as 
 here, Exod. xxx. 10; Job. xl. 5; Ps. 
 Ixii. 12; Ixxxix. 36. And certainly, as 
 urn, little, is designed to express drevity 
 of time, nothing can be more appropriate 
 than such construction. Hengstenberg 
 labours hard to bring the idea of brevity 
 of time out of 7x, 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 splendour 
 of their temple as erected by Herod. The 
 previous convulsion, implied in the phrase 
 yet once, does not appear to be theshaking, 
 &c., which took place at the giving of the 
 law on Sinai, but the violent change 
 which had lately taken place in the con- 
 dition of the Babylonian empire, just as 
 that which was yet to come is not to be 
 extended to the downfal of the Roman 
 empire, the destruction of Antichrist, 
 &e., but must be confined to events 
 which were to happen before the coming 
 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 successors 
 which followed, till the period when the 
 establishment of the powerof the Romans 
 - at length gave peace to the world, in 
 order to read, in legible characters, 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 in- 
 troduces, by way of contrast, 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 character 
 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 pre- 
 diction 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 p7, the 
 following interpretation is given as that 
 of Rabbi Akiba, who flourished before 
 the time of Jerome: 07) JAX ΤῚΣ urn 
 ἜΣ MI mR TR TOR? wd 
 ΤΩ IM Pry onw wy, Kor a little I 
 will give the kingdom to Israel, after our 
 desolation, and after the kingdom, behold 
 I will shake heaven and earth, and Mrs- 
 SIAH SHALL comMy. The rendering of 
 the Vulg. supports the same view: “ Et 
 veniet Desideratus cunctis Gentibus.” 
 Leo Juda: “Et veniet qui desideratur ab 
 omnibus gentibus.” Dathe: ‘ Et deinde 
 veniet gentibus omnibus expetendus.” 
 On the other hand, Kimchi, Vatablus, 
 Calvin, Ribera, Drusius, Gataker, Vi- 
 tringa, and others, render: “The Gen- 
 tiles shall come with their delightful 
 things,” ἡ. 6. their silver, gold, precious 
 stones, &c. Some, violently, “ Come fo 
 
356 
 
 HAGGAI. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 And I will fill this house with glory, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 the desire,” &c., meaning thereby Jeru- 
 salem. Most of the moderns, rejecting 
 this construction as altogether unwar- 
 ranted, translate after the LXX. ἥξει 
 Ta ἐκλεκτὰ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, “the 
 choice things,” or “the pleasant things of 
 all nations shall come.” Ewald: “ dass 
 die liebsten aller Volker kommen: ” i.e. 
 “That the most lovely of all people may 
 come.” Hengstenberg, who renders, 
 ‘the beauty of all the heathen,” is at 
 great pains in endeavouring to make 
 good his translation, which he interprets 
 of what he says is always beautiful 
 among them—all their costly good 
 things. But he fails alike in his attempt 
 to set aside the idea of desire as ex- 
 pressed by 7727, and in that to prove 
 that the prophet here foretels the rich 
 contributions which the heathen would 
 bring into the church. That the root 
 won, primarily and most commonly sig- 
 nifies ¢o desire or covet, both in a good 
 and a bad sense, must be evident to 
 every one who will take the trouble to 
 consult the Hebrew concordance ; and 
 that 7727, which is derived from it, sig- 
 nifies desire, an object of desire, see the 
 Lexicons of Gesenius and Lee. This 
 acceptation must be vindicated to 1 Sam. 
 ix. 20, dsp nD; to 2 Chron. 
 xxi. 20, 7797 Xa; and to Dan, xi. 37, 
 own. The want of concord in 
 DIT. NIT IND, the verb expressing 
 the predicate being in the plural mas- 
 culine, while 7727, the subject of the 
 proposition, is in the singular feminine, 
 occasions no small difficulty, and presents 
 an insuperable objection to the usual 
 Messianic interpretation, That ἽΝ 
 should have been produced by zeugma 
 with 037, is totally unsupported by 
 analogy, just as a plural of excellence 
 in verbs is equally without example. 
 The only practicable solution warranted 
 by grammatical usage, consists in as- 
 suming 7727 to be a collective noun, 
 conveying a plural idea, the gender of 
 which not having yet presented itself to 
 the mind of the prophet when he enun- 
 ejated the verb, he naturally expressed 
 it in the masculine as the more worthy 
 gender, The construction in such cases 
 is ad sensum ; i.e. it is not formal, but 
 
 logical. The proper translation, there- 
 fore, of O37) nV NI will be, And, 
 or, And then the things desired by all 
 nations shall come. The Genitive, being 
 the Genitive of object, must be thus ex- 
 pressed. Now these objects of desire 
 on the part of all nations, cannot mean 
 their riches, for no such riches were 
 brought to Jerusalem by all the nations 
 —the gifts bestowed by some few of the 
 heathen princes after the time of Alex- 
 ander not in any degree exhausting the 
 force of the language here employed. 
 Neither could the prospect of contri- 
 butions in more remote future time have 
 operated in the way of encouragement 
 upon the minds of those whom the 
 prophet addressed, so as to induce them 
 to proceed with their work. The objects 
 in question, therefore, must have been of 
 a higher order—rd μελλόντα ἀγαθὰ, the 
 good things to come, 1. 6. the blessings of 
 the New Covenant. There was found to 
 pervade the minds of the heathen, a deep 
 and dark feeling of the necessity of super- 
 natural light and influence. Bewildered 
 in the mazes of error and superstition, 
 they could find nothing satisfactory re- 
 specting the Divine Being, pardon, eman- 
 cipation from the power of moral evil, 
 and a future 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. So- 
 crates, endeavouring to satisfy the mind 
 of Alcibiades on the subject of accept- 
 able worship, says: ἀναγκαῖον οὖν ἐστι 
 περιμένειν ἕως ἄν τις μάθῃ ws δεῖ πρὸς 
 θεοὺς καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους διακεῖσθαι, 
 It is therefore necessary to wait till some 
 one may teach us how it behoves us to 
 conduct ourselves, both towards the gods 
 and men. To which Alcibiades re- 
 sponds: πότε οὖν παρέσται ὁ χρόνος 
 οὗτος ὦ Σώκρατες ; καὶ τίς ὁ παιδεύσων ; 
 ἤδιστα γὰρ ἄν μοι δῶκ᾽ ἰδεῖν τοῦτον τὸν 
 ἄνθρωπον τίς ἐστιν; When shall that 
 time arrive, O Socrates? and who shall 
 that Teacher be? for most eagerly do I 
 wish to see such a man.—Plato, Alci- 
 biades, ii. near the end. And, as_ the 
 time of the Redeemer’s advent drew 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 HAGGAT. 
 
 357 
 
 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 the 
 
 former, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 And in this place I will give peace, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 near, there was a general expectation of 
 a Teacher and Deliverer, not only in the 
 Jewish nation, but throughout the world. 
 Comp. ἠθέλησαν, Luke x. 24. To Christ, 
 as the Light of the world, and to the 
 spiritual blessings which flow through his 
 mediation, the prophecy strictly applies; 
 and, with this reference, was admirably 
 calculated to stimulate the Jews to per- 
 severance in building the temple, with 
 which was inseparably connected the re- 
 storation of their ancient polity, during 
 the existence of which the Messiah was 
 to appear. The “glory” with which the 
 temple was to be filled, was not the rich 
 and splendid furniture, &c., but a resplen- 
 dence, consisting in the manifestation of 
 Jehovah himself. Comp. Zech. ii. 5, 
 with Ezek. xlii. 4, 5; Exod. xl. 34, 35; 
 1 Kings vii. 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 
 supply. The declaration contained in 
 this verse is introduced parenthetically, 
 to relieve their minds from any momen- 
 tary anxiety, arising out of the circum- 
 stances in which, as a poor and despised 
 people, they were placed. 
 
 9. The LXX. refer the terms }7787, 
 the latter, and JUST, the former, not to 
 m7 may, ¢his house, but to 123, the glory. 
 And thus Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald; 
 but Ezra iii. 12, determines to the con- 
 trary. The glory here predicted 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 Solo- 
 mon, 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 that 
 
 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 sump- 
 tuousness to the former, and wanted, as 
 the Jews admit, the Urim and Thum- 
 mim, 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 ap- 
 peared, 2 Cor. iv. 6, who is the “ Bright- 
 ness of the Divine glory,” Heb. i. 2, 3, 
 whose glory was beheld as that of the 
 only-begotten of the Father, John i. 14; 
 who could say of himself, “ 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 in- 
 terpretation, and indeed of the Messianic 
 character of the entire prophecy, ver. 
 7—9, the declaration made in the con- 
 cluding clause of the latter verse may 
 with all propriety be adduced. When 
 “peace” is spoken of in an absolute 
 sense, in the prophets, it denotes the re- 
 conciliation between God and _ sinful 
 men, to be effected by the Messiah. 
 Comp. Is. ix. 6, 7; lii. 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 737 Dip, 
 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, 
 
358 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 HAGGAI. [CHAP. 11. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of 
 Darius, the word of Jehovah was communicated through Haggai 
 the prophet, saying: Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ask now the 
 priests as to the law, saying: If any one should carry sacred flesh 
 in the skirt of his garment, and touch with his skirt bread, or pot- 
 tage, or wine, or oil, or any eatable, shall it be 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 answered and said, 
 Then Haggai continued, and said: 
 
 Thus hath this people, and thus hath this nation been, 
 
 14 It shall be unclean. 
 
 Before me, saith Jehovah ; 
 
 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 
 
 whether the temple erected by Zerub- 
 babel, and that built by Herod, are to 
 be regarded as identical, or whether the 
 latter is not to be considered 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 religious language 
 they were identical; just as Josephus 
 speaks of those built by Solomon 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 monthsafterthat contained 
 in the preceding verses of the chapter. 
 11—18. To convince his countrymen 
 of the impossibility of their conduct 
 being 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 into contact with 
 
 what had been sanctified ; and the other, 
 respecting the communication of cere- 
 monial impurity by one who was himself 
 impure. ‘The former was denied; the 
 latter affirmed. Whatever the Jews 
 might otherwise rightly perform, would 
 not compensate for their neglect in 
 building the temple; on the contrary, 
 their neglect in this matter would taint 
 or vitiate all their other actions. Comp. 
 in illustration of these questions, Lev. 
 vi. 27 ; Numb. vi. 6; xix. 13; in which 
 latter passages the abbreviated form 52, 
 a dead body, is expressed in full by +92 
 MP, or by Mo ΣΝ DINT TH. 
 
 14. The application of the legal de- 
 cisions of the priests to the case of the 
 Jews, who had neglected the building of 
 the temple. It describes them, not as 
 they 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 
 Dw, 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 
 addressed. Ezra iii. 3. 
 
 15—18. 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 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 In the temple of Jehovah. 
 
 16 Since these days were, 
 
 HAGGALT. 
 
 359 
 
 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 
 
 I smote you with blight, and mildew, and hail, 
 
 In all the labours of your hands; 
 
 Yet ye turned not to me, 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 Consider, I beseech you, 
 From this day and backward, 
 
 18 
 
 From the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, 
 From the day when the temple of Jehovah was founded, 
 
 Consider ! 
 19 
 
 Is the seed still in the granary ? 
 
 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. 
 
 20 
 
 frowned upon them, and rendered them 
 infelicitous. 2, a substantive, with 
 the local 4, used adverbially. Properly 
 it signifies upward, being derived from 
 my, to ascend ; but used, as here, of time, 
 it means back, backwards. In ἘΣ, the 
 word 0", days, is understood. 3 is to 
 be taken impersonally. At DO wy no», 
 a heap of twenty, supply i228 or DY, 
 sheaves. 32, which is used for the 
 wine-press itself, Is. [ΧΗ]. 3, is here em- 
 ployed to denote a liquid measure in 
 which the wine was drawn out. LXX. 
 μετρητής. The quantity being unknown, 
 I have retained the original word. For 
 ver. 17, comp. Amos iv. 9, where we 
 have the words τὸ OAIO-N», ye turned not 
 anto me, instead of 28 DIAN PS, used by 
 Haggai, in which there is an ellipsis of 
 the participle 2%. For this use of nx, 
 as a nominative, or as indicating the 
 subject of discourse, see on ver. 5. In 
 ver. 18, the exhortation is once and 
 again reiterated for the sake of effect ; 
 and to render it still more definite, the 
 exact date is added to the formula 017 
 m7, this day, which had been employed 
 ver. 15. ‘yo is here to be taken, as in 
 
 And the word of Jehovah was communicated a second time to 
 
 that verse, in reference to past time, and 
 not, as the Vulg., Hitzig, &c., in refer- 
 ence to the future. 
 
 19. To the question put at the be- 
 ginning of the verse, a negative is to be 
 given. The seed was no longer in the 
 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. Jeho- 
 vah had formerly blasted their harvest ; 
 but now that the people were diligently 
 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 MT DIN, from this day, which had 
 been twice used in the preceding verses, 
 gives emphasis to the declaration. τῷ, 
 usually signifying wvfz/, is here employed 
 in the sense of while, or as yet, as in 
 Judges ii. 26; 2 Kings ix. 22; Jobi.18, 
 where it corresponds to TY 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 revolu- 
 
360 
 
 HAGGAL 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 21 Haggai on the twenty-fourth of the month, saying: 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 ; 
 
 22 
 The horses, also, and their riders shall come down, 
 Each by the sword of another. 
 
 23 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 
 Τ will take thee, Ὁ Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, 
 My servant, saith Jehovah, 
 
 And will make thee as a signet; 
 
 For in thee I take pleasure, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 tions that were about to take place, 
 which had been delivered in verses 6 
 and 7. In ver. 22, the verb τὺ, fo go, 
 or come down, is equivalent to 753, to fall. 
 That the promise made, ver. 23, cannot 
 be viewed as having respect to Zerub- 
 babel in his individual capacity, has 
 been thought to be quite obvious from 
 the fact, that he lived upwards of an 
 hundred years before the time of Alex- 
 ander, 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 during the 
 reign of Darius, whose arms were carried 
 not only into Scythia, Asia Minor, and 
 Greece, but, according to Herodotus, 
 into India. It is, therefore, not at all 
 improbable that Zerubbabel survived 
 several of these wars, and thus lived in 
 the beginning of 177 DY, ¢hat day, or 
 the period in the course of which the 
 prophecy was to be fulfilled; and as 
 the Persians occasionally experienced 
 serious reverses, as for instance, in the 
 Scythian expedition, it was natural for 
 the Jews, who were under the protection 
 of Darius, to have their minds unsettled 
 
 by apprehensions respecting the ultimate 
 state of their affairs. To inspire them 
 with confidence, Jehovah here assures 
 their governor of his regard and pro- 
 tection amid all the commotions that 
 might take place in the surrounding 
 nations. 122, ¢o take, is merely em- 
 ployed for the purpose of introducing 
 the action expressed by the following 
 verb. For onina snow, Twill place thee 
 as a signet, comp. Song. viii. 6; Jer. 
 xxl. 24. Onin, from 00, fo seal, or close 
 by sealing, signifies a ring with the seat 
 or signet in it, with which the impression 
 was made. Seals were commonly made 
 of silver, but sometimes of the most 
 precious 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 constant inspection and care. In all 
 these points of view Zerubbabel was to 
 be regarded by God. He was to be an 
 object of his incessant care and delight. 
 The latter idea is more definitely ex- 
 pressed by the addition ’™ 72 72, for 173 
 signifies not only to ¢ry objects, and 
 then to select what is valuable, but also 
 to take pleasure in what is thus selected. 
 
 
 
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. xu.4. When he is said to have 
 been the son of Iddo, Ezra ν. 1, and vi. 14, the word 13 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 con- 
 temporary with Haggai; and, like him, received his prophetic com- 
 mission 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 Zerubbabel and Joshua to carry 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 nations 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. 
 
 3A 
 
362 PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 
 
 The next portion comprises the seventh and eighth chapters, and 
 contains an answer to a question which the inhabitants of Bethel 
 had proposed respecting 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 Jerusalem by the Romans, and disso- 
 lution of the Jewish polity ; the sufferings of the Jews during the 
 dispersion ; their conversion and restoration ; and the sacred charac- 
 ter 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 
 contested. Not only has it been denied to be the production of 
 Zechariah, but 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 Hammond, Kidder, Whiston, 
 and Bridge, and more recently by Secker and Newcome in this 
 country, and on the continent by Fliigge, Déderlein, J. 10. 
 Michaélis, Seiler, Eichhorn, Bauer, Bertholdt, Forberg, Rosen- 
 miiller, Gramberg, Hitzig, Credner, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel. 
 The authenticity, on the other hand, has been maintained by 
 Carpzovius, Blayney, Jahn, Beckhaus, Koester, Hengstenberg, and ~ 
 Biirger. 
 
 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 
 
PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 363 
 
 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 altogether 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 existence 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 recom- 
 mend it to the adoption of any who will impartially examine into 
 all the circumstances of the case. The mere mention 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 establishment in the northern part of Palestine; nor is 
 there any thing, 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 captivity 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 application of the term “Israel” to 
 all the tribes, chap. x11. 1, just as it is used in the identical formula 
 Mal. i. 1. Compare Mal. ii. 11,12; 11.6. The few references to 
 a return relate to those Jews who were in a state of banishment 
 or slavery under the Greco-Syrian and Greco-Egyptian kings. 
 The historical circumstances connected with the Egyptian expe- 
 dition 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 rulers, and the condition of the Jewish people, in immediate 
 connexion with the sufferings of the Messiah, the destruction of 
 
804 PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 
 
 Jerusalem, and the consequent fate of that 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 Eichhorn, and other sharp-sighted 
 critics, that, rejecting, as their neology compelled them to do, all 
 ideas of actual prophecy, they scruple not to affirm that the dis- 
 puted 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 existence of royal govern- 
 ment among the Jews, at the time the author wrote, or to any cir- Ὁ 
 cumstances in the history of that people previous to the captivity. 
 
 When, therefore, the difference both in regard to time and sub- 
 ject-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 introductory for- 
 mulas which occur in the first eight chapters do not occur in the 
 last six, the objection, if fully carried out, would go in liké manner to 
 dismember the Book of Amos, and assign its composition at least 
 to three different 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 follow, since in the former every pre- 
 diction is ushered in by the marked formula, “Thus saith Jeho- 
 vah,” whereas in the latter no such formula occurs, but another 
 equally marked: “ Hear ye this word.” And upon the same prin- 
 ciple, 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 Zecha- 
 riah, 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 
 
PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 365 
 
 in the former, in which they occupy their appropriate place in 
 necessary connexion with the events which transpired at the time, 
 With respect to the titles, chap. ix. 1, and xii. 1, they are pre- 
 cisely 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 authen- 
 ticity of the disputed chapters as the offspring either of a holy 
 jealousy for the honour 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, which would unsettle 
 every thing, in order to satisfy the claims of certain favourite prin- 
 ciples 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 sym- 
 bols are, for the most part, enigmatical, and require the expla- 
 nations 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 rhythmus is sometimes harsh and unequal, while 
 his parallelisms are destitute of that symmetry and finish, which 
 form some of the principal beauties of Hebrew poetry. 
 
 * See Comment. on the passage. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 In 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 favoured, containing a symbolical representation of the tranquil 
 condition of the world at the time, 7—11; followed by an expostulation respect- 
 ing the desolate state of Judza, 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 powers 
 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 Berechiah, 
 the son of Iddo,) the prophet, saying: 
 
 2 Jehovah hath been greatly displeased with your fathers. 
 
 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 
 returned 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 
 enthymeme, in which the antecedent only 
 is expressed, and the consequent pro- 
 position 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 conduct.” 737 "22. The construction 
 
 of a verb with a noun derived from it, 
 is found in other languages, as μάχεσθαι 
 μάχην, 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 
 augmentation or intensity. Hence thie 
 LXX. render here, ὠργίσθη---ὀργὴν 
 μεγάλην; and the Syr. Cj SAS 
 ee Inge They 
 3.3. In ver. 15, the intensity is still 
 more strongly marked by the addition 
 of 173, φγοαί ----- 8 1732 ASR). The 
 persons addressed in D218, your fathers, 
 are the Jews to whom the prophet had 
 been sent. ‘There is no occasion, with 
 
 Blayney, to suppose that the text is 
 defective. 
 
ΟἾΑΡ, 1. 
 
 8. Say therefore unto them, 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 367 
 
 Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 And I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 4 Be not like your fathers, 
 
 To whom the former prophets cried, saying 
 2 δ fof: 
 
 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. 
 5 ΑΒ for your fathers, where are they ? 
 And as for the prophets, do they live for ever ? 
 
 ὃ. The Ὑ in PVs) is not merely con- 
 tinuative, but argumentative, and in- 
 ferential. For the defective form O7>x, 
 twenty-eight MSS., and three editions, 
 read O78 in full. The phrase nixiz 717, 
 Jehovah of hosts, is of unusually fre- 
 quent 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 
 occurs not fewer than nine times. See 
 on Is. 1. 9. Its use appears to have 
 been designed to inspire the mind with 
 unshaken confidence in the supreme 
 and irresistible power of God. The) in 
 wx} 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 Θ ΘΝ Ow, 
 the former prophets, as a designation of 
 the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, 
 and Kings, is of much later date. The 
 returned Jews are here reminded 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 repent- 
 ance, to which Zechariah now urgently 
 calls them. The former "ἡ in 03">209 is 
 marked in the margin as redundant, and 
 is omitted in the text of more than 
 
 twenty MSS. and some printed editions. 
 The plural of 922, viz. D220, is the only 
 form in which the word occurs. Comp. 
 ver. 6. 
 
 5. Jerome refers Ow220 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. 19: 
 “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 natural 
 construction of the verse, however, is 
 that which connects it closely with what 
 goes before, and identifies “the prophets” 
 here spoken of with “the former pro- 
 phets” there mentioned, just as the 
 ‘* fathers ” in both verses correspond to 
 each other. The question, 077-78, where 
 are they ? is equivalent to 2x, they are 
 not ; i.e. in the land of the living. This 
 the following question clearly shows. 
 In Hebrew, simple interrogatives fre- 
 quently imply the contrary: so that the 
 language of the prophet is equivalent to 
 “your fathers are no more, neither do 
 the prophets live for ever.’ 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. 
 
908 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 6 But my words, and my decrees, 
 Which I gave in charge to my servants the prophets, 
 Did they not overtake your fathers ? 
 So that they turned and said, 
 According as Jehovah of hosts purposed to do to us, 
 According to our ways, and according to our practices, 
 
 So hath he dealt with us. 
 
 7 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 Berechiah, 
 
 the son of Iddo,) the prophet, 
 
 saying : 
 
 8 I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and 
 
 6. ἯΠ, my decrees, i.e. my firm and 
 determined purposes to punish your 
 fathers, if they did not repent, which I 
 communicated to them by the prophets. 
 The root is pra, to hack, cut, cut letters, 
 &e., ia 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 by the sufferings which they 
 endured in Babylon. How far their 
 mG, conversion, extended, we are not 
 informed. It is, however, generally ad- 
 mitted that, as regards the great body 
 of the nation, it involved the entire 
 abandonment of idolatry. That 2 is 
 here to be strictly taken as signifying /o 
 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. ὙΣΝ3 and }2 are correlates ; 
 the 2 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 sym- 
 bolical 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 respect- 
 ing its import, to furnish the inter- 
 pretation. Though the visions are 
 described as distinct from each other, 
 the one following the other in regular 
 
 succession, yet they are so closely con- 
 nected as to form one grand whole; and, 
 as we learn from ver. 8, were all pre- 
 sented to the mind of the prophet in 
 the course of a single night. The period 
 of these nocturnal revelations was be- 
 tween two and three months after the 
 prophet first received his commission. 
 Comp. ver. 1. Ὁ, Shebat, is the 
 eleventh month of the Jewish year, ex- 
 tending from the new moon in Feb- 
 ruary to the new moon in March. 
 Like other names of the months, the 
 
 word is Chaldee; Syr. axa; Arab, 
 bl, and blu. The etymology is not 
 
 certain; but the resemblance of the 
 word to the Hebrew 02¥, a shoot, rod, 
 staff, suggests the idea of the month 
 being so called because it was that 
 in which the trees began to put forth 
 their shoots or sprouts. As the follow- 
 ing statement does not contain the iden- 
 tical words merely of the communi- 
 cations made to the prophet, but an 
 account of the scenes with all their ac- 
 companying circumstances, the formula 
 rox must be taken as signifying, “ to 
 the following effect,” “as follows,” or 
 the like. 
 
 VISION I. 
 
 8. It has been doubted whether the 
 article 7 in 57 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 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 ZKCHARIAH. 
 
 369 
 
 he stood among the myrtles in the shade, and behind him were 
 
 determination of the noun—zz the night, 
 or, by night. The latter seems prefer- 
 able. Comp. 23, Job v. 14. The 
 person here described as riding upon a 
 red horse, is spoken of as x, a man, 
 é.e. in the shape or appearance of a man; 
 for that an angel, and not a human 
 being, 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 and of the presence of Jeho- 
 vah, will not be denied by any who have 
 rendered themselves familiar with the 
 attributes and circumstances in con- 
 nexion with which the Person so desig- 
 nated is presented to view, both in our 
 prophet and in other parts of the Old 
 Testament. One of the most remark- 
 able of these circumstances, is his being 
 identified with Jehovah himself. This 
 Gesenius, so far from denying, or at- 
 tempting to explain away, expressly 
 asserts both in his Thesaurus, and in 
 the last edition of his Hebrew Lexicon, 
 under the word 7x22. “Sometimes,” 
 he writes, “the same divine appearance, 
 which at one time is called 7} J, is 
 afterwards called simply 7, as Gen. 
 xvi. 7, ef seg. coll. ver. 13; xxii. 11, 
 coll. 12; xxxi. 1], coll. 16; Exod. iii. 2, 
 coll. 4; 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 invisible Deity itself, which 
 thus unveils itself to mortal eyes; see 
 J. H. Michaelis de Angelo Dei, Hal. 
 1702. Tholuck, Comment. zum Ev. 
 Johannis, p. 36. Hence Oriental trans- 
 lators, as Saadias, Abusaides, and the 
 Chaldeo-Samaritan, wherever Jehovah 
 himself is said to appear upon earth, 
 always put for the name of God, the 
 Angel of God.” See the very satisfac- 
 tory 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 7" 7x9, the 
 Angel of Jehovah ; that the proper 
 name of this one Being is ™™, Jehovah ; 
 that this Being says of himself, distinctly 
 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 Tes- 
 timony to the Messiah, vol. i. pp. 445— 
 463; and Stonard on Zechariah, pp. 15 
 —19. Inthe Babylonian Talmud, San- 
 hedrin, fol. 93, col. 1, the following 
 brief exposition is given of the man 
 here referred 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 
 stated to be “ among the myrtles which 
 were in the shady valley.” Many con- 
 jectures have been advanced 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 representation. 7212 being always 
 used, like 7729 and ΠΡῸΣ, of depth in 
 reference to water or mire, it is clear 
 from the connexion that such cannot be 
 the signification of 222, which is a 
 derivative, not from 9%, fo sink, be deep, 
 but from x, to be shaded, darkened ; 
 hence the shade or shady place, probably 
 that of a mountain. Such derivation is 
 indicated by the Dagesh compensative 
 in the Lamed, and is supported by the 
 renderings of the LXX. and Syr. 
 
 κατασκίων, INGE Hitzig and 
 Ewald, comparing the Arab. dee, 
 
 umbraculum, tentorium, interpret the 
 word as meaning tent or tabernacle, 
 and suppose heaven, as the dwelling- 
 place of Jehovah, to be intended ; but 
 the exegesis is far-fetched and inept. 
 Equally unsatisfactory is the attempt of 
 the latter of these writers to palm upon 
 DD the signification of D9, mountains, 
 by comparing the term with 17, height, 
 Is. xlv. 2. Τῶν ὀρέων of the LXX. 
 must have originated in their having 
 mistaken D277 for 077, or it may be an 
 interpretation derived from chap. vi. 1.— 
 Behind the rider, who appears as their 
 leader or captain, follow three com- 
 panies of horsemen, distinguished from 
 
 3B 
 
370 
 
 ZECHARIALH. 
 
 | CHAP. I. 
 
 9 horses that were red, bay, and white. Then I said, What are these, 
 
 my lord ? 
 
 each other by the colour of the horses. 
 It is not to be inferred, that, because 
 mp», horses, only are mentioned, we are 
 to conceive of them as being presented 
 to view without their riders. This is 
 evident from the reply given by the 
 riders, ver. 11. 0, like our English 
 horse, is sometimes used in a military 
 sense, to denote cavalry. Still, as the 
 colour of the horses forms an important 
 feature in the representation, they must 
 have been specially prominent to the 
 mental vision of the prophet. On a 
 comparison of the present verse with 
 chap. vi. 1---8, and Rev. vi. 2—8, it will 
 appear that horses with their riders are 
 employed in the symbolical language of 
 Scripture to denote dispensations of 
 divine providence. The peculiar nature 
 of the dispensations is indicated by the 
 colour of the horses, and the armour 
 and appearance of the riders. Red, 
 the colour first mentioned, being that of 
 fire and blood, is the appropriate sym- 
 bol of war and bloodshed. That of the 
 second company of horses is expressed 
 by DP, day, or brown, perhaps not dif- 
 fering from what is commonly called 
 chestnut. See Bochart, Hieroz. tom. 1. 
 lib. 11. cap. 7. What induces the belief 
 that this colour is meant is, that ow 
 signify vines which bear purple, or dark 
 coloured grapes. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 ὅν, rufus color ; peal, valde rubens 
 
 seu rufus camelus. The LXX. ψαροὶ; 
 Vulg. varit. The addition, καὶ ποικίλοι, 
 in the text of the LXX. is doubtless a 
 gloss. This colour is symbolical of a 
 middle state of things—a dispensation 
 neither characterised by bloodshed, nor 
 by victory and joyous prosperity, which 
 the white colour is universally allowed 
 to represent. From what is stated, ver. 
 11, it is obvious we cannot interpret the 
 dispensations, thus emblematically set 
 forth, of events still future at the time 
 of the vision. ‘The different cohorts 
 speak of their commission as already 
 fulfilled. The colours must, therefore, 
 denote the Medo-Persian war, in which 
 the Babylonian empire was subverted ; 
 the mixed or transition state of affairs 
 
 And the angel who spake with me, said to me, I will 
 
 which followed ; and the complete esta- 
 blishment of the new dynasty in the 
 room of the tyrannical power by which 
 the Jews had been enslaved. In con- 
 sideration of the awful vengeance which 
 had been inflicted upon that power, the 
 colour of the horse on which the com- 
 mander rode is represented as being 
 red, rather than bay or white—evidently 
 with the design of affecting the minds 
 of the Jews with a sense of the great 
 deliverance which had been wrought for 
 them by their Divine Protector. 
 
