PKiAl L •KtC. OCT 1881' theological/ "Reserve DhrisionJBSJ505" Section. J^fH^ No,... v. 5 THEOLOGICAL TRANSLATION FUND LIBRARY. VOL. XXVI. EWALD'S PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. VOL. V. COMMENTARY ON THE BOOKS OF HAGGAI, ZAKHARYA, MALAKI, YONA, BARUKH, DANIEL. WITH TRANSLATION. BY THE LATE DR. GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON EWALD, Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Gottingen. TRANSLATED BY J. FREDERICK SMITH. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1881. COMMENTARY PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, BT THE LATE DR. GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON EWALD, Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Gottingen. (EranslatctJ bg J. FREDERICK SMITH. VOL. V. ANONYMOUS PIECES, HAGGAI, ZAKBARYA, MAUAK1, YON A, BAR&EH, DANIEL. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN, LONDON; AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1881. LONUON : G. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, 29, MAIDEK LANE COVENT GAKDEN. 'PROPERTK^ PBIXTCETOIT ■REC.0CTI88I INDEX TO VOL. V. III.— PROPHETS OF THE LATER PERIOD. B. — To the End of the Captivity— continued. 4. An Anonymous Prophet (Jer. 1. — li.) 5. The same Auonymous Prophet ("Isa." xxxiv. — xxxv.) .... 6. An Anonymous Prophet (" Isa." xxiv. — xxvii.) C. — In the New Jerusaleji. 1. Haggai 2. Zakharya 3. Mal'akhi l'AGK 1—18 19 -23 23—34 36—44 44—70 70—86 APPENDIX. Pkophetic Aftergrowths in the Kanon. 1. Collectors of Oracles . . . 87 89 2. Prophetic Writers of Legends. Book of Yona . 89 — 107 3. The New Prophetic Authors 1. Barukh ..... 108—137 Epistle of Yeremya .... 137 — 152 2. The Book of Daniel . . . 152—324 Index to the Prophetic Writings in this Work . 325 ERRATUM. Page 64, Hue 1 3. read ofclivot for shoot. III. PROPHETS OF THE LATER PERIOD. B.— TO THE END OF THE CAPTIVITY. 4. AN ANONYMOUS PROPHET. " Jer." Ch. L., LI. This lengthy piece against Babel cannot be placed earlier in point of time than in the series which we are now considering, although it is most closely connected, according to Vol. III., p. 87 sq., with the book of Yeremya as it is at present arranged. In fact, it contains many utterances, turns of thought, and ideas which are the same as Yeremya's, and, indeed, its entire plan is such as he adopts ; and inasmuch as Yeremya is in the habit of repeating himself on occasions, this fact might at first sight create a prepossession in favour of his authorship. However, Yeremya repeats himself upon a larger scale than is here the case, and in his repetitions does not become untrue to himself. But in this piece Yeremya's pecu- liarities are perceptible only in certain passages, although they are numerous, and the repeated passages are often completely recast and altered.* As far, therefore, as the style of Yeremya appears here, it must be considered as artistic copying and imitation, which had in this case to be the more close inasmuch as this piece was intended to be considered really a work of this prophet's. — On the other hand, where new thoughts and expressions occur in the long piece which are quite foreign to Yeremya, it there approximates quite as decidedly to the * Asl. 2, 29; li. 27. compared with Jer. iv. 16. Numerous particulars have been mentioned previously in Vol. III. 5' 1 2 III. B. 4. ANON.—" JER." Ch. l., li. pieces of this later peinod. We see Babel already threatened immediately by Kyros. Moreover, the view of Babel as of a totally corrupt kingdom, to which there is no longer the possi- bility of escaping the final overthrow ; this indignation against the Chaldean tyrants, which had evidently only grown so intense and even prophetically violent by the lapse of time ; and this public summons addressed to all fellow countrymen yet living in Babel to flee from the hopelessly doomed city and to return to the Holy Land, whither, indeed, some indivi- duals appear already to have returned, 1. 28; this unveiled designation of the Medes and other northern nations as the mortal enemies of Babel, and open mention of the immediate ruin of this city as certain — all this is as foreign, indeed repugnant and impossible, to Yeremya as it is peculiar and necessary to the pieces of this period. It is doubtful whether Yeremya even once, xxv, 26, really wrote ~\WW instead of b^3, with the alphabetical order of the letters reversed j* but this author not only repeats this name, li. 41, in quite other circumstances, inasmuch as there was nothing further to fear from Babel, but he also uses the new, more enigmatic name, formed in the same way, *ft\l ^?, " the heart of my enemies," instead of D"HEO, li. 1, comp. vv. 24, 35 ; indeed he forms similar enigmatical transcriptions of Chaldean names, 1. 21, so that it is observable how great the advance in such matters had been since Yeremya's days. Entirely new words, not found before the time of Hezeqiel and still later writers, are 1^0, n f7?j n - 23, 28, 57, D'tybl, 1. 2,t D^? as " false prophets," 1. 36 ; nor does D ^D«7, to ban, curse, 1. 21, 26; li. 3, occur more than once * It was originally mortal danger undoubtedly which led the exiles in Babel to deceive the rulers of the country with such ingenious alphabetic puzzles : but in this piece they are evidently no longer employed from this motive, but simply because the habit of using them had grown very general, even when nothing more was desired than a poetic variation of a proper name. f The word is here rendered by dolls, as it may perhaps be considered, when derived from bu in the sense of to roll up, as a nickname of this kind for idols ; previous to Yeremya on'y Lev xxvi. 30 ; Dent. xxix. 16. III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 3 in Yeremya/s writings, xxv. 9, but frequently in Hezeqiel's. And with every desire to retain the outward peculiarities of Yeremya, it appears that even the headings, 1. 1 ; li. 59, have received another form than Yeremya would have given them. On the other hand, if we consider the great resemblance of 1. 27; li. 40 with "Jsa." xxxiv. 6 sq., of 1. 39 with "Isa." xxxiv. 14, of li. 60 sq. with " Isa." xxxiv. 16, and many other particulars of the same kind, the opinion is formed, and it can hardly be wrong, that the author of the piece which follows this wrote this longer piece first, and then that somewhat later after Babel had been taken, upon another occasion.* The author lived, as may be gathered from some of his expressions, 1. 5 (hither, i.e., to Ssion), and li. 50 (remember Jerusalem from afar), neither in Babel nor in any foreign land, but in the Holy Land itself, probably as a descendant of those who had never gone into exile. The movements of the Medes against the kingdom of Babel had begun, and Babel itself had been already seriously threatened, but the desired conquest and destruction was delayed on account of the unusually strong and ingenious fortification of the great city ; contradictory reports were rife, the tyranny still continued to hold sway in another form, and the courage of many an exile who had alreadv rejoiced at the prospect of its immediate fall sank once more, li. 45, 46 ; moreover, probably some lethargic ones amongst them appealed to Yeremya's exhortations to composure, ch. xxix. Precisely this appeal to Yeremya, which was then inappropriate, appears to have really been the imme- diate occasion which led our anonymous prophet to make this recast of this word of Yeremya, and not without just reason : as Yeremya, according to ch. xxv., had at least distantly threatened a Divine investigation and punishment to the Chal- dean kingdom, and as his name had such weight amongst the exiles that they trusted him before all the prophets of that age, * Comp. with regard to this event and the piece under notice History of Israel, V., 46 sq. (IV., 61 sq.) 1 * 4 III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER:' Ch. l., li. it appeared to him both proper and effective to now make a more particular application to present circumstances of the threats which Yeremya had uttered from a distance, and which had since approved themselves in the event as true prophecy, by letting Yeremya speak as he would be compelled to do in the present state of affairs, when he would see the fulfilment of his own words. This is a resuscitation of the older prophet in an altered time, an instruction as to the way in which his words, which were already perversely applied, ought to be understood in the present time : and it was shown above, Vol. III., p. 87 sq., in what way an entirely new revision of the whole book of Yeremya for the use of that period was con- nected with this fact. Accordingly, many of Yeremya' s pecu- liar words and ideas receive insensibly an entirely different reference, such as would be more intelligible to this later time ; for instance, northern nations continue still to be spoken of here as the instruments of Divine punishment, but they are no longer the nations whom Yeremya had in his mind, the Chal- deans, but, on the contrary, their enemies, the Medes ; and Nabukodrossor is spoken of as if he still lived, 1. 1 7 ; li. 34, simply because he has become the symbol of the Chaldean rule, comp. " Isa." xxiii. 15, but it may be seen from li. 31, that the king who was then actually reigning was not a hero like Nabukodrossor, but a weakling. The origin of this piece is very interesting. As the first two pieces explained above,, Vol. IV., pp. 233-244, show that prophetic voices in Babylonia itself understood the Divine call of the age, and as the work of the great anonymous prophet, ibid., pp. 245-354, shows that this call was clearly re-echoed by one of the most powerful of these voices in Egypt, so we see in the pieces before us that neither was there wanting to this age upon the sacred soil of Palestine itself, though now it lay desolate, a true prophet; and although many might at that time in opposition to the new prophet appeal from simple love of fame to the words once uttered by Yeremya, we see hei*e III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 5 one of these prophets labouring and speaking just as Yeremya would certainly have laboured and spoken had he been then living. An additional circumstance of great interest is that this prophet, living in the Holy Land itself, had at that time evidently no knowledge whatever of the great work of the prophet in Egypt, a peculiarity which we shall not find in the next piece. The similarity with the words, " Isa." xlviii. 20 ; lii. 11, is in this piece manifestly after all simply accidental. The author, however, finds it needful to show how it was possible for this piece, which is by its essential character intended for exiles only, to reach Babel during Yeremya's life-time. To do this he avails himself of a historical reminis- cence. People must at that time have been still in some way aware of the fact that the king Ssedeqia had in the fourth }^ear of his reign made a kind of journey of homage to Babel to his patron Nabukodrossor ; as this is narrated, li. 59, it has the appearance of being quite historical, and may have been taken almost verbatim from an older work, so little ground is there to regard the event as in itself doubtful ; on the contrary, see the notes on ch. xxvii., xxviii. To this historical reminis- cence our author adds the invention, that Yeremya gave to Ssedeqia's travelling marshall, Seraya (also without doubt a person who was still remembered historically), this long dis- course, that he might read it when occasion offered to the exiles at Babel ; and as Yeremya likes to introduce symbols at the end of his discourses, it is here also narrated in the post- script, li. 59-64, that Seraya received at the same time the charge to cast a stone into the Euphrates in confirmation of the certainty of the fall of Babel, comp. Ex. xv. 5. — When once the writing of the book in Yeremya's name has been pre- supposed, the further carrying out of that intention, as above described, in the only way in which it was possible, is only a necessary consequence, as is also the case with the further imitation of Jer. ch. xix., for instance. It has also been shown at greater length in the Jahrbucher derBibl. Wiss., III., 6 III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. p. 316 sq., how useless it is to try to think of Yeremya himself as the author of the piece in the strict historical sense. The long piece itself, 1. 2 — li. 58, deals with its subject- matter in a very loose and languid manner; without any strict arrangement or incisive brevity the discourse can only by degrees reach its conclusion : in this respect also it is like the following piece from the same time. Still, a certain degree of arrangement is by no means absent. It falls into ten strophes of the kind used by Yeremya ; the first three of these form the first main section of the entire piece, the four middle ones the second section, the next three the last, while each of these three main sections has at the commencement an energetic exhortation to battle against Babel. In other respects, in the first of these three sections, 1. 2-28, the reference to the neces- sary redemption of Israel predominates ; in the second, 1. 29 — li. 26, the emphasis of the whole antithesis between Babel, Yahve, and his spiritual instrument Israel; in the third, li. 27-58, the more particular description of the condition of Babel at that time. 1. 1 The word which Yahve spake concerning Babel, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the prophet Yeremya : 1. 1. Announce ye among the nations, and proclaim ye and raise a sign, | proclaim ye deny not and say "Babel is taken ! | Bel is ashamed Merodakh is dismayed, her images are ashamed her dolls are dismayed ; || for there advanceth against her a nation from the north, | it will make her land into a desert, so that there is no inhabitant therein, | both man and beast flee go !" — In those days and in that time (saith Yahve) — the sons of Israel will come they and the sons of Yudah together, | they will go on weeping, and Yahve their 5 God will they seek ; || for Ssion will they ask, hitherward their faces : | " come ye and join yourselves unto Yahve, for an everlasting covenant not to be forgotten !" || As lost sheep was my people, their shepherds caused them to stray through rebel- III. B. 4. ANON.—"JEB." Ch. l., li. 10 lious mountains, | from mountain to hill they went, forgot their resting place ; || all who found them devoured them, and their oppressors said " we are not guilty," | because that they sinned against Yahve the pasture of salvation, and the hope of their fathers Yahve. || — Flee ye forth from Babel, and from the land of the Chaldeans withdraw ye, | and be as he-goats before the flock ! || for behold I arouse and bring up over Babel a community of great nations, | (from the north country — from there they get ready against her, from there will she be taken) | whose arrows are as those of a skilful hero, who returneth not home for nothing ; || and Chaldea will be a spoil, | all that spoil her will be satisfied, saith Yahve. || 2. Although ye rejoice, although ye exult ye plunderers of my heritage, | although ye leap like a calf through the grass, and neigh as stallions : || yet your mother is greatly ashamed, she that bare you is abashed ; j " behold the last of the nations, a desert a waste and steppe !" || because of Yahve's displeasure 1. As in the first section it is specially the necessary redemption of Israel which is to be dwelt upon as the reason for the overthrow of Babel, the discourse hastens immediately after the suitable opening, vv. 2, 3, to the description of the fair time soon to arrive, when the exiles of all tribes will in rivalry hasten to Ssion to a new and eternal covenant with Yahve, vv. 4, 5, since the enemies of the nation were only on that account able with such small pains, as if they had done nothing reprehensible, to finish their work of destruction, that it went astray, misled by its guides, like sheep by careless shepherds, to the rebellious, i.e., idola- trous, mountains (that is, as they were formerly called, the Heights, the seats of idolatry), and lost the refreshing pastures of true prosperity, the hope of 2. Although the individual Baby- lonians, the devastators of the Holy Land, may still live so luxuriously and licentiously, ver. 11 (comp. li. 38, 39, the fathers (Ps. xxii. 5, 6), the true God, vv. 6, 7. But now, since Babel must succumb to its successful enemies, let not Israel be slow to make use of its freedom! vv. 8-10. Ver. 3 after ix. 9 ; vv. 4, 5 after xxxi. 9 sq. ; xx. 1 1 ; xxiii. 40 ; as to ^V?}, ver. 5, which must be an imperat. according to the context, see § 226 c. Ver. 6 the K'tMb Q^^i'ltt? is quite correct, plV> n)3, ver. 7, is altered from xxxi. 23, ver. 9 at the end from 2 Sam. i. 22. The brief, pointed resumption of a member of the sentence by the construction W137"], ver. 9 (comp. ver. 14) according 'to § 357 a is a favourite usage with this author, comp. li. 58, 64 ; and that the accents must then be altered follows as a matter of course. and v. 8 ; viii. 16), their native city Babel, otherwise the first of all nations (Num. xxiv. 20), will nevertheless be now deeply humiliated and generally 8 III. B. 4. ANON—t^JER." Ch. l., li. she will not be inhabited, will become a wilderness altogether, | everyone that passeth by Babel will be astonished and hiss at all her punishments. || — Get ye ready against Babel round about all ye bowmen, shoot at her spare not an arrow : | because she hath sinned against Yahve ! || shout aloud over her round about " she hath surrendered, | her foundations have fallen, her walls are destroyed !" | because it is Yahve's vengeance take ye vengeance on her, as she hath done do ye unto her ! || cut ye off from Babel the sower, and the sickle- holder at harvest-time ! | before the sword of destruction let them return everyone to his people, and flee every one to his land ! || — A scattered lamb is Israel, which lions drove away : | first the Assyrian king devoured it, and now at last Nabukodrossor king of Babel hath rent it. || Therefore thus saith Yahve of Hosts Israel's God : behold I visit the king of Babel and his land, | as I have visited the king of Assyria, || I bring back Israel into its pasture, that it may feed on Karmel and Bashan, j and on the mountain of Ephraim and Gilead its soul 20 may satisfy itself ! |j In those days and in that time (saith Yahve) will Israel's iniquity be sought for but in vain, and Yuda's guilt without being found : j because I pardon whom I reserve. || 3. " Against the land Douhle-Defiance, — advance against it, and against the inhabitants of Wrathwich, | slaughter and ban dishonoured by Yahve's righteous scattered, ace. ver. 6, fell, so shall the punishment, vv. 12, 13, after xix. 8 ; Chaldean now fall, in order that the xlix. 17. Only be courageous against Community may in the peaceful posses- Babel, which is already before Yahve sion of the Holy Land, finally attain devoted to destruction ; be courageous the long-promised Messianic age ! vv. ye warriors, ye heralds, ye exiles! let 17-20. If the pointing tfWI ver. 11, were her sowers and reapers be destroyed correct the sense would be, " leapeth as (Babel having, as is well known, many a young threshing heifer," after Hos. x. gardens and fields within the immense 1 1 ; but the vocalisation Sti?" 7 ! which is circuit of its walls, Plin. Hist. Nat. most natural, is all that is required, xviii. 17), in order that all hope of inasmuch as !2^Q can, like |?n, be obtaining commonest necessities may construed immediately with the object, fail her! vv. 14-16. As formerly the § 282 a. She hath surrender ed, ver. 15, first devourer (the Assyrian) of the lit. given her hand, to be manacled if lamb of Israel, which was so miserably the conqueror chooses. 3. And as soon as ever this command sword and anathema against the is heard from above, to advance with country Double-defiance (really Aram- III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 9 after them (saith Yahve), and do altogether as I have com- manded thee !" || Hark war in the earth, and great ruin ! II O how is the hammer of the whole earth hewn and broken ! | O how is Babel become a desolation among the nations ! || I laid nets for thee, and thou wast taken also Babel, quite unawares ; | wast found and captured, because thou hadst struck at Yahve ! || 25 — Yahve hath opened his store and brought forth the weapons of his indignation : | for a work is it which Lord Yahve of Hosts hath in the land of the Chaldeans. || Come ye against her ye last ones also, open her granaries, | thresh her as sheaves and ban her, let her have no remnant! || slaughter all her bullocks, send them down to the butchery ! | woe unto them for their clay cometh, the time of their punishment. || Hark fugitives and escaped ones from the land of Babel, | to announce in Ssion the vengeance of Yahve our God, the vengeance of his temple. || Naharaim, the land of the double-river, xxxviii. 23, and her barns shall also be Mesopotamia), and the city Punishment now broken into, the masses of people (the city deserving punishment, Babel, which are crowded together in her shall but with a reference to the actual name be threshed amid anathemas, like TlpD, Ezek. xxiii. 23), Babel falls sheaves fetched from the barns, her into ruins, the heavy hammer which potentates slaughtered like fat sacri- smote the whole earth is itself dashed ficial animals, vv. 25-27, and already in pieces, nor can the kingdom the victory may be proclaimed to Ssion which entered into the most bitter from afar, rer. 28. Comp. "Isa." antagonism to Yahve deliver itself by xxxiv. 9 ; with regard to the figures all its arts and stratagems in conflict taken from threshing, see History of with higher wisdom, vv. 21-24. If she Israel, III., 150 (III., 203 sq.). ^D has desired war against Yahve, he has ver. 26, to draw out may mean to now in turn brought forth against her, thresh out, when sheaves are spoken of. as from the hidden celestial arsenals, ^Xp like H^pQ li. 31. all the weapons of his wrath, Job. ' T 1. Call ye to Babel archers all bowmen, beleaguer her round about, let her have no escape, | repay her according to her work, altogether as she hath done do to her : | because she was haughty towards Yahve, Israel's Holy One ! || therefore will her youths fall in her streets, | and all her warriors perish in that day, saith Yahve. |J I come against thee thou haughtiness ! saith the Lord Yahve of Hosts, | for thy day is come, the time of thy punishment j || and haughtiness stumbleth and 30 10 III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER:' Ch. l., li. falleth, with none to raise him up, | and I kindle a fire in his forest, that it may devour everything around him. | — Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : oppressed are the sons of Israel together with the sons of Juda, and all their bondlords hold them fast, refuse to let them go: || their strong redeemer, Yahve of Hosts his name — he will indeed plead their cause, | in order to make the earth shake, and the inhabitants of Babel 35 to tremble. || Sword against the Chaldeans ! saith Yahve, | and against Babel's inhabitants and against her princes and her wise men ! || Sword against the boasters, that they become foolish, | Sword against the heroes, that they become dismayed! || Sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the hirelings that are in her, that they become women, | Sword against her treasures, that they be plundered !|| Sword against her waters, that they be dried up ! | for it is a land of idols, and by the scare-images they let themselves be befooled. || Therefore wild cats will dwell with wolves, yea ostriches dwell in her | and never more will she abide, nor flourish 40 from generation to generation ; || as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbours, saith Yahve, | no man will dwell there, nor a son of man sojourn in her. 1. The last strophe has thus already divine punishment) shall smite the prepared for the chief subject of the Chaldeans and everything in which second section, namely, the description they place their hopes, the hoasters of the whole antithesis between Babel also, i.e., the false prophets, Isa. xlix. and the true God. Accordingly the 25, and the costly water-conduits, upon criminal haughtiness with which Babel which a great part of the security of defies Yahve is at once brought forward the immense city depended (li. 13, 32, very prominently, vv. 29-32; ver. 30 36,37; Isa. xiv. 23 ; Herod. I., 178 sq., from xlix. 26 ; ver. 32 b from xxi. 14, 185 sq.), since Babel chooses with according to which it is better to read such infatuation to be befooled by VI 37 ^ 2 the reading retained by the scare-images, i.e., idols, nonentities LX'X,' instead of V"")372i in Ms (bbniin as li. 7 ; xxv. 16) ; so T t : cities, although it is true that li. 43 the that there arises a horrible wilderness cities of the land are spoken of. With where now the rich city appears in her regard to *"pJVTpQ i"l37, ver. 31, splendour, vv. 39, 40, like " Isa." xxxiv. comp. Vol. III., p. 122. — In more 14-17 and Jer. xlix. 18. Inasmuch as definite language the discourse pro- the sword in the long enumeration tv. ceeds : because it continues to oppress 35-38 is evidently each time repeated the Israelites and to refuse to liberate with a purpose, and must not be taken them, the true deliverer will rise on in the material sense, but has been their behalf with the convulsion of the adopted from such a usage as xlvii. 6, whole world, and the great sword (the it is neither well nor needful to adopt III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 11 2. Behold a people cometh from the north, | a great nation and many kings bestir themselves from the utmost ends of the earth : |j bow and lance they hold, are crnel and "without com- passion, | people whose voice roareth like the sea, and who drive upon horses, | prepared as a man for war against thee thou daughter of Babel ! || the Babylonian king hath heard the rumour of them, and his hands hang down, | distress hath laid hold on him, trembling like her that travaileth. || Behold, as a lion will it come up out of the pride of Jordan to the pasture of rock : | in a moment will I tear them down thence, and appoint over it whoever is chosen ! | for who is like me and who will arraign me ? and who is that shepherd who would 45 stand before me ? || — Therefore hear Yahve's counsel which he hath determined concerning Babel, and his thoughts which he hath thought concerning the land of the Chaldeans : | surely men will seize them those weak sheep ; surely the pasture will be shocked at them ! || at the voice " Babel is taken !" the earth li. is shaken, and the cry is heard among the nations. || Thus 1 saith Yahve : behold I stir up against Babel and against the inhabitants of Aedlach the spirit of destruction, || and send forth against Babel winnowers who winnow her and empty her land, | because she is come upon round about in the day of evil. || " Here let the archer draw his bow, and there let the harness be put on, | and spare ye not her brave ones, ban ye her whole army !" || and the slain fall in the land of the Chaldeans, | and those thrust through in her streets. || instead of it the punctuation of the to Israel and Yuda at the same time, Massora, ^n, drought ! ver. 38 ; on vv, 4, 20, 33 ; li. 5, is in imitation of the contrary, the entire construction Yeremya's habit, ch. iii ; the hirelings, also continues the same as in the pre- or smaller vassal-princes, ver. 37, from vious verses. The frequent reference Jer. xxv. 20, 24, Vol. III., p. 223 sq. 2. If it is desired to know more par- soon as he commands them to use their ticularly than is told vv. 3, 9 with what weapons the Chaldeans fall as van- instruments Yahve executes this deter- quished on all sides, vv. 45 — li. 4. It is mination regarding Babel, hear what here surprising to see how vv. 41-43 follows : barbarous northern armies have been transferred hither with cer- come against it. vv. 41-43, (from vi. 22) tain more or less necessary changes under a daring leader, ver. 44 ; thus from vi. 22-24 and vv. 44-46 from xlix. the great overthrow is unavoidable, the 19-21. Aedlach, li. 1, in imitation of spirit of destruction which Yahve the Hebrew inversion of Chaldea arouses against Babel calls the most (O'HtJJU), which is mentioned in barbaric warriors to their feet, and as the same connexion vv. 24, 35; 12 III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER:' Ch. l., li. 5 3. For Israel is not bereaved and Yuda of his God Yahve of Hosts, | but their land is full of gnilt on account of the Holy One of Israel. || Flee ye out of Babel, and save every one his soul, perish not in her iniquity ! | for it is a time of vengeance for Yahve, recompense payeth he to her. || " A. golden cup was Babel in Yahve's hand, intoxicating the whole earth ; | of its wine nations drank, therefore nations became mad : [| is Babel suddenly fallen and broken ? | bemoan her, take balsam for her pains, perhaps she will be healed !" || — " "We sought to heal Babel yet she was not made w r hole, leave her that we may go every one to his land ! | for her punishment reacheth to heaven, and riseth up even to the clouds ; || Yahve hath 10 brought out our justification, | come and let us recount in Ssion the deed of Yahve our God !" || — Polish the arrows, fill the quivers, | Yahve hath stirred up the spirit of the Median kings, because against Babel his plan is to destroy it : | for it is the vengeance of Yahve, the vengeance of his temple. || Towards the walls of Babel raise the banner, | strengthen the watch, set watchmen, prepare the outlookers : | for as he hath planned so doeth Yahve what he hath spoken against the inhabitants of Babel. || Thou that dwellest by abundant waters, thou that dost abound in treasures : | thine end is come, thy gains have ceased ! || Yahve of Hosts sweareth by his soul : | though I have filled thee with men as with locusts, nevertheless the trampling- song is sung before thee ! || although by the inversion of the letters to Ps. lv. 19. It appears from the con- in the Hebrew the satirical meaning nexion that the twice-repeated 7W ver. could be found, that the words the heart 3, cannot be the preposition; neither of my enemies, i.e., of my bitterest would the negative vS supply any enemies, formed the best circumlocu- sense ; we must therefore look upon it tion for the Chaldeans. It is better, on as an adverb of place, related to the account of the figure of the winnowing, Aram. ,H and Svil, § 103 /. The rejection, and emptying to read D'HT verb 72i"V from the Aram. 772?, instead of Q' , "!T barbarians, ver. 2 ; ace. § 121 a. ad fin. the last member ver. 2 c is very similar 3. For this is precisely the great the nations which were then guilty, advantage of Israel, that its God never ver. 7, after xxv. 15, 16 : now that she dies, and therefore his punishment as it herself falls, to the surprise of all, pity now hangs over Babel cannot fail : let might be felt for her and the desire to Israel flee quickly therefore from all help, as in other cases of misfortune, ver. partnership with her ! vv. 5, 6. After 8. But if any voice should be raised all, Babel was formerly simply an with such thoughts, vv. 7, 8, another instrument of the divine justice against and better instructed voice is at once III. B. 4. AKOX.— u JER." Ch. l., li. 13 15 4. He who created the earth by his power, who holdeth the world by his wisdom, | and by his understanding stretched out the heavens, || when he thundereth there is a roaring of waters in heaven, and he draweth up vapours from the end of the earth, | lightnings unto the rain he maketh, and bringeth the wind out of his chambers. || Too stupid is every man to know that : every smelter is ashamed before the graven image, | because his molten- work is a lie and no spirit therein; || vain are they, the work of error, | at the time of their visitation they perish !|| JSot like these is Yaqob's portion, but the Creator of the Universe* is he, | and the stock of his inheritance is named Yahve of Hosts. || — A hammer art thou 20 unto me, weapons of war : | and so I hammer with thee nations, and destroy with thee kingdoms, || and hammer with thee horse and rider, I and hammer with thee chariot and driver, || and hammer w 7 ith thee man and woman, and hammer with thee old and young, | and hammer with thee youth and maiden, || and hammer with thee shepherd and flock, and hammer with thee husbandman and yoke, | and hammer with raised in opposition to it, crying that experience teaches that with the best intention she cannot be assisted, and that great care must be taken not to get involved in her ruin, which must be rather reverenced as a salutary manifestation of divine righteousness, vv. 9, 10. Be always armed and on the watch therefore against Babel, whose fall is finally determined by Yahve, vv. 14, 15 ; neither do all the scientific water-fortifications, the nume- rous exacted treasures, the innumerable hosts of people, avail her anything ! as is said vv. 13, 14, only in another way than above 1. 35-38 T"PP ver. 14, the winepress-cry, the treading-cry, but as is quite evident here, after xxv. 30, the cry of the sanguinary treading of the battle, ver. 33. Instead of the un- intelligible riDS, ver. 13, it is probably better to read H2W after "Isa." xiv. 4. 4 And to finally bring into greatest prominence the antithesis upon which everything here depends : who is Yahve in reality, who is Israel, who is the Chaldean ? Yahve, if it is desired to describe him further, is the only true God, with whom the gods of the Heathen cannot be distantly compared, vv. 15-19 (from x. 12-16, only ver. 19 the meaning has been somewhat altered, though not for the better). The true community is as such invincible, while she herself gradually subjugates all that oppress her : the true Israel is like a hammer in Yahve' s hand, by means of which he can beat to pieces everything, even the Chaldeans, vv. 20-24. And although Babel may be * Germ, vom All. Comp. III., p. 141, and Die Leh^e dev Bibelvon Gott,, III., p. 4— Te. 14 III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. thee governors and commanders ; || I repay Babel and all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil | which they have done in 25 Ssion before yon, saith Yahve. || — I come against thee thon mountain of destruction (saith Yahve), which destroyed the whole earth, | and stretch out my hand against thee, roll thee from the rocks and make thee a burning mountain, || so that there shall not be taken from thee a stone for a corner nor a stone for foundations, | but everlasting ruins wilt thou be, [ saith Yahve. || as great as a mountain, yea as a fire- in its place but a wide desert, vv. 25, mountain (volcano) destructive to the 26. This is the mutual relation of whole earth, even the highest fire- these three ! The figure of corner- mountain may at a sign from Yahve stones seems to indicate the intention crumble to pieces and as it were burn of expressing the exact opposite of itself up, so that there remains nothing Ps. cxviii. 22. li. 27 " Set upa banner on the earth, blow the trumpet among the nations, | consecrate against her nations, call against her the kingdoms Ararat Minni and Ashkenaz, | set over her a war- captain, let steeds charge like bristling locusts ! || consecrate against her nations, Media's kings governors and com- manders, | with the whole land of his dominion!" || Then the earth shook and writhed, | because against Babel Yahve's thoughts rose up, to make Babel's land a desert without any 30 inhabitant ; || Babel's heroes ceased to fight, remained in the castles, their power was spent, they became as women ; | her dwellings were set on fire, broken were her bars ; || one runner runneth against the other, and one messenger against the other, | to tell the king of Babel " his city is wholly taken, || the fords are occupied, and the outworks burned with fire, ) and the warriors struck with dismay." || — For thus saith Yahve of Hosts Israel's God : the daughter of Babel is as a threshing floor when it is trampled : | yet a little — and the harvest time cometh to her. || " Nabukodrossor king of Babel devoured us mangled us,* put us forth as an empty vessel ; | swallowed us as a dragon, filled his belly with my dainties, * Ewald keeps up the figure in the second verb by rendering it zerkaute uns, chewed us to pieces. — Tr III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 15 35 thrust us out : || my wrong and my body be upon Babel !" let the township Ssion say, | " and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea !" let Jerusalem say. || Therefore thus saith Yahve : behold I plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee, | and dry up her sea, and parch up her spring, || so that Babel becometh stone-heaps a haunt of jackals, a desolation and emptiness without an inhabitant. || 2. Together they roar as lions, | growl as young lions : || if they are heated I will prepare their feast and make them drunken | in order that they may rejoice — and sleep an eternal 1. Since the third section is confined more particularly to the locality of Babel, the imagination first projects a somewhat vivid picture of the method by which Babel must be captured ac- cording to the requirements of its posi- tion. As soon as at a given sign the numerous northern nations, with war- horses bristling with armour like locusts, rush as if consecrated (Isa. xiii. 3) to the holy war, vv. 27, 28, the earth trembles, the Babylonian heroes are in a state of inexplicable helplessness, the conquest begins, and one messenger of evil tidings after another runs to the Babylonian king, vv . 29-32 : all this a description like the earlier one, Nah. ii. and iii. For, the higher voice pro- claims, Babel has already become as a threshing-floor prepared for threshing, and soon the proper harvest-time arrives when it will be used, as was more par- ticularly described above, 1. 26, ver. 33, comp. iv. 14 ; 1. 26. Babel must fall, if for no other reason, on account of its cruel conduct towards Israel, which the Chaldean quietly devoured, and then after it had been completely devoured, rudely cast it away like an empty vessel and thrust it into exile, so that its flesh and blood, its whole life, may bitterly complain to Yahve against him, 2. It is true the Babylonians are full of reckless pleasure and wild delight, vv. 34-37. Ver. 32, D^N is ob- scure, it is true : still, it is evident that the usual meaning, swamps, does not suit the idea of burning with fire ; it is more likely that we have quite a dif- ferent word, which the ancient Arabic lexicons explain as a kind of castle, in this case therefore probably an out- work. The accents have this time un- fortunately damaged the forcible figure ver. 34, comp. Ps. xiv. 4. The phrase ver. 35 is simply extended from the ancient form Gen. xvi. 5 ; in other respects, comp. Ps. cxxiv. 1 sq. The word 12rP*jn is intended most likely to signify he emptied us, from rm= rTO, bright, clean, empty : but '^H suits the context better. — ■ Sea and spring, ver. 36, is equivalent to every- thing, but it has reference to the splen- did streams which served both to in- crease the trade and the strength of the fortifications of the city, vv. 13, 32, 42 and 1. 37, 38. Ver. 35, Jerusalem is addressed just as " Isa." xxi. 10 ; xl. 9 and in other prophets of this period notwithstanding that it was then in ruins. Instead of np~ltt7, hissing, ver. 37, it is almost certain that this author had in his mind the Aram. np"lH7, emptiness. ver 38, comp. 1. 1 1 : but precisely in this inebriation of joy the intoxication 10 III. B. 4. ANON.— ( 'JER." Ch. l., li. 40 sleep never awaking, saith Yahve ; || I will bring them down as lambs to the slaughter, j as rams with he-goats. | — " O how is Lebab taken, and the praise of the whole earth captured ! | O how is Babel become a desolation among the nations ! || the sea is gone over Babel, | with the roaring of its waves she is covered ; || her cities are become a desolation, a land of drought and a steppe of land, | so that no one dwelleth in them, no son of man passeth through them." || And I visit it upon Bel in Babel and draw what he swallowed out of his mouth, that nations may no more flow unto him : | nevertheless 45 Babel's wall falleth ! || — Go forth out of her my people, and save every one his soul j from the heat of the anger of Yahve ! || and lest your heart faint and ye fear for the rumour heard upon the earth, | and because in the year cometh this rumour, and in the following that, and violence is upon the earth, tyrant upon tyrant ! || — Therefore behold days come that I visit upon the stone images of Babel, | and her whole land will be dried up, and all her slain fall within her; || then heaven and earth and all that is in them shout for joy over Babel, | that from the north the desolaters come unto her, saith Yahve : || " Babel must fall as well, O ye slain of Israel ! j as on account of Babel fell the slain of the whole earth." II of death surprises them the sooner, so that partaking of the meal of the divine punishment they fall like sacrificial animals into the eternal sleep, ver. 39, comp. 1. 27 ; Ps. lix. 16 ; lxxvi. 6 ; Isa. xxi. 5. Already the elegy on the fall of Babel, which was once the praise of the whole earth, may be struck up ; Babel, which is inundated by hostile armies as Pharaoh was formerly by the waves of the sea (ver. 56 ; xlvi. 7, 8), becomes a desolation for ever, vv. 41- 43 : the idol Bel must fall, whose tem- ple attracted so many visitors and donors of the richest offerings because it was richly adorned by booty taken from all nations of the earth ; and whatever may yet be done to hinder it, it is certain that the famous walls of the city will fall, as is said in one closing word of great brevity and em- phatic force, ver. 44, comp. ver. 58. Therefore flee ye members of the true Community before the dangers become too great, and above all do not suffer yourselves to be alarmed by the rumours which are always so contradictory in this confused time, or by the continued delay of deliverance, vv. 45, 46 (an utterance historically very remark- able !): the more confused the times continue to be, the more certain and glorious is the redemption which comes from Yahve ; and as certain as mar- tyrs from all nations fell on account of Babel must now Babel also fall (hear that, ye martyrs of Israel !) vv. 47-49. Lebab, ver. 41, is only an imitation of the Hebrew Sheshak made by an alphabetic inversion, as ver. 1. — Ver. 43, the second ^~1S is better connected with the fore- going member. — CD. ver. 4 4, is in this III. B. 4. ANON.—"JER." Ch. l., li. 17 50 3. Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye stand not ! J remember from afar Yahve, and let Jerusalem come into your mind! || "We are ashamed that we heard the reproach, | shame hath covered our face that barbarians came upon the sanctuaries of Yahve's house !" || therefore behold days come (saith Yahve) that I visit upon the stone images, | and in all her land the slain will groan. || Though Babel ascend to heaven, and though she fortify her towering height : | from me desolaters will go forth into her ! saith Yahve. || — Hark a cry from Babel | and 55 great ruin from the land of the Chaldeans ! || for Yahve will desolate Babel, and destroy from her the proud voice ; | and though her waves roar as many waters, the noise of their sound be given forth, ||yet there cometh over her over Babel a desolater, and her heroes are taken, their bows split in pieces : | for a God of recompense is Yahve, he doth repay; || and I make drunk her princes and wise men, her governors and com- manders and heroes, so that they sleep an eternal sleep never awaking, [ saith the King called Yahve of Hosts. || — Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : the broadest walls of Babel — laid bare will they be, and her highest gates burned with fire : | that nations weary themselves for vanity, and peoples for the fire — for that labour ! \\ The word with which the prophet Yeremya charged Seraya son of Neriya son of Machseya, when he went with Ssedeqia connexion, Germ. (Loch, nevertheless, with regard to the repeated n3?1H3tt?n, ace. § 354 a. SS^, ver. 46, ace. § 351 b, see § 360 c. 3. Once more, ye survivors, return to yes, certainly, as truly as Yahve is the Ssion, forget not in the distance Yahve righteous awarder, the destroyer comes and the holy city ! ver. 50, comp. Ps. upon Babel, which is suddenly para- exxxvii. 5, 6. And in reality the lysed, although it is still like a sea exiles are already heard praying, with roaring with wild noise (ace. ver. 38), tears of shame at their previous con- and as if by the intoxication of the tempt of themselves and the holy place, divine punishment its mighty men fall ver. 51 : wherefore, on the other hand, into the eternal sleep, vv. 55 b — 57, the most definite promises proceed from comp. ver. 39 ; and, to compress every- Yahve regarding proud Babel, vv. 52, thing into one word : Babel must fall, 53, with ver. 53 comp. Isa. xiv. 12. in spite of its ingeniously constructed Already is heard the loud noise of the walls and gates, in order that the orarle inundating enemies which come to stop of Habaqquq's, ii. 13, that the work all loud defiant noise in Babel as exe- built upon wrong, though it may be by cutors of the will of Yahve, vv. 54, 55 : means of the sweat of great subjugated 5 2 18 III. B. 4. AXON^'JER." Ch. l., li. king of Yuda to Babel in the fourth year of his reign (and 60 Seraya was camp-prince), and Yeremya wrote all the evil which should come upon Babel in a book, all these words which are written concerning Babel : then said Yeremya to Seraya : when thou comest to Babel, then see and read all these words, and say : " Yahve thou hast spoken concerning this place to destroy it, | that there be not in it an inhabitant neither man nor beast, [ but eternal desolations shall it be !" And when thou hast made an end of reading this book, thou wilt bind a stone thereto and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say : Thus will Babel sink under and not rise, | from the evil which I have spoken concerning her — therefrom despair ! || nations, never lasts, ver. 58. The par- ticle "3, ver. 53, like 1. 11, ace. § 362 h; ver. 55 b (where the division of the verse is not suitable), there is, moreover, a continuation of it with ^Ittm — It t : cannot be denied that the long piece closes very appropriately wiih that oracle from Habaqquq, which quite suits the context. Vv. 59-64. Inasmuch as the last words of ver. 59 undoubtedly are in- tended to indicate the reason wherefore, amongst so many other princes, i.e., courtiers, it was only this Seraya who went in a special way with the king on his visit to Babel, it follows that the official name, nni2D "IIP, prince of the rest, or of the night encampment, which does not occur elsewhere, must signify pretty much travelling marshal ; as filling such an office he was indispen- sable ; comp. with reference to him, History oj Israel, III. 272 (III. 372).— Ver. 61, look and read, that is, seek a good opportunity for reading ; ver. 62 is a brief extract of the entire foregoing piece. It is at all events the case that m2 already stands here thus alone without. ~"!n2 for the Euphrates, and the author may have understood the name in this sense in ch. xiii. also. —Comp. Vol. III.. 153.— The word 1£3?^T receives a somewhat different application, ver. 64, from the oracle of Habaqquq, ver. 58 : but the younger prophet was free to do this. We have almost the same supposition in the closing words of this piece as at the close of the book of Daniel. The divine words shall not merely come as a curse over the city, just as they are read aloud over it, but the small book also shall be cast with the heavy stone of the curse into the river, as if to ascer- tain whether it will perhaps in the future come once more to light. And as a fact it is indeed in the best sense still there, and well deserves to have its place beside the book of Yeremya, although it is only one of the earliest re-echoes of many of his words and thoughts. The last w r ords, thus far Yeremyd's words, do not date from an earlier hand than that of him who still later added ch. lii., comp. Vol. III. 90. III. B. 5. ANON.— "ISA." Ch. xxxiv., xxxv. 19 5. The same Anonymous Prophet. " Isa." xxxiv, xxxv. This small piece of the same prophet's dates from a somewhat later time, already like an echo of the joyous portion of the thoughts of the great piece, " Isa." xl. — xlviii. It is as if he had only just read that great piece, xl.— lxiii. 6, and had been so deeply inspired by its high and encouragiug thoughts, and par- ticularly by the closing oracle concerning Edom, lxiii. 