OF THE 
 OTIVEBSITY 
 
 CALIFOK^ 
 

 THE 
 
 MINOR PROPHETS; 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES, 
 
 CRITICAL, EXPLANATORY, AND PRACTICAL, 
 
 DESIGNED FOR BOTH PASTORS AND PEOPLE. 
 
 EEY. IIEXKY COWLES. 
 
 " Understandest thou what thou readest ? And ho said, How can I, except some 
 man should guide me ? "—Acts 8 : 30, 31. 
 
 \ 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 D. APPLETON" AND COMPANY, 
 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
 
 1867. 
 
fes / <r 
 
 Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, In the year 186d by 
 REV. HENRY COWLES, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Northern District of Ohio. 
 

 ( 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The Christian commentator, assuming that the Scrip- 
 tures are from God, infers their inestimable valae to man- 
 kind. Assuming also that God speaks to man in love and 
 for his good, he infers that originally, to common hearers 
 and readers, his words must have been readily intelligible. 
 Hence he finds his work to be, comprehensively, to get 
 possession of the same means for understanding the words 
 of God which were enjoyed by those first hearers and 
 readers, including specially the language in which God 
 spake, the historic facts to which he alludes, and the scenes 
 in nature and common life from which he drew his illustra- 
 tions. So much he must have in order to a clear and full 
 understanding for himself of the ancient words of God 
 
 to men. Then it remains only to put his readers in 
 
 possession of his views of the Sacred Word. To do this he 
 may lead them over all the ground which he himself has 
 travelled, ^. e., through the original Hebrew, unfolding its 
 laws of etymology, syntax, and usage of words, and also 
 through all the details of historic investigation: or he 
 may place before his readers for the most part only the 
 results at which he has arrived. In the former case, he 
 
 _84587 • 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 writes for scholars only ; in the latter, for readers of all 
 classes. 1 have adopted mainly the latter method, aim- 
 ing to meet the wants, not of Hebrew scholars only or 
 chiefly, but of all English readers. I have had in view 
 somewhat specially those who have been and are yet to be 
 trained to thoughtful study of God's word in Sabbath 
 schools and Bible classes, and indeed all those laymen and 
 women who love the Sacred Scriptures, and who naturally 
 
 wish to know their full and precise meaning. While in 
 
 the main it has been my plan to give results only, and not 
 the processes by which I reach them, yet points of great 
 practical interest and value, e. g.^ those prophecies respect- 
 ing the Messiah and his kingdom which yet remain in part 
 to be fulfilled, I have deemed it important to discuss 
 fundamentally and thoroughly, so that the reader may see 
 what principles of interpretation I adopt, and why, — and 
 also to what results they have led me. A superficial treat- 
 ment of these points ought to be eminently unsatisfactory. 
 The commentator has his option whether to restrict 
 his work mainly to the unfolding of the exact sense, or to 
 speak more or less fully of the practical and moral applica- 
 tions of the truth which he brings out. These moral 
 applications are, of course, of the utmost importance to 
 every reader ; yet usually God has left each reader to make 
 them for himself, and adapt them to his own case. Hence 
 I have thought it cannot be unwise for me to follow for the 
 most part the same method — assuming that God's word as 
 it came from his lips will have power on men's hearts when 
 the full sense of it is clearly apprehended. I have therefore 
 spoken of the moral bearings and applications of the truth 
 only in fewest words, suggestively and by no means ex- 
 haustively, and rather as a specimen and illustration of 
 
PRErACE. , V 
 
 the practical use to be made of the divine word. By this 
 method, the work is much reduced in size and expense ; is 
 brought within the means and the time for reading of a 
 much greater number; and still, it is hoped, without lessen-^ 
 ing its moral and spiritual value. 
 
 The study of the Bible has been to me, above all other 
 studies, my life-work and my life-joy. Through divine 
 mercy and a fore-ordering providence, my attention has 
 been turned and held very considerably during forty years 
 past to the study of the Hebrew Scriptures, and especially 
 to the writings of the prophets. ^At the urgent suggestion 
 of friends, and under a strong conviction of the need of a 
 commentary on these books adapted to all readers, I 
 entered, three years ago, upon the preparation of these 
 volumes, fully purposed to spare no pains, first to reach 
 the exact and full thought in these sacred Avords, and then 
 to present it with whatever clearness, brevity, and force I 
 could command. — —These years of study and writing have 
 been to me a continual feast. Such a profusion of literary 
 and poetic beauties as lie here, is one of God's great 
 benefactions, yet is not to be named in comparison with 
 the value of these truths fresh from the infinite mind of 
 our divine Father, and from his parental heart. It is a 
 luxury to see the lines of evidence converging to a focus to 
 certify the exact meaning of God's word, and to bring out 
 that meaning in sunlight before the mind. It ought to be 
 and is a luxury even more rich to feel the presence and the 
 power of such truth upon the heart. The writer has gone 
 through these prophetic books with a growing sense of the 
 richness and fulness of their provisions for both the mind 
 and the heart, earnestly wishing that his readers may 
 partake of this feast, and drink deeply at these fountains. 
 
vi PEEFACE. 
 
 This volume is sent forth in the hope that it may aid the 
 studies and refresh the souls of those who prize the Sacred 
 Word, and rejoice in the growing sway of light and love 
 under the great Redeemer's reign. 
 
 It has been thought best to begin with the minor proph- 
 ets. The notes on the remaining prophets, upon the same 
 general plan, have been prepared for the press, and may 
 appear at some future day, if it should seem desirable. 
 
 The reader will be careful to observe that in the notes, 
 italic words are emphatic ; but in the sacred text, as in all 
 English Bibles, they indicate that there are no correspond- 
 ing words in the original Hebrew. Hence they are often 
 the opposite of emphatic, — a more just translation dispens- 
 ing with them altogether. 
 
 The author has aimed to give either a translation, more 
 or less free, or a paraphrase, in all cases where he has been 
 compelled to differ from the received version. These pas- 
 sages are usually .indicated by marks of quotation. 
 
 Obkrlin, Ohio^ Sept.y 1866. 
 
i^ 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETS. 
 
 The Mosaic system comprised institations and agencies for 
 sustaining the religious life of tlie Hebrew people. The priests 
 and the Levites were religious orders, held responsible for this 
 ser\dce. In the degenerate ages of the nation, the forms of 
 their religion lost their spiritual power, and those religious 
 orders seem to have gone down morally in the general declen- 
 sion. Hence there arose a demand for a new order of men, 
 and prophets appeared, holding their individual commissions 
 direct from the living God. Singled out by his special call, they 
 went forth with his definite messages, calling upon the people 
 to hear his voice, and turn from their sins to righteousness. 
 Hence it resulted, from the very circumstances which called into 
 existence the order of prophets, that their main work should be 
 to preach reform ; to rebuke the prevalent sins of the nation*/ 
 to denounce their idolatry, their self-righteousness, their heart- 
 less formality, and their oppression of the poor ; to threaten im- 
 pending judgments, and to call the people back to their for- 
 saken God. 
 
 A portion of them (not all) have left in writing more or less 
 of the messages sent by them from God to the people. Some, 
 whose position is quite prominent in the history {e. (/., Elijah 
 and EKsha), have left no books of their own. Others, w^hose 
 names are not in the historic annals, have left valuable writings. 
 Manifestly each followed, in this respect, his own word froii; 
 
 «/1 ^^^ 
 
viii GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE rROPHETS. 
 
 the Lord — tlie Lord in his wisdom using.these servants of his 
 for the work which he most needed done and which they were 
 best qualified to do. 
 
 It is manifest, both from the history and from the tenor of 
 these recorded prophecies, that with few if any exceptions they 
 first bore their messages fi-om God to the people, with the liv- 
 ing voice, in the form of direct address. It may be safely 
 assumed that those portions were committed to writing which 
 embraced prophecy yet to be fulfilled, or which w^ould be 
 specially useful, either to the Jewish or the Gentile Church, 
 along the course of future ages. 
 
 These writings of the Hebrew prophets are now before us 
 — rich treasures of truth and experience from the ancient past, 
 God's own words, given to " holy men of old, who spake as 
 they wore moved by the Holy Ghost." Noble men were they, 
 of martyr spirit, of Christian heroism, of faith and courage 
 inspired by the sense of a special mission from the Most High ; 
 men whose record the world cannot afford to lose, nor the 
 Christian Church to drop from her living thought. With what 
 power of logic have they set forth the claims of God upon his 
 rational creatures ! How have they depicted the ingratitude, 
 the meanness, the folly, and the madness of sin ! With what 
 solemn and thrilling words have they spoken of the judgments 
 which God would send, and did, upon guilty nations, Jew and 
 Gentile, in retribution on sinners, whom no warning from his 
 voice availed to reclaim, and whose sins even the great forbear- 
 ance of God could not longer endure ! How pertinent and for- 
 cible are the moral lessons which come down to us from such 
 living examples ! Do proud rulers question whether there be 
 an infinite Moral Governor of the universe ? Do they doubt 
 whether he takes note of the sins of mighty nations, and holds 
 both them and their rulers to a strict moral accountability ? 
 Do they vainly think to set justice at naught, and trample dov/n 
 the helpless — ^no God from on high regarding and avenging ? 
 Or do they presume that he is too tender-hearted or too weak 
 to punish, so that strong men and proud nations shall feel it? 
 
 On all these and on all kindred points, the logic of facts 
 
fxENERAL INTEODUCTIOK TO THE FROPHETS. ix 
 
 affords demonstration, not only convincing, but appalling. It 
 must be morally wholesome to study sucb testimonies from the 
 actual ways of God in the teaching past. It were madness to 
 ignore them. 
 
 Here also, coupled with these terrible retributions from God 
 upon persistent sinners, are the most touchiBg invitations to re- 
 turn in penitence, and the richest promises of pardon to the hum- 
 ble and the contrite. You are impressed as you read with a 
 sense that these words of promise are freighted with a wealth 
 of love unknown in human hearts, and truly worthy of a God. 
 Whoever with honest mind shall take in their full significance, 
 
 and not abuse it, will surely find in it a blessing. It was 
 
 one of the special functions of those ancient prophets to minis- 
 ter to the faith and hope of the few yet found faithful among 
 the many faithless. To them, and primarily for their sake, 
 God spake, through his servants, of the great things then in 
 'the future of his Zion. The Messiah yet to come; the work 
 he should achieve while yet among men in the flesh ; the mis- 
 sion of the Holy Spirit; the conversion of the Gentiles; the 
 fortunes of the Jews — at first mostly cast off for their unbelief, 
 but ultimately brought in through great mercy ; the abrogation 
 of the sacrificial system ; the outgoing of the gospel to the dis- 
 tant nations of the earth ; the mission of truth and its triumphs 
 in every land, and the final victory of Christ over all opposing 
 powers : these things are grouped together into these glorious 
 visions of the then distant future — -a grand and sublime pan- 
 orama of the Christian aore in whole, makin<x revelations even 
 to us who live midway in their fulfilment, such as no lover of 
 his race and lover of Christ can contemplate without being 
 quickened anew in faith and love for the prayer and the work 
 to which Christ calls him. How earnestly do these prophecies 
 invite the most careful study ! We do not wonder that Peter 
 should endorse and commend them to his Christian brethren, 
 saying : " We have also the word of prophecy made more 
 sure (^. <?., by its incipient fulfilment), whereunto ye do well that 
 ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place until the 
 day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts" (2 Peter: 1, 
 
X GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE TROPIIETS. 
 
 19). Truly tins "prophetic word" does slied forth a glorious 
 light upon the future history of our world, a place otherwise 
 utterly dark to mortal vision ; and equally true is it that in 
 giving due heed to this light, and in bringing our souls fully 
 under its illuminating power and its inspiring influence, a 
 glorious" day" dawns upon us; the day-^star of faith and hope 
 arises, and we wake to the work of the millennial age, to joyful 
 anticipations of its approach, and to a sense of the ocean fulness 
 of its blessings for a world redeemed. 
 
 Yet, rich in gospel truth and inspiring to faith as this pro- 
 phetic word truly is, no portion of the Scriptures is so little 
 read, so little studied, and so little understood. Nowhere else 
 in human lansruag^e does there lie such a mass of hal. -buried 
 and almost unknown treasures. True, they come to us in a 
 language now long unspoken, but diligent labor can unlock its 
 meaning ; in figures somewhat unfamiliar, yet not unintelligible ; 
 with allusions to history then past, and to life-scenes then pres- 
 ent, which need from us some careful research to bring them 
 within command for ready use. These circumstances make 
 labor for the commentator ; yet when his work is well done, 
 the resulting profit to the diligent reader will be richly remu- 
 nerative. 
 
V 
 
 HOSEA 
 
 USTTEODUCTION". 
 
 Hose A prophesied " in the days of Uzziaii, Jotliam, Aliaz, and 
 Ilezekiah, kings of Judah, and in "the days of Jeroboam, the son of 
 Joasli, king of Israel." This covers a long period at the very least, 
 for, from the death of Jeroboam to the accession of Ilezekiah, was 
 fifty-six years ; to which mast be added whatever years he prophe- 
 sied before Jeroboam's death and after Ilezekiah's reign began. 
 Jeroboam reigned forty-one years (2 Kings 14 : 23), and Ilezekiah 
 twenty-nine. How much of either of these reigns fell within the 
 prophetic life of Hosea there are no positive data to show ; proba- 
 bly several from each. Various allusions to events past, then pass- 
 ing, or very near, locate the greater part of this book within tlic 
 sixty-two years lying between the death of Jeroboam and the fall 
 of the kingdom. Jeroboam's was the last long and vigorous reign, 
 and hence the only one in Israel worthy of being named in this 
 introduction. The ensuing period had two seasons of anarchy, one 
 of eleven years and the other of nine ; besides the reign of Zacha- 
 riali, six months ; of Shallum, two months ; of Menahem, ten years ; 
 of Pekahiah, two ; of Pekah, nineteen, and of Iloshea, the last, nine. 
 If, now, the reader recalls the facts stated in the history, that these 
 six kings belonged to five dififerent dynasties; that four of them fell 
 by conspiracy, and a fifth with the final fall of his kingdom ; and 
 that not one of them bears any other record than that of " doing 
 evil in the sight of the Lord, departing not from the sins of Jero- 
 boam, son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," he will have valua- 
 ble data for estiniating the deplorable state of morals, piety, and 
 1 
 
 84587 
 
2 nosEA.— cnAr. i. 
 
 civil government at this time. During tliis same period Isaiali and 
 Micah were prophesying, chiefly in Judah, and Amos, like Ilosea, 
 mostly in Israel. The latter were shut np by the force of circum- 
 stances to one main effort to convict the people of their great sins, 
 and to call them to repentance toward God as the only means of 
 
 saving either the government or the people from utter ruin. 
 
 Hence the prophecies of Hosea are full of rebuke and expostula- 
 tion against sin, and of demonstrations of God's loving-kindness 
 and pity toward his people. It is preeminently the book in the 
 whole Bible for times of spiritual declension and sore apostasy — 
 God's voice of warning and entreaty to any people who once 
 walked in fear and love before him, but who have become deeply 
 corrupt in heart and life. Must it not also have many points of 
 forcible application to the great American people — a nation emi- 
 nently favored of God, but grievously apostate from his fear and 
 honor ? 
 
 In style, Ilosea is preeminently concise and abrupt, abounding 
 m historical allusions and also in sudden transitions, which involve 
 more or less obscurity. Yet the book will yield a rich reward for 
 close and earnest study. Let the reader corao to it as to God's 
 own words, through one of his faithful but long and sorely-tried 
 servants, remembering his own closing testimony : " Who is wise, 
 and he shall understand these things ; prudent, and he shall know 
 them ; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk 
 in them ; but the transgressors shall fall therein." 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The book opens with events peculiar to Hosea's prophetic min- 
 istry — the taking of a wife whose lewdness symbolized the infidel- 
 ity of the nation to God, their Maker and Husband ; and the birth 
 and naming of children whose names were significant before tlio 
 people of their relations to Jehovah. 
 
 1. The word of tlic Lord tliat came unto Ilosea, the 
 son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and 
 Ilezeldah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam 
 the son of Joash king of Israel. 
 
 The reader may wisely peruse the history of the period covered 
 by these reigns as recorded 2 Kings 14 : 23 to 18 : 12, and also in 
 2 Chron. chapters 2G-31. The record is a dismal one — revolutions, 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. I 3 
 
 anarchy, conspiracies, universal idolatry, and outbreaking wicked- 
 ness. 
 
 2. The beginning of the word of the Loed by Ilosea. 
 And the Loed said to Ilosea, Go, take nnto thee a wife 
 of whoredoms and children of whoredoms ; for the land 
 hath committed great whoredom, departing from the 
 Loed. 
 
 It has been questioned wbetber tins taking of a lewd wife were 
 a real transaction. Some suppose it existed only in msion. The 
 laws of prophetic interpretation forbid this view. The command 
 is, " Go, take ; " and nothing less than the strongest reasons can 
 justify us in rejecting the obvious sense of such language. Be- 
 sides, what could be the use of such a thing, if done only in vision ; 
 and especially, what could be the use of it to tJie feo'pU ? Yet fur- 
 ther, and more to our purpose as interpreters of God's word — ^if tlic 
 Lord meant only that Hosea saw or should see this thing iriTision^ 
 why did he not say so ? Cases in which things were to bo done in 
 the actual life of the prophets for the greater effect as syinhols be- 
 fore the people, occur frequently in Ezekiel, and occasionally in 
 other Old Testament prophets. But see this subject discussed more 
 fully in the Appendix — Dissertation I. 
 
 A second question, of less importance, is, wliether Gomer was a 
 lewd woman before marriage. On the one hand, the language docs 
 not absolutely demand the afBrraative, wliile yet it is the more ob- 
 vious sense of the words. On the other hand, the negative is sup- 
 ported by the circumstance that, so interpreted, the case better 
 symbolizes the idolatry of Israel, inasmuch as the Lord entered into 
 covenant with them while yet they were mostly pure from this 
 great sin. It is not necessary, however, that the symbol should fit 
 at all possible points. The one main point is tlie grievous guilt of 
 such adultery. I pass this question, simply expressing my opinion 
 that she had been lewd before marriage, and was taken as a wife 
 upon a promise of conjugal fidelity. It is well to note carefully 
 that the Lord gave the reasons for this remarkable command— viz. : 
 because the land had become wholly adulterous and apostate from 
 God. Of course, adultery here means specially idolatry. By the 
 worship of idols the people had put other gods before Jehovah. 
 They had faithlessly broken their solemn covenant to fear and serve 
 the Lord alone. This covenant can find no better symbol among 
 human relations than that by which one man and one woman " be- 
 come no longer twain, but one flesh." The marriage relation, closer 
 and more endearing than any other, comes nearest to a perfect 
 symbol of the covenant relation between God and his chosen peo- 
 ple. It is therefore used v^^ith great pertinence, beauty, and force. 
 
 The fact is humihating to the people of God that this symbol 
 
 should find its most abundant occasion for use, not on the bright 
 Bide of this marriage relation, but on the dark — ^tho shameful infi- 
 
4: HOSEA.— CHAP. I. 
 
 delities and apostasies of the people in the times of Hosea, Jere- 
 niiali, and Ezekiel. The same idea, and mostly on its bright side, 
 underlies the forty-fifth Psalm, and (as the Jews must have under- 
 stood it) the Book of Canticles ; hut its fuller development waited 
 till flagrant sin called it forth. 
 
 Let us not pass this point without taking note of the keenness 
 of the domestic trial to which Ilosea was subjected at his very en- 
 trance upon the prophetic work. AVe sometimes think of this work 
 as bringing the propbet into near and honored relations to Jehovah 
 — as, indeed, sublimely grand and glorious. "We are liable to forget 
 that for even such prophets to live godly was to sufl:er. Isaiah 
 shrank from the work; Jonah fled, to escape its responsibilities; 
 Jeremiah felt heavily on his heart the message burdens he bore 
 from God to the people; knd to Ilosea was allotted this bitter af- 
 fliction — a wife unfaithful to her marriage vows — that he might be 
 a living representative of the great sin of the people against their 
 divine Husband ; and perhaps, also, that his own experience of do- 
 mestic wrong and wretchedness might give him a keener sense of 
 the cruel guilt of the nation's idolatry, and might help him to sym- 
 pathize with tbe feelings of Jehovah under such abuse. These 
 
 trials in the prophet's mission have a vital bearing on the question 
 of his essential honesty. No selfish motive could have moved him 
 to such a life-work. To rebuke sin in an age of such outbreaking 
 and universal wickedness, and to be subjected to such domestic af- 
 fliction for the sake of more vividly illustrating the apostasy of Is- 
 rael from their God involve and imply an honest, self-sacrificing 
 devotion to the will of God, and quite preclude the supposition of 
 his being an impostor. 
 
 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Dib- 
 laim ; wliich conceived, and bare liim a son. 
 
 4. And the Lokd said unto him, Call his name Jez- 
 rcel ; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood 
 of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to 
 cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 
 
 5. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will 
 break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 
 
 The word Jezreel has a two-fold significance ; the one drawn 
 from its etymology, the other from its history. By its etymology 
 it means the Lord will sow, or the Lord's soioing. We have this 
 sense in v. 11. Great shall be the day when the Lord shall sow or 
 plant his people in their own land. By historical allusion, the 
 word carries us back to the city bearing that name, the royal resi- 
 dence of Ahab ; to the blood shed there by Jehu, and to the aveng- 
 ing of that blood upon his posterity. See 2 Kings 10 : 11, 14. 
 
 Naming the prophet's first child Jezreel denoted that this avenging 
 was near at hand. Jehu by promise was to hold the throne to the 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. I. 5 
 
 fourth generation. Jeroboam II. was the third in that hne ; his 
 son, Zachariah, was the fourth and last. A wicked reign of six 
 months ended his hfe and the dynasty of Jehu. See 2 Kings 15 : 
 8-12. 
 
 The kingdom of the house of Israel was to cease soon. It 
 ceased fifty-one years after the death of this king, Zachariah. It 
 may be asked, Did not the Lord (2 Kings 10 : 30) approve of Jehu's 
 deeds in destroying the house of Ahab ? And if so, why should 
 he now avenge that blood on the house of Jehu ? The true answer 
 seems to be that he in part approved it, and therefore in part re- 
 warded Jehu — that is, by giving him the kingdom to the fourth 
 generation. But he could not approve his spirit, which was far 
 from being right before God; nor could he approve of his " taking 
 no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his 
 heart, depai-ting not from the sins of Jeroboam," 2 Kings 10 : 31. 
 
 Hence these judgments on his house. " Breaking the bow of 
 
 Jezreel," is breaking their military power — ^the bow being then the 
 chief weapon of war. That this was done especially in the valley 
 of Jezreel is every way probable, though there is no definite record 
 of the event. This valley, since called Esdraelon^ has been one of 
 the most noted battle-grounds in history. Here Deborah and 
 Barak fought and conquered ; here Gideon scourged and drove i\\Q 
 Midianites; here Ahab gained a great victory over Ben-hadad. 
 Here have fought Romans, Crusaders, Egyptians, and Frenchmen. 
 It is more than supposable that in this famous valley the enfeebled 
 hosts of Israel made their last stand against the Assyrian power. 
 
 6. And slie conceived again and bare a daugliter. 
 And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah : for 
 I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel ; 
 but I will utterly take them away. 
 
 " Lo-riihamah " is literally " not compassionated " — not a sub- 
 ject of mercy. This use of the negative Lo imphes not merely the 
 absence of mercy, but the presence of wrath. The sense is not 
 suspended at the point of mere negation, but goes over to the op- 
 posite side. Here it means that the people had incurred Jehovah's 
 frown. He would not any more show mercy to the people of the 
 ten tribes in such form as to arrest and turn aside his impending, 
 hmg-dcserved judgments. On the contrary, he " would utterly 
 
 take them away" into captivity. As to the last clause, the 
 
 marginal reading suggests another possible sense of the original, 
 viz. : " that I should altogether pardon them." The original He- 
 brew verb means to take away, and is sometimes used for the tak- 
 ing away of sin. But the connecting particle gives this as the 
 course of thought : " I will not again show mercy to the house of 
 Israel, for I will utterly take them away," i, e.^ from their land. 
 This is my purpose. 
 
6 HOSEA.— CHAP. I. 
 
 7. But I will have mercy upon tlie house of Judah, 
 and will save them by the Lokd their God, and will not 
 save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by 
 horses, nor by horsemen. 
 
 There was still in Judali some true fidelity to God; he would 
 therefore yet have mercy on them. The expression — " Save them 
 ly the Lord their God, and not hy sword or battle," is beantifuUy 
 concise and forcible — as if Jehovah were himseK the engines of 
 war, the sword and the bow, that should save them. The might of 
 his arm is finely contrasted with the might of human prowess in 
 war. 
 
 8. !N"ow when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she con- 
 ceived, and bare a son. 
 
 9. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi : for ye 
 are not my people, and I will not be your God. 
 
 " Lo-ammi " signifies not my people^ and as said above of Lo- 
 ruhamah, it imphes that they are in a state of positive rejection. 
 God was about to disown them — so utterly had they rejected him 
 by their abounding persistent idolatry, by forsaking the worship of 
 
 God, and by most flagrant immoralities. How impressive to 
 
 Ilosea must have been all the scenes and sounds of his household ! 
 Often as he spake or heard spoken the names of these two children, 
 the thought came — No mercy ! Not my people I A hke testimony 
 it must have borne to the people among whom he was sent as the 
 prophet of the living God.- 
 
 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall 
 be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measm*ed nor 
 numbered ; and it shall come to pass, that in the place 
 where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, 
 there it shall be said unto them. Ye are the sons of the 
 living God. 
 
 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the chil- 
 dren of Israel be gathered together and appoint them- 
 selves one head, and they shall come up out of the land : 
 for great shall he the day of Jezreel. 
 
 Here is a sudden transition from extreme judgment to iho, ful- 
 ness of mercy. " The Lord keepeth not his anger forever." Re- 
 mai-kably is it his method, whether by prophet or apostle, to blend 
 threatening with promise, and to follow the sternest denunciations 
 with outbursts of pity and love. The general sense of the pas- 
 sage is— God hath not forsaken his church utterly and forever. 
 Notwithstanding this ruin now coming on Israel, the Lord shall yet 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. I. 7 
 
 have a people, countless as the sands, united also and prosperous, 
 
 the true Israel and Judah. A number "as the sands of the sea " 
 
 is, of course, indefinitely great, denoting the highest prosperity and 
 a vast increase of population, compared with the Israel then pres- 
 ent. What is spoken of here as currently " said to them " must 
 
 be construed as said, because true. The truth of it, rather than the 
 saying of it, is the thing specially affirmed. Whereas ye formerly 
 were not my people, ye shall, in the future time referred to, bo 
 
 really the sons of the living God. No special stress can be given 
 
 to the words "in the place where," as defining any particular 
 locality. It is used adverbially to mean that instead^ of— in 'place 
 ^/— their not being God's people, they shall really Ije his sons. 
 
 That Israel and Judah " gather together and appoint themselves 
 one head," looks by historical allusion to the sad history of the re- 
 cent past, since the revolt under Jeroboam, and means to say that 
 in this good time coming, that sore breach shall be healed, the 
 rival kingdoms become one, and "Ephraim no more envy Judah, 
 nor Judah vex Ephraim." The Church of God, in those times, 
 
 shall be one in love, and strong in its union. To "conio up out 
 
 of the land " is the classic phrase for the exodus from Egypt, and 
 implies that God will work a like deliverance of his people from 
 their bondage, whatever the form of that bondage may be. When 
 we find a manifest historical allusion, we must accept it as illustra- 
 tive, and not look for a precisely literal fulfilment. In the present 
 case, we are not to look for the geographical land, out of which 
 they come up. It is rather a moral state., and no land or country 
 
 whatever. The " day of Jezreel ' ' is here the day of the Lord's 
 
 sowing, or, in our Enghsh idiom, planting His people — with refer- 
 ence to the etymology of the word Jezreel. Looking historically 
 to the planting in Canaan, und^r Joshua, it means that God will 
 do a similar thing again. Great shall be the day when the Lord 
 thus lays anew the foundations of his Zion, and rebuilds Jerusalem 
 — plants his people in their new estate, and puts a new face upon 
 his earthly kingdom. It does not necessarily follow that this plant- 
 ing is the locating of his ancient people in the land of Canaan. 
 
 Having now noted the sense of the several expressions, it re- 
 mains to consider the meaning of the whole passage. Here we 
 
 must not fail to take account of the fearful things God had just 
 spoken against Israel : "I will cause to cease the kingdom of the 
 house of Israel; " "I will break the bow of Israel;" "I will no 
 more have mercy on the house of Israel, but will utterly take them 
 away," i. <?., into captivity; " Ye are not my people, and I will not 
 
 be your God." All this has the aspect of rejecting Israel, utterly 
 
 and forever. — Yes, and the Israel of the ten tribes was substantially 
 rejected. But a new Israel comes up, a new or at least a modified 
 sense is given to the word Israel, so that it now means not merely 
 those born of Jacob, or those who were of the kingdom of the ten 
 tribes, but the real people of God ; or, as the etymology erf the 
 word implies, those who have a princely power with God through 
 
8 HOSEA.— CHAP. I. 
 
 prayer. See Gen. 82 : 28, and IIos. 12 : 3, 4. This play on the 
 different senses of a word, the one, perJiaps, historical, and tlu 
 other drawn from its etjTQology, is by no means foreign to the style 
 of Eosea. We have seen it already in the word Jezreel. 
 
 The general interpretation here indicated involves great ques- 
 tions and results, and should, therefore, he carefully stated and well 
 supported. Let it, then, be considered, 
 
 (1.) The literal and old sense of Israel, in this passage, is simply 
 impossible. To hold, as some good men have done, that the ten 
 tril3es did return in vast numbers with the Jews under Zerub- 
 babel, their " one head," and that the richness of this glorious 
 promise had its fulfilment then, is to struggle in vain against the 
 whole array of authentic history. Ezra and Nehemiah have told 
 us (Ez. 2:1 ff., and Neh. 7 : G ff.) how many did return ; about 
 50,000, all told. They have shown us that these were mostly of 
 the tribes of Judah and Levi, the lineal descendants of those who 
 belonged to that kingdom, and not to the kingdom of the ten tribes 
 (see Ez. 2 : 1, and Neh. 7 : 6). Hence they leave no place there 
 for the ten tribes, and, much more, no place for a multitude of 
 them, like the sands of the sea. And yet more, the ton tribes are 
 now plainly lost from the view of authentic history, leaving no 
 ground to suppose they can ever be discovered among the living 
 tribes of the earth, llierefore it is not too much to say that this 
 prophecy, if applied to the Mngdom of the ten trihes, has never 
 been fulfilled, and never can be. "We are amply justified, therefore, 
 in looking for some other sense of the word " IsraeV 
 
 (2.) The construction above given, which supposes the word to 
 be used here for the true people of God, is in harmony with the 
 peculiar style of Ilosea, as has been already stated. 
 
 (3.) It is abundantly endorsed by the New Testament, {a.) By 
 its use of the terms Israel, Zion, the temple, &c., &c. Thus Rom. 
 9:6," They are not all Israel vrhich are of Israel," i. «., they are 
 not all God's true people who are lineally born of Israel — a case, 
 therefore, in which we have precisely the same new second sense 
 of the word Israel, which is claimed for Hosea in this passage. 
 Again, this same apostle closes one epistle — full of the doctrine 
 that "all who are Christ's are Abraham's seed," by invoking 
 " peace upon the Israel of God." So Mount Zion (Heb. 12 : 22) is 
 the whole Christian church: Christians (2 Cor. 6:16) are God's 
 temple. (5.) This construction is sustained by the whole doc- 
 trine of the New Testament in reference to the relation of Gentiles 
 to the church and kingdom of God. The great battle of the apos- 
 tolic age was fought over this very question, whether Gentiles could 
 come iti iDith Jews as heirs of God's promises, and really entitled to 
 
 the blessings foretold in prophecy for Israel. (c.) But more 
 
 particularly, Paul (Rom. 9 : 25, 26) quotes this very passage from 
 Hosea to prove that the " vessels of mercy " to whom God " makes 
 knowi the riches of his glory," are "not of the Jews only but also 
 of the Gentiles." That is, he assumes that in this very passage 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. II. 9 
 
 Hosca embraces Geniilc Christians under the name Israel ; and, of 
 course, that it is fulfilled in the New Testament age, and not exclu- 
 sively before — in the Gentiles, and not otherwise. This ought to 
 be decisive. 
 
 (4.) While some of the prophets, e, g.^ Isaiah, speak of the Gen- 
 tiles by name as coming into the church and sharing in the great 
 blessings of the latter days ; others, like Hosea, predict the same 
 great blessings, but never name the Gentiles, and give them no 
 share except as they come in under the name Israel, "We must, 
 therefore, either say that they rule out the Gentiles from the pale 
 of these blessings and give them to the lineal Israel, and to Israel 
 only; or we must admit that they modify the sense of the word 
 Israel, and use it to include all the real children of God in the 
 latter days. 
 
 Finally, we have the great fact that just at the point where the 
 Israel of the ten tribes was being cast off for their hopeless idolatry 
 and incurable corruption, a larger, richer promise is made to the 
 " children of Israel " than the literal Israel ever had before or since, 
 or ever can have. Moveover, what time the old Israel became lost 
 to history, a new Israel appears ; Gentiles come into the church of 
 God ; the world opens to the mission of the Gospel, and lies at the 
 feet of the Prince of Peace : and so his Israel becomes as the sand 
 of the sea; his people are the "sons of the living God;" old 
 antipathies give place to the oneness of love ; under their one head, 
 they come up from their last house of bondage, and great beyond 
 
 all former thought is " the day of Jezreel." For all this let us sing 
 
 in words furnished to the church for this occasion by Isaiah (chap. 
 12). " O Lord, I will praise thee ; though thou wast angry with 
 me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold 
 God is my salvation ; I will trust and not be afraid ; for the Lord 
 Jehovah is my strength and my song ; he also is become my sal- 
 vation." 
 
 CHAPTEPv II. 
 
 In this chapter, the Lord exposes and rebukes the sins of his 
 people, and threatens retribution, vs. 1-13 ; then turns to promises 
 of effective discipline and of restoring mercy, vs. 14-28. 
 
 It is noticeable that throughout this chapter, the adulterous 
 mother, Israel, is spoken of in the third person, and the Lord 
 declares what he will do to her in judgment and for her in mercy. 
 Remarkably, and as if to give a more impressive sense of her horrible 
 guilt, her children are introduced — are apprised of the unnatural 
 crime of their mother, and are exhorted to plead with her to put 
 away her sins. What a family scene must be the reality presented 
 in this symbol — the children appealing to their mother to desist 
 from her adulterous life, and to put an end at once to all its indi- 
 1* 
 
10 nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 
 
 cations ! It is manifestly the purpose of God, in this message by 
 Hosea, to paint a life-scene of the crimes of Ms covenant people in 
 their relations to himself. 
 
 1. Say unto your brethren, Ammi ; and to your 
 sisters, Knhamah. 
 
 Say to your brethren, Ammi; to your sisters, Ruhamah. 
 Drop the negative particle from the names, Lo-Ammi, Lo-Ruhamah ; 
 sound the sweet words, " my people ;" " the pitied and beloved" — as 
 if to suggest that the heart of the Lord still yearns to make them 
 again his own, and to give the freest flow to his great and deep 
 
 compassions. The persons exhorted to do this may be supposed 
 
 to be the few yet found faithful among the many faithless. The 
 Lord calls on them for one more effort to reclaim the nation. 
 
 2. Plead witli your mother, plead ; for she is not my 
 wife, neither am i lier husband : let lier therefore put 
 away ber whoredoms out of ber sigbt, and ber adul- 
 teries from between ber breasts ; 
 
 3. Lest I strip ber naked, and set ber as in the day 
 tbat sbe was born, and make ber as a wilderness, and 
 set ber like a dry land, and slay ber with tbu'st. 
 
 " Plead with your mother," ye children of shame ; go and tell 
 her yon cannot bear the disgrace and pain of her unnatural crime ; 
 tell her that her God disowns her as a wife, and puts her away for 
 
 her lewd idolatry. Such is this strain of fiery rebuke. The last 
 
 clause refers to the incitements to lewdness common with bad 
 women. "Out of her sight," should read, "from her face," cor- 
 responding to " from her breasts " in the parallel member of the 
 sentence. The original has the same form of expression in each 
 case. The face and the bosom are alike used for incitement to 
 lewd passion ; — ^paint, ornament, and lascivious expression in the 
 one; exposure of person in the other. In the spiritual apj)lication, 
 God frowns upon and would put away every form of inducement 
 to idolatry in Israel ; every thing that in any age natm-ally tempts 
 his people to sin. 
 
 4. And I will not bave mercy upon ber cbildi*en ; 
 for tbey he the children of wboredoms. 
 
 Closely following out the symbol, the Lord appeals to the heart 
 of the mother, as if he would say : Though you have lost all sensi- 
 bility to your own welfare, yet think of your children. I will not 
 have mercy on them ; your unnatural crime comes down on them 
 with perpetual curses. Can a mother's heart resist such an appeal ? 
 
 5. For tbeir mother bath played the harlot : she tbat 
 conceiycd tbem batb done sbamefully: for sbe said, I 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. n. 11 
 
 will go after mj lovers, that give me mj bread and my 
 water, my wool and my ilax, mine oil and my drink. 
 
 The adulterous mother is here seen, going after her infamous 
 paramours — as one who lives on the wages of her shameless crime. * 
 This is turning over and over the leading symbol, to put m still 
 new light the shameful sins of the chosen people against their God, 
 and to show why he ought to and must visit them with terrible retri- 
 bution. The fifth and sixth verses stand related as cause and 
 
 result : " Became their mother hath committed lewdness," " there- 
 fore will I hedge up her way," &c. 
 
 6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with 
 thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her 
 paths. 
 
 1. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she 
 shall not overtake them ; and she shall seek them, but 
 shall not find them : then shall she say, I ^svill go and 
 return to my first husband ; for then was it better with 
 me than now. 
 
 God will trouble her in every way; she shall follow liard (so 
 the original) after her lovers for help, but in vain, till affliction and 
 want bring her back to reason and to her forsaken God. 
 
 8. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and 
 wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which 
 they prepared for Baal. 
 
 9. Therefore will I return, and take away my com 
 in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, 
 and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover 
 her nakedness. 
 
 Vs. 8 and 9 are correlated thus : " Because slio did not know," &c., 
 
 " therefore will I take away," &c. " Did not know that /gave her " 
 
 all, where the original makes the pronoun / emphatic. God mul- 
 tiplied to Israel silver and gold, which they wrought into images of 
 Baal. This is one point of aggravation in all sin. Men take t!io 
 gifts of God and pervert them into means of sinning the more 
 against him ; work them into idols to worship instead of Jehovah. 
 
 Baal was one of the most ancient of the gods worshipped in 
 
 the East. He is supposed by many to represent the sun ; by others, 
 the planet Jupiter, as the almoner of good fortune. He was wor- 
 shipped by the people of Phoenicia and Tyre, and from them, at a 
 very early age, and in the reign of Ahab especially, his worship 
 passed over to the Jews. 
 
 10. ^jid how will I discover her lewdness in the 
 
12 ROSEA.— CHAP. IL 
 
 siglit of lier lovers, and none shall deliver her out of 
 mine hand. 
 
 " Discover," in the sense of expose her nakedness before her 
 lovers — terribly significant of the fearful judgments God knows 
 how to send on his apostate people ! 
 
 11. I will also canse all her mirth to cease, lier feast 
 days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all hei 
 solemn feasts. 
 
 These were seasons of special joy to tlio Ilebrew people, oji^ 
 stand here to represent all^oj. 
 
 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, 
 whereof she hath said. These are my rewards that my 
 lovers have given me : and I will make them a forest, 
 and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 
 
 The heathen regarded their idol gods as the givers of tlicir vines 
 and fig-trees. Israel says the same thing. Those idol gods are hei 
 lovers, to whom, in her sfjiritual adultery, she gives her heart and 
 her confidence. 
 
 13. And I will visit npon her the days of Baalim, 
 wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked 
 herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went 
 after her lovers, and forgat me, saitli the Loed. 
 
 This strain of rebuke and tlireatcning culminates with the 
 general declaration — " I will visit upon her for the guilt of her days 
 of Baal worship." "Baalim," in the plural, refers to the numerous 
 images of Baal, or as others hold plausibly, to tlie diverse modes 
 of his manifestation. " Decking herself with car-rings and jewels, 
 and going after her lovers," carries out the symbol — a harlot, 
 plying all the shameless arts of a common prostitute. 
 
 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring 
 her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto 
 her. 
 
 Tliis verse is, for the chapter, the transition point between 
 rebuke and threatened retribution for the sins of idol worship on 
 the one hand, and promises of effective discipline and of restoring 
 
 mercy on the other. ^^ BeJioId]''^ calls special attention to the 
 
 great things God now proposes to do. " Therefore,^'' reminds us 
 
 to ask tchy ? "What is the reason for the promises of good that fol- 
 low? Some have found a difficulty here, inasmuch as the griev- 
 ous sins of Israel seem to be no natural reason for giving the bless- 
 ings hereafter promised. But the reasons, viewed fundament- 
 ally, lie deeper than the sins of Israel, even in God's covenant love 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 13 
 
 and faithfulness. He cannot bear that his own Israel should sink 
 hopelessly under her sins into ruin. Therefore his pity moves hira 
 
 to discipline and to mercy. " Will allure her " — in a good sense ; 
 
 persuade her, draw her by the sweet attractions of love. 
 
 This " bringing her into the wilderness," Dr. Henderson, fol- 
 lowing his principles of literal interpretation, finds fulfilled in 
 God's taking the whole Hebrew people into captivity to Babylon 
 and Assyria. Apparently he fails to notice that they were driven 
 not drawn thither, and also that neither Babylon nor Assyria are 
 
 known in Scripture as " the wilderness." Dismissing, therefore, 
 
 this literal view of the language, I prefer to assume an historical allu- 
 sion to the exodus from Egypt. God means — " I will do to Israel 
 again what I did when I took them by the hand and led them ont 
 of the house of bondage, and out of the land of idol gods, into the 
 wilderness, and there spake to them face to face " — spake most 
 effectively " to their heart,'''' as the last clause reads in the original. 
 "We may fitly recall the fact that this wilderness-life was to the 
 Hebrew people a great aud most effective theatre of moral disci- 
 pline. No generation in aU their history was so true to God or so 
 much beloved of him as that which had its training in the wilder- 
 ness, and went in under Joshua to the land of Canaan. God here 
 
 promises to do a like thing to his covenant people again. With 
 
 allusion probably to this passage, yet amplifying it, Ezekiel (20 : 35, 
 36) says : " And I wiU bring you into the wilderness of the people, 
 and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded 
 with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I 
 plead with you, saith the Lord." This confirms the idea of an 
 historical allusion to the scenes of the exodus. 
 
 15. And I will give lier her vineyards from tlience, 
 and the valley of Achor for a door of hope : and she 
 shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in 
 the day when she came up ont of the land of Egypt. 
 
 " From thence " — from such a scene of moral discipline, God 
 will give her her vineyards — with historical reference to the grapes 
 of Eshcol, which ancient Israel found on entering Canaan. Bless- 
 ings come after, and out of, efficient moral discipline. " The 
 
 valley of Achor " is still another historical allusion. The word 
 Achor means by its etymology, trouble: in history it was the place 
 of trouble to Achan. See Josh. T : 24-26. So the troubles of 
 
 Israel shall be her " door of hope." "And she shall sing there " 
 
 — with declared reference to the joy of the Hebrews when, led by 
 Moses and Miriam, they sang songs of deliverance on the hither 
 
 side of the Eed Sea. So joy comes from sanctified sorrow. 
 
 Moral discipline that really turns the heart from sin to God, is 
 evermore a well-spring of blessings. 
 
 IG. And it shall be at that day, saith the Loed, that 
 
14: nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 
 
 tliou shalt call me Islii ; and shalt call me no more 
 "Baali. 
 
 17. For I will take away tlie names of Baalim out of 
 her montli, and they shall no more be remembered by 
 their name. 
 
 The true and full sense of these verses is seen in the fact that 
 "/^fA^," my man, and " Baali^'' my lord, were both sometimes used 
 to mean my husband. But the word Baal had become so dangerously 
 associated with idol worship that Jehovah forbade the use of it, 
 even to express an innocent relation. So there is sound wisdom in 
 forestalling all those temptations which steal upon us under the 
 laws of mental association. God would take away from us every 
 thing that may work, through the power of those laws of thought, 
 to beguile us into sin. 
 
 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for 
 them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of 
 heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: 
 and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle 
 out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 
 
 This covenant which God makes with the lower animals, debars 
 them from harming his people. I find here an allusion to vs. 12, 
 where God gives the beasts of the field license to devour the vines 
 and fig-trees of his sinning people. This covenant recalls that 
 license, and even lays them under bond to spare to God's penitent 
 people the fruits of the earth. Sense : God's providence becomes 
 their shield and refuge. 
 
 19. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, 
 I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in 
 judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. 
 
 20. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness : 
 and thou shalt know the Loed. 
 
 This betrothal assumes that her long-persistent adulteries had 
 ended in divorce. Now the marriage covenant is renewed — renew- 
 ed ^'■forever ; " renewed "in righteousness, in judgment, in loving- 
 kindness, and in great mercy ; " where the reiteration is intended 
 to heighten the sense of God's great love in this* transaction. Ee- 
 markably, it culminates in faithfulness ; as if to say. This covenant 
 
 must stand, and be broken no more. " Thou shalt know the 
 
 Lord," is one of the most expressive phrases possible to human 
 language, implying to know God in all the great elements of his 
 character, and in all the experiences of his spiritual power; to 
 know with a knowledge other and better far than theory ; to know 
 with the heart brought fuUy under the power of Jehovah's presence 
 and love. 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 15 
 
 21. And it shall come to pass in tHat day, I will 
 liear, saith the Lokd, I will liear the lieayens, and they 
 shall hear the earth ; 
 
 22. And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, 
 and the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel. 
 
 This extraordinary passage means, compreliensively, tliat God 
 will hear the prayer of his people for the earthly good they may 
 need and shall ask of him. The manner of saying this gives us 
 what we may call a circle of prayer. "Hearing," means hearing 
 and answering the requests made. " Jezreel " stands here for \\\q 
 people whom God plants in the land. Hence, the form of the 
 thought is : This people call for corn and wine and oil, and in a 
 sense cry unto these things, and are heard and answered : the corn 
 and wine cry to the earth ; the earth, to the heavens ; and the heavens 
 to God. God hears the heavens ; the heavens hear the earth ; the 
 earth hears the corn, and the corn hears the people whom God 
 plants in the land. The agencies of providence that lie between 
 God and his praying people, which must be all put in operation in 
 order to give them corn and wine, are beautifully put into the links 
 of this chain of prayer. 
 
 23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth ; and I 
 will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy ; 
 and I will say to them which were not my people. Thou 
 art my people ; and they shall say, Thou art my God. 
 
 " I will sow her unto me," still keeps up the sense of the word 
 "Jezreel." " Unto wc," shows that this planting of God's people 
 shall be for himself and not for another ; no more for Baal. " In 
 the earth," might have been as well expressed by " in the land," 
 the allusion being to the fact that of old God had given to his peo- 
 ple a land, specially their own by covenant promise. 1 will now 
 
 and onward have mercy on her who was rejected from my mercy, 
 bearing the name Zo-Euhamah : I will say to Lo-Ammi, Thou art 
 Ammi — beautifully expunging the negative; and he [my people] 
 
 shall say. My God ! This is the concise, yet strongly expressive 
 
 form of the original. 
 
 Thus closes this richly instructive passage. Its whole strain is 
 one glorious testimony that our God, in the midst of wrath, remem- 
 bers mercy. 
 
16 nosEA.— CHAP. in. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 This short cliapter embraces one theme only — the prophet's 
 relation to a wife — adduced as the occasion of a remarkable proph- 
 ecy of the future of the Jewish people. 
 
 1. Tlien said tlie Loed unto me, Go yet, love a woman 
 beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to tlie 
 love of the Loed toward the children of Israel, who look 
 to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 
 
 A question arises here, rather curious than vital to the general 
 sense of the chapter — whether this woman was or was not Gomer, 
 
 the wife brought to our knowledge in the first chapter. On the 
 
 supposition that she was the same, it seems somewhat remarkable 
 that the statements are so indefinite, with no clear allusions to the 
 Gomer before introdaced; yet, despite of this difiiculty, the evi- 
 dence preponderates in favor of then* identity. The Lord here 
 says, "Go, Zoce," not tiike a woman; the latter being the usual 
 formula for entering the first time into the marriage relation. Ho 
 says simply "a woman," not "thy wife;" indicating a state of 
 separation and .semi-divorce, such as would naturally result from 
 the lewdness of Gomer. She is further described as " beloved of 
 a friend^''^ as the original has it (not " lier " friend), a sort of free- 
 love relationship, and yet an adulteress ; and, of course, not living 
 with this friend in lawful wedlock. A farther point in the descrip- 
 tion is, that this case corresponds to the love of the Lord toward 
 the children of Israel, who look (in the Ileb. turn) to other gods. 
 Inasmuch as this is part of the description of this woman, it should 
 be allowed the more weight in identifying her. Its whole force 
 goes to show that she was Gomer, since it was the same Israel 
 with whom the Lord had been in covenant, to whom he now 
 returns in his great loving-kindness. And this is the very point 
 made in this chapter." This main feature, therefore, forbids us to 
 
 think here of any other woman than Gomer. Our translation 
 
 renders the last word of this verse, "flagons of wine." Modern 
 scholars agree in rendering the Hebrew word grape-calces ; i. e., 
 grapes dried and pressed into the fonn of cakes. They were cus- 
 tomarily offered in the worship of idols, and then eaten by the 
 worshippers. Another instance of the general policy of making 
 idol-worship every way attractive to the senses and animal ap- 
 petites. 
 
 2. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, 
 and/br an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley. 
 
 It was common among the Jews, indeed it is in all the East, to 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. III. 17 
 
 thh day, to buy a wife. Whether the price named hero was tho 
 standard one is of no special importance; if it were, our means of 
 fixing the vahie of a "piece of silver" are very impertect. The 
 
 amount of barley was about fourteen bushels. This buying does 
 
 not necessarily forbid the supposition that she had been his wife 
 before. It does imply that she had forfeited that relation, and 
 could properly return only as one justly divorced. To show this 
 seems to be the chief or sole intent in this second verse. 
 
 3. And I said imto her, Thou shalt abide for me 
 many days ; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou 
 shalt not be for cmother man : so will I also l)e for thee. 
 
 The prophet implores her to desist from her former crimes. 
 Probably the true sense of the verse is better given by omitting the 
 word " another^'''' which has nothing to correspond to it in the He- 
 brew. " Thou shalt not be /or man " — any man ; — the special point 
 being to represent a state of Israel described in the next verse as 
 without any worship of either the true God or idols. 
 
 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many days 
 without a king, and without a prince, and without a 
 sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ejDhod, 
 and without teraphim : 
 
 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and 
 seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; and 
 shall fear the Loud and his goodness in the latter days. 
 
 Here is an exceedingly interesting prophecy, to the effect that 
 the children of Israel shall remain a long time without king or 
 prince, without sacrifice, images, or any insignia of worship, wheth- 
 er true or false, required or forbidden. Images and teraphim 
 (household gods) must be put in the latter class. The ephod was 
 
 the outer robe of the high priest. Cured of idolatry, yet not 
 
 converted to the worship of the true God, they were to remain 
 long in this peculiar, extraordinary state. Considering how strong 
 their national passion has been to have a king and some established 
 ceremonials of worship, either divine or idolatrous, this prophecy is 
 surely such as no human sagacity could or would have made. Yet, 
 ever since their own Messiah came in the flesh, or, more definitely, 
 since the fall of their city under the Eoman arms (a. d. TO), this 
 
 has been precisely their condition. "Afterwards" — somewhere 
 
 in the times yet future — " they shall return and seek the Lord their 
 God and David their king." Hosea is not alone in giving to Da- 
 vid's greater Son the name David. Jeremiah (30 : 9) says — "They 
 shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will 
 raise up to them." Ezekiel likewise (84:23, 24, and 37:24, 25). 
 David, considered as king, was a special type of the Messiah, so 
 that the transfer of his name to the latter is natural. To " fear 
 
18 nosEA.— CHAP. m. 
 
 the Lord " is the cnrrent phrase of the Old Testament for real piety 
 — naturally so under a dispensation of " law as a schoolmaster." 
 In this passage, the Hebrew verb which means, primarily, to fear^ 
 is followed by a preposition, meaning toicard or iinto^ showing that 
 this fear does not repel away from God, but rather draws toward 
 liim. The precise sense seems to be — to draw near to God in rev- 
 erential fear and trust. This view is confirmed by the addition of 
 
 the word goodness^ which cannot be a thing for Christians to fcar^ 
 in the usual sense of this word. On the contrary, it draws them 
 
 very near to his feet in the spirit of filial confidence and hope. 
 
 In this spirit the children of Israel shall seek and approach the Lord 
 " in the latter days." The time here designated can be no other 
 in this case than the Gospel age. The phrase, " latter days," almost 
 
 invariably has this sense. The phrase, " the children of Israel," 
 
 can have no special reference here to the ten tribes, but rather 
 comprises all the Ilebrew people, without distinction between Israel 
 and Judah. — The ultimate conversion of the Jews is, therefore, 
 distinctly foretold in this passage. It must come to pass in the 
 latter days. It has not been yet, and therefore waits its fulfilment 
 in the future. 
 
 It may be asked — "Why interpret chapter iii. throughout, of the 
 lineal Hebrew race, and not chapter i. likewise ? 
 
 Ans. (1.) Chapter iii. bears this interpretation — has received, 
 and is yet receiving a most striking fulfilment on this principle. 
 Not this, but its opposite, is tnie of chapter i. It cannot be inter- 
 preted throughout of the lineal children of Israel. The facts of 
 history forbid it. 
 
 (2.) Chapter iii. demands this construction. The entire scope 
 of the chapter, so far as it is prediction, gives us precisely the 
 anomalous condition of the Hebrew race, from the fall of Jerusa- 
 lem down to their ultimate conversion; nothing more, nothing 
 
 else. On the ccfntrary, in chapter i. there is no close connection 
 
 of thought, holding the interpreter to the people of the ten tribes, 
 or even to the lineal Hebrews. The last two verses may be applied 
 without violence to a new and other Israel. 
 
 (3.) In general, the construction given" to chapter i. i 10, 11 is 
 justified, on its own proper grounds, to be determined in view of 
 what it is, and of its relations to history and to the doctrine of the 
 New Testament. So of the construction given above to chapter iii. 
 
 It must be interpreted in view of what it is. Such I hold to be 
 
 the true theory of interpreting all prophecy. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. IV. 19 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 The Lord sets forth the great sin of the people ; charges it 
 largely to the account of the priests, whose flagrant neglects of duty- 
 he exposes and denounces, vs. 1-11 ; show* that idolatry is fol- 
 ly, V. 12, and begets hcentiousness, vs. 13, 14. He solemnly warns 
 Judah to avoid the sin and doom of Ephraira, vs. 15-19. 
 
 1. Hear the word of tlie Loed, ye children of Is- 
 rael : for the Loed hath a controversy with the inhabi- 
 tants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, 
 nor knowledge of God in the land. 
 
 The word rendered "controversy " often means an occasion for 
 civil process in law — a case of crime so aggravated that it should 
 
 come before the judges. The word which, applied to God, is so 
 
 well rendered mercy, might better, when applied to man, be ren- 
 dered kindness, inasmuch as real mercy — the richest favors shown 
 to the utterly vile and guilty — though found abundantly in God, 
 can scarcely be predicated at all of men. Hence, kindness is, in 
 
 this passage, the better rendering. The Lord can have no peace 
 
 with any people who misuse and abuse one another — truthless, un- 
 kind, and discarding the knowledge and claims of their God. 
 
 2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, 
 and committing adultery, they break out, and blood 
 toucheth blood. 
 
 The Hebrew of this verse is a model of brevity and force — its 
 
 infinitives absolute, standing naked, and as compact as possible. 
 
 " Swearing, lying, murdering, stealing, committing adultery "—they 
 are outbreaking in all. Scorning restraint, they break over all 
 
 bounds. "Blood toucheth blood " in the strong sense that the 
 
 streams from the first murdered man meet and mingle with the 
 streams from the second, and scarcely can there be found a spot 
 clean of the gore of mm'der. 
 
 3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one 
 that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of 
 the field, and with the fowls of heaven ; yea, the fishes 
 of the sea also shall be taken away. 
 
 Under such wickedness the whole land suffers ; society is para- 
 lyzed ; even beasts, fowls, and fishes sympathize and suffer under 
 the general affliction. 
 
 4. Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another; for 
 thy people a/re as they that strive with the priest. 
 
20 HOSEA.— CUAP. IV. 
 
 "Worst of all is the hopeless moral infatuation of the people. It 
 is all in vain for one man to reprove another for sin. The people 
 are like him Tvho resists the judicial decisions given by the priest 
 acting as judge, under God. Of him the law of Moses said (Dent. 
 17 : 12), " The man that will do presumptuously, and will not 
 hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the 
 Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die, and thou 
 
 shalt put away the e\il from Israel." This sin is referred to as 
 
 the height of defiant hardihood against God. Such were the peo- 
 ple of Israel at this time. 
 
 6. Therefore, shalt thou fall in tlie day, and the 
 prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will 
 destroy thy mother. 
 
 This abrupt change of person to direct address is for the sake 
 of greater force. "Thou" — the people — "shalt ftiU," by awful 
 
 judgments from God. "The prophet" here is the false prophet 
 
 who had misguided and deluded the people, and must perish with 
 
 them. No special stress should be given to his tailing by night, 
 
 and the people by day. Judgments fall thick ; life is no longer sa- 
 cred ; men are dying day and night. " Thy mother " is either 
 
 the capital, the mother city, or the state, involving the nationality ; 
 probably, in this case, the latter. The nation was, in fact, utterly 
 
 destroyed very soon. The Hebrew word " destroy " carries here 
 
 the strong idea — brought to perpetual silence. 
 
 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge : be- 
 cause thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, 
 that thou shalt be no priest to me : seeing thou hast for- 
 gotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 
 
 From this doom the knowledge of God, exerting its legitimate 
 influence, would have saved them — a glorious but just testimony to 
 the value of this knowledge in sustaining the vital life of society. 
 
 Again the prophet accosts the priests directly, as if they stood 
 
 in his eye, and fearlessly says, " Thou art the man ! " " Because thou 
 hast rejected knowledge, I have rejected thee from being a priest for- 
 me ; thou hast forgotten the law of thy God ; I, even I, will forget 
 
 thy children." God's forgetting theii* children means more than 
 
 it expresses. For God to forget to protect and bless is to give up 
 to unmingled curses. The turn given in this language is fearfully 
 significant of retribution. The Hebrew makes God's agency em- 
 phatic : " I, yea, /, will forget thy children." 
 
 1, As they were increased, so they sinned against 
 me : therefore will I change their glory into shame. 
 
 " They " refers to the priests. The " increase " might be either 
 in numbers or in wealth and honor ; probably not either alone, but 
 all. The more they prospered, by so much the more they sinned 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. IV. 21 
 
 against God. Hence he wonld convert their glory into disgrace. 
 The desolations of war and captivity soon fulfilled this threatening. 
 
 8. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set 
 their heart on their iniqnity. 
 
 By "sin," in this passage, some suppose the sin-offerings of the 
 Mosaic law to be meant, and eating them to he the sin committed 
 
 hy the sons of Eh. See 1 Sam. 2 : 12-17. The usual sense of 
 
 the word is, however, preferable, and is fully sustained by the 
 parallel clause, which is, literally, " They lift up their soul to their 
 iniquity ; " i. e., they are interested and pleasurably excited by the 
 sins of the people. They eat them, .in the sense of enjoying them 
 
 as hungry men enjoy a feast. How horribly corrupt these 
 
 priests must have been ! So far gone in sin that they loved to have 
 
 all the people sin! The Hebrew verbs rendered ^'■eat iip^'' and 
 
 " set " are future, implying not only that they have done, but will 
 yet do this ; are committed, past reclaim, to these sins. 
 
 9. And there shall he, like people, like priest ; and 
 I will punish them for their ways, and reward them 
 their doings. 
 
 No wonder God has judgments in store for them, from which 
 
 their superior dignity and rank. shall by no means shield them. 
 
 Such is the import of this verse. As the people were doomed to 
 desolating judgments, so also are the priests. Their ofifice shall not 
 conduct the lightnings of Jehovah's wrath aicay from their heads, 
 but rather down upon them. 
 
 10. For they shall eat, and not have enough : they 
 shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase : because 
 they have left off to take heed to the Loed. 
 
 Resuming from v. S their eating the sins of the people, God 
 now declares — They shall eat, but shall get no good of it ; this 
 being the sense of the words rendered "not have enough; " liter- 
 ally, " shall not be satisfied." 
 
 Adulterous life gives no increase of family — the natural conse- 
 quences being the opposite of this. Barrenness was accounted one 
 
 of the greatest calamities. These sins are due to the fact that 
 
 they have ceased to honor and fear Jehovah. 
 
 11. "Whoredom and wine and new wine take away 
 the heart. 
 
 This verse is a grand moral adage — an axiom in the philosophy 
 
 of Imman life. The "7iearif,"in Hebrew usage, is sometimes 
 
 wise and understanding, in reference to the intellectual faculties, 
 and sometimes includes the moral purposes of the soul, as when 
 
 God is said to bo served with the whole heart. " Taking away 
 
 the heart," therefore, is robbing a man of his good sense, his moral 
 stamina — of all that makes his manhood of any account. After 
 
22 HOSEA.— CHAP. ly. 
 
 whoredom and v/ine have done their work upon him, he is practi- 
 cally more brutish than rational and human. Hosea has a similar 
 use of the word "heart" (7 : 11): "Ephraim is like a silly dovo 
 without heart " — ^lacking even natural sagacity to avoid the snare. 
 
 12. Mj people ask counsel at their stocks, and their 
 staif declareth unto them : for the spirit of whoredoms 
 hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring 
 from under their God. 
 
 As if to prove how utterly whoredom and wine have robbed 
 the people of their good sense, the Lord adduces their confidence 
 in idol gods. " My people " — who ought to ask counsel of me — 
 "ask counsel of their sticks of wood" — a justly contemptuous 
 name for a wooden god; " and their staff" — a divining rod, makes 
 
 revelations to them as an oracle. This divining rod has been 
 
 common among the miserable superstitions of heathenism, and is 
 
 not unknown in nominally Christian lands. "Whoredom" in 
 
 this connection seems to be literal, sensual ; not the spiritual whore- 
 dom of idolatry. The essential spirit of licentiousness has plunged 
 them into error and folly, so that, from " being under their God," 
 in a state of liumble dependence and moral purity, they have gone 
 utterly into this most imbruting sin. Idol worship in all ages and 
 countries has been intensely licentious, mixed up with abominations 
 too foul to be named. 
 
 13. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, 
 and burn iiicense upon the hills, under oaks and pop- 
 lars and elms, because the shadow thereof i^ good: 
 therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and 
 your spouses shall commit adultery. 
 
 High places and groves of great natural beauty and sublimity 
 have always been favorite localities for idol worship — as said here 
 — " because the shadow thereof is good " — pleasant and attractive, 
 it being the policy of Satan always to cluster around his worship 
 
 all possible sensuous attractions. Therefore the daughters and 
 
 wives of the Hebrew idolaters became licentious and corrupt. This 
 is only the natural consequence of such idolatry, practised amid 
 such temptations to lewdness. 
 
 14. I will not punish your daughters when they 
 commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit 
 adultery : for themselves are separated with whores, and 
 they sacrifice with harlots : therefore the people that 
 doth not understand shall fall. 
 
 Some prefer to read interrogatively — " Shall I not punish," &c. ? 
 But the usual sense of the Hebrew words is simply declarative — 
 "I will not." The sense seems to be — I will not punish your 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. IV. 23 
 
 daughters and wives for sins for which you are mainly responsible. 
 So long as you lead them into such scenes of temptation, and alluro 
 them on by your own. example, upon yourselves and not upon them 
 
 shall fall my heaviest judgments. " Themselves are separated," 
 
 &c., refers not to the daughters and wives, but to the fathers and 
 husbands. The change of person is peculiar, but not uncommon 
 in Hosea. The prophet is showing why the fathers and not their 
 daughters, the husbands and not their wives, should be specially 
 punished. They seek retired places with vile women; they offer 
 idolatrous sacrifices with harlots — a class of women, as the Hebrew 
 
 shows, consecrated to pollution in the idol temples. Therefore 
 
 this people, so utterly void of understanding, moral sense, and 
 reason, shall fall, i. e., into ruin. 
 
 15. Though tliou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not 
 Juclah offend ; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go' 
 ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The Loed liveth. 
 
 Thus far in this chapter the sins of Israel, the ten tribes, have 
 been portrayed. Here the prophet turns to admonish Judali to 
 
 shun such crime and its consequent ruin. Gilgal was one of the 
 
 centres of idol worship, as was also Beth-aven, house of vanity, 
 which was probably the place long known as Bethel — ^liouse of 
 God. The change of name represents the change from the wor- 
 ship of Jehovah to the worship of mere nothings, vanities. Both 
 
 Gilgal and Bethel had been associated with the true worship of 
 God ; Gilgal ever since the rolling up of the heap of stones there 
 on entering Canaan, and the circumcision of all the people there 
 (Josh. 4 : 20 and 5 : 9), and Samuel's holding his circuit court there 
 (1 Sam. Y : 16) ; and Bethel, from that eventful night when the Lord 
 met the youthful Jacob there (Gen. 28 : 16-19). This appropria- 
 tion of God's house (Bethel) to the devil's worship is one of his 
 
 own Satanic arts, kept up through all time. " Nor swear," in 
 
 the profane way of idol worshippers, " The Lord liveth." It seems 
 to have been common to blend with idolatry some of the forms of 
 recognizing the true God. This he abhorred. 
 
 16. For Israel slideth baclc as a backsliding heifer : 
 now the Loed will feed them as a lamb in a large place. 
 
 " Sliding back " is not strong enough to represent the original 
 word. The figure supposes a young heifer under the yoke (for the 
 female was put to real work in the East), but resisting, refractory, 
 yerking her head away, and running back — a very different sort of 
 action from that gradual down-hill sliding which is commonly asso- 
 ciated with the English word, backslide. It is unfortunate that the 
 word backslide, taken from the Bible to describe a state of Chris- 
 tian experience, should by usage fall so far short of the Bible sense. 
 It means here that Israel is persistent, stubborn, half frantic in her 
 rebellion against God — a state of heart and life utterly for from true 
 piety. Now, i. e.^ very soon, the Lord will give Israel a vast 
 
24: nOSEA.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 rangG of wilderness for her wanderings — will cast her forth from 
 her land as a lamb might he cast forth from his secure and peaceful 
 fold, to roam at large, homeless and unprotected. The passage pre- 
 dicts the captivity of the ten tribes to Assyria, but keeps np the 
 figure of the refractory heifer, only changing from the heifer to the 
 lamb as being more defenceless, and more wretched when lost and 
 wandering alone. The heifer tears herself away ; God lets her go, 
 a wandering lamb, into a hopeless captivity. 
 
 IT. Ephraim is joined to idols : let Mm alone. 
 
 The Hebrew word for idols implies things made with the toil- 
 some but fruitless labor of human hands. ^Ephraim is joined 
 
 to them in the strong sense of being closely united and adJierinff, 
 
 so to speak, to those senseless things. " Let him alone," cannot, 
 
 in this connection, be the declaration of God's purpose to abandon 
 Ephraim and withdraw his Spirit, as has been supposed by some ; 
 but is God's command to Judah to desist from all society with 
 Ephraim and leave him to sin and suffer alone. The general course 
 of thought in the context, as well as the phrase itself, requu*e the 
 
 latter construction. Here, for the first time in Hosea, we have 
 
 the word " Ephraim " used for the kingdom and people of the ten 
 tribes — a usage due to the great preponderance of this tribe in 
 population and also in dignity as having the capital, Samaria, and 
 as having furnished the first king, Jeroboam. 
 
 18. Their drink is sour : they have committed whore- 
 dom eontimiallj : her rulers with shame do love, Give 
 
 ye. 
 
 " Drink," here, is not common drink, is certainly not cold wa- 
 ter. The original is always strong, intoxicating drinJc, or the drink- 
 ing itself— the carousals. The verb* which our translators have 
 rendered " is sow,''^ is used very frequently in the general sense of 
 passing away, departing; and also in the special sense of departing 
 from God, apostatizing, becoming degenerate. These two senses 
 indicate the two constructions between which our choice is to bo 
 made. * The general sense is heixi the more probable, as when A gag, 
 using the same word (1 Sam. 15 : 32), said, " The bitterness of death 
 is pasty IIenc<3 I translate closely thus: "Their carousals are 
 over; they plunge into lewdness; their shields (rulers) love shame." 
 The better to bring out the sense, I paraphrase the verse thus : 
 " When their carousals are past, their passions are sharpened for 
 baser whoredom : their rulers, who ought to be their shields and 
 safeguards against such baseness, are themselves so corrupt as to 
 love what is only their shame." 
 
 The second construction is v/orthy of being suggested. Ey it, 
 the first verb, rendered " is sour,''"' has the sense of becoming apos- 
 tate, thus : " He (Ephraim) becomes the more apostate from God 
 through strong drink ; so they plunge the deeper into whoredom," 
 
HOSEA.— CHAR lY. 25 
 
 &c. In tills construction this verb looks toward its cognate * in 
 V. 16: TVicr^? Israel is refractory, like an unbroken lieifer ; Jiereha 
 ' becomes the more refractory as to God through strong drink. This 
 verb unquestionably bears the sense of departing from God, becom- 
 ing apostate and refractory, as may be seen in Deut. 11:16: "Ye 
 tur?i aside and serve other gods." Ps. 14 : 3 : " They are all gone 
 aside; they are altogether become filthy," &c. But especially 
 Jer. 5 : 23, where those two cognate verbs are brouglit together as 
 l)arallel : " This people hath a revolting \ and a rebellious heart ; 
 tliey are revolted % and gone." This passage entirely confirms the 
 close cognate relationship between these two verbs — that in v. 16, 
 
 and this in 18. The rendering of the verb with its noun in the 
 
 first clause is more easy on the first construction above given, else 
 the second of the two would be preferable. The ultimate sense is 
 essentially the same, testifying to the fearfully demoralizing influ- 
 ence of strong drink toward lewdness in the orgies of idolatry. 
 
 The second verb in this verse, expressing the practice of lewd- 
 ness, is made intensive by the usual repetition of the finite verb by 
 means of the infinitive. The reader will notice tliat my transla- 
 tion of the last clause differs from that of our English Bible in two 
 respects, making "shame" the object of the verb, and entirely 
 omitting the words " Give ye.'''' This last cliange follows the best 
 critical authorities as to the original text. These omit this word 
 rendered " Give ye " as spurious, or, as some conjecture, attach it 
 to the previous verb, and tlius reduplicate its two last radicals. The 
 very apposite sense thus obtained in the place of one very obscure 
 and inept, justifies this choice between the authorities for the orig- 
 inal text. 
 
 19. The wind liatli bound her np in her wings, and 
 they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. 
 
 The whirlwind affords a common figure for those providential 
 agencies with which God overwhelms and sweeps away the wicked. 
 
 See Ps. 58 : 9 ; Prov. 1 : 27 ; Isa. 40 : 24, and 66 : 15, &c. Here a 
 
 bold poetic imagination gives to the whirlwind real life, and wings 
 in which the guilty nation is enfolded, to be borne away to its final 
 doom — captivity. Zechariah (5 : 5-11) has the same figure in a 
 
 slightly different dress. " They shall be confounded because of 
 
 their sacrifices " to idol gods which cannot save. Their objects of 
 confidence shall utterly fail them ; the idols in which they trusted 
 
 shall prove their curse. So evermore must all the hopes- of tlio 
 
 wicked perish ! That on which they rely for help shall become the 
 millstone to sink them — the fire to scorch and blast them, for ever 
 and ever ! 
 
26 HOSEA.— CHAP. V. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In general, the course of thought is the same in this chapter as 
 in the fourth ; rebukes for sin, threatening of near judgments, in 
 which God's own hand should be specially manifest. Judah is 
 spoken of more fi-equently than in chapter iv., and hence, Judah 
 being less hardened than Ephraim, the strain of remark gives more 
 intimations of hopeful repentance. 
 
 1. Hear ye this, O priests ; and hearken, ye house 
 of Israel ; and give ye ear, O house of the king ; for 
 judgment is toward yon, because ye have been a snare 
 on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 
 
 The priests and the king are specially called to attend to this 
 message, because the threatened judgments were to fall first and 
 most heavily on them. The word "judgment " in the original has 
 the article, and should have in English — "for the judgment" — the 
 one predicted and near impending — " is specially destined for ^/om." 
 The reason given is, they have ensnared the people into sin — "have 
 been a snare," such as is laid to catch birds, " on Mizpah," &c. 
 Mizpah and Tabor were "high places," locations for idol worship; 
 the former east of Jordan, the latter west. 
 
 2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, 
 though I have teen a rebuker of them all. 
 
 The verb rendered "to make slaughter" is most commonly used 
 for the slaughter of animals — rarely for the slaying of men ; and 
 in reference to animals, more often for purposes of sacrifice, less 
 often for food. Here we may best take the most common sense. 
 
 The word rendered " revolters," is used both in the concrete, 
 
 meaning revolters, and in the abstract, revolting, departure from 
 right, sin. The latter sense seems preferable here. I paraphrase 
 thus: "They," the priests and the king, "make their sins deep, 
 even in their slaying of animals for sacrifice ; " they deviate widely 
 from righteousness and from God, even in their religious ceremo- 
 nies. " But I will chastise them all." The sense given in the 
 
 English version may be the true one : the one given here seems 
 the more probable as being more in harmony with the course of 
 thought, and equally in harmony with the usual sense of the words. 
 The Lord assures them that their sacrifice of animals after the law 
 of Moses, whether mixed up with idol worship and all manner of 
 wickedness, or standing by itself, yet used as a cloak for their sin, 
 would avail them nothing. They might go deep into it ; it could 
 be accounted only as so much the greater sin, and could by no 
 means screen them from the judgments of God. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. V. 2Y 
 
 3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me : 
 for now, O Epliraim, thou committest whoredom, and 
 Israel is defiled. 
 
 The special pertinence of tlie declaration " I know Epliraim," 
 &c., comes from tlie thought in the verse preceding — the attempt 
 to cover up idol worship and all wickedness, with the established 
 religious rites of the Mosaic system. What if they do put on the 
 fairest semblance of true worship, slaughtering animals by the 
 thousand — " I know them ; " I see through their hearts ; Ephraim 
 is full of whoredom (idolatry). True it is that men only in- 
 sult God the more when they assume that they can cover up sin by 
 the forms of religion. To assume that God cannot see through this 
 covering, is an insult to his omniscience ; to assume that he can 
 ever accept such hypocrisy, is an insult to his hohness. 
 
 4. They will not frame their doings to turn unto 
 their God : for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst 
 of them, and they have not known the Loed. 
 
 A great moral truth lies here — that when men have given them- 
 selves up heartily to sin and the spirit of sinning rules, and they 
 do not care to know God, then they will not make any honest ef- 
 forts to turn to God; they Avill not shape their external doings so 
 as to facilitate the turning of their hearts from sin to lioliness. The 
 reason why they will not is given here — the spirit of sinning is in 
 them as the ruling power of their heart and life. They have not 
 known the Lord, and do not intend to think or to learn of him. 
 
 5. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face : 
 therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity ; 
 Judah also shall fall with them. 
 
 The pride of Israel is a true witness against him to the point 
 here charged ; for pride seals the evidence that the heart is hard- 
 ened and perverse. "When a sinner is proud in his sin and of his 
 sin, he gives the strongest evidence of being fully committed and 
 awfully hardened. Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall un- 
 der the judgments of God. Judah comes in here, and hencefor- 
 
 M^ard through the chapter, as having shared in the guilt of Ephraim, 
 and consequently as bound to share her doom. 
 
 6. They shall go with their flocks and with their 
 herds to seek the Lord ; but they shall not find Mm ; 
 he hath withdrawn himself from them. 
 
 In the day of their calamity they may summon to their help the 
 most costly forms and services of religious worship, but all in vain. 
 There comes a time when it is too late to cry even for mercy. The 
 Scriptures repeatedly affirm this awful truth, as e. g. Prov. 1 : 24- 
 31. "When mercy has been abused too long, and patience in God 
 
28 nOSEA.— CHAP. V. 
 
 ceases to be a virtue, then retribution must take its course — else 
 law were a farce, and the throne of justice would sink into con- 
 tempt. 
 
 7. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord : 
 for they have begotten strange children : now shall a 
 month devour them T\dth their portions. 
 
 The charge of treachery looks to their violation of their cove- 
 nant vows to be the Lord's. One proof of this perfidy was that 
 they had begotten children of foreign mothers, by intermarriage or 
 by adulterous connection with the heathen round about tliem. 
 
 This, God had most explicitly forbidden, Ex. 84 : 16. The time 
 
 of their destruction hastens on ; within one month they shall per- 
 ish "with their portions" — their idol gods whom they had chosen 
 as their helpers and refuge. 
 
 8. Blow ye the cornet in Giheah, a7id the trumpet 
 in Ramah : cry aloud at Beth-aven ; after thee, O Ben- 
 jamin. - 
 
 The enemy are near-; let the war-cry ring out the alarm on the 
 very hill-tops where the idol temples stand. " Cry aloud at Beth- 
 aven " — that place once sacred as Bethel, the house of God ; now 
 desecrated by idol-worsliip into Beth-aven — ^housc of vanity — noth- 
 ings. " After thee, O Benjamin," it seems most natural to take 
 
 as the very words of the outcry. " The foe is after thee," or be- 
 hind thee, close upon thee. 
 
 9. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke : 
 among the tribes of Israel have I made known that 
 which shall surely be. 
 
 The judgment on Ephraim should be sweeping and extermina- 
 ting, putting an end to her nationality, and leaving her desecrated 
 
 land a desolation. "Rebuke" here refers to deeds, not words; 
 
 to the judgments of war, subjugation, captivity. Tlie last clause 
 
 refers to the warnings God had given to the people of tlie ten tribes 
 by the mouth of Hosea and other prophets. What they had said 
 from the Lord was wholly true, and should surely come to pass. 
 
 10. The princes of Judah were like them that re- 
 move the bound: tJierefore 1 y^ pour out my wrath 
 upon them like water. 
 
 The " bound " referred to is the landmarlc by which contiguous 
 estates were defined. In the absence of fences these " bounds " 
 were relied on in practice. The sin of removing them is the 
 greater because so easily done and so difiicult of detection. The 
 Mosaic law severely denounced this sin. (Sec Deut. 19 : 14 and 
 27 : IT.) It became a proverb to signify a man of no conscience 
 and no honor. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. V. 29 
 
 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment 
 because lie willingly walked after tlie commandment. 
 
 Ephraim is crushed utterly under tlie divine judgments because 
 he heartily consented to walk after the commandment of Jeroboam, 
 son of Nebat, who bade the people worship the golden calves at 
 Bethel and at Dan. (1 Kings 12 : 28-33.) This is the command- 
 ment referred to as the first fatal step — the occasion of the sad re- 
 lapse which was so soon io end in the utter ruin of the people and 
 the kingdom. 
 
 12. Therefore will I le unto Epbraim as a moth, 
 and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 
 
 This strong language implies sapping the nation's vitality and 
 leaving it utterly powerless. 
 
 13. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw 
 his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and 
 sent to king Jareb : yet could he not heal you, nor cure 
 you of your wound. 
 
 This " sickness " and " wound " are of the body politic. The 
 sense is that each kingdom, conscious of its weakness and danger, 
 
 sent to the Assyrian power for help, but to no good purpose. 
 
 Before the Avord "sent," Judah should be supplied. Ephraim 
 went to the Assyrian king,, and Judah sent, &c. The history takes 
 note of both these facts. Ephraim (2 Kings 15 : 19, 20), threat- 
 ened by Pul, king of Assyria, " gave him a thousand talents of sil- 
 ver, tliat his hand might bo with him to confirm the kingdom in his 
 hand." Judah (2 Kings 16:7), threatened by Kezin of Syria, sent 
 to Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria for help. In neither case was this 
 
 call for help of any avail. " Jareb " is not the proper name of 
 
 any king, but is a verb, meaning one who should interpose, or, in 
 modern phrase, intervene. This was precisely what Ahaz king of 
 Judah sought of the Assyrian king, that he should intervene and 
 help himself against Kezin of Syria. 
 
 14. For I will he unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a 
 young lion to the house of Judah : I, even I, will tear 
 and go away ; I will take away, and none shall rescue 
 Mm. 
 
 The connection of thought is — ITo good can come of Assyrian 
 help, ''^for I will be unto Ephraim as a lion," &c., — the hon being a 
 symbol of ])Ower that turns not from its purpose for any. Com- 
 pare Ps. 50 : 22 : " Consider this, ye tliat forget God, lest I tear 
 you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." The symbol should 
 not be forced so as to carry over to the Almighty all the qualities 
 of the lion — not his ferocity, not his heartless cruelty, but only his 
 great power which none can evade, none escape, none withstand. 
 
30 HOSEA.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 The manner of the lion is carried out here to a remarkable ex- 
 tent. He tears his prey in pieces ; goes away ; comes again ; then 
 takes some of it with him to his place, and none can rescue from 
 
 his grasp. There were points analogous to this in the ways of 
 
 God toward Ephraim and Judah, as the prophet proceeds to show. 
 
 15. I will go and return to my place, till they ac- 
 knowledge tlieir offence, and seek my face : in tlieir af- 
 fliction they will seek me early. 
 
 Especially in this respect would the Lord he as a lion to those 
 kingdoms. He would send one fearful scourge ; then retire as it 
 were to his place to watch and wait for the moral result. For 
 God's purpose in sending these afflictions was never vindictive, was 
 never merely to destroy, hut only to constrain them to seek his 
 face in repentance. The verb rendered " acknowledge their of- 
 fence " means primarOy to he guilty ; then to bear one's guilt in 
 the sense of suffering punishment or chastisement for it. The lat- 
 ter seems clearly to be the sense here. There is no decisive usage 
 
 to sustain tlie interpretation — " acknowledge one's offence." The 
 
 Lord, having sorely chastised them, would wait till they had borne 
 the infliction, and had been brought by it to seek his face. He is 
 sure that in their affliction they will seek him early, or earnestly, 
 as one who is up betimes in the morning to a work lying near his 
 
 heart. So the original implies. Here the chapter closes, but the 
 
 course of thought passes over to the next unbroken. 
 
 OHAPTEE YI. 
 
 In this chapter wo have calls to repentance, assurances of God's 
 great mercy, but this mercy is grieved by the fickleness of God's 
 degenerate people. It closes with continued details of aggravated 
 wickedness. 
 
 1. Come, and let ns return unto the Loed : for lie 
 hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he 
 will bind us up. 
 
 "With unsurpassed beauty and force, the Lord himself gives his 
 people the very words with which they may exhort each other to 
 return to him. The marvel is that in the figure the Lord is no 
 more the lion, but an angel of mercy, coming down to bind up the 
 wounds himself has made ! And it is he himself that declares 
 this — testimony, therefore, that could not be better. Indeed, we 
 could not reasonably accept any other. For who else could know, 
 or who else could make us believe, that the same God who hath 
 torn will also heal — the same who hath smitten will also bind up ? 
 Such are the wondrous things of God's mercy. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. VI. 31 
 
 2. After two days will lie revive us : in tlie third 
 day lie will raise ns up, and we shall live in his sight. 
 
 The general sense is clear. God will soon revive us if cliastise- 
 raent has wrought its proper fruits. Various conjectures have 
 been made to answer the question, Why does he say so definitely, 
 
 "After two days," "on the third day?" Some have found 
 
 here, as they suppose, an allusion to the resurrection of Christ. 
 But this passage has the air of historic aUusion and not of proph- 
 ecy ; and historic allusions look to the past, and not to the future. 
 The manner of this passage is not that of prophecy, foretelling some 
 future event to occur after two days or on the third, but it is rather 
 that of a statement shaped by the thought, then present to the 
 mind, of some analogous event in past, • well-known history. Such 
 an event I find substantially in the case of the pestilence sent on 
 Israel for David's sin of numbering the people. (See 2 Sam. 24.) 
 When for this sin three forms of judgment were proposed to David 
 for his choice, he chose the pestilence, as coming more directly from 
 the hand of God, saying, "Let us fall now into the hand of the 
 Lord, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand 
 of man." This pestilence continued three days, no more. The 
 Lord became a lion to tear, so long ; — then turned to revive and 
 restore. This case, supposed to have been before the mind of Ho- 
 sea, would fitly account for his naming two and three days. Hosea 
 abounds, beyond most of the sacred writers, in historic allusions. 
 
 A case much less closely parallel may be seen in the plague of 
 
 darkness on Egypt of three days. And there may be a tacit allusion 
 to the fact that three days is about the extent of human endurance 
 under extreme privations and hardships, as e. g. the case of the 
 Egyptian found by David's men. (1 Sam. 30 : 11, 12.) The senti- 
 ment would then be that God is wont to arrest his judgments before 
 human endurance is quite exhausted. 
 
 3. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know 
 the LoED : his going forth is prepared as the morning ; 
 and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and 
 former rain unto the earth. 
 
 Our translators apprise us that they found no word in the orig- 
 inal for "*y." It is more true to the original and equally pertinent 
 sense to read It, " Then let us know, let us follow on to know the 
 Lord," &c., i. e. encouraged by these demonstrations of his mercy, 
 let us seek to know, yea let us follow on earnestly to know the 
 
 Lord. "His going forth," in this connection, is not his going 
 
 in general, but his. going forth in the revelations of his great mercy 
 — his outgoing, as the sun comes to light after the darkness of 
 storm or of night — the original word being currently used for the 
 rising of the sun. David uses it in his exquisite nineteenth psalm. 
 Baying of the sun, " His going forth is from one end of the heav- 
 ens and his circuit to the other end thereof." So ' ~ 
 
32 HOSEA.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 forth in tlie displays of his mercy "is prepared as the morning,'^ 
 equally sure in its place, and nothing in nature more fitly repre- 
 sents the revelations of his mercy as they rise on benighted souls. 
 
 The next figure also is rich in beauty and in blessings, "He 
 
 shall come unto us," corresponding in sense to his "going forth,'' 
 "as the great rain " (often called the " former .rain "), "and as the 
 latter rain that water the earth." This is a precise translation of 
 
 the original. The former rain, succeeding a long dry season, 
 
 falling from the middle of October to the middle of December, 
 prepared the ground for seed-sowing, and if abundant, gave assur- 
 ance of harvests. The latter rain fell in March and April, ma- 
 turing the crops, and continuing in some seasons quite to their 
 early harvest, from which fact it takes its Hebrew name. 
 
 Those who have " tasted- that the Lord is gracious " will appre- 
 ciate the fitness and force of these illustrations, and will not wonder 
 that the most beautiful and beneficent things in nature are clustered 
 together to set forth the munificent loving-kindness of the Lord. 
 
 4. O Ej)liraim, what sliall I do unto tliee ? O Ju- 
 dah, wliat shall I do unto thee ? for youi' goodness is as 
 a morning cloud, and as the earlj dew it goeth away. 
 
 Alas! that there should ever be occasion to turn so abruptly from 
 the glory of God's mercy to the meanness of man's sin ! — from the 
 enduring love and the well-ordered going forth of Lis light and sal- 
 vation, to the fickleness of man's best resolutions, and to the incon- 
 stancy of his most hopeful professions! The antithesis between 
 
 this verse and the preceding one should be noted. The morning 
 light, gloriously outbreaking from the east, is God's love shining out 
 on the darkness of the sin-stricken soul. The morning cloud and 
 the early dew, hopeful and sweet for a moment, but soon gone up 
 as if they had never been, are the goodness of God's inconstant 
 people. We cannot wonder that the Lord should exclaim: "O 
 Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? " By what new and untried 
 appliances shall I bring stability out of fickleness, and make your 
 wavering steps steadfast ? 
 
 5. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets ; I 
 have slain them by the words of my mouth : and thy 
 judgments are as the light that goeth forth. 
 
 As to the figures in this verse — "hewing them by the 
 prophets," "slaying them by the words of my mouth" — we may 
 fitly remember that Solomon says: "The words of the wise are as 
 goads and as nails" (Eccl. 12: 11), and Paul (Ileb. 4:12) speaks 
 of " the word of God as sharper than any two-edged sword, pierc- 
 ing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," and also (Eph. 
 G : 17) of " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 
 The Lord signifies here that he has used sharp and cutting words in 
 his messages to the people — has, in fact, exhausted the power of 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. vi. 33 
 
 earnest language to pierce the hard shell of their heart and reach 
 
 live flesh. " Thj judgments are as the hght" — clear, impressive, 
 
 awe-inspiring as the liglitnings of heaven — for so the word may 
 signify. The instances of this usage are comparatively rare, how- 
 ever, and the common sense, light, is pertinent and forcible. God 
 had made his displeasure toward their sins clear as the light. 
 
 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice ; and tlie 
 knowledge of God more tlian bmmt-offerings. 
 
 "Mercy" here represents the whole circle of moral duties tow- 
 ard man, as in the next clause, " the knowledge of God " stands 
 for that which is practical, not 'theoretical only, and comprises all 
 
 right affections toward God. The people had shown themselves 
 
 far more ready to offer sacrifices than to do right toward either 
 God or man. The Lord, on the contrary, held sacrifices in low es- 
 teem, but held in the highest esteem mercy toward man and the 
 intelligent worship and homage of the heart toward God. 
 
 See a similar doctrine taught in the Old Testament, Ps. 40 : 7-9 
 and 50 : 8-23 ; Isa. 1 : 11-17, and Micah 6 : 6-8. 
 
 Our divine Teacher on two several occasions endorsed the sen- 
 timent of this verse most emphatically. Matt. 9:13, and 12:7; 
 " Go ye and learn what that meaneth ; I will have mercy, and not 
 sacrifice " — said, in this case, to show why he ate with publicans 
 
 and sinners — viz., to save their souls. "But if ye had known 
 
 what this meaneth — 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,' ye 
 would not have condemned the guiltless ; " said in rebuke of the 
 
 Pharisees for their judgments in regard to keeping the Sabbath. 
 
 This form of statement should not be pressed to mean that God 
 had never required sacrifice and burnt-offerings ; this would not be 
 true. 
 
 This doctrine needs often to be revived and reiterated, so prone 
 are men to put the forms and ceremonies of religion in the place 
 of real kindness and justice toward man, and honest heart-worship 
 oi God. American slaveholding Christianity is a striking case in 
 point — an effort to oonfomi Christianity to the demands of the 
 time by framing a system of religion and morals with mercy and 
 even justice left out, aud the real knowledge of God woefully per- 
 verted. 
 
 7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant ; 
 there have they dealt treacherously against me. 
 
 The word rendered " men " is, in Hebrew, adam^ and may be 
 either a proper noun, meaning Adam, or a common noun, meaning 
 man. Hence this clause has been construed three ways : (1.) " They, 
 like common men, have transgressed the covenant " — the point being 
 that they, being priests, princes, and a people long trained of God, 
 have yet broken their covenant, as common men might do ; or, 
 (2.) "They are hke men who break covenant" — the point here 
 being that they break their covenant with God as men are wont to 
 
 0* 
 
34 • HOSEA.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 break their covenants with each other, accounting obligation to God 
 no more sacred than a man's obligation to his fellow ; or, (3.) " They, 
 like Adam, have broken covenant ; " their obligation, like his, being 
 all the more sacred by reason of their intimate and honored rela- 
 tions to the glorious God. 
 
 Of these various interpretations, none bad, the last has in its 
 favor the obvious antithesis between "they" and "Adam," which 
 stands out strongly in the original, inasmuch as the use of the per- 
 sonal pronoun in Hebrew is not common, and is, therefore, usually 
 
 somewhat emphatic where introduced as here. A parallel case 
 
 of the use of Adam as a proper and not a common noun, is found 
 Job 31:33: " If I covered my transgressions as Adam " did, etc. 
 
 " Tliere^'' in the phrase, " there have they dealt treacherously," 
 
 refers to the kingdom of the ten tribes, where the great mass had 
 proved utterly treacherous towai'd God. 
 
 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniqfiiitj, and 
 is polluted with blood. 
 
 From general charges of sin, the prophet here becomes specific. 
 
 Gilead (often called Eamoth-Gilead) was a prominent city of 
 
 refuge (see Deut. 4 : 43) on the east of Jordan. The cities of refuge 
 made special provision for the residence of the priests, who, indeed, 
 were needed there to hold civU courts and determine questions of 
 manslaughter, which naturally came to trial there. But this city 
 was full of bloody violence — as the last clause of the verse has it — 
 " tracked or footstepped with blood." Murderers left their bloody 
 
 footprints along its streets. It appears from 2 Kings, 15 : 25, 
 
 that Pekah, in conspiring against and murdering Pekahiah, had 
 with him fifty men of the Gileadites. To this fact the prophet may 
 allude. Prom such a city he might get fit materials for conspii*acy 
 and murder. 
 
 9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the 
 company of priests murder in the way by consent : for 
 they commit lewdness. 
 
 This might be closely translated thus : " As robber-gangs way- 
 lay men, so bands of priests commit murder on the way to Shechera, 
 
 for they work out deep-laid schemes of crime." Shechem (by 
 
 mistake of our translators taken as a common noun) was another 
 city of refuge, inhabited largely by priests therefore, who waylaid 
 travellers coming to the city — perhaps the implication is, such as 
 were fleeing thither for refuge — so horribly did they pervert the 
 
 functions of justice committed to their hands ! The last word 
 
 does not mean lewdness, but intentional, studied crime — all the 
 more guilty in the view both of God and man for the amount of 
 thought and deep-laid plot that entered into it. 
 
 10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of 
 
HOSE A.— CHAP. VI. 35 
 
 Israel : there is tlie whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is de- 
 filed. 
 
 It is in view of such particulars as these that the Lord now ex- 
 claims, " I have seen horrible things in the house of Israel ! " 
 
 ''Whoredom " seems here to be idolatry, the mother sin of all sins 
 in the land. 
 
 11. Also, O Judali, he hath set an harvest for thee, 
 when I returned the captivity of my people. 
 
 This verse has caused commentators much perplexity. The 
 qnestioQs have been, whether the "harvest" appointed of God for 
 Judah betokened blessings or calamities ; and, if the latter, how it 
 can correspond with bringing back their captives — a fact which 
 
 naturally and nsually indicates blessings. The first word, well 
 
 rendered " also," implies that the Lord had something for Judah 
 of the same sort which he was about to bring on Ephraim ; and 
 there can be no doubt that the strain of the previous context as- 
 sumes the near coming of fearful judgments on Ephraim. Then 
 
 further, prophetic nsage very uniformly makes the harvest a sym- 
 bol of judgments. (See Jer. 51 : 33 ; Joel S : 13 ; Eev. 14 : 15-20.) 
 These considerations go far to shoAV that the passage must predict 
 judgments on Judah — naturally, a great slaughter. It only re- 
 mains to see how this can comport with the Lord's bringing back 
 the captives of his people. The history recorded 2 Ohron. 28 : 1-15 
 solves this remarkable problem, meeting all its difficulties, and 
 readily accounting for its apparent incompatibilities. 
 
 Ahaz, king of Judah, reigned wickedly ; for which God delivered 
 him into the hand of the king of Syria, who smote him and took 
 many captives to Damascus. God also delivered him into the hand 
 of the king of Israel, who smote him with great slaughter. " For 
 Pekah slew in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one 
 day, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers." Ho 
 also took away two hundred thousand captives, women, sons, and 
 daughters, and brought them to Samaria. Here was a fearful har- 
 vest in the sense of a great slaughter. Yet, contrary to all human 
 expectation, it was closely connected with God's interposition to 
 bring back the captives of his people, for the history proceeds to 
 say that when the captives were brought into Samaria, a prophet of 
 the Lord was there by the uame of Oded, and that he went befi-re 
 the host of Israel and expostulated with them earnestly, and finally 
 persuaded them to send all the captives home. Hence, although 
 God brought back their captives, yet a harvest was set for Judah in 
 the usual sense of an immense slaughter of their people. 
 
36 nOSEA.— CHAP. VIL 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Speaking of Epliraim, tliis chapter continues to portray hig 
 treachery, blindness, intense passion in sinning, and extreme folly. 
 It should be specially noted that throughout this and the succeeding 
 chapters to the twelfth, Ephraim, the kingdom of the ten tribes, i? 
 the theme of remark, Judah being scarcely mentioned. The his 
 toric events alluded to feU within the last years of the kingdom- 
 some of them in the reign of Hoshca, its last king. 
 
 1. When I would Lave healed Israel, then the iniquity 
 of Ephraun was discovered, and the wickedness of 
 Samaria : for they commit falsehood : and the thief 
 Cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. 
 
 The time specially referred to, when the Lord sought to heal 
 Israel, and the indications were hopeful, may probably have been 
 when they sent home their Jewish captives, as in 2 Chrou. 28: 9- 
 15 — historically coincident with the events referred to in the cIosq 
 of the previous chapter^ At that time " certain of the heads of the 
 children of Ej^hraim " acknowledged the guilt of their nation, and 
 spake sensibly of " God's lierce wrath against Israel." But these 
 hopeful appearances soon passed away ; the nation proved false to 
 Jehovah and false to even common morality ; thieves break into 
 
 houses and robbers plunder abroad. So it often happens that the 
 
 deepest wickedness comes to light only under the special efforts 
 which the Lord makes to heal and restore. When wicked men 
 will not be healed, and only become the more infatuated and deter- 
 mined, and the more outbreaking in their sin for all the labor of 
 love which God bestows upon them to reclaim them, they are fast 
 verging to the brink of ruin. How painfully discouraging even to 
 inlinite patience and pity ! 
 
 Some suppose that the period specially referred to as one in 
 which the Lord would have healed Israel, was during the reign of 
 Jeroboam second. This reign was one of general prosperity. (See 2 
 Kings 14 : 23-28.) He restored the coast of Israel on the north, as 
 had been foretold by Jonah : " For the Lord saw the affliction of 
 Israel that it was most bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor 
 any left, nor any helper for Israel ; and the Lord said not that he 
 would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven ; but he 
 saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash." 
 
 Manifestly here -was one special effort to heal Israel. Hosea 
 may have thought of more than one. The Lord is wont to repeat 
 such etiorts of reclaiming mercy. 
 
 2. And they consider not in their hearts, that I 
 remember all their wickedness : now their own doings 
 have beset them about ; they r.rc before my face. 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. VII. 37 
 
 Literally — " They do not say to their heart, I remember all 
 their wickedness. Now their own doings invest them — lie on the 
 outside surface as a garment — palpably before my face, with no con- 
 cealment." 
 
 3. Tliey make the king gkd with their wickedness, 
 and the j)rinces with their lies. 
 
 Their king and princes, inst-ead of frowning upon the wicked- 
 ness of the people, were in full sympathy with it, and could bo 
 drawn in to rejoice in it all. 
 
 4. They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the 
 baker, wJio ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded 
 the dough, until it be leavened. 
 
 " Adulterers," probably in the literal, not the symbolic sense. 
 
 Idolatry fostered lewdnes'S. The iigure of an "o2)<??i," as used in 
 
 vs. 4, G, T, demands special notice. Of course, we must go far 
 back of the modern stove-oven in which the heat is generated and 
 used at the same time. In the kind of ancient oven here referred 
 to, as also in those used commonly before the age of stoves, the heat- 
 ing is done 'before the baking, and the excellence of the oven con- 
 sists in its power to hold heat^ and give it up gradually for baking 
 purposes. Precisely at this point the figure applies. The baker 
 gets up an intense heat, and then takes out his fuel and lets it rest 
 till the first intense heat is somewhat abated. lie trusts his oven to 
 hold heat while his dough is rising ; indeed, by closing his oven 
 with his fuel in, he may keep the heat confined there so that he can 
 sleep all night, and yet find every thing ready for flaming out in 
 
 the morning. So these wicked men are perpetually heated up 
 
 v/ith the hot passions of sin. They do not need new incitements 
 continually. The old fires, smothered for a time, flame out again 
 on the first occasion. The heart of wicked men holds heat — the 
 
 lieat of sinful passion — ^like an oriental oven. The last clause of 
 
 V. 4, should read, "ceaseth from firing up," i. <?., his oven, "after 
 the kneading of the dough, until it is risen." Once intensely heated, 
 it can be trusted to rest, and indeed to bake only the better 
 therefor. 
 
 6. In the day of our king the princes have made him 
 sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand 
 with scorners. 
 
 " The day of our king " would naturally be his birth-day, or 
 perhaps his coronation-day — devoted, therefore, to special festivi- 
 ties. On that day, "the princes made him sick (intoxicated) with 
 the heat of wine," not "bottles." "He stretched out his hand 
 with scorners," Belshazzar-like; for when men are inflamed v/ith 
 wine, they are wont to scofl^" at things sacred. 
 
 6. For they have made ready their heart like an 
 
38 nOSEA.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 oven, while they lie in wait : their baker sleepeth all 
 the night ; in the morning it bnrneth as a flaming fii'e. 
 
 1, They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured 
 their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none 
 among them that calleth unto. me. 
 
 The special form of wickedness spoken of here is that of plotting 
 the destruction of their princes, judges, and kings. That such con- 
 spiracies were shockingly common, the brief history of this period 
 shows. 
 
 The verse may be rendered thns : " For they bring their hearts 
 close together as in the oven, in their plots ; all night their baker 
 sleeps" (so perfectly is the plot laid) ; "in the morning he burns as 
 with the fiery flame." [The baker represents the managing spirit 
 of the plot.] "All of them are hot as the oven : they devour their 
 judges," as fire devours; "all their kings fall" (before such con- 
 spiracies), " and none among them call unto me " — ^to the fear of 
 God and to repentance for such wickedness. 
 
 8. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the 
 people ; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 
 
 The "people" here are the heathen nations. Ephraim had 
 mixed himself with them by means of entangling alliances, but 
 more especially by importing their idol-worship. The figure of " a 
 cake not turned," is suggested by the oven. The kind of oven 
 thought of here seems to be difierent from that in mind in the 
 previous verses. The most ancient mode of baking was to heat the 
 naked sand with a fire ; then remove the fire, and lay on the dough. 
 This, of course, must soon be " turned." To this our verse alludes. 
 Another form of oven was a hole excavated in the earth and walled 
 up ; and still a third, bearing the name given here, vs. 4, G, 7, was 
 made of brick, besmeared within and without with clay. 
 
 "A cake not turned" in the first-named sort of oven, would 
 naturally be burned on one side, and raw on the other — all worth- 
 less — spoiled by bad baking. The fact of its being spoiled, rather 
 than any particular analogy in the mode of doing it, seems to be the 
 thought of the passage. 
 
 9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he 
 knoweth it not : yea, gray hairs are here and there upon 
 him, yet he knoweth not. 
 
 As usual in the Scriptures, " strangers " are foreigners — ^born in 
 other lands. Indications of decrepitude and of death near at hand 
 are on him, and he is not aware of it. 
 
 10. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face : and 
 they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him 
 Cor all this. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. YII. 39 
 
 The same expression as to pride occurred above (5 : 5). Pride 
 is working his ruin. The judgments of God fail of leading him to 
 return in penitence. 
 
 11. Epliraim also is like a silly dove without heart : 
 they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 
 
 A " silly dove " means one open to "feeductive influences — easily- 
 drawn into the fatal snare. So, " without heart," means without 
 wisdom or sense to suspect and avoid danger. Ephraim plunges 
 into danger, as appears by his sending to Egypt for help and going 
 to Assyria. This was putting his head within the jaws of the lion. 
 God had warned him against this course ; he would not hear. 
 
 12. When they shall go, I will spread my net upon 
 them ; I will bring them down as the fowls of the 
 heaven ; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath 
 heard. 
 
 With the figure of the dove still before the mind, the Lord says 
 — " When they fly off to Assyria or Egypt for help I will spread 
 my net over them ; I will bring them down as by the shafts of the 
 fowler ; I will chastise them, as hath been heard from the lips of the 
 prophets in their congregation," where those prophetic messages 
 were publicly read. 
 
 13. "Woe unto them ! for they have fled from me : 
 destruction unto them ! because they have transgressed 
 against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they 
 have spoken lies against me. 
 
 " Fled " still keeps up the figure of the dove. The people utter- 
 ly turned away from God, and this became their ruin. God had 
 redeemed them often from their enemies — from Pharaoh, and 
 from the strong nations on their borders ; yet they would prove 
 false to all their professions of penitence and fidelity. In the origi- 
 nal the verb translated "have redeemed," is intlie tense commonly 
 called the future, but perhaps better, the imperfect or incomplete — 
 indicating in this case not only that God had redeemed them, but 
 would now and hereafter — this being the permanent state of his 
 mind toward them. The clause might be fitly paraphrased, 
 " Though I would gladly redeem them at any time, as I have often 
 done already, yet they only speak lies against me." 
 
 The passage puts in forcible contrast the loving faithfulness of 
 God, stiU warm and sure, on the one hand ; and, on the other, the 
 ♦reachery and utter infidelity of his people. The original makes 
 this contrast the more palpable by writing out in full the pronouns 
 " I " and " they." These pronouns are not usually written in 
 
 Hebrew except for the sake of emphasis. " Redeemed " is the 
 
 usual word for the deliverance God wrought for his people from 
 Egypt. (See Deut. 7: 8, and 13 : 5, and Micah G : 4.) 
 
40 nOSEA.— CHAP. YIL 
 
 14. And they liave not criecl unto me witli their 
 heart, when they howled upon their beds : they assem- 
 ble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against 
 me. 
 
 Under their affliction, when tliey howled upon their beds in 
 their anguish, they would not sincerely cry unto God. They as- 
 sembled in their idol temples to implore corn and wine of their 
 false gods; and so they rebelled yet the more grievously against 
 
 Jehovah. The last three verbs, "howl," '^ assemble," "rebel," 
 
 are in the imperfect — incomplete tense, implying not only that they 
 liad^ but would yet. They were doomed to "howl; " it was fully 
 in their heart to "assemble," and to "rebel." ^ 
 
 15. Though I have bound and strengthened their 
 arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 
 
 The Avord rendered " bound " means to chasten and correct. God 
 had in this way taught them, and lie had also made their arm strong 
 in war; yet they only do and will plot revolt and wrong against 
 him. llere also the last verb is in the imperfect, denoting a state 
 of mind yet active and tixed. 
 
 IG. They return, hut not to the Most High : they are 
 like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the 
 sword for the rage of their tongue : this shall he their 
 derision in the land of Egypt. 
 
 If they turned, in any sense, it was not to the Most High. The 
 original most naturally reads, " They will turn to a no-god " — to 
 one not the Most High, but the opposite — one infinitely Ioav and 
 mean. So in the w^ords, Lo-Ammi, Lo-Ruhamah, the negative 
 particle gives the opposite sense — a people rejected from being mine 
 — to whom mercy is denied. " A deceitful bow " makes the ar- 
 row miss the mark, and therefore cannot be trusted. So with Is- 
 rael. " The rage of tlieir tongue " is their insolence of language, 
 
 probably in boasting of help from Egypt, despite of God's warning 
 to the contrary. When they shall have come into Egypt, captive 
 and weak, this proud boasting will be their special derision. Hoshea, 
 the last king of the ten tribes, sought help from Eg}T)t against the 
 king of Assyria, but only to his shame and ruin. (2 Kings 17:4.) 
 So ,shalf it ever be with all who depart from God ! 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. VIII. 41 
 
 OHAPTEE Yin. 
 
 IsEAEL is still the subject of rebuke, and of threatened judgment 
 —the propliet bringing forth to view her sins, her resort to idol gods 
 and to foreign alliances, to the rejection of her own ever-living 
 God, and showing that this policy must be utterly ruinous. 
 
 1. Set the trumpet to thy moiitli. He shall come as 
 an eagle against the house of the Loed, because thej 
 have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against 
 my law. 
 
 This verse is remarkably in the peculiar style of Ilosea — abrupt 
 and bold. " To thy mouth the trumpet ; " [the foe comes down] 
 "as an eagle upon the house of the Lord, because they [my peo- 
 ple] have broken my covenant and sinned against my law." 
 
 The blast of the trumpet, long and loud, was the alarm for war. 
 Tlie coming of the foe is compared with the swoop of the eagle, 
 when, from his lofty height, he comes down upon the temple. This 
 coming down on the temple may suggest that even this sacred sym- 
 bol of Jehovah's presence in the land cannot shield it from the 
 fierce invader. 
 
 The eagle in his flight is frequently, in Scripture, a symbol of 
 swiftness and of terrible conquest. Thus, Deut. 28:49: "The 
 Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the ends of 
 the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth." Also, Lam. 4:19: "Our 
 
 persecutors are swifter than tbe eagles of heaven." This fearfal 
 
 foe comes because the nation has so utterly apostatized from their 
 God. 
 
 2. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. 
 Grievously as they had departed from God, they still made high 
 
 religious professions, vainly claiming to know the true God. So in 
 later times they said, "We have Abraham to our father." "Have 
 .we not prophesied in thy name ? " 
 
 The English translation renders it " shall cry^'''' as if the thought 
 were future only. The Hebrew imperfect rather means the past 
 running on into the future. They have done, and still do. 
 
 3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the 
 enemy shall pursue him. 
 
 The repetition of the name " Israel " is expressive. The same 
 people, Israel, who claim to know the true God, have, in truth, 
 scornfully repelled all that is good ; i. e. both God and his blessings. 
 Ilence, enemies shall pursue him ; or, as the original word means, 
 chase him down. 
 
 The verb rendered " cast off" has, for its primary sense, to bo 
 
42 nosEA.— CHAP. vm. 
 
 foul, nauseous, loathsome ; then, to reject and cast ofT as loathsome. 
 Tlie latter is the sense here. With loathing has this Israel, who 
 claims to know me, spurned away all good, even God himself. 
 
 4. They have set up kings, but not by me : tbey bave 
 made princes, and I knew it not : of tbeir silver and 
 their gold have they made them idols, that they may be 
 cut on. 
 
 From Jeroboam of Nehat onward they have set up kings after 
 their own heart, with no regard to God^s will. So of their princes ; 
 they have made them, and without my approval — the word " know " 
 being used here in this not infrequent sense. 
 
 They had made idol images out of their silver and gold, to the 
 end that they might be cut off; i. e. not of their intention^ but 
 of God's purpose, and of both natural and actual result. The ruin 
 of the nation was both a righteous and a natural retribution for this 
 sin — natural because idolatry and its associate vices were essential 
 rottenness in the body politic. 
 
 5. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine an- 
 ger is kindled against them : how long will it he ere 
 they attain to innocency ? 
 
 " Thy calf, Samaria," is the golden one set up by Jeroboam (see 
 1 Kings 12 : 26-33), out of which grew the idol worship of the king- 
 dom of the ten tribes. Samaria, the capital, here represents the 
 whole kingdom ; the calf was properly theirs. 
 
 The verb rendered "cast off "is the same that is used and so 
 rendered in v. 3, but manifestly here with a slight modification 
 of meaning ; — there, in the sense of repelling with loathing ; here, 
 in the sense of being loathsome, abominable. There is no word 
 for "thee," as found in the English translation, which unfortunately 
 fails to give the true sense. — :— There is great force and beauty in 
 this play upon the two kindred meanings of the same word. Thus, 
 V. 3 : " With loathing has Israel rejected God and all real good; " 
 V. 5 : " Truly and intensely loathsome is thy calf, Samaria." Thou 
 hast thrust from thee thy God and all his blessings, as things loath- 
 some ; the really loathsome thing is thy calf. 
 
 To this construction the next clause fits perfectly : " Mine anger 
 
 is kindled against the worshippers of that abominable calf," The 
 
 last clause is literally rendered, " How long will they be impotent 
 as to moral innocence ? " i. e. with no recuperative moral power to 
 
 return to sense, and to the reasonable worship of i\\c true God ? 
 
 In how many cases, throughout all ages, must a holy and compas- 
 sionate God deplore the same moral impotence in wicked men ! 
 Inasmuch as God was constantly acting upon them toward "inno- 
 cency," we must understand this verse to imply that there was no 
 conscience, and no moral sensibility in them, to respond healthfully 
 under the divine efforts made for their recovery. 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. VIII. 43 
 
 6* For from Israel was it also : the workman made 
 it ; tlierefore it is . not God : but the calf of Samaria 
 shall be broken in pieces. 
 
 The aggravation of this case was that the calf " came out from 
 Israel " — from God's chosen people. " A workman made it " with 
 his human fingers, so that it is no god at all. On the contrary, ac- 
 cording to the expressive Hebrew, "it shall become fragments." 
 
 The prophets were wont to expose the ineffable foUy of idol-wor- 
 ship and of all trust in idols, by referring to their origin as nothing 
 higher or other than human workmanship. A mere man made it, 
 made all there is of it ; and can that senseless, helpless thing be God ? 
 
 7. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap 
 the whirlwind : it hath no stalk : the bud shall yield no 
 meal : if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. 
 
 They — the idol-worshippers — in forsaking the true God for 
 idols, have sown the wind ; and how vain a thing this is, any one 
 
 will see who Avill suppose himself actually attempting to do it. 
 
 The passage becomes terribly forcible when this sowing of wind, 
 vain and empty as it would seem to be, brings forth for its harvest 
 the whirlwind— one of the most fearfully destructive agencies in 
 nature. 
 
 The idea of a harvest is still kept up, and the projjhet proceeds 
 to say, " There is no stalk to it; its shoot will not produce meal; 
 
 or, if it should, foreigners shall devour it." " Strangers," in the 
 
 Bible, are always foreigners ; not merely those with whom we have 
 no personal acquaintance. 
 
 8 Israel is swallowed up : now shall they be among 
 the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. 
 
 The last verb of the verse preceding gives the leading thought 
 of this verse. All Israel is " swallowed up ; " not only will a foreign 
 foe swallow up all the harvests of the land ; the very nation is 
 
 swallowed up, and its nationality is to become extinct. "Now," 
 
 i. e. shortly, they shall be among the nations as a vessel of no 
 value, for which nobody cares; a potsherd, a piece of broken 
 crockery, simply useless. 
 
 9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone 
 by himself : Ephraim hath hired lovers. 
 
 As showing how low they have sunk in general esteem among 
 the nations of their time, the prophet goes on to say, " They have 
 gone to Assyria for help " — wild, wayward, solitary and friendless 
 as the wild ass that has no. affinities for other animals, and little, at 
 best, for his own species. 
 
 In the words "Ephraim hath hired lovers," the idea of his 
 marriage relations to Jehovah reappears. This going to other na- 
 tions and not to God for help, is the baseness of an adulteress, for- 
 
44 ROSEA.— CHAP. VIII. 
 
 saking tlie home and the love of her husband, and sunk so low 
 that, instead of being hired for prostitution, she herself hires her 
 paramours. Ephraim in his distress goes for help, not to his God, 
 who \\'ould have joyfully relieved him with no thought of pay, but 
 to heathen nations, and pays them enormously. See a case of such 
 exaction, 2 Kings 15: 19, 20, where Menahem, king of Israel, gave 
 to Pul of Assyria one thousand talents of silver, and " exacted the 
 money of Israel, even of all tlie mighty men of wealth, of each 
 man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria." Iloshea 
 also, the last king, paid tribute, 2 Kings 17:3. 
 
 10. Yea, tiiougli they have hired among the nations, 
 now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little 
 for the burden of the king of princes. 
 
 This verse has perplexed commentators, especially because of the 
 diflSculty of determining the root and the exact sense of the verb 
 rendered, in our version, " sorrow." Without entering upon minute 
 Hebrew criticism, let it sufiice that I find here threatening, not 
 promise, the former only being in harmony with the strain of the 
 context ; and therefore I derive the verb from the root * which 
 means to writhe, to be in pain, etc. Tlie sense of the passage then 
 is, " Although Ephraim hires foreign help [in the line of ungodly 
 national alliances], yet now will I gather them " (i. e. group them 
 all under this scourge), " and they shall soon be in anguish under 
 the burden of exactions imposed by the king of princes." 
 
 This "king of princes" is the Assyrian who said (Isa. 10: 8), 
 "Are not my princes altogether kings? " Several kingdoms were 
 then his tributaries. 
 
 The received version unfortunately gives the sense of " sorrow- 
 ing a little^'''' instead of sorrowing severely, veey ■soo:n', as the 
 original obviously means. The marginal reading — "in a little 
 while " — should have gone into the text. The verb is very inten- 
 sive. 
 
 11. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, 
 altars shall be unto him to sin. 
 
 The verb rendered "to sin," in the jdirases "made altars fo 
 Bin ; " " altars shall be to him to sin; " — is the same in both clauses. 
 If taken in precisely the same sense in both cases, it would give 
 this as the meaning of the verse — "Because Ephraim hasmultipled 
 idol altars for purposes of sin, they shall be to him the occasion of 
 more and greater sin." 
 
 I suggest a slight modification in tlie sense of this verb on its 
 second occurrence — a usage quite common in Hosea. This verb, 
 to sin, means primarily, to miss the mark, to misdhect, and conse- 
 quently to fail of one's object, and so to reap disaster rather than 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. YIII. 45 
 
 profit. Modifying this verb, therefore, on its second occurrence, 
 ■V7e have this sense — " Because Ephraim multiplied altars for sin^ 
 altars shall be to him /or riling He meant to deviate from right: 
 he shall thereby, in fact, miss happiness. He meant to wander 
 from God : he shall really wander from all good. 
 
 Such a play upon two well-known senses of the same word is 
 one of the beauties of the style of Hosea. The verb rendered 
 "cast off," in vs. 3 and 5 above, is another case in this chapter. 
 To make the mutual relation of "cast off," v. 8, to "cast off," v. 
 5, the more obvious, the verb in each case stands at the head of its 
 verse ; as in the verse before us correspondingly, " to sin " is the 
 closing word in each clause. 
 
 12. I have written to liim the great things of my 
 hiw, hut they were counted as a strange thing. 
 
 This had been the chief aggravation of the sin of Ephraim. God 
 had sent to him in writing the great things of his law — its great 
 truths, principles, and rules of life ; yet he had practically accounted 
 them as foreign and unwortliy of his thought or care. This is the 
 monster sin of all those in Christian lands who repel the light of 
 God's word, and sin on as if no Bible had ever been given them. 
 Jesus said (John. 15 : 22), " If I had not come and spoken unto 
 them, they had not had sin ; but now they liave no cloak [excuse] 
 for their sin." 
 
 The original verb, " have written," is in the tense which imphes 
 incomplete action. God had written, and had yet more to write. 
 
 13. They sacrifice flesh /b^* the sacrifice of mine offer- 
 ings, and eat it j hut the Lokd accepteth them not; now 
 will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins ; 
 they shall return to Egypt. 
 
 " As to the sacrifices of things dedicated to me, they sacrifice 
 flesh, and then eat ; — Jehovah does not accept them " — i. e. abhors 
 them. The sacrifices referred to were professedly made to God, 
 but made before the golden calves, or in the worship of Baal or 
 other idols. It should be remembered that Jeroboam's original 
 plan was professedly to change i\iQ place and, slightly, the form of 
 worship, rather than tJie God to be worshipped. Bringing forth 
 his two calves of gold, he said : "It is too much for you to go up 
 to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up 
 
 out of the land of Egypt." By a form of retribution, strikingly in 
 
 line with the sin which was borrowed from Egypt, they were 
 doomed to return to Egypt. Some of them soon fled thither to 
 escape the Assyrian arms, and, contrary to their intentions, never 
 returned again to their native land. The whole nation returned 
 again to a state of captivity and oppression analogous to their 
 former one in Egypt. 
 
4,Q HOSEA.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 14. For Israel liatli forgotten his Maker, and 
 buildeth temples; and Judah liath multiplied fenced 
 cities : bnt I will send a fire npon his cities, and it 
 shall devour the palaces thereof. 
 
 These temples were for their idols. — The sin of Judah, in multi- 
 plying fenced (fortified) cities, lay in making strong cities rather 
 than the Almighty God their hope and refuge. God would soon 
 send a fire upon their strong cities and consume all their lofty 
 palaces. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Epiieaim is still the subject ; the strain of rebuke for sin is more 
 and more mingled with announcements of near impending judg- 
 ment. 
 
 1. Rejoice not, O Jsrael, for jo j, as other people : for 
 thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast 
 loved a reward upon every corn-floor. 
 
 The first clause means precisely — " Eejoice not, Israel, unto 
 the point of exultation, as other nations may." Comparatively 
 speaking, it was legitimate for the latter to exult in their prosper- 
 ity, and in the abundance of their fruits ; but not so for Israel. She 
 had sinned against so much light and against obligations so sacred, 
 it was madness for her to exult in her blessings. God would surely 
 
 tear them away, and leave her to desolation. So terrible a thing 
 
 it is to sin against great mercies ! He who does it should take this 
 admonition. Kejoice not as others may fitly do, for there will soon 
 be an utter end to blessings so ungratefully and so fatally abused. 
 
 The idolatry of Israel is here, as heretofore, spoken of as adul- 
 tery. The original word for " reward " is currently used for the 
 hire of harlots. It is spoken of here as being " on every corn- 
 floor," because, like the heathen about them, idolatrous Israel had 
 sunk so low as to attribute her corn and wine to Baal's favor and 
 not to Jehovah's. Hence she paid her offerings to Baal — ^here 
 thought of as the harlot-hire of her spiritual adultery. 
 
 2. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, 
 and the new wine shall fail in her. 
 
 Passing from the sin to the curse for sin, God declares that these 
 blessings — the fruits of the earth — shall fail them. Neither the 
 corn-floor nor the wine-press shall supply them food ; the new 
 wine shall prove false — shall lie to* them, as the original has it. The 
 last words (" in her ") mean either in the wine-press, or in the land ; 
 —sense, shall lie to the people. 
 
 3. They shall not dwell in the Loed's land; but 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. IX. 47 
 
 Ephraim sTiall return to Egypt, and tliey shall eat un- 
 clean things in Assyria. 
 
 The land, sacred so long as the land of promise, and subsequent- 
 ly so long the land of Jehovah's presence and power, would spew 
 them out as unfit to live in it. Egypt and Assyria were their only fit 
 abode. It would seem that many individuals from the ten tribes 
 fled to Egypt for refuge from the impending storm of Assyrian in- 
 vasion, hoping to return soon. Others, the greater portion, were 
 borne away into Assyria, and there doomed to eat things unclean 
 and abominable to a Jew — fit retribution on them for eating so 
 long and against so much light, in idol temples. 
 
 4. They shall not offer wm.Q-offerings to the Loed, 
 neither shall they be pleasing unto him : their sacrifices 
 sJiall l)e unto them as the bread of mourners ; all that eat 
 thereof shall be polluted : for their bread for their soul 
 shall not come into the house of the Loed. 
 
 According to the Mosaic ritual (Num. 15 : 5, 7, 10) wine was 
 poured out in certain sacrifices. The prophet here says, they shall 
 offer it no more to the Lord ; if they do, he will not accept it. 
 
 " The bread of mourners " was deemed unclean, as was also 
 
 whatever had been near a dead body. " Bread for their soul " 
 
 probably means bread for sustenance, for the physical life. It had 
 been customary to feast upon large portions of what was offered in 
 sacrifice to God. The prophet here declares that this shall be no 
 longer. The food for their subsistence should no more come into 
 the sacred temple of Jehovah. He could no longer have such 
 fellowship with his apostate people as this communion in bread 
 would imply. Another construction of this last clause (not pre- 
 ferred, however) may be noticed. — Their bread shall be for them- 
 selves alone ; it shall not come into the house of the Lord. So 
 Gesenius and Henderson . 
 
 5. What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the 
 day of the feast of the Lokd % 
 
 A rendering more true to the original, and giving better the 
 exact sense, would be — " What will ye do for the day of solemn 
 assembly, and/<?r the day of the feast of the Lord? " They could 
 no more have them in the remote land of their captivity. They 
 would sadly miss those seasons of great public rejoicing. (See 
 Hos. 2 : 11.) 
 
 6. For, lo, they are gone because of destruction : 
 Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them : 
 the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess 
 them; thorns shall he in their tabernacles. 
 
 The reason why they could not have those national festivals is 
 
48 nOSEA.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 given — For tliey have fled their country because of impending 
 destruction. They shall die and be buried in Egypt — whither some 
 had fled, never thinking to lay their bones there. — Memphis is 
 specially named because it was a noted burying-place of Egyptians, 
 
 as its tombs and mummies are proving at this day. The clause 
 
 rendered " pleasant places for their silver," seems to mean, their 
 costly and most valued property — the original words making prom- 
 inent the two ideas — desire and money ^ — that which men love, and 
 which costs silver. Those things nettles shall inherit, and of 
 course, occupy. Desolation comes over vrhatever was fairest and 
 most valued. 
 
 7. The days of visitation are come, the days of recom- 
 pense are come ; Israel shall know it : the prophet is a 
 fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine 
 •iniquity, and the great hatred. 
 
 This " visitation " is for judgment. " Eecompense," parallel to 
 
 it, is retribution for their great sin. " Israel shall know it " 
 
 experimentally ; know it in such a way as precludes not only all 
 
 mistake, but all indiff'erence and insensibiUty. The " prophet " 
 
 here must be the false one who had misled the people. He is 
 shown to be a fool by the failure of all his predictions and prom- 
 ises. " The spiritual man" — literally, "the man of the spirit" — 
 
 represents the class who professed to be filled with some super- 
 human spirit, but were utterly far from God and his Spirit. These 
 men have been known by various names — magicians, sorcerers, 
 soothsayers, &c., down to '' spiritists." It is here said of him that 
 lie is " frantic," beside himself, because of the greatness of their 
 iniquity (and of its resulting punishment), and of the great hatred — 
 i. e. felt by God against such sin. Its sense is — In the days of God's 
 visitation, the falso prophets, who had so long deceived the people, 
 were appalled, their folly exposed, and themselves driven mad 
 with vexation, chagrin, and shame, before the dreadful wrath of 
 Jehovah upon his people. 
 
 8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God : hut 
 the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and 
 hatred in the house of his God. 
 
 Our translators seem to have understood the first clause to 
 speak of God's true prophets, and as standing on the side of God. 
 But both the context and the grammatical construction oppose their 
 view. The course of thought here respects the false, not the true 
 prophet, and the form of the word requires us to render, not " the 
 watchman of Ephraim," but "Ephraim was v»^atching," i. e. look- 
 ing for and awaiting good from with my God. Despite of his great 
 sin, Ephraim was full of hope and expectation of good from Jeho- 
 vah — probably with reference to help against their foreign enemies 
 — which help might liave come had not the false prophet been a,s 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. IX. 49 
 
 the snare of a fowler over all his ways, and the occasion of God's 
 
 hating them the more even for their coming into his temple. In 
 
 this manner repeatedly is this grievous apostasy, of the jDeople as- 
 cribed largely to the terribly pernicious influence of corrupt priests 
 and false prophets. Truly there can be no power for evil so active 
 and so fatal as a corrupt ministry — as flagrant sin in those who 
 speak for God and of him to men. 
 
 9. Tliey liave deeply corrupted themselves^ as in the 
 days of Gibeali : therefore lie will remember tlieir ini- 
 quity, he will visit their sins. 
 
 The sin of Gibeah at the time referred to may be seen, Judg. 
 19:22-25. An appalling history! Alas for the dreadful corrup- 
 tion of the land of Ephraim, if it Avas fitly compared to those 
 scenes in Gibeah of Benjamin ! Good reason why God should re- 
 member their iniquity and visit retribution upon the whole land! 
 
 10. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness ; I 
 saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her' 
 first time : hut they went to Baal-peor, and separated 
 themselves unto that shame; and their abominations 
 were according as they loved. 
 
 The true light for seeing their sins can be had only through 
 contrast with the bright days of their early national history. Hence 
 
 this historical sketch. As one finds grapes in the wilderness, 
 
 him.self weary and hungry, and not expe*cting luscious fruit amid 
 such barrenness, and therefore is filled with joy at the discovery, 
 so the Lord found Israel. The first ripe figs in their first bearing 
 year furnish the next beautiful figure. But the fatal mischief was, 
 they went after idol gods, and plunged into the vices associated 
 with idol worship. First at Baal-peor, in the wilderness ; see N"um. 
 
 25. " Separated themselves unto that shame," means that they 
 
 set themselves apart by consecration as the Nazarites under their 
 vows — the original word being precisely this — they became Naza- 
 rites, not to a noble principle or a worthy purpose, but to that 
 shame! The last clause thus — "They became abominable, like 
 their paramours, lovers; " referring to the idol gods to whom they 
 
 gave their homage. So evermore men become like the God they 
 
 worship ; • abominable and vile like their idols, or pure-minded and 
 loving, hke Him whose nature is purity and whose name is love. 
 
 11. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like 
 a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from 
 the conception. 
 
 With the significance of the word Ephraim in mind, viz., fruit- 
 ful in off'spring (see Gen. 41 : 52), the reader will readily trace the 
 
 drift of thought in this and the subsequent verses. " Ephraim," 
 
 the populous — " their glory " (a dense population), " shall take wings 
 3 
 
50 nOSEA.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 as a bird, so that there shall be no birth, no womb, no conception." 
 
 This construction of the preposition before the last three nouns 
 
 is admissible by usage and pertinent to the course of thought. The 
 received translation gives it precisely this construction in the next 
 verse. 
 