 9. Marckius, Ch. B. Michaelis, Rosen- 
 miiller, Maurer, and Ewald, are of 
 opinion, that the angel here spoken of 
 is identical with the man riding on the 
 red horse mentioned in the preceding 
 verse, but the contrary is properly main- 
 tained by Vitringa and Hengstenberg, as 
 a comparison with ver. 10 is sufficient to 
 show. Though the angel who made the 
 communications to the prophet had not 
 been formerly mentioned, he had pre- 
 sented himself to him, or stood beside 
 him, ready to discharge the duties of his 
 office. This angel is uniformly spoken 
 of as 127277 qN790, the angel that spake 
 with me. See verses 18, 14; chap. 1]. 
 2, 7, (Eng. version, i. 19, and ii. 3;) iv. 
 1, 4,5; v. 5,10; vi.4.. The language 
 is peculiar to our prophet ; and from 
 the office specially assigned to the angel, 
 he is usually called the axgelus interpres, 
 or the angelus collocutor. That stress 
 is to be Jaid upon the use of the pre- 
 position 3, following the verb 739, 70 
 speak, as if it were designed to mark 
 the ¢zternal character of the communi- 
 cations made by the angel to the pro- 
 phet—a position maintained by Jerome, 
 Ewald, Delitzsch, and some others— 
 cannot be satisfactorily made out. The 
 utmost that can be conceded respecting 
 the force of the preposition, in such 
 connexion, is its expressing the familiarity 
 or intimacy of the intercourse between 
 the Divine messenger and the prophet. 
 See on Hab. ii. 1. When the angel says 
 ays, Twill show, or cause thee to see these 
 things, the reference is to a mental 
 perception or understanding of their 
 meaning. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 10 show thee what these are. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 511 
 
 And the man that stood among the 
 
 myrtles answered and said, These are they whom Jehovah hath 
 
 11 sent to walk to and fro through the earth. 
 
 And they answered 
 
 the Angel of Jehovah that stood among the myrtles, and said, 
 We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold! the 
 whole earth sitteth still and is tranquil. 
 
 12 
 
 Then the Angel of Jehovah answered and said: O Jehovah 
 
 of hosts! how long wilt thou not compassionate Jerusalem, and 
 the cities of Judah, with which thou hast been angry these 
 13 seventy years? And Jehovah answered the angel who spake 
 
 10, 11. 7322, signifies to commence or 
 proceed to speak, as well as fo answer. 
 Comp. the use of ἀποκρίνομαι in the 
 New Testament. Instead of the re- 
 quisite information being communicated 
 by the interpreting angel, it is imparted 
 by the Angel of Jehovah himself, and 
 by those who acted under his command. 
 Because the phraseology j282 72707 is 
 almost identical with that employed to 
 deseribe the roaming of Satan through 
 the earth, Job i. 7; ii. 2, it has been 
 inferred that the horsemen represent 
 celestial spirits sent forth for the execu- 
 tion of the divine purposes; but the 
 ground is too precarious to admit of any 
 such theory being built upon it, as a 
 comparison with Rey. vi. 2—8, is suffi- 
 cient to show. ‘The simple occurrence 
 of the same terms cannot of itself justify 
 this interpretation. From the reply 
 being given to the Angel of Jehovah, 
 we may conclude, that he had signified 
 to them that they should make their 
 report for the information of the prophet. 
 In consequence of their several opera- 
 tions, the obstacles had been removed 
 out of the way which prevented the 
 restoration of the Jews; the wars in 
 which the Persians had been engaged 
 had ceased ; and, at the time the pro- 
 phet had the vision, in the second year 
 of Darius, universal peace obtained in 
 all the regions with which the people of 
 -God had any connexion. For the use 
 of OP to denote a state of tranquillity 
 after war, comp. Jud. v.31. A similar 
 combination of ivy with ΠῚ occurs 
 ch. vil. 7, and is intended to express the 
 profound character of the peace which 
 was then enjoyed, 
 
 12. 722, fo answer, is here, as in other 
 instances, used in the simple acceptation 
 of speaking, or continuing a discourse. 
 The language is_ that of intercessory 
 expostulation. While all the heathen 
 nations around Judeea enjoyed prosperity, 
 that country was still much in the same 
 state in which it had been during the 
 captivity. Some of the captives had 
 returned, but they were too few to pro- 
 duce anything like a marked change in 
 its circumstances. Vitringa, Stonard, 
 and some others, without sufficient 
 reason, think that a different term of 
 seventy years is here intended from that 
 predicted Jer. xxv. 1] ; xxix. 10. What 
 in reality were the years of indignation 
 upon the cities, but the years of the 
 captivity of their inhabitants? oOy2im 
 md, “these seventy years,” express em- 
 phatically the period during which the 
 captivity had continued. ‘Two of these 
 years, dating from the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, had yet 
 nearly to run before the expiration of 
 the predicted period, so that the language 
 of the expostulation is most appropriate, 
 when viewed as calculated to meet the 
 feelings of the Jewish people. 
 
 13. That it is the same being who is 
 styled mim yx2, the Angel of Jehovah, 
 that is here designated by the incom- 
 municable name 7m, Jehovah, just as 
 in the passages quoted by Gesenius, 
 ver. 8, seems past dispute. As the 
 Divine Mediator, after having made 
 intercession with the Father, who is 
 addressed by the title nixiz Tim, Jehovah 
 of hosts, he communicates to the in- 
 terpreting angel the consolatory answer 
 which was to be made to the prophet. 
 
812 
 
 14 with me with good and comfortable words. 
 spake with me said to me, Cry, saying, 
 
 ZECHARIAH. [CHAP. 1. 
 
 And the angel who 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 
 
 Τ am zealous for Jerusalem, 
 
 And for Zion, with great zeal ; 
 And I am very greatly displeased 
 With the nations that are at ease ; 
 Because I was a little displeased, 
 
 And they helped forward the affliction. 
 16 Wherefore, thus saith Jehovah : 
 I have returned to Jerusalem in compassion ; 
 My house shall be built in her, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 And a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 
 
 17 ΟΥΥ again, saying, 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity ; 
 For Jehovah will yet comfort Zion, 
 And will yet take pleasure in Jerusalem. 
 is Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and, behold! four horns. 
 
 Da] O27, are in apposition: lit. words, 
 consolations, 1.6. consolatory words. 
 LXX. λόγους παρακλητικούς. Comp. 
 Is. lvii. 18; Hos. xi. 8. 
 
 14. This and the three following 
 verses contain the consolatory words 
 just referred to, which the prophet is 
 commanded by the interpreting angel 
 to communicate to the Jews. 22 con- 
 strued with 3, or with the accusative, 
 signifies to envy, be jealous, indignant 
 at any person or thing; with ? as here, 
 it is taken in a good sense, Zo be zealous 
 for anything, actively to interest oneself 
 on behalf of any one. Comp. Numb. 
 xxv. 11,13; 2° Samexxir25 1 Wings 
 xix. 10. 
 
 15. The adjective }238% signifies not 
 merely ¢o be at rest, as the whole earth 
 is described, ver. 11, but, in a bad sense, 
 to live at ease, be carnally secure. 'The 
 enemies of the Jews had not simply 
 executed the Divine indignation against 
 that people, but they had done it wan- 
 tonly. Such seems to be the force of 
 my my. 
 
 16. The building of the temple had 
 been begun, but it still lay for the most 
 
 part in ruins, and was not finished till 
 the sixth year of Darius. See Hzra vi. 
 15. πὴ, for which the Keri has, by 
 emendation, the more usual form %p, 
 occurs 1 Kings vii. 23; Jer. xxxi. 39. 
 17. Few as were the inhabitants of 
 Judea at the time of the vision, the 
 land was speedily re-occupied; and the 
 population had greatly increased by the 
 time of the Maccabees. Josephus informs 
 us, that overflowing with numbers, Jeru- 
 salem gradually crept beyond its walls, 
 till a fourth hill, called Bezetha, was 
 covered with habitations. 2, Arab. 
 
 ys, ass effusus fuit, to overflow. 
 
 That the overflowing, however, is to be 
 interpreted of prosperity, and not of the 
 inhabitants, appears from the Ὁ, in- 
 dicating the subject-matter, being pre- 
 fixed to 119, 
 
 VISION II. 
 
 18, 19. (Heb. ii. 1, 2.) This vision is so 
 intimately connected with the preceding, 
 that the break in the Hebrew Bible 
 here, occasioned by the commencement 
 of a new chapter, is very unhappy. As 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 19 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 373 
 
 And I said to the angel who spake with me, What are these? And 
 
 he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, 
 
 20 
 21 
 
 Israel, and Jerusalem. And Jehovah showed me four workmen. 
 Then I said, What are these coming to do? And he spake, saying, 
 
 These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man 
 
 usual in these visions, the hieroglyphic 
 is first presented. IR, @ horn, is the 
 symbol of a kingdom, or political power, 
 the figure being taken from bulls 
 and other horned animals having their 
 strength in their horns. Thus the ten 
 horns of the fourth beast in Daniel’s 
 vision, are symbolical of the ten king- 
 doms into which the Roman empire was 
 divided on the overthrow of the imperial 
 throne, chap. vil. 20; and in the repre- 
 sentation made of the same subject to 
 John, the ten horns of the seven headed 
 beast are said to have upon them ten 
 crowns, Rev. xiii. 1; xvii. 3, comp. ver. 
 12, where it is expressly stated, that 
 “the ten horns which thou sawest are 
 ten kings,” ὁ. 6. kingdoms, the ruling 
 power being put for the whole govern- 
 ment. The powers referred to by Zecha- 
 riah were those which had been hostile 
 to the Jews, and had scattered them 
 abroad from their own land. Jerome, 
 Kimchi, Abarbanel, Vatablus, and others, 
 have been led by the occurrence of the 
 number four, to interpret the horns of 
 the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and 
 Roman empires; but to this exegesis 
 it has justly been objected, that of these 
 powers two were not yet in existence, 
 and cannot be prophetically spoken of, 
 because the hostility described was that 
 which had already taken place. Neither 
 is it true that the Jews were scattered 
 - by the Persian power as they had been 
 by the Babylonian. What took place 
 under Darius Ochus cannot be taken 
 into the account here. The number is 
 rather to be referred to the four quarters 
 of the earth in their immediate relation 
 to Palestine. Comp. chap. 11. 6. Thus 
 Theodoret, Clarius, Ribera, Sanchez, a 
 Castro, Munster, Calvin, Newcome, 
 Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, and Maurer. “ Je- 
 rusalem” is added to render the de- 
 scription more emphatic, being the 
 metropolis, the site of the temple, and 
 the royal residence. 
 
 20, 21. (Heb. ii. ὃ, 4.) Here, again, 
 the same Divine Person is called 7, 
 who was formerly spoken of as 747 7X70. 
 See on ver. 138. Own, workmen in 
 iron, brass, stone, or wood, from 17, ¢o 
 cut, grave, fabricate. From the special 
 employment assigned to these artificers, 
 we may not inaptly compare M72 “an, 
 workmen of destruction, which is rendered 
 in our common version, ‘skilful to 
 destroy,” Ezek. xxi. 36. The attempt 
 of Blayney to justify his rendering the 
 word by plowmen, first suggested by 
 Michaelis, must be regarded as a failure. 
 On the inquiry being made, what these 
 artificers were coming to do, a reply is 
 given, which further describes the tyranny 
 exercised over the Hebrew people, and 
 then states that they were the instru- 
 ments commissioned to destroy the hostile 
 powers. By again pressing the number 
 Jour, interpreters have involved them- 
 selves in inextricable difficulties. All 
 that is meant to be conveyed, is the 
 adequacy of the means employed to effect 
 the punishment of the nations which 
 had afflicted the people of God. That 
 no appeal can be made, in illustration, 
 to the history of the four great mon- 
 archies, is proved by the fact, that the 
 workmen are represented as distinct 
 from the horns, whereas these mon- 
 archies successively destroyed each other. 
 The rabbinical reference to the days 
 of the Messiah is altogether aside from 
 the point, as is likewise the reference 
 which some have made to angels. There 
 can be no doubt that the several human 
 instrumentalities are intended, which 
 God called into operation to crush the 
 powers in the different countries around 
 Palestine, by which it had been invaded, 
 and its inhabitants carried away captive. 
 The conjecture of Blayney, who would 
 read 1707 instead of 705, and, changing 
 the punctuation of On& into DDy, renders, 
 “to sharpen their coulter,” has not been 
 approved. Nor is anything of the kind 
 
374 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. 11. 
 
 lifted up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to throw 
 down the horns of the nations, which raised the horn against the 
 
 land of Judah to scatter it. 
 
 necessary. Terror implies a sense of 
 inferiority, weakness, and exposure to 
 suffering, and is here appropriately re- 
 presented as a precursor of that over- 
 throw to which the enemies of the Jews 
 were to be subjected. Comp. Jud. viii. 
 ΤῸ} 1 Sam. xiv. 15; Hzek. xxx. 9. «7 
 signifies to throw, cast, stretch, the par- 
 ticular manner of which is to be deter- 
 
 mined by the context. Here that of cast- 
 ing 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, 
 vt, hand, being derived from the verb, 
 and not the verb from the noun. fx, 
 land, is here, as frequently, put for its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 CHAPTER IL. 
 
 Ina third vision, a man with a measuring line is represented as going forth to take 
 
 the dimensions 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 pre- 
 diction that such should be the increase of the population, and such their pro- 
 sperity, that the city should extend, like unwalled towns, into the surrounding 
 localities ; and that, under the immediate protection 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 in- 
 flicted upon Babylon, the Jews who remained in that city are summoned 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 connexion with the restoration of his people, the conversion of many 
 nations to the true religion, 1O—12. A solemn call to universal reverence con- 
 cludes the scene, 13. 
 
 1 Tuen I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold! a man 
 2 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 
 
 VISION III. 
 
 ; I as already rebuilt, as Stonard supposes. 
 1—4., (Heb. ii. 5—S.) The measure- 
 
 The dimensions are those of the city 
 
 ment here specified was not that of the 
 houses, but of the whole extent of the 
 city. Jerusalem is not here considered 
 
 before its destruction by the Chaldeans, 
 and were now being taken, in order to 
 ascertain the extent of the work that 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 375 
 
 3 thereof. And, behold! the angel who spake with me went forth, 
 4 and anothe? angel came forth to meet him. And he 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. 
 
 σι 
 
 A wall of fire around, 
 
 And I will be to her, saith Jehovah, 
 
 And will be the glory in the midst of her. 
 
 6 Ho! ho! flee from the north country, saith Jehovah, 
 Though as the four winds of heaven 
 I have spread you abroad, saith Jehovah. 
 
 was to be effected in its complete restora- 
 tion. The symbolical action was cal- 
 culated to encourage the Jews to pro- 
 ceed with the building of the temple 
 which they had commenced. Who the 
 measurer was, has been disputed. Jarchi, 
 J. H. Michaelis, and Rosenmiiller, are 
 of opinion that the angelus interpres is 
 intended. Hengstenberg thinks that, in 
 all probability, he is none other than the 
 Angel of Jehovah himself. But for 
 neither of these opinions is there suffi- 
 cient foundation, any more than there is 
 for the supposition of Blayney, that he 
 was Nehemiah. He appears to have 
 been merely an additional person intro- 
 duced into the scenic representation, for 
 the purpose of calling forth, by the sig- 
 nificant action which he was about to 
 undertake, the important information 
 contained in the following part of the 
 chapter. 88°, 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 hy- 
 pothesis of the Rabbins, Vatablus, 
 Ribera, ἃ Lapide, Drusius, Blayney, 
 Rosenmiiller, Hengstenberg, and Knobel, 
 who maintain that Zechariah himself is 
 meant by 19720, this young man, and 
 argue from it, that the prophet was of 
 youthful 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, ὦ. The verb jy, ruz, implies the 
 necessity of despatch, which could only 
 have been occasioned by the imtended 
 procedure of the measurer. He is 
 arrested in his progress, and virtually 
 told, that the former dimensions of the 
 city would be totally inadequate to con- 
 tain the number of its inhabitants. ni» 
 Dwi wn, lit. Jerusalem shall dwell, or 
 inhabit open places, i.e. the inhabitants 
 will not confine themselves within her 
 walls, but will occupy the localities in 
 the open country around. Thus Symm., 
 ἀτειχίστως ; Jarchi and Jerome, psd 
 man, absque muro. Comp. 1 Sam. vi. 18, 
 where "12752, ¢he country village, is 
 contrasted with 7219 VY, a fortified 
 city. See also Esth. ix. 19; Ezek. 
 xxxviil. 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 
 latter, 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 connexion, and 
 all the circumstances of the prophecy, 
 demand this limitation. 
 
 6, 7. (Heb. 10, 11.) It is generally 
 thought that the urgent calls here 
 given to those Jews who still re- 
 mained in Babylon, were designed 
 to induce them to leave that devoted 
 city before its approaching siege and 
 capture by Darius. In all probability 
 
376 
 7 Ho! deliver thyself, O Zion! 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. TI. 
 
 That dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 
 8 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 After the glory he hath sent me 
 
 To the nations which spoiled you ; 
 
 Surely he that toucheth you 
 
 Toucheth the pupil of his eye. 
 
 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 country- 
 men, avail themselves without delay of 
 the opportunity they now had of return- 
 ing to their own land. The urgency of 
 the call is expressed by the repetitious 
 form, Wn, Ho! ho! which occurs, 
 so far as I am aware, in no other part 
 of Scripture. The verbs D9), arise, 928, 
 hear, or the like, being readily suggested 
 by the interjection, will account for the 
 use of the conjunctive Vau in 52. ‘The 
 land of the north is Babylon, and the 
 regions adjacent. See Jer. vi. 22; 
 xvi. 15. Between the former and the 
 latter clause of the verse there seems, at 
 first sight, a palpable 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 
 retumn? 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 
 > after the verb, as in Ezek. xvi. 21. 
 Nor can such construction be supported 
 by substituting the various reading 3, 
 viz. YINi, instead of 2; for the words 
 could then only properly be rendered, 
 “1 have scattered you 4y,” and not “ iz” 
 or “zzto the four winds.” This reading, 
 though supported by fifteen MSS., ori- 
 ginally by seven more, and perhaps by 
 another, by thirteen printed editions, 
 and by the Syr. and Vulg., is in- 
 ferior in point of authority to that of 
 the Textus Receptus. The meaning 
 seems to be, that the scattering of the 
 Hebrew people had been so violent and 
 extensive, that it could only be fitly com- 
 
 pared to the force and effect of the com- 
 bined winds of heaven being brought to 
 bear upon any object susceptible of dis- 
 persion. 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 described with 
 special reference to them. 9 is here 
 used, not as a causative, but as a 
 concessive participle, as in Gen. viil. 
 21; Exod. xiii. 17. Nothing can be 
 more forced, or unsuited to the con- 
 nexion, than, the interpretation, which 
 assumes that ‘At2® is future in signi- 
 fication, and that the words contain a 
 prediction 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 des- 
 tination! By ΤΣ, Zon, are meant the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, at that time 
 still in Babylon. The words nvr 
 522°n2 are not in apposition, but in con- 
 struction, and are equivalent to Habita- 
 trix Babelis. For this idiomatic use of 
 na see on Is. 1. 8. 
 
 8. (Heb. 12.) Some suppose the pro- 
 phet to be the person who here speaks 
 of himself as having been sent; others, 
 the angel mentioned ver. 4; but that 
 the Messiah is intended, must be in- 
 ferred 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 Person 
 of the Trinity is described in parallel 
 language. Blayney, Newcome, Ge- 
 senlus, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, 
 strangely concur in rendering 722 ὝΤΝ 
 90, He hath sent me after glory, in the 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 ὧϑ 
 “I 
 “I 
 
 9 For, behold! I will shake my fist at them, 
 
 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 1 will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. 
 
 sense of, with a view to acquire it. In 
 no other passage, however, is WS em- 
 ployed, except as an adverb or prepo- 
 sition of place or time; nor is it ever 
 connected as a preposition with ποῦ, 
 This verb is not even here construed 
 with it, but with the preposition °8 im- 
 mediately following. It can only, there- 
 fore, be employed to denote the poste- 
 riority of the mission specified to the 
 restoration of the glorious presence of 
 the manifested Jehovah to his recovered 
 people. Thus the LXX. ὀπίσω δόξης. 
 
 Syr. 1p] sho, after the glory, which 
 
 is falsely rendered in the London Poly- 
 glott, ad prosequendum honorem. arg. 
 PRD ANN? Yost gy wz afler the 
 glory which he hath promised to bring to 
 you. Vulg. post gloriam. Such exe- 
 gesis is most naturally suggested by the 
 use of 7133, 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, Philistines, and Syrians, by 
 whom the Jews had been attacked and 
 plundered on various occasions, and 
 especially on that of the Chaldzean inva- 
 sion. The Jews in Babylon needed, 
 therefore, to be under no apprehension 
 from these enemies, and might return 
 with confidence to their ownland. 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, especially the 
 pupil, or aperture through which the 
 rays of light pass to the retina. 733, in 
 the phrase ΤΡ 023, the pupil of the eye, 
 Gesenius now derives from 33, fo ore, 
 make hollow, and considers it to stand 
 
 for 7333, a hole gate, like the Arab. 0G ; 
 
 but his former etymology is preferable, 
 according to which it is to be derived 
 
 from 723, Arab. Gb, dixit baba, Gr. 
 παππάζειν, to say papa, spoken of a 
 child. Hence the Arab. sles booboo, 
 
 (the origin of our English booby,) pz- 
 ellus, boy. The phrase thus corresponds 
 to the other Hebrew mode of expressing 
 the same thing, Ὁ jx, the little man of 
 the eye, Deut. xxxii. 10; Prov. vii. 2. 
 
 Both modes of expression, wt 2x 
 and Brel yo! are used in Arabic; 
 
 and the Arabs say in language quite 
 parallel to that of the prophet, ΕΓ > 
 
 css PU code, He is dearer 
 to me than the pupil of mine eye. Both 
 modes are more expressive than the 
 Latin of Catullus: multo quod carius 
 alli est oculis, or, ni te plus oculis meis 
 amarem. The pronominal affix in ix», 
 his eye, is to be referred to nixag nim, 
 Jehovah of hosts, at the beginning of 
 the verse, the nominative to °27%3, and 
 not with Kimchi, Blayney, Stonard, and 
 others, to the enemy himself. 
 
 9. (Heb. 13.) For the phrase Ὁ ΣΤ, 
 comp. Is. xi. 15; xix. 16. It is indica- 
 tive of the threatening attitude of Je- 
 hovah when about to inflict vengeance 
 upon his enemies. By oie, their 
 slaves, are meant the Jews, whom the 
 nations, either by capture or purchase, 
 had brought into a state of slavery. 
 Comp. Is. xiv. 9. 22, here and in ver. 
 11, signifies, as frequently, to know by 
 experience. 
 
 10, 11. (Heb. 14, 15.) The divine 
 residence here predicted, must be inter- 
 preted of that which took place during 
 the sojourn of the Son of God in the 
 
 ae 
 
oo 
 ~I 
 CD 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 (CHAP. III. 
 
 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 thatJehovah 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. 
 
 land of Judea. The almost entire iden- 
 tity 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 conclusion. Comp. Ps. xl. 7; 
 Is. xl. 9, 10. So evidently is this the 
 only fair construction of the meaning, 
 that Kimchi himself refers the passage 
 Twat wa ny, to future events in the 
 times of the Messiah. The phrases 019 
 wm and on ov, that day, those days, 
 frequently point out the period of his 
 manifestation and reign. With this ap- 
 pearance and residence of the Messiah 
 are connected, as their consequents, the 
 extensive conversion of the heathen 
 nations, and their being constituted a 
 people devoted to his service and glory. 
 The repetition 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 pri- 
 vilege, proceeds to describe a future 
 period, during which they should again 
 be the objects of the Divine favour 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. 
 XXvill. 9. 
 
 13. (Heb. 17.) A call to universal 
 reverence and submission in prospect 
 of the wonderful interpositions of Jeho- 
 vah on behalf of his church. Comp. 
 Ps. Ixxvi. 8, 9; Zeph. i. 7. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In 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 Jeru- 
 salem, but opposed in his attempt to recommence the service of Jehovah, by © 
 Satan, who accused him of being disqualified for the discharge of his functions, 
 ver. 1. The accusation is met by a reprimand, drawn from the 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, are next figuratively set forth, 3—5. He has thena 
 solemn charge delivered to him, followed by 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 introduced, 8—10. 
 
CHAP. 111. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 379 
 
 1 Awp he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before 
 the Angel of Jehovah, and the Adversary standing on his right 
 
 hand to oppose him. 
 
 2 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 ? 
 
 VISION IV. 
 
 1. The nominative to xP) is the 
 interpreting angel, understood. Comp. 
 ch. i. 9. As the phrase 23) τον, fo stand 
 Ucfore, is sometimes used of appearing 
 before a judge, Numb. xxxv. 12, Deut. 
 xix. 17, 1 Kings iii. 16, it has been 
 inferred that we have here the repre- 
 sentation of a judicial transaction; an 
 exegesis which is supposed to derive 
 confirmation from the circumstance of 
 an accuser being mentioned in the follow- 
 ing verse. But as the person here de- 
 scribed is the high priest, and the phrase 
 in question is that which is appropriated 
 to express 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 erection, 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 duties of the ordinary 
 priests; so that he may here be con- 
 ceived 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, ὃ, 6,7. The 77 zs, 
 before whom Joshua stood, was no other 
 than 7 himself, as ver. 2 evidently 
 shows. It has been matter of dispute, 
 whether by j2¥7 we are here to under- 
 stand the great enemy of God and man, 
 ὁ ἀντίδικος, 1 Pet. v. 8 ; ὁ κατήγωρ, Rev. 
 xl. 10; or, whether a human adversary 
 or adversaries are intended. Those who 
 advocate the latter position think that 
 Sanballat, or some other enemy of the 
 Jews, is meant; but the emphatic form 
 
 of the term, investing it, as it does, with 
 the nature of a proper name (Gesen. 
 Heb. Gram. § 107, 2), decidedly favours 
 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 2%) is against such con- 
 struction 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 
 accuser to assuine this position. What 
 the ground of opposition on the part of 
 Satan was, we are not here informed; 
 but if the construction put by some 
 eminent commentators upon Jude 9, 
 which resolves “the body of Moses,” 
 there mentioned, 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 
 rebuilding 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 official character, as the re- 
 presentative of the whole body of the 
 people. 
 
 2. Almost all the commentators, even 
 Maurer and Hitzig, agree in the opinion, 
 that the imcommunicable name 717, 
 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, that he renders ma{LSo 
 
380 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and he stood 
 
 4 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! I have caused thine iniquity to pass 
 
 or 
 
 away from thee, and I will invest thee with costly habiliments. He 
 
 then said, Let them place a pure mitre upon his head. And they 
 placed the pure mitre upon his head, and invested him with the 
 
 Ἐ Be 9, the Angel of the Lord, a vender- 
 
 ing which Newcome would, very un- 
 critically, have admitted into the text. 
 The interpretation of Rosenmiiller, “ vo- 
 catur legatus de nomine principis sui,” 
 is a pure fiction, and directly opposed 
 to Scripture usage. The verb 3 siguifies 
 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 utterly abortive. In the 
 reference to the Divine choice of Jeru- 
 salem, there is a recognition of the 
 promise, ch.i.17; 0.12. The pointed 
 mterrogation has respect to Joshua, and 
 forcibly, though tacitly, conveys the 
 idea, that his deliverance, and that of 
 the people whom he 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 favour from them, and 
 abandon them to their enemies. He 
 had rescued them, in order that they 
 night 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 sym- 
 bolical of the guilt and punishment of 
 the Jews, seems beyond dispute; just 
 as their removal, and his investment 
 with splendid attire, indicates a state 
 of restoration to the full enjoyment of 
 their religious privileges. 82, filth, is 
 used metaphorically to denote the moral 
 pollution contracted by sin. See Prov. 
 xxx. 19; 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. mst, costly or splendid 
 habiliments, sach as were worn on special 
 occasions, 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 Joshua are not, as 
 Ewald supposes, attendaut priests, but 
 attendant angels. The nominative to 
 yer and Y22? is 7)”, and not Pon, VIE7 
 }? does not mean, as Gesenius Interprets, 
 to let iniquity or sin pass by, but to 
 remove its guilt or punishment, and thus 
 effectively to remit or forgive. This 
 cuilt or punishment is represented as 
 having lainas a heavy load upon Joshua, 
 and to have been removed "Ὁ, from 
 upon him. 227 is not to be changed 
 into W228, as in the Targ. and Syr., but 
 is to be regarded as a not unusual 
 elliptical form of the idiomatic B28 0277. 
 