1-6, that his own powers of production were aroused, and carried away by the first impression of those lofty words he wrote this piece. The only new element in the piece is, strictly speaking, simply the further elaboration of that threat against Edom. Before the end of the first strophe, xxxiv. 1-7, the discourse, which threatens great commotions of heaven and earth as about to come over all nations, turns very soon to Edom alone, continues with it in the second strophe, vv. 8-17, and not before the last, ch. xxxv., presents with pure joy, as an antithesis to it, Israel's liberation from the captivity. In the description of the desolation of Edom, the author transfers to this new relation the figures which were used xiii. 2 — xiv. 23 at first of Babel, as if at that time the hatred of Babel had already been turned aside more to Edom, inasmuch as in the return closer contact with Edom as a fact became necessary ; comp. Ps. cxxxvii. In that case the piece would be written between 538 and 536 B.C. It is certain that the great anonymous prophet did not thus copy himself ; moreover, the author who is here discoverable has not a few peculiarities in language and figures by which he distinguishes himself sufficiently from the author of xl. — lxvi. Still, it is very remarkable that many things in ch. xxxv. almost word for word remind one of Isa. xxxii, xxxiii., ver. 2, like xxxiii. 6 ; ver. 3 from xxxiii. 9 ; vv. 4-6 from xxxii. 4-6 ; xxxiii. 23, 24 ; whilst, on the other hand, it is impossible in 2 * 20 III. B. 5. ANON.—" ISA." Ch. xxxiv., xxxv. every respect to separate ch. xxxiv. from ch. xxxv., since what is announced in xxxiv. 7, is completed ch. xxxv. We must there- fore suppose that this later author, full of the new thoughts uttered in ch. xiii., xiv., xl. — lxvi., connected his small piece with the earlier piece, Isa. xxviii. — xxxiii., in some such way as we have before observed in the case of ch. xii. and xxiii. 15-18, Vol. I. 95. The ancient piece of Yesaya's, ch. xxviii. — xxxiii., may thus have been afresh brought into circulation at that time ; and thus the younger prophet, reviving the ancient book by means of this addition, might speak, xxxiv. 16, of a look of Yahve, as is further explained in the Jahrbb. der Bibh Wiss., VII., p. 75. xxxiv 1. 1 Come near ye nations to hear, and ye Heathen give heed ! let the earth hear and her fulness, the world and all its springings ! || For displeasure hath Yahve upon all the nations, and indignation upon all their host ; [ he hath banned them devoted them to the slaughter, || and their smitten are stretched at length, the smell of their corpses cometh up, | and mountains melt with their blood ; || all the host of heaven rotteth, and as a book the heavens roll together, | all their host withereth away — as a leaf withereth away from the vine, and as the withering 5 of the figtree. || — For drunken in heaven was my sword: | now will it descend upon Eddm, and upon the nation of my ban unto judgment, || a sword Yahve hath that is full of blood, it is soaked with fat, | with the blood of lambs and hegoats, with the kidney-fat of rams : | for Yahve hath a sacrifice in Bossra and a great slaughter in the land of Eddm, || and wild buffaloes sink down with them, and bullocks with mighty ones, J their land is drunken with blood, and their ground soaked with fat. || 1. All nations must hear this pro- firm welkin is rolled together in alarm phetic voice, because in the present like a scroll just opened but imme- great commotion of the world all are diately let go, vv. 1-4. The sword alike threatened by an outbreak of which is appointed to execute the divine wrath, which must be felt not divine judgments, already invisibly only by men as they fall by thousands brandished in heaven and dropping as in the battles, but before which the in anticipation with the blood of fat powers of heaven also totter and the offerings, must now descend upcn III. J3. 5. ANON.—" ISA" Ch. xxxtv., xxxv. 21 For Yahve hath a day of vengeance, | a year of recompense for Ssion's cause : || and its* brooks tnrn into pitch its ground into brimstone, | and its land becometh burning pitch ; || night 10 nor day is it quenched, for ever its smoke goeth up, | from generation to generation it goeth waste, for all time no one shall journey through it, j| and pelicans and hedgehogs take possession of it, heron and raven dwell therein, | and thereon is laid the line of desolation and the weight of emptiness. || Its freemen — none are there who proclaim the kingdom, | and all its princes come to nothing ; || and its palaces get overgrown with thorns, nettles and thistles are in its castles, | so that it becometh a pasture of jackals, an enclosure for ostriches, || and wild cats light upon wolves, and one hegoat meeteth another; | there only hath the night spectre repose, and findeth for herself 15 a resting place ; || there the arrowsnake maketh a nest and layeth, ' broodeth and hatcheth in her shadow, | there only vultures gather one to the other. || Seek from Yahve's book and read, no one of these faileth, neither the one nor the other is missing : | for His word hath commanded it, and His spirit hath gathered them, | and He hath cast it to them as a lot, and his hand hath allotted it to them by line : | for ever will they possess it, through all time dwell therein. || Edom to satiate itself upon those who 5-7. Such passages as Jer. xlvi. 10 ; are really guilty, and the overthrow of Ez. xxxii. 5-7 ; xxxix. 17 so., were the magnates and potentates of this evidently present to the author's mind : land is like a fat sacrificial meal which the strong word to ban (sacrare), vv. is prepared for Yahve in that land, vv. 2, 5, reminds us of Hezeqiel. 2. In order to explain this more par- of fire, and be for all times laid waste ticularly, it is sufficient to say that now and inhabited only by animals of the the great day of compensation and desert ; Yahve will measure it afresh redemption for all the oppressed, in order to apportion it to new inhabi- accordingly, for Ssion especially, is tants, but he will thereby apportion it coming : and Edom, as bearing the to desolation, to primitive chaos (Amos chief guilt with respect to Ssion, must vii. 7, 8) vv. 8-11. The magnates who be punished most severely, be destroyed hitherto ruled Edom as the domain of by fire, as Sodom once was in order their prey, and lived luxuriously in that it may, like Sodom, bear for ever palaces, will all vanish with the latter, the warning mark's of such a judgment in order to make room for wild beasts * i.e., Edom's. 22 III. B. 5. ANON.— " ISA." Ch. xxxiv., xxxv. xxxv 3. 1 The desert and waste will be glad, | so that the steppe exulteth and "blossometh as with lilies ; || it will indeed blossom and exult, yea exult and rejoice, | Lebanon's glory is given to it, the magnificence of Karmel and Sharon : | they will see Yahve's glory, the magnificence of our God. || Strengthen ye slack hands, and tottering knees make ye firm, || say to those of affrighted heart " be strong fear not ! | behold your God, vengeance cometh God's recompense, he will come to 5 help you !" || — Then will blind eyes be unclosed, and deaf ears opened ; || then will the lame man spring as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shout for joy : | for in the wilderness waters burst forth, and rivers in the steppe, | and the mirage becometh a pool, the dry land springs of water. || In the pasture where jackals crouch, the inclosure for reed and rush, || there will there be a high road and a way, and a holy way will it be called, trodden by no one unclean, | and as He goeth the way for them, even the unwise will not go wrong ; || no lion will be there, and the mightiest of the beasts will not tread it, not 10 to be found there ; | so they walk redeemed, || and Yahve's ransomed return and come to Ssion in jubilation, with eternal joy upon their heads ; | gladness and joy will they obtain, grief and sighs flee away. || of all kinds, as well as monsters and as they had done. It is also evident ghosts of the desert, vv. 12-15 ; cer- that the simpler conceptions of the tainly all such goblins will be found beasts and monsters of the desert, xiii. there, since Yahve himself has so 20-22 ; xiv. 23 are present to the willed, and has apportioned this land to author's mind as he here describes the wild beasts as their possession : let them in a more developed form, and this very oracle, this book of Yahve's, the two classes of land and bog animals be a witness of this for future times, which were then kept distinct are here vv. 16, 17. Thus this prophet, ver. 1 6, less fittingly thrown together in one refers almost like Isa. xxx. 8 to his description. The L&lith, or Liltth, book as a witness for the future : but it ace. § 36 b, i.e., the night-spirit, is can be observed that he imitates this related to the other female goblin, custom of earlier prophets without Prov. xxx. 15. Comp. Dichter des having publicly uttered the same truth A. B. II. a, p. 257. 3. But while Edom is thus laid its desolation, xxxv. 1, 2, after xl. 3, 4; waste, all that land through which lii. 8 ; therefore be of good courage, ye Yahve's march from Babel proceeds, men of Israel who have been so long and where Yahve takes up his residence, bowed down, vv. 3, 4. Then, when will rise all the more gloriously from once Yahve's mighty salvation rises, as 111. B. 6. ANON.—" ISA." On. xxit.— xxvii. 23 indeed it soon will shine forth, will the will protect the homeward march of weak also in Israel feel that they are the newly redeemed people to its suddenly as it were made whole, inas- ancient holy land, vv. 5-10. We have much as the miracles of the march of here still plainer reechoes of much from Moses through the desert will be " Isa." xl. sq. ; on ver. 10, however, repeated ; and a powerful, holy hand comp. the comment on li. 11. xxxiv. 16. V2 must undoubtedly be and the bog, desert animals and bog read instead of '•Q, ace. § 311 a; the plants, just as xxxiv. 11-14, so that first person is used of Yahve in the TV)2 and "T»Sn must correspond to whole piece only xxxiv. 5. each other just as xxxiv. 13 ; we can It is evident that with (1123, xxxv. in that case read n"13. In ver. 8 also 7, a new sentence and verse commences, the accents mislead in the case of Mim the discourse in the two next short 1o?. With regard to E1t£?tt?\ ver. 1, members bringing together the desert see § 91 b. 6. An Anonymous Prophet. " Isa." ch. xxiv. — xxvii. According to all indications we are brought here to a still later time than by the last of the previous pieces and by the appendix "Isa." lxiii. 7 — lxvi. Of the first enthusiasm of those days there is not much more to be perceived ; on the contrary, ace. xxvi. 14-19, although the new Jerusalem was again rising from its ruins, it had already become painfully perceptible that the new settlement would not satisfactorily go forward, and continued to be very deficient in strength and numbers. Now, inasmuch as there are plainly very definite and pointed references to the complete overthrow of the strong and luxurious city of tyrants, i.e., manifestly Babel, xxv. 1-5, 11 ; xxvi. 5, 6; xxvii, 10, 11, it might be thought that the conquest of Babel by Dareios Hystaspis, when it was for the first time thoroughly destroyed, was meant. However, descriptions of the devastation of an already conquered city are frequently somewhat exaggerated, especially by a prophet who, like ours, was living far from Babel, evidently in the Holy Land itself. When everything has been considered, my present opinion is that the piece belongs to the time when Kambyses was making 24: III. B. 6. ANON — u ISA." Ch. xxiv.— xxvii. preparations for his Egyptian campaign. After the fall of Babel, which is here pre-supposed as complete, fresh world- storms of a severe character were threatening, xxiv. 1-20; the Egyptian campaign must have appeared very specially dangerous to the Holy Land, as Kambyses was moreover, according to the book of Ezra, very unfavourable to the new settlement ; and while for this nothiug could be so desirable as peace, xxvi. 3, 12 ; xxvii. 5, in order that it might collect and confirm its energies, that campaign threatened, even with merely a march of barbarous soldiers through Jerusalem, lamentable plundering and devastation, xxiv. 1-3, 13, 16. — It was at this time that the prophet, although he foretells the approaching world-calamity with great agitation, knows never- theless that at last nothing else can proceed from all such storms but the victory of good, ch. xxiv. and xxv. 6-11 (which verses must have been misplaced by an early error in copying), in three strophes ; and after he has introduced the people praying to Yahve in its distress, as is becoming, and has shown it how it ought now to pray, xxv. 1-5, 12 ; xxvi. 1-13, in four quite poetical strophes, he closes with his own mediatorial word, which is prophetic of good, xxvi. 14 — xxvii., in three strophes. — The discourse affects very strong and frequent paronomasia?, and generally graphic and figurative language : in this respect this prophetic writer is like no other. Further, the verse in the lyric description of the threatening storms, xxiv. 1-20, is often triple membered, which can have a beautiful effect. However, it is everywhere observable with all this that the prophet puts together his verses and strophes more as mosaic-work from earlier thoughts and verses. The beautiful words, xxv. 6-8; xxvii. 9, 12, 13, are very plainly borrowed from earlier oracles now lost, xxv. 6-8 (probably vv. 10, 11 also), perhaps from a prophet of the seventh century, xxvii. 9, 12, 13 from Yesaya. Where the prophet writes in his own manner, such a great similarity with "Isa.," ch. xii. appears that the author of that short addition to Yesaya's III. B. 6. ANON. I.— "ISA." Ch. xxiv., xxv. 6-11. 25 sixtli book was probably the same writer that appended this longer piece without a name to the book of Yesaya, ch. i.-xxiii. 1. Prophecy of the Universal Judgment. Ch. xxiv., xxv. 6- 11. The first two strophes prophesy, in great agitation and a kind of fear such as is foreign to the earlier prophets (ver. 16), a general devastation, caused also by greedy, plundering warriors ; nevertheless, inasmuch as the approaching world- catastrophe is closely connected with the sin of men, as if it is intended to serve the purpose of violently destroying the sin by Yahve's wrath, the hope is also held out of the glorious time which shall follow that destruction, which, described with Messianic images, remains exclusively predominant in the third strophe. 1. xxiv. 1 Behold Yahve will spoil the earth and despoil it, | overturn its face and scatter its inhabitants, || so that it will be as with the people so with the priest, as with the servant so with his lord, as with the bondswoman so with her mistress, | as with the buyer so with the seller, as with the lender so with the borrower, as with the creditor so with the debtor ; || spoiled spoiled is the earth and plundered plundered ! | surely Yahve spake this word. || — The earth withereth and wasteth, the world withereth away wasteth, wither away the exalted folk of the 5 earth ; || since the earth is profaned under its inhabitants, | because they transgressed the laws, overstepped right, broke the eternal covenant : || therefore a curse cankered the earth, and they who dwell therein suffer punishment, | therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned up, and few people will remain. || — The must withereth, the vine withereth away, all the glad of heart moan ; || silent is the mirth of the tabret, the noise of the jubilant resteth, silent is the mirth of the harp, || singing they drink not wine, bitter is the mead to its 10 drinkers ; || the desolate town is laid in ruins, every house is 26 III. B. 6. ANON. l—'ISA." Ch. xxiv., xxv. 6-11. shut up without entrance, || lamentation over the wine re- soundeth without, all joy hath fled away, the mirth of the land is banished : || there is left in the city desolation, and to ruins the gate is smitten. || 2. For so will it he in the midst of the earth, amid the nations : | as at the olive-heating, as at the gleaning when the grape-gathei'ing is done ! || There are indeed loud voices and jubilation, | " on account of Yahve's majesty exult ye from the 15 west ! |j therefore in the east countries glorify Yahve, by the coasts of the sea the name of Yahve the God of Israel !" || from the skirt of the earth we heard songs " fame to the righ- teous !" | but I say O famine to me famine to me ! O alas for me ! | robbers do rob, and the robe robbers do rob !* || panic pitfall and preytrapf be upon thee inhabitant of the land ! || for he that hath fled from the loud panic falleth into the pitfall, and he that ariseth from the midst of the pitfall is taken by the preytrap ! || For the windows from out of the height open, and the foundations of the earth tremble ; || shattered At the very commencement, the ap- the fire of a divine curse burns up her proaching devastation which will make inhabitants,vv. 4-6, and, amid the fellow- high and low, rich and poor, equal, is suffering of the entire visible creation, alone brought forward, vv. 1-3 (the all the joy which was formerly often so mention of the priest in such a way boisterous will flee from the land which being very indicative of the age of this is falling into ruin, vv. 7-12. The prophet) : but immediately the higher figures of wine and joy from Joel, ch. i. truth also appears, that only because the — For, the discourse proceeds with new earth is desecrated and corrupted by the energy in the very burden of her debts, as it were, second strophe, certainly a complete leading his people (the righteous) to depopulation will be made in Palestina, victory : but this prophet is unable to which will spare or leave scarcely join in such jubilation, as he anticipates anything, ver. 13 after Isa. xvii. 6. for the immediate future nothing else It is true that now from the end than frightful devastation by barbarous of the earth (i.e., from Babylonia) warriors, vv. 14-16 ; for his part, he many poetical - prophetic solicitations must, with Yeremy a xlviii. 43, 44, pro- are heard to praise Yahve, both in phesy for this time endless calamity the West (in Palestina) and in the which none can escape, inasmuch as East, as now directly victorious and nothing less is impending than a second * Or more literally, " cozeners do cozen, and the covering cozeners do cozen away." — Tr. t Comp. Vol. III., p. 209.— Tk. III. B. 6. ANON. I.— "ISA." Ca. xxiv., xxv. 6-11. 27 shattered indeed is the earth, dashed dashed in pieces is earth, convulsed convulsed is earth, || stagger stagger will the earth like a drunken man, and be swayed to and fro like a ham- mock, | her transgressions will weigh her down, and she will fall to rise no more. || 3. But then on that day will Yahve visit the host of the height in the height, | and the kings of the earth upon the earth, | they will be gathered together as prisoners into the dungeon, and imprisoned in the prison, | and only after long years released :|| and the pale one will blush and the burning one turn white, | because Yahve of Hosts reigneth upon mount Ssion and in Jeru- xxv. salem, | shining in majesty before his Elders. || — And Yahve 6 of Hosts will make ready for all the nations upon this moun- tain a feast of fat things a feast of lees, | of marrowy fat things and refined lees ; || and he destroyeth upon this moun- tain the thick veil which veileth all the nations, ) and the woof which is woven over all the peoples, || destroyeth death for ever, | and Lord Yahve wipeth away tears from all faces, | and his people's reproach he removeth from the whole earth ! yea, Yahve hath spoken it. || — Then it is said on that day : " behold there is our God, in whom we hope that he may help us, | there is Yahve in whom we hope : let us rejoice and be glad in 10 his help !" || For Yahve's hand will rest upon this mountain, | but Moab will be crushed on his ground like strawheaps in the dunghill water, | and if he spread forth his arms therein as the swimmer doth in order to swim, | yet he layeth low his pride together with the joints of his hands. || Noachian chastisement and destruction divine wrath-blast like a hammock of the earth, which is so heavily op- driven hither and thither by the wind pressed by its burden of sin, and is vv. 17-20. Ver. 18 ad fin. after Gen. therefore swaying to and fro before the vii. 11; viii. 2. But, the third strophe begins in quite another glory in the restored ancient theocracy, strain: then precisely (after the wicked- vv. 21-23. Yes, precisely Ssion will ness has been destroyed by such a world- then witness the great spectacle of all catastrophe) Yahve will hold the great the nations of the earth resting around judgment over the wicked powers of it as the table of the noblest and most heaven and earth, but will himself be, refreshing food (sacrificial food), and as it were, visibly enthroned by the seeking there the true, i.e., spiritual, sanctuary at Ssion in his brightest satisfaction, ver 6 (like Matt. viii. 1 1 ; 28 III. B. 6. ANON. -2.— " ISA." Ch. xxv. 1-5; xxvi. 1-13. Rev. iii. 20) ; and the similar spectacle, of all the nations which are now so troubled and overwhelmed with cala- mity, before whose face there is as it were a thick veil drawn from anxiety and confusion (2 Sam. xv. 30), then suddenly here recovering sight and gladness by means of a higher light, by means of the true life, that is, which is also the true joy, and which Yahve ap- pointed for Israel primarily because it had suffered and endured the most, vv. 7, 8. Then hope in Yahve is never again wavering, when it is seen how firmly Yahve sustains Ssion, and how, on the other hand, proud Moab finds such a filthy end upon the battle-field, as it deserved according to its habits, Gen. xix., in vain applying its arts at the last moment in order to remain as it is, vv. 9-11. The figure used of Ver. 14, it is certainly more correct to read the imperat. Ivfl^ and D^S means according to the context the regions of light, i.e., in the East ; ver. 16, "T32 must be taken in its usual meaning precisely on account of Moab, vv. 10, 11, is not nice ; however, it must be remembered, in addition to the earlier legend, Gen. xix., that in the seventh and sixth century Moab, like Edoin, was nothing more than an example of incorrigible rebellion against Yahve ; this rebellion will still in the end, with its material arts, remain true to its own nature, will seek to save itself from the abyss by swimming with the strong joints of its hands without any reformation, but all in vain. — Vv. 21, 22, notwithstanding the brevity of the description, we already see quite the same new conception of the kinship of the great celestial and terrestrial powers of evil, comp. xxvii. 1, and of the confinement of the devil with his associates, as we have Rev. xix., xx., Jude ver. 6 ; 2 Pet. ii. 4. the paronomasia, especially as ver. 16 refers back to vv. 13, 1-3. ''T"), ver. 16 after Isa. xvii. 4. The construction, ver. 22, would be most easy if we might read nDDW in st. constr. 2. Prayer of the Community. Ch. xxv. 1-5 ; xxvi. 1-13. Each of the four strophes of the prayer of the nation con- sists of seven long members, or short verses, just like the lyric, xiv. 4 sq. A. vivid remembrance of the great overthrow of the city (Babel), which can never again rise from her ruin, makes itself felt through the first three strophes as the starting-point of this prayer and the reason for further help through Yahve : not until the fourth and last strophe is this reference dismissed. xxv. 1 Yahve my God art thou : I exalt thee I praise thy name, | that thou didst wonders, distant decrees are fidelity faithful- III. B. 6. ANON. 2.— "ISA." Ch. xxv. 1-5; xxvi. 1-13. 29 ness ! | for thou turnedst for them the city into rubbish, the fortified castle into ruins, | the palace of barbarians so that it is no more a city, never again to be built. || Therefore mighty people honour thee, the city of tyrannical Heathen feareth thee, | because thou wast a defence to the bowed down, a defence to the unfortunate in his distress, | a refuge from the storm a shade from the heat, when the snorting of the tyrants is as a storm to the wall. |] 2. As heat in drought thou puttest down the noise of the barbarians ; | as heat by the clouds' shadow bringeth he low the 12 song of the tyrants, | and the high fortress of thy walls hath xxvi. he sunk down laid low hurled to the earth to the dust. | At 1 that day will this song be suiig in the land of Yuda : We have a strong castle, salvation give walls and moat ; open the gates that a righteous nation which keepeth faith may enter !" Firm is the hope : peace peace wilt thou confirm ! because men trust in thee. || 3. Trust in Yahve for evermore ! for in Yah Yahve is an eternal rock ; || for he hath humbled those proudly enthroned, the strong city he layeth low, | layeth it low unto the earth, hurleth it into the dust, || the foot treadeth it down, the foot of In the first strophe, vv. 1-4, Yahve is Yahve humbles the proud exultation of praised just because this marvellous the tyrants (Chaldeans), and hurls the devastation furnishes a proof, first, that proud fortress of the Chaldean into the the most distant counsels of Yahve and dust, in the future a festive multitude such as seem impossible of execution, singing joyous songs will travel to the are nevertheless in the end always temple full of confidence in Yahve, accomplished in such a way as is to be believing that they possess in Yahve expected from the faithful God (for and his sanctuary a better fortress than Babel's overthrow had already been Babel was, xxv. 5, 12 ; xxvi. 1-3, foretold by Y eremy a), and, secondly, that comp. lx. 18; Ps. cxviii. 19, 20, these he is the strong defence of the helpless passages probably being taken for imi- when the hot snorting wrath of the tation. — Therefore, the third strophe, tyrants breaks loose against them like a vv. 4-8, goes on, let Him be trusted as tempest against a weak wall, comp. in all time so at present, let Him be xxviii. 2. — Yea, the second strophe, trusted, who is not only mighty but xxv. 5, 12 ; xxvi. 1-3, accordingly con- also judges men according to the same tinues, because it is now seen how righteousness which man must set 30 III. B. 6. ANON. 3.— "ISA" Ch. xxvi. 14— xxvii. the poor, the steps of the oppressed. || The path for the righteous is straightforwardness : straight weighest thou the track of the righteous, || and for the path of thy judgments — O Yahve we wait for thee ! | unto thy name and unto thy memorial is the desire of the soul. || 4. With my soul I desire thee in the night, and with my spirit within me I seek thee : | for as soon as thy judgments get to the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness ; || ] if the wicked is pardoned he doth not learn righteousness, in the land of equity he committeth wrong and seeth not Tahve's majesty. || Yahve exalted is thy right hand — they behold it not : | let them behold (and be ashamed) the zeal of thy people, and the fire of thine enemies let it devour them ! || Yahve, thou wilt ordain peace for us : surely thou also gavest us all our benefactions: || Yahve our God, other lords than thou rule over us : thee only do we praise, thy name ! || before him and imitate in his daily who have been as it seems too long walk ; the righteous (i.e., the true Com- unchastised, may not through longer munity) desire nothing but judgment forbearance too grievously sin against from Him, a revelation of his righteous- Israel; may He, from whom Israel ness at the present time. — But, the declares that it receives all its benefits, fourth strophe, vv. 9-13, concludes, this and whom it resolves alone to serve, judgment is now most intensely longed bring peace instead of the devastating for in order that the enemies of Yahve, war 1 The 12 of 1*V12, xxv. 2, it might transition of the thought. — ~)!?n, xxvi. seem better to omit as in the way: but 3, must be derived from ~)!£\ in ac- attached to D12W as CPlpffi', it fur- cordance with the corresponding nishes a good meaning, ace. § 315 b. — ri£tt?n, ver. 12, which gives rise to As ver. 5 b, the address to Yahve one of the paronomasia? which are so changes into the third person, it cannot frequent in this prophet. — Ver. 9 after be surprising that the tyrant himself Ps. xvi. 7 ; ver. 1 1 b after 2 Kings i. should be immediately addressed, ver. 10 sq. ; ver. 13, "|72t27 is simply explica- 12, though this is done only in a rapid «ive of *"[3. 3. Final explanation. Appearing now as mediator between the Community thus praying and its eternal Lord, the prophet in the first strophe refers to the manner in which the present calamity is to be III. B. 6. ANON. 3.-" ISA." C . xxvi. 14— xxvu. 31 borne with true believing patience ; in the second strophe he turns his glance to the salvation of the future, which is, never- theless, certain ; and in the third he concludes, not without casting a backward glance even here at Babel, which has now fallen, all his joyous promises to the Community. 1. Dead men do not live again, Shades do not rise again : | therefore visitedst thou and destroyedst thou, and madest to 15 perish every remembrance of them. || Thou addest to the nation, O Yahve, thou addest to the nation glorifyest thyself, | widenest all the borders of the land ! || Yahve ! in distress they sought thee, [ a charmed circle of defence was thy chastening unto them ; || as one with child who is about to give birth, who in her pains labom^eth and crieth, | so were we trembling before thee O Yahve ! || we were with child we laboured : when we had given birth it was wind ; | unto salvation we wrought not the earth, neither were inhabitants of the land born ! || O that thy dead men might live again, my corpses rise again ! || Awake and shout for joy ye inhabitants of the dust! | for quickening dew is thy dew, and the earth will give birth to Shades ! || — Go my people into thy chambers, and shut thy doors behind thee, | hide thee a little while, till the indigna- tion passeth over ! || The prophet appearing as mediator in travail is in alarm, the nation afier this prayer of the nation (comp. trembled, praying full of profound fear, ver. 16), in the first instance, ver. 14, before Yahve, vv. 16, 17 ; and indeed advances the proposition, that past the painful crisis of the exile was as the times, the dead who cannot rise again, time of birth-pangs (Hos. xiii. 13) : and accordingly the earlier Israelites, but unhappily it now- appears that they who were really destroyed on account had passed through their birth-throes in of their sins, must not be grieved about. vain; now that the exile is past the fruit But at the same time the prophetic of the birth-pangs will not show itself, truth also remains valid, that Yahve is the Holy Land remains without pros- the eternal augmenter of the nation, in peritf, without children (i.e., without whom the diminished and weakened numerous inhabitants, comp. lxvi. 7, 8); nation must continue to hope, ver. 15 ; is that then part of the divine purpose? in the exile, accordingly, in the great O certainly not ! O that, on the distress, the nation full of true patience contrary, He whose word is like re- and resignation prayed to Yahve, viving dew, would call forth the dead finding in their sufferings nothing but of the Holy Land from their dust and Yahv e's chastisement, yea, as a woman grave, that Ssion might again become as 20 32 III. B. 6. ANON. 3.— "ISA." Ch. xxvi. 14— xxvii. For behold Taliye will come up out of his place to visit the guilt of the inhabitant of the earth upon him, | and the earth discovereth her deeds of blood, and no longer concealeth her xxvii. murdered ones. || At that day will Yahve with his sword the 1 cruel and great and strong one visit the monster the fleet serpent, and the monster the ringed serpent, | and slay the dragon which is in the sea. || At that day of the lovely vineyard sing ye thus : I Yahve am its keeper, every moment I water it, lest a visitation come upon it night and day I keep it ; wrath I have not ; should I get thorns and thistles, with war would I walk through them ! would kindle them at once, unless they laid hold of my protection, they made peace with me, peace they made with me ! In time to come Yaqob will take root, Israel will blossom and bud forth, | and they will fill the face of the kingdom of the world with fruits. II richly peopled and as prosperous as in David's time! vv. 18, 19, after Ezek. xxxvii. And before the first strophe closes an answer is sent back from heaven such as can be given in response to such a prayer from both the nation and the prophet : the wrath, i.e , the world - catastrophe threatened xxiv. 2-20, will indeed come, yet let Israel second strophe, in the world-storms after all it is only the righteous avenger of old barbarities who appears ; happy therefore the nation which has no blood guiltiness to answer for, ver. 21 ; the three monsters which lay waste the world alone have to fear, xxvii. 1 (comp. li. 9 ; Ezek. xxix. 3, et al., probably an allusion to united Medo-Persia and maintain composure, withdraw itself a little while into its chambers, until it goes over without reaching it ! ver. 20 ; and a small nation, such as Jerusalem at the commencement of its restoration, can easily hide itself more quietly from such world-storms. — For, the prophetic discourse goes on to explain, in the Egypt, comp. Ps. lxviii. 31 from the same period); and on the same day when this great universal judgment is completed, may sound forth songs of praise upon Ssion, the fair vineyard, which ( as will then be generally known) Yahve carefully guards and cultivates : he who is not full of anger but really a gracious God, but who, III. B. 6. ANON. 3.— "ISA." Ch. xxvi. 14— xxvir. 33 3. Did he smite it then as him who smote it, [ or is it slain as its slayers ? || — driving her forth sending her away, thou didst contend with her ; | he thrust her forth with his rough blast on the day of the storm. || Therefore by this is Yaqob's guilt atoned for, and this is the whole fruit of the removal of his sins, | when it maketh all altar stones as shivered brim- stones, so that the idol-groves and sun-cones may arise ro 10 more. || — For the fenced city is alone, a tract cast out and forsaken like the desert, | there calves feed and lie down, and consume its branches ; || when its shoots are dry they are broken, women come set them on fire : | for it is not a nation of understanding, therefore its creator compassionateth it not, and its foi'mer is not gracious to it. || " And on that day will Yahve beat out from the ears of the Euphrates unto the brook of Egypt, | and ye will be gleaned one by one ye sons of Israel ! || And on that day the great trumpet will be blown j and those who were lost in the land of Assyria come and the outcasts in the land of Egypt | and do homage to Yahve upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem." || should thorns and thistles, i.e.. bar- these enemies should be converted to barous enemies (comp. 2 Sam. xxiii. peaceful intentions and seek the true 6, 7) desire to approach this vineyard, protection, vv. 2-5, after v. 6, 7 ; x. 17: would in a moment set on fire and yea, Israel will in the future flourish wholly consume these dry thistles by again ! ver. 6. simply passing through them, unless Indeed, Israel is after all, the last remains an eternally waste place, where strophe begins, not by far so seriously flocks pasture (v. 17), and dry brush- smitten, or even slain, as is the Chal- wood for breaking off and burning dean who smote it, or even desired to grows, as in the desert, vv. 10, 11, the slay it, in the exile, ver. 7 : on the Heathen who now occupy the Holy contrary, a simple thrusting of the un- Land will be as easily driven out of it faithful Community into the exile was as the chaff is carried away by the wind all he did on the day of punishment, from fine threshed corn, but the Israelites ver. 8, the same idea as 1. 1-3 ; hence living in the Holy Land will not only the simple removal of the idols (which be preserved (as the grains of such corn the nation now after the exile really are carefully and one by one picked up), put away) is all that he also requires to but also all those who are scattered in reconcile him, vex - . 9. Whilst Babel, foreign lands will be gathered to them, on account of the folly of its inhabitants, Vv. 12, 13 refer back to xxvi. 15, 19. The per/, xxvi. 15 ace. § 223 b. and may also be construed with the As xxvi. 16 1'lp^ can be read "2 of the foregoing 1 ^2 it might be id be derived from p^ like "p^jb, conjectured that WTlb should be read 5 3 34 III. B. 6. ANON. 3.— "ISA." Ch. xxvi. 14— xxvii. instead of tt?n V ; in the distress was "thy chastisement " whispered by them, or, they whispered in prayer that the dis- tress was only thy chastisement, accord- ingly to be borne patiently ; as indeed this prophet particularly likes such brief insertions, comp. xxiv. 16 ; xxvi. 3 ; Jer. 1. 46. Still, an easier course is to compare VP^ witn Etl1, s . a 1 uan > or, rather with Eth. saquen, which as regards its formation is still better : as this word can signify an inclusive paling or ring, we obtain in this pas- sage the figure of a magic circle out of which the man that is put within it cannot pass (comp. 73V^U, Ht sio H/ of Israel, V., 398 (IV., 519), as if the divine chastisement and distress had at that time drawn round them the magic circle of true fear and of prayer out of which they must thus learn not to pass.— On "On, ver. 20, see § 224 c ; ver. 21 like job- xvi. 19.— xxvii. 2 read "Tttn. Ver. 7 it appears on all con- siderations much better and not too strong to read V^nn as part. act. On Ht'DSp ver. 8, as it is best punctuated, see § 88 d. 1I1S "Tfisb ver. 12. is tcara 'iva ekckjtov, one by one, so that not a grain remains un- gleaned. It is quite evident that vv. 12, 13 and ver. 9 are Yesaianic as regards language and matter ; ver. 9 transfers us to a time when the removal of the idols appeared of itself sufficient as a fruit or consequence of an inward reformation.* * In his last work, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott,Vo\. III., p. 444 note, the author adds to his commentary on the above piece the following : " The words xxvii. 10, 11. as well as vv. 9, 12, 13, may have been cited from a work of Yesaya's by the writer; the words have quite the same ring as xxxii. 10-14 ; xxx. 9 19; ix. 16 ; v. 17 ; and the strong city, ver. 10, can in that case be Jerusalem in Yesaya's own sense. Perhaps the words xxv. 6-8, 10, 11 also are from the eighth century and by Yesaya himself."— Te. C— IN THE NEW JERUSALEM. The hope of a restoration of Jerusalem was fulfilled ; a new temple shall arise, the endeavour shall be made also to form some kind of state. In such circumstances there appear pro- phets again after the manner of ancient times, who once more lay aside the reserve of anonymity and write in their own names with an exact specification of dates. This revival of the ancient form of prophetic literature followed in conse- quence of the public labours of the prophets in a new body politic. The first years of the reign of king Dareios moreover were calculated to excite the prophetic activity to attempt everything which was possible in order to further the progress of the good cause in the restoration of Jerusalem. The Persian kingdom, as we now know more particularly from the Dareios inscriptions of those years, once more underwent the most violent convulsions : and there is plain allusion to such general world-storms in Hag. ii. 6, 21, 22 ; Zech. ii. 1-4. According to Zech. i. 12, it immediately recurred very vividly to the memory, that seventy years would soon have fled since the destruction of Jerusalem, aud Yeremya's prophecy con- cerning a Messianic prosperity after seventy years appeared possible of much more complete fulfilment now than under Kyros. But it is in vain that the Shades desire to live again : we behold the power of prophecy irrecoverably decline and die, and these feeble endeavours in the new time simply prove that the genuine ancient prophecy could not be reproduced, and that that revival in the anonymous pieces at the end of the exile was destined to remain the last fair afterbloom of the ancient noble stock. Two causes co-operated to promote this final decay : the publicity and freedom of national life, this 3 * 36 III. C. 1. HAGGAI. sound and vigorous root of ancient prophecy, very soon wholly disappeared again under the Persian rule, and Mal'akhi has already ceased to follow Haggai and Zakkaiya by writing as a public man ; and at the same time the letter of the ancient law and the spiritual timidity connected therewith became pre- dominant in the Community, whilst only one of these two causes would have been of itself sufficient to produce the essential ruin of the ancient prophetism. Accordingly there were strictly speaking only the two prophets Haggai and Zakharya who ventured once more to labour both in speaking and writing exactly like the ancient prophets, as is also briefly related of them Ezra v. 1. 1. HAGGAI. The unexpected hindrances put in the way of the building of the second temple, which had been begun with the greatest hope (Ezra iii.), enkindled the prophetic zeal of Haggai to lift up in the new Jerusalem as it arose from its ruins the voice of the ancient prophets. His five discourses, which are written down with the exact date of each, all belong to three months of the same year, and were without doubt shortly after their delivery committed to writing by him when their happy effect began to show itself and the small, weak Community prose- cuted the work of building with fresh zeal, Ezra v. 1. Pro- bably Haggai belonged to the few, once mentioned by himself, ii. 3, who had seen the first temple, and accordingly willingly resigned his further prophetic activity, after fresh zeal for the great work had been revived, to the younger prophet Zakharya, who begins to speak almost exactly at the point where Haggai leaves off. Still, it must be granted that we do not here again hear the high power of the voice of the ancient prophets of Jerusalem ; the general oppression under which the nation suffered in those times weighs upon Haggai also in his capacity of prophet, his III. C. 1. HAGGAI, I.-Ch. i. 1-11. 37 style is sensibly more depressed and meagre, his handling of his subject lacks the combination of compression and fulness which is met with in the earlier prophets. And as the entire natioual life of the people was then only just seeking in the best way possible to recover itself somewhat from complete disorganization, the external features of Hagg&r's language even bear visible traces of the endeavour to recover once more the purity of the ancient language, and yet at the same time it departs in many peculiar usages from its older and established form in an important degree, e.g., in the expression ^SD ^Tlhs, {{, S, instead of which the ancients would have said more simply }\-o N-ln it is as nothing ; in D ?™ V$, ii. 17, instead of E?^, as if it were no longer enough to subordinate the pron. suff. imme- diately to "pS; and in the construction N2 on'vnp^ jj_ X6. In all these peculiarities one may also see signs of the advanced age of this prophet, as other prophetic writers about that time, and particularly his immediate successor Zakharya, affect quite different linguistic characteristics. Many lyrics from this first period of the dissolution of the noble past and the commencement of an entirely different age, present lin- guistic peculiarities of a most marked character, comp. Dichter des Alten Bundes, I. b, p. 378 a. 1. Exhortation to promote the building of the temple. Ch. i. 1-11. As the zeal of the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem, who were it is true still few in numbers and in necessitous circum- stances, had slackened in the prosecution of the work of rebuilding the temple, Haggai shows to them the folly of excessive care with regard to their own comfort, inasmuch as, after all, the material comfort of the individual without any respect to things of universal import and the direction of labour and toil to higher ends, cannot be attended by any divine blessing (comp. from the same time Ps. cxxvii.). And 38 III. C. I. HAGGAI, I.-Ch. i. 1-11. a sign from heaven itself seemed to confirm this. For in the years immediately preceding, when this selfish tendency and anxious care for their own bread had become predominant, the yield of the fields was after all far below their expectations and increasingly painful scarcity oppressed all : as if Yahve himself intended still more plainly and as it were in anger to prove to those who thus already knew that they were under condemnation, how litule the individual is able perforce to seize prosperity by such care and haste. This is accordingly insisted upon twice, vv. 5, 6, and vv. 7-11, comp. Ps. lxvii. i. 1 In the second year of Dareios the king in the sixth month, on the first day of the month Yahve 's word came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubabel the son of Sh'altiel the governor of Ynda and to Yosna the son of Yossadaq the high priest saying : || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts in these words : ] these people say, "it is not a time to come, a time for the house of Yahve to be built." || But Yahve 's word came by Haggai the prophet saying : |[ Have ye yourselves time to dwell in your 5 finely wainscoted houses, | while this house lieth waste ? || Now therefore, thus saith Yahve of Hosts : | give heed thereto how it fareth with you ! || ye have sown much, of ingathering there is little ! — ye eat but it serves not to satisfy, drink but it serves not to drinking enough, clothe you but it serves not to warm you ! | and he who hireth himself, hireth himself for a slit purse! || -Thus saith Yahve of Hosts: | give heed thereto how it fareth with you ! || ascend the mountain that ye may bring wood, and build ye the House, | that I may have pleasure therein and feel myself honoured ! saith Yahve. || Ye hope for much and behold it comes to little, and if ye gather it in into In addition to the two heads he conld cularly, vv. 1-3, the style is more than at the commencement, i. 1, just as well usually cumbrous ; although Haggai as i. 12, 14 ; ii. 2. 4, have mentioned the generally likes to mention his prophetic rest of the people, as he evidently in- commission twice, i. 12, 13. The tended them also: but he is here content expression the rest of the people has to name those two only as the principal plainly in these passages quite another men of the Community. It is moreover reference and sense than in Zech. viii. observable that at the beginning parti- 6, 11. 12. III. C. 1. HAGGA1, 2.— Ch. i. 12-15. 39 the house then I blow it away ! | wherefore ? saith Yahve of Hosts : " because of my house that lieth waste, whilst ye run 10 every one into his house ; || therefore unto you heaven refuseth of the clew, j aucl the earth refuseth her produce, || and I called a drought upon the earth and upon the mountains, upon the corn and upon the must and upon the oil and upon what- ever the earth bringeth forth, | and upon the men and upon the cattle | and upon every labour of the hand." || Ver. 2. These people (as Isa. vi. 9) say, when they are summoned, It is not the time to come ! that is, to the site of the temple, to work there, vt. 9, 14; ii. 4; the second member explains this further. And in reality Haggai was on that account compelkd to address the people at a new moon, because they probably came together to the site of the temple at no other time during the whole month. — Ver. 5 and vv. 7, 8, ver. 6 and vv. 9-11 correspond to each other in such a way that both the admonition to be more attentive to their own circumstances and therefore more active with regard to higher purposes, and the explanation of those circum- D^IID, ver. 4, tbe art. is inten- tionally omitted ; the Y? in y? Dh, ver. 6, comes from the phrase ^v DFt § 294 b. stances are more exhaustive and lengtby in the second reference to them. The present condition of the people is, that they sow and hope much but reap little, and even what is reaped is soon as if blown away, that tbe blessing is absent both from above and from below. This condition they ought to lay to heart and to perceive that their past course of self-seeking does not really profit them, they ought to take part in the higher work, e.g., to go or send to the mountain, i.e., Lebanon (Ps. exxxii. 6), to fetcb suitable cedar wood for the decoration of the temple, since what was first fetched, ace. Ezra iii. 7, might not be sufficient. • I3P, ver. 10, we have the Greek genitive with verbs of giving and re- fusing ; dew was not altogether with- held, but sufficient had not fallen. 