 12. ThoiTgli thej bring up tlieir children, yet will I 
 "bereave them, that there shall not Ixe a man left : yea, 
 woe also to them when I depart from them 1 
 
 Literally " bereave them from man^'' i. e. so that they shall not 
 live to manhood ; none shall come to man's estate. The curse of 
 God's departing from them shall fall on that which has been their 
 chief glory, as it is wont to do. Barrenness shall take the place of 
 numerous families and a dense population. 
 
 13. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleas- 
 ant place : but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to 
 the mni'derer. 
 
 Ephraim as well as Tyre had a delightful country, surroundings 
 of beauty and prosperity ; but what can these avail to stay the 
 
 wrath of God against their sin ? The language in this verse and 
 
 the next is plain. 
 
 14. Give them, O Loed : what wilt thou give ? give 
 them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 
 
 The holy indignation of the prophet is kindled, and for once he 
 gives it expression. 
 
 15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal : for there I 
 hated them : for the wickedness of their doings I will 
 drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more : 
 all their princes are revolters. 
 
 The speaker in this verse, as also in verse 13, is the Lord. 
 
 Gilgal, as was remarked on Hosea 4 : 15, was noted for its idol wor- 
 ship. There the sins of the nation might be supposed to be con- 
 centrated. God abhorred this great sin, and in this sense hated 
 the sinners — would drive them from his temple and show them fa- 
 vor no more. Keference is again made to the wicked life and 
 
 pernicious influence of the chief men, all of whom were refrac- 
 tory — rebels against God — this being the sense of the last word in 
 the verse. 
 
 16. Ephraim is smitten, their root is di'ied up, they 
 shall bear no fruit : yea, though they bring forth, yet 
 will I slay even the beloved y>"w^^ of tlieir womb. 
 
 Ephraim now appears under the figure of a fruit-bearing tree, 
 smitten with death, dried up, to bear fruit no more. Then drop- 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. X. 51 
 
 ping, or rather changing the figure, God declares that if they have 
 children born to them, he Avill slay even their dearest and most 
 
 loved offspring. So terrible are the curses that must come down 
 
 on those who sin so persistently, and against so great light and so 
 rich mercies. 
 
 17. My God will cast tliein avraj, because tliey did 
 not hearken unto liim: and they shall be wanderers 
 among the nations. 
 
 "My God will reject them from being his people." "They 
 shall be wanderers among the nations," with no settled habitation, 
 no loved home — a prophecy eminently improbable when spoken, 
 but eminently true for ages on ages. The ten tribes have long 
 since lost all distinct nationality. Their posterity, if yet living, are 
 wandering among the nations, unknown and of no account in his- 
 tory. Even the Jews are often known simply as " wanderers." 
 " The wandering Jew " is his style, both in common parlance and 
 
 in more stately history. So signally are the words of prophecy 
 
 fulfilled, and so terribly do the judgments of God scourge and deso- 
 late those whom his great mercies fail to reclaim ! 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 The same general subject continues ; the sin of Ephraim and 
 its just punishment, vs. 1-11 ; a call to repentance and a new life, 
 V. 12; judgments still more near and dire, vs. 13-15. 
 
 1. Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit 
 unto himself : according to the multitude of his fruit he 
 hath increased the altars ; according to the goodness of 
 his land they have made goodly images. 
 
 I paraphrase thus : " A vine pouring itself abroad, in luxurious 
 growth, is Israel; he makes fruit for himself; according to the 
 abundance of his fruit he has multiplied altars; according to the 
 goodness of his land have they, the peoi)le, made good images." 
 
 The word rendered " empty " does not appear anywhere in use 
 in the intransitive sense of being empty, but does sometimes in the 
 transitive sense of malcing empty. Its usual and primary sense is 
 
 that of pouring out abroad. The course of thought forbids the 
 
 sense of barren, fruitless, since the very point made is the abundant 
 wealth of Israel, perverted tlie more to idolatry and sin. The more 
 God gives them, the more they give to idols ; the richer their land 
 
 and its jft*oducts, the richer shrines and altars go up for Baal. 
 
 So sinful men cveryvfhere arc wont to pervert the eartldy gifts of 
 God, till more gifts only make them more wicked and more un- 
 grateful to the Giver ; and so more mercy in this line becomes only 
 
52 nOSEA.— CHAP. X. ^ 
 
 the greater curse, and sinners themselves compel their God to turn 
 from blessings to retribution. 
 
 2. Tlieir heart is divided ; now shall thej be found 
 faulty : he shall break down their alta-rs, he shall spoil 
 their images. 
 
 " Their heart is smooth," i. €., treacherous, deceitful, the verb 
 here having this its primary sense. Among the various meanings 
 of this word the idea of dividing is secondary and remote, grow- 
 ing out of the use of smooth stones in casting the lot for the pur- 
 pose of dividing between rival claimants. There seems to be no 
 good reason here for departing from the primary sense of the word. 
 
 "Now shall they be punished," not merely "found faulty." 
 
 The verb means first to sin, and then naturally to suffer for sin, to 
 
 bear punishment, as here. " ^e," who " shall break down their 
 
 altars," &c., is God, named last in the closing verse of the previous 
 
 chapter, but naturally present in thought in this connection. It 
 
 is altogether legitimate that his judgments should fall on the idol 
 altars and images, as here said. 
 
 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because 
 we feared not the Loed ; what then should a king do 
 tons? 
 
 The last clause should read — " As to the king, what shall he do 
 
 f&r iis'i i. e.^ to help us. The time to which "this applies would 
 
 naturally be in some of the seasons of anarchy when they had no 
 king, and the tone is that of discouragement, tending to despair. 
 Now they shall say, " We have no king, for we have not feared the 
 Lord," and therefore this judgment of anarchy has come upon us ; 
 what help now can we have from the king? 
 
 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in 
 making a covenant : thus judgment springeth up as 
 hemlock in the fuiTows of the field. 
 
 *' They speak mere words " (unreliable), " swearing falsely, mak- 
 ing covenants," in both of which their words go for nothing, and 
 hence " the judgments of God spring up as the poisonous poppy in' 
 the farrows of the field." This plant was peculiar for spreading 
 rapidly, especially in a ploughed field, and for being injurious as a 
 poison. In this view the point of the figure would be the rapidity 
 with which the judgments of God on the people spring to light on 
 every hand, and the fearful devastations and mischiefs they bring 
 upon the land. Or possibly the sense may be — Justice as deter- 
 mined among men, either publicly or privately, is perverted to be- 
 come as the deadly poisonous poppy in the fui-rows of the field. 
 
 This figure appears twice in Amos, viz., 5 : 7 and 6 : 12. " Ye 
 who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in 
 the earth." " Eor ye have turned judgment into gall " (the same 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. X. 53 
 
 Hebrew words as in Hosea), " and tlie fruit of rigliteousness into 
 
 hemlock." i^Tow since Amos prophesied somewhat eariier than 
 
 Hosea, the latter may have taken up this figure from his brother 
 prophet, changing it only as a mind of higher poetic culture and a 
 more vivid imagination would naturally do. 
 
 5. The inliabitants of Samaria shall fear because of 
 the calves of Beth-ayeii: for the people thereof shall 
 rnourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on 
 it, for the glory thereof, becanse it is departed from it. 
 
 Beth-aven, house of idols (literally, of nothings, nonentities), is 
 instead of Bethel, house of God, — the name being changed to indi- 
 cate the fearful fact that the people had ceased to be a house of 
 God, and had become a house of idols, after Jeroboam of Nebat set 
 up his golden calf there. The sentiment of this verse is, that the 
 people of Samaria should be put in fear because of these calves. So 
 far from finding peace and help from their new gods, they should 
 
 find only peril and alarm. " The people thereof " who " shall 
 
 mourn over it " are the worshippers of these calves. The next 
 clause should read — "And his priests" (those of the calf) "shall 
 be thrilled with terror," or perhaps " shall leap as men fran- 
 tic with terror, on account of them, because of his glory " 
 
 (that of the calf), " for it is departed as into captivity." 
 
 Sentiment — shame, confusion, and horror shall come on all the 
 worshippers and priests of these calves, under the force of God's 
 awful judgments on the land for this sin. 
 
 6. It shall be also carried imto Assyria, for a present 
 to king Jareb : Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel 
 shall be ashamed of his own comisel. 
 
 " It " (the calf) " shall be carried into Assyria for a present to the 
 king that intervenes," i. e., who is called in to defend the kingdom 
 against the Syrian power, but who, instead, becomes the conqueror 
 and devastator of the ten tribes. See 5:13. Then Ephraim and 
 Israel shall be confounded by the result of their own counsels. 
 Their expected helper becomes their actual destroyer. 
 
 Y. As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam 
 upon the water. 
 
 " As for Samaria, her king is cut off as chips on the face of the 
 waters " — as if he were as insignificant as a floating chip, and as 
 easily taken away and destroyed. The original word demands the 
 sense chip, and not foam. 
 
 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel,, 
 shall be destroyed : the thorn and the thistle shall come 
 up on their altars ; and they shall say to the mountains, 
 Cover us ; and to the hills, Fall on us. 
 
54 HOSEA.— CHAP. X. 
 
 " Aven " is here the Beth-aven of v. 5 — the locality of one of 
 the golden calves — long time known as Bethel. See notes on 4 : 15. 
 Its high places, on which idol altai's and temples stood, should be 
 
 destroyed. " The sin of Israel," is said of the calf at Bethel, as 
 
 being the occasion and manifestation of her sin of idolatry. The 
 growth of thorns and thistles in places once so much frequented 
 and so magnificent in works of art, gives a vivid sense of utter 
 desolation. The doom of the people would be so terrible that they 
 would choose death rather than life, and hence would cry to the 
 mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us!" — strong 
 poetic conceptions, but terribly significant of their awful doom. 
 
 9. O Israel, thou liast sinned from the days of Gib- 
 eah : there they stood : the battle in Gibeah against 
 the children of iniquity did not overtake them. 
 
 " More than in the days of Gibeah, hast thou sinned, Israel ; " — 
 thy sins are greater than theirs; for which, see Judges, chap. 19- 
 21. Of course, her doom is more terrible. " There (in Gibeah) 
 they stood ; " a remnant, even six hundred men, survived, from 
 whom the tribe was again filled up. The battle in Gibeah against 
 the children of iniquity (those wicked men) did not overtake and 
 exterminate them. Ephraim need not expect to come ofi:* so well, 
 for of her no remnant shall survive to replace the fallen and rebuild 
 the kingdom. 
 
 10. It is in my desire that I should chastise them ; 
 and the people shall be gathered against them, when 
 they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. 
 
 The received translation of the last clause scarcely gives an 
 intelligible sense. The passage has vexed commentators the more 
 because the reading of the original, both in its vowels and conso- 
 nants, is in dispute. Omitting the details of this matter, suffice 
 
 it to say that I prefer to read after the margin — sins not furrows, 
 and hence to render the entire verse thus : — 
 
 "It is in my purpose to chastise them, and the nations shall be 
 gathered against them when they shall be bound for their two 
 sins," — these sins having reference to the two golden calves at 
 Bethel and at Dan. In the same sense, the " high places of Aven " 
 are called " the sin of Israel " (v. 8). The idea is that, to chastise 
 them, God will bind them fast because of these sins of calf-worship, 
 and will then gather the nations (Syrians and Assyrians) together 
 
 to fall upon them. So construed, the sense is vigorous, and 
 
 entirely in accordance with both the significance of the several 
 words and the grammatical construction. 
 
 11. And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, mid 
 loveth to tread out the corn^ but I passed over upon 
 her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah 
 shall plough, and Jacob shall break his clods. 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. X. 55 
 
 To understand tLis verse readily, we need to bear in mind that 
 in the East, cows (heifers also) as well as oxen were put under the 
 yoke and to the plough. They were also used for threshing, and 
 under the Mosaic law — " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that tread- 
 eth out the corn " (Deut. 25 : 4), the latter may be supposed the 
 more pleasant service. Threshing, moreover, was a common sym- 
 bol for the exercise of oppressive power, or for the infliction of 
 
 severe suffering. Hence I render — "Ephraim is a well-trained 
 
 heifer, loving to thresh " (i, e., without a figure, to oppress), " but 
 I passed along over the beauty of her neck " (never yet galled with 
 a yoke) ; "I will yoke Ephraim ; Judah shall plough ; Jacob shall 
 
 harrow." Some render — I will put a rider on Ephraim, i. «., for 
 
 a driver. Our English version quite misses the sense in saying — "I 
 will make Ephraim to ride," the idea being that he shall draw and 
 icorh, not ride. These figures, taken from the occupations of ag- 
 riculture, are significant and forcible. 
 
 12. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in 
 mercy ; break up your fallow ground : for it is time to 
 seek tlie Lokd, till lie come and rain righteousness upon 
 you. 
 
 With this new figure before the mind, the prophet turns here 
 to exhort both Israel and Judah to repentance and to works of 
 
 righteousness. Here, us is very common in Hebrew, the second 
 
 of two successive imperatives should be rendered in the future as 
 a promise. " Sow for yourselves, for righteousness; thus shall ye 
 reap according to your piety." The " reaping in mercy " must be 
 promise, not command. " For righteousness " is the literal ren- 
 dering, meaning, sow what will naturally produce the fruits of 
 righteousness. The word rendered " mercy " must refer to man, 
 not to God, and is therefore piety. The Hebrew phrase means — 
 
 according to the measure of your piety. " Break up your fallow 
 
 ground ; " make all due preparation for the harvest of blessings 
 
 you need and should seek. " For it is time to seek Jehovah 
 
 until he come and teach you righteousness." The verb rendered 
 in our version to " rain " means to rain in a very few cases, to 
 teach in a much larger number. In the conjugation used here it 
 always means to teach, never to rain. And since in this latter 
 half of the verse the figure is dropped, and the prophet says with- 
 out a figure — "it is time to seek the Lord," it is more consonant 
 with the strain of the clause to translate this word without a fig- 
 ure, " teach," rather than with a figure, " rain." 
 
 13. Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped 
 iniquity ; ye have eaten the fruit of lies : because thou 
 didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty 
 men. 
 
 Resuming the figures of husbandry, the prophet says — " Ye 
 
66 HOSEA.— CHAP. X. 
 
 Lave xjloughed wickedness," &c., in the same sense asj'anl (Gal.6 : 7), 
 "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; " or Solomon 
 (Prov. 1 : 31), "They shall eat of the fruit of their own way,".&c. 
 
 Ephraim liad trusted, not in the Lord, but in the way of her 
 
 own choice, and in the multitude of her mighty men. The Lord is 
 now about to show her the folly of such trust. 
 
 14. Therefore sliall a tnmiilt arise among tliy peo- 
 ple, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman 
 spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother 
 was dashed in pieces npon her children. 
 
 "Tumult " is the panic-cry of men smitten with fear. "Shal- 
 man " is abbreviated for Shalmaneser, king of Assyria (see 2 Kings 
 17 : 3), the same Avho conquered the kingdom of the ten tribes, 
 besieged and took Samaria, and bore the people away into captivity. 
 
 " Beth-Arbel " is probably Arbela of Galilee. The fearful 
 
 judgments which have been spoken of repeatedly throughout chap- 
 ters 4-10 culminate here. The time is just at hand, and the man- 
 ner and form of the visitation are no longer couched in symbols, 
 but are announced in the plainest speech. 
 
 15. So shall Bgth-el do unto you because of your 
 great wickedness : in a morning shall the king of Israel 
 utterly be cut off. 
 
 Bethel, the centre and hence the symbol of calf-worship, is here 
 used for the scourge sent of God to desolate the land. The senti- 
 ment is tliat their sin at Bethel becomes their ruin. 
 
 The king of Israel referred to here, I assume to be Hoshea, the 
 last in the kingdom of the ten tribes, — especially because the whole 
 tenor of chapters 7-14 implies that the destruction of the kingdom 
 was very near, and because chap. 13 : 10, 11, implies that the king 
 
 is already cutoff. "In a morning," is in the Hebrew — "in tlie 
 
 morning ; " and therefore cannot wx'U mean that his being cut off 
 should occur in the morning hour of some indefinite day ; but 
 either in the next morning; or taken adverbially, very soon — as the 
 Hebrews were Avont to signify the doing of a thing early by a verb 
 
 formed from this same word, which means the morning dawn. 
 
 There seems to be no objection, either grammatical or historical, to 
 the sense — in the next morning — to-morrow morning; — for it is 
 plain that this prophet continued to bear messages to the people 
 after t\iQ last king, Hoshea, was cut off. The history (2 Kings 17 : 
 3-6) shows that this king was shut up and bound in prison, and 
 thai*; after tliis^ the king of Assyria seized the whole country, 
 besieged Samaria, and took it after a siege of three years. But this 
 last king appears no more on the face of the history; — "he is 
 utterly cut off." 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. XL 57 
 
 OHAPTEE XI. 
 
 The strain of rebuke and of forewarning of judgment Laving 
 continued with only brief interruptions from the beginning of 
 chapter 4, till we are brought almost to the very day in Avhich the 
 king of Israel should be cut off, the course of thought now turns to 
 reminiscences of love, and to the most touching expressions of pity 
 and grief over the impending ruin of Israel. 
 
 1. When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and 
 called my son ont of Egypt. 
 
 Thinking of the nation as having a lifetime, analogous to that 
 of the individual, running through infancy and youth to manhood, 
 the Lord says, '' "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and 
 called my son out of Egypt," He had manifested a very special 
 interest in the fathers of the nation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; 
 he had shown his care for their children during their oppressions 
 under the Pharaohs. It was precisely by means of the call of God 
 that Moses was trained, commissioned, and led on to become, under 
 
 God, the deliverer of the people from Egyptian bondage. The 
 
 citation of this passage by Matthew (2 : 14, 15), as being fulfilled in 
 the case of the young child Jesus, called up from Egypt, raises the 
 question, Does Ilosea in this passage refer in any sense to the 
 
 Messiah ? The context decides this question in the negative. 
 
 The enthe course of thought, both in what precedes and in what 
 
 follows, relates to the nation of Israel. Hence Matthew must 
 
 mean " fulfilled " only in the sense of an analogous event — an event 
 which filled out the natural sense of the words " out of Egypt 
 have I caUed my son." -The nation of Israel was God's child, and 
 might be called his son. So was Jesus. God loved and cared for 
 Israel ; so and more for the child' Jesus. God brought the former 
 out of Egypt ; and the latter also. The same language, therefore, 
 fitly describes each event, and the second becomes in a sort a fiJitl- 
 ment of the icords which describe the first. It is not a case of 
 the fulfilment of ])rox>liecy^ but only of the icords of a certain his- 
 tory. The great value of the case lies in its moral bearings as 
 illustrating the unchanging and oft-shown love and care of God 
 for his sons. 
 
 2. As they called them, so they went from them : 
 they sacrificed imto Baalim, and bm-ned incense to 
 graven images. 
 
 God's calling of his son Israel, especially by the agency of 
 Moses, suggested his continued agencies of calhng the people by 
 later prophets, and of this he proceeds to speak: "As they" — ^these 
 later prophets — " called them, so they went away from their prcs- 
 
58 HOSEA.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 ence " — (so the HebreTv) : — the more the Lord's servants called, 
 the more the people turned away ; "they sacrificed to Baalim," &c., 
 as e. g. under Ahab and onward. Indeed, the worship of Baal 
 appears as far hack as Num. 25 : 3, 5, and Judg. 2 : 1 1-1 3, and 6 : 
 
 25-32. The tense of the verbs " sacrifice " and " burn incense," 
 
 implies not only that they Jiad^ but icould still — of set purpose and 
 fixed habit. 
 
 3. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking tliem by tlielr 
 arms ; but they knew not that I healed them. 
 
 " Ephraim," here as elsewhere, must be the kingdom of the ten 
 tribes. There was no nationality known as Ephraim till the revolt 
 under Jeroboam. Hence the Lord speaks of his parental care of 
 this new-born nation in its infancy. " I taught Ephraim to walk," 
 as a little child is taught, supported and helped along — " taking 
 them by the arms." But they did not recognize the Lord's hand in 
 their healing and help. He does not imply that they could not 
 know ; and does not say " they knew not " as lessening, but rather as 
 increasing, their guilt. 
 
 4. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of 
 love : and I was to them as they that take off the yoke 
 on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. 
 
 The description of God's tender care and gentle loving ways 
 with his people continues. " I drew " (not drove) " them — with 
 cords of a man," not cords of a bullock, untamed, headstrong, and 
 wild. These cords are explained fully in the words " with bands 
 of love," by the sweet attractions which manifested love naturally 
 
 creates. The next figure also is taken from the ways of the kind 
 
 husbandman : " I was to tliem as they that lift up the yoke which 
 presses on their cheek ; " — for the rude yQkes of oriental countries 
 are heavy and ill-adapted to the comfort of animals while eating. — 
 The description continues: "I brought food to them and caused 
 them to eat." The Hebrew has two verbs here, of which the 
 literal sense is given in this translation. The tense of these verbs 
 implies that God is willing still to feed them, as of old. This show- 
 ing of God's loving care and gentleness toward his people is at once 
 beautifal and strong. The facts of the case justify more even than 
 this. 
 
 5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but 
 the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to 
 return. 
 
 Ephraim as a nation is spoken of as one person. — He shall not 
 be suffered to turn back to the Egypt of his fathers, though the 
 people often manifested a strong desire to do so. God had another 
 and a more fearful doom for them ; " the Assyi-ian shall be his 
 king " Tlio reason— because the people refrv-o-l to return in peni- 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. XL 59 
 
 teiico to God. Hosea is remarkable for liis play on the various 
 
 senses of tlie same word — as here, between " returning to Egypt " 
 in the first clause, and " refusing to return " in the second — the latter 
 return being moral, — that of real repentance. Because they would 
 not repent, the Lord put them under the Assyrian king which they 
 abhorred, and forbade their returning to Egypt, which they sought. 
 
 6. And tlie sword sliall abide on his cities, and shall 
 consume his branches, and devour them^ because of their 
 own counsels. 
 
 The word " abide " does not give the full force of the Hebrew, 
 which means, to whirl, to be moved in a circle, brandished. Here, 
 the sword is said to' be hurled down upon his cities — as if seen by 
 the prophet, uplifted and waving high in the hand of the Almighty. 
 
 Through the aid of progressive criticism, the word rendered 
 
 "branch" obtains a modified and better sense. Primarily, the 
 Hebrew word means impart of a thing; then a branch as being part 
 of a tree ; then from branch, the word comes to mean poles and 
 bars — the latter fastening the gates and becoming in a sort the 
 strength and protection of a city ; and finally, by another change, it 
 is used for princes and chieftains, considered as the strength of the 
 city. So here, from the cities on which the sword falls, the prophet 
 passes, not to " branches," for these have no natural connection 
 with the city, but to the chiefs and rulers, and says of them — The 
 sword shall consume and devour them, because of their vicious 
 counsels in departing from God. This last circumstance forbids us 
 to interpret the previous clause as being said of " branches." 
 
 7. And my people are bent to backsliding from me : 
 though they called them to the Most High, none at all 
 would exalt him. 
 
 Though they are my people, yet despite of all my love and of 
 all my discipline, they are " bent " — fully purposed, committed — to 
 
 turning back and away from me. Though my prophets called 
 
 them to return to the Most High, yet with one accord they " would 
 not exalt him" — "exalt," in the sense of honoring him as the 
 supreme God — to be adored instead of senseless idols. 
 
 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I 
 deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah ? 
 how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? mine heart is tmmed 
 within me, my repentings are kindled together. 
 
 The sense of this verse is plain. The "giving up," is to hope- 
 less ruin and desolation. So the parallel word — " deliver thee " — 
 
 means to give over to the fell destroyer. " Admah and Zeboim " 
 
 are associated with Sodom and Gomorrah as lying near in Gen. 14 : 
 
 8, and in Deut. 29: 23, as involved in the same terrible doom. 
 
 " Mine heart is turned within me " — with feelings of pity, and grief, 
 
60 HOSEA.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 and tender compassion. "My repentings are kindled together,'^ 
 implies that in this great conflict of emotions between the high 
 demands of justice and the pleadings of compassion, his relentings 
 were enkindled, and his very heart seemed to burn under the 
 intense yearnings of sympathy. The reader will notice the strik- 
 ing contrast between his people, "bent to backsliding" from him, 
 and his own heart so tenderly lent to love and pity. How wonder- 
 ful that the last words before this outburst of tenderness, and the 
 last antecedent thoughts, are concerning the cruel waywardness 
 
 and persistent rebellion of his people ! But no words of comment 
 
 can heighten the beauty and force of this inimitable passage. The 
 very heart of the God of love stands forth revealed in its glowing 
 and expressive words. 
 
 The general strain of the message, seiit of God by Hosea, had 
 been of necessity stringent and stern with rebukes for sin, and 
 oftentimes terrible in revelations of impending judgment — all right 
 because absolutely necessary. Yet this strain, alone and exclusive, 
 would not do full justice to the tenderness and the loving pity of 
 Israel's God. These messages therefore cannot close without a 
 
 most emphatic testimony to the loving-kindness of Jehovah. 
 
 What do these testimonies concerning God prove ? 
 
 (1.) That he has no pleasure in bringing ruin on even the guiltiest 
 
 sinner. (2.) That he does not punish in the spirit of vindictive- 
 
 ness. (3.) That he would always spare the sinner, and forbear to 
 
 punish, or even chastise, if he could do so wisely and safely. (4.) 
 
 That he takes supreme dehght in conferring good, and longs to bless 
 
 all his sentient creatures. (5.) That it is only with the deepest 
 
 grief that he ever brings pain and woe upon his creatures» (G.) 
 
 Hence, that he will never punish any sinner beyond his real deserts 
 — never beyond what the good of the universe imperatively 
 
 demands. (7.) That no sinner, however severely punished, can 
 
 ever blame God. (8.) That all sinners are bound to do justice to 
 
 the divine love and pity, and should never impute to God feelings 
 and motives which his own heart-utterances unmistakably preolude 
 
 and forbid. (9.) Finally, that the character and government of 
 
 such a God should command our unbounded and eternal confidence 
 and love. 
 
 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I 
 will not return to destroy Ephraim : for I am God, and 
 not man ; tlie Holy One in the midst of thee : and I will 
 not enter into the city. 
 
 Speaking very much after the manner of men, God re23resents 
 himself as having more " fierceness of anger " than he executes on 
 the guilty. Often we need to make allowance for the necessity 
 resting upon God, if he would be understood by men, of adopting 
 their modes of expression, so as to speak of himself as men have 
 reason to speak of themselves. In such cases, wo must qualify the 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. XL Ql 
 
 statements by reference to the known attributes of Jehovah. In 
 the passage before us, we must not siii)pose that the anger of God 
 had become unreasonably fierce, and that, becoming liimsclf aware 
 of this, he resolved not to execute it in full. It is in accommodation 
 to finite minds that he represents a conflict in his ovm between his 
 indignation against sin and his pity for the sinner. Such represen- 
 tations can scarcely mislead any except the captious and uncandid. 
 
 In the phrase " I will not return to destroy," the first verb is 
 
 used adverbially, the sense being — " I will not again destroy." 
 
 The reason given — "for I am God and not man," reminds us of 
 those beautiful words of Isaiah (55 : 8, 9): "For my thoughts are 
 not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the 
 Lord. For, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my 
 ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." 
 The last clause should read — not, " I will not enter into the city," 
 but, " I will not come in wraths The former makes no pertinent 
 sense in this connection. The latter is entirely admissible on the 
 score of usage, and is perfectly in harmony with the scope of the 
 passage. 
 
 10. They shall walk after the Lord : he shall roar 
 like a lion : when he shall roar, then the children shall 
 tremble from the west. 
 
 11. They shall tremble as a bird ont of Egypt, and 
 as a dove out of the land of Assyria : and I will place 
 them in their houses, saith the Loed. 
 
 Better things are here. The people, once more, " follow after 
 
 the Lord " — a phrase which alwjiys means true obedience. The 
 
 •Lord is compared to the lion and his voice to the hon's roar with 
 reference to those fearful, awe-inspiring agencies of God in provi- 
 dence which startle and convulse the nations. It was such agencies 
 that overwhelmed the old Assyi'ian and Chaldean empires, and 
 raised up Cyrus of Persia to befriend the restoration of God's people. 
 
 "The children" here must be the people of God. They 
 
 "tremble " — i. e., come with trembling "from the west," as not un- 
 affected with awe under the majestic presence of Jehovah. Yet 
 they come with ease and rapidity, as is indicated by the flight of 
 the sparrow and the dove. They come from every quarter — from 
 Egypt on the south ; Assyria on the north and east ; and the west is 
 specially named. Only for the sake of the idea of universahty 
 could we expect the v/est to be mentioned, since there lay the sea. 
 
 God will place them in their habitations, for dwelling again in 
 
 peace and security. These verses give promise of a successful 
 
 result, to some extent, and at some time, to the compassionate 
 labors of the God of Israel to reclaim and restore his people. 
 
 12. Ephraim corapasseth me about with lies, and the 
 house of Israel with deceit : but Judah yet ruleth with 
 God, and is faithful with the saints. 
 
62 ' HOSEA.— CHAP. xri. 
 
 The Hebrew attaches this verse to the next chapter. In the 
 course of thouglit it belongs there, and not at the close of this, 
 since it reverts again to the perverseness, treacherj, and hypocrisy 
 of Ephraim and Israel ; and when justly understood, makes Judah 
 
 only less treacherous and apostate. What is said here of Ephraim 
 
 and Israel is plain ; the last clause which respects Judah has been 
 interpreted variously. The sense turns primarily on the Hebrew 
 word rendered "ruleth." * The translators of our version derived 
 it from another root, which means to tread down, and then to bear 
 rule. But the sense above given is far more in harmony with the 
 preceding context, and also with 12 : a, which indeed quite forbids 
 our taking this passage in a good sense. The best modern critics 
 derive this verb from a root which means, to run wildly and at 
 large, as animals that, after lopg restraint, have broken loose. So 
 Judah has broken away from the Lord's yoke and runs wanton at 
 her will. The same word occurs (Jer. 2 : 31), " Wherefor say my 
 people — We are lords ; we will come no more unto thee." We are 
 lords, gives the idea ; we have broken loose from all authority and 
 
 restraint. The entire last clause may be translated — "But 
 
 Judah runs loose and wild as to God and as to the holy and faith- 
 ful one" — where God's purity and faithfulness are put in contrast 
 with the infidehty and moral pollution of Judah. The word for 
 " holy " is indeed in the plural here. So are some of the names of 
 God. The marginal reading properly gives it, " the most Holy." 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 In this chapter the prophet, besides bringing out yet more fully 
 the sins of Ephraim and of Judah, seeks to encourage repentance 
 and trust in God by referring to events in the early history of the 
 patriarch Jacob — his taking the precedence of his brother Esau (v. 
 3) ; his prevailing prayer at Peniel, and his meeting with God at 
 Bethel (vs. 3-5). 
 
 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after tlie 
 east wind : lie daily increasetli lies and desolation ; and 
 tlicy do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is 
 carried into Egypt. 
 
 "Feedeth on wind," literally, pastureth himself on wind as shep- 
 herds pasture their flocks on grass, which represents his reliance 
 on the merest vanities, on that which can avail him nothing. 
 " Chasing after the east wind " has the same significance. " Every 
 day he multiplieth lies," and consequently " desolation " — ^the deso- 
 lation being manifestly spoken of here as the fruit of his lies. The 
 
 * 'T'*n — rood, expressed in English letters. 
 
EOSEA.— CHAP. XII. ^3 
 
 propliet's eye seems to have been on the historic events narrated 
 (2 Kings 17 : 3, 4), where it is stated that tlie king of Assyria came 
 against Iloshca, the last king of Israel ; that Iloshea became his 
 servant and paid him tribute ; that subsequently the king of As- 
 syria " found conspiracy in Hoshea because he sent messengers to 
 So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, 
 as he had done year by year ; therefore the king of Assyria shut 
 him up and bound him in prison," came up and besieged his capi- 
 tal, subdued his kingdom, and took his people captive. His lies did 
 
 not pay^ but brought on him and his kingdom ruin. " They 
 
 made a covenant with the Assyrians," but broke it; " they cf^rried 
 oil into Egypt " as a present or tribute, but Egypt could not save 
 them from the Assyrian power. The last three verbs of this verse 
 — rendered " increaseth," " do make," " is carried" — are all in the 
 incomplete tense, which implies not only that they have done so, 
 but have the heart to do so still. 
 
 2. The Lord hatli also a controversy witli Judah, 
 and will punish Jacob according to his ways ; according 
 to his doings will he recompense him. 
 
 " Controversy," in the same sense as in 4 : 1 — ground of griev- 
 ous complaint, " And will visit upon Jacob " (literally rendered), 
 
 in the sense of retribution for his sins. " Jacob " in this passage 
 
 must mean Ephraim, the kingdom of the ten tribes. 
 
 3. lie took his brother by the heel in the womb, and 
 by his strength he had power with God : 
 
 The name " Jacob," applied to the northern kingdom, helps the 
 prophet to pass by an easy transition to the early history of the 
 
 patriarch who bore this name. " He took his brother by the 
 
 heel in the womb," indicating that he vrould supplant him in the 
 matter of the birthright and of priority. See the history (Gen. 25 : 
 2G). The verb from which the name Jacob is derived means " to 
 
 take by the heel," to supplant. JSTo bad intention or purpose on 
 
 Jacob's part should attach to this supplanting as here spoken of. 
 It simply indicated the purpose of God to put Jacob before Esau, 
 although born last. This preference is alluded to in this passage to 
 
 encourage the people to return to their own God. The next 
 
 clause carries us to the celebrated scene of Peniel, where Jacob 
 wrestled with the angel of the covenant in struggling prayer all 
 night, and finally prevailed, " had power with God," and became 
 a prince through his perseverance and success. The Lord gave him 
 the name Israel, meaning a prince icitli God^ at this very time, both 
 to indicate and to honor his prevalence in prayer. (See Gen. 32 : 
 28.) " Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel ; for as 
 a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast pre- 
 vailed." 
 
 4. Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed : 
 
64: HOSEA.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 lie wept, and made supplication unto liim : lie found 
 him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us ; 
 
 To give the nicer shades of thought from the original, and to 
 present the relations of the different persons brought to view, the 
 verse might be rendered somewhat freely, thus : " And then he had 
 power with the angel and prevailed ; he wept and made supplica- 
 tion to him. Also God met him (Jacob) at Bethel, and there spake 
 with him and through him with us." The angel referred to is 
 called God (Elohira) in v. 3, and can be no other than the uncre- 
 ated angel of the covenant, who appears not unfrequentlj in the 
 history of ancient Israel, manifesting divine attributes, and ob- 
 viously being the very Messiah, then, as ever, the Head of the 
 
 Church on earth. In the record of the scenes of Peniel (Gen. 
 
 32 : 24-30), the historian does not call him "the angel," but says, 
 " there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." 
 This gives his external appearance. But Jacob, when the scene 
 had passed, called the name of the place Peniel, the face of God, 
 " for he said, I have seen God face to face." Much to our point 
 are God's words to Moses (Ex. 23 : 20, 21) : " Behold, I send an an- 
 gel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the 
 place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice ; 
 provoke him not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for 
 my name is in Mm.'''' The power to pardon sin, implied to exist in 
 him, and especially the last words, " my name " (in the sense of 
 nature and attributes) "is in him," must be considered as amply 
 
 identifying him to be the second person in the Godhead. With 
 
 him Jacob wrestled in agonizing prayer^the external struggle be- 
 ing only an index of the inward, which was the vital thing. Jacob 
 was in most imminent peril from his enraged and powerful brother, 
 and therefore must seek help from God. His long agony of strug- 
 gling prayer suggests that he may have had an unsettled account 
 with the " angel of the covenant," some of the items of which 
 may have been his complicity witli his mother in the deception 
 practised by her to get from Isaac the paternal blessing ; and not 
 improbably some lack of faithful reproof of his favorite Eachel in 
 the matter of her proclivities toward idol-worship — things to be re- 
 pented of and adjusted as to God before any signal testimony of 
 his favor could be safely given. It need not surprise us, therefore, 
 that " he wept and made supplication." The fuU history of his 
 heart might show how bitterly he repented of his sins, and how 
 earnestly he plead that God would remember his covenant, and not 
 account the great faults of his servant as a forfeiture of his claims 
 
 upon God for protection and help. In all its parts this was a 
 
 wonderful case of persevering and prevailing prayer — one that 
 might well be suggested to the whole Hebrew people in the times 
 of Ilosea as an assurance that such prayer might yet save them, 
 
 while nothing less or other than this could. Abruptly the 
 
 prophet passes to the third scene in the life of Jacob — that which 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. XII. . 65 
 
 transpired at Bethel. There the Lord God met the youthful Jacob, 
 reminded him of his own covenant with Abraham and Isaac ; re- 
 newed this covenant with Jacob, and left him. Then Jacob awoke 
 from this blessed vision and said, " Surely the Lord is in this place, 
 and I knew it not." " How dreadful is this place ! This is none 
 other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven ! " See 
 Gen. 28 : 11-22. Some difference of opinion exists as to the sig- 
 nificance of the last word of this verse, " -mj?." In what sense did 
 the Lord speak with us in Bethel ? Ilosea says, " There the Lord 
 
 found Jacob, and there he spake with not Jacob only, but us." 
 
 Some have said, the prophet included with Jacob, himself, and 
 perhaps others also, on the score of a common sympathy, as writers 
 sometimes unconsciously suppose themselves to be participating in 
 scenes that awaken in their hearts deep interest. Others, no- 
 ticing that the verb rendered " spake " is in the future, have given 
 it this turn : There the Lord tcill speak with us ; did speak with 
 
 Jacob, and will no less with us if we seek him as earnestly. 
 
 The- latter idea — that God will truly speak with us and with all 
 who wait earnestly on him — is no doubt implied ; the Bible usually 
 
 implies this, though it is rarely deemed necessary to express it. 
 
 The first of the two views above given is preferable, expanded with 
 this further idea, that the things God said there belong to the 
 whole future family of Jacob, viz. : the promise of Canaan ; a 
 countless seed ; a blessing on all the Iximilies of the earth through 
 his offspring, and the Lord Jehovah for his God and their God. In 
 view of the broad application of the things said then and there to 
 all the Hebrew race, Hosea might well say, " There the Lord spake 
 witJi us " — with us none the less because through Jacob. In this 
 sense the future incomplete tense of the Hebrew is specially appo- 
 site. There was peculiar fitness in this allusion to Bethel— ihQ 
 
 place made so sacred in those ancient times by the presence of God 
 and by his renewed covenant, but, during many generations re- 
 cently past, most horribly desecrated by giving to a calf the wor- 
 ship due to God alone. 
 
 6. Even the Lokd God of hosts ; tlie Loed is liis me- 
 morial. 
 
 This verse is a close continuation of the preceding. " There Tie 
 
 spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts." In most English 
 
 Bibles the name " Lord'''' is printed in smaU capitals when it trans- 
 lates the Hebrew word Jehovah, In this verse the Hebrew reads, 
 "Even Jehovah, God of hosts — Jehovah is his memorial." By 
 this is meant that the name Jehovah is that by which he would be 
 specially known, or, more precisely, is that one of his various 
 names whose significance he would have his people evermore re- 
 member, as to be fulfilled all along onward in the lapse of the ages. 
 All the names given to the Supreme Being are significant, e. (/., 
 "God of Hosts," or of the celestial armies; " El-Shaddai," the 
 Omnipotent or Almighty; " El " alone, the exalted and the mighty 
 
66 HOSEA.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 Olio ; and in like manner " Jehovali," the immutable, " he that was 
 and is and is to come," forever li/ing and forever the same, 
 the real and the p^reat " / amP See Ex. 8 : 13-15, and 6 : 3, 
 where it is said, '' This is my name forever, and this is my memo- 
 rial nnto all generations;" and where also God said to Moses, "I 
 am Jehovah ; and I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by 
 the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not 
 known unto them." This cannot mean that they had never known 
 and used the name Jehovah, for they had. It must therefore mean 
 that God had not fulfilled to them the true significance of this 
 name, i. e., one faithful to his promises. The idea is that this faith- 
 fulness results from his immutability, and that his people do not 
 fuUy Icnow this attribute of God till they have tested and proved it 
 in their experience of his faithfulness in fulfilhng his promises. In 
 this sense the name Jehovah stands through all time as his memo- 
 rial name — ^its significance to be remembered by his people, and 
 perpetually developed and fulfilled more and more in the lapse of 
 ages. The significance of his other names may be verified and ful- 
 fiUed at once ; his omnipotence is seen in tlie creation of worlds 
 and in every real miracle ; but diis name Jehovah is verified only 
 1)11 the aid of ti?ne, through the occurrence of events transpiring all 
 along down the world's history. In this most expressive sense it 
 is his memorial name, and is adduced by Hosea most fitly in this 
 connection to encourage the people to put their trust in him. 
 
 G. Therefore, turn tlioii to tliy God : keep mercy and 
 judgment, and wait on tliy God continually. 
 
 Hence the application here made — " Therefore," since God is 
 forever faithful and true, since he ever has been and ever will be 
 the God of his people Israel, " therefore, turn thou to thy God." 
 "Keep mercy and judgment" — duties toward man; " and wait on 
 thy God continually," living in dependence upon him, and expect- 
 ing all needful good from him alone. Morality toward man and 
 piety toward God make up the sum of human duty — loving God 
 with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself. 
 
 Y. ITe is a mercliant, tlie balances of deceit are in 
 liis hand : he loveth to oppress. 
 
 The discourse here turns abniptly to another sin of the people 
 of Ephraim — covetousucss and consequent oppression. " The Ca- 
 naanite — balances of deceit are in his hand: " he loves to take ad- 
 vantage in trade, and to drive a gainful bargain to the extent of 
 real oppression. The word " Canaanite " is used for merchant, 
 that people being the traffickers of Western Asia. The Phoenicians, 
 long celebrated for commerce and navigation, were pai't of the 
 original people of Canaan. The word Canaanite means in Hebrew 
 one who acquires, accumulates. To this also the present use of the 
 
 word may refer. "Balances of deceit" were made to cheat 
 
 with — one weight for buying and another for selling. Thus (Prov. 
 
IIOSEA.—CHAP. XTI. (JY 
 
 20 : 23), "An abomination to the Lord is a stone and a stone" (one 
 to bny with and one to sell with) ; " and balances of deceit are not 
 
 g:ood," i. e., are utterly bad. This allusion to the trading usages 
 
 of Canaan was shaped to take hold of the people of Ephraim, the 
 more so because the latter, while in general holding the Canaanites 
 in contempt, were yet trading, defrauding, and oppressing in the 
 same way. As if the prophet would say : See the Canaanite ; you 
 tlnnk meanly of him for his low tricks of trade ; what do you think 
 of yourselves ? 
 
 8. And Epliraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have 
 fomid me out substance : in all my labours they shall 
 find none iniquity in me that were sin. 
 
 "Also Ephraim said: Surely I am rich; I have found wealth 
 for myself; in all the fruits of my business they shall find in me no 
 acts of extortion that are sinful." The last word is from the verb 
 which means to miss the mark, to overdo, to overstep due bounds. 
 Ephraim quietly implies that in trade some little crookedness and 
 deception are quite admissible ; (probably he would have said, Who 
 can live by trade otherwise?) But on the other hand there are 
 things so flagrant that all the world will call them sin. He hopes, 
 indeed he is quite sure, they will not find any of this bad sort of 
 
 sin in his business life. So human nature and the usages and 
 
 moralities of trade were much the same b. o. 750, when llosea was 
 writing, as they are to-day ! 
 
 9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land 
 of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as 
 in the days of the solemn feast. 
 
 Once more the prophet turns abruptly, as is his wont, to prom- 
 ises, yet again to try the power of persuasion and love on the peo- 
 ple. " Yet I, the Lord thy God ever since Egypt " {i. e., since the 
 exodus from Egypt), " will yet make thee to dwell in tents," &c., 
 with reference to the feast of tabernacles, the great national thanks- 
 giving. This was always a joyful occasion. Hence this verse must 
 be interpreted as a promise of good, and not a threatening of evil. 
 
 10. I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have 
 multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry 
 of the prophets. 
 
 Literally, " I have spoken to the prophets " — that they might 
 speak for me to the people. During the great apostasy in the latter 
 years of the kingdom of Ephraim, the Lord greatly multiplied 
 
 prophets and visions. "Similitudes" include poetic figures, and 
 
 also symbols, which latter comprise both illustrative acts done by 
 the prophets, and also things seen in vision. 
 
 11. Is there iniquity m Gilead ? surely they are van- 
 
68 nOSEA.— CHAH. XIII. 
 
 ity : they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal ; yea, tlieir altars 
 are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. 
 
 Literally, " Lo ! Gilead is wickedness ! " The next clause is 
 
 parallel : " surely they are vanity." Gilead, one of the cities of 
 
 refuge, where many priests dwelt, has been named for its great 
 
 wickedness above (6 : 8). Gilgal also was notorious for its idol 
 
 worship. The Hebrew word " heaps " is a play on the word Gilgal, 
 which means a roUed-up heap of stones. Idol altars were thick 
 there as the heaps of stones in a jdoughed field. . 
 
 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and 
 Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 
 
 This brief and abrupt allusion to Jacob was designed to suggest 
 God's watchful care through his providence over his trustful chil- 
 dren. This familiar history is found, Gen. chapters 29-83. 
 
 13. And by a prophet the Lokd brought Israel out 
 of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. 
 
 By this prophet, Moses, the Lord brought up his people from 
 Egypt, and can do like things again ; by this prophet Israel Avas 
 Tcejpt — the same word which is rendered Tcept in v. 12. As Jacob 
 Icejpt sheep — a faithful shepherd — so the Lord by Moses Tcejpt his 
 people, and, as Ilosea v/ould have the people infer, can again. 
 
 14. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly : 
 therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his re- 
 proach shall his Lord return unto him. 
 
 But Ephraim has long provoked him most bitterly ; therefore 
 shall his Lord leave his blood upon him, unpardoned, and not 
 washed away, and shall turn back his reproach upon himself. The 
 blood referred to is probably that of children sacrificed to Moloch ; 
 his reproach is that which he had cast upon the ft-ue God by dis- 
 carding his law and worship, and putting idols before him. God 
 would requite this reproach by consigning Ephraim to public con- 
 tempt among the nations of the earth. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 The main drift of this chapter is to set forth the sins of Ephraim 
 and their certain consequences in his ruin — intermingled with some 
 rich assurances of God's love and promises of mercy and help to 
 the penitent. 
 
 1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted him- 
 self in Israel ; but when he offended in Baal, he died. 
 
HOSEA.—CHAP. XIII. (59 
 
 Our translators seem to have supposed tlie first clause to refer 
 to a time wlieii EpLraim was penitent and Immble. More recent 
 investigations in the language show that this sense and construction 
 are scarcely admissible, and by no means probable. The word on 
 which the interpretation hinges, occurs in this precise form no- 
 where else in our Bible. But a cognate word, without much doubt 
 of the same meaning, occurs, Jer. 49 : 24, where it means terror. 
 This word in our passage is a noun, not, as in the English transla- 
 tion, a participial adjective. I translate: "When Ephraim spake, 
 there was trembling ; he stood high in Israel ; but when he sinned 
 in the matter of Baal, he died." Ephraim, as here used, is the 
 one tribe only, not the whole ten. In the early days of the king- 
 dom the influence of this tribe was very great; the word of 
 Ephraim was law, and was heard with trembling. His sin in the 
 matter of Baal proved the ruin of his influence and of himself. 
 
 2. And now tliey sin more and more, and have made 
 them molten images of their silver, and idols according 
 to their own understanding, all of it the work of the 
 craftsmen : they say of them. Let the men that sacrifice 
 kiss the calves. 
 
 The word used here for idols, as above remarked, in 4 : 17, is 
 itself significant of toil and labor in their construction. " Ac- 
 cording to their own understanding " means with their skill, with 
 
 the best art and tact they have. "Wholly the work of the 
 
 craftsmen," is yet further expressive of the leading idea that these 
 idols are nothing whatever beyond what men make them. There 
 is nothing else about them, in them, or of them. The prophet 
 means to deny that there is any invisible God dwelling in them. 
 In the phrase " they say of them," the pronoun they is expressed 
 in the llebrew, and hence is made prominent in the thought — re- 
 ferring here to the priests, Avho had the management of idol wor- 
 ship. They gave the order that the men who ofiered sacrifice 
 should kiss the calves. This ceremony was one form of expressing 
 their reverence, confidence, and afiection for these calves. 
 
 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, 
 and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaif 
 that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and 
 as the smoke out of the chimney. 
 
 " Therefore," as the fruit of such senseless and guilty worship, 
 their glory shall be evanescent ; the whole nation shall soon disap- 
 pear from the face of the earth, and hold no longer any place 
 among the nations. The threshing floors were fitted up on high 
 hills, and in open, exposed situations, to get the benefit of the wind 
 in cleaning grain. But when an oriental whirlwind feU suddenly 
 upon this operation, the chaff was driven off fearfully. 
 
70 nOSEA.— CHAP. XIII. 
 
 4. Yet 1 am the Lord thy God from tlie laud of 
 Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me : for there is 
 no saviour beside me. 
 
 Yet fearful as their doom must be, and great as their guilt had 
 been, the Lord reminds them that he has been their God ever since 
 the nation came out from Egyjjt. He evinced this relationship to 
 them then, and had done nothing on his part since to change it. 
 
 5. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of 
 great drought. 
 
 " I did know thee in the wilderness," means more than a mere 
 knowledge of what they were. It implies that he had manifested 
 his knowledge of their case by his sympathy, love, and care. He 
 let nothing pertaining to their case or wants escape his notice. 
 The word rendered " drought" means properly, thirst-^ land cele- 
 brated for the tliirst of the weary traveller — one where no water 
 is. In that land, God brought forth water for them from the 
 rock. 
 
 6. According to their pasture, so were they filled ; 
 and their heart was exalted : therefore have they for- 
 gotten me. 
 
 The better God made their condition, or, in the prophet's figure, 
 the better pasture he put them into, the more they were sated ; this 
 
 fulness begat pride ; and in their pride, they forgat Jehovah. 
 
 Alas, that this sliould be the history of so many myriads of sinners! 
 God blesses them (must wo say) too much ; they become too full ; 
 then proud ; then they forget God, and become awfully strong in 
 their wickedness ! 
 
 Y. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion : as a 
 leopard by the way will I observe them. 
 
 8. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her 
 whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there 
 will I devour them like a lion : the wild beast shall tear 
 them. 
 
 The figures to represent swift destruction are multiplied. To 
 
 " observe," as the leopard, is to lie in wait and watch as for prey. 
 
 God represents himself as doing what is done instrumentally by 
 
 the Assyrian arms. 
 
 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me 
 is thine help. 
 
 The received translation expresses rich truths with great force. 
 Thou art thine own destroyer ; thy God thine only deliverer. The 
 destruction is wholly thine ; the salvation altogether mine. 
 
 But although both these propositions are true, and although 
 
nOSEA.— CHAP. XIII. 71 
 
 their beanty and force are raiicli enhanced by this vivid juxtaposi- 
 tion and contrast, yet a close and careful study of the original raises 
 a serious doubt in my mind whether this is precisely its sense. 
 
 The first clause is all right. '' Tliine is this destruction ;" but 
 the last clause, having in Hebrew three words, is more closely and 
 perfectly rendered thus : " Because (thou art) against me, against 
 thy help." The strong objection to our received translation is the 
 proposition against before the last word, " thy help." The English 
 translation makes no account of it ; but ITosea does not put in words 
 for nothing. Then also the connecting particle more naturally 
 means 'because than 1)111. 
 
 In this construction we miss the strong antithesis, but we get a 
 pertinent sense, and one in harmony with the previous and follow- 
 ing context ; — thus v. 8, The Assyrian power shall devour thee : 
 V. 9, This destruction is all of thine own procuring, because thou 
 wast againstHsme, against thy only help : v. 10, Where is thy king 
 now, or any one that can save thee ? &c. 
 
 10. I will be tliy king : where is any other that may 
 save thee in all thy cities ? and thy judges of whom thou 
 saidst, Give me a king and princes ? 
 
 The most apx)roved translation is that in the margin: ""Where 
 is thy king now — that he may save thee in all thy cities ? " In this 
 case the Hebrew marginal reading is followed, not the received 
 text. The difference between the two is that the marginal reading 
 transposes the last two radicals.* 
 
 The remark is pertinently made in our English margin, that 
 Hoshea, the last king, was at this time in prison, as is stated 2 Kings 
 17: 4. 
 
 11. I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him 
 away in my wrath. 
 
 This statement probably has reference to this very king Hoshea. 
 It was true of Saul, and no less so of many of the kings in the king- 
 dom of the ten tribes. But if Vc ask for the particular king thought 
 
 * The real question for the critic here is whether he shall read '^riJt 
 *'Iwill be;" orj-i'?j^ "Where?" The only difference is in the trans- 
 position of the last two radicals. The critical authorities for the two read- 
 ings in Hebrew are conflicting. I prefer' the latter ( n^iJ<) "Where?" 
 (1.) Because as compared with the other, which is followed in our received 
 version, this flows easily, following the natural order of the Hebrew words ; 
 while that one labors and almost does violence to the word rendered 
 "where," in the clause, " where is any other," &c. (2.) This last-named 
 word (X".EN) strongly indicates that the sentence in which it occurs com- 
 menced with an interrogative. This is its common use — an enclitic or 
 post-positive particle, alter an interrogative. Our received translation 
 makes this word itself an interrogative,, which is scarcely admissible. 
 (3.) The sense is indefinitely more pertinent and forcible — a consideration 
 which, superadded to the preceding, Is conclusive. 
 
Y2 nOSEA.— CHAP. XIII. 
 
 of by the author, no one meets the conditions so well as the last, 
 Hoshea. 
 
 12. The iniquity of Epliraim is bound up ; his sin is 
 Md. 
 
 This refers to what God, not Ephraim, has done with his sin. 
 It is not implied that Ephraim has been able to hide his sin from 
 either man or' God. The figures are taken from a man's tieing up 
 and hiding his money or other valuables for safe-keeping. So God 
 has laid away the sin of Ephraim, to be brought forth another day 
 for terrible retribution ! Of this comicg retribution, the prophet 
 proceeds to speak. 
 
 13. Tlie sorrows of a travailing woman shall come 
 upon him : lie is an unwise son ; for lie should not stay 
 long in the place of \h^ breaking forth of children. 
 
 The received translation of this verse can scarcely be improved. 
 The figure in the first clause suddenly changes. Ephraim is first a 
 mother in her travail pains ; then an infant voluntarily retarding 
 his bwn birth, and thus fearfully imperilling both his own life and 
 
 the mother's. '^o figures drawn 'from human experience can be 
 
 more forcible than this — the peril that ensues when " children come 
 to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth." If, now, to 
 get the full force of this passage as applied to Ephraim, we suppose 
 the son to bring on this danger by his own voluntary, intelligent 
 agency, we shall see the infatuation and very madness which Hosca 
 so temperately describes as being "unwise." Ephraim is going to 
 the judgment with God in charge of all his sins, and he still lingers 
 under the call to repent, and will not make peace with his offended 
 
 judge. The primary reference here is to judgments on eartli, 
 
 and very near ; yet the principle is even more pertinent and forci- 
 ble as applied to every sinner going to the final judgment. 
 
 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; 
 I will redeem them from death : O death, I will be thy 
 plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction : repentance 
 Bhall be hid from mine eyes. 
 
 Ephraim is seen ruining himself by his madness. The 
 figure in the prophet's mind suggests death in some of its most 
 painful forms; but God interposes, saying, "I will ransom thee 
 from Sheol ; I wOl redeem thee from death." Sheol, the grave, 
 and death are, of course, personified here, and supposed to be living 
 agents of terrific power over frail mortals. The clauses trans- 
 lated — " O death, I will be thy plagues ; " " O grave, I will be thy 
 destruction — " raise the same critical question which came up in v. 
 10 — the choice between the interrogative and the indicative form — 
 with, however, less reason for the interrogative here than there. 
 The general sense is the same either way; the interrogative form 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. xni. 73 
 
 is the more bold and triumpliant, and lias yet this further fact in its 
 favor, viz. : that Paul (1 Cor. 15 : 55) quotes interrogatively — " O 
 death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? " 
 
 In regard to this quotation by Paul, it should be said further, 
 
 that the words as they stand here do not refer to the resurrection, 
 but to salvation from the ruin then impending over Israel ; but 
 Paul's quotation applies them to the resurrection — the final triumph 
 of our frail mortality over death and the grave, under the power of 
 a resurrection to unfading life and immortality. The words are 
 beautifully applicable to tlie latter event, and are, therefore, fitly 
 used. — — " Eepentance shall be hid from mine eyes," must here bo 
 taken as God's own declaration concerning his purpose just before 
 expressed : ''I will redeem my people and be the destroyer of their 
 worst foes, even of death and the grave, and there shall le no re- 
 versal of this purposey This has no reference to God's hiding 
 
 his eyes from man's repentance in this world or any other. What- 
 ever may be true as to this, the passage before us has nothing to 
 say about it. All language should be construed and applied with 
 
 reference to the subject in hand. In this verse the Lord thinks 
 
 of Ephraim as bringing down on himself remediless ruin ; but he 
 interposes one more promise : I will yet redeem them even from 
 this awful death if they icill repent ; or as the future might be ren- 
 dered — / iDould^ on my part, redeem them, if only they would 
 consent ! 
 
 15. Though lie be frnitfiil among 7^/^ Lretliren, an 
 east wind shall come, the wind of the Loed shall come 
 up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, 
 and his fountain shall be dried np : he shall spoil the 
 treasure of all pleasant vessels. 
 
 Promise of help avails not; so, again, the prophet predicts for 
 Ephraim near impending judgments. Though he may have been 
 eminently fruitful, i. e., populous and prosperous among his brother 
 tribes (said with reference to the significance of his name — Ephraim, 
 the prolific, and with reference also to the facts of his history), yet 
 " an east wind " — often the simoom coming in upon Palestine from 
 the eastern quarter — " the wind of the Lord," i. e. sent by him 
 especially, "from the desert" — this shall "dry up his fountain 
 and spring," and be the ruin of his land. In oriental countries the 
 great scourge of the land is drought. Cut off from water, the land 
 
 T3ecomes one wide waste of desolation. So of Ephraim. This 
 
 language has special reference to the Assyrian power, which was 
 God's great instrument for laying waste tlie kingdom of Ephraim. 
 To this Assyrian king the pronoun " he " must be referred ; " he 
 shall spoil the treasures of all desirable, valuable things." 
 
 16. Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath 
 rebelled against her God : they shall fall by the sword : 
 
 4 
 
74 HOSEA.— CHAP. XIY. 
 
 their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women 
 with child shall be ripped up. 
 
 This clear, definite announcement of the ruin to come on the 
 kingdom of the ten tribes for their great sins, was obviously made 
 but a short time before the event. Hosea lived and prophesied in 
 the midst of these very scenes. Thus closes what he has to say in 
 the line of rebuking the snis of the people and announcing their 
 coming doom. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 This short chapter is a fit and striking sequel to the book of 
 Hosea, almost the entire strain of which sets forth the sins — the 
 ingratitude, incorrigibleness, and the coming doom of the apostate 
 children of Israel. But the Lord cannot let this stern message of 
 rebuke and threatening close without one more call to repentance. 
 If the nation must go down, like a sinking ship into the angry bil- 
 lows, with its vast freight of human souls, they shall at least go 
 with the sounds of oflfered mercy still ringing in their ears ; and 
 further, the Lord would not leave a shade of apology for the infer- 
 ence that his heart is vindictive. After so much said of judgment 
 and wrath, a wrong impression as to these points might be left if 
 the book were to close without yet another testimony to his merci- 
 ful compassion. How tenderly careful not to crush out hope from 
 even the guiltiest bosom, saying, " I will not contend forever, neither 
 will I be always wroth, for the spirit should fail before me and the 
 
 souls which I have made." (Isa. 57 : 16.) Yet again : the strain 
 
 of this closing chapter really gloics with the beauty and joy of God's 
 restored people when they repose under his shadow and drink at 
 his fountain of bliss — all in charming contrast with the utter blight 
 that falls on the wicked who pasture themselves on wind and chase 
 after the east wind, and whose best delights turn to ashes on their 
 lips. The joyous prosperity of God's penitent people is one of the 
 
 strong recommendations of true piety. And finally, the strain of 
 
 this chapter is doubtless intended as an answer to the question 
 oftener thought than expressed, What will become of the cause 
 and kingdom of God on earth? If his peoi)le prove so hopelessly 
 apostate, despite of such loving and persistent labor to save them, 
 what is the hope for God's kingdom? Here we have the answer." 
 It will yet be seen that this kingdom has the infinite God for its 
 king. The interests of truth and righteousness in the earth may 
 seem to go down in darkness ; but they can at worst only pass 
 under an ecfipse, to shine out the more gloriously in their own 
 appointed time. In this point of view, this closing chapter must 
 be taken as a prophecy of the ultimate triumph of the cause and 
 kingdom of God on earth. 
 
nOSEA.—CHAP. XIV. Y5 
 
 1. O Israel, return unto the Loed thy God ; for thou 
 hast fallen by thine iniquity. 
 
 "To the Lord tliy God" — thine own God still — a precious 
 reason for hope and encouragement in your ]*eturn. 
 
 2. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord : say 
 unto him. Take away all iniquity, and receive us gra- 
 ciously : so will we render tlie calves of our lips. 
 
 " Take words " — avail yourself of the aid which the expression 
 of your feelings in fit language will give you ; and, moreover, do 
 this, not merely alone, each in his solitude ; but socially^ the great 
 
 body of the people uniting as the heart of one man. To " render 
 
 the calves of our lips," means to respond to God's forgiving mercy 
 with oral expressions of gratitude and praise — offering our lips in- 
 stead of bullocks. The word rendered " calves " means 'bullocks^ 
 and is almost without exception used of bullocks offered in sacri- 
 Jice. The construction in Hebrew is not — the calves of our lips ; 
 but this— so will we give back our lips (as) bullocks — after the 
 manner in which bullocks are brought forth for offerings in sacrifice 
 to God. 
 
 3. Asshur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon 
 horses : neither will we say any more to the work of 
 our hands, Y^e are our gods : for in thee the fatherless 
 findeth mercy. 
 
 The returning penitents pledge themselves specifically against 
 three sins : seeking help from Assyria ; from the use of horses in 
 war, usually brought from Egypt ; and saying any more to what is 
 only the work of their own hands, " Ye are our gods." The reason 
 given is ample — " In God, the fatherless find mercy ; " — the helpless 
 and forlorn, like ourselves, find compassion in him. The word 
 used carries us back to " Kuhamah," as in chapters 1 and 2 — this 
 being the same. 
 
 4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them 
 freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. 
 
 The Lord himself now speaks in response to their vows and 
 prayers. "Heal them o/ their backslidings " means restore them 
 
 both in heart and in the external life. " "Will love i\\.Qm freely " 
 
 —the last most expressive word having the sense of aijontaneous — 
 with warm and full heart, even as the blessed God of love is wont 
 to love the truly penitent soul. 
 
 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel : he shall grow as 
 the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 
 
 The dews of Palestine w^ere very heavy, and when in their ful- 
 ness, went far to supply the want of rain. The "lily " is noted 
 
7G HOSEA.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 for its beauty. Our Savionr's reference to it will be readily re- 
 called—" Consider the lilies of tlie field," &c. (Matt. 6 : 28, 29). 
 
 "He," Israel, " shall shoot forth his roots as Lebanon "—referring 
 to its lofty cedars which thrust their roots far out and deep down 
 among the ancient foundations of the mountains, and so withstand 
 the tempests of ages." 
 
 6. His brandies shall spread, and Ms beauty shall be 
 as the olive-tree, and liis smell as Lebanon. 
 
 The olive-tree with its lovely green, famishes another image of 
 God's people under his faithfid culture. Some of the trees and 
 shrubs of Lebanon were fragrant, and perfumed the atmosphere of 
 the mountain, as is indicated here, "the smell of Lebanon." 
 
 Y. They that dwell under his shadow shall return ; 
 they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine : the 
 scent thereof shall he as the wine of Lebanon. 
 
 "jS^is shadow " is that of God— perhaps suggested by the tacit 
 
 allusion to the cedars of Lebanon, whose shade is magniiicent. 
 
 The word rendered scent, in the last clause, is memorial — the same 
 used 12 : 5 — ^meaning, they shall be renowned in fame, as the wine 
 of Lebanon which has to this day the highest repute. 
 
 8. Ephraim shall say^ What have I to do any more 
 with idols ? I have heard him, and observed him : I am 
 like a green fir-tree. From me is thy fruit found. 
 
 Ephraim renounces idols for ever. The Lord takes note of this, 
 
 and will observe — watch over him with a loving father's care. 
 
 The fir-tree is an evergreen,~setting forth here that God's love 
 and care are ever enduring — green through all the year. And if 
 the thought sliould arise, "But it yields no fruit" — the Lord at 
 once forestalls that objection. "From me is thy fruit found;" all 
 fruit comes, not from creatares, even the best and surest of them, 
 but from myself. 
 
 9. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things f 
 prudent, and he shall know them 1 for the ways of the 
 Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them : but the 
 transgressors shall fall therein. 
 
 The interrogatives here call the reader's special attention. Tlie 
 subject-matter of this book — God's ways of judgment and of mercy 
 toward his people, wayward or penitent — are here set before you ; 
 whoever is wise shall understand them and learn their lessons of 
 
 great truth and of practical life. For God's ways are altogether 
 
 right ; the just, in the sense of upright, honest, and sincere, shall 
 walk in them with peace and gladness thi'ough usefulness and honor 
 here to a blissful end hereafter ; but transgressors, whom no truth 
 
HOSEA.— CHAP. XIV. 77 
 
 can reach to bless, shall stumble and fall under the very influences 
 that bring salvation to the just. 
 
 Such are the lessons of this richly instructive book of Hosea. 
 We shall need to go far to find other writings more forcible, more 
 tersely written, more beautiful in their poetic imagery, more burn- 
 ing in their rebukes of sin, and more glowing in their testimonies 
 to the dee^D compassion and yearning love of God toward sinful 
 man. 
 
JOEL. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The precise date and duration of the prophetic life of Joel may 
 be conjectured, but cannot be certainly known. He is not named 
 elsewhere in the Old Testament Scriptures. His prophecy seems to 
 be quoted both by Amos (compare Amos 1 : 2 with Joel 3 : 16) and 
 by Isaiah (compare Isaiah 13:6 with Joel 1 : 15). Amos prophe- 
 sied at some period within the long reigns of Uzziah of Judah, b. o. 
 811-759, and of Jeroboaui 11. of Israel, b. c. 825-784. Hence, if 
 the writings of Joel were in the hands of Amos, he cannot have 
 prophesied later than the reign of Uzziah ; he may have been many 
 years earlier. Ilis book shows tliat he prophesied in Judah, and 
 that the temple worship was then kept up. Eemarkably, the book 
 does not notice the kingdom of the ten tribes nor the sin of idola- 
 try. The people are exhorted to repentance, to fasting, weeping, 
 and rending of the heart. It may be inferred that in such a book 
 idolatry would have been rebuked if it had been then prevalent. 
 Some have argued, from his silence respecting the Syrian power, 
 while he mentions Tyre and Sidon (3 : 4) as enemies, that he must 
 have lived before their first invasion of Judah in the time of Ahab 
 (reigned b. o. 918-897). See 1 Kings, chapters 20-22. But this 
 cannot be conclusive, since he might know the Syrian kingdom as 
 an enemy, and yet not mention it. Some weight is rightly given to 
 the fact that the compilers of these sacred books have placed Joel 
 between Hosea and Amos. In general, they observed the order of 
 time, and it is safe to assume that, living so near the age of those 
 prophets, they must have known with a fair measure of accuracy 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. I. 79 
 
 when Joel lived and wrote. This compilation is usually ascribed 
 to Ezra and his associates — ^perhaps we should rather say, Ezra and 
 his successors. The earliest historical notice of a collection known 
 as " the Twelve Minor Prophets," is in the hook of " Ecclesiasti- 
 cus," or "Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach" (49:10), in these 
 words : " And of the Twelve Prophets let the memorial he blessed, 
 and let their bones flom*ish again out of their place, for they com- 
 forted Jacob and dehvered them by assured hope." The original 
 of this book bears date 180 b. o. But there is good reason to sup- 
 pose this compilation to be not much if any later than Malachi, 
 about 420 b, c. Joel may have been somewhat earlier than Hosea, 
 and yet be placed after him in order because shorter or for other 
 reasons. I incline to assign him an earlier date than Hosea. Pos- 
 sibly (not probably) the famine which he portrays so vividly was 
 that terrible one of seven years referred to (2 Kings 8 : 1) in the 
 reign of Jehosaphat in Judah (reigned b. o. 914-891) and of Jeho- 
 ram, son of Ahab, in Israel (reigned b. c. 89G-884). With these 
 only appro \-'n ate results I pass the question of date. 
 
 Another question, at once more difficult and more important, 
 respects the principles of interpretation which shall rule throughout 
 the first two chapters. On this depends the determination of the 
 primary and proper sense. On this point very able commentators 
 disagree. It is admitted by all that the language seems to describe 
 a fearful visitation of locusts, coupled with drought and consequent 
 famine. But some, with Dr. Hengstenberg, hold that there were 
 no real locusts. Foreign enemies " present themselves to the in- 
 ward contemplation of the prophet as an all-devouring swarm of 
 locusts." — (Vol. 3 : 103.) That is, Joel saw the locusts only in vis- 
 ion; the only real visitation was that of armed men — the real 
 
 scourge was war. Others, with Dr. Henderson, find real locusts, 
 
 desolating the land, throughout chapter 1. In chapter 2, armed 
 bands are the real thing, but they are compared to locusts. The 
 locust bands, then recent, furnish the imagery by which they are 
 
 described. Others still suppose that real locusts are definitely 
 
 described throughout chapter 1, and also 2 : 1-27. Yet this being a 
 most fearful visitation, a striking and even appalling proof of God's 
 power to inflict judgments on guilty men and guilty nations,^t be- 
 came naturally suggestwe of what the wicked have to fear in some 
 other and more terrible " great day of the Lord." Without ad- 
 mitting the doctrine of a doable sense, i. e.^ two distinct and coOr- 
 
80 JOEL.— CHAP. I. 
 
 dinate senses of the same words and phrases, it may yet be reason- 
 ably held that a fearful devastation by locusts may suggest the ruin 
 brought on a country by war, or by those unknown agencies of 
 destruction which God has in store for the guilty in his magazines 
 
 of wrath. This latter view I accept, constrained in general by 
 
 the fact that this seems to be the obvious $ense of the passage. 
 
 My plan of commentary precludes any extended discussion of 
 opinions from which I dissent, yet briefly I must reject the first 
 theory above named as too foreign from the obvious sense of the 
 language. There is no hint that the locusts are seen in vision only, 
 and stand merely as symbols and figures of armed men. Heng- 
 stenberg speaks of it as an " allegory," but the manner and air of 
 an allegory are wanting. Every allegory should furnish clear evi- 
 dence of its being such. Besides this, an allegory should not give 
 
 a minute natural history of the locust. The second theory fails 
 
 to harmonize with the drift of the description, for the second chap- 
 ter gives us locusts as clearly as the first. In vs. 4-9 these locusts 
 are compared to armed men — not armed men to locusts — a distinc- 
 tion which Dr. Henderson seems to ignore or at least overlook. 
 
 Other remarks bearing on the true interpretation may be suggested 
 in the notes on particular passages. 
 
 In this book there will be very little occasion to comment on 
 the meaning of particular words and clauses. The received trans- 
 lation in most cases is excellent, and gives the sense of the original 
 with accuracy. The point of chief difficulty and of greatest mo- 
 ment is, to arrive at the ultimate sense and instruction — the mind 
 of the Spirit of truth. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A PLAGUE of locusts comes upon the land, nnparalleled in its 
 kind; they are described, vs. 6, 7, their devastations, vs. 9-12, 16- 
 20, and various classes of the people are summoned to mourning, 
 vs. 5, 8, 9, 13, and to fasting, v. 14. 
 
 1^ The word of the Lokd that came to Joel the son 
 of Petlmel. 
 
 With the greatest brevity we are simply told that this book is 
 the word of God that came to Joel. 
 
 2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhab- 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. I. 81 
 
 itants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or 
 even in the days of your fathers ? 
 
 3. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children 
 tell their children, and their children another generation. 
 
 "Hatli this been in your days?" must mean, Hatli ox^j such 
 thing as this been — any visitation so fearful and so desolating ? He 
 appeals to the oldest men to say if, either in their days or in the 
 days of their fathers, so gi'eat a judgment in its kind has befallen 
 the land. Y. 4 opens the description. 
 
 4. That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the 
 locust eaten ; and that which the locust hath left hath 
 tlie canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker- 
 worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. 
 
 Successive armies of locusts come upon the land, each, accord- 
 ing to the strong language of this description, devouring all that 
 
 the next preceding had left. Great labor has been expended on 
 
 the natural history of the locusts spoken of in the Bible. They 
 appear under about ten different names, but whether these names 
 represent ten distinct species remains in doubt. This point has no 
 
 very great practical importance. It is important, however, to 
 
 the full impression of these chapters, that the power of these locusts 
 for devastation should be understood. One author says: "Man 
 can conquer the tiger and the lion ; can turn the course of mighty 
 rivers, and chain the winds to his car, and can play with the light- 
 nings of heaven, but he is nothing before an army of locusts." 
 Another says: " In some regions of the East the whole earth is at 
 times covered with locusts for the space of several leagues, often to 
 the depth of four, sometimes of six or seven inches. Their ap- 
 proach, with a noise like the rushing of a torrent, darkens the hori- 
 zon, hides the light of the sun, and casts an awful gloom like that 
 of an eclipse over the fields." Major Moore, when at Poonah, had 
 an opportunity of seeing an immense army of locusts which rav- 
 aged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to have come fi'om 
 Arabia.. Their column extended five hundred miles, and so com- 
 pact was it when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely 
 hid the sun. Pliny calls them " a scourge in the hand of an in- 
 censed Deity." Before them all verdure disappears; the wLjle 
 country puts on the appearance of being burnt. Fire itself devours 
 not so fast. Not a vestige of vegetation is left behind th^m. In 
 a few hours they eat up every green thing, and consign the mis- 
 erable inhabitants to inevitable famine. " The husbandmen make 
 every effort possible to stay or turn aside these foes or destroy 
 them ; they build fires or raise a dense smoke to withstand them, 
 or dig trenches and fill them with water, but all to no purpose ; for 
 the trenches are soon filled and the fires extinguished by infinite 
 swarms succeeding one another, and forming a bed on their fields 
 4* 
 
82 JOEL.— CHAP. I. 
 
 of six or seven inclies in thickness. When they die the efBrnia 
 becomes intolerable, and often has occasioned a pestilence fearfully 
 destructive to human life." These few facts will suffice to show 
 that the locust is one of the most terrible agents for destruction in 
 the hands of the Almighty. 
 
 5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep ; and howl, all 
 ye drinkers of wine, because of tlie new wine ; for it is 
 cut off from your mouth. 
 
 Wine-drinkers are called to weep and howl, because their new 
 wine, called " must," fails them. 
 
 6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, 
 and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, 
 and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 
 
 Y. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig 
 tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the 
 branches thereof are made white. 
 
 The word here rendered " nation " is usually applied to heathen 
 nations, considered as the enemies of God and of his people. In 
 this case it implies that they are public enemies, a scourge sent of 
 God upon his land. They are strong by reason of their great num- 
 bers ; their teeth are terrible because of the devastations they can 
 make. Stripping off all the foliage and even the bark, they leave 
 
 only a mass of ruins and bare white branches. Tlie grasshopper 
 
 of our country bears a close resemblance to the oriental locust. 
 The latter, however, appear in immensely greater numbers, and 
 make their desolations absolutely complete and universal. 
 
 8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for 
 the husband of her youth. 
 
 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut 
 off from the house of the Loed ; the priests, the Lokd's 
 ministers, mourn. 
 
 10. The field is wasted, the land mourneth ; for the 
 corn is wasted : the new wine is di*ied up, tlie oil 
 languisheth. 
 
 By a change in the usage of our English word " meat," within the 
 last two hundred years, it has come to mean the flesh of animals. 
 Anciently it was used in the general sense of food, and sometimes in 
 the specific sense o^xegetable food. Thus (Gen. 1 : 29, 30) God said, " I 
 have given to you," i. e. toman, " every herb, and the fruit of trees, 
 for meat f^ and "to every beast," &c., "have I given every green 
 
 herb for meat.'''' So here, this "meat-offering" consisted of 
 
 flour, meal, or cakes, with oil, frankincense, but not a particle of 
 flesh. Hence- the locusts swept it all away. Those who loved 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. I. 83 
 
 the service of the Lord were specially afflicted, because they were 
 no longer able to bring to his temple the accustomed and required 
 offerings. 
 
 11. Be ye ashamed, O ye liiisbandmen ; howl, O ye 
 vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley ; because 
 the harvest of the field is perished. 
 
 Confounded expresses the exact sense, rather than " ashamed," 
 since shame properly implies some sense of guilt. Here the idea is 
 that they were at their wit's end — all their labor had come to 
 naught. 
 
 12. The vine is dried up and the fig-tree languish- 
 eth ; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the 
 apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered : 
 because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 
 
 13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, 
 ye ministers of the altar : come, lie all night in sack- 
 cloth, ye ministers of my God : for the meat-ofi*ering and 
 the drink-ofierinff is withholden from the house of your 
 God. ° ^ 
 
 14. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather 
 the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the 
 house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lokd. 
 
 The evil was by far the more serious, since not only the vege- 
 tables — annual plants — but trees of many years' growth, withered 
 and died under this fearful scourge, so that joy — the joy men feel 
 in these sources of earthly good — withered away. Here is an- 
 other call to mourning over these calamities, and especially and 
 most pertinently to fasting, and to a general gathering in the house 
 of God to lift up their prayer to him. Nothing can be more ap- 
 propriate in seasons of calamity than to humble our hearts before 
 the Lord, and seek his face with deep humility for our great sins. 
 
 15. Alas for the day ! for the day of the Lord is at 
 hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it 
 come. 
 
 The locusts being spoken of as present and this " day of the 
 Lord " as being only " ?zear," grave questions arise here ; viz. : What 
 is this "day of the Lord" which is near, but not (as it would seem) 
 yet present ? Is it the visitation of locusts, and nothing beyond 
 and greater? If something beyond and greater, then what pre- 
 cisely is it ? Does the prophet intend to make his description of it 
 definite, as of some special event; or -rather to leave it indefinite, 
 designing only to impress the thought of the awfulness and terror 
 of God's retributive judgments, however and whenev^* sent? 
 
84 JOEL.— CHAP. I. 
 
 If there were nothing else in Joel bnt this (v. 15), looking tow- 
 ard another great day of the Lord, there would be no special 
 difficulty in interpreting this of the locusts exclusively. For it 
 might be urged that the locusts were even then scarcely present, 
 and the terribleness of this scourge was still in the nearer future ; 
 that the tenses in Hebrew and especially in prophecy are not used 
 with such definite precision as in most other languages ; also, that 
 the next verses continue the subject of locusts and the drought as 
 
 if no other thought had been before the writer's mind. But 
 
 this verse does Tiot stand alone in reference to the question now 
 before us. The passage (2 : 1) repeats — "For the day of the Lord 
 Cometh, for it is nigh at hand ;" and, of more weight still (in 2 : 81) 
 we read : " The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon 
 into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.'* 
 This plainly shows that the prophet has some thought of another 
 great and fearful, but somewhat remote, " day of the Lord," besides 
 this in which locusts are the manifestation of his retributive ven- 
 geance. Here, then, are various allusions to a "great day of the 
 
 Lord," to be explained and accounted for. Do we not find the key 
 to their exposition in those laws of mental association which, under 
 the awe-inspiring power of a present judgment, like this of locusts, 
 carry the mind over to the more awful future — to the great power 
 of Almighty God to bring forth from the storehouse of his plagues 
 far more terrible, annihilating judgments, and which make every 
 mind feel that God's judgments are near at hand? This law of 
 mind is well known. The effect of any present judgment is to 
 make all future judgments seem near. It leads the mind to antici- 
 pate them with confidence, to take this present one as itself a proph- 
 ecy and pledge of more and other in the futm-e, and to lose sight 
 of whatever time may intervene before they come. Thus, a single 
 death-bed scene makes death seem near to ourselves. Sudden 
 deaths by hundreds, as in the awful cholera pestilence, make stout 
 hearts quail under a sense of God's power and justice, so that it 
 shall seem that death and judgment are at the door. Moreover, a 
 guilty conscience fearfully heightens this sense of the great day of 
 
 the Lord as near at hand. Thus powerfully suggestive was this 
 
 fearful day of visitation by locusts. It brought fresh to the proph- 
 et's mind a sense of the awful guilt of his people, and of the 
 certainty and nearness of God's sorer judgments. And, moreover, 
 as he wrote /br moral impression^ and as the divine Spirit had this 
 main if not sole purpose, it need not surprise us that he deems it 
 of no special importance to speak more definitely of the time or 
 manner of these yet future visitations of judgment. Suffice it if he 
 can impress on the souls of wicked men the solemn thought that 
 God's great day of judgment to them cannot be long delayed ! 
 
 Yet further, as bearing on the sense of this verse, let it be noted 
 that the most fearful thing in any form of judgment is that it comes 
 from God^^ and is a proof of his stern displeasure. The conscious 
 sense of his wrath burning against us is of all things most awful. 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. I. g5 
 
 This becomes fitly the all-absorbing thought. Any form of judg- 
 ment may suffice to awaken this feeling. Once awakened in a 
 consciously guilty bosom, the man knows and feels Ihat more and 
 greater demonstrations of God's displeasure must be near. 
 
 In view of these laws of mind and of their relations to the 
 question in hand, I see in this verse, and also in 2:1, no evidence 
 of allusion to any other speciJiG day, as e. g,. the invasion of the 
 Assyrian army. To suppose this, seems foreign from the general 
 drift of the prophet's thought. Besides, if he had wished to predict 
 that invasion, it is marvellous that he should not have made his 
 statements more definite. The original words rendered "destruc- 
 tion" and " almighty" are from kindred roots — as if we should say, 
 " a miglity ruin from the Almiglity hand." 
 
 16. Is not the meat cut off before our ejes, yea^ 
 joy and gladness from the house of our God ? 
 
 The same idea as in v. 9, resumed and reiterated interrogatively 
 — Is it not so ? The prophet reverts to the subject in hand (vs. 2-14) 
 as if no thought of any other day had come in to divert it. This 
 fact shows that v. 15 is no new and foreign subject, but only some- 
 thing naturally suggested by his main theme. 
 
 17. The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners 
 are laid desolate, the barns are broken down ; for the 
 corn is withered. 
 
 The effects of extreme drought, coupled with the work of the 
 locusts. No seed vegetates ; all harvests fail. 
 
 18. How do the beasts groan ! the herds of cattle are 
 perplexed, because they have no pasture ; yea, the flocks 
 of sheep are made desolate. 
 
 The "cattle are perplexed" — the original word, looking, how- 
 ever, not so much to a state of mind as to its manifestations. They 
 wander up and down as if bewildered and at their wit's end. 
 
 19. O Lord, to thee will I cry : for the fire hath de- 
 vom-ed the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath 
 burned all the trees of the field. 
 
 20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee : for the 
 rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured 
 the pastures of the wilderness. 
 
 The prophet declares his purpose to cry unto the Lord for help 
 and mercy, for the twofold reason that his heart feels so, and that 
 he would lead the people also to prayer for help. 
 
 Thus closes this chapter — a most graphic, life-like description of 
 a fearful devastation by drought and locusts — so severe and so ter- 
 rible as to impress the mind with a sense of the weakness of man 
 
86 JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 before the great and dreadful God, and of liis guilt before One too 
 boly to pass over sin without manifesting his sore displeasure. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The great alarm is sounded forth from the temple as usual in the 
 presence of some dire calamity (v. 1) ; a more full description of 
 the locusts is given — in part personal (vs. 4-9, and in part general 
 and in the line of their effects (vs. 2, 3, 10, 11) : the Lord exhorts 
 the people to return to him (vs. 12-14). A solemn assembly is 
 called for fasting and prayer (vs. 15-17) ; the Lord answers gra- 
 ciously (vs. 18-20), and passes over to rich promises of mercy, in- 
 cluding rain and abundant harvests (vs. 21-27) ; and finally to the 
 fuller promise of his Spkit in the latter time (vs. 23, 28-32). 
 
 1. Blow ye tlie trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm 
 in my holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land 
 tremble : for the day of the Loed cometh, for it is nigh 
 at hand ; 
 
 " Blowing tlie trumpet and sounding an alarm " from the 
 temple was of divine appointment in the law given through Moses. 
 (See Num. 10: 1-10.) It convened the people to consider and act 
 upon any case of general calamity, and had the promise — " Ye shall 
 be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved 
 
 from your enemies." The near " coming of the day of the Lord" 
 
 is analogous to chap. 1 : 15, and must be explSined in the same way. 
 
 2. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of 
 clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon 
 the mountains : a great peo])le and a strong ; there hath 
 not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after 
 it, even to the years of many generations. 
 
 Darkness is often, with the Hebrew poets especially, a symbol 
 of calamity. In this verse, however, there is no occasion to inter- 
 pret it as a symbol. It is rather actual — the darkness produced by 
 immense clouds of locusts, obscuring the light of day. lliis dark- 
 ness came on and passed over the land " as the light of morning 
 spread over the mountains ;" where the point of the comparison is 
 not in any supposed resemblance between dai'kness and light, for 
 there is none ; but in the manner of its coming on over the face of 
 the earth. As the morning light sweeps up from the east, first 
 gilding the mountain-tops, and then quietly pervading the whole 
 face of the earth, so this darkness swept on as an avalanche of 
 cloud, and rested like a dark pall of gloom and terror on the whole 
 land. That this visitation should be described as surpassing anj 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 87 
 
 ever known before, and even any that should come after for many 
 generations, need not surprise us. It may have been strictly true of 
 it while it lasted^ and in reference to judgments of this sort. More- 
 over, men suifering under any fearful infliction, naturally express 
 themselves in such strong terms. 
 
 3. A fire devouretli before them ; and behind them a 
 flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before 
 them, and behind, them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and 
 nothing shall escape them. 
 
 "Fire" and "flame" are probably figurative; the desolation 
 they wrought being like that of tire on the prairies, as if fire swept 
 on before them, and again behind them, Jeaving absolutely noth- 
 ing more to be destroyed. Exquisitely forcible and touching is 
 this — the land seen in all the beauty of Eden before them, but be- 
 hind them only a desolate wilderness. 
 
 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of 
 horses ; and as horsemen so shall they rnn. 
 
 6. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of moun- 
 tains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire 
 that devonreth the stubble, as a strong people set in 
 battle array. 
 
 Locusts have been often compared to horses, as in Eev. 9 : T:— 
 "The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for 
 battle." They are fleet like horsemen, moving rapidly with the 
 wind. The figure of an army moving in solid phalanx and fear- 
 ful array, is constantly present to the mind. Yet the thing described 
 is an army, not of men, but of locusts. The locusts are lihe armed 
 horsemen. He does not say that armed horsemen are coming on, 
 and are like locusts. 
 
 6. Before their face the people shall be much pained : 
 all faces shall gather blackness. 
 
 The word rendered " blackness " nieans rather a glow or flush 
 of anxiety. The sense is — the people become intensely agitated 
 with fear and alarm. 
 
 T. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall climb 
 the wall like men of war ; and they shall march every 
 one on his ways, and they shall not l3reak their ranks : 
 
 8. l^either shall one -fhrust another ; they shall walk 
 every one in his path : and when they fall upon the 
 sword, they shall not be wounded. 
 
 9. They shall run to and fro in the city ; they shall 
 
88 JOEL.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 run upon tlie wall, thej shall climb up upon tlie houses ; 
 they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
 
 It cannot be reasonably doubted that this is, and is intended to 
 be, a closely accurate description of locusts, as they sweep along in 
 their onward march for devastation. Every feature is in its place, 
 made true to the reality by a master's hand. That the sword avails 
 nothing against them goes to confirm this view, and to shut off the 
 ' possibility of applying the description to the Assyrian army. 
 
 10. The earth shall quake before them ; the heavens 
 shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall be dark, and 
 the stars shall withdraw their shining : 
 
 Strong poetic imag^y should not be pressed to an extremely 
 literal sense. In this passage, we need not insist that the locusts 
 produced an earthquake, or any real concussion of the heavens. 
 Jerome says pertinently on this passage : " Not that the locusts 
 have so much power that they can move the heavens and shake the 
 earth ; but to those who are in great suffering and extreme terror, 
 it will seem that the heavens are falHng and the earth tossing under 
 
 their feet." Strong feeling naturally expresses itself in strong 
 
 language. The darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, is a com- 
 mon figure for a great calamity ; as, on the other hand, sun-rising 
 and the joyous light of day are S3Tiibols of prosperity. The reader 
 may find scriptural examples in abundance, e. g., of the former 
 class— J^er. 4: 28; Ezek. 32: T, 8; Isa. 13: 10; Matt. 24: 29. 
 
 The consternation commonly felt for many ages when an eclipse 
 occurred, shows how forcible this figure must have been in ancient 
 times. Moreover, there may be here a tacit allusion to the actual 
 darkening of the heavens, occasioned by the flight of countless 
 myriads of locusts. 
 
 11. And the Loed shall utter his voice before his 
 army : for his camp is very great : for he is strong that 
 executeth his word : for the day of the Loed is great and 
 very terrible ; and who can abide it ? 
 
 That " his army" is none other than the locusts, is put beyond 
 a doubt by the Lord himself (v. 25), where he says of the locust, 
 caterpUlar, etc., " my great army which I sent among you." The 
 words in Hebrew as well as in the Enghsh version are the same in 
 both passages. This locust army is strong to execute the mandate 
 of Jehovah. Sent by him, they ai-e terribly efficient in devastating 
 the land. This " day of the Lord " can look to nothing else pri- 
 marily save the visitation of locusts. " Abide " is here used in 
 
 the sense of endure, 
 
 12. Therefore also now, saith the Loed, turn ye even 
 to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with 
 weeping, and Avith mourning : 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. II. g9 
 
 13. And rend your heart, and not your garments, 
 and turn unto tlie Loed your God : for he is gracions 
 and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and 
 repentetli him of the evil. 
 
 14. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and 
 leave a blessing behind him, even a meat-oifering and a 
 drink-oifering nnto the Loed yonr God ? 
 
 This is the only appropri<ate thing to be done — the only source 
 of hope for deliverance — to return and seek the Lord in penitence, 
 for he is gracious and delights in mercy. Who knows but he may 
 turn from scourging to blessing, and leave us at least so much that 
 we can bring meat and drink offerings before him at his temple ? 
 
 This moral lesson is for all time, and for all sorts of affliction 
 
 and calamity befalling men in this world. Everywhere and always, 
 be the scourge what it may, it behooves men to turn to God, con- 
 fessing sin, imploring mercy, daring to hope, since they may, that 
 the Lord will yet turn from judgment to mercy. 
 
 15. Blow the trmnpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, -call a 
 solemn assembly : 
 
 16. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, 
 assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that 
 snck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his 
 chamber, and the bride ont of her closet. 
 
 17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Loed, weep 
 between the porch and the altar, and let them say. Spare 
 thy people, O Loed, and give not thine heritage to re- 
 proach, that the heathen should rule over them : where- 
 fore should they say among the people. Where is their 
 God? 
 
 This summons to a great convocation for fasting and humiliation 
 before God, differs from that in chap. 1 : 14, in being more specific 
 as to the classes of people to be convened, and also in giving the form 
 
 of prayer appropriate for the occasion. In this prayer, the phrase, 
 
 *' that the heathen should rule over them " — ^has been thought by 
 some to be conclusive proof that the judgment described in this 
 chapter (or, as others think, in the first as well) is not locusts, but 
 
 armed men — a foreign invasion. But a single circumstance like 
 
 this cannot legitimately outweigh the continued tenor of the 
 description throughout these two entire chapters. Besides, the 
 thing chiefly feared from the heathen is reproach, not subjugation 
 — the reproach of having a God unable to save, and bent on scourg- 
 ing and devastation. This is the thought in v. 17-^" Give not 
 thine heritage to reproach ; " and also in v. 19 (the Lord's reply) 
 — " I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen." It 
 
90 JOEL.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 is also seen in the taunt, supposed to be in tlieii* month, " Where is 
 their God?" It is therefore only in harmony with the drift of 
 thought to interpret the words rendered "rule over them," as in 
 the margin, "nse a byw'ord against them." While it must be ad- 
 mitted that in most cases, this verb means to rule^ yet the noun 
 formed from it has the sense of byword, reproach, in many passages, 
 
 and the verb is used in this sense in Job, 17: 6. Or, it might bo 
 
 said that giving this phrase the sense of ruling^ it may still be 
 thought of as an evil to be feared in the future, not as one suffered 
 in the present. If the land were to remain long so desolate and 
 breadless, the people would become an easy prey to any foreign 
 enemy, for such famine at once cuts the sinews of war and leaves 
 the people no power of self-defence. In this view, therefore, they 
 might fitly pray that God would remove this scourge of locusts, lest 
 otherwise the whole nation, being powerless, should fall before its 
 foreign enemies. 
 
 18. Then will the Lokd be jealous for his land, and 
 pity his people. 
 
 19. Yea, the Loed will answer and say unto his 
 people. Behold, I will send yon corn, and wine, and oil, 
 and ye shall be satisfied therewith : and I will no more 
 make you a reproach among the heathen : 
 
 "Then," i. }?., when his people humble themselves, and with one 
 
 heart and voice implore his mercy. Expressly the Lord is said to 
 
 be "jealous for 7iis land," for that land which had long borne his 
 name before the nations, and with wliich his honor was so deeply 
 involved. The Lord's answer promises blessings that lie over 
 against the in*evious curse. He will gloriously reverse the calami- 
 ties with corresponding mercies. It may be noted that all along 
 
 ■ through verses 19-26, these blessings point to the devastations of 
 locusts, the destruction of all the fruits of the earth, as the evUs 
 under which the nation had suffered, with no clearly defined allusion 
 to foreign invasion. This fact goes far to disprove any distinct ref- 
 erence in these chapters to such invasion. 
 
 20. But I will remove far off from you the northern 
 a7'my, and will drive him into a land barren and deso- 
 late, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder 
 part toward the utmost sea ; and his stink shall come up, 
 and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done 
 great things. 
 
 The phrase "northern army" is urged by some as decisive proof 
 of reference throughout this chapter to the Assyrians or Chaldeans, 
 and not to locusts. 
 
 Against this it may be said: (1.) Tlie manner and the conse- 
 quences of the destruction of this army, as given in this verse, show 
 
JOEL.— CILU:*. II. 91 
 
 that tliey are locusts, not men. In destroying this army, the Lord 
 sends a strong wind and drives them into the sea; then they are 
 tin-own (this is implied) by the waves npon the shore, and their 
 stench becomes intolerable. Not so would he destroy an army of 
 men. (2.) It is still a contested question, with autliorities con- 
 flicting on either side, whether the locust armies do not sometimes 
 enter Palestine from the north or northeast, so that this army might 
 be called "northern" for this reason. Or, (3.) It may be sug- 
 gested whether, inasmuch as all the great powers, hostile to Israel 
 in the latter period of their history, lay on the north, viz., Syria 
 and Assyria, this term " northern " might not be a synonym for 
 powerful, so that an army so terrible as this locust horde might be 
 called northern for this reason. 
 
 In the last clause, "because he hath done great things," some 
 critics suppose they find voluntary and morally responsible agency, 
 and hence they infer that it can apply only to a human foe. But 
 the indications of moral agency in this phrase are by no means de- 
 cisive. 
 
 21. Fear not, O land ; be glad and rejoico : for tlie 
 LoKD will do great things. 
 
 22. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for tbe 
 pastures of tlie wilderness do spring, for tlie tree bearetli 
 her fruit, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength. 
 
 By a bold personification the "land " and the "beasts " are ex- 
 horted not to fear any more, for God will remove his fearfid scourge. 
 
 "The Lord will do great things," is here finely contrasted with 
 
 the locusts " doing great things," as in v. 20. However great their 
 devastations, the Lord can make his ensuing blessings far greater. 
 He delights to set his mercies over against the mischiefs and mis- 
 eries that sin brings on men, and to show in this way how exceed- 
 ingly he can surpass them in the greatness and glory of his grace. 
 
 23. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in 
 the LoKD your God : for he hath given you the former 
 rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you 
 the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the fii*st 
 7nonth. 
 
 In the interpretation of this verse, the main question, one really 
 of great interest, is this : Wliether the passage is a promise of rain 
 only^ or whether it comprises a far richer promise and propliecy of 
 
 spiritual 'blessings? This question turns mainly on the sense 
 
 given to the original words rendered in our English text, " the for- 
 mer rain moderately," but in the margin, " a teacher of righteous- 
 ness." If the latter be the true sense, the passage will be found far 
 more rich in promised blessings than has been commonly supposed. 
 The point is worthy of careful attention, and no apology need be 
 
92 JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 made for a thorough, though it be a somewhat protracted examina- 
 tion. 
 
 The evidence in favor of translating '' the teacher of righteous- 
 ness," is in my view fully conclusive. It may be arranged thus : 
 
 (1.) This construction becomes antecedently probable in view of 
 the common prophetic usage of engrafting Messianic prophecies 
 upon analogous events of then current history. Some great present 
 mercy suggests the far greater mercies of gospel times. This usage 
 is so common that it may be considered one of the laws of Messi- 
 anic prophecy. Thus in the passage Isa. 10: 24r-34, with chap. 11 
 and 12, the deliverance wrought for Israel by the destruction of the 
 Assyrian army, suggested the greater deliverance wrought for Zion 
 by her King Messiah. In Zech. 9 : 8-10, the protection afforded 
 against Alexander the Great suggested the richer protection coming 
 from the meek and peaceful King, whose empire shall be wider as 
 well as more benign than ever was Alexander's. There is there- 
 fore not only no objection to the gospel idea in this connection, but 
 there is a measure of antecedent probability in its favor, inasmuch 
 as the circumstances are of that very sort in which prophecies of 
 the Messiah so often occur. 1 adduce this point, however, espe- 
 cially to rebut the only objection made against the Messianic inter- 
 pretation, viz. : that it is out of place here in a strain of remark 
 about rain and fertility after famine. Henderson, Eosemueller, Gc- 
 senius, and others, seem to think this objection conclusive against 
 the reference of these words to gospel times. The facts of pro- 
 phetic usage bear in precisely the opposite direction, and show that 
 Messianic reference is here precisely in place^ opportune, natural, 
 probable. 
 
 (2.) The second argument is of the same sort with the foregoing, 
 heightening the antecedent probabihty of a reference to gospel 
 blessings. It lies in the fact that the prophet gives special notice 
 that he has great blessings to promise, by calling on "the children 
 of Zion to be glad and rejoice in the Lord their God." This notice 
 very commonly and very naturally precedes a prophecy of gospel 
 blessings, as a preintimation that they are to be brought forward. 
 Thus Zech. 9: 9, "Eejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O 
 daughter of Jerusalem ; behold, thy King cometh unto thee," &c. 
 And Zech. 2: 10, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I 
 come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord." Or, 
 Isa. 49 : 13, " Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break 
 forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his 
 people," &c. Tliislist might be extended almost indefinitely, some- 
 times indeed with only the special call of attention, "Behold!" 
 as in Isa. 52 : 13, and Jer. 23 : 5. This may be set down, there- 
 fore, as one of the laws of the Messianic passages, aU the more 
 strong in proof of Messianic reference here, because the prophet 
 had. already announced the coming fulness of bread instead of 
 emptiness, plenty in place of famine ; so that there was really no 
 occasion to call for special joy in the prospect of mere rain. In 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. 11. 93 
 
 fact, rain was already presupposed in the verse preceding — "the 
 pastures of tlio wilderness do spring ; the fig-tree and the vine yield 
 
 their strength." Hence there are the best of reasons to look for 
 
 a promise of gospel blessings here. Let us now examine the words 
 themselves : 
 
 (3.) The specially essential word, rendered " the former rain," 
 is in Hebrew, moreh,* a participle (Hiphil) from the verb t which 
 means, first, to throw or cast ; then to throw javelins, spears, ar- 
 rows ; to throw drops of water, i. e., to rain ; and to throw out the 
 hand in pointing out objects to another, and hence, to teach. Thus, 
 from this root we in fact get words both for rain and for teacher. 
 Indeed, the participle in one conjugation (Kal), is used to a hmited 
 extent for rain, e. ^., Deut. 11 : 14 and Jer. 5 : 24, &c. ; while in an- 
 other conjugation (HiphU)— the one used here — it denotes teacher. 
 
 Of course this is a question of usage. Moreh, in precisely this 
 
 form, occurs in the Hebrew Bible, outside of the passage before us, 
 seven times, and in its plural three times — and in each case in the 
 sense of teacher only. The passages are 2 Kings 17 : 28, " he be- 
 came their teacher;" 2 Chron. 15 : 3, "without a teacher, a priest;" 
 Job 36 : 22 — said of God — " who is a teacher like him?" Prov. 6 : 
 13, "he is a teacher with his fingers" — (with an eye to the ety- 
 mology); Isa. 9 : 14, "the prophet, teacher of lies," &c.; Ilab. 2: 18, 
 
 " teacher of lies." Ps. 84 : 7 may be considered doubtful. Our 
 
 Enghsh Bible has it — " The rain also fiUeth the pools ;" but Dr. 
 Alexander, better, thus : " The teacher is clothed with blessings :" 
 — one of the good things about the house of God — this being the 
 
 subject-matter of the psalm. Besides these, are three instances 
 
 of the plural in the same sense of teacher ; viz., Prov. 5 : 13, and 
 
 Isa. 30 : 20 twice. Hence the usage in the sense of teacher is 
 
 substantially universal, there being no clear case of the use of this 
 word in this form for rain, outside of this passage in Joel. The case 
 
 Ps. 84 : 7 is the only one claimed. Yet further, the usage of the 
 
 finite verb (Hiphil conjugation), in the sense of teach, is most 
 abundant. Taylor's Concordance gives forty-three cases, but not 
 one in the sense to rain. Hence, it would seem that the facts on 
 the point of usage must be conclusive, in proof that the original 
 word moreh means h6re teacher. 
 
 (4.) The argument is heightened by the "use of the article — tlie 
 teacher — the celebrated, distinguished teacher. The ai'ticle appears 
 in none of the other ten cases where this word means teacher. This 
 then must be the teacher, in the highest, noblest sense. But if the 
 v.ord is held to mean rain, no reason can be given for the use of 
 the article. 
 
 (5.) By a sort of attraction, the word in the last clause of the 
 verse, rendered "former rain," takes this fc)rm moreh instead of the 
 usual one yoreh,| but is without the article. In other respects the 
 form is the same as before, where I render it " ^e«cAer." If this 
 
94: JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 were a case of " renewed mention," as gi'amraarians call it, i. e,, if it 
 were used in the same sense here as before, and referred to that use, 
 it should have the article. If that was former rain, this should be 
 the former rain, before spoken of. But this is not the rain ; there- 
 fore that was not rain at all. 
 
 (G.) The word I render "righteousness" (in our English Bible, 
 "moderately") demands the Messianic sense. This word* is 
 always used in the moral seruse — never in the physical* It occurs 
 scorers of times in the Scriptures ; never in the sense of " moderately," 
 as of rain in duecmeasure, but always in the moral sense of morally 
 right doctrine, and a morally right life. 
 
 (7.) Another argument comes from tlie tenses of the two verbs 
 in this passage, rendered "hath given," and "will cause to come 
 down." This argument perhaps will not be very clear to a merely 
 English reader, yet it has essential weight. The first verb is in- 
 deed in the preter tense — a fact which may seem to preclude its 
 being a prophecy of distant future blessings. But almost all the 
 prophecies are in this very tense — so that this is often called "the 
 
 prophetic preter." The tense of the second verb isv^^uite pecaliar 
 
 — known by Hebrew grammarians as the future with vav conver- 
 sive. It indicates a connection with the preceding verb, which 
 means more than " and,'''' i. <?., more than simply that one event 
 comes after the other. The connection may be expressed thus — 
 "And then or so, will he bring down rain," denoting what results 
 as a consequence, or inference, from what has been just said. In 
 the present case the relation of ideas involved in the tense of the 
 second verb may be twofold : (a.) That having promised the Teacher 
 of righteousness whose very name is associated with rain, he will 
 much more give literal rain in its time ; and (?>.) That having thus 
 made provision for teaching the people righteousness, the reason for 
 withholding rain for discipline or in judgment, will cease, and the 
 Lord will now give rain without stint, since he safely can, without 
 moral harm. The latter I incline to make specially prominent. 
 
 (8.) If, with our English Bible, w^e render "the former rain 
 moderately," then the last part of the verse is tame repetition, and 
 makes no progress in the thought : thus—" He gives you the former 
 rain moderately, and he causes to come down the rain, the former 
 and the latter rain." It is scarcely supposable that this, can be the 
 true rendering. This objection cannot be relieved by the differ- 
 ence in tense, presented in our common version — " he hath given ;" 
 and " he will cause to come down ;" for the Hebrew tenses do not 
 sustain this distinction. 
 
 (9.) Giving this clause the sense — " the Teacher of righteousness " 
 with reference to spiritual blessings, and somewhat to gospel times, 
 there is a striking antithesis between this verse and v. 28 ; v. 
 23 promises "the Teacher of righteousness, in the first place." (Our 
 translators found nothing for their word "month.") The Hebrew 
 
 't t : 
 
I 
 
 JOEL.— CHAP. II. 95 
 
 means — "in the first place," tlie first instalment of blessings. Tlien 
 V. 28 promises that '■'• afterward^'''' another instalment shall be given. 
 As the latter is not rain, so neither is the former. As the latter is 
 
 the Spirit, so is the former. 1 suggest yet another antithesis : v. 
 
 23, addressing specially 'Hhe children of Zion," says — "He gives, 
 to you the Teacher of righteousness;" v.. 28, over against this, has 
 it — "I. will pour out my Spirit on all fleshy In verse 23, the pro- 
 noun you is fully expressed, and for this reason, by Hebrew law, is 
 slightly emphatic, or at least distinctly prominent. Hence the evi- 
 dence of designed antithesis is the stronger. 
 
 (10.) This antithesis becomes yet somewhat more direct, if by 
 "the Teacher of righteousness " we understand the Holy Spirit — 
 the same blessing promised in v. 28, given first to the children of 
 
 Zion, and " afterwards poured out on all flesh." " All flesh," by 
 
 current usage as well as by the legitimate sense of the words, should 
 mean the Avhole human family, and in this antithesis, the Gentile 
 world. (See Gen. 6 : 12 ; Ps. G5 : 2 and 145 : 21 ; Isa. 40 : 5, 6, &c.) 
 
 True, the specifications that immediately follow lead the mind 
 
 rather to the idea of all classes of society — "sons and daughters," 
 "old men and young," '^' servants and handmaids" — ^this wide 
 range of classes being perhaps in antithesis with the former limita- 
 tions to the priestly and prophetic orders, to which latter the prom 
 ise (v. 23), may have special reference. That is, the promise of 
 " the Teacher of righteousness," referring primarily to the Holy 
 Spirit, would contemplate the Spirit as working upon the people 
 through his priests and prophets, and thus turning them to right- 
 eousness. The next instalment of these blessings would greatly 
 
 increase the number of his immediate agents. The New Testament 
 seems to assume that, ordinarily, the Spirit reaches the ungodly 
 through the media of Christians, working and praying " in the 
 Spirit," while he comes down upon Christians directly^ both to 
 anoint them for their Christian labor for tlie ungodly, and to secure 
 their own sanctification. This second instalment (v. 28) therefore 
 looks toward the unlimited extension of the Spirit's agencies by 
 multiplying the number and enlarging the circle of his immediate 
 
 agents. The arguments then against restricting the eff'usion of 
 
 the Spirit, promised vs. 28, 29, to the Hebrew line, and /(>r its un- 
 limited extension, stand briefly thus : (a.) " All flesh " legitimately 
 means all mankind, (h.) The specifications only show that the circle 
 of special agents through whom the Spirit works will be vastly en- 
 larged — indeed, will comprise all classes of society — and thus will 
 provide the instrumentalities for diff'using the Spirit's influence over 
 all the world, {c.) Peter applies " all flesh" in this large, unlimited 
 sense (Acts 2 : 21, 39) : " Whosoeter shall call on the name of the 
 Lord shall be saved," (which is his version of Joel 2 : 32), and — "For 
 the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar 
 off^ even as many as the Lord our God shall call." ' This argument 
 from Peter's exposition of Joel is the stronger, because it is pre- 
 eminently the Spirit's exposition, and not Peter's — the latter not 
 
96 • JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 having yet really understood the sense of these words. Acts 10 
 shows hoth wJien and liow his mind was opened to the grand idea 
 that " of a trutli God is no respecter of persons ; " but gives gospel 
 blessings to Gentile as to Jew. 
 
 (11.) That MoreJi, the Teacher, refers to the Holy Spirit rather 
 than specially to the Messiah, is certainly favored by the strong anal- 
 ogy, everywhere apparent throughout the Old Testament, between 
 the Spirit and the gift of rain — between the agencies of the 
 Spirit, and reviving, cleansing water. This analogy does not hold 
 between rain and the Messiah. That rain is a symbol of the Spirit, 
 probably both in manner of coming and in consequent effects, is 
 apparent even here in v. 28 : " I will jp(??/r out my Spirit." The 
 very form of expression shows that this analogy is before the proph- 
 et's mind. So also Isa. 44 : 3, "I will pour water upon him that 
 is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground : I will pour my Spirit 
 upon thy seed, and my blessing upon their offspring." Or Ezek. 
 86 : 25, " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall 
 be clean .... from yoiu* filthiness :" — "I will put my Spirit within 
 you and cause you to walk in my statutes." The parallelisms here 
 furnish all the evidence needed to show that in these passages water 
 
 is thought of only as a figure for the Spirit. Many other passages 
 
 might be cited from the Old Testament in which the close analogy 
 between the Spirit and water is boldly prominent. Ezekiel, in his 
 last recorded vision, saw living waters flow from under -the sanctuary 
 and soon become a mighty river — manifestly looking onward to 
 that blessed age when the fulness of the Spirit shall be shed forth to 
 make pure and effective all the forms of social and moral influences 
 in human society. Let us note also that this passage (Ezek. 47) is 
 the more in point here because it was manifestly suggested by tlie 
 passage Joel 3 : 18, and is strictly an expansion of Joel's thought : 
 — " All the rivers of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain 
 sliall come forth of the hou&e of the Loni^ and shall water the valley 
 of Shittim." 
 
 (12.) It is plausibly objected to the rendering, "Teacher of 
 righteousness," that, admitting it, the thought is dropped too soon, 
 and that the current of remark (vs. 24-27) seems to ignore it, as it 
 could not if the gospel idea were really there in the words which I 
 render "The Teacher of righteousness;" in other words, that 
 room enough is not allowed for a thought so great and so import- 
 ant as this. A closer examination will obviate this objection. 
 
 First, the greatest joy is invoked in view of the gift of the Teacher 
 of righteousness. Then this teacher is to be a present as well as a 
 future blessing, inasmuch as he will manifest his power through his 
 anointed servants — the priests and the prophets of the old dispen- 
 sation. See Zech. 4 throughout, and especially vs. 11-14. Hence 
 the prosperity of the people will hopefully become both great and 
 permanent, since, when they are radically turned to righteousness, 
 nothing wiU restrain the rich gifts of God's providence. More- 
 over, these views and these only give their full force to verses 26, 
 
JOEL.—CHAP. II. 97 
 
 27 — " Ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name 
 of the Lord yonr God who hath dealt wondronsly with you ; and 
 my people shall never be ashamed ; and ye shall know that I am 
 in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none 
 
 else; and my people shall never be ashamed." That they should 
 
 praise God who had " wrought wondronsly " in scourging them for 
 their sins, and in thus drawing them back to humiliation, repent- 
 ance, and a godly life ; that they should know that the Lord is their 
 God and is verily in the midst of them — know it by his disciphne 
 and by its " peaceable fruits of righteousness ; " that they should 
 never be put to shame before their foes, but always live so that the 
 Lord should be their trust and salvation; all these things imply 
 more than a present supply of rain. Their meaning cannot be ex- 
 hausted short of a living fountain of spiritual truth and life, flow- 
 ing from the great Teacher of righteousness through his inspired 
 prophets. 
 
 (13,) Still another objection will strike many minds against the 
 assumed antithesis between the clauses " Teacher of righteous- 
 ness," V. 23, and " I will pour out my Spirit," v. 28, viz.. Why are 
 the names and statements so diverse if they mean the same thing ? 
 If V. 23 means the Holy Spirit, why did not the language say so? 
 
 I reply {a.) As I have already hinted, there may be some re- 
 gard to these facts, viz., that rain is before the mind ; that the ideas 
 of rain and of teacher ^.re associated in the same Hebrew verb ; and 
 yet more, that there is a close and constant analogy in the Hebrew 
 mind between water and rain on the one hand, and the Holy Spirit 
 on the other. (5.) But probably more weight still in determin- 
 ing th.G form of the expression " Teacher of righteousness," is due 
 to the nature of the case in hand, the special sort of blessing 
 needed by the people, as seen in the light of events then present. 
 Great sin had brought upon them a great scourge of locusts, drought 
 and famine. Eepentance and divine mercy had driven oif the lo- 
 custs and brought them rain and bread, but yet the people were 
 not half saved without a permanent Teacher of righteousness. A 
 divine teacher, himself teaching their teachers, and holding the 
 people permanently to righteousness, was precisely the greatest 
 blessing possible in their case ; was the very blessing they needed ; 
 
 was the only thing requisite to fill their cup full. These now are 
 
 not only reasons why God should give the people his Spirit, but 
 were also reasons why He should designate him thus : " The Teacher 
 of righteousness." This name indicated the work most essential 
 then, in the light of the recent calamities and their causes. Hence 
 the name. It is shaped by the surroundings, by the facts then spe- 
 cially present to the mind. Why should it not be ? 
 
 Finally, since this special interpretation which refers the phrase 
 " Teacher of righteousness " rather to the Spirit than to the Son, is 
 mainly if not wholly new, I choose to present it as a suggestion. 
 I do not press it as a point of vital importance. That the passage 
 promises spiritual and not temporal blessings, the teaching of right- 
 
 k 
 
98 JOEL.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 eonsness and not merely the gift of rain, I think is entirely clear 
 
 and withal a point of practical value. Theologically there can 
 
 be no prejudice against it, for while teaching was one office of the 
 Messiah, it was not the only or the chief one, but it is the chief and 
 characteristic function of the Spirit. Jesus himself said of tlie 
 Spirit, " He shall teach you all things ; " and yet more, if possible, 
 to the point in hand, "When he is come, he will reprove the world 
 of sin and of righteousness.^^ 
 
 24. And the floors sliall be full of wheat, and the 
 fats shall overflow with wine and oil. 
 
 25. And I will restore to you the years that the lo- 
 cust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, 
 and the palmer-worm, my great ai-my which I sent among 
 you. 
 
 In the clause " The years that the locust hath eaten," the plu- 
 ral "years" indicates that this scourge was not transient nor lim- 
 ited even to one year, but continued through several, a most terriQc 
 visitation of divine judgment. But the Lord would make good to 
 his people all the losses and sufferings of those long-remembered 
 years. He seems to refer primai'ily to restoration in Mnd, i. e., in 
 corn, and wine, and oil ; but if he would restore those things of less 
 value, how much more will he make up their losses in the earthly 
 line by superabounding mercies in the spiritual line ! This is the 
 wise and ever precious way of the Lord to restore to his penitent 
 people earthly good in jiist measure, but heavenly, in. all the plen- 
 itude of his grace. 
 
 26. And ye sliall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and 
 praise the name of the Loed your God, that hath dealt 
 wondronsly with you : and my people shall never be 
 ashamed. 
 
 27. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of 
 Israel, and that I am the Loed your God, and none else : 
 and my people shall never be ashamed. 
 
 A thanksgiving festival over these mercies would be eminently 
 fitting, especially the thanksgiving and the praise. This repeti- 
 tion is designed to give special force to two ideas : (1) that God's 
 people should };noio by their precious experience that their own 
 God is in the midst of them, a Power and a Eefuge, and an only 
 God, there being no other; and (2) that his people, confiding in his 
 love and help, shall never be put to shame. This confidence in 
 their God can never prove abortive. It is always safe to trust in 
 his name. So trusting, his people never have been confounded and 
 
 never can be. Knowing by personal experience that God is in 
 
 the midst of us through scenes of sore affliction, until deliverance 
 and restoring mercy appear, implies that we apprehend the great 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. 11. 99 
 
 idea of God's use of eartlily discipline, viz., to make all things work 
 together for good to those who love him. "When Israel came out 
 from under the scourge of locusts and famine, penitent and hum- 
 bled, drawn thereby the nearer to God, and made fully aware that 
 his hand had been afflicting them in mercy for their spiritual good, 
 they might well be said to kuow that God had been in the midst 
 of them all the time as their own Lord God. 
 
 28. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will 
 pour out my Spirit upon all jiesli ; and your sons and 
 your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream 
 dreams, your young men shall see visions : 
 
 29. And also upon the servants and upon the hand- 
 maids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. 
 
 There can. be no doubt that this passage predicts the effusion of 
 the Spirit in the gospel sense, and particularly, though not exclu- 
 sively, in gospel times. That the specifications should point to the 
 extraordinary rather than the ordinary operations of the Spirit, 
 i. e., to visions, dreams, and prophetic functions, rather than to his 
 more common, now more useful but less palpable ministries of 
 convicting, converting, and sanctifying grace — has the same reason 
 in prophecy that it had in the fact itself on the day of Pentecost, 
 viz., the importance of having the Spirit's earlier manifestations 
 made so tangible as to convince gainsayers and demonstrate his 
 
 presence and power. "All flesh" must mean the whole race, 
 
 without distinction of Jew or Gentile. This usage is fully estab- 
 lished. In addition to the passages referred to in notes on v. 23, 
 see Gen. 9 : 17 ; Num. IG : 22 ; Isaiah 06 : 23 ; Luke 3 : 6 ; and John 
 17 : 2. The specifications given here, " your sons and your daugh- 
 ters," " your old men and your young men," " the servants and 
 the handmaids," go to show that there shall also be no distinction 
 of sex or age, of rank or station. As the gospel was to be preached 
 to the poor, so the Spirit should come down upon servants and 
 handmaids, as well as upon their employers, however rich and 
 noble. It may also be intended that this spiritual illumination 
 shall not be restricted to the orders of priests and prophets, but 
 
 diffused through all grades and classes. The question 'WTien^ 
 
 must not be overlooked. The only designation of time given here, 
 " afterwards," in future time, was purposely left thus indefinite. 
 The period before Christ and subsequent to Joel, is not necessarily 
 excluded ; the early years of the Christian age are certainly in- 
 cluded, as Peter shows (Acts 2 : 16-21) in his citation of this pas- 
 sage as then having its fulfilment ; nor can the yet future periods 
 of the gospel age be shut out. Indeed, numerous prophecies show 
 that in the times yet future there shall be far richer manifestations 
 of the Spmt's power than the world has yet seen. Nothing in 
 prophecy, nothing in Peter's reference to Joel on the day of Pente- 
 cost, forbids this belief. The connection of thought in which this 
 
100 JOEL.— CHAP. II. 
 
 propliecy stands has been already noticed. The great dcliveraiice 
 wronglit for the covenant people on their repentance, by driving 
 away the fearful locust army and by giving instead copious rains 
 and superabundant harvests, suggested the far richer mercies of the 
 divine Spirit. The nnderlying cause of both is the same — God's 
 loving-kindness and great mercy. It is only in accordance with 
 well-known laws of mind that one great blessing should suggest 
 
 another yet greater. Finally, let us notice the favor shown by 
 
 the Lord to the saints of that early age, in setting before them such 
 glimpses of the better gospel days yet to come, and particularly 
 such revelations of the future effusions of the Spirit. It must have 
 ministered greatly to then* faith in God and to their hope and joy 
 in his kingdom among men. 
 
 30. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in 
 the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smokB. 
 
 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the 
 moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day 
 of the LoKD come. 
 
 Striking portents and prodigies shall precede the coming of 
 " the great and terrible day of the Lord." The two main ques- 
 tions here are (1) "Whether this language respecting the sun and 
 moon shall be taken in a strictly literal or a figurative sense? and 
 (2) Whether the reference is to some one great day only, and if so 
 to what ? or whether the passage teaches or implies a general truth, 
 viz., that portents shall appear prior to all the really great and sig- 
 nal manifestations of the Lord's judgments on the wicked ? As 
 
 to the first question, what is said of the sun and moon must be un- 
 derstood of their appearance, and not of their reality. On the 
 ^question whether these extraordinary things pertain to the realm 
 of nature or the realm of society, I incline to decide for the 
 former, and so far forth to give them a literal construction. That 
 is, I do not favor the mode of interpretation which makes the sun 
 and moon represent the greater and lesser kingdoms or princes of 
 the world. The plagues on Egypt, prior to the great deliverance 
 wrought for God's people, seem to have been before the prophet's 
 mind as the case to furnish his Illustrative terms. And further, 
 there seems to be a general expectation in the minds of men, in all 
 ages, that God will give preintimations in the natural world of his 
 special comings for judgment. To this point pagan writings fur- 
 nish ample proof. As to the question whether this prophecy 
 
 looks to one particular day alone, or rather announces a general 
 doctrine, I suggest that the phraseology " the great and the terrible 
 day " leads the mind specially to some one day, and yet the fact 
 that this day shall be heralded by portents in nature may be only 
 
 one striking case under a general law. If I am to look for the 
 
 definite day, I cannot place it earlier than the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem by the Eomans, as to which day the evidence of portents 
 
JOEL.-CIIAP. III. 101 
 
 and prodigies seems very strong. Beyond that I fix on no definite 
 day. The future may reveal it. It may have its final and most 
 stai'tling fulfilment shortly prior to the last great judgment day. 
 
 32. And it shall come to pass, that wliosoever shall 
 call on tlie name of tlie Lord shall be delivered : for in 
 Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as 
 the LoED hath said, and in the remnant whom the Loed 
 shall call. 
 
 In these times of terrible judgment on the incorrigibly guilty, 
 some shall escape altogether. This verse informs us very definitely 
 who they are, viz., those who " call on the name of the Lord," and 
 those whom "the Lord shall call." Moreover, the deliverance shall 
 be "in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem," i. e.^ for their inhabitants, for 
 
 those who are the Lord's true people. "Calling on the name of 
 
 the Lord " must be of and from the heart, since such salvation can 
 be promised to no other. The primitive Christians were distin- 
 guished as those who called on the name of Christ their Lord, as 
 God ; and to this fact there may be here a prophetic allusion. The 
 common mode of reaching the sense, however, is preferable; all 
 those who heartily cry unto God for mercy and who cast themselves 
 
 wholly on his grace. " The remnant whom the Lord shall call," 
 
 are the same people, for they whom the Lord calls are brought to 
 call on the Lord. In this very thing consists the efiiciency of God's 
 call to them. It moves their hearts to call upon him in sincerity. 
 
 Thus, in the severest judgments of the Lord on the wicked, 
 
 salvation is sure to those who take hold of his promised mercy and 
 grace, and call on him in sincere and humble prayer. His people 
 find a sure and everlasting refuge beneath the wing of the same 
 Power, whose uplifted arm comes down in vengeance on his foes. * 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The most vital and therefore the first step toward the exposi- 
 tion of this chapter is, to determine the general principles of its in- 
 terpretation. The choice lies between two methods. One of these 
 is ably carried out by Dr. Henderson, who always leans strongly to 
 a literal and specific construction. He bolds that the passage 2 : 
 28-82, is parenthetic, interposed between passages preceding and 
 succeeding, both of which were fulfilled at least a century or more 
 before Christ ; while this parenthetic clause carries us forward (for 
 the moment only) to the times of Peter and the Pentecost ; that this 
 third chapter returns again to the restoration from captivity in Baby- 
 lon and to the destruction of Tyre, Zidon, &c., during the two or 
 three centuries next subsequent to that restoration. He accounts 
 it the main drift of the chapter to predict the retributive judgments 
 
102 JOEL.— CHAP. ni. 
 
 of God on those particular nations, and then to portray the conse- 
 quent peace and prosperity of the Jews — all in the period prior to 
 
 the Christian era. The other method makes the main drift and 
 
 purpose of the chapter far more general and less specific in regard 
 to the nations specially named in it ; finds here the general doctrine 
 of God's retributive judgments in this world on nations and powers 
 arrayed against his people and kingdom, and accounts the reference 
 to Tyre, Zidon, and Philistia (vs. ^8), as rather parenthetic and il- 
 lustrative of the general principle, than as constituting the main 
 
 subject of the chapter. On this system it is not supposed that 
 
 more is said of Tyre and Zidon than was true, not more than has 
 been punctually fulfilled ; but it is held that the chapter looks 
 far beyond the case of those nations, and teaches that the retri- 
 bution which blighted them falls under the general law, serves to 
 illustrate that law, and finds a place in this chapter for this reason, 
 
 and not as being the leading theme. 1 adopt this last-named 
 
 method of interpretation, and shall feel at liberty to present it with- 
 out turning aside specially to controvert the other scheme. 
 
 The relation of: this chapter to the first and second should be 
 noticed. The locust army, and its attendant drought and conse- 
 quent famine and distress, gave occasion to prayer, fasting, and peni- 
 tence, and so opened the way for the signal extermination of that 
 army, and for timely rains and superabundant harvests. These 
 lesser gifts suggested the far greater gifts of the Spirit, the predic- 
 tion of which constitutes the glory of the closing verses of 
 
 the second chapter. But there remains yet another great lesson 
 
 of moral truth, suggested by the extermination of the locust horde 
 — a lesson hinted at (2 : 30, 31) in the allusion to " the great and 
 terrible day of the Lord," but laid over for its special presentation 
 in the third chapter, viz., the fearful and exterminating retribution 
 which God will bring on all those nations and powers which per- 
 sistently array themselves in arms against his kingdom and people. 
 Hence this is the great theme of the chapter before us. It naturally 
 closes with the resulting peace, prosperity, and purity of the res- 
 cued and saved people of God. 
 
 1. For behold, in tliose days, and in tliat time, when 
 I shall bring again the captivity of Jndah and Jerusa- 
 lem, 
 
 The first word, "For," indicates a close connection of thought 
 between this chapter and the preceding. The prophet had said 
 there should be "a great and terrible day of the Lord," so sweep- 
 ing in the ruin it brings that none shall escape it but those who 
 call upon the name of the Lord. Here, resuming this subject, he 
 begins to give the reason, ^^For I wiU gather all nations," /. c, for 
 
 trial and retribution. "Behold" calls special attention as to 
 
 truths of momentous import. The time when, is indicated next, 
 
 viz., when he shall interpose to redeem his people and bring them 
 out of all their affliction. The phrase, " bring again the captivity 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. III. 103 
 
 of Judab andJerusalem," admits this general sense, as may be seen 
 in Job 42 : 10, where it is said that "the Lord turned the captivity 
 of Job "—of course, not in the specific sense of bringing him back 
 from some captivity in a foreign land, but in the general one of 
 bringing him out of a state of great afSiction. So, also, Ezekiel 
 (16:53-55) speaks hypothetically of bringing again the captivity 
 of Sodom and Samaria, but explains the sense by saying, " when 
 Sodom and Samaria shall return to then* former estate." We are 
 not, therefore, shut up to find the fulfilment of this chapter at the 
 precise time of some actual restoration of Judah from a real cap- 
 tivity under some hostile nation. The general sense is indeed more 
 probable — When I shall turn my hand from afflicting to restoring 
 and blessing my people, then will I visit retribution on all their foes. 
 
 2. I will also gather all nations, and will bring tliem 
 down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead 
 with them there for my people and for my heritage Is- 
 rael, whom they have scattered among the nations, and 
 parted my land. 
 
 On this verse, the leading question is, whether this gathering of 
 all nations is to be understood literally, or only as a figure for 
 a general retribution ? Under this arises the question, whether the 
 valley of Jehoshaphat, as thought of by Joel, was real, or only 
 
 ideal ? ^In my opinion ideal only, for there is no proof that any 
 
 actual valley was then known by this name. The name occurs no- 
 where else in the Scriptures, applied to any valley. In later times 
 (i. e., since the middle of the fourth century), the name has been 
 given to the valley of the Kidron (in N". T., Oedron), which skirts 
 Jerusalem on the east. With this modern application of the name 
 is connected the current belief among Jews, Catholics, and Moham- 
 medans, that the last judgment will be held in this valley. This 
 fact goes far to show that the name Jehoshaphat was applied to this 
 valley upon the mere supposition that Joel referred to it, and hence 
 is modern only and not ancient^ and therefore affording no proof 
 
 that Joel referred to this valley. On the other hand, the name is 
 
 chosen because of its Hebrew significance — Jehovah judges — and a 
 "valley " is thought of because in this hilly country valleys afford 
 
 the only fit locations for convening a vast multitude. That the 
 
 writer's mind is specially on the significance of the word Jehosha- 
 phat (Jehovah judges), is more obvious in the Hebrew than in our 
 English, since the verb rendered, "plead with," is from the same 
 root. " I will bring them into the valley of the Lord''s judgment, 
 and there will I judge them," i. e., hold court for their trial on the 
 
 charge of scattering my people and dividing their land. The 
 
 reader should also notice in tMs connection v. 12 : " Let the heathen 
 be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat ; for there 
 will I sit to judge all the heathen round about." The idea is that 
 of a grand assize, a sublime court, held for the trial and condemna- 
 
104 JOEL.— CHAP. m. 
 
 tion of the whole heathen world, so far as they have been guilty of 
 wrong and abuse against the known people of God. 
 
