YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE

MINOR PEOPHETS,

'WITH A

COMMENTARY

EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL

AND

INTRODUCTIONS TO THE SEVERAL BOOKS.

BY
THE REV. E. B. PUSEY, D. D.
EEGIUS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH.

Vol. IL
MICAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH, HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH AND MALACHI.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. — Pb, cxix, 18.

NEW YORK:
FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers,
10 AND 12 Dey Street,
1885.

Entered, according to Aet of Congress, in the year 1885,
By FONK & WAGNALLS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 'Washington, D. C,

CONTENTS.

I. MICAH.
INTRODUCTION.
His name : a villager : his date : earlier than Isaiah, yet prophesied under
Ahaz and in beginning of Hezekiah's reign : divisions of his book : simplicity
but vividness and energy of his style. His extreme tenderness. His use of
the Pentateuch, and use of his book by later prophets, . . . .pp. 5-14
COMMENTARY.— Chapters I.— VII  pp. 15-104

IL NAHUM.
INTRODUCTION.
His date : date ofthe conquest of No, mentioned by him. Strength of Nineveh :
its history : its might enlarged, until within 22 years of its fall. Suddenness of
its fall. Its rivers -were its strength and -weakness. Commerce continued its old
course on the opposite side of the river, but itself perished. Pseudo-criticisms
as to his style, ........... pp, 105-128
COMMENTARY.— Chapteks I.— III.  pp. 120-164

IIL HABAKKUK.
INTRODUCTION.
Prophet of faith : earlier than Zephaniah : pseudo-criticism as to his language.
Suddenness of the rise and fall of the strength of Babylon : mistake of Assyria
in placing Chaldees there. Magnificence of Habakknk's style, . . . pp. 165-177
COMMENTARY.— Chapters I.— III.  PP- 179-223

IV. ZEPHANIAH.
INTBODUCTION.
Correspondence -with Habakkuk. His date, use of former prophets. Distinct
prophecies. Myth of critics as to Scythians being formidable to the Je-ws.
"Vividness and tenderness, ......... PP- 225-234
(^OSlMENTARY.— Chapters I.— Ill  pp. 235-291
jloabite stone, translation of Its Inscription, ...... pp. 291-292
vol.. II. 3

CONTENTS.
V. HAGGAI.

INTRODUCTION.

Luke-warmness of his times ; greatness of the repentance -wrought through him.
Energy of his style,  pp. 293-297
COMMENTARY.— Chapters I.— II. ... ... pp. 299-321

VI. ZECHARIAH.
INTRODUCTION.
Called early to his office. Imaginative richness in both parts of his book:
correspondence between them : references in both to prophets before the
captivity : correspondence in language and style and rhythm ; Captivity
spoken of as past in later chapters also ; identity of authorship : author of these
chapters, had he lived before the captivity, would have been one of the false
prophets condemned by Jeremiah. German criticism, on ground of philology
and history, assigns dates varying by nearly 500 years ; alleged grounds of prse- ,
exile date, or of the relation of c. xi. to times of Menahem. Arguments of phil
ology far weightier, allowed to be invalid as to Plato. Table of discrepant dates
assigned to Zechariah by modern German critics, ..... pp. 323-338
COMMENTARY.— Chapters I--XIV  pp. 339-459

VII. MALACHI.
INTRODUCTION.
His date : characteristics of his call to repentance ; co-operated effectively in
Nehemiah's reformation. Poetry would have been misplaced in his prophecy . pp. 461-464
COMMENTARY.— Chapters I.— IV.  pp, 465-504

n^TEODUOTION

THE PROPHET

MICAH.

Micah, or Micaiah, this Morasthite, was so
called, probably, in order to distinguish him
from his great predecessor, Micaiah, son of
Imlah, in the reign of Ahab, His name was
spoken in its fuller form, by the elders of the
land whose -words Jeremiah has preserved.
And in that fuller form his Maine is known,
where the Greek and Latin translations of
the Scriptures are used ". By the Syrians,
and by the Jews "^ he is stiU called, as by us,
Micah. The fullest and original form is
Mlcaiahu, " who is like the Lord ? " In this
fullest form, it is the n.ame of one of the
Levites sent by Jehoshupliat to teach the
people °, as also of the mother of king Asa ^,
(the same name servin:; sometimes both for
men and women). Then .iccording to the
habit of abridging names, in all countries,
and especially those of which the proper
name of the Lord is a part, it is diversely
abridged into Micaihu, Micahu', whence
Micah is readily formed, on the same rule as
Micaiah itself from Micaiahu. The forms
are all found indiflerently. The idolatrous
Levite in the time of the .Judges ', and the
son of Imlah ^, are both called in the same
chapter Micaihu and Micah ; the father of
one of Josiah's officers is called Micaiah
in the book of Kings'", Micah in the Chron
icles '.
The Prophet's name, like those of Joshua,
Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, was
« Mixdi'tt! is used by the LXX, in Jer. xxvi. 18 and
Micah i. 1, as also in the other places where the
narae occurs, except Neh. xi. 17, 22, whore for
J^D'O they have Mtxa, Josephus calls both prophets
Mix«'i5. Micah son of Imlah, Ant, 8, 14, 5, and our
prophet. Ant, 10, 6, 2, The Vulgate uses for both,
Michseas, !> They substituted n3''n iu the Kri in Jeremiah,

significant, Joshua's, we know, was changed
of set purpose ". The rest seem to have been
given in God's Providence, or taken by the
Prophets, in order to enunciate truths con
cerning God, opposed to the idolatries or self-
dependence of the peojjle. But the name of
Micah or Micaiah, (as the elders of the land '
called him on a solemn occasion, some 120
years afterward) contained more than teach
ing. It was cast into the form of a challenge.
Who is tike the Lord ? The form of words had
been impressed on Israel by the song of
Moses after the deliverance at the Red sea"'.
In the days of Elijah and that first Micaiah,
the strife between God and man, the true
Prophet and the false, had been ended at the
liattle of Eamoth-Gilead ; it ceased for a
time, in the reigns of Jehu and his suc
cessors, because in consequence of his partial
obedience, God, by Elisha and Jonah, pro
mised them good : it was again resumed, as
the promise to Jehu was expiring, and God's
prophets had anew to proclaim a message of
woe. Hast thou found mc, 0 mine enemy " ?
and, ° I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good
concerning me, but euil, Ahab's words as to
Elijah and Micaiah, were the types of the
subsequent contradiction of the false pro
phets to Hosea and Amos, which closed only
with the destruction of Samaria. Now, in the
time of the later Micaiah, were the first
da-wnings of the same strife in Judah, which
0 2 Chr, xvii, 7. ^ Ib. xiii, 2,
= Ib, xviii, 8, Keth.
'in',D'P Jud. xvii. 1, 4; riTD 5, 8, 9, 10,
Bin'3'D 1 Kings xxii, 9, 2 Chr, xviii, 7; PID^D 2
Chr, xviii. U.
1 2 Kings xxii, 12. '2 Chr. xxxiv. 20,
tNum, xiii, 16. 'Jer, xxvi. 17, 18,
"Ex. XV, 11. » 1 Kings xxi, 20, »Ib, xxii, 8, 18.
5

6

INTRODUCTION TO

hastened and brought about the destruction
of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, which re-ap
peared after the Captivity p, and was the im
mediate cause of the second destruction under
the Eomans i. Micah, as he dwells on the
meaning of names generally, so, doubtless, it
is iu allusion to his own, that, at the close of
his prophecy, he ushers in his announcement
of God's incomparable mercj' with the
words ¦', Who is a God like unto Thee ? Before
liim, whatever disobedience there was to
God's law in Judah, there was no systematic,
organized, opposition to His prophets. There
is no token of it in Joel. From tlie times of
Micah it is never missing. "We find it in
each prophet (however brief the remains of
some are), who prophesied directly to Judah,
not in Isaiah only, but in Habakkuk " and
Zephaniah '. It deepened, as it hastened
toward its decision. The nearer God's judg
ments were at hand, the more obstinately the
false prophets denied that they would come.
The system of false prophecy, which rose to
its height in the time of Jeremiah, which
met and thwarted him at every step '^, and
deceived those who wished to be deceived,
was dawning in the time of Micah. False
prophecy arose in Judah from the self-same
cause whence it had arisen in Israel, because
Judah's deepening corruption drew down tlie
prophecies of God's displeasure, which it was
popular to disbelieve. False prophecy was a
gainful occupation. The false prophets had
men's wishes on their side. They had the
people with them. My people love to have it
so ", said GoJ, They forbade Micah to pro
phesy ^ ; prophesied peace ^, when God fore
told evil ; prophesied for gain ", and pro
claimed war in the Name of God " against
those who fed them not.
At such a time was Micah called. His
name which he himself explains, was no
chance name. To the Hebrews, to whom
names were so much more significant, parts
of the living language, it recalled the name of
his great predecessor, his standing alone
against all the prophets of Ahab, his pro
phecy, his suffering, his evidenced truth.
The truth of prophecy was set upon the issue
of the battle before Eamoth-Gilead. In the
presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, as
well as of Ahab, the 400 prophets of Ash-
taroth had promised to Ahab the prize he
longed for. One solitary, discriminating
voice was heard amid that clamorous multi
tude, forewarning Ahab that he would perish,
his people would be scattered. On the one
side, was that loud triumphant chorus of
all the propliets, Oo up to Eamoth-Oilead, and
p Neh, vi, 14, i See vol, i, pp, 334-336,
'vii, 18. «i, 6, ii. 1. 'i, 12.
"See Jer, v, 13, 31, vi, 13-17, viii. 10-12, xiv, 13-10,
XX, 1-6. xxiii, 9-end, xxvi, 7, 8, 11, xxvii. 14-lS,
xxviii,, xxix. 8, 0, 21-32,
«Jer. y. 31. yii. 6. «iii. 6, "111,11,

prosper ; for ihe Lord shall deliver it into the
king's hand. On the other, one solemn voice,
exhibiting before them that sad spectacle
which the morrow's sun should witness '', /
saw all Israel scattered upon the li'dls, as sheep
that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, these
have no master, let them return every man to his
house in peace. Micaiah was smitten, im
prisoned, and, apparently, ended his ministry,
appealing from that small audience of the
armies of Israel and Judah to the whole
world, which has ever since looked back on
that strife with interest and awe ; ° Hear ye
peoples, each one of them. God, who guided
the archer shooting at a venture', fulfilled the
words which He had put into the Prophet's
mouth, God's words had found Ahab,
although disguised; Jehoshaphat, the im
perilled ^, returned home, to relate the issue.
The conflict between- God's truth and idol
falsehood was doubtless long remembered in
Judah, And now when the strife had
penetrated into Judah, to be ended some
170 "^ years afterward in the destruction of
Jerusalem, another Micaiah arose, his name
the old watchword, Who is like the Lord? He
prefixed to his prophecy that same sum
mons ' to the whole world to behold the issue
of the conflict, which God had once accredited
and, in that issue, had given an earnest of the
victory of His truth, there thenceforth and
for ever.
The prophet Avas born a villager, in More-
shetli Gath, " a village-'", S. Jerome says;
("a little village'"', iu S. Jerome's own
days), " East of Eleutheropolis," where what
was "'formerly his grave," was "now a
church." Since it was his birthplace and
his burial-place, it was probably his home
also. In the beginning of the reign of Je-
hoiakim, the elders of the land ™ speak of him
with this same title, the Morasthite. He lin
gers, in his prophecy, among the towns of the
maritime plain (the Shephelah) where his
birthplace lay. Among the ten places in
that neighborhood ", which he selects for
warning and for example of the universal
captivity, is his native village, " the home he
loved." But the chief scene of his ministry
was Jerusalem. He names it in the begin
ning of his prophecy, as the place where tlie
idolatries, and, with the idolatries, all the
other sins of Judah were concentrated.
The two capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem,
were the chief objects of the word of
God to him, because the corruption of
each kingdom streamed forth from them.
The sins which he rebukes are chiefly those of
the capital. Extreme oppression °, violence
•> iii, 6. see note, « 1 Kings xxii. 12,
ilb. 17. elb, 28. '34. 6 30-3.
•i from the beginning of Jotham's reign,
' Hengst, Christ, i. 475. i Onom. ^ Prsef, to Mio,
'Ep. 86, ad Eustoeh, Epitaph, Paute §14, i, 698,
» Jer, xxvi, 17, 18, » i, 11-15. « iii. 2, 3, ii. 2.

MICAH.

among the richP, bribing among judges,
priests, prophets '' ; building up the capital
even by cost of life, or actual bloodshed ' ;
spoilation ' ; expulsion of the powerless, wom
en aud children from their homes ' ; covet
ousness " ; cheating in dealings " ; pride ^.
These, of course, may be manifoldly repeated
in lesser places of resort and of judgment.
But it is Zion and Jerusalem which are so
built up with blood ' ; Zion and Jerusalem, which
are, on that ground, to be plowed as a field ^ ;
it is the city to which the Lord's voice crieth " ;
whose rich 'men are full of violence ^ ; it is the
daughter of Zion^, which is to go forth out of
the city and go to Babylon. Especially, they
are the heads and princes of the people ",
whom he upbraids for perversion of justice
and for oppression. Even the good kings of
Judah seem to have been powerless to re
strain the general corruption.
Micah, according to the title which he
prefixed to liis prophecy, was called to the
prophetic office somewhat later than Isaiah.
His ministry began later, and ended earlier.
For Uzziah, in whose reign Isaiah began to
prophesy, was dead before Micah was called
to his office ; and Micah probably was called
away early in the reign of Hezekiah, where
as some of the chief public acts of Isaiah's
ministry fell in the 17th and 18th years of
the reign of Hezekiah. Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
Jonah, had doubtless been withdrawn to
their rest. Hosea alone, in "grey-haired
might," was still protesting in vain against
the deepening corruptions of Israel.
The contents of Micah's prophecy and his
relation to Isaiah agree with the inscription.
His prophecy has indications of the times of
Jotham, perhaps also of those of Ahaz ; one
signal prophecy, we know historically, was
uttered in the reign of Hezekiah.
It is now owned, well nigh on all hands,
that the great propliecy, three verses of which
Isaiah prefixed to his 2d chapter, was
originally delivered by Micah. But it ap
pears from the context in Isaiah, that he de
livered the prophecy in that 2d chapter, in
the reign of Jotham. Other language of
Micah also belongs to that same reign. No
one now thinks that Micah adopted that
great prophecy from Isaiah. The prophecy,
as it stands in Micah, is in close connection
with what precedes it. He had said'', the
mountain of the house shall be as the high places
of the forest ; he subjoins instantly God's re
versal of that sentence, in ihe loiter days.
"And in the last days it shall be that the inoun-
tain of the house of the Lord shall be established
on the top qf the mountains, a'nd peoples shall
V vi, 12. 1 iii, 11 ; judges and priests, vii. 3,
' iii, 10 ; bloodshed also, vii, 2, ' ii, 8, ' ii, 0,
<• ii, 2, I vi. 10, 11, y ii, 3, ' iii. 12,
''vi,9, iJiv. 10, 0 iii, 1, 9, 11, vi, 12, vii. 3,
iiii, 12, eiv, 1. fiv. 2.

flow unto it. He had said, Zion shall be plowed
as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps ;
he adds forthwith, in reversal of this ', the
law shall go forth from Zion, and ths word ofthe
Lord from Jerusalem. The two sentences are
joined as closely as they can be ; Zion shall
be plowed as afield, and Jerusalem shall become
heaps, and the mountain of the house shall become
high places of u, forest; and it shall be, in the
last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be (abidingly) ^ established on the top ofthe
mountains. Every reader would understand,
that the elevation intended, was spiritual,
not physical. They could not fail to under
stand the metaphor ; or imagine that the
Mount Zion, on part of which, (Mount Mo-
riah,) the house of the Lord stood, should be
physically placed on other hills. But the
contrast is marked. The promise is the se
quel of the woe ; the abiding condition is the
reversal of the sentence of its desolation.
Even the words allude, the one to the other ¦¦.
In Isaiah, there is no such connection.
After the first chapter and its summary of
rebuke, warning, threatening, and final weal
or woe resting on each class, Isaiah, in his
second chapter, begins his prophecy anew
with a fresh title ' ; The word that Isaiah the
son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusa
lem; and to this he prefixes three verses
from Micah's prophecy. He separates it in
a marked way from the preceding summary,
and yet connects it with some other prophecy
by the word, And'. He himself marks that
it is not in its original place here. So then, .
in the prophet Micah, the close connection
with the foregoing marks that it is in its
original place ; Isaiah marked purposely
that in his prophecy it is not.
But Isaiah's prophecy belongs to a time of
prosperity ; such as Judah had not, after the
reign of Jotham. It was a time of great war
like strength, difiused through the whole
land. The land was full '', without end, of
gold, silver, chariots, horses, of lofty looks
and haughtiness. The images which follow'
are shadows of the Day of Judgment, and
extend beyond Judah ; hnt the sins rebuked
are the sins of strength and might, self-con
fidence, oppression, manifold female luxury
and bravery '°. Isaiah prophesies that God
would take away their strength ". Then
they still had it. Judah trusted not at that
time in God nor in foreign alliances, but in
self. Yet, from the time of Ahaz, trust in
foreign help infected them to the end. Even
Hezekiah, when he received the messengers
of Merodach-baladan °, fell into the snare ;
and Josiah probably lost his life, as a vassal
Kit is not ':\y but [13J-n'nv
' The mrr rrb nn iv. i. to the n^nn in iii- 12;
the rrrr rrnn, Hengst,
1 ii, 1, j ii, 2, ' Is, ii. 7, 11, • 12-21,
¦» iii, 16, 23. » iii. 1-3. ° Is, xxxix.

INTRODUCTION TO

of Assyria ^. This union of inherent strength
and unconcernedness about foreign aid is an
adequate test of days anterior to Ahaz.
But since Isaiah jirefixed to a prophecy in
the days of Jotham this great prophecy of
Micah, then Micah's prophecy must have
been already current. To those same days
of strength it belongs, that Micah could
prophesy as a gift, the cutting off' of hor.ies
and chariots, the destruction of cities and strong
toivers, all, in which Judah trusted instead of
God. The prophecy is a counterpart of
Isaiah's. Isaiah prophesied a day of Judg
ment, in which all these things should be re
moved ; Micah foretold that their removal
should be a mercy to those who trust in
Christ. On the other hand, the utter dislocation
of society, the bursting of all the most sacred
bands which bind man to man together, de
scribed in his last chapter '', perhaps belong
most to the miserable decay in the reign of
Ahaz. The idolatry spolcen of also belongs
probably to the time of Ahaz. In Jotham's
time', ,i/ie people sacrificed and burned incense
still in the high places ; yet, under a king so
highly praised ', these are not likely to have
been in Jerusalem. But Micah, in the very
head of his prophecy, speaks of Jerusalem "
as the centre of the idolatries of Judah. The
allusion also to child-sacrifices belongs to the
time of Ahaz, who sacrificed sons of his own ^,
and whose sacrifice others probably imitated.
The mention of the special idolatry of the
time, '' the statutes of Oinri are kept, and atl the
ivorks of the house of Ahab, belong to the same
reign, it being recorded of Ahaz especially^,
he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and
made aho molten images for Laaliin ; the
special sin of the house of Ahab. That char
acter too which he describes, that, amid all
that idolatry, practical irreligion, and wick
edness, they leant upon the Lord, and said, Is
not the Lord among us f none evil can come upon
us " • was just the character of Ahaz, Not
until the end of his reign was he so embit
tered by God's chastisements, that he closed
His temple''. Up to that time, even after
he had copied the brazen altar at Damascus,
he still kept up a divided allegiance to God.
Urijah, the high Priest, at the king's com
mand, offered the sacrifices for the king and
the people, while Ahaz used the brazen altar,
to enquire by". This.was just the half-service
which God by Micah rejects. It is the old
history of man's half-service, faith without
love, which provides, that what it believes
but loves not, should be done for it, and itself
enacts what it prefers. Urijah was to offer
the lawful sacrifices for the king and the
people ; Ahaz was to obtain knowledge of the
p 2 Kings xxiii. 29, 2 Chr. xxxv. 20-22.
q .'Mio. V. 10, 11, 14, 'vii,5,0,
« 2 Kings XV, 36, ,
* 2 Kings XV. 34, 2 Chr, xxvii, 2, 6, " i, 6,

future, such as he wished in his own way, a
lying future, by lying acts.
Micah renewed under Elezekiah the pro
phecy ofthe utter destruction of Jerusalem,
which he had pronounced under Jotham.
The prophets did not heed repeating them
selves. Eloquent as they were, they are the
more eloquent because eloquence was not
their object. Even our Lord, with Divine
wisdom, and the more, probably, because He
had Divine wisdom, repeated in His teaching
the same words. Those words sank the deeper,
because often repeated. So Micah repeated
doubtless oftentimes those words, which he
first uttered in the daj-s of Jotham ; Zi/)n shall
be plowed like afield and Jerusalem shall be
come heaps, and the mountain of the Iwitse as the
high places of ihe forest. Often, during those
perliaps thirty years, he repeated them in
vain. At the last, they wrought a great re
pentance, and delayed, it may be for 136
}-ears, the destruction which he was con
strained to foretell. Early in the days of Je-
hoiakim, about 120 years afterward, in the
public assembly when Jeremiah was on trial
for his life, the elders of the land said explic
itly, that the great conversion at the begin
ning of the reign of Hezekiah, nay, of that
king himself, was wrought by the teaching of
Micah, '' Then rose up, says Jeremiah, certain
of the elders of the land, and spake to all the as
sembly of the people, saying, Micah the Moras
thite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of
Judah, saying, Th-us saith the Lord of hosts,
Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem
shall become heaps, and tlie mountain of the
house, as the high places of the forest. Did Heze
kiah king of Judah, and all Judah, put him. at
all to death? Did he not fear the Lord, and be
sought the Lord, and the Lord repented Him of
the eril whieh He had pronounced against them?
It may have been that single prophecy
which Micah so delivered ; some have
thought that it was his whole book, Jere
miah, at ( lod's command, at one time uttered
single prophecies ; at another, the summary
of all his prophecies. This only is certain,
that the prophecy, whether these words
alone or the book containing them, was de
livered to all Judah, and that God moved
the people through them to repentance.
The words, as they occur in Jeremiah, are
the same, and in the same order, as they
stand in Micah, Only in Jeremiah the com
mon plural termination is substituted for the
rarer and poetic form used by Micah =. The
elders, then, who quoted them, probably
knew them, not from tradition, but from the
written book of the Prophet. But those
elders speak of Micah, as exercising his pro
phetic office in the days of Hezekiah. They
' 2 Kings ,xvi. 3, 2 Chr. xxviii, 3, J vi, 16,
"2 Chr. x,xviii, 2, « iii. ii, vi, 6,
'' 2 Chr, xxviii, 22-24. « 2 Kings xvi, 15,
" Jer, xxvi, 17-19, " Q-'-'j; for V'^'

MICAH.

do not say, he prophesied, which might have
been a, single act ; but he was prophesying,
hayah nibbah, a form of speaking which is
only used of an abiding, habitual, action.
They say also, " he was habitually prophesy
ing, and he said," i. e. as we should say, " in
the course of his prophesying in the days of
Hezekiah, he said," Still it was to all the
people of Judah that he said it. The eldei-s
say so, and lay stress upon it by repeating it.
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put
him at all to death f It must have been then on
some of the great festivals, when all Judah
was gathered together, that Micah so spake
to them.
Probably, shortly afterward, in those first
years of Hezekiah, Micah's office on earth
closed. For, at the outset and in the sum
mary of his prophecy, not incidentally, he
speaks of the destruction of Samaria, which
took place in the 4th year of Hezekiah, as
still to come ; and however practical or par
tial idolatry continued, such idolatry as he
throughout describes, did not exist after the
reformation by Hezekiah. This convei-sion,
then, of the king and of some considerable
part of Judah was probably the closing har
vest of his life, after a long seed-time of tears.
So God allowed His servant to depart in peace.
The reformation itself, at least in its fullness,
took place after the kingdom of Samaria had
come to an end, since Hezekiah's messengers
could, unhindered, in-vite all Israel to join in
his great Passover. Probably, then, Micah
lived to see the first dawnings only of the first
reformation which God wrought by his words.
At the commencement, then, of Hezekiah's
reign he collected the substance of what God
had taught by him, re-casting it, so to speak,
and retaining of his spoken prophecy so
much as God willed to remain for us. As it
stands, it belongs to that early time of Heze
kiah's reign, in which the sins of Ahaz
still lived on. Corruption of manners had
been hereditary. In Jotham's reign too, it is
said expressly, in contrast with himself, the
people were still doing corruptly. Idolatry had,
under Ahaz, received a fanatic impulse from
the king, who, at last, set himself to close the
worship of God^. The strength of Jotham's
reign was gone ; the longing for its restora
tion led to the wrong and destructive policy,
against which Isaiah had to contend. Of
this Micah says, such should not be the
strength of the future kingdom of God.
Idolatry and oppression lived on ; against
these, the inheritance of those former reigns,
the sole residuum of Jotham's might or Ahaz'
policy, the breach of the law of love of God
and man, Micah concentrated his written
prophecy. '2 Chr, xxvii. 2, s Ib, xxviii, 22-25, x.xix, 7.
bch. iii.-v. and vi. vii. Mi, 12, ''iii, 1,
1 Hengst, Christ, i. 477, 8. " See ab, p. 289,
o iv, 2, 7, 8, " iv, 1, 2.

This booli; also has remarkable symmetry.
Each of its three divisions is a whole, begin
ning with upbraiding for sin, threatening
God's judgments, and ending with promises
of future mercy in Christ. The two later
divisions begin again with that same charac
teristic. Hear ye^, with which Micah had
opened the whole. The three divisions are
also connected, as well by lesser references of
the later to the former, as also by the advance
of the prophecy. Judah could not be trusted
now with any simple declaration of God's
future mercy. They supposed themselves,
impenitent as they were and with no pur
pose of repentance, to be the objects of God's
care, and secure from evil. Unmixed prom
ise of good would but foment this irreligious
apathy. Hence on the promises at the end
of the first portion ', and their king shall pass
before them and the Lord at the head of ihem, he
turns abruptly'', And I said. Hear, I pray you.
Is it not for you to know judgment ? The
promise had been to Jacob and the remnant of
Israel'. He renews his summons to the'
/leads of Jacob and the princes of the house of
Israel. In like way, the last section, opening
with that wonderful pleading of God with
His people, follows upon that unbroken
declaraticm of God's mercies, which itself
issues out of the promised Birth at Bethle
hem, There is also a sort of progress in the
promises of the three parts'. In the first, it
is of deliverance generally, in language taken
from that first deliverance from Egypt. The
2d is objective, the Birth of the Eedeemer,
the conversion of the Gentiles, the restora
tion of the Jews, the establishment and
nature of His kingdom. The third is mainly
subjective, man's repentance, waiting upon
God, and God's forgiveness of his sins,
Tlirouglioul, the metropolis is chiefly ad
dressed, as the main seat of present evil ""and
as the centre of the future blessings ; v/here
the reign of the long-promised Euler should
be "^ ; whence the revelation of G od should go
forth to the heathen " ; whither the scattered
and dispersed people should be gathered i".
Throughout the prophecy also, Micah up
braids the same class of sins, wrong dealing
of man to man, oppression of the poor by the
rich ¦", Throughout, their future captivity
and dispersion are either predicted 'j or as
sumed as the basis of the prediction of good '.
Throughout, we see the contemporary of the
prophet Isaiah, Beside that great predic
tion, which Isaiah inserted verbally from
Micah, we see them, as it were, side by side,
in that city of God's visitation and of His
mercy, prophesj'ing the same respite, the
same place of captivity and deliverance from
p iv. 6, 1, vii. 11, 12,
q i, 11, 14-16, ii, 4, 5, 10, (utter abiding destruction
of Jerusalem) iii, 12, iv, 10, v. 3.
' ii, 12, 13, iv, 6, 7, 10, vii, 11, 12, 15.

10

INTRODUCTION TO

it, the same ulterior mercies in Christ.
""The more to establish the faith, God
willed that Isaiah and Micah should speak
together, as with one mouth, and use such
agreement as might the more convict all
rebels." Assyria was then the monarchy of
the world ; yet both prophets promise deliv
erance from it ' ; both foretell the captivity
in the then subordinate Babylon " ; both, the
deliverance from it ". Both speak in the like
way of the gathering together of God's peo
ple from lands ', to some of which they were
not yet dispei-sed. Isaiah prophesied the
Virgin-Birth of Immanuel '¦ ; Micah, the
Birth at Bethlehem of Him Whose goings
fci ih have been of old, from everlasting "- Both
speak in the like way of the reverence for
the Gentiles thereafter for her", by reason
of the presence of her God. Even, in out
ward manner, Micah, representing himself,
as one who went mourning and wailing, stripped
and naked", is a sort of forerunner of the
symbolic acts of Isaiah''. Micah had this
also common with Isaiah, that he has a pre
dominance of comfort. He is brief in up
braiding", indignant in casting back the
pleas of the false prophets ', concise in his
threatenings of woe ^, save where he lingers
mournfully over the desolation'', large and
flowing in his descriptions of mercy to come '.
He sees and pronounces the coming punish
ment, as absolutely certain ; he doss not call
to repentance to avert it; he knows that
ultimately it will not be averted ; he sees it
irrespectively of time, and says that it will
be. Time is an accident to the link of cause
and effect. Sin consummated would be the
nnnae ; pnnjjihment, the ettect. He spoke
to those who knew that God pardoned on
repentance, who had lately had before them
that marvelous instance in Nineveh. He
dashes to the ground their false security, by
reason of their descent from Jacob ", of God's
Presence among them in the Temple ' ; the
multitude of their offerings amid the multi
tude of their sins "". He rejects in God's
name, their false, outward, impenitent, peni
tence; and thereby the more implies that
He would accept a true repentance. They
knew this, and were, for a time, scared into
penitence. But in his book, as God willed
it to remain, he is rather the prophet of
God's dealings, than the direct preacher of
repentance to individuals. Yet he is the
more an evangelic preacher, in that he speaks
of repentance, only as the gift of God. He
» Carpz. Introd. p. 365, in Hav, ii, 364.
' Is, X, 24-34, xiv. 25. xxx. 31, xxxi. 8, 9, xxxvii, 6,
7, 21-35, Mic. V 5, 6.
" Is, xxxix, 6, iviic, iv, 10,
^Is, xlviii. 20, Mic, ib,
J Is, xi. 11 sqq. Mic, vii, 12, • vii, 14,
"v, 2 Eng, (iHeb,)
t Is, xlix. 23, Mic, vii, 17. Hav. ib,
1 i, 8, see note. ^ Is. xx. 2, 3,
ei, 6, ii, 1, 2, 9-11, «ii. 7, 11, iii, 5-7.

does not ignore that man must accept the
grace of God ; but, as Isaiah foretells of the
days of the Gospel, the idols He shall utterly
abolish", so Micah first foretells tliat God
would abolish all wherein man relied out of
God, all wherein he prided himself, every
form of idolatry p, and subsequently describes
the future evangelic repentance, submission
to, and waiting upon God and His righteous
ness 1 ; and God's free plenary forgiveness '.
Micah's rapid unprepared transitions from
each of his main themes to another, from
upbraiding to threatening, from threatening
to mercy and then back again to upbraiding,
is probably a part of that same vivid percep
tion of the connection of sin, chastisement,
forgiveness, in the will and mind of God. He
sees them and speaks of them in the natural
sequence in which they were exhibited to
him. He connects most commonly the sin with
the punishment by the one word, therefore',
because it was an object with him to shew the
connection. The mercies to come he subjoins
either suddenly without any conjunction ', or
with the simple and. An English reader
loses some of the force of this simplicity
by the paraphrase, which, for the simple
copula, substitutes the inference or contrast,
therefore, then, but, notwithstanding ", which lie
in the subjects themselves. An English
reader might have been puzzled, at first sight,
by the monotonous simplicity of the, and, and,
joining together the mention of events, which
stand, either as the contrast or the conse
quence of those which precede them. The
English version accordingly has consulted for
the reader or hearer, by drawing out for him
the contrast or consequence which lay be
neath the surface. But this gain of clearness
involved giving up so far the majestic sim
plicity of the Prophet, who at times speaks
of things as they lay in the Divine Mind, and
as, one by one, they would be unfolded to raan,
without explaining the relation in which
they stood to one another. Micah knew that
suff'erings were, in God's purpose, travail-
pains. And so, immediately after the de
nunciation of punishment, he adds so calmly,
"''J.Md in the last days it shall be;" "And
thou, Bethlehem Ephratah," Or in the
midst of his descriptions of mercies, he speaks
of the intervening troubles, as tlie way to
them. Now ^ why dost thou cry aloud? — pangs
have taken thee, as u, woman in travail — be in
pain — tlwu shalt go even unto Babylon; there
slialt thou be delivered : or, ' Tlierefore wiU He
Bii, 3, 10, iii, 4, 12, vi, 13-16, vii, 4, 13.
1" i, 10-16, ii, 4, 5, ¦ iv,, V,, vii. 7-20, ^ ii. 7,
¦iii, 11, "vi, 6, 7, 0 18,11,18, "v, 9, 10.
p V, 11-13. 1 vii, 8, 9, ' Ib. 18, 19,
"Not i. 6, vi. 13, but i. 14, li, 3, 5, iii, 6, 12,
• ii. 12, iv, 13,
'^ Therefore, i, 6, vi, 13, vii, 7 ; then, iii. 7, vii, K) ; hut,
iii, 8, iv, 1, 4, 12, V, 2, VI. 16 ; for, iv, 5 ; noiwiilistnnd-
ing, vii, 13, * iv. 1, v. 2 (I Heb.), add vii, 7.
'riv. 9, «v. 3. [2Heb.]

MICAH.

11

gi've thee up until the time, &c. i. e. because He
has these good things in store for thee. He
will give thee up, until the time comes,
"With this great simplicity Micah unites
great vividness and energy. Thus in pre
dicting pu-nishment, he uses the form of com
mand, bidding them, as it were, execute it on
themselves " ; Arise, depart : as, in the Great
Day, our Lord shall say. Depart, ye cursed.
And since God does in us or by us what He
commands to be done, he uses the imperative
to Zion, alike as to her victories over God's
enemies'', or her state of anxious fear ".
To that same vividness belong his rapid
changes of person or gender ; his sudden
questions"; his unmarked dialogues. The
changes of person and gender occur in all
Hebrew poetry; all have their emphasis.
He addresses the people or place as a whole
(/em.), then all the individuals in her'= ; or
turns away and speaks ofif; or contrariwise,
having spoken of the whole in the third per
son, he turns round and drives the warning
home to individuals *. The variations in the
last verse of ch. -vi. are unexampled for
rapidity even in Hebrew.
And yet the flow of his words is smooth
and measured. "Without departing from the
conciseness of Hebrew poetry, his cadence, for
the most part, is of the more prolonged sort,
as far as any can be called prolonged, when all
is so concise. In some 8 verses, out of 104, he
is markedly brief, where conciseness corres
ponds with his subject, as in an abrupt ap
peal as to their sins '', or an energetic an
nouncement of judgment' or of mercy'', or
in that remarkable prophecy of both', how
God would, in mercy, cut off all grounds of
human trust. Else, whereas in Nahum and
Habakkuk, not quite J, and in the eleven
last Chapters of Hosea much less than J, of
¦> ii, 10, add i. 11, 13, iv, 10, i" iv. 13,
0 V, 1, (iv, 14 Heb,)
¦i i. 5, ii, 7, iii. 1, iv, 9, vi, 3, 6, 10, 11, vii, 18,
"i, 11. twice,
'i. 2, twice ; in i. 13, he returns to the 2d pers,
E ii. 3, i> iii, 10 (5 words), vi. 11 (6 words),
1 V, 8, and vii. 1.3, (7 words),
's vii, 11 (7 words), vii, 15 (5 words),
1 V, 13 Heb, (5 words), v, 10 (6 words), v, 11 (7 words),
" Out of the 157 verses in Hosea's 11 last chapters,
111 contain fewer than 14 words each, 46 only 14
words or upwards; out of 46, of which the boolc of
Nahum consists (excluding the title) 14 only have
more than 13 words ; out of 55 of Habalskulc, 17 only
have more than 13, , j, _„ ¦
n In Micah, 48 out of 104 ; m Joel, 30 out of 72 ; m
Obadiah, 10 out of 21,
"There is less difference between a verse ot 14
words, distributed 43, 43 and one of 11, distributed
3-2, 4-2, than in a verse whose 10 words were dis
tributed 32,32 or 323,2, .
p The following summary of these lesser divisions,
which are mostly marked by ths Hebrew accents,
may perhaps give some little idea of the rhytbm.
Only the degree of subdivision must often be a
matter of opinion or taste or ear. Thus, of 5 words
which grammatically belong together, one might
think that the cadence separated them into 3 and
2; another might take them altogether. But this
is a matter of detail only; the principle is unmis-

the verses contain more than 13 words ™, in
Micah above f (as, in Joel, nearly f) exceed
that number ". The verses are also distri
buted in that ever-varying cadence, whereby,
in Hebrew poetry, portions of their short
sentences being grouped together, the har
mony of the whole is produced by the varied
dispositions of these lesser groups of 2, 3, 4,
and but rarely 5 words; scarcely any two
verses exactly corresponding, but all being
united by the blending of similar cadences.
In Micah, as in all Plebrew poetry, the com
bination of 3 words is the most frequent, and
this, sometimes by itself, sometimes in union
with the number 4, making the sacred num
ber 7 ; or, with 2, making a number which
we find in the tabernacle, but which dwells
more in the hearts of the disciples of the
Crucified. The same exact rhythm seldom
recurs, and that, naturally, chiefly in the
shorter verses, the longer admitting or re
quiring more combinations. Wherever also
there is more than one pause in the verse, a
further and very considerable variety of
rhythm may be produced, even when the sev
eral clauses of two verses contain the same
number of words in the same order. The
difference of cadence is far more influenced
by the place, where the verse is divided, than
by the exact number of words contained in it.
The rhetorical force of the distribution of the
words into the several clauses depends mainly
upon the place of the Athnach or semi
colon ". The same exact rhythm, (in which
both the same number of words occur in the
verse, and the verse is divided in the same
place) recurs only seven times in Micah, in
verses capable of a variation. The other
four cases of repetition occur in short verses
which have one division only p accordingto the
place where the main division ofthe verse falls.
takable. Again, words whieh have been artificiallj'
joined together in Hebrew by the Blakkeph, I have
considered as 2 words, if each had a distinct idea.
Thus riX, when the mere sign of the object, I have
not counted ; when it is the preposition, " with," 1
have counted it. In the following list, the verses
are ranged according to the number of the words
contained in each verse, beginaing with the high
est. The numbers on the right hand indicate the
lesser divisions into which each verse may be dis
tributed. The comma in each set of numbers
marks the place of the Athnach or semicolon. The
Eoman numerals indicate how often any cadence
is repeated, NUMBEE OF 'VVOEBS IN EaCH LESSEE DIVISION,
Wordi>. 24 ,333422,43 432,3264
22 46,534 14333,44
21 221,423232 4433,34
20 23333,33 333,3134 3333,44 4333,322
19 344,44 34,2253 32,4424
18 43,3233 342,423 3232,44
17 444,32 3433,22 3,4.343 2223,332
16 222,433 3433,3 33,4222 44,44
16 32,325 3333,3 432,33 43,233 43,323 (ii) 134,133
43 332 3223 32
14 33,63 (ii)" 34,34 23122,22 43,43 432,32 333,23
33,323 43,62 332,33 13,334 43,34 22,3313
2222,33 2222,51

12

INTRODUCTION TO

His description of the destruction of the
cities or villages of Judah corresponds in
vividness to Isaiah's ideal march of Senna
cherib '. The flame of war spreads from
place to place ; but Micah relieves the same
ness of the description of misery by every
variety which language allows. He speaks
of them in his own person ', or to them ; he
describes the calamity in past ' or in future ',
or by use of the imperative '^. The verbal
allusions are crowded together in a way un
exampled elsewhere. Moderns have spoken
of them, as not after their taste, or have
apologized for them. The mighty Prophet,
who wrought a repentance greater than his
great contemporary Isaiah, knew well what
would impress the people to whom he spoke.
The Hebrew names had definite meanings,
13 43,33 3,442 332,32 1322,5 222,322 432,4 43,33
322,42
12 32,322 422,22 143,22 224,4 23,34 53,22 24,24
43,23
11 32,33 42,32 (ii) 33,;J2 23,33 (ii) 24,32 33,23 (ii)
4322 22,43 32,42
10 5,5 33,4 32,82 (ii) 323,2 32,23 (ii) 22,33 2222,2
43,3
9 43,2 4,32 3,33 42,3 22,32 33,3
8 132,2 33,2
7 4,3 (ii) 3, 4 (ii) 3,22
6 3,3 (ii) 22,2
5 3,2 (ii)
To facilitate comparison, I subjoin a like analysis
ofthe other prophets mentioned, Hosea.
Eleven last chapters.
22 422253,4 3244,64
21 4433,34 5,2422'24
20 32,33324 :3333,44
19 4343,32 3-t23,.34
18 4,4334 332,'2332 2232,423 44,3223
17 43,3322 3332,33 23,4323 3223,223 333,323 3223,43
3442,4
2323,24 32,3422 233,323 21214,24 3223,33 3232,33
33,253 42,433 .
15 344,4 2323,23 3332,4 (ii) 223,242 333,33
14 43,43 44,33 5,432 44,42 43,232 324,32 422,42
33,2222 33,44 3224,3 33,53 4,442 32,333 14,-
333
13 33,43 (iii) 34,42 43,33 (ii) 4,333 4,54 34,33 323.32
223,33 22,234 33,34
12 4,44 432,21 33,33 (ii) 222,222 32,.34 42,42 222,33
223,32 43,122 43,23 43,32 32,43
11 24,32 323,3 32,33 233,12 33,23 42,23 132,14 32,-
42 32,33 33,32 4,4;l 23,222
10 43,3 (ii) 33,4 (ii) 3,34 3232 (ii) 44,2 24,4 222,22
4,33 33,22 322,3
5,13 25,2 3,33 (ii) 33,3 (iii) 232,2 2,322 32,22 (ii)
32,4 22,23 22,32 (ii) 4,32 13,32 2,34 5,4 24,3
8 32,3 (ii) 23,3 (iv) 2222 22't (ii)
7 13,3 (iii) 4,3 (iii) 3,4 (ii) 2,23 22,3 2,32 23,2 31,3
33,1 14,2
4,2 (ii) 3,3 iiii) 1.3,2 (ii)
3,2 (vii) 2111 113 Joel,
25 334,36.34
24 322,l-t4332
23 3644,223
22 423,4423
21 5422,422 3335,43
20 16,42313 34,3433
19 224,'143
18 22,4433 33,435
17 3332,42 245,33 353,33 1422,35
16 334,42 2242,6 44,44
15 22233,3 2432,22 22222,32 344,4 23,2323 333, 33
34,35

"VVe can well imagine how, as name after
name passed from the Prophet's mouth, con
nected with some note of woe, all around
awaited anxiously, to know upon what place
the fire of the Prophet's word would next
fall ; and as at last it had fallen upon little
and mighty round about Jerusalem, the
names of the places would ring in their ears
as heralds of the coming woe ; they would be
like so many monuments, inscribed before
hand Vi'ith the titles of departed greatness,
reminding Jerusalem itself of its portion of
the prophecy, that '^ evil should come from the
Lord unto tlie gate of Jerusalem.
"Wonderful must have been his lightning-
flash of indignation, as, when the false pro
phet or the people had forbidden God's word
to be spoken, he bm-st upon them, ^ Thou,

14
13121110 9
8 76
2119
181716351413121110 97
5
2119181615141312
1110 0876
5
2420191817151413121110 98
7" 6
5 Is
"9,

53,33 334,4 36,23 1432,4 3332,3
34 33 3 .55 .33 34
44^4 34*23 2222,4 6,34 24,33 43,32 32,223
22,322 (ii) 223,22 2222,3 (ii) 32,33 3,224 32,42
222,5 4,331 44,3 223,22 2222,3
32,32 222,22' 22,42 231,4
32,22 (iii) 2,43 5,22
3,23 22,22 4,22
133 3,4 (ii) 3,22 22,3
3,3 (iv) Obadiah,
4333,3234323,433332,133 34,344. 4252,32
4242,326434 32422,3
334,23
43,43332,23 42,34 4232,2
3.5,2232,33 42,32
43,3 3,33
4,3 32,2
32 Nahum,
32232,72 2333,35 3233,44
32,33734,2322 23,42131
323,43 33,622 22222,32 14123,4
44,33 (ii) 32221,13 3,2234 234,32
42,223 3332,2 323,32
33,33 32,34 322,32 (ii) 414,3 42,222 222,222
43,4 32,222 22,313 42,32 23,24 322,22
42,13 12,223 3,223 32,32
32,22 (ii) 23,22
23,3 (ii) 24,2 22,22
22,-21

13,2 31,2
3,2 Habakkuk,
44,44444334,33333,142343,254 3332,43
45,35 422,2232 54,44 333,63
34,44 332,322 33,234 34,233 43,44 13143,3 3333,3
333,42
43,322 332,33 33,44
32,422 33,43 23,44
323,22 (ii) 33,33 (ii)
222,32 32,42 32,33 322,4 42,14
322,3 3,31 4,33
33,3 (ii) 4,5 24,3 42,3 23,4
311,3 22,4 3,32
3,4 (ii) 4,3 (ii)
3,3 [iv]
:. 28-32, r i, 8, 10, see note,
10,11,12. 18. 0 11,1.3,16.
12. Jii. 7,

MICAH.

13

called house of Jacob, shortened is Ood's Spirit ?
Or these His doings ? And theu follow the
plaintive descriptions of the wrongs done to
the poor, the peaceful ^, the mothers of his
people and their little ones. And then
again the instantaneous dismissal ", Arise and
depart. But, therewith, wonderful also is his
tenderness. Burning as are his denuncia
tions against the oppressions of the rich ",
(words less vehement will not pierce hearts
of stone) there is an under-current of tender
ness. Flis rebukes evince not indignation
only .Igainst sin, but a tender sympathy with
the sufferers. " He is afflicted in the afflic
tions which he has to denounce. He yearns
for his people '' ; nay, until our Lord's Com
ing, there is scarcely an expression of such
yearning longing : he hungers and thirsts for
their good ^
God's individual care of His people, and
of each soul in it, had, since David's time ''
and even since Jacob ^, been likened to the
care of the shepherd for each single sheep.
The Psalm of Asaph ^ must have familiar
ized the people to the image, as relating to
themselves as a whole, and David's deep
Psalm had united it with God's tender care of
His own in, and over, death. Yet the predomi
nance of this image in Micah is a part of
the tenderness of the Prophet. He adopts
it, as expressing, more than any other natural
image, the helplessness of the creature, the
tender individual care of the Creator. He
forestalls our Lord's words, I am the good
shepherd, in his description of the Messiah,
gathering the remnant of Israel together, as the
sheep of Bozrah ' ; Plis people are as a flock,
lame and despised '', whom God would assem
ble ; His royal seat, the tower of the flock ' ; the
Ruler of Israel should stand unresting, and
feed ihem "' ; those whom He should employ
against the enemies of His people, are shep
herds", under Him, the true shepherd. He
sums up his prayer for his people to God as
their Shepherd ° ; Feed Thy people with Thy
rod, the flock of Thine heritage.
Directly, he was a Prophet for Judah only.
At the beginning of his book, he condemns^
the idolatries of both capitals, as the central!
sin of the two kingdoms. The destruction 1
of Samaria he pronounces at once, as future,
absolutely certain, abiding p. There he
leaves her, declares her wound incurable, and
passes forthwith to Judah, to whom, he says,
that wound should pass, whom that same
enemy should reach \ Thereafter, he men
tions incidentally the infection of Israel's sin

.8,9. 'lO.
>> ii, 1, 2, iii, 1-3, 9-11, vi, 10-12, vii, 2, 3,
• i, 8, 9, ii, 1, 2, vii, 5, 6. '' i. S-IO, 16, iv, 9, 10,
"vii, 1. 'Ps, xxiii, b Gen. xlix, 24,
t Ps, Ixxiv, 1, Ixxviii. 62, Ixxix. 13, Ixxx, 1,
Iii, 12, '=iv, 6. 'Ib, 8, » V, 4. [Eng, 3 Heb.]
-Ib, 5, [4Heb,] 'yii. 14,
Pi,6,7. 'ii.g. 'i.ia. »i.5.

spreading to Judah '. Else, after that first
sentence on Samaria, the names of Jacob
(which he had given to the ten tribes') and
Israel are appropriated to the kingdom of
Judah ' : Judah is mentioned no more, only
her capital " ; even her kings are called the
kings of Israel ". The ten tribes are ouly in
cluded in the general restoration of the
whole ^. The future remnant of the two
tribes, to be restored after the captivity of
Babylon, are called by themselves the rem
nant of Jacob'': the Messiah to be born at
Bethlehem is foretold as the ruler in Israel " :
the ten tribes are called the remnant of His
brethren, who were to return to the children of
Israel ", i. e. Judah.
This the more illustrates the genuineness
of the inscription. A later hand would have
been unlikely to have mentioned either Sa
maria or those earlier kings of Judah, Each
part of the title corresponds to something in
the prophecy ; the name Micah is alluded to
at its close ; his birthplace, the Morasthite, at
its beginning ; the indications of those earlier
reigns lie there, although not on its surface ''.
The mention of the tw-o capitals, followed by
the immediate sentence on Samaria, and then
by the fuller expansion of the sins and pun
ishment of Jerusalem, culminating in its
sentence*, in Micah, corresponds to the brief
mention of the punishment of Judah in
Amos the Prophet of Israel, and then the
fuller expansion of the sins and punishments
of Israel, Further, the capitals, as the foun
tains of idolatry, are the primary object of
God's displeasure. They are both specially
denounced in the course of the prophecy ;
their special overthrow is foretold '^, The
title corresponds with the contents of the
prophecy, yet the objections of modern critics
shew that the correspondence does not lie on
the surface.
The taunt of the false priest Amaziah ' to
Amos may in itself suggest that prophets at
Jerusalem did prophesy against Saraaria,
Amaziah, anyhow, thought it natural that
they should. Both Isaiah and Micah, while
exercising their office at Jerusalem, had re
gard also to Samaria. Divided as Israel and
Judah were, Israel was not yet cut oft'. Is
rael aud Judah were still, together, the one
people of God. The prophets in each had a
care for the other.
Micah joins himself on to the men of God
before him, as Isaiah at the time, and Jere
miah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, sub
sequently, employed words or thoughts of
' Jacob, ii, 7, iii, 1, 8, 9 ; Israel, i. 14, 15, iii, 1, 8, 9, v.
1, 3, vi, 2,
» See ab, p, 6. " i, 14,
y Jacob, all of thee, ii. 12 ; the remnant of Israel., il i.
» V, 7, 8, [8, 9 Heb.] » V, 2, (1 Heb,)
b Ib, 3, (2 Heb,) » See ab, p, 8.
a iii, 12,
• i. 6, 9, 12, iii, 10-12, iv. 10, 'See vol. i, p. 321.

14

MICAH.

Micah s. Micah alludes to the history, the laws,
the promises, the threatenings of the Penta
teuch ; and that in such wise, that it is plain
that he had, not traditional laws or traditional
history, but the Pentateuch itself before him ''-
Nor were those books before himself only. His
book implies not an acquaintance only, but a
familiar acquaintance with it on the part of
the people. The title, the land of Nimrod ',
the house of bondage '', for Egypt, the allusions
to the miraculous deliverance frora Egypt',
the history of Balaam ; the whole sumraary
of the raercies of God from the Exodus to
Gilgal '", the faithfulness pledged to Abra
hara and Jacob ", would be unintelligible
without the knowledge of the Pentateuch.
Even single expressions are taken frora the
Pentateuch ". Especially, the whole sixth
chapter is grounded upon it. Thence is the
appeal to inanimate nature to hear the con
troversy ; thence the mercies alleged on
God's part ; the offerings on man's part to
atone to God (except the one dreadful super
stition of Ahaz) are from the -law; the an
swer on God's part is almost verbally from
the law; the sins upbraided are sins forbid
den in the law ; the penalties pronounced are
also those of the law. There are two allu
sions also to the history of Joshua ^, to Da
vid's elegy over Saul and .Jonathan '', and, as
before said, to the history of Micaiali son of
Imlah in the book of Kings. Single expres
sions are also taken from the Psalms "' and
the Proverbs '. In the descriptions of the
peace of the kingdom oi Christ ', he appears
purposely to have reversed God's description
of the animosity of the nations against God's
people ". He has also two characteristic ex
pressions of Amos. Perhaps, in the image
of the darkness which should come on the
false prophets ", he applied anew the image
s See Caspari Mieha, 449-465.
t" See at length, iu Caspari, pp. 420-7, and below on
the places. ' v. 6, (5 Heb.) from Gren, x, 8-12.
^ vi, 4, comp. Deut, vii, 8, xiii. 5, Ex, xiii, 3, 14,
XX. 2. llllse only in Josh, xxiv, 17, and Judg, vi, 8,
also from the Pent. Casp,
1 See on ii, 13, vi. 4, vii. 15. » See on vi, 4, 5,
n See on vii, 30,
' As nS;» ii, 13, nS,i?n vi, 4, ^^sb nhw ib. 'idjh
lia'? vii. 14, VHN ¦''7nT vii, 17 Casp,

of Araos, adding the ideas of spiritual dark
ness and perplexity to that of calamity.
The light and shadows of the prophetic life
fell deeply on the soul of Micah. The cap
tivity of Judah too had been foretold before
him. Moses had foretold the end from the
beginning, had set before them the captivity
and the dispersion, as a punishment which
the sins of the people would certainly bring
upon them. Hosea presupposed if; Amos
foretold that Jerusalem, like the cities of its
heathen enemies, should be burned with
fire ^. Micah had to declare its lasting deso
lation". Even when God wrought repent
ance through hira, he knew that it was but
for a time ; for he foresaw and foretold that
the deliverance would be, not in Jerusa
lem, but at Babylon '', in captivity. His pro
phecy sank so deep, that, above a century
afterward, just when it was about to have its
fulflllment, it was the prophecy which was
remembered. But the sufferings of tirae
disappeared in the light of eternal truth.
Above seven centuries rolled by, and Micah
re-appears as the herald, not now of sorrow
but of salvation. Wise raen from afar, in
the nobility of their simple belief, asked.
Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? A
king, jealous for his temporal empire, gath
ered all those learned in Holy Scripture, and
echoed the question. The answer was given,
unhesitatingly, as a well-known truth of God,
in the words of Micah. J^or th'us it is written
in the Prophet. Glorious peerage of the two
contemporary prophets of Judah. Ere Jesus
was born, the Angel announced the birth of
the Virgin's Son, Ooa with us, in the words
of Isaiah. When He was born. He was
pointed out as the Object of worship to the
first converts from the heathen, on the au
thority of God, through Micah.
p See on ii. 4, vi, 5, <i i, 10,
' Casp, 428-30; see on ii, 1, iil, 2, 3, vii, 2, 7, 8, 10,
• Casp. 430-2; see on vi, 9, 11,
» iv, 3, Joel iii, 10,
"N'n nj?T n;? •'D li, 2, Am, V, 13, and cyan ii. 6,
11, Am, vii, 16, Casp, 443.
^ Blic, iii. 6, Am, viii, 9,
J See on Hos, vi, 11, vol, i, pp, 69, 70. « ii, 5,
» iii. 12. ¦> iv. 10.

MIOAH.

Before
CHRIST eir. 758-726. •

•Jer. 26. 18.

CHAPTER I.
- 1 Micah sheweth the wrath of
God against Jacob for idola
try. 10 He exhorteth to
mourning.
THE -word of the Lord
that came to "Micah
the Morasthite in the days
of Jotham, Aiiaz, and

Chap. I. Ver. 1. The word of the Lord
that came to Micah — which he saw. No two of
the prophets authenticate their prophecy in
exactly the sarae way. They, one and all,
have the sarae simple statement to make,
that this which they say is from God, and
through them. A later hand, had it added
the titles, would have formed all upon one
model. The title was an essential part ofthe
prophetic book, as indicating to the people
afterward, that it was not written after the
event. It was a witness, not to the prophet
whose name it bears, but to God. The pro
phet bare witness to God, that what he de
livered came from Him. The event bare
witness to the prophet, that he said this
truly, in that he knew what God alone could
know, — futurity. Micah blends in one the
facts, that he related in words given him by
God, what he had seen spread before him in
prophetic vision. His prophecy was, in one,
the Word of the Lord which came to him, and a
sight which he saw.
Micah oraits all raention of his father. His
great predecessor was known as Micaiah son
of Imlah. Micah, a villager, would be known
only by the name of his native village. So
Nahum naraes himself the Elkoshite ; Jonah
is related to be a native of Oath-hepher ; Eli
jah, the Tishbite, a sojourner in the despised
Gilead ' ; Elisha, of Abelmeholah ; Jeremiah,
of Anathoth ; forerunners of Him, ancl
taught by His Spirit Who willed to be born
at Bethlehem, and, since this, although too
little tobe counted among ihe thousands of Judah,
was yet a royal city and was to be the birth
place of the Christ, was known only as Jesus
of Nazareth, the Nazarene. No prophet speaks
of hiraself, or is spoken of, as born at Jeru
salera, the Iwly city. They speak of themselves
with titles of lowliness, not of greatness.
1 1 Kgs xvii, 1,
2 In the two passages quoted for the contrarj', .Jer,
viii. 16, Ezek, xii, 19, the context shews that V1X
is and can only be, kind, not, earth, Jer, The snort-
ing of his horses is heard from Dan, and they came arid
devoured the land and the fuUness thereof; where the
land to which they came could plainly be Judea

Hezekiah, kings of Judah,
'' which he sa'w concerning
Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 t Hear, all ye people ;
"hearken, O earth, and
t all that therein is ; and
let the Lord God " be wit
ness against you, the Lord
from " his holy temple.

Before
CHRIST cir. 768-726.
>> Amos 1, 1,
t Heb. Hear, ye
people, all of
them.
' Deut. 32. 1,
la, 1, 2,
fHeb, the full
ness thereof.
"Ps. 60. 7,
Mai, 3, 5,
o'Ps, 11, 4.
Jonah 2. 7,
Hab, 2, 20,

Micah dates his prophetic office from kings
of Judah only, as the only kings of the line
appointed by God, Kings of Israel are
mentioned in addition, only by prophets of
Israel, He names Samaria first, because, its
iniquity being most nearly full, its punish
ment was the nearest.
2. Hear, all ye people, lit. hear, ye peoples, all
of them. Some 140, or 150 years had flowed
by, since Micaiah, son of Imlah, had closed
his prophecy in these words. And now they
burst out anew. From age to age the word
of God holds its course, ever receiving new
fulfillments, never dying out, until the end
shall come. The signal fulfillment ofthe pro
phecy, to which theTbrmer Micaiah had called
attention in these words, was an earnest of the
fulfillment of this present message of God,
Hearken, 0 earth, and all that therein is. The
peoples or nations are never Judah and Israel
only : the earth and the fuUness thereof is the
well-known title of the whole earth ^ and all
its inhabitants, Moses '', Asaph *, Isaiah ^, call
heaven and earth as witnesses against God's
people. Jeremiah", as Micah here, summons
the nations and theearth. The contest between
good and evil, sin and holiness, the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of Satan, everwhere,
but most chiefly where God's Presence is
nearest, is a spectacle to the world, to angels and
to men '. The nations are witnesses of God
against His own people, so that these should
not say, that it was for want of faithfulness
or justice or power *, but in His righteous
judgraent, that He cast off whom He had
chosen. So shall the Day of Judgraent rcz'eai
His righteousness^. Hearken, 0 earth. The
lifeless earth '" trembles at the Presence of Ood,
and so reproaches the dullness of man. By it
he summons man to listen with great rever
ence to the Voice of God.

only. In Ezeltiel it is not even the land, hut her
land. Say unlo the people of the land ; Thus saith the
Lord Ood of the land of Israel,— that her land may be
desolate from all the fullness thereof.
3 Deut, xxxii, 1, * Ps, 1. 7, 6 i. 2, « vi, 19,
' 1 Cor, iv, 9. 1
8 Ex, xxxii, 12, Num, xiv, 16, Josh, vii. 8, 9,
8 Eom, ii, 5. i» Ps. oxiv, 7, xevii. 5.

15

16

MICAH.

Before
CHRISTcir, 758-726,
'Is, 26, 21,
ePs, 116, ,3,

3 For, behold, 'the
LoED cometh forth out of
his ^ place, and will come

And let ihe Lord Ood be witness against you.
Not in words, but in deeds ye shall know,
that I speak not of myself but God in me,
when, what 1 declare, He shall by His Pres
ence fulfill. But the nations are appealed to,
not merely because the judgments of God on
Israel should be made . known to them by the
Prophets, He had not yet spoken of Israel
or Judah, whereas he had spoken to the
nations ; hear, ye peoples. It seems then most
likely tliat here too he is speaking to them.
Every judgment is an earnest, a forerunner,
a part, of the final judgment and an ensample
of its principles. It is but " the last great
linlc in the chain," which unites God's deal
ings in time with eternity. God's judgments
on one imply a judgment on all. His judg
ments in tirae imply a Judgment beyond
time. Each sinner feels in his own heart a
response to God's visible judgments on
another. Each sinful nation may read its own
doom in the sentence on each other nation,
God judges each according to his own meas
ure of light and grace, accepted or refused.
The Pleathen shall bejudged by the law writ
ten in their heart ' ; the Jew, by the law of
Moses and the light of the prophets ; Chris
tians, by the law of Christ. The word, Christ
saith '', that I have spoken, the same shall judge
him at the last Day. God Himself foretold,
that the heathen should know the ground of
His judgments against His people ^. All
nations shaU say, wherefore hath the Lord
done thus unto this landf What meaneth tlie
heat of this great anger ? Then men shall say,
Because they have forsaken the covenant of the
Lord Ood of their fathers which He made with
them, when He brought them forth out of the land
of Egypt, &c. But in that the heathen knew
why God so punished His people, they came
so far to know the mind of God ; and God,
Who at no tirae '' left Himself without witnexs,
bore fresh witness to them, and, so far as
they neglected it, against them, A Jew,
wherever he is seen throughout the world,
is a witness to the world of God's judgments
against sin,
" ^ Christ, the faithful Witness, shall wit
ness agai'nst those who do ill, for those who do
well," The Lord from His holy temple. Either that
at Jerusalem, where God shewed and revealed
Himself, or Heaven of -n-hich it was the
image. As David says ^, The Lord is in His
holy temple ; the Lord's throne is in heaven ; and
1 Rom, ii. 12-15, ^ S, John xii. 48,
8 Deut, xxix, 24, 5, * Acts xiv, 17, " Dion,
6 Ps. xi. 4, ' Ps, xviii. 9.

down, and tread upon
the ""high places of the
earth.

Before
CHRIST cir. 758-726,
!¦ Deut 32, 13,
& 33, 29,
Amos 4. 13.

contrasts His dwelling in heaven and His
coming down upon earth, ^ He bowed tlie
heavens also and ca'me down ; and Isaiah, in
like words *, Behold, the Lord cometh out of His
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
tlieir iniquity.
3, For, behold, the Lord cometh forth, i. e, (as
we now say,) is coming forth. Each day of
judgment, and the last also, are ever drawing
nigh, noiselessly as the nightfall, but unceas
ingly. Out of His Place. '"God is hidden
from us, except when He sheweth Himself
by His Wisdom or Power of Justice or Grace,
as Isaiah saith '", 'Verily, Thou art a Ood Who
hidest Thyself." He seemeth to be absent,
when He doth not visibly work either in the
heart within, or in judgments without ; to the
ungodly and unbelieving He is absent ", far
above out of their sight, when He does not
avenge their scoffs, their sins, their irrever
ence. Again He seemeth to go forth, when
His Power is felt. "^Whence it is ^aid '^,
Boiv Thy heavens, O Lord, and come down;
and the Lord saith of Sodom '^, I will go down
now and .sec, whether they have done altogether
aecording to the cry of it, which is come unto Me.
Or, the Place of the Infinite God is God Him
self. For the Infinite sustaineth Itself, nor
doth anything out of Itself contain It. God
dwelleth also in light unapproachable ". When
then Almighty God doth not manifest Him
self, He abideth, as it were, in H'ls own Place.
When He manifests His Power or Wisdom or
Justice by their effects, He is said to go forth
out of His Plaee, i, e, out of His hiddenness.
Again, since the Nature of God is Goodness,
it is proper and co-natural to Him, to be pro
pitious, have mercy apd spare. In this way,
the Place of God is His mercy. When then
He passeth from the sweetness of pity to the
rigor of equity, and, on account of our sins,
sheweth Himself severe (which is, as it were,
alien from Hira) He goeth forth out of His
Place." '""For He Who is gentle aud
gracious, and Whose Nature it is to have
mercy, is constrained, on your account, to
take the seeming of hardness, which is not
His." He comes invisibly now, in that it is He
Who punisheth, through whatever power or
will of man He useth ; He shews forth His
Holiness through the punishment of unholi-
ness. But the words, which are image-lan
guage now, shall be most exactly fulfilled in
the end, wlien, in the Person of our Lord, He

8 xxvi, 21,
u Ps, X, 6,
13 Gen, xviii, 21.

»Dion, 10 xiv, 15,
'2 Ps. cxliv, 6, Is, ixiv, 1,
" 1 Tim, vi, 16, 16 S, Jer.

CHAPTER I.

17

chrTst ^ ^^^ '*^^® mountains
cir, 758-726, shall bo molten under him.

p&fi^'s^' and the valleys shall be
Is, 64, 1, 2, 3, Amos 9, 5, Hab, 3, 6, 10,

shall come visibly to judge the world, " ' In
the Day of Judgment, Christ sliall come down,
according to that Nature which He took,
from His Place, the highest heavens, and
shall cast down the proud things of this
world," And will come down ; not by change of place,
or in Himself, but as felt in the punishment
of sin ; and tread, upon the high places of the
earth; to brin.g down the pride of those ^ who
" ^ being lifted up in their own conceit and
lofty, sinning through pride and proud
through sin, were yet created out of earth.
For * why is earth and ashes proud ? " What
seems mightiest and raost firm, is unto God
less than is to man the dust under his feet.
The high places were also the special scenes
of an unceasing idolatry. " God treadeth in
the good and humble, in that He dwelleth,
walketh, feasteth in their hearts ^. But He
treadeth upon the proud and the evil, in that
He casteth them down, despiseth, condemneth
them." 4. And the mountains shall be molten under
Him. It has been thought that this is
imagery, taken from volcanic eruptions ^ ;
but, although there is a very remarkable vol
canic district just outside of Gilead', it is
not thought to have been active at times so
late as these ; nor were the people to whom
the words were said, familiar with it. Fire,
the real agent at the end of the world, is,
raeanwhile, the syrabol of God's anger, as
being the most terrible of His instruments of
destruction : whence God revealed Hiraself as
a consuming fire % and, at this same tirae said
by Isaiah ^ ; For behold, the Lord will come with
fire — to render His anger with fury, and His re
buke with flames of fire.
And tlie valleys shall be cleft as wax before the
fire. It seems natural that the mountains
should be cleft; but the valleys'", so low
1 S, Jer, Theoph, - See Am, iv, 13, Job ix. 8,
3Eup, 4Eeolus. x.'9,
6 2 Cor. vi, 16, Rev, iii, 20, « Henderson here,
' See vol, i, p. 425, 8 Deut, iv, 24,
nixvi, 15,
1" Hence some MSS. mentioned in De Rossi's cod,
319, have (as a conjecture) Jliwnjni "the hills,"
1' Sanoh, '2 See Ps, xevii, 5,
13 See S, Hil, in Ps, Ivii, J 4. ODO is used, as to
natural objects, only of such melting whereby the
substance is wasted, as of manna (Ex. xvi, 21), wax
(Ps, Ixviit 3, &c,), or the body through disease (1
Sam, xxv. 37) ; then, morally, chiefly of fear,
"See (ies. Thes. sub v, from the Punic, Monum,
Pho3n, p, 418, "There are many waterfalls in
Lebanon, one very near and to the N, of the Damas
cus road, I have also seen one in Anti-libanus on
the river Barada, a little above AMI, The stream,
named Shel.a, which springs from the perpetual
snows of Mount Hermon is extremely rapid and
has a very steep fall to the Hasbeia which it joins
2

cleft, as wax before the fire, ^ g r7s t
and as the waters that are "'"- 758-726,
poured down f a steep place, t Heb, o descent.

already ! This speaks of a yet deeper disso
lution ; of lower depths beyond our sight or
knowledge, into the very heart of the
earth. " " This should they fear, who will
to be so low ; who, so far fi-om lifting them
selves to heavenly things, pour out their
affections on things of earth, meditate on and
love earthly things, and forgetful of the
heavenly, choose to fix their eyes on earth.
These the wide gaping ofthe earth which
they loved, shall swallow : to them the cleft
valleys shall open an everlasting sepulchre,
and, having received them, shall never part
witli them."
Highest and lowest, first and last, shall
perish before Him. The pride of the highest,
kings and princes, priests and judges, shall
sink and raelt away beneath the weight and
Majesty of His glory ; the hardness of the
lowest, which would not open itself to Him,
shall be cleft in twain before Him.
As wax before the fire '^, melting away be
fore Him by Whom they were not softened,
vanishing into nothingness. Metals melt,
changing their form only ; wax, so as to cease
to be '^,
As the waters poured doivn (as a stream or
cataract, so the word means ") a steep place.
Down to the very edge, it is borne along, one
strong, smootli, unbroken current ; then, at
once, it seems to gather its strength, for one
great effort. But to what end ? To fall, with
the greater force, headlong, scattered in spray,
foam and froth ; dissipated, at times, into
vapor, or reeling in giddy eddies, never to
return. In Judfea, where the autumn rains
set in with great vehemence'*, the waters
must have been often seen pouring in their
little tumultuous brooklets down the moun
tain side'", hastening to disappear, and dis
appearing the faster, the more vehemently
they rolled along ". Both images exhibit
in Merj-el-Huleh, The Jordan is a continual cataract
between el-Huleh and the Lake of Gennesareth ;"
(Rev, G, Williams, MS. letter) " a fall of 600 feet in
about 10 miles. Ou the Western bank, high above
the roeky bed of the torrent, the water was running
rapidly down the steep incline toward the river,
which could hardly be less than 150 fcc-t below us,"
(Id, Col, Church Chron. 1800, Jan, p. 30.). Porter
describes the fall of the river Adonis (Five years,
ii. 295,) From the height at-whicli the streams rise
in the Lebanon chain, tiiere must be many greater
or lesser falls.
15 Hence the Hebrew name Dtyj, " heavy rain,"
for which we have no one word, is used of tlie
autumn and winter rain. Cant. ii. 11,
16 I have seen this effect for above half an hour
(15 miles) on the mountain country near the lakes
in a thunderstorm,
17 " The decrease of the waters (swollen by the
rains in the mountains) is usually as rapid as tlieir
rise," Burckhardt, Syria, p, IGl,

18

MICAH.

Before
CHRIST
cir, 768-726,

5 For the transgression
of Jacob is all this, and
for the sins of the house of
Israel. What is the trans
gression o f Jacob 1 is it

the inward emptiness of sinners, man's utter
helplessness before God. They need no out
ward irapulse to their destruction. " ' Wax
endureth not the nearness of the fire, and the
waters are carried headlong. So all of the
ungodly, when the Lord coraeth, shall be
dissolved and disappear," At the end of tlie
world, they shall be gathered into bundles,
and cast away.
5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this.
Not for any change of purpose in God ; nor,
again, as the effect of man's lust of conquest.
None could have any power against God's
people, unless it had been given liim by God.
Those mighty Monarchies of old existed but
as God's instruments, especially toward His
own people. God said at this time of Assy
ria, ^ Asshur, rod of Mine anger, and the staff in
his hand is Mine iiidignation ; and ', Now have
I brought it to pass, that thou shoulde.st be to lay
waste defenaed cities into ruinous heaps. Each
scourge of God chastised just those nations,
which God willed him to chasten ; but the
especial object fbr which each was raised up
was his mission against that people, in whom
Gol most shewed His mercies and His judg
ments. * J will send him against an ungodly
nation and against the people of My wrath will I
give hi'm a charge. Jacob and Israel, in this
place, comprise alike the ten tribes and the
two. They still bare the name of their
father, who, wrestling with the Angel, became
a prince with Ood, Whom they forgat. The |
nama of Jacob then, as of Christian now,
stamped as deserters, those who did not the
deeds of their father. What, [rather "Who ^]
is the transgression of Jacob ? Who is its cause ?
In whom does it lie ? is it not Samaria ?
The metropolis must, in its own nature, be
the source of good or evil to the land. It is
the heart whose pulses beat throughout the
while system. As the seat of power, the res
idence of justice or injustice, the place of
counsel, the concentration of wealth, which
all the rao3t influenti-il of the land visit for
their several occasions, its manners penetrate
in a degree the utmost corners of the land.
Corrupted, it becomes a focus of corruption.
The blood passes through it, not to be puri
fied, but to be diseased, Samaria, being
founded on apostasy, owing its being to rebel
lion against God, the horae of that policy
IS. Jer. 2ig. X. .5. 3 Ib. xxxvii, 26. 41b. x. 6,
6 '0 always relates to a personal object, and appa
rent exceptions may be reduced to tliis. So AE,
Kim. Tanch, Poc,

not Samaria? and what chbTst
are the high places of Ju- eir, 753-726,
dah? are they not Jerusa
lem? 6 Therefore I 'will make

which set up a rival systera of worship to
His, forbidden by Him, becarae a fountain of
evil, whence the stream of ungodliness over
flowed the land. It became the imperson
ation of the people's sin, " the heart and the
head ofthe body of sin,"
.47!^ what [lit. T17io''] are the high plaees
of Judah ? are they not Jerusalem ? Jerusalem
God had formed to be a centre of unity in
holiness ; thither the tribes of tlie Lord were to
go up to the testimony of Israel ; there was the
unceasing worship of God, the morning and
evening sacrifice ; the Feasts, the memorials
of past miraculous mercies, the foreshadow
ings of redemption. But there too Satan
placed his tlirone. Ahaz brought thither
that most hateful idolatry, the burning chil
dren to Moloch in the valley of the son of H'un-
nom^. There, ''he m.ade him altars in every
corner of Jerusalem. Thence, he extended the
idolatry to all Judah. " And in every several
city of Judah lie made high places to burn incense
unto other goils, and provoked, to anger tlie Lord
God of his fathers. Hezekiah, in his reforma
tion, with all Israel, ^went out to the cities of
Judah, and brake the imagers in pieces and
liewed down tlie statues of Asherah, and threw
doum the high places and the altars out of all
Judah and Benjamin, as much as out of Eph
raim and Manasseh. Nay, by a perverse
interchange, Ahaz took the brazen altar, con
secrated to God, for his own divinations, and
assigned to the worship of God the altar
copied from the idol-altar at Dam.ascus, whose
fashion pleased his taste '". Since Ood and
mammon cannot be sei-ved together, Jerusalera
was become one great idol-temple, in which
Judah brought its sin into the very face of
God and of His Worehip. The Holy Oily
had itself becorae sin, and the fountain of
unholiness. The one temple of God was the
single protest against the idolatries which
encompassed and besieged it; the incense
went up to God, morning and evening, from
it ; from every head of every street of the
city", and (since Ahaz had brought in the
worship of Baalim '', and the rites of idol
atry continued the same,) from the roofs of all
their Iwuseji ", went up the incense to Baal ; a
worship which, denying the Unity, denied the
Being of God.
6. Tlierefore [lit. And^ IwUl make Samaria
6 2 Chr. xxviii, 3. ' Ih, 24. 8ib. 25,
1 1b. xxxi, 1, 10 2 Kings xvi, 10-16,
" Ezek, xvi, .31, 2 Chr. xxviii. 24. '^ Ib. 2.
18 Jer, xxxii. 29.

CHAPTER L

19

Before
CHRIST cir, 758-726.

Samaria '' as an heap of the
_ field, and as plantings of a
1 2 Kings 19, 25, vineyard : and I will pour
down the stones thereof
into the valley, and I will
' discover the foundations
thereof.

ch. 3. 12.

• Ezek. 13. 14.

OS an hea'p of tlie field, a'nd as plantings of a vine
yard. " 1 The order of the sin was the order
of the punishment," Samaria's sins were the
earliest, the most obstinate, the most un
broken, bound up with its being as a state.
On it then God's judgments should first fall.
It was a crown of pride *, resting on the head of
the rich valleys, out of which it rose. Its soil
is still rich *. " The whole is now cultivated
in terraces*," "to the summits"." Prob
ably, since the sides of hills, open to the sun,
were chosen for vineyards, it had been a vine
yard, before Sliemer sold it to Omri ^. What
it had been, that it was again to be. Its
inhabitants cast forth, its houses and gorgeous
palaces were to become heaps of stones, gath
ered out ' to make way for cultivation, or to
become the fences of the ' vegetation, which
should succeed to raan. There is scarce a
sadder natural sight than the frograents of
human habitation, tokens of man's labor or
his luxury, amid the rich beauty of nature
when man himself is gone. For they are
tracks of sin and punishment, man's rebellion
and God's judgment, man's unworthiness of
the good natural gifts of God. A century or
two ago, travelers "^ speak of the ground
[the site of Saraaria] as strewed with masses
of ruins." Now these too are gone. " ' The
stones of the temples and palaces of Samaria
have been carefully removed from the rich
soil, thrown together in heaps, built up in
tlie rude walls of terraces, and rolled down
into the valley below." "^ About midway
of the ascent, the hill is surrounded by a nar
row terrace of woodland like a belt. Higher
up too are the marks of slighter terraces,
once occupied perhaps by the streets of the
ancient city." Terrace-cultivation has suc
ceeded to the terraced streets once thronged
by the busy, luxurious, sinful, population.
And I will pour down the stones thereof into
the valley, of which it was the crest, andwhich
it now proudly surveyed, God Hiraself
would cause it to be poured down (he uses
the word which he had just used of the
vehemence of the cataract '" ), " " The whole
face of this part of the hill suggests the idea
1 s, Jer, ^ Is, xxviii, 1,
8 Porter, Hdbook, p, 345, < Ib. 344,
6 Rob. ii, 304, 307, " 1 Kings xvi, 24, ' Is, v, 2,
8 " Ootovieus in the 16th, and Von Troilo in the
17th century," Bob, ii, 307, note 1,

Before
CHRISTcir, 768-726,

7 And all the graven
images thereof shall be
beaten to pieces, and all
the "hires thereof shall "Hos, 2, 6, 12.
be burned with the fire,
and all the idols thereof
will I lay desolate : for she

that the buildings of the ancient city had
been thrown down from the brow of the hill.
Ascending to the top, we went round the
whole summit, and found marks of the same
process everywhere."
And I will discover the foundations thereof.
The desolation is entire ; not one stone left
upon another. Yet the very words of threat
ening contain hope. It was to be not a heap
only, but the plantings of a 'vineyard. The
heaps betoken ruin ; the vineyard, fruitfulness
cared for by God. Destroyed, as what it was,
and turned upside down, as a vineyard by
the share, it should become again what God
made it and willed it to be. It should again
become a rich valley, but in outward desola
tion. Its splendid palaces, its idol temples,
its houses of joy, should be but heaps and
ruins, which are cleared away out of a vine
yard, as only choking it. It was built in
rebellion and schism, loose and not held
together, like a heap of stones, having no
cement of love, rent and torn in itself, having
been torn both from God and His worship.
It could be remade only by being wholly
unmade. Then should they who believed be
branches grafted in Him Who said, '^ J am the
Vine, ye are the branches.
7. And all the graven images thereof shall be
beaten to pieces. Its idols in whom she trusts,
so far from protecting her, shall themselves
go into captivity, broken up for the gold and
silver whereof they were made. ' The wars
of the Assyrians being religious wars '^, the
idolatry of Assyria destroyed the idolatry
and idols of Israel.
And all the hires thereof shall be burned iirith
fire. All forsaking of God being spiritual
fornication frora Him Who made His crea
tures for Himself, the hires are all which
raan would gain by that desertion of his God,
employed in man's intercourse with his idols,
whether as bribing his idols to give hira
what are the gifts of God, or as hiraself
bribed by them. For there is no pure ser
vice, save that of the love of God. God
alone can be loved purely, for Himself; offer
ings to Him Alone are the creature's pure
0 Bob, ii, .304, 1" ver. 4,
11 Narrative of Scottish Mission, pp, 293, 4, in Hen
derson. 12 S. John XV, 6,
I 18 See below Introd, to Nahum.

20

MICAH.

Before
CHRIST eir, 758-726.

gathered it of the hire of
an harlot and they shall
return to the hire of an
harlot.

homage to the Creator, going out of itself, not
looking back to itself, not seeking itself, but
stretching forth to Him and seeking Him for
Hiraself. Whatever man gives to or hopes from
his idols, man himself is alike his object in both.
The hire then is, alike what he gives to his idols,
the gold whereof he makes his Baal ', the offerings
which the heathen used to lay up in their
temples, and what, as he thought, he him
self received back. For he gave only earthly
things, in order to receive back things of
earth. He hired their service to him, and
his earthly gains were his hire. It is a
strong mockery in the raouth of God, that
they had these things from their idols. He
speaks to them after their thoughts. Yet it
is true that, although God overrules all,
man does receive from Satan '', the god of this
uorld ^, all which he gains amiss. It is the
price for which he sells his soul and profanes
hiraself. Yet herein were the heathen more
religious than the Christian worldling.
The heathen did offer an ignorant service to
they knew not what. Our idolatry of mam
mon, as being less abstract, is more evident
self-worship, a more visible ignoring and so
a more open dethroning of God, a worship of
a material prosperity, of which we seem our
selves to be the authors, aud to which we
habitually immolate the souls of men, so
habitually that we have ceased to be con
scious of it.
And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate, lit.
make a desolation. They, now thronged by
their worshipers, should be deserted ; their
place and temple, a waste. He thrice repeats
all ; all her graven images, all her hires, all her
idols; aK should be destroyed. He subjoins
a threefold destruction which should over
take them ; so that, while the Assyrian broke
and carried, off the more precious, or burned
what could be burned, and, what could not
be burned, nor was worth transporting, should
be left desolate, all should come to an end.
He sets the whole the more vividly before
the mind, exhibiting to us so many separate
pictures of the mode of destruction.
For from the hire of a harlot she gathered
thera, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.
"*The wealth and raanifold provision which
(as she thought) were gained by fornication
1 See Hos, ii, 8, vol, i, p. 32, ^ s, M.att. iv. 9,
3 2 Oor, iv, 4, * S. Jer. ' Rom, i. 23,
6 Hesiod, "E. K. ' H, 354. L,
I Pindar Isthm, vii. 07, 8, L. 8 Herod, i, 199,
9 vi, 43. 1" Strabo, xvi. 1, 20.

8 Therefore " I will wail
and howl, "Iwill go strip
ped and naked: ''I will
make a wailing like the
Pjob30, 29, Ps, 102, 6,

Before
CHRIST
cir, 758-726.
" Is, 21, 3,
& 22. 4,
Jer, 4, 19,
» Is, 20, 2, 3, 4.

with her idols, shall go to another harlot,
Nineveh ; so that, as they went a whoring in
their own land, they should go to another
land of idols and fornication, the Assyrians,"
They ^ turned their glory into shame, changing
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like unto corruptible man; and so it
should turn to them into sharae. It sprung
out of their shame, and should turn to it
again, " 111 got, ill spent," Evil gain, cursed
in its origin, has the curse of God upon it,
and makes its gainer a curse, and ends ac
cursedly. " Make not ill gains," says even a
Heathen^, "ill gains are equal to losses;"
and another ', " Unlawful sweetness a most
bitter end awaiteth."
Probabl)', the most literal sense is not to
be excluded. The degrading idolatrous cus
tom, related of Babylon and Cyprus', still
continued araong the Babylonians at the date
of the book of Baruch ', and to the Christian
era '". S. Augustine speaks of it as having
existed " among the Phoenicians, and Theo
doret '^ says that it was still practiced by
some in Syria. The existence of the idola
trous custom is presupposed by the prohibi
tion by Moses '^ ; and, in the time of Hosea
self-desecration was an idolatrous rite in
Israel '*. In the day of Judgment, when the
foundation of those who build their house
upon the sand, shall be laid bare, the riches
which they gained unlawfully shall be
burned up ; all the idols, which they set up
instead of God, "'^the vain thoughts, and
useless fancies, and hurtful forms and images
which they picture in their mind, defiling it,
and hindering it from the steadfast contem
plation of divine things, will be punished.
They were the hire of the soul which went
astray from God, and they who conceived
them will, with them, become the prey
again of that infernal host which is unceas
ingly turned from God."
8. Therefore Iwill [woitM^^] wail [properly
beat ", i, e, on the breast], and howl. " Let me
alone," lie would say, " that I may vent my
sorrow in all ways of expressing sorrow, beat
ing on the breast and wailing, using all acts
and sounds of grief" It is as we would say,
" Let me mourn on,'' a mourning inexhaust
ible, because the woe too and the cause of

11 dabant, de Civ. Dei iii, 10. i'-^ on this place.
18 Deut, xxiii, 18. i-s See on Hos. iv. 14, p. 31,
16 Dion. . . ^
16 He thrice repeats the optative n7'7''t<l ntiJDK

CHAPTER I.

21

Before
CHRIST cir. 758-726.

dragons, and mourning as

. the f owls.
f Heb. daughters r. -r-\ i
¦the owl. 9 lor I

9 For 1 1 her wound
.gwJousiysicft incurable; for ''it
'of her wounds. "i 2 Kings 18, 13. Is. 1. 6, 7, 8.

I?fr

grief was unceasing. The Prophet becomes
in words, probably in acts too, an iraage of
his people, doing as they should do hereafter.
He mourns, because and as they would have
to mourn, bearing chastisement, bereft of all
outward comeliness, an example also of re
pentance, since what he did were the chief
outward tokens of mourning.
Iwill [toouW] go stripped [despoiled'] and
naked. He explains the acts, that they
represented no raere voluntary mourning.
Not only would he, representing them, go
bared of all garments of beauty, as we say
" half-naked ' " but despoiled also, the proper
term of those plundered and stripped by an
enemy. He speaks of his doing, what we
know that Isaiah did, by God's command,
representing in act what his people should
thereafter do. "¦' Wouldest thou that I should
weep, thou must thyself grieve the first."
Micah doubtless went about, not speaking
only of grief, but grieving, in the habit of
one mourning and berett of all. He pro
longs in these words the voice of wailing,
choosing unwonted forms of words, to carry
on the sound of grief*.
I wdl make a wailing like the dragons £ jack
als'^ and 'mourning as the owls lostriehes ^J.
The cry of both, as heard at night, is very
piteous. Both are doleful creatures, dwelling
in desert and lonely places, " The ' jackals
raake a lamentable howling noise, so that
travelers unacquainted with them would
think that a company of people, women or
children, were howling, one to another."
1 Barefoot is expressed iu Hebrew by =in^. Since
then Micah does not use the received term for bare
foot, and does use the word expressing " stripped,"
" despoiled," the E. V, is doubtless right, agreeing
with the Latin against the LXX, and Syr.
2 See ou Amos ii, 16, p, 178, n, 6. Seneca says:
" Some things, though not [exactly] true, are com
prised under the same word, for their likeness. So
we call illiterate, one not altogether uuinstructed,
but who has not been advanced to higher knowledge.
So he who has seen one inhabited and in rags, says
that he had seen one * nailed.' " de benef v, 13,
Saneh, SHor, A.P. 102, 3.
^SVb' and noVx carry on the sound of
nS''S''S. hh^W, the textual reading, is doubtless
right, although without example; njVx has .anal
ogy with other words, but, common as the w-ord is,
stands alone in the word itself. Each bears out
the other,
5 The m, which occurs only in the plural D''jn,
is distinct from the rjn, piur, D'rjn, although
they tpueh on each other, in that rjn sing, is
written D'jn, Ezek, xxix, 3, and the poetic plur, of

come unto Judah ; he is ^^ h R°J"a t
come unto the gate of '^'r- 758-726,
my people, even to Jeru
salem.

" Its howl," says an Arabic natural histor
ian •*, " is like the crying of an infant." " We
heard them," says another ^, " through the
night, wandering around the villages, with a
continual, prolonged, mournful cry." The
ostrich, forsaking its young '", is an image of
bereavement. " " As the ostrich forgets her
eggs and leaves them as though they were not
her's, to be trampled by the feet of wild
beasts, so too shall I go childless, spoiled and
naked." Its screech is spoken of by travel

ers as " '^ fearful, affrighting."

Dur

ing the lonesome part of the night they
often make a doleful and piteous noise. I
have often heard them groan, as if they were
in the greatest agonies."
" 1* I will grieve from the heart over those
who perish, mourning for the hardness of the
ungodly, as the Apostle had '^ gi-eat heaviness
and continual sorrow in his heart for his breth
ren, the impenitent and unbelieving Jews.
Again he saith "', wlw is weak and I am not
tcea/i; ? Who is offended, and I burn not ? For
by how much the soul is nobler than the
body, and by how much eternal damnation is
heavier than any temporal punishment, so
much more vehemently should we grieve
and weep for the peril and perpetual damna
tion of souls, than for bodily sickness or any
temporal evil."
9. For her [Samaria's] wound'", [lit. her
wounds, or strokes, (the word is used especially
of those inflicted by God ",) each, one by
one,] is incurable. The idiom is used of
inflictions on the body politic'^ or the
|n, rjri occurs m the text. Lam, iv. 3. The Syr.
(and Chaldee, properly) and Tanehum oftentimes
render it "jackal." Pococke first, of moderns,
brought out this meaning. See his ngte here,
«The nV 1^2 "female ostrich" (the DDnD
probably being the male ostrich) may be so called
from 1^-', (Syr, giMtton, like its Arabic name na'am)
or from its shrill cry, T\2}?.
' PococlvC, who had heard them in Syria, &c.
8 Demiri, m Bochart iii. 12. T, iii, p, 181. ed, Leipz,
" It howls by night only," Id,
oQlearius, Itin, Mosc, et Pers, iv, 17, Boch, Ib,
p, 183,
lojob xxxix. 16, lis, Jer,
12 Sandys' Travels, L, ii, fin,
18 Shaw, Travels, T, ii, p, 349, " Dion,
15 Rom, ix, 1, 1° 2 Cor, xi, 29,
1' The construction of the E, V, is beyond ques
tion preferable that ofthe E, M. It is the common
emphatic idiom, in whieh the plural subject and
singular predicate are joined to express, that the
thing asserted is true not only of all generally but
of each individually,
18 Lev, xxvi, 21, Nu, xi, 33, Deut, xxviii, 69, 61, &c.
i» Nah. iii, uit, Jer. xxx, 12, 15,

22

MICAH.

10 •[[ ' Declare ye it not

Before
C IT R T S T
cir. 758-726, at Gath, weep ye not at all :
'2 Sam. 1, 20,

mind ', for which there is no remedy. The
wounds were very si'c^-, or incurable, not in
themselves or on God's part, but on Israel's.
The day of grace passes away at last, when man
has so steeled himself against grace, as to be
morally dead, having deadened himself to all
capacity of repentance.
For it is come unto Iguite up to '' Judah; he,
[the enemy,] is come [lit. hath reached,
touched,] to \_quite up to^] the gate of my peo
ple, even to \_quite up to ^] Jerusalem. " '' The
same sin, yea, the sarae punishraent for sin,
which overthrew Samaria, shall even come
unto, quite up to Judah. 'Then the Prophet
suddenly changes the gender, and, as Scrip
ture so often does, speaks of the one agent,
the centre and impersonation of the coming
evil, as sweeping on over Judah, quite up to
the gale of his people, quite up to Jerusalem.
He does not say here, whether Jerusalem
would be taken * ; and so, it seems likely
that he speaks of a calamity short of ex
cision. Of Israel's w-ounds only he here says,
that they are ''incurable ; he describes the
wasting of even lesser places near or beyond
Jerusalera, the flight of their inhabitiints.
Of the capital itself he is silent, except that
the enemy reached, touched, struck against it,
quite up to it. Probably, then, he is here de
scribing the first visitation of God, when
^Sennacherib came up against all the fenced
cities of Judah and took thein, but Jerusalem
was spared, God's judgments come step by
step, leaving tirae for repentance. The same
enemy, although not the same king, came
against Jerusalera who had wasted Samaria.
Samaria was probably as strong as Jerusalem.
Hezekiah prayed ; God heard, the Assyrian
army perished by miracle ; Jerusalem was
respited for 124 years.
10. Tetlitnotin Oath. Gath had probably
now ceased to be ; at least, to be of any ac
count^. It shows how David's elegy lived
1 Jer.x, 19, XV, 18. nSn] in Nahum and Jer, xxx,
15, is exactly equivalent to the W\m in Mioah. In
Jer, xxx, 12, •^'t^w'l tyiJS stands parallel with it,
Isaiah (xvii. 11) has tyiJK 3S3,
2 "Ij; in each of the three places, 3 S. Jer,
-1 nj? includes the whole country, quite up to. It
does not necessaril,v include the place, quite up to
whinh it reaches, "it does not, probably, 2 Kings
xviii. 8, See on Am. i, vol, i, p, 245,
t'2 Kings xviii. 13,
6See on Am. vi. 2. vol, i, p, 305,
' ParaUel with Ashkelon,
8 Ps, xxv. 2, 3 Ps. xiii. 10, 10 Ps. Ixxxix. 42, 50,
11 The coujecture of Reland (Pal. p. .5,34) "in Acco
weep not," as if 133 were for 13j;3, is against tlie
Hebrew idiom, and one of the many abuses of
Hebrew parallelism, as if Hebrew writers wore tied
down to exactness of parallelism, and hecause the
Prophet mentions the name of a city in two clauses.

Before

in the house of ||Aphrah ojjjjigT
" roll thyself in the dust. «"•- '58-726.

1 That is, dust. ' Jer, 6. 26.

in the hearts of Judah, that his words are
used as a proverb, (just as we do now, in
whose ears it is yearly read), when, as with
us, its original application was probably lost.
True, Gath, reduced itself, might rejoice the
more maliciously over the suflerings of Ju
dah. But David mentions it as a chief seat
of Philistine strength'; now its strength
was gone.
The blaspheming of the enemies of God
is the sorest part of His chastisements.
Whence David prays ®, let not mine enemies ex
ult over me ; and the sons of Korah, ^Witli a
sword in •my bones, mine enemies reproach me,
while they say daily unto me, where is thy Ood ?
and Ethan i" ; Thou hast made all his enemies to
rejoice. Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy
servant — wherewith Thine enemies have reproached,
0 Lord, wherewith they have reproached tlie
footsteps of Thine anointed. It is hard to
part with horae, with country, to see all de
solate, which oue ever loved. But far, far
above all, is it, if, in the disgrace and deso
lation, God's honor seems to be injured. The
Jewish people was then God's only home on
' earth. If it could be extinguished, -n-lio re
mained to honor Hira ? Victories over them
seemed to their heathen neighbors to be vic
tories over Him. He seeraed to be dishon
ored without, because they had first dishon
ored Him within. Sore is it to the Christian,
to see God's cause hindered. His Idiigdom
narrowed, the Em pire of Infidelity advanced.
Sorer in one way, because he knows the
price of souls, for whom Jesus died. But
the world is now the Church's home. " The
holy Church throughout all the world doth
acknowledge Thee ! " Then, it was girt in
within a few miles of territory, and sad in
deed it must have been to the Prophet, to see
this too hemmed in. TeU it not in Oath, to
the sons of those who, of old, defied God.
Weep not at all [lit. weeping ", weep not'].
he must in the third. The Prophet never would
have used one of the commonest idioms in HelDrew
the emphatic use of the Inf Abs. with the finite
verb, unless he had meant it to be understood, as
any one must understand the three Hebrew words,
133n 7X 13n. The sacred writers wrote to be
understood. It is contrary to all principles of lan
guage, not to take a plain idiom iu its plain sense.
The "Versa. "Vulg. Aq, Symm, so render it. The
LXX, (from a reading in whioh, oi 'Ej-aiceiV or oi er
'Axei'ji, Kelaud made his oi iv 'Axol) is full of blun
ders. They render also ^33i^ as if it were lJ3n,
ii-oiKroSojxerxe; n'33, ej oImu ; ^^\'^•i'i}h Ki>.ra.yi\uira..
The ^ is but seldom omitted in Hebrew, (Of the
instances given by Gesenius, p, 976, ^3 for bj.'^ is
the Chaldee name of the idol; ''J for ''y'2, uncer
tain, at most; in'7 for inj?'? (Ps, xxvii, 8) wrong.
There remains then in, Hebrew, only the single

CHAPTEE I.

23

Before
CHRIST eir, 768-726,

11 Pass ye away, ||thou
t inhabitant of Saphir,
B Or, thou that ', . , i . i i i
dwellest fairly, havmg thy shame naked :
r^s.' '" * ' " the inhabitant of 11 Zaanan

' Is, 20. 4, & 47,

, 3, Jer, 13, 22, Nah. 3. 6,
II Or, the country of flocks.

Weeping is the stillest expression of grief.
We speak of " weeping in silence." Yet this
also was too visible a token of grief. Their
weeping would be the joy and laughter of
God's enemies.
In tlie house of Aphrah, [probably, In Beth-
leaphrah'] roll thyself in the dust [better, as the
text, / roll myself in d«si']. The Prophet
chose unusual names, such as would associate
themselves with the meanings which he
wished to convey, so that thenceforth the
name itself might recall the prophecy. As
if we were to say, " In Ashe I roll myself in
ashes." — There was an Aphrah near Jerusa
lem^. It ismore likely that Micah should
refer to this, than to the Ophrah in Benja
min^. He shewed them, in his own person,
how they should raourn, retired out of sight
and hidden, as it were, in the dust. " '' What
ever grief your heart may have, let your
face have no tears ; go not forth, but, in the
house of dust, sprinkle thyself with the ashes
of its ruins."
All the places thenceforth spoken of were in
Judah, whose sorrow and desolation are re
peated in all. It is one varied history of sor
row. The names of her cities, whether iu
themselves called from some gifts of God, as
Shaphir, (beautiful; we have i^as'rford, Fair-
field, jFm'rburn, i^air light,) or contrariwise
from some defect, Maroth, Bitterness (probably
from brackish water) Achzib, lying, (doubt
less frora a winter-torrent -which in sumraer
failed) suggest, either in contrast or by them-
pronunciation of Amos Hptyj for n>?ptyj viii, 8,
See ab, p, 210, Robinson observes, " The Semitic
letter ^ in particular, so unpronounceable by other
nations, has a remarkable tenacitj^. Of the very
many Hebrew names, containing this letter, which
still survive in Arabic, our lists exhibit only two or
three in which it has been dropped ; and perhaps
none in which it has been exchanged for another
letter." (i. 256, n, 2.) His only instances are Jib
for Gibeon (where the whole syllable has been
dropped) i, 456 ; Jelbon for Gilboa (ii. 316) ; Yafa for
Yaphia Josh, xix, 12, (doubtful) ii, 342 ; and Endor
(which I doubt) ii, 360. Anyhow they are but three
names, in which, in the transfer into another
tliough cognate language, ^ has been dropped at
the end, and one at the beginning of a word, none
in the middle. In fact alio Aeco (Acre) was proba
bly never in the possession of Israel. It is only
mentioned in the Old Testament, to say that
Asher did not drive out its inhabitants (Judg. i. 31).
This interpretation whieh has become popular, 1)
violates the Hebrew idiom; 2) implies a very
improbable omission of a " tenacious letter;" 3) is
historically unnatural, in that the Prophet would
thus forbid Judah to weep in a city where there
were none even of Israel, Yet of late, it has been

came not forth in the
mourning of 1 1 Beth-ezel ; _
he shall receive of you his
standing.

Before
CHRIST
cir. 758-726.
I Or, a place
near.

selves, some note of evil and woe. It is Ju
dah's history in all, given in different traits ;
her " beauty " turned into sharae ; herself
free neither to go forth nor to " abide ; "
looking for good and finding evil ; the strong
(Lachish) strong only to flee ; like a brook
that fails and deceives ; her inheritance
(Mareshah) inherited ; herself, taking refuge
in dens and caves of the earth, yet even
there found, and bereft of her glory. Whence,
in the end, without naming Judah, the Pro
phet sums up her sorrows with one call to
mourning. 11. Pass ye away [lit. Pass thou (fem.) away
to or for yourselves^, disregarded by God and
despised by man] pass the bounds of your
land into captivity, thou inhabitant of Sha
phir, having thy shame naked, [better, in naked
ness, and shame *] , Shaphir [/a ir] was a
village in Judah, between Eleutheropolis and
Ashkelon '. There are still, in the Shephe
lah, two villages called Sawafir *. It, once
fair, should now go forth in the disgrace and
dishonor with which captives were led away.
The inhabitants of Zaanan came not forth.
Zaanan (abounding in fiocks) was probably the
same as Zenan of Judah, which lay in the
Shephelah ". It, which formerly went forth'"'
in pastoral gladness with the multitude of its
flocks, shall now shrink into itself for fear.
The mourning of Beth-Ezel [lit. house of
root, firmly rooted] shall take from you its
standing ". It too cannot help itself, much
less be a stay to others. They who have
followed by Hitz, Maur, Umbreit, Ewald, thought
probable by Gesenius and Winer, and adopted even
by Dr, Henderson. ,
1 The Kethib ''ilti'73nn is, as usual, to be pre
ferred to the correction, the Kri, ^lillSPiT].
2 R. Tanehum of Jerusalem, here,
8 Josh, xviii. 23, 1 Sam, xiii 17. .
4S. Jer, Rup, ^ DD7 '13;;.
6 The construction, nty^ ri'lj;, is like nU.J'
pl^ meekness, righteousness, Ps, xiv, 5, r\W^ is the
quality, sftame, 7 Onom,
8 Scholz, Rei.oen, p. 255, Robinson, ii, 34, says,
" There are three villages of this name near each
other," " There is vet a village Suaphir, two hours
S. E. of Ashdod." Schwartz (of Jerusalem) Das Heil.
Land, p, 87. "a Sapheria one hour N, W, of Lod,"
[Lydda] (Ib, p, 105.)
9 Josh, XV, 27, coll, 33, "There is a village Zana-
bra, 1, hour S, E, of Moresha," Schwartz, 74.
10 [KV, whence JJNX, is itself probably con
nected with XV,
11 1 have preferred the division of the Syr. and
'Vulg. because, if joined as in the E. 'V. the last
clause has no definite subject, and there is no allu
sion to the meaning of Beth haezel.

24

MICAH.

chbTst 12 For the inhabitant of
— "••¦ ''¦^"'  Maroth || waited carefully
t Ox, was grieved, {or good : but" evil came
"AmoaS. 6. 1 „ IT
down from the Lord unto
the gate of Jerusalem.
13 O thou inhabitant of

been wont to go forth in fullness, shall not
go forth then, and they who abide, strong
though they be, shall not furnish an abiding
place, Neither in going out nor in reraain-
ing, shall anything be secure then.
12. For the inhabitant of Maroth [^bitternes.s]
waited carefully for good. She waited carefully '
for the good which God gives, not for the
Good which God is. She looked, longed for,
good, as men do ; but therewith her longing
ended. She longed for it, araid her own
evil, whieh brought God's judgments upon
her. Maroth is raentioned here only in Holy
Scripture, and has not been identified. It
too was probably selected for its meaning.
The inhabitant of bitternesses, she, to whom bitter
nesses, or, it may be, rebellions ^, were as the
home in which she dwelt, which ever encir
cled her, in which she reposed, wherein she
spent her life, waited for good ! Strange con
tradiction! yet a contradiction, which _the
whole un-Christian world is continually en
acting ; nay, frora which Christians have
often to be awakened, to look for good to
themselves, nay, to pray for temporal good,
while living in bitternesses, bitter ways, dis
pleasing to God, The words are calculated
to be a religious proverb, " Living in sin,"
as we say, dwelling in bitternesses, site looked for
good ! Bitternesses ! for it is ' an evil thing and
bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy Ood,
and that My fear is not in thee.
But ^For] evil came down from the Lord unto
the gate of Jerusalem. It carae, like the brim
stone and fire which God rained upon Sodom
and Gomorrah, but as yet to the gate of Jeru
salem, not upon itself "''Evil came down
upon them from the Lord, i. c. /was grieved,
I chastened, / brought the Assyrian upon
them, and from My anger came this affliction
1 7in is used in the sense of 1T\^, Gen, viii. 10,
and in Hif Jud, iii, 25, in Pil, Job xxvi, 16, and in
Hithpal, Ps, xxxvii, 7, Here too it has the con
struction of 7n'' with 7, as it has in Job xxvi, and
as it lias not in the sense of the E. M. " was grieved."
Such an idiom as ^)tDl 7ln, "to be in pain for
(lost) good," does not occur in Hebrew, and would
be equivocal, since the idiom is used for " longed
for (expected) good." 7in also, "grieved," occurs
only Jer, v. 3. Used of the "writhing" of the
birth-pangs, it is joined with no preposition ; in the
sense " feared," it is joined only with tlie ""JD 7D,
JD, ''J30i of the object of fear,
' 2 D'rna from ^I'^D occurs Jer, 1, 2L
8Jer. ii. 19, -iS. Cyr. , 8 3_ii,
« from the Arab, The bilitterai root "I7 seems to

" Lachish, bind the chariot
to the swift beast : she is
the beginning of the sin to
the daughter of Zion : for
the transgressions of Israel
were found in thee.

Before
CHRIST cir, 750,
»2 Kings 18,
14, 17.

upon them. But it was reraoved. My Hand
prevailing and marvelously rescuing those
who worshiped My Majesty. Forthe trouble
shall come to ihe gate. But we know that
Eabshakeh, with many horsemen, came to
Jerusalem and ail-but touched the gates.
But he took it not. For in one night the
Assyrian was consumed." The two Jar's are
seemingly co-ordinate, and assign the reasons
of the foreannounced evils*, on man's part
and on God's. On man's, in that he looked for
what could not so come, good: on God's, in
that evil, which alone could be looked for,
which, araid man's evil, could alone be good
for raan, carae from Hira. Losing the true
Good, raan lost all other good, and dwelling
iu the bitterness of sin and provocation, he
dwelt indeed in bitterness of trouble.
0 thou inhabitant of Lachish, hind the chariot
to the swift beast [steed.] Lachish was always
a strong city, as its name probably denoted,
(probably " compact V) It was one of the
royal cities of the Amorites, and its king one
of the five, who went out to battle with
Joshua '. It lay in the low country, Shep
helah, of Judah '*, between Adoraira and
Azekali", 7 Roman miles S, of Eleuther
opolis '", and so, probably, close to the hill-
country, although on the plain ; partaking
perhaps of the advantages of both, Eeho
boam fortified it, Amaziah fled to it from
the conspiracy at Jerusalem ", as a place of
strength. It, with Azekah, alone reraained,
when Nebuchadnezzar had taken the rest,
just before the capture of Jerusalera''-'.
'When Sennacherib took all the defenced cities
of Judah, it seeras to have been his last and
proudest conquest, for frora it he sent his
contemptuous message to Hezekiah '-''. The
whole power of the great king seems to have
have been an onomato-poet. In Arabic the sense
of "striking" occurs in 13*7, VDh, ]}Jl, DdV,
P^, N3b, ^3*7, nob, 13'?. Thence the idea of
parts " impinging on one another," " cleaving close
to," in K3^, 113^, ijl, [griping, 13^7,] o'?;
" cleaving close together," " compact," in "[^h, ^3'?,
13'7. These senses account for all the Arabic
words, beginning with l'7. The only Hebrew roots,
so beginning, are 137, took, and ij;''3'7,
' .Tosh, X. 3, 8 lb, XV. 33. 39, » 2 Chr. xi, 9.
10 Onom, u 2 Kgs xiv, 19,
12 Jer. xxxiv. 7. 18 Is. xxxvi, 1, 2,

CHAPTEE I.

25

14 Therefore shalt thou

Before
CHRIST °i''- 7°o- ^ give presents 1 1 to More-
J 2 Sam, 8, 2.
2 Kings 18,
14, 16, 16.

sheth-gath :
I Or, /or.

the houses

been called forth to take this stronghold.
The Assyrian bas-reliefs, the record of the
conquests of Sennacherib, if (as the accom
panying inscription is deciphered), they rep
resent the taking of Lachish, exhibit it as
" ' a city of great extent and importance, de
fended by double walls with battlements and
towers, and by fortified out-works. In no other
sculptures were so many armed warriors
drawn up in array against a besieged city.
Against the fortifications had been thrown up
as many as ten banks or mounts compactly
built, — and seven battering-rams had already
been rolled up against the walls." Its situa
tion, on the extremity probably of the plain,
fitted it for a d^p6t of cavalry. The swift
steeds ^, to which it was bidden to bind the
chariot, are mentioned as part of the magnifi
cence of Solomon, as distinct from his ordi
nary horses ^- They were used by the posts
of the king of Persia ¦*, They were doubt
less part of the strength of the kings of
Judah, the cavalry in which their statesmen
trusted, instead of God. Now, its swift
horses in which it prided itself should avail
but to flee. Probably, it is an ideal picture.
Lachish is bidden to bind its chariots to
horses of the utmost speed, which should
carry them far away, if their strength were
equal to their swiftness. It had great need ;
for it was subjected under Sennacherib to the
consequences of Assyrian conquest. If the
Assyrian accounts relate to its capture, im
palement and flaying alive ^ were among the
tortures of the captive-people ; and awfully
did Sennacherib, in his pride, avenge the
sins against God Whora he disbelieved.
She is the beginning of the sin to tlie daughter
of Zion. ""She was at the gate through
which the transgressions of Israel flooded
Judah." How she came first to apostatise
and to be the infectress of Judah, Scripture
does not tell us '. She scarcely bordered on
Philistia; Jerusalem lay between her and
Israel. But the course of sin follows no
geogr.aphical lines. It was the greater sin
to Lachish that she, locally so far reraoved
1 Layard, Nin, and Bab, p, 149.
2 The Jil^'y was undoubtedly a swift horse, proba
bly from its rapid striking of the earth, (Arab.)
The word is used of riding horses iu Syr. Chald.
Talm. Nasor. see Ges. " horses of good breed and
young," R, Jonah in Kim. Ib.
81 Kgs iv, 28, Eng, (v, 8, Heb)
i Esther viii. 10, 14.
5 Layard, Ib. and 150,
e S, Jer.
' Rosenm, and others from him, by mistalce,
attribute it to a supposed situation ol Lachish,
"lying on the frontier of" Israel; whereas it was

of II ^Achzib shall
a lie to the kings of
Israel.

7,f, Before
""^ CHRIST cir, 750,

That is, a lie.
Josh, 15. 44,

from Israel's sin, was the first to import into
Judah the idolatries of Israel, Scripture
does not say, what seduced Lachish herself,
whether the pride of military strength, or
her importance, or commercial intercourse,
for her s««/i! steeds, with Egypt, the common
parent of Israel's and her sin. Scripture
does not give the genealogy of her sin, but
stamps her as the heresiarch of Judah,
We know the fact from this place only, that
she, apparently so removed frora the occasion
of sin, became, like the propagators of heresy,
the authoress of evil, the cause of countless
loss of souls. Beginning of sin to — , what a
world of evil lies in the three ^ words !
14, Thei-efore shalt thou give [bridai] presents
to Moresheth Oath. Therefore ! since Judah
had so become a partaker of Israel's sins, she
had broken the covenant, whereby God had
given her the land of the Heathen, and she
should part with it to aliens. The bridal
presents, lit, the dismissals, -were the dowry"
with which the father .sent away '" his daugh
ter, to belong to another, her lord " or hus
band, never raore to return, Moresheth, [lit,
inheritance,] the inheritance which God gave her,
was to be parted with ; she was to be laden '^
with gifts to the enemy. Judah should p.art
with her, and her own treasure also.
The houses of Achzib sltall be a lie. Achzib,
so called probably frora a winter brook (achzab)
was to becorae what its name imported, a re
source which should fail just in the time of
need, as the winter brooks in the drought of
sumraer. ^^ Wilt Thou be unto me as a failing
brook, waters which are not sure ? This Achzib,
which is recounted between Keilah and
Mareshah ''', was probably one of the oldest
towns of Palestine, being mentioned in the
history of the Patriarch Judah '^ After hay
ing survived about 1000 years, it should, in
time of need, fail. The kings of Israel are
here the kings of Judah. When this prophecy
was to be accomplished, the ten tribes would
have ceased to have any political existence,
the remnant in their own land would have
no head to look to, except the line of David,
part of the chain of fortified cities furthest removed
from Israel on the S, W, 8 ^ riNBH n'ty«l,
9 1 Kgs ix, 16, 1" Jud, xii. 9, " ^^2.
12 nj ntyilD hy WTshlil ut- "brldal presents
on Moresheth Gath." Hitzig thinks that in fltyiTO
there is an allusion to nK'INO, "espoused;" but
this would be a contradictory image, since the
bridal-presents were given in espousing, not to one
already espoused, and they were to be given not to
Gath but to the invader,
13 Jer, XV. 18, " Josh, xv, 44.
15 in the unlengthened form 3''t3 Gen, xxxviii. o.

26

MICAH.

cStTsT 15 Yet will I bring
cir. 7.5H. an heir unto thee, O
* Josh 15 44
IIOr,f/ie5fiorj/o/inhabitant of

Israel shall , ,
come, t&c. Slian :

^Mare-
I h e shall come

whose good kings had a care for them.
Micah then, having prophesied the utter de
struction of Saraaria, speaks in accordance
with the state of things which he foresaw and
foretold '.
15. Yet will I bring an heir [the heir '', hira
whom God had appointed to be the heir, Sen
nacherib] unto tliee, 0 inhabitant of Mareshah.
Maresliah, (as the original form of its narae
denotes'*,) lay on the sumrait of a hill. " Its
ruins only were still Seen," in the time of
Eusebius and S, Jerome, " in the second mile
from Eleutheropolis*." "^Foundations still
reni<ain on the south-eastern part of the re
markable Tell, south of Beth-Jibrin," Eeho
boam fortified it also ^ Zerah the jEthiopian
had come to' it, probably to besiege it, when
Asa raet him, and Ood smote the Ethiopians
before him, in the valley of Zephathah thereat.
In the wars of the Maccabees, it was in the
hands of the Edoraites**, Its capture and
that of Adora are mentioned " as the last act
of the war, before the Edoraites submitted to
John Hyrcanus, and were incorporated in
Israel, It was a powerful city '", when the
Parthians took it. As Micah writes the name,
it looked nearer to the word " inheritance ","
Maresh'ih {inheritance) shall yet have the heir
of God's appointment, the enemy. It shall
not inherit the land, as proraised to the faith
ful, but shall itself be inherited, its people
dispossessed. While it, (and so also the soul
now) holdfast to God, they were the heritage
of the Lord, by His gifts and grace ; when, of
their own free-will, those, once God's herit
age, become slaves of sin, they passed and
still pass, against their will, into the posses
sion of another master, the Assyrian or Satan.
He [i. e, the heir, the enemy] shall come
unio Adullam, the glory of Israel^'^ ; i, e, he who
shall dispossess Mareshah, shcdl come quite unto
Adullam, where, as in a place of safety, the
glory qf Israel, all in which she gloried, should
be laid up, Adullam was a very ancient
city, being mentioned in the history of the
patriarch Judah '^, a royal city'*. It too
lay in the iShephelah '^ ; it was said to be
10'^ or 12" miles East of Eleutheropolis;
1 See ab. Introd, p. 5. 2 K'TH.
8ntyNTD (from tySl) Jos. XV, 44, -lOnom,
8 Rob. ii. 07, 8. « 2 Chr. xi. 8. ' Ib. xiv. 9. .sqq,
8 Jos. Ant. xii. 8. 6, » Ib, xin. 9, 1, i» Ib, xiv, 13. 9.
'i.nti/TO like riii'lin, in the Ohrou. it is spelled
a'^ in Micah.
12 The Eng, Marg. has, in the same general sense,
unto Adullam. shall come the glory of Israel.
18 Gen. xxxviii, 1.12. 20. i* Jos. xii. 15.
15 Ib. XV. 36, i» Ens, " S, Jer, is 2 Chr. xi, 7.

unto "Adullam the glory c^^j(°[|t
of Israel. ™' '•'''»-

16 Make thee "bald, ojobi,'2o,' ''
and poll thee for thy ''deli- & 22, 12'.
¦1 Lam, 4. 5, Jer, 7, 29. & 16, 6. & 47, 5, & 48, 37,

but for this, there seems to be scarcely place
in the Shephelah. It was one of the 1.5
cities fortified by Eehoboam '* ; one of the 16
towns, in which (with their dependent vil
lages) Judah settled after the captivity ''. It
contained the whole army of Judas Mac-
eabaeus '-". Like Lachish, it had probably the
double advantages of the neighborhood of
the hills and of the plain, seated perhaps at
the roots of the hills, since near it doubtless
was the large cave of Adullam named frora it.
The line of caves, fit for human habitation,
which extended frora Eleutheropolis to
Petra ^', began Westward of it. "''' The
valley which runs up from Eleutheropolis
Eastward, is full of large caves ; some would
hold thousands of men. They are very ex
tensive, and some of thera had evidently been
inhabited." " ''^ The outer charaher of one
cavern was 270 feet long by 120 wide ; and
behind this were recesses 'and galleries,
probably leading to other charabers which
we could not explore. The massive roof was
supported by misshaped pieces of the native
limestone left for that purpose, and at sorae
places was domed quite through to the sur
face, admitting both light and air by the
roof." The name of Adullam suggested the
memory of that cave, the refuge of the Patri
arch David, the first of their line of kings, in
extreme isolation and peril of his life.
Thither, the refuge now of the remaining
glory of Israel, its wealth, its trust, its boast, —
the foe should corae. And so there only re
mained oue common dirge for all,
16, Make thee bald, poll [lit, shear''^'] thee
for thy delicate children. Some special ways
of cutting the hair were forbidden to the
Israelites, as being idolatrous customs, such
as the rounding the hair in front, cutting it
away from the temples'*, or between the
eyes '^- All shearing of the hair was not for
bidden'"; indeed to the Nazarite it was com
raanded, at the close of his vow. The re
moval of that chief ornaraent of the counte
nance was a natural expression of grief, which
revolts at all personal appearance. It be
longed, not to idolatry, but to nature'''. Thy
1" Neh, xi. .30. » Maoc. xii, 38.
21 see S. Jer. ab, p. 2.35.
22 Rev. G, Williams, MS. letter,
28 see on Am. viii, 10, vol, i. p.-327.
21 Lev, xix. 27. against Arab idolatry. See Herod,
iii, 8. 25 Deut. xiv, 1. 20 as Hitzig says,
27 See Job i, 20, early Greece, (11, 23, 46,135 sqq,
Aleestis 42ii. non-Egyp"tian nations, (Ilerod. ii, 36,)
Persians, (Ib, ix, 24/) Scythians, (Ib, iv, 71,) Thessa-
lians, Macedonians (Plut, Peiop, 34,)

CHAPTER I.