2. Its effect As this discourse did not remain without effect and the whole nation exhibited a will to work, Haggai added the same day some farther words of divine encouragement and favour, vv. 12, 13. And as a fact they began the interrupted work with new zeal, and for this purpose assembled together on an appointed day, the 21th of the same month, vv. 14, 15. Then hearkened Zerubabel son of Sh'altiel and Tosua son of Yossadaq the high priest and all the rest of the people to the voice of Yahve their God and unto the words of Haggai 40 III. C. 1. HAGGAI, 3,-Ch. ii. 1-9. the prophet, as Yahve their God had sent him, and they feared before Yahve ; and Haggai the messenger of Yahve spoke with the message of Yahve to the people saying : I am with you ! saith Yahve. — Thus Yahve stirred up the spirit of Zerubabel son of Sh'altiel governor of Yuda and the spirit of Yosua son of Yossadaq the high priest and the spirit of all the rest of the people, so that they came and did work in the 15 house of Yahve of Hosts their God on the four-and- twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Dareios the king. 3. The Messianic hope of the temple. Ch. ii. 1-9. As therefore the building of the temple was thus zealously prosecuted, it was all the more painfully observable how great was the lack of sufficient means to decorate the temple in a worthy manner. The largest portion of the new inhabitants of the land were poor, the rich appear to have remained more in foreign countries, and the dawn of the Messianic age, for which hope had been so strong towards the end of the exile, still seemed as if it would not come. Nevertheless Haggai here inspires the labourers with a higher courage, and points them to a better time when even Foreigners and Heathen will lay aside their present coldness and indifference toward Yahve's kingdom, so that the temple-edifice, just commenced with such meagre resources, will be even more magnificent than the former one. ii. 1 In the seventh, on the one-and-twentieth of the month, came Yahve's word by Haggai the prophet saying : Say now to Zerubabel son of Sh'altiel the governor of Yuda and to Yosua son of Yossadaq the high priest and to the rest of the people thus : Who is there among you yet surviving who saw this house in its former splendour ? | and how do ye see it now ? is not the like of it as nothing in your eyes ? || — Yet now — be brave Zerubabel ! saith Yahve, and be brave Yosua the son of III. C. 1. HAGOAI, 3.— Ch. ii. 1-9. 41 Yossadaq the high priest, and be brave all people of the land and work ye ! | for I am with you, saith Yahve of Hosts, || by that word which I covenanted with yon when ye came ont of Egypt and my spirit stood in your midst : | fear ye not ! || For thus saith Tahve of Hosts : yet one little while is it | and I shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, || and I shake all the nations, so that the high treasures of all nations may come : | then I fill this house with splendour, saith Yahve of Hosts. || Mine is the silver and mine the gold, | saith Yahve of Hosts ; || greater will be the latter splendour of this house than the former, saith Yahve of Hosts, | and in this place will I put peace, saith Yahve of Hosts. II A thing which is so small and humble at its commencement as this edifice may well appear to you as really nothing ! must here, ver. 3, be said to those who are prone to doubt. But courage they can and must take, and bravely give themselves to the work which is now necessary, if they only remember the similarly feeble and depressing com- mencement of the foundation of the nation of the covenant and the similar divine exhortation not to yield to human fear, vv. 4, 5 : the passage of which they are reminded is from the history For the phrase ]?SD ^PlbS ver. 3, taken rather from common lite, comp. § 105b: it is found exactly in this form here only. For the flN, ver. 5, in a broken sentence, see § 329 a. It might also be conjectured that some such word as remember ! were understood here, after the manner of broken sentences, comp. Zech. vii. 7 : however, it is sufficient to take the words as a reference almost in the form of an oath to the ancient sacred utterance. Haggai calls to mind the power of the Spirit of God in those times under Moses in the same way as of the covenant, Ex. xx. 20. For soon, vv. 6, 7, comp. vi. 21, 22, will the universe and will the nations lose their present inactivity and coldness, and the choice treasures of all the nations, e. g., of the rich Babylonians, Zech. vi. 8, 10-15, shall come to the temple: for if they come they bring also plentiful gifts by which the splendour of the temple is increased ; and at all events if Yahve desires this splendour, he will certainly bring it, vv. 8, 9. The com- parison ver. 8 like Job xlii. 12. the great anonymous prophet " Isa." lix. 21; lxiii. 11. /inS ? ver. 6, may be added to l53?Xp in order to intensify the meaning, as in the English phrase but one minute (Germ, noch Sine minute!), comp. some- thing similar Isa. xxix. 17; x. 25. This could be done the more easily if Z057Q really signified a definite very small portion of time and in that way was treated as a fem. With regard to n^pn, ver. 7, comp. History of Israel, V., p. Ill (IV., p. 145). 4:2 III. C. 1. HAGGAI, 4,-Ch. ii 10-19. 4. The true sacrifice. Ch. ii. 10-19. Soon after this some, those perhaps who had for a long time brought considerable offerings, appear to have complained of the continuance of the times of distress and therefore the use- lessness of their offerings. In opposition to this Haggai shows that both in conformity with the nature of the case, vv. 11-14, and the testimony of history, vv. 15-19, none of the past offerings had been the genuine acceptable ones, and that only from this time forth, with the newly kindled and lasting zeal, the divine blessing could be expected. 10 On the four-ancl-twentieth of the ninth, in the second year of Dareios came Yahve 's word by Haggai the prophet, saying : Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : | Ask now the priests for in- struction in these words : || if one beareth consecrated flesh in the skirt of his garment and toucheth with his skirt the bread and the broth and the wine and the oil or any meat whatsoever, is it consecrated ? | Then answered the priests and said "No !" || And Haggai said : if one unclean from some one toucheth all that, becometh it unclean ? | Then answered the priests and said, " It doth !" || and Haggai answered and said : So is this people and so this nation before me, saith Yahve, and so is all the work of their hands : | — and that which they 15 there offer is unclean. || — And now, bethink ye then from this day and backward, | before one stone was laid upon As regards the nature of the caee, good by the simple presentation of it vv. 11-14, let the priests themselves, upon a pure altar; on the other hand, who gain such a preponderating respect the uncleanness spreads over everything in the community, give the decision as which it touches, and if a man who is to it in accordance with their ancient unclean from having touched something sacred principles ! As the healthy man impure, e.g., a dead body, touches any coming to a sick one does not make him material thing, it is rendered unclean well by his simple presence, but will be (Num. xix. 11-22, comp. Antiquities of probably himself infected by him, so Israel, p. 198 sq. (169 sq.). Therefore neither can holiness according to ancient a man must himself first be pure if Mosaic laws externally communicate he will expect that all that he begins itself by mere contact (Lev. vi. 20, A.V. and gains and offers before God shall be ver. 27), and no offering which an deemed pure and good ; and because the unclean man brings is made pure and nation a? a whole is at present still III. C. I. HAGGAI, 4.-Ch. ji. 10-19. 43 another in Yahve's temple : || as often as one came to a corn- heap of twenty [measures], there were ten, | came to the wine press to draw fifty buckets, there were twenty ; || I smote you with parched-corn and with yellow-corn, and with hail all the work of your hands : | and yet ye were not good towards me ! saith Yahve. || Bethink yourselves then from to-day and backward, from the four-and-twentieth day of the ninth to the day when Yahve's temple was founded bethink you : || was there then still the seed in the barn, and even the vine and the fig and the pomegranate and the olive-tree did not bear ! | From this day will I bless ! || unclean, its toils and labours, e.g., in the field, as well as its offerings, con- tinue to lack true purity and honour before Yahve. There, ver. 14, i.e., upon the provisional al'ar near the temple, Ezra iii. 2. — The same con- clusion is obtained with greater parti- cularity by a reference to the entire history of the last years since the return of these exiles into the midst of the ruins of Jerusalem and the commence- ment of the erection of the temple: a thought which is here worked out twice, vv. 15-17 and vv. 18, 19. All along there was painful deficiency : a corn-heap from which twenty measures of threshed corn might from its size be expected, yielded after it was threshed only ten measures, a pressfat where, to judge from the vineyard to which it belonged, fifty buckets might be ex- pected yielded only twenty ; there was scarcely left in the barn the seed for the new year, and even the fruit-trees did not bear, the heavens were unfavourable to husbandry (ver. 17 from Amosiv. 9), comp. with what was said above i. 6-11, and thereby the proof was given that offerings and offerers were still unclean; whilst the nation for a long time refused to acknowledge this and to show re- pentance ! From this time forth only, since the fresh zeal no more slackens, will the blessing begin to come! — Thus everything is clear as soon as the fact is not overlooked, that this dis- course quickly followed those of ch. i. and during the continuance of similar circumstances. The unusual phrase S3 DriVna ver. 16, must be understood so that it as well as the following S3 is a part., the part, used together with 7V*71 according to § 168 c, and *]T2 as in "'"•TQ indicates the commencement of a point of time, § 337 ad fin., while the force of ^ in this instance is found iii the part, with i"Pn ; the sing, and plur. are used ace. § 319 a. "Ver. 17 "PS^ should be connected T T - with a following member in opposition to the accents, and it is not in the epiotations from Amos. — As regards OSnS "pS, see § 262 d; and as regards ^7S in such a phrase § 217 c. 44 III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA. 5. Joyous message to Zerubabel. Ch. ii. 20-23. To Zerubabel, on the other hand, the zealous head of the Community, the man of David's house and the hope of his time, with whom Messianic hopes were associated, Haggai spoke on the same day a few words of simple comfort and promise : 20 And Yahve's word came once more unto Haggai on the four- and-twentieth of the month saying : Say unto Zerubabel the governor of Yuda thus : I shake soon the heavens and the earth, || and overthrow the throne of kingdoms and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the Heathen, | I overthrow the chariot and its driver, so that the horses come down with their drivers, one by the sword of another ! || On that day, saith Yahve of Hosts, will I take thee Zerubabel son of Sh'altiel my servant, saith Yahve, and regard thee as the signet-ring ; I for in thee have I delight ! saith Yahve of Hosts. || Vv. 21-22 the arrival of the Messianic thee and regard thee as the signet-ring time is described pretty much as in i.e., preserve thee as the most precious vv. 6, 7, and Zech. xiv. 12, 13. — Take gem, from Cant. viii. 6. 2. ZAKHARYA. It is only in a few respects that Zakharya differs from Haggai. His longer book, ch. i. — viii., deals with more sub- jects, although the chief subject in his case also is the erection of the temple. His language has already grown firmer and more precise, in outward form it is again more like the earlier language ; of later irregularities it has in common with Haggai not much more than the use of the accusative particle DN at the commencement of unfinished sentences, vii. 7; viii. 17; Hag. ii. 5. According to all appearances he was younger in years than Haggai : as though he belonged to a new age, he III. C 2. ZAKHARYA, I.— Ch. i. 1-6. 45 constantly refers back to the earlier prophets and their utter- ances, and admonishes his hearers not to become like their forefathers, i. 2-6; vii. 7-14; viii. 14; the distinctive charac- teristic of the new as compared with the older time, that which mainly agitates and determines the new time, is expressed much more plainly in Zakharya than in Haggai ; he has particularly the most cheerful views and the most exube- rant hopes of the present and the future. Further, a youthful, very luxuriant, and active imagination distinguishes this prophet and is the cause of a peculiarity which completely separates him from Haggai and constitutes the chief portion of his book — the presentation of a series of very artistically arranged and clearly drawn visions. And the fact that in the employment of representations of divine things he even goes far beyond the innovations introduced by Hezeqiel, becomes, indeed, the author of a new kind of prophetic vision, is another proof that he had obtained his education in Eastern parts of the world. Comp. History of Israel, V., 183 sq. (IV., 237 sq.) An inno- vation of importance for that day is the introduction by this prophet of the use of the Aramaic names for the months, comp. Antiquities of Israel, p. 456 sq. (Eng. Trans., p. 345 sq.) The book contains three pieces arranged as in Haggai exactly according to their dates. But of the three pieces the second is essentially the most important portion of the entire book, where the prophet endeavours to bring together in a great series of visions all the hopes, wishes, and forebodings of that memorable sacred year of the reign of Dareios; the first piece is a brief general admonition, serving as a preface ; the third was occasioned by an entirely different matter and was written two years later. I. Preface. Ch.i. 1-6. Would that the new Israel which is now being formed may 46 III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, T.—Ca. i. 1-6. be a better nation, having taken warning from the great example of the past ! The fathers, who did not hearken to the ancient prophets, recognized the lesson of the past too late, they are no more, neither are the prophets immortal and may perhaps soon wholly cease to appear (as in fact was the case) : their words only have been found valid and remain eternally valid : would therefore that the new Israel might seek salvation from them alone ! — It is as if in these few words the whole spirit which henceforth actually guided the new nation to the most conscientious observance of the ancient religion found expression. i. 1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Dareios, came Yahve's word to Zakharya son of Berekhya son of Tddo the prophet, saying : Yahve hath been angry with your fathers, yes angry ! || Therefore say unto them : thus saith Yahve of Hosts " Turn ye unto me," saith Yahve of Hosts, | " that I may turn unto you !" saith Yahve of Hosts. || Be ye not as your fathers to whom the former prophets cried saying " Thus saith Yahve of Hosts, turn now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds !" | but tbey heard not and listened not unto me, saith 5 Yahve. || Your fathers — where are they? | and the prophets — will they live for ever ? [| only my words and laws, which I commanded my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers, | so that they came to themselves and said '•Like as Yahve of Hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our deeds, so hath he dealt with us !" || How profound is the foreboding undertook the bold venture of labouring question, will the prophets live for in Jerusalem in his day like one of the ever? and how accurately it touches old prophets, had been seized by the the real truth of the matter, almost more overwhelming presentiment that contrary to what was desired 1 ver. 5. the higher conditions for such an under- It is really as if this young prophet, taking were still wanting and were not precisely at the same moment when he again to be supplied. III. C. 2. ZAKHARTA, II.— Ch. i. 7— vi. 8. 47 II. The seven visions. Ch. i. 7— vi. 8. All that the prophet in other respects desires and hopes for his time he presses into a most highly artistic series of visions, which as forming a connected whole must be conceived as making up a long dream. When that moment comes upon a prophet that his spirit, as wholly absorbed in the divine spirit and lost to all the outward world, simply lives in the new representations and thoughts with which that spirit floods his, he then lies as in a state of sleep though in the most vivid dream. Zakharya longs most intensely to see a new and better day arise for the kingdom of God : at present it is for that king- dom dark night ; he accordingly falls at evening into the long, most varied, and equally vivid dream of a night when he feels himself surrounded and elevated by simply celestial forms, places, symbols and voices, when it becomes clear to him near the divine throne how out of all the confusion of the dark time gradually a new bright day, and one more according to the divine purpose, will arise, and when he only wakes up to announce to his friends what he had seen of this unfolding of a better coming day and of the conditions of this Messianic future. A dream permits the most vivid and varied unfolding of new and surprising phenomena, which pass before the eye in such a way that the dreamer often does not himself know at once what they are. But in this case the interpreter of the symbols is no longer Yahve as in the case of Amos, Vol. I., 194 sq., but the prophetic spirit, conceived here as a person, or as one of the principal angels, and called the angel that spoke with me;* this angel knows Yahve and his mind, intercedes with him for others, utters his commands and prophecies, so that at times Yahve himself interchanges with him, iii. 2 ; in some passages where he shows greater independent activity, he is called also * Oomp.cn this "2 ~)2^T, § 217 /. 3; in the fourth book of Ezra we still meet with loqui in .... bearing this force, even in the Vulgate {i.e , at third hand). 48 IH. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II.— Ch. i. 7— vi. 8. the angel of Yahve, i. 12; iii. 1-6 ; comp. Vol. IV., p. 13 sq. In addition to him other higher or subordinate angels appear, just as the symbol in each case requires. The most important thing is that the seven highest spirits, or eyes of Yahve, are already introduced into the symbolic representations as well- known beings, ch. iii. and iv. (comp. History of Israel, V., 184 (IV., 239); in fact the sacred number seven deter- mines for our prophet the order and arrangement of all his visions, for with great art he brings forward a well- arranged series of exactly seven visions, which passed by in a night and as in one long dream from evening to morning, i. 8; vi. 1-8. The first three describe the present condition of the new Jerusalem, and, which is of much greater importance, how it is to be helped and what a glorious Messianic future is before it ; the fourth and the fifth confine themselves in similar sense to the two heads of the kingdom at that time, already mentioned by Haggai; but the sixth and the seventh set forth in symbols the fact that only a completely purified and sanctified land can supply the first condition of the prosperity of the Messianic age ; until the last, reverting to the commencement, describes how all this sevenfold vision which had been seen in one night begins really to find fulfilment with the morning of a new day. While, therefore, two double visions are placed together after the first three, and these double visions are followed by a single one as a con- clusion, we have the groups of three and four within the whole number of seven. Comp. the article in the Theologische Studien und Kritiken, p. 347 sq., as far back as the year 1828. On the four-and-twentietk of the eleventh month, that is the month Shebat, in the second year of Dareios, came Yahve's word unto Zakharya son of Berekhya son of Iddo the prophet saying : These words yield a meaning only it as the chief matter, the reader may when they are taken as the heading of find from the whole of the following the entire piece following. What the narrative. word of Yahve is which is mentioned in Ill C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (i.) 1.— Ch. i. 8-17. 4'.i (I.) 1. Evening. The indolent repose of the present world . Ch. i. 8-17. With the approach of night (and of the dream) there arrive from the four quarters of the world at the celestial palace, whither the spirit of Zakharya feels itself translated, all the angels which have during the day roamed in chariots and on swift horses over the whole earth, in order to announce what they had seen to their chief and through him to Yahve. Comp. Job i. 7, 8, a description which is present to the mind of our prophet in all these visions. As they then announce that they had found the state of the whole earth that day also quite motionless and indifferent, and the high angel, shocked thereat, has put in his intercession to Yahve for a speedy alteration, there are then heard gracious promises of the awakening of a higher zeal upon the earth also amongst the nations, of the completion of the temple and of the desired salvation — these promises being the real object of the vision ; comp. the same Hag. ii. 6, 7, 21, 22. I saw by night and behold a man* standing among the myrtles by the tent, and behind him bright-red brown and grey and dark-red horses ; || then said I " what are these, my lord ?" and the Angel that conversed with me said to me, " shall 10 I show thee who these are ?" |[ and the man who stood between the myrtles answered and said : these are they whom Yahve hath sent to go to and fro through the earth ! || — Then they answered the Angel of Yahve who stood among the myrtles and said : we went to and fro through the earth, j but behold the whole earth is still and quiet. || So the Angel of Yahve answered and said : Yahve of Hosts, how long hast thou no pity for Jerusalem and the cities of Yuda, | against which thou hast been angry even seventy years ! || But Yahve returned the Angel who spoke with me good words, | com- fortable words ; || so the Angel that conversed with me said * riding upon a bright red horse 50 III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (i.) 1.— Ch. i. 8-17. unto me : cry thou, saying : Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : | I 15 cherish a great zeal for Jerusalem and for Ssion ; || and great wrath against the inactive nations, since I was only a little wroth, but they helped for evil. || Therefore thus saith Yahve : I turn to Jerusalem with compassion, my house will be built in her, saith Yahve of Hosts, | and a measuring line will be drawn over Jerusalem. || Cry yet, saying : thus saith Yahve of Hosts : my cities will yet overflow with good, | and Yahve will yet compassionate Ssion, and take delight in Jerusalem ! || The points which are here left ohscure with regard to the number and significance of the horses and their chariots and drivers are sufficiently cleared up by the corresponding final vision, vi. 1-6 : it is intended that there shall be four kinds of horses, with different colours corresponding to the four quarters of the heavens, red for the bright east, brown, or black as they are called ch. vi., for the dark north, grey for the west, spotted dark-red for the south (as similar symbols occur in the Qirq Vezir, p. 42, 14 sq., Hauch's Nordischer Mythol., p. 72 sq.) But Zakharya observes particularly a man, as at first he appears to be no more than a man, but who afterwards more and more plainly proves to be an ex- alted Angel : he has charge over these chariots, whose drivers daily speed through the whole world with their fleet chargers, in order to carry in the morning the divine commands into it and returning at evening: to report its condition in the celestial palace. Now their chief already stands among the high myrtle trees prepared to receive them at the celestial tent, which denotes the dwelling of Yahve according to the type of the Mosaic tabernacle, the trees standing before the two mountains or hills which surround this celestial palace in some such way as the two princ.pal mountau- of Jeru- salem ; but tney are called Irazen, vi. 1, just as the firmament is often conceived by the ancients as of metal, Gen. i. 6. The prophet's own Angel is a different one from him, and to his own Angel he always turns when he requires in- formation, inasmuch as he is always prepared to assist him when it is necessary, iv. 4, 5, 13 ; vi. 4, and it is at the desire of the prophet's Angel that the former Angel explains who the riders are, vv. 8-10. It is true that a guide of this kind does not appear again in vi. 1-6 ; but in the passage before us he is very plainly distinguished from the Angel of the prophet by the entire description of him and the tone in which he is spoken of. — As soon as all the riders, having arrived in due order, have made their report to their chief regarding the present condition of the earth, ver. 11, the intercession of the prophetic Angel commences, ver. 12, and after he has received a gracious answer, ver. 13, he expounds it aloud to the prophet in order that he may proclaim it to the earth, vv. 14-17. The Heathen, ver. 15, deserve divine wrath, because having been seventy years before summoned by Yahve to assist in the chastisement of Israel, they did not chastise it a little as Yahve desired, thereby helping for good, but im- moderately, contrary to the divine intention, helping for evil, Isa. x. 5 sq. The measuring line, ver. 16, shall be drawn over Jerusalem, i.e., it shall be III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (r.) 2.-Ch. ii. 1-4. 51 completely re-built, as at present it still lies for the most part in ruins, all this being further explained, ii. 5 sq. In order to understand the symbols, it becomes necessary above everything to recognize the fact that the words riding upon a bright red horse, ver. 8, mar the lucidity of the description at the very commencement, and can only have been added from a misconception by an early hand. At most, pre-supposing their genuineness, this Angel would have to be conceived as the driver of the first chariot, that coming from the east, he also speaking and acting for the others. However, the propbet does not see him dismounting from his horse, but on the contrary all the horses and chariots are behind him, i.e., waiting for him as their overlooker, the bright red horses also. Neither can there be any doubt that one of the four names of colours has been lost from ver. 8, namely, ace. vi. 3, CTvSpN (the same as \^£n "Isa." lxiii. 1, or ace. vi. 3 more fully !S 0^-12), which might easily drop out ''before -)E«1 : the brown ones may very well interchange with the black ones, vi. 2, but the south (for the order goes by the east and north) requires its spotted dark- red ones. When then the four chariots are pulled up, ace. vi. 1, at the valley between the two mountains, this chief and mediator with regard to them stands farther to the front in the direction of the divine tent (nb^E, Arab, mizhallah), accordingly by the forecourt where high myrtle-trees are placed, comp. History of Israel, III., 245 (III., 334). We may therefore retain the reading CPDTn without adopting the alteration of the LXX, CHn mountains, vi. 1. — The words of the Angel, ver. 9, are best taken as interrogative : meanwhile he gives a sign to the higher Angel which he understands. 2. The future of the great empires. Ch. ii. 1-4 (A.Y. i. 18-21). The promises of the first vision have only excited but not satisfied the desire to know how they are to be fulfilled : the second and the third visions now satisfy this desire completely. As regards the Heathen empires of all four quarters of the world, as far as they occur here again from the previous vision, and which still continue to impede the true divine kingdom, the prophet beholds in a plain symbol their destruction, the cutting down of their four proud horns by four still stronger smiths, vv. 1-4; as regards the new Jerusalem as the seat of the true divine kingdom, he beholds in the third vision, which is more closely connected with the foregoing one on account of its kindred subject-matter, the vast proportions upon which it shall be rebuilt at the express command of Yahve, and 4 * 52 III. C. 2. ZAKHARTA, II. (i.) 3.~Ch. ii. 5-17. generally the form which it will assume, vv. 5-9 ; and the divine voice, having thus once begun to speak freely, goes on in less restrained form to explain both that stern truth with regard to the Heathen and its consequences, vv. 10-13, and this joyous one concerning the future Jerusalem, vv. 14-17. In this way every thing assumes an excellent form : towards the end the joyful divine promises which follow from both visions are combined. Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold four horns. || So I said to the Angel that conversed with me : what are these ? and he said to me : these are the horns which have scattered Yucla Israel and Jerusalem. || Then Yahve caused me to see four smiths, || and I said : what come these to do ? then he spake, saying : those horns which scattered Yuda in such wise that no man lifted up his head, these came to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations which lifted up the horn against the land of Yuda to scatter it. || ii. 1-4. Horn, power, empire : but change of figure and thing prefigured the number four remains in conformity at the end, ver. 4. In such wise, ver. 3, with the previous vision ; whether at that no one raised his head, could look that time there existed four great up unhindered, comp. i. 15. — The fact empires corresponding to the four quar- that Israel stands between Yuda and ters of the heavens, is of very little Jerusalem, ver. 2, completely accords importance ; there is a playful inter- with my note on Ps. lxviii. 27. 3. The future of Jerusalem. Ch. ii. 5-17. Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold a man hold- ing a cord for measuring ; || then said I : whither wilt thou go ? and he said unto me : to measure Jerusalem, to see how great its breadth and how great its length. || And behold the Angel that conversed with me appeared, and another Angel appeared over against him || and said unto him : run speak to that youth saying : country wise will Jerusalem lie, on account of the multitude of men and cattle therein ; || and 1 will be to her, saith Yahve, a wall of fire round about, | and splendour will I be within her! || — Hear hear and flee ye from the land of the north ! saith Yahve, | for like the four III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (i.) 3— Ch. ii. 5-17. 53 15 winds of heaven have I spread you ont, saith Yahve ; \\ save thee Ssion, | thou citizeness daughter of Babel ! ]| For thus saith Yahve of Hosts : | (after honour hath he sent me to the nations which spoiled you, | for he who toucheth you toueheth the apple of his eye !) || yea, behold I wave my hand over them that they become a spoil to those who serve them, | and ye know that Yahve of Hosts hath sent me. || — Sing aloud and rejoice daughter of Ssion ! | for behold I come and dwell in thy midst, saith Yahve, || and many nations join themselves to Yahve in that day, and become to me a people ; j so I dwell in thy midst and thou knowest that Yahve of Hosts hath sent me to thee ! || Then will Yahve take Yuda for his inheritance upon the holy ground, | and still have pleasure in Jerusalem. || — Be silent all flesh before Yahve ! for he bestirreth himself from his holy dwelling. || The young Angel who appears, vv. 5, 6, comp. ver. 8, supposes that as a subordinate servant the time has now arrived for hirn simply to measure and determine the future circumference of Jerusalem, the measure of it being un- known to him. But when he has only just appeared, a far higher Angel, after he has learnt the particulars from Yahve, cries to the prophet's Angel, as he approaches him, that he must supply the younger Angel with the divine measurement : the new and reformed city shall on account of its populousness have no limited measurement, but (as is the case with all the largest cities of the earth) shall extend itself indefinitely after the manner of villages, without fixed walls and gates ; neither has it any need of material walls, since Yahve, enthroned above it in majesty, in fire and splendour after Ex. xl. 38 ; Isa. iv. 5, 6, will both protect and glorify it. — When the Heathen king- doms shall thus fall, let the numerous Israelites w T ho still live scattered throughout them flee in time from them and assemble themselves at the place where their arrival is so ardently desired, in the Holy Land ; particularly let the numerous wealthy Israelites in the north, in Babylonia, flee ! " Isa." xlviii. 20 (the addition of the four winds, ver. 10 b, is clear only as an ex- planation of vv. 1-4). They may do this without fear, vv. 12, 13 : a sign from Yahve is sufficient to make the degenerated conquerors the prey of those who are oppressed by them, and this Angel has himself the commission to summon the Heathen to give back the captives, and he will execute his mission with honour! After honour, i.e., in order to receive honour, not in vain, without effect, Ps. lxxiii. 24. — Let Ssion, on the other hand, vv. 14-17, rejoice, receiving early the fulfilment of these promises ; the Heathen will yet turn to her God and be mingled with the ancient Community, "Isa." xiv. 1, 2 ; " Jer." 1. 5, Yahve will still be enthroned in her with all splendour ; and already he arouseth himself for this from the celestial palace, let all flesh therefore be still before him ! after Sseph. i. 7 ; Hab. ii. 20. As in all pieces of Zakharya voices particularly of the anonymous prophet 54 III. C 2. ZAKHARTA, II. (n.) 4.— Ch. hi. explained Vol. IV., 224-354, are audible in Babel, reminds us very much of the as those of his immediate precursors, mighty voice of " Jer." ch. 1., li., which so also the appeal to Ssion-Babel, ver. only carried out further what is heard 11, i.e., the great Yudean community here as a subsequent echo, which still continued to prefer to dwell (II.) 4. The High-priest' s dignity and prosperity, Ch. iii. Of the two chief men of the community of that time, to whom the next two visions are devoted, the High-priest appears to have then been persecuted by either an actual or threatened accusation in the Persian court ; a defamation and persecution of this kind may be discerned as underlying this vision, the whole manner and conception of the narrative pre-supposing it. For the prophet beholds him acquitted in a solemn session before the celestial judge in spite of the accusation of Satan : and if he is acquitted there, what accusation can harm him upon earth ? After this has been symbolically represented, vv. 1-5, the good Angel promises to the innocent High-priest before him further protection, and, which concerns him very closely, the arrival of the Messiah with the completion of the temple, vv. 6-10. iii. 1 Then he showed me the High-priest Yosua standing before the Angel of Yahve, whilst the accuser stood at his right hand to accuse him ; | but Yahve said to the accuser : Yahve rebuke thee thou accuser, and rebuke thee Yahve who hath pleasure in Jerusalem : | is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? |] And whereas Yosua was clothed in dirty garments and stood before the Angel, || he replied and spake to those that stood before him saying : take away the dirty garments from him ! and he spake to him : bebold I remove thy guilt 5 from thee and clothe thee in festive array ! || and he spake : let them set a pure tiara upon his head ! | So they set the pure tiara upon his head and clothed him with the garments, whilst Yahve's Angel yet stood by. || — Then Yahve's Angel certified III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (11.) 4.— Ch. hi. oo to Yosiia saying : || Thus saitli Yahve of Hosts : if thou walkest in my ways, and if thou keepest nay charge in charge, | then wilt thou also judge mine house, thou also keep in charge my courts, | and I give thee passages between them that stand here. |j Yet hear Yosiia the High-priest, thou and thy friends that sit before thee, | (for they are men of omen) : surely I bring my servant Offshoot ! [| For behold the stone which I lay before Yosiia — upon one stone seven eyes !— | behold I will engrave its writing, saith Yahve of Hosts, and put away the guilt of this land in one day ; || in that day, saith Yahve of Hosts, ye will invite one the other | under a vine and under a fig-tree ! || The description vv. 1-5 follows com- pletely the usages of ancient courts of justice. Before the representative of Yahve, who in ver. 2 is even called Yahve himself in the brevity of the narrative, as the sitting judge stands the accused and on his right, in the place of honour, the accuser before God, the Satan, who maintains rightly or wrongly that he has dis- covered something in the High-priest .deserving of accusation. But the 'supreme judge immediately discerns the groundlessness of the charge and how unjust it is so early again to violently assail a man who has more- over only just escaped from the greatest peril, from the exile (from Amos iv. 11); with the name of the Righteous One and the friend of Jerusalem he bids therefore the Satan to hold his peace, and as a sign of his complete acquittal he orders pure shining gar- ments such as are usual in the case of accused persons of high rank to be given to the accused instead of the dirty ones which an accused person wears when on his trial, Rev. vi. 11. In this change of garments, as is fitting, the friends of the accused, the subordinate priests, who attend and surround him as clients, are to be employed ; ver. 4 they are called "those who stand before him," those surrounding him, waiting for his com- mands, as is said again ver. 7 ; those sitting before him, ver. 8, that is not here but in the Community, where all sit. — But the Angel, having already risen from the judgment-seat, now lingers quite calmly in order to explain the divine purposes concerning this man who has been thus acquitted. First, as regards the immediate event, ver. 7, Yosiia shall, if he is himself only faithful to Yahve and fills the office entrusted to him according to the intentions of its donor, be in turn pro- tected by Yahve, always remain as judge and supervisor in the temple, freely going in and out amongst his servants in the discharge of his func- tions (not again to be accused). But the Messiah, ver. 8, will soon come, the servant of Yahve who is here briefly and disguisedly named Offslwot, after Jer. xxiii. 5, comp. vi. 12 ; and precisely the present friends of the High-priest shall be witnesses of this promise, men of the foretoken and of the future, as certainly as they are now there will the Messiah come, they shall therefore by their existence and life point to this great future, Isa. viii. 3. 4 ; Ezek. xii. 5 sq. Yet Yahve himself gives a still higher sign, ver. '.' : the stone which he 5S III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (n.) 4.— Ch. hi. herewith holds before Yosua as a model, a wonderful stone, upon which are engraved seven eyes (and the seven eyes are the symbol of the seven highest spirits, Rev. i. 4, it is therefore a marvellous stone toward which divine love and care is itself wholly directed, as it were all the seven highest spirits, i or eyes of Yahve, iv. 10, as a sign of which to him all these seven eyes are engraved) — that stone he will him- self some day really adorn with this his inscription (just as a stone which is built into the gable receives at last its decorative inscription) and display it as the crowning and gable-stone of the temple, so that from that place where the completed temple shines forth with these seven eyes, toward which all divine love and care is directed, sin flees far and wide, as is immediately further explained, ch. v. ; that will be the Messianic age ! ver. 10 after Mic. iv. 4. The brief and rapid mention of the stone and the seven spirits receives further explanation in ch. iv. As regards the figures which appear in this scenic piece, the immediate sub- ordinate officials and friends of the High-priest, who naturally stand on both sides, on the right and left, before Mm in this trying situation as true clients, are so expressly mentioned, vv. 4, 7, for the further reason that they are here so necessary and significant as witnesses, ace. ver. 8. — It is tiue that it has been foolishly and obstinately supposed that the dirty garments, vv. 3-5, are intended to signify that Yosua had committed the sin of marriage with a harlot ; as Justin Martyr, Dialogues, ch. cxvi, explains this, manifestly following a prevalent opinion of the Jewish schools of his time, founded upon Ezra x. 18 : but such an idea is not worthy of serious refutation. It is, on the contrary, the custom of Persian courts, which Zakharya has before his mind in his description of the court of justice, just as in the case of the picture of the imperial messengers in their arrival at and despatch from the palace, i. 8, 9, it is the Persian imperial post which is present to his imagination. Instead of "IftNl, ver. 5, it is necessary to read ~I^S S 1 • and as a matter of course □'ObifE) comes from a sing, tj 7HQ passage ; passages, are here, however, functions, according to the well-known phrase of going in and out, i.e., to transact public business. The reason why Zakharya here and vi. 12 denominates the Messiah Offslwot with such brevity, and unintelligibly, as the name is here used, is explained in the Geschichte des Volkes Israel, V., p. 146.* * The explanation referred to in this untranslated volume of the History of Israel is as follows: — " Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12 : the abbreviated name Offshoot, used of the greatest shoot or new youthful hero whom men expected, probably owes its origin not simply to the artistic language of the time, but also to an intentional avoidance of the name 'David's Offshoot,' inasmuch as the name David, remarkably enough, never occurs in Haggai and Zakharya ; a fact which is intelligible from History of Israel, V., llOsq. (IV., 144 sq.)"— Tr. III. C 2. ZAKIJARYA, II. (n.) 5.— Ch. iv. 57 5, The dignity and prosperity of the secular and the ecclesiastical chief. Ch. IV. While the correlative piece to the previous. one does special honour to Zerubabel, it also treats of the two chiefs both together again. An exceedingly brilliant symbolic picture presents itself, so that the prophet (although in a dream) is, as it were, awakened out of the dream, ver. 1, and his attention cannot be directed with sufficient intensity to what he sees, vv. 4, 5. It is a chandelier branching up into seven lights, being the symbol of the seven highest spirits, or of the eyes of the one Yahve as they travel through the world : where the chandelier therefore presents itself (and its idea is derived from the Mosaic sanctuary, Ex. ch. xxv.), there all the activities of divine providence and love meet together, there the spirit is present and ready to help ; and thus Zerubabel, trusting in the spirit of Yahve, not in material power, and protected by Him, will complete his great work, the erection of the temple, in spite of all obstacles. But at the same time the prophet beholds by the side of this sevenfold lamp two olive trees, particularly two branches of them climbing aloft close by its side : thus the two chiefs, like Anointed ones appointed to do great things, stand together most closely and intimately with Yahve and his spirit, are his nearest servants and also most immediately enlightened and guarded by him. This is added at the end, vv. 11-14, after what concerns Zerubabel has been explained at length in the middle of the piece, vv. 6-10. iv. 1 Then the Angel that conversed with me turned and wakened me as one who is awakened out of his sleep, || and spake to me : what seest thou ? then I said : I saw and behold a chandelier all gold and an oil- vessel on the top of it; and its seven lights on it, and seven pipes for the lights which are on the top of 58 III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (n.) 5.-Ch. iv. 5 it ; || and two olive trees beside it, one at the right of the oil- vessel and one at the left. || — Then I answered and spake to the Angel that conversed with me, saying : what are these, my Lord ? || and the Angel that conversed with me answered and said to me : knowest thou not what these are ? I said : No, my Lord ! || then he answered and spake to me, saying : This is Yahve's word to Zerubabel, saying : | not by power and not by might, but by my spirit ! saith Yahve of Hosts ; || who art thou great mountain ? before Zerubabel thou becomest a plain, | so that he bringeth the top-stone amid the acclama- tions " grace grace unto it !" || And Yahve's word came to me saying: || Zerubabel's hands have founded this house, and his hands will finish it, | that thou mayest know that Yahve 10 of Hosts hath sent me to you : || for whoever mocked the weak beginnings of the day, they will rejoice and see the plummet in Zerubabel's hand : | these seven are Yahve's eyes, roving through the whole earth. || — Then I answered and spake to him : what are these two olive-trees at the right of the chandelier and at the left ? || and I answered yet again and said to him : what are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes which pour the gold from them- selves ? || then he said to me thus : knowest thou not what these are ? I said : no, my Lord ! || so be said : these are the two sons of the oil, j which stand before the Lord of the whole earth ! || The application to Zerubabel is not top-stone ; those who may have ridiculed completed in a single utterance, but the day when the temple was founded needs two : not by mere human amid poor beginnings, would still with force ( Job xxxiv. 20 ), but by my joy behold the top-stone, adorned with spirit ! learn this, in the first place, its inscription in lead (Job xix. 23), in from those symbols ! nevertheless, the hand of Zerubabel, comp. iii. 9 : before Zerubabel, who is faithful to this is precisely the meaning, as is here this principle, on that very account added at the end, of the number seven every great mountain will become a which occurs in the two symbols, that in plain, every difficulty will vanish, so and from this place all highest spirits that he actually brings the headstone will be at work ! — At the first question, of the temple, already mentioned iii. 9, ver. 11, no answer follows, because it is under the loud acclamations, as it is too general, observing which the prophet put on, " grace, grace let this stone immediately put it more definitely, ver. have for ever !" — Still more plainly it is 12, namely, what the two branches, then said, vv. 8-10 : he who laid the which are attached to the two extreme foundation-stone will also put on the pipes on the left and right, signify? for III. C 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (in.) 6.-Ch. v. 1-4. 59 there are only two single persons, two of the oil for anointed ones, with an branches of the trees, who are concerned. allusion to the olive-trees. Gold, ver. 12, i.e., golden light. Sons The present reading ver. 2 would read without Mappiq, as the suff. is cause the great departure from the here unnecessary, while the word ver. 3 pattern of the ancient temple-chandelier, and elsewhere has always the feminine Ex. xxv. 31-39, that here with the ending. increasing significance of the number *").n2!£ ver. 12, is manifestly only seven every pipe from the oil-vessel to the common name for the same thing the light would be multiplied by seven : which is called a thing to pour ivith, for this there is no reason apparent ; ver. 2. It is clear enough that the two and accordingly the second 71V2W pipes, ver. 12, are those of the seven should be omitted with the LXX. which stand to the beholder most to the Moreover, 7172, ver. 2, should be right and left. (III.) 6. The cleansing virtue. Ch. v. 1-4. The two following visions unfold at greater length the sen- tence which had been so briefly and rapidly uttered, iii. 9 b : in what way, as soon as holiness has gained a firm and inde- structible basis, the unholiness and impm-ity must entirely dis- appear from the Community ; this is in reality the fundamental condition under which alone holiness as outwardly established can bring the hoped-for prosperity. From holiness in any of its forms there ought always to go forth a purifying virtue for the final destruction of evil in whatever forms it shows itself: so the prophet here beholds how even the simple holy word, when it becomes a curse, works as the destroyer of evil, just as the ancients narrate so much about the effective force of this curse when really spoken by a holy mouth (comp. Anti- quities of Israel, p. 20 sq. (15 sq.). And such words of bless- ing or of cursing had at that time been already written down in sacred books, Deut. xxvii. sq. ; with less difficulty therefore our prophet here beholds a great book-roll flying, and learns what its rapid flight through the land signifies and whom it will infallibly strike. 