 The description of this scene is continued, vs. 11, 13-16. The 
 
 conception is very similar to that of the final judgment, as it ap- 
 pears in the New Testament ; yet this day of Joel cannot be iden- 
 tical with that, because here we have nations on trial ; there indi- 
 viduals : here only those nations which have been known as enemies 
 of the covenant people ; there all people of all time — the entire 
 population of our earth. This takes place in time ; that only at 
 the end of time^ as measured for this world by the great lights 
 
 God has set in our heavens. Let it be considered yet further : — 
 
 No valley, certainly not the one now called the valley of Jehosha- 
 phat, could suffice for convening all the nations specially named in 
 this chapter — to say nothing of the untold myriads really included 
 under this general dcscripfion.* 
 
 I am brought, then, by this mass of concurrent evidence, to 
 adopt the ideal sense of "the valley of Jehoshaphat" — meaning 
 any valley — any circumstances in which Jehovah judges guilty na- 
 tions. The fact that he does judge tTiem^ and visit upon them retri- 
 hution in time, is the thing taught ; — the place where, and its sur- 
 roundings, are only the ideal drapery of the scene, designed to 
 make the fact more tangible to the imagination. 
 
 3. And they have cast lots for my people; and have 
 given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that 
 they might drink. 
 
 Here are more specifications in the indictment against these na- 
 tions. They have not only scattered the chosen people among the 
 nations and parted their land, but have cast lots over the captives 
 (see traces of this usage in ancient times, Obadiah, v. 11, and Na- 
 hum 3:10); and as showing both the wickedness of these conquer- 
 ors, and the contempt they felt for their captives, they gave a boy 
 for the temporary hire of a harlot, and sold a girl for one drink of 
 
 wine. Is it strange that the heart of the great Father should 
 
 take fire against such abominations ? 
 
 4. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, 
 and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine ? will ye ren- 
 der me a recompense ? and if ye recompense me, swiftly 
 and speedily will I return your recompense upon your 
 own head ; 
 
 * still further ; the Hebrews had one general term for a broad Talley* 
 used here; applied also to the broad valley of Esdraelon, and to several 
 others ; but never to the valley of the Kidron. They had another term,^ 
 more specific, for a narrow gorge, the be^i of a winter torrent, which is 
 commonly, if not universally, used for the gorge of the Kidron ; e.ff. 2 Sam. 
 15 : 23, and 1 Kings 2 : 37' and 15 : 13 ; Jer. 31 : 40. Thus Hebrew usage 
 seems to forbid the reference of Joel to the gorge of the Kidron. 
 
 ' prs) » bra 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. III. 105 
 
 " What have ye to do with me ? " fails to express quite clearly 
 the exact sense. Better, and strictly literal is this : " What are yo 
 to me, O Tyre ? " etc. What account do I make of you ? What 
 reason have I to fear your petty wrath ? As the context goes on 
 to say — Will ye think to rise against my scourging hand and wreak 
 your vengeance on me, or on my people ? Will ye retaliate on me ? 
 If ye attempt it, very speedily and swiftly will I hurl back your re- 
 taliation upon your own heads. Of course, in this lofty strain, 
 
 the Lord speaks after the manner of men, but as one conscious of 
 Infinite power to punish his foes, and fully purposed to visit on 
 them most ample and righteous retribution. As already intimat- 
 ed in the introductory remarks upon this chapter, these nations, 
 Tyre, Zidon, and Philistia, are named here, not as being the only 
 nations involved in this gweat judgment, but as present to the minds 
 of the prophet and of his first readers, and as fitting illustrations, 
 therefore, of the great truths he would impress. 
 
 5. Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, 
 and have carried into yonr temples my goodly pleasant 
 things. 
 
 The silver and the gold which they had taken from Israel by 
 robbery, the Lord calls his own — '"'"'my silver." Whatever of most 
 costly value they could find they had borne into their own idol 
 temples, as a trophy of conquest over the people of God, and the 
 Lord remembers this against them ! 
 
 6. The childi-en also of Judah and the children of 
 Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might 
 remove them far from their border. 
 
 The captives they had taken from his people they had sold to 
 the Grecians, in order to remove them far as possible from their 
 homes, that they might never return. 
 
 Y. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither 
 ye have sold them, and will return your recompense 
 upon your own head. 
 
 God will recover them notwithstanding, and will bring retribu- 
 tion on their captors, who had held, or had sold them as slaves. 
 
 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into 
 the land of the children of Judah, and they shall sell 
 them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Loed 
 hath spoken it. 
 
 This retaliation in kind should perhaps be taken as a case of 
 speaking after the manner of men, and not by any means as imply- 
 ing that God can ever sanction the selling of men into slavery, or 
 can authorize his people to do it, even in. retaliation for like offence 
 
106 JOEL.— CHAP. III. 
 
 and abuse. It should, however, be considered that God, in re- 
 tributive justice and judgment on wicked nations, may, through his 
 providential agencies, suifer other wicked nations to enslave them, 
 without at all sanctioning as morally right their free acts in enslav- 
 ing men. This distinction is one of vital moment in regard to 
 God's providential agencies in his government over nations, and, in- 
 deed, over individuals no less. When the Lord sends the scom'ge 
 of war on a nation it will not follow that he accepts as morally 
 right the ambition or the cruelty that instigated the aggressive 
 power, nor does he make himself responsible for their moral acts, 
 however he may permit their existence and providentially direct 
 their blow. 
 
 9. Proclaim ye tliis among tli« Gentiles; Prepare 
 war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war 
 draw near ; let them come np ; 
 
 10. 'Beat yonr ploughshares into swords, and your 
 prnning-hooks into spears : let the weak say, I am strong. 
 
 Having finished the digression in respect to Tyre, etc., and the 
 form of .retribution destined for them, the prophet now, speaking 
 in behalf of the Almighty, daringly challenges the Gentile hosts to 
 
 muster ,for the mighty conflict. The first word of the challenge, 
 
 rendered "prepare" war, carries with it the idea of proclaiming 
 war in the most solemn manner witli religious rites. It is the com- 
 mon word for "sanctify," and means here — make this war a sacred 
 thing; bind yourselves to it by solemn oaths, and invoke all your 
 
 gods to your help. Beating ploughshares into swords reverses the 
 
 long prayed for consummation when swords shall be beaten into 
 ploughshares. The sense is — prepare for universal war. The im- 
 plements on hand might suffice for any ordinary war, but not for 
 this ; now you must needs arm every man, and hence you must 
 convert even the tools of agriculture into weapons of war.— — Let 
 the conscription be absolutely universal. Let no invalid plead ex- 
 emption; "let even the weak say, I am strong." 
 
 11. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, 
 and gather yourselves together romid about: thither 
 cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Loed. 
 
 Then with striking beauty and force the prophet suddenly turns 
 to the other party in the conflict: " Thither bring down thy mighty 
 
 ones, Jehovah ! " How fearful is this great battle of earth now 
 
 coming on ! 
 
 12. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to 
 the valley of Jehoshaphat : for there will I sit to judge 
 all the heathen round about. • 
 
 See notes on v. 2. Observe also how quietly the strain of the 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. III. 107 
 
 passage assumes tliat this dread array of armed nations, vast as 
 numbers- without number, and girded all for bloody war, results in 
 no war at all. Their weapons amount to nothing ; they are there 
 only for judgment — culprits before the King and Judge of the imi- 
 verse ! They suddenly find themselves on no battle-ground, but 
 summoned to the valley where Jehovah judges; and he comes 
 down to take his lofty judgment throne, and " sit to judge all these 
 
 nations round about." What quiet, unostentatious majesty! 
 
 How does such real greatness eclipse all the assembled littleness of 
 the gathered myriads of the heathen i 
 
 13. Put ye in the sickle, for tlie harvest is ripe : 
 come, get you down ; for the press is full, the fats over- 
 flow ; lor their wickedness is great. 
 
 Here are symbols of terrific slaughter. — the sickle laying low 
 the ripened grain, and the wine-v^ats full and trodden till they over- 
 flow with wine — which in such a connection represents human 
 
 blood. Dropping all figure, the reason is given in plain language 
 
 — " For their wickedness is great " — not " tlie wickedness," in- 
 definitely, but theirs^ the wickedness of these hostile nations. 
 
 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision : 
 for the day of the Lokd is near in the valley of decision. 
 
 Their vast number strikes the prophet's mind, and prompts the 
 exclamation, " O, the multitudes ! the multitudes in this valley of 
 
 judgment ! " The word rendered " decision " means judgment 
 
 in the sense of a final verdict which decides the criminal's destiny, 
 past all reversal. See the usage of the original word, 1 Kings 29 : 40, 
 and Isa. 10:22. This \s '■'■ tlie day oftJie Lord;'''' it comes ex- 
 ceedingly near in this valley of judgment. The word "near" 
 should not carry the mind onward to any other day beyond this. 
 God is here, and his great day has come ! 
 
 15. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and 
 the stars shall withdi-aw their shining. 
 
 These figures must here take their usual sense — extreme calamity 
 — casting the deep shades of night over all the hopes of the wicked 
 — engulfing them in deep, impenetrable darkness. So in all 
 languages, of every land or nation, darkness is the symbol of what- 
 ever is most fearful to rational beings. 
 
 16. The LoED shall also roar out of Zion, and utter 
 his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the 
 earth shall shake : but the Loed will he the hope of his 
 people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 
 
 In this strain of the boldest poetic imagery, the Lord becomes 
 a lion, and his roar shakes the heavens and the earth. See the 
 same figure under analogous circumstances, Jer. 25 : 30 ; Isa. 42 : 13. 
 
108 JOEL.— CHAP. III. 
 
 Tliis roar comes forth " out of Zion,^^ because there, in the 
 
 deep recesses of the temple, Jehovah dwelt. Tliis was not only 
 current and accepted Jewish opinion ; it was fact. His manifested 
 presence was there ; and he was careful to impress this upon the 
 hearts of the people. The "voice of the Lord," in such a con- 
 nection as this, is thunder, as throughout Ps. 29. These figures, 
 
 combined, give the climax of the dreadful scene, in which blended 
 terror and majesty, justice and wrath, encircle and gird the throne 
 of the Almighty round about, as, with the guilty nations, the op 
 pressors of his people, assembled before him, he sits for judgment 
 
 and final decision. Then, with inimitable beauty and force, 
 
 turning to those on his right hand (may we not borrow from that 
 other analogous scene ?) he says : " But the Lord will be the hope 
 of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." They 
 may trust their God forever. He is their strength in every hour 
 of their weakness. He stands for their deliverance, and for retri- 
 
 bution on their foes. " Children of Israel " is here parallel to 
 
 " his people," the latter, and consequently the former, including far 
 more than the lineal seed of Abraham. 
 
 17. So sliaH je know that I am the Loed your God 
 dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain : then shall Jeru- 
 salem be holy, and there sliall no strangers pass through 
 her any more. 
 
 " So shall ye Icnoio " — know in your own case and by your own 
 full experience of his saving power and loving heart, that he is 
 Jehovah — forever the same ; that he " dwells in Zion," manifesting 
 his presence, care, and love among his people forever ; and, what is 
 more, making it his holy mountain by purifying his people there. 
 
 '' Then shall Jerusalem be holy " — a statement which clearly 
 
 identifies these events in their general character with those which 
 close the second chapter of this prophet — the outpouring of the 
 Spirit on the children of Zion first, and then on all flesh ; for cer- 
 tainly, Jerusalem never becomes holy save under this great sancti- 
 fying agency. "Strangers," foreign and alien in spirit, heathen, 
 
 wicked men — shall not traverse the holy city any more — shall not 
 come and go as if of her and having rights in her sanctuaries and 
 
 palaces. No more shall such intruders defile the church of God. 
 
 This betokens an eminent degree of real purity and holiness among 
 God's people. 
 
 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
 mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall 
 flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow 
 with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house 
 of the LoKD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. 
 
 This description, looking somewhat to that ancient one of 
 the goodly land as flowing with milk and honey, names earthly 
 
JOEL.— CHAP. III. 109 
 
 good, but manifestly means heavenly. Jewish costume and 
 imagery are to be translated so as to give ns the fulness of gospel 
 significance — the language of the material Canaan into the lan- 
 guage of the spiritual, which is far better. The last clause 
 
 strongly implies and demands this significance. " A fountain comes 
 forth from the house of the Lord," w^here the institutions of 
 rehgious instruction and worship are in power — " and it waters 
 all the valley of Acacias,''^ this being the sense of the word 
 " Shittim." And inasmuch as the oriental acacia enjoys the sterile 
 valley, and puts forth its redeeming beauty and fragrance there 
 where nothing else does, we find here the idea that the gospel turns 
 barrenness to plenty, sterility to verdure, sin to holiness, and woe 
 to bliss, all over this sin-wasted earth. Ezeldel's living waters 
 (chap. 47), starting from the same source, flow into similar desola- 
 tions, and produce a like result of health, beauty, and glory. 
 
 19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be 
 a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the chil- 
 dren of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in 
 their land. 
 
 Prophecies that are alike millennial in their import differ in one 
 respect among themselves, really falling into two classes. One class 
 represents the whole world as radiant with light and glory, peace 
 and love — the earth full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
 cover the sea (Isa. 11 : 9) : — "in every place incense offered to my 
 name, and a pure offering" (Mai. 1 : 11) ; &c., &c. ; while another 
 class (like the passage before us) still leaves on the picture some 
 traces of the awful mischiefs sin has wrought. " Egypt is a desola- 
 tion, and Edom a desolate wilderness," as if to heighten by con- 
 trast the beauty and glory of the people and kingdom of the Lord. 
 Pressed to its literal sense, it could only mean that some districts, 
 most notoriously representing the persistent and sworn enemies of 
 God's people, shall lie desolate, while all around them, even all else 
 on the face of the earth, blooms in beauty and fertility. Those 
 desolations lie in their ruins — like hell among the myriads of holy 
 worlds — a swift and perpetual witness to the fearfulness of sinning 
 against God, and to the certainty of woe to all sinners who will not 
 
 repent. Egypt and Edom were the oldest national enemies of the 
 
 covenant people. They are doomed because of their violence against 
 Judah and the innocent blood they have shed in the Lord's land. 
 
 20. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem 
 from generation to generation. 
 
 21. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not 
 cleansed : ' for the Loed dwelleth in Zion. 
 
 Judah shall be inhabited forever, dwelling in her places. This 
 perpetuity aflimaed of Judah and Jerusalem, must certainly apply 
 only to the real Judah — the true people of God. The Judah that was 
 
110 JOEL.— CHAP. III. 
 
 after the flesh and was of the flesh only, never can fill the sense 
 of these precious words. See Notes on Hos. 1 : 10, 11, and also 
 
 Dissertation II. in the Appendix. The word rendered " cleanse " 
 
 means, to regard as innocent, and therefore to treat accord- 
 ingly. This might imply either that God, at length, freely and 
 fuUy forgives their sin and puts it forever away ; or that he avenges 
 it upon her foes ; prohahly the former, at least ; possibly the latter • 
 
 also. Both ideas are fully brought out in this chapter. It might 
 
 well have been remarked ere this, that very much the same course 
 of thought as appears in this chapter of Joel may be seen also in 
 Isa. 66 : 14-24, and in Jer. 25 : 12-38 ; in Zech. 14 ; and in Ezekiel, 
 chapters 87-48. — The passage in Joel, coupled with these just above 
 noted, suggest this grave and truly momentous question — Whether 
 the final conquest of the world by the Messiah will or will not bo 
 effected in large measure by the destruction of incorrigible enemies. 
 Are we authorized to expect a mingling of judgment and mercy 
 among the agencies in this great conquest ; and if so, can we infer 
 with any considerable accuracy the relative measure of each? or to 
 put the case more precisely, the relative numbers of earth's popula- 
 tion at that time, destroyed by judgments on the one hand, and 
 saved by mercy on the other. This is not the place for an extend- 
 ed discussion of this question. Let it suffice then to say that the 
 
 tenor of prophecy as well as the genius of the gospel system, 
 authorize us to expect the conversion of the world by means of those 
 very gospel agencies which were employed and consecrated by 
 Christ himself — the preaching of the gospel, the faithful testimony 
 of his people, and the gift of his Spirit ; that the Lord has always 
 carried along a coordinate work of retributive justice and judgment 
 on the wicked in this world, sometimes more and sometimes less 
 prominent ; that he may, to cut short the reign of Satan, intensify 
 these agencies of retribution in the latter days ; that universally 
 the underlying principle is, bow or break — repent, or be broken 
 in pieces, so that the finally incorrigible may always know their 
 certain doom. Hence we should not expect a definite revelation of 
 the relative numbers of the saved on the one hand, or of the 
 hardened and destroyed on the other. It is God's way to leave the 
 principles of his moral government and his policy in its adminis- 
 tration in such shape as will bring the most solemn and effective 
 moral pressure to bear toward repentance and consequent salvation, 
 liis problem is — judgment and mercy being given — so to arrange 
 and mingle them as to persuade the greatest number to flee from 
 the judgment and take hold of the mercy. Could he do better ? 
 
 Thus ends this grand, sublime, and glorious chapter ! We might 
 fitly apply these epithets to the whole book, for few more sublime 
 compositions can anywhere be found, distinguished for conceptions 
 so lofty, a style so pure, truths so vast, so far reaching, so vital to 
 the moral government of God over nations, and so fraught with 
 
 instniction to mankind. May the reader catch the inspiration 
 
 of this admirable book, and drink deeply of its pure and healing 
 waters ! 
 
AMOS 
 
 Il^TRODUOTION'. 
 
 Op the previous life of Amos before he became a prophet we le£*rn, 
 from chapter 1 : 1, that he "was among the herdmen of Tekoa, and 
 from 7 : 14, 15, that he was not born in the line of the prophets, but 
 was " an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruifc," and that " the 
 Lord took him as he was following the flock, and said to him, " Go, 
 prophesy unto my people Israel." What the book itself thus states, 
 its style, its choice of words and figures, and its numerous indica- 
 tions of famiUarity with the scenes of husbandry, most abundantly 
 confirm. His case, therefore, shows that the old dispensation as well 
 as the new, honored the humble and laboring classes, and drew 
 some at least of its most effective helpers from among " the poor 
 
 of this world." Tbough a native and early resident of Judah, 
 
 ("Tekoa" being within this kingdom), his prophetic mission was 
 to the northern kingdom exclusively. In chapter 7 : 10-17 it ap- 
 pears that he was then in Bethel, and had made that city his resi- 
 dence. More than this is not known. His first verse fixes the 
 
 date of his prophetic life within the reigns of TJzziah, king of Judah 
 (b. 0. 811-759), and of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel (b. o. 
 825-784). How large a part of the sixty-six years, from the ac- 
 cession of Jeroboam to the death of TJzziah, he was engaged in his 
 prophetic work, is not said, nor whether his time lay nearer the close 
 or the beginning of this period. There are good reasons for suppos- 
 ing that he was somewhat later than Joel, but contemporary, during 
 at least a part of his prophetic life, with Hosea, very probably ear- 
 lier than the active years of Isaiah and Micah. He finds the same 
 sins prevalent and calling for rebuke that Hosea found.- — His Ian- 
 
112 AMOS.— CHAP. I. 
 
 guage is less terse than that of Hosea, less sublime than that of 
 Joel, but .yet by no means unworthy of a place among the noblest 
 writings the world ever saw. His style is clear, forcible, and in 
 some passages grand, particularly in his descriptions of the majesty 
 
 and power of Jehovah. Commissioned especially to rebuke the 
 
 sins of Israel, he yet in the first and second chapters denounces 
 judgments on six other contiguous powers outside of Judah and 
 Israel, and then upon these two in like general terms.*/ Then in 
 chapters 3-6 he exposes and reproves in detail the sins of Israel, 
 and threatens judgments therefor. — </The last three chapters differ 
 from this middle portion by the introduction of visions for purposes 
 of more vivid illustration, and by the blending of promise with the 
 general strain of threatening. The book closes with predictions of 
 peace and prosperity to the kingdom of God ©n earth. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 After a very brief introduction, which gives us the name of the 
 author and the date of his prophecies, the chapter proceeds at 
 once to name the crowning sin of five adjacent nations, and to an- 
 nounce the judgments of God upon them. They are Syria, the 
 Philistines, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon. His main object in this is 
 to make the stronger impression upon Israel. If for their sins God 
 must scourge and even exterminate heathen powers sitting in the 
 dimness of the light of nature, how much more must he for your 
 sins scourge you to whom his word has come ! 
 
 I 1. The words of Amos, wlio was among tlie herd- 
 men of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the 
 days of TJzziah king of Judah, in the days of Jeroboam 
 the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the 
 earthquake. 
 
 Most of the points named here came before us in the general 
 
 introductioTi. This " earthquake " is commonly supposed to be 
 
 that of which Zechariah speaks (14 : 5), " Ye shall flee hke as ye 
 fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of 
 Judah." Since Amos prophesied during Uzziah's reign, and since 
 they both refer to an earthquake of great power and prominence, 
 it may be safely assumed that they speak of the same. But at 
 what point during the fifty-two years of Uzziah's reign this oc- 
 curred is not said. 
 
 2. And he said, The Loed will roar from Zion, and 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. I. 113 
 
 utter his voice from Jerusalem ; and the habitations of 
 the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall 
 wither. 
 
 The first half of this verse seems to he horrowed from Joel 
 8:16. In Joel the passage makes so close connection with what 
 precedes, that it must he admitted to stand " in place^'''' as the geol- 
 ogists say of specimens found in their original rock. Not so in 
 Amos. If we supply " as another prophet has said," we shall not 
 at all disturb the flow of thought. Moreover, Joel prophesied 5e- 
 fore Amos, according to the closest 'estimate, about seventy-live 
 
 years. The last half of the verse is characteristic of Amos. A 
 
 man who came up among herdmen would naturally think of these 
 rather than other effects of the Lord's sore judgments. Oarmel 
 was ordinarily clothed with verdure even to its summit ; hence the 
 fitness of saying " the top of Carmel shall wither." This moun- 
 tain lay in the northwest part of the kingdom of the ten tribes. 
 The word Carmel means a fruitful field, a fact which makes this al- 
 lusion the more forcible. In the passage " The Lord will roar 
 
 from Zion," the original word " roar " is used commonly of the 
 lion, and denotes here that the Lord has aroused himself like the 
 lion of the forest, to assert his rule among the nations, and espe- 
 cially to visit retribution on those which had filled up the measure 
 of their sins. Such a roaring, foreshowing terrible visitations of 
 judgment, would thrill the nailons with terror, much as the beasts 
 of the forest tremble when the earth quakes, and the depths of 
 their solitudes reecho to the lion's roar. 
 
 3. Thus saith the Lord ; For three transgressions of 
 Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the pun- 
 ishment thereof; because they have threshed (xilead with 
 threshing instruments of iron : 
 
 4. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, 
 which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. 
 
 5. I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cnt 
 off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that 
 holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden : and the 
 people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith 
 the LoKD. 
 
 In the passage commencing here and extending to chap. 2 : 6, 
 eight kingdoms are brought up in succession, with Judah^nd Is- 
 rael last. Each receives its message, beginning, '^ Thus sfflth the 
 Lord; " in each is the phraseology — "For three transgressions, and 
 for four, I wiU not reverse it;" each specifies the last and most 
 heinous crime, for which, especially (it would seem), the judgment 
 named is sent; and each closes with naming the judgment. This 
 remarkable uniformity in style no doubt had its object. It natu- 
 
114: AMOS.— CHAP. I. 
 
 rally implied tliat the same God of nations was taking tliem all 
 successively in hand to administer justice and judgment upon each 
 and on the same principles, common to all. It was well adapted to 
 confirm the impression that Jehovah is indeed the ruler of nations, 
 and' holds them to a solemn responsiMlity, here in time, to bear 
 themselves justly and not oppressively toward each other. More- 
 over, as already intimated, these nations contiguous to Judah and 
 Israel are mentioned first, to prepare the minds of the men of Ju- 
 dah and Israel to hear their own sin and doom — first to stir up 
 their sense of justice and draw out their approval of God's right- 
 eous ways, and then to say to them — " Thou art the. man! " Fur- 
 ther, the argument is d fortiori : " If those things be done in the 
 green tree" — to those heathen benighted kingdoms, — "what shall 
 be done in the dry " — to a people chosen and long blessed of God, 
 
 but now shamefully apostate and incorrigible? And yet fm'ther, 
 
 as if to insure the more certtiinly a righteous judgment in the minds 
 of Judah and Israel against their heathen neighbors, the sins se- 
 lected and named are chiefly those committed against Judah and 
 Israel. Everybody sees, feels, and condemns a wrong done against 
 himself. Under this law of even depraved human nature, God first 
 secured fi*om his professed people their indignant condemnation of 
 other peoples' sins, and then lifted the curtain to show them their 
 
 own! "For three transgressions and for four," as to the form 
 
 of expression, may be compared with numerous other passages of 
 Scripture of a like proverbial character ; e. g. Ex. 20 : 5 — " Visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
 fourth generation of them that hate me;" Job 5: 19 — "He shall 
 deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven shall no evil touch thee ; " 
 Eccles. 11:2 — "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for 
 thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth ; " Mic. 5 : 5 — 
 " When the Assyi-ian shall come into our land, then shall we raise 
 
 against him seven shepherds and eiglit principal men." These 
 
 cases establish a current usage of definite numbers to express the 
 
 indefinite idea of several. But the thought is more to us than 
 
 the drapery that clothes or adorns it. This thought is that these 
 nations had been adding sin to sin, running up a 1-ong unsettled ac- 
 count, until at last some one sin, perhaps more aggravated than any 
 preceding, filled up the measure of their - iniquities, and demanded 
 of their righteous Euler his visitation of terrible judgment. The 
 fourth and crowning crime is specified in each case. For three sins 
 they have deserved punishment, and the decree has gone out — for 
 the fourth "I will not reverse it," saith the Lord, but (as is implied) 
 
 will proceed without delay to execute it. It is noticeable that 
 
 the ori^nal has no word for punishment. The little word " i^," 
 sufiixed to the verb — ^I will not reverse it — leaves lis to find its an- 
 tecedent in the never-failing law of connection between sin and 
 punishment. The Lord assumes that men ought to know what he 
 will not reverse, after his aUusion to such sins as these. This tacit 
 assumption that judgment must follow sin has in itself appalling 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. I. 115 
 
 force. "Damascus" represents Syria, a strong and flourish- 
 ing kingdom on the north and northeast of Tsraeh It Avas the 
 capital. 
 
 Their last sin was that of "threshing Gilead" — putting its in- 
 hahitants to torture and death under tlie huge threshing-wain, 
 armed with savage iron teeth, and drawn hy animals over the grain. 
 See a case of such treatment, 2 Sam. 12 : 31, and also 2 Kings 13 : T 
 
 — the last heing done by this same Hazael. The name Gilead 
 
 covers the territory of the two and a half tribes east of Jordan. 
 Lying contiguous to Syria, it suffered fearfully from that kingdom. 
 
 The judgment was a devouring fire sent on the royal house of 
 
 Hazael, and of his son and successor, Ben-hadad. (Both his father 
 and his son bore this name, Ben-hadad ; but Amos must allude to 
 the son. See 2 Kings 13 : 3, 24.) " The bar of Damascus " rep- 
 resents its means of defence and protection in war. " The inhabi- 
 tant" — ^literally he who sifs^ i. e.^ on a throne — is parallel to "him 
 that holdeth the sceptre." The sense is that their government 
 
 should be utterly broken down, and their nationality cease. The 
 
 word " Aven" is probably changed from On^ the Syrian name of a 
 beautiful valley, the country-seat, it may be, of their king. The 
 Hebrews, changing its vowels, called it Aven, to represent the con- 
 temptible idolatry of the Syrians. See the same word, Aven, 
 wrought into the name Beth-e? (Beth- Aven), for a similar reason, 
 
 Hos. 4: 15, and 10: 5, 8. "House of Eden," equal to Paradise, 
 
 is another delightful locality, and was called in ancient authors. 
 Paradise. Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, fulfilled this predic- 
 tion. He took the people into captivity to Kir, the river and region 
 known as Cyrus, in Iberia. See this fact in history, 2 Kings 16 : 9. 
 " The king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, and 
 carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Eezin." 
 
 6. Thus saith the Loed ; For three transgressions of 
 Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment 
 thereof: because they carried away captive the whole 
 captivity, to deliver them up to Edom : 
 
 7. But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which 
 shall devour the palaces thereof: 
 
 8. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, 
 and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I 
 will turn mine hand against Ekron : and the remnant 
 of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God. 
 
 Gaza, the northern of the five chief cities of the Philistines, rep- 
 resents here the whole cluster. Gath, the only one of the five not 
 named here, is omitted, probably because it was already laid waste, 
 i. «., during the reign of Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26 : 6, 7). This was 
 
 within the personal knowledge of Amos. Their crowning sin 
 
 was that they carried the entire body of their captives to Edom and 
 
116 AMOS.— CHAP. I. 
 
 sold them for slaves. The phrase, "the whole captivity," aflBrms 
 nothing in respect to the number, as being great or small ; it means 
 all they had. Edom, further advanced in wealth and the arts than 
 most of the nations adjacent to Palestine, seems to have been a no- 
 torious slave mart. The Lord accounted it the damning sin of the 
 Philistines, that they sent thither all their prisoners of war and sold 
 them into slavery ! Who, after this testimony, can deny that God 
 abhors slavery, and will preeminently scourge and destroy the na- 
 tion that makes itself preeminent for the enslaving of men? The 
 
 " fire sent on the wall of Gaza " is the desolation of war, visited on 
 them by Czziah, as above noted, and by Hezekiah (see 2 Kings 18 : 8), 
 
 and later by various Eastern conquerors. " The inhabitant " must 
 
 be understood here as in v. 5. See a striking prophecy of the final 
 fall of the Philistines, in Jer. 47. 
 
 9. Thus saitli tlie Loed ; For three transgressions of 
 Tyi-ns, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment 
 thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity 
 to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant : 
 
 10. But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, 
 which shall devour the palaces thereof. 
 
 Tyre, the city renowned for its commerce and wealth, on the 
 Mediterranean and very near the northwest corner of the land of 
 Canaan, had sinned, in common with the Philistines, by send- 
 ing the entire body of their captives of war to Edom for slaves 
 — a sin in their case aggravated by the friendly and even covenant 
 relation existing of old between them and the ancient kingdom of 
 Israel. This was indeed a " brotherly covenant," binding each party 
 to mutual friendship and protection. It commenced between 
 Hiram, King of Tyre, and David ; the former making the first ad- 
 vances. (2 Sam.' 5 : 11), "Hiram, King of Tyre, sent messengers 
 to David, and cedar-trees," &c. It was ratified again between the 
 same Hiram and Solomon (1 Kings, 5 : 12), " Hiram sent his ser- 
 vants to Solomon [for Hiram was ever a lover of David], and 
 they two made a league together." It is obvious that the cap- 
 tives, which Tyre sent en masse to Edom, were Hebrews, else the 
 Lord could not have deemed it a breach of tliat "brotherly cove- 
 nant." Tyre sufi'ered fearfully from the arms of both Nebuchad- 
 nezzar and Alexander the Great. They were the fire of Jehovah's 
 vengeance upon her, specially for her sin of selling aU her captives 
 into the horrible slave marts of Edom. 
 
 11. Thus saith the Loed; For three transgressions 
 of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punish- 
 ment thereof: because he did pursue his brother with 
 the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did 
 tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever : 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. I. . 117 
 
 12. But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall 
 devour the palaces of Bozrah. 
 
 Edom liiinself comes next — an ancient kingdom sontLeast from 
 Palestine, strong in arms, and very considerably advanced in culture 
 at the time when Israel, forbidden by him to travel through his ter- 
 ritory, journeyed round it to reach the Jordan and pass into Canaan, 
 B. c. 1451. His crowning sin lay in his animosity against his 
 brother Jacob. Intensely jealous of the greatness of the Hebrew 
 nation, Edom had almost never neglected any opportunity to 
 let loose his w^rath upon them. As stated here, he had " pursued 
 Ms brother with the sword," and had " cast off all pity." The original 
 more precisely says he '''•corrupted^'''' in the sense of suppressing 
 and smothering the natural dictates of sympathy and compassion. 
 "His anger did tear " — the common word used when savage beasts 
 of prey tear in pieces their victims, and he "kept his wrath 
 forever," not suffering even the lapse of time to abate its ferocity. 
 Teman and Bozrah were principal cities in Edom, and here rep- 
 resent the nation. 
 
 13. Thus saith the Lord ; For three transgressions of 
 the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn 
 away the jpunishment thereof: because they have ripped 
 up the women with child, of Gilead, that they might 
 enlarge their border : 
 
 14. But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Kabbah, 
 and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting 
 in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of 
 the whirlwind : 
 
 15. And their king shall go into captivity, he and 
 his princes together, saith the Loed. 
 
 Ammon and Moab, nations taking their name and descent from 
 the two sons of Lot, were ancient kingdoms on the east of Jordan, 
 and of course contiguous to the country of the two and a half 
 
 tribes here called Gilead. The last and fatal sin of Ammon was 
 
 their horrid cruelty upon the pregnant mothers of Gilead, as if it were 
 their purpose to exterminate not only the living population, but the 
 unborn no less. God holds nations solemnly responsible for the sin 
 of cruelty. It was an insignificant apology for such cruelty that 
 
 they wanted more territory. The indignation of the Lord against 
 
 them for such cruelty stands out in the grouping of fire, the war- 
 cry of battle, the tempest and whirlwind, among the figures that 
 set forth the vengeance due and about to fall on Ammon. Oh, how 
 sublimely grand is such vengeance on a nation guilty of such horrid 
 
 Bin ! Let us not fail to note the solemn lesson, which all people 
 
 of every age should learn from this recital of Jehovah's judgments 
 on nations for violating the plain dictates of common justice and 
 
118 AMOS.— CHAP. II. 
 
 huraaDity in their treatment of each other. And let ns revert 
 
 agaia to the fact that most of these last and damning sins were 
 committed against the Hebrews, a secondary object with Amos 
 being to draw out tlieir verdict against these sins as perpetrated by 
 their enemies, and bring them to admit and endorse the principles 
 of God's administration as infinitely right and just, before he shall 
 come to say, "Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of 
 Judah and of Israel^ and for four, I will not reverse it." There 
 was no difficulty in getting them to condemn with burning indigna- 
 tion the sins under which themselves had suffered. This done, it 
 only remained to add, Thus saith the Lord; thou art the man! 
 Condemning others, thou hast confessed thine own desert and fore- 
 shadowed thine own doom I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 This chapter continues the unfinished series of kingdoms doomed 
 for their national sins — Moab, the last outside of the chosen people ; 
 then Judah and Israel. Israel once reached, becomes the subject 
 of rebuke, expostulation, and threatened doom throughout this 
 chapter and the four next followmg. 
 
 1. Thus saitli the Loed ; For three transgressions of 
 Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment 
 thereof, because he burned the bones of the king of 
 Edom into lime : 
 
 2. But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall de- 
 vour the palaces of Kirioth : and Moab shall die with 
 tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the 
 trumpet : 
 
 3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst 
 thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, 
 saith the Loed. 
 
 Moab closes the list of Gentile nations. In his crime — ^burning 
 the bones of the king of«Edom into lime — his vindictive spirit fol- 
 lowed his enemy even beyond death, into the grave. It may be 
 supposed that he came into possession of the body of his old enemy 
 by some of the vicissitades of war. Of the fact we have no history. 
 But this horribly vindictive spirit, and this savage act, called forth 
 the special curse of the Lord. 
 
 4. Thus saith the Lord ; For three transgressions of 
 Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punisJi- 
 ment thereof: because they have despised the law of the 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. 11. 119 
 
 Loud, and have not kept his commandments, and their 
 lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers 
 have walked : 
 
 5. But I will send a fire npon Judah, and it shall 
 devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 
 
 The crying sin of Judali, corresponding to the enslaving of their 
 captives by Gaza and Tyre, to the barbarities of Damascus and of 
 Amnion, and to the perpetual resentments of Edom, lay in her dis- 
 owning God, spurning his authority, and turning her heart to idols. 
 The " law of the Lord " is the moral law ; " the commandments " 
 are specially the statutes, rehgious and civil ; while their "lies which 
 liad led them astray," were their idol gods. Those were lies in the 
 most emphatic sense — lies in act^ every idol god being a lie acted 
 out, a living falsehood, representing nothing true and real, but only 
 a delusion ; or, in the shortest, best phrase, a lie. This crime of 
 Judah was all the greater because it was committed against so 
 much light. " To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to 
 him it is sin " (James 4 : 17). " If I had not come and spoken to 
 them " — so said Christ of the Jews — " they had not had sin ; but 
 now they have no cloak for their sin " (John 15 : 22). Jiidah had 
 no doubt sinned in other ways ; doubtless she had been cruel 
 toward other nations, oppressive toward her own poor, but none of 
 these sins were to be named in comparison with this mother sin, 
 this crowning sin of all — her reproach and dishonor cast upon God 
 in rejecting his authority, renouncing his worship, and giving her 
 
 heart publicly to lying vanities. This passage reads to us the 
 
 guilt and the doom of thousands of ungodly men in Christian lands. 
 They know God and his gospel but too well — too well to have their 
 sin and damnation measured by even the savage barbarities of 
 heatlien nations. Of the city where Christ wrought many mira- 
 cles he said, " It shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for 
 
 Sodom than for thee" (Matt, 11:24). The Chaldean was the 
 
 first terrible executioner of this threatened doom. (See 2 Chron. 
 3G : 19 ; Jer. 52 : 13 ; Lam. 2 : 1-10.) 
 
 6. Thus saith the Lord ; For three transgressions of 
 Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punish- 
 ment thereof: because they sold the righteous for silver,' 
 and the poor for a pair of shoes ; 
 
 7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head 
 of the i)Oor, and turn aside the way of the meek : and 
 a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to 
 profane my holy name : 
 
 8. And tl>ey lay themselves down upon clothes laid 
 to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the 
 condemned m the house of their god. 
 
1,20 AMOS.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 Last of all is Israel, the northern kingdom, to whom especially 
 the prophet Amos was sent. It is remarkable that their chief sins, 
 as here developed, lay in the line of immoralities against their fel- 
 low-men: the violation of natural rights, the oppression of the 
 poor, and dishonoring the law of chastity. This book of Amos 
 discloses startHng facts in respect to the luxury of the wealthy, and 
 their oppression of the poor. Note the particulars given here. 
 " They sold the righteous for silver ; " good men, bearing God's 
 image, and beloved of him for their moral integrity, they sold for 
 paltry silver! Ought not the righteous Father of all to abhor tliis 
 crime, and hurl his bolts of vengeance on the heads of such crim- 
 inals? They "sold the poor for a pair of shoes," so cheap did 
 
 they hold personal liberty and the rights of manhood! These 
 " shoes " were only sandals, nothing but soles of leather or wood, 
 
 fastened to the foot with straps ; of course very cheap. " That 
 
 pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor : " so grasp- 
 ing, so avaricious, so bent on extorting every thing the poor man 
 had, if they saw a particle of dust settled upon his hatless head, 
 they are represented as panting after it, as if they could have no 
 rest till they had got it by extortion or by violence ! A pretty 
 strong figure truly — but human depra\dty sometimes comes fully up 
 to the sense of it ! Avarice not unfrequently becomes the ruling 
 master passion of a man's soul, and then no sin is more likely to 
 take on a development perfectly monstrous. It behooves men of 
 
 avaricious tendencies to beware ! Some interpreters suppose the 
 
 case thought of here is that of a poor man, robbed of all, throwing 
 dust on his head in his grief over his loss, while his rapacious op- 
 pressor grudges him even this poor dust ! To " turn aside the 
 
 way of the meek " is to subvert justice in their case, and bar them 
 
 from redress for their wrongs through the courts of law. The 
 
 case of a man, his father, and the same maid, refers probably to the 
 public prostitutes kept in the idol temples, such abominations being 
 part of that system of unutterable pollution. The prophet says 
 this was done to profane God's holy name, as if it were their set 
 purpose to dishonor God and trample under their feet his blessed 
 
 law of chastity. Eetaining over night the garments of the poor 
 
 taken in pledge, was very expressly forbidden, Ex. 22 : 26, 27 : "If 
 thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver 
 It to him by that the sun goeth down, for it is his covering only ; 
 it is his raiment for his skin. Wherein shall he sleep ? And it 
 shaU come to pass when he crietli unto me, that I will hear, for I 
 am gracious." The poor in those countries had no bed-covering 
 other than their outer garments. The Lord would not let the grip 
 of avarice deprive the poor of their bed-covering. But these de- 
 generate Israelites, instead of returning this bed-covering for the 
 owner to sleep under, " laid themselves down upon clothes laid to 
 pledge" ( i. c., as security for debts), and this "5y ^^'^^2/ «^^«^" in 
 the very presence of their gods, and in their places of rehgious 
 worship. Plainly their religion bore no testimony against out- 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. n. 121 
 
 rageons inlirimanitj. Any form of religion is practically rotten which 
 bears no testimony or protest against hard-hearted cruelty to man. 
 There is never a stronger proof of religious corruption than a cool 
 and heartless mixing up of professed worship of God with remorse- 
 less crime toward man. " To drink the wine of the condemned 
 
 in the house of their God," is another sin of the same sort.* Lit- 
 erally rendered, it is the wine of the 'amerced or taxed — the wine 
 they had assessed upon their tenants or other poor, and by fraud 
 or force compelled them unjustly to pay. This they have the im- 
 piety to drink " in the house of their god," their religion having 
 no testimony to bear to the conscience against crime toward fellow- 
 men. 
 
 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before tliem, whose 
 heiglit was like tlie lieiglit of the cedars, and he was 
 strong as the oaks ; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, 
 and his roots from beneath. 
 
 Here the prophet turns to speak in the next three verses of 
 what God had wrought for his people, that in the light of these 
 great works of mercy they may see their more aggravated guilt. 
 The Amorites, living of old on both sides of the Jordan, rep- 
 resent the nations of Canaan. Physically, they were a gigantic 
 race, and being proficient in the arts of war, they were exceedingly 
 strong. So they appeared to the twelve spies whom Moses sent up 
 from the wilderness of Paran. They reported: " The people be 
 strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very 
 great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there." " All 
 the people that we saw in it are men of great stature ; there we 
 saw the giants ; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, 
 and so we were in their sight " (iTum. 13 : 28, 32, 33). The his- 
 tory shows that God's interposition to drive out this powerful 
 race before Israel, then altogether unused to war, was special. 
 Ke promised early (Ex. 23 : 27-29), "I will send my fear before 
 thee, and will destroy all the people unto whom thou shalt come. . . 
 I will send Jiornets before thee who shall drive out the Oanaanites," 
 (fee. See also Deut. 7: 20, and Josh. 24: 12. This hornet (so ren- 
 dered) seems to Iiave been some form of scourge, perhaps a pesti- 
 lence, as Hab. 3 : 5 would naturally imply. It was at least God's 
 hand, manifested either in some physical scourge, or in mental panic, 
 or in both, and designed to palsy their power and make them an 
 easy conquest to God's chosen people. This Amos beautifully sets 
 forth : " The Amorite, though in his early prowess as the height 
 of the cedars and the strength of the oaks, yet God's hand destroyed 
 his fruit above and his roots beneath." 
 
 10. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, 
 and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess 
 the land of the Amorite. 
 
122 AMOS.— CHAP. n. 
 
 The scenes of the Exodus and of those forty years in the wilder- 
 ness were full of divine care and love. Every day had its miracles 
 of mercy. 
 
 11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of 
 your young men for IS"azarites. Is it not even thus, O 
 ye children of Israel ? saith the Lokd. 
 
 The order of prophets seems not to hai'e been specially provided 
 for in the Mosaic institutes, but sprang up under the law of demand 
 — the exigencies of later times. Eor the order of Nazarites, how- 
 ever, special provision was made. (See Num. 6.) The persons com- 
 posing this order were often set apart from their birth, e. g.^ Sam- 
 son and Samuel. They were to abstain sacredly and specially from 
 wine and from every thing else that could intoxicate, standing as 
 living witnesses to the value of temperance and a perpetual protest 
 
 against self-indulgence. It was truly a favor to the people that 
 
 the Lord took his prophets and Nazarites from their own sons. 
 We can suppose the case that the men for these orders should have 
 been called in from other nations. This supposition Avould show 
 at a glance how much better the social and general influence must 
 
 be to take them from Hebrew families. Our translators and 
 
 many commentators interpret the question at the close of the verse 
 as the Lord's appeal to Israel to admit the fact that he had taken 
 his prophets and Nazarites from among them. In my view, such 
 an appeal can scarcely be deemed necessary, and is therefore very 
 improbable. I prefer to read, " And is there nothing of this, O ye 
 children of Israel ? " Is this a thing of no account ? — ^implying that 
 it is a matter of great account. 
 
 12. But ye gave the I^azarites wine to drink ; and 
 commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. 
 
 This fact evinces the daring impiety of the people. Tliey sought 
 to fi'ustrate the benevolent aims of God in establishing both these 
 classes of reformers. "Ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink" — 
 seducing them into the violation of their vows, and thus paralyzing 
 their influence. "Ye forbid the prophets to prophesy." In some 
 cases, they persecuted, imprisoned, and murdere(? God's prophets, 
 
 to suppress their testimony. Such a people must be fast filling up 
 
 the measure of their iniquities. 
 
 13. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is 
 pressed that is full of sheaves. 
 
 14. Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, 
 and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither 
 shall the jnighty deliver himself : 
 
 16. JSTeither shall he stand that handleth the how ; 
 and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: 
 neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. III. 123 
 
 16. And he that is courageous among tlie miglity 
 sliall flee away naked in that day, saitli the Loed. 
 
 Here the prophet announces divine jnclgments for these sins of 
 
 the people. The received version — " I am pressed under you," 
 
 &c., represents the Lord as the cart pressed by its burden of sheaves 
 — with reference to the demand made upon liim for vengeance — 
 Vv'hich demand his justice could not resist, nor could his mercy 
 yield to it without strong pressure and keen anguish. This senti- 
 ment may be very true, but it is probably not the truth taught here. 
 The passage should rather be read — " Behold, I am pressing you 
 down as a cart full of sheaves presseth down," i. e.^ whatever it 
 passes over. The points in favor of this construction are (1.) That 
 the verbs are not passive — " I am pressed," &c., but are strongly 
 active, and even causative — "I am pressing you down '' — causing 
 you to be pressed down. (2.) That the word "Behold," more 
 naturally calls attention to the punishment God will inflict than to 
 the state of his feelings in view of the necessity of inflicting it. 
 (3.) And it makes the logic of the following verse far more forcible : 
 — a people so pressed down as with a loaded cart upon them must 
 lose all power of flight, even the swiftest of them ; the strong could 
 have no force available under such a weight, &c. This logical con- 
 nection of thought, expressed by " therefore " (v. 14), is more than 
 lost by the rendering which assumes that the weight and burden 
 of this pressure come down upon God rather than upon his sinning 
 
 people. The idea that none can escape is reiterated with great 
 
 force. The bowmen shall not stand ; the swift-footed shall not save 
 even himself, nor he who has a fleet horse at command ; and finally, 
 he who unites the utmost courage and the utmost strength shall 
 
 only escape (if at all) naked, saving nothing but his person. The 
 
 reader will readily notice that the figure belongs to husbandry, and 
 is such as we might look for in one who was from boyhood " among 
 the herdmen of Tekoa." 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 This chapter continues the same strain, exposing the sins of the 
 people, showing that the Almighty awakes to judgment against 
 them, and calls his prophet to reveal the fearful truth. Foreign 
 nations are summoned to witness the sins of Samaria, and again her 
 doom is announced. 
 
 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against 
 yon, O children of Israel, against the whole family which 
 I Lronght up from the land of Egypt, saying, 
 
 2. You only have I known of all the families of the 
 earth : therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 
 
124: AMOS.— CHAP. III. 
 
 It was tlie peculiar aggravation of the sins of Israel that God 
 had Tcnown tliem as his own, and had blessed them only among all 
 the nations, with abundant i-evelations of his will ; and that, not- 
 withstanding all, they had persistently rebelled against him. There- 
 fore, he would surely punish them for all their iniquities. The sins 
 of other nations God might wink at and pass over with comparatively 
 little notice ; the sins of Israel could not be passed over ! 
 
 3. Can two walk together, except they be agreed ? 
 
 4. Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no 
 prey ? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have 
 taken nothing ? 
 
 5. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where 
 no gin is for him ? shall one take up a snare from the 
 earth, and have taken nothing at all ? 
 
 6. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the 
 people not be afraid ? shall there be evil in a city, and 
 the LoKD hath not done it f 
 
 These spirited Interrogatives imply that God can go on no 
 longer with his covenant people ; that the hour of his desolating 
 judgments hastens on ; that for these judgments there is abundant 
 cause in their sins ; and that the Lord has summoned his prophet to 
 
 become his oracle of solemn warning to the guilty people. More 
 
 particularly, I paraphrase thus : Can God and Israel walk together 
 unless agreed in sympathy of purpose and character, as they are 
 not now ? — AVill the Lord roar out of Zion in premonitory fore- 
 shadowings of coming vengeance, when there is no prey to fall 
 
 upon ? Can the people fall under war and captivity where no 
 
 war is, and no captivity, and there is no wrath of God to fear ? 
 
 Are these threatened judgments really nothing? Are not people 
 
 wont to be afraid when they hear the clarion blast of war ? And 
 shall they not fear as much now, before the awful blast of Jehovah's 
 trumpet, calling out the nations to bring war on liis land ? Shall 
 we not recognize God's agency as including and working all the 
 
 inflictions of calamity that faU on guilty cities ? This "" evil in 
 
 the city " which v. 6 "assames that the Lord has done, must be 
 natural, not moral — calamity, not sin. The original Hebrew is used 
 frequently for natural evil, e. j/.. Gen. 19 : 19 : "Lest some evil take 
 me and I die;" and Gen. 44:34: "Lest peradventure I see the 
 
 evil that shall come on my father ;" also Ex. 32 : 14. Besides, 
 
 the strain of the whole passage is of natural evil — the judgments 
 about to come from God on apostate and guilty Israel. To construe 
 this evil, therefore, as being sin, and not calamity, is to ignore the 
 whole current of thouglit, and to outrage the soundest, most vital 
 laws of interpretation. Moreover, common justice towai-d God 
 ft)rbids this construction — " Shall there be sin in the city, and the 
 Lord hath not done it? " This would assume that God is the doer 
 of all the sin in our world I 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. III. 125 
 
 7. Surely tlie Lord God will do nothing, but lie 
 revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. 
 
 8. The lion hath roared, who will not fear ? the Lord 
 God hath spoken, who can but prophesy ? 
 
 The Lord is wont to forewarn his people by his prophets before 
 he smites them with desolating judgments. This forewarning the 
 prophet now gives, as v. 8 implies : " The lion hath roared." God 
 has uttered his fearful note of warning as one about to smite ; who 
 can refuse to prophesy when thus called to it of God ? The prophet 
 means to say that in the presence of such demonstrations of coming 
 judgments, he should bo not only false to God, but false to his 
 countrymen, if ho did not solemnly announce God's message, and 
 call them to repentance. 
 
 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the 
 palaces in the land of Egypt, and say. Assemble your- 
 selves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the 
 great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in 
 the midst thereof. 
 
 This is a call to the people of Ashdod and Egypt, and, by 
 implication, to all the nations named and doomed in the first two 
 chapters, to convene upon the mountains that overlook Samaria, 
 and be witnesses to her great tumults, disorders, and crimes, and to 
 tlie oppressions done in the midst of her. Guilty as those nations 
 are, they will see deeper guilt and more outrageous crime in Sama- 
 ria. They are to be witnesses of her doom : let them first witness 
 her sins. The word "oppressed" in the text, should bo "op- 
 pressions," as in the margin. 
 
 10. For they know not to do right, saith the Lokd, who 
 store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 
 
 These are the people of Samaria. Despite of all the light of 
 nature and the superadded liglit of divine revelation, they yet act 
 as if they knew not how to do right. The trouble is not their 
 ignorance, but their moral perverseness. Knowledge of duty does 
 them no good: they will go on in sin as */* they had no moral sense 
 
 — no knowledge of right. " They store up in their palaces " the 
 
 fruits of their "violence and robbery" — the cause, violence, being 
 put for the result — the property they wrest from, the poor and in- 
 nocent. The frequent allusions to "palaces" imply that the 
 
 wealtliy classes lived in luxury on the fruits of extortion and op- 
 pression. 
 
 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord God ; An adversary 
 > there shall he even round about the land ; and he shall 
 bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall 
 be spoiled. 
 
126 AMOS. -CHAP. III. 
 
 Tljere sliall come an enemy — one who shall pervade the whole 
 land. He shall bring down ihj strength, and shall spoil thy palaces. 
 
 The Assyrians were this enemy. The desolation they wTOught 
 
 was complete, as the reader may see in 2 Kings 17. 
 
 12. Thus saithi the Lord: As the shepherd taketli 
 out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an 
 ear : so shall the children of Israel be taken out that 
 dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus 
 in a couch. 
 
 This figure, altogether natural for a shepherd-author, shows 
 that nothing but the merest wrecks and fragments of that great and 
 wealthy people would remain — only some of the aged, bed-ridden, 
 or sick, overlooked in the general slaughter and deportation of cap- 
 tives — here one in the corner of a bed ; there another on a couch. 
 
 Some of the people might have fled to Damascus for refuge ; 
 
 hence this reference to the few left there. The devastation would 
 be most terrific and complete. 
 
 13. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith 
 the Lord God, the God of hosts, 
 
 14. That, in the day that I shall visit the transgres- 
 sions of Israel upon him; I will also visit the altars of 
 Beth-el : and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and 
 fall to the ground. 
 
 15. And I will smite the winter-house with the sum- 
 mer-house ; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the 
 great houses shall have an end, saith the Lokd. 
 
 Yet another message indicates the point on which especially the 
 judgments of the Almighty would fall, viz., on the idol altars of 
 Bethel, and on the luxurious palaces of rich oppressors. God would 
 direct his judgments so in the line of the sins scourged as to indi- 
 cate those sins. He would show that his wrath burned especially 
 against those idol altars, and those palaces built with the fruits of 
 
 violence and wrong. "The horns of the altar ; " its projecting 
 
 points at each of the four corners, were highly ornamented ; hence 
 these especially should be smitten, to rebuke the pride of the people. 
 
 " The houses of ivory " were those in which ivory was used 
 
 for ornament. Only the w^ealthy could have one house for sum- 
 mer and another for winter. The curse of extermination fell on 
 Samaria mainly because her wealth was ill-gotten, and represented 
 her cruel, iniquitous oppression of the poor and innocent. 
 
AMOS,— CHAP. IV. 127 
 
 CHAPTER ly, 
 
 The prophet still addresses the proud, oppressive, but effeminate 
 people of Samaria, descrlbincc them (v. 1) ; predicting their captivity 
 (vs. 2, 3) ; in irony, bidding them go on in their sins (vs. 4, 5) ; recit- 
 ing successive judgments from God — famine, drought, blasting, pes- 
 tilence, and the overthrow of some of them even as Sodom — all, 
 however, failing to bring them back to God (vs. 6-11) ; therefore the 
 Almighty bids them prepare to meet him in his desolating judg- 
 ments (vs. 12, 13). 
 
 1. Hear tliis word, ye kine of Bashan, tliat are in tlie 
 mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which 
 crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and 
 let us drink. 
 
 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, 
 the days shall come upon you, that he will take you 
 away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks. 
 
 3. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at 
 that lohich is before her ; and ye shall cast them into the 
 palace, saith the Lord. 
 
 By the word " kine " (the nearly obsolete plural of cow) some sup- 
 pose the luxurious and corrupt women of Samaria are meant. It is 
 better to apply it to the same class hitherto spoken of, e. ^., 2 : 6-8, 
 11-16, and 3 : 9-15, i. e., the wealthy, proud, oppressive rulers and 
 leaders in civil and social life, with no special reference to the fe- 
 male sex : (1.) Because the description given of them here identifies 
 them as tte same ; they oppress the poor, crush the needy, love 
 strong drink, &c. (2.) Because these cows of Bashan are spoken 
 of. in the Hebrew, now in the feminine and now in the mascuhne 
 gender, as if the figure drew the writer to the feminine, but the 
 fact to the masculine ; and (3.) Because he had special reasons for 
 
 calling tie men " cows of Bashan," as we shall see. Concerning 
 
 this figure — Bashan, a region on the east of Jordan, was renowned 
 for its rich pastures and breeds of cattle, fine, fat, and strong. (See 
 Deut. 33; 14; Ps. 22 : 12 ; Ezek. 39 : 18.) Especially the "bulls of 
 Bashaa," as in David's reference (Ps. 22 : 12), were fat, strong, fear- 
 less, ferocious : " Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round." 
 Perhaps with a tacit but cutting allusion to them, Amos meant to 
 say—" Ye cows (not bulls) of Bashan, fat enough indeed and well- 
 fed; fierce and cruel enough toward your helpless poor; but 
 shamefully effeminate and coioarclly where real danger lies ; — hear 
 ye uhese words ! The Lord is about to put his hook in your nose, 
 and take you away to a hopeless captivity. Ye shall be driven out 
 through the breaches made in your city walls, as a man drives out 
 his cows through a gap in their fence — each cow straightforward, 
 
128 AMOS.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 i. e., with no option to turn to the right hand or to the left." This 
 
 is the general course of thought in the first three veriBes. Spe- 
 cially — (v. 1), ^'in the mountain" would be better on the moun- 
 tain, with the figure in view— cows of Bashan, pasturing on the 
 
 mountains of Samaria. " "Who say to their masters," the king — 
 
 the plural being probably what is called '■'•pluralis excellentim^'''' — 
 a plural form appropriated to one indi\ddual — (here a king) as a 
 
 distinguished honor. " The Lord hath sworn by his holiness " — 
 
 as if declaring solemnly — If I am holy ; if I abhor sin ; ly all my 
 abhorrence of such outrages npon the innocent — ye shall be swept 
 
 from your land ! " Taking them away with fish-hooks," should 
 
 not lead onr thought to fishing for small game, but to the harpoon~ 
 ing of sea-monsters, or rather, to the hook in the jaws of leviathan, 
 or in the nose of fierce bullocks, as where the Lord said of the As- 
 syrian king (Isa. 37 : 29), " I will put my hook in thy nose and 
 turn thee back by the way by which thou camest ; " or of Pharaoh 
 (Ezek. 29 : 4), " I will put hooks in thy jaws," &c., " and will bring 
 thee up out of the midst of thy rivers ; " or (Job. 41 : 1, 2), " Canst 
 tJiou draw out leviathan with a hook ? " Thou canst not ; but God 
 
 can ! In v. 3, the clause — " Ye shall cast them into the palace " 
 
 — should rather be read — " They " — the cows, alias the rich, 
 proud oppressors of Samaria — " shall be cast out of the palace," 
 driven rudely from the ivory mansions, made so splendid by the 
 
 fruits of robbery and wrong. Thus the entire passage is keenly 
 
 ironical and stinging. 
 
 4. Come to Beth-el and transgress : at Gilgal multi- 
 ply transgression ; and bring your sacrifices e^ery morn- 
 ing, and your titlies after three years : 
 
 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, 
 and proclaim and publish the free offerings*, for this 
 liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Loid God. 
 
 These verses continue and even intensify the strain of irony. 
 " Come to Bethel, and sin on, since so you like ; try it, if you will ! '' 
 
 Bethel and Gilgal were places noted for idol worship. The 
 
 Mosaic law required a sacrifice each morning ; tithes for the poor 
 at the end of each third year (Dent. 14: 28, 29, and 26 : 12), thank- 
 offerings, and free-will offerings also ; — but the people of Samaria 
 mixed up these required ritual services with horrible idolatry and 
 not less horrid immoralities — oppression, slavery, outrages on all the 
 rights of the poor and the weak. Hence God abhorred them none 
 
 the less for their religious rites. " This liketh you " — means in 
 
 the original, this you like or love. 
 
 6. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in 
 all your cities, and want of bread in all your places : yet 
 have ye not returned unto me, saith the Loed. 
 
 7. And also I have withholden the rain from you, 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. lY. 129 
 
 when there were yet three months to the harvest : and 1 
 caused it to rain upon one city, and cansed it not to rain 
 upon another city : one piece was rained upon, and the 
 piece whereupon it rained not withered. 
 
 8. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to 
 drink water ; but they were not satisfied : yet have ye 
 not returned unto me, saith the Lord. 
 
 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew : 
 when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig- 
 trees and yom- olive-trees increased, the palmer-worm 
 devoured them : yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 
 the' Lord. 
 
 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the 
 manner of Egypt : your young men have I slain with 
 the sword, and have taken away your horses ; and I 
 have made the stink of your camps to come up unto 
 your nostrils : yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 
 the Lord. 
 
 Here is a series of milder chastisements whicli the Lord had 
 tried upon the people, but all in vain. The statement of each form 
 of infliction closes with the same sad result — "Yet have ye not re- 
 turned unto me, saith the Lord." They are enumerated in this 
 way to show the people how long, how patiently, how sincerely, 
 and with what varied appliances the Lord had labored to reclaim 
 them, that they might themselves see the necessity laid on him to 
 
 proceed to measures far more stern and fearful. " Cleanness of 
 
 teeth " is identical with want of bread, famine. He had withheld 
 rain, long before the maturing of the harvests, so that the harvest 
 
 must have utterly failed. The middle clause of v. 9 might be read : 
 
 " The multitude of your gardens and of yoar vineyards, also your 
 
 fig-trees and olive-trees, the locust hath devoured." V. 10 
 
 seems to imply that when the young men were slain by the sword, 
 their horses, left riderless, fell into the hands of the enemy and were 
 
 taken captive — fit retribution for their vain trust in horses. A 
 
 great slaughter had left many bodies unburied, to aggravate the 
 pestilence ; but even this fearful scourge did not bring them back to 
 God. 
 
 11. I have overthrown some of you, as God over- 
 threw Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a fire-brand 
 plucked out of the burning : yet have ye not returned 
 unto me, saith the Lord. 
 
 Some of their cities had been laid desolate, even as Sodom and 
 Gomorrah ; — by what precise agency is not said ; but the rest of 
 
130 AMOS.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 the nation raiglit ^tly regcard themselves as a brand plncked from 
 the flames. These figures occur, Zech. 3 : 2, and 1 Cor. 2 : 15. 
 Yet this most fearful scourge of all, which seemed almost to kindle 
 the very lires of perdition upon them, failed to secure repentance. 
 
 12. Therefore, tliiis will I do unto thee, O Israel: 
 and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet 
 thj God, O Israel. 
 
 " Therefore " implies that by the very necessities of his moral 
 government, since all discipUne and chastisement fail, exterminat- 
 ing judgments must come! The word " thus," which here raises 
 
 the question, Bow will God deal with them? refers to the previous 
 verses. The answer therefore is — As I have exterminated some of 
 your cities, root and branch, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, so will 
 
 I do to the whole nation. Because I have purposed to do this, I 
 
 now give thee warning — "Prepare to meet .thy God! " Ye must 
 meet him, coming with exterminating judgments ;*there is no es- 
 cape ; therefore be in readiness ! The spirit of this announce- 
 ment seems to be that the decree of judgment had gone forth, and 
 its execution was fixed in the counsels of Heaven ; and yet this fact 
 is declared, not with' the expectation that the masses will hear and 
 repent, but rather in the hope that some individuals might ; and that 
 it might stand as a warning to all other guilty nations in later times. 
 
 It will be noticed that the primary sense of the passage relates 
 
 to Israel as a nation, and had its fulfilment in the final desolation 
 and captivity efl:ected by the Assyrian power as stated 2 Kings 17. 
 But in principle ' it applies with even augmented force to all the in- 
 corrigibly wicked, summoned to meet God in the final judgment- 
 day. It warns them to be ready to meet him then and there, by 
 tm'ning at once to become his friends and people. O might the 
 wicked only be wise in time, and make the Great Judge their friend 
 while they may, so freely and with such welcome ! 
 
 13. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and cre- 
 ateth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his 
 thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and tread- 
 eth upon the high places of the earth. The Loed, The 
 God of hosts, is his name. 
 
 To give his readers some just sense of the majesty of that Being 
 whom sinners of that and of every age must meet in judgment, he 
 names a few of his mighty acts. The passage has scarcely a par- 
 allel for its beauty and sublimity. TJie Creator must be indefi- 
 nitely greater than his works; — but look at them — the mountains 
 and the winds ; note how he can tell man all his thoughts ; how he 
 can change the glory of the morning into darkness ; and with the 
 majestic march of a God, tread upon the high places of the earth — 
 Jehovah, God of the armies of heaven, his name : — then say — ^Is it 
 well for thee to rouse his wrath to flame and then to fall before it ? 
 
AMOS— CHAP. V. 131 
 
 Can thy heart endure and thy hands he strong in so dread a con- 
 flict ? Wilt thou persist in having this Almighty God thine enemy ? 
 
 It is remarkable that though this chapter begins with caustic 
 
 irony, yet it ends with the most tender, solemn warnings. IJence 
 the irony is not malign, but is benevolent — used only for the befl^er 
 moral effect — not for any satisfaction to bo found in inflicting a 
 keen and cutting castigation. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In this chapter the prophet laments the fall of Israel ; exhorts 
 the people to seek the Lord ; portrays the glory and power of Je- 
 hovah, as reasons why he should be both feared and sought ; re- 
 bukes the sins of the people, and afiBrms God's abhorrence of the 
 mere forms of worship without the heart and without justice and 
 righteousness toward fellow-men. 
 
 1. Hear ye this word wliicli I take up against you, 
 even a lamentation, O house of Israel. 
 
 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen ; she shall no more 
 rise : she is forsaken upon her land : there is none to 
 raise her up. 
 
 This lamentation or elegy — a plaintive wail of grief — assumes 
 forcibly that Israel is seen as one fallen, and her nationality extinct. 
 She is compared to a maiden, now gone down to rise no more. 
 "Forsaken upon her land" should rather be '''' prostrate vl^oq. her 
 own land," with none to help her rise. 
 
 3. For thus saith the Lord God ; Tlie city that went 
 out hy a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that 
 which went forth hy an hundred shall leave ten, to the 
 house of Israel. 
 
 The glory of cities was graduated by thj3 number of men they 
 could send out for war. The passage shows how fearfully their 
 strength had departed. The city that once sent forth a thousand 
 had now but a hundred left ; so that the house of Israel was shorn 
 of its military strength. 
 
 4. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, 
 Seek ye me, and ye shall live ; 
 
 5. But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and 
 pass not to Beer-sheba : for Gilgal shall surely go into 
 captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought. 
 
 " Seeking the Lord " is returning to him in penitence and im- 
 ploring his mercy. The promise — "thou shalt live" — usually 
 
132 AMOS.— CHAP. V. 
 
 covers something more and other than natural life, and, in the case 
 of Israel, more than a prolonged nationality; it me^ns the richest 
 blessings. Life is one of the most comprehensive and expressive 
 tei^akin human language to denote blessedness — substantial good. 
 
 " Seek not Bethel ; " i. e., the idol gods of Bethel. So Gilgal 
 
 and Beersheba are not to be sought, considered as seats of idol-wor- 
 ship. In the last clause the prophet fastens the thought in the 
 mind of his Hebrew readers by a play upon his words. Gilgal, 
 meaning the place of rolled-up heaps, shall be roUed away into 
 captivity ; Bethel shall become Aven, nothing, void of any living 
 thing. The word rendered " nought " is Aven. Bethel came to 
 be frequently called Beth-aven, because it was desecrated by its 
 idols. Here the sense is even stronger — house of nonentities, 
 empty of even its senseless, powerless idols. Even they have gone 
 and perished ! 
 
 6. Seek tlie Loed, and ye shall live ; lest lie break 
 out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devoiir it, and 
 there he none to quench it in Beth-el. 
 
 A further reason for seeking Jehovah is, "lest he break forth 
 like fire on the house of Joseph " — Joseph being another name for 
 the northern* kingdom. The last clause, literally rendered, is ex- 
 pressive : " And there be no quencher for Bethel " — ^no one to ex- 
 tinguish the fires the Lord kindles upon her. 
 
 7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave 
 off righteousness in the earth, 
 
 "Wormwood" is one of the most bitter of herbs — significantly 
 put here for the grief felt by those who get only wrong and injury 
 where they should have right and good. The passage describes 
 
 those who wrest the cause of the innocent and pervert justice. 
 
 The clause " leave off righteousness in the earth " is be.tter ren- 
 dered, " who cast righteousness to the ground." The words im- 
 ply also that they make it lie there — make that its resting-place — 
 and allow it no practical sway in human afiairs. 
 
 8. Seeh him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, 
 and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and 
 maketh the day dark with night : that calleth for the 
 waters of the sea, and pom-eth them out upon the face 
 of the earth : The Loud is his name : 
 
 Men should seek God because he is so great and so glorious — 
 has such power to turn our day to night, and our night to day — to 
 bring up the waters of ocean by his call, and pour them forth 
 as of old, in the deluge. The beauty and sublimity of this passage 
 are exquisite. Job has a similar allusion to those brilhant constel 
 lations (9 : 9). 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. V. 133 
 
 9. That strengthenetli tlie spoiled against tlie strong, 
 SO tliat tlie spoiled shall come against the fortress. 
 
 This magnificent description of the power of Jehovah closes 
 with a word designed to make it more practical to the Samaritans 
 who rehcd on the military strength of their capital — " "Who makes 
 destruction flash out upon the mighty, and desolation shall como 
 upon the strong city." The first verb, which I have rendered 
 "flash out," takes its figure from the breaking forth of the dawn 
 upon the darkness of the night — a figure which has most force in 
 countries near the equator, where the twilight is short. The re- 
 ceived translation fails to give the exact sense. 
 
 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and 
 thej abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 
 
 Again the prophet reverts to the reigning sin of the people. 
 They love darkness and hate light, because their deeds are evil, and 
 they are committed to wrong-doing. The "gate" was in that ago 
 the court-house — the place where justice should reign, and sin be 
 always rebuked. The people of Samaria hated the upright, honest 
 judge, and whoever else should speak for righteousness. 
 
 11. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon 
 the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat : ye 
 have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell 
 in them ; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye 
 shall not drink wine of them. 
 
 These "burdens of wheat " were cruel exactions in the form of 
 rents or taxes, yet oppressive and unrighteous. For these sins of 
 oppressing the poor, God wiU tear them away from their houses 
 and vineyards. However much they may build the one and plant 
 the other, he can frustrate their hope of enjoying them. It is hard 
 fighting against God. No wisdom and no strength can withstand 
 him. 
 
 12. For I know your manifold transgressions and 
 your mighty sins : they afflict the just, they take a 
 bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from 
 their right, 
 
 " For I know that your transgressions are many, and your sins 
 great." " The poor in the gate " are before the courts of justice. 
 
 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that 
 time ; for it is an evil time. 
 
 " The prudent " are the wise and good. They keep silence and 
 forbear to .rebuke the sins of the age, because they see no hope of 
 doing good thereby. They recognize God's awful presence to scourgo 
 the people, and they bow before his manifestly righteous ways. 
 
134: AMOS.— CHAP. V. 
 
 14. Seek good, and not evil, that je may live : and 
 go the LoED, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye 
 have spoken. 
 
 " As ye have spoken " refers to tlieir professions of being the 
 people of the Lord, and, as such, safe against harm from a heathen 
 foe. The prophet says to them — " Seek good, and not evil ; " so 
 the Lord of hosts shall be with you truly — as ye have been saying 
 when it was not true. 
 
 15. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish 
 judgment in the gate : it may be that the Loed God of 
 hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. 
 
 The phrase ''remnant of Joseph" imphes that the population 
 was already greatly reduced in numbers, of which fact there is 
 proof in 2 Kings 10 : 82, 83 : "In those days the Lord began to 
 cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel." 
 
 16. Therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, 
 saith thus ; Wailing shall he in all streets ; and they shall 
 say in all the highways, Alas ! alas ! and they shall call 
 the husbandmen to mourning, and such as are skilful of 
 lamentation to wailing. 
 
 17. And in all vineyards shall te wailing : for I will 
 pass through thee, saith the Lord. 
 
 The prophet Amos is remarkable for the fulness and solemnity 
 with which he uses the significant names of God. Here is an in- 
 stance: "Jehovah, the God of hosts" (or celestial armies), "the 
 Lord, saith thus," &c. The people at that time had a very imper- 
 fect sense of the glory and majesty of the Lord their God. This 
 grouping of his majestic names was therefore entirely appropriate, 
 
 and had a most worthy object. In this passage the Lord seeks to 
 
 impress the certainty of their impending doom by declaring that 
 soon there shall be wailing through all the populous cities and the 
 country. The " skilful of lamentation " were persons who made it 
 their profession to sing or chant mournful dirges at funerals, or on 
 other occasions of public sorrow. Eccles. 12:5 speaks of this class 
 of persons as "going about the streets." Jer. 9 : 17-19 seems to 
 show that women were specially employed in this service. This 
 usage prevailed not only among the Ilebrews, but among the 
 
 ancient Greeks, Eomans, Egyptians, and other nations also. 
 
 God " will pass through " the land and among the people in such 
 a way that they shaU feel his preisence and be made fearfully con- 
 scious of his wrath. 
 
 18. "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord ! 
 to what end is it for you 1 the day of the Lord is dark- 
 ness, and not light. 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. V. 135 
 
 19. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met 
 him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on 
 the wall, and a serpent bit him. 
 
 20. Shall not the day of the Loed te darkness, and 
 not light ? even very dark, and no brightness in it ? 
 
 In their foolhardiness some had expressed their desire that this 
 day of the Lord might come, madly daring Jehovah to do his worst. 
 Upon them God denounces special woe. He asks — What will this 
 day of the Lord he to you ? and answers — Only darkness, and not 
 light ; no rays of light in it ; no mitigation to its horrors. Then, 
 by two expressive figures, of a class natural to the mind of one 
 trained in fields and deserts where wild beasts have their homes, he 
 shows that to attempt to flee from God in any direction would be 
 
 only to meet him there in a more fearful form. What else can 
 
 any sane mind think of the daring impiety that challenges God 
 to show his power to curse and punish, save that it is the veriest 
 madness ? Do such men suppose they can cope with Omnipotence ? 
 Do they assume that God's resources for making them feel the bit- 
 terness of his strokes, are likely to be soon exhausted ? Or do they 
 glory in rousing their puny souls to bravery and daring, as if it 
 w^ere noble to measure strength with the Almighty ? Alas for the 
 folly and the madness that sin begets ! 
 
 21. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not 
 smell in your solemn assemblies. 
 
 22. Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your 
 meat-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I 
 regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 
 
 23. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ; 
 for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 
 
 The people were deluding themselves with the notion that they 
 were high in favor with God, because they kept up the forms of 
 the Mosaic worship. To dispel this delusion, the Lord solemnly pro- 
 tests to them that He not only takes no pleasure in their worship, 
 but thoroughly abhors it:- "I hate, I loathe your feast days.'' 
 The practice of burning incense in worship for the sake of its sweet 
 odors, led to the use of the verb to S7nell in this connection. It* 
 may perhaps be as well to translate so as to give only the ultimate 
 
 sense — I have no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.- The 
 
 "peace-ofterings" are often called "thank-oiferings," a term which 
 better expresses their significance — offerings of gratitude and thanks- 
 giving. The word '•''noise'''' (v. 28) is highly expressive, showing 
 
 that music with no heart in it is ovljnoise^ and never melody to the 
 ear of God, a thought worthy of consideration in reference to the 
 " service of sacred song " in our own times. ' If the Lord had a 
 prophet Amos to send now into modern congregations, would ho 
 
136 AMOS.— CHAP. V. 
 
 not (sometimes) give Mm this very message ? The sentiment of 
 
 these verses appears in several other prophets — in Hosea, as ^e 
 have seen, 6 : 6, and 8 : 13, and 9:4; and Isa. 1 : 11-15. 
 
 24. But let judgment run down as waters, and right- 
 eousness as a mighty stream. 
 
 Tlie Lord asks them to reform, not their modes of worship, but 
 their morals^ their monstrons wrongs and oppressions of their fel- 
 low-men. Let judgment (in the sense of justice) flow freely, rolling 
 on as water, smoothly and without obstruction ; and let righteous- 
 ness be as a perennial stream. Some critics say perennial ; others 
 say strong, powerful. Either is good sense, and the original bears 
 either. A stream never dry, and never abating its flow, seems most 
 
 in harmony with the scope of thought. How strongly does the 
 
 word of God aflSrm and reiterate the doctrine that God repels the 
 forms of worship, unless they are accompanied with an honest re- 
 gard for our fellow-men ! He will never accept of worship profess- 
 edly offered to himself, in place of duties due to man. This is 
 
 truly like a father, to insist that we shall treat all his children well, 
 as a condition of his accepting our worship of himself. No 
 worship can be so costly or so imposing that it can supply the place 
 of "loving our neighbor as ourself." 
 
 25. Have ye ofiered unto me sacrifices and ofierings 
 in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel ? 
 
 26. But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch 
 and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye 
 made to yourselves. 
 
 27. Tlierefore will I cause you to go into captivity 
 beyond Damascus, saith the Loed, whose name ts The 
 God of hosts. 
 
 This question assumes that the answer is affirmative. Ye did, 
 indeed, i. e., your fathers, then living, did offer sacnfices in the 
 wilderness; hut, ye also carried along your little idol images 
 secretly, stealthily, all that time. The same spirit of idolatry has 
 become far more rampant, open. Heaven-daring, in these later 
 jtimes, for which I shall send you into capti\ity beyond Damascus. 
 
 This is the general scope. The particular explanation of v. 26 
 
 has been found somewhat difficult. The quotation of it by Stephen 
 (Acts 7 : 42, 43), made from the Septuagint version, shows some 
 of these various opinions. The original words have been spelled 
 and read differently; e. g., the Hebrew reading is Melek, which 
 means king; the Septuagint is Moloch, an ancient idol. Some 
 make Chiun a proper, others a common noun. None of these 
 points of difference materially affect the general sense of the 
 passage, which, beyond all doubt, means that the Israelites in the 
 wilderness bore along with them little shrines and images of idol 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. YI. 137 
 
 gods, or of some of the planets. The Hebrew text might be 
 
 rendered, "But ye bore the shrine of your king (meaning, yonr 
 idol) and the little images of your idols, the star of your 
 god, which ye made for yourselves." Tlie last clause implies that 
 the images represented a star, and involved the worship of the 
 planet Saturn. They supposed the planets to be animated, conscious 
 and powerful, wielding a vast influence over human destiny. These 
 ideas and usages they found and embraced in Egypt. Of their per- 
 petual tendency to idol worship while in the wilderness, the history 
 gives painful evidence, especially in the case of the golden calf (Ex. 
 82). In our passage it is assumed that, like Eachel in Jacob's family, 
 some of the Hebrews, during those forty years, bore along their 
 
 little idol shrines and worshipped them. The Jews were never 
 
 thoroughly cured of their proclivities toward idols until their 
 seventy years' captivity. The captivity of the ten tribes practically 
 destroyed their nationality, and sunk them into oblivion, so that it 
 cannot be known whether they ever abandoned their idol worship. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 "Woes on cities and their chief men who can be at ease in their 
 great sins, and in the very face of fearful j udgments from the Almighty ; 
 further specifications of their sins of luxury, intemperance, and 
 oppression; followed by announcements of yet more desolating 
 judgments, fill up this chapter. 
 
 1. Woe to tliem that are at ease in Zion, and trust in 
 the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the 
 nations, to whom the house of Israel came ! 
 
 The word Zion embraces Jerusalem and her leading minds, as, 
 on the other hand, Samaria carries us to the chief city of the north- 
 ern kingdom. The people of Samaria trusted in the natural 
 
 strength of their position — on the mountains. " Judah and Israel 
 
 were renowned as chief among the nations " of Western Asia. The 
 clause " to whom the house of Israel came," refers to the leading 
 men — princes, judges, and religious teachers, to whom the people 
 came for justice in the courts, and to whom they looked for influence 
 
 and direction. This woe came on them because of their great 
 
 guilt, especially the guilt of being reckless in the midst of awful sin, 
 and under God's revealed threatenings of exterminating judgments. 
 For the responsible leading men to say practically in the face of 
 such threatenings, What do we care f was fearfully provoking to 
 the Most High, and must inevitably seal their doom. In every age 
 sinners who scorn the warnings of Jehovah, and would fain be at ease 
 in Zion despite of them, are near the point where judgments break 
 forth and " there is no remedy ! " 
 
138 AMOS.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 •♦ 
 
 2. Pass ye unto Calneli, and see ; and from thence 
 go ye to Hamatli the great : then go down to Gath of 
 the Philistines : 1)6 they better than these kingdoms ? or 
 their border greater than yonr border ? 
 
 This verse connects itself in thought with tlie clause " which 
 are named chief of the nations " (v. 1). The thought is — Judah 
 and Israel have stood high among the nations of their time, in 
 military power, in richness of country, and in the light of a true 
 religion ; their responsibilities arc therefore the greater, and so much 
 the more is their guilt in disowning and abusing the great Giver of 
 
 their blessings. That they were truly renowned as first among 
 
 the nations, any one may see by going (in thought) to those nations 
 with whom the comparison should naturally be made. Pass thus 
 over the Euphrates to Calneh (called Calno, Isaiah 10 : 9), on the 
 east bank of the Tigris, and see ; from thence go to Hamath the 
 great, on the Orontes, one of the great cities of Syria ; then go down 
 to Gath of the Philistines : were they better than these two king- 
 doms, Judah and Israel ? or had they a lai^ger and better territory ? 
 
 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the 
 seat of violence to come near ; 
 
 4. That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch them- 
 selves upon their couclies, and eat the lambs out of the 
 flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall ; 
 
 6. That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent 
 to themselves instruments of music, like David ; 
 
 6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves 
 with the chief ointments : but they are not grieved for 
 the affliction of, Joseph. 
 
 Here is a rapid description of the social and moral life of the 
 classes in question — the leading minds, especially in the kingdom 
 of Israel. They "put far away the evil day," i. e., in thought, they 
 assume it to be far distant, and they act as if it were; but the 
 throne of violence — the bench of justice whence righteousness 
 should proceed and violence never should — they cause to come 
 near ; — the form of expression being antithetic to that in the first 
 clause. They thrust the fear of danger from sin far away, and 
 welcome near the worst forms of wrong, even legalized oppression, 
 rolling in luxury, lounging in idleness, feasting on fatlings from 
 flock and stall, chattering to the sound of the viol (where the word 
 used by the prophet has a spice of irony and contempt) ; but they 
 are fain to give themselves to music, as if nothing in their great 
 guilt and near approaching doom should be allowed to trench on 
 their hilarity; and to crown all, they drink wine by the. bowlful, 
 and, anointing themselves with the richest oils, they think only of 
 personal self-indulgence and never "grieve for the affliction of 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. VI. • 139 
 
 Josepli." Their country and the cause of their nation's God have 
 
 no place in their hearts. This last clause, " they grieve not for 
 
 the affliction of Joseph," is analogous to " being at ease in Zion," 
 and shovv^s why the woes of God came down on Israel. They had 
 
 no true s^ympathy with God or with his people. The name 
 
 " Joseph " represents the kingdom of Israel considered especially as 
 being the chosen people of God, and bearing his name before the 
 nations ; yet may there not be, in the choice of this name, a tacit 
 allusion to the original Joseph among his envious, heartless breth- 
 ren, when they " saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought them, 
 and they would not hear." Little did they heed the affliction of 
 Joseph then ; alike heedless are the people of Samaria in tlie days 
 of this prophet. Hence the righteous woe, so soon to- fall upon 
 them. 
 
 7. Therefore, now shall they go captive with the first 
 that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched 
 themselves shall be removed. 
 
 As the men of wealth and high standing have been foremost in 
 oppressing the poor and wresting the cause of the meek ; foremost 
 also in luxury, self-indulgence, and recklessness of the cause of 
 God : so they shall be first among the captives, heading the sad 
 procession ; and the banquet of those who lay stretched out around 
 (in beastly drunkenness, we must suppose), shall be quite broken 
 up. (The Lord has no special tenderness toward this beastly sin!) 
 
 8. The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saitli the 
 Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, 
 and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver np the 
 city with all that is therein. 
 
 Note the solemn reiteration of the names of God in this case, 
 in which, since " he can swear by no greater, he swears by him- 
 self." The things so solemnly affirmed are two: (1.) That " God 
 abhors the excellency of Jacob," &c. ; (2.) That he will abandon 
 
 the city and all its inhabitants to destruction. The " excellency 
 
 of Jacob " has been alluded to in this chapter ; see v. 1, " chief of 
 the nations," and v. 2, " better than other adjacent kingdoms ; " — 
 this excellency being mainly thought of as lying in its natural ad- 
 vantages. The same sense must be the primary one here, the more 
 so because connected with " his palaces ; " but the reason why God 
 has come to abhor and hate a noble country, once flowing with 
 milk and honey, and the glory of all lands, lies in the guilt, and es- 
 pecially the pride of its people. To this there seems to be a tacit 
 allusion in the very phrase, " the excellency of Jacob," since this 
 word in Hebrew is used for pride^ as well as for naturally excellent 
 qualities. The sense then, here, is that the pride and moral corrup- 
 tion of the people were so monstrous and so intrinsically hateful 
 to God, that he abhorred the very country for their sake, and must 
 
140 AMOS.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 spoil its fair beauty and consign it to long and blank desolation. 
 And there tlie land of Palestine lies to-day — as yet, not half recov- 
 ered from this fearful curse ! 
 
 9. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten 
 men in one house, that they shall die. 
 
 10. And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he 
 that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the 
 house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the 
 house. Is there yet amj with thee % and he shall say, IS^o. 
 Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue : for we may not 
 make mention of the name of the Lokd. 
 
 To show how utter would be the destruction of its inhabitants, 
 the prophet gives some particulars for illustration. If only a small 
 number, say ten (a definite number for an indefinite), remain in one 
 house, even they shall all die. And when a man's uncle (or other 
 friend), together with him whose office it shall be to burn the corpse, 
 bring out a dead body, and finding one poor invalid in some corner or 
 closet of the house, shall ask him, " Is there another dead man here ? " 
 he shall say, " No more ; " and then shall add, " Hush ! for we may 
 
 not make mention of the name of the Lord." This last phrase — 
 
 " make mention of the name of the Lord " — usually signifies, to 
 speak of God in grateful, appropriate acknowledgment, and due 
 honor. See Josh. 23 : 7, where this is forbidden in reference to false 
 gods ; also Ps. 20 : 7, and Isa. 62 : 6. Precisely what this prohibi- 
 tion meant in this case is not certain ; perhaps it indicates such a 
 sense of the awfulness of God's presence in this scourge upon the 
 land that guilty men could not endure to hear his name ! 
 
 11. For, behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will 
 smite the great house with breaches, and the little house 
 with clefts. 
 
 All the houses, great or little, ehall be smitten ; the great shat- 
 tered to pieces, as the Hebrew word implies ; the little ones rent 
 with clefts. Oppressors, enriched by wrong, are remembered be- 
 fore God in this day of judgment. 
 
 12. Shall horses run upon the rock ? will one plough 
 there with oxen ? for ye have tm-ned judgment into gall, 
 and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock : 
 
 These questions put cases, not of extreme difficulty so much as 
 of practical impossibility, and aim to illustrate the futility and ab- 
 surdity of those vain reliances which have kept up the spirits of the 
 people. They had been hoping to repel their foreign enemies and 
 withstand the threatened judgments of the Almighty. He hints to 
 them that they might as well plough the rock with oxen, or run 
 horses npon the precipitous cliffs of their mountain glens. Why 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. VI. 141 
 
 could they not escape ? Why could they not resist Jehovah's wrath ? 
 Because they "had turned judgment into gall" — that which is 
 always sweet to good men into the most bitter draught — "and the 
 fruit of righteousness" — righteous judicial decisions — "into the 
 poison hemlock." Such perversions of justice had insured Jeho- 
 vah's wrath. "What a lesson of warning against American slave- 
 holding! See a hke form of expression, Hos. 10 : 4, and Amos 
 
 5:7. 
 
 13. Ye wMcli rejoice in a thing of nought, which 
 say, Have we not taken to ns horns by our own strength ? 
 
 They had trusted joyfully in what could avail them nought,, but 
 must prove a thing of no power to save — a mere nothing. They 
 had said, "Have we not taken to ourselves horns (always an em- 
 blem of power) by our own strength ? " iJ^ot the least recognition 
 of God as their strength appears, but, on the contrary, every word 
 indicates 'the purest self-conceit, and the pride of self-made help. 
 Such "pride goeth before destruction," just a httle way only, be- 
 fore ! 
 
 14. But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, 
 O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts ; and 
 they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath 
 unto the river of the wilderness. 
 
 This prediction almost names the Assyrian power — manifestly 
 means it. God raised them, up ; they came, and did indeed lay the 
 land desolate " from the entering in of Hamath" — a very common 
 phrase for their northern border, and a natural thoroughfare out- 
 ward to Hamath — "unto the river of the wilderness." This name, 
 " the wilderness " — in Hebrew, Arabah — with the article, is applied 
 in the Scriptures to the great valley of the Jordan, the Lake Genes- 
 saret (in Heb. Cinneroth), and the Dead Sea. In later times, the 
 name Arabah has been specially given to the extension of this 
 valley southward, from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf. But in 
 the earlier ages, it was currently given to the portion north of the 
 Dead Sea, and usually translated in our English version, " the 
 plain." The exceptions are Deut. 11 : 30, "champaign," and Josh. 
 18 : 18, " Ai-abah." See other passages — " the plain," Deut. 3 : 17, 
 and 4: 49 ; Josh. 3 : 16, and 8 : 14, and 11 : 2, 16, and 12 : 1, 3 ; 
 2 Kings 14: 25, and 25 : 4, 5, &c. This wonderful valley was one 
 of the natural boundaries of the kingdom. 
 
142 AMOS.— CHAP. Vn. 
 
 OHAPTEK YII. 
 
 This chapter records three successive visions, shown to the 
 prophet, each indicating the judgments impending over the land 
 (vs. 1-9) ; then an attempt made by Amaziah, an idol priest of 
 Bethel, to prevent Amos from prophesying more in Bethel, and to 
 send him back into Judah ; with the defence made by Amos, and 
 the response made by the Lord (vs. 10-17). 
 
 1. Tliiis liatli the Lord God shewed unto me ; and 
 behold, he fonned grasshoppers in the beginning of the 
 shooting np of the latter growth ; and lo, it was the 
 latter growth after the Idng^ mowings. 
 
 That this is a vision presented to the spiritual eye of the 
 prophet, is indicated by the language — "Thus did the Lord 
 God show me," i. e., cause me to see. He saw the Lord forming 
 grasshoppers. Tliey were young, but fast coming forward for their 
 work of destruction ; and he saw God's hand in them. The time 
 was just when the meadows were putting forwai'd their second 
 growth — the after-math. The phrase, "the king's mowings," is 
 supposed to allude to a claim of the king to have a part, at least, of 
 the first growth of the meadows. 
 
 2. And it came to pass, that when they had made an 
 end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord 
 God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob 
 arise ? for he is small. 
 
 After he had seen them eat the last of the grass of the land, he 
 prayed that the Lord would forgive the sin for which this scourge 
 was sent, and used this plea: "By whom else shall Jacob arise," 
 i. «., stand, live ; " for he is weak " and without strength against 
 God, and against such agents of destruction as these. 
 
 3^ The LoKD repented for this : It shall not be, saith 
 the Lord. 
 
 The Lord heard his prayer and changed his purpose, sparing tho 
 land the judgments which this \'ision portended. A clear and strik- 
 ing case of prevailing prayer, even when God's purpose to destroy 
 
 was not only formed, but made knovni. What the precise form 
 
 of this judgment would have been, is not certain. The grass- 
 hoppers, being seen only in vision, may have been symbolic of some 
 other form of judgment, even as the fire in the next verse mani- 
 festly must have been. Amos does not say here, as Joel did, that 
 actual grasshoppers came up over the land, visible to all the people, 
 and thrilling all hearts with fear and dread. 
 
 4. Thns hath the Lord God shewed mito- me : and, 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. vn. 14-3 
 
 behold, tlie Lord God called to contend by fire, and it 
 devoured tlie great deep, and did eat np a part. 
 
 6. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: 
 by whom shall Jacob arise ? for he is smj^l. 
 
 6. The LoED repented for this : This also shall not 
 be, saith the Lord God. 
 
 In the second vision lie heard the Lord calhng for the action of 
 fire. The original words imply a controversy, or legal judicial issue 
 by fire, probably only in the general sense of a judgment on the 
 people for their sins. Appalling to behold, this fire seemed to de- 
 vour the great deep, and to eat up the dry land also. The original 
 word rendered "« part " is supposed to have here this sense — not 
 that it ate up a part of the great deep, but ate up the dry land. 
 The previous clause, using the same verb, affirms that it had eaten 
 up the great deep already. Of course I construe this as a vision, 
 and symbolic of some all-consuming desolation, doubtless by war 
 
 and conquest. Again the prophet prays, but not in this case as 
 
 before — "forgive" — which, if answered, would have averted the 
 judgment ; but, " desist ; " cut short this judgment ; let it be arrested 
 midway. He uses the same plea as before, in the same words ; and 
 the Lord answered to the precise extent of his request. He desisted, 
 after the judgment had run a part of its course. The scourge of 
 war and indeed of captivity came, but probably witli the less 
 
 severity because of the prophet's prevailing prayer. These cases, 
 
 as thus recorded, must have been designed of God to encourage his 
 people to come before him with most importunate prayer that he 
 would avert, eitlier in part or wholly, the judgments which he 
 seemed about to inflict on a guilty people. 
 
 T. Tims he shewed me : and behold, the Loed stood 
 upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in 
 his hand. 
 
 8. And the Loed said unto me, Amos, what seest 
 thou ? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Loed, 
 Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people 
 Israel : I will not again pass by them any more : 
 
 9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, 
 and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste : and I 
 will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. 
 
 The third vision will be better understood if wo consider that 
 the prophets speak of a measuring line as marking off for destroy- 
 ing as well as for creating; for casting down, no less than forbuild- 
 ingup. (See 2 Kings 21^: 13, and Isa. 34 : 11, and Lara.- 2 : 8.) So 
 here, this plumb-line evinces the moral obliquity of the people and 
 their consequent fitness for destruction. God will not any more 
 jtass ly them, but will take them in hand for scourging and for ruin. 
 
14A AMOS.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 The "high places of Isaac" were those elevated sites so con- 
 stantly chosen for idol temples and idol worship. The "sanctuaries 
 of Israel " were their idol temples and shrines. These were doomed 
 to utter destruction, and at least by implication the whole land as 
 well. The "hou^e of Jeroboam" the Lord would cut off by the 
 sword. He did so ; Shallum (2 Kings 15 : 10) conspired against 
 Zachariah, son and successor of Jeroboam, and thus ended the 
 
 royal line of his house. It should be noted that in this third 
 
 vision nothing is said of the prophet's interceding by prayer for the 
 removal or even the mitigation of this judgment. He saw that it was 
 most righteously deserved, and fully fixed in the counsels of Jehovah, 
 and therefore he forebore to press any plea for its reversal. Essen- 
 tially the same answer must be given to the question — Why did he 
 pray '■''/orgive''^ in reference to the first threatened judgment, and 
 only ^'- desist '''' upon the second? "The secret of the Lord is with 
 them- that fear him." The conditions of acceptable prayer being 
 fully met on our part, the Lord, on his part, will lead our minds in 
 prayer, aiding us thus to ask for those things, and only those, which 
 he is pleased to grant. 
 
 10. Then Amaziali tlie priest of Beth-el sent to Jero- 
 boam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against 
 thee in the midst of the house of Israel : the land is not 
 able to bear all his words. 
 
 . 11. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the 
 Bword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out 
 of their own land. 
 
 12. Also, Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go 
 flee thee away into the land of Judali, and there eat 
 bread, and prophesy there : 
 
 13. But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el : for 
 it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. 
 
 This historical sketch (vs. 10-17) presents no difficulties that re- 
 quire exposition. Amaziah, " tlie priest of Bethel," was probably 
 the high priest before the golden calf located there, for there must 
 have been other priests as well. The history of Elijah (1 Kings 18) 
 
 gives us some facts respecting the number of idol priests. The 
 
 charge of treason against the king and the state was often brought 
 against the Lord's faithful prophets, and constituted one of their 
 serious embarrassments and trials. It seems that Jeroboam did not 
 think best to interfere with the Lord's prophet. Amaziah there- 
 fore resorted to a private effort (vs. 12, 13) to get Amos out of the 
 kingdom. Judah, said he, is a better place for you ; the prophets 
 ot tho Lord get a good living there ; there you can be quiet and 
 fulfil your prophetic function, if so you choose : but be off and away 
 from Bethel, for these idol temples are the king's sanctuary — the 
 place where he worships, and tho house of his kingdom (so the 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. VII. 14-5 
 
 Hebrew reads), and it implies that, in tlieir notion, these heathen 
 gods were the patrons of the kingdom, and their favor vital to its 
 permanence and prosperity. Hence they would very naturally 
 arraign the Lord's true prophets for high treason, whenever they 
 dared. 
 
 14. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I 
 was no prophet, neither was I a prophet^s son ; but I 
 was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit : 
 
 15. And the Loed took me as I followed the flock, 
 and the Loed said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my peo- 
 ple Israel. 
 
 Amos first gives his own personal defence. With beautiful sim- 
 plicity he replies : " I was no prophet ; I did not come up unto this 
 profession because my father was a prophet before me ; but I was 
 earning my bread by honest labor when the Lord took me from 
 following the flock, and said — ' Go, prophesy unto my people Is- 
 rael ' — not JudaJi^ as you propose, but Israel. How could I do 
 otherwise than obey this divine mandate ? " 
 
 16. ISTow, therefore, hear thou the word of the Loed : 
 Thou sayest. Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not 
 thy word against the house of Isaac. 
 
 17. Therefore thus saith the Loed ; Thy wife shall 
 be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters 
 shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by 
 line ; and thou shalt die in a polluted land : and Israel 
 shall surely go into captivity forth of his land. 
 
 The rest of his reply comes directly from the Lord himself. 
 Thou hast forbidden me to prophesy against Israel ; for this impiety 
 the Lord reveals to thee thy doom — thy wife a harlot in the city; 
 thy sons and daughters falling by the sword ; thy landed estates 
 divided by line to others ; thou thyself shall die in a foreign and 
 so in a polluted land, and the nation shall be carried away into cap- 
 tivity — a fearful warning against interfering with the divine mis- 
 sion of God's faithful prophets ! The Hebrews regarded all other 
 
 lands compared with their own as polluted. Hence they naturally 
 
 desired to make their graves in the holy land. This captivity 
 
 was to Assyria, effected by Tiglath-Pileser b. o. 722, or sixty-two 
 years after the death of this Jeroboam. 
 
140 AMOS.— CHAP. vm. 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 Tni9 chapter opens with the last vision in this series of fonr 
 (vs. 1, 2), which is followed by farther details of the great and 
 damning sins of the people, and of the terrible judgments then im- 
 pending. 
 
 1. Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me : and 
 behold a basket of summer fruit. 
 
 2. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I 
 said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Loed 
 unto me. The end is come upon my people of Israel ; 1 
 will not again pass by them any more. 
 
 Summer fruit ripens quick and soon decays. The people had 
 ripened for ruin, and their ruin was near at hand. The latter of 
 these two ideas seems rather more prominent than the former ; 
 perhaps both are implied. The special idea is that the end is 
 come to the nation of Israel. God can pass by them, sparing them 
 and deferring his judgments, no longer. 
 
 3. And the songs of the temple shall be bowlings in 
 that day, saith the Lord God : there shall he many dead 
 bodies in every place ; they shall cast them forth with 
 silence. 
 
 Since the time of David, songs had formed a part of the temple 
 worship. In the dark and sad day just at hand, those songs should 
 become bowlings — the wails of agony. The original is concise : 
 
 " The songs of the temple shall wail in that day." The last half 
 
 of the verse Dr. Henderson translates with graphic power : 
 
 ** The carcasses are many ! 
 Throw them out anywhere ! 
 Hush!" 
 
 This is a close translation of the Hebrew, except that the verb 
 tlirow is not imperative, but indicative — " men do throw them out 
 anywhere." The last word " hush " should be compared with 
 Amos 6 : 10, where the word is the same, and the sentiment also, 
 doubtless, the same. Some suppose this injunction to silence looks 
 toward their danger from the invading foe, it being such that they 
 could not bury their beloved and honored dead with safety, save in 
 secrecy and silence. Perhaps so; but the passage (6:10) favors 
 another view, viz., that an appalling sense of the presence and wrath 
 of God awed every heart into silence. 
 
 4. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even 
 to make the poor of the land to fail. 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. VIII. 14Y 
 
 5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we 
 may sell corn ? and the sabbath, that we may set forth 
 wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, 
 and falsifying the balances by deceit ? 
 
 6. That we may buy the poor for silver, and the 
 needy for a pair of shoes ; yea^ and sell the refuse of the 
 wheat % 
 
 The guiltj people are once more exhorted to hear the threat- 
 ened judgments of the Almighty, and the recital of those judgments 
 is prefaced by a further description of their oppressions of the poor. 
 In this passage, as in 2 : 6-8, these oppressions stand as the crown- 
 ing, damning sin — that which filled to the brim the cup of their 
 
 iniquity. " Swallow up the needy," exhibits the same verb that 
 
 is rendered (chap. 2:7) " that 'pant after the dust of the earth on 
 the head of the poor." It might more precisely be rendered here — 
 " that pant after the poor," even to make the needy of the land cease 
 
 altogether, i. e., to annihilate them so that none should remain. 
 
 So eager are they to drive hard bargains, and wrest from the poor 
 the last pittance of their earnings, they cannot wait for the new 
 moon and for the Sabbath to pass over — so would they hurry off 
 their religious duties to get back, again to their extortion and fraud. 
 Their religion stood in the way of their sin in no other respect than 
 that it demanded a few hours' suspension of trade and business. It 
 utterly failed of its proper influence, viz., to make their heart 
 thoroughly benevolent, and, consequently, their business-life just. 
 
 -It would seem that these tradesmen bought by the shekel 
 
 and sold by the ephah. So they perverted their measures and 
 weights to subserve the ends of fraud. They made false balances 
 
 for deceit. Yet further, they drive their fraudulent trade to get 
 
 money in order to buy the poor for slaves, cheapening even tlieir 
 price, so that they could get a poor man or a poor boy for a pair of 
 
 sandals, which are of much less value than American shoes. 
 
 And one thing more, they sell as merchantable the refuse of the 
 
 wheat — the light, half-filled grains. Y/hat a depth of corruption 
 
 in morals do such sketches of the ways of business and trade re- 
 veal ! The reader will be careful to note how sharply the Lord 
 rebukes and exposes such outrages on human rights and on com- 
 mercial justice, and how fearfully he punishes the guilty. 
 
 1. The LoED hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, 
 Surely I will never forget any of their works. 
 
 Here begins the message which (in v. 4.) the people were ex- 
 horted to hear. It opens with a most solemn asseveration, the oath 
 of the Almighty. " The excellency of Jacob " cannot well mean 
 here any quality or thing that Jacob possessed — not his moral 
 qualities, not his goodly land — ^but it must refer to and describe 
 Jehovah himself. He was " the excellency of Jacob " in the sense 
 
148 AMOS.— CHAP. VIII. 
 
 of being his most glorious "portion," his richest treasure ; that in 
 which Jacob should more exult and rejoice than in all things else. 
 
 Comparing this passage with Amos 6 : 8, where the Lord says, 
 
 " I abhor the excellencj of Jacob," the diiference is that there 
 the phrase refers to the glorious land and country of Jacob which 
 the people did account their chief glory, as they should not ; Tiere^ 
 to their covenant-keeping God whom they ought to have ac- 
 counted their chief glory, but did not. The object in using this 
 one phrase in these two diiferent senses may have been to make this 
 
 contrast palpable. It is by no means uncommon for Jehovah to 
 
 swear by himself. Paul (Heb. 6 : 13) intimates the reason to be 
 that he can swear by none greater — by nothing else so solemn. 
 
 As to the form of this oath, it is very common in Hebrew, 
 
 but not often retained in om* English translation : " If I shall ever 
 forget any of their works " — where the full force would be express- 
 ed by filling out the sentence — then I am not God. A very strong 
 emphasis on the word if suffices, however, to express the sense. God 
 will not lose from his memory one of the least of all thel? doings. 
 All shall come up again for judgment. 
 
 8. Sliall not the land tremble for tliis, and every one 
 mourn that dwelleth therein ? and it shall rise np wholly 
 as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as l)y 
 the flood of Egypt. 
 
 The tone of awful earnestness, manifest in this oath of Jehovah, 
 should lead us to expect appalling judgments, in hearing which, all 
 ears should tingle. The prophet compares the convulsions that 
 shall shake the land to an earthquake, and represents this earth- 
 quake as heaving up the land, even as the Nile lifts up its waters 
 in its annual inundations. The verse might be paraphrased thus : 
 "For this, shall not the land tremble as in an earthquake, and 
 every dweller therein mourn, when the whole land rises up as the 
 Nile, and rolls to and fro, and then subsides like the river of Egypt 
 
 after its mighty inundations ? " Of the two words rendered 
 
 "cast out," and "drowned," the first must mean, driven and 
 tossed, as impelled by mighty forces; and the second, subsiding 
 again, when the moving force is spent. The ultimate thought is, 
 that convulsions shake and rock the kingdom of Israel, and finally 
 sweep it away into the gulf of ruin. 
 
 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 
 Lord GrOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, 
 and I will darken the earth in the clear day : 
 
 This is the usual figure for great calamity. The last clause 
 reads literally — "I will darken tlie light to the earth in the day- 
 time." The actual thing indicated by these figures should not be 
 looked for in the natural but in the political and moral world. 
 (See Joel 3: 15 and 2: 31.) 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. VIII. 149 
 
 10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and 
 all your songs into lamentation ; and I will bring up 
 sackclotli upon all loins, and baldness upon every bead ; 
 and I will make it as the mom-ning of an only son^ and 
 tbe end tbereof as a bitter day. 
 
 These are tlie tokens of grief common among tlic people of the 
 East in all ages. 
 
 11. Beliold, tbe days come, saitb tbe Lord God, tbat 
 I will send a famine in tbe land, not a famine of bread, 
 nor a thirst for water, but of bearing tbe words of tbe 
 Lord : 
 
 12. And tbey shall wander from sea to sea, and from 
 the north even to tbe east ; tbey shall run to and fro to 
 seek tbe word of tbe Lord, and shall not find it. 
 
 13. In tbat day shall the fair virgins and young men 
 faint for thirst. 
 
 In their deep calamity, their ideas and feelings in regard to 
 messages from the Lord hy his servants, will utterly change. Whereas 
 they had made light of these messages when they had them — even 
 scorning the word of God and misusing his prophets — now, the 
 Lord having withdrawn and trouble having come on, they are in 
 tlie horrors of a great famine of the words of the Lord. They long 
 for some word from him, and wander over the whole land in vain 
 to find a prophet. Like Saul after the Lord had forsaken him, 
 they say — " I am sore distressed ; God is departed from me, and 
 answereth me no more, neither by prophet nor by dreams" 
 
 (1 Sam. 28 : 15). This was one of the prophet's last appeals to 
 
 the people to give heed to the words of the Lord while they had 
 them. 
 
 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say. 
 Thy god, O Dan, liveth ; and, Tbe manner of Beer-sbeba 
 livetb ; even they shall fall, and never rise up again. 
 
 The " sin of Samaria " is here idol gods. One of Jeroboam's 
 calves was put up in Dan, the extreme northern limit of the king- 
 dom. The " manner of Becrsheba " means first the ways of idol 
 
 worship practised there, and next, the idol gods themselves, which 
 is the sense here. The form of the oath might be better ex- 
 pressed— " As thy God, O Dan, liveth;" or, " By the life of thy 
 
 god, O Dan ;" and so of the god Beersheba. All who have had 
 
 such reverence for these infamous gods as to swear by them shall 
 fall, never to rise again. 
 
150 AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 This cliapter opens with the fifth and last special vision shown 
 the prophet : atfirms the complete destruction of the guilty, apos- 
 tate people of Israel ; denies in vivid forms all possibility of their 
 escape (vs. 1-T, 10), yet promises the rescue of a small remnant (vs. 
 8, 9) ; predicts the raising up of the fallen tent of David, and the 
 saving of the true^ Israel for an era of extraordinary and long-con- 
 tinued prosperity.* 
 
 1. I saw tlie Lord standing upon tlie altar : and lie 
 said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may 
 shake : and ent them in the head all of them ; and I 
 will slay the last of them with the sword: he thatfleeth 
 of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of 
 them shall not be delivered. 
 
 In the outset, a question arises respecting the altar referred to 
 here, the decision of which affects the interpretation of the chapter 
 
 fundamentally. Some, with Dr. Henderson, take it to he the 
 
 idol altar at Bethel, and adduce the following reasons for this view : 
 (1.) The reference (8 : 14), immediately preceding, to the utter and 
 final fall of the worshippers of those idols, showing that this sub- 
 ject was in mind; (2.) That Amos (3 : 14) affirms this very thing — 
 " In the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon 
 him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of 
 the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground ; " (3.) The fit- 
 ness of this fact in itself, and in aU its relations; (4.) That 
 Hosea, under the same circumstances, distinctly predicts that 
 God will break down those altars and spoil their images (Hos. 10: 
 
 2, 5, 8). Others, including Dr. Hengstenberg, Rosenmuller, and 
 
 Calvin, take it to mean the altar of burnt-offering at Jerusalem. I 
 adopt this opinion decidedly, for the following reasons : (1.) This,^ 
 and this only, is fhe altar — the one to be thought of when we have' 
 nothing else to determine the sense except this emphatic definite 
 article. (2.) The idol altar was not, to the same extent, the promi- 
 nent thing at Bethel. The calf, the god himself, was much more 
 prominent. (3.) The scope of this chapter, and more especially 
 from V. 8 to the close, contemplates Judah and Jerusalem, as well 
 as Samaria, Bethel, and the northern kingdom ; e. g.^ v. 7, " brought 
 up Israel out of the land of Egypt ; " v. 8, " the house of Jacob," 
 and V. 9, " the house of Israel," who are spoken of as " my people," 
 V. 10; "the tent of David," v. 11; "my people of Israel," v. 14. 
 (4.) The allusions, v. 11, and especially the use of the plural num- 
 ber, are thought to refer to both kingdoms: "In that day will I 
 raise up the tent of David that is fallen (looking, perhaps, in part to 
 the crushing down of the temple, as in this v. 1), and will wall up 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 151 
 
 tJieiT (not its) breaches " — the breaches of both krogtloms, and " I 
 will raise up Ms ruins," those of David, and " I -will build it " — the 
 
 tent — "as in days of old." The two points of argument last 
 
 made (Nos. 3 and 4) offset the consideration that most of the book 
 of Amos relates to the northern kingdom. That is freely admitted, 
 yet when the Lord reaches, in this last chapter, the revelations of 
 mercy, the phraseology embraces the southern as well as the north- 
 ern kingdom ; or rather that temporary distinction is lost sight of, 
 and we have the earlier Israel of the times of the Exodus and of 
 David. In this point of view "we go back also to the great altar at 
 Jerusalem. (5.) But more than all is the argument from the scope 
 and course of thought. To see this in its full force, we must look 
 lirst at the fact that the people of the northern kingdom, though 
 fearfully apostate from God into idol-worship, yet kept up some of 
 the forms of the Mosaic system, and manifestly depended upon 
 God's protection and favor on this account. See the evidence, chap. 
 4 : 4, 5 : " Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes after 
 three years, your thank-offerings and your free-offerings " — where 
 the sense is, Bring them if you will, and rely on them for salvation 
 if you will; they can avail you nothing. Also 5:14, 18-26: 
 *' Seek good and not evil ; so the Lord shall be with you as ye have 
 said ; " i. e., they had said the Lord would be with them, because of 
 their religious worship. The prophet replies, " God will be with 
 you then, and only then, when you seek good and do right." Y. 
 18 shows that they did not fear but even dared the coming of the 
 day of the Lord — ^manifestly through their vain confidence in his 
 favor. Hence he solemnly affirms, " I hate, I despise your feast- 
 days; I will not accept your burnt-offerings," &c. The whole con- 
 nection here shows that the Lord would fain annul their vain reli- 
 ance on the mere forma of ceremonial worship for the salvation of 
 their country. 
 
 With this fact in mind, let us come to our verse (9 : 1). I para- 
 phrase it thus : " I saw the Lord standing beside the great altar of 
 burnt-offering in Jerusalem, and he said, ' Smite the capitals of the 
 columns, and make the very thresholds tremble, and dash them in 
 pieces upon the heads of all the people within, and the remtlant of 
 them I will slay with the sword ; whoever flees shall not escape, 
 
 and he that gets away shall not be finally delivered.' " In this 
 
 vision the people are supposed to be assembled in the temple for 
 safety against the judgments of God, but he comes down with his 
 destroying angel and orders the whole temple to be crushed down 
 from pinnacle to basement, that it may fall crashing upon the heads 
 of the assembled throng. Then, whom the falling temple does not 
 
 crush, the sword shall slay, and none shall escape. The context 
 
 in the next three verses confirms this view of the general course 
 of thought in this passage, as we shall see. 
 
 This vision of the temple crushed down upon the heads of those 
 who had fled to it for refuge against the judgments of God, is alto- 
 gether in harmony with Amos G : 8 : — " The Lord hath sworn by 
 
152 AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 himself, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces." 
 See Notes on the passage. The whole heart of the Holy One 
 revolts at the idea that his temple should be made a hiding-place 
 and sanctuary of refuge for hypocrites so foul, apostates so guilty 
 and so Heaven-provoking; and as he abhors their goodly land 
 because of the sins of the people, and will not spare it for its 
 natural beauty, so neither will he spare its goodly temple. 
 
 2. Thougli they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand 
 take them ; though they climb up to heaven, thence will 
 I bring them down : 
 
 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of 
 Carmel, I will search and take them out thence ; and 
 though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the 
 sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall 
 bite them : 
 
 4. And though they go into captivity before their 
 enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall 
 slay them : and I wiU set mine eyes upon them for evil, 
 and not for good. 
 
 The aim throughout these verses is to deny all possibility of 
 
 escape. It is not essential to the fitness or the force of these 
 
 supposed cases that they should be actually possible. The affirma- 
 tion is that if they were so, and ?[/" men should hide there, it should 
 avail them nothing. There is no escape from the Almighty by any 
 expedient, possible or even supposable. " The top of Carmel " is 
 suggested as a place to hide one's self, both because of its numerous 
 caves and thick undergrowths, and because, lying adjacent to the 
 Mediterranean, it naturally stood in contrast with the bottom of the 
 
 sea. " Going into captivity " presupposes that their lives are at 
 
 first spared ; but even the rights of prisoners of war should not save 
 them from death. 
 
 5. And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the 
 land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall 
 mourn : and it shall rise up wholly like a flood ; and 
 be drowned, as hy the flood of Egypt. 
 
 6. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, 
 and hath founded his troop in the earth ; he that calleth 
 for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the 
 face of the earth : the Loed is his name. 
 
 These bold descriptions of Jehovah's power over the material 
 world are adduced here in the same line of thought with the pre- 
 ceding — to show how hopelessly futile must be every attempt of 
 guilty men to evade his scourge or escape his retributions. The 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 153 
 
 manner of the original is graphic : " And the Lord Jehovali of 
 Hosts — he is touching the earth, and then it melts, and all the 
 dwellers in it monrn ; its whole surface is lifted np like the rising 
 Nile, and then subsides as the river of Egypt (the effects of an 
 earthquake, as in Amos 8 : 8). He builds his chambers in the 
 heavens ; he has founded his arched vault upon the earth (^. e. the 
 blue concave firmament). He calls for the waters of the sea, and 
 then pours them out upon the face of the earth — Jehovah, his 
 
 name." What our translators meant by "troop" is not clear. 
 
 The original word refers to the apparently arched concave above us, 
 which the Hebrews thought and spoke of as solid, " the firmament," 
 and its pillars or lower edges as resting upon the earth. 
 
 T. Are ye not as children of tlie Ethiopians unto me, 
 O children of Israel? saith the Loed. Have I not 
 brought np Israel out of the land of Egypt % and the 
 Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syi^ians from Kir ? 
 
 This verse aims to confront and demolish another delusive 
 reliance of the apostate people, \nz., that, being the seed of Abraham 
 and children of the covenant, brought by a series of miracles 
 into the land of promise, they were invincible against any heathen 
 
 power, since their God would surely protect them. The Lord 
 
 replies to their thought — " "What are ye to me more than the 
 Cushites and Ethiopians ? I did indeed bring you up out of Egypt ; 
 so I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor (Crete), and the 
 Syrians from Kir " — the region of the river Cyrus. Does such a 
 removal insure the perpetual prosperity of any people ? Can it 
 save you from being removed again, far beyond Damascus ? (See 
 
 Amos 5 : 27.) The Ethiopians, or Cushites, originally holding 
 
 central Arabia, were removed to the interior of Africa. 
 
 8. Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the 
 sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face 
 face of the earth ; saving that I will not utterly destroy 
 the house of Jacob, saith the Loed. 
 
 The phrase " sinful kingdom " leads the mind to the kingdom 
 of the ten tribes, that being at this period far more corrupt than 
 Judah. The sentence "I will destroy, it from the face of the 
 earth," had special reference to the ten tribes. The excepting 
 clause, " saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," 
 raises the question whether the saved were of the ten tribes, or of 
 Judah only. On this point, the statements in. this verse are not 
 altogether explicit : v. 9 favors the hope that some from the ten 
 tribes were plucked from utter ruin; v. 10 shows that all the 
 sinners — all who were past repentance and reform — would be cut 
 off by the sword. 
 
 9. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house 
 
 V* 
 
151 AMOS.— CHAR IX. 
 
 of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a 
 sieve, yet sliall not the least grain fall npon tlie earth. 
 
 It would seem that " the house of Israel," as used in this verse, 
 must he a different class from " the sinful kingdom," named in v. 
 8, and from "the sinners of my people," spoken of in v. 10. The 
 latter, he says, " shall be destroyed " (v. 8) ; " shaU die by the sword " 
 (v. 10); but the former, though sifted fine and far among the 
 nations, shall none of them be lost. They are the precious grain, 
 and God's eye is on them to save them and to use them for his own 
 purpose, as his eye is also on the sinful kingdom to destroy it from 
 the face of the earth. The "house of Israel," therefore, must in- 
 clude here only the real people of God, " faithful found among the 
 faithless;" the same whom, considered as captives, he will restore, 
 
 as said below. The word rendered " the least grain " is thought 
 
 by Hengstenberg to mean a bundle, or any thing bound up. This 
 is the almost universal sense of the word. Its meaning here 
 would be essentially as in 1 Sam. 25 : 29 : "-Men rise up to per- 
 secute and to seek thy soul ; but the soul of my Lord is bound 
 in the bundle of the living by the Lord thy God." So in our 
 passage with this sense of the word, the house of Israel are bound 
 up in the bundle of life by the Lord himself, and cannot be lost in 
 the sifting process of discipline by dispersion among the nations. 
 
 If we might give the word the sense — a small grain — the 
 
 ultimate meaning would be much the same. 
 
 10. All the sinners of my people shall die by the 
 sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake or prevent 
 us. 
 
 The sense here must be — "All the sinners out of or among my 
 people" — the sinners being one class and God's people another. 
 Tlie sinners shall die— the judgment of God being the fearfully 
 
 sifting process. The description given of them evinces their vain 
 
 self-confidence. The evils threatened by the prophets of the Lord, 
 they are sure, will neither overtake them from behind, nor come in 
 ahead of them from before. " Prevent " has usually in our Bible 
 that ancient, now obsolete sense, of getting in advance, coming in 
 ahead to intercept and confront an adversary. Vain self-confi- 
 dence never saves ; it only hastens and aggravates destruction. 
 
 11. In that day will I raise np the tabernacle of 
 David that is fallen, and close np the breaches thereof; 
 and I will raise np his ruins, and I will build it as in 
 the days of old : 
 
 The point of time indicated by " in that day," is not definite. It 
 looks into that future period when discipline shall have wi-ought its 
 desired result and the fulness of the Lord's time of mercy shall 
 
 have come. The "tent'' or booth " of David "—not his royal 
 
 palace, Avhich would indicate prosperity and strength— but his 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 155 
 
 reduced and Immble dwelling, a booth of tree-bonghs, and even this 
 fallen down, God will now raise up. The reigning family of David 
 had been sadly broken down by the revolt under Jeroboam ; far 
 more so still by their apostasy into idol-worship, oppression, and 
 other immoralities, for all which God had doomed the sinners 
 of his people to be utterly cut off; but the day will come for rear- 
 ing up again this royal line and its kingdom. He will wall np the 
 breaches" of the "double house," the two kingdoms (for so the 
 plural pronoun, rendered " thereof," should naturally mean) : " I 
 will raise up David's ruins and build his tent as in days of old." 
 These promises suggest the original covenant with David's line (2 
 Sam. 7 : 16). " And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established 
 forever before thee ; thy throne shall be established forever." King 
 Messiah is to come in this royal line, and, according to the strain of 
 this prophecy, events ripen for his. coming. Only in him can this 
 prophecy find an adequate fulfilment. 
 
 12. Tliat tliey may possess tlie remnant of Edom, 
 and of all the heathen which are called by my name, 
 Baith the Loed that doeth this. 
 
 The "remnant of Edom" reminds us that in chap. 1 : 11, 12, we 
 saw Edom doomed to sore judgments, almost exterminating, be- 
 cause of his relentless hostility to his brother Jacob's race. Kow 
 the revived and rebuilt house of David shall possess what is left of 
 Edom. There may also be a tacit allusion to the fact that the 
 literal David himself subdued the Edomites and made them tributary, 
 and that they took advantage of the breaches in David's tents— *in 
 other words, the weakness induced by the revolt and by the great 
 sins of the covenant people — to throw off this yoke. David's line, 
 having returned to God and to consequent prosperity and power, 
 shall again possess what remains of Edom. And not of Edom 
 alone, but of all the heathen over whom God's name is called, for 
 
 so saith the Lord who bringeth to pass these promised events. 
 
 The calling of God's name over a person or people is not an empty 
 ceremony, but a most significant fact. It implies their consecration 
 to his love and service. Thus it was said concerning Israel — Deut. 
 28 : 9, 10 : " The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto him- 
 self," &c., "and all people of the earth shall see that thou art 
 called by the name of the Lord," hterally rendered, " that the name 
 of the Lord hath been called over or upon thee," and consequently 
 that thou art the people of God, and the object of his protecting 
 care and love. To the same purport is Dan. 9 : 18, 19, "O Lord, 
 behold the city over which thy name is called " — " for thy city and 
 
 thy people are called by thy name." In this most interesting 
 
 sense God's name has been called over the gentile nations. This is 
 the great fact affinned in this passage. May it not be that Isaiah, 
 in nearly the same words, means the same thing (54 : 5) ? " The 
 God of the whole earth shall he be called," i. c., "his name shall be 
 called over or upon it all." Another mode of expressing essen- 
 
156 AMOS.— CHAP. IX 
 
 tially the same tiling is this — " They " — the royal seed of David 
 — "shall possess" (inherit) "the remnant of Edom and of all 
 the heathen." Precisely this Isaiah afSrms — " Thy seed shall inherit 
 
 the Gentiles " (54 : 3). Yet furtlier, let us not lose sight of the 
 
 idea that this calling of the name of God over these heathen 
 nations, and this inheriting or possession of the Gentiles by the 
 royal seed of David, must all be understood, not in the worldly but 
 in the gospel sense. Israel takes possession of the gentile nations, 
 only in the name of her King Messiah ; only by preaching to them 
 his gospel, reveahng to them his love, and taking their hearts captive 
 for him by the power of his cross. We must think of no other 
 
 conquest, no other form of possession, but this. ^Finally, let us 
 
 revert to the quotation of these verses (11, 12) by the Apostle 
 James (Acts 15 : 14-17) in his speech before the great council at Je- 
 rusalem. He began with saying, " Simon Peter has been relating 
 to you how God has visited the Gentiles to convert some of them 
 to himself; and to this agree the words of the prophet Amos ;" 
 and then he quotes substantially from the Septuagint version these 
 two verses. His quotations differ from the Hebrew chiefly in read- 
 ing "the residue of men," instead of "the remnant of Edom." 
 The Hebrew reader will readily see the resemblance between 
 "Edom" and "Adam" — which was specially close when the 
 Hebrew was written without the vowels. Yet James gives the 
 general sense with entire accuracy, viz., that God had of set pur- 
 pose called the Gentiles within the pale of his church, to inherit 
 in it among his people. 
 
 13. Beliold, the days come, saitli tlie Loed, that the 
 ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader 
 of grapes him that soweth seed ; and the mountains 
 shall di'op sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 
 
 14. And I will bring again the captivity of my peo- 
 ple of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and 
 inhabit them / and they shall plant vineyards, and drink 
 the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat 
 the fruit of them. 
 
 15. And I will plant them upon their land, and they 
 shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I 
 have given them, saith the Lokd thy God. 
 
 Here let us first note the sense of particular words and phrases. 
 " Days come," looks forward to the remote and indefinite fu- 
 ture. The manner of calling attention to the matters revealed in 
 these last three verses, " Beliold^^'' coupled with the change from 
 "in that day" (v. 11), to " days come" (v. 13), imply that these lat- 
 ter events lie onward in the future, beyond those recorded (vs. 11, 
 
 12). " The ploughman overtaking the reaper," &c., implies great 
 
 prosperity and abundance. The reaper will have so much to do, 
 
AMOS.— CHAP. IX. 157 
 
 and the plonghmnn withal is so eap:er to got in readiness a large 
 field, tliat he treads on the heels of the reaper. The mountains 
 terraced and cultivated in grapes to their summits shall seem to dis- 
 til new wine. It flows down their declivities as if the mountains 
 themselves were becoming liquid. To " bring again their captiv- 
 ity " always implies good and not evil — ^promised blessings and not 
 threatened calamities. It is also used in a broader and more gen- 
 eral sense than that of bringing captives home to their own land. 
 How this came to pass may be seen in the history of the Hebrews 
 as related to Canaan. In all those ages of promise, prior to their 
 possession of Canaan under Joshua, " to inherit the land," to pos- 
 sess the land of promise, was the consummation of hope, the thing 
 of most earnest desire. " The meek shall inherit the land," shows 
 the significance of this phraseology. In later times, after cap- 
 tivity in foreign lands had been their sad experience, the phrases 
 " bring again their captivity," and " plant them again in their own 
 land," superseded the former phrase in a like sense of general pros- 
 perity. Cases that both illustrate and prove this figurative use of 
 th^ phrase " to bring or turn again the captivity," may be seen 
 (Job 42 : 10), " And the Lord turned the captivity of Job," but Job 
 had been in no captivity in the literal sense. The Lord changed 
 his state by a change analogous to that from bondage to freedom. 
 Also Ezek. 16 : 53, 55, " When I shall bring again the captivity of 
 Sodom and her daughters," &c., but the trouble with Sodom was 
 not a real captkity. This term is used here figuratively for another 
 calamity worse than that. The precise sense of the phrase is given 
 in a clause explanatory (v. 55), " When thy sister Sodom and her 
 daughters shall return to their former estate." These cases will 
 suffice to establish the usage which I have assumed. Let us be- 
 ware lest we stop in the letter and miss the spirit of this prophecy. 
 So doing, we shall find in it only a Mohammedan paradise, and God 
 surely intended something far richer and better than that. We 
 shall greatly err if in reading this passage we think only of great 
 harvests, hills running down with wine, and the people of Israel 
 restored again and forevermore to Palestine. The construction we 
 are compelled to put on the two verses next preceding forbids this. 
 The sense given to those verses by the Apostle James, viz., the call- 
 ing of the Gentiles into the gospel faith, forbids it. It would be a 
 sad faUing off if, borne along by the whole current of thought in 
 this ninth chapter, and especially in verses 11, 12, we should begin 
 to rejoice in the glory of gospel salvation, spreading widely over 
 all the Gentile world, and then, in these last three verses, should 
 reach the climax by dropping down to Judaism, and find none but 
 sensual ideas, luxurious harvests, plenty of good wine, and the land 
 of Palestine held forever by the Jews. The current strain of all 
 the gospel prophecies forbids this construction. Amos himself 
 would rebuke us ! He would say. How could you forget that, be- 
 ing myself a husbandman frorti my youth, I ought to be allowed to 
 draw my figures and illustrations from things with which I had 
 
158 AMOS.— CHAP. IX. ■ 
 
 been all my life familiar ? Had yon not noticed this same thing 
 throughout my book ? And could you not learn to distinguish be- 
 tween the drapery and the person clothed in it — between the cos- 
 tume and the inward reality ? Yes, thou lovely, venerable prophet 
 
 of the Lord, we will not torture thy figures of speech into sensu- 
 alities that never came into thy mind ! "We will try to see in this 
 rich imagery of nature the glorious and munificent things of gospel 
 times. We will not impute to thee the inconsistency of denoun- 
 cing the woes of God on men " at ease in Zion," because they 
 " drink wine in bowls " (6 : 6), and then representing the saints of 
 God as finding their highest spiritual life and glory in vineyards, 
 grapes, and wine ! 
 