 5. The punctuation VX) is obviously 
 incorrect, since it introduces the prophet 
 as taking a part in the transactions 
 exhibited in the vision, which is alto- 
 gether foreign to the position he occupied. 
 The word should be pointed Y2), and 
 has been so read by the Targ., Syr., and 
 Vulg. translators. 23, ¢iara, or turban, 
 is used instead of 5229, the term em- 
 ployed in the Pentateuch to denote this 
 part of the high-priest’s dress. LXX. 
 kidapis. At 0721 the adjective 077% 15 
 to be supplied from the preceding, 
 or the article may be understood. 72% 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 
 posture of one who is about to deliver 
 an important charge. And this, as the 
 following verses show, was precisely the 
 
CHAP. ΠῚ] 
 
 6 habiliments. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 Then the Angel of Jehovah stood up. 
 
 381 
 And the 
 
 Angel of Jehovah protested to Joshua, saying : 
 7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 
 If thou wilt walk in my ways, 
 And if thou wilt observe my charge, 
 Then thou shalt both judge my house, 
 
 And keep my courts, 
 
 And I will give thee guides among these who are standing by. 
 8 Hear now, Ὁ Joshua! the high priest, 
 Thou and thy companions that sit before thee ; 
 
 character in which he appeared. He 
 had been sitting upon his throne, 
 but now rises to announce the divine 
 decree respecting the responsible duties 
 which devolved upon Joshua in his 
 sacerdotal capacity. I do not agree 
 with Dr. Stonard, who supposes that 
 the Angel assumed the character and 
 position of a witness. The participial 
 form of the verb is adopted for the 
 purpose of varying the style. 
 
 6, 7. 72, as here used in Hiphil, sig- 
 uifies to make a solemn declaration. 
 LXX. διεμαρτύρατο. ‘arg. and Syr. 
 voor. Vulg. contestabatur. ΛΟ, 
 my charge, means the laws, prescriptions, 
 or rites, which I have given in charge, 
 namely, the Mosaic Institute. Obedience 
 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. πο Ὁ, from 
 yaw, to guard, kecp, observe, is frequently 
 used by Moses to dencte the office, duty, 
 or charge, to which the priests were to 
 attend. See Lev. viii. 35; Numb. 1. 53; 
 iii. 28, 31, 32, 38. By the “house ” of 
 the Lord here, we are not to understand 
 the temple, as some have imagined, but 
 the people of Israel, viewed as composing 
 his household or family. Comp. Numb. 
 xii. 7; Hos. vii. 1; ix. 15. ~, ¢o judge, 
 is always employed in reference to 
 persons : never with respect to things. 
 There appears to be 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. 02779 1s the Hiphil parti- 
 ciple of 727, just as 0°25 is of D7, Jer. 
 xxix. 8; and ΠΡΌΣ of MW, 2 Chron. 
 xxvill. 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 presence of the 
 Angel, and were pointed at by him. 
 Some have thought that the subordinate 
 priests who attended upon Joshua are 
 intended; but such interpretation is 
 altogether unsuitable to the dignified 
 character which, as high priest, he 
 sustained. As none but superior beings 
 could be his leaders or conductors, it 
 follows 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 
 “sitting” 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 management of the national 
 affairs. Munster, Vatablus, Rosen- 
 miller, Ewald, and Hitzig, take O37" 
 to be the plural of the noun 727, a 
 walk, or walking place; but this affords 
 no appropriate sense, except it be re- 
 ferred to the heavenly state—a con- 
 struction put upon the clause by the 
 Targum, Kimchi, and several Christian 
 interpreters, but which is little suited to 
 the language of the connexion, and is a 
 mode of representation otherwise foreign 
 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 
 represented as “sitting before” hin, 
 not at the time the words are addressed 
 
382 
 
 (For they are typical persons,) 
 
 ZECHARIAH. - 
 
 [CHAP, III. 
 
 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, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts ; 
 
 And I will remove the punishment of that land in one day. 
 
 to him, for they are spoken of in the 
 third person, but usually, when con- 
 sulting together about religious matters. 
 On such occasions he oceupied a more 
 elevated seat or throne as their president, 
 while they sat on chairs or benches be- 
 fore him. By npn is, men of sign 
 or portent, are meant symbolical men, 
 persons prefiguring, or foreshadowing 
 some person or persons still future. 
 Comp. Is. viii. 18; xx. 3; Ezek. xii. 6; 
 xxiv. 97. 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 sacerdotal character, and in 
 the presentation of sacrifices before Je- 
 hovah, they foreshadowed 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 
 cuilty. For the derivation of 21, see 
 on Joel ii. 80. Though 95, 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 
 mos, Branch, the Messtan is meant. 
 His words are, 2m) SPD Tay m, “M 
 
 Servant, the Messiah who shall be re- 
 vealed.” The same interpretation is 
 found in other Jewish authorities, as 
 both Kimchi and Rashi admit. Some 
 few Christian interpreters, among whom 
 Grotius and Blayney, adopting the 
 opinion of the two Rabbins just men- 
 tioned, suppose Zerubbabel to be in- 
 tended; but, in my opinion, very pre- 
 postcrously, 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. Kven Gesenius, Hitzig, and 
 Maurer, make no scruple in applying 
 the title to the Messiah. It is that 
 given to him, Is. iv. 2; Jer. xxiil. 5; 
 xxxllil. 15; and Zech. vi. 12; and is 
 equivalent to Sov. See on Is. iv. 2, 
 where it is shown that in the writings 
 of the ancient Persians, ‘‘the dranch” 
 of any one means his son, or one of his 
 posterity. The verb Moz, from which 
 the noun is derived, signifies to spring 
 
 forth or up, as plants; but the LXX. 
 
 have adopted the word ἀνατολὴ, which 
 expresses the suw-rise. Hence the 
 Saviour is called ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψους, 
 “the Day-spring from on high,” Luke 
 1, 78. Comp. Mal. iv. 2, where wow mI 
 mi, “the Sun of righteousness shall 
 arise,” is rendered by the LXX. ἀνατελεῖ 
 ἥλιος δικαιοσύνης. The Vulg. adducam 
 servum meum orientem. For TY, my 
 servant, as a designation of the Messiah, 
 comp. Is. xlii. 1—7 ; xlix. 1—9; 1. 5— 
 10; 11]. 13—lii.; and see my Comm. on 
 the first of these passages. 
 
 9. Most interpreters regard this verse 
 as a continuation of the subject treated 
 of at the close of the preceding, and 
 explain the 728, stone, of the Messiah, 
 in accordance with such passages as 
 Ps. Ὄχι. 29; Js. xxvin, 16,. “This 
 view is largely insisted upon by Stonard ; 
 but what, in my judgment, renders it 
 altogether untenable, is the circumstance 
 that the stone is spoken of as having 
 been laid defore, or in the presence of 
 Joshua—language which can with no 
 propriety be employed with reference 
 to the Messiah. Neither can the refer- 
 ence be to 7727 yas, the plummet, spoken 
 of ch. iv. 10, that being represented as 
 in the hand of Zerubbabel, and not 
 placed or laid before his associate in 
 the government. I cannot, therefore, 
 
CHAP. 111.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 383 
 
 10 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 Ye shall each invite his neighbour, 
 Under the vine, and under the fig tree. 
 
 imagine any other stone to be here in- 
 tended than the foundation-stone of the 
 temple, which had been laid by Zerub- 
 babel in the presence of Joshua and 
 his brethren the priests, who celebrated 
 the joyful event in songs of praise to 
 Jehovah ; Ezra ii. 8—13. When 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 of 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 con- 
 ducted, employed the hieroglyphic of 
 ** seven eyes,’—seven, in the Oriental 
 style, denoting fulness or perfection. 
 Such symbolic representations were 
 common among the Persians. Comp. 
 Rey. i. 4; v. 6. Jehovah here declares, 
 that the erection of the temple, the com- 
 mencement 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 regard. 
 For Ὁ py, the eye being upon any person 
 or thing, as denoting the exercise of kind 
 and vigilant care, see Ps. xxxii.$. The 
 attempt of Vitringa and Blayney to ex- 
 plain OY, of fountains, and so apply 
 the passage to living waters flowing 
 from Christ as the antitype of the rock 
 smitten in the wilderness, is a complete 
 failure. The singular Ὁ}, signifies, in- 
 deed, fountain as well as eye, but it is a 
 settled principle of Hebrew grammar 
 that when fountains are intended, the 
 plural feminine is uniformly employed, 
 just as the dual yy is as uniformly and 
 exclusively used to express eyes. See 
 for the principle, Gesen. Lelrgeb. pp. 
 539, 540. That the dual is αὐ αν ς to 
 . express things that exist in pairs, even 
 
 when more than two is intended, see on 
 Is. vi. 2, and Hab. iii. 4. AME NAD ὍΣ], 
 Behold! I will form the sculpture thereof : 
 lit. “I will opex the opening thereof.” 
 What kind of architectural ornaments are 
 hereby intended, 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. ὀρύσσω βόθρον. Syr. θεῖν: lon 
 eu ia] , “Behold, I open the gates 
 
 of it.” 1 is here used in Kal, but with 
 a causative signification, fo remove, cause 
 to depart. Δ 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 punish- 
 ment 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 inter- 
 ruption of the building of the temple, 
 and prevented the comfortable settle- 
 ment of the people in their own land. 
 For their encouragement Jehovah pro- 
 mises to put an end to their distress, 
 Wms OV, iz one day; i.e. soon, in the 
 shortest space of time. 77 SINT is 
 specifically the land of Palestine. 
 
 10. A promise of the tranquillity and 
 social eqoymenh that were to be ex- 
 perienced by the restored Hebrews. See 
 on Mic, iv. 4. 
 
384 ZECHARIAH. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 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 formidable difficulties which interposed, and to the 
 Messiah who was to come after the temple was in a finished state, 6,7. He 
 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 represented Joshua and Zerubbabel, the two principal official persons in the 
 
 new state, 11—14. 
 
 
 
 1. Awp the angel who spake with me awoke me again, like one 
 2 whois waked out of his sleep. And he said tome, 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 upon it, and 
 
 VISION V. 
 
 1. We are not to conclude from the 
 use of the verb 1% at the beginning of 
 this verse, that the communicating angel 
 had removed to a distance from the 
 prophet, and now returned to him. 
 When employed by itself, 2 certainly 
 signifies 4o 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, 18. Connecting the 
 verb in this manner with °27, reference 
 will be had, not toany absence of the an- 
 gel, 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 728%, a vast 
 number of the MSS. read correctly 
 os}, as the word is found also in some 
 of the earliest editions. Many MSS. 
 and several printed editions exhibit 723 
 without Mappick in the 4, and thus 
 bring the word into accordance with the 
 feminine form, as occurring in the 
 following verse. It has been thus read 
 by the LXX. and Syr.; still it seems 
 preferable to regard it as a masculine 
 noun, and read 793, with the pronominal 
 affix. Τὸ signifies an oil-cup, bowl, or 
 bason, and was placed at the top of the 
 candlestick for the purpose of supplying 
 with oil the small tubes or pipes leading 
 
CHAP. 1Υ0.] 
 
 9. seven pipes to the lamps which are upon the top of it. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 385 
 
 And two 
 
 olive-trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl, and one 
 
 4 on the left side of it. 
 
 And I addressed myself farther to the 
 
 angel who spake with me, saying, What are these, my lord ? 
 
 or 
 
 And the angel who spake with me answered and said to me, 
 Dost thou not know what these are ? 
 
 And I said, No, my lord. 
 
 6 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. 
 
 to the severallamps. Considerable diffi- 
 culty has been found in endeavouring to 
 account for the double numeral form 
 ΤΡ WWI, seven and seven. Some think 
 the number is to be multiplied by itself, 
 and rendered forty-nine; but this is not 
 only abhorrent from the representation 
 otherwise given of the candlestick, but is 
 unwarranted 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 
 insuperable objection, since it conveys 
 the idea not of distribution merely, but 
 also that of diversity or variety. The 
 instance adduced from 1 Kings vii. 65, 
 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 
 Τὴ ΡΒ AID) TWyIw. Our translators re- 
 move 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 
 τὰ is an interpolation which has found 
 its way into some ancient MSS. and 
 been copied into all the rest. This sus- 
 picion is confirmed by two circumstances. 
 The word occurs only once both in the 
 . LXX. and the Vulg. The former ren- 
 ders: καὶ ἑπτὰ ἐπαρυστρίδες τοῖς λύχνοις 
 τοῖς ἐπάνω αὐτῆς : the latter, et septem 
 infusoria lucernis, que erant super caput 
 ejus. ‘The other circumstance is, that, as 
 in conformity to the number of lamps be- 
 longing to the candelabrum in the taber- 
 
 nacle, Exod. xxv. 37, from which the 
 symbol was evidently borrowed, it is 
 expressly stated, that there were only 
 ni} 7932B, seven lamps attached to that 
 presented to view in the vision, we can- 
 not conceive of there being to each two 
 pipes or conductors for the oil. The 
 O27, reeds or tubes of Moses, Exod. xxv. 
 32, 33, 35 ; xxxvil. 18, and the nipy1, 
 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 ΡῈ", fo pour 
 or flow. Vulg. infusoria. That the 
 candlestick was symbolical of the Jewish 
 church cannot be doubted. Comp. Rev. 
 1. 20; xi. 4, where the same symbol is 
 used in reference to Christian churches. 
 The idea which it conveys is that such 
 churches are placed in the world for the 
 sake of its illumination. 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. 729, like ἀποκρίνομαι in the New 
 Testament, signifies to proceed or begin 
 to speak, as well as to answer. It is 
 obviously 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 rela- 
 tive 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 
 labouring under despondency, produced 
 
 3 D 
 
ὅ86 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. Iv. 
 
 7 Who art thou, O great mountain ? 
 Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: 
 And he shall bring forth the Chief Stone, 
 With shouts of Grace! Grace to it! 
 
 by the consideration of the powerful op- 
 position 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 77 and ΠΡ 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 ex-~ 
 press the idea that human might, of 
 whatever description, was of no account 
 with the Almighty; that he can effect 
 his purposes 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 efliciency to it, 
 that its performance is.secured. There 
 seems to be here a reference to what 
 we read, Haggai ii. 5: “My Spirit re- 
 maineth among you: fear ye not.” The 
 truth, however, is of universal applica- 
 tion, and is clearly taught in the New 
 Testament in reference to the conversion 
 of sinners. 1 Cor. ii. 6; 2 Cor. x. 4; 
 Eph. i. 19 ; ‘Col. i. 12. 
 
 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 formidable 
 impediments which he apprehended, 
 should, in the smallest degree, obstruct 
 his progress. Ὁ, who, sometimes refers 
 to things, yet so as to include the idea 
 of the human agency connected with 
 them. Before 2) supply ™7 or M7. 
 The interpretation of Stonard, whoapplies 
 the mountain to the Christian church, is 
 altogether forced and inept. By ]28 
 TWN is meant, not any stone uniting 
 the two sides of a building at the top, 
 but the lapis angularis, or foundation 
 stone, on which at the angle both rest, 
 and which, being necessarily much larger 
 and more ponderous, as wel] as more 
 serviceabie than any other, was fully 
 entitled to the distinctive character of 
 the chief or principal stone. The foun- 
 
 dations 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 722 να 73x, 
 the chief or principal corner stone, Ps. 
 exvili. 22, and who is called in the New 
 Testament, Κεφαλὴ γωνίας, and Λίθος 
 ἀκρογωνιαῖοςς. Symm. renders: τὸν 
 λίθον τὸν ἄκρον ; Theod. τὸν λίθον τὸν 
 πρῶτον ; Aq. τὸν λίθον τὸν πρωτεύωντα; 
 all conveying the idea of the primary or 
 principal stone of the building. The 
 LXX. mistaking 78S17 for 78>, render, 
 tov λίθον τῆς κληρονομίας. The nomi- 
 native to X17 is not Zerubbabel, but 
 Jehovah. This was perceived by the 
 
 old, and he shall rule over all kingdoms. 
 The introduction of this stone was to 
 be accompanied with acclamations of 
 “Grace, Grace to it.’ mixtn, shouts 
 or acclamations, from 78d, to make a 
 noise, shout aloud, ery asa crowd; hence 
 the noun came to signify the shouting 
 of a multitude. The repetition of 77, 
 favour or .grace, is for the sake of 
 intensity ; and the ascriptions of this 
 favour to the stone (72) implies that it 
 was possessed of this quality, and was to 
 be the medium or means of its conveyance 
 to others. This prediction was clearly 
 fulfilled in our Redeemer. “ Grace,” or 
 fowour, “was poured through his lips.” 
 Ps. xlv. 2. At his birth the Mxwn, accla- 
 mations of the heavenly choir, were, 
 “Glory to God in the highest, on earth 
 peace, goodwill toward men.” Luke 
 u. 14. As he approached Jerusalem, the 
 multitudes were loud in their acclaims 
 of “Hosannah to the Son of David. 
 Blessed be he that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord! Hosannah in the highest.” 
 Nor is the phrase, “The grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ,” of unfrequent occur- 
 rence inthe New Testament. The usual 
 
CHAP, 1Υ.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 387 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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 
 
 trees on the right side of the 
 
 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 incon- 
 gruous. Whatever grace is possessed 
 by the people of God is altogether de- 
 rived, and is not to be ascribed to them- 
 selves, but to Him to whom alone they 
 are indebted for its communication. It 
 may farther be observed, that perhaps 
 the repetition in the phrase qT 0, Grace, 
 Grace, may have been intended to ex- 
 press the infinite value of the Corner 
 Stone. In Prov. xvii. 8, we read that “8 
 gift is ὙΠ ΣΝ, @ precious stone in the eyes 
 of him that hath it;” and one of the quali- 
 ties of the stone laid for a foundation 
 in Zion is, that it is MP, precious, Is. 
 xxvill. 16. 
 
 9, 10. 112: is the Preterite of Piel. 
 vza signifies fo cut, cut-off, bring to an 
 end, finish, in which last acceptation it 
 is here used. The verse contains a 
 positive 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 commencement, which had been 
 inconsiderable and inauspicious. The 
 efforts bore uo proportion to the magni- 
 tude of the undertaking, and could only 
 provoke the scorn aud contempt of un- 
 believers. 12 is derived from 33, as 2D 
 is from 32); only with the signification 
 of na anda, fo despise. ὍΣ otherwise 
 signifies ¢o plunder, spoil. With the 
 human estimate of the enterprise, for- 
 cibly expressed in the interrogative form, 
 that of Jehovah is strikingly contrasted. 
 His eyes rejoiced when they saw the 
 work marked out by Zerubbabel with 
 
 to him, What are these two olive- 
 candlestick, and on the left of it ? 
 
 the plummet. This instrument was 
 ἘΝ ΠῚ ΕΠ ΣΝ, 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 
 combined. The Vau prefixed in 38) is 
 to be rendered when, as in 72>, Judges 
 xix. 1. The nominative to 38} WML) is 
 TPL τυ Ὁ, with which im yy, as expletive, 
 is in apposition. ‘This, which appears to 
 me to be the only tenable construction, 
 is that given in the margin by our 
 Translators. It relieves the passage 
 from the burden of fanciful conjectures 
 which have 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 
 acquainted 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 
 righteousness, Comp. chap. li. 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, 11; and a third 
 time, ver. 12. The question is varied 
 each time, and becomes at last minute 
 and particular. The reason seems to 
 be, that it could scarcely be conceived 
 possible for him not to understand their 
 symbolical reference to the two most re- 
 markable persons with whom he was con- 
 versaut, Joshua and Zerubbabel. 23%, 
 
988 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 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 
 he spake to me, saying, Knowest thou not what these are? And 
 
 14 I said, No, my lord. 
 
 Then he said, These are the two anointed 
 
 ones, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
 a branch. XX. κλάδος, so called from 
 its resemblance to an ear of grain. 1922, 
 a tube or canal, through which oil or any 
 other liquid is poured. The etymology 
 of this quadriliteral is uncertain. LXX. 
 pvéotnp. With the tubes the two 
 branches were exhibited as connected, 
 to indicate the source whence the candle- 
 stick was supplied with oil. By 2935, 
 the gold, is meant the oil, which is so 
 called because its purity and brightness 
 resembled those of gold. 
 
 14. 77V7722 1M, two sons of oil, 1. 6. 
 two anointed ones, Joshua and Zerub- 
 babel, 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 re- 
 presented as furnishing it instrumentally 
 with what was necessary for enabling it 
 to answer the purposes of its establish- 
 ment, ἢν DPT is elliptical for—o1M2F 
 26 ὅν, who stand before. The phrase ex- 
 presses the posture of servants waiting 
 to receive orders from their masters. 
 
 ——— 
 
 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, presented to the view of the prophet, on which were 
 inscribed the threatenings of the Divine law, which still remained in all their force, 
 
 aud were ever ready to be executed upon transgressors. 
 
 In verses 5—1], the 
 
 means are emblematically set forth which Jehovah had employed for the entire 
 removal of idolatry from the Holy Land, and its abandonment to mingle with 
 its native elements in Babylon—the land of graven images, 
 
 
 
 1 Anp I again raised my eyes, and looked, and, behold! a flying 
 
 VISION VI. 
 
 1. For the adverbial use of 293 see 
 on chap. iv. 1. 7522, @ volume or roll, 
 from the root 3, ¢o voll. The ancients 
 wrote upon the inner bark of trees, 
 which was rolled up for the sake of 
 convenience, and for the better pre- 
 servation of the writing. They also 
 
 used rolls of papyrus and of the dressed 
 skins of animals. Aq. and Theod. ren- 
 der the word by διφθέρα, a skin or 
 parchment; Symm. by κεφαλὶς, the 
 term by which the LXX. have ren- 
 dered it, Ps. xl. 8. Mistaking 7522 for 
 50, they have here translated it δρέπανον, 
 a scythe or sickle, 
 
CHAP. V. | 
 
 9° roll, 
 
 * ZECHARIAH. 589 
 
 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 breadth 
 
 3 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, ac- 
 
 4 cording 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 
 
 2. The roll here described was of 
 large dimensions, more than ten yards 
 in length, 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 Megillalis, 
 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 722 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 
 dimensions of the roll correspond to 
 those of the porch of the temple, 1 Kings 
 vi. 3, seems rather to be accidental than 
 intended to convey any specific in- 
 struction. The participle πεν, Jing, 
 expresses the velocity with which the 
 judgments denounced in the volume 
 would come upon the wicked. 
 
 3. TNT NN, ¢his is, or signifies, re- 
 presents the curse, a phrase altogether 
 parallel with that used by our Lord 
 when instituting the sacred supper: 
 τοῦτό ἐστι TO σῶμά pov; in Heb. nxt 
 mu, this is, 1.6. represents my body. 
 mx, curse, is to be taken as a collective, 
 comprehending all the curses denounced 
 against transgressors of the Divine law. 
 After D807 supply Tit 129, “ from the 
 presence of Jehovah.” Because 712) 779, 
 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, Rosenmiiller, Heng- 
 stenberg, and some other interpreters, 
 have argued in favour of the position, 
 that the roll, like that of Ezek. ii. 9, 10, 
 was also written in this manner; but 
 the immediate construction of the pro- 
 noun with 772in 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 protection. The 
 curse went forth over the whole land. 
 It has been properly remarked, that an 
 individual example of transgression is 
 selected from each of the two tables of 
 the law: 2239, he who stealeth, standing 
 for those who break the rule of duty in 
 regard to their neighbour; and Y2w3, 
 he who sweareth, for those who are 
 guilty of a violation of such duties as 
 have immediate reference to God. 472 
 is not to be taken here in the sense of 
 treating as innocent, but with the sig- 
 nification of emptying, clearing, sweep- 
 ing clean away. Comp. Is. i. 26. 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 772 for O22. Thus 
 the LXX. ἐκδικηθήσεται; Symm. δίκην 
 δώσῃ. Nor can the rendering of Stonard, 
 “pleadeth not guilty,” be sustained. 
 703, like, or according to it, if fully 
 expressed, would be 373 703, accord- 
 ing as it is written, referring to the 
 curse or threatening inscribed upon the 
 roll. Thus Jerome, sicut ἠὲ scriptum 
 est. 
 
 4. The pronominal affix in Wpsxxi0 
 refers to 7287 in the preceding verse. 
 we y2e2 is an aggravation of 93%. The 
 
390 
 
 ZECHARIAH. * 
 
 [CHAP. V. 
 
 that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall continue in the 
 midst of his house, and destroy it, and its wood, and its stones. 
 5 Then the angel who spake with me came forth, and said to me, 
 Raise thine eyes, now, and look what this is that cometh forth. 
 6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that 
 
 cometh forth. 
 
 He said, moreover, This is their appearance in all 
 
 7 the land. And, behold! a round piece of lead, and there was a 
 
 punctuation of ΤῊΣ is irregular for 729, 
 the third feminine of the preterite of 
 7, which one of De Rossi’s MSS. 
 exhibits. }? not merely signifies to 
 turn aside and spend the night in any 
 place, but also to remain permanently. 
 See Ps. xlix. 13, (Eng. version, 12).— 
 smy2= 1772. A like curse was pronounced 
 by the Delphic oracle against perjury : 
 
 Κραιπνὸς δὲ μετέρχεται, 
 , ΄ 
 εἰσόκε πᾶσαν, 
 U Ἄν Ὁ 2) A be 
 Συμμάρψας ὀλέσει γενεὴν, καὶ οἶκον 
 ἅπαντα. Herodot. vi. 86. 
 VISION ὙΠ]. 
 
 5. 829, 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 
 τὸ μέτρον. Symm. leaves it untrans- 
 lated, οἰφὶ, which presents it pretty 
 much in its original Egyptian form, 
 which was WONT. Comp. the Arab. 
 
 ἄν... 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 ordinary size. 
 There is equally little foundation for 
 the interpretation of the Targum, that 
 the use of false measures was intended 
 by this item of the vision. Opy, literally 
 their eye, has been variously regarded by 
 different translators and expositors. The 
 LXX., Arab., and Syr., have read n2iy, 
 their iniquity, which many think much 
 more suited to the connexion, 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 reading is 
 adopted by Houbigant, Newcome, and 
 others of the same school. That py» 
 signifies appearance, or that which pre- 
 sents itself to the eve, is fully established 
 by reference to Lev. xiii. 55, Numb. 
 xi. 7, Ezek. 1. 4, 7; x.9; and this sig- 
 nification is appropriately applicable in 
 the present passage. Hengstenberg, 
 taking the word in its primary accepta- 
 tion, 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 epbah (for this is the 
 nominative to the latter ΠΝ, ¢hzs zs,) was 
 their appearance, the language is meto- 
 nymical, the container being used for the 
 thing contained, z.e. TY, wickedness, 
 or idolatry, as further explained, ver. 8. 
 
 7. The 123 contracted for 1273, what is 
 round or globular, from “3, to go round, 
 was the heaviest weight in use among 
 the Hebrews, being equal to 3,000 
 shekels, or, accordmg 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 }28, @ stone, in the 
 following verse. NX is the feminine par- 
 ticiple in Niphal. ss does not refer to 
 the talent or weight going before, but 
 to 7x immediately following, and is 
 equivalent to there was. The woman 
 
CHAP. Y.] 
 
 8 woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 391 
 And he said, This is 
 
 wickedness. And he threw her down in the midst of the ephah, 
 
 9 and threw the weight of lead on the mouth of it. 
 
 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 between earth and 
 
 10 heaven. 
 
 ll 
 
 Then I said to the angel who spake 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. 
 
 was placed in the ephah in order to be 
 conveyed to Babylon. 
 
 8. By 7et 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 
 species of iniquity. To mark it more 
 emphatically, the article is prefixed. 
 ὙΠ, as used both times, conveys the 
 idea of a forcible action. In the pre- 
 ceding verse theewoman 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 oecupy 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 ΤῈ, 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 Heng- 
 stenberg as merely belonging, by way 
 of colouring, 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 instruments, God 
 removed idolatry in the persons 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. 7700, 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 Ἔρωδίος, 
 in which he is followed by Theod. and 
 Symm. This Greek term is derived 
 from ἔρως, love. The large wings of 
 the stork greatly accelerate its flight, 
 when aided by the wind. In m2) is 
 an elision of the letter 8, the third 
 radical, for T2xwm, which is found in a 
 great number of MSS. and some of the 
 earliest printed editions. 
 
 10. Instead of the defective ortho- 
 graphy ΤΣ, many MSS. and some 
 editions read in full, τὴ 5. 
 
 11. γ᾽ yx, the land of Shinar, is 
 rendered in the LXX. γῇ Βαβυλῶνος, 
 and in the Targ. 522 ΠΡ ΤΌ, which is the 
 proper interpretation. 27 is to be con- 
 strued with m3, and 7:7 with 7x, in- 
 cluding the idea of the woman, or of 
 idolatry, of which she was the symbol. 
 To the latter also the affix in ApDD 
 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 
 desecrated, 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. 
 
992 ZECHARIAH. [CHAP, VI. 
 
 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 com- 
 mentators seem to have concurred in the opinion expressed by Munster: ‘“ Hee 
 visio est valde obscura.” The symbols are in themselves simple, consisting of 
 four chariots drawn by horses of different colours, 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 cau be assumed in interpreting them, especially as such is the 
 application of similar symbols elsewhere in the prophetic records. The colours 
 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 Anp I raised my eyes again, and looked, and, behold! four 
 chariots came forth from between two mountains, and the mown- 
 
 VISION VIII. 
 