60 III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, II. (in.) 7.-Ch. v. 5-11. v. 1 Then I turned myself lifted mine eyes and looked — and behold a roll, flying ; [| and he said to me : what seest thou ? I said : I see a roll flying, its length is twenty cubits and its breadth ten cubits. || Then he said to me : this is the curse which goeth forth over the face of the whole land ! | for every one that stealeth is driven out hence like it, and every one that sweareth is driven out hence like it ; || and I cause it to go forth, saith Yahve of Hosts, that it may enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, | that it may remain in his house and destroy it with its timber and stones. || Ver. 3, 4 : as quickly as thou seest destroy it totally. Who sweareth, ver. 3, it fly, shall every one who sins, whether is indeed more definitely explained with the hand or with the mouth, be ver. 4, but in fact any kind of swearing driven, literally emptied, from the Holy may so easily degenerate, and most men Land; and in the future also the contents who swear swear falsely; comp. simi- of the book, its curse, will irresistibly larly Ecc. ix. 2. force its way into his house in order to 7. The vanishing wickedness. Ch. v. 5-11. But if this cleansing virtue continues to operate, wicked- ness itself must finally disappear from the land. As a wild animal, at length imprisoned in a cage, is got rid of, as an incorrigibly immoral woman is at last driven by force from the land amid general scorn and mockery, so the prophet here beholds wickedness already shut up in its narrow prison, vv. 5-8, in order that it may be quickly brought thence into close keeping, where long since all evil spirits dwell and appear able to dwell for a long time to come ("Isa." xxxiv. 14), unto Babylonia, which had at that time the general significance of a counterpart of the Holy Land, vv. 9-11. 5 Then the Angel that conversed with me appeared and said to me : Lift up now thine eyes and see, what is this appearance ? || III. C 2. ZAKHARYA, II. 8.— Ch. vi. 1-8. Gl then I said ; what is it ? he said : this cask which appeareth ! and he said : this is their spectacle in the whole land ! || And behold a leaden cover was lifted up, and there was a woman sitting in the midst of the cask; || and he said: this is wickedness ! and threw her back into the cask and threw the leadweight upon the top of it. || — Then I lifted mine eyes and looked | and behold two women appeared with wind in their wings, and having wings like the wings of storks ; they lifted up the cask between heaven aud earth. || Then I said to the Angel that conversed with me : whither do they carry the cask ? || and he said to me : to build for it a house in the land of Shinear, in order when it is finished to leave it there in its place. || Ver. 6 : their spectacle, i.e., inde- finitely (§ 294 b), the spectacle of people generally in the whole land, which all may behold as a warning example, in the form in which it must here raise itself somewhat and show itself after the cover (also called a stone of lead on account of its weight) has been lifted somewhat. D2' , 27, lit. their eye, their gaze, that which they much like to see, and then pretty much the same as Biarpov 1 Cor. iv. 9, comp. Dichter des A. Bs. la, p. 71; the word is very similar and the entire description Nah. iii. 6. See also a very similar appearance in Tod's Rajasthan, torn. 2, p, 688, and Journ. As. 1844, II., p. 99. The reading of the LXX □3137. their sin, in this con- nexion, even of the words of the sentence, supplies no sense whatever. — The two women, ver. 9, appear merely to preserve the similar-ity of the figure, in order to drive away the woman. Instead of the strongly Chaldaic nrP2n we might also read niTSm • but 'that this is t I--. • -: - • not necessary is shown § 131 d. 8. Conclusion. The new morning. Ch. vi. 1-8. But dreams and visions of the long night approach their end, the morning draws near. Accordingly the prophet beholds the same Angels with chariots and fleet horses whom he saw in the first vision at evening arriving at the celestial palace, from their -flight through the earth, but this time as they are about again to start on their way through the earth. And he beholds them this time ready to roam through the earth with Yahve's new commissions, which have been already 62 III. C. 2. ZAKHABYA, II. 8.-Ch. vi. 1-8. explained in the previous visions ; everything which had been previously proclaimed as the divine word and will they shall begin from the new morning and henceforward to execute as they again take their way through the earth ; they have thus presented themselves before Yahve, ver. 5, in order to receive his behests. And there is one divine behest to which special prominence must be given (which at that time belonged to the most eager desires) : in order that the Israelites in the north, in Babylonia, wrought upon by the spirit, may quickly catch higher courage and purer zeal, the Angels which wend their way thither shall leave there the spirit of Yahve, ver. 8, comp. ii. 10, 11, and this Zakharya shall proclaim as he has beheld it. vi. 1 Then I turned myself and lifted up mine eyes and looked — and behold four chariots came forth between the two moun- tains, and the mountains were mountains of brass ; || in the first chariot were bright-red horses, in the second chariot dark: horses, || in the third chariot grey horses, and in the fourth chariot dark- red spotted horses. || Then I answered and said to the Angel 5 that conversed with me : what are these, my Lord ? || and the Angel answered and said to me : these are the four winds of heaven, going forth after they have presented themselves before the Lord of the whole earth ; || whereon the dark horses, they o-o forth to the land of the north, and the grey go forth to the west, and the spotted go forth to the land of the south. |j Then the bright red went forth and sought to go to speed through the earth ; then he said : go ye speed ye through the earth ! and they sped through all the earth. || Then he called me and spake to me saying : behold, those which go forth to the land of the north, they leave my spirit in the land of the north ! || "When the four chariots, ver. 5, are the direction of the fourth follows as a interpreted as the four winds of the matter of course ; but this fourth, the heavens, that can mean simply, they one going to the east, is in return for hasten as rapidly into all four quarters the omission desirous to be the first as the four winds, as if the four wind- to start, ver. 7, as becomes the chief angels were the drivers of these chariots. wind, waits impatiently for the command Ver. 6 only three are mentioned, because to start; and as soon as this is given, III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, App.-Ch. vi. 9-15. 63 they all rapidly drive off, each into his foreign to this passage ; yet one may quarter. Ver. 6 On^nSrbS is prefer to read '3n instead of ^HSri. lit. towards behind them, i.e., to the If the series and position of the west; spotted, ver. 6, stands briefly for visions, which are brought quite to a spotted-red; but instead of ^ES ? ver. 7, close with the eighth, are conceived as which ace. "Isa."lxiii.l, 2, signifies some- regards their mutual relation according thing different, we musthere read DTS, to the following scheme : after ver. 2 and i. 8. The connexion of 1. 2. 3. the whole scene also shows that -IS^ 4. 5. must be read twice in ver. 6 instead of 6. 7. •IS!^ — It is clear that the words 8. I : it" concerning the spirit, ver. 8, must be — it becomes evident that the eighth is interpreted in the sense indicated above, intended simply to close the completed ii. 10, 11, and further below on vv. 9 sq.: series of seven, a phrase such as Ezek. v. 13 is quite Appendix. The confirmation. Ch. vi. 9-15. And as a fact about the same time a small event occurred which might be deemed the first confirmation of this hope with regard to the new zeal of the north : three Israelites came to Jerusalem from Babel with rich presents and were hospitably received in the house of Yosia the son of Ssephanya. At that moment it seemed to the prophet as if it were com- manded him in a continuation of his dream, as a representative of the nation, to take these presents into his charge in such a way that the most worthy use should be made of them accord- ing to the intentions of Yahve. Two crowns shall be made of one portion of the great gift for those two worthy chiefs, not merely as crowns of honour to adorn the heads of the highly deserving men, but also as a foretoken of their future Messianic exaltation, which was previously similarly anticipated, ch. iv. But inasmuch as this Messianic age has not yet arrived, the j crowns shall be provisionally placed in the temple as a memo- rial of the donors and their host, ver. 14. Thus many will soon follow their example and all that is hoped-for be fulfilled, ver. 15. — Whether that which Zakharya beheld as a suitable 64: III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, App — Ch. vi. 9-15. divine sign for this age was actually carried out, is quite another matter : there is simply set forth symbolically what is conformable to the divine mind and what the prophet might do accordingly. 10 And Yahve's word came to me saying: || thou shalt take from the exiles, from Cheldai, from Tobia, and from Yed'aya — so that thou comest in that day, comest into the house of Yosia the son of Ssephanya whither they are come from Babel, || and takest silver and gold and makest it into crowns, and settest them upon the head of Zerubabel and the head of Yosua the son of Yossadaq the High-priest, || and sayest to him thus; Thus saith Yahve of Hosts, saying: | "behold a man called Shoot, and under him it will shoot forth, and he will build the temple of Yahve ; || yes he will build Yahve's temple, yes he will bear splendour, and sit and rule upon his throne ; | and Yosiia will be priest upon his throne, and counsel of peace will be between both !" || And the crowns shall be for Cheldai Tobia and Yed'aya, and to the favour of the son of Ssephanya 15 as a memorial in Yahve's temple. ||— And those far off will come and build at the temple of Yahve, that ye may perceive that Yahve of Hosts hath sent me unto you ; | and then if ye hearken not unto the voice of Yahve your God .... That vv. 9-15 forms simply an ap- same name ; ver. 15 the conclusion is pendix to the previous part of this book clearly -wanting, if the real meaning of appears not only from the subject-matter, the words is attended to ; and ver. 11 which is only a continuation to ch. iv., KJsHrtf ^??"?T, is wanting ; ver. 13 but also very plainly from the character the name Yosua has been omitted of the words. Ver. 9 is like iv. 8, and before "JHS, inasmuch as the direct vii. 4; viii. 1, 18, but not like the address of ver. 12 is properly addressed commencement of an entirely new piece, in the first instance to Zerubabel as the as i. 1 7; vii. 1. Further, in the higher of the two, and only with the phrase ver. 15 b plainly the same Angel words }7"D TV*7V\ alludes to Yosua. continues to speak, who speaks through- But that both are intended and the out these visions, ii. 12, 13, 15 ; iv. 9 ; crowns are not both to be put uponone,| nor is the expression on that day, is equally apparent from the words at! ver. 10, clear, unless the whole is the close, ver. 13, as that from the force looked upon as still a presentient of all the words, vv. 12, 13, as far as dream. The style is at the beginning, )ilD i"Pm the direct address of thej ver. 10, somewhat clumsy : but apart two must necessarily be addressed to from that, the piece contains evident Zerubabel according iv. 7-10. Comp. mistakes : ver. 10 *»lbn and ver. 14 similar anticipations Jer. xxxiii. 17-26. Qbn are plainly intended to be the —Under him, everywhere where he] III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, III.— Ch. vii., viii. 65 I goes, it will flourish and shoot forth; it in 1828 and in 1840, without any ; flourishing himself the Messiah makes further reference to the numerous mis- eveiy thing flourish that his foot touches ; conceptions which it has since been comp. Hes. theog., 194 sq. ; Tabari, accor- attempted once more to bring into it. ding to Dubeux, I., p. 79 sq. — To It is possible that somewhat early some bear splendour, i.e., the crown. things in this piece were struck out, I leave the above interpretation of because the Messianic hope in Zerubabel this piece substantially just as I gave was not fulfilled. III. Decision with regard to fast days. Ch. vii., viii. An irjquiry was sent to the temple, whether the days of humiliation and fasting- in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem ought to be kept up ? On the one hand, it seemed as if they might be discontinued, inasmuch as the compulsory exile was at an end and Jerusalem was gradually rising from its ruins ; on the other hand, their retention seemed better, since the new settlement in the Holy Land had to contend with so many difficulties, the larger number of the exiles had not yet returned home, and the times, so distressing and un- favourable in many ways, were far from the expected Messianic prosperity. Many people of position, e.g., priests (vii. 5) in connexion with the temple, evidently inclined to the dark view, since in general the sullen consideration of the course of events became from this time prevalent in the nation, which was, as it seemed, always vainly hoping for the Messiah. But Zakharya once more rises to the full power and dignity of the ancient prophetic spirit, and relying upon the divine perception of the nature of all feasts and other human customs, vii. 4-14, and upon a better estimate of the present and future, viii. 1-17, furnishes the infallible decision not only with regard to the particular question proposed, but also with regard to all similar questions, viii. 18-23. The three sections into which the piece naturally falls are correctly divided by similar headings ; this 5 5 66 III. C. 2. ZAKEABYA, III.— Ch. vii., viii. heading, in the case of vii. 8, is, on the other hand, incorrect, and only to be explained as an early error. Inasmuch as the second section may easily be divided into two strophes, we may consider that we have altogether four strophes. vii. 1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Dareios the king that Yahve's word came to Zakharya, on the fourth of the ninth month, in Kislev : — for they of Bethel, Sharesser and Regem-Melekh and his people, sent to seek the favour of Yahve with these words to the priests which were at the house of Yahve of Hosts and to the prophets : " Shall I weep in the fifth month with abstinence, as I have done so many years ?" Then came the word of Yahve of Hosts to me saying : Say to all the people of the land and to the priests thus : 5 When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh, and these seventy years— [ have ye then fasted me ? || or though ye eat and though ye drink : | is it not ye who eat and ye who drink? || — (Know ye) not the words which Yahve proclaimed by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure and its cities around it, | and the south and the plain was inhabited ? || " thus saith Yahve of Hosts, namely: | judgment of truth judge ye, and love and compassion practise ye towards one another ; || and widow and orphan, stranger and helpless do not oppress, | and evil Vv. 2, 3 form a parenthesis: the History of Israel, V ., 22,114 (IV., 30 inquiry had come to the new temple sq., 149). through a deputation from the people 1. Have ye perhaps by your fasting at Bethel, of whom the two most im- fasted me, i.e., compelled, necessitated, portant only are here mentioned by macerated me ? does bodily compulsion name, and the deputation could not compel the spirit ? Thus Zakharya, well appear in the temple without pre- with a bold but plain turn of language, sents and offerings, comp. viii. 21, 22. once more takes up the Hebrew word for The earlier temple was destroyed in fasting and construes it with the accu- the fifth month, 2 Kings xxv. 8-10. sative of the person whom the fast, the As regards the similar days of mourn- compulsion,affects;andinthetranslation ing mentioned ver. 5 and viii. 19, this construction has been imitated. — comp. Jer. ch. xli. ; 2 Kings xxv. 21 Or, on the other hand, when ye eat and eq. ; Jer. lii. 6, 7 ; 2 Kings xxv. 1 and drink on festive occasions or at other III. C. 2. ZAKHARYA, III. Ch vii , vnr. 67 towards one another meditate not in your heart !" || But they refused to give heed and put forth a rebellious shoulder, | and their ears they dulled not to hear, || and their heart they made as a diamond, not to hear the doctrine and the words which Yahve of Hosts sent by his spirit through the earlier pro- phets : | so there came great displeasure from Yahve of Hosts, || and as he called and they heard not, | " so shall they call and I not hear !" said Yahve of Hosts, || " and I will whirl them over all the nations which they know not !" and the land became desolate behind them, so that none passed on and none turned, | and the pleasant land was made a desolation. || vm. 1 And the word of Yahve of Hosts came saying : Thus saith Yahve of Hosts: lam jealous for Ssion with great jealousy, | and with great indignation am I jealous for her ! || Thus saith Yahve : I return unto Ssion and dwell in the midst of Jeru- salem, | so that Jerusalem shall be called the city of faithful- ness, and the mountain of Yahve of Hosts the holy mountain ! || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : there will yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, | each holding his times, do ye think that ye gratify me, that I share pains or pleasures of sense? vv. 5, 6. O, no ; do not imagine that you can influence me by this or by fast- ing and a complaining mood ! ye make that a chief matter, but I must show you how little things of that kind are meritorious before God ! Have ye then not heard what a few but necessary general commands Yahve caused to be given to the people by the prophets in the noblest times ? They are the prin- cipal things, that which Yahve in reality requires, and amongst them there is not even the mention of fasting, 2. But now a new and better time commences for those for whom the terrible lessons of former times cannot have been sent in vain : this is the true view of the present, and as certainly as now in this important time the vv. 7-10 ; and if the nation of earlier times had fulfilled these few great requirements and bent its shoulders to this easy yoke, they would have remained prosperous always : but they hardened themselves against them, and so all kinds of calamities and punishments came just as they had been threatened, all the misery of the exile ! vv. 11-14. Vv. 13, 14 the language becomes very cursory, the threat being made the more vivid and forcible by the introduction of the original words, and its fulfilment being then immediately also described in similar words. Community takes a new form may a prosperous Messianic future be expected. Thus the prophet repeats here in the first instance, viii. 1-8, in various forms almost the same glorious hopes which he had already 5 * 68 III. C. 2. ZAKBARTA, III.— Ch. vii., viii. staff for great age ; || and the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls, | playing in her streets. || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : when it seemeth marvellous to the remnant of this people in those days, | will it also seem marvellous to me ? saith Yahve of Hosts. || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : behold I save my people from the land of the rising, | and from the land of the setting of the sun, || and bring them that they may dwell in the midst of Jerusalem : | then they will be unto me a people and I will be unto them God in truth and righteous- ness ! || 3. Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : let your hands be strong, ye who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets, | who have been since the house of Yahve of Hosts, 10 the temple, was founded to be finished ! || for before those days there was no value for man and no value for beast, | he that went out or came in had no peace from the oppressor, and I delivered men one to another: || but now I am not as in the former days unto the remnant of this people, saith Yahve of Hosts, |[ but the seed of peace, the vine will yield her fruit, and the earth will yield her produce and the heavens their dew, | and I cause the remnant of this people to possess all that ; || and as ye were a curse among the nations, house of Yuda and house of Israel ! so will I save you that ye may become a blessing ; | fear not, let your hands be strong ! || For expressed, i. 14, 16 ; ii. 14-17 and though such promises may appear to elsewhere ; Jerusalem which is at pre- contemporaries as too marvellous, the sent so thinly populated, where tin- prophet correctly perceives that according doubtedly after the depopulating storms to the divine purpose they contain of the exile so few aged people were nothing impossible, after Gen. xviii. 14. living, will still be filled with old and Ver. 3, after Isa. i. 21. Accordingly, young inhabitants, " Isa." lxv. 20 ; and the further exhortation follows, 3. vv. 9-15, only be courageous and Yahve and the nation shall be domi- fearless, ye who have such promises in nant, the vine, the plant of peace, iii. this important time I for although 10, as its sign, shall without interrup- formerly, in the times of the Chaldean tion bear its fruit for the reconciled rule in Palestine, the life of man and nation, vv. 11, 12, from Hos. ii. 23, so beast was valueless, no security in busi- that in the same degree as they were ness, universal disorder, ver. 11, hence- formerly a curse amongst the nations, forth an entirely new state of things i.e., were as cursed by Yahve an object shall arise, the reconciliation between and example of the curse amongst men III. C 2. ZAKHARYA, III.— Ch. vii., vm. 6 'J thus saith Yahve of Hosts : as I determined to do evil to you when your fathers provoked me, saith Yahve of Hosts, | 15 and I repented not: || so have I in these days contrariwise determined to do good to Jerusalem and the honse of Yuda ; fear ye not ! || These are the words which ye shall do : | speak ye truth one to another, truth and judgment of peace judge ye in your gates, || and let none think evil against another in his heart, and an oath of lies love ye not ! | for all that is what I hate, saith Yahve. || 4. And the word of Yahve of Hosts came unto me saying : || thus saith Yahve of Hosts : the fast of the fourth and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Yuda joy and gladness and happy 20 feasts ! | but love ye truth and peace ! || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : it will yet be that nations and inhabitants of many cities come, || and the inhabitants of the one go to another saying " let us go continually to gain the favour of Yahve !" and " to seek Yahve of Hosts will I also go !" || thus many nations and powerful peoples come to seek Yahve of Hosts in Jerusalem and to gain Yahve's favour. || Thus saith Yahve of Hosts : in those days it will be that ten people from all tongues of the nations lay hold of — | that they lay hold of the skirt of a Yudean saying " let us go with you ! for we heard that God is with you !" || also, they now become a blessing, ver. 13, does not require much on their part as from Gen. xii. 2 ; "Isa." 1x7. 15 : he who the condition of this salvation: they formerly executed his threat without are the few well-known great corn- alteration will also execute this promise mandments, vv. 16, 17, comp. vii. without diminution, vv. 14, 15. He 9, 10. 4. From these two suppositions it will yet come when amongst the follows clearly that according to the Heathen themselves the noblest rivalry divine intention all mourning - feasts arises to learn to know Yahve and his ought henceforth to be changed into doctrine from the first source at the bright and cheerful days— if the nation right place ! vv. 20-23, from Isa. ii. does but fulfil the above condition ! 2-4 combined with Isa. iv. 1. ver. 19. Without doubt, the fair days vii 6, the double "Ol must be under- emphasis of the language being only stood ace. § 362 b, the antithesis and thus brought out. TO III. C. 3. MAL'AKHI. viii. 6, it might be supposed that Dnn stood for nbsn, these; but this supposition is as little allowable here as ver. 10, inasmuch as Zakharya will certainly not have confounded these fundamentally different ideas in his language. We may however per- ceive that his language is here, as elsewhere in his book and particularly in this piece, ch. vii., viii., somewhat compressed and strained, and the sense more fully expressed would be : if it appears to the reduced remnant of the people now living (who are precisely on account of their small numbers much inclined to doubt such promises of a far more glorious age as yet to arrive) impossible that then in those days anything of that kind can take place. Ver. 9, it might be thought that ""It^S refers, contrary to the accents, not to the prophets but to those who are addressed. But manifestly Zak- harya does not intend himself and Haggai exclusively, but also many other prophets who had laboured since the commencement of the new settle- ment in the year 536 B.C. Accordingly the accents are correct, and those days, ver. 10, are those of the years before that great new period. Only we must then read CVp with the LXX instead of D*V2. At the close, ver. 17, he meant to say : all this (accusative) I hate, but in the midst of the sentence the more extended and lively division of the sentence by means of the relative construction is introduced, as vv. 20 and 23. 3. MAL'AKHI. It is remarkable how greatly this small book, which as the latest closes the entire series, differs even from the two which precede it, as regards those matters of outward form even to which the eyeis first attracted in the case of books. While the two previous books contained particulars with respect to the names of their authors and the times when they laboured, after the manner of the books of the older prophets, information in both respects is absent from this book, just as was the case with those fly-sheets of the time of the Chaldean rule, Vol. IV., p. 225 — Vol. V., p. 34 ; and the small book which now follows might itself be looked upon as another example of such fly-leaves. For the times in which the public labours of prophets appeared once more under the Persian rule possible in the ancient manner, very soon passed away ; and so far the endeavour of Haggai and Zakharya to bring back the in- fluential labours of the earlier prophets had been in vain. It III. C. 3. MAL'AKHT. 71 appeared only too soon that the new Jerusalem was no longer adapted for such labours ; and here once more only was there revived one of those fly-slieets wliicli had been customary before Haggai and Zakharya. Particular notes of times are not found in this prophet : still, it follows from general indications that lie probably did not write until some fifty years after Haggai and Zakharya. The exile already lies in the distant past and is not referred to at all ; tlie temple had at that time been long finished, and the priests possessed not merely the preponderating authority with regard to it, but had thereby already acquired a kind of arrogance and covetousness which continued to develop itself increasingly in the course of the fifth and fourth centuries, and ended with the establishment of a fully-developed hierarchy, i. 6 — ii. 9 ; iii. 3, 4. The new Jerusalem had arrived at a tolerable condition of order and repose, although it might be but weak : the lofty enthusiasm, however, of the days of the redemption from the exile had long ago passed away. Since those who conscientiously adhered to the regulations of the Pentateuch, as they were already interpreted with painful scrupulousness, notwithstanding did not live to see any great and splendid times, and the ancient Messianic promises appeared quite to fail to arrive, as a consequence, on the one hand, a dangerous indifference as to moral distinctions and the entire ancient religion had already arisen, and, on the other, a decidedly querulous life along with the arrogance and the unbelief of others, ii. 17 — iii. 18; in short, we already meet here, as in the similar book of Ecclesiastes, the germs, though as yet in an undeveloped stage, of the three great divisions which arose in the heart of the ancient religion and continued to grow more marked in the subsequent centuries. Moreover, the important question regarding mixed marriages had already been pro- posed, ii. 10-16, which 'Ezra and Nehemya had so violently decided most likely not long before. In opposition to the perversities and misconceptions of this 72 III. C. 3. MAL'AKBL time, we find here that it is still not too late for a prophet, under impulses like those of ancient times, to lift up the voice of Yahve of Hosts ; this prophet, like one of olden times, does not scruple (although probably himself a priest) to call the priests also to a strict account ; and he is still able to utter many a vigorous word such as would be worthy of previous prophetic times. Still, on the whole, the power is not at all equal to the will, and it is quite plain that the prophetic office was completely declining. For there is not the slightest proof that the prophet had also spoken in public upon his sub- jects, although they concern solely the public conduct of his fellow-countrymen, and although he himself lived in Jerusalem. The ancient prophetic phrases appear again, but the subject- matter is never treated as if the author had previously ex- haustively handled it in an oral discourse, and as if his book were the reflexion of what he had publicly spoken. On the contrary, the style of colloquy and of the didactic manner of the schools makes itself felt here as an entirely new phenomenon, inasmuch as the discourse presents a short proposition, then brings forward the doubtful questions which could be raised in objection to it, and finally answers these questions at length. Instead of public life, therefore, we see that the life of the schools and learning had already become predominant ; and in this book the two different manners, the ancient prophetic and the modern dialogistic manner, are still found together, but the prophetic manner is preserved almost as by way of tradition and imitation. Moreover, apart from this unusual combination of two distinct manners, the style and language has retained a good degree of beauty and smoothness, when the late age is considered, quite unlike what we find in the somewhat later book of Ecclesiastes. Another feature, connected with the powerful influence of the learning of the schools, and one which forms an entirely new characteristic of this last prophet, is the nature of the general arrangement and division of the book. For the author III. C. 3. MAVAKHI. 73 brings together the various matters on which he has to speak under certain principal truths and brief propositions, which he prefers also to place in an incisive form at the head of his discus- sions ; thus the special matters which he has to handle appear simply as applications and inferences. This is really more like a learned essay, more of a book than a spoken discourse ; and no earlier prophet arranges his work by following various leading propositions of this kind. We find here three pro- positions concerning God according to which the whole book is arranged, the first portion of it considering Yahve as the loving Father and Lord of His people, i. 2 — ii. 9, the second as the only God and Father, ii. 10-16, the third as the eternally unchangeable, absolutely Righteous One and the final Judge ! With this arrangement the conclusion, at all events as treating of the eternal Judge, can be quite in the elevated manner of the older prophets. Moreover, each of these three portions is carefully divided into strophes, an artistic form in which this latest prophet follows the custom of previous times ; the strophes belong to those of medium size, but their size is no longer so strictly measured. The mention of one or more prophets of that time, still so> frequent in the case of Haggai and Zakharya, is not found in this prophet at all. Even the word itself does not occur, save that the author, as if clearly conscious of the complete ex- tinction of prophetism in his age, points to the reappearance of a prophet Elias, hi. 23, comp. ver. 1. But though our prophet, therefore, caused his flying-sheet to go forth without his own name, the hand which connected it with the collection of smaller pieces of various prophets dis- tinguished it with decisive ingenuity, after the word iii. 1, as the work of a man who was truly called N ?^ 7^9, inasmuch as this name may signify not only my Messenger, or God's Messenger, but also the Latin Angelicus. Comp. Vol. I., p. 100. We shall most likely never be able to discover the real name of the author. As he is so perfectly familiar with the priests, as 74 III. C. 3. MAL'AKHI, 1.— Ch. i. 2— ii. . regards all their weaknesses and excellences, and also gives evidence of possessing a highly learned education and shows that noble frankness which is the inimitable mark of lofty- spirits, we might think that he was 'Ezra himself, since he undoubtedly belonged to his time. This small book would be certainly worthy of 'Ezra : but on the other hand his famous name would surely have remained attached to the book, if it had really been written by him. And so far as we are concerned, no reason exists why we should not call the prophet, who is really like an angel, by that name with which the hand of the writer of the heading of the book has already dis- tinguished him. Comp. the remarks made on a late occasion in the Gott. Gel. Anz. 1865, p. 1722sq. i. 1 Oracle of the word of Yahve to Israel by Mal'akhi. 1. Yahve the loving Father. Ch. i. 2— ii. 9. Yahve is the loving Father and Lord of Israel : Israel ought therefore to meet him with love and esteem, and most of all the priests, who are still more closely bound to him by the ancient prerogatives, ought to do this. But it is the exact opposite of this which the present priests do : they who are only able by the same spiritual power and work which once distinguished their fathers to maintain their diguity and voca- tion, now give false, one-sided doctrine according as they are paid, ii. 8, 9, and refuse, having become arrogant and luxurious, to receive the sacrificial loaves, probably somewhat coarse and mean, which the poorer people offer, whilst they themselves, when they are obliged to present sacrifices, do not at all scruple to bring the worst animals, i. 7-14. Such conduct does not flow from love and esteem of Yahve, but is, on the contrary, the evidence of the slighting of his love. After the prophet, therefore, has in the first of the five strophes established the III. C. 3. MAL'AKHI, 1.— Ch. i. 2— ii. 9 75 principle of the love of Yahve for Israel by brief reference to history, he shows in the four subsequent strophes the sins of the priests against this truth ; how they even seek their own ends with the temple sacrifices, i. 6-10, which is all the more infatuated inasmuch as the fear of Yahve is now spreading more and more amongst all the nations of the earth, i. 11-14 ; accordingly the divine threat must come upon these priests, ii. 1-4, which have strayed so far from their noble original model, from that which Levi was at the first, ii. 5-9. 1. I love you ! saith Yahve ; ask ye " wherein hast thou loved us?" | —is not 'Esau the brother of Yaqob ? saith Yahve: and yet I loved Yaqob ! || and 'Esau I hated and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance for jackals of the wilderness. || When Eddm saith " we are smitten down, yet let us again build up the desolations !" thus saith Yahve of Hosts : they will build but I pull down, [ so that they may be called the border of wickedness, the people which Yahve curseth for 5 ever ! || and your eyes will see it, | while ye say " great is Yahve beyond the border of Israel !" || 1. The prophet deems a historical earliest times, having had assigned to it proof, which was precisely at that time a barren, uncultivated land, and had capable of being most easily under- subsequently remained without any true stood, sufficient to establish the principle and lasting prosperity, and in addition which he really intends. The difficulties is incapable of attaining higher culture- betweenEdom and Israel are well-known, for if they imagine that they have for which had broken out again with new once improved their position (just as and bitter acuteness. since Jerusalem had Israel now has higher ambitions not- begun to be restored (History of Israel, withstanding the desolation of the V., 80 sq. (IV., 105 sq.)). Many exile, and this not without some result), things since the destruction of Jeru- the fruitlessness of their efforts will salem might lead to the false idea that nevertheless soon be manifested before Edom and not Israel was the nation the eyes of Israel itself, because the preferred by God : and yet the opposite Edomites lack the firm foundation must be maintained. For if the entire of genuine fear of Yahve, and with history of Edom be compared with that that all profounder wisdom and jud«-- of Israel, as well as the ancient pro- ment. Here, therefore, there must have phecies regarding both nations, Gen. been wanting from earliest times the xx\ii. 39, it is seen that Edom was strength which makes the true corn- both less favourably placed from the munity prosperous and never suffers it 76 III. C 3. MAL'AKHI, 1.— Ch. i. 2— ii. 9. 10 A son honoureth a father, a servant his lord : | yet if I am a father, where is my hononr ? and if I am a lord, where is my fear ? saith Yahve of Hosts nnto you priests, despisers of my name ! | Say ye " wherein have we despised thy name ?" || — presenting upon mine altar defiled bread ! | say ye " wherein have we defiled thee?" — in your saying "Yahve's table is defiled !" || and when ye present a blind (animal) for sacrifice, is it not evil ! and when ye present a lame and sick one, is it not evil ! | offer it now to thy governor — will he be gracious to thee ? or show regard to thee ? saith Yahve of Hosts. || There- fore seek ye now the favour of God that he may be merciful unto us! | — from your hand is this come to pass — will he show a regard for you ? saith Yahve of Hosts ; || would that there were but one among you, that he might shut the doors, that ye lighten not my altar for nought ! I have no pleasure in you, saith Yahve of Hosts, and a gift I receive not from your hand with favour. II entirely to decline and perish: a thought which is incontestably true when under- stood from a general point of view, although it must be allowed that it is here expressed with some exaggeration under the influence of the decided national feelings which obtained a firmer hold with the progress of time. Still, the general principle remains, 2. The priests who are here aimed at, in rapid transition, have, it is true, no idea that they depise Yahve's name, ver. 6 : but they despise it by the simple fact that they themselves as people of impure intentions nevertheless bring sacrifices, which must on that very account be impure and repugnant to Yahve, Hag. ii. 12-14; but if that oracular utterance is still too lofty and unintelligible for them, so that they ask whereby they had then really defiled Yahve (and his sacrifices), the prophet can tell them with greater particularity: thereby that they look upon what, it that a community which in accordance with historical fact is conscious of something higher and eternal at work within it, must also recognize therein the more particular traces of the love of Yahve, the work of which once com- menced in the community and may still further perpetuate itself in its con- sequences. may be the poor offer, as too bad, as defiling the sacred table, and refuse to eat of things which they ought to eat according to the law ; while, on the other hand, they do not look upon it as evil if they choose the worst and most illegal animals when they are obliged to present sacrificial animals I But even a human lord, whom men approach with petitions and prayers for help, does not accept such bad offerings : how much less will Yahve ! although they pray to him, it will be in vain ! since their hand practises such deeds of evil intention ( the parenthesis, ver, 9 ) ; III. C. 3. MAL'AKEI, 1 — Ch. i. 2— ii. 9. 77 For from the rising of the sun even to his setting is my name great among the nations, and everywhere is incense and sacrifice offered to my name even pure gifts, | yea great is my name among the nations, saith Yahve of Hosts. || But ye profane it, | in that ye say " Yahve's table is defiled, and its fruit contemptible is it to eat it ! " |[ and ye say " behold what loathing!" and ye push it away, saith Yahve of Hosts, but ye bring the stolen and the lame and the sick : | yet if ye bring the gift, shall I receive it with favour from your hand ? saith Yahve. || But cursed is he that defraudeth and there is in his herd a male but he voweth and sacrificeth a blemished female to the Lord ! | for a great king am I, saith Yahve of Hosts, and my name is feared among the nations. || Therefore unto you this commandment cometh ye priests ! If if ye hear not and if ye lay it not to heart to give honour to it might even be better wholly to close the temple, in order not to burn the lights by the altar to no purpose : 3. As many Israelites remained all along amongst the Heathen, and the conversion of the Heathen began at that time to be more common on that very account, the prophet was able very properly to point these priests to the growing esteem in which the religion of Yahve was coming to be held even beyond the limited confines of Jeru- salem. What a contrast 1 whilst the worship of Yahve increases everywhere and does not therefore in the least depend on you, ye priests of Jerusalem, ye despise him by such a contempt of the produce, i.e., of the food or sacrifices of the sacred table, as if it were something to eat which caused you great trouble and loathing, your- 4. Therefore hear ye this command- ment, which it is all the more necessary the favour of Yahve cannot be felt here! selves bringing bad, illegal sacrifices : can Yahve look with pleasure on such sacrifices ? No, he whose religion does not in the remotest degree depend on Jerusalem and the favour of its priests, must curse every form of deceit practised with sacred things ! ver. 14. — As regards the words vv. 11, 12, which are so often incorrectly understood, comp. the refutation of the perverse Papal view in the Jahrbb. der Bibl. Wiss., VIII., p. 161 sq. Equally without foundation is the opinion that the prophet supposes that the worship of Ahum-Mazda, or that of Zeus, was the same as that of Yahve ; such an idea could never occur to a prophet of Yahve, even in the age of Mal'akhi. I should lay upon you that I am more closely connected with you than with 78 III. C. 3. MAVAKEI, l.-Cii. i. 2— ii. 9. my name, saith Yahve of Hosts : | then I send upon you the curse and I curse your blessings ! | and I have already cursed them, because ye lay it not to heart. || Behold I rebuke unto you the arm, | and scatter refuse upon your faces — the refuse of your feasts, that it may draw you to itself ! || that ye may know that I sent forth unto you this commandment, | since my covenant was with Levi ! saith Yahve of Hosts. 5 My covenant was with him life and peace, and I gave him fear so that he feared me, | and before my name he humbled himself; || doctrine of truth was in his mouth, and wrong was not found in his lips : | in peace and in uprightness he walked with me, and many he brought back from guilt. || For the lips of a priest keep knowledge, and doctrine is sought from his mouth, | for he is the messenger of Yahve of Hosts. || But ye are turned aside from the way, ye have caused many to fall by the doctrine, | ye have corrupted Levi's covenant ! saith Yahve of Hosts : || therefore I also make you contemptible and despised to all the people, | in proportion as ye keep not my ways, and are partial in doctrine. || the laity, according to the ancient in- merely with the mouth, in heart are stitutions and laws (Ex. xxxii. — xxxiv.), estranged from me, I pronounce the that I have with you a special covenant, curse with your blessing, and have the substance of which implies that the already pronounced it ! ii. 1, 2. Yea, one side may always strictly remind the that ye may observe the seriousness of other of his duties or hold out the this threat, I will with rebukes dry up threat of the punishments which the arm which ye raise to bless with necessarily follow the violation of the such intentions, and throw in your faces covenant. Ye pronounce blessings, best the filth or offal of your feasts and sacri- wishes, in the community, under the ficial animals (Ps. cxviii. 27), that it supposition that what ye bless is also may draw you into association with it, blessed by me ; but if ye continue to since ye dissolve your association with act as in the past, so that ye also bless purity and holiness ! 5. How glorious was the time for- covenant), and genuine fear (religion) merly when this covenant of Yahve given to them, like every celestial gift, with Levi continued to exist unviolated ! by Yahve, and kept by them, was on It was life and peace, nothing short of their side the bond of the covenant ; that, which Yahve desired to give thus they supplied the model of perfect them by means of this covenant, and priests, true teachers and reformers of really gave them as long as they were the nation, just as the priest is meant true to it (as it were the articles of this to be as the messenger and represen- III. C. 3. MAVAKEI, 2.— Ch. 11. 10-16. 79 tative of God among men, vv. 6, 7 ; comp. Ecc. v. 6. But by departure from the eternal path, by false or eyen one-sided (party) doctrine, which favours the rich in preference to the poor, and thus by the misguidance of many, ye have spoilt that covenant, and accord- The words i. 4 are historically very important, inasmuch as they furnish, according to all indications, the earliest evidence as regards the inroads of the Nabatheans and the check of the Ed oinite people by them, comp. History of Israel, V., 350 sq. (IV., 458 sq.). i. 13 the Athnach ought to be placed before the second Di*"IS2iTl. ii. 3 3?"nT must, according to the con- nexion and the structure of the members of this verse, be read with the LXX Vulg. instead of 37T T. The far more unusual the arm, and not your arm, is intentionally chosen here ; the latter would have naturally suggested the arm of man in the ordinary sense, which is not what is here intended. The thought of ii. 4 is also somewhat unusual, where it is said that they shall ingly ye must also be surrendered to public contempt in so far as (or exactly in proportion to the state of the case) ye have beeome degenerate. The words ver. 6 have great similarity with"Isa." liii. 9, 12. be thus punished (1) in order that they may perceive that God has really said the above words i. 6 — ii. 1 ; and (2) because his covenant was (originated) with Levi, in that God has commanded them in the Pentateuch, as may very well be said, to remember and never to forget that his covenant is intended to be with Levi in a special sense, and in the manner in which it was concluded with this tribe . JTVrT/ neither in this connexion of the sentence ace. § 237 c but ace. § 217 d ad fin. Hence this thought is continued vv. 5, 6. ii. 5 riDriWI must be read with LXX Vulg. instead of D2P|S\ ii. 9 "")K?S S D3 signifies according to the proportion in which, or just as it must be inasmuch as ye 2. Yahve the only God. Ch. ii. 10-16. The prophet now applies the highest principle of the unity of the creator to a matter which caused at that time much disquiet and a good deal of injustice, the matter of mixed marriages. We know from the books of 'Ezra and Nehemya with what inflexible logic the leaders of the people at that time punished the mixed marriages and commanded all those which had been concluded to be dissolved without exception. Neither can this prophet justify such marriages with heathen women, inasmuch as they violated the good old custom of the patriarchs and might by too close contact with heathenism 80 III. C 3. MAL'AKHI, 2.