 I cannot close this book of Amos without a passing tribute to 
 his clear, forcible, and earnest style ; to the richness of his figures, 
 dra"wn chiefly from the familiar but often sublimely grand, fields of 
 nature, and from the scenes of husbandry ; to the sublime and sol- 
 emn grandeur with which he recites the significant names of Je- 
 hovah, God of hosts ; and not least, to his warm sympathy with 
 the wronged and outraged poor, and to his intense abhorrence tf 
 the luxury, pride, ostentation, and especially the ojjpression which 
 manifestly was the crowning and damning sin of the leading men 
 in the kingdom of Israel. We shall need to go far to find keener 
 invectives against these Heaven-provoking sins, or a more earnest 
 wielding of Jehovah's thunders against the oppression of the poor, 
 the perversions of justice, and the enslaving of men. WeU, in- 
 deed, had it been, if during the past hundred years, our American 
 churches had drank deeply of the spirit of Amos, the herdman- 
 prophet, and had given heed to the burning words against oppress- 
 ion which God spake through his lips ! Then had our American 
 Christianity never stricken hands with the oppressor ! American 
 systematized oppression would have been throttled in its cradle, 
 and the woes of the great war of rebellion under which the nation 
 
 has bled and groaned need never have been! It may be noted 
 
 that Amos, like Hosea and Joel, closes with an outlook from the 
 lofty heights of the mount of Vision into that goodly land of Prom- 
 ise, yet mostly future, when " the earth shall be full of the knowl- 
 edge of the Lord," when his kingdom and people shall possess the 
 world, and all its tribes and kingdoms shall become tlie kingdom of 
 our Lord and of his Christ that he may reign forever and ever. 
 
OBADIAH 
 
 INTKODUOTION. 
 
 Of the author of this shortest book in the Bible, we have the 
 briefest possible account. His name was Obadiah — there the rec- 
 ord ends. The book contains historical (not prophetic) allusions to 
 the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the 
 consequent captivity, and therefore must have been written subse- 
 quent to that event, yet how long after cannot be certainly deter- 
 mined by any evidence external or internal. The tone of the pas- 
 sage (vs. 11-14) implies that those events connected with the fall 
 
 of Jerusalem were then recent. The name, Obadiah, meaning 
 
 " servant of the Lord," occurs frequently in the Hebrew genealo- 
 gies, and several times in Bible history. The author of this book 
 was not the Obadiah who stood up so nobly for the Lord under 
 that wicked Ahab (1 Kings 18 : 3, 4, 7, 16), nor that other Obadiah 
 who was employed by Jehoshaphat to teach religious duty (2 Chron. 
 
 17 : Y). "We must be content to know but little of his personal 
 
 history. 
 
 His subject is one — a prophecy concerning Edom. The poster- 
 ity of Esau, otherwise called Edom, founded this kingdom at a very 
 early period. They manifestly had their land under cultivation 
 before the Hebrews entered Canaan. They appear repeatedly in 
 the scenes of Jewish history during the reign of David, and more 
 especially after the revolt. The early antipathy which brouglit 
 Esau out with four hundred armed men to intercept Jacob on his 
 return from Padanaram to Canaan, though sometimes kept down 
 under the pressure of conscious inability to do his brother harai, 
 
160 OBADIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 yet seems never to have been fully suppressed. As said by Amos 
 (1: 11), "be cast off all pity, and bis anger did tear perpetually, 
 and be nursed bis wratb forever." Tbis enduring batred seized its 
 opportunity wben Jerusalem fell before tbe Cbaldean power, and 
 broke fortb, not only in most unfraternal words, but in most cruel 
 deeds. Tbis was tbe special occasion of tbe propbecy bere recorded. 
 Otber propbets bave predicted tbe fall of Edom, some of ear- 
 lier date, e. g.^ Isaiah and Joel, and some contemporary, or of later 
 date, e. g.^ Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malacbi, and tbe writer of Psalm 
 137. (See Isaiah 21: 11; and 34: and Joel 3 : 19, and Jeremiah 49 : 
 7-22 (closely parallel), and Ezek. 25 : 12-14, and Mai. 1 : 3, 4.) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1. The vision of Obadiah. Thus saitli the Lord God 
 concerning Edom ; We have heard a minor from the 
 Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, 
 Arise ye, and let lis rise up against her in battle. 
 
 The Lord commissions bis servant Obadiah to proclaim, "We 
 bave beard from tbe Lord a message, i. «., a thing to be announced 
 (not a " rumor " in the sense of an uncertain, flying report), to the 
 effect that bis providential agencies bave summoned tbe heathen 
 forth, calling on them to arise and come up for battle against Edom. 
 
 2. Behold, I have made thee small among the 
 heathen : thou art greatly 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, Wlio shall bring me 
 down to the ground ? 
 
 4. Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and 
 though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I 
 bring thee down, saith the Loikd. 
 
 The great men of Edom bad been proud (we may suppose) of 
 tbe high antiquity of their nation ; of their great wealth, their 
 country having been for ages tbe thoroughfare of commerce be- 
 tween Egypt and North Africa on their southwest, and the rich 
 countries of Mesopotamia and India on the east and northeast ; of 
 their eminent j)rogress in the arts, of which tbe ruins yet remain- 
 ing are ample proof; and of their early knowledge of letters, of 
 which the Book of Job (native to this country) is good testimony. 
 Sir Isaac Newton came to tbe conclusion that Edom was the nur- 
 
OBADIAH.— CHAP. I. 161 
 
 sery of the arts and sciences for all the world, and that even the 
 Egyptians received from them their earliest knowledge of astron- 
 omy and of its nse in navigation. Men of the world think and 
 speak of pride on such grounds as honest and honorable; but, how- 
 ever this may be, it surely cannot atone for moral obliquities, for 
 national animosity, jealousy, revenge, and perpetual hatred. And 
 when, as in this case, national pride deceives a people so greatly as 
 to make them think they have nothing to fear from the just judg- 
 ments of God, the mistake is fearful. This was the sin and ruin 
 of ancient Edom. 
 
 The phrase " Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose 
 habitation is high," has in modern times received a very striking 
 confirmation from the personal visits and examination made by a 
 large number of travellers — Burckhardt among the earliest; Dr. 
 Edward Eobinson among the most accurate and reliable. They and 
 others have found on the site of ancient Petra a vast amount of 
 ruins of the homes of both the living and the dead, especially along 
 the face of an immense gorge or chasm, where the perpendicular 
 rock, several hundred feet in height, was improved for temples, 
 sepulchres, and" private residences, chiselled from the rock itself. 
 The massive grandeur of these ruins aids us to appreciate the de- 
 scription, " Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose hab- 
 itation is high." It also accounts for the pride and vain confidence 
 felt by the men of Edom in the military strength of their fast- 
 nesses, and evinces the pertinence of the divine word, " Though 
 thou lift thyself high as the eagle, and set thy nest among the stars, 
 thence will I bring thee down." How vain it must ever be for 
 even the loftiest and mightiest of men to defy the Almighty, or 
 count themselves above the reach of his retributions ! 
 
 5. If thieves came to tTiee, if robbers by night (how 
 art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they 
 had enough ? if the grape-gatherers came to thee, would 
 they not leave some grapes ? 
 
 6. How are the things of Esau searched out ! how 
 are his hidden things sought up ! 
 
 These supposed cases — the thieves, the night-robbers, and the 
 grape-gatherers — all have the same object, viz., to show that the 
 spoihng of Esau would be unsparing. The inteijected exclamation 
 — " How art thou cut off*! " — implies that the desolation of Esau 
 would be more dire than that wrought by thieves and night-rob- 
 hers. The latter, compelled by fear to make short work, are wont to 
 seize what comes first to hand till they have enough for present want, 
 or, as the case may be, all they can carry away ; and so may leave 
 some valuables behind. Grape-gatherers leave gleanings. - But Esau's 
 wealth will be carefully searched out. Those who shall come to 
 
 spoil him will find all his hidden stores. The exclamation in v. 
 
 6 corresponds in form of statement precisely to that thrown into 
 
162 OBADIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 the middle of v. 5 — " How art tLon cut off! " The prophet's eye 
 and heart were full of the sad fate of so much wealth, beauty, and 
 glory, doomed to utter desolation. 
 
 1. All the men of tliy confederacy liave bronglit thee 
 even to the border : the men that were at peace with 
 thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee ; 
 they that eat thy bread have laid a wound nnder thee : 
 there is none understanding in him. 
 
 When the Lord's time comes to cast a mighty nation down, he 
 causes all their friends to turn against them. So this verse affirms 
 of the kingdom of Edom. First, all his allies (" men of thy con- 
 federacy"), bound by treaty to stand or fall with him, cast him out 
 of their country, chasing him even to their border, as one turns a 
 villain out of his doors. Next, those who were on terms of peace 
 and friendship turn to deceive him, and prevail against him ; and 
 last, even his dependents, who ate at his table, put a snare under 
 his feet to entrap him. Snare (not "wound") is the sense of the 
 original word used here. Finally, this utter failure of all his re- 
 liances suggests the remark, *' There is no understanding in him." 
 He should not have trusted such helpers, and rejected the Almighty 
 God! 
 
 8. Shall I not in that da}^, saith the Loed, even de- 
 stroy the wise men ont of Edom, and understanding out 
 of the mount of Esau ? 
 
 The closing thought of the verse preceding suggests these ques- 
 tions. Edom was celebrated for her wise men, and was proud of 
 them. "Would not the Lord in that day destroy those great men, 
 and cause wisdom to cease from the mount of Esau ? 
 
 9. And thy mighty men^ O Teman, shall be dis- 
 mayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau 
 may be cut off by slaughter. 
 
 Her warriors also should be smitten with panic, in order that 
 
 the slaughter of the people might be complete. " Teman " was 
 
 the name of a city and region in the eastern part of Idumea. Per- 
 haps it was celebrated for its courage and prowess in war. 
 
 10. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, 
 shame shall come over thee, and thou shalt be cut off 
 for ever. 
 
 The discourse turns here from the destruction of Edom to those 
 sins which were its special cause. These sins were their violence 
 and outrages against the posterity of Jacob, their brother. For this 
 they should be ashamed and confounded ; and for this the nation 
 should ultimately be cut off forever, These two inflictions would 
 
OBADIAH. 163 
 
 be distinct,* aud mi^lit be somewhat widely separated in time. The 
 form of the prophetic statement admits this distinction ; the facts 
 of history fulUlled it. The shameful defeat came from the hand of 
 Nebuchadnezzar ; the final overthrow was postponed into the eai-ly 
 ages of the Christian era. 
 
 11. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, 
 in the day that the strangers carried away captive his 
 forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast 
 lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. 
 
 12. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day 
 of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger ; 
 neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children 
 of Judah in the day of their destruction ; neither should- 
 est thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. 
 
 13. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate 
 of my people in the day of their calamity ; yea, thou 
 shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day 
 of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance 
 in the day of their calamity ; 
 
 14. Neither shouldest thou have stood in the cross- 
 way, to cut off those of his that did escape ; neither 
 shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did 
 remain in the day of distress. 
 
 These specifications of what Esau had done in the line of vio- 
 lence and wrong toward his brother Jacob are put in the form of 
 
 pointed rebuke, after the fact. In the day when the Chaldeans 
 
 took his (Jacob's) armed men captive, entered his gates, and cast 
 lots upon whatever was fair and precious in the holy city, thou 
 
 wast hostile and violent as they. " Thou stoodest on the other 
 
 side " means more than simply standing aloof and distant ; it im- ' 
 plies the attitude of an adversary. The original words have this 
 sense (2 Sam. 18:13): " Thou wouldest have set thyself against 
 
 them." " Thou wast as one of them " might possibly, if taken 
 
 by itself, mean only that the men of Edom sympathized fully with 
 the Chaldeans and against the Jews ; but it more naturally imphes 
 that they participated heartily in the assault and pillage of the 
 hated city. V. 14 certainly means all this. "Thou shouldest 
 not have looked on (exultingly) in the day when he was treated as 
 an alien." V. 12 shows that they were present in the sack and 
 ruin of the city, seizing the opportunity to rush within those gates 
 
 and lay hands on her spoil. The middle clause of this verse (12) 
 
 is made specially emphatic — "Thou shouldest not," of all the na- 
 tions, " thou shouldest not have been looking on, to gloat thine 
 envious and cruel eye with the sight of their calamities." V. 14 rep- 
 
164 OBADIAH. 
 
 resents that tliey most cruelly stood in the road-crossings to waylay : 
 the fleeing Jews, to cut off their escape, and to deliver them up as 
 captives to their cruel captors. They should have done none of 
 these things. God — the righteous God of nations — is now holding 
 them to a strict and stern responsibility for those cruel violations 
 of fraternal sympathy which should have hound them to the pos- 
 terity of their father's brother. The vrriter of Ps. 137 felt the 
 
 spirit of this just retribution — "Eemember, O Lord, the children 
 of Edom in the day of avenging Jerusalem, who said : Ease it, 
 rase it, even to the foundation thereof" (v. 7). 
 
 15. For tliG day of the Loed is near upon all the hea- 
 then : as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee : thy 
 reward shall return upon thine o^ti head. 
 
 " The day of the Lord " is his time for retribution, declared here 
 to be " near upon all the heathen." It came soon by the hand of 
 Kebuchadnezzar. " As thou " (Edom) " hast done to Jerusalem, so 
 shall it be done unto thee ; thy reward " (the sort of treatment 
 thou hast shown to others) " shall come back upon thine own 
 head." 
 
 IG. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so 
 shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall 
 drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be 
 as though they had not been. 
 
 These allusions to drinking are explained by the usage of the 
 prophets. TV hen they bore predictions of dire calamity, they were 
 said to carry a cup filled with a mixture which represented the 
 wrath and vengeance of the Almighty. The ground passage is 
 Ps. 75 : 7, 8: "But God is the judge; he putteth down one, and 
 setteth up another ; for in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and 
 the wine is red ; it is full of mixture : but the dregs thereof — all the 
 wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them." To 
 Jerusalem Isaiah said (51 : 17) : " Stand up, thou who hast drunk at 
 the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury." In Jer. 25 : 15-33, this 
 figure is carried out fully : " Take the wine-cup of this fury at mine 
 hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it." 
 So also Jer. 49 : 12, in a passage very closely parallel to this of Obadiah. 
 
 With this view of the sense of this figure, it seems necessary to 
 
 refer the first clause — "ye who have drunk on my holy moun- 
 tain " — to the Jews themselves. Tliey had taken their tui*n in drink- 
 ing from this cup of retributive justice ; now all the heathen — Edom 
 
 among them — must follow. These guilty heathen nations must 
 
 drink copiously, for the word rendered " swallow down " is strong — 
 shall guzzle down, as men who love it, and suck out the very dregs 
 with keenest rehsh. And this shall be the end of them — then* cup 
 of national annihilation. 
 
 17. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and 
 
OBADIAH. 165 
 
 there thall be holiness ; and the house of Jacob shall 
 possess their possessions. 
 
 Over against the final fate of those oppressive and wicked na- 
 tions, Mount Zion stands in the strongest contrast. Turning now to 
 promises for the people of God, the prophet portrays the victory given 
 to Zion's side. Mount Zion shall be delivered, and, best of all, 
 " shall become Tioly.''^ This will secure her forever against such 
 fearful calamities, for these come only as needful discipline to cleanse 
 her from her sins. That " the house of Jacob shall possess their pos- 
 sessions " will either mean that they repossess their former land, or 
 that they gain possession of the country of the heathen — one or the 
 other, according as the pronoun " tlieir " is reflexive, meaning their 
 own, or refers to heathen nations. The former is most probable. 
 The latter fact is taught specially in vs. 19, 20. 
 
 18. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the 
 house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stub- 
 ble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them ; 
 and there shall not be any remaining of the house of 
 Esau ; for the Lord hath spoken it. 
 
 Fire is one of the oriental images for war and its devastations. 
 Thus, Num. 21 : 28 : "For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, a flame 
 from the city of Sihon; it hath consumed Ar of Moab," &c. Isaiah 
 (10 : 17), setting forth how God's consuming wrath fell on the 
 Assyrian host, says, " The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his 
 Holy One for a flame, and it shall burn and devour his thorns and 
 briers in one day." So here, the house of Jacob shall be a fire, 
 &c., and Esau stubble. This must imply that Jacob should be the 
 executioner of the Lord's vengeance upon Esau. A signal fulfil- 
 ment of this prophecy took place under John Hyrcanus, b. c. 125. 
 
 19. And they of the south shall possess the mount of 
 Esau ; and they of the plain the Philistines : and they 
 shall possess the fields, of Ephraim, and the fields of Sa- 
 maria : and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 
 
 The people of the southern part of Palestine should possess the 
 mount of Esau, that being contiguous to their homes. They of the 
 plain country, the southwest portion of Palestine, should have the 
 country of the Philistines, adjacent to them, &c. 
 
 20. And the captivity of this host of the children of 
 Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto 
 Zarej)hath ; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in 
 Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. 
 
 " The captives of this host " are the captives returning from 
 Babylon. They shall possess the country long held by the Canaan- 
 
166 OBADIAH. 
 
 ites, even to ZarepliatL, a city near Zidon (see 1 Kings 17:9), and 
 
 called " Sarepta," Luke 4 : 26. The geography of '' Sepharad " is 
 
 not fully settled. It was a place whither some captives from Je- 
 rusalem were sent by the Chaldeans. Kecent critics locate it in 
 Western Asia, near the Bosphorus. 
 
 21. And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to 
 judge the mount of Esau ; and the kingdom shall be the 
 Lord's. 
 
 " Saviours " must be nsed here in the sense in which God raised 
 up saviours to deliver the people in the days of the Judges that 
 succeeded Joshua. The passage teaches that the princes reigning on 
 Mount Zion shall rule over Mount Esau : " the elder shall serve the 
 younger," or rather, in the much broader sense, the people who 
 stand with God shall bear sway over all the realms and peoples of 
 the earth. The wicked shall no more bear rule ; " the kingdom 
 is the Lord's and he is Governor among the nations." This is the 
 great truth in which the whole Book of Obadiah culminates- a glo- 
 rious truth indeed ' 
 
JOI^AH. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 This book, more tlian any otlier in the Bible, has been assailed 
 with ridicule by infidels, and tortured from its simplicity by neolog- 
 ical critics. Whereas its air is that of a simple narrative of facts, 
 immense efforts have been made to show that its statements are 
 not fact, but fiction. Some of these critics would make it a vision ; 
 some an allegory ; some a parable ; others a tale of ancient tradi- 
 tion, believed by people of weak minds, perhaps, but by such only, 
 
 and never reliable. It would scarcely pay to foUow out these 
 
 critical fancies in detail. Let it sufiiee that the narrative bears not 
 the least trace of being a vision, or an allegory, or a parable, or a 
 tale of old-time tradition. From beginning to end it is simple, 
 straightforward, nobly honest and self- condemning, especially con- 
 sidered as written by Jonah of himself; in short, in every respect 
 
 bearing the best internal evidence of truth. Then further, the 
 
 book has worthy moral ol>jects ; e. g.^ to set forth the peril of flee- 
 ing from the path of duty, however rough or even dangerous that 
 path may be ; also, the ways of God's discipline to bring his wan- 
 dering servants back, and the tenderness of his pity and forgiving 
 love toward them despite of their sins ; and yet further, the prin- 
 ciples on which God deals with nations, even the heathen, whether 
 in judgment when they sin, or in sparing mercy when they repent. 
 Such objects as these are great and good enough to entitle the book 
 of Jonah to a place in the sacred canon; or we might go farther 
 back and say, sufiSciently important to justify God in making those 
 arrangements of his providence which constitute Ms part in these 
 
168 JOXAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 scenes of Jonah's history. But more than all, Jonah is distinctly 
 
 recognized, in both the Old Testament and the New, as an historical 
 and not a fictitious person. In Old Testament history, 2 Kings 14 : 
 25 distinctly refers to this Jonah, the son of Amittai, in these 
 words : " He (Jeroboam II.) restored the coast of Israel from the 
 entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the 
 word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of 
 his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, who was of Gath-Hepher." 
 This city was assigned to the tribe of Zebnlon (Josh. 19 : 13), so 
 that Jonah's residence was within the kingdom of the ten tribes. 
 He is thus located, precisely as to 'place ^ and proximately as to time-, 
 not later than the early part of the reign of Jeroboam II. (reigned 
 
 B. 0. 825-784). In the IsTew Testament, the proof to the point 
 
 that Jonah was a real and not a fictitious character, is complete. 
 (See Matt. 12 : 39-41, and 16:4.) The Lord Jesus most distinctly re- 
 fers to Jonah as the subject of a sign — i. e.^ of a miracle — as having 
 been three days and three nights in the whale's belly, and as hav- 
 ing preached to the people of Nineveh, under which preaching they 
 repented ; and finally, he definitely compares himself with Jonah • 
 
 " Behold, a greater than Jonah is here." Now, if, despite of 
 
 these testimonies to the contrary, men insist that Jonah is to be ac- 
 counted a fictitious character, they may say the same with equal 
 reason of the queen of Sheba and of the wise Solomon. "Will it 
 be claimed that the Lord Jesus did not Tcnoic whether the history 
 of Jonah were truth or fiction? or that, knowing it to be fiction, he 
 did not care how strongly his allusions to it implied its truth and 
 misled the people ? Neither of these positions will ever be taken 
 by those who intelligently accept and honor Jesus Christ as a 
 teacher sent from God, and the very impersonation of truth. 
 
 Yet further, the apocryphal Book of Tobit (14 : 4, 8) recognizes 
 Jonah as an historical and not a fictitious character, a fact which at 
 least testifies to current Jewish opinion at its date. Josephus is yet 
 another witness to the same point (Ant. 9 : 10, 12). 
 
 The case of Jonah suggests that the Hebrew prophets, though 
 brought into very near relations to God, were yet only human — ^men 
 of like passions with the race at large, and subject to the tempta- 
 tions incident to human frailties. His course in fleeing to Tarshisli 
 and his spirit while at Nineveh, are at once sm-prising and painful. 
 In view of the fact that he was one of the earliest of the Hebrew 
 prophets whose writings have come do^ii to us, it is at least sup- 
 posable that the Lord intended this example to be a lesson of spe- 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. I. 1^9 
 
 cial admonition to all subsequent prophets. Let us hope that it 
 was blessed to them as a warning against being unfaithful to their 
 mission, and against assuming to dictate or question the pohcy of 
 the Most High God. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JoTiTAH is commissioned to go to Mnevch and forewarn them of 
 their destruction (vs. 1, 2). He attempts to flee away to Spain in- 
 stead (v. 8) ; a tempest from the Lord arrests the ship (vs. 4-1 1) ; 
 he is thrown overboard and caught up by a great fish (vs. 11-17). 
 
 1. 'Now tlie word of tlie Loed came unto Jonali tlie 
 son of Amittai, sayino^, 
 
 2. Arise, go to Sineveli, tliat great city, and cry 
 against it ; for tlieir wickedness is come np before me. 
 
 Nineveh, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite the site of 
 the modern Mosul, for many ages past in ruins, has been discovered 
 and its ruins somewhat thoroughly explored in the present century. 
 It was the capital of ancient Assyria, one of the oldest cities since 
 the flood (Gen. 10 : 11, 12), long celebrated for its size, wealth, and 
 magnificence. At this time its wickedness had come up before God, 
 and he mercifully sent to them a prophet from Israel to forewarn 
 
 them of impending ruin and exhort them to repent^ The Hebrew 
 
 prophets were somewhat frequently commissioned to utter predic- 
 tions of judgment on Gentile nations, but seem to have been very 
 rarely sent in person to bear these predictions to those nations. In 
 Jer. 27 maybe seen a proximate case. The prophet was directed to 
 send his prophetic message by the hand of foreign ambassadors 
 present at the Jewish capital. 
 
 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsliisli from tlie 
 presence of the Loed, and went down to Joppa ; and he 
 found a ship going to -Tarshish : so he paid the fare 
 thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto 
 Tarshish from the presence of the Loed. 
 
 It is now quite settled among critics that "Tarshish" was the 
 city Tartessus, in Spain, with which the Phoenicians kept up an 
 active trade by sea. Jonah thought to escape the responsibility of 
 his unwelcome commission to Mneveh by taking ship at once to 
 Tarshish. The narrative is particular to state repeatedly that this 
 was "fleeing from the presence of the Lord"^ — as if there would 
 be no God in Tarshish to make him trouble ! or at least, as if God 
 could not object to his laying down his prophetic ofiice, and going 
 abroad to foreign lands. We naturally ask — What could have 
 
170 JONAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 been Lis motive and what liis temptation to a course so wicked and 
 so foolish ? Fear for his personal safety is the cause we most naturally 
 think of, yet of this it might well be asked — Did not he know that 
 if the Lord sent him into danger, he could protect him through it ? 
 and that it is always safe for a child of God to go where he knows 
 
 his Father sends him ? Another motive, even less worthy than 
 
 this of fear, is indicated by his own strange expostulation with God 
 (4 : 1, 2), because He retracted his threat to destroy Nineveh and 
 turned from punishment to pardon. This • change on the part of 
 God "displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry!" 
 (Alas for poor human nature !) "And he prayed unto the Lord 
 and said — I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was 
 yet in my country ? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish ; for I knew 
 that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great 
 
 kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." Ah, indeed! then 
 
 Jonah did not like to go to Nineveh, through fear that they would 
 repent, and then the Lord would forgive them and not destroy the 
 city, as he was about to proclaim. And was he concerned lest his 
 reputation should suffer, and he be thought a false prophet ? Alas, 
 
 again we must say, for the follies and sins of man ! In some 
 
 points of view it seems wonderful that God should employ such 
 a man at all as a prophet — only that in the sins of Jonah many a 
 
 man might see his own, if he would. The Lord has great moral 
 
 lessons to teach us from these sins of Jonah. Let none of us be 
 too blind to see them, nor too much in love with sin to accept the 
 rebuke they read to us, and repent. 
 
 4. But tlia LoED sent out a great wind into the sea, 
 and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the 
 ship was like to be broken. 
 
 The verb rendered "sent out" is strikingly expressive. lie 
 hurled down upon the sea a great wind. The same word is used 
 in the next verse for casting out the wai'es from the ship. So 
 easily does God cast forth his tempest blasts and lash the sea into 
 fury. 
 
 5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every 
 man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in 
 the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah 
 was gone down into the sides of the ship ; and he lay, 
 and was fast asleep. 
 
 Those heathen men — for such they doubtless were — had each 
 his god. In his danger each of those men prayed to the god he 
 was wont to worship. "Who does not pray in the hour of peril ? 
 Certainly the heathen are usually no exception. Probably there are 
 no people on earth further removed fi-om confidence in some super- 
 human power able to befriend and save, than the irreligious and 
 profane class in Christian lands. 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. I. 171 
 
 Some have thonght that the statement' respecting Jonah as fast 
 
 asleep under such cu'cum stances, is violently improbable. But 
 
 who knows how far he had walked during the previous day to reach 
 Joppa, or how much he may have suffered in his mind throughout 
 his journey, and for days previous? The ways of sin are not wont 
 to be ways of pleasantness, nor her paths those of peace. 
 
 6. So the sliipmaster came to him, and said unto 
 him, What meanest thou, O sleeper ? arise, call upon thy 
 God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish 
 not. 
 
 This rousing call must have stung the sleeper, especially when, 
 having fully awakened, he saw that God had met him in his guilty 
 
 way, and had brought such peril upon others for his sake. It is 
 
 noticeable that the word God in the last clause has the article : ''It 
 may be that the great and the true God will think upon us," &c. 
 Had he not some just conception of the one only true God ? 
 
 1. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and 
 let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this 
 evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon 
 Jonah. 
 
 The "lot" was practically an appeal to God to decide a pend- 
 ing question by his providence. In this case the Lord took the 
 disposal of the lot, according to Prov. 16 : 33 : " The lot is cast into 
 the lap ; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." It put 
 the finger of God upon Jonah. 
 
 8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, 
 for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine 
 occupation ? and whence comest thou ? what is thy 
 country ? and of what people art thou ? 
 
 9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew ; and I 
 fear the Loed, the God of heaven, which hath made the 
 sea and the dry land. 
 
 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said 
 unto him, Why hast thou done this 1 For the men 
 knew that he fled from the presence of the Lokd, be- 
 cause he had told them. 
 
 The alarm felt by those sailors was greatly increased when 
 Jonah told them that the God whom he feared and worshipped 
 was that great God of heaven wlio made the sea and the dry 
 land. They could not help rebuking him. How couldest thou 
 offend such a God ? See what comes of it ! Didst thou think to 
 escape the wrath and the reach of so great a God ? 
 
172 JONAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do imto 
 thee, that the sea may be calm nnto ns ? for the sea 
 wrought and was tempestuous. 
 
 They see plainly that they must do something with Jonah. He 
 is the Achan in their camp. So they frankly ask him what they 
 
 shall do with him. The last clause manifestly means that the sea 
 
 was becoming more and more tempestuous. 
 
 12. And he said unto them. Take me up, and cast 
 me forth into the sea ; so shall the sea be calm unto 
 you : for I know that for my sake this great tempest is 
 upon you. 
 
 Here is one redeeming quality in the character of Jonah. It is 
 pleasant to see a man, when found in sin, so frank, so honest, so 
 consciously sensible of his fault, and so ready to suffer the whole 
 fruit of his own misdoings, and relieve his comi^anions. 
 
 13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to 
 the land ; but they could not : for the sea wrought, and 
 was tempestuous against them. 
 
 The spirit which Jonah manifested awakened the sympathy of 
 the captain and crew in his behalf, and again they dug into the sea 
 with their oars (so the Hebrew means), to bring their ship to land ; 
 but all in vain. The sea only became the more furious. 
 
 14. "Wherefore they cried unto the Loed, and said, 
 We beseech thee, O Lokd, we beseech thee, let us not 
 perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent 
 blood : for thou, O Lokd, hast done as it pleased thee. 
 
 It was a solemn thing to take this human life ; and like men 
 who appreciate this, they once more implore the mercy of God, 
 and beseech him to note the necessity that lies upon them, wliich 
 they refer distinctly to his manifest hand in providence, so that they 
 may not be held guilty of innocent blood. 
 
 15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into 
 the sea : and the sea ceased from her raging. 
 
 16. Then the men feared the Lokd exceedingly, and 
 offered a sacrifice unto the Lokd, and made vows. 
 
 17. ISTow the LoED had prepared a great fish to swal- 
 low up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish 
 three days and three nights. 
 
 The original word rendered " prepared " means appointed, 
 assigned, i. e., to this service. This fish was providentially ready. 
 
 The fact here stated is the great stone of stumbhng and rock of 
 
 offence to that class of critics who deny the existence of miracles. 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. II. 173 
 
 We need have no special sympathy with their perplexities or their 
 stumbling ; for there can be no good reason for rejecting miracles. 
 Besides, in this case, our divine Lord distinctly recognizes the pres- 
 ence of miracles by saying that Jonah was " a sij/Ti," i. e., a man in 
 
 whom miracles were manifested. It is not necessarily a miracle 
 
 that a great fish should swallow a man. There are several varieties 
 that are capable of swallowing a man whole, for they have done it. 
 But that a man should live three days and three nights, or^ indeed, 
 one hour, in the belly of a fish, "must be a miracle. 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 In this short chapter, Jonah has put on record the prayers he 
 pom-ed out unto God fi-om his heart of anguish while imprisoned 
 three days in the stomach of a sea-monster. 
 
 1. Tlien Jonali prayed unto the Loed his God out 
 of the fish's belly, 
 
 2. And said, I cried by reason of mine afilietion unto 
 the Loed, and he heard me ; out of the belly of hell cried 
 I, and thou heardest my voice. 
 
 The phrase — "out of the belly of hell" — should not carry our 
 minds to the place of final torment for the wicked, but to the pit 
 or grave, where the bodies of men are laid at death. He felt lU^e 
 one buried alive — his consciousness still active and keen as ever, 
 but himself shut up in darkness ; imprisoned, apparently past hope 
 of ever seeing the light of this fair world again, save as he knew 
 and felt that his God might mercifully restore him. The Hebrew- 
 word used here (Sheol) often has this sense — the grave. U**4*Ml 
 
 3. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midsf 
 of the seas ; and the floods compassed me about : all thy 
 billows and thy waves passed over me. 
 
 Many of the expressions in this prayer of Jonah occur in the 
 Psalms, with only slight variations, if any. The reader may find it 
 interesting to compare v. 2 with Ps, 120 : 1 ; v. 3 with 42 : 7 ; 
 v. 4 with 31 : 22 ; V. 5 with 69 : 1 ; v. 7 with 142 : 3 ; v. 8 with 
 31 : 6 ; and v. 9 with 3 : 8. This comparison goes far to establish 
 two interesting facts : (1.) That these psalms were extant in Jonah's 
 time; (2.) That he had read them often, had become familiar 
 with their phraseology, especially that which was used in prayer, 
 and was therefore accustomed to use their language in his own de- 
 votions. He did as Christians now do who are familiar with the 
 devotional portions of God's word— use those forms of expression in 
 their daily and hourly intercessions before God. 
 
1Y4 JONAH.— CHAP. n. 
 
 4. Then I said, I am cast out of tliy sight ; yet I will 
 look again toward thy holy temple. 
 
 It cannot surprise us that Jonah both said* and felt, " I am cast 
 out of thy sight." When his fellow-passengers on shipboard took 
 him up and cast him overboard, it must have seemed to him that 
 
 God was casting him forth out of his sight forever. But Jonah 
 
 had once known the loving-kindness of his God. Hence, the thought 
 of possible mercy came now to his relief, and he said, " Yet I will 
 look once more toward thy holy temple." Did he not appreciate in 
 that hour how much the mercy of God is worth to a soul con- 
 sciously lost ? 
 
 6. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul : 
 the depth closed me round about, the weeds were 
 wrapped about my head. 
 
 He seemed to himself to lie on the bottom of tne sea— its weeds 
 wrapped as his winding-sheet about him. 
 
 6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; the 
 eai-th with her bars was about me for ever : yet hast 
 thou brought up my life from corruption, O Loed my 
 God. 
 
 The word " bars," in the clause " the earth with her bars was 
 about me forever," Gesenius supposes to refer to the bars of Sheol — 
 the under world — as closed now upon him forever. But the promi- 
 nent position of the word " earth " in the sentence favors another 
 construction, viz., that the earth, in the sense of land as opposed to 
 sea, had cast him out, and closed its bars upon him, so that he could 
 not hope ever to see its hght and beauty again. If he had meant 
 the bars of Sheol, he might readily have said so in unambiguous 
 'teians'jrT'»*-yet, notwithstanding he was so imprisoned in the depths 
 ►of the sea, he lifts up his grateful eye and his voice of acknowledg- 
 ment to God above — " Thou hast brought up my life from the pit, 
 O Lord my God. 
 
 Y. When ray soul fainted within me I remembered 
 the LoKD : and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine 
 holy temple. 
 
 8. They that observe lying vanities, forsake their 
 own mercy. 
 
 " They that observe lying vanities " are the worshippers of idol 
 gods which are always false and vain. They do indeed '•^forsake " 
 in the sense of rejecting and losing their own mercies. They 
 miserably forego the blessedness that is in store for them in the 
 true God, if only they will seek it there. So of all sinners who 
 seek their good elsewhere than in the Uving God. They "forsake 
 their own mercies." 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. m. 175 
 
 9. But I will sacrifice imto tliee with the voice of 
 thanksgiving ; I will pay that that I have vowed. Sal- 
 vation is of the LoKD. 
 
 Precisely what his vows were in Ms trouble he has not said. 
 Doubtless he promised the Lord never again to try to flee from his 
 
 presence to avoid an unwelcome duty. He closes with this most 
 
 expressive, glorious testimony: ^^ Salvation is of tlie Lord.'''' He 
 and he only can save in times of trouble. 
 
 10. And the Loed spake unto the fish, and it vomit- 
 ed out Jonah npon the dry land. 
 
 With infinite ease the Lord spake — only spaTce to the fish — and 
 it vomited Jonah forth upon the dry land, doubtless on the shore 
 of his native country, Palestine. It would seem that the ship had 
 not gone far from its starting-point, Joppa, when the storm headed 
 and beat it back. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OoMiNiANDED a second time, Jonah goes to Mneveh, and pro- 
 claims its approaching ruin. The people and their king humble 
 themselves and repent before God ; he turns from his purpose and 
 spares the city. 
 
 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the 
 second time, saying, 
 
 2. Arise, go unto JSTineveh, that great city, and 
 preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 
 
 Jonah was not only to go as commanded, but he is specially 
 charged to preach to that great and proud city what God should 
 bid him preach — a charge very probably significant of some appre- 
 hension lest Jonah might trip at this point, and certainly full of 
 suggestions to all who are ever called of God to preach in his name. 
 What have they to do to preach out of their own heart, to sub- 
 serve some supposed interest of their own, other than that for 
 which God sends them ? They might as well flee to Tarshish, to 
 escape the duty of preaching the ruin of the wicked, as to withhold 
 God's threatenings, or preach something else and other than what 
 God bids them, when they reach the Nineveh whither he sends 
 them. 
 
 3. So Jonah arose, and went unto Mneveh, accord- 
 ing to the word of the Loed. ISTow Mneveh was an ex- 
 ceeding great city of three days' journey. 
 
 Now Jonah obeys. He is a wiser and a better man for the dis- 
 cipline God has given him. " Before I was aflSicted, I went astray ; 
 
176 JONAH.— CHAP. m. 
 
 but now have I kept thy word." Tlie jilirase "an exceeding 
 
 great city," stands in the Hebrew, " a city great to Qod^^ i. e., great 
 before him — great as to him, in his estimation. The Hebrews were 
 accustomed to express their highest ideas of the superlative degree 
 by using the name of God, e. g.^ "mountains of God," &c. The 
 sense of this passage may be somewhat more specific, representing 
 the city as great in its relations to God, and not merely as very 
 
 great apart from those relations. In estimating an oriental day's 
 
 journey, w^e must think of a caravan,, heavy laden, many on foot, 
 in a hot climate. Twenty miles would be the maximum. Tht 
 statement " a city of three days' journey " should probably be ap- 
 plied to its circumference, and not to its diameter ; because sixty 
 miles in diameter would make the city incredibly large ; because 
 one of the most reliable ancient historians, Diodorus Siculus (H., 3) 
 represents it as sixty miles in circuit ; and because Jonah's begin- 
 ning to enter it one day's journey (v. 4) may have been on a tor- 
 tuous course, and not on a right line through its centre. 
 
 4. And Jonali began to enter into the city a day's 
 journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and 
 !Nineveh shall be overthrown. 
 
 Jonah seems to have begun liis preaching as he entered the city, 
 and to have made his proclamation in the streets and public places, 
 wherever he found people to hear him. 
 
 5. So the people of ^Nineveh believed God, and pro- 
 claimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest 
 of them even to the least of them. 
 
 The first step toward their repentance and salvation lay in their 
 'believing Ood. They accepted the message of this solitary stran- 
 ger as one sent them by the Most High God. To those who 
 
 have noted the strange incredulity of millions under the fight of 
 the gospel, this fact appears surprising. We must suppose that 
 Jonah spake as one who felt the solemnity of his mission and car- 
 ried the air of a deeply honest man, and we must also suppose that 
 he had their conscience on his side, and that the power of God was 
 in and with Ins words. 
 
 6. For word came unto the king of jSTineveh, and he 
 arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, 
 and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 
 
 It does not appear that the king heard from Jonah's own lips ; 
 but the word came to him through his servants. They testified to 
 the deep, pervading conviction of the people, and the king at once 
 
 befieved God as his people had done. The name of this king is 
 
 not given or known. This record of him may well rebuke many an 
 ungodly monarch who plants his foot upon the very idea of " a higher 
 law of God," and scornfully repels aU authority higher than the 
 mandates of his own will. 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. in. lYY 
 
 7. And lie caused it to be proclaimed and piiblislied 
 tliroiigli Nineveh by decree of the king and his no- 
 bles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, 
 taste any thing : let them not feed, nor drink water : 
 
 8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, 
 and cry mightily unto God : yea, let them turn every 
 one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in 
 their hands. 
 
 It is specially noticeable that this prochimation calls not only for 
 humiliation, fasting, and all the customary oriental tokens of sorrow 
 and penitence, and for prayer also — crying mightily to God — but also 
 specially enjoins on all men to "turn every one from his evil way 
 and from the violence that is in their hands." So manifest is it that 
 the law of justice and right is everywhere in the human mind, and 
 
 that no heathen can be so blind as not to see it. This also is a 
 
 stinging rebuke to men, who, under far clearer light than theirs, 
 yet labor to extinguish this light, or, in the more fit and expressive 
 words of revelation, " put darkness for light and light for darkness." 
 
 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and 
 turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not ? 
 
 The form of this question suggests that the king of Nineveh 
 did not Tcnoio that God would always forgive a penitent people. 
 He had heard less of God than we have. But he could say, " Who 
 can tell (literally, " who knows ") whether he will turn and repent, 
 that we perish not ? " On this assumed possibility he bases his call 
 to humiliation, fasting, prayer, and reform. 
 
 10. And God saw their works, that they turned 
 from their evil way ; and God repented of the evil that 
 he had said that he would do unto them ; and he did it 
 not. 
 
 "God saw," not their professions, nor merely their prayers, but 
 " their works, that they turned from their evil way." Of course, 
 when they changed their moral attitude before him, he changed his 
 plan ; turned from his purpose, and spared the city. So he always 
 deals with the nations of the earth. Works meet for repentance 
 will infallibly secure the reversal of threatened and impending doom. 
 God's immutability is that of principle — not of plan and action. He 
 immutably hates and punishes sin : hence, when a sinner becomes a 
 penitent, God turns from threatened vengeance to free pardon. 
 
 8* 
 
178 JONAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 This chapter is a mournful record of the moral frailties of a 
 good man, and a glorious testimony to the pity, forbearance, and 
 love of the blessed God. Jonah is greatly displeased because the 
 Lord reversed the predicted fall of Nineveh : he waits outside the 
 city to see what the Lord would do to it ; he put up a rude tent for 
 shelter from the heat ; and the Lord brought up a gourd over him 
 for his further relief; liut a worm destroys the gourd. Jonah is 
 again fretful, impatient, and angry, and the Lord very gently 
 rebukes him, and gives reasons for sparing Nineveh. 
 
 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was 
 very angry. 
 
 Some critics give the word rendered in this passage " displeased," 
 the sense of grieved. It would be a great relief to my feehngs of 
 sorrow and shame, if the words and the circumstances would bear 
 this construction. But as an interpreter of God's word, I must 
 honor the truth rather than humor the feelings of the heart. So 
 tMs passage must stand, " displeased," " angry exceedingly." 
 
 2. And lie prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray 
 thee, O Lord, loas not this my saying, when I was yet 
 in my country ? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish : 
 for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, 
 slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee 
 of the evil. 
 
 In the clause, " Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish," the sense 
 is not that I fled at a former tlme^ but that I fled before I came into 
 such an emergency as this ; I anticipated precisely such a result as 
 this, and I fled heforehand, to avoid it. I did not wish to declare 
 to them from the mouth of the Lord that the city should faU within 
 forty days, and then have my words prove false. To this con- 
 struction, the reasons he assigns correspond : " For I knew that 
 thou art a gracious God, and wouldest probably repent so as not to 
 
 inflict this evil." The last clause which groups his testimony to 
 
 God's mercy is in the very words of Joel (2 : 13), and almost iden- 
 tical with Ex. 34 : 6, 7. Probably both passages were familiar to 
 his mind. This boldness before God, while so grievously in the 
 wrong withal, is appalling. It is awful that a sinner, plucked him- 
 self as a brand from the burning, and living on mere mercy alone, 
 should object to God's showing the same mercy to his fellow-sin- 
 ners. Why did he not rather rejoice and shout for joy when he 
 saw the king and people of Nineveh on their faces before God — his 
 warnings pressing them effectually to repentance, and the clouds 
 of gathering vengeance swept away by the hand of love ? 
 
JONAH.—CHAP. IV. 179 
 
 3. Therefore now, O Loed, take, I beseech thee, my 
 life from me ; for it is better for me to die than to 
 live. 
 
 AndnoW he is so inuch^vexed and so angry, that he prays God 
 to take his life ! How could he think himself prepared to die in 
 such a temper ? 
 
 4. Then said the Loed, Doest thon well to be angry ? 
 
 Some interpreters render this verse — " Then said the Lord, Art 
 
 thou mwc/i vexed ? " There are two fatal objections to this ren- 
 
 deiing: (1.) The question so put is needless, since Jonah had 
 shown his extreme anger but too plainly; and (2.) The original 
 words cannot, legitimately, bear this construction. They mean — 
 Does thine anger burn justly, rightly ? Hast thou any good reason 
 for such anger ? Is it doing well, that thou shouldest let such pas- 
 sions rise ? — A very gentle rebuke indeed, for sins so great and so 
 provoking to God ! 
 
 6. So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east 
 side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat 
 under it in the shadow, till he might see what would be- 
 come of the city. 
 
 " Till he might see what would become of the city " — as if this 
 question were still in suspense. Can it be supposed that he thought 
 — Possibly the Lord will hear my prayer and my expostulation, and 
 will turn again to execute his first sentence of destruction ? 
 
 6. And theLoKD God prepared a gourd, and made^'^ 
 to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over 
 his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was 
 exceeding glad of the gom-d. 
 
 Still the Lord is mindful of the little comforts of his servant 
 Jonah, and brings up over him very suddenly the shade of a rapidly 
 growing plant, to " reheve his sufferings" — for so, more accurately, 
 I render the words translated " to deliver him from his grief." This 
 " gourd " is supposed to be the shrub known by the name of " Palma 
 Christi." 
 
 7. But God prepared a worm when the morning 
 rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it 
 withered. 
 
 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that 
 God prepared a vehement east wind ; -and the sun beat 
 upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in 
 himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than 
 to live. 
 
180 JONAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 This east wind, wliicli the text reads "vehement," the mar^rfn, 
 nearer tlie truth, has " sUent." It was not a violent but a sultry 
 wind, such as comes up from the desert on the southeast, like the 
 breath of a great furnace. Jonah sinks under^thifs groat hoat, and 
 again wishes that he may die ! IWkft^A^|C^ f^ ptMM^ 
 
 9. And God said to Jonali, Dolst tliou well to be 
 angry for the gonrd ? And lie said, I do well to be 
 angry, even unto death. 
 
 The same question, in the same words as in v. 6, and with the 
 same meaning, only that this respects his recent anger because of 
 the withered gourd. Strange to say, Jonah justifies himself, and by 
 implication, complains of God for sufi:ering the worm to kill his 
 gourd! 
 
 10. Then said the Loed, Thou hast had pity on the 
 gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither 
 madest it grow ; which came up in a night, and perished 
 in a night : 
 
 11. And should not I spare ISTineveh, that great city, 
 wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that 
 cannot discern between their right hand and their left 
 hand, and also much cattle ? 
 
 The verb which expresses Jonah's feeling for the gourd is the 
 same which expresses the Lord's feeling for ]S[inevah, yet our trans- 
 lators render the former " hast had pity ^'''' and the latter " Should 
 I not spare ? " This is unfortunate. Pity for the gourd was not 
 precisely the feeling of Jonah; he rather pitied himself. ' The 
 gourd was not a sentient being — was not a sufferer. Yet Jonah 
 deplored the loss of the gourd, and in this point of view the antith- 
 esis bears. The scope of the antithesis is essentially ftiis : — Thou, 
 Jonah, wast pained at the ruin of that gourd, though it had cost 
 thee nothing, and thou hadst done nothing to interest thy heart in 
 its welfare, and it is a short-lived thing at best : should not I, much 
 more, deprecate the ruin of that great city, Nineveh, in which are 
 more than one hundred and twenty thousand human leings (so the 
 Hebrew specially denotes) who have not yet reached the period of 
 moral accountability, and also many cattle who never reach it ? These 
 are all sentient beings ; their happiness is a positive good to them, 
 and therefore to me. They have not sinned against me ; shall I not, 
 therefore, spare the city if I can do so safely and wisely ; spare it 
 especially for the sake of the unsinning beings who are in it and 
 
 who must be involved in its doom if it falls? Thus it is vegeta- , 
 
 ble life on the one hand against animal life on the other ; a shrub 
 against a babe or a lamb. For the shrub Jonah had done nothing 
 to enlist his sympathies, but God implies that he has been watch- 
 ing over these infants and the lambs too, with a Father's tender 
 c.are, and has good reason, therefore, to be deeply interested in their 
 happiness. 
 
JONAH.— CHAP. IV. 181 
 
 The passage makes useful and rich revelations in respect to the 
 feelings of the great God as to those fearful judgments which fall 
 on the wicked, but which, as the world is, must involve some inno- 
 cent beings — a part of them innocent as having not yet reached suf- 
 ficient intelhgence to make them morally accountable, and others 
 as not having by nature any moral attributes. In the light of this 
 passage it becomes altogether plain that God always takes into ac- 
 count the case of these sinless sufferers, and regards their presence 
 as itself a plea for sparing the guilty. Of course, he will give this 
 plea all the consideration which the nature of the case will allow. 
 He will punish, in forms that necessarily involve the unsinning in 
 the general ruin, only when the ends of a moral system impera- 
 tively demand it. Who can estimate the amount of sparing mercy 
 which the guilty of our world owe, in this life, to God's pity for 
 infants and for the sentient but unsinning animal races ? 
 
MIOAH 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 MioAH, a name abbreviated from Micaiah, wMcb signifies — 
 Who is like God ? was of Moresbetli-gath, a city near Eleutheropo- 
 lis, and not far from the country of the Philistines. His introduc- 
 tory verse states that he prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, 
 and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. As the two former reigned each 
 sixteen years and the latter twenty-nine, the entire duration of his 
 ministry possible within this statement is sixty-one years. He was 
 contemporary with Isaiah, who dates one vision " in the year that 
 king Uzziah, the father of Jotham," "died" (6 : 1), and who was 
 certainly in active service as a prophet under Hezekiah. Interest- 
 ing collateral evidence that Micah prophesied in the reign of Heze- 
 kiah is found in Jer. 26 : 17-19. While some of the priests, princes, 
 and false prophets demanded that Jeremiah should die for the al- 
 leged crime of speaking against the royal city, certain of the elders 
 rose up to defend him with this plea": " Micah, the Morasthite, 
 prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to 
 all the people of Judah (very publicly), saying : ' Thus saith the 
 Lord of hosts, Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem 
 shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high 
 places of the forest.' Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put 
 him at all to death ? " &c. See the original passage (Micah 3 : 12). 
 
 This Micah was not that noble Micaiah, son of Imlah, whom 
 Ahab did not love because he told him too much unwelcome truth. 
 (See 1 Xings 22). Ahab died one hundred and thirty-eight years 
 
 before Jotham came to the throne. ^Micah, the author, also spake 
 
 bold and fearless words for God and righteousness. He spake con- 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. I. 183 
 
 cerning both Samaria and Jerusalem, mostly the latter, exposing 
 and rebuking their sins. He predicted the destruction of both 
 cities. He expatiated on the final glory of Zion, the real kingdom 
 of the Messiah, in words of great beauty and power. 
 
 It is important to a full understanding of the work of these 
 prophets that we think of their relations to the throne, stemming 
 the tide of wickedness under such reigns as that of Ahaz; power- 
 fully aiding the work of reform under such good kings as Hezekiah. 
 Contemporary with these two kings were Micah, Hosea, Isaiah, and 
 Nahum. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The sin and doom of Samaria, embracing of course the kingdom 
 of which it was the capital, constitute the leading themes in this 
 chapter. Vs. 10-16 describe the effects of the Assyrian invasion 
 as it swept along over a line of cities that lay in his path. 
 
 1. The word of tlie Lord that came to Micah the 
 Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Heze- 
 kiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria 
 and Jerusalem. 
 
 2. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all 
 that therein is : and let the Lord God he witness against 
 you, the Lord from his holy temple. 
 
 3. For behold, the Loed cometh forth out of his 
 place, and will come down, and tread upon the high 
 places of the earth. 
 
 4. And the mountains shall be molten under him, 
 and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and 
 as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 
 
 The prophet summons all the nations of the earth to hear. 
 Practically, they are supposed to be convened for a great judgment 
 scene, and the Almighty God comes down from his throne in 
 heaven to appear as a witness against them for their sins. His 
 coming down is portrayed with wonderful grandeur. " See ! the 
 Lord comes out of his place : he comes down : he treads on the 
 high places of the earth," as if his glorious footsteps rested only 
 on the mountain tops ; and " the mountains are molten " under the 
 touch of his feet; new valleys are cleft; the solid hills melt as wax 
 before the fire, and flow as water leaping down a precipice. Such 
 convulsions of nature betoken the majesty of nature's God! 
 
184 MICAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 5. For tlie transgression of Jacob is all tliis, and for 
 tlie sins of the lionse of Israel. "What is tlie transgres- 
 sion of Jacob ? is it not Samaria ? and wliat are tbe 
 higli places of Jndab ? are they not Jerusalem ? 
 
 WTiy is all this ? "For the transgression of Jacob, and the sins 
 of the house of Israel." God comes down to take account of the 
 great sins of his covenant people, and to bring on them retribution 
 therefor. This great judgment to which all the nations are con- 
 vened is, for the present, that of the covenant people only ; but the 
 Gentile nations may well ask — " If judgment begin at the house of 
 God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of 
 God ? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the un- 
 godly and the sinner appear ? " Indeed, this judgment of Judah 
 
 and Israel is of most vital concern to all the nations of the earth, 
 since in it and from it they may learn the ways of God's reign over 
 all nations, and the doom which awaits them unless they repent. 
 
 " What is the transgression of Jacob ? Is it not Samaria ? " Thai 
 
 is, is it not found in Samaria, concentrated, embodied, developed 
 there, viz., in her idolatry, her violence, injustice, pride, and general 
 corruption of morals ? So also Jerusalem had taken the lead in the 
 
 idolatries and corruptions of Judah. The phrase "house of 
 
 Israel," in the second clause of this verse, refers specially to Judah, 
 
 as is shown by the last clauses of the verse. From this point 
 
 forward through the chapter, the doom of* Samaria and her king- 
 dom is the main subject. 
 
 6. Therefore, I will make Samaria as an heap of the 
 field, and as plantings of a vineyard : and I will ponr 
 down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will dis- 
 cover the foundations thereof. 
 
 This is a picture of utter desolation. "Heaps of the field," 
 said of a city, shows a surprising contrast to what it was. Once 
 full of noble buildings, now only piles of ruins, heaps of stones and 
 furrows cast up by tlie plough. So Samaria returns back to iha 
 status of a plantation with its ploughed fields and vineyards. Its 
 stones are tumbled down the hill on which the city stood to fill the 
 valley below, and the very foundations on which it stood are laid 
 bare. Modern travellers testify to the precisely literal fulfilment of 
 these words, saying that the valley adjacent to the hill of Samaria 
 is full of the stones which once had a place in her houses and idol 
 temples. So the words of the Lord never fail. 
 
 7. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten 
 to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with 
 the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate : for 
 she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall 
 return to the hire of an harlot. 
 
MIOAH.— CHAP. I. 185 
 
 As is nsual and altogether right, God's judgments follow and 
 point out the great sins thej come to punish. Hence, the altar and 
 all that pertains to idolatry come up in remembrance before God in 
 
 the day of his visitation, as appears in this verse. The original 
 
 word rendered " the hires " thereof, carries tlie mind to the income 
 derived to the city from its idol altars, temples, and worship. The 
 word refers primarily to harlot-hire — the wages of prostitution — 
 and is applied to the money profits of idolatry, under that current 
 prophetic usage which speaks of idolatry as itself harlotry. The 
 last clause of the verse says that, as Samaria had accumulated her 
 wealth and splendor by this sort of harlot-hire, idolatry, and its 
 wages, her people shall return to harlot-hire in the literal sense — 
 ^o that lowest of all pursuits for a living — the life of a common 
 prostitute. If not to this precisely and literally, yet to a sort of 
 life analogous to this and fitly represented by it.— — IIow inexpress- 
 ibly appalling is such a doom ! 
 
 8. Therefore, I will wail and howl ; I will go stripped 
 and naked : I will make a wailing like the dragons, and 
 mourning as the owls. 
 
 It cannot appear strange that the prophet should pause over 
 such a doom and say — '''' Therefore^"^^ for this "I will waU and 
 howl." — ^"Dragons," in the sense of sea-monsters, are not the 
 animals here intended, but probably jackals or wolves. Either of 
 these, in oriental countries, make night hideous with their howling. 
 The best modern critics concur in rendering the last word not 
 " owl," but ostrich. The latter were distinguished for their plain- 
 tive cry far out on the desert. 
 
 9. For her wound is incurable ; for it is come unto 
 Judah ; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The blow that fell on Samaria and the ten-tribe kingdom was 
 fatal. It swept the nation into a hopeless captivity, and laid the 
 whole land utterly desolate. It also alarmed Judah. Under Sen- 
 nacherib and Eabshakeh, this same Assyrian power even came 
 within sight of Jerusalem, and might be said to have reached her 
 gates. 
 
 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all : in 
 the house of Aphrali roll thyself in the dust. 
 
 The remaining part of this chapter is a graphic painting of the 
 first results of the Assyrian invasion, as they were felt in one city 
 after another along the line of his march. In most of the cases 
 the things said of each city are a play upon the significant name of 
 that city — a method of writing well adapted to impress the idea 
 upon the memory. Sometimes there is simply a resemblance in 
 sound between the prominent word spoken of a city and the name 
 
186 MiCAH.—cnAr. i. 
 
 of tliat city. Both of these cases fall under the figure of speech 
 technically called a paronomasia. The latter form of it — resem- 
 blance in sounds — is of course untranslatable. The other form — a 
 play upon the significance of the name of a city — is as if one 
 should exclaim : What ! is there quarrelling in Concord ; war in 
 Salem [Peace] ; family feuds in Philadelphia [Brotherly Love] ; 
 slavery in Freetown ? * 
 
 " Tell it not in Gath," comes from David's lament over Saul and 
 Jonathan. The idea is — Let not the enemies of Zion hear of her 
 
 sad fall. Modern critics read the next clause, " weep not in 
 
 Ako," with which the Hebrew word for " weep" (baka) gives us 
 a case of paranomasia^ better seen when the Hebrew preposition 
 (b) is put before ako, as in the original, making it daJto. This 
 city fell within the sweep of this march of the desolating army. 
 So did Aphrah, which means dust. "In the ^ dusf city, roll 
 thyself in the ' dust.'' " AVeeping is too feeble an expression for a 
 ruin so terrible. To roll thyself in the dust is befitting, and there- 
 fore enjoined. 
 
 11. Pass ye away, tliou inhabitant of Sapliir, having 
 thy shame naked : the inhabitant of Zaanan came no't 
 forth in the monrning of Beth-ezel ; he shall receive of 
 you his standing. ♦ 
 
 12. For the inhabitants of Maroth waited carefully 
 for good : but evil came down from the Loed unto the 
 gate of Jerusalem. 
 
 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot 
 to the swift beast : she is the beginning of the sin to the 
 daughter of Zion : for the transgressions of Israel were 
 found in thee. 
 
 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents to IVToresheth- 
 gath : the houses of Achzib shall he a lie to the kings of 
 Israel. 
 
 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant 
 of Mareshah : he shall come unto AduUam the glory of 
 Israel. 
 
 I translate these verses rather freely, in order to give as fully as 
 possible the same play upon the words — by paranomasia — that I 
 
 * Isaiah, contemporary with Micah, is equally remarkable for his free 
 use of paronomasia. A beautiful example is in Isa, 5 : 7 — "He looked for 
 judgment, but behold bloodshed ; for righteousness, but behold an outcry." 
 That is, he looked for I35T1"3, and lo, nsb^ ; forrt|:?^:^£ and lo, np?^. 
 The Hebrew reader will notice that the prominent antithetic words are as 
 like as possible in sound, but as unlike as possible in sense. Herein lie 
 the beauty and force of this figure of speech. It is as if an English writer 
 should say — He looked for the law of rigJit, but lo, the law of might: he 
 looked for good, but behold, blood. 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. I. 187 
 
 find in the original, and also to give the ultimate sense. To aid the 
 reader yet more, I put the correlated words in italics. "Pass ye 
 on, ye dwellers in Saiihir (the 'beautiful city), in utter nakedness " 
 (as those who flee, stripped by the ravages of war) ; " the dwellers 
 in Zaanan " (the city of flocTcs)^ " do not flocTc out to the mourning 
 of Beth-ezel: " "from you" {i. e., oi Beth-ezel^ city Qi firm root)^ 
 " will he, the conqueror take his camping-ground ; " i. e.^ he will 
 make his camp — his place of halting and stay there (hence their 
 mourning — to which the people of Zaanan do not flock out to sym- 
 pathize with them, though neighbors — having sorrow and fear 
 
 enough at home). "For the dwellers in Maroth^'' (the city of 
 
 hitterness) " are in anguish for some good " (all good being lost to 
 them) ; " but evil comes down from the Lord, even to the gates of 
 Jerusalem." How, then, can one of the lesser feeble cities, like 
 Maroth, hope for any good ? It is only natural that a " Maroth," 
 
 city of bitterness, should be in bitter grief and destruction. 
 
 This " evil came to the gate of Jerusaleni " — no farther. The Assyrian 
 invader never sacked Jerusalem. The blow that smote the king- 
 dom of the ten tribes fatally, may have alarmed Jerusalem ; it lefb 
 her untouched. The invasion of Sennacherib a few years later 
 
 proved the ruin of himself, not of Jerusalem. " Bind the chariot 
 
 to the fleet steed " (for rapid flight) — " thou dweller oiLacJiisTi " (the 
 smitten city), "the first cause of sin was she" (Lachish), "to the 
 daughter of Zion, for in thee were found the sins of Israel." La- 
 chish lay on the southern border of the ten tribes, and being not far 
 from Jerusalem, became the channel through which the temptations 
 to idolatry passed over from Israel, after the revolt, into Jerusalem. 
 
 Hence this special judgment on Lachish. In the first clause 
 
 Micah has a paranomasia which is untranslatable between "La- 
 chish" and "Rekesh," the word for fleet steed. 
 
 " Therefore shalt thou " (Israel) " give divorce papers to More- 
 sheth-gath ; " — though her name signifies city of possession^ thou 
 must forego all possession of her and let her go before the destroyer. 
 
 " The houses of Achzib " {city of lies) shall be for a lie to the 
 
 kings of Israel" — no dependence in their need. "Yet wiU I 
 
 bring an heii* " (one who shall possess) " to thee, O dweller of 
 Mareshah " — which name seems here to mean city of possession. 
 
 This heir is the conqueror. " He," this conqueror, shall come 
 
 even to Adullam, which means jiistice of the people — and this sig- 
 nificance, if realized, would be " the glory of IsraeV 
 
 This passage (vs. 10-15) is admitted to be extremely difficult. 
 No doubt it was intelligible in the age of Micah, though somewhat 
 enigmatical. But such nice, delicate allusions to cities and their 
 significant names must inevitably become obscure by the lapse of 
 ages, and the oblivion of those associations of thought with cities 
 and their names which are in their nature incidental and tem- 
 porary. 
 
 16. Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate 
 
188 MICAH.— CHAP. II. 
 
 cliildren ; enlarge tliy baldness as the eagle ; for they 
 are gone into captivity from thee. 
 
 The eagle is referred to as an illustration of baldness. Tearing 
 out the hair, or even cutting it off, were usual signs of extreme 
 grief. Ilence the prophet exhorts Israel, considered as the mother 
 of her people, to go into mourning for her children, because they are 
 
 gone away into captivity, to return no more.: Except in the use 
 
 of the paranomasia, the passage (Isa. 10 : 28-32) is strikingly analo- 
 gous to this (Mic. 1 : 10-16). There Isaiah sketches the advance ol 
 Sennacherib's host toward Jerusalem, by noting its effects of panic, 
 mourning, or flight, on various cities as he approached. Here 
 Micah describes a similar march of an Assyrian ai'my to destroy 
 the northern kingdom, and to alarm the southern. 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 Tms chapter presents the sins of the people (vs. 1, 2) ; God's 
 threatenings (v. 8) ; lamentations over her doom (vs. 4, 5) ; the gain- 
 saying of a wicked people against God and his prophets (v. 6) ; the 
 prophet's indignant reply (v. 7) ; a further description of their sins 
 (vs. 8, 9) ; the sort of prophets the people choose (v. 11) ; and prom- 
 ises of good (vs. 12, 13). 
 
 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil 
 npon their beds ! When the morning is light, they prac- 
 tise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 
 
 This woe fitly comes down, not on those who sin inadvertently, 
 or only under the impulse of sudden temptation, but on those who 
 coolly and with the clear-headed thought of the night-watches, 
 frame plans of mischief and work out schemes for wrong, to be 
 executed in the morning ; and who are wicked enough for all the 
 mischief their hands have the power to do. 
 
 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence ; 
 and houses, and take them away : so they oppress a man 
 and his house, even a man and his heritage. 
 
 " Oppressing a man and Ms house,'''' means robbing not him 
 alone, but his family as well. They take away property in which 
 his wife and children have their living. This is the same class of 
 sins which Amos and Isaiah rebuke so sharply. 
 
 3. Therefore thus saith the Lord ; Behold, against 
 this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not 
 remove your necks ; neither shall ye go haughtily ; for 
 this time is evil. 
 
 The idea of retaliation and of just retribution stands out cleai-ly 
 
MIC AH.— en AP. II. 189 
 
 ill the very form of the prophet's expressions : Tliey devise iniquity ; 
 God devises calamity to punish it. They devise it upon their beds ; 
 God devises it U2wn this whole family — tbe prophet choosing a 
 word for family which has the leading radicals of the word for led. 
 
 God's calamities shall he on them as a yoke which they cannot 
 
 throw off, and under which they can no longer walk proudly, carry- 
 ing their heads high — for the prophet's words have this sense. 
 
 4. In that day shall ons take up a parable against 
 yon, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, 
 we be utterly spoiled : he hath changed the portion of 
 my people : how hath he removed it from me ! turning 
 away he hath divided our fields. 
 
 The best lexicographers would read the second clause — not> 
 "lament with a doleful lamentation," but thus — " And wail in a 
 dirge of wailing, It is done!'''' i. e.^ all is over! "and say, we are 
 
 utterly spoiled! " " Changing the portion of my people" means 
 
 here changing the title to their landed estates, and hence implies 
 
 that they lose possession of their country. The last clause better 
 
 — "He hath apportioned our fields to one who takes them all away 
 from us " — i. c, God has given them all to the conqueror of our 
 country. 
 
 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a 
 cord by lot in the congregation of the Lokd. 
 
 Consequently there shall be none to setoff their land to them by 
 lot in the public congregation. " Cord " is used here for a measur- 
 ing line for land. The soil has passed into the hands of a foreign 
 power. This is one of their bitter plaints. 
 
 6. Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy : 
 they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take 
 shame. 
 
 7. O thoic that art named the house of Jacob, is the 
 Spirit of the Loed straitened ? are these his doings ? do 
 not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly ? 
 
 At this point, the ungodly people interpose to gainsay the 
 prophet, forbidding him to prophesy, and suggesting the sort of 
 prophet they would have. The passage is quite obscure, the tran- 
 sitions being abrupt, and the point where the objector's language 
 closes and the prophet's reply begins, being a matter of some doubt. 
 Thus, among the ablest critics now before me, RosenmuUer assigns 
 to the objector less than half of v. 6 ; Henderson precisely v. 0, 
 and no more ; Hengstenberg apparently, vs. 6 and 7. I find the best 
 point of transition from the objector to the prophet at the close of 
 V. 6, and translate thus: " Prophesy not ; let those prophesy who 
 will not prophesy as to such things ; reproaches will never cease." 
 
190 MICAH.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 This is tlieir demand and this their complaint. They say — "We can't 
 hear any more such prophesying; let us have another sort of men 
 who will not say such Jiard things ; — there is no end to your faul- 
 
 finding, Then the prophet resumes in v. 7, " Shall this be said 
 
 in the house of Jacob ? " "Is the Spirit of the Lord to be strait- 
 ened ? " — i. e., to be dictated to by mortal man ? " Are these 7iis 
 doings?" i. e.^ is it his fault that he mast predict calamity? Is it 
 not rather your sins that bring down the wrath and curse of God ? 
 
 " Do not my words always bless him who walketh uprightly ? " 
 
 This is the beginning of the prophet's reply. 1 dissent from the 
 
 English version — " O thou that art named the house of Jacob:" (1.) 
 Because this verb without any preposition following, seems not to 
 bo used in the sense to name; (2.) And mainly, because, beyond all 
 question, this first clause is interrogative and not vocative. There 
 are four distinct questions asked in this verse, each indicated by its 
 interrogative particle. There is, therefore, as much reason for 
 making this first clause a question as either of the three that.foUows. 
 Beyond a doubt, each of the four is an inteiTogative clause. The 
 first expresses the surprise and horror felt by the prophet that men 
 should arise in the house of Jacol) to say such things in the way of 
 dictation to the Almighty ! The construction of v. 6 is exceed- 
 ingly obscure. The sense I have given is a choice among difficulties. 
 
 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy : 
 ye pull off tlie robe with the garment from them that 
 pass by securely as men averse from war. 
 
 9. The women of my people have ye cast out from 
 their pleasant houses ; from their children have ye taken 
 away my glory for ever. 
 
 These verses are interposed hereto show that the objectors who 
 cavil against the prophets of the Lord do not themselves " walk up- 
 rightly." Then v. 10 warns them out of tlie land ; and v. 11 returns 
 
 to tell them what sort of a prophet they choose, and shall have. 
 
 The words "Even of late" do not necessarily imply that the event 
 
 is very recent. The horrible thing is that "m?/ people^'''' God's 
 
 own people, " should have risen up," i. e., in their full strength, 
 " to become an enemy " to every man's rights and interests — a 
 public enemy to all. For instance, " they strip oflP both the outer 
 robe and the inner from men passing along securely " with no 
 thought of danger, " returning from war." Their worn and weary 
 soldiers, returning from hard service for their country, they fall 
 upon, and rob and strip even to the skin ; for the common oriental 
 dress included only these two garments, the outer robe and the 
 
 inner. " The wives among my people ye expel from their 
 
 pleasant houses, and from their children ye take away tny orna- 
 ments " (the good clothing I have given them), and never return it 
 — " take it away for every These are named as instances and 
 illustrations of theii' rapacity and wickedness, to show what is 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. 11. 191 
 
 meant by their "rising np as aa enemy." Bad as any foreign 
 enemy were they even toward the soldiers of their country return- 
 ing from war, and toward wives and children who, being depend- 
 ent and defenceless, are specially under God's protection. 
 
 10. Arise ye, and depart ; for this is not your rest : 
 because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a 
 sore destruction. 
 
 " Up, and away " — be out of this land ; " for this is not your 
 rest." God gave Canaan as a land of rest to his people, but never 
 to such apostates as you ! They had so polluted the land by their 
 sins that it should itself destroy them. The very land is thought of 
 as instinct with life, and fired with holy indignation to devour these 
 guilty inhabitants ! 
 
 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do 
 lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of 
 strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this 
 people. 
 
 Having shown (vs. 8, 9) that these cavillers against the Lord's 
 prophets do not "walk uprightly," and having (v. 10) warned them 
 out of the land as their lit doom, he comes now to describe the sort 
 
 of prophet they would like and shall have. " If a man walking 
 
 in wind and fiilsehood will lie for them, and will prophesy to them 
 (not <?/, but) /or wine and strong* drink" — taking his pay in those 
 articles as meeting his chief want — " he shall be the prophet of this 
 people." The middle clause is in the first person, as in our English 
 Bible, giving us the very words of his proposal — "I will proph- 
 esy for you if you will give me all the wine and strong drink I 
 want." Tit showing of the depth of degradation into which wicked 
 
 men would sink the prophetic office, if they could ! The first 
 
 point in this description is richly graphic: — " If a man walking in 
 wind and lies will lie for them all they wish," &c. Men who are 
 windy ^ gassy, full of talk but void of sense and thought, and utterly 
 reckless of truth — such are commonly in every age the high priests 
 
 of error and falsehood, the champions of religious delusion. For 
 
 this use of the word " wind " to denote what is empty, light as air 
 and worthless, see Isa. 41 : 29, " Their molten images are wind 
 and confusion;" and Job 16: 3, "Is there any end to Avords of 
 wind f " 
 
 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee ; I 
 will surely gather the remnant of Israel ; I will put them 
 together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst 
 of their fold : they shall make great noise by reason of 
 the multitude of men. 
 
 13. The breaker is come up before them : they have 
 
192 MICAH.— CHAP. II. 
 
 broken up, and have passed throngli tlie gate, and are 
 gone out by it ; and their king sliall pass before tliem, 
 and tlie Lokd on tbe bead of tbem. 
 
 This sudden transition to the richest promises of restoration and 
 salvation is indeed remarkable. It would seem that the divino 
 Spirit, fired with indignation in view of such depths of moral pollu- 
 tion and guilt, rallies himself to the defence of his own cause of 
 truth: "I will surely save my people, and restore my crum- 
 bling kingdom." Glorious turn of thought this — rebounding from 
 
 the greatness of man's sin to the richness of God's mercy ! 
 
 The promise is that God will surely gather together all of Jacob, 
 and all who survive of Israel ; will become their shepherd ; and 
 that there shall be "fl^ Awm" (so the Hebrew) as of bees in swarm 
 -a loud noise by reason of the great number of men. They are 
 thought of as having been imprisoned within high walls ; hence 
 " the Jbreaker " who makes great breaches in this wall goes out 
 before them. They break through ; they pass out through the 
 gate ; they go forth by it ; and their king marches before them, and 
 
 Jehovah at their head. This deliverance is wholly of the Lord. 
 
 His providential agencies are omnipresent, and his Spirit inspires 
 
 the movement. The allusion in this passage to the Exodus from 
 
 Egypt should be noticed. Here, as there, the people are first 
 gathered together ; the Lord takes charge of them as his flock ; then 
 he sends Moses to break down the prison walls. The Exodus, or 
 going forth, is made prominent here by repeated reiterations, as it 
 was there in the historic facts ; and, finally, Jehovah puts himself 
 here at the head of his ransomed people, as then and there in the 
 pillar of fire and of cloud. 
 
 As to the ultimate significance of these verses, it will be noted 
 that they speak both of Jacob and Israel ; but these terms are not 
 distinctive as between the two rival kingdoms. JSTeitlier of them is 
 the usual name to designate the kingdom of Judah. It would seem 
 to be no part of the prophet's intention to regard the distinction of 
 kingdoms which was made by the revolt. The names Jacob and 
 
 Israel have rather the general sense — the covenant people of God. 
 
 So also, as to time and circumstances of fulfilment, the passage is 
 altogether general and indefinite. Beyond a doubt it must imply 
 that God will at some future day gather his scattered people of 
 Israel, and put himself at their head as their Deliverer and King. 
 He will make his earthly kingdom great and glorious. As to the 
 question whether Gentiles form a part of it, or whether Jews 
 alone are thought of, no more should be sought in any given pas- 
 sage than it contains. Kot every passage can say every thing. 
 This prophecy does not name the Gentiles, nor does it exclude them. 
 One instalment — a small one — of this broadly comprehensive 
 promise was paid in the restoration from Babylon. Vastly more 
 remains unpaid yet. 
 
MIOAH.— CHAP. m. 193 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The prophet returns to speak against tlie sins of the people, 
 dwelling specially in this chapter on the sins of the princes and judges 
 (vs. 1-4, 9-11) ; giving the sin and doom of the false prophets 
 (vs. 5-7) ; and closing with predictions of the desolation of the holy 
 city and of the temple mountain (v. 12). 
 
 1. And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, 
 and ye princes of the house of Israel : Is it not for you 
 to know judgment ? 
 
 " And then I said," &c., connecting this in thought with what 
 he had said before. In the previous chapter he had sharply re- 
 buked and terribly doomed those who devise iniquity on their beds 
 (2 : 1-5) ; now he asks. Why are not such sins forestalled by the 
 faithful administation of justice and law ? Does it not behoove 
 princes and judges — men at the head of their " thousands " — (see 
 Ex. 18: 21) "to know judgment?" He implies by this more 
 than merely knowing the theory of law and justice. Ought they 
 not to know it in j)ractice^ and to see it administered all the more 
 faithfully and earnestly by how much the greater the reigning 
 corruption ? 
 
 2. "Who hate the good, and love the evil ; who pluck 
 off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their 
 bones ; 
 
 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their 
 skin from off them ; and they break their bones, and chop 
 them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the 
 caldron. 
 
 So far are they from knowing judgment in the practical sense 
 that they even hate good and love evil, and they show this by 
 
 their deeds. This description of rapacity and robbery is fearfully 
 
 strong. They not only fleece but flay their victims ; not only flay 
 but tear oif the flesh and eat it ; then go on to the bones ; chop 
 them fine for the pot, as if they would boil and eat up the last thing 
 in the poor body of their victims. So with insatiable extortion, 
 they strip men of their last right, of their last acre, and of their last 
 farthing. 
 
 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will 
 not hear them : he will even hide his face from them at that 
 time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 
 
 Yet these men, of such outrageous extortion, set themselves to 
 pray to God ; but of course ho will not hear. " The prayer of the 
 wicked is abomination to the Lord." "If I regard iniquity in my 
 9 
 
194 MICAH.— CHAP. III. 
 
 heart even, the Lord will not hear me ; " how much more when such 
 iniquities are found in men's hand! " He will hide his face from 
 them at that time according as they have made their doings vile," 
 i. e., inasmuch as they have done so wicl^edly, and according to the 
 wickedness of those doings, God will hide his face from them. 
 
 5. Thus saith. the Lord concerning the prophets that 
 make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, 
 Peace ; and he that putteth not into their months, they 
 even prepare war against him. 
 
 Turning from civil to religious leaders, vs. 5-7 speak of the 
 
 corrupt prophets of that age. The clause, " that bite with their 
 
 teeth," &c., may be construed in either of two ways: (1.) As indi- 
 cating extortion, following out the idea in vs. 3 : "Who eat the flesh 
 of my people ; " or (2.) As indicating gross and supreme sensuality ; 
 who live only to eat, and prophesy only for the sake of good eating. 
 In the former construction, the remainder of the verse might be put 
 thus : " Who bite savagely with their teeth, yet cry ' all's well ; ' 
 and if one resist their extortion, they even declare war on him." 
 But the latter construction is preferable: "Who are mere sen- 
 sualists, and for good feeding will prophesy peace to the most 
 wicked of men ; but if one refuse to fill their months well, they are 
 
 up in arms against him." Such shamefully low impulses and 
 
 low sensual natures, ought to be anywhere else rather than in the 
 sacred oflice! Alas for the people when those who minister to 
 them in holy things make a god of their belly, and live only for 
 good eating ! 
 
 6. Therefore, night shall he nnto you, that ye shall 
 not have a vision ; and it shall be dark unto you, that 
 ye shall not divine ; and the sun shall go down over the 
 prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 
 
 7. Then shall the seers be kshamed, and the diviners 
 confounded : yea, they shall all cover their lips ; for 
 there is no answer of God. 
 
 This is the doom of these false, ungodly prophets : " There shall 
 be night to you so that there can be no vision ; it shall be too dark 
 for you to divine ; the sun shall go down upon the prophets," &c. 
 
 " They shall cover their lips " — as those who have nothing to 
 
 say, and with the further idea of intense shame and sorrow, inasmuch 
 as the beard — always prominent in oriental life — was to the male 
 sex the seat of beauty and honor. The leper (Lev. 13 : 45) was to 
 put a cover on his upper lip. Ezekiel (24 : 17, 22) was forbidden to 
 
 cover his lips in mourning for liis deceased wife. The cause of 
 
 this Intense shame and confusion is that they not only get no an- 
 swer from God, but that he frustrates their predictions, confounds 
 their machinations, and exposes the groundlessness of their claims 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. III. 195 
 
 to be prophets of the Lord. The darkness God brings over them is 
 that of calamity and judgment where they were predicting only 
 good. 
 
 8. But truly I am fall of power by tlie Spirit of the 
 LoED, and of judgment, and of migiit, to declare unto 
 Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. 
 
 With a strong and full consciousness of honesty, and of being filled 
 Y/ith the Spirit of God, Micah puts himself in contrast with those 
 false prophets. His soul is deeply stirred within him by his abhorrence 
 of their spirit and life, so that his holy indignation overleaps the re- 
 straints of false modesty, and he speaks out fearlessly what so fills his 
 indignant soul that he cannot but say it. He must and will rebuke 
 the sins of the people and of their leaders even ; for no regard to 
 rank and station shall soften the just severity of his reproofs. 
 
 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of 
 Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor 
 judgment, and pervert all equity. 
 
 10. They build u]3 Zion with blood, and Jerusalem 
 with iniquity. 
 
 11. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests 
 thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for 
 money : yet will they lean upon the Loed, and say. Is 
 not the Lord among us ? none evil can come upon us. 
 
 Once more, as in v. 1, he inveighs against the horrible corruption 
 of the princes and judges of the land. With Judah specially in his 
 eye, he charges them with abhorring not sin and wrong, as they 
 should, but judgment and justice as men never should; and witJi 
 distorting and perverting equity. " They build up Zion with blood " 
 by devoting the fruits of their robbery and murder to splendid 
 buildings and gorgeous display. They judge for bribes in open 
 contempt of the law given through Moses (see Ex. 23 : 8, and Deut. 
 16:19); and yet they lean upo7i the Lord and vainly think that, 
 being called the people of God and keeping up the forms of his 
 worship, they are safe against calamity. Jeremiah rebukes the same 
 wretched folly (7:4): " Trust ye not in lying words, saying. The 
 temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, 
 are these." So in later times, the self-righteous, extortions Pharisees 
 said, "We have Abraham to our father; " — "Lord, Lord, have we 
 not prophesied in thy name ? " &c. 
 
 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed 
 as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the 
 mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 
 
 Eetribution for such sins must come. "Zion" — the hill cjf 
 David in the south part of the city — " the mountain of the house " 
 
196 MICAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 (temple) i. «., Mount Moriah, the teraple-monntain on the north, and 
 Jerusalem in general — shall become desolate : Zion to be ploughed 
 as a field ; Jerusalem to be heaps of desolate ruins ; and the temple- 
 mountain " as the high places of a forest," thickly covered with an 
 undergrowth of shrubs. This has special reference to the destruc- 
 tion of the city by the Chaldeans when, for seventy years, even 
 Jerusalem lay in utter desolation. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 The first eight verses are a graphic prediction of God's restoring 
 mercy to his real Zion; vs. 9, 10 resume the subject of the captivity 
 to Babylon ; vs. 11-13 note the events of a later period — ^the Syrian 
 invasion, and the heroic deeds of the Maccabees. 
 
 1. But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the 
 moimtain of the house of the Lord shall be established 
 in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted 
 above the hills ; and people shall flow unto it. 
 
 2. And many nations shall come, and say. Come, and 
 let us go up to the mountain of the Loed, and to the 
 house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his 
 ways, and we will walk in his paths : for the law shall 
 go forth of Zion, and the word of the Loed from Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 3. And he shall judge among many people, and re- 
 buke strong nations afar off ; and they shall beat their 
 swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning- 
 hooks : nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, 
 neither shall they learn war any more. 
 
 These words occur substantially in Isa. 2 : 2-4, but appear to be 
 original with Micah. At least it must be admitted that here they 
 fit nicely to the previous context (3 : 12), and also to the following 
 context. In Isaiah, the passage has no such close connection with 
 
 the preceding context. In this passage, the relation of thought 
 
 to what precedes is the first thing to be noted. Zion is seen in 
 ruins ; the temple-mountain dishonored and waste — all for the 
 sins of the covenant people. Must it hence be inferred that the 
 kingdom of God among men is crushed down, never to rise ? By 
 no means. In the last days this kingdom shall rise in far greater 
 glory than ever before. The temple-mountain — called here " the 
 mountain of the house of the Lord^^^ though in 3 : 12 it is only " the 
 mountain of the house " — shall be lifted high and firmly set on the 
 tops of the other mountains, and high above all the hills in glory 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. IV. 197 
 
 and esteem. Sucli I understand to be the sense of this striking 
 poetic conception — the temple-monntain (Moriah) hfted up and set 
 on the top of all other mountains. In honor it shall surpass and 
 overtop them all. In Ps. 68 : 16, the Psalmist, supposing the other 
 mountains to envy Mount Moriah this distinction, says — " The hill 
 of God is as the hill of Bashan ; an high hill," &c. " Why do ye 
 look invidiously, ye high hills ? This is the hill which God hath 
 desired to dwell in." Zech. 14:10 carries the figure one step 
 further. All the rest of the world becomes a plain ; its mountains 
 subside altogether, and then the temple-mountain stands out soli- 
 tary and alone, the one great and only mountain of the world ! The 
 sense here is the same as in Micah — this mountain, the one place of 
 
 surpassing honor, dignity, and glory. ISText, "peoples, even all 
 
 the nations of men, shall flow unto it." That they shaR Jlow thither 
 implies, not that they are dragged or driven into this worship, but 
 that they come spontaneously, as water moves with the utmost 
 ease under the power of gravitation. Many nations shall come of 
 their free accord. They shall exhort one another to go up to the 
 house of the God of Jacob, to learn of the true God and of all 
 moral duty there. God's will, as revealed in Zion, they recognize 
 to be the fountain of all law, and they joyfully place themselves 
 under his supreme dominion. Then his peaceful reign over the 
 nations of men begins ; they need sword and spear no longer ; the 
 culture of the soil supersedes the arts of war, and nation no more 
 lifts up sword against its brother nation. For the law of God is 
 the law ot'supreme, impartial love, administered under the sway of 
 the Prince of Peace : how then can the result be other than universal 
 tranquillity ? Obeyed, it must supplant war forever. Men can no 
 longer " hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain, for the earth 
 shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the 
 sea." Glorious scene! Blissful consummation! And this is no 
 visionary dream. It shall yet be. The days of battles and carnage, 
 the days of fell animosity, salanic ambition, demoniac hate, must 
 cease, and give place to days of blessed peace and good- will among 
 men. Let the love oftlie Oreat Father have the praise for all this! 
 
 Micah sees it in the distant future. Briefly and in general, he 
 
 locates it "in the last days." They are future yet; but they will 
 surely come and (may we not hope and pray ?) will not long 
 tarry ! 
 
 4. But they sliall sit every man under liis vine and 
 under his fig-tree; and none sliall make them afraid: 
 for the mouth of the Loed of hosts hath spoken it. 
 
 Over against the scenes of war lie the pursuits of peace and 
 the quiet enjoyment of God's good gifts of nature and providence, and 
 of the fruits of human labor. Each man sits under his own vine 
 and fig-tree ; — none shall make them afraid. These are the usual 
 oriental symbols of a state of paradise on earth. 
 
198 MICAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 5 For all people will walk every one in tlie name 
 of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord 
 onr God for ever and ever. 
 
 This verse shows how the people in that good day are to feel 
 and act. These are their supposed words. They recognize the 
 common law of human life, that men follow the God they ac- 
 knowledge and trust, and then they avow their own full p.urpose 
 to walk in the name of then- God for ever and ever. They are alto- 
 gether satisfied with his worship and service. In the love of his 
 name and in the full strength of their convictions they pledge 
 themselves to his ways and worship for all time. 
 
 6. In that day, saith the Lokd, will I assemble her 
 that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, 
 and her that I have afflicted ; 
 
 1. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and 
 her that was cast far off a strong nation : and the Lokd 
 shall reign over them in Monnt Zion from henceforth, 
 even for ever. 
 
 At that time the Lord will gather to himself the halting, i. e., 
 the lame, the smitten, scathed, and long-rejected remnantof his 
 people, and will make them a strong nation, reigning over them 
 himself in Mount Zion forever. As vs. 1-4 by their very 
 terms expressly include the Gentiles, so these verses have 
 special reference to the long-dispersed Jews. When the fulness of 
 the Gentiles shall have come in, then shall all Israel be saved; her 
 partial blindness shall pass away, and the Lord's great plan of re- 
 deeming, saving mercy shall grasp the world, and bring the nations 
 of every race and clime beneath Iramanuel's sceptre. (See Eom. 
 11 : 15, 23-27). 
 
 8. And thou, O toAver of the flock, the strong hold 
 of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even 
 the lirst dominion ; the kingdom shall come to the 
 daughter of Jerusalem. 
 
 In this passage God is thought of as the shepherd, and his peo- 
 ple as his flock. Hence the " tower of the flock " is Jerusalem. 
 
 Towers were built in or near the sheepfold for defence. The 
 
 original dominion, as under David, shall return again. That pros- 
 perous era of the Hebrew people in which they subdued all their 
 enemies round about, and greatly improved the modes of public 
 worship, is a common illustration of Messiah's reign. The king- 
 dom of Immanuel shall have this Mount Zion for its centre and 
 
 capital forever. But let us give this scripture its gospel sense. 
 
 Let us not fall into the error of the Pharisees, as seen in the New 
 Testament, who could find in the Scriptures nothing but a " king- 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. IV. 199 
 
 dom of this world" for the outward Israel and her earthly- 
 king. We need to distinguish the clothing of ideas from the ideas 
 themselves. That tlie great trutlis of gospel times and of Christ's 
 millennial reign, should be clothed in Jewish imagery and costume, 
 ought not to surprise or stumble usr The human mind being wliat 
 it is, this mode of writing for Jews and among Jews is unavoidable, 
 is natural, is indeed the onlj language that could have been at 
 that time understood. 
 
 9. l^ow wliy dost thou cry out aloud ? is there no 
 king in thee ? is thy counsellor perished ? for pangs 
 have taken thee as a woman in travail. 
 
 10. Be in pain, and labour to ]?ring forth, O daugh- 
 ter of Zion, like a woman in travail : for now shalt thou 
 
 fo forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the 
 eld, and thou shalt go even to Babylon ; there shalt 
 thou be delivered; there the Loed shall redeem thee 
 from the hand of thine enemies. 
 
 With V. 9 commences a remarkably regular series of prophecies, 
 forecasting great events that were specially to affect the welfare of 
 the Jews down to the coming of Christ, and of the church of God 
 thenceforward. It is very noticeable that the beginning of each is 
 indicated in our English Bible by the word " tiozo," which has its 
 corresponding Hebrew word. It stands at the head of vs. 9, 11, and 
 5: 1. Consequently, the distinct predictions are (1.) vs. 9, 10; 
 (2.) vs. 11-13 ; (3.) chapter 5 : 1, and onward substantially through 
 the cliapter. IsTo. 1 speaks of the captivity to Babylon and the res- 
 toration from it. N'o. 2, of the gathering of the great Syrian armies, 
 together with those of some other adjacent powers, against the 
 Jews in the times of the Maccabees, with their heroic defence and 
 final victory. No. 8, of the siege and fall of Jerusalem, when the 
 sceptre finally departed from Judah ; of the Messiah's birth at Beth- 
 lehem, and then of his peaceful, triumphant reign, its policy and 
 
 results. With this summary of the points before us to the end 
 
 of chapter 5, we may the better understand each separate prophecy. 
 
 In the first prediction of this series (vs. 9, 10) the people are 
 seen in extreme agony : the prophet hears their sharp outcry of 
 anguish, and asks the cause of it. "And where are thy reliances 
 for help ? Hast thou no king ? no counsellor ? " The trouble is, that 
 the city is falling before the fierce Chaldean, and their honored tem- 
 ple and loved homes are in ruins. How much they rested on their 
 king is indicated (Lam. 4 : 20), where they say of him : " The breath 
 of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of 
 whom we liad said. Under his shadow we shall live among the 
 heathen." Zedekiah was both weak and wicked, yet he was the 
 Lord's anointed king, and the people, long accustomed to rever- 
 ence royalty, and to expect good trom the Lord through his 
 
200 MICAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 anointed ones, bemoaned liis fall into the enemy's power. The 
 
 prophet foresaw these events with entire historic accuracy. A 
 
 woman in her travail pains is the next figure, used here to repre- 
 sent only the painful side of the case — not the joy over a happy 
 birth. In the clause, " there shalt thou be delivered," the original 
 forbids us to think of any reference to the bright side of this figure. 
 It means merely that they should be brought out of this captivity 
 at some future time. The " dwelling in the field " lies interme- 
 diate between their expulsion from Jerusalem and their residence 
 in or near Babylon, and seems to allude to their exposure in the 
 
 open country during their long and weary journey to Babylon. 
 
 The twice repeated " there " — " there shalt thou be delivered," 
 " there shall the Lord redeem thee," &c., was equivalent to saying, 
 Do not dread this going to Babylon, as if it must be the tomb of 
 all your hopes, for there your God will meet you for your deliver- 
 ance. So in fact it came to pass. Precisely there God raised up 
 Cyrus ; precisely at Babylon he gave him those victories which 
 paved the way for the restoration of his people. So true is it that 
 the people of God never need fear to pass under any cloud which 
 the Lord their God may bring up over them. "What seems to them 
 their ruin, God can make their salvation. 
 
 11. l^ow also many nations are gathered against 
 thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look 
 upon Zion. 
 
 12. But they Imow not the thoughts of the Loed : 
 neither understand they his counsel : for he shall gather 
 them as the sheaves into the floor. 
 
 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion : for I will 
 make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass : 
 and thou shall beat in pieces many people : and I will 
 consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance 
 unto the Loed of the whole earth. 
 
 Here the course of thought makes another stage onward, and 
 reaches the second distinct prophecy in this series. Many nations 
 gather together against Zion in bitter maHgnity and haughty scorn, 
 and with set purpose to defile her sanctuary. Manifestly a real 
 hatred of their religion gives the impulse to this onslaught upon Zion. 
 " Let her be defiled," say they, " and let us have the joy of look- 
 ing on to see her anguish." ISTo language could more accurately 
 
 describe the spirit of Antiochus Epiphanes and of his alhes, in their 
 fell, demoniac attempts to uproot and overwhelm the holy city, its 
 temple, and aU the true worshippers of Jehovah. The reader wiU 
 find a most thrilling history of these events in the first and second 
 books of Maccabees. It specially appears there that the wrath of 
 these enemies of God was aimed at the temple, its worship, and aU 
 worshippers of the true God, since, when at one time the temple fell 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. V. 201 
 
 into their hands, they polluted it in every way they could devise, even 
 offering swine's flesh on the sacred altar. Hence "the cleansing of 
 the sanctuary " finds a prominent place in Daniel's prophecy of these 
 
 events, and in Jewish history. " But," says our prophet, "they 
 
 do not understand God's thoughts and counsels." No, indeed ; for 
 God thought, first, to disciphne, prove, and purify his people ; next, 
 to scourge and terribly punish his enemies ; the latter only being 
 made prominent here in the prophecy. He gathered them as 
 sheaves into the floor, preparatory to bringing the threshing 
 power of his people down upon them. Then the prophet calls on 
 the " daughter of Zion to arise and thresh." The mixing of meta- 
 phors here need not surprise us, for we have strength, even if we 
 have not Ihe most finished concinnity and fitness in the points of the 
 illustration. That a virgin should thresh with the feet of cattle, and 
 that with threshing should be blended the use of homs of iron, is 
 all strong and full of meaning, however it may lack the nicer beauties. 
 It should be said, however, that in the phrase " daughter of Zion," 
 the idea of a female is lost in the general conception of the military 
 force of the city. There was a terrible significance in these figures 
 when the things they denoted became actual history, when God fired 
 the souls of the heroic, lion-hearted Maccabees, and made " one of 
 them chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight," grind- 
 ing to powder one after another the huge armies sent upon them by 
 
 the enraged Syrian king. Eemarkably, the Lord promised to turn 
 
 the spoils of these wars to account toward the wealth of his own 
 kingdom. Perhaps this is an historic allusion to David, who turned 
 the spoils of his many victories to account for building and adorning 
 the first temple. 
 
 So it is evermore thef Lord's purpose to make the wicked lay up 
 treasures for the just, and coin money, to be consecrated under his 
 providence, though against their intent, unto the Lord of the whole 
 earth. 
 
 CHAPTEPv V. 
 
 As already indicated, this chapter records the third in the con- 
 nected series of consecutive prophecies. It begins with the siege of 
 Jerusalem and the dishonor done to her Judge ; advances to tlie 
 birth of the Messiah, and then to the character and results of iiis 
 glorious reign on earth. 
 
 1. 'Now gather thyself in troops, O dangliter of 
 troops : lie hath laid siege against ns : they shall smite 
 the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 
 
 The descriptive points in this verse are few ; the thronging of 
 
 her own troops within the city, the siege, the extreme insult offered 
 
 to the Judge of Israel. The Lord summons the armed hosts of 
 
 Jerusalem together for battle, and probably of Judah as well; 
 
 9* 
 
202 MICAH.— CHAP. V. 
 
 some hostile power besieges the city and inflicts utter disgrace on 
 the head man of the nation, at that time embodying and represent- 
 ing the government, and called "the Judge of Israel," with allusion 
 to the Judges who fell between Joshua and Saul, and were inferior 
 to their kings — showing that already royalty had greatly declined. 
 After this dechne came ruin, for, to smite the chieftain of the nation 
 with a rod upon the cheek must imply extreme indignity and 
 utter impotence — ^not only that all influence and authority had gone 
 from this particular Judge, but, since he is a representative man, 
 that the sceptre had passed away from Judah herself. 
 
 In what special event was this prophecy fulfilled? Some 
 
 (with Hengstenberg) have said, in the fall of Jerusalem, before 
 
 the arms of Titus, a. d. YO. The objections to this view are : 
 
 (1.) It involves a serious anachronism, since, as this verse imme- 
 diately precedes the account of the birth of King Messiah, so its 
 events should precede that event. But the fall of the city, instead 
 of coming before his birth, was seventy years after. 
 
 (2.) On this theory the last and main point of the description 
 does not appositely fit the historic facts. In the prophecy, the 
 main thing is the utter dishonor done to the supreme authority ; 
 but in the final destruction of the city by the Romans, the terrible 
 thing was the slaughter of more than a million of her people, the 
 horrors of famine and pestilence, and appalling judgments on the 
 whole nation. It was not the loss of their sceptre, for this had 
 practically gone long before. 
 
 (3.) There are clear indications throughout this chapter that the 
 prophet had his eye on that striking prophecy (Gen. 49 : 10) : " The 
 sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between 
 his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the 
 people be." Note the coming forth of the Ruler of Israel (v. 2) ; 
 the gathering of the people to him (v. 3) ; even of all nations to the 
 ends of the earth (v. 4) ; that he shall be " the Peace " — the real 
 Shiloh — the Prince of Peace (v. 5), &c., &c. 
 
 These considerations go far to show that the passage does not 
 look specifically to the fall of Jerusalem before the Roman arms 
 under Ti f^us, a. d. 70. 
 
 A^ 'ther interpretation is already indicated by the leading points 
 mad- in this description, viz., the siege and fall of Jerusalem, b. o. 
 34, when King Antigonus, the last monarch of the Asmonean 
 dynasty (Jewish), fell before Herod the Great, who was aided by 
 eleven Roman legions. Herod was an Idumean. In him the Jews 
 came under a foreign dynasty, and never again had a king of their 
 own race, save King Messiah. This siege was an obstinate contest 
 of one year's duration. History* notes especially that "King An- 
 tigonus surrendered himself in a most cowardly manner, and was ac- 
 cordingly treated with the greatest indignity. He threw himself at 
 
 * See Jahn's "Hebrew ConimonwcaUh," p. Z'lo, and Taylor's "Manual 
 of History," p. 17G. 
 
MICAR—CHAP. V. 203 
 
 the feet of the Eoman general, who repelled him -with contempt, 
 and scornfully called him Antigona, as if he were unworthy the 
 name of a man. The deposed king was loaded with chains, carried 
 to Antioch, and there beheaded like a common malefactor." 
 
 Thus signally was the Judge of Israel " smitten with a rod upon 
 the cheek : " thus did the " sceptre depart from Judah." The order 
 of time is complete, for it was during the reign of this very Herod 
 who thus supplanted Antigonus that the Prince of Peace was born 
 and the Shiloh of ancient prophecy came ; and thenceforward the 
 true Israel never lacked a glorious King. 
 
 2. But tlioii Beth-leliem Ephratah, though tliou be 
 little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee 
 shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; 
 whose goings forth have ieen from of old, fi'om everlasting. 
 
 "The Judge of Israel" — all his dignity and power gone — has 
 passed away, and with him that earthly kingdom and dispensation 
 which so long embosomed or imprisoned the germ of the true king- 
 dom of God. Now a new " Kuler in Israel " appears who is truly 
 King and Lord of all. The first point presented is his birth- 
 place. On the side of his human nature, he comes forth from Beth- 
 lehem Ephratah — that little city, too small to have a place among 
 the thousands of Judah — for this is precisely the sense of the 
 Hebrew ; not that Bethlehem was a small one among the thousands, 
 yet being one of them, but too small to be one of them. The ex- 
 pression refers to a classification of the people of each tribe into 
 thousands which commenced during their sojourn in the wilderness, 
 each thousand having its head officer, who combined both civil and 
 judicial authority. The rise of this system may be seen Ex. 18 : 
 21, 25. Saul recognizes its existence long after the settlement of 
 Canaan, when he said of David (1 Sam. 23 : 23), " If he be in the 
 land, I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah." 
 In the transition from nomadic life in the wilderness to fixed resi- 
 dence in Canaan, this system of division into thousands, with each 
 its head-man, "captain," or "judge," took this modification. Those 
 cities that numbered one thousand people rose to the rank of being 
 among the thousands, and had one such officer. The smaller 
 villages must needs unite two or more together to constitute a 
 family of a thousand. Bethlehem had less than a thousand people, 
 and was therefore among the smaller cities — only a village in Ju- 
 dah. It lay six miles southwest of Jerusalem, in a fertile region, as 
 its name, "house of bread," denotes. Ephratah also means "fruit- 
 ful." It was the birthplace of David, and partly for this reason, 
 we may suppose, was the birthplace of his greater Son. Royalty 
 in the house of David had fallen low at the period contemplated in 
 this prophecy. Indeed, there are indications here that it was seen 
 by Micah to be practically extinct, so that David is thought of as 
 having returned back from the place of his throne on Mount Zion, 
 
204 MICAH.~CHAP. V. 
 
 to the place of his humble birth and shepherd life, Bethlehem. 
 Its being a small city was really no disqualification for a birthplace 
 of King Messiah, since David himself was born here and not in any 
 of the greater cities of the land, and also because it was no part of 
 God's plan, in determining the birthplace of his incarnate Son, to 
 
 make him famous by its greatness or renown. The appended 
 
 name "Ephratah" carries us back to Gen. 35 : lC-19, where this 
 
 place was distinguished by yet another birth. Though thou art 
 
 so small, O Bethlehem, "yet out of thee shall he come forth who 
 is to he for me ruler in Israel." For me, rather than "unto me " 
 — ^the idea being, not that the Messiah comes from Bethlehem unto 
 God, but that he is to be ruler for God, acting under God and in 
 his behalf in the great mediatorial scheme. The word "ruler" 
 
 means chief ruler, king. On the last clause of the verse, opinions 
 
 differ. There can be no doubt that the noun rendered "goings 
 forth" is correlated with the verb just before it, rendered '•''sTiall 
 come forth,'''' i. e., from Bethlehem — the noun being from the same 
 root. In one point of view, he shall go forth out of Bethlehem ; 
 but in another, his goings forth have been from of old, from ever- 
 lasting. The last point in this correlation, the precise sense in 
 which his goings forth have been from of old, is that on which 
 critics have differed. Some say that, as in his human nature 
 he came out of Bethlehem, so in his divine nature he came forth 
 from eternity. Others, urging that eternity is no place, and there- 
 fore cannot be antithetic to Bethlehem which is a place, find a ref- 
 erence to his repeated manifestations through his divine nature and 
 before his proper incarnation, e, g., to the patriarchs, to Moses, 
 Joshua, Samuel, and others. 1 adopt the latter view, as constitut- 
 ing the most natural antithesis, as avoiding the rather harsh con- 
 ception of coming out of eternity, as involving a reference to a se- 
 ries of facts of the highest moment in identifying this glorious 
 Ruler of Israel, and finally as well accounting for the use of the 
 plural, "his goings forth," which implies that there had been many. 
 But the construction first stated above, provides for only one com- 
 ing forth, viz., from eternity. The prophet, then, means to say 
 
 that this was not his first manifestation among men. During all 
 the earlier ages, he had often come forth and made his presence 
 manifest. In the* wilderness he was the angel of Jehovah's pres- 
 ence (Ex. 23 : 20-23, and 33 : 14) ; to Joshua (5 : 13-15) he appeared 
 as captain of the Lord's host, and to Manoah (Judg. 13 : 17, 18) as 
 one whose name is " Wonderful." So the Hebrew, which occurs 
 
 again in Isa. 9 : 6. And these are only a few out of many. It 
 
 was manifestly pertinent that Micah, in predicting his human birth 
 in Bethlehem, should indicate the fact of his preexistence and of 
 his frequent previous manifestations to his people in the earlier ages. 
 
 It only remains to note that the Jews of the Saviour's time so 
 
 far understood this prophecy as to apply it to the Messiah, and to 
 learn from it that he should be born in Bethlehem. Matthew in- 
 forms us (2 : 4-6) that Herod gathered the chief priests and scrilies 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. y. 205 
 
 together and demanded of tliem where Christ should be horn. 
 They at once answered, "In Bethlehem of Jiidea,'' and appealed 
 to this prophecy for the proof. 
 
 3. Therefore will lie give tliera up until the time 
 that she which travaileth hath brolight forth : then the 
 remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children 
 of Israel. 
 
 He (Jehovah) gives np them (his covenant people), in the sense of 
 leaving them to he scourged for their sins and purified under this disci- 
 pline, until this great Ruler, the Messiah, should he horn. The verb 
 rendered " give up," has this sense in 1 Kings 14 : 16, and 2 Chron. 
 30 : 7, " Be not as your fathers who transgressed against the God 
 
 of your fathers ; therefore he ga'oe them up to desolation." " She 
 
 that travaileth " must refer to the thought in the previous verse, 
 the human birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem. Micah may have 
 had before his mind what Isaiah wrote (T : 14), " Behold, a virgin 
 shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." 
 
 The giving up to temporary calamities is referred to in verse 1. 
 
 The divine policy seems to have been to let his apostate Israel sink 
 very low as to its outward estate, and then by this means bring out 
 
 the more prominently before aU the world the Great Deliverer. 
 
 " The remnant of his brethren " should naturally be those of the 
 Jewish communion who were scattered abroad. They were to re- 
 turn to the main body. 
 
 4. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the 
 LoED, in the majesty of the name of the Lokd his God ; 
 and they shall abide : for now shall he be great unto the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
 The Hebrew verb " feed" belongs to shepherd life, and includes 
 both feeding an-d ruling, supplying the want of food and the want 
 of protection and government as well. The attitude of a shepherd 
 is a standing one, hence " he shall stand and feed." He shall fulfil 
 this office, not in any merely human might and majesty, but in the 
 strength and majesty of the very God. "And they," his peo- 
 ple, his flock, " shall alide^'''' in the sense of permanence and secu- 
 rity, not driven about and away into captivity, as they then would 
 have been so recently. May there not be a quiet antithesis between 
 the shepherd standing over them, and themselves sitting securely 
 and at ease under his guardian eye and overshadowing presence ? 
 
 One reason why they sit so securely is that their king is " great 
 
 unto the very ends of the earth." The range of his power sweeps 
 far beyond Judea. It fills the wide world, and leaves no place for 
 nations and armies hostile to the people of the Messiah. 
 
 6. And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyr- 
 ian shaPx come into our land : and when he shall tread 
 
206 MICAH.— CHAP. Y. 
 
 in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven 
 shepherds, and eight principal men. 
 
 " This man," the Messiah, " shall he peace,'''' the fountain and 
 author of peace, and of peace in a sense involving not only the 
 absence of war but the presence of all the best earthly good and 
 even heavenly good besides. Yet the special sense is that ot 
 peace as opposed to war. The course of thought throughout this 
 passage contemplates the people as in a militant state, often assailed 
 by outward, active enemies. Under such circumstances, " peace " 
 
 is a word fraught with intense and precious significance. The 
 
 brevity of this expression, " this man shall be peace," favors the 
 opinion that Micah had before his mind, and assumed that his read- 
 ers would have before theirs, those other prophecies which he had 
 almost quoted : " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a 
 lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh (Prince of Peace) shall 
 come ; him shall the people obey " (Gen. 49 : 10) ; and that of Isaiah 
 (9:6): " For unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and 
 the government shall be upon his shoulders ; and his name shall be 
 called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting 
 Father, The Prince of Feace^ As if he would say, You will under- 
 stand my brief allusion to this man as " peace ; " you will remem- 
 ber those prophecies so very similar to what I have been saying. 
 The Assyrian foe is named because he was then far more for- 
 midable than any other. This does not imply that precisely this 
 enemy would be on hand in the days of the Messiah's advent or 
 thenceforward. He expects that heli3 from God against foreign en- 
 emies will come in the way of supplying competent leaders. That 
 these military leaders are called "shepherds," may have a tacit 
 reference to Moses, the shepherd leader, and to David, the shep- 
 herd king. It may also imply that if the people are taught and fed 
 in the ways of God, they will be invincible against outward ene- 
 mies. "Principal men" is in Hebrew, ariointed men, set apart, 
 
 anointed and qualified of God. " Seven " and " eight " are definite 
 numbers used as indefinite, in the sense of an adequate number for 
 leaders against the foe. See notes on Amos 1 : 3. 
 
 6. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the 
 sword, and the land of Mmrod in the entrances thereof: 
 thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he 
 Cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our 
 borders. 
 
 The verb rendered " waste " is the same rendered " feed " in v. 
 4, and is probably a play on the possible senses of that word. 
 While King Messiah shall feed his own people like a shepherd, they, 
 made brave in war by his might within them, shall feed down the 
 land of Assyria by the sword— of course in the sense of consum- 
 ing and laying desolate. The Assyrian stands here to represent 
 
MIOAH.— CHAP. V. 201 
 
 the enemies of God's people, and is selected because when Micah 
 wrote, he was the enemy chiefly to be feared. "With this view I 
 see no necessity of looking after a literal fulfilment on tJiat Assyria. 
 Any powerful foe is Assyria. 
 
 Y. And tlie remnant of Jacob shall be in tlie midst 
 of many people as a dew from tlie Loed, as tbe showers 
 upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth 
 for the sons of men. 
 
 8. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the 
 Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among 
 the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks 
 of sheep : who, if he go through, both treadeth down, 
 and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. 
 
 9. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adver- 
 saries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. 
 
 " The remnant of Jacob " comprises those who survive the wars 
 and desolations sent of God to scourge and purify his people. It is 
 of course implied that these have been purified by the afflictions 
 which they have survived, and are now prepared for effective use- 
 fulness in the service of their King Messiah. First, they shall ''be 
 among Gentile nations like the dew and like showers from the 
 Lord " — figures suggestive of munificent blessings — blessings that 
 come before men ask for them, " on the just and on the unjust ; " 
 anticipating the wants of vegetation. The next figure also lo- 
 cates them among Gentile nations, where they are as a lion among 
 beasts, or a young lion among the flock — everywhere a power to 
 be respected and even feared. The idea of destructiveness is (we 
 may hope) less prominent than that of efficiency, or at least we are 
 to think of destructiveness only as relating to the real and incorri- 
 gible enemies of God, and even then of their agency. as incidental 
 and passive rather than direct and active. " Vengeance belongeth 
 unto God," and when his providence employs his people in the 
 destruction of guilty nations, it is commonly not by any direct 
 agency, but rather by indirect. 
 
 10. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 
 Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of 
 thee, and I will destroy thy chariots : 
 
 11. And I will cut on the cities of thy land, and 
 throw down all thy strong holds : 
 
 These statements show that God's people are not thought of 
 here as fighting with carnal weapons, for if they were, then horses 
 and chariots would come into use. " Cities" must be here thought 
 of in the military sense, parallel to " strongholds." The idea is 
 that tlie Lord will be himself their Refuge and Strength, and will 
 
208 MICAH.— CHAP. V. 
 
 take away their confidence in human sonrces of help. The Psahn- 
 ist gives the spirit of this passage, saying — " Some trust in chariots 
 and some in horses ; but we, in the name of the Lord our God " 
 (Ps. 20:7). 
 
 12. And I will cut off witchcrafts out of tliine liand ; 
 and tliou shalt have no more sooth-sayers : 
 
 13. Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy 
 standing images out of the midst of thee ; and thou 
 shalt no more worship the work of thy hands. 
 
 14. And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst 
 of thee : so will I destroy thy cities. 
 
 "Witchcraft and soothsaying are twin sisters to idol gods ; all 
 unite in a common sympathy with Satan and his kingdom against 
 God and his truth and worship. What he here promises is there- 
 fore a blessing to his church and kingdom. Indeed, we might say, 
 He can give no greater blessing to his people than to take away 
 their sins, by mOd measures and influences, if he can ; by stern and 
 painfal agencies, if he must. The destruction of " cities " here also, 
 as in V. 11, must contemplate them, not as mere residences of a 
 dense population, but rather as the corrupt centres and fountains 
 of idolatry and Adle superstition. 
 
 15. And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury 
 upon the heathen, such as they nave not heard. 
 
 The church being purified, it remains to execute vengeance on 
 the heathen who are still incorrigible. Then and so will the world 
 be redeemed from its sins, and the reign of Messiah be omnipotent 
 in all the earth. "What we should expect from the nature of the 
 case is rendered certain by the sure word of prophecy, viz., that 
 this subjugation of the world to King Messiah will be effected by a 
 twofold agency : (1.) The power of truth and of the Spirit of God to 
 whatever extent they may become effectual. (2.) Desolating and 
 exterminating judgments on all who are incorrigible under the best 
 appliances for their salvation that God can wisely employ. 
 
 Thus closes this most instructive Messianic chapter. Some have 
 said that the portion of this chapter which promises prosperity 
 closes with v. 8, the remaining part denoting adversity. Such in- 
 terpreters seem to forget that God can give his people no richer 
 blessing than to cut oft' and remove their sins. Aye, let his name 
 be praised for this, even though it be by stern excision, the cutting 
 off of right hands, or the plucking out of right eyes ! 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. VI. 209 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 A GEAND public hearing of the case made by Jehovah against 
 his covenant people is called for (v. 1); the mountains are sum- 
 moned to be present (vs. 1 and 2) ; the Lord presents his complaint 
 and appeals to his past mercies (vs. 3-5) ; the people ask what they 
 shall do to please God (vs. 6, T) ; the prophet replies (v. 8), and 
 continues still to expose their sins, and to speak of the judgments 
 inflicted therefor. 
 
 1. Hear ye now what the Loed saith. ; Arise, contend 
 thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy 
 voice. 
 
 2. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lokd's controversy, 
 and ye strong foundations of the earth : for the Lord 
 hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead 
 with Israel. 
 
 The first verse is the Lord's word to his prophet. " Contend " 
 is used here in the sense of a legal contending — a pleading before a 
 court. This complaint made by Jehovah against his people, the 
 prophet is to bring before the " mountains and the strong founda- 
 tions of the earth," as if inanimate nature could not fail of having 
 moral sense enough to appreciate the merits of so very plain a case. 
 The scene is sublimely grand — this holding court before the moun- 
 tains and the strong pillars of the earth, giving them to understand 
 that the Lord has a controversy with his people, and summoning 
 them to hear and pass upon the case. 
 
 3. O my people, what have I done unto thee ? and 
 wherein have I wearied thee ? testify against me. 
 
 The case now opens. The Lord says, " O my people, what 
 hav6 I done that could in amy possible degree justify thee in such 
 apostasy against thy God? " If they have ought to reply, the court 
 is open ; " testify," saith the Lord, " against me." 
 
 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egjrpt, 
 and redeemed thee out of the house of servants ; and I 
 sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 
 
 5. O my people, remember now what Balak king of 
 Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor an- 
 swered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may 
 know the righteousness of the Loed. 
 
 Miriam became prominent in the song of triumph on the hither 
 
 side of the Ked Sea, Ex. 15. The striking narrative respecting 
 
 Balak and Balaam may be seen, Num. chap. 22-24. Balak thought 
 
210 MICAH.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 to prevail against this new and formidable people by means of 
 divination and the cursing power of one widely known and honored 
 as a master in the mysteries of magic ; but the Lord headed Ba- 
 laam, and would not let him go to sell his conscience and his soul 
 for the wages of unrighteousness, and make capital for Balak against 
 the Lord's people. The Lord's control over Balaam evinced his 
 power on the hearts of even wicked men, for Balaam still continued 
 to be a bad man, and met his death at last among God's enemies 
 
 (Num. 31 : 8). " Shittim " was a valley in Moab. Gilgal was the 
 
 place, close on the west side of the Jordan, where the Hebrew peo- 
 ple pitched their first camp in Canaan, and raised their monument 
 of stones. " From Shittim unto GOgal " cannot be directly con- 
 nected with Balaam's answer to Balak, as if this answer was kept 
 up throughout this entire journey. We must supply the ellipsis : 
 " Kemember all that occurred from Shittim till ye were across the 
 
 Jordan in Gilgal." " That ye may know the righteousness of the 
 
 Lord" cannot here refer to justice, but must rather mean the favors 
 and mercies of the Lord. The word " righteousness " has tliis sense 
 in quite a number of passages. One clear case occurs 1 Sam. 12 : 7, 
 where Samuel says, " Let me reason wHth you of all the righteous 
 acts of the Lord (righteousnesses), which he did to you and to your 
 fathers ; " whereupon he proceeds to recite a long catalogue of di- 
 vine benefits, mercies — not by any means acts of mere justice. 
 
 6. Wlierewitli shall I come before the Lokd, and 
 bow myself before the high God ? shall I come before 
 him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? 
 
 Y. Will the LoKD be pleased with thousands of rams, 
 or with ten thousands ol rivers of oil ? shall I give my 
 first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body 
 for the sin of my soul ? 
 
 These are questions put by the people to the prophet. They 
 respond to his rebukes and expostulations with the inquiry. What 
 will meet the demands of the Lord our God ? What does he re- 
 quire us to do ? Two things are worthy of note in the general 
 
 cast of these inquiries: (1.) That tliey are deeply shaded with the 
 current thought of the heathen nations round about them, rather 
 than by the tone of the Institutes of Moses ; and (2.) That they 
 seem to imply that the Deity demands offerings of the most costly 
 sort, and penance the most severe — overlooking all the weightier 
 matters of the law— justice and love. 
 
 8. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good ; and 
 what doth the Loed require of thee, but to do justly, 
 and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ^ 
 This is the prophet's brief but exceedingly comprehensive reply. 
 " Do justice " first of all, everywhere, and always ; then, yet ftir- 
 ther, towai-d your fellow-men "show mercy ; " do acts of kindness 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. VI. 211 
 
 and favor wliere no merit creates a claim of justice ; and. finally, as 
 toward God, walk with him humbly, in constant communion and 
 fellowship. Recognize his surrounding, all-pervading presence, and 
 adjust thy spirit and thy life to a due sense of that presence. In 
 the last clause the Hebrew is specially expressive : " Bow low to 
 walh with God^"* as if only so could sinning mortals hope to come 
 
 near to the Holy One. Thus, in fewest, briefest words, does the 
 
 prophet reply, giving us precisely the great duties which man owes 
 both to his fellow -man and to his God. 
 
 9. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man 
 of wisdom shall see thj name : hear ye the rod, and 
 who hath appointed it. 
 
 Again the proi)het returns to expose and reprove the sins of the 
 people, and to announce the judgments that the Lord must needs 
 
 send. The " city " to which the Lord's voice crieth is Jerusalem, 
 
 prominent for her responsibilities, prominent in her sins. It was 
 
 therefore every way fitting that the Lord should cry unto her. 
 
 In the next clause the Hebrew margin presents a slightly different 
 reading, which would give this sense: " Those who fear thy name 
 will have wisdom." But this reading has no claims for i)reccdence 
 before the one in our Hebrew text and in our English text — " The 
 wise will regard thy name" — whatever fools may do or may not. 
 The propbet assumes that the unwise wiU not regard the name of 
 
 Jehovah. The exhortation is, " Hear ye the rod " — the lessons 
 
 taught by the Lord's rod of discipline— and so learn to know him 
 who has appointed it, and who directs its mission in a sinning 
 world. 
 
 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the 
 house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is 
 abominable ? 
 
 As if surprised as well as grieved, the Lord asks. Are there yet 
 in wicked men's houses the treasures they have gotten by wicked- 
 ness and the scant measure, or " ephah ? " TTiis form of question 
 
 strongly implies that there are. The Hebrew people seem to 
 
 have been strangely addicted to falsifying by unjust weights and 
 measures, although their statute law most expressly forbade it. See 
 Lev. 19:35, 36, and Dent. 25:13-16. Other jjassages note the 
 prevalence of this sin, and strongly condemn it: Pro v. 11 : 1 and 
 20:10; Hos. 12 : 7 ; and Amos 8 : 5. 
 
 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, 
 and with the bag of deceitful weights % 
 
 The use of the first person creates the only difficulty of exposi- 
 tion. TTie verb properly means "Shall I be pure?" — not, Shall I 
 count others as pure ? Eead thus, we must suppose the prophet to 
 put the question as of himself, that the people may in like manner 
 
212 mcAH.— CHAP. vn. 
 
 each ask it of himself, "Shall I be pnre with" (i. e., while using) 
 " wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights ? " literally, stones 
 to deceive with. 
 
 12. For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and 
 the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their 
 tongne is deceitful in their mouth. 
 
 " For the rich men thereof," i. e., of the city of Jerusalem, re- 
 ferred to V. 9. 
 
 13. Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting 
 thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins. 
 
 14. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied ; and thy 
 casting down shall he in the midst of thee ; and thou 
 shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver ; and that which 
 thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. 
 
 15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap ; thou 
 shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee 
 with oil ; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. 
 
 Here are the judgments to be sent on the people for these sins. 
 In the clause " I will make thy wound incurable," the words imply 
 
 that this wound comes of the Lord's smiting. V. 14 I translate 
 
 closely, thus : " Thou shalt eat and not be satisfied, for thy hunger 
 shall still be within thee ; thou shalt remove away (i. e., thy goods 
 for safety), but thou shalt not save them ; and whatever thou shalt 
 save I will give up to the sword." 
 
 16. For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the 
 works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their coun- 
 sels ; that I should make thee a desolation, and the in- 
 habitants thereof an hissing : therefore ye shall bear the 
 reproach of my people. 
 
 Omri, the father, and Ahab, the son, were leaders in the idolatry 
 of Israel. Their example and influence were intensely pernicious 
 
 over Judah. " The reproach of my people " is not reproach cast 
 
 &y my people, but such reproach as is due to my people, consider- 
 ing that they were mine by covenant, under the highest obligations, 
 but violated all. 
 
 CHAPTEK YII. 
 
 The course of thought in this chapter embraces the prophet's 
 distress (v. 1) ; its causes in the extreme wickedness of the people 
 (vs. 2-4) ; so great that no confidence can be reposed in man, not 
 even in best friends (vs. 5, 6) ; but should be in God (v. 7). Trusting 
 
MieAH.--CHAP. VII. 213 
 
 in her God, Zion exults over her enemies (vs. 8, 9), who are covered 
 with shame (v. 10) ; enlargement for Zion (vs. 11, 12), albeit judg- 
 ments have come and must come for her sins ; the prophet's prayer 
 (v. 14) ; and the Lord's answer (vs. 15-17) ; the prophet testifies in 
 sublime strains to God's pardoning mercy, and the people respond 
 (vs. 18-20). 
 
 1. "Woe is me ! for I am as when tliey have gathered 
 the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage : 
 there is no cluster to eat : my soul desired the first ripe 
 fruit. 
 
 The prophet gives expression to his sadness, grief, and disap- 
 pointment, by comparing his case to that of a man longing for the 
 first ripe fruits, but who finds the summer fruits aU gathered, the 
 grapes all gleaned, and not a cluster left for his hunger. The state 
 of things among the people which causes him such grief and disap- 
 pointment, he proceeds to describe. 
 
 2. The good man is perished out of the earth : and 
 there is none upright among men : they all lie in wait 
 for blood ; they hunt every man his brother with a net. 
 
 3. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, 
 the prince asketh, and the judge asTceth for a reward ; 
 and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire : 
 so they wrap it up. 
 
 4. The best of them is as a brier : the most upright 
 is sharjper than a thorn-hedge : the day of thy watchmen 
 and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their per- 
 plexity. 
 
 The received translation gives the sense, in the main, well. Tho- 
 verb rendered " wraj) it up " implies not merely covering over, but 
 
 tying up — interlacing, and making all secure by artful planning. 
 
 The watchmen " (v. 4) are prophets, and " the day of thy watch- 
 men " is the day thy prophets have foretold as one of destruction, 
 and of God's visitation in judgment. Now shall the wicked who 
 fall under these judgments be perplexed and confounded in their 
 plans of wickedness, so that they shall not know what they 
 can do. 
 
 5. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in 
 a guide : keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth 
 in thy bosom. 
 
 6. For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter 
 riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against 
 her mother-in-law ; a man's enemies are the men of his 
 own house. 
 
214 MICAH.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 This entire description, beginning with v. 2, reveals a state of 
 appalling corrnption of morals, and gives the soundings of the great 
 depths of human depravity as seen Avhere the light of God's word 
 is withdrawn, and idol worship with its surroundings comes into its 
 place. As Christianity sanctifies and makes benign all the sweet 
 relationships of home and family, so does human depravity, finding 
 free scope, and ever-qaickening impulse under the reign of idolatry, 
 desecrate and render fiendish those same precious relationships. It 
 is terrible that homes of love should become "habitations of 
 cruelty ; " but human depravity, unrestrained, has precisely this ten- 
 dency, and sometimes reaches this result. 
 
 1. Therefore I will look imto the Lord ; I will wait 
 for the God of my salvation ; my God will hear me. 
 
 Ko conclusion from such premises as these could be more fitting 
 than this. When all our dearest earthly friends fail, let it be our 
 joy that God is true and faithful — a doubly precious friend. 
 
 8. Kejoice not against me, O mine enemy : when I 
 fall, I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall 
 he a light unto me. 
 
 The special thing to be noticed in the Hebrew of this verse is 
 that the verb rendered " rejoice," and the noun, " mine enemy," 
 are hoih feminine^ showing that the prophet addresses some city or 
 political power, present to his thought ; and consequently does not 
 speak in his own person exclusively, but in behalf of his peo- 
 ple ; the sense being this: Speaking for Judah and Jerusalem, I 
 say to Edom or to Babylon — " Rejoice not over me, thou insulting 
 and exulting enemy ; though I fall in war, and my sons and daugh- 
 ters go into captivity, I shall arise through the strength of my Re- 
 deemer God ; though I sit in the darkness of a fallen kingdom, my 
 people in a strange land, yet the Lord shall be a light unto me." 
 It should be carefully noticed that the prophet's mind is pro- 
 jected forward from the awful sins of the land to the consequent 
 curse — the captivity in Babylon, and to the deliverance ultimately 
 wrought there for the covenant people when they became humbled, 
 reformed, and penitent. It is with those scenes in view that he 
 addresses Edom and Babylon so triumphantly in these verses. 
 
 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I 
 have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and 
 execute judgment for me : he will bring me forth to the 
 light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 
 
 10. Then sJie that is mine enemy shall see it, and 
 shame shall cover her which said unto me, "Where is 
 the Lord thy God ? mine eyes shall behold her : now 
 shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. VII. 215 
 
 In these verses also, Micah speaks in behalf of the covenant 
 people. V. 9 gives utterance to the feelings appropriate under such 
 sore chastisements from the Lord — a moral lesson for all in affliction, 
 be the form of it what it may. "Eighteousness," in such a con- 
 nection, does not mean simple justice, but beneficence, goodness, 
 God's interposition in redeeming and saving mercy. This specific 
 sense is in some passages entirely essential ; I, therefore, confirm 
 it: (1.) By the fact that in many passages "righteousness" is 
 parallel to " salvation," and therefore synonymous with it, e. g.^ 
 Isa. 51 : 5, 6, 8 : " My righteousness is near ; my salvation is gone 
 forth," &c. — " but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteous- 
 ness shall not be abolished " — " but my righteousness shall be for- 
 ever, and my salvation from generation to generation ; (2.) In other 
 passages, the strain of the context and the nature of the case de- 
 mand this sense, e. ^., Isa. 54 : 17; which means — God will save 
 his Zion from all her foes, " and their righteousness" {L e., this sal- 
 vation) " is of mo, saith the Lord." Also Ps, 51 : 14 ; " Deliver me 
 from blood-guiltiness, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue 
 shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." — See notes on Micah 6 : 5. 
 
 In V. 10, the English translators have given the gender of the 
 party spoken of — manifestly the same that is addressed in v. 8. 
 The sense is — The great enemy of Zion (probably Edom or Baby- 
 Ion) shall see the salvation wrought of God for us. She who had 
 said tauntingly, "Where is the Lord thy God?" shall now be 
 overwhelmed with shame, and be herself trodden under foot as 
 mire in the streets. Whereas she looked exultingly on me in my 
 fall, now mine eye shall behold her under God's righteous retri- 
 butions. 
 
 11. In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that 
 day shall the decree be far removed. 
 
 12. In that day also he shall come even to thee from 
 Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the forr 
 tress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from 
 mountain to mountain. 
 
 These verses obviously speak of blessings upon Zion in the day 
 when the Lord, having turned again her captivity, shall rebuild 
 her walls, bring home her captives from afar, and with them also 
 
 " the forces of the Gentiles." Critics have differed greatly as to 
 
 the precise sense of the words rendered " shall the decree be far 
 removed." What our translators meant by " the decree," or by its 
 being " far removed," is by no means clear. It is plain to one who 
 reads the original, that Micah chooses his words, the verb * 
 and the noun,t for the sake in part of a paranomasia, the two last 
 radicals of the verb and the two which compose the noun being 
 the same, and therefore the sounds of each are similar. For tho 
 
 *pi 
 
 tpK 
 
216 MICAH.--CHAP. Vn. 
 
 sake of this result, he may, perhaps, have nsed one or both of these 
 words in a somewhat unusual sense. This may occasion some of 
 the diflSculties found by critics in the interpretation of the 
 passage. 
 