27

c H rTs t ^^^^ cliildren ; enlarge thy
 ^'^- ^^^- baldness as the eagle ; for

ddicaie children. The change was the more
bitter for those tended and brought up deli
cately. Moses from tlie first spake of special
miseries which should fall on the tender and
very delicate. Enlarge thy baldness ; outdo in
grief'what others do; for the cause of thy
grief is more than that of others. The point
of comparison in the Eagle might either be
the actual baldness of the head, or its moult
ing. If it were the baldness of the head, the
word translated eagle ^, although mostly used
of the Eagle itself, might here comprehend
the Vulture '^. For entire baldness is so
marked a feature in the vulture, whereas the
"bald-headed. Eagle" was probably not a bird
of Palestine ^. On the other hand, David,
who lived so long among the rocks of Pales
tine, and Isaiah seem to have known of efiects

1 The etymology, (Arab, nasara " tore with the
beak,") belongs rather to the eagle with its sharp,
than to the vulture with its long, piercing beak.
(The Kamoos, Freytag's authority for rendering
nasr vulture, only says " a bird," adding that it is
the name of "the constellation," i.e. Aquila. In
Ulug Begh Tab. Stell. 40, 50. the okab and the nasr
both occur as names of the constellation. Kazvvini
in Ideler [Sternkunde p. 385] says that the 'okab is
three stars of the form of the flying nasr.) Leo Afr.
[Descr. Afr. ix. 56.] says that "the largest species of
eagle is called Nesir." 2) Unless nes/ter be the golden
Eagle, there is no Hebrew name for it, whereas it
is still a bird of Palestine, and smaller eagles are
mentioned in the same verse, Lev. xi. 13; viz. the
ossifrage, 0~\*i, and the black eagle, n^JTJ^, so called
from its strength, like the Valeria, of which Pliny
says, "the melanagtos or Valeria, least in size,
remarkable for strength, blackish in color." x. 3.
The same list of unclean birds contains also the
vulture^ rCl, Deut. xiv. 13, (as it must be, being a
gregarious bird. Is. xxxiv. 15.) in its different
species; (Deut. ib.) the gier-caqle, (i.e. Geyer) [vui-
,ture] eagle, gypaetos, or vultur perenopterus, (Has-
selquist, Forskal, Shaw, Bruce in Savigny p. 77.)
partaking of the character of both, (Qni Dev. xi.
18. Deut. xiv. 17.) together with the falcon (riXI
Lev. xi. 14.) and hawk, with its subordinate species,
Onj'D'7 rj) Lev. xi. 18. Deut. xiv. 15.
2 In this case, ncsher, being a name taken from a
quality common to birds of prey, might at once be
a generic term, corresponding to the modern terra,
(aves) rapaces, and might also designate what all
account the king of birds. Its Greek name aero?
is doubtless the Hebrew, t3^^, (Bochart ii. 2. p. 170.)
a generic name for birds of prey. The Gypaetos
forms a link between the vulture and the eagle.
Seeing the prey afar, lofty flight out of human
sight, strength of pinion, building nests in the
rocks, attributed in H. Scr. to the nesker, belong
also to the vulture. The feeding on dead bodies
belongs especially to the vulture, although affirmed
of eagles also if the body be not decayed. The
Arabic nasr seems to comprise the vulture also.
See in Boch. ii. 27. T. iii. p. 79 sqq. Leip'z. Savigny
says, "Nisr is a generic name which has always
been translated Aquila, but now the people and
Arabic naturalists use it to designate the great vul
ture." (Descr. de I'Eg. i. 73.) and of 'Okab, "'Okab
is a generic name, but it becomes specific for the
small black eagle which, properly speaking, is the
'Okab." (Ib. 85.)
3 "The only 'bald-headed Eagle' Is an American

Before

tliey are gone into captivity ^ jj j^ ^ s t
from thee. <^^^'- ^^o.

of moulting upon the Eagle in producing,
(although in a less degree thun in other
birds,) a temporary diminution of strength,
which have not in modern times been com
monly observed. For David says*. Thou shalt
renew, like the eagle, thy youth, which speaks of
fresh strength after temporary weakness ; and
Isaiah ^, They that trust in the Lord shall put
forth ^ fresh strength ; they shall put forth pin ion-
feathers ' like eagles, comparing tJie fresh
strength which should succeed to that which
was gone, to the eagle's recovering its strong
pinion-feathers. Bochart however says un
hesitatingly, "^ At the beginning of spring,
the rapacious birds are subject to shedding of
their feathers which we call moulting." If
this be so, the comparison is yet more vivid,
For the baldness of the vulture belongs to
rather than an European species. Though it is not
exclusively of the new world, it is yet rarely seen
in the old, and then chiefly m the Northern lati
tudes." Dr. RoUeston, MS. letter, who kindly
guided me to the modern authorities quoted
above. *Ps. ciii. 5. 6x1.31.
^T\D 13''7n\ ^7n to succeed to (as in Arab.
whence Chaliph) is used of the fresh shoots of
grass, (Ps. xc. 5, 6.) of the stump of a felled tree, put
ting forth fresh suckers, Job xiv. 7. then, causa-
tively, of the putting forth fresh strength, in contrast
with the exhaustion and utter stumbling of the
young and strong. In Arab. conj. iv. one of'its many
special meanings is "put forth fresh feathers " after
moulting. ^ Bochart ii. 1. T. ii. p. 745. So the LXX irrepoifiv^-
tTovcTLv. S. Jer. assument pennas. So also Syr.
Saad. ri/^n is used of bringing flesh on the
bones, (Ez. xxxvii. 6.) putting on the figures of
Cherubim on the veil, (2 Chr. iii. 14.) gold on a

.shield, (1 Kgs x. 17.) dress, 2 Sam. i. 24. Am. viii. 10.
The E. v. (lit. "they shall ascend a pinion [i. e. with
a pinion] like eagles,") would not be too bold, but

for the correspondence of Ps. ciii. 5. The word
"13i<, rendered wings E. V., is, in Ezek. xvii. 3, dis
tinguished from the wing itself and the plumage ; ^s
is Hint? Job xxxix. 13. In Ps. Ixviii. 14. nn35«
must be the pinion-feathers, not the pinions; and
so n"lDi< in Ps. xci. 4. In Job xxxix. 2ii, the de-
nom. 135<' might mean the same, (Boch. Ib.) the
first hemistich describing the acquiring the new
feathers, the 2d the emigration ofthe hawks. The
radical meaning of "lljk'is strength.
8 Bochart, Hieroz. ii. 1. p. 744, 5. The Kamoos
quotes, among the 10 characteristics of the A'nook,
(the Rachma, Heb. on"^), "It flies in the time of
shedding its feathers and is not imperilled in its
young plumage, &c." Boch. ii. 26. T. iii. p. 57. De
metrius Const, in his 'lepaKoo-o-'/t. gives remedies for
making fresh feathers put forth fast,»(c. 17.) and
grow quick, (c. 18.) and against diseases in moulting,
(c. 32.) showing that birds of prey are liable to the
same law as other birds. (See Buffon, Hist. Nat. 1.
44, 5. CO, 70.) Cuvier says, "In certain states of
moulting, you see in the plumage [of the royal
eagle] the white at the base of the feathers. It is
then called Falco Canadensis." (R6gne Animal.)
To this Grey adds, that the names Melanaetos and
Mogilnik (in Gmelin) only describe it wiien moult
ing. (Cuvier Anim. Kingd. vi. 33.) So then the
change at moulting is so great, that the royal eagle,
when moulting, has been thought to be four differ
ent species.

28

MICAH.

Before
CHRIST eir. Y30.

CHAPTEE II.
1 Against oppression. 4 A lam
entation. 7 A reproof of in
justice and idolatry. 12 A
promise of restoring Jacob.

its matured strength, and could only be an
external likeness. The moulting of the eagle
involves some degree of weakness, with which
he compares Judah's mournful and weak con
dition amid the loss of their children, gone
into captivity '.
Thus closes the first general portion of the
prophecy. The people had cast aside its
own Glory, God ; now its sons, its pride and
its trust, shall go away from it.
" '' The eagle, laying aside its old feathers
and taking new, is a symbol of penitence and
of the penitents who lay aside their former
evil habits, and become other and new men.
True, but rare form of penitence ! " S.
Gregory the Great thus applies this to the
siege of Eome by the Lombards. '" ' That
happened to her which we know to have
been foretold of Judea by the Prophet, en
large thy baldness like the eagle. For baldness
befalls man in the head only, but the eagle
in its whole body ; for, when it is very old,
its feathers and pinions fall from all its body.
She lost her feathers, who lost her people.
Her pinions too fell out, with which she was
wont to fly to the prey ; for all her mighty
men, through whom s)ie plundered others,
perished. But this which we speak of, the
breaking to pieces of the city of Eome, we
know has been done in all the cities of the
world. Some were desolated by pestilence,
others devoured by the sword, others racked
by famine, others swallowed by earthquakes.
Despise we them with our whole heart, at
least, when bi-ought to nought ; at least with
the end of the world, let us end our eager
ness after the world. Follow we, wherein
we can, the deeds of the good." One whose
commentaries S. Jerome had read, thus ap
plies this verse to the whole human race.
" O soul of man ! O city, once the mother of
saints, whieh wast formerly in Paradise, and
didst enjoy the delights of different trees, and
wast adorned most beautifully, now being
cast down from thy place aloft, and brought
down unto Babylon, and come into a place of
captivitj', and having lost thy glory, make
thee b.ald and take the habit of a penitent ;
and thou who didst fly aloft like an eagle,
mourn thy sons, thy offspring, which frora
thee is led captive."
1 In Greek also the loss of wealth by pillage is
compared to moulting, not in Aristoph. Av. 284-6.
only, hut in Philostratus,
wealth," p. 273.

¦^OE to them " tliat de- ^ l^fore ^
vise iniquity, and  ''''^- ^^°- 

^ work evil upon their « iios. i. e.
. . !> Ps 36 4.
beds! when the morning is
light, they practise it, be-

'he moults as to the

2 Lap.
4 Dion.

8 in Ezek. Horn. 18, fin. L.
6Bup. Kib.

Chap. II. The Prophet had declared that
evil should come down on Samaria and Je
rusalem for their sins. He had pronounced
them sinners against God ; lie now speaks of
their hard unlovingness toward man, as our
Blessed Lord in the Gospel speaks of sins
against Himself in His members, as the
ground of the condemnation of the wicked.
The time of warning is past. He speaks as
in the person of the Judge, declaring the
righteous judgments of God, pronouncing
sentence on the hardened, but blessing on
those who follow Christ. The sins thus vis
ited were done with a high hand ; first, with
forethouglit :
1. 1! oe, all woe, woe from God ; " * the
woe of temporal captivity ; and, unless ye re
pent, the woe of eternal damnation, hangeth
over you." Woe io them that devise iniquity.
They devise it, " ^ they are not led into it by
others, but invent it out of their own hearts."
They plot and forecast and fulfill it even in
thought, before it comes to act. And work
evil upon their beds. Thoughts and imagina
tions of evil are works of the soul ^ Upon
their beds'', which ought to be the place of
holy thought, and of communing with their
own hearts and with God*. Stillness must
be filled with thought, good or bad ; if not
with good, then with bad. The chamber, if not
the sanctuary of holy thoughts, is filled with
unholy purposes and imaginations. Man's
last and first thoughts, if not of good, are es
pecially of vanity and evil. The Psalmist
says ", Lord, have I n/)t remembered Thee in my
bed, and thought upon Thee when I was waking ?
These men thought of sin on tlieir bed, and
did it on waking. When the morning is light,
lit. in the light of the morning, i. e. instantly,
shamelessly, not shrinking from the light of
day, not ignorantly, but knowingly, deliber
ately, in full light. Nor again through in-
firmitj', but in the wantonness of might, be
cause it is in the power of their hand '", as, of old,
God said '', This they begin to do, and now noth
ing will be restrained from them which they have
imagined, to do. " " Impiously mighty, and
mi"hty in impiety."
" See the need of the daily prayer, " Vouch
safe, O Lord, to keep us this day without
sin ; " and " Almighty God, Who hast brought
6 Ps. Iviii. 2. ? See Ps. x.xxTi. 4.
s Ib. iv. 4. 9 Ixiii. 6.
10 This phrase can have no other meaning, Gen.
xxxi. 29. Prov. iii. 2Y ; nor the corresponding phrase
with the negative, Deut. xxviii. 32, Neh. v. 5.
11 Gen. xi. 6. 12 Eup. is from lap.

CHAPTEE II.

29

c H R°i s T c^^ss "it is ill *ii^ power of
cir. 7.30. their hand.

= Gen. 31. 29.
¦1 Isai. 5. 8.

2 And they covet ^fields,
and take them by violence ;
and houses, and take them
Ox, -defraud, away : so they 1 1 oppress a

us to the beginning of this day, defend us in
the same by Thy mighty power, that we may
fall into no sin, &c." The illusions of the
night, if such be permitted, have no power
against the prayer of the morning.
2. -And they covet fields and take them
by violence, \_rend them awayl and houses, a'nd
take them away. Still, first they sin in heart,
then in act. And yet, with them, to covet
and to rob, to desire and to take, are the
same. They were prompt, instantaneous,
without a scruple, in violence. So soon as
they coveted, they took ^. Desired, acquired !
Coveted, robbed ! " They saw, they coveted,
they took," had been their past history. They
did violence, not to one only, but, touched
with no mercy, to whole families, their little
ones also ; they oppressed a man and his house.
They spoiled not goods only, but life, a man
and his inhei-itance ; destroying him by false
accusations or violence and so seizing upon
his inheritance'^. Thus Ahab first coveted
Kaboth's vineyard, then, through Jezebel,
slew him ; and " ' they who devoured widow's
houses, did at the last plot by night against
Him of Whom they said. Come, let us kill Him,
and the inheritance shall be ou?s ; and in the
morning, they pract'iced it, leading Him away
to Pilate." ^ Who of 'us desires not the
villas of this world, forgetful of the posses
sions of Paradise ? You see men join field
to field, and fence to fence. Whole places
suffice not to the tiny frame of one man."
" ° Such is the fire of concupiscence, raging
within, that, as those seized by burning
fevere cannot rest, no bed suffices them, so no
houses or fields content these. Yet no more
than seven feet of earth will suffice them
soon. ^ Death only owns, how small the
frame of man."
3. Such had been their habitual doings.
They had done all this, he says, as one con
tinuous act, up to that time. They were
habitually devisers of iniquity, doers of eviV.
It was ever-renewed. By night they sinned
in heart and tliought ; by day, in act. And
so he speaks of it in the present. They do
it^. But, although renewed in fresh acts, it
was one unbroken course of acting. And so
1 The force of iSiJl nan.
2 Comp. the woes, Is. v. 7. on oppression ; 8 covetous
ness.

3 Theoph.
ojuv. Sat.x. 172, 3.

4S. Jer. 6 Rib.
1^^^ ¦'hifS, px utyn.

man and his house, even a ^ h eTI t
man and his heritage. '^i''- '?3o.
3 Therefore thus saith
the Lord ; Behold, against
" this family do I devise an "Jer. 8. 3.
evil, from which ye shall

he also uses the form, in which the ITebrews
spoke of uninterrupted habits. They have cov
eted, they have robbed, they have taken ^. Now
came God's part.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, since they op
press whole families, behold I will set Myself
against this whole family '" ; since they devise
iniquity, behold I too, IMyself, by Myself, in
My own Person, am devising. "Very awful
is it, that Almighty God sets His own Infin
ite Wisdom against the devices of man and
employs it fittingly to punish. " I am devis
ing no common punishment, but one to bow
them down without escape; an evil from which
— He turn.s suddenly to them, ye shall not re
move your necks, •neither shall ye go haughtily. "
"^ Pride then was the source of that bound
less covetousness," since it was pride which
was to be bowed down in punishment. The
punishment is proportioned to the sin. They
had done all this in pride ; they should have
the liberty and self-will wherein they had
wantoned, tamed or taken from them. Like
animals with a heavy yoke upon them, they
should live in disgraced slavery. The ten
tribes were never able to iititlidraw their necks
from the yoke. From the two tribes God re
moved it after the 70 years. But the same
sins against the love of God and man brought
on the same punishment. Our Lord again
spake the. woe against their covetousness '^.
It still shut them out from the service of God,
or from receiving Him, their Eedeemer.
They still spoiled the goods ^'^ of their breth
ren. In the last dreadful siege, "^^ there
were insatiable longings for plunder, search
ing-out of the houses of the rich ; murder of
men and insults of women were enacted as
sports ; they drank down what they had
spoiled, with blood." And so the prophecy
was for the third time fulfilled. They who
withdraw from Christ's easy yoke of obedi
ence shall not remove from the yoke of pun
ishment ; they who, through pride, will not
bow down their necks, but make them stifi',
shall be bent low, that they go not upright or
haughtily any more. ^* The Lord alone shall be
exalted in that Day. For it is an evil time.
Perhaps he gives a more special meaning to
sniiy;^'. "ixtyj iSu nnn.
10 as in Am. iii. 1. vol. i. p. 270.
11 S. Luke xvi. 13, 14. xi. 39. S. Matt, xxiii. 14, 23,
26. S. Mark xii. 40.
12 Heb. X. 34.
IS Jos. B. J. iT. 9. 10. add v. 1. " Is. ii. 11.

30

MICAH.

cheTst ^1°* remove your necks;
eir. 730.

f Amos 5. 13.
Eph. 6. 16.

. neither shall ye go haught
ily : ' for this time is evil.
4 ^In that day shall
jHab. 2. 6. one ^take up a parable
' 2 Sam. 1. 17. . r-r
fEeb.witha agamst VOU, and '' lament
lamentation of .
lamentations, J With a doleiul lamenta-

the words of Amos ^, that a time of moral evil
will be, or will end in, u, time, full oievil, i. e.
of sorest calamity.
4. In that day shall one take up a parable
agai'nst you. The mashul or likeness may, in
itself, be any speech in which one thing is
likened to another ; 1) " figured speech, " 2)
" proverb," and, since such proverbs were
often sharp sayings against others, 3) " taunt
ing figurative speech." But of the person
himself it is always said, he is made, becomes a
proverb *. To take up or utter such a speech
against one, is, elsewhere, followed by the
speech itself; '^ Thou shalt take up this parable
against theking of Babylon, and say, &e. * Shall
not all these take up a parable against him, and
say, &c. Although then the name of the
Jews has passed into a proverb of reproach *,
this is not contained here. The parable here
must be the same as the doleful lamentation, or
dirge, which follows. No mockeiy is more
cutting or fiendish, than to rep3at in jest
words by which oue bemoans himself. The
dirge which Israel should use of themselves
in sorrow, the enemy shall take up in de
rision, as Satan does doubtless the self-con
demnation of the damned. "^Men do any
evil, undergo any peril, to avoid shame.
God brings before us that deepest and eternal
shame," the shame and everlasting contempt, in
presence of Himself and angels and devils
and the good ', that we may avoid shame by
avoiding evil.
And kiment with a doleful lamentation. The
words in Hebrew are varied inilections of a
word imitating the sounds of woe. It is the
voice of woe in all languages, because the
voice of nature. Shall wail a wail of woe^, It
is the funeral dirge over the dead ', or of the
living doomed to die '" ; it is sometimes the
1 V. 13.
2 Deut. xxviii. 37. 1 Kings ix. 7. 2 Chr. vii. 20. Ps.
xliv. 15. Ixix. 12. Jer. xxiv. 9. Ezek. xiv. 8.
s Is. xiv. 4. 4 Hab. ii. 6. 5 jer. 1. c.
•Eib. 'Ps. Iii. 6,7, Is. 1 xvi. 24.
*n'nj TIJ nnj from the sounds, 'in passim,
in in Am. V. 16. ¦'n Ezek. ii. 10. nn, i. q- nnX Ezek.
xxx. 2.
» Jer. xxxi. 15. lo Ez. xxxii. 18.
11 Am. V. 16. Jer. ix. 17, 19.
12 1 Sam. vii. 2. Jer. ix. 18.
s n'jrs Piirst s. V. , "mjtnid.
15 There is no plea for separating n^nj in the
sense, "it has been," like "fuit Ilium." Bj-- itself
n''nj would rather be, "it came to pass." "HOX
also, which follows, explains what the proverb and

tion, aiid say, We be utter- ^ h r7 s t
ly spoiled: 'he hath.

cir. 7.30.

changed the portion of my ' oh. i. is,
people : how hath he re
moved it from me ! 1 1 turn
ing away he hath divided
our fields.

Or, instead of
restoring.

measured mourning of those employed to call
forth sorrow '', or mourning generally ^''.
Araong such elegies, are still Zion-songs '',
(elegies over the ruin of Zion,) and mourn
ings for the dead '*. The word woe is thrice '^
repeated in Hebrew, in different forms, ac
cording to that solemn way, in which the
extr.emest good or evil is spoken of; the
threefold blessing, morning and evening,
with the thrice-repeated name of God '^,
impressing upon them the mystery which
developed itself, as the Divinity of the
Messiah and the personal agency of the Holy
Spirit were unfolded to them. The dirge
which follows is purposely in abrupt brief
words, as those in trouble speak, with scarce
breath for utterance. First, in two words.
with perhaps a softened inflection ", they
express the utterness of their desolation.
Then, in a threefold sentence, each clause
consisting of three short words, they say what
God had done, but name Him not, because
they are angry with Him. God's chastise
ments irritate those whom they do not
subdue '*.
The portion of my people He changeth ;
How removeth He (it) as to me /
To a rebel ^' our fields He divideth.
They act the patriot. They, the rich, mourn
over " the portion of my people " (they say)
which they had themselves despoiled : they
speak, (as men do,) as if things were what
they ought to be : they hold to the theory
and ignore the facts. As if, because God had
divided it to His people, therefore it so re
mained! as if, because the poor were in
theory and by God's law provided for, they
were so in fact ! Then they are enraged at
God's dealings. He removeth the portion as
to me; and to whom giveth He our fields?
dirge is, as in Isaiah and Habakkuk. The single
word H'nj, actum est, is no dirge. The feminine
and masculine togetlier make up a whole as in Is.
iii. 1 ; or it might stand as a superlative, as in the
Eng. Marg.
i« Num. vi. 24-26.
iMJliVJ nnB' The ¦• for the 'l repeating the
sound 00.
18 See ab. on Am. vi. 10. p. 207.
1° nUDlti', " backsliding," occurs Jer. xxxi, 22. and,
of Ammon, xlix. 4. This rendering is favored by
the contrast between the '''7 and the 22)lilh, and
gives an adequate meaning to the S in the ^^IK^S;
whereas, as part of the infinitive, it is superfluous,
and unusual as superfluous.

CHAPTEE II.

31

Before
CH E IST
cir. 730.

k Deut. 32. 8, 9.

5 Therefore thou
have none that shall

shalt
'cast

To a rebel ! the Assyrian, or the Chaldee.
They had deprived the poor of their portion
of the Lord's land^. And now they marvel
that God resumes the possession of His own,
and requires from them, not the fourfold 2
only of their spoil, but His whole heritage.
Well might Assyrian or Chaldee, as they did,
jeer at the word, renegade. They had not for
saken their gods ; — but Israel, what was its
whole history but a turning back ? ' Hath a
nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods?
But My people have changed their glory for that
which doth not profit.
Such was the meaning in their lips. The
word divideth had the more bitterness, because
it was the reversal of that first division at the
entrance into Canaan. Then, with the use of
this same word '', the division of the land of
the heathen was appointed to them. Ezekiel,
in his great symbolic vision, afterward pro
phesied the restoration of Israel, with the
use of this same term^. Joel spoke of the
parting of their land, under this same term,
as a sin of the heathen ^. Now, they say,
God divideth our fields, not to us, but to the
Heathen, whose lands He gave us. It was a
change of act : in impenitence, they think it
a change of purpose or will. But what lies
in that, toe be utterly despoiled? Despoiled of
everything ; of what they felt, temporal
things ; and of what they did not feel,
spiritual things. Despoiled of the land of
promise, the good things of this life, but also
of the Presence of (xod in His Temple, the
grace of the Lord, the image of God and
everlastin.g glory. Their portion was changed,
as to themselves and with others. As to
theraselves, riches, honor, pleasure, their
own land, were changed into want, disgrace,
sufiering, captivity; and yet more bitter was
it to see others gain what they by their own
fault had forfeited. As time went on, and
their transgression deepened, the exchange of
the portion of that former people of God be
came more complete. The casting-ofF of the
Jev/s was the grafting-in of the Gentiles.
''Seeing ye judge yourselves unworthy of ever
lasting Ufe, la ! we turn to the Oeniiles. And so
they who were ^ no people, became the people
of Ood, and they who were His people,
became, for the time, ^ not My people : and '"'
tlie adoption of sons, and the glory, and the' cove
nants, and the lawgiving, and the service of God,
and the promises, came to us Gentiles, since to
1 See on Hos. ix. 3. vol. i. p. 88.
2 Ex. xxii. 1. 2 Sam. xii. 6. S. Luke xix. 8.
sjer. ii. 11.
*Num. xxvi. 53, 55, 6. Josh. xiii. 7. xiv. 5. xviii. 2,
5, 10. xix. 51. 6 xlvii. 21. 8 iv. 2. [iii. 3. Eng.]
' Acts xiii. 46. » Eom. i. 19. » Hos. 1. 9.

a cord by lot in the congre
gation of the Lord.

Before
CH EIST
eir. 730.

us Christ Himself our Ood blessed for ever
came, and made us His.
How hath He removed. The words do not
say what He removed. They thought of
His gifts, the words include Hiraself". They
say How ! in amazement. The change is
so great and bitter, it cannot be said. Time,
yea eternity cannot utter it. He hath divided
our fields. The land was but the outward
symbol of the inward heritage. Unjust
gain, kept back, is restored with usury ; " it
taketh away the life of the cnvners thereof. The
vineyard whereof the .Tews said, the inheri
tance shall be ours, was taken from them and
given to others, even to Christians. So now
is that awful change begun, when Christians,
leaving God, their only unchanging Good,
turn to earthly vanities, and, for the grace of
God which He withdraws, have these only
for their fleeting portion, until it shall be
finally exchanged in the Day of Judgment.
^^Son, remember that thou inthylifetimereeeivedst
thy good things, a'nd likewise Lazarus evil things.;
but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.
Israel defended himself in impenitence and
self-righteousness. He was already the
Pharisee. The doom of such was hopeless.
The prophet breaks in with a renewed.
Therefore. He had already prophesied that
they should lose the lands which they had
unjustly gotten, the land which they -had
profaned. He had described it in their own
impenitent words. .Now on the impenitence
he pronounces the judgment which im
penitence entails, that iliey should not be
restored 5. Therefoi'C thou shalt have none that shall
cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord.
Thou, in the first instance, is the impenitent
Jew of that day. God liad promised by
Hosea " to restore Judah ; shortly after, the
Prophet himself foretells it'°. Now he fore
warns these and such as these, that they
would have no portion in it. 'They had ^°
neither part nor lot 'in this matter. They, the
not-Israel then, were the images and en
samples of the not-Israel afterward, those
who seem to be God's people and are not;
members of the body, not of the soul of the
Church ; who have a sort of faith, but have
not love. Such was afterward the Israel
after the fiesh, which was broken off, while the
true Israel was restored, passing out of them
selves into Christ. Such, at the end, shall be
10 Eom. ix. 4, 5.
11 ty'P'' is mostly transitive ; it was intransitive ii.
3, and is so (if not Kal) Prov. xvii. 13.
12 Prov. i. 19. IS S. Luke xvi. 25.
1* See on Hos. v. 11. vol. i. p. 60.
i6ii. 12. 18 Acts viii. 21.

32

MICAH.

cheTIt 6 lit 'Prophesy ye not,
cir. 730. gg^y fj^gy fg thcm thttt proph-

II Or, Prophesy
not as they

esy : they shall not jarophe-
ilieii'.'Srop, ic. sy to them, that they shall
Ezek. 21. 2. , J 1 1
1 Isai, 30, 10, not take shame.
&7, iu,"" "' 1 ^ O thou that art

those, who, being admitted by Christ into
their portion, renounce the world in word not
in deed. Such shall have " ' no portion for
ever in the congregation of the Lord. For ''
nothing defiled shall enter there, nor whatsoever
worketh abomination or a lie, but they which are
written in the Lamb's book of life."
The ground of their condemnation is their
resistance to light and known truth. These
not only ' entered not in, themselves, but,
being hinderers of God's word, tliem that were
entering in, they hindered.
6, Prophesy ye not, say they to them that
prophesy ; tliey shall not prophesy to them, that
they shall not take shame. The words are very
emphatic in Hebrew, from their briefness.
Prophesy not ; they shall indeed prophesy ; they
shall not prophesy to these ; shame shall 'net
depart ¦*. The people, the false prophets, the
politicians, forbade God and Micah to pro
phesy ; Prophesy not. God, by Micah, recites
their prohibition to themselves, and fore
warns thera of the consequences.
Prophesy ye not, lit, drop not. Amaziah
and the God-opposing party had already
gi vfen an ungodly meaning to the word ^ " Drop
not," " distill not," thus unceasingly, these
sarae words, ever warning, ever telling of
" lamentation and mourning and woe ; prophesy
ing not good, concerning us, but evil'. So their
descendants commanded, the Apostles" not to
speak at all or to teach in the Name of Jesus.
^ Did we not straitly command you, that ye
should not teach in this Name ? i" This man
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against
this holy place and the law. (iod answers ;
They shall certainly prophesy. The Hebrew
Avord is emphatic ^'. The Prophets had their
coramission from God, and Hira they must
obey, whether Israel ^^ would hear or whether
they would forbear. So must Micah and
Isaiah " now, or Jeremiah ", Ezekiel, and
the rest afterward. They shall not prophesy
to these. He does not say only. They shall not
prophesy to them, but, to these; i. e. they shall
prophesy to others who would receive their
words : God's word would not be stayed ;
they who would hearken shall never be de-
1 Rib. 2 Rev. xxi. 27, s s. Luke xi. 52.
*Poc. gives this distribution of the words from
.Vbulwalid V. flOJ,
5 See on .\m. vii. 16, vol. i. p. 322.
8 Ezek, ii, 10. ' 1 Kings xxii, 18,
s Acts iv, 18, v. 40. 9 Ib. V. 28. 1» Ib. vi. 13.
11 tl3'D'. 12 Ezek. ii. 6. 7. is .xxviii. 9-14. 22.

named the house of Jacob, ^ h ilTs t
is the spirit of the Lord "Ji'- 73o.
II straitened? are these hia \\0x, shortened f
doings? do not my words
do good to him that walk
eth "I" uprightly ? fHeb. upright?

prived of their portion ; but to these who de
spise, they shall not prophesy. It shall be all
one, as though .they did not prophesy ; the
soft rain shall not bedew them. The barn-
floor shall be dry, while the fleece is moist '^.
So God says by Isaiah 1" ; IwiUalsocommandthe
clouds that they rain no rain upon it. The dew
of God's word shall be transferred to others.
But so shame [lit. shames ", manifold shame,]
shall not depart, but shall rest upon them for
ever. God would have turned away the
shame from them ; but the)', despising His
warnings, drew it to themselves. It was the
natural fruit of their doings ; it was in its
natural home with them. God spake to
them, that they might be freed from it.
They silenced His Prophets ; deiifened them
selves to Plis words ; so it departed not. So
our Lord says ^*, Xoiv ye say, we see ; therefore
your sin remaineth ; and S. John Baptist '",
The wrath of Ood abideth on him. It hath not
now first to come. It is not some new thing
to be avoided, turned aside. The sinner has
but to remain as he is ; the sharae encom-
passeth him already; and only departeth not.
The wrath of God is already upon hira, and
abideth on him.
7. 0 tlwu that art named the house of Jaeob ;
as Isaiah says '*, Hear ye this, 0 house of Jacob,
which arc called by the 'name of Israel — which
make mention of the God of Israel, not in truth,
nor in righteousness. For they call themsehes of
the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of
Israel. They boasted of what convicted
them of faithlessness. They relied on being
what in spirit they had ceased to be, what in
deeds they denied, children of a believing
forefather. It is the same temper which we
see raore at large in their descendants ; ^' We
be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to
any man; how sayest Thau, ye shall be made
free ? ^^ Abraham is our Father. It is the same
which 8. John Baptist and our Lord and S.
Paul reproved, ^s fhink not to say within
yourselves, we have Abraham to onr father. ''*If
ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the
works of Abraliam. Kow ye seek to kill Me, a
Man that hath told you the truth — This did not
" i, 7, 17, xxvi, 10-15, 15 Judg, vi, 37.
18 Is, V, 6,
i'niD7Z) as nii>ltJ'', omnigense salutes, mani
fold salvation.
i«S, ,Tohn ix, 41, 1103.111.36, 20xlviii, 1.
21 .S, John viii. 33, 22 lb, 39,
23 S, Matt, iii, 9, 2* S, John viii, 39, 40,

CHAPTEE IL

33

Before
CHEIST cir. 730,

8 Even f of late my pec- ,
pie is risen up as an enemy :
lieb^ov^^^^-ye pull off the robe t with
against a garment.

Abraham. ^ He is not a Jew which is one out
wardly, neither is that circumcision which is out
ward in the flesh. — Behold thou art called a Jew,
and restest in the law a'nd makest thy boast of
Ood, and knowest His Will and approvest tlie
things that are more excellent — &c. The Pro
phet answers the unexpressed objections of
those who forbade to prophesy evil. " Such
could not be of God," these said ; " for God
was pledged by His promises to the house of
Jacob. It would imply change in God, if Pie
were to cast oS those whora He had chosen."
Micah answers ; " not God is changed, but
you." God's promise was to Jacob, not to
those who were but 'named. Jacob, who called
themselves after the name of their father,
but did not his deeds. The Spirit of tlie Lord
was not straitened '', so that He was less long-
suffering than heretofore. Tliese, which He
threatened and of which they complained,
were not His doings, not what He of His own
Nature did, not what He loved to do, not
His, as the Author or Cause of them, but
theirs. God is Good, but to those who can
receive good, the upright in heart^. God is
only Loving unto Israel. He is all Love ;
nothing but * Love : all His ways are Love ;
but it follows, unto what Israel, the true
Israel, the pure of heart. '' All the paths of the
Lord are mercy a'nd truth ; but to whom ? unto
such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
^ The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
everlasting; 'bat unto them that fear Him. But,
they becoming evil. His good became to them
evil. Light, wholesome and gladdening to the
healthful, hurts weak eyes. That which is
straight cannot suit or fit with the crooked.
Amend your crookedness, and God's ways
will be straight to you. Do not My words do
good? He doth speak ' good words and comfort
able words. They are not only good, but do
good. ^His word is with power. Still it is
1 Bom, ii, 17-28,
2ni"1 "IXp, (as in part Zech, xi. 8,) as opposed to
D13X ^^X (Ex, xxxiv. 6. &c, longanimis, longsuf
fering,) and i. q, D'SK llf p Prov. xx. 17, coll, 29,
3 Ps, 1 xxiii, 1, * The force of "^X,
6 Ps, xxv, 10. • Ps. ciii, 17, S, Luke i, 50,
' Zech, i, 13. 8 S. Luke iv. 32. » Jer. vi. 14.
10 Eom. xi. 22.
11 binnS is i. q. SlDHX, in Is. xxx. 33.
12 S. Jer,
IS DDlp', in Isaiah (xliv, 26, Iviii. 12. Ixi. 4.) transi
tive, but only of the raising up, rebuilding of ruins.
The use of DDl p actively in that one sense is no
ground for taking it so, where the idea is different.
To raise up an adversary is expressed by ?'pn
3

the garment from them ch^^t
that pass by securely as__2i£iJlL_
men averse from war.

with those who walk uprightly; whether
those who forsake not, or those who return
to, the way of righteousness. God flattereth
not, deceiveth not, proraiseth not what Pie
will not do. He cannot ^ speak peace where
there is no peace. As He saith, ^^ Behold tlie
goodness and severity of Ood; on them which
fell, severity, but toward thee, goodness, if thou
continue in His goodness. God Himself could
not make a heaven for the proud or envious.
Heaven would be to them a hell.
8. Fven of late [lit. yesterday ^^.'] ""'He
imputeth not past sins, but those recent and,
as it were, of yesterday." My people is risen
up vehemently i^. God upbraideth them ten
derly by the title. Mine own people, as S, John
complaineth '*, He came unto His oivn, and His
own received Him not. God became not their
enemy, but they arose as one man, — is risen
up, the whole of it, as His. In Him they
might have had peace and joy and assured
gladness, but they arose in rebellion against
Him, requiting Him evil for good, (as bad
Christians do to Christ,) and brought war
upon their own heads. This they did by
their sins against their brethren. Casting off
the love of man, they alienated themselves
from the love of God.
Ye pull off [strip off violently ''] the robe 'with
the garment, lit. over against the cloak. The
salmah " is' the large enveloping cloak, which
was worn loosely over the other dress, and
served by night for a covering ". Eder ^^,
translated robe, is probably not any one gar
ment, but the remaining dress, the comely,
becoraing i', array of the person. These they
stripped violently off from persons, peaceable,
unoflending, ofi' their guard, passing by se
curely, men averse from war^" and strife. These
they stripped of their raiment by day, leav
ing them half-naked, and of their covering
for the night. So making war against God's
Mic, v, 4, Am, vi. 14, 1 Kings xi. 14, and so raising
up evil also.
" i. 11,
16 nt3Ey£3n, This is intensive, as in Arabic,
"nnSty here and Ex. xxii. 8. i. q, n'7nty, else
where, XI Deut, xxii. 17.
IS lix occurs here only. There is no ground to
identify it with the well-known HTIX, It is not
likely that the common garment should have been
called, this once, by a different name ; nor that the
IT^IX, a wide enfolding garment, (see on Jonah iii,
6. vol. i. p. 416,) should have been worn together
with the nnSty.
10 This meaning seems to lie in the root; comp.
<7To\-rt, array, apparel, dress,
20 ''2115' is doubtless an adiective form, distinct
from the participle Uiy, (Is. lix, 20,) like HID Jer.
ii. 21.

34

MICAH.

cheTst ^ "^^^ II women of my
cir, 730, people have ye cast out
from their pleasant houses ;
from their children have

I Or, wives.

peaceful people, they, aa it were, made war
against God.
9. The women of my people have ye cast out
from their pleasant houses, [lit. /rom her pleasant
house,'] each from her home. These were
probably the widows of those whom they had
stripped. Since the houses were their's,
they were widows ; and so their spoilers were
at war with those whom God had committed
to their special love, whom He had declared
the objects of His own tender care, the widows
and the fatherless. The widows they drove
vehemently forth ', as having no portion in the
inheritance which God had given them, as
God had driven out their enemies before
them, each from her pleasant house, the home
where she had lived with her husband and
children in delight and joy.
From [ojf] their [j/oiHifir*] children have ye
taken away My glory. Primarily, the glory,
comeliness, was the fitting apparel which God
had given them ^, and laid upon thera *, and
which these oppressors stripped oJ' frora them.
But it includes all the gifts of God, where
with God would array thera. Instead of the
holy horae of parental care, the children
grew up in want and neglect, away frora all
the ordinances of God, it may be, in a strange
land. For ever. They never repented, never
made restitution ; but so they incurred the
special woe of those who ill-used the unpro
tected, the widow, aud the fatherless. The
words for ever anticipate the punishment.
The punishment is according to the sin.
They never ceased their oppression. They,
with the generation who should come after
them, should be deprived of God's glory, and
cast out of His land forever.
10. Ar'ise ye and depart. Go your way, as
being cast out of God's care and land. It
matters not whither they went. For this is
not your rest. Asye have done, so shall it be
done unto you. As ye cast out the widow
and the fatherless, so shall ye be cast out ; as
iptyijn is doubly intensive, as the intensive
form with the emphatic |, It is the word used of
God's driving out the nations before Israel, (Ex,
Jud, &c.) or of mau being driven out of Paradise,
(Gen. iii. 24,) Hagar being cast out. (Gen, xxi, 10.)
The word itself, by its rough sound, expresses the
more of harshness; and that as opposed to soft
ness, n'Jl JJJD, This is the same word as that ren
dered delicate, i, 16,
8 as Hos. ii, 11, 'JJT I, H, Mich.
4 Ez. xvi, 14. Id, 6 Rev. xiii, 10,
0 Deut, xii, 9, 10, add 1 Kings viii. 66,
' nnUnn Ss, the same word. ^H'jn.

Before
CHEIST cir, 730.

ye taken away my glory
for ever.
10 Arise ye, and depart ;
for this is not your ^ rest : " Deut. 12. 9.

ye gave no rest to those averse from war, so
shall ye have none. ^ He thai leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth
with the rnvo'rd must be killed with the sword.
The land was given to them as a temporary
rest, a symbol and earnest of the everlasting
rest to the obedient. So Moses spake ^, ye
are not as yet come to the rest ' and the inheri
tance -which the Lord your God giveth you. But
when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land
which the Lord your Ood giveth you to inherit,
and when He giveth you rest * from your enemies
round about, so that ye dwell in safety, &c. And
Joshua ^, Remember the word whieh Moses com
manded you, saying. The Lord your Ood giveth
you rest^". But the Psalmist had warned
thera, that, if they hardened their hearts like
their forefathers, they too would n^t enter into
His rest ".
Because it is polluted [lit. because of its pollu
tion'^'] by idolatry, by violence, by unclean
ness. So Moses (using the same word) says,
the land is defiled ^^ by the abominations of the
heathen ; and warns them, tliat the land spue
you not out, when you defile it, as it spued out the
nations whieh were before you. Ezekiel speaks
of that defilement ''', as the ground why God
expelled Israel '*- It shcdl destroy you, even
with a sore [lit. sharp] desti-uetion^^. It is a
sore thing to abuse the creatures of God to
sin, and it is unfit that we should use what
we have abused. Hence Holy Scripture
speaks, as though even the inanimate crea
tion took part with God, made subject to van
ity, not willingly, and could not endure those
who employed it against His Will.
The words. Arise, depart ye, for this is not
your rest, became a sort of sacred proverb,
spoken anew to the soul, whenever it would
find rest out of God. """We are bidden to
think of no rest for ourselves in any things
of the world ; but, as it were, arising from the
dead, to stretch upwards, and walk after the
Lord our God, and say, My soul cleaveth hard
9i,13, i»n''JD,
11 Ps, xcv, 11, comp, "innUD/ Ps, cxxxii, 8,
'nnuD M,
12 as p minted in most accurate copies, without
Metheg, isSDBn Lev. xviii, 27, DDXDD:! 28,
1*1 Ezek, xxxvi, 17,
15 Ezek, xxxvi, IS, add Jer, ii, 7, ,
16 This is the common rendering of 7^n, Others,
with Sal, B, Blel, have understood it of travail-pains,
(Cant, viii, 5, Ps, vii, 15,) but this would have the
opposite sense of bringing forth, re-birth, not of
ejection, (See Is, lxvi.''8,) The sharp bitter pang
would express the pains of travail, not its fruitless-
ness or that theywere cast out any whither, I'ruit-
lessness of travail-pangs is expressed, if intended,
(as in Is, xxvi. 18.) 1? S. Jer.

CHAPTEE IL

35

gheTIt l^ecause it is "polluted, it
eii'- '^^o- shall destroy ijou, even with

"Lev. 18, 25, 28
Jer, 3, 2,
II Or, walk with
the wind, aiid
lie falsely,
» Ezek, 13, 3,

a sore destruction.
11 If a man || ° walking
in the spirit and falsehood
do lie, saying, I will proph-

after Thee. This if we neglect, and will not
hear Him Who saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead; and Christ shall give
thee light, we shall indeed slumber, but shall
be deceived and shall not find rest ; for
where Christ enlighteneth not the risen
soul, what seeraeth to be rest, is trouble."
All rest is wearisome which is not in Thee, O
our God.
11. If a man walking in the spirit and false
hood, lit. in spirit [not My Spirit] and false
hood, i. e. in a lying spirit ; such as they,
whose woe Ezekiel pronounces ^, Woe unto the
foolish prophets who walk after their own spirit
and what they have not seen ' ; prophets out of
their own hearts, who ' prophesied a vision of
falsehood, and a destruction and nothingness * ;
prophesid falsehooel ; yea, prophets of the deceit of
their hearts. These, like the true prophets,
walked in spirit; as Isaiah speaks of walking in
righteousness ^, and Solomon of one walking in
thefrowardness of the mouth ''. Their habitual
converse was in a spirit, but of falsehood. If
such an one do lie, saying, J will prophesy unto
thee ofvjine and strong drink. Man's conscience
must needs have some plea in speaking
falsely of God. The false prophets had to
please the rich men, to embolden them in
their self-indulgence, to tell thera that God
would not punish. They doubtless spoke of
God's temporal promises to His people, the
lund flowing with milk and honey. His promises
of abundant harvest and vintage, and assured
them, that God would not withdraw these,
that He was not so precise about Plis law.
Micah tells them in plain words, what it all
came to ; it was a prophesying of 'wine and
strong drink.
He shall even be the prophet of thispeople, lit.
and shcdl be bedeiving this people. He uses the
same words, which scorners of Israel and
Judah employed in forbidding to prophesy.
They said, drop not ; forbidding God's word
as a wearisome dropping. It wore away their
patience, not their hearts of stone. He tells
them, who might speak to them without
wearying, of whose words they would never
tire, who might do habitually ' what they
1 Ezek, xiii, 3, 2Ib. 2. 17,
s Jer, xiv. 14, IpK? jim, as here Tptyi nil.
4Ib. xxiii. 26. add IpW D"N3J xxvii, 10, 14,
16, or Iptya Jer. xxix. 9. Ipty nioSn 'K3J lb.
xxiii. 32, 1 I I
6xxxiii.is. nms ~7n.

Before
CHEIST cir, 730,

esy unto thee of wine and
of strong drink ; he shall
even be the prophet of this
people. 12 ^p I will surely as- p eh, 4.0,7,
semble, O Jacob, all of

forbade to God, — one who, in the Name of
God, set them at ease in their sensual indul
gences. This is the secret of the success of
everything opposed to God and Christ. Man
wants a God. God has made it a necessity of
our nature to crave after Him, Spiritual,
like natural, hunger, debarred from or loath
ing wholesome food, must be stilled, stified,
with what will appease its gnawings. Our
natural intellect longs for Him ; for it cannot
understand itself without Him, Our rest
lessness longs for Him ; to rest upon. Our
helplessness longs for Him, to escape from
the unbearable pressure of our unknown fu
turity. Our imagination craves for Him ; for,
being made for the Infinite, it cannot be
content with the finite. Aching afiections
long for Him ; for no creature can soothe thera.
Our dissatisfied conscience longs for Him, to
teach it and make it one with itself. But
man does not want to be responsible, nor to
owe duty ; still less to be liable to penalties
for disobeying. The Christian, not the
natural man, longs that his whole being
should tend to God, The natural man
wishes to be well-rid of what sets him
ill at ease, not to belong to God, And
the horrible subtlety of false teaching, in
each age or country, is to meet its own favo
rite requirements, without calling for self-
sacrifice or self-oblation, to give it a god,
such as it would have, such as might content
it, " ^ The people willeth to be deceived, be
it deceived," is a true proverb. Men turn
away their ears from the truth ^ which tliey
dislike ; and so are turned unto fables which
they like. They who receive not the love of the
truth, — believe a lie '". If men will 'not retain
Ood in their knowledge, God giveth them over to
an undisiingu'ishing mind ^^. They who would
not receive our Lord, coming in His Father's
Name, have ever since, as Pie said, received
them who came in their own ^2. Men teach
their teachers how they wish tobe mistaught,
and receive the echo of their wishes as the
Voice of God.
12. Iwill surely assemble, 0 Jaeob, all of thee;
Iwill surely gather the remnant of Israel. God's
T\3 nityp.!? I^m Pr, vl, 12, elsewhere with 3,
' The force of ci'Bn n'H,

s Populus vult decipi, decipiatur,
B2 Tim. iv. 4.
10 2 Thess. ii. 11. 12,

n Eom. i. 28.

12 8, John V. 43,

36

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 730,
1 Jer, 31, 10.

thee ; I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel; I
will put them together ' as
the sheep of Bozrah, as the

mercy on the penitent and believing being
the end of all His threatenings, the mention
of it often bursts in abruptly. Christ is ever
the Hope as the End of prophecy, ever
before the Prophets' mind. 'The earthquake
and fire precede the still small voice of peace
in Him. What seems then sudden to us, is
connected in truth. The Prophet had said ^,
where was not their rest and how they should
be cast forth ; he saith at once how they
should be gathered to their everlasting rest.
He had said, what promises of the false pro
phets would not be fulfilled '. But, despair
being the most deadly enemy of the soul, he
does not take away their false hopes, without
shewing themi the true mercies in store for
them. "-^ Think not," he would say, "that I
am only a prophet of ill. The captivity
foretold will indeed now come, and God's
mercies will also come, although not in the
way, which these speak of." The false
prophets spoke of worldly abundance
ministering to sensuality, and of unbroken
security. He tells of God's mercies, but
after chastisement, to ihe remnant of Israel.
But the restoration is complete, far beyond
their then condition. He had foretold the
desolation of Samaria % the captivity of Ju
dah ^ ; he foretells the restoration of all Jacob,
as one. The images are partly taken (as is
the Prophet's wont,) from that first deliver
ance from Egypt". Then, as the image of
the future growth under persecution, God
multiplied His people exceedingly'; then
* the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of
a cloud to lead them tlie way ; then God brought
them up ^ out of tlie house of bondage^". But
their future prison-house was to be no land
of Goshen. It was to be a captivity and a
dispersion at once, as Hosea had already fore
told ". So he speaks of them emphatically ",
as a great throng, assembling I will assemble,
0 Jaeob, all of thee ; gathering Iwill gather the
remnant of Israel. The word, which is used
ofthe gathering of a flock or its lambs ^', be-

1 ver. 10. 2 ver. 11. sg. Jer.
4 i. 6. 6 i. 16, ii, 4, « Hengst. Christ, i, 499,
I Ex. i. 12, 8 Ib, xiii, 21,
9 Ex, iii, 8, 17, Lev. xi. 45, The people went up.
Bx, xiii, 18, add, xii, 38. i. 10.
10 See below, vi, 4,
11 See on Hos, vi, 11, vol, i, p, 70, ix, 17, p, 97.
12 --^OSS t^DN, \^V>^ f^p- "Is xl. 11, xiii, 14.
14 Deut, xxx, 3, 4. see Neh, i, 9,
15 See below, iv, 6. Ps. cvi. 47. evil. 3. Is. xi, 12,
xliii, 5, liv. 7. Ivi, 8, Zeph, iii, 19, 20, Jer, xxiii, 3,
.xxix, 14. xxxi, 8, 10. xxxii, 37, Ezek xi, 17, xx, .34,
41, xxviii. 25. xxxiv. 13. xxxvii. 21, xxxviii. 8. xxxix,
37. Zech. X. 10.

flock in the midst of their ^ h eTs t
fold: 'they shall ma.ke «!¦'¦ ™-

great noise by reason of > Ezek, 36, 37,
the viultitude of men.

came, from Moses' prophecy", a received
word of the gathering of Israel from the dis
persion ofthe captivity ^^. The return of the
Jews from Babylon was but a faint shadow of
the fulfillment. For, ample as were the terms
of the decrees of Cyrus "" and Artaxerxes ",
and widely as that of Cyrus was diffused 1*,
the restoration was essentially that of Judah,
i, e, Judah, Benjamin and Levi '^ : the towns,
whose inhabitants returned, were those of
Judah and Benjamin ''" ; the towns, to which
they returned, were of the two tribes. It was
not a gathering of all Jaeob; and of the three
tribes who returned, there were but few gath
ered, and they had not even an earthly king,
nor any visible Presence of God. The words
began to be fulfilled in the many 21 tens of
thousands who believed at our Lord's first
Coming ; and all Jacob, that is, all who were
Israelites indeed, the remnant according to the
election of grace''', were gathered within the
one fold of the Church, under One Shepherd.
It shall be fully fulfilled, when, in the end,
the fullness of tlie Gentiles shall come in, and all
Israel shall be saved ''. All Jaeob is the same
as the remnant of Isi-ael, the true Israel which
remains when the false severed itself off; all
the seed-corn, when the chaff was winnowed
away. So then, whereas they were now scat
tered, then, God saith, / will put tliem together
[in one fold] as the sheep of Bozrah, which
abounded in sheep ^*, and was also a strong
city of Edom 2^ ; denoting how believers
should be fenced within the Church, as by a
strong wall, against which the powers of dark
ness should not prevail, and the wolf should
howl around the fold, yet be unable to enter
it, and Edom and the heathen should be
come part of the inheritance of Christ'^", As
a flock inthe midst of their fold, at rest, "2' like
sheep, still and subject to their shepherd's
voice. So shall these, having one faith and
One Spirit, in meekness and simplicity, obey
the one rule of truth. Nor shall it be a
small number ; " for the place where they
IS Ezr, i, 2-4, " vii. 13. is Ib, 1. 1,
1° Ib, i, 5, ii, 1, iv, 1, X, 7, 9, Josephus, who alone
mentions that Ezra sent a copy of Artaxerxes'
letter to him, "to all those of his nation who were
in Media," and that "many of them, taking their
property, came to Babylon, longing for the return
to Jerusalem," adds, "but the whole people of
Israelites fi, e. the great mass] remained where
they were. Ant, xi 5, 2.
20 Ezr, ii, Neh, vii,
22 Eom, xi, 5,
24 Is, xxxiv, 6.
25 See on Am, i, 12, vol, i, p, 25a
2»See on Am, ix, 12, vol, i, p, 33T. ¦ ^Eup.

21 /ivpiaSe? Acts xxi. 20,
23 Ib. xi, 25, 6,

CHAPTEE IL

37

Before
CHEIST cir, 730,

13 The breaker is come
up before them : they have

shall be gathered shall be too narrow to con
tain them, as is said in Isaiah ; Give place io
me, that I may dwell ^.
They shall make great noise (it is the same
word as our hum, "the hum of men,") by
reason of the multitude of men. He explains his
image, as does Ezekiel '', And ye are My fiock,
the flock of My pasture ; mew are ye; I, your
God, saith the Lord Ood: and, ^ As a fiock of
holy things, as the fiock of Jerusalem in her sol
emn feasts ; so shall the waste cities be full of a
fiock of men, and they shall know tliat I am the
Lord. So many shall they be, that " through
out the whole world they shall make a great
and public sound in praising God, filling
Pleaven and the green pastures of Paradise
with a mighty hum of praise ; " as St, John
saw * a great multitude which no man could num
ber, ""with one united voice praising the
Good Shepherd, Who smoothed for them all
rugged places, and evened them by His Own
Steps, Himself the Guide of their way and
the Gate of Paradise, as He saith, I am the
Door; through Whom, bursting through and
going before, being also the Door of the way,
the flock of believers shall break through It.
But this Shepherd is their Lord and King."
Not their King only, but the Lord God ;
so that this, too, bears witness that Christ is
God. 13. The Breaker is come up {gone up) before
them; they have broken up, {broken through^)
and have passed the gate, and have gone forth.
The image is not of conquest, but of deliver
ance. They break through, not to enter in but
to pass through the gate and go forth. The wall
of the city is ordinarily broken through, in
order to make an entrance'', or to secure to
il, conqueror the power of entering in ^ at
any time, or by age and decay ^. But here
the object is expressed, to go forth. Plainly
then they were confined before, as in a prison ;
and the gate of the prison was burst open, to
set thera free. It is then the same image as
when God says by Isaiah '" ; I wUl say to the
North, give up ; and to the South, Hold not back,
or", Oo ye forth of Babylon, Say ye, the Lord
1 xlix. 20. 2 xxxiv. 31. 3 Ib, xxxvi, 38,
4 Eev, vii, 9. 5 Rup,
0 I'lD is to break through, as, enemies surround
ing one, 2 Sam, v, 20, 1 Chr, xiv, 11, break in pieces
so'as to scatter, Ps, Ix, 3, break through or down a
wall, (see references in 30, 31, 33,) and with 2, "burst
upon," of God's inflictions, Ex, xix, 22, 24, 2 Sam,
vi, 8. Ps, cvi, 29, 1 Chr. xiii, 11, xv, 13,
' Ps, Ixxx. 13, Ixxxix, 41, Is, V. 6, Neh, ii, 13.
8 Prov, xxv, 28, 2 Kgs xiv, 13, 2 Chr, xxv. 23,
xxvi. 6.
0 2 Chr. xxxii. 6. lo xliii. 6. " Ib. xlviii, 20,
12 Iii. 11, 12. lX'!;n, as here )HV ; and Q^' J«3Sn"j'7n
corresponding to ?3''J37 njy.

broken up, and have passed
through the gate, and a,re _

Before
CHEIST eir. 730,

hath redeemed His servant Jacob ; or, with the
same reminiscence of God's visible leading
of His people out of Egypt, ^ Depart ye, de
part ye ; for ye shall not go out with haste, nor
yet by flight, for the Lord Ood shall go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your reward ; or
as Hosea describes their restoration '* ; Then
shall ihe children of Jitdah and the children of
Isi'oel be gathered together and appoint themselves
one Head, a'nd they shall go up out of the land '*.
Elsewhere, in Isaiah, the spiritual meaning
of the deliverance from the prison is more
distinctly brought out, as the work of our
Eedeemer ^"- / will give Thee for a covenant of
the people, for a Ught of the Gentiles, io open the
blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the
prison, them that sit in darkness out of thepris-
on-house ; and '^, the Spirit of the Lord Ood is
upon Me, because ihe Lord hath anointed Me
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the open
ing of the prison to them that are bound.
From this passage, the " Breaker-through "
was one of the titles of the Christ, known to
the Jews^', as One Who should he " '"from
below and from above" also; and from it
they believed that " '' captives should come
up from Gehenna, and the Shechinah," or
the Presence of God, " at their head." ""' He
then. Who shall break the way, the King and
Lord Who shall go up before them, shall be
the Good Shepherd, Who puts them together
in the fold. And this He doth when, as He
saith, ^' He putteth forth His own sheep, and He
goeth before them, a'nd the sheep follow Him, for
they know His 'Voice. How doth He go be
fore them but by suffering for thera, leaving
them an example of sufiering, and opening
the entrance of Paradise ? The Good Shep
herd goeth up to the Cross, ''''a'nd is lifted up
from the earth, laying down Plis Life for His
sheep, to draw all mew unto Him. He goeth up,
trampling on death by His resurrection ; He
goeth up above the heaven of heavens, and
sitteth on the Eight Hand of the Father,
opening the way beibre them, so that the
fiock, in their lowliness, may arrive where
the Shepherd went before in His Majesty.
IS i. 11, fii, 2, Heb,)
14 V^Nn |D "h^ in reference to Egypt,, (see on
Hos. i, 11, vol, i, p. 26) as here Hiy.
15 Is, xiii, 6, 7,
10 Is, Ixi, 1, 1' Huls, Theol, Jud, pp, 143, 144,
18 E, Mos, Haddars, in Mart, Pug, Fid, p, 432, It is
interpreted of the Messiah in the Bereshith Eabba,
i 48, f, 47, 2, (Schottg, de Mess, p, 61,) the Echa Eab-
bathi, f, 60, 2, (Ib, p, 69,) the Pesikta Eabbathi, f. 60,
1, (lb, p, 135,) and the Midrash Mishle, ad c, vi, 1,
(Ib, ad loc, p, 212,) So also Jonathan, Eashi, Tan
ehum, Abarbanel m Poc,
19 Quoted by Pearson on the Creed, art, 6, note y,
20 Eup, 21 s, John x, 4. 22 ib, 15, xii. 32.

38

MICAH.

c H eTs t g°^® °^t t)y it : and ^ their
cir. 730. .king shall pass before them,

« Hos. 3. 5.

And when He thus breaketh through and
openeth the road, they also break through and.
pa.ss through the gate and go out by it, by that
Gate, namely, whereof the Psalmist saitli ',
This is ihe Gate of the Lord; the righteous shall
enter into It. What other is this Gate than
that same Passion of Christ, beside which
there is no gate, no way whereby any can
enter into life ? Through that open portal,
which the lance of the soldier made in His
Side when crucified, and there came thereout
Blood and Water, they sliall pass and go through,
even as the children of Israel passed through
the Eed Sea, which divided before them,
when Pharaoh, his chariots and horsemen,
were drowned." '' '' He will be in their
hearts, and will teach and lead them ; He
will shew them the way of Salvation, ^guid
ing their feet into the way of 'peace, and they
shall pass through the strait and narrow gate
wdiich leadeth unto life ; of wdiich it is writ
ten'', Filter ye in at tlie strait gate; because
strait is the gate and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life, and few there be tliat flnd it.
And their King shall pass before than, as He
did, of old, in the figure of the cloud, of which
Moses said ", If Thy Presence go not, carry us
not up hence; and wherein shall it be knoii'n
that I havefound graee in Thy sight, land Thy
people, is it not in that Thou goest up with us ?
and as He then did when iTe passed out of
this world to the Father. And the Lord on
( that is, at) the head of them, as of His army.
" ^ For the Lord is His Name, and He is the
Head, they the members ; He the King,
they the people ; He the Shepherd, they the
sheep of His pasture. And of this passing
through He spake ', By Me if any man enter
ll), he shall be saved, and sliall go in and out etnd
flnd pasture. For a man entereth in, when,
receiving the faith, he becomes a sheep of
this Shepherd, and goeth out, when he closeth
this present life, and then findeth the pastures
of unfading, everlasting life ;"" 2 passing
from this pilgrimage to his home, from faith
to sight, from labor to reward." Again, as
describing the Christian's life here, it speaks
of progress. ""AVhosa shall have entered
in, must not remain in the state wherein he
entered, but must go forth into the pasture ;
so that, in entering in should be the begin
ning, in going forth and finding pasture, the
perfecting of graces. Pie who entereth in, is
contained within the bounds of the world ; he
who goeth forth, goes, as it were, beyond all
1 Ps. c X viii. 20. 2 Dion. s s. Luke i. 79.
4 S. Matt. vii. 13, 14. 5 Ex. xxxiii, 15, 16,
0 Eup. ' S. John X. 9.
8 S. Jer. 1 Ps. xxiii. 1. 10 Is. xiv, 2,
11 Ib, li. 10. 12 Ib. xiv, 2, 3, IS 2 Tim. ii, 3,

' and the Lord on the head
of them.

Before
CHEIST cir, 730,
< Is, 52, 12,

created things, and, counting as nothing all
things seen, shall find pasture above the Heav
ens, and shall feed upon the Word of Ciod,
and say". The Lord is my Shepherd, (and feed
eth me, ) I can lack nothing. But this going
forth can only be through Christ ; as it fol
loweth, and the Lord at the head of them."
Nor, again, is this in itself easy, or done for
us without any effort of our own. All is of
Christ. The words express the closeness of
the relation between the Head and the mem-
ber,? ; and what He, our King and Lord,
doth, they do, because He A\'ho did it for
them, doth it in them. The same words
are used of both, shewing that what they do,
they do by virtue of His Might, treading in
liis steps, walking where He has made the
way plain, and by His Spirit, What they
do, they do, as belonging to Him, He break
eth through, or, rather, in all is the Breaker-
through. They, having broken through, pass
on, because He passeth before them. He will
^^ break in pieces the gates of brass, a'nd cut in
suiiel':r the bars of iron. He breaketh through
whatever would hold us back or oppose us,
all might of sin and death and Satan, as
Moses opened the Eed Sea, for " a way for the
ransomed to pass over ; aud so He saith, ''I
will go before thee, Iwill break in pieces the gates
of brass, and eut in sunder the bars of iron, and
I will give thee the treasures of darkne-is, and hid
den riches of secret plaees. So then Christians,
following Plim, the Captain of their sulvaiion,
strengthened by His grace, must burst the
bars of the flesh and of the world, the chains
and bonds of evil passions and habits, force
themselves through the narrow waj' and nar
row gate, do violence to themselves, '' endure
hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The
title of our Lord, the Breaker-through^''^, and
the saying, they break through, togetlier ex
press the sarae as the New Testament doth
in regard to our being partakers of the suf
ferings of Christ, '* .foint heirs with Ciirint, if
so be tliat we suffer with Him, tliat we may be
also glorified, together. 1^ If we be dead with Him,
we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall
also reign with Him. "Forasmuch then as
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh — arm your
selves Ukewise 'with the same mind.
I'he words raay include also the reraoval
of the souls of the just, who had believed in
Christ before His Coming, into Heaven after
HisEesurrection, and will be fully completed
when, in the end, He shall cause His faithful
i*'l'13. It is from the same word as Pharez,
Judah's son, whose birth was typical. Gen, xxxviii,
29, 16 Eom, viii, 17,
IS 2 Tim. ii, 11, 12, "IPet, iv, 1.

CHAPTEE III.

39

Before
CHEIST cir, 710.

» Jer, 6. 4, 5.

CHAPTEE III.
. 1 The cruelty of the princes. 5
The falsehood of the prophets.
8 The security of them both.
A ND I said, Hear, I pray
you, O heads of Jacob,
and ye princes of the house
of Israel ; " Is it not for
you to know judgment ?
2 Who hate the good,
and love the evil ; who

servants, in body and soul, to enter into the
joy of their Lord.
Chap. III. ver. 1. And I said. God's love
for us is the great incitement, constrainer,
vivifier of His creature's love. Micah had
just spoken of God's love of Israel ; how He
would gather them into one fold under One
Shepherd, guard them, lead them, remove
all diflioulties before them, be Himself their
Head and enable them to follow Him. Pie
turns then to them. These are God's doings ;
this, God has in store for you hereafter.
Even when mercy itself shall require chas
tisement. He doth not cast off forever. The
desolation is but the forerunner of future
mercy. What then do ye ? The Prophet
appeals to them, class by class. There was
one general corruption of every order of men,
through whom Judah could be preserved,
princes^, prophets^, priests'. The salt had
lost its savor ; wherewith could it be seasoned ?
whereby could the decaying mass of the
people be kept from entire corruption ?
Hear, I pray you, 0 heads of Jacob, and ye
princes of the house of Israel. Pie arraigns
thera by the same name, under which He
had first promised mercy. He had first
promised mercy to all Jacob and the remnant
of Israel. So now he upraids the heads of
Jacob, and the princes of the house of Israel, lest
they should deceive themselves. At the
same time he recalls them to the deeds of
their father. Judah had succeeded to the
birthright, forfeited by Eeuben, Simeon and
Levi ; and in Judah all the promises of the
Messiah were laid up. But he was not like
the three great Patriarchs, tlie father of the
faithful, or the meek Isaac, or the much-
tried Jacob. The name then had not the
reminiscences, or force of appeal, contained
in the titles, seed of Abraham, or Isaac, or
Israel. Js it not for you to know judgment ? It is a
1 1-4, 2 5_7 3 11.
4 1'Sp from nVp, "cut, decide," whence CadhL
s The word is the same, Is. i. 10.

pluck off their skin from cheTst
off them, and their flesh __5iIiil!L__
from off their bones ;
3 Who also ""eat the bpa, u. 4.
flesh of my people, and
flay their skin from off
them ; and they break
their bones, and chop them
in pieces, as for the pot,
and "as flesh within the « Ezek. 11. 3, 7.
caldron.

great increase of guilt, when persons neglect
or pervert what it is their special duty and
office to guard ; as when teachers corrupt
doctrine, or preachers give in to a low stand
ard of morals, or judges pervert judgment..
The princes here spoken- of are so named;
from judging, " deciding * " ca-uses. They are-
the same as the rulers, whom Isaiah at the
same time upbraids, as being, from their sins,,
r'ulers of Sodom ^, whose ^ hands were full of
blood. They who do not right, in time cease,
in great measure, to know it. As God with
draws His grace, the mind is darkened and
can no longer see it. So it is said of Eli's
sons, they' were sons of -Belial, they knew
not the Lord; and, * Into a malicious soul Wis
dom shall not enter, nor dwell in a body that is
subject unto sin. Such " ' attain not to know
the judgments of Ood which are a great deep :
and the depth of His justice the evil mind
findeth not." But if men will not know judg
ment by doing it, they shall by suffering it.
2. Who hate the good a'nd love the evil; i. e.
they hate, for its own sake, that which is good,
and love that which is evil. The Prophet is
not here speaking of their hating good men,
or loving evil men, but of their hating goodness
and loving wickedness '". " " It is sin not to
love good ; what guilt to hate it ! it is faulty,
not to flee from evil, what ungodliness to love
it ! " Man, at first, loves and adraires the
good, even while he doth it not ; he hates
the evil, even while he does it, or as soon as
he has done it. But raan cannot bear to be
at strife with his conscience, and so he ends
it, by excusing himself and telling lies to
himself And then, he hates the truth or
good with a bitter hatred, because it disturbs
the darkness of the false peace with which
he would envelop himself. At first, men
love only the pleasure connected with the
evil ; then they make whom they can, evil,
because goodness is a reproach to them : in
6 Ib, 15. ' 1 Sam, ii, 12.
swisd, i, 4, =S, Jer,
i»This appeals from the Kethib n^l.

40

MICAH.

cheTst * Th^'i "sliall tliey cry
"'^- '?i°- unto the Lord, but he will

not hear them : he will

« Ps, 18, 41,
Prov, 1, 28.
Is, 1, 15. even hide his face from
Ezek, 8, 18,
Zech, 7. 13. them at that time, as they

the end, they love evil for its own sake ^.
Heathen morality too distinguished between
the incontinent and the unprincipled^, the
man who sinned under force of temptation,
and the man who had lost the sense of right
and wrong. "''Every one that doeth evil, hateth
the light. Whoso longeth for things unlawful,
hateth the righteousness which rebuketh and
punisheth *."
Who plueh off their skin from off them, and
iheir flesh from off their bones. He had de
scribed the Good Shepherd ; now, in contrast,
he describes those who ought to be " shep
herds of the people," to feed, guard, direct
them, but who were their butchers ; who did
not shear them, but flayed them ; who fed on
them, not fed them. He heaps up their
guilt, act by act. First they flay, i. e. take
away their outer goods ; then they break
their bones in pieces, the most solid parts, on
which the whole frame of their body depends,
to get at the very marrow of their life, and
so feed theraselves upon them. And not
unlike, though still more fearfully, do they
sin, who first remove the skin, as it were, or
outward tender fences of God's graces ; (such
as is modesty, in regard to inward purity ;
outward demeanor, of inward virtue ; out
ward forms, of inward devotion ;) and so break
the strong bones of the sterner virtues, which
hold the whole soul together ; and with them
the whole flesh, or softer graces, becomes one
shapeless mass, shred to pieces and con
sumed. So Ezekiel says*; Woe to the shep
herds of Israel that do feed themselves ; should
not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat
and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that
are fed, ye feed not the flock. The diseased have
ye not strengthened, &c.
4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord. Tlien.
The Prophet looks on to the Day of the Lord,
which is ever before his mind. So the
Psalmist, speaking of a time or place not
expressed, says, ^ There were they in great fear.
He sees it, points to it, as seeing what those
to whom he spoke, saw not, and the more
awfully, because he saw, with super-human
and so with certain vision, what was hid from
iheir eyes. The then was not then, 'in the time
of grace, but when the Day of grace should be
over, and the Day of Judgment should be
1 Eom. i, 32,
2 The d/(paT7)9 and axoAacrTos of Aristotle,
ss, John iii. 20. 4 Dion. 6 xxxiv, 2-4, add 5-10,
ops, Hii, 6. 'xi,ll, sps, xviii, 41, » Prov, xxi, 13,
10 ii, 13. 11 See on Hos. v. 6. vol. i. p. 58.

have behaved themselves chrYIt
ill in their doings. "'''¦ ^i"-
5 ^Thus saith the
Lord " concernina; the • is, 66, lo, ii.
° Ezek, 13, 10.
prophets that make my &22. 25.

come. So of that day, when judgment should
set in, God says in Jeremiah ', Behold I ¦will
bnng evil upon them which they shall not be able
to go forth of, and they will cry unto Me, and I
will not hearken unto them. And David ^, They
cried and there was none to save ; unto the Lord,
and He answered them not. And Solomon ' ;
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he
shall cry himself and shall not be heard. And
St. James '", He shall have judgment without
mercy, that hath shewed no mercy. The prayer
is never too late, until judgment comes ^^ ;
the day of grace is over, when the time of
judgment has arrived. "They shall cry
unto the Lord, and shall not be heard,
because they too ,did not hear those who
asked them, and the Lord shall turn His
Face from them, because they too turned
their face from those who prayed them."
He will even hide His Face. He will not
look in mercy on those who would not receive
His look of grace. Your sins. He says by
Isaiah, have hid His face from you, that He
heareth not. O what will that turning away
of the Face be, on which hangs eternity !
As. There is a proportion between the sin
and the punishment, ^'' As I have done, so
God hath requited me. They have behaved them
selves ill in their doings, lit. have made their
deeds evil. The word rendered doings is
almost always used in a bad sense, mighty
deeds, and so deeds with a high hand. Not
ignorantly or negligently, nor through human
frailty, but with set purpose they applied
themselves, not to amend but to corrupt their
doings, and make them worse. God called
to them by all His prophets, make good your
doings '^ ; and they, reversing it, used diligence
to inake their doings evil. " ^* All this they
shall suffer, because they were not rulers, but
tyrants ; not Prefects, but lions ; not masters
of disciples, but wolves of sheep ; and they
sated themselves with flesh and were fattened,
and, as sacrifices for the slaughter, were made
ready for the punishment ofthe Lord, Thus far
against evil rulers ; then he turns to the false
prophets and evil teachers, who by flatteries
subvert the people of God, promising them
the knowledge of His word,"
5. Tlie prophets that 'make My people err, flat
tering them in their sins and rebellions,
12 Judg. i, 7, "As the Jews speak ' measure for
measure'," Poc. from Abarb.
IS Jer, xxxv, 15. D3''?V;?D 13'B'n; here, l;r-|n
Dn''7'7;?D. "St. Jer.

CHAPTER IIL

41

cheTIt people err, that ^bite with
°i''- '^''" their teeth, and cry, Peace ;
'ch, 2, 11, and *he that putteth not
e Ezek, 13. 18, 19. into their mouths, they
even prepare war against
him: 6 "Therefore night

' Is, 8, 20, 22,
Ezek, 13, 23.
Zech, 13, 4.
fHeb, /rom a
vision. shall be unto you, ¦ft hat

promising that they shall go unpunished,
that God is not so strict, will not put in
force the judgments He threatens. So Isaiah
saith ' ; O my people, they which lead thee, mis
lead thee; and 2, the leaders of thispeople are its
misleaders, and they that are led of tliem are
destroyed. And Jeremiah^, , The prophets
have seen for thee vanity and folly ; and they
have not discovered thine iniquity to turn
away thy captivity, and have seen for thee
false burdens and causes of banishment. No
error is hopeless, save what is taught in the
Name of God.
That bite with their mouths. The word'' is
used of no other biting than the biting of
serpents. They were doing real, secret evil
while they cry, i. e. proclaim peace ; they bit, as
serpents, treacherously, deadlily. They fed,
not so much on the gifts, for which they
hired themselves to ^ speak peace when there
was mo peace, as on the souls of the givers.
So God says by Ezekiel ^, Will ye pollute Me
among My people for handfuls of barley and for
pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not
die, and to save the souls alive that should not
live, by your lying to My people that hear your
lies ? Because with lies ye have made tlie heart
of the righteous sad, whom I have 'not made sad ;
and strengthened the hands of tlie wicked, that he
should not return from his wicked way, by prom
ising him life — therefore ye shaU see no more
vanity nor divine divi'naiions. It was with a
show of peace that Joab slew Abner and
Amasa, and with a, kiss of peace Judas be
trayed our Lord.
And he thai putteth not into their mouths,
they prepare war against him, lit. and (i.e.
forthwith ; it was all one ; bribes refused,
war proclaimed,) they sanctify war against him.
Like those of whom Joel prophesied ', they
proclaim war against him in the Name of
God, by the authority of God which they
had taken to themselves, speaking in His
Name Who had not sent them. So when
our Lord fed the multitude, they would take
Iiii. 12, 2ix. 16. (16, Heb.) s^am, ii, 14.
4"1tyj Gen, xlix. 17. Num.' xxi. 8, 9, Prov, xiii, 32,
Eccl, X, 8, 11, Am. v. 19, ix, 3, Hence Kimchi,
" While they proclaim peace, and flatter the people,
it is as if they hit it with the teeth," So A, E, also
and Tanch. in Poo.

ye shall not have a vis- cheTst
ion; and it shall be da,rk ™- '?io-

unto you, f that ye shall + Heb, /rom
not divine; 'and the sun 1 Amos 8%,
shall go down over the
prophets, and the day
shall be dark over
them.

Him by force and make Him a king ; when
their hopes were gone and they saw that His
Kingdom was not of this world, they said. Cru
cify him, crucify Him. Much more the Phar
isees, who, because He rebuked their covet
ousness, their devouring widows' houses, their
extortion and excess, their making their pros-
el3'tes more children of hell than themselves,
said. Thou blasphemest. So, when the masters
of the possessed damsel whom St, Paul freed,
" saw thai the hope of their gains was gone, they
accused him, that he exceedingly troubled their
city, teaehing customs not lawful to be received.
So Christians were persecuted by the Heathen
as " ' hating the human race," because they
would not partake of their sins ; as " '" athe
ists," because they worshiped not their gods ;
as " ^^ disloyal" and "public enemies," because
they joined not in unholy festivals ; as " un
profitable," because they neglected things not
profitable but harmful. So men are now
called " illiberal," who will not make free
with the truth of God ; "intolerant," who will
not allow that all faith is matter of opinion,
and that there is no certain truth ; " precise,"
" censorious," who will not connive at sin, or
allow the levity which plays, mothlike,
around it and jests at it. The Church and
the Gospel are against the world, and so the
world which they condemn must be against
them ; and such is the iorce of truth and
holiness, that it must carry on the war
against them in their own name.
6. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye
shall not have a 'vision. In the presence of
God's extreme judgments, even deceivers are
at length still ; silenced at last by the com
mon misery, if not by awe. The false pro
phets had promised peace, light, brightness,
prosperity ; the night of trouble, anguish,
darkness, fear, shall come upon them. So shall
they no more dare to speak in the Na me of God,
while He was by His judgments speaking
the contrary in a way which all must hear.
They abused God's gifts and long-suffering
6 Ezek. xiii, 10, « Ib, 19, 22, 23
7 See on Joel iii, vol, i, p, 207,
8 Acts xvi, 19-21.
0 TertulUan, Apnl. c, 10, and note k, Oxf, Tr.
10 Ib, c, 35, ad Scap. c. 2,
11 Ib, 42, 43,

42

MICAH.

7 Then shall the seers

Before
CHEIST
 "'''• '^^°-  be ashamed, and the divi

ners confounded : yea, they
tHeb, upper lip. shall all cover their f lips ;

against Himself: they could misinterpret
His long-suffering into favor, and tliey did
it : their visions of the future were but the
reflections of the present and its continuance ;
they thought that because God was enduring.
He was indifferent, and they took His govern
ment out of His Hands, and said, that what
He appeared to be now. He would ever be,
Tliey had no other light, no other foresight.
When then the darkness of temporal calam
ity enveloped thera, it shrouded in one cora
mon darkness of night all present brightness
and all sight of the future.
" ' .liter Caiaphas had in heart spoken
falsehood and a prophecy of blood, although
God overruled it to truth which he meant
not, all grace of prophecy departed, ^ The
law and the prophets prophesied until John.
Tlie Sun of Righteousness went down over thera,
inwardly and outwardly, withdrawing the
brightness of His Providence and the inward
light of grace." So Christ Himself fore
warned ; ^ Walk while ye have tlie light, lest dark
ness come upon you. And so it has remained
ever since. * The veil has been on their hearts.
The liglit is in all the world, but they see it
not ; it arose to lighten the Gentiles, but they
walk on .still in darkness. As opposed to holi
ness, truth, knowledge. Divine enlightening
of the mind, bright gladness, contrariwise
darkness is falsehood, sin, error, blindness of
soul, ignorance of Divine thinus, and sorrow.
In all these ways, did the Sun go down over
them, so that the darkness weighed heavily
upon them. So too the inventors of heresies
pretend to see and to enter into the mysteries
of Christ, yet find darkness instead of liglit,
lose even what they think they see, fail even
of what truth they seem most to hold ; and
they shall be in night and darkness, being
cast into outer darkness; ^sinning against the
brethren, and wounding the meai conscience of
ihose for whom Christ died.
7. They shall cover their lips, lit, the hair of
the upper lip ^. This was an action enjoined
on lepers ', aud a token of mourning ' ; a
token then of sorrow and uncleanness. With
their lips they had lied, and now they should
cover their lips, as men dumb and asharaed.
For there is no answer of Ood, as these de
ceivers had jiretended to have. When all
things shall come contrary to what they had

lEup,
ss, John xii, 35,
SI Cor, viii, 12.
8 Ezek. xxiv. 17, 22.
11 iii. 12.

2 S. BLitt. xi. 13.
4 2 0(.r. iii. 15.
SKim. 7 Lev. xiii. 45.
9 S. Jer, 10 Dion,
12 Ezek, xiii. 3.

IS The use of riX before " niT only, shews plainly

' for there "is no answer of ^ jj b°j | ^
God. eir- ™-

8 ^ But truly I am full t pg. 74. 9,
„ , .-, • -4. i? Amos 8. 11.
01 power by the spirit ot

promised, it shall be clear that God did not
send them. And having jilainly no answer
of God, they shall not dare to feign one then.
"'Then not even the devils shall receive
power to deceive them by their craft. The
oracles shall be dunil) ; the unclean spirit
shall not dare to delude." " 1° All this is
spoken against those who, in the Church of
Christ, flatter the rich, or speak as men-
pleasers, out of avarice, ambition, or any like
longing for temporal good, to whom that of
Isaiah " fitteth ; the leaders of _this people [they
who profess to lead them aright] mislead them,
and they that are led of them are destroyed."
8. And truly I, [lit. contrariwise I,] i.e.
whereas they shall be void and no word in
them, I am full of (or fllleel with) power by the
Spirit of the Lord and of judgment and might.
The false prophets'^ walked after their own
spirit. Their only power or infiuence was
from without, from favoring circumstances,
from adapting themselves to the great or to
the people, going along with the tide, and
impelling persons whither they wished to go.
The power ofthe true prophet was inherent,
and that by gift of the Spirit of the Lord ^^.
And so, while adverse circumstances silenced
the false prophets, they called forth the more
the energy of the true, whose power was irom
Him in Whose Hands the world is. The
adverse circumstances to the false prophets
were God's judgments ; to the true, they were
man's refractoriness, rebellion, oppressiveness.
Now was the time of the false prophets ;
now, at a distance, they could foretell hardily,
because they could not yet be convicted of
untruth. When trouble came, they went into
the inner cliamlter to hide ^* themselves. Micah,
amid the wild tumult of tlie people '^, was fear
less, upborne by Him who controls, stills, or
looses it, to do His Sovereign Will.
I am filled with power. So our Lord bade
Plis Apostles ^^ Tarry ye, until ye be endued
with power from on high " : ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ;
and 1' they were edl filled 'with tlie Holy Ghost.
The three gifts, power, judgment, might, are the
fruits of the One Spirit of God, through
Whom the Prophet was filled with them.
Of these, power is always strength residing in
the person, whether it be the poiver '" or
might of wisdom ''" oi Almighty God Himself,
that the objects ofthe verb are mi2J, tSStfO, r\J,
and that the PN is "with" "through," as in Gen.
iv. 1, 141 Kgs, xxii, 23, isPs, Ixv, 7,
10 S, Luke xxiv, 49, " Acts i, 8, is Ib, ii, 4,
18 Ex. XV. 6. xxxii, 11. Num. xiv, 17, &e,
20 Job xxxvi. 5.

CHAPTEE HL

43

cheTst *1^® Lord, and of judg-
cir, 710. mexit^ and of might. Ho
Us. 68. 1. declare unto Jacob his
transgression, and to Israel
his sin.

or power which He imparts ' or implants'.
But it is always power lodged in the person,
to be put forth by him. Here, as in St. John
Baptist* or the Apostles*, it is Divine
power, given through God the Holy Ghost,
to accomplish that for which he was sent, as
St. Paul was endued with might*, casting
down imaginations and every high thing that ex
alteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity evei'y thought to the obedi
ence of Christ. It is just that, which is so
wanting to human words, which is so charac
teristic of the word of God, power. Judgment
is, from its form ^, not so much discernment
in the human being, as " the thing judged,"
pronounced by God, the righteous judgment
of God, and righteous judgment in man con
formably therewith '. It was what, he goes
on to say, the great men of his peojile ab-
hoired^, equity. With this he was filled.
This was the substance of his message, right
judgment to be enacted by them, to which he
was to exhort them, or which, on their re
fusal, was to be pronounced upon them in
the Name of God the Judge of all, and to be
executed upon them. Might is courage or
boldness to deliver the message of God, not
awed or hindered by any adversaries. It is
that holy courage, of whicli St. Paul speaks^,
that utterance may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly, to make known tite mys
tery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador
in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly, as I
ought to speak. So too, after the Apostles had
been ^^ straitly threatened that they should speak
no more in the Name of Jesus, all, having
prayed, were filled with the Holy Ghost, and
spake the word of God with boldness. " '^ Who
so is so strengthened and arrayed, uttereth
fiery words, whereby hearers' hearts are
moved and changed. But whoso speaketh
of his own mind, doth good neither to him
self nor others,"
So then, of the three gifts, power expresses
the Divine might lodged in him ; judgment,
the substance of what he had to deliver;
might or courage, the strength to deliver it in
1 Deut, viii, 18, Judg, xvi. 5. 9, 19,
2 Deut, viii, 17, and passim. s s, Luke i, 17,
4S, Luke xxiv, 49, 6 2 Cor, x, 5, « QStyn,
' As in Prov, i, 3, Is, i, 21, v, 7, 8 yer, 9,
« Eph, vi, 19, 20. 10 Acts iv, 18, 31,
11 Dion,
12 Lap, IS Ecclus, xlviii, 1, " iviii, 1,
15 vi, 11, 27. 10 S. Matt, iii, 7,
1' Acts xxiv, 25,
18 Ps. xlviii. 8. 19 Rev. xi. 5. 20 m. 1.

9 Hear this, I pray you,
ye heads of the house of Ja- .
cob, and princes ofthe house
of Israel, that abhor judg
ment, and pervert all equity.

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,

face of human power, persecution, ridicule,
death. " " These gifts the Prophets know are not
their own, but are from the Spirit of God,
and are by Him inspired into them. Such
was the spirit of Elijah, unconquered, ener
getic, fiery, of whom it is said, 1* Then stood
up Elias as fire, and his word burned like a
lamp. Such was Isaiah ^*, Cry aloud, sparenot,
lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My
people their transgression and the house of Jacob
their sins. Such was Jeremiah '° ; Therefore I
am full of the fury ofthe Lord; I am weary of
holding in. I have set thee for a trier among
My people, a strong fort; and thou shalt know
and try their ways. Such was John Baptist,
who said '^, 0 generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to fiee from the wrath to come ? Such
was Paul, who, when he " reasoned of temper
ance, righteousness and judgment to come, made
Felix tremble, though unbelieving and un
godly. Such were the Apostles, who, when
they had received the Holy Spirit, ^^ brake,
with a mighty breath, ships and kings of
Tarshish. Such will be Elias and Enoch at
the end of the world, striving against
Anti-Christ, of whom it is said ^', If any man
will Inirt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth
and devoureth their enemies."
9. Hear this, I pray you. The Prophet
discharges upon them that judgment, whereof,
by the Spint of God, he was full, and which
they ahhorred; judgment against their per
version of judgment. He rebukes the same
classes as before *", the heads and judges, yet
still more sternly. They abhorred judgment,
hesays, as a thing loathsome and abominable"-,
such as men cannot bear even to look upon ;
they not only dealt wrongly, but they per
verted, distorted, art equity: "^Hhat so there
should not remain even some slight justice
in the city." All equity ; all of every sort,
right, rectitude, uprightness, straight-for
wardness ''', whatever was right by natural
conscience or by God's law, they distorted,
like the sophists making the worse appear
the better cause. Naked violence crushes
21 ?"'IlJ^nD, one of the two strongest Hebrew words
to express abomination, comp, n^J^lJl, 22 s, Jer,
23 Frequent as the adj, "IK?*", " right, upright," is,
the abstract r\^^^ occurs here only in the 0, T,
The original force is " straight," " even," and hence
"straight-forwardness, rectitude," The idea of
"evenness" (which Ges, denies) belonged to the
root in early times, the names of the two "plains,"
Sharon, andf Mishor in Reuben (Deut. iii. 10. iv. 43.)
being formed from it.

44

MICAH.

c h rTI t 10 " l^li^y l^ulld "^P 2ion
eir. 710. ^vith ¦> f blood, aud Jerusa-

"Jer. 22. 13. 1 •,! • • ¦,
»Ezek. 22, 27, lem With iniquity.
Hab, 2. 12, Zeph, 3, 3, f Heb, bloods.

the individual ; perversion of equity destroys
the fountain-head of justice. The Prophet
turns from them in these words, as one who
could not bear to look upon their misdeeds,
and who would not speak to them ; they per
vert; building; her heads, her priests, her
prophets; as Elisha, but for the presence of
Jehoshaphat, would not look on Jehoram,
nor see him'. He first turns and speaks of
them, as one man, as if they were all one in
evil; 10. They build up [lit. building, sing.]
Zion with blood. This may be taken literally
on both sides, that, the rich built their pal
aces, " with wealth gotten by bloodshed', by
rapine of the poor, by slaughter of the
saints," as Ezekiel says*, her princes in the
midst thereof are like wolves, to shed blooel, to de
stroy souls, to get dishonest gain. Or by blood
he may mean that they indirectly took away
life, in that, through wrong judgments, ex
tortion, usury, fraud, oppression, reducing
wages or detaining them, they took away
what was necessary to support life. So it is
said ¦* ; The bread of the needy is their life, he
that clefraudeth him thereof is a man of blood.
He that taketh away his neighbor's living slayeth
him, and he tliat defraudeth the laborer of his
hire h a bloodshedder. Or it may be, that as
David prayed to God, ^ Build Thou the walls
of Jerusalem, asking Him thereby to main
tain or increase its well-being, so these men
thought to promote the temporal prosperity
of Jerusalem by doings which were unjust,
oppressive, crushing to their inferiors. So
Solomon, in his degenerate days, made the
yoke upon his people and his service grievous^.
So ambitious monarchs by large standing-
armies or filling their exchequers drain the
life-blood of their people. The physical
condition and stature of the poorer popula
tion in much of France was lowered perma
nently by the conscriptions under the first
Emperor, In our wealthy nation, the term
poverty describes a condition of other days.
We have had to coin a new name to designate
the misery, offspring of our material pros
perity. From our wealthy towns, (as from
those of Flanders,) ascends to heaven against
us " ' the cry of ' pauperism ' i.e. the cry of
distress, arrived at a condition of system and
of power, and, by an unexpected curse, issu
ing from the very development of wealth.

1 2 Kgs iii, 14. 2 S, Jer. s xxii, 27,
4 Ecclus, xxxiv, 21, 22, 0 Ps. u. ig.
® 1 Kgs, xii. 4.
' Lacordaire, Conferences, T, ii, p, 300,
8 S, John xi, 48. » S, Matt, xxv, 45.

11 "The heads thereof cIeTst
judge for reward, and '^ the  2E: ''^°-

priests thereof teach f o r Ezek;? 22, 12,
p Jer, 6, 13. Hos. 4, 18, oh, 7, 3.

The political economy of unbelief has been
crushed by facts on all the theatres of human
activity and industry." Truly we build up
Zion with blood, when we cheapen luxuries
and comforts at the price of souls, use Chris
tian toil like brute strength, tempt men to (
dishonesty and women to other sin, to eke
out the scanty wages which alone our selfish
thirst for cheapness allows, heedless of every
thing save of our individual gratification, or
the commercial prosperity, which we have
made our god. Most awfully was Zion
built with blood, when the Jews shed the
innocent Blood, that ^the Romans might
not take away their place and nation. But
since He has said''. Inasmuch as ye did it not
unto one of tlie least of these My brethren, ye did
it not unto Me, and, '" Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou Me? when Saul was persecuting Christ's
members, then, in this waste of lives and of
souls, we are not only wasting the Price of
His Blood in ourselves and others, but are
anew slaying Christ, and that, frora the self
same motives as those wdio crucified Him.
'^ When ye sin against the members, ye sin against
ChrUt. Our commercial greatness is the price
of His Blood^'. In the judgments on the
Jews, we may read our own national future ;
in the woe on those through whom the weak
brother perishes for whom Christ died '^, we, if
we partake or connive at it, may read our
own. 11. Tlie heads thereof judge for reward.
Every class was corrupted. One sin, the root
of all evil i*, covetousness, entered into all
they did. It, not God, was their one end,
and so their God. Her heads, the secular
authority, who '* sat to judge according to ihe
law, judged, contrary to the law, for rewards.
They sat as the representatives of the Maj
esty of God, in Whose Name they judged,
Whose righteous Judgment and correcting
Providence law exhibits and executes, and
they profaned it. To judge for rewards was
in itself sin, forbidden by the law '^. To re
fuse justice, unless paid for it, was unjust,
degrading to justice. The second sin fol
lowed hard upon it, to judge unjustly, ab
solving the guilty, condemning the innocent,
justifying the oppressor, legalizing wrong.
A'nd her priests teach for hire. The Lord
was ths portion and inheritance " of the priest.
He had his sustenance assigned him by God,

10 Acts ix. 4,
12 S. Matt, xxvii, 6,
14 1 Tim, vi, 10,
10 Ex, xxiii, 8, Deut, xvi. 19.
" Num. xviii. 20. Deut. xviii. 2.

11 1 Cor, viii. 12.
IS 1 Cor, viii, 11.
IS Acts xxiii. 3.

CHAPTEE III.

45

cheTst I'l'"®' ^^^ ^^^ prophets
eir, 710, _ thereof divine for money :

1 1s, 48. 2,
Jer, 7, 4,
Eom, 2, 17.

'yet will they lean upon

and, therewith, the duty to ' put difference be
tween holy and unholy, and between clean and
unclean, and to teach all ihe statutes, which God
had commanded. Their lips were to keep know
ledge 2. This then, which they were bound
to give, they s<5ld. But " ^ whereas it is said
to the holy, * Fi eely ye have received, freely give,
these, producing the answer of God upon
the receipt of money, sold the grace of the
Lord for a covetous price." Probably too,
their sin co-operated with and strengthened
the sin of the judges. Authorized interpre
ters of the law, they, to please the wealthy,
probably misinterpreted the law. For wicked
judges would not have given a price for a
righteous interpretation of the law. The
civil authorities were entrusted by God with
power to execute the law ; the priests were
entrusted by Him with the knowledge to ex
pound it. Both employed in its perversion
that which God gave them for its mainte
nance. The princes obtained by bribery the
misjudgment of the priests and enforced it ;
the priests justified the injustice of the
Princes, So Arian Bishops, themselves hire
lings °, by false expositions of Scripture,
countenanced Arian Emperors in the oppres
sion of the faithful. " ' They propped up
the heresy by human patronage ; " the Em
perors " ' bestowed on " them their " reign of
irreligion." The Arian Eraperors tried to
efface the Council of Nice by councils of Arian
Bishops ^ Emperors perverted their power,
the Bishops their knowledge. Not publicly
only but privately doubtless also, these ¦priests
taught falsely /or hire, lulling the consciences
of those who wished to deceive themselves as
to what God forbade, and to obtain from His
priests answers in His Name, which might
explain away His law in favor of laxity or
sin. So people now try to get ill-advised to
do against God's will what they are bent on
doing ; only they get ill-advised for nothing.
One who receives money for giving an irre
sponsible opinion, places himself in proxi
mate peril of giving the answer which will
please those who pay him. " ^ It is Simony
to teach and preach the doctrine of Christ
and Plis Gospel, or to give answers to quiet
the conscience, for money. For the imme
diate object of these two acts, is the calling
forth of faith, hope, charity, penitence, and
iLev. X. 10, 11, add Deut, xvii, 10, 11, xxxiii, 10.
Hag, ii, 11 sqq.
2 Mai, ii, 7? s s, Jer, 4 s. Matt, x, 8.
6 S, Ath, ag, Arians, i, 8, p, 191, and n, c, Oxf, Tr,
« Id, ii, 43, p, 341,
' Counc, Arim, g 3, p, 77.
e Pusey's Councils ot the Church, p. 118-180, &c.

the Lord, f and say, Is not ^, h r" | ^
the Lord among us ? none '^Jr- '?io-
evil can come upon us. t Heb, saying.

other supernatural acts, and the reception of
the consolation of the Holy Spirit ; and this
is, among Christians, their only v^lue.
'Whence they are accounted things sacred
and supernatural ; for their immediate end
is to things supernatural ; and they are done
by man, as he is an instrument of the Holy
Ghost." " '" Thou art permitted, O Priest, to live ",
not to luxuriate, from the altar. '^ The mouth
of the ox which treadeth out the corn is not muz
zled. Yet the Apostle '* abused not the liberty,
but '* having food and raiment, was therewith
content; '^ laboring night and day, that he might
not be chargeable to ai^gbody. And in his
Epistles he calls God to witness that he
i" lived holily and without avarice in the Gos
pel of Christ. Pie asserts this too, not of
hiraself alone but of his disciples, that he had
sent no one who would either ask or receive
anything frora the Churches". But if in
some Epistles he expresses pleasure, and calls
the gifts of those who sent, the grace '* of Ood,
he gathers not for himself but for the " poor
saints at Jerusalem. But these poor saints
were they who of the Jews first believed in
Christ, and, being cast out by parents, kins
men, connections, had lost their possessions
and all their goods, the priests of the temple
and the people destroying them. Let such
poor receive. But if on plea of the poor, a
few houses are enriched, and we eat in gold,
glass and china, let us either with our wealth
change our habit, or let not the habit of
poverty seek the riches of Senators, AA'hat
avails the lialjit of poverty, while a whole
crowd of poor longs for the contents of our
purse'? 'Wherefore, for our sake who are
such, who build up Zion with blood and Jerusa
lem by iniquity, who judge for gifts, give answers
for rewards, divine for 'money, and thereon,
claiming to ourselves a fictitious sanctity, say,
Edl wdl not come upon us, hear we the sen
tence of the Lord which follows, Sion and
Jerusalem and the mountain of the temple, i. e.
the temple of Christ, shall, in the consumma
tion and the end, when ^^ love shall wax cold
and the faith shall be rare ", be plowed as a
field and become heaps as the high places of a
forest ; so that, where once were ample houses
and countless heaps of corn, there should
only be a poor cottage, keeping up the show
9 Less de Justit, ii. 35, de Simonia Dub, 13, p.
389, L,
10 S, Jer, 11 1 Cor, ix, 13, " ib, 9, " Ib, 18,
14 1 Tim, vi, 8, 15 1 Thess, ii, 6, 2 Thess, iii, 8,
16 1 Thess, ii, 10, " 2 Cor, xii, 17, 18,
18 Ib, viii, 6, 7, 10 Eom, xv, 26,
20 S, Matt, xxiv, 12. 21 g. Luke xviii. 8.

46

MICAH.

Before
CHRIST cir, 710,

'Jer, 26, 18, ch, 1, 6,

12 Therefore shall Zion
for your sake be 'plowed

of fruit which has no refreshment for the
soul," The three places, Zion, Jerusalem, the
Temple, describe the whole city in its poli
tical and religious aspects. Locally, Mount
Zion, which occupies the South-West, " had
upon it the Upper city," and " was by rauch
the loftier, and length-ways the straighter,"
Jerusalera, as contrasted with Zion, repre
sented the lower city, " ' supported " on the
East by Mount Acra, and including the valley
of Tyropicon. South of Mount Acra and
lower than it, at the South Eastern corner of
the city, lay Mount Moriah or the Mount of
the Lord's House, separated at this tirae from
Mount Acra by a deep ravine, which was
filled up by the Asmonaean princes, who
lowered Mount .-Vera, It was joined to the
N. E. corner of Mount Zion by the cause
way of Solomon across the Tyropoeon. The
whole city then in all its parts was to be
desolated, Aiul her prophets divine for money. The
word rendered 2, divine, is always used in a
bad sense. These prophets then were false
prophets, her prophets and not (iod's, which
divined, in reality or appearance, giving the
answer which their employers, the rich men,
wanted, as if it were an answer from God.
^ Yet they also judge for rewards, who look
rather to the earthly than to the spiritual
good ; they teach for hire, who seek in the
first place the things of this world, in
stead of teaching for the glory of God and
the good of souls, and regarding earthly
things iu the second place only, as the sup
port of life.
And say. Is not the Lord among us ? And
after all this, not understanding their sin, as
though by their guilt they purchased the
love of God, they said in their impenitence,
that they were judges, prophets, priests, of
God. They do all this, and yet lean on the
Lord ; they stay and trust, not in themselves,
but in God ; good in itself, had not they been
evil ! And say. Is ¦not the Lord among its ?
¦none evil can l_shall] come upon us. So Jere
miah says *, Trust ye not in lying words saying,
The temple of the Lord, tlie temple of the Lord,
The temple of the Lord are tliese. " ^ He called
thera lying words, as being ofttimes repeated
by the false prophets, to entice the credulous
people to a false security" against the
threatenings of God, As though God could
not forsake His own people, nor cast away
1 Jos, B, J, V, 4, 1,
2 In Prov. xvi, 10, (quoted as an exception) it is
used of that penetrating acuteness whieh is like a
gift of divination ; as we speak of " divining a per
son's thoughts, purposes," &c.

as a field, ° and Jerusalem
shall become heaps,and ' the .
" Ps, 79, 1, ' ch, 4

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,

Zion whieh He had chosen for an habitation for
Himself, nor profane His own holy place !
Yet it was true that God was among them,
in the midst of them, as our Lord was araong
the Jews, though they knew Hira not. Yet
if not in the midst of His people so as to
hallow, God is in the midst of them to
punish. But what else do we than these
Jews did, if we lean on the .Vpostolic line,
the possession of Holy Scripture, Sacraments,
pure doctrine, without setting ourselves to
gain to God the souls of our Heathen popu
lation ? or what else is it for a soul to trust in
having been made a meraber of Christ, or in
any gifts of God, unless it be bringing forth
fruit with patience? "* Learn we too lience,
that all trust in the Merits of Christ is vain,
so long as any wilfully persist in sin," " '' Know
we, that God will be in us also, if we have
not faith alone, nor on this account rest, as
it were, on Him, but if to faith there be
added also the excelling in good works. For
faiih without works is dead. But when with
the riches of faith works concur, then will
God indeed be with us, and will strengthen
us mightily, and account us friends, and glad
den us as His true sons, and free us from all
evil." 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake [for
your sake shall Zion] be plowed as a field.
They thought to be its builders ; they were
its destroyers. They imagined to advance or
secure its temporal prosjierity by bloods ;
they (as men ever do first or last,) ruined it.
Zion might have stood, but for these its acute,
far-sighted politicians, who scorned the warn
ings of the prophets, as well-meant ignor
ance of the world or of the necessities of
the state. They taught, perhaps they
thought, that for Zion's sake they, (act as
they might,) were secure. Practical Antino-
mians ! God says, that, for their sake, Zion,
de.^led by their deeds, should be destroyed.
The fulfillment of the prophecy was delayed
by the repentance under Hezekiah. Did he
not, the elders asl'c', fear the Lord a'nd be
sought the Lord, and the Lord repented Him of
the evil whieh He had pronounced against them ?
But the prophecy remained, like that of .Jo
nah against Nineveh, and, wdien man undid
and in act repented of his repentance, it
found its fulfillment.
Jerusalem shall become hea/ps, [lit. ofritins^,]
and the mountain of the house. Mount Moriah,
on which the house of God stood, as the high
s From Dion. 4 yij, 4.,
s Saneh,
OJ, H.Mich,
1 Jer, xxvi, 19,
s [¦'¦•j; from T\^^, " distort, pervert, subvert,"

CHAPTEE III. 47
cheTst mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. cheTIt

cir, 710,

places of the forest, lit, as high places of a forest.
It should return wholly to what it had been,
before Abraham oflered up the typical sacri
fice of his son, a wild and desolate place cov
ered with tangled thickets ^.
The prophecy had a first fulfillraent
at its first capture by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah mourns over it ; ^ Because of
the mountain of Zion which is desolate, foxes
walk [habitually ''] upon it. Nehemiah said,
* Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem
Ueth waste; and Sanballat mocked at the
attempts to rebuild it, as a thing impossible ;
^ Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of
dust, and these too, burned ? and the builders
coraplained ; ^ The strength of the bearers of
burdens is decayed [lit. sinketh under thera],
and there is much dust, and we are 'not able
io build the wall. In the desolation under
Ajitiochus again it is related ; ' they saw the
sanetuary desolate, and tlie altar profaned, and
the gates burned up, and shrubs growing in the
courts, as in a forest or in one of the mountains.
"When, by the shedding of the Blood of the
Lord, , they ^fllled up the measure of theu-
fathers, and called the curse upon themselves,
^His Blood be upon us and upon our chil
dren, destruction came upon them to the utter
most. With the exception of three towers,
left to exhibit the greatness of Roman
prowess in destroying such and so strong a
city, they " ^° so levelled to the ground the
whole circuit of the city, that to a stranger it
presented no token of ever having been in
habited." He " effaced the rest of the city,"
says the Jewish historian, himself an eye
witness". The elder Pliny soon after. A,
D. 77, speaks of it, as a city which had been
1 Gen, xxii, 13, -130, 2 Lam, v, 18, 3 u^n,
* Neh, ii, 17. 6 ib, iv, 2, [iii. 34, Heb.]
6 lb. 10. [iv. 4. Heb.] ' 1 Mace, iv, ,38,
8 S, Matt, xxiii, .32, " Ib, xxvii, 25,
10 Joseph, B, J, vii, 1. 1. n Ib, vi, 9, 1,
12 Nat, Hist, V, 14,
i"* Pliny says of Engedi, " Below these was the
town Engadda, second only to Jerusalem in fertility
and palm-groves, now a second funeral pile." [bus-
tum] N. H. v. 18, See at length in Deyling de iElice
Capit, Grig, in his Obss, sacr, v, 43G-490. and on tho
whole subject Lightfoot, Chronicon de Excidio urb,
Hieros. Opp, ii, 136 sqq. Tillemont, Hist. d. Erap, T,
i, Euine des Juifs ; T. ii. ESvoltes des Juifs ; Munter,
d, Jud, Krieg nut, Traj, u. Hadr, (translated in Dr,
Robinson's Bibl. Sacr, T, iii, 1st series) who, how
ever, gives too much weight to very late authorities,
Jost, Gcsch, d, Juden, B, xii,
1* Ep. 129. ad Dard. tin,
16 The Talmud speaks of E, Jose (who lived before
Hadrian) " praying in one of the ruins of Jerusa
lem," but only when on a journey, Beraehoth, f, 3,
The context implies that they were utter ruins,
i« Gittin, f, 66, Jost, iii, 184, Anhang, p, 105,
1' Maccoth, fin, i* Josephus' numbers,
19 Jos. B, J, vii. 6, 2, 20 Dio Ixix, 14,
21 " The tenth legion and some troops of horse
and companies of foot," (Jos. Ib, vii, 1. 2,) The

and was not. " '^ "Where was Jerusalem, far
the most renowned city, not of Judsea only,
but of the East," " ^^ a funeral pile," With
this corresponds S. Jerome's statement,
"11 relics of the city remained for fifty years
until the Emperor Hadrian." Still it was in
utter ruins ^'°. The toleration of the Jewish
school at Jamnia ^^ the more illustrates the
desolation of Jerusalem where there was
none. The Talmud " relates how E. Akiba
smiled when others wept at seeing a fox com
ing out of the Holy of holies. This prophecy
of Micah being fulfilled, he looked the more
for the prophecy of good things to corae,
connected therewith. Not Jerusalera only,
but well-nigh all Judasa was desolated by
that war, in which a million and a half per
ished ^', beside all who were sold as slaves.
" Their country to which you would expell
them, is destroyed, and there is no place to
receive them," was Titus' expostuhition i' to
the Antiochenes, who desired to be rid of the
Jews their fellow-citizens. A heathen histo
rian relates how, before the destruction by
Hadrian, " '" many wolves and hvEcnas entered
their cities bowling." Titus however having
left above 6000 ''^ Eoman soldiers on the spot,
a civil population was required to minister to
their wants. The Christians who, following
our Lord's warning, had fled to Pella ^'', re
turned to Jerusalem ^^, and continued
there until the second destruction by Had
rian, under fifteen successive Bishops^*.
Some few Jews had been left there ^° ;
some very probably returned, since we
hear of no prohibitioA from the Eomans,
until after the fanatic revolt under Bar-
cocheba. But the fact that when toward
legion was 6000 men; the troop, 64; the com
pany, 100,
22'Eus, H, E, iii, 5,
23 S, Epiph, de Mens, u, 15, p, 171,
24 Eus. H, E, iv, 5, "from written documents,"
25 Josephus makes Eleazar sa}' in the siege of
Masada, "Jerusalem has been jjlucked up bythe
roots, and the only memorial of it remaining is the
camp of those who took it, still seated ou its
remains. Hapless elders sit by the dust of the
temple, and a few women preserved by the enemy
for th.e foulest insolence." B. J. vii. 8. The state
ment of S. Epiphanius (de Mens, 15, p, 170.) " in
that part of Zion which survived after the desola
tion, there were both parts of dwellings around Zion
itself and seven synagogues which alone stood in
Zion as cabins, one of which survived till the time
of Bishop Maximus and the Emperor Constantine, as
a hut iu a vineyard," is remarkably confirmed by the
independent Latin statement of theBourdeaux pil
grim. "Within the wall of Zion appears the place
where David had his palace ; and of .=!even syna
gogues, which were there, one only has remained,
therest.areploughedandsowed." Itin, Hieros. p. 592,
ed. Wess. Optatus also mentions the 7 synagogues,
(iii, 2, Edd, before Dupin, and all MSS, but one. See
p, 63,) Before the destruction there are said to
have been 480, EohaEabbathi,f,62,col.2.f,7Lcol, 4,

48

MICAH.

the close of Trajan's reign they burst out
simultaneously, in one wild frenzy \ upon
the surrounding Heathen, all along the coast
of Africa, Libya, Cyrene, Egypt, the Thebais,
Mesopotamia, Cyprus 2, there was no insur
rection in Judsea, implies that there were no
great nurabers of Jews there. Judsea, afore
time the centre of rebellion, contributed
nothing ^ to that wide national insurrection,
in which the carnage was so terrible, as
though it had been one convulsive effort of
the Jews to root out their enemies *. Even
in the subsequent war under Hadrian, Oro-
sius speaks of them, as " ^ laying waste the
province of Palestine, onee their own," as
though they had gained possession of it from
without, not by insurrection within it. The
Jews assert that in the time of Joshua Ben
Chananiah (under Trajan) " the kingdom of
wickedness decreed that the teraple should
be rebuilt "." If this was so, the massacres
toward the end of Trajan's reign altered the
policy of the Empire. Apparently the
Emperors attempted to extinguish the Jew
ish, as, at other times, the Christian faith.
A heathen Author mentions the prohibition
of circumcision '. The Jerusalem Talmud *
speaks of many who for fear became uncircum
cised, and renewed the symbol of their faith
1 sub uno tempore, quasi rabie efferati. Ores, L.
vii, B, P, vi, 437, "as if rekindled by some dreadful
seditious spirit." Eus. H. E, iv, 2,
2 Ores, Dio mentions Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus ; to
these Eusebius adds Mesopotamia; also in S. Jer,
Chron, A, D. 117,
3 Abulfaraj (A. D, 1270.) mentions an invasion of Ju-
deea by one whom the Egyptian Jews made their
king; and vvhom "the Eoman armies sought and
slew with some ten thousands of Jews everywhere."
(Hist. Ar. p, 120, Chron, Syr, p, 56,) He is too late to
be an authority; but his account equally implies
that there was no rebellion in Judsea,
4 Dio speaks of their destroying 220,000 Eomans
and Greeks in Cyrene; committing much the same
horrors in Egypt; destroying 240,000 in Cyprus,
Ixviii, 32. The Jews, ascribing this to Barcocheba,
say that they destroyed " in Africa a great multi
tude of Eomans and Greeks like the sand on the
sea-shore innumerable," and in Egypt more than
200,000 men; and in Cyprus, so as to leave none.
Zemach David, f. 27. 1. in Eisenmenger, Entd. Jud,
ii, 655, (The coincidence is remarkable, but the
statement is too late to have any independent
value,) Orosius s.ays that " Libya was so desolated
through the slaughter of its peasants, that, had not
Hadrian re-colonized it, it would have remamed
empty," 1, c,
& I, c, Sulpicius Severus in like way speaks of the
Jews " vvisning to rebel, essaying to plunder Syria
and Palestine,'' ii. 4. ^ Bereshith Eabba, c, 64,
1 Spartian Hadrian, c, 14, It was repealed by An
tonine, See Munter, g 20,
SYebammoth, f, 9, 1, and E, Nissim, (See in
Lightfoot, Chron, Opp, ii, 143,) Beraehoth f, 10. 2. in
Jost B, xii, Anhang n, 21.
SB. Nissim in Lightfoot, 1, u,
i» Jost xii. 9. p. 228.
11 Bus. H. E. IV. 0, Zemach David, f, 27, in Eisen
menger, Entd, Jud, ii, 654, " He was called Bar
Cocheba, because he interpreted, as said of himself,
a star shall arise out of Jacob, t&c, (Num, xxiv, 17.)
Shalshalet hakkabbala (in De Voisin on Martini,
Pug. Fid. p, 205,) Sanhedrin, Chelek, (Blart, p, 330.)
12 "And E. Akib.ah himself, when he saw him,
said of him. This is the king Messiah, as it is in the

" ' when Bar Cozibah got the better, so as to
reign 2J years among them." The Jews
add, that the prohibition extended to the
keeping of the sabbath and the reading of
the law '". Hadrian's city, jElia, was doubt
less intended, not only for a strong position,
but also to efface the memory of Jerusalem
by the Eoman and Heathen city which was
to replace it. Christians, when persecuted,
suffered ; Jews rebelled. The recognition of
Barcocheba, who gave himself out as the
Messiah ", by Akibah '^ and " all the wise
[Jews] of his generation "," made the war
national, Palestine was the chief seat of the
war, but not its source. The Jews through
out the Eoman world were in arms against
theil' conquerors"; and the number of
fortresses and villages which they got pos
session o^ and which were destroyed by the
Eomans '°, shews that their successes were
far beyond Juda;a. Their measures in Judsea
attest the desolate condition of the country.
They fortified, not towns, but " '^ the advan
tageous positions of the country, strengthened
them with mines and walls, that, if defeated,
they might have places of refuge, and com
munication among themselves underground
unpercelved," For two years, (as ajDpears
from the coins struck by Barcocheba '',) they
Echa Eabbathi on the verse Lam, ii, 2," (lb,) "He
applied Hagg, ii, 6, 7, to him" (quoting v, 7, "Iwill
bring the desire of the nations io Jerusalem.") Sanh.
Chelek in Mart, See more of him Wolf, Bibl, Hebr,
i. n. 18U1, E, Bechai said, God revealed to him
things unknown to Moses, (Ib.) See also Midrash
Cant, in Mart, p, 320, Bartoloeci, Bibl, Eabb, p,
274, ly Maimon, Vad Chazaka, Sanhedrin, c, 11, in
IMart, p, 873. "E. Akiba and all the wise of his
feneration thought that he was the Messiah, until
e was slain iu his iniquities, and it was known that
he was not." This was doubtless the ground of
their death, mentioned in the Avoda Zara. See p,
128 sqq. F. C. Ewald, trans.
i*"The Romans made no account of them at
first, but when all Judtea was moved and all the
Jews throughout the world were set in commotion
and conspired and publicly and privately inflicted
much evil on the Eomans, and many foreigners
helped them iu hope of gain, and the whole world
was shaken, Hadrian sent his best general against
them." Dio Cass, Ixix, 13,
IS "50 fortresses of much account and 985 very
well-known villages," Dio C, (almost a contempo
rary) Ib, 14, i» Ib, 12,
1' De Saulcy, Numismatique Judaique, p, 156-70,
The coins bear the inscription " the 1st year of the
redemption of Jerusalem," "the first" and "second
year of the freedom of Jerusalem," Two of them
are cast upon coins of Trajan and Vespasian, Ib, p.
162, The AhbiS BarthfliSmi (App, to Bayer Num,
Hebr, Sam, Vind, L, iii, p. ix.-xi.) mentions four of
Trajan's, recast by Barcocheba. Bayer mentions
coins of the 3d and 4th year, but anonymous,
(Num, Hebr, Sam, p, 171.) De Saulcy supposes
these to belong to the revolt a.gainst Vespasian, (p.
153,4.) The title and the name "Simon" which
probably Barcocheba took, were doubtless intended
to recall the memory of the Maccabees. The Jeru
salem Talmud speaks of money with the impress
of Ben Coziba, ("son of a lie" as the Jews changed
his name.) Lightfoot, Opp. ii. 143. Mr, Vaux, keeper
of the coins, British Museum, tells me that these
coins (of which some are in the British Museum)
are certainly genuine. See also Madden, p. 161-1S2.