— Ch. ii. 10-16. become dangerous to Mosaism. On the other hand, however, he rejects with great earnestness all thoughtless separations, by which it so often happened [that^absolute wrong was done by the husband to the weaker party, so that the women often went away from the temple bitterly weeping; and if such separations may at that time have not been infrequent gene- rally, they nevertheless become still more frequent on account of that merciless command to send away all heathen-born women, in pursuance of which it could easily happen that such women as were gradually giving up their heathenism and turning to the temple at Jerusalem were also sent away. This severe word concerning the inadmissability of any separations is that which is really original and important in our prophet's utterance : woman also, as created by the same God (Job xxxi. 15), has equal rights with the man, and a marriage once concluded is for all time sacred, that is the great doctrine which occupies the second strophe, vv. 13-16, exclusively, after the first has more by the way disapproved of the formation of mixed marriages. 1. 10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us ? I wherefore shall we be unfaithful to one another, to profane the covenant of our fathers ? || — Yuda became unfaithful, and abomination has been wrought in Israel and in Jerusalem, | in that Tuda profaned Yahve's sanctuary which he loveth, and marrieth the daughter of a strange God. || May Yahve cut off unto the man that doeth this race and representative from the tents of Yaqob | and one who may present a sacrifice to Yahve of Hosts ! || 1. The commencement points imme- of heathen wives is also unfaithfulness diately to the wrong committed by the towards the sanctuary which Yahve divorces and is specially resumed again loves, that is, the Community which ver. 15: but as early as the last member of is loved by Yahve, ace. i. 2, and is ver. 10, where thecoveuant of the fathers sacred to him, ace. Ex. xix. 6, with with Yahve is mentioned, the discourse its marriage which is sanctified by makes the transition to the preliminary Yahve, ace. ver- 15: whoever does that, observation which is further explained may Yahve exterminate his family, exclusively, vv. 11, 12. The marriage that none of his descendants may sacri- III. C. 3. MALAKHI, 2.— Ch. n. 10-16. 81 But this ye do further : the covering Yahve 's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, | so that there can be no more regard unto the sacrifice, nor an acceptable thing taken at your hand ! || Say ye " wherefore ?" | — because Yahve hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth to whom thou becamest unfaithful, though she is thy companion and the 15 wife of thy covenant ! || and hath not one created them, and doth not the whole spirit belong to him ? and what doth the One seek ? a seed of God ! | therefore take heed for your spirit's sake, and be not unfaithful to the wife of thy youth ! |( For he who from hatred breaketh wedlock, saith Yahve Israel's God, — he covereth with cruelty his garment, saith Yahve of Hosts : | so take heed for your spirit's sake and be not unfaithful ! fice for him again I almost as the Hin- doos wish that a bad man may have no 2. If you are doubtful at first sight what is meant when it is said, ye cover with tears the altar, so that the divine mercy itself cannot bear to look toward a place which must be the wit- ness of such groans of the cruelly per- secuted unfortunates, I will tell you more plaiuly : they are the groans of the women who flee to the altar, driven thither by your unfaithfulness, whom ye thrust out of the marriage relation- ship although the covenant of marriage is not simply binding like any other contract, but is also a sacred contract, made before Yahve as a witness, which cannot therefore be arbitrarily dis- solved ! vv. 13, 14. And has not then one, one and the same God (plain enough after, ver. 10, comp. an equally brief reference, Job xxxi. 15) created them, the woman no less than thyself, so that husband and wife are equal before him, and the husband may not proceed son or grandson to bring the funeral sacrifices. arbitrarily against the wife ? and does not the remnant of the spirit, i.e., the whole spirit (Zeph. i. 4), belong to this one God, even after death, so that the smallest part of it cannot be withdrawn from its accountability to him and his punishment Ecc. xii. 7) ? and what does this one God require ?— seed of God, i.e., children begotten to his glory in holy matrimony, an object which is hindered by divorce. Accordingly the prophet properly admonishes the hus- bands repeatedly, to be on their guard with their spirit, because by this un- faithfulness the spirit also becomes guilty before God, spiritual well-being also is ruined for all time ; for whoever from hatred, from mere passion, should put his wife away, would cover with cruelty his own garment, i.e., that which is next to him, that which surrounds him with the protection of his garment, i.e., his own wife. HD^I ^2? ver. 12 is understood, manifestly with great suitability to the 5 sense, by the Pesb. and Targ. of son and yrandiO.i ; as a fact several deriva- G 82 III. C. 3. MAL'AKHI, 3.— Ch. ii. 17— hi. 24. tives from the Arab, root gharra signify way by saying, he that hating, or from boy, child; H2!$ is then as witness hatred, putteth away, divorceth his wife, probably equivalent to descendant, child, —A genuinely popular phrase is Ms and the whole phrase a proverbial one garment for his wife, comp. Ovid, of undoubtedly very ancient origin like Heroides, XVI., 222, and Koran, Stir. ii. *7D21 "pS, Job. xviii. 19. The Vulg. 183. — For the sake of your spirit, ace. translates much less appropriately ma- § 217 f . (3) : for your spirit is thereby gistrum et discipulum. The collocation imperilled, its existence is i*eallyat stake of the two words was made the more in this matter. The variation in the common on account of the similarity use of the indefinite thou and one of their sound, and the similarity has (Germ, man) in the same sentence been reproduced as far as possible in even, ver. 15 b, is also a popular form this translation.* of speech : the apodosis thereto is all Ver. 16 the vocalization S2IZT and the more emphatically expressed, on nbtt? is better : he that hateth by put- account of the parenthetical clause, by ting away, ace. § 280 a, comp. Zech. the word HD3\ vii. 3, which we can express in another 3. Yahve the final unchangeable Judge. Ch. ii. 17— iii. 24. Those things which the prophet has further to say and to censure, he connects with the idea of Yahve as the Righteous One and the Judge. There are particularly three sins against the truth of the divine righteousness which he has to lay to the charge of the whole nation : (1) the careless confounding of the moral ideas of good and evil, a peril into which very many easily came during this century, when they waited in vain for the fulfilment of the Messianic promises and the threatened general judgment; comp. e.g., Ecclesiastes ; (2) dis- honesty as regards the temple, many refusing the tithes and other offerings, e.g., the first-fruits, which were due according to the Pentateuch, on the false plea that the times were too unfavourable ; (3) the complaining, discontented temper of many who though they observed outwardly the laws still looked with envy upon the prosperity of the proud, comp. Ps. lxxiii. In opposition to all these perversities, the prophet points to the eternal righteousness and to the certainty, how- * The author's adaptation is : " Gezeugten und zeugen.'" — Tr. III. C. 3. MAVAKHI, 3.— Ch. ii. 17— iii. 24. 83 ever things may seem, of a final judgment. Still, as if he observed that between the lofty height of this final judgment and the increasingly faint-hearted and unprophetic condition of those times there existed a wide impassable chasm, the prophet anticipates that a resuscitated Elias must go before the Lord (Yahve) when he comes to judgment, in order to prepare the way by powerful teaching and a reconciliation of the restless and divided hearts — the plainest sign that prophetism is now conscious of its own extinction. This reference to the future, which is partly threatening and partly consoling, becomes the sole thought of the last of the four lengthy and symmetrical strophes, after those three perversities have been expounded in the first three; the book therefore closes at all events com- pletely in the prophetic manner. 1. Te have wearied Yahve with your words ! Say ye " whereby have we wearied him ?" j by your saying : " everyone that iii. doeth evil is good in Yahve's eyes, and in them he taketh 1 pleasure : or where is the God of judgment ?" || Behold I send you my messenger, that he may clear the way before me : | and unexpectedly will come unto his temple the Lord whom ye seek, and the Messenger of the covenant whom ye take plea- sure in behold he cometh ! saith Yahve of Hosts. || But who will bear the day of his coming, and who is he that standeth when he appeareth ? | for he is as the smelter's fire and as the soap of the fullers ; || there sitteth a silver smelter and refiner — and he refineth the sons of Levi and purifieth them as gold and silver, | that they may be unto Yahve offerers of sacrifices in righteousness, || that the sacrifice of Yuda and Jerusalem may be pleasing to Yahve as in the days of old and as in the 5 earlier years. || So I come near to you to judgment and become a ready witness against the magicians and against the adul- terers and against the false swearers, | and against those who oppress the hireling's hire, widow and orphan, and pnt down the stranger and fear not me ! saith Yahve of Hosts. 1. The messenger of the covenant, of the covenant between me and you, iii. 1, whom I send to yon on account ii. 4; Ps. lxxiv. 20 : who this is, (j * 84 IK. C. 3. MAL'AKHI, 3.— Ch. ii. 17— hi. 24. 2. For I Yahve have not changed : | but ye sons of Taqob — have ye not altered ? || From the days of your fathers have ye turned aside from my laws and have not kept them : | return unto me that I may return unto you ! saith Yahve of Hosts: || Say ye "wherein shall we return? J" — doth then a man rob God that ye rob me? | say ye "wherein have we robbed thee ?" — in the tithe and the tribute ! || With the curse 10 are ye cursed, and me will ye rob ? | all ye people ? || bring the whole of the tithe to the store-house, that there may be victuals in my house, and prove me now herewith ! saith Yahve of Hosts, | whether 1 do not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing till there is no more room ! || Then will I rebuke for you the devourer that he may not destroy unto you the fruit of the earth, | neither shall the vine in the field fail unto you, saith Yahve of Hosts ; || and all the nations will congratulate you, because ye will be a land of delight ! saith Yahvo of Hosts. when more particularly considered, is said vv. 23, 24 ; it is the returning Ellas, regarding whom a good deal must have been said at that time in a book which has been lost, and in which he was spoken of as the gentlest and kindest messenger of God, notwith- standing the fact that he was invested with great power ; he could accordingly be here briefly referred to as the mes- senger whom they delight to see; he was undoubtedly spoken of at some length in that book for the first time as ose who should go before the final judge and prepare the way for him; comp. History of Israel, IV., 113 ; V., 178 (III., 590 ; IV., 230 ; V., 168). Thus the expression whom ye seek, i.e., 2. The dishonesty as regards the teisple is so much the more infatuated as the land is already unfruitful enough as if it were afflicted by the divine curse (comp. Hag. i. 5 sq. ; ii. 14 sq.) : is it intended in some way to almost equivalent to ye miss, which is explained from ii. 17, does not mean the same as the expression whom ye take delight in. — But the Lord, when he really comes to the last judgment, most rigidly separates (after Isa. i. 25) all the bad elements of the mul- titude, the bad priests too (to refer once more retrospectively to what was said at greater length in the first sec- tion), so that then better sacrifices than now will be brought, vv. 2-4. Thus, in no other way, does he come to judgment, he who as omniscient is at the same time the ready witness against every kind of unrighteousness, ver. 5, comp. ii. 14- force the divine mercy by robbing the temple and withholding legal dues ? but Yahve changes not, remains always the righteoug God, ever ready to help also : it is Israel only that is really changed, and becoming more III. C 3. MAL'AKHL 3.— Ch. ii. 17— hi. 24. 85 Tour words are hard upon me ! saith Yahve; | Say ye " what have we talked over against thee?" || — ye say "it is vain to serve God ! | and what profit is there that we watched his ward and that we walked mournfully before Yahve of Hosts ? || 15 and so we congratulate the haughty ; | they that work unrighte- ousness have nevertheless prospered ! they have tempted God and nevertheless escaped !" || —But they that feared Yahve once talked to one another j and Yahve gave heed and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those that feared Yahve and thought upon his name ! || they will be unto me, saith Yahve of Hosts, in the day which I prepare for a possession, | that I may spare them as one spareth his son who serveth him ; || then will ye contrariwise see what is the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. || 4. For behold the day cometh burning as an oven, I and all the disobedient to him has also grown con- tinually weaker and frailer : therefore try Yahve, if ye desire to try him, rather with sincere conversion and with the performance of the demands of the law, then he on bis part will give you prosperity, not withhold from you the 3. Ye use among yourselves, not in- tending Yahve to hear it, grievous and hard words against him, imagining that it was in vain ye had observed with mourning and fasting and bending the knee before him (Zech. vii., viii.) every- thing which he had in the Pentateuch prescribed for you to observe; ye imagine that it were better to congratulate the wicked, proud, unrighteous men and to follow their example, since they, not- withstanding their wicked doings and their tempting God thereby, were pros- perous and in security ! But the pro- phet has, on the other hand, ver. 16, 4. For that strict day of trial cer- tainly draws near ! ver. 19, comp. vv. celestial blessing, with his rebuke, i.e., by threat, keep from you the devourer, i.e., the locusts, and cause the vine, the symbol of peace, to become fruitful, so that foreigners even observe that the divine approval rests upon this laud. listened to the retired conversations of the devout, and knows that the secret thoughts and words of theirs are not forgotten by a Higher One, but have been written to their honour and their reward in an imperishable memorial volume (Ps. lvi. 9) : such people will at the great day of judgment be treated by Yahve as by a father even outwardly and visibly, after Ex. xix. 5, as his possession, i.e., his house, his family and children, ver. 17 ; then ye fools will see the immense difference between the just and the unjust which ye now desire to overlook, ver. 18. 2, 3 ; Isa. v. 24. Then will the sun of righteousness, which is now darkened 86 III. C. 3. MAVAKHI, 3.— Ch. ii. 17— hi. 24. haughty and whoever wrought unrighteousness will be stubble, and the day that cometh setteth them on fire, saith Yahve of Hosts, — so that it leaveth them neither root nor branch. || 20 Then unto you that fear my name the sun of righteousness will arise, bringing healing in his wings ; | and ye go forth and leap like calves of the stall, || and tread down the unrighteous, surely they are dust under the soles of your feet ] in the day which I will prepare, saith Yahve of Hosts. || — Remember ye the doctrine of Moses my servant | to whom I committed on Horeb concerning all Israel laws and judgments ! || Behold I send you Elias the prophet | before the great and terrible day of Yahve cometh : || he will turn again the fathers' heart to the sons, and the sons' hearts to the fathers, | lest I come and smite the earth with the ban ! || to so many, rise in full splendour, bring- ing to the faithful in his rapid flight (Zeph. i. 18) also the healing of all wounds, so that they, having been quickly invigorated and emboldened, irresistibly conquer, vv. 20, 21 and Zech. ix. 15, 16.— Observe only the condition, forget not your duty, ver. 22: those who do their best Yahve himself will assist by the mission of Elias, comp. ver. 1, who must restore domes- tic peace, in order that the arrival of the judge may result in the general welfare and not the general condemna- tion and punishment, in order that a new, reformed Community may be pos- sible ? iii. 6 ^n v3 must be a new verb formed from Sv3 two kinds, or sorts: the latter itself is, as the Ethiopic Tc^l'S shows, a common possession of the ancient Semitic languages and merely a variation of T12W inasmuch as in it T T ' also, as is proved § 267 b, note, the idea two is derived from that of splitting or separating. The sentence is interroga- tive, as ii. 15, and the translation have ye not altered ? is intentional, with a view of expressing the unusual Hebrew word. "H-ibn - "!!? iii- 10 literally until it no longer suffices, i.e., until there is no more space for the blessing, just like Zech. x. 10. Ver. 16. TN ace. § 354 a, un- T ' doubtedly expresses the complete anti- thesis to vv. 14, 15, but it expresses this in the purely prophetic manner, in the form of new vision which has sud- denly come upon the speaker, and here particularly inasmuch as the prophet is able not only to see the most varied things one after another, but also to hear them ; comp. the remarks in Vol. III., 148, on Jer. xi. 18.- Of course they who fear God, even in the severe distress of the time, secretly talk over with each other quite different matters from those which the prophet censured above, vv. 12-15. APPENDIX. Prophetic aftergrowths in the Kan on. Although the mighty ancient tree of Hebrew prophetism had fallen completely into decay, it had nevertheless sent its roots too deep into the life and especially the literature of the nation, and it had been too full of the energy of true life, to permit it to suddenly disappear without some new after- shoots. Many of these later after-shoots start up indeed very soon with peculiar luxuriance and form a distinct kind of literature ; they survive also until after the second destruction of Jerusalem, and find their way unobserved even into the territory of Christianity. But inasmuch as a new loftier spirit, such as could meet the needs of the later age, did not at the same time constitute the vital energy of the majority of these offshoots of the ancient tree, they remained, notwithstanding all the luxuriance of their growth, mostly but sapless and feeble scions, which lived simply upon the sap of the old underground roots ; they have more of the nature of merely learned imi- tations and purely literary essays, called forth by the lofty power of the books of early prophecy, but not springing like these from really active and public prophetic life ; and thus they only furnish in general the proof that the flourishing period of true prophetism in this community had long been passed, and that no art and skill in imitation could bring it back again. At the same time, they occupy by no means all the same level; and some of them, at all events as respects the deepest ten- dencies of their spirit, attain something of the elevation and greatness of the ancient prophetic books. It is not consistent with the limits of this work to examine the whole of these after- 88 APPENDIX, I.— COLLECTORS OF ORACLES. growths: we can only briefly describe their nature and various classes, particularly with reference to those pieces which have come down to us in the Kanon of the Old Testament. With a view to this we will explain the books of Yona and Daniel at length, and for special reasons take the book of Barukk as well. 1 . The Collectors of Oracles. We have previously, Vol. I., pp. 85-106, examined the manner of the collection of prophetic writings, which was done principally towards the time of the decay of the original prophetic power, and seen how at that time the finest pieces from the older and larger books were put together in new books. It only remains for us now to say that such collectors had certainly themselves always preserved some kind of prophetic feeling and tact, as the last of the long line of prophets. This is quite natural in the case of such arts and literatures : the ancient epic songs, for instance, were probably in the case of all early nations reduced to order by the last epic poets, and the first collectors of the early Arabic lyrics, e.g., Abu-Tetnmam, were themselves, to some extent, good poets. And we may perceive cleai-ly from certain indications that in this way the earliest Hebrew collectors of oracles were still conscious of a certain prophetic vein within themselves, and still preserved sufficient confidence to work on in the spirit of the great earlier prophets. For it has been before shown, Vol. I., p. 95, that the collector of Isa. i. — xxiii. took the liberty to make his own prophetic continuation of the oracle of Yesaya at the close of each half of that collection ; and to the same collector we probably owe also (see supra p. 24 sq.) the following original piece, xxiv. — xxvii., which he desired to add as an appendix. Again, the author who- (see supra p. 1 sq.) wrote the piece Jer. 1., li. quite in the style of Yeremya, is at the same time the reconstructor of the entire book of Yeremva, as if he believed himself to possess prophetic APPENDIX, 2.— YON A. 89 power enough to make the book more productive for his con- temporaries. Indeed, if it is established (see supra p. 3) that this same later prophet also wrote the piece " Isa." xxxiv., xxxv v we might venture to accept, somewhat more confidently than we have done above, Vol. III., p. 89, the opinion that he also had already proposed the transference of the oracles of Yeremya concerning foreign nations to the end of the book in order to be able thus more easily to add his own piece, l.,li.,as an appendix; for in the same way as he would in that case have appended also the extract from the national records, lii., to the book of Yeremya as a closing piece, he would have enlarged the genuine piece of Yesaya's, xxviii. — xxxii. (xxxiii.) not only by his own continuation, xxxiv., xxxv., but also have concluded the whole with the similar extract from the national records, xxxvi. — xxxix. The last conjecture would, it is true, be more evidently attested if the formula of transition VPyttP "nai riDH IV were found after Isa. xxxv. as well as after Jer. li. £ still, I do not think I ought to completely suppress an idea which has frequently forced itself upon me. It is conjectured above, Vol. I., p. 100, that the book of the so-called Minor Prophets was closed by Mal^akhi's own hand. And thus in any case the principle is established, that one of the first of the after- growths of ancient prophetism led to the collection and re- juvenating of the more important earlier pieces, and that the last prophets of the ancient type themselves present to us this transition into an entirely different age. 2. The prophetic writers of Legends. Book of Yona. 1. It has often been shown earlier in this work how much the literary prophets recount of their own personal history, sometimes at length and at other times by way of j mere reference, so that every larger book of a prophet furnishes also the best idea of his true life. Nevertheless, what a prophet wrote about himself was always undoubtedly but a small 90 APPENDIX, 2.— YON A. portion of all the things he experienced, or of what his con- temporaries narrated concerning him, since it was precisely the life of an ancient prophet which always found its true object in the light of perfect publicity and in the midst of the most stirring national movements. Moreover, the most ancient prophets wrote but little or nothing in any shape. Accord- ingly it follows that a great number of oral stories and histories about prophets might just as well as other popular traditions and legends be collected, grow up and receive fresh forms, be preserved through many generations, and travel far through various times and vicissitudes ; and inasmuch as the most characteristic tendencies of the ancient nation found their expression in the prophetic life, it was exactly the legends of the prophets which would become in the times subsequent to David the most important and finest portion of all national stories. When, however, a series of such legends were col- lected by an able editor simply for the sake of the story, a great example of which is preserved in the Books of the Kings in the case of the stories of Elias and Elisha, it is not that kind of literature which we are here concerned with. We must remember that a legend about prophets might be revived and be newly shaped with greater freedom in the same spirit in which it first arose, i.e., under the influence of prophetic thoughts, in such a way that it would serve the author simply as pliable material for the elaboration of his own principles. At the time of the decadence of every independent literature there is found (as we should now say) such a novelistic treatment of stories and legends. We need here only refer to the Hindoo Katha-sarit-sagara and to the Thousand and One Nights. The course of ancient Hebrew literature is distinguished from that of the other ancient literatures not as regards its form, but only as regards its subject-matter and its higher prophetic ten- dencies. At a time when prophetism inevitably approached its decadence, a great quantity of prophetic legends existed amongst the Hebrews, coming the more into the foreground in propor- APPENDIX, 2.— YONA. 91 tion as the public labours of the prophets became more a thing of the past. It is easy to imagine that this superabundance of legendary narrative at such a time produced at length a desire to collect and recast it : at the same time many of the prophetic truths, which had formerly been uttered with such energy, pro- duced still such abiding effects that they also sought in the fresh revival and presentation of these legends to obtain com- plete utterance. Thus the last prophets themselves were able to be the inaugurators of this late after-growth of prophetic literature. 2. We possess a pretty early and at the same time very excellent example of this kind in the Book of Yona. Exami- nation shows, it is true, that this little book forms in itself a perfectly intelligible and complete piece of narrative : yet the feeling is soon obtained that a multitude of similar pieces, containing narratives from the lives and uncommon fortunes of other ancient prophets, might exist in addition to this, and that this small series of historical pictures and legends might easily be worked up into a much larger series. For it is surely very unlikely that an author should intend to write simply these few prosaic words (I mean in times when litera- ture had not yet split itself up into the fritters of leaves for the day and hour as in the present day), and it would be as easy to take a piece out of the Arabian Nights, or out of the Katha-sarit-sagara, and place it by itself as this small narrative piece, now in a separate form and received into the Book of the Twelve Prophets which is in other respects so very dis- similar. Plainly, however, as this piece, which is now unique in the Old Testament, has been taken from a larger series of similar pieces and belongs to an entirely new branch of litera- ture, it is no less clear that its object is not to present a simple narrative of Yona's life and labours, whether it be from historical memory or from legendary story ; or, if that were its intention, why does the narrative leave its hero quite alone by the withered bower near Nineveh, so that the reader does not 92 APPENDIX, 2.— YON A. at all comprehend what became of Yona even immediately afterwards, whether or not he all along continued to stay full of bitter feelings in the open field near Nineveh. As a fact it is quite impossible, from the sources of history concerning Yona which are now open to us, to say more defi- nitely what and how much the author received through earlier tradition, and with how much freedom he himself then treated his materials in detail. We see from 2 Kings xiv. 25 nothing further than that this Yona, son of Amittai, was really an early prophet of the time of f Amos, or a little earlier, and belonged like Hosea to the Northern kingdom. From this accidentally preserved reference to him and the much later legends which underlie the descriptions of this book, we may make highly probable conjectures. We may conclude that this prophet, so uncommon as regards his antique features, was in his whole character a genuine successor of Elias and Elisha, as the greatest prophets of the Northern kingdom; that his life passed through almost equally unusual vicissitudes of marvel- lous exaltation, victory, and glorification, and of flagging zeal and despair, and on that account passed into the region of national legend equally early with the lives of Elias and Elisha. We must, finally, allow the possibility that as prophet of the Northern kingdom he stood in some close relation with Nineveh, in some such way as the Books of the Kings place the labours of Elias and Elisha in close connexion with the kingdom of Damascus. But ways and means of penetrating further this historical obscurity are no longer at our command. Still, this much is apparent from the style and character of the little book which now perpetuates the prophet's name, from the failing end of the story, and (which is the most deci- sive thing) from the true meaning of the whole book, namely, that the author beheld in the legendary material which was ready to his hand simply a given medium for presenting in an attractive form a prophetic truth which lived in his own heart. The one task which we have here to perform is to correctly APPENDIX, 2.— TON A. 93 seize this meaning of the whole book and with it the pro- phetic truth taught by the piece : and this little book is so transparently clear and at the same time brings such a noble truth to light that to accomplish this task is no less possible than remunerative. We see (1) the prophet shrinking from the divine commission to preach repentance in Nineveh : he has indeed heard the plain voice of higher duty, but because the execution of the commission appears to him difficult and dubious (iv. 2), from human doubt and hesitation he fails to obey and thus falls into a first sin such as is least excusable in a prophet of all men. But it is in vain that he endeavours to flee into the most distant and obscure i-egions of the West (Ps. cxxxix. 9; instead of goiug to the East : in the midst of his flight the terrible voice from above overtakes him with all the more overwhelming force ; for it seems it was his intention, as he remained per- sistent in his obduracy, to get as far from that voice as he could, and so laid himself to sleep as soon as he had got on board a ship : but all to no purpose, and as the lot then falls upon him as the guilty person, he resigns himself to the inevit- able and is cast into the sea. But the sailors, although people worshipping various and accordingly heathen Gods, as they wit- ness Yona's punishment, become all of them suddenly changed men, give Yahve alone the glory — and are saved. Thus the proof is for the first time given that true fear and repentance bring salvation from Yahve. — (2) Yona meanwhile finds, after he appears to have been wholly lost, an unexpected protection and as it were a final respite in the belly of a sea-monster which has swallowed him alive : and as one who has thus marvellously been spared, amid extreme peril, for another day of grace, he is really at last moved, as by this miracle itself, to sing from a full heart a hymn of praise to Yahve, he gives the glory to him to whom it is due, — and is saved ; a second time the fundamental thought is proved. The fact that the figures of the fine hymn, ch. ii., and the entire historical basis <)4 APPENDIX, 2.— YONA. which it in the strict sense presupposes, do not suit the posi- tion of Yona as described in the story, and that there is no allusion in it to the sea-monster, shows that it is only an insertion here by the author, and must accordingly itself belong to an earlier age, as is stated in the Dichter des Alten Bundes.,1 a., pp. 155-157. At the same time, our author's selec- tion of this lyric was appropriate in so far as it was intended only in general to be the hymn of a man who had been already rescued from the depths of the sea, although he had not yet returned to the peace and repose of his native land. — (3) Now no longer resisting the will of Yahve, Yona really executes manfully his onerous commission : and even the Ninevites at last, before it is too late, ascribe to Yahve the glory and are saved, and for the third time the same fundamental truth is confirmed. After a threefold confirmation of the same truth in the case of the most different kinds of men — the rude sailors, Yona the prophet of Yahve, the thousands of luxurious Ninevites, — the narrator might well come to an end : but inasmuch as he has not yet explained the ultimate basis of the truth in Yahve himself and his nature, he proceeds to join, in the same some- what loose manner in which all the three sections, like so many short easily separable narrative pictures, are connected toge- ther, a fresh incident to those which have gone before. This is the brief story, ch. iv., which first throws a clear light upon all that has preceded. This story makes evident the supreme divine love as the true and necessary basis of the above re- demption of the penitent of all classes without exception; but the story also, inasmuch as it introduces Yahve as the teacher who is yet higher than the prophet, treats its material with extraordinary skill, since it enables the reader to perceive that such and not a different thing must the divine superiority be whenever it manifests itself. At first Yahve's reply to the complaining Yona is merely the question, whether then he is really so very angry ? Not a word of rebuke in the strict APPENDIX, 2.— TON A. 95 sense : it is enough that he has observed this conduct of Yona, he permits him for a time to have his own way without any- proper explanation, and to do what he likes, but meanwhile eterual wisdom, which embraces all things and continues its work, has unobserved taken him captive in his weak and sinful self-love, and when, after this has been destroyed, the divine wisdom again asks him whether he is really so very angry, this is not done without immediately, with all sublime superiority and certainty, shaming him by reference to the eternal truth of the divine love itself. If the thought which it is intended to establish in the whole of the four sections of this piece had not already been estab- lished as regards its ultimate foundation, the loose thread of the narrative might easily have been in this way continued by further use of Yona's history. But everything finds in it a satisfactory conclusion, and we are quite content to leave Yona by his bower. — Moreover, as may be supposed, many other subsidiary truths, in addition to the principal truth, may be derived from any narrative of this kind : we may gather from it what the true prophet of Yahve ought not to be ; we may prove from it that people of all callings and religions are equal before the divine love and forgiveness : but neither the latter nor the fonner truth is presented by the author as the primary principle of his narrative. There is no difficulty in the way of the supposition that the little book was written in the course of the sixth, or at the beginning of the fifth century : the conclusion, ch. iv., parti- cularly has still genuinely prophetic characteristics, and is more- over a masterpiece of description of rare excellence; for although passages like 1 Kings xix. 4, sq., may be present to his mind, how far he surpasses them ! It appears, on the other hand, from the manner in which he speaks of Nineveh as a marvellous city which had long ago perished, iii. 3, that he did not write before its overthrow. The narrative is perfectly simple, too, and makes no claim to have been written bv Yona himself. — 96 APPENDIX, 2.— YON A. But the Hebrew of the book has peculiarities ; and we cannot ascribe these peculiarities of language and of style simply to the fact that we have a later author before us. On the con- trary, they are as a whole to be traced to the fact that popular and national stories generally presented linguistic and stylistic features, differing from those which are customary in written books. The legends about Elias and Elisha which were received into the Books of Kings also bear linguistic peculiarities (comp. e.g., History of Israel, IV., p. 86 (III., p. 553), although in detail they differ again. from those of this book. From this, however, no further inference can be drawn than that we have here an author from whom nothing further has been preserved. The Story of Yona. i. 1. 1 And Yahve's word came to Yona son of Ainittai saying : 2 " Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and preach unto her 3 that their wickedness is come before my face !" But Yona arose to flee to Tarshish from before Yahve, went down to Yapho and found a ship which was bound for Tarshish : so he gave the fare thereof and took ship therein to go with the 4 people to Tarshish, fleeing from Yahve. But Yahve cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and a great storm arose in the sea 5 so that the ship threatened to go to pieces. Therefore the seamen began to fear and cried every one to his God, and they threw the freight which was in the ship into the sea to ease them- selves ; but Yona had gone down into the hold of the ship had 6 laid himself down and was sound asleep. Then the captain of the ship came near and said to him " wherefore sleepest thou so sound ? arise call upon thy God, if so be the God may deign 7 to remember us that we perish not !" — Then they said one to the other " come and let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account we have this evil !" So they cast lots, and the 8 lot fell upon Yona. Then said they unto him " tell us now on whose account have we this evil ? what is thy business and whence comest thou ? what is thy country, and of what kind of nation art thou?" and he said unto them "I am a Hebrew, and Yahve the God of heaven I fear who hath created the sea APPENDIX, 2.— YON A, 1. 97 10 11 13 14 15 16 and the dry land . . . ." Then the men began to feel great fear and said unto him " why hast thou done this ?" For the men had discovered that from before Yahve he sought to flee, because he had declared it to them. So they said unto him " what shall we do that the sea may hold its peace before us ? for the sea groweth more and more stormy ;" and he said unto them " take me and throw me into the sea, that the sea may hold its peace before you ! For I know that for my sake this great storm is upon you." — Then the men strained hard to put back to land, but were not able, for the sea grew more and more stormy. So they called unto Yahve and said " we pray thee Yahve ! let us not perish for the sake of the soul of this man, and lay not innocent blood upon us ! surely thou Yahve — as it pleaseth thee thou doest ! " and they took Yona and threw him into the sea. Then the sea abated its fury : but the men felt great fear before Yahve, brought sacrifices to Yahve and vowed unto him vows. The wickedness of the great city has come before God's face, has become too great to permit God to further let it go on : Yona perceives that, and a distinct voice of God seeks to urge him, in spite of all the difficulties which he will thereby have to encounter, to go to the city and preach unto it the things which he as a true prophet had to preach to it. These difficulties (as appears from the slight hint given iv. 2) are found most of all simply in his human, overstrained reasonings. He supposed that either the hundreds of thousands of Nineveh would not be converted, and then his heavy labours would have been in vain. Or, if the more improbable case is put that they are converted, then the divine punishment, with which he shall threaten them if they should not be converted, will, after all, by virtue of the mercy of Yahve, which is so well known to him, not be carried out, and then his prophetic reputation will suffer. These are vain reasonings such as very naturally overtake and involve in their meshes even the best educated and apparently most gifted men in presence of a great, onerous, but un- avoidable task. — But whoever, like Yona in his day, becomes unfaithful to a clearly recognized divine will, simply from fear lest he should have to en- counter too many difficulties, that man too often falls all the lower in propor- tion as his position was high : thus an irresistible feeling urges Yona to go so much the further from Nineveh, as if the further he was from Nineveh lie could the more easily escape the ter- rible voice of Yahve as it reminded him of his duty; so he seeks to go to the most distant West, and embarks upon a Phoenician ship which is bound thither. The city Yapho had as early as the times of the Judges fallen again into the hands of the Phoenicians,* and appears here also a city in which they * Comp. the addition, which I published in the Oott. Gel. Anz., 1868, p. 142 sq., to my interpretation of the large Sidonian inscription. 5 7 98 APPENDIX, 2.— YONA, 1. ruled and where the crew which had to row and steer the ship were taken from the Heathen. Yona appears here as the opposite of an 'Amos (comp. Vol. I., p. 143 sq.), and does not even remember what is said with such unsurpassable truth Ps. cxxxix. 9. Thus the man, who as prophet ought to have better known what was his duty, must be reminded of his grievous violation of it by an unlooked-for occurrence. A violent storm arises out in the open sea, the ship is on the point of being wrecked : but while every one of the crew, consist- ing of men of various heathen nations and religions, being in the mortal peril euddenly overcome by a deeper reli- gious feeling, calls upon his own special deity for help, Yona is lying fast asleep in the eabin into which he had retired before the storm ; so that the captain* himself is compelled to go below to wake and bring on deck the strange man who has long been missed by the whole crew who are all on deck under the open heaven. f The reason why he is called on deck in haste by the crew and in their name by the captain, is that it has already been agreed, that if all prayers are of no avail agarast the growing rage of the storm, and every single man on the ship has prayed in vain to his particular God, then the last means of appeasing the Gods which seems left to them, according to ancient custom, must be resorted to. In that case it must be discovered by the lot who the really guilty person is, and he must be cast into the sea as an acceptable offering it may be to some God for the salvation of the rest. The way in which all this is here described shows clearly that it was an ancient sacred custom which was made use of on the ship when all other means failed. It is all the more re- markable that the seamen of that time, as appears with equal clearness from the following description, vv. 7-15, nevertheless themselves felt doubt whether the lot always fell upon the guilty one : thus enlightened therefore were this heathen crew in their day even, and these doubts were naturally most numerous when they saw a man selected by the lot from whose appear- ance and history anything so bad could not be suspected. This is their feeling with regard to Yona. For he, already most profoundly terrified by the sudden awakening from the deep sleep in which he had expected to find com- plete repose, and by the unexpected sight of the horrible storm as well as of all the men who were waiting for him, the only one that yet failed, is by all this snatched as by a fearful wrench from his spiritual still more than from his physical slumber, beholds himself smitten down by the thunder of the divine wrath as none of his fellow- pa-isengers, and in the same moment feels that he is an entirely different man from what he had just appeared to be to the seamen and from their ideas of him. As soon therefore as the lot has fallen on him, a totally new und strange scene * That is the force of vDriH 2"] lit. head-steersman, the two words more closely connected ace. § 287 c. f Whoever apprehends the sense of the whole story will easily perceive that according to it Yona cannot have gone below while the storm was raging, in order then to go to sleep and thus bid defiance to what he foresaw was coming : in that case he would appear not as a timid man but as a knavish pi-ophet, which he is not and does not show himself to be in the course of the narrative. APPENDIX, -2.—Y0NA, 1. 9J< commences iu the midst of this con- fusion and storm from above and below: the Heathen will not believe that he is the guilty person, beg him to tell them on whose account they have this evil, inasmuch as they cannot imagine that they have it on his account,* they inquire nevertheless more particularly with i-egard to all his circumstances, vy. 7, 8. But he is now, as we ha.ve said, a god-fearing man again and with- out any reserve, because he has undei - - gone an inward change and become sufficiently altered to tell them every- thing ; and the great prophet stands then before these Heathen, as not one of them had expected, as a sinner against his God ! For even these Heathen have at once perceived what a grievous sin, furthermore against the only almighty and true God, who was probably known to them by distant report or intuitively recognized, Yona has committed by his resistance of the divine will ; and they have also per- ceived that on that account the storm of this God has fallen upon the ship :f accordingly they ask him, how he could do that, vv. 9, 10, delay at first and ask what they are to do with him, vv. 11, 12, try with utmost effort, J even after he has requested them to consider him as the guilty one, to steer the ship to land, ver. 13, and not until this last means also has proved itself vain do they resolve to do to him as he had requested of them, even then when they do it first in fear and trembling calling upon the true God not to punish them if they cast an innocent man into the sea, and only silencing their last scruples by openly confessing that they know well that he doeth what he will, can accordingly either destroy them all in a moment by the utmost increase of the storm if they should treat an innocent man as guilty, or save them if the con- trary he the case.§ When they saw realized what they had just conceded the possibility of, ver. 14, but had considered as most un- likely, when the rage of the storm ceased in a moment and a calm arose, what are we therefore to think ? was the first feeling of these seamen, who had hitherto been so rude and untauglit though so quick to feel the divine both in man and in the world without, * Accordingly the question on ivhose account have we this evil, ver. 8, is quite correct, and by no means to be omitted as is the case in some early MSS. Jt seems also as if the author himself wished not to repeat it quite verbatim from ver. 7 : as if the seamen themselves employ a somewhat more elegant language in Yona's presence, they say ^y ">tt>Si2 instead of 'PytEJS, comp. ver. 12 and § 222 c. ■(■ It is self-evident from the connexion and meaning of the earlier narrative that the words of Yona to the seamen are here, ver. 9, given only in an abbrer viated shape, that is, they do not add the sequel which .every reader can supply from vv. 1-3 ; otherwise everything would haye to be repeated from vv. 1-3, which the narrator very properly considers superfluous for attentive readers, but to which he nevertheless points back at the end of ver. JO for the sake of the general perspicuity of the discourse. X This must be pretty much the force of ~ UHPT, ver. 13, as the LX!X already correctly perceived: and from the signification of breaking in, penetrating (instare) that of endeavouring with every power may very well be obtained. § As regards the two perfects, ver. 14, comp. §§ 357 b, 360 b. 7 * 100 APPENDIX, 2— YONA, 2. and who at least in this moment of Unknown and Mysterious One into mortal danger had become so pro- whose presence they had been brought, foundly religious. One moment, and they are now, after they have come to they saw that that man in whose know Him as far as they are able to guilt before his God they would not know him from greatest fear of him, believe was really guilty, that therefore moved by the profoundest feeling of that God also whom they had learnt true religion, and immediately attest to know through him and this occur- this by sacrifices, which they bring to rence could and really did so severely him as they are able at the moment, punish his own distinguished servant, and by voius of still larger ones to in brief, they perceive what Yona him- be brought in the future ; and thus self ought to have perceived and known Heathen become better worshippers of long before them and from the very the true God than the prophet was as first. If they were previously more yet. and more agitated by fear before the ii. 1 Then Yahve appointed a great fish, to swallow Yona : and 2 Yona was in the fish's belly three days and three nights. — But 3 Yona prayed nnto his God from the fish's belly, and said : 1. I called out of my distress unto Yahve : he answered me ; out of the heart of Hell I cried : thou heardest my voice ! 