 The following construction is suggested as fully in harm.ony 
 both with the context and with the original and normal use of both 
 these words : " In the day for rebuilding thy walls, in that day 
 shall limit he far away " — i. e., the city bounds shall be far off; the 
 city indefinitely extended. This use of the noun is amply justi- 
 fied by Job 14 : 5, "Thou hast appointed his 'bounds that he cannot 
 pass " (here, of time) ; and Job 26 : 10, " He hath compassed the 
 waters with tounds " (here limits .in space, as in our passage), 
 and 28 : 26, "He made a decree (bound) for the rain " (determin- 
 ing its locality, and, perhaps, quantity). Isa. 5: 14, "Hell hath 
 opened her mouth without weaswre ; " literally, "and there is no 
 lunit." 
 
 The primary sense of the verb is — to be far off, far removed. 
 
 ^Parallel in general meaning is Zech. 2 : 1^, where the first 
 
 thought is — Go, measure the length and breadth of the city walls, 
 as if to rebuild on the old foundations ; but this direction is with- 
 drawn, and God promises — Jerusalem shall be inhabited without 
 walls for the multitude, &c. So here the purpose of God is to en- 
 large her borders so that she may receive great accessions, as the 
 
 next verse proceeds to say. The verb used here occurs Isa. 33 : 
 
 17: " Thine eyes shaU see the King in his beauty; with joy shall 
 they behold the land greatly extended^'''' enlarged — their king in his 
 
 glory, with a subject territory greatly increased on every side. 
 
 In sentiment Isa. 54 : 2, 3, is parallel : " Enlarge the place of thy 
 ten I, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations ; 
 spare not; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou 
 shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed 
 shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhab- 
 ited." Eemembering that Micah was contemporary with Isaiah, 
 and that there are abundant proofs of their acquaintance with each 
 other's writings, we shall readily account for their saying the same 
 things, in much the same language, as to the day when the fallen 
 walls of Zion shall be rebuilt. Taught by one and the same Spirit, 
 and writing of the same things in the same age, why should not 
 
 their views and their language be essentially the same ? Gese- 
 
 nius gives these words here this sense — " The set time is greatly 
 extended." But it does not clearly appear from the context what 
 this "set time" is, nor is any good reason apparent for restricting 
 the enlargement to the one clement of time. I prefer the broader 
 sense as given above, which may indeed comprise enlargement in 
 territory^ in capacity for receiving great accessions to the church, 
 and in the period of this prosperity — enlargement in the most gen- 
 eral sense. Hence, the broad, indefinite form of the statement. 
 
 In V. 12, the first verb is impersonal, and therefore means, 
 
 not that " A^," some one man, shall come from Afisyria, but that 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. VII. 217 
 
 men, peoples, it may be in vast numbers, shall come. The word 
 rendered "fortified,"* I prefer to rendor Egypt, thus — "In that 
 day shall men come to thee from Assyria and from the cities of 
 Egypt ; and from Egypt even to the great river (Euphrates) ; from 
 sea to sea and from mountain to mountain ; " -L e., from all the 
 intervening regions, which indeed comprise all that vast country 
 lying contiguous to Palestine, and stretching out to the remotest 
 hounds of Egypt on the southwest, and to Assyria on the north and 
 .east. Erom these remote lands shall the exiles return, and, as above 
 intimated, perhaps Gentiles as well, for the promise may look far 
 on beyond the restoration from Babylon, although its primary 
 reference is probably to that e"v«ent. 
 
 13. IN otwitlibtanding the land shall be desolate be- 
 cause of tbem that dwell therein, for the fruit of tbeir 
 doings. 
 
 The sense is — ^N'otwithstanding these glorious promises of future 
 enlargement, every way adapted to inspire high and brilliant anti- 
 cipations, yet bear in mind "that for the great sins of the people, 
 an age of judgment and desolation will surely intervene. Before 
 those better days shall come, the land will lie a long time desolate 
 as the fruit of the people's sins." A caution against abusing these 
 promises. 
 
 14. Feed thy people with tliy rod, tlie flock of thine 
 heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the 
 midst of Carmel : let them feed m Bashan and Gilead, 
 as in the days of old. 
 
 The word rendered "/ee6Z"i3 pastoral— the usual term to de- 
 scribe the service of the shepherd. It, therefore, combines the two 
 ideas — feeding, and ruling, or guiding. Hence to the Hebrews 
 there would be no incongruity in supposing this feeding to be done 
 with the "rod" — which is here the shepherd's crook; not a rod 
 for scourging. The sense of the verse is — Take charge of thy peo- 
 ple as a shepherd of his flock ; they are thine heritage, now solitary 
 in the forest; let them feed in the rich pastures of Bashan and 
 Gilead, as of old. This is the prayer of the prophet. He expects 
 the people to join in it. 
 
 15. According to the days of thy coming out of the 
 land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things. 
 
 This verse may fitly be considered as the answer of the Lord to 
 the prayer in the verse preceding. It pledges miraculous inter- 
 position and effective help, as in the Exodus from Egypt — the stand- 
 ing historic case to signify a glorious salvation. 
 
 i 
 
 10 
 
218 MICAH.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 16. The nations shall see and be confounded at all 
 their might : they shall lay their hand npon their mouth, 
 their ears shall be deaf. 
 
 lY. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall 
 move out of their holes like worms of the earth : they 
 shall be afraid of the Loed our God, and shall fear be- 
 cause of thee. 
 
 Here are tlie effects on the Gentile nations of God's marvelloiis 
 deliverances to be wrought for his people. They shall see and shall 
 be ashamed of their own insignifici^nt prowess. They may be sup- 
 posed to say — " We have no power to cope with that ; all our 
 strength vanishes away before such marvellous works." They shall 
 be dumb and deaf, as men astonished and stupefied with amazement. 
 They shall lick the dust, humbling themselves low before the glori- 
 ous majesty of Jehovah. They shall crawl out of their holes in the 
 ground — a strong figure, to denote the change that has come over 
 
 their glory and greatness. The last clause should read thus: 
 
 " They shall approach with humble fear and reverence unto the 
 Lord our God " — this shade of meaning being required by the prep- 
 osition rendered " untoy See notes on Hos. 3 : 5. Thus those 
 thriUing impressions of awe and fear are to avail for the conversion 
 of the Gentile nations. 
 
 18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth in- 
 iquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant 
 of his heritage ? he retaineth not his anger for ever, be- 
 cause he delighteth in mercy. 
 
 That sins so great should be so entirely forgiven, so fully passed over, 
 to be noticed and known no more — and that God should so fully turn 
 from his righteous anger, and give scope only to his great mercy — 
 is most wonderful ! As the prophet thinks of these qualities of the 
 divine mercy in the case of his forgiving his covenant people and 
 restoring them again to favors so great, his heart is overwhelmed 
 
 within him. And why not ? What can be more wonderful ? 
 
 This language is full of beauty and of strength as well. " Who is a 
 God like Thee, taking away sin " (to be seen and noted no more), 
 "passing over the transgressions of the remnant of his chosen" (as 
 a traveller ^«ss^5 ty what he does not wish to notice) ; " and he does 
 not make his wrath strong forever " (implying that he does the very 
 opposite — makes it subside and give place to loving-kindness.) And all 
 this " because he delighteth in mercy "), finding his real bliss, even the 
 highest joy of his heart in forgiving the chief of sinners.) Is not all 
 this most precious and most wonderful ? Who, having once seen 
 his own guilt in all its appalling blackness and vileness, and then 
 felt the sweet sense of pardon, as if God himself were whispering 
 peace and love to his heart, will not appreciate this inimitable de- 
 scription of the pardoning love of the Lord? 
 
MICAH.— CHAP. VIL 219 
 
 19. He will turn again, lie will have compassion 
 upon us ; lie will subdue our iniquities ; and tliou wilt 
 cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 
 
 This verse may, without violence, he construed as a sort of re- 
 frain or response, taken up hj the people themselves, who enter 
 into the spirit of the prophet's words, and respond in terms scarcely 
 less pertinent and afi'ecting. Or it may very fitly he considered as 
 the prophet's own application of the previous verse to the case of 
 God's covenant people. Either way the general sentiment is the 
 same. God will turn from scourging to hlessing, when his smitten 
 people turn from their sins to righteousness. " He will have com- 
 passion upon us." Ah, yes, indeed he wiU! Such a God, so full 
 
 of loving pity, how can it he otherwise ? " He will suhdue our 
 
 iniquities," the original word for " suhdue " implying that he will 
 tread them down under his feet — as an apostle said, "He will 
 tread Satan under your feet shortly." Sin, personified, command- 
 ing its forces of temptation, is thought of as a powerful foe of man, 
 as his arch enemy, perpetually ensnaring, assailing, crushing down 
 and piercing through with bitter pangs ; but God subdues this en- 
 emy ; he withstands his efforts ; sets himself to counteract his temp- 
 tations, and becomes himself a strong tower of refuge, whither his 
 people may fly and into which they may run and be safe! O how 
 
 inexpressibly precious ! " Thou wilt cast all their sins into the 
 
 depths of the sea," and they go down like a millstone, to rise no 
 more ! The idea is, that they come up no more to remembrance — 
 as the Lord has said, " Their sins and their iniquities will I remem- 
 ber no more ! " (Heb. 8 : 12). Considering that the Infinite Mind 
 of the Universe never has lost from its thought and knowledge one 
 fact, however minute, and never can, this statement seems most 
 wonderful of all. God would have us feel that he does not remem- 
 ber against us the sin which we have fully repented of and heartily 
 forsaken, and which therefore he has altogether forgiven and put 
 away. He would almost lead us to think that he can forget them 
 and has forgotten them, so that they shall come before his mind 
 
 even in memory no more ! O how divinely kind and gracious is 
 
 this ! How like a tender Father ! That he should labor to dispel 
 from our mind those painful feelings of shame and grief over our 
 sins, and should seem to say, " Come near to me and be my free- 
 hearted, loving child, as welcome to my smiles and confidence and 
 
 favor as if you had never sinned against me ! " Let this infinite 
 
 Friend, so kind and so gracious, be loved, trusted, and adored by 
 us all, for ever and ever ! 
 
 20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, a7id the 
 mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our 
 fathers from the days of old. 
 
 Here the book closes, afiirming that such a God will surely per- 
 

 
 220 MICAH.— CHAP. YII. 
 
 form all the good things, the truth and the mercy promised to the 
 fathers long years ago. JS^o doubt he will ! Zacharias, filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, caught the spirit as well as the leading words of 
 this passage : "To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and 
 to remember his holy covenant," &c. (Luke 1 : 72). 
 
]:^AHUM. 
 
 INTRODUOTIOIT. 
 
 The introduction to this short book gives us only the general 
 subject — a prediction of sore calamity on Nineveh ; the name of 
 the author and the place of his residence, or perhaps nativity. The 
 
 latter point, being of small importance, I dispose of it briefly. 
 
 Two places bear the name of Elkosh, and claim the honor of this 
 prophet's birth ; — one, beyond the Tigris ; the other, in Gahlee — 
 the latter with the greater plausibility. Some think that Oaper- 
 naum — village of Naum — bears the name of this prophet. 
 
 The date of the book is a greater question. It can, however, be 
 answered only proximately. The location of the book in the series 
 of minor prophets probably had some reference to its date ; but the 
 internal evidence in the line of historic allusion is our main reliance. 
 
 This goes to place him a little after Micah. His great theme 
 
 being the fall of Nineveh, there can be no reasonable doubt that he 
 wrote soon after the famous invasion of Judah by Sennacherib and 
 the utter overthrow of his army. That this event had thrilled the' 
 nation may be seen in numerous passages of Isaiah, e. g.^ 10 : 24-34, 
 and 14 : 24-27, and 17 : 12-14, and 83 ; and 36-39 chap. It could 
 not be otherwise. Hence, naturally and properly, the Lord by his 
 prophets sought to turn these signal events to the best moral 
 account. Isaiah, though alluding to these transactions so often, had 
 yet mostly passed over the retribution which the Lord would one 
 day bring on Mneveh. This was left for Nahum. It was important, 
 for the best moral impression on the people, that this should be 
 revealed, and indeed that it should bo written and made pubho 
 soon after the invasion by Sennacherib and the defeat of his army 
 
222 NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 
 
 — at least, before tlie first impressions made by those events baJ 
 
 passed away. Now, tbis great invasion was in tbe fourteenth 
 
 year of Hezekiab (2 Kings 18:13), whose reign of twenty-nine 
 years fell b. c. 728-699 — consequently, about b. c. 714, and Nahura 
 would be located in time during the latter part of Hezekiah's reign. 
 
 This book furnishes one other historic point — a reference 
 
 (3:8-10) to the fall of "No-Amon," otherwise called Thebes 
 and Diospohs, the famous capital of Upper Egypt. The manner 
 of the prophet's allusion to this event imphes that it was then past, 
 yet probably recent and fresh in the minds of his first readers. But 
 no extant history chronicles precisely the date of her fall. What 
 Isaiah says (20 : 1-6) of Sargon, king of Assyria, and of his general 
 Tartan, almost without doubt refers to this event, the more surely 
 so, because both Isaiah and Nahum represent the Ethiopians as 
 being the allies of the Egyptians, and involved in the ruin of their 
 great city. The location of this narrative in the book of Isaiah 
 favors its date somewhat earlier than the march of Sennacherib 
 upon Jerusalem. Sargon is known to have reigned next before 
 
 Sennacherib. These facts and suppositions go to confirm the 
 
 views above presented respecting the date of this book, as falling in 
 
 the latter part of the reign of Hezekiah, i. e., b. c. 710-700. The 
 
 fall of* Nineveh, which Nahum so vividly describes, chapters 2 and 
 3, took place from seventy-five to eighty years after the date 
 assumed for this prophecy. It fell before the allied forces of the 
 Medes under Cyaxares and the Chaldeans under Nabopolassar, the 
 precise date being assigned by the most reliable historians to b. c. 
 625 
 
 AU tne cntics accord to Nahuoi a style of lofty sublimity and a 
 power of graphic painting rarely surpassed. He wrote as one 
 whose very soul was permeated and thrilled by the great events 
 of his time, and who saw God's hand in them — a present and glori- 
 ous poicer for salvation to his people, and for vengeance on their 
 foes. To see the beauty and feel the force of his book, we shall 
 need to imbue our hearts deeply with the true spirit and sig- 
 nificance of those momentous facts of history. 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 223 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 After the briefest possible introduction, the prophet breaks 
 into the midst of his theme, his starting-point being most fitlj those 
 great qualities of the divine character which both the recent events 
 of history and the burden of his prophecy conspire to illustrate — 
 especially his retributive vengeance upon his enemies, coupled with 
 his merciful protection and deliverance of his people. Hence we 
 have mainly God's judgments on his foes (vs. 2-6) ; God a refuge for 
 his people (v. Y) ; the overthrow of Sennacherib's army before 
 Jerusalem (vs. 8-14) ; and the ensuing peace and joy (v. 15). 
 
 1. The burden of Mneveli. Tlie book of tbe vision 
 of l^abuni the Elkosbite. 
 
 A " burden " in prophecy, here as elsewhere, is a message of 
 calamity, predicting judgment and desolation. 
 
 2. God is jealous, and tbe Lord revengetli ; tlie Lokd 
 revengeth, and is furious ; the Lord wiU take vengeance 
 on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his ene- 
 mies. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that these attributes of Jehovah are 
 suggested by his retributive justice on Assyria, first, in destroying 
 her great army when it came proudly and defiantly to lay waste 
 the holy city ; and next, in the future desolations of Nineveh, their 
 great and proud capital. These historic facts may serve as illustra- 
 tions of the sense in which Jehovah is "jealous," " revengeth," and 
 
 "taketh vengeance." The word "/j^nows" in the English 
 
 version should not be taken in the bad sense which has in modern 
 times become predominant — as when spoken of wild beasts enraged, 
 or men half frantic. The original is innocent of this special sig- 
 nificance, and simply implies that the Lord is moved with indignation 
 against his proud, determined enemies. 
 
 3. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, 
 and will not at all acquit the wiclced : the Lord hath his 
 way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds 
 are the dust of his feet. 
 
 The first clause continues the glowing description of Jehovah's 
 attributes, most of the expressions being taken from the classic 
 passage (Ex. 34 : 6, 7) where the Lord proclaimed his name to Moses 
 
 as one slow to anger, yet who will not at all acquit the guilty. 
 
 The last clause opens one of the grandest portrayings of the 
 majesty of Jehovah ever drawn by human pen: "Jehovah — his 
 way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the 
 dust about his feet." Across the deserts of the East a moving car- 
 avan is seen farthest by the dust they raise. So the clouds are the 
 
224 NAHtJM.— CHAP. I. 
 
 dust rising beneath his feet and marking the pathway of his 
 glorious presence. 
 
 4. He rebiiketli the sea, and maketli it dry, and 
 di'ietli np all the rivers : Baslian languisheth, and Carmel, 
 and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 
 
 With an eye perhaps on the Eed sea and the Jordan, the prophet 
 proceeds: "He rebuketh the sea and so dries it up," «'. e., by his 
 mere word of rebuke. Also, through his power of withholding 
 rain, all vegetation, even in the most fertile regions, withers. 
 
 5. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, 
 and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, 
 and all that dwell therein. 
 
 In the phrase "the earth is burnt at his presence," the original 
 verb gives no sanction to the sense to tum^ but must mean is lifted 
 w/), with reference to the upheaval of its crust by volcanic agents. 
 The whole verse refers to this class of agencies. "The moun- 
 tains tremble before him," or "because of him" (not properly "ai 
 Am"), "the hills melt," liquid lava gushing forth from their bowels 
 and pouring down their sides — and the solid cmst of the earth's 
 surface is upheaved with its cities and all their vast population. 
 
 6. Who can stand before his indignation ? and who 
 can abide in the fierceness of his anger ? his fury is 
 poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by 
 him. 
 
 "With the terrible agencies of the volcano and the earthquake 
 still in mind, the prophet fitly asks — " Who can stand before Jeho- 
 vah's indignation?" "Who can rise up against his burning 
 wrath ? " " Eise up," and not " aJiae," is the sense of the Hebrew. 
 His fm-y is poured forth like rivers of lava from the craters of Ve- 
 suvius. How, then, can the wicked endure before him when once he 
 ariseth in his wrath ? 
 
 Y. The LoKD is good, a strong hold in the day of 
 trouble ; and he knoweth them that trust in him. * 
 
 By a sudden, yet most expressive transition, this same God is a 
 glorious refuge for his people. He is none the less good because he 
 feels such indignation against incorrigible sin. He wiU defend his 
 trustful children none the less because his wrath is so terrible 
 against his and their foes. Indeed, his wrath against their foes is the 
 pledge and guaranty of his love for them, and of his purpose to de- 
 fend them forever. This side of his character had its present il- 
 lustration in the deliverance wrought for Judakwhen just about to 
 fall before the armed hordes of Assyria. In the phrase " he Tcnoiceth 
 them that trust in him," " Tcnoioeth " takes the strong sense of a pe- 
 culiar and most tender regard. 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 225 
 
 8. But with an overrunning flood lie will make an 
 litter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue 
 his enemies. 
 
 From this point onward through the chapter, Sennacherib's army 
 is before the mind, and the prophet alhides to their mischievous 
 plottings against the people of God, and to his consequent retri- 
 bution upon them in their complete destruction. A question of 
 some importance arises here, upon which interpreters differ, viz., 
 Whether the prophet's allusions to the invasion of Judah by Sen- 
 nacherib (vs. 8-15) are prophecy or history. Was this passage writ- 
 ten 'before or after the invasion ? My mind inclines strongly to 
 
 the latter view, on the following grounds: (1.) The tenses of • the 
 verbs used at least admit this construction. Owing to a striking 
 peculiarity in the use of the Hebrew tenses in prophecy, or rather, 
 perhaps, to the mental stand-point of the prophet when visions of 
 the future are brought before him, it becomes very difficult to de- 
 termine, /rom the tenses alone^ what is prophecy and what is 
 history. In this passage it would be hard to show absolutely from 
 the tenses alone, that either theory is impossible. There is plainly 
 nothing in the tenses to forbid the construction of what relates to. 
 
 Sennacherib's invasion as recently past. Thus the verbs in v. 8 
 
 are future, but they refer to the future fall of Nineveh — about b. o. 
 625. (V. 9), thus*(literally) : " What will ye devise against Jehovah ? " 
 The sense is — How can ye devise any thing to purpose against such 
 an one as Jehovah? — which has augmented force, considered as 
 spoken after the fall of Sennacherib's host. The reasons given 
 are, "He makes" (not "will make") "ruin complete." "Affliction 
 shall not rise again " — from you, or from any wliom the Lord has 
 once undertaken to destroy. These reasons are all fully in point, 
 
 considered as said after the invasion and its defeat. In v. 10 the 
 
 sense is — " Though compacted like tangled thorns and soaked with 
 strong drink, they icere devoured " (the Hebrew is in the past tense) 
 "hke dry stubble." In v. 11 read "From thee came ouV (past 
 tense) " one who plotted mischief" — alluding to the past purpose 
 and deed of Sennacherib. The twelfth verse has past tenses through- 
 out ; not '■''sliall they be cut down," but they were cut. " Though 
 
 I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more," is literal, and 
 
 properly assume that the invasion is past. The thirteenth vc-se 
 
 means that now and henceforth, I will break off his yoke from 
 upon thee. • Thou shalt have notliing to fear more from the Assyrian 
 power. In v. 14, the infamy and disgraceful death of Sennach- 
 erib assume that the invasion is past. In v. 15, the messengers 
 
 with tidings of their fall — the call to Judah to resume her solemn 
 feasts- for her Belial shall never come near even to alarm her again 
 — all is specially pertinent and life-like on the assumption that the 
 deed is done. There can, therefore, be no objection to its con- 
 struction as history on the score of the Hebrew tenses, nor in the 
 strain of the passage. (2.) The passage (1 : 2-7) is especially per- 
 
22G NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 
 
 tinent and forcible on tlie supposition that tlie fall of Sennacherib's 
 
 Iiost is in the recent past, and fresh before all minds. (3.) There 
 
 is great pertinence in going forward from these events of recent his- 
 tory to predict the final ruin of Assyria, in righteous retribution for 
 
 her bold and impious defiance of the Most High God. (4.) The 
 
 history of the event as given (Isa. 37) goes far to show that no 
 prophecy of Nahura, predicting the fall of this Assyi-ian host, was 
 extant he/ore that fall. The king and even the pious portion of the 
 people were in deep agitation, not to say consternation ; they come 
 to Isaiah for some light from the Lord, and he gives it. Then their 
 
 fears are allayed and their faith confirmed. The whole tenor of 
 
 these transactions implies that nothing is known of any prediction 
 from Nahum of the failure of this invasion and the consequent ruin 
 
 of its author. (5.) The Book of Nahum must be taken as one 
 
 whole, written at one time. But it is scarcely supposable that the 
 whole, including the prediction of the final fall of Nineveh, dates 
 
 lefore this great invasion of Judah. These considerations seem 
 
 decisive. 
 
 There is a sudden transition from v. 7, where God is a refuge 
 to his people, to v. 8, where he is a sweeping flood, overwhelming 
 Nineveh and obliterating even its ancient foundations. The ideas, 
 however, are kindred, for God is such a refuge to his people he- 
 cause he is such a power of destruction upon her enemies. The 
 
 figure — "with a flood sweeping over the land" — is probably bor- 
 rowed from Isaiah 8 : 7, 8, where it describes the desolating march 
 of the vast Assyrian army over the laud of Judah. By a fit and 
 most palpable retribution, armies, equally vast and desolating, shall 
 yet come down on Nineveh, and shall make an utter end of even 
 the site where she stood so long in her glory. The darkness of ob- 
 livion shall chase down these enemies of God, and they shall sink 
 from the knowledge of coming generations. 
 
 9. "Wliat do ye imagine against tlie Lord ? lie will 
 make an utter end : afiliction shall not rise up tlie secqnd 
 time. 
 
 The prophet puts this bold question to the proud Assyrian 
 invader : " What would ye plot against Jehovah ? " " He will 
 make an utter end " of his foes and of you. " Trouble to many 
 people shall not arise from you a second time." Once smitten, you 
 will never return to harass them again. 
 
 10. For while they he folden together as thorns, and 
 while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be de- 
 voured as stubble fully dry. 
 
 For though your armies move in phalanx, closely interlaced as 
 thorns in their wild growth, and though they reel under their 
 intoxication, they shall be devoured as stubble burns when perfectly 
 dry. That they are said to be drunken as with wine, and hence 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 227 
 
 to reel in their intoxication, may allude to a striking fact in God's 
 agency over nations doomed to judgment, and also to a very strik- 
 ing figure to represent this fact — the fact being that God gives such 
 nations over to infatuation ; and the figure to express it being this 
 (as appears in Jer. 25 : 15-29). God sends round to the nations the 
 wine-cup of his fury, and they drink till they are " moved " and 
 "mad." Hence they are easily destroyed. They more than half 
 destroy themselves. The slaveholding power of this American 
 nation is a case quite in point, evincing this same mad infatuation 
 which is both a natural and a governmental forerunner of destruc- 
 tion. The wine-cup of Jehovah's fury has been to their lips ! 
 
 11. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth 
 evil against the Loed, a wicked counsellor. 
 
 Sennacherib or Eabshakeh. He comes forth out of Assyria, or 
 perhaps, specially from Nineveh, devising evil against Jehovah as 
 the king of his covenant people. 
 
 12. Thus, saith the Loed ; Though they he quiet, and 
 likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when 
 he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I 
 will afflict thee no more. 
 
 The Lord sees this heathen king deliberately plotting the 
 destruction of Judah, and therefore declares his purpose to destroy 
 
 him and his army. The first prominent word, rendered " quiet," 
 
 more properly means complete^ furnished with every appliance for 
 success in their proposed object. Though they are fuUy equipped, 
 and withal so very many, yet shall they be cut down (as the figure 
 in V. 10 had expressed it) when he, the destroying angel, shall pass 
 
 through their camp. Isaiah records this event in these brief 
 
 words : " Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the 
 camp of the Assyrians an hundi*ed and fourscore and five thousand, 
 and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all 
 
 dead corpses " (Isa. 37 : 36), Byron has put this scene in his 
 
 best style : 
 
 **Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, 
 That host with their banners at sunset were seen ; 
 Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 
 For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, 
 And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed, 
 And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill. 
 And their hearts but once heaved, and forever were still." 
 
 The last clause — " though I have afilicted thee," &c., refers to 
 Judah, now relieved from danger, and no more to be afflicted by 
 this long dangerous enemy. 
 
 13. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and 
 will burst thy bonds in sunder. 
 
228 NAHUM.— CHAP. I. 
 
 This verse expands the thought just before expressed. 
 
 14. And tlie Lord liatli given a commandment con- 
 cerning thee, that no more of tliy name be sown : ont 
 of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image 
 and the molten image : I will make thy grave ; for thou 
 art vile. 
 
 The person spoken of must be the Assyrian king. No scion of 
 his family should again take root ; no child come to the honor of 
 his father's throne. This would seem to be the most natural sense 
 
 of these words. But according to the dim light of the history of 
 
 those times, its precise fulfilment is not readily made out. The 
 king should be Sennacherib who headed the famous invasion of 
 Judah and Jerusalem. All the latter part of this verse 14 finds an 
 accurate fulfilment in him. He made his grave in the house of his 
 gods — a vile, " liglit " man, of no particular account. " Liglit " is 
 the sense of the Hebrew word. But Isaiah records (37 : 38), " and 
 Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead." History assigns to this 
 Esarhaddon a reign of thirty-five years. How, then, could it be 
 
 said, no son of Sennacherib should come to the throne? To 
 
 avoid this difficulty. Dr. Henderson holds that the threatening was 
 not to take efifect at his death, but only at the final destruction of 
 Nineveh — which he locates b. o. 625 — almost a century in the 
 future. Then^ his dynasty should become extinct. • He says, "It 
 does not mean that none of his sons should succeed him in the 
 government." But this is just what it seems to say, if we give the 
 language a sense which afiirms the extinction of his dynasty. If 
 the words aflSrm extinction at all, they afliirm it to take effect at 
 
 once. Others, with better success, give the words this turn — 
 
 that his name^ in the sense of fame, reputation, should be difi'used 
 abroad — sown 'broadcast^ no more. He should die in dishonor as a 
 vile man, and his name go down to posterity only in disgrace. In 
 this sense of the prophecy, its fulfilment presents no diflSiculty. 
 
 15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that 
 bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ! O Judah, 
 keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows : for the mcked 
 shall no more pass through thee : he is utterly cut off. 
 
 "War telegrams were borne in those days by swift runners (see 2 
 Sam. 18: 19 ff.). AVhen they brought tidings of victory and peace, 
 their approach might well be hailed with joy. So now of these mes- 
 sengers with tidings of the utter ruin that befell Assyria's proud hos.ts 
 in that one fatal night. The prophet's graphic touch of this scene is 
 masterly. He gives no long and tedious details : his mind flashes 
 over and past them all, to light on one or two most significant and 
 expressive results. " Go, Judah, now, and keep thy solemn feasts : 
 perform thy vows made in the hour of thy peril : this Belial shall 
 pass through thy land no more : he is utterly cut off! " 
 
NxVHUM.— CHAP. II. • 229 
 
 As to keeping those solemn feasts, Judah could^ for no enemy 
 remained in her land to prevent : she sliould^ for nqver before were 
 there such themes for praise, such reasons for coming to the house 
 of God with her thank-offerings to pay her solemn vows. 
 
 OHAPTEPv II. 
 
 This cliapter brings us at once to the prophet's great theme — the 
 burden of i^^ineveh. The mad and proud invasion of Judah by 
 Sennacherib must first be noticed, that being the antecedent 
 occasion of this final overthrow — the great sin of which this fall 
 was the signal retribution. That consequently is spoken of in the 
 first chapter. This chapter and the third give us the assault on an- 
 cient x^^ineveh, and her final fall. 
 
 1. He that daslieth in pieces is come up before thy 
 face : keep the mimitioii, watch the way, make thy loins 
 strong, fortify thy power mightily. 
 
 Instead of finding in this first verse a summons to Hezekiah to 
 prepare his capital for defence against Sennacherib (as some have 
 done), I prefer to apply it (as manifestly vs. 3-13 must be ap- 
 phed) to the Assyrian king Chynilidan, in whose reign the combined 
 forces of the Medes and Chaldeans came up against great Nineveh, 
 and laid it in ruins. With this construction, v. 2 is interposed as a 
 reason for God's overthrowing Nineveh — good, although the event 
 occurred more than half a century before. Then v. 3 resumes 
 
 and carries forward the thought of v. 1. Moreover, Sennacherib 
 
 has been effectually disposed of in chapter 1, tumbled into his 
 dishonored grave, and his name given over to contempt and oblivion. 
 It is not meet to raise him from his grave, to appear again on the 
 
 face of this chapter. Nineveh and her kings are addressed. 
 
 Nineveh had been in her day a conquering power, dashing nations 
 and their strong cities to atoms. Now, another great "• hammer of 
 the nations" is raised up of God, and appears at her gates, and the 
 prophet tauntingly admonishes her to look well to her fortifications ; 
 to set watchmen along the ways leading to the city ; to gird her 
 loins for strife, and fortify to the utmost. 
 
 2. For the Loed hath turned away the excellency of 
 Jacob, as the excellency of Israel : for the emp tiers 
 have emptied them out, and marred their vine-branches. 
 
 Why? "Because the Lord hath" (not turned «w«y, but) "re- 
 stored the glory of Jacob as the glory of Israel, although the 
 ' emptiers ' (her foreign enemies) had (almost) emptied the land of 
 her population, and marred their vine-branches." This language 
 implies that Judah had suffered sorely from her enemies, both in 
 
230 NAHUM.— CHAP. II. 
 
 the waste of precious life, and in the damage done her vines, and of 
 course other vegetable growths as well. The same facts are indi- 
 cated by Isaiah of this very time : " And the remnant that is es- 
 caped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward," &c. 
 "From out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant," &c., showing 
 that many must have perished (see Isa. 37 : 31, 32). V. 30 shows 
 that cultivation had been entirely neglected during two full years. 
 
 The word rendered " excellency " is sometimes (e. g.^ Amos 
 
 6 : .8 and Ps. 47 : 4) applied to the land of Palestine, as being the 
 " glory of all lands." So here, with the accessory idea of the land 
 in its state of prosperity and glory. Jacob and Israel are here, not 
 each the name of a distinct people, but both the name of one. "With 
 tacit allusion to the change of Jacob's name to Israel (Gen. 
 32 : 27, 28), the Lord is said to restore the glory of Jacob as being 
 the people who have a princely power with God, and are recognized 
 by him as his covenant people. Jacob and Israel are never the dis- 
 tinctive names of the two kingdoms. Here God blesses Jacob, xis 
 if in remembrance of what his other name, Israel, implies. 
 
 3. Tlie sliield of liis miglity men is made red, tlie 
 valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall he with 
 flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir- 
 trees shall be terribly shaken. 
 
 4. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall 
 justle one against another in the broad ways: they 
 shall seem like torches, they shall run like the light- 
 nings. 
 
 This description, given by the prophet, of the approaching hosts 
 of Media and Chaldea, is, like all his descriptive paragraphs, full of 
 
 fire, painting to the eye most viWdly. " The shields of his mighty 
 
 men are reddened; his heroes are in scarlet; his chariots flash with 
 the brightness of their iron scythes, as in the day of their prepara- 
 tion (^. «., when new) ; the spears of cypress also wave on high. ^,The 
 chariots dash madly in the streets ; they run to and fro in the 
 open grounds; they look like lamps of fire; they dart like the 
 lightning." 
 
 5. He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble 
 in their w^alk ; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, 
 and the defence shall be prepared. 
 
 Here the king of Nineveh is seen starting up as from a reverie 
 or a sleep, to begin to appreciate his danger. He sees the fearful 
 onslaught of converging hosts upon his capital. Now, " he thinks 
 of his generals," and summons them to their work ; they start ofif in 
 haste, or in panic, and "stumble in their goings; " they make haste 
 to the city wall," where their soldiers and military defences were 
 located for the protection of the city, "and the breastworks are 
 made firm." Breastworks is r.'.il-jr the modern phrnse. This was a 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. II. 231 
 
 mantlet, apparently of interwoven bonglis, to protect their heads as 
 
 well as breasts from the missiles of ancient warfare. According 
 
 to Diodorus Siculus, Nineveh had fifteen hundred towers, dis- 
 tributed around on her city walls. These mantlets may have been 
 located in the intervening spaces. 
 
 6. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the 
 palace shall be dissolved. 
 
 Y. And Hnzzab shall be led away captive, she shall 
 be • brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the 
 voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. 
 
 " The gates of her water-courses are burst open, and the palace 
 is swept away." Nineveh stood upon the Tigris, on low ground. 
 These " rivers " were her artificial canals for letting in their supply 
 of water for irrigation and for other uses. Now, burst open by the 
 besiegers, the palace, and consequently much of the city, was 
 
 inundated. The word rendered "Huzzab" has been variously 
 
 interpreted, as the margin indicates. All modern critics agree in 
 making the word a verb, and not, as in the English version, a proper 
 noun. The reader may choose among the following construc- 
 tions, the first of which disregards the usual division of verses : 
 
 (1.) (v. 6). " The palace is dissolved, though firmly established." 
 (v. 7). " She is made bare ; she is carried up," &c. 
 
 (2.) (v. 7). " It is settled! {i. e.^ decreed and done!) she is led off 
 into captivity," &c. 
 
 (3.) (v. 6). " And the palace is dissolved, (v. 7.) " Though it (the 
 palace) was firmly founded, yet is she (the city) led into captivity ; 
 she is borne away (as a captive queen) ; her maids are leading her 
 as with the voice of doves, smiting (drumming) upon their breasts." 
 This choice between various constructions involves no doc- 
 trinal truth of special importance. The last interpretation, requir- 
 ing no change in the Hebrew accents, and otherwise meeting both 
 the exigencies of the context and the established usage of the indi- 
 vidual words, has slightly my preference. 
 
 8. But Mneveh is of old like a pool of water : yet 
 they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry, but 
 none shall look back. 
 
 " Though Nineveh has been since her early days as a reservoir 
 of waters " — a point for the confluence of people from every clime 
 and kingdom, "yet now are they fleeing." "Stand! stand! but 
 there is no turning them back." This translation imitates the 
 terseness and gives the sense of the original. All great com- 
 mercial centres, like the London and New York of our times, will 
 have a population gathered from the whole civilized world. Tlio 
 exigencies of business and trade produce this result. Our pas- 
 sage touches graphically the eflPect of a panic on such a population. 
 The masses have but one impulse — to run. The authorities, who 
 
232 NAHUM.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 would fain save the city, shout, "Stand! stand! " but the call is 
 powerless ; it turns no one back. 
 
 9. Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of 
 gold ; for there is none end of tlie store and glory out of 
 all the pleasant fui*niture. 
 
 Tlie prophet turns for a word to the conquerors, who are 
 thought of now as within the city. " Seize the silver ; seize the 
 gold ; there is no end to her stores " {i. e., of carefully prepared and 
 curiously wrought furniture, equipage, &c.) — a huge mass of all < 
 beautiful things." There is no other word but " things " so nearly 
 
 equivalent to the Hebrew in comprehensiveness. The great 
 
 wealth of Nineveh now lies at the mercy of her conquerors. 
 
 10. She is empty and void, and waste ; and the 
 heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much 
 pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather 
 blackness. 
 
 The first three adjectives aim to intensify the idea of utter empti- 
 ness, as if Nineveh had been a huge and full bottle, now inverted, 
 
 and the contents gurgle and gush out to the last drop. " Hearts 
 
 melt ; there is shaking of knees and keen pangs in all loins ; all faces 
 lose their cheerful glow" — contract and seem to draw in their 
 brightness. This seems to be the exact sense of the Hebrew. 
 
 11. "Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feed- 
 ing-place of the young lions, where the lion, eve?i the old 
 lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them 
 afraid ? 
 
 12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, 
 and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with 
 prey, and his dens with ravin. 
 
 13. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, 
 and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword 
 shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy 
 prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers 
 shall no more be heard. 
 
 Nineveh is here thought of as an old lion's den. This figure is 
 the more pertinent because the ancient Assyrians (like the modern 
 British) chose the lion for their national symbol. This figure conse- 
 quently is prominent in the ruins of ancient Nineveh (see Layard's 
 " Nineveh," pp. 32, 47, 85, 88, &c.) Hence the prophet exultingly 
 
 asks, "Where is the old den now? In the last verse the figure is 
 
 half dropped and half retained. "Burning her chariots in the 
 smoke," drops the figure; "the sword devouring her young lions. 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. III. 233 
 
 and cutting off his prey from tlie earth," mostly retains it. " The 
 
 voice of her messengers " is that of her ambassadors, who repre- 
 sented her power in distant comitries, with perhaps a tacit allusion 
 to the taunting speech of her Eahshakeh to the Jewish people on 
 the walls of Jerusalem, as in Isa. 36 : 4-20. Such a voice as this 
 
 shall he heard no more. The immediate cause of her ruin is 
 
 presented forcibly : " Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of 
 
 hosts." Not the proudest or the mightest of cities can stand 
 
 when the great Jehovah is against her. 
 
 OHAPTEE III. 
 
 The same subject — the fall of Mneveh — is resumed and con- 
 cluded. 
 
 1. Woe to the bloody city I it is all full of lies and 
 robbery ; tbe prey departetli not ; 
 
 First come the moral causes of this fearful desolation. It is a 
 city of blood ; " all full of lies " — no truth between man and man ; 
 and thence come, by natural result, violence and robbery. The 
 seizing of prey, by the strong from the weaker, never ceases. The 
 original words suggest that men, created rational and moral, have 
 become fierce and savage as beasts of prey. 
 
 2. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling 
 of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the 
 jumping chariots. 
 
 3. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword 
 and the glittering spear : and there is a multitude of 
 slain, and a great number of carcasses ; and there is none 
 end of their corpses ; they stumble npon their corpses : 
 
 These verses resume the account of the siege and assault, con- 
 tinued from 2: 3-5, 9, 10: "The crack of the whip ; the noise of 
 rattling wheels, prancing horses, bounding chariots. There are 
 horsemen mounting ; flashing swords, the lightnings of the spear ; 
 heaps of slain, masses of the dead, and no end to the corpses ; men 
 stumble over their dead bodies." Think of it, and note how it looks 
 — this onslaught of warriors through the crowded streets of help- 
 less Nineveh, leaving traces of their work in the heaps of her man- 
 gled dead! One of the marvels is, that the pen of prophecy 
 
 should paint such a life-scene with no less vividness and force than 
 the ablest historic pen. Surely we must see in this the impress of 
 God's own finger ! 
 
 4. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of 
 the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that 
 
234 NAHUM.— CHAP. IH. 
 
 Belletli nations throngli her wlioredoms, and familiea 
 tliroiigh her witchcrafts. 
 
 Again the prophet recurs to the moral causes of this appalling 
 
 slaughter. There had been sin no less appalling! If these terms 
 
 that usually denote lewdness, referred to Israel and Judah, it would be 
 legitimate to give them the sense of idolatry — this usage being well 
 established with reference to the covenant people. In this passage 
 the same usage may be inferred from the connection of whoredom 
 with witchcraft. Hence, under this figure of a lewd harlot, the 
 prophet really means idolatry and its monstrous brood of supersti- 
 tions, witchcrafts, and doubtless licentiousness as well. Through 
 the influence wielded by her world-wide commerce, Nineveh had 
 corrupted all the nations round about. It was, therefore, only a 
 fit retribution that her fall should be a public disgrace before 
 them all. 
 
 5. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lokd of hosts ; 
 and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will 
 shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms 
 thy shame. 
 
 6. And I will cast abominable filth npon thee, and 
 make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock. 
 
 This is her doom of shame. The figure of a harlot is kept up 
 
 throughout these two verses. ''Discover" — ^not in the modern 
 
 sense, to find 'by search^ but in the ancient one, to expose to public 
 view, and here to public scorn. God will expose her nakedness 
 before all the nations ; and then, to make her shame the greater, 
 will cast abominable filth upon her naked person. 
 
 Y. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look 
 upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, K^ineveh is laid 
 waste : who will bemoan her ? whence shall I seek com- 
 forters for thee ? 
 
 None can bear the horrid sight. Her old associates flee away, 
 and no one cares to pause, to bewail her doom. 
 
 8. Art thou better than populous ]^o, that was situate 
 among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, 
 whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the 
 sea? 
 
 9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was 
 infinite ; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. 
 
 When Nahum wrote, Nineveh was stiU in her glory. Her peo- 
 ple felt as secure from this or any other destruction as the people 
 of London, Paris, or New York, to-day. It was to meet such a feel- 
 ing of security that the prophet calls their attention to I^o^ the great 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. III. 235 
 
 city known as Thebes and Diospolis, the capital of Upper Egypt— 
 which, from a state of unrivalled splendor, wealth, and greatness, 
 
 had been suddenly laid in ruins. " Art thou better," i. e., stronger 
 
 and more safe, " than No-Amon? " The word rendered " populous " 
 should be taken as part of the proper name of the city. " JSTo- 
 Amon," called only "A^o," Ezek. 30: 14-16, and Jer. 46: 25, 
 but more often in Egyptian history, "Thebes," stood on both sides 
 of the Nile — a most magnificent city, the ruins of whose temples 
 and tombs are at this day one of the wonders of the world. ^ This 
 city is supposed to have fallen under the assault of Sargon, king of 
 Assyria, of whom Isaiah 20 speaks. — See introduction to Nahum. 
 Thebes had powerful aUies. Being the centre of trade, busi- 
 ness, and religion for all Upper Egypt, and probably for Ethiopia 
 also, she had their aid, and the prophet says this was without limit. 
 Lubim was the Hebrew form of the name Libyans, and Put is sup- 
 posed to have been part of their extensive country — the whole 
 lying on the west of Egypt. 
 
 10. Yet was she carried away, she went into captiv- 
 ity : her young children also were dashed in pieces at 
 the top of all the streets : and they cast lots for her 
 honorable men, and all her great men were bound in 
 chains. 
 
 " Yet she became an exile," &c. The verse sketches the usual 
 fate of a conquered people in that almost savage state of the world. 
 
 If such had become the doom of Thebes, ought not Nineveh 
 
 also to fear ? 
 
 11. Thou also shalt be drunken : thou shalt be hid, 
 thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. 
 
 Nineveh also as well as Thebes should " be drunken " — should 
 take the wine-cup of Jehovah's wrath and drink her death-doom. 
 
 See notes on Nahum, 1 : 10. " Thou shalt be hid," means shall 
 
 be lost to pubhc view — oblitsrated and forgotten ; dropped from the 
 
 knowledge of the human race. How wonderfully has this been 
 
 true of old Nineveh for twenty-five centuries ! Until the present 
 generation, ages have passed over her ruins, and no living man knew 
 the site where once she sat so proudly and sinned so fearfully ! The 
 Arab rode his steed high above her fallen towers and crumbled walls, 
 all unconscious how much human greatness lay dead and forgotten 
 
 beneath his feet ! " Shall seek strength." The Hebrew properly 
 
 means a stronghold — a place of safety against the enemy. To this 
 they should be subjected, despite of their lofty walls and almost 
 countless towers. So understood, the course of thought is continued 
 into the next verse. 
 
 12. All thy strong holds shall he like fig-trees with 
 the first ripe figs : if they be shaken, they shall even fall 
 into the mouth of the eater. 
 
236 NAHUM.— CHAP. III. 
 
 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee art 
 women : the gates of thy land shall be set wide open 
 unto thine enemies : the "fire shall devour thy bars. 
 
 By a most sigDificant figure, the propliet shows that her mUitary 
 strength was of small account — rather a temptation to an assault 
 than a defence against it. Nineveh had become too rich, and too 
 luxurious and effeminate, to stand against the plundering robber- 
 hordes of younger and more vigorous races. Her warriors had be- 
 come as women. The "bars" which the fire shall devour, are 
 
 those of her gates. 
 
 14. Draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy strong 
 holds : go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong 
 the brick-kiln. 
 
 Tauntingly the prophet commends to her a little more labor on 
 her fortifications — advice the more in point, because Nineveh had 
 already expended an untold amount of wealth and labor upon this 
 very thing, and also because she was so sure her walls were impreg- 
 nable, and because they were, after all, of so very small account as 
 against her enemies. The irony was put on for an edge, to make the 
 truth cut. 
 
 15. There shall the fire devour thee ; the sword shall 
 cut thee ofP, it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm : 
 make thyself many as the canker-worm, make thyself 
 many as the locusts. 
 
 Even there in thy brick-kilns and mortar-beds, the fire of Jeho- 
 vah's retribution will find thee out and devour thee. It shall eat 
 thee, as the canker worm (a species of locust) eats tlie herbage of 
 
 the land. Then the locust having been suggested to his mind as 
 
 a figure of devastation, he seizes it as a figure for a multitude, and 
 says — " Make thyself a countless host like the locusts, yet shall the 
 fire and sword of the Almighty consun^ thee." 
 
 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the 
 stars of heaven : the canker-worm spoileth, and flieth 
 away. 
 
 She had enjoyed an immense commerce with India on the east, 
 and with all western Asia and northeastern Africa on the west. 
 The wealth of those valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris was also 
 immense ; but the prophet quietly suggests that the locust pillages 
 and thBn flies away. So would her great wealth vanish before the 
 hosts of her foes. 
 
 17. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains 
 as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in 
 the cold day, hut when the sun ariseth they flee away, 
 and their place is not known where they are. 
 
NAHUM.— CHAP. III. 237 
 
 " Thy crowned " are her princes, of whom Sennacherib said, 
 
 " Are not ray princes altogether kings ? " The original rendered 
 
 "captains" is an Assyrian 'word, nieaning satraps, governors. They 
 will disappear as the grasshoppers, who lie close nnder the wall 
 during the cool of the day, but when the sun ris.es flee away, and 
 their very place is unknown. So these high ofiicers on whom he 
 had so much relied, would fail him and disappoint his expectations. 
 Nahum 2 : 5 represents the king, when first aroused to his danger, 
 as thinking of these officers — to how little purpose may be seen- 
 here. 
 
 18. Thj shepherds slumbei', O king of Assyria: 
 thy nobles shall dwell in the dust : thy people is scat- 
 tered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. 
 
 " Thy shepherds " must mean, in this connection, his viceroys — 
 officers in charge of his provinces. They are in a deep sleep, in- 
 active, overcome with sloth — as a real shepherd might be. " Thy 
 nobles have sat down " — as if in utter unconcern for the peril of 
 Mneveh. Thus, nobles and people alike fail him in the hour of 
 his extremity. 
 
 19. There is no healing of thy bruise ; thy wound is 
 
 frievous : all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the 
 ands over thee : for upon whom hath not thy wicked- 
 ness passed continually ? 
 
 The nearly obsolete word " Iruit " means report concerning thee 
 — the news of thy fall. The world was ready to rejoice over her 
 righteous doom ; for where could a tribe be found that had not felt 
 the galling of her yoke — the infliction of some wrong from her 
 
 overbearing power? So the prophet leaves proud Nineveh to 
 
 her righteous yet fearful doom! Considering this prophecy as 
 written and sent forth to the world almost a century before the 
 final catastrophe, it was a standing admonition to the king and 
 people of Nineveh to prepare tc meet God in the judgments of his 
 wrath. Considered in its relations to God's people in the reign of 
 Hezeldah, it was admirably adapted to secure a right moral impres- 
 sion from the overthrow of Sennacherib's army, and to make the 
 people feel that, with God on their side, they need not fear the 
 mightiest or proudest of their foes. 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 INTEODUOTION. 
 
 The introdnction to this stort book gives notliing but the wri- 
 ter's name. lie leaves the reader to ascertain from the book itself 
 the time when, the place where, and the theme of which he wrote. 
 Tlieso points may be ascertained with a good degree of definiteness 
 and cei-tainty in the first chapter, especially vs. 5-11. These verses 
 show that the Chaldean power is now for the first time coming up 
 to view as a desolating scourge on Judah. They were to do a work 
 which men would not readily believe (v. 5), indicating that they 
 had scarcely been known as a dangerous power before. The 
 minute description of their character and ways (vs. 6-11) bears 
 toward the same result, showing that previously they had been but 
 
 little known. Hence this must have been their first invasion. 
 
 It was very near at hand when Eabakkuk wrote. The invasion 
 occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, whose reign of eleven 
 years was b. o. 611-600. It has been usual to date this invasion 
 B. c. 606. Habakkuk's writing must be located somewhat (perhaps 
 a few years) earlier. The desolation and famine which he contem- 
 plates (3 : 17) and which his exalted faith enabled him to triumph 
 over, came with this sweep of a conquering, cruel enemy, probably 
 
 not long after the publication of this wonderful book. Habak- 
 
 kuk was contemporary with Jeremiah, who began to prophesy in 
 the thirteenth year of Josiah, and continued down to the destruc- 
 tion of the city and the last deportation of captives in the eleventh 
 year of Zedekiah, a range of some forty years. Near the middle 
 of this period fell the first invasion by the Chaldeans in the fourth 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. I. 239 
 
 •f^ar of Jehoiakim. From Jeremiah, therefore, we may learn much 
 respecting the general and moral condition of the people when 
 
 Habakkuk wrote. One leading course of thought runs through 
 
 the entire book : the sins of the covenant people ; God's raising up 
 the Chaldeans to scourge them therefor ; the prophet's expostula- 
 tion with the Lord against permitting a people so cruel and wicked 
 as they to afflict and destroy Judah ; the Lord's answer touching 
 the Chaldeans ; closing with the prophet's prayer that God would 
 reunact the glorious scenes of deliverance that appear on so many 
 pages of the nation's early history ; and God's virtual reply, by caus- 
 ing his glory to pass before the prophet's eye, thus impressing his 
 soul with a sense of his power to save, and of his faithfulness and 
 love as well. In view of these manifestations, the prophet exults 
 in Jehovah alone, satisfied that under the wing and in the love of 
 such a God he has nothing to fear, but every reason for joyful trust 
 
 and triumph. In point of style, Habakkuk stands unrivalled. 
 
 Who can name the writer that excels him in the best qualities of a 
 poetic imagination, and especially in his grand and sublime con- 
 ceptions of Jehovah? 
 
 OHAPTEE I. 
 
 The prophet, distressed by the appalling .prevalence of wicked- 
 ness among his people, cries to God for help (vs. 2-4) ; the Lord 
 replies that he is raising up the Chaldeans to scourge them, and 
 describes that people (vs. 5-11), against which the prophet expos- 
 tulates with God (vs. 12-17). 
 
 1. The burden wliicli Habakkuk tlie prophet did see. 
 " Burden " is here, as usual, a prophetic message of such sort 
 
 as bears heavily on the prophet's heart. 
 
 2. O LoED, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not 
 hear ! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt 
 not save ! 
 
 3. "Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me 
 to behold grievance ? for spoihng and violence are before 
 me : and there are that raise up strife and contention. 
 
 4. Therefore, the law is slacked, and judgment doth 
 never go forth : for the wicked doth compass about the 
 righteous ; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. 
 
 A preliminary question arises here as to the general scope of 
 
240 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. I. 
 
 these verses. Some suppose they describe the effects of the Chfff- 
 dean invasion — the demoralization and oppression which they pro- 
 duced ; others, that they present the state of morals and of the 
 public life of the Jewish nation shortly before that invasion. I 
 hold the latter view decidedly, for the following reasons : (1.) Be- 
 cause the prophets were accustomed to record the sins for which 
 God judges and punishes his people, before they record the punish- 
 ment itself. This is their established usage, and is, moreover, de- 
 manded by moral considerations, it being necessary for the best 
 moral results that not only the punished but the world should know 
 why God punishes. (2.) In v. 5 the prophet manifestly intro- 
 duces the Chaldean power for the first time to the reader's notice. 
 It was obviously unthought of before. That this must be true wiU 
 be readily seen by supposing the other theory (the first above 
 named) to be true. On this supposition the prophet (vs. 2^) would 
 be made to say — O Lord, how long shall I cry out to thee of the 
 mischiefs wrought by those Chaldean savages, and thou wilt not 
 hear? See how they have broken down the public morals, and 
 
 made justice between man and man a mockery ! To which (by 
 
 the supposition) the Lord replies: "Let all the heathen take notice 
 of it and marvel exceedingly, for I am about to do a strange and 
 almost incredible thing." And what is it? " I am raising up the 
 
 Chaldeans! " "Ah, Lord God," the prophet might reply, "we 
 
 have had them upon us a long time ! They are the very mischief 
 
 that I complain of," <fcc. Such a construction of the passage is 
 
 utterly inadmissible. (3.) The description (vs. 2-4) corresponds to 
 
 the moral and social state of Judah under the reign of Jehoiakim, 
 and also of Zedekiah. See Jer. 22, and 2 Chron. 36. Tlie public 
 morals were utterly prostrate, and wickedness in aU forms was 
 rampant. (4.) On the other hand, the state of the country does 
 not correspond with the results of the Chaldean invasion. The lat- 
 ter are indicated in 3 : IT. Hence in vs. 2-4 I understand the 
 
 prophet to speak of the state of society in Judah before the Chal- 
 deans were thought of V. 2 seems to imply that the prophet 
 
 liad been for some time in his prophetic work, laboring among a 
 degenerate people, battling against sin, and almost impatient that 
 the Lord did not interpose to convert, or chastise, or exterminate. 
 Jer. 22 shows that the people were then horribly corrupt, and that 
 their king Jehoiakim was the weakest, meanest, and wickedest 
 king that had ever disgraced then* throne. Y. 3 is literally ren- 
 dered thus : " "Why dost thou cause me to behold iniquity, and why 
 dost thou look (unconcerned) upon human misery? Destruction 
 and violence are before me ; there is strife, and men excite conten- 
 tion." The second clause does not well admit the sense — Why dost 
 thou malce me lelioldf The implied expostulation with God is 
 stronger — "Why dost thou thyself look on this woe with no efibrt 
 to relieve or prevent ? The sense of y. 4 is not obscure : " There- 
 fore," under the influence of almost universal violence and strife, 
 law becomes frigid, cold as if near death ; right judgment is never 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. I. 241 
 
 issued by the courts of law ; the wicked circumvent the righteous, 
 and always secure unjust decisions. 
 
 5. Beliold ye among the lieatlien, and regard, and 
 wonder marvellously: for Z will work a work in your 
 days, which ye will not believe though it be told you. 
 
 Here the Chaldeans are brought first to our notice. Indeed, it 
 would seem that they were brought by this prophecy to the notice 
 of the Jews as a dangerous 'power ^ they having previously neglected 
 to observe the sudden rise and rapid growth of this new power 
 among the nations. The Lord says, " Look abroad, consider atten- 
 tively, and you will have occasion to wonder exceedingly," the last 
 imperative in a series of two or more being usually in sense a fu- 
 ture. God will do a work which will seem incredible, even though 
 sustained by good testimony. 
 
 6. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and 
 hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of 
 the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not 
 theirs. 
 
 This is the work, the raising up of a new first-class power, the 
 Chaldeans. By taking notice of recent events, the Jews might see 
 the rise of this power. The Chaldean king Nabopolassar, aided by 
 the Medes, had overthrown Nineveh (b. o. 625), as Nahum had 
 foretold. The Egj^ptians, alarmed at their growth, came against 
 them, but were badly beaten at Oarchemish, on the Euphrates. 
 Thenceforward no nation was able to stay their progress. The 
 Jews, moreover, were probably the less alarmed at this because 
 they were in sympathy with the Chaldean, while he was devasta- 
 ting Nineveh, and were certainly in league with him when Josiali 
 felt bound in honor to march out against Necho, king of Egypt, as 
 a common enemy to himself and to his ally, the Chaldean. I3ut 
 relations of friendship with such a power are evanescent. The 
 Jews soon had reason to fear this new enemy. The Lord de- 
 scribes them,. " bitter and rapid," " who march upon broad regions," 
 vast countries of the earth, i. e., who fear nothing, and strike for 
 vast conquests. 
 
 1. They are terrible and dreadful : their judgment 
 and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. 
 
 8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, 
 and are more fierce than the evening wolves : and their 
 horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen 
 shall come from far ; they shall fly as the eagle that hast- 
 eth to eat. 
 
 Sad proof that they were " terrible and dreadful " appears in 
 the history (2 Chron. 36 : 17) : " He broTight upon them the king 
 11 
 
 L 
 
242 HABAKKUE.—CHAP. I. 
 
 of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the 
 house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man 
 or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age." " Their judg- 
 ment and their dignity proceeding from themselves," seems to 
 mean that they are an independent, self-made people. Literally, it 
 reads — " Their decision " (plans) " and their lofty bearing are self- 
 originated." In the clause, " their horsemen spread themselves," 
 
 the verb rendered " spread " means they " leap fiercely and proud- 
 ly," their horses being probably like the Arabian stock of more 
 modern times. The flight of the eagle when roused by hunger is 
 a vivid figure for the most rapid motion then known. 
 
 9. They shall come all for violence : their faces shall 
 Slip up as the east wind, and they shall gather the cap- 
 tivity as the sand. 
 
 In the clause, "their faces shall sup up as the east wind," the 
 obscurity of this translation suggests a doubt of its coiTectness. 
 The various marginal readings confirm the opinion that our trans- 
 lators were much perplexed with the passage. Later commentators 
 also doubt and differ. It is difficult. TJie principal word * is little 
 known in our extant Hebrew. Henderson renders — " The aspect 
 of their faces is like the east wind." Gesenius — " Tlie gathering 
 of their faces is forward." The latter I approve, with only a slight 
 modification, so as to signify not the act of gathering, but their 
 faces already gathered, i. e., " the set or phalanx of their faces is 
 forward ; " all as one in solid phalanx and complete array, they set 
 their faces forward, turning never to the right hand nor to the left, 
 and turning back for none. This construction answers to the indi- 
 vidual words, and to the demands of the context. Such an army 
 will, of course, gather up captives as the sand. 
 
 10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes 
 shall he a scorn unto them : they shall deride every strong- 
 hold ; for they shall heap dust, and take it. 
 
 More than fearless of kings and of strongholds, they scoff at the 
 one and deride the other. It is only their sport to strike terror 
 
 through them all.- The last clause alludes to the usual method in 
 
 that age of capturing walled towns — heaping up huge embank- 
 ments of earth that even overtopped the enemy's walls, Avhence 
 they hurled their missiles into the city. 
 
 11. Then shall his mind change, and he shall 
 pass over, and offend, imjputing this his power unto his 
 god. 
 
 The sentiment of this verse is, that constant success has made 
 the Chaldean another man. The moderation and modesty of his 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. I. 243 
 
 early years have given place to unbounded aspirations. He assumes 
 that the gods are on his side, and ascribes his \ictories to their 
 
 favor and help. The first verb, rendered in our version 
 
 "change," means more definitely ^^ to pass over'''' — ^to pass beyond 
 former bounds. The next verb, which the English version renders 
 " shall pass over," usually means to go beyond due boimds, in the 
 sense to transgress. The verse therefore means to say that suc- 
 cess has excited his ambition, and also given stimulus to his trust 
 in his idol gods ; and for both reasons will bring down on him the 
 wrath of the Almighty. 
 
 Ys. 9-11 may be translated thus: "They shall all come for 
 violence ; the serried host of their faces is forward, and so they 
 shall gather captives as the sand. They shall scoff at kings ; princes 
 shall be their derision; they laugh at all strongholds, and forth- 
 with cast up embankments, and so shall take them. Then his spirit 
 is changed ; he transgresses and sins, ascribing this power of his 
 to his god." 
 
 12. A7't thou not from everlasting, O Loed my God, 
 mine Holy One ? we shall not die. O Loed, thou hast 
 ordained them for judgment ; and, O mighty God, thou 
 hast established them for correction. 
 
 Here the prophet interposes. The remainder of this chapter 
 must be expounded as his expostulation or debate with God, the 
 spirit of which is : " O Lord, spare thy heritage, and give it not over 
 to utter devastation. Thy people doubtless need correction, and thou 
 hast ordained the Chaldean power for tliis purpose ; but do not let 
 them ruin our nation utterly and forever. They are more wicked 
 than we, and they hold human life cruelly cheap, as the fishermen 
 do the lives of the little fishes brought up by their huge drag-nets." 
 It will be noted that the prophet seizes the best point for intro- 
 ducing his plea — ^just where the Chaldean's sins of ambition and 
 
 trust in idols are brought before the mind. The phrase "we 
 
 shall not die," might be more fitly rendered, "Let us not die," i.e.^ 
 "let not thy chosen people be utterly destroyed," He sees that 
 they need discipline, and recognizes God's purpose to use the Chal- 
 dean power for this end. 
 
 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and 
 canst not look on iniquity : wherefore lookest thoii upon 
 them that deal treacherously, and boldest thy tongue 
 when the wicked devoureth the man that is more right- 
 eous than he ? 
 
 14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the 
 creeping things, that have no ruler over them ? 
 
 The verb rendered "look," occurring here twice — " look on ini- 
 quity," and " look on them that deal treacherously" — is the same with 
 
244 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. U. 
 
 tlie second verb in v. 8, there rendered (improperly) " cause me to 
 behold." The sense here, as there, I take to be, " Thon canst not 
 look calmlj and unconcerned upon iniquity, or rather, upon misery 
 — the woe that sin begets ; it is not in thy nature. Wherefore, 
 then, dost thou look quietly on the perfidious — those faithless 
 Chaldeans — and wherefore art thou silent," &c. One point ia the 
 prophet's pleads, that the Chaldeans are greater sinners than the 
 Jews ; therefore the Lord should not allow the greater sinners to 
 devour the less. 
 
 The connection with the previous verse is close. That wicked 
 Chaldean not only devours his more righteous brother nation, but 
 eats up men as if they were little fishes before him, or the tiny 
 insects which have no protector. 
 
 15. They take up all of them with the angle, they 
 catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag : 
 therefore they rejoice and are glad. 
 
 16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn 
 incense mito their drag ; because by them. their portion 
 is fat, and their meat plenteous. 
 
 The figure of speech which compares the seizing and consuming 
 of nations of men to the taking of fishes in a net, runs through this 
 verse. "Drag" is really a drag-net, drawn along the bottom to 
 
 scoop up small and great together. Their idolatrous hearts and 
 
 habits must not be omitted in this argument with Jehovah. 
 " These impious Chaldeans have no regard for thee, O Lord. They 
 ascribe all their success to their nets, and worship them as their 
 gods, honoring their own martial prowess, and not the ever-li\dng 
 God." 
 
 17. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not 
 spare continually to slay the nations ? 
 
 Will God allow them to go on, emptying and then filling their 
 nets, and having no compassion in their souls toward sparing the 
 nations from perpetual slaughter ? Such is the prophet's plea in be- 
 half of his people. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 In this chapter the prophet is seen on his watch-tower, waiting 
 for an answer from the Lord to his expostulations (v. 1.) The 
 remainder of the chapter contains this answer in its various parts, 
 directing the prophet first to write out tlie vision plainly (v. 2) ; 
 assuring him it was soon to be fulfilled (v. 3) ; indicating how the 
 proud and unbelieving would abuse it, but the believing be blessed 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. 245 
 
 thereby (v. 4) ; and then (vs. 5-20) depicting the sins of the Chal- 
 deans, and showing that both general justice and the special agencies 
 of God's providence would surely overtake them v/ith fearful 
 retribution. 
 
 1. I will gtand upon my watch, and set me npon the 
 tower, and wdll watch to see what he will say unto me, 
 and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 
 
 Considered as a seer, the prophet must needs looTc two ways : 
 first, to God, for his message ; and then down into the future, and 
 abroad into the realms of divine providence, to see those coming 
 events which no human vision, unaided, could reach. This verse 
 strikingly presents the prophet looking the first way — toward God. 
 He says : "I will take my stand on my watch-tower, and place 
 myself on the fortress, and will watch to see what God will say to 
 me, and what I shall bring back (from Him)" concerning my expos- 
 tulation. " The message I shall bring back from God, and what 
 God will say to me," are essentially parallel clauses with the same 
 idea. The word here rendered "shall answer,"* much more 
 naturally means to bring back, ^. c, from' God, than to answer 
 
 to God. In the first chapter, somq of the prophet's expostulations 
 
 amounted very nearly to rebuke and chiding; and this idea is 
 frequently embraced in the noun here used, t rendered in our Eng- 
 lish version, "when I am reproved," but better, "concerning my 
 expostulation," i. e., with God, The preposition before the noun 
 fits this construction, having the sense, concerning, in reference to. 
 The prophet having said what is recorded (chap. 1 : 12-17), should 
 of course watch to see how the Lord received it, and what he would 
 say in reply. He acted for the people of Judah, representing their 
 case before God, and could not but feel deeply solicitous to get the 
 answer both for himself and for them. 
 
 2. And the Loed answered me, and said, "Write the 
 vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run 
 that readeth it. 
 
 Here the answer begins. ""Write the vision" — all I reveal — 
 " engrave it on tablets, so that the reader of it may run," i. <?, with 
 it, reading from it as he runs. "He that readeth in it," is possibly 
 here a public reader for an assembly ; but in this case, since he is 
 expected to run, he is more probably a public crier for the streets 
 and public grounds. Some interpret thus : That he may run his 
 eye over it easily and rapidly, as sermon-readers over their manu- 
 scripts. But though the word for reader may mean either a reader 
 before an audience, or a herald in public grounds, yet no Hebrew 
 usage sustains the sense of fluent reading for tha verb to run. 
 
246 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. 
 
 * 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at 
 tlie end it shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait 
 for it ; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 
 
 There seems to be no absolute demand for restricting the vision 
 here spoken of to any particular part of what God revealed to Habak- 
 kuk. Of the whole, the main events yet future were : (1.) The Chal- 
 dean invasion of Judah (recorded 1 : 5-11) ; and (2.) The ultimate 
 destruction of the Chaldean power, and of Babylon, in righteous ret- 
 ribution for their sins (2 : 5-21). Yet, inasmuch as the latter was 
 
 then about to be announced to the prophet (the former having been 
 so already), and especially, inasmuch as this latter was the hopeful 
 part to the Jewish mind, toward which they might look with com 
 fort, as being a proof of God's mercy toward themselves and of 
 his regard for intrinsic justice and righteousness, we may well 
 assume that in this verse the latter is specially in mind. Both parts 
 were fixed in the divine counsels, each had its definite time to 
 wait, yet neither would tarry long. The former came probably 
 within a few months; the latter at the end of about seventy years, 
 Cyrus being the instrument of Jehovah's vengeance in its execu- 
 tion. In the second clause, the word rendered "shall speak," is 
 
 supposed by Gesenius to mean here " shall hasten." This word, 
 however, meaning primarily to breathe out, to breathe hard, to 
 throw out the breath, has much more often the secondary sense to 
 »peak than to hasten. The fonner is also more naturally correlated 
 with " shall not lie." Sense — At the end it shall testify for itself 
 without mistake as to its fulfilment. Ye shall know the fulfilment 
 
 when it comes. In the last two clauses the English version 
 
 seems first to imply that it will "tarry," and then to affirm that it 
 will not " tarry." The Hebrew has no such apparent contradiction, 
 for it uses two diflferent verbs, and does not, as the English does, 
 repeat the same. " Though it linger, yet wait for it, for it will 
 surely come ; it will not be ieMnd the time^'''' i. e., will not be too late, 
 so as to come in afterwards. This is the exact sense of the second 
 verb. 
 
 4. Behold, his soul vyhich is lifted up is not upright 
 in him : but the just shall live by his faith. 
 
 In these times that try men's souls, involving the invasion by 
 the terrible Chaldeans, just coming upon the people as announced 
 above (1 : 5-10), and the retribution to come at some future day 
 on them — a thing of faith, forming the chief burden of chapter 
 2 — some would be intensely agitated, having practically no faith 
 in God's promises, or in his threatened retributive judgments on 
 the wicked Chaldean. Otliers would repose calmly upon God 
 through their faith. These two classes are before us in this verse. 
 I paraphrase it tlms: "Behold the proud, disquieted man. His 
 soul within him is not placid ; but as for the righteous man, he 
 shall live by his faith." The verb " live''' must be taken in its 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. H. 247 
 
 very common moral sense of true blessings — the calm repose of a 
 
 true faith in God. The Hebrew accents connect very closely the, 
 
 words rendered " the jusf^ and " dy Ms faitJi,''^ showing that the 
 earlier Jews read the clause, " He who is all right in respect to his 
 faith shall live." This construction also makes a natural antithesis 
 between the proud man of the first clause and the sincerely be- 
 lieving man of the second. The former is never placid ; the latter 
 enjoys in the rest of faith that true life which is real blessedness. 
 
 The construction given first above disregards the authority of the 
 
 accents. Some take the proud, disquieted man of this verse to be 
 
 the Chaldean. I prefer to find in him the unbelieving :Jew, and 
 assume that the discourse turns to the Chaldean in v. 5. 
 
 5. Yea, also, because lie transgresseth by wine, he is 
 a proud man, neither keepeth. at hoiAe, who enlargeth 
 his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satis- 
 fied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth 
 unto him all people : 
 
 At this point the strain of discourse turns to the Chaldean power^ 
 considered as a unit, and continues to speak of him through the 
 
 chapter. Starting with the thought in the first clause of v. 4 — 
 
 the case of the proud, unbelieving, and therefore disquieted Jew — 
 the prophet proceeds to say: "How much more of this one (the 
 Chaldean) because he errs the more by reason of wine, is a proud 
 man, and never rests quietly at home ; who enlarges his desire as 
 Sheol (i. e., the grave) does its mouth, and he is like Death and is 
 never satisfied ; and consequently he gathers unto him aU the na- 
 tions and annexes to himself all the peoples." This represents the 
 ambition of a young conquering power, grasping the dominion of 
 the world, and, like Alexander, pained to tears when he finds no 
 
 other world to conquer. Such is the Chaldean. The reader will 
 
 note, here and onward through the chapter, how the Lord does in 
 fact answer the expostulations of his prophet, recorded 1 : 12-17. 
 The prophet had virtually said : "O Lord, thou art ever righteous 
 and just; thou canst not look quietly on wrong and its resulting 
 miseries ; how, then, canst thou see the Chaldean exterminate an- 
 other nation more righteous than he ? How canst thou let him go 
 on unpunished, sweeping the nations into his drag-net, and slaugh- 
 tering myriads of men to satiate his mad ambition ? " The Lord 
 
 replies : Be at rest ; the Chaldean is indeed guilty, he shall have his 
 just doom not far hence. There shall never be just occasion to say 
 or to think that I can look down upon wrong-doing and its conse- 
 quent misery with indifierence, or that justice has forsaken my 
 throne. This is what the prophet brings back from God concern- 
 ing his expostulation (2 : 1). 
 
 6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, 
 and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to 
 
248 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. 
 
 him tliat increasetli that which is not his ! 'how long ? and 
 to him that ladeth himself with thick clay ! 
 
 The great sin of the Chaldean having been indicated, retribution 
 comes next. The moral sense of mankind is against him, condemn- 
 ing his grasping, cruel ambition, and demanding vengeance. Of 
 course, it is implied that the voice of universal humanity is also 
 
 the voice of God. The special mode of giving utterance to this 
 
 voice of mankind is that of pronouncmg a woe on the Chaldean, 
 superadding to the solemnity of the woe the keen retort which car- 
 ries with it the idea of deserved and righteous retribution — the sort 
 of taunt expressed when men say, " You have only your deserts." 
 A similar taunt, done in the loftiest strain of irony, may be seen in 
 
 Isa. 14, over the foreseen fall of this same Babylon. " Shall not 
 
 all these nations wh^im he has warred against, subdued, or imper- 
 illed, take up this taunting strain against him and say : Woe to him 
 who grasps and accumulates what is not his own ! How* long must 
 this be? " — implying that in the Chaldean's purpose there would be 
 no end to it, but in the retributions of justice it could not last long. 
 
 "Woe to him that ladeth himself" (not with " thick clay," but) 
 
 " with goods taken in pledge " — such as the Hebrew law forbade 
 men to keep over night if taken from the poor — ^the sense being, 
 with sins against mankind which demand and shall have their just 
 retribution. The Chaldean was loading himself quite too hea\ily 
 
 with sins that would bring upon him the vengeance of justice. 
 
 This taunting strain is methodically arranged — its successive stan- 
 zas beginning with " Woe " — as the reader may see (vs. 6, 9, 12, 15, 
 19). 
 
 7. Shall they not. rise lip suddenly that shall bite 
 thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be 
 for booties unto them ? 
 
 Those who ultimately came down on Babylon to " bite " and to 
 "vex" her — God's instruments for vengeance upon her, viz., the 
 Medo-Persian power — did start up suddenly, and spring upon her 
 in an unexpected hour, and she became their spoil. 
 
 8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the 
 remnant of the people shall spoil thee ; because of men's 
 blood, and/br the violence of the land, of the city, and 
 of all that dwell therein. 
 
 " Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remaining 
 nations " (not utterly cruslied) " shall make common cause, and 
 shall spoil thee, — because of the blood of men " (shed in wanton 
 profusion), and for the violence wrought in the earth, in the city, 
 and upon all that dwell therein." 
 
 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to 
 his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may 
 be delivered from the power of evil ! 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. 249 
 
 The Chaldeans employed the wealth and the muscle of the na- 
 tions they subdued, in building their immense walls, towers, and 
 castles — hoping thereby to make their city impregnable, and thus 
 deliver themselves from the fear of future harm from foreign ene- 
 mies. They did indeed set their nest on high, as the eagle in the 
 lofty crags of the rock. 
 
 10. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cut- 
 ting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul ! 
 
 Thy counsels in this thing have brought shame (implying not 
 only dishonor but ruin) to thy house, destroying so many nations to 
 enrich thyself. So doing, thou hast smned against thine own life. 
 
 Other instances of the phrase — "to sin against one's own sou 
 
 or life " — may be seen, Prov. 8 : 36 and 20 : 2. 
 
 11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the 
 beam out of the timber shall answer it. 
 
 The sense of wrong and the demand for retribution, so universal 
 in all human hearts, is, by a bold but most beautiful conception, 
 thought of here as pervading the very stones and timbers of the 
 house built by injustice, Jesus Christ once said — " If these should 
 hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." So the 
 stone in this wall cries out against the wrong done — against the 
 bloody fingers laid upon it — and the cross-beam among the timbers 
 responds to reecho the complaint, 
 
 12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, 
 and establisheth a city by iniquity ! 
 
 13. Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the 
 people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall 
 weary themselves for very vanity ? 
 
 This woe looks to the city of Babylon. She obtained her 
 laborers for her immense walls by taking them captive in war, and 
 then coercing them into slaves under her military power. So they 
 wrought with their bloody fingers. Babylon laid up her walls in 
 blood and planted their foundations in wrong : so the woes of God 
 
 and of universal justice abode upon her ! " Behold," calls special 
 
 attention to the fact that it came fi-om the Lord of hosts that this 
 great work was done, not " in the fire," but '•'■for the fire," to be 
 consumed ere long, both utterly and forever. So also in the parallel 
 clause — "/(?r mere vanity " — for no enduring benefit. The original 
 is expressive — '''■for fire in plenty^'''' for abundance of fire — that it 
 may become the sport of whirlwinds of flame. Surely this is of the 
 Lord : let all men see his hand and his righteous retribution in all 
 
 this! Essentially the same language is used by Jeremiah 
 
 (51 : 58) : " Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; The broad walls of Baby- 
 lon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with 
 fire, and the people shall labor in vain and the folk for the 
 11* 
 
250 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. 
 
 fire ; and they shall be weary ;". but though laboring to weariness, 
 yet all in vain. 
 
 14. For the earth, sliall be filled witL. the knowledge 
 of tlie glory of the Loed, as the waters cover the sea. 
 
 The general scope of the context must determine the specific 
 sdhse of this passage. This shows that the prophet thinks of God 
 as glorifying himself by the retributions of justice on nations guilty 
 of great oppression and wrong. Hence our verse assumes it to be 
 a great principle in the government of God over nations as such 
 that he will not only glorify himself by the retributions of justice 
 upon them, but will fill the whole earth with the knowledge of this 
 glory, even as the waters cover the bed of the sea. He will 
 manifest himself so abundantly as the avenger of the oppressed and 
 as one who takes vengeance on oppressors, that no man in all the 
 
 earth can fail to know it — none be too blind to see it. The same 
 
 sentiment is in Num. 14 : 21 — referring there, however, to retribu- 
 tion on the unbelieving Hebrews who gave credit to the unbelieving 
 spies more than to the God of all the promises : "But as truly as I 
 live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord " — 
 which was revealed then in forty years of wandering in the desert, 
 through privations and plagues which swept to their early graves 
 
 the last man of that unbelieving host. The very analogous 
 
 promise (Isa. 11 : 9) looks towards the visitations of mercy and the 
 triumphs of love : — " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
 mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord as the waters cover the sea;" and this knowledge shall mould 
 human hearts into the spirit of heavenly love and blessed peace. 
 
 So it is clearly in God's plan to manifest his glory in both ways 
 
 — ^in the retributions of justice, and in the visitations of mercy. 
 
 15. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor di-ink, 
 that puttest thy bottle to Jiim^ and makest %hn drunken 
 also, that tho]i mayest look on their nakedness ! 
 
 16. Thou art filled with shame for glory : drink thou 
 also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered : the cup of the 
 Loed's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shame- 
 ful spewing shall he on thy glory. 
 
 Translated thus: "Woe to him' who causeth his neighbor to 
 drink " {i. e., whatever can intoxicate) — " who pourest out thy hot 
 wine that inflames, and even makest him drunken — that thou 
 mayest look (exultingly) on their nakedness!" "Thou shalt 
 have thy fill of shame instead of glory ; drink thou too and expose 
 thine own nakedness. The cup of the Lord's right hand shall come 
 round to thee, and shame shall come over all thy glory. The 
 rendering "shameful spewing," though pertinent sense, is not 
 well sustained by the original text. The " cup of the Lord's 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. II. ^ 251 
 
 right hand " carries the mind to the fuller statement by Jeremiah 
 (25 : 15 :) " Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause 
 all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it. And they shall 
 drink and be moved and be mad, because of the sword that I shall 
 send among them." See Notes on Nahum 1 : 10. The Babylo- 
 nians were notorious for their excesses in wine and strong drink, 
 for which God remembered them in the day of his visitation. 
 Much in point here are the facts of her history when on the very 
 night of her final fall, Belshazzar and his lords drank wine from the 
 sacred vessels of Jehovah's temple, and in the height of their 
 drunken revelry the thunder-bolts of ruin fell ! (Dan. 5 : 1-4, 30, 
 and Jer. 51 : 39). 
 
 17. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, 
 and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because 
 of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the 
 city, and of all that dwell therein. 
 
 " The violence of Lebanon " is not that done 'by Lebanon 
 (this would be entirely aside from the course of thought) ; but done 
 to Lebanon. "Lebanon" here is probably Jerusalem and her 
 temple — so named partly because the cedars of Lebanon were in 
 her temple — ^partly in reference to the lofty grandeur of that 
 
 mountain which fitly symbolized the glory of the holy city. The 
 
 violence done by Babylon to Jerusalem shall return in retribution 
 to overwhelm herself. So also shall an onslaught like that on a 
 herd of wild beasts which terrifies them, fall on thee — implying 
 that they would be in like manner frightened and panic-smitten. 
 
 In this translation, I supply the needed verb from the next 
 
 preceding clause. Two things cover Babylon, in the sense of over- 
 whelming her in the day of her ruin, viz., the violence she has 
 brought on Lebanon (Jerusalem), and an onslaught like that on 
 wild beasts, who furnish a striking example of a panic-smitten 
 host. The last clause has occurred verbatim (v. 8). 
 
 18. What profiteth the graven image that the maker 
 thereof hath graven it ; the molten image, and a teacher 
 of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to 
 make dumb idols % 
 
 Exegetically, the only question in this verse turns on the precise 
 relation between the first clause and those that follow, indicated in 
 our English Bible by " that the maker," &c. Some take the con- 
 necting particle * as a relative, thus : " What's the use of the graven 
 image wliich its maker graveth ? " I prefer to make this particle 
 indicate a reason why idol images are profitless, viz., because they 
 are made by human fingers , thus — " What can be the use of a 
 graven image, for its human maker hath wrought it," &c. " What 
 
252 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 
 
 is the use of a molten image and a teacher of lies (an idol priest), 
 for the maker of it trusts in his own work, in a thing himself has 
 made ? " 
 
 19. Woe unto Mm that saitli to tlie wood, Awake ; 
 to tlie dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach ! Behold, it i% 
 laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at 
 all in the midst of it. 
 
 All this is plain, and sets forth vividly the intense foUj of idol- 
 making, idol-worship, and of all trust in idols. 
 
 20. But the Lord is in his holy temple : let all the 
 earth keep silence before him. 
 
 All unlike the whole idol system are the power, the majesty, and 
 the all-pervadiug reign of the dread Jehovah ! That he should be 
 thought of J)y a Jew as in his holy temple at Jerusalem, was both 
 natural and truthful ; for his manifested presence was there in the 
 Holy of Holies, reposing above the mercy-seat and beneath the 
 wings of the cherubim. All the idol temples were godless. Not so 
 
 the temple of the Lord of hosts in Mount Zion ! His rule is both 
 
 supreme and universal. Let all the earth stand in awe before him 
 — all the more so, as they note how the proud and conquering 
 nations of the earth, like old Babylon, meet their righteous doom 
 from the retributive justice of his throne ! 
 
 OHAPTEK III. 
 
 This chapter, said in the preface to be a "prayer," is not exclu- 
 sively or even chiefly prayer in its strict sense ; though it begins 
 with prayer and closes with most wonderful utterances of simple 
 faith and exulting joy in God. The chapter is chiefly song^ em- 
 bodying as the immediate answer to his prayer what is technically 
 called a " theophany " — i. e., a manifestation of God to his prophet 
 — to his mental, not bodily eye, we must suppose ; bringing up be- 
 fore him in vivid review the glorious things God had wrought for 
 his people in ancient days. The special aim was to reveal God as 
 seen in his glorious power, and in his loving faithfulness to his 
 chosen people, so that the prophet should see that Jehovah is verily 
 great and glorious, and especially worthy to be trusted as the endur- 
 ing protector of his own people. It was under the influence of this 
 sublimely grand manifestation of Jehovah, that the prophet makes 
 at the close such an utterance of his simple faith and of his un- 
 bounded joy and triumph in the God of his salvation. 
 
 The publication of this song, in connection with the revelation of 
 such calamities, was designed to inspire the same faith and joy in 
 the believing portion of the people as it had done in the prophet's own 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 253 
 
 soul, despite of the fall of tlieir beloved city and land before the 
 terrible Chaldean power. 
 
 1. A prayer of Habakkuk tlie propliet upon Shig- 
 ionoth. 
 
 "Upon Shigionoth," refers to the music in which this song was 
 to be sung — no doubt lofty, bold, triumphal, in keeping with the 
 strain of the sentiment. 
 
 2. O Lord, I liave heard tliy speecli and was afraid : 
 O LoKD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in 
 the midst of the years make known ; in wrath remember 
 mercy. 
 
 "O Lord, I have heard thy ?w<?ssa^e " — verbal prediction, i. e.^ 
 concerning the invasion by the Chaldeans (as recorded chap. 1: 5-11), 
 " and I was afraid." " O Lord, re-enact thy work " (of deliverance 
 for thy people) " in the midst of these years ; even now make 
 known" — i.e., thyself and thy power to save; in this manifesta- 
 tion of thy wrath against us for our sins, "remember mercy." 
 
 The word rendered "revive," means literally to make alive. In 
 this connection it must be m the sense of reproducing, performing 
 once more those great works of salvation for Israel with which 
 
 their early history is filled. The language of this prayer, " O 
 
 Lord revive thy work," may be used fitly by all Christians in the 
 way of accommodation, as a prayer for a revival of true religion in 
 the hearts of men. Yet this passage must be interpreted according 
 to the natm*e of the subject as shown in the context ; and this re- 
 quires us here to apply the words to God's work of saving his people 
 from being utterly ruined by the Clialdean invasion, then close at 
 hand. 
 
 3. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from 
 monnt Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, 
 and the earth was full of his praise. 
 
 The theophany proper commences here. Bearing in mind 
 that the prophet had besought God to reproduce those glorious 
 works of saving power wrought of old for his people, we shall read- 
 ily see the fitness of this peculiar manifestation. The Lord seems, 
 practically, to reply to his servant — Thou liast prayed me to do 
 again what I did in ancient days for my people. Eather let it suffice 
 thee that I make aU my glory pass before thee in displays of my power 
 and faithful love to my people. Thou shalt see the uplifted glorious 
 arm of Jehovah, as in former times, made bare for his people, and 
 thou shalt know that I am still and evermore the God of thy sal- 
 vation. It is plain that God forbore to do precisely the thing for 
 
 which Habakkuk prayed — i. e., come down to save Judea and Jeru- 
 salem just as he had long before saved his people out of Egypt, and 
 made them victorious in Canaan ; — but he does a second thing, not 
 
254 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. m. 
 
 less effective for the repose and even joy of tbe prophet's heart : 
 he makes such revelations of himself by the aid of those historic 
 scenes as avail to inspire unbounded faith and even triumphant joy 
 in the God of his salvation. Probably we can get no better con- 
 ception of this theophany, as it appeared to Habakkuk, than to 
 conceive of it as a panorama, passing before the prophet's mental 
 eye — the divine Spirit causing him in the light of those ancient 
 historic scenes to J)ehold a present God, marching before the hosts 
 of his chosen, or standing on the confines of Canaan, or lifting up 
 his voice in awful thunder, shaking the mountains and filling rivers 
 and seas with consternation. The prophet's mental state was such, 
 we may suppose, as Ehsha prayed for in behalf of his servant — 
 " Lord, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the 
 eyes of the young man, and he saw ; and behold, the mountain was 
 full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha " (2 Kings 6 : 
 17). So the eyes of Habakkuk were opened and Tie saw God ; — the 
 groundwork of this manifestation of God being his former deeds of 
 power in delivering his people from their enemies, and planting 
 them in their promised land. These scenes are made to pass before 
 him in a sort of panoramic vision, while God opened his eyes to see 
 things in their true relations to the ever-present agency of Him 
 who worketh all in all, and worketh none the less really because 
 for the most part invisibly to mortal eyes. 
 
 Similar conceptions and representations of God are not uncom- 
 mon in Hebrew poetry. Thus (Deut. 33 : 2, 26, 27) Moses, in his 
 last words of blessing upon the tribes, said : " The Lord came from 
 Sinai, and rose up (like the rising of a sun) from Seir unto them ; 
 he shone forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands 
 
 of saints — from his right hand went a fiery law for them." 
 
 Also, " There is none like unto the God of Jesurun, who rideth 
 
 upon the heavens in thy help and in his excellency on the sky." 
 
 This is as if his very eye saw without a veil the unclouded majesty 
 of the Infinite One ! Such was his poetic conception of the scenes 
 of Sinai ; or, as we might say — This was Sinai seen in panoramic 
 vision. Of the same character is a passage in the Song of Debo- 
 rah — -(Judg. 5 : 4, 5), "Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when 
 thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and 
 the heavens dropped ; the clouds also dropped water. The moun- 
 tains quaked (so the Heb.) before the Lord, even that Sinai before 
 the Lord God of Israel." Of the same sort is Ps. 68 : 7, 8, 33 : " O 
 God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when tliou didst 
 march through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens also 
 dropped at the presence of God, the God of Israel." — "Sing praises 
 to him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens that were of old ; 
 
 lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice." Very 
 
 similar in the line of poetic conception are many expressions in 
 Ps. 77: 10-20 and 114: 1-8, and Isa.63: 11-14., e. g., "The waters 
 saw thee, O God ; the waters saw thee, they were afraid ; the depths 
 also were troubled." " The sea saw it and fled ; Jordan was driven 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 255 
 
 back. "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that tliou lieddcst?" &c. As^ 
 if the great deep were waked intointelligcEce and consciousness by 
 those august and thrilling manifestations of the majesty of her King ! 
 
 Such conceptions of dead nature quickened to life, thought, and 
 
 feeling before a present God, give wonderful power to these pano- 
 ramic scenes, of which the one intent is to set the all-working and 
 
 energizing God before the mind . Some Christians in later ages 
 
 have testified to manifestations of God to their souls, under which 
 their sense of his attributes and works has been not less impressive 
 than supernatural presentations of divine power to the senses would 
 be. Not without reason, they ascribe these manifestations of God 
 to the divine Spirit's agency. In this manifestation to Ilabakkuk, 
 
 the hand of the same Divine Teacher must be assumed. It is 
 
 remarkable how much these conceptions of God working upon 
 Nature, and of Nature responding to the agencies of God, blend 
 themselves with the genuine spirit of poetry, exemplif^nng the fact 
 that genuine poetry, so far from being necessarily unreal and un- 
 truthful, may be the veriest reality and the purest truth. Most 
 certain it is that the poetic conceptions of God and of Nature in 
 this theophany in nowise over-paint the actual verities of things. 
 
 Before I proceed to comment on particular terms or clauses, a 
 few words are due in respect to the use of the tenses in this theoph- 
 any. If the views advanced above are just, it is obvious that the 
 
 tenses throughout should be jpresent. A panorama made up of a se- 
 ries of historic paintings must naturally represent each scene as 
 present. The events which constitute the groundwork, and to 
 which the paintings perpetually refer, may have transpired long 
 ago. Others like them may occur again ; but the painting has for 
 
 its object to give the observer a view of them as then passing. 
 
 So here, all is made present by the impressions wrought upon the 
 prophet's mind by the teaching Spirit.* These preliminary re- 
 marks will sufSciently prepare the way for the study of the pas- 
 sage. " God comes up from Teman," the South, this being both 
 
 the etymological significance of the name, and the geographical po- 
 sition of the place. Mount Paran is well known as often associated 
 with Sinai. God comes up from those regions as one who had re- 
 vealed himself there in forms of surpassing majesty and glory in the 
 
 giving of the law. It will be recollected that Moses (in Deut. 
 
 33) and the author of Ps. 68 both speak of God as coming up from 
 
 Mount Sinai, the land of the south. The best critics mostly agree 
 
 that '• Selah " is a musical term, meaning pause, and perhaps a direc- 
 
 * The Hebrew student will readily notice that in this passage (vs. 3-15) 
 both of the two normal Hebrew tenses are used, the perfect and the imper- 
 fect (often called the future), some of the verbs being in one tense and 
 some in the other. The explanation of this remarkable fact seems to be 
 that these two tenses meet at a common centre in the present, and in a 
 case of this sort, may be used almost indiscriminately for the present, yet 
 not altogether so, since still the perfect will imply that the ' event was as 
 well as ts ; and the imperfect not only that it is, but will be yet again. 
 
256 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 
 
 tion to the singers to rest while the instruments filled ont an inter- 
 lude. In some cases (not in all) the thought just expressed renders 
 
 a pause for reflection appropriate. His visible glory seems to 
 
 illumine the whole concave heavens above. The earth is full of 
 manifestations of God that are proper themes of praise. The sense 
 is not that he sees the world full of men actually praising God, but 
 rather that the very earth itself seems vocal with praises. Moun- 
 tains,' rivers, and the pestilence, all seem to be doing God's work 
 so perfectly, though unconsciously, as to fill all the earth with 
 voices of praise. 
 
 4. And his brightness was as the light ; he had horns 
 coming out of his hand ; and there was the hiding of his 
 power. 
 
 The word rendered "light,"* modem critics suppose here to 
 mean the sun. Also that "horns coming out of his hand" are 
 rays of light streaming forth and bearing to the eye the appearance 
 of horns. The Arabic (a cognate language) shows that this usage of 
 " horn " is oriental. It is also Ilebraistic, as appears in the use of 
 the same word as a verb (Ex. 34 : 29, 30, 35), where three times 
 over it is said that the skin of Moses' face was horny ^ i. e., emitted 
 
 horn-like rays of light ; in the English version, " shone.'''' The 
 
 whole verse may be freely translated — " His brightness was as the 
 sun in his strength ; rays of light streamed from his hand ; there 
 lay concealed his unknown power." 
 
 5. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals 
 went forth at his feet. 
 
 Jehovah is still coming up from the land of the south, the re- 
 gion of Sinai and the wilderness, marching at the head of the thou- 
 sands of Israel, to give them possession of Canaan. This is the con- 
 ception of God throughout this theophany (vs. 3-15). Before 
 
 him moves onward the pestilence, and fevers seem to go forth from 
 his presence on their mission of death. The word rendered " burn- 
 ing coals" has but two well-established senses: (1) Hghtnings ; 
 (2) fevers — both having the common idea of intense heat. The 
 general sense is that God sent " the hornet " (see Ex. 23 : 28 ; Deut. 
 7 : 20, and Josh. 24 : 12), i. «., plagues, judgments, and, no doubt, 
 the pestilence, to cut off the strong and warlike Canaanites, and 
 make them a more easy conquest to the then unwarlike children of 
 Israel. It is very obvious, from a comparison of the Canaanites 
 as seen by the spies, with the Canaanites as found by Joshua, that 
 by some means a great change had come over them. Then- mili- 
 tary prowess was far less formidable. 
 
 6. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, 
 and drove asunder the nations ; and the everlasting 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 257 
 
 mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow : 
 his ways are everlasting. 
 
 The sense is, I see him stand (as in the days of Joshua he stood) 
 on the confines of Canaan, a mighty conqueror and the rightful 
 Lord of all; "he measures off the land." for his people with the 
 sweep of his eye, according to the purposes of his wisdom. "He 
 loolcs^'''^ and the terror of that look " drives asunder the nations " 
 of Canaan, and dispossesses them of their land, that his people may 
 take possession. In the presence of such majesty "the everlasting 
 mountains are scattered ; " " the enduring hills bow low " as in awe 
 before him; "his ways are of old," i. e., they were manifested in 
 those ancient days. 
 
 7. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction : and the 
 curtains of the land of Midian xiid tremble. 
 
 The best authorities agree in finding one branch of the Cushites 
 
 in eastern Arabia, and the Midianites in western. That their 
 
 " tents are in affliction " means that the people themselves, dwelling 
 in tents, are troubled by the glorious things Jehovah is achieving 
 for his people. The " curtains of Midian " are their tent-curtains, 
 trembling in sympathy with the trembling hearts of their occupants. 
 The two clauses are essentially parallel, and show that the fear 
 and the dread of Israel, while Jehovah is so manifestly marching at 
 their head, fell on even remote nations, so that they stand appalled 
 by what they hear and see of his power. The policy of the Gibe- 
 onites (Josh. 9) is in proof of this. (See vs. 24, 25). 
 
 8. "Was the Loed displeased against the rivers ? was 
 thine anger against the rivers ? was thy wrath against 
 the sea, that thou didst ride upon tliine horses, a7id thy 
 chariots of salvation ? 
 
 This verse contemplates the passage of the Eed Sea and of the 
 Jordan. A bold imagination in the strains of lofty song does not 
 stop to narrate the facts and detail the circumstances. On the 
 contrary, assuming these, and speaking of events as they appear to 
 the eye, the prophet exclaims : " "What aileth thee, O thou Jor- 
 dan ? " Is it because the Lord is angry against the rivers ? is it 
 that his wrath is on the sea that he drives their waters back, a^id 
 seems to rebuke them for obtruding themselves in the pathway he 
 
 has marked out for the hosts of his chosen ? " Rivers," twice in 
 
 the plural, contemplate the Eed Sea as one, the Jordan another. 
 Though it was more properly an arm of the sea, yet its tides are 
 said to rise seven feet, and consequently must make an active cur- 
 rent. But a strong imagination is not wont to be precise as to 
 number. Indeed, tlie startling fact is the main thing, and not the 
 number of rivers in question. The last clause shows that the Eed 
 
 Sea is in his mind. " That thy chariots are salvation " is the 
 
 precise rendering, the full construction being that thy chariots are 
 
258 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 
 
 chariots of salvation, i. e., that riding in royal state as a conquering 
 hero on thy horses and chariots of war thou dost save thy people 
 from the grasp of Pharaoh, and hring them forth in triumph. 
 
 9. Thy bow was made quite naked, Stccording to the 
 oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selab. Thou didst 
 cleave the earth witli rivers. 
 
 This verse should close with " Selah." The first clause presents 
 no diflBculty. The second has perplexed commentators, and scat- 
 tered their opinions more than almost any other passage in the 
 Bihle. Dr. Henderson remarks that one hundred different exposi- 
 tions of it have heen given. " Thy bow is made quite naked " 
 
 conceives of Jehovah as still a warrior chieftain at the head of his 
 martial hosts, coming down in battle upon the nations of Canaan. 
 To " make the bow naked " is to draw it out from its sheath or 
 case, which was a protection necessary to preserve the string from 
 dampness, and keep it in order for service. Drawn out and made 
 
 quite naked, it was ready for use. The next clause, interpreted 
 
 so variously, has in Hebrew three words,* all of them words of 
 very frequent occurrence, especially the first two, and of well-es- 
 tablished meaning. The first word may be a noun in the sense of 
 oaths, possibly sevens, or a participle, meaning sworn. The sec- 
 ond is a noun, meaning originally a rod, something stretched out ; 
 then a shoot or twig ; but in use most often, the tribes of Israel. 
 The third means a word, a word of command or of threatening ; in 
 rare instances, a watchword or a song. Here follow some in- 
 terpretations by the ablest commentators.- Dr. Henderson — 
 
 " Sevens of spears was the word ! " i. e., let there be a full comple- 
 ment of spears for the war. This is the divine mandate. Gese- 
 
 nius — " Sworn are the rods of his word," i. e., the promised chas- 
 tisements ; he has sworn the overthrow of his enemies. But Gesenius 
 favors a slight change in the first letter of the first word, by which it 
 would come from a different root, meaning to be sated, to be full, 
 and then would render — " Sated are the spears, i. e., with blood ! 
 
 A song ! " After a somewhat extended examination, I prefer the 
 
 rendering of our received translation, on the following grounds : 
 
 (1.) It gives each word its most common meaning. The usage 
 of the words rendered " oaths " and " tribes " is very strong. It is 
 not easy for one who has examined it to see how a Hebrew reader 
 could understand these words to mean any thing else in this con- 
 nection. 
 
 (2.) This sense is in harmony with truth, and the truth is one 
 which the Lord has often taken special pains to reassert and im- 
 press, viz., that the conquest of Canaan for the tribes of Israel was 
 in fulfilment of his oft-sworn promise to their fathers. (See Deut. 
 7 : 7, 8, 12 ; Ps. 105 : 8-11 ; Jer. 11:4, 5). The great theme of 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 259 
 
 this theopliany is this very conquest. Hence the fitness of this 
 reference to the oath of Jehovah to give Canaan to the tribes. 
 
 (3.) In this construction the oldest authorities all agree, e. g.^ 
 the Chaldee Paraphrast : " Thou didst marvellously reveal thyself in 
 thy great power on account of thy covenant which thy word had 
 
 made with the tribes for the ages to come." Also Jerome: 
 
 "Ascending thy chariot and seizing thy bow, thou wilt give salva- 
 tion to thy people, and wilt fulfil for all time the oaths which thou 
 hast sworn to our fathers and the tribes." 
 
 (4.) No other interpretation is so well supported, or is obnox- 
 ious to so few objections. " Selah " calls for a pause, appro- 
 
 piate here for reflection. " Thou didst cleave the earth with riv- 
 ers " looks toward those fearful convulsions occasioned by earth- 
 quakes, which often open new fountains and plough out new water- 
 courses. 
 
 10. The mountains saw thee, and they trembled : 
 the overflowing of the water passed by : the deep uttered 
 his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 
 
 A strong imagination gives to inanimate objects life, thought, 
 and emotion. So here — The "mountains see" Jehovah as he 
 stands forth at the head of his hosts in Canaan, " and they trem- 
 lUy The verb here used means to move in a circle, to dance ; 
 then to be in pain, to writhe ; also to shalce, as here, with the acces- 
 sory idea of being in anguish. The great floods of water swept 
 
 past and along, with reference perhaps to the Jordan, long dammed 
 up while the people were passing through its bed, and then rushing 
 with augmented volume and force ; or possibly to great storms of 
 hail and rain which the Lord sent down in some of the great battles 
 
 fought with the Canaanites. In the phrase " the deep uttered 
 
 his voice," lies one of the grandest conceptions found in any lan- 
 guage. The conscious spirit of the Great Deep, affrighted before 
 the majesty of Nature's King and Lord, throws up his hands and 
 utters screams of awe and terror ! How can he endure such a 
 Presence? How can he be placid when the great and dreadful 
 God comes so near ! 
 
 11. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation ; 
 at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining 
 of thy glittering spear. 
 
 Not only are the mountains and the great deep agitated at the 
 presence of Jehovah : " The sun and the moon stand back toward 
 their dwelling-places"— literally, stand toward, in the sense in 
 which it is said of a ship at sea, she stands toward a given point. 
 They made for the dwelling-places where they were thought to 
 repose when withdrawn from human view. Ah ! they, too, cannot 
 
 bear the dread presence of Jehovah in his majesty ! They reth*e 
 
 to their hiding-places " at the light of thine arrows which flew— at 
 
260 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. HI. 
 
 f 
 the brightness of the lightning of thy spear." So conscious are they 
 of their inferiority, so ashamed to put tlieir feeble light in contrast 
 with the blaze of Jehovah's splendor, they shrink away to their re- 
 cesses. Orientals are accustomed to speak of the heavenly bodies 
 
 as ha\"ing their homes, mansions, abodes.* The word " they " 
 
 before " went " refers, not to the sun or moon, nor to tlie Hebrew 
 soldiers, but to God's arrows, the lightnings. These are said not 
 merely to go^ but to Jiy — a very intensive form, of the verb go. 
 
 12. Thou didst march through the land in indigna- 
 tion, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 
 
 Putting the emphatic words first in order, the Hebrew would 
 run — 
 
 " In wrath thou didst marcli through the land ; 
 In fury thou didst thresh the nations" — 
 
 sweeping away the guilty and doomed nations of Canaan from be- 
 fore thy people. 
 
 13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, 
 even for salvation with thine anointed ; thou woundedst 
 the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering 
 the foundation unto the neck. Selah. 
 
 The first clause is plain ; the last is specially difficult. '' Thy 
 
 anointed " must, by the demands of the parallelism, be the same 
 with " thy people." Tlie sentiment is simply that God marched 
 thus through the land to save his people, considered as his chosen 
 and anointed, to give them victory over their enemies and possession 
 of Canaan. Upon the last clause few words must suffice, present- 
 ing only the construction which I on the whole prefer. By 
 
 "house " {i. e. of the wicked) may be meant the family, the class 
 of people ; or the structure, the building, conceived of as embody- 
 ing their interests and strength. I prefer the latter. By 
 
 " head " may be meant the head-men, the princes of the family or 
 clique of the wicked ; or the Idglie^t 'part of the structure. I adopt 
 the latter, and therefore translate : " Thou dashest to pieces the 
 head " (and dost strike it off) '• from the house of the wicked, laying 
 bare the foundation even to the neck " — i. e. as deep as water 
 would be that came up to the neck — of course, utterly destroying 
 the entire structure which represents the strength and cause of the 
 wicked. A similar case of smiting the head and dashing the whole 
 structure to atoms appears Amos 9 : 1. This may have been in the 
 prophet's mind. The phrase " even to the neck " was proverbial, 
 at first to indicate a depth of water nearly sufficient to drown a 
 man. See Isa. 8 : 8 and 30 : 28. Probably it came thence to be used 
 for about the same depth, five feet, more or less, in other relations. 
 
 * T render " toward their habitation," on the strength of what gram- 
 marians call *^ He local" which is appended to the word for habitation, giv- 
 ing the sense, *' toward their habitation." 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP, III. 2(51 
 
 This would be deep enough to tear up the foundations of a building, 
 and eifect its utter ruin. If we adhere to the Hebrew text, and 
 suppose any connection of thought between these two clauses now 
 under consideration, this must be the construction. If it were ever 
 allowable to admit that a slight error of one letter has crept into the 
 text, for which the manuscripts give no authority, I sliould favor 
 such a solution here, and then read rocJs in place of nech.'^ But I 
 hold it to be the work of a commentator to interpret his text rather 
 than to amend it, and therefore abstain on principle from tampering 
 with sucli conjectures. To decide between conflicting testimonies 
 of manuscripts and other authorities is another matter, sometimes 
 quite inevitable, and quite allowable. 
 
 14. Tliou didst strike tliroiigli with his staves the 
 head of his villages : they came out as a whirlwind to 
 scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor 
 secretly. 
 
 "Thou didst strike through (pierce) with his own spears the 
 head of his princes." The word " head " is the same as in the 
 first clause of v. 13, but means here a man's head, and not either 
 the head-men (princes), or the head (summit) of a building. ITie 
 passage may allude to the case of Jael smiting a nail through the 
 liead of Sisera. In general, it means that God turned their 
 own weapons upon themselves, panic-smiting their hosts and 
 setting them to slaughter one another. See Judges 7 : 20-22, 
 and 1 Sam. 14:15, 16 — Gideon and his three hundred against 
 the countless Midianites; Jonathan and' his armor-bearer against 
 the Philistines. " They, the Canaanites, came forth like a whirl- 
 wind to scatter me" — where "^we," through the prophet's sym- 
 pathy with the people of God, represents that whole people. 
 
 The Canaanites rejoiced in their work of destruction, as wicked 
 men rejoice when they can devour the poor defenceless ones 
 secretly, without exposure and consequent punishment. David, in 
 several passages, refers to this joy of the wicked in maltreating the 
 defenceless, without exposing themselves to retribution. See Ps. 
 10 : 8-11. 
 
 15. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine 
 horses, thrcncgh the heap of great waters. 
 
 The word rendered " heap " means here the foaming — in this 
 case, the foaming of the mighty waters. " Thou, Jehovah, didst 
 march through the sea with thy horses;'x' &c., with a tacit reference 
 to the passage of the Eed Sea for the figure, but probably, as to the 
 thing intended, referring to Jehovah's marching with his victorious 
 hosts among the mad and raging nations of Canaan. This was the 
 last scene in this august panorama. Thus closes this magnificent 
 
 * ^ilS instead of '^i<->'£ 
 
262 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 
 
 portrayal of Jehovah's great achievements for his ancient people. 
 Never were nobler conceptions wrought np with holder and yet so 
 chaste imagination, or in loftier strains of triumphal song. 
 
 16. When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips 
 quivered at the voice : rottenness entered into my bones, 
 and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day 
 of trouble : when he cometh up unto the people, he 
 will invade them with his troops. 
 
 Here the prophet falls back to the point from which he started 
 (v. 2) — to the fear which agitated him so deeply when ho first 
 heard from the Lord that the fierce and terrible Chaldeans were 
 surely coming to overwhelm the nation, to lay the land desolate, 
 
 and the loved and holy city with its sacred temple in ruins. 
 
 With all the oriental nations, the belly is the seat of the emotions, 
 especially of grief. Thus Habbakuk : " My bowels were strangely 
 agitated; my lips quivered at the voice," i. «., that uttered those 
 words about the Chaldeans ; " rottenness entered into my bones " 
 and all my strength perished — the bones being the pillars and frame- 
 work of the animal system; "I trembled," not precisely "in my- 
 self," hut under me^ my knees shaking and refusing their office — so 
 strong was my agony of desire " that I might have rest in the day 
 of trouble, in the coming up of the people who shall invade us." 
 The last clause must be connected with the preceding more closely 
 than in our English Bible. I have given a very literal and (as I 
 
 suppose) an accurate translation. The period around which his 
 
 anxieties clustered was the hour of the anticipated invasion by 
 the Chaldeans. His prayer and his solicitude looked toward rest 
 for his spirit in that day of trouble when this fierce and savage 
 
 people should come up against Jerusalem. The word rendered 
 
 "invade," means to press upon and besiege with troops. 
 
 17. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither 
 shall fruit he in the vines ; the labor of the olive shall 
 fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall 
 be cut off from the fold, and there shall he no herd in the 
 stalls : 
 
 18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lokd, I will joy in the 
 God of my salvation. 
 
 19. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make 
 my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk 
 upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my 
 stringed instruments. 
 
 The prophet's prayer was most abundantly answered. The 
 Lord gave him "peace like a river;" — nay, more than merely 
 peace— joy and exultation in the Lord Ms God, and in him aJone 
 
HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 263 
 
 and only. The sentiment of the seventeenth verse is that though 
 every thing else should fail, the fig-tree, the vine, the olive, the 
 fields, the locks and the herds, yet the everlasting God would 
 still live and never could fail or be cut ofi", or be any the less a 
 faithful and glorious God for all the storms of earth, or for the in- 
 vasion and desolating sweep of the most savage robber hosts. The 
 last verse heightens the showing of his joy. Elastic and buoyant, 
 his feet like the feet of the hind who bounds over the cliffs and 
 never makes a mis-step on the crags of the mountain — so he moves 
 along the high places of the earth, all undisturbed by the storms 
 
 and troubles that harass the dwellers in the vales below. It 
 
 seems plain that the prophet was brought to this sublime height 
 and placid rest of faith by means of those vivid, soul-thrilling 
 views of God presented In this chapter, in which God is seen in 
 his great works of mercy and of power in behalf of his people. 
 Herein lie the special instruction and the great value of this 
 wonderful chapter. In point of literary merit, its beauty and sub- 
 limity are of the highest order, and challenge our intense admira- 
 tion ; but far above and better than all those beauties is the sub- 
 lime moral lesson it teaches, viz., that if any " good man would fix 
 his hand upon the skies and bid earth roll, nor feel her idle whirl," 
 the rational mode of reaching this sublime repose of faith is to 
 study the great works of God's power and mercy as found in the 
 historic pages of his word, and as first revealed from heaven in the 
 ways of his providence and miracle-working power toward his 
 people in the days of old. This study of God, deep, appreciative, 
 prayerful, with the aid of his teaching Spirit, must be the one great 
 condition on our part — a trustful, believing study, with a loving 
 and appropriating faith. Such a study of God, with such help 
 from his Spirit, give their utmost vividness and power to those 
 great truths respecting God which we need to see and feel as 
 realities. Oh, it is beyond measure blessed to have the soul thus 
 filled with the practical impression of those truths ! Then what 
 was only as a dream before, becomes reality, clearly seen and deeply 
 felt, and then it becomes natural and easy to adjust one's heart and 
 life to the demands of those truths. They call for implicit faith in 
 God ; impressed by such views of God, and drawn by his Spirit, 
 we seem spontaneously to yield it. So Habakkuk found his heart 
 full of the simplest, sweetest trust in God, and in God alone — ^in 
 God, though every thing else should fail. 
 
 It should have been more distinctly noted that the fig-tree and 
 the vine stand here to represent, not themselves alone, but every 
 other earthly good. They stand for home and dear ones, for 
 country and sanctuary, for safety of person and for dear life. 
 Although all these should fail, yet, said the prophet, will I rejoice 
 in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation. In the same 
 spirit, a psalmist said : " My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is 
 the strength of my heart, and my portion forever " (Ps. 73 : 26). 
 The reader will scarcely need to be reminded that any and 
 
264 HABAKKUK.— CHAP. III. 
 
 every one who cometh to the knowledge of tliis sublime example 
 of faith may reach it for himself personally by the same steps. 
 There is no exclusiveness in this gift of faith ; it cometh alike to the 
 simple-hearted child and to the wisest philosopher — to each and to 
 all who heartily receive God as their supreme portion, and fully open 
 
 their souls to his teaching, moulding Spirit. And who will not 
 
 prize this simple yet mighty faith? To whom would it not be a 
 blessing high above all other blessings possible ? It is like pos- 
 sessing and inheriting the Infinite God ! This prophet foresaw that 
 soon he should own no vine or fig-tree, no herd or flock ; but he 
 was more than satisfied, for he had (it might almost be said, he 
 owned) — he had, as his own to trust in and enjoy, the Infinite and 
 
 ever-blessed God ! When flesh and heart shall fail us, and all of 
 
 earth shall be fading fast away from our mortal vision, there will be 
 at least one hour in which it will be more to us than all the universe 
 besides to have this God as our own 1 
 
'\\ 
 
 ZEPHA]S"IAH. 
 
 INTRODUCTION". 
 
 Of this prophet, his own introduction gives us the names of his 
 immediate ancestors through four generations, of whom, however, 
 nothing is known to us certainly except their names. It gives also 
 the much more important statement that this word of the Lord 
 came to him in the days of Josiah, king of Judah. Josiah's reign 
 of thirty-one years fell, b. o. 642-611. A careful comparison of this 
 Book of Zephaniah, with the history of Josiah's reign, as found, 2 
 Kings chapters 22 and 23, and yet more fully 2 Chron., chapters 34 
 and 35, will throw yet more light upon the precise date of his 
 writings, and upon the much more important point of its definite 
 
 aim and purpose. Let it he home in mind that after the great 
 
 reformation wrought by Ilezekiah with the aid of Isaiah and other 
 prophets during his reign of twenty-nine years, a fearful relapse 
 followed during Manasseh's long reign of fifty-five years ; that the 
 brief history sets forth in very strong terms the horrible influence 
 of this wicked king who " made Jerusalem and Judah do worse 
 than the heathen " (2 Chron. 33 : 9) ; that his repentance occurring 
 late in life, while it may have saved his own soul in answer to a godly 
 father's prayers, yet seems scarcely to have at all arrested the strong 
 currents of national wickedness ; that his son Amon, reigning two 
 years most wickedly, and then losing his life by conspiracy among 
 his own servants, must have left the nation yet waxing worse and 
 worse ; and then that Josiah, coming to the throne at the tender 
 age of eight years, began to seek after the God of his fathers at the 
 age of sixteen, commenced a vigorous reform yet four years later, 
 12 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 i. e.^ at the age of twenty, which was the twelfth year of his reign, 
 and had gone over the work with commendable thoroughness at the 
 end of six years' labor, i. e., in the eighteenth year of his reign. 
 That was the era of a remarkable passover, kept with great solem- 
 nity and with hopeful results. But the roots of wickedness had gone 
 deep into the national life. Hence this reform, as to the mass of 
 the nation, could not have penetrated much beneath the surface. 
 
 This reign of the good Josiah was the Lord's last call of the 
 
 nation to repentance. Toward this result, Zephaniah and Jere- 
 miah lent their aid — the latter beginning to prophesy in the thir- 
 teenth year of Josiah, and the former probably about the same time. 
 Zephaniah (1 : 4) predicts — " I will cutoff the remnant of Baal from 
 this place," &c., and the history states (2 Chron. 34: 3, 4) that 
 Josiah began this very work in his twelfth year, and closed it in his 
 eighteenth. It may also be noted that Zephaniah (2 : 13-15) pre- 
 dicts the fall of Nineveh, which occurred b. c. 625 — i. e., in the 
 
 seventeenth year of Josiah. It was to aid King Josiah in his great 
 
 work .of reforming the nation and of saving it from ruin under 
 the long-accumulating -^Tath of God, that Zephaniah was commis- 
 sioned to reiterate the solemn declarations of Jehovah — "I will 
 utterly consume this whole land " — especially every vestige of its 
 idolatry, and not sparing its fearfully corrupt and wicked people. 
 This is the one great thought throughout the first chapter. The 
 next chapter heightens the force of this dread decree by assuring 
 the people that the adjacent nations sunk low in general corruption 
 and idol worship, were also doomed to fearful devastations — the 
 Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria, with her proud 
 capital, Nineveh. In this general sweep of desolating judgments, 
 Judah could by no means hope to escape, save by earnest and thor- 
 ough repentance before God. Chapter 3 sets forth yet more 
 
 fully the extreme corruption of her prophets, priests, and princes, 
 but closes with merciful promises of salvation in a future day for 
 the remnant of his people. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EoE the general scope of this chapter, the reader is referred to 
 2 Kings 23 : 20, 27. Closely following a very full account of the 
 great reformation effected by Josiah, the historian says : " Notwith- 
 standing, the Lord tm-ned not from the fierceness of his great wrath 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. I. ' 267 
 
 wherewitli Ms anger was kindled against Judah, becanse of all tlie 
 provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the 
 Lord vsaid, " I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have 
 removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have 
 chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there." 
 
 1. The word of the Loed which came unto Zepha- 
 niah the son of Cushi, the son of Geclaliah, the son of 
 Amariah, the son of Ilizldah, in the days of Josiah the 
 son of Amon, king of Judah. 
 
 2. I will utterly consume all things from off the 
 land, saith the Lord. 
 
 3. I will consume man and beast ; I will consume 
 the fowls of the heayen, and the fishes of the sea, and 
 the stumbling-blocks with the wicked ; and I will cut 
 off man from off the land, saith the Loed. 
 
 See the general introduction. The stumbling-blocks are here, 
 the idol-gods which had proved such a stumbling-block of ruin to the 
 people. This shows that the reformation under Josiah entkely 
 failed to save the land from its sins, and hence, from its deserved 
 and fearful doom. 
 
 4. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah 
 and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and I will 
 cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the 
 name of the Chemarims with the priests ; 
 
 God would utterly finish the destruction of Baal, including the 
 idols, their priests, and their worshippers, and would exterminate 
 the very " name of the Chemarims." This word — meaning priest, 
 as one who goes about in black or mourning, an ascetic — came from 
 
 Syria, and was always applied by the Jews to the priests of idols. 
 
 The history (2 Kings 23 : 5) states that Josiah put down the Chem- 
 arims, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the 
 high places," &c. ; but ultimately, the Lord, by the long captivity in 
 Babylon, made much more thorough work in rooting them out 
 from among his people and burying tljeir very name in oblivion. 
 
 The last words of the verse, " with the priests," refers to Jevr- 
 
 ish priests — probably such as professed to serve the true God, but 
 had apostatized into idol-worship. 
 
 6. And them that worship the host of heaven, upon 
 the house-tops ; and them that worship and that swear 
 by the Loed, and that swear by Malcham ; 
 
 6. And them that are turned, back from the Loed ; 
 and those that have not sought the Loed, nor inquired 
 for him. 
 
268 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAR I. 
 
 " The host of heaven " were the heavenly bodies, the sim, moon, 
 stars, and planets. This form of idolatry, Sabianism (from Saba *) 
 (used for the host of heaven), was very ancient, and widely extended 
 throughout the East. The worship was offered on the house-tops, 
 possibly for secrecy, but more probably for the sake of a better view of 
 the objects of their worship. The next class of worshippers, " wor- 
 ship, swearmg by the Lord and swearing by their Mng " — a term 
 here supposed to refer to Moloch. That is, they mix together the 
 ostensible worship of Jehovah with the real worship of Moloch, 
 
 whom they practically recognized as their king. To swear by 
 
 Jehovah is to recognize his supreme divinity, at least professedly. 
 They rendered the same recognition to Moloch also. Of course 
 such men render no true worship to Jehovah, and he dooms them 
 
 to fall with the guiltiest idolaters. V. G describes them in more 
 
 general terms — all who have turned back, having once .professed to 
 serve him, and those who have not sought him — in every age a gi*eat 
 and fearfully guilty class. 
 
 Y. Hold tliy peace at the presence of tlie Lord God : 
 for the day of the Lord is at hand : for the Lord hath 
 prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. 
 
 "Hold thy peace before the face of the Lord God" enjoins 
 silence in the spirit of profound reverence and solemn awe. See a 
 similar sentiment, Amos 6 : 10. The reason Assigned is, " because 
 the day of the Lord is near," a day of judgment on the people. 
 " The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice " — ^liere in the sense of a great 
 slaughter, as in Isa. 34 : G : " The Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, 
 and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.'^ The original word 
 rendered " bid," t means to sanctify, but here in the sense in which 
 war was declared with religious solemnities, and the warriors prac- 
 tically sworn in and consecrated to their work. The Lord's 
 
 " guests " — his called ones, as the original word means — are here, not 
 men invited to dine at a festival, but those whom he had called in 
 his providence to be the executioners of his vengeance on the 
 wicked in this great slaughter — in the case, the Chaldeans. 
 
 8. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's 
 sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's 
 children, and all such 'as are clothed with strange ap- 
 parel. 
 
 Eoyalty in Judah had been deep in guilt and should be first in 
 
 punishment. In the phrase, "strange apparel," strange does not 
 
 mean lincouth or surprising, but foreign. Indeed, the words 
 " strange " and "stranger " in our Bible always means foreign, per- 
 taining to Gentiles and not to Jews. The idea here is that the 
 adoption and use of the foreign costume in dress indicated apostasy 
 
ZEPHANIAE.— CHAP. I. 269 
 
 from God and a love for the institutions and customs of the heathen. 
 Hence it marked men out for special plagues from the Lord. 
 
 9. In tlie same day also will I punish all those that 
 leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses 
 with violence and deceit. 
 
 The phrase, "those that leap on the threshold," is explained 
 variously by commentators. Some suppose an allusion to the wor- 
 shippers of Dagon (1 Sam. 5 : 4, 5), who, because their helpless idol 
 fell before the ark of God, and broke his neck over the threshold, 
 took care forever after not to step on the threshold but over it. I 
 see no analogy between this case and that. Here are persons who 
 leap, not over^ but upon the threshold. The parallel clause — "who 
 fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit" — i. <?., with 
 goods, property, obtained by violence and deceit, shows that robbers 
 are thought of. Hence the probable sense of leaping upon the 
 threshold is, invading the sanctity of other men's houses ; violently 
 leaping upon and over their thresholds, to enter then* houses for 
 robbery and spoil. 
 
 10. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 
 LoED, that there shall he the noise of a cry from the fish 
 gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crash- 
 ing from the hills. 
 
 The city is here thought of as attacked by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 The panic and the outcries of terror mark the progress of the con- 
 queror through the city. First, " the noise of a cry from the fish 
 gate." To this gate we find allusions in 2 Chron. 33 : 14, and Neh. 
 3 : 8, and 12 : 39. Doubtless it was the gate through which fish 
 were brought into the city for market, and probably its direction 
 was toward the lake of Tiberias and the Jordan, where fishing was 
 certainly common in the New Testament age. At this point the 
 Chaldean army would most naturally strike the city. " A howl- 
 ing or wailing from the second " — not the second gate, but the second 
 city, i. e., a later addition to the city (see ¥eh. 11:9), very prob- 
 ably the one built by Manasseh, as recorded, 2 Chron. 33 : 14 : " He 
 built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, 
 in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed 
 about Ophel (a hill so called), and raised it up a very great height," 
 &c. The location of this new or second city shows that the Chal- 
 dean army would strike it next in order after entering at the fish 
 
 gate. " A great crashing from the hills " refers to hills witJiin 
 
 the city; Zion, Moriah, Ophel, &c. The echoes of crash after crash 
 of ruin from these hills would be, to Jewish ears, terrific. 
 
 11. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the mer- 
 chant people are cut down ; all they that bear silver are 
 cut off. 
 
270 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 " Maktesli " means tTie mortar, the article being prefixed, wMcli 
 shows that it is not a proper name generally known. It is plausibly 
 supposed to refer to some valley, mortar-shaped, and probably the 
 Tyropoeon, a valley within the city, occupied largely by merchants. 
 — The reason for their wailing is that " all the merchants are cut off" 
 — "all who are heavy laden with silver," for this is the sense of the 
 Hebrew word. Those who were not only rich, but rich in silver, 
 would suffer most severely in the sack of the city. It is tacitly im- 
 plied that these merchants are men of not the best repute; "people 
 of Canaan" is their designation here. Hos. 12:7, 8, shows that 
 the merchants of that day were not held in the highest esteem by 
 the Lord. Their fraudulent habits are repeatedly rebuked by the 
 prophets. 
 
 12. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I 
 will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men 
 that are settled on their lees : that say in their hearts, 
 The LoED will not do good, neither will he do evil. 
 
 " Searching Jerusalem with candles " is an expressive figure, to 
 show that none could secrete themselves in recesses so dark as to 
 
 escape the vigilance and vengeance of Jehovah. " Settled on theu* 
 
 lees," alludes to wine standing long on its sediment, and not 
 racked off into another vessel. The primary sense of the verb is to 
 settle down in the oriental manner of sitting upon one's ankles, 
 with the feet bent under the person (see Jer. 48 : 11). It de- 
 scribes those who have repelled all fear of retribution from God for 
 their sins, and have gone on quietly in their great iniquities, as if 
 there were no God above ; who say in their hearts, " The Lord will 
 do neither good nor evil, will neither reward the righteous nor punish 
 the wicked." This is the cherished feeling of myriads of heathen 
 minds ; witness the Budhists of the East, who think of God only as 
 reposing in eternal sleep in some indefinitely remote region of the 
 universe, never concerning himself with the moral conduct of his 
 creatures. 
 
 13. Therefore, their goods shall become a booty, and 
 their houses a desolation : they shall also build houses, 
 but not inhabit them / and they shall plant vineyards, 
 but not drink the wine thereof. 
 
 The allusion to their "goods" shows that the prophet still has 
 in view the wealthy classes who have grown rich through fraud 
 or violence. 
 
 14. The great day of the Lokd is near, it is near, 
 and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the 
 Lokd : the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 
 
 15. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and 
 
ZEPHANIAH.—CHAP. II. 271 
 
 distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of 
 darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick 
 darkness, 
 
 16. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the 
 fenced cities, and against the high towers. 
 
 TMs great and awful day of tlie Lord, so gi'apMcally described, 
 is the period of the Chaldean invasion. The " mighty man who 
 shall cry there bitterly," is the warrior to whom the city intrusts 
 its defence, but who will find himself utterly inadequate to the task. 
 He can only wail in the anguish of his soul over his complete over- 
 throw. 
 
 17. And I will bring distress upon men, that they 
 shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned 
 against the Loed : and their blood shall be poured out 
 as dust, and their flesh as the dung. 
 
 18. IsTeither their silver nor their gold shall be able 
 to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath ; but the 
 whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy : 
 for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them 
 that dwell in the land. 
 
 Under the great and universal distress, men shall act as if be- 
 wildered, groping about as blind men, equally void of wisdom and 
 of power for the emergency. The conclusion of this fearful de- 
 nunciation of doom is, that God will make a sweeping destruction, 
 even a hastened one, of all the inhabitants of the land. So it came 
 to pass. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The scope of this chapter was spoken of in the general introduc- 
 tion to this book. It aims to enforce repentance : (1.) By the short- 
 ness of time yet remaining before otherwise the shafts of vengeance 
 must fall. (2.) By the fact that desolating judgments were coming 
 upon other nations contiguous. This fact should assure them that 
 the Lord was about to take in hand the work of retribution upon 
 guilty nations on a broad scale ; that he had his agencies in readi- 
 ness ; and that Judah and Jerusalem could by no means hope to 
 escape. 
 
 1. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, 
 O nation not desired ; 
 
 The connection shows that this verse, and the two that follow 
 it, were addressed to Judah, exhorting her to immediate repentance 
 and righteousness as her last hope. "With this view of the course 
 
272 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. H. 
 
 of tlioiight, I find no appropriate sense in the rendering of the first 
 verb, "gather yourselves together." The question must be met, 
 For what purpose ? What would be the use of merely "• gathering 
 together ? " Better than this rendering is that of Gesenius : " Col- 
 lect your thoughts; consider your ways; " examine yourselves and 
 
 think of your sins. Still better is Henderson's derivation of the 
 
 verb from another though a cognate root,* in the sense to hend^ to 
 dow low 'before God^ in repentance and profound humiliation for your 
 
 sins. "O nation not desired," Gesenius renders, "nations 
 
 never pale with shame," and the sense of conscious guilt. But the 
 sense of longing after and greatly desiring is much better sustained 
 by usage. I therefore adopt this rendering, according to our Eng- 
 lish Bible, only giving its strongest negative power to "wo^," so 
 that it shall imply that so far from loving and longing for this 
 nation in its present moral state, God altogether loathed them. 
 He could have no other feeling toward them but that of loathing 
 while they were so intensely corrupt. Hence the urgency of the 
 call to humiliation and to a new heart and life. 
 