CHAPTEE III.

49

had possession of Jerusalem. It was essential
to his claim to be a temporal Messiah. They
proposed, at least, to "rebuild their temple^"
and restore their polity." But they could
not fortify Jerusalem. Its siege is just
named ^ ; but the one place which obstinately
resisted the Eomans was a strong city near
Jerusalem ", known before only as a deeply
indented mountain tract, Bether*. Prob
ably, it was one of the strong positions,
fortified in haste, at the beginning of the
war ". '
The Jews fulfilled our Lord's words ^,
lam come in My Father's Name and ye receive
Me not ; if another shall come in his oivn name,
him ye will receive. Their first destruction
was the punishment of their Deicide, the
crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ ; theif
second they brought upon themselves by
accepting a false Christ, a robber ' and jug
gler". "580,000 are said to have perished
in battle "," besides " an incalculable number
by famine and fire, so that all Judsea was
made well-nigh a desert." The Jews say that
" I'no olives remained in Palestine." Pladrian
" '^ destroyed it," making it " '^ an utter deso
lation" and "effacing all remains of it."
" We read 'V' says St. Jerome ", " the expe
dition of ,^lius Hadrianus against the Jews,
who so destroyed Jerusalem and its walls, as,
from the fragments and ashes of the city to
build a city, named frora himself, JElia." At
this time '^ there appears to have been a for
mal act, whereby the Eomans marked the
legal annihilation of cities ; an act esteemed, at
this time, one of most extreme severity i'.
When a city was to be built, its compass was
marked with a plough ; the Eomans, where
they willed to unmake a city, did, on rare
occasions, turn up its soil with the
1 S. Chrys, adv, Jud, v, 10, He does not apparently
mean that they actually began it,
2 Eus. Dem, Ev, ii, .38, vi, 18, The Samaritan
Chronicle (c, 47, ed, Juynboll) gives an account of a
siege by Adrian in which it mixes up fables and
facts belonging to the siege of Titus, (which it
omits,) but I do not see any traces of traditional
fact, 3 Eus, H. E, iv, 6,
4 The Eev, G, Williams, (Holy City, i, 209-13,) has
at onee identified Bether with the name, tlie moun
tains of Bether, (Cant. ii. 17,) and ruins, "khirbet el
yehud," (ruins of the Jews) near the village still
called Bittir near Jerusalem, (See Kobinson's or
Kiepert's map,) There are traces both of fortifica
tions and excavations, such as Dio speaks of,
Bether as well as Bithron beyond Jordan (2 Sam, ij,
29,) had their name from deep incisions. (See the
use of ina, ^rl2, ins. Gen, XV, 10.)
6 Dio Cass. Ixix. 12, '
« 8, John V, 43,
' " given to murder and robbery," Bus, H, E, iv,
6, See Maimonides above, n, 13,
8S, Jer, Apol, 2. c, Euf, §31, He pretended to
breathe fire, a trick ascribed by Florus iii, 19 to
Bunus, author of the servile war in Sicily, Val-
lars. »Diol, c,
10 Talm, Jesus, Pea 7 in Lightfoot, 1, c,
11 Appian de reb, Syr, 60, "Jerusalem, which
Ptolemy king of Egypt first destroyed : then, when

plough. Hence the saying, " i' A city with
a plough is built, with a plough over
thrown." The city so ploughed forfeited
all civil rights^'; it was counted to liave
ceased to be. 'The symbolical act under
Pladrian appears to have been directed
against both the civil and religious existence
of their city, since the revolts of the Jews
were mixed up with their religious hopes.
The Jews relate that both the city generally,
and the Temple, were ploughed. The
ploughing of the city was the last of those
mournful memories, which made the month
Ab a time of sorrow. But the ploughing of
the temple is also especially recorded. S.
Jerome says, " i^ In this [the 5th Month] was
the Temple at Jerusalem burnt and destroyed,
both by Nebuchadnezzar, and many years
afterward by Titus and Vespasian ; the city
Bether, whither thousands of Jews had fled,
was taken ; the Temple was ploughed, as an
insult to the conquered race, by Titus Annius
Eufus." The ftemara says, " "'" When Turnus,
[or it may be " when Tyrant] Eufus ploughed
the porch," [of the temple,] Perhaps
Hadrian meant thus to declare the desecra
tion of the site of the Temple, and so to make
way for the further desecration by his temple
of Jupiter. Pie would declare the worship
of God at an end. The horrible desecration
of placing the temple of Asbtaroth over the
Holy Sepulchre '^ was probably a part of the
same policy^ to make the Holy City utterly
Heathen. The " Capitoline 22 " was part of
its new name in honor of the Jupiter of the
Eoman Capitol. Hadrian intended, not to
rebuild Jerusalem, but to build a new city
under his own name. " ^^ The city being thus
bared of the Jewish nation, and its old in
habitants having been utterly destroyed, and
rebuilt, Vespasian razed to the ground, and again
Hadrian, in my time,"
129, Chrys, 1, eg 11,
13 S, Jerome then took this statement from written
history, "in Joel i, 4,
15 The Mishnah places it after the capture of Be
ther, " On the 9th of Ab, itwas decreed against our
fathers, that they should not enter the land; and
the Temple was laid desolate the first and second
time; and Bether was taken; and the city was
ploughed," Taanith, c, 6, J 6. Mishna ii, p. 382. ed,
Surenhus, Eashi regards this as a fulfillment of
Jer, xxvi, 18, and ot this place, Ib, p. 383. col. 2.
Buxtorf quotes also Yotserotii, (Jewi-sh hymns,) c,
Comm, f, 35, 1, for the fact. Lex, Eabb, p, 916,
13 Seneca de clem, i, 26. Deyl.
11 Isidor, Ixxv, 1, &c,
18 " If the usufruct [annual produce] be left to a
city, and the plough be passed over it, (as befell
Carthage,) it ceases to be a city, and so by a sort of
death it ceases to have the usufruct," Modestinus
in 1, Si usus fructus 21 . ff quibus modis usus fructus
amittatur, L,
19 On Zeih, viii, 16, 17, S, Jerome has the same or
der as the Talmud,
20 Taanith, 1, c. The Jerusalem Talmud has " the
temple" for "the porch,"
21 Eus, Vit, Const, iii. 26, Socr, i. 17, Soz, ii, 1, S. Jer,
Ep, ,58, adPauI,|3,
22 Col, .ffil. Capitol, i, e, Colonia ^lia Capitolina.
22 Eus. H. E, iv, 6.

50

MICAH.

an alien race settled there, the Eoman city
which afterward arose, having changed its
name, is called jElia in honor of the Emperor
JElius Pladrianus.'.' It was a Eoman colony ',
with Eoman temples, Eoman amphitheatres.
Idolatry was stamped on its coins ''. Hadrian
excluded from it, on the North, almost the
whole of Bezetha or the new city, which
Agrippa had enclosed by his wall, and, on
the South, more than half of Mount Zion^,
which was left, as Micah foretold, to be
ploughed as a field. The Jews themselves
were prohibited from entering the Holy
Land * so that the heathen Celsus says,
" ' they have neither a clod nor a hearth left,"
iElia, then, being a new city, Jerusalem was
spoken of, as having ceased to be. The
Eoman magistrates^ even in Palestine, did
not know the name ^ Christians too used the
name JElia ', and that, in solemn documents,
as the Canon of Nice ". In the 4th century
the city was still called JEMa. by the
Christians ^, and, on the first Mohammedan
coin 1° in the 7th century, it still bore that
name. A series of writers speak ofthe deso
lation of Jerusalem. In the next century
Origen addresses a Jew, " '^ If going to the
earthly city, Jerusalem, thou shalt find it
overthrown, reduced to dust and ashes, weep
not, as ye now do." " i^ From that
[Hadrian's] time until now, the extremest
desolation having taken possession of the
place, their once renowned hili of Zion —
now no wise differing from the rest of the
country, is cultivated by Eomans, so that we
ourselves have with our own eyes observed
the place ploughed by oxen and sown all
over. And Jerusalem, being inhabited by
aliens, has to this da}' the stones gathered
out of it, all the inhabitants, in our own
times too, gathering up the stones out of its
ruins for their private or public and common
buildings. You may observe with your own
eyes the mournful sight, how the stones from
1 Col, ,^1, Capitol, i, e, Colonia iElia Capitolina,
2 See Eoman coins in De Saulcy, p, 171-187, from
Hadrian, A, D, 136, lo Hostilian, A, D, 250,
8 See Pierotti's excellent map of Jerusalem, (also
reduced in his "Jerusalem explored," n. 3.)
* Eusebius, 1. c. affirms this on the authority of
Aristo of Pella, a contemporary; TertulUan says,
" they are not permitted, even in the right of
strangers, to greet their native land so much as
with the sole of their foot," (.Apol, c, 21, p, 45 Oxf
Tr, and adv, Jud, c, 13,) S, Jerome affirms the same,
(on Is. vi. 11-13. and on Dan. ix. end.) Celsus urges
the fact of their total expulsion as a proof of God's
breach of promise; (in Orig. c. Ccls. viii. 69.) and
Origen a^rrees as to the fact. S. Justin speaks of
their expulsion (as a nation) after their defeat,
(Dial. c. 110.) so that, when he speaks of Jerusalem
only, (Apol. i. 47.) it may have been that he spoke
of it alone, as sul^cing for the prophecy which he
was e.xplaining. The prohibition was subsequently
limited to Jerusalem, with the well-known conces
sion to behold it without enterin,g, one day in the
rear, to weep. Itin. Hieros. p, 591, S, Hil, on Ps, 58,
7, S, Jer, on Zeph, i, 15, 16, &c. Both S, Chrysostom
and S, Augustine speak of the Jews, as excluded
from Jerusalem, " Dost thou for thy sins, 0 Jew,

the Temple itself and from the Holy of holies
have been taken for the idol-teraples and
to build amphitheatres." "1=* Their once
holy place has now come to such a state, as in
no "way to fall short of the overthrow of
Sodora." S. Hilary, who had been banished
iuto the East, says, " " The Eoyal city of
David, taken by the Babylonians and over
thrown, held not its queenly dignity under
the rule of its lords ; but, taken afterward and
burnt by the Eomans, it now is not." S.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop of the new town,
and delivering his catechetical lectures in
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pointed
out to his hearers the fulfillment of pro
phecy ; " '^ The place [Zion] is now filled
with gardens of cucumbers." " If they [the
Jews] plead the captivity," says S. Atha
nasius '", " and say that on that ground Jeru
salem is not." " The whole world, over which
they are scattered," says S. Gregory of
Nazianzum ", " is one monument of their
calamity, their worship closed, and the soil
of Jerusalem itself scarcely known."
It is apparently part of the gradual and
increasing fulfillment of God's word, that
the ploughing of the city and of the site of
the Temple, and the continued cultivation of
so large a portion of Zion, are recorded in
the last visitation when its iniquity was futl.
It still remains ploughed as a field. "^"At
the time I visited this sacred ground, one part
of it supported a crop of barley, another was
undergoing the labor of the plough, and the
soil, turned up, consisted of stone and lime
filled with earth, such as is usually met with
in the foundations of ruined cities. It is
nearly a mile in circumference." " '^ On the
S. E. Zion slojies doivn, in a series of cul
tivated terraces, sharply though not abruptly,
to the sites of the Kings' gardens. — Here and
round to the S. the , whole declivities are
sprinkled with olive trees, which grow
luxuriantly among the narrow sUps of corn."
remain so long out of Jerusalem ? " S, Chrys, adv,
Jud, vi, 2. "They were excluded from the place
where they cruci^ed ('hrist ; now thnt place is full
of Christians who praise Him ; it hath no Jew," S,
Aug, in Ps, Ixii, n. 18, " Now thou seekest a Jew in
the city of Jerusalem, and flndest not," in Ps, oxxiv,
n, 3.
* L, e, 0 Eus, de mart. Pal, c, 11,
' " In the suburbs of what is now iElia," Eus, H,
E, ii, 12. add, vi, 20, de mart. Pal. c, 11, (Deyl,)
8 Can, vii,
""From that [Hadrian's] time until now, it is
called jSSlia from the name of him who conquered
and destroyed it," (S, Chrys, adv, Jud, v, 11 T, i, p,
64.J,) "Which is now jElia," S, Jer, Ep, 129, ad,
Dard, g. 5,
>» De Saulcy, p, 18S.
11 In Jos. liom. xvii. 1. Opp. ii. 438.
12 Eus. Dem. Ev. viii. 8. p. 406.
13 Ib. V, 23, p, 260, H S, Hil, in Ps, 131, ? 18,
15 Leet, xvi, 9, g IS, see Oxf, Tr,
i^de lucarn, n, 39, T. i, p, 81, Ben,
I'Orat, 6, gis, Ben, ,
18 Richardson's Travels, p, 359. quoted by Keith
on Prophecy, p, 257.
'» Porter, Hdbook, p, 92.

CHAPTEE IV.

51

ciiTsT CHAPTEE IV.
— ""'• "^^"^  1 Tlie glory, 3 peace, 8 kingdom,
11 and victory of the church.

Not Christians only, but Jews also have seen
herein the fulfillment upon themselves of
Micah's words, spoken now "26 centuries
ago," IV. 1. But [And] in the last days it shall come
to pass. God's proraises, goodness, truth, fail
not. He withdraweth His Presence irom
those who receive Him not, only to give
Himself to those wdio will receive Plim.
Mercy is the sequel and end of chastisement.
Micah then joins on this great prophecy of
future mercy to the preceding woe, as its issue
in the order of God's Will. And ii sliall be.
Pie fixes the mind to some great thing which
shall come to pass ; it shall be. Then follows,
in marked reference to the preceding priva
tions, a superabundance of mercy. For the
'mountain ofthe Ao«.se, which should be as a
forest and which wag lefl unto them desolate,
there is the mountain of the Lord's house estab
lished; for the heap of dust and tlie ploughed
field, there is the flowing-in of the Gentiles ;
for the night and darkness, that thei-e shall be no
vision, there is the fullness of revelation ; for
corrupt judgment, teaching, divining, a law
from God Himself going forth through the
world ; for the building of Jerusalem with
blood, one universal peace.
In the last days, lit, the end ^ of the days, i, e,
of those days which are in the thoughts of
the speaker. Politically, there are many
beginnings and many endings ; as many end
ings as there are beginnings, since all human
polity begins, only to end, and to be dis
placed in its turn by some new beginning,
which too runs its course, only to end. Ee-
ligiously, there are but two consummations.
All time, since man fell, is divided into two
halves, the looking forward to Christ to come
in humility ; the looking forward to His
Coming in glory. These are the two events
on which man's history turns. To that
former people the whole period of Christ's
kingdom was one future, the fullness of all
their own shadows, types, sacrifices, services,
1 Gesenius adduces, as the single instance in
which jT'inS is to mean "sequel," Is, xlvi, lo,
where "the end" answers to "the beginning,"
IT'inS H'tyNI, It is the end of the year, Deut
xi, 12 ; the end of a person, Pr, v, 4, Ps, xxxvii, .37 ;
of a nation, Jer, xxxi, 17 ; of a thing, i, e, its issue,
Pr,xxiii,32; "theendofthesea,"Ps, cxxxix. 9, The
phrase is rendered rightly by the Ch. N'DV '"|1D,
The €Tr' iirxaTov rSiv xp^viav of S, Paul, S. Peter and
S, Jude is nearly the translation of D'O'n JTinND,
2 Hos, iii, 6. Is, ii, 2, Jer, xxiii, 20, xxx, 24, xlviii,
47, xlix. 39, Ezek, xxxviii, 16, Dan, x, 14, Daniel
uses it in Chaldee, (ii, 28,) Nebuchadnezzar's dream
whieh he is interpreting ended in the kingdom
of Christ. On the Jewish agreement, see on Hos,
iii, 5, p, 25, n, 10,
aiEp, i, 20.

J^UT "in the last days it cheTst
shall come to pass, that . eir, 710,

the mountain of the house Ezek;. 17, 22,23,

prophecies, longings, being. The end of
their days was the beginning of the new Day
of Christ : the coming of His Day was neces
sarily the close of the firmer days, the period
of the dispensation which prepared for it.
The Prophets then by the words, the end of
the days, always mean the times of the Gos
pel 2, The end of the days is the close of all
which went before, the last dispensation, after
which there shall be no other. Yet this too
hast last da.ys of its own, which shall close
God's kingdom of grace and shall issue in the
Second Coming of Christ ; as the end of those
former days, which closed the times of " the
law," issued in His First Coming. We are
then at once living in the last times, and look
ing on to a last time still to come. In the one
way St, Peter speaks ^ of the last times, or the
end of the times*, in which Christ was mani
fested for us, in contrast with the foundations of
theworld, before which 'Ke was foreordained. And
St, Paul contrasts God's ° speaking to the fathers
in the Prophets, and at the end of these days^
speaking to us in tlie Son; and of our Lord
coming ' at the end, consum'mation, of the times ',
to put away sins by the sacrifiee of Himself ; and
says that the things which befell the Jews
^'werc written for our admonition, unio whom
the ends of the times^" [i,e, of those of the
former people of whom he had been speak
ing] ore come; and St, John speaks of this as
11 the last time. In the other way, they con
trast the last days, not with the times beibre
them but with their own, and then plainly they
are a last and distant part of this their own
last time. ^2 The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in
the latter times some shall depart from the faith :
'* In the last days perilous times shall come :
1* There shall come at the end of the days scoffers :
^^ They told you that there should be mockers in
the last time. The Jews distributed all time
between " this world " and " the coming
world 'V including under "the coming
world" the time of grace under the Mes
siah's reign, and the future glory. To us the
* According to the reading en-' iaxarov tCiv xP'^^^r,
preferred by Alter and Tisclrendorf.
5 Heb. 1,1,
6 €7r' etr;^aTOU Tw(/ ij^epiov TOvTiay, preferred by
Griesbach, Matthife, Scholz, Tisch,
' Heb, ix, 26,
Sen-i (XVvTeKeia Tdv atwcojl', comp, S, Matt, xiii, 40.
xxiv. 3, ''I Cor, s, 11, 1^ Ta tcAtj Ttiiy a'liliVbiv.
11 1 Ep. ii. 18,
12 1 Tim, iv, 1. ev uo-Tepois XP'^i'Ot?.
13 2 Tim, iii, 1, iv eo-xaTat? Tj/Acpat?,
14 2 Pet, iii, 3, ctt' e<TxaTou ruiv ritj.ep(hv, preferred by
Griesb.. Alter, Matthcei, Scholz,
15 Jude 18,61' ecxaTO) x.P'^i^V ox err' ecrxarou rov xpovov,
preferred by Scholz,'Tlsch,
i« nin dSi.!? and K3n D'^>^^. See Schottg. de
Messia i. 2. 4. p. 23-27.

52

MICAH.

cheTIt °^ *^^® Loed shall be es-
__5Hi™^_ tablished in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be

names have shifted, since this present world '
is to us the kingdora of Christ, and there re-
raains nothing further on this earth to look
to, beyond what God has already given us.
Our future then, placed as we are between
the two Comings of our Lord, is, of necessity,
beyond this world ''.
The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
[abidingly] established. He does not say
merely, it shall be established.. Kingdoms raay
be established at one time, and then come to
an end. He says, it shall be a thing estab
lished ". His saying is expanded by Daniel ;
* In the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom which shall not be de
stroyed for ever, and it shall abide for ever. The
house of the Lord was the centre of His wor
ship, the token of His Presence, the pledge
of His revelations and of His abiding ac
ceptance, protection, favor. All these were
to be increased and continuous. The image
is one familiar to us in the Hebrew Scrip
tures, People were said to go up ^ to it, as
to a place of dignity. Inthe Psalm on the
carrying of the Ark thither, the hill of God is
compared to the many-topped mountains of
Biisan '', (the Hermon-peaks which bound
Busan,) and so declared to be greater than
they, as being the object of God's choice.
The mountain where God was worshiped
rose above the mountains of idolatry, Eze
kiel, varying the image, speaks of the Gos
pel as an overshadowing cedar '', planted by
God upon an high mountain and an eminent, in
the mountain of the height of Israel, under
which should dwell all fowl of every wing;
and, in his vision of the Temple, he sees this,
the image of the Christian Church, '^upon a
very high mountain. Our Lord speaks of His
Apostles and the Church in them, as '¦* a cily
set upon a hill which cannot be hid. The seat
of God's worship was to be seen far and wide ;
nothing was to obscure it. It, now lower
than the surrounding hills, was then to be as
on the summit of them. Human elevation,
the more exalted it is, the more unstable is
it. Divine greatness alone is at once solid
and exalted. The new kingdom of God was
at once to be exalted above the hills, and estab
lished on the top of the mountains ; exalted, at
once, above everything human, and yet
established, strong as the mountains on whieh
1 S, Matt, xiii, 40, Eph, i, 21, Tit, ii, 12,
2S, Mark x, 30, B, Luke xviii, 30, xx. 35. Eph, 1,
c. Heb. vi. 5. Attention to this language of Holy
Scripture and the distant future which it looks on
to, should have saved misbelievers from imagining
that Apostles erroneously expected a near end of
the world.
" |i;3J n'n', as in 1 Kgs ii. 45, of the throne of

exalted above the hills; oh^Tst
and people shall flow  ci£j™^ 
unto it.

it rested, and unassailable, unconquerable,
seated secure aloft, between heaven, whence
it came and to which it tends, and earth, on
which it just rests in the sublime serenity of
its majesty.
The image sets forth the supereminence of
the Lord's House above all things earthly.
It does not define wherein that greatness
consists. The ficnving in of the nations is a
fruit of it '". The immediate object of their
coming is explained to.be, to learn to know
and to do the will of *od'^. But the new
revelation does not form all its greatness.
That greatness is from the Presence of God,
revealing and evermore teaching His Will,
ruling, judging, rebuking, peacemaking '2.
" '^ The mountain of the Lord's House was then
exalted above the hills by the bodily Presence
of Christ, when He, in the Teraple built on
that mountain, spake, preached, worked so
many miracles; as, on the same ground,
Plaggai saith '*, the glory of this latter house shall
be greater than the glory of the former."
" ^ 'This mountain, the Church of Christ,
transcends all laws, schools, doctrines, re
ligions. Synagogues of Jews and Philoso
phers, which seemed to rise aloft among men,
like mountain-tops, yea, whatever under the
sun is sublime and lofty, it will overpass,
trample on, subdue to itself."
Even .Jews have seen the meaning of this
figure. Their oldest mystical book explains
it '''. "And it shall be in tlie last days, when
namely the Lord shall visit the daughter of
Jacob, then shall the mountain of tlie house of
the Lord be firmly established, i. e. the Jerusa
lera which is above, which shall stand firmly
in its place, that it may shine by the light
which is above. (For no light can retain its
existence, except through the light from
above.) For in that time shall the light
from above shine sevenfold more than be
fore; according to thafi', Morcovei- the light of
the moon shall be as the light of the sun ; and the
light of the sun. shall be .vrenfold, as the light of
seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up
tlie breach of His people and healeth the stroke of
their wound." Another, of the dry literal
school, says'^ "It is well known that the
house of the 'Temple is not high. The mean
ing then is, that its fame shall go forth far,
and there shall return to it from all quarters
David. " It is an expression denoting oontinuance
and perpetuity, that it shall continually remain on
its settlement." Poc, from Abarb,
* ii- 44, 6 See on Hos, i, 11, vol. i, p, 26,
« Ps, Ixviii, 16, 17, ' xvii, 22, 23. s xl 2
1 S. Matt. V. 14, 10 iv, 1, 2. 11 iv, 2, 12 iv, 3 4.
13 Dion, H ii, 0, 16 Lap. 16 Zohar, f, '93'
II Is, xxx. 26. 18 Aben Ezra.

CHAPTEE IV.

53

cheTst ^ -^^ many nations
°ir- 710. shall come, and say, Come,

persons with offerings, so that it shall be, as
if it were on the top of all hills, so that all
the inhabitants of the earth should see it."
Some ' interpret the mountain to be Christ,
Who is called the Rock', on the confession
of Whom, God-Man, the Aoijse of tlie Lord, i. c.
the Church is built ^, the precious Corner-
sio'ae\ which is laid, beside which no founda
tion can be laid^; the great mountain, of
which Daniel^ prophesied. It is firndy
established, so that the gates of Hell shall not
prevail against the Church, being built thereon ;
exalted above hills and iff.ountains, i, e. above all
beside, greater or smaller, which has any
eminence; for Pie in truth is 'highly exalted
and hath a Name above every name, being ^at
the Right Hand of God in tlie heavenly places,
far above all principality and power and might
and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world but also in that ivhich is to
come ; and all things are under His Feet. And
this for us, in that He, the Same, is the Head
over all things io the Church which is His Body,
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. " ' He
is God and Man, King and Priest, King of
kings, and a Priest abiding for ever. Since
then Plis Majesty reacheth to the Eight
Hand of God, neither mountains nor hills,
Angels nor holy men, reach thereto ; for ^^ to
whieh of the Angels said Ood at any time. Sit
thou on My Right Hand ? "
" 11 Aloft then is the Church of God raised,
both in that its Head is in heaven and the
Lord of all, and that, on earth, it is not like
the Temple, in one small people, but 12 set on
a hill that it cannot be hid, or remain unseen
even to those far from it. Its doctrine too
and life are far above the wisdom of this
world, shewing in them nothing of earth, but
are above ; its wisdom is the knowledge and
love of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, and
its life is hid with Christ in Ood, in those who
are justified in Plina and hallowed by His
Spirit." In Plim, it is lifted above all
things, and with the eyes of the mind be
holdeth (as far as may be) the glory of God,
soaring on high toward Him Who is the
Author of all being, and, filled with Divine
light, it owneth Him the Maker of all.
And people, [peoples, nations,] shall flow unto
[lit. upon] it. A mighty tide should set iu
iTert. ?, Jud, i, 3, Orig, c, Cels, ii, 33, S, Cypr.
Test, ii, 18, Euseb. Eel. Proph, iv, 1, p, 171, ed. Ox,
S, Jerome here, S. Aug. de Civ, D, xviii. 30, Ps,
Basil on Is,
2 1 Cor, X. 4-6.
3S. Matt. xvi. 18. see Note Q. on Tertull, p, 492
sqq, Oxf Tr,
¦> Is, xxviii. 16. 1 Pet, ii. 6. Bph, ii, 20.
6 1 Cor. iii, 11.
6 Dan. ii. 35.
' Phil. il. 9. 8 Eph. i. 20-23.

and let us go up to the qheTst
mountain of the Lord, "J''- '^lo-

to the Gospel. The word " is appropriated
to the streaming in of multitudes, such as of
old poured into Babylon, the merchant-
empress of the world ". It is used of the
distant nations who should throng in one
continuous stream into the Gospel, or of
Israel streaming together from the four
corners of the world ^. So Isaiah foretells '^,
Thy (gates shall be open continually ; they shall
not be shut day nor night; thai they may bring
unto thee the forces of tlie Gentiles, and that their
kings may be brought. These were to flow
upon it, perhaps so as to cover it, expressing
both the multitude and density of the throng
of nations, how full the Church should be, as
the swollen river spreads itself over the whole
champaign country, and the surging flood-
tide climbs up the face of the rock which
bounds it. The flood once covered the
highest mountains to destroy life ; this flood '
should pour in for the saving of life. "" It
is a miracle, if waters ascend from a valley
and flow to a mountain. So is it a miracle
that earthly nations should ascend to the
Church, whose doctrine and life are lofty,
arduous, sublime. This the grace of Christ
effecteth, mighty and lofty, as being sent
from heaven. As then waters, conducted
from the fountains by pipes into a valley, in
that valley bound up and rise nearly to their
original height, so these waters of heavenly
grace, brought down into valleys, i. e. the
hearts of men, make them to bound up with
them into heaven and enter upon and em
brace a heavenly life."
2. And many nations shall come. Isaiah
'* added the world all to Micah's prophecy.
So our Lord said, " This Gospel ofthe kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations ; and the elect are to be gath
ered out of all nations and kindreds and people
a-nd tongues'"'. All nations shall flow into it.
The all might be many or few. Both
prophets say that those all should be many.
Judah probably knew already of many. The
history of Genesis gave them a wide-expand
ing knowledge of the enlargement of man
kind after the flood, in Europe, Asia, Africa,
as they then existed in their nations. Tl.e
sons of Japhet had already spread over the
whole coast of our Western sea, and far
9 from Eup, i<> Heb, i, 13.
11 from S, Cyr,
12 S, Matt, V, 14,
"linj (from ''nj river, stream) is used only
figuratively, "Jer, 11,44,
16 Ib, xx.xi, 12, It is used in these places only,
and Is, ii. 2,
10 Is, Ix, 11, add Eev. xxi. 25, 26,
" Lap. 18 Is. ii. 2.
i9S,Matt, xxiv, 14. 20Eev. vii, 9.

54

MICAH.

cheTst ^°*^ *° *^® house of the
cir. 710, God of Jacob; and he

North ; the Cimmerians ^, or Cwmry, Scan
dinavians ^, Carpathians^, (probably Celts,'')
Armenians*, (including the kindred Phry
gians,) Scythians °, Medes, lonians*, iEolians ',
Iberians ", Cypriotes ", Dardani i", Tybarenes-'\
Moschi ^'', and the Turseni '^, or perhaps the
Thracians. On the East, the sons of Shem
had spread in Elam, Assliur, Arrapachitis ^* ;
they occupied the intervening tract of Aram ;
in the N. W. they reached to Lydia. South
ward the sons of Joktan were in Arabia.
Micah's hearers knew how, of the sons of
Plain, Cush had spread far to the S. E, and S,
from Babylonia to .(Ethiopia; Egypt they
remerabered too well, and, beyond it, they
knew of the far-scattered tribes of the
Libyans, who extended along the coast of
Africa, Phcenician trade filled up this great
outline. They themselves had, in Solomon's
time, traded with India i° ; about this time,
we know that they were acquainted with the
furthest East, China ^^. Such was the sight
before the human mind of the Prophet ; such
the extent of the nations whom his people
knew of. Sorae were the deadly enemies of
his people ; some were to be its conquerors.
Pie knew that the the ten tribes were to be
abidingly wanderers among tlie nations", de
spised by them '* ; " a people, the strangers and
sojourners of the whole world i''." Pie knew
many of those nations to be sunk in idolatey,
viciousness; proud, contemptuous, lawless;
he saw them fixed iu their idolatries. , All
people will walk every one in the nameof his god.
But he saw what eye of man could not see,
what the will of raan could not accomplish,
that Pie, whom now Judah alone partially
worshiped, would turn the hearts of His
creatures to Himself, to seek Him, not in
their own ways, but as He should reveal
Hiraself at Jerusalem, Micah tells them
distinctly, that those who should believe
would be a great multitude from many
nations. In like way Isaiah expresses the
great multitude of those for whom Christ
should atone. ''"He bare the sin of many. '"- By
1 Gomer,
2 Ashkenaz, Scandinavia, Scanzia in Jornandes,
Knobel, Volkertafel d. Genesis, p, 35,
3 Eiphath, from whom also the Montes Riphasi are
named. •1 Togarmah. 6 Magog. « Javan.
' Blishah, AioAcrs or AiA-urs, Knobel ; His, Boch.
iii. 4.
8 Tarshish. " Tarseis, whence the Iberians." Eus.
(Tuch ad loo.)
"Chittim. lODodanim. "Tubal. 12 Mesheoh.
13 Tiras, Tyrseni, (Tuch,) Thracians, Boch. iii, 2,
Knob, "Arphaxad, Gen. x. 22.
16 As appears from the Tamul name for the pea
cock ''pp\ Tam. tdgai 1 Kgs x. 22; the S,anskrit or
Malabar 'name for the ape, .Yip kapi; (Ib, see Ges,)

Before

will teach us of his ways, c h e i s t
and we will walk in his  eirjTio 

knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant
make many righteous. And our Lord Himself
says ; 22 The Son of man came to give His life a
ransom for many. '^ This is my Blood — which
is shed for ¦many for the remission qf sins. In
Micah's time not one people, scarcely some
poor fragments of the Jewish people, went
up to worship God at Zion, to call to remem
brance Plis benefits, to learn of Him, Those
who should thereafter worship Plim, should
be ¦many nations.
And say, e.xihorting one another, in fer
vor and mutual love, as Andrew exhorted
his brother Simon, and Philip Nathanael,
and the woman of Samaria those of her city,
to come to Christ : and so all since, who have
been won by Plim, by word or example, by
preaching or by deed, in public or in private,
bear along with them others to seek Him
Whom they themselves have found.
Let us go up, leaving the lowness and earth-
liness of their former conversation, and
mounting upward on high where Christ is,
desiring righteousness, and athirst to know
His ways.
To the house qf the God of Jacob. They
shall seek Plim as Jacob sought Him, "'*who
left his father's house and removed into
another land, was a man of heavy toils and
served for hire, but obtained special help
from God, and, undistinguished as he was,
became most glorious. So too the Church,
leaving all Heathen wisdom, and having its
conversation in Heaven, and therefore per
secuted and enduring many hardships, enjoys
now glory with God,"
And He, i, e, the Ood of Jacob of Whom he
had just spoken, shall teach us of His ways.
They do not go to God, because they know
Him, but that they may know Him, They
are drawn by a mighty irapulse toward Him.
Howsoever attracted, they come, not making
bargains with God, (as some now would,)
what they should be taught, that He should
reveal to them nothing transcending reason,
nothing exceeding or contradicting their
which came with the creatures themselves ; a
Sanskrit name for elephant, ibha, D''2njl!' ivory,
lit. " elephant's tooth ;" (Ib.) and a Malabar name
for a wood, al gum, val gu (ka.) See Max Mulier,
Science of language, p,' 205, ed, 3, Ophir itself,
(which is mentioned in connection with these
things,) Max Mulier identifies, beyond question,
with the Abiria of Ptolemy above 'Pattalene ; the
people, "called by Hindu Geographers AbMra and
" the Ahirs " in " Macmurdo's account of the prov
ince of Cutch," Ib,
If" Is, xlix, 12, see Gesenius Thes, p, 948-50,
1^ See on Hos, ix, 17. vol. i, p, 97,
18 See on Hos, viii, 8, vol, i, p, 83.
19 S, Greg. Naz. Or, 22, n, 2, ' 20 ig. uii. 12.
2ilb, 11, 22 s, Matt, XX, 28.
23 Ib, xxvi, 28, add Eom. v. 15. 24 Theoph.

CHAPTEE IV.

55

c H eTI t P^tliS : for the law shall go
cir. 710, forth of Zion, and the word

notions of God ; they do not come with re
serves, that God should not take away this or
thai error, or should not disclose anything of
His incomprehensibleness. They come iu
holy simplicity, to learn whate\'er He will
condescend to tell them ; in holy confidence,
that He, the Infallible Truth, will teach them
infallibly. They say, of His ways. For all
learning is by degrees, and all which all crea
tures could learn in all eternity falls infi
nitely short of His truth and Holiness. Nay,
in all eternity the highest creature wdiich He
has made and which He has admitted most
deeply into the secrets of His Wisdom will
be as infinitely removed as ever frora the full
knowledge of His Wisdom and His Love.
For what is finite, enlarged, expanded, accu
mulated to the utmost degree possible, re
mains finite still. It has no proportion to
the Infinite. But even here, all growth in
grace implies growth in knowledge. The
more we love God, the more we know of
Him; and with increased knowledge of
Hira corae higher perceptions of worship,
praise, thanksgiving, of the character of faith,
hope, charity, of our outward and inward acts
and relations to God, the unboundedness of
God's love to us and the manifoldness of the
ways of pleasing Hira, which, in His love.
He has given us. Since then the whole
Christian life is a growth in grace, and even
St. Paul, ^forgetting those things whieh are
behind and reaching forth to those which are
before, pressed toward the mark for the high crdl-
ing of God in Christ Jesus, then St. Paul too
was ever learning, in intensity, what he
knew certainly by revelation, ' of His ways.
Again, as each blade of grass is said to differ
from another, so, and ranch raore, each soul
of man which God has created for Plimself.
No one ever saw or could imagine two
human beings, in whom the grace of God
had unfolded itself in exactly the sarae way.
Each saint will have his distinct beauty
around the Throne. But then each will
have learnt of His ways, in a different pro
portion or degree. Plis greatest saints, yea
His Apostles, have been pre-eminent, the one
in one grace, another in another. St, John
Baptist came as a pattern of repentance, and
contempt of self; St John the Evangelist,
stands out pre-eminent in deep tender burn-
1 Phil, iii, 13, 14,
2 S, Luke i, 48, ran-eiVoio-i! in Prov, xvi, 19, LXX,
i.s, "lowliness." The whole phrase e7re)3Aei/*ei' en-i
rrjv TaTreivtijirtv rrfq SowAt/? avTov, corresponds more to
the use in 1 Kgs (Sam.) i. 11, 2 Kgs xvi, li:. 2 Kgs
xiv. 26, Neh, ix, 9. Ps, ix. 13, LXX, where the promi
nent sense is low estate. Perhaps, as in ^jj,% the

two meanings are blended.
M'JIID 1J¦^r. ¦ilCor.xii.il.

6 Theoph.

of the Lord from Jerusa
lem.

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,

ing personal love ; St. Paul in zeal to spread
the knowledge of Christ Crucified ; St. Mary
Magdelene in loving penitence. Even the
Blessed Virgin herself, under inspiration,
seems, in part, to speak of her lowly louness'',
as that which God specially regarded in her,
when He made her the Mother of God.
Eternity only will set forth the fullness of the
two words ^, He will teach us of His ways. For
eternity will shew, how in all * worketh that
one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every
man severally as He will ; and how the count
less multitude of the redeemed have corres
ponded to His gifts and drawings, "*The
way of the life to God-ward is one, in that
it looketh to one end, to please God ; but
there are many tracks along it, as there are
many modes of life ; " and each several grace
is a part of the way to God,
And we will walk in His paths, " * by believ
ing, hoping, loving, well-doing, and bearing
patiently all trouble," " ' For it sufiiceth
not to believe, unless we act as Pie com
mandeth, and strive to enter on His ways,
the strait and narrow path whieh leadeth unto
life. He Himself then, when He had said,
" Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the
Name ofthe Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, added, teaehing them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you." They
say too, we 'will walk, i, e. go on from strength to
strength, not stand still after having labored
for a -rt hile to do His AVill, but hoLl on to all
His ways and to Himself "Who is the Way,
until they appear before the Lord in Zion.
For the lav), [lit. law^,] shall go forth from
Zion. These are the Prophet's words, declar
ing why the nations should so flock to Zion.
For he says, shall go forth, but the nations
were not gathered to Zion, until the Gospel
was already gone forth. Pie speaks of it as
law simply, not the Jewish laiv as such, but a
rule of life '" from God. Man's better nature
is ill at ease, being out of harmony with God.
It cannot be otherwise. Having been made
in His likeness, it must be distressed by its
unlikeness ; having been made by Him for
Himself, it must be restless without Hira.
AVhat they indistinctly longed for, what
drew them, was the hope to be conformed by
Hira to Him, The sight of superhuman
holiness, life, love, endurance, ever won and
6 Dion, ' Eup, 8 S, Matt, xxviii, end,
»min, not minn,
1" n'lir\ is always law, not, as some have said,
"religion," or "doctrine" generally. It is used
without the article, in this sense, as rule of life,
(Prov, vi, 23, xxviii, 4, 7, 9, xxix, 18.) such as the
Heathen had not, (Lam. ii. 9.) but which should be
revealed to them, (here. Is. ii. 3. li. 4.) The niin
corresponds with the IJTV.

56

MICAH.

cheTst 3 ^ And he shall judge
 "!•¦ '710- a.mnno; many people, and

wins those without to the Gospel or the Church.
Our Lord Himself gives it, as the substance
of Prophecy ^, that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in His Name among all
nations beginning at Jerusalem. The image
may be that of a stream, issuing forth from
Jerusalem' and watering the whole world.
"^The law of the Gospal and the word of
the jVpostles, beginning irom Jerusalem, as
from a fountain, ran through the whole world,
watering those who approached with faith."
But in that it went forth, it may be meant,
that it left those from among whom it went
forth, and " * Zion was indeed desolate of the
law and Jerusalem bared of the Divine
word." " ^ The word of God passed frora
Jerusalera to the Gentiles." " ^ For ¦ the
shadow was done away, and the types ceased,
and sacrifices were abolished, and everything
of Moses was, in the letter, brought to a
close." He does not say here, through whom God
would so teach, but he does speak of a direct
teaching of God. He does not say only,
" God will give us a law," or " will make a
revelation of Hiraself" He sjieaks of a
Personal, direct, continuous act of teaching
by Gol, carried on upon earth, whether the
teacher be our Lord's word spoken once on
earth, which does not pass away ', or God the
Holy Ghost, as teaching in the Church and
in the hearts which receive Him. The words
which follow speak of a personal reign, as
these speak of personal teaching.
3. And He shall judge among many people
and rebuke strong nations afar off. Plitherto,
they had walked each in their own ways " ;
now, they sought to be taught in the ways of
God. Before, they had been lords of the
world ; now they should own a Judge higher
than themselves. They were no comraon,
but miqlity'-' nations, such as had heretofore
been the oppressors of Israel. They were to
be many, and those mighty, nations. He
should " ^^ not only command, but rebuke, not
weak or petty nations only, but mighty, and
those not ouly near but afar." Mohammed
had moral strength through what he stole
frora the law and the Gospel, and by his
owning Christ as the Word of God. He was
a heretic, rather than a heathen. Fearful
scourge as he was, and as his successors have
been, all is now decayed, and no mighty nation
is left upon earth, which does not profess the
Name of Christ.
1 S. Luke xxiv, 47,
2 See on Joel iii. 18. vol. i. p. 212, 3 Theod,
4 S. Cvr, 6 s, Jer, « Rup,
' S. Matt, xxiv, 35. 8 Jg. ijij, e,
® D^^', which originally signified bound together,
(coll. Arab.) thence used of the closing of the eyes,

rebuke strong nations' cheTst
afar off; and they shall  "'¦•¦ ™-

He shall rebuke them ; for it was an office
of the Holy Ghost '' io reprove tlie woi Id as to
its sin, the righteousness of Christ, the judgment
of the prince of this world. The Gospel con
quered the world, not by compromises or
concordants, but by convicting it. It alone
could rebuke with power ; for it was, like
its Author, all-holy. It could rebuke with
efficacy ; for it was the word of Him Who
kneio what is in man. It could rebuke with
awe ; for it knew the secrets of eternal Judg
ment, It could rebuke winningly; for it
knew '^ the love of Christ which passeth know
ledge. Its martyrs suffered and rebuked their
judges ; and the world was amazed at the
impotence of poiver and the might of suff'er
ing. It rebuked the enthroned idolatry of
centuries ; it set in rebellion by its rebukes
every sinful passion of man, and it subdued
them. Tyrants, whom no human power
could reach, trembled before its censures.
Then only is it powerless, if its corrupted or
timid or paralyzed ministers forfeit in them
selves the power of rebuke.
And they shall beat their spears into plough
shares. " All things are made new in Christ."
As the inward disquiet of evil men miikes
them restless, and vents itself toward others
in envy, hatred, maliciousness, wrong, so the
inward peace whereof He saith, My peace I
give unto you, shall, wherever it reacheth,
spread out abroad and, by the power of grace,
bring to " '^ all nations unity, peace, and con
cord." All, being brought under the one
empire of Christ, shall be in harmony, one
with the other. As far as in it lies, the Gospel
is a Gospel of peace, and raakes peace.
Christians, as far as they obey Christ, are at
peace, both in theraselves and with one
another. Aud this is what is here prophe
sied. The peace follows frora His rule.
Where He judges and rebukes, there even
the mighty beat their swords into plouglishares.
The universal peace, araid which our Lord
was born in the fiesh, the first which there
had been since the foundation of the Eoraan
empire, was, in God's Providence, a fruit of
His kingdom. It was no chance coincidence,
since nothing is by chance. God willed that
they should be contemporaneous. It was
fitting that the world should be still, when
its Lord, the Prince of peace, was born in it.
That outward cessation of public strife,
though but for a brief time, was an image
how His peace spread backward as well as
(Is. xxix. 10. xxxiii. 16.) included the idea of number.
The secondary idea of strength, (as we use "well-
knit,") is so prominent, that the idea of number, in
the verb, only occurs in Ps, xl, 13, Jer, xv, 8 ; in the
adj, Num, xxxii, 1, lo Eib,
11 S. John xvi, 8-11, 12 Eph, iii, 10, 13 Litany,

CHAPTEE IV.

57

cheTst ^®^* ^^^®^^ swords into
cir, 710, ."plowshares, and their

bis, 2, 4, Joels, 10,

forward, and of the peace which through
Him, our Peace, was dawning on the world,
" ^ First, according to the letter, beibre That
Child was born to us, '' on Whose shoulder the
government is, the whole world was full of
blood ; people fought against people, kings
against kings, nations against nations. Lastly,
the Eoman state itself was torn by civil wars,
in whose battles all kingdoras shed blood.
But after that, at the time of the Empire of
Christ, Eome gained an undivided erapire,
the world was laid open to the journeys of
Apostles, and the gates of cities were open to
them, and, for the preaching of the One God,
one single empire was formed. It may too be
understood as an image, that, on receiving
the faith of Christ, anger and unrestrained
revilings were laid aside, so that each putteth
his hand to the plough and looketh not back, and,
breaking in pieces the shafts of contumelies,
seeketh to reap spiritual fruit, so that, others
laboring, we enter into their labors ; and of us
it is said, They shall come with joy, bringing
their sheaves^. Now no one fighteth ; for we
read, * Blessed are the peacemakers; no one
learneth to '' strive, to the subverting of the hear
ers. And. every one shall rest under his vine, so
as to press out that ^ Wine, which gladdeneth
the heart of man, unier that ' Vi'ne, whereof the
Father is the Husbandman ; and under his fig
tree, gathering the sweet ^fruits of ihe Ploly
Spirit, love, joy, peace, and the rest,"
The fathers had indeed a joy, which we
have not, that wars were not between Chris
tians; for although "just wars are lawful,"
war cannot be on both sides just ; very few
wars have not, on both sides, what is against
the spirit of the Gospel, For, except where
there is exceeding wickedness on one side, or
peril of further evil, the words of our Lord
would hold good, in public as in private, ' /
say unto you, that ye resist not evil.
This prophecy then is fulfilled 1) in the
character of the Gospel. " '" The law of the
Gospel worketh and preserveth peace. For
it plucketh up altogether the roots of all war,
avarice, ambition, injustice, wrath. Then,
it teacheth to bear injuries, and, so far from
requiting them, willeth that we be prepared
to receive fresh wrongs. He saith, '' If any
one smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him ihe
other also, &e. ^' I say unto you, Love your ene
mies, &c. For neither did the old law give

1 S, Jer,
3 Ps, cxxvi, 6,
oPs, civ, 15.
9 S. Matt. V. 39.
12 Ib. 44-48.

2 Is, i
4S, Matt, V, 9, 6 2 Tim, ii, 14,
f S. .John XV. 1, 8Gal, V, 22,
10 Eib. 11 S, Matt, v, 39^2,
13 Acts iv, 32,

14 Tertull, Apol, c, 39, "For they themselves hate
one another." "For they themselves are more

spears into
hooks : nation shall not

D r U n i n ff- Before
P "& CHEIST

cir. 710.

I Or, scythes.

these counsels, nor did it explain so clearly
the precei^t implied in thera, nor had it that
wonderlul and raost efficacious exaraple of the
patience and love of Christ, nor did it supply
grace, whereby peace could be preserved ;
whereas now the first fruits of the Spirit are
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good
ness." 2) The prophecy has been fulfilled
within and without, among individuals or
bodies of men, in body or mind, in tem
per or in deed, as far as the Gospel
has prevailed, '^ The multitude of them
thai believed were of one heart and of one
mind; one, through One indwelling Spirit;
one, though a great multitude, through one
bond of love. " '* See how these Christians
love one another ; " " see how ready they are
to die for one another," was, in the third cen
tury, a heathen proverb as to Christian love.
" '¦^ T'hey love one another, almost before they
know one another." "'"Their first lawgiver
has persuaded them that they are all breth
ren." "We (which grieves you,) " the Chris
tian answered ", " so love one another, be
cause we know not how to hate. We call
ourselves ' brethren ' which you take ill, as
men who have one Father, God, and are
sharers in oue faith, in one hope, coheirs."
For centuries too, there was, lor the most
part, public peace of Christians among them
selves. Christian soldiers fought only, as
constrained by the civil law, or against Bar
barian invaders, to defend life, wile, children,
not for ambition, anger, or pride. Christians
could then appeal, in fulfillraent of the pro
phecy, to this outward, the fruit of the in
ward, peace. " We," says an early martyr i",
"who formerly stained ourselves with rau-
tual slaughter, not only do not wage war with
foes, but even, in order not to lie and deceive
those who consurae us, willingly professing
Christ, meet death." " From the coming of
the Lord," says another martyr '', " the New
Testament, reconciling unto peace, and a life-
giving law, went forth into all lands. If then
another law and word, going forth from Je
rusalem, produced such peace among the na
tions which received it, and thereby reproved
much people of want of wisdom, then it would
follow that the prophets spake of some other.
But if the law of liberty, that is, the law of God
preached by the Apostles, which went forth
out of Jerusalem to all the world, worked
ready to slay one another," are Tertullian's state
ments as to the contemporary condition of the
Heathen, which their amazement at Christian love
rather confirms, « Minut. Felix, p, 81, ed. Ouz,
"Lucian, de morte Peregrini, i. 507. ed, Grsev,
" Min, F, p, 312, 3,
18 S. Justin M, Apol, i, 39, i' S, Iren, iv, 34, 4,

58

MICAK

cheTst ^^^ ^P ^ sword against
cir, 710, nation, "neither shall

" Ps. 72. 7.

such a transforraation, that swords and spears
of war He wrought into plough-shares and
pruning-hooks, instruments of peace, and
now men know not how to fight, but, when
smitten, yield the other cheek, then the pro
phets spake of no other, but of Him wlio
l-irought it to pass," " Even from this," says
TertuUian \ "you may know that Christ
was proraised, not as one raighty in war, but
as a peace-bringcr. Either deny that these
things were prophesied, since they are plain
to see ; or, since they are written, deny that
they are fulfilled. But if thou mayest deny
neither, thou must own that they are fulfilled
in Him, of Whom they are prophesied,"
" Of old 2," says St. Athanasius, " Greeks and
Barbarians, being idolaters, warred with one
another, and were fierce toward those akin.
For through their implacable warfare no one
might pass land or sea, unarmed. Their
Avhole life was passed in arms ; the sword
was to them for staff' and stay. They wor
shiped idols, sacrificed to demons, and yet
from their reverence for idols they could gain
no help to correct their minds. But when
they passed into the school of Christ, then,
of a truth, pricked in raind, they wondrously
laid aside their savage slaughters, and now
think no raore of things of war ; for now all
p3ace and friendship are alone their mind's
delight. Who then did this, Who blended
in peace those who hated one another, save
the Beloved Son of the Father, the common
Saviour of all, Christ Jesus, Who, through
His love, endured all things for our salva
tion ? For of old too, the peace which should
hold sway from Hira was prophesied, they
shall beat their s-words inio ploughshares. Nor
is this incredible, since now too, the Barba
rians with innate savageness, while they yet
sacrifice to their idols, are mad with one
another, and cannot for one hour part with
their swords. But when they have received
the teaching of Christ, forthwith for ever
they turn to husbandry ; and, in lieu of ai'ra-
ing their hands with swords, stretch them
out to prayer. And altogether, instead of
warring with one another, they arm them
selves against the devil and demons, warring
against them with modesty and virtue of
soul. This is a token of the Godhead of the
Saviour. For what men could not learn
among idols, this they have learned from
Him. Christ's disciples, having uo war with
one another, array themselves against de
mons by their life and deeds of virtue, chase

1 adv. Marc, iii, 21,
2de Incarn, Verb! Dei, c, .51, 2.
8 in Ps, xliv, g3, T, V. p. 186.

they learn war

o TiTT- Before
"'^y CHEIST cir, 710.

them and mock their captain the devil, chaste
in youth, enduring in temptation, strong in
toils, tranquil when insulted, unconcerned
when despoiled."
And yet later, S. Clirysostom says, "^Be
fore the Coming of Christ, all men armed
theraselves and no one was exempt from this
service, and cities fought with cities, and
everywhere were men trained to war. But
now raost of the world is in peace ; all en
gage in mechanical art or agriculture or
commerce, and few are employed in military
service for all. And of this too the occasion
would cease, if we acted as we ought and did
not need to be reminded by afilictions."
"* After the Sun of righteousness dawned,
so far are all cities and nations from living
in such perils, that they know not even how
to take in hand any aff'airs of war. — Or if
there be still any war, it is far off' at the ex
tremity of the Eoman Empire, not in each
city and country, as heretofore. For then, in
any one nation, there jvere countless se
ditions and multiform wars. But now the
whole earth which the sun surveys from the
Tigris to the British isles, and therewith
Lybia too and Egypt and Palestine, yea, all
beneath the Eoman rule, — ye know how all
enjoy complete security, and learn of war
only by hearsay." S. Cyril ^ and Theodoret ^
carry on this account into the fifth century
after our Lord's Coming. Christians then
during those four centuries could point to a
present fulfillment of prophecy, when we, for
our sins, can only speak of the past. * The
Lord's Irnnd is not shortened, that it cannot save :
neither His ear heavy, thai it cemnot hear ; but
our iniquities have separated between us, and
our God, and our sins have hid His Face from
us, that He will not hear. Those first Chris
tians could urge against the Jews the fulfill
ment of their prophecies herein, where the
Jews can now urge upon us their seeming
non-fulfillment ; " ' In the time of King Mes
siah, after the wars of Gog and Magog, there
shall be peace and tranquillity in all the
world, and the sons of men shall have no
need of weapons, but these promises were not
fulfilled," The prophecy is fulfilled, in that
the Gospel is a Gospel of peace and makes
peace. Christians, as far as they obey Christ,
are at peace both in themselves and with
one another. The promises of God are per
fect on His part : He is faithful to them. But
He so ^vills to be freely loved by His intelli
gent creatures whora He forraed for His love,

?in Is, ii, n, 6, T, vi, p, 24, B,
6 on Is. ii, and here, 6 Is, lix, 1, 2.
IE. Isaac, Munim. Fid, i, 6, 7, et all.

CHAPTEE IV.

59

chkTst 4 "'^^^ *^®y ^^'^^i ^^^
°'i'- ^^°- every man under his vine
4 1 Kings, 4, 25. and under his fig tree ;
and none shall make thein

that He does not force our free-agency. We
can fall short of His promises, if we will. To
those only who will it, the Gospel brings
peace, stilling the passions, quelling disputes,
banishing contentions, removing errors, calm
ing concupiscence, soothing and repressing
anger, in individuals, nations, the Church ;
giving oneness of belief, harmony of soul,
contentment with our own, love of others as
ourselves; so that whatever is contrary to this
has its origin in something which is not of
Christ nor of His Gospel.
4. But {And) they shall sit every man, under
his trine and under his fig-tree. Palestine was a
home of the vine and the fig-tree. Vine
yards were a common property, possessed by
all but the very poor \ or even by them '' .
The land was ^ a land of bread and vineyards.
The vine was the emblem of the people, in
Psalmists and Prophets'*. The bunch of
grapes or the vine-leaf appear as character
istic embleras on Jewish coins ^, chiefly in
the times of their revolts under Vespasian
and Pladrian ^. The fig is also mentioned as
part of the characteristic fruitfulness of Pal
estine ' It too was an universal property*.
Both formed natural arbors ; the fig had its
name probably from its length ^, the vine
from the arch made by its drooping boughs ^''.
Both formed, in those hot countries, a grate
ful shade. T'he vine, rising with its single
stem, was spread over trellis-work or by
props, so as to enclose a considerable space ^'.
Even in Italy, a single vine shaded a por
tico ". In Palestine it grew by the wails of the
house ". Eabbins relate how their forefathers
sat and studied under the fig-tree ", as Na
thanael was doubtless meditating or praying
under one, when Jesus, being God, saw him ^°.
1 This is implied in the laws concerning them, as
Ex, xxiii, 11, Lev, xix, 10, xxv, 3, 4, Deut, xx, 0, &e,
comp, Num, xvi, 14, Deut, vi, 11, 1 Sam, viii. 14. xxii,
7, 2 Kgs, xviii. 3z. Ps, cvii, 37, Prov, xxxi, 16,
2 Neh, V, 4, Jer, xxxix, 10, 3 2 Kgs, xviii, 32,
* Ps. Ixxx, 8 sqq. Is, iii. 14, v, 1 sqq, xxvil, 2, Jer,
ii, 21, xii, 10, Ezek, xv, xvii, 5-10, xix, 10, Hos, x, 1,
6 The bunch of grapes appears on coins of Herod
Archelaus, Madden, Jew, Coinage, p, 94, 5, also of
Tiberius, Ib, p, 144, See De Saulcy, p, 134, 140, 1,
The golden vine, given by Alexander to the Eomans
is mentioned by Strabo, (Jos, Ant, 14, 31 J The vine-
tree stood at the porch of the Temple for receiving
alms, Middoth 3, 8, in Levy Jud, Miinz, p, 134, Maa-
den, p. 210.
« Madden, p, 162, 4, 7, 8, 170, 2, 3, 7, 180, 206, 7, 8, 9,
See also De Saulcy, p, 160, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, &c,
' Deut, viii, 8, 8 2 Kgs xviii, 32,
'•"njKn {its name still in the East) from ]NJ'^ 1, q-
pn. i»t3Ji.q. pJ,
11 " We passed the evening, under a large vine,
whose stem was about IJ^ foot in diameter. Its
height was 30 feet; its branches liad to be propped

afraid: for the mouth of cheTst
the Lord of hosts hath ___™1™L_

spoken it.
5 For "all people will » Jer, 2,11.

It exhibits a picture of domestic peace, each
family gathered in harmony and rest under
the protection of God, each content with what
they have, neither coveting another's, nor
disturbed in their own. Wine is explained in
Holy Scripture to be an emblem of gladness,
and the fig of sweetness^". " " For exceeding
sweet is the word of the Saviour, and it know
eth how to gladden man's heart ; sweet also
and full of joy is the hope of the future,
wherewith we are enriched in Christ.
Such had been Israel's lot in the peaceful
days of Solomon '^, the peace of wdiose times
had already been made the image of the
Gospel '^ ; the coming of the Queen of the
South from the uttermost parts of the earth, io
hear the wisdom of Solomon ''", had made her
kingdom to be selected as an emblem of
those who should fall down before Christ and
serve Him'". "22 Such is that most quiet fear
lessness which the law of Christ bringeth, as
being the law of charity, peace, and concord."
And none shall make them afraid. " 23 Neither
man, nor devil ; for the Lord hath given us
power to 2* tread on serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of tlie enemy, and said, noth
ing shall by any means hurt you, and bade us,
'"fear not them which kill the body." Witness
the might which He gave to His Apostles
and Martyi-s.
For the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken
¦it. The Prophets often add this, when wdiat
they say, seems, for its greatness, past belief.
Yet it will be, because Pie hath spoken it, the
Lord Who changeth not, the' Lord of Hosts,
to Whose commands all creatures are subject.
Whose word is truth with Whora to speak is
to do.
5. For all people will walk, every one in ihe
up; and so it covered an arbor more than 50 feet
wide and long, I remembered Micah, I have seen
in this land the people living under both the fig and
the vine; the fig between Jerusalem and Arima-
thea; the vine, here [Beitjin,]" Schulz, Leit, v, 285,
in Paulus Eeisen, vii, 103,
12 Plin, N, H, xiv, 3, 13 Ps. oxxviii, 3,
1* " E, Haiaand his disciples — others say, E, Akiba,
used to rise verv early and sit and study under a
fig-tree." Bereshith Eabba in Winer Eeallex. [wrong
reference.] 15 S, John i, 48, ,
16 Jud. ix. 11, 13, "The nim is the flg, distin
guished for its more perfect sweetness, so that none
such can be found, save in the land of Israel,"
Maimonid, in Demai c, ii, 31, in Cels, Hierob, ii, 309,
" It is appropriated to the food of man," Id. de jure
anni 7 et jubil. c. v. § 8. Ib, Our Lord made it, as
well as the grape, the figure of good fruit, which an
evil nature could not bear, S, Matt, vii, 16. S, Luke
vi, 44, " S, Cyr,
IB 1 Kings iv, 25, w Ps, Ixxii, 20 g. Matt, xii, 42,
21 Ps, Ixxii, 10, 11, 22 Lap, 23 Theoph.
21 S, Luke X, 19. 25 s. Matt, x, 28.

60

MICAH.

c H eTs t '^^^^ every one in the name
cir, 710,

•Zech, 10, 12.

. of his god, and 'we will walk

¦na'me of his god, and we will walk in the name of
the Lord our God. Hitherto unsteadfastness
had been the very characteristic sin of Israel.
It was " ^ constant only in its inconstancy,"
ever ''falling away like their forefathers, starting
aside like a broken bow. The heathen perse
vered in their worship, because it was evil or
had evil in it, not checking but feeding their
passions. Israel did not persevere in his, be
cause it required him to deny himself things
unlawful. ' Hath a ¦nation changed their gods
which are yet no gods ? But My people have
changed their glory for that whieh doth not profit.
Henceforth, the Prophet professeth for his
people, the true Israel, that he will be as
steadfast in good, as the heathen in evil ; so
our Lord sets forth * the children of this world
in their generation, as an example of wisdom to
the children of light.
" ^ They who are eager to go up into the
mountain of the Lord, and wish to learn thor
oughly His ways, promise a ready obedi
ence, and receive in themselves the glories
of tlie life in Christ, and undertake with their
whole strength to be earnest in all holiness.
' For let every one,' he saitli, ' in every
country and city go the way himself chooseth,
and pass his life, as to him seemeth good ;
but our care is Christ, and His laws we will
make our straight path ; we will walk along
with Him ; and that not for this life only,
present or past, but yet more for what is be
yond.' ^ It is a faithful saying. For they who
now suffer with Him, shall walk with Plim
forever, and with Him be glorified, and with
Him reign. But they make Clirist their care,
who prefer nothing to His love, who cease
from the vain distractions of the world, and
seek rather righteousness and what is pleasing
unto Hira, and to excell in virtue. Such an
one was the divine Paul ; for he writeth, ' /
am crucified with Chri.st ; and now no longer 1
live, but Christ liveth in me ; and again *, I deter
mined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
To walk is so uniformly in Holy Scripture
used of a person's moral or religious " ways'"
(as we say), that the Prophet here too is
doubtless speaking of the opposite religious
ways ofthe Heathen and of the future people
of God. The 'name was often, in Hebrew, ex
pressive of the character ; and, in regard to
lEib. 2 Ps. Ixxviii. 67. 3 jer. ji, n,
4 S, Luke xvi, 8, 6S, Cyr,
0 2 Tim. ii, 11, 12, Eom, viii, 17, Eev, iii, 4,
' Gal, ii, 20, 8 1 Cor, ii, 2,
9 As to u'a.lk in God's statutes, (Ezek, v, 6, 7, &c,
and seven other places) in His judgments, IPs. Ixxxix,
31, Ez, xxxvi. 27,) in Sis commanilments, (2 Chr, xvii,
4,) in His law, (Pa, Ixxviii, 10 &c.) in His fear, fNeli,
V. 9.) and, in the corresponding place in Isaiah, in

in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever. _

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,

God Himself, that Name which He vouch
safed to give to Himself", expressed His
Self-existence, and, as a result, Plis Un-
changeableness and His Faithfulness, The
names, by which it was foretold that Christ
should be called, express both His Deity and
attributes''; the human Narae, which He
bare and vouchsafes to bear yet, was signifi
cant of His office for us. Saviour ^''. To praise
the Name of tlie Lord then, is to praise Btira in
that character or relation which He has re
vealed to us. " "He walketh in the Name of
the Lord, who ordereth every act and motion
worthily of the vocation wherewith he is
called, and, ^^ whether he eateth or drinketh, doth
all to the glory of God." This promise hath its
own reward ; ibr it is for ever and ever. They
who wcdk in the Name of tlie Lord, shall ivalk i°
before Him in the land of the living, for ever and
ever. Such walk on, with quickened steps,
lingering not, in tlie Name of the Lord our God,
i. e. doing all things in His Name, as His
great Name requires, conforraed to the holi
ness and all other qualities which His Name
expresseth. For ever and ever, lit, for ever and
yet, or, more strictly still, /or that whieh is hid
den and yet, which is the utmost thought of
eternity we can come to. Time indeed has
no relation to eternity ; for time, being God's
creature, is infinite. Still, practically to us,
our nearest conception of eternity, is exist
ence, on and on and on, an endless, unchang
ing, ever-prolonged future, lost in distance
and hidden from us, and then, and yet, an
ever-to-come yet, which shall never come to
au end. Well then may we not faint, as
tho' it were long to toil or to do without this
or that, since the part of our way which lies
amid toils and weariness is so short, and will
soon be at an end ; what lies beyond, in joy,
is infinite in infinite joy, ever full and still
ever a yet to come.
The Prophet says, we will walk; "'^unit
ing himself in longing, hope, faith, to the sons
of the New Testaraent, i, e. Christians, as his
brethren, re-born by the grace of the sarae
Christ ; " " i' rainisters of the Old, heirs of
the New Testament, because they loved
through that same faith wdiereby we
love ; believing in the Incarnation, Passion,
Eesurrection of Christ yet to be, as we be
lieve in it, having been,"
the light of tlie Lord. (Is, ii, 5,) see Ges, Thes, v, "iSn.
p, 378, and above on Mic, ii, 11, p. 35, So again to
walk with God, (Gen, v, 22,) or before God, (lb, xvii.
1.) or contrary io God. (Ley, xxvi, 21,)
I'nin'' See on Hos, xii, 6, vol, i, p, 119,
11 Is, vii, 14, Immanuel, i.e. God with us; ix, 6,
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, &c,
12 S, Matt, i, 21 , 13 Theoph, " 1 Oor, x, 31.
16 Ps. cxvi. 9. I'Tir. " S. Aug, c, 2 Bpp, Pelag, iii, 4.

CHAPTEE IV.

61

c H eTs t ^ -'-^ *^^* ^'^y' ^'^'^^^ *^®
"il'- '^iQ- LoED, '^ will I assemble her
sEzek. 34. 16, that halteth, "^and I will
kps, 147,2, ' gather her that is driven
&37. 21. ' ' out, and her that I have
aiSicted ;
7 And I will make her

6. In that day, i, e, in tb.at day of Chri^
and of His Gospel, of grace and salvation,
the last days of which he had been speaking.
Hitherto he had prophesied the glory of
Zion, chiefiy through the coming-in oi^ the
Gentiles. Now he adds, how the Jews should,
with them, be gathered by grace into the one
fold, in that long last day of the Gospel, at
the beginning, in the course of it, and com
pletely at the end '.
Her that halteth. The Prophet resumes
the image of the scattered flock, under which
he had before ^ foretold their restoration.
This was no hope of his own, but His word
Who cannot fail. The course of events, upon
which he is entering, would be, at times, for
their greatness and their difficulty, past
human belief. So he adds straightway, at
the outset, saith the Lord. To halt is used of
Ijodily lameness \ and that, of a flock, worn
out by its wanderings *. It is used also of
moral halting °, such as had been a chief sin
of Israel, serving partly God, partly Baal ^ ;
God, with a service of fear, Baal with a ser
vice of that counterfeit of love, sensuality.
So it was siek, both in body and soul, and driven
out' also, and afflieted.
7. And Iter that was cast off a strong nation.
The prophecy, that there should be a rem
nant, was depressing. Yet what a remnant
should it be ! A remnant, which should
multiply like the stars of heaven or the sand
on the sea-shore. Israel had never been a
. strong nation, as a kingdom of this world. At
its best estate, under David, it had subdued
the petty nations around it, who were con
federated to destroy it. It had never com
peted with the powers of this world. East or
West, Egypt or Nineveh, although God had
at times marvelously saved it from being
swallowed up by thera. Now, the remnant
of Judah, which itself was but a remnant of
the undivided people, was to become a strong
nation. So Isaiah prophesied, ''A Utile one
shall become a thousand, and a small one a
strong nation. Plainly not in temporal great
ness, both because human strength was not,
and could not be, its characteristic, and be-
lEom, xi, 26, 2ii. 12, 13, 3Gen xxxii, 32,
' 4 Zeph, iii, 19,
6 Ps. xxxv, 15, xxxviii, 18, , . ,,„ , ,
61 Kings xviii, 21, The word is different here.
1 nn'nf is used with the same image of the dis-

that halted 'a remnant, r,S^r^°F^n.
and her that was cast far cir- ^i"-

offa strong nation: and'ch, 2, 12,
the Lord " shall reign over & 1'. ig, '
them in mount Zion from & 24,' 23,
henceforth, even for ever. Luke 1,^33,^^'
8 «^*And thou, O tower Kev,ii,i5,

cause the Prophet had been speaking of spirit
ual restoration.
" ' Strong are they, whom neither torture
nor allurements can separate from the love
of Christ," " ."-'trong are they, who are strong
against themselves." Strong were they who
said '", We ought to obey God rather than men,
and ", Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecu
tion, or famine, or ¦nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than con
querors through Him that loved us. God does
not oply restore in the Gospel; Pie multiplies
exceedingly. " ^'' I will so clothe her with
the spirit of might, that, as she shall be
fruitful in number, so shall she be glorious in
victori*, so that of her it shall be said '', Who
is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the
moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with
banners ?" For, not to name those, whose whole
life is one warfare against invisible enemies
and the evil desires of the flesh, who shiall
count the martyrs of Christ ? We know that
that remnant and strong nation owe wholly to
grace all which they are, as they themselves
in the Eevelations give thanks ; " Thou wast
slain and hast redeemed 'us to Ood by Thy Blood,
out of every kindred and tongue and people and
nation, and hast made us unto our God kings
and priests, and we shall reign on the earth;
that same Lord, of Whora it is here said.
The Lord shall reign over them in Zion from
henceforth even forever. The visible kingdom
of God in Judah was often obscured, kings,
princes, priests, and false prophets combining
to encourage one another in rebellion against
God, In the captivity it even underwent
an almost total eclipse bythe over-shadowing
of earthly power, save when the Divine light
flashed forth for an instant in the deeds or
words of power and wisdom, related by
Daniel. Henceforth, i. e. frora the time, when
the law should go forth out of Zion, God should
indeed reign, and that kingdom should have
no end.
8. And thou, 0 tower of ihe fiock. " ' Tower
of Ader,' which is interpreted ' tower of the
flock,' about 1000 paces (a mile) from Beth-
persed flock, Zeph. iii. 19, Ez, xxxiv, 4 16, and
in'^n Jer, 1, 17.
8 ix 22 9 Gloss. 1" Acts V. 29.
11 Eom. viii, 36, 37. " Rup. 13 Cant. vi. 10.
1* Rev. V. 9, 10.

62

MICAH.

cheTst °^ 11^^® flock, the strong
 "''¦ ™-  hold of the daughter of
1 Or, Edar : Gen. 35, 21.

lehem," says St. Jerome' wdio lived there,
" and foresignifying [in its very name] by a
sort of prophecy the shepherds at the Birth
of the Lord." There Jacob fed his isheep ^,
and there (since it was hard by Bethlehem)
the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks
by night, saw and heard the Angels singing,
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward raen." The Jews in
ferred from this place that the Messiah
should be revealed there ^.
Stronghold [Ophel*] of the daughter of Zion.
Ophel was a strong place in the South of
Jerusalem, the last which the wall, enclosing
Zion, reached, before, or as, it touched on the
Eastern porch of the temple ", with whose
service it was connected. \ie know that,
after the captivity, the Nethinim, who did
the laborious service of the temple, dwelt
there ". It lay very near to the priests' dis
trict '. It was probably, u, lower acclivity,
" swelling out," (as its narae seeras to raean**,)
from the mountain of the temple. .In the
last war, it was held together with " ' the
temple, and the adjoining jDarts to no slight
extent, and the valley of Kedron." It was
burnt 1" before the upper city was taken. It
had been encircled by a wall of old ; for
Jotham " '1 built greatly upon its wall,"
Manasseh " '2 encircled it," (probably with an
outer wall) " and raised it exceedingly," i. e.
apparently raised artificially the whole level.
Yet, as a symbol of all Jerusalem, Ophel
is as reraarkable, as the " tower of the flock "
is as to Bethlehem, For Ophel, although
fortified, is no where spoken of, as of any ac
count''. It is not even mentioned in the
circuit of the walls, at their dedication under
Nehemiah '*, probably as an outlying, spot.
It was probably of moment chiefly, as giving
1 de loc, Hebr. Arculf A, D. r,7(i found "a Church
of the Shepherds," a mile from Bethlehem, Early
trav, in Pal. p. 6. The I\Iigdal Edar is mentioned
also iu the Mass. Shekalim c. 7, 4, " Of the herds,
in the space between Jerusalem and ' the tower of
the flock ' and on both sides, the males are for
burnt-oiferings, the female for peace-offerings. R.
Jehuda says, whatever male animals are found
(there) thirty days before the pa-^^over fit for it, are
to be used thereto." in Sepp. Heil. Laud. ii. 470,
2 Gen, ,x.xxv, 21,
3Ps, Jon, on Gen. xxxv. 21. " This is the place,
where in the last days Messiah sliall be revealed."
< Ophel, like many other Hebrew Proper names,
did not lose its original appellative meaning, and
so in the 6 places, where it occurs in the prose
books, keeps the article; 2 Chron, xxvii, 3, xxxiii,
14. Neh, iii, 26, 7. xi, 21. and 2 Kings v. 24. in which
last place it may very possibl.v be a place in Sama
ria, named after that in Jerusalem. It occurs with
out the art. here and Is. xx.xii. 14. and in Josephus,
'0<p^a.s. The E. V. retains the word as a Proper
name in the historical books, 2 Chron, and Neh.
6 "The oldest wall was hard to be taken on ac
count of the ravines, and the ridge above them on

Zion, unto thee shall
come, even the first domin-

;+ Before
•"' CHEIST

an advantage to an enemy who might
occupy it.
Both then are images of lowliness. The
lonely Shepherd tower, for Bethlehem, the
birthplace of David ; Ophel for Jerusalem,
of which it was yet but an outlying part,
and deriving its value probably as au out
work of the temple. Both symbols anticipate
the fuller prophecy of the littleness, which
shall become great in God. Before the men
tion of the greatness of the dominion to come,
is set forth the future poverty to which it
should come. In lowliness Christ came, yet
is indeed a Tower protecting and defending
the sheep of His pasture, founded on earth
in His Human Nature, reaching to Heaven
in His Divine ; '' a stroilg Tower ; tlie righteous
runneth into it, and is safe.
Unto thee shall it come ; (lit. wnto thee shcdl
it come '*, and there shall arrive &c.) He saith
not at first what shall come, and so raises the
soul to think of the greatness of that which
should come. The soul is left to fill up what
is more than thought can utter. Unto thee,
(lit. quite up to thee ".) No hindrances should
withhold it from coming. Seemingly it was
a great way off, and they in a very hopeless
state. He suggests the difficulty even by his
strength of assurance. One could not say, it
.shall come quite up to thee, of that Avhich in the
way of nature would readily come to any one.
But amid all hindrances God's Might makes
its way, and brings His gifts and promises to
their end, Aiul there shall arrive. He twice
repeats the assurance, in equivalent words,
for their fuller assurance, "'"'to make the
good tidings the gladder by repeating and
enforcing them,"
The first or former, dominion. The word
often stands, as our " former 'V in contrast
which it was built.— On the West — turning to the S.
over the pool of Siloam, and then again bending
Eastward to Solomon's pool, aud extending to a
place which they call Ophlas, it was joined on to the
Eastern porch of the temple," Jos. B. J. v, 4, 2,
6 Neh, iii. 26. xi. 21, i lb, iu, 28,
3 Lilie tumnlus from tumeo. Fiirst. It is used of
a local tumor in Arab, and in Deut. xxviii, 27, 1 Sam.
V, 6, 12, vi, 4. 5, and of the swelling of pride, Num,
xiv, 44, Hab, ii, 4, b by John, Jos, B, J, v, 6, 1,
10 Together with "the archive, Acr.a, the Council-
hall," Ib, vi, 6. 3, after the destruction of the temple,
Ib, vi, 4. 5-7. 11 2 Chron. xxvii, 3, 12 Ib. xx.xiii. 14.
13 Josephuscalls it," thatwhich was called Ophlas."
B. J. V. 4. 2. vi. 6, 3,
14 Neh, xii, 31-40. 15 Prov, xviii, 10,
18 The Masorethes seem rightly to have marked
this by the accents. "'Tl!^*- i** Eup.
19 So, the former time, (Is, viii, 23.) deeds, (2 Chron,
ix, 29, xvi, 11, XX, 34,) king, (Num, xxvi. 26,)
tables, (Ex, xxxiv, 1,) benefits. (Ps. Ixxxix. 50.) days,
(Deut, iv, 32, X, 10,) kings, (Jer, xxxiv, ,5 ) prophets,
(Zech, i. 4, vii. 7, 12.) temple, (Ezr. iii. 12, Hagg, ii, 3,
9,) See Ges, Thes, p, 1251.

CHAPTEE IV.

63

ion ; the kingdom shall

Before
CHEIST cir. 710. fiome to the daughter of

1 Jer, 8,19.

» Is, 13. 8.
& 21. 3.
Jer. 30. 6.
& 50. 43.

Jerusalem. 9 Now why dost thou
cry out aloud ? ' is there no
king in thee ? is thy coun
sellor perished? for "pangs
have taken thee as a woman
in travaiL

with the "later." It is not necessarily the
first, strictly ; and so here, not the dominion
of David and Solomon exclusively. Eather
the Prophet is placed in spirit in the later
times when the kingdom should be suspended,
and foretells that the former dominion, i. c.
that of the line of David, should come to her,
not in its temporal greatness, but the line
itself. So the Angel said, ' He shall be great
and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and
the Lord God shall give unto Him tlie throne of
His father David, and He shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever.
The [A] kingdom to the daughter of Jerusor
lem, i. e. a kingdom, which should not be of
her, but which should come to her ; not her's
by right, but by His right, Who should merit
it for her, and, being King of kings, makes
His own, ^ kings and priests unto God aiul His
Father. The Jews themselves seem to have taken
these words into their own mouths, just
before they rejected Him, when they hoped
that He would be a king, such as they wished
for. '' Blessed, be the kingdom of our father
Daviel that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
And in a distorted form, they held it even
afterward ¦*,
9. Now. The prophet places himself in
the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of
them he promises comfiu-t. Why dost thou
cry out aloud ? is there no King in thee ? is thy
Counsellor perished ^ ? Is then all lost, because
thou hast no visible king, none to counsel
thee or consult for thee^'? Very remarkably
he speaks of their King and Counsellor as one,
as if to say, " When all beside is gone, there
is One Who abides. Though thou be a cap
tive, God will not forsake thee. When thou
hadst no earthly king, ^ the Lord thy Ood was
thy King. He is the First, and He is the
Last. 'When thou shalt have no other. He,
thy King, ceaseth not to be." "'Thou
1 S. Luke i. 32, 3. 2 Eev. i. 6.
8 S. Mark xi. 10.
* Targ. " And thou, O Messiah of Israel, who art
hid on account of the sins of the congregation
of Israel, to thee the kingdom will eome," giving
to '^3'y the sense of SpN- (as in the LXX, Vnig,
Aq, Symm, Syr,) and thence obtaining the sense

10 Be in pain, and la- chr^I^
bor to bring forth, 0^_5Ei21£i_
daughter of Zion, like a
woman in travail : for now
shalt thou go forth out of
the city, and thou shalt
dwell in the field, and thou
shalt go even to Babylon ;
there shalt thou be de-

shouldest not fear, so long as He, Who coun-
selleth for thee, liveth ; but Pie liveth for
ever." Thy Counsellor, Pie, Who is called
" Counsellor, "Who counselleth for thee.
Who counselleth thee, will, if thou obey
His counsel, make birth-pangs to end in
joy. For pangs have taken thee, as a woman in
travail, resistless, remediless, doubling the
whole frame, redoubled until the end, for
which God sends thera, is accomplished, and
then ceasing in joy. The truest corafort,
amid all sorrow, is in owning that the
travail-pains must be, but that the reward
shall be afterward. " ' It is raeet to look
for deliverance from God's mercy, as cer
tainly as for punishment from our .guilt ; and
that the raore, since He who foretold both,
willingly saves, punishes unwillingly." So
the prophets adds.
10. Be in pain, and labor io bring forth, (lit.
Writhe and burst forth,) as if to siiy, "thou
must sufl'er, but thy sufiering and thy joy shall
be one. Thou canst not have the joy without
the suffering. As surely as thou sufferest, thou
shalt have joy. In all sorrow, lose not faith
and hope, and " thou shalt be sorroufitl, but thy
sorrow shall be turned into joy." " '" Good
daughter, be very patient in the pangs, bear
up against your sorrows," so shall the birth
be nigh. Yet for the tirae she must go forth
out of the city into captivity. And tlwu shalt
dwell in the field, houseless, under tents, as
captives were wont to be kept, until all were
gathered together to be led away ; a sore
exchange for her former luxury, and in
requital of their oppression ".
And thou shalt go even to Babylon. Not
Babylon, but Assyria was the scourge of God
in Micah's time. Babylon was scarcely
known, afar eounti-y '^. Yet Micah is taught
of God to declare that thither shall the two
tribes be carried captive, although the ten
" hidden," in reference to their fable that He was
born before the destruction of the temple and
hidden by God,
6 Comp, Hos. xiii. 10. " 1 Sam, xii, 12,
I Mont, 3 Is, ix, 6.
ss, John xvi, 20,
i^S, Cyr, 11 Am, vi, Micah ii. 8, 9.
12 2 Kings XX. 14,

64

MICAH.

cheTst li"^ered; there the Lord
 "'''¦ "^i"- shall redeem thee from the

hand of thine enemies.
"Lam. 2. 16. 11 ^"Now also many
nations are gathered
against thee, that say. Let

were carried captive by Assyria. There '
shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall
redeem thee from the hand '' of thine enemies.
God's judgments, or purifying trials, or visi
tation of His saints, hold their way, until
their end be reached. They who suffer them
cannot turn thera aside ; they who inflict
them cannot add to them or detain them.
The prisonhouse is the place of deliverance
to Joseph and St. Peter ; the Eed-sea to
Israel; the judges were raised up, when Israel
was mightily oppressed ; Jabesh-Gilead was
delivered when the seventh day was come ' ;
the walls of Jerusalem were the end of Sen
nacherib; Judah should have long been in
the very hand and grasp of Babylon, yet
must its clenched hand be opened.
11. Now also. [And now.] The prophet
had already spoken of the future before them,
with this, word Now. Then, he distinctly
prophesied the captivity to Babylon. Twice
more he begins anew ; as Holy Scripture, so
often, in a mystery, whether speaking of evil
or of good, of deliverance or of punisliment,
uses a threefold form. In these two, no men
tion is raade of the enemy, and so there is some
uncertainty. But the course must apparently
be either backward or forward. They must
either be two nearer futures before the Cap
tivity, or two more distant after it. This
second gathering might, in itself, either be
that of the Assyrian hosts under Sennacherib
out of all the nations subject to him ; or that
of the many petty nations in the time of the
Maccabees, who took advantage of the
Syrians' oppression, to combine to eradicate
the Jews*. If understood of Sennacherib,
the prophet, having foretold the entire cap
tivity of the whole people to Babylon, would
have prophesied the sudden destruction of a
nearer eneray, whose rairaculous and instan
taneous overthrow should be the earnest of
the destruction of Babylon and of their
deliverance from it. This would suit well
with the description. He shall gather them as
sheaves to the floor, and would correspond well
with the descriptions in Isaiah. On the
other hand, whereas this description would
suit any other event, in which man gathered
his strength against God and was overthrown,
1 See on Hos. ii. 15.
2 lit. "the hollow of the hand," and so "the
grasp," 3 1 Sam. xi. 3. 10, 11.
4 1 Maoe. V. 1, 2.

Before

her be defiled, and let our q jj j^ j g ^
eye " look upon Zion. ''i''- ''i"-

12 But they know not "Obad.ii,
•' ch, 7, 10,
" the thoughts of the Loed, r is- ss- s,
° ' Eom, 11, 33.
neither understand they
his counsel : for he shall

the following words. Arise and thresh, 0
daughter qf Zion, &c, fit better with the vic
tories of the Maccabees, in which Israel was
active, than with the overthrow of Sen
nacherib, in which they were wholly passive,
and God did all for them, as Isaiah and
Nahum foretell the same overthrow ^, Then
also, if the course of the description was
backward, 1) the captivity in Babylon, 2)
the destruction of Sennacherib, there is no
earlier e^'ent to correspond with * the smiting
of the judge of Israel on the cheek. The malice
also of the nations gathered against Zion
suits better with the abiding character of the
petty nations, and of their hereditary envy
against Israel and its high claims. To
Nineveh and Babylon, Israel was but one
little corner of ground, which rounded their
territory and connected them with Egypt.
They disdained them, even while they sought
to subdue tliem. Micah describes the exul
tation of petty gratified rivalry.
That say, let her be defiled. The bad have a
keen eye for the baitings and inconsistencies
and falls of God's people, for which they are
ever on the watch. Like Satan, they are
first tempters, then the accusers ; first dese-
crators, then sanctimonious justiciaries. God,
in His judgment, leaves what has been in
wardly defiled to be outwardly profaned. ''If
any man defile the temple of Ood, him shall Ood
destroy ; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple are ye. " The faithful city had become a
harlot. ^ The land had become polluted by its
inhabitants. Now it was to be polluted
by the enemy. Its seducers ask for the
judgment of God. "It has become like
us in its deeds; let it no more be distin
guished from us by the name of the people
of God."
And let our eye look upon Zion, with pleasure
upon its desolation, and feed itself with its

misery.

' Where the eye, there love ;

where the hand, there pain." " Tliey opened
their mouth wide against me: they said. Aha,
Aha, our eye hath seen. The world hates the
Church ; Edom, Israel ; it cannot be satisfied
with beholding its chastisements '2. The
sufferings of the Martyrs were the choice
spectacle of the Heathen.
6 Is, X. 24-34, xiv, 24, 5, xvii. 12-14. xxix. 7, 8. Nah.
i, 10-13, 6 V, iHt. Heb. ' 1 Cor. iii. 17, 8 is, i, 21,
» Jer, iii, 0, Ps. cvi, 38, Is, xxiv, 5,
1" Proverb in Lap, n Ps, xxxv, 21,
12 Mic, vii, 10, Ob, 12, '-

CHAPTEE IV.

65

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
1 1s, 21, 10,
' Is, 41, 15, 16.
Jer. 61. 33.

gather them ^as the
sheaves into the floor.
13 "'Arise and thresh, O
daughter of Zion : for I
will make thine horn iron,
and I will make thy hoofs

12. But they know not the thoughts of the
Lord, neither understand they His counsel.
The heathen did, for their own ends, what
God willed for His, The flrst step was the
same ; God willed that His people should be
punished ; they willed to punish them. But
all which lay beyond, they saw not ; that
God willed (on their repentance) to pardon
His own people, but to punish themselves for
their pride ' and cruelty 2. " 3 Almighty
God corrects the elect through the reprobate,
as with a rod ; after which He condemns the
reprobate eternally, as when the son has
been disciplined, the rod is cast into the
fire," For He shall gather them as the sheaves into
the fioor. The multitude of the sheaves hin
ders not the threshing; the multitude of
God's enemies hinders not their destruc
tion. They think that they strengthen
themselves, as they gather together; God
sees thera but as ripened and fitted for
destructioh, gathered into one bundle
together, to perish together. God gathers
thera, not by constraint or force, but by
giving free scope to their own wayward wills,
and overruling these to His ends.
13. Arise (it raay be,) from the dust in
which they were lying, Iwill make thine horn
iron, and I 'will make thy hoofs brass. Thresh
ing in the East is partly with oxen, partly
with wheels of iron, or with planks set with
sharp flints on an open place raade hard to
this end. The Pl-ophet joins another image,
with this and represents Judah as being by
God endued with strength, first as with a
horn of iron * to cast the enemy to the
ground, and then with hoofs of brass, where
with to trample them to dust, as the stubble
and chaff. And I will consecrate their gain unto
the Lord, i. e. to Myself ; the Lord gathered
them into the floor by His Providence ; the
Lord gave His people strength to subdue
them ; and now, in His own Person, Pie says,
I will complete My own work.
The very image of the " threshing " im
plies that this is no mere destruction. 'VVhile
the stubble is beaten or bruised to small pieces,
and the chaff is far more than the wheat,
and is carried out of the floor, there yet re
mains the seed-corn. So in the great judg
ments of God, while most is refuse, there yet

1 Is, X, 7.
3 Dion.

12,

2 Zeeh, i. 16, 19,
* 1 Kings xxii, 11,

brass : and thou shalt 'beat
in pieces many people : .
' and I will consecrate their
gain unto the Lord, and
their substance unto ° the
Lord of the whole earth.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,
' Dan. 2. 44.
t Isai. 18. 7.
& 23, IS,
& 60, 6, 9,
" Zeek, 4. 14.
&6, 5.

remains over, what is severed from the lost
heap and wholly consecrated to Him, What
ever things were the object of the "Cherem ^"
or " thing devoted to the Lord," could not be
redeeraed, but must remain wholly the Lord's.
If it had life, it was to be put to death ^. And
so the use of the word here may the rather
shew, how those converted to God, and who
became gain, hallowed to Him, were to pass
through death to life, to die to themselves
that they might live to Him : what was evil
was to be slain in thera, that they themselves
might live.
The Israelites and God's dealings with
them are ' ensamples of us upon whom the ends
of the world are come. And so the whole sec
tion fits wonderfully with the condition of the
single soul.
She who halteth is " * the soul, who would
serve God, yet not so as wholly to give up
the service of the world, which it had in
Baptism renounced, who, after it had gone
astray like a lost sheep, and been scattered
amid the manifoldness of earthly things, was
gathered again into the fold, to love One
only, long for One only, give itself to One,"
its Good Shepherd, and over it the Lord
reigneth for ever, if, taught by experience
the deceitfulness of Satan's proraises, and
stung by the sense of its own thanklessness and
vileness, and conscious of the peril of self
confidence, it abideth more closely than
others with God. He shall gather her that is
driven out, i. e. " ^ He shall restore her, from
whom He had, for the time, withdrawn His
grace," and her that was afflieied, trouble being
God's most effectual instruraent, in recalling
the soul to Himself. " '" For the Lord raiseth
them that are bowed down. And will make her
that halteth, a remnant, placing her among the
elect and holy, and her that was cait off strong ;
for Christ giveth oft to such souls great rich
ness of Divine graces, so that " where sin
abounded, grace should m'uch ¦more abound."
" ^ To it, when enlightened and purified by
aflliction and by repentance, it is promised,
that its Lord, the Great King, shall come to
it, and again reign in it, which is the great
bliss of souls in grace. For then doth the
soul really reign, when it submits wholly to
Christ, Whom to serve is to reign, and so,
under Him, receives power to command its

& Lev. xxvii. 28.
» Eib. 0 Dion.

» Ib. 29, ' 1 Cor. X. 11.
10 Ps, cxlvi, 8, . 11 Eom, V. 20.

66

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,

CHAPTEE V.
1 The birth of Christ. 4 His
kingdom. 8 His conquest.
MOW gather thyself in
troops 0 daughter of

wrong desires, and rule itself ; " that great
and wonderful power which the Evangelist
expresses in words so brief, ' To ihem gave He
power to become the sons of Ood. Thus He
¦maketh it strong, so that ^ neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, can
separate it from the love of Ood which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Then, "he describes the
condition of the soul fluctuating between good
and evil, called one way by God through in
ward inspirations, and another way by the
enticements and habits of sin. And, wishing
to follow God, yet not to be without its sinful
pleasures, and knowing this to be impossible,
it is in anguish and hesitates. Her the pro
phet JListly rebukes, ^ why thus cry aloud, as
though thou must be led captive by the
Devil, not knowing or unable to extricate
thyself? Hast thou no King, aided by Whose
power, thou mayest fight against all entice
ments, habit, the flesh?' Paul felt this and
cried aloud, ^ I see another law in my members,
warring against tlie laio of my mind, and bring
ing me into captivity to the law of sin whieh is in
my members. 0 wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
You see his grief. But he despairs not. He
knows that he has a King. I thank Ood
through Jesus Clirist our Lord. Or why griev-
est thou, as if thou hadst no counsellor, by
whose counsels to free thee from these snares ?
Thy Counsellor indeed perished on the Cross,
but for thy sake, that thou mayest live. He
died, to destroy him who hath tfie power of
death. But He rose the third day and is
still with thee ; at the Eight Hand of the
Father He still reigns Immortal forever.
See how many counsels He has left thee in
the Gospel, how raany admonitions, whereby
thou mayest lead a happy and tranquil life.
Now pain seizes thee like a woman in travail.
For such a soul travails, having conceived in
spirations from God, which it wishes to obey,
but that the flesh, overcome by concupiscence,
resists, and so it never brings forth, nor ex
periences that joy, whereof the Lord speak
eth, * 'Wlien she is delivered of the child, she re
membereth no more the anguish, for joy that a
'man is born into the world. Wherefore he adds;
be in pain, for thou art indeed in travail ;
thou wilt not cease to be in pain, until thou
bring forth. Thou unit go forth, &c. " ^ God,
by a provision of His great mercy, allows
lukewarm souls, who will be at no pains to
gain grace, to fall into foulest sins, in order
IS. John 1,12, 2Eom, viii, 38,9, 3 Eom, vii, 2.3,24,
4 S, John xvi. 21. 6 Rib, 6H:eb,xi,10, 'Is.ix. 6,

troops : he hath laid siege ^ h e°/| ^
against us: they shall — °'^' ''^''' —
"smite the judge of Israel » Lam, 3,30.
Matt. 6. 39.
with a rod upon the cheek. & 27. 30.

that, owsing at last their misery, they may
cease to be lukewarm, aud with great ardor
of soul may embrace virtue. For, warned by
the result, they understand that they thera
selves emboldened the tempter, (for he
chiefly attacks the lukewarm and remiss,)
and they become ardent in the conflict and in
well-doing." Wherefore he says, thou shalt
go forth out of ihe city, that City of God, where
of He is the Builder a'nd Maker ^, which is
gladdened by the river of His spirit ; " and
It dwells in the open field, unprotected, readj'
to be a prey, in the broad way of its own con
cupiscences, out of the narrow road which lead
eth to life, and goeth even to Babylon, the city of
' confusion,' in tumult and din and unrest,
and the distractions of this life." Yet even
there shall it be delivered, like the poor
Prodigal, who came to himself in a far coun
try, when worn out by its hard service. Even
there it must not despair, but remember,
with him, its Father's house, its former
home, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Its pains
within or without, whereby it is brought
back, are travail-pains. Though all is dark,
it must not say, / have no Counsellor. For its
Eedeemer's Narae is ' Counsellor, " ^ one
Counsellor of a thousand." " " Thine Inter
cessor never dies." Out of the very depth of
misery will the Divine Mercy draw thee.
Though thou seem held by the strong hand
of the enemy, and he seems to triumph over
thee and to jeer thee, '" There, there so would we
have it, we have devoured him, and hosts of
devils seek thy utter destruction, and thou
seem to be ^^ delivered over. to them to ihe de
struction of the fiesh ; yet is it only that ihe
spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.
Even Satan, when he is tormenting souls,
knows not the thoughts of the Lord, nor under
stands His counsels, how, by the very pain
which he inflicts, God is bidding them. Rise
and "^look up to heaven and long for heav
enly things and trample on all which they
had hitherto foully served, honor or vain
glory or covetousness or lust ; " how He will
exalt their horn in the Lord, make it strong as
iron^ that they should do all things through
Christ in strengthening tliem, and conquer all
through the might of Christ ; how He should
bruise Satan under their feet shortly, and they
consecrate wholly to God their whole strength,
every power of soul and body which hitherto
had been the adversary's.
V. 1. Now gather thyself in troops, 0 daughter

' Eeclus, vi, 6.
I'Ps, xxxv, 25,

2 Christian Year.
"ICor. V. 6.

CHAPTEE V.

67

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,

2 But thou, "Beth-le-
b Matt, 2, 6, John 7, 42,

of troops. The daughter of troops is still the
same who was before addressed, Judah, The
word is almost always ' used of " bands of
men employed in irregular, marauding, in
roads." Judah is entitled daughter of troops,
on account of her violence, the robbery and
bloodshed within her 2, as J eremiah says ^, Is
this house which is called by My Name become a
den of robbers in your eyes? She then who
had spoiled * should now be spoiled ; she who
had formed herself in bands to lay waste,
shall now be gathered thick together, in
small bands ^, unable to resist in the open
field ; yet in vain should she so gather her
self; for the enemy was upon her, in her last
retreat. This description has obviously no fulfill
ment, except in the infliction by the Eomans.
For there was no event, before the invasion
by Sennacherib and accordingly in the pro
phet's own time, in which there is any seera-
ing fulfillraent of it. But then, the second
deliverance must be that by the Maccabees ;
and this siege, which lies, in order of time,
beyond it, must be a siege by the Eomans.
'\^'ith this it agrees, that whereas, in the two
former visitations, God promised, in the first,
deliverance, in the second, victory, here the
Prophet dwells on the Person of the Eedeem
er, and foretells that the strength of the
Church should not lie in any human means *-
Here too Israel had no king, but a j'udge only.
Then the "gathering in robber-bands" strik
ingly describes their internal state in the
siege of Jerusalem ; and although this was
subsequent to and consequent upon the rejec
tion of our Lord, yet there is no reason why
the end should be separated from the begin
ning since the capture by Titus was but the
sequel of the capture by Pompey, the result
of that same temper, in which they crucified
Jesus, because Pie would not be their earthly
king. It was the close of the organic exist
ence of the former people ; after, which the
remnant from among them with the Gentiles,
not Israel after the flesh, were the true people
of God.
He hath laid siege against us. The Prophet,
being born of them, and forthe great love he
bore them, counts himself among them, as
St. Paul mourns over his brethren after the
fiesh. They shall smite thejudge of Israel with a
1 i. e. except Job xxv. 3. (where it is used of the
armies of God) .and Job xxix. 25. In Job xix, 5, it
is used metaphorically of the "host" of evils sent
against Job, S, Jerome renders "filia latronis,"
and says that Aq, Symm, Theod, and Ed, V, agree
with that rendering,
2 ii, 8, iii. 2, &c. Hos. v, 10, .
8 Jer, vii, 11. comp, S, Matt, xxi. 13. * Is. xxxiii. 1.
6''nunn and inj n3 are manifestly to be taken
in corresponding senses. That of "gathering in

hem Ephratah though thou ^ g r°i™ ^

rod upon the cheek. So St, Paul said to him
who had made himself high priest, ' Ood shall
smite thee, tlwu whited wall ; for sittest thou to
judge me after the law, and commandest me io be
smitten contrary to the law. It is no longer
" the king " (for they had said, ^ We have no
King but Ccesar) but the j'lidge of Israel, they
who against Christ and His Apostles gave
wrong judgraent. As they had smitten con
trary to the law, so were the chief raen smit
ten by Titus, when the city was taken. As
they had done it, was done unto them. To
be smitten on the face, betokens sharae ; to
smite with the rod, betokens destruction.
Now both shall meet in one ; as, in the Great
Day, the wicked ^ shall awake to shame and ever
lasting contempt, and shall perish for ever.
2. But [And] thou, Bethlehem Ephratah.
With us, the chequered events of time stand
in strong contrast, painful or gladdening.
Good seeras to efliice evil, or evil blots out
the memory of the good. God orders all in
tlie continuous course of His Wisdom. All
lies in perfect harmony iu; the Divine Mind.
Each event is the sequel of what went before.
So here the Prophet joins on, what to us
stands in such contrast, with that simple,
And. Yet he describes the two conditions as
bearing on one another. He had just
spoken of thejudge of Israel smitten on the
cheek, and, before '", that Israel had neither
king nor counsellor; he now speaks of the
Ruler 'in Israel, the Everlasting. Pie had said,
how Judah was to become mere bands of men ;
he now says, how the little Bethlehem was to be
exalted. 'He had said before, that the rule of
old was to come to the tower- of the flock, the
daughter of Jerusalem ; now, retaining the
word '¦', he speaks of the Euler, in Whom it
was to be established. Before he had ad
dressed the tower of the flock ; now, Bethlehem.
But he has greater things to say now, so he
pauses '2^ And thou ! People have admired
the brief appeal of the murdered Cresar,
" Thou too, Brutus." The like energetic
conciseness lies in the words. And thou !
Bethlehem Ephratah. The name Ephratah is
not seemingly added, in order to distinguish
Bethlehem from the Bethlehem of Zabulon,
since that is but once named '', and Bethlehera
here is raarked to be the Bethlehem Judah w,
by the addition, too little to be among ihe thou-
troops" is the only known sense of mujpn, Jer.
V. 7, except that of "making incisions in one's
flesh," which is obviously irrelevant here,
8 V, 8-15, ' Acts xxiii, 3, 8 St, John xix, 15.
« Dan. xii. 2, i» iv, 9,
11 rii^s'O'a iv, 8, Styin v, i, Heb,
12 As marked by the accent, " double Garesh,"
Casp, 13 Jos, xix. 15.
i*Its name in Jud, xvii, 7-9. xix. 1, 2. 18. Euth i,
1, 2, 1 Sam, xvii, 12,

68

MICAH.

c H eTI t ^^ ^^**^® " among the ^ thou-
eir, 710,

»1 Sam, 23, 23, '» Ex. 18, 25,

sands of Judah. He joins apparently the usual
narae, Bethlehem, with the old Patriarchal,
and perhaps poetic' name Ephratah, either
in reference and contrast to that former birth
of sorrow near Ephratah 2, or, (as is Micah's
wont,) regarding the meaning of both names.
Both its naraes were derived frora " fruitful
ness ; " " House of Bread " and " fruitful
ness;" and, despite of centuries of Moham
medan oppression, it is fertile still ^.
It had been rich in the fruitfulness of this
world ; rich, thrice rich, should it be in
spiritual fruitfulness. " * Truly is Bethle
hem, ' house of bread,' where was born ° the
Bread of life, whieh came down from heaven,"
" * Who with inward sweetness refreshes the
minds of the elect," ''Augel's Bread, and
"* Ephratah, fruitfulness, whose fruitfulness
is God," the Seed-corn, stored wherein, died
aud brought forth much fruit, all which ever
was brought forth to God in the whole
world. Though thou be little among the thousands of
Judah, lit. small to be, i. e. too small to be among
&c. Each tribe was divided into its thous
ands, probably of fighting men, each thous
and having its own separate head *, But the
thousand continued to be a division of the
tribe, after Israel was settled in Canaan'.
The thousand of Gideon was the meanest in
1 Ps, cxxxii, 6, 2 Gen, xxxv, 19, xlviii, 7,
3 "The district country around Bethlehem
abounds in fields, vineyards, hills, valleys, olive-
yards, fig-trees, and is especially supported by
wines and corn," Quaresm, Elucid. Terrse S, ii, 620,
" Eound the hill is fruitful garden and corn land."
Russegger iii. 79, " The terraces, admirably kept,
and covered with rows of luxuriant olives, inter
mixed with the fig and vine, .sweep in graceful
curves round the ridge, regular as stairs," IPorter
Hdbook, p, 206, "It IS still one ofthe best-culti
vated and most fertile parts of Palestine," Rev G,
Williams in Smith's Gr, aud E. Geogr, Add, Volney
ii. 298. * in vit, S, Jer, Ep, 108, de vit, Paulte. n. 10.
6 S. Joh. vi. 48, 51, 8 s, Greg. Hom, 8, in Ev,
' Ps, Ixxviii, 25, 8 Nmjj j .^^ ^ ^
9 Jos. xxii. 21. 30, 1 Sam. x. 19. xxiii. 23.
10 Jud. vi, 15,
11 As in 1 Chron, xxiii, 11. four brothers, not having
many sons, were counted as one " house." Hengst,
12 Jos, XV. The LXX interpolate it in Jos. xv. 59.
13 Eus. S. Jer. de loc. Hebr. "6 miles [in the 6th
mile, S. Jer.] from iElia to the South, near the road
whieh leadeth to Hebron." Itin. Hieros. p, 598,
" Prom Jerusalem, as you go to Bethlehem, on the
high road at 4 miles on the right is the monument
where Eachel, Jacob's wife, was buried. Thence 2
miles on the left is Bethlehem where our Lord
Jesus Christ was born," " Two parasangs," (6
miles) Benj, Tud (i, 40, ii, 90.) " 6 miles," Arculf,
(Early travels in Pal, p, 60 Bernard (lb, 20.) .^le,
wulf, (Ib, 44.) " 2 hours." Maundrell, (lb. 465.) Eob
inson. (i, 470,) "Thomson, The land ii, 609,
16 van de Velde memoir p. 180, " convent at Beth
lehem, 2704 Eng, feet," Euss,
1^^ Arculf in Early Travels in Palestine p. 6.
1' Eitter Erdk. xvi. 285. and Euss. in n. 15.
13 Porter's Hdbook i, 207, " It stands upon an
eminpnce surrounded by small valleys or depres-

sands of Judah, yet out of f, ^^i°J% j

Blanasseh "•, Places too sraall to forra a
thousand by themselves were united with
others, to make up the number ". So lowly
was Bethlehem that it was not counted
among the possessions of Judah. In the
division under Joshua, it was wholly oraitted'2.
From its situation, Bethlehem can never have
been a considerable place. It lay and lies.
East of the road from Jerusalem to Plebron,
at six miles from the capital '^. It was
" '¦'seated on the summit-level ofthe hill
country of Judsea with deep gorges descend
ing liast to the Dead Sea and West to the
plains of Philistia," "2704 feet above the
sea '*." It lay " '" on a narrow ridge," whose
whole length was not above a mile '^, swell
ing at each extremity into a somewhat higher
eminence, with a slight depression between ".
""The ridge projects Eastward frora the
central mountain range, and breaks down in
abrupt terraced slopes to deep valleys on the
N. E, and S," The West end too " '" shelves
gradually down to the valley." It was then
rather calculated to be an outljdng fortress,
guarding the approach to Jerusalem, than
for a considerable city. As a garrison, it was
fortified and held by the Philistines ™ in the
time of Saul, recovered from them by David,
and was one of the 15 cities 21 fortified by
Eehoboam. Yet it remained an unimportant
sions, devoted to the culture of the olive and vine,"
— " From this height there is a pretty steep slope
on both the North and Southern sides, particulariy
the former, the two Wadis or gorges which form its
boundaries. On the flanks of these Wadis are the
principal gardens, vineyards, and plantations of
olives and figs. They unite a little to the E. of the
town and form what is called the Wadi-et-Taama-
rah from the village of Beit-Taamr, in the neigh
borhood." Wilson, Lands 1. 394. " A narrow ridge,
surrounded on all sides by vallevs." Arculf lb,
"On the N. the other side of the" deep, abruptly-
sinking, valley, on the top of the hill, lay Bethle
hem." V, Schubert ii, 493, coming from the south,
" It stands on the slope of a hill, of difficult ascent,
at least by night," Lord Lindsay p. 240. "The
first sight of Bethlehem has something .strangely
picturesque. It lies quite on a bare summit in the
Jura limestone of Palestine, 2338 Paris feet above
the sea. The summit is divided by a shallow sad
dle-back. On the West side lies Bethlehem, on
the East the great monastery and Church, like a
fortress over the precipice, which falls into the
deep valley." Russegger ill. 79. " The little city
of David, seated on a lofty hill, shines, like a bril
liant crown, among the mountains of Judah," Mis-
lin, c, 32, ill. 6, From one spot, you can see the
Church of Bethlehem, where our Saviour was born ;
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where He was
buried; the Mount of Olives whence He ascended
to heaven," Id, Ib,
i» Grove ic Smith Diet, of Bib, " Toward the W,
the hill IS higher than the village, and then sinks
down very gradually toward Wadi Ahmed," Rob,
1- *'"'•,_ 20 2Sam. xxiii, 14,
212 Chron, xi, 6, "A low wall without towers
surrounds the brow of the hill, and overlooks the
valley," Arculf. p. 6, " scarcely a }i of an hour,"
Eitter p, 286,

CHAPTEE V.

69

cheTIt *^^® ^^^^^ ^^ ^°™® ^°''*'^
cir, 710,

place. Its inhabitants are counted with
those of the neighboring Netophah, both
before' and after 2 the captivity, but both
together amounted after the captivity to
179 ^ or 188 '' only. It still does not appear
araong the possessions of Judah*. It was
called a city^, but the name included even
places which had only 100 fighting men".
In our Lord's time it is called a village ', a
city^, or a strong spot'. The royal city
would become a den of thieves. Christ should
be born in a lowly village. "'" He Who had
taken the form of a servant, chose Bethle
hem for His Birth, Jerusalem for His
Passion." St. Matthew relates how the Chief Priest
and Scribes in their answer to Herod's en
quiries, where Christ should be born ", alleged
this prophecy. They gave the substance
rather than the exact words, and with one
remarkable variation, art not tlie least among
the princes of Judah. St. Matthew did not
correct their paraphrase, because it does not
affect the object for which they alleged the
prophecy, the birth of the Eedeemer in
Bethlehem. The sacred writers often do
not correct the translations, existing in their
time, when the variations do not affect the
truth '2. Both words are true here. Micah
speaks of Bethlehem, as it was in the sight
of men ; the chief priests, whose words St.
Matthew approves, speak of it as it was in
the sight of God, and as, by the Birth of

1 1 Chron, ii, 64. 2 jjeh. vii. 26.
3 Ezr. ii, 21, 2, * Neh. xi, 26-30,
6 Euth i, 19, Ezr. ii, 1, with 21, Neh, vii, 6, with 26,
6 Am, V, 3, ' S, John vii, 42,
3 8, Luke ii, 4, 'Jos, Ant. v. 2. 8. (yupior)
i»S. Leo de Epiph. Serm. 1. n S. Matt, li, 4^6,
12 See on Am, ix, 12, vol. i. p. 328. Pococke has em
ployed much learning to make this passage ver-
bally accord with the allegation of it by the chief
priest recorded by S. Matthew (Notse miscell, on
the Porta Mosis, "Works i, 134-9), He follows the
eminent authority of Abulwalid (followed by R,
Tanehum and a Hebr, Arab, Gloss.) in supposing
T>'i', "little," to have had the opposite sense of
"great," and that it actually had that meaning in
Jer. xlviii. 4. Zech. xiii. 7. In neither of those
passages, however, have T'_J?y, 1_J/*V, that meaning,
nor do the cases alleged of words containing oppo
site meanings bear out such an one as this. For
the two senses, although differing at last, can be
traced up to one common source, which could not
be done as to -|''J7X. Thus 1) tfflp, " holy," is used
of idolatrous consecrations which were in fact hor
rible desecrations, (see on Hos. iv. 14. vol. i. p. 52.)
2) ^3 J, " soul," is used of the " person," as we speak
of " 1000 souls." Thence the idiom HD tJiJJ, lit,
" the soul of one dead," Lev. -xxi, 11, Num, vi. 6 ;
then in one idiom WSih NOB, " defiled as to the
dead," but li/Bl does not signify one alive or dead
indifTerently. 3) 1^3, lit. " bent the knee," prayed,
includes prayers for evil as well as for good, curs
ing as well as blessing. 4) TDn love, piety, hence

unto me that is to be cH^°f|^, cir. 710.

Christ, it should become. " '*¦ Nothing hin
dered that Bethlehem should be at once a
small village and the Mother-city of the
whole earth, as being the mother and nurse
of Christ Who made the world and con
quered it." " '*That is not the least, which is
the house of blessing, and the receptacle of
Divine grace." "'¦''He saith that the spot,
although mean and sraall, shall be glorious.
And in truth," adds S. Chrysostom, " the
whole world came together to see Bethlehem,
where, being born. He was laid, on no other
ground than this only," " '^ O Bethlehem,
little, but now made great by the Lord, He
hath made thee great. Who, being great, was
in thee made little. What city, if it heard
thereof, would not envy thee that most
precious Stable and the glory of that Crib ?
Thy name is great in all the earth, and aU
generations call thee blessed. " Glorious things
are everywhere spoken of thee, thou city qf God.
Everywhere it is sung, that this Man is born
in her, a'nd the Most High Himself shall stab
lish her.
Out of thee shall He eome forth to Me that is
to be Ruler in Israel [lit, shall (one) corae
forth to Me tobe Ruler.] Bethlehem was too
small to be any part of the politj' of Judah ;
out of her was to come forth One, Who, in
God's Will, was to be its Euler. The words
to Me include both of Me and to Me. Of Me,
i, e, " " by My Power and Spirit," as Gabriel
said, '^ The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
pethaps, what is forbidden by natural piety, (Lev,
XX. 17.) and a reproach ; (Prov, xiv, 34. lb, xxv, 10.)
unless difi'erent roots have accidentally coalesced,
(see Fiirst Cone.) as in 7^1^, to use "insight,"
hence wisdom, and 73D vacillate, hence folly,
meet in one Syriac word ; or our let, " hinder,'' is
from lata, " slow ;" latyan, " retard ;" Goth, our
let, "allow," from "Icta'n" 1. q. lassen.) In Arabic
this is the more common on account of the sever
ance of the different tribes who spoke it, before
Mohammed united them into one, as the same
word receives modifications in different languages
of Europe. The meaning, " great " also, if it could
be obtained for T^J?2f, would still not yield the
meaning desired. For nVn / implies a compari
son. It means little to be in the thousands of Judah
i. e. too little. If l''_^]; were rendered great, it
would still be " great to be among the thousands "
&c, i, e, too great to be, Chald, Lxx, Syr, and the
Latin in S, Aug, de Civ, D, xviii. 30. give another
explanation, it is little that thou shouldest be. This -
does not agree better with the words in St. Matthew,
and is against the idiom. In this idiom 1) "T'J^y is
not used, but mostly D^D, or 7pJ Is, xlix, 6. or
|t3p 2 Sam, vii, 19, 2) The person spoken to is
always expressed,
13 s, Greg. Naz. Orat, 18, in patr, ? 17,
MS. Chrys. Quod Christus sit Deus §3. i. 661,
16 S, Ambr. Ep. 70. g 11,
16 8, Bern, Serm, 1 in Vig, Nativ, | 4, i, 763,
1' Ps, Ixxxvii, 3. 18 Theoph, ft S, Luke i, 35,

70

MICAH.

chrTst "^''^ler in Israel; 'whose
cir, 710. goings forth have been
« Gen. 49, 10, Is, 0, 6, ' Ps, 90, 2, Pro. 8. 22, 23. John 1. 1,

the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,
therefore also that Holy Thing whieh shall be
born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. To
Me, as God said to Samuel ', I will send thee
to Jesse the Bethlehemite ; for I have provided
Me a king among his sons. So now, one shall
go forth thence to Me, to do My Will, to My
praise and glory, to reconcile the world unto
Me, to rule and be Head over the true Is
rael, the Church, He was to go forth out of
Bethlehem, as his native-place '' ; as Jere
miah ^ says, His noble sliall be from him, and
his ruler shall go forth out of the midst of him * ;
and Zechariah ^, Out of him shall came forth
tlie cornerstone ; out of him the nail, out of him
the battlebow, out of him every ruler together.
Before, Micah had said to the tower of Edar,
Ophel of the daughter of Zion, the first rule
shall come to tliee; now, retaining the word,
he says to Bethlehem, out of thee shall come
one to be a ruler ^ The judge of Israel had been
smitten ; now there should go forth out of the
little Bethlehem, One, not to be a judge
only, but a Ruler.
Whose goings forth have been from of old,
from everlasting, lit. from the days of eternity.
Going forth is opposed to going forth ; agoing
forth out o/ Bethlehem, to a going forth from
eternity ; a going forth, which then was still to
come, (the Prophet says, shall go forth,) to a
going forth which had been long ago, " ' not
from the world but from the beginning, not
in the days of time, but from the days of eter
nity. For' in ihe beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with Ood, and tlie Word, was
God. The Same was in the beginning with. Ood.
In the end of the days, He was to go forth
from Bethlehem ; but, lest he should be
thought then to have had His Being, the
Prophet adds. His goings forth are from ever
lasting." Here words, denoting eternity and
used of the eternity of God, are united to
gether to impress the belief of the Eternity
of God the Son, We have neither thought
nor words to conceive eternity ; we can only
conceive of time lengthened out without end,
"''True eternity is boundless life, all exist
ing at once," or " i" duration without begin
ning and without end and without change,"
11 Sam. xvi. 1,
2 When Xlf is used of (ictual descent, it is in
relationto the actual parent, to "go forth oat ofthe
womb," "out ofthe loins,," "out ofthe bowels,"
" out of thee," Gen. xlvi. 20. Job i. 21. Jer. i, 5, Gen,
xxxv, 11, XV, 4, xvii, 6, 2 Kings xx. 18. l^Ti 'Xy
1DD, ^;?aD, ¦•sSnr:, on'in, |03d, «:f\
8 XXX. 21. 1 Nv nipn iStyn. 6x. 4,
6 Styo (v, 1. Heb.) refers back to nStyOOn iv, 8,
'Eup. 8S. Johni. L2.

from of old, from fever- c^f^T.
lasting.  "'•¦ ™- 
I Heb, the days of eternity.