5 For a whirlpool cast me into the heart of the seas, and the current encompassed me round, all thy breakers and w T aves passed over me : 5 then said I " I am cast forth before thine eyes !" still I shall look again —unto thy holy temple ! 2. Waters had surrounded me even to the life, the deep encom- passed me round, G seaweed wrapped around my head ; 7 unto the bases of the mountains I went down, bars of Hell were closed upon me for ever : then thou didst raise from the pit my life, Yahve my God ! 3. 8 When my soul grew dark unto me I remembered Yahve : and unto thee my prayer entered into thine holy temple. APPENDIX, l.— YONA, 2. 101 9 10 11 They who heed vain idols forsake their graciousness : but with loud thanks I will sacrifice to thee, I will pay that which I vowed ! Salvation is Yahve's ! Then Yahve commanded the fish, and it vomited Yona upon the dry land. Yona appears now to men wholly lost. But though this appears to be the case, still at the first moment when he was aroused from his profound spi- ritual sleep as by a celestial though wrathful violence, he had again become at the same time an entirely different man, had confessed his guilt even before Heathen men in that terrible moment, yea, had himself desired the whole vehemence of the final punish- ment to fall upon him. Thus though he has sunk down into the awful depths, it is still as one who has already been inwardly regenerated : and thus a divine deliverance is possible for him even in the midst of these depths ; and that he, thus swallowed by a mighty fish, is conscious even in its belly that he is alive, becomes for him the com- mencement of another possible deliver- ance. This he now perceives even in the midst of this doubly awful depth, and instead of an elegy concerning the dark, mysterious God, such he had previously been tempted to sing, he strikes up a joyous song of praise and thanksgiving concerning the Redeemer, like those converted Heathen who had thrown him overboard, yet a song as definite, clear, eloquent, and deep in feeling as was to be expected from a true prophet and an old servant of Yahve. And a single word from Him to whom he has once more come quite near suffices to deliver him from his provisional place of rescue and set him on the dry land and once more in the sunlight. This is the story, which would have been wholly impossible if legends of similar miraculous deliverances from the jaws of the sea and its monsters had not long before our narrator been in circulation not only in other seaboard countries, but along those long-stretch- ing coasts of Phoenicia, which were almost without harbours and so diffi- cult to navigate. These legends were used by our narrator so as to work in with the fundamental thought of all his narrations, and yet his story is in- comparably superior to them all. The base and earthly elements are en- nobled by the breath of the Divine in its purity, and things material and monstrous are transformed by contact with the light of the Immortal.* But the hymn of praise itself plainly comes from another who had himself only shortly before suffered the greatest perils in the sea ; and having at the time of writing been saved therefrom, he vowed in future to present his fur- ther thanks in the temple if possible. His own horrible experience of such * A host of more or less similar myths, reaching back into the earliest times, may be found amongst all such nations, comp. e.g., Philo's Opera, II., p. 465 sq.; Burnout's Introduction a Vhist. du Bouddhisme, p. 316 sq. ; Journ. as. 1859,11., p. 512 ; also the German story of Ortnit. — But in so far it is remarkable that reminiscences of the name of Yona and memorials of him are to be found in several places of that long coast-line, see Osborne's Palestine, p. 137. 102 APPENDIX, 2.— YON A, 2. extreme perils in the depths of the sea both fiud such suitable expression in is the principal feeling of the lyric the lyric, was no doubt the motive which makes itself felt in the vivid which led our narrator to adopt it ; description : accompanying this horror and he was able to borrow it from is the feeling of deep inward joy that some existing collection of lyrics. It deliverance has been sent from the true is as improbable that he himself wrote God in order that life may henceforth it as it is incapable of proof that it is be more completely devoted to His a song of the ancient prophet himself.* graciousness. That these two feelings * Comp. as to the lyrie itself the Dichter des A. Bs. la., p. 155 sq.f It is already said there that the lyric occupies a place between Pss. xviii. and xlii. : from the former it borrows some phrases, but is itself, on the other hand, imitated by the author of Ps. xlii. 8, because this author already uses a phrase in a meta- phorical sense which is purely original in the poet before us. Moreover, the poet of Ps. xxxi. borrows in vv. 7, 23 some clauses from ours ; and the temple which the poet of our lyric has in his eye is probably that at Jerusalem, judging from the analogy of the other lyrics of this kind. f For the sake of completeness, the exposition of this lyric, referred to in the author's work on the Poets of the Old Testament, has been inserted. " The poet had been delivered from mortal peril in the sea, comp. Ps. cvii. 23 sq. A historical supposition of this kind is necessary, because the figures are too definite and are too exclusively directed to circumstances of that kind to suffer them to be interpreted in a merely general way of some great mortal danger, as in Pss. xviii. and xlii., of which two lyrics the first must have been present to the mind of our poet, and Ps. cxxiv. also. Having been rescued from the greatest peril, he here strikes up a hymn of thanksgiving, calm in tone, measured in style and arrangement, the poet being full of the joyful hope to be able at length to behold the temple, and there amid offerings to pay his vows, a hope which he here expresses. It is, however, the thought of having been miracu- lously brought from the gates of the under-world once more into the light of the upper world by Yahve's grace, which takes such possession of the poet's soul that each of the first two strophes commences with the description of the danger, and closes with the description of the deliverance, both marvellous facts, particularly the first — the danger — being gradually more completely described until there is nothing more to be said. It is only in the third and last strophe, which once more begins with the fundamental matter of the first two, that the poet looks around him with a somewhat freer and wider glance ; ver. 10 carries out further what was previously hinted at ver. 5 b. — Each of the three Strophes of this lyric plainly falls into six verse-members, which in the first strophe are all long members, but in the next two get shorter towards the end. " Ver. 5. "^NT before s j"T*1EM expresses, it is true, primarily an antithesis : however, as the antithesis makes itself felt in the following clause where *fS is equivalent to the Latin verum, it becomes on that ground a restriction, that is, has the force of our 'indeed,' 'it is true' (Germ, zivar). This modification of the particles by their place and relation is not rare in Hebrew. " Ver. 7. The bases of the mokmtnins at the bottom of the sea, where earth APPENDIX, 2.— YON A, 3. 103 iii. 3. 1 Then came Yahve's word again to Yona, saying " Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and preach nnto it the preaching which 3 I will speak nnto thee !" Then Yona arose and went to Nineveh according to Yahve's word. Bnt Nineveh was a 4 divinely great city, three days to go through. So Yona began to advance through the city one day's length, preached and said 5 " Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown !" — Then the people of Nineveh believed on God, proclaimed a fast, and put on mourning-garments from their greatest to their least. 6 And the thing came unto the king of Nineveh : he arose from his throne, put off his state-robe, put on a mourning-garment and sat in ashes, then caused to be proclaimed in Nineveh and 7 said " By command of the king and his magnates, &c, man and beast, herd and flock, shall not taste anything, neither shall 8 browse nor drink water, man and beast shall be covered with mourning-garments ; and men shall call upon God with fervour and every one shall turn from his evil way and from the wrong 9 with which they act ! It may be God will turn and have pity, turn from the fierceness of his wrath that we perish not !" — 10 Then God saw their doings, how they had turned from their evil way : so God had pity at the evil which he had spoken to do unto them, and did it not. If Yona now receives the same com- tion ; simply what God luill speak to mission of his Lord again, it is under- him, ver. 2, must and will he speak as stood that, in the frame of mind in prophet in the immense city ; as, in- which he now is as a regenerated pro- deed, what he now preaches to it, ver. 4, phet, he ghidly obeys it. All his former is quite different from what was said doubts have disappeared, a.i1 at this formerly, i.2. Nor is it impossible that the moment seem as if they could never word which would be the correct one again come back. He permits himself, for to-day should to-morrow in altered too, to be borne more unreservedly than circumstances undergo an important before by the flight of divine inspira- change ; and if the task which Yona and hell separate. It seems necessaiy to regard 71SIE7 instead of ^ISif as the original reading, comp. also ver. 3 'and Job xvii. 16 ; if the present reading were correct, 137D would have to be understood in its other meaning : the earth's bars (trammels) were behind me, i.e., I was free from them, as having my place already in the lower world. Yet this meaning would be ill-expressed and ambiguous. " Ver. 9 : their graciousness, favour, the divine power of love which could alone save them, and which is nevertheless originally so near to all men that it can be called their graciousness.'" — Tr. lOi APPENDIX, 2.— YON A, 2. has to perform is immensely difficult, he has himself in the meantime grown with its growth, and is able, therefore, to speak otherwise than it would have been best to do previously. — However, before this altered word of God is itself announced, the narrative, ver. 3, suit- ably refers in a few words to the immense size of that city which then existed, whilst at the time of the nar- rator it scarcely remained as a shadow of its former greatness. Its magni- tude cannot be more briefly and at the same time more adequately described than in the words : it was a divinely great city, an expression taken from the language of the people, like the Arabic lillcthi 'l-kailu, divine is he that composed thus, Hariri, p. 9 sq., comp. Jahrbb. der Biblischen Wiss., X., p. 50. In the more dignified language of the prophets and poets, and, indeed, of the historical writers, of the Old Testa- ment, such an expression is not found : at most it is only the language of the people which tolerates expressions less consonant with the stricter nature of the true religion ; it is all the more noteworthy that a similar proverbial phrase, Gen. x. 9, has been preserved as from that region, " as Nimrod, a hero of the chase before Y alive,'' i.e., almost like mehercle, or our by God, as little more than an asseveration. — When it is further added that Nineveh was a space to go through in three days, this refers more particularly to the manner in which Yona acted in the city, ace. ver. 4 : the historical significance of this is explained in the above Jahrbb., p. 50 sq. The announcement which Yona now preached in Nineveh, that it will be overthrown within forty days (unless it is converted), has plainly a much more decisive, urgent, and threatening tone than what he would at first have said, ace. i. 2 ; and it may be readily conceived with what urgent admo- nitions the prophet enforced this announcement : and this may also be seen from the nature of the royal pro- clamation, ver. 9, which is manifestly intended to cite important words from the prophet's call to repentance. — The immediate effect of the fresh vigour and power of his preaching appears also in the fact, that before he had proceeded through half the city, before he had got as far as the middle of it, all the inhabitants were overtaken by the most earnest and deepest repentance, and even the king, overpowered by this irresistible impulse of the spirit, together with his magnates (as at an imperial diet) publishes a public summons, in conformity with this feeling, to hold a general day of humiliation. It is simply in accordance with ancient custom that this day of fasting and humiliation is also to be observed by all the cattle which are in the possession of men, and that at least the nobler animals which are received more into the society of men, such as horses and the like, shall be covered like men themselves in mourning garments: we have no reason to suppose that the prophet desired all this should be done just as it is here described, but that the king commanded it thus in agreement with ancient sacred customs of his kingdom. Herod, ix. 24 narrates something similar of the Persians. Moreover, it also follows from the nature of the case, without special mention of it, that the general public fast which is thus proclaimed is intended to last only one day : in the case of the people of Israel also * a fast This is put more strongly here than in the Antiquities, p. Ill sq. (9^sq.) APPENDIX, 2.— YONA, 4. 105 was always thought of as lasting but one day.* We know as a fact from other sources that among the ancient nations of those countries days of profound humiliation frequently interchanged with the most luxurious life and feasts of wildest joy, as this was most plainly seen in the worship of Tammuz, ace. Vol. IV., 59sq. How greatly, moreover, feeling changes in great cities, and at times even the most serious feeling of repentance will become prevalent, is a phenomenon with which we are sufficiently familiar in our own day and experience both in Europe and America. A true Hebrew prophet of the time when these prophets had often produced the most powerful effects, both in their own land and far beyond its limits, was able to become also in Nineveh the man of the day. It is true, our narrator is himself unable to maintain that that conversion in Nineveh was very lasting. For that it takes place far too rapidly even for such a city, and it assumes too little the form which had been long sacred in Israel. It is to be observed, too, that our narrator, although he cites the penitent words of Joel ii. 14, never- theless does not like in this case, vv. 5-10, even to speak of God as Yahve, as if that were only a very general and new acquaintance with divine things which had come to the people of Nineveh, and not even such an acquain- tance as had come to the seamen pre- viously, i. 9-16. Still, it could be, nevertheless, the commencement of a lasting amendment ; and that such a great city should only once begin with one mind to really perceive its ancient errors, is of itself a great thing. Acord- inglyit obtains for this time forgiveness from God, ver. 10. -1. IV. 1 2 Then that seemed very evil to Yona, and he was angry and prayed to Yahve and said " surely Yahve ! is not this what I thought as long as I was in my own country ? therefore fled I beforehand to Tarshish, because I knew that thou art a God gracious and merciful, long-suffering and of great kindness 3 and willing to grieve for the evil ! And now Yahve, take then 4 my soul from me, for to die is better for me than to live !" — 5 Then said Yahve " art thou so very angry ?" And Yona went out of the city and fixed his abode to the east of the city, made himself a bower there and fixed his abode under it in the 6 shade, till he should see what would happen in the city. Then * The "lbS7 5 ver. 7, in the course of the royal proclamation is remarkable ; we must look upon the words according to the pleasure of the Icing and his magnates as forming the heading ; then the titles of the king and his magnates might have followed at length ; but in order to come at once to the chief point, which is indicated by ~)QSv, all those titles are left out. We see here the transition to the "IttSO in the great Sidonian Inscription, line 2, ( and to the Syriac abbreviation therefrom Jam. 106 APPENDIX, 2.— YON A, 4. 9 10 11 Yahve God appointed a Ricinus : which grew up above Yona to be to him a shade over his head, to give shade to him against his evil mood ; and so Yona rejoiced over the Ricinus exceedingly. But God appointed a worm whilst the next dawn was rising : which smote the Ricinus so that it withered ; and when the sun rose, God appointed a stinging east wind : then the sun smote upon Yona's head so that he fainted and wished that his soul might die and said " to die is better for me than to live." — Then said God unto Yona " Art thou so very angry on account of the Ricinus ?" and he said " I am very angry even unto death." But Yahve said " Thou wast sorry on account of the Ricinus for which thou didst not toil and which thou didst not make grow, which was of a night and died in a night : and I shall not I be sorry on account of Nineveh the great city, wherein are more than twelve ten thousand men who do not know the right from the left and much cattle ? The primary truth has now been taught three times, a truth which is presen ed about the same time by the last prophets (Hag. i. 12, 13 ; Mai. ii. 5) as one of the highest : Yona had had opportunity of recognizing it, not only in the cases of the rude seamen and of the polished Ninevites, but also in his own case; and at all events he had long since overcome all fear of mere men as regards the Heathen also. But, on the other hand, he had not yet over- come human vanity, which is apt to make itself most conspicuous when, as in the case of Yona, great results have been achieved. So he must again pass through the school of God himself, in another way than formerly, and yet in one not less humiliating for him. What further comment is necessary has been given above. — The picture of despair of life, which is here so vividly drawn, and in the case of this prophet of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, reminds us very much of Elias, who may be con- sidered Yona's great prototype, I Kings xix. 4 : but the picture is more lofty in the case of Elias as suited his character. — Moreover, as regards all these final delineations of the story, it must not be forgotten that they are meant to be simply great strong strokes for large frescoes. It is in conformity with this painter's manner that the Qiqayon, or Ricinus, which by us also usually grows with its broad leaves un- commonly high and rapidly, but in those regions still more quickly, is called the child of a night, Germ, ein- ndchtig, just as Greeks and moderns speak in like manner of ephemeral things.* Of peculiarities of language the following should be observed: (1) 3T^ n w. 4, 9, answering exactly to the Syriac tobh in the sense of very ; (2) JTH^HFJ ver. 8, instead of which i"Vtir~in must be read ; the latter word, as" the same in its root with * How much of a far bolder character later writers ventured to say in such instances, may be seen in the G. j"V33?.n, fol. 23, and with respect to Muhammed in Bwrckhardt's Travels in Arabia, II., p. 213. . APPENDIX, 3. I. 107 D"in Syriac ch'ras, and formed like It has been further shown in the *blS, Zech. xi. 15, may very well History of Israel, IV., 123, 128 (III. 602, signify that which is of a rough, 609) how certainly Yona was a his- scraping, and stinging nature. The torical prophet ; this later narrative language assumes a more exalted and also, which is so modest and yet so poetic form in ver. 6, in the description exceedingly ingenious and profoundly of the object which God had with the suggestive, supplies evidence of his Kicinus as regards Yona in his con- vastly impressive aud daring labours, dition calling for twofold commiseration, His name appears to have been common namely, '• that it might be to him a in northern Palestine and to have been shade above his head, and give him abbreviated from ]2*V i-e., Doveman ; shade also from his (self-provoked, the Syrians call him Yaunan, and this spiritual) evil." name is found Luke iii. 30. 3. The New Prophetic Authors: (1) of the simpler kind. In the last place, although these centuries become less and less prophetic, they are still very fruitful in new works of prophetic art and learning. For there was still no want of times when the stimulus of the prophetic word could produce as beneficial effects as in the genuinely prophetic centuries ; as, indeed, particularly the Makkabean period approached once more almost the elevation of the days of Yesaya by its profound awakening of all noble national energies. Neither could there be an absence of minds who, as they looked back upon the ancient prophetic models, were strongly conscious in themselves of the need there was to work prophetically for their contem- poraries, and to enkindle their higher courage ; and though public prophetic speech had long since been wholly laid aside, they were still free to use literary imitation of the power of the ancient prophetic word, and this was all the more zealously adopted as the last instrument for the production of a similar effect. But as such imitations are altogether called forth, sustained, and completed by the overwhelming power of the ancient written models, it appears as if their authors were almost all of them unable to write save under the name and guise of the 108 APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAB. i. 1.— nx. 8. earlier prophets. We saw in the piece Jer. 1., li. (supra, p. 1 sq.) the first and at the same time the only example which we have yet met with of one of these oracles under feigned names ; however there were special circumstances which might have caused that anonymous prophet to write in Yeremya's name rather than any other. But later the production of books of this kind under the name of an earlier prophet or saint became simply an art, a custom in literature in the employment of which both the author and his readers mutually met each other's necessities : for if the former in his later, increasingly feeble and confused time was conscious of receiving purer impulses and attaining higher elevation by means of his profound studies and descriptions of the region of sublime antiquity and of a great prophetic name, on the other hand, his readers also preferred most to hear such voices which might seem to be sounding into their low days from an antiquity held sacred and revered by all. Still, with this tendency of post-prophetic literature, it is rare again that a book is written in the simple manner of the earlier prophets, as is the case with the book of Barukh and the Epistle of Yeremya in the Apokrypha; and for various reasons it appears to us that the first of these deserves pre- cisely at this point to be explained at length. The Epistle of Barukh. Bar. i. 1— iii. 8. This epistle, as I before showed elsewhere,* was written during the last period of the Persian rule, as the communities in and around Jerusalem were becoming more restless and * History of Israel, V., 206 sq. (IV., 266 sq.). By this subsequent examination I have simply perceived further ( 1 ) that the Epistle, though substantially complete with i. 1 — iii. 8, has yet been somewhat mutilated at the end, and (2) that the remainder must have been a distinct book of somewhat later date ; as this will be shown below in detail. APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1. — in. 8. 109 disaffected towai-ds the existing rule, and, on the other hand, the communities in the east were fearing and perhaps had actually experienced therefrom great injury both to themselves and the cause of the true religion generally. The eastern communities had hitherto sustained, with at the same time great independence, a close relation to those of the west, as long as they were under the same government : it was not until the rule of the Ptolemies, Seleukidas, and Romans that this relation was gradually dissolved. It is not surprising therefore that when the western communities became more restless towards the supreme rule, those of the east, which were nearer to the seat of it, should experience, or at all events dread, much to their disadvantage in consequence. As now Yeremya had formerly written a letter to the community in Babel on account of dis- affectionsof this kind (Vol. III., p. 235 sq.), a prophetic writer in the eastern communities at that time thought he could best coun- teract the folly going on in Jerusalem by means of the earnest voice of a similar epistle, which, written at some time by Barukh, was intended by the great community in Babel for the community in Jerusalem. The epistle was thus simply appended to the book of Yeremya, as we can still see from the form of its commencement, And these are the words of the little booh which Barukh wrote : for no book complete in itself could begin thus ; and this edition must have then been preserved in Egypt particularly, where it became the basis of the Septuagint version, and was in this version subsequently enlarged by a few additions of a similar nature.* Yeremya was never, according to historical reminiscences, himself in Babel. Neither have we any trace of Barukh ever being there without him. Nevertheless, our author might suppose that * The history of the book of Yeremya, which was brought down a long way in Vol. III., p. 87 sq., is accordingly in this way continued further. — This view is further confirmed by the fact that in the LXX the book of Barukh follows immediately and only then the book of Lamentations, a book which, from its introductory words in the LXX, might easily have been subjoined to the book of the Kings. 110 APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1.— in. 8. Barukh had also in addition to the men there mentioned, ver. 3, gone as bearer of the epistle, Jer. ch. xxix., to Babel to read and explain there Yeremya's epistle ; and if he further adopted, ace. Jer. li. 59, the fourth year of Ssedeqia's reign as the year of his journey thither, he might very well go on to fix Sivan, i.e., the last spring-month of the following yeai", as the term of the return home. It was simply in accordance with this chronology that he then assumed that the epistle written by Barukh was read by him before the whole Babylonian com- munity on the seventh of that month, i.e., on a Pentecost day, which had been converted into a day of mourning, the community sanctioning it in such a way that they altogether adopted it as expressing their mind. But the author aptly further connects therewith, ace. i. 6-13, another twofold assumption. First, the community is supposed to have arranged for a collection of voluntary offerings on that day, that is of money which it was intended Barukh should take with him to Jerusalem in order that he might there for that money present the necessary sacrifices of all kinds for the community at Babel ; thus should the sacrifices and prayers meet here and there, having been presented in both places for the same object ! Second, the temple vessels made of silver are supposed to have at the same time been given to him to convey to Jerusalem, the same silver vessels which King Ssedeqia (who was in Babel in the fourth year of his reign, ace. Jer. li. 59) had had made in place of the golden ones carried off by Nabukodrossor, and exactly after their pattern ; a supposition of the historical value of which we know nothing. But as the final preparations for the journey must have been somewhat delayed in this way, it is easy to imagine that the departure might be postponed until after the tenth of the month, ace. ver. 8. When, however, the community at Babel immediately in this manner explained at the outset to the community in Jerusalem, that they had appointed Barukh bearer of this epistle and of this twofold gift for the temple, and in what sense they desired APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1.— in. 8. Ill a common religious life and prayer, they took occasion, as in merely a continuation of this explanation, to communicate the great prayer of penitence and petition which Bariikh had drawn up and they had adopted, adding the request that this prayer might thenceforth be read in Jerusalem likewise on every feast and solemn clay, i. 14. This long prayer has not indeed the usual opening at the commencement, ver. 15, but simply because it has been previously introduced by the fore- going words, vv. 10-13; however, it proceeds quite naturally and in such a way that it could not be more perfect in its peculiar manner. All mere supplication of the divine mercy is useless as long as the person has not put himself in the right relation to God, i.e., recognized with the utmost clear- ness and sincerity his own sins and defects, both general and special, which have precipitated him into his present misery ; and as this holds of every individual it must also hold of the entire nation. It is only from the deep earnestness of peni- tence that the stream of joyous petition for mercy springs heavenward. When accordingly this prayer, taking a wider review of the whole past history of the nation, has shown in a first strophe, i. 15 — ii. 10, in general the suppliants' own un- worthiness with a true humiliation of their own pride, then in a second and third, ii. 11-23; 24-35, with equal profoundity and special reference to the present case, in a fourth, iii. 1-8, the power of believing petition for new mercy and salvation grows more and more in strength and inwardness ; and it cannot be denied that therewith the plan of the prayer has been properly worked out. It is true enough that the prayer is, after the manner of these late writers, very lengthy; simply by reference to passages of the Scriptures and their quotations so extended. Still, it cannot be denied that it is full of the genuine pro- phetic spirit and can be considered a model of an earnest and profound penitential prayer. The best proof of this is supplied by the book of Daniel, in which it is already, as we shall soon 112 APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1.— in. 8. see, made use of as sucli a model. Its plan and execution, too, in four strophes, are quite suitable ; and as that part of it which might be considered its proper introduction is woven into a first strophe of the whole book, we may properly sup- pose that the whole book has five strophes. It is, in the last place, easy to understand why the author borrows his phrases mostly from the book of Yeremya. It is in other phrases, however, that we recognize all the more plainly his real age, as will be shown more particularly at i. 11, 12. Inasmuch as the little book, as was above said, was according to all indications widely circulated from the very first only by means of Yeremya/ s book in the form of an appendix to it, it is not difficult to understand how we come into the possession of it only from the hand of the same Greek translator by whom the book of Yeremya appears translated in the LXX.* For the earliest history of the little book this is not without its importance. For as the book of Yeremya was undoubtedly translated rather early into Greek, we perceive from that fact also that this little book of Barukh must have been appended at a comparatively early date to it, and must have been looked upon as a genuine book of Barukh's, at all events in the copies of Yerernya/s book which were in use in Egypt. Nevertheless, if a serious endeavour is made to understand accurately this little book now preserved only in the Greek tongue, it is soon perceived that it has a very corrupt text, which particularly shows lacunce in many places. Some of these errors go no further back than the Greek translation, and need not be charged to the translator himself, but only to later hands. But others were manifestly found by the Greek translator himself, and he was unable to rectify them. They are, however, all dealt with one by one below : neither would * The proof of this has been previously given in the History of Israel, V., 208 (IV., 268) : however, it is here also needful to bear in mind that this proof when taken more strictly extends only to the larger half of the present book of Barukh, i.e., only to iii. 8. APPENDIX, 3. 1— BAR. i. 1— in. 8. 113 it be possible rightly to appreciate the little book as a whole, in its true value and its simple art, if these textual errors were not carefully observed. As regards the book generally, how- ever, we must here observe, that a complete and clear con- clusion to the little book is now wanting. It is true the petition in the last strophe, iii. 1-8, is by no means one that is broken off in the middle ; for the strophe is manifestly intended to be shorter as compared with the rest, because the whole prayer consists of a series of strophes of diminishing length, like a genuine lamentation in perfect conformity with the prin- ciple discussed in the Dichter des A. Bs. la. p. 148 sq. The closing strophe therefore has in itself suffered scarcely the loss of a few words. At the same time, it might very well be observed at the end as a complete close of the little book, that this epistle was actually read constantly at that time in the synagogues of the Holy Land as is desired i. 14. If this little book lacked thus early a distinct ending, it was all the more easy for the piece without a heading, iii. 9 — v. 9, to get, attached to it. This piece may now be reckoned as the second smaller half of the book of Barukh, but in point of age, subject, and purpose, as well as art and execution, it was originally a different piece, and though its original language was also the Hebrew, it must have fallen, to judge from its Greek, into the hands of an entirely different translator. This smaller but intact book is distinguished greatly from the little book (BifiXlov i. 1, 14) of Barukh by the fact that it is translated into good Greek, and has also been handed down free from any serious errors. But to these two appendices, soon made into one, to the book of Yeremya as it circulated in Egypt, was subsequently added further the epistle of Yeremya which is in many editions reckoned as the sixth chapter of Barukh, though it had not even a Hebrew original.* — Our present book of Barukh, inas- * Comp. History of Israel, V. 479 sq. (IV., 625 sq.). 114 APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1.— m. 8. much as it lias come with its five chapters to be looked upon as a connected whole, might be more correctly named 1 Barukh, to distinguish it from a 2 Barukh, a book which has been completely rediscovered,* and from a 3 Barukh, a little work now likewise rediscovered and published^ but which owes its origin to the hand of a Christian. It is true that the Syrian church reckons as 1 Barukh what we have here named 2 Barukh and our much older book as 2 Barukh, but this arises simply from the fact that the former was a much longer book when it came into the Syrian Kanon. i. 1 And these are the words of the book which Barukh wrote, son of Neria son of Maasaya son of Ssedeqia son of Hasadya son of Chelqia in Babel in the fifth year on the seventh of the month 2 .... J, | before the time when the Chaldeans took Jeru- 3 salem and burned it with fire. || And Barukh read aloud the ■words of this book unto Yekhonya son of Yoyaqim king of Yuda and unto all the people as many as came to the Bible §, | 4 unto the mighty ones and the kings' sons and unto the elders and unto all the people from the little to the great, to all who 5 were dwelling in Babel and by the river Sud ; || and they wept and fasted and prayed before the Lord, collected money 6 as the hand of each was able, [ and they sent him to Jerusalem to 7 Yoyaqim son of Chelqia the son of Shalom the priest and to the priests and all the people as many as were found with him 8 in Jerusalem : || (in that he received on the tenth of Sivan the vessels of the house of the Lord which had been carried away out of the temple to take back as silver ones into the land of 9 Yuda, | which Ssedeqia son of Yosia king of Yuda had caused to be made after Nabukodrossor king of Babel had led away prisoners to Babel Yekhonya and the princes and the chief men and the mighty men and the common peoj)le from Jerusalem * See on it Gott. Gel. Anz. 1867, p. 1706-16. t In Dillmann's direst. Aeth. (Leipzig, 1865). J Sivan has here been omitted ace. ver. 8. § That is, to a place where the Bible is publicly read and prayer offered to God. APPENDIX, 3. I.— BAR. i. I. — in. 115 10 unto Babel), || and said "we have sent unto you money: | so buy ye with the money whole burnt- offerings and sin-offerings and incense and make ye it a presentation and present ye it 11 upon the altar of the Lord our God, || and pray ye for the life of Nabukodrossor king of Babel and for Baltasar's life his son, | that their days may be as the days of heaven upon 12 earth ! || And the Lord will give us strength and enlighten our eyes, ] that we may live under the shadow of Nabukod- rossor kino- of Babel and under the shadow of Baltasar his 1. The situation described vv. 1-9 cannot be correctly understood until two emendations have been made. (1) Ver. 2. The name of the month, which had most likely already disappeared from the manuscript of the translator, must be restored from ver. 8, and then 7rp6 rov icaipov must be read instead of Iv Tip Kaip(f. From the simple fact that Babel is spoken of it was evident that the chronology which is used in the book of Hezeqiel was here intended ; accordingly everybody knew that in the fifth year of this chronology Jeru- salem had not been destroyed, as is indeed presupposed in all that follows. If, moreover, our author lived in Babel, we can suppose that the mode of reckon- ing time which is used in the book of Hezeqiel was still kept up in his day ; although this cannot be inferred from the recently discovered Crimean in- scriptions (comp. Gott. Gel. Ariz., 1866, p. 1246 sq.), it is still in itself possible. — (2) Ver. 4 we must read with the Pesh.* " in Babel and by the river ~2ovS :" for the situation of Babel needed no further definition ; but that they who did not dwell too far from Babel also assembled for that great feast, was not a supeifluous observa- tion. The name of this river is at present obscure, it is true ; and the orthography of the Pesh. ssur does not help us. But if the district which the Arabs call or as-sawdd (Abulfeda, p. 52, 307, ed. Reinaud), derived its name at first from one of the numerous rivers of southern Mesopotamia and is here meant, its locality would suit here very well ; and if our author lived in those eastern regions, he would accordingly know this district well. — (3.) avrbv must be inserted after airkgrtikav, this avrbv as well as that of ver. 8 referring to Barukh, for it follows from the manner of the enumeration of the men in ver. 7, that this sending, ver. 7, is not intended to refer as ver. 10 to the money mentioned ver. 6. The ancestors of Barukh, as far back as the fifth generation, are met with here only : the father and grandfather are also found Jer. xxxii. 12, and these two are the same as those of Seraya> " Jer." li. 59, as if this travelling atten- dant of the king had been a brother of Barukh's. Still, we have no good reason to doubt that our author could still have been in possession of reliable ancient sources for such information. — On the other hand, the name of the high-priest at that time, Yoyaqim, ver. 7, must ace. 1 Chron. v. 39-41 (A. V. vi. 13-15) be based upon some confusion : it was a later high-priest * We follow this version as edited by Lagarde, Libri V. T. apocryphi syriace (Leipzig. 1801). 8 * 116 APPENDIX, 3. I. -BAR. i. 1. — in. 8. 13 14 15 son, | serve them many days and find favour before them. || And pray ye for us to the Lord our God because we Lave sinned against the Lord our God and the wrath and anger of the Lord turned not from us even to this day, | and read ye this book aloud which we have sent unto you that it may be proclaimed in the house of the Lord on feast days and on holidays, so that ye say : || 2. To the Lord our God be righteousness, but to us shame of that bore this name (comp. History of Israel, V., 123 sq. (IV., 160 sq.> ), and his name was later very popular (as the book of Judith shows). The expression S«jf.wrag, ver. 9, shows not only that the words were taken from Jer. xxiv. 1 ; xxix. 2, although with great freedom, but also that the Hebrew "ISDQ is rendered by the same translator by the, to us, very obscure word Seaniorag. It is probably intended to signify bundle-bearers in the sense of lictors (fasces), as the Pesh. (into which the rixvirai also have been received after it from these passages) render it by dachshe (comp. the Syriac Protev. Jacohi, ch. xxi. 23) ; but this sense of this Greek word does not suit the connexion, and the author un- doubtedly understood the Hebrew word which he adopted here differently ; we have, however, given a very vague rendering of it above. The words -n-oi^aaTt pdvva (a cor- ruption of fiavaa, i.e., HH3P ), ver. 10, must signify let it be consecrated for a sacred gift by means of the prescribed temple rites. The prayer for Nabukodrossor and his son Baltasar, vv. 11, 12, must be understood as in conf'rmiry with the custom which reigning monarchs have of having prayers offered for them- selves and their immediate successor. 2. In the confession the man of Yuda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem only This presupposes that Nabukodrossor had at that time appointed a son of this name to be his successor; and this is evidently the same supposition as is met with in the book of Daniel, ch. v., where Belshassar is described as the son of Nabukodrossor, and at the same time the last king of his stock and of his nation. We may also very easily conceive that this had become a customary supposi- tion towards the end of the Persian period by means of later popular narra- tives. The LXX, moreover, both here and in the book of Daniel, confound the name Belteshazar, Dan. i. 7 sq., with the name Belshazar, Dan. ch. v. — But evidently the chief emphasis is here to be laid upon the words vv. 12, 13, that is, upon the desire that God may grant, both to the communities in Babel and (as appears from ver. 11) to those in the Holy Land, the needed strength and enlightenment to avoid all inclina- tion to rebellion ; for if this desire is particularly necessary for the commu- nities in the Holy Land, those in Babel are none the less unwilling to show superiority to them, but rather with a consciousness of their errors and calami- ties gladly accept for themselves the intercession at Jerusalem, ver. 13. — It follows from their antethesis to the feast days that the t'l/xepai icaipov, ver. 14, are the Sabbath days. (a phrase so frequent in Yeremya) are mentioned at first, i. 15, with reference APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAB. i. l.-m, 8. 117 face now at this time, | to the man of Yuda and to the 16 inhabitants of Jerusalem, | to our kings and our princes, and 17 to our priests and to our prophets and to our fathers, || for the 18 things in which we have sinned before the Lord and were dis- obedient unto him and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord our God | to walk in the commandments of the Lord which he 19 gave before our face. || From tbat day in which the Lord led our fathers out of the land of Egypt and until to this day we were disobedient to the Lord our God | and too careless to 20 hearken to his voice : j] so there clave unto us the evils and the curse which the Lord delivered to Moses his servant on that day when he led our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give 21 us a land flowing with milk and honey | now at this time. |j And we hearkened not to the Lord our God according to all the 22 words of the prophets whom he sent unto us, | and walked ii. every one in the thought of his evil heart, to serve other gods, 1 to do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord our God : | so the Lord executed his word which he spake concerning us and concerning our Judges which judged Israel and concerning our kings and princes and concerning the man of Israel and of 2 Yuda, | to bring upon us great evils which never happened under the whole heaven as they happened in Jerusalem, J 3 according to that written in the Law of Moses that we should eat every one the flesh of his son and every one the flesh of his 4 daughter ; || and he made them subject to all the kingdoms round about us, | to be a shame and a desolation among all the to rVTn DV3* as it is to-day, i.e., was in those early times (for there were with reference to the present time : but always such) pronounced by Moses, ace. as the discourse is about to pass in Lev. xxvi. 14 sq ; Deut. xxviii. 15 sq., review the whole of the ancient history is being fulfilled ; which is then shown from the moment when God gave his more and more clearly in the long sen- Law before our face, after Ex. ch. xix.- tence, ver. 21 — ii. 5, also with reference xxiv.,the kings and princes,as well as their to the work of Moses as continued by contemporary priests and prophets and the true prophets, particularly as regards fathers, i.e., the rest of the ancestors, are the most terrible of all the divine curses immediately, vv. 16-18, connected with and evils, Lev, xxvi. 29 ; Deut. xxviii. them. Eor with vv. 19, 20 the discourse 53, because Jer. xix. 9 had similarly begins more definitely to explain how the spoken of it. The whole of the long curse of God upon the rebellious, which general confession, i. 15 — ii. 5, which * Ewald takes JTtn D'V? here and in Jer. as meaning simply now, at present. Comp. Vol. III., 223.— Tr. 118 APPENDIX, 3. l.—BAR, i. 1.— nr. 8. 10 11 12 nations round whither he scattered them, || and they came down beneath and not up above, | because we sinned against the Lord our God not to hearken to his voice. || To the Lord our God be the righteousness, but to us and our fathers the shame of face now at this time ! || As the Lord spake all the evils concerning us which came upon us, | but we did not entreat the face of the Lord that every one might turn away from the thoughts of his evil heart : || so the Lord watched over the evils and brought them upon us, | because the Lord is righteous with respect to all his works which he commanded us, | but we hearkened not to his voice to walk in the ordinances of the Lord which he gave before our face. || 3. And now, O Lord God of Israel, | thou who leddest forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with mighty hand with signs and wonders and with great power and high arm and madest thee a name now at this time : || we sinned we offended | we did wrong, Lord our God, against all thy righteous laws ! [| of itself occupies a whole strophe, con- sists, therefore, essentially of three sen- tences only, the last of which is the longest : hut the substance of it is gathered up with all the greater point at the close, ii. 6-10. And here at the close the peculiar phrase, God watched over the evils, i.e., he did not forget or overlook those evils which had long been threatened, and brought them, therefore, at the right time upon us, is inten- tionally thus borrowed from Jer. i. 12 ; xxxi. 28 ; xliv. 27. From Yeremya also are taken the phrases wc ») r'l^spa avrti, i. 15, 20; ii. 6, 11, 26, and that of the reproach and desolation (HfeW 3. It is manifest that after this glance at the divine punishments threatened in the Law, and the disobedience shown to- wards the ancient prophets, the general confession,ii. 1 1 , 1 2,must begin again with new fervour ; but inasmuch as the peti- :ion for mercy also begins and is sus- would have been better translated as- tonishment) among all nations tound about, ii. 4 ; iii. 8 ; on the other hand, the phrase ii. 5 is from Deut. xxviii. 