 2. Before tlie decree bring forth, 'before the day pass 
 as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Loed come 
 upon you, before the day of the Loed's anger come upon 
 you. 
 
 The decree, i. e., the purpose of God to destroy, is thought of 
 here as pregnant Avith a sure execution, and soon to " bring forth." 
 Before this execution of the Lord's wrath, so near at hand, there 
 was a short moment for repentance. The prophet exhorts the peo- 
 ple to seize and improve it. In the clause " before the day pass 
 
 as the chaff," Henderson explains " day," not as the period of 
 .judgment, but as the short space for repentance lying yet before it. 
 But the uniform usage of the word " day," fourteen times repeated 
 in a connection like this, within the first chapter, and again in this 
 verse, in every instance in the sense of the period of the judgment, 
 seems to forbid his construction. I prefer to explain it : " Before that 
 day of judgment shall sweep along as the chaff flies" — swiftly and 
 waiting for none. 
 
 3. Seek ye the Loed, aU ye meek of the earth, which 
 have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek 
 meekness : it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the 
 Loed's anger. 
 
 Here is the point of the exhortation, the duty to which 
 they are exhorted. All the meek, the humble ones of the land, 
 the only hopeful class — all those who have obeyed the Lord's 
 revealed will ("judgments '' here in the sense of revealed statutes), 
 are implored to seek the Lord, and also to seek righteousness 
 
 * UJip instead of UJL^i^. 
 
ZEPHAJI^IAH.— CHAP. H. 273 
 
 nnd a deeper Lumiliation ("meekness''), in the liope that so 
 they may be hidden from danger in the day of the Lord's anger. 
 It could not he regarded as certain that they would he exempt from 
 all harm, even though penitent, for sometimes the righteous must 
 suffer (in this world, not the next) with the wicked. Hence the 
 qualified form of the statement, " it may 5e, that ye shall he hid." 
 
 4. For Gaza sliall be forsaken, and Aslikelon a deso- 
 lation : they sliall drive oiit Ashdod at the noon-day, and 
 Ekron shall be rooted up. 
 
 "With this prediction of desolation on the cities of the Philistines, 
 
 compare Amos 1 : 6-8. The Hebrew verbs which express the 
 
 doom of Gaza and Ekron form a paranomasia with those names. If 
 the word gazee meant forsaken, we might imitate the Hebrew by 
 
 saying Gaza shall be gazeed. These paranomasias are not merely 
 
 beauties of style ; they are utilities as well, for the doom of a city 
 so expressed could not be forgotten. It would be riveted in the 
 mind with the name itself. 
 
 5. "Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the 
 nation of the Cherethites! the word of the Lokd is 
 against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I 
 will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. 
 
 6. And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages 
 for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 
 
 This " sea coast " is the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and 
 the western border of Canaan, along which the Philistines (Chere- 
 thites) — to some extent a maritime people — were located. All that 
 
 region would fall before the Chaldean power. It did. The sea 
 
 coast shall be not "dwellings and cottages," but " pastures with 
 shepherds' cisterns^ and folds for flocks." 
 
 7. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the 
 house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the 
 houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening : 
 for the Lokd their God shall visit them, and turn away 
 their captivity. 
 
 This looks forward to the better days, when the Lord should re- 
 store his captive people, and they, returning, should find their old 
 enemies, the Philistines, no longer there, but should themselves 
 enjoy quietly the country of the sea coast. 
 
 8. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the re 
 vilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have 
 reproached my people, and magnified themselves against 
 their border. 
 
 12^' 
 
274: ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. H. 
 
 God had heard what Moab and Ammon had said in contempt 
 of Israel and of Israel's God, and would now remember it and visit 
 
 them with retribution. "Magnified themselves against their 
 
 border," has the sense of carrying themselves proudly and in an 
 overbearing way along and over their border — with reference, 
 doubtless, to hostile encroachments upon Jewish territory. 
 
 9. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the 
 God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the 
 children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of 
 nettles and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation : the res- 
 idue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of 
 my people shall possess them. 
 
 This is the doom of Moab and Ammon. How fearfully it has 
 been put in execution! For the past twenty-four centuries, the 
 
 world has scarcely known where those nations once stood ! In 
 
 the phrase " the breeding of nettles," the Hebrew gives the sense, 
 the possession of nettles — a place which nettles shall occupy as all 
 their own. 
 
 10. This shall they have for their pride, because they 
 have reproached and magnified themselves against the 
 people of the Lord of hosts. 
 
 So God will avenge himself on those who reproach Mm through 
 their reproach of his people. 
 
 11. The Lord will he terrible unto them ; for he will 
 famish all the gods of the earth ; and men shall worship 
 him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the 
 heathen. 
 
 The course of thought here should be noted. God becomes 
 terrible to idolatrous nations when he famishes, i. e., wastes away 
 and destroys their gods ; for when a nation's gods are gone, what 
 
 have they more ? On the other hand, and as a result of destroy- 
 
 mg both the idol gods of those nations and their incorrigible wor- 
 shippers as well, men everywhere, over all the isles of the Gentiles, 
 shall worship the true God. " The isles of the nations " embrace 
 all remote countries lying beyond the sea. 
 
 12. Te Ethiopians also, ye shall he slain by my 
 sword. 
 
 These Ethiopians are those of Africa — ^probably including the 
 Egyptians. They were destined to fall before the same all-devour- 
 ing Chaldean sword. 
 
 13. And he will stretch out his hand against the 
 north, and destroy Assyria ; and will make jN^ineveh a 
 desolation, and dry like a wilderness. 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 275 
 
 See Kineveli, doomed in like manner (TSTalium, chap. 2 and 3). 
 
 14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of lier, all 
 the beasts of the nations : both the cormorant and the 
 bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; their voice 
 shall sing in the windows; desolation sJiall he in the 
 thresholds : for he shall nncover the cedar work. 
 
 The word rendered "cormorant" means "the vomiter," and is 
 supposed to designate the pelican. The " bittern " is the porcupine 
 
 or hedge-hog, so called from his rolling himself up. These shall 
 
 " he among the capitals " — the tops of the columns — which of 
 course are now faUen to the ground. The columns are those of 
 her ruined temples and palaces. 
 
 15. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, 
 that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside 
 me : how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts 
 to lie down in ! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, 
 and wag his hand. 
 
 Thus great Mneveh, once proud and joyous, is doomed to lie an 
 utter waste, the scorn of passers-bj. She was doubtless standing 
 in her strength and glory when this servant and seer of the Lord 
 uttered and penned these terrible words. The nations of the earth 
 have had ample occasion to verify their truth during more than two 
 thousand years. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 This chapter opens with further statements of the guilt and 
 doom of Jerusalem (vs. 1-4) ; of God's justice in her punishment 
 (v. 5) ; of his judgments on other nations (vs. 6-8) ; then turning 
 to words of mercy, the Lord promises to convert the nations (vs. 
 9-10), and to restore and bless most abundantly the remnant of 
 his people (vs. 11-20). 
 
 1. Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the op- 
 pressing city ! 
 
 2. She obeyed not the voice ; she received not cor- 
 rection ; she trusted not in the Lord ; she drew not near 
 to her God. 
 
 The entire strain of remark shows that this passage speaks of 
 Jerusalem ; e. g.^ that she had heard the voice of God ; had been 
 instructed and corrected, yet in vain; and that Jehovah is spoken 
 of as ''''Tier God." The word rendered "filthy," means rebel- 
 lious : she had polluted herself by her. sins, especially by idolatry, 
 and had outraged justice by her oppressions of her own poor and 
 
270 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 
 
 defenceless people. Hence the wrath of God upon her. She 
 
 had also been taught her duty hj the servants of the Lord, espe- 
 ciallj in later tunes by his prophets ; yet she would neither obey 
 God nor trust him. 
 
 3. Her princes witliin lier are roaring lions; lier 
 judges are evening wolves ; tliey gnaw not the bones 
 till tlie morrow. 
 
 Her princes and judges had been fearfully corrupt. Those who 
 should have withstood the influx of vice had been themselves ex- 
 amples and ministers of all wickedness. " Roaring lions," in the 
 
 sense of being mighty in sin, bold and rampant in their iniquity. 
 
 "Evening wolves," who in oriental countries go about in the 
 
 darkness, making ni|?ht hideous with their howl and perilous by 
 their ferocity, stand liere to represent those judges who make an 
 utter wreck of justice and peace, prostrating beneath their feet the 
 
 very interests they are sworn to sustain. These (human) wolves 
 
 are voracious ; "they do not gnaw the bones in the morning; " so 
 the Hebrew reads, and implies, not that they leave all, but that they 
 leave notliing till the morrow. Their voracity saves not even the 
 bones till morning. 
 
 4. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons : 
 her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done 
 violence to the l-aw. 
 
 " Her prophets are light," in the sense of vain-glorious, proud, 
 and boastful — bearing on their hearts no sense of their responsi- 
 bility. The priests seem for the most part to have gone down in 
 degeneracy and sin with the people by at least an equal pace. The 
 Lord had some prophets that were thoroughly faithful and bold in 
 rebuking sin ; yet the history shoWs that under the wicked kings, 
 false prophets were never wanting who claimed to speak for God, 
 but who really prostituted the whole influence of the prophetic 
 name, and of God's name too, so far as they could, to the cause of 
 vice and idolatry. 
 
 5. The just LoED is in the midst thereof; he will not 
 do iniquity : every morning doth he bring his judgment 
 to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no 
 shame. 
 
 Note the designed antithesis between the flagrantly unjust 
 judges, false prophets, and degenerate priests on the one hand ; and 
 on the other, the just Lord, never doing iniquity, bringing forth his 
 
 just decisions every morning without fail. Courts were held in 
 
 the morning hour. Those unjust, wicked men are shameless — lost 
 
 to all compunction of conscience for wrong-doing. This fact shows 
 that the moral tone of public sentiment was deplorably low. 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 277 
 
 6. I have cut off the nations : their towers are deso- 
 late ; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by : 
 their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that 
 there is none inhabitant. 
 
 This is tliouglit, with good reason, to have special reference to the 
 calamities brought by. a great Scythian invasion upon most of the 
 nations of Western Asia during the reign of Josiah. From these 
 
 evils, Judah, under his wise and righteous reign, was exempt. 
 
 In seasons of great public danger, travel must cease, and none would 
 pass along the highways. (See Judg. 5 : 6.) 
 
 7. I said. Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive 
 instruction; so their dwelling should not be Cut off, 
 howsoever I punished them : but they rose early, and 
 corrupted all their doings. 
 
 At this time the Lord said: "My people" will appreciate this 
 merciful protection afforded to them : they " will fear me and re- 
 ceive instruction." In case they did so, "their dwelling" (in the 
 sense of place of rest and safety) "should not be cut off, according 
 as I have visited all others with judgments." The English, "how- 
 soever I punished them," fails to give the true sense, which is this : 
 that if his kind protection of them against the Scythians had moved 
 them to gratitude, obedience and trust, he would not now punish 
 them as he had done other nations. I prefer to adhere to the usual 
 sense of the verb here used, viz., to visit with judgment, rather than 
 to give it (with Dr. Henderson) the new and doubtful sense of ap- 
 pointing for punishment. "But they rose early and corrupted all 
 
 their doings " — as men who work with their might and with earnest 
 heart, are up betimes in the morning. It is noticeable that God rep- 
 resents his own earnestness in efforts to save them by the same im- 
 pressive figure (2 Chron. 36 : 15) : "The Lord God of their fathers 
 sent to them by his messengers, rising up early in the morning and 
 sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwell- 
 ing-place." The contrast gives a sad impression of their horrible 
 depravity, but a rich and exalted one of Ms unutterably tender com- 
 passion and loving-kindness! They, up early in the morning, 
 working with might and main, to do a long and hard day's work in 
 sin ; God, up betimes to press his agencies migl^tily to save them I . 
 
 8. Therefore, wait ye upon me, saith the Lokd, until 
 the day that I rise up to the prey : for my determination is 
 to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, 
 to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce 
 anger : for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire 
 of my jealousy. 
 
 " Therefore " (in view of all these things) "wait ye for me " (i. e., 
 
278 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. HI. 
 
 to fulfil my tlireatenings) "until the day of my rising up for the 
 
 prey, to spoil the nations, for this is my purpose." Great and 
 
 widely extended judgments are in the plan of God, to fall on all 
 the guilty nations of the earth. Let his people expect them in 
 their time. 
 
 9. For tlien will I turn to the people a pure lan- 
 guage, tliat thej may all call upon the name of the 
 LoED, to serve him with one consent. 
 
 Here is a reason for awaiting those judgments, because then, in 
 close connection, the Lord will convert the remnant of the nations 
 to himself. His great judgments wiU prepare the way for mercies 
 no less great. " I will turn to the nations (Gentiles) a pure lan- 
 guage"— freed from the very names of idols (see Hos. 2 : 17), and 
 from all those terms that are suggestive of the pollutions and cor- 
 ruptions of human depravity. God will give them a new vocabu- 
 lary ; the language of Zion wUl be all new when aU men shall call 
 
 upon the name of the Lord. " To serve him with one shoulder," 
 
 is the striking expression of the Hebrew — as we might say, moving 
 on in military phalanx, shoulder to shoulder, for soldiers dress to 
 a line by the shoulder. Or the phrase may allude to two or moro 
 men bearing the same burden on their shoulders, in which case 
 they must move accurately together. So in Zion should order and 
 harmony be perfect, resting on the basis of having one heart and 
 one soul. 
 
 10. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my sup- 
 pliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring 
 mine offering. 
 
 This must be the African Ethiopia, south of Egypt, embosoming 
 the head-waters of the Nile. Thence should supphants from the 
 Lord's scattered people come with their offerings to Jerusalem. 
 The reader will readily recall the case of an " eunuch of great au- 
 thority under Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who came to Jerusalem 
 to worship " (Acts 8 : 27 ff.), and who went home with more of the 
 gospel than he had ever known before. The case proves that there 
 were some dispersed people there, probably Jews, who remembered 
 Zion, and that a purer knowledge of God went among them after 
 the Christian era. It would seem that there have been nominal 
 Christians in Abyssinia ever since. They were found there by 
 Bruce in his travels, early in the present century. 
 
 11. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy 
 doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me : for 
 then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that 
 rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty 
 because of my holy mountain. 
 
 This cannot mean that they shall have no sense of shame for the 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 279 
 
 Bins of whicli tliey are or have been giiilty. The Scriptures and 
 Christian experience combine to teach that pardoned sinners have 
 the very keenest sense of sorrow and shame for their sins. (See 
 
 Ezek. 16 : 61-63 and 36 : 31.) The meaning here is therefore only 
 
 this : that they shall not be confounded before the nations by God's 
 judgments tipon them for their sins. They will not sin as they had 
 done ; and moreover, God will forgive and forbear to punish. That 
 their sin itself should mostly cease — at least, their specially provok- 
 ing, heaven-defying sins — is expressly said : " For then I will take 
 away out of thee thy proud, exulting ones, and man shall no more 
 be haughty in my holy mountain." The Hebrew has it " m," not 
 "because of." 
 
 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted 
 and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the 
 
 LOED. 
 
 The few spared and surviving, after the many had fallen under 
 sore judgments, are blessed bywhat they have suffered, and by what 
 they have seen others suffer ; and these return to the Lord their 
 God. Of this promise there have been many fulfilments. 
 
 13. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor 
 speak lies ; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in 
 their mouth : for they shall feed and lie down, and 
 none shall make them afraid. 
 
 This applies readUy to the remnant restored from Babylon, and 
 affirms their general purity of character, greatly reformed as com- 
 pared with the morals of the nation before the captivity. It may 
 apply also to subsequent periods. 
 
 14. Sing, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O Israel ; be 
 glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 This call to great joy indicates that precious blessings are to be 
 revealed. 
 
 15. The LoED hath taken away thy judgments, he 
 hath cast out thine enemy : the king of Israel, even the 
 LoED, is in the midst of thee : thou shalt not see evil 
 any more. 
 
 " Hath taken away thy judgments," not in the sense of remov- 
 ing from them the administration of justice or the jurisdiction of 
 his law, but of termiuating his inflictions of calamity and his retri- 
 butions for their sin. The days of her sore scourging had passed. 
 
 " He hath cleared away thine enemies from before thee " — perhaps 
 with historical allusion to their early days in Canaan, when the 
 Lord did not fuUy clear away the Oanaanites and Philistines. Now 
 
280 ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 
 
 he will, and they sliall repose in quiet — less tempted to sin, and less 
 annoyed with thorns in their side — enemies within their own bor- 
 ders. Their king, Messiah, the real Jehovah, being in the midst 
 
 of them as Immanuel (God with us), verily, " they shall see evil 
 no more," as compared with former evils. 
 
 16. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear 
 thou not : and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. 
 
 "Let not thy hands be slack " is said in the sense of not waxing 
 feeble through despondency and unbelief. 
 
 IT. The LoKD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; 
 he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will 
 rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. 
 
 Her Lord is not in the midst of her — his Zion — as a terror or a 
 scourge, but as a mighty one for help, rejoicing in her purity and 
 
 blessedness. The phrase "he will rest in his love " seems to 
 
 mean in the original, "will be silent in his love," in the sense of 
 freely forgiving her sin, and henceforth forbearing to speak of it in 
 words of threatening, and to act against it in retributive judgments. 
 His love is silent from upbraiding and chastising, in contrast with 
 the continual strain of rebuke which had been the common mani- 
 festation of his presence in their former apostasy. Now, they being 
 no longer apostate, but walking humbly and softly before God, he 
 takes the purest delight in abiding among them, and silently enjoys 
 their worship and their responsive love. It is indeed a precious 
 thought, but is most fully authorized, that God rejoices in the sin- 
 cere love and worship of his people. It is a source of ineffable de- 
 light to his benevolent heart. This doctrine is reiterated with great 
 force in this passage. 
 
 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the sol- 
 emn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach 
 of it was a burden. 
 
 "Those who are grieved" (because of their exclusion) "from 
 thy solemn festivals, I will gather home (they were of thee), who 
 have borne reproach for her" (Zion's) "sake;" or the, last clause 
 might be read, " to whom reproach for her sake was a burden." 
 The sentiment is that God will gather home to Zion those dispersed 
 ones who had been sad because of their long exclusion from her 
 solemn feasts, and who had borne reproach for their God. 
 
 19. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict 
 thee : and I will save her that halteth, and gather her 
 that was diiven out; and I will get them praise and 
 fame in every land where they have been put to shame. 
 
 20. At that time will I bring you again^ even in the 
 time that I gather you : for I will make you a name and 
 
ZEPHANIAH.— CHAP. III. 281 
 
 a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn 
 back yonr captivity before yonr eyes, saith the Lord. 
 
 The original, rendered " I will undo," means I will deal with — 
 take them in hand for justice and judgment. This would doubtless 
 involve their undoing. Sentiment — God will reverse the state of 
 her long-depressed and scattered people. The feeble shall be saved 
 with strength ; the exiled brought home in triumph ; the long-dis- 
 honored and disowned shall have praise and fame in the very place 
 where they had been put to shame. The public sentiment of the 
 world is changed, and the real friends of God are now held, not in 
 
 contempt, but in honor. It can scarcely be supposed that the 
 
 restoration from Babylon exhausted the significance of these prom- 
 ises. Then the restored people were few and feeble. Though hon- 
 ored and favored by Cyrus, yet they were by no means greatly 
 honored by their nearest neighbors, the Samaritans, nor by other 
 contiguous nations. Something more and better than that must lie 
 yet treasured up for Zion in these promises. Yet further, the clear 
 indications in this chapter (vs. 9, 10) of the conversion of the Gen- 
 tiles also, must carry the great body of these predictions over into 
 the gospel era, and some portion of them down into those times 
 described by Paul (Rom. 11), when, almost simultaneously, the Jews 
 will be grafted back into their former stock, and the Gentile world 
 be converted to the same ever-blessed God. O come, that glo- 
 rious day 1 
 
HAGGAI 
 
 I N T E O D U C T I O 1^ 
 
 Both the date and the occasion of this book are given very dis- 
 tinctly. Its date is subsequent to the restoration from captivity in 
 Babylon by sixteen years. Its occasion was the fact that the Jews 
 were sinfully neglecting to complete the building of their temple. 
 Consequently the Lord sent Haggai to rebuke them for this sin, and 
 
 to exhort them to resume the work and complete it. ^It should be 
 
 borne in mind that Cyrus, on his accession to the Medo-Persian 
 throne, two years after it had absorbed the Chaldean empire and 
 made Babylon its capital, issued an edict, strongly inviting the 
 Jews to return to their own land, and rebuild both their holy city 
 and their temple. Fifty thousand responded to this call, and under 
 Zerubbabel as governor, and Joshua as high priest, returned to the 
 land of their fathers, and commenced rebuilding the city, and in 
 process of time the temple also. The Book of Ezra gives the Jewish 
 history of these events. It there appears that in the second year 
 of Cyrus (b. o. 535), and in the second month, they began to re-! 
 build the temple ; that soon the Samaritans began to oppose and 
 retard their work, and kept up this opposition during the remaining 
 five years of the reign of Cyrus (Ez. 4 ; 5), and yet more vigor- 
 ously and successfully, under his vile son and successor Cambyses 
 (called, Ez. 4:6, " Ahasuerus "), who reigned seven years and five 
 months. At length, from his successor, Smerdis (called, Ez. 4 : 7, 
 8, 11, 23, Artaxerxes), they obtained an order that the work should 
 absolutely cease. This Smerdis reigned but seven months. A 
 better king succeeded, in the person of Darius Hystaspes. As Smerdis 
 was at best only an usurper, and as the decree of Cyrus was there- 
 
HAGGAL— CHAP. I. 283 
 
 fore still the law of tlie realm, there was no legal obstacle in the 
 way of resumiDg this work the first moment after the pressure of 
 violent prevention was removed. When, throughout the first year 
 of Darius, it was seen that the people did not resume this work, but 
 occupied themselves in fitting up and even embeUishing their own 
 houses, the Lord sent his prophet iSaggai, and two months later 
 Zechariah, to rebuke them for this neglect, and to encoui-age them 
 to resume and complete the building of the temple. The work was 
 
 completed in the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6 : 15). These are 
 
 briefly the historic facts which, being intimately connected with the 
 subject matter of this book, are essential to its intelligent exposition. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Lord rebukes the neglect of the people to build his house ; 
 calls their attention to their lean and meagre harvests, and to his 
 blighting curses upon their land and labor because of this neglect ; 
 and when the people shall have returned to this duty, pledges them 
 his favoring presence. 
 
 1. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth 
 month, in the first day of the month, came the word of 
 the LoED by Haggai the prophet mito Zerubbabel the 
 son of Shealtiel, governor of Jndah, and to Joshua the 
 son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, 
 
 2. Thus speaketh the Loed of hosts, saying. This 
 people say. The time is not come, the time that the 
 Loed's house should be built. 
 
 The people excused their delay in finishing the temple, on the 
 
 alleged ground that the time for it had not yet come. It has 
 
 been supposed that they bolstered up this lame apology by their 
 own construction of Jeremmh's prophecy (25 : 12), which had named 
 seventy years as the duration of the captivity. As the temple was 
 not destroyed until eighteen years after the first captives were taken 
 away, and as only about fifteen years had passed, up to the first 
 year of Darius, since the first captives returned, they perhaps per- 
 suaded themselves to think that the temple must lie desolate yet 
 some three years longer, to complete its full period of seventy years. 
 
 Men sometimes 'put constructions upon Scripture which God 
 
 has neither put nor authorized, the ultimate cause being that they 
 are but too well pleased to have it so. This may have been a case 
 of the same sort. 
 
284 HAGGAI.— CHAP. I. 
 
 3. Then came the word of the Loed by Haggai the 
 prophet, saying, 
 
 4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled 
 houses, and this house lie waste ; 
 
 In the question, " Is it time for you," &c., the Lord uses the 
 word " time " because the people had used it, saying, " The time has 
 not come to build the Lord's house." Thus ye say, " The time has 
 not come to build my house ; " has the time come for you to build 
 yours, and finish them off with comfort and even elegance, wliile 
 you let my house lie waste ? Is this a proper expression of gratitude 
 to Jehovah for condescending to dwell in the midst of you, and for 
 redeeming you from your long captivity ? The word " you " in the 
 Hebrew is made specially emphatic. It is for you^ for such as you^ 
 for you^ in view of all your circumstances, &c. This emphasis is 
 
 indicated by repeating the pronoun you. " Ceiled houses," from 
 
 the Hebrew word meaning covered, refers to the inside covering of 
 the walls with more or less of ornament — in modern phrase, called 
 ".finishing " — for both comfort and beauty. 
 
 5. ISTow, therefore, thus saith the Loed of hosts ; Con- 
 sider your ways. 
 
 6. Ye have sown much, and bring in little ; ye eat, 
 but ye have not enough ; ye di'iuk, but ye are not filled 
 with drink ; ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; and 
 he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag 
 with holes. 
 
 The expressive form of the original is, " Set your heart on your 
 ways," i. g., look on your ways, not only thoughtfully but solemnly, 
 appreciating and realizing the significance of your course toward 
 God, and of God's toward you. Since they had dishonored God by 
 neglecting his temple, he had scourged them by suspending his 
 usual gifts of timely rain and sun. He appeals to them to note the 
 facts of their own case, how they had prospered in nothing, and had 
 toiled to small purpose. 
 
 Y. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; Consider your ways. 
 
 8. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build 
 the house ; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be 
 glorified, saith the Loed. 
 
 This second exhortation to consider their ways may have a look 
 forward, as the first (v. 5) looked back, as if the Lord would say : 
 " Take note of what shall be hereafter, as well as of what has been 
 heretofore. Go to the mountain ; get wood ; finish my house ; 
 then see what a change shall come over your labor, and the fruits 
 thereof." 
 
 9. Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little ; and 
 
HAGGAL— CHAP. I. 285 
 
 when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? 
 saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is 
 waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 
 
 10. Therefore, the heaven over you is stayed from 
 dew, and the earth is stayed /'/'6>m her fruit. 
 
 11. And I called for a drought upon the land, and 
 upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the 
 new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the 
 ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, 
 and upon all the labor of the hands. 
 
 The phrase "blow upon it," some interpreters render (as the 
 margin has it) blow it away. The preposition rentlered upon^ 
 strongly favors our received translation. The sense will then be — 
 Even after you had gathered your harvests home, I blighted them as 
 
 by the breath of my mouth. The word " r«^w," " ye run every 
 
 man to his own house," indicates that their hearts were not in God's 
 
 house, nor toward it, but toward their own. It was specially 
 
 characteristic of the entire age before the coming of Christ that God's 
 moral government over men in this world was made manifest by 
 present retrilmtion. It was never intended that those present retri- 
 butions should be perfect, or should supersede the necessity of a fu- 
 ture state in which all deficiencies would be made up ; but it was 
 the design of God to make his government palpable, so that all men 
 should have tangible, visible evidence of its reality. Obviously there 
 was indefinitely more need of present retribution then than now. 
 It was a sort of compensation to offset their inferior light respecting 
 
 God, duty, and salvation. The genius of that whole dispensation 
 
 in regard to the point now in hand — present retribution for right 
 and wrong doing, visited on the people in blessings or in curses — is 
 set forth strongly in the latter chapters of Deuteronomy, especially 
 chapter 28. These verses of Haggai presuppose this type of God's 
 moral government over men in this world. 
 
 12. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua 
 the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the rem- 
 nant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Loed their 
 God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Loed 
 their God had sent him, and the people did fear before 
 the Loed. 
 
 13. Then spake Haggai the Loed's messenger in the 
 Loed's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, 
 saith the Loed. 
 
 14. And the Loed 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 
 
HAGGAI.— CHAP. U. 
 
 spirit of all the remnant of tlie people ; and they came 
 and did work in the house of the Lokd of hosts, their 
 God, 
 
 15. In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, 
 in the second year of Darius the king. 
 
 It is pleasant to note that these messages from the Lord pro- 
 duced the desired result. The Lord stirred up the spirit of both 
 rulers and people, and they took hold earnestly of the neglected 
 work of rebuilding the temple. Twenty-four days sufficed to arouse 
 
 them and to make the necessary preparations. The masses of the 
 
 people were far more obedient to the voice of God than before the 
 captivity — furnishing yet another case of blessings coming through 
 sore chastisement. " Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now 
 have I kept thy word." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The distinct portions of this chapter are strongly marked : (1.) 
 The portion (vs. 1-9) which speaks to those hearts that were sad 
 and depressed by the greatly inferior glory of this temple compared 
 with that built by Solomon. (2.) Vs. 10-19, designed to show that 
 their late neglect to build the house of God had vitiated all their 
 labors, and brought a blight from the Lord upon all their fruits ; 
 and (3.) Vs. 20-23, encouraging their rulers, and confirming the 
 great promise made (vs. 6-9). 
 
 1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth 
 day of the month, came the word of the Lokd by the 
 prophet Haggai, saying, 
 
 The reader will note that this date is one month, less three 
 days, after they began upon the work of rebuilding. (See 1 : 15.) 
 With what had been done in the former effort, commenced some 
 fourteen years before, the work of this month sufficed to show that 
 this temple must be greatly "inferior in splendor and in all its ap- 
 pointments, to that which had stood from the time of Solomon 
 down to the captivity. 
 
 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 
 governor of Jndah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech 
 the high priest, and to the re-sidue of the people, saying, 
 
 3. W ho is left among you that saw this house in her 
 first glory ? and how do ye see it now ? is it not in your 
 eyes in comparison of it as nothing ? 
 
 A few patriarchs of venerable age remained to remember the 
 glory of that first temple which had now lain desolate about sixty- 
 
HAGGAI.— CHAP. II. 287 
 
 eight years. The Lord calls their attention to the contrast between 
 that and this. " How do ye see this now ? Is not this in your 
 
 eyes, compared with that, as nothing? " Ezra. 3 : 12, 13, gives us 
 
 a touching allusion to this scene, blending the joy of the young 
 people with the grief of their fathers — the shoutings of the one class 
 and the sad waitings of the other — each swelling up, and perhaps 
 each exciting the other, until the noise was heard afar, and men 
 could not distinguish the shouts of joy from the outcries of grief — 
 a scene not soon forgotten by either the joyous or the sad ones of 
 
 that day. The Lord calls attention to the wide contrast between 
 
 this latter house and the former because he had something to say 
 about it, as we shall see. 
 
 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubabbel, saitb the Loed ; 
 and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedecb the high 
 priest ; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith 
 the Lord, and work : for I am with you, saith the Lord 
 of hosts : 
 
 The first thing he would say is. Be strong of heart, and never 
 yield to depression; "be strong and work," for I am with you, 
 and my presence ought to outweigk greater and more discouraging 
 contrasts than this which saddens your hearts to-day. Shall it not 
 be enough for you that I am with you ? 
 
 5. According to the word that I covenanted with 
 you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remain- 
 eth among you ; fear ye not. 
 
 The proper construction of the term "word," in the phrase 
 rendered " according* to the word that I covenanted," &c., pre- 
 sents diflSculties. There seems to be no authority in the original 
 for the words " according to," or for the idea that the continued 
 presence of the Spirit is in accordance with that original covenant 
 made when the nation came forth from Egypt. This may or not be 
 
 true : it is not expressed clearly and beyond a doubt here. 
 
 On the contrary, this passage, almost beyond a doubt, afiirms (1.) 
 That the covenant made at Sinai is still in force, no less since the 
 captivity than before ; and (2.) That God's Spirit also still abides 
 with the people ; so that for both reasons the people ought not to 
 fear, but be strong and of good courage. With such a covenant of 
 promise, and such a present, indwelling Spirit, why should they 
 bewail the lack of those external splendors which pertained to the 
 temple of Solomon ? 
 
 6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts ; Yet once, it is 
 a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the 
 earth, and the sea, and the dry land '^ 
 
 Exegetically, the chief diflSculty in this verse turns on the word 
 rendered " once." The choice seems to me to lie between these 
 
288 HAGGAI.— CHAP. II. 
 
 two constructions: (1.) "Yet once more, and that very soon, I 
 will sLake," &c. ; or (2). " It is yet but one short period, and I will 
 shake," &c. In the latter case, the word one (this is the usual sense 
 of the Hebrew) is only equivalent to the article. Of this usage 
 there are some examples. The choice between these two construc- 
 tions is a matter of no great importance as to the ultimate sense. 
 The first construction may be thought to imply once more, and 
 once only. 
 
 The " shaking of the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry 
 land," must be taken in the figurative and not the literal sense, to 
 indicate, not an earthquake, reaching far out through boundless 
 space, but convulsions among the great nationalities of the world — 
 Assyrian, Chaldean, Medo-Persian, and Grecian — to pave the way 
 for the coming of Messiah's kingdom. They dash one against an- 
 other, each in succession overwhelming its immediate predecessor, 
 but each revolution ripening the world for the coming of Messiah. 
 In a similar strain Ezekiel says (21 : 27) : " I will overturn, overturn, 
 overturn, and it shall be no more, until lie come whose right it is, 
 
 and I will give it him." In this view of the sense, the next verse 
 
 will be explanatory — " Yea, I will shake all nations," &c. 
 
 7. And I will sliake all nations, and tlie desire of 
 all nations shall come : and I will fill this house with 
 glory, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 8. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith 
 the Lord of hosts. 
 
 The test word in verse 7 is " desire.^'* Is this a synonym for the 
 Messiah? Is it only another name for the same exalted man^ 
 thought and spoken of here as one " desired by aU nations " ? So 
 the current sentiment of the Church and so its sacred songs have 
 for the most part assumed. This has been a pleasant and cherished 
 interpretation. I must confess that I have felt its strong attrac- 
 tions. But I have been compelled by the force of grammatical and 
 exegetical reasons to modify somewhat this interpretation, yet not 
 so as ultimately to lessen but rather to augment the richness of its 
 
 spiritual significance. The usual construction, which interprets 
 
 the word "desire" as meaning precisely the Messiah, must be re- 
 jected : 
 
 (1.) First and mainly, because the verb is plural — " they come, 
 even the desire of all the nations." The word "desire" must 
 therefore be a noun of multitude, i. e., a noun embracing in its 
 meaning not one object alone, but many. There seems to be no 
 way to get over this diflSculty so long as w^e make " desire " synony- 
 mous with Messiah. 
 
 (2.) The scope of thought is not congenial to its strict applica- 
 tion to the Messiah, especially as seen in the declaration, "The 
 silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." 
 Silver and gold were eminently absent, not present, in the personal 
 
HAGGAL— CHAP. 11. 289 
 
 life of the man of Nazareth. Yet in this prophecy silver and gold 
 must stand in a close relation to tlie sense of the clause " the De- 
 sire of all nations shall come." A better construction is possible, 
 
 and indeed unobjectionable. Let it be borne in mind that this 
 entire passage grows out of the contrast between the meagreness 
 of the new temple and the wealth and splendor of the old, and out 
 of the consequent discouragement and depression of the Lord's peo- 
 ple. He calls their special attention to this wide contrast (v. 3). 
 He proceeds to intimate (vs. 4, 5) that the absence of gold and 
 silver, and of material splendor in this new temple, may be abun- 
 dantly compensated by his spiritual blessings; by the fact that "/ 
 am with 2^0 ?f," and the further fact that the covenant and the Spirit 
 are still remaining. He advances yet in the same line of thought — 
 I am about to convulse the nations — to revolutionize the state of 
 the world, and thus, as the ultimate outcome, the desirable things 
 of all nations — their wealth, beauty, and glory — shall come to Zion ; 
 and " T will fill this temple with glory, saitli the Lord of hosts." 
 The silver and the gold of all the world are mine, saith the Lord 
 of hosts, and by the might of my power over the hearts of men 
 and over all human society, it shall be consecrated to Immanuel'* 
 kingdom. Special stress must be accorded to this frequent repe- 
 tition of the phrase, " saith the Lord of hosts," closing each of 
 
 three successive verses, 7, 8, 9. Let it also be borne in mind that, 
 
 according to this construction, the Lord speaks precisely to that 
 which constituted the chief solicitude of the pious Jews. They 
 were saying in their heart : How much we do miss the riches — the 
 silver, the gold, the cedars, the tapestry — of that ancient temple ! 
 When and how can we ever rear a temple worthy of the God of 
 our fathers ? We are very poor ; shall we ever be rich enough to 
 
 build and adorn a temple worthy of our God ? To this the Lord 
 
 very kindly and pertinently replies : Give yourselves no solicitudes 
 in that line. I am the Lord God of hosts ; I rule this wide world, 
 and I can command all its silver and gold when I will for my king- 
 dom. And I shall do it / In support of this construction may 
 
 be urged (1.) It gives the ordinary and established sense to the 
 word rendered " desire.'''' This word is used mainly for those things 
 which worldly men desire. (2.) It meets the exigencies of the 
 plural verb, since it embraces in its idea many things, not one only. 
 (3.) It is, as we have seen, fuUy in keeping with the previous con- 
 text — the train of thought which occasioned this prophecy, and 
 which introduced this passage. (4.) It is equally in harmony with 
 the subsequent context— jfilling this house with glory, and God's 
 claiming the silver and the gold of the world as his own. (5.) It is 
 also entirely in harmony with other and more ancient prophecies, 
 e. ff., Isa. 60. To set this in its full light would demand the whole 
 chapter, in which we read : " The abundance of the sea shall be 
 converted unto thee " — " all they from Sheba shall come, bringing 
 gold and incense"—" the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of 
 Tarshish first, to bring tliy sons from far, their, silver and their gold 
 13 
 
200 HAGGAI.— CHAP. II. 
 
 with them, nnto the name of the Lord thy God " — " the glory of 
 Lebanon shall come unto thee to beantify the place of my sanctu- 
 ary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious," &c., (fee. 
 
 The same strain runs through the seventy-second Psalm : " The 
 kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring' presents ; the kings 
 of Sheba and Seba shall oflfer gifts." Let it be said very dis- 
 tinctly that in this construction of the passage, I do not exclude 
 but include the Messiah. One advantage of this construction is 
 that under it we get, not the Messiah alone, but much more be- 
 sides. It is only under his reign and after the power of his cross 
 over human hearts has been gloriously developed among the great 
 and distant nations of the earth, that all the silver and gold of 
 the world shall be brought and laid at his feet for use in the pur- 
 poses of his spiritual kingdom. Even yet, how little of the real 
 wealth of nominally Christian nations — ^nay, more, how little of the 
 wealth of the visible Church is truly consecrated to the Saviour of 
 men ! It shall yet be far otherwise than this ! Prophecy cannot 
 receive its entire fullilment until the wealth of the world shall press 
 forward voluntarily (so to speak) to lay itself at Immanuel's feet, 
 to be used so that he may soonest and best see of the travail of his 
 soul, and may have most of that "joy set before him," in the con- 
 version of myriads to his love and service. It may be asked : Do 
 
 you expect, in the good time yet coming, to see a temple built with 
 cedars from Lebanon, and beautified with the silver and the gold of 
 
 all the earth ? 1 answer, Nothing can be further from my 
 
 thought than the going back of Christianity to real Judaism. The 
 New Testament "temple of God" is the loving and pure heart 
 wherein God dwells (2 Cor. 6 : 16). In this temple, by another 
 figure. Christians are themselves "living stones" (1 Pet. 2:5), 
 and in this temple "the sacrifices of God are a broken heart and 
 
 a contrite spirit." Of course, Jewish prophets must think and 
 
 write in Jewish symbols and terms. Good Christian sense must 
 find i\\Q spiritual meaning of those terms and symbols — ^the New 
 Testament and its teaching Spirit furnishing the key. 
 
 9. The glorj of this latter house shall be greater than 
 of the former, saith the Loed of hosts : and in this place 
 will I give peace, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 To the first clause, two diflterent interpretations have been given ; 
 (1.) That the " latter house " is that of Zerubbabel, the former that 
 of Solomon ; and the thing afiSrmed, that the glory of this built 
 under Zerubbabel, shall be greater than the glory of that built by 
 Solomon ; (2.) That the temple of Solomon is out of mind, and that 
 the antithesis really lies between the former and the latter glory of 
 this same temple then in building — its "former glory "being what 
 it had under Zerubbabel, and onward down through what remained 
 of the age before Christ ; and the latter, that which it shaU attain 
 when the desirable things of all nations shall come into it ; when 
 the wealth and beauty of the world shall be consecrated to Imman- 
 
HAGGAI.— CHAP. II. 291 
 
 nel, and tlie Prince of Peace shall reign in his own spiritual tem- 
 ple, filling it with the glory of his own presence. The latter is 
 
 doubtless the true construction : (1.) Because it is precisely what 
 the words in their order mean, and must mean. They stand thus: 
 '' Great shall be the glory of this house — the latter more than the 
 former, saith Jehovah of hosts." (2.) Because this construction 
 alone answers to the drift of the context, the very thing that the 
 Lord is saying in this passage being this — The meagre glory of 
 this temple, as ye now see it, shall give place to a glory vastly 
 greater when the wealth and beauty of all the nations shall be 
 brought into it. That is, the era of spiritual power, beauty, and 
 glory, shall immensely surpass all the external splendors of Judaism ; 
 the spirit shall eclipse the letter ; the inward be more and better 
 than the outward ; the homage of countless warm and living hearts 
 shall more adorn and glorify God's temple than all the gold of 
 Ophir, the smoke of incense and the blood of thousands of bullocks 
 
 and of rams. "In this place will I give peace" — can have but 
 
 one interpretation ; — not tranquillity as opposed to the disturbances 
 of war ; not peace of mind as opposed to agitation and distress : but 
 including all these and much more, the abstract word peace, used 
 for the concrete, it means the great Peacemaker^ the great author 
 and Prince of Peace, the world's pacificator as toward its abused, 
 offended Maker ; — the Shiloh of earlier prophecy, repeatedly foretold 
 under precisely this appellation. (See Micah 5 : 5 and Isa. 9 : 6, T.) 
 
 This naturally completes the evidence in proof that this entire 
 
 passage refers to the then future times of the Messiah. 
 
 10. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, 
 in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord 
 by Haggai the prophet, saying, 
 
 11. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the 
 priests concerning the law, saying, 
 
 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, 
 and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, 
 or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy ? And the priests 
 answered and said, ISTo. 
 
 13. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a 
 dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean ? And 
 the priests answered and said. It shall be unclean. 
 
 14. Then answered Haggai, and said. So is this peo- 
 ple, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord ; and 
 so is every work of their hands ; and that which they 
 offer here is unclean. 
 
 The priests being the authorized expounders of the ceremonial 
 law, the Lord directs the people to propound to them two ques- 
 tions : (1.) In case a priest, bearing holy flesh in his garment, brings 
 
292 HAGGAI.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 it in contact with any tMng else, does it impart its own sacredness 
 to whatsoever it touches ? To this, they answer, No. Ceremo- 
 nial holiness is not imparted hy the touch. (2.) Over against this 
 
 is the second question : Does a man, who has been made unclean 
 by contact with a dead body, impart his own uncleanness by the 
 touch? They answer. Yes. Ceremonial uncleanness is imparted 
 by the touch. This doctrine of the ceremonial law, the Lord ap- 
 plies to the people. They had sinned in neglecting to build the 
 Lord's temple. By reason of this sin, their moral state became 
 analogous to that of the man ceremonially unclean. This sin im- 
 parted its moral character to all they did. The Lord could not take 
 
 pleasure in the labors of their hands ; it all became unclean. On 
 
 the other hand, if they should do any good thing, it could not carry 
 its good quality over to any thing else they might do. Under the 
 law of God, works of supererogation are unknown. 
 
 15. And now, I pray yon, consider from this day 
 and upwards, from before a stone was laid upon a stone 
 in the temple of the Lord : 
 
 16. Since those days were, when one came to an heap 
 of twenty measures, there were hut ten : when one came 
 to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the 
 press, there were hut twenty. 
 
 IT. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and 
 with hail in all the labors of your hands ; yet ye turned 
 not to me, saith the Loed. 
 
 The Lord would have them review the period from that day 
 backward to the point where the building of the temple commenced, 
 and so from that day onward to the present, and observe how fear- 
 fully their harvests had been blighted. " I smote you with blasting 
 and blight, yet ye moved not toward me " — hterally, " there was 
 nothing of you to me." Up to this point his chastisements had 
 proved altogether unavailing. 
 
 18. Consider now from this day and upward, from 
 the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even 
 from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple 
 was laid, consider it, 
 
 19. Is the seed yet in the barn ? yea, as yet the vine, 
 and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree, 
 hath not brought forth : from this day will I bless you. 
 
 Here is another call to examine the course of the Lord's provi- 
 dence toward them throughout the interval from the day when 
 they commenced laying the foundations of the Lord's house to that 
 
 hour. Is the seed yet in the barn ? No. Planting-time is past, 
 
 and you have planted ; but have you any harvests of any sort ? Not 
 
HAGGAL— CHAP. II. 293 
 
 any. But now that ye have resumed this labor upon the temple, 
 
 from this day I will bless you. Note and see. 
 
 20. And again the word of the Loed came unto 
 Plaggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, 
 saying, 
 
 21. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, 
 I will shake the heavens and the earth ; 
 
 22. And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, 
 and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the 
 heatlj.en ; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those 
 that ride in them ; and the horses and their riders shall 
 come down, every one by the sword of his brother. 
 
 This message, sent especially to Zerubbabel, bears the same date 
 with that immediately preceding, and seems intended to supple- 
 ment and reaffirm the prophecy recorded (vs. ^-^). It is quite plain 
 here that the " shaking of the heavens and the earth " is the same 
 thing as " overthrowing the throne of the kingdoms," and has no 
 application other than this. God will cast down vast armies, over- 
 throwing chariots and their riders, horses and horsemen, and turn- 
 ing a man against his brother, so that God's enemies should give 
 their strength to mutual slaughter. Thus those vast, ungodly king- 
 doms of the earth are doomed to fall. 
 
 23. In that day saith the Lokd of hosts, will I take 
 thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, 
 saith the Loed, and will make thee as a signet ; for I 
 have chosen thee, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 But throughout this slaughter of his foes, God will protect his 
 friends. He indicates this by saying that their governor shall be as 
 his signet-ring upon his finger. This implies care, love, and protec- 
 tion. No doubt the Lord intended this promise should be good to 
 the successors of Zerubbabel ; — good for his people so long as they 
 put their trust in him, whoever their Zerubbabel may be. 
 
ZEOHAEIAH, 
 
 INTEODUOTION". 
 
 The usual preliminarj questions of personal history — date, occa- 
 sion, and special object — are readily settled in the case of the proph- 
 et Zechariah. He began to prophesy in the eighth month of tho 
 second year of Darius Hystaspes, b. o. 520, contemporary with Hag- 
 gai, when Zcrubbabel was governor of Judah, and Joshua was high 
 priest. At this period, the great matters of interest in the visible 
 kingdom of God were the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the resettlement 
 of the returned and still-returning captives from Chaldea, and yet 
 more especially, the rebuilding of the temple, and the culture of the 
 faith and religious life of the people composing the new community. 
 In many respects it was a time of laying again the foundations of re- 
 ligion and morals, and of planting anew those institutions which 
 were to be the fountains of their future religious life, and hence of 
 their abiding prosperity. Consequently, there was abundant work 
 
 for the prophets of the Lord. It is pleasant to note that their 
 
 work was more hopeful and less discouragmg than that of their 
 predecessors for many generations. The people were more impres- 
 sible; the word of the Lord was effective; the spirit of obedience, 
 and not of rebellion, was in the main predominant. Hence, most 
 of the messages sent from the Lord by Zechariah were of cheerful 
 tone, breathing far more of promise than of threatening. 
 
 The reader wOl notice in this prophet (relatively to the whole 
 amoxmt of his writings) more predictions of the Messiah than in any 
 
 other. The people were at first a small and feeble band, estimated 
 
 in comparison with other tribes and sovereignties about them. They 
 could scarcely have stood their ground against these hostile powers, 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. I. 295 
 
 save under the protection of the Persian throne. In this throne, 
 G-od had remarkably provided for their security. Hence, they had 
 great reason to feel that in this respect their salvation and national 
 life were from the Lord. In the same line of thought, the Lord 
 often revealed to them that Greater Patron and more glorious 
 Refuge, ere long to appear in the person of Immanuel, the real 
 lOng of Zion. 
 
 The first six chapters are distinguished from the rest of the book, 
 and indeed from most of the other prophetical writings of the 
 Old Testament, by the blending of symbol and vision. The things 
 presented to the prophet in vision were highly symbolic. Most of 
 these symbols were so far explained to the prophet as to give us an 
 
 adequate clue to their significance. Some critics have assumed 
 
 that the diversity in the point of symbolic vision, between the first 
 six chapters and the remaining eight, is sufficient proof that the lat- 
 ter portion was not written by the same Zechariah. The only valid 
 ground for this assumption must be another further back, viz. 
 that, if God reveals any truth to a given prophet by symbolic 
 visions, he must pursue this precise method and no other without 
 variation throughout that prophet's life. But what authority can 
 be found for such an assumption ? Does it obtain in the case of the 
 prophet Amos, or Daniel, or Ezekiel, or Jeremiah? I look upon 
 this assumption as one of the follies, not to say absurdities, of hyper- 
 criticism. Tlie book throughout is richly instructive, fraught 
 
 with spiritual life and power, and consolatory to the feeble but 
 trusting children of God. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 This chapter contains three distinct portions: vs. 1-6 derive 
 admonition for the people from the case of their fathers whom the 
 Lord sent into captivity for their sins; vs. 8-17 is the first symbolic 
 vision, viz., of horses and their riders, and vs. 17-21 the second, of 
 four horns, and of smiths to break those horns in pieces and destroy 
 their power for harm. 
 
 1. In tlie eighth month, in the second year of 
 Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the 
 son of Barachiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 
 
 Zechariah is said (Ezra 5 : 1) to be the son of Iddo the prophet. 
 We must suppose that ''son "is used there in its less rigid sense, 
 for grandson. Iddo is perhaps made prominent there as his an- 
 cestor, because he was a prophet. 
 
296 ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 2. The LoED hath been sore displeased with youi 
 fiithers. • 
 
 The statements of the history respecting this sore displeasure 
 of God against their fathers are abundant and very strong. (See 
 2 Chron. 36 : 11-16, and 2 Chron. 33, and 2 Kings 21 : 2-16.) 
 
 3. Therefore, say thou unto them, Thus saith the 
 LoKD of hosts ; Turn ye unto me, saith the Loed of hosts, 
 and I will turn unto you, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 In view of God's wrath against their fathers and its results in 
 the desolation of their city and land, the Lord commissions Zech- 
 ariah to say to the people then present: "Turn unto me in 
 penitence, and I will turn unto you in forgiving love and mercy." 
 This is the standing law of God's moral kingdom in this world of 
 
 probation. The reader will notice the frequent yet not " vain 
 
 repetition " of the divine title, " the Lord of hosts," the Great 
 Euler of the celestial armies, the King of the universe. 
 
 4. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the fomier 
 
 Erophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Loed of 
 osts ; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your 
 evil doings : but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, 
 saith the jLoed. 
 
 5. Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, 
 do they live for ever ? 
 
 6. But, my words and my statutes which I com- 
 manded my servants the prophets, did they not take 
 hold of your fathers? And' they returned and said. Like 
 as the Loed of hosts thought to do unto us, according to 
 our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt 
 with us. 
 
 "With great pertinence and force the Lord exhorts them not to 
 be as their fathers, stiff-necked, obdurate, reckless of the warnings 
 and entreaties sent them of God by the former prophets. WTiere 
 are those fathers now ? Gone from the world where they became 
 so fearfully hardened in their sins ; gone from the land they pol- 
 luted by their abominations and cursed by their persistence in 
 rebellion ; gone to their righteous but most fearful doom ! It were 
 well for the children to think often of those fathers and ask. Where 
 
 are they ? The prophets, too, having served their generation 
 
 amid sore trials and heart-griefs unutterable, had gone to their 
 
 blissful reward. Let the people consider! Did not the words 
 
 which God sent by those former prophets " ^al^^o?^ of your fathers?" 
 Did they slip off as things of loose grasp, and prove void of re- 
 sult? Did not those awful threatenings hold on, and have not 
 you yourselves seen and felt the terrible judgments which those 
 
ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. I. 297 
 
 words portended ? They themselves were forced to admit this. 
 
 They returned and said, i. ^., they took a new and better view of 
 the case under the pressure of appalling facts, and then they said — 
 All that God thought and threatened to do unto us as a nation, he 
 has done ! Let their children take warning ! 
 
 Y. Upon tlie four and twentietli day of tlie eleventh 
 month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of 
 Darius, came the word of the Lokd unto Zechariah, the 
 son of Earachiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 
 
 8. I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a 
 red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were 
 in the bottom ; and behind him were there red horses, 
 speckled, and white. 
 
 9. Then said I, O my lord, what are these ? And 
 the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew 
 thee what these he. 
 
 10. And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees 
 answered and said. These are they whom the Loed hath 
 sent to walk to and fro through the earth. 
 
 11. And they answered the angel of the Loed that 
 stood among the myrtle-trees, and said. We have walked 
 to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth 
 sitteth still, and is at rest. 
 
 12. Then the angel of the Loed answered and said, 
 O Loed of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on 
 Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which 
 thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten 
 years % 
 
 13. And the Loed answered tlie angel that talked 
 with me with good words and comfortable words. 
 
 14. So the angel that communed with me said unto 
 me. Cry thou, saying. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; I 
 am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great 
 jealousy. 
 
 15. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen 
 that are at ease : for I was but a little displeased, and 
 they helped forward the afEiction. 
 
 16. Therefore thus saith the Loed ; I am returned to 
 Jerusalem with mercies : mine house shall be built in it, 
 saith the Loed of hosts, and a line ^hall be stretched 
 forth upon Jerusalem. 
 
298 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. I. 
 
 17. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith tlie Lord of hosts ^ 
 My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad ; 
 and the Loed shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 These verses comprise one entire and distinct vision, the first in 
 a series, and of symbolic character. The symbols represent the 
 executive forces by whicli the Lord administers liis providential 
 government over the nations. The special aim here is— (1.) To 
 assure the Hebrew people that God had more judgments to send on 
 the nations that had oppressed them ; and (2.) That he would greatly 
 augment the growth and prosperity of Zion. So much for the 
 
 general scope of the passage. As to the particulars, let us note 
 
 that this is a night-vision, presented to the mind's eye of the 
 
 prophet by special divine agencies. That men riding on horses 
 
 are used to represent the executive forces of God's reign over the 
 nations is due (we may suppose) to the use of post-borses as vehicles 
 of the royal mandates, as the nerves of communication (so to speak) 
 from the working brain on the throne to the remotest organs of his 
 will in alibis distant provinces. They seem to be thought of here 
 rather as explorers to observe and report, than as executioners. 
 
 The reader will better understand this representation if he will 
 
 be at the pains to classify the personages of the scene — what are 
 sometimes called" the dramatis personso " — thus: (1.) The man 
 riding upon a red horse (v. 8), who stood (on horseback) among the 
 myrtle-trees in the shaded vale, at the head of others, also on horses 
 of various colors ; the same who (v. 10) explained and said, " These 
 are they whom the Lord hath sent," &c., to whom the other horse- 
 men report (v. 11) ; and to whom prayer is oiFered as "the Lord of 
 hosts " (v. 12) ; and who answers so kindly (v. 13). This can be no 
 other than the uncreated angel — the very Son of God, so often if 
 not always the God revealed and made manifest in all the ages 
 before his incarnation. (2.) Xext are his attendants, on horses, 
 representing angels proper; those "ministers of his who do his 
 pleasure," and whom he continually employs in the administration 
 of his providential government on earth. They appear (v. 8) where 
 it must be assumed that the horses have riders upon them ; also 
 (v. 11), they report what they have seen in their mission to and fro 
 through the earth. (3.) The revealing angel, specially attendant 
 upon the prophet as his interpreter, usually called "the angel 
 that talked with me," e. g.^ v. 9, 13, and also in v. 14, where our 
 translators have given the same Hebrew word another rendering, 
 " that communed with me." It is the same aagel who offers the 
 prayer (v. 12), since the answer (v. 13) is given to him. That he 
 offers this prayer is due to his strong sympathy with the prophet, 
 
 to whom he was a sort of guardian angel. This grouping of the 
 
 characters of this scene will help the reader to understand its sig- 
 nificance. The horses and their riders are seen among the myrtle- 
 trees in a shady vale — both the myrtles and the vale indicating the 
 
ZECHAKIAH.— CHAP. I. 299 
 
 low and liumble condition of God's people and kingdom, especially 
 at that time, yet showing us plainly that however low and humble 
 in human estimation, Ood was in the midst of them^ and did not 
 disdain to reveal precisely there his glorious Son, and under him 
 the angels clothed in might as the executive servants of his reign 
 
 among the nations. No other speciality of meaning can be safely 
 
 assigned to the color of these horses, except that red commonly 
 indicates war-scenes of blood, and that the variety may suggest 
 thai God's agency embraces all varieties of manifestation — curses 
 
 and blessings, war and peace. The prophet asks his attendant 
 
 angel what those horses and their riders mean. He promises to 
 show him, but the statement is given by the personage lirst seen and 
 standing in the foreground of the picture — the Great Uncreated 
 Angel of Jehovah — " These are they whom the Lord sends to 
 traverse the whole earth." Then they themselves come forward 
 and make their report in the hearing of the prophet : " We have 
 traversed the earth, and lo, all the nations are still and at rest." 
 Even those great powers which had so cruelly oppressed the Jews 
 were not receiving their deserved retribution. This is the main 
 
 point of their report. Upon this, the revealing angel, warming 
 
 in sympathy with the prophet and his people, cries — " How long, 
 O Lord, ere thou wilt have mercy on Jerusalem and on Judah, upon 
 which thou hast manifested thine indignation now seventy years ? " 
 
 To this the Lord answers witli words of comfort and cheer. 
 
 He has purposed to scourge and soon to destroy that fierce 
 
 Chaldean power, and he will surely hft up Jerusalem. V. 15 
 
 may be paraphrased thus: "I am very sore displeased with 
 Chaldea and Edom : I was comparatively a little displeased with 
 my people, Judah and Jerusalem, and therefore I sufiered those 
 powers to come down on the holy city and land ; but they aug- 
 mented that infliction ; they gave vent to their cruel and vindictive 
 spirit, and have quite overdone the work which I commissioned 
 
 them to do. For this, they are to have a fearful doom." In 
 
 V. 16, the Lord promises to return in mercy and to help onward the 
 rebuilding of the city ; and in v. 17, that the population should 
 
 overpass the city walls and fill the adjacent country. " Will yet 
 
 choose Jerusalem " — means, will yet maiiifest his loving choice of 
 her by appropriate mercies. 
 
 18. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and beliold 
 four horns. 
 
 19. And I said unto the angel that talked with me. 
 What 1)6 these % And he answered me, These are the 
 horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 
 
 20. And the Loed shewed me four carpenters. 
 
 21. Then said I, What come these to do ? And he 
 spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered 
 Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these 
 
300 ZECHAKIAH.— CHAP. II. 
 
 are come to fray them, to cast out tlie horns of the Gen 
 tiles, which lifted up iheiv horn over the land of Jndah 
 to scatter it. 
 
 This second vision is closely connected in significance with the 
 first, looking especially to the destruction of those heathen powers 
 which "had scattered Judah and Jerusalem." The "horn" is a 
 natural emblem of power. The number, four, does not count so 
 many tiostile nations, but rather means all, in every quarter of the 
 earth, toward every cardinal point of the compass, who have been 
 
 pushing and scattering the saints of God. The word rendered 
 
 "carpenters," should be "smiths," workers in iron or other met- 
 als, and therefore armed with suitable instruments for breaking 
 horns. The word "fray," mostly obsolete as a verb, means to 
 frighten. The next verb, rendered " cast out," has a stronger sense 
 — ca%t down to the ground^ so as altogether to paralyze their power 
 
 for harm. This prediction was fulfilled shortly after. Chaldea 
 
 revolted against its late Medo-Persian conquerors during the reign 
 of this same Darius. He consequently attacked and subdued them, 
 and then greatly marred the military strength and glory of Baby- 
 lon. Thenceforward Chaldea was no more felt or feared as a power 
 among the nations. 
 
 OHAPTEE II. 
 
 This chapter introduces one vision and has but a single theme. 
 The vision presents a man going forth to measure Jerusalem ; but 
 ho is soon stopped, and it is announced that Jerusalem shall be so 
 prosperous and populous that her people shall overpass her former 
 limits and fill the adjacent country with unwalled villages (vs. 1-4). 
 God will dwell in the midst of her, revealing his glory there ; her 
 captive children are exhorted to flee out of Babylon and hasten 
 home. In the greatness of her future prosperity, many other 
 nations shall join themselves unto the Lord (vs. 5-13). 
 
 1. I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and 
 behold a man vfith a measuring line in his hand. 
 
 2. Then said I, Whither goest thou ? And he said 
 unto me, To measm^e Jerusalem, to see what is the 
 breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. 
 
 3. And behold, the angel that talked with me went 
 forth, and another aijgel went out to meet him, 
 
 4. And said unto him. Run, speak to this young man, 
 saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without 
 walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein : 
 
 In this vision a man is seen with a measuring line, going forth 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. 11. 301 
 
 1o measure Jerusalem — probably its dimensions before its recent 
 destruction — as if preparing to rebuild it on the same foundations. 
 
 The angel that talked with the prophet went forth (/. e.^ from 
 
 the prophet) and another angel came forth (it may be supposed) 
 from the Lord, to meet him and to say to him : Hasten to 
 that young man who has the measuring line, and tell him there 
 is no occasion to measure the old limits of the city ; the new one 
 shall spread out beyond her former walls, and her people shall live 
 in the surrounding country without walls, because of the multitude 
 
 of men and of cattle. In this passage, the point most in dispute 
 
 among critics is the question — Who is this "young man "? (v. 4). 
 Some say he is the prophet Zechariah ; others, that he is the " man 
 with a measuring line " of v. 1 — an appropriate work for an active 
 young man. I incline to the latter view, especially because v. 4 
 implies that the measurement of the city is arrested for reasons 
 there given. The whole scene was designed to impress vividly 
 upon the prophet and his people the great promise of God respect- 
 ing the growth, prosperity, and glory of the new city, and ulti- 
 mately of that spiritual Zion of which this was the outward 
 symbol. 
 
 6. For I, saitli the Loed, will be unto her a wall of 
 fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of 
 her. 
 
 The connection of thought here is admirable : Think no more 
 of walls to be rebuilt for the new city, nor of costly outlays to 
 beautify and adorn it ; " for I, saith the Lord, will be myself her 
 wall," even "a wall of fire round about her; " and I will be her 
 adornment also — even " a glory in the midst of her." This mag- 
 nificent promise we cannot suppose to have been exhausted in the 
 days of Zechariah, nor in the entire period before the incarnation 
 of the Son of God; but preeminently then when He, the great In- 
 carnation of God, became manifest in human flesh in the midst of 
 his Zion. Yet its fulfilment began in those days of Zion's reforma- 
 tion and rebuilding. Our divine Lord reasserted essentially the 
 same thing and made it a promise of perpetual love to his Church, 
 when he said, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the 
 world." 
 
 6. Ho, ho, come forth^ and flee from the land of the 
 north, saith the Loed : for I have spread you abroad as 
 the four winds of the heaven, saith the Loed. 
 
 T. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the 
 daughter of Babylon. 
 
 This call summons all Jews still remaining in Chaldea to return, 
 especially to escape from the judgments God was soon to bring on 
 Babylon. Babylon is " the land of the north." (See Jer. 6 : 1-22, 
 and 16 : 15.) This call to escape contemplates (probably) that 
 
302 ZECIIARIAH.— CHAP. II. 
 
 impending devastation of Babylon referred to in 11)6 notes on Zech. 
 
 1 : 21. The Lord had scattered them abroad as if the winds from 
 
 every quarter of the licavens had been combined for this work. 
 This is the most natm-al sense of the words "«s the four winds of 
 heaven " — i. e., would do it. So, in Isa. 64 : 6, and Job 30 : 15. A 
 different phrase is used to express the sense — into or toward the 
 four quarters of the heavens ; as in Jer. 49 : 32-36. 
 
 8. For thus saith the Loed of hosts : After the glory 
 hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you : for 
 he that toucheth you toueheth the apple of his eye. 
 
 Here two points may need each a word of explanation, viz., the 
 sense of the phrase "after the glory," and the identification of the 
 
 persons "he" and "me," in the clause "he hath sent me," &c. 
 
 "After the glory" is an elliptical, shortened phrase, looking to v. 
 5, and meaning that after having become the glory of Zion by reveal- 
 ing himself as her king, her refuge, and protector, it followed 
 naturally that he should be sent to scourge the nations that had 
 spoiled Jerusalem, i. e., the Chaldeiins, and perhaps the Edomites 
 
 also. As to the persons "he" and "me," in the phrase "he 
 
 hath sent me," &c., the languagif implies that the speaker who calls 
 himself the "Lord of hosts," has been sent by some one referred 
 to as "he; " "Ae hath sent wze," &c. The one thus "sent " can be 
 no other than the leading personage in the vision (1 : 8-13), there 
 seen on a red horse (v. 8) ; to whom the other horsemen report (v. 
 11) ; to whom the angel interpreter offers prayer (v. 12) ; and 
 moreover the same personage who in 2 : 5 says, " I will be a glory 
 
 in the midst of her," i. <?., the Son of God. The antecedent of 
 
 " he " is implied in thought, rather than expressed in word ; yet can 
 be no other than the infinite Father — often represented in the Scrip- 
 tures as sending the Son — here on a mission of providential judg- 
 ments on the guilty nations that had desolated Jerusalem. The 
 
 reason assigned is beautifully significant of the tenderness of even 
 the Father's love toward his people. We often see manifestations 
 of tenderness in Jesus Christ while wearing our nature in its hu- 
 man weaknesses; but here Jesus says of his Father — "He that 
 toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye." " Toucheth " — in 
 the sense of doing harm. The apple is the pupil of the eye, wdiicli 
 the Hebrews call the little man of the eye, or as here, the little boy 
 of the eye, both terms coming probably from the fact that, looking 
 
 into the eye, you see a miniature picture of yourself. Can we 
 
 realize the precious truth taught here — that God feels every injury 
 done to his people, as we feel a wound in the apple of our eye ? 
 Then let us forever dismiss and discard the cruel assumption that 
 the Infinite God has little or no sympathy with our spiritual life, 
 with the real welfare of his people, the interests of his truth, and 
 the cause of human salvation ! 
 
 9. For, behold, T will shake my hand upon them, 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. II. 303 
 
 and tliey shall be a spoil to tlieir servants : and ye sliall 
 know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. 
 
 Immaniiel, as the God of universal providence, sent to the na- 
 tions that had wasted Zion, here declares what he will do, and calls 
 special attention to it: '•'I will shake or wave my hand over them " 
 — so much only being necessary to indicate to the executioners of 
 his will what they were to do ; and "they shall become a spoil to 
 those who have heretofore been their servants ; " i. <?., the nations 
 some time in servitude under Chaldea now rise up, overcome, and 
 
 spoil her. Ye shall know by your experience of divine blessings 
 
 that my commission is truly divine. It is remarkable that the 
 
 phrase "the Lord of hosts " is used interchangeably of the Father 
 and the Son : of the Father here ; of the Son in v. 8, and elsewhere 
 in this and the previous chapter. ISTo other explanation of this is 
 needed save the fact that this name is equally applicable to either, 
 and that the Scriptures in some cases represent the Father and in 
 some cases the Son, as administering the government of this world. 
 
 10. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion : for lo, I 
 come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the 
 Lord. 
 
 Closely parallel with this is Zech. 9:9: There — " Rejoice great- 
 ly, O daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem; behold, 
 thy king cometh unto thee,"&c. Here^ as the reader will see, " Sing 
 and rejoice," for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee, 
 saith the Lord, i. e.^ Jehovah. This close similarity strengthens 
 the evidence that the speaker here is the promised Messiah, and 
 that this promised coming can be exhausted in nothing less than his 
 appearance in human flesh, and indeed in nothing less than his 
 abiding presence (spiritually) with his people "to the end of the 
 world." This abiding presence, in somewhat lower forms, he mani- 
 fested from the time of Zechariah onward to his incarnation. 
 
 All this is indeed occasion for exultant joy. 
 
 11. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in 
 that day, and shall be my jDeople : and I will dwell in 
 the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of 
 hosts hath sent me unto thee. 
 
 Christ's coming to dwell incarnate and subsequently by his 
 Spirit, the Comforter, would result in the calling of the Gentiles 
 into his Church, and ultimately in the gathering of many 7iations^ 
 and in their becoming joined in the relationships of love and trust to 
 their redeeming Saviour and king. Here recurs again that ex- 
 pressive phrase — " Thou shalt know " (in thine own blest exj^e- 
 rience) that I am sent of the Eternal Father, that the work is not 
 mine alone, but his as well — evermore sustained by the common 
 sympathy and the cooperative agency of each and of both. 
 
304 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. HI. 
 
 12. And the Loed shall inherit Judah his portion in 
 the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. 
 
 "Inherit," ia the sense of having them as indeed his own 
 pecuhar people, with their most hearty concurrence and true 
 devotion to his service. This verse manifestly had its special fulfil- 
 ment in the nearer future — already apparent in the time of this 
 prophet. 
 
 13. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord : for he is 
 raised np out of his holy habitation. 
 
 So glorious are these promises, so magnificent and momentous 
 these achievements, that the prophet gives utterance to his sense of 
 the impressive presence of Jehovah, who works them all, by saying 
 — " Be silent, O all flesh, before " such a God, so present in this 
 guilty world, " for he hath roused himself up from his holy habita- 
 tion," and is about to gird himself for solemn and mighty issues! 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 This chapter records another distinct and entire vision, in which 
 Joshua, the high priest, is the prominent personage. He appears, 
 not in his own person, but as representing the priesthood, and par- 
 ticularly in their depressed condition at that time. The vision aims 
 to show that God does not reject but forgives and restores the 
 priesthood, and indeed will at length make it perpetual in the per- 
 son of his Messiah. 
 
 1. And he shewed me Joshua the high priest stand- 
 ing before the angel of the Loed, and Satan standing at 
 his right hand to resist him. 
 
 The tense of the Hebrew verb connects this verb closely with 
 the preceding : " And then he caused me to see Joshua the high 
 priest standing," engaged in his official ministrations before the 
 uncreated angel Immanuel ; and Satan, the well-known adversary 
 of God's people, standing at his right hand to act the Satan against 
 him — ^literally to " Satan " him — the Hebrew for Satan meaning to 
 persecute, oppose, resist. Bearing in mind, that the high priest was 
 by virtue of his office a representative man, officiating for the peo- 
 ple before the Lord, and remembering the low estate of their entire 
 rehgious system at this time, it need not surprise us that the people 
 should be sinfully despondent and weak of faith. Probably this 
 was the great sin which is here represented by the filthy garments 
 of the priest. It is fully in character for Satan to take advantage of 
 their unbelief, and thrust forward his plea against their being for- 
 given or in any wise accepted before God. He di-eaded the present 
 and prospective revival in their religious state, and roused himself 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. III. 305 
 
 (as is Ms wont) to head it off at tlie outset. Is not lie a very 
 devil ? 
 
 2. And tlie Loed said unto Satan, The Loed rebuke 
 tliee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jeru- 
 salem rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of 
 the fire? 
 
 He who in v. 1 is called "the angel of the Lord," is here " the 
 Lord,,'''' " Jehovah." So also in the phrase '• The Lord rebuke thee," 
 "Jehovah " is the word for " Lord," showing that this term is ap- 
 plied interchangeably to both the Father and the Son. The 
 
 clause, " The Lord rebuke thee," is repeated, both for the greater 
 emphasis, and in order to connect with it the consolatory words — 
 he, the same that has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes thee. The term 
 " choose " here, as in 1 : 17 and 2 : 12, implies God's special love for 
 
 Jerusalem as representing his own people. "Is not this a brand 
 
 plucked out of the fire ? " imphes that after the fires of utter destruc- 
 tion were already kindled upon her, the Lord plucked her out and 
 extinguished the fires. Having done so much to save her and at 
 
 such personal risk, would the Lord give her up to Satan now ? 
 
 This language is used by Amos (4 : 10), and may be borrowed from 
 
 him. Commenting on these verses, Dr. Henderson raises the 
 
 question as to the ground of Satan's opposition, and remarks that 
 the passage does not inform us ; but that he finds a clue to it in 
 Jude 9, in which passage he adopts the construction which resolves 
 " the body of Moses " into the Jewish church, and assumes a refer- 
 ence there to this passage in Zechariah. But in that dispute it was 
 Michael the archangel who contended with the devil ; in this, it is 
 the Lord Jehovah, not to say also that Jude's language, " the body 
 of Moses," should by no means be made to mean any thing else but 
 his physical, veritable body, without good reason. The literal 
 sense, if admissible, as it is here, has the prior claim. 
 
 3. l^ow Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, 
 and stood before the angel. 
 
 4. And he answered and spake unto those that stood 
 before him, saying. Take away the filthy garments from 
 him. And unto him he said, Behold, 1 have caused 
 thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee 
 with change of raiment. 
 
 The Mosaic law prescribed the priest's garments very minute- 
 ly, and made great account of them as indicative of the moral 
 purity requisite in those who came before God. Here the filthy 
 garments represent the sins of the people, probably (as suggested' 
 above) their unbehef and despondency at that time, and their long 
 and guilty wanderings from God into idolatry in past time, from, 
 which they were only now returning. He stood before the 
 
306 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. HI. 
 
 divine angel who, in v. 4, pardons sin. Tliis divine personag:e saji 
 to liis attendant angels: "Take tliose filthy garments away;" and 
 to Joshua, " See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass fi'om thee, and 
 I will clothe thee with festive garments," such as the priests should 
 wear on holy days. This removing of his sin is a representative 
 thing, its import being, not that the Lord forgives his personal sin, 
 but rather the sins of the people, and practically rcinaugurates the 
 long disused functions of the priesthood. As if he would say to all 
 the people : "Keturn to the modes of worship enjoined upon your 
 fathers in the wilderness; your own covenant-keeping God will 
 hear your prayers and accept your offerings through the High 
 Priest of his own appointment. The great sins of your nation be- 
 fore and during the captivity are forgiven, and again the way is 
 open to you for acceptable worship before him and for confidence 
 
 in his love." Y. 4 commences: "He" (the angel Jehovah) 
 
 '-'• answered.'''' But the narrative has nothing that called for an 
 answer. Frequently, in both the Old Testament and the JSTew, the 
 word " answer " refers to something thought but not expressed ; in 
 the present case, to the silent prayer of Joshua standing before the 
 Lord as a sinner, that God would forgive him. To this unuttered 
 prayer the answer comes. 
 
 5. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his 
 head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and 
 clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lokd 
 stood by. 
 
 The original word, rendered "I said," Dr. Henderson thinks 
 should have its vowels changed so as to read, "And he " (the Lord) 
 ''said." He pleads for this change on the ground that it would be 
 impertinent for the prophet to speak here. I do not see force enough 
 in this objection to justify a change of the text. The prophet's re- 
 quest I attribute to his deep sympathy with the transaction — a sym- 
 pathy upon which his Lord would not frown, and which in his eye 
 
 would readily atone for any seeming impertinence. The prophet 
 
 saying in his heart as he saw the filthy garments taken away, " That 
 is good^^'' begged that his head-dress might be changed as well. His 
 request was at once complied with. In the last clause, some sup- 
 pose that the angel of the Lord stood Jnj^ as supervising the transac- 
 tion till all was complete, tlius expressing his deep personal interest; 
 while others render it simply stood^ as if he rose up preparatory to 
 the solemn asseveration recorded in the next verse. I prefer the 
 former construction, with our English version. 
 
 6. And the angel of the Loed protested unto Joshua, 
 saying, 
 
 Y. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; If thou wilt walk 
 in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou 
 shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my com*ts, 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP HI. 307 
 
 and I will give tliee places to walk among these that 
 stand by. 
 
 The word rendered " protest " means to affirm with special so- 
 
 lemnitj, to asseverate. In the word " charge," the margin is 
 
 more true to the original, " ordinance." Our translators seem to 
 have misapprehended the word rendered " places to walk." * It 
 is a participle, with the sense of guides, attendants, who shall aid you 
 to walk — cause you to walk safely. They are to come from among 
 " these that stand hy " — his own attendant, ministering angels. It is 
 a plain promise of the aid of ministering angels. The essential mean- 
 ing of the verse is clear : " If thou art both obedient and faithful, 
 thou shalt be established in the priesthood, thy services shall be ac- 
 cepted before me, and thou shalt have ministering angels to lead 
 and aid thee in thy work." 
 
 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy 
 fellows that sit before thee : for they are men wondered at : 
 for behold, I will bring forth my servant The BEAISTCH. 
 
 This call of Joshua's special attention implies that statements are 
 to be made of things highly important. The word rendered " thy 
 fellows," means thy associates in the priesthood, the subordinate 
 priests who served under the general direction of the high priest. 
 
 In the rendering "they are men wondered at," few readers 
 
 would be likely to see the true idea, which is — they are men of 
 typical character, men who are significant signs or representatives 
 of the great intercession, performed for God's people by Jesus Christ, 
 their Great High Priest. The most literal rendering is "men of 
 wonder." Seethe same use of the word, Isa. 8: 18 and 20 : 3 ; Ezek. 
 12 : 6, 11, and 24: 24, 27. In this line of thought the prophet gives a 
 striking prediction of the Messiah. The course of thought is : " Hear 
 and give special heed, O Joshua, thou high priest, and thy attendant 
 priests also, for ye are all typical men ; for lo, I shall soon cause to 
 
 appear among men my servant the Branch ! " The original 
 
 for "bring forth" does not refer specifically to his human birth 
 of a virgin, but to his being caused to come down to our world, and 
 
 so to appear among men. The word " branch " should not carry 
 
 our thought to a branch in the sense of liml), as one among many 
 on the same tree, but to the one shoot which springs up from the 
 root, and which, though small at first, becomes a tree of wonderful 
 qualities. The word seems to be chosen because it well expresses 
 the humble origin of the Messiah, and the small beginnings of his 
 work, and also his descent from the stock of David as to his human 
 nature. It occurs as a name for the Messiah in Isa. 4:2; Jer, 23 : 5 
 and 38 : 15 ; and Zech. 6 : 12. " My servant " is also a well-known 
 designation of the Messiah, occurring Isa. 42 : 1, and 49 : 3, 5, 6, and 
 52 : 13, and 53 : 11. The earliest Jewish expositors known to usin- 
 
308 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. III. 
 
 terpret this passage of the Messiah. The Chaldean Paraphrase 
 (older than the Christian era) reads it: "Behold, I bring my servant 
 the Messiah, who will be revealed." 
 
 9. For behold the stone- that I have laid before 
 Joshua ; upon one stone shall 'be seven eyes : behold, I 
 will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of 
 hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in 
 one day. 
 
 This verse brings forward another great truth, manifestly re- 
 garded as one of high importance, since special attention is called 
 
 to it. The first and main inquiry is, What is this " stone " ? 
 
 Note what is said of it. It is laid before the high priest Joshua, 
 manifestly to be under his care ; the seven eyes of God — his perfect 
 eye — are upon it ; it is not a stone to be built on, but to be en- 
 graved — wrought with the chisel into forms of beauty ; and finally, 
 the real thing signified by it must have some natural connection 
 with the great work of Christ's atonement, in which, by one ofifer- 
 ing, " in one day," he bore away the sins of men. All these con- 
 ditions cannot be fulfilled in the foundation stone of the temple, 
 although not improbably the stones of the temple suggested this 
 figure of a stone. They are, however, all fulfilled in the I'ming 
 Church of God^ and in nothing else. God's Church was then '' laid 
 before Joshua," in the sense of being put under his charge ; then, 
 as ever, the perfect eye of God was upon it ; its engra^^ng into 
 forms of spiritual beauty is eminently God's work by the chisel of 
 his providence, and by the agency of his Spirit ; and finally, the 
 sins of this Church Christ took away by that one ofi*ering of him- 
 self on Calvary. By a figure somewhat analogous to this, Chris- 
 tians are said to be "the temple of the living God " (2 Cor. 6 : 16J, 
 and "his building "(1 Cor. 3:9), and "living stones, built up a 
 spiritual house" (1 Peter 2: 5). The passage Zech. 4: 10 defi- 
 nitely alludes to this verse, and asserts that " they are the eyes of 
 the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." The 
 usage of accounting seven as the perfect number seems to have been 
 oriental, and not merely Jewish — pervading the hterature of the 
 
 East, and not restricted to Palestine. These truths were well 
 
 adapted to inspire the people with fresh confidence in God as their 
 present Friend and Guardian, interested evermore in the spiritual 
 culture of his people, and purposing to use the priesthood again, as 
 in early days, as his instrument in the spiritual training of his peo- 
 ple ; and at the same time signifying that a more perfect atonement 
 would be made — finished and complete — "in one day," and not 
 needing, therefore, perpetual sacrifices, year by year, which never 
 could do their work perfectly. (See Heb. 7 : 27, 9 : 9, 25, 26, and 
 10:1^.) 
 
 10. In that day, saith the Loed of hosts, shall ye call 
 
ZECHARIAH.~CHAP. IV. 309 
 
 every man his neighbor under the vine and nnder the 
 fig-tree. 
 
 In that future day, when the Messiah shall be revealed, " the 
 iniquity of his people be taken away in one day," and their spir- 
 itual discipline be made effective to their sanctification, there 
 will be superabounding joy and blessedness, beautifully represented 
 here by the common Jewish conception of reposing in peace and in 
 
 love under the vine and the fig-tree. The last words of the verse 
 
 — " under the vine and under the fig-tree " — are given here as the 
 very language of the call. Every man shall cry to his neighbor, 
 " Ho ! under the vine and under the fig-tree ; " come and let ns 
 have peace and rest, enjoying the gifts of our bountiful God ! 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 This chapter is another complete vision, having one set of sym- 
 bols, illustrating one leading truth, viz., that the only perpetual 
 fountain of power for spiritual life and labor is in God, and reaches 
 man through his Spirit. 
 
 1. And the angel that talked with me came again, 
 and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. 
 
 This verse has special interest, because of the analogy it gives 
 us to illustrate the mental state of the prophet while enjoying pro- 
 phetic visions. His angel interpreter came and '''■waked him," 
 arousing his mind into a new state of activity, corresponding to the 
 ordinary change from sleeping to waking. Of course, it is only by 
 experience that any one can know every thing pertaining to this 
 prophetic state. Its powers must be quite analogous to those of a 
 new ^ense^ and we do not need to be told that each of our five 
 senses must give its own sensations and impressions. No one of 
 them can perform this service for another ; the eye cannot give us 
 sounds, nor the ear colors. We must have the prophetic sense be- 
 fore we can hope to have the prophetic sensations or impressions, or 
 to Tcnow them perfectly. 
 
 2. And said unto me, What seest then ? And I said, 
 I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, 
 with a bowl npon the top of it, and his seven lamps 
 thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are 
 npon the top thereof : 
 
 3. And two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side 
 of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 
 
 In this vision the symbols and their meaning are plain. Chris- 
 tians are the lights of the world. Churches are candlesticks, and 
 
310 ZECHAHIAH.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 their members luminous bodies, candles or lamps, revealing liglit 
 
 concerning God in this otherwise very dark world. Here, Chen, 
 
 are one golden candlestick; a bowl or reservoir on the top of it, to 
 contain oil ; two olive-trees, one on each side, for supplying the oil ; 
 and pipes or tubes (v. 2 seems to say seven in number, and v. 12 
 two), to carry the oil from the tree to the reservoir. This is essen- 
 tially the apparatus for supplying light. That the candlestick is 
 all of gold indicates its excellence — the value, in God's sight, of the 
 Church, and of living, shining Christians. 
 
 4. So I answered and spake to tlie angel that talked 
 with me, saying, What are these, my lord % 
 
 5. Then the angel that talked with me answered and 
 said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be ? And 
 I said, IS^o, my lord. 
 
 6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, 
 This is the word of the Loed unto Zerubbabel, saying, 
 l^ot by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the 
 LoED of hosts. 
 
 These symbols, interpreted into literal language, amount to this 
 word which the Lord sends to Zerubbabel, then the governor of 
 Judah, and in charge of the great work then present and pressing — 
 the rel3uilding of the temple: "Not by might, nor by ^ower, but 
 by my Spirit, saith the Lord." The work upon which you labor 
 seems to you very difficult — often, perhaps, too great for your re- 
 sources; but know that success is not by any human power alone, 
 but by the Spirit of God. This Spirit supplies the oil that feeds the 
 lamps. Christian souls and religious institutions correspond to the 
 lamps and to the machinery wliich supplies them ; but the living 
 fountain of oil is of the Lord alone by his Spii-it. This is the pre- 
 cious doctrine of the New Testament as well as of the Old. Paul 
 loved to say, man may labor, " God alone giveth the increase." (See 
 1 Cor. 3 : 5-9.) 
 
 7. Who art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerub- 
 babel thou shalt hecome a plain : and he shall bring 
 forth the headstone thereof with ^houimg^^ crying^ Grace, 
 grace, unto it. 
 
 Obstacles, high and strong as great mountains, may seem to 
 block the prosecution of this work; but say in the hearing of your 
 governor, "Who art thou, great mountain," that thou shouldst 
 think to withstand this work of God ? " Before Zerubbabel become 
 thou a plain ! " — a summons to the great mountain of difficulty and 
 opposition to lie low before the Lord's servant, and cease to retard 
 
 his efforts. The " headstone " seems most naturally to mean the 
 
 crowning topstone, put on at the completion of the temple. This 
 would be put on with loud ascriptions of praise to divine grace for 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IV. 311 
 
 the effective power which had carried the work throngh to its final 
 consummatiou. 
 
 8. Moreover tlie word of the Loed came unto me, 
 saying, 
 
 9. The hands of Zeriibbabel have laid the foundation 
 of this house ; his hands shall also finish it ; and thou 
 shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. 
 
 This message translates into htcral language the symbols of the 
 vision (vs. 2, 3, 11-14), and the strong poetic imagery of v. 7. 
 Throngh mercy and help from God, Zernbbabel shall finish the 
 building of the temple, and the people shall know, when they ex- 
 perience this fulfilment, that the Lord has truly sent his prophet to 
 them. 
 
 10. For who hath despised the day of small things ? 
 for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the 
 hand of Zerubbabel %oitli those seven ; they are the eyes 
 of the Lord, which run to and fro tlirough the whole 
 earth. 
 
 Here is an additional word to those who have been greatly dis- 
 couraged in the rebuilding of the temple and painfully impressed 
 by its insignificance, compared with the greatness and splendor of 
 the former one. I translate — "For who have despised the day of 
 small things? Let them rejoice when they see the plumb-lead in 
 the hands of Zerubbabel ; those seven — the eyes of the Lord are 
 
 they, ranging through all the earth." The words " those seven " 
 
 are somew^liat abrupt, but manifestly refer to the passage (3 : 9), 
 " Upon one stone are seven eye§ ; " and they are immediately ex- 
 plained to be the eyes of the Lord, which never fail to see any of 
 the least possible tilings in all the earth. They traverse the uni- 
 verse, and take cognizance of every thing. Let the disheartened 
 dismiss their despondency when they see the plumb-line in the 
 hands of Zerubbabel for laying out this temple work, and especially 
 when they consider that the perfect eye of the All-seeing One is 
 upon him, and that his universal, almighty agency guarantees the 
 
 execution of this work. Dr. Henderson, by severely inverting 
 
 the order of the words, translates thus : " Who hath despised the 
 day of sm.all 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." He would make this the 
 sense : Let no man think lightly of that over which God rejoices. 
 
 But I very much prefer the construction given first in order 
 
 above, not only because it follows the order of the words without 
 any violent inversion, but because it avoids the harshness of saying 
 that "the eyes of God rejoiced ; " and, yet further, because the eyes 
 of God are introduced here, not as themselves rejoicing, but as a rea- 
 son why his people should rejoice, and why they should trust implicit- 
 
312 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. V. 
 
 ly in his promise to carry the work through. This most vital idea is 
 missed and lost in Dr. Henderson's translation. 
 
 11. Then answered I, and said unto him, What are 
 these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candle- 
 stick and npon the left side thereof ? 
 
 12. And I answered again, and said nnto him, "What 
 he these two olive branches which through the two gold- 
 en pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves ? 
 
 13. And he answered me and said, Knowest thou 
 not what these l)e f And I said, Xo, my lord. 
 
 14. Then said he. These are the two anointed ones, 
 that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
 The prophet still seeks a fuller explanation of the two olive- 
 trees and of the olive clusters in the symholic vision, and at last 
 obtains it. They represent the two anointed ones (Heb. " sons of 
 oil "), by which I understand the two anointed orders — the civil 
 rulers and the priests. Both of these classes were inaugurated into 
 their work by being anointed with oil — the significance being the 
 same in each case, viz., that God imparts the graces of his Spirit to 
 
 qualify them for the functions of their office. 1 prefer to apply 
 
 the phrase, " the two anointed ones," to the two orders, kings and 
 priests, rather than to the two individuals then filling those offices, Ze- 
 rubbabel and Joshua, because this provision for oil through these 
 conducting tubes was not transient, limited to the lifetime of these 
 two men, but permanent — to continue so long as God should give 
 them kings and priests ; and especially because permanence was a 
 cardinal idea in the symbol. Its special intent was to show that the 
 God of Israel still honored his own mstitutions as of old, and would 
 
 do so onward into the distant future. These anointed kings and 
 
 priests stand lefore rather than " ly " the Lord of the whole earth 
 — standing being the appropriate attitude for servants in the pres- 
 ence of their masters, preeminently so for the servants of the Most 
 High God. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 This chapter comprises two visions — a flying roll, and a woman 
 sitting in an ephah — both denoting the judgments of God on his 
 chosen people, considered as having filled up the measure of their 
 iniquities. 
 
 1. Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and 
 looked, and behold a flying roll. 
 
 2. And he said unto me, What seest thou ? And I 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. Y. 313 
 
 answered, I see a flying roll ; the length thereof is 
 twenty cubits, and tlie breadtli thereof ten cubits. 
 
 This roll is to be thought of as being the ancient form of book or 
 volume^ made of parchment or prepared skins; but immensely 
 large, the dimensions being those of the porch in front of Solomon's 
 temple. (See 1 Kings 6 : 3.) This correspondence cannot be sap- 
 posed to bo accidental. Hence we must conclude it was intended to 
 intimate that this " fiery law " and its judgments come forth from 
 
 their God, who dwelt in the temple. That it was seen " flying," 
 
 showed that it hastened to its Work. Ezekiel's roll (2 r 8-10)"prob- 
 ably suggested this symbol. 
 
 3. Then said he unto me. This is the curse that 
 goeth forth over the face of the whole earth : for every 
 one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side, accord- 
 ing to it ; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as 
 on that side, according to it. 
 
 This further explanation shows that this flying roll symbolizes the 
 curse of the Almighty going forth over the earth for execution upon 
 the guilty. The roll, like Ezekiel's, was Avritten on both sides, and 
 it would seem that the first table of the law was written on one 
 side— the second on the other. The case of the false swearer repre- 
 sents all sins against the precepts of the first table ; the case of the 
 thief, all sins against the second. According to the high behest of 
 this law of God, now going forth to punish violations against itself, 
 the thief is cut off according to the law written on one side ; the 
 swearer, according to the law written on the other. 
 
 4. I will bring it forth, said the Loed of hosts, and it 
 shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the 
 house of him that sweareth falsely by my name : and it 
 shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consmne 
 it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. 
 
 The Lord brings forth this flying roll, and causes it to enter the 
 house of every sinner against the law of God. It abides there, and 
 utterly consumes every vestige of his habitation — a terribly vivid 
 representation of God's judgments upon all unpardoned sin ! To 
 think of the law itself as written out, and its written record then 
 armed with power to search out every sinner, enter into his house and 
 there consume every thing — all his ill-gotten wealth, the last crumb 
 of his accumulated comforts, and finally himself — this surely must 
 imply a ruin for the guilty from which there can be no escape, and 
 in which there can be no alleviation. 
 
 6. Then the angel that talked with me went forth, 
 and said unto me. Lift up now thine eyes, and see what 
 is this that goeth forth. 
 14 
 
314 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. V. 
 
 6. And I said, "What is it ? And he said, This is an 
 ephali that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their 
 resemblance through all the earth. 
 
 Y. And behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead : 
 and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the 
 ephah. 
 
 8. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it 
 into the midst of the ephah ; and he cast the weight of 
 lead upon the mouth thereof. 
 
 A new scene opens. The first apparent object is an ephah, the 
 largest Hebrew dry measure, corresponding to the common corn- 
 basket of our country, containing by one computation one and 
 one-ninth bushels, and by another one and onc-lialf. This is seen 
 "going forth," as if this also, like the flying roll, was hastening 
 to execute its mission. "We shall probably best reach the sense 
 of this symbol if we remember that the Scripture speaks of sin- 
 ners as " filling up the measure " of their iniquities (Matt. 23 : 32, 
 and 1 Thess. 2:16). Here is the largest-sized measure. A wo- 
 man sits in it, who is explained to represent or symbolize '''"wicTced- 
 ness " — the sins, or, yet more precisely, the sinners of the covenant 
 people. The female person is a common symbol in the Scriptures 
 for a city with its masses of people, e. g., Babylon (Jer. 50 and 51 ; 
 Eev. 16 : 19 and 18 : 2-11), Jerusalem (Lam. 1 : 1 ff). This woman, 
 therefore, represents strictly the Jewish people apostate from G od, 
 having filled the measure of their iniquities, and now about to re- 
 ceive due retribution. She is first seen (v. 7) sitting in the midst 
 
 of this large measure. Then he throws her down (" he " is God's 
 minister of vengeance) into the midst or bottom of the vessel, and 
 casts a weight of lead upon the mouth of the vessel, manifestly to 
 
 hold her down and prevent her escape. The word rendered 
 
 "talent," i. e., of lead, means a large round lump, probably large 
 
 enough for its purpose, i. <?., to fill the mouth of the vessel. The 
 
 clause " This is their resemblance through all the earth," is inter- 
 preted variously. The original word is the common one for eye. 
 Some manuscripts, however, and other authorities, make a slight 
 change in the word itself, by which it would mean sin. Not improb- 
 ably this change began with the attempt of some critic to make a diffi- 
 cult text more easy. The reading eye some explain to mean their 
 
 intent, the thing they have their eye upon, viz., to sin on without 
 restraint, and fill up the measure of their iniquities. Others render, 
 as our received version does, " their resemblance " or appearance, 
 what they look like everywhere. In this sense of the word the 
 clause would mean that all over the land the moral condition of tlie 
 people who have filled up the measure of their sins is well repre- 
 sented by a large vessel, and a woman, personifying the whole sin- 
 ning people, thrown down and confined in it, and awaiting her 
 
ZECnARIAH.— CHAP. V. 315 
 
 doom. The ultimate meaning of the vision is miicli the same, 
 whichever of tliese two senses shall be given to the word in ques- 
 tion. The latter certainly gives a good sense ; the former is not bad^ 
 
 9. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and be- 
 liold, there came out two women, and the wind was in 
 their wings ; for they had wings like the wings of a stork : 
 and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and 
 the heaven. 
 
 10. Then said I to the angel that talked w^ith me, 
 Whither do these bear the ephah ? 
 
 11. And he said nnto me, To build it an house in the 
 land of Shinar : and it shall be established, and set there 
 upon her own base. 
 
 Two women (are they not angelic forms?) — two, because so largo 
 a burden required one on each side — come forth, the wind in their 
 wings to indicate the most rapid motion ; and they bear the ephah 
 containing this woman far away into the land of Shinar (Babylon), 
 
 to fix for it there a permanent abode. The main question here is, 
 
 whether this is retrospective, looking back to the recent captivity 
 in Babylon ; or prospective, predicting some future judgment on 
 
 the covenant people. The latter view I accept: (1.) Because the 
 
 other visions throughout this series are prophetic, not historic. 
 
 (2.) Because the late captivity in Babylon was transient; this is at 
 least very long. (3.) Because that always contemplated a resto- 
 ration : this gives no hint of any restoration, but the contrary. 
 
 (4.) Because in v. 4 the " curse that goeth forth " inflicts judg- 
 ments more severe and exterminating than those in the captivity to 
 Babylon. This vision of the ephah should correspond to that of the 
 
 roll. There is no particular difficulty in applying this entire 
 
 chapter to the judgments that fell on the Jewish nation for their 
 rejection of their Messiah, according to their own imprecation — 
 "His blood be on us and on our children ! " The first instalment 
 of this doom came from the Roman arms ; the rest in the almost 
 universal persecution, dispersion, and reproach under which they 
 have suffered for ages. In this view of its prophetic significance, 
 " Shinar " is used by way of historic allusion — a second Shinar — 
 another captivity like that of Babylon, only more terrible, more 
 protracted, and (so far as appears here) not alleviated by the prom- 
 ise of restoration. " Shinar " was the country in which Babylon, 
 lay (Gen. 11 : 2, 9). Both these visions were intended as solemn 
 warnings to the people, at that time and onward, against violating 
 the law of God, and filling up again the measure of their national 
 sins. Such warnings were in their nature wholesome, and through 
 the divine mercy might long postpone that depth of dei)ravity 
 which should be ultimately reached, and then be so terribly 
 punished. 
 
31G ZECHARIAn.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Tnis chapter is in two quite distinct parts ; tlie first a vision, 
 and the second a symbolic transaction. The vision (vs. 1-8) pre- 
 sents four chariots, and shows their mission. The symbolic trans- 
 action (vs. 9-15) is the making of crowns and setting them on the 
 head of Joshua the high priest, who becomes the type of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 1. And I turned, and lifted np mine eyes, and looked, 
 and beliold, there came four chariots out from between 
 two mountains ; and the mountains were mountains of 
 brass. 
 
 2. In the first chariot were red horses ; and in the 
 second chariot black horses ; 
 
 3. And in the third chariot white horses ; and in the 
 fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses. 
 
 4. Then I answered and said unto the angel that 
 talked with me. What are these, my lord ? 
 
 5. And the angel answered and said unto me, These 
 are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from 
 standing before the Lord of all the earth. 
 
 6. The black horses which are therein go forth into 
 the north country ; and the white go forth after them ; 
 and the grizzled go forth toward the south country. 
 
 Y. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that 
 they might walk to and fro through the earth : and he 
 said. Get ye hence, walk to and fro through the earth. 
 So they walked to and fro through the earth. 
 
 8. Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, say- 
 ing. Behold, these that go toward the north country have 
 quieted my spirit in the north country. 
 
 As the fifth chapter predicted judgments on the covenant peo- 
 ple for their sins, this last vision (6 : 1-8) predicts corresponding 
 judgments on the enemies of God's people. 
 
 The leading objects of vision here are four chariots drawn-by 
 diverse-colored horses, red, black, white, and gray. They " come 
 forth from between two mountains of brass," to denote the amaz- 
 ing strength of tliat power of which they wore the representative 
 agents, and, as some suppose, with a tacit reference to the geograph- 
 ical position of Jerusalem, it being but natural that these chariots, 
 symbolizing God's providential agencies among the nations of the 
 earth, should seem to proceed from him in his own place of abode 
 
ZECHARIAn.— CHAP. VI. 317 
 
 at Jerusalem. Like the horses seen in the first vision (1 : 8-13), 
 these chariots must be understood to represent, in pertinent sym- 
 bols, those varied agencies of God's providential rule over nations, 
 bj which he puts down one and sets up another, and in general 
 administers the retributions of an actual government. The princi- 
 pal shade of difference between the horses and their riders of the 
 first vision, and the chariots with their horses in this last, is that 
 the horses with their riders serve rather as scouts; the chariots as 
 executioners ; the riders on horses explore the state of the natiqns ; 
 the chariots put in execution the mandates of Jehovah ; or (nearer 
 to the expressive language of the text) they convey the very animus 
 of Jehovah — his spirit of indignation and retributive justice — and 
 cause it to fall on those guilty nations. As was remarked in the 
 notes on chapter 1, the use of post-horses in those vast oriental 
 kingdoms (Esth. 3 : 13 and 8 : 10) suggested their use in that vis- 
 ion, so here we may find a good reason for this symbolic use of the 
 chariot in the prominent place held by chariots of war in the ar- 
 mies of that day. The explanation of the chariots (v. 5), "These 
 
 are the four spirits or winds of the heavens," should not suggest 
 to us the literal winds, nor any literal sense of the word spirit, but, as 
 already hinted, those invisible agencies of the divine hand in provi- 
 dence which act upon the nations of the earth, in judgments espe- 
 cially, but in blessings also, as the case may be, constituting the 
 working forces of an actual administration of the government of 
 
 God over nations as such in the present world. These chariots 
 
 " go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth," the 
 usual attitude of servants awaiting their orders, and going forth, 
 
 when bidden, to their execution. It will be noted that two of 
 
 these chariots, that with black and that with white horses, go forth 
 toward the north country, Babylon, where the enemies specially 
 contemplated here were located. One chariot (v. 7) seems to have 
 had a very general commission " to traverse the whole earth," im- 
 plying that these agencies of God's reign over the nations are not 
 restricted to any special district or to any one human kingdom, but 
 
 embrace them all. In v. 8 we read — " Behold, these that go 
 
 toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north coun- 
 try," which translation can be understood rightly in no other sense 
 than that of quieting the spirit of God by executing his righteous 
 indignation and giving scope to the retributions of justice. A less 
 ambiguous rendering would be — " have brought my anger down 
 upon the north country." This is doubtless the sense of the pas- 
 sage. The judgments of God fell on Babylon for her too cruel op- 
 pression of the covenant people. Darius, heading the Persian ar- 
 mies, was the first executioner of this wrath ; the time, not long 
 
 after this prophecy was revealed. The various color of the horses 
 
 may have been slightly significant, yet some interpreters incline to 
 make too much of it. It is manifestly one of the very subordinate 
 and less important things in the vision. Plainly the revealing an- 
 gel, or it may perhaps be said, the recording mind, made little ac- 
 
318 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 count of this feature, else we slionld find more accuracy in the 
 references to tlie different chariots. Thus we have at first four, des- 
 ignated by their horses, but the last span has a twofold description ; 
 they are gray, and also active, fleet, this being the only sense of the 
 Hebrew word rendered " bay " (vs. 3, 7). When they are named 
 again, the red-colored disappear, and the chariot commissioned to 
 traverse the whole earth is indicated (very appropriately) as that 
 drawn by the active, fleet span. (The span that had the wide world 
 for their range should be preeminently ^ec^.) Thus the red are 
 dropped from view, and what was the fourth in the first descrip- 
 tion now becomes two. The twofold description given of its horses 
 is divided, and we have two spans and two chariots out of the one. 
 
 This criticism may be thought of small importance. It is 
 
 chiefly valuable as showing that the color of the horses and the dis- 
 tinction of chariots is really in the eye of the revealing Spirit a 
 small and not important matter. The vital points are more cared 
 
 for, and are put with more accuracy. Some critics suppose that 
 
 the two mountains are the kingdoms of Media and Persia. This 
 view is wide of their real significance. The material — " brass" or 
 copper — denotes the strength, not of any heathen nation whose 
 power God might use by overruling it, but of God himself^ in ref- 
 erence specially to the deep, immovable foundations of his throne. 
 The location should be the supposed and indeed actual dwelling- 
 place of G;>d, i. 6., among his people, in his temple at Jerusalem. 
 As the chariots represent his providential agencies, going forth on 
 their mission, so their head-quarters and starting-point should be 
 
 the place of his abode. That they come forth from between 
 
 two mountains is due simply to the necessities of chariot-driving 
 in a mountainous country. They cannot run on the tops or sides 
 of rugged mountains, but only in the valley, which will be between 
 two mountains. 
 
 9. And tlie word of the Lokd came unto me, saying, 
 
 10. Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, 
 of Tobijah, of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon, 
 and come thou the same day, and go into the house of 
 Josiah the son of Zephaniah ; 
 
 11. Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, 
 and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jose- 
 decli, the high priest ; 
 
 12. And speak unto him, saying. Thus speaketh the 
 Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is 
 The BRAKCH ; and he shall grow up out of his place, 
 and he shall build the temple of the Loud : 
 
 13. Even he shall build the temple of the Lokd ; and 
 lie shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his 
 
ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. VI. 319 
 
 throne : and he shall be a priest npon his throne : and 
 the counsel of peace shall be between them both. 
 
 14. And the crowns shall be to Ilelem, and to Tobi- 
 jah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, 
 for a memorial in the temple of the Loed. 
 
 15. And they that are far off shall come and bnild 
 in the temple of the Lokd ; and ye shall know that the 
 LoED of hosts hath sent me nnto you. And this shall 
 come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the 
 Lord your God. 
 
 The series of visions is now closed, and we have here an actual 
 transaction of a symbolical character. That this is not a vision, but 
 As a real transaction, appears on the face of the record. It does 
 not open with " I saw by night " (as 1:8); nor " I lifted up mine 
 eyes and saw " (as 1 : 18) ; nor "I lifted up mine eyes again " (as 
 2:1); nor " he showed me" (as 3 : 1) ; nor as 4 : 1 and 4:5; nor 
 as 6 : 1 — all which statements testify that the scenes that follow re- 
 spectively were witnessed in prophetic vision. On the contrary, this 
 is simply '' The word of the Lord came unto me,*' as in 1 : 1, and 7 : 1, 
 and 8:1, &c., where verbal communications are made. More- 
 over, here is not a presentation of things to be seen by the prophet, 
 but a command respecting things to be done. And finally, these 
 crowns, after being made and solemnly placed on the head of the 
 liigh priest, were to be "laid up for a memorial in the temple of 
 
 the Lord," all indicating an actuality, things done in real life. 
 
 The leading points are tlie preparation of crowns ; the solemn cor- 
 onation of the high priest ; the accompanying announcement and 
 explanations, showing that the purport of the transaction was to 
 make Joshua a special type of the Messiah, and to reveal vastly 
 important truths respecting his person and relations to men ; and 
 finally, to indicate that Gentile nations were to participate in the 
 
 services and the glories of his coming kingdom. This seems to 
 
 have been a double crown, the word for crown being plural, the 
 verb (v. 14) being in the singular ; and manifestly but one head, that 
 
 of Joshua, is crowned in the transaction. To obtain the sUver 
 
 and the gold for its construction, the prophet is directed to go to 
 certain men here named, who are recently from Babylon, captive 
 Jews, who remained behind when the first company of their breth- 
 ren left, and who seem to have come to Jerusalem now with a con- 
 tribution from their brethren still behind, to aid in building the 
 temple. Josiah, son of Zephaniah, may have been the treasurer 
 of this fund ; hence the direction to go with the other three without 
 delay to his house to draw the money. The original brings in the 
 phrase, "who are come from Babylon," at the end of the verse, 
 showing that Josiah, as well as the other three, was in the delega- 
 tion from the captive Jews there. Having made the crowns, ho 
 
 Bots them upon the head of Joshua the high priest, and then sol- 
 
320 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 emnly announces from the Lord, " Beliold the man — Branch is his 
 name ; he shall branch " (shoot) " up from underneath himself " 
 (from his own humble root), " and he shall build the temple of the 
 
 Lord." As already indicated, the sense of the word rendered 
 
 " Branch " is shoot, the single stock that springs from the root and 
 becomes the one trunk of the tree. In the original the verb ren- 
 dered "shall grow," is the same — shall shoot up. The specially 
 
 emphatic declaration here is that this man — the Branch — " shall 
 build the temple of the Lord.'''' Hence this is solemnly repeated 
 (v. 13) : " Even he " (he alone, and he in distinction from all others) 
 " shall build the temple of the Lord." This cannot refer to the 
 temple then being built by Zerubbabel, for of this the Lord had 
 explicitly declared (4 : 9), " The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the 
 foundations of this house, and Ms hands shall also finish it.^^ "We 
 must therefore look to another temple, which can be none other 
 than that so often referred to in the New Testament, built by Jesus, 
 the Messiah, of which it is said, " ye " (Christians) " are the temple 
 of the living God" (2 Cor. C : 16). "For the temple of God is 
 holy, which temple ye are''"' (1 Cor. 3 : 16, 17). " Ye also, as living 
 
 stones, are built up a spiritual house," &c. (1 Peter 2 : 5). The 
 
 comprehensive idea embraces the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah, 
 of which the Jewish temple was an apposite symbol. In that an- 
 cient temple Jehovah dwelt, revealing his presence. So in this, 
 the presence of the Holy Ghost reclaims men's hearts to God, and 
 
 makes them pure before him. Yet further : " He shall bear the 
 
 glory," i. e., preeminent glory, becoming the " head of all things 
 to his church," "King of kings " " moreover, and " Lord of lords." 
 "He shall sit and rule upon his throne," truly a king, not in Zion 
 alone, but over all the earth, or rather all the earth shall ultimately 
 become his Zion, since his kingdom shall in the latter days embosom 
 and absorb into itself all other kingdoms and all other love, obe- 
 dience, and homage, so that it can be said truly, " The kingdoms of 
 this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
 
 Christ, and he (alone) shall reign for ever and ever." He shall 
 
 also " be a priest upon his throne," uniting these two functions in 
 his own person, and never ceasing to mediate for his people, and be 
 their great atoning sacrifice because of his exaltation to so great 
 
 power and glory on his throne. The phrase " the counsel of 
 
 peace shall be between them both," does not refer to some second 
 person other than the Messiah, cooperating with him ; nor do.es it 
 mean merely that Messiah as king and Messiah as priest shall be 
 harmonious and not conflicting, but rather that both as King and 
 as Priest, Messiah shall consult for and shall secure the peace, the 
 highest spiritual good of his people. The full energy of both rela- 
 tions shall be made subservient to the spiritual life and consequent 
 
 peace and blessedness of his children. After these crowns had 
 
 served their temporary purpose in this typical inauguration of 
 Joshua the high priest, they were to be laid up in the temple of the 
 Lord, as a memorial for those four delegates who came up from 
 
ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. VII. 321 
 
 afar with those offerings of silver and gold for the temple. They 
 are now representative men, to indicate that people from afar, even 
 the Gentile nations, " shall come and build in the temple of the 
 Lord," i. e., shall come into the Christian Church, bringing into it 
 their wealth, their personal service, and the full homage of their 
 
 willing hearts. That they should come and build in the temple, 
 
 is Jewish costume, like that of Isaiah (ch. 60), to show that in the lat- 
 ter day, Gentile nations from all the ends of the earth shall swell 
 the hosts of the people of God and contribute their wealth and 
 their hearts to the greatness and glory of his kingdom on earth. 
 
 As usual with Zechariah, the final seal is put upon this glorious 
 
 prophecy : " Ye shall know by your own precious experience that 
 the Lord hath sent me to you to say these things." They cannot 
 fail. The names of those four representative men are given dif- 
 ferently, yet too much should not be made of this. Heldai, the 
 first one named (v. 10), becomes in v. 14 Helem, a word of nearly 
 the same significance; while Josiah, son of Zephaniah (v. 16), bo- 
 comes in V. 14 Hen, the son of Zephaniah, which is also of kindred 
 meaning. There are no certain data upon which to account for 
 these changes of names. These two men may have had each two 
 names, or there may be a play upon their first name by giving 
 another of similar significance ; or the intent of it may have been 
 to call attention to the meaning of their names. The case is 
 scarcely of sufiicient importance to Justify or call for much specu- 
 lation. The last clause has the appearance of being broken off 
 
 abruptly, leaving the corresponding part to be supplied. • " And it 
 shall come to pass if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord 
 your God " . . . . (supply) all these promised blessings shall come 
 to you most abundantly. You shall have them on condition of 
 
 obeying the Lord diligently, but on no other. So all the great 
 
 blessings of the gospel are, as to each of us, suspended on this con- 
 dition of honest diligence and faithful obedience to the Lord our 
 God, Perhaps it was with the intention of making this condition 
 the more impressive, that the sentence breaks off thus abruptly, 
 leaving the reader to inquire the more carefully into the force of 
 this great condition, and the wealth of blessings suspended upon it. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 This chapter and the next were both occasioned by one special 
 circumstance. For seventy years the people had been observing 
 certain days of fasting, in remembrance of prominent events con- 
 nected with the fall of their beloved city and temple. Now, they 
 had returned from their captivity ; the city was rebuilt ; the work 
 on the temple was far advanced toward completion. It was now 
 the fourth year of Darius, and the temple was finished in his sixth 
 year. The community was decidedly prosperous ; hence the ques- 
 14* 
 
322 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP, VII. 
 
 tion arose — Shall we continuo to observe those days of fasting 
 Would it not be more appropriate to observe days of praise and 
 
 thanksgiving? The Lord sends his answer by his prophet Zech- 
 
 ariah. It is twofold. (1.) It rebukes the hypocrisy and selfish- 
 ness manifested by some of the people in those very fasts which 
 should have been seasons of special humiliation and honest confes- 
 sion of sin before the Lord ; admonishes them that God's eye is on 
 their moral conduct as well as on their hearts, and exhorts them to 
 justice and righteousness, especially by the sad case of their ftithers, 
 whom the Lord had scourged so severely by a long and terrible 
 captivity. This part of the reply fills out the seventh chapter (vs. 
 
 4-14). (2.) The second part fills the eighth chapter, and is rich in 
 
 promised blessings to the obedient, closing with a direct answer to 
 their inquiry. 
 
 1. And it came to pass in the foiirtli year of king 
 Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah 
 in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu ; 
 
 2. "When they had sent unto the house of God, She- 
 rezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to praj before 
 the LoKD, 
 
 3. And to speak unto the priests which were in the 
 house of the Lokd of hosts, and to the prophets, saying. 
 Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as 
 I have done these so many years ? 
 
 The date is given precisely, this being a matter of historic im- 
 portance. From the arrival of the first caravan of returning Jews 
 in the first year of Cyrus (n. c. 536) to the second year of "Darius 
 (about B. 0. 520), the people had been harassed by their Samaritan 
 enemies ; the work on the temple for a time dragged heavily, and 
 was finally quite suspended. At length, under special messages 
 from God by Ilaggai and Zechariah, it was resumed in the second 
 year of Darius. VVith this resumption commenced an era of great 
 prosperity. Their foreign enemies ceased to annoy them; the 
 smiles of God rested on all their labors. After two years of such 
 prosperity, the question naturally arose, whether they should con- 
 tinue to observe certain days of fasting, as they had done then some 
 seventy years. The most prominent of these days are specially re- 
 ferred to here ; that in the fifth month (v. 3), and that also in the 
 seventh month (v. 5). Chap. 8:19 refers to two others, viz., one in 
 the fourth month and another in the tenth. The history indicates 
 the special reason of fasting on these days. In the fifth month ther 
 temple was burnt (Jer. 52 : 12). In the seventh, Gedahah was slain, 
 and the small remnant that remained with him were scattered and 
 destroyed (Jer. 41 : 1 fl'). In the fourth month the city was taken 
 (Jer. 52 : 6, 7). In the tenth it was invested by the armed hosts of 
 Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52 : 4). Y. 2 should be translated — " When 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VIL 323 
 
 Bethel " (the household of God, in the sense of the congregation of 
 the Lord) " sent Sherezer," &o., i. e., the people in the capacity of a 
 worshipping congregation, sent this commission to their priests and 
 
 prophets with this inquiry. Y. 3. " Separating myself," i. e., 
 
 from my accustomed secular labors — making it a holy and solemn 
 day. 
 
 4. Then came tlie word of the Lord of hosts unto me, 
 saying, 
 
 5. Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the 
 priests, saying. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth 
 and seventh montJi^ even those seventy years, did ye at 
 all fast unto me, even to me ? 
 
 6. And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did 
 not ye eat for yourselves^ and drink for yourselves f 
 
 This rebuke manifestly applied to some of those who united in 
 this inquiry. The Lord asks — Did your fasting have any regard to 
 me ? Did you think of your sins against me f Did you humble your- 
 selves before me ? So, when ye ate and when ye drank, was it not 
 1/e that ate, and ye that drank? This is the literal rendering, and 
 implies that they thought of nothing but their own sensual gratifi- 
 cation, ate and drank merely to enjoy themselves, and as if there 
 were no God to thank, no great Giver to recognize as the fountain 
 of all blessings. 
 
 7. Should ye not hear the words which the Loed hath 
 cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem was in- 
 habited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round 
 about Jier, when men inhabited the south and the 
 plain ? 
 
 The original omits the verb before " words " in the beginning of 
 the verse, apparently assuming that the sense would be clear with- 
 out it. In supplying it, the choice lies between our Enghsh text 
 and the marginal reading, the former giving the sense most in har- 
 mony with the strain of the passage. The verse suggests the 
 
 substance of the next special message (vs. 8-14), the admonitions 
 sent from God by the prophets to their fathers, their rejection of 
 them, and the consequences. 
 
 8. And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, 
 saying, 
 
 9. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying. Execute 
 true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every 
 man to his brother : 
 
 10. And opx^ress not the widow, nor the fatherless, 
 
324 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VIII. 
 
 the stranger, nor tlie poor ; and let none of yon imagine 
 evil against his brother in yonr heart. 
 
 11. Bnt they refused to hearken, and pnlled away 
 the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should 
 not hear. 
 
 12. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant 
 stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which 
 the LoKD of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former 
 prophets : therefore came a great wrath from the Lokd 
 of hosts. 
 
 13. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and 
 they would not hear ; so they cried, and I would not 
 hear, saith the Lord of hosts : 
 
 14. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among 
 all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land 
 was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor 
 returned : for they laid the pleasant land desolate. 
 
 Here the Lord gives to his servant Zechariah a summary of the 
 message he sent by many of his prophets shortly before the cap- 
 tivity. Y. 9 should therefore read — " Thus the Lord did speak," 
 i. c, to your fathers, by Jeremiah and Zephaniah in the days of Jo- 
 siah ; and somewhat earlier by Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. 
 
 In V. 11, "pulled away the shoulder," is in Hebrew, "They 
 
 gave a refractory shoulder," i. ^., they made their shoulder refrac- 
 tory — with allusion to the bullock who refuses to be broken into 
 
 patient labor. V. 12 most fuUy recognizes the inspiration of the 
 
 prophets. The Lord sent His words to the people ty his Spirit, by 
 
 the hand, i. e., the ministration of the former prophets. By his 
 
 Spirit, rather than "*w," is the sense of the original, the preposition 
 
 being the same as that before the " hand of the prophets." V. 
 
 13, " Hence it is come to pass " — referring still to the history of what 
 
 occurred shortly before the captivity. V. 14 fully confirms this 
 
 general course of interpretation, as referring to the ways of God 
 toward the people, and of the people towai'd God, in the age 
 next preceding the time of Zechariah. That history was exceed- 
 ingly full of most pertinent and valuable instruction. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 As already remarked in the introduction to chap. 7, this con- 
 tinues and concludes the subject opened in that chapter. It gives 
 the brighter side — the message of the Lord to the truly humbled, 
 penitent, and believing portion of the people. Hence it abounds in 
 cheering promises. 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VIII. 325 
 
 1. Again tlie word of the Loed of hosts came to me, 
 saying, 
 
 2. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; I was jealous for 
 Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with 
 great fury. 
 
 " Jealous for Zion." The same sentiment is even yet more ex- 
 panded (cliap. 1 : 14-16). This revived jealousy for Zion implies 
 that the Lord's love for her was enkindled afresh ; his pity, too, be- 
 came active; his apprehensions also for the honor of his name 
 before the nations ; and not least, his indignation toward the people 
 tliat had so cruelly oppressed Zion. All these feelings conspired 
 toward his purpose to return in mercy to Zion, as the next verse 
 states. 
 
 3. Thus saith the Loed ; I am returned unto Zion, 
 and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem : and Jerusa- 
 lem shall be called, a city of truth ; and the mountain of 
 the Loed of hosts, the holy mountain. 
 
 These are the blessings. It is noticeable that moral purity 
 stands specially prominent. " Jerusalem shall be called " (because 
 she shall really de) "the city of truth," distinguished above all 
 other cities for substantial integrity of character ; and the temple- 
 mountain where the Lord dwells shall be " the holy mountain " — 
 holy, by reason of the regeneration and sanctification of those who 
 
 worship the Lord there. Such should be the results of the Lord's 
 
 returning to Zion, to dweU there by his spiritual presence. These 
 are the legitimate criteria of his real presence by his Spirit any- 
 where. 
 
 4. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; There shall yet old 
 men and old women dwell in tl^e streets of Jerusalem, 
 and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. 
 
 5. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys 
 and girls playing in the streets thereof. 
 
 A beautiful scene of peace and prosperity, indicated by the 
 groups of the aged, still living as witnesses to the long-continued 
 exemption from desolating wars, and the yet more numerous throng 
 of little boys and girls playing and happy in the streets. Evermore, 
 through all the ages before Christ, such external prosperity is ac- 
 counted as evidence of God's favor and approval. " Length of 
 d^ys is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor." The ge- 
 nius of God's providential government in that age involved a high 
 degree of present retribution. 
 
 6. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; If it be marvellous 
 in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, 
 
326 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VHI. 
 
 sliould it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saitli tlia 
 LoED of hosts. 
 
 Though it should seem marvellous and almost incredible in your 
 eyes, that I should bestow so great blessings, yet must it be marvel- 
 lous in mine ? Is any thing too hard for the Lord ? Is any measure 
 of blessings so great as to be marvellous in view of the great depths 
 of divine love ? 
 
 7. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; Behold, I will save 
 my people from the east country, and from the west 
 country ; 
 
 8. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in 
 the midst of Jerusalem : and they shall be my people, 
 and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. 
 
 This is a promise to save his people wherever they were, and 
 to gather them in from their dispersions — two quarters of tlie 
 heavens, the land toward the sun-rising and the land toward the 
 
 sun-setting being named — a part for the whole. Its fulfilment in 
 
 the literal sense took place while yet that economy continued, which 
 required the residence of the Jews in their own land. 
 
 9. Thus saith the Lokd of hosts ; Let your hands be 
 strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the 
 mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the 
 foundation of the house of the Lokd of hosts was laid, 
 that the temple might be built. 
 
 10. For before these days there was no hire for man, 
 nor any hire for beast ; neither was there amy peace to 
 him that went out or came in because of the affliction : 
 for I set all men every one against his neighbor. 
 
 11. But now I will not he unto the residue of this 
 people as in the former days, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 12. For the seed shall he prosperous ; the vine shall 
 give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, 
 and the heavens shall give their dew ; and I will cause 
 the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 
 
 These words exhort the people to courage, fearlessness, and 
 vigor, in the prosecution of the temple-building, and in whatever 
 labor the Lord might impose. "While the temple lay neglected all 
 things went awry; enemies pressed them from abroad; dissension, 
 
 stagnation, and starvation distressed them at home. "When the 
 
 Lord says, "I set all men each one against his neighbor," he refers 
 to what he let men do, in the sense of not preventing it — as a judg- 
 ment on them for their sins. 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VIII. 327 
 
 13. And it sliall come to pass, that as ye were a curse 
 among tlie heathen, O house of Judah and house of 
 Israel ; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing : 
 fear not, hut let your hands be strong. 
 
 The expression, "ye were a curse among the heathen," &c., 
 might in itself mean either that they Irouglit curses upon the 
 heathen, or that they were themselves cursed amo7ig the heathen. 
 The latter I take to he the sense here.— ^ — So of blessings : the sense 
 is, ye shall he blessed. 
 
 14. For thus saith the Loed of hosts ; As I thought 
 to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to TVTath, 
 saith the Loud of hosts, and I repented not : 
 
 15. So again have I thought in these days to do well 
 unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah : fear ye not. 
 
 The antithesis here is this : As I thought to punish your fathers 
 for their great provocations, and did not swerve from my thought, 
 but carried it intor execution ; so have I now thought to bless Jeru- 
 salem, and I shall not fail to do it ! Fear not ! 
 
 16. These are the things that ye shall do ; Speak ye 
 every man the truth to his neighbor ; execute the judg- 
 ment of truth and peace in your gates : 
 
 lY. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts 
 against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all 
 these are things that I hate, saith the Lokd. 
 
 The usual and always pertinent exhortations to practise riglit- 
 eousness and truth. The last clause of v. IG enjoins upon them 
 to administer law in the courts according to justice and truth. This 
 would promote real peace and prosperity. Such decisions are de- 
 cisions of peace. 
 
 18. And the word of the Loed of hosts came unto 
 me, saying, 
 
 19. Thus saith the Loed of hosts ; The fast of the 
 fourlii month^ and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of 
 the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the 
 house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts ; 
 therefore love the truth and peace. 
 
 Here we find the explicit answer to the question sent up from 
 the people by the hand of Sherezer and Ecgem-melech, Those 
 fasts shall be changed to seasons of joy and gladness, and to cheer- 
 ful feasts — only the Lord still enforces- that which is evermore es- 
 sential to their abiding prosperity — "Zo«c tlie trutli and 'peace.'''' 
 
328 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. VIII. 
 
 20. Thus saith the Lord of hosts : It shall yet come 
 to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants 
 of many cities: 
 
 21. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to an- 
 other, saying, Let ns go speedily to pray before the Loed, 
 and to seek the Loed of hosts : I will go also. 
 
 22. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come 
 to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray be- 
 fore the Lord. 
 
 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; In those days it 
 shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of 
 all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the 
 skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you : 
 for we have heard that God is with you. 
 
 The renewed vitality of the religious life in these times of Zech- 
 ariah, suggested the yet far more glorious re\dval and consequent 
 extension of pure religion in the latter days. The transition from 
 the gloom and grief of the captivity to the peace and joy indicated 
 thus far throughout this chapter, becomes suggestive and significant 
 of another adv^ance — perhaps I might say a similar transition from 
 the narrow limitations of the kingdom of God then, to that won- 
 drous expansion when "many people and strong nations shall come 
 to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the 
 
 Lord." Such seems to be the mental law of association under 
 
 which these predictions of the Messiah's enlarged and glorious king- 
 dom are brought to mind. 1 can find no adequate fulfilment of 
 
 these promises short of the millennial days. Nothing at all equiva- 
 lent has yet transpired. Let us look a moment at their significance. 
 
 In V. 21, " Let us go speedily," is the usual intensive repetition 
 
 of the infinitive with the finite verb, and might as well be rendered 
 "Let us go with all our heart" — earnestly. This would imply 
 going speedily ; but it would also mean much more than that. The 
 last clause also is strong: " I, too, wOl surely go; " or "Let me go 
 
 too." " Ten men " is a definite number for an indefinite, as many 
 
 as could well get hold of one man's skirt — and obviously means 
 that many men shall follow one Jew as their guide ; as many as 
 one man can teach. This throng of pupils represents far mom than 
 a single nation. Indeed, each of the ten representative men stands 
 for one nation, since they are each of different language, and taken 
 together represent " all languages of the nations " — indicating that 
 people of every tongue and clime shall come to Ziou for the law 
 
 and the light of God. That they are said to come to Jerusalem is 
 
 due to the necessary modes of Jewish thought. That was the only 
 way in which the Jews before Christ could conceive of real con- 
 versions — the only language descriptive of conversion which they 
 could understand. They had not yet reached the idea that God can- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 329 
 
 be worsliipped acceptably and spiritually, just as well anywhere 
 else as in Jerusalem. Hence those glorious conversions of Gentile 
 nations, which are to take place far down in the ages of the gospel 
 dispensation, if foretold at all by Jewish prophets and for Jewish 
 readers, must be presented in thoroughly Jewish language and in 
 harmony with Jewish conceptions. So we ought to expect to find it 
 throughout the Old Testament prophets ; so we do find it. On this 
 principle, the " Jcav " is any one with whom God is. Under the gospel 
 system "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly'''^ (Rom. 2 : 28, 29). 
 
 This passage, therefore, is a prediction that "the inhabitants of 
 
 many cities" — "yea, many people and strong nations" — yea, na- 
 tions so diverse that they speak all the languages of the earth — 
 shall come to those who have the gospel and beg to be led to the 
 Lamb of God. They shall come with great earnestness and zeal, 
 manifesting the utmost readiness to go themselves, and exhorting 
 others likewise — the people of one city pressing the people of an- 
 other city to join the great company of those who shall go to pray 
 before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. Such is the im- 
 port of this wonderful prophecy. We can scarcely wish it were 
 greater and better in the breadth and richness of its promises. Who 
 can find it in his heart to wish it were less ? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Vs. 1-8 sketch the sweep of the conquering hosts of Alexan- 
 der the Great in western Asia, and along the eastern coast of the 
 Mediterranean, and refer to the special protection afforded by the 
 Lord to his people in the midst of that scene of danger ; then the 
 prophet (vs. 9, 10) passes over to the greater protection and salva- 
 tion wrought out by King Messiah for his people ; and then (vs. 10- 
 17) on the same analogy predicts the protection of the Jews against 
 the Greco-Syrian power in the age of the Maccabees. 
 
 1. The burden of tlie word of the Lokd in the land 
 of Hadrach, and Damascus shall he the re'st thereof: 
 when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall 
 1)6 toward the Lord. 
 