The Hebrew naraes, here used, express as
much as our thoughts can conceive or our
words utter. They mean literally, from afore,
(i, e, look back as far as we can, that from
which we begin is still "befofe,") "from the
days of that which is hidden." 'True, that in
eternity there are no divisions, no succession,
but one everlasting "now;" one, as Qod, in
whom it is, is One, But man can only con
ceive of Infinity of space as space without
bounds, although God contains space, and is
not contained by it ; nor can we conceive of
Eternity, save as filled out by time. And so
God speaks after the manner of men, and
calls Himself " the Ancient of Days, " ^' being
Himself the age and time of all things;
before days and age and time," "the Begin
ning and measure of ages and of time," The
word, translated from of old, is used else
where'^ of the eternity of God. " The God
of before isa title chosen to expiess, that He
is before all things which He made. '* Dweller
of afore is a title, formed to shadow out His
ever-present existence. Conceive any ex
istence afore all which else you can conceive,
go back afore and afore that ; stretch out
backward yet before and before all which you
have conceived, ages afore ages, and yet afore,
without end, — then and there God was. 'That
afore was the property of (jod. Eternitj' be
longs to God, not God to eternity. Any
words raust be inadequate to convey the idea
of the Infinite to our finite minds. Probably
the sight of God, as He is, will give us the
onlj possible conception of eternity. Still
the idea of time prolonged infinitely, although
we cannot follow it to infinity, shadows our
eternal being. And as we look along that
long vista, our sight is prolonged and stretched
out by those millions upon millions of years,
along which we can look, although even if
each grain of sand or dust on this earth,
which are countless, represented countless
millions, we should be, at the end, as far
from reaching to eternity as at the beginning.
The days of eternity are only an inadequate
expression, because every conception of the
human mind must be so. Equally so is every
other, ^^ From everlasting to everlasting ; ^''from

'S. Anselm Monol. c. 24. L.
1" Rich. Vict, de Trin. ii. 4. L, " Dan, vii, 9,
12 Dionys, de Div, Nom, c, 10. x. 5. « Hab. i. 12.
'* mp 'n"?}? Deut. xxxiii. 27, So Xlhvj Sn Gen.
xxi, 33, Is, xl. 2S.
1* Dip 31?' Ps. Iv. 20.
"dSi.!? "^y dSiI-'D Ps. xc, 2, ciii, 17,
1' D7lJ?D Ps. xciii, 2, and of Divine Wisdom, or
God the Son, Prov. viii. 23.

CHAPTEE V

71

^frmn the day,
i. e. since the day was. For the word, from,
to our minds implies time, and tirae is no
measure of eternity. Only it expresses prse-
existence, an eternal Existence backward as
well as forward, the incommunicable attri
bute of God. But words of Holy Scripture
have theil' full meaning, unless it appear
from the passage itself that they have not.
In the passages where the words, for ever, from
afore, do not mean eternity, the subject itself
restrains them. Thus for ever, looking on
ward, is used of time, ec[ual in duration with
the being of whom it is written, as', he shall
be thy servant for ever, i. e. so long as he lives
in the body. So when it is said to the Son *,
Thy throne, 0 Ood, is for ever and ever, it
speaks of a kingdom which shall have no
end. In like way, looking backward,. ' J will
remember Thy wonders from old, must needs
relate to time, because they are marvelous
deahngs of God in time. So again'', the
heavens of old, stand simply contrasted with
the changes of man. But ' Ood of old is the
Eternal God. ' He that abideth of old is God
enthroned from everlasting In like manner
the goings forth here, opposed to a going forth
in time, (emphatic words being moreover
united together,) are a going forth in eter
nity. The word, from of old, as used of being, is
only used as to the Being of God. Here too
then there is no ground to stop short of that
meaning; and so it declares the eternal
going-forth, or Generation of the Son. The
plural, goings forth, may here be used, either
as words of great majesty", "God," "Lord,"
" Wisdom," (i. e. Divine ") are plural ; or be
cause the Generation of the Son from the
Father is an Eternal Generation, before all
time, and now, though not in time, yet in
eternity stiU. As then the prophet saith,
"from the days of eternity," although eternity
has no parts, nor beginning, nor "from," so he
may say goings forth, to convey, as we can
receive it, a continual going-forth. We think
of Eternity as unending, continual, time ;
and so he may have set forth to us the Eter
nal Act of the Going Forth of the Son, as
continual acts.
The Jews understood, as we do now, that
Micah foretold that the Christ was tobe born
at Bethlehem, until they rejected Plira, and
were pressed by the argument. Not only did
1 3iy dSiJJS Ps. ix. 8. xxix. 10.
2 D1''D Is. xliii. 13, 3 Ex, xxi, 6,

< Ps, xiv, 6,
6Ib, 1 xxvii, 12,
7 Deut, xxxiii, 27,

o Ib, ixviii, 34,

8 D^p 2W Ps. It. 20,
« D'nSx, •'nx, D'tynp, niDon Prov. i. 20. ix. 1.
loS, John vii, 41, 2, , .
11 Tert, c. Jud, c, 13, R, Isaac, Chizzuk Emunah, in
Wagenseil tela ignea Sat. p. 278. tries to evade it.

the chief priests formally give the answer,
but, supposing our Lord to be of Nazareth,
some who rejected Him, employed the argu
ment against Him. ^"Some said. Shall Christ
come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture
said, that Christ cometh of ihe seed of David, a'nd
out of ihe town of Bethlehem, where David was ?
They knew of two distinct things : that Christ
was 1) to he of the seed of David ; and 2) out
of tlie tmon of Bethlehem. Christians urged
them with the fact, that the prophecy could
be fulfilled in no other than in Christ. " " If
He is not yet born, who is to go i'orth as a
Euler out of the tribe of Judah, from Bethle
hem, (for He must needs come forth out of
the tribe of Judah, and from Bethlehem, but
we see that now no one of the race of Israel
has reraained in the city of Bethlehem, and
thenceforth it has been interdicted '¦'' that any
Jew should remain in the confines of that
country) — how then shall a Euler be born from
Judsea, and how shall he come forth out of
Bethlehem, as the Divine volumes of the Pro
phets announce, when to this day there is no
one whatever left there of Israel, from whose
race Christ could be born ? " ''The Jews at
first met the argument, by affirming that the
Messiah was born at Bethlehem on the day
of the destruction of the temple " ; but was
hidden for the sins of the people. This being
a transparent fable, the Jews had either to
receive Christ, or to give up the belief that
Pie was to be born at Bethlehem. So they
explained it, "The Messiah shall go forth
thence, because he shall be of the seed of
David who was out of Bethlehera." But
this would have been misleading language.
Never did man so speak, that one should be
bom in a place, when only a remote ancestor
had been born there. Micah does not say
merely, that His family came out of Bethle
hem, but that He Himself should thereafter
come forth thence. No one could have said
of Solomon or of any of the subsequent kings
of Judah, that they should thereafter corae
forth from Bethlehem, any more than they
could now say, 'one shall come forth from
Corsica,' of any future sovereign of the
line of Napoleon IIP, because the flrst
Napoleon was a Corsican ; or to us, ' one
shall come out of Hanover,' of a successor
to the present dynasty, born in England,
because George I. came from Hanover in
1714. t
12 By Hadrian. See ab, on iii, 12, p, 76, Eeland
p, 647, understands this of a prohibition to approach
Bethlehem itself,
13 See at length Martini Pugio fidei ii. 6. f. 279, from
the Jerusalem Talmud Beraehoth [f. 6.] and the old
mystical books, Bereshith Rabba on Gen. xxx. 41,
and the Echa R. on Lam. i. 16. (These last passages
have been mutilated.) See also Schoettg. T. ii. p.
196. on Is. Ixvi. 7. Tiie fable of His concealment
occurs in Jonath. on Mioah iv, 8, (see ab, p, 62,) and
in Trypho in S, Just, Dial, g 8.

72

MICAH.

Before
CHRIST cir, 710,

8 Therefore will he give
them up, until the time

3, Therefore, since God has so appointed
both to punish and to redeem. He, God, or
the Euler " Whose goings forth have been
from of old from everlasting," Who is God
with God, shall give them up, i, e. withdraw
His protection and the nearness of His Pres
ence, giving them up 1) into the hands of their
enemies. And indeed the far greater part
never returned from the captivity, but re
mained, although willingly, in the enemy's
land, outwardly shut out from the land of
the promise and the hope of their fathers ',
But also, 2) all were, raore than hefoie,'' given
up, to follow their own ways. God was less
visibly present among tliem. Prophecy
ceased soon after the return from the captivity,
and many tokens of the nearness of God and
means of His communications with them, the
Ark and the Urim and Thummim were gone.
It was a time of pause and waiting, wherein
the fullness of God's gifts was withdrawn, that
they might look on to Him Who was to
come. Until the lime that she which travaileth
hath brought forth, i. e. until ^ the Virgin who
should conceive a^id bear a Son and call His
Name Emmanuel, Ood with us, shall give birth
to Hiin Who shall save them. And then
shall be Eedemption and joy and assured
peace. God provides against the fainting of
hearts in the long time before our Lord
should come.
Then [And.] There is no precise mark of
time such as our word then expresses. He
speaks generally of what should be after the
Birth of the Eedeeraer. The remnant of His
brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
The children of Israel are the true Israel,
Israelites indeed * ; they who are such, not in
narae ^ only, but indeed and in truth. His
brethren are plainly the brethren of the
Christ ; either because Jesus vouchsafed to
1 As in 2 Chron, xxxvi, 17.
2 Acts vii. 42. Rom, i, 24, 26, 28,
3 Is, vii, 14, The context requires, that the Mother
here spoken of should be the Mother ofthe Messias,
For the Birth is spoken of before (v, 2,) and his
brethren, VTM^i in this v, can be no other than the
brethren of IJiin Who is so born. The evasion, that
it is only a figure for the end of the travail, gives an
unmeaning sense, for it would signify, " He shall
give them up, until He cease to give them up," It
IS also contrary to the idiom ; since in the O. T.
travail pangs are an emblefn of suffering, not of the
subsequent jo.v, and Israel is spoken of, both before
and after, unfi'gurativelv ; " He shall give them up"
and as " the children of Israel," so that a figurative
mention of them in between would be unsuited to
the context,
< S, John i, 47, 6 Eom, ix, 6, &a, « Ib. i, 3.
' Ib, ix, 5, 8 Heb, ii, 11, « S, Matt, xii. 60.
10 S.Luke viii, 21,
11 " S V stands in its first meaning of ' place,'
where one thing moves to another, and so abides
on it ; " Ewald, in Hengst. who quotes 2 Chr. xxx.

that ^ she which travaileth
hath brought forth: then

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
! ch, 4. 10,

be born ^ of the seed of David according to the
fiesh, and of them ''as concerning the flesh
Christ came. Who is over all, Ood blessed for ever ;
or as such as He raakes and accounts and *
is 'not ashamed to call, brethren, being sons of
God by grace, as He is the Son of God by
nature. As He says, " Whosoever shall do the
will of 3Iy Father whieh is in Heaven, the same
¦is My brother and sister a'nd mother ; and, ^^ My
brethren are these who hear the word of God and
do it. The residue of these, the Prophet says,
shall retu7-n to, so as to be joined with ", the
chUdren of Israel; as Malacbi prophesies,
12 He shall bring back the heart of the fathers
to " the children, and tlie heart of the children to
'^ the fathers. In the first sense, Micah fore
tells the continual infiow of the Jews to that
true Israel who should first be called. All
in each generation, who are the true Israel,
shall be converted, made one in Christ,
saved. So, whereas, since Soloraon, all had
been discord, and, at last, the Jews were scat
tered abroad everywhere, all, in the true
Prince of Peace, shall be one '*- This has
been fulfilled in each generation since our
Lord carae, and shall be yet further in the
end, when they shall haste and pour into the
Church, and so all Israel shall be saved '^.
But " " the promise of God was not only
to Israel after the fiesh, but to all " also that
were afar off, even as many as tlie Lord our God
should call". All these maj' be called the
remnant of His brethren, even those that were,
before, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and afar off, '* but now, in Christ Jesus, made one
with them ; all, brethren among themselves
and to Christ their ruler. " '^ Having taken
on Him their nature in the flesh. He is not
asharaed to call them so, as the Apostle
speaketh, confirming it out of the Psalm,
where in the Person of Christ he saith "*, Iwill
9, "when you return to (ip) the Lord," and Mai, iii,
24, Heb, as to the religious meaning. So contrari
wise, "they returned to Op) the iniquities of their
forefathers," (Jer, xi, 10.) In all the ea.ses men
tioned by Fiirst, (Cone. p. 1109-11,) the original idea
"over" remains in some force; "the waters re
turned upon the Eg.," Ex, xiv, 26; "and the.v re
turned ¦unto Pihahiroth (eneamping there), iS^nm.
xxxiii. 7 ; " man would return to the dust," (so as to
dwell there,) Job xxxiv. 15 ; " the dog returned to
his vomit, (taking it up again,) Prov. xxvi. 11, "the
wind returneth to its circuits," (so as to rest where
it began,) Eccl. i, 6 ; " My prayer shall return into
my bosom," (so as to rest there, or, from God in
blessing upon himself,) Ps, xxxv, 13, In Neh, iv, 6,
ir7.I> l^ltJTI, "return so as to be with us," the
idiom is the same as in this plaee. ,
12 Mai, iii, 24, Heb. is '7^;,
w See Hosea i. 11. Is. xi. 10. &e, 16 Eom. xi, 26,
16 Poc, 17 Acts ii, 39,
13 Eph. ii. 12-14. 19 Ps, xxii, 22.

CHAPTEE V.

73

Before
CHRIST cir, 710.
1" oh. 4. 7.

'' the remnant of his breth
ren shall return unto the
children of Israel.
4 ^ And he shall stand

declare Thy name unio My brethren. There is
no reason to take the name, brethren, here in
a narrower sense than so to comprehend all
1 the remnant whom the Lord shall call, whether
Jews or Gentiles. The word " brethren " in
its literal sense includes both, and, as to both,
the words were fulfilled.
4. And He shall stand. The Prophet con
tinues to speak of personal acts of this Euler
Who was to be born. He was not to pass
away, not to rule only by others, but by Him
self. To stand is the attitude of a servant,
as Jesus, although God and Lord of all, said
of Hiraselfj 'He shall come forth and serve tliem;
' The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister. He shall stand as a Shepherd *,
to watch, feed, guard thera, day and night ;
He shall stand, as St. Stephen saw Christ
^standing on the Right Hand of Ood, ""to suc
cor all those who suffer for Him." " ' For
to sit belongs to one judging ; to stand, to one
fighting or helping." He shall stand, as abid
ing, not to pass from them, as Himself saith,
^Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world : and He shall feed His fiock by His
Spirit, His Word, His 'Wisdom and doctrine,
Ilis example and life ; yea, by His own Body
and Bloods They whom He feedeth ^'^lack
nothing. In the strength of the Lord. He, Who feed
eth them with Divine tenderness, shall also
have Divine might. His Father's and His
own, to protect them ; as He saith, " My
sheep hear My Voice, and I know them and they
follow Me, neither shall any man pluck ihem out
of My Hand. My Father Which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's Hand. I and My
Father are One. With auiliority, it is said '^,
He commandeth even ihe unclean spirits and they
come out. His feeding or teaching also was
'^ ¦wUh authority, and not as ihe scribes.
In the Majesty of ihe Name of the Lord His
Ood, as St. John says '*, We beheld His Glory, the
Glory as of ihe Only-Begotten of His Father;
and He saith, ^^ All power is given unio Me in
1 Joel ii, 32, 2 s. Luke xii, 37.
3 S, Matt, XX, 28, * See Is, Ixi, 5,
6 Acts vii. 55. « Collect for S. Stephen's Day,
IB. Greg. Hom, 29. in Evang, n, 7,
3 S, Matt, xxviii, 20. » S, John vi,
10 Ps. xxiii. 1. 11 S, John x. 27-30,
12 S, Luke iv, 36, i' S, Matt, vii, 29,
1* S, John i, 14, 16 8, Matt, xxviii, 18,
10 S, John xvii, 11, 12. " Theoph.
13 8. John XX, 17. Lipmann, in Nizzachon, objects,
that, "as God, He has no God; as Man, He is not
from everlasting to everlasting," not knowing, as a
Jew, the Divine Personality of our Lord, whence,

and 1 1 ' feed in the strength
of the Lord, in the majes-_
ty of the name of the
Loed his God ; and they

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
II Or, rule.
I Is, 40. 11.
A 49, 10,
Ezek, 34. 23.
ch, 7, 14,

heaven and in earth ; so that the Divine Glory
should shine through the Majesty of His
teaching, the power of His Grace, upholding
His own, and the splendor of the miracles
wrought by Hira and in His Narae, OfiheName
of ihe Lord ; as He saith again, '" Holy Father,
keep through Thine oivn Name those whom Thou
hast given Me, that they may be one as We are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them
in Thy Name. " " Whoever then is sent to
feed Plis flock must stand, i, e. be firm and
unshaken ; feed, not sell, . nor slay ¦ and
feed in might, i, e, in Christ." His God, as
our Lord Hiraself, as Man, saith, " Unto My
Father, and your Father, and io My God and
your God. But that Majesty He Himself
wields, as no mere man can ; He Hiraself is
invested with it. ""To ordinary kings God
is strength ''", or gives strength "¦ ; men have
strength in God ; this Euler is clad in the
strength of the Lord, that same strength,
which the Lord hath, 'Whoseisstrength. Of
Him, as Israel's King, the sarae is said as of
the Lord, as King of the whole earth '" ; only
that the strength of the Messiah is not His
own, but the Lord's. He is invested with
the strength of the Lord, because He is Man ;
as Man, He can be invested with the whole
strength of the Lord, only because He is also
God." And they shall abide (lit. sit, dwell) in rest
and security and unbroken peace under
Christ their Shepherd and their King;
they shall not wander to and fro as heftto-
fore. "''^ He, their Shepherd, shall stand;
they shall sit." "The word^'' is the more
emphatic, because it stands so absolutely.
This will be a sitting or dwelling, which will
indeed deserve the name. "The original
promise, so often forfeited by their disobedi
ence should be perfectly fulfilled ; ^ and ye shall
dwell in your land safely, and I will give peace
in the land, and ye shall lie dawn, and none shall
¦make you afraid. So Amos and Micah had
before promised ^^ And this is the result of
the greatness of the promised Euler, as the
He being "not two but one Christ," (Ath, Creed),
both the attributes ofjHis Divine and Human Na
ture can be said of Him, (in Poc) E, Tanehum
owns, that the Euler here spoken of can, for His
greatness, be no other than tne Messiah, (lb,)
i» Casp, 20 Ps. x.xviii, 7, cxl, 7, 21 1 gam, ii, 10,
22 Ps. xciii. 1. 23 from Casp. 24 3jj;i_
26 Lev, xxvi, 5, 6, "comp, Hos, ii, 20, [18 Eng.] Is.
xiv. 30. xxxii. 18. Jer. xxiii. 8. Ezek. xxviii. 26, 6.
xxxiv. 25, 28. xx.xvii. 26. xxxviii, 8. Zech. xiv. 10, 11,"
Casp, 20 Am, ix. 14. Mic. iv, 4, Both use the same word
as here.

74

MICAH.

0 H eTs T ®^^^^ ^^^^^ '¦ ^°^ '^°^ "^^^^^
eir, 710, ^g ^g great unto the ends
of the earth.

tPs, 72, 8,
Is, 52, 13,
Luke i] 32! 5 And this ma^i ' shall
' Ps, 72, 7. Is, 9, 6, Zech, 9, 10. Luke 2. 14. Eph. 2. 14,

like proraise of the Psalm is rested on the
immutability of God ' ; 27(014 art the Same,
and Thy years shall have no end. The children of
Thy servants shall dwell^, and their seed shall be
established before Thee. For it follows,"
For 'now, (in the time which Micah saw as
did Abraham with the eye of faith,) now, in
contrast to that former time of lowliness.
His life shall be divided between a life
of obscurity, and a life of never-ending
greatness. Shall He be great unto the [very '] ends of the
earth, embracing them in His rule, (as David
and Soloraon had foretold '',) and so none
shall harm those whom He, the King of all
the earth, shall protect. The universality of
protection is derived from an universality of
power. To David God says, ^ I have made
thee a great name, like ihe name of the great that
are in the earth. Of Uzziah it is said ^, His
name went forth far; for lie was marvelously
helped, until he was strong ; but of the Messiah
alone it is said, that His power should reach
to the ends of the earth ; as God prophesies
of Himself, that His ' Name should be great
among the Heathen. So Gabriel said to His
Mother, " This, Whom she should bear, shall
be great.
5. And this Man shall be the Peace. This,
emphatically, i, e. "This Same," as is said of
Noah, " This same shall comfort us, or, in the
song of Moses, of the Lord, '" This Same is my
OoiL Of llim he saith, not only that He
brii^ peace, but that He Himself" is that
Peace ; as St. Paul saith, '2 ffg is our Peace,
1 Pa, cii, 27, 28, 2 ijUty'. ^-\p.
4 Ps, ii, 8, " the ends of the earth for His posses
sion;" Ps, Ixxii, 8, "from the river unto (Ij;) the
ends of the earth," In both cases the y^H ^DLH
as here. See " Daniel the Proph," p, 480,
6 2 Sam, vii, 9, 02 Chron. xxvi. 15. add Ib. 8,
1 Mai, i. 11, 14,
3 S, Luke i, 32. oyTOS ecrrai fxiyas,
oGen. V. 29. lOEx. xv. 2.
11 The word " this " might grammatically be taken
as agreeing with " peace." " This [viz. this thing]
shall be our peace/' as Eccl, vi, 9, 7Dn HI DJ, "this
too is vanity;" Ex, iii, 1.5, '^jJ rib "this is My
memorial," i, e, HI is not necessarily personal.
But this would not alter the sense. For, " this
thing is our peace," must necessarily refer to what
had been said, viz, the greatness, majesty, tender
care of the Messiah. It is most natural to take
ni^oSro?, as a person, since a person was the sub
ject of the verse before.
12 Bph. ii. 14. 13 Is. ix, 6. 1* 8, Luke ii, 14,
isEph. ii, 17, 10 S, John xiv, 27, "Lap,
18 iv, 10,
10 A disbeliever in prophecy writes, "If he would
quote Micah as designating Bethlehem for the
birthplace of the Messiah, he cannot shut his eyes

be the peace, when the As
syrian shall come into our
land: and when he shall
tread in our palaces, then

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.

and Isaiah calls Him '' the Prince of peace,
and at His Birth the heavenly host pro
claimed "peace ore earth; and He ^^ preached
peace io you which were afar off, and to them that
were nigh; and on leaving the world He
saith, 1^ Peace I leave with you. My Peace I give
'unto you. He shall be our Peace, within by
His Grace, without by His Protection.
" " Wouldest thou have peace with God,
.thine own soul, thy neighbor ? Go to Christ
Who is our Peace," and follow the footsteps
of Christ. "Ask peace of Him Who is
Peace. Place Christ in thy heart and thou
hast placed Peace there."
When the Assyrian shall come into our land,
and when he shall tread in our palaces. Assur
stands for the most powerful and deadliest
foe, " ghostly and bodily," as the Assyrian
then was of the people of God. For since
this plainly relates to the time after Christ's
coming, aud, (to say the least,) after the cap
tivity in Babylon and deliverance '^ from it,
which itself followed the dissolution of the
Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians cannot be the
literal people, who had long since ceased to
be '^. In Isaiah too the Assyrian is the type
of Anti-Christ and of Satan '". As Christ is
our Peace, so one eneray is chosen to repre
sent all enemies who ^' vex the Church, whether
the human agents or Satan who stirs them up
and uses them. " By the Assyrian," says St.
Cyril, " he here means no longer a man out
of Babylon, but rather marks out the in
ventor of sin, Satan. Or rather, to speak fully,
the implacable multitude of devils, which
to the fact that the Deliverer to come from thence
was to be a contemporary shield against the Assy
rian." Dr. Williams in '^Ess. and Eev. p. 68. Not
" contemporary," unless it be certain that Psalm
ists and Prophets cannot identify themselves
with the past and future of their people. The
course of events interposed shews, that the deliv
erance was not to be contemporary. As the Psalm
ist speaking of the passage of the Eed Sea, says,
there did we rcjoiee in Him, (Ps, Ixvi, C,) making
himself one with them ; as Micah himself, speak
ing of times after the desolation of the land, (vii,
13,) says, " He will turn again, He will have com
passion upon «s;" (Ib, vii, 19,) nay, as our Lord
Himself says to the Apostles, "I am with you
alway, even to the end of the world," (S, Matt,
xxviii, 20,) i, e, with them and their successors to
the end of time; so Micah, who had sorrowed with
his people in their sorrows, (i, 8, 10,) here rejoices
with them in a deliverance far away, after God
should for a long time have given them up, v, 3,
and which he should not see, "Even L. Bauer
translated, ' And if another As.sur,' comparing the
passage of Virgil whieh Castalio had already
quoted, ' Alter erit turn Tiphys, et altera quffi vehat
Argo Delectos heroas,' " Hengst,
20 Is, .X. and including Babylon Ch, xiv.
21 Acts. xii. 1.

CHAPTEE V.

75

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.

shall we raise against him
seven shepherds, and eight

t Heb. princes of f principal men,
men.
f Heb. eat up.

6 And they shall f waste
the land of Assyria with
the sword and the land of

spiritually ariseth against all which is holy,
and fights against the holy city, the spiritual
Zion, whereof the Divine Psalmist saith.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of
Ood. For Christ dwelleth in the Church,
and maketh it, as it were. His own city, al
though by His Godhead filling all things.
This city of God then is a sort of land and
country of the sanctified and of those enriched
in spirit, in unity with God. When then the
Assyrian shall come against our city, i. e.
when barbarous and hostile powers fight
against the saints, they shall not find it un
guarded." The enemy may tread on the land
and on its palaces, i. e, lay low outward glory,
vex the body which is of earth and the visi
ble temple of the Holy G host, as he did St,
Paul by the thorn in the flesh, the minister of
Satan to buffet him, or Job in mind body or
estate, but i after that he lias no more than he
can do; he cannot hurt the soul, because
nothing can se/iarafe lis /cOTTi the love of Christ,
and ^ Christ Who is our Peace is in us ; and of
the saint too it may be said, ' The enemy can
not hurt him. * Much as the Church has
been vexed at all times by persecutions of
devils and of tyrants, Christ has ever con
soled her and given her peace in the persecu
tions themselves : * Who comforteth us in all
our tribulation, thai we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith we are comforted of God. For as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consola
tion also aboundeth by Christ. The Apostles
^departed from the presence of the council, re
joicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for His Name. And St. Paul writeth
to the Hebrews, ''ye had compassion of me in
my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods, knowing that ye have in heaven a better
and more enduring substance.
Then shall we raise against him seven shep
herds and eight principal men (lit. 'anointed,
although elsewhere used of heathen princes.)
The shepherds are raanifastly inferior, spir
itual, shepherds, acting under the One Shep-
1 S. Luke xii. 4. 2 Eup.
3 Ps. Ixxxix. 22. * Eib. ^ 2 Cor, i, 4, 5,
OActs, T, 41, 'X, 34,
3 Jos. xiii, 21, Ps. Ixxxiii, 12, Ezek, xxxii, 30,
The word stands rather in contrast with rT'iJ'D
than as equivalent to it, since n'tJ'O is always used
of one, anointed by God, n'D j> unless it be in tliis
place, never,
"See Bahr Symbolik, ii, 107. sqq.

¦^ Nimrod 1 1 in the entrances „ S^^°J% „
thereof: thus shall he "de- «'r- 7io,

liver us from the Assyrian, ¦» Gen, 10, 8, 10,
when he cometh into our i or, mth her
11 11 1 J. 1 own naked
land, and when he tread- swords,
eth within our borders. " i e , .

herd, by His authority, and He in thera.
The princes of men are most naturally a civil
power, according to its usage elsewhere".
The seven is throughout the Old Testament a
symbol of a sacred whole, probably of the
union of God with the world", reconciled
with it ; eight, when united with it, is some
thing beyond it '". Since then seven denotes
a great, complete, and sacred multitude, by
the eight he would designate " an incredible
and almost countless multitude." " * So in
defence of the Church, there shall be raised
up very many shepherds and teachers (for
at no time will it be forsaken by Christ ; )
yea by more and more, countlessly, so that,
however persecutions may increase, there
shall never be wanting more to teach, and
exhort to, the faith."
6. And they shall waste, lit. feed on, and so ea<
up. They who were shepherds of their own
people, should consume their enemies. Jere
miah uses the sarae iraage. " The shepherds
with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall
pitch tents against her round about ; they shall
feed, each his space. So Joshua and Caleb say,
'^ They, (the inhabitants of Canaan,) are bread
for us. So it was said to St. Peter, '' Arise,
Peter, kill and eat; and what once was co?)i-
mon, defiled aiid unclean, shall turn to the
nourishment and growth of the Church, and
be incorporated into Christ, being made part
of His Body. *
And tlie land of Nimrod. Babylon, which
shoulS displace Assyria, but should carry on
its work of chastising God's people, is joined
by Micah, as by Isaiah '*, as an object of Plis
judgraent. In Isaiah, they are the actual
Assyria '* and Babylon '* whose destruction is
foretold, yet so as to shadow out rebellion
against (rod in its intensest forra, raaking
itself independent of, or measuring itself
against, God. Hence, probably,- here alone
in holy Scripture, Babylon is called the land
of Nimrod, as indeed he founded it ", but there
with was the author of the tower of Babel
also, which was built in rebellion against God,
10 See on Amos i, 3, vol, i. p. 284. This instance in
Micah so far differs from the others, that the two
numbers are not united with one substantive ; and,
unless the shepherds and the princes of men be the
same class of persons, (which scarcely seems pro
bable,) they have kindred, yet different, subjects.
11 vi, 3, 12 Num, xiv. 9. i' Acts x. 13.
M Is, X, 6-34, xiii-xiv, 27, is Is, x. 12-15.
"xiv. 13-15, I'Gen, X, 10.

76

MICAH.

7 And "the remnant of

Before
CHEIST °ii'- 710- Jacob shall be in the midst

o ver, 3.
Deut, 32, 2,
&iio.'3,' from the Loed, as the

of many people '' as a dew

whence his own narae was derived'- As
syria then, and the world-empire which
should succeed it, stand as representing the
God-opposed world.
In the entrances thereof, [lit. in ihe gates
thereof.] The shepherds of Israel shall not
act on the defensive only, but shall have vic
tory over the world and Satan, carrying back
the battle into his own dominions, and over
throwing him there. Satan's malice, so fur
from hurting the Church, shall turn to its
good. Wherein he hoped to waste it, he
shall be wasted ; wherein he seemed to tri
umph, he shall be foiled. So it has been
ever seen, how, under every persecution, the
Church grew, " ^ The more it was pressed
down, the more it rose up and flourished ; "
" ¦' Shivering the assault of the Pagans, and
strengthened more and more, not by resisting,
but by enduring," Yet all, by whomsoever
done, shall be the work of Christ Alone,
enduring in martyrs, teaching in pastors,
converting through the Apostles of Heathen
nations. Wherefore he adds :
Thus, [And] He shall deliver us from tlie
Assyrian. Not they, the subordinate shep
herds, but Pie, the Chief Shepherd until the
last enemy sliall be destroyed and death sliall be
swallowed up in victory, shall deliver, whether
by them or by Himself as He often so doth, —
not us only (the saying is the larger because
unlimited) but — He shall deliver, absolutely.
Whosoever shall be delivered. He shall be
their deliverer ; all, whora He Alone know
eth. Who Alone * knoweth them that are His.
^ Neither is there salvation in any other.
'' Whoso glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Every meraber of Christ has part in this,
who, through the grace of God, " has power
and strength to have victory and to triumph
against the devil, the world, and the flesh "
— not he, but the grace of God which is with
him ; and much more, all, whether Apostles
or Apostolic men, or Pastors, or Bishops and
Overseers, who, by preaching or teaching or
1 Lit, " We will rebel," There is no other even
plausible etymology,
2 The E, V, has followed the analogy of the "Cas-
pise pylee," &c, and has paraphrased, " openings "
or "gates" by "entrances," as if they were "the
gates of the country;" which, however, belongs
only to narrow entrances, such as Thermopylse.
The rendering in the E. M. " with their own drawn
swords," (from Aq. and Ed. v. A, E, and Kim.) is
owing to a slavish adherence to parallelism,
nin'nS, &c. "drawn swords," (Ps. Iv. 22.) is fem,
after the analogy of mil itself. The uniform
meaning of HOS "opening," "door," "port,"
"gate," is plainly not to be deserted in a single
case, on the ground of parallelism only. The fe'm.

showers upon the grass, chrTIt
that tarrieth not for man,  "'i'- '^i°- 
nor waiteth for the sons of

prayer, bring those to the knowledge of the
truth, who "sat in darkness and the shadow of
death, and by wdiora ' Ood translates -us into
the kingdom of His dear Son.
7. And ihe remnant of Jaeob. Micah '", as
well as Isaiah ", had prophesied, that a rem
nant only should return unto the Mighty Ood.
These, though very many in themselves, are
yet but a remnant only of the unconverted
mass ; yet this, ^'' the remnant, who shall be
saved, who believe in Christ, '^ the little flock,
of whom were the Apostles and their dis
ciples, shall be, in the midst of many people,
whora they won to the faith, as John in Asia,
Thoraas in India, Peter in Babylon and Eome,
Paul well-nigh in the whole world, what?
something to be readily swallowed up by
their multitude ? No, but as a dew from the
Lord, as the showers from the grcuss, which tarrieth
not for man, nor waiteth for tlie sons of men,
quickening to life that, which, like soon-
withered '* grass, no human cultivation, no
human help, could reach.
In the Gospel and the grace of Christ there
are both, gentleness and might ; softness, as
the dew, might as of a lion. For " '^ Wisdom
reacheth from one end to another mightily ;
and sweetly doth she order all things," The dew
is, in Holy Scripture, a symbol of Divine doc
trine, '^ My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my
speech shall distill as the dew, as tlie smaU rain
upon the tender herb, and as the, showers upon the
grass. The dew comes down from heaven, is
of heavenly not of earthly birth, transparent,
glistening with light, reflecting the hues of
heaven, gentle, slight, weak in itself, refresh
ing, cooling the strong heats of the day",
consuraed itself, yet thereby preserving life,
falling on the dry and withered grass wherein
all nature droops, and recalling it to fresh
ness of life. And still more in those lands,
where from the beginning of April to the
end of October '^ the close of the latter and
the beginning of the early rain, during all the
hot months of summer, the life of all herb-
aff. also belongs naturally to the land, her's, not
their's, i. e. tlie people's,
3 S, Anton, in S. Athan. vit. ej. c. 79.
*S. Aug. de Ag. Christ, c. 12, and other fathers
quoted Tertull. Apol, c, ult, n, a. Oxf. Tr,
6 2Tim, ii, 19, o Acts iv, 12,
' 2 Cor, X. 17, 3Ps, cvii. 10, o Col, i, 13.
10 iv. 7. 11 X, 21. 12 Eom. ix. 27,
J3S, Luke xii, 32,
"nty;?. See Ps, cii, 5, 12, 2 Kings xix. 26, Is.
xxxvii. 27, 10 Wisd. viii. 1, lo Deut, xxxii, 2.
1' Ecclus. xviii. 16, xliii. 22.
18 Called Tryt<, because only " perennial " streams
still flowed.

CHAPTEE V.

77

cheTst ^ IT And the remnant
cir, 710, nf Jacob shall be among

the Gentiles in the midst
of many people as a lion
among the beasts of the
forest, as a young lion
1 Or, goau. among the flocks of | |sheep :
who, if he go through,

age depends upon the dew alone '. Showers ^
are so called from the "multitude" of drops,
slight and of no account in themselves, de
scending noiselessly yet penetrating the more
deeply. So did the Apostles "'bedew the
souls of believers with the word of godliness
and enrich them abundantly with the words
of the Gospel," themselves dying, and the
Church living the more through their
death *, quenching the fiery heat of passions,
and watering the dry and barren soil, that it
might bring forth fruits unto Christ. Yet,
they say ^, the excellency of the power was of
God and not of us, and " Ood gave the increase.
For neither was their doctrine ' of man nor by
man ; but it came frora heaven, the Holy
Spirit teaching them invisibly and making
unlearned, and ignorant men mighty in word and
deed. " * Whence these and these alone the
Church of Christ looks up to, as furnishing
the rule of truth." ""The herb, upon which
this dew falleth, groweth to God without any
aid of man, and flourisheth, and needeth
neither doctrines of philosophers, nor the re
wards or praises of men."
8. And ihe remnant of Jacob shalt be as a
young lion. " '" What raore unlike than the
sweetness of the dew and the fierceness of the
lion ? What so difierent as the gentle
shower distilling on the herb, and the savage
ness or vehemence of a lion roaring among the
flocks of sheeps ? Yet both are ascribed to the
remnant of Jacob. Why ? Because the
Apostles oif Christ are both tender and severe,
tender in teaching and exhorting, severe in
rebuking and avenging. How does Paul
teach, " God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself, and hath committed unto us tlie
word of recoimliation ; now then we are ambassa
dors for Christ, as though Ood did beseech you
by us: we pray you in Chrisis stead, be ye re
conciled to God ! What sweeter than the dew
of love, the shower of true affection ? And
so, on to that, "our heart is enlarged."
They are such drops of dew as no one could
doubt came from '^ the Lord, ihe Father of our
1 On its importance to vegetable life, see Gen,
xxvii, 28, Deut, xxxiii. 13, 28, Hag, i. 10, Zech,
Tiii- 12, , „ , ,,
2 D'3''31 It occurs Deut, xxxii. 2, Pa, Ixv. 11,
(Heb,) Ixxi'i, 6, as especially refreshing,
a S. Cyr. * 2 Oor. iv. 12. <¦ lb. 7.

both treadeth down, and qh^Tst
teareth in pieces, and none '^i''- ''^°-
can deliver.
9 Thine hand shall be
lifted up upon thine
adversaries, and all
thine enemies shall be
cut off.

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the
Ood of all comfort. Yet the same Apostle after a
little writes, '^ This is the third iime I am com
ing to you. I told you before and foretell you,
and being absent now I write to them which here
tofore have sinned and to all others, that if I eome
again, I will not spare, since ye seek a proof of
Christ speaking in me. See the severity of a
master, like the roaring of a lion among the
beasts of the forest. For such surely are they
whora he rebukes for the '* uncleanness and for
nication and lasciiiousness which they had com
mitted. Was he not to such as a lion '^ ? W:is
not Peter such, when he rebuked Ananias
first and then Sapphira his wife, and they
fell down and gave up the ghost ? They
treael down or '^ cast down imaginations and. every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knoiv-
ledge of Ood ; as Christ Himself, Who spake
in thera, is both a larab and the " Lion of the
tribe of Judah, and nothing is so terrible as
'" the virath of the Lamb.
Anel none can deliver. " " For as the
Apostles past frora nation to nation, and trod
down Heathenism, subduing it to Christ, and
taking within their net the many converted
nations, none could withdraw from the
Apostles' doctrine those whom they had con
verted." The Heathen world "'^" cried out
that the state is beset, that the Christians are
in their fields, their forts, their islands."
" 2' We are a people of yesterday, and yet we
have filled every place belonging to you,
cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your
very camp, your tribes, companies, palace,
senate, forum I We leave you your temples
only. We can count your armies, our num
bers in a single province will be greater."
9. Their hand shall be lifted up upon their
adversaries. The might of the Church is the
Might of Christ in her, and the glory of the
Church is His from 'Whom it comes and to
Whom it returns. It is all one, whether
this be said to Christ or to the remnant of
Jaeob, i. e. His Church. Her enemies are His,
and her's only because they are His,

0 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. ' Gal. i. 12.
10 Eup. 11 2 Cor. V. 19— vi. 11.
13 Ib. xiii. 1-3.
10 See again 1 Cor. v. 2-5.
" Eev, V. 5. 13 Ib. vi. 16.
20 Apol. c, 1, p, 2, Oxf, Tr,

8 Eup, 9 Eib.
i2Ib, i, 3,
" Ib, xii. 21,
10 2 Cor, X. 5,
10 Dion,
21 Ib. c. 37. p. 78.

78

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,
1 Zech. 9. 10.

' Is. 2. 6.
"Zeeh. 13. 2.

10 ''And it shall come
to pass in that day, saith
the LoKD, that I will cut
off thy horses out of the
midst of thee, and I will
destroy thy chariots :
11 And I will cut off
the cities of thy land, and
throw down all thy strong
holds :
12 And I will cut off
witchcrafts out of thine
hand and thou shalt have
no more ' soothsayers :
13 °Thy graven images

and hate her as belonging to Him. They
shall be cut off, either ceasing to be His ene
mies, or ceasing to be, as Julian or Arius or
Anti-Christ, ' whom tlie Lord shall consume
with the spirit of His Mouth and shall destroy
¦with the brightness of His Coming. And in the
end, Satan also, over whom Christ gave the
Apostles 'power to tread on all the power of
the Enemy, shall be bruised under our feet ^.
10. Aiid it shall come to pass in that day, of
grace in the kingdom of Christ aud of His
,'Presence in the Apostles and with the
Church, Iwill cut off thy horses out of the mirlst
of thee. The greater the glory and purity of
the Church, the less it needs oi hangs upon
human aid. The more it is reft of human
aid, the more it hangs upon God, So God
promises, as a blessing, that He will remove
from her all mere human resources, both
what was in itself evil, and what, although
good, had been abused. Most of these things,
whose removal is here promised,, are spoken
of at the same time by Isaiah, as sin, or the
occasion of sin, and of God's judgments to
Judah. * Soothsayers, (the same word) horses,
chariots, idols the work of their hands; high
towers, fenced walls. " * I will take, frora thee
all arms wherewith, while unconverted, thou
opposedst the faith," all which thou settest
up as idols in place of God. (Such are
witchcrafts, soothsayers, graven images, im
ages of Ashtaroth.) " I will take from thee all
outward means and instruments of defence
which aforetime were turned into pride and
sin ; " as horses and chariots. Not such shall
be the arras of the Church, not such her
strongholds. A horse is a-vain thing to save a
¦man. Her arras shall be the despised Cross
of shame ; her warriorsj they who bear it ;
1 2 Thess, ii, 8. 23, Luke x. ID,
3 Eom, xvi, 20. * Is. ii. 6-8. 15. 0 Rib, Lap.

also will I cut off, and thy ^ h eTI t
II standing images out o{ ^_cix^jm^__
the midst of thee ; and || Or, statues.
thou shalt 'no more wor- tis, 2. 8,
ship the work of thine
hands. 14 And I will pluck up
thy groves out of the midst
of thee : so will I destroy
thy 1 1 cities. H Or, enemies.
15 And I will "execute »Ps, 149, 7,
vengeance in anger and 2Tiiess.i, 8.
fury upon the heathen,
such as they have not
heard.

their courage, to endure in holy patience and
meekness; their might, the Holy Spirit
within them ; their victories, through death,
not of others, but their Master's and, iu His,
their own. They shall overcome the world,
as He overcame it, and through Plim
Alone and His Merits Who overcame it by
suffering. 11-15. Iiirill cut offthe cities of thy land. So
God promised by Zechariah", Jerusalem shcdl
be inh'ibited as towns without walls ; for I will
be unto her a wall of fire round about. The
Church shall not need the teraptation of hu
man defence ; for God shall fence her in on
every side. Great cities too, as the abode of
luxury and sin, of power and pride, and,
mostly, of cruelty, are chiefly denounced as
the objects of God's anger. Babylon stands
as the emblem of the whole city of the world
or of the devil, as opposed to God. " ' The
first city was built by Cain ; Abel and the
other saints had no continuing city^" here.
Cities then will include " ' all the tumults
and evil passions and ambition and strife and
bloodshed, which Cain brought in among men.
Cities are collectively called and are "Baby
lon, with wliom, (as in the Eevelations we
hear a voice from heaven saying)," tlie kings of
tlie earth committed fornication and ilie mer-
cliants of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies ; and of which it is
written, '" And a mighty Angel took up a stone
like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea,
sa.ying. Thus with violence shall that great city,
Bahylon, be thrown down, and shall be found no
more at all. " Great rest then is promised to
holy Zion i. e. the Church, when the cities
or strongholds of the land [strongholds, as
they are, of earthliness] shall be destroyed.

0 ii, 4, 5.
8 Heb, xiii, 14,

0 Eev, xviii, 3.

'Eup,
ioib.21.

CHAPTEE VI.

79

Before
CHEIST eir. 710.

CHAPTEE Am.
1 Godls controversy for unkind
ness, 6 for ignorance, 10 for
injustice, 16 and for idolatry.
TTEAK ye now what the
Lord saith; Arise;

For together with them are included all ob
jects of desire in them, with the sight where
of the citizens of the kingdora of God, while
pilgrims here, are tempted ; whereof the
wise man saith, Vanity of vanities, edl is vanity."
The fulfillment reaches on to the Day of
Judgment, when the Church shall finally
receive glory from the Lord, and be ' without
spot and wrinkle. All looks on to that Day.
T'he very largeness of the promise, which
speaks, in its fullest sense, of the destruction
of things, without which we can hardly do in
this life, (as cities M or things very useful to
the needs of man, (as horses, ) carries us on
yet more to that Day when there will be no
more need of any outward things ; " ' when
the heavy body shall "be changed, and shall
have the swiitness of angels, and shall be
transported whither it willeth, without
chariots and horses ; and all things which tempt
the eye shall cease ; and no evil shall enter ;
and there shall be no need of divining, amid
the presence and full knowledge of God, and
where the ever-present Face of God, Who is
Truth, shall shine on all, and nothing be
uncertain or uiiknown ; nor shall they need
to form in their souls images of Him Whora
His own shall see as He Is ; nor shall they es
teem anything of self, or the work of their
own hands ; but God shall be All in all." In
like way, the woe on those who obey not the
truth, also looks on to the end. It too is
final. There is nothing to soften it. Punish
ments in the course of life are medicinal.
Here no mention is made of Mercy, but only
of executing vengeance; and that, with wrath
and fury ; and that, such as they have not heard.
For as eye hath not seen, nor heart conceived the
good things laid up in store for ihose who love
God, so neither the evil things prepared
for those who, in act, shew that they hate
Hira. Ch. VI. The foregoing prophecy closed
with the final cleansing of the Church and
the wrath of God resting on the wicked,
when, as St. Paul saith, ' The Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
in flaming fire, taking vengeanee on them that
1 Eph. V, 27,
2 In ver, 14. Jon. has " I will cut off thy enemies."
whence E. M. But although -\^ stands for "IS
" enemy " 1 Sam. xxviii, 16, and plur. Ps, cxxxix,
20, (in both places with affix,) here every object
mentioned is of things, belonqing to Judah, its own,
3 Eup, < 2 Thess, i. 7-10, o Ezek, ii, 8,

contend thou || before the
mountains, and let the hills _
hear thy voice.
2 "Hear ye, 0 moun
tains, " the Lord's contro
versy, and ye strong foun-

Before
CHRIST cir, 710,

11 Or, wiih.
» Deut, 32, 1.
Ps, 50, 1, 4,
Is. 1, 2,
i Hos, 12, 2.

know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when
He shall come to be glorified in His Saints, and
to be admired in all them that believe. The
Prophet here begins his third and last
summon? to judgraent, in the Narae, as it
were, of the All-Holy 'Trinity, against Whom
they had sinned.
1. Hear ye now what the Lord saith : If ye
will not hear the rebuke of man, hear now at
last the word of God. "Arise thou, Micah."
The prophet was not willing to be the herald"
of woe to his people ; but had to arise at the
bidding of God, that he might not ^ be rebel
lious like that rebellious house. Stand up ; as one
having all authority to rebuke, and daunted
by none. He rouses the hearer, as shewing
it to be a very grave urgent matter, to be
done promptly, urgently, without delay. Con
tend thou before [better, as in E, M. with ^] the
-mountains. Since man, who had reason,
would not use his reason, God calls the
raountains and hills, who ' unwillingly, ns it
were, had been the scenes of their idolatry,
as if He would say, " ' Insensate though ye
be, ye are more sensible than Israel, whora 1
endowed with sense; for ye feel the voice
and coraraand of God your Creator and obey
plim ; they do not. I cite you, to represent
your guilty inhabitants, that, through you,
they may hear My complaint to be just, and
own themselves guilty, repent, and ask for
giveness." " The altars and idols, the blood
of the sacrifices, the bones and ashes upon
them, with unuttered yet clear voice, spoke
of the idolatry and guilt of the Jews, and so
pronounced God's charge and expostulation
to be just. Ezekiel is bidden, in like way, to
prophesy against the rnountains of Israel^, I
will bring a sword upon you, and I will de
stroy your high places, and your altars shall be
desolate. " '" Lifeless nature without voice
tells the glory of God ; without ears it hears
what the Lord speaks "."
2. Hear, ye strong [or, it may be, ye crdur-
ing^',] foundations of the earth. Mountains
oThis is the uniform sense of y'\ with px as
well as with DJ^, See Num, xx. 13, Jud, viii, 1,
Prov. xxv. 9, Is, xiv. 9, 1, 8, Jer. ii. 9, Neh. v. 7, xiii.
11, 17. (all, in Fiirst Cone)
iRom. viii. 20, 8 Lap. « Ezek, vi, 2-6,
10 Poc, 11 Ps. xix. 3, S. Luke xix. 40,
1* D' JIT'S- See Ges. Lex, p, 644,

80

MICAH.

c H rTs t <iations of the earth : for
cir, 710, cthe Loed hath a contro-

« Is, 1, 18,
Sc 5, 3, 4.
& 43, 26,
Hos, 4, 1,

^ Jer, 2, 5, 31.

versy with his people,
and he will plead with
Israel. 3 0 my people, ""what
have I done unto thee?

and rocks carry the soul to times far away,
before and after. They change not, like the
habitable, cultivated, surface of the earth.
There they were, before the existence of our
short-lived generations ; there they will be,
until tirae shall cease to be. They have wit
nessed so many vicissitudes of human things,
themselves unchanging. The prophet is di
rected to seize this feeling of siraple nature.
" They have seen so much before me," Yes !
" then they have seen all which befell my
forefathers ; all God's benefits, all along, to
them and to us, all their and our unthankful-
ness," He will plead ivith Israel. God hath a strict
severe judgraent ' with His people, and yet
vouchsafes to clear Hiraself before Ills crea
tures, to come down from His throne of glory
and place Himself on equal terms with thera.
He does not plead onlj', but rautually (such
is the force of the word) impleads with '' His
people, hears if they would say aught against
Himself, and theu gives Plis own judgment^.
But this willingness to hear, only makes us
condemn ourselves, so that we should be
without excuse before Him. We do owe
ourselves wholly to Hira Who raade us and
hath given us all things richly to enjoy. If
we have withdrawn ourselves frora His Ser
vice, unless He dealt hardly with us, we
dealt rebelliously and ungratefully with
Him. God brings all pleas into a narrow
space. The fault is with Him or with us.
He offers to clear Himself. He sets before
us His good deeds. His Loving kindness,
Providence, Grace, Long-suffering, Bounty,
Truth, and contrasts with them our evil
deeds, our unthankfulness, despitefulness,
our breach of His laws, and disorder-
ings of His creation. And then, in the
face of His Goodness, Pie asks, " What
evil have I done, what good have I left
undone '? " so that our evil and negligences
should be but a, requital of His. For if
it is evil to return evil for evil, or not to
return good for good, what evil is it to return
'Tl. 'n3in\
3 Comp, Is. xliii. 26, Jer. ii. 6, 6, 9, So '5 njj',
"testify against Me," (ver, 3,) is a judicial term, lit.
".answer against Me,' i.e. "answer judicial inter
rogatories,' then generally "depose," "testify,"
Num. xxxv. 30, Deut. xi.x. 18, Job xv, 6, Euth i, 21,
Is, iii, 9, lix, 12, Jer. xiv, 7.

and wherein have I wearied ^ h eTs t
thee ? testify against me. ''Ji'- '^^"-

4 " For I brought thee « ex, 12. 51.
up out of the land of &2o,'2, '
Egypt, and redeemed thee Amos 2', 10!
out of the house of ser
vants ; and I sent before

evil for His exceeding good ! As He says by
Isaiah, ^What could have been done more to My
vineyard and I have not done in it. Wherefore,
when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes ? And our Blessed
Lord asks ; * 3Iany good works have I shaved
you from My Father. For which of those works
do ye stone Me ? ^ Which of you convinceth Me
of sin ? And if I snifthe truth, why do ye not
believe Me ? Away from the light of God, we
raay plead excuses, and cast the blarae of our
sins upon our teraptations, or passions,
or nature, i. c. on Almighty God Him
self, Who made us. When His light
streams in upon our conscience, we are silent.
Blessed if we be silenced and confess to Plim
then, that we be not first silenced in the Day
of Judgment. ' Righteous Job said, ^ I desire
to reason with God; but when his eije saw
Him, he said, "wherefore I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes.
3. 0 My people. This one tender word '",
twice repeated", contains in one a whole
volume of reproof. It sets before the eyes
God's choice of thera of His free grace, and
the whole history of His loving-kindness, if
so they could be asharaed of their thankless
ness and turn to Hira. " Mine," Pie says, " ye
are by creation, by Providence, by great de
liverances and by hourly love and guardian
ship, by gifts of nature, the world, and grace ;
such things have I done for thee ; what
against thee ? wliat evil have I done unto thee ? "
^' Thy foot did not sivell these forty years, for He
upbears in all ways where lie leads. Wherein
have I wearied thee ? for " His commandments
are 'not grievous. Tlwu hast been weary of
Me, 0 Israel, God says by Isaiah '*, / liave not
wearied, thee with incense ; thou hast wearied Me
¦with thine iniquities.
4, For I brought thee up out of tlie land of
Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of ser
vants. What wert thou ? 'What art thou ?
Who raade thee what thou art ? God reminds
thera. They were slaves ; they are His people
in the heritage of the heathen, and that by

* Is, V, 4,
oib. viii, 46.
'Job i, 8, ii, 3, Ezek, xiv, 20,
0 xiii, 5, 6,
11 Here and v, 5.
12 Deut, viii, 4,
1* Is, xliii, 22-24,

6 S, John X, 32,
3 Job xiii, 3.
10 'D;r.
131 S, Johnv. 3.

CHAPTEE VI.

81

cheTst ^^^^ Moses, Aaron, and
cir. 710. _ Miriam.

'Num, 22. 6.
&23, 7,
Deut, 23, ¦k, 5, ber now what ' Balak king
Rev.'z.il' ' of Moab consulted,

5 0 my people, remem-

and

His oiilstr etched arm. God mentions some
heads of the mercies which He had shewn
them, when He had made thera His people,
His redemption of them from Eg^'pt, His
guidance through the wilderness. His lead
ing them over the last diSiculty to the pro
mised land. The use of the familiar language
of the Pentatfeuch ' is like the touching of so
many key-notes, recalling the whole har
mony of His love. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam
together, are Lawgiver, to deliver and in
struct; Priest, to atone; "and Prophetess ^ to
praise God ; and the name of Miriam at once
recalled the mighty works at the Eed Sea
and how they then thanked God.
5. Remember nonv. The word translated
now is a very tender one, like our " do now
reraeraber " or " do remember," beseeching
instead of commanding. "^I might com
mand, but I speak tenderly, that I raay lead
thee to own the truth." What Balak king
of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of
Beor answered him. God did not only raise
up Moses, Aaron, Miriam, out of their
brethren, but He turned the curse of the
alien Balaam into a blessing ; and that, not
ibr their righteousness, (for even then they
were rebellious,) but against their deserts,
out of His own truth and righteousness. Not
that the curse of Balaam could in itself
have hurt them ; but, in proportion to his
reputation, it would have infused great
energy into their enemies, and its reversal
must have struck a, great panic into them
and into others. Huraan might having
failed in Sihon and Og, Balak sought super
human. God shewed them by their own
diviner, that it was against them. Even
after they had seduced Israel, through
Balaam's devilish counsel, Midian seems to
have been stricken by God with panic, and
not to have struck a blow ¦*.
From Shittim unto Gilgal. The words are
separated by the Hebrew accent from what
went before. It is then probably said in
concise energy for, "Eemember too from
Shittim to Gilgal," i. e. all the great works of
God from Shittim^, the last encampment of
Israel out of the proraised land, where they
so sinned in Baal-peor, unio Gilgal, the first
'?nsD pXD yn'7;rn see Gen. I. 24. n'3
D'''13i.' Ex. xiii, 3, 14, xx. 2, Deut, viii. 14, xiii. 10;
and united, as here, with mS, Deut, vii, 8 ; xiii, 5.
2 Ex, XV, 20, 8 £iion, 4 Num. xxxi. 49.
0 See on Hos, ix. 10. voL i. p, 93. and on Jo, iii, 18.
vol, i. p. 212. 8 Jos. V. 9.

what Balaam the son of cheTst
Beor answered him from "i''- ''f-

« Shittim unto Gilgal ; that ^ Num. 25, 1,
o ' &33, 49,
ve mav know the right- Josh, 4, 19.
„ , T- &6, 10.
eousness oi the Lord. ^ Judg, 5, 11.

in the promised land, which they entered by
miracle, where the Ark rested amid the vic
tories given them, where the Covenant was
renewed, and ''the reproach of Egypt was
¦roUed away. Eemember all, from your
own deep sin and rebellion to the deep
mercy of God.
That ye may know the righteousness [righteous
nesses] of the Lord ; His Faithfulness in per
forming His promises to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. God speaketh of His proraises,
not as what they were in themselves, mere
mercy, but as what they became, through
that gracious and free promise, righteousness,
in that He had bound Himself to fiilfiU what
He had, out of mere grace, promised. So in
the New Testament He saith, ' God is not
unrighteous that He should forget your works
and labor which proceedeth of love ; and, ^ He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Micah
speaks, by a rare idiom, of the righteousnesses "
of the Lord, each act of mercy being a sepa
rate efiiuence of His Eighteousness. The
very naraes of the places suggest the right
eous acts of God, the unrighteous of Israel.
" '" But we too, who desire wdth unveiled face
to behold the glory of the Lord, and have
Abraham really for our father, let us, when
we have sinned, hear God pleading against
us, and reproving us for the multitude of
Plis benefits. For we too once served
Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, laboring
in works of mire and clay ; and He redeemed
us Who gave Hiraself a Eederaption for all ;
that we, the redeemed of the Lord ", whom
He redeemed out of tlie hand of the enemy
and gathered from the lands, might say.
His mercy endureth for ever. He sent also
before our face Moses, the spiritual Law, and
Aaron the High Priest, not bearing the
typical Ephod and IJrim, but having in His
Forehead the seal of holiness which God the
Father sealed ; and Miriam, the foreshowing
of prophets. EecoUect we too what he
thought against us who willed to devour us,
the true Balak, Satan, who laid snares forus
through Balaara, the destroyer of the people,
fearing lest we should cover his land and
occupy it, withdrawing the earthly-minded
frora his erapire."
1 Heb. vi, 10. 8 1 8, John i, 9,
0'" nip'iy, only occurs beside Jud, v, 11, (bis) 1
Sam, xii, 7 thence 'Tri'p"lV, Dan, ix, 16. Else only
Ps, ciii, 6,
10 From S. Jer. " Ps, cvii, 1-3,.

82

MICAH.

chbTIt 6 II Wherewith shall I
 "'''¦ '^^''-  come before the Lord, and

bow myself before the high
God? shall I come before
him with burnt offerings,
fHeb, sons o/a -with calves t of a year
year f ' *¦
1 Ps, 50, 9. old ?
& 51. 16.
Isai. 1,11. 7 'Will the Lord be

6, 7. Wherewith shcdl I come before the Lord ?
The people, thus arraigned, bursts in, as men
do, with professions that they would be no
more ungrateful ; that they will do any
thing, everything — but what they ought.
With them it shall be but " Ask and have."
They wish only to know, with what they shall
come ? They would be beforehand ' with Him,
anticipating His wishes ; they would, with
all the submission of a creature, bow', pro
strate themselves before God ; they acknow
ledge His High Majesty, who dwelleth on
high ^, the most High God, and would abase
themselves^ before His lofty greatness, if
they but loiew, " how " or " wherewith."
They would give 6f their best ; sacrifices the
choicest of their kind, which should be wholly
His, whole-burnt-offerings, offered exactly
according to the law", bullocks of a year old;
then too, the ne.xt choice offering, the rams ;
and these, as they were offered for the whole
people on very solemn occasions, in vast
multitudes, thousands or ten thousands ^ ; the
oil which accompanied the burnt sacrifice,
should fiow in rivers ' ; nay, more still ; they
would not withhold their sons, their first
born sons, from God, part, as they were, of
themselves, or any fruit of their own body.
They enhance the offering by naming the
tender relation to themselves '. They would
offer everything, (even what God forbade)
excepting only what alone He asked for,
their heart, its love and its obedience ". The
form of their offer contains this ; they ask
zealously, " with what shall I come." It is
an outward offering only, a thing which they
would bring. Hypocritical eagerness ! a sin
against light. For to enquire further, when
God has already revealed anything, is to deny
that He has revealed it. It comes from the
iDipN, 2r|3x, sD'nn^ribs,
4 The word occurs only of one sinking, bowed
down, amid persecutions, Ps, Ivii, 7; ofthe "bowed
down," whom God raiseth up, Ps, cxlv. 14, cxlvi, 8;
and in Is, Iviii. 6, of "ostentatious outward humilia
tion before God." So probably here, where alone
the reflective occurs.
0 Lev. ix. 2, 3.
0 At Solomon's dedication, 22,000 oxen and 120,000
sheep, 1 Kings viii. 63 ; by Hezekiah, 2000 bullocks
and 17,000 sheep, 2 Chron. xxx. 24 ; by Josiah, 30,000
lambs and kids for the paschal offerings and 3000
bullocks. Ib. xxxv. 7.

pleased with thousands of ,f ?,f°i'? ,„
. CHEISf
rams, or with ten thou- cir. 7io.

sands of 'rivers of oil ? f/j^j-j,g°g ^'o. 3.
'shall I give my firstborn jef '^^'a"^'^'^"'
for my transgression, the fij-gij^g 37
fruit of my f body /or thetHeb be«t/.
'' ' "J ^ ni Deut. 10. 12.
sin of mv soul ? 1 Sam. 15. 22.
•' Hos. 6. 6.
8 He hath "shewed &12.6,

wish that He had not revealed what He has
revealed, " '" Whoso, after he hath found the
truth, discusseth anytliing further, seeketh a
lie," God had told them, long before, from
the time that He made them His people,
what he desired of them ; So Micah answers,
8. He hath shelved thee. Micah does not
tell them now, as for the first time ; which
would have excused them. He says. He hath
shewed thee ; He, about Whose mind and will
and pleasure they were pretending to enquire,
the Lord their God. He had shewn it to them.
The law was full of it. He shewed it to
them, when He said, " And now, Israel, what
doth the Lord thy Ood. require of thee, but to fear
the Lord thy Ood, to walk in all His ways, and
to love Him aiid to serve ihe Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soid, to keep the
commandments of the Lord and His statutes
which I command thee this day for thy good ?
They had asked, " with what outward thing '2
shall I come before the Lord ; " the prophet
tells them, " what thing is good," the inward
man of the heart, righteousness, love, hu
mility. And. what doth the Lord require [search, seek]
of thee ? The very word '^ implies an earnest
search within. He would say, " '* Trouble
not thyself as to any of these things, burnt-
offerings, rams, calves, without thee. For
God seeketh not thine, but thee ; not thy
substance, but thy spirit ; not ram or goat,
but thy heart." " '^ Thou askest, what thou
shouldest offer for thee ? Offer thyself. For
what else doth the Lord seek of thee, but
thee? Because, of all earthly creatures. He
hath raade nothing better than thee, He
seeketh thyself from thyself, because thou
hadst lost thyself."
To do judgment, are chiefly all acts of
'Comp. Job XX. 17, "rivers" Oinj as here) "of
streams of honey and cream." Oil was used m all
meal-otferings which accompanied the burnt-offer
ing, Lev, ii, 1, 2, 4-7, vii. 10, 12, and so entered
into the daily sacrifice. Ex, xxix, 40, and all sacri
fices of consecration. Ex, xxix, 2, 23, Lev, vi, 15, 21,
Num, viii, 8,
8 See Deut, xxviii, 53. o Conc, Chalc, Act, 3,
10 The enquiry, v, 7, was. Will the Lord be pleased ?
¦'¦' nXTTl. The subject of, iJe hath shewn thee,i9
obviously that same Lord,
11 Deut, X, 12, 13, 12 nS3, 6. 2'ia Ha, 8.
i3ttf"n. "Sup. IS S. Aug, Serm, 48. ad loc. § 2.

CHAPTEE VI.

83

c H rTs t ^^^^> O man, what is good ;
cir, 710, and what doth the Lord

"Gen. 18, 19,
Isai, 1, 17.

require of thee, but " to do

equity ; to love mercy, all deeds of love.
Judgment, is what right requires ; mercy,
what love. Yet, secondarily, " to do judg
ment " is to pass righteous judgments in all
cases ; and so, as to others, ^ judge not accord
ing to the appearance, but judge righteous Judg
ment ; and as to one's self also. Judge
equitably and kindly of others, humbly of
thyself.' " ^ Judge of thyself in thyself with
out acceptance- of thine own person, so as not
to spare thy sins, nor take pleasure in them,
because thou hast done them. Neither praise
thyself in what is good in thee, nor accuse
God iu what is . evil in thee. For this is
wrong judgment, and so, not judgment at all.
This thou didst, being evil ; reverse it, and
it wdll be right. Praise God in what is good
in thee ; accuse thyself in what is evil. So
shalt thou anticipate the judgment of God,
as He saith, ^ If we would judge ourselves, we
should not be judged of the Lord." He addeth,
kive mercy ; being merciful, out of love, * not
of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.
'These acts together contain the whole duty
to man, corresponding with and formed upon
the mercy aud justice of God ^, All which
is due, anyhow or in any way, is of judgment ;
all which is free toward man, although not
free toward God, is of mercy. 'There remains,
walk humbly with thy God; not, bow thyself
only before Him, as they had offered ", nor
again walk 'with Him only, as did Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Job ; but walk humbly (lit.
boiv down ' the going) yet still with thy God ;
never lifting up thyself, never sleeping, never
standing still, but ever walking on, yet ever
casting thyself down ; and the more thou goest
on in grace, the more cast thyself down ; as
our Lord saith, * When ye have done all these
things which are commanded you, say. We are
unprofitable servants ; we have done that which
was our duty to do.
It is not a "crouching before God" dis
pleased, (such as they had thought of,) but
the humble love of the forgiven ; walk humbly,
as the creature with the Creator, but in love,
with thine own Ood. Humble thyself with
God, Who humbled Himself in the flesh ;
walk on with Him, Who is thy Way. Neither
humility nor obedience alone would be true
graces ; but to cleave fast to God, because He
is thine Ail, and to bow thyself down, because
1 S. John vii. 24. 2 8. Aug. 1, c, 3 1 Cor, xi, 31.
4 2 Cor. ix. 7. 0 Ps. ci, 1. Ixi. 7, o t, 6.
'n^S J?TVn The root only occurs beside inthe
form b''J?lis Prov. xi, 2, where it is opposed to
pride. In the Targg, Afel is — Heb, n'jn. The
noun is also used of numility. The Arabic has no

justly, and to love mercy.

Before
C TT E 7 ^ T
and to t walk humbly with °i''- "'I"-
., r, T n "tHeb, humble
thy God l" thyself to waf*.

thou art nothing, and thine All is He and of
Hira. It is altogether a Gospel-precept ;
bidding us, " Be ye perfect, as your Father whieh
is in Heaven is perfect ; ^"Be merciful, as your
Father also is merciful ; and yet, in the end,
have " that same mind which was also in Christ
Jesus, Who made Himself of no reputation.
The offers of the people, stated in the bare
nakedness in which Micah exhibits them,
have a character of irony. But it is the
irony of the truth and of the fact itself. The
creature has nothing of its own to offer ;
^'' the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away
sin; and the offerings, as they rise in value,
become, not useless only but, sinful. Such
offerings would bring down anger, not raerc}',
Micah's words then are, for their vividness,
an almost proverbial expression of the
nothingness of all which we sinners could
offer to God. " '^ We, who are of the people
of God, knowing that '*m His sight shcdl no man
living be justified, and saying, '^ lam a beast with
Thee, trust in no pleas before His judgment-
seat, but pray ; yet we put no trust in our
very prayers. For there is nothing worthy
to be oflered to God for sin, and no huraility
can wash away the stains of offences. In pen
itence for our sins, we hesitate and say.
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord ? how
shall I come, so as to be admitted into famil
iar intercourse with my God ? One and the
sarae spirit revolveth these things in each of
us or of those before us, who ha^•e been
pricked to repentance, ' what worthy offering
can I make to the Lord ?' This and the like
we revolve, as the Apostle saith ; '* We know
not what to pray for as we ought ; but ihe . Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. ' Should I offer myseh
wholly as a burnt-offering to Him'?' If,
understanding spiritually all the Levitical
sacrifices, I should present thera in rayself,
and ofier ray first-born, i, e. what is chief in
me, my soul, I should find nothing worthy
of His greatness. Neither in ourselves, ni 'r
in ought earthly, can we find anything
worthy to be offered to reconcile us with God.
For the sin of the soul, blood alone is worthy
to be offered ; not the blood of calves, or
rams, or goats, but our own ; yet our own too
is not offered, but given back, being due
already ". The Blood of Christ Alone suf-
bcaring upon it, all its meanings being derived
from the original "formed,"
8 8, Luke xvii, 10, o g. Matt. v. 48.
los. Luke vi, 36, " Phil. ii. 6, 7. i= Heb. x. 4,
13 from S. Jer. S, Cyr, Eup, Dion,
"Ps, cxliii, 2, loib. Ixxiii. 22.
10 Rom, viii, 26, " Ps, cxvi, 8,

84

MICAH.

9 The Lord's voice

Before
CHEIST cir, 710, crieth unto the city, and

I) Or, thy name
shall see that
which is.

I the man of wisdom shall

fieeth to do away all sin,'' " ' The wdiole
is said, in order to instruct us, that, without
the shedding of the Blood of Christ and its
Virtue and Merits, we cannot please God,
though we offered ourselves and all that we
have, within and without ; and also, that so
great are the benefits bestowed upon us by
the love of Christ, that we can repay nothing
of them."
But then it is clear that there is no teach
ing in this passage in Micah, which there is
not in the law '. The developments in the
Prophets relate to the Person and character
of the Eedeemer. The law too contained
both elements ; 1) the ritual of sacrifice,
impressing on the Jew the need of an Atoner ;
2) the moral law, and the graces inculcated
in it, obedience, love of God and man, justice,
raercy, huraility, and the rest. There was
no hint in the law, that half was acceptable
to God instead of the whole ; that sacrifice
of animals would supersede self-sacrifice or
obedience. There was nothing on which the
Pharisee could base his heresy. What Jlicah
said, Moses had said. The corrupt of the
people offered a half-service, what cost thera
least, as faith without love alw.ays does.
Micah, in this, reveals to them nothing new ;
but tells thera that this half-service is con
trary to the first principles of their law. He
hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good. Sacri
fice, without love of God and man, was not
even so much as the body without the soul.
It was an abortion, a monster. For one end
of sacriflce was to inculcate the insufficiency
of all our good, apart from the Blood of
Christ ; that, do what we would, '* all came
short of the glory of Ood. But to substitute
sacrifice, which was a confession that at best
we were miserable sinners, unable, of our
selves, to please God, for any efforts to please
Him or to avoid displeasing Him, would be
a direct contradiction of the law, antinomian-
ism under the dispensation of the law itself.
1 Dion,
2 As is so often said, in order to depreciate the
law, e, g, in Dr, Stanley's J, Church p. 448,
3 Eom, iii, 23,
•tProv, viii. 1, 3, 4, o ig. xl, 3, S. Matt, iii, 3,
0 S, Luke X, 16,
7 This, the simplest, is the most energetic render
ing. Other possible renderings of the simple
words, ^Op nX"l' n'tyini, come to the ,same.
Such are, "And wisdom (i, e, wholly wise) is he who
rog.ards Thy Name;" or "Thy Name (i, e. Thou,
such as Thy name expresses of Thee) beholdeth
wisdom," i, e, the really wise, or religious; or, "And
wisdom is it, that one regards Thy Name ;" or, ivith
the change of a vowel (PIKT for HST), "and wis
dom is it, to fear Thy Name," In regard to the use

see thy name : hear ye the (, jf rTs
rod, and who hath ap- ___£}i^J]^
pointed it.

Micah changes the words of Moses, in
order to adapt them to the crying sins of
Israel at that time. He then upbraids them
in detail, and that, with those sins which
were patent, which, when brought home to
them, they could not deny, the sins against
their neighbor.
•J. Tne voice of the Lord crieth unto the city,
i. e. Jerusalem, as the metropolis of their
wealth and their sin, the head and heart of
their oHending. Crieth, aloud, earnestly,
intently, so that all might hear. So God
says, * Doth ¦not wisdom cry? and understanding
put forth her voice ? She crieth at tlie gates, —
unto you, 0 men, I cry, and my voice is to the
sons of men; and Isaiah prophesied of St.
John Baptist, as ^the voice of one crying in tlie
v'ildcrness ; and our Lord saith, * He that hear
eth you, heareth Me. And ihe man of wisdom
shall see Thy Name. The voice of God is in
the hearing of all, but the wise only seeth tlie
Name of God '. "The word rendered wisdom
means, that whieh is", and so, that which
alone is, which alone has any real solid being,
because it alone abides, wisdom, or counsel
according to God. Such as are thus wise shall
see the Name of Ood, (as Jereraiah says to his •
generation ^, See ye tlie word of the Lord,)
"They shall see Plis power and majesty and
all which His Name expresses, as they are
displayed severally in each work of His :
He shall speak to them by all things wherein
He is ; and so seeing Him now in a glass
darkly, they shall hereafter see all. His Glory,
His Goodness, His Love, Himself, face to face.
Hear ye the rod, i. e. the scourge of the
wrath of God. The narae and the image
recall the like propecies of Isaiah, so that
Micah in one word epitomises the prophecies
of Isaiah, or Isaiah expands the word of
Micah. 10 The rod in thine hand is My indig
nation ; 11 As if ihe rod lifted up Him, 'Who is
not wood ; '2 He lifteth up his rod against thee ;
'^ Tlwu hast broken the rod (which is) on his
of the abstract, wisdom, for the concrete, the wise,
Poc, compares Prov, xiii, 0." wickedness overthrows
sin," i, e, the sinner, and lb, xx, 1 . ' wine ' for a man
of wine. He quotes also ph'Hp IDS, Eccl, i, 2, in
illustration of the anomaly of gender, and vii, 8,
IDS' n:nD.
3 There is no other even plausible etymology of
n'K/?n, than E^", whose 3d radical appears in TI'X
in Daniel, and in Syriac, and in Sn'jTX, Heb, See
"Daniel the Proph,"p, 40,
0 Jer. ii, 31, add "Ex, xx, 18, and all the people saw
ni 7lp the voices, or thunderings, and, see the smell of
mi/ .son. Gen, xxvii. 27." Poc.
^ois, X, 5. nib. 15. I2 1b. 24. " Ib. ix. 3. Heb,

CHAPTEE VI.

85

c H eTs t 10 1[ 1 1 Are there yet the
cir. 710. treasures of wickedness in
yltwitomiery the house of the wicked,
man an house , ,, j. ^
of the wicked, and the "["scant measure
t Heb, measure ° that is abominable ?
liTs^t' 11 II Shall I count them
¦> Deut 25, 1,3-16. Prov, 11, 1, & 20, 10, 23.
II Or, Shall I be pure with, &c.

shoulder ; ' Tlie Lord hath broken the rod of the
wicked ; ' whereon the grounded [i. e. fixed by
the decree of God] staff shall pass.
And Who hath appointed it, i. e. beforehand,
fixing the time and place, when and where it
should come. So Jereraiah says, ^ How canst
thou (sword of the Lord) be qniet, and the Lord
hath given it a clmrge to Ashkelon and to the sea
shore ? there halh Lie appointed it. He Who
has appointed ii, changeth not His decree,
unless raan changeth ; nor is He lacking in
power to fulfill it. He will surely bring it
to pass. All which can be thought of, of
fear, terror, motives to repentance, awe, hope,
trust, is in that word 'Wlio. Itis God ; hopes
and fears may be infinite.
10. Are there * yet, still after all the warn
ings and long-suffering of God, the treasures
of wickedness in the house of ihe wicked ? Treas
ures of wickedness are treasures gotten by
wickedness ; yet it means too that the wicked
shall have no treasure, no fruit, but his
wickedness. He treasureth up treasures, but
of wickedness ; as St. James saith, ^ Ye have
heaped treasure together for the last days, i. e. of
the miseries that shall come upon them ^. The
words stand over against one another ; house
of the wicked, treasures of ¦wickedness ; as though
the whole house of the wicked was but a " treas
ure-house of wickedness," Therein it began ;
therein and in its rewards it shall end. Are
there yet? the Prophet asks. There shall
soon cease to be. The treasure shall be
spoiled ; the iniquity alone shall remain.
And the scant ephah (lit. " ephah of leanness"
E. M.) which is abominable ? Scant itself, and,
by the just judgment of God, producing scant-
ness, emaciated and eraaciating ' ; as He
says, * He gave them their desire, and. sent lean
ness wUhal into iheir soul; and St, James", it
shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Even a
heathen said, "'"Gain gotten by wickedness
is loss;" and that, as being "abominable"
or " accursed " or, one might say, " be-
1 Ib, xiv, 5, 2 lb, XXX, 32.
3 Jer. xlvii. 7. 1j?' is used in regard to time, 2
Sam. XX. 5, It is used of both time and place in the
Arab, Conj. iii. as in 1^\'0, and the Syr.
* E/'X i- q- t?', as in 2 Sam. xiv. 19, the K occurring
together with the '' (here indicated by the vowel) in
Arab. Chald. Syr. Sam. Pers, and Heb. 'JTS See
n, 5.
6 S. Jam. V. 3. 6 Ib. 1. ' See v. 14.

pure with "the wicked
balances, and with the bag _
of deceitful weights ?
12 For the rich men
thereof are full of violence,
and the inhabitants thereof

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
p Hos. 12, 7,

wrathed "," lying under the wrath and curse
of God. "'2 What they minish from the
measure, thed they add to the wrath of God
and the vengeance which shall come upon
them ; what is lacking to the measure shall
be supplied out of the wrath of God." The
Ephah was a corn-measure'', containing
about six bushels ; the rich, in whose house
it was, were the sellers ; they were the neces
saries of Hie then, which the rich retailers of
corn were selling dishonestly, at the price of
the lives of the poor '¦*. Our subtler ways of
sin cheat ourselves, not God. In what ways
do not competitive employers use the sca7i(
measure which is accursed ? What else is all
our competitive trade, our cheapness, our
wealth, but scant raeasure to the poor, making
their wages lean, full and overflowing with
the wrath of God ?
11, Shall I count them pure? rather, (as E,
M.) Shall I be pure '= ? The Prophet takes
for the tirae their person and bids them judge
themselves in hira. If it would defile me,
how are ye, with all your other sins, not
defiled'? All these things were expressly
forbidden in the law. '" Ye shall do no un
righteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight
or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a
just ephah and a just bin, shall ye have; and,
" Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights,
a great and a small. Tliou shalt not hare in
thine house divers measures, a great and a .small.
For all that do such things, and all that do
unrighteousness are an abomination, unio the Lord
thy God. Yet are not these things common
even now ?
12. For the rich men thereof, i. e. of the riiy ¦'*,
are full of violence. It had been little, had
thieves and robbers lived by violence, but
now, (as Isaiah at the same time upbraids
them,) '" her princes were becorae companions
of thieves. Not the poor out of distress,, but
the rich, out of wantonness and exceeding
covetousness and love of luxury, not only did
3Ps. cvi, 15. ov, 3,
10 Chilon in Diog, Laert, i, 4, u nD1,J?r,
12 Eib, i3Am, viii, 5.
1* It seems necessary, I see, in so-called Christian
London, to advertise in shops, that bread is of its
alleged weight,
1^ nDT in Kal is only intransitive.
10 Lev. xix. 35, 36.
" Deut. xxv. 13, 15. 16, add Prov, xi, 1, xvi, 11,
XX, 10, 13 ver, 9, 10 Is, i, 23.

MICAH.

c H eTI t ^^^^ spoken lies, and ¦> their
"i"^- ^i°- tongue is deceitful in their
q Jer, 9, 3, 5, 6, 8. mOUth. 13 Therefore also will I
' make thee sick in smiting
thee, in making thee deso
late because of thy sins.
¦Lev, 26. 26, •'
Hos. 4. 10. 14 = Thou shalt eat, but

'Lev. 26. 16.
Ps, 107. 17,

wrong but were filled, not so much with
riches, as with violence. Violence is the very
meat and drink wherewith they are filled,
yea, and wherewith they shall be filled,
when it is returned upon their heads,
Anrl tlie inhabitants thereof have spoken lies.
Fraud is itself lying, and lying is its insepar
able companion. " ' Lying followeth the
gathering together of riches, and the hard
wont to lay up riches hath a deceitful
tongue." 'The sin, he saith, is spread
throughout all her inhabitants ; i. e. all of
them, as their wont, have spoken lies, and,
even when they speak not, the lie is ready ;
their tongue is deceitful (lit. deceit) in their
mouth. It is deceit, nothing but deceit, and
iluit, deceit which should " 2 overthrow" and
ruin others. One intent on gain has the lie
ever ready to be uttered, even wdien he
speaks not. It lurks concealed, until it is
needed, 13. Therefore also will I, [lit. And I too,]
i, e. this dost thou, and thus will I too do.
" ^ As thou raadest sick the heart of the poor
oppressed, so will I, by M}' grievous and
severe punishments, make thee sick," or make
thy wound incurable, as in Nahum*, thy wound
is grievous, lit. made siek. In making thee
desolate because of thy sins. The heaping up
riches shall itself be the cause of thy being
waste, deserted, desolate.
14. Thou shalt eat, but iiot be satisfied. The
correspondence of the punishment with the
sin shall shew that it is not by chance, but
frora the just judgment of God. The curse
of God shall go with what they eat, and it
sliall not nourish them. The word, thou, is
thrice repeated^. As God had just said, /
too, so here, Thou. Tliou, the same who hast
plundered others, shalt thyself eat, and not be
satisfied ; " thou shalt sow, and not reap ; thou
shalt tread the olive, and thou shalt not
anoint thee with oil." " Upon extreme but
ill-gotten abundance, there followeth ex
treme want. And whoso," adds one^, "seeth
not this in our ways and our tiraes is abso-
1 S. Jer,
2n^'3"l from T]12^. It is used of the tongue in
Ps. 111. 4, ci, 7, cxx, 2, 3 ; of a bow, Ps, Ixxviii, 57,
Hos. vii. 16.
3 Poc. < iii. 19.
^ nriN once in v. 14, twice in v, 15,

not be satisfied; and thy cntTaT
casting down shall be in °ir- ^i"-
the midst of thee ; and
thou shalt take hold, but
shalt not deliver; and
that which thou deliyerest
will I give up to the
sword.

lutely blind. For in no period have we
ever read that there was so much gold and
silver, or so much discomfort and indigence,
so that those m.ost true words of Christ Jesus
seem to have been especially spoken of us,
'' Take heed, for a man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things whieh he possesseth."
And is not this true of us now '?
Thy casting down sliall be in the midst of thee.
Where thou hast laid up thy treasure.3, or
rather thy wickedness, there thou shalt sink
down, or give way, from inward decay, in the
very centre of thy wealth and thy sin. They
had said, * Is not the Lord in the mid,st of us ?
None evil can come upon us. JMicah tells them
of a different indweller. God had departed
from them, and left them to their inherent
nothingness. God had been their stay ; with
out God, human strength collapses. Scarcely
any destruction is altogether hopeless save that
which cometh frora within. Most storms pass
over, tear ofi' boughs and leaves, but the stem
remains. Inward decay or excision alone are
humanly irrecoverable. The political death
of the people was, in God's hands, to be the
instrument of their regeneration.
Morally too, and at all tiraes, inward
emptiness is the fruit of unrighteous fullness.
It is disease, not strength ; as even Heathen
proverbs said ; " the love of money is a
dropsy ; to drink increaseth the thirst," and
" amid mighty wealth, poor ; " and Holy
Scripture, " The rich He sendeth empty away.
And truly they must be erapty. For what
can fill the soul, save God ? " i" This is true
too of such as, like the Bishop of Sardis,
" have a name that they live and are dead,"
"'^ such as do some things good, feed on the
word of God, but attain to no fruit of right
eousness ;" " who corrupt natural and seeming
good by inward decay ; who appear righteous
before men, are active and zealous for good
ends, but spoil all by some secret sin or
wrong end, as vain-glory or praise of men,
whereby they lose the praise of God, Their
casting down shall be in the midst of them. The
0 Arias Montanus, a Spaniard, His Commentary.
on the Minor Prophets was published at Antwerp,
1 S. Luke xii. 15. a iij. ii_
0 S, Luke i, 53, comp, 1 Sam, ii. 5. 10 Eib.
11 Eev. iii. 1. ^ i2 Dion.

CHAPTEE VL

87

C H eTs T 1^ '^^^^ ^^^^* * ^°^' ^^^
"!''¦ 710- thou shalt not reap ; thou
« Deut. 28. 38, 39, 1 1. . J ,1 ,. , ,
40. shalt tread the olives, but
ze^ti. is! thou shalt not anoint thee
Hag. 1. 6.

meaning of the whole is the same, whether
the word be rendered casting down, i. e. down
fall, (lit. sinking down\) or emptiness, espe
cially of the stomach, perhaps from the feel
ing of " sinking."
Thou shalt take hold to rescue or remove to a
safe place from the enemy, those whom he
would take from thee, but shalt not wholly
deliver; and ihal whieh them deliverest for a
time, will I give up to the sword, i.e. the chil
dren for whose sake they pleaded that they
got together this wealth ; as, now too, the
idols, ibr whose sake men toil wrongly all
their life, are often suddenly taken away.
Their goods too may be said to be given to
the sword, i. e. to the enemy.
15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap.
Micah renews the threatenings of the law ',
which they had been habitually breaking.
Those prophecies had been fulfilled before,
throughout their history ; they have been
fulfilled lately in Israel for the like oppres
sion of the poor ^. Their frequent fulfill
ment spoke as much of a law of God's right
eousness, punishing sin, as the yearly supply
in the ordinary course of nature spoke of His
loving Providence. It is the bitterest pun
ishment to the covetous to have the things
which they coveted, taken away before their
eyes ; it was a token of God's Pland, that He
took them away, when just within their
grasp. The prophet brings it before their
eyes, that they might feel beforehand the
bitterness of forgetting them. "*They
should lose, not only what they gained un
justly, but the produce of their labor, care,
industry, as, in agriculture, it is said that
there is mostly much labor, little fraud,
much benefit." Harvest is a proverb for
joy ; ^ they joy before Tliee according to the joy
in harvest ; ^ wine maketh glad the heart of man,
and oil is to make him a cheerful countenance.
But the harvest shall be turned into sorrow,
' the oil and wine shall be taken away, when
all the labor had been employed. Yet, since
air these operations in nature are adapted to
be, and are used as, symbols of things
spiritual, then the words which describe
them are adapted to be spiritual proverbs.
Spiritually, "^ he soweth aiid reapeth not, who
lit is possible, as Gesenius conjectures, that
riiJ''' (a oiir. key.) is a transposed form of the Arab.
tym ; more probably it may be from the bi-literal
riK^ which gave rise to the other forms, T\W, nPt!'.
2 Lev. xxvL 16, Deut. xxviii. 30. 38-41.
3 Am. V. 11, * Mont. ' Is. ix. 3.
« Ps. civ. 15.

with oil; and sweet wine, cheTst
but shalt not drink wine. '=¦''¦ '^i"-
16 ^For II the statutes ¦Juch kelp the
of "Omri are "kept, and ui Kings le. 25,
I Hos. 5. 11. 26.

' soweth to the flesh, and of ihe flesh reapeth cor
ruption, things corruptible, and inward decay
and condemnation. He treadeth the olive,
who, by shameful deeds contrary to the law,
"• grieveth the Holy Spirit of Ood, and therefore
obtaineth not gladness of spirit ; he maketh
wine, yet drinketh not wine, who teacheth
others, not himself." They too take hold but
do not deliver, who for awhile believe and in
time of temptation fall away, who repent for a
while and then i'all back into old sins, or in
other ways bring no fruit to perfection ; taking
up the Cross for awhile and then wearying ;
using religious practices, as, more frequent
prayer or lasting, and then tiring ; cultivat
ing some graces and then despairing because
they see not the fruits. 'These tread the
olive, but are not anointed with the oil of the
Ploly Spirit of grace, who " ¦" end by doing
for the sake of man, what they had thought
to do out of the love for God, and abandon,
for some fear of man, the good which they
had begun."
16. For the statutes of Omri are kept, rather,
(like E. M. he doth much keep,) And he doth
keep diligently for himself. Both ways express
much diligence in evil'^. To "keep God's
commandments " was the familiar phrase, in
which Israel was exhorted, by every motive
of hope and fear, to obedience to God. '^ I
know him, God says of Abraham, that he will
cmnmand his children and his household after
him, and they shall keep the way of ihe Lord, to
do judgment and justice. This was the funda
mental commandment immediately after the
deliverance from Egypt upon their first mur
muring. '* The Lord made there (at Marah)
for them a statute and cn'dinanee, and said. If
thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the
Lord thy God, and vrilt do that ivhich is right in
His sight, and wilt give ear to His commmid-
ments and keep all His statutes, Iwill put none
of these diseases upon thee which I liave brought
upon the Egyptians. In this character He
revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, as '^ shew
ing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me
and keep My cc/mmandmenis. This was their
covenant, '* Thou hast avouched the Lord this
day to be thy God and io walk in His ways, and
to keep His statutes and His commandments and
1 Comp, Is, xvi, 9, 10, Jer, v, 17, xlviii, 37.
8 Theoph. 0 Gal, vi, 8, lo Eph, iv. 30, " Eib.
12 In the construction of the B, V, (which is possi
ble) the force of the union of the sing, verb with
the plural noun would be that "the statutes of
Omri, one and all, are kept diligently,"
13 Gen, xviii. 19. " Ex, xv. 25, 26, . i^Ib, xx. 6..
10 Deut, xxvi. 17.

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 710.

all the works of the house
of ^ Ahab, and ye walk in
counsels; that I
de-

J 1 Kings 16. 30, , , .
&c. their
2 Kin, 21, 3, should make thee ^ a
« 1 Kings 9,8, Jer, 19, 8, || Or, astonishment.

His judgments and to hearken unto His voice.
This was so often enforced upon them in the
law, as the condition upon which they should
hold their land, if they kept the covenant^,
the commandments', the judgments'^, tlie stat
utes'^, the testimonies^, the charge^ of the
Lord. Under this term all the curses of the
law were threatened, if they ' hearkened not
unto the voice ofthe Lord their Ood, to keep His
commandments and His statutes whieh He com-
manded. them. Under this again the future
of good and evil was, in Soloraon, set before
the house of David ; of unbroken succession
on his throne, if ^thou wilt keep My command
ments ; but contrariwise, if ye or your children
will not keep My commandments and My statutes,
banishment, destruction of the temple, and
theraselves to be "a proverb and a byword
among all people. This was the object of
their existence, '" that they might keep His stat
utes and observe His laws. This was the sura-
mary of their disobedience, " they kept not the
covenant of Ood. And now was corae the con
trary to all this. They had not kept the
comraandments of Ood; and those command
ments of raan which were the raost contrary
to the coramandraents of God, they had kept
and did keep diligently. Alas ! that the
Christian world should be so like thera !
What iron habit or custom of man, what
fashion, is not kept, if it is against the law
of God ? How few are not more afraid of
man than God ? Had God's command run.
Speak evil orae of another, brethren, would it not
have been the best kept of all Plis eommand-
raents'? God says, speak not evil; custom,
the conversation around, fear of man, say,
speak evil ; man's comraandment is kept ;
God's is not kept. And no one repents or
makes restitution ; few even cease from the
sin. Scripture does not record, what was the
special aggravation of the sin of Omri, since
the accursed worship of Baal was brought in
by Ahab '2, his son. But, as usual, " like
father, like son." The son developed the
1 Ex. xix. 5. the words of this covenant, Deut. xxix, 9,
2niynn or niVDn Sd, or " niVO Lev, xxll,
31, xxvi, 3, Deut, iv, 2, vi. 17, vii. 11, viii. 6, 11, x. 13,
xi. 1, 8, 22, xiii. 5, Heb. 19, xv. 5. xix. 9, xxvii. 1.
xxviii. 9, xxx. 10.
s'DaE/a Lev, xviii, 5, 20, xx. 22, Deut. vii. 11,
viii. 11, xi. 1.
»nipn or Q'pn Lev. xviii. 5, 26, xx. 8, 22, Deut,
iv, 40, vi. 17, vii. 11, X. 13, xi, 1, xxx, 10,
0 nn;? Dent, vi, 17.

solation, and the
ants thereof an hissing:
therefore ye shall bear the
" reproach of my people.

inhabit- c Before T

» Isai. 25, 8.
Jer, 51, 61,
Lam. 5. 1.

sins of the father. Some special sinfulness
of Orari is implied, in that Athaliah, the
murderess of her children, is called after her
grandfather, Omri, not after her father,
Ahab'^. Heresiarehs have a deeper guilt
than their followers, although the heresy
itself is commonly developed later. Omri
settled for a while the kingdom of Israel,
after the anarchy which followed on the
murder of Elah, and slew Zimri, his mur
derer. Yet before God, he did worse than all
before him, and he walked in all the way of Jero
boam '*. Yet this too did not suffice J udah ;
for it follows. And all the doings of the house of
Ahab, who again '" did eril in the sight of the
Lord above all that were before him and served
Baal; Ahab, to whom none '^wos like in sin,
who did sell himself to work wickedness in the
sight of the Lord. These were they, whose
statutes Judah now kept, as diligently and
accurately asif it had been a religious act.
They kept, not the statutes of the Lord, but the
statutes of Omri ; they kept, as their pattern
before their eyes, all the doings of the house of
Ahab, his luxury, oppression, the bloodshed-
ding of Naboth ; and they walked onward,
not, as God bade thera, humbly with Him, but
in their counsels. And what must be the end
of all this ? tha,t I should make thee a desolation.
They acted, as though the very end and
object of all their acts were that, wherein they
ended, their own destruction and reproach ".
Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of My
people. The title of tlie people of God. must be
a glory or a reproach. Judah had gloried in
being God's people, outwardly, by Plis cove
nant and protection ; they were envied for the
outward distinction. They refused to be so
inwardly, and gave themselves to the hideous,
desecrating, worship of Baal. Now then
what had been their pride, should be the ag
gravation of their punishment. Now too we
hear of people everywhere zealous for a sys
tem, which their deeds belie. Faith, with
out love, (such as their character had been,)
feels any insult to the relation to God, which

0 niDtyn Lev, xviii, 30, Deut, xi, 1.
i Deut. xxviii. 15. o i Kings ix. 4-6.
oib. 7, loPs, cv, 45. 11 Ib. Ixxviii, 11,
12 The worship of Baal was the result of .-ihab's
marriage with Jezebel, the daughter of one, whose
name designates his devotedness to that idolatry,
Ethbaal, (i.e, "with the help of Baal,") And this
marriage is spoken of as Ahab's act, not his father's.
1 Kings xvi, 31 ,
13 2 Kings viii, 26, 2 Chron, xxii. 2,
"1 Kings xvi. 25, 26, i^Ib. 30-33. "Ib. Xxi. 25.
1' See on Hos. viii. 4. vol. i, p, 81.

CHAPTEE VIL

89

cheTst CHAPTEE VIL
eir, 710, 1 The church, complaining of
her small number, 3 and the
general corruption, 5 putteth
her confidence not in man, but
in God. 8 She iriumpheth
over her enemies. 14 Ood
comforteth her by promises, 16
by confusion of the enemies, 18
and by his mercies.

by its deeds it disgraces. Though they had
theraselves neglected God, yet it was a heavy
burden to them to bear the triumph of the
heathen over them, that God was unable to
help them, or had cast them off'. ' These are
ihe people of the Lord and are gone forth, out of
His land. ' Wherefore should they say among
the heathen, wliere is their Ood? ' We are con
founded, because we have heard reproach, shame
hath covered our faces, for strangers are come into
tlie sanctuaries of the Lord's house. * We are be
come a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and
derision to them that are round about its. ^ Thou
makest us a reproach io our 'neighbors, a scorn and
derision to tliem that are round about us. Thou
makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking
of the head among ihe people. My confusion is
daUy before me, and the shame of my face hath
covered me, for ihe voice of him that slandereth
and blasphemeth, by reason of the enemy and the
avenger. The words, the reproach of My people, may
also include " ^ the reproach wherewith God
in the law ' threatened His people if they
should forsake Hira", which indeed coraesto
the same thing, the one being the prophecy,
the other the fulfillraent. The word hissing
in itself recalled the threat to David's house
in Solomon; ^ At this house, which is high,
everyone that passeth by it shall be astonished and
hiss. Micah's phrase became a favorite ex
pression of Jeremiah '. So only do God's
prophets denounce. It is a marvelous
glimpse into man's religious history, that
faith, although it had been inoperative and
was trampled upon without, should still sur
vive ; nay, that God, Whom in prosperity
they had forsaken and forgotten, should be
remembered, when He seemed to forget and
to forsake them. Had the captive Jews aban
doned their faith, the reproach would have
ceased. The words, ye shall bear tlie reproach
1 Ezek, xxxvi, 20,
2 Joel ii, 17. See vol, i, pp, 185, 186.
3 Jer. li. 61. * Ps. Ixxix, 4, o pg. xliv. 13-16.
0 Rib. and others in Poc. ' Deut. xxviii. 36.
8 1 Kgs. ix. 8,
0 T^pfW Jer, Ii, 37, PlPltJ'S Jer, xix, 8. xxv, 9, 18,
xxix. 18. Else it is only used by Hezekiah, 2 Chron.
xxix, 8,
10 Rom, ix, 2. 11 Rup. 12 Is, xxiv. 16.
13 Ib. .XV, 5, xvi. 11. " Joel i. 15. i* Jer. xv. 10.
10 ^hha. The word occurs beside only in Job

^OE is me ! for I am as ^ Before ^
fwhen they ba.ve eir, 710,

gathered the summer fruits, t Heb, the
..^ , . „ gatherings of
as the grapegleaninsrs of summer.
. ^ °, ° 'Isai, 17, 6.
the vintage : there ¦is no * '^¦t- 13,
cluster to eat : " my soul ' is. 2s. 4,
desired the firstripe fruit.

of My people are, at once, a prediction of their
deserved suffering for the profanation of
God's Name by their misdeeds, and of their
perseverance in that faith which, up to that
time, they had mostly neglected.
Chap. VII. The Prophet's oflice of threat
ening woe is now over. Here, out of love, he
hiraself crieth woe unto himself. He hath
'" continual sorrow in heart for his people. He
bewails wdiat he cannot amend, and, by be
wailing, shews them how much more they
should bewail it, over whose sins he sorrows ;
how certain the destruction is, since there is
none to stand in the gap and turn away the
wrath of God, no " ten righteous," for whose
sake the city may be spared. ""These
words flow out of the fount of pity, because
the good zeal, wherewith the Holy seem to
speak severely, is never without pity. They
are wroth with the sins, they sympathize
with the sinner." So Isaiah raourned for the
judgraent, which he prophesied .against the
world, '2 Woe is me/ he sorrowed even for
Moab'^; and Joel, ^* Alas for the day! .ind
Jeremiah in that exclamation of impas
sioned sorrow ; '^ Woe is me, my mother, that
thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of
contention to the whole world !
1. Woe '^ ts me ! for I am, as when they have
gathered ihe summer fruits ", as the grape-glean
ings of the vintage. The vineyard of tlie Lord of
hosts, Isaiah said at the same time'", is the
house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleas
ant plants. Isaiah said, it brought forth wild
grapes ; Micah, that there are but gleanings,
few and poor. It is as though Satan pressed
the vineyard of the Lord, and made the most
his prey, and few were left to those who glean
for Christ ; '^ the foxes have eaten the grapes.
Some few remain too high outof their reach,
or hidden behind the leaves, or, it may be,
'" falling in the time of gathering, fouled,
x. 15, but it is the cry of nature. Among the Greeks
it is chiefly of joy or triumph, but of sorrow too; in
Latin chiefly of sorrow, "umlo," our, "howl,"
1^ lit. as the gathenngs qf ihe t\g-harvest. It is one
of those concise comparisons, which have to be
filled up. In prose it would be, " I am as one who,
at the gatherings of the fig-harvest, should still look
for fruit on the trees," The meaning, "summer,"
E, M, is doubtless a secondary sense of the word,
resulting from the fact, that the main tig harvest
was about the summer solstice,
18 Is, V, 7. 10 Cant, ii, 15, 20 poc, from Tanch,

90

MICAH.

cheTIt 2 The "11 good man is
°i''- '^^o- perished out of the earth :
«Ps, 12, 1.
& 14. 1, 3.
1 Or, godiy, or, among men : they all lie in
i Hab, L is. wait for blood ; ^ they hunt

and there is none upright

sullied, marred and stained, yet left." So in
the gleaning there may be three sorts of souls ;
^ two or three in tlie top of the uppermost bough,
which were not touched ; or those unripe,
which are but imperfect and poor ; or those
who had fallen, yet were not wholly carried
away. These too are all sought with difli-
culty ; they had escaped the gatherer's eye,
they are few and rare ; it might seem at first
sight, as though there were none. There is
no cluster to eat ; for the vintage is past, the
best is but as a sour grape which sets the teeth
on edge. My soul desired the first-ripe fig ''.
These are they which, having survived the
sharpness of winter, ripen early, about the
end of June ; they are the sweetest '' ; but
he longed for thera in vain. He addressed a
carnal people, who could understand only
carnal things, on the side , which they could
understand. Our longings, though we per
vert thera, are God's gift. As they desired
those things which refresh or recruit the
thirsty body, as their whole self was gathered
into the craving for that which was to restore
them, so was it with him. Such is the long
ing of God for man's conversion and salva
tion ; such is the thirst of His ministers ;
such, their pains in seeking, their sorrow in
not finding, "^ There were none, through
whose goodness the soul of the prophet might
spiritually be refreshed, in joy at his growth
in grace, as St, Paul saith to Philemon, * re
fresh iny bowels in tlie Lord. So our Lord saith
in Isaiah, ^ I said, I have labored in vain, I have
spent my strength for nought a'nd in vain. ^Je
sus was grieved at the hardness of their hearts.
" ' The first-ripe fig may be the image of
the righteous of old, as the Patriarchs or the
Fathers, such as in the later days we fain
would see."
2. The good [or godly, or merciful, E. M,]
man. The Hebrew word contains all. It is
" he who loveth tenderly and piously " God,
for His own sake, and man, for the sake of
God. Mercy was probably chiefly intended,
since it was to this that the prophet had ex
horted *, and the sins which he proceeds to
lis, xvii, 6,
2 The bikkurah, boccore, Albaeora. (Span.) See
Shaw's Travels p. 370, Its goodness was proverbial.
See Hos, ix, 10, Is, xxviii. 4, Jer. xxiv. 2,
3 Dion, -iPhilem, 20. o is. xlix, 4,
OS, Mark iii, 5, ' From Rib,
8 IDn vi, 8, Ton vii, 2. o 13N.
10 Is. Ivii. 1. where '^2^ is, in like way, used.
11 See Hos. v. 2, and M.ia. iii. 10, They build up Zion
with bloods: Isaiah says in like way. Your hande are
full of bloods, i. 15.

every man his brother with
a net. 3 ^ That they may do
evil with both hands earn
estly, "the prince asketh,

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,

» Hos, 4, 18.

speak of, are against this. But imaginary
love of God without love of man, or love of
man without the love of God, is mere self-
deceit. Is pei-ished out of the earth, i. e. by an
untimely death '*. The good had either been
withdrawn by God from the evil lo come^", or
had been cut off by those who laid wait for
blood ; in which case their death brought a
double evil, through the guilt which such
siu contracted, and then, through the loss of
those who might be an example to others,
and whose prayers God would hear. The
loving and upright, all, who were men of
mercy and truth, had ceased. They who
were left, all lie in wait for blood, lit. bloods ", i. e.
bloodshedding ; all, as far as man can see ; as
Elijah complains that he was left alone.
Amid the vast number of the wicked, the
righteous were as though l^liey were not.
Isaiah, at the same time, complains of the
like sins, and that it was as though'there were
none righteous; '^ Your hands are defiled with
blood, a'nd your fingers with iniquity ; your lips
have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered per-
vcrseness. None calleth for justice, nor any
pleadeth for truth. Indirectly, or directly,
they destroyed lii'e ''. To violence they add
treachery. The good andloving had perished,
and all is now violence ; the upright had
ceased, and all now is deceit. They hunt every
man his brother with a net. Every raan is the
brother of every man, because he is man,
born of the same first parent, children of the
same Father: yet they lay wait for one
another, as hunters for wild beasts '*.
3. That they may do evil with both ha-nds ear
nestly, [lit. upon evil both hands io do well,] i. e.
" both their hands are upon evil to do it
well," or " earnestly 'V as our translation
gives the meaning ; only the Hebrew ex
presses more, that evil is their good, and
their good or excellence is in evil. Bad men
gain a dreadful skill and wisdom in evil, as
Satan has ; and cleverness in evil is their de
light. " "^ They call the evil of their hands
good." The prince asketh, and the judge asketh
(or, it may more readily be supplied, judgeth,
12 Is. lix, 2, 3,
13 See ab, p, 44, on iii, 10,
1* Comp. Ps. xxxv. 7, Ivii. 7, cxl. 6, Jer. v. 26,
10 3tl''n, like our, " do it well," can signify " do it
thoroughly ; " yet not so as to supersede the idea
of its being " done well " in the mind of the actor.
The two cases cited to the contrary, the thorough
destruction of the calf, (Deut, ix. 21,) and of the
house of Baal, (2 Kings xi. 18J were, of course, good
acts. So to " search well," Dent, xvii, 4. xix. 18.
10 8. Jer.

CHAPTEE VII.

91

c H^TI T " ^^^ *^® j'l'ige asketh for a
"!''• ^i''- reward ; and the great man,
'Is, 1,23, he uttereth f his mischiev-
t Heb.' the mis- OUS desire : so they wrap it
chief of his
soul up. •
!2Sam, 23, 6, 7. 4 The best of them ^is
Ezek. 2. 6. , . ,
See Is. 56. 13. as a brier : the most up
right is sharper than a
thorn hedge: the day of
thy watchmen and thy

doth that which is his office,) against right
for a reward, (which was strictly forbidden ',)
and the great man he ¦uttereth his mischievous de
sire, (or the desire of his soul.) Even the shew
of good is laid aside ; whatever the heart
conceives and covets, it utters ; — mischief to
others and in the end to itself. The mischief
comes forth from the soul, and returns upon
it. The elders and nobles in the city ', as well
as Ahab, took part, (as one instance,) in the
murder of Naboth. The great man, however,
here, is rather the source of the evil, which
he induces others to effect ; so that as many
as there were great, so many sources were
there of oppression. All, prince, judges, the
great, unite in the ill, and this not once only,
but they are ever doing it ^, and so tliey wrap
it up, (lit. twist ^, intertwine it.) Things are
twisted, either to strengthen, or to pervert or
intricate them. It might mean, they strengthen
it, that which their soul covets ag-ainst the
poor, or they pervei't it, the cause of the poor.
4. The best of them is as a brier ; the gentlest
of thera is a thorn, ^strong, hard, piercing,
wdiich letteth nothing unresisting pass by
but it taketh from it, "robbing the fieece,
and wounding the sheep." The most upright,
those who, in comparison of others still worse,
seem so, is sharper than a thorn hedge, (lit. the
upright, than u, thorn hedge.) They are not
like it only, but worse, and that in all ways ;
none is specified, and so none excepted ; they
were raore crooked, more tangled, sharper.
Both, as hedges, were set for protection ; both,
turned to injury. "*So that, where you
would look for help, thence coraes suffering."
And if such be the best, what the rest ?
The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation
1 Deut. xvi. 19. See ab, iii, 11,
2 1 Kings xxi, 8, 11,
3 The force ofthe partic, bxiIV, 15^.
* n3j?, the verb, is a iir, Key. What remains of
the root has the meaning of "twisted," (in n3,J>, "a
rope") or "entangled," (in D'j}?, r\'2]}_ "thick
boughs,'') OThe Heb, pin seems to have been different
from the Arab, which is a " solanum," (Cels, Hierob,

visitation cometh; now chrTst
shall be their perplexity. ™'- ''lo-

5 ^ h Trust ye not in a t jer, 9. 4.
friend, put ye not confi
dence in a guide : keep the
doors of thy mouth from
her that lieth in thy bosom. ,.„,„_
•' 1 Ezek. 22, 7.
6 For 'the son dishonor- Matt, 10, 21.
33, 36,
eth the father, the daughter Luke 12, 53,
. , ¦* 21, 16,
riseth up against her 2Tim,3,2,3.

cometh. When all, even the good, are thus
corrupted, the iniquity is full. Nothing now
hinders the visitation, which the watchmen, or
prophets, had so long foreseen and forewarned
of. Now shall be their perplexity ' ; now, with
out delay; for the day, of destruction ever
breaketh suddenly upon the sinner. " When
they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruc
tion cometh upon them. ^ 'Whose destruction
cometh suddenly at an instant. They had per
plexed the cause ofthe oppressed ; they them
selves were tangled together, intertwined in
mischief, as a thorn-hedge. They should be
caught in their own snare ; they had per
plexed their paths and should find no outlet.
5. 6. Trust ye not in a friend. It is part of
the perplexity of crooked ways, that all rela
tionships are put out of joint. Selfishness
rends each from the other, and disjoints the
whole frame of society. Passions and sin
break every band of friendship, kindred,
gratitude, nature. " Every one seeketh his
own." Times of trial and of outward harass
increase this ; so that God's visitations are
seasons of the most frightful recklessness as
to everything but self. So had God fore
told '" ; so it was in the siege of Samaria ", and
in that of Jerusalem both by the Chaldeans '^
and by the Eomans ". When the soul has
lost the love of God, all other is but seeming
love, since natural affection is from Him, and
it too dies out, as God gives the soul over to
itself*. The words describe partly the in
ward corruption, partly the outward causes
which shall call it forth. There is no real
trust in any, where all are corrupt. The
outward straitness and perplexity, in which ^
they shall be, makes that to crumble and fall
ii. 35.) but Prov. xv. 19, (where it occurs beside),
shews that it served as a hedge. og, jer.
1 1n the Hebrew the two words " mesucah,"
" thorn hedge " and " mebucah," " perplexity," are
alike in sound.
81 Thess. v., 3,
0 8ee Is. xxx, 13, comp, 2 Pet. ii, 1, "swift de-
ruction;" Prov, i, 27, "cometh as a whirlwind,"

structionPs, xxxv, 8, " unawares,
10 Deut. xxviii. 53,
12 Lam. iv. 3-16.
w Eom, i. 28.

II 2 Kings vi. 28.
13 Jos, B, J. vi, 3,

92

MICAH.

cheTst ™otlier, the daughter in
 cir, 710, la-^v against her mother in
law; a man's enemies
are the men of his own
house.

to pieces, which was inwardly decayed and
severed before. The words deepen, as they
go on. First, the friend, or neighbor, the
common band of man and man ; then the
guide, (or, as the word also raeans, one fa
miliar, united by intimacy, to whom, )jy con
tinual intercourse, the soul was used ;) then
the wife who lay in the bosom, nearest to the
secrets of the heart ; then those to whom all
reverence is due, father and mother. Our
Lord said that this should be fulfilled in the
hatred of His Gospel, He begins His warn
ing as to it, with a caution like that of the
prophet ; ' Be ye wise as serpents, and beweire
of men. 'Then He says, how these words should
still be true '. There never were wanting pleas
of earthly interest against the truth. He
Himself was cii( off, lest ^the Romans should
take away their plaee and nation. The Apos
tles were accused, that they meant to bring
this Man's Blood upon the chief priests ¦* ; or as
^ ringleaders of the sect of the Nazarenes, pesti
lent fellows and movers of sedition, turning the
world upside down, setters up of another king ;
troublers of the city ; commanding things unlaw
ful for Romans to practice ; setters forth of
strange gods ; turning away much people ; en
dangering not men's craft only, but the honor
of their gods ; evil doers. Truth is .against
the world's ways, so the world is against it.
Holy zeal hates sin, so sinners hate it. It
troubles them, so they count it, one whieh
troubleth Israel^. TertulUan, in a. public
defence of Christians in the second cen
tury, writes, " ' Truth set out with being
herself hated ; as soon as she appeared, she
is an enemy. As many as are strangers to
it, so many are its foes ; and the Jews indeed
appropriately from their rivalry, the soldiers
from their violence, even they of our own
household from nature. Each day are we
beset, each day betrayed ; in our very meet-
inf;s and asserablies are weraostly surprised,"
There was no lack of pleas. "*A Christian
" thou deemest a man guilty of every crime, an
enemy of the gods, of the Emperors, of law,
of morals, of all nature ; " " factious," " au-
1 S, Matt, X. 10, 17. 2 Ib. 21, 35, 36.
3 8, John xi, 48, * Acts v, 28.
0 Acts xxiv, 5, xvi, 20, 21. xvii, 6, 7, 18, 1 Pet, ii, 12,
0 1 Kings xviii, 17,
' Tert. Apol. c. 7. p. 17. Oxf. Tr.
. 3 lb. c. 2. p. 7. O. T. :38. 10. (and note k. Oxf. Tr.)
24, 28, to, and notes e, t ; ad Scap, c, 2,
0 Tert. ad Nat. i. 24. " The most atrocious calum
nies against the Christians," S. Justin M. says,
"were invented and circulated from country to

wait for the God of my kisai, 8. 17,
salvation : my God will
.hear me.