43. — It remains only to observe that wv, i. 17, depends quite correctly, though indirectly, on aitr\ivti, ver. 15, comp. Jahrbb. derBibl. Wiss.,IV., p. 77. The expression the curse ivhich he pre- scribed to Moses, i. 20, may signify, in a brief way of speaking, that he pre- scribed it to him to pronounce ; it does not seem necessary to suppose that the words required to complete the sense have been lost from the text. tained by its various reasons, beginning three times with growing urgency and becoming thereby more and more con- scious of its reasons, vv. 13, 14, 15 ; 16-19, the discourse is, at the same time, purposely conducted so that, as the last and most forcible reason, the present APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAB. i. 1.— in. 8. 119 13 Let thy wrath turn away from us, because we are left only few 14 among the nations whither thou didst scatter us ! | hear Lord our prayer and our petition and save us for thy sake, | and give 15 us favour before the face of our captors, || in order that the whole earth may know that thou art the Lord our God, | that thy name is called upon Israel and his race ! || O Lord, look down from 16 thy holy house and give heed unto us, | and incline Lord 17 thine ear and hear ! || open thine eyes and see ! | because the dead in the lower world whose spirit is taken from within 18 them will not give praise and righteous due to the Lord, || but the grieving soul and the pride which goeth along bowed and fainting, | the failing eyes and the hungry soul will give thee 19 praise and righteousness, Lord ! || Because not upon the just claims of our fathers and our kings do we support our prayer 20 before thy face, Lord our God, ] . . . * Because thou hast sent down thy wrath and anger upon us when thou spakest by 21 thy servants the prophets: | "Thus saith the Lord: bow ye your shoulder and serve the king of Babel, that ye may thus remain upon the land which I gave to your fathers ! || but if 22 ye hearken not to the voice of the Lord to serve the king of 23 Babel, | I will cause to cease from the cities of Yuda and outside Jerusalem the voice of joy and of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and bride, | and the whole land will become a desolation before its inhabitants !" || calamity simply is brought forward in- so few of them left in their wide dis- asmuch as it has been caused by disobe- persion, ver. 13, after Jer. xlii. 2 and dience to the word of Yeremya urging Ezra ix. 15 ; — (2) because it must after quiet submission to foreign rule, vt. all be desired that the God of the com- 20-23. The whole of this strophe is munity of the true religion, and so this occupied with this order of thought, but religion itself, should not be wholly mis- because everything thus issues in the understood, ver. 15, after Jer. xiv. 9, final and most serious reason existing and many later passages of the Psalms ; in the Heathen of the present time, it is — (3) because according to Ps vi. 6 ; said at once incidentally, ver. 14, give lxxxviii. 11-13, those who are already us favour before our captors, the power- dead cannot praise God (and how near ful lords who keep us in exile, and into is the whole community of Israel to its ■whose power thou hast now delivered us final dissolution at the present time! on account of our sins. As reasons for comp. iii. 4), but, on the other hand, the divine compassion we find urged with prayer of praise and thanksgiving from increasing cogency : — (1) that there are humbled pride and a contrite lowly heart * Some such clause as but upon thy mercy, &c. has been omitted here. 120 APPENDIX, 3. 1.— BAR. i. 1.— in. 8. 4. 24 But we hearkened not to thy voice to serve the king of Babel : | so thou didst execute thy words which thou spakest by thy servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings and 25 of our fathers should be removed from their place : || and now are they cast out . . . * || to the heat of the day and to the cold of the night and die in evil hardships, by famine and 26 sword and by sudden death ; || and thou madest thine house whereupon thy name was called as it is now at this time, | on account of the wickedness of the house of Israel and of the must be acceptable to God, vv. 17, 18, after " Isa." lvii. 15 and similar pas- sages ; and because the community is now conscious of being in this state of mind, there follows — (4) the further reason, that they do not base their prayer before God upon any such thing as the deserts of their famous fathers and kings, ver. 19 ; to which is finally added, vv. 20-23, as has been already explained, the last reason and the most weighty, inasmuch as it concerns most deeply the present time. The words, vv. 21-23, are from Jer. xxvii. 11, 12, 17, at all events as regards their substantial meaning, and xxv. 9-11, taken together with vii. 34 ; xxxiii. 10, 11 : but instead of simply emoting Yeremya's name as authority, 4. As now a rebellious feeling towards the government has been just mentioned as the immediate and most efficient cause of the present distress, in agreement with i. 11, 12, the confession may begin afresh from this immediate and most burning sin with new fervour, in order, together with a public confession of this sin, to confess with equal publicity that with it are connected all the present serious evils, the ruin and desecration of the graves of great kings and fathers of in prophetic style it is more suitable to refer them to the prophets generally ; indeed, they already stood in the Book, i. 3, i.e., in the Kanon of the Law and the Prophets. The same thing occurs again, ver. 24. — Ver. 18 ical to must be read for ini to ; otherwise no sense can be got, and this emendation is de- manded also by the structure of the verse-members, there being here four sub-members to two principal members. The Pesh. seeks another way out of the difficulty. — Ver. 19 according to the correct reading top 'iXEop r)nu>v we have simply an erroneous translation of : )3»~)2n.n. Moreover, in this verse I" t • : some words are wanting, as is indicated in the translation. old, ver. 24, the leading away of the nation into captivity so that, exposed on the way to the great heat by day and the great cold by night, they died off by all kinds of cruel death, ver. 25, and the present lamentable condition of the temple itself, ver. 26. In fact, the dis- course with these words, vv. 24-26, does not forsake its assumed date so far that with them allusion is made to the time subsequent to the destruction of the temple : for the words, ver. 24, may * There is wanting in the text : of their graves ; and thy surviving ones are exposed APPENDIX, 3. l.-BAR. i. 1.— in. 8. 121 27 house of Yuda. — || And yet thou didst deal with us, O Lord our God, only after all thy kindness and after all thy great 28 compassion | even as thou spakest by thy servant Moses in the day that thou command edst him to write thy Law before 29 the sons of Israel, saying || "if ye hearken not to my voice, then surely this great and numerous swarm of people will become very small among the nations whither I will scatter 30 them, | because I know that they will not hearken to me because it is a stiffnecked people. || — Yet they will bethink themselves in the land of their homelessness and know that I 31 am the Lord their God : | so I will give them a heart and ears 32 which hear, and they will praise me in the land of their 33 homelessness and remember my name, || will turn away from their stiffneckedness and their evil deeds | if they remember 3-1 the ways of their fathers who sinned against the Lord. II Then will I lead them back into the land which I swore to their fathers to Abraham Isaak and Yaqob, and they will rule over 35 it, | and I will multiply them that they may not be too small; II and will establish with them an everlasting covenant that I will be to them a God and they to me a people, J and I will no more drive my people Israel from the land which I gave them. very well refer to a violation of the ver. 25, comp. the Jahrbb. der Bill, graves which occurred at the first con- Wiss., IV., p. 77. quest of Jerusalem by Nabukodrossor's The transition to believing supplica- army (History of Israel, IV., 263 (III., tion is made gradually by two stages, 792, VII., 533)), just as here it is brought vv. 27-30a, 306-35. Instead of com- into connexion with Yeremya's words as plaining over these most recent oreat their fulfilment,viii.l sq.,the words them- disasters, there is seen in their infliction selves having been spoken long before simply a mark of the divine goodness, the event. The disasters referred to inasmuch as with them nothing occurred ver. 25, and described ace. Jer. xiv. 12: but what had before been threatened in xxxii. 36 ; xxxviii. 2, could very well the Pentateuch as the necessary conse- befall those led away captive who would quence of the transgressions, so that it be exposed to the heat and cold ; and the is therefore the merciful God who condition of the temple, alluded to ver. manifests even thereby his mercv in 26, need be nothing more than that un- that he foretells to his people all the worthy one of its plunder presupposed consequences of their sins in order that above, i. 8, 9. But after i&ppi/z/x^a, they may take warning and not after- ver. 25, as was above indicated, some wards complain when they follow words have been lost through copyists' vv. 27-30a. For when it is further errors, and it was the Greek text in added that the same God who thus which the omission arose. On«7roaaa cannot here signify the actual staff of wood round which the rich tongue itself, but only, like lingula, a materials and the head of the idol- rod or staff rounded at one end so as to figure were fastened. The description APPENDIX, 3. l.—THE GREEK YEREMYA. 143 10 coronals for the heads of their gods : but it happeneth also that the priests taking away gold and silver from their gods employ 11 it upon themselves, but they will give it from them also to the harlots under the roof. — They deck them also as men with 12 garments, the silver gods and the golden and wooden gods : but 13 these save uot themselves from rust and all manner of corrosion. They are hung round with purple raiment, people wipe their face on account of the dust of the room which lies thick upon them. 14 — And a sceptre hath he as a man a district judge, he who will 15 not destroy him that sinneth against him ! he hath indeed a little staff in his right and an axe, but he will not deliver 16 himself from war and robbers. — Whence they are recognizable as No-gods : therefore fear ye them not ! 17 18 For as a man's vessel broken in pieces becometh useless, so are their gods If they are set up in the gardens, their eyes are full of dust from the feet of those going in and out ; and just as for an offender against the king the yards are closed or as begins with this primary foundation of the manufactured god, with the wood which is always mentioned along with the silver and gold. vv. 11,30,39,50, 57 sq. ; it then refers to the abundance of gold and silver which has to be used upon the wood for ornament, particularly of the head, after that to the clothes, the costly materials of which are in- dicated more in detail subsequently, ver. 72, and concludes, vv. 14, 15, with the sign of power, staff (sword) and axe, which are placed in their hands. The picture of the pi - eparation of such doll-figures is therewith finished in this strophe. It is evident that the speaker has primarily in his mind the small house- hold gods which are ornamented like dolls, and on feast-days are borne upon the shoulder in public. In each par- ticular it is the ridiculous element, i.e., that which is at the very first sight comically opposed to what these gods are meant to be, which is brought out, and which, when it bears upon the action of the priests themselves, passes into bitter mockery. What could be worse than this ? The priests steal from these gods at times much of their ornaments and give them to the harlots under (lit. upon) the roof, to the hidden harlots which dwell in the small garrets at the top of the houses. — The last words, ver. 8, that they cannot speak, allude to Ps. cxv. 5, it is true ; but we must not on that account be misled to understand y\, ver. 41, since it would make no sense to say that they briug Bel himself to the dumb person, and (2) KrtraXoXsTi/ instead of KaraXnrtiv, ver. 42. If the latter reading were correct, the words ver. 42 would simply complain that although men observed it they nevertheless could not abandon these idols ; but that would not suit either the avroi nor the closing words which, like those of ver. 41, can only refer to the dumb idols ; and it is not surprising that the discourse passes from Bel, who was mentioned ver. 41 simply on account of one particular image, and reverts, ver. 42, to the gods in general. Further, rort before (pwifjuai is a good addition of the Alex. The word evtog, which is often erroneously written ivvtog, signifies, as derived from ev and 'do, i.e., Sansk. sva, gene- rally one absorbed in himself, as insen- sible men, and therefore not necessarily the dumb simply : as may be seen from Acts ix. 7 and this passage, inasmuch as it has to be further defined by /x/} $wd(ievo£ \a\ijoai. — The speaker then adds, ver. 44, the disgraceful practice of the Babylonian women, of which Herod. I., 199, had previously reported fully enough : but our speaker describes everything by no means in such a way as to lead us to suppose he had first read it in Herodotus or some other Greek author. The women place cords, or wreaths in the form of cords, but of material which can be easily torn, around the head, as Herodotus more particularly describes : that is, as a sign that they are bound by an oath to this temple ; they sit thus by the ways, close round the temple of Mvlitta, burning bran as incense, pre;>enting the daily sacrifice to Mylitta (those who are under obligation in fulfilment of a vow present simply what is absolutely necessary) in order that they may get free of their vow; it is a somewhat different thing which is referred to by Theokntos, Idyls, ii. 33, according to whom a love-charm was 10 * 148 APPENDIX, 3. I.— THE GREEK YEREMYA. 7. 45 By artificers and goldsmiths they are manufactured : they will certainly be nothing else than what the artists will they 46 shall be. They also who manufacture them will certainly 47 not be long-lived : how then shall the gods manufactured by 48 them be ? they leave notwithstanding lies and insult to those that come after. — For when war and evils come upon them, the priests take counsel with one another how they may hide 49 themselves with them : how then is it not to be perceived that those are not gods who cannot even save themselves from war 51 nor from evils ? — For as being wooden and gilded and silvered they will later be recognized that they are lies: to all the nations and kings will it be evident that they are not gods but 52 works of men's hands, and no work of God at all is in them. To whom then must it not be known that they are No-gods ? elsewhere made of the bran. As Hero- dotus narrates, a 'woman had often to sit thus for several days, until some one came to her and released her from her vow ; this is presupposed here also, inasmuch as it is said further, when one. perhaps after many days and weeks, at last drawn away by one of those passing by, who brings an offering to Mylitta for her, is Jain with, she reviles the other that she is not likewise deemed worthy and has not broken her cord as a sign that the vow has been redeemed. Instead of now going on to say that such a disgraceful custom can only tend to the reproach of the God- dess in whose name and at whose sanc- tuary it is carried on, the strophe is closed, ver. 44, in general terms, be- cause the space allotted to it is nearly exhausted ; and the following strophe 7. begins again, ver. 45, in the same way as the second, ver. 8 : as the end of everything corresponds to its beginning, these gods also at la^t must be seen to be what they are — lying gods, because from the very first they have been de- pendent on the arbitrary human will, and were prepared by perishable beings, and because their own priests even are unable to save themselves in any mortal peril. Thus the strophe is pervaded by something of the Messianic spirit. It is possible that some images of the gods may last longer in point of time than their short-lived human makers ; but should that be the case, it must still, unhappily, be said that such artists left behind them only lies and reproach to those after them (the Epi- gonoi), as these images can never become true gods and famous deli- verers, but must always in the end be recognized as what they really are, lies instead of truth and disgrace instead of fame (comp. also vv. 27, 28). This thought is introduced with great brevity, but not unsuitably, ver. 47. — Ver. 52, the Alex, supplies the correct reading, rivi ovv yvuarbv ovk tirrai, but yvuHSTtov must be received into this reading from the other. APPENDIX, 3. l.-THE GREEK YEREMYA. 119 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 A king for the country they will certainly not set up, nor give rain unto men ; they will not carry through any cause of their own nor protect themselves from a wrong, being powerless : surely they are as crows between heaven and earth. — For when in a house of wooden or gilded or silvered gods fire should fall, their priests will indeed flee and escape, but they themselves burn up as middle beams. Moreover a king and enemies they will certainly never withstand : how then should it be supposed or thought that they are gods ? certainly neither from thieves nor from robbers will wooden and silvered and gilded gods ever deliver, they from whom the mighty ones will take off the gold and silver and the raiment put on them and go away therewith, and who cannot at all help themselves. — So that it is better to be a king who showeth his courage, or a useful vessel in the house of which the owner maketh use, than the false gods ; or else a door in the house protecting the things therein than the false gods ; and a wooden pillar in the king's hall than the false g - ods. 8. The point which was referred to so significantly, ver. 34, that they will never give to a country the boon of a good king, occurs again at the com- mencement of this strophe, ver. 53 ; and it is added that, as a like great blessing, they can never give the boon of a refreshing rain, as this is expected from Yahve, Ps. lxv. ; Zech. x. 1 ; Isa. xxx. 23 ; Jer. v. 24 ; x. 13 ; it may be seen from Prov. xvi. 15 how easily these two boons may be looked upon as similar. In like manner they are able neither to carry through their own judgment, i.e., to defend themselves when they are attacked with words, as is so vividly de- scribed " Isa." xli., nor to save themselves (pvtoSai ti like cifivvtaStai ti) from a wrong which might be done to them, e.g., by maiming, but, on the eontrary, appear only to hang like repulsive crows between heaven and earth, as belonging to neither, ver. 54, although as spirits {Saijxovtq) men locate them in the former. For how little are they who can do no good service able to give protection against any calamity which befalls them or their worshippers, e.g., against fire in their own house (on the contrary, they will in that case themselves burn like completely unprotected middle beams, ver. 20), against a bad king or enemies, against thieves and robbers, since they must themselves submit to be robbed by every mighty one ! vv. 55-58. The conclusion from all that, that they are accordingly worse than any useful person or useful thing, is commenced ver. 59, in order that it may be worked out further in the last two strophes. This is done so that in the next strophe 150 APPENDIX, 3. I.— THE GREEK YBREMTA. 9. 60 Surely sun and moon and stars, being shining and sent as 61 the need is, are obedient ; likewise also the lightning when it appeai'eth, is good to behold ; in like manner also the wind 62 bloweth in every region ; and when clouds are commanded of 63 God to go forth over the whole world, they fulfil the com- mand ; the fire also sent from above to consume mountains and forests, doeth that which is commanded : but these are neither in shapes nor in powers to be likened to one of them. 64 Whence it must not be thought nor proclaimed that they are really gods, as they not able to judge causes nor to do good 65 to men. Knowing then that they are No-gods, fear ye them 66 not ! for they will certainly neither curse nor bless kings, neither show signs in Leaven among the heathen, nor shine like the sun nor give light like tbe moon. 10. 68 The beasts of prey are better than they, for they fleeing into 69 a covert can help themselves : in no wise therefore is it mani- fest to us that they are gods ; therefore fear ye them not ! For 9. they are compared, in language of special elevation, particularly vv. 60- 64, with the vast heavenly powers, which are so clearly visible and yet so mysterious, which at all events rale over the earth in such a way that they can be considered as obedient to the divine will, as is here described after Job xxxviii. 12 sq. ; in these powers also there is something divine, but nothing imaginary and deceptive as in the case of the idols, ver. 66. The fire from above, ver. 63, which the speaker does not take from that passage of the book of Job, he derives undoubtedly from Amos vii. 4. The lightning when it appears as commanded by God is good to look upon, presenting a pleasing ap- pearance to men, because they think as they see it, ace. " Zech." x. 1, that God will be sure soon to send them again rain after long drought ; just as Hindoo poets also sing. — It is true that the mention of the kings in their twofold aspect is again introduced, ver. 66 ; still the strophe concludes notwithstanding, after Jer. x. 2, with the mention of the celestial signs which the Heathen at all events fear, and of the sun and the moon, in order finally 10. to close with a numerous and various mass of other things which are better than idols, or with which they are comparable on account of their re- pulsive nature. To the latter class belong the three vv. 70, 71 ; a scare- crow in a cucumber-field which does not even perform its proper office, and which is itself often an old ugly idol, e.g., a Pan, a thornhedge in a garden which is likewise intended to give protection and yet gives covert to all kinds of birds of prey, and an unburied dead man cast into a dark corner, a particularly APPENDIX, 3. I.— THE GREEK YEREMYA. 151 70 71 72 as in a cucumber-field a scarecrow which guarcleth nothing, so are the wooden and gilded and silvered gods. In the same manner to the thorn-hedge in the garden upon which every bird of prey alighteth, in like wise also to a dead man thrown into the dark, are the wooden and silvered and gilded gods to be compared. By the purple and white silk also which rotteth on them will ye know that they are No-gods ; and they themselves will at last be devoured and be a reproach in the land. Better therefore is a righteous man who hath no idols : for he will be far from reproach, hoping in the Lord God. repulsive object ! There is once more at the end, ver. 72, in order to recur to the commencement ver. 12, inserted the rotting of the garments, although they are of purple and white silk; for the connexion of the words shows that fiap/xapoc is not here really marble but a kind of white silk which was at that time so-called in those parts on account of similarity of colour ; that such a silk then existed was shown above, Vol. I, p. 177. The Pesh. translates jxapiiapoQ correctly by sheraye, silk. — But this last strophe is as it were bracketted between references to two better things : even the beasts of prey are better than they, because they are at all events able to save themselves in straits, ver. 68 ; but above all a man that cleaves to the true religion and can hope that he ivill remain far from re- proach, particularly that which is men- tioned ver. 47 and ver. 72 ; with which ver. 73 is briefly and fittingly closed, only the last words must be supplied from the Pesh. — We have received this piece into this work for the reason amongst others that it has hitherto been so far from accu- rately understood, although it was from the first written in Greek. But we may also draw some important inferences from it from a purely historical point of view. If it originated at the end of the second or the beginning of the last century b.c, we can infer from it how certainly the two pieces now thrown together in the Book of Barukh date back to the earlier age to which we have assigned them above. We can easily see that according to all indi- cations of date centuries must have in- tervened between those pieces and this ; so great is the distance of this piece from those, not only as regards the use of the foreign language, but also as regards prophetic, artistic, and literary characteristics. And although the piece falls far behind all prophetic writings from a purely prophetic point of view, including the Book of Daniel which has next to be treated, and scarcely any of the sparks of the genuine prophetic spirit are emitted from it, we must nevertheless remember that it required no little courage at that time to publish in the midst of the Heathen a work of this kind in the universally known lan- guage of the civilized world. In this respect it is very much like the Sybilline books, the origin of which dates back to somewhere about this time. 152 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 2. The new prophetic writers of the more elaborate hind. The Book of Daniel. It is far more agreeable to the entire character of these late "writers of the semi-prophetic class that they pursue that method of description with an exclusive preponderance of the imagination which had been first adopted by Hezeqiel (Vol. IV., p. 12 sq.), and then by Zakharya (svpra, p. 45 sq.). The reasons which led these prophets to adopt this method were now, after all public prophetic activity had entirely ceased, simply so much the more powerful and adequate. It is simply the imagination of a prophet-author of this kind which is at work within him as the creator and former of all his ways of treating things ; before that imagination are constantly hovering angels and spirits in endless numbers, by whom the author who stands upon the earth far below feels himself from time to time elevated and enlightened ; before it also crowd successive representative symbols regarding the matters which have really to be described, just as it everywhere seeks for the most figurative form of expression. But just in proportion as the pure symbols of the imagination are presented exclusively and un- expectedly and in a form needing explanation, is it the more necessary that the prosaic explanation of them should generally follow in some suitable guise, as soon as the attention has once been attracted to the strange forms presented. In this way the two component elements — symbol and thought, — which always appear so beautifully combined in the discourse of the earlier prophets, are separated. The commencement of this process is already discernible in Hezeqiel, comp. Vol. IV., p. 12 sq. But in order correctly to comprehend this prophetic art of the new type in its extensive application and development, it is necessary particularly to observe that these later authors were very frequently unable to speak freely with respect to the depressing condition of things of their time, simply because APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 153 they lived under the oppression of a foreign rule. Hezeqiel had made use of artificial means of designating the Chaldeans be- cause he could not speak of them without disguise, as was shown Vol. IV., 181 sq. ; and the subsequent form which this form of enigmatic speech soon assumed is explained supra, p. 2 sq. It was accordingly all the more natural that a prophetic author, who was desirous to speak of things of his time which could not be openly referred to, should choose some ancient prophet or saint, having as it seemed to him suitable charac- teristics, that he might speak from his elevation to the men of that time. But inasmuch as the true and anonymous author belongs to an entirely different and later age than that of the prophet in whose name his art requires him to write, he is obliged to speak not simply for his own actual contemporaries, but also to speak concerning the things of the future by the mouth and from the age of the personated ancient; he is obliged therefore to cause this ancient to speak in such a way that he, looking from his olden time into all the spaces of the future, and prophesying regarding them, shall at the same hit with special clearness that spot of the future which is also the actual future for the contemporaries of the author and first readers of the book. For he is unable, of course, merely to speak of the time which is the simple future to him and his contemporaries as the future : the intermediate period from the standpoint of the assumed author until the real author must also, if the artistic propriety of the work is to be kept up, necessarily appear as future. But inasmuch as the real author has already passed through this assumed future, and it exists plainly before him as the past in the strict sense, there is nothing left for him but to describe a past in the guise of a future ;* the events which have already happened he seeks to group in pictures of a somewhat obscure and vague outline, giving them the appearance of really belonging to the future ; * As in a like case in the Pnranas, e.g., Vishnu-Purana, p. 461 sq. 154 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. he does not like to speak of them quite undisguisedly and without any circumlocution, and in this particular also that skill in the employment of the imagination above referred to may produce its most various and greatest effects. Still, it is neither possible that what has already actually passed into the light of history should be so completely concealed by artistic description that that light should not gleam through the veils, nor is it either in reality the intention of the real author com- pletely to conceal the light and destroy the true difference between the merely artificial and the actual future; on the contrary, he casts into the midst of the dark and obscure symbols and enigmas sufficient scintillations of the real meaning, indications and hints of the solution, so that at least no attentive reader amongst the immediate contemporaries could long remain in doubt. However, the prophetic element in the strict sense in such pictures does not commence before that half of the picture which was also the simple future of the author and his contemporaries : and with as much certainty as the first readers were able easily to solve these enigmas are we able, after examinations of penetrating thoroughness, quite well to distinguish the hidden half of the future described from the actual half. Indeed, as that first half properly sketches the past very accurately according to wholly terrestrial and his- torical features, whilst where this second begins suddenly everything passes into the absolute region of celestial fore- boding and anticipations, we are still in a position also to distinguish very clearly the date of the authorship of such books precisely from those marked differences which crop up in the midst of the descriptions of the future. It must be further added that the authors of such books had in the first instance no intention whatever of acting as deceivers, but intended simply to be authors in a special form of literary art, who selected this form of their art because it appears to supply them with the only means by which they could more powerfully and with least danger APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 155 produce an effect upon their contemporaries. Their choice of this literary method may be compared with that of dramatic poets, who, going but a step further, summon completely back into life the venerable ancients who speak and act upon an artistic stage, in order that the contemporary spectators may be gratified and taught. Because they therefore in reality themselves wish that, at all events, the more intelligent readers should penetrate the historical veil which is thrown over the properly intended subject-matter of the book, and should find out the time and circumstances which they desired not openly to name, they supply in the book itself landmarks and hints regarding these, which it is only needful carefully to follow in order to discover what is really meant. It is therefore not their fault if such books are misunderstood. These are the books which we may briefly designate ApoTcalypses, a name which has at last become customary. They may be thus designated, inasmuch as they by their peculiar art aim as it were at taking off the veil from the future, and uncovering with their powerful symbols and accompanying elucidations and hints the secrets of the future. As never- theless the real author of such a work must at the same time examine more particularly the history of his hero, and adhere to it in the external description, and the history also serve, per se as such an unveiling, the purpose of instruction and admonition, it is not difficult to see how easily this class of literature can be blended with that class of prophetic legends above explained, p. 89 sq. Of this mixed class, half apokalypse and half prophetic legend, but more the former than the latter, is this Booh of Daniel. The narrative portion of it serves partly as merely an introduction of its various apokalypses, partly to instruct the contemporaries by presenting lofty examples and their plain antitheses. If we carefully note the separating line of the two halves of the descriptions of the future, which have been above described, it appears with perfect clearness that the veiled future extends to the years 168-7 B.C., i.e., until a 15G APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. few years before the death of Autiochus Epiphanes ; but from that point the pure prophetic anticipation commences. The book was accordingly written in that age of highly-strained relations aud of genuine inspiration for brief intervals, when the persecutions of this tyrant raged most violently, the fidelity of very many and highly-esteemed Yudeans wavered, and when, though a small band of faithful ones had risen, resolved to find victory or death in opposition to Heathenism, the colossus of those centuries (ch. ii.), the impending struggle still seemed in the highest degree questionable and in its results doubtful. It was then that the author who is concealed under Daniel's name came forward in brief and hasty pieces, without close connexion, partly to castigate the pusillanimity of the multitude, and to show to all how they ought to conduct themselves with regard to Heathenism, how they ought to live and contend, and partly to promise the near overthrow of Antiochus, the certain collapse of that colossus, and the transcendent glory of the Messianic kingdom close at hand, in words which are in reality here and there animated even in this late age by a genuine breath from above. It is, however, evident that the book was after all specially written for the sake of the more powerful men among the Yudeans of that time who stood in some closer connexion with the Syrian court ; and after that for the sake of the younger men of the wealthier and more respected families who suffered themselves to be led astray by the seductive charms of heathen manners. This follows from the circumstances of those times themselves; for then the danger that was threatening was by no means from below, but, on the con- trary, the more influential members of the chief priests and other powerful families had submitted to Heathenism ; and it was particularly the younger generation which suffered itself to be misled by the Syrian court which had then been for a long time wholly corrupt. This follows also with equal cer- tainty from the choice of the subject-matter : for if one asks why the author selected the name of Daniel more particularly as the v APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 157 centre of his book when such an endless line of great names of antiquity was open to him, it appears that no other reason can have determined his choice than that he suitably to his design sought exactly such an older sage or prophet as had from his early youth come into close association with a heathen court of great influence, but who had in the very midst of the highest heathen circles not only evinced his wisdom in matters of this world but also his faithfulness in the religion of Yahve and his open confession of it, and that to the author in his circum- stances no other tradition from the wide field of antiquity crossed his path which appeared so suitable as this of Daniel. If we then keep close to the unambiguous indications which the book supplies as to the time in which and for which it was written, and if we read it from the standpoint of that time and of the object which the real author had in view, everything in it becomes perfectly clear, as will appear below in detail. Every little word in it and every peculiarity of style then re-lives for us again in its original force in as perfect clearness as the general subject-matter of all its sections and the arrangement and art of the whole book. In fact this holds so strongly that much in the book cannot be sufficiently accurately understood, so long as the time of its origin is resigned to but apparently smaller errors. But if any one follows here merely external appearance and does not attempt to penetrate the enigma of the book, or rather the art by the aid of which the author shapes everything, he will be unable to understand even the separate words of it in their full and living force. Moreover, all the other indications of the real time of the author accord completely in their various directions with those which must here be considered the principal ones ; a fact which will also be variously attested below in detail, and need here be touched upon more particularly as regards some only of its aspects. 1. If we begin with the language as that which first presents itself, there is nothing in this respect which is at ouce more remarkable than the interchange of the Hebrew and the 158 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. Clialdee. The first begins and closes the book, but still does not predominate more than through about half of it. The latter is chosen, ii. 4, when the Chaldeans speak, but manifestly- only as on the first opportunity which offered, and it is then kept up uninterruptedly as far as the close of ch. vii. The two languages, therefore, do not interchange with the original documents, or with the matters treated of, for instance, still less with a change of authors, inasmuch as the whole book is manifestly by the same author; for rarely has a book so plainly one author, and rarely has one been written so plainly as in one consecutive order, and in the strictest unity of rapid succession, as this book of Daniel. It is true a similar change from one language to another is also met with in the case of the Chronicler, in the book which is now named from Ezra : it is there also evident that the book was written for such as are masters of botli languages, so that the rapid change from one to the other is not avoided even in narrative; at the same time, in that book really different original documents have more to do with the change. But in the case before us the change can only be explained if the Chaldee, or rather the Aramaic, was to the reader actually the language which he liked best and with which he was most familiar, so that our author, without doubt, would have used it alone, particularly as it was very suitable for the countries on the Euphrates and the Tigris where Daniel dwelt, if he had not preferred at least to begin and to close his book with the ancient Hebrew language on account of its prophetic subject-matter ; in connexion with which consideration it is not without significance that the larger portion of the prophecies, ch. viii. — xii., appears thus written in the ancient sacred tongue, while the four narrative pieces, ch. xii - — vi., are all Aramaic. The next point to observe is that the work was, beyond all doubt, written in Palestine. For if we leave out of view its artistic disguise, the whole subject-matter of it points, most particularly precisely where Palestine is spoken of, to the APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 159 conclusion that it can only have been written in and in the first place for Palestine. There is nothing which leads to the supposition that it was written in Babel or Susa at any time whatever ; but if it is carefully noted how the history of the Syro-Egyptian wars is recorded in the long piece of veiled discourse, ch. xi., it is quite clear that the author wrote only in or near Jerusalem, and pre-supposed that his immediate readers were in the same locality ; for in this chapter the course of these wars passes before the reader's eye as if he himself dwelt in or near Jerusalem, and all the other determinations of locality are also fixed so as to accord with that supposition. But inasmuch as the author of the Books of Chronicles uudoubtedly wrote in Palestine, and the Aramaic which he used, not only in the documents but also in historical narrative, exhibits sub- stantially the greatest similarity with that of our book, there is no room to doubt that we have in both works that peculiar form of Aramaic which became more and more the popular language in Palestine, and particularly in Yudea during the centuries of the Assyro- Chaldean, Persian and Grgeco-Seleukid rule. We possess from other quarters plain proofs of the existence of this south-western Aramaic, and of its difference from other Aramaic dialects,* although our knowledge of it from those earliest times down to the date of our book, it must be allowed, is as yet very limited. Moreover, we know that the Aramaic, from various causes, gradually during those centuries displaced the Hebrew in Yudea also, even as the language of literature, until, with the great success of the Makkabeans, the New Hebrew was raised to this dignity. f When the Seleukidas reigned over Yudea, it may have revived afresh as the literary language in those regions ; and it is just * What is known from other sources of south-west Aramaic has been touched upon in the Gott. Gel. Anz., 1866, p. 642 sq., in a notice of Erizzo's Evangeliarium Eierosolymitanum (Verona, 1864). The oldest fragment of a south-east Aramaic work, Jer. x. 11, is remarked upon Vol. III., p. 141. t Comp. History of Israel, V., 464 note (IV., p. 605 anm.). 160 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. those times to which our book belongs. And if it is remembered in addition that the mixture of Aramaic with Hebrew in the Book of Daniel is certainly much greater than in the Book of 'Ezra, it will not then be possible to doubt that our book cannot belong to an earlier age than that which we plainly recognized above in its subject-matter. If we go on to compare the Aramaic of the Book of Daniel with that of the Book of 'Ezra, we can at all events plainly see, from the few pieces contained in the two books, that there is no unimportant difference, and one which can only be explained from the distance of time separating the books, the later age, according to all indications, falling to the pieces in the Book of Daniel. This difference appears particularly in two things. First, in the use of the particles, or the small pliant words, which in every language are most frequently recurring, and on that account are also most subject to change, and which every- where most plainly mark the changes of every language as regards time and place.* — Second, in the introduction of foreign words. In the Aramaic of the Book of 'Ezra we meet with Persian words; in the Book of Daniel we meet with many Persian but also Greek words. Now, it is certainly not strange to find Persian words in the Book of 'Ezra ; his Aramaic is not of an earlier date than the Persian period, in which Persian words found their way into Hebrew also. But whether in those times in which Daniel flourished Persian words had already found admittance into Aramaic, cannot be proved and is per se scarcely probable, for this reason among others, that * In the Book of 'Ezra TJ"^, i.e., Arab, dhalilta, or fem. TJ" 7 !, is used for our that one in the Book of Daniel ^S" 7 ? : the first is not some abbreviation of the latter, but the latter is a more recent compound from the former. In 'Ezra the pronominal suffixes to the nouns have still in most cases the forms Oil" and DD - , but in Daniel \yF\ m and ^'"O", the latter being clearly the later; the verbal suffix, which is IIS TV iu 'Ezra, is in Daniel ^ISH, and if the latter form is in accordance with many indications equally old, it was probably considered in this Aramaic dialect more as poetical. In the Book of Daniel the particles SX333 and jH23?3 are not found at all, although so far as their force goes they could have been used. APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 161 most of tliese words are names of official dignities, which first received their significance by the Persian rule in the Aramaic countries.* On the other hand, Greek words are still not met with in the Book of 'Ezra ; but that they are found in the Book of Daniel as already completely naturalized Aramaic words, accords quite well with the true age of the book. But to the extent to which these Greek words are names of musical instruments, it is natural to infer that they were only able to make their way to Jerusalem through Antioch, Tyre, and other great cities of this kind in connexion with Greek art generally, which was then held in such high estimation. f The Hebrew, if the author of the book did not really write it before the year 168-169, is, for this late time, still handled with great skill, and the style is very clear, so that at first sight it might be conjectured that it was written at a much earlier date. But we must not here overlook the fact that facility in the use of ancient Hebrew modes of expression could all the more easily be kept up precisely until towards the begin- ning of the times of the Makkabeans, the more certainly the New Hebrew was not elevated to the dignity of being the language of literature until after their victories ; nor may we forget that there might always be individuals who, by absorbing study of the acknowledged models of the ancient Hebrew literature, were able to employ the language quite appropriately and elegantly in the production of new books. But if we look more narrowly into the matter, it appears that it is, after all, particularly only certain pieces of the prophetic writings, J * Many of these words are explained below. f The four Greek musical instruments are mentioned Dan. iii. 4, 7, 10, 15 in each case after the two which have Semitic names ; if, however, S32D as corre- sponding to the Greek gciujIvkii, as well as DirVp, which is formed from Ktddpa, is originally Semitic (comp. Dichter des A.B., la, p. 218 sq ), boih were neverthe- less only at that time afresh adopted with the xf/uXrripiov and the avuyuvia from the Greek and cast into an Aramaic form. These instruments are further discussed in the Qott. Gel. Anz., 1861, p. 1094 sq. J As Isa. x. 22 sq. ; lii. 13 — liii. 12; comp. on the particular passages below. 5 11 162 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. then revered as sacred, which were before the eyes of our author as his guiding-stars, and of which he makes free use, but only in such a way as a later author does who likes to follow somewhat closely the words and images of a Scripture of long-acknowledged sanctity, in order by such means to deal effectively with the affairs of the present. This is a somewhat different case from that of the re-echoing of the notes of older lyrics in more recent ones, e.g., in the most recent Psalms, or from the repetition by the Chronicler of words from the older historical works, or of the recurrence of single sentences or words of older prophets, as freely remembered, in the writings of later ones. For in the case before us the use of such older passages by a prophetic author is connected with the fact that to this author the older prophetic books, those that are still looked upon in our Hebrew Old Testament as the Kanon of the Prophets, already existed as a closed Sacred Scripture, which the moderns had only to read, apply to their own time, and from the correct understanding of which they might solve the dark things and enigmas of their present.