 "Burden," as usual, is a prediction of calamity, here destined to 
 
 fall, not on God's people, but on their enemies. "Hadrach" 
 
 has given critics ample occasion for research, ingenuity, and diver- 
 sity of opinion. It would seem, from the connection, to be a coun- 
 try; yet geographically this name for a country is unknoAvn. The 
 vague reports of some obscure city bearing this name, are, in the 
 first place, very unreliable at the best ; and then the position which 
 this name occupies in the first eight verses among Damascus, Tyre, 
 Zidon, &c., and at the head of them all, quite forbids that it should 
 be an insignifixjant, almost unknown city. The best solution yet 
 
330 ZECHARIAH.~CnAP. IX. 
 
 suggested is tliat of Hengstenberg, v/lio thinks it is purposely enig. 
 matical, and refers to Persia ; and that etymologically, it is made 
 up from two Hebrew verbs,* the former meaning to he strong, and 
 the latter to he wea^, giving the significance — Tlie strong-weah; — 
 thus intimating that she is at one time strong ; at another, weak ; — 
 
 strong under a Cyrus ; weak under her last Darius. The reason 
 
 for an enigmatical name lay in the delicate relations which the Jews 
 of his time sustained to the Persian throne. The Books of Ezra and 
 N"ehemiah make the delicacy of those relations very palpable. See 
 especially Ezra, chap. 4-6. It could not be wise for a Hebrew 
 prophet to utter such predictions against Persia as might be caught 
 up and construed into proof of unfriendliness toward that power. 
 
 Enigmatical names are not entirely without precedent among 
 
 the Hebrew prophets. Jeremiah has Sheshach for Babylon (25 : 26 
 
 and 51 : 41). It is remarkable that though Hadrach (Persia) is 
 
 named as the first to feel the sweep of this conquering devastator, 
 Alexander, and thongh precisely this is the order of the historic 
 facts, yet the prophet passes her with only her enigmatical name. 
 A burden of the word of the Lord is upon her land; that is all he 
 thinks proper to say. Damascus is the place upon which this bur- 
 den rests down. The predicted ruin should smite and crush her. 
 
 To the last clause, interpreters have given two difierent con- 
 structions : one thus — " Because the Lord's eye is upon men, even 
 upon all the tribes of Israel ; " the other thus : " Because the eyes 
 of men, even of aU the tribes of Israel, are toward and unto the 
 Lord." The latter is much better sustained by the grammatical 
 relations of the words, and has also this in its favor, that it practi- 
 cally involves the former. When the eyes of men, even of all God's 
 people, are toward him for help, then his eye is surely upon them 
 in love, care, and succor. It was in answer to the humble uplifted 
 eye and prayer of God's people that this conquering sweep of Alex- 
 ander crushed down so many of those ancient powers hostile to 
 the covenant people, but spared them. 
 
 2. And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tjrus 
 and Zidon, thongh it be very wise. 
 
 Hamath, a country lying north of Palestine, bordered on Damas- 
 cus, and therefore fell within the range of this great conqueror, and 
 came down beneath the force of his arms. So did Tyre, with Zidon, 
 because she had taken great pride in her wisdom, and had so utter- 
 ly renounced all reliance on the true God. In this passage Tyre 
 
 leads the thought, as also in the historic fiicts she had quite eclipsed 
 Zidon. Hence, the verb rendered ''be very wise," is in the singu- 
 lar, and refers primarily to Tyre. The word rendered " though " 
 should be read "because," this being its usual and best established 
 meaning. The full thought is brought out by Ezekiel in 28 : 2, 3, 
 6, 17: " Say to the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God, Be- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 331 
 
 cause tliine licart is lifted up and thou hast said — I am God ; I sit in 
 the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man and 
 not God, though thou set thy heart as the heart of God ; therefore, 
 because thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God, behold therefore 
 I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, &c., &c. 
 
 3. And Tyrus did build lierself a strong hold, and 
 heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire 
 of the streets. . 
 
 4. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will 
 smite her power in the sea ; and she shall be devoured 
 with fire. 
 
 Further and special notice is taken of Tyre. After having been 
 once fearfully desolated by JSTebuchadnezzar, she had fortified her- 
 self on an island with immense strength, and, by means of her ex- 
 tensive commerce, had amassed great wealth. But the Lord would 
 dispossess her of all this wealth. So the original signifies, and not 
 merely " cast her out." He would also smite her bulwarks, built 
 up and standing in the sea, and she should be at length devoured 
 
 utterly by fire. After a siege of seven months, Alexander took 
 
 the city, u. c. 332, and every feature of this prophecy was fulfilled. 
 
 5. Ashkelon shall see it, and fear ; Gaza also shall 
 see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron ; for her expec- 
 tation shall be ashamed ; and the king shall perish from 
 Graza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. 
 
 From Phoenicia the conqueror swept on to Philistia. The 
 prophet's course of thought is the same. The fall of Tyre sent a 
 panic through those cities of far inferior strength. How could they 
 stand before a power with which Tyre, in all her glory and prowess, 
 
 could not cope? See the same thoughts in Isa. 23. Tyre held 
 
 Alexander's army at bay seven months ; the cities of Philistia 
 
 scarcely retarded the conquering march of his army at all. The 
 
 verse may be read thus : "Ashkelon shall see and be afraid ; Gaza, 
 too, and she shall be in great anguish ; and Ekron, because she shall 
 be ashamed of her trust (i. e., in Tyre) ; kings perish from Gaza, and 
 Ashkelon shall no longer fill her throne " — literally, " shall not 
 sit on a throne." Both shall cease to be nationalities ruled by 
 kings. 
 
 6. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will 
 cut off the pride of the Philistines. 
 
 7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, 
 and his abominations from between his teeth ; but he 
 that remaineth, even he shcdl de for our God, and he 
 shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebu- 
 eite. 
 
332 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 The first clause I prefer to read — " A foreigner shall rule in 
 Ashdod." The sense, however, may be only that foreigners shall 
 dwell there. The verbs will bear either interpretation. Probably 
 the meaning is, that the civil power has passed forever from the 
 hands of the original Philistines to foreigners. Of course, the popu- 
 lation would be in good part changed as Avell. The pride of 
 
 Philistia would be eftectually humbled. And furthermore, the 
 Lord would thoroughly cure them of their idolatry. The prophet, 
 in representing this fact, thinks of them as eating things offered to 
 idols, or as feasting in honor of their idols, and then the Lord 
 plucks out the flesh from between their teeth and cleanses out the 
 blood from their mouth. Then the remnant are converted — "shall 
 be for our God " — are honored as a captain of a thousand in Judah ; 
 and they of Ekron shall come to be as near to God as the Jebusites 
 — the primitive inhabitants of Jerusalem — after that city became the 
 holy and the chosen one of God. (See, Josh. 15 : 63, and Judg. 19 : 
 10, 11, and 2 Sam. 24 : 10.) This prophecy had its special fulfil- 
 ment when the gospel was preached with great success by the 
 apostles in those cities. It has its general fulfilment under the 
 broad doctrine that all the great revolutions which the Lord brings 
 about by war shall culminate at last in the wider range and sweep 
 of his converting grace. Hence so many prophecies terminate like 
 this. (See Isa. 19 : 18-25 and 23 : 15-18, and Jer. 12 : 15, 16.) 
 
 8. And I will encamp about mine house because of 
 the army, because of him that passeth by, and because 
 of him that retm-neth: and no oppressor shall pass 
 through them any more : for now have I seen with mine 
 eyes. 
 
 The strain of the chapter thus far is that the Lord will let the 
 great conqueror, Alexander, overwhelm the nations that had so often 
 oppressed Israel. Here, on the other hand, he protects his own 
 chosen people : "I will encamp about them and myself be a wall of 
 fire around them for their sure defence." The special reason now 
 thought of is the danger from the army of Alexander, " going and 
 returning," moving to and fro, to Egypt and back, through or very 
 near Judea. " No oppressor," in the precise sense of exactor of 
 service or tribute, " shall pass over them any more," because hence- 
 forth the eye of God's love and care is upon them, in the same 
 sense, a watchful eye, as in Zech. 3 : 9 and 4 : 10. The fulfil- 
 ment of this promise began with the nearer future, and was specially 
 developed in the time of Alexander, when it was indeed striking 
 and almost miraculous. If we may credit Josephus, Alexander sent 
 to the Jews his usual demand for tribute as a token of submission, 
 and was answered that they were in allegiance to the Persian throne. 
 Offended by this reply, he soon after came in person ; met Jaddua, 
 the high priest, in his robes of oflBce, attended by other priests ; was 
 solemnly impressed by their appearance ; treated them with extra- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 333 
 
 ordinary deference, and ever after accounted the Jews liis special 
 friends. In explanation of this extraordinary conduct, he referred* 
 to a dream in which a personage attired like this high priest, met 
 liim while yet at home and pondering the question of invading 
 Persia, encouraged him to go forward, assuring him of -victory and 
 success. Consequently, he recognized this high priest as the minis- 
 ter of the invisible gods, and all the more so when the Jews showed 
 
 him the prophecies of Daniel respecting himself. Of the general 
 
 fact of Alexander's special favor to the Jews, there can be no doubt. 
 This favor fulfilled the prophecy before us (v. 8). God's hand was 
 in the agencies that secured it. "Whether those agencies are given 
 with general accuracy by Josephus, has been questioned ; but for 
 aught that appears, with more reason for affirming than for denying. 
 In its general significance, this promise is good for the true church 
 of God in every age of time. 
 
 9. Kejoice greatly, O dangliter of Zion ; shout, O 
 daughter of Jerusalem ; behold, thy King cometh unto 
 thee : he is just, and haying salvation ; lowly, and riding 
 upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. 
 
 This striking case of protection against one of the world's 
 greatest and most formidable conquerors — protection which spe- 
 cially shielded Jerusalem when all the adjacent cities and kingdoms 
 were overrun and fearfully desolated — suggested the greater and 
 more glorious protection achieved for the people of God through 
 their incarnate Messiah, at once their great High Priest and their 
 supreme King. Over this Deliverer, let Zion rejoice exceedingly! 
 This summons to exultant joy indicates that Messianic blessings are 
 before the prophet's eye. His character as King is specially prom- 
 inent here because suggested by the protection he gives his people 
 against their enemies. 
 
 " Behold," see ! " Thy King shall come to thee," for thy help 
 and refuge. "He is just," the first quality of a good king; and 
 "iss«i;6^," **. e., protected of God. This word, rendered "having 
 salvation,"* is the passive participle of the common verb, to save, 
 from which our word Jesus is derived. It must, therefore, legiti- 
 mately be taken in the sense — protected, carried safely through all 
 danger — in this case, with reference to the sustaining hand of the 
 Father, upholding his beloved Son through all the temptations and 
 conflicts incident to his incarnation, sufferings, and death. More- 
 over, he is an afflicted one, sorely bruised and suffering, for this is 
 
 the usual sense of the word rendered "lowly." The last clause 
 
 of the verse demands special attention : — " Kiding upon an ass, and 
 
 upon a colt, the foal of an ass." The primary sense of these 
 
 words is plain enough. It is also clear that the first and proper 
 meaning of the words is precisely what they seem to say, viz., that 
 
334 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 lie should ride upon an ass, and even upon one yet younjo^. The ftict 
 that the Lord Jesus fulfilled this prediction to the very letter; that 
 he seemed to take special pains to fulfil it ; and more than all, that 
 this riding was not for the common piu'pose of a more comfortable 
 conveyance from place to place, but was in manner and form the 
 solemn and joyous i)rocession of his inauguration and coronation 
 as King in his own Jerusalem ; — coupled also with the fact that 
 each one of the four evangelists has given with more or less ful- 
 ness his own account of the transaction * — all combine to show 
 that it must have had some ulterior and extraordinary significance. 
 It cannot by any means be supposed that the transaction has no 
 speciality of meaning. "What, then, is this special meaning — the 
 
 significance of both the prophecy and the fulfilling act? Very 
 
 much has been said to show that the ass is everywhere despised, 
 and that riding on an ass indicates whatever is low and scarcely 
 above contempt. That the Lord Jesus rode on an ass has been sup- 
 posed to denote the position he held among the men of his genera- 
 tion, as one " despised and rejected." This idea has been fostered 
 by the fact that in some Christian countries Jews have been for- 
 bidden to ride on horses, or on any otlier animal but the ass, 
 for the purjiose of branding them with national odium. It is well 
 understood among critics that Jewish commentators since the 
 OJn-istian era have been sorely perplexed with this prediction of 
 their Messiah in whom they have expected a conquering hero, and 
 therefore could find no place in their preconceived notions of his 
 character for such a feature and foct as this, especially inasmuch 
 as modern ideas have led them to interpret the fact as a thing of 
 
 dishonor. To relieve their King Messiah from this odium, they 
 
 have taxed their ingenuity upon tradition and fable, e. g.^ asserting 
 that this ass was .the identical one created within the six days of 
 Gen. 1, the original ass(!), and the same on which Abraham rode 
 to Mount Moriah to offer his Isaac there, and which Moses rode 
 when ho came from Midian into Egy|:)t as their deliverer — thus 
 
 asserting for him at least the honors of a renowned antiquity ! 
 
 But these Jewish commentators, and some not Jewish, have 
 made themselves gratuitous labor in explaining away the supposed 
 disgrace of riding on an ass. It were better first to consider that 
 the notions of modern Europe and America concerning the ass are 
 no rule for the people of "Western Asia ; and further, that the no- 
 tions of Arab tribes and Mohammedans who glory in the horse are 
 not to be the standard by which to determine Hebrew ideas. Mani- 
 festly the sole question here is, not what "Western nations think of 
 the ass, nor what Arabs think of him, nor indeed what is thought 
 of him by any people in any age or country who are accustomed to 
 use his rival, tiie horse; but what were the current usages and 
 hence the current ideas of the Jeics^ the people among whom Zech- 
 
 * The reader will find the history of the fulfilment in Matt. 21 : 1-16, 
 Mark 11 : 1-11, Luke 19 : 29-40, and John 12 : 12-18. 
 
ZECHARIAH.—CHAP. IX. 335 
 
 ariali lived and wrote ? That this is the very point to be ascertained 
 seems too plain to need proof, and yet it has been strangely over- 
 looked. It cannot be deemed necessary to prove that Jewish 
 
 ideas were substantially the same from Abraham to the Christian 
 era — certainly among all who, like Zechariah, held in high esteem 
 
 the patriarchs of the nation and their ancient Scriptures. Let it 
 
 then be considered that during the entire life of the Jewish nation, 
 the horse had never any footing in Palestine, and therefore had no 
 opportunity to disparage his lowlier rival. It was the divine policy 
 to keep him out, as being uncongenial to the Hebrew state, too 
 aristocratic, and withal dangerous as a temptation into the ways of 
 the idolatrous and corrupt nations in their vicinity; and more than 
 all, too much associated loithicar. These considerations all conspired 
 to retain the ass in service and to secure for him a fairly respectable 
 
 standing. But let us look at the historic foots. Abraham, the 
 
 honored father of the nation, rode an ass. The sons of Jacob, 
 heads of the tribes of Israel, rode every man his ass. Balaam, a 
 great man in his country, rode on an ass. The daughter of Caleb, 
 and Abigail too, among the worthy women of Jewish history, rode 
 each on her ass. All the sons of David rode on mules — an animal 
 of \\\Qi same general character ; Absalom also, when at the head 
 of his army. In the transfer of the kingdom from David to Solo- 
 mon, great account is made of his riding on David's mule in the 
 royal procession on coronation day. It is therefore simply im- 
 possible that any odium could have been attached to riding on an 
 ass at the time Zechariah wrote, or at the time when Christ ful- 
 filled his prediction. But there is one idea, already hinted at 
 
 though not fully developed, which deserves a far more prominent 
 position than it has had. The ass teas not adapted to loar; the horse 
 was. For the most part the ass appears in Jewish history either 
 used by men in peaceful life, or by women who should never be in 
 any other. On the contrary, the horse of scripture history is a 
 war-horse, with either his dragoon or his chariot. The Egyptians 
 on one side ; the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Persians on the other ; 
 made great account of horses for war. Hence, when the horse in 
 Jewish history sets foot on Palestine, he is there for war, for 
 
 aggression. ISTor let us fail to notice in. our context that while 
 
 King Messiah is to ride on an ass, the Lord says : "I will cut off 
 the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; '' and he 
 shall speak peace to the heathen." Jerusalem especially, the holy 
 city where Jehovah dwelt, must have no horses. Their very names 
 
 and their presence are too much associated icith tear. Zech. 
 
 12 :4 shows how tlie horse is commonly thought of as related to 
 the Hebrew state. In the millennial age, horses for once (for the 
 first time?) shall be really consecrated to God (14: 20), a most re- 
 markable fact, and indicating a stupendous change ! The ass then 
 is here an emblem of peace — of peaceful pursuits, of a peaceful 
 king, and of his peaceful reign, ehowing that Messiah's kingdom 
 should not be of this world, and should not make its conquests 
 
336 ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 witli carnal weapons. This significant act, riding on an ass, is a 
 symbol of Christ's peaceful reign, inaugurating him for the sort of 
 work which the next verse describes. 
 
 10. And I will cut oif tlie "cliariot from Epliraim, 
 and tlie liorse from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow sliall 
 be cut off : and lie sliall speak peace unto the heathen : 
 and his dominion shall he from sea emri to sea, and from 
 the river even to the ends of the earth. 
 
 This verse is closely connected with verse 9 — a part of the same 
 grand prophecy of the Messiah and of his reign on earth — set here 
 in a fine antithesis with the conquering, world-wide kingdom of 
 
 Alexander. The chariot and the horse must be discarded and 
 
 abolished as war-institutions^ and therefore wholly out of place un- 
 der this peaceful reign. They can bear no part in the great con- 
 quests which Zion's King is to make. He has no fighting to do 
 with carnal weapons. On the contrary, he " speaTcs " peace to the 
 nations. The gospel of his word carries with it peace and love to 
 
 the very hearts of men. -The reader wiU notice how fully this 
 
 view of Messiah's reign harmonizes with that given by Micah 4 : 1- 
 4; Isa. 11 and Ps. 72, &c., &c. Though the kingdom of Mes- 
 siah relies on peaceful agencies alone for its diffusion, yet it shall be 
 extended far away to the ends of the world. " His dominion shall 
 be from sea to sea " — from land's end in one direction to land's end 
 in another — " from the great river" (Euphrates) " to the ends of the 
 earth." The prophet is not aiming to fix certain geographical 
 boundaries to this kingdom, as if implying that it lies within these 
 and in no case beyond them, but rather means that it is coexten- 
 sive with the known world, sweeping away to the very ends of the 
 
 earth. That this passage (vs. 9, 10) is a prophecy of Jesus Christ, 
 
 admits of no rational doubt. (1.) The course of thought which 
 suggests and introduces it, the transition from the protection af- 
 forded against Alexander to the greater and better protection af- 
 forded by Zion's King against Satan, the world's worst conqueror 
 and tyrant, goes far to prove it Messianic. (2.) The call for ex- 
 traordinary joy in this glorious King belongs to the prophecies of 
 
 the Messiah, and to nothing of less magnitude and value. (3.) 
 
 The points made can apply to none but the Messiah. (4.) They 
 
 all apply to him easily, accurately, and fully. (5.) The one most 
 
 extraordinary point — his riding on an ass — was not only fulfilled in 
 him but ly him, with more appearance of special aim to fulfil this 
 prophecy than is apparent elsewhere in regard to any other. Yet, 
 in view of the exposition above given of the significance of this act, 
 we must suppose that he did it because of its significance rather 
 than merely for the sake of lYilfiUing this prophecy. He did fulfil 
 
 it, however, none the less. (6.) The testimony of the disciples in 
 
 their comments on the historic fact is in point. Matthew (21 : 4) 
 remarks : " All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 33Y 
 
 spoken by the prophet," and then cites this passage ; while John 
 (12 : 16) remarks that his " disciples did not understand these things 
 at the first, hut when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered 
 that these things were written of him, and that they had done 
 these things unto him." When the Spirit had fully come to teach 
 them all things, and to bring all things Christ had said and done 
 to their remembrance, then the significance of this transaction be- 
 came wonderfully clear to their minds. All these points of evi- 
 dence combined make the proof signally complete — indeed, over- 
 whelming. 
 
 11. As for thee also, by tlie blood of thy covenant 1 
 have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is 
 no water. 
 
 12. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of 
 hope ; even to-day do I declare that I will render double 
 unto thee ; 
 
 13. When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow 
 with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against 
 thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a 
 mighty man. 
 
 The ninth and tenth verses may be regarded as a digression 
 from the regular course of thought, and embraced in a parenthesis. 
 In V. 11 the prophet returns to speak of events that follow shortly 
 after those predicted (vs. 1-8). The conflict (v. 13) between the 
 sons of Zion and the sons of Greece finds its fulfilment in the fu- 
 rious wars waged during twenty-four years between the Jews and 
 the Syrian Greeks, commencing in the reign of Antiochus Epiph- 
 anes. His people are here called Greeks because his kingdom 
 was one of the four into which the great Grecian empire of Alex- 
 ander was divided, and also because their language and customs 
 
 were Grecian. " As for thee also (O daughter of Zion, as in v. 9), 
 
 because thou art in a covenant . with thy God w^hich is sealed with 
 blood, I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit in which is no 
 water." The covenant of the Lord with the Jewish nation was 
 sealed with sprinkled blood. See Ex. 24 : 8. — " And Moses took 
 the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said : Behold the 
 blood of the covenant which the Lord had made with you concern- 
 ing all these words." A " pit without water " is one from which 
 
 the water has by somq means gone, leaving mud on the bottom, 
 exceedingly oflfensive and often miasmatic. See the experiences 
 of Joseph and of Jeremiah, Gen. 8T : 24 and Jer. 38 ; 6. The Lord's 
 people are thought of as having been imprisoned in such a pit ; but 
 the Lord sends them forth. The past tense, rendered " have sent," 
 is doubtless used because the event is so fixed in the counsels of 
 God as to be accounted done. Hence this tense (the perfect) is 
 used by the prophets even for events yet as to actual occurrence in 
 15 
 
338 ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 the future. This was to occur after Zechariah's day. " Eetm'n 
 
 ye to the strong hold " — a high and therefore strong, inaccessible 
 position, and here in contrast with the " deep pit " where they had 
 lain imprisoned. Being the peojjle of Jehovah and in covenant 
 with him, they were evermore "prisoners of hope" — prisoners 
 
 having just ground of hope in his protecting, delivering grace. 
 
 To " render double " is to give them blessings twice as great as 
 their aflHictions had been. See the same expression, Isa. 40 : 2 and 
 61 : 7. It is altogether the way of the Lord to send grief and 
 affliction only in single measure, but joy and blessing in double — 
 weighing out the retributions of justice carefully and the inflictions 
 of his rod very tenderly ; but pouring forth the bounties of his 
 mercy as if he could not think of measuring them by any rule less 
 
 than the impulses of infinite love ! In v. 13 — "'Because I have 
 
 trodden Judah for my bow, and filled my bow with Ephraim as 
 mine arrow " — means that the Lord is to use the military strength 
 of Judah and Ephraim in protecting his land against the Syrian 
 
 armies. The strong bows of the warrior were bent by nsing the 
 
 foot as well as the hand. Hence the phrase "to tread the bow," 
 
 for bending it to fit its string for use. Applying the arrow 
 
 "filled the bow" — this being a necessary complement, without 
 
 which it was of no account. "Raised up" should rather bo 
 
 " roused up " — exciting and inspiring to deeds of heroic valor — all 
 which had its precise fulfilment in those inspirations of heroism 
 with which the Lord anointed the souls of the Maccabees against 
 their Syrian foes. 
 
 14. And the Lokd sliall be seen over them, and his 
 arrow shall go forth as the lightning : and the Lord God 
 sliall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds 
 of the south. 
 
 The agencies of God's providence in this war shall be as pal- 
 pable as if Jehovah himself Avere visible above them as they fought 
 their battles. Ilis own arrows shall go forth like the lightnings ; 
 he shall blow the trumpet-blasts of the battle, and shall march 
 upon his foes as in the whirlwinds of the south — those most fear- 
 ful tornadoes that carry death in their wings. These whirwinds 
 of the south are referred to by Job (37 : 9), and by Isaiah (21 : 1). 
 This grouping of the boldest and most terrible elements of nature 
 represents God's agencies in those wars. 
 
 15. Ihe LoED of hosts shall defend them ; and they 
 sliall devour and subdue with sling-stones ; and they 
 shall di-ink, and make a noise as through wine ; and 
 they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of 
 the altar. 
 
 " The Lord of hosts " (" God of the celestial armies " is the right 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. IX. 339 
 
 name to use here) "shall defend them" (literally, shall throw his 
 shield over them), "and they shall devour" (literally "eat" as it 
 were the flesh of their enemies), "and shall tread down sling- 
 stones " — implying that their enemies are now as powerless as a 
 small sling-stone when lying on the ground, wliich is dangerous 
 only when hurled and flying from its sling. The sense is not — 
 "subdue with sling-stones," i. e.^ of their own; hut tread under 
 
 foot their enemy as they would tread upon sling-stones. " They 
 
 siiall drink," i. e., the blood of their enemies, as men drink wine, 
 and shall shout as men under its stimulus, and be filled with it as 
 the bowls of the altar, and as its corners upon which the blood was 
 
 daily sprinkled. These allusions to the bowls and the corners of 
 
 the altar may refer tacitly to the covenant sealed with blood, under 
 which help came from God for victory. 
 
 The reader will be careful to notice the contrast between these 
 verses (13-15) and the Messianic passage (vs. 9, 10) on the point of 
 war with deadly weapons. Under Messiah's peaceful reign there 
 shall be no chariots or horses of war ; the battle-bow shall be cut 
 off and unknown : but here, in the age before Messiah came, Ju- 
 dah is the Lord's bow, Ephraim his arrow ; the Lord fights at their 
 head, and they too fight with determined and almost furious bra- 
 very. The Lord had his own reasons for making the age before 
 
 Messiah came so militant. Let us not question their wisdom or 
 their love. But manifestly it is his purpose in this chapter to put 
 the future kingdom of the Messiah in the strongest possible con- 
 trast with those mihtant features of the earlier age, and to assure 
 us that in the good time coming men shall truly "learn war no 
 more." The gospel, having once developed its whole genius and 
 power, shall prove itself thoroughly and only " peace on earth and 
 good will to men." 
 
 16. And the Lord their God shall save them in that 
 day as the flock of his people : for they shall he as the 
 stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. 
 
 " The Lord their God shall save them as the flock of his people " 
 — as if he were indeed their own shepherd. "Because diadem- 
 stones," the jewels of a crown, " are they," borne on the head of 
 
 a conquering king, and waving high over his land. A beautiful 
 
 contrast should be noted here between their Syrian foes — sling- 
 stones under foot — and themselves crown-stones, precious gems, 
 set in a crown, and borne aloft over the land on the head of 
 conquerors. 
 
 11. For how great is his goodness-, and how great is 
 his beanty! corn shall make the yonng men cheerful, 
 and new wine the maids. 
 
 There is good reason for this exclamation of surprise and joy in 
 view of the goodness of God to his people, and the beauty of his 
 
34:0 ZECHARIAH.~CHAP. X. 
 
 providential dispensations as seen in the time of those Syrian wars. 
 
 In the last clause, " cheerful " is not precisely the idea, but 
 
 rather fruitful^ prolific^ which, according to well-known Jewish 
 ideas, was one of the most conclusive and joyous proofs of great 
 prosperity. Early marriages, healthful parents, "sons as plants 
 grown up in their youth ; " daugliters as corner-stones, polished after 
 the similitude of a palace : " happy is that people that is in such a 
 case" (Ps. 144: 12-15). "Happy is the man that hath his quiver 
 full of them" (Ps. 127: 5). these are the peaceful and pros- 
 perous times that succeed those wars. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 This chapter is a continuation from the close of chapter 9, and 
 hence has for its gi'ound idea the wars of the Maccabees against the 
 Syrian power. V. 1 stands immediately connected with 9 : IT, in- 
 dicating the external prosperity that succeeded those wars ; v. 2 
 falls back to note the apostasies which brought on this Syrian 
 scourge ; v. 3 the zeal and jealousy of the Lord kindled against the 
 corrupt Jewish leaders, and the remedy for their mischiefs ; in v. 4 
 men rise up, capable of filling positions of responsible trust; in v. 5 
 they fight valiantly, because the Ijord is with them, and confounds 
 their foes. In vs. 6-12, on the basis of this great deliverance 
 wrought for his people, the prophet predicts that in times more 
 remote the Lord will work similar but yet more glorious achieve- 
 ments for his Zion. 
 
 1. Ask ye of tlie Lord rain in the time of tlie latter 
 rain; so tlie Loed shall make bright clouds, and give 
 them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. 
 
 Under the ancient dispensation the Lord gave timely rains and 
 abundant harvests to his people when they were obedient and 
 trustful, and sought him in prayer. He took care to iiave them 
 understand this from the outset. See Dent. 11: 13, 14: — "And it 
 shall come to pass that if ye shall hearken diligently unto my com- 
 mandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your 
 God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul, 
 that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first 
 rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and 
 
 thy wine and thy oil." Hence the prophet says here : " Ask of 
 
 the Lord rain " — it comes for the asking, for the Lord your God hears 
 the prayer of his obedient people. Rain "in the time of the latter 
 
 rain " was especially useful to perfect the maturing crops. 
 
 "So the Lord shall give" — not "bright clouds," but "light- 
 nings," always portending rain. The Hebrew words translated 
 
 " showers of rain " imply abundance — " the rain of great rain " — so 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. X. 341 
 
 tliat not in detaolied districts alone, but over the wliole land, " every- 
 one shall have grass in the field." 
 
 2. For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners 
 have seen a lie, and have told false dreams ; they com- 
 fort in vain : therefore they went their way as a flock, 
 they were troubled because there was no shepherd. 
 
 The reason is given here why the Lord comes to the rescue ; 
 ''''for the people have been sorely deceived by diviners and by the 
 priests of idol gods, and have been seduced away from me," allud- 
 ing to the antecedent apostasy which was the occasion and procur- 
 ing cause of that fearful Syrian scourge. Historical evidence to 
 this apostasy exists in 1 Mac. 1 : 11-15. The "idols," is in He- 
 brew "the teraphim," household gods which appear not unfre- 
 quently in Jewish history, e. g., withEachel (Gen. 31 : 19" 34); with 
 Michal, Saul's daughter (1 Sam. 19 : 13, 16) ; with Micah in Judges 
 
 VJ : 5, &c., &c. All the light that came from these gods and 
 
 diviners was only darkness ; their guidance only misled the people ; 
 the hopes they inspired were worse than vain ; consequently the 
 whole people were led off in a wrong and ruinous way, going en 
 masse^ as a flock of sheep follow the lead given them. They were 
 in great aflSiction (the sense of the word rendered " were troubled "), 
 because there was no competent and real shepherd. 
 
 3. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, 
 and I punished the goats : for the Loed of hosts hath 
 visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them 
 as his goodly horse in the battle. 
 
 " My wrath " (saith the Lord) " is kindled against those shep- 
 herds " who so mislead the people. " I will punish the he-goats," 
 
 so called because the he- goat leads the flock. "For the Lord 
 
 hath visited his flock," implying that he is the real shepherd of the 
 house of Judah, and hath made them victorious in the conflict 
 against then* enemies, crowning them with honor before the nation, 
 as he indicates by comparing them to his own horse, one specially 
 
 honored by his own use in the day of battle. In the middle of 
 
 the verse is a play upon the two meanings of the usual Hebrew 
 word for mait,^ which, with a preposition following, equivalent to 
 upo?i, means to inflict judgment ; but standing alone means to look 
 after in a good sense. God will look after those enemies in the 
 sense of visUing upon them his plagues ; but will look after his peo- 
 ple in the sense of looking into their case with kindness, and redress- 
 ing their wrongs with his glorious right arm. 
 
 4. Out of him came forth the Corner, out of him the 
 
34:2 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. X. 
 
 nail, out of him the battle-bow, out of him every oppress- 
 or together. 
 
 "When the Lord visits Judah in mercy, he gives her the very- 
 blessings she needs — good leaders in place of the bad who had been 
 so sore a curse upon her. Hence out of Judah now come forth the 
 " corner-stone " men, good for bearing the weightiest responsibilities : 
 the " nail " men, to hold things in their right place, or to bear great 
 burdens. " The battle-bow " are the men skilful in the line of war, 
 but the word rendered " oppressor " does not in this passage im- 
 ply any injustice, but only an active, vigorous, and capable ruler. 
 
 The nail, in oriental use, was rather a spike or tent-pin, 
 
 sometimes so large that all the kitchen utensils were hung upon it. 
 (iSee Isa. 22 : 23, 25 and Ezra 9 : 8.) 
 
 5. And they shall be as mighty men^ which tread 
 down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the bat- 
 tle: and they shall fight, because the Lokd is with 
 them, and the riders on horses shall be confomided. 
 
 This graphic arid vigorous description of- the Lord's valiant war- 
 riors corresponds admirably with the historic character of the Mac- 
 cabean brothers, who girded themselves for heroic fight in the name 
 of the Lord God of their fathers. They felt that the Lord was with 
 them. The " riders on horses " were their Syrian invaders. The 
 history makes frequent mention of large bodies of horsemen in their 
 armies, e. g.^ 1 Mac. 3 : 39 : "Seven thousand horsemen," and 4 : 1, 
 "one thousand of the best horsemen," &c. They were confounded 
 to meet such power among those despised Jews. 
 
 6. And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I 
 will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them 
 again to place them ; for I have mercy upon them : and 
 they shall be as though I had not cast them off : for I 
 am the Lord their God, and will hear them. 
 
 The general conception in this verse is that of reproducing the 
 best days of Israel, e. </., under David and Solomon. Consequently 
 " Joseph," the ten tribes, must be saved ; the people all made ready 
 to " dwell " in a settled and secure way in their own land, the Lord 
 showing his mercy upon them even as though he had not ever cast 
 
 them olf for their sins. But this concei:)tion carries us onward 
 
 into the Messianic age, and could have its fulfilment in nothing 
 short or less. The recall of the ten tribes, in any age subsequent 
 to Zechariah, must, of necessity, be regarded as Messianic, and to 
 be fidfilled only in the jS'ew Testament sense. With these prin- 
 ciples of interpretation before the mind, this entire passage (vs. 
 6-12) becomes not only clear and free from its otherwise insur- 
 mountable difiiculties, but rich in gospel significance and in the 
 fulness of glorious promise for Zion in her latter days. 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. X. 343 
 
 7. And they of Epliraim shall be like a miglity vnan^ 
 and tlieir hearts shall rejoice as throngh wine : yea, 
 the children shall see it^ and bo glad ; their hearts shall 
 rejoice in the Lord. 
 
 8. I will hiss for them, and gather them ; for I have 
 redeemed them : and they shall increase as they have 
 increased. 
 
 9. And I will sow them among the people : and they 
 shall remember me in far conntries ; and they shall live 
 with their children, and turn again. 
 
 " Ephraim " contemplates in its literal sense the ten tribes ; but 
 in its real prophetic outlook, the ingathering of the nations to Jesus 
 Christ in the gospel age. A Jew in the time of Zechariah could 
 conceive of no state of things more desirable than the reproducing 
 of the good times of David and Solomon. Hence language and 
 figures are drawn fi'om that state to represent the best condition 
 possible for God's earthly kingdom — the sublimely glorious con- 
 quests of peace and victories of love in the latter days. In v. 8 
 
 Eplii-aim comes back with heart full of joy ; the Lord lifts up his 
 shrill cry for them, as the keeper of bees whistles for them, and they 
 come to his call. They multiply as of old (Ephraim took his name 
 
 from the idea of being prolific in population). In v. 9 God will 
 
 scatter them abroad among the nations, and there, under the moral 
 influence of this afiiiction, they shall remember the Lord their God 
 
 and repent of their great sins. So the Lord said by Ilosea 
 
 (2:4), "I will allure her into the wilderness and speak to her 
 
 heart." " They shall Iwe with their children " — Ihe in the high 
 
 spiritual sense, with allusion perhaps to Ezek. 37 : 9 : " Come from 
 the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they 
 
 may ?i«<3." "With their children," implies that these blessings 
 
 go down to future generations — not to themselves alone, but to 
 their children after them as well. 
 
 10. I will bring them again also ont of the land of 
 Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria ; and I will bring 
 them into t^jie land of Gilead and Lebanon ; and ]}lace 
 shall not be found for them. 
 
 These words must be understood as historic allusion, and not as 
 specific and literal prediction. The sense is not — I will gather my 
 captives out of Egypt and out of Assyria, but — I will do a similar 
 thing to the great achievement of bringing my people out of Egypt 
 under Moses. I will redeem them from a second Egypt, and save 
 them from a second Assyrian Sennacherib. That only Egypt and 
 Assyria, and not Chaldea,* are referred to, is explained by the fact 
 that the Ivingdom of the ten tribes had disappeared before the Chal- 
 dean came into notice ; hence, Ephraim never knew Chaldea as an 
 
3M ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. X. 
 
 enemy. N'ote also that the prophet does not say they shall re- 
 turn to Judah and Jerusalem ; but, to show the enlargement of 
 the Lord's kingdom, he names " Gilead," the extensive region on the 
 east of Jordan, and "Lebanon," on the north, which lay outside 
 the usual boundaries of the tribes of Israel ; and, indeed, he says, 
 
 " place large enough shall not be found for them." But this has 
 
 never been fulfilled in the lineal descendants of Abraham, nor can 
 it ever be. Their numbers, all told to-day, would not meet the de- 
 mands of this prophecy, interpreted however moderately. We must, 
 therefore, find Israel and Ephraim in that new era of Messiah's king- 
 dom in which there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, but all are 
 
 one in Christ Jesus. Yet another reason for omitting to name 
 
 Judah and Jerusalem is, that the prophet has in mind the ten tribes 
 specially, and not Judah. The demand for restoring mercy lay 
 chiefly in their direction, as seen in the age of Zechariah. Further, 
 the Jews were never carried captive literally into Egypt. If any 
 Jews fled thither for refuge in those seasons when their homes were 
 broken up, they went and were received as friends. But v. 11 con- 
 ceives of their rescue from Egypt as being from the hand of enemies, 
 a fact which shows that Egypt comes in here.only by way of historic 
 
 allusion. Arguing against the doctrine of a literal restoration of 
 
 the Jews to Palestine, Dr. Hengstenberg pertinently says : "If it 
 cannot be denied that the lands out of which the Israelites were 
 brought back, are to be understood only as types, what objection 
 can be m*ged if the land to ichich they shall be restored is in like 
 manner to be regarded as a type ? " (Ohristology, ii., 143.) 
 
 11. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, 
 and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps 
 of the rivers shall dry up : and the pride of Assyria 
 shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall 
 depart away. 
 
 This verse begins with a change of person from the first, "I," as 
 in vs. 6-10, to the third, "he." But "he " must be understood of 
 
 the same Lord God. The " sea " can be no other than the Eed 
 
 Sea, named by way of historic allusion. The Lord passes through 
 it at the head of his people to achieve a like deliverance to that of 
 
 the Exodus from Egypt. ITot " with affliction," for there is no 
 
 word corresponding to " with," and nothing out of which to make 
 this sense; but the sea which is itself iheiv affliction — which stands 
 in their way, and is the occasion of their trouble — in apposition 
 with the word " sea." Whatever their affliction may be, analogous to 
 the Eed Sea of the olden time, the Lord will march through it at the 
 
 head of his people. " And he will smite the waves " in that sea 
 
 which represents their affliction, as he is wont to smite his enemies. 
 " And all the depths of the Nile shaU be dried up " — with his- 
 toric reference to the Jordan, which, however, being a comparatively 
 small stream, is not itself named here, but the usual word for the 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XL 345 
 
 Nile is taken instead. That is, the idea of drying up comes from the 
 
 Jordan ; the magnitude of the stream from tlie Mle. Isaiah 
 
 (11 : 15, 16) has a very similar allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. 
 
 "The pride of Assyria " and ''the sceptre of Egypt " are also 
 
 historic allusions to those hostile powers from whom Israel had suf- 
 fered so much. The sense is — God will humble all the foes of Zion, 
 and will effectually break in pieces their power to harm. 
 
 12. And I will strengthen them in the Loed ; and 
 they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the 
 Lord. 
 
 Finally, they shall be made gloriously strong in the Lord, and 
 through his strength alone. So shall they walk up and down, trav- 
 erse the land at their will, or in tlieir duty, without fear. No harm 
 can befall them, since they walk with God. Many parallel pas- 
 sages might be cited from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ilosea, and Micah, serv- 
 ing to confirm the general interpretation here given, and to show 
 that the prophets harmonize remarkably in these views of the 
 general course of events in the great future of Zion; and also to 
 show that they give the'same sense to individual and special phrases. 
 It has not seemed necessary to collate and compare these texts, 
 
 except in passages of special diflSculty. The reader will find in 
 
 Isaiah 11 : 11-16 a passage remarkably similar to this in all impor- 
 tant respects. It is beyond aU question Messianic ; so must this be 
 also. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 If the Book of Zechariah be divided into two portions, the first 
 six chapters being the first division, and the remaining eight the 
 second, then this eleventh will be a digression from the current 
 strain of promised blessings in the second portion, very analogous 
 to the fifth chapter in the first part. As the fifth was interposed 
 for the purpose of moral warning to the careless, apprising them 
 that the judgments of God awaited the guilty, so here this eleventh 
 chapter is interposed for the same purpose. There can be no doubt 
 that it predicts judgments on the covenant people at some perod 
 
 of their history then future. The manner of presenting this truth 
 
 is very peculiar, essentially that of symbohc vision — a case quite 
 unique in the respect that, in vision only, and not in actuality, and 
 as personating, not himself, but others, the prophet is required to 
 perform the functions of a shepherd to the Lord's people, consid- 
 ered as his flock. On this theory of interpreting the chapter the 
 best modern commentators are united. Despite of the unique pe- 
 culiarities of the case, it is generally agreed that the chapter pre- 
 dicts the overthrow of the Jewish state, and the ruin of their city 
 and temple, effected by the Romans, about a. i>. 70, in consequence 
 15* 
 
 1^" 
 
34:6 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 of their national corruption, and of their blind and mad rejection 
 of their Messiah. The prophet, acting the part of a good shepherd 
 (vs. .4-14), personates the Messiah himself. Acting the part of the 
 foohsh shepherd (vs. 15-17), he personates the Scribes and Pharisees 
 
 of the Saviour's day. The first three verses, wrought up in high 
 
 poetic imagery, predict the fall of the nation before the Koman 
 arms ; while the remaining part of the chapter gives the antecedent 
 moral causes of that fall. Whereas those morally blinded and hard- 
 ened Jews had said in the madness of their wrath against the spot- 
 less Redeemer, "His blood be on us and on our children," on them 
 and on their children his blood did come, and their blood flowed 
 like rivers of water ! The Saviour himself had said, " Behold your 
 house is left unto you desolate." Here is an earlier prediction of 
 those fearful retributions. History endorses its accuracy to the very 
 
 letter. The comprehensive thought of this chapter is, therefore, 
 
 Judaism, utterly corrupt and apostate, repelling the merciful ef- 
 forts of Tier Redeemer to reclaim and save her, and thus bringing 
 on herself dire destruction. The divisions of the chapter are al- 
 ready indicated incidentally: vs. 1-3, a comprehensive prediction 
 of ruin upon their city and nation ; vs. 4-14, the causes of this ruin 
 shown to lie in the utter corruption of those orders (the priests, 
 scribes, and doctors of the law) who should have been, under God, 
 their good shepherds, and their consequent rejection of their true 
 Shepherd, Jesus, the Messiah. Lastly, vs. 15-17 give the course 
 and doom of those corrupt teachers, specially personated by the 
 prophet, acting the part of a foolish shepherd. 
 
 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may de- 
 vour thy cedars. 
 
 Lebanon and her lofty cedars represent Jerusalem ; her doors, , 
 the gates of the city. Hence this is a summons to Jerusalem to pre- 
 pare for approaching ruin. The ground of this poetical conception 
 of Lebanon for Jerusalem may be a tacit analogy between them — 
 Lebanon one of the grandest objects in the realm of nature, Jeru- 
 salem in the realm of art ; Lebanon among the works of God, Je- 
 rusalem among the works of man — with, perhaps, a side-look to the 
 fact that the temple was largely built with cedars from Lebanon. 
 
 2. Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen ; because the 
 mighty are spoiled : howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the 
 forest of the vintage is come down. 
 
 The sentiment is — This destruction shall be complete. The lof- 
 tiest and strongest fall; how, then, can the feebler hope to 
 
 stand ? The same strain of poetic conception is carried through 
 
 the verse, the grandest trees of the forest representing Jerusalem 
 and other strongholds of the nation. " Wail, O cypress, for tho ce- 
 dar has fallen " {i. e., what were most lofty are now destroyed) ; 
 " wail, ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the inaccessible moun- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XI. 347 
 
 tain-lieiglits is laid low." "If these things be done in the green 
 tree, what shall be done in the dry? " 
 
 3. There is a yoice of the liowling of tlie slieplierds ; 
 for tlieir glory is spoiled : a voice of the roaring of 
 young lions ^ for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. 
 
 Here the figures turn from inanimate nature to animate. The 
 ornament and glory of the shepherds are their rich,pastures — now- 
 laid waste. Compare Jer. 25 : 36 : "A voice of the cry of the shep- 
 herds, and an howling of the principal of the flock ; for the Lord hath 
 
 spoiled their pasture." " The pride of Jordan," in which the 
 
 young lion made his lair, were the dense thickets along his banks. 
 This phrase was already in use by Jeremiah, whom Zechariah fol- 
 lows remarkably in his terms and phrases. See Jer. 12 : 5, where 
 the " swelling of Jordan " is the same original phrase here rendered 
 "pride of Jordan." So also, Jer. 49:19, and 50: 44 — in all cases 
 said of the thick undergrowths along the Jordan, where the lions 
 
 had their homes. The sentiment is here the same as above — All 
 
 classes of people are in distress, for their choicest treasures are 
 wasted; what they most love and value is in ruins. A poetic 
 imagination seizes on the ruin of individual classes, and by a few 
 striking details gives a vivid conception of the universal desola- 
 tion. 
 
 4. Thus saith the Loed my God ; Feed the flock of 
 the slaughter; 
 
 As already stated, vs. 4-14 are a sort of parable — a dramatic 
 scene, in which the prophet personates the Messiah, and represents 
 in himself what the Messiah was to do for the Jewish nation, con- 
 sidered as the people of God. The figure throughout is that of a 
 shepherd and his flock — a figure often applied to the spiritual rela- 
 tions of the Lord to his people. Those who act under and for him, 
 ministering to the religious life of his people, are also called shep- 
 herds, pastors of his people. This figure had become very common 
 in the age of Zechariah, and of the prophets during the captivity. 
 The reader will see, in Ezek. 34 and Jer. 23, how famihar those 
 j)rophets were with this conception, and how much use they made 
 of it to set forth the relations sustained by the Lord toward his peo- 
 ple. It also served with them, as with Zechariah, to represent how 
 fearfully the priests and prophets of that age had degenerated, and 
 
 were scattering and wasting the sheep of the Lord's pasture. 
 
 "The flock of the slaughter" means the flock doomed to slaughter 
 for their sins — the Jewish people, now ripe for the fearful retributive 
 judgments of the Almighty. 
 
 6. Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves 
 not giiilty : and they that sell them say, Blessed he the 
 Lord ; for I am rich : and their own shepherds pity 
 them not. 
 
348 ZECHAKIAH.~CHAP.. n. 
 
 The persons of the drama in this verse are (1.) Th^ fioc\ who 
 are the Jews during the period a. d. 80-'70, conceived of as the flock 
 of the Lord's pastures ; (2.) Their 'buyers (" possessors ") and their 
 sellers^ the Eomans; and (3.) Their own sTiepJierds, the priests, 
 Scribes, and Pharisees, who should have taught them the knowledge 
 of God, but who had no car^ or pity for their deplorable moral 
 
 condition. Their buyers who buy them for slaughter kill them 
 
 and are not punished as guilty, because it is of the Lord to scourge 
 the nation for its great sins. The verb here used * has only these 
 two well-established senses : (1.) To sin; (2.) To suffer punishment 
 for sin. See notes on Hos. 5 : 15. It occurs Jer. 2 : 3 and 50 : 7, 
 both of which passages strikingly illustrate the sense of the clause 
 before us. The former, referring to the time when Israel was holi- 
 ness to the Lord, says — " AH that devour him offend^'''' i. e., sin 
 against God, and shall suffer punishment ; " evil shall come upon 
 them, saith the Lord." The latter, referring to a time when the 
 Lord would scourge his people, reads — " All that found them have 
 devoured them ; their adversaries said, "We of end not, because they 
 have sinned against the Lord." It is remarkable that foreign 
 enemies whom the Lord made use of to scourge his people, seem to 
 have in some sort understood why the Lord gave them this license. 
 The king of Assyria (Isa. 36 : 10) said : " Am I now come up with- 
 out the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said unto 
 
 me. Go up against this land to destroy it." That " they who sell 
 
 them bless the Lord for their gains," corresponds to the clause, 
 " they are not punished " (" offend not "). They think they are doing 
 God service, and thank him for the personal selfish good they get 
 as if all were morally right. 
 
 6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the 
 land, saith the Loed : but lo, I will deliver the men 
 every one into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand 
 of liis king : and they shall smite the land, and out of 
 their hand I will not deliver them. 
 
 The reason for the ruin that comes thus terribly on the covenant 
 people is that God has given them over to destruction for their in- 
 corrigible sins. The repetition of the verb rendered " pity " is 
 
 a play upon the word, thus : As their shepherds have lost all pity 
 for the moral condition of their flock, so will I abjure all pity for 
 them, flock and shepherd both ; and will give them over to remedi- 
 less ruin. This doom, thus made prophetically specific, is shown 
 
 by the history to be drawn with entire accuracy. The facts were, 
 that the people had no head ; that intestine discord and civil war 
 were scarcely less destructive than the Eoman sword. Every one 
 was delivered into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of 
 the Roman king. The slaughter was terrific, scarcely equalled by 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XL 34.9 
 
 any other scene recorded in antlientic history. Josephus is the chief 
 original authority. His statements are full and reliable. According 
 to his account, the loss of life on the Jewish side, during that horri- 
 ble siege and capture, could not have been less than eleven hundred 
 thousand ! 
 
 T. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, 
 O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves ; 
 the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands ; 
 and I fed' the flock. 
 
 Not " I will feed," for this fails to give the tense of the origi- 
 nal ; but, " so then I fed the flock doomed to slaughter because of 
 the poor of the flock " — ^. e., out of my pity for the poor ones of 
 the flock — a pertinent and beautiful statement of the labor and love 
 of their own Messiah, who was so often "moved with compassion 
 when he saw the people'as sheep having no shepherd." For the 
 proud and self-righteous and for those who were rich toward this 
 world but not rich toward God, he manifested no specially tender 
 pity ; but for the masses who had no shepherd, and especially for 
 the poor, his heart was tenderly touched. In the line of pure benev- 
 olence he rose indefinitely high above all other religious teachers 
 of every age in this — " he preached the gospel to the poor. ''"' 
 
 These " staves " were the usual well-known shepherd's crooTc^ 
 the only special instrument used by the shepherd ; useful to him 
 both in the management of the flock, and in repelling its enemies. 
 They represent here those providential agencies by which the Lord 
 aided the pastoral work of the Messiah over his people, as appears from 
 their significant names. The one he called Grace (not so properly 
 " Beauty "), but grace in the sense of that divine favor which re- 
 strained hostile heathen nations from assaulting the people of the 
 
 Lord w^hile they faithfully served him. The other, "Bands," was 
 
 a crook of cords, significant of those providential agencies which 
 held the people together in peace. With these aids he acted the 
 part of a shepherd to the flock. 
 
 8. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month ; and 
 my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. 
 
 The prophet, personating the Messiah, is supposed to have sub- 
 ordinate shepherds under him. These three shepherds cannot 
 mean three individuals. The general strain of the subject forbids 
 this. Besides, Zechariah is wont to present individuals as represent- 
 atives of orders or classes of men. See chap. 3, throughout, where 
 Joshua represents the order of priests ; and 4 : 14, where the two 
 anointed ones must mean the two orders, the regal and the priestly, 
 
 which were inducted into ofiice by the ceremony of anointing. 
 
 Here we must suppose that the prophet takes the number three 
 from precisely those three established orders upon whom the pasto- 
 ral responsibility of caring under God for the covenant people de- 
 volved — priests, prophets, and civil magistrates. (See Jer. 2 : 8, 26 
 
350 ZECnARIAH.— CHAP. XL 
 
 and 18: 18.) Tho&e who represented these classes during ourLord'f 
 public ministry must be specially intended here, probably the 
 priests ; the scribes in the place of the ancient prophets ; and the 
 civil magistrates. The Lord Jesus rejected thein from their places 
 of trust, not instantaneously, but very summarily, as " one month " 
 shows. It was the labor of his public life. The history .of our 
 Lord's public ministry, in its relation to the scribes, doctors of the 
 law, and Pharisees, shows that he and they had not the least com- 
 mon sympathy. He loathed them, as the Hebrew word imphes ; 
 he lost all confidence in their moral integrity and even honesty ; 
 and on the other hand, their soul rebelled against him because of 
 the purity of his character, and the fidelity and pungency of his 
 rebukes of their sin. 
 
 9. Then said I, l will not feed you : that that dieth, 
 let it die ; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off ; 
 and let the rest eat, every one the flesh of another. 
 
 The Messiah abandons the flock, the Jewish people, to the 
 sweep of terrible judgments. '• I will be your shepherd no longer." 
 A threefold judgment shall be your extermination ; — pestilence ; the 
 sword from without ; the sword from within ; — the two last look- 
 ing toward (1.) the Koman arras ; (2.) those horrible conflicts of 
 hostile parties which made the very strength of the nation its essen- 
 tial weakness and ruin. Let the pestilence sweep away whom 
 
 it will ; let the Roman sword drink the blood of the victims so 
 doomed by the will of the Most High ; let every man's teeth be 
 
 sharpened to devour his neighbor's flesh! The reality set forth 
 
 in this prophetic language was fearfully terrific! They had said — 
 '' His blood be on us and on our children ! " The Lord responded, 
 '' So let it be ! " Here is the prediction. History verifies it to the letter ! 
 
 10. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it 
 asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had 
 made with all the people. 
 
 The first crook, now broken, represented the sundering of the 
 covenant which God is supposed to have made with foreign nations 
 (the sense of " all the people"), to restrain them from harming his 
 chosen. This covenant lay in the divine mind — ^liis purpose to 
 restrain heathen nations from making war on his people. See the 
 same sense in Hos. 2 : 18 : "In that day I will make a covenant for 
 them with the beasts of the field," &c. Compare Job. 5 : 23 and 
 Ezek. 34:25. 
 
 11. And it was broken in that day : and so the poor 
 of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the 
 word of the Lord. 
 
 The staff once broken, the Eoman arms came down upon the 
 land. " Then the poor of Ihc flock " — Christ's disciples — having 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XI. 351 
 
 been apprised by him (Matt. 24 : 15-21), knew that the hour of judg- 
 ment for the land had come, and lied for safety to the mountains of 
 Pella, on the east of Jordan. History records the remarkable fact 
 that not one Christian Jew fell in that awful carnage. All who had 
 faith in their divine Lord gave heed to his warnings. The Lord by 
 his special providence gave them ample time to make good their 
 escape before the city was invested by the Eoman legions. They 
 fled to Pella in the mountains east of the Jordan, and were all 
 safe. 
 
 12. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me 
 my price ; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my 
 price thirty pieces of silver. 
 
 13. And the Loed said nnto me, Cast it unto the pot- 
 ter : a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And 
 I took the thirty pieces oi silver, and cast them to the 
 potter in the house of the Loed. 
 
 The great shepherd, about to close his services, proposes in the 
 business settlement that they, the Jews, should give him tlie wages 
 due. It is not implied by the original words that he fixed the price 
 himself. " Give me my price," should rather read, " Give me my 
 hire or reward." He manifestly left it with them to fix the price. 
 
 He only said. Give me what wages you please, and let me go. 
 
 They weighed out thirty pieces of silver, the very price for which 
 Judas betrayed him, and the usual price for a slave. (See Ex. 21 : 32.) 
 Maimonides, one of the most reliable ancient Jewish authors, speaks 
 of this as the price of a slave's services, but contemptible for a free 
 man's. The meagreness of it indicates liow low they estimated his 
 services. Precisely this is the intended showing of the transaction. 
 
 "A goodly price," &c., is ironical, and shows how keenly the 
 
 insult was felt. It has, moreover, a prophetic outlook toward the 
 
 very deed of Judas. The Lord said, " Cast it to the potter." He 
 
 did so. This, too, was one of the points of remarkable coincidence 
 between this symbolic prophecy and one of the prominent scenes 
 
 in the betrayal of his Lord by Judas. It should be noted that 
 
 Matthew, having stated that Judas, filled with remorse, returned 
 the price of blood (27: 3-10), says that the chief priests "bought 
 therewith the potter's field to bury strangers in," which thenceforth 
 bore the name of " the field of blood," and that " then was fulfilled 
 that which was spoken by Jeremy tlie prophet^ saying, And they 
 took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, 
 whom they of the children of Israel did value ; and gave them for 
 
 the potter's field as the Lord appointed me." These words are not 
 
 found in the Book of Jeremiah, but the general sense and nearly the 
 same words occur in this passage of Eechariah. How came it to pass 
 
 that Matthew named Jeremiah instead of Zechariah ? It should be 
 
 considered that Zechariah's words, " the potter," &c., connect his 
 prophecy closely with Jeremiah, chaps. 18 and 19. "The potter" 
 
352 ZEOHARIAH.— CHAP. XL 
 
 of Jeremiah worked down in the valley of the son of Hinnom, as 
 the expressions " go down " and " went down " (Jer. 18 : 2, 3) ren- 
 der probable, and as the passage (19 : 2) proves, for here the "east 
 gate" is (in Heb.) "the entrance to the potter's gate." There 
 Jeremiah was to denounce upon the people most solemn threaten- 
 ings from the Lord, and then break a potter's vessel before them. 
 The place, already made abominable ; the breaking of the vessel, sig- 
 nificant of a doom for which there can be no remedy ; and the fear- 
 ful solemnity of the message— all conspired to make the association9 
 connected with this potter's house specially solemn and portentous. 
 These things need to be understood in order to get the full sense of 
 this passage in Zechariah. It may be supposed that Matthew had 
 before his mind the full account of Jeremiah as well as the more 
 brief one of Zechariah, and quoting from memory, assigned to the 
 former what is found as to its precise words most nearly in the 
 latter. It is by no means necessary to the reliability of the Scrip- 
 tures that we prove them perfectly accurate in all the minutest 
 literary points. Let it suffice that every thing vital is right and 
 true, and that every doctrine of any importance is revealed without 
 the least admixture of error. 
 
 14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands 
 that I might break the brotherhood between Judah 
 and Israel. 
 
 The phrase " the brotherhood between Judah and Israel " is an 
 historic aUusion to the case of the two nations after the revolt under 
 Jeroboam. Under their mutual relations, brotherhood was peace ; 
 brotherhood broken was civil war. Hence the breaking of this sec- 
 ond staff or crook symbolized the withdrawal of those providential 
 agencies which had kept the people together in friendly relations 
 with each other. Those agencies being withdrawn, intestine discord 
 at once broke out, hostile parties arose, and civil war became their 
 most fearful curse. The history of the period, commencing shortly 
 before the invasion by the Eoraans, and continuing till the city lay 
 in ruins, is a mournful confirmation of this symbolic prophecy. 
 
 15. And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet 
 the instruments of a foolish shepherd. 
 
 16. For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, 
 which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall 
 seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor 
 feed that that stand eth still : but he shall eat the flesh of 
 the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. 
 
 lY. Wo to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock ! 
 the sword shall he upon his arm, and upon his right 
 eye : his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye 
 shall be utterly darkened. 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XL 353 
 
 This passage seems to prove conclusively that the person who 
 is commanded here (v. 15) to " take the instruments of a foolish 
 shepherd," and who was ordered (vs. 4-14) to "feed the flock of 
 slaughter," can he no other than the prophet himself; yet not 
 acting in his own person, or rather not prefiguring aught concern- 
 ing himself; but in vs. 4-14 personating the Messiah during his 
 public ministry; and here (vs. 15-17) personating those priests, 
 scribes, and civil magistrates whom the good shepherd cut off " in 
 one month " (v. 8). The object here is to give a more full view of 
 
 the character, life, and doom of those faithless shepherds. The 
 
 passage is very brief; hence we are not told precisely what the 
 " instruments of a foolish shepherd " are. Tliey were not the two 
 crooks, Grace and Bands, as in the former case ; the savage scalpel 
 
 and butcher-knife would be more appropriate. "Lo, I will raise 
 
 up a shepherd in the land," &c., reminds us that God is said to do 
 what he providentially permits to be done. As a judgment on those 
 utterly corrupt Jews, the Lord gave them shepherds of like moral 
 
 corruption. That the prophet should say " a shepherd," as if but 
 
 one, when the sense is a whole class, an entire body of professedly 
 religious teachers, is in accordance with his usage, as we have seen 
 
 in the notes on v. 8. The things which this bad shepherd will 
 
 not do come first in order ; " he will not visit the perishing ; will 
 not seek after the outcasts; will not heal the bruised; will not 
 nourish the halting," who can scarcely walk, i. e., he neglects pre- 
 cisely the very things which a good shepherd should by all means 
 
 do. On the other hand, with supreme selfishness, he gets all the 
 
 good he can for himsel* He eats the flesh of the fat ones, and 
 even tears in pieces their hoofs, so eager is he to get the last thing 
 
 of any value from the carcass. In the clause " Woe to the idol 
 
 shepherd," the Hebrew word rendered '-''idoV admits this sense, 
 but does not require it, and therefore should not have it here, 
 there being no allusion in the case to idolatry, and the more general 
 sense, of useless^ worthless, faithless, being in point, and fully jus- 
 tified by usage. The judgments on this worthless and wicked 
 
 shepherd fall on those bodily organs most useful to the shepherd — 
 the arm and the eye. The sense is, that God will utterly paralyze 
 his power for such services, and will moreover send his judgments 
 so in the line of his sins, that they will be a perpetual index and 
 remembrancer of that for which he suffers. As the shepherd would 
 not use his arm and his eye in the care of his flock, the Lord 
 withers them utterly and forever. " To him that knoweth to do 
 good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin " (Jam. 4 : IT). Wasted talents, 
 powers for good unused, bring down from God the most terrible 
 retribution. 
 
354 ZECHARIAIL— CHAP. XII. 
 
 CIIAPTEE XII. 
 
 This chapter manifestly opens a new subject. The first leading 
 Inquiry should respect its general scope and spirit, and the period 
 
 of time to which it relates. In chapter 11, the Jews of our 
 
 Saviour's time reject him, their offered Messiah, and bring upon 
 their city and nation an avalanche of ruin. Now the question may 
 be supposed to arise, Is the kingdom of the Messiah therefore 
 
 utterly broken down? To this inquiry, chapters 12 and 13 reply 
 
 — By no means. The Lord has yet a " Judah," and a " Jerusalem," 
 and a " House of David : " he will redeem them from their external 
 enemies (see 12 : 2-9) ; and what is yet more to the purpose, be will 
 pour upon them a spirit of grace, suppEcation, and penitence, which 
 shall make them in a far higher and nobler sense his people, and 
 shall insure their glorious prosperity as his people and kingdom. 
 The exposition of this portion of Zechariah involves the inves- 
 tigation and proof of several points : 
 
 I. The scenes here predicted lie onward in the Christian age siib- 
 aequent to those predicted in chapter 11. 
 
 (1.) Because, in the absence of proof to the contrary, it should 
 be assumed tbat our author advances in time. He has been thus 
 advancing in his course of thought throughout chaps. 9, 10, and 
 
 11. Why not also yet further in chapter 12 ? (2.) Because there is 
 
 manifestly a close analogy between the order of subjects in the first 
 six chapters (made up of a series of visioys) on the one hand, and 
 chaps. 7-14 (not such visions) on the other. As chaps. 1-4 promise 
 good to Zion, so do chaps. 7-10. As chap. 5, on the other band, pre- 
 dicts the sin and doom of the guilty, so does chap. 11 ; and then 
 as chap. G : 1-8 returns again to God's loving care and protection of 
 his people, and specifically as manifested against hostile nations, so 
 does this chap. 12, and also chap. 14. As the last part of chap. 
 is eminently Messianic, predicting also the ultimate reception of the 
 nations into his kingdom, so we find the same idea in these chapters 
 
 12-14, and especially in chap. 14. (3.) Because manifestly we 
 
 are in this chapter borne on beyond the date of chap. 9, for there 
 the Lord was protecting his people against Alexander and his 
 Syrian successors ; here against " all nations " (vs. 2, 3, 9) ; and, 
 moreover, here we have passed the crucifixion of Christ (which is 
 essentially involved in chap. 11), for the people bewail their guilt in 
 
 that act (see v. 10). The location of these events in time must 
 
 therefore be onward, after the advent of Messiah. So much may 
 be considered as fixed. But other questions remain. 
 
 II. It is a question of no trifling hnportance whether the terms 
 "Israel," "Judah," "Jerusalem," "the house of David," are to be 
 taken here literally or figuratively. Is " Judah " in these cliapters 
 (12-14) the very Judah of Zechariah's time ; are her people the hneal 
 descendants of Abraham ; and does the lineal Jew here, as then and 
 there, represent and embody the earthly kingdom of God? Is 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII. 355 
 
 Jerusalem still, as of old, her capital, and the centre and tlirone of 
 Messiah's kingdom? Do the Gentile hosts besiege her literally, 
 as the Chaldeans had done so recently when Zechariali was writ- 
 ing? 1 cannot think so, for these reasons: (1.) "With the events 
 
 predicted (chap. 11), the literal Judah and Jerusalem ceased to he 
 the recognized visible Church and kingdom of God on earth. It is 
 the precise purpose of chap. 11 to affirm this fact. Consequently, 
 ever since the apostolic age, Church history has taken on a new type. 
 No Church historian thinks of looking for the Christian Church in 
 
 tlie Jewish line. (2.) Whatever Old Testament prophecy is 
 
 clearly shown to refer to the New Testament age must, by all 
 legitimate rules of interpretation, be construed in accordance with 
 New Testament light, with gospel ideas, with the new principles of 
 Messiah's kingdom, then first fully brought out. Hence the Judah 
 and Jerusalem of gospel prophecy, standing as types and symbols 
 of Messiah's kingdom, must be construed, not literally, but figura- 
 tively — -just as "the temple" is no longer, as of old, tlie one place 
 of God's dwelling, and of all acceptable worship, but the Christian 
 " temple " is the living pious heart. (3.) That the Jews shall re- 
 turn again — ^not to their own land merely, but to Judaism restored 
 after the order of Moses ; that Jerusalem shall again become the 
 living centre of all visible v'orship, and of all the true religion of the 
 world — this worship conforming itself, as of old, to the Mosaic 
 ritual ; and that, as such, Judah shall be invaded and Jerusalem 
 besieged by all the Gentile nations of the earth, according to the 
 literal construction of chapters 12 and 14, are not things even sup- 
 posable. If the New Testament is held to be of any account, Juda- 
 ism, after the order of Moses, is dead, and those ideas must hence 
 be rejected. For, practically, that state of things must ignore all the 
 Christianity of the Gentile world — all the actual Christianity of the 
 whole world as it now is, and as it has been since the death of 
 Christ. Can any sane man believe that all the Gentile Christian 
 churches are at some future period to be annihilated ; the religious 
 world be put back to its condition and relations as in the age of Zech- 
 ariali ; bloody sacrifices and passovers and feasts of tabernacles be 
 restored, and Judah and Jerusalem stand as the sole representatives 
 of the Church of God upon the earth ? Or can it be believed that 
 all the great nations of the present or of any future age shall gather 
 in one vast crusade against the converted Christian Jews in their 
 own land to besiege Jerusalem, and to exterminate all true rehgion 
 
 from the face of the eai'th ? The literal construction of chapters 
 
 12-14 would hold us to such results : therefore the literal construc- 
 tion must be promptly rejected. (4.) Nor let it be thought that 
 
 we do violence to the laws of language when we reject the literal 
 and adopt the figurative sense under such circumstances as these. 
 Let the reader ask himself — How should a Jewish prophet, writing 
 in the midst of Judaism, with no other history of the Church before 
 him, and no other conception of the Church in his mind but that of 
 Judaism, with no other first readers but Jews, write of the future 
 
356 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 Cliiircli and Idngdom of God in the gospel age? Shall we demand 
 that he write of the Christian Church and of millennial times in New 
 Testament words and phrases, and with fully-developed New Tes- 
 tament ideas? Let us remember that the time had not come for 
 such ideas. Let us recall the striking fact that more than three 
 years' personal communion with Jesus himself, and no small 
 amount of his personal labor, quite failed to convert his disciples from 
 Jewish to Christian ideas ; that only the shock given to the old 
 system by his death, aided by the subsequent teaching of the Holy 
 Ghost, availed, and then rather slowly, to effect this great change. 
 How absurd, then, to expect that the Hebrew prophets and their 
 first readers could readily reach those new ideas and take in the 
 
 sense of Christian as contrasted with Jewish phraseology! 
 
 Plainly, those Jewish prophets and their first readers must think of 
 Christianity only as of Judaism extended and purified ; must con- 
 ceive of a world converted only as a world coming up to Jerusalem 
 to worship ; and must conceive of irrehgion, infidelity, every form 
 of hostility to Christ, as the gathering of nations for war against 
 Jerusalem and Judah, to crush them from the face of the earth.— — 
 Hence when we speak of Jewish costume and drapery as clothing 
 gospel ideas in these sublimely grand and glorious prophecies, we 
 are not parting company with common sense. We are simply in- 
 terpreting in harmony with the stern necessities of their condition. 
 Jewish minds, with no other than Jewish training, must think so 
 and speak so, by the inevitable laws of human thought. 
 
 III. Consequently, it is no longer a question whether, in 
 these remaining prophecies of Zechariah (chap. 12-14), we arc 
 to find blessings for the Gentile world; even the extension of 
 the gospel to all the nations of the earth. If these prophecies 
 relate to times subsequent to the death of Christ, they must 
 predict the prosperity of the Christian Church, the conversion 
 
 of the world to Immanuel. It might be a much more difli- 
 
 cult question (were it needful to be settled) whether the lineal 
 Jew is here, and if so, where and by what marks we shall identify 
 him. If he were named here alongside of his brother Gentile, as 
 Paul names them in Eom. 11, it would be easy to make this dis- 
 crimination. But it is at least supposable that in the greater part 
 of these three chapters there is no intention to discriminate between 
 Jew and Gentile. If so, how can it be expected that a discreet in- 
 terpreter should make any distinction ? Interpreters should not be 
 asked to make prophecy, nor to put into it what was not there be- 
 fore ; but only to unfold the sense already there. It may be weU 
 
 to remember also that the change wrought in the transition from 
 Judaism to Christianity, fitly described as a " breaking down of the 
 middle wall of partition between us " (Eph. 2 : 14), aimed not to 
 thrust the Jew out, but to let the Gentile in ; to abolish henceforth 
 all distinction as to Christian rights and privileges, and make both 
 one henceforth in Christ Jesus. Why, then, may not Old Testa- 
 ment prophecy assume precisely this state of the future kingdom 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII. 357 
 
 of tlie Messiah ? The thoughtful reader can scarcely fail to ap- 
 preciate the importance of these points, and if so, will not account 
 this discussion unreasonably full or protracted. 
 
 Chapter 12 is naturally in two parts, of which the first (vs. 1-9) 
 represents Judah as invaded and Jerusalem as besieged by the 
 combined powers of all nations ; but the Lord delivers them. The 
 second part (vs. 10-14) represents the house of David and the peo- 
 ple of Jerusalem as deeply penitent for their sins, especially the sin 
 
 of crucifying their Messiah. In my comments on this chapter, I 
 
 propose first to explain the words and phrases so far as may seem 
 necessary, and then to speak of its general scope and fulfilment as 
 prophecy. 
 
 ^ 1. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, 
 saith the Loed, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and 
 layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the 
 spirit of man within him. 
 
 This prophecy is a " lurden upon Israel " only to a limited ex- 
 tent, for the assault of all nations upon her and the siege of Jerusa- 
 lem were transient, ending soon in complete victory on Zion's side. 
 ——That help comes from the Lord alone, who is mighty to save, 
 is indicated by the allusion to his great and glorious works of creation. 
 
 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling 
 unto all the people round about, when thej shall be in 
 the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 
 
 The phrase rendered " cup of trembling " is read by some, 
 " threshold of shaking " — one upon which a violent assault should 
 be made, but which should react in ruin upon the assailants. There 
 seems, however, to be no good reason for rejecting the usual sense 
 of the words "a cup of reeling, intoxication" — with reference to 
 that very common conception of the wine-cup of the wrath of the 
 Lord which maddens and infatuates nations doomed to ruin. (Sec 
 
 Jer. 25 : 15-81, and notes on Nahum 1 : 10). All the nations are 
 
 thought of as gathered against Judah and Jerusalem. In the last 
 clause the sense is, that what the Lord had said of Jerusalem should 
 be true of Judah also in the siege of her capital. 
 
 3. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burden- 
 some stone for all people : all that burden themselves 
 with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of 
 the earth be gathered together against it. 
 
 The reference to a burdensome stone alludes to a custom 
 among the Jewish young men of trying their strength at hfting 
 a very heavy stone as high as possible, in which some were wont 
 to get wounds and bruises. Such a stone, fully equal to one's ut- 
 most strength, and often beyond it, should Jerusalem be to the na- 
 
358 ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 tions. The stone itself is not harmed bj the lifting, but the lifters 
 thereof were sure to be lacerated. 
 
 4. In that day, saith the Lokd, I will smite every 
 horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness : 
 and I will open mine eyes npon the honse of Judah, 
 and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. 
 
 Remarkably, the Lord accounts horses to be a power hostile to 
 Christ's kingdom. This appears throughout Zechariah, and aids 
 us to the true conception of Messiah's riding on an ass (9 : 9). The 
 warring enemies of God's people come on horses, this animal being 
 
 associated with human pride and rebellion against God. This 
 
 astonishment and madness are among the eifects of the cup of in- 
 toxication, given to God's enemies to drink, I^ote the beautiful 
 
 antithesis. God smites with blindness the warring powers of his 
 foes, but opens his own eyes wide on his people to see their wants 
 and to provide therefor. 
 
 5. And the governors of Judah shall say in their 
 heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall he my strength 
 in the Loed of hosts their God. 
 
 6. In that day will I make the governors of Judah 
 like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch 
 of fire in a sheaf ; and they shall devour all the people 
 round about, on the right hand and on the left : and Je- 
 rusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even 
 in Jerusalem. 
 
 Y. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, 
 that the glory of the house of David and the glory of 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves 
 against Judah. 
 
 Without saying it openly, yet in their secret thought, the gov- 
 ernors of Judah are relying for their own protection under God on 
 the military strength of Jerusalem and the valor of her defenders. 
 But the Lord will make Judah safe and mighty against her foreign 
 foes, as a hearth of fire to its fuel, which itself burns not, but only 
 facilitates the burning of the wood, or as a torch of fire to a sheaf, 
 which consumes it with no danger to itself. So shall they devour 
 
 the gathered nations who assail them. And " Jerusalem, too, shall 
 
 still sit on her throne in her own place," on her own foundations. 
 The Lord saves Judah first, that he may forestall the pride of self- 
 reliance on the strength and glory of the city. So vital to true re- 
 ligion is it to crucify all human glorying, to cherish the spirit of 
 absolute dependence on the Lord alone, and to give him for ever- 
 more all the glory as the source of all spiritual fife and of all power 
 for good to Zion. 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. Xn. 359 
 
 8. In that day sliall tlie Loed defend tlie inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem ; and he that is feeble anions; them at that 
 day shall be as David ; and the lionse of i)avid shall l)e 
 as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. 
 
 The Lord defends Jerusalem, yet not without their own concur- 
 rent agency. The doctrine that God saves his people must not he 
 abused to human inaction. He saves rather by augmenting and 
 reanimating their strength than by superseding their agency. So 
 here, the feeble shall be as David, who is the type of a most ath- 
 letic warrior ; and the men of David's cast and power shall be now 
 as God, even as the angel of Jehovah — the uncreated one who had 
 so often appeared in forms of majesty and power. This is a strong 
 ligure, and must represent a vast augmentation of spiritual force in 
 the people of God. 
 
 9. And it sliall come to j)ass in that day, that I will 
 seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jernsa- 
 lem. 
 
 ISTow the Lord sets himself earnestly to destroy all the nations 
 that array themselves in hostile mood against his people and their 
 sacred city. 
 
 10. And I will ponr npon the honse of David, and 
 npon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace 
 and of supplications : and they shall look upon me 
 whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, 
 as one mourneth lor his only son, and shall be in bitter- 
 ness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. 
 
 These terms are strongly in contrast with those in v. 9. God 
 will seek to pour out vengeance and ruin on those hostile nations; 
 
 but grace, mercy, and blessings on Jerusalem. To " pour out " is 
 
 to bestow in large and abundant measure. It is the usual phrase 
 for the effusions of the Holy Spirit, as in Joel 2 : 28 — " I will pour out 
 
 my Spirit upon all flesh." In this passage, "the Spirit " is the 
 
 Holy Spirit of God, and not a quality or grace in man. It is thought 
 of, however, as producing piety and prayer in the hearts of men, 
 and hence is called " the Spirit of grace and of supplications " — 
 meaning that Divine Spirit, whose special work it is to beget as to 
 one's self a tender prayerful frame of mind, and as to others a lov- 
 ing compassion for the souls of men, and earnest prayer for their 
 salvation. " Grace " in man stands for that which is specially 
 pleasing to God, and which secures his fivor. In the case of sin- 
 ners, the first buddings of grace are penitence and prayer, a broken 
 and contrite spirit, which inspires prayer both for our own pardon 
 and for mercy on other sinners also. The close connection between 
 the gift of this Spirit, begetting such grace and supplications, and 
 the " looking upon him whom they have pierced," shuts us up to 
 
360 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 this sense of the passage — its leading thought being the conversion 
 
 of sinners. To "look on me whom tliey have pierced " can mean 
 
 nothing else than thinking of their guilt in crucifying the Lord of 
 glory. They now look upon the crucified One with bitter peni- 
 tence and grief for the sin of piercing his heart, and with imploring 
 cries for pardon through his own blood. This sin of piercing the Lord 
 belongs not alone to that Eoman soldier who drove the nails into 
 his hands and his feet, nor to him alone whose spear opened his 
 side, but obviously to all who participated then and there in his 
 death, and indeed to that indefinitely greater mass who in all ages 
 have had the same wicked heart as they had, and have abused, in- 
 sulted, scorned, and rejected Jesus Christ in a spirit like theirs. 
 All such have crucified the Son of God afresh, reenacting the very 
 
 scenes of Calvary, and its very sins too ! But when, touched by 
 
 the Spirit of God, they look on the crucified One as pierced by their 
 own hands, and when they think of their own sins as the nails and 
 the spear that gave him his bitterest pangs, and then take also into 
 view the wonderful truth that, despite of such abuse from myself, 
 that murdered Saviour loves me in his pity still, and oflTers me par- 
 don as it were through the blood my own guilty hands have shed, 
 O then the deep fountains of my grief burst open, and for once, if 
 never before, it is a luxury to weep. Thousands have felt this bit- 
 terness of grief for their sins against the crucified One, made doubly 
 keen by the sense of his enduring and forgiving love, despite of 
 
 guilt so black and ingratitude so vile ! Such I take to be the 
 
 thought of this passage. This mourning for sin is as when one 
 
 mourns over an only son, lost in death ; its bitterness is as that 
 over a first-born. Ask the real parent's heart for the depth of an- 
 guish in such mourning ! 
 
 11. In that day tliere shall be a great moiiming in 
 Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the 
 valley of Megidd^n. 
 
 12. And the land shall mourn, every family apart ; 
 the family of the house of David apart, and their wives 
 apart; the family of the house of l^athan 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 remain, every family apart, 
 and their wives apart. 
 
 This mourning for sin against the slain Messiah is not restricted 
 to a few, but is widely extended ; it is " a great mourning in Jeru- 
 salem," like that over the death of the good King Josiah, who fell 
 in battle against I^echo, king of Egypt, iu the valley of Megiddon, 
 the long-famed battle-ground of Esdraelon. See the history in 2 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII. 361 
 
 Chron. 85 : 23-25 and 2 Kings 23 : 29, 30. Note here that this 
 
 mourning for sin is not merely a public thing : puhlic mournings are 
 sometimes a pageant only, with more of display than of heartfelt grief. 
 This is so much a personal matter, lying between each individual 
 soul and his Saviour, that each one is drawn to weep and mourn 
 apart and alone. Every instinct leads the mourner to seek 
 solitude, and to pour out his whole heart there, under no other 
 eye than God's ! Who has not felt this impulse toward silent, se- 
 cret mourning, under such mingled shame and grief, coupled with 
 the conviction that your whole concern is now with that crucified 
 One whose heart you have pierced, and whose possible mercy is 
 
 now your only hope ? The mode of presenting this thought is 
 
 by Jewish terms and historic allusions. The house of David and 
 the house of Nathan, one of his sons, in the royal line ; then the 
 house of Levi and the house of Shimei, one of his sons, represent- 
 ing the priesthood ; — these stand for the whole people, and show 
 
 that they all mourn apart, and their wives apart. The first verse 
 
 of the next chapter belongs with this, showing that such penitence 
 and prayer bring pardon full and free. " In that day a fountain is 
 opened for sin and for uncleanness " " to the house of David and to 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem " — the same' on whom (12 : 10) the 
 spirit of grace and of supplication is poured out. In that blood 
 which their own guilty hands have shed, is pardon found for aU the 
 truly penitent. 
 
 That this chapter must relate to events subsequent to the death 
 of Christ — that it concerns the Christian Church and the gospel 
 age, and therefore must be interpreted according to Few Testament 
 ideas — has been already said, and I trust adequately shown. It 
 still remains to inquire whether its fulfilment can be located yet 
 more definitely, and if so, wliere ; and whether now past or yet 
 
 future. It may be proper for me to say that during several years 
 
 past, and until this present reinvestigation, I have been inclined to 
 locate the fulfilment of this portion of Zechariah, chapters 12-14, 
 yet in the future — ^near or in tlie millennial age. I must now modify 
 this opinion so far at least as to suggest the strong probability that 
 this chap. 12, looks primarily to a series of events that occurred 
 within the first three centuries of the Christian era. My reasons 
 for this view fall under two different heads : (1). The consecu- 
 tive order of Zechariah's prophecies throughout chapters 9-11, 
 which, unless some reason appear to the contrary, should continue 
 also through chap. 12. Thus in chap. 9 : 1-8, we have the conquer- 
 ing sweep of Alexander's armies, over Persia, Syria, Tyre, and 
 Philistia, while God protected Judah — all in the fourth century 
 before Christ; then, in 9:11-17 and 10:1-5, the wars of the 
 Syrians in the age of the Maccabees, in the second century before 
 Christ; then in chap. 11, the very events of Christ's personal 
 ministry, his being rejected by the Jews, and their consequent 
 destruction by the Komans — all in the period a. d. 1-70. This 
 regular order of time suggests with very considerable force whether 
 16 
 
362 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XH. 
 
 chap. 12 does not continue on with no great chasm into the Chris- 
 tian age. (2.) But a second reason, certainly worthy of considera- 
 tion, is that, adopting the principles of interpretation already pre- 
 sented, we find great events to which these prophetic descriptions 
 very accurately correspond. Thus in 12 : 1-9, the leading idea is 
 that of persecution, a fierce and hloody onslaught upon the Church 
 of God. A Jewish prophet could not depict an era of persecution 
 in any other form so definite and decisive as this. Judah invaded, 
 Jerusalem besieged and assailed by heathen nations; this in the 
 
 Cliristian age can be nothing else but violent persecution. And 
 
 who does -not know that the history of the Church during the first 
 three centuries is largely the history of persecutions ? The Church 
 is bitterly and cruelly assailed; but she is like "the bush that 
 burned with fire, yet was not consumed," or in this prophet's own 
 figures, not less pertinent, she is a cup of reeling to all that besiege 
 her; a burdensome stone they cannot lift, however much they 
 essay it, and can by no means harm, but are only themselves 
 harmed thereby ; or yet more fitly, she is a hearth of fire, and her 
 enemies the burning fuel ; or a torch, and they the sheaf that 
 
 readily takes fire and is consumed. So the Church stood the shock 
 
 of persecution unshaken; bore its fires unscathed; became only the 
 more pure, grew only with the more rapid growth ; while on her 
 enemies the wrath of the Lord came down to their uttermost destruc- 
 tion. Must we not account this series of historic events as fully 
 
 answering to the drift of these prophetic representations ? Taking 
 this natural harmony between the historic facts and the prophetic 
 portrayals, in connection with the probable continued consecution 
 of the prophetic steps along the track of time, is there not at least a 
 very high degree of probability that this is the true interpretation 
 of Zech. 12:1-9? 
 
 We come next to the closing portion 12 : 10-14 and 13 : 1. Here 
 it should be borne in mind that chap. 11 has virtually assumed the 
 rejection of Messiah by his covenant people and his consequent 
 crucifixion. It is hence but fit that the Lord, through his prophet, 
 should meet the natural inquiry — What was the result of his violent 
 death? Did it utterly crush the young germ of the shoot and 
 scion of David? Did it wither the hopes of the world, and the 
 raised expectations of the hierarchies of heaven ? Did it ring the 
 death-knell of Zion's promised future glory ? Not at all ; noth- 
 ing of the sort. Indeed, that very death on the cross unsealed 
 the fountains of spiritual power ; brought down the glorious effus- 
 ions of the Spirit of God ; made the hearts of even his murderers 
 like water in the tenderness of their contrition and the outflow of 
 their sorrows, and drew the hearts of millions, with a power of at- 
 traction never known on earth before, into loving gratitude and all- 
 consuming zeal and labor for the risen Redeemer of men. Is not 
 
 such the plain teaching of this most wonderful passage? We 
 
 scarcely need, therefore, to ask more particularly when it was ful- 
 filled. Its fulfilment began, we may say, on the day of Pentecost 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XII.' 363 
 
 when God first " poured out the Spirit of grace and of supplica- 
 tions," and when three thousand men " were pricked in their 
 heart " in view of this very fact that they had taken Him of 
 E'azareth, and by wicked hands had crucified and slain him. Its 
 fulfilment continued on through that glorious age of gospel tri- 
 umphs. It continues still wherever the sense of Christ crucified 
 goes deep to the heart, and, under the Spirit's light, men feel that 
 
 tliey have themselves been his betrayers and murderers. The 
 
 fountain opened for the penitent people of the house of David is 
 only the great fact of the gospel age, the way of pardon revealed 
 and brought out fully to glorious light through the atonement of 
 
 the crucified Son of God. It need not be assumed that these 
 
 prophecies are exhausted in those events to which they primarily 
 refer. Their truths are for all time, and their fulfilment in this 
 sense cannot be exhausted until the gospel shall cease to be " the 
 power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." So long, 
 the agencies of outward violent persecution shall never crush the 
 true Church, but only serve to purify her the more; so long, a 
 Saviour crucified shall be the power of God, through the Iloly 
 Ghost, unto penitence, and prayer, and pardon, and anew and holy 
 life unto God and the Lamb. 
 
 If any objection can be plausibly urged against the explanation 
 al)Ove given of this chapter 12, as already fuliiUed prophecy^ it will 
 be on the ground that vs. 10-14 are thus put, in time, Jyefore vs. 
 1-9 ; whereas, according to their order of sequence, they should come 
 
 after. My answer is twofold: (1.) Claiming a large abatement 
 
 from the facts as stated in the objection. (2.) Accounting for the 
 relative location of the two passages on other grounds than the 
 
 order of time. (1.) The objection assumes that as to time, the 
 
 passage (vs. 10-14) looks to the death of Christ and to the immediate 
 efiects of that death upon its authors. 1 answer : Such limita- 
 tion as to its efects is by no means necessary or natural. And the 
 moral ejects of that death, not the death itself as an historic event, 
 are here the subject of remark. These moral 65*6018 are thought 
 of as characterizing the gospel dispensation — specially prominent 
 indeed in its opening era, but characteristic of it throughout. V. 10 
 is not connected with what precedes it as an event that closely 
 follows in time. The Hebrew language would naturally indicate 
 such a connection by the future with vav conversive. But here the 
 connective particle might as well be rendered " Jwif," indicating an 
 
 event of an opposite antithetic character. And the thought that 
 
 follows is obviously antithetic to what precedes. This relation of 
 the two thoughts determined the location of the latter passage. I 
 will seek to pour out judgments unto their destruction on the na- 
 tions that come against Jerusalem ; but the grace of my Spirit unto 
 salvation on Jerusalem herself. This is manifestly the law of 
 thought that suggested the passage, v. 10-14. That is, vs. 1-9 give 
 the judgments of God against the sworn, violent enemies of his 
 Churcli; vs. 10-14 the blessings that come through the death of 
 Christ, and the mission of his Spirit upon the Church and people. 
 
364 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The first verse, as already intimated, belongs very properly to the 
 previous chapter, since it stands in the closest relations of thought 
 with the penitence of the people for their sins against the Lord 
 
 Jesus. The next point made is the purifying of the people from 
 
 their sins, as shown by specifying two most besetting sins of the 
 ancient Hebrews, idolatry and false prophesying, both of which are 
 thoroughly removed from the land (vs. 2-6). Then, by association 
 of ideas, the crucified Messiah is brought to view (v. 7) ; finally, the 
 ungodly portion are cut off", only one-third part remaining, but 
 these are purified by stern disciphne, and come to know Jehovah as 
 their God (vs. 8, 9). 
 
 1. In that day there shall be a foimtain opened to 
 the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
 for sin and for uncleanness. 
 
 2. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 
 LoED of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols 
 out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered : 
 and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit 
 to pass out of the land. 
 
 The manner of Zechariah is to affirm a general truth by affirm- 
 ing certain individual facts which are left to imply it. So here, to 
 sliow that the land is purified from its great sins, he makes no gen- 
 eral statements, but simply individualizes two of the prominent and 
 most dangerous sins of the covenant people — idolatry and false 
 
 prophecy — and represents them to be effectually exterminated. 
 
 " Cutting off the very names of idols, so that they should be no 
 more remembered," implies that idolatry is thoroughly expelled 
 
 from the land. (See Hos. 2: 17 and 14 : 8 and Mic. 5 : 12-14.) 
 
 The " prophets " named here in connection with idols before and 
 "the unclean spirit " after, must be /a^e prophets, called prophets 
 only because they falsely and foully assumed this name. The Lord 
 will drive them out of the land, forcibly expel them. The refer- 
 ence to an "unclean spirit " recognizes Satanic agency. 
 
 3. And it shall come to pass,iA<z^ when any shall yet 
 prophesy, that his father and his mother that begat him 
 shall say unto him. Thou shalt not live ; for thou speak- 
 est lies in the name of the Lord : and his father and his 
 mother that begat him thall thrust him through when he 
 prophesieth. 
 
 A supposed case is made : If any one shall yet attempt to proph- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIII. 365 
 
 esj falsely, Lis own father and motlier shall be so zealous for God and 
 for truth that they shall solemnly declare unto hmi, " Thou shalt 
 not Uve ; " and, moreover, they shall not merely threaten ; they 
 
 shall even thrust him through in his very act of propliesying. 
 
 To make the case stand out the more strongly, stress is laid upon 
 the parental relation : his father that begat and his mother that bare 
 him will not shrink from taking his life^. This would be according 
 to the Mosaic law. See the passages, very strong and expUcit : 
 Deut. 13 : 6-10 and 18 : 20. 
 
 4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
 prophets shall be ashamed eveiy one of his vision, when 
 he hath prophesied ; neither shall they wear a rough gar- 
 ment to deceive : 
 
 Public sentiment gives no countenance to the abominable sin of 
 pretending to be the Lord's prophet. Hence, all men of this class 
 
 should be ashamed of their former pretended visions. The "rough 
 
 garment " was one used by mourners, and worn by false prophets 
 to make the people think they were bearing the sins of the nation 
 sorrowfully on their hearts — somewhat in imitation of the true 
 prophets of the Lord. 
 
 5. But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an hus- 
 bandman ; for man taught me to keep cattle from my 
 youth. 
 
 6. And one shall say unto him. What are these 
 wounds in thy hands ? Then he shall answer. Those 
 with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. 
 
 "But one shall say" (a supposed case), "lam an husbandman, 
 for a man sold me from my youth," i. e.^ as a servant. This is the 
 precise sense of the original, which says nothing specially about 
 "keeping cattle." He means to show that his position in life has 
 been such as should remove all suspicion of his playing the false 
 
 prophet. He has been held as a servant all his days. But there 
 
 are palpable marks on his person that convict him of lying even 
 now ; hence, one replies to him — What mean those gashes on your 
 hands ? He can only confess the truth : " They were inflicted by 
 my associates according to the custom of idol worshippers, in their 
 
 temples." The word rendered -" friends " means properly lovers; 
 
 but is used in the bad sense, and here of his fellow idolaters involved 
 
 like himself in this harlotry to which the word "lovers" refers. 
 
 Jewish as well as profane history shows clearly that cutting the 
 flesh was common in idol worship. (See 1 Kings 18 ; Jer. 16 : 6 and 
 41 : 5 ; Deut. 14 : 1.) The common idea of penance may be supposed 
 to lie at the bottom of such practices; a consciousness of guilt; 
 the demands of remorse ; coupled with the notion that the gods will 
 exact some suffering for such sins, and hence each man had best in- 
 flict it upon himself, rather than leave it for the gods to inflict. 
 
366 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XUT. 
 
 1, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against 
 the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts : smite 
 the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered ; and I 
 will turn mine hand upon the little ones. 
 
 This verse refers to the death of Christ by violent hands, and its 
 results as to the flock of which he was the shepherd. An active 
 imagination gives life and will to the sicord, considered as the instru- 
 ment in a violent death, and the Lord of hosts commands — 
 "Awake" (as if it had been asleep, at rest), "awake against my 
 shepherd" (the Messiah), described here as being "the man that is 
 my nearest friend " — for such is the sense of the word rendered 
 " my fellow." This word occurs elsewhere only in the Pentateuch, 
 and there in such passages as Lev. 6 : 2, and 19 : 11, 15, 17, and 25 : 
 15, &c., " Ye shall not lie nor deceive each man his near friend," 
 &c. " If a man lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered 
 him to keep, or hath deceived his neighbor," &c. This usage shows 
 that the word is used for the nearest human relationship, not in- 
 voMng consanguinity. It, therefore, well expresses the relation 
 between the Father and the Son, when he is thought of as incarnate 
 — ^in his human nature. This human nature of Jesus stood in this 
 
 close relation to the Father. The bold metaphor, " Awake, O 
 
 sword," &c., has its analogy in Jer. 47 : 6, 7 : " O thou sword of the 
 Lord, how long ere thou wilt be quiet ? Put up thyself into thy 
 
 scabbard ; rest and be still." " How can it be quiet, seeing the 
 
 Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the sea 
 
 shore? There hath he appointed it." This sword of the Lord is 
 
 the Lord's executioner. So in our passage the Lord of hosts com- 
 mands the sword to its work, remarkably recognizing the divine 
 agency in the atoning death of the Lamb of God. Our Saviour 
 intimated the same agency when he said to Pilate (John 19: 11), 
 " Thou couldest have no power against me except it were given 
 
 thee from above." The Lord Jehovah had most important ends 
 
 to accomplish in his kingdom by this violent death of "the Lamb 
 of God who was to take away the sin of the world," and therefore 
 suffered him to fa\\ into the hands of wicked men, and suffered those 
 wicked hands to take his life. "What God sufters to be done, he is 
 sometimes said to do. The consequences to the flock are depict- 
 ed : " Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered " — the 
 natural result when their protector and guide falls. So in chap. 
 11:6, 9-14, where the good shepherd is practically rejected by his 
 flock, and where a tacit allusion to his dishonored death is implied 
 (vs. 12, 18), the consequences are the utter ruin of the corrupt and 
 guilty portion of the covenant people. Those Jews who murdered 
 the Son of God and repented not of their deeds, brought down on 
 
 their city and their entire nationality a fearful doom. But the 
 
 Lord turns back his hand to spare and save his little ones. (The 
 same use of this verb, " turn back," may be seen Isa. 1 : 25.) The 
 same hand that was stretched out to destroy the guilty, reversing 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIII. 367 
 
 its action, turned itself back to protect and bless " the poor of the 
 flock that v^^aited on rae," as they are described, chap. 11 : 11. A 
 few of the Jewish people received Jesus as their Messiah, became 
 his disciples while he lived or converts to his faith after his death, 
 
 and these became objects of his special care and love. ^It remains 
 
 to consider the connection of this verse with the one immediately 
 preceding. I think this connection falls under the law of associa- 
 tion of ideas. The close analogy between the false prophet, whose 
 hands had been gashed and pierced *' in the house of his friends," 
 and the Messiah, whose hands were pierced in a death by crucifixion 
 among those who ought to have been his friends, suggested the 
 latter case, and led the prophet to speak of it here. This accounts 
 for its coming in here out ofjylace in the sense of being both aside 
 from the general course of thought in this chapter, and out of its 
 chronological order — his violent death having been assumed in chap. 
 11, and certainly thought of as ah-eady past in 12: 10 and 13 : 1. 
 This renewed allusion to it is therefore due to the power of this law 
 
 of suggestion. In this explanation, it is assumed that in speaking 
 
 to men, the Spirit of inspiration not only uses human language, but 
 follows human laws of thought In determining the succession of 
 ideas. We may be quite nnable to make up a full and perfect an- 
 swer to the question, What is inspiration ? but it stands out undeni- 
 ably on the face of these inspired writings that inspiration does 
 not supersede nor override the laws of mental association by which 
 one thought suggests another analogous one. 
 
 8. And it shall come to pass, that in all tlie land, 
 saith the Loud, two parts therein shall be cut off and 
 die ; bnt the third shall be left therein. 
 
 9. An& I will bring the third part through the fire, 
 and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try 
 them as gold is tried : they shall call on my name, and 
 I will hear them ; I will say. It is my people ; and they 
 shall say. The Lokd is my God. 
 
 The primary sense of these verses is clear. Over all the land, 
 two parts out of three are cut off and die ; the third part remain- 
 ing, is purified through the fires of earthly discipline. These be- 
 come far more fully than before the people of the living God. 
 
 But while the rendering of these words is plain, and their current 
 usage w£ll established, the question of their application and fulfil- 
 ment as prophecy is by no means so obvious. It has been com- 
 mon for interpreters to assume the closest possible connection be- 
 tween these verses and v. 7, and hence to apply them to the case 
 of the lineal Jews immediately subsequent to the crucifixion of 
 Christ, when, as they would say, the greater part — two-thu'ds — of 
 the people were cut off violently by the Eoman arms; the remain- 
 ing third purified and brought into the Christian Church. This 
 
368 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIH. 
 
 may 2>ossibly be the correct view ; but there are serious objections 
 to it: (1.) The facts of history do not verify it ; the proportion cut 
 off being much more than two parts out of three, and the saved 
 
 being less than one in three. (2.) The saved are here thought 
 
 of as being the entire visible Ohm-ch of God. But in fact, the 
 Church in the apostolic age was far more of Gentiles than of Jews. 
 (3.) This construction is out of the chronological order which runs 
 not only through chapters 9-11, but also through chapters 12 and 
 13, up to the digression which takes us back for a moment to the cru- 
 cifixion in 13 : 7. Chapter 12 : 1-9 gives us the Christian Church 
 
 passing through its first three ccntures, a period of persecution. 
 Chapter 12: 10 to 13: 1 gives the effect of Messiah's death as through 
 the Holy Ghost a power unto penitence, prayer, and pardon. Chap. 
 13 : 2-6, the great advance made in the Christian Church in real 
 piety, presented by means of Jewish historic allusions, but manifest- 
 ly meaning that the people of God are, through divine mercy, 
 redeemed from reigning sin, and brought into a far higher state of 
 Christian life than the covenant people had reached during the ages 
 
 before Christ. Thus far, then, the reader will notice a somewhat 
 
 regular chronological order, a progress onward in time in the course 
 of thought. It is reversing tliis course to go back in this passage 
 (13 : 8, 9) to the date of chap. 11. It quite breaks out of the line 
 of historic events in which we were moving in the passage 13: 2-6. 
 
 1 therefore suggest another construction, viz. : that vs. 8, 9 lie 
 
 in the same line of thought with vs. 2-6, and looking to a somewhat 
 later period in the Christian age, give us the corruptions of Christian- 
 ity^ and indicate that God will sever those corrupt portions, prior to 
 
 the millennial age. It is obvious that chap. 14 gives us first the 
 
 opening scenes and then the full consummation of millennial purity 
 and glory. If we give due heed to the chronological succession of 
 prophetic events in this prophet through chapters 9 to 18 : 6, and allow 
 for continued progress on the same grade of advance, we shall find 
 ourselves drawing nigh the millennial age in the closing verses of 
 
 chap. 13. It has been already suggested that the main reason 
 
 for applying vs. 8 and 9 to the lineal Jews at the point where they 
 took sides for Christ or against him in the latter half of the first cen- 
 tury, is the assumption that they stand closely connected with v. 7. 
 This class of interpreters would paraphrase thus: "Smite the 
 shepherd, then shall the ancient covenant people be scattered and 
 broken up; two parts of them shall reject Jesus Christ and perish 
 miserably under the Roman arms; the remaining third part -shall be- 
 come the beloved and sanctified people of God." But instead of 
 
 this, the connection may be quite different, thus : The manifestation 
 of Jesus Christ in the flesh served to reveal the utter rottenness of 
 the visible Jewish chiu-ch. When the shepherd was smitten, the 
 mass of that church went to ruin ; only a few of the little ones 
 were saved. So, in the advanced ages of the Christian Church, cor- 
 ruption became again fearfully prevalent, and another great sifting 
 process became indispensable before the era of the final conquest 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIII. 369 
 
 and triumph of Christ's kingdom could open. That is, as v. 7 came 
 in under the influence of association of ideas, so it goes out and v. 8 
 comes in, under the same general law of analogy — v. 7 standing alone 
 as a diversion from the current strain of chronological thought. The 
 analogy hetween the corrupt Judaism of the Saviour's day on the 
 one hand, and the corrupt Christianity of the mediosval Christian 
 age, onward indeed to the present day, is the law of connection he- 
 tween V. 7 and v. 8. In support of this view, let it be noted that 
 
 the prophet does not put the eighth verse in close connection as to 
 time with verse 7. He does not say, " in that day^ two parts 
 therein shall be cut ofltj" &c. Let the reader notice how constantly 
 he has used this phrase wherever he meant this thing, as e. </., in 12 : 
 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 13 : 1, 2, 4— nine times within this arid the 
 previous chapters. Hence its omission here should at least suggest 
 a grave doubt whether ho could have located these events (vs. 8 
 and 9) " in the same day " with those of v. 7. If he did, why did 
 
 he not say so ? Yet further, our translators manifestly leaned 
 
 strongly toward the application of these verses to the Jews exclu- 
 sively, and therefore rendered "in all the ?a7z^;"but Zechariah 
 wrote it, " in all the earth.'''' * This Hebrew phrase is used more 
 than fifty times (I count fifty-nine) in the sense of all the earth. I 
 find but three cases of its use for Judea only, and in these the con- 
 nection furnishes the limitation. This same phrase is used by our 
 prophet in 14: 9 : " And the Lord shall be king over all the earth ; 
 
 in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." This 
 
 usage ought (it would seem) to be accounted decisive proof that 
 Zechariah in vs. 8, 9 speaks of Christianity as a whole all over the 
 world, and not of Judaism in Palestine only. 
 
 Such, in brief, are the reasons which compel me to differ widely 
 from the current interpretation of these verses. I am constrained 
 to apply them to the gigantic corruptions of the nominally Christian 
 Church, especially the Koman and the Greek, and not altogether 
 excepting some of those that have been once ostensibly reformed. 
 Let it be asked. What does the "American and Foreign Christian 
 Union " find to do ? Or let us ask, How large a portion of nominal 
 Christendom to-day comes up to the standard of these words : 
 " They shall call on my name and I will hear them ; I will say, It 
 is my people, and they shall say. The Lord is my God " ? Who can 
 doubt that the fires of discipline and of judgment must pass over 
 the nominally Christian world, sifting out the precious from llie 
 
 vile, and consuming whatever proves to be only dross ? How 
 
 large a part of this work shall be wrought by the moral and spiritual 
 agencies of truth, purifying and converting; and how much by the 
 stem agencies of consuming fire, time only can fully show. This 
 language looks toward the latter. Let the people of God press 
 their gospel work to the utmost while they may ! 
 
 I V T T T » 
 
 16* 
 
3Y0 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The principles of interpretation whicli sliould rule in tliis chap- 
 ter have been fully discussed and brought out in my remarks intro- 
 ductory to chapter 12. The events wliich it portrays are all yet in 
 the future. Consequently there is no occasion to try to locate them 
 in history, or to define their precise historic character. Their gen- 
 eral significance and results may be inferred with reasonable cer- 
 tainty. The entire costume is Jewish, as we ought to expect. 
 
 Jerusalem is invested by the combined forces of all nations ; the 
 city taken and sacked; half its people go into captivity (vs. 1, 2). 
 The Lord comes forth to fight against those nations (v. 3) ; he stands 
 on the mount of Olives and cleaves it in twain for his people to pass 
 through (v. 4) ; they flee, but ultunately the Lord and his holy ones 
 appear for their salvation (v. 5) ; a most peculiar twihght period fol- 
 lows, breaking forth near evening into the effulgence of full day 
 (vs. 6. 7) ; living waters flow from Jerusalem perpetually (v. 8) ; Jeho- 
 vah alone is King over all the earth (v. 9) ; the whole world becomes 
 a plain, and the temple-mountain stands alone the only mountain 
 (v. 10) ; the plague that comes on those who fought against Jerusa- 
 lem (v. 12) — panic and mutual slaughter consume them (v. 13) ; Judah 
 aids Jerusalem in this great conflict against their common foes (v. 
 14) ; God's judgments reach all the domestic animals used by their 
 enemies, as well as their owners (v. 15) ; all the surviving people 
 of the world shall go up to Jerusalem to worship (v. 16) ; the plague 
 on those who will not go up (v. 17), and especially on Egypt (vs. 18, 
 19); holiness to the Lord in all inanimate things, universal and 
 final (vs. 20, 21). 
 
 1. Behold, tlie day of tlie Lord cometh, and thy spoil 
 shall be divided in the midst of thee. 
 
 "Behold," calls special attention to what follows, as of the 
 
 deepest interest and greatest importance. Remarkably, the usual 
 
 form, "day of the Lord," is materially changed here. It is — "a 
 day comes for the Lord " — one day preeminently ybr hi?n, in which 
 ho will fully vindicate his name as the God of Zion, his power as 
 one mighty to save, and his faithfulness as one who, having long 
 ago promised, comes forth now in the fulness of time to perform. 
 The other form — simply day of the Lord * — occurs in Joel 1 : 15 
 and 2 : 1, 11, 31, and 3 : 14; Amos 5 : 18, 20; Zeph. 1 : 14, and 
 elsewhere; but this is unique and peculiar,! occurring, however, 
 substantially in Jer. 51 : 6, "Flee out of the midst of Babylon; be 
 not cut ofi" in her iniquity ; for it is a time of vengeance for the 
 
 Lord." Also in Isa. 2 : 12. " Thy spoil shall be divided in the 
 
 midst of thee," is of course said of Jerusalem, and imphes that she 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 371 
 
 is in tljo power of her enemies ; " for no man can enter into a strong 
 man's house and spoil Lis goods, except he first bind the strong 
 
 man ; then shall he spoil his goods." Sad eclipse must this be 
 
 for the Church of God, represented as analogous to that of the Jews 
 "when the proud Chaldean spoiled her city and temple. 
 
 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to 
 Jbattle ; and tlie city shall be taken, and tlie houses rifled, 
 and the women ravished ; and half of the city shall go 
 forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall 
 not be cut off from the city. 
 
 This verse gives somewhat the details of the case, to show how 
 it comes to pass that the spoil of the city is divided among its cap- 
 tors within her very walls. The Lord, by his providential agencies, 
 brings all the nations up against Jerusalem to battle. In this one 
 prominent feature, this prophecy harmonizes with Ezek. 88 and 39, 
 
 and with Rev. 20 : 8, 9. The city is taken ; the horrible scenes 
 
 usually consequent on such a capture ensue. Finally, half the 
 
 people go into captivity ; the other half remain in the city. We 
 
 do not hear from these captives again. They meet the doom of the 
 wicked, and doubtless represent the corrupt and not truly pious 
 
 portion of the people. This cleansing of the nominal Church by 
 
 which one-half is sloughed off, taken in connection with the simi- 
 lar operation predicted (chap. 13 : 8, 9), which cut off two parts out 
 of three, gives us a strong view of the fearful corruption of the 
 Church, and of the amount of winnowing and separation requisite 
 before her great victories over the wide world can be achieved. 
 Like the host of Gideon, her host is to be reduced to the faithful 
 few. 
 
 3. Then shall the Loed go forth, and fight against 
 those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 
 
 " Then shall the Lord go forth "—this Hebrew verb being the 
 common one for " going out " to war and battle, e, g.^ Hab. 3 : 13, 
 and Isa. 26 : 21, which latter passage, like the one before us, as- 
 sumes that the Lord has been at rest, waiting for the fit hour, and now 
 
 comes forth for special displays of his power against his foes. 
 
 " As when he fought in the day of battle," suggests the inquiry. 
 What special day, if any, is referred to. The original repeats the 
 word " day " thus : "as in the day of his fighting in the day of 
 battle." Very probably the prophet alludes to the overthrow of 
 Pharaoh's host in the Eed Sea. That conflict stood preeminent 
 above all others yet, and should the more surely be assumed as pres- 
 ent in thought here because the parting asunder of the Mount of 
 Olives, as in the next verse, is a tacit allusion to that parting of the 
 Red ^ea for a similar purpose, viz., the escape of his people from 
 their persuing foes. 
 
372 ZECHAEIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the 
 monnt of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, 
 and the monnt of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof 
 toward the east and toward the west, and there shall he 
 a very great valley ; and half of the mountain shall re- 
 move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 
 
 The commander of a vast army takes some elevated position 
 which overlooks the battle-field. So Jehovah takes his stand on 
 the Monnt of Olives, which overlooked the city on the east, afford- 
 ing the best commanding view of the city. To give the greater 
 vividness to the scene as a reality, it is said " his feet shall stand 
 there." The mountain cleaves asunder in the middle, half remov- 
 ing northward and half southward, leaving a wide valley. There 
 can be no doubt of a tacit historical allusion here to the very simi- 
 lar cleaving of the Eed Sea for his people to escape from Pharaoh's 
 pursuing host. That was done literally ; this, being an historical 
 allusion, means only that a deliverance is now effected liTce tTiat^ 
 equally glorious to the power that saved his people, equally effective 
 for their salvation. The analogy will be yet more complete if we 
 may suppose, with Hengstenberg, that the mountain is cleft by an 
 earthquake, which, while it opened the mountain for their easy 
 escape, swallowed up their enemies. As the text does not affirm 
 
 this, however, it must stand as mere conjecture. This earthquake 
 
 alarmed the retreating host and hastened their flight — of which fear 
 and flight the next verse speaks. 
 
 5. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains ; 
 for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal : 
 yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earth- 
 quake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah : and the 
 LoKD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. 
 
 "And ye flee along the valley of my mountains" — called here 
 the Lord's, because he had cleft and prepared them for his people 
 to pass along the valley between them — "for this valley of the 
 mountains shall reach to Azal " — a city lying east of the Mount of 
 Olives, its name signifying that it is a suitable place for halting in 
 
 safety, This earthquake in the days of Uzziah is not noticed in 
 
 the historical books, but is probably alluded to by Amos (1 : 1). 
 That, like this, was a time of panic and of earnest flight from the 
 
 city to the mountains for safety. "N'ow there comes the Lord my 
 
 God, and all the saints with thee." "With this the 'scene changes ; 
 Immanuel appears in preeminent splendor, and all the holy in his 
 train. The nearest parallel to this scene as respects his retinue is 
 Deut. 83 : 2, where Moses said : ." The Lord came from Sinai ; he 
 shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of 
 saints," &c. The prophet speaks of this scene as it appeared to 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 373 
 
 "him in proplietic vision. The scene was peculiarly and preeminently 
 impressive. He had a vivid sense of Immanuel, " the captain of the 
 Lord's host," as his oion God^ and the God of his own people, and 
 therefore says, " There comes the Lord my God ! " 
 
 The next striking feature he puts in the form of an address to 
 
 Immanuel: ''AH the holy ones are with thee." The great aim 
 
 of this revelation is to impress the prophet, and through his words 
 all the people of God in every age, with this great truth, that Jesus 
 Immanuel is the Almighty Saviour of his people, and that he em- 
 ploys angelic spiritual beings as his agents in the ministrations of 
 his mediatorial reign, both in the care of his people and in his judg- 
 ments on the wicked. Hence these agents sometimes appear in the 
 visions of prophecy. Isaiah "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, 
 high and lifted up, and above him were the seraphim." The same 
 thing was symbolized when (2 Kings 6:17) Elisha prayed in behalf 
 of his young servant : "Lord, I pray thee open his eyes, that he 
 may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he 
 saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of 
 
 fire round about Elisha." This was only bringing before the 
 
 prophet's mental eye the actual verities of things — those agencies, 
 fall of power, though usually invisible to mortals, by which Jesus 
 Christ administers the providential government of this world. In 
 this view of the passage, the saints (literally the holy ones) are 
 especially the angels, who are all ministering spirits sent of God, 
 either to minister blessings to the heirs of salvation, or judgments 
 
 on the heirs of perdition. Some interpreters suppose they find 
 
 in this passage the visible personal advent of Christ with his risen 
 saints — the pious dead — to reign in this world, in what must be es- 
 sentially a " kingdom of this world." I find in it no such thing. 
 There is nothing in the language of this verse that demands such a 
 construction, and nothing in the subsequent scenes of the chapter 
 at all suggestive of an order of things so very peculiar, and so en- 
 tirely unlike what prophecy currently sets forth as the era of the 
 triumphs of gospel truth and love upon earth. 
 
 6. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
 light shall not be clear, oior dark : 
 
 T. But it shall be one day which shall be known to 
 the Lord, not day, nor night : but it shall come to pass, 
 that at evening time it shall be light. 
 
 The sixth verse requires a more careful and accurate transla- 
 tion, thus: "And it shall be on that day, there shall be no light; 
 the sources of splendor" (the luminaries of heaven) "shall be 
 shut up, and it shall be one day" (unique and unlike all other days), 
 " known to the Lord " (only) ; " not day and not night : but it shall 
 
 come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." There seems 
 
 to be a gradation here through three distinct stages: first, utter 
 darkness ; then, a dim twilight, like that of an eclipse ; then, at the 
 
374 ZECHARIAIL— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 close of tliG day, when you might expect darkness soon to cover the 
 
 earth, lo, the effulgence of full and glorious day ! This must be 
 
 taken as an epitome of the state of the Church, as seen by the 
 prophet somewhere in the then distant future. How long this period, 
 here called " a day," shall be, we have no means of knowing, nor 
 can we know yet the peculiar circumstances which constitute the 
 darkness of its morning, the dim twihght of its mid-day, and the 
 glorious effulgence of its close ; which, indeed, instead of being its 
 €lose, seems rather to be the opening of a long and ineffably glori- 
 ous day! It must suffice us that we may learn from such prophe- 
 cies that the Lord knoweth his thoughts of mercy toward our sin- 
 ful world, and that he has great and glorious blessings yet to bring 
 
 forth from the infinite stores of his love! The prophet proceeds 
 
 to give us yet farther illustrations of the better day that shall follow 
 this darkness and dimness. 
 
 8. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall 
 go out from Jerusalem ; half of them toward the fonner 
 sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea : in summer 
 and in winter shall it be. 
 
 As we have seen in the notes on Joel 3 : 18 ("a fountain shall 
 come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of 
 Shittim"), water is a natural symbol of God's spiritual blessings, 
 especially those in which the agencies of the Holy Spirit are prom- 
 inent. Indeed, water is the special symbol of this divine Spirit, as 
 may be seen in the explanatory clauses of Ezek. 36 : 25, 27, and of 
 Isaiah 44 : 3. The latter reads, " I will pour water on him that is 
 thirsty" — shown to mean, "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, 
 and my blessing upon thy offspring." Ezekiel has it, " Then wiU I 
 sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean," &c. — shown 
 to mean, " I Avill put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk 
 in my statutes," &c. Moreover, the very terras which express the 
 manner of giving the Spkit indicate this : " I will 'pour my Spirit 
 
 upon you," &c. Strikingly parallel to this passage of Zechariah 
 
 is Ezek. 47 : 1-12. There the water flows from under the sanctuary, 
 here from Jerusalem; there in one widening, deepening stream, 
 till it becomes a mighty river, and sweeping through the desert 
 eastward, pours itself into the Dead Sea and heals its waters ; here 
 one-half flows into the front sea, which is, of course, the Dead Sea, 
 and the other half into the Mediterranean on the west. That of 
 Ezekiel carries on its bosom health, abundance, undying verdure, 
 and is of course to be considered perennial ; this flows during the 
 arid summer as well as the rainy winter, which amounts to saying 
 
 that it flows all the year, and year after year, never failing. Now, 
 
 as Palestine would be rendered almost an earthly Paradise by such 
 living streams as Zechariah and Ezekiel have described, if they were 
 to Tye miraculously created hy the finger of God^ and become literal 
 verities, so we must take thc.-c figures as predictions of blessings of 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 375 
 
 the richest, most abundant, and most endnrinp? kind possible for God 
 
 to bestow on hmnan souls. That Zecharinh's stream of water 
 
 flows from Jerusalem and Ezekiel's "from under the sanctuary " in- 
 dicate plainly that the Spirit of God will yet continue, as ever, to make 
 the institutions of the gospel — the service and worship of the sanc- 
 tuary — the vehicles and the channels through which he will pour 
 abroad the fulness of his blessings upon men. 
 
 9. And the Loed sliall be king over all* the earth: 
 in that day shall there be one Lokd, and his name one. 
 
 The precious fact predicted here is that the Lord Jehovah reigns 
 supreme over all the earth, and is recognized everywhere as the only 
 true God. The sense is not precisely this — ^that now and hence- 
 forth there shall really le but one God, as if to imply that in for- 
 mer times there had been more true Gods than one ; but this — that 
 now he is known, acknowledged, honored, obeyed, as the one only 
 God. The very names of other gods are forgotten. IsTo other name 
 than his is recognized as a name for God. Now, therefore, " the 
 kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, 
 and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever." Now, at length, the 
 long-offered prayer, the burden of pious hearts age after age, is ful- 
 filled: " Thy Tcingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven." That good promise by the mouth and pen of David (Ps. 
 22 : 27, 28), has now come to pass : " All the ends of the earth shall 
 remember, and turn unto the Lord, all the kindreds of the nations 
 shall worship before thee ; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is 
 Governor among the nations." 
 
 10. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba 
 to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem : and it shall be lifted 
 up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate 
 unto the place of the first gate, unto the comer gate, 
 and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's wine- 
 presses. 
 
 "All the land" should read, as it clearly means, all the earthy 
 being precisely the same words rendered " all the earth " in the pre- 
 vious verse : " The Lord shall be king over all the earth." " Turned " 
 means changed^ in its physical conformation, from a mountainous to 
 a plain, level country. The sense is not that all the land from Geba 
 to Rimmon — so much, and no more — shall become a plain^ but 
 this : that all the earth shall become a plain similar to that from 
 Geba to Rimmon. The Hebrew reads, "All the earth shall be 
 changed and become like to the plain from Geba to Eimmon," &c., 
 not a plain. " South of Jerusalem " is added to Rhnmon to distin- 
 guish it from another, known as " the rock Rimmon." (See Judges 
 20 : 45, 47, and 21 : 13.) Geba was on the northern border of Ju- 
 dah (2 Kings 23 : 8), and Rimmon on the southern (1 Chron. 4 : 32). 
 " It shall be lifted up " means that Jerusalem shall rise in lofty. 
 
376 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 towering grandeur, the only mountain in all the world, and, of 
 course, the chief wonder and admiration of the world, the Chimbo- 
 razo of the globe, all else being a plain. It shall be crowned on its 
 summit with the. glorious temple of the living God. This carries 
 forward the figure used Micah 4: 1 and Isaiah 2:2, at least one im- 
 portant step further. Micah and Isaiah speak of the temple-moun- 
 tain as " established " (firmly set) " on the top of the mountains, 
 and exalted above the hills." Zechariah sees all other mountains 
 and hills sinking down, to a plain, and the temple-mountain, or 
 rather Jerusalem herself as a whole, is lifted up and becomes the 
 only mountain of the world. So magnificent, honorable, and glo- 
 rious is to be the future kingdom of Messiah — the state of Christian 
 faith and life in this world redeemed from its sins and pollu- 
 tions ! Tlie last clause of the verse states that Jerusalem shall 
 
 again sit in her queenly majesty, the metropolitan city of this glo- 
 rious kingdom. " In her place " means upon her former foundations, 
 which is also expressed by the more particular specification of the 
 gates and well-known points of the old city. 
 
 11. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no 
 more litter destruction ; but Jerusalem shall be safely 
 inhabited. 
 
 As Jerusalem had been repeatedly visited with the fearfully 
 blighting curse of Jehovah for her great sins — once inflicted by the 
 cruel Chaldeans, and again to be, as already predicted, by the stern 
 Romans — it was specially pertinent for the prophet to say that there 
 should be no more such visitations of ruin. Her sins having been 
 washed away and herself taken under the special protection of her 
 Eedeemer, there would be no more occasion for such " utter destruc- 
 tion." Henceforth she should be " inhabited safely." 
 
 12. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lokd 
 will smite all the people that have fought against Jeru- 
 salem ; Their flesh shall consume away w^hile they stand 
 upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in 
 their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their 
 mouth. 
 
 The prophet left the enemies of Zion at the third verse, to fol- 
 low the fortunes of Zion herself, and to show us, through vs. 4-11, 
 how signally the Lord appeared for her help, and how gloriously 
 he turned her darkness into day, and then poured out for her living 
 waters and rebuilt her capital in greater and more enduring splen- 
 dor than ever. Now he returns to inform us of the doom of those 
 old enemies who marshalled their hosts against Zion, as appears vs. 
 1-3. They are smitten with a living death. Their flesh, touched 
 with some consuming leprosy, perishes while yet they stand upon 
 their feet. Their eyes consume away in their sockets ; their tongue 
 in their mouths. The eye and the tongue are specified as being the 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 377 
 
 most valued organs — those of sight and of speech ; and probably, 
 too, as having. been specially used in their war npon Zion. With 
 their tongue they had spoken proudly, blasphemously, profanely. 
 The type of their spirit had been, "Let her be defiled; let our eye 
 look upon Zion" (Mic. 4:11). "Where is the Lord thy God? 
 Mine eye shall behold her " (Mic. 7:10). The* Lord is wont to 
 make his retributive judgments indicate the sin for which they are 
 sent. This plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the open ene- 
 mies and actual assailants of his Zion is intended to be' terrible. 
 What could be more so than such a wasting and consuming away, 
 if slowly, yet surely, through the horrors of a living death,_ till the 
 dread reality shall have fully come ? 
 
 13. And it sTiall come to pass in that- day, that a 
 great tumult from the Lord shall be among them ; and 
 they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neigh- 
 bor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his 
 neighbor. 
 
 The word " tumult " does not naturally convey the full sense of 
 the original, which rather meaas a panic — the blended terror and 
 confusion which an awful sense of the fact that Almighty God is 
 against them would naturally produce. Analogous cases appear in 
 the pages of Jewish history, as in Judges 7 : 22, where " Gideon's 
 three hundred men blew with the trumpet, and the Lord set every 
 man's sword against his fellow throughout all the host ; " or the 
 case of Jonathan and his armor-bearer (1 Sam. 14: 15, 16), "and 
 there was trembling in the host, in the field, and. among all the 
 people " — " the earth quaked, so it was a very great trembling ; 
 and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating 
 down one another." Also 2 Chron. 20 : 23 — " They lay hold every 
 one on the hand of his neighbor," not to help, but to disarm and 
 
 smite him. -This verse and the preceding should be located in 
 
 the events of this chapter, immediately after the first three verses. 
 We are not to suppose that this plague of v. 12, and this panic with 
 mutual slaughter of v. 13, come in only long after the scenes of the 
 first three verses, and after Jerusalem has become peaceful and 
 glorious. They rather go back to give us in detail the manner in 
 which the Lord disposed of those enemies that fought against Jeru- 
 salem, took and divided her spoil, and made captives of half her 
 people. All suddenly, the plagues of Jehovah smite them ; their 
 fiesh consumes away ; this aAvful form of death serves to panic- 
 smite their hosts, and they fall upon each other in the dread work 
 
 of mutual slaughter ! " So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord ; 
 
 but let them that love thee be as the sun when he goeth forth in 
 his might! " (Judges 5 : 31). 
 
 14. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem ; and 
 the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gath- 
 
 I 
 
378 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 ered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great 
 abundance. 
 
 Judah fights in Jerusalem, not as the margin has it, against 
 her. The meaning is that, with a mutually good understanding, the 
 people of the country rush to the help of the city, and fight hero- 
 ically within the city for her defence. The spoil from the enemy 
 
 is immense.. The ultimate truth taught here is that real union 
 
 shall be the strength and glory of the millennial Church. 
 
 15. And so shall be tbe plague of the horse, of the 
 mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts 
 that shall be in these tents, as this plague. 
 
 The same plague that came from the Lord upon incorrigibly 
 wicked men falls also on all their cattle, horses, mules, camels, and 
 asses. They are supposed to be polluted by the horrible corruption 
 of their owners. Moreover, the Lord would make his judgments so 
 terrible as to inspire awe of his majesty and justice. The cattle of 
 a city given to idolatry were to be destroyed. So were the ani- 
 mals in some of those most wicked cities doomed of God to de- 
 struction. The word '' tents " should have been " camps," which 
 
 is the sense of the original — thu^ removing the incongruity of hav- 
 ing these animals in their tents. 
 
 16. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is 
 left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, 
 shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, 
 the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 
 
 The slaughter of the wicked nations, implied in v. 3, and terribly 
 indicated in vs. 12, 13, leaves some yet living ; how many relatively 
 to the whole number, or to the number slain, we are not told. But 
 we are told that those who remain shall be converted to God. They 
 now come up to Jerusalem, no longer to fight against her, but to 
 worship the living God in her temple, and to join heart and hand witli 
 the Lord's people. They are changed men — changed from sinners 
 
 to saints. The Jewish idea of a convert made to the true God 
 
 in distant Gentile lands must naturally imply that he will come up 
 year by year to Jerusalem to worship God at their great festivals. 
 This idea they could not fail to carry over to the reign of their ex- 
 pected Messiah. Prophecy makes him a second David, the great 
 successor on David's throne, to reign over all the nations from that 
 great central metropolis of his kingdom. It remains for us to 
 translate this Old Testament phraseology into that of the Kew Tes- 
 tament, and to modify those ideas which were the natural, not to say 
 necessary, outgrowth of the ancient dispensation, and make them cor- 
 respond to the new type of things established by our Lord and his 
 apostles. So modified, we no longer think of converts in the ends 
 of the earth making their annual pilgiimage to Jerusalem to keep 
 
, ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 379 
 
 her holy feasts and to worship Jehovah there. We understand 
 that every livino; Christian heart is God's temple, and that every sin- 
 cere worshipper is accepted in the JSTew Mediator of the hetter cove- 
 nant. This passage, then, interpreted in harmony with New Tes- 
 tament doctrines and ideas, predicts the conversion of most if not 
 all the ungodly who survive the fearful judgments already referred 
 to. That out of the three great annual festivals, the feast of tab- 
 ernacles should he selected, is due to its special adaptation to the 
 times. It was the national thanksgiving for God's favors in the 
 fruits of the year, and was also a grateful memorial of their change 
 from a wilderness life, forty years in tents, to a settled rest in Ca- 
 naan. Now after Zion has been redeemed from her sins, made 
 victorious over her foes, has received all that survive of them to 
 her bosom as friends, and they are made welcome to her munificent 
 blessings from her King, why should they not bring up their an- 
 nual offerings of thanksgiving and praise ? Isaiah (66 : 23) names 
 
 the " new moons and the Sabbaths " as the periods at which all 
 flesh should come up to worship before the Lord — showing, when 
 compared with this statement by Zechariah, that a literal coming 
 is not thought of by the Spirit of inspiration. .The essential 
 idea Is expressed as well by one form of statement as by the 
 other. Tliis idea is, that all the people of the earth will worship 
 the true God in the modes of his own appointment, as Christ taught 
 the woman of Samaria (John 4 : 20-24), and as the converted Jews 
 were taught (Heb., chapters 7-10). 
 
 17. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of 
 all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship 
 the King, the Loed of hosts, even upon them shall be 
 no rain. 
 
 This curse is entirely in accordance with the principles of the 
 ancient Theocracy which promised rain to the people if obedient, 
 but threatened to withhold it if they turned aside to idols. (See 
 
 Deut. 11 : 13-17.) The ancient economy provided for retribution 
 
 in the present world sufficiently full and sure to make the sense of 
 it effective in those early ages, and to minister to an intelligent faith 
 
 in God's actual government of the world. The previous verse 
 
 speaks of "nations;" this, particularly, of "families," because it 
 was by families that the Hebrew people came up to Jerusalem on 
 their great annual festivals. 
 
 18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come 
 not, that have no Tain ; there shall be the plague, where- 
 with the Loed will smite the heathen that come not up 
 to keep the feast of tabernacles. 
 