7 Therefore ^ I will look ^ Before ^
unto the Lord; I will  °'''- ™' 

thors of all public calamities through the
anger of the heathen gods," "impious,"
"atheists," "disloyal," "public enemies."
The Jews, in the largest sense of the word
they of tlieir oivn household, were ever the
deadliest enemies of Christians, the inventors
of calumnies, the authors of persecutions.
"What other race," says ^TertulUan, "is
the seed-plot of our calumnies ? " Then the
Acts of the Martyrs tell, how Christians were
betrayed by near kinsfolk for private interest,
or for revenge, because they would not join
in things unlawful. "'"So many are the in
stances in daily life, [of the daughter rising
against the mother] that we should rather
mourn that they are so raanj', than seek them
out," — " I seek no examples, [of those of a
man's own househould being his foes] they
are too many, that we should have any need
of witness," " " Yet ought we not, on account
of these and like words of Holy Sotipture, to
be mistrustful or suspicious, or always to pre
sume the worst, but to be cautious and pru
dent. For Holy Scripture speaketh with
reference to times, causes, persons, places,"
So St, John saith, ^' Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God.
7, Therefore, {And,) when all these things
come to pass and all huraan help fails, /, for
ray part, will look unto, (lit, on) the Lord God,
the Unchangeable. The prophet sets him
self, I, with emphasis, against the multitude
of the ungodly. When all forsake, betray,
fail, when '^ love is waxed cold, and men, in
the last days, shall be '* lovers of their own-
selves, not lovers of God, I, — he does not say,
" will trust," but— !(•(//, " '" with the eye of
the heart contemplating, loving, venerating
God raost High, and weigliing His raercy
and justice," gaze intently '° with the devotion
of faith toward Hira, though I see Him not :
yet so too I will rest in Him '" and on Him,
as the eyes are wont to rest in trust and love
and dependence, and as, on the other hand,
the Eyes of God '' espy into raan and dwell
on hira, never leaving him unbeheld. I will
espy Hira, although from afiir, with the eyes
country by the Jew^." Apol, i, 49, See also Dial c.
Trvph, J 16. 108, c, Cels, vi. 27,
10 8, Jer, 11 Dion, i= 1 John iv, 1,
13 8. Matt, xxiv, 12. M 2 Tim. iii. 2, 4.
ion3yj<, intensive, (as in Ps. v. 4.) "will espy
intently," as toward that which can be seen only
by intent gazing ; and with 2 pers. " so as to dwell
upon." 10 Comp. Pa. xxv, 16, cxxiii, 1. cxli. 8.'
I'Ps, Ixvi. 7.

CHAPTEE VII.

93

c H eTs t ^ ^ ' Rejoice not against
 ""¦ ''i°- me, 0 mine enemy : "" when
Lam, 4. '21,' I fall, I shall arise; when
» Ps, 37, 24, Prov, 24, 16,

ofthe soul, as a watchman, (the word is the
same,) looking for His Coming and announc
ing it to others ; and until He comes, I loill
wait [I would wait] with trust unbroken by
any troubles or delay, as Job saith, ' Though
He slay me, yet wdl I put my trust in Him.
The word is almost appropriated to a long
ing waiting for God '. For ihe God of my
salvation. This too becarae a wonted title of
God^, a title, speaking of past deliverances,
as well as of confidence and of hope. Deliver
ance and salvation are bound up with God,
and that, in man's personal experience. It
is not only, "Saviour God," but " God, my
Saviour," Thou who hast been, art, and wilt
be, ray God, my saving God, It is a prelude
to the name of Jesus, our Eedeeming God,
The Lord will hear me. His purpose of wait
ing on God he had expressed wistfully, /
would waif^ ; for man's longing trust must
be upheld by God. Of God's mercy he speaks
confidently, the Lord will hear me. Pie, Who
is ever "more ready to hear than we to
pray." He has no doubts, but, as Abraham
said, ^the Lord will provide, so he. The Lord
will hear me. So, when Jehoshaphat prayed,
* We have na might against ihis great company
tltat cometh against vs, neither know we what io
do, but our eyes are upon Thee; God answered
by the prophet. Be not afraid non- dismayed by
reason of this great multitude ; for the battle is
not yours, but Ood's. Micah unites with him
self all the faithful as one, "in the unity of
the spirit," wherein all are one band, looking,
waiting, praying for His Coraing in His king
dom. " ' God is our only refuge and asylum in
things desperate, and rejoices to help in them,
in order to shew His supreme Power and
Goodness especially to those who believe,
hope, and ask it. 'Therefore all mistrust and
despondency is then to be supremely avoided,
and a certain hope and confidence in God is
to be elicited. This will call forth the help
1 Job xiii. 15.
2^ nVniX, as in P,s. xxxviii, 16, xiii, 6, 12,
xliii, 5, cxxx, 6, 2 Kings vi, 33, Lam, iii, 24, bn^ is
almost appropriated to one who so waiteth for God,
Abs, Hifil, Lam, iii, 21, Pi, Job vi, 11, xiv, 14, Ps,
Ixxi, 14, 7''n% adj. Lam. ill. 26. and Prop, iMame
"Waiter" on God, as expressed in 7^4711', Pi-
with '7, Ps, xxxi. 25, xxxiii. 22, Ixix, 4; with 7S, of
God, Ps, cxxx, 7, cxxxi, 3 ; with 7, of the word of
God, Ps, cxix, 74, 81, 114, 147; of His mercy, Ps,
xxxiii, 18, cxlvii, 11 ; of His judgments, Ps, cxix,
43; of His Arm, Is, li, 5; of His law. Is. xiii, 4.
Transitively, Ps, cxix. 49. So flynin, abs. Pr. x.
28. Lam. iii. 18 ; with ^, Ps. xxxix. 8.

I sit in darkness, "the cheTIt
Lord shall be a light c'l'- '^lo-
unto me. - Ps, 27, 1,

of God assuredly, yea though it were by
miracle, as to Lot in Sodora, to Moses and
the people from Pharaoh, to David from
Saul, to Hezekiah from Sennacherib, to
the Maccabees from Antiochus. This our
proverbs express'*, how God aids, when there
is least sign of it."
8. Rejoice not against me, 0 mine enemy.
The Prophet still more makes himself one
with the people, not only as looking for God,
but in penitence, as Daniel bewails " his own
sins and the sins of his people. The enemy is
Babylon and Edom'^"; and then, in all tiraes,
(since this was written for all times, and the
relations of the people of God and of its ene
mies are the same,) whosoever, whether
devils or evil men, rejoice over the falls of
God's people. Rejoice not ; for thou hast no
real cause ; the triumphing of the ungodly, and
the fall of the godly, " is but for a moment.
When I fall, I shall arise ; (lit, when I have
fallen, I ham arisen;) expressing both the
certainty and speed of the recovery. To fall '2
and to arise is one. "'^ The fall of infirmity
is not grave, if free from the desire of the
will. Have the will to rise. He is at hand
Who will cause thee to rise." " '* Though I
have sinned. Thou forgivest the sin ; though
I have fallen, thou raisest up ; lest they, who
rejoice in the sins of others, should have oc
casion to exult. For we who have sinned
raore, have gained raore ; for Thy grace
maketh raore blessed than our own inno
cence." When I sit in darkness, ihe Lord shall be a
light unto me. "'*He does not say 'lie,' but
sit; she was not as one dead, without hope of
life, but she sat solitary as a widow, helpless,
unable to restore herself, yet waiting for
God's time. The darkness of the captivity
was lightened by the light of the prophetic
grace which shone through Daniel and Eze
kiel, and by the faithfulness of the three
3 "God of my salvation," C^'ty,) Ps, xviii, 47, (2
Sam. xxii, 47,) xxv. 6, xxvii. 9, Hab. iii. 18. "God, my
s." Ps. Ixii. S. " God of our s." Ps. Ixv. fi, Ixxix. 9,
l.xxxv. 5. "God of thy s." Is, xvii, 10, "God of his
s," Ps, xxiv. 5. " Eock of our s." Ps. xcv. 1,
* nSTllK, optat, 0 (Jen, xxii, 8, 14,
0 2 Chron. xx. 12, 16. ' Lap.
8 Deus ex maehmfi. o Dan. ix. 10,
10 Obad, 10, 12, Ps, cxxxvii, 7. " Ps, xxx 6,
12 73 J is used of the fall of a people, Am, v. 2,
viii, 14, Ls. xxi. 9, Jer. li. 8 ; of a king and his people,
2 Kings xiv. 10 ; of many individuals, Is. viii. 15.
In Prov. xxiv. 10. it is used of the fall of the righf-
eous, from which he shall rise, in contrast with the
stumbling (l7ty3') of the wicked, without recovery.
13 S. Ambr. in Ps, 37, [38 Eng.] v. 15.
" Ib. v. 47. 10 Mont.

94

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
« Lam, 3, 39,

9 ° I will bear the indig
nation of the Lord, be
cause I have sinned against
him, until he plead my
cause, and execute judg-

pps. 37, 6, ment for

Phe

ill

children, and the brightness of Divine glory
shed abroad through them, when Nebuchad
nezzar proclaimed to all people that their
God was ' God. of gods a'nd Lord of kings,
and that none should ' speak anything amiss
against Him. Still raore when, at the close
of the captivity, they were delivered from
sorrow, trouble, bondage, death, to joy, rest,
freedom, life. Yet how much more in Christ,
(for Whom this deliverance prepared,) when
^ the people tliat walked in darkness have seen a
great lig'ht: they that dwell in the land of
ihe shadow of death, upon tliem hath ihe light
shined.' God is not only our light, as " '' re
storing us " outwardly to gladness, freedom,
happiness, whereof light is a symbol, as
darkness is of sorrow, captivity, adversity,
death." Scripture speaks of God, in a di
rector vray, as being Hiraself our light. * The
Lord is my light. " The Lord shall be unto thee
an everlasting light. He calls Hiraself, ' The
light of Israel. He is our light, by infusing
knowledge, joy, heavenly brightness, in any
outward lot. lie does not say, " after dark
ness, coraes light," but when I shall sii in
darkness, then, the Lord is light unio me. The
sitting in darkness is the occasion of the light,
in that the soul or the people in sorrow turns
to Him Who is their light. In their sin,
which was so punished, they were turned
away from the light.
9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
because I haw. sinned against Him. This is the
temper of all penitents, when stricken by
God, or under chastisement from Him. ^ It
is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him
good. ' So let him curse, because the Lord hath
said unto him, curse David. Who shall then
say. Wherefore hast thou done so? '"iTe put
teth his ¦mouth in the dust ; if so be tliere may
be hope. The penitent owns the just sentence
of God, and, knowing that he deserves far
more than God inflicts, is thankful to endure
it, until He remove it, until He plead my
cause and execute judgment for me, i. e. until
God Himself think the punishments in
flicted, enough, and judge between rae and
those through whose hands they corae. The
judgments which God righteously sends, and
which man suffers righteously from Him, are

1 Dan. ii. 47.

2 Ib, iii, 29

3 Is. ix. 2.

"iLap

0 Ps, xxvii, 1.

ois, Ix. 19.
'Ib. X. 17.
8 1 Sam, iii, 18
bring me forth to the light,
and I shall behold his
righteousness. 1 0 1 1 Then s/ie that is mine
enemy shall see it, and
'•shame shall cover heroPs. 35, 26,
Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
Or, And thou
wilt see her that
is mine enemy,
and cover her
with shame.
unrighteously inflicted by those whose raalice
He overrules, whether it be that of evil raen
(as the Assyrian or the Chaldaean or the Edo-
mite) or of Satan, The close of the chastise
ments of His people is the beginning of the
visible punishment of tlieir misdeeds, who
used amiss the power which God gave them
over it. Whence it is said, " Daughter of
Babylon, the wasted ! blessed he that rewardeth
thee as thou hast served us. But all is of the
mercy of God, So Pie saith. He shall bring
me forth to the light of His Countenance and
His favor and Plis truth, Micah speaks in
the name of those who were penitent, and so
were forgiven, and yet, in that they were
under punishment, seemed to lie under the
wrath of God. For, although God remits
at once the eternal penalty of sin, yet we see
daily, how punishment pursues the forgiven
sinner, even to the end of life. The light of
God's love may not, on grounds which He
knoweth, shine unchequered upon him. We
should not know the blackness of the offence
of sin, and should never know the depth of
God's mercy, but for our punishraent. The
indignation of God toward the penitent is an
austere forra of His love. So then peni
tents raay well say, in every grief or sickness
or visitation or disappointraent, J will bear
the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned
against Him. He says, I shall behold His
righteousness, because they had a righteous
cause against man, although not toward God,
and God in His just judgment on their ene
mies shewed Himself as the righteous Judge
of the world.
10. Then [A^nd] she that is mine enemy shcdl
see it, and shame shall cover her whioh said unto
me, Where is He^', Pie of Whora thou boast-
est, the Lord thy God ? The cause of her
gladness then is, that the blasphemies of the
eneray of God were to cease. This was the
bitterest portion of her cup, that they said
daily, " 'Where is now thy Gael ? let Him come
and save thee ; " as though He could not, or
as though He loved her not, and she vainly
presumed on His help. Even when fallen,
it was for His sake that she was hated. Who
seemed to be overcome in her: as He was
• hated in His Martyrs, and they asked,
0 2 Sam. xvi. 10.
10 Lam. iii. 29.
11 Ps. cxxxvii. 8,
12 VX- The pronoun is inserted emphatically.
CHAPTEE VII.

95

cheTst^^^^*^^ said unto me,
cir, 710, r Where is the Lord thy

' &'iT.''io'. ^°' God ? " mine eyes shall be-
& 115. 2. Joel 2. 17. • ch. 4. 11.

"'Where is the God of the Christians?"
Now the taunt was closed, and turned back
on those who used it. The wheel, which
they had turned against her, rolled round on
themselves. They who had said. Let our
eye look on Zion, now were ashamed that their
hope had failed. They had longed to feed
their sight on her miseries; Zion had her
reverent gladness in gazing on ' tlie righteous
ness of God. Babylon was trodden down by
the Medes and Persians, and they whom she
had let captive beheld it. Daniel was in the
palace, when Belshazzar was slain.
The soul of one, who has known the chas
tening of God, cannot but read its own his
tory here. The sinful soul is at once the
object of the love of God and hath that
about it which God hates. God hates the
evU iu us, even while He loves us, being, or
having been, evil. He forgives, but chastens.
His displeasure is the channel of His good-
pleasure. Nathan said to David, ^ The Lord
hath put away thy sin, but also, the sword
shall never depart from thy house. It is part of
His forgiveness to cleanse the soul with a
* spirit of burning. " It seemeth to me," says
St. Jerome, " that Jerusalem is every soul,
which had been the temple of the Lord, and
had had the vision of peace and the know
ledge of Scripture, and which afterward,
overcome by sins, hath fallen captive by its
own consent, parting frora that which is right
in the sight of .God, and allowing itself to
sink among the pleasures of the world." So
then ""captive, and tortured, she saith to
Babylon, i. e. the confusion of this world and
the power of the enemy which ruleth over
the world, and sin who lordeth it over her,
Rejoice not against me, 0 mine enemy ; when I
faU, I shall arise ;" " " from sin by repentance,
and from tribulation by the consolation of the
Holy Spirit, Who, after weeping, poureth
in joy. For ''the Lord helpeth them that are
fallen, and saith by the Prophet, ^ Shall tliey
fall and nat arise ? and ", I have no pleasure in
the death of ihe wicked ; but that the wicked turn
from his way and live. If I walk in darkness,
the Lord is my light! For although ^Hhe
rulers of the darkness of this world have deceived
me, and I ^' sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death, and '^ my feet stumble upon ihe dark
¦mountains, yet '' to them who sit in tlie re
gion and shadow of death, light is sprung up,
1 Ep, of Churches of Vienne and Lyons, in Eus,
H. E, V. 1 fin.
2 inplSa ^X^X ver. 9, corresponding to nj'Xin

nn, V. 10.
3 2 Sam. xii. 10, 13.

*Is. iv. 4.

OS. Cyr.

hold her : now t shall she „ S'',t°r% m
be trodden down 'as the °ii'- '?io- 

mire of the streets.
' 2 Sam, 22, 43, Zech, 10, £

t Heb, she shall
be for a tread
ing down.

and '* light shineth in darkness, and '^ tlie
Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom
then shall I fear ? and I will speak to Him
and will say, '^ Thy word is a lamp unto
my feel, and a light unio my path." " He
draweth me frora the darkness of ignorance
and from the black night of sin, and giveth a
clear view of future bliss, and brighteneth the
very inmost soul within," " " Even if a mist
have come upon me and I have been in
darkness, I too shall find the light, i, e.
Christ ; and the Sun of Eighteousness aris
ing on my raind shall make it white." /
will bear patiently, yet gladly, the indignation
of ihe Lord, " " all adversity, trial, tribulation,
persecution, which can happen in this life ; "
because I have sinned against Him, " and such
is the enormity of sin, offered to the Miijesty
and dishonoring the Holiness of God, and
such punishment doth it deserve in theworld
to come, that if Tve weigh it well, we shall
bear with joy whatever adversity can befall
us." "^For although for a short time I be
out of His Presence, and be " given to an un-
distinguishing mind, yet, seeing I suffer this
rejection justly, I will bear the judgment, for
I am not chastened in vain." '^'^ All chasten
ing for ihe present seemeth not to be joyous bui
grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are
exercised thereby. " i^ The soul, feeling that it
hath sinned, and hath the wounds of sins
and is living in dead flesh and needs the
cautery, says firmly to the Phj'sician, ' Burn
my flesh, cut open my wounds, all my im-
posthuraes. It was ray fault, that I was
wounded ; be it my pain, to endure such suf
ferings and to regain health.' And the true
Physician shews to her, when wdiole, the
cause of His treatment, and that He did
rightly what Pie did. Then after these suf
ferings, the soul, being brought out of outer
darkness, saith, I shall behold His Righteous
ness, and say, 20 Thou, 0 Lord, art upright;
Righteous are Thy judgments, 0 God. But if
Christ is ^' made unto us wisdom and righteous
ness and sanctification and redemption, he who,
after the indignation of God, saith that he
shall see His Righkousness, proraiseth to hira
self the sight of Christ." ""Then, having
considered in her mind the grace of the
righteousness in Christ and the overthrow of
sin, the soul, in full possession of herself,
0 Dion, ' Ps, cxlvi, 8, 8 jer, viii, 4,
0 Ezek, xxxiii, 11, 10 Eph, vi, 12,
11 Ps, cvii, 10. 12 Jer, xiii, 16. lo Is, ix, 2,
w 8, John i, 5. lo Ps, xxvii, 1, 10 Ps. cxix, 106,
" Eom. i, 28, 18 Heb, xii, 11, lo S, Jer,
20 Ps, cxix. 137. 21 1 Cor, i, 30.

96

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.

11 J?i the day that thy
'walls are to be built, in
" Amos 9, 11, &c. that day shall the decree
be far removed.

crieth out. Mine enemy shall see it, &c. For,
after that Christ came unto us, justifying
sinners through faith, the mouth of the un
godly One is stopped, and the Author of sin
is put to shame. He hath lost his rule over
us, and sin is trodden down, like mire in the
.s(reete, being subjected to the feet of the saints.
But the blotting-out of sin is the Day of
Christ." " ' And, because the end of all
punishment is the beginning of good," God
saith to the poor, penitent, tossed, soul, " the
walls of virtues shall be built up in thee, and
thou shalt be guarded on all sides, and the
rule of thine oppressors shall be far re
raoved, and thy King and God shall come
unto tliee, and all the ends of the earth shall
see the salvation of God." "2 All this shall
be raost fully seen in the Day of Judg
ment." ?
11, 12. On this confession of unworthi
ness and trust the message of joy bursts in,
with the abruptness ' and conciseness of
Hosea or Nahura :
A day io build thy fences; [i, e, cometh ;]
That day, far shall be the decree;
That day, and he shall come quite to thee * ;
and there ioUows, in a longer but still remark
ably raeasured and interrupted cadence ^, the
stateraent of the length and breadth from
which the people shall come to her ;
Up to and from Assyria and the cities of strong-
land, [Egypt;]
1 S, Jer. 2 Dion.
3 Hence the omission of the preposition ^^ before
"IV^O ''I.J? and D\ and of any preposition in the
bast clause, -|nn '^m,
*The three sentences, which begin with DV, are
manifestly each complete in itself.
0 Ver. 12 is divided into four claiises, of which
each consists of four words, and these in pairs ;
" Yom hoo, ve'adeica yabo
leminni a.^sbur, ve'are miitsor,
ooleminni matsor, ve' ad n.ahar
veyam miyyam, vehar hahar,
0 V, 9-13.
1 TIJ is the w,all of a vineyard. Num. xxii. 24, Is,
V, 5, Ps, Ixxx. 13; a wall pushed down, Ps, Ixii, 4;
one in which a serpent might lurk, Eccl, x, 8 ; a
wall with gaps in it, Ezek. xiii, 5, xxii. 30; the w.all
of the court of the temple, Ib. xiii. 7 ; a fence, Ezr.
ix. 9. It is no where used of "the wall of a city."
TIJ too is the wall of the court of the temple, Ezek.
xiii. 10; the wall of a vineyard, Prov. xxiv. 31.
ilTIJ is "a sheepfold," Num, xxxii, 16, 24, 36, 1
Sam, XXIV, 4, Zeph, ii, 6 ; fences under which lo
custs lodge, Nah, iii, 17 ; in the open field, Jer, xlix.
3, Hos. ii. 8. Heb. ; fences, Ps. Ixxxix. 41. Heb.
8 Is. V, 6, » ix. 11.
10 pin is used chiefly of a "statute" of God, either

Before

12 In that day also "he q h e i s T
shall come eveu to thee_ '='"'• ''i'^'-
from Assyria,

. . "18,11,16,
and from & 19, 23, &c,
the fortified cities, and from hos.' 11,' 11,
11 Or, even to.

Up to and from strong-land and even to river
[Euphrates ;]
And sea from sea, and mountain io moun
tain. It is not huraan raight or strength which
God proraises to restore. He had before
predicted, that the kingdora of the Messiah
should stand, not through earthly strength".
He promises the restoration, not of city
walls, but of the fence of the vineyard ' of
God, which God foretold by Isaiah that He
would break down *. It is a peaceful renew.al
of her estate under God's protection, like
that, with the promise whereof Amos closed
his prophecy ; " In that day I will raise up the
tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up
the breaches thereof. This decree, which he
says shall be far away, might in itself be the
decree either of God or of the eneray 1°. The
sense is the sarae, since the eneray was but
the instruraent of God. Yet it seeras more
in accordance with the language of the pro
phets, that it should be the decree of raan.
For the decree of God for the destruction of
Jerusalem and the captivity of His people
was accomplished, held its course, was ful
filled. The destruction, captivity, restora
tion, were parts of one and the same decree
of God, of which the restoration was the last
accoraplished in tirae. The restor<ation was
not the reraoval, but the complete fulfillment,
of the decree. He means then probably,
those positive laws given by Moses, (its common
use) or such laws as God has impressed upon the
physical world, Job xxvi, 10, xxviii, 26, xxxviii, 10,
33, Prov, viii, 29, Jer, v, 22, xxxi. ,35, 6; of the time
appointed by God for man's life, .lob xiv, 5, 13; a
decree of God, Job xxiii, 14, Ps. ii, 7, Zeph, ii, 2 ; of a
portion of food appointed by God, .Job xxiii, 12,
Prov, xxx, 8, Ezek. xvi. 27 ; by man, Gen. xlvii. 22,
Prov. xxxi. 15; of a statute made by man, Gen.
xlvii. 26, 1 Sam. xxx. 25 ; a custom, Jud. xi. 39, (Plur,
Jer, xxxii, 11, Ez. xx. 18.); a task appointed by
man, Ex. v. 14. But in all cases the idea of " ap
pointment," is prominent; so that although pn
expresses the law of God determining the bounds
of the sea or the term of man's life, it cannot there
fore signify a mere point in space or time, pn'?
also, with which it is united by alliteration, (proba
bly to fix the words in men's memories.) is not to
" expand," but to " be far off," Then also pHT, cor
responding to n'ljnS which implies a future, must
itself be a future, not a mere aorist or vivid present.
These three observations together exclude such
renderings as, " the decree for thv restoration shall
be promulged far and wide;" "the decree of God
shall not be confined to Babvlon but shall extend to
other countries," "In that day, the interval is dis
tant;" (Ew.) " the bound set to her will be far ofl^"
i. e, Israel shall be enlarged.

CHAPTEE VIL

97

the fortress even to the

Before
CHEIST cir. 710. river, and from sea to sea,

that the decree ofthe enemy, whereby he held
her captive, was to remove and be far off, not
by any agency of her's '. The people were
to stream to her of themselves. One by one,
shall all thy banished, captive, scattered,
children be brought quite home unto thee from
all parts of the earth, whither they have
been driven, from Assyi-ia, and from strong-
land. The name Matsor, which he gives to
Egypt, modifying its ordinary dual name
Mitsraim, is meant, at once to signify "Egypt ^ "
and to mark the strength of the country ; as,
in fact, " ' Egypt was on all sides by nature
strongly guarded." A country, which was
still strong relatively to Judah, would' not, of
itself, yield up its prey, but held it straitly ;
yet it should have to disgorge it. Isaiah and
Hosea prophesied, in like way, the return of
Israel and Judah frora Assyria and from
Egypt *. And from strong-land even to the
river [Euphrates] ; the ancient, widest,
boundary of the promised land ^ ; and from
sea io sea, and from mountain to mountain.
These last are too large to be the real boun
daries of the land. If understood geograph
ically, it would by narrowing those which
had just been spo'icen of, from Egypt to the
Euphrates. Joel likens the destruction of
the Northern army to the perishing of locusts
in the two opposite seas, the Dead sea and the
Mediterranean •> ; but the Dead sea was not
the entire Eastern boundary of all Israel.
Nor are there any mountains on the South,
answering to Mount Libanus on the North.
Not the mountains of Edom which lay to the
South-East, but the desert ' was the Southern
boundary of Judah. In the times too of
their greatest prosperity, Edom, Moab, Am
mon, Syria, had been subject to them. The
rule of the Messiah from sea to sea had already
been predicted by Solomon*, enlarging the
boundaries of the promised land to the whole
corapass of the world, from the sea, their
bound westward, io the further encircling sea
beyond all habitable land, in which, in fact,
our continents are large islands '. To this,
Micah adds a new description, from mountain
io mountain, including, probably, all subdi
visions in our habitable earth, as the words,
1 This is conveyed by the simple neuter, pPIT,
" shall be far off," '
2 As it certainly does in Isaiah at the same date,
Is. xix. 6, xxxvii, 25, (2 Kings xix. 24.).
3 Diod. Sic, i, 31.
* Is. xi. 11. xxvii. 13. Hos. xi. 11.
5 Gen, XV. 18, Ex. xxiii. 31, Deut. i. 7, xi. 24, Jos.
i. 4, 1 Kings iv. 21, 24.
0 Joel ii. 20.
' Ex, xxiii, 31, Num. xxxiv, 3, Deut. xi. 24.
8 Comp, Ps, Ixxii, 8, See " Daniel the Prophet," p,
479 aqq, 7

and from mountain to
mountain.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710,

sea to sea, had erabraced it as a whole. For,
physically and to sight, mountains are the
great natural divisions of our earth. Elvers
are but a means of transit. The Euphrates
and the Nile were the centres of the kingdoms
which lay upon them. Each range of
mountains, as it rises on the horizon, seems
to present an insuperable barrier. No bar
rier should avail to hinder the inflow to the
Gospel. As Isaiah foretold that all obstacles
should be removed '", every valley shall be ex
alted, and every mountain and hill shall be made
low, so Micah prophesies, from mountain io
mountain they shall come.
The words are addressed as a promise and
consolation to the Jews, and so, doubtless,
the restoration of the Jews to their own land
after the captivity is foretold here, as Micah
had already foretold it ". But is the whole
limited to this ? He says, with remarkable
indefiniteness, there shall come '2. He does not
say, who "shall corae." But he twice sets
two opposite boundaries, from which men
should come ; and, since these boundaries,
not being coincident, cannot be predicted of
one and the same subject, there must be
two distinct incomings. The Jews were to
come from those two countries, whither its
people were then to be carried captive or
would flee. From the boundaries of the
world, the world was to come.
Thus Micah embraces in one the prophe
cies, which are distinct in Isaiah, that not
only God's former people should come from
Egypt and Assyria, but that Egypt and Assy
ria themselves should be counted as one with
Israel " ; and while, in the first place, the
restoration of Israel itself is foretold, there
follows that conversion of the world, which
Micah had before promised '*, and which was
the object of the restoration of Israel. This
was fulfilled to Jews and heathen together,
when the dispersed of the Jews were gathered
into one iu Christ, the Son of Darid according
to the flesh, and the Gospel, beginning at Jeru
salem, was spread abroad among all nations.
The promise is thrice repeated. It i^ the day,
assuring the truth thereof, as it were, in the
Name of the All-Holy Trinity.
oSee Aristot, de mundo c, 3. in "Daniel the
Prophet," p, 625, Strabo speaks as though Homer
too knew the fact that the sea encircled the land,
" hinting at those in East and West, in that they
were washed by the Ocean,"
10 Is, xl. 4.
11 Mic, iv, 10,
12 SD', not, "they shall come;" nor again is it,
"he," Israel, "shall come," since they were to eome
to Israel, " there shall come io thee;" nor is it an
individual, since one person could not come from
all these places.
13 Is. xix, 23-25. " iv. 1-3.

98

MICAH.

cheTst ^^ || Notwithstand-
 cir- '710. I'ng the land shall be deso-
'j.Ox, After that late because of them that
y Jer. 21. 14, ' dwell therein, '' for the fruit
ch. 3. 12. J? il - 1 •
01 their doings.

13. Notwithstanding [And] the land (i, e,
that spoken of, the laud of Judah) shcdl be
desolate, not through any arbitrary law or the
might of her enemies, but through the sins
of the people, because of them that dwell therein,
for the fruit of their doings. Truly "the fruit
of their doings," what they did to please
theraselves, of their own rainds against God.
As they sow, so shall they reap. This sounds
almost as a riddle and contradiction before
hand; "the walls built up," "the people
gathered in,'' and " the land desolate," Yet it
was all fulfilled in the letter as well as in spirit,
Jerusalem was restored ; the people was
gathered, first from the captivity, then to
Christ ; and yet the land was again desolate
through the fruit of their doings who rejected
Christ, and is so until this day.
The prophet now closes with one earnest
prayer ' ; to which he receives a brief answer,
that God would shew forth Plis power anew,
as when He first raade them His people 2.
On this, he describes vividly the awed sub
mission of the world to their God ', and closes
with a thanksgiving of marveling amaze
ment at the greatness and completeness of
the forgiving mercy of God *, ascribing all to
His free goodness ^.
14. Feed Thy people with Thy rod. The
day of final deliverance was still a great way
off. There was a weary interval before them
of chastisement, suffering, captivity. So
Micah lays down his pastoral ofiice by com
mitting his people to Plim Who was their
true and abiding Shepherd. Who that has
had the pastoral ofiice, has not thought, as
the night drew nigh in whieh no man can work,
" what will be after him ?" Micali knew and
foretold the outline. It was for his people a
passing through the valley of the shadow of death.
Micah then commits them to Him, Who had
Hiraself committed them to him. Who alone
could guide thera through it. It is a touch
ing parting with his people ; a last guidance
of those whom he had taught, reproved, re
buked, in vain, to Hira the Good Shepherd
Who led Israel like a flock. The rod is at
times the shepherd's staff", although more
frequently the syrabol of chastisement. God's
chastisement of His people is an austere form
of His love. So He says, ' If his children for-
IV, 14, 2t. 15, 3y. 16, 17. 4v. 18, 19. By. 20,
0 tomy Lev, xxvii. 32, Pa. xxiii. 4,
' Ps. Ixxxix. 31, 33. 8 Deut, ix, 26, 29,
0 1 Kings viii, 61, 10 Ps. Ixxix, 1,
11 Ps. Ixxiv. 1,2. 12 Joel ii, 17, lo Ps, xciv, 5,

14 '^ II Feed thy people ^HTst

cir, 710,

with thy rod, the flock of_
thine heritage, which iOx,Ruie. Ps, 28. 9.
dwell solitarily in ^ the ch! 5. '4. '
wood, in the midst of. Car-

sake My law, Iwill visit their offences mth a rod
and their sin with scourges : nevertheless My lov
ing-kindness will I not utterly take from them.
The flock of Thine inheritance. So Moses
had appealed to God, ^ Destroy not Thy people
and Thine inheritance which Thou, hast redeemed
through Thy greatness — They are Thy people and
Thine inheritance ; and Solomon, in his dedica
tion-prayer, that, on their repentance in
their captivity, God would forgive His peo
ple, ^for they be Thy people anel Thine inherit
ance which Thou bronghtest forth out of Egypt ;
and Asaph, '" 0 Lord, the heathen are come into
Thine inheritance; and again, " Why doth
Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pas
ture ? Remember the tribe of Thine inheritance
whieh Thou hast redeemed. ; and Joel, " Spare
Thy people and give 'not Thine heritage to re
proach ; and a Psalmist, '^ They break in
•pieces Thy people, 0 Lord, and afflict Thine
heritage; and Isaiah, '* Return for thy servants'
sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance. The ap
peal excludes all merits. Not for any deserts
of their's, (for these were but evil,) did the
Prophets teach them to pray ; but because
they were God's property. It was His
Name, which would be dishonored in thera ;
it was His work, which would seeraingly
come to nothing ; it was He, Who would be
thought powerless to save. Again, it is not
God's way, to leave half-done what He has
begun. '^ Jesus, having loved His own which
were in the world, loved them unto the end. God's
love in creating us and making us His, is the
earnest, if we will, of His everlasting love.
We have been the objects of His everlasting
thought, of His everlasting love. Though
we have forfeited all claim to His love. He
has not forfeited the work of His Hands ;
Jesus has not forfeited the price of His Blood.
So holy men have prayed; " '"I believe that
Thou hast redeeraed rae by Thy Blood: per
rait not the price of the Eansom to perish."
" " O Jesus Christ, my only Saviour, let not
Thy most bitter Passion and Death be lost or
wasted in rae, miserable sinner ! "
Which dwell solitarily, or alone. Micah uses
the words of Balaam, when he had been con
strained by God to bless Israel. '^ The peo
ple shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned
among tlie nations. Moses had repeated them,
HIs.Lxiii. 17. 10 S, John xiii, 1.
10 Bp, Andrewes Preces quotid, Greec, p, 150,
Tracts for the Times, No. 88. p, GG.
1' Paradise for the Christian Soul. On the Passion
u, 5, 18 Num, xxiii, 9

CHAPTEE VIL

99

0 H eTs T ^^'^ '¦ ^®* ^^^^ ^^^^ ^"' ^^'
"il'- ^^P- shan and Gilead, as in the

days of old.

• Israel shall dwell in safety alone. This alone-
ness among other nations, then, was a bless
ing, springing from God's being in the midst
of them'^, the deeds which He did for
them^, the law which He gave them*. So
Moses prayed, ^ Wherein shall it be known
hei'C, that I and Thy people have found graee in
Thy sight ? is it not in tliat Thou goest with 'US ?
So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, frcnn
all the people that are on the face of the earth. It
was, then, a separate appeal to God by all His
former loving-kindness, whereby He had
severed and elected His people for Plimself.
In the wood, in the midst of Carmel. God
^ turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the
wickedness of 'them that dwell therein. Lie turn
eth the wilderness inio a standing water and dry
ground into waiersprings. Isaiah at the same
time used the like image, that ' Lebanon shall
be turned into a fruitful field [Carmel], and the
fruitful field [Carrael] shall be esteemed as a
forest^. The wild forest was to be like the
rich domestic exuberance of Carmel". He
would say, " Feed Thy people in Babylon,
which is to them a wild homeless tract, that
it raay be to thera as their own peaceful Car
rael." Without God, all theworld is a wil
derness ; with God, the wilderness is Paradise.
Let them feed in Baslian and Gilead. T'he
forraer words were a prayer for their restora
tion. Gilead and Bashan were the great
pasture-countries of Palestine '", " " a wide
tableland, with undulating downs clothed
with rich grass throughout," where the cattle
ranged freely. They were the first posses
sions, which God had bestowed upon Israel ;
the first, which they forfeited. Micah prays
that God, Who protected them in their desola
tion, would restore and protect them in the
green pasture where He placed thera. They
are a prayer still to the Good Shepherd Who
laid down His life for His sheep '2, our Lord
Jesus Christ, that He would feed His flock
whora He has redeemed, who have been given
iDeut. xxxiii, 28. In both cases, as in 'Micah,
pE^ is used; as also in Jer. xlix. 31, of Hazor
dwelling in security alone. The idiom 11^ ^ty,
" sit alone," is diff'erent. It occurs first of the
separation of the leper, " he shall sit alone, without
the camp shall his dwelling be (I^C^ID)," Lev. xiii,
46; then of an individual in sorrow, Jer. xv. 17,
Lam. iii. 28 ; and, in one case, of the deserted city
personified. Lam, i. 1. 2 Ex. xxxiii. 16, Deut. iv. 7.
3 Ex. xxxiv. 10, Deut. iv. 34. * Deut. iv. 8, 33.
0 Bx. xxxiii. 16. 0 Ps. oyij. 34^ 5. 7 is. xxix. 17.
8 3tJ'n'' '\yh Sn'^jm. The phrase recurs Is,
xxxii, 15, except that the Kethib omits the article,
which makes the contrast of "^j;^ and 7D*1D ex
actly the same as in Micah,
ogee on Am, i. 2, vol. i. p. 233,
10 See on Am, i, 3, vol, i, p, 2:34; iv, 1, p. 280.

15 "According to the cheTIt
days of thy coming out of _ "ii'- Clo

the land of Egypt will I "/vsi^il.^'

to Him as an inheritance'^^, the litde flock ^*, to
which it is the Father's good pleasure to give
the kingdom, which cleaveth to Hira and shall
be heirs with Him '^, " '" Christ i'eedeth His
own with a rod, guiding them gently, and re
pressing by gentle fears the tendency of be
lievers to listlessness. He bruiseth as ivith a
rod of Iron, not thera, but the rebellious dis
obedient and proud, who receive not the
faith ; believers Pie instructs and forras ten
derly, "/eeds tliem among the lilies, and leads
them into good pastures and rich places,
namely the Divinely-inspired Scriptures,
making the hidden things thereof clear
through the Spirit to those of understanding,
that they '* may grow up unto Him in all things
whieh is the Head, even Christ, with minds
well-fed and nourished and gladdened with
all spiritual delights. But the chosen and
elect dwell solitarily, being apart from the rest
who think only of the things of earth, and
give themselves to the pleasures of sense. So
then these, having the mind at rest, freed
from the vain and abominable tumults, are
placed apart as in a wood and in a mountain.
By the wood you may understand, the rich
and varied and solid instruction (as it were
trees and fiowers) both in doctrine and life ;
by the mountain, what is high and loi'ty. For
none of the wisdom, accounted of in the
Church, is low. They are fed in Bashan and
Gilead, as in the days of old, rich pastures ;
for the mind of the holy is beautified, de
lighting itself in the contemplation of the
inspired Scriptures, and filled, as it were,
with a certain richness, and shares without
stint all excellence in thought or in deed ;
and that, not for a brief and narrow season,
but for ever. For what gladdeneth the fiesh
falleth therewith and fadeth and hasteth
away like a shadow; but the participation of
the good things frora above and of the Spirit,
stretcheth out along endless ages."
15. Aeeording io the days of thy coming out
"Eev. G. H, Palmer in Dr. Stanley Pal. p. 320.
See also Porter's Handbook, p, 307 sq, " One can
scarcely get over the impression that he is roam
ing through some English park. The graceful
hills, the rich vales, the luxuriant herbage, the
bright wild-fiowers, the plantations of evergreen
oak, pine, and arbutus, now a tangled thicket, and
now sparsely scattered over the gentle slope, as if in
tended to reveal its beauty, the little rivulets fringed
with oleander, &c. — such are the features of the
mountains of Gilead." p, 310. "The country from
Jerash to Wady Gdbes [Jabesh Gilead] 8 hours,
resembles in scenery that from es-Salt to Jerash,
We have the thickly wooded hills, the deep and
fertile valleys, and the luxuriant pasturage in every
part of it," p. 316. See also Thomson, The Land and
the Book, i. 304, 12 S. John x. 11, 16. lo Ps. ii. 8,
" S. Luke xii. 32. 10 Eom. viii. 17, 10 S, Cyr.
" Cant, vi. 3. " Eph. iv, 15,

100

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.
i> Is. 26. 11.

she\v unto him marvelous
things. 16 ^ The nations "shall
see and be confounded at

of the land of Egypt. God answers the prayer,
beginning with its closing words '. Micah
had prayed, " Turn Thy people like the days
of old' ;" God answers, " like the days of thy
coming' out of the land of Egypt." Micah
had said, in the name of his people, ^ I shall
behold His Righteousness ; God answers, Iwill
make him to behold marvelous things. The
word marvelous things* was used of God's
great raaryels in the physical world", or the
marvelous raercies of His Providence to
ward individuals or nations *, and especially
of those great rairacles, which were accumu
lated at the deliverance frora Egypt ', and
the entrance of the promised land * which
was its completion. The reference to the
Exodus must have led them to think of act
ual miracles ; since, in regard to tiie Exodus,
it is used of nothing else. But there were
no rairacles at the return from the captivity.
" When the Lord turned again the captivity of
Zion, said a Psalmist of the returned people,
we were like them that dream. The Lord hath
done great things for us ; we are glad. Great
things, but not rairaculous. The promise
then kept the people looking onward, until
He carae, '" a Prophet mighty m word and deed,
as to Whora St. Peter appealed to the people,
that He was " approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and rigns, which Ood did
by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know ; Who gave also to them who believed
on Hlin power to do '" greater works than He
did, through His own power, because He went
to His Father ; and when they believed. Pie
shelved to him, viz. to the whole people gath
ered into the One Church, Jew and Gentile,
yet more marvelous things, things, every way
more marvelous and beyond nature than
1 Casp.
2 Ch'li) ''Ip'3 ver, 14. J]nN!f 'a''3 ver. 16. The
word D7l^ is necessarily restrained to time, in
that it relates to man's past, and that, according to
the context, a limited past, the time of their com'ing
out of Egypt. This does not interfere with its use
as to eternity. See ab, on Mic, v, 2, p, 67, ,
Oyer, 9, Casp, ^nlXlSJ.
0 Job V. 9, xxxvii. 5, 14.
oPs. ix. 2, xxvi. 7, Ixxi. 17, Ixxii. 18, &c.
' Ex. iii. 20, Jud. vi. 13, Neh. ix. 17, Ps. Ixxviii. 4,
11, 32, cv. 2, 5, cvi. 7, 22.
8 Ex. xxxiv. 10. Of the passage of the Jordan,
Jos. iii, 5.
0 Ps, cxxvi. 1, 3, 10 S. Luke xxiv. 19,
11 Acts ii, 22. 12 S. John xiv. 12. lo Eph. iii. 8, 9.
"WK'IX end of ver. 15; ?ST beg. of ver. 16.
Casp. 10 See ab. p. 92.
10 This is the force of ©U with tp. ID desig
nates, as usual, the cause and source of the shame ;

all their might : "they shall
lay their hand upon their
mouth, their ears shall be
deaf.

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.
"Job 21. 6.
& 29. 9.

those of old, '^ the unsearchable riches of Christ,
the mystery which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God.
16. The nations shall see. God had an
swered, what He would give to His own peo
ple, to see. Micah takes up the word'*, and
says, what effect this sight should have upon
the enemies of God and of His people. 'The
world should still continue to be divided be
tween the people of God and their adversa
ries. Those who are converted pass from
the one to the other ; but the contrast re
mains. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, pass away
or become subject to other powers ; but the
antagonism continues. The nations are they,
who, at each time, waste, oppress, are arrayed
against, the people of God. When the Gos
pel came into the world, the whole world was
arrayed against it'^. These then, he says,
shall see, i. e. the marvelous works of God,
which God should shew His people, and be
ashamed at, i. e, hecause of all their might, their
own might. They put forth their whole
might, and it failed them against the marvel
ous raight of God. They should array
might against might, and be ashamed at the
failure of all their might^^. The word all is
very emphatic ; it implies that they had put
forth all, and that all had failed thera, and
proved to be weakness. So the Heathen
raight was often put to sharae and gnashed
its teeth, when it could avail nothing against
the strength to endure which God gave to
His raartyrs. Its strength to inflict and to
crush was bafiled before the hidden might of
God's Spirit. They shall lay thrir hand upon
their mouth, in token that they were reduced
to silence, having no more to say"; for Pie
promised, '* / will give you a mouth and wis-
and mostly with this aggravation, that they had
trusted in it, aud it had failed them. See Hos, iv.
19, " they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices ;
X, 6, because of iheir own counsel " (see on Hos. x. 6. vol.
1. p. 10) ; " They shall be afraid and ashamed because
of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their
glory," Is, xx, 5 ; " because of the oaks, which ye have
iie^i'red," Ib, i, 29 ; " thou shalt be ashamed because of
Egypt, as thou wast ashamed because of Assyria," Jer,
ii! 36 ; " Moab shall be ashamed hecause of Chemosh, as
the house of Israel was ashamed because of Bethel their
confidence," Ib, xlviii, 13 ; add xii. 13. 'the idiom it-
sell, D''^15 DmOJip, ^^ ashamed because of their
might," occurs in Ezek. xxxii, 30, of the nations,
which had perished in war. In a few cases, the
idiom is used of the source of shame, where the
idea of previous trust in them is less prominent, as
in Ezek, xxxvi. -32, Zeph. ill. 11. But here, this is
involved in the subject itself, and is illustrated by
Ezek. xxxii. 30.
1' See the use of the idiom in Jud. xviii. 19. Job.
xxi. 5, xxix. 9, xl. 4, Prov. xxx. 32.
18 S. Luke xxi. 15. comp. Acts v. 29.

CHAPTEE VIL

101

Before
CHEIST cir. 710.
¦iPa. 72. 9.
Is, 49, 23.
= Ps. 18. 45.
I Or, creeping
things.

17 They shall Hck the
* dust like a serpent, " they
shall move out of their
holes like 1 1 worms of the

dom, which aU. your adversai'ies shall not be able
to gainsay nor resist ; and they had to own,
' indeed a notable miracle hath been done by
them, and we cannot deny it. Their ears shall be
deaf; they shall be silent, as though they
had heard nothing, as if they were both
dumb and deaf''- Yet it seems too that
they are wilfully deaf, shutting their eai-s out
of envy and hatred, that they might not hear
what great things God had done for His peo
ple, nor hear the voice of truth and be con
verted and healed. " * The nations and the
Emperors of the nations saw, Jews and Gen
tiles saw, and were ashamed at all their
might, because their might, great as it was
accounted, upheld by laws and arms, could
not overcome the mighty works, which the
Good Shepherd did among His people or
flock by His rod, i. e. by His power, through
weak and despised persons, the aged, or
oftentimes even by boys and girls. They
were then ashamed at all their might which
could only touch the * earthen vessels, but
could not take away the treasure which was
in them. What shall I say of the wisdom of
those same nations ? Of this too they were
ashamed, as he adds, They shall put their
hands upon thrir mouths. For, in comparison
with the heavenly wisdom, which spake by
them and made their tongues eloquent, dumb
was all secular eloquence, owning by its
silence that itwas convicted and confounded."
17. They shall lick the dust like a [i/te] ser
pent. To lick the dust, by itself, pictures the
extreme humility of persons who cast them
selves down to the very earth ^ To lick it
" like the serpent " seems rather to represent
the condition of those who share the serpent's
doom", whose lot, viz. earth and things of
earth, they had chosen '. They shall move out
of their holes, or, better, shall tremble, (i. e.
" come tremblingly,") out of their dose places '',
whether these be strong places or prisons, as
the word, varied in one vowel ^ means. If
it be strong places, it means, that ""the ene
mies of God's people should, in confusion
and tumultuously with fear, leave their
strongholds, wherein they thought to be se-
1 Acts iv, 16.
2 As in Ps. xxxviii, 14, " I was as a man that hear
eth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.''
3 Eup. i 2 Cor. iv. 7.
0 As m Ps. Ixxii. 9. Is. xlix. 23.
"Gen. iii. 14, Is, Ixv, 25.
1 So our Version renders the word in Ps. xviii. 45,
2 Sam. xxii. 46.
3 •! Jpp masc. Is. xxiv. 22, xiii. 7, Ps. cxlii. 8 ; here
and in Ps. xviii. 46, JTIJOD fem.

earth : 'they shall be afraid
of the Loed our God,.
and shall fear because of
thee.

Before
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'Jer. 33, 9,

cure, not able to lift themselves up against
God and those by Him sent against thera."
Like worms of the earth, lit. creeping things, or,
as we say, reptiles^'', conteraptuously. They
shall be afraid of, or rather come trembling to,
the Lord our Ood; it is not said thrir, but our
God, Who hath done so great things for us.
And shall fear because of [lit. /rom] Thee, 0
Lord, of Whom they had before said, Where
is the Lord thy Ood ?
It is doubtful, whether these last words
express a "servile fear," whereby a man
turns away and flees from'"- the person or
thing which he fears, or whether they sim
ply describe fear of God '^', the first step to
ward repentance. In Hosea's words'", they
shall fear toward the Lord and His goodness,
the addition,' and His goodness, determines
the character of the fear. In Micah, it is not
said that the fear brings them into any rela
tion to God. He is not spoken of, as becom
ing, any how, their God, and Micah closes by
a thanksgiving, for God's pardoning mercy,
not to them but to His people.
And so the Prophet ends, as he began,
with the judgments of God ; to those who
would repent, chastisement, to the impeni
tent, punishment : " sentencing Samaria,
guilty and not repenting ",'' to perpetual cap
tivity ; " to Jerusalem, guilty but repenting,
promising restoration. So frora the begin
ning of the world did God ; so doth He ; so
shall Pie unto the end. So did He shew
Hiraself to Cain and Abel, who both, as we
all, sinned in Adam. Cain, being impeni
tent. He wholly cast away ; Abel, being
penitent," and through faith offering a better
sacriflce than Cain, and " bringing forth fruits
worthy of repentance, He accepted." So He
hath foreshown as to the end '*. " " And
that we may know how uniformly our Judge
so distinguisheth, at the very moraent of His
own Death while hanging between the two
thieves, the one, impenitent and blasphem
ing, He left ; to the other, penitent and con
fessing, He opened the gate of paradise ; and,
soon after, leaving the Jewish people unre
pentant, He received the repentance of the
opoc.
10 The idiom occurs beside only in Deut. xxxii.
24, with the variation only of 1il_^ for "[^"li^.
11 XT with ]D Ps. iii. 7, xxvi'i. 1, Job 'v. 21. See
Ges. Thes. p. 804.
12 XT' with [D is used of a fear of God, whereby
one is kept from evil. Lev. xix. 14, Yet also gener
ally of fear of God, Ps, xxxiii, 8,
13 Hos, iii. 5. " 8. Matt. xxv.

102

MICAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 710,
s Ex, 15,11
t Ex. ,34, 0, 7.
Jer, 60, 20.
> ch. 4, 7.
& 5. 3, 7, 8.
'' Ps, 103, 9.
Is, 57, 16.
Jer. 3. 6,

18 ^Who is a God like
unto thee, that '' pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by
the transgression of 'the
remnant of his heritage?
•^ he retainetli not his anger

Gentiles,'' Thus the Prophet parts with
both out of sight ; the people of God, feeding
on the rich bounty and abundance of God,
and His marvelous gifts of grace above and
beyond nature, multiplied to thera above all
the wonders of old time ; the enemies of
God's people looking on, not to admire, but
to be ashamed, not to be healthfully asharaed,
but to be wilfully deaf to the voice of God,
For, however to lay tlie hand on the mouth
might be a token of reverent silence, the
deafness of the ears can hardly be other than
the emblem of hardened obstinacy. "What
follows, then, seems raore like the unwilling
creeping-forth into the Presence of God,
when they cannot keep away, than conver
sion. It seems to picture the reprobate, who
would not ' hear the Voice of the Son of Ood
and live, but who, in the end, shall be forced
to hear it out of their close plaees or prisons,
i. e. the grave, and come forth in fear, when
they shall 'say ta the mountains. Fall on us ;
and to the hills. Cover us. Thus the Prophet
brings us to the close of all things, the glad
ness and joy of God's people, the terror of
His eneraies, and adds only the song of
thanksgiving of all the redeemed.
18. Who is a Ood (and, as the word raeans, A
Mighty God,) like unto Ttiee? He saith not,
' Wlio hast made heaven and earth, the sea and
all that therein is ; nor, * Who telleth tlie number
of the stars; and calleth them all by their names ;
nor, " Who by His strength setteth fast the moun
tains and is girded about with power ; but Who
forgivest ! For greater is the work of Ee
demption than the work of Creation. That
pardoneth, and beareth aud taketh away also,
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of His heritage, i, e. His heritage, which is a
remnant still when ^ the rest are blinded ; and
this, not of its merits but of His mercy ; since
it is not His nature to retain His anger f'or
ever; not for anything in them, but because
He delightcth in mercy, as He saith, ' I am
merciful, saith ihe Lord, and I will not keep
anger for ever. ^ I am He that blotteth out thy
transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. "^ For although God for a
time is angry with His elect, chastening thera
mercifully in this life, yet in the end He hath

is, John, V. 25.
2 S. Luke xxiii. ;
*Ps. exlvii. 4.
1 Jer. iii. 12.
10 Ex. XV. 11.

I, Rev. vi. 16. 3 2 Ex. xx, 11.
0 Ps. Ixv. 6. 0 aom. xi. 7.
8 Is. xlui. 25. 0 Dion.

for ever, because he de- che^st
lighteth in mercy. '^'i'- ''^°- 
19 He will turn again,
he will have compassion
upon us ; he will subdue
our iniquities ; and thou

compassion on them, giving them everlasting
consolations." Moses, after the completion of his people's
deliverance at the Eed Sea, used the like ap
peal to God, in unmingled joy. Then the
tiianksgiving ran, ^"glorious in holiness, auful
in praises, doing wonders. Now, it ran in amore
subdued, yet even deeper, tone, taken from
(xod's revelation of Hiraself iifter that great
transgression on Mount Sinai, ^^ forgiving in
iquity and transgression and sin. With this,
Micah identified his own narae''. This was
the one message which he loved above all to
proclaira ; of this, his own name was the
herald to his people in his day. Who is like
the Lord, the Pardoner of sin, the Eedeemer
from its guilt, the Subduer of its power ? For
no false god was ever such a claim made.
The heathen gods were symbols of God's
workings in nature ; they were, at I .est, rep
resentatives of His trovernment and of His
displeasure at sin. But, being the creatures
of man's mind, they could not freely pardon,
for man dared not ascribe to them the attri
bute of a freely-pardoning raercy, for whieh
he dared not hope. Who is a God like to
Thee, mighty, not only to destroy but to par
don ? is the wondering th;mksgiving of time,
the yet greater amazeraent of eternity, as
eternity shall unveil the deep blackness of
sin over-against the light of God, and we,
seeing God, as He Is, shall see what that
Holiness is, against which we sinners sinned.
The soul, which is truly penitent, never
wearies of the wondering love, ll''/io is a Ood
like unto Thee ?
19. He will turn again, "Who seeraed to be
turned away from us when we were turned
away frora IPim '^. He will subdue, or trample
¦und 'rfoot, our worst enemy, our iniquities, as He
saith, i*ifc shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly. Plitherto, sinful passions had not re
belled only, but_had had the mastery over us.
Sin subdued raan ; it was his lord, a fierce tyr
ant over bim; Ae could not subdue i'/, Ploly
Scripture says emphatically of man under
the law, that he was sold under sin '=, a slave
under a hard master, oppressed, weighed
down, and unable to throw oti' the bondage.
'" We have before proved both Jews and Oen-
iij??/31^ jii»^ StJ'J, Ex. xxxiv. 7; Micah, dividing
the clauses, inserted '7;? 1;3j; before p^3. Casp.
12 See Introd. to Micah, ab. p. 5. 13 See Jo. ii. 14.
" Eom. xvi. 20. 16 lb, vii, 14, 10 Ib. iii. 9.

CHAPTEE VII.

103

c H eTI t ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ their sins into
""¦ 710- the depths of the sea.

tiles, that they are all under sin; ' the Scripture
hath concluded all under sin . tinder the Gos
pel, God, he says, would subdue sin " under
us," and iiCiake it, as it were, our "loot-
stool '." It is a Gospel before the Gospel.
God would pardon; and He, not we, would
subdue sin to us. He would bestow, " " of
sin the double cure. Save us from its guilt
and power." * Not I, but the grace of Ood,
which was with me.
And Thou wilt cast, — not, some ("*for it is
impious to look for a half-pardon frora God")
but — all their sins into ihe depths^ of the sea,
so that as in the passage of the Eed Sea
there was not one Egyptian left of those who
pursued His people, so neither shall there be
one sin, which, through Baptism and on Ee-
pentance, shall not through Plis free mercy
be pardoned. -Vs they, which ' sank as lead
in the mighty 'waters, never again rose, so shall
the sins, unless revived by us, not rise against
us to condemnation, but shall in the Day of
Judgment be sunk in the abyss of hell, as if
they had never been.
20, Thou wilt perform the truth to Jaeob and
the mercy to Abraliam. What was free mercy
to -Ibraham, became, when God had once
promised it. His truth. Abraham also stands
for all those, who in him and his Seed should
be blessed, those who were ^ aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having na hope, and with
out God in the world, in no covenant or rela
tion with God, as well as those who were the
children of the faith ; heathen, as well as
Jews. Jacob represents those who were ira
raediately his children, such of the children
of Israel, as were also the true Israel and
children of faithful Abraham. In both ways
the gift to Abrahara was mercy, to Jacob,
ii-uih. So also St. Paul saith ', " jesus Christ
was a Minister of the circuracision for the
truth of God, to confirm the promises made
to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might
glorify God for His mercy." Yet mercy and
truth '° together, are all the paths of ilie Lord ;
they "-met togetlier in Christ; yea Christ
Himself is full of Mercy as well as '^ Truth :
and woe were it to that soul to whom He
were Truth without mercy. ""For to be
saved, we look not so much to the truth of
1 Gal. iii. 22.
25^53, "footstool," 2 Chr, ix, 18, (as in Syr, Ch,)
from the same root.
3 Hymn, " Eock of ages."
¦•ICor, XV, 10,
6 S, Amb. ap. Alb,
o/l'lVlSn doubtless is meant to refer back to
fllVlVD, Ex. XV. 5, and so, to suggest the image of

20 'Thou wilt perform

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the truth to Jacob, and the . ^i"'- "«•

1 Luke 1. 72, 73.

the Judge as to the mercy of the Eedeemer,"
And mercy, in the counsel of God, reacheth
wider than truth; for truth is given to Jacob,
the father of one nation, Israel; but mercy
to Abraham, '¦* ihe father of many nations.
Isaac, it may be, is not here mentioned, be
cause all to whom the blessing should come
are already spoken of in Jacob and Abra
ham ; in Jacob, all to whom the promise
was first made ; in Abrahara, all nations
of the world who should be blessed in his
Seed, through the raercy of God overflowing
the bounds of that covenant, Isaac is, in
his sacrifice, chiefly a type of our Lord
Hiraself, Whieh Thou liast sworn unto our fathers.
'^ That by two immutable things, in which it was
impossible for God io lie, we might have a strong
consolation. From the days of old. '^ From eternity, in
the counsel of God ; in promise, from the
foundation of the world, as is said in the
hymn of Zacharias ", As He spake by the mouth
of His holy Prophets, which liave been since the
world began. "The insjjired hymns of the
Blessed Virgin Mary and of Zachariah take
up the words of the prophet, and shew that
they are already fulfilled in Christ, although
they shall be more and more fulfilled unto the
world's end, as Jew and trentile are brought
into His fold ; '" He remembering His merey, as
He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his
seed for ever. '" To perform the mercy promised
to our fathers, and to remember His holy cove
nant, the oath which He sioare io our father
Abraham that He would grant unto us.
" I too," St, Jerome subjoins, " sealing the
labor of my little work by calling upon the
Lord, will say at the close of this tract, 0
Ood, who is like unto Thee ? Take away the
iniquity of Thy servant, pasa by the sin of
my decayed soul, and send not 'I'hine anger
upon me, nor rebuke me in Thy indignation ;
for Thou art full of pity and great are Thy
mercies. Eeturn and have raercy upon me ;
drown mine iniquities, and ci-^t them into the
depth of the sea, that the bitterness of sin
raay perish in the bitter waters. Grant the
truth which Thou didst promise to Thy ser
vant Jacob, and the raercy which Thou didst
pledge to Abrahara Thy friend, and free my
the destruction at the Eed Sea, and its complete-

ness. ' Ex. XV. 10.

sBph. ii, 12.

0 Eom. XV. 8, 9.

10 Ps. xxv. 10.

11 Ps, Ixxxv, 10.

12 S. Johni. 14.

13 Eup.

" Gen. xvii. 6, Eom. iv. 17,

15 Heb. vi. 18.
1' S. Luke i. 70.
los. Lukei. 54, 56.

10 Alb,
18 Poc,
20 Ib, 72-74.

104

MICAH.

Before
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» Ps. 105, 9, 10.

mercy to Abraham, "" which
thou hast sworn unto our

soul, as Thou didst sware to my fathers in
the days of old ; ^ As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in ilie death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ivay and

1 Ezek, xxxiii. 11.

fathers from the days of
old.

Before
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live. Then shall mine enemy see and be
crowned with confusion, who now saith unto
me, where isnow thy Ood?" Amen, Amen, O
Good Lord Jesu.

IlirTEODIJOTIOI^

TO

THE PROPHET
NAHUM.

The prophecy of Nahum is both the com
plement and the counterpart of the book of
Jonah. When Moses had asked God to
shew him His glory, and God had promised
to let him see the outskirts of that glory, and
to proclaim the Narae of the Lord before
him, the Lord, we are told, passed by before
him and proclaimed, " The Bord, the Lord God,
merriful and gracious, longsuffering and abun
dant in goodness and ti-uth, keepirig mercy for
thousands, forgimng iniquity a'nd transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. God proclairaed at once His mercy
and His justice. Those wondrous words echo
along the whole of the Old Testament.
Moses hiraself'', David °, other Psalmists '',
Jeremiah ", Daniel ', Nehemiah «, plead them
to God or rehearse sorae part of them in
thanksgiving. Joel repeated them as a
motive to repentance ''. Upon the repent
ance of Nineveh, Jonah had recited to God the
bright side of that His declaration of Him
self, ' I knew that Thou art a gracious Ood and
merciful, slow io anger and of great goodness,
repeating to God His words to Moses, and
adding, and repenting of ihe eod. Nineveh, as
appears from Nahum, had fallen back into
the violence of which it had repented.
Nahum then, in reference to that declaration
of Jonah, begins by setting forth the awful side
of the attributes of God. First, in a stately
rhythm, which, in the original, reminds us of
the gradual Psalms, he enunciates the solemn
threefold declaration of the severity of God
to those who will be His enemies.
• Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. '' Num. xiv. 17, 18.
° Ps. Ixxxvi. 1.5, ciii. 8, cxlv. 8.
^ Ps. cxi. 4, cxii. 4, cxvi. -5. » xxxii, 18, 19.
' ix. 4. 5 ix. 17. i" ii. 13. ' Jon. iv. 2. k i, 2.

^ A jealous ' Ood and Avenger is the Lard :
An Avenger is the Lord, a'nd lord of wrath ;
An Avenger is the Lord io His adversaiies :
And a Reserver of wrath io His enemies.
Then, he too recites that character of
mercy recorded by Moses, ' The Lord is slow to
anger, a'nd great in power. But anger, although
slow, comes, he adds, not the less certainly
on the guilty ; ' and mil not at all clear the
guilty. The iniquity is full. As a whole,
there is no place more for repentance.
Nineveh had had its prophet, and had been
spared, and had sunk back into its old sins.
The office of Nahum is to pronounce its sen
tence. That sentence is fixed. "" There is
no healing of thy bruise. Nothing is said of
its ulterior conversion or restoration. On
the contrary, Nahum says, "JJe will make
the plaee thereof an utter desolation.
The sins of Nineveh spoken of by Nahum
are the same as those from which they had
turned at the preaching of Jonah. In Jonah,
it is, " the riolence of thrir hands. Nahum
describes Nineveh as ^ a dwelling of lions, filled
with prey and with ravin, the feeding-place of
young lions, where the lion tore enough for his
whelps ; ' a eity of bloods, full of lies and robbery,
from which the prey departeth not.
But, amid this mass of evil, one was emi
nent, in direct antagonism to God. The
character is very peculiar. It is not simply
of rebellion against God, or neglect of Him.
It is a direct disputing of His Sovereignty.
The prophet twice repeats the characteristic
expression. What will ye devise so vehemently '
lib. 3. n iii. 19. "1.8. "iii. 8.
p Nah, ii. 11, 12. ilb. iii. L
'lb, i.9, tUE'nfl rra. The verb is doubly inten
sive, both as Piel, and as having the intens, |.
105

106

INTEODUCTION TO

against the Lord ? " devising evil against the
Lord ; and adds, counsellor of evil. This was
exactly the character of Sennacherib, whose
wars, like those of his forefathers, (as appears
from the cuneiform inscriptions',) were re
ligious wars, and who blasphemously compared
God to the local deities of the countries, which
his forefathers or hiraself had destroyed".
Of this eneray Nahura speaks, as having " gone
forth;" outof thee (Nineveh) hath gone forth '^
one, devising evil against the Lord, a counsellor
of Belial. This was past. Their purpose
was inchoate, yet incomplete. God challenges
thera, ' What will ye devise so vehemently against
the Lord ? The destruction too is proximate.
The prophet answers for God, " ^ He Himself,
by Himself, is already -making an utter end."
To Jerusalem he turns, " ^ And now I will
break his yoke frora ofi' thee, and will break
his bonds asunder," Twice the prophet
mentions the device against God ; each time
he answers it by the prediction of the sudden
utter destruction of the enemy, while iii the
most perfect security. " While they are inter
twined as thorns, and swallowed up as their drink,
tliey are devoured as stubble fully dry ; and, '' If
tliey be perfect, unimpaired in their strength,
and thus many, even thus shall they be mown
down. Their destruction was to be, as their
numbers, complete. With no previous loss,
secure and at ease, a mighty host, iu conse
quence of their prosperity, all were, at one
blow, mown down ; " and he (their king, who
counselled against tlie Lorel) shall pass away and
perish. " The abundance of the wool in the
fleece is no hindrance to the shears," nor of
the grass to the scythe, nor of the Assyrian
host to the will of the Lord. After he, the
chief, had thus passed away, Nahura foretells
that remarkable death, in connection with
the house of his gods ; " Out of tlie house of thy
gods I will cut off tlie graven image and the mol
ten image : I will make thy grave. There is uo
natural construction of these words, except, 1
will make it thy grave^- Judah too was, by
the presence of the Assyrian, hindered from
going up to worship at Jerusalem. The
prophet bids proclaira peace to Jerusalera ;
keep thy feasts — for the wicked shall no more pass
through thee. It was then by the presence of
the wicked, that they were now hindered
frora keeping their feasts, which could be
kept only at Jerusalem.
The prophecy of Nahum coincides then
with that of Isaiah, when Hezekiah prayed
8 i. 11. tSee on " Daniel the Prophet," pp, 444, 5.
o Is, xxxvi. 18-20, xxxvii, 10-13, ' i, 11, Si",
Ji. 9, nt/j? s?n nS3. "i. 13. nni?i,
"'1,10. ' 'm. 12. oi. 14.
•iSo Chald. Syr. S. Jer. and moderns, as soon as
they have no bias, e. g, Eos, Ew, It is not asah, but
sim ; i. e. not TroieZv, but delvixi ; not, in our sense,
I will " make a grave " but "I will set" or "make"
something else, viz. the house of his gods of which
Nahum had just spoken, "to be his grave,"

against Sennacherib. In the history ", and
in .the prophecy of Isaiah, the reproach and
blaspheray and rage against God are promi
nent, as an evil design against God is in
Nahum. In Isaiah we have the messengers
sent to blaspheme''; in Nahura, the promise,
that the voice of thy messengers sliall no more be
heard. Isaiah prophesies the fruitlessness of
his attempt against Jerusalem ^ ; his dis
graced return ; his violent death in his own
land ^ ; Nahum prophesies the entire destruc
tion of his army, his own passing away, his
grave. Isaiah, in Jerusalem, foretells how
the spontaneous fruits of the earth shall be
restored to them', and so, that they shall
have possession of the ojien corn-country ;
Nahum, living probably in the country, fore
tells the free access to Jerusalem, and bids
them to " keep the'xr feasts, a'nd perform the vows,
which, in their trouble, they had promised to
God. He does not only foretell that they may,
but he enjoins them to do it. The words,
' the emptiers have emptied them out and marred
iheir vine branelies, may relate to the first ex
pedition of Sennacherib, wdien. Holy Scrip
ture says, he "" came up against all tlie fenced
cities of Judah and took them, and Hezekiah
gave him thirty talents of gold, and 300 talents
of silver. Sennacherib himself says °, "Heze
kiah, king of Judah, who had not subraitted
to ray authority, forty-six of his principal
cities, and fortresses and villages depending
upon them of which I took no account, I cap
tured, and carried away their spoil. And
frora these places I captured and carried ofl'
as spoil 200,150 people," &c. This must
relate to the first expedition, on account of
the exact correspondence of the tribute in
gold, with a variation in the number of
the talents of silver, easily accounted for ".
In the first invasion Sennacherib relates that
he besieged Jerusalem. " f Hezekiah him
self I shut up in Jerusalem his capital city,
like a bird in a cage, building towers round
the city to fence him in, and raising banks
of earth against the gates, so as to prevent
escape." It is perhaps in reference to this,
that, in the second invasion, God promises
by Isaiah ; i He shall not come into ihis city,
and shall not shoot an arrow there ; and shall
'not present shield before it, and shall not cast up
bank against it. Still, in this second invasion
also. Holy Scripture relates, that ' the king of
Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusa
lem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. Per-
0 2 Kings xix. 4, 22-28. 'Is, xxxvii, 4, 23-29,
Eib, 33, 34, 'lb, 7,
' 2 Kings xix, 29, Is, xxxvii, 30,
i Nah, 1, 15, ii, 1, [2 Heb.] i Ib. ii. 2. [3. Heb.]
™ 2 Kings xviii. 13, 14, Is. xxxvi. 1.
'^ Dr. Hincks in Layard Nin. and Bab. pp. 143, 4,
Sir H. Eawlinson, quoted ib. and Eawl. Eampt. L.
p. 141.
» See Layard ib. pp, 144, 5, Rawl, B, L. p. 143.
p Sir H. Eawl. transl. in B. L. ib. i xxxvii. 33.
f lb. xxxvi. 2. 2 Kings xviii. 17.

NAHUM.

107

haps it is in regard to this second expedition,
that God says, ' Though I have afflicted thee, I
will afflict tliee no more ; i. e. this second inva
sion should not desolate her, like that first.
Not that God absolutely would not again
afflict her, but not now. The yoke of the
Assyrian was then broken, until the fresh
sins of Manasseh drew down their own
punishment. Nahum then was a prophet for Judah, or
for that remnant of Israel, which, after the
ten tribes were carried captive, 'oecame one
with Judah, not in temporal sovereignty, but
in the one worship of God. His mention of
Basan, Carmel and Lebanon alone, as places
lying under the rebuke of God, perhaps
implies a special interest in Northern Pales
tine. Judah may have already become the
name for the whole people of God who were
left in their own land, since those of the ten
tribes who remained had now no separate
religious or political existence. The idol-
centre of their worship was gone into captivity.
With this agrees the old tradition as to the
name of the birth-place of Nahum, the Elkosh
ite. " Sorae think," says St. Jerome ', " that
Elcesoeus was the father of Nahum, and,
according to the Hebrew tradition, was also
a projjhet ; whereas Elcesi " is even to this
day a little village in Galilee, small indeed,
and scarcely indicating by its ruins the traces
of ancient buildings, yet known to the Jews,
and puinted out to me too by my guide."
The name is a genuine Plebrew narae, the
El, with which it begins, being the name of
God, which appears in the names of other
towns also, as, El'ale, Eltolad, Elteke, Elto-
lera. The author of the shortlived Gnostic
heresy of the Elcesaites, called Elkesai, elka-
sai, elxai, elxalos, Elkasaios", probably had
his name from that same village. Eusebius
mentions Elkese, as the place " whence was
Nahum the Elkesaean." S. Cyril of Alexan
dria says, that Elkese was a village some
where in Judaaa.
On the other hand Alcush, a town in ilosul,
LS probably a name of .Vrabic origin, and is
not connected with Nahura by any extant or
knov/n writer, earlier than Masius toward
the end of the 16th century ", and an Arabic
scribe in 1713 J'. Neither of these raention
the tomb. "The tomb," says Layard^, "is
a simple plaster box, covered with green
cloth, and standing at the upper end of a

" Nah. i, 12. ' Praif. to Nah.
» 'EAKeimi, "EKKnnnt, (Theod. HiBr. Fab. i, 27,)
'HAicairai, (Hippol. Philosoph. ix, 4, &C,) 'HAfcii,
'HAfai09, 'EAiteo-o-aiO!, S. Epiph. Haer, xix, 5, xxx, 3,
Iiii, 1, 'EAKdo-nioj or EAicetroiios, Method, Conviv, in
Combef, Nov. Coll, p, 234, A,
» Assem, Bibl, Or. i. 525, J Ib. iii, 1. 352.
» Nin, i, 233. » Travels i. ,310. ed. Asher,
i> Niebuhr 'Voyage en Arable ii, 289, 90.
0 2 Kings xvii, 6.
s irn — in of the " circling " of the forefeet of
the horse in hia speed, Nah. iii. 2, Jud. v. 22.

large chamber. The house containing the
tomb is a raodern building. There are no
inscriptions, nor fragments of any antiquity
near the place." The place is now rever
enced by the Jews, but in the 12th century
Benjamin Of Tudela "supposed his tomb to
be at Ain Japhata, South of Babylon. Were
anything needed to invalidate statements
above 2000 years after the time of Nahura,
it might sufiice that the Jews, who are the
authors of this story, maintain that not Jonah
only but Obadiah and Jephthah the Gilead-
ite are also buried at Mosul''. Nor were the
ten tribes placed there, but " " in the cities of
the Medes," The name Capernaum, " the
village of Nahum," is probably an indicatiim
of his residence in Galilee, There is nothing
in his language peculiar to the Northern
tribes. One very poetic word ^, common to
him with the song of Deborah, is not there
fore a " provincialism," because it only hap
pens to occur in the rich, varied, language of
two prophets of North Palestine. Nor does
the occurrence of a foreign title" interfere
with " purity of diction." It rather belongs
to the vividness of his description.
The conquest of No-Araraon or Thebes
and the captivity of its inhabitants, of which
Nahum speaks, raust have been by Assyria
itself. Certainly it was not from domestic
disturbances '; for Nahum says, that the peo
ple were carried away captive ^. Nor v.as it
from the Ethiopians''; for Nahum speaks of
them, as her allies '. Nor frora the Cartha
ginians -i ; for the account of Ammianus",
that "when first Carthage was beginning to
expand itself far and wide, the Punic generals,
by an unexpected inroad, subdued the hun
dred-gated Thebes," is merely a mistaken
gloss on a statement of Diodorus, that
' Hanno took Hekatompylos by sie^e ; " a
city, according to Diodorus himself™, in the
desert of Libya." Nor wasit from the Scyth
ians " ; for Herodotus, wdio alone speaks of
their maraudings and who manifestly exag
gerates them, expressly says, that Psararaet-
ichus induced the Scythians by presents not
to enter Egypt"; and a wandering predatory
horde does not besiege or take strongly-forti
fied towns. There remain then only the
Assyrians. Four successive Assyrian Mon
archs, Sargon, his son, grandson and great
grandson, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Asshur-
bani-pal, frora B.C. 718 to about 15. C. 657,

"10513, doubtless a Ninevite title, probably signi
fying "noble prince," from "lp30, as Prof, Ijee
conjectured. Lee denies that it bears in Persian
the meaning ascribed to it by Bohlen. Eichardson
renders tdbsor, "an elevated window;" Viiller^
notes, " in others it occurs not." Gesenius was
satisfied with no explanation of those before him.
' Ewald's theory. b iii. 10, i" Vitringa, Grot,
'iii. 9. ' iHeeren, '¦xvii, 4,
1 Excerpt, ex, L. xxiv. T. ii, p, 505,
¦ov. 18. T. i. p. 263.
¦> Gesenius Lit, Zeit, 1841. n. 1. • i, 105,

108

INTEODUCTION TO

conquered in Egypt p. The hostility was
first provoked by the encourageraent given
by Sabacho the Ethiopian (Sab'ei, in the
cuneiform inscriptions, S b k, in Egyptian),
the So of Holy Scripture ', to Hoshea to rebel
against Shalmaneser '. Sargon, who, accord
ing to his own stateraent, was the king who
actually took Saraaria', led three expeditions
of his own against Egypt. In the first, Sar
gon defeated the Egyptian king in the battle
of Eaphia " ; in the second, in his seventh
year, he boasts that Pharaoh became his
tributary " ; iu a third, which is placed three
years later, Ethiopia submitted to hira ''. A
seal of Sabaco has been found at Koyunjik,
which, as has been conjectured^, was prob
ably annexed to a treaty. The capture of Ash
dod by the Tartan of Sargon, recorded by
Isaiah ", was probably in the second expedi
tion, when Sargon deposed its king Azuri,
substituting his brother Akhimit'': the
rebellion of Ashdod probably occasioned the
third expedition, in which as it seeras, Isaiah's
prophecy was falfilled, that Egyptians and
Ethiopians, young and old, should be carried
captive by the king of Assyria, The king
of Ashdod, Yaraan, is related to have fied to
Egypt, which was subject to Merukha or
Meroe ; and to have been delivered up by
the king of Meroe who hiraself fied to sorae
unnaraed desert afar, a march of (it is con
jectured) months ". The king of Meroe,
first, from times the most distant, became
tributaiy. " •* His forefathers had not " in all
that period "sent to the kings my ances
tors to ask for peace and to acknow
ledge the power of Merodach." The fact,
that his magnificent palace, "one of the
few remains of external decoration," Layard
says °, " with which we are acquainted in As
syrian architecture," " seems " according to
Mr. Fergusson ', " at first sight almost purely
Egyptian," implies some lengthened resi
dence in Egypt or some capture of Egyptian
artists. Of Sennacherib, the son of Sargon, Jose
phus writes, "«Berosus, the historian of the
Chaldee affairs, mentions the king Sennach
erib, and that he reigned over the Assyrians,
and that he warred against all Asia and
Egypt, saying as follows." The passage of
Berosus itself is wanting, whether Josephus
neglected to fill it in, or whether it has been
subsequently lost ; but neither Chaldee nor
pSse Eawlinson Five Empires ii, 409-186,
1 0ppert, les rapports de 1' Eg, et de 1' .Iss, p, 12,
'XID. In the LXX, in different MSS, Sioi, Sopi,
2a)^a, 2ov)3a ; in the Complut, 2oua Vnlg, Sua. Sir
G. Wilkinson in Eawl. Herod. " 2 Kings xvii. 4,
t Layard, Nin, and Bab. p, 618, Eawl, Herod, i. 472,
Five Empires ii. 406.
" Eawl. Pive Emp, ii, 414, » Eawl, Ib. pp. 415, 6.
7 Eawl. Ib. pp. 416, 7.
« Eawl. Herod, i. 473, note 1. » xx. 1,
b Inscription in Oppert, les rapports de 1' Eg. &c.
p, 18,
« lb. p. 19. ^ Ib. • Nin. and Bab. p. 130,

Egyptian writers record expeditions which
were reverses ; and although Berosus was a
Babylonian, not an Assyrian, yet tlie doc
ument, which he used, must have been As
syrian, In the second expedition of Sen
nacherib, Eabshakeh, in 'his message to
Hezekiah, says, '' Behold thou trusiesl upon the
staff of this bruised reed, upon Egypt. The
expression is remarkable. He does not speak
of Egypt, as a power, weak, frail, failing, but,
passively, as crushed ' by another. It is the
same word and image which he uses in his
prophecy of our Lord, u, bruised reed {kaneh
ratsuts) stmll He not break, i. e. He shall not
break that which is already bruised. The
word implies, then, that the king of Egypt
had already received sorae decided blow
before the second expedition of Sennacherib.
The annals of Sennacherib's reign, still pre
served in his inscriptions, break off' in the
eighth of his twenty-two years'', and do not
extend to the tirae of this second expedition
against Hezekiah '. Nor does Holy Scrip
ture say, in what year this 2d expedition
took place. In this he defeated " "" the kings
of Egypt and the king of Meroe at Altakou
[Elteke] and Tamna [Tiranatha]."
Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon appears for
the time to have subdued Egypt and Ethi
opia, and to have held them as kingdoms
dependent on himself. " He acquired Egypt
and the inner parts of Asia," is the brief
statement of Abydenus"- (i.e. of Berosus.)
" He established " (his son relates) " twenty
kings, satraps, governors in Egypt °," among
which can be recognized Neciio, (the father
of Psammetichus) king of Memphis and Sais ;
a king of Tanis, or Zoan (now S4n) ; Natho
(or, according to another copy. Sept), Hanes,
Sebennytus, Mendes, Bubastis, Siyout or
Lycopolis, Chemmis, Tinis, and No. These
were all subordinate kings ; for so he entitles
each separately in the list, although he suras
up the whole, " f These are the names of the
Kings, Pechahs, Satraps who in Egypt obeyed
my father who begat me," Tearcho or Tar-
acho hiraself, " king of Egypt and Ethiopia i,"
was in like way subject to Esarhaddon.
The account of the revolt, which his son As-
shur-bani-pal quelled, implies also a fixed set-
tleraent in Egypt. The 20 kings were in
volved in the rebellion through fear of Tar-
acho, but there is notice of other servants of
Esarhaddon who remained faithful and were
f Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis restored, p.
223, quoted by Layard Ib, Eawl, Her. i. 474.
B Ant. X. 1. 4. 12 Kings xviii. 21.
'V13f1, "quassatum," Vulg. Gesenius says well,
" It differs from l^ty in this, that vyi signifies,
' broke, crushed,' without severance of the parts ;
12^ signifies, ' broke asunder.'"
k Eawl. Her. i, 478. i See Eawl, i, 479, note 1.
™ Inscr. in Oppert Eapports pp. 26, 27.
° In Eus. Chron. Arm. P. i. c, 9.
o Inscr. in Opp, Ib, pp, 51, 53, P Ib, p, 58.
« Ib. pp. 51, 62, 63.

NAHUM.

109

maltreated by Taracho". Asshur-bani-pal
gays also, that he strengthened his forraer
garrisons". One expedition of Esarhaddon
(probably toward the close of his reign, since
he does not mention it in his own annals
which extend over eight years) is related by
his son Asshur-bani-pal. "'He defeated
Tlrhakah in the lower country, after which,
proceeding Southward, he took the city,
Avhere the Ethiopian held his court," and
assumed the title, " " king of the kings of
Egyjit and conqueror of Ethiopia." On
another inscription in a palace built for his
son, at Tarbisi, now Sherif-khan, he entitles
himself " " king ofthe kings of Egypt, Pathros,
Ethiopia.'' We do not, however, find the
addition, which appears to recur upon every
conquest of a people not before conquered by
Assyria, "which the kings, my fathers, had not
subdued." This addition is so regular, that the
absence of it, in itself, involves a strong
probability of a previous conquest of the
country. The subdual apparently was complete.
They revolted at the close of the reign of
Esarhaddon (as his son Asshur-bani-pal re
lates) from fear of Tarachoy rather than
from any wish of their own to regain inde
pendence. Asshur-bani-pal accordingly, aiter
the defeat of Taracho, forgave and restored
them ^. Even the second treacherous revolt
was out of fear, lest Taracho shall return ',
upon the withdrawal of the Assyrian armies.
This second revolt and perhaps a subsequent
revolt of Urdamanie " a stepson of Taracho,
R' ho succeeded him, Asshur-bani-pal seeras to
have subdued by his lieutenants °, without
any necessity of marching in person against
them. Thebes was taken and retaken ; but
does not appear to have ofl'ered any resistance.
Taracho, upon his defeat at Memphis, fled to it,
and again abandoned it as he had Memphis,
and the army of Asshur-bani-pal made a
massacre in it ^. Once more it was taken,
when it had been recovered by Urdamanie ",
and then, if the inscriptions are rightly de
ciphered, strange as it is, the canning oiT of
men and women from it is mentioned in the
midst of that of " great horses and apes."
" Silver, gold, metals, stones, treasures of his
palace, dyed garments, berom and linen, great
horses, men, male and female, immense apes
— they drew from the midst of the city, and
brought as spoils to Nineveh the city of my
dominion, and kissed my feet."
'Inscr. in Opp. p. 64. » Ib, pp, 58, OS.
'Eawl, 5 Emp. 11,474, 5.
»Ib. 475, He also entitles himself, "king of
Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Meroe and Ethiopia,"
Oppert Sargonides, p. 53. Eawl. Ib. 484,
^ Inscript. Oppert lilapp, p. 41,
Jib, p. 58. »Ib, »Ib. p, 59, 'p. 77
" Ib, 70. where he speaks of sapite-ya CtQSW) " ™y
judges" pp, 77,78, In another inscription, how
ever, Oppert observes that Asshurbanipal speaks, as
if he had been there in person, pp. 73-76, It has

All of those kings having been conquerors
of Egypt, the captivity of No might equally
have taken placeunder any of them. All of
them employed the policy, which Sargon ap
parently began, of transporting to a distance
those whom they had conquered '. Yet it is,
in itself, raore probable, that it was at the
earlier than at the later date. It is most in
harmony with the relation of Nahura to Isaiah
that, in regard to the conquest of Thebes also,
Nahura refers to the victory over Egypt and
Ethiopia foretold by Isaiah, when Sargon's
general, the Tai-tan, was besieging Ashdod.
The object of Isaiah's prophecy was to unde
ceive Judah in regard to its reliance on Egypt
and Ethiopia against Assyria, which was their
continual bane,morally,religiously, nationally.
But the prophecy goes beyond any mere de
feat in battle, or capture of prisoners. It re
lates to conquest within Egypt itself. For
Isaiah says, " s the king of Assyria shall lead
into captivity Egyptians and Ethiopians,
young and old. " They are not their choice
young men', the flower of their array, but
those of advanced age and those in their first
youth ', such as are taken captive, only when a
population itself is taken captive, either in a
marauding expedition, or in the capture of a
city. The account of the captivity of No ex
actly corresponds with this. Nahura says
nothing of its permanent subdual, only of the
captivity of its inhabitants. But Esarhaddon
apparently did not carry the Egyptians cap
tive at all K Every fact given in the In
scriptions looks like a perraanent settlement.
The establishment of the 20 subordinate
kings, in the whole length and breadth of
Egypt, implies the continuance of the previ
ous state of things, with the exception of that
subordination. No itself appears as one of
the cities settled apparently under its native
though tributary king '.
In regard to the fulfillment of prophecy,
they who assume as an axiom, or petitio
principii, that there can be no prophecy of
distant events, have overlooked, that while
they think that, by assuming the later date,
they bring Nahum's prophecy of the capture
of Nineveh nearer to its accoraplishment,
they remove in the same degree Isaiah's
prophecy of the captivity of Egyptians and
Ethiopians, young and old, from its accora-
plishraent. " Young and old " are not the
prisoners of a field of battle ; young and old
of the Ethiopians would not be in a city of
been observed, long since, that the Assyrian mon
archs speak at times of wli.at was done by their
generals as done by themselves. This, however,
scarcely appears here, where he says "I returned
in s.afet'y to Nineveh." p. 70.
a Ib. 66, 08.
8 Ib. p. 79. In p. 75 it is said that Urdamanie aban
doned No and fled to Kipkip.
f See on Am. i. 6, vol. i. p. 240.
Bis, XX. 4, I'D'linJ. 'D'JpIl D'lJfJ.
k Eawl. Ib. 474, 475. ¦ Eawl. Ib. p. 486.

110

INTEODUCTION TO

lower Egypt. If Isaiah's prophecy was not
fulfilled under Sargon or Sennacherib, it raust
probably have waited for its fulfillraent until
this last subdual by Asshurbanipal. For the
policy of Esarhaddon and also of Asshur
banipal, until repeated rebellions wore his
patience, was of settleraent, not of deportation.
if too the prophecy of Nahum were brought
down to the reign of Asshurbanipal, it would
be the more stupendous. For the empire
was raoi-e consolidated. Nahum tells the
conqueror, flushed with his own successes and
those of his father, that he had himself no
raore inherent power than the city whose
people he had carried captive. Thebes too,
like Nineveh, dwelt securely, conquering all,
unreached by any ill, sea-girt, as it were, by
the raighty river on which she rested. She
too was strengthened with countless hosts of
her own and of allied people. Yet she fell.
Nineveh, the prophet tells her, was no
mightier, in herself. Her river was no
stronger defence than that sea of fresh water,
the Nile ; her tributaries would disperse or
becorae her enemies. The Prophet bolls up
to her the vicissitudes of No-amon, as a mir
ror to herself. As each death is a renewed
witness to man's mortality, so each raarvel-
ous reverse of teraporal greatness is a wit
ness to the precariousness of other human
might. No then was an ensample to Nine
veh, although its capture was by the armies
of Nineveh, They had been, for centuries,
two rivals for power. But the contrast had
far more force, when the victory over Egypt
was fresh, than after 61 years of alternate
conquest and rebellion.
But, anyhow, the state of Nineveh and its
empire, as pictured by Nahum, is inconsistent
with any tiraes of supposed weakness in the
reign of its last king : the state of Judah,
with reference to Assyria, corresponds with
that under Sennacherib but with none below.
They are these, Assyria was iu its full un-
irapaired strength °i. She still blended those
two characters so rarely combined, but actu
ally united in her and subsequently in Baby
lon, of a great merchant and military people.
She had, at once, the prosperity of peace and
of war. Lying on a great line of ancient traffic,
which bound together East and West, India
with Phd'nicia, and with Europe through
Phoenicia, both East and West poured their
treasures into the great capital, which lay as
a centre between thera, and stretched out its
arras, al'ike to the Indian sea and the Medi
terranean. Nahum can corapare its mer
chants only to that which is countless by man,
» i, 12, ii. 12. "111,16,
» ii, 12, 13, p iii. 19. 1 i. 9, 11. ' i. 13.
» i. 12. • i. 15. « 2 Kings xviii, 14, » Ib. 23.
5 Ib. 17, ' Ib. 31, 32.
a 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. The uniform meaning of
'^^'^ is "took, took prisoner;" of ?'niH, "thorns;"
the singular only, niH, in oiie of the two places in

the locusts or the stars of heaven". But
amid this prosperity of peace, war also was
enriching her. Nineveh was still sendin.g
out its raessengers (such as was Eabshakeh),
the leviers of its tribute, the demanders of
submission. It was still one vast lion-lair,
its lions still gathering in prey from the
whole earth", still desolating, continually,
unceasingly, in all directions ^, and now,
specially, devising evil against God and His
people 1. Upon that people its yoke already
pressed, for God promises to break it off' from
them ' ; the people was already afliicted, for
God says to it. Though I have afflieied. thee, 1 will
afflict thee no more ^, viz, by this invader.
The solemn feasts of Judah were hindered
through the presence of ungodly invaders:
Belial, the counsellor of evil spoken of under
that name, already passing through her '.
War was around her, for he promises that
one should publish peace upon her moun
tains '. This was the foreground of the pic
ture. This was the exact condition of things
at Hezekiah's second invasion, just before the
rairaculous destruction of his array. Sen
nacherib's yoke was heavy ; for he had ex
acted from Hezekiah three hundred talents of
silver and thirty talents of gold " ; Hezekiah
hud Yiot^two thousand horsemen; the great
host ^ of the Assyrians encircled Jerusalem.
They summoned it to surrender on the terms,
that they should pay a new tribute, and that
Sennacherib, wdienever it pleased him, should
remove them to Assyria^.
At no subsequent period were there any
events corresponding to this description.
Manasseh was carried captive to Babylon by
Esarhaddon ; but probably this was no for
midable or resisted invasion, since the book
of Kings passes it over altogether, the Chron
icles mention only that the Assyrian gen
erals took Manasseh prisoner in a thicket%
accordingly not in Jerusalera, and carried
hira to Babylon. Probably, this took place,
in the expedition of Esarhaddon to the West,
wdieij he settled in the cities of Saraaria peo
ple of different n.ations, his captives". The
capture of Jlanasseh was then, probabh', a
raere incident in the history. Since he was
taken among the thickets, he had probably
fied, as Zedekiah did afterward, and was
taken in his jdace of concealraent. This was
simply personal. No taking of towns is
mentioned, no siege, no terror, no exaction
of tribute, no carrying away into captivity,
except of the single Manasseh. The grounds
of his restoration are not mentioned. The
Chronicles mention only the religious aspect
Job, is " a hook," in the other it is a " thorn," 137,
which occurs 120 times in the O. T., never means
" dragged captive." The meaning ascribed to the
words, "bound him with chains," is wholly conjec
tural. 137 does not mean "bound," nor D'nin
" chains." ' Ezr, iv. 2, 9, 10,

NAHUM.

Ill

of his captivity and his restoration, his sin
and his repentance. But it seeras probable
that he was restored by Esarhaddon, upon
the sarae system of policy, on which he
planted subjects of his own in Saraaria and
the country around Zidon, built a new town
to take the place of Zidon, and joined in the
throne of Edom one, brought up in his own
palace. For, when restored, Manasseh was
set at full liberty to fortify Jerusalem", as
Hezekiah had done, and to put " " captains
of war in all the cities of Judah." This looks
as if he was sent back as a trusted tributary
of Esarhaddon, and as a frontier-power
against Egypt. At least, sixty years after
ward, we find Josiah, in the like relation of
trust to Nebuchadnezzar, resisting the passage
of Pharaoh-Necho. However, the human
cause of his restoration must reraain un
certain. Yet clearly, in their whole history,
there is nothing to correspond to the state of
Judaea, as described by Nahura.
A recent critic writes, " '' Nahura's pro
phecy must have been occasioned by an ex
pedition of mighty enemies against Nineveh.
The whole prophecy is grounded on the cer
tain danger, to which Nineveh was given
over ; only the way in which this visible
danger is conceived of, in connection with the
eternal truths, is here the properly prophetic,"
Ewald does not explain how the danger,
to which " Nineveh was given over " was
certain, when it did not happen. The expla
nation must come to this. Nahum described
a siege of Nineveh and its issue, as certain.
The description in itself might be either of
an actual siege, before the Prophet's eyes, or
of one beheld in the Prophet's mind. ISut
obviously no mere raan, endowed with mere
huraan knowledge, would have ventured to
predict so certainly the fall of such a city as
Nineveh, unless it was " given over to cer
tain danger." But according to the axiom
received in Ewald's school, Nahum, equally
with all other men, could have had only
huraan prescience. Therefore Nahum, pro
phesying the issue so confidently, must have
prophesied when Nineveh ^\•as so '¦' given
over." The ^ priori axiom of the school
rules its criticism. Meanwhile the admission
is incidentally raade, that a prophecy so cer
tain, had it related to distant events, was
what no man, with mere human knowledge,
would venture upon. Ewald accordingly
thinks that the prophecy was occasioned by a
siege of Phraortes ; which siege Nahum ex
pected to be successful ; which however failed,
so that Nahum was mistaken, although the
overthrow which he foretold came to pass after
ward ! The siege, however, of Nineveh by
Phraortes is a mere romance. Herodotus,
who alone attributes to Phraortes a war with

•= 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14.
• In Eawl. i. 409.

tEwald, Proph. i. 349.
n. 103.

Assyria, has no hint, that he even approached
to Nineveh. He simply relates that Phraor
tes " subdued Asia, going from one nation to
another, until, leading an army against the
Assyrians, he perished himself, in the 22d
year of his reign, and the greater part of his
army." It is not necessary to consider the
non-natural expositions, by which the simple
descriptions of Nahura were distorted into con-
forraity with this theory, which has no one fact
to support it. Plerodotus even dwells on the
good condition of the Assyrian aflidrs, al
though isolated from their revolted allies,
and seemingly represents the victory as an
easy one. And, according to Herodotus,
whose account is the only one we have,
Phraortes (even if he ever fought with the
Ninevites, and Herodotus' account is not
merely the recasting of the history of another
Median Frawartlsh who, according to the Be-
histun Inscription, claimed the throne of
Media against Darius, and perished in battle
with him") had only an unorganized army.
Herodotus says of Cyaxares, his son, " 'He is
said to have been more warlike far than his
forefathers, and he first distributed Asiatics
into distinct bands, and separated the spear-
raen and archers and horsemen from one
another, whereas, before, everything had
alike mixed into one confused mass," Such
an undisciplined horde could have been no
forraidable eneray for a nation, whora the
raonuraents and tlieir history exhibit as so
warlike and so skilled in war as the Assyrians,
Another critic s, then, seeing the unten-
ableness ofthis theory, ventures (as he never
hesitated at any paradox) to place the pro
phet Nahum, as an eye-witness of the first
siege of Cyaxares,
Herodotus states that Cyaxares, the son of
Phraortes, twice besieged Nineveh, First,
iraraediately after his father's death, to avenge
it '' ; the second, after the end of the Scythian
troubles, when he took it '•. The capture of
Nineveh was in the first year of Nabopolassor
B. C, 625, The accession of Cyaxares, ac
cording to Herodotus, was B. C. 633. Eight
years then only elapsed between his first
siege and its capture, and, if it be true, that
the siege lasted two years, there was an inter
val of six years only. But, at this time, the
destruction of Nineveh was no longer a sub
ject of joy to Judah. Since the captivity of
Manasseh, Judah had had nothing to fear from
Assyria ; nor do we know of any oppression
from it. Holy Scripture mentions none.
The Assyrian monuments speak of expedi
tions against Egypt ; but there was no temp
tation to harass Judah, which stood in the
relation of a faithful tributary and an out
work against Egypt, and which, when Nine
veh fell, remained in the same relation to its

B Hitzig, followed by Davidson, iii. 293.
ti. 106.

112

INTEODUCTION TO

conquerors, into whose suzerainty it passed,
together with the other dependencies of As
syria. The relation of Josiah to Babylon
was the continuation of that of Manasseh to
Esarhaddon. The motive of this theory is explained by
the words, " With a confidence, which leaves
room for no doubt, Nahum expects a siege
and an ultimate destruction of Nineveh. The
security of his tone, nay that he ventures at
all to hope so enormous a revolution of the
existing state of things, must find its expla
nation in the circumstances of the time, out
of the then condition of the world ; but not
till Cyaxares reigned in Media, did things
assume an aspect, corresponding to this confi
dence." It is well that this writer doffs the
courteous language, as to the " hopes," " ex
pectations," " inferences from God's justice,"
and brings the question to the issue, " there
is such absolute certainty of tone," that Na
hum must have had either a Divine or a
human knowledge. He acknowledges the
untenableness of any theory which would 'ac
count for the prophecy of Nahura on any
hu.raan knowledge, before Cyaxares was
marching against the gates of Nineveh.
Would huraan knowledge have sufficed then ?
Certainly, frora such accounts as we have,
Nineveh raight still have stood against Cy
axares and its own rebel and traitorous
general, but for an unforeseen event which
raan could not bring about, the swelling of its
river. But, as usual, unbelief fixes itself upon
that which is minutest, ignores what is great
est. There are, in Nahum, three reraarkable
predictions. 1) The sudden destruction of
Sennacherib's army and his own remarkable
death in the house of his god. 2) 'The cer
tain, inevitable, capture of Nineveh, and
that, not by capitulation or famine, not even
by the siege or assault, which is painted so
vividly, but the river, which was its protec
tion, becoraing the cause of its destruction.
3) Its utter desolation, when captured. The
first, men assume to have been the descrip
tion of events past ; the second, the siege,
they assume to have been present ; and that,
when human wisdom could foresee its issue ;
the third, they generalize. The first is be
yond the reach of proof now. It was a wit
ness of the Providence and just judgment of
God, to those days, not to our's. A brief sur
vey of the history of the Assyrian Empire will
shew, that the second and third predictions
were beyond huraan knowledge.
The Assyrian Erapire dated probably from
the ninth century before Christ. Such, it
has been pointed out, is the conciirrent result
of the statements of Berosus and Herodotus.
> Gen, X, 10, 11,
"Kri not ^^; '''nn psn [o,
•niltyX Gen, XXV, 18,

Moses, according to the simplest meaning of
bis words, spake of the foundation of Nineveh
as contemporary with that of Babylon. ' The
beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod, he re
lates, was Babel and Erech, and Acead and
Calneh, in the la'nd of Shinar. Out of that land
went forth Asshur, cmd builded Nineveh. Op
pressed probabl_v and driven forth by Nim
rod, Asshur and his Semitic descendants
went forth from the plain of Shinar, the Ba
bylonia of after-ages. Had Moses intended
to express (what some have thought), that
Nimrod " went forth out of that land to Assy
ria," he would doubtless have used the ordi
nary style of connected narrative ; " ^And he
went forth thence." He would probably also
have avoided ambiguity, by expressing that
Nimrod " went forth to Asshur '," using a
form, which he eraploys a little later. As it
is, Moses has used a mode of speech, by
which, in Hebrew, a parenthetic stateraent
would be made, and he has not used the
form, which occurs in every line of Hebrew
narrative to express a continued history. No
one indeed would have doubted that such
was the meaning, but that they did not see,
how the mention of Asshur, a son of Shem,
came to be anticipated in this account of the
children of Ham. This is no ground for
abandoning the simple construction of the
Hebrew. It is but the history, so often re
peated in the changes of the world, that
the kingdom of Nimrod was founded on
the expulsion of the former inhabitants.
Nimrod began his kingdom; "Asshur went
forth." It is most probable, from this same brief
notice, that Nineveh was, from the first, that
aggregate of cities, which it afterward was.
Moses says, " "" And he builded Nineveh aud
Eehoboth-Ir and Calach and Eesen, between
Nineveh and Calach ; this is that great
city"." This cannot be understood as said
exclusively of Nineveh ; since Nineveh was
mentioned first in the list 6f cities, and the
mention of the three others had intervened ;
and, in the second place where it is named,
it is only spoken of indirectly and subordi-
nately ; it is hardly likely to be said of
Eesen, of whose unusual size nothing is else
where related. It seems more probable, that
it is said of the aggregate of cities, that
they formed together one great city, the very
characteristic of Nineveh, as spoken of in
Jonah. Nineveh itself lay on the Eastern side of
the Tigris, opposite to the present Mosul. In
later tiraes, among the Syrian writers, As
shur becomes the name for the country,
distinct from Mesopotamia and Babylonia ",
from which it was separated by the Tigris,
«¦ Gen, X, 11, 12,
¦'nSi:n T;?n,
» Bar-Hebr, in Tuch de Nino urbe pp, 9, 10.

NAHUM.

113

and bounded on the North by Mount Ni-
phates. This distinction, however, does not occur
until after the extinction of the Assyrian
empire. On the contrary, in Genesis, Asshur,
in one place, is spoken of as West ' of the
Hiddekel or Tigris, so that it must at that
time have comprised Mesopotaraia, if not all
on this side ofthe Tigris, i. e. Babylonia. In
another place, it is the great border-state of
Arabia on the one side, as was Egypt on the
other. The sons of Isli'mael, Moses relates i,
dwelt frcnn Harilah unto Shur that is before
Egypt, as thou goest to Assyria ; i. e. they dwelt
on the great caravan-route acrossthe Arabian
desert frora Egypt to Babylonia. Yet Moses
mentions, not Babylon, but Asshur. In Ba
laam's prophecy'', Asshur stands for the
great Empire, whose seat was at one
tirae at Nineveh, at another at Babylon,
which should, centuries afterwards, carry
Israel captive.
Without entering into the intricacies of
: Assyrian or Babylonian history further than
is necessary for the immediate object, it
seems probable, that the one or other of
the sovereigns of these nations had an as
cendency over the others, according to his
personal character and military energy. Thus,
in the tirae of Abraham, Chedorlaomer king
of Elam, in his expedition against the kings
of Sodom and Goraorrah, took with him, as
subordinate allies, the kings of Shinar, (or
Babylon) and Ellasar, as well as Tidal king
qf nations, a king probably of Nomadic
tribes. The expedition was to avenge the
rebellion of the petty kings in the valley of
Siddira against Chedorlaomer, after they had
been for twelve years tributary. But, al
though the expedition closed with the attack
on the five kings of Sodom and Goraorrah,
Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar, its extent on the
East side of the Jordan from Ashteroth
Karnaim in Basan to Elparan (perhaps Elath
on the Eed Sea), and the defeat of the giant
tribes, the Eephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horites,
the Amalekites and the Amorites in their
several abodes, seems to imply one of those
larger combinations against the aggressions
of the East, which we meet with in later
times '. It was no insulated conflict which
pGen. ii. 14. There is no reason, with Keil, to
disturb the rendering. JIQIp is most naturally
rendered Eastward, in the other three places ;
Michmash was E. S. E. of Bethaven (1 Sam. xiii. 5),
but was not over-against it, being some four miles
from it, in a valley. The battle which began at
Michmash, passed over to Bethaven. (1 Sam, xiv, 23.)
The Philistines too were obviously facing Saul who
was at Gilgal (1 Sam. xiii, 12). In Ezek. xxxix. 11,
the words " eastward of ihe sea," express that the
carcases were outside the promised land. In Gen.
iv. 10, Cain was not one to linger over-against the
lost Eden. Probably he went Eastward, because
then too the stream of population went Westward,
In Isaiah vii. 20 the kingof Assyria is spoiicn of as
beyond the river, i, e, the Euphrates.

spread over nearly three degrees of latitude.
But it was the king of Elam, not the king of
Babylon or of Asshur, who led this expedi
tion ; and those other kings, according to the
analogy of the expeditions of Eastern
monarchs, were probably dependent on hira.
It has been observed that the inscriptions of
a monarch whose name partly coincides with
tliEit of Chedorlaomer, viz. Kudurraabuk, or
Kudurmapula, shew traces of a Persian
influence on the Chaldee characters ; but
cuneiform decipherers having desponded of
identifying those monarchs', Chedorlaomer
appears as yet only so far connected with
Babylon, that its king was a tributary sove
reign f o him or a vice-king " like those of
later tiraes, of whora Sennacherib boasts,
" Are not ray princes altogether kings ? "
Assyria, at this time, is not raentioned,
and so, since we know of its existence at an
earlier period, it probably was independent.
Lying far to the North of any of the nations
here mentioned, it, from 'whatever cause or
however it may have been engaged, took no
share in the war. Subsequently also, down
to a date alraost conteraporary with the Exo
dus, it has been observed that the narae of
Asshur does not appear on the Babylonian
inscriptions, nor does it swell the titles of
the king of Babylon ". A little later than
the Exodus, however, in the beginning of
the 14th century B, C., Asshur and Egypt
were already disputing the country which
lay between thera. The account is Egyptian,
and so, of course, only relates the successes of
Egypt. Thothmes III, in his fortieth year,
according to Mr. Birch, received tribute from
a king of Ninev^ ^. In another monument
of the same monarch, where the line, follow
ing on the name Nineveh, is lost, Thothmes
says that he " * erected his tablet in Naharaina
(Mesopotamia) for the extension of the
frontiers of Kami" [Egypt]. Araenophis
III, in the sarae century, represented Asia
tic captives", with the names of Patana
[Padan-Aram], Asuria, Karukaraishi [Car-
chemish"]. "On another coluran are
Saenkar (Shinar), Naharaina, and the Khita
(Hittites)." The mention of these contiguous
nations strengthens the impression that the
details of the interpretation are accurate. All
1 Gen. xxv. 18. ^ Num. xxiv. 22,
• Sir H. Eawl, in Eawl, Herod, i. 446,
1" On the one hand the general resemblance of
Kudurmapula's legends to those of the ordinary
ChaldEcan monarchs is unquestionable ; on the
other hand, it is remarkable that there are pecu
liarities in the forms of the letters, and even in the
elements composing the names upon his bricks
whieh favor his connection with Elam," Sir H.
Eawlinson in Eawl. Herod, i. 436,
" Eawl, Five Empires i, 206.
. I Ib. p. 447.
J From statistical Tablet of Karnak, quoted by
Layard Nin. and Bab. c. xxvi. p. 631, Birch in Arch
aeologia 'Vol. xxxv. pp, 116-66,
'lb, p, 630, note 1. 'Ib,

114

INTEODUCTION TO

these inscriptions imply that Assyria was
independent of Babylon. In one, it is a co
ordinate power ; in the two others, it is a
state which had measured its strength with
Egypt, under one of its greatest conquerors,
though, according to the Egyptian account,
it had been worsted.
Another account, which has been thought
to be the first instance of the extension of
Babylonian authority so far northward, seems
to me rather to imply the ancient self-gov
ernment of Assyria, " " A record of Tiglath-
pileser I. declares him to have rebuilt a
temple in the city of Asshur, which had
been taken down 60 years previously, after it
had lasted for 641 years from the date of its
first foundation by Shamas-Iva, son of Ismi-
Dagon," Sir H. Eawlinson thinks that it is
probable (although onlj' probable)", that this
Ismi-Dagon is a king, whose name occurs in
the brick-legends of Lower Babylonia, Yet
the Israi-Dagon of the bricks does not bear
the title of king of Babylon, but of king of
Nifler only '' : " his son," it is noticed, " does
not take the title of king ; but of governor of
Hur "," The name Sharaas-Iva nowhere oc
curs in connection with Babylonia, but it
does recur, at a later period, as the narae of
un Assyrian Monarch '. Since the names of
the Eastern kings so often continue on in the
same kingdom, the recurrence of that name,
at a later period, makes it even probable,
that Sharaas-Iva was a native king. There
is absolutely nothing to connect his father
Israi-Dagon with the Israi-Dagon king of
Nifier, beyond the name itself, which, being
Semitic, raay just as well have belonged to a
native king of Nineveh Ss to a king of
Lo^ver Babylonia. Nay, there is nothing to
shew that Israi-Dagon was not an 'Assyrian
Monarch who reigned at Niffer ; for the
narae of his father is still unknown ; there is
no evidence that his father was ever a king,
or, if a king, where he reigned. It seeras to
me in the lust degree precarious to assume,
without further evidence, the identity of the
two kings. It has, further, yet to be shewn
that Lower Babylonia had, at that time, an
empire, as distinct from its own local sover
eignty. We know from Holy Scripture of
Nirarod's kingdom in Shinar, a province dis
tinct frora Elymais, Mesopotaraia, Assyria,
and probably Chaldjea. In Abrahara's time,
1900 B, C, we find again a king of Shinar.
Shinar again, it is supposed, appears in
Egyptian inscriptions, in the i4th century,
B. C. ^ ; and, if so, still distinct frora Mesopo
taraia and Assyria. But all this implies a
distinct kingdora, not an empire.
Again, were it ever so true, that Sharaas-
bSir H. Eawlinson from the Shergat Cylinders in
Eawl, Herod. Ess, vi. i. 433. note 1.
0 Ib. p. 456. note 6. i Ib. p. 437. "Ib, §7,
foir H. Eawlins., Journ. As. Soc. xvi. P. 1. Ann.
Eep. p. xii. sq. Eawl. Herod, i. p. 466.

Iva was a son of a king in Lower Babylonia,
that he built a temple in Kileh-Shergat, as
being its king, and that he was king, as
placed there by Ismi-Dagon, this would be
no proof of the continual dependence of As
syria upon Babylonia. England did not
continue a dependency of France, because
conquered by AVilliam of Normandy. How
was Alexander's erapire broken at once ! Spain
under Charles the V. was under one sover-
'eignty with Austria ; Sjiain with France had,
even of late, alike Bourbon kings. A name
would, at most, shew an accidental, not a per
manent, connection.
But there is, at present, no evidence im
plying a continued dependence of Assyria
upon Babylon. Two facts only have been
alleged; 1) that the cuneiform writing of
inscriptions at Kileh-Shergat, 40 miles South
of Nineveh, has a Babylonian character ; 2 1
that, on those bricks, four names have been
found of inferior Satraps.
But 1) the Babylonian character of the
inscriptions would show a dependence of
civilization, not of empire. Arts fiourished
early at Babylon, and so the graven char
acter of the Inscriptions too may have been
carried to the rougher and warlike North.
The garment, worked at Babylon, was, inthe
15th century B, C, exported as far as Pales
tine, and was, for its beauty, the object of
Achan's covetousness '',
2) In regard to the satraps whose names
are found on the bricks of Kileh-Shergat,
it does not a-ppear, that they were tributary
to Babylon at all ; they may, as far as it ap
pears, have been simply inferior officers of
the Assyrian erapire. Anyhow, the utraost
which such a relation to Babylon would
evince, if ever so well established, would be
a temporary dependence of Kileh-Shergat
itself, not of Nineveh or the Assyrian king
dora. Further, the evidence of the duration
of the dependency would be as limited at its
extent. Four satraps would be no evidence
as to this period of 700 years, only a century
less than has elapsed since the Norman con
quest. The early existence of an Assyrian
kingdom has been confirraed by recent cunei-
forra discoveries, which give the naraes of 8
Assyrian kings, the earliest of whora is sup
posed to have reigned about 3.} centuries
before the commenceraent of the Assyrian
Empire '.
The "empire," Herodotus says'', "Assyria
held in Upper Asia for 520 years ; " Berosus',
" for 52G years," The Cuneiform Inscriptions
give rauch the sarae result, Tiglath-pileser "",
who gives five years' annals of his own vic
tories, mentions his grandfather's grandfather,
B Mr. Birch in Layard, Nin, and Bab, p, 631.
1^ Josh. vii. 21.

' Eawl. 0 Emp. ii. 291 ; comp. i. 212.
ki. 9.1.
»> Eawl. Her. i. 457,

'Fragm, 11.

NAHUM,

lit

the 4th king before him, as the king who
" first organized the country of Assyria," who
" established the troops of Assyria in author
ity." The expression, " established in author
ity," if it may be pressed, relates to foreign
conquest. If this Tiglath-pileser be the same
whom Sennacherib, in the 10th year of his
own reign, mentions as having lost his gods
to Merodach-ad-akhi, king of Mesopotamia,
418 years before ", then, since Sennacherib
ascended the throne about 703 B.C.", we
should have B. C, 1112 for the latter part of
the reign of Tiglath-pileser I,, and counting
this and the six preceding reigns at 20 years
eaclii", should have about 1252 B, C. for the
beginning of the Assyrian empire. It has
been calculated that il the 526 years, assigned
by Berosus to his 45 Assyrian kings, are (as
Polyhistori states Berosus to have meant)
to be dated back from the accession of Pul
wlio tiiok tribute from Menahera, and so
from between B.C. 770 and B.C. 760, they
carry back the beginning of the dynasty to
about 1290 B.C. If they be counted, (as is
perhaps more probable) from the end of the
reign of Pul"', i. e. probably B.C. 747, "the
era of Nabonassar," the Empire would com
mence about 1273 B. C. Herodotus, it has
been shewn ", had much the same date in his
mind, when he assigned 520 years to the
Assyrian empire in upper Asia, dating back
from the revolt of the Medes, For he sup
posed this revolt to be 179 years anterior to
the death of Cyrus B, C, 529 (and so, B, C.
708) -l-a period of anarchy before the acces
sion of Deioce:-', Allowing 30 years for this
period of anarchy, we have 738 B,C, -1-520,
i, e. 1258 B. G, for the date of the commence
raent of Assyrian erapire according to Hero
dotus. Thus, the three testimonies would
coincide in placing the beginning of that
Empire anyhow between 1258 and 1273 B. C.
But this Empire started up full-grown. It
was the concentration of energy and power,
which had before existed. Plerodotus' ex
pression is " rulers of Upper Asia." Tiglath-
pileser attributes to his forefather, that he
" organized the country," and " established
the armies of Assyria in authority." The
2d king of that list takes the title of " ruler
over the people of Bel'," i. e. Babylonia.
The 4th boasts to have reduced "all the
lands of the Magian world." 'Tiglath-pileser
I. claims to have conquered large parts of
^"Dx. Hincks, from Bavian Inscription in Layard
Nin, and Bab, pp, 212,3.
1 His annals mention that, having expelled Mero
dach-baladan in the fir.st year of his reign, he set
up Belib in Babylon (Hincks in Layard Bab. and
Nin, 140, 1) ; but, in the Canon of Ptolemy, the date
of Bel ibis B.C, 703.
p Eawl. gives this as the average of Assyrian
reigns (Five Empires ii. 93.). The whole calculation
is his. An interregnum of 20 years, carries the
whole back to the date of Berosus 1273 B. C.
1 1n Euseb. Chron. Arm. pp. 40, 1.
' 2 Kings XV. 19. ¦ Eawl. Herod, i. 407.