 1. For the idiom xwx} 2x), see on ch. 
 iv. 1. Considering that the events re- 
 ferred to are those of war, it is most 
 natural to infer that war-chariots are 
 here intended. By mountains of copper 
 are meant solid, strong and durable 
 mountains, such as those in which copper 
 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. Iam 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; chap. viii. 3, 4, From 
 between these, or from the powerful 
 empire which they formed, the in- 
 struments of Divine Providence were 
 to proceed to execute his purposes in 
 punishing the nations. That mountains 
 are employed in the figurative language 
 
CHAP. Υ1.} 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 593 
 
 2 tains weremountainsof copper. In the first chariot were red horses ; 
 3 and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot 
 white horses; and in the fourth chariot were piebald grey horses. 
 I then proceeded and said to the angel who spake with me, What 
 5 are these,my lord? And the angel answered and said to me, These 
 are the four spirits of heaven, coming forth from presenting them- 
 
 6 selves 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 the piebald go forth to the 
 
 of prophecy to signify kingdoms or 
 governments, see Is. 1]. 2; xli. 15; Jer. 
 ji, 25:5 Dan. 11. 35. 
 
 2,3. The ved horses are symbolical 
 of war and bloodshed; the dZach, of 
 general calamity and distress; thie 
 white, of victory and prosperity; and 
 the piebald greys, of a dispensation, 
 mixed in its character, partly pro- 
 sperous, and partly adverse. The last 
 word, D8, would seem most naturally 
 to be referrible to the root jax, fo be 
 strong, active, &c.; 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 colours, we 
 should expect something of the same 
 character to be intended by the word in 
 question. I, therefore, prefer adopting 
 
 a derivation from the Arab. δον» 
 
 leviter splenduit, and regard it as qua- 
 lifying oO, immediately preceding. 
 Thus the ‘arg. ΚΘ, ash-coloured, 
 grey ; so that the most appropriate ren- 
 dering of the two terms will be spotted, 
 or piebald greys. 
 
 5. Though the phrase ΘΟΕ nim ys 
 is that employed chap. ii. 10 (Eng. 6), to 
 denote the four quarters of the horizon, 
 yet, that it cannot have this meaning in 
 the present instance, is evident from its 
 being added that the m7 are such as 
 . had taken their station, or presented 
 themselves before the Lord, in order to 
 receive their commissions for the execu- 
 tion of his will. In our common ver- 
 sion, 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; 11. 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 
 carried forward. 
 
 6. By pez yx, 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 (Eng. 6). 
 Though that empire had been subdued by 
 Cyrus, yet the Babylonians revolted in 
 the beginning of the fifth year of Darius, 
 on which that monarch besieged them 
 with all his forces; and, after much 
 devastation, completely depopulated it, 
 and reduced it to solitude. ‘To set forth 
 symbolically this fearful event, black- 
 coloured horses are represented as con- 
 veying into the country the executioner 
 of the Divine indignation upon that 
 devoted people. It is remarkable that 
 the red-coloured 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 un- 
 accompanied with any thing like the 
 quantity of blgodshed which character- 
 ised the battles of conflicting armies in 
 the open field, though at the commence- 
 ment there was every appearance of 
 much blood being shed. Although 
 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 different parts 
 
 oh 
 
394 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 7 south country. And the greys 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 hesummoned me and said to me, See, those that went to 
 the north country have appeased my anger in the north country. 
 
 9,10 Andthe word of Jehovah wascommunicated to me, saying: Take 
 from the captivity, from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah, 
 
 of Greece, which, though checked by 
 the battle of Marathon, contributed to 
 the strengthening of his power in that 
 quarter. The phrase, OPIN, literally 
 means Jehind them, but geographically, 
 to the west of them. That it is to be so 
 taken here, the use of >8, fo, correspond- 
 ing with the use of the same preposition 
 after the verb, both before and after in the 
 verse, sufficiently shows. The dappled 
 horses were symbolical of the varied 
 condition of the Persian affairs, which 
 followed the battle of Marathon, espe- 
 cially the changes which took place on 
 the death of Darius, and the expedition 
 of Xerxes for the reduction of Egypt. 
 This last. circumstance is particularly 
 pointed at in the reference, ONT PRs, the 
 country of the South. That by 9, 
 Teman, we ave not here to understand 
 the city or region so called on the east 
 of Idumea, but a land to the south of 
 Palestine, is obvious from the article 
 being prefixed, and from a comparison 
 of the use of the term in such passages 
 as the following, Job ix. 9; Is. xlin. 6. 
 It is synonymous with px, ow the right 
 hand, which geographically means the 
 South, and here specifically signifies 
 Egypt, to express which Daniel uses 
 the word 233, chap. xi. 40. 
 
 7. Yu, 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 Providénce with respect 
 to which are marked by two circum- 
 stances: the grey colour of the horses, 
 which indicated the mixed state of the 
 Jewish affairs till the time of Artaxerxes 
 Mnemon ; and the form of the verb 757, 
 to go or walk, which is in Hithpael, and 
 signifies to go about, or to walk up and 
 down, They were not to be molested 
 by the hostile incursions 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 
 Palestine 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 inherit- 
 ances. On the other hand, the appoint- 
 ment of Nehemiah to be governor of 
 Judeea, and other favours conferred by 
 the Persian monarch, were calculated 
 to mitigate their distress, and inspire 
 them with the hope of a complete and 
 happy restoration to the enjoyment of 
 their ancient privileges. These dappled 
 horses supply the place of the red, speci- 
 fied ver. 2, but omitted in the expla- 
 nation, ver. 6, so that the number of 
 chariots is still four. 
 
 8. The nominative to pre) must either 
 be Jehovah, or the Angel of Jehovah, 
 understood as the pronominal affix in 
 mm, “my anger,” shows. That among 
 other significations 7 has that of azger, 
 see Jud. vill. 3; Kecles. x. 4; Is.xxxiu.11. 
 The phrase, TIT, to cause anger to 
 rest, is equivalent to Mam, Hzek. 
 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 in 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 
 
CHAP. VI. | 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 395 
 
 who are come from Babylon, and enter thou on that day, yea, 
 11 enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah; yea, take silver 
 and gold, and make crowns, and place them upon the head of 
 12 Joshua, (the son of Josedech,) the high priest; and speak to 
 him, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying: 
 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. 
 
 only tenable construction that can be 
 put upon it. The infinitive M72, at the 
 beginning of the 9th verse, is to be taken 
 in connexion with the finite form of the 
 same verb at that of the 11th, both 
 having 297702 for their object. The 
 preposition which is prefixed to the 
 following nouns is not to be taken par- 
 titively, as if some of the eaptivity, and 
 one of each of the families, the heads of 
 which are supposed to be here specified, 
 were meant, but is used in its primary 
 and most common signification. The 
 persons named appear to have formed 
 a deputation from the 733, captives still 
 remaining in Babylon, who had sent 
 them with contributions in gold and 
 silver 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 15 
 here more heavy and verbose than usual, 
 which has occasioned some difliculty to 
 interpreters. Instead of 7239 382 7x, 
 two of Kennicott’s MSS., the LXX., 
 Syr., and Targ., read 83 in the singular, 
 and restrict the declaration to Josiah, 
 mentioned immediately before; but there 
 ean be little doubt that this various 
 reading 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 predicate. To remove the ambi- 
 guity, our translators have properly con- 
 nected the words immediately with the 
 names of the persons to whom they 
 belong. Hengstenberg contends that 
 only oxe crown is intended, and that 
 
 the plural form, ny, is to be referred 
 to several small crowns or diadems of 
 which it consisted. With many other 
 interpreters, he adduces in support of 
 the opinion the διαδήματα πολλὰ, many 
 crowns, 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 conqueror, 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 priestly 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 favours the latter view of 
 the subject is the circumstance, that the 
 plural 2 is construed with m7, the 
 singular of the substantive 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 degree 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 expla- 
 natory prophecy, in which his person, 
 offices, and work are distinctly set forth. 
 For the signification of 23, BRANCH, see 
 on Is. iv. 2. That the Messiah is meant 
 must be evident to all who will impartially 
 compare Is. iv. 2; Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15; 
 Zech, ii. 8. Thus the Targ. expounds : 
 IPT THY WIS Nw x2 ΝΠ, “ Behold 
 the Man, Messtau is his name; who is 
 to be revealed”? The same view is 
 taken by Moses Hadarsan: "x ΝΠ 
 
396 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP, YI. 
 
 13 Even he shall build the temple of Jehovah, 
 
 And he shall bear the glory ; 
 
 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. 
 
 WOW MOL WN TIT Iw IN 1 PR D0 Dp 
 moz yon, “The Redeemer whom 
 I will raise up from you shall have no 
 father, as it is said; Behold the man, 
 whose name is Zemach, and he shall 
 grow up from his place.” The Rabbins 
 Jarchi, Abenezra, and Kimehi, and after 
 them, Bauer and Ewald, suppose Ze- 
 rubbabel to be intended. ‘The last- 
 mentioned writer, after the example of 
 Hichhorn and Theiner, conjectures that, 
 instead of pwim wa, on the head of 
 Joshua, the text has originally read, 
 ruim ΦΜ IN wea, on the head of 
 Zerubbabel, and on the 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 
 passage. The application of the words 
 to Zerubbabel is decidedly rejected by 
 Abarbanel, notwithstanding his bigoted 
 hostility 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 
 subject of discourse. And that neither 
 Joshua nor any of his desceudants 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 Maccabzeus, to whom 
 Michaelis applies the prophecy, never 
 filled the kingly office; he was merely 
 commander of the army, and civil go- 
 vernor, subject to the kings of Syria. 
 Instead of building the temple, as is 
 here predicted of the Branch, he erected 
 a splendid palace for himself on the 
 mountain 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 decla- 
 ration that the Branch should be invested 
 with the honour 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, vara 
 m2, and he shall sprout forth from his 
 place, while there is a direct reference 
 to the name ΤΌΣ, here given to the Mes- 
 siah, there seems to be no very indistinct 
 allusion to the miraculous conception. 
 yon, his place, the place which was 
 peculiar to him. ‘he interpretation, 
 that “under him there shall be growth,” 
 which is adopted by Cyril, Jerome, 
 Luther, Calovius, Hitzig, Maurer, and 
 Ewald, applying it to the church, the 
 body of believers, or the affairs of Mes- 
 siah’s kingdom, is to be rejected on the 
 ground of its not being warranted by 
 Scripture usage. By Tim 9D7, the temple 
 of Jehovah, which the Messiah was to 
 build, the material temple then in the 
 course of erection cannot be understood, 
 for that was to be carried on and com- 
 pleted by Zerubbabel, chap. iv. 9. But, 
 as we have just seen, Zerubbabel and 
 the Branch are not identical. We are, 
 therefore, compelled to interpret the 
 phrase in application to the New Testa- 
 ment 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 himself 
 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 MM 97x WT NT) 
 is not, as has been conjectured, to be 
 ascribed to an error of some transcriber, 
 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 emphasis to the statement 
 made respecting the personal work of 
 the Messiah. ‘The erection of the spiri- 
 tual temple was to be effected exclusively 
 through his mediation. With the decla- 
 ration, that he should “bear the glory,” 
 compare Ps. xxi. 5; cii. 16; Is. Π. 13; ἢ 
 
- 
 
 CHAP. VI.] 
 
 14 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 397 
 
 And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah, and for 
 
 Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the 
 
 15 temple of Jehovah. 
 
 And those who are far off shall come and 
 
 build in the temple of Jehovah; and 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 * * * * 
 
 Heb. ii.9. The declaration has reference 
 to the crowns, the insignia of glory and 
 majesty, 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 
 Melchizedekian priesthood, Gen. xiv. 18; 
 Ps. cx. 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. M‘Caul, 
 and others, refer the pronominal affix in 
 §xd2, ‘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 rendering 
 of Newcome, Hitzig, and Ewald, “ and 
 a priest shall be upon his throne,” is 
 forced and unwarranted ; the Vauclearly 
 connecting the substantive verb with the 
 preceding verbs 8 and 732, the nomi- 
 native to which is 4, the Branch, or 
 Messiah. The nominatives to D723, 
 ‘them both,” are neither Jehovah and 
 the Messiah, as maintained both by 
 ancient and by many modern interpre- 
 ters; among others, Cocceius, De Dieu, 
 Vitringa, Bengel, Reuss, Dr. M‘Caul, 
 and Dr. J. Pye Smith; nor Jews and 
 Gentiles, as Dr. Stonard strangely in- 
 terprets; but the 273, priesthood, and 
 the x20, 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 insurmoun- 
 table objection to the first opinion : 
 “Quoniam enim Deus in toto hoc loco 
 loquitur, affixum tertiz persone in D723 
 non potest ad Jovam referre.” The same 
 objection lies against the reference of 
 the affix in ἸΝῸΞ to Jehovah. By nzy 
 Dims, 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 
 sacerdotal and regal offices of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Comp. Is. ix. 6; Micah 
 v. 5; Eph. ii. 14—17; Col. i. 20, 21; 
 Heb. xii. 20. 
 
 14. Helem is, in all probability, the 
 same as Heldai, ver. 10, and Hen another 
 name of Josiah, there also mentioned. 
 There seems no ground for rendering 
 17, favour, and interpreting it of the 
 hospitality shown to the deputies by 
 Josiah ; the construction adopted b 
 Hengstenberg, Maurer and Ewald. The 
 words D979 MIA MDP, the crowns shall 
 be to Helem, &c., 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 purpose 
 to be deposited in the temple, where it 
 is possible they remained till the Messiah, 
 as high priest and king of his people, 
 had taken possession of his mediatorial 
 throne, when temple, and crowns, and 
 the whole Jewish polity, were taken or 
 destroyed by the Romans. 
 
 15. This verse contains a striking 
 prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, 
 together with a solemn warning to the 
 Jews, in which, the sentence being left 
 unfinished, their rejection in consequence 
 of unbelief is forcibly implied. It is a 
 striking instance of ἀποσιώπησις. 
 
398 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 This and the following chapter are occupied with replies to questions which had 
 been proposed 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 circumstanee Zechariah is commanded to 
 take occasion to reprove them for their selfish observance of the days appointed 
 for fasting, 4—7,; to enforee attention to the weightier matters of the law, 
 8—10; and to warn them, by placing before them the rebellious conduct of 
 their fathers, and the punishment with which it had been visited, 11—14. 
 
 
 
 1  AwNpitcame to pass inthe fourth year of Darius the king, that 
 the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah on the 
 2 fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev; when Bethel 
 sent Sherezer, and Regem-melech, and his men, to conciliate the 
 
 1. The occurrence here described took 
 place two years later than those described 
 in the preceding chapters. 203, Chislev, 
 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, rigidity, stiffness, 
 which is conveyed by the Heb. %02, 
 is sufficient to justify its being re- 
 ferred to this root, such being the 
 character assumed by nature in the 
 course of this month. The 1 prefixed 
 may be regarded as the Beth essentia. 
 
 2. The words ὍΣ ΤᾺ 770" have occa- 
 sioned considerable perplexity to inter- 
 preters. Some of the earlier Jews took 
 Bethel to be the name of a person. 
 Lightfoot supposes that it means the 
 congregation of the Jews who had 
 remained in Babylon. To the same 
 effect Michaelis, ‘The congregation of 
 God at Sharezer,’ though he acknow- 
 ledges he had no idea of the geographical 
 position of the city so called. Heng- 
 
 stenberg and Maurer think the people 
 of the Jews are intended. The Vulg., 
 Grotius, Dathe, Newecome, De Wette, 
 and Arnheim, supply >8 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 represent it as the place 
 to which the deputation was sent. 
 Against the interpretation which explains 
 it of the temple, there lies the insuperable 
 objection, that that sacred edifice is 
 uniformly called Tim ma, the house of 
 Jehovah—never ΠΣ, the house of God ; 
 and that it should have been so desig- 
 nated after the recovery of the Jews 
 from idolatry is altogether incredible, 
 considering the infamy attached to the 
 city sonamed. 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 
 
CHAP. VII.| 
 
 3 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 899 
 
 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 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, 
 
 the verb, which cannot here be taken 
 impersonally, as such construction would 
 exclude all reference to those who sent 
 the deputation, a circumstance not to 
 be reconciled with the express specifica- 
 tion of the names of the persons who 
 composed it. mim), lit. 4o stroke the 
 face, to ingratiate oneself with another, 
 conciliate his regard. 
 
 3. The city having been introduced 
 in the preceding verse as sending the 
 deputation, speaks here in the first 
 person singular. Comp. 1 Sam. v. 10; 
 9 Sam. xx. 19; Zech. vin. 21. The 
 question related to the continuance of 
 the fast in the 7/74 month, which had 
 been instituted to commemorate the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. 
 2 Kings xxv. 8, 9; Jer. lii. 12—14. 
 As the city was now being restored, it 
 was presumed there would no longer 
 be any necessity for keeping up the 
 humiliating memorial. 3287 is ποῦ 
 simply, Shall T fast ? but, Shall I con- 
 tinue to fast? The following words 
 indicate, that it was felt to be a tedious 
 and irksome performance of duty. The 
 persons speaking were thoroughly weary 
 - of it. “uz7, the infinitive in Niphal of ὋΣ, 
 to separate, consecrate, vow ; Mm 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. ‘heir fasts had not been 
 performed from a purely religious motive, 
 but were self-righteous and hypocritical. 
 Whilethey observed them, they neglected 
 the weightier matters of the law. At 
 tiepD is an ellipsis of the finite form of 
 the same verb. In ὋΝ ὩΠῸΝΣ DiZT 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, 28022272. The fast in the 
 seventh month was in commemoration 
 of the murder of Gedaliah, and those 
 who were with him at Mizpah. See 
 2 Kings xxv. 25, 26; Jer xli. 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. 
 
 7. The former prophets had taught the 
 worthlessness of attention to meats and 
 drinks, while God was forgotten, and 
 the weightier matters of his law neglected. 
 If the Jews had listened to, and complied 
 with the messages of the prophets, none 
 
400 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP ΥἹΙ. 
 
 9 Thus spake Jehovah of hosts, saying: 
 
 Execute true judgment, 
 
 And show kindness and mercy one to another ; 
 
 10 
 The stranger and the poor; 
 
 Oppress not the widow and the orphan, 
 
 And think not in your heart of the injury 
 Which one hath done to another. 
 
 11 But they refused to attend, 
 
 And turned their back rebelliously ; 
 And they made their ears heavy, 
 
 That they might not hear. 
 12 
 
 Yea, 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, 
 14 
 
 But I 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. 
 
 of the evils which had come upon them 
 would have been inflicted. For ‘the 
 former prophets,” see on chap. 1. 4. By 
 the “south and the plain,” are meant 
 the southern and western parts of Judah. 
 
 9. vo8 is here to be taken in the 
 strictly past tense, as the beginning of 
 the 11th verse clearly shows. 
 
 10. Though x intervenes between 
 ny} and wx, they are to be regarded as 
 in construction. Comp. Is. xix. 8; Hos. 
 xiv. 3 (Eng. version, 9). No one was 
 to harbour any feelings of resentment 
 against another for any injury he might 
 have done him. 
 
 11. D2 ἸΏ, fo give the shoulder, is 
 equivalent to turning the back upon 
 any one. The cause of such action is 
 traced to a refractory, rebellious, and 
 intractable disposition. The Ὁ prefixed 
 in YOU) is privative. 
 
 12. 28 signifies both a ¢horn and a 
 diamond, from the Arab. pers to pierce. 
 
 Here the idea of hardness is that con- 
 veyed by its use. In Dy27 1a ima 
 the double agency by which the Divine 
 will was communicated is recognised— 
 that of the inspiring Spirit, and that of 
 the instruments inspired. 
 
 14. ὈΠῸΝ is an anomalous form, after 
 the Aramean manner, according to 
 which Zére is placed where there would 
 otherwise be a moveable Sheva. Regu- 
 larly, it would be D2vOx. It is of the Piel 
 conjugation. Tey, the land of 
 delight, Canaan. Comp. Jer. iii. 19, 
 Maurer proposes to take 32°) imper- 
 sonally. Others more properly consider 
 the Jews to be the nominative, who, by 
 their crimes, had brought judgments 
 
 τ upon the land. 
 
CHAP. VIII. | ZECHARIAH. 401 
 
 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 favour towards those who had returned from the captivity, 1, 2. 
 Restored 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, 1S—23. 
 
 1  Awnp the word 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 : 
 
 Aged men and aged women shall yet be sitting in the 
 
 streets of Jerusalem, 
 Each man with a staff in his hand for very age ; 
 
 5 And the streets of the city shall be filled 
 
 1. Before 7582 the word x, fo 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 Compluten- 
 sian 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 ΝῊ 
 to call. 
 
 4, 5. These verses beautifully depict 
 the security and happiness of the in- 
 habitants of Jerusalem. Longevity and 
 a numerous offspring were specially 
 promised under the old dispensation, 
 
 3 15 
 
402 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 With boys and girls, playing in the streets of it. 
 6 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 
 
 Though it shall 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. 
 
 “I 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 Behold, I will deliver my people 
 
 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: 
 
 Let your hands be strong, 
 Ye that hear in these days 
 
 These words from the mouth of the prophets, 
 Which were spoken on the day when the foundation was laid 
 
 but uniformly in connexion with obe- 
 dience to the law. Deut. iv. 40; 
 Va 10: 335) ἢ. ὦν sexx 16,7940" Ts: 
 Ιχν. 20. The idea conveyed by ὉΠ 
 in such connexion is exquisite. What 
 can be more gratifying to the uncorrupted 
 simplicity of human feelings, than to 
 witness a number of young children 
 enjoying their innocent gambols? For 
 a contrary state of things, see Jer. vi. 
 rile Be 
 
 6. Though &%8, like its cognate 28, 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, 
 distinction, difficulty ; hence in Niphal, 
 it signifies to be distinguished, to stand 
 out prominently, from common events, 
 to be impossible to human power, to be 
 miraculous. ™s22, the participial noun, 
 is often used for miraculous occurrences. 
 --Ἐπ| on, ἐμ those days, i. 6. at the time 
 when I fulfil my promise. To justify 
 the rendering of our common version, 
 “κῃ these days,” the Hebrew should 
 have been 7x7 D3, 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 a restoration 
 of the Jews yet future, there would be 
 a singular propriety in the use of S79 
 wnwn, 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 Alex- 
 ander. Not fewer than 100,000 were 
 carried by Ptolemy to Egypt, and were 
 settled in Alexandria and Cyrene. 
 
 8. The words 77722 N9x2 belong to 
 both the members of the sentence, and 
 express the reality and sincerity of the 
 relation on both sides. 
 
 9. DT TIP, let your hands be strong, 
 a figurative mode of expression, denoting 
 courage, resolution, effort. Jud. vii. 11 ; 
 2 Sam. xvi. 21. The prophets here 
 
CHAP. VIII. ] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 403 
 
 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 Tor the seed shall be prosperous, 
 
 The vine shall yield her fruit, 
 
 And the earth shall yield her produce, 
 The heavens also 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, 
 
 So I will deliver you, and ye shall be a blessing: 
 Fear not, let your hands be strong. 
 
 referred to were Haggai and Zechariah. 
 See Hzra v. 1, 2. The words which the 
 people heard were those of consolation 
 and encouragement. Haggai ii. 18, 19. 
 After 1x, subaud. 127. 
 
 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 
 Samaritans pressed sore upon them, 
 and annoyed them in every possible 
 way. See Ezraiv. 1—5. By > is not 
 meant affiction, θλίψις, tribulatio, as 
 the Eng. LXX., and Vulg.; but the 
 enemy, or as we have it, PRI NN wy, 
 the enemies of Judah and Benjamin, 
 Fzra iv. 1. In the last clause of the 
 verse, reference is had to the intestine 
 broils and contentions which prevailed. 
 
 11, 12. 7H) stands forcibly in con- 
 trast with °22? at the beginning of the 
 preceding verse. The providence of 
 God brought about a complete change 
 
 in the circumstances of the Jews who 
 had returned. As they obeyed his voice 
 and prosecuted his work, he gave them 
 outward tranquillity, and prospered their 
 agricultural pursuits. After DY YH, 
 the seed of prosperity, i.e. healthy, 
 prosperous seed, such as would not fail, 
 supply ™™, there shall be. Their fields 
 should not be trodden down by the 
 enemy, 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 instruments of communicating either 
 evil or good to the nations, but that they 
 themselves experienced either the one 
 or the other. They were subjects of the 
 curse and the blessing. ‘ ‘The house of 
 Israel,” or the ten tribes, as distinguished 
 from “the house of Judah,” shared in 
 the happy fulfilment of the prophecy. 
 It follows, that they also returned to 
 Palestine, 7987 03, in the very days to 
 which it refers. All attempts to discover 
 
404 
 
 14 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 As I purposed to afflict you, 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 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 ; 
 
 Exccute true and sound judgment in your gates. 
 
 And think not in your hearts of the mjury 
 
 Which one hath done to another ; 
 
 And love not the false oath ; 
 
 For all these things are things that I hate, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 1s 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 house 
 of Judah, even cheerful festivals; but love ye truth and peace. 
 
 290 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 them at more recent periods have 
 proved utterly fruitless; and the idea 
 that they must still exist somewhere in 
 the world, and are still to be restored in 
 their tribal state, has arisen from a mis- 
 construction of those prophecies which 
 refer to the return from Babylon. 
 
 14, 15. An amplification of what had 
 been stated in the preceding verse. 
 
 16, 17. These verses contain a virtual 
 and instructive reply to the question 
 relative to the celebration of the fast, 
 chap. vii. ὃ. It was not in such merely 
 external, ritual, or ceremonial obser- 
 vances that Jehovah delighted, but in 
 the love and practice of moral rectitude. 
 The “ gate” was, and still is, the forum 
 in the East. cio LOD means sound, 
 wholesome judgment. Ws, in ver. 17, 
 is wanting in three MSS., originally in 
 two more, and now by correction in 
 one; in the LXX., Syr., and Arab. 
 
 19. Now follows a formal reply to 
 the question just referred to. The fast 
 of the fourth month was on account of 
 
 the taking of Jerusalem, Jer. xxxix. 2 ; 
 lii. 5—7 ; that of the ¢enth was in com- 
 memoration of the commencement of 
 the siege, Jer. lii. 4. For the other two 
 fasts, see on chap. vii. 3 and 5. The 
 Jews are distinctly informed that these 
 fasts should be turned into festivals of 
 07. The } in ΤΌΝΤῚ 15. adversative, 
 1aving the force of, But in order that 
 ye may enjoy the predicted and pro- 
 mised blessing, see that ye be sincere 
 before me, and live in harmony among 
 yourselves. 
 
 20. The prophecy concludes with the 
 announcement that, in consequence of 
 the distinguished favour 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 re- 
 ligions, and the unsatisfactoriness of 
 their systems of philosophy, and many 
 of them, who were brought into contact 
 
CHAP. VIII.| 
 
 21 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 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 : 
 
 405 
 
 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 
 In those days ten men, 
 Out of all the nations, 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 Shall take hold, shall even take hold 
 
 Of the skirt of a Jew, saying, 
 
 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 τὸ and 
 wx, supply mM. Two MSS., the LXX., 
 and Arab., read 021, many, after DY, 
 which in all probability existed originally 
 in the text. 
 
 21. The second nmx is equivalent to 
 nix. Comp. Exod. xvii. 12; xviii. 4. 
 
 23. ὝΣΝ 15 redundant. Zen is put as 
 a round number, or a definite for an 
 indefinite, but indicating many rather 
 than few. Comp. Gen. xxxi. 7; Mic. 
 ν. 5. O37 mw? 23, of all the languages 
 of the nations, means, of all the nations 
 speaking different languages. Comp. 
 maw D312, all the nations and the 
 languages, 15. \xvi. 18. See also Gen. 
 x. 5,20; Dan. ii..7; Rev. v. 9; vii. 9; 
 xiii. 7. 70 take hold of the skirt, is not 
 intended to convey the idea of entreaty, 
 or the gesture of application for assist- 
 ance, but is significant of a feeling 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 
 theocracy. The repetition of the verb 
 PMT 15 emphatic. "HT wx, a man, a Jew, 
 is merely a periphrasis for ὦ Jew. Comp. 
 avnp Ἰουδαῖος, Acts x. 28. ‘The pro- 
 phecy is generally regarded as having 
 
 respect to something yet future, and is 
 often interpreted of the instrumentality 
 of the Jews, when converted, in effecting 
 the conversion of the world. I can 
 find no such reference in the passage. 
 * Jerusalem” cannot be understood other- 
 wise than literally, justas 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 
 worship the Father, John iv. 21—23. 
 Incense and a pure offering are now 
 presented to his name in every place 
 where his people assemble in the name 
 of Jesus and with a view to his glory, 
 Mal. 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 worshippers were expected to come 
 tothe 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 
 assembled in that city at the first Pen- 
 tecost after our Saviour’s resurrection. 
 As the Hellenistic Jews and the Gentile 
 proselytes 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 favours conferred upon it by some 
 of the greatest monarchs of the times 
 
406 
 
 We will go with you; 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 For we have heard that God is with you. 
 
 immediately gone by, and for the pro- 
 sperity and warlike prowess of the Jewish 
 people, it was impossible that it should 
 not attract the attention of the surround- 
 
 ing nations to the character and claims 
 of the God who was there adored, and 
 who accorded such blessings to his wor- 
 shippers. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 For the arguments in opposition to, and those in favour of, the authenticity of 
 that portion of the book of Zechariah which begins with this chapter, and 
 comprises if and the remaining 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 affairs of the Jews. He describes the conquest of Syria after 
 the battle of Issus, 1; and the progress of the army of Alexander along the 
 coast of the Mediterranean, involving the capture of the principal cities of the 
 Pheenicians and Philistines, but leaving the Jews unmolested, through the pro- 
 tecting care of Jehovah, 2—8. He then contrasts with the character and 
 military achievements of that conqueror the qualities which should distinguish 
 the Messiah and his kingdom, whom he expressly predicts, 9, 10. After which 
 he resumes the thread of his historical 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, 
 And Damascus shall be its resting place, 
 
 When towards Jehovah shall be the eye of man, 
 And of all the tribes of Israel. 
 