* So far from the living laboratory of ancient prophetism was this age conscious of being ; with which further harmonizes that it was the Biblical learning of the time only which appeared to be adapted to guide the nation spiritually. f If we are thereby brought down to the times after 'Ezra, we thus obtain an explanation of the fact that the author takes single passages of the BibleJ of that day, particularly prophetic passages, as a foundation for the presentation of his ideas, and, as it were, works after their model. The choice of peculiarities of Hebrew and the orthography points by some indications^ to such a later age, although the * Comp. below the explanation of the piece ch. ix. f Comp. below on xi. 33-35. % Ace. § 2 and Bar. i. 3, comp. supra p. 113, and Geschichte des V. Israel, VII., p. 428. § As the use of H^b "ltPS i. 10, comp. § 337 b, the orthography "iSa-Coa APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 163 author on the whole has taken the earlier form of the language as his model. Finally, if we pay close attention to the age of the books which the author specially likes to follow, and which were before him as those most used in his time, we come upon not merely the oldest and the older basis of the present Kanon of the Old Testament, nor merely upon the rest of the most recent books which were received last into this Kanon, as the Books of the Chronicles, but also upon writings which originated later than these, or even such as did not get into the present Kanon. We shall see subsequently that the historical ideas about the last times before the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as those about the Chaldean and Persian kings, go back to writings which are more recent than the Books of Chronicles ; and as regards the Persian kings, this has been incidentally shown above, p. 116. But the most remarkable thing is that our literary prophet uses the great prayer in the Book of Barukh as a model, as will be further shown below on ch. ix. 2. If, on the other hand, we pay due regard to the historical aspect of the book, and get a closer understanding of it as regards its whole subject-matter, place, complexion, and age, the phenomena which present themselves on such an exami- nation are not surprising, while they are wholly unintelligible if the age and the design of the author are not heeded. If ch. xi. is accurately understood as the principal historical piece, and all historical notes and indications contained in the other pieces, we find especially the following facts. The author knows and describes no piece of history so fully and evidently after his own personal observation as that of Antiochos Epiphanes : but this history, be it noted, only to the year 1 68- 167 B.C., a few years before his death. He knows accurately instead of 1US3 — : this omission of the S is found in the Aramaic pieces of the Book of 'Ezra, hut in Hebrew even the Chronicler always writes the name with S : the author of the Book of Daniel, however, writes it with S only i. 1, afterwards always without S both in Hebrew and in Aramaic. H * 164 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. enough also the history of his Seleukid ancestors, particularly that of the grandfather of this king, Antiochos the Great, as well as that of the contemporary history of the Ptolemies as far back as the origin of the Greek kingdoms from the kingdom of Alexander, and alludes, like a well-instructed man, to certain prominent events and strange things of this history : but the history of the Persian and the Chaldean kings, and of their time, lay evidently farther from the sphere of his vision. He com- municates from those distant times to a good degree parti- culars which are historically well founded, but how few are they, precisely in respect of closer historical portraiture, as compared with the fulness and all-sided vividness of his commuuications as regards the life of Antiochos the Great and Antiochos Epiphanes ! When a special design of his work requires it, he can also be accurate enough in the chronology of the cen- turies, as the great example (x. 24-27) proves: but when this design does not require it, he contents himself with the mention of the kings of ancient Israel, of the Chaldeans, and of the Medes and Persians, both as regards the chronology and also the less accurate ideas which were in vogue in his day con- cerning those distant kings and periods of time. We shall consider all this below at length; but there is one thing of general significance which we can best bring forward at once. If we compare the descriptions and allusions which he supplies with reference to the great kings, nothing is more remarkable than that not one Greek or Persian king appears to him to have been a man whorn he could place in contrast with the contemporary king, Antiochos Epiphanes, from whom he expects nothing better as regards the future ; but in his view the only king whose rebellious heart the course of divine providence gradually softened and opened for the divine truth and the true religion of Israel is Nabukodrossor. As compared with all the subsequent Heathen kings who ruled over Israel, especially as compared with those who ruled last, even the ancient king Nabukodrossor appeared then to have been a far APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 165 better ruler, who at all events tbe longer lie lived the more he received an open heart for the true God and the true religion. A general idea of Nabukodrossor of this kind had then been formed : and certain reminiscences which came to our author from this king's history appeared to him to confirm the idea. The following indication as regards the profound depression and sultriness of the place and time in which he wrote is very instructive. It cannot be too carefully observed that this book was written just in that most depressed and downcast time preceding the rise and the victories of the Makkabeans : both its entire prophetic significance and our admiration of tbe human courage of the author are founded upon the certainty, that it was written in that time. If we now carefully attend to the manner in which the author speaks of his time and locality, it appears that he may not, as has been remarked previously, mention the affairs of the present quite without disguise, but only indicate them in accordance with the art and plan of his book. Of this, however, there are various degrees. He may not designate any one of the kings of the veiled past or present simply by his ordinary name : but the countries in which the events of which he speaks occur it is not so difficult for him to mention by name. Thus, ch. xi., he designates Egypt as the land of the South, Syria as the land of the North (that is from its capital, Antioch) , in order primarily to keep up throughout his usual language of hint and indi- cation : yet this method of bare hint is exchanged in the case of Egypt a few times for that of open mention (xi. 8, 42, 43). But Syria, i.e., the kingdom of the Seleukida3 under which he w r as obliged to live, he never ventures to mention by name, just as he also constantly speaks of the Holy Land and Jerusalem by circumlocution only : so certainly did he live under the Syrian rule, and so great was the terror which this rule at that time caused everywhere where the faithful lived in the Holy Land. But as regards the great importance of the thing itself, there is after all nothing of greater moment than the way in 166 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. which the author looks upon and brings forward in this book the number and the order of succession of the great Heathen empires. From the time of Daniel downwards, as it is here conceived and described, there are exactly four great empires which are here constantly brought forward precisely in their proper order of succession : the Chaldean, the Median, the Persian, and the Greek. Notwithstanding all the difference of the various nations which rule in them, it is always Babel, as the great centre of Daniel's world and of the chief rule in Asia, around which all these empires revolve, and from which as a basis they claim to be the empires of the world. And however different in other respects they may be from each other, they have nevertheless something in common of higher moment in the fact that they are all in the bad sense world- empires, i.e., Heathen empires without the true God, as if the great power of Heathenism had perpetuated itself in them in successive regeneration. The contemporaries of our author looked upon these successive universal empires, which, though different, were nevertheless in the main respect of their Heathenism completely alike, under whose yoke they felt themselves constantly oppressed since the destruction of Jerusalem under Nabukodrossor, as upon a Colossus, towering aloft into the clouds, which through the long centuries dis- appointed all hope of seeing it fall; as this figure is almost immediately so forcibly brought forward at the opening of our book, ii. 31 sq. If accordingly Daniel is introduced by our author as the man to whom it is given by God at once, from the first years of Nabukodrossor, even before the conquest of Jerusalem, to look forward into the long line of the centuries, a highly animated picture must be unfolded. Imagine a blameless man of Israel who is able before the destruction of Jerusalem to cast a steady glance into the coming four or five centuries. He can behold how the nation of the true religion, notwithstanding the restoration of Jerusalem from its ruins, will be subjected for such a series of centuries to the rule of APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 1G7 Heathenism, which does no more than change its colours. He must then, just on the horizon of a much more distant final period* cast his glance into the horrible abominations of the reign of an Antiochos Epiphanes. how must that man be the more overwhelmed with grief, indeed quite lose all pos- session of himself, in proportion as he is conscious of being a living member of his nation. f Neither can he feel himself properly prepared for the vision of the Messianic prosperity which follows at last after such a long series of centuries and so many mournful vicissitudes, so that the strongest proofs c the certain coming of the Messianic deliverance are needed to comfort him at least a little by such a final outlook. J A telling picture of the situation of an ancient hero of this kind may be thus sketched, and everything which tends to the enlighten- ment, consolation, and elevation of the contemporaries can be brought into it; and they, if they give due heed, must feel themselves placed much nearer than that hero to the final fulfilment of these divine words with regard to the approach of the Messianic age : for he must after all pass away, so far as this world is concerned, before he could even in the distance live to see the fulfilment of the final hope of Israel as shown to him, and had to count himself happy if he only received the certain divine assurance as regards the Messianic prosperity which was to come in the distant centuries. § And we shall soon see that this is precisely the situation in which our author presents Daniel to us as the man of the ancient time. But if this is the situation in which our author resuscitates Daniel for his contemporaries as the mouthpiece of prophecy, we get further an explanation of the manner in which he can both contract and expand, just as the object of his book demands, * This time of the end, which is mentioned with increasing frequency and emphasis from viii. 17 onwards, is therefore the immediate present of the contem- poraries of the author himself, until a brief period beyond it. f As is often declared from vii. 28 onwards. % ix. 2 sq. ; x. 2 sq. § xii., li., 8, 12. 168 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. this whole framework of the four universal empires which the Messianic empire can only follow. To the contemporaries of the author who heard such words from the mouth of Daniel, it might also serve as consolation when they saw how, according to the divine will, all these four heathen empires must follow each other in this unbroken succession : there was now surely so much the greater deliverance to be hoped for if the entire Colossus, towering with its four parts high into the air, shall at last be all at once dashed in pieces ! But certainly as the true glance into the vicissitudes, and also the connexion of the history of the world at large, must sometimes be opened to these contemporaries, it was of small importance, in the midst of the distress and oppression of their time, that they should have a knowledge of the way in which the earlier history from Daniel's day to their own had been unfolded : the imme- diate matter of interest to them was simply how the gloom and darkness of their own time would be scattered ; and the author was obliged, in conformity with the design of his book, to make more and more clear from the rnouth of Daniel him- self that the matter of prime and indeed exclusive importance is their own time. Accordingly that framework of prophecy concerning the four universal empires is at the commencement greatly contracted, with a view to increasing expansion towards the end : and after there has been sufficient said about the four empires in ch. ii. and ch. vii., as early as ch. viii. it is only the last two or three which are spoken of, and in ch. xi. it is almost exclusively the last which is dealt with ; and in the same proportion the time of the end, referred to above, is exclusively brought forward with increasing force and plainness as the true object of all prophecy and discourse, in order that the prophecy regarding the actual future may be connected with it. The remaining observations which have here to be made concerning the four universal empires, conduct us with so much the greater necessity further APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 169 2. to a more particular consideration of the question of the historical character of Daniel himself, and of the time to which he is to be referred according to strict history. For at first sight it might seem as if the manner in which our author introduces the then ancient Daniel as acting and speaking, had the greatest similarity with that which we met with (p. 87 sq.) in the case of the ancient Yona. There is really a good deal of similarity in several respects. In that case, as in this, it is a more recent author who narrates much about an earlier prophet. And as in that case we saw that all that was told about Yona was but loosely connected in a series of short pieces of narrative, we find the same thing here in the case of Daniel, ch. i. — vi. At the same time, there is in other respects an observable great dissimilarity. Yona is not introduced that he may become the living mouthpiece of prophecy and admo- nition to the contemporaries of the author : and this renders the narrative of the Book of Yona of a much simpler nature. In the narrative of the latter work chronology is not deemed needful in any form ; in the work before us it is found in each of the separate pieces of narrative. For in general the narrative in this book is meant to serve the higher, purely prophetic, purpose to which the entire book owes its orgin, the narrative standing in the closest relation with the subject-matter of the prophecy as its main element. And as moreover we have no information regarding Daniel from an older record in the his- torical books, as is the case with Yona, it becomes all the more difficult to form a well-founded opinion as regards the historical character of Daniel. Every step that a modern scholar ventures to take in this matter must be carefully considered, as it may so easily be, and so often has been, a false step. Still, a few things appear tolerably clear. When, in the few passages in which Daniel is mentioned at an earlier date, this hero is spoken of by the learned prophet Hezeqiel, xiv. 14, 20, between Noah and Iyob, as a model of perfect righteousness (comp. Vol. IV., p. 83), and then, Ezek. 170 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. xxviii. 3, alone even as a no less exalted example of true wisdom, we learn from these passages more definitely what we might suppose without them from the whole character of antiquity, that Daniel actually lived at some time, and at all events was deemed, as early as the beginning of the sixth century B.C., an historical example of the rare combination of the same two virtues for which he was still illustrious in the much more recent book now before us — of moral purity in life and wisdom. Together with this, Daniel may have also long supplied particularly the lofty model of a sage who was in his early youth highly educated and of great sagacity, and was greatly honoured even among the heathen, just as our book and the addition to the apokryphal Book of Daniel represent him. — We may also deduce from Hezeqiel with certainty the further important conclusion, that as this prophet places him, ch. xiv., between Noah and Iyob, he as a very learned and largely-read prophet drew his ideas of Daniel from some existing book, just as he speaks of Noah and Iyob only from the well-known books ; but there can be no doubt, when the matter is carefully examiued, that that book^wkich^Hezeqiel had before his eyes, or rather presupposed as long known to his readers, was a different one from that which did not come into the Kanon before some centuries after ^.Hezeqiel. At the same time, important as this observation is with regard to our views of the former reputation of Daniel, we cannot never- theless help seeing that that Daniel whom Hezeqiel pre- supposed as known to his contemporaries, belonged histori- cally to an entirely different time and region from that Daniel who is described in our book. Hezeqiel looks upon Daniel, on that point we must not deceive ourselves, as just^ as much a perfect and long since departed hero of antiquity as^ Noah and Iyob ; Daniel must therefore have lived, according to the his- torical range of view of the contemporaries of Hezeqiel, at latest in the Assyrian exile, more than a hundred years before Hezeqiel. The supposition that he as a descendant of the Kingdom of the APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 171 Ten Tribes lived probably at the court of Nineveh itself some hundred or hundred and fifty years before Hezeqiel, and acquired there reputation for the virtues mentioned above, is not only all that is required, but it is commended by the fact that in our book he still appears as living at a heathen court ; and if Nineveh was the original scene of his noble career, he might also there become first the hero of a book which was in those very regions brought early under the notice of Hezeqiel and his contem- poraries. In the present book, however, he is placed in the Chaldean exile; indeed, he is said to have lived until the first, ace. i. 21, and ace. x. 1, at least until the third, year of Kyros ; and we understand very well the great freedom with which the author of this book handled the historical framework of his pictures. If we now ask why our author supposes him carried as a youth into captivity as late as the time of Nabukodrossor, a very natural reason for this suggests itself. To the contem- poraries of our author there was no one king of the Assyrian empire who was sufficiently well known. Nabukodrossor, on the other hand, stood from the very first in ranch closer relation to the Yudeans, and by the writings of Yeremya. and Hezeqiel he remained always to them the best known heathen king of the time previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. And without doubt there existed at the time of our author ample reminiscences and legends of his life such as he could easily use. But the most noteworthy thing here is that, with this trans- ference of Daniel from the Assyrian into the Chaldean age, a further sign of date of an entirely different nature fully accords. This indication is supplied by the constant, funda- mental view of this book, as was above said, that the heathenism which rules in the world, until the coming of the Messiah, consists of four different and successive universal empires. For these four empires shall not, as wholly different according to the ruling nations, either entirely or in part, exist side by side, 172 APPENDIX, 3 2.— DANIEL. but follow each other in strict chronological order, the successor being always more corrupt, more cruel and merciless, than its predecessor. They then appear at once, ch. ii., under the figure of a monster, formed, as regards its four parts, quite differently ; with the same meaning they are described, ch. vii., as four different mighty beast-like creatures, which come upon the stage in succession, of which, ace. ch. viii., manifestly one is intended always to destroy the other. But, as a fact, it cannot be said with strict historical truth that the Chaldean empire first made way for the Median, and then this to the Persian, but as is elsewhere always said in the Old Testament, Persians and Medes together, under Kyros as their true head, overthrew the Chaldeans and formed one kingdom ; our author himself also still felt that, when, ch. viii., he comprehended the Medo-Persian empire under the one figure of a two-horned ram, the one horn of which, though grown later than the other, soon became higher than that. Everything becomes clear, however, if Daniel lived under the Assyrian rule, and an earlier book used by our author, dating perhaps from the time of Alexander or soon after him, understood by the four universal empires which he caused Daniel to foresee — the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Medo-Persiam and the Grecian. If our author had not received the number of four empires as an existing tradition, he would, particularly according to the indication ch. viii., and others to be explained below in detail, manifestly (as nothing depends here upon the number) have counted only three from that of Nabukodrossor onwards. In fact, the view that the great Colossus of the heathen rule of the world consists of just four such empires, and that the Alexandrine, i.e., the Grecian empire, is the last of them, is so strongly held by our author, that he must necessarily have received the great conception itself from an older prophetic writer, .as one which had been long in vogue. In our book there is no weight whatever laid upon the number per se as if there must be four precisely ; still less is it communicated as APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 173 something new, as yet never heard of, or mysterious, as for instance the number 490 in ch. ix.; it has the force simply of something which is taken as a matter of course, and on that very account can neither be enlarged nor diminished. The Seleukid and the other Grecian kingdoms had at that time become very different from that of Alexander, particularly in the direction of that development which our author had in his eye, and could therefore have been very well regarded as a fifth universal empire ; and in fact our author, as we shall see below in detail, appears in some passages to be on the point of representing the kingdoms after Alexander as occupying a special age of the world ; at the same time, he does not venture to go beyond the number four. But, as equally unable to reduce them to three, there is nothing left for him but to separate the Median from the Persian, just at those points where he speaks of the series and the number four, whilst on other occasions he also takes them together. — It is quite true that the older prophetic book, which must have in this case served as a model, does not now exist for us ; still, there has been perhaps a trace of it preserved in the words xi. 14, as will be shown below. Moreover, we know from many other indications that in writings of this kind belonging to the last two centuries B.C., the aim of which was to supply admonition and instruction rather than history, persons and times of the Assyrian and Chaldean empires were already very much confounded together, and that in general the earlier history of the heathen kingdoms was treated without much accuracy. If, e.g., in the Book of Judith Nabukodrossor appears as an Assyrian king, we have but the reverse of the view which prevails in the present Book of Daniel regarding those more distant times. Bat just as in such books the authors themselves choose such historical frame- work and allusions simply on account of the prevailing taste of the time (whilst the Book of Yona proves how little they are fundamentally necessary), so we also must in reading 174 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. them keep an eye upon things which are, according to their real significance, the important things, and in which the true meaning of such hooks is conveyed. The plan and art of the boolc. For the most important thing for us is that we now go on to understand the book correctly as regards its plan and artistic character, in order that we may afterwards the more correctly appreciate its subject-matter in all respects, as well as its true value. And for this there is nothing of greater importance than the recognition of the fact that this book, although written in a late age and in an age which was extremely depressed and calamitous, is exceedingly finished as regards its art and plan. Its arrangement in detail and its art in general is, it is true, very unlike that which had become customary in the previous centuries with the prophetic litera- ture of the people of Israel; and in this also lies a further historical indication that it was not written before these later times. Still, the art of the book shows in its peculiar form such a finished excellence and beauty that it cannot be too highly valued, and we must be astonished that the ancient fine literary art of the prophets still in these wholly altered times put forth its energies in a way so worthy of its great past and in such depressing circumstances. 1. It has already been indicated that this book, in accord- ance with the necessities of the time for which it was primarily intended, was written for the prophetic consolation and encouragement of all faithful people, but also particularly to shame and threaten the powerful and at that time highly placed renegades, and to instruct and exhort the younger people. Whoever desires thus like our author to produce an effect upon his time by writing simply, may very well make it his object to promote at the same time the most different purposes of a book : and yet our author had but one higher purpose which combined all the rest. As now the various APPENDIX 3. 2.— DANIEL. 175 objects which are pursued in the production of a book may be most easily attained by changing the manner of treating his subject, so an author may chose partly the narrative presenta- tion of sublime examples and events from antiquity in order thereby to supply the more easily abundance of elevating lessons of the most varied kind to his contemporaries, partly prophecy in order from the consecrated voice of the same antiquity all the more powerfully to place before the eyes of his contemporaries the divine significance of their time and the time to come, sometimes using consolation and sometimes threatening. A plentiful abundance of reminiscences and legends from their own antiquity was supplied to the people of those days ; the people of this late time were always prepared and eager to hear of the men and things of that antiquity; and under the heavy pressure of the present to be entertained by elevating or even cheering narrations from a previous better time is exceedingly acceptable. Thus narratives, notwithstanding their deeply serious backgrounds, form the lighter side of this book; they open it accordingly, and pleasantly prepare for what is more difficult to understand. The art of depicting the manner in which the human spirit can be touched by those spirits that reveal the mind of God, had made the most memorable progress between the time of Hezeqiel and Zakharya and the time of our author. For the prophetic spirit itself, separated in the course of time more and more from the public life of the nation, and thus getting continually more absorbed exclusively in its own efforts and unlimited endeavours, had since the days of those prophets learnt increasingly to have converse simply with divine spirits, had increasingly endeavoured simply to gain the proper state of mind in which it could feel most vividly that a new conception or a new outlook had been brought to it as it were by a divine spirit, or that a whole series of different conceptions and out- looks of this kind had come to it in the same way by a greater 176 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. or smaller number of such ministei'ing spirits. And then, in such cases as this, literary art could the more easily successfully present descriptions of such prophetic endeavours when the task was simply to describe with greatest vividness such revela- tioiis of the prophetic spirit and of the different divine spirits in contact with it from the standpoint of the time and position of an ancient prophet. It is precisely this kind of art which we meet with here at the highest summit of its development and at a degree of perfection far beyond those early stages in which we found it in the cases of Hezeqiel (IV., 12 sq.) and Zakharya [supra, p. 45 sq.). With the whole army of angels the daring of the prophetic imagination has established a per- sonal friendship and become quite at home, has assigned to all its individuals their special positions, has given to them names and offices, and has worked everything out in this way in an original manner. That Gabriel and Mikhael are present, the former as the angel of the prophets more particularly, the latter as the angel of the people of Israel, is here rather simply presupposed as a long established conception. And from this fact also it may be inferred, in harmony with all previous phenomena, that a considerable time must have elapsed between Hezeqiel and Zakharya and our author, and that in the interim prophetic books must have appeared which had prepared for him this new way, and to one of which at least we were able above to point somewhat more definitely. But the connexion between the narrative portion of the book above referred to and this prophetic portion must be supplied to the author iu the character and work of Daniel himself, as he here once more revives this hero of the past. Just as the instructive narratives are connected with Daniel's life and times, so the states of mind preparatory to true pro- phecy are connected with him ; and as the author in the first case translates himself in his narratives into Daniel's times, so in his prophetic mind he rises to Daniel's spirit and time in order APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 177 to speak from the ancient prophet's position to his own con- temporaries. 2. As the book was intended to consist of partly narrative and partly prophetic matter, it could not from the very first admit of any strict artistic unity, not even of such a unity as that of the Apokalypse of the New Testament, in which epistles and prophecy as its two constituent elements are welded toge- ther as closely as possible. It is true that here also the merely external uniting bond so far remains that, as the Apokalypse places the whole of the prophetic portion within the frame- work of an epistle, so this book places everything which Daniel has foreseen as regards the future within the framework of the narrative concerning him, the whole book obtaining thus the appearance of a book of narratives. It is also narrated, or rather simply indicated in a few words, under what circumstances, and particularly with what feelings and spiritual conflicts, everything originated which Daniel beheld regarding the future. At the same time, the instruction by means of simple narration breaks up of itself into a loosely connected series of separate pieces j in a similar way the fundamental matter of the prophetic element also is broken up into the various outward divisions of time and inward moods of spirit in which it dawned more and more perfectly and distinctly upon the mind of Daniel ; and instead of comprehending all that has to be said regarding the future in one single, complex, but rigidly connected whole, which is supposed to have pre- sented itself from one definite situation to the spiritual eye and ear of Daniel, as this is shown on a smaller scale in the piece containing the visions of Zakharya {supra, pp. 47-65), and on a larger scale in the Apokalypse of the New Testament, every- thing prophetic is brought forward more and more completely in one book in a series of pieces in accordance with the require- ments of clearness or certainty. Small pictures of limited range, but the delineation of each executed with all the greatt r distinctness, animation, and richness of colour, must be thus 5 12 178 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. produced both in the narrative and in the prophetic portions of the book. We may say, therefore, that the author intended to draw a series of separate scenes as with the strong strokes of frescoes, on the one side for the purposes of instruction by history, on the other for warning and encouragement by pro- phecy. And in this respect all the separate pieces of the book show great excellence : indeed, it may be said that the same literary art as applied to prophecy which we found used by Hosea, Vol. I., p. 224 sq., is again met with here in an entirely new form of development. In this style of literary painting there lies also a peculiar charm. Every piece thus supplies a picture which can be looked at with satisfaction, in the contemplation of which it is possible to get completely absorbed. But how does this charm increase when the funda- mental thought is seen to come out in each successive piece afresh in another manner and at the same time more and more fully and distinctly ! The book accordingly falls into various loosely connected scenes, each of which may be studied by itself with satisfaction. At the same time, these various pieces are not on that account by any means arbitrarily strung together : on the contrary, they are brought together in conformity with a higher thought which determines their closer relation to each other. Ulti- mately the pieces of both kinds have the same main object of raising the contemporaries out of the depressing present, and lifting them into higher and freer regions, although it may be but spiritually. Thus to the first piece, which conducts us into the elevating scenes of Daniel's youth, ch. i., there is immediately joined a second piece, which thus early plunges us into the midst of the grand subject of the prophetic glance into the future, ch. ii. : and the entire matter, in its twofold form, which the author desired to bring before the eyes of his readers, is therewith already presented in such a telling way, that it might be supposed the book could close at this point. But the author places this first part at the opening simply as a APPENDIX. 3. 2.— DANIEL. 179 suitable introduction and preparation for the whole book, which he intends shall follow : accordingly, he goes on in a second part, ch. iii. — vi., to complete the didactic narratives in four pieces, following the thread of the subsequent life of Daniel, of the youth of whom and his friends we have beheld such an attractive picture at the opening. The piece at the end of the introduction, ch. ii., opened a prospect into a mysterious future, and that seems to have remained neglected : but now these prospects into a future of that kind are opened four times in the third and last part, ch. vii. — xii., in a new manner, and with all the greater frequency and vividness, until they exhaust all that remains to be said, and the book rapidly closes with them. But in this way all that the book offers to be beheld in the future is presented at the end with much greater significance, because it has become of much greater importance than its purely narrative communication ; and just as the second half of the introductory portion, ch. ii., as containing prophecy, is even in extent much more important than the merely narrative half, ch. i., so the third part is still more lengthy than the second, whilst all three parts gradually increase both in point of intrinsic meaning and outward extent. But just as the three main members of the book stand in such a mutual relation to each other that each succeeding part is of increased weight, so all the separate pieces composing each part hold a corresponding relation. The first part con- tains only two pieces, while the other two have four each : and the round number of ten pieces for the whole book is in this case plainly intentional, since it is of itself an outward sign of the certainty that everything will be finished with the tenth piece. But if the third part is thus on the same level as the second as regards the mere number of its pieces, its last piece, on the other hand, is made all the longer, ch. x. — xii., as if the weight of the whole book must after all fall at last mainly upon the revelation of the matters of the mysterious 12 * 180 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. future. For within each of these two last parts, again, four pieces are arranged together, in each case by no means as by accident, in such a way that they might exchange places with each other in their respective parts : on the contrary, within everyone of the four pieces of each part both the main thought on which it rests and the subsidiary thoughts are expressed with gradually increasing completeness, until with the last everything is perfectly exhausted. Accordingly, it is particu- larly the picture of the actual present and future of the con- temporaries which, with all that belongs to it, is gradually brought forward with growing completeness and distinctness in the four pieces of the last part, while in the last piece, ch. x. — xii., it comes out with such fulness and clearness, that it becomes at last, even as regards its external proportions, the most weighty of all, and weighs down the whole book with its closing gravity. Further, every single piece also submits under the hand of our author to the ancient arrangement of poetic and prophetic art in strophes, having in the simple narrative pieces somewhat freer bounds, the purely prophetic pieces following the stricter laws which prevail in the older prophets. A great wrong would really be done to our author if we neglected to observe how in spite of his late age he still displays this elegance and care in his branch of literature. Indeed, he takes care to finish everything off so completely, that just as his whole book is composed of ten pieces, so the last of these, the peculiarity of which was mentioned above, itself falls into precisely ten strophes ; and each of these strophes again is of the medium size, giving the appearance of great elegance. But the elegance, regularity, and beauty of the whole dis- course extends, in the last place, far beyond these limits : it penetrates even into the finest fibres of the style and descrip- tion, even into the most telling form of every thought and of every situation described. Books of this kind, in which every- thing depends upon the propriety of the thought and the APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 181 effectively telling charm of the discourse, must be more than ordinarily finished precisely as regards the force of expression and the beauty of treatment : and we may observe such excel- lences in our author, late as he is, whilst there is in this not the least trace of a foreign influence, but everything has in his case proceeded from the final forms of ancient Hebrew art and influences. We may here consider this one general example. As the book is so arranged that a fundamental thought shall be more and more perfectly presented in a series of pieces, similar, or even the same, phrases or sentences are often repeated, but this is only at the proper place, most frequently three times, and in this repetition itself with great effect, so that the feeling is produced that at last the thing has been said with sufficient plainness and force. It is particularly in the case of the decisive and characteristic expressions of the main thoughts and in the case of the mysterious, twilight hints which are thrown out, that this often produces the best effect with a few painter's strokes. And thus through these few leaves, which in their time winged their way through their world, there breathes a spirit which is gentle, and then again so weighty and telling, that they are in their peculiar form of art quite unsurpassed, and it becomes very intelligible how they came to produce such a powerful effect immediately after their first appearance. 3. However, the complete arrangement and art of the book only reaches its perfection in the fact that this fasciculus of excellently interwoven fly-sheets is intended to be heard, considered, and understood from the standpoint and the time and the lips from which it was delivered to the first readers. Just as a dramatic poet must make the hero whom he desires to bring before his audience or his readers speak and act entirely from his time and situation, so our author would have offended against his own purpose and art if he had caused Daniel to speak and act only partially or distortedly. And as the author has first of all transferred himself completely into the life and time of Daniel, that he may be able to speak from 182 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. that lofty standpoint both with greater personal safety for himself and his desired readers, and also with greater emphasis as regards his own present and future, he may accordingly expect and require all his readers with him to read and con- sider and understand everything he says from that standpoint exactly in the way he desires. A book of Daniel is meant to fall into the midst of the expectation and hope, the alarm and timidity, on the one hand, and of the indifference and irreligiousness, on the other, which prevail in this time, just as the ancient hero himself could have written and carefully hidden it so many centuries before if he had intended it for this very time ; let, then, the reader suppose that he wrote it, vii. 1, that he carefully sealed and hid it, that it might not be found again and read until long after his death, viii. 26 ; xii. 4, 9, 13, that he composed it also quite in the form of a historical book with its dates ; let the reader suppose this and study himself into the book as it is, witness the events of Daniel's life and time, and hear from the mouth of him and his Angel what will be the grand course of events which will befall mankind in the future; let him receive everything into himself most truthfully just as it is here presented,, and permit it to produce its full effect upon him without any reserve. If he then find that it is his own present and future which is the chief matter concerned, and that all these narratives, and particularly these prophecies, come to him in this peculiar form simply because it might imperil life to present them in any other way, let him be all the more thankful to the author that he declined to supply his own name, and let him leave on one side the vessel when he has enjoyed its sweet and wholesome contents ; or still better, let him value the vessel also, well remembering that its contents could not have reached him without its aid. Indeed, the author himself, while remaining modestly in his humble place, has supplied to the reader certain hints with a view to preventing absolute uncertainty as regards the outward origin of the book, if he has only the proper intelligence and the innocent desire to discover them : and no one, if a book- APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. 183 enigma of this kind is correctly solved, can be better satisfied or more pleased than the author must be. That is the external finish and perfection of this book, without which it is, from beginning to end, quite inconceivable, and in this respect also the book is as elegant and beautiful as in all others. It is still more natural that the author should often vary the form of the discourse, in accordance with the great freedom of treatment which such writings allow. When it appeared to him that it would strike the reader more profoundly if he should hear Daniel himself narrate and speak of himself, he then introduced him as so doing, although the whole book appears as a collection of narratives concerning Daniel and his life. Accordingly the author does not introduce him as speaking of himself until the point when everything becomes much more serious and intensely interesting, and the reader can have become sufficiently attentive, that is, with vii. 1, 2, aDd then again with x. 1. But if he thus introduces him as speaking really only in the third part of the whole book at the head of the first three pieces and then of the last of them, and then makes the whole book, which commenced and is sub- stantially worked out as a book of narratives concerning him, close with his immediate words, so that it does not finish as a historical book as it had commenced, there is conveyed by this fact a very plain hint to the reader that he must pay more attention to the words and thoughts than to the mere external aspect of a book which does not close as it began, and never- theless, so far as its true object and real meaning is concerned, is so completely finished in itself that any further word would be in the highest degree superfluous for good readers such as the author desires to have. The early history of the booh. It has already been shown that this book cannot be correctly understood, nor its value and early history properly appreciated, if it is not borne in mind that it was written before the actual outbreak of the Makkabean revolution. As a fact, it nowhere 184 APPENDIX, 3. 2.— DANIEL. presupposes that a portion of the nation, then in such severe straits, had already made open resistance, neither does it advise that, and does not expect the Messianic victory from the use of weapons of war. On the contrary, according to the plain sense of its narratives concerning Nabukodrossor's conduct towards Daniel and his nation, it looks for the salvation immediately needed by Israel from an actual con- version of the princes of this world, as will plainly appear below, ch. i. — vi., particularly ch. iv. It is true that it cannot expect such a change in the case of an Antiochos Epiphanes, but prophesies for him near ruin ; yet it is deserving of the greatest admiration that the author, in the very midst of the rage of the persecutions of a heathen king of this kind, expects also a salvation for Israel from an actual conversion of the foreign rulers, as far as men are able, before the great divine revolution of all things which the Messianic name stands for, to co-operate by their own endeavour towards the victory of better things. Now, that was in fact the expectation of all the nobler spirits in Israel before the outbreak of the Makkabean wars ;* and the longing for such a change of things cannot be expressed in a more forcible way than that adopted by our author when he points back even to Nabukodrossor as a sort of model for heathen rulers on their gradual conversion to the true religion, and when he also in his book lays great stress upon this and makes it a chief subject of his narrative pieces. Still, this book fell, nevertheless, like a glowing spark from a clear heaven, upon a surface which was already intensely heated far and wide and waiting to burst into flames ; and its glowing descriptions of the divine rejection of the reigning Seleukid prince, accompanied by such mysterious and yet transparent hints with reference to a near deliverance from him, greatly fed and nourished, no less than his narratives of the divine deliverances of the faithful, the fire of the great * It is only needful to compare, e.g., the poem of Phokylides, Geschichte des Yoll