Cappadocia, Syria from Tsukha to Car-
chemish, Media aud Muzr. According to
the inscription at Bavian", he sustained a
reverse, and lost his gods to a king of Meso
potamia, which gods were recovered by Stii-
nacherib from Babylon. Yet this exception
the more proves that conquest was the rule.
For, had there been subsequent successful
invasions of Assyria by Babylonia, the spoils
of the 5th century backward would not have
been alone recovered or recorded. If the
deciphering of the Inscriptions is to be
trusted, Nineveh was the capital, even in the
days of Tiglath-pileser I. For Sennacherib
brought the gods back, it is said, and put
them in their places, i, e, probably where he
hiraself reigned, at Nineveh, Thence then
they were taken in the reign of Tiglath-
pileser. Nineveh then was his capital also.
Of an earlier portion we have as yet but
incidental notices ; yet the might of Assyria
is attested by the presence of Assyrian names
in the Egyptian dynastic lists, whether the
dynasties were theraselves Assyrian, or
^vhether the names came in through matri
monial alliances between two great nations ^.
With few exceptions, as far as appears
from their own annals (and these are in the
later times confirraed by Holy Scripture),
the Assyrian Empire was, almost wdienever
we hear of it, one long series of victory and
rapine. It is an exception, if any monarch
is peaceful, and content to " repair the build
ings' " in his residence, " leaving no evidence
of- conquest or greatness." 'Piglathi-Nin,
father of the warlike Asshur-i-danipal or
Sardanapalus, is mentioned only in his son's
monument, " ' among his warlike ancestors,
who had carried their arras into the Arme
nian mountains, and there set up stelae to
comraeraorate their conquests." Civil wars
there were, and revolutions. Conquerors
and dynasties carae to an untimely end ;
there was parricide, fratricide ; but the tide
of war and conquest rolled on. The restless
warriors gave no rest. Sardanapalus terras
himself, "''the conqueror frora the upper
passage of the Tigris to Lebanon and the
great sea, who all countries, frora the rising
of the sun to the going down thereof, has re
duced under his authority." His son, Shal-
raanubar or Shalmaneser, in his thirty-five
years of reign led, in person twenty-three
military expeditions. 20,000,16,000, are the
' Eawl, i, 458,
» Layard N. and B. 207-12. 614. Eawl. 459.
* Rawlinson's conjecture. Five Emp. ii. 335. The
period is one of " obscurity," as Eawl. says, but that
very obscurity forbids our deciding, as he does, that
it was one of "extraordinary weakness and de
pression." y Asshur-adan-akhi and three foUowingkings. See
Eawl. Ker. i. 460. The accession of Asshur-adan-
akhi was placed by some, referred to by Eawl. Ib.,
at B. C. 1050, by himself, at B, C, 950, Pive Emp. ii.
291. • Sir H. Eawl. Ib. in Eawl. Her. i. 460, n. 7.
" In Layard N. and B. pp. 361, 2 Eawl. p. 461.

116

INTEODUCTION TO

numbers of his eneraies left dead upon a field
of battle with Benhadad and Plazael ". Cap
padocia, Pontus, Arraenia, Media, Babylonia,
Syria, Phoenicia", 15 degrees of longitude
and 10 of latitude, save where the desert or
the sea gave him nothing to conquer, were
the range of his repeated expeditions. He
circled round Judsea. He thrice defeated
Benhadad with his allies (on several occa
sions, twelve kings of the Plittites). His
own army exceeded on occasions 100,000
fighting men. Twice he defeated Hazael.
Israel under Jehu, Tyre, Sidon, 24 kings in
Pontus, kings of the Hittites, of Chaldasa, 27
kings of Persia are among his tributaries ^ ;
" the shooting of his arrows struck terror,"
he says, " as far as the sea " [Indian Ocean] ;
" he put up his arrows in their quiver at the
sea of the setting sun." His son Shamasiva
apparently subdued Babylonia, and in the
West conquered tribes near Mount Taurus,
on the North the countries bordering on
.'Armenia to the South and East, the Medes
beyond Mount Zagros, and " " the Zirari ' in
upper Luristan." His son Ivalush III. or
IV. received undisturbed tribute from the
kingdoms which his fathers conquered, and
ascribes to his god Asshur the grant of " * the
kingdom of Babylon to his son." Thus
" Assyria with one hand grasped Babylonia ;
with the other Philistia and Edom ; she held
Media Proper, S. Armenia, possessed all
Upper Syria, including Commagene and
Amanus, bore sway over all the whole Syrian
coast from Issus to Gaza, and from the coast
to the desert." Tiglath-pileser II. and Shal
maneser are known to us as conquerors from
Holy Scripture '^- Tiglath-pileser, we are
told from the inscriptions, warred and con
quered in Upper Mesopotamia, j\,rraenia,
JVIedia, Babylonia, drove into exile a Baby
lonian prince, destroyed Damascus, took tri
bute frora a Hiram king of Tyre, and frora
a Queen ofthe Arabs ''. And so it continued,
until nearly the close of the Monarchy.
The new dynasty which began with Sar
gon were even greater conquerors than their
predecessors. Sargon, in a reign of seven
teen or nineteen years, defeated the king of
Elam, conquered in latbour beyond Elam,
reigned from Eas, a dependency on Elam,
over Poukoud (Pekod), Phoenicia, Syria, &c.
to the river of Egypt, in the far Media to the
rising sun, in Scythia, Albania, Parthia, Van,
Arraenia, Colchis, Tubal to the Moschi : he
k Eawl, Ib, 404, 5,
oNimrud Obelisk translated by Dr. Hincks, in
Dubl. Univ. Mag. Oct. 1853. pp. 422, 5, 6. Eawl. Her.
i. 462. <i Dr. Hincks, Athenieum N. 1476. p. 174. Eawl, Ib,
Five Emp, ii. 360.
• Rawl, Herod, i. 460. Five Emp, ii. 374,
f Jer, xxv, 25,
t Eawl, Her, i, 467, Five Empires ii, 380,
i> Eawl. Her. i. 470, 12 Kings xvii, 6, xviii, 11,
k The above account of Sargon is taken from Op-

placed his lieutenants as governors over these
countries, and iraposed tribute upon thera, as
upon Assyrians ; he, probably, placed Mero-
dach-Baladan on the throne of Babylon, and
after 12 years displaced him ; he reduced all
Chaldffia under his rule ; he defeated "Sebecli
(i. e., probably. So), Sultan of Egypt, so that he
was heard of no more ; " he received tribute
from the Pharaoh of Egypt, frora a Queen of
Arabia and from Plimyar the Sabjean. To
him first the king of Meroe paid tribute.
He finally captured Samaria: he took Gaza,
Kharkar, Arpad and Damascus, Ashdod
(which it cost Psammetichus 29 years to
reconquer), and Tyre, (which resisted Ne
buchadnezzar for 13 years). He added to
the Satrapy of Parthia, placed a Satrap or
Lieutenant over Commagene and Samaria,
Kharkar, Tel-Garimmi, Garagoura, Ashdod,
and a king of his own choice over Albania.
He seized 55 walled cities in Arraenia, 11,
which were held to be "inaccessible fort
resses;" and 62 great cities in Coraraagene;
34 in Media ; he laid tribute on the " king
of the country of rivers." Pie removed
whole populations at his will ; from Samaria,
he carried captive its inhabitants, 27,800, and
placed them in " cities of the Medes ' ; " he
removed those of Coramagene to Elam ; all
the great men of the Tibareni, and the in
habitants of unknown cities, to Assyria ;
Cammanians, whom he had conquered, to
Tel-Garimrai, a capital which he rebuilt;
others whom he had vanquished in the East
he placed in Ashdod : again he placed
"Assyrians devoted to his erapire" among
the libareni ; inhabitants of cities unknown
to us, iu Damascus; Chaldaeans in Com
magene''. "'The Comukha were reraoved
from the extreme North to Susiana, and
Chaldseans were brought from the extreme
South to supply their place." " Seven kings
of latnan, seven days' voyage off in the
Western seas, whose names were unknown to
the kings" his "fathers, hearing of" his
" deeds, came before " him to Babylon with
" presents ; " as did the king of Asmoun, who
dwelt in the midst of the Eastern sea (the
Persian gulf). He placed his statue, "writ
ing on it the glory of Asshur his master," in
the capital of Van, in Kikisim (Circesium)
as also in Cyprus, which he does not name,
but where it has been discovered in this
century '". The Moschian king, with his
3000 towns, who had never submitted to the
pert's Inscriptions Assyriennes des Sargonides, p.
19-40, extracted from the Annates de Philosophie
ChriStienne T. vi. (5« s&ie). Oppert p. 8,- gives as
the meaning of his name, "actual king," "roi de
fait." Sargon himself, if Oppert has translated
him rightly, gives as its meaning, "righteous
prince," (P'lK/) p. 38,
¦ Rawl. 5 Emp. ii. 423. This statement is not in
Oppert's Inscriptions,
" Now in the Eoyal Museum at Berlin. Layard,
Bab. p. 618.

NAHUM.

117

kings his predecessors, sent his submission
and tribute to him.
Sennacherib, the son of Sargon, says of
hiraself, "Assour, the great Lord, has con
ferred on me sovereignty over the peoples ;
he has extended my dominion over all those
who dwell in the world. From the upper
Ocean of the setting sun to the lower Ocean
of the rising sun, I reduced under my power
all who carried aloft their head." lie de
feated Merodach Baladan and the king of
Elam together"; took in one expedition,
""79 great strong cities of the Chaldajans
and 820 small towns ; " he took prisoners by
hundreds of thousands ; 200,150 in his first
expedition against Hezekiah, from 44 great
walled cities which he took and little villages
innumerable"; 208,000 from the Nabathseans
and Hagarenes " : he employed on his great
buildings 360,000 men, gathered from
Chalda;a and Aramsea, from Cilicia and
Armenia i ; he conquered populations in the
North, which " had of old not submitted to
the kings my brothers'," annexed them to
the prefecture of Arrapachitis and set up bis
image '' ; he received tribute from the gov
ernor of Khararaf, wasted the 2 residence-
cities, 34 smaller cities of Ispahara king of
Albania, joining a part of the territory to
Assyria, and calling its city, Uhinzas, the
city of Sennacherib " ; he reduced countries
of " Media, whose names the kings his
brothers had not heard'; he set a king,
Toubaal, over the great and little Sidon,
Sarepta, Achzib, Acco, Betzitti, Mahalliba ;
the kings of Moab, Edom, Bet-Araraan,
Avvad, Ashdod, submitted to him ' ; he de
feated an "innuraerable host" of Egyptians
at Altakou" [Elteke] ; sons of the king of
Egypt fell into his hands ; he captured
Ascalon, Bene-Barak, Joppa, Hazor " ; put
back at Amgarron [Migron] the expelled
king Padi, who had been surrendered to
Hezekiah " ; gave portions of the territory of
Hezekiah to the kings of Ashdod, Migron,
Gaza y ; he drove Merodach-baladan again to
Elam, captured his brothers, wasted his
cities, and placed his own eldest son, Assur-
nadin, on the throne of Babylon " ¦ took seven
impregnable cities of the Toukharri, placed
like birds' nests on the mountains of Nipour " ;
conquered the king of Oukkou in Dayi, among
mountains which none of his ancestors had
penetrated ; took Oukkou and 33 other
cities " ; attached Elara, " crossing " the Per
sian gulf " in Syrian vessels " ; " capturing
the men, and destroying the cities'"; in
"Oppert Sarg. p. 41.
<• Ib. p. 46. p Layard Bab. p. 141.
1 Eawl. Her. i. 476. ' Opp. pp. 42, 3. ¦ Ib. p. 45.
' pp. 4,3, 4, " p. 44, » pp. 44, 6. J p. 46,
"p, 46. 'p. 47. 'pp. 47, 8, "pp, 48,
¦ipp, 49-51,
» Polyhist. in Eus. Chr. i. c, 5. Abyden. ib. c. 9.
'Eawl. 6 Emp. ii. 466.
B Is, X, 6-15, xxxvi. 18-20. k Oppert p. .53.

another campaign, he garrisoned, with pris
oner-warriors of his own, cities in Elam
which his father had lost ° ; destroyed 34
large cities and others innumerable of Elam ".
His account of his reign closes with a great
defeat of Elam, whom the escaped Souzoub
had hired with the treasures of the temples
of Babylon, and of 17 rebel tribes or cities, at
Khalouli, and their entire subdual''. He
repelled sorae Greeks in Cilicia, set up his
iraage there, with a record of his deeds, and
built Tarsus, on the model of B.abylon ". It
has been noticed, what a "keen appreciation
of the merits of a locality ' " his selection i ¦!
its site evinced. The destruction of his army
of 185,000 men, at the word of God, might
well deter him frora again challenging the
Almighty ; but we have seen, in the wars of
Napoleon I., that such losses do not break
the power of an emjiire. It was no vain
boast of Sennacherib, that he had gathered all
the earth, and carried captive the gods of the
nations. The boast was true ; the application
alone was impious. God owned in hira the
instrument which He had formed, the rod of
His anger. He condemned hira, only because
the axe boasted itself against Him Who hevjed
therewith. Victorious, except when he fought
against God, and eraployed by God to tread
down the people as tlie mire of the streets ', Sen
nacherib was cut off as God foretold, but left
his kingdom to a victorious son.
His son, Esarhaddon, takes titles, yet more
lofty than those of Sennacherib. He calls
himself, "'' King of Assyria, Vicar of Baby
lon, Kin.g ofthe Suniirs and Accads, King of
Egypt, Meroe and Cush, who reigned from
sunrising to sun-set, unequalled in the im
position of tributes," In Arraenia, he killed
Adramraelech ', his half-brother, one of his
father's murderers, who fled to Armenia,
probably to dispute thence his father's crown.
In every direction he carried bis conquests
further than his powerful father ^. He
speaks of conquests in the far Media, " ' where
none of the kings, our fathers," had con
quered, wdiose kings bore well-known Per
sian naraes ".
They and their subjects were carried off to
Assyria. Others, who " " had not conspired
against the kings my fathers and the land of
Assyria, and whose territories my fathers had
not conquered," submitted voluntarily in
terror, paid tribute .and received Assyrian
governors. In the West, he pursued by sea
a king of Sidon who rebelled, divided the
Syrians in strange countries, and placed
1 Abyden, in Eus. Chron, Arm. p. 53.
kThe murder then of Sennacherib was no sign
of the decadence of the empire, but one of the
common fruits of the polygamy of Eastern mon
archs. 1 Oppert pp. 56, 7. °i Sitirparna and Iparna.
n lb. Two of the names again, Eawl. observes (5
Emp. ii. 473), are Aryan, Zanasaua and Eamatiya ; a
3d is Arpis.

118

INTEODUCTION TO

mountaineers, whom his bow had subdued in
the East, with a governor, in a castle of
Esarhaddon which he built in Syria. He
warred successfully in Cilicia, Khoubousna,
and destroyed 10 large cities of the Tibareni
and carried their people captive ; trod down
the country of Masnaki, transported rebels
of Van ; he established on the Southern
shore that son of Merodach-baLadan who sub
raitted to hira, reraoving the brother who
trusted in Elara, himself reigned in Baby
lon °, whither he carried Manasseh p. He
reconquered " the city of Adonmou (Edora),
(the city of the power of the Arabs,) which
Sennacherib had conquered, and carried off
its people to Assyria ; " he naraed as Queen
of the Arabs, Tabouya, born in his palace ;
put the son of Hazael on his father's throne.
An expedition to " i a far country to the bounds
of the earth beyond the desert," Bazi (Buz),
reached by traversing 140 farsakhs(?) of sandy
desert, then 20 farsakhs (?) of fertile land and
a stony region, Khazi (Uz), looks like an ex
pedition across Arabia, and, if so, was un
paralleled except by Nushirvan. Sorae of
the other naraes are Arabic. Anyhow, it
was a country, whither none of his predeces
sors had gone ; he killed 8 kings, carried off
their subjects and spoils. He conquered the
Gomboulou in their marshes. Twelve kings
on the coast of Syria whom he recounts by
name, (Ba'lou king of Tyre, Manasseh king
of Judah, and those of Edom, Maan, Gaza,
Ascalon, Amgarron, Byblos, Aradus, Ousi-
mouroun, Bet-Ammon, Ashdod) and 10 kings
of Yatnan in the sea (Cyprus), — jEgisthus
(Ikistousi), King of Idalion (idial), Pytha
goras (Pitagoura) K. of Citiura (Kitthim),
Ki — ,K. of Salamis (Silhirami), Ittodagon
("Dogon is with hira," Itoudagon), K. of
Paphos (Pappa), Euryalus (Irieli), K. of
Soli (Sillou), Damasou, K. of Curium (Kuri,)
Ounagousou, K. of Limenion (Liraini),
Eouraizu, K. of Tamassus (Tamizzi,) Da-
mutsi of Amti-Khadasti, Puhali of Aphro-
disium (Oupridissa) "", — held their rule from
him. The names of the countries, from which he
brought those whom he settled in Saraaria,
attest alike his strength and the then weak
ness of two of the nations, wdiich afterward
concurred to overthrow his empire. The
colonists, according to their own letters to
Artaxerxes ", comprehended, among others,
Babylonians ; Archevites i. e. inhabitants of
Erech, mentioned in Genesis ', as, together
with Babel, part of the beginning of the
kingdom of Nimrod ; Susanchites, i. e, inhab-
» Babyl. tablet in Eawl, Her. i. 482.
p2 Chr. xxxiii. 11.
1 0ppert p. 56. Eawl. 5 Emp. ii. 470, ]. Oppert does
not identify the naraes of distances.
'Eawl. Herod, i. 483,4. 5 Emp. ii. 483, Oppert p. 58.
« Ezr. iv. 9. ' Gen. x, 10. » i. 125.
I Eitter Erdk. vii. 668. J Is. xxi. 2, xxii. 6.

itants of Susiana or Chusistan ; Dehauites,
Daans in Herodotus ", one of the wandering
Persian tribes, whose name (Taia) still
exists"; Elamites-, or the dwellers on the
Persian gulf, bordering on Susiana ; Aphar-
sites or the Persians in their original abode
in Parana, Parai?, now Farsistan, It seems
also probable that the Apharsachites^ are
those more known to us as Sacse or Scythians,
whom Esarhaddon says that he conquered " ;
and that the Apharsaehthites (with the same
word Apliar prefixed) are the Sittaceni on
the Caspian, The Dinaites and the Tarphe-
lites are as yet unidentified, unless the Tar-
petes'" of the Palus Mfeotis near the Sittaceni,
or the Tapiri " in Media be a corruption of
the name. The Samaritan settlers add. And
the rest of the nations, whom the great and noble
Asnapper carried captive, and settled in the cities
of Samaria and the rest on this ride the river.
Under this general term, they include the
Mesopotamian settlers brought from Avvah
and Sepharvaim, and those from Plamath ",
probably wishing to insist to the Persian
Monarch on their Persian, Median, or Baby
lonian descent. They attest at the same time
that their forefathers were not willingly
removed but transported, carried into exile",
and accordingly that Esarhaddon, in whose
reign they were reraoved, had power in all
these countries. The condensation also of
settlers from twelve nations in so sraall a
space as the cities of Samaria (analogous as
it is to the dispersion of the Jews over so
many provinces of their captors) illustrates
the policy of these transportations, and the
strength which they gave to the empire.
Nations were blended together among those
foreign to them, with no common bond ex
cept their relation to their conqueror. A
check on those around thera, and themselves
held in check by them, they had no comraon
home to which to return, no interest to serve
by rebelling. Esarhaddon built 36 temples
in Assyria by the labor of foreign slaves, his
captives, vi'ho worshiped his gods '.
This collection of people of twelve nations
in the cities of Saraaria represents moreover
one portion only of the conquests of Esarhad
don, and, for the raost part, that furthest from
Judoea. For the principle of the policy was
to remove thera far frora their own land.
Ethiopian and Egyptian captives would be
placed, not here whence they could easily
return, but, like Israel in the cities of the
Medes, whence they could find no escape.
The son of Esarhaddon, Asshurbanipal
^IL, yet further enlarged and consolidated
¦Ezr. V. 6. Rawl. Journ. of Asiat. Soc. xv. p. 164.
" Eawl. Her, i, 481. b strabo xl. 2. 8. 11.
° Id, xl, 8, and 13, 2, 4 2 Kgs xvii. 24,
'"¦hyiy Ezr, iv. 10.
' Assyr. texts p, 10, Oppert p, 57, Eawl, 5 Emp.
li. 482.
EOr Asordanes, Layard Nin. and B. p. 452.

NAHUM.

119

the conquests of his conquering father. His
expeditions into Egypt have been already
dwelt upon ; his victories were easy, cora-
plete. 'Pirhaka, himself a great conqueror,
fled into unknown deserts beyond reach of
pursuits. His step-son Urdaminie attempted
to recover his Idngdora, was defeated at once,
fled and his capital was taken. In Asia, he
took away the king of Tyre, Who offended
him ; made conquests beyond Mt. Taurus,
where his fathers had never been'" ; received
an embassy frora Gyges ; attached to Assyria
a tract of Minni or Persarraenia, took the
capital of Minni ; took Shushan ' and Ba-
daca, slew their kings, united Susiana to
Babylonia ; subdued ' anew Edom, Moab,
Kedar, the Nabathieans; received the sub
mission of the king of Urarda, Ararat ".
While Assyria was extended wider than
before, its old enemies were more incorporated
wdth it, or, at least, more subdued ; it was
more at one wdthin itself. Egypt, the great
rival Empire, had tried to shake off' the yoke,
but was subdued ; no people in Syria or the
valley of the Euphrates stirred itself; the
wdiole tract within the Taurus, once so rife
with enemies, lay hushed under his rule :
hushed were the Hittites, Hamathites, the
Syrians of Daraascus, the Tibareni who had
once held their own against his father ; war
was only at the very extremities, in Minni
or Edom, and that, rather chastisement than
^var ; Babylon Avas a tranquil portion of his
empire, except during the temporary rebellion
of the brother, whom he had placed over it,
and whom he pardoned. His death, amid
the tranquil promotion of literature', when
he had no more enemies to conquer or rebels
to chasten, left his erapire at the zenith of
its power, sorae 22 years before its destruc-
ti(,n. Calno had become, as Sennacherib
boasted ", like Carchemish; Hamath lilce
Arpad; Samaria as Damascus. Pie" had
removed the bounds of the people and gathered
edl the earth, as one gathereth eggs, left by the
parent bird, undefended even by its impotent
love. There was not a cloud on the horizon,
not a token whence the whirlwind would
come. The bas-reliefs attest, that neither
the energy nor the cruelty of the Assyrians
were diminished °.
Of those twenty-two years, we have noth
ing reliable except their close. There was
probably nothing to relate. There would
not be anything, if Asshurbanipal had con
solidated his empire, as he seems to have
done, and if his son and successor inherited
his father's later tastes, and was free from the
thirst of boundless conquest, which had
' Eawl, remarks that the names are new.
1 The name is spelt as in Daniel.
' Eawl, 6 Emp, li, 484-93, • Ib, 496, 6,
"Is. X. 9,
» Ib, 13, H.
" See plates in Layard Nin. and B. pp. 457, 8. Eawl.

characterized the earlier rulers of Assjrria,
Anyhow, we know nothing authentic. The
invasion of Assyria by Phraortes, which
Herodotus relates, is held, on good grounds,
to be a later history of a rebellion against
Darius Hystaspes, adapted to times before the
Medes became one nation p. There was no
reason why it should not have been recorded,
had it taken place, since it is admitted to
have been a total defeat, in which Phraortes
lost his life i. The invasion of the Scythians,
which is to have stopped the siege of Nine
veh under Cyaxares, was reported in a mani
festly exaggerated form to Herodotus. The
28 years, during which Herodotus relates the
Scythian rule to have lasted ', is longer than
the whole of the reign of the last king of
Assyria ; and yet, according to Herodotus, is
to have been interposed between the two
sieges of Cyaxares. And as its empire gave
no sign of decay, so far as we can trace its
history within 22 years before its destruction,
so, with the like rapidity, did the empire
rise, which was to destroy it. The account
which Herodotus received, that the Medians
had thrown off' the yoke of Assyria before
Deioces', is in direct contradiction to the
Assyrian inscriptions. This was, they state,
the time, not of the revolt, but of the con
quest of Media. They are confirmed by
Holy Scripture, which says that the Assyrian
king [Sargon] placed in the rities of the Medes '
his Israelitish captives. The utmost, whicli
Herodotus ascribes to Deioces however, is,
that he consolidated the six Median tribes
and built a capital, Agbatana". It is an
union of wild hordes into one people, held
together for the tirae by the will of one man
and by their weariness of mutual oppressions.
Even according to their accounts, Cyaxares
(about B. C. 633, i, e. 8 years before the full
of Nineveh) first organized the Median army ;
the Greeks, in the time of jEschylus, believed
Cyaxares to have been the first of the Median
kings " ; rebels in Media and S.agartia claimed
the Median throne against Darius, as de
scended from Cyaxares, as the founder of the
Monarchy ^.
Further, the subsequent history supports
the account of Abydenus against Herodotus,
that not the Medes, but the rebel general of
the last Monarch of Nineveh was, with his
Babylonian troops, the chief author of the
destruction of Nineveh. The chief share of
the spoil, where no motives of refined policy
intervene, falls to the strongest, who had
chief portion in the victory. " The Medes,"
says IPerodotus, "took Nineveh, and con
quered all Assyria, except the Babylonian
6 Emp, iii. 604, and Layard Monuments Ser, 2. PI.
47, 49, quoted Ib,
p Eawl, Herod, i. 408, 9. <i Herod, i. 402.
¦¦ Ib. 106, ' i, 95, 0. ' 2 Kgs xvii. 0.
" Her. i. 101. » Persse 761-4.
y Behistun Inscr., quoted by Rawl. Her. i. 409,

120

INTEODUCTION TO

portion ^." But Babylon was no spared pro
vince, escaping with its independence as a
gain. Babylonia, not Media, succeeded to
the Southern and Western dominions of the
As.syrian erapire, and the place, where Nine
veh had stood, Cyaxares retaining the North.
This was a friendly arrangeraent, since sub
sequently too we find a Babylonian prince in
the expedition of Cyaxares against Asia
Minor, and Medians assisting Nebuchadnez
zar against the king of Egypt ". Abydenus
represents the Babylonians and Medes, as
equal •", but exhibits the rebel general, as the
author of the attack. ""After hira [Snrda-
napal], Sarae held the erapire of Assyria,
who, being informed of a horde of mingled
troops which were coming against him from
the sea, sent Busalossor [Nebopalassar] gen
eral of his army, to Babylon, But he, hav
ing determined to revolt, betrothed to his
son, Nebuchodrossor, Arauhea, daughter of
Asdahag, prince of the Medes, and soon raade
a rapid attack on Nineveh. King Sarae,
when he knew the whole, set the palace
Evorita on fire. Then Nebuchodrossor,
attaining to the erapire, encircled Babjdon
with strong walls."
The " horde of mingled troops" "from the
sea " were probably those same Susians and
Elymaeans, whora the Assyrians had, in suc
cessive reigns, defeated. If the account of
Plerodotus were true, the father ofthe Median
Monarch had perished in confiict with Assy
ria. The grandfather of the A,5syrian
Monarch had hiraself reigned in Babylon,
Assyria ruled Babylon by viceroys to the
end. It has been noticed that Nahura
mentions no one enemy who should destroy
Nineveh, True, for no one enemy did
destroy her.
Even now its fall is unexplained. The
conquests of its Monarchs had not been the
victories of talented individuals. They were
a race of world-wide conquerors. In the
whole history, of which we have the annals,
they are always on the aggressive. They
exacted tribute where they willed. The tide
of time bore them on in their conquests.
Their latest conquests were the most distant,
Egypt, her early rival, had been subdued by
her. The powers, which did destroy her,
had no coraraon bond of interest. They
were united, for one reign, not by natural
interests, but, as far as we see, by the ambi
tion of two individuals. These crushed, at
once and for ever, the empire which for so many
centuries had been the ravager of the world.
But who could have foreseen such a combi
nation and such results, save God, in Whose
hands are human wills and the fate of empires ?
« i. 106. « Eawl. Herod, i. 415, 6.
i>Conf Tobit xiv. 15. "Before he died, he heard
of the destruction of Nineveh, which was taken by
Nabuchonosor and Ahasuerus."
• Euseb. Chron. P. 1. c. 9.

The fiery empire of conquerors sank like a
tropic sun. Its wrath liad burned, unas-
suaged, " from " (in their own words) " the
rising to the setting sun." No gathering
cloud had terapered its heat or allayed its
violence. Just ere it set, in those last hours
of its course, it seemed, as if in its meridian.
Its bloodstained disk cast its last glowing rays
on that field of carnage in Susiana; then,
without a twilight, it sank beneath those
stormy waves, so strangely raised, at once and
for ever. All, at once, was night. It knew
no morrow.
Its fall is inexplicable still. It may have
accelerated its own destruction by concentrat
ing the fierce (Jhaldees at Babylon. It was
weakened by the revolt of its own general,
and with him the defection of an army. Still,
in those days, the city of 1200 towers, each
200 feet high, its ordinary wall 100 feet high
and of such breadth, that three chariots
could drive on it abreast •*, could not be taken
by mounds, except by some most gigantic
array with patience inexhaustible. Famine
could not reduce a city, which, in its 60 railes
in circumference, enclosed, like Babylon,
space for "much cattle, and which could, within
its walls, grow corn enough for its popula
tion of 600,000. With its perennial supply
of provision, it might have laughed to scorn
a more formidable foe than the Medes, Ela
mites and Babylonians, unaccustomed to
sieges, except in as far as any had fought in
its armies, while the Ninevites possessed the
hereditary skill of centuries. Babylon,
smaller than Nineveh', was at rest amidst the
siege of the more powerful grandson of
Cyaxares. Cyrus could only take it by strat
agem ; Darius Hystaspes, by treachery. Then,
every Ninevite was a warrior. Their de
scendants, the Curds, are still among the
fiercest and most warlike people of Asia.
The bas-reliefs, which bear internal evidence
of truth, exhibit a wonderful blending of in
domitable strength of will, recklessness of
suffering, inherent physical energy, unim
paired by self-indulgence. A German writer
on art says ^, " You recognize a strong thick
set race, of very powerful frame, yet inclined
to corpulence, a very peculiar blending of
energy and luxury. — The general impression
of the figures, whether men, women or
eunuchs, has uniformly something earnest
and imposing." An English writer says still
raore vividly ; " ^ All the figures indicate
great physical development, animal propen
sities very strongly marked, a calm, settled
ferocity, a perfect nonchalance amidst the
most terrible scenes ; no change of feature
takes place, whether the individual is infiict-
¦1 Diod. Sic. ii. 3. e Jon. iv. 11,
f Strabo xvi, p. 757.
sKuglerKunst-Geschichte, (2) p, 75, 6, in Strauss
Nahum p. li.
t Edwards in Kitto Scr. Lands, pp. 50, 1.

NAHUM.

121

ing or experiencing horrid sufferings. — The
pictures are very remarkable as indicating
the entire absence of higher mental and
moral qualities : and the exuberance of bru
tal parts of man's nature. At the same time
there is not wanting a certain consciousness
of dignity and of inherent power. There is
a, tranquil energy and fixed determination,
which will not allow the beholder to feel any
contempt of those stern warriors."
How then could it fall ? The prophecy of
Nahum describes, with terrible vividness, a
siege ; the rousing of its king from a torpor
of indolence ; ' he remembereth his 'nobles ; the
orderly advance, the confused preparations
for defence ; and then, when expectation is
strung, and we see besiegers and besieged
prepared for the last decisive strife, there is
a sudden pause. No huraan strength over
throws the city. "^ The gates of the rivers shall
be opened, and the palace sliall be dissolved. And
it is decreed, she shall be led away captive. Her
captivity follows on the opening of ihe gates
of the rivers. The rivers, ordinarily her
strength, were also her weakness. The an
nals of Sennacherib relate, how he repaired
a palace which had been undermined by the
Tigris. " ' The small palace, which was be
come very ruinous in every part, because the
river Tigris, during 16 years, had under
mined and ravaged it, [I repaired.]" Diony
sius, the Jacobite Patriarch, relates how in
his own time, A. D. 763, " "the Tigris, over
flowing, laid waste all the towns around it,
and especially Mosul " (opposite to Nineveh).
Barhebrieus, in four different years, mentions
the destruction of houses in Bagdad through
the overfiow of the Tigris ". He mentions
also a city-wall, overthrown by an inunda
tion, so that 3000 men were drowned in their
houses"- Ives relates p; "The Bishop (of
Babylon) remembers that" ab,.i-.t 1733 "the
Euphrates and Tigris were so overfiown, that
the whole country between them appeared as
one large sea. Over all the plain between
Bagdad and Hilla, people could pass only in
boats. The water flowed quite up to the
glacis, the ditch was full, the city also over
flown, and the foundation of most of the
buildings hurt ; 300 houses were entirely de
stroyed. To prevent as much as possible "
the recurrence of such a calamity, "the
Turks now face the foundation-wall of their
houses with a composition of charcoal, ashes,
and Demar (bitumen)." "The river Kho-
sar," also, which would be swollen by the
same causes as the Tigris, "entered the city,"
says Ainsworth % " by an aperture in the
walls on the East side, which appears to have
Iii. 5, [0.] kii. 6, 7.[7, 8.] i Assyr. Texts p, 7,
» A.ss, B. O. ii. 112.
o A. D. 835, 941, 988, 1211. Barb. p. 153, 188, 204. 500.
» lb, p, 153. P Voyage 1773, p. 281,
1 Travels ii. 142, 3. "¦ Koordistan, ii, 60,
» lb p 04 ' Layard N. and B. p. 77,

formed part of the original plan and to have
been protected by a gateway and walls,
vestiges of which still remain," "The
Khausser," says Mr. Eich', "is generally
drawn off for irrigating the cotton-planta
tions in the alluvial ground of the river ;
when it is much overflowed, it discharges it
self into the Tigris above the bridge."
"^The Khausser now [Dec. 1. after " very
heavy tropical rain,"] discharges itself direct
into the Tigris, and brings an iraraen.-ic body
of water." " ' After rain, it becomes an im
petuous torrent, overflowing its banks and
carrying all before it." " ° 'The stone-brid.o e
was carried away one night by the violence
of the Khausser, on a sudden inundation."
On a lesser swelling of the river, — "'the
water-wheels were reraoved " in precautii ui
"and the bridge of boats opened." Cazwini,
the Arabic geographer, speaks of " " the
rivers of Nineveh."
Ctesias, being a writer of suspected author
ity, cannot safely be alleged in proof of the
fulfillment of prophecy. Yet in this case his
account, as it is in exact conformity with the
obvious raeaning of the prophecy of Nahum,
so it solves a real difficulty, how Nineveh, su
defended, could have fallen. It seems cer
tain that the account of the siege taken from
him by Diodorus, is that of the last siege, ll
has been remarked " that the only event of
the siege, known from any other source, viz,
that the last Assyrian king, when he had
learned the combination of the Medes ami
Babylonians against him, set fire to his pal
ace, is related also by Ctesias, Ctesias has
also the sarae fact, that the Babylonian 're
volt was recent ; the narae of the revolted
general in Ctesias, Belisis, is the latter half
of that given to him by Abydenus ?, Nebo
palassar, oraitting only the name of the god,
Nebo. The rest of the history is in itself
probable. The success of the Assyrian mon
arch at first against the combined armies, and
the consequent revelry, are that same blend
ing of fierceness and sensuality which is
stamped on all the Assyrian sculptures, con
tinued to the end. The rest of his relation,
which, on account of the facts of nature,
which we know, but which, since they are
gathered from sources so various, Ctesias
probably did not know, is, in itself, probable,
accounts for what is unaccounted for, and
corresponds with the words of Nahum. It is,
""Sardanapalus, seeing the whole kingdom
in the greatest danger, sent his three sons
and two daughters with much wealth to
Paphlagonia to Cotta the Governor, being
the best-disposed of his subjects. He himself
» Quoted by Tuch de Nino urbe p, 24.
^ Eawl. Her, i, 413,
y Abydenus in Euseb. Chron. Can. P. i. c. 9.
»In Diod. Sic. ii. 27. Diodorus has "Euphrates"
in conformity with his own error, that Nineveh was
on that river.

122

PNTEODUCTION TO

sent by messengers to all his subjects for
forces, and prepared what was needed for the
siege. He had an oracle handed down from
his forefathers, that no one should take Nine
veh, unless the river first becarae an eneray
to the city. Conceiving that this never
would be, he held to his hopes, purposing to
abide the siege and awaited the armies to be
sent by his subjects." " The rebels, elated by
their successes, set themselves to the siege,
but on account of the strength of the walls,
could in no wise injure those in the city."
" But these had great abundance of all nec
essaries through the foresight of the king.
The siege then being prolonged for two years,
they pressed upon it ; assaulting the walls
and cutting off those therein from any exit
into the country." " In the 3d year, the
river, swollen by continuous and violent
rains, inundated a part of the city and over
threw 20 stadia of the wall. Then the king,
thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and
that the river was plainly an enemy to the
citv, despaired of safety. And, not to fall
into the enemy's hands, he raade an exceed
ing great pile in the palace, heaped up there
all the gold and silver and the royal apparel,
and having shut up his concubines and
eunuchs in the house formed in the midst of
the pile, consuraed himself and all the roy
alties with them all. The rebels, hearing
that Sardanapalus had perished, possessed
themselves of the city, entering by the broken
part of the wall,"
Yet Nahum had also prophesied '' ; " -the
fire shall devour thy bars ; " " fortify thy
strong holds, there shall the fire devour
thee;" "I will burn her chariots in the
smoke,'' and all the ruins of Nineveh still
speak from beneath the earth where they lie
inte'.-red, that, overthrown as they have been
by some gigantic power, fire consumed them
within. ""The palaces of Khorsabad (Dar
Sarjina) and Nimrud shew equal traces of
fire with those of Koyunjik." " ^ The recent
excavations have shown that fire was a great
instrument in the destruction of the Nineveh
palaces. Calcined alabaster, masses of charred
wood and charcoal, colossal statues split
through with the heat, are met with in parts
of the Ninevite mounds, and attest the ver
acity of prophecy." ""It is evident from
the ruins that Khorsabad and Niraroud were
sacked, and set on fire."
Yet this does not exhaust the fullness of
the prophecy, Nahum not only foretold the
destruction of Nineveh, that it should be
empty, void, waste, tliere is no healing of thy
<• iii. 13. 16, ii. 13.
"Eawl. Herod, i. 488. quoting "Layard Nin, and
its Eemains i, 12, 27, 40, &c, Nin. and B. [of Nimrud]
p. 351, 35'/, 359. &c. Vaux Nineveh and Persepolis
p. 196-8. Botta Letter ii. p. 26. iii, p, 41, &e," " They
[the human-beaded bulls] had suffered, like all those
previously discovered, from the fire." Lay, N, and B,

bruise, but in emphatic words, that its site
also should be a desolation. With an over
running flood He shall make the plaee thereof
{mekomah) a desolation'. This was then new
in the history of the world. Cities have re
mained, while empires passed away. Eome,
Constantinople, Athens, Damascus, Alexan
dria, Venice, abide, although their political
might is extinct. No or Thebes itself sur
vived its capture by Sargon and a yet later
loss of its inhabitants nearly two centuries,
when the more fatal conquest of Cambyses,
and perhaps the rise of Memphis perpetu
ated its destruction. Nahura foretells era-
phatically as to Nineveh, " He will raake the
plaee thereof an utter consumption." Not
only would God destroy the then Nineveh ;
but the very place or site thereof should be
an utter desolation. There was, then, no in
stance of so great a city passing away. Such
had not been Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyp
tian policy. It had becorae an established
policj' in Sennacherib's time to reraove popu
lations, not to destroy cities. And these two
policies were incorapatible. For a conqueror
who would remove populations must have,
whither to remove thera. Nineveh itself
had conquered Babylon and Shushan, and
the cities of the Medes ; but had placed her
own lieutenants in thera. The mere de
struction of such a city as Nineveh was " con
trary to experience." Even later than this,
Babylon, notwithstanding its rebellions, was
spared by its first conqueror, and survived to
be the grave of its second, Alexander. Xeno
phon describes Nineveh under the name of
Mespila (of which Mosul has been supposed
to be a corruption) " « a wall, void, large,
lying against the city — the basement was of
polished stone, full of shells, its width 50
feet, its height 50 feet. Thereon was built a
wall of brick, its breadth 50 feet, the height
100 ; the circuit was six farsangs," i. e. 22}
miles. The shell remained ; the tumult of life
was gone. Its protecting bulwarks remained ;
all, which they protected, had disappeared.
They had forgotten already on the spot what it
had been or by whom it had perished. "''The
Medes inhabited it formerly. It was said that
Media, a king's wife, had fied thither, when the
Medes were losing their power through the
Persians, The Persian king, besieging this
city, could not take it, either by timeor force ;
but Zeus made the inhabitants senseless, and
so it was taken." A little later, Alexander
marched over its site to gain the world, not
knowing that a world-empire, like that which
he gave his life to found, was buried under
p. 71. "It [the wall] contained some fnagments of
calcined sculptured alabaster, evidently detached
from the bas-reliefs on the walls." Ib. Add of Kou-
yuniik, Athenraum N. 900, Jan, 25. 1845. p. 99.
"1 Rawl. Ib. note -A.
"Bonomi p. 461. fi, g.
E Anab. iii. 4. 10. b jb.' 12.

NAHUM.

123

his feet'. Gaugamela, near which Darius
lost his empire, must have been close to its
site. Yet three centuries, and history, not
its mere neighbore only, had forgotten when
it had perished. Strabo says ^, " It was
effaced immediately after the destruction of
the Syrians." Nearly two centuries later is
Lucian's saying, " ' Nineveh has perished,
aud there is no trace left where it once was."
Yet before this time, in the reign of Claudius,
the Eomans had built a new Nineveh which
they called by bis name " Ninive Claudiopo-
lis." In the 6th century, it is mentioned as
a Christian see ""- Its episcopate was taken
away, probably on account of its decline,
early in the 9th century ; and it was united
to Mosul ". It was still in being at the be
ginning of the 14th century °. Yet, in the
12tli century, as a whole, " p it was desolate,
but there were there many villages and cas
tles." This" was not the Nineveh of pro
phecy ; but it too was swept away, and a few
coins alone attest the existence of the Eo
man city. " The city, and even the ruins of
the city," relates Gibbon i of the last victory
of Heraclius, " had long since disappeared ;
the vacant space afibrded a spacious field for
the operation of the two armies." A line of
lofty mounds, on the East of Tigris, long drew
but a momentary gaze from the passers-by ; a
few cottages surmounted the heaps, which
entombed the palaces of kings, who were the
terror of the East; the plough turned up,
unheeded, the bricks, which recorded their
deeds ; the tide of war swept over it anew ;
the summer's sands again filled up "'the
stupendous mass of brick-work, occasionally
laid bare by the winter rains." The eyes
rested on nothing but "' the stern shapeless
mound, rising like a hill frora the scorched
plain." " '' The traveler is at a loss to give
any form to the rude heaps, upon which he
is gazing. Those of whose works they are
the remains, unlike the Eoraan and the
Greek, have left no visible traces of their
civilization or of their arts ; their influence
has long since passed away. The scene
around him is worthy of the ruin he is con
templating ; desolation meets desolation ; a
feeling of awe succeeds to wonder, for there
is nothing to relieve the mind, to lead to
hope, or to tell of what has gone by. Those
huge mounds of Assyria made a deeper im
pression upon me, gave rise to more serious
thoughts and more earnest reflection, than
the temples of Baalbec and the theatres of
Ionia." 'It is noticed, that Arrian alone mentions the
name of Nineveh ; and he too speaks of it, in rela
tion to the course of the Tigris, not of the battle.
"The lake, into which the Tigris discharges itself,
which, flowing by the city Ninus formerly a great
and wealthy city, forms the country between it
[Tigris! and the Euphrates." Ind. p. 197. ed. Vail.
' xvii. 1,3, 1 Charon c. 23.
"See Ass. B. O. iii. 1. p, 104.

In 1827, Buckingham still wrote ' : "we
came in about an hour to the principal
raounds which are thought to mark the site of
the ancient Nineveh. There are four of
these mounds, disposed in the form of a square;
and these, as they shew neither bricks, stones,
nor other materials of building, but are in
many places overgrown with grass, resemble
the mounds left by entrenchments and forti
fications of ancient Eoman camps. The
longest of these raounds runs nearly N. and
S. and consists of several ridges of unequal
height, the whole appearing to extend for
four or five miles in length. There are
three other distinct mounds, wdiich are all
near to the river, and in the direction of E.
and W. — There are appearances of mounds
and ruins extending for several miles to the
southward ; and still more distinctly seen to
the Northward of this, though both are less
marked than the mounds of the centre. The
space between these is a level plain, over
every part of the face of which, broken pot
tery, and the other usual debris of ruined
cities are seen scattered about." "Mounds
and smaller heaps of ruins were scattered
widely over the plain, sufficient to prove, that
the site of the original city occupied a vast
extent." Niebuhr had ridden through Nin
eveh unknowingly./ "'I did not learn that
I was at so remaricable a spot, till near the
river. Then they shewed me a village on a
great hill, wdiich they call Nunia, and a
mosque, in which the prophet Jonah was
buried. Another hill in this district is called
Kalla Nuni.a, or the Castle of Nineveh, On
that lies a village Koindsjug, At Mosul,
where I dwelt close by the Tigris, they
showed rae in addition the walls of Nineveh,
which in ray journey through I had not ob
served, but supposed to be a set of hills,"
" It is well-known," begins an account of the
recent discoveries ", " that in the neighbor
hood of Mosul, travelers had ol'served some
remarkable mounds, resembling small hills,
and that Mr, Eich had, thirty years ago,
called attention to one called Koyunjik, in
which fragments of sculpture and pottery
had been frequently discovered,"
Andyet, humanly speaking, even if destroyed,
it was probable before-hand, that it would not
altogether perish. For a town near its site
was needed for purposes of comraerce. Of
the two routes of comraerce frora the Per
sian gulf to the North by the Euphrates or
by the Tigris, the Tigris-route was free from
the perils of the arid wilderness, through
¦¦ By Josua Bar Nun Catholious A, D. 820-824, Ass.
iii. p. 344, coll. p. 165,
» Ebedjesu, who died A. D. 1318, (Ass. i. 639.) wrote
to the Ninevites on the plague. Ass. iii. 1. 143.
p Benjamin Tud. p. 3 J ed. Asher. i c. 46.
' Layaid, Nineveh i, np, 0, 7,
« Travels ii, 49-52, 62.
'Eeisebeschr. ii. 353.
»W. S. V. Vaux in Geogr. Diet ii. 438.

124

INTEODUCTION TO

which the line by the Euphrates passed. If,
for the downward conrse, the Euphrates itself
was navigable, yet the desert presented a
difficulty for caravans returning upward
frora the Persian gulf. Arrian, who raentions
the two lines of travel, says that Alexander,
having crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus,
chose the less direct line by the Tigris, as
"having a better supply of all things, food
for his cavalry, and a less scorching heat.
The mention of Plaran (afterward Carrhaa)
Canneh, and Asshur in Ezekiel, (in one
verse ") seeras to indicate the continuation of
the same line of commerce with Tyre, which
must have existed from prehistoric times (i. e.
from times of which we have no definite his
toric account), since there is no ground to
question the statement of the Phoenicians
themselves in Herodotus, that they had
corae from the Erythrsean sea ", i. e. the Per
sian gulf The later hindrances to the navi
gation of the Tigris by the great dams (prob
ably for irrigation), were of Persian date ;
but they could have had no great effect on
the actual commerce ; since for the greater
part of the upward course on the Tigris line,
this also must, on account of the rapidity of
the river, have been by caravans. The route
was still used in the middle ages ». " *" The
ancient road and the modern one on the
upper Tigris follow, pretty nearly through
out, the same line, it being determined by
the physical necessities of the soil." In
the 16th century, ""from the head of the
Persian gulf two commercial lines existed :
by one of them goods were carried sorae way
up the Euphrates, and then by land to Bir,
Aleppo, Iskenderun. Bj' the other they fol
lowed the Tigris to Baghdad and were car
ried by Diyar-Bekr and Sivas to Terabuzum."
[But Mosul was necessarily on the way frora
Baghdad to Diyar Bekr]. Mosul still lies on
the line of comraerce, from the Persian gulf,
Basrah, Baghdad, Mosul, Mardin, Diyar-
Bekr to Iskenderun, the port of Aleppo ", or
Trebizond [Tarabuzum ".] It still carries on
some commerce with Kurdistan and other
provinces ' [beside Diyar-Bekr and Baghdad] .
Col, Chesney, in 1850, advocated the advan
tages of extending the line of comraerce by
British stations at Diyar-Bekr and Mardin,
I Arr. iii. 7. The same route was recommended
to Antiochus the great. Polyb, v, 61, Xenophon
relates the scarcity in Cyrus' advancing army on
the Euphrates route, Anab. i. 5. 4; Dio Cassius, the
sufferings of the army of Severus L. Ixxv, 1,
J Ezek, xxvii. 23. " Eden " (Ib.) is mentioned in 2
Kgs xix. 12, as having been subdued by Assyria;
"Chalmad" remains unknown; "Sheba" spread
too widely to the desert of Syria (Strabo xvi. 4. 21.)
for the mention of it to be any indication that those
thus grouped together did not live in the same
direction. = Herod, i. 1. vii. 89. and Rawlinson ib. and App. to
B. vii. Essay 2. T. iv. pp. 241. sqq. ^
aAbulpharaj Hist. Dyn. p. 218 sqq. <^oted by
Tuch de Nino urbe p. 32. Col. Chesney counts
Mosul among the nourishing commercial centres

in addition to and connection with those
already existing at Baghdad and Mosul «,
There is, in fact, a consent as to this. Lay
ard writes ; " "" The only impediraent between
the Syrian coast and the Tigris and Euphra
tes in any part of their course, arises from
the want of proper security. The navigation
of the Persian gulf is, at all tiraes, open and
safe ; and a glance at the map will shew that
a line through the Mediterranean, the port
of Suedia, Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad, Busrali,
and the Indian Ocean to Bombay is as direct
as can well be desired. With those prospects,
and with the incalculable advantages, which a
flourishing commerce and a safe ancl speedy
transit through, perhaps, the richest portions
of its dominions would confer upon the Turk
ish erapire, it would seem that more than
Eastern apathy is sho"wn in not taking some
steps, tending to restore security to the country
watered by the Tigris and Euphrates."
Ainsworth suggests a still wider commerce,
of which Mosul might be the centre.
" ' With a tranquil state of the surrounding
country, Mosul presents mercantile advan
tages of no common order. — There are several
roads open to Persia, across the mountains ;
il transit from five to seven days, and by
which, considering the short distance and
good roads from Mosul to Iskenderun, British
manufactures might be distributed into the
heart of Persia, in a time and at an expense,
which the line of Trebizond Erzrum and
Tabriz, that of Bushire and Baghdad, or the
Eussian line of Astrakhan Bakhu and Mazen-
deran can never rival."
But although raarked out by these advan
tages for continuance, even when its power
was gone, Nineveh was to perish and
it perished. Nor ought it to be alleged,
that in other cases too, " if the position of
the old capital was deeraed, frora political
or coramercial reasons, more advantageous
than any other, the population was settled in
its neighborhood, as at Delhi, not amidst its
ruins." For 1) there was, at the time of
Nahum, no experience of the destruction of
any ^ch great city as Nineveh ; 2) In the
case of conquest, the capital of the conquer
ing empire became, ipso facto, the capital of
the whole ; but this did not, in itself, involve
in the time of Abu'l Abbas A.D. 749, Expedition
ii, 581.
'Ainsworth Travels ii. 337. Tuch quotes also
Campbell's Land journey to India, p. 262, that " the
merchants still, from the nature of the country, go
from the Persian gulf to Armenia and Syria and
thence again to Bagdad by the same route through
Mosul and Arbela, by which large bodies of men
went formerly." "Chesney's Expedition ii. 589.
¦1 lb ii. 595. ° Ib. 596. f Ib. i. 21.
e " The Tigris being already provided with stations
at Bagdad and Mosul — it only requires another at
Diyar Bekr, and the neighboring town of Mardin,
since the connection of the former places with the
countries about it would speedily cause a revival of
its ancient commerce." Chesney Expedition ii. 602.
1" Nin. and Bab. p. 469. i Travels ii. 127.

NAHUM.

125

the destruction of the former. Babylon,
from having been the winter residence of
Cyrus, became the chief residence of the
Persian Emperor at the time of Alexander,
and continued to exist for many centuries,
after the foundation of Seleucia, although it
ceased to be a great city''. And this, not
withstanding its two rebellions under Darius',
and that under Xerxes". There was no
ground of huraan policy against Nineveh's
continuing, such as Mosul became, any more
than Mosul itself. It existed for some time,
as a Christian See.
The grandeur, energy, power, vividness of
Nahura, naturally can be fully felt only in
his own language. The force of his brief
prophecy is much increased by its unity.
Nahum had one sentence to pronounce, the
judgments of God upon the power of this
world, which had sought to annihilate the
kingdom of God. God, in His then kingdom
in Judah, aud the world, were come face to
face. What was to be the issue? The en
tire final utter overthrow of whatever opposed
God. Nahum opens then with the calm
majestic declaration of the majesty of God ;
Who God is, against whom they rebelled ;
the madness of their rebellion, and the extinc
tion of its chief: (c. 1) ; then in detail, what
was to come long after that first overthrow,
the siege and capture of Nineveh itself, (c. 2.);
then, iu wider corapass, the overthrow of the
whole power (c. 3.). It was to be the first
instance, in the history of mankind, of a
power so great, perishing and forever.
Nahum's office was not, as Jonah's, to the
people itself. There is then no call to
repentance, no gleam of God's mercy
toward thera in this life. Nineveh was
to perish wholly, as the habitable world
had perished in the time of Noah. The only
relief is in the cessation of so much violence.
There is no human joy expressed at this
destruction of the eneray of God and of His
people ; no sorrow, save that there can be no
sorrow ; " " who will bemoan her ? whence
shall I find comforters for her ? "
In conformity with this concentration of
'See Diet, of Greek and Eom. Geogr. i. 368,
1 Behistun Inscr. in Eawl. Herod, ii. 595-597. 608.
" Ctesias Exc. Pers. 22, » iii. 7. « p. 556.
p Davison on Prophecy, p. 369. i N. i. 7,
'Nah,ii.i._j;'Dts'DiK'3a'Sji D'inn S;? njh
DiSty. Is. Iii. 7, 1MD 'Sji D'lnn hp iii<: nn
Dlbt? J?''Dtyn, It seems to me impossible that
Nahum, had he been adapting the words of Isaiah,
would have left out the fender n«J ilO at the
beginning, or the triumphant softly-flowmg con
tinuation, its'? ids njjw jJ'Dtya '3iB itynn
U'nbx iSd at the end.
«The following, at least in form or idiom, stand
alone in Nahum; the condensed forms intV'a^l
(though with analogies) i. 4; D'K13p i- 10; ITU J
i. 12; tSb, else n£31D as "yoke"i,13; 'D''11DTmaso,

Nahum's subject, there is little in outward
style or language to connect him with the
other Prophets. His opening (as already
observed °) bears upon God's declarations of
mercy and judgment ; but, Nineveh having
filled up the measure of its iniquites, he had
to exhibit the dark side of those declarations ;
how much lay in those words, " that will by
no means clear the guilty." " p Jonah and
Nahura form connected parts of one moral
history, the remission of God's judgment
being illustrated in the one, the execution of
it in the other : the clemency and the just
severity of the Divine government being con
tained in the mixed delineation of the two
books." Plis evangelic character just gleams
through, in the eight tender words, in which
he seems to take breath, as it were ; " Tob
Yhvh lemaoz beyomtsarah, veyodeah chose
bo," " Good is God (Yhvh), refuge in day of
trouble, and knowing trusters in Him i ; "
then again, in the few words, which I think
Isaiah expanded, " Lo on the mountains the
feet of a good-tidings-bearer, peace-pro-
claimer"." Else there is only the mingled
tenderness and austereness of truth, which
would sympathize with the human being,
but that that object had, by putting off all
humanitj', alienated all which is man, " Who
will bemoan her'? Whence shall I seek
comforters for thee ? " Who? and Whence?
None had escaped evil frora her. " Upon
whom hath not thy wickedness passed
continually ? "
It is difficult for us, who have to gather up
our knowledge of the sacred language from
the fragments which reraain, in which also
the number of words forms and idioms, which
stand out singly here and there, seem but so
many specimens of lost treasure, to judge with
any certainty, whether any approxiraation of
idiora, which we raay observe, iraplies any
connection between the writers in whom it
occurs. Nahum has, especially in his picture
of the capture of Nineveh, so many of those
oTTof TiS-yofieva, consisting often of slight modi
fications ', his language is so rich and so
original, that one the raore doubts whether
ii. 3; D'';)^r(n (denom, from !^^h)I^) ii- 4; rHl3
Ib, D''^llil like laeAt'a, eAciTT], "abies," of the spear,
(Ib, V7p^T\ "are quivered;" verb too air.) Ib,
Ppa;pnt^^ (form) a. S. W^fil^ (form) Ib. p'd
(" covered way ") ii. B. bSHl " and it is decreed " ii,
8 (See Ib,)'nn7J (form, th'e meaning is determined
by nbj See' I'b.) Ib, HI J nip ("moaning") Ib.
maSrip (form and metaphor ;' Kal once Ps. Ixviii.
26) ib. 'jn5?'? masc. plur. Ib. KTI 'D''D ii. 9.
njun (like "apparatus") ii. 10. npl3 and HDUD
"void" and, as to the form, npvi3D (a fem. part.
used as an abstract ; elsewhere is only the act. part.
kal. pSia Is, xxiv, 1) ii, 11, p'3 "shaking" (of

126

INTEODUCTION TO

in those idioms, in which he seems to approxi
mate to other prophets, the expressions in
common do not belong to the common stock
of the language; and that the more, since
mostly " part of the idiom only coincides, the
knees) Ib. p^TlD, form, ii. 13. (else Nif. '2 Sam. xvii.
23; noun, p^HD Job vii. 15) jE?;_j;n ''ni;;::n (prasgn.
idiom) ii. 1-i. p']13 (in this sense) iii. 1. ~)ni (the verb)
iii.2.(noun, Him, Jud.v.22.) "ijtD (i. q. nin_J,Mii.5.
Ciip^ (only instance of etymol. meaning) iii. G.
'5<^ (as, " spectacle ") Ib. ^pP\'^ (part. pass. fem. as
noun Is. xl. 19) iii. 10. 133jin (of oppressive num
ber) iii. 15. D'^liJp iii. 17. WB} iii. 18. HH^ iii. 19.
11 The correspondence is complete between Jo.
ii. 6. -iniSS 1i'3p DU£) hj. and Nah. ii. 11. ^J£)
^Dr Henderson (in addition to Nah. ii. 1. Is. Iii.
7, see note r.) (connects a) nt7^''_ n'73 "^2)1 '^^p
Nah. i. 8 and nt^j; ^)T\ H^j i.'o with ^i_^n r|D^^
Is. viii. S and HE?;?— n"i";riji nS3 Is. x^sa; b)
np^pp^ npUDT r\pu n.Yi". ii, with ynxn ppu
npbi':n is. xxiv. i. c) d^jjid 7:)n nSnSn") li.
11, n^nVn ounn i^4o is. xxi. a. But in) a n^j '
T^iy}J is an idiom, used not in Is. only but in Jeremiah
(5 times) in Ezekiel (twice) Zephaniah and Nehe-
miaii. It is then an ordinary Hebrew idiom. The
peculiarity of Isaiah, tliat in both places (Is. x. 1^3,
xxviii.22) be adds niflnjlj does not occurinNahum.
Nahum also has not the" verb inCPli/, which Isaiah
uses in 5 places; Isaiah does not use the noun
rjD^, which Nahum has, and which occurs in a
Psalm of David (xxxii. 6). Nahum too speaks of a
flood which shall pass over and overwhelm ; Isaiah,
of a n:ian who should pass over and pass away. In
b) there is only in common, that Isaiah joins the
two like-sounding words pp^ and p7.D as active
verbs (of which, the word common to the two
prophets must be older than the Prophet Nahum
(comp. "Balak" in the Pent.). Nahum unites two
nouns, one from a different root pl3, the other a
pass, intens. part. np7Dp, as an abstract noun.
The gradual lengthening of the alliterate form oc
curs in Nahum only. Two of the three words in
Nahum are an-. Aey. c) The mention of n/nillj
"great writhing anguish," in connection with tlie
loins, is more remarkable, since Hyn /H occurs in
those places only and Ez. xxx. 4, 9 (with the same
constr. with ;]) ; yet HDIJ^D (although not nhribn)
occurs with ?''jnDp Ps. Ixvi. 11. It may then only
be an accidental coincidence ofthe same term.
O. Strauss thinks that d) Nah. i. 13 is from Is. x.
27; e) iii. 5 from Is. xlvii. 2. 3; f) Nah. iii. 7 from Is.
]i. 19. But in d and e there is no characteristic
word the same; in Nah. i. 13 there is only the com
mon imagery of breaking the yoke. U'lO masc. oc
curs in Nahum only; HT^DID pHJ in Ps. ii. 3 (of
men rebelling) and Jerem. 3 times. It is then a
common idiom. In f. there is the correspondence
of the idiom X7 l^y ""D in Is. (which also occurs
Jer. XV. 5) in N. H/ TU^ ^O, but with the difference
that m Is. God speaks of the heaviness of a sorrow

rest is different ''. As for the so-called Syri-
asms or other i^eculiarities of language which
Hitzig would have to be evidences of a later
date^, and from some of which others would
infer that Nahum lived at Nineveh itself,
which He will comfort; Nahum speaks of desolation
which none can comfort. The construction of T)J
with 7 occurs Job ii. 11, xiii. 11, Jer. xvi. 5, xxii. 10,
xlviii. 17; in Job and Ps. Ixix. 21 "IT J is united with
?nj- The expression seems then to belong to the
common stock of the language; the idiom ''D
^Ipn^t^ " Who (in what character) shall I comfort
thee?" is peculiar to Isaiah.
Hitzig further would have it, that, " D''n3^J occurs
in N. iil. 10 exactly as in Is. xxiii. 0 alone beside ;"
whereas the only correspondence i^, that Isaiah has
the idiom, "honored of earth," "all honored of
earth," ysH "''H^JJ; Nahum has, with the affix,
"her honored," ri'l^JJ as Ps. cxlix. 8. DHnSJl
y Of the forms or words, which Hitzig would make
characteristic of a later time
1) Tl'^X^p i- 3 is only orthographically different
from the more common, TT^^'p ; yet not only does
'^'^p[£/ occur Job ix. 17, and the masc. "l_pir^, Is.
xxviii. 2, but the verb is written with t^ in the same
meaning, Ps. 1. 3, Iviii. lo. Job xxvii. 21.
2) KlilD occurs in Jos. xxiv. 19, the oldest book
next to the Pentateuch, and having much in com
mon with it (see on Dan. p. 312 note 2), and in no
later book. S^j p_ occurs 6 times in the Pentateuch ;
this form ^20 (not 5^1.3p) survived in the Chaldee.
3) V^^D} iii- 18, is simply Nif. from l^^S, a word aa
old as the Pentateuchj since the river, Pishon,
?1l7\0, is derived from it. Hitzig obtains his "pro
nunciation " by malcing it kal, l^£}J, a word not ex
tant in Heb.
4) "The form of the suffix of the 2d person, ii.
14," n^p&^/O, which has been urged by all writers
on his side, is the more singular ground of argu
ment, because it turns entirely on the vowels, which
only represent a tradition of the expiring language.
Gesenius calls it " an especial form, which perhaps
ought properly to be pronounced PID, as masc, out
of which the punctuator first made D J in order in
some sort of way to indicate the feminine " (Lelirg.
p. 21G). Written H^ID^Sd, it is only the full and
original form of the pronominal affix, HZ) (from
n3^&5 for nn^), as it is found in the Pentateuch,
r\T^ Gen. iii. 9, njD'i; Ex. xiii. 16, n^H^ Ex. xxix.
35. Nahum chose it probably as a fuller form. It
occurs in a Psalm of David, cxxxix. 5, at the close,
n3D3, and in Jer. xxix. 25, "i^Dlppl- as also with
the verb, nD"^^^". 1 Kgs xviii. 44, and, in the
pause, n3"1V:'ri Prov. ii. 11, H^J^i^p;, 1 Kings
xviii. 10. Mss. have, some HDHJ^Sd (19 De Eossi,
3 by correction, and 3 early Edd. De R.) "many
have n;3;3i<Sn ; " 3 of De R. and 3 or 4 in the first
instance, had the regular n^D^7D. The messen
gers were the king's messengers (Is. xxxvi. 2, 12.13,
xxxvii. 4. 6. 9. 17. 24.) and so the masculine form is
in its plaee. Punctuators probably (as Ges. conjec
tured) wished to assimilate it to the preceding
ferainines; Ewald lays down that HD is a dialectic
difference (p. 038 note) and uses it as an argument

NAHUM.

127

" the wish has been father to the thought."
One only solid ground there would be why
Nahum should not have written his pro-
for Nahum's living near Nineveh (Proph. i. 350).
Davidson {iii. 301.) follows Hitzig.
5) " The form of the suffix of the 3d person, i. ] 3,
ii. 4. comp. Hab. iii. 10." The form IP lies nearer
to the original S<in, than the contracted ] ; it also
occurs in the word IHyp/, 14 times in the Penta
teuch (in Gen. 8 times, Levit. 5 times, Deut. once);
it occurs most (Ges. observes, Lehrg. p. 213) in
words ending in n . , as ¦in5;?'ip 10 times (3 in Levit.)
irr^ty 7 times (5 in Gen. Ex. Lev.) in^J/' in Ps. i.
Ezek. twice, Jerem. once; injDp in Gen. 4 times,
Exod. twice, Job twice : although Hj.'"! absolutely
occurs 3 times only, 171^.1 is the rule: it occurs 114
times, of which 42 are in the Pentateuch. The
form in also occurs imnti'JTD Jud. xix. 24, ^HTiX
Job xxv. 3. It is united with the plur. noun in
^ri"lL;/$< Prov. xix. 18, and in;?"! for )'r\y\ 1 Sam.
xxx. 2G, Job xiii. 10; also ^T\^y Hab. iii. 10, •171"' J';^
Job xxiv. 23. It is obviously used by Nahum for its
more stately sound. ,
G) "The meaning of 72J ih- 6," is one attributed
to it by Hitz. only.
7) "As Pilpel occurs more and more in later
times, so nSn^H ii- H, (comp. npS^nrii^; ii. 5)
only occurs in Is. xxi. 3, Ez. xxx. 4. 9." Pilpel is
formed on exactly the same principle, as the other
rarer intensive conjugations, the doubling of those
letters of the root, most capable of being doubled.
In, 7p73, it occurs from Genesis downward. The
use of the word D/n 711 by two contemporaries,
Isaiah and Nahum, was nothing remarkable.
8) "So, plainly 31ty ii. 3 could only in later times
be used transitively, otherwise than as united with
nCC/." Why? If 2W is transitive in the phrase,
mUK/ DIK?, "restore the captivity" of Jacob, the
corresponding phrase, UH^ r\H 2^ is but a varia
tion of the phrase, such as would naturally occur in
any original writer. 31 ty is transitive, also in Ps.
Ixxxv. 5, and Ezek. xlvii. 7, (since if intrans., as
Abulwalid pointed out, it would have been "•^It^D
not ¦'JJItyil) if not iu Num. x. 3fi. Gesenius also
pointed out that the corresponding Arab _J?J'n is
both transitive, and intransitive, so that the use of
the causative conj. _J7J"|i< is dialectic, according to
Djauhari, or less pure (See Lane sub v. T. i. p. 1038).
It is consistent in Hengst. to deny the transitive
meaning of 2W altogether, but not to make any
idiomatic diflTerence between r\)2p y^ and 3^
TlJsJ as belonging to diflferent dates.
9) " 71"nVD (ii- 2) in the sense of munitio, first oc
curs in the Chronicles." In the Chronicles, the
phrase is diflf'erent. The idiom is a slight variation
of the old masc, -^IjO ^y Ps. xxxi., 22, Ix., 11
(which the Chronicles too has, 2 C. viii. 5). The
Chronicles, on whatever ground, mostly adopt the
feminine form in speaking historically of the for
tified cities built in Judah; once in the sing.
nSl^D ^^]?2C.xiv.5; else with two plurals nj?
m"ll!^D, 2 C. xi. 10. 23. xii. 4. xiv. 5. xxi. 3. In one
place only, having ended a verse, xi. 10, "and in
Benjamin nniXD "•'^i?," the writer begins the
next, {omitting the ""l^) "and he strengthened
nniVQn JIX." Nor is there anything character
istic of a later period in the use of the feminine ;

phecy, when, according to lsII history, it
could alone have any interest for Judah,
long before the event itself, viz. if He to
and, any how, since the Chronicles were compiled
after the captivity, probably by Ezra, the use of the
same form could have proved nothing, as to whether
a book were written 85 years, sooner or later, before
the captivity.
"Also the Hebrew of Nahum is in part impure;
¦^?£3tO iii. 17, is probably not Semitic." It probably
is Semitic (see above p. 108) and Assyrian. The oc
currence of what probably is a title of an Assyrian
commander, not only fits the tiraes of Nahum, when
Assyrian invasions had begun, but the occurrence
of an official title, (hke that of "Pechah" else
where, see Daniel the Prophet pp. 570, 571,) without
any Syriasms, belongs to Nahum's time and life ia
Palestine. When three officers of Hezekiah under
stood Assyrian (Is. xxxvi. 11.), there is nothing sur
prising in the mention of an Assyrian title. Pechah
is also an Assyrian title, occurring iu the Inscrip
tions in the plural "pahati," Oppert Rapports p. 51.
52. 53. 57. r.5. 74. "Tartan," in Isaiah and 2 Kings, is
also jirobably an Assyrian title, since Rabsaris,
"Chief of the Eunuchs," "Rab-shakeh, Chief-cup
bearer," (with which Tartan is united in 2 Kings
xviii. 17) are names of officers. Yet no satisfactory
etymology has been found for "Tartan."
10) " "\J3D) iii- 4, stands in Arabic meaning." The
coincidence with .4 r-a6ic would have proved nothing;
but Nahum uses "^DD in its comraon meaning. In
Arabic also it signifies "deceived," not (as Hitzig
would have it) "meshed."
11) " jnj, ii- 8, in Syriac meaning." jriJj not in
Syriac only, but in Arabic, signifies to be "violently
out of breath ; " but this, which is its only meaning
which could be brought to bear on this passage, does
not suit it, whereas that suggested by the Hebrew
itself does. In Nahum it is evidently a modification
ofthe biliteral 571, in the same sense as HJTI which
is used of the low moaning of the dove. Is. xxxviii.
14, lix. 11 ; and the subst. 71^71 " moaning " is united
with Wyp and Tl (for TlJ) Ezek. ii. 10. Another
modification of the biliteral is J'Jjri Ps. v. l,
xxxxix. 4.
12) "and "nTlT too, iii. 2 (only beside in the song
of Deborah Jud. v. 22) is probahly equally only a
Syriasm ; " i. e. supposing its meaning to be derived
from in " circle," the substitution of ri for 1 occurs
oftenest in Aramaic. In the root "in itself how
ever, the nearest correspondence of Hebrew with
any Semitic dialect is not with the Syriac but with
the Arabic; in "generation" and the Arab, ini
"prolonged time," but also the period of life (see
Lane p. 923); whereas the Syr. J^TTTT only signifies
. "a mill." But Hitzig hiraself sets aside these last,
with the observation, "these appearances however
are sufficiently explained, if the home of Deborah
was also Nahum's country, a border-country toward
Syria, inhabited in part by non-Israelites."
13) Hitzig raakes neither J]-^n the Queen's narae
and so Assyrian, nor nn7D, although he has his
own fantastic raeaning for each, derived frora mis
application of the Arabic. The alleged Syriasm in
nnii) rests on an odd ground-work. The Syriac
word H'^hti has not been found in any Syriac
author; in one of three Syro-Arab Lexiea (Bar-
Bahlul's) it is explained by the Arabic word, "fu-
ludso." This in its turn is interpreted by the Per
sian, which again has, in Vullers, no Persian ety
mology. On the other hand the Arabic "faladsa"
"cut," conj. ii. "cut to pieces," does give a good
etymology for any sharp instrument, as the
"scythe"' of a scythed chariot.
Yet this is the evidence on which Davidson tells
the unlearned (Introd. iii. 301), "The language is
pure and classical with a few exceptions, as JHJ to
mourn, ii. 8, nm iii- 2, nnbi) ii- 4. which are Syri-

128

NAHUM.

Whom all, past and future, are present, could
not or did not declare beforehand things to
come^. If there be prophecy, the siege of
asms. — These Syriasms cannot well be explained
by the native locality of the prophet, which was to
ward the border-land of Syria and inhabited in part
by people who were not Israelites, because other
prophetsof the Northern kingdom do not use Syriac
words or idioms. They imply intimate contact
with a people beyond Palestine." Yet J77J does
not, iu this sense, exist beyond Palestine; "^T]"!
was, in the time of the Judges, used within it, and
the Arabic does give an etymology for nn'7D, natu
ral and adequate, which Syriac does not. The
only difficulty is, that the Arabic word for "steel "
is not a pure Semitic form, like the Hebrew, but a
Persian, "fuladso" or "ffiludso." Yet the Ai'abic
has also the genuine Arabic form " mafludso "
" formed of steel," of a sword. The direct connec
tion of r\n7£) with "falddso" or "fr'tludso" must be
given up, since it seems that the direct connection
ofthe Arabic faladsa a,nd fuladso or fdlddso must be
abandoned. For Prof. F. Justi whose judgment Prof.
Max Mulier kindly obtained for me says; "The
Anxbic fidddso must be borrowed frora the Persian
pfilddo^ not conversely (as Freytag and Vullers also
assume in their Lexiea) ; for "Persian retains the/
in Arabic words which it adopts, but Arabic changes
a Persian p into/, because it has no p. So Arabic
again changes a Persian d, especially between or
after vowels, always into ds. The re'lation of the
Arabic fdlcidso, fdludso, with the root faladsa is con
sequently only appareut, whence the derivation of
JinSi) from "l'^^ is also shewn to be untenable,
especially since this Hebrew root is not evidenced

Nineveh might be aa vividly presented to the
Prophet's mind, as if he saw it with his
bodily eyes^
but assumed." Yet as relates to the Hebrew ^73,
since the Heb. 1 is often interchanged with the
Arab, ds ("which in sorae Arab, dialects is pro
nounced a" Ges.), the etym. from the Arabic /aiodsa,
" cuts," lies nearer to it than auy other, designating
a sharp instrument. It is remarkable that the Heb-
Arab. Lexicogr., Abraham B. David and Abulwalid,
were not aware of any connected Arabic root, both
regarding 1^3 as inverted from T^/. The Syr.
$^n''V1V7.D "spark" or "sparks" (which Ew. com
pares, Proph. ii. p. 11) is too remote, insulated, un
certain, not being connected with any known root,
and being written also Mn''D1D'7.D. See Dr. P.
Smith's Lex. Syr. s. v. " The Arab. i;")D " (lb.) must
be a mis-print.
= " Did Nahum predict the downfall of Nineveh a
century 'before the event? If he was a younger
contemporary of Isaiah, he did so. He prophesied.
say some, about the 14th year of Hezekiah and
graphically painted the overthrow of Assyria's me
tropolis. The interval consists of about one hun
dred year.==. Is not the analogy of Prophecy violated
here? If a specific event be foretold long before it
happened, what becomes of the canon or principle
that prophecy presents nothing more than the pre
vision of eucnts in the immediate futuTe 9 [Dr. Ds.
italics.] The principle in question is almost axiom
atic.'" [Introd. iii. 298.1 It passes for an axiom in
the school, whose results Dr. Davidson gives to the
English ; i. e. it is a petitio principii applied to each
prophecy in turn.
1 " Nahum must have seen this peril with his own
eyes." Ewald Proph. i. 349.

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. V13.

CHAPTEE I.
1 The Majesty of Ood in good-
¦ness to his people, and severity
against his enemies.

1. The burden^. "^The word 'massa'
[burden] is never placed in the title, save
when the vision is heavy and full of burden
and toil." Of Nineveh. The prophecy of
Nahum again is very stern and awful. Kine-
veh, after having "repented at the preaching
of Jonah," again fell back into the sins
whereof it had repented, and added this, that,
being employed by Grod to chasten Israel, it
set itself not to inflict the measure of God's
displeasure, but to uproot the chosen people,
in whom was proraised the birth of Christ ^.
It was then an Antichrist, and a type of him
yet to come. Jonah's mission was a call to
repentance, a type and forerunner of all
God's messages to the world, while the day of
grace and the world's probation lasts. N.a-
hum, " the full of exceeding comfort," as his
name means, or " the comforter " is sent to *
reprove the world of jurlgment. He is sent,
prominently, to pronounce on Nineveh its
doom when its day of grace should be over,
and in it, on the world, when it and ^ all the
works therein shall be burned up. In few words
he directly comforteth the people of God^;
else the comfort even to her is indirect, in
the destruction of her oppressor. Beside this,
there is nothing of mercy or call to repent-
1 So, beyond question, i^^l2 should be rendered.
Since Xtyj is no where used of mere spealiing, it
is beforehand improbable that XEJ'D should mean
"speech;" and this, apart from the consideration
that " the speech of Babylon, Damascus, Egypt,
Moab, Tyre, Dumah," " the valley of vision," " the
desert of the sea," " Nineveh," would be an inex
pressive expression for a speech concerning them.
For, in one place only, (Is. xxi, 13.) is it expressed
that the burden isupon O) Arabia, Else prepositions
are only used to determine the relation of XE^O
with the object O, 'Zech. ix, 1, 'l)}, Ib, xii, 1, hii,
Mai i, 1.) when that object is already separated from
t<tyO ; " the burden of the word of the Lord upon "
Ib, XOT, " lift up " when used alone for '71p i^Wi
" lifted up " [the voice], is always used of " loud
speaking," Is. xiii, 2, 11, Job xxi, 12, and so Is. iii,
7, " loudly protest."- Eleven times m Isaiah (xiii.
1, xiv. 28, XV. 1, xvii. 1, xix, 1, xxi, 1, 11, 13, xxii, 1,
xxiii, 1, xxx. 6.) in Ezek, xii, 10, Hab, i. 1, Mai, i, 1,
Xti'D is followed hy a heavy prophecy, as it is here,
Zech. ix. 1, also is a heavy 'prophecy, against those
whom Alexander would conquer; Zech. xii. 2,
begins with a heavy prophecy against Judah and
Jerusalem. Prov. xxx, xxxi, are rebukes; in Prov.
xxxi., it is expressly added, " wherewith his
mother admonished him." The blasphemy also,
rebuked by Jeremiah (xxiii. .33, 34, 3(j), presupposes
that the meaning of XJS?p, at whieh they mocked,
was a heavy prophecy. " What fresh burden has
God for us ? " they asked mockingly, not believing
that the evil whioh Jeremiah prophesied would

^HE burden "of Nine- cheTst
veh. The book of the "Jr. im.

vision of Nahum
koshite.

the El- • Zeph. 2.

13.

ance, or sorrow for their desolation ' ; but
rather the pouring out of the vials of the
wrath of God on her and on the evil world,
which to the end resists all God's calls and
persecuteth His people. The book of Jonah
proclaimeth God, a gracious Ood and merci
ful, slow to anger and of great kindness. Who
repenteth Him of ihe evil. Nahum speaketh
of the same attributes, yet closes with, and
will not al all acguit the wicked. "^The Merci
ful Himself, Who is by Nature Merciful, the
Holy Spirit, seemeth, speaking in the prophet,
to laugh at their calamity." All is desolation,
and death. The aggression against God is
retorted upon the aggressor; one reeling
strife for life or death ; then the silence of
the graveyard. And so, in its further mean
ing, "* the prophecy belongs to the close
of the world and the comfort of the saints
therein, so that whatsoever they see in
the world, they may hold cheap, as passing
away and perishing and prepare themselves
for the Day of Judgment, when the Lord
shall be the Avenger of the true Assyrian."
So our Lord sets forth the end of the world
as the comfort of the elect. When these
things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift
up your heads, for your redemption draweth
come. In regard to the use of Xtj^p (1 0. xv,' 22,
27,) where the E. V. has, " for song," if it related to the
voice at all, it must (like the " on Alamoth," " on
Sheminith " vv, 20, 21, which probably designate two
notes of music, " treble " and the " octave," " bass ")
have signified some character of voice, as " alto,"
according to the meaning of Ntyj, " lift up." But,
considering (as Hengstenberg has noticed, Christol.
on Zeeh. ix. 1.) the use of XE^D iu places where it can
only mean "burden " as also throughout Num. iv,
(19, 24, 27, 31, 32, 47, 49,) it seems probable, that in
1 C. XV. too, it signifies " bearing " (as in E, M,
" carriage "). For the " bearing the ark " is spoken
of immediately afterward as a matter of miv^h skill.
" When Grod helped the Levites, the bearers of the
ark of the covenant of the Lord," TV^'l IlIX '!!<ti'J
" (1 C. XV. 26) ; and the writer speaks of the dress
of "all the Levites who bare the ark" "and the
singers" v, 27, as two classes. Even Bertheau
defends this meaning, and solidly. In Lam. ii, 14,
Nit? niXti/n is united with D''nnn "expulsions."
The context seems to require more than is in the
rendering, " sayings of vanity," whieh would be less
strong than ^\1^ ) 7lTn "have seen for thee
vanity." " The burdens of vanity," which the false
prophets professed to see, would be heavy prophe
cies against the enemy, that they should be driven
from the land of Israel. Comp. Zedekiah's en
quiry, Jer, xxi, 1, 2, and Hananiah's prophecy Jer,
xxviii. 2. 11, 2S. Jer. s Rup,
¦* S. John xvi. 6, 8, 5 2 Pet, iii, 10. « i, 15,
' As in Jerem. iii, 12, viii. 18, 21. 129

130

NAHUM.

c H rTI t 2 II God is "jealous, and
cir. 713. o(.jjg Lqj.^ revengeth; the

H Or, The Lord is a jealous God, and a revenger, &c.
b Ex. 20. 6. & 34. 14.' Deut. 4. 24, Josh, 24. 19,
= Deut, 32, 36. Ps, 94, 1. Isa. 59, 18.

nigh^." This is the highest fulfillment of
the prophecy ; for " then will the wrath of
God against the wicked be fully seen, Who
now patiently waiteth for them for mercy."
The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
" '' He flrst defines the object of the prophecy,
whereto it looks ; then states who spake it
and whence it was ; " the human instrument
which God employed. The fuller title, " The
book of the vision of Nahum," (which stands
alone) probably expresses that it was not,
like most prophecies, first delivered orally,
and then collected by the prophet, but was
always (as it is so remarkably) one whole.
" The weight and pressure of this ' burden'
may be felt from the very commenoemeut of
the book."
2. Ood is jealous and the Lord revengeth.
Katlier (as the E. M.) ^A God very jealous
and avenging is the Lord. The Name of God,
YHVH, "He Who Is," the Unchangeable,
is thrice repeateJ, and thrice it is said of
Him that He is an Avenger. It sheweth
both the certainty and greatness of the
vengeance, and that Pie Who inflicteth it, is
the All-Holy Trinity, Who have a care for
the elect. God's jealousy is twofold. It is
an intense love, not bearing imperfections or
unfaithfulness in that which It loves, and so
chastening it ; or not bearing the ill-dealings
of those who would injure what It loves, and
so jiestroying them. To Israel He had re
vealed Himself, as a'' jealous Ood, visiting
iniquity hut shewing m^re.y ; here, as jealous
for His people against those who were purely
His enemies and the enemies ]of His people^,
and so His jealousy burnetii to their destruc
tion, in that there is in them no good to be
refined, but only evil to be consumed.
The titles of Godrise in awe ; first, intensely
jealous'' and an Avenger; then, an Avenger
1 S. Luke xxi, 28.
2 S. Cyr, On the prophet, and his country which
S. Vj'yr'A says, he had "learned by tradition to be
expressed by the addition, the Elkoshite," see the
Introduction p. 357.
^ if^Jp 7^ is used as an attribute of God Ex, xx.
5. xxxiv. 14. Dt. iv. 24. v, 9. vi, 15, as is N'ljp Ss, the
form used here, Jos, xxiv. 19, It is observed that,
in prose, j}A is almost uniformly used with an adj.
|um Dim '7S, x-iui Snj h^, 'n '?x, \v'i:} ^s,
"Ity '7«, or a noun 'X-) Ss, dSi;* Sx, Dlj;! Sn-
4 Ex. XX, 6, 6. 6 See Zech, i, 14.
6 The form N13p_being intensive.
' non l^"^ occurs once only beside, and that,
of man, Pr. xxix. 22 ; but fJN '7j;o also Pr. xxii. 24.

Lord revengeth, and '\is
furious; the Loed will

Before
CHKIST cir. 713.
tHeb. that hath fury.

and a Lord of wrath ; One Who hath it laid
up with Him, at His Command, and the
more terrible, because it is so ; the Master of
it, (not, as man, mastered by it ') ; having
it, to withhold or to discharge ; yet so dis
charging it, at last, the raore irrevocably on
the finaUy impenitent. And this He says at
the last, an Avenger to ^ His advei-saries, (lit.
"those who hem and narrow Him in").
The word avenged '^ is almost appropriated to
God in the Old Testament, as to punishment
which He inflicts, or at least causes to be in
flicted '", whether on individuals ", or upon a
people, (His own " or their enemies , for
their misdeeds. In man it is a defect '*- Per
sonal vengeance is mentioned only in char
acters, directly or indirectly censured, as
Samson^* or Saul '¦^. It is forbidden to man,
punished in him, claimed by God as His
own inalienable right. '' Vengeance is Mine
and requital. '" Tliou shalt not avenge nor
keep up against the chUdren of My people.
Yet it is spoken of, not as a mere act of
God, but as the expression of His Being.
'^ Shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation
as this ?
And. a Reserver ofwi'athfor His enemies, the
hardened and unbelieving who hate God, and
at last, when they had finally rejected God
and were rejected by Him, the object of His
aversion. It is spoken after the manner of
men, yet therefore is the more terrible.
There is that in God, to which the passions
of man coi'respond ; they are a false imitation
of something which in Him is good, a dis
tortion of the true likeness of God, in which
God created us and which man by sin de
faced. "^° Pride doth imitate exaltedness:
whereas Thou Alone art God exalted over all.
Ambition, what seeks it, but honors and glory ?
whereas Thou Alone art to be honored above
^ DpJ with 7 p., only beside Ez. xxv. 12.
»Dpj.
1° Nu. xxxi. 2, 3. Ps. cxlix. 9, Hence almost the
same as, punished by law, Ex, xxi. 20, 21.
11 Gen. iv. In, 24. 1 Sam. xxiv. 12. 2 Sam, iv, 8, 2
Kings ix. 7. Jer. xi. 20. xv. 15. xx. 12.
12 Lev. xxvi, 25, Ps, xcix. 8. Ez. xxiv. 8.
13 Deut. xxxii. 41, 43, Ps, xviii. 48. Is. xxxiv, 8,
xxxv, 4. xlvii. 3. lix. 17. Ixi, 2. I.xiii. 4. Mi. v, 14, Jer.
xlvi, 10, 1. 15. 28. li. 6. 11. 30. Ezek. xxv. 14. 17.
1* DpjniD, a self-avenger, Ps. viii. 3. xliv. 17, It is
punished by God Ezek. xxv. 12, 15, being moreover
unjust; Jer, xx. 10, 12. Lam. iii. CO. coll. 04.
IS Jud. XV. 7. xvi. 20.
i» 1 Sam. xiv. 24. xviii. 25, Else only historically
Pr. vi. 34. Esth. viii. 13. David thanks (5od for keep
ing him from it toward Nabal 1 Sam, xxv, 32, 33,
ri Deut. xxxii, 35, comp. Ps, xciv, 1,
18 Lev. xix. 18. 19 Jer. v. 9. 29. ix. 9.
20 S. Aug. Conf. B. ii. n. 13. 14.

CHAPTER I.

131

c H E°i s T ^^^^ vengeance on his ad-
 cir, 713. vp.rsariesj and he reserveth
¦wrath for his enemies.

all and glorious for evermore. The cruelty
of the great would fain be feared ; but who is
to be feared but God Alone, out of Whose
power what can be wrested or withdrawn,
when, or where , or whither, or by whom ?
The tendernesses of the wanton would fain
be counted love : yet is nothing more tender
than Thy charity ; nor is aught loved more
healthfully than that Thy truth, bright and
beautiful above all. Curiosity makes sem
blance of a desire of knowledge; whereas
Thou supremely knowest all. Yea, ignor
ance and foolishness itself is cloaked under the
nameof simplicity and uninjuriousness: be
cause nothing is found more single than
Thee; and what less injurious, since they are
his own works which injure the sinner?
Yea, sloth would fain be at rest ; but wliat
stable rest beside the Lord ? Luxury aflects
to be called plenty and abundance ; but Thou
art the fullness and never-failing plenteous-
ness of incorruptible pleasures. Prodigality
presents a shadow of liberality : but Thou art
the most overflowing Giver of all good. Covet
ousness would possess many things ; and Thou
possessest all things. Envy disputes for ex
cellency : what more excellent than Thou ?
Anger seeks revenge : who revenges more
justly than Thou ? Fear startles at things
unwonted or sudden, which endanger things
beloved, and takes fore-thought for their
safety; but to Thee what unwonted or sud
den, or who separateth from Thee what Thou
lovest? Or -ivhere but with Thee is un
shaken safety ? Grief pines away for things
lost, the delight of its desires ; because it
would have nothing taken from it, as nothing
can from Thee. Thus doth the soul seek
without Thee what she findeth not pure and
untainted, till she returns to Thee. Thus all
pervertedly imitate Thee, who remove far
from Thee, and lift themselves up against
Thee. But even by thus imitating Thee,
they imply Thee to be the Creator of ali
nature ; whence there is no place, whither
altogether to retire from Thee." And so, in
man, the same qualities are good or bad, as
they have God or self for their end. " 'The
joy of the world is a passion. Joy in the
Holy Spirit or to joy in the Lord is a virtue.
The sorrow of the world is a passion. The
sorrow according to God which worketh sal
vation is a virtue. The fear of the world

Rup;

1 
2Ps. ciii, 9. The idiom va'sS ItDJ stands alone.
3Jer. iii. 5. " ' * lb. 12.
5 Rom. ii. 5. 6. » iv. 2.

3 The Lord is " slow to ^ ^f°l% t
anger, and * great in power, . ^ir. 713.

and will not at all acquit Neii. 9! 17. '
•Job 9. 4. Ps. 103. 8. Jonah 4. 2.

which hath torment, from which a man is
called fearful, is a passion. The holy i'ear of
the Lord, which abideth for ever, from which
a man is called reverential, is a virtue. The
hope of the world, when one's hope is in the
world or the princes of the world, is a pas
sion. Hope in God is a virtue, as well as
faith and charity. Tliough these four Imman
passions are not in God, there are four vir
tues, having the same names, which no one
can have, save from Giod, from the Spirit of
God." In man they are " passions," because
man is so far "passive" and sufiers under
them, and, through original sin, cannot hin
der having them, though by God's grace he
may hold them in. God, "without passion
and in perfect holiness, has qualities, which
in man were jealousy, wrath, vengeance, un-
forgivingness, a "rigor of perfect justice toward
the impenitent, which punisheth so severely,
as though God had fury ; " only, in Him it is
righteous to punish man's unrighteousness.
Elsewhere it is said, ^ Ood keepeth not fir ever,
or it is asked, ^ will He keep for ever ? and Pie
answers, * Return, and I will not cause Mine
anger io fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith
the Lord, Iwill not keep for ever. Man's mis
deeds and God's displeasure remain with God,
to be effaced on man's repentance, or " by his
hardness and impenitent heart man treasureth
up unto himself wrath in the day of wrath and
ofthe revelation of the righteous judgment, of
Ood, Who will reward each according io his
works. 3. The Lord is slow io anger. Nahum takes
up the words of Jonah ^as he spoke of
God's attributes toward Nineveh, but only
to shew the opposite side of them. Jonah
declares how God is slow to anger, giving men
time of repentance, and if they do repent, re
penting Him also of the evil; Nahum, that the
long-suff'ering of God is not slackness, that He
is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any.
should perish, but that edl should come to re
pentance. And strong in poiver''. Divine long-sufi'er-
ing goes along with Divine power. God can
be long-suffering, because He can, whenever
l-le sees good, punish. His long-sufTering is
a token, not of weakness, but of power. He
can allow persons the whole e.xtent of trial,
because, when they are past cure, He can end
it at once. * Ood is a righteous judge, strong
'The full form nj bnji, Cheth. belongs prob
ably to the stately character of Nahum. The like
occurs only in Ps. cxlv. 8. lon nlJ,.
8 Ps. vii. 11.

132

NAHUM.

chrTst ^^^ inicked: 'the Loed
"'!'• ^1^- hath his way in the whirl-
'Ps. 18. 7, &0. .J J ¦ il, i
&97. 2. wind and in the storm,
Hab. 3. 5, 11, 12.

and patient, and Ood wi-atheth ' every day. The
wrath cometh only at the last, but it is ever
present with God. He cannot but be dis
pleased with the sin ; and so the Psalmist
describes in the manner of men the gradual
approximation to its discharge. ^ If he (the
sinner) ivill not return [from evil or to God],
He will whet His sword ; He hath trodden His
bow and directed it : He hath prepared for him
instruments of death ; He hath made his arrows
burning. "We see the arrow with unex-
tinguishable fire, ready to be discharged,
waiting for the final decision of the wicked,
whether he will repent or not, but that still
the Day of the Lord will come''. He will not
at all acquit *. The ^vord3 occur originally in
the great declaration of God's attributes of
mercy by Moses, as a necessary limitation of
them ° ; they are continued to God's people,
yet with the side of mercy predominant'';
they are pleaded to Himself ' ; they are the
sanction of the third commandment ". He
will not acquit of His own will, apart from His
justice. So He saith', I can of Mine oum self
do nothing, i. e. (in part), not as unjust judges,
who call good evil and evil good, following their
own will, not the -merits of the case ; but, as /
hear, Ijudge,and My judgment is just. He can
not even have mercy and spare unjustly, nor
without the lowliness of penitence. Even if
it be Jerusalem, over which He wept, or His
companion, His oum familiar friend '", He, Who
is no accepter of persons, cannot of mere favor
forgive the impenitent.
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and
in the storm. The vengeance of God comes
at last swiftly, vehemently, fearfully, irresist
ibly. When they say. Peace and safety, then
sudden destruction cometh upon them^^, and all
creation stands at the command of the Cre
ator against His enemies. He shall take to Him
His jealoitsy for complete armor, and make the
creature Ilis weapon, for the revenge of His
enemies '^.
And the clouds are the dust of His feet. Per
haps the imagery is from the light dust
raised by an earthly army, of which Nahum's
iThe word expresses continuously present action,
UV). The lxx added strong and patient to bring out
the meaning. ,
sib. 12. 13. 3 2Pet, iii. 9, 10. *nprxTnp:i.
6 Ex. xxxiv. 7. The Samaritan Pentateuch char
acteristically changes the words into npr 1*7 npjl
" the innocent shall be held guiltless by him."
6 Jer. xxx. 11. xlvi. 28. 'Nu. xiv. 18.
B Ex. XX. 7, Deut, v. 11. » John v. 30.
10 Ps, Iv. 14, 11 1 Thess, v. 3.
¦2 W isdom V, 17. " Ezek. xxvi. 10.

and the clouds are the dust
of his feet.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
4 ^ He rebuketh the sea, isa. 50! 2.
Matt. 8. 26.

word is used ". The powers of heaven are
arrayed against the might of earth. On earth
a little dust, soon to subside ; in heaven, the
whirlwind and the storm, which sweep away
what does no; bow before them. The vapors,
slight in outward seeming^*, but formed of
countless multitudes of mist-drops, are yet
dark and lowering, as they burst, and resist
less. " The Feet of God are that power where
by He trampleth upon the ungodly." So it is
said to the Son, Sit Thou on My Right Hand
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Tem
pests have also, without figure, been used to
overthrow God's enemies ^K
4. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry "*,
delivering His people, as He did from Pha
raoh '', the type of all later oppressors, and
of Antichrist. His word is with power ; to de
stroy them at once with one rough word ^'- The
restlessness of the barren and troubled sea is
an image of the wicked'". And drieth up all
the rivers, as He did Jordan. His coming
shall be far more terrible than when all the
Aearte of the inhabitants of the land didmeW".
Bashan languisheth and Carmel ; and the flower
of Lebanon languisheth. Bashan was richest
in pastures ; Carmel, according to its name,
in gardens and vineyards ; Lebanon, in vines
also and fragrant flowers ^\ but chiefly in the
cedar and cypress; it had its name from the
whiteness of the snow, which rests on its
summit. These mountains then together are
emblems of richness, lasting beauty, fruitful
ness, loftiness ; yet all, even that which by
nature is not, in the variety of seasons, wont
to fade, dries up and withers before the re
buke of God. But if these thing are done in
a green tree, what shall be done in the dry f All
freshness, beauty, comeliness, shew of out
ward nature, shall fade as grass ; all ornament
of men's outward graces or gifts, all mere
shew of goodness, shall fall oif like a leaf and
perish. If the glory of nature perishes be
fore God, how much more the pride of man !
Bashan also was the dwelling-place of the
race of giants, and near Libanus was Damas
cus ; yet their inhabitants became as dead men
. "p3S occurs six times in the O. T. It is by itself
" light dust " Ex. ix. 9, De. xxviii. 24, Is. v. 24, but
has pi added Is. xxix, 5,
16 Ex. xiv. 27. Josh. x. 11. Judges v, 20, 1 Sam. ii,
10, and vii. 10. 2 Sam, xxii, 15,
i»The contracted form, inK'3'') is again for
emphasis. The like contraction 1T1 occurs in Lam.
iii. 53, nri lb, 33. Dip^\ 2 Chr, xxxii, 30. Kri.
1' Ps. cvi. 9. 18 Wisd. xii, 9, " Is. Ivii, 20.
20 Josh, ii. 11. 21 Hos. xiv. 7, Cant. iv. 11.

CHAPTEK 1.

133

chrTIt ^^^ maketh it dry, and
°ii'- ''13- drieth up all the rivers :
'Isa. 33. 9. "Bashan languisheth, and
Carmel, and the flower of
Lebanon languisheth.
1 Ps. 68, 8. 5 ' The mountains quake
t Judg. 6. 5. , . T I , , .11 1
Ps. 97. 5. at him, and the hills melt,
12'pet. 3. io. and 'the earth is burned
at his presence, yea, the

and their power shrank to nothing at the
word of God.
5. Themountains quaked at Him, and the hills
melted, as of their own accord. The words
are a renewal of those of Amos '. Inani
mate nature is pictured as endowed with the
terror, which guilt feels at the presence of
God. All power, whether greater or less,
whatsoever lifteth itself up, shall give way in
that Day, which shall be '' upon all the cedars
of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon
all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high
mounlains, and upon all tlie hills that are lifted
up. --ind the earth is burned [rather lifteth it
self up'^^; as in an earthquake it seems, as it
were, to rise and sink down, lifting itself as
if to meet its God or to flee. What is strongest,
shaketh ; what is hardest, melteth ; yea, the
whole world trembleth andis removed. "'If,"
siud even Jews of old, " when God made
Himself known in mercy, to give the law to
His people, the world was so moved at Plis
Presence, how rauch more, when He shall re
veal Himself in wrath ! " The words are so
great that they bear the soul on to the time,
when the heaven and earth shall flee away
from the Face of Him Who sitteth on the throne,
and the elements shcdl melt with fervent heat".
And since all judgments are images of the
Last, and the awe at tokens of God's Pres
ence is a shadow of the terror of that coming,
he adds,
6. Who can stand before His indignation ?
This question appeals to our own consciences,
that we cannot . It anticipates the self-con-
lAm. ix. 13. JJlDDn occurs beside only in
Ps. evii. 26, of the heart of man through terror.
Delitzsch (on Hab. p. 156) supposed that the hith-
pael or hithpalel conveyed "the operation of an
outward cause, completing itself within the subject,
as it were in continued vibrations," alleging Ew,
Lehrb, 124 a, coll, j;p3nn.Mie. i. 4, tyj;jnn Ps.
xviii. 8, ¦iniann yy'Mm, is. xxiv. 19, '7p'7pnn
Jer. iv, 24, but there is no ground for making the
form at once passive and reflective ; and it is less
vivid. 2 Is. ii. 13, 14.
^^lill intrans. as Ps. Ixxxix. 10, vhi XltVa, of
the .sea. With this agrees the constr. VJSO "from
His Presence," as the cause of its fear. The E. V.
" is burned " is taken from Rashi,
* Jon. 5 Rev. xx. 11 ; 2 Pet. iii. 10.

world, and all that dwell pHg^grj,
therein. g'''- '?i3.
6 Who can stand before
his indignation ? and ^ who ¦» Mai. 3, 2,
can f abide in the fierce- fHeb, stand ap,
ness of his anger ? " his ¦> Rev, le, 1.
fury is poured out like
fire, and the rocks are
thrown down by him.

viction at every day of God's visitation, the
forerunners of the last. The word rendered
" indignation " is reserved almost exclusively
to denote the wrath of God '. " '* Who can
trust in his own righteousness, and, ibr the
abundance of his works or consciousness of his
virtues, not be in need of mercy ? Enter not
into judgment with Thy servant, 0 Lord, for in
Thy sight shall no man living be justifled ; and in
Job it is said truly, Behold He put no trust in
His servants, and Ilis Angels He charged with
folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses
of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which
are cruslied before the moth ^ ? It were need
less now lo prove, that man's own deserts
suffice to no one, and that we are not saved
but by the grace of God, for all have sinned and
come short of ihe glory of Ooel '". Wherefore he
saith, before His indignation, standing face to
Face before Him in wrath."
Ul. in the Face of : guilt cannot look in the
face of man, how much less, of God. The
bliss of tlie righteous is the punishment of
the wicked, to behold God face to Face. For
" " whoso trusteth in his own works deserv
eth His indignation, and thinking he stand
eth, righteously does he fall."
His fury is poured out '' like flre, sweeping
away, like a torrent of molten fire, him who
presumeth that he can stand before His Face,
as He did the cities of the plain '¦'', the image
of the everlasting flre, which shall burn up
His enemies on every side '^- And rocks are
thrown down. The rocks are like so many
towers '* of nature, broken down and crushed
6 As in Jo. ii, 11, Mai. iii, 2; renewed Rev. vi. 17.
7 The noun D^f_ {used here) occurs 21 times inthe
O. T. ; of men only once; the verb D^'l occurs 13
times, 5 times only of man's anger,
« Rup, 9 Job iv. 18, 19, 10 Rom. iii. 23,
11 "inj is used of the pouring out of God's wrath,
Jer. yii. 20, xiii. 18, 2 Chr, xii. 7 (as more commonly
'ISK') ; here its native meaning is brought out the
more, by adding lyXD.
12 Gen. xix. 13 Ps. xevii. 3. 1. 3, Ixviii. 3, xviii. 8.
^^ Yr\i (uot in the dialects) is used 34 times of the
" breaking down " of walls, buildings, a statue, altar,
shrine; in Ps. Iviii. 7. only, of the teeth of lions,
and, by metaphor, of men in Ps, Iii. 7, Job xix. 10.
Three 'times it is used elliptieally.

134

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
" 1 Chr, 10, 34.
Ps. 100. s,
Jer 33. 11,
Lam. 3. 25.
I) Or, strength.
p Ps, 1. 6.
2 Tim. 2. 19.

7 ° The Loed is good,
a II strong hold in the day
of trouble ; and ^ he know
eth them that trust in
him.

by Him lit. from Him. It needeth not any
act of God's. Pie wills and it is done. Those
who harden themselves, are crushed and
broken to pieces, the wliole fabric they had
built for themselves and their defences,
crumbling and shivered. If then they, whose
hearts are hard as rocks, and bold against all
peril, and even Satan himself, whose ' heart is
as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the
nether millstone, shall be crushed then, who
shall abide ?
7. The Lord is good: a stronghold in the day
of trouble. " Good and doing good," and full
of sweetness ; alike good and mighty ; Good
in giving Himself and imparting His good
ness to His own; yea^ none is good, save
God; Himself the stronghold wherein His
own may take refuge ; both in the troubles of
tliis life, in which ^ He will not suffer us to be
tempted above that we are able, aud in that Day,
which shall hem them in on every side, and
leave no place of escape except Himself
And He knoweth them that trust in Him ;
so as to save them ; as liahab was saved when
Jericho perished, and Lot out of the midst
of the overthrow and Hezekiah frora the
host of Sennacherib, He knoweth them with
an individual, ever-present, knowledge ¦*. He
says not only, " He shall own them," but He
ever knoweth tliem. So it is said ; ° The Lord
knoweth the way of the righteous, ** The Lord know
eth the days of tlie upright; and our Lord
says, ' / know My sheep ; and S. Paul, ^ The
Lord knoweth them that are His. God speaks
of this Icnowledge also in the past, of His
knowledge, when things as yet were not, /
have known thee by name ; or of loving kind
ness in the past, ' I knew thee in the wilderness,
'"you alone have I known of all tlie families of
the earth, as contrariwise our Lord says, that
He shall say to the wicked in the Great Day,
"^^ I never knewyou. That God, being what He
is, should take knowledge of us, being what we
are, is such wondrous ¦ condescension, that it
1 Job xii, 24. 2 S. Luke xviii. 19. ^\ Cor. x, 13,
^yfiV. 6Ps. i, 6, 0 Ps. xxxvii. IS.
' S. John X, 14, 27, 8 2 Tim. ii. 19, » Hos. xiii. 5.
10 Am. iii. 2. 11 S. Matt, vii, 23. 12 Ps. oxliv, 3,
i**It is the well known construction T^ ''Din, in
'which, the verb being united with its object by a
preposition, (like our "trust in,") the "iu Him"
stands as gen. as marked by the stat, const, ^Din,
as it were "all trusters of Him," as '13 'on 73 Ps,
ii. 12, 13 'D'n '7J Ps. V. 12. Elsewhere the art. is

8 "But with an over- ci?^^7|t
running flood he will make  ""'• ''"^¦'- 
an utter end of the place 9 Dan. 9. 26.
„ 11, 1 11 411.10,22,40.
thereof, and darkness shall
pursue his enemies.

involves a purpose of love, yea. His love
toward us, as the Psalmist says admiringly.
Lord, what is man that Thou takest knowledge
of him ^^ ?
Them that trust in Him. It is a habit, which
has this reward ; tlie trusters in Him '', the
takers of refuge in Him. It is a continued un
varying trust, to which is shewn this ever-
present love and knowledge.
Y'et this gleam of comfort only discloseth
the darkness of the wicked. Since those who
trust God are they whom God knoweth, it
follows that the 'rest He knoweth not. On
this opening, which sets forth the attributes
of God toward those who defy Him and
those who trust in Him, follows the special
application to Nineveh.
8. But with an overrunning flood He will make
an utter end of the place thereof^*, i. e. of Nine
veh, although not as yet named, except in
the title of the prophecy, yet present to the
Prophet's mind and his hearers, and that the
more solemnly, as being the object of the
wrath of God, so that, although unnamed, it
would be known so to be. Image and reality,
the first destruction and the last which it
pictures, meet in the same words. Nineveh
itself was overthrown through the swelling
of the rivers which flowed round it and
seemed to be its defence '^. Then also, the
flood is the tide of the armies, gathered from
all quarters, Babylonians ''', Medes, Persians,
Arabians, Bactrians, which like a flood should
sweep over Nineveh and leave nothing stand
ing. It is also the flood of the wrath of God,
in Whose Hands they were, and Who, by
thcm, should make a full end of it, lit. make the
place thereof a thing consumed, a thing which
has ceased to be. For a while, some ruins
existed, whose name and history ceased to
be known ; soon after, the ruins themselves
were effaced and buried ". Such was the
close of a city, almost coeval with the flood,
which had now stood almost as many years
used to express the class, 13 D''Dnn 2 Sam. xxii.
31 (Ps. xviii. 31.) Ps. xxxiv. 23, -|3 D'DinS, Ps.
xxxi, 20, 'u D'pinS Pr. -xxx, 6, '3 no'inn Is.
Ivii. 13.
14 So Ezek, xi, 13, xx. 17, nSs being the second
object of the verb, " He made them as a thine con
sumed," or 'y'2 is used abs. as in v. 9. or with JIS
Jer. V. 18,
15 See on ii. 6, i» Diod. Sic. ii. 25.
" See ab. Introd. pp. 122, 123.

CHAPTEE I.

135

CHR°iST 9 'What do ye im-
cir. 713. agine against the Loed?
•isara. 3..12. 'he will make an utter

as have passed since Christ came, but which
now defied God. Marvelous image of the
evil world itself, which shall flee away from
the Face of Him Who sat on the thi'one',
a'nd there was found no place for it.
And darkness shall pursue His enemies;
better. He shall pursue His enemies into dark
ness ''. Darkness is, in the O. T., the condi
tion, or state in which a person is, or lives;
it is not an agent, which pursues. Isaiah
speaks of the '' inhabitants of darkness ¦*, enter
ing into darkness ; " ihose who are in darkness.
The grave is all ^ darkness, ' darkness, and the
shadow of death. Hence even Jews rendered,
" '* He shall deliver them to hell." Into this
darkness it is said, God shall pursue them, as
other prophets speak of being driven forth into
darkness '. The darkness, the motionless
drear abode, to which they are driven, anti
cipates the being cast into the outer darkness,
where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
" ^^ The vengeance of God on " those who
remain " His enemies " to the last, " ends not
with the death of the body ; but evil spirits,
who are darkness and not light, pursue their
souls, and seize them." They would not hear
Christ calling to them, '^ Walk, while ye have
the light, lest darkness come upon you. ^ They
are of those that rebel against the light ; they Icnow
not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths there
of. ^' They loved darkness rather than light.
And so they were driven into the darkness
which they chose and loved.
9. The Prophet had in few words summed
up the close of Nineveh ; he now upbraids
them with the sin, which should bring it
upon them, and i'oretells the destruction of
Sennacherib. Nineveh had, before this,
1 Rev. XX. 11.
2 So S. Jer. The punctuators marked this by the
Makkef, !]jyn-=1TI\
sis. xiii. 7. ilb. xlvii, 5. 6ib. xli.x, 9.
6 Ps. Ixxxviii. 12. Job xvii. 13. ' Job x. 21.
« Jon. I ,
»Is. viii. 22. n'lJp niSKl Jer. xxiii. 12. n73N3
n3 iSsjl in^'' "iu darkness, into which they shall
be driven and fall therein."
'10 Rup. 11 S. John xii. 36. 12 Job xxiv. 13.
13 S. John iii. 19. i* 2 Kings xviii. 35,
15 Ib. xix, 10, 10 See xix, 15-34.
1' The Hebrew form is doubly emphatic, p^t^nO.
The same construction occurs with 7K, " towards,"
Hos. vii. 15, yi DIffn'' 'Sxi (in the same general
sense as the stronger S^ Nah. i. 11, Dan. xi, 24), in
njjn' ''^K/ hvi Job XV. 25, rSx Y'^T "runneth at"
i. e. against Him (God) Ib. 26. 3^n is not simply
"think," but "excogitated," "calculated" (Lev, 6
times), " devised " Pr, xvi. 9 ; with '7 and inf. " to do

end : a i
not rise
time.

liction shall cheTst
cir. 713.

up the second

been the instrument of chastising Israel and
Judah. Now, the capture of Samaria, which
had cast off' God, deceived and emboldened
it. Its king thought that this was the might
of his own arm ; and likened the Lord of
lieaven and earth to the idols of the heathen,
and said, " Wlio are they among all the gods of
tlie countries, that have delivered their country
out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver
Jerusalem out of mine hand ? He sent '^ to re
proach the living Ood and ^* defied the Holy One
of Israel. His blasphemy was his destruction.
It was a war, not simply of ambition, or
covetousness, but directly against the power
and worship of God.
What will ye so mightily '' devise, imagine
against the Lord ? lie ^^ Himself, by Him
self, is already making an utter end. It is in
store ; the Angel is ready to smite. Idle
are man's devices, when the Lord doeth.
^' Take counsel together, and ii shall come to
¦nought ; speak the word, and it shall not stand :
for Ood is ¦with us. While the rich raan was
speaking comfort to his soul as to future
years, God was making an utter end. Thou
fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.
''" Affliction shall not rise up the second time :
as he says afterward, Though I have afflicted
thee, Iwill afflict thee no more '*'. Ood, He had
said, is good for a refuge in the day of affliction ;
now, personifying that affliction, he says, that
it should be so utterly broken, that it should,
rise up no more to vex them, as when a ser
pent's head is, not wounded only but,.
crushed and trampled under foot, so that it
cannot again lift itself up. The promises of
God are conditioned by our not tailing back
into siu. He saith to Nineveh, " God will
evil to " Pr, xxiv. 8. In kal, also, n3tynD 3E'n is
used for " devising against," alike with J^ Jer, xi.
19, xviii. 11. 18. xlix. 30, and with '7X Jer. xlix. 20..
1. 45 ; and with vj? in a good sense, Jer. xxix. 11.
31!^n is used also of "thinking over" the past, Ps.
Ixxvii, 6. cxix. 59 ; with ^ and inf. " thinking over,"
in order to know, Ps. Ixxiii. 16 ; with ace. p. " take
account of" Ps. cxliv. 3, 2 Kgs xii. 16; but in none
of these cases with 7X,
18 The use of the pronoun in Heb, is again em
phatic. 10 Is. viii, 10.
soothers have understood this, " athiction shall
not rise up the second time," but shall destroy at
once, utterly and finally (comp. 1 Sam, xxvi. 8. 2
Sam. XX. 10.) : but 1) the idiom there, iS njCV xS,
" he did not repeat to him," as we say, " ho did not
repeat the blow," is cjuite different: 2) it is said,
" affliction shall not rise up," itself, as if it could
not. The causative of the idiom occurs in 2 Sam.
xii. 11. n;>1 tS;; D'pg 'Jjn " lo, I win cause evll
to rise up against thee.'* 21 y, 12.

136

NAHUM.

chrTst 10 For while they he
 '''''• '^^^- folden together ' as thorns,

'2Sam.23. 6,7. " and while they are
drunken as drunkards.

not deliver Judah to thee, as He delivered
the ten tribes and Samaria." Judah repented
under Hezekiah, and He not only delivered
it from Sennacherib, but never afflicted them
again through Assyria. Kenewal of sin
brings renewal or deepening of punishment.
The new and more grievous sins under Ma
nasseh were punished, not through Assyria
but through the Chaldeans.
The words have passed into a maxim,
" God will not punish the same thing twice,"
not in this world and the world to come, i. e.
not if repented of. For of the impenitent it
is said, ' destroy them with a double destruction.
Chastisement here is a token of God's mercy ;
the absence of it, or prosperous sin, of perdi
tion ; but if any refuse to be corrected, the
chastisement of this life is but the beginning
of unending torments.
10. For while they be folden together as
thorns ^, i. e. as confused, intertwined, sharp,
piercing, hard to be touched, rending and
tearing whosoever would interfere with its
tarigled ways, and seemingly compact to
gether and strong ; and while tliey are drunken
as their drink'', not "drinkers*" only but
literally "drunken," swallowed up, as it
were, by their drink which they had swal
lowed, mastei-ed, overcome, powerless, they
shcdl be devoured as stubble fully dry *, rapidly,
in an instant, with an empty crackling
sound, unresisting, as having nothing in
them which can resist. Historically, the
great defeat of the Assyrians, before the cap
ture of Nineveh, took place while its king,
flushed with success, was giving himself to
listlessness ; and having distributed to his
1 Jer, xvii, 18,
2 D'T'O IJ? lit. " quite up to," so as altogether to
equal; as r)'''73j1 "[}}, Job, xi, 7, niin'' 'J3 Ij;, 1
Chr, iv, 27. s N3'D, wine, Is. i. 22. Hos. iv, 18,
4 As elsewhere ?"Kbo, Deut. xxi. 20, Pr. xxiii. 20,
21, 'X3'1D Cheth, Ez, xxiii. 42.
'xSa is best united with jy3\ nsSn is used of
ripe corn, Ex. xxii. 28. Dt. xxii. 9; but this may be
so called, from the ear being full. The idiom, in
which S^n is joined with the verb, TIJIX lJ<Tp
N7D Jer xii. 6, is different, being derived from a
phrase, Ix'lD IXI.p " cry aloud, fill," i. e with a full
voice, Jer. iv. 5. Schultens compares Arab. Syj
xSai "he did and filled"=did fully. For theim-
agery of the devouring of the stubble by fire, see
Is, V. 24. xlvii. 14. Jo. ii. 5. Ob. 18. « Diod. Sic. ii. 26.
'Dan, V, 1-30. 81 Kings XX. 16.
1 Pr, xi. 8, 10 Rup. 11 Jude 12, 13,
12 Those who explain this of the past, render,

Before
CHEIST
cir. 713.