 1. For the signification of xw9, see 
 on Is. xiii. 1. The combination δἰ Ὁ 
 ΤῊ 3, occurs only here, chap. xu. 1, 
 and Mal.i.1. As 727 oceurs in the sense 
 of oracle, and 8&2 signifies what is taken 
 up and uttered by the voice, the phrase 
 might be rendered, Zhe announcement 
 of the oracle of Jehovah ; but it is better 
 for the sake of uniformity to retain the 
 term seatexee, which I have adopted in 
 
 my translation of Isaiah. With respect 
 to 779, Hadrach, itis 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 Da- 
 mascus, would have entirely disappeared 
 from the pages of history. But no such 
 name has been found in any Arabic work 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 407 
 
 2 Hamath also which is contiguous to it ; 
 Tyre and Zidon, though she be very wise. 
 
 either of history or geography. Joseph 
 Abassus, indeed, a native of that country, 
 informed Michaelis that there was a place 
 so called at the distance 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 ‘P78, in 
 
 Arabic leo}, called by Eusebius 
 
 *Adpaa, and by Ptolemy “Adpa. It lay 
 about thirty miles from Damascus. The 
 same remark applies 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 appellative of the Messiah, 
 who was to be 11, sharp or severe towards 
 the Gentiles, but 3p, ¢exder towards 
 Israel! Hengstenberg, who treats on 
 the subject at large in his Christology, 
 vol. 11. pp. 69—77, Keith’s Translation, 
 denies that it is a proper name at all, 
 and regards it as ἃ symbolical appellation 
 of the Persian empire, 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 "22 35, Jer. li. 1, is 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, especially as 
 the phrase, “the land of a king,” is not 
 without example in Scripture; see Neh. 
 ix. 22; and very much suspect that the 
 word 710, Hadrach, is after all only a 
 corruption of 77, the common name of 
 the kings of Syria, though such corrup- 
 tion must have taken place at a very 
 early period, for it was found in the copy 
 from which the version of the LX X. was 
 made.—The affix in in729 refers to 727 in 
 the preceding hemistich. 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 permanently be inflicted. That 
 ancient city was taken by Alexander the 
 Great after the battle at Issus, and formed 
 part of the kingdom of the Seleucide, 
 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 
 commentators, following the ancient ver- 
 sions, render the words, 79) DW8 py TI) 55 
 wim ols, for the eye of Iehovah is 
 upon men and all the tribes of Israel, 
 and explain them with reference to the 
 universal judgments which the provi- 
 dence of God had brought or would 
 bring upon the people in and around 
 Palestine. But it is more natural to 
 regard PY in construction with 2) OFX. 
 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- 
 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 
 offered many sacrifices and prayers to 
 God for deliverance. 3 is here used as 
 a particle of time. 
 
 2. Hamath was the capital of a king- 
 dom of the same name, which lay between 
 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 re- 
 tained among the natives. That the king- 
 dom was conterminous to that of which 
 Damascus was the metropolis, is here 
 expressed by 73-7225, the feminine aflix 
 referring to S18, and, in the preceding 
 verse. ‘The whole of Syria was sub- 
 jugated by the Greeks, or submitted 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. xxii. The 
 latter city voluntarily surrendered, and 
 had Abdolonymus appointed as viceroy. 
 Though originally the chief of all the 
 
408 
 
 ZECHARIAH. . 
 
 [CHAP, 1X. 
 
 3 Yea, though Tyre hath built a fortress for herself, 
 
 And heaped up silver as dust, 
 
 And fine gold as the mud of the streets ; 
 
 4 Behold, Jehovah will dispossess her, 
 And strike her wealth into the sea, 
 And she herself shall be burned with fire. 
 
 5 Askelon shall see it, and be afraid ; 
 Gaza also, and shall be in great pain ; 
 And Ekron, because her expectation hath made her ashamed ; 
 For the king shall perish from Gaza, 
 
 And Askelon shall not be inhabited. 
 
 Pheenician cities, and the mother of 
 mauy 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 predicate 
 WN 7237, she ts very wise, though, in point 
 of position, it might seem to belong to jit, 
 Zidon, is nevertheless to be referred to 
 nz, Zyre, as the more important of the 
 two cities. The Tyrians, 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 continent, 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 
 Pheniciancommerce. Ezek.xxvi.; xxvil. 
 
 4. Instead of ‘78, many MSS., and 
 some of them the best of the Spanish, 
 read mm, which I have adopted as the 
 true lection. Here is set forth the 
 conquest of Tyre by Alexander, who 
 constructed 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, 
 burned 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 
 cities further along the coast southward, 
 who knew the destination and route of 
 the victorious army. ‘The prophet 
 accordingly predicts the march of the 
 conqueror from Phcenicia 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 
 Ashkelon and Elron, see on Amos i. 8. 
 For Gaza, 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 slavery. 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 772 728 
 
GHAP 1X. ἢ 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 409 
 
 6 A foreigner also shall sit as ruler in Ashdod, 
 And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. 
 
 7 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 my, the hing 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 119, which occurs only here 
 and Deut. xxii. 3 (Eng. version, 2), has 
 been considered of uncertain etymology. 
 Lee thinks it may probably be a com- 
 pound of 7, from, DY, a people, and %, a 
 Soreigner ; but this conjecture, however 
 ingenious, is not warranted by Hebrew 
 usage. In Deut., the LXX. render it by 
 ἐκ πόρνης, one born of a whore; but addo- 
 yerns, of a different race or people, best 
 suits both passages. See Blayney. Ac- 
 cording to the form, it must be regarded 
 as the Hiphil participle of 7, a root not 
 occurring in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 but signifying in more modern Hebrew, 
 
 to mix. Comp. the Arab. yoo corruptus 
 
 fuit.  THengstenberg renders, rabdle. 
 By ji83, the pride of the Philistines, we 
 are to understand the splendour of their 
 cities, especially 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 Ὑ refers to 
 wo, the foreign prince, as does 817, fe, 
 further on in the verse. Their abandon- 
 ment of idolatry, and their embracing 
 
 the true religion, is represented by their 
 no longer drinking blood, and eating 
 things sacrificed to idols, both of which 
 were common among the pagans, but 
 prohibited by the Mosaic law, Numb. 
 xxv. 2; Lev. vii. 26; xvi. 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 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 dignity of one of the 
 princes of Judah; no distinction should 
 exist between them. The same idea is 
 expressed in the parallel clause. The 
 Jebusites were the original inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, who, on their subjugation 
 by David, were incorporated among the 
 Jews, and enjoyed their privileges, 
 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, ὅσο. 
 
 8. For ΠΕΣ, the Keri has the proper 
 orthography 823, a host, or army. Jeho- 
 vah here promises to afford protection 
 to the Jews (called, as in Hos. viii. 1, 
 mm ma, 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 ful- 
 filled to the letter; for while that 
 monarch punished the Samaritans, he 
 showed great favour to the Jews. Nor 
 was any foreign oppressor to invade 
 their land, as the Assyrians and Chal- 
 deans had done, during the period which 
 was to intervene before the advent of 
 the Messiah, predicted in the verse 
 immediately following. 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 
 
 anG 
 
410 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 (CHAP. IX. 
 
 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! 
 Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem ! 
 Behold, thy King will come to thee ; 
 Righteous, and having salvation, 
 
 Lowly, and riding upon an ass, 
 Even upon a colt the foal of an ass. 
 
 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 sublime 
 and animated strain, calls the attention 
 of the Jews to a Royal Personage of a 
 very different character, the Mrsstau, 
 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 
 Matthew, chap. xxi. 4, but has the 
 suffrages of all the early Jewish autho- 
 rities. It was not till the twelfth century 
 that it was otherwise interpreted. Thus 
 the Book of Zohar: Mw 9 wane mp2) 
 wan oy aay. =“ On this account it is 
 said of Messiah, Lowly and riding upon 
 an ass;” a statement which is repeated 
 in the same work. The same construc- 
 tion is put upon the passage by Joshua 
 Ben Levi, Saadias Gaon, and others. The 
 testimonies will be found in Wetstein on 
 Matt.xxi. 4, whosaysin reference to them: 
 ** Magno consensu J udeei dictum Zachariz 
 de Messia interpretantur.” And Solo- 
 mon Jarchi has the ingenuousness to ac- 
 knowledge, Mw Ἴ)0 ὃν NOX TMD WER ἪΝ, 
 that “it is impossible to interpret it of 
 any other than the King Messiah.” Of 
 Him as the king of Zion it is predicated 
 that he should be Px, righteous, a quality 
 frequently ascribed to him in the Old 
 Testament. See Is. xlv. 21; hii. 11; 
 Jer. xiii. ὅ ; xxxiiil. 15; Mal. ἵν. 9. With 
 respect to PW13, or, as it is pointed in 
 some copies, Yt), of which Kimchi 
 
 approves, on the ground of its being the 
 preterite converted into the future by 
 the ) conversive, most modern commen- 
 tators construe it as strictly passive in 
 signification, and the more orthodox 
 interpret it with reference 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 connexion. If the people 
 had been the nominative to the verb, 
 this signification would have been ad- 
 missible; 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 evigentia loci : the context impera- 
 tively 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 quality of the action, or in which 
 the signification is purely active, espe- 
 cially verbs, which are not used in Kal. 
 Thus 7183, fo show oneself. glorious ; 3", 
 to show oneself obstinate, to murmur, 
 complain; 833, to prophesy; *223, to 
 desire greatly ; 293, to approach ; YXB, 
 to swear; Y2Ti, to obey, show oneself 
 obedient ; 02, to lean, &e. And thus 
 in the present case 1&3, showing himself 
 a Saviour, having salvation, saving, a 
 Saviour. Thirdly, that the verb is so to be 
 interpreted here, the combination of the 
 term with p72, righteous, clearly shows; 
 for it occupies the same position in rela- 
 tion to that adjective, which the active 
 participle 325, rzding, does to °2¥, lowly, 
 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 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 411 
 
 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, 
 And the horse from Jerusalem ; 
 The battle-bow 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. 
 
 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. 111. 8,9; 
 1 John ii. 1, 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. σώζων ; Targ. 
 
 p12; Syr. loo; Vulg. Salvator. That 
 
 ἫΝ is here to be taken in the sense 
 of meek, lowly, aud not in that of poor, 
 or afflicted, the connexion sufficiently 
 shows. Thus the LXX., mpais. In 
 proof of the mild and gentle character 
 of the Messiah’s reign, he is represented 
 as riding upon an ass, which, though not 
 in the East the degraded and despised 
 animal which it is with us, being used 
 by princes and other persons of rank, 
 is nevertheless comparatively so as it 
 regards 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 ) in Ὃν 9D), “ aud upon a colt,” is 
 exegetical of the preceding. Comp. 
 Gen. xlix. 1]. m2hx, she-asses, 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 
 generations, but is merely an idiomatic 
 form, the plural being used for the 
 singular. Comp. 28", mountains of 
 Ararat, i.e. one of the mountains, &c., 
 Gen. viii. 4; Y22 12, cities of Gilead, 
 i.e. oxe of them, Jud. xii. 7 ; and see on 
 
 Jonah i.5. For the fulfilment of the 
 prophecy, see Matt. xxi. 4, and the 
 Commentators on that passage. 
 
 10. This verse contains a distinct 
 announcement 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. 
 Howliterally 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 pre-eminently to be enjoyed ; 
 it was to embrace the Gentiles, who had 
 been excluded from the commonwealth 
 of Israel; and, in point of extent, was 
 to cover a vastly greater portion of terri- 
 tory than ever was possessed by the 
 warrior of Macedon. On the circum- 
 stance that Zphraim is here mentioned, 
 no valid argument can be built in favour 
 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 contra- 
 distinction from Judah, which is here 
 designated from Jerusalem, the capital. 
 Di 133, fo speak peace, means to an- 
 nounce the message of the reconciliation 
 effected by the Messiah. From the 
 express inclusion of the Ὁ}, zations, 
 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 PINTDHS TW WD) DTP OD, 
 as descriptive of the utmost bounds of the 
 
412 
 
 li 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, 
 
 Τ will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit 
 
 In which there is no water. 
 
 12 -Return ye to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope, 
 Even to-day I declare 1 will render to thee double ; 
 13 For Ihave bent Judah for myself, 
 I have filled the bow with Ephraim, 
 
 Hebrew kingdom, the words must here 
 be taken in the widest possible extent of 
 meaning, just as in Ps. Ixxi. 8, where it 
 is declared in the connexion, that ad/ 
 nations should serve the Messiah. 
 
 11. Having been led by his predic- 
 tions respecting the expedition of Alex- 
 ander in the direction of KEgypt, 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. 03, a/so, connects what follows 
 with verses 6—8. The feminine pro- 
 noun PX refers to ΤΕ ΠΣ, or Onna, 
 ver. 9. ‘The covenant here called 703, 
 thy covenant, means the covenant made 
 with the Hebrews at Sinai, and rati- 
 fied by the sprinkling of the blood 
 of the victims slain upon the ocea- 
 sion. By that act the nation was 
 consecrated as a peculiar people to 
 Jehovah, and taken under his special 
 protection. 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 of them as were still captives in 
 foreign lands. By JYCs8 is meant, not 
 prisoners 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. xxxvili. 6; Gen. 
 xxxvil. 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. τ Ὁ 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 certaiuty 
 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 
 favour of the Most High. 22 occurs 
 only in this place. It is derived from 
 123, fo cut off, to prevent the approach 
 of an enemy, to erect an inaccessible 
 fortification ; hence the signification of 
 the noun, stroug-hold, or fortress. LXX. 
 ὀχύρωμα. It forcibly contrasts with Wa, 
 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 cap- 
 tivity. 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 
 (o%7 03) they might individually avail 
 themselves of the invitation, and share 
 in the blessings. The abundance of 
 these blessings is expressed by the 
 term 30, double, which is elsewhere 
 similarly employed to convey the idea 
 of full or ample compensation, Is. xi. 7. 
 There is no foundation for the opinion 
 of Michaelis, adopted by Blayney, who 
 takes 132 to be a noun having the sig- 
 nification of 722, something precious, aud 
 not the participle of Hiphil. 
 
 13. The declaration here made, that 
 Jehovah would lead forth the Hebrews 
 to military operations, and crown these 
 operations wiih success, cannot be recon- 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 ZECHARIALL 
 
 413 
 
 And raised up thy sons, O Zion! 
 
 Against thy sons, O Greece ! 
 
 And made thee as the sword of a hero. 
 
 14 
 
 And 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. 
 
 Jehovah of hosts shall protect them, 
 
 And they shall devour, and tread down the sling-stones ; 
 They shall drink, they shall be noisy, as 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, 
 
 ciled with the statement made ver. 10, 
 on any other principle but that which 
 refers them to two totally different 
 periods 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 success- 
 ful wars in which they would engage 
 with the Grecian rulers of Syria under 
 the command of the Maccabees. The 
 prophecy is parallel with that of Daniel, 
 chap. x1. 32. For the fulfilment, see 
 1 Mace. i. 62; ii. 41—43; iii. 43, ὅσ. 
 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 overcoming the Grecians 
 under Antiochus Epiphanes. By ΤΣ, 
 the sons of Greece, we are to understand, 
 not the Greeks resident in Ionia or 
 Greece, but those composing the army 
 of the monarch just mentioned. Grotius 
 remarks, that at the time here referred 
 to, the Jews were accustomed to call 
 the kings both of Syria and Egypt, 
 wor, 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 
 armies, it was necessary to disarm their 
 fears by such assurances, that God was on 
 
 their side. He is represented as appear- 
 ing in the thunderstorm, with the light- 
 nings of which his arrows are compared, 
 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 28, they shall eat, supply 
 Wwa, flesh, i.e. of their enemies; and 
 after MZ supply 03, their blood. This 
 highly figurative language is frequently 
 employed in Scripture to express the 
 destruction of enemies in battle. Ὁ 23, 
 like wine, is elliptical for ΤΠ 3, like 
 those who drink wine. Before ὑπ, thirty- 
 two MSS., originally four more, three 
 by correction, eight printed editions, 
 and the Rabbins Nathan, Kimehi, and 
 Abarbarel, supply the conjunctive ). 
 By 292228, sling-stones, the enemies are 
 meant, as clearly appears from the con- 
 trasted form of expression, 132 °228, stones 
 of a crown, descriptive of the Jews, in 
 the following verse. The phrase conveys 
 the idea of feebleness and contempt. 
 The stones used for slinging are other- 
 wise of no use or value. Carrying 
 forward the idea of blood, reference is 
 made to pu, the Jowl, which was used 
 to receive that of the sacrifices, and to 
 ms, 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 ΞΡ jk22, as sheep, his people, 
 comp. 792 jNz>, ‘I'he words are neither 
 
414 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. xX. 
 
 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. 
 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. 
 
 in construction, nor in apposition, but 
 are to be separated, so as to connect 
 iy with yw, understood as repeated 
 from the beginning of the verse. By 
 ὝΣ ΣΝ, 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 
 strongly indicative of victory. For 003 
 in the acceptation of being high, comp. 
 
 the Arab. vai, elevavit rem; in the 
 viii. Conj. elatus fuit ; VU, elevatus 
 
 thronus. 
 
 17. The affix in ‘2 and VP is most 
 naturally to be associated with that in 
 indi at the close of the preceding verse, 
 and referred to Jehovah. The meaning is, 
 
 the goodness and beauty which he be- 
 stows. Compare Jer. xxx. 12; Ps. xxv. 
 7. 122, though occurring in the latter 
 half, is common to both parts of the 
 sentence. Piel has here the causative 
 power of Hiphil. The root is 33, to 
 sprout, germinate, grow up. The prophet 
 refers to the plenty which there should 
 be in the land after the destruction of 
 the enemy. The drinking of must by 
 young females is peculiar to this passage ; 
 but its being here expressly sanctioned 
 by Divine authority, furnishes an un- 
 answerable argument against those who 
 would interdict all use of the fruit of 
 the vine. Winn, xew wine or must, so 
 called from wx, ¢o take possession of, 
 because when taken to excess, it gains 
 the mastery over the person who in- 
 dulges 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 victorious operations of their 
 armies, 4, 5 ; the complete re-establishment of the theocracy, 6, 7; the restora- 
 tion of such of the nation as still remained in foreign countries, especially 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 pro- 
 
 tection, 12. 
 
 1 Ask ye from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain : 
 
 1. This verse stands in the closest 
 connexion with the preceding. OP, 
 
 lightnings, the precursors of rain. 2 
 Dw3, lit. raiz of heavy rain, i.e. plentiful 
 
CHAP, X.] ZECHARIAH. 415 
 
 Jehovah maketh the lightnings, 
 And giveth them the heavy rain, 
 
 To every one grass in the field. 
 2 Surely the household gods spake vanity, 
 
 And the diviners saw a lie ; 
 Yea, they told false dreams, 
 
 They gave vapour for comfort ; 
 
 Therefore they wandered as sheep ; 
 
 They were afflicted because there was no shepherd. 
 3 My anger burned against the shepherds, 
 
 And I punished the he-goats ; 
 
 Nevertheless Jehovah of hosts hath visited his flock, the house 
 
 of Judah, 
 
 And made them as his splendid horse in war. 
 4 From him shall be the corner-stone, 
 
 From him the peg, 
 
 rain. Comp. Job xxxvil. 6, where the 
 same words occur, only their order is 
 inverted. 
 
 2. DNIMT, the teraphim, or household 
 gods, are opposed to Jehovah in the pre- 
 ceding verse. The term occurs only in 
 the plural, and is of uncertain deriva- 
 tion. Gesenius refers it to the Arab. 
 
 ws to live in comfort, and considers 
 
 it as signifying the indicators or givers 
 of pleasure or happiness; Lee to the 
 Eth. TCA: eliquus fuit, superfuit, 
 and thinks re/ics are meant. They appear 
 to have had the form of the human body, 
 and to have been consulted as oracles. 
 See on Hos. ii. 4. The preterites and 
 futures, which are intermixed, are all to 
 be taken in the strictly past time, re- 
 ference 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 in- 
 dulgence in which they are here warned. 
 They were exposed afresh to the influ- 
 ence of idolatrous practices by their 
 intercourse with the Syro-Grecian and 
 Egyptian troops, which repeatedly tra- 
 versed 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 772 is here used both in 
 a good and a bad sense; followed by the 
 preposition >, it signifies to visit for evil, 
 to punish ; governing the accusative, fo 
 visit with good. The in 5¥ is properly 
 the Ὑ conversive, so that ipo 15 to be 
 rendered in the preterite, to agree with 
 m0. By “he-goats” are meant the 
 chiefs or leaders of the nation, 332°, ver. 
 2, all the versions render, as if it had 
 been %2¥}, in the preterite, which the con- 
 nexion 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 
 calamitous 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 caparisoned. The 2 in 0°03 
 is the Caph veritatis. 
 
 4. 922 thrice repeated, possesses much 
 emphasis. The nominative is 77°7 in the 
 
410 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 From him the battle-bow, 
 
 From him shall go forth each and every ruler. 
 
 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. 
 
 For 1 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. 
 And Ephraim shall be as a hero, 
 
 And their heart shall rejoice, as those who drink wine ; 
 
 [ CHAP. 
 
 Their sons also shall see it and be glad ; 
 Their heart shall exult in Jehovah. 
 
 preceding verse. The Hebrews were 
 not now to be subject to governors of 
 foreign extraction or appointment, but 
 were to be independent, enjoying the 
 benefits of a native rule. By 738, corzer- 
 stone, is meant the prince or governor, 
 on whom the political edifice may be said 
 metaphorically to rest. ‘The word is 
 derived from 728, to ¢wrn, and primarily 
 signifies a turning-point, angle or corner 
 of a building. With us a nail would 
 be an insignificant image; but 7m, the 
 Oriental nail, is a large peg in the inside 
 of aroom, wrought into the wall when the 
 house is built, and on which are hung all 
 kinds of household stuff, together with 
 the different implements of war. See on 
 Is. xxii. 28. One of these, the dow, is 
 mentioned immediately after, and stands 
 for the whole. 252 is used here simply 
 in the sense of rwder. Compare the Eth. 
 PRAY : hing. 
 
 5. Supply ODS, exemies, as the object 
 to mp2, ¢rampling, and compare Is. 
 xiv. 25; Ixiii. 6. opw 235 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 rout 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 im- 
 portant 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. O°i2017 is a mixed form, 
 supposed by Kimchi, Abarbanel, and 
 some others, to have been artificially 
 compounded of OIT, the Hiphil of 
 amt, fo return, and On, the Hiphil 
 of 2%, ¢o sit or dwell, in order to express 
 in one word both verbs as used by 
 Jeremiah, OTT) WT DAT sx OMIM 
 729, chap. xxxul. 37 ; but it is far more 
 probable that the word is a corruption of 
 D72vi7, introduced through inadvertence 
 by some transcriber. Such is, indeed, 
 the reading of many MSS. and of four 
 printed editions, and is supported by the 
 LXX. κατοικιῶ. The reading O27, 
 has the support of the Syr., Vulg., and 
 Targ., but is less suitable to the con- 
 nexion. 
 
 7. As the state of things here de- 
 scribed was brought about by the heroic 
 conduct of Ephraim, it is obvious the 
 return from the captivity cannot be in- 
 tended, for the Hebrews were altogether 
 passive on that occasion. The reason 
 why special mention 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. Ovx, as a col- 
 lective noun, is the nominative to 77). 
 For "92 see on chap. ix. 15. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 411 
 
 8 I will whistle for them and gather them, 
 
 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 me 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 Gilead and Lebanon, 
 And room shall not be found for them. 
 
 1 
 
 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 ; 
 Yea, the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, 
 And the sceptre of Egypt shall depart. 
 
 &. An express promise of the restora- 
 tion, settlement, and increase of the ten 
 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 Ρ signifies fo whistle, 
 or give a shrill sound, as those who keep 
 bees do, who, by means of a whistle, or 
 pipe, call them out from and back to 
 their hives. See on Is. v. 26. Josephus 
 informs us, that two hundred years after 
 the time here referred to, Galilee was 
 peopled to an amazing extent, studded 
 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 thousand 
 inhabitants. Jewish Wars, book iii. 
 ch. iii. § 2. 
 
 9. The first two Vaus are employed 
 antithetically, the former having the 
 signification of though or indeed ; the 
 latter, that of dwt or yet. YY cannot 
 here mean fo sow, as Hengstenberg con- 
 tends, but must be rendered scatter, 
 which the verb primarily signifies, and 
 ‘the connexion here requires. ‘he last 
 clause of the verse indicates the settled 
 enjoyment of chartered privileges as 
 before the dispersion, 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 
 be 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, 
 x02 has here the signification of there 
 being szfficient or enough, as in Kal, 
 Numb. xi. 22; Jud. xxi. 14. 039, 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 people 
 at the Red Sea. Comp. Is. xi. 15. The 
 Divine interposition in behalf of those 
 who were still in Egypt is not expressly 
 compared with what then took place, 
 but such comparison is implied. πὴ 
 has been variously rendered. The LXX. 
 
 oo » 
 στενῇ ; Vulg. freto; Syr. fay dol, 
 angustia ; Calvin, affictio; Hengstenberg, 
 
 the distress ; Blayney, Tyre; Hitzig, Zara, 
 by which he understands the Nile. ‘The 
 
 aH 
 
418 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XI, 
 
 12 And I will strengthen them through Jehovah, 
 And they shall walk up and down in his name, 
 
 Saith Jehovah. 
 
 difficulty is at once removed by taking 
 mz as a verb, with the Aramaic signifi- 
 
 ο 
 cation of ΝΣ, 1 δ᾽; cut, cleave, divide. 
 Comp. the Arab. csr? resecuit, ampu- 
 
 tavit. In which case three verbs, having 
 Jehovah understood as their nominative, 
 will follow in regular order; ΠΣ 093 729) 
 myo mam. 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 waves. 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 1s’ places beyond dis- 
 pute. See on Is. xix. 6. With respect 
 to Wx, Asshur, it may justly be queried 
 whether the Syro-Greek kingdom be uot 
 intended—that kingdom occupying not 
 only the territory which belonged to 
 ancient Assyria, but extending still further 
 towards theeast. The pride of that power, 
 as well as the Egypto-Greek sceptre, 
 was to be swept away. 
 
 12. The phrase, 082 7007, 4o walk in 
 the name ot 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 
 chapters, that they must have been delivered at a time subsequent to the erection 
 
 of the temple. 
 
 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 the final deliverance of the covenant people, they would 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 relate to the times 
 in which those persons lived, it is not conceivable how they couid have so appro- 
 priated 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 con- 
 
 temporaries for their immediate benefit. 
 
 It may, therefore, be concluded, that 
 
 they were communicated 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 people, setting forth his commission 
 to teach and rule them, 4; their deplorable condition in consequence of the 
 rapacious disposition of their leaders, 5 ; and the judgments that should over- 
 
 - 
 
CHAP. XI.j 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 419 
 
 take 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 rela- 
 tion 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, 15—17. 
 
 1 Open, O Lebanon! thy gates, 
 
 That the fire may devour thy cedars. 
 2 Howl, ye cypresses! for the cedars have fallen, 
 
 Because the magnificent are destroyed ; 
 
 Howl, ye oaks of Bashan! for the fortified forest hath come down. 
 3 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. 
 
 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 de- 
 claration of Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai: 
 QO sanctuary, sanctuary! why dost 
 thou trouble thyself? I know of thee 
 that thine end is to be left desolate, 
 for Zechariah, 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 interpreta- 
 tion seems to be referred to by Josephus, 
 in his Jewish Wars, bk. vi. ch. v. καὶ ὁ. 
 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 because 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 Jerusalem. Its gates were kept 
 carefully shut against all who had no 
 right to tread its courts. Now it was 
 to become a prey to the flames. The 
 
 prediction received its literal fulfilment 
 in spite of the utmost solicitude of the 
 Roman general to preserve the edifice. 
 In vain did he attempt to save it from 
 the flames, so that in a short time it 
 was entirely consumed, 
 
 Q. wins, the cypress, was greatly in- 
 ferior to the cedar, but was employed 
 for the floors 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 
 officers, together with the judges of the 
 people. W148 is used both of animate 
 and inanimate objects. It is here 
 employed to denote those who were 
 elevated in dignity and magnificent in 
 apparel. Comp. jX37 P18. By Y237 Ὁ», 
 the fortified or inaccessible forest, 15 
 meant Jerusalem, the houses of which 
 were numerous 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 23, 
 many MSS., and two early editions, read 
 23, which is only another form to express 
 the same thing. 
 
 3. The Jewish rulers are called 
 “shepherds,” with reference to their 
 oflice, and “ young lions,” in regard to 
 
ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 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. 
 
 their fierce and rapacious disposition. The 
 ny, was the magnificence of the temple 
 of which they boasted. Comp. Mark 
 xiii. 1; Luke xxi.5. ava 7x3, the pride 
 of Jordan, 1. 6. 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 pre- 
 ceding. Comp. Jer. xii. 5; xlix.19. The 
 leaders of the Jews are represented as 
 indulging in loud wailings of despair, 
 on account of the destruction of their 
 temple and polity. 
 