 It is not entirely clear why the family of Egypt is specified here. 
 We naturally think the reason to be that no rain ever falls in por- 
 tions of that country, and therefore, since this plague would not 
 
380 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 touch them, another of special sort would he provided. But the 
 Hehrew clause, which reads in our version, " that have no rain," is 
 elliptical, and therefore quite indefinite, since it may be supplied 
 either thus : Upon whom rain does not (usually) fall ; or tlius : 
 
 Upon them shall be no rain. The general sense, however, is 
 
 plain, viz., that Egypt shall be no exception to the general law. If 
 they go not up, the same plagues shall fall on them for this neglect 
 as on other nations. The fact is, that the failure of rain around 
 the head- waters of the Nile is as fatal to Egypt as the failure of rain 
 
 in other countries. Let it be noted that these threatened plagues 
 
 (vs. 17, 18) do not of necessity imply that any families will refuse 
 to go up to worship the Lord of hosts. They may only show that 
 men are stiU moral agents, acted upon by fear and hope, and made 
 responsible for their free moral acts. The assurance (v. 16) that 
 " every one that is left of all the nations sliall go up^''"' needs no 
 abatement because of this threatened plague on whomsoever shall 
 not go. Yet it must be admitted that this language may purposely 
 imply that there will be even in that glorious day some still per- 
 sistent enemies of God upon whom his judgments shall actually 
 fall. 
 
 19. This sliall be the punishment of Egypt, and the 
 punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the 
 feast of tabernacles. 
 
 Sin is the more usual sense of the word here rendered "punish- 
 ment," but the course of thought seems to demand the sense of 
 punishment. "This" (^^ ^., the withholding of rain) shall be the 
 
 punishment of all who do not come up to this feast. Hengsten- 
 
 berg, giving the word the sense of sin, makes the passage mean that 
 the chief sin, the test sin, the one specially noticed and punished, is 
 this of not going up, &c. But to make out this sense, the passage 
 should read — " This not going up to the feast of tabernacles, shall 
 be the test sin of all the nations " — a very different statement from 
 this which the verse does make. 
 
 20. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the 
 horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LOKD ; and the 
 pots in the Loed's house shall be like the bowls before 
 the altar. 
 
 21. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall 
 be holiness unto the Loed of hosts : and all they that 
 sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe there- 
 in : and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite 
 in the house of the Lord of hosts. 
 
 That holiness to the Lord shall be not only very pure, but widely 
 extended, is taught here by three distinct statements : (1.) Things 
 that have no special sanctity, e, g., bells on horses, shall be conse- 
 
ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 381 
 
 crated as altogether holy. (2.) The less sacred things abont the 
 
 temple shall become as holy as those most sacred were wont to be, 
 e, g.^ common pots for cooking food shall become no less sacred than 
 the bowls which received the blood of animals slain in sacrifice ; the 
 
 latter being of old accounted most holy, the former least so. 
 
 (3.) The Canaanites shall be no more in the Lord's temple. Ca- 
 
 naanite was the common Hebrew word for trafficker, merchant — a 
 business in bad repute among the Hebrews because so much asso- 
 ciated with fraud and deceit. See Hos. 12:7, 8. There is special 
 
 force in the allusion to the bells upon the horses because the He- 
 brew law and Hebrew sentiment had a prejudice against horses, as 
 associated with pride and vain show ; with reliance also on some 
 other power than God, and with war. This prejudice was all the 
 stronger because their most powerful enemies came upon them with 
 a strong force of cavalry and chariots ; while, on the other hand, 
 their own kings were forbidden to multiply horses. (See Deut. 
 17 : 16.) The pious Psalmist said, " Some trust in chariots and some 
 in horsemen ; we, in the name of the Lord our God." The pious in 
 Hos. 14 : 3, say, " We will not ride upon horses." But now, in the 
 purity of the millennial age, even the bells, mere ornaments on the 
 horses, shall bear the same inscription as the ancient breast-plate 
 worn by the high priest — " Holiness to the Lord.'''' How exceed- 
 ingly expressive of the absolute and universal consecration of all 
 
 things to the service and worship of the one all-glorious God ! 
 
 So also is the last clause rich in its special significance. "When we 
 consider how much the love of "filthy lucre" has polluted the 
 sanctuary, both under the Mosaic and throughout the Christian age, 
 it is a relief to feel that in the good time coming, " there shall be no 
 more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." No more 
 shall men carry the spirit of gain into the gospel ministry. No 
 more shall dishonesty and overreaching for pelf pollute the Church 
 of God. 
 
 Reviewing briefly the course of thought in this entire chapter, I 
 call renewed attention to the following points: (1.) The whole 
 chapter must be taken as figurative, and not literal. The literal 
 sense, implying the actual cleaving of the Moimt of Olives, and the 
 escape of half the population of the city through its cleft bowels ; 
 two literal rivers flowing from Jerusalem, one east and the other 
 west ; all the mountains in the world levelled down to plains, save 
 the one on which Jerusalem and its temple shall stand ; all the na- 
 tions coming up to Jerusalem yearly to the feast of tabernacles ; 
 Judaism with its bloody sacrifices enjoined on all the Gentile world, 
 despite of the whole New Testament to the contrary : such things, 
 supposed to take place literally, are simply incredible and absurd. 
 Some of them, if they were to take place literally, would inevitably 
 defeat their own ends. All would defeat and crush out New Testa- 
 ment Christianity. There can be no sufficient reasons for giving 
 this chapter a literal construction. (2.) I have studiously ab- 
 stained from the attempt to determine and define the fulfihncnt of 
 
382 ZECHARIAH.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 any miuute feature in tliis grouping? of Hebrew figures, because I 
 have no faith in such attempts. When these things shall be ful- 
 filled ; in what precise form the wicked shall assail the Church of 
 God ; how many of them shall be cut off by the plagues of the 
 Lord, and how many shall remain to be converted — these points, 
 and such as these, I think it wise to make no attempt to determine. 
 Ungodliness has its group of specific forms to-day ; vs^ho can tell 
 whether tliey will change essentially before this general onslaught 
 upon Zion ? The world has long since passed the besieging of the lit- 
 eral Jerusalem, as leing herself the Lord?s Zion; probably has passed 
 the era of religious wars, avowedly to destroy Christianity. But 
 stern conflicts with Satan and his human aids await the kingdom of 
 
 Christ ere its great and final victory. (3.) In the exposition of this 
 
 chapter the first main inquiry should be — How would the Jews of 
 Zechariah's time understand it? What would be the general impres- 
 sion made upon them by this grouping of Jewish images and ideas ? 
 Would not they hail this chapter as God's word of promise, that 
 the worship of their own Jehovah would one day become universal ; 
 that their old enemies would first be greatly reduced in numbers by 
 fearful plagues, and the remnant be converted to the living God, 
 and that then the worship of God would become pure and substan- 
 tially universal ? They could make of it nothing less than this. No 
 other language could express these points more surely or more 
 
 forcibly than this. (4.) Then this is the general sense of the 
 
 chapter. For it was written to, be read and to be understood 
 by the Jews of his time. The writer of it was himself a Jew, writ- 
 ing for first readers who were Jews, and therefore he used and 
 
 could use only Jewish terms and figures. The general sense of 
 
 these figures we get from that ancient economy. It only remains 
 (as already said) that we translate Jewish into Christian terms, 
 Jewish symbols into Christian thought and meaning, and we have 
 the truth which the Lord hath taught us with so much clearness, 
 
 beauty, and force in this chapter. Let the name of the Lord be 
 
 praised for such and so much light upon the otherwise unknown 
 future of his earthly Zion ! We will bless his name, not only that 
 lie has formed such purposes of loving-kindness — not only that he 
 has determined to bring all the nations of men to live joyfully be- 
 neath Messiah's sceptre, but that he has revealed to us this purpose^ 
 and delineated in such forms of beauty and joy the glorious future 
 which awaits Messiah's kingdom among men. 
 
MALAOHI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Op this prophet wo have no personal history. The book gives 
 us only his name, and over even this there hangs a doubt in some 
 minds whether it be a proper name, or whether it designates some 
 unknown person as " my messenger," the original being the same 
 as is translated thus (chap. 3:1): "Behold, I«send my messenger," 
 &c. I take it, however, to be a proper name, because every other 
 prophetical book gives the real name of its author ; because a name 
 and a personal character were essential as credentials ; and because 
 the other view (" my messenger ") gives us no light whatever as to 
 the author, in the very place where we have a right to expect it. 
 By the universal consent of biblical critics, he was the latest known 
 prophet. The internal evidence leaves scarcely a doubt that he 
 was contemporary with Nehemiah's last visit to Judea, aiding him 
 in his work of correcting the abuses which had gained a footing 
 among the people. A careful comparison of the Book of Malachi 
 with Nehemiah 13 : T-31 exhibits the same flagrant sins as prevail- 
 ing in each, e. g.^ intermarriages with foreigners, even in the case 
 of the priests (Neh. 13:28-30 with Mai. 2:7-16); neglect of 
 tithes (Neh. 13 : 10-13 with Mai. 3 : 7-10); violation of the Sab- 
 bath and of religious worship generally (Neh. 13 : 15-22 with 
 Mai. 1 : 13 and 2 : 8). Hence it appears highly probable that Mala- 
 chi cooperated with ITehemiah in his last reformation, as Isaiah did 
 with Hezekiah, and Jeremiah with Josiah. The civil ruler would 
 greatly need the aid of some earnest and pure-minded prophet in 
 such a work. The Lord took care to provide it. The precise 
 
384 MALACHI.— CHAP, I. 
 
 date of this last visit of Neliemiali is a question of some historic 
 interest, inasmuch as it is the date of the latest inspired Old Testa- 
 ment history and prophecy. The following brief synopsis of his- 
 toric dates is supposed to be proximately correct. It may aid the 
 reader t© locate these events in time, and fix their connections with 
 profane history. (1.) The first captives returned under Zerubbabel, in 
 the first year of Cyrus, b. o. 536. (2.) Fifty-eight years after, Ezra 
 went up to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of 'Xerxes (called Artax- 
 erxes, Ezra 7:1, 7), b. o. 478. (3.) Nehemiah's first visit was yet 
 thirty-four years later, viz., in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Lon- 
 gimanus, b. o. 444. (4.) After twelve years' stay in Judea, Nehe- 
 miah returned to Babylon in the thirty-second year of this same 
 king, B. 0. 432. (5.) The date of his second visit to Judea is proba- 
 bly twenty-four years subsequent, i. e., in b. c. 408, although it may 
 have been less. Some critics fix it b. o. 423, after an interval of 
 only nine years instead of twenty-four. The interval must have 
 been long enough for the introduction of grievous abuses, for 
 intermarriages with foreigners, and births from those marriages, 
 and children old enough to speak " according to the language of 
 each people." The data do not suflBce for a more precise determi- 
 nation of the time. This, however, is near enough for all practical 
 purposes. Not far from four hundred years before Christ, this last 
 in the long series of inspired prophets united his efforts with those 
 of Nehemiah to call back the apostate people to their forsaken 
 God, to rebuke them for their great sins, and to animate the believ- 
 ing portion by some very distinct and precious promises of the con- 
 version of the Gentiles ; of the coming of the glorious Lord, " the 
 Messenger of the covenant," to his earthly temple ; and also of the 
 coming of John Baptist, here designated as " my messenger who 
 shall prepare the way before me," and as " Elijah the prophet." 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 To show the people their great guilt, the Lord testifies to his 
 special love for their nation, particularly as compared with the pos- 
 terity of Esau (vs. 2-5) ; rebukes the priests for their contempt of 
 his worship (vs. 6-10) ; assures them that he will find countless sin- 
 cere worshippers among the heathen (v. 11) ; exposes and denounces 
 their heinous sins (vs. 12-14). 
 
 . 1. The burden of the word of the Lokd to Israel bj 
 Malachi. 
 
MALACHL— CHAP. I. 385 
 
 This prophecy, as a whole, comprises so much rebuke for sin 
 and threatening of judgment, that it may fitly be called a " burden " 
 in the usual sense — sins and judgment:?, which it is a heart-burden 
 to tliink of and to reveal. 
 
 2. I have loved you, saith tlie Loed. Yet ye say, 
 "Wherein hast thou loved us ? Was not Esau Jacob's 
 brother ? saith the Loed : yet I loved Jacob, 
 
 3. And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his 
 heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 
 
 A view of the love sinned against deepens the sense of guilt. 
 As one who appreciates this law of our moral nature, the Lord be- 
 gins his endeavors to convict the Jews of sin by setting before 
 them the special love he had borne for their nation ever since Ja- 
 cob was chosen to be the heir of his promises and Esau was re- 
 jected. This hating of Esau was rather a not-loving, and looks 
 
 especially to the fact that God rejected him from being the heir of 
 the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. The history shows that 
 Esau did not value the inheritance of those promises. The writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls him " that profane person," as 
 if to intimate that his rejection was not an arbitrary act of God in 
 
 the sense of being irrespective of Esau's ill desert. As to the 
 
 words " I hated Esau," let it be carefully noted that God's hatred 
 is never malign and never causeless. The " laying of his moun- 
 tains and heritage waste " was done soon after the fall of Jerusa- 
 lem before the Chaldean arms, and by the same power. 
 
 4. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but 
 we will return and build the desolate places ; thus saith 
 the Loed of hosts. They shall build, but I will throw 
 down ; and they shall call them. The border of wicked- 
 ness, and, The people against whom the Loed hath in- 
 dignation for ever. 
 
 5. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say. The 
 Loed will be magnified from the border of Israel. 
 
 Edom resolutely determined to rebuild ; the Lord as resolutely 
 to cast down. The Lord, and not Edom, triumphed in this conflict. 
 
 Men in general, the voice of the nations, " shall call them the 
 
 border of wickedness," i. e., the wicked country, the people against 
 whom Jehovah's wrath burns forever. Their sins had been so base 
 and so notorious that all mankind would appreciate the reasons of 
 God's wrath against them. Ye shall say, " Let the Lord be mag- 
 nified by all the people of Israel ; " let his praise come forth from 
 that whole country. It behooved all the. Jews to extol the justice 
 ' of God in sending such retribution upon Edom. 
 
 6. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his mas- 
 
 17 
 
386 MALACHL— CHAP. I. 
 
 ter : if then Ihe a father, where is mine honor ? and if 
 Ihe a master, where is my fear ? saith the Loed of hosts 
 unto yon, O priests, that despise my name. And ye 
 say. Wherein have we despised thy name ? 
 
 This reasoning from the honor due and usually accorded to a 
 father, is full of force as applied to the great God. How much 
 more a Father is he than any of these " fathers of our flesh," and 
 how much greater ! Most forcibly, therefore, does he demand from 
 us, "Where is ray honor?" "Where is my fear?" This ap- 
 peal was made with special pertinence to the priests, to whom God 
 had given high responsibilities and ample means of knowing his 
 
 name and his love. " Yet ye say, Wherein have we despised 
 
 thy name? " This is the first case out of many in which the priests 
 retort the charge made against them, daring the prophet or the 
 Lord to the proof! It is the rankest pride and self-justification. 
 It may well amaze us that a priesthood so enlightened should be- 
 come so fearfully corrupt, so rotten morally, so blind to their own 
 past and present sins ! 
 
 7. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar ; and ye 
 say, Wherein have we polluted thee ? In that ye say, 
 The table of the Lord is contemptible. 
 
 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not 
 evil ? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil ? 
 offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be pleased with 
 thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lokd of hosts. 
 
 The ceremonial law specified, with almost extreme precision, 
 what offerings should be made and how prepared, laying the great- 
 est stress on their being the very lest of their Tcind. The signifi- 
 cance of this is obvious. No greater insult could be offered to God 
 than to turn him off with the refuse of their flocks and herds, and 
 with polluted bread for his altar ! Yet this the priests of that day 
 had done, and moreover seemed still to have no sense of their hor- 
 rible sin! Forcibly does the Lord say, "Offer such presents to 
 your governor ; will he feel himself honored ? " Alas ! many a hu- 
 man heart ought to be smitten with a sense of its sins against the 
 glorious Jehovah, in ha\'ing constantly withheld from him the best 
 of its love, homage, and service, and in doling out only the meanest, 
 cheapest offerings, in a way which signifies that the heart does not 
 intend to give the least thing in real love to the good and glorious 
 God I 
 
 9. And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will 
 be gracious unto us : this hath been by yom* means : will 
 he regard yom* pei'sons ? saith the Lokd of hosts. * 
 
 The clause, " this hath been by your means," seems to refer to 
 
MALACHI.~CHAP. I. 387 
 
 the deplorably low state of pietj and of divine worship, and to 
 charge tlie cause of it to the priests, and on this ground implore 
 them to repent and conciliate the fiivor of God. 
 
 10. "Who is there even among you that would shut 
 the doors /b/* nought? neither do ye kindle ^^^^ on mine 
 altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the 
 Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your 
 hand. 
 
 The service they did render was done in supreme selfishness, for 
 they would not even close the doors of the temple or kindle the 
 fire upon the altar, without special pay for it. So utterly merce- 
 nary and heartless had they become in all their religious duties ! 
 No wonder the Lord declares to them, "I have no pleasure in 
 you ! " The pure, loving heart is above all things else first and 
 highest in his esteem ; it might almost be said to be all he cares 
 for ; witliout it, all else goes for nothing. 
 
 11. For from the rising of the sun even imto the 
 going down of the same, my name shall he great among 
 the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall he offered 
 unto my name, and a pure offering : for my name shall 
 he great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 The logical connection, indicated by the word "/or," should be 
 distinctly noted. The Lord would say to those corrupt priests — 
 You have no heart in my worship ; you make it contemptible be 
 fore the people ; your whole heart is meanly selfish ; T cannot ac- 
 cept such worship,, and / Jiane no occasion to do so. You greatly 
 mistake if you suppose that I am in such need that I shall thank- 
 fully accept at your hand such miserably poor service. I have 
 other and far purer service coming in from the Gentile nations, upon 
 whom you are looking down with haughty scorn, "/br from the rising 
 of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be 
 great among the Gentiles " (not cast out as vile, after the manner 
 of your devotions). " In every place " (not in Jerusalem alone) 
 " incense shall be oficred to my name and a pure" (not a polluted) 
 offering ; " for my name " (which you have despised, v. G) " shall be 
 
 great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." Sublimely 
 
 glorious promise ! Its outlook into the Christian age is truly won- 
 derful. That great change wrought out under the apostles, by 
 wiiich the pure worship of God passed from Jewish to Gentile 
 
 hands and hearts, is here most clearly indicated. Let it be noted 
 
 also that more is here than the world has yet seen. The sweep of 
 the gospel has never yet ranged from the rising to the setting snn. 
 " Incense and a pure offering " have not yet b«en offered " in every 
 place." The glorious name of Jehovah has not yet become " great 
 among all the heathen." But all these things shall yet be! Let 
 
388 MALACHI.— CHAP. U. 
 
 all hearts hail the coming day! And let all hands hasten it on- 
 ward 1 
 
 12. But je have profaned it, in that ye say, The 
 table of the Loed is polluted ; and the fcuit thereof, even 
 his meat, is contemptible. 
 
 13. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it ! and 
 ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts ; and ye 
 brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick ; 
 thus ye brought an offering : should I accept this of yom^ 
 hand ? saith the Lord. 
 
 14. But cursed te the deceiver, which hath in his 
 flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord 
 a corrupt thing : for I am a great King, saith the Lord 
 of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. 
 
 The prophet returns again to the sins of the priests, exposing 
 and rebuking them with deserved severity. "Who can wonder that 
 the curse of Jehovah falls on such priests and on aU such worshippers 
 at his altar ? How can he regard it as better than intended insult ? 
 
 Yerily God is too great, and too holy to be so contemned ! 
 
 Woe to the man who offers such abuse to the Great King whose 
 *' name is dreadful among the heathen ! " 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The corrupt priests are specially exhorted, rebuked, and threat- 
 ened (vs. 1-9) ; the sin of practically divorcing their Je^vish wives 
 and marrying heathen women is condemned (vs. 10-16) ; and finally 
 the priests are rebuked for denying the justice of God in his prov- 
 idential government (v. 17). 
 
 1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for 
 you. 
 
 2. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to 
 heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of 
 hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will 
 curse your blessings ; yea, I have cursed them already, 
 because ye do not lay it to heart. 
 
 The priests had been deeply gnilty in the great apostasy of that 
 age. They had not only failed altogether to teach the people 
 faithfully and truly for God, but they had fearfully seduced them 
 into sin by their pernicious example. Hence the prophet gives 
 them to understand very explicitly that this message of command 
 
MALACHL— CHAP. II. 389 
 
 and rebuke is for tliera. The threateniDg is not merely "I will 
 
 send a curse " — some unknown, indefinite curse — but the curse (so 
 tbe original has it), referring .doubtless to Deut. 2T : 14-26, " And the 
 Levites shall say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed 
 be he," &c., " and all the people shall say, Amen ! " To this fearful 
 
 catalogue of twelve curses the prophet must have referred. To 
 
 "curse your blessings" is to change them to curses. The clause 
 
 rendered "yea, I have cursed them already," &c., should read, 
 " yea, I will curse each one of them." The tense is the same 
 as in the preceding clause. There is no authority for the sense 
 " already y 
 
 3. Behold I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung 
 upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts ; 
 and one shall take you away with it. 
 
 "I will rebuke your seed sown," implies that he will forbid its 
 
 coming to maturity. The spreading of dung upon their faces 
 
 must imply a doom both publicly disgraceful and intrinsically 
 loathsome. Themselves shall be thrown out and borne away with 
 the offal of their sacrifices, in one promiscuous mass. 
 
 4. And ye shall know that I have sent this com- 
 mandment unto you, that my covenant might be with 
 Levi, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 I take this verse to mean — Ye shall know in your own ex- 
 perience that I make this last effort to save you, in order that my 
 covenant may still be as of old with Levi, and that the priesthood 
 may still abide in honor and usefulness with my blessing upon it ; 
 but that this effort shall le the last ! 
 
 5. My covenant was with him of life and peace ; and 
 I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared 
 me, and was afraid before my name. 
 
 This seems to refer to some events in the early history of Israel, 
 in which the tribe of Levi manifested a special regard for the name 
 and honor of God, and for this reason was honored with the cove- 
 nant of the perpetual priesthood. The reference may be either to 
 Ex. 82 : 26-29, or to Num. 25 : 7-13, or to both. In the former case 
 the whole tribe of Levi came forth promptly to the call of Moses, 
 " Who is on the Lord's side ? " and girding on each man his sword, 
 they slew the worshippers of the golden calf wherever they were, 
 sparing not even a brother, companion, or neighbor. To this case 
 Moses reverts (Deut. 83 : 9, 10) in his last blessing upon the tribes : 
 " Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him, 
 neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own chil- 
 dren ; for they have observed thy words, and kept thy covenant. 
 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law ; they shall 
 put incense before thee," &c. The other case, that of Phineas 
 
390 MALACHI.— CHAP. II. 
 
 (lN"um. 25), did not pertain so directly to the whole tribe of Levi, 
 and yet has in its favor the fact that for his zeal the Lord said of 
 him : " Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall 
 have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting 
 priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atone- 
 ment for the children of Israel." The latter also has closer relations 
 with the priesthood, while the former concerned the whole tribe of 
 Levi. Very probably there may be a tacit reference to both cases. 
 
 6. The law of triitli was in his mouth, and ini-^ 
 quity was not found in his lips : he walked with me' 
 in peace and equity, and did turn many away from 
 iniquity. 
 
 7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and 
 they should seek the law at his mouth : for he is the 
 messenger of the Lord of hosts. 
 
 In the outset the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron were 
 selected because of their fidelity to God and to his truth. In the 
 early times of the nation they were in the main true to their responsi- 
 bilities, and taught the people the knowledge of the Lord faith- 
 fully and successfully. The passage shows that the priests were 
 
 by profession tlie public teachers of religion, and performed that 
 service until they became too corrupt. Then prophets were raised 
 up to supply in some measure their lack of service. 
 
 8. But ye are departed out of the way ; ye have 
 caused many to stumble at the law ; ye have corrupted 
 the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible 
 and base before all the people, according as ye have not 
 kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. 
 
 The original puts the antithesis forcibly between " ye " (v. 8), and 
 " I " (v. 9), ye departed out of the way ; " therefore / have made you 
 contemptible and base before all the people." Note here the thing 
 signified by the bold figures in v. 8. The Lord will surely take away 
 all honor from the priest who dishonors God and disgraces himself. 
 " They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 
 
 10. Have we not all one father ? hath not one God 
 created us ? why do we deal treacherously every man 
 against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our 
 fathers ? 
 
 11. Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomi- 
 nation is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for 
 Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he 
 loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 
 
MALACHL— CHAP. II. 391 
 
 12. The LoED will cut oif tlie man tliat doeth this, 
 the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of 
 Jacob, and him that ofiereth an offering unto the Lord 
 of hosts. 
 
 13. And this have ye done again, covering the altar 
 of the LoED with tears, with weeping, and with crying 
 out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any 
 more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. 
 
 14. Yet ye say. Wherefore ? Because the Lokd hath 
 been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, 
 against whom thou hast dealt treacherously : yet is she 
 thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 
 
 15. And did not he make one ? Yet had he the res- 
 idue of the Spirit. And wherefore one ? That he might 
 seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, 
 and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his 
 youth. 
 
 16. For the Loed, the God of Israel, saith, that he 
 hateth putting away : for one covereth violence with his 
 garment, saith the Lord of hosts : therefore take heed to 
 your spirit, that ye deaVnot treacherously. 
 
 This passage is best understood when considered as one distinct 
 and entire subject. It refers to the sin of practically or actually 
 putting away their Hebrew wives, and taking wives from the idola- 
 trous heathen. Even the priests had done this ; and, indeed, they 
 seem to have been foremost. (See Neh. 13 : 23-29.) With a mas- 
 terly hand the prophet calls their attention first in order to the 
 very highest moral considerations — to their obligations to God, their 
 common Father, which bind them to deal faithfully and forbid 
 them to deal treacherously against their fellow-beings, children of 
 the same common Father. In the clause " every man against his 
 brother," &c., the thing in mind is the obligation that binds a man 
 to fidelity with his wife. " Brother " is used in the general sense 
 
 of fellow-creature — one who is a child of the same Creator. 
 
 "The covenant of our fathers" is the covenant of marriage, or- 
 dained of God, and given first to the common father of our race. In 
 the clause (v. 11) " Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord 
 which he loved," I take the sense to be, that the people of Judah 
 had abused and dishonored the sacredness which the Lord had at- 
 tached to his own people in forbidding intermarriages with the 
 heathen, and requiring them to marry within the pale of the cove- 
 nant people. The Lord had felt a special interest in this law. It 
 recognized a certain holiness in his own people which he had 
 valued as a distinction vital to the preservation of morals and piety 
 
392 MALACHl.— CHAP. II. 
 
 among them. The priests and people had profaned this sacredness 
 by marrying the daughters of strange gods — heathen idolatrous 
 
 women. In v. 12 it is said, " The Lord will cut off the man that 
 
 doetli this," he he who he may. This is the ultimate sense of the 
 originid rendered, "the master and the scholar." Its proximate 
 sense, however, is not " master and scholar," hut " the waker and 
 the answerer," with reference to the night-watch of the priests or 
 Levites in the temple where the party retiring from their watch 
 aroused their successors, who answered to their call. The two 
 parties taken together might include all. The description should 
 apply to the priests ; this does ; and, moreover, follows strictly the 
 sense of the original. 
 
 In V. 13, " done this again," means ye have a second time re- 
 lapsed into this great sin ; the first time being that great apostasy 
 from which they were reclauned under Ezra. (See Ezra 9.) This 
 reform seemed for the time to be thorough, but subsequently the 
 
 people and priests apostatized again. They " covered the altar 
 
 of God with tears," inasmuch as the Hebrew wives, supplanted in 
 the affections of their husbands by heathen wives, fled to the altar to 
 lay their case before the God of their fathers there, and to pour out 
 their sorrows into his ear, and their tears upon his altar. Such 
 scenes as these touched the heart of God, and he could no longer 
 accept the offerings brought to this same altar by these adul- 
 terous and apostate priests. The self-justifying priests still say, 
 
 "Wherefore?" Why should God repel and disown us ? Is it for 
 these trivial matters pertaining to our wives ? The prophet an- 
 swers : Because the Lord became a witness between thee and the 
 wife of thy youth on the day of thine espousals ; and he cannot but 
 mark, and marking, abhor thy treachery in the breach of that 
 
 covenant. Pursuing this point yet further, the prophet inquires. 
 
 Did not the Lord create one woman, and one only, to be the wife 
 of the first man ? Yet he had the residue of the creative Spirit, and 
 might easily have made for Adam another wife, or even a score of 
 wives, if he had thought it best. Wherefore did he limit Adam to 
 one wife ? The reason was, he sought a godly seed. His heart was 
 on securing such family influences as would avail to " train up a 
 child in the way he should go," and he knew fuU well that polyg- 
 amy — the presence of two or more wives in the same household — 
 must utterly forbid such moral training. No godly seed can be ex- 
 pected in that family where polygamy is forever begetting discord, 
 
 jealousy, and every thing immoral, selfish, and ungodly. "For the 
 
 Lord saith he hateth divorce," which implies that virtually, if not 
 directly, this taking of foreign wives resulted in putting away their 
 Hebrew wives. Very probably the results might vary somewhat; 
 for some Hebrew wives might consent for a time, longer or shorter, 
 to be crushed down and trodden under foot ; while others would 
 not brook such treatment an hour. In the end, the usual result 
 would be the expulsion of the Hebrew wife from the household. 
 In the next clause, the word " gannent " is thought to mean 
 
MALACHL— CHAP. 11. 393 
 
 wife. Arabic usage favors this sense. The meaning of the whole 
 passage would then be, " For the Lord, the God of Israel, hateth 
 divorce, in which one heaps violence upon his wife — covers and 
 buries her as it were with accumulated wrongs and violent assaults " 
 — a sad, dark picture of the domestic scenes attendant upon that 
 monster sin of divorcing the wife of one's youth, to wed one's self 
 
 to a foreign idolatress. The prophet closes with repeating the 
 
 exhortation to take heed to their spirits that they no more deal 
 treacherously with the wife of their first sacred covenant. 
 
 11. Ye have wearied tlie Lord with jour words. Yet 
 ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ? When ye say, 
 Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the 
 Lord, and he delighteth in them ; or, Where ts the God 
 of judgment ? 
 
 The essence of this crime, which had wearied the Lord of 
 hosts, was a denial of his justice in the administration of his moral 
 government. They said, "Every one that doeth evil is good in the 
 sight of the Lord," who manifests as much delight in them as in 
 well-doers. They also said, with the same implication, "Where is 
 the God of just judgment?" — implying. We know not where he is. 
 Hence it must be inferred that the horrible sins of the priests in con- 
 temning the worship of God, offering polluted offerings, and putting 
 away their Hebrew wives to marry heathen idolaters, had at bot- 
 tom a deep apostasy in principle and theory from the living God. 
 They had ceased to vindicate the ways of God to man ; had ceased 
 to think and speak well of his government ; had ceased to regard 
 
 him as holy, just, and good. But it need not be supposed that 
 
 they had forsaken his worship and gone thus into sin lecause they 
 had first reached the conclusion. intelligently that he was unworthy 
 of their regard. By no means. The reverse order is almost if not 
 quite universal. Sins of the heart and of the life, long cherished, 
 create a demand in the mind, and especially before the conscience, 
 •for false notions of God to serve as a quietus to the conscience. 
 Men first have evil deeds ; then necessarily love darkness more than 
 light for their convenience and comfort in their evil ways ; and then 
 their love of darkness leads them on to any conceivable absurdities 
 
 of error. The developments of this Book of Malachi reveal an 
 
 appalling depth of depravity among the priests and Levites — 'he 
 very men who should have been true to God and inflexible against 
 all the seductions of popular sins. 
 
394 MALACHI.— CHAP. III. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TriE coming of JoLn Baptist and of Jesus the Messiah is fore- 
 told with some of the results (vs. 1-5) ; then exhortations to re- 
 pentance and rebukes for sin, especially the sin of robbing the Lord 
 of his tithes and offerings (vs. G-12). The spirit of the wicked is 
 contrasted with the spirit of the righteous (vs. 13-18). 
 
 1. Beliold, I will send mj messenger, and he sliall 
 prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom ye 
 seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the 
 messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold, 
 he shall come, saith the Lokd of hosts. 
 
 The most ample proof is found in the New Testament that " my 
 messenger" is John Baptist. Our Lord bore witness to John 
 (Luke 7:27): " This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send 
 my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare the way before 
 thee." His father, Zacharias, when filled with the Holy Ghost, 
 said — " Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of tlie Highest, for 
 thovL shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways," &c. 
 
 (Luke 1:76.) Consequently, "the Lord whom ye seek," "the 
 
 messenger of the covenant," can be no other than Jesus the Mes- 
 siah. It was of the wisdom and mercy of God that he should be so 
 definitely pointed out both in this and kindred prophecies, and by a 
 messenger so fitted every way for his commission as John. Such 
 Indications must have been eminently welcome and satisfactory to 
 
 all honest minds. This feature in the description of Messiah, 
 
 " whom ye seek," was pertinent in the latest prophecy of him, and 
 pertinent at the time of his coming, inasmuch as high expectations 
 concerning him were now raised, and a lively interest in his coming 
 was awakened. The testimony concerning Simeon and Anna, as 
 given by Luke, is in point to illustrate the "seeking" of the pious 
 portion of the people. Plainly their hearts were keenly alive with 
 
 interest and hope. That he should be spoken of as " coming to 
 
 his temple,^^ may be due in part to the fact that the temple was his 
 by long residence — his visible glory having dwelt there for ages, 
 reposing upon the mercy-seat and beneath the cherubim; partly 
 also to the indications of prophecy, as in Zech. 6 : 12, 13 — " he shaU 
 build the temple of the Lord." But why is he called " the mes- 
 senger of the covenant"? "Messenger" means angel. It is the 
 word usually translated angel. Jesus is the angel of the covenant 
 in the twofold sense: (1.) Of being the same personage so often 
 called in the Old Testament an " angel," e. </., Ex. 23 : 20-23, which 
 if the reader will examine, he will see refers to the uncreated angel 
 who pardons sin, in whom is the name of Jehovah, and who is a 
 perpetual Presence with his Cliurch under b^ith the old dispensation 
 17* 
 
I 
 
 MALACHI.— CHAP. III. 395 
 
 nnd the new ; called " the angel of tlie covenant" also, because so 
 long promised by covenant with the patriarchs and saints of old : 
 and (2.) Of being especially " the Mediator of the new covenant " 
 (Heb. 9 : 15) ; and of " the better covenant, estabhshed upon better 
 promises" (Heb. 8 : 6-13). " Behold " indicates an announce- 
 ment worthy of particular attention, the more so because repeated 
 
 — " Behold, he shall surely come, saith the Lord of hosts." Can 
 
 we trace any connection of thought between this promise as it 
 
 stands here, and the preceding context ? If any, it is this : The 
 
 priesthood is becoming hopelessly corrupt, the people going astray as 
 sheep having no shepherd ; the kingdom of God will never rise and 
 become far extended by such agencies alone ; the name of God is 
 everywhere dishonored. This course of things will not answer the 
 ends of divine mercy ; something more and other than this must bo 
 done ; I will send my servant John, and close after him, the Lord 
 of all! ■' He will bear up the otherwise sinking cause of God and 
 
 of righteousness. The reader will notice the person who speaks 
 
 in this verse. He is "Jehovah of hosts." Yet he says: "/will 
 send one who shall prepare the way before me" The testimony 
 of inspiration thus makes the promised Messiah no other than 
 " Jehovah of hosts." This name is given him by divine author- 
 ity. 
 
 2. But who may abide tlie clay of liis coming ? and 
 wlio sliall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a 
 refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap : 
 
 ""Who shall be able to bear the day of his coming" — the 
 searching ordeal of such moral scrutiny? Kot those corrupt 
 priests, so recently before the prophet's mind. Ah ! full soon will 
 lie scourge them out of his temple, and hurl them down from the 
 
 high position w^hich they so shamefully desecrate ! " Who shall 
 
 stand when he appeareth ? " Some few — those who " looked for 
 redemption in Jerusalem" — will hail his coming as "the horn of 
 salvation for us in the house of his servant David;" but the 
 sensual, the worldly, the formal, — however carefully they may have 
 covered up their iniquity with the cloak of sanctimonious pro- 
 fession, will be put through such processes of refining and proving 
 as shall surely reveal their dross — "for he is like a refiner's fire, and 
 like fuller's soap," — physical agents which well illustrate the work 
 of the coming Messiah in purifying his Church. The state of the 
 Church and its leading men at that time strongly suggested the 
 need of this purifying work to be done by " the Messenger of the 
 covenant." 
 
 3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver : and he shall pmify the sons of Levi, and purge 
 them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the 
 LoEii an offering in righteousness. 
 
396 MALACHI.— CHAP. III. 
 
 " Sitting " is the postnre of the refiner of silver, chosen as being 
 more convenient for the long, patient, careful watching of the pro- 
 cess which is essential to success. Silver is too precious to be 
 wasted by having too much heat ; and its purity is too valuable a 
 
 quality to be missed by having too little. That "he shall purify 
 
 the sons of Levi " was suggested by the deeply-felt want of this at 
 that time, and is always vital because of the essential importance 
 of having those who minister in sacred things spotless examples of 
 the godliness which they should commend to others. How can the 
 Lord send blessings to men through instrumentalities that are cor- 
 rupt and rotten? Having wisely determined to work through 
 human agents, and having designated them, what if they prove 
 faithless, and only hinder and block the progress of the work they 
 should set forward ? Hence the first labor of the Messiah when he 
 appears among his people will be " to purify the sons of Levi, that 
 they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." 
 
 4. TlLen shall the offering of Judali and Jerusalem 
 be pleasant unto the Loed, as in the days of old, and as 
 in former years. 
 
 This done, the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleas- 
 ing to the Lord as in the better, purer days of the Hebrew people, 
 when "Israel was holiness to the Lord." (See Jer. 2 : 8.) The verse 
 has a refreshing look toward that one perfect offering of Jesus, 
 our Great High Priest, in which God was well pleased, and on 
 the ground of which he will joyfully accept the humble offerings of 
 his people. 
 
 5. And I will come near to you to judgment : and I 
 will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against 
 the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against 
 those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, 
 and the fatherless, and that tm-n aside the stranger 
 from his right^ and fear not me, saith the Loed of 
 hosts. 
 
 " But.,'''' over against this, " to you " and to all such as you 
 (referring to the priests and Levites of that day) " will I come near 
 in judgment, and I will be a swift witness," &c. — swift., as afford- 
 ing no more time for such wickedness, and as cutting short their 
 most abused probation. These words refer to the horribly wicked 
 religious leaders of those days. 
 
 6. For I am the Loed, I change not ; therefore ye 
 sons of Jacob are not consumed. 
 
 The connection of thought here turns on the special significance 
 of the name JehovaJi — the ever faithful and unchanging One — the 
 God of the promises, who hath said and will surely fulfil. If he 
 
MALACHL— CHAP. III. 397 
 
 had not made such promises of enduring protection and mercy to 
 the ancient covenant people, he would even now cut them off at 
 once. This only is the reason why they are not consumed. It is 
 only because he is Jehovah that his faithfulness spares " the sons 
 of Jacob." There is a power in that name, '' sons of Jacob," -that 
 avails to save them yet, on the score of those never-failing promises. 
 See notes on Hos. 12 : 4-6. 
 
 7. Even from tlie days of your fathers ye are gone 
 away from mine ordinances, and liave not kept them. 
 Ketnrn unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the 
 LoKD of hosts. But ye said. Wherein shall we return % 
 
 8. Will a man rob God % Yet ye have robbed me. 
 But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee % In tithes 
 and offerings. 
 
 9. Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed 
 me, even this whole nation. 
 
 This apostasy had already been of long standing. The spirit 
 
 of divine command and promise is tersely and beautifully expressed 
 here^"Eeturn unto me, and I will return unto you." So also is 
 the spirit of man's depravity truthfully expressed in the quick re- 
 sponse — Are we not all right now ? " Wherein shall we return? " 
 .... Alas for the blindness of sin ! Alas for the hardness it brings 
 on human hearts ! It is only when conviction of the truth as it is, 
 fastens on the mind through the Spirit of God, that sinners think to 
 
 any purpose of returning to God. Strange that a man should 
 
 rob God ! " Yet ye have robbed me," in withholding the stipulated 
 tithes — the tenth part of their annual income. For this withhold- 
 ing, the Lord was visiting the land with the curse of barrenness 
 and famine. 
 
 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 
 that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me 
 now herewith, saith the Loed of hosts, if I will not open 
 you the windows of heaven, and pom' you out a blessing, 
 that there shall not le room enough to receive it. ■ 
 
 This striking passage has the richer interest to Christians be- 
 cause, under the principles of the ancient economy, viz., temporal 
 blessings to the faithfully obedient, it presents to us the great law 
 of his spiritual administration as well, showing that there can really 
 be no limit (short of our utmost capacity) to the spiritual blessings 
 God will give those who, really hungering for righteousness, " open 
 wide their mouth that God may fill it," and hence who honestly use 
 
 all appropriate means for this result. God is forever the same, 
 
 and certainly is no less bountiful of blessings under the Christian 
 than under the Jewish economy. " Prove me ; " put my words 
 
398 MALACHL— CHAr. III. 
 
 to tlie test ; try it and see. If you have doubts, there is a ready 
 
 way to solve them ; do all I say, and bide the issue. "Pour out," 
 
 as the margin indicates, is the verb that means to emjjty ou% as if 
 God meant to say he would empty forth his vast reservoirs of bless- 
 ings. In the last clause, our translators found it necessary to ital- 
 icise too many words — a common indication that they did not clearly 
 see the primary sense of the passage. The word they rendered 
 " that " never has this meaning, but means until. The other 
 Hebrew words are " not " and " enough " — " until not enough," L c, 
 until ray stores shall fail me — a result you never need think of as 
 possible. Since this can never be, the Lord would have his people 
 understand that nothing can limit his blessings short of their capa- 
 city to receive. The Hebrew of this clause is the same as in Ps. 72 : 
 7 — "Abundance of peace until" (there is) "no moon; " translated, 
 " so long as the moon endureth. 
 
 11. And I will rebuke tlie devourer for your sakes, 
 and lie shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; 
 neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in 
 the field, saitli the Lord of hosts. 
 
 12. And all nations shall call you blessed : for ye 
 shall be a delightsome land, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 These verses still expand the promise commenced in v. 10. If 
 you will truly bring in all the tithes and meet all your obligations 
 to God, then I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes — the locust, 
 put here for all forms of destructive agents. All the nations shall 
 witness to your prosperity. 
 
 13. Your words have been stout against me, saith 
 the LoKD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much 
 against thee ? 
 
 14. Ye have said. It is vain to serve God : and what 
 profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we 
 have walked mournfully before the Loed of hosts % 
 
 15. And now we call the proud happy ; yea, they 
 that work wickedness are set up ; yea, they that tempt 
 God are even delivered. 
 
 Once more recurring to those wicked men who have constantly 
 gainsayed the prophet and his Lord, he charges them — " Your 
 words have been hard^ strong against me, saith the Lord." They 
 retort by virtually denying the charge. Then the Lord makes his 
 charge more specific. When I promised, " Bring in all the tithes," 
 so shaU your cup be filled with good, ye replied, " It is vain to serve 
 God ; what profit have we found in keeping his ordinances, and walk- 
 ing mournfully before tlie T or'^1," as tliosc who sorrow for theii' 
 
MALACHL—CHAP. III. 399 
 
 sins? Thon, Lord, hast said the nations sliall call the righteous 
 blessed ; on the contrary, we call the proud blessed ; yea, they that 
 work wickedness are built up in enduring prosperity. They that 
 "prove God" in this way, daring him to do his worst if he 
 will, not those that prove him by bringing in all the tithes, 
 
 are delivered from evil, and even from the danger of it. The 
 
 antithesis between what God had said before (vs. 10-12), and 
 what these wicked gainsayers reply (vs. 14,15), is much more appar- 
 ent in the original, especially of v. 15 than in the received trans- 
 lation. First, the pronoun "^ce-," being expressed in full, is slightly 
 emphatic : you say one thing ; we^ on our part, not admitting what 
 you say, are stoutly maintaining the opposite. Then the verb, " call 
 you Messed " (in v. 12), and the corresponding verb, " call the proud 
 happy'''' (v. 15), are precisely the same ; as if they would say — You 
 claim that the nations shall call God's obedient people blessed ; we, 
 for our part, call the proud blessed. So the word rendered 
 '•'' prove " (v. 10) is the same as is here (v. 15) rendered " tempt." 
 You have said, Let my ^qo])\q, prove me. We have to say in reply, 
 that the wicked Jiave proved thee by scoffing at thy words ; and 
 yet so far from being punished, they are even delivered from all fear 
 and danger. Their eyes stand out with fatness ; they have more 
 
 than heart could wish. What a portrayal this of most shocking 
 
 hardihood in sin ! 
 
 IG. Then they tliat feared the Lord spake often one to 
 another : and the Lord hearkened and heard it j and a 
 book of remembrance was written before him for them 
 that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 
 
 11. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, 
 in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I will spare 
 them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
 
 18. Then shall ye return and discern between the 
 righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth 
 God and him that serveth him not. 
 
 Here we turn to the other class, in every respect the moral 
 
 opposites of the ungodly and the proud. " Then," i. e., in the 
 
 very face of such bold, defiant blasphemy against God and right- 
 eousness ; " then they that feared the Lord " — all unlike the proud 
 who had no fear of God before their eyes — "held free communion 
 one with another." They did not suppress their thoughts because 
 the defiant godless blasphemers were so outspoken, but none the 
 
 less for that, they talked freely one with another. There was 
 
 One who listened, all unawares to them ; " the Lord hearkened and 
 heard; " and what is more, he made a record for the perpetual re- 
 membrance of a thing that touched his heart so tenderly. There 
 he entered the names of those who, at such a time, in the face of 
 such blasphemy, yet feared the Lord, and had thoughts of afiection 
 
400 MALACHL— CHAP. IV. 
 
 and esteem for Ms name. " These shall be mine, saith the Lord of 
 hosts, in that day when I make up my treasures ;" I will hold them 
 among my choicest, best jewels ; and until that future, final gather- 
 ing of them into my heavenly cabinet, I wUl manifest my compas- 
 sion and loving-kindness toward them, as a man does toward his 
 own son that serveth him. Such is the sense of the word rendered 
 ^'' spared The Lord implies that he has indeed real service for his 
 people — some of it, perhaps, hard and earnest work ; but his great 
 and tender love for them will insure the kindest treatment possible, 
 even as a kind father may set his son to earnest service, but will 
 lovingly watch over him to spare him from excessive toil and expos- 
 ure. No good father makes his son a galley-slave. The kind Lord 
 drops many a loving tear over the hardships to which his needful 
 service may subject his people in these years of their toil and of 
 reproach for his name. Let it be enough for us that he feels 
 
 toward us such pity and such tender love! "Then shall ye 
 
 return," look again, and then ye shall see a broad distinction, nay 
 more, a real contrast, between the destiny of the righteous and the 
 destiny of the wicked. The proud and defiant ones have been say- 
 ing, "Where is the God of judgment? " "Every one that doeth 
 evil is good in the sight of the Lord ; " "it is vain to serve God ; " 
 " the proud are blessed ; " " they that tempt God with most daring 
 provocation are delivered ; " — but the recTconing day will shortly 
 come ! Let the righteous return after a httle space, and they will 
 see a broad line of diverse destiny ranging "between him that 
 
 serveth God and him that serveth him not." The beginning of 
 
 the next chapter is closely connected with this, for there this line 
 of difference becomes a wide and strilcing contrast. 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 With no break in the continuous thought, this chapter proceeds 
 to contrast the destiny of the wicked and of the righteous (vs. 1-3) ; 
 gives a general injunction to observe the law of Moses (v. 4) ; and a 
 promise of John Baptist under the name of Elijah, with brief hints 
 of the work .he should do (vs. 5, 6). 
 
 1, For behold, tlie day cometli, tliat shall burn as an 
 oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
 shall be stubble : and the day that cometh shall burn 
 them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
 neither root nor branch. 
 
 "For" indicates a close connection with chapter 3. "Be- 
 hold," calls solemn attention. " The day," in its usual prophetic 
 sense, is a period which is peculiar, " sui generis " — here a time of 
 fearfiil judgments on the wicked. The wicked are said in the 
 
MALACHI.— CHAP. lY. 401 
 
 Old Testament, as well as the New, to be destroyed by fire. Tlmsi 
 Psalm 11 : 6, "Upon the wicked he shall rain forked lightnings, fire, 
 and brimstone, and an horrible tempest." The prime exemplar is 
 the ruin on Sodom, Gen. 19: 24, "Then the Lord rained upon 
 Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." See also 
 
 Ezek. 38 : 22. The great question here respects the time^ and 
 
 hence the sort of judgment referred to. In my view, the primary 
 reference must be to judgments on the wicked in time^ providential 
 inflictions, like that on Jerusalem by the Romans, like the still 
 earlier judgments that fell on the ungodly portion of the Jews in 
 the fearful Syrian wars during the second century before Christ ; 
 indeed, embracing all those forms of special infliction which belong 
 to God's providential government over nations and individuals too 
 in the present world. All these are to be taken as prophecies and 
 pledges of that far more terrific vengeance which shall come down 
 on all the finally wicked in the world to come. I would not apply 
 this passage to either this world or the next, to the entire exclusion 
 of the other, but assume that it refers primarily to judgments in this 
 world; then as a type, a harbinger, prophecy, and pledge, it em- 
 braces also those heavier, sorer judgments which execute full and 
 
 unmitigated justice on the ungodly in the world to come. The 
 
 context shows that the primary reference here is to judgments in 
 time ; for the righteous are thought of as walking over the ground 
 where the ashes of the perished wicked lie strewn. 
 
 2. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun 
 of righteousness arise with healing in his wings ; and 
 ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 
 
 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they 
 shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day 
 that I shall do this, saith the Loed of hosts. 
 
 This is the joyous, far difierent lot of the righteous. The fear- 
 ers of God's name are in strong contrast of character as well as 
 
 destiny with the proud blasphemers. The rising sun is a glowing 
 
 and glorious image of hope and joy. " Eighteousness " has here 
 the not uncommon sense of deliverance, salvation, blessedness, with 
 no implication of its being strictly deserved on the score of simple 
 justice, and by no means excluding mercy. The reference is mainly 
 to the Messiah as the great fountain of light, peace, and joy, to the 
 
 saints of God. His wings are the beams of his light. " Ye shall 
 
 go forth and leap as well-fed calves of the stall." Leaping rather 
 than growing is the sense of the Hebrew, indicative of exultant 
 
 joy. How solemn and impressive the scene, to walk over the 
 
 ashes of the wicked and say — Here the wrath of God smote them, 
 and here their ruins lie, an awful monument to the madness of sin 
 and to the justice of Jehovah's most fearful retributions ! Such 
 views of their horrid blasphemous wickedness as are given above 
 (3 : 13-15), ought to reconcile every sane mind to the severity of 
 
402 MALACHI.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 tliese judgments, and even onglit to inspire in all hearts the song of 
 Moses and of the Lamb — " Great and marvellous are thy works, 
 Lord God Almighty^ just and true are thy ways, thou king ol 
 saints." 
 
 4. Kemember ye tlie law of Moses my seryant, wliicli 
 I commanded unto Mm in Horeb for all Israel, with the 
 statutes and judgments. 
 
 Specially pertinent, in view of the shocking abuses and corrup- 
 tions of the ceremonial law, is this last injunction to observe those 
 statutes and judgments until the better system shall supersede them. 
 
 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before 
 the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Loed : 
 
 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 earth with a curse. 
 
 The remarkable thing in this passage is that, without any spe- 
 cial explanation, the great forerunner of the Messiah is here called 
 " Elijah the prophet." The New Testament has solved this enigma 
 to us ; but how could the Jews of Malachi's time have understood 
 
 it? Still the general sense might perhaps have been clear to 
 
 them, viz., one who should be a second Elijah, who should come 
 with a spirit and power like his, sternly rebuking sin, and earnestly 
 calling all men to repentance. This would be the more apparent 
 by how much the more they regarded Elijah as a representative 
 man, embodying in himself precisely those qualities which fitted 
 him for the prophetic work. The shocking corruption of the priests 
 in the time of Malachi would suggest strongly that the covenant 
 people would need another Elijah, filled with his spirit and power, 
 to do the work which the priesthood were only undoing and coun- 
 teracting. Our Lord, in Mark 9 : 11-13, gave a very specific expla- 
 nation. " They asked him — ' Why say the scribes that Elias must 
 first come ? ' " He answered — " Elias verily cometh first and restor- 
 eth all things; but I say unto you that Elias is indeed come, and 
 they have done unto him whatsoever they listed." Or as narrated 
 by Matthew (11 : 14), " If ye will receive it, this is Elias who was 
 
 to come." Tlie phrase rendered — " the great and dreadful day 
 
 of the Lord," is in the original verbatim from Joel 2 : 31, " before 
 the coming of the day of the Lord, the great, and the terrible." 
 Standing here it must refer to the '^ day that shall burn as an oven " 
 (v. 1), while not unnaturally the language may be borrowed from Joel. 
 
 To warn in mercy before he smites in judgment, is evermore 
 
 the order of God's throne. Hence the second Elijah should come 
 before the Jewish people and polity should be smitten down by the 
 terrible Koman arms. They were fearfully corrupt ah'eady. It 
 was foreseen that they would become yet more so before and dur- 
 
MALACHL—CHAP. IV. 403 
 
 ing the Messiah's incarnation. Hence tlie last warnings sent 
 them through John Baptist, in the form of a call to repent, and 
 to welcome their Great Deliverer, soon to appear, came in the 
 hour of their greatest moral extremity. But what is the perti- 
 nence of describing the moral work wrought by John Baptist, as 
 " turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts 
 
 of the children to the fathers " ? Perhaps few of us appreciate 
 
 the loving heart and the social influence of this John. It may have 
 come to us with the notions of our childhood to think of the man 
 of camel's-hair cloak and leathern girdle, making his meals of lo- 
 custs, and ranging the wilderness of Judea to preach repentance, as 
 only a stern reprover — a battle-axe upon men's sins, and scarcely 
 
 less savage toward the endearing relationships of society. If we 
 
 added the latter inference, we made a great mistake. It never was 
 any part of true religion, never was the function of any true re- 
 former, to ride roughshod over the tenderness of the parental and 
 filial relations. IS'o, it is idolatry that first debases and then cruci- 
 fies parental affection, and makes the mother that bare him heart- 
 less and cruel enough to cast her boy into the burning arms of Mo- 
 loch. Avarice and lust are doing the same thing in tens of thou- 
 sands of families in Christian lands to-day. So always and every- 
 where sin quickens selfishness ; and selfishness, grown rampant and 
 rabid, severs parent from child, and child fi-om parent. On the 
 other hand, what do we always see in all genuine revivals of re- 
 ligion ? What so universally as a revival of deep, all-absorbing love 
 for others^ especially within the circle of the domestic relations? 
 How often do we see the hearts of parents borne down with almost 
 crushing solicitude in the tenderness of their love for the souls of 
 their children ! What but this turning of the hearts of parents to 
 their children begets such agonizing prayer of Christian parents for 
 ungodly children, and of converted children for yet unconverted 
 
 parents ? Hence it was the Spirit of the Lord that moved this 
 
 prophet to touch by one master-stroke the central influence of John 
 Baptist's preaching. When the men whom he called so might- 
 ily to repentance, had bowed their hearts to this high behest, their 
 next thought was that of renewed care and love for their children. 
 If we had been present in that revival, we should have found it by 
 no means unlike all the true revivals of our day in this one most 
 precious feature. Such a revival of the home and household af- 
 fections is eminently pleasing to God. In such a soil religion 
 thrives. Where the hearts of fathers turn with loving, tender in- 
 terest toward their children, and the hearts of children in like 
 manner to their fathers, the Saviour finds 'a congenial home and 
 takes up his abode. It seems to be implied that if John's preach- 
 ing had altogether failed of this result, the gospel of salvation from 
 the lips of Jesus might have fallen powerless upon the world, and 
 left to Judea and to the nations of the earth only the remediless 
 
 " cursed How forcibly, then, comes the appeal to us to cherish 
 
 the tenderness of mutual love and earnest care for others' souls, 
 
404 MALACHI.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 especially within the dear circle of family relationships, lest the 
 gospel should fail to bless us, and lest we doom ourselves and those 
 we ought to love, to a moral ruin for which God has no remedy ! 
 Thus close the admonitions of the last prophet of the Old Tes- 
 tament age, and with them the volume of Scripture as it stood till 
 in the fulness of time the Messiah came. 
 
DISSEETATIO:^' I. 
 
 ON THE CEITEEIA FOE DISTINGTriSHHSTG, IN THE PEOPHETIO LIFE, 
 BETWEEN THINGS SEEN AND DONE IN VISION ONLY, AND THINGS 
 DONE IN FACT. 
 
 The importance of tliis point seems to jnstify a more extended 
 examination than could properly be introduced in tlie notes. 
 
 It is clear beyond a doubt that some of the prophets had visions, 
 somewhat analogous to dreams, yet not altogether dreams, in which 
 objects were presented to their mind's eye only; or as the case may 
 be, they were transported, not in body, but in thought, to distant 
 points, and made to see or do things that had no actuality in the 
 external world. It is equally clear that these prophets all lived an 
 actual life in this external world, and that, in the ministry of their 
 prophetic oflBce, they were required of God to go and to do in the 
 external world things of a symbolic nature, belonging properly to 
 
 their prophetic work. Now our first question is, Are there any 
 
 criteria ty wMch these two very different things can he distin- 
 guished from each other ? 
 
 Our second question is, If so, are they in the records themselves, 
 in the very forms of the statement, or are they mainly or only in 
 our own ideas of the fitness or unfitness of the things to be done in 
 actual life ? 
 
 The only decisive and satisfactory answer to these questions 
 must be obtained by a careful examination of the cases which belong 
 to one class or the other as they stand in the record. If there are 
 laws of prophetic usage, so well established as to afford us the cri- 
 teria we seek, they must be sought and found by a thorough induc- 
 tion from particular cases ; not otherwise. "We are shut up to an 
 examination of the record. Does the record give us the distinctive 
 criteria, or does it commit the decision to the taste and judgment 
 of each reader ? The subject will be exhausted only when all the 
 cases that belong to either class have been carefully and candidly 
 
 examined. Ezekiel abounds in these cases. We will begin with 
 
 him. Note a case of mere vision (37:1-14), the well-known 
 
 " valley of dry bones." The very introduction shows this to be a 
 vision only. '^The hand of the Lord was upon me," indicating 
 
406 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 some special extraordinary power, "and carried me out. in the 
 Spirit of the Lord," not in actualitj, but in that peculiar, prophetic 
 state often described as " ■i;! the Spirit;'''' and "set me down in 
 the midst of the valley, which was full of bones, and caused me to 
 pass by them round about," &c. Here the form of the statement 
 seems designed to shut off the thought of an actual scene. But vs. 
 15-22 in the same chapter present an actual scene. " Take thee 
 one stick, and write on it Tor Judah,' and take another 
 stick, and write on it, ' For Ephraim,' &c. ; join them one to an- 
 other into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand." 
 That this is actual, and not in vision only, appears from the fact 
 that the form of statement gives no intimation of a vision, but has 
 throughout the air of reality. Thus, " "When the children of thy 
 people shall ask, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by 
 these?" it is plainly implied that they saw the sticks joined, and 
 did not merely hear the prophet report the case as presented to 
 himself alone, and in vision only. Still further, tlie Lord said : 
 " The sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand lefore 
 their eyes," i. «., as an illustration of great truths to be propheti- 
 cally announced. It should be constantly borne in mind that 
 
 the people are in the external world only — never in the state of 
 prophetic vision. What they see and hear, therefore, must be in 
 the external world — ^in the world of sense, and not in the prophetic 
 world of the " Spirit." Hence this union of the two sticks must 
 
 have been real, and not visional only. Yet further, comparing 
 
 the two portions of the 87t]i chapter above named — the former a 
 vision, viz., of the dry bones, and the latter an actuality — the union 
 of two sticks in one in the prophet's hand — we may note another 
 distinctive criterion. The former consists mainly of things seen by 
 the prophet; the latter of things done. So we might expect that 
 in visions the prophet will be mainly an observer^ but in things 
 
 made actual for symbolic purposes, mainly a doer. Ezek. 40-48 
 
 is declared to be a vision. " The hand of God Avas upon me, and 
 brought me thither," i. «., to the city of Jerusalem : " in the visions 
 of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me on a very 
 high mountain," &c., where he saw the frame of a city, and a man 
 in appearance as brass, &c., with a measuring line in his hand ; 
 and he was told to note with special care all he should see and 
 
 hear, that he might declare it to the house of Israel. The whole 
 
 account shows beyond a doubt that this is a vision only. The 
 record is throughout one of things seen by the prophet, not of 
 things done. The " hand of the Lord," which is " upon him," and by 
 which he is " brought " from one point of the scene to another, is 
 continually referred to, e. g.^ 40 : 2, 3, 17, 24, 35, 48, and 41 : 1, and 
 
 42 : 1, and 43 : 1, &c., &c. Equally clear to the same conclusion 
 
 is the passage Ezek, chapter 8-11, inclusive. Both the introduction 
 and the close of this passage are decisive. The prophet is sitting in 
 his house ; the elders of Judah are sitting before him ; " the hand of 
 the Lord falls there upon him ; " he sees a strangely glorious form 
 
DISSERTATION I. 407 
 
 "of the likeness of fire from the loins downward, and of brightness 
 like amber from the loins upward." This personage, says Eze- 
 kiel, " put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine 
 hair, and the Spirit lifted me np between the earth and the 
 heavens, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem." 
 There he saw scenes significant and most impressive. At the close 
 he records : " Afterward the Spirit took me up and brought me in 
 a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea to them of the captivity. 
 So the vision that I had seen went up from me." " Then I spake to 
 them of the captivity, all the things that the Lord had shown me." 
 
 The reader will take note that these chapters are throughout a 
 
 narration of things seen by the prophet — not of things done. Indeed, 
 very special care is taken to make it clear that these things are 
 seen and transacted in vision only. The language used is strongly 
 distinctive. " The Spirit lifted me up," " brouglit me in the visions 
 of God to Jerusalem." " Afterward the Spirit took me up and 
 brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea." " So the 
 vision that I had seen went up from me," as if it had been a great 
 
 sheet of panoramic representation. This extreme care to define 
 
 the precise character of the transaction should be especially noticed, 
 since it manifestly justifies the inference that God would have us 
 distinguish between this class of cases and those of a symbolic charac- 
 ter, where external acts are really done. It also shows that he in- 
 tends to furnish the criteria for this discrimination himself, so as to 
 leave us no responsibility, and no exercise of judgment, save that of 
 
 interpreting his very plain words. Over against these visions 
 
 there lies a class of symbolic transactions, done in real life, in the 
 external world, before the open eyes of the people — their symbolic 
 character having for its aim a deeper impression on the popular 
 mind. In this class stands Ezek. 12 : 1-16. It opens not by saying, 
 " The hand of the Lord was upon me ; " " the Spirit took me up ; " 
 "I was brought in vision by the Spirit," &c. ; but thus, "Son of 
 man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, who have 
 eyes to see, and see not," &c., implying the occasion for new and 
 peculiar means of impressing truth on their dull minds and hard 
 hearts. " llierefore, thou son of man, prepare tliee stufl^" for remov- 
 ing, and remove by day in their sight " (not by night, and in dreams 
 only) ; "it may be they Avill consider, though they are a rebellious 
 
 house." The whole plan of operation is then detailed, and he is 
 
 especially charged again (v. 6) to " do it in their sight^'''' and finally 
 tlie reason is given : " For I have set thee for a sign (a thing both 
 visible and significant) to the house of Israel." The prophet 
 proceeds to sa}' (v. 7), " I did so as I was commanded," i. «., this 
 was an actual transaction. Furthermore, the end sought was 
 in part at least gained; the people inquired, and the Lord im- 
 proved their awakened curiosity. " Son of man, hath not the 
 house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee. What doest 
 thou? Say thou unto them. Thus saith the Lord God: This 
 burden {i. <?., of predicted calamity) concerneth the prince in Jeru- 
 
408 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 salem, and all the house of Israel that are among them. Say, I am 
 your sign ; in like manner as I have done, so shall it be done unto 
 them ; they shall remove and go into captivity." Here we see at 
 every point most decisive indications that this is a symbolic transac- 
 tion, actually wrought before the eyes of the people. The prophet 
 is here a doer^ not a seer ; the people see^ and therefore the things 
 done must have been in the world of sense before them.— — Of the 
 same sort is tbe transaction recorded Ezek. 4. Here we miss the 
 statements: "The hand of the Lord was upon me; " "the Spirit 
 took me up or brought me ;" "I was in vision," &c., &c. ; but on 
 the other hand, we find the other class of statements : " Son of man 
 do " certain things ; " this shall be a sign to the house of Israel." In 
 this case the things to do are : " Take thee a tile and lay it before 
 thee, and portray upon it the city — even Jerusalem — and lay siege 
 against it. Set the camp against it, and battering-rams — all tlie 
 enginery of assault in ancient warfare. Nor may he omit the 
 means of protection to the assailing party : " Take thee an iron 
 pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city," 
 and so make the siege complete. And then the Lord said : " This 
 shall be a sign to the house of Israel" — the usual formula 
 to show that this is a symbolic and real transaction. In this 
 case also we have a long series of details respecting the prophet's 
 lying first on the left side and then on the right side, and the 
 significance of each; the duration of each and its significance; 
 then, moreover, his food and drink the while are fully defined. The 
 circumstance of his cooking his own food shows that his lying on 
 one side was not absolutely continuous during the whole twenty- 
 four hours of every day. It was suflicient that it should be so con- 
 tinuous, and withal so public, as to «ivail for a sign to Israel. The 
 decisive proof of an actual transaction in this case lies partly in 
 the absence of any hint that this is seen in vision only, and part- 
 ly in the fact that throughout it is represented as a veritable transac- 
 tion ; but especially in the declaration, " This shall be a sign to the 
 house of Israel." For if the whole thing were seen by the prophet in 
 vision only, and not doneoii all, how could it be seen by the people and 
 be a " sign unto them ? " For it cannot be even supposed that they 
 were in a state of prophetic vision, and so were able to see things 
 presented in vision only. Note here also that the prophet is a doer^ 
 
 not a«6^7*. Ezek. 1 is a vision throughout, for so the record states : 
 
 — V. 1, " The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God ; " and 
 V. 3, " The hand of the Lord was there upon him ; " " And I looked 
 and beheld," &c. Ezek. 2 is also a \ision. " The Spirit entered into 
 me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and then I 
 heard him that spake unto me " — the prophetic state, that of 
 one into whom the Spirit had entered, being a prerequisite to his 
 
 hearing the words spoken to him in the vision. The " roll " of 
 
 which we read, 2 : 8-10, and 3 : 1-10, should be accounted a thing 
 of vision, this being indicated by the words (2 : 9), " When I looked, 
 behold an hand was sent unto me, and lo, a roll of a book was 
 
DISSERTATION I. 409 
 
 therein." In Ezek. 3 : 11-27 some of the transactions seem to 
 
 have been of the external world, and some only seen or done in 
 vision. Of the former sort are his " going to them of the captivity," 
 (vs. 11-15), and "his going forth into the plain" (vs. 22, 23). Of 
 the latter, " the Spirit took me up " (v. 12), "lifted me up and took 
 me away " (v. 14), &c. In the former case, if they of the captivity 
 are spoken of as actual and not visional, then his going to them 
 must have been in the external world, and not in the world of 
 
 thought only. ^Ezek. 5 : 1-4, the prophet polling his hair and 
 
 dividing it into three parts, one part to be burned with fire in the 
 midst of the city, another to be smitten about with a knife, and 
 the last third scattered to the wind ; and the application of this to 
 Jerusalem (vs. 5-17) we must obviously interpret as a real transac- 
 tion, although the forms of statement which specially indicate a 
 symbolic proceeding are not here. On the other hand, the yet more 
 uniformly present indications of a vision are wholly wanting ; and 
 moreover, the thing itself is so obviously done to be seen dy thepeo- 
 ple, and would have so little force as a thing presented to the 
 prophet only,- and in vision, that all doubt is substantially preclud- 
 ed. In Ezek. 21 : 6, 7, we must recognize an actual scene, the 
 
 tokens of bitter grief, groans, and sighs, must have been heard and 
 seen by the people. This was the intent of the command : " Sigh, 
 therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins ; and 
 with bitterness, sigh de/ore their eyes. Y. 7 shows that they saw, 
 and therefore inquired the cause : " It shall be when they say unto 
 thee, wherefore sighest thou? "that thou shalt answer, "For the 
 tidings, because it cometh," &c. This awakened curiosity and at- 
 tention, the Lord used of set purpose to get into their dull and un- 
 believing minds the great idea of coming calamity. In Ezek. 24, 
 
 we have first a supposed case, for it is definitely named a "parable," 
 and is to be spoken to the people, and not done, in fact, before them. 
 " litter a parable to the rebellious house, and say unto them. Thus 
 saith the Lord God ; Set on a pot, set it on, pour water into it ; 
 gather the pieces, i. e., of a slain animal, and let them seethe the 
 bones therein." And this was to represent the bloody city, Jerusa- 
 lem, in which flesh, bones, and blood promiscuously, were seething 
 together. This parable forms the text for the discourse, vs. 6-14. 
 Strictly, this case is neither a symbol nor a vision. It is only and 
 precisely what the Lord called it, a "parable," and shows that the 
 Lord is specially careful to define sharply the particular manner of 
 his revelations to men by his prophets, so that there shall be the 
 
 least possible occasion for misapprehension on this point. Over 
 
 against this parable, vs. 15-18 describe a real transaction. The 
 prophet is apprised that the Lord will " take away the desire of his 
 eyes with a stroke," and is forbidden to mourn or weep therefor. 
 " So," he adds, " I spake unto the people in the morning, and in the 
 evening my wife died, and I did as I was commanded." This was 
 visible to the people, and therefore an actual death, and a real case 
 of a bereaved husband, refraining from the usual tokens of grief. 
 18 
 
410 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 The people ask — " "Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to Tig 
 that thou doest so? " showing that they understand this to he a sym- 
 bol, and therefore significant as to themselves. Further, the narra- 
 tive repeatedly declares : " Ezekiel is unto you a sign " (v. 24), " and 
 thou shalt he a sign unto them " (v. 27). Thus by the words and 
 forms of statement the line is drawn, and in the main clearly, be- 
 tween things actually done for symbolic or other purposes, and 
 things only seen by the prophet himself in vision. This examina- 
 tion has aimed to touch all the cases of either sort that occur in 
 Ezekiel. An induction of cases that is exhaustive, bringing under 
 consideration, and properly classifying all the passages that relate 
 to the question in hand, must bring out the laws of prophetic usage 
 in this matter. Indeed, this method must furnish the only legitimate 
 and ultimate data for obtaining these laws of prophetic usage. In 
 this matter the Book of Ezekiel is classic ground, furnishing us 
 more data than all the other Old Testament prophets combined. 
 Hence the great length of this examination of Ezekiel. 
 
 In Zech. 1 : 7 to 6 : 8 are eight distinct visions, and in 6 : 9-15 is 
 one symbolic transaction in actual life. The broad line of distinc- 
 tion between these two classes in the very forms of statement is 
 worthy of special attention. The visions open thus: "I saw by 
 night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse," &c. (1 : 8) ; " Then 
 I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold four horses," &c. (1 : 18). 
 " I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold a man with a 
 measuring line," &c. (2: 1); "And he showed me (i. e., caused me 
 to see) Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the 
 Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him," &c. (3: 1); 
 " And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me, as 
 a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me," &c. (4 : 1). 
 This passage is specially valuable as showing that the state of recep- 
 tivity for prophetic visions was peculiar, sui generis. Further, " I 
 turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a flying 
 roll," &c. (5 : 1). " The angel that talked with me said. Lift up 
 now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth," &c. (5 : 5). 
 " And I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold four 
 chariots," &c. (6 : 1). The uniformity and precision of these state- 
 ments Is certainly complete, leaving nothing more for us even to 
 
 desire. From this series of prophetic visions let us pass on to 
 
 the closing portion of this same sixth chapter. The record here is 
 very definite, yet entirely different from what we have seen in the 
 eight visions that immediately precede. Not a word is said about 
 "lifting up his eyes," nor about " being made to see," nor does he 
 say at the commencement, " behold," nor is he " wakened out of his 
 sleep," nor is it "seen by night." But squarely over against these 
 characteristics, "the word of the Lord comes to him," just as it 
 does in the passages 1 : 1-6, and 7 : 1, ff., and 8 : 1, &c., &c. Then 
 the Lord commands him not to see something, but to do something ; 
 in this case, "Take from the captive delegation, late from Babylon, 
 silver and gold and make crowns, and set them on the head of 
 
DISSEKTATION I. 411 
 
 Joslina the high priest," &c., to make him a symholio type of the 
 Messiah, as both priest and king. And yet further, to show that 
 this was to be actuallj done, it was ordered that after the coronation 
 is over and has served its present purpose, the crowns shall be de- 
 posited in the temple for a memorial to this delegation from the far 
 Eastern land, to show that nations from far were yet to come and 
 build in the temple of the Lord. Thus every special feature in each 
 class, the visions on the one hand and the symbolic actualities of 
 the prophetic life on the other, is distinctly drawn — so distinctly as 
 to leare no apology for misapprehension or mistake. 
 
 Daniel, throughout, has visions, and not symbolic acts of his 
 own. His visions embrace more or less objects having a symbolic 
 nature. This, however, does not touch the point of discrimination 
 now before us. "We inquire simply after the line between things 
 only seen by the prophet, and things actually done by him. Daniel, 
 in chap. 2 interprets IsTebuchadnezzar's dream. In chap. 7 he is 
 careful to say, " Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upou 
 his bed." In chap. 8, " a vision appeared unto me." In chap 9 : 
 21-27, the man Gabriel came ; and in chaps. 10-12 the future is re- 
 vealed to him by an angel. Thus everywhere the forms of state- 
 ment are full and definite to the point before us. 
 
 In Jeremiah, the great body of communications read simply, 
 " Thus saith the Lord," and the narrative presents neither visions 
 nor symbolic acts. But chap. 24 records a vision, introduced thus : 
 "The Lord showed me," i. e., two baskets of figs ; and in chaps. 18 
 and 19 we must recognize symbolic transactions in real hfe. Here, 
 too, the proof of this lies in the form of the statement — " Arise 
 and go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to 
 hear my words." Here is something to be done before the revela- 
 tion proper from the Lord even begins. More still to our argument 
 is the implication (v. 6) that the house of Israel are witnesses of 
 Avhat was done by the potter. " O house of Israel, cannot I do 
 with you as this potter ? " This, of course, locates the scene in 
 the external world. So in chap. 19, something is to be actually done 
 in the outer world : "Go and get thee a potter's earthen bottle, 
 and take of the ancients of the people, &c., and go forth unto the 
 valley of the son of Hinnom and proclaim there the words that I 
 
 shall tell thee." A part of this message stands (vs. 3-9), and 
 
 then in v. 10 the Lord said, " Then shalt thou break the bottle in 
 the sight of the men that go with thee and say. Thus saith the 
 Lord, Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh 
 a potter's vessel, that cannot l)e made whole again." 
 
 Here we have the usual criteria of actuality. .Things are to be 
 said and done by the prophet — not merely seen in vision ; and they 
 are to be said and done before the eyes of the people. There can 
 be no doubt that this is a symbolic transaction. It stands, there- 
 fore, as furtlier proof of a constant divine care and purpose to dis- 
 tinguish between visions and things of actual life, done for the 
 greater effect tlirough the power of symbol. In chap. 13, the 
 
412 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 girdle which the prophet is to "go to the Euphrates and hide 
 there in a hole of the rock," must he, according to our laws of con- 
 struction, actual, and not merely visional, although it were a long 
 way to the Euphrates for a place to hide it and let it rot. That very 
 mission to the Euphrates had its ohject and its special significance. 
 The people were soon to go there, and their nationality should there 
 
 decay, not to say he marred and rot, like the prophet's girdle. The 
 
 language is decisive — " Go, get thee a linen girdle ; " " take the girdle 
 and arise, go to Euphrates," &c. There is nothing said of "the 
 hand of the Lord upon him," orof heing "in the Spirit," or "heing 
 in vision/' or of heing " hrought hy the Spirit " to Euphrates, &c. 
 Hence we must interpret it of a real transaction.— — In Jer. 27 
 and 28, the bonds and yokes to he made by the Lord's command for 
 the neck of the prophet, and to be sent to various kings whom the 
 Lord had made subject to Nebuchadnezzar, must be construed as 
 actual, and not visional only. The command was — "Make thee 
 bonds and yokes," &c., "put them upon thy neck, and send them to 
 the king of Edom," &;c., by messengers, and " command them to say 
 unto their masters," &c., — the yoke being symbolic of the main 
 idea of the message. The false prophet Hananiah, who confronted 
 and gainsayed Jeremiah, gave a counter-message, professedly from 
 the mouth of the Lord, and then to symbolize this, took the yoke 
 from off Jeremiah's neck and broke it. For this daring and impi- 
 ous lie, the Lord doomed him to die within the year. He died in 
 the seventh month. These transactions must, beyond a doubt, be 
 interpreted as real, and not of vision only. 
 
 Isaiah liad a vision (chap. G) indicated by — " I saw the Lord, sit- 
 ting upon a throne," &c. ; but Isa. 7 : 8, nmst be actual : " go forth to 
 
 meet Ahaz." In Isa. 20 the Lord commands Isaiah to " loose 
 
 his sackcloth from his loins and put off his shoes, and he did so, 
 walking naked " (^. e., with no outer garment) " and barefoot." The 
 Lord plainly shows this to be a real transaction when he says — 
 " Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three 
 years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall 
 the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, naked and 
 barefoot." The fact that this was to be a " sign " — a thing attract- 
 ing wonder — proves it an actuality. Besides, it might be asked — 
 What could be the use of this thing, if done in vision only? The 
 record, however, and not any judgment of our own as to the fitness 
 or propriety of the things for either vision or external symbol, must 
 be our main authority. Everywhere we see that the Lord intended to 
 make the record itself decisive to the point of this discrimination. 
 
 Amos had visions (7 : 1, 7, 8, and 8 : 1, 2, and 9 : 1, fif.), always 
 indicated by the usual statem'ents — " The Lord showed me," "I saw 
 the Lord," &c. 
 
 The Book of Jonah must be construed as actual life, and not 
 merely prophetic vision. If it be asked. Why? the answer is fur- 
 nished by this full induction of all the cases of either sort found in 
 the other Old Testament prophets, and may be stated briefly, thus ; 
 
DISSERTATION I. 413 
 
 (1.) There is not the least indication of a vision in the entire book. 
 (2.) The forms of statement are throughout those of a real transac- 
 tion — things done and suffered by the prophet, and not things seen. 
 (3.) The moral aim and instruction of the whole book demand its 
 interpretation as a scene of actual, real life. ^Mythical interpre- 
 ters do indeed avoid some of those things which they are fain to 
 call unnatural and impossible, by explaining this book throughout as 
 a myth, or a thing of vision only. There is no difficulty in sup- 
 posing a man to dream of being swallowed by a great fish. No; 
 but there ought to be great difficulty in overriding the plain, ob- 
 vious sense of the Book of God. A solemn responsibility rests on 
 every man to study the laws of prophetic interpretation with both 
 care and candor, and with whatever good sense the Lord may give. 
 Following these laws of prophetic usage, we must make the lo- 
 custs in Joel (chap. 1 and 2) literal and real, not ideal and things of 
 vision only. For Joel does not say^ "I lifted up mine eyes and 
 saw " — does not say, " The Lord showed me," or that " the hand of 
 the Lord was there upon me." He simply narrates events as 
 matters of fact. The locusts come up in successive swarms, and 
 utterly desolate the land ; the people are famished, and turn to fast- 
 ing and prayer for the divine mercy. This belongs to real life. He 
 further describes them in chap. 2 — " They look like horses ; " " they 
 run like horsemen " (v. 4) ; and, again, " they run like mighty men " 
 (v. 7) — which certainly is not saying that they are mighty men, and 
 that the real thing was never a locust-host, but only a raid of armed 
 
 men. Over against this, Amos saw locusts in vision, for he says 
 
 so : this is the proof. He says : " Thus hath the Lord caused me to 
 
 see, and behold, he formed locusts " (7 : 1). Hence Dr. Ileng- 
 
 steaberg, though an excellent, acute, and almost faultless commen- 
 tator, is manifestly wrong in assuming that the locusts of Joel were 
 never actual, but only ideal — only seen in vision. 
 
 We have now gone through the gases {all, as I suppose) that 
 occur in the various Old Testament prophets, bearing on the point 
 before us, designedly omitting none; and we find a clear line of dis- 
 tinction drawn between the things seen and shown in. vision only, 
 and those which were done in the outward life for symbolic or 
 other purposes. These distinctions lie not mainly — indeed, scarcely 
 at all — in the nature of the things as convenient to be done, or as 
 impossible, but in the very form of the statements. In other 
 words, the Lord has been specially careful to leave us in no doubt 
 as to what was actually done by his prophets on the one hand, and 
 what was only seen by them in vision on the other. 
 
 Let us now come to the case, of Hosea (chapters 1 and 3). "Was 
 his " taking a lewd wife " — lewd either before and after marriage, 
 or after only — a real transaction ; or was it only a thing seen in 
 vision? "Were those three children, and their significant names, 
 
 things of vision only, or actualities of real life? The laws of 
 
 interpretation are already educed from the usage of all the other 
 prophets, with whom such cases occm' throughout the Old Testa- 
 
414 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 ment. It only remains to apply them here. (1.) There is not the 
 
 least intimation that these things are in vision only. He does not 
 say — " The Lord showed me," does not say " I saw," does not hint 
 that " the hand of the Lord is upon him," and that he is " in vision " 
 or " in the Spirit," so that he might see such things done in the 
 prophetic ecstasy. This essential evidence of a mere vision is al- 
 together wanting. (2.) On the other hand, the language of com- 
 mand is explicit: "Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms," &c. 
 The entire narrative lacks not one of the features of an actual 
 transaction. The children are born in the usual succession of time 
 (see vs. 3, 8), and each has its significant name. So also chap. 3 is 
 the natural description of real life. Let it also be carefally noted 
 
 that in all this the prophet is a doer^ not a seer only. (8.) The 
 
 reason why God requires this of his prophet is specially given, viz., 
 because " the land has committed great whoredom in departing from 
 the Lord." There was therefore a fitness in having this fact sym- 
 bolized in the prophet's family state, and also in having other im- 
 portant facts symbolized in the significant names of his children. 
 And it may have been a further reason that the Lord would have 
 his prophet sympathize with himself, and appreciate more keenly 
 the feelings of the divine mind under such abuse. 
 
 This naturally completes the argument, so far as concerns the 
 principles and laws of prophetic interpretation. That usage which 
 rightly gives law to language is all on one side, and if the authority 
 of this law be admitted at all, can leave no doubt as to the right in- 
 terpretation in this particular case. It need only be added that 
 
 if this law of language — ^prophetic usage — be discarded in this case, 
 it may be in any and every other, and we are all afloat, with no 
 
 principles of interpretation to guide us. It amounts to little to 
 
 say in abatement or exception to this, that we can fall back upon 
 our own sense of the fitness or unfitness of the things to be done in 
 fact, using our discretion and interpreting that as done in vision only 
 which seems to us unfit to be done in fact. For the vital question 
 is — Does God leave us to this exercise of our own discrimination, 
 giving us no other data for determining the sense of his words? 
 Does prophetic usage show numerous cases, or indeed any one clear 
 case, in which there is only this discretion to guide us ? The examin- 
 ation here presented should suffice (it would seem) to prove the neg- 
 ative. The question miglit be pressed — Would it be safe to leave 
 
 with men the discretion and responsibility of deciding this question 
 by their own sense of fitness ? The care God has taken not to leave 
 the question to this umpire should suffice to show that he, at least, 
 
 has not thought it wise to do so. Yet, though this may seem 
 
 clear, yet some excellent men and able interpreters hold the opinion 
 that Hosea took this wife Gomer no otherwise than in vision, and 
 had these children born to him only in the sense of dreaming it — 
 seeing them so born in prophetic vision. Their main reliance in 
 support of this view is in the idea that marrying a "wife of whore- 
 doms " and having "children of whoredoms" in real life, must be 
 
DISSERTATION H. 415 
 
 immoral, and therefore that God could not command Ilosea to do 
 
 it. 1 reply, (l.)<Che force of this objection is mainly obviated by 
 
 the supposition (entirely admissible in view of the language and 
 history) that Gomer, though of previously lewd habits, had become 
 professedly penitent and reformed, and was accepted by the prophet 
 on these professions of penitence and promises of conjugal fidelity. 
 The marriage covenant would of course in her case involve these 
 
 promises. Like Israel, in relation to her covenant God, she too 
 
 may have lapsed again, and so have symbolized the more forcibly 
 
 the course of that guilty nation toward God. (2.) It need not 
 
 be claimed that Hosea, or any other man, would choose to marry a 
 woman of previously bad life, even upon any professions of amend- 
 ment, however fair. The special command of the Lord in this case 
 assumes that the thing required was a hardship — a thing that no 
 good man would be likely to do, save under a positive command 
 
 from God and for a very special purpose. (3.) In this view of it 
 
 the transaction cannot be regarded as immoral in the prophet. 
 Hence the moral objection against it as a reality, loses its force. 
 
 The application of these principles of interpretation to that sys- 
 tem which converts the simple narratives of Scripture into mytlis^ 
 will be readily seen. It must suflSce here only to suggest it. 
 
 DISSEETATION 11. 
 
 ON TWO MILLENNIAL THEOEIES. 
 
 The theories here discussed are : 
 
 I. That the Old Testament prophecies of the millennium treat 
 of the heavenly as well as of the millennial state ; that in giving a 
 general view of the kingdom of the Messiah, they describe first in 
 the order of time, the New Testament age and its peculiarities as 
 contrasted with the Jewish ; but that then, in addition to this, they 
 pass over by analogy, or by a natural continuation of the same 
 theme, to give also the eternal blessedness of the saints in heaven 
 after the resurrection and general judgment. 
 
 II. The second theory denies all reference of these prophecies 
 to the New Testament age, and locates their fulfilment exclusively, 
 as to time^ after the resurrection and the judgment day; as to 
 space^ upon this earth, purified by the fires of the last day, and made 
 the eternal abode of the righteous. This theory excludes all promise 
 
 of the conversion of the world to Clirist. The principal passages 
 
 here referred to as millennial are — in the minor jjrophets — Joel 3 : 
 17-21 ; Amos 9 : 11-15 ; • Mic. 4:1-8; Zeph. 3 : 9-20 ; Zech. 14 : 
 
 6-9, 16, 20, 21. In other prophets, Isa. 4: 2-6, and 9 : 1-7, and 
 
 11, and 35, and 54, and 60, and 66: 18-24; Jer. 31: 31-40; and 
 Ezek. 36 : 25-28, and 37 : 21-28, and 47 : 1-12. 
 
 Taking up first in order the theory first named above, let us note 
 
416 DISSERTATION II. 
 
 tlic main arguments adduced in support of it, \'iz. : 1. These 
 
 prophecies describe a state too holy to be realizeil in such a world 
 
 as this, under its present physical laws. 2. The state described 
 
 is too long to be exhausted in this world, inasmuch as it is repeat- 
 edly said to continue forever. 3. The Old Testament reveals no 
 
 heaven, unless it be in these prophecies. The results of Messiah's 
 work for our race are exceedingly incomplete without a somewhat 
 full revelation of its great consummation in an eternal heaven for 
 the saints. Hence we have a right to expect a revelation of heaven 
 
 in these prophecies. Replying to these arguments in their order, 
 
 I admit, as to the first, that the language implies a high standard of 
 holiness, very much in advance of the average under the Jewish 
 dispensation, with which it would of necessity be tacitly compared. 
 
 Thus (Joel 3 : 17) — " Jerusalem shaU be holy ; and there shall 
 
 no stranger pass through her any more." ^Zeph. 3 : 9 — " For 
 
 then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all 
 call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with " one consent." 
 
 Zech. 14 : 20, 21 — " In that day shall there be upon the bells 
 
 of the horses Tiollness unto the Lord^ &c. ; and in that day there 
 shall be no more the Oanaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." 
 
 See also Isa. 4: 3, 4, and 11 : 9, and 35 : 8, and 54: 13, and 60: 
 
 18-21 ; and Jer. 31 : 31-34; and Ezek. 37 : 23. 
 
 But this feature of these prophecies does not necessarily carry 
 
 their fulfilment over to the heavenly state, because (1.) The 
 
 gospel system provides for a high degi'ee of holiness in the present 
 life, especially through Christ's intercessions for his people, his 
 manifested presence with them, and the indwelling of his Spirit 
 with power in their heaMs. Hence Christ himself says : " I pray 
 that thou wouldest keep them from the evil " (John 17: 15). " My 
 grace is suificient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weak- 
 ness " (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul testifies : " I can do all things through 
 
 Christ who strengtheneth me (Phil. 4 : 13). (2.) Those prophecies 
 
 which give us the largest promises of spiritual life and power indicate 
 their own fulfilment in the present world and in the New Testament 
 age. Some of them are cited by inspired apostles with this under- 
 standing, e. g. (Joel 2 : 28-32), the great promise of the efiusion of 
 the Spirit which Peter affirmed began to be fulfilled at the opening 
 of the gospel age (Acts 2 : 16, fi; ; also Gen. 22 : 18), " In thy seed (Je- 
 sus Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This Pe- 
 ter applies (Acts 3 : 25, 26) : " Unto you first, God having raised up 
 his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of 
 you from your iniquities." This, then, is a case showing how all the 
 nations are to be blessed in Christ. — —So the great promise of the 
 new covenant, which stands at the head of the predictions of emi- 
 nent holiness (Jer. 31 : 31-34) is cited (Heb. 8 : 8-13) as being the 
 very genius and soul of the gospel dispensation. That extraor- 
 dinary promise of moral cleansing by the Spirit (Ezek. 36 : 25-28), 
 " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from 
 all your filthiness will I cleanse you ; I will put my Spirit within 
 
DISSERTATION H. 417 
 
 you and cause you to walk in my statutes," &c., proceeds to say: 
 " And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers " — as 
 much as to say — These promises belong to earth and not to heaven ; 
 to this world in its present state, and not to the next, after these 
 
 heavens and this earth shall have passed away. (8.) While the 
 
 New Testament descriptions of the heavenly state affirm an ahso 
 lute perfection, and make it sure by the beatific presence of the 
 Saviour, the prophecies in question fall manifestly short of this, 
 especially so if we may even proximately estimate the holiness they 
 promise by the experience of any period of the gospel age which 
 
 has thus far transpired. Thus the New Testament witnesses of 
 
 the heavenly state : " We know that when he (Christ) shall appear, 
 we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is " (1 John 2 : 2). 
 
 " Neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the 
 
 angels^ and are the children of God, being children of the resurrec- 
 tion" (Luke 20: 36). The Old Testament prophecies fall some- 
 what short of this. 
 
 2. I pass to the second argument, viz., that these prophecies 
 apply not to the earthly state, but to the heavenly, because they 
 
 represent it as being eternal. To this I answer: (1.) It may be 
 
 admitted that possibly a few of these passages conceive of the Mes- 
 siah's reign as holding over beyond this world to the heavenly — an 
 absolutely eternal reign — yet without giving any special account of 
 
 that heavenly state. Supposing this to be true, all the specific 
 
 features of this millennial state, except its absolute eternity, belong 
 to this world and to time ; so that this admission abstracts nothing 
 
 from the glories of the millennial state. And yet it would be 
 
 somewhat difficult to find the passages that clearly hold over to the 
 future world. If you say they are Dan. 2 : 44, and V : 14, 18, 27, 
 the negative side of the description, " shall not be left to other peo- 
 ple, but shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms " — 
 "which shall not pass away" (supplanted by some conquering 
 power) ; and the fact that the saints shall take the kingdom and 
 possess it forever ; " also, that it is the kingdom and dominion 
 under the whole heaven, not in heaven^ go far to show that the 
 thought here is specially of this world, and not of the eternal one. 
 
 Again, Micah says : " The Lord shall reign over them in Mount 
 
 Zion from henceforth even forever ; " but the reigning in Mount 
 Zion, and the previous " assembling of her that halteth and her 
 that was cast far ofi"," hold the mind to this earthly state as tlie 
 
 thing specially in view. (2.) Many of these descriptions forbid 
 
 us to think of an absolute eternity. Thus (Joel 8 : 20), " But Judah 
 shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation " 
 — where the last clause, being parallel, is explanatory, and assumes 
 a succession of generations not to be thought of in the heavenly 
 
 state. So the parallel clause in Isa. 60: 15 — "I will make thee 
 
 an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." Note also the 
 
 indications of time in the " new heavens and new earth " of Isa. 
 65 : 22, where you might expect an absolutely eternal state — " Foi 
 18* 
 
418 DISSERTATION II. 
 
 as the (lays of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect 
 
 shall long enjoy the work of their hands." The passage (Ezek. 37 : 
 
 21»-28) expresses the duration of its events hy "forever" (v. 25), 
 and by "for evermore " (vs. 26, 28), but it also locates the Lord's 
 people "in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; " affirms that 
 "the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel," as- 
 suming that some heathen still live on the earth and are cognizant 
 of her condition ; and also declares — " I will set my sanctuary in 
 the midst of them for evermore " — " yea, I will be their God and 
 they shall be my people" — a passage which Paul (2 Cor. 6: 10) 
 manifestly assumes to have its fulfilment in the Christian age of 
 the world. Thus it might be shown that many of these proph- 
 ecies which aflSrra eternal duration most strongly embrace points 
 which locate their fulfilment on earth, in time, and not in heaven 
 
 during the eternal state. (3.) None of these prophecies give us 
 
 any marks by which we can distinguish between what belongs to 
 this world and what to the next, the heavenly. The New Testa- 
 ment descriptions of heaven never fail to furnish these marks of 
 discrimination, as is apparent in Matt. 25 : 34 ; Luke 16 : 22, 25, 26 ; 
 and even in Eev. 21 and 22, which chapters follow the final judg- 
 ment : the first heaven and the first earth have passed away ; the 
 holy city is the New Jerusalem, built in heaven, and has no temple 
 in it ; the wicked ai-e all in the lake that burneth with fire ; the 
 
 righteous enjoy the beatific ])resence of God and the Lamb. 
 
 Criteria of this sort are wholly wanting in the millennial proph- 
 ecies of the Old Testament. (4.) Unlike the New Testament 
 
 descrJi)tions of heaven, these prophecies give us no intimation that 
 their scenes transpire after death, the resurrection, and the general 
 
 judgment. (5.) The prophetic state which is said to continue 
 
 "forever," is in many cases described with Jewish costume; in 
 other words, the Jews dwell in their own land, with their temple 
 and ritual institutions complete; the Gentiles come up to Jeru- 
 salem to build and beautify that temple, and to worship therein — 
 all legitimate as descriptions of the millennial state on earth, but 
 scarcely admissible as descriptions of the real heaven beyond death 
 
 and the judgment. (6.) The New Testament does not locate heaven 
 
 upon this earth, but elsewhere. Always it is a place to which resi- 
 dents of earth are said to " go " and to " depart; " of which Christ 
 said, " I go to prepare a place for you." But of this more fully here- 
 after. (7.) The only uniform and reliable principle by which the 
 
 terms "everlasting, "forever," &c., can be explained, is that 
 which makes them relatwe^ i. «., as long as the nature of the subject 
 which they qualify will admit. Thus " eternal punishment," under 
 the government of God must be as long as God's government ex- 
 ists; "everlasting mountains" will stand while the world stands; 
 " an ordinance forever " will remain only so long as the system to 
 which it pertains. It is only on this principle that the Jewish fes- 
 tivals (Lev. 23 : 14, 21, 81, 41) are everlasting, or the Aaronic priest- 
 hood (Ex. 40 : 15 and Num. 25 : 13), for they censed with the passing 
 
DISSERTATION II. 419 
 
 away ot the system of which they formed a part. On this priri' 
 
 ciple the millennial *' forever " would he indefinitely long, yet would, 
 or at least might close, in that special form, with the end of this 
 world. 
 
 3. To the argument that the Old Testament reveals nothing of 
 the heavenly state except in these prophecies ; that the results of 
 Messiah's reign are altogether incomplete without a somewhat full 
 revelation of its heavenly state ; and that therefore we have a right 
 to expect something definite of heaven in these Old Testament 
 
 prophecies — I answer; (1.) The first statement is not strictly 
 
 correct. The real heaven stands forth revealed in such passages as 
 the following: " Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy pres- 
 ence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for 
 
 evermore " (Ps. 16 : 11). " As for me, I shall behold thy face in 
 
 righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy like- 
 ness" (Ps. 17: 15). — "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and 
 afterward receive me to glory. "Whom have I in heaven but thee, 
 and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh 
 and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength of my heart, and my 
 
 portion forever " (Ps. T3 : 24-26). "Many of them that sleep in 
 
 the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
 to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many 
 
 to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (2.) Of the 
 
 other points, I remark, {a.) that the revelations of the Old Testa- 
 ment must be admitted to be incomplete compared with those of 
 the New, especially in respect to the future world ; the resurrec- 
 tion, the final judgment, and the ultimate destiny of the righteous 
 and of the wicked. (5.) It is rather the genius of the Old Testa- 
 ment to reveal the great fact of a present moral government over 
 nations, and also largely over individuals as well — administered in 
 this world by present rewards and penalties ; and then to leave the 
 future destiny of men to le inferred from this great fact of present 
 
 retribution. (c.) Eemarkably, the future existence of the soul, 
 
 the future blessedness of the righteous, and misery of the wicked, 
 are rather assumed than affirmed^ e. g., the existence of the soul 
 after death, in Exodus 3:6: " I am the Grod of thy fathers, the 
 God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Our 
 divine Lord teaches us how to bring out from this passage the 
 underlying assumption of the soul's continued existence (Matt. 22 : 
 32) : " God is not the God of the dead but of the living " — where 
 " dead " must be taken in the Sadducean sense — non-existent. Jehovah 
 could not be the God of nonentities ; hence Abraham, Isaac, and 
 
 Jacob are shown to be still living. So the resurrection is assumed 
 
 to be known in those striking passages where it is used as a figure 
 to represent analogous changes in the state of the nations, viz., Isa. 
 26 : 14, 19 : " They " (God's enemies) are dead, they shall not live ; 
 they are deceased, they shall not rise." " Thy dead men shall live, 
 together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye 
 
420 DISSERTATION n. 
 
 that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the 
 
 earth shall cast out the dead." Or the well-known passage, Ezek. 
 
 87 : 1-14, the vision of the valley of dry bones, raised from the 
 dead, and figuratively representing how God revives the hope and 
 
 the national spirit of his captive people. Dan. 12 : 2, recently 
 
 cited, comes nearer to a formal affirmation of the resurrection than 
 any thing else in the Old Testament, and yet it was not the design 
 of that passage to affirm the universal resurrection. The Old 
 Testament nowhere teaches this doctrine in a didactic, elementary 
 way, as our Saviour does (John 5 : 28, 29). It is quietly assumed. 
 So the future blessedness of the righteous is assumed — ^in- 
 ferrible from his blessedness here in time — and on the same princi- 
 ple, the final woe of the wicked. (d.) It should not be forgotten 
 
 that according to the New Testament, Jesus Christ " brought life 
 and immortality to light through the gospel." This cannot mean 
 less than that life and immortality were not really trought to light 
 until Christ came. Those gi'eat truths had lain in comparative 
 
 obscurity, with only dim and fiickering rays falling around. 
 
 (e.) It is not altogether safe or wise for us to assume that certain 
 things ouglit to appear in the Old Testament. The Lord has his 
 own views and plans as to the order and method of his revelations 
 to man. 
 
 Second Theory. — This theory denies all reference of these proph- 
 ecies to the New Testament age, and locates their fidfilment as to 
 time, after the resurrection and judgment day; — as to space, upon 
 this earth purified by the fires of the last day, and made the eternal 
 abode of the righteous. It excludes all promise of the conversion 
 of the world to Christ. 
 
 Of this I have to say — 1. K it be true, it is doubtless susceptible 
 of very clear and strong proof. ITie points it assumes to be true are 
 entirely tangible. If taught in the Scriptures at all, they would be 
 
 likely to appear in tangible forms. 2. A theory which robs the 
 
 Church of God of so many of her glorious hopes for the future 
 prosperity of Zion, and for the Saviour's joy in the travail of his 
 soul ; — which smites down so many of her best impulses and motives 
 to missionary zeal and self-sacrifice, ought to be weU grounded, or 
 else not be believed at all. A theory which so eclipses the 
 glories of heaven as well as the best hopes for our present earth, 
 can have but small hold, it would seem, on our Christian sympa- 
 thies. Yet, if it be true, let us bear it in submission, though in 
 sorrow ; but if it be not true, let us hurl it from us as the robber 
 
 of our best heritage. 3. This theory cannot be true and must be 
 
 false, because the conversion of the world to Christ is taught and 
 
 implied in the word of God most abundantly. (1.) It is the plain 
 
 significance of those prophecies which are clothed most fully in 
 Jewish costume and figures, representing -Israel and Judah in the 
 gospel age as dwelling in their own land with their temple standing 
 and ritual service entire ; and Gentiles coming -up from all the ends 
 of the earth to worship the one Lord there. See notes on Hos. 
 
DISSERTATION IT. 421 
 
 1 : 10, 11, and on Zech. 12 : 1-9. (2.) In another class of proph- 
 ecies which have far less of Jewish costume, the same great truth 
 is undeniably taught ; — e. g., Ps. 2 : 8 — " I will give thee (the Messiah) 
 the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of th-e 
 earth for thy possession." Ps. 22 : 27, 28 : " All the ends of the 
 earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds 
 of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the 
 Lord's, and he is Governor among the nations." Ps. 72:8, 17: 
 "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river 
 to the ends of the -earth." .... " And men shall be blessed in him ; 
 
 all nations shall call him blessed." Mai. 1 : 11 : "For from the 
 
 rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my name shall 
 be great among the Gentiles, and in every place, incense shall be 
 offered to my name, and a pure offering ; for my name shall . be 
 great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." See also Gen. 
 
 22: 18, and 49:10. (3.) Such passages as Isa. 52:13-15, and 
 
 53 : 10-12, show that the Messiah shall be gloriously successful 
 relatively to Satan and sin in the very work of saving men— shall 
 be exalted high in triumph because of his great humiliation and 
 sufferings, and in view of the fruits thereof; " shall sprinkle many 
 nations ;" " shall see of the travail of his soul till he is satisfied ;" 
 shall have the great for his portion, and a large share of the spoil 
 
 after the battle with sin and Satan is fought through. Gen. 3 : 
 
 15 runs in the same strain, confirming the glorious truth that the 
 masses of the human family are to be ultimately for Christ and not 
 for Satan. Of course, no such result can be without aii indefinitely 
 
 long millennial state upon this earth. (4.) The New Testament 
 
 corSrms this view by teaching the same thing. See Eom. 11- : 15, 
 25, 26 : " For if the casting away of them he the reconcihng of the 
 world, what shall the receiving of themde, but life from the dead? 
 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this 
 mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits ; that blind- 
 ness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles 
 be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is written, 
 There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away 
 ungodliness from Jacob." And Eev. 11 : 15 : " And the seventh 
 angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, 
 The kingdoms of this world are become the Tcingdoms of our Lord, 
 and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." These 
 predictions are exceedingly definite and explicit. It need not 
 surprise us that their number is no greater. The New Testament 
 writers believed in Old Testament prophecy, and held its testimony 
 
 to this point to be abundantly adequate. (5.) Yet further, the 
 
 New Testament most fully endorses the application of these proph- 
 ecies to the gospel age, and especially to the conversion of the 
 Gentiles, and to the ultimate union of Jews and Gentiles in the same 
 earthly Church and kmgdom of God. It is not easy to conceive 
 how they could more strongly endorse both this interpretation of 
 
422 DISSERTATION IT. 
 
 these prophecies and its reliability, than by quoting them as proof 
 of these very points. 
 
 Here let us note how Paul (Acts 13 : 47) quotes Isa. 49 : 6 : " We 
 turn to the Gentiles ; for so hath the Lord commanded us : I have 
 set thee (the Messiah) to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou 
 shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." 
 
 The chapter here quoted from is one of the most decisive and 
 rich prophecies of the world's conversion. Note also how James 
 (Acts 15 : 15-18) cites Amos 9 : 11, 12 : " Simon (Peter) hath de- 
 clared how God at first did visit the Gentiles, &c.,"and to this agree 
 the words of the prophet, as it is written : After this I will return, 
 and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down ; 
 and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, that the 
 residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon 
 whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these 
 things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of 
 the world; " as if he would intimate that God had planned the con- 
 version of the Gentiles from the very creation of man. In the 
 
 same way Paul (Rom. 11 : 26, 27) quotes Isa. 59: 20, and in Rom. 
 15 : 18-12 quotes several prophecies, and among them Isa. 11 — one 
 
 of the first-class prophecies of the conversion of the world. Thus 
 
 do the apostles, after being fully taught by the Spirit, see in these 
 prophecies that God had purposed and foretold the conversion of 
 the Gentiles to Christ, and the ultimate union of both Jews and 
 Gentiles in the Christian Church. They make the same use of 
 these prophecies that we ought to make now, as the ground of faith 
 and the fountain of impulse to self-denying labor for the gathering 
 of all nations into the Messiah's kingdom. It never entered their 
 mind that these prophecies teach nothing about the conversion of 
 men, but only promise a sort of heavenly paradise on this earth 
 after probation shall have closed. They never cite these prophecies 
 as teaching and proving this modem doctrine. They do continually 
 cite them to prove that, through the effusions of the Spirit and the 
 preaching of the gospel, Gentiles and Jews shall be converted to 
 Christ. That they expected the fulfilment of these prophecies in 
 the present world by means of these gospel agencies, the divine and 
 the human, is beyond all doubt. Hence, if their testimony be ad- 
 mitted, it decides the question. 
 
 4. If it be fully admitted that these prophecies pledge the conver- 
 sion of the world to Christ, the further question respecting the locality 
 of the future heavenly state loses most of its importance. Not all of 
 it, however, for the natural tendency of the notion that the future 
 heaven is to be on this earth, is material as opposed to spiritual — not 
 to say even sensual and carnal — exceedingly unlike the tendency and 
 influence of those N"ew Testament descriptions which make heaven 
 consist essentially in being "forever with the Lord," and in so 
 "beholding his glory" that we become thereby forever " like him." 
 
 See 1 John 3: 2, and Thess. 4; 17. It may not be superfluous, 
 
 therefore, to say, that tlie evidence in the Scriptures to prove that 
 
DISSERTATION II. 423 
 
 tliis eartli is to be the future heaven of the saints is exceedingly- 
 meagre. The heaven of the Scriptures is ah-eady in existence, 
 
 long before this earth is purified. Myriads have ah-eady gone before 
 to that other better world. Everywhere in the Scriptures it is a 
 place to which one goes from this world. As said by our Lord : 
 "In my father's house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a place 
 for you." (Did he mean by these words that he was then going to 
 burn tMs world up, and purify it for a heaven ?) He adds : " I will 
 come again, and {not dwell with you on this earth, but) receive you 
 to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also " (John 14 : 2, 8.) 
 
 Paul "desired to depart^ and to be with Christ." At the very 
 time when the theory in question would plant the saints in this 
 glorified earth, Paul assigns them a very different location : " Them 
 also that sleep in Jesus will Godmbring witJiTiim^ i. e., up to heaven ; 
 and those who are then alive (not having tasted death) shall be 
 caught up together with " — the previously dead now raised — " in 
 the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air," and " they inherit the king- 
 dom prepared for them (not at the end of the world, but) from the 
 
 foundation of the world." But it is claimed that Isaiah, Peter, and 
 
 John teach this doctrine under the phrase, " The new heavens and 
 the new earth" (Isa. 65 : 17, 18 ; 2 Pet. 3 : 13, and Eev. 21 and 22.) 
 In few words as possible, I reply : {a.) The important declara- 
 tions in Isaiah are : " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth ; 
 the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. . . . But 
 be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for, behold, I 
 
 create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy," &c. This is 
 
 obviously a great moral change, and not a physical one, as when 
 Paul says, "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation." 
 (This is the original.) Isaiah himself explains it to mean " I create 
 Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy," i. e., a cause or ground 
 of joy to all who love God and holiness. The context still further 
 proves that the prophet speaks of the millennial state in this world 
 of probation as produced under the gospel, and not of the state of 
 
 retribution subsequent to the resurrection and final judgment. 
 
 (b.) Peter, having described the burning of the earth and the works 
 that are therein, adds, "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, 
 look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
 eousness." But this falls far short of affirming that the saints shall 
 dwell forever in this new earth. It just as much affirms that they 
 shall dwell forever in these new heavens. It does not specially 
 affirm either. Hence this text will scarcely suffice for a corner- 
 stone of any entire system of doctrine respecting the future location 
 of the saints. There are too many doubtful points in its interpre- 
 tation. It is doubtful what Peter refers to by " Ms promised He 
 may refer to some unwritten promise from the Saviour's own lips ; 
 
 or to Isa. 65 : 17; or possibly to Eev. 21. (c.) John, in Eev. 21 
 
 and 22, most distinctly locates the saints before and around the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb ; represents them as dwelling in a 
 great and glorious city — the new Jerusalem (which manifestly 
 
424: DISSERTATION II. 
 
 must be taken as Jewish costume) — but is very far indeed from 
 affirming that the location of this heavenly state is on this earth. 
 Indeed, he does not tell us where this holy city is located. It was 
 no part of his design to give its celestial geography. 
 
 If these brief suggestions shall conduce to save the millennial 
 prophecies from the perverting influence of unfounded theories, and 
 leave them to stand forth before the Church in their full strength 
 and glory, my main purpose will be accomphshed. 
 
CHEOI^rOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 I. KINGS OF JUDAH. 
 
 Began to reign Reigned 
 
 B. c. years. 
 
 Eehoboam 975 17 
 
 Abijam 958 3 
 
 Asa 955 41 
 
 Jehoshapliat, 914 25 
 
 Jehoram 891 7 
 
 Ahaziah 884 i 
 
 Athaliah 884 7 
 
 Joash 877 39 
 
 Amaziah 838 27 
 
 Uzziah 811 52 
 
 Jotham 759 16 
 
 Ahaz 743 15 
 
 Hezekiah 728 29 
 
 Manasseh 699 55 
 
 Amon 644 2 
 
 Josiah 642 31 
 
 Jehoahaz 611 i 
 
 Jehoiakim 611 11 
 
 Jehoiachin 600 — 
 
 Zedekiah 600 12 
 
 End of the kingdom ... 588 
 
 II. KINGS OF ISBAEL. 
 
 Begnn to reign Relgnej 
 
 B. c. years. 
 
 Jeroboam 1 975 22 
 
 Nadab 954 2 
 
 Baasha 952 23 
 
 Elah 930 1 
 
 Omri 929 11 
 
 Ahab 918 21 
 
 Ahaziah 897 1 
 
 Jehoram 896 12 
 
 Jehu 884 28 
 
 Jehoahaz 856 16 
 
 Joash 840 15 
 
 Jeroboam n 825 41 
 
 Interregnum. . . 784 11 
 
 Zachariah 773 i 
 
 Shallum 773 ^\ 
 
 Menahem 773 12 
 
 Pekahiah 761 2 
 
 Pekah 759 19 
 
 Interregnum 740 9 
 
 Hoshea 731 9 
 
 End of the kingdom. . . " 722 
 
 m. HEBREW PROPHETS. 
 
 B. C. 
 
 Joel (supposed) 830-825 
 
 Jonah 823 
 
 Amos 825-759 
 
 Hosea between 825 and 699 
 
 Isaiah 759-699 
 
 Micah 758-699 
 
 Nahum 700 
 
 Jeremiah 629-580 
 
 Zephaniah 624 
 
 Habakkuk 610-588 
 
 Daniel 603-533 
 
 Ezekiel 595-573 
 
 Obadiah 588-580 
 
 Haggai 520 
 
 Zechari^h 520 
 
 Ezra 457-432 
 
 Nehemiah in Judah 444r432 «& 408-400 
 
 Malachi (supposed) 408-400 
 
 N. B.— In a few of these cases no cer- 
 tain data exist. The figures should be 
 regarded as only the nearest approxi- 
 mation to truth possible under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 IV. GREAT EVENTS, 
 
 B. C. 
 
 Revolt of the ten tribes 975 
 
 Shishak, king of Egypt, at Jeru- 
 salem 970 
 
 Omri builds Samaria 929 
 
 Famine under Ahab 3} y'rs. 913-9i0 
 
 Homer 907 
 
 Carthage built 885 
 
 First Olympiad 776 
 
 Rome founded 753 
 
 End of kingdom of ten tribes. . . 722 
 
 Nineveh destroyed 625 
 
 First captives to Babylon 606 
 
 Jerusalem destroyed 588 
 
 Confucius 551 
 
 Restoration from Babylon 536 
 
 Rome a republic 525 
 
 Temple finished 515 
 
 Pythagoras 497 
 
 Esther 478 
 
 Themistocles 514-449 
 
 Herodotus 484-444 
 
 Socrates . . 
 
Any of these Books sent free by mail to any address on receipt of price. 
 RECENT PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OP 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 
 
 4:4:3 and 445 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Haydn's Dictionary of Dates^ re- 
 
 lating to all Ages and Nations, for Universal Reference ; Com- 
 prehending Remarkable Occurrences, Ancient and Modern ; 
 the Foundation, Laws, and Government of Countries; their 
 Progress in Civilization, Industry, Literature, Arts, and 
 Science ; their Achievements in Arms ; their Civil, Military, 
 and Religious Institutions, and particularly of the British 
 Empire. By Joseph Hadyn. Twelfth edition, greatly en- 
 larged, and corrected to February, 1866. By Benjamin Vin- 
 cent. 1 vol., large 8vo, 833 pages, cloth. Price $7.50. 
 
 " Fifteen thousand articles all studded with facts as thick as the currants in 
 a Christmas pudding." — London Times. 
 
 The World Before the Deluge. 
 
 By Louis Figuier. Containing 25 ideal landscapes of the 
 ancient world, designed by Riou, and 208 figures of animals, 
 plants, and other fossil remains and restorations. Translated 
 from the Fourth French Edition. 1 vol. 8vo, 448 pages. 
 
 $7.50. 
 
 " This work is written in the most entertaining manner. It unfolds the his- 
 tory of the world as shown in geology, from its supposed gaseous state until the 
 era of the Noachian Deluge. * * * It is a good book, and good 
 books are the need of the day." — Neio York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 " No intelligent reader, caring aught for a knowledge of the construction of 
 the globe on which he lives, can take this delightful volume into his hands with 
 any cause for wonder that it has passed through four editions and found twenty- 
 five thousand purchasers in less than two years— a demand, as the translator 
 says, ' perhaps unprecedented for Avorks of a scientific character.' But let no 
 general reader be deterred from taking it by the fact that it is a ' scientific 
 work.' It is written in the plainest and simplest language possible for the elu- 
 cidation of its subject. — New York, Commifmionaire.'''' 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 The Harvest of the Sea. A Con- 
 
 tribution to the Natural and Economic History of the British 
 Food Fishes. By James G. Bertram. With 50 illustrations. 
 One large vol. 8vo, 520 pages. Cloth. Price $7.50. 
 
 " This ia the first work in which an attempt has been made to bring before 
 the puljlic in one view the present position and future prospects of the Food 
 Fishes. Great i)ains have been taken to obtain reliable information and correct 
 statistics." — Editor'a Note. 
 
 " Contains a lai^e amount of highly interesting information and curious 
 matter." — Tlie AtheruBum. 
 
 " For beauty of illustration, excellence of workmanship, and instmctive- 
 ness of contents, has not been surpassed by any similar work lately issued." — 
 New York Times. 
 
 The Works of Lord Macaulay 
 
 Complete. Edited by his sister, Lady Treteltan. With Por- 
 trait, engraved on steel, by W. Hull 8 vols, large Svo, cloth. 
 Price $40 ; half calf -extra, $56. 
 
 In preparing for publication a complete and uniform edition of Lord Macau- 
 lay's works, it has been thought right to include some portion of what he 
 J laced on record as a jurist in the East. The papers selected are the Intro- 
 uctory Report upon the Induin Penal Code, and the notes appended to that 
 Code, in which most of its leading provisions were explained and defended. 
 These papers were entirely written by Lord Macaulay. 
 
 The contents are arranged in this edition as follows: Vols. I. to IV., Histoiy 
 of England since the Accession of James the Second ; Vols. V., VI, and VIL, 
 Critical and Historical Essays, Biosraphies, Report and Notes on the Indian 
 Penal Code, and contributions to Ivnlght's Quarterly Magazine ; VoL VIIL, 
 Speeches, Lays of Ancient Rome, and Miscellaneous Poems. 
 
 A Treatise on the Steam-Engine 
 
 in its Various Apphcations to Mmes, Mills, Steam Navigation, 
 Railways, and Agriculture, with Theoretical Investigations re- 
 specting the Motive Power of Heat and the proper proportions 
 of Steam-Engines, Elaborate Tables of the Right Dimensions 
 of every part, and Practical Instructions for the Manufacture 
 and Management of every species of Engine in Actual Use. 
 By John Bourne. Being the Seventh Edition of " A Treatise 
 on the Steam-Engine," by the " Artisan Club." Illustrated by 
 37 plates and 546 woodcuts. 1 vol. 4to, cloth. Price $18.00. 
 
 " The author is well known as an accomplished engineer ; what he says will 
 be accepted as truth." — New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 " The eminence of the author in his profession makes this work authority 
 on the subjects of which it treats."— ^a«ier7i Argus. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Homes Without Hands^ being a 
 
 description of the habitations of animals, classed according to 
 their principles of construction. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, 
 M. A. F. L. S., author of the " Illustrated Natural History," etc., 
 with new designs by W. E. Keyl and E. Smith. Engraved by 
 G. Pearson. 1 vol. large 8vo, 21 full-page drawings and 85 
 illustrations ; 632 pages. Cloth. Price $7.50. 
 
 " Ono of the most charming Natural History books we have ever read." — 
 Olasgow Herald. 
 
 •' A clover original work on Natural History, which is certain to take its 
 place among permanent literature."— 6^^o&e. 
 
 " A really more instructive and entertaining work on Natural History has 
 not been published." — Leeds Intelligencer. 
 
 "'Homes Without Hands' is one of the most interesting and instructive 
 works on Natural History." — Observer. 
 
 "No volume lately published contains so much curious and interesting in- 
 formation, presented in so attractive a form, as Mr. Wood's work, which he has 
 aptly and happily named ' Homes Without Hands.' " — New York Times. 
 
 Mythology of Ancient Greece 
 
 and Italy. By Thomas Keightley, author of " The History of 
 
 Greece," " The History of Rome," " Fairy Mythology," " Tales 
 
 and Popular Fictions," etc. Third edition. Revised and 
 
 augmented. With 12 plates from the antique. 1 vol., large 
 
 Bvo, 512 pages, cloth. Price $6.00. 
 
 Tills work has reached its third edition, and has been carefully revised, and 
 has received numerous additions. Mr. Pococke, in his late work, terms it " the 
 best compendium of Hellenic mythology that has appeared, and will always 
 deservedly maintain its high position as the exponent of what the Greeks 
 thought and wrote about and believed." 
 
 The Horse. By Wjvi. Yoxiatt. 
 
 With a Treatise on Draught. Revised and enlarged. By 
 Walker Watson, M. R. C. Y. S. With numerous illustra- 
 tions. 1 vol. Bvo, 589 pages. Price, cloth, $4.00. 
 
 " * * * The present edition will be found to have undergone a 
 thorough revision and arrangement, many fresh diseases have been introduced, 
 and the nature and treatment of others considered in accordance with the prin- 
 ciples of veterinary science at the present day." 
 
 " This is an excellent and comprehensive work on the subject of which it 
 treats." — Philadelphia Jnqxcirer. 
 
 " Wd hope every lover and owner of a horse will secure a copy, and learn 
 how to treat the faithful beast."— 2Voy Times. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 The Treasury of Bible Knowl- 
 
 edge. Being a Dictionary of the Books, Persons, Places, Events, 
 and other Matters of which Mention is made in Iloly Scripture. 
 Intended to estabUsh its Authority and Illustrate its Contents. 
 By Rev. John Ayre, M. A., of Gonville and Caius College, 
 Cambridge. "With 15 full-page engravings, 5 colored maps, 
 and many hundred woodcuts. 1 vol., thick 18mo, 944 pages, 
 cloth. Price $5. 
 
 " The best of the new books. * * * -^Ve know of none more 
 valuable than ' The Treasury of Bible Knowledge.' It is in all respects the best, 
 as it is the most eonvonicnt manual for the Biblical student yet pubhshed. Es- 
 pecial attention has been given to the clear and full presentation of the evi- 
 dence of Christianity, and the latest and most complete arguments In regard to 
 the authenticity and inspiration of the various books of the Bible." — American 
 Baptist. 
 
 " * * * One of the most valuable publications ever issued by 
 that house. In fact, the book may be pronounced an Encyclopaedia or Library 
 of Scriptural Information." — 2few Yorker. 
 
 A Smaller Classical Dictionary 
 
 of Biography, Mythology, and Geography. By William Smith, 
 LL.D., Editor of the Dictionaries of " Greek and Roman An- 
 tiquities," " Biography and Mythology, etc. Abridged from 
 the larger Dictionary. Illustrated by 200 engravings on wood. 
 1 vol. 12mo, 464 pages, cloth. Price $3.00. 
 
 " It will fill admirably a want heretofore much felt in school and classical lit- 
 erature." — ^ew Yorker. 
 
 " It will be found a very desirable work for students." — Ifew York Com- 
 mej^cial Advertiser. 
 
 The Old Testament History. 
 
 From the Creation to the return of the Jews from Captivity. 
 
 Edited by William Smith, LL.D., with 10 maps and numerous 
 
 woodcuts. 619 pages. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth. Price $3.00. 
 
 " * * * Besides giving the history recorded in the Old Testa- 
 ment, with Ihe neces?aryexplanations, notes, references, and citations, this work 
 contahis information on a larce number of other subjects. Among these may 
 be mentioned an account of each of the Books of the Bible, the geography of 
 the Holy Land and of other countries, together with the political and ecclesias- 
 tical antiquities of the Jews, Historical and Genealogical Tables, etc''''— Extract 
 from Preface. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE ONLY COMPLETE AND UNIPOEM EDITION. 
 
 LORD MACAULAT'S WORKS, 
 
 EDITED BY HIS SISTEE, 
 
 8 Vols., largre 8vo. Price, cloth, $40.00 ; lialf calf extra, 
 
 $56.00 ; full calf extra, $64.00. Beautifully printed in 
 
 largre clear type, on thick toned paper, with a fine 
 
 portrait engraved on steel by W. Holl. 
 
 In preparing for publication a complete and uniform edition of Lord 
 Macaulay's "Works, it fias been thought right to include Bome i)ortion of what 
 he placed on record as a jurist in the East. The papers selected are the Intro- 
 ductory Report on the Indian Penal Code, and the Notes appended to that code, 
 in which most of its leading provisions were explained and defended. These 
 papers were entirely written by Lord Macaulay, but the substance of them was 
 the result of the joint deliberations of the Indian Law Commission, of which 
 he was President. They are by no means merely of Indian interest, for while 
 they were the commencement of a new system of law for India, they relate 
 chiefly to general principles of jurisprudence, which are of universal applica- 
 tion. 
 
 The contents are arranged in this edition as follows : Vols. I. to IV., History 
 of England since the Accession of James the Second ; Vols. V,, VI., and VII., 
 Critical and Historical Essays, Biographies, Eeport and Notes on the Indian 
 Penal Code, and contributions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine; Vol. VIII., 
 Speeches, Lays of Ancient Rome, and Miscellaneous Poems. 
 
 This last division of the work is completed by the insertion of the Cavalier's 
 Song and the Poetical Valentine to the Hon. Mary C. Stanhope, two pieces 
 which were not included in previous editions of Lord Macaulay's miscellaneous 
 writings. 
 
 " Every admirer of Lord Macaulay's writings (and their name is* legion) 
 will heartily thank Apploton & Co. for having produced this elegant edition of 
 his works. It seems almost idle to say any thing in praise of the great his- 
 torian to the American reader, but we cannot forbear expressing our admiration 
 of the physical as well as mental strength so manifest in his diction and style. 
 .... But it is not our intention to write a critique on the man whose 
 memory holds so prominent a place in the heart of the reading world. The 
 volumes before us should fill a niche in every public and private library in our 
 land. '''—Glen Falls Journal. 
 
 " His writings and his speeches, arranged in chronological order, exhibit the 
 developments of a mind always more or less powerful, and announce the ex- 
 tent of his reading and the tenacity of his memory. His contributions to the 
 History of British India show how usefully his time was spent during his so- 
 journ at Calcutta." 
 
 D. Appleton & Co.'s Descriptive Catalogue may be had gratuitously 
 on application. 
 
 D. APPIiETON & CO., 
 
 Publishers, Booksellers, & Stationers, 
 
 443 & 445 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
TJie most attractive Gift Booh ever published. 
 
 Ready on the First of October. 
 
 THE LIFE OF MAN SYMBOLIZED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR, 
 
 In their Seasons and Phases, icith Pasmges selected from Ancient and 
 Modern Authors, 
 
 B-'ST E,IOI3:-AwE,ID I=IC3-OTT- 
 
 Accompanied by a series of Twenty-fivo full-page Illustrations, and many hundred Marginal De- 
 vices, Decorated Initial Letters and Tail-pieces, engraved on Wood from 
 Original Designs, by John Lkighion. 
 
 Half Morocco Extra, $20 ; Full Morocco Extra, or Antique, 825 ; 
 Super Extra Bindings, from §30 to 845. 
 
 This volume consists of Twelve Sections, into which the Life of Man is di- 
 vided, to accord with the Twelve Months of the Year, and the progress of 
 nature, from the germination of the seed to the decay of the tree. 
 
 The progressive developments of the physical and moral attributes of Man 
 are shown in each Month concurrently with the growth of the Year ; and the 
 varying phases of his passions, pursuits, and aspirations are exhibited in pas- 
 sages taken from ancient and modern writers. These are cited in the typo- 
 graphical characters of their respective periods, appropriately and suggestively 
 illustrated by many hundreds of marginal devices, initial vignettes, and tail- 
 pieces. 
 
 Each page of the book is enclosed in a framework, which serves as a setting 
 for proverbs, and other aphorismatic sentences, in harmony with the text. 
 Each section ia preceded by two full-page engravings, of which, including the 
 general frontispiece, there are twenty-live, pi intcd within rod rules. Twelve 
 of them, illustrating the life of man from the cradle to the grave, also embody 
 the progress of the seasons, and the varying aspects of nature, as seen under 
 an English sky. The other twelve comprise a series of medallion portraits, 
 from the infant to the patriarch, combined with floral emblems and other sym- 
 bolical attributes, in keeping with the central subject. 
 
 Subjects of the Thirteen Cardinal Illustrations : 
 
 FrontUpieee.—All the World's a Stage. 
 THE INFANT. 
 
 January. — ^Tho Birth of the Year. The ten- 
 der offspring is rescued from the snow. The 
 •cion parted from the parent tree. 
 
 THE SCHOOLBOY. 
 February.— Traia up a child in the way he 
 Rnould go. As the sapling Is pruned and bent, 
 BO will it grow. 
 
 THE STRIPLING. 
 IfareJ.— Mental and physical exercises com- 
 bine to develop the youthful faculties. The 
 supple tree bends to the breeze, buds, and 
 Btrengtnens. 
 
 THE LOVER. 
 ^pri7.— Love and hope temper and teach the 
 early man — as the tree develops under sunshine 
 uud shower. 
 
 THE FATHER. 
 Jfay. — The man becomes the father of many 
 children — as tlie tree extends its branches and 
 puts forth fruitful buds. 
 
 THE SOLDIER. 
 Jun*.— With increased strength come greater 
 trials and duties — as the tree grows, more stout- 
 ly does it resist the elements. 
 
 THE MERCHANT. 
 July.— The mind sobers with age. Gravity 
 and prudence mark the man. The ladeu true 
 is less agitated by every gentle breeze. 
 THE MAGISTRATE. 
 August. — The pursuits of an industrions, use- 
 ful life tend to a peaceful rest — as the fruitful 
 tree reposes whilst yet clothed with verdure. 
 THE PHILOSOPHER. 
 September. — Man is borne onward. Wisdom 
 and charity are the solace of his declining years. 
 The tree reposes after tilling the garner with its 
 fruit. 
 
 THE GRANDSIEE. 
 
 Orfo6«r.— Infirmities steal on. A man's ac- 
 tions form precede: , for his grandchildren. — As 
 the tree decays, it e^-'ches the soil for a future 
 generation. 
 
 TL^ V.ENSOR. 
 
 JVocemJer.— The senses grow dim,and strength 
 gradually fails. The venerable tree, unable 
 longer to support itself, requires aid. 
 THE PATRIARCH. 
 
 Bceember.—lhc: flame of life departs from the 
 body, the spirit flies,— as the withered trunk is 
 prostrated before the gale. 
 
 D. Appleton & Co., 443 & 445 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 '«^i Q] 1948 
 
 MAY 22 1963 
 RECD LD 
 
 m 1 3 '9^^ 
 
 LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 
 
YB 27769 
 
 %H9^7