"they shall be devoured as
stubble fuUy dry.
11 There is one come • Mai, 4, i.
. . y2 Kings 19. 22,
out of thee, ^ that imagm- 23.

soldiers victims, and abundance of wine, and
otlier necessaries for banqueting, the whole
army " was negligent and drunken." In
like way Babylon was taken amid the feast
ing of Belshazzar ' ; Benhadad was smitten,
while " drinking himself drunk in the pavilions,
he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that
helped him. And so it may well be meant
here too, that Sennacherib's army, secure of
their prey, were sunk in reveh-y, already
swallowed up by wine, before they were swal
lowed up by the pestilence, on the night
when the Angel of the Lord went out to
smite them, and, from the sleep of revelry,
they slept the sleep from which they shall
not awake until the Judgment Day. God
chooseth the last moment of the triumph of
the wicked, when he is flushed by his suc
cess, the last of the helplessness of the
righteous, when his hope can be in the Lord
Alone, to exchange their lots. ^ The righteous
is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh
in his stead. Spiritually, " '"the false fullness
of the rich of this world, is real leanness ; the
greenness of such grass (for edl flesh is grass) is
real dryness. Marvelous words, fully dry.
For what is dryness but emptiness ? " They
are perfected, but in dryness, and so perfectly
prepared to be burned up. " The thorns
had, as far as in them lay, choked the good
seed, and hated the Seed-corn, and now are
found, like stubble, void of all seed, fitted
only to be burned with fire. For those who
feast themselves without fear is " reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever."
11. There is one come out of thee i.e. Nineveh,
that imagineih '¦'', deviseth '^, evil '*, against the
" Out of thee, Judah, is gone away, withdrawn, he
who devised evil against the Lord." But a person
is said to " go forth " out of that which is his abode,
from the city, gate, &c, or, to war. In the excep
tions, Is, xlix. 17, " thy destroyers and wasters shall
go forth from thee," it is implied that thay had
long sojourned there, and were to give place to the
children, who should return. In Jer. xliii. 12,
where it is said of Nebuchadnezzar, he shall go
forth thence in peace, it is first said, he shall set up his
throne there and shall array himself loith the land of
Egirnt, as a shepherd putteth on his'garment ; i, e, he
shall make it wholly his own.
13 As Ps. xxxv, 4, ^np'\ ''3Si'n,
"7;?''73 occurs 18 times, combined with n;r,
[3, n3, ''J3, t5"N, 'iyjK, DIS, "a son. daughter,
sons, man, men, witness." '3 fjjv is a similar com
position. Else it only occurs with '13T Ps. xii, 9, ci.
3, and as an adj. De, xv, 9; as personal 2 Sam.
xxiii, 6. Nah. ii, 1. also '3 I'nXn Job xxxiv, 18.
There is then no ground to take it here, or Ps.
xviii. 5, and 2 Sara. xxii. 5, with '•Sn J, as signifyinK
"destruction."

CHAPTEE L

137

c H eT I T ®*^ ®^^^ against the Loed,
 """• ^^^-  t ^ wicked counsellor.
fHeb. a coMnsei- ^ f. rm . i i t
lor of Belial. 12 1 hus saith the LOED :
1 Or, 1/ they . '
would have IhOUgh iftev 06 QUlCt,
been at peace, , ,., .
so should they and likewise many, yet
many, and so thus ' shall they be fcut
shoiiliithey , , , i n „
havebeenshorn,do'W'a, when he shali " pass
and tie should ., , mi i t i
have passed through. Ihough 1 have
away. • 2 Kings 19. 35, 37. f Heb. shorn.
" Isa. 8. 8. Dan. 11. 10.

Lord, Sennacherib, ' the rod of Ood's anger,
yet who " meant not so," as God meant. " And
this was his counsel," as is every counsel of
Satan, " that they could not resist him, and
so should withdraw themselves from the land
of God, ^ into a land like their own, but whose
joy and sweetness, its vines and its fig-trees,
should not be from God, but from the Assy
rian, i. e. from Satan."
12. Though they be quiet and likewise many,
yet thus shall they be cut down. lit. If they be
entire^, i. e. sound, unharmed, unimpaired in
their numbers, unbroken in their strength,
undiminished, perfect in all which belongeth
to war ; and thus many, even thus shall they be
mown doum (or shorn), and he passeth away''-.
With might outwardly unscathed, without
hand ^, and thus ¦many i. e. many, accordingly,
as being unweakened ; as many as they shall
be, so shaU they be mown down^, and he, their
head and king, shall pass away and perish '.
Their numbers shall be, as their condition
before, perfect ; their destruction as their
numbers, complete. It is wonderful how
much God says in few words ; and how it is
here foretold that, with no previous loss, a
mighty host secure and at ease, in conse
quence of their prosperity, all are at one
blow mown down, like the dry grass before
the scythe, are cut off" and perish ; and one,
their king, passeth away, first by flight, and
then by destruction. As they had shorn the
glory of others', so should they be shorn
and cut down themselves.
Though I have afflicted thee, Iwill afflict thee^
¦no more, unless by new guilt thou compel Me.
1 Is. X. 5-7. 2 Is. xxxvi. 16, 17.
' D^ty is used of physical entireness, complete
ness, or mental integrity. In one place only, Gen.
• xxxiv. 21, IjnX WO^JO is doubtless rendered
, rightly "peaceable with us," as ''?/t!' Ps, vii. 5,
but not in the frequent idiom D7ty 37, 337,
whether with or without i'l Di'i and never by itself.
* So it seems better to render it, than, as in the
E. v., and he shall pass through. The word means
alike " pass away '' or " pass through," but the act
spoken of is later than the cutting down of the
army, and so probably the passing away, or flight of
its king, to his destruction or final passing away.
'DaniL34.

afflicted thee, I will afflict ^ ^"^'1% j.
thee no more. "Jr- ''la-
18 For now will I
*" break his yoke from oflP tjer. 2. 20.
thee, and will burst thy
bonds in sunder.
14 And the Loed hath
given a commandment

God always relieves us from trouble, as it
were with the words'", sin no more, lest u,
worse thing come unto thee. In the end, afflic
tions shall be turned into joy, and Ood shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying,
neither .shall there be any more pain ''.
13. For now ivill I break his yoke from off thee.
God, lest His own should despair, does not
put them off altogether to a distant day, but
saith, now. Historically, the beginning of
the fall is the earnest of the end. By the
destruction of Sennacherib, God declared His
displeasure against Assyria ; the rest was
matter of time only. Thus Haman's wise
men say to him, '^ If 3Iordecai be of the seed of
the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall,
thou shalt not ¦prevail against him, but shalt surely
fall before him ; as He saith in Isaiah, ^ I will
break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My
mountains tread him under foot ; then shall his
yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart
from off their shoulders. " ^* In that He saith,
not ' I will loose,' ' will undo,' but ' I will
break,' 'will burst,' He sheweth that Pie
will in such wise free Jerusalem, as to pour
out displeasure on the enemy. The very
mode of speaking shews the greatness of His
displeasure against those who, when for the
secret purpose of His judgments they have
power given them against the servants of
God, feed themselves on their punishments,
and moreover dare to boast against God, as
did the Assyrian, ^"By the strength of my hand
I have done it, and by my wisdom."
14. And the Lord hath given a commandment
'nj is used of sheep-shearing, cutting off the
hair in sorrow; TJ is "mown grass, fleece cut."
Here alone, it is a metaphor, like that of n 7 J\ Is.
vii. 20. ' Comp. Ps. xlviii, 4. s ig. Tii, 20,
^n^ "afflicted" relatively to God, is said of
His chastisement of His people (Deut, viii. 2. 2
Kgs xvii. 20) or of individuals (Ps. Ixxxviii. 8. xc,
15. cii. 24. cxix, 75, Job xxx. 11.) but no where of
the enemies of God, whose destruction moreover is
here spoken of. It cannot then refer to the As
syrian, as some have done. The double omission
of the ¦' in '"li^JJ^ was probably for the rhythm.
10 S. John V. 14. n Rev. xxi. 4. 12 Esth. vi. 13.
w Is. xiv. 25. 14 Rup. IS Is. X. 13.

138

NAHUM.

CHR°IST concerning thee, that no
''''^- ^^^- more of thy name be sown :
out of the house of thy
gods will I cut oflT the

concerning thee, O Assyrian. In the word "I
have afliicted thee," the land of Israel is ad
dressed, as usual in Hebrew, in the feminine ;
'lere, a change of gender in Hebrew shews
the person addressed to be different. " ' By
His command alone, and the word of His
power. He cut off the race of the Assyrian, as
he says in Wisdom, of Egypt, ^ Thine Al
mighty word leaped down from Heaven, out of
Thy royal throne ; as a fierce mcui of war into the
midst of a land of destruction, and brought Thine
unfeigned commandment as a sliarp sword, and
standing up filled all things with death," or else
it may be. He gave command to the Angels
Plis Ministers. God commandeth before
hand, that, when it cometh to pass, it may
be known " ^ that not by chance," nor by the
will of man, " nor without His judgment but
by the sentence of God " the blow came.
No more of Ihy name be sown, as Isaiah saith,
* the seed of evildoers shcdl never be renowned.
He prophesies, not the immediate but the
absolute cessation of the Assyrian line. If
the prophecy was uttered at the time of Sen
nacherib's invasion, seventeen years before
his death, not Esarhaddon only, but his son
Asshurbanipal also, whose career of personal
conquest, the last glory of the house of the
Sargonides and of the empire, began immedi
ately upon his fathei-'s reign of thirteen
years, was probably already born. Asshur
banipal in this case would only have been
thirty-one, at the beginning of his energetic
reign, and would have died in his fifty-second
year. After him followed only an inglorious
twenty-two years. The prophet says, the
Lord hath commanded. The decree as to
Ahab's house was fulfilled in the person of
his second son, as to Jeroboam and Baasha
in their sons. It waited its appointed time,
but was fulfilled in the complete excision of
the doomed race.
Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off
graven image and molten image '" ; as thou hast
done to others^, it shall be done to thee.
"'And when even the common objects of
worship of the Assyrian and Chaldean were
I Alb. 2 Wisd, xviii. 15. 16. sg. j^r. 4 xiv. 20.
'n3Dai 7D3 are so joined De. xxvii, 15. Jud,
xvii. 3, 4, xviii. 14,
» Is, xxxvii. 19. ' Rup. 8 s. Jer.
" Is. xxxvii. 38.
loHe does not use the word T\tl\} ".made," but
D'ty "appointed" it, set it to be. "There I will
make thy grave." Jon. Even Ew. has "making
them thv grave."
11 Ez. 'xxxii. 22, 23. 12 From Dion.
13 I Sam. ii. 30. "Ob. 2. isjb. 3, loDan, v. 27.
" So in Job's confession of himself, xl. 4, which,

graven image and the mol- f, g jf°i''g ^
ten image : ° I will make thy "'¦•¦ '^i^.
grave : for thou art vile. ° 2 Kin, 19, 37.
=¦ 'ilsa, 52. 7.
15 Behold '"upon the Rom. 10. 15.

not spared, what would be the ruin of the
whole city 1 " So little shall thy gods help
thee, that " * there shalt thou be punished,
where thou hopest for aid. Graven and mol
ten image shall be thy grave ; amid altar and
oblations, as thou worshipest idols," thanking
them for thy deliverance, " shall thy unholy
blood be shed," as it was by his sons Adram-
melech and Sharezer '. / will 'make it '" thy
grave; "'what God ¦maketh re'caams immov
able, cannot be changed. But He " maketh
thy grave " in hell, where not only that rich
man in the Gospel hath his grave ; but all
who are or have been like him, and especially
thou, O Asshur, of whom it is written,
^^Asshiir is there and all her company; his
graves are cdiout him: all of them slain, fallen
by the sword. Whose graves are set in the sides
of the pit and her company is round about her
grave : all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
¦whieh caused terror in ilie land of the living.
Graven and inolten image, the idols which men
adore, the images of tlieir vanity, the created
things which they worship instead of the
true God (as they whose god is their belly), in
which they busy themselves in this life, shall
be their destruction in the Day of Judgment.
For thou art vile. Thou honoredst thy
self and dishonoredst God, so shalt thou be
dishonored '^, as He saith, '* Them that honor
Me Iwill honor, and they that despise 2Ie shall
be lightly esteemed. So when he had said to
Edom, '* thou art greatly despised, he adds the
ground of it, ^' The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee. For thou art vile. Great, hon
ored, glorious as Assyria or its ruler were in
the eyes of men, the prophet tells him, what
he was in himself, being such in the eyes of
God, light, empty, as Daniel said to Belshaz
zar, "' Thou art weighed in the balances, and
found wanting, of no account, vile ".
15. Behold upon the mountains, the feet of
him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace. From mountain-top to mountain-top
by beacon-fires they spread the glad tidings.
Suddenly the deliverance comes, sudden its
announcement. Behold ! Judah, before hin-
as addressed to God, can only be said of his
intrinsic worthlessness. It stands contrasted with
those whom God honors ("I33S) 1 Sam. ii. 30; in
Hif "held cheap" (2 Sam. xix, 44, Ez. xxii. 7.) put
to dishonor, Is. viii. 23. (contrasted with T33n).
In Gen. xvi. 4. 5, it is added "in the eyes of"
another; itis used of a thing, 1 Sara, xviii. 23. 2
Kgs iii. 18, The physical sense "were lightened"
(of the waters of the deluge, Gen. viii. 11.) does not
authorize the interpretation of sorae, "art lessened
in number ;" nor would this be a ground why God
should make its grave.

CHAPTEE I.

139

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

t Heb. feast.

mountains the feet of him
. that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace ! O
Judah, fkeep thy solemn

dered by armies from going up to Jerusalem,
its cities taken',' may now again keep the
feasts there, and pay tlie vows, which "iu
trouble she promised ; " for the wicked one,
the ungodly Sennacherib, is utterly cut off, he
shall no more pass through thee ; " the army
and king and empire of the Assyrians have
perished." But the words of prophecy can
not be bound down to this. These large
promises, which, as to ihis world, were for
feited in the next reign, when Manasseh was
taken captive to Babylon, and still more in
the seventy years' captivity, and more yet in
that until "now, look for a fulfillment, as they
stand. They sound so absolute. " I will
afflict thee no more," "the wicked shall na
more pass through thee," " he is utterly (lit.
the whole of Aim) cut off." Nahum joins on
this signal complete deliverance from a
temporal enemy, to the final deliverance of
the people of God. The invasion of Sen
nacherib was an avowed conflict with God
Himself. It was a defiance of God. He
would make God's people, his ; he would cut
it off, that it be no more a people, and that the
nam; of Israel 'may be no more in remembrance ^.
There was a more " evil counsellor " behind,
whose agent was Sennaclierib. He, as he is
the author of all murders and strife, so has
he a special hatred for the Church, whether
before or since Christ's Coming. Before, that
he might cut off that Line from whom the
Seed ofthe woman should be born, which should
destroy his empire and crush himself, and that
he might devour the Child who was to be
born K Since, because her members are his
freed captives, and she makes inroads on his
kingdom, and he hates them because
he hates God and Christ Who dwells
in them. As the time of the birth of
our Lord neared, his hate became more con
centrated. God overruled the hatred of
Edom or Moab, or the pride of Assyria, to
His own ends, to preserve Israel by chastis
ing it. Their hatred was from . the evil one,
because it was God's people, the seed of
Abraham, the tribe of Judah, the line of
David. If they could be cut off', they of
whom Christ was to be born according to the
flesh, and so, in all seeming, the hope of the
world, were gone. Sennacherib then was
not a picture only, he was the agent of Satan,
who used his hands, feet, tongue, to blaspheme
God and war against His people. As then
we have respect not to the mere agent, but
1 2 Kings xviiL 13. 2 ps. Ixxxiii. 4.
3 Rev. xii. 4.

feasts, perform thy vows:
for f "the wicked shall no_
more pass through thee;
'he is utterly cut ofi".

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
+ Heb. Belial.
' ver. 11, 12.
fver, 14.

to the principal, and should address him
through those he employed (as Elisha said
ofthe messenger wlio came to slay him, *is
not the sound iff his nuisier's feet behind him?),
so the Prophet's words cliiefly and most fully
go to the instigator of Sennacherib, whose
very name he names, Belial. It is the de
liverance of the Church and the people of
God which he foretells, and thanks God for.
To the Church he says in the Name of God,
Though I have afflicted thee, Iwill afflict thee no
more ^. The yoke which He will burst is the
yoke of the oppressor, of which Isaiah speaks,
and wliich the Son, to be born, of a Virgin,
"the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace,"
was to break^ ; the yoke of sin and the bands
*of fleshly pleasure and evil habits, wherewith
we were held captive, so that henceforth we
should walk upright, unbowed, look up to
heaven our home, and run the way of Thy com
mandments when Thou hast set my heart at
liberty. Behold, then, upon the mountains, i. e.
above all the height of this world, the feet of
him that bringeth good tidings, i. e. of remission
of sins and sanctification by the Spirit and
the freedom and adoption as sons, and the
casting out of the Prince of this world, that
publisheth peace. 0 Judah, thou, the true
people of God, keep thy solemn feaslK, the sub
stance of the figures of the law." " ' He who
is ever engaged on the words, deeds and
thoughts of Him, Who is by nature Lord,
the Word of God, ever liveth in His days,
ever keepeth Lord's days. Yea he who ever
preparetli himself for the true life and ab-
staineth from the sweets of this life which
deceive the many, and who cherisheth not
the mind of the flesh but chastens the body
and enslaves it, is ever keeping the days of
preparation. He too who thinketh that
Christ our Passover was sacriflced for us, and
that we must keep festival, eating the flesh
of the Word, there is no time -when he
keepeth not the Passover, ever passing over
in thought and every word and deed from
the affairs of this life to God, and hasting to
His city. Moreover whoso can say truth
fully, we have risen together with Christ, 'yea and
also, He hath together raised us and tonether
seated us in ihe heavenly places in Christ,
ever liveth in the days of Pentecost ; and
chiefly, when, going up into the upper room
as the Apostles of Jesus, he giveth himself
to supplication and prayer, that he may be
come meet for the rushing mighty wind
4 2Kings vl. 32. Sy. 12, »ix, 4. ande.
' Orig. c. Cels. viii. u. 22.

140

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

CHAPTEE II.
1 The fearful and victorious
armies of Ood against Nineveh.

from heaven, which mightily effaceth the
evil in men and its fruits, meet too for
some portion of the fiery tongue from God."
" ^ Such an one will keep the feast excellently,
having the faith in Christ fixed, hallowed
by the Spirit, glorious with the grace of
adoption. And he will offer to God spiritual
sacrifice, consecrating himself for an odor of
sweetness, cultivating also every kind of
virtue, temperance, continence, fortitude, en
durance, charity, hope, love of the poor,
goodness, longsuffering : for with such saciiflces
Ood is well pleased. Every power of the
enemy, which before had dominion over
him, shall pass through no more, since Christ
commanded the unclean spirits to depart into
the abyss and giveth to those who love Him
power to resist the enemy, and subdue the'
passions, and destroy sin and tread on serpents
and scorpions and every power of the enemy."
And these feasts were to be kept "^in the
spirit not in the letter. For what availeth it
to keep any feast without, unless there be the
feast of contemplation in the soul ? " Where
fore he adds, and pay thy vows, i. e. thyself,
whom in Baptism thou hast vowed : for the
Wicked One shall no more pass through thee.
" ^ For from what time, O Judah, Christ, by
dying aud rising again, hallowed thy feasts,
he can no longer pass through thee. Thence
forth he perished wholly. Not that he has,
in substance, ceased to be, but that the death
of the human race, which through his envy
came into this world, the two-fold death of
body and soul, wholly perisheth. Where
and when did this Belial perish ? When
died the death which he brought in, whence
himself also is called Death ? When Christ
died, then died the death of our souls ; and
when Christ rose again, then perished the
death of our bodies. When then, 0 Judah
thou keepest thy feasts, remember that thy very
feast is He, of Whom thou sayest that by
dying He conquered death and by rising He
restored life. Hence it is said, Belial shall
no more pass through thee. For if thou look
to that alone, that Sennacherib departed, to
return no more, and perished, it would not
be true to say, Belial hath wholly perished !
For after him many a Belial, such as he was,
passed through thee, and hurt thee far more.
Perchance thou sayest, ' so long as Nineveh
standest, how sayest thou, that Belial has
wholly perished? So long as the world
standeth, how shall I be comforted, that
death hath perished ? For lo ! persecutors
armed with death have stormed, and besides

IS. Cyr.

2 Rup.

JJE llnhat dasheth in chrTst
pieces is come up be-  ""'¦ ^^''-
fore thy face: 'keep the perW, or,
•Jer. 50. -23. bjer. 51. 11,12, ch. 3. 14. hammer.

them, many sons of Belial, of whom Anti-
Christ will be the worst. How then sayest
thou, that Belial has wholly perished?' It
follows, the Scalierer hath gone up before thee.
To Judah in the flesh, Nebuchadnezzar who
went up against Nineveh, was worse than
Sennacherib. Who then is He Who went
up before thee, and dispersed the world, that
great Nineveh, that thou shouldest have full
consolation ? Christ who descended. Him
self ascended ; and as He ascended, so shall
He come to disperse Nineveh, i. e. to judge
the world. What any persecutor doth mean
while, yea or the Devil himself or Anti-
Christ, taketh nothing from the truth, that
Belial hath wholly perished. The prince of
ihis world is cast out. For nothing which they
do, or can do, hinders, that both deaths of
body and soul are swallowed up in His
victory, Who hath ascended to heaven ?
Belial cannot in the members kill the soul,
which hath been made alive by the death of
the Head, i. e. Christ; and as to the death
of the body, so certain is it that it will perish,
that thou mayest say fearlessly that it hath
perished, since Christ the Head hath risen."
Each fall of an enemy of the Church, each
recovery o6 a sinful soul being a part of this
victory, the words raay be applied to each.
The Church or the soul are bidden to keep
the feast and pay their vows, whatever in their
trouble they promised to God. " ' It is said
to souls, which confess the Lord, that the
devil who, before, wasted thee' and bowed
thee with that most heavy yoke hath, in and
with the idols which thou madest for thyself,
perished ; keep thy feasts and jmy to God thy
vows, singing with the Angels continually,
for no more shall Belial pass through thee, of
whom the Apostle too saith, Whlit concord.
hath Christ with Belied? The words too,
Behold upon the mountains the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace " belong, in a degree, to all preachers
of the Gospel. " * No one can preach peace,
who is himself below and cleaveth to earthly
things. For wars are for the good things
of earth. If thou wouldest preach peace *to
thyself and thy neighbor, be raised above
the earth and it^ goods, riches and glory.
Ascend to the heavenly mountains, whence
David also, lifting up his eyes, hoped that
his help would come."
GIL The Prophet, having foretold the
destruction of Sennacherib, and in him how
the enemy of Judah is wholly cut off, goes ou
to describe the destruction of Nineveh, and

8S. Jer.

¦1 Theoph.

CHAPTEE II.

141

chrTIt i^unition, watch the way,
"ii^- ''^¦^- make thy loins strong, for-
« Isa. 10. 12.
Jer. 26. 29.
It Ox, the pride of 2 ° For the Loed hath
Jacob as the
pride of Israel, turnea away the excel-

tify thy power mightily.

with it of his whole kingdom, and, under it,
of Anti-Christ and Satan.
1. He that dasheth in pieces, rather, the Dis-
perser ', the instrument of God, whereby he
should break her in pieces like a potter's vessel,
or should scalier her in all lands, is come up
against thy face, O Nineveh, i. e. either, over
against thee ^, confronting her as it were, face
to face, or directed against thee''. From the
description of the peace of Judah, the Pro
phet turns suddenly to her oppressor, to
whom, uot to Judah, the rest of the propliecy
is directed. Jacob and Israel are spoken of,
not to*. The destroyer of Nineveh went up
against the face of Nineveh, not in the presence
of Judah and Jacob, who were far away and
knew nothing of it. Keep the munition.
While all in Judah is now peace, all in
Nineveh is tumult. God Whom they had
defied, saying that Hezekiah could not ^ tui-n
away the face of one captain of ihe least of his
servants, now bids them prepare to meet him
whom He would send against them. Gird
up thy loins now, like a man^. Thou who
wouldest lay waste others, now, if thou canst,
keep thyself The strength of the words is
the measure of the irony. They had chal
lenged God ; He in turn challenges them to
put forth all their might.
Fence thy defences ', we might say. Their
strong walls, high though they were, unas
sailable by any then known skill of besiegers,
would not be secure.
The prophet uses a kindred and allusive
word, that their protection needed to be itself
protected ; and this, by one continued watch
fulness. Watch, he adds, tlie way : espy out "
(as far as thou canst), the coming ofthe enemy ;
strengthen the bins, the seat of strength".
Elsewhere they are said to be girded up for
1 f-SD is a partic. used as a proper name. y^S'Q
is indeed used as a noun=--|"3H as united with the
sword and arrow, and so an instrument of war, bat
tle axe or the like (Prov. xxv. 18.), like VSO (Jer. li.
20.), used of Nebuchadnezzar by God. Yet the like
phrase V"li)n phjj (Mic. ii. 13.) and the use itself
of nVj?. " went up," make it probable that an agent
is meant. '('''Sn is always "dispersed ; " the sense,
" broke in pieces," occurs only in VS13 Jer. xxiii, 29,
¦C3V3 Job. xvi. 12, j'Sbnn Hab. iii. 6, DJ'n'lS'lSri
Jer. xxv. 34, and in VDi, fSJ.
»Ab Gen. xxxii. 22, VJ3 V 13.1?^; Job iv. 15,
'\hn' 'ja b^ nn.

lency of Jacob, as the ex- chrTst
cellency of Israel: for "the cir- •'^3-
emptiers have emptied^Ps. so. 12.
them out, and marred their
vine branches.

any exertion. Fortify thy strength exceedingly.
The expression is rare '" : commonly it is
said of some part of the human frame, knees,
arms, or mind, or of man by God.
The same words are strong mockery to
those who resist God, good counsel to those
who trust in God. Keep the munition, for He
Who keepeth thee will not sleep " ; watch the
way, by which the enemy may approach from
afar, for Satan approacheth, sometimes sud
denly, sometimes very stealthily and subtly,
transforming himself into an angel of light.
" '¦^ Watch also the way by which thou art to
go, as it is said, '^ Stand 'ye in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way,
and walk therein ; so that, having stood in
many ways, we may come to that Way which
saith, I am the Way." Then '*, make thy loins
strong, as the Saviour commandeth His dis
ciples, Let your loins be girded about'^^, and
the Apostle says, ^'' Stand therefore, haring your
loins girt about with truth; for nothing so
strengtheneth as the Truth. For Christ
being the Truth, whoso with his whole heart
hath belived in Christ, is strong against him
self, and hath power over the loins, the seat
of the passions. Then, since this warfare is
hard, he adds, be strong, fortify thy power
mightily ; resist not listlessly, but vehemently ;
and that, in Plis strength Who hath strength
ened our nature, taking it to Himself and
uniting it with the Godhead. For without
Him, strong though thou be, thou wilt avail
nothing. 2. For the Lord hath turned away (rather
restoreth) the excellency of Jaeob, speaking of
what should come, as already come. For
Nineveh falls, because God restores His peo
ple, whom it had oppressed. The restora
tion of God's favor to His Church is the sea-
3 As Ps. xxi, 13, Dn'33 h]f pi3n which is sup
ported by the use of ^^ n'?;?, "went up against,"
as 2 Kgs xvii. 3, xviii. 25, Jo, i, 6,
4 ver. 2. Jon., Rashi, Kim., Abarb. would have it,
that Judah is addressed.
5 Is. xxxvi. 9.
ejob, xl. 7,
'niiyp "11S3 The Imp. "IIVJ would have ex
pressed a simple command ; the Infin. says, what
has to be done.
snpy.9 The use ofthe adj. 'jnnN "strong" Dan. vii.
7, shows that the meaning of the root was not lost,
though occurring only in the adj. and D''jnD,
10 It occurs Prov. xxiv. 5, of the man of under
standing, and Am. ii. 14, of what man cannot do.
11 Ps. cxxi. 3. 12 S. Jer, ri jer. vi. 16.
14 From S, Jer. i' Luke xii. 35. lo Eph. vi. 14.

142

NAHUM.

chrTst 3 The shield of his
cir. 713. mighty men is made "red,
• Isa. 63, 2, 3. the valiant men are \ | in
ViOx, dyedscarlet, , , ,, , . , i u
scarlet : the chariots shall
be with 1 1 flaming torches
in the day of his prepara-

1 Ox, fiery
torches.

son of His punishment of their enemies ; as,
again. His displeasure against her enemies is
a token of His favor to her. When Herod
was smitten by God, ' the word of Ood grew
and multiplied. A long captivity was still
before .Judah, yet the destruction of the Assy
rian was the earnest that every oppressing city
should cease ''.
The exeellcncy of Jacob. The word, excellency,
is used in a good or bad sense ; bad, if man
takes the excellency to himself; good, as
given by God. This is decisive against a
modern popular rendering; "^has returned
to the excellency of Jacob ; " for Scripture
knows of no excellency of Jaeob, except God
Himself or grace from God. Jacob, if
separated from God or left by Him, has no
excellency, to which God could return.
As the exeelleney of Israel. Both the ten and
the two tribes had suffered by the Assyrian,
The ten had been carried captive by Slial-
manezer, the two had been harassed by
Sennacherib, After the captivity of the ten
tribes, the name Jacob is used of Judah only.
It may be then, that the restoration of God's
favor is promised to each separately. Or,
* there may be an emphasis in the names
themselves. Their forefather bore the name
of Jacob in his troubled days of exile ; that
of Israel was given him on his return °. It
would then mean, the afflicted people (Jacob)
shall be restored to its utmost glory as Israel.
The sense is the same.
For the emptiers have emptied them out. Their
chastisement is the channel of their restora
tion. Unlike the world, their emptiness is
their fullness, as the fullness of the world is
its emptiness. The world is cast down, not
to arise ; for ^ woe to him that is alone when he
falleth : for he hath not another to help him up.
The Church falleth, but to arise ' : the people
is restored, because it had borne chastening * ;
for the Lord hath restored the excellency of Jaeob ;
2 Is. xxxiii. 1.

6 Gen. xxxii. 28.
' Micah vii. 8.
9 See Ps. Ixxx. 12, 13.

1 .'Vets xii. 24.
sSeeab. Intr. p. 127. n. 8.
4Sanet. 6 Eccles. iv. 10.
8 Ez. .xxxvi. 3, 6, 7.
10 Is. xiii. 3.
11 The form D^XO is used five tiraes in Exodus
of the artificial color of the dyed ramskins. But
there is no proof of any such custom as to the
shields. If reddened by actual blood, it must have
been in a previous battle, since Nahum is thus far
describing the preparations, 13^371 DV3. The
gleaming of the brass of the shields in the sun

tion, and the fir trees shall
be terribly shaken.
4 The chariots shall
rage in the streets, they
shall justle one against
another in the broad ways :

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

for the emptiers have emptied them, out and marred
their vinebranches^, i. e. its fruit-bearing
branches, that, as far as in them lay, it
should not bear fruit unto God ; but to cut
the vine is, by God's grace, to make it shoot
forth and bear fruit more abundantly.
3, 4. Army is arrayed against army ; the
armies, thus far, of God against the army of
His enemy ; all without is order ; all within,
confusion. The assailing army, from its
compactness and unity, is spoken of, both as
many and one. The might is of many ; the
order and singleness of purpose is as of one.
The shield, collectively, not shields. His
mighty men ; He, who was last spoken of, was
Almighty God, as He says in Isaiah ; ^'' I liave
commanded My eonsecra'ted ones ; I have also
called My mighty ones, tliem that rejoice in My
highness. Is reddened, either with blood of the Assy
rians, shed in some previous battle, before the
siege began, or (which is the meaning of the
word elsewhere ^'), an artificial color, the
color of blood being chosen, as expressive of
fiery fiercpness. The valiant men are in scar
let ; for beauty and terror, as, again being the
color of blood '^, It was especially the color
of the dress of their nobles ^', one chief color
of the Median dress, from whom the Per
sians adopted their's '*, The chariots shall be
with flaming torches, literally with the flre of
steels '^, or of sharp incisive instruments.
Either way the words seem to indicate that
the chariots were in some way armed with
steel. For steel was not an ornament, nor do
the chariots appear to have been ornamented
with metal. Iron would have hindered the
primary object of lightness and speed. Steel,
as distinct from iron, is made only for in-
cisiveness. In either way, it is probable, that
scythed chariots were already in use. Against
such generals, as the younger Cyrus ^'' and
Alexander '', they were of no avail ; but they
(1 Blaec. vi. 39) could hardly be called their being
reddened. 12 Julian v. H. vi. 6, Val. Max. ii. 6. 2.
13 Xenophon (Cyrop, viii. 3. 3) implies that they
were costly treasures which Cyrus distributed.
" Strabo xi. 13. 9.
15 On nnSs see Introd. pp. 127-129.
I*' At Cunaxa, Xen. Anab. i. 8.
1' At Arbela, Arr. iii. 13, Q, Curt. iv. 61, and, upon
experience, by Eumenes, "baud ignarus pugnfe,"
Liv. xxxvii, 41, Appian Syr. 33, Diodorus ('xvii. 68.)
describes their terrible vehemence, when not
evaded. Uneven ground naturally disordered
them, Tac. Agr. c. 36. Vegetius iii. 24.

CHAPTEE IL

143

Before
CHRIST cir, 713,
t Heb. their
show.
D Or, gallants.

t they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like
the lightnings.
5 He shall recount his
II worthies: they shall

must have been terrific instruments against
undisciplined armies. The rush and noise of
the British chariots disturbed for a time
even Csesar's Roman troops'. They were
probably in use long before.^ Their use
among the ancient Britons'*, Gauls'* and'
Belgians °, as also probably among the
Canaanites^, evinces that they existed
among very rude people. The objection
that the Assyrian chariots are not represented
in the monuments as armed with scythes is
an oversight, since those spoken of by
Nahum may have been Median, certainly
were not Assyrian. In the day of His pre
paration '', \\dien He mustereth the hosts for
the battle ; and the fir-trees shall be terribly
shaken; i.e. fir-spears* (the weapon being
often named from the wood of which it is
made) shall be made to quiver through the
force wherewith they shall be hurled.
The chariots shall rage (or madden ', as the
driving of Jehu is said to be furiously, lit. in
madness) in the streets. The city is not yet
taken ; so, since this takes place in the streets and
broad ways, they are the confused ijreparations
of the besieged. They shall justle one against
another, shall run rapidly to and fro,*TestlesBly ;
their shoiv {E. M.) is like torches, leaving
streaks of fire, as they pass rapidly along.
They shall run vehemently'", like the light
nings, swift but vanishing.
5. He shall recount his worthies. The Assyrian
king wakes as out of a sleep, lit. " lie remem
bers his mighty men '' ; " they stumble in their
1 De bell. Gall, iv, 33, 34.
2Ctesias, who speaks of thera as long prior
(quoted by Diod. Sic. ii. 5.) is, on Persian matters,
much better authority than Xenophon who (Cyrop.
vi. 1. as explained by .\rrian, Tactic, c. 3.) attributes
their invention to Cyrus. For Xenophon, who was
a good witness as to what he saw, shews himself
ignorant of the previous history (See ab. p. 12.}).
He himself quotes Ctesias as an authority (Anab. i.
8.). The exaggerations of Ctesias are probably
those of his Persian informants.
3 Sii. It.al. xvii. 417, 418, Tae. Agric. 36, 36. Mela iii.
6. Jornandes de reb. Goth. c. 2. "
* Mela iii. 0.
5 Lucan i. 426. S, Jerome in Is, ult.
3 The use of a little iron, more or less, in
strengthening the wheels &c., could hardly entitle
them to be called "chariots of iron." Jos. xvii. 16,
18. Jud. i. 19, iv. 3, 13.,
' V'^'i'^ ^3 in Jer. xlvi. 14, Ez. vii. 14, xxxviii. 7.
8 See on Hos. xiv. 8. vol. i. p. 140.
0 The words are adopted by Jeremiah xlvi. 9.
10 I'S '1 Intensive from |»n.
11 As iii. 18. Jud. v. 13. Neh, iii. 5.
12 So the Heb. text. Their many ways may be op
posed to the oneness of the army of God (See v. 3).
13 Is. Ixiii. 13. "8. Cyr. is Kimchi.

stumble in their walk; r.S'i°^'i,^
they shall make haste to "i''- 7i3.
the wall thereof, and the
t defence shall be pre- 1 Heb. ccmering,
pared.

or, coverer.

walk, lit. paths '^, not through haste onty and
eager fear, but from want of inward might
and the aid of God. Those whom God
leadeth stumble not '^. " " Perplexed every
way and not knowing what they ought to
do, their mind wholly darkened and almost
drunken with ills, they reel to and fro, turn
from one thing to another, and in all " labor
in vain.
They shall make haste io the walls thereof, and
the defence (lit. tlie covering) shall be prepared.
The Assyrian monuments leave no doubt
that a Jewish writer '^ is right in the main,
in describing this as a covered shelter, under
which an enemy approached the city; "a
covering of planks with skins upon them ;
under it those who fight against the city
come to the wall and mine the wall under
neath, and it is a shield over them from
the stones, which are cast from off the
wall." The monuments, however, exhibit this
shelter, as connected not with mining but
with a battering ram, mostly with a sharp
point, by which they loosened the walls ".
Another covert was employed to protect
single miners who picked out single stones,
with a pick-axe ". The Assyrians sculptures
shew, in the means employed against
or in defence of their engines, how
central a part of the siege they formed '".
Seven of them are represented in one siege ''¦'.
The " ram ^^ " is mentioned in Ezekiel as the
well-known and ordinary instrument of a siege.
1' See in Rawlinson's 5 Empires ii. 78. "All ofthem
[the battering-ram s] were covered with a frame- work
of ozier, wood, feit, or skins, for the better prutee-
tion of those who worked the implement ; — some
appear to iiave been stationary, others in early
times had si.x wheels, in the later times four only.
Sometimes with the ram and its framework was a
moveable tower, containing soldiers, who, at once,
fought the eneray on a level and protected the
engine." 17 See picture in Rawl. 5 Emp. ii. 82.
18 *' Fire was the weapon usually turned against
the ram, torches, burning tow or other inflam mable
substances being cast frora the walls upon its frame
work." To prevent this [its being set on fire], the
workers of the ram were soraetiraes providerl with
a supply of water ; soraetiraes they suspended from
a pole in front of their engine, a curtain of leather,
or some other non-inflammable substance. In abas-
relief (Layard's Monuments, Series ii. PI. 21.) where
an enormous number of torches are se^n in the air,
every battering-ram is so protected. Or the be
sieged sought to catch the point of the ram b}' a
chain, drawing it upwards ; the besieger with metal
hooks to keep it down." from Rawl. Ib. pp. 79, 80,
referring further to Layard's Monuments, Series i.
PI. 17, 19.
10 Ib. p. 79. 20 Ezek. iv. 2.

144

NAHUM.

chkTst ^ The gates of the rivers
cir. 713. shall be opened, and the
II Or, molten. palace shall be 1 1 dissolved.

Thus V. 3. describes the attack ; v. 4, the
defence ; the two first clauses of v. 5, the de
fence ; the two last, the attack. This quick
interchange only makes the whole more
vivid. " ^ But what availeth it to build the house,
unless the Lord build it ? What helpeth it
to shut the gates, which the Lord uiibar-
reth ? " On both sides is put forth the full
strength of man ; there seems a stand-still to
see, what will be, and God brings to pass His
own work in His own way.
6. The gates of tlie rivers shall be opened, and
the palace shall be dissolved. All gives way in
an instant at the will of God ; the strife is
hushed ; no more is said of war and death ;
there is no more resistance or bloodshed ; no
sound except the wailing of the captives, the
flight of those who can escape, while the
conquerors empty it of the spoil, and then
she is left a waste. The swelling of the
river and the opening made by it may liave
given rise to the traditional account of
Ctesias, although obviously exaggerated as to
the destruction of the wall. The exagger
ated character of that tradition is not incon
sistent with, it rather implies, a basis of
truth. It is inconceivable that it should
have been thought, that walls, of the thick
ness which Ctesias had described, were over
thrown by the swelling of any river, unless
some such event as Ctesias relates, that the
siege was ended by an entrance afforded to
the enemy through some bursting-in of the
river, had been true. Nahum speaks noth
ing of the wall, but simply of the opening of
the gates of the rivers, obviously the gates, by
which the inhabitants could have access to
the rivers '', which otherwise would be useless
to them except as a wall. These rivers corre
spond to the rivers, the artificial divisions of
the Nile, by which No or Thebes was de
fended, or " the rivers of Babylon which yet
was washed by the one stream, the Eu
phrates. But Nineveh was surrounded and
1 S. Jer.
2 Such explanations as " gates whereby the enemy
poured in as rivers" (Ros.), or "gates of Nineveh
whioh was guarded by rivers" (Ew.) or "of the
streets, where the inhabitants surged like rivers "
(Hitz.) are plainly not literal.
3 Ps. cxxxvii. 1.
* See Introd. to Jonah, vol. i.
' Kaswini, quoted by 'Tuch p. 35.
0 Ainsw. 'tv, ii. 327.
1 The word, which occurs 18 times, is used of the
melting of the earth at the voice or presence or
touch of God, Ps. xlvi. 7, Nah. i. 6, Am. ix. 6 ; of the
"melting away" of a multitude, 1 Sara. xiv. 16; of
all Philistia, Is. xiv, 31; (act.) of God working the
dissolution of one being, Job xxx, 22, or of raany,

all all Before
i5iid,ii CHRIST cir. 713,

7 And II Huzzab
be 1 1 led away captive, she
. 1. , , T , J \\ Ox, that which
shall be brought up, and was established,
Ij Or, discovered, or, there was a stand made.

guarded by actual rivers, the Tigris and the
Khausser, and, (assuming those larger di-
men.sions of Nineveh, which are supported
by evidences so various *) the greater Zab,
which was " called * the frantic Zab ' on ac
count of the violence of its current." "The
Zab contained (says Ainsworth''), when we
saw it, a larger body of water than the Tigris,
whose tributaries are not supplied by so many
snow-mountains as those of the Zab." Of
these, if the Tigris be now on a level lower
than the ruins of Nineveh, it may not have
been so formerly. The Khausser, in its
natural direction, ran through Nineveh
where, now as of old, it turns a mill, and
must, of necessity, have been fenced by gates ;
else any invader might enter at will ; as, in
modern times, Mosul has its "gate of the
bridge." A break in these would obviously
let in an enemy, and might the more par
alyze the inhabitants, if they had any tra
dition, that the river alone could or would be
their enemy, as Nahum himself prophesied.
Subsequently inaccuracy or exaggeration
might easily represent this to be an over
throw of the walls themselves. It was all
one, in which way the breach was made.
The palace shall be dissolved. The prophet
unites the beginning and the end. The river-
gates were opened ; what had been the fence
against the enemy became an entrance f'or
them : with the river, there poured in also
the tide of the people of the enemy. The
palace, then, the imperial abode, the centre
of the erapire, embellished with the history
of its triumphs, sank, was dissolved'', and
ceased to be. It is not a physical loosening
of the sun-dried bricks by the stream which
would usually fiow harmless by ; but the dis
solution of the empire itself " '¦ The temple
i. e. Ilis kingdom was destroyed." The pal
aces both of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik lay
near the Khausser ' and both bear the marks
of fire".
7. The first word should be rendered. And
Is. Ixiv, 6; of the hearts of people, melting for
fear, Ex. xv. 16, Jos. ii. 9, 24, Ps. Ixxv. 4, cvii. 26. Jer.
xlix. 23, Ez. xxi, 20 : once only it is used physically
of water, of the clods softened by showers, Ps, Ixv.
11; and inthe ideal image "the hills shall melt,"
being dissolved, as it were, in the rich stream of the
abundant vintage. Am. ix. 13.
8 See Introduction to Jonah, vol. i. Asshurbani
pal, the last great monarch of Assyria, built his
palace on the mound of Kouyunjik. (Rawl. 6 Emp.
li. 490). " The Khosr-su, whieh runs on this side of
the Khorsabad ruins, often overflows its banks, and
pours its waters against the palace-mound. The
gaps, N. and S. of the mound, raay have been
caused by its violence." Ib. i. 358.
9 See ab. p. 122 n. e.

CHAPTEK II.

145

c H R°i s T ^^^ niaids shall lead her as
cir. 713, ¦vvjt,}i the voice of 'doves.

' Isa. 38. 14. tabering upon their breasts.
I Ox, from tlie 8 But Nineveh is ||of
daws that she i i ti i j? j.
ha'thbeen. old uke a pool 01 Water:
yet they shall flee away.
Stand, stand, shall they cry;
I Or, cause them but none shall 1 1 look back.
to turn. g rp^j^g yg ^j^g gp^-j ^f

it is decreed ; She shall be laid bare. It is de
creed '. All this took place, otherwise than
man Avould have thought, because it was the
will of God. She (the people of the city,
under the figure of a captive woman) shad be
laid bare '^, in shame, to her reproach ; she
shall be brought up ', to judgment, or from
Nineveh as being now sunk low and de
pressed ; and her maids, the lesser cities, as
female attendants on the royal city, and their
inhabitants represented as women, both as
put to shame and for ¦weakness. The whole
empire of Nineveh was overthrown by Ne
bopalassar. Yet neither was the special
shame wanting, that the noble matrons and
virgins were so led captives in shame and
sorrow. They shall lead her, as with the voice
of doves, moaning, yet, for fear, with a sub
dued voice.
8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water
i.e. of many peoples *, gathered from all quar
ters and settled there, her multitudes being
like the countless drops, full, untroubled,
with no ebb or flow, fenced in, from the days
that she hath been, jet even therefore stagnant
and corrupted '', not " a fountain of living
waters," during 600 years of unbroken em
pire; even lately it had been assailed in
vain * ; now its hour was come, the sluices
were broken ; the waters poured out. It was
full not of citizens only, but of other nations
poured into it. An old historian says',
" The chief and most powerful of those whom
Ninus settled there, were the Assyrians, but
also, of other nations, whoever willed." Thus
the pool was filled ; but at the rebuke of the
Lord they flee. Stand, stand, the Prophet
speaks iu the name of the widowed city ;
" shut the gates, go up on the walls, resist the
enemy, gather yourselves together, form a
1 This is the simple rendering of 3V il, Hof. of
3XJ. In Ch. 3''V', "firm," Dan. vi. 13; "reliable,"
Dan. ii. 4.5, vii. 16; K3'S'' "certainly," Dan. iii. 24,
3';f'-[0 "of a certainty," Dan.ii. 8. Also in Phcen. ;
Ges. Thes. p, 66. The retention of Huzzab as a
proper name for the queen, is derived from R.
Sarauel Hannagid in Ibn Ezra. The ground for
this, alleged in Rashi, viz. the use of n3XJ Ps, xiv.
10, betrays its origin. Kimchi, with the same
etymology, explains it of the palace.
10

silver, take the spoil of chrTst
gold : 1 1 for there is none '^Ji'- 7i3.

t Heb. vessels of
desire.

end of the store aiid glory || Or, and their
, « n , . , T , injinile store,
out oi all the j pleasant ^ *
furniture. 10 She is empty, and
void, and waste : and the
"heart melteth, and '' the = isa. is. 7.
, . , , , '¦ Dan. 5. 6.
knees smite together, ' and ' Jer. 30. 6.

band to withstand," but none shall look back to
the mother-city which calls them ; all is for
gotten, except their fear; parents, wives,
children, the wealth which is plundered,
home, worldly repute. So will men leave all
things, for the life of this world. * All that a
man hath, ivill he give for his life. Why not for
the life to come ?
9. Take ye tlie spoil of silver, take the spoil of
gold. Nineveh had not hearkened of old to
the voice of the Prophet, but had turned
back to sin ; it cannot hearken now, for fear.
He turns to the spoiler to whom God's judg
ments assigned her, and who is too ready to
hear. The gold and silver, which the last
Assyrian King had gathered into the palace
which he fired, was mostly removed (the
story says, treacherously) to Babylon. Ar-
baces is said to have borne this and to have
removed the residue, to the amount of many-
talents, to Agbatana, the Median capital*.
For there is none end of the store. Nineveh
had stored up from her foundation until then,
but at last for the spoiler. ^^ Mlien thou shalt
cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. Many ^'
perish and leave their wealth to others. '^ The
wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. And
glory out of all the pleasant furniture, [lit. as in
the Margin, " glory out of all vessels of de
sire "] i. e. however large the spoil, it would
be but a portion only ; yet all their, wealth,
though more than enough for the enemy and
for them, could not save them. Her " glory,"
was but a " weight " to weigh her down, that
she should not rise again '^. Their wealth
brought on the day of calamity, availed not
therein, although it could not be drawn dry
even by the spoiler. " " They could not spoil
so much as she supplied to be spoiled."
10. She is empty and void and waste. The
2 The meaning of nr\7j (aTr.) is determined by
that of the active H 7J1, which is always " laid bare,"
not " carried captive."
3 As in c. iii. 5. Is. xlvii. 2, 3.
^ Rev. xvii. 1. 5 See Jer. xlviii. 11.
0 By Cyaxares Her. i. 106.
' Ctesias ap. Diod. ii. 3. ' Job ii. 4.
» Diod. Sic. ii, 28, lo Is. xxxiii. 1.
11 Ps. xlix. 10. 12 Pr. xiii. 22.
13 Zech. V. 8. Ex. XV. 10. " S. Jer.

146

NAHUM.

^^^°i% T much pain is in all loins,

CHR cir. 713.

_ and ^ the faces of them all
k Joel 2. 6. gather blackness.
11 Where is the dwell-
ijob4. 10, 11. ina; of 'the lions, and the
Ezek. 19. 2-7. ^ „
feedmgplace oi the young
lions, where the lion even
the old lion, walked, and
the lion's whelp, and none
made thern afraid ?

completeness of her judgment is declared first
under that solemn number. Three, and the
three words in Hebrew are nearly the same ^,
with the same meaning, only each word
fuller than the former, as picturing a growing
desolation ; and then under four heads (in all
seven) also a growing fear. First ihe heart,
the seat of courage and resolve and high pur
pose, melteth; then the knees smite together,
tremble, shake, under the frame ; then, mneh
pain is in all loins, lit. " strong pains as of a
woman in travail," -svrithing and doubling the
whole body, and making it wholly powerless
and unable to stand upright, shall bow the
very loins, the seat of strength ^, aiul, lastly,
the faces of them all gather blackness ', the fruit
of extreme pain, and the token of approach
ing dissolution.
11. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the
feeding place of the young lions ? Great indeed
must be the desolation, which should call
forth the wonder of the prophet of God. He
asks " where is it?" For so utterly was Nine
veh to be effaced, that its place should scarcely
be known, and now is known by the ruins
which have been buried, and are dug up. The
messengers of her king had asked, '' Where
are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad ? of Sep
harvaim, Hena, and Ivah ? And now of her it
is asked, " Where is Nineveh ? " It had de
stroyed utterly all lands, and now itself is utterly
destroyed. The lion dwelt, fed, walked there,
up and down, at will ; all was spacious and
secure ; he terrified all, and none terrified
him ; he tore, strangled, laid up, as he willed,
booty in store ; but when he had filled it to
the full, he filled up also the raeasure of his
iniquities, and his sentence carae from God.
Nineveh had set at nought all human power,
and destroyed it ; now, therefore, God ap
peareth in His own Person.
13. Behold I, Myself, am against thee [lit.
1 See ab. p. 125-6. bookah, oomebookak, oomebuUakah.
2Prov. xxxi. 17. ^See on Joel ii. (1.
^ 2 Kings xviii. 34. ^ Aa in Ps. xxxvii, 20.
« See Rawl. 5 Empires ii. 4-21.
I Rawl. Ib. 10. 11. 13.
8 Layard Monuments, Series i. Plate 18, 21, 23,
27,28.

12 The lion did tear in chrTst
pieces enough for his  °"^' '^^^- —
whelps, and strangled for
his lionesses, and fllled his
holes with prey, and his
dens with ravin.
13 ""Behold, I a^m -Ezek. 29. 3.
. & 38. 3. & 39.
against thee, saith the ich. 3. 5.
Lord of hosts, and I will
burn her chariots in the

toward thee'] . God, iu His long-suffering, had,
as it were, looked away frora him ; now He
looked toward * him, and in His sight what
wicked one should stand ? Saith the Lord of
hosts, Whose power is infinite and He chang
eth not, and all the armies of heaven, the
holy angels and evil spirits and men are in
His Hand, whereto He directs or overrules
thera. And I will burn her chariots in the
smoke. The Assyrian sculptures attest how
greatly their pride and strength lay in their
chariots. They exhibit the minute embel
lishment of the chariots and horses ^ Al
most inconceivably light for speed, they are
pictured as whirled onward by the two' or,
more often, three * powerful steeds with eye
of fire ", the bodies of the slain '" (or, in peace,
the lion ^') under their feet, the mailed war
riors, with bows stretched to the utmost,
shooting at the more distant foe. Sennach
erib gives a terrific picture of the fierceness
of their onslaught. " The armor, the arms,
taken in my attacks, swam in the blood of
my enemies as in a river ; the war-chariots,
which destroy, man and beast, had, in their
course, crushed the bloody bodies and limbs "."
All this their warlike pride should be but
fuel for fire, and vanish in smoke, an emblem
of pride, swelling, mounting like a column
toward heaven, disappearing. Not a brand
shall then be saved out of the burning ; noth
ing half-consumed ; but the fire shall burn,
until there be nothing left to consume, as, in
Sodom and Gomorrah '', the smoke ofthe country
went up as the smoke of a furnace. And the
sword of the vengeance of God shall devour tlie
young lions, his hope for the tirae to come, the
flower of his youth ; and I will cut off thy prey,
what thou hast robbed, and so that thou
shouldest rob no more, but that thy spoil
should utterly cease from the earth, and the
voice of thy messengers shall be no more heard,
OSee a striking illustration in Rawl. ii. 15. (from
Boutcher.) 10 Layard Ser. i, 27. 28. ii. 45. 46.
11 Rawl. Ib. 13. Lavard Ninev. ii. 77.
12 In Oppert Sargonides p. 51. The general accu
racy of the deciphering is alone presupposed,
IS Gen, xix, 28. e ff

CHAPTEE IL

147

Before
CHRIST "il'- •'13- devour

smoke, and the sword shall
thy young lions :
and I will cut ofi" thy prey

such as Eabshakeh, whereby they insulted
and terrified the nations and blasphemed
God, In the spiritual sense, Nineveh being an
image of tlie world, the prophecy speaks of
the inroad made upon it through the Gospel,
its resistance, capture, desolation, destruction.
First, Pie that ruleth with a rod of iron, came
and denounced woe to il because of offenses ;
then His mighty ones ^ in His Name. Their
shield is red, the shield of faith, kindled and
glowing with love. Their raiment too is red,
because they wash it in the Blood of the
Lamb, and conciuer through the Blood of
the Lamb, and many shed their own blood
for a witness io them. The day of His prepara
tion is the whole period, until the end of the
world, in which the Gospel is preached, of
which the prophets and apostles speak, as
ihe day of salvation^ ; to the believing world
a day of salvation ; to the unbelieving, of
preparation for judgment. All which is
done, judgments, mercy, preaching, miracles,
patience of the saints, martyrdom, all which
is spoken, done, suffered, is part of the one
preparation for the final judgment. The
chariots. Hashing with light as they pass, are
' tlie chariots of salvation, bearing the bright
ness of the doctrine of Christ and the glory
of His truth throughout the world, enlight
ening while they wound; the "spears" are
the word of God, slaying to make alive.
On the other hand, in resisting, the world
clashes with itself It would oppose the Gos
pel, yet knows not how ; is " maddened with
rage, and gnashes its teeth, that it can pre
vail nothing*." On the broad ways which
lead to death, where Wisdom uttereth her voice
and is not heard, it is hemmed in, and can
not find a straight path ; its chariots dash
one against another, and yet they breathe
their ancient fury, and ran to and fro like
lightning, as the Lord saith, Ibeheld Satan, as
lightning, fall from Heaven". Then shall they
remember their mighty ones, all the might of
this world which they ascribe,! to their gods,
their manifold triumphs, whereby inPIeathen
times tlieir empire was established ; they
shall gather strength agjinst strength, but it
shall be powerless and real weakness. While
they prepare for a long siege, without luind
their gates give way ; the kingdom falls, the
world is taken captive by a blessed captivity,
suddenly, unawares, as one says in the second
century ; " " Men cry out that the state is be
set, tliat the Christians are in their fields, in
1 From Dion. 2 ig, xlix. 8. 2 Cor. vi, 2.
3 Habak. iii. 8. ¦! S. Jer. 6 s. Luke x, 18,
0 Tert. Apol. 0, 1. and p. 3. not, 9. Oxf. Tr.

from the earth, and the chrTst
voice of °thy messengers <>"¦ 7i3-
shall no more be heard. ° 19. &°i9. g^^i

their forts, in their islands ! " These mourn
over their past sins, and beat their breasts, iu
token of their sorrow ; yet sweeter shall be
the plaint of their sorrow, than any past joy.
So they shall mourn as doves, and tlieir
mourning is as melody and the voice of
praise in the ear of the Most High, One
part of the inhabitants of the world being
thus blessedly taken, the rest are fled. So in
all nearness of God's judgments, those who
are not brought nearer, flee further. " They
flee, and look not back, and none heareth the
Lord speaking. Return, ye backsliding children,
and Iwill heal your backslidings'' . So then,
hearing not Plis Voice, stand, stand, they flee
away from His presence in Mercy, into dark
ness for ever. Such is the lot of the inhab
itants of the world ; and what is tlie world
itself? The prophet answers what it has
been. A pool of water, into which all things,
the riches and glory, and wisdom, and pleas
ures of this world, have flowed in on all sides,
and which gave back nothing. All ended
in itself The water came from above, and
became stagnant in the lowest part of the
earth. " '" Yo'c all the vrisdom of this world,
apart from the sealed fountain ofthe Church,
and of -(vhich it cannot be said, the streams
thereof make glad the city of God nor are of those
waters which, above the heavens, praise the
Name of the Lord, however large they may
seem, yet are little, and are enclosed in a nar
row bound," These either are hallowed to
God, like the spoils of Egypt, as when the
eloquence of S. Cyprian was won through
the fishermen ", or the gold and silver are
offered to Him, or they are left to be wasted
and burned up. AU whieh is in the world, the
lust of the Jlesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, all under the sun, remain here.
" ' If they are thine, take them with thee.
When he dieth, he shall carry nothing away, his
glory shall not descend after him ^''. True riches
are, not wealth, but virtues, which the con
science carries with it, that it may be rich
for ever." The seven-fold terrors ^^, singly,
may h.ave a good sense '', that the stony heart
shall be melted, and the stiff knees, which
before were not bent to God, be bowed in the
Name of Jesus. Yet more fully are they
the deepening horrors of the wicked in the
Day of Judgment, when men's hearts shall fail
them for fear and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth '^, closing with
the everlasting confusion of face, the shame
and everlasting contempt, to which the wicked
' Jer. iii. 22. » The Apostles. S. Aug.
0 S. Bern, in Adv. Serm, 4, 10 Ps. xlix. 17,
n V, 10. 12 S. Luke xxi. 26.

148

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
t Heb. eity of
bloods.
• Ezek. 22. 2, 3.
& '24. 6. 9.
Hab. 2. 12.

CHAPTEE III.
1 The miserable ruin of Nineveh.
"^OE to the t" bloody
city ! it is aU full of

shall rise. As the vessel over the fire is not
cleansed, but blackened, so through the judg
ments of God, whereby the righteous are
cleansed, the wicked gather but fresh defile
ment and hate. Lastly, the Prophet asks.
Where is the dwelling of those who had made the
world a den qf ravin, where the lion, even the
devil who is u, roaring lion, and all Anti
christs ', destroyed at will ; where Satan
made his dwelling in the hearts of the
worldly, and tore in pieces for his whelps, i. c.
slew souls of men and gave thera over to in
ferior evil spirits to be tormented, and filled
his holes with prey, the pit of hell with the
souls which he deceived'''? The question
implies that they shall not be. ^ They whieh
Imue seem him shall say, Where is lie? God
Himself answers, that He Himself will come
against it to judgment, and destroy all raight
arrayed against God ; and Christ ¦* shall smite
the Wicked one with the rod of His Mouth, and
the ^ sharp two-edged sword out of His mouth
shall smite all nations, and tlie smoke of their
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever^; and it
should no more oppress, nor " any messenger
of Satan " go forth to harass the saints of
God. C. III. The prophecy of the destruction
in Nineveh is resumed in a dirge over her ;
yet still as future. It pronounces a woe, yet
to come '.
1. Woe to tlie bloody city, lit. city of bloods '',
i. e. of manifold bloodshedding, built and
founded in blood ^, as the prosperity of the
world ever is. Murder, oppression, wrest
ing of judgment, war out of covetousness,
grinding or neglect of the poor, raake it a
city of bloods. Nineveh, or the world, is a
city of the devil, as opposed to the " citj' of
God." " '" Two sorts of love have made two
sorts of cities ; the earthly, love of self even
to contempt of God ; the Heavenly, love of
God even to contempt of self The one
glorieth in itself, the other in the Lord."
" ^' Amid the manifold differences of the hu-
1 1 John ii. 18. - Dion. s Job xx. 7.
¦• Is. xi. 4. 5 Rev. i. 16, xix. 15. 21. o Rev. xiv. 11.
^ ^in, when signifying "woe," is always of future
woe, as lies in the word itself. It is used of classes
of persons 25 times; against people, Samaria, Jeru
salem or foreign nations, 13 times; ofthe past ouly
as to the wailings at funerals, 1 Kgs xiii. 30, Jer.
xxii. 18,".xxxiv, 5.
^ As in E. M. The phrase occurs Ezek. xxii. 2,
xxiv. 6. 9. So 'T t5'"X, 'tVJX, n''3, "a man" (2Sam.
xvi. 7, 8. Ps. V. 7) "men" (Ps. xxvi. 9, Iv. 24, lix. 3,
cxxxix. 19, Pr. xxix. 10) "a house" (2 Sam. xxi. 1)
" of bloods," guilty of manifold bloodshed.
» Hab. il. 12, Jer, xxii. 13.

lies and robbery ; the prey ^ h r^I t
departeth not ;  SIEl™^ 
2 The noise of a whip,
and "the noise of the '¦Jer.47.3.

man race, in languages, habits, rites, arms,
dress, there are but two kinds of human
society, which, according to our Scriptures,
we may call two cities. One is of such as
wish to live according to the flesh ; the other
of such as will according to the Spirit." " Of
these, one is predestined to live for ever with
God ; the other, to undergo everlasting
torment with the devil." Of this city, or
evil -(vorld, Nineveh, the city of bloods, is the
type. It is all full of lies and robbery, better, it is
all lie; it is full of robbery [rapiTie], iie in
cludes all falsehood, in word or act, denial of
God, hypocrisy ; toward man, it speaks of
treachery, treacherous dealing, in contrast
with open violence or rapine '^. The whole
being of the wicked is one lie, toward God
and man ; deceiving and deceived ; leaving
no place ibr God Who is the Truth ; seeking
through falsehood things which fail. Jlan
^^ loveth vanity and seeketh after leasing. All
were gone out of the way. " ^* There were
none in so great a multitude, for wliose sake
the merey of God might spare so great a
city." It is full, not so much of booty as of
rapineand violence. The sin remains, when
the profit is gone. Yet it ceaseth not, but
persevereth to the end; the ¦prey departeth^^
not; they will neither leave the sin, nor the
sin them ; they neither repent, nor are weary
of sinning. Avarice especially gains vigor
in old age, and grows by being fed. The
prey departeth not, but continues as a witness
against it, as a lion's lair is defiled by the
fragments of his prey.
2. The noise [lit. voice'] of the whip. There
is cry against cry ; the voice of the enemy,
brought upon them through the voice of the
oppressed. Blood hath a voice which crieth'^''
to heaven ; its echo or counterpart, as it were,
is the cry of the destroyer. All is urged on
with terrific speed. The chariot-wheels
quiver " in the rapid onset ; the chariots
bound, like living things '* ; the earth echoes
10 S. Aug. de Civ. D. xiv. 28. " Ib. c. 1.
^ p^S an-. The verB is used of the merciless
"tearing " of the lion, "rending and there is no
deliverer." Ps. vii. 3. is Ps. iv. 2. "Alb.
15 lO'lT is intrans. except in Mic, ii. 3, 4,
10 Gen. iv. 10.
1' 'd'J'^ of the chariots, Jer. xlvii. 3, of the war-
horse, Job. xxxix. 24, of the loud tumult of battle,
Is. ix. 4, Jer. x. 22.
i» Ipl is used of the dancing of children, Job
xxi. 11, of David before the ark, 1 Chr. xv. 29, of the
satyrs. Is. xiii. 21. Even when used of the tremb-

CHAPTEK III.

149

c H rTI t rattling of the wheels, and
 "'''¦ ^'•'' of the pransing horses, and
of the jumping chariots.
3 The horseman lifteth
tHeb. the flame -ar) both fthc bright sword
of the sword, . ^
and the light- and the glitterina; spear :
ning of the ° f.^
spear. and there is a multitude oi
slain, and a great number
of carcases ; and there is
none end of their corpses ;

with the whirling swiftness^ of the speed of
the cavalry. The Prophet within, with the
inward ear and eye 'n'hich heareth the mys
teries of the Kingdom of God'' and seeth
things to come, as they shall come upon the
wicked, sees and hears the scourge coming,
with ' a great noise, impetuously ; and so de
scribes it as present. Wars and rumors of
wars are among the signs of the Day of Judg
ment. The scourge, though literally relating
to the vehement onset of the enemy, suggests
to the thoughts, the scourges of Almighty
God, wherewith He chastens the penitent,
punishes the impenitent ; the wheel, the swift
changes of man's condition in the rolling-on
of time. '' 0 Ood, make them like a rolling thing.
3. The horseman lifteth up, rather, leading
up " : the flash of the sword, and the lightning
of the spear. Thus there are, in all, seven in
roads, seven signs, before the complete de
struction of Nineveh or the world; as, in
the Eevelations, all the forerunners of the
Judgment of the Great Day are summed up
under the voice of seven trumpets^ and
seven vials. " ' God shall not use horses and
chariots and other instruments of war, such
as are here spoken of, to judge the world,
yet, as is just, His terrors are foretold under
the name of those things, wherewith this
proud and bloody world hath sinned. For
so ail they that take the sword shall perish with
the sword^." They wlio, abusing their power,
have used all these weapons of war, especially
ling of the raountains before God, they are cora-
pared to living things, a calf, Ps. xxix. 6, rams, Ps.
cxiv. 4. 6. It is used also of the locusts, Jo, ii, 5.
[all]. Mostly, as here, it is intensive. In Syr. Pa.
is "danced;" in Arabic the insulated JNTDT is
used of "bounding as a ki(^." See Lane s. v.
1 The root only occurs beside Jud. v. 22. " Then
smote [the earth'] the horse-hoofs from the whirl
ings, tne whirlings [probably "whirling speed"
'^'^\'\ i. q. Ill] of his mighty ones " [i. e. steeds. Jer,
viii. 16. xlvii. 3. 1. 11.]. ^S. Matt, xiii, 11.16.
3 2 Pet. iii. 10. The words in Hebrew are pur
posely chosen with rough sounds, (r) "ra'ash,
doher, merakkedah." '' Ps. Ixxxiii. 14.
&This division is the more likely, because the
words stand very broken, mostly in pairs, describ
ing, as it were, by the veryorder of the words, the
successive onsets, wherewith the destruction from
Gtod should break in upon them.

they stumble upon their
corpses :
4 Because of the multi
tude of the whoredoms of
the welLfavored harlot, ° the
mistress of witchcrafts,
that selleth nations through
her whoredoms, and fami
lies through her witch
crafts.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

= Isa. 47. 9. 12.
Rev. IS. 2, 3.

against the servants of God, shall themselves
perish by them, and there shall be none end
of their corpses, for they shall be corpses for
ever: for, dying by an everlasting death,
they shall, without end, be without the true
life, whicli is God." And there is a multitude
of slain. Death follows on death. The Pro
phet views the vast field of carnage, and
everywhere there meets him only some new
form of death, slain, carcases, cm-pses, and
these in multitudes, an oppressive heavy number,
without end, so that the yet living stumble and
fall upon the carcases of the slain. So great
the raultitude of those who perish, and such
their foulness ; but what foulness is like sin ?
4. Because of ihe multitude qf the whoredoms
of the well-favored harlot. There are multi
tudes of slain, hecause of the multitude of vjhore-
cloms and love of the creature instead of the
Creator. Soto Babylon Isaiah saith, "'they
[loss of children and widowhood] shall come
upon thee in their perfection for the multi
tude of thy sorceries, for the great abundance
of thine enchantments." The actual use of
enchantments '", for which Babylon was so in
famous, is not elsewhere attributed to the
Assyrians. But neither is the word elsewhere
used figuratively; nor is Assyria, in its
intimate relation to Babylon, likely to have
been free from the longing, universal in
Heathendom, to obtain knowledge as to the
issue of events which would affect her. She
is, by a rare idiom, entitled " mistress " of
0 Rev. vi. viii. The foreboding cry " woe ! woe ! "
before the destruction of Jerusalera, an image also
of the Day of Judgment, was also seven-fold. See
above on c, ii. lo.
' Rup. 8 S. Matt. xxvi. 52. « Is. xlvii. n.
iOD^3IZ'3 (always plural) are spoken of as to Jeze
bel, 2 Kgs ix, 22; Babylon, Is. 1. c. and a.s to be
abolished by God in Judah ; Micah v. 11. Those
who used them, D'3ty3p, were employed by Pha
raoh, Ex. vii. 11, and Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. ii. 2 ;
were strictly forbidden to Israel (Ex. xxii. 17. De.
xviii. 10.) ; their employment was one chief ofl^ence
of Manasseh. (2 Chr. xxxiii. 6.)
11 nS>'jl (fem.) only occurs beside in 1 Kgs xvii.
17, of the widow of Zarephath, who, as being a
widow, was the mistress of the house, and of the
witch of Endor, as 31X rhjfX 1 Sam. xxviii. 7.

150

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
¦1 ch. 2. 13.
' Isa. 47. 2, 3.
Jer, 13, 22, 20.
Ezek. 16. 36.
Mic. 1. 11.

5 ^ Behold, I am against
thee, saith the Loed of
hosts ; aud " I will discover
thy skirts upon thy face,

enchantments," having them at lier com
mand, as instruments of power. Mostly,
idolatries and estrangement from God are
spoken of as whoredoms, only in respect of
those who, having been taken by God as His
own, forsook Him for fal'^e gods. But .Jezebel
too, of whose offences Jehu speaks under the
same two titles ^, was a heathen. And such
sins were but part of that larger all-compre
hending sin, that man, being made by God
for Himself, when he loveth the creature
instead of the Creator, divorceth himself
from God. Of this sin world-empires, such
as Nineveh, were the concentration. Their
being was one vast idolatry of self and of ihe
god of this world. All, art, fraud, deceit, pro
tection of the weak against the strong^,
proraises of good^, were employed, together
with open violence, to absorb all nations into
it. The one end of all was to form one great
idol-temple, of which the centre and end was
man, a rival worship to God, which should
enslave all to itself and the things of this
World. Nineveh and all conquering nations
used fraud as well as fnrce, enticed and en
tangled others, and so sold and deprived
them of freedom''. Nor are people less
sold and enslaved, because they have no
visible master. False freedom is the deepest
and most abject slavery. All sinful nations
or persons extend to others the infection of
their own sins. But, chiefly, the " wicked
world," manifoldly arrayed with fair forms,
and " beautiful in the eyes of those who will
not think or weigh how much more beauti
ful the Lord and Creator of all," spreads her
enticements on all sides, the lust ofthe flesh,
and the lu."! of the eye, and the pride of life, " her
pomps and vanities," worldly happiness and
glory and majesty, and ease and abundance,
deceives and sells mankind into the power of
Satan. It is called well-favored [lit. good of
grace], because the world has a real beauty,
nor, ""unless there were a grace and beauty
in the things we love, could they draw us to
them." They have their beauty, because
from God; then are they deformed, when
1 2 Kgs ix. 22,
2 2 Kg,, xvi. 7-9, 2 Chr. xxviii. 20, 21.
3 Is. x.xxvi. 16, 17.
*See Joel iii. 3. The word 13:3, as the act of
selling, iraplies elsewhere, "to part with into the
hands of another." This is implied, even wliere
(as in De. xxxii. 30, Ps. xliv. 13) it is not expressed
t'> whom they were sold. But here the nations
were not, as nations, sold by .Assyria into the hands
of others, but retained in its own power. Yet since
"130 occurs 80 times throughout the 0. T. in the oue

'and I
nationsand the
shame.

will shew the
thy nakedness,
kingdoms thy

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
'Hab. 2. 16.

"^things hold us back from God, which,
unless they were in God, were not at all."
"We deform them, if we love them for our
own sake.s, not in Him ; or for the intima
tions they give of Him. " ' Praise as to
things foul has an intensity of blame. As if
one would speak of a skilled thief, or a cour
ageous robber, or a clever cheat. So though
he calls Nineveh a well-favored harlot, this will
not be for her praise, (far from it !) but con
veys the heavier condemnation. As they,
when they would attract, use dainty babblings,
so was Nineveh a skilled artificer of ill-doing,
well provided with means to capture cities
and lands and to persuade them what pleased
herself" She selleth not nations only but
families, drawing mankind both as a mass,
and one by one after her, so that scarce any
escape. The adultery of the soul from God is the
raore grievous, the nearer God has brought
any to Himself, in priests worse than in the
people, in Christians than in Jews, in Jews
than in Heathen ; yet God espoused man
kind to Plim when He made him. His
dowry were gifts of nature. If this be adul
tery, how rauch sorer, when betrothed by the
Blood of Christ, and endowed with the gift
of the Spirit !
5. Behold I am against thee, saith the Lord
of Hosts. " ^ I will not send an Angel, nor
give thy destruction to othei-s ; I Myself will
come to destroy thee." " ' She has not to do
with man, or war with man : He Who is
angered with her is the Lord of hosts. But
who would meet God Almighty, Who hath
power over all, if He would war against
him?" In the Medes and Persians it was
God who was against them. Behold I am
against thee, lit. toward thee. It is a new
thing which God was about to do. Behold.'
God in His long-suffering had seemed to
overlook her. Now, He says, / am toward
thee, looking at her with His all-searching
eye, as her Judge. Violence is punished by
sufl'ering; deeds of shame by shame. All
sin is a whited sepulchre, fair without, foul
sense "sell," and its derivatives ISDD, JTISOD,
130, 14 times, it is against all idiora to assume
that, in this one ease, it meant "deceived" (as the
Arab. 'IJD, with ace. p. and 3 of thg.); nor were
the enchantments an instrument of deceit; the
word then must here too retain its sense of depriv
ing of liberty, " selling " to slavery or death.
s S. Aug, Couf iv. 13.
0 Ib. X. 27 and iv. 12 and note m.
'S. Cyr. 8S. Jer.

CHAPTER III.

151

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

6 And I will cast abom
inable filth upon thee, and
I! Mai. 2. 9. ^ make thee vile, and will
i"Heb. 10. 33. set thee as ""a gazingstock.
7 And it shall come to
pass that all they that look

within. God will strip off the outward fair
ness, and lay bare the inwai'd foulness. The
deepest shame is to lay bare, what the sinner
or the world veiled within. I will discover
thy skirts ^, i. e. the long flowing robes which
were part of her pomp and dignity, but
which were only the veil of her misdeeds.
Through the greatness of thine iniquity have thy
skirts been discovered, says Jeremiah in answer
to the heart's question, why have these things
come upon me ? Upon thy face, where shame
is felt. The conscience of thy foulness shall
be laid bare before thy face, thy eyes, thy
memory continually, so that thou shalt be
forced to read therein, whatsoever thou
hast done, said, thought. I will shew the
nations thy nakedness, that all may despise,
avoid, take example by thee, and praise
God for His righteous judgments upon
thee. The Evangelist heard much people in
heaven saying Alleluia to God that He hath
judged the whore whieh did corrupt the earth
with her foi-nieation ^. And Isaiah saith, They
shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the
men thai have trangsressed against Me '.
6. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee,
"''like a weight, that what thou >vouldest
not take heed to as sin, thou mayest feel in
punishment." Abominable things had Ood
seen ^ in her doings ; with abominable things
would he punish her. Man would fain sin,
aud forget it as a thing past. God maketh
him to possess ihe iniquities of his youth ^ and
bindeth them around him, so that they make
him to appear what they are, viW. ^Tliese
things hast thou done and I kept silence ; — I will
reprove thee and set them in order before thine
eyes. And will set thee as a gazingstock, that
all, while they gaze at thee, take warning
from thee '. '" I will cast thee to the ground ;
before kings will I give thee, for them to gaze
1 T/^L^ always plun
we speak of "robes."
same image, Jer. xiii.
h'iUj. Is. xlvii. 2.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

I, for their profuseness, as
It is the word used in the
22. 26; Isaiah has the like,

'^ Rev. xix. 1. 2.
s Jer. xiii. 27.
7 Comp. Wisdom iv.
0 Comp. 2 Chron. vii.
" Ptol. Prov. ap. Alb.
IS Comp. Ps. xxxi. 11.
" '31?'' J?, for '3P'J1;
Mio. i. 8.

3 Ixvi. 24. ¦'Alb.
« Job. xiii. 26.
sPs. 1.21.
10 Ezek. xxviii. 17.
12 Rev. xviii. 15.
Ixiv. 8. 10 Comp. Job xvi, 4, 5.
I, as Ip;; Ps. Ixxii. 14, n3'7'S

upon thee ' shall flee from
thee, and say, Nineveh is
laid waste : ^ who will be
moan her ? whence shall I
seek comforters for thee ?
8 ' Art thou better than i Amos e. 2.

1 Rev. 18. 10.
i Jer. 15. 6.

upon thee. " ^' Whoso amendeth not on occa
sion of others, others shall be amended on
occasion of him."
7. All they that look upon thee shall flee from
thee through terror, lest they should share
her plagues, as Israel did, when the earth
swallowed up Corah, Dathan and Ablram ;
and they who '* had beeumade rich by Babylon,
stand afar off, for the fear of her torment. All
they who look on thee. She was set as a thing
to be gazed at ^^. He tells the effect on the
gazers. Each one who so gazed'* at her should
fiee; one by one, they should gaze, be scared,
flee '*. Not one should remain. Who ivill
bemoan her? Not one should pay her the
passing tribute of sympathy at human calam
ity, the shaking of the head at her woe '".
'VVho had no compassion, shall find none.
8. Art tlwu better^'', more populous or more
powerful, than ihe populous No? rather than
No-Ammon, so called from the idol Ammon,
worshiped there. No-Ammon, (or, as it is
deciphered in the Cuneiform Inscriptions,
Nia), meaning probably "the portion of Am
mon ^Y' 'was the sacred name of the capital
of Upper Egypt, which, under its common
name, Thebes, was far-famed, even in the
time of Homer, for its continually accruing
wealth, its military power, its 20,000 chariots,
its vast dimensions attested by its 100 gates ^'.
Existing earlier, as the capital of Upper
Egypt, its grandeur began in the 18th dynasty,
after the expulsion of the Hyksos, or Semitic
conquerors of Egypt. Its Pharaohs were
conquerors, during the 18tli-20th dynasties,
B. C. 1706-1110, about six centuries. It
was then the centre of a world-empire.
Under a disguised name^", its rulers were
celebrated in Geek story also, for their world
wide conquests. The Greek statements have
in some main points been verified by the
19 As the LXX. (from their acquaintance with
Egypt) render, ii.epi'i 'Aiifiiir. The Coptic MSS.
Martyrologies raention "the place of Aramon,"
(Jablouski Opp. i. 1G3) and the Hieroglyphics. Lep-
sius^ Ohronol. d. Mg. i. 272. The common name
Ap-t or T-ap was the original of the name Thebes,
by which it became known to the West through
tlie Greeks.
10 II. ix. 381^, [all the wealth] " as much as comes
to the Egyptian Thebes, where most possessions
are laid up in the houses, which hath a hundred
gates, and from each, 200 men go forth with horses
and chariots."
20Sesostris. Herod, ii. 102-110, and notes in Rawl.
Her. ; Diod. i. 53-59, Strabo xv. 1. 6. xvi. 4. and 7.
xvii. 1. 5.

152

NAHUM.

c H rT 8 T lit populous " No, that was
cir. 718. situatj'. among the rivers,
U Or, nourishing.
i-Heb. No Amon.

' that had the waters round
"Jer. 48. 25, -26. Ezek. 30, 14^16.

decipherment of the hieroglyphics. The
monuments relate their victories in far Asia,
and mention Nineveh itself among the peo
ple who paid tribute to them. They warred
and conquered from the Soudan to Mesopo
taraia. A monument of Tothmosis I. (1066
B. C.) still exists at Kernian, between the
20th and 19th degrees latitude, boasting,
in language like that of tlie Assyrian con
querors ; " .\.ll lands are subdued, and bring
their tributes for the first time to the
gracious god '." " The frontier of Egyptj"
they say ^, " extends Southward to the
mountain of Apta (in Abyssinia) and North
ward to the furthest dwellings of the Asiat
ics." The hyperbolic statements are too
undefined for history', but widely-conquer
ing monarchs could alone have used them.
"*At all periods of history, the possession
of the country which we call Soudan (the
Black country) comprising Nubia, and which
the ancients called by the collective name of
Kous [Cush] or ^Ethiopia, has been an
exhaustless source of wealth to Egypt.
Whether by way of war or of commerce, barks
laden with flocks, corn, hides, ivory, precious
woods, stones and metals, and many other
products of those regions, descended the Nile
into Egypt, to fill the treasures of the temples
and of the court ofthe Pharaohs: andofmetals,
especially gold, mines whereof were worked
by captives and slaves, whose Egyptian name
•noub seems to have been the origin of the
name Nubia, the first province S. of Egypt."
" The conquered country of Soudan, called
Kous in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, was
governed by Egyptian princes of the royal
family, who bore the name 'of ' prince royal
of Kous.' "
But the prophet's appeal to Nineveh is the
more striking, because No, in its situation,
its commerce, the sources of its wealth, its
relation to the country which lay between
them, had been another and earlier Nineveh.
Only, as No had formerly conquered and ex
acted tribute from all those nations, even to
Nineveh itself, so now, under Sargon and
Sennacherib, Nineveh had reversed all those
successes, and displaced the Empire of Egypt
by its own, and taken No itself No had,
under its Tothmoses, Amenophes, Sethos, the
1 Brugsch Hist. d'Eg. p. 88.
2 Ib. and ('Tothmosis ill.) p. 109.
3 " Notwithstanding the length ofthe like texts,
recording the victories gained bythe Pharaohs, the
his.torical subject is treated as accessory, as an oc
casion of repeating, for the thousandth time, the
same formulas, the same hyperbolic words, the
same ideas." Brugsch pp. 89.

about it, whose ramparts chrTst
was the sea, and her wall  ""'• ''i^- 
Mas from the sea ?

Ousertesens, sent its messengers *, the leviers
of its tribute, had brought off from Asia that
countless mass of human strength, the cap
tives, who (as Israel, before its deliverance,
accomplished its hard labors) completed those
gigantic works, which, even after 2000 years
of decay, are still the marvel of the civilized
world. Tothmosis I., after subduing the
Sasou, brought back countless captives from
Nahurina* (Mesopotamia); Tothmosis IIL,
in 19 years of conquests, (1603-1585 B. C.)
"''raised the Egyptian empire to the height
of its greatness. Tothmosis repeatedly at
tacked the most powerful people of Asia, as
the Kouten (Assyrians ?) with a number of
subordinate kingdoms, such as Asshur,
Babel, Nineveh, Singar ; such as the Keme-
nen or Armenians, the Zahi or Phcenicians,
the Cheta or Hittites, and many more. We
learn, by the description of the objects of the
booty, sent to Egypt by land and sea, counted
by number and weight, many curious details
as to the industry of the conquered peoples
of central Asia, which do honor to the civili
zation of that time, and verify the tradition
that the Egyptian kings set up stelse in con
quered countries, in memory of their vic
tories. Tothmosis III. set up his stele in
Mesopotamia, ' for having enlarged the fron
tiers of Egypt.' " Amenophis too is related
to have ""taken the fortress of Nenii (Nine
veh)." ""He returned from the country of
the higher Eouten, where he had beaten all
his enemies to enlarge the frontiers of the
land of Egypt : '' ""he took possession of the
people of the South, and chastised the people
of the North : " " at Abd-el-Kournah " he
was represented as "'having for his foot
stool the heads and backs of five peoples of
the S. and four peoples of the N. or Asiat
ics." " " Among the names of the peoples,
who submitted to Egypt, are the Nubians,
the Asiatic shepherds, the inhabitants of Cy
prus and Jlesopotamia." " i" The world in
its length and its breadth " is promised by
the sphinx to Tothmosis TV. He is repre
sented as " ^' subduer of the negroes." Under
Amenophis IIL, the Memnon of the Greeks,
" '^ the Egyptian empire extended Northward
to Mesopotamia, Southward to the land of
Karou." He enlarged and beautified No,
1 Brugsch ib. p. 89-107. 6 Nah. ii. 13.
0 Brugsch p. 90.
' Ib. p. 104, the summary of pp. 95-103.
8 Ib. p. 111.
oib. 112.
10 On the sphinx of Gizeh Ib. p. 113.
11 In the Isle of Konosso near Philas Ib. p. 114.
" Ib. pp. 114, 115.

CHAPTEE III.

153

which had from him the temple of Louksor,
and his vocal statue, " ' all people bringing
their tributes, their children, their horses, a
mass of silver, of iron and ivory from coun
tries, the roads whereto we know not." The
king Horns is saluted as " '^ the sun. of the
nine people ; great is thy name to the
country of Ethiopia ; " "'' the gracious god
returns, having subdued the great of all
people." Setj I. (or Sethos) is exhibited^, as
reverenced by the Armenians, conquering
the Sasou, the " Hittites, Naharina (Mesopo
tamia), the Bouten (Assyrians?) the Pount,
or Arabs in the S. of Arabia, the Amari
or Amorites, and Kedes, perhaps Edessa."
Bameses IL, or the great * (identified with
the Pharaoh of the Exodus^), conquered
the Hittites in the'N. ; in the S. it is recorded,
" * the gracious god, who defeated the nine
people, who massacred myriads in a moment,
annihilated the people overthrown in their
blood, yet was there no other with him."
The 20th Dynasty (B. C. 1288-1110) began
again with conquests. " ' Bameses III.
triumphed over great confederations of Lib
yans and Syrians and the Isles of the Medi
terranean. He is the only king who, as the
monuments shew, carried on war at once by
land and sea." Beside raany names un
known to us, the Hittites, Amorites, Circe
sium, Aratus, Philistines, Phoenicia, Sasou,
Pount, are again recognized. North, South
East and West are declared to be tributary
to him, and of the North it is said, " "The
people, who knew not Egypt, corae to thee,
bringing gold and silver, lapis-lazuli, all
precious stones." He adorned Thebes with
the great temple of Medinet-Abou " and the
Bamesseum '". The brief notices of follow
ing Bameses' speak of internal prosperity
•and wealth : a fuller account of Bameses XII.
speaks of his " '' being in Mesopotamia to
exact the annual tribute," how " the kings of
all countries prostrated themselves before
him, and the king of the country of Bouchten
[it has been conjectured, Bagistan, or Ecba-
tana] presented to him tribute and his
daughter." " '^ He is the last Pharaoh who
goes to Mesopotamia, to collect the annual
tributes of the petty kingdoms of that coun
try." On this side of the Euphrates, Egypt
still retained some possessions to the time of
Necho ; for it is said, " ^^ the king of Babylon
had taken from the river of Egypt unto the
river Euphrates all that pertained to the
1 In Brugsch p. 116.
2 Ib. pp. 124, 125. 3 lb. pp. 128-132.
« Ib. pp. 137 sqq. ' Ib, p. 156. « Ib. p. 158.
' Ib, p. 183. 8 Ib. p. 190. 9 lb. p. 191.
1» Ib. pp. 197, 198. 11 lb. p. 207. 12 Ib. p. 210.
18 2 Kgs xxiv. 7. 1* Brugsch p. 212.
16 Ib. pp. 224-227. 1« Ib. p. 223. " Ib, p. 235,
18 Ib. p. 244.
1° XV. 1. 6. He mentions him again for his exten
sive removals of people, which implies extensive
conquests, i. 3. 21. ™ Joanne et Isambert,
ItinSratre de 1' Orient, p. 1039.

king of Egypt." Thebes continued to be
embellished alike by " the high-priests of
Ammon," who displaced the ancient line",
and kings ofthe Bubastite Dynasty, Sesonchis
I. or Sisak '', Takelothis II. '^, and Sesonchis
III". The Ethiopian dynasty of Sabakos
and Tearko or Tirhaka in another way illus
trates the importance of No. The Etliiopian
conquerors chose it as their royal city.
Thither, in the time of Sabakos, Syria
brought it tribute i" ; there Tirhaka set up
the records of his victories ^" ; and great must
have been the conqueror, whom Strabo put
on a line with Sesostris ^^. Its site marked it
out for a great capital ; and as such the
Ethiopian conqueror seized it. The hills on
either side retired, encircling the plain,
through the centre of which the Nile brought
down its wealth, connecting it with the un
told riches of the south. " ''" They formed a
vast circus, where the ancient metropolis ex
panded itself On the West, the Lybian
chain presents abrupt declivities which
command this side of the plain, and which
bend away above Bab-el-molouk, to end near
Kournah at the very bank of the river. On
the East, heights, softer and nearer, descend
in long declivities toward Louksor and Kar
nak, and their crests do not approach the
Nile until after Medamout, an hour or more
below Karnak." The breadth of the valley,
being about 10 miles ^', the city (of -B'hich,
Strabo says, " ^^ traces are now seen of its
magnitude, 80 stadia in length ") must have
occupied the whole. " ''^ The fam city em
braced the great space, which is now com
monly called the plain of Thebes and which
is divided by the Nile into t-«'o halves, an
Eastern and a Western, the first bounded by
the edge of the Arabian wilderness, the latter
by the hills of the dead ofthe steep Libyan
chain." The capital of Egypt, which was
identified of old with Egypt itself^*, thus lay
under the natural guardianship of the encir
cling hills which expanded to receive it,
divided into two by the river which was a
wall to both. The chains of hills, on either
side were themselves fenced in on East and
West by the great sand-deserts unapproach
able by an army. The long valley of the
Nile was the only access to an enemy. It
occupied apparently the victorious army of
Asshur-banipal '^ " a month and ten days "
to march from Memphis to Tliebes. " ^^ At
Thebes itself there are still remains of walls
21 Smith Bibl. Diet. v. Thebes. 22 xvii. 1, 46.
28 Brugsch Geogr. d. Alt. ^g. p. 176.
24 " In old times Thebes [the Thebais] was called
Egypt." Herod, ii. 15. "Formerly Egypt was called
Thebes." Aristot. Meteor, i. 14.
25 Inscr. in Oppert, Rapports, pp. 74, 78, 85.
26 Miss Harris, the learned daughter of a learned
Egyptologist; "In several hieroglyph ical inscrip
tions and notably in a papyrus in Miss Harris'
possession, partly deciphered by her father and
herself, there are minute accounts of fortresses
existing at that date, about the time of the ExoduE^

154

NAHUM.

and fortifications, strong, skillfully con
structed, and in good preservation, as there
are also in other Egyptian towns above and
below it. The crescent-shaped ridge of hills
approaches so close to the river at each end
as to admit of troops defiling past, but not
spreading out or manceuvering. At each of
these ends is a small old fort of the purely
Egyptian, i. e. the Ante-Hellenic period.
Both above and below there are several
similar crescent sweeps in the same chain
of hills, and at each angle a similar fort."
All successive monarchs, during more cen
turies than have passed since our Lord
came, successively beautified it. Everything
is gigantic, bearing witness to the enormous
mass of human strength, which its victorious
kings had gathered from all nations to toil
for its and their glorification. Wonderful is
it now in its decay, desolation, death ; one
great idol-temple of its gods and an apotheo
sis of its kings, as sons of its gods. " ^ What
spires are to a modern city, what the towers
of a cathedral are to the nave and choir, that
the statues of the Pliaraohs were to the
streets and temples of Thebes. The ground
is strewed with their fragments ; the avenues
of them towered high above plain and
houses. Three of gigantic size still remain.
One was the granite statue of Bameses him
self, who sat on the right side of the entrance
to his palace. — The only part of the temple or
palace, at all in proportion to him, must
have been the gateway, which rose in pyra
midal towers, now broken down and rolling
in a wild ruin down to the plain." It was
that self-deifying, against which Ezekiel is
commanded to prophesy ; 2 Speak and say ;
thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against
tliee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, tlie great dragon
that lieth in tlie midst of his rivers, which hath
said. My river is mine own, and I have made it
for myself. " ^Everywhere the s.ame colossal
proportions are preserved. Everywhere the
king is conquering, ruling, worshiping, wor
shiped. The palace is the temple. The
king is priest. He and his horses are ten
times the size of the rest of the army. Alike
in battle and in worship, he is of the same
stature as the gods themselves. Most strik
ing is the familiar gentleness, with which,
she supposes, and of their armaments and garri
sons." Thebes then was fortified, as well as Nine
veh, and Homer is confirraed by the IlieroglyphiGal
inscriptions. 1 Stanley Sin. and Pal, Introd. p. xxxviii..
2 Ezek. xxix. 3. sgtanl. Ib. p. xxxix.
4 Wilkinson Ane. Bg. iii, 266.
8 " about 887 tons, 6% hundred weight." Wilkin
son Mod. Eg. ii. 145.
8 " The obelisks, transported from the quarries of
Syene at the first cataract, in latitude 24° 5' 2:V' to
Thebes and Heliopolis, vary in size from 70 to 93
feet in length. They are of one single stone, and
the largest in Egypt (that of the great temple at
Karnak) I calculate to weigh 297 tons. This was
brought about 138 miles frora the quarry to where
it now stands ; those taken to Heliopolis, more than

one on each side, they take him by each
hand, as one of their own order, and then, in
the next compartment, introduce him to Am
mon, and the lion-headed goddess. Every
distinction, except of degree, between divin
ity and royalty is entirely levelled." Gigantic
dimensions picture to the eye the ideal great
ness, which is the key to the architecture of
No. " ^ Two other statues alone remain of
an avenue of eighteen similar or nearly
similar statues, some of whose remnants lie
in the field behind them, which led to the
palace of Amenophis III,, every one of the
statues being Amenophis liimself, thus giv
ing in multiplication what Bameses gained
in solitary elevation.'' " * Their statues w^re
all of one piece." Science still cannot explain,
how a mass of nearly 890 tons' of granite
was excavated at Syene, transported ^ and set
up at Thebes, or how destroyed'.
""The temper of the tools, which cut
adamantine stone as sharply and closely as an
ordinary scoop cuts an ordinary cheese, is
still a mystery." Everything is in propor
tion. The two sitting colossi, whose " breadth
across the shoulders is eighteen feet, their
height forty-seven feet, fifty-three above the
plain, or, with the half-buried pedestal, sixty
feet, were once connected by an avenue of
sphinxes of eleven hundred feet with what is
now ' Kom-el-Hettan,' or ' the mound of
sand-stone,' whioh marks the site of another
palace and temple of Amenophis III. ; and,
to judge from the little that remains, it must
have held a conspicuous rank among the
finest monuments of Thebes. All that now
exists of the interior are the bases of its
columns, some broken statues, and Syenite
sphinxes of the king, with several lion-
headed figures of black granite '." The four
villages, where are the chief remaining
temples, Karnak, Luksor, Medinet-Abou,
Kournah, form a great quadrilateral'", each
of whose sides is about one and a half mile,
and the whole compass accordingly six miles.
The avenue of six liundred sphinxes, which
joined the temple of Luksor with Karnak
must have been one and a half mile long '^ :
one of its obelisks is a remarkable ornament
of Paris. Mostly massiveness is the cliarac-
tsristic, since strength and miglit were their
800 miles. The power, however, to move the mass
was the same, whatever raight be the distance, and
the raechanical skill which transported it five or
even one, would suffice for any number of miles.
The two colossi of Amenophis iii., of a single block
each, 47 feet iu height, which contain about 11,500
cubic fept, are made of a stone not known within
several days journey of the place ; and at the
Memnonium is another of Rameses which, when
entire weighed upwards of 887 tons, and was
brought frora E'Sooan to Thebes, 138 railes." Wilk.
Ane. Eg. iii. 329, .330. 1 See Wilk. Mod. Eg. ii. 144.
8 Nozrani in Eg. and S.yr. p. 278.
"Wilkinson Mod. Eg, ii. 157, 158. 100, 162.
10 Joanne et Isambert, Itiner. de 1' Orient pp.
1039, 1040.
n Two kilometres, Joan, et Isamb. p. 1060.

CHAPTEE III.

155

ideal. Yet the massive columns still pre
served, as in the temple of Bameses II. ',
are even of piercing beauty '. And for the
temple of Karnak ! Its enclosure, which was
some two miles in circumference '', bears the
names of Monarchs removed from one an
other, according to the Chronology, by above

two thousand vears ^

A stupendous

colonnade, of which one pillar ouly remains
erect, once extended across its great court,
connecting the W. gate of entrance with that
at its extremity. The towers of the Eastern
gate are mere heaps of stones, poured down
into the court on one side and the great hall
on the other ; giant columns have been swept
away like reeds before the mighty avalanche,
and one hardly misses them. And in that
hall, of 170 feet by 329 feet, 134 columns
of colossal proportions supported its roof;
twelve of them, 62 feet high and about 35 in
circumference, and on each side a forest of
66 columns, 42 feet 5 in. in height. Beyond
the centre-avenue are seen obelisks, gateways
and masses of masonry ; every portion of
these gigantic ruins is covered with sculpture
most admirably executed, and every column
has been richly painted."
""Imagine a long vista of courts and
doorways and colonnades and halls ; here and
there an obelisk shooting up cut of the ruins,
and interrupting the opening view of the
forest of columns. — This mass of ruins, some
rolled down in avalanches of stone, others
perfect and painted, as when they were first
built, is approached on eyery side by avenues
of gateways. E. and W., N. and S., these
vast approaches are found. Some are shat
tered, but in every approach some remain ;
and in some can be traced, beside, the
further avenues, still in parts remaining by
hundreds together, avenues of ram-headed
sphinxes. Every Egyptian temple has, or
ought to have, one of those grand gateways,
formed of two sloping towers, with the high
perpendicular front between." Then, over
and above, is " their multiplied concentra
tion. — Close before almost every gateway in
1 Memnonium. See Hoskins, Winter in upper
and lower Eg. Frontispiece.
213 Stadia. (Diod. S. i. 46.) "It will be found to
surpass the measurement of the historian by at
least two or three stadia." Wilkins. ii. 249.
8 Osirtasen i, placed at 2803. B. 0. to Tirhaka, 693.
B. C, Wilkinson Mod. Eg. ii. 250. 252.
4 Lord Lindsay Letters on Egypt, &c., pp. 98, 99.
8 Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. xii. 8 Tac. Ann. ii. 60.
' In Zech. i. 11, this is brought out by the addition
of the word DtDDt!'! "and at rest ; " in Zech. vii. 7,
by niSu'l, "and tranquil." In Rev. xviii. 7, "I sit
a queen," the addition, " as a queen " points to the
other meaning, of X^'', "sat enthroned."
8 Yeorim.
!> Is. xviii. 2, xix. 5. In Arabic, the Nile is called
" the sweet sea " in contrast with " the salt sea," or
" the encircling sea ; " a title given by Egyptian
writers to the Mediterranean, as being connected
with the Ocean, Egyptian writers mostly add an

this vast array were the colossal figures, usu
ally in granite, of the great Bameses, some
times in white and red marble, of Amenophis
and of Thotiimes. Close by them, were pairs
of towering obelisks, which can generally be
traced by pedestals on either side. — You
have only to set up again the fallen obelisks
whioh lie at your feet ; to conceive the
columns, as-they are still seen in parts, over
spreading the whole ; to rejiroduce all the
statues, like those which still remain in
their august niches, to gaze on the painted
walls and pillars of the immense hall, which
even now can never be seen without a thrill
of awe, and you have ancient Thebes before
you." And most of those paintings were
records of their past might. " " There
remained on the massive buildings Egyptian
letters, recording their former wealthiness ;
and one of the elder priests, bidden to inter
pret his native language, related that of old
700,000 of military age dwelt there ; and
with that army king Bhamses gained pos
session of Libya, Ethiopia, the Medes and
Persians, the Bactrian and Scythian ; and
held in his empire the countries whicli the
Syrians and Armenians and neighboring
Cappadocians inhabit, the Bithynian also
and Lycian to the sea. There were read too
the tributes imposed on the natives, the
weight of silver and gold ; the number of
arms and horses, and the gifts to the temples,
ivory and frankincense, and what supplies of
corn and utensils each nation should pay, not
less magnificent than are now enjoined by
Parthian violence or by Bom an power."
That was situate lit. the dweller, she tliat
dwelleth. Perhaps the Prophet wished to
express the security and ease ', in which she
dwelt among the rirers. They encircled, folded
round her, as it were, so that she was a little
world in herself, secluded frora all who
would approach to hurt her. The Prophet's
word, nvers ", is especially used of the
branches or canals of the Nile, which is also
called the sca^. The Nile passed through
No, and doubtless its canals encircled it.
epithet to 'iniTX, to designate the sea, because
'in^Sx, simply, is the Nile; as in India it is the
Ganges ; in Mesopotaraia, the Euphrates. De Sacy
Chrest. Arab. ii. 14 16. ed. 2. The " white Nile " is
called " Bahr-el-Abiad," the "blue Nile" Bahr-el-
Azrek, and the great Ethiopian tributary to the
Nile, the Albara, " Bahr-el-Aswad," " the black sea."
Baker, Nile tributaries, p. 91. hn^Sx is also used
of the Tigris. Lane sub v. At Thebes, the Nile is
usually about half a mile in width, but, at the in
undation, overflowing the plain, especially upon the
western bank, for a breadth of two or more miles.
Smith Bib. Diet. v. Thebes. "When the Nile over
flows the country, the cities alone appear, sur
mounting it, like the islands in the iEgean ; the rest
of Egypt becomes a sea." Herod, ii. 97. " The water
of the Nile is like a sea." Plin. H. N. xxxv. 11.
"Homer gives to the river, the name 'Ocean,' be
cause the Egyptians in their own language call the
Nile, Ocean," Diod, S. i. 96.

156

NAHUM.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

t Heb. in thy
help.

9 Ethiopia and Egypt
¦were her strength, and
it was infinite ; Put and
Lubim were f thy helpers.
10 Yet was she carried

Egypt is said by a Heathen to be " ' walled
by the Nile as an everlasting wall." Whose
rampart was [rampart is] ilie sea. Wall and
rampart 2 are, properly, the outer and inner
wall of a city, the wall and forewall, so to
speak. For all walls and all defences, her
enfolding walls of sea would suffice. Strong
she was in herself; strong also in her helpers.
9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength ; lit.
Egypt was strength^, and Ethiopia, and bound
less. He sets forth first the imperial miglit
of No ; then her strength from foreign, sub
dued power. The capital is a sort of imper
sonation of the might of the state ; No, of
E^ypt, as Nineveh, of Assyria. AVhen the
head was cut off or the heart ceased to beat,
all was lost. The might of Egypt and
Ethiopia was the might of No, concentrated
in her. They were strength, and that strength
unmeasured by any human standard. Bound
less was the strength, which Nineveh had
subdued : boundless, the store * which she
had accumulated for the spoiler ; boundless *
the carcases of her slain. A ivl it was infinite.
" The people that came up with the king out
of Egypt, were without number"." The
Egyptians connected with Thebes are counted
by a heathen author' at seven millions.
Pat or Phut " is mentioned third among the
sons of Ham, after Cush and Mizraim ^.
They are mentioned with the Ethiopians in
Pharaoh's army at the Euphrates '", as joined
with them in the visitation of Egypt " ; with
Cush in the army qf Gog '2 ; with Lud in
that of Tyre '^ ; a country and river of that
name were, Josephus tells us ", " frequently
mentioned by Greek historians." They
dwelt in the Libya, conterminous to the
Canopic mouth of the Nile '¦'.
1 Isocr. Busir. ap. Boch. Phal. i. 1. p. 7.
2 7''n and na'in, joined Lam. ii. s, naim Spl
it included the space between the two walls (pom-
ceriuni) 2 Sam. xx 16, 1 Kgs xxi. 23. It is the whole
circuit of the wall as contrasted with the palaces
of Zion, in Ps. xlviii 14, cxxii. 7. As is common in
Hebrew poetry, wall and forewall," whieh together
make one subject, are placed in the pirallel
columns. "Murus et anteranrale" S. Jer on Is
xxvii. " the lesser wall, vehich is before the
greater," Rabb. ap. Kim. "the wall and the son
of the wall." R. Chanina. Ib.
8 Not lit. " her strength." It is naSi'. not HOV;? ;
the abstract for the concrete, as nb'N Job xii. 6,
njSJIb-T. ' " 4ii.io. '
Mil. 3. nypj'Xliueach.
8 2 Chron. xii. 3.
' Cato in Steph. Byz. ap. Boch. iv. 27.

away, she went into cap- qhr^It
tivity : ° her young chil- <=ii'- ''is.

J Ps 137 9
dren also were dashed in isa. 13.' 16.
pieces "at the top of all » Lam'. 2.19.'
the streets : and they ^ cast "" obad^'n.

And Lubim. These came up against
Judah in the army of Shishak" against
Eehoboam, and with the Ethiopians, " a huge
host" under Zerah the Ethiopian against
Asa *^. The Bibou or Libou appear on the
monuments as a people conquered by Me-
uephthes" and Barneses III." They were
still to be united with Egypt and the Ethio
pians in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes '^ ;
so their connection with Egypt was not
broken by its fall. Those unwearied enemies
had become incorporated with her ; and
were now her help. These ^vere (E. M.) in
thy help ; set upon it, given up to it ''". The
prophet appeals to No herself, as it were,
" Thou hadst strength." Then he turns away,
to^ speak of her, unwilling to look on the
miseries which he has to portray to Nine
veh, as the preludes of her own. Without
God, vain is tiie help of man.
10. Yet was she [also ''] carried away, lit.
She also became an exile ''' band, her people
were carried away, with all the barbarities of
Heathen war. All, through whom she
might recover, were destroyed or scattered
abroad ; the young, the hope of another age,
cruelly destroyed'^; her honorabk men en
slaved 2*, all tier great men prisoners. God's
judgments are executed step by step. Assy
ria ^ herself was the author of this captivity,
which Isaiah prophesied in the first years of
Hezekiah when Judah was leaning upon
Egypt 2^ It was repeated by all of the
house of Sargon ™. Jeremiah and Ezekiel
foretold fresh desolation by Nebuchadnez- ,
zar ". God foretold to His people '", I ^ave
^gypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
thee; and the Persian monarchs, who ful
filled prophecy in the restoration of Judah,
'Translated Lybians Jer. xlvi. 9. Ez. xxx, 5
XXXVIII. 5. 8Gen. X. 6. lojer.'l. c.
" Ez- x^.x- 5. 12 lb. xxxviii, 15.
3 lb. XXIX. 10. u Jos. Ant. i. 6. 2.
18 See Ges. Thes. s. v,
18 2 Chron. xvi. 8. coll. Ib. xiv. 9
1' B. C. 1341-1321 (Brugsch p. 172)
Z }r^.?.^.-,<^^Ib. 186, 190, 191. 18 Dan. xi. 43,
* ¦PiT,i!2 nnip Ps. xxxv. 2. nu'3 ex. xviii. 4.
2? 'The word is emphatic ; " She also," her voung
children also. The same word also is repeate'd.
^^nVun might be either "captivity" or "the
captives." But nSu? ]Sn occurs 5 times, m
n71J3, 3 times; but nVuS with neither.
28 See Hos. xiv. Is. xiiilio. 2 Kgs viii. 12.
« See Joel 111. 3. " 26 See Is. xx.
-8 See ab. pp. 117, 118.
"Jer. xlyi. 26, 26. and Ezekiel xxx. 14-16.
i® Is. xlui. 3.

CHAPTEE III.

157

lots for her honorable men.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713. and all her great men were

bound in chains.
11 Thou also shalt be
iJer. 25. 17, 27. 'drunken: thou shalt be
hid, thou also shalt seek
strength because of the
enemy.

fulfilled it also in the conquest of Egypt and
Ethiopia. Both perhaps out of human
policy in part. But Cambyses' wild hatred
of Egyptian idolatry fulfilled God's word.
Ptolemy Lathyrus carried on the work of
Cambyses ; the Eomans, Ptolemy's. Camby
ses burnt its temples ^ ; Lathyrus its four-or
five-storied private houses ^ ; the Eoman
Gallus levelled it to the ground ^. A little
after it was said of her, " *¦ she is inhabited as
so many scattered villages." A little after
our Lord's Coming, Germanicus went to visit,
not it, but " ^ the vast traces of it." " ^ It
lay overwhelmed with its hundred gates"
and utterly impoverished. No was powerful
as Nineveh, and less an enemy of the peo
ple of God. For though these often suffered
from Egypt, yet in those tiraes they even
trusted too much to its help '. If then the
judgments of God came upon No, how much
more upon Nineveh ! In type, Nineveh is
the image of the world as oppressing God's
Church ; No, rather of those who live for
this life, abounding in wealth, ease, power,
and forgetful of God. If, then, they were
punished, who took no active part against God,
fought not against God's truth, yet still were
sunk in ihe cares and riches and pleasures of
this life, what shall be the end of those who
openly resist God ?
11. Thou also. As thou hast done, so shall
it be done unto thee. The cruelties on No,
in the cycle of God's judgments, draw on the
like upon Nineveh who inflicted them. Thou
also " shalt be drunken with the same cup of
God's anger, entering within thee as wine
doth, bereaving thee of reason and of counsel
through the greatness of thy anguish, and
bringing shame on thee ^, and a stupefiiction
like death. Thou shall be hid, a thing hidden '"
1 Diod. Sic. i. 46. Strabo xvii. 1. 45.
2 They had been destroyed shortly before Dio
dorus Sic. Ib. 45, 46.
8 "She was destroyed tothe ground." S. Jer.
Chron. Eus. A. 1989.
* Strabo 1. e. 8 Tac. Ann. ii. 62.
8Juv. Sat. XV. 6. 'See Is. xxx. &c.
8r\X-DJ takes up S'H-DJ v. 10.
8 'The two images are united in Ob. 16.
18 'The force of the substantive verb with the
pass. part. HdS;;! 'rifl as in Zech. iii. 3; as, with
the act. part., it expresses continued action ; Gen.
i. 6, xxxvii. 2, De. ix. 1, 22, 24, xxviii. 29, 2 Sam. iii. 6,

12 All thy strongholds
shall be like ' fig trees with .
the firstripe figs : if they
be shaken, they shall even
fall into the mouth of the
eater. 1.3 Behold, nhy people
in the midst of thee are

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
'Rev. 6.13.

• Jer. 60. 37.
& 61. 30.

from the eyes of men, as though thou hadst
never been. Nahum had foretold lier com
plete desolation : he had asked, where is
she? Here he describes an abiding condi
tion ; strangely fulfilled, as perhaps never to
that extent besides ; her palaces, her monu
ments, lier records of her glorious triumphs
existed still in their place, but hidden out of
sight, as in a tomb, under the hill-like
mounds along the Tigris. Thou also shalt seek
strength, or a strong-hold from the enemy ^', out
of thyself, since thine own shall be weakness.
Yet in vain, since God, is not such to thee ^^.
" They shall seek, but not find." " For then
shall it be too late to cry for mercy, when it
is the time of justice." He shall have judgment
without merey, thai hath shewed no mercy ''
12. All thy strong-holds, shall be like figtrees,
with the first ripe figs, hanging from them '* ;
eagerly sought after'*, to be consumed.
Being ripe, they are ready to fall at once ; if
they be shaken ; it needeth but the tremulous
motion, as when trees wave in tlie wind '^,
they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater, not
costing even the slight pains of picking them
from the ground ". So easy is their destruc
tion on the part of God, though it cost more
pains to the Babylonians. At the end of the
world it shall be yet more fulfilled '", for
then God will use no human instrument,
but put forth only Plis ohti Almighti
ness ; and all strong-holds of man's pride,
moral or spiritual, shall, of themselves, melt
away. 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are
women. Fierce, fearless, hard, iron men, such
as their warriors still are portrayed by
themselves on their monuments, they whom
no toil wearied, no peril - daunted, shall be,
one and all, their whole people, women. So
Job i. 14, Ps. X. 14, cxxii. 2, Is. xxx. 20. See Ew.
Lebrb. n. 168».
11 y'iKO t'l t?D, as Is. xxv. 4, D1-ID nDHn, "a re-
....... n , ....... ... -! -
fuge from the storm."
12 i. 7. IS S. Jas. ii. 13.
"DmD3 DV D'JXn, as Cant. iv. 13, Dy DUIDT
18 See ab. p. 66 on Mic. v. 1. It is not here the
specific word, mi33, but D'T132, "the first-
fruits," in the same sense, as in Nu. xiii. 20, "'1)33
D'^J^* " the first ripe grapes."
i8j?1J is used of this, Is. vii. 2; here, as in Am.
ix. 9. Nif. " S. Jer. is Eey. vi. 13.

158

NAETOM.

c H rTs t ¦^^onaen '¦ tl^e gates of thy
— ""'• ^'^'  land shall be set wide open

Jeremiah to Babylon, " ' they shall become,
became, women." He set§ it before the eyes.
Behold, thy people axe women ; against nature
they are such, not in tenderness but in weak
ness and fear. Among the signs of the Day
of Judgment, it stands, men's hearts failing
ihem for fear ^. Where sin reigns, there is
no strength left, no manliness or nobleness of
soul, no power to resist. In the midst of tliee,
where thou seemest most secure, and, if any
where, there were hope of safety. The very
inmost self of the sinner gives way.
To thine enemies (this is, for emphasis,
prefixed) not for any good to thee, but to thine
enemies sliall be set wide open the gates of thy
land, not, thy gates, i. e. the gates of their
cities, (which is a distinct idiorn), but the gates
of the land itself, every avenue, wliich raight
have been closed against the invader, but
which was laid open. The Easterns^, as
well as the Greeks and Latins '', used the
word " gate " or " doors '' of the mountain-
passes, which gave an access to a land, but
which might be held against an enemy. In
the pass called " the Caucasian gate.s," there
were, over and above, doors fastened with
iron bars °- At Thermopyl* or, as the in
habitants called them, Pylaj ¦¦, " gates," the
narrow pass was further guarded uy a wall '.
Its name recalls the brilliant history, how
such approaches might be held by a devoted
handful of men against almost countless mul
titudes. Of Assyria, Pliny says, " " The
Tigris and pathless mountains encircle Adia-
bene." When those gates of the land gave
way, the whole land was laid open to its
enemies. The flre sliall devour thy bars. Probably, as
elsewhere, the bars of the gates, which were
mostly of wood, since it is added expressly of
1 Jer. 1. 37, li. 30. 2 S. Luke xxi. 26.
8 Freytag (sub. v. 3S3) says that the Pyrenees
are called in Arab. JKON^X h^i "the mountain
of gates," and that the Port.'E Caspice are called
^KUSbs DN3. "Bab Bmaria" is the name of a
pass in Libanon to the Litany, Eitter Erdk xvii
93. 94. 138. 218,- " Bab-el-Ho'wa " "gate of the
winds " is said to be a mountain gorge (Ritter xviii.
849. Buckingham gives the name to a gate of
Bosra. Travels among Arabs ii. 200). Bab-el-JIardin
is the name of a mountain-pass in the Masius chain
(Ritter xi. 263. 393. 464), "a remaakable gap or notch
m the chain of Mt. Masius, behind whioh is situ
ated the city of Mardin." Forbes on the Smjar
Hills, Mem. R. Geogr. Soc. 1639 p. 421. The name
"Bab-el-mandeb" shews that the name "door"
is given to narrow straits also, as is that of wiiAai
(See Lidd. and Scott Lex. v. ttijAt)). The Arab.
'lj)il only incidentally illustrates the idiom, being,
not a " gate " (as Rod. in Ges. Thes.) but " a gap,
interstice, hence a mountain-pass, au access to a
country," and specifically " a border-country toward

unto thine enemies : the ^ h ijYI t

fire shall devour thy 'bars.

eir. 713.