 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 con- 
 nected with it—the obstinate refusal of 
 their rulers to receive the doctrine of 
 the Messiah. By 72907 ΝΞ, the sheep of 
 slaughter, are meant the people devoted 
 to destruction. Comp. 7724 jXz, 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 he performed the duties of that 
 office? Frischmuth, Marckius, Michaelis, 
 and others, are of opinion that it is the 
 Messiah, 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 
 person the instruments of a foolish 
 shepherd, 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 intervening verses vanish. Zecha- 
 
 riah had all the transactions presented 
 to his view in prophetic vision, but 
 what he describes was actually done, 
 not in his own personal history, nor in 
 any outward occurrences between him 
 and the Jews of his time, but in the 
 personal history and office of the Messiah 
 whom he personated. 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. M‘Caul, 
 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 correspond- 
 ing term OY, their shepherds, is merely 
 expletive of what the same persons were 
 officially. The avarice of the Pharisees 
 was excessive, yet they had the bare- 
 faced hypocrisy to thank God for their 
 ill-gotten wealth; and because they were 
 not punished, they imagined they might 
 persevere with impunity. The con- 
 struction of the plural nouns 77, 
 WH, and opys, with the singulars Wx” 
 and im, cannot, with any propriety, 
 be accounted for on the principle 
 advanced by Hengstenberg, that Jeho- 
 vah himself was the principal actor, and 
 that the wicked rulers were merely his 
 instruments. It is only a more emphatic 
 mode of construction, by which each of 
 the individuals specified in the plural 15. 
 represented as performing the action, 
 see Gen. xxvii. 29; Exod. xxxi. 14; 
 Prov. iii. 18. The masculine affix ἘΠ 
 refers to the people, strictly so taken; 
 the feminine ἹΠ, refers to them as con- 
 sidered under the idea of the sheep that 
 were to be fed, j83 being of the common 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 421 
 
 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 neighbour, and into the hand of his king; 
 And they shall destroy the land, 
 And I will not deliver them out of their hand. 
 
 7 ~ And I fed the sheep of slaughter, truly miserable sheep! And 
 
 I took to myself two crooks ; 
 
 gender. There is, therefore, no ground 
 for correcting the text by changing BPP 
 into }PP, the reading of fifteen MSS. 
 and some printed editions. 
 
 6. The particle 33, 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 
 abandoned 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 
 acknowledgment of the Jews them- 
 selves: ‘ We have no king but Cesar.” 
 John xix. 15. The verb 753, fo 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 
 fulfilled during the personal ministry 
 of our Lord. ἸΝΞΙΤ “2 722 have been 
 variously rendered. LXX. eis τὴν 
 
 axa m 7) o ν 
 
 Χαναανίτιν' ὥγυ, Ἂς ἀξο Ἰλυζὰο 
 poo 2 ”~ 
 
 ies {ais » the little ones on account of 
 
 the collection of the sheep. Vulg. propter 
 hoc, 6 pauperes gregis. Leo Juda, adeoque 
 pauperes gregis. ‘Tremellius and Junius, 
 vos inquam. 6 pauperes gregis. Schmid, 
 J. H. Michaelis, Newcome, Hitzig, and 
 others, propter vos, o miseri gregis. 
 Maurer, pavi igitur miserrimas ovium. 
 Arnheim, ftirwafr Dte elenDesten der 
 Weerde, Hwald, wirklich dte unglick- 
 lichsten Schaie. The only real difficulty 
 lies in the word 722. The LXX. have 
 read it, and the following word, as one, 
 thus, 2¥225, and made Canaanite of it. 
 This rendering is adopted by Blayney, 
 only he attaches to the term the idea 
 
 the one I called Grace, and the 
 
 of merchant, which it sometimes has 
 (among those who trafficked with the 
 flock), and explains it of the buyers and 
 sellers of the flock, described ver. 5. 
 The interpretation is so far specious, 
 and is approved by Jali, but cannot be 
 philologically sustained. Some take 72? 
 for the infinitive in Hiphil of p3, which 
 furnishes no tolerable sense; others, for 
 the dative of the second personal femi- 
 nine pronoun, supposing the Segol to 
 have been changed into a Tzére, but 
 this is liable to the same objection. Most 
 regard it as the particle }22, and construe 
 it either with its causal, or its adversa- 
 tive signification; but neither do any of 
 the interpretations thus brought out 
 satisfactorily meet the exigencies of the 
 ease. I cannot help thinking that the 
 5 is here redundant, as it is in many 
 instances, and that we must construe ]3, 
 as in ver. 11, where it oceurs without the 
 >. The term is properly a participial noun, 
 derived from 73, in the sense of the 
 
 Arab. we , esse, and implies reality, 
 
 certainty, or the like, but admits of being 
 variously rendered, according to the 
 context in which it is found. See Lee’s 
 Heb. Lex. iz voce. And thus it is under- 
 stood by Kimehi, Jarehi, Castalio, De 
 Dieu, Drusius, Storr, Dathe, Arnheim, 
 De Wette, and Ewald. Even were the 
 5 retained, the same result would be 
 brought out, the rendering in this case 
 being, with respect to truth, i.e. truly ; 
 just as in 1223, with respect to perpetuity, 
 le. for ever. The words jS27 2 are 
 the superlative of construction, as in 
 Day, the most wicked of nations, Ezek. 
 vil. 24; rwa waz, the choicest of his 
 eypresses, Is, Xxxvil, 24; or, what is 
 quite parallel with the present case, 
 jN27 ‘yyy, rendered in our common ver- 
 sion, the least of the flock, Jer. xlix. 20. 
 The article is as usual to be referred tothe 
 
422 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 8 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. 
 
 I will not feed you; 
 
 So that I said : 
 
 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. 
 
 10 
 
 former of the two nouns, and both might 
 be rendered, the most miserable of sheép, 
 or the most miserable sheep. Such was 
 the state to which the Jewish people 
 were reduced in the days of our Lord. 
 They were ἐσκυλμένοι καὶ ἐῤῥιμμένοι, 
 ὡσεὶ πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα, Matt. 
 ix. 836. They were worried and harassed 
 in every possible way, πρόβατα ἀπολω- 
 λότα, Matt. x.6. The two staves were 
 symbolical of the different modes of 
 treatment which the Hebrews had expe- 
 rienced under the guidance and pro- 
 tection of the providence of God. One 
 of them was called 0¥3, Grace, or Favour, 
 to indicate the kindness of Jehovah to 
 them in restraining the surrounding 
 nations from overpowering them, and 
 carrying them again into captivity. See 
 ver. 10. To the other was given the 
 name of ©9327, which Drusius, Marckius, 
 the Dutch translators, and others, render 
 Binders, but better, Bands, expressing 
 the ties which unite parties together. 
 The LXX., Aq. Symm., σχοίνισμα ; 
 Vule. funiculi ; Maurer, conjuncti, fede- 
 rati. Reference is had to the fra- 
 ternal confederacy into which the Jews 
 and Israelites had entered with each 
 other after the return from Babylon. 
 See ver. 14. The last clause of the 
 verse is a repetition of the first, for the 
 sake of emphasis. 
 
 8. Who were “the three shepherds ” 
 here definitely pointed out, 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 
 Vitellius, in Calmet. The only con- 
 struction 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 
 
 I then took my crook Grace, and cut it asunder, in order to break 
 
 teachers of the law, and the civil magis- 
 trates. These were the persons of 
 influence by whom the affairs of the 
 nation were conducted, and to whose 
 wickedness, which reached its culini- 
 nating point when they crucified the 
 Lord of Glory, the destruction of the 
 state is to be ascribed. ONT, ove 
 month, doubtless refers to the last period 
 of the siege of Jerusalem, when every- 
 thing was thrown into confusion, and 
 all authority came to an end. 13, éo 
 hide, conceal ; in Hiphil, as here, apa- 
 vice, to cause to disappear, to cause to 
 cease with respect to office, to remove 
 from it. The last two lines of the verse 
 point out the mutual dissatisfaction and 
 disgust with which the wicked rulers 
 and the Messiah regarded each other. 
 53, occurs only here, and Prov. xx. 21. 
 Comp. the cognate root 3, ¢o reject, 
 
 and the Arab. «πὸ, impulsus validus, 
 propulsio vehemens ; 2 , maledixit, 111. 
 
 execratus fuirt. 
 
 9. The entire abandonment of the 
 Hebrew people is here most affectingly 
 set forth. For the threefold destruction 
 here predicted, comp. Jer. xv. 1, 2; 
 xxxiv. 17; Ezek. vi. 12. And for the 
 fulfilment, see Josephus. 
 
 10. By this symbolical action, the 
 removal of the restraint which Jehovah 
 had exercised over the nations, whereby 
 the destruction of the Jewish people 
 had been prevented, is strikingly repre- 
 sented. The exercise of restraint with 
 respect to hostile forces is elsewhere 
 spoken of under the idea of a covenant. 
 See Job v. 23; Ezek. xxxiv. 25; Hos. 
 ii. 18. When this restraint was removed, 
 the Romans invaded Judea, and de- 
 stroyed the city and polity of the ancient 
 people of God. That by 02», people, 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 1l 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 423 
 
 my covenant which I had made with all the nations. And it was 
 
 broken in that day, and the miserable sheep that gave heed to 
 
 12 
 
 me, knew of a truth that it was the word of Jehovah. 
 
 And I 
 
 said to them, If it be good in your eyes, give my reward; and 
 
 if not, forbear. 
 18 silver. 
 or zations, we are to understand foreign 
 nations, and not the Hebrew tribes, is 
 now agreed among the best interpreters, 
 
 11. The anticipated accomplishment 
 of the prediction, and the conviction 
 wrought in the minds of the pious por- 
 tion of the Jewish people, that the 
 prediction was indeed divine. For the 
 force of j2 see on ver. 7. The LXX. 
 again join the two words, and render, 
 οἱ Χαναναῖοι. 
 
 12, 13. On the question of the appli- 
 cation of these verses to the circum- 
 stances narrated Matt. xxvii. 7—10, 
 a very decided difference of opinion 
 has obtained. This difference has been 
 occasioned, partly by the fact of cer- 
 tain discrepancies existing between the 
 accounts which they furnish of the 
 transactions, and partly by the more 
 important consideration that the Evan- 
 gelist expressly ascribes the words which 
 he quotes to Jeremiah, and not to Zecha- 
 riah. With respect to the former of 
 these points, it may, to a considerable 
 extent, be obviated by the general obser- 
 vation, that the discrepancies are not 
 greater than we meet with in several 
 other quotations made from the Old 
 Testament by the writers of the New, 
 and are by no means such as to affect 
 the end which either the prophet or the 
 Evangelist had in view. In producing 
 the citation, the latter had his eye more 
 intent upon the historical circumstances 
 which he had just detailed, than upon 
 the strict grammatical construction and 
 verbality of the language employed in 
 the prophecy. He fixes upon the prin- 
 cipal points, the despicable price at which 
 the Messiah had been sold, and the 
 appropriation of the money as a com- 
 pensation to the potter for the possession 
 of his field; and having faithfully ex- 
 hibited these to the view of his readers, 
 he is less solicitous about the wording of 
 the prophet. The very changes which 
 he introduces into the phraseology are 
 
 So they weighed my reward, thirty pieces of 
 And Jehovah said to me, Cast it to the potter, the 
 
 such as his position in the character of 
 an historian required. Thus, instead of 
 om MP? Wr, at which I was estimated 
 by them, Matthew has ὃν ἐτιμήσαντο ἀπὸ 
 υἱῶν ᾿Ισραὴλ, at which he was estimated 
 by the sons of Israel. Instead of 777x) 
 ADs ow, And I took the thirty pieces 
 of silver, we find, καὶ ἔλαβον τὰ τριά- 
 κοντα ἀργύρια, and they took the thirty 
 pieces of silver. Instead of ink ox), 
 and I threw it, the Gospel has, kai 
 ἔδωκαν αὐτὰ, and they gave them. The 
 freedom with which the Evangelist ren- 
 ders ie by δίδωμι is the more noticeable, 
 since he employs the participle ῥίψας in 
 reference to the same subject in the fifth 
 verse, where, at the same time, he renders 
 mim ma by ἐν τῷ ναῷ. ‘the conjecture of 
 some that 129, potter, is a corruption of 
 Wwix, treasurer, is worse than gratuitous, 
 as the latter word nowhere occurs in 
 Hebrew in reference to such an office, 
 and as the potter was the most suitable 
 person to whom to cast the despicable 
 sum, occupying as he did a workshop in 
 the valley of Hinnom, (Jer. xviii. 2, 3; 
 xix. 2,) which was held in abomination 
 by the Jews. That the Evangelist should 
 have ascribed the prediction to Jeremiah 
 has proved a source of great perplexity 
 to critics. No person who has read the 
 passage in Zechariah can peruse that in 
 Matthew without at once beg reminded 
 of it. And so exactly do they tally in 
 every important point, that no doubt of 
 their relationship can for a moment be 
 entertained. On the other hand, no 
 such passage is to be found in any part 
 of the prophecies of Jeremiah. The 
 solution of the difficulty proposed by 
 Hengstenberg, that it was the object of 
 our prophet to bring forward to view the 
 predictions contained in Jer. xviii. and 
 xix., in order to point out the destruction 
 of Jerusalem by the Romans, and that on 
 this ground the Evangelist might, with 
 all propriety, ascribe the authorship to 
 Jeremiah, is very unsatisfactory; and 
 
» 
 
 424 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 splendid price at which I was estimated by them! And I took 
 the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of 
 
 Jehovah, to the potter. 
 14 
 
 Then I cut asunder my second crook Bands, in order to break 
 
 the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 
 
 we are shut up to one or other of the 
 following conclusions: First, that the 
 one name was substituted for the other 
 by a lapsus memoria. Secondly, that 
 the portion of the book of Zechariah, 
 in which the words are found, though 
 now bearing his name, was actually 
 written by Jeremiah, and by some means 
 or other, to us unknown, has been ap- 
 pended to the real prophecies of Zecha- 
 riah. Thirdly, that the citation is made 
 from an apocryphal book of the prophet 
 Jeremiah. Or lastly, that there is a 
 corruption of the name in the Greek 
 text of Matthew. The first of these 
 positions will not be admitted by any 
 who believe in the plenary inspiration 
 of the Apostles; a doctrine fully esta- 
 blished on Scripture authority, and which, 
 if denied, would completely annihilate 
 our confidence in their testimony, since 
 if their memory might fail, or they might 
 be mistaken in one instance, such might 
 be the case in hundreds. For a refu- 
 tation of the second hypothesis, see the 
 Preface, in which it is shown that there 
 is no solid foundation for the opinion, 
 that the last six chapters of Zechariah 
 were not written by that prophet. With 
 respect to the third supposition, it cannot 
 be denied that there was an apocryphal 
 book of Jeremiah, containing an analo- 
 gous passage. Jerome found it among 
 the Nazarenes, and a portion of it still 
 exists in a Sahidice Lectionary, in the Co- 
 dex Huntingtonianus 5, in the Bodleian 
 Library, Oxford, and in the Coptic 
 language in the MS. 51] fol. in the 
 library of St. Germain in Paris. The 
 words are as follows: “Jeremiah spake 
 again to Pashur, Ye and your fathers 
 have resisted the truth, and your sons, 
 which shall come after you, will commit 
 more grievous sins than ye. For they 
 will give the price of him that is valued, 
 and do injury to him that maketh the 
 sick whole, and forgiveth iniquity. And 
 they will take thirty pieces of silver, the 
 price which the children of Israel have 
 given. They have given them for the 
 potter’s field, as the Lord commanded. 
 
 And thus it shallbespoken: The sentence 
 of eternal punishment shall fall upon 
 them, and upon their children, because 
 they have shed innocent blood.” But 
 who does not perceive in this fragment 
 the clumsy attempt of one of the early 
 Christians to support the cause of truth 
 by what was deemed a harmless fraud ? 
 Jerome at once rejected it as spurious, 
 and expresses his belief that Matthew 
 made his citation from Zechariah. It 
 only remains, that we assume ἃ corrup- 
 tion in the Greek text of the Evangelist. 
 That a variety of reading exists, has long 
 been matter of notoriety. Augustine 
 mentions, that in his time some MSS. 
 omitted the name of Ἰερεμίου. It is 
 also omitted in the MS. 38, 157; inthe 
 Syriac, which is the most ancient of all 
 the versions; in the Polyglott Persie, 
 and in a Persic MS. in my possession, 
 bearing date a.p. 1057; in the modern 
 Greek; in the Verona and Vercelli Latin 
 MSS., and in a Latin MS. of Lue. Brug. 
 The Greek MS. 22, reads Ζαχαρίου, as 
 also do the Philoxenian Syriac in the 
 margin, and an Arabic MS. quoted by 
 Bengel. Origen and Eusebius were in 
 favour of this reading. I think it very 
 probable that Matthew did not insert 
 either name, but simply wrote in his 
 Hebrew Gospel, #137 13, by the prophet, 
 just as in chap. i. 225 1]. ὅ, 15; xiii. 35; 
 xxl. 4; xxvil. 85; and that his Greek 
 translator, mistaking 7 in Y2 for >, read 
 v2, which he considered to be a con- 
 traction for 723, and so rendered it 
 διὰ Ἱερεμίου τοῦ προφήτου. This reading 
 having thus found its way into the first 
 Greek MS., will account for its all but 
 universal propagation. Another con- 
 jecture supposes “Ipiov to have been 
 written by some early copyist instead 
 of Ζριου. I only add, that there can be 
 no doubt the passage in question existed 
 in the book of Zechariah in the Jewish 
 canon in the days of the Evangelist, 
 since it is found to occupy that place in 
 the text of the LXX. which was formed 
 three hundred years previously. 
 
 14. For the meaning of 0917, Bands, 
 
CHAP. ΧΊ.] 
 
 15 
 a foolish shepherd ; 
 16 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 425 
 
 And Jehovah said to me, Take to thee yet the instruments of 
 
 For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land ; 
 
 Those which are perishing he will not visit, 
 That which strayeth he will not seek, 
 
 That which is wounded he will not heal, 
 That which standeth he will not nourish ; 
 But he will eat the flesh of the fat, 
 
 And will break off their hoofs, 
 
 see on ver. 7, The circumstances here 
 predicted were those of the utter breaking 
 up of the social condition of the Hebrews. 
 This dissolution was in no small degree 
 brought about by the internal dissensions 
 which prevailed among themselves, the 
 rage of the different parties against each 
 other, and the barbarities that they 
 practised, which none could have in- 
 dulged in but such as had their hearts 
 steeled against every feeling of brother- 
 hood or humanity. “Yet by these men,” 
 says Josephus, “the ancient prediction 
 seemed rapidly drawing to its fulfilment: 
 That when civil war should break out in 
 the city, and the temple be profaned by 
 the hands of native Jews, the city should 
 be taken, and the temple burned with fire.” 
 
 15. NY, again, refers back to what is 
 recorded ver. 7. The O22, here as a 
 collective in the singular °?3, were the 
 articles usually belonging to shepherds, 
 viz. a crook, a bag or wallet containing 
 food, a pipe or reed, a knife, ὅθ. Instead 
 of >, one of De Rossi’s MSS., the 
 Halle Bible of 1720, the Vatican copy 
 of the LXX., the Syr., Vulg., and 
 Arab., read 2, the punctuation of the 
 plural. ‘x, foolish, by implication zicked, 
 as wickedness is often represented in 
 Scripture as folly. 
 
 16. D772 is employed here, like similar 
 verbs in Hiphil, to denote not any direct 
 moral excitement to action, but the 
 operation of concurring circumstances, 
 under the Divine government, in con- 
 - sequence of which certain events are 
 brought about by responsible human 
 agency. i773, those that are perishing, 
 the Niphal participle of 72, which mn 
 Hiphil and Niphal signifies ¢o cut off or 
 be destroyed. Yiis 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 eapz/sion, that which 
 has been cast out, by implication, strayed, 
 
 Comp. the Arabic Js, 
 
 repulsus, in fugam versus, 122, that 
 which standeth still. 321 properly sig- 
 nifies fo set or place, in Niphal, to stand, 
 stand firm, be strong, firm, sound ; and 
 thus the LXX. here ὁλόκληρον, but this 
 interpretation is quite at variauce 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 Wewas, posuit, fivit, and then 
 
 dolore affecit, lassus fuit, laboravit. Such 
 it devolves upon the shepherd to provide 
 with necessary nourishment, or, as it is 
 here expressed, 9273, to sustain, furnish 
 with provisions. Root 3, to measure 
 grain. The words Pie) FPOW are ex- 
 pressive of the greatest cruelty, being 
 descriptive 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 interests of the Jews, 
 and whose reign was marked by the 
 perpetration of the most shameful and 
 barbarous cruelties. What goes to con- 
 firm this view is the circumstance of his 
 being said to be raised up “ἐμ the land.” 
 
 SE 
 
 wandered. 
 
420 
 
 17 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Wo 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. 
 
 17. This denunciation seems to be 
 directed against the wicked rulers of 
 the Jews who might be in office between 
 the time of the prophet, and that of the 
 dissolution of the Jewish state, rather 
 than against the person referred to in 
 the preceding verse. The " in ἢ is not 
 the pronominal affix, but the poetic 
 paragogic, as in the following Ὁ, and 
 other participles. See Gen. xlix. 11; 
 Deut. xxx, 16; Ps.exiv. 8; ΟΧΧΊΙ, 1. 
 
 Mey, the worthless or good-for-nothing 
 shepherd. Comp. Job xii. 4. The root 
 must unquestionably have been 2. 
 Comp. 23 from 732; 220 from 220. The 
 character described is that of negligence, 
 arising from the total absence of a sense of 
 official claims, and of personal responsi- 
 bility. The rest of the verse from 217 on- 
 ward, is to be taken optatively. The 
 doom imprecated is truly awful—an utter 
 deprivation of power and intelligence. 
 
 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 consequent wretchedness, had been so graphically set forth in that which 
 precedes it. On their return to their own land, Jerusalem shall prove formidable 
 to the nations that oppose them, 2—4, having a regular government, by which, 
 in reliance upon Jehovah, the inhabitants shall be protected, 5, 6. Τὸ prevent 
 
 ‘the inhabitants of the metropolis from glorying over their brethren in the 
 
 country, the latter shall be first delivered from their invaders, 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 be a remarkable effusion of the influences of the 
 Holy Spirit, in consequence of which a season 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 be 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, 
 
CHAP. XII. | 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 427 
 
 1 THE Sentence of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel ; 
 Saith Jehovah, who stretcheth forth the heavens, 
 And layeth the foundations of the earth, 
 And formeta the spirit of man within him: 
 
 2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of intoxication 
 
 To all the people around ; 
 
 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. 
 
 1. For the entire phrase, 7} 7127 sD, 
 see on chap. ix. 1. That sw2 does not 
 necessarily involve a sentence of judg- 
 ment, see on Is. xiii. 1. That it cannot 
 be so taken here, is manifest from the 
 connexion. Hengstenberg, in order to 
 establish the contrary hypothiesis, is 
 obliged to have recourse to the despe- 
 rate resort of interpreting Jsrael 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 OJs7™ 73°, com- 
 pare Πατὴρ τῶν πνευμάτων, Heb. xii. 9, 
 and Numb. xvi. 22; xxvu. 16; and for 
 the several predicates, Is. xlil. 5. 
 
 2. 1 AD, some render ἃ shaking 
 threshold, in imitation of the LXX. os 
 πρόθυρα σαλευόμενα, and interpret the 
 declaration here made of the concussion 
 which Jerusalem should receive from 
 the attack of the enemy; but it is more 
 natural to regard the phrase as only 
 another form for 729797 Dia, Is. li. 17, 22, 
 by which is meant a cup filled with 
 intoxicating liquors, causing those who 
 drink it to reel and stagger to their 
 injury. Root γι, ¢o shake, reel, stagger. 
 The attempt of Hengstenberg to deny 
 that 7D is ever used to denote a cup, is 
 
 a complete 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 perplexity to interpreters. The 
 chief difficulty is created by the position 
 of the preposition Ὁ in the phrase 02) 
 πον, The Targ., Jerome, Kimchi, 
 Drusius, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Maurer, 
 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 921F)O 
 the nominative to ™™m. But this inter- 
 pretation ill suits the context, in the 
 whole of which Judah is represented 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, 
 connecting Judah with Jerusalem, it 
 represents the former, as well as the 
 latter, as a cup of intoxication to the 
 invaders. See for this use of ὃν, 
 Gen. xxxii. 12; Exod. xxxv. 22; Job 
 xxxvill. 32. In support of this inter- 
 pretation, see especially ver. 6. The 
 same result will be brought out, if we 
 take PY in the acceptation ix reference 
 to, with respect to; thus: “ And with 
 respect to Judah it shall also be in the 
 siege ;” 7.9. Judah shall also be a 
 cup, &e. 
 
 3. Another metaphor employed like 
 the preceding to represent the victory 
 
428 
 4 In that day, saith Jehovah, 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 I will smite every horse with consternation, 
 
 And his rider with madness ; 
 
 But upon the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, 
 
 While 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. 
 6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah 
 
 Like a fire 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 yet occupy her place in Jerusalem. 
 7 And Jehovah shall deliver the tents of Judah first, 
 
 In order that the splendour of the house of David, 
 
 And the splendour of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 
 May not be magnified above Judah. 
 
 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. 01 describes the inflicting 
 of cuts or gashes by the sharp edges or 
 corners of the stones thus employed. 
 Though exposed to the punishment here 
 predicated, the nations shall confidently 
 advance to the attack. The confederacy 
 against the Jews will be universal in its 
 character. 
 
 4. While Jehovah will specially in- 
 terpose for the discomfiture of the 
 enemy by rendering their cavalry in- 
 capable of performing any effective 
 service, he will exercise the greatest 
 watchfulness over his people. 
 
 5, 728 is a substantive, but occurs 
 only this once. The LXX. have read 
 
 neox, and render εὑρήσομεν. The 
 successful resistance offered to the 
 
 enemy by the inhabitants of the metro- 
 polis, will inspire those of the country 
 
 with the assurance, that, through the 
 Divine aid, they shall obtain deliverance. 
 , which is the Dative of advantage, 
 stands collectively for 722. Two MSS. 
 and the Targ. read °20, but no doubt 
 from correction. In two other MSS. 
 15 omitted. 
 
 6. Jerusalem, in the first imstance, 
 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 D241», as occurring the second 
 time, into D023, 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 
 
 ee a ee a ae 
 
 
 
CHAP, ΧΙ].] 
 
 ZECHARIAH, 
 
 429 
 
 8 In that day Jehovah shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; 
 So that he that stumblethamong them in that day shall be as David, 
 And the house of David shall be as God, 
 
 As the Angel of Jehovah before them. 
 
 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, 
 And they shall lament for him, 
 
 which the inhabitants of a royal metro- 
 polis are too prone to indulge. The 
 reading 770e72, “as at the first,” which 
 is found in two MSS., and is the 
 original reading of three more, and is 
 favoured by the LXX., Arab., Syr., and 
 Vulg., is not entitled to consideration. 
 8. A gracious promise of Divine 
 assistance, supported, with admirable 
 effect, by a beautiful climax. From 
 the circumstance, that the LXX. have 
 in several instances rendered DON, by 
 angels, some interpreters have supposed 
 that the term is to be so understood 
 here. The more enlightened moderns, 
 however, discard this signification alto- 
 gether. 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, 17) JX7D3, as the 
 Angel of Jehovah, immediately following. 
 The house of David was to be as God, yet 
 not as God in the abstract, of which no 
 proper conception can be formed, but as 
 God manifested to men in his glorious 
 forthcomings under the ancient dispensa- 
 tion, in the Divine Person of the Son, 
 who went before the children of Israel 
 as their Almighty Leader and Protector, 
 and to whom are vindicated the sum 
 total of the Divine attributes. See Exod. 
 _ Xxxil. 34; where the words 329 J2 °2879 
 form the type of D725? Tim JR, here 
 adopted by Zechariah. Compare also 
 Exod. xxxiii. 15; xxili.21; Is.1xi.9; Mal. 
 iii. 1; and my Comment. on Zech. i. 11. 
 9, Paw? wpar, [ will seek to destroy, 
 is spoken more humano, but conveys no 
 
 idea of weakness in the speaker. “Summo 
 studio ero atientus.” 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 0», spzrit, 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 ealled “ spirit ” 
 by metonymy of cause for effect. 7 and 
 mn are from the same root, 727, Zo 
 regard with favour, exercise mercy, &e. 
 The verb 33, here used in Hiphil, is 
 intensive in signification: fo look to, 
 or regard with fired attention, to con- 
 template with decp interest, and with 
 believing expectation. Such is the nature 
 of that «ct of the mind which is exerted 
 by every converted sinner, when the 
 Saviour 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 ‘x, in the 
 phrase ~s m7, “they shall look to Mg,” 
 
430 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 (CHAP. XII. 
 
 As one lamenteth for an only son, 
 
 And be in bitterness for him, 
 
 As one is in bitterness for a first-born. 
 
 has been the subject of much controversy. 
 It is found in most MSS., and among 
 these the best, and is supported 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 antecedent to whom it can 
 be referred than 7, JEHOVAH, verses 
 land 4. In order to avoid this reference, 
 Kimchi gives to the following words, 
 NPI WA ΠΝ, the interpretation, Jecause 
 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, Abar- 
 banel, Aischech, and other Rabbins. 
 The rendering given to W1 by the LXX. 
 κατωρχήσαντο, they insulted, has been 
 eagerly seized upon by some, especially 
 by ‘heiner, Rosenmuller, Eichhorn, 
 Gesenius, De Wette, Winer, and by 
 none more than Maurer, who is at great 
 pains to prove that, like 322 and 232, the 
 verb (1 is to be taken in the metapho- 
 rical 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 literal acceptation of piercing the 
 body. It is thus used in chap. xui. 3, 
 of this very book. The same objection 
 lies against the metaphorical sense of 
 grieving or provoking, which even Calvin 
 has adopted, though he admits that the 
 prophecy was literally fulfilled in Christ. 
 
 That the passage has a Messianic re- 
 ference 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: 
 TM mwa Sw ὙΤΈΌΙΤ ΠῚ WX TW PWS pn 
 DIT ww maT ΠῚ ὍΝ, 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 Zecha- 
 
 riah are cited, after the declaration re- 
 specting the mourning: Ὁ VANTIN) ND WI 
 Mw APY armen. May he be in peace 
 who refers it to Messiah the son of Joseph, 
 who shall be slain. See also the com- 
 mentaries of Abarbanel and Abenezra, 
 who give the same interpretation, as 
 also does the Talkut Chasdash, fol. 24: 
 PTS HOY 13 Mw NITW TIP PTD ἼΠΝ 3 
 TH Moo wT MI RY, For after they 
 have pierced Jonah, who is Messiah the 
 son of Joseph, then David will eome, 
 Messiah the son of David. Hengsten- 
 berg’s Christol. vol. 11. 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 for ever, 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 
 Christian application of them to our 
 Saviour. 
 
 It only remains to inquire how the 
 Jews, who did not acquiesce in the 
 interpretation adopted by Kimchi, have 
 endeavoured to get rid of the pronominal 
 reference in 8. To this the reply is: 
 By changing the reading into Y2x, which, 
 however, they did not at first venture to 
 insert into the text, but 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., 
 originally 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 
 libraries. Of this insertion a serious 
 complaint is made by Raymundus Mar- 
 tini, in his Pugio Fidei, p. 411, Leipsie, 
 1687, fol. And so ashamed have Lip- 
 mann, Abarbanel, and other Rabbins 
 been of it, that they pass it entirely by 
 in their controversies with the Christians, 
 or candidly acknowledge that it is not 
 
CHAP. XII. ] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 431 
 
 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. 
 
 to be regarded as forming any part of 
 the sacred text. It is much to be re- 
 eretted, 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 translate: “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: "Owovra εἰς 
 ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν, xix. 37, and employs 
 the words, καὶ οἵτινες αὐτὸν ἐξεκέντησαν, 
 Rev. i. 7; but it must be obvious that 
 he gives the prophecy historically, as 
 having been literally fulfilled in Jesus of 
 Nazareth, without designing to exhibit 
 the exact wording of the prophet. See 
 on Zech. xi. 12, 13. It might be sup- 
 posed that x being the true reading, 
 Ἦν, and not τῶν, would be required in the 
 following sentence; but the use of the 
 expletive phrase 1s nx, necessarily led 
 to the change of construction. 27 is 
 the infinitive of Hiphil, which carries 
 forward the description instead of the 
 finite form. It is here used intransitively ; 
 the root is 172. The verb 70 signifies 
 primarily ¢o deat ; then, as a sign of in- 
 tense grief, to smite or beat the breast. 
 There being usually great wailing and 
 Jamentation connected with such signi- 
 ficant action in the Hast, 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. Hadad-rimmon 
 was the name of a place in the great 
 plain of Esdraelon, near Megiddo, and 
 was probably 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 
 subjects 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 Συμεὼν, supposing that a tribal 
 division was intended; and some have 
 thought that »8, 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 Nathan, one of the sons of David, 
 1s with him, ver 12. For ‘pow, Simei, 
 see Numb. iii. 18, 21, in which latter 
 verse ‘ow nnEwe, the family of the 
 Shimeites, 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 
 Jewish custom, according to which not 
 only did the females dwell in separate 
 apartments from the males, but also 
 worshipped separately. 
 
482 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 This chapter contains a continuation of the prophecy respecting the future con- 
 version of the Jews, ver. 1; predictions relating to the entire abolition of idolatry 
 and false doctrine, 2—6 ; a resumption of the subject of the Messiah’s sufferings, 
 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. 
 
 1 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. 
 
 2 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 I will cut off the names of the idols 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. 
 pa, a well, or fountain, from “P, to dig ; 
 not, perhaps, without reference to chap. 
 xii. 10. nen, guilt, from OT, fo miss a 
 mark or way, to sin; hence the sub- 
 stantive comes to signify the guilt con- 
 tracted 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 73, wacleanness, or 
 the impurity contracted by sin. That 
 moral, and not ceremonial guilt and 
 pollution 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 com- 
 paratively few exceptions, after the 
 apostolic 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 
 10 753, 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, 
 y27 should not be rendered, as in our — 
 common version, the land, but the earth ; 
 so that this and the following verses 
 
 
 
CHAP. ΧΠ].] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 433 
 
 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. 
 
 3 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. 
 
 4 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. 
 5 But each shall say, I am not a prophet, 
 
 Τ am a tiller of the ground ; 
 
 For I have been in a state of slavery from my youth. 
 
 6 Then shall it be said to him, 
 
 What are these wounds in thy hands ? 
 
 describe the total extinction of that 
 horrible evil, and all the other systems 
 of superstition and false religion which 
 now impose upon the human family, 
 together with those who teach and 
 defend them. By my2E 1%, che spirit of 
 impurity, is meant a person pretending 
 to inspiration, and in league with Satan, 
 the god of this world, to whom, in con- 
 tradistinction to S777 1, the spirit of 
 holiness, the designation may well be 
 applied. Compare πνεῦμα πύθωνος, 
 Acts xvi. 16; τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης, 
 1 John iv. 6; and especially, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ 
 στόματος τοῦ Ψευδοπροφήτου πνεύματα 
 τρία ἀκάθαρτα, Rev. xvi. 13. 
 
 3. There is in this verse a recogni- 
 tion of the law against those who seduced 
 others to idolatry, Deut. xiii. 6—11. 
 DN, parents. 2, signifies both to deget, 
 and to dear children. The evil here 
 denounced will not be connived at even 
 _ by the nearest relatives. The tenderest 
 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 sauctity 
 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 inX237, is according to 
 the analogy of verbs in “7°. To the 
 singular 728}, at the beginning of ver. 5, 
 each of the prophets previously mentioned 
 is the nominative. 2377, lit. oxe sold 
 me as ὦ slave, but taken in connexion 
 with the following, "222, 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 altogether incom- 
 patible. O78, which some translators 
 have preposterously retained as_ the 
 proper name, Adam, is here used im- 
 personally, 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 
 
 a ie 
 
484 
 
 And he will say, 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Those with which I have been wounded in the house of my friends. 
 7 Awake, O sword! against my shepherd, 
 And against the man who is united to me, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts: 
 
 Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, 
 But I will turn back my hand upon the little ones. 
 
 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 02789, lovers, 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 
 idolatrous vestments, would not be able 
 to efface the marks that had been made 
 on his hands in honour 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 
 relatives, 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 Zecha- 
 riah himself, as representative of all 
 the prophets, and that the prophecy re- 
 ferred only indirectly to Christ. Grotius, 
 Kichhorn, Bauer, and Jahn, apply it to 
 Judas Maccabeus; Maurerto Jehoiakim ; 
 Ewald to Pekah; Hitzig to the pretended 
 prophets spoken of in the preceding 
 verses! The only satisfactory solution 
 of the question 15 that which regards 
 the words as directly and exclusively 
 prophetic of the person and sufferings 
 of the Messiah. This solution is induced 
 not only by our Saviour’s express appro- 
 priation of them to himself, Matt. 
 xxvi. 31, but also by the manifest 
 identity of the subject treated of with 
 that exhibited chap. xi. 4, 7, 10—14. 
 The same subject there handled is 
 resumed, and treated, just as it is there, 
 in connexion with the downfal of the 
 Jewish state. The prophecy contained 
 in this and the following verses has no 
 coherence with what immediately pre- 
 cedes, and was evidently delivered upon 
 
 a different occasion. A new section 
 may, therefore, be considered as com- 
 mencing 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 ny 123, the man of his union; 
 z.€. conjoined or closely united to him. 
 The term translated maz, is not that 
 usually employed in Hebrew, which 
 in such construction would merely be 
 idiomatic, but 723, a strong, or mighty 
 man, one who is such by way of 
 eminence. MY is used elsewhere only 
 in the Pentateuch, namely, in Lev. v. 21; 
 “Vill 20% xix, 11; 15; 17; σιν ὩΣ 
 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 πον, cognate with DD», fo bind, 
 bind together, unite in society; Arab. 
 
 , communis fuit res, communem fecit 
 
 vem: hence the derivatives DY, a people, i.e. 
 those united for their common interest ; 
 MY, conjunction, communion, association; 
 oy, the conjunction with, indicating 
 accompaniment, society. ‘The renderings 
 of the versions vary. LXX. ἄνδρα 
 πολίτην pov. Aq. ἄνδρα σύμφυλόν pov. 
 Symm. ἄνδρα τοῦ λαοῦ pov. eod. 
 Dt oy. 
 
 ἄνδρα πλησίον pov. Syr. Tey 
 2 . 
 weSQua3, the man my friend. ‘Targ. 
 
 my woTy PNA IIT erg, the ruler his 
 companion, his associate who is like him. 
 Vulg. virum coherentem mihi. Leo 
 Juda, virwm coequalem miki. Heng- 
 
CHAP. ΧΙΠ].] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 435 
 
 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, 
 
 stenberg, a man, my nearest relation. 
 Burger, mon confident. De Wette, 
 Den fAann metnes Gileichen, the man 
 my equal. Arnheim, Dem fanne, den 
 ich mir zugesellt, 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 ex- 
 pressed by the latter I conceive to be 
 precisely what was intended by the 
 Holy Spirit, by whom the words were 
 indited. But of whom can this associa- 
 tion be predicated, except of Him whose 
 human nature was assumed into the 
 most intimate and perfect union with 
 the Divine—ImMMaNUEL, who was one 
 with the Father, and who could say, 
 “Te 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 723, man, clearly 
 proves. To the objection, that the words 
 cannot be applied to our Saviour, since 
 he was not cut off by a sword, it has 
 been sufficiently replied, that 297, 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 inactivity, 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 
 ΔΤ is feminine, and 77 masculine, Hitzig 
 would refer the latter to the human 
 agent. handlmg the sword, but the 
 irregularity in point of gender is suffi- 
 ciently accounted for by the remoteness 
 
 of the antecedent. 11, smite, is quoted, 
 Matt. xxvi. 31, as if it were Js, 7 will 
 smite, the first person singular of the 
 future in Hiphil. There is no diversity 
 of reading in the Hebrew MSS., but 
 the Ald. and Pachom. MSS. of the 
 LXX. read πατάξον, instead of πατάξω, 
 which the Evangelists Matthew and 
 Mark have copied. The difference is 
 unimportant, yet there seems to be more 
 propriety in the reading 93, with re- 
 ference 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. Comparing the present 
 verse with chap. xi. 4, 7, and. especially 
 with what is predicted in the two follow- 
 ing verses of the present chapter, in 
 which the same subject is continued, it 
 is evident the 8%, sheep, or flock, cannot 
 be restricted to the disciples of Christ. 
 The circumstances, however, in reference 
 to which our Saviour 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 shepherd was com- 
 missioned to feed, but they, together 
 with the Jewish Christians, converted 
 by their ministry, who formed the first 
 church at Jerusalem, were the DY», 
 little ones, on whom the Lord promises 
 to turn back his hand, in order to pro- 
 tect them in the time of calamity. That 
 the phrase ὅν R27, to turn, or turn 
 back the hand, wpon any one, is used in 
 a good as well as in a bad sense, see on 
 15.190. 
 
 8, 9. In these verses are predicted 
 the destruction of two-thirds of the in- 
 habitants 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 afllictive 
 
480 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 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. 
 
 processes, should come forth out of the 
 furnace a regenerated and _ spiritual 
 people. The 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 rela- 
 tion to him, according to the terms of 
 the better covenant, Jer. xxxi. 33; Heb. 
 viii. 10, 11. 
 
 ---.Ὁ----- 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 In 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 obe- 
 dience and worship, 9; and while every barrier to the free intercourse of Christians 
 throughout the world shall be removed, special honour will be conceded to 
 Jerusalem as the metropolis of converted Israel, 10,11. The dreadful judgments 
 to be inflicted on their final 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 that neglect to perform it, 17—19; and the universally holy character 
 which shall distinguish her inhabitants, their occupations and services, 20, 21. 
 
 1 Bernoup the day of Jehovah cometh, 
 And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 
 
 1. For the phraseology mi) x20, 
 comp. Is. xxi. 5. The criticism of 
 Hengstenberg, who denies that it is 
 equivalent to 7m DY 83, is without any 
 foundation. 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; 
 iil, 14; Mal. iv. 1,5. By the spoil of 
 Jerusalem is meant all that her inhabi- 
 tants had accumulated, and which would 
 be fit spoil for the enemy, especially 
 the treasures of the temple. Notwith- 
 standing all that was consumed by fire, 
 
CHAP. ΧΙΥ.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 437 
 
 2 For I will collect all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, 
 
 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 ; 
 
 For 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 plunder obtained 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 
 the Roman empire, which composed the 
 army of Titus. The verse contains a 
 fearful description of the capture of 
 Jerusalem under the Saar 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 72228 occurs in the 
 text, the Keri has 723207, 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, a8 he had done 
 the enemies of his people in former ages. 
 Comp. Exod. xiv. 14; xv. 3, &e. 
 
 4, 5. These verses convey in language 
 of the most beautiful poetical imagery 
 
 the assurance of the’ effectual means of 
 escape that should be provided for the 
 truly pious. We adennekhely 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. Tis not to be ρα πος ἢ as the 
 less usual form of the masculine plural, 
 but as a proper plural with the pro- 
 nominal affix. Jehovah calls them Ais, 
 because he had formed them, by cleaving 
 Olivet into two. The valley lay between 
 them. 8 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 joiz or be 
 
498 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 For Jehovah my God shall come, 
 And all the holy ones with thee. 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 6 And it shall be in that day 
 
 That there shall not be the light of the precious orbs, 
 
 But condensed darkness. 
 7 But there shall be one day, 
 
 joined to, be at the side, near. Its 
 proximity to the city must have origi- 
 nated the name. For ond, ye shall flee, 
 we find the reading 0902), shall be stopped 
 up, in four of De Rossi’s MSS. and in 
 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 connexion. 
 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 earthquake here referred to except 
 as a date, Amos i. 1. Instead of 72¥, 
 with thee, nearly forty MSS. and all the 
 versions read ¥Y, with him; and instead 
 of ow, the holy ones, one MS., the 
 Syr., Arab., and Targ., readi,yarp, his 
 holy ones. To refer 722, with the Rab- 
 bins, Drusius, and Blayney, to Jerusalem, 
 is quite inadmissible, since such con- 
 struction 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 parallel 
 prediction of our Lord himself, Matt. 
 xxiv. 30, 31, where those whom Zecha- 
 riah designates Dp, holy ones, are called 
 τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ. That a future 
 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. per np have 
 been variously rendered and interpreted. 
 LXX. ψύχος καὶ πάγος ; Vulg. frrgus et 
 
 gelu ; Syr. leo Ἔτι: ISI, cold 
 
 and ice. Thus also Maurer, and several 
 other moderns. But whatever connexion 
 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 light and 
 darkness. Besides, ni cannot with any 
 show of truth be rendered co/d. It is 
 an adjective plural from the root Ὁ), 
 to be precious, valuable, costly. The 
 idea of cold rests upon no better autho- 
 rity than a mere Rabbinical conjecture 
 embodied in the Keri of Prov. xvii. 27, 
 which exhibits 1™ Ἢ), instead of 7™ 7), 
 the proper and only term suitable in such 
 connexion. That ny 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 com- 
 paring Job xxxi. 26, where the moon is 
 described as 927 I, walking preciously or 
 splendidly across the heavens. With 
 Prof. Lee, (Heb. Lex. p. 533,) I read 
 nz 48 in construction, placing the 
 accent on the latter of the two words, 
 instead of retaining it over the former. 
 ys=P properly signifies congelation, con- 
 densation, excessive density, from ΝΕ), to 
 draw together, contract, become thick, 
 dense, and the like. Blayney renders, 
 thick fog. The textual reading p=, 
 they shall withdraw themselves, is inferior 
 to that of the Keri peer 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 reckoned the 
 best, in the Soncin., Brixian, and Com- 
 plutensian 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 wzigque, WE DY, 
 
CHAP. XIV. | 
 
 (It is known to Jehovah,) 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 439 
 
 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. 
 
 9 And Jehovah shall become king over all the earth ; 
 In that day Jehovah alone shall be, 
 
 And his name alone. 
 
 one peculiar day, the only one of its 
 kind. See Gesenius in 14x, 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. Νὺξ γὰρ οὐκ ἔσται 
 ἐκεῖ, Rev. xxi. 9ῦ. any ny, 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 dark- 
 ness and obscurity, light shall suddenly 
 break forth, the light of the one long 
 day, which is to be interrupted by no 
 night. That this period is that of the 
 Millennium, or the thousand years, the 
 circumstances of which are described 
 Rey. xx. 3—7, I cannot entertain a 
 doubt. The time of its commencement 
 has been variously but fruitlessly caleu- 
 lated. The knowledge of it the Father 
 hath reserved in his own power. “It 
 is known to Jehovah,” and, by implica- 
 tion, to him alone. 
 
 8. DMT ON, Living, 1. 6. running, peren- 
 nial, refreshing, and salubrious water, in 
 opposition to that which is stagnant and 
 noxious. ‘OPT Ὁ», the Hastern sea, 1.6. 
 the Asphaltitic Lake; and JOST 03, the 
 Western sea, i.e. the Mediterranean ; so 
 called because when a person resident 
 at Jerusalem faces the Hast, which is 
 the primary point of the horizon with 
 the Orientals, the Dead Sea is Zefore him 
 
 (3519), and the Mediterranean (πὸ) 
 behind him. The more important portions 
 of the globe lying to the east and west 
 of Jerusalem, there is an obvious pro- 
 priety in the selection of these two direc- 
 tions. The declaration that these waters 
 are to flow ae yr3, 1s expressive of 
 constancy. They shall neither be dried 
 up by the heat of summer, nor con- 
 gealed by the frost of winter. The LXX. 
 have ἐν θέρει καὶ ἐν ἔαρι, “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 descendants of Abraham, restored 
 to their own land, and become his 
 children in the faith, will go forth, full 
 of zeal and spiritual activity, as mis- 
 sionaries to other nations, 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 nations and 
 tribes that shall not then have been 
 turned to the Lord. 
 
 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 character 
 (va, Ais name) clearly discovered, and 
 
440 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 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. 
 
 11 And they shall dwell in her, 
 
 And there shall be no more curse, 
 And Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. 
 
 heartily adored. According to the 
 ordinary mode of translating the words 
 ams iow Wx Tim mm, ¢here 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 opposition 
 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 Jehovah, 
 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 removed, if 
 ms 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: 108 WT 3X TT, JEHOVAH 
 is our God, JEHOVAH alone. The doctrine, 
 therefore, taught in the present verse is 
 simply that Jehovah shall be the only 
 existing object of religious worship and 
 obedience, and no characteristics but his 
 be any longer recognised 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 im- 
 possibility of water flowing in a westerly 
 direction from Jerusalem to the Medi- 
 terranean, owing to the hilly country 
 which intervenes. In 50: we’ have a 
 rather unusual signification of 23D, ¢o de 
 turned, i.e. changed. The verb 729 is 
 ordinarily used to express what is here 
 intended. 23, Geba, was a Levitical 
 city in the tribe of Benjamin, near to 
 Gibeah, on the northern border of the 
 kingdom of Judah. γ51, Rimmon, was a 
 town in the tribe of Simeon, in the 
 south of Palestine, and to be distin- 
 guished from the rock Rimmon, to the 
 north-east of Michmash. 219, Zhe 
 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 to the south 
 of the Dead Sea. The nominative to 
 TN} and 73, is not PINT, but D207, im- 
 mediately preceding. For the ortho- 
 graphy of 83, comp. Hos. x. 14, and 
 other passages in which the Ν is inserted 
 as a mater lectionis. Great uncertainty 
 exists relative to the exact position of 
 some of the places here mentioned.—O77 
 is used as in Mal. iii. 24, (Eng. ver. iv. 6,) 
 in the acceptation, case; LXX.ava@npa. 
 Comp. πᾶν κατάθεμα οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, Rev. 
 xxii. ὃ. There will be no more any civil 
 or national punishments inflicted on 
 account of sin, these having been ren- 
 
CHAP. XIV. | 
 
 12 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 441 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 That the whole residue of all the nations 
 That shall come up against Jerusalem, 
 
 dered unnecessary by the universal pre- 
 valence of righteousness and truth. 
 12—15. The hostile powers whose 
 punishment is here denounced are those 
 which shall form the great final con- 
 federacy. Comp. Is. lix. 19; Rev. xix. 
 The representation of the punishment 
 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 (717, Judah,) 
 shall not only defend themselves at 
 Jerusalem, but make a successful attack 
 upon the enemy. 3792, when used in 
 reference to place, signifies to fight αἵ 
 or iz such place. LXX. παρατάξεται ἐν 
 Ἱερουσαλήμ. F2203—0772, Jud. v. 19. 
 The collection of the wealth of the sur- 
 rounding nations, refers to the gathering 
 of the rich spoil of the contingents fur- 
 nished 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 people, time must show. The 
 genitive in 7 now is that of cause, 
 a consternation sent or produced by 
 Jehovah. 
 
 16—18. 4782 ποῦ M9, lit. from the 
 sufficiency of a year in a year, 1. 6. when 
 time has fully satisfied the claims of one 
 year and enters upon another. It is 
 only an idiomatic mode of expressing 
 Jrom 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 lan- 
 guage of the following verse may appear 
 to be more general, yet the cireumstances 
 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 inter- 
 preted of the totality of the inhabitants 
 of the nations in question. Let steam- 
 
 Ea ads 
 
442 
 
 Shall go up from year to year 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 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, 
 To worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, 
 Upon them there shall be no rain. 
 
 vessels and railroads be multiplied to 
 any imaginable extent, the idea of the 
 possibility of conveying such immense 
 numbers to Palestine cannot be enter- 
 tained. Or, supposing them to have 
 been conveyed thither, few of them would 
 after all have an opportunity of wor- 
 shipping at Jerusalem during the short 
 period allotted forthe 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 enjoyment. I cannot, 
 therefore, but take the meaning to be, 
 that the nations in question will go up 
 to Jerusalem in the persons of their re- 
 presentatives, just as in former times 
 the Jews resident in foreign countries 
 had those who went to the annual festi- 
 vals in their name, or on their behalf. 
 Why the Egyptians should be specially 
 introduced, ver. 18, it is difficult to de- 
 termine, except it be, that as their country 
 is watered by the Nile, and is not depen- 
 dent for fertility upon rain falling in the 
 country itself, they might be considered 
 as exempt from the threatened 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 Dry Nn, the repetition of 
 ow, the nain, from the end of the pre- 
 ceding 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 re- 
 presented 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 Pen- 
 tecost, &c. These have all been super- 
 seded by their fulfilment as types in the 
 substantial blessings of the Christian 
 
 economy. ‘Their re-establishment would 
 be a denial of the reality or efficacy of 
 their antitypes. It may, however, be 
 asked, Why should the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles form an exception? To this it 
 may be replied, first, that such a festival 
 may be observed without any compro- 
 mise of the principles of the New Dispen- 
 sation. Secondly, it may be considered 
 as peculiarly adapted to the retrospec- 
 tions 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 memento 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 poimt 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 
 sacrifices 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 Hzekiel gives 
 a full description of the re-establish- 
 ment 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 place ? 
 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 
 delivered to the prophet at another time, 
 (not fewer than thirteen years afterwards, 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 443 
 
 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 
 HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH; 
 
 In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, 
 
 And the pots in the house of Jehovah 
 Shall be as the bowls before the altar. 
 
 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah 
 Shall be holiness to Jehovah of hosts ; 
 
 if we reckon from the date in chap. xxxii. 
 1,) and may, therefore, naturally be ex- 
 pected 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 subject which cannot but 
 have lain near the heart of the exiles, and 
 worthy to be made the theme of pro- 
 phecy, but which is nowhere else referred 
 to in the book of Ezekiel. Difficulty 
 there may be in making the measure- 
 ments 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 emblematical. 
 
 19. The connexion shows that N37 is 
 not here to be taken in the sense of siz, 
 but of the punishment of sin. Comp. 
 Lam. 111. 39; iv. 6 
 
 20. The nisz2 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 2%, to tingle, tinkle. 
 As the inscription 77? wip, Horiess 
 To JEHOVAH, was the sacred symbol 
 engraven 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 
 property to the service of God will 
 be the only holiness then recognised. 
 Ceremonial sanctity shall no longer 
 exist. The same thing is expressed in 
 the second clause of the verse. The 
 vessels 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 purpose, 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 
 utensils used by the priests, but those 
 employed 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 
 slaughtered is to be boiled in the pots, and 
 no mention being 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. Con- 
 sidering what a stumbling-block a mer- 
 
ἘΠ 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 (CHAP. XIV. 
 
 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 im that day. 
 
 eenary and covetous priesthood has 
 ever proved to the world, and to what 
 a fearful extent the ministry in holy 
 things has been made a matter of mer- 
 chandise, there is great force in the 
 declaration with which the prophet 
 closes: “ There shall no more be a 
 Canaanite in the house of Jehovah!” 
 
 By °2223, Canaanite, is meant ἃ mer- 
 chant, the Pheenicians, who inhabited 
 the northern 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. 
 
VE Ae ΟΥ̓) 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 MALACHI CDN dD, Messenger,) is the last of all the Hebrew 
 prophets, but we are left in profound ignorance respecting his per- 
 sonal 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 prophets 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 pay- 
 ment of tithes, 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 Nehemiah, 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. Malachi may therefore be 
 conceived of as having flourished about the year B. c. 440. 
 His book is composed of a series of spirited castigations, in which 
 the persons accused are introduced as repelling the charges, but 
 
446 PREFACE TO MALACHI. 
 
 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 distinguished 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 favour 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 sacrifice, 6—S$ ; 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 renewed reprimand, and 
 the denunciation of a curse upon those who practised deception with respect to 
 
 the offerings, 12Q—14. 
 
 
 
 1 TE Sentence of Jehovah’s oracle to Israel by Malachi. 
 2 Ihave loved you, saith Jehovah, 
 Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us ? 
 
 1. For the formula 7 727 x, see 
 on Zech. ix. 1. That ‘2x0, Malachi, 
 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 ἼΝ Ὁ and τ, of which 
 they consider ἡ to be a contraction, and 
 accordingly explain the name as meaning 
 The Messenger 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, therefore, 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 labours in vain to 
 establish a connexion between the name 
 of the prophet, and the same word as 
 occurring in its official signification, 
 chap. ii. 1. The form appears 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 ὭΣ, "Y22, “ID, "TID, "23, 27, 
 &e. 8, /srael,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 
 
448 
 
 ὃ 
 
 question, “ Wherein hast thou loved us ?” 
 
 MALACHI. [CHAP. I. 
 
 Was not Esau brother to Jacob? saith Jehovah, 
 
 Yet I loved Jacob, 
 
 But I hated Esau, 
 
 And made his mountains a desolation, 
 
 And his heritage abodes of the desert. 
 
 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 for ever. 
 
 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, 
 
 Let Jehovah be magnified, from the border of Israel. 
 A son honoureth his father, 
 
 habitatio, mansio. By the “ habitations 
 
 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 pro- 
 genitor Jacob, than he had done to his 
 brother Esau. The temporal advantages 
 of Palestine were vastly superior to those 
 of Idumeza, which was comparatively a 
 sterile and desert country ; and the Jews 
 had, besides, experienced distinguished 
 favour in having been restored to their 
 land, and had prosperity conferred upon 
 them, while the Edomites, who had 
 suffered from the invasion of their 
 country by the Chaldeans, five years 
 after the capture of Jerusalem, had not 
 been restored. It is to the desolations 
 occasioned by this invasion that reference 
 is made, ver. 3. δῶ, ¢o hate, is here 
 used in a comparative sense, qualifying 
 the preceding verb 278, fo Jove. 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. 
 nian is considered by some to be the 
 feminine of 5°24, and is rendered, serpents, 
 jackals, or the like; but it is preferable 
 to adopt the derivation from the Arabic, 
 
 lis, substitit, habitavit. Hence gly, 
 
 of the desert,” are meant deserted, 
 ruined dwellings, such as are still found 
 in great abundance in Idumea. The 
 phrase is parallel to ΠΟΘ in the pre- 
 ceding hemistich, and corresponds to 
 the 130, waste places, or ruins, ver. 4. 
 
 4,5. Every attempt on the part of 
 the Idumeeans to recover themselves, and 
 enjoy 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. 13, boundary, 
 is here used in the sense of ferritory, or 
 the space marked out by the surrounding 
 boundaries. Comp. Gen. χ. 19; Numb. 
 xxi, 24. xt ὍΔ.) 5YD, according to 
 Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, 
 means beyond the Hebrew territory,— 
 construing the words with 72, but if 
 seems more natural to connect them 
 with 98m ons: Ye who dwell upon 
 the land of Israel shall say from the 
 locality you occupy, and to which, 
 through the Divine goodness, ye have 
 been restored, Jehovah be magnified. 
 The ? prefixed to 2333, adds nothing to 
 the force of the preceding preposition. 
 See Gesen. in Ὁ, 
 
 6. Upon the fact of the respect usually 
 shown by inferiors to their superiors, 
 Jehovah founds proof of his right to ex- 
 pect that honour and reverence which 
 corresponded to the high position he 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 “_ 
 
 MALACHI. 449 
 
 And a servant his master : 
 
 If then I be a father, where is my honour ? 
 
 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 ? 
 
 In offering polluted bread upon my altar ; 
 
 But ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee ? 
 
 In your saying, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 10 
 
 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, 
 
 occupied as Author and Moral Governor 
 of the universe. These having, how- 
 ever, been withheld, chiefly owing to 
 . the irreligious and profane conduct of 
 the priests, the charge is principally 
 laid against them. 
 
 7. That 0172, dread, or food, is here to 
 
 be taken as the Arab. = caro, in the 
 
 sense of animal flesh, is obvious, from 
 its being presented on the 7219, altar of 
 sacrifice, to which also the jW7¥, table, 
 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. Ley. 
 xxii. 22, 24; Deut. xv. 21. 
 
 9. How much soever the words 77% 
 WP $I NT, may at first sight 
 appear to contain a serious exhortation 
 to the priests to repent of their wicked 
 conduct, and to pray for the Divine 
 favour to themselves and the people, 
 yet the connexion 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. 0°22 029 xtra 
 is a more emphatic form, instead of 
 erie ea 
 
 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 
 
 3M 
 
450 
 
 And a pure offering ; 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 [CHAP, I. 
 
 For my name shall be great among the nations, 
 
 Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 19 
 
 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, Behold, what a weariness ! 
 
 And have contemned it, saith Jehovah of hosts ; 
 
 And ye have brought the torn, the lame, and the sick, 
 Yea, ye have brought the offering ; 
 
 Should 1 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. 
 
 of 9, who, into 3, surely, is of no weight ; 
 and the verb 72D is never construed with 
 3, in order to express the idea of exclu- 
 sion. Such was the avaricious disposi- 
 tion 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 prediction of 
 the rejection of the Jewish worship, and 
 of the reception of the Gentiles to 
 perform spiritual worship in the Church 
 of the Lord. His name, which the priests 
 had treated with contempt, ver. 6, should 
 receive universal homage among the 
 nations that had been addicted to 
 idolatry, and who were now the objects 
 of abomination on the part of the Jews. 
 The sacrificial terms are transferred 
 from their original application to cere- 
 monial 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, &e.!!! 
 
 12—14. A renewal of the charge 
 against the priests, nearly in the same 
 words. 8272 is an abbreviated form 
 for Tn 7. Comp. 739, Exod. iv. 2; 
 p29, Is. iii. 15. inix, ἐξ, after DANET, 
 refers to ‘28 in the preceding verse, and 
 is not to be changed into ‘Dix, me, as 
 proposed in the Tikkun Sopherim. The 
 \ in TSfTNy! 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 7729, 
 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 
 rendered this, however pure in itself, 
 unacceptable to God. Hitzig and Maurer 
 regard nm. to be a contraction of 
 the feminine >77%2; but I should rather 
 think it ought to be pointed nT», as in 
 Lev. xxii. 25, where it occurs, in applica- 
 tion to the same subject, in the masculine 
 gender. Many MSS. and some of the 
 early editions read ΠῚ instead of °378%, 
 which has no doubt been substituted 
 for it by some superstitious Jewish 
 scribe. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 451 
 
 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 obligations of the priestly office, are then brought forward, with which 
 to contrast the baseness of their conduct in violating its responsibilities ; and the 
 
 section closes with another threatening of punishment, 5—9. 
 
 Ti a new section 
 
 the prophet takes up the subject of divorce, and marriage with foreign women, 
 and severely reproves the priests for the evil example which they had set in this 
 respect, 10—16. They are finally charged with teaching immoral doctrine, 17. 
 
 1 AND now, unto you 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 blessings, 
 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 to you this charge, 
 Because my covenant was with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 2, msy27 is emphatic, and doubtless 
 has reference to Deut. xxvu. 15, &ce. 
 The feminine suffix in Tn is to be 
 taken distributively, with reference to 
 the ni272, dlessings, immediately prece- 
 ding. 
 
 3 The > in 029 is that of the Dativus 
 incommodi, “to your detriment or dis- 
 advantage.” Yu, seed, is not to be 
 changed into 214), and rendered shoulder, 
 
 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 
 coutained it, belonged to the priests. 
 Deut. xviii. ὃ. °8 in 98 has the signifi- 
 cation of with, together with, as in Lam. 
 iii. 41. Such usage, however, is rare. 
 ΝΣ is to be taken impersonally, 
 
 4. 22, to know, has here the significa- 
 
452 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 [CHAP 11. 
 
 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. 
 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, 
 And no iniquity was found in his lips ; 
 He walked with me in peace and uprightness, 
 And turned many from iniquity. 
 7 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. 
 
 tion, to know by experience, to feel the 
 consequences of transgression. From 
 the words which follow, we must infer 
 that knowledge issuing in reformation 
 of conduct is meant. On no other con- 
 dition 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 DY N73, my covenant of 
 peace, and DAY NID Na, the covenant of 
 an everlasting priesthood. Both ideas 
 are expressed in the present verse, and 
 the meaning is, that the covenant was se- 
 cured in perpetuity. Before Dw oN, 
 the word m3 is understood from the pre- 
 ceding. ND, fear or reverence, is here 
 the accusative absolute. ΠΤ) is the Niphal 
 of nn, to be terrified, dismayed. This 
 verb is here purposely employed to ex- 
 press the extraordinary degree of pro- 
 found and holy awe with which Phinehas 
 was inspired when zealously vindicating 
 the honour of Jehovah. 
 
 6, 7. A comprehensive and beautiful 
 description of the character and spiri- 
 tual duties of Phinehas, which ought to 
 have been realized in the persons and 
 
 ministrations of all his successors in 
 office, and which suggests topics for the 
 most serious self-examination to all who 
 engage in the work of the Christian 
 ministry. The higher and more impor- 
 tant functions of the sacerdotal office 
 are here recognised, 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 perfunctory and niggardly 
 manner. That 77 is not here to be 
 
 ‘rendered doctrine, but is to be taken in 
 
 its appropriated sense of /aw, appears 
 from the use of the term in the two 
 following verses. ΠῸΡ is in the accu- 
 sative case, with which 8893, 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. Hach of them was, therefore, 
 to be regarded as N70, 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 example 
 to violate it likewise. They thus forfeited 
 all right to the sacerdotal immunities 
 of the Levitical covenant. 
 
 ες 
 
CHAP, II.] 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 453 
 
 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 
 Hath not one God created us ? 
 
 Have we not all one Father ? 
 
 Wherefore do we act untaithfully one to another, 
 Profaning the covenant of our fathers ? 
 
 ll 
 
 Judah hath acted unfaithfully ; 
 
 And an abominable thing hath been done in Israel and in 
 
 Jerusalem ; 
 
 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, 
 
 9. 2802 is strikingly antithetical to 
 DAY at the beginning of ver. 8. The 
 priests are here threatened with a re- 
 tribution 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 07, the people, twenty-three 
 MSS., and a few printed editions, the 
 LXX., Targ., Vulg., Arab., and Hexapl. 
 Syr., read DDT, the peoples or nations, 
 but much less appropriately. 
 
 10. The prophet now proceeds to 
 administer reproof to the people, and 
 especially to the priests, for their flagrant 
 violation of the law, which prohibited 
 intermarriages with foreigners. See 
 Exod. xxxiv. 16; Deut. vii. 3. For the 
 historical account of this violation, see 
 Ezra ix. 1, 2; Neh. xii. 23—31. hat 
 by 708 38, oxe Father, we are to under- 
 stand 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 778 ὍΝ, oxe God. As 
 the Jews put away their wives, that they 
 might marry others, they are here dis- 
 tinctly 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. x, drother, is not here to be 
 pressed, as if reference were had to the 
 father of the female who had been re- 
 pudiated. 7x2 wx 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 
 321292, according to his pleasure. 
 
 11. The nominative to 722 is prx, 
 understood in 7. By vim wp, 476 
 holiness of Jehovah, is meant the people 
 of the Hebrews, who were separated to 
 be a people devoted to his service. Comp. 
 wpa yy, the holy seed, Hara ix. 2; and 
 THM? WI WIp, Israel is holiness, i.e. holy 
 to Jehovah, Jer. ii. 3. For 278 78x comp. 
 Ps. xlvii.5. “The daughter of a strange 
 god” means an idolatress, a female ad- 
 dicted to the worship of a false deity. 
 
 12. m2 Ww has been variously ren- 
 dered. The LXX. mistaking ἢ for τν, 
 have ἕως kai ταπεινωθῇ. Vulg. magis- 
 
484 
 
 From the tents of Jacob, 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 [CHAP. IL. 
 
 And him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 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 favourably 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 thy covenanted wife. 
 
 15 Yet did he not make one ? 
 
 Though he had the residue of the spirit. 
 
 trum et discipulum. Targ. 32 VF 73, son 
 
 9 Ν m ry: 
 and sows son. Syr. jaso maso 
 Oz>, both his son and his son’s son. 
 
 Thus also Abarbanel, Sachs, Ewald, and 
 others. The phrase is obviously, from 
 its very form, like 722) 73, 182) WzY, pro- 
 verbial, and has its parallel in the Arabic, 
 
 aS ) 5 ele lay wo , There is 
 
 not in the city a caller, nor is there 
 a responder. Life of Timur, quoted 
 by Gesenius in his Thesaur. p. 1004. 
 
 Turkish, owl > e eb.) o> 
 both the watcher, and the answerer. 'The 
 meaning is, that zove should be left alive; 
 all should be cut off. Gesenius thinks 
 that the reference is probably to the 
 Levites who kept watch in the temple 
 by night, and who called and responded 
 to each other at certain intervals; but 
 the mention that is made of “the tents 
 of Jacob” immediately after, shows that 
 the words are not to be thus restricted. 
 wy is the participle of w, ¢o wake, be 
 awake. 
 
 13. ΠΡ 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 
 language 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 PY? Nx, the wife of thy 
 youth, has reference to the early mar- 
 riages among the Hebrews. In Poland, 
 at the present day, they marry at the 
 age of thirteen and fourteen, and the 
 females still younger. 
 
 15. Michaelis, Hitzig, Maurer, and 
 Hengstenberg, concur im the opinion 
 expressed in the Targum, and adopted 
 by most of the Rabbins, that by 7x, 
 one, and Ws7, the one, Abraham is in- 
 tended; and maintain, that what is here 
 stated, was designed to repel an objec- 
 tion raised by the priests, viz. that 
 Abraham took an Egyptian female in 
 addition to Sarah. The prophet, ac- 
 cording to them, admits the fact, but 
 denies the consequence, 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 passion, to which the 
 evil here condemned was to be traced. 
 Ewald refers 17x, ove, to God, consider- 
 ing the term to be used here in the same 
 sense as in ver. 10, but he fails in giving 
 
’ CHAP. 11. 
 
 And why the one? 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 455 
 
 That he might seek a godly seed. 
 Therefore take heed to your spirit, 
 That none act unfaithfully to the wife of his youth. 
 
 16 
 
 For 1 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. Υ̓ο 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 ? 
 
 a satisfactory explanation of the passage. 
 Nor does the other interpretation at all 
 do justice to its claims Aso that we are 
 shut up to the conclusion, that by 7797, 
 the one, we are to understand 778 Wa, 
 the one flesh, or conjugal 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 exist- 
 ence, 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 securing of a pious offspring. 
 Divorces and polygamy have ever been 
 unfavourable to the education of chil- 
 dren. It is only by the harmonious 
 and loving attention bestowed 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 connexion there was every- 
 thing to counteract and destroy the 
 interests of piety. 
 
 16. s2© should be pointed »2¥, with 
 the personal pronoun δ understood. 
 By 2), garment, it is now generally ad- 
 mitted we are to understand the wife, 
 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. Urn, tevit, induit ; 
 els, vestimentum, “ conjux, tum mulier 
 
 viri, tum vir mulieris, quod sibi invicem 
 pro tegumento sunt ;” Freytag. Accord- 
 ingly we read in the Koran, Sur. ii. 183, 
 respecting the wives : es woe PB isd 
 uf? Ul χὰ 2, they are your gar- 
 ment, and you are theirs. In the eccle- 
 siastical language of the Hast, matri- 
 mony was called τὸ θνητὸν καὶ δουλικὸν 
 ἱμάτιον. 
 
 17. The old objection taken against 
 the providence of God from the afflic- 
 
 tions of the righteous, and the prosperity 
 of the wicked. 
 
 
 
450 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 [CHAP. IIT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 This chapter commences with a lucid prophecy of John the Baptist, as the fore- 
 runner of the Messiah, and of the Messiah himself, who was, as he had long 
 been, the object of delightful 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 blessings in case of repent- 
 ance, 7—12. To the infidel objection that there is no utility in religion, seeing 
 the wicked prosper, while the godly are oppressed, the prophet replies by point- 
 ing to the day of retribution, when all should be treated according to their cha- 
 racter, which would then be fully disclosed, 13—18. 
 
 1 Benoip! 1 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 ‘28%, 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. 2. Comp. Is. xl. 3. 
 Hengstenberg strangely gives in to the 
 notion of Hichhorn 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 
 
 Vfor the Messiah.” The language is bor- 
 rowed from the custom of sending pio- 
 neers before an Hastern monarch, to cut 
 through rocks and forests, and remove 
 every impediment that might obstruct 
 his course.“ 728, which in Kal is never 
 transitive, signifies in Piel ¢o clear, clear 
 
 away, put in order, prepare. This John 
 did by preaching repentance, and an- 
 nouncing the near approach of the 
 es of God. Comp. chap. iv. 5. 
 
 n this prophecy of the Messiah are 
 three palpable and incontrovertible 
 proofs of his divinity. First, he is iden- 
 tified with Jehovah: ‘he shall prepare 
 the way before Mz”—“ saith Jehovah.” 
 Secondly, He is represented as the Pro- 
 prietor of the temple. Thirdly, He is 
 characterised as 7187, THE SOVEREIGN, 
 a title nowhere giyen in this form to any 
 except Jehovah. VIn its anarthrous state 
 the noun 7)78 is applicable to any owner, 
 possessor, or ruler, and it is applied 
 in the construct state to Jehovah as 
 yIsT 2 ys, the Possessor of the whole 
 earth, Josh. iii. 11, 18; but when it 
 takes the article, as here, it is used κατ᾽ 
 
CHAP. III.} 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 457 
 
 Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom ye delight, 
 Behold! he shall come, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 2 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 ; 
 
 ἐξοχὴν, and exclusively, of the Divine 
 Being. See Exod. xxi. 17; xxxiv. 23; 
 15. 1224) τ ls xl, Sos) xix. 4. See 
 Dr. J. Pye Smith’s Messiah, vol. i. pp. 
 442444. Abenezra thus explains the 
 term, and identifies the Sovereign Lord 
 with the angel spoken of immediately 
 after ; 3 MIT JNO NT NIT NT pw 
 ΕΣ Dyan, The Lord is both the Divine 
 Majesty, and the Angel of the Covenant, 
 Jor the sentence is doubled. It is like- 
 wise admitted in Mashmiah Jeshua, 
 fol. 76, Tmwom Ὁ ὅν PINT wD? Wer, 
 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 Messiah: 
 DT NID NIT wo 7) NT WNT, The 
 Lord is the King'Messiah, he 15 also the 
 Angel of the Covenant; though, in order 
 to elude the Christian application of the 
 passage, he suggests another interpre- 
 tation, according to which KElijah is 
 ineanieett has been questioned, whether 
 the phrase m37 JN, the Messenger of 
 the Covenant, is to be viewed retrospec- 
 tively or prospectively ; in other words, 
 whether it be the Old or the New Cove- 
 nant to which reference is made. Con- 
 sidering the fact, that in such parallel 
 forms as mad, the tables of the 
 covenant, W727 WR, the ark of the cove- 
 nant, 137 78D, the book of the covenant, 
 mam 07, the blood of the covenant, &e., 
 the ancient dispensation which Jehovah 
 granted to the Hebrews at Sinai is in- 
 tended, it would seem natural to infer 
 that m37 JN is to be understood in the 
 same way.. This view of the subject 
 would seem to be corroborated by the 
 circumstances, that a 98%, Axgel or 
 Messenger, who is said to possess the 
 Divine name, 2. 6. 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 superintending 
 
 the whole of the theocracy.“ All the 
 theophanies or manifestations of the 
 invisible Deity were made in his Person. 
 He was the proper nuncius sent to 
 reveal the will of the Father. Moses 
 was only a θεράπων, 72¥, or servant em- 
 ployed by him, while he was God mani- 
 fested in glory. I can put no other con- 
 sistent construction upon such passages 
 as the following: Gen. xlviii. 15, 16 ; 
 Exod. iii. 2—15 ; xxiii. 20, 21; Is. Ixiii. 
 9; Zech. i.; ii; iii.; vi.; Acts vii. 38; 
 Heb. xi. 26; xii. 26. In strict consis- 
 tency with the representations of Scrip- 
 ture, 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 refer- 
 ence to Heb. ix. 15, where our Saviour 
 is called διαθήκης καινῆς μεσίτης, the 
 Mediator of the New Covenant; among 
 others, Grotius, Rosenmiiller, and Ge- 
 senius. 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 concep- 
 tion of him than that of an earthly mon- 
 arch, 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 
 office of the Covenant Messenger would 
 be very different from that which the 
 carnal Jews expected. Instead of flat- 
 tering their prejudices, and gratifying 
 their wishes, he would, by his pure and 
 heart-searching doctrines, subject their 
 
 3.N 
 
458 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 (CHAP, III. 
 
 3 And he shall sit, refining and purifying the silver ; 
 
 Yea, 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, 
 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem 
 
 Be pleasing to Jehovah, 
 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 ? 
 
 principles and conduct to the severest 
 test. Those of the priests should spe- 
 cially be tried. The object he was to 
 have in view in this trial, was their puri- 
 fication, that they might serve him in 
 righteousness. Matt. 11. 19 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 con- 
 version upon the people must have been 
 very great, though we have no infor- 
 mation respecting it in the Acts. The 
 religious services of the churches com- 
 posed of Jewish converts in Jerusalem 
 and throughout Judea, are represented 
 as peculiarly well-pleasing to God. For 
 the meaning of 7739, offering, as here 
 used, comp. chap. i. 10, 11. 
 
 5. Malachi here returns to his own 
 times, and threatens his ungodly contem- 
 poraries with divine judgment, speedily 
 
 to be executed upon them. Atacic 
 greatly prevailed among the Jews after 
 the captivity, as did also the other 
 crimes here specified. “How much they 
 obtained in the time of our Lord, we 
 learn from the Evangelists and Josephus. 
 The prophet traces them all back to 
 their true source—absence of the fear 
 of God. After Dy202;, the phrase p¥3 
 is found in nineteen MSS., in some 
 printed editions, and in the LXX., Syr. 
 Hexapl., and Arab. 
 
 6. As the incommunicable name 737, 
 JEHOVAH, implies a futurity of reference 
 with respect to the communication of 
 blessings, (see on Hos. xii. 5,) the 
 Divine immutability secured the preser- 
 vation of the Jewish people from de- 
 struction, notwithstanding their flagrant 
 wickedness, till he had accomplished all 
 his purposes of mercy. 
 
 7. The > in ‘2"9) is prosthetic, with 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 8 Will a man defraud God ? 
 Yet ye have defrauded me. 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 459 
 
 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, 
 
 That there may be meat in my house, 
 
 And try me 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. 
 Uo 
 
 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 ? 
 
 Ye have said : 
 It is vain to serve God ; 
 
 14 
 
 And what profit is it that we keep his ordinance, 
 And that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts ? 
 
 15 
 
 For now ye pronounce the proud happy ; 
 
 They also that work wickedness are built up ; 
 They even tempt God, yet they are delivered. 
 
 somewhat of its temporal signification. 
 There was still mercy in store for the 
 Jews, if they would only repent. 
 
 8. 22, which occurs only in our 
 prophet, and in Prov. xxii. 23, signifies 
 to cover, do anything covertly, defraud. 
 
 Comp. the Arab. og » retrazit. ul, 
 occultus. 
 
 9. Comp. chap. ii. 2. 
 
 10. ay, usque ad defectum suffi- 
 cientia, i.e. not as Gesenius explains it, 
 till my abundance be exhausted, which 
 being impossible, the phrase is equiva- 
 lent to, for ever, without end ; but where 
 
 sufficiency can have no more place, 
 more than sufficient, superabundantly. 
 To this effect Jerome, Winer, De Wette, 
 Hitzig, and Maurer. 
 
 11. By the ὍΝ, devourer, noxious 
 animals and insects are meant, especially 
 the locusts. 28 properly signifies fo 
 cause abortion, render childless, and 
 metaphorically, to make darren or un- 
 Jruitful, when spoken of trees. 
 
 13—15. pit signifies to dind fast, make 
 jirm, and, in a bad sense, to be hard, 
 obstinate, or the like. Such was the 
 language of the Jews against Jehovah. 
 Comp. Jude 15, περὶ πάντων τῶν σκληρῶν, 
 
400 
 
 10 
 Conversed one with another; 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 (CHAP. III. 
 
 Then they that feared Jehovah 
 
 And Jehovah hearkened, and heard, 
 And a book of remembrance was written before him, 
 
 For those that feared Jehovah, 
 
 And that 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, 
 
 ὧν ἐλάλησαν κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ. Some awful 
 specimens of their hard speeches are 
 here exhibited, in which the usual 
 objection against the rectitude of Pro- 
 vidence is dressed up in some of its 
 more taking forms. Comp. Job xxi. 
 14, 15; Ps. Ixxiii. 1—14. 72 is here 
 used like 72 inthe bad sense of tempting, 
 or braving the Most High by presump- 
 tuous speeches and conduct. The walk- 
 ing mournfully has reference to their 
 going about in sackcloth and ashes, 
 pretending to sorrow on account of their 
 sins. ὙΠ), to be dirty, to go about in 
 filthy garments, like persons who mourn ; 
 such being universally the custom in 
 the East. 
 
 16. τ, then, specially marks the time 
 in which the impious conversations were 
 being held. Here 37) beautifully con- 
 trasts with the same term inthe thirteenth 
 verse. ‘The verb is in Niphal, to express 
 the reciprocal or conversational character 
 of the language. As the ungodly did 
 not confine their hard speeches to the 
 mere utterance of them to such in- 
 dividuals 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 
 appear that Niphal ever has the fre- 
 quentative signification, expressed in 
 our common version. The writing of a 
 book of remembrance is ἃ 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. 7520 is to be construed with’? ΠῚ, 
 and 7Y is connected by means of 10x 
 with 27. The phrase DY Ty, fo make a 
 day, which occurs chap. iv. 3, and Ps. 
 exvill. 24, means to fiz, ordain, appoint 
 such a period for the execution of a 
 special purpose. 920, signifies private, 
 special, or peculiar property. “Ὁ, like 
 the kindred root 730, has the primary 
 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. 
 vil. 6; xiv. 2; xxvi. 18. It is used of 
 the choice treasure of kings, &c., Eccles. 
 ii. 8.. Itis expressive of the high estima- 
 tion in which God holds his people, and, 
 in this connexion, of their perfect safety 
 in the day of judgment. 
 
 18. 2% is used idiomatically in con- 
 nexion with 7) 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 per- 
 ceiving, from observation and experience, 
 that the position was_ false, viewed in 
 application to the entire state and cir- 
 cumstances of the different characters ; 
 but they should have another and most 
 
CHAP. 1V. | MALACHI. 401 
 Between him that serveth God, 
 
 And him that serveth him not. 
 
 the overthrow and destruction of his 
 enemies, 
 
 convincing proof in the salvation of all 
 who loved and feared the Lord, and in 
 
 — =p 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Most editions of the Hebrew Bible, and most of the MSS., exhibit this concluding 
 portion of the book as a continuation of the third chapter. Not a few MSS., 
 however, leave a blank space before it, and several editions make a separate 
 chapter of it. As this division obtains in all the versions, it is more con- 
 venient to retain it. 
 
 The chapter continues the threatenings against the Jewish unbelievers, 1; exhibits 
 a luminous prophecy of the Messiah, and the prosperity of his people, 2,8; and 
 coneludes with a solemn call 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. 
 
 1 For, 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. 
 2 But unto you that fear my name, 
 The Sun of righteousness shall arise, 
 And there shall be healing in his wings ; 
 And ye shall go forth and leap as calves of the stall. 
 
 1. Instead of my 7H», nearly eighty 
 MSS., the most ancient and several 
 other editions, the Babylon. Talmud, the 
 LXX., Syr., and Targ., read πυῦῦγ ry 
 in the plural. The phrase 72y) oy, 
 root or branch, is proverbial, and sig- 
 nifies any, the least remnant. The 
 persons referred to were to be consigned 
 to utter destruction. The Targum has 
 72 Ἴ 3, son or son’s son. 
 
 2. The term 8, Sun, is metapho- 
 rically applied to God, Ps. Ixxxiy. 11, 
 on account of that luminary being the 
 most glorious and beneficent object 
 
 which meets the human eye. It is witl: 
 good reason supposed to be thus used 
 of the Messiah in the declaration, 2 Sam, 
 XXL. 4: 
 WOWTI WA ND, 
 “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 1x, Light, 
 which in Hebrew poetry is used of the 
 sun, as the source of light. See Is. ix. 1, 
 (Eng. version, 2); xlix.6; John 1.9; vii. 
 
462 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 (CHAP. IV. 
 
 3 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. 
 4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, 
 
 Which 1 gave him in charge in Horeb for all Israel, 
 
 The statutes and the judgments. 
 5 Behold! I will send to you Elijah the prophet, 
 
 12. What the sun is to the natural world, 
 that the Messiah is to the moral. The in- 
 valuable 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 sanctification, and 
 redemption.” 1 Cor. i. 30. By “ wings ” 
 we are to understand the beams of the 
 sun, on account of the velocity and 
 expansion with which they spread over 
 the earth. Comp. Ps. exxxix. 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 δίκαιος καὶ εὐλα βὴ ς, 
 righteous and devout, waiting for the 
 consolation of Israel, Luke i. 25. 8&3, 
 to go forth, is here used in the sense of 
 escaping from the judgment to be inflicted 
 upon the unbelieving part of the Jewish 
 nation. This the Jewish Christians did 
 when they left Jerusalem, and proceeded 
 to Pella, where they were preserved in 
 safety. 1, signifies to spread, take a 
 wide range, and is used of the proud 
 penne of horses, and as here of the 
 eaping and sporting of calves. The 
 simile is designed to convey the ideas of 
 freedom from outward restraint, and 
 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 un- 
 believing 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 
 Keonomy may be inferred, not only from 
 the nature of the injunction here given, 
 especially as taken in connexion with 
 the promise of a new messenger in the 
 following verse, but also from Hcele- 
 siasticus xlix. 10, where, after men- 
 tioning Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the author 
 closes with τῶν δώδεκα προφητῶν, the 
 twelve prophets, as the last in the cate- 
 gory. 
 
 5. The coherence of this verse with 
 the first clause of chap. ili. is too palpable 
 to be overlooked. Accordingly, the Jews 
 in the time of Jerome interpreted the 
 messenger of Jehovah there predicted, 
 of Elijah the Tishbite, as they explain 
 the present verse to this day, believing, 
 that as the ancient prophet ascended into 
 heaven both as to body and soul, he is 
 destined to reappear in the same upon 
 earth before the advent of Messiah, tire 
 Son of David. That Elijah here pre- 
 sented to view is to be understood ideally 
 and not historically, and that the indivi- 
 dual 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. 21, 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 fore- 
 runner of the Messiah was to come “in 
 the spirit and power of Elias.” Like 
 that prophet, he was to be endowed with 
 extraordinary power and energy, to fit 
 
CHAP. IV. | 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 463 
 
 Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come : 
 
 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
 And the heart of the children to their fathers, 
 Lest I come and smite the land with a curse. 
 
 him for the great work of reformation 
 which his ministry was designed to effect. 
 Adverting tothe 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, 
 αὐτός ἐστιν ᾿Ηλίας 6 μέλλων ἔρχεσθαι, 
 he is Elias who was to come,” Matt. xi. 14. 
 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 "HAlas 
 ἤδη ἦλθε, Elias is already come, and they 
 knew him not, but have done unto him 
 whatsoever they listed”? Matt. xvii. 
 10—13. Upon the circumstance that 
 our Lord uses the future tense, ἔρχεται, 
 shall come, some Christian interpreters 
 have attempted to establish the hypo- 
 thesis, that the prophecy is still to be 
 fulfilled before his second advent; but 
 he is obviously speaking in the style of 
 language employed by the prophet, to 
 whom the event was future, and in adap- 
 tation to the opinion of the Scribes, 
 though he immediately corrects what 
 was erroneous in their notion, declaring 
 that the event was no longer future, but 
 had actually taken place in the person 
 and ministry of John. It is truly sur- 
 prising 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 Jobn the 
 Baptist was 8°23, 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 Je- 
 rusalem by the Romans. Comp. Joelii. 31. 
 
 6. The design of the ministry of John 
 is described as consisting in the produc- 
 tion of universal peace and concord. 
 Family feuds had increased to an enor- 
 mous extent by the time of John the 
 Baptist, the removal of which by genuine 
 repentance and reformation of conduct 
 
 THE 
 
 might be taken as a specimen of the 
 ἀποκατάστασις, or restoration of things 
 to a better state throughout Juda. Some 
 have proposed to take the preposition 
 ὅν, to, as equivalent to DY, with, a signifi- 
 cation which it sometimes has, and so to 
 explain the passage as simply predicting 
 the universality of the conversion spoken 
 of; but such an interpretation would 
 introduce an intolerable tautology 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 labours 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. 077 signifies μέζον" de- 
 struction, from Ox, 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 
 of Jerusalem; and the sufferings to 
 which, in consequence, the Jews have 
 been subjected are truly appalling; but 
 incomparably more dreadful is the New 
 Testament D7— ANAGEMA, MAPAN 
 A@A! 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 
 
 END. 
 
BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
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 TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW, WITH A COMMENTARY 
 CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL. 
 
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 In one vol, ὅνο. 14s. cloth, 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 
 
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