'Pa. 147. 13. Jer. 51. 30.

some, that they were of the iron '¦' or brass '".
"" Occasionally the efforts of the besiegers
were directed against the gate, which they
endeavored to break open with axes, or to set
on fire by application of a torch. — In the hot
climate of S. Asia wood becomes so diy by
exposure to the sun, that the most solid doors
may readily be ignited and consumed." It
is even remarked in one instance that the
Assyrians " ''' have not set fire to the gates of
this city, as appeared to be their usual prac
tice in attacking a fortified place."
So were her palaces buried as they stood,
that the traces of prolonged fire are still visi
ble, calcining the one part and leaving
others which were not exposed to it, uncal-
cined. " " It is incontestable that, during the
excavations, a considerable quantity of char
coal, and even pieces of wood, either half-
burnt' or in a perfect state of preservation.
were found in many places. The lining of
the chambers also bears certain marks of the
action of fire. All these things can be ex
plained only by supposing the iall of a burn
ing roof, which calcined the slabs of gypsum
and converted them into dust. It would be
absurd to imagine that the burning of a small
quantity of furniture could have left on the
walls marks like these which are to be seen
through all the chambers, with the exception
of one, which was only an open passage. It
must have been a violent and prolonged fire,
to be able to calcine not only a few places,
but every part of these slabs, which were ten
feet high and several inches thick. So com
plete a decomposition can be attributed but
to intense heat, such as would be occasioned
by the fall of a burning roof.
" Botta found on the engraved flag-stones
scoria and half-melted nails, so that there is no
an eneray," and in the idiom l;);!^^ 'Hi!', " stopped
the gap," like pi)3 ^D;; Ez. xxii. 30. The phrase,
Vlt^n ''1^*Ey, recurs Jer. xv. 7.
^The Kiirwiai 7rij\iit (Strabo xi. 12. 13), the
Ai;Siai_ Ib. x_iii. 65). Sec further Lidd. and Se. 1. c.)
the TTuAat T^5 KtALKta? Kat ttjs Si^ptag, Xen. Anab. i.
4. 14, the " AmanicEB Pyte " (Q. Curt. iii. 20). Pliny
speaks ofthe "portse Caucasia?" iH. N. vi. 11) or
" IberilB" (Albania? Ptol. v. 12.) Ib. 15.
8 " After these are the Caucasian gates (by many
very erroneously called the Caspian gates), a vast
work of nature, the mountains being suddenly in
terrupted, where are doors, &c." Plin. H. N vi 11
^^e™<i-™-2qi- nb. 176. 208.
8 Plm. N. H. VI. 9. quoted by Tuch ii 1
8 Ps. cvii. 16, Is. xiv. 2. 10 1 lies jy 13
11 Rawl. 5 Emp. ii. 83. who relates how "the city
of Candahiir was ignited from the outside bv the
Atighanees, aud was entirely consumed in less'than
an hour." Note.
12 Bonomi Nin. p. 205. ed. 2. on Botta plate 93. See
also Ib. p. 221, 222. 225.
18 Ib. Sect. iv. c. 1, pp. 245-247.

CHAPTEE IIL

159

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
« ch. 2. 1.

14 Draw thee waters
for the siege, ''fortify thy
strong holds : go into clay,
and tread the mortar,
make strong the brickkiln.

doubt that these appearances had been pro
duced by the action of intense and long-sus
tained heat. He remembers, beside, at Khor
sabad, that when he detached some bas-reliefs
from the earthy substance which covered them,
in order to copy the inscriptions that were be
hind, he found there coals and cinders, which
could have entered only by the top, between
the wall and the back of the bas-relief This
can be easily understood to have been caused
by the burning of the roof, but is inexpli
cable in any other manner. What tends
most positively to prove that the traces of
fire must be attributed to the burning of a
wooden roof is, that these traces are percep
tible only in the interior of the building.
The gypsum also that covers the wall inside
is completely calcined, while the outside of
the building is nearly everywhere untouched.
But wherever the fronting appears to have
at all suffered from fire, it is at the bottom ;
thus giving reason to suppose that the dam
age has been done by some burning matter
falling outside. In fact, not a single bas-
relief in a state to be removed was found
in any c^ the chambers, they were all
pulverized." The soul which does not rightly close its
senses against the enticements of the world,
does, in fact, open them, and death is come up
into our windows', and then "^whatever natural
good there yet be, which, as bars, would hinder
the enemy from bursting in, is consumed by
the fire," once kindled, of its evil passions.
14. Draw thee waters for the siege ; fortify thy
strongholds. This is not mere mockeiy at
man's weakness, when he would resist God.
It foretells that they shall toil, and that,
heavily. Toil is added upon toil. Nineveh
did undergo a two years' siege. Water stands
for all provisions within. He bids them,
as before", strengthen what was already
strong ; strongholds, which seemed to " cut
off" all approach. These he bids them
strengthen, not repairing decays only but
making them exceeding strong \ Oo into
clay. We seem to see all the inhabitants,

-S. Jer.

8ii. 1.

1 Jer. ix. 21.
4 2 Chr. xi. 12.
8 Is. xliv. 12, sqq.
8 "IDn and C0''£0 are united as synonyraes Is. xii.
25, where the tD'U is that which the potter treadeth,
D'D DDT ^:SV.
1 Rawl. 5 Erap. i. 476.
8 Wilk. Ane. Eg. ii. 99. « Anab. iii. 4, 4.
18 See Is. xxvii. 10, 11. n Ps. xlix. 11.
12 8. Luke xii. 19, 20.
18^33;^^^ expresses more than mere number.

15 There shall the fire
devour thee; the sword.
shall cut thee off, it shall
eat thee up like " the can-
kerworm: make thyself

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

^ Joel i. 4.

like ants on their nest, all poured out, every
one busy, every one making preparation for
the defence. Why had there been no need
of it ? What needed she of towers and for
tifications, whose armies were carrying war
into distant lands, before whom all which
was near was hushed ? Now, all had to be
renewed. As Isaiah in his mockery of the
idol-makers begins with the forging of the
axe, the planting and rearing of the trees,
which were at length to become the idol 8,
Nahum goes back to the beginning. The
neglected brick-kiln, useless in their prosper
ity, was to be repaired; the cLay", which
abounded in the valley of the Tigris', was
to be collected, mixed and kneaded by tread
ing, as still represented in the Egyptian
raonuraents. The conquering nation was to
do the work of slaves, as Asiatic captives are
represented, under their taskmasters", on
the raonuraents of Egypt, a prelude of their
future. Xenophon still saw the massive brick
wall, on the stone foundation".
Yet, though stored within and fenced with
out, it sliall not stand '".
15. There, where thou didst fence thyself,
and madest such manifold and toilsome pre
paration, shall the fire devour thee. All is toil
within. The fire of God's wrath falls and
consumes at once. Mankind still, with mire
and clay, build themselves Babels. They go
into clay, and become themselves earthly like
the mire they steep themselves in. They
make themselves strong, as though they
thought that their houses shall continue forever",
and say, '^ Soul, take thins ease, eat, drink and
be merry. God's wrath descends. Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. It
shall eat thee up like the canker<vonn. What in
thee is strongest, shall be devoured with as
much ease as the locust devours the tender
grass. The judgments of God, not only over-
¦whelm as a whole, but find out each tender
part, as the locust devours each single blade.
Make thyself many as the cankenvorm, as
though thou wouldest equal thyself in oppres
sive number '' to those instruments of the
1!33 retains always the idea of weight, gravity or
oppressiveness. 'We say "heavy hail" Ex. ix. 18,
24. It is used ofthe plague of flies, Ib.viii. 20, and,
as here, of the locusts, Ib. x. 14; of the host, with
which Esau opposed Israel, Nu. xx. 20, (adding
npin T'31) ; of that sent with Rabshakeh to Jeru
salem, Is. xxxvi. 2. and of the great train of the
Queen of Sheba, camels Laden with very much gold
and precious stones, 1 Kgs x. 2. 133 occurs above

160

NAHUM.

Before
CHEIST cir. 713.

many as the cankerworm,
. make thyself many as the
locusts. 16 Thou hast multiplied

vengeance of God, gathering from all quarters
armies to help thee ; yea, though thou make
thy whole self one oppressive multitude,
yet it shall not avail thee. Nay, lie saith,
thou hast essayed to do it.
16. Thou hast multiplied ihy merchants above
the stars of Heaven ; not numerous only but
glorieus in the eyes of the world, and, as
thou deemest, safe and inaccessible ; yet in
an instant all is gone.
The commerce of Nineveh was carried back
to prashistoric times, since its rivers bound
together the mountains of Armenia with the
Persian gulf, and marked out the line, by
which the distant merabers of the human
family should supply each others' needs.
" Semiramis," they say ^, " built other cities
on the Euphrates and the Tigris, where she
placed emporia for those who convey their
goods from Media and Parsetacene. Being
mighty rivers and passing through a popu
lous country, they yield many advantages to
those employed in commerce ; so that the
places by the river are full of wealthy em
poria." The Phoenicians traced back their
Assyrian commerce (and as it seems, truly) to
those same prsehistoric times, in which they
alleged, that they theraselves migrated from
the Persian gulf They commenced at once,
they said ", the long voyages, in which they
transported the wares of Egypt and Assyria.
The building of "Tadmor in the wilder
ness*" on the way to Tiphsach (Thapsacus)
the utmost bound of Solomon's dominions *,
connected Palestine with that commerce.
The great route for couriers and for traffic,
extending for fifteen hundred or sixteen
hundred miles in later times, must have lain
through Nineveh, since, although no raention
is made of the city which had perished, the
route lay across the two rivers ", the greater
and lesser Z.ab, of which the greater formed
the Southern limit of Nineveh. Those two
rivers led up to two mountain-passes which
opened a way to Media and Agbatana ; and
pillars at the summit of the N. pass attest the
use of this route over the Zagros cliain about
iii. 3. of the heavy mass of corpses. In Ex. ix. 3,
it is used of a grievous pestilence (Gesenius'
instances Thes. s. v.),
1 The two genders, 13nnn, 'll^nn, are proba
bly joined together, the more strongly to express
universality, as DJJ^E'DI WiZ'p, Is. iii. 1 ; and
Nahum himself unites C1"1B and nSIU in two
parallel clauses, ii. 13. 2 Diod, ii. ii.
8Herod. i. 1. <lKgsix. 18. 8 lb y. 4 (jy 24.)
8 Herod, ii. 62. ' See Eawl. 5 Emp. ii. ISO, 181.
8Ib. 18J, 182. 9 Ib. 182,183.

Before

thy merchants above the ^ g ^ j g ^
stars of heaven : the can-  "'''¦ '^^¦'^- 

kerworm ||spoileth, and *°4Sf'"''"'
fleeth away.

700 B. C Yet a third and easier pass was
used by Nineveh, as is evidenced by another
monument, of a date as yet undetermined ".
Two other lines connected Nineveh with
Syria and the West. Northern lines led
doubtless to Lake "Wan and the Black Sea'.
The lists of plunder or of tribute, carried off
during the world-empire of Egypt, before it
was displaced by Assyria, attest the exten
sive importsormanufactures of Nineveh'" ; the
titles of " Assyrian nard, Assyrian amomum,
Assyrian odors, myrrh, frankincense ", in
volve its trade with the spice countries:
domestic manufactures of hers apparently
were purple or dark-blue cloaks '^; embroid
ery, brocades ", and these conveyed in chests
of cedar ; her metallargy was on principles
recognized now ; in one practical point of
combining beauty with strength, she has
even been copied ".
A line of commerce, so marked out by
nature in the history of nations, is not
changed, unless some preferable line be dis
covered. Empires passed away, but at the
end of the 13th century trade and manufac
ture continued their wonted course and hab
itation. The faith in Jesus had converted
the ancient heathenism ; the heresj' of Mo
hammedanism disputed with the faith for
thesouls of men ; but the old material pros
perity of the world held its way. Man
kind still wanted the productions of each
others' lands. The merchants of Nineveh
were to be dispersed and were gone : itself
and its remembrance were to be effiiced from
the earth, and it was so ; in vain was a new
Nineveh built by the Eomans ; that also dis
appeared ; but so essential was its possession
for the necessities of commerce, that Mosul,
a large and populous to\yn, arose over against
its mounds, a city of the living over-against
its buried glories ; and, as our goods are
known in China by the name of our great
manufacturing capital, so a delicate manu
facture imposed on the languages of Europe
(Italian, Spanish, French, English, German)
the name of Mosul '^
18 " Dishes of silver with their covers ; a harp of
brass inlaid with gold; 823 pounds of perfumes "
(Brugsch Hist, d' Eg. p. 100^ ; " 10 pounds of true
lapis lazuli, 24 pounds of artificial lapis lazuli; vessels
laden with ebony and ivory, precious stones, vases,
(lb. p. 203); beside- many other articles, which
cannot yet be made out.
11 See Rawl. 5 Emp. ii. 191, 192.
'^n^Dfl ''DlSj Ez. xxvii. 24. I8ainn3
w Layard Nin. and Bab. p. 19I.
15 "All those cloths of gold and of silk whioh we call

CHAPTEE IIL

161

Before
CHEIST cir. 713.
5 Rev. 9. 7.

17 ^ Thy crowned are as
the locusts, and thy cap
tains as the great grass-

Even early in this century, under a mild
governor, an important commerce passed
through Mosul, from India, Persia, Kurdis
tan, Syria, Natolia, Europe'. And when
European traffic took the line of the Isthmus
of Suez, the communication with Kurdistan
still secured to it an important and exclusive
commerce. The merchants of Nineveh were
dispersed and gone. The commerce con
tinued over-against its grave.
The cankerworm spoileih and fleeth away;
better, ihe locust hath spread itself abroad
{marauded) and is flown. The prophet gives,
in three words ^, the whole history of Nine
veh, its beginning and its end. He had
before foretold its destruction, though it
should be oppressive as the locust ; he had
spoken of its commercial wealth ; he adds to
this, that other source of its wealth, its
despoiling warfares and their issue. The
heathen conqueror rehearsed his victory, " I
came, saw, conquered." The prophet goes
farther, as the issue of all human conquest, " I
disappeared." The locust [Nineveh] spread
itself abroad (the word is always used of an
inroad for plunder"), destroying and wasting,
everywhere : it left the world a desert, and
was gone *. Ill-gotten wealth makes poor,
not rich. Truly they who traffic in this
world, are more in number than they who,
seeking treasure in Heaven, shall shine as the
stars for ever and ever. For many are called.

' muslins ' (Mossulini) are of manufacture of Mosul."
Marco Polo, Travels c. 6. p. 37. ed. 18.54. " The man
ufactures from fine transparent white cotton, like
the stuffs now made in India under that name and
like the bombazines manufactured at Arzingan,
received in the following centuries the narae ' mus*
lins ; ' but not the silk brocades interwoven with
gold, whieh had their narae Baldachini from
Baldak i. e. Bagdad, and perhaps were manufac
tured at that time at Mosul, unless indeed this name
' muslin ' was then given to gold-brocades as wares
of Mosul." Eitter Erdk. x. 274, 275. " There is a
very large deposition of merchandise [at Mosul] be
cause of the river, wherefore several goods and fruits
are brought thither from the adjacent countries,
both by land and water, to ship them for Bagdad."
Rauwolf 's Travels P. 2, c. 9. p. 206, A. 1573. Niebuhr
still witnessed "the great traffic carried on there,
as also linen manufactures, dyeing and printing
[of stuffs]."
1 Olivier Voyage (1808) ii. 359. In 1766, one cara
van, in which Niebuhr travelled, had 1.300 camel-
loads of gall-apples from Kurdistan. It supplied
yearly 2000 centners of them. Nieb. ii. 274.
^']]l^t EaafS pV.
8 Jud. ix. 44 bis, 1 Sam. xxiii. 27, xxvii. 8, 10, xxx.
1, 1 Chr. xiv, 9, 13, 2 Chr. xxv. 13, xxviii. 18. The
object, against which the attacft is directed, is
joined on with 7S Jud. xx. 37, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, 10,
xxx. 1, or ^j;, Jud. ix. 33, 44, 1 Sam. xxiii. 27, xxvii.
10; even as totheobjectof plunder, "caraels" Job i.

hoppers, which camp in
the hedges in the cold day, _
but when the sun ariseth

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

but few are chosen. And when all the stars of
light " shall abide and praise Ood^, these men,
though multiplied like the locust, shall, like
the locust, pass away, destrojdng and de
stroyed. They abide for a while in the chill-
ness of this world ; when the Sun of right
eousness ariseth, they vanish. This is the
very order of God's Providence. As truly as
locusts, which in the cold and dew are chilled
and stiffened, and cannot spread their wings,
fly away when the sun is hot and are found
no longer, so shalt thou be dispersed and thy
plaee not any more be known". It was an
earnest of this, v/hen the Assyrians, Uke
locusts, had spread themselves around Jeru
salem in a dark day of trouble and of rebuke
and of blasphemy'', God was entreated and
they were not. Midian came up like the grass
hopper for multitude^. In the morning they
had fled'. What is the height of the sons of
men? or how do they spread themselves
abroad ? " At the longest, after a few years
it is but as the locust spreadeth himself and
fleeth away, no more to return.
17. Thy crowned are as the locust, and thy
captains as the great locusts. What he had said
summarily under metaphor, the propliet ex
pands in a likeness. The crowned '" are prob
ably the subordinate princes, of whom Sen
nacherib said ", Are not my princes altogether
kings ? It has been observed that the head
dress of the Assyrian Vizier has the orna-

17. The place (Hos. vi. 1) or country (1 Chr. xiv. 9,
13, 2 Chr. xxv. 13, x-xviii. 18) is joined with 3, and
once (1 Sara, xx.x.' 14) stands iu the accus. The
idiora VTJD COK'i), " put off his clothes," is distinct.
The object of the verb is always added Lev. vi. 4,
xvi. 23, 1 Sam. xix. 24, Cant. v. 3, Ez. xxvi. 10, xliv. 19,
Neh. iv. 17 ; except that, in Is. xxxii. 11, it is
implied by the context, " strip ye, make ye bare."
Credner's theory theu (followed by Ewald Proph.
iii, 14. ed. 2.) that p7'' signifies the locust in its last
moulting, which strips off the involucra of its wings,
is contrary to the use of JDK'S, as well as to that of
p7\ See on Joel vol. i. p. 149. Gesenius, under lOK^S,
contradicts the explanation which he had given
under pV from Credner.
* C11_J? is used of shortness of human life ; " like a
dream he flieth away," ('llj;'') Job xx. 8; "and we
fly away" HiSi^JI, Ps. xc. 10. " Ephraim, like a bird,
their glory flieth away," tl31J7ri% Eos. ix. 11, add
Pr. xxiii. 6, of unjust wealth.
6 Ps. cxiviii. 3. 8 See c. i. 8. ' Is.xxxvii. 3.
8 Judg. vi. 4, 5„vii. 12. 8 Judg. vii. 21.
1" The punctuation of TltJC is compared by Jew
ish grammarians too to tyiPD Ex. xv. 17; n"1JElD
Jo. i. 17. ' ' " Is. x.'s'.

162

NAHUM.

CHE°isT ^¦'¦'^y ^®® away, and their
cir. 713.

_ place is not known where
„ ,, , they are.
« Ex. 15. 16. •'
Ps.76. 6. 18 '¦Thy shepherds
» Jer. 50. 18. •' '¦
Ezek. 31. 3, &o. slumber, 0 " king of As-

ment which " ' throughout the whole series
of sculptures is the distinctive mark of royal
or quasi-royal authority." " ^ All high offi
cers of state, tixe croivned captains, were adorned
with diadems, closely resembling the lower
band of the royal mitre, separated from the
cap itself Such was that of the vizier,
which was broader in front than behind, w.as
adorned with rosettes and compartments, and
terminated in two ribbons with embroidered
and fringed, ends, which hung down his
back." Captain is apparently the title of
some military ofiice of princely rank. One
such Jeremiah ', in a prophecy in which he
probably alludes to this, bids place over the
armies of Ararat, Minni, and .Vshchenaz, to
marshall them against Babylon, against
¦which he summons the cavalry like the rough
locust. The captains are likened to the great
caterpillars*, either as chief in devastation,
or as including under them the armies under
their command, who moved at their will.
These and their armies now subsided into
stillness for a time under the chill of calara-
ity, like the locust " ° whose nature it is, that,
torpid in the cold, they fly in the heat." The
stiffness of the locusts through the cold,
when they lie motionless, heaps upon heaps,
hidden out of sight, is a striking image of
the helplessness of Nineveh's mightiest in
the day of her calamity ; then, by a diderent
part of their history, he pictures their en
tire disappearance. "''The locusts, are com
monly taken in the morning when they are
agglomerated one on another, in the places
where they passed the night. As soon as the
sun warms them, they fly away." When the
sun ariseth, they flee, away'', lit. it is chased
away'*. One and all; all as one. As at
God's command the plague of locusts, which
1 Rawl. 5. Empires i. 115.
s-Gosse, Assyria p. 463, who remarks that "the
Ten Thousand in Xerxes' army," crossed the Hel
lespont " crowned with garlands." Herod, vii. 55.
8Jer. li. 27. On the word, TD^B, see ab. p. 107.
n. e.
''''3U 31J, doubtless the common superlative,
like 'On^i! 12p Gen. ix. 25.
6S. Jer. copied by S. Cyr. and Theod.
8 0a.oalis, on the proverb of the Bassouto, "lo
custs are taken in the heap." Etudes sur la langue
Sechuana j. 87. Paris 1842, referred to by Ewald ad
loc. who also refers to Ilm Babuta (in'the Journ
As. 1843, March, p. 240.) " The chase of locusts is
made before sunrise ; for then thejf are benumbed
by the cold and cannot fly."
'iTIp^ DV, "the cold day," (also Prov. xxv. 20),
of course does not mean " night," (as Hitzig &c.)

Syria : thy 1 1 nobles shall
dwell in the dust: thy peo
ple is " scattered upon the
mountains, and no man
gathereth them.

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.
I Or, valiant
ones.
b 1 Kin. 22. 17.

He had sent on Egypt, was removed ' ; there
remained not one locust in all tlie coasts of Egypt ;
so the mighty of Nineveh were driven forth,
with no trace where they had been, where
they were. Tlie wind carried them away'";
tlie wind passeth over him and he is not, and his
place knoweth him na more ". The triumphing
of the wicked is short, ami the joy of tlie ungodly
flora moment: though his excellency mount up
to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds,
yet he shall perish for ever; they which have seen
him shall say, where is he ? He shall fly away, as
a dream, and shall not be found; neither shall
his place anymore behold him'"'.
Where they are. So Zechariah asks, Your
fathers, where are they '^ ? History, experience,
human knowledge can answer nothing. They
can only say, where they are 'not. God
Alone can answer that much -containing word,
Where-they^i. They had disappeared from
human sight, from their greatness, their visi
ble being, their place on earth.
18. Thy shepherds, i.e. they who should
counsel for the people's good and feed it, and
keep watch over their flocks by night, but are now
like their raaster, the King of Assyria, are his
shepherds not the shepherds of the people
whom they care not for ; these slumber, at
once through listlessness and excess, and now
have fallen asleep in death, as the Psalmist
says'*, They have slept their sleep. The pro
phet speaks of the future, as already past in
effect, as it was in the will of God. All " the
shepherds of the people""," all who could
»liepherd them, or hold them together, them
selves sleep the sleep of death; their mighty
men dwelt" in that abiding-place, where they
shall not move or rise'^, the grave ; and so
as Micaiah, in the vision predictive of
Ahab's death ", saw all Israel .scattered on ihe
nor (as Ew &<?.) does tfOtyn mi mean anything
but " sunrise," of which it is used 8 times beside,
Gen. xxxii. 32, Ex. xxii. 2, Jud. ix. 33, 2 Sam. xxiii.
4, 2 Kgs iii. 22, Ps. eiv. 22, Eccl. i. .', .Ion. iv. S ; but
the locusts, having been benumbed by a cold day,
plainly would not l>e warmed till the sunrise of tiie
following day.
8 1'V :, passive. « Ex. x. 19. lo Is. xii. 16.
" Ps. ciii. 16. 12 Job XX. 5-9. " Zech. i.
'*D^¥!, contracted for DH IT'X-
18 Ps. Ixxvi. 6, Dnjiy IDJ.
18 Homer, passim. " Comp. |3jyp Is. xxii. 16.
18 " They cannot rise " Rashi. " It means the rest
of death, and so 'B^flJ nDll njDiy Ps. xciv. 6,
pW 13.J?'? nUD Ps. vii. 6." Sal. Ben 3Iel. "are
still and move not." A. E. 18 1 Kgs xxii. 17.

CHAPTEE III.

163

c H R°i I T ¦'¦^ There is no ftealing
''''•¦ ^13. of thy bruise ; ° thy wound
f Heb. wrinkling. c Mic. 1. 9.

hiUs, as sheep that have not a shepherd, so the
people of the Assyrian monarch shall be
scattered on ihe mountains, shepherdless, and
that irretrievably ; no man gathereth them.
19. There is no healing [lit. dulling'] of thy
bruise; it cannot be softened or mitigated;
and so thy wound is grievous [lit. siek], incur
able, for when the wound ever anew inflames,
it cannot be healed. The word, bruise, is the
more expressive, because it denotes alike the
abiding wound in the body ', and the shatter
ing of a state, which God can heaP, or
which may be great, incurable ^. When the
passions are ever anew aroused, they are at
last \vithout remedy ; when the soul is ever
swollen with pride, it cannot be healed ; since
only by submitting itself to Christ, " broken
and contrite" by humility, can it be healed.
Nineveh sank, and never rose ; nothing-
soothed its fall. In the end there shall be
nothing to mitigate the destruction of the
world, or to soften the sufferings of the
damned. The rich man, being m torments,
asked in vain that Lazarus might dip the tip
of his flnger in water and cool my tongue.
All that hear tlie bruit of thee shcdl dap the
hands over thee, for none can grieve at thy
fall. Nineveh sinks out of sight amid one uni
versal, exulting, exceeding joy * of all who
heard the report of her. For upon whom hath
¦not thy wickedness passed continually ? " In
that he asketh, upon whom hath not thy wicked
ness' passed continually? he affirmeth most
strongly that his evil did pass upon all con
tinually." His wickedness, like one continual
flood, which knew no ebb or bound, had
passed upon the whole world and each one in
it ; now at length it had passed away, and
the whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they break
forth into singing *.
It is not without meaning, that having
throughout the prophecy addressed Nineveh
(in the feminine), now, in the close'', the
prophet turns to him in whom all its wicked
ness is, as it were, gathered into one, the soul
of all its evil, and the director of it, its king.
As Nineveh is the image of the world, its
pomps, wealth, luxury, vanity, wickedness,
oppression, destruction, so its king is the
image of a worse king, the Prince of this
world. " ' And this is the song of triumph
of those, over whora his wickedness has passed,
not rested, but they have escaped out of his
hands. Nahum, 'the comforter,' had rebuked

"Ts. Ix. 4, Is. xxx. 26.

joy-

1 Lev. xxi. 19.
8Jer. xxx. 12.
* 13 li'pn. only here and Ps. xlvii. 2, expressing
y. ' I

is grievous : * all that hear „ S'S°^% m
the bruit of thee shall clap _ '=ii'- 'is-

8 Lara. 2. 15. Zeph. ii. 15. See Isa. 14. 8, &c.

the world of sin ; now he pronounces that the
prince of this world is judged. His shepherds
are they who serve him, \^ho feed the flock of
the slaughter, who guide them to evil, not to
good. These, when they sleep, as all man
kind, dwell there; it is their abiding-place;
their sheep are scattered on the mountains, in
the heights of their pride, because they are
not of the sheep of Christ _; and since they
would not be gathered of Him, they are scat
tered, where none gatliereth." " The king of
Assyria (Satan) knoweth that he cannot de
ceive the sheep, unless he have first laid the
shepherds asleep. It is ever the aim of the
devil to lay asleep souls that watch. In the
Passion of the Lord, he weighed down the
eyes ofthe Apostles with heavy sleep, whom
Christ arouseth*, Wateh and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation; and again, Wlud I say unto
you, I say unto all, watch ! And no man gather
eth them, for their shepherds themselves can
not protect themselves. In the Day of God's
anger, the kings of the earth a.nd. the great men,
and the rich men a'nd the chief captains, and the
mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens ancl in the rocks
of the mountains^. Such are his shepherds,
and his sheep ; but what of himself '? Truly
his bruise or breaking can not be healed; his
wound or smiting is incurable; that namely
wdiereby, when he came to Plira in. Whom he
found nothing '", yet bruised His heel, and ex
acted of Him a sinner's death, his own head
was bruised." And hence all who ham ears to
hear, who hear not 'with the outward only,
but with the inner ears of the heart, clap the
hands over thee, i. e. give to God all their souls'
thanks and praise, raise up their eyes and
hands to God in heaven, praising Him Who
had bruised Satanunder their feet. Ever since,
through the serpent, the evil and malicious
One lied, saying, ye shall not surely die, eat and
ye sliall be as gods, hath his evil, continually
and unceasingly, frora one and through one,
passed upon all men. As the Apostle saith,
As by one man, sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned ". Upon whom then
hath not his sin jxtssed ? Who hath not been
shapen in iniquity ? and whom did not his
mother conceive in sin ? Yet, it passeth only,
for tlie world itself also passeth away, and we
pass away from it, and all the evil it can do
us, unless we share in its evil, is not abiding,
but passing. This then is the cause, and a

8 Is. xiv, 7.
'S. Jer. Rup.
8S. Mat. xxvi. 41.
10 S. John xiv. 30.

8v. 18, 19.
8 Eev. vi. 15.
n Rom. V. 12.

164

NAHUM.

chrTst *^® hands over thee: for
cir. 713. upon whom hath not thy

great cause, why all that hear the bruit of thee
should clap the hands over tliee ; because thee,
whose wickedness passed through one upon all.
One Man, Who Alone was without sin, con
temned and bruised, while He freed and
justified frora wickedness them who hearing
rejoiced, and rejoicing and believinj

wickedness passed contin
ually ?

Before
CHRIST cir. 713.

the hands over thee. Yet they only shall be
glad, upon whom his wickedness, although it
passed, yet abode not, but in prayer and good
deeds, by the grace of God, they lifted up their
hands to Him Who overcame, and 'Who, in
His own, overcometh still, to Whom be praise
and thanksgiving for ever and ever. Amen.

mTEODUOTIOl!^

TO

THE PROPHET
HABAKKUK.

Habaxkhk is eminently the prophet of
reverential, awe-filled faith. This is the soul
and centre of his prophecy. One word alone
he addresses directly to his people. It is
of marvel at their want of faith. ^Behold
among the heathen and gaze attentively, and
marvel, marvel; for I am working a work in
your days; ye will not believe, when it is declared
unto you. He bids them behold, and gaze, for
God is about to work in their own days ; he
bids them prepare themselves to marvel, and
'marvel on; for it was a matter, at which
political wisdom would stagger ; and they,
since they had not faith, would not believe
it. The counterpart to this, is that great
blessing of faith, which is the key-stone of
his whole book, '' the just shall live by his faith.
Isaiah had foretold to Hezekiah that his
treasures should be carried to Babylon, his
sons be eunuchs in the palace of its king ".
He had foretold the destruction of Babylon
and the restoration of the Jews ^. Prophecy
in Habakkuk, full as it is, is almost subordi
nate. His main subject is, that which oc
cupied Asaph in the 73d Psalra, the afflic
tions of the righteous amid the prosperity of
the wicked. The answer is the same ; the
result of all will be one great reversal, the
evil drawing upon themselves evil, God
crowning the patient waiting of the righteous
in still submission to His holy Will. The
just shall live by his faith, occupies the same
place in Habakkuk, as / know that my Re
deemer liveth, does in Job ^, or Thou shalt guide
me with Thy counsel, and after that receive me
into glory, in Asaph ''.
His first subjects is, faith struggling under

* i. 5. b ii. 4.
^ Is. xii. xiii. xlvii.

» Is. xxxix. 6, 7.
« Job xix. 25.

the oppressive sight of the sufferings of the
good from the bad within God's people ; the
second •", the sufferings at the hands of those
who are God's instruments to avenge that
wickedness. The third ', that of his great
hymn, is faith, not jubilant until the end,
yet victorious, praying, believing, seeing in
vision what it prays for, and triumphing in
that, of which it sees no tokens, whose only
earnest is God's old loving-kindnesses to His
people, and His Name, under which Pie had
revealed Himself, "He Who Is," the Un
changeable. The whole propliecy is, so to speak, a col
loquy between the prophet and God. He
opens it with a reverential, earnest, appeal
to God, like that of the saints under the
heavenly Altar in the Eevelations'', How
long ? The prophet had prayed to God to
end or mitigate the violence, oppressions,
strife, contention, despoiling, powerlessness
ofthe law, crookedness of justice, entrapping
of the righteous by the wicked '- God
answers ", that a terrible day of retribution
was coming, that He Himself would raise up
the Chaldees, as the instruments of His
chastisements, terrible, self-dependent, own
ing no law or authority but their own will,
deifying their own power, sweeping the
whole breadth of the land, possessing them
selves of it, taking every fenced city, and
gathering captives as the sand. This
answers the one half of Habakkuk's Cjues-
tion, as to the prosperity of the wicked
among his people. It leaves the other half,
as to the condition of the righteous, unan
swered. For such scourges of God swept

'Ps. Ixxiii. 24.
t Rev. vi. 10.

EC. 1.
If 2-4.

* C. ill.
" Ib. 6-11.

165

166

INTEODUCTION TO

away the righteous with the wicked. Habak
kuk then renews the question as to them.
But, as Asaph began by declaring his faith,
'^ All-good is Ood to Israel, the true Israel, ihe
pure of heart, so Habakkuk, " Israel would
not die, because He, their God, is Unchange
able." "Art not Thou of old, 0 Lord, my Ood,
my holy One? we shall not die; Thou, 0 Lord,
hast set him [the Chaldee] for judgment, and
Thou, 0 Rock, hast founded him to chasten.
Then he appeals to God, " Why then is
this '! Thou art of purer eyes than to behold
evil — wherefore keepest Thou silence, when the
'wieked devoureth him wlio is more righteous than
he?" This closes the first chapter and the first
vision, in which he describes, with the vivid
ness of one who saw it before him, the irresist
ible invasion of the Chaldfeans. Israel was
meshed as in a net; should that net be
emptied ^ ?
P'he second chapter exhibits the prophet
waiting iu silent expectation for the answer.
This answer too dwells chiefly on those retri
butions in. this life, which are the earnest
of future judgments, the witness of the
sovereignty of God. But although in few
words, it does answer the question as to the
righteous, that he has abiding life, that he
lives and shall live. God impresses the im
portance of the answer in the words i, Write
the vision i. e. the prophecy, ancl make it plain
on ihe tables, whereon the prophet was wont
to write ', that he may run who reads it. He
says also, that it is for a time fi.xed in the
mind of God, and that however, in man's
sight, it might seem to linger, it would not be
aught behind the time ". Then he gives the
answer itself in the words, ' Behold his soul
which is puffed up is not upright in him; and
tlie just shall live by his faith. The swelling
pride and self-dependence of the Chaldee
stands in contrast with the trustful submis
sion of faith. Of the one God says, it has no
ground of uprightness, and consequently will
not stand before God ; of faith, he says, the
righteous shall live by it. But the life plainly
is not the life of the body. For Habakkuk's
ground of complaint was the world-wasting
cruelty of the Chaldees. The woe on the
Chaldee which follows is even chiefly for
bloodshed, in which the righteous and the
wicked are massacred alike. The simple
word, shall live, is an entire denial of death, a
denial even of any interruption of life. It
stands in the same fullness as those words of
our Lord, " because I live, ye shall live also.
The other side of the picture, the fall of the

nPs. Ixxiii. 1.

° Hab. i. 12.

Pib. 17.

q ii. 2.

'ninbnV.

" ii. 3.

'ii. 4.

" S. John xiv. 19.

1 ii. 5. 8.

»ii. 9-11.

y ii. 12-14.

Mi. 15-17.

»ii. 18-20.

8 c. iii.

"There is no other form exactly like p^p^H.
Yet it is manifestly intensive. It most resembles

Chaldees, is given in greater fullness, because
the fulfillment of God's word in things seen
was the pledge of the fulfillment of those
beyond the veil of sense and time. In a
measured dirge he pronounces a five-fold woe
on the five great sins of the Chaldees, their
arabition^', covetousness*, violence^, inso
lence ^, idolatry ". It closes with the power
lessness of the Chaldee idols against God,
and bids the whole world be hushed before
the presence of the One God, its Maker,
awaiting Plis sentence.
Then follows the prayer ", that God would
revi've Plis work for Israel, which now seemed
dead. He describes the revival as coming,
under the images of God's miraculous deliver
ances of old. The division of the Eed Sea
and the Jordan, the standing-still of the sun
and moon under Joshua, are images of future
deliverances ; all nature shakes and quivers
at the presence of its Maker. Yet not it,
but the wicked were the object of His dis
pleasure. The prophet sees his people
delivered as at the Eed Sea, just when the
enemy seemed ready to sweep them away,
as with a whirlwind. And, in sight of the
unseen, he closes with that wondrous declara
tion of faith, that all nature should be deso
late, all subsistence gone, everything, con
trary to God's promises of old to His people,
should be around him, and I will rejoice in
the Lord, I will exult for joy in the Ood of my
salvation. This prophecy is not less distinct, because
figurative. Eather it is the declaration of
God's deliverance of His people, not from
the Chaldees only, but at all times. The
evil is concentrated in one Evil one, who
stands over against the One anointed. Tliou
art gone forth for the salvation of Thy people ;
for salvation with Thine anointed One. Thou
cru^hedst the head out of tlie house of the wicked
One, laying bare ihe foundation unto the ¦neck,
i. e. smiting the house, at once, above and
below ; -with an utter destruction. It belongs
then the more to all times, until the closing
strife between evil and good, Christ and
Antichrist, the avo/iog and the Lord. It in
cludes the Chaldee, and each great Emiaire
which opposes itself to the kingdom of God,
and declares that, as God delivered His
people of old, so He would unto the end.
It raay be that Habakkuk chose this name
to express the strong faith, whereby he em
braced the promises ' of God. At least, it
means one who " strongly enfolds"."
Perhaps too it is ou account of the form in
the form ^nDHK "loved intensely." This form,
in "IBIBn, ¦! SI VD, is changed into "lO'lBn ISIS H.
Equally p13p3n might be pronounced Habakkuk,
the second ^ being, as Delitzsch suggested, merged
in the p, for greater facility of pronunciation. 'The
1 is a form Uke J^'nnjipK', JTVni^ty ^ISJIJ.

HABAKKUK.

167

which his prophecy is cast, as being spoken
(with the exception of that one verse) to
God or to the Chaldsean, not to his own
people, that he added the title of Prophet to
his name. The burden wh'ich Habakkuk the
prophet did see^. For, however the name
prophet " includes all to whom revelations
from God came, it is nowhere, in the Old
Testament, added as the name of an office to
any one, who did not exercise the practical
office of the Prophet. Our Lord quotes
David as ihe Prophet", and God says to
Abimelech of Abraham ', He is a Prophet,
and, in reference to this, the Psalmist speaks
of the Patriarchs, as Prophets s. He reproved
kings for their sakes, saying. Touch not Mine
anointed and do My prophets no harm, and
Hosea speaks of Moses as a prophet '\ and
St. Peter says of David', He being a prophet.
But the title is nowhere in the Old Testa
ment added to the name as it is here, Habak
kuk tlie prophet, and as it is elsewhere Samuel
the prophet", the prophet Gad', Nathan the
prophet ¦", Ahijah the prophet", the prophet
Jehu", Elijah the prophet p, Elisha the pro
phet '', Shemaiah the prophet ', the prophet
Iddo^, the prophet Obed', Isaiah the pro
phet", Jeremiah the prophet^, Plaggai the
prophet ", unless any have exercised the
prophetic office. The title of the Prophet is
not, in the Old Testament, added to the
names of .lacob or even of Moses or David or
Solomon or Daniel, although they all pro
phesied of Christ.
Since Holy Scripture often conveys so
much incidentally, it may be that a large
range of ministerial ofiice is hinted in the
words "write on the tables;" for " the tables"
must have been well-known tables, tables
upon which prophets (as Isaiah) and proba
bly Habakkuk himself was accustomed to
write. The writing of a few emphatic un
explained words in a public place, which
should arouse curiosity, or startle passers-by,
would be in harmony with the symbolical
actions, enjoined on the prophets and used
by them. The Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,
had, from their mysteriousness, an impres-
siveness of their own, apart from the mira
cle of the writing.
The words appended to the prophecy, io
the chief singer, (as we should say, " the leader
ofthe band") with or ore my stringed instru
ments, imply, not only that the hymn became
part of the devotions of the temple, but that
Habakkuk too had a part in the sacred music
^p5DX ; yet it is impossible that the reduplication
shbuld be meaningless, (as Ew. 157. a. p. 405. ed. 7.)
4 i. 1. add iii. 1. ¦> S. Matt. xiii. 35.
fGen. XX. 7. e Ps.- ev. 14-16. t Hos. xii. 13.
'Acts ii. 30. ^ 2 Chr. xxxv. 18.
ilSam.xxii.6. ¦nlKgsi. 32. »lKgsxi. 29.
» Ib. xvi. 7, 12. p Ib. xviii. 36. 1 2 Kgs vi. 12.
' 2 Chr, xii. 5. ¦ Ib. xiii. 22. ' Ib. xv. 8.
» 2 Kgs xix. 2, XX. 1.

which accompanied it. The word so ren
dered, neginothai, could only mean my stringed
instruments, or " mj song accompanied wdth
music," as Plezekiah says'", we will sing my
songs on the stringed instruments, nenaggen
neginothai. But in Plabakkuk's subscription,
"To the chief musician binginothai," neginot'h
can have no other meaning than in the
almost identical inscription of Psalms, " " To
the chief musician binginoth," nor this any
other tlian with stringed instruments, " instru
ments struck with the hand "." The addi
tion, " with my stringed instruments," shews
that Plabakkuk himself was to accompany
his hymn with instrumental music, and since
the mention of the chief musician marks out
that it was to form part of the temple-service,
Habakkuk must have been entitled to take
part in the temple-music, and so must have
been a Levite. The Levitical order then
had its prophet, as the sacerdotal in Jere
miah and Ezekiel. The tradition in the
title to Bel and the Dragon; whatever its
value, agrees with this; "''fronj the pro
phecy of Ambakum, son of Jesus, of the
tribe of Levi."
This, however, does not give us any hint
as to the time when Habakkuk prophesied.
For, bad as were the times of Manasseh and
Amon, their idoLatry consisted in associating
idols with God, setting them up in His
courts, bringing one even into His temple °,
not in doing away Plis service. They set
the two services, and the two opinions ^, side
by side, adding the false, but not abolishing
the true, " consenting to differ," leaving to
the worshipers of God their religion, ^vhile
forcing them to endure, side by side, what
seemed an addition, but what was, in fact, a
denial. Habakkuk then might have been
allowed to present his hymn for the temple-
service, while the king placed in the sarae
temple the statue of Astarte, and required
its devil's worship to be carried on there.
The temple was allowed to go into some
degree of decay, for Josiah had it repaired ;
but we read only of his removing idols ", not
of his having to restore the disused service
of God. Of Ahaz it is recorded, that ' he shut
up the doors of the house of the Lord, which
Hezekiah had to open^. Nothing of this
sort is told of Manasseh and Amon.
Habakkuk, however, has two hints, which
determine his age within a few years. He
says that the invasion of the Chaldseans was
to be in the days of those to whom he speaks ;
1 Jer. xxviii. 0, xxxvi. 26, 2 Chr. xxxvi. 12.
^t Ezr. V. 1, vi. 14. 7 Is. xxxviii. 20.
2 Ps. iv. vi. liv. Iv. Ixi. Ixvii. Ixxvi.
« Coll. 1 Sam. xvii. 16, 23, xviii. 10, xix. 9, 2 Kgs
iii. 15.
8 Cod. Chis. of LXX from Origen's Tetraplar and
the Syro-Hexaplar.
|'2Kgsxxi. 7. 81 Kgs xviii. 21.
'2 Kgs xxiii. 6. f 2 Chr. xxxviii. 24.
s Ib. xxix. 3.

168

INTEODUCTION TO

m your

Accordingly he must have

spoken to adults, many of whom would sur
vive that invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, in the
4th year of Jehoiakim B. C. 605. He can
hardly have prophesied before B. C. 645,
about the close of Manasseh's reign ; for at
this date, those who were 20 at the time of
the prophecy, would have been 60, at the time
of its commenced fulfillment at the battle of
Carchemish. On the other hand, in that he
speaks of that invasion as a thing incredible
to those to wdiom he was speaking, he must
have prophesied before Babylon became in
dependent by the overthrow of Nineveh,
B. C. 625. For when Babylon had displaced
Nineveh, and divided the Empire of the East
with Media and Egypt, it was not a thing in
credible, that it would invade Judah in their
own days, although it was beyond human
knowledge to declare that it certainly would.
The Babylonian Empire itself lasted only
eighty-nine years ; and, to human sight,
Judah had as much or more to fear from
Egypt as from Babylon. The Median Empire
also might as well have swallowed up Judah
for the time, as the Babylonian.
The relation of Zephaniah to Habakkuk
coincides with this. Zephaniah certainly
adopted the remarkable words ', lit. "^ Hush at
ihe presence of the Lord God, from Habakkuk's
fuller form ', i/»e Lord is in His holy temple;
hush at His presence all the earth.
But Zephaniah prophesied under Josiah,
before the destruction of Nineveh B. C. 625,
which he foretold "". Habakkuk was also, at
i>i. 5.
1 Dr. Davidson says, " Delitzsch [with many others]
maintains from a comparison of Hab. ii. 20, with
Zeph. i. 7, that the former preceded the latter. — The
premises are by no means safe or valid " [and,
following Umbreit,] " ' Be silent before the Lord
God' (Zeph. i. 7.) sounds like a proverb : part of it
having been already used by Amos (vi. 10)," iii. 304.
305. Amos has only the single word OH " hush !"
which is, of course no fra,gment of a proverb. Nor
was there any lack of expi-essions to bid raen be
still before their Maker. Delitzsch (ad. loc. p. 102.)
puts together the following; Ps. xcvi. 9. VJ3D ITH
I'ISH-Sd; xiv. 7. I'-ix ^'im ]ns 'jsba l Chr.
xvi. 30, pXn-SD rjiJ^D ihi'n; Ps. xxxiii. 8,
p«n bj '""D 1KT1, and the Psalm of Asaph,"
naptyi nx'i' ]'^x p n;;niyn a^ntyn; not to
speak of other possible combinations, with T\Wr\
Dm, ty'inn, (which is thought to be only a
stronger pronunciation of it. Kim. also explains
on by pnu/.) When then a writer, who uses
much the language of those before him, has an
idiom which occurs once beside in Holy Scripture,
there being raany other expressions, which might
equally have been used, any one unbiassed would
think that he adopted the language of the other.
Stahelin admits the connection, l3ut inverts the
argument, contrary to the clraracter of both
prophets. k Zeph. i. 7. 1 Hab. ii. 20. ¦» Zeph. ii, 13, sqq.
"Hab. i. 8, 2'!})^ '2Hm nni rmo Dnnap i4p

latest, an earlier contemporary of Jeremiah
who, in one place, at least, in his earlier
prophecies, used his language ", as he does
so often, of set purpose, that of the prophets
before him, in order to shew that the fullness
of their prophecies was not yet exliausted.
But Jeremiah began to prophesy in the
thirteenth year of Josiah B. C. 629 ". Hab
akkuk, on the other hand, joins himself on
with the old prophets and Psalms by the em
ployment of language of Isaiah i" and per
haps of Micah i, by the use of language of
Deuteronomy ', and by the expansion of a
Psalm of Asaph in his own Psalm ', but does
not systematically renew their prophecies
like Jeremiah ' or Zephaniah ".
The ministry then of Habakkuk falls in the
latter half of the reign of Manasseh or the
earlier half of that of Josiah, (for the reign
of Anion, being of two years only, is too short
to come into account), and there is no de
cisive evidence for either against the other.
In the reign of Manasseh, we are expressly
told, that there were prophets, sent to foretell
a destruction of Jerusalem as complete as
that of Samaria, on account of the exceeding
wickedness, into which Manasseh seduced his
people. The Lord spake by His servants, the
prophets, saying. Because Manasseh king of
Judah hath done these abominations, and hath
made Judah also to sin with his idols. Therefore
thus saith the Lord Ood of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah,
that whosoever heareth of 'it, both his ears shall
tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the
seems to have suggested the like description ofthe
Chaldee caviilry, Jer. iv. 13, VD?D D"li:'3:D iSp,
although, with the slight variation, which he com
monly used, Jeremiah has D''"lK'jr3, after David
probably on Saul and Jonathan, :|7p U''^1li^D 2 Sam.
i. 23, the remaining instance of this likeness.
31;; ''DXt recurs in Zeph. iii. 3, and n'l3"H' '3X1
in tier. v. 6, only. Jer. xxii. 13, in the reign of
Jehoiakim, is also a reminiscence of Habakkuk ii.
12; and Jer. li. 58, in the 4th year of Zedekiah, of
Hab. ii. 13.
0 Jer. i. 2, xxv. 3.
p Hab. ii. 14, is from Is. xi. 9 ; the form of Hab. i.
5, seems suggested by Is. xxix. 9; the standing on
the watch-tower Hab. ii. 1, occurs in Is. .xxi. S; the
writing on tables occurs in Is. viii. 1, xxx. 8, and
Hab. il. 2 ; the imagery, " he hath enlarged his de
sire as hell," (lU^aj '71Xra 3imn) Hab. ii. 6, was
probably suggested by Is. v. 14. I'lXiJ' H^TTin;
ncy3J the introduction of a iWO, Hab. ii. 6, as Is.
xiv. 4, both over Bahylon ;. the union of ^ vH and
13;; Is. viii. 8, and Hab. i. 11; from Kuper Jerem.
p. 153. Havernick Syrab. ad defend, authentiam
vat. los. c. xiii.— xiv. 23. p. 37 sqq. in Delitzsch
Hab. p. viii.
1 Hab. ii. 12. and Mic. iii. 10.
^From Deut. xxxii. xxxiii. See below.
• Ps. Ixxvii. 17-21, in Hab. iii. 10-15.
tOn the relation of Jeremiah to Obadiah and
Isaiah, see Introd. to Obad. vol. i. pp. 344-348.
''See Introd. to Zephaniah, below.

HABAKKUK.

169

line of Samaria and the plummet of ihe house
of Ahab; and Iwill wipe Jerusalem as a man
wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside
down; and I will forsake the remnant of their in-
heritancc, and deliver them inio the hand of their
enemies, and they shall become a prey and spoil
io all their enemies-'^.
The sinful great men of Manasseh's and
Amon's court ancl judicature are but too likely
to have maintained their power in the early
years of the reign of Josiah. For a boy of
eight years old (at which age Josiah suc
ceeded his father^) could, amid whatsoever
sense of right and piety, do little to stem the
established wrong and ungodliness of the evil
counsellors andjudges of his father andgrand-
father. The sins, which Jeremiah de
nounces, as the cause of the future captivity
of Jerusalem, are the very same, of which
Habakkuk complains, " oppression, violence,
spoil '." Jeremiah speaks, in the concrete,
of total absence of right judgment % as Hab
akkuk, in the abstract, of the powerlessness
of the law ''. Zephaniah gives the like pic
ture of those earlier years under Josiah ".
But Plabakkuk's description -^vould not suit
the later years of Josiah, when judgment and
justice were done. Did not thy father, Jere
miah appeals to Jehoiakim '', eat and drink,
and do judgment and justice, and then it was
well with him; he judejed the cause of the poor
and needy, then it was well with him ; was not
this to know Me? saith the Lord". But while
there is nothing to preclude his having pro
phesied in either reign, the earliest tradition
places him in the close of the reign of Ma
nasseh '.
Modern critics have assigned an earlier or

1 2 Kgs xxi. 11-14. J Ib. xxii. 1, 2 Chr. xxxiv. 1.
^1'tJ'l Don Jer. vi. 7, as Hab. i. 3, DOni Its';
Zeph. speaks of HDIDl ODH, i- 9.
« Jer. vi. 19. " My law they have despised it ; " v.
28. " they have not judged the cause, the cause of
the fatherless, and they prosper; and the judg
ment of the poor have they not judged."
'Hab. i. 4, "the law is chilled, and judgment
will never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth
the just; therefore judgment goeth forth per
verted." o Zeph. i. 9. where be too foretells the punishment
of those, " which fill their masters' houses with
violence and deceit, riDIp? DOn " and in. 1-1.
•1 Jer. xxii. 1.5, 16.
eDr. Davidson rightly says, "the spoiling and
violence, there (i. 2, 3.) depicted, refer to the inter
nal condition of the theocracy, not to external m-
iuries" (p. 30.5) ; but then he contradicts himself
and Jeremiah, when he says, (p. 305) following
Ewald (Proph. ii. 30.), "The safest conclusion re
specting the time of the prophet, is that he lived
in the time of Jehoiakim (606-004. B. C), when the
kingdom of Judah was in a good moral condition, jus
tice and righteousness having entered mto the life oj the
people after Josiah's reforms, and idolatry having
almost disappeared."
'"Seder 01am, from which Abarbanel, R. Day.
Ganz in Zemach David, p. 21. and Rabbins drew
their opinion." Carpzoff Introd. P. m. p. 410.

later date to Habakkuk, accordingly as they
believed that God did, or did not, reveal the
future to man, that there was or was not,
superhuman prophecy. Those who denied
that God did endow His prophets with knowl
edge above nature, fell into two classes; 1)
Such as followed Eichhorn's unnatural
hypothesis, that prophecies were only his
tories of the past, spoken of, as if it were still
future, to which these critics gave the shame
less title of " vaticinia post eventum b." These
plainly involved the prophets in fraud. 2)
Those who laid down that each prophet
lived at a tirae, when he could, with human
foresight, tell what would happen. "Would
that those who count certainty, as to even
a near future, to be so easy a thing, would try
their hands at predicting the events of the
next few years or months, or even days ", and,
if the}' fail, acknowledge God's Truth ! This
prejudice, that there eoiilcl be no real pro
phecy, ruled, for a time, all German criticism.
It cannot be denied, that " the unbelief was
the parent of the criticism, not the criticism
of the unbelief" It is simple matter of his
tory, that the unbelief came first ; and, if
men, ii priori, disbelieved that there could
be prophecy, it must needs be a postulate
of their criticism, that what seemed to be
prophecy could not have belonged to a date,
when human foresight did not suffice for
positive prediction. I will use the words of
Delitzsch rather than my own ;
" ' The investigation into the age of Habak
kuk could be easily and briefly settled, if we
would start from the prejudice, which is the
soul of modern criticism, that a prediction of
the future, whieh rested, not on human in-

B Eichhorn (Einl.) Bertholdt (Einl.) Justi Habak
kuk neu (ibersetzt 1841. Wolf, der Proph. Hab.
&c. 1S22.
ll At every early stage of the great conflict
(August 1870) it was remarkable how day after day
journalists professed themselves to be at fault, as
to the most immediate future. On one point only
they were agreed that the war would be " long and
severe." Then it was thought that one month
would see its beginning and its end. ""The course
of the present war," says a journal not wanting in
self-reliance, " has gone far to verify the paradox,
that nothing is certain but the unexpected. At auy
rate, nothing has happened but iheunforeseen. Neither
king nor Emperor, neither French nor German
government or people had forraed any anticipation
of the events of the month now ending. The
French expected to invade Germany, and they
have been invaded themselves. The Germans,
though confident of ultimate success, expected a
long and toilsome conflict, whereas a month has
brought them alraost to the gates of Paris. The
calculation of all parties as to the political effects
of the war have been equally mistaken." The Times,
Aug. 31st. And yet men, who, with our full inform
ation, would not risk a prediction as to the issue of
things immediately before their eyes, think it so
ea.sy for Jewish prophets, living in their own small
insulated country, to foretell certainly that Babylon
would prevail over Egypt, when they knew either
country only as their own superior, and political
sagaeifv and feeling was on the side of Egypt.
'Der 'Proph. Habakkuk Einleit. pp. iv-vi.

170

INTEODUCTION TO

ferences or on a natural gift of divination, but
on supernatural illumination, is impossible.
For since Habakkuk foretold the invasion of
the Chaldees, he must, in such case, have
come forward at a time, at which natural
acuteness could, with certainty, determine
beforehand that sad event ; accordingly in or
after the time of the battle of Carchemish in
the 4th year of Jehoiakim J 606 B. C. In
this decisive battle Nebuchadnezzar defeated
Pharaoh Necho, and it was more than prob
able that the king of Babylon would now turn
against .Judeea, since Jehoiakim, the son of
Josiah, had been set on the throne by
Pharaoh Necho '', and so held with Egypt.
And this is in reality the inference of modern
critics. They bring the Chaldijeans so close
under the eyes of the prophet, thalf he could,
by way of nature, foresee their invasion ; and
so much the closer under his eyes, the more
deeply the prejudice, that there is no pro
phecy in the Biblical sense of the word, has
taken root in them, and the more consistently
they follow it out. 'Habakkuk prophesied
under Jehoiakim, for,' so Jiiger expresses
himself, ' since Jehoiakim was on the side of
the Egyptians, it was easy to foresee, that ' ; <£'c.'
Just so Ewald ; ' ™ One might readily be
tempted to think, that Habakkuk wrote,
while the pious king Josiah was still living ;
but since the first certain invasion of the Clial-
dfeans, of which our account speaks '^, falls
within the reign of king Jehoiakim, some
what between 608-604 B. C. we must abide
by this date.' Hitzig defines the dates still
more sharply, according to that principle of
principles, to which history with its facts
raust adapt itself unconditionally. ' The pro-
jihet announces the arrival of the Chaldseans
in Judfea, as something marvelous.' ^VeU
then, one would imagine, that it would follow
from this, that at that time they had not yet
come. But no! 'Habakkuk,' says Hitzig,
' introduces the Chaldsansas a new phfenonie-
non, as yet entirely unknown ; he prophesied
accordingly at their /rsf arrival into Palestine.
But this beyond question falls in the reign of
Jehoiakim". In Jehoiakira's fourth year,
i. e. 606, they had fought the battle at Car
chemish ; in 605 the Chaldcean army seems to
have been on its march ; the writing of Hab
akkuk is placed most correctly in the begin
ning of the year 604,' accordingly, at the
time, when the Chaldfeans were already
marching 'n'ith all speed straight on Jerusa
lera, and (as Hitzig infers from Hab. i. 9.)
after they had come down from the North
along the coast, were now advancing from
the West, when they, as Ewald too remarks
(resting, like Maurer on i. 2-4), 'p already
i Jer. xlvi. 2. '2 Kgs xxiii. 34, 35.
1" Facile erat prcevidere fore ut Sec," Jiiger de
ord. proph. minor: chronol. ii. 18. sqq.
¦» Proph. iii. 30. ed. 2.

stood in the Koly land, trampling everything
under foot with irresistible might, and allow
ing their own right alone to count as right.'
Holding fast to that naturalist d priori, we go
yet further. In ii. 17, the judgment of God
is threatened to the Chaldtean, on account of
the violence practiced on Lebanon, and the
destruction of its animals. Lebanon is, it is
said, the holy land ; the animals, its inhabit
ants : in iii. 14, 17, the prophet sees the
hostile hordes storming in : the devastation
wrought through the war stands clearly before
his eyes. This is not possible, unless the Chal
dsean were at that time already established
in Judaja. However, then, c. i. was written
before their invasion, yet c. ii., iii. must have
been written after it. ' AVherefore,' says
Maurer, ' since it is evident from Jer. xlvi. 2,
and xxxvi. 9, that the Chaldseans came in
the year B. C. 605, in the 9th month of the
5th year of the reign of Jehoiakim, it follows
that c. i. 'was written at that very time, but
c. ii. iii. at the beginning of B. C. 604, the 6th
of Jehoiakim.'
"Turn we away from this cheap pseudo-
criticism, with its ready-made results, which
sacrifices all sense for liistorical truth i;o a
prejudice, which it seems to have vowed not
to allow to be shaken by anything. It seeks
at any cost to disburden itself of any pro
phecy in Scripture, which can only be ex-
jilaincd through supernatural agency ; and
yet it attains its end, neither elsewhere nor
in our prophet. Chapter ii. contains a pre
diction of the overthrow of the Chaldsean
empire .and of the sins whereby that over
throw u'as effected, which has been so re
markably confirmed by history even in de
tails, that that criticism, if it would be true
to its principles, must assume that it was
written while Cyrus, advancing against Baby
lon was employed in punishing the river
Gyndes by dividing it off into 360 channels."
This major premiss, " there can be no super
human prediction of the future," (in other
words, "Almighty God, if He knows the
future, cannot disclose it!'') still lurks under
the assumptions of that modern school of so-
called criticism. It seems to be held no more
necessary, formally to declare it, than to
enounce at full length any axiom of Euclid.
Yet it raay, on that very ground, escape no
tice, while it is the unseen mainspring of the
theories, put forth in the narae of criticism.
" That Habakkuk falls at a later time," says
Stahelin, "is clear out of his prophecy itself;
for lie speaks of the Chaldecans, and the contro
versy is only, whether he announces their
invasion, as Knobel, Umbreit, Delitzsch,
Keil '<¦ hold, or presupposes it, as Ewald, Hit-

» 2 Kgs xxiv. 1. » Ib. 2.
p Proph. iii. 29. ed. 2.
iStiihelin mixed up Delitzsch and Keil, who be
lieved in superhuman prediction, and Knobel &c.

HABAKKUK.

171

zig, E. Meier maintain. To me the first
opinion appears the right, since not only do
i. 5. sqq. plainly relate to the future, but the
detailed description of the Chaldseans points
at something which has not yet taken place,
at something hitherto unknown, and the ter
ror of the prophet in announcing their com
ing, i. 12. sqq., recurs also iii. 1, 16, 17 ; and
so, I think, that the time of Habakkuk's
activity may be placed very soon after the
battle of Carchemish, in the first half of the
reign of Jehoiakim, and so his prophecy as
contemporary with Jeremiah xxv." " Hab
akkuk," says De Wette, " lived and prophe
sied in the Chaldee period. It is, however,
matter of dispute at what point of time in
this period he lived, i. 5. sqq. clearly points
to its beginning, the reign of Jehoiakim.
Even ch. iii. seems to require no later point
of time, since here the destruction of Judah
is not yet anticipated. He was then Jere
miah's younger contemporary. Eightly do
Perschke, Eanitz, Stickel, Knobel, Hitzig,
Ewald, let the prophet prophesy a little be
fore the invasion of the Chaldeans in Judah,
which the analogy of prophecy favors ; " for
prophecy may still be human at this date,
since so far it foretells only, what any one
could foresee. A prophet of God foretells,
these critics admit, an invasion which all
could foresee, and does not foretell, what
could not humanly be foreseen, the destruc
tion of Jerusalem. The theory then is saved,
and within these limits Almighty God is per
mitted to send His prophet. Condescending
criticism !
Mostly criticism kept itself within these
limits, and used nothing more than its axiom,
"there was no prophecy." The freshness
and power of prophetic diction in Habakkuk
who denied it, joining himself on to the class in
general apd ignoring the radical difference. Dr.
Davidson assumes the same principle. "As he
mentions the Chaldseans by name, and his oracle
refers to them, he lived in the Chaldsean period.—
The safest conclusion respecting the time of the
prophet is that he lived in the time of Jehoiakim
6O6-G04. B. C." " To put the prophet in M.anasseh's
reign is incorrect because the Chaldfeans were not a
people formidable to the Jews at that time." (In
trod. iii. pp. 304, 305.) And so Habakkuk, without
superhuman knowledge, could not foretell it !
'"Thus the verb oSp occurs, only beside in the
books of Kings and in Ezekiel." Stahelin. " The
diction is pure and classical. Yet he has some late
words, as dSd i. 10, which appears only in Kings
- [t
and Ezekiel." Dr. Davidson. The primitive form
Ohp -. which is alleged, does not occur at all ; only
D^p Ez. xvi. 31. and D-JDnn with 3, "mock at,"
2 Kgs ii. 23, Hab. i. 10, Ez. xxii. 5, as denominatives
from cSp Ps. xliv. 14. Ixxix. 4, and Jer. xx. 8.
There is nothing to show that it is a late word,
though occurring for the first time in the history
of Ehsha. In Aramaic, (not in Onk. or Jon. it has
the opposite meaning, "praised." In the excep-

deterred most from that other expedient of
picking out some two or three words as indica
tive of a later style. Stilhelin however says ;
"His language too, although on thewhole pure
and without Aramaisms," (truly so ! since
there is not even an alleged or imagined
Aramaism in his prophecy,) "still betrays,
in single cases, the later period." And then
he alleges that 1) one verb^ "only occurs be
side in the books of Kings and in Ezek
iel ; " 2) another word, " " with the exception of
Nahum, only in Jeremiah and Malachi ; " 3)
" the image of the cup of destiny only occurs
in prophecies subsequent to Jeremiah."
Marvelous precision of criticism, which can
infer the date of a book from the factS, 1)
that a verb, formed from a noun, occurs four
times only in Holy Scripture, in 2 Kings,
Plabakkuk, and Ezekiel, whereas the noun
from which it is derived occurs in a Psalm,
which fits no later time than David's ' ; 2) that
a word, slightly varied in pronunciation from
a common Hebrew word ", occurs only in Na
hum, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and Malachi,
once in each, when that word is the basis of
the name of the river Pishon, mentioned in
Genesis, .and Stahelin himself places Nahum
in the reign of Hezekiah ; or that 3) no p/ro-
pliet before Jeremiah speaks of the image of
the '' cup of destiny ''," whereas the portion
given by God for good " or for ill ", occurs
under that same image in Psalms of David
and Asaph ; and if the question is to be
begged as to the date of Isaiah li. 17, 22, the
corresponding image of " drinking wine, of
reeling," occurs in a Psalm of David ^, and
being " drunk, but not with wine " is imagery
of an earlier chapter in Isaiah '' ; the image
occurs fully in Obadiah \
Such criticism is altogether childish. No
tions in Chaldee, Ges. seems rightly to conjecture,
that it signifies ironical praise, as in Shem. rabba s.
27. In Ps. xliv. 14. XD7p is retained for the Heb.
fl"^lf] i. 8. with the exception of Nah. iii. 18.
only besides in Jeremiah and Malachi." Stahelin,
"Li*l£3 i. 8. in Jeremiah and Malachi besides;" Dr.
Davidson ; who avoids the absurdity of arguing
relative lateness of diction from a word, occurring
in Nahum, by omitting this fourth instance, but
therewith falsifying the facts before him.
tPs. xliv. U.
"^13 (whence |1K''*3 Gen. ii. ll.) an early varia
tion^ of V1£3, ty for y, as Rashi observes on Nah.
v"The image of 'the cup of destiny' ii. 16, first
occurs in the prophets after Jeremiah ; and Hab.
ii. 16. itself seems to refer to Jerem. xlix. 12."
Stahelin pp. 288, 289. "The cup of judgment (ii.l6.)
does not occur in the prophets before Jeremiah ;
whether Habaklcuk refers in ii. 10. to Jer. xlix. 12.
is doubtful, though Stahelin ventures to assert it;"
Dr. Davidson (iii. 303) acknowledging, as usual, the
source of his statements, where he dissents in one
ofthem. Tf David, Ps. xi. 6. Asaph, Ixxv. S.
^ David. Ps. xvi. 5. xxiii. 5. J Pa. Ix. 5. [3 Eng.]
zla. xxix. 9. aver. 16.^.

172

INTRODUCTION TO

one would tolerate it, except that it is adduced
to support a popular and foregone ponclusion.
It would be laughed to scorn, were it used by
believers in revelation. In the small remains
of the Hebrew Scriptures and language, an
induction, if it is to be of any value, must be
very distinct. The largeness of Greek litera
ture enables critics to single out Homeric,
Herodotean, iEschylean, Pindaric words. In
Hebrew we meet with airaf "keyipeva in per
haps every prophet, in raany Psalms; but it
requires far more than the occurrence of the
word in one single place, to furnish any even
probable inference, that it was framed by the
Prophet or Psalmist himself. Still less can
it be inferred safely that because, in the
scanty remains of Hebrew, a word does not
occur before e. g. a certain historical book, it
did not exist before the date of that book.
Rather the occurrence of any word in lan
guage so simple as that of the historical
books, is au evidence that it did exist and
was in common use at the time. Poets and
orators coin words, in order to give full
expression for their thoughts. The charac
teristic of the sacred historians, both of the
Old and New Testament, is to relate the
facts in most absolute simplicity. It would
be a singular " history of the Hebrew lan
guage," which should lay down as a principle,
that all those are later words, which do not
happen to occur before the books of Kings,
Habakkuk, or any other prophet, whom this
criticism is pleased to rank among the later
books. What are we to do with Habakkuk's
own cjjraf Tifyd/ieva ? Granted, that he framed
sorae of them, yet it is irapossible that he
framed them all. As specimens of the re
sults of such a critical principle, that words,
occurring for the first time in any book, are
characteristic of the date of that word, let us
only take roots beginning with s. Had then
the Hebrew no name for ¦nails (as distinct
'11, nn'.
"D'T^pn Is. xii. 7, D'''iripa 1 Chr. xxii. 3,
n'nopn', Jer. x. 4, n'nDoa, 2 chr. ui. 9. nnniya
Eccl. xii. 11.
^ |3D, 1 Kgs vi. 9, nap 1 Kgs vii. 3, 7, Jer. xxii.
14, Hagg. i. 4, (jliJP Dt. xxxiii. 21. ]li)tj; Ib. 19, is i.
q. |132f). inX, "hold together," occurs 1 Kgs vi. 6,
10, Ezek. xii. 6; 77Q lit. "overshadowed" Neh. iii.
15 ; j; W occurs also 1 Kgs vi. 6, 6, 10.
•'D'E'W, Gen. vi. 16, as in 1 Kgs vi. 8. Ez. xiii. 3.
^nip Gen. xix. 8. as being "beamed." Conf. n"lD
"laid beams," (met.)Ps. civ. 3. else 2 Chr. xxxiv. 11,
Neh. li. 8, iii. 3, 6 ; mip beam 2 Kgs vi. 2, 6, 2 Chr.
iii. 7. Cant. i. 17. iT^pD Eoel. x. 18.
^nrSp aTf. Jon. i. 5. See vol. i. p. 375.
t See ab. on Micah iv. p. 62.
'1 Kgs xviii. 21. As "branches," 0^3 yO first oc
curs in Isaiah, (xvii. 6. xxvii. 10) and the denom.

from hooks, pegs '',) before those whom these
critics would make late writers ", as Ecclesi
astes and Isaiah xii? Or had they none for
ceiling a building before the book of Kings ^ ;
although the ark had a third story ", and Lot
speaks of "the shadow of my roof''"?" Or
had they none for a " decked vessel " before
Jonah s, although the Indian names of Solo
mon's imports show that Ophir, whither his
navy sailed, was in India, Ophir itself being
Abhira in the province of Cutch '' ? Or had
they no name fbr " divided opinions " before
Elijah'? Seed shed, which sprang up in the
second year, was known in the Pentateuch '' ;
but that of the third year would, on that
hypothesis, remain unknown till Hezekiah ' ;
nor did the Hebrews express to "drag
along the ground," till Hushai"", and, after
hira, Jeremiah. They had no name for win
ter, as distinct from autumn, until the Can
ticles ", and, but for the act of the Philistines
in stopping up" Abraham's wells, it might
have been said that Hebrew had no word for
this act, till the time of Jehoshaphat p.
Or as to the criticism itself, P'7p is to be a
later word, because, except in that Psalm of
the sons of Corah, it occurs first in the his
tory of Elisha 1. Perhaps it is so rare (and
this may illustrate the history of Elisha) be
cause, as used, it seems to have been one of
the strongest words in the language for " de
rision ; " at least the verb is used in an inten
sive form only, and always of strong derision '.
But then, did the old Hebrews never use de
rision ? Happy exception for one nation, if
they never used it wrongly or had no occa
sion to use it rightly ! Yet even though (by
a rare exception) Ewald allows the second
Psalm to be David's, (Job however being
placed about the 7th century B. C.) the evi
dence for Ji*/, as strong a word, would be of
the time of David ^- " Scorning " " scoffing,"
IJ^.P' ^^- ^- 33- and n'l3;;p, n'l3;J'lp fn Ezek. xxxi.
5. 6. 8.
'n''3p Lev. xxv. 5. 11. Else only with U'TIP or
' ty'nP 2 Kgs xix. 29, P''nt£'. Ib. xxxvii. 30.
¦" 3nP 2 Sam. xvii. 13. Jer. xv. 3, xxii, 19, xlix. 20.
So nriD "swept" occurs only Ezek. xxvi. 4. ^np
Lam. iii. 45. but cipQ is used by Solomon Prov.
xxviii. 3.
»inp Cant. ii. 11.
» DJlp Gen. xxvi. 15. 18.
P pnp 2 Kgs iii. 19. 25. 2 Chr. xxxii. 3. 4. Nif. of
closing breaches in a wall, Neh. iv. 1.
1 2 Kgs ii. 23.
' Pih. Ez. xvi. 31. Hithp. 2 Kgs 1. c, Hab. .. c, Ez.
xxii. 5, wlio has also np7p
3 J_J? 7. The verb occurs Ps. ii. 4, xxii. 8, lix. 9,
Ixxx. 7, Prov. i. 26, xvii. 5, xxx. 17. Job ix. 23, xi. 3,
xxi. 3, xxii. 19, Is. xxxiii. 19. xxxvii. 22, Jer. xx. 7,

HABAKKUK.

173

(unless Psalm i. be allowed to he David's)
did not begin till Solomon's time'. "Mock
ing " was yet later ". As belongs to a rude
people, insult was only shewn in acts, of
which llJinT\ is used' ; and from those sim
ple times of the Patriarchs, they had no
stronger word than "to laugh af^." For
this is the only word used in the Penta
teuch ".
But to what end all this ? To prove that
Habakkuk had no superhuman knowledge of
what he foretold ? Prophecy occupies, as I
said, a subordinate place in Habakkuk. Pie
renews the "burden" of former prophets,
both upon his own people and upon the
Chaldseans ; but he does not speak even so
definitely as they. His office is rather to en
force the connection of sin and punishment :
he presupposes the details, which they had
declared. Apart from those chapters, which
pseudo-rf;riticism denies to Isaiah ^, on account
of the distinctness of the temporal prophe
cies, Isaiah had, in plainest words, declared
to Hezekiah the carrying away of all the
royal tyeasures to Babylon, and that his off
spring should be eunuchs there " ; Micah had
declared not only the complete desolation of
Jerusalem ", but that the people should be
'"carried to Babylon, and there delivered,
there redeemed from the hands of the enemy."
In the 13th year of Josiah, B. C. 628, and so,
three years before the fall of Nineveh, while
Babylon was still dependent on Nineveh and
governed by a vice-roy, and while Nabopo-
lassar was still in the service of the king of
Nineveh, Jeremiah foretold, that ° evil slioidd
break forth from the North upon all the inhabit
ants of ihe land, and all the families of the
kingdoms of the North shall come and set every
one his throne at the entering of the gates of Je
rusalem and against all the walls Hiereof round.
about and against all the cities of Judah, to exe
cute the judgments of God against them for
their wickedness. This was his dirge over his
country for twenty-three years '', ere yet there
was a token of its fulfillment. Babylon had
succeeded to Nineveh in the West and South-
2 Chr. xxx. 10, Neh. ii. 19, iii. 33. J^S Job. xxxiv. 7,
Ps. cxxiii. 4, Hos. vii. 16, Ez. xxiii. 32, xxxvi. 4. with
P7D Ps. xliv. 19. Ixxix. 4.
' y't part, occurs 14 times in Prov. Ps. 1. 1. ari8 Is.
xxix. 20. V / (the verb), Pr. ix. 12. D''SSlS Hos. vi.
5. I'Sl^nn Is. xxviii. 22. 1f^hT\ Ps. cxix. 61 Pr. iii.
34, xiv. 9, xix. 28.
» hr\7\ Job xvii. 2, 1 Kgs xviii. 27.
'S^J^nn with 3 ofthe pers. Num. xxii. 29, of
Balaam's ass ; 1 Sam. xxxi. 4, Jer. xxxviii. 19, 1 Chr.
X. 4, of apprehended insult from an enemy.
" POY Cf®°- ^'^- ^'^' ^^'- ^- tasult in act, Ib.
xxxix, 14, 17, revived from Genesis, Ez. xxiii. 32,
elsewhere pni?.

West, and Judah had fallen to the share of
Babylon ; but the relation of Josiah to Na-
bopolassar was of a tributary sovereign, which
rebellion only could disturb. The greater
part of Nabopolassar's 21 year's reign are
almost a blank ". Chastisement had come,
but from the South, not from the North.
Eighteen 5'ears had passed away, and J osiah
had fallen, in resisting Pharaoh-Necho in
discharge of his fealty to the king of Baby
lon. Pharaoh-Necho had taken away one
king of Judah, Jehoahaz, the people's choice,
whose continued fealty to Babylon represents
their minds, and had set up another, Jehoia
kim. For three years Judah's new allegiance
was allowed to continue. Who, but God,
could tell the issue of the conflict of those
two great armies at Carchemish? Egypt
with her allies, the Ethiopians, Phut and
Lud, were come, rising up like a flood ', covering
the earth with her armies, as her rivers, when
swollen, made her own land one sea. Necho
had apparently in his alliance all the kings
of the countries West of the Euphrates : for
to them all, in connection with Egypt and
subordinate to her, does Jeremiah at that
moment give to drink the cup of the wrath
of God ; to ^ Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his
servants and his princes and all his people, and
all the mingled people [his auxiliaries] and all
the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of
the land of the Philistines and Ashkelon and
Azzah and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod;
Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon;
and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of
Zidon and the kings of the isle beyond the sea
[probably Caphtor'', or Crete, or C'yprus]
Dedan and Tenia and Buz, a'nd those wliose hair
is shorn [Arabians '] and all the kings of Arabia
and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell
in ihe desert, and all the kings of Zimri [" de
scendants of Abraham and Keturah.] It
was a mighty gathering. All ihe kings of
Elam, all the kings of the Medes, all the kings
of the North far and near, all was hostile to
Babylon ; for all were to drink of the cup
beforehand, at the hands of the king of Baby
lon, and then ihe king of Sheshach [Babylon]
I The exact meaning of nSDty (Ex. xxxii. 25) is
uncertain. The E. V\ "shame" follows most of
the Heb. Intt., yet with an improbable etymol.
"Whisper" seems the most probable meaning of
Job iv. 12. xxvi. 14, from which that of " ill-report "
is possible. The Arabic gives nothing nearer than
" hurried in speech."
y Is. xiii. xiv. 1-23, xl. sqq.
» Is. xxxix. 6, 7. * Mic. iii. 12.
i>Ib. iv. 10. 0 Jer. i. 14-16.
4 Ib. xxv. 3. see also v. 16-17, vi. 1. 22-25, x. 22.
Also in the collection of all his prophecies from the
time of Josiah, which God bade him make in the
4th year of Jehoiakim, Jer. xxxvi. 2. 29, he pro
vides them also with a saying against idolatry (in
Chaldee) for their use in their captivity in Chaldiea.
X. 11. ' Eawl. 6 Emp. iii. 484.
'Jer. xlvi. 8. 9. e Ib. xxv. 19-24.
tl Jer. xlvii. 4. • Herod, iii. 8.
t Gen. xxv. 2. 1 Chr. i. 32. ('IDt for ¦'^"JDI.)

174

INTRODUCTION TO

was io drink after them. Necho was one of the
most enterprising monarchs'. Nabopolassar
had shewn no signs of enterprise. Nebu
chadnezzar, the first and last conqueror of the
Babylonian empire, though the alliance with
Media and his father's empire had been
cemented by his marriage, had, as far as we
know, remained inactive during 20 years of
his father's life ''^. He was as yet untried. So
little did he himself feel secure as to his in
heritance of the throne, even after his success
at the head of his father's army, that his
rapid march across the desert, with light
troops, to secure it, and its preservation for
him by the chief priest, are recorded in a
very concise history "'- Neither Egypt nor
Jehoiakim foresaw the issue. Defeat taught
neither. Two voices only gave, in Goil's
name, oue unheeded warning. Pharaoh IIo-
phra, the Apries of Herodotus, succeeded
Pharaoh Necho in his self-confidence, his
aggressions, his defeat. " I am against thee,"
God says ", " Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his
rivers, which hath said. My river is mine own
and I have made it for myself." " It is said,"
relates Herodotus p, "that Apries believed
that there was not a god which could cast
him down from his eminence, so firmly did
he think that he had established himself iu
his kingdom."
For a time, Nebuchadnezzar must have
been hindered by Eastern wars, since, on
Jehoiakim's rebellion and perjury, he sent
only bands of the Chaldees, with bands of tribu
tary nations, the Syrians, Moabites, Ammon
ites, against him i. But not in his time
only, even after the captivity under his son
Jehoiachin and his men of might '', the con
viction that Nebuchadnezzar could be re
sisted, still remained in the time of Zedekiah
both in Egj'pt and Judah. Judah would
have continued to hold under Babylonia
that same position toward Egypt wdiich it
did under Persia, only with subordinate
kings instead of governors. Apart from
God's general promise of averting evil on
repentance, Jeremiah, too, expressly tells
Israel, " ' If thou wilt put away thine abom
inations out of My sight, thou shalt not
remove; '' '"Then will I cause you to dwell
in this place, in the land that I gave to your
fathers, for ever and ever." And "in the
beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim ","
" " The Lord sent me to prophesy against
this house and against this city all the
words which ye have heard. Therefore
1 As shewn in his attempt to make a canal across
the isthmus of Suez (Herod, ii. 158.) and in the
circumnavigation of Atrica. Ib. iv. 42.
"The battle of Carchemish was in the 4th of
Jehoiakim. Jer. xlvi. 1. 2.
" Berosus in Joseph, c. Ap. i. 19. Opp. ii. 450.
oEzek. xxix. 3. p Herod, ii. 16.
1 2 Kgs xxiv. 2. ' Ib. 14-16. " Jer. iv. 1.

now amend your ways and your doings and
obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the
Lord will repent Him of the evU that He hath
pronounced against you." Still later, to
Zedekiah, " '" The nations that bring their
neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon
and serve him, them ¦will I let remain still in
their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall

till it and dwell tliere

' I have sent unto

you all My servants the prophets, rising up
early and sending them, saying. Return ye
now every man from his evil way and
amend your doings, and go not after other
gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in ihe
land which I have given to you and to your
fathers." Even on the very verge of the
caiiture of Jerusalera, Jeremiah promised to
Zedekiah ? ; "If thou wilt go forth to the
king of Babylon's princes ; — this city shall not
be burned with flre." Pharaoh Hophra was
still strong enough to raise the siege of Jeru
salem, when invested by the Chaldsean army^.
Jeremiah had the king, his princes, his pro
phets, all the people of the land against him,
because he prophesied that Jerusalem should
be burned with fire, that those already taken
captives should not return, until the wliole
had been carried away^ and the seventy years
of captivity were accomplished ". The warn
ing and the promise of Jeremiah's inaugural
vision had its accomplishment. " " I have
made thee a defenced city, and an iron pillar,
and brazen walls, against the king of Judah,
against the princes thereof and against the people
of the land ; and they shall fight against thee,
but they shall not prevail against thee ; for
I am -svith thee, saith the Lord, to deliver
thee." Plad it been matter of human fore
sight, how was it, that all nations, all their
politicians, all their wise men, all their pro
phets, all Judah, kings, priests, princes, people,
were blinded, (as in Him of Whom Jeremiah
was a shadow,) and Jeremiah alone saw?
" "Vaticinia post eventum " are, in one sense,
easy ; viz. to imagine, after an event has taken
place, that one could have foreseen it. And
yet who, after the retreat to Corunna, could
have foreseen the victories of the Peninsular
war? Or, when that tide of 647,000 men"
was rolling on toward Russia, who could
imagine that only a small fraction of those
hosts should return, that they should capture
Moscow, but find it a tomb ; and hunger and
COM, reaching at last to 36 degrees below
Zero, should destroy more than the sword?
" '^ What was the principal adversary of this
tremendous power ? By whom was it checked
' lb. vii. 7, add xvii. 25, 20. xxii. 2-6.
» Ib. xxvi. 1. T xxvi. 12. add ib. 2, 3.
w xxvii. 11. X xxxv. 15. y xxxviii. 17.
" Jer. xxxvii. 6. " xxv. 11, 12. xxix. 10.
i> Jer. i. 18, 19, renewed xv. 2n.
" " Imperial rauster rolls in Chambray 'Vol. i. App.
No. 2." Alison Hist, of Europe x. 629.
¦1 Dr. Arnold leet. on- Hist. li. 139.

HABAKKUK.

175

and resisted and put do'wn ? By none and by
nothing but the direct and manifest inter
position of God."
The distinctness and perseverance of the
prophecy are the more remarkable, because
the whole of the greatness of the Chaldaean
empire was that of one man. Assyria, in
this one case, overreached itself in its policy
of transporting conquered populations. It
had, probably to check the rebellions of
Babylon, settled there a wild horde, which it
hoped would neither assimilate with its peo
ple, nor itself rebel. Isaiah relates the fact
in simple words : " Behold the land of the Clial-
daans; this people was not; the Assyrian
founded' it for them that dw>elt in the wilderness.
This does not seem to me necessarily to im
ply, that the wild people, for whom Assyria
founded it, were Chaldseans ^ or Curds, 'ndiom
the king of Assyria had brought from their
Northern dwellings in the C'o-rfuchfean
mountains " near Armenia, where Senna
cherib conquered. Isaiah simply uses the
name, the land of the Chaldceans, as does Jere
miah ' after him, as the name of Babylonia ;
the word Babylonia, had it existed, might
have been substituted for it. Of this, he
says, that it was not, i. e. was of no account ",
but that Assur founded it for wild tribes,
whom he placed there. Whence he
brought those tribes, Isaiah does not say.
jEschylus (although indeed in later times) as
well as Isaiah and Jeremiah, speak of the
population of Babylon, as mingled of various
nations ; and the language is too large to be
confined simply to its merchant-settlers. In
jEschylus', " the all-mingled crowd," which
"it sends out in long array," are its military
contingents. It is its whole population, of
which Isaiah and Jeremiah say, it will flee,
each to his own land. "" It [Babylon] shall
be as a chased roe, and as a sheep which no man
gathereth ; they shall, every man, turn io his own
people, and flee every man to his own land. For
fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every
one to his people : " And they shall flee, every
one to his own land.
Thus Babylonia received that solid acces
sion of strength which ultimately made it a
<= Is. xxiii. 13.
f Jon. unites Asshur with the preceding Dj^TI HI
THyS^ rrn xS and so Syr. and Oxf Arab. S. Jer.
divides as the E."V., though with an opposite sense.
" Talis populus non fuit." The E. 'V. is from Kim.
The rendering, " This people was not Asshur," i. e.
no longer Asshur, or not like Asshur, is very
obscure; and ID' is everywhere "grounded it,
that it might be," (Comp. Ps. civ. 8, Hab. i. 12. and
the common use of np"' "founded a city, building,
temple ") not that it should cease to be.
B 'With this the onlv objection to the simple ren
dering falls away, that Jeremiah speaks of the
Chaldees, as an ancient nation. Jer. v. 15.
•¦ Xen. Cyrop. iii. 2. 7 and, 12. Anab. iv. 3, 4. v. 5. 9.
vii. 8. 14. ' , .,, .,
1 Jer. xxiv. .5, 1. 8. 26, li. 4; and, united with the
narae Babylon, xxv. 12, I. 1. 45, Ezek. xii. 13, as
Isaiah doeajjjas(^iiii»,,alone, xlviii. 14, 20.

powerful people, sixty years before the be
ginning of the reign of Josiah ; its ancient
and new elements would take some time to
blend : they did not assume importance until
the capture of Nineveh ; nor had Judah any
reason to dread anything from them, until
itself rebelled, early in the reign of Jehoia
kim. But 18 years before the death of
Josiah, while Judah was a trusted and faith
ful tributary kingdom, Jeremiah foretold
that evil should come upon them from the
North, i. e. as he himself explains it, from
the Chaldees". Even then if Plabakkuk
were brought down to be a contemporary of
Jeremiah, still in the 13th year of Josiah,
there was nothing to fear. Judah was not
in the condition of an outlying countrj',
which Babylonian ambition might desire to
reduce into dependence on itself It was
already part of the Babylonian empire, hav
ing passed into it, in the partition with Assy
ria, and had no more to fear from it, than
any of the conquered nations of Europe have
now frora those who have annexed them,
unless they rebel. God alone knew the new
ambition of the kings of the smitten and sub
dued Egypt, their momentary success, Jo
siah's death, Judah's relapse into the old
temptation of trusting in Egypt — all, condi
tions of the fulfillment of Habakkuk's and
Jeremiah's prophecies. Edom, Moab, Am
mon, Tyre, Zidon, sent embassadors fo Zede
kiah, to concert measures of resistance
against Nebuchadnezzar ^ ; they were encour
aged by their i diviners, dreamers, enrhanters,
sorcerers, whieh spake to.them, ye shall not serve
the king of Babylon. One alone told them that
resistance would but bring upon them de
struction, that submission was their only
safety ; there was prophecy against pro
phecy ', among these nations, in Jerusalem,
in Babylon ' ; the recent knowledge of the
political aspect of Babylon deterred not the
false prophets there ; all, with one voice,
declared the breaking the yoke of the king
of Babylon : Jeremiah only saw, that they
were framing for themselves ' yokes of iron.
Had Jehoiakim or Zedekiah, their nobles,
and their people possessed that human fore-
t Coll. uy i<h Deut. xxxii. 21, ty'N xS Ps. xxii.
7. See the like in the Classics in Perizon. Orig. Bab.
c. vi. p. 70. sqq. and from him in "Vitr.
^ /Esch. Pers. l>2, .53, 54. ™Is. xiii. 14.
» Jer. 1. 10.
o There ought to be uo question as to the identity
of the invasi'on from the north, Jer. i. 15, vi. 22, x.
22, and Jeremiah's own summary of his prophecies
frora the 13th of Josiah, .xxv. 3-9 when he names
Nebuchadnezzar ; only then there would be definite
prediction. Heuce the mare's nest as to the dread
of the Scythians, who marched down the sea coast
and returned, being bought off by Psammetichus,
doing no harm to Judah by this passing expedition.
r Jer. xxvii. 3. ' lb. 9.
' Jer. V. 12-14. xiv. 14-16. xxiii. 16, 17, 21, 26-27, 30
sqq. xxvii. 14, 15-18, xxviii.
» Jer. xxi.x. 8, 9, 15, 21, 24, sqq.
t xxviii. 13, 14.

176

INTRODUCTION TO

sight which that pseudo-critical school holds
to be so easy, Judah had never gone into
captivity to Babylon. But He 'Who fashion
eth the heart of man knoweth alone the issue
of the working of those hearfs, which He
over-rules. From the necessity of its case, the pseudo-
critical school lowers down the words, in
which Habakkuk declares the niarvelousness
of the event which he foretells, and the un
belief of his people. " Look well," he bids
them, " marvel ye, marvel on ; for I will work
a work in your days which ye will not believe,
when it shall be told you." It is " some
thing which had not hitherto been, some
thing hitherto unknown," says Stahelin ".
Yet things hitherto unknown, are not there
fore incredible. " It is clear from the con
tents," says Bleek '', " that the Chaldees had
at that time already extended to the West
their expeditions of conquest and destruction,
and on the other side, that this had only lately
begun and that they were not yet come to
Judah and .Jerusalem, so that here they
were hitherto little known." " The appear
ance of the Chaldees as world-conquerors
was, in Judah, theu a quite new phenora-
enon," says Ewald ''. 'The description of
the Chaldees altogether is of such sort, that
they appear as a people still little known to
the Jews," says Knobel ". " That which is
incredible for the people consists therein,
that God employs just the Chaldees, such as
they are described in what follows, for the
unexpected chastisement of Israel," says even
Umbreit J.
What was there incredible, that, when the
king of Jerusalem had revolted from Baby
lon, and had sided with Egypt, its chief
enemy, the Chaldseans, shoijld come against
it ? As soon might it be said to be incredible
that France should invade Prussia, when its
hundred thousands were on their march
toward the Rhine. During- the reign of
Manasseh it was incredible enough, that any
peril should impend from Babylon ; for
Babylon was still subordinate to Assyria :
in the early years of Josiah it was still in
credible, for his thirty -one years were years
of peace, until Pharaoh Necho disputed the
cis-Euphratensian countries with Babylon.
When the then East and West came to
Carchemish, to decide whether the empire
should be with the East or with the West,
nothing was beyond human foresight but
the result. Expectation lately hung sus
pended, perplexed between the forces of
Europe. None, the most sagacious, could
predict for a single day. Men raight sur-

» Einl. p. 218. y Einl. ins. A. T. pp. 545, 546.
* Die Proph. ii. 29. see also Delitzsch's quotation
frora him ao. p. 170.
» Die Proph. u. Hebr. ii. 292. Dr. Davidson's
sentences are chiefly gleaned from him.

mise ; God only could predict. For three
and twenty years Jereraiah foretold, that the
evil would come from the North, not from
the South. The powers were well-balanced.
Take Habakkuk's prophecy as a whole —
not that the Chaldseans should invade
Juda;a, (which in Jehoiakim's time_ was
already certain) but that Egypt should be a
vain help, and that the Chalda?ans should
mesh its people like the fishes of ihe sea, jet
they should still have to disgorge them,
because God's judgment would come upon
them also. This too were incredible. In
credible it was to the kings, the wise, the
politicians, the political prophets of Judaea,
that Jerusalem itself should be taken. In
credible it 'n'as, and there was much human
reason for the incredulity. Egypt and Assy
ria had been matched during centuries.
Until the Sargonides, Egypt had, during
centuries, the unbroken advantage. But the
Sargonides had passed away. Yet Chaldffia
had not, alone, prevailed against Assyria.
Why should the yet untried Babylonian be
so certain of success, when the whole West
of the Euphrates was banded together against
him, and fought within their own ground ?
The kings of Elam and the kings of the Medes "
were now, as under Cyrus, enemies of Baby
lon. Babylon had enemies before and be
hind. But God had raised up Nebuchadnezzar
to be the hammer of the whole earth ", and had
given those cis-Euphratensian lands which
leagued against him into the hands of Ne
buchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant,
God says ', and all nations shall serve him and
his son and his son's son, until the very time
of his land come ; and then many nations and
great kings shcdl serve themselves of him. Whence
this combination of almost superhuman but
short-lived might, this certainty of wide
sway down to the third generation, this cer
tainty of its cessation afterward ? There was
no time for decay. Alexander's empire was
yet more short-lived, but it was divided
among his successors. Alexander had, by his
genius, founded liis own empire, which the
able generals, whom he had tr.ained, divided
among themselves. In the Chaldsean em
pire, we have an enterprising conspirator,
who seizes an occasion, but does little beside
which is recorded, nothing alone, nothing,
beside that first grasp at power, for himself.
He appears only as the ally of Media " : then
a son, a world-'wide conqueror, with a genius
for consolidating the empire which he in
herited, forming an impregnable city, which
should also be a pro'vince, filling his empire
with fortresses '', but leaving none after bim

y Kl. Proph. p. 286.
•Jer. xxv. 26. «Ib. 1. 23.
I' Ib. xxvii. 6. 7. « Herod, i. 74.
4 See Daniel the Prophet pp. 118. 122, Rawl. 5
Empires iii. 496 sqq.

HABAKKUK.

177

to maintain 'what he had so consolidated. By
whom could this be foreknown save by Plim,
with Whom alone it is, to root out and to pull
down and to destroy and to throw down, to build
and to plant " ?
It has been common to praise the outside
of Habakkuk's prophecy, the purity of his
language, the sublimity of his imagery.
Certainly it is, humanly speaking, magnifi
cent : his measured cadence is impressive in
its simplicity. He too has words and forms,
which are peculiar to him among the re
mains of Hebrew'. But his eminence is
rather the condensed thought, expressed
often iu the simplest words ; as when, having
carried on the tide of victory of the Chal
dsean to its height, everything human sub
dued before him, all resistance derided, he
gathers up his fall and its cause in those
eight words, "sThen sweeps-he-by, wind,
and-passes, and-is-guilty ; this his-strength
(is) his-god." Yet more striking is the reli
gious greatness, in which he sums up the
meaning of all this oppressiveness of man.
'"'Thou, Lord, has placed him for judgment,
= ,Ier. i. 10.
'The most remarkable, have, of course, been
singled out of old; as, HO JO, i. 9, £3'£33j;, ii- 6,
?lSp''p ii. 16. Others are partly emphatic forms,
asJJt;?!D, ii. 7, or are in some, way, even though
slight, peculiar to him. Spllp, i- i (not in ths
verb), inonn i. 5. [j-yn^ a, li (the form), PPPD
ii. 18. '7i;?n il. 16. min, ysisrin, iii- e- ii;7n iii-
12

and, O Rock, has founded him to correct."
Or, take the picture, prolonged relatively to
his conciseness?, of the utter helplessness of
God's people, meshed, hooked, dragged in
their net ; their captors worshiping the in
strument of their success, revelling in their
triumph, and then the sudden question,
" ' Shall they therefore empty their net ? " He
waits to hear the answer from God. Or, again,
the antiphonal dirge of the materials of the
blood-built city over him''. Or the cutting
off of every stay, sustenance, hope, promise of
God, and, amid this universal crash, what
does he ? It is not as the heathen, " ' fear
less will the ruins strike him : " but, " "^ And
I," as if it were the continuance and conse
quence of the failure of all human things ;
" I would exult in the Lord, I would bound
for joy in the God of my salvation." His
faith triumphs most, when all, in human
sight, is lost.
" 111 whieh Thou blessest is most good,
And unblest good is ill ;
And all is right which seems most wrong,
So it be Thy sweet Will."
9. n«'b;? iii- 14- niifp a, lo. n'73;? u- 4. nu ii- 5.
[rnn iii, 4. o'l iu, 2. tyisn a. 19, Dm;?a «. 15.
nnn i- s, w^s^ a. n. niptyn a, 1. nm m. 2,
SSs quiver (of the lips) iii. 16, 'IDfl (of sea) iii. 15.
They will recur for notice in the Coram.
s Hab. i. 11. ' Ib. 12. ' Ib. 17. t ii. 11-
iHor. Od. iii. 3. 8. » iii. 10.

HABAKKUK.

cStllT CHAPTER L
cix. 626. 1 Unto Habakkuk, complaining
of the iniquity of the land, 5
is shewed the fearful vengeance
by the Chaldeans. 12 He com
plaineth that vengeance should
be executed by them who are far
worse.

Chap. I., Ver. 1. The burden ' which Ha
bakkuk the prophet did see. The prophet's
name signifies " strong embrace." The word
in its intensive form is used both of God's
enfolding the soul in His tender supporting
love ^, and of man clinging and holding fast
to Divine wisdom ^. It fits in with the sub
ject of his prophecy, faith, cleaving fast to
God amid the perplexities of things seen.
"*He who is spiritually Habakkuk, cleaving
fast to God with the arms of love, or enfold
ing Him after the manner of one holily
wrestling, until he be blessed, enlightened,
and heard by Him, is the seer here." " Let
him who would in such wise fervidly em
brace God and plead with Him as a friend,
praying earnestly for the deliverance and
consolation of hiraself and others, but who
sees not as yet, that his prayer is heard,
make the same holy plaint, and appeal to the
clemency of the Creator." " ' He is called
' embrace ' either because of his love to the
Lord ; or because he engages in a contest and
strife and (so to speak) wrestling with God."
For no one with words so bold ventured to
challenge God to a discussion of His justice
andto say to Him, "Why, in human affairs
and the government of this world is there so
great injustice? "
The prophet. The title, the prophet, is added
only to the names of Habakkuk, Haggai,
Zechariah. Habakkuk may the rather have
added it to his name, because prominently he
expostulates with Cxod, like the Psalmists,
and does not speak in the name of God
to the people. The title asserts that he
exercised the pastoral oflSce of the prophets,
although not directly in this prophecy ".
Did see. " ' God multiplied visions, as is
written ', and Himself spake to the prophets,
disclosing to them beforehand what should
1 On the word burden see on Nah. i. 1. p. 129. n. 1.
2 pan Cant. ii. 6. viii. 3. s prov. iv- 8. * Dion.
6 S. Jer. Abarbanel has the like, " He strengthens
himself in pleading his cause with God as to the
prosperity of Nebuchadnezzar as if he was joined
with God for the cause of his people." Pref. to
Ezek. pp. 123, 4, 124. 1.
6 See ab. p. 20. ' S. Cyr. ' Hos. xii. 10.
'yVCl only occurs in the intensive form, and
always of the cry to God, expressed by 7K- or
implied, except perhaps Job xxxv. 9-
"'^r\pw njx-n;?, as Ps, ixxx. e. n:g;;/ria-i;;

THE burden which Ha
bakkuk the prophet did .
see. 2 O Loed, how long
shall I cry, " and thou wilt
not hear ! even cry out un-

Before
CHEIST cir. 026.

be, and all but exhibiting them to sight, as
if already present. But that they determined
not to speak from their own, but rather
transmit to us the words from God, he per
suades us at the outset, naming himself a
Prophet, and shewing himself full of the
grace belonging thereto."
2- 0 Lord, how long shall I cry, lit. how long
have I cried so intensely to Thee ' ? For it is
ever the cry of the creature to Him Who
alone can hear or help, its God '¦ Of this
cry the Prophet expresses that it had already
lasted long. In that long past had he cried
to God and no change had come. There is
an undefined past, and this still continues '"-
How long, as Asaph cries, hmo long hast Thou
been, and, it is implied, wilt Thou be wroth
against ihe prayer of Thy people? as we should
say, how long shall Thy wrath continue ? The
words which the Prophet uses relate to
domestic strife and wrong between raan and
man; violence", iniquity, strife, contention ^^,
nor are any of them used only of the oppres
sion of a foreign enemy. He complains too
of injustice too strong for the law, and the
perversion of justice^". And on this the
sentence is pronounced. The enemy is to be
sent for judgment and correction ''^. They are
then the sins of Judah which the Prophet
rehearses before God, in fellow-sufii^ring with
the oppressed. God answers that they shall
be removed, but by the punishment of the
sinners. Punishment does not come without sin,
nor does sin endure without punishment. It
is one object of the Old Testament to exhi
bit the connection between sin and punish
ment. Other prophets, as commissioned by
God, first denounced the sins and then fore
told the punishment of the impenitent. Ha
bakkuk appeals to God's justice, as requiring
and Exod. xvi. 28. DnjKD nJ^-l;? and Ex. j.. 3,
ripsg 'nn-i;?. [all.]
' " niyi p'nn are united of individual internal
violence, Jer. vi. 7. xx. 8. Ez. xiv. 9- Am. iii. 10 : even
IDtJ'l IB' Is. lix. 7. and fW alone Ps. xii. 6. Job
xxiv- 9. Pr. xxi. 7. xxiv. 2. Hab. ii. 17. "11^1 113 Hos.
xii. 2. Sd;?! tlX occur Ps. Iv. 11, in Habakkuk's
order; inverted in Ps. x. 7. |1K, hny, Nit!' occur
in three clauses in Is. lix. 4. hup, ]1K, with DDID
Job XV. 35.
12 i. 3. 13 i. 4. " i- 12.
179

180

HABAKKUK.

CHRIST ^'^ *''^®® "/ 'violence,
__^^  thou wilt not save !

and

3 Why dost thou shew

its infliction. On this ground too this open
ing of the prophecy cannot be a complaint
against the Chaldees, because their wrong
would be no ground of the punishment wliich
the prophet denounced, but the punishment
itself, requiting wrong to man through human
wrong. " ' The prophet considers the iierson of the
oppressed, enduring the intolerable insolence
and contumely of those wonted to do wrong,
and very skillfully doth he attest the unutter
able loving kindness of God. For he exhibits
Him as very forbearing, though wont to hate
wickedness. But that He doth not forthwith
bring judgment on the offenders, he showed
clearly, saying that so great is His silence
and long-sutt'ering, that there needeth a
strong cry, in that some practise intolerable
covetousness against others, and use an un
bridled insolence against the weak. For
his very complaints of God's endurance of
evil attest the immeasurable loving kindness
of God."
" ' You may judge hence of the liatred of
evil in the Saints. For they speak of the
woes of others as tlieir own. So saith the
most wise Paul, ^ who is weak and I am not
weak ? who is offend'id, ancl I burn not ? and
bade us ' weep with those wlio weep, shewing that
sympathy and mutual love are especially be
coming to the saints."
The Prophet, through sympathy or fellow-
suffering with the sufferers, is as oue ofthem.
He eri'.'s for help, as himself needing it, and
being in the misery, in behalf of whicli he
prays. He says, How long shcdl I cry ? stand
ing, as it were, in the place of all, and gath
ering all their cries into one, and presenting
them before God. It is the cry, in one, of
all which is wronged to the God of Justice,
of all suffering to the God of love. " When
shall this scene of sin, and confusion, and
wrong be at an end, ani the harmony of
God's creation be restored ? Plow long shall
evil not exist only, but prevail ? " It is the
cry of the souls under the altar*. How long,
0 Lord, Holy and True, dost Thou not judge
and avenrje our blood on them that dwell on
the earth ? It is the voice of the oppressed
against the oppressor ; of the Church against
the world ; weary of hearing the Lord's Name

1 S. Cyr.
3 Rom. xii. 15.
B Ps. x.xii. 2.

2 2 Cor. xi. 29.
* Rev. vi. 10.
"Dion.

'Pan p;rm as Kipx -\w\ pnn Jer. x.x. s. p
pan p.I?SX Job- xix. 7- [all of this construction.]
'Since BOH, occurring r,7 times, is certainly no
where else used causatively of its common mean
ing, behold, look, and Habakkuk himself uses it four

me iniquity, and cause me
to behold grievance? for
spoiling and violence are

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

blasphemed, of seeing wrong set up on high,
holiness trampled under foot. It is in its
highest sense His "Voice, Who, to sanctify
our longings for deliverance, said in the days
of His Flesh, " I cry in the daytime, but Thou
hearest not.
Even cry out aloud (it is the cry of an
guish). " ^ We cry the louder, the more we
cry from the heart, even without words ; for
not the moving of the lips, but the love of
the heart sounds in the ears of God." Even
cry out unto Tliee. Whether as an exclama
tion or a continuance of the question, How
long? the prophet gathered in one the pro
longed cry of past and future. He Aarf cried;
he should cry on. Violence '. He speaks as if
the one word, jerked out, as it were, wrung
forth frora his inmost soul, was, Violence, as
if he said this one word to the God of Jus
tice and love.
3. Why dost Thou shew mz iniquity, and
cause me to behold, or rather, Why beholdest
Thou^ grievance? Cxod seemed to reverse
what He had said by Balatim, " He hath not
beheld iniquity in Jacob, and hath not seen
grievousness in Israel; and in the Psalm,
'""Thou hast seen, for Thou [einph.] be
holdest grievousness and wrong, to put it in
T'ly hand," i.e. Thou layest it up in Thy
hand, to cast it back on the head of the evil
doer. Now He seemed to behold it and
leave it unpunished, which yet Habakkuk
says to God below, He could not do; " Tliou
canst not look upon iniquity. What then did
this mean ? What was the solution ?
All forms and shapes of sin are multi
plied ; oppressive violence '^, such as covei-ed
tlie earth before the flood, and brought it
down ; which Nineveh had to put away '^,
and it was spared ; iniquity, i. e. what is un
equal and contrary to truth, falsehood ; griev
ance lit. burdensome wearisome toil; spoiling,
or open robbery ; strife and contention, both
through perversion of the law and, without
it, through endless jarrings of raan with man.
Sin recoils on the sinner. So 'ndiat he be
holds is not iniquity only, but (in the same
word) vanity; grievance; whichis a burden
both to him who suffers, and yet raore to him
who inflicts it. For nothing is so burden
some as sin, nothing so empty as wickedness.
times beside in that raeaning ltD''3n, "look,"i. 6.
with '7X, 1. 13. with Si? ii. 13. with ace. pers. i- 13. it
is wholly improbable that it should be used here
of "causing to look; ".the more, since he has uot
marked the supposed exceptional use by adding
the affix, ''3B''3n. There is no ground to assume
a causative of a causative.
9 Xn. xxiii. 21. '"Ps. x. 14. "1.13.
'^ Don Gen. vi. 11, 13. is Jonah iii. 8.

CHAPTER I.

181

Before
CHRIST eir. 626.

before me : and there are
that raise up strife and con
tention. 4 Therefore the law is
slacked, and judgment

And while to him who suffers, the suffering
is temporal, to him who inflicts it, it is eter
nal. And yet the prophet and whoso prays
against ungodliness, " ' must commiserate
him who doth wrong yet more, since they
hurt what is most precious, their own soul,
and that eternally." X\\ then is full of evil.
Whithersoever the Prophet looks, some fresh
violence is before him ; it confronts him on
every side ; strife halh arisen ^, come up, ex
ists where it was not before; contention lifteth
itself^ on high, bowing down all beside.
4. Therefore, i. e. Because God seemed not
to awake to avenge His own cause, men
promised themselves that they might sin on
with impunity. Sin produces sin, and
wrong, wrong ; it spreads like an infectious
disease, propagating itself, and each, to
whom it reaches, adds to its poison. At last,
it reached those also, who should be in God's
stead to restrain it. The Divine law itself is
silenced, by the power of the wicked, by the
sin of the judge, the hopelessness of all.
When all around is evil, even those not yet
lost are tempted to think ; " Why should I
be other than they ? what evil befalls them ?
Why stand alone?" Even a Psalmist*
speaks as if terapted to speak even as they.
Tliese are the ungodly who prosper in the world ;
they increase in riches ; verily I have clewnsed
my heart in vain, and washed my hands in
innoceney ; and Solomon^, Because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the heart of ihe sons of men is fully set
in them to do evil.
¦ The law is slacked, lit. is chilled^ (as we say,
"is paralyzed,") through lack of the fire of
love. This is what our Lord says, ' Because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax
cold. The Divine law, the source of all right,
being chilled in men's hearts, judgment, i. e.
the sentence of human justice, as conformed
1 Theoph.
2 The Lxx. Syr. S. Jer. so divide ; ydyove Kpitri^
Kai 'o Kpnri<: kan^i-am, " et factum est judicium et
contradictio potentior." So Tanehum. The B. V.
has followed Jon. Kim. Aben Ezra.
= XK/J intrans., as in Ps. Ixxxix. in; Nah. i. 5.
< Ps. Ixxiii. 15, 12, 13. ^ Eccl. viii. 11.
6 It is used of Jacob's heart, who could uot be
lieve the good tidings, Gen. xiv. 26; the numbing
of the comfortless heart of the penitent through
grief (Nif.) Ps. xxxviii. 9. The Psalmist, holding on
in prayer, denies it of himself. Ps. xxvii. 3. They
quote '" friget lex." ' S. Matt. xxiv. 12.
'According to the uniform use of nXj7, 31
tiraes and nif J 6 times. This uniform usage can
not be overborne by the analogy of Is. xiii. 3. J1CX 7

doth never go forth : for
the '' wicked doth compass _
about the righteous ; there
fore II wrong judgment pro
ceedeth.

Before
CHRIST eir. 626.
i> Job. 21. 7.
Ps. 94. 3, 4c.
Jer. 12. 1.
II Or, wrested.

to Divine, doih never go forth '. Human
sense of right is powerless, when there is not
the love of God's law. It seems ever ready
to act, but ever falls short, like an arrow
from an unstrung bow. The man seems ever
about to do right ; he judges, sees, aright ; all
but does it ; yet at last always fails. It goes
not forth. The children are come to ihe birth,
and there is not strciigth to bring forth '.
For the wicked doth compass about '" the
righteous, laying snares for him, as the Jews
for our Lord ; evil is too strong for a weak
will to do right, and overbears it. Pilate
sought in many ways, how he might deliver
Jesus, yet at last did deliver Him into their
hands. Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth, lit.
judgment proceedeth wrested ". He had said,
" it never goes forth ; " never, that is, in its
true character ; for, when it does go forth, it
is distorted. " '^ For gifts or favor or fear or
hate the guiltless are condemned and the
guilty acquitted, as saith the Psalmist, '^ How
long will ye judge unjustly and accept the per
sons ofthe ungodly ?" " '^Judgment goes forth
perverted in the seat of man's judgment (the
soul), when, bribed by the pleasures of sense,
it leans to the side of things seen, and the
Ungodly one, the rebel angel, besets and
overpowers him v^io has the sense of right ;
for it is right that things seen should give
way to things unseen ; '^for the things which
are seen are temporal, but the things whieh are
not seen are eternal." Why then all this ?
and how long? Why does God bring it be
fore him and He Who is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity, behold grievance, which His
Holy Eyes could not endure ? Neither the
Unseen Presence of God nor the mission of
the Prophet checks. If he rebuke, no one
hearkened ; if he intercedes for sinners, or
against sin, God made as though He would
t03B'D X'!fr, "He shall bring forth judgment to
truth," as Syr. here, " with sincerity," Rashi, "ac
cording to truth."
8 Is. xxxvii. 3.
^''"I'nDn, "encompass for hostile end," as ^Pf3
Jud. XV. 43. Ps. XX. 13. " The wicked," ytVT is col
lective, as implied by the word " encompass." " The
righteous" is, in contrast, determined, p''1!fn ilX.
n SpJ^D. The root occurs'only in intensive forms ;
in the verb here only ; crooked ways are ni7p7pj?
Jud. V. 6. Ps. cxxv. 5. the Serpent is called tlfl/pi,',
Isa. xxvii. 1. 12 Dion. " Ps. Ixxxii. 2.
M Theoph. 1' 2 Cor. iv. 18.

182

HABAKKUK.

Before
CHRIST cir. 026.
«Is. 29.14.
Acts 13. 41.

5 ^"Behold ye among
the heathen, and regard,
and wonder marvellously ;
for I will work a work in

not hear. God answers that, though to
man's impatience the time seems long, judg
ment shall come, and that, suddenly and
speedily. While the righteous is enquiring,
how long ? and the wicked is saying ', My
Lord delayeth His coming. He is come, and
seen in the midst of them.
The whole tone of the words suddenly
changes. The Jews flattered themselves that,
being the people of God, Pie would not ful
fill His threats upon them. They had be
come like the heathen in wickedness ; God
bids them look out among them for the in
strument of His displeasure. It was an ag
gravation of their punishment, that God,
Who had once chosen them, would now
choose these whom He had not chosen, to
chasten them. So Mose^ had foretold ;
^ Tliey have moved Me to jealousy by that whieh is
•not Ood ; they have provoked Me to anger with
their vanities ; and I will move them to jealousy
with not-a-people, I will provoke them to anger
with a foolish nation. There were no tokens
of the storm which should sweep them away,
yet on the horizon. No forerunners yet.
And so He bids them gaze on among the na
tions, to see whence it should come. They
might have expected it from Egypt. It
should come whence they did not expect,
with a fierceness .and terrilileness which they
imagined not. Regard., loot narrowly, weigh
well what it portends; and wonder marvel
ously ; lit. be amazed, amazed. The word is
doubled ', to express how amazement should
follow upon amazement ; when the first was
passing away, new source of amazement
should come; for '^ I will work a work in your
days, whieh ye will not believe, though it be told
you. So incredible it will be, and so against
their wills ! He does not say, " ye would
not believe if it were told you ; " much less,
"if it were told you of others;" in which
case the chief thought would be left unex
pressed. No condition is expressed. It is
simply foretold, what was verified by the
whole history of their resistance to the Chal
dees until the capture of the city ; " Ye will
not believe, when it shall be told you." So
1 S. Matt. xxiv. 48. 2 Deut. xxxii. 21.
8 As in Ps. cxviii. 11, ¦'J133P DJ 'Jl^O, Hos.iv. is,
13n IPnX, Zeph. ii. 1. Ityipi lE/iZ/ipnn. if sug
gested by is. xxix. 9, innni irrononn "bo per
plexed and marvel," Habakkuk changed the phrase,
preserving the alliteration.
4 The "I" is omitted in the Hebrew, probably for
conciseness, as if it were the finite verb. Del.
quotes as omissions of the 3d person, Ps. xxii. 29.
Iv. 20 ; of the second 1 Sam. ii. 24. vi. 3. Ps. vii. 10.

your days, which ye will not ^ h r°/| t
believe, though it be told ^^ c'^"^- "26.
you.

iDeut. 28.49. 50.
Jer. 5. 16.
6-r-i 1 A \\ T ' II fulfilled.
For, lo, ¦'III raise up " 2 chr. so. 6.

it ever is. Man never believes, that God is
in earnest, until His judgments come. So it
was before the flood, and to Sodom, and Lot's
sons-in-law ; so it was to Ahab and Jezebel ;
so as to this destruction of Jerusalem by the
Chaldajans, and that which is shadowed
forth, by the Romans. So Jeremiah com
plained, ^ IViey have belied the Lord, and
said., it is not He; neitlier shall evil come
upon lis : neither shall we see sword nor
famine, and, ^ / am in derision daily ; every
one mockelh me. For since I spake, [ cried
out, [ cried violence and spoil; because the
word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me,
and a derision daily ; and Isaiah, ' Who hath
believed our report ? and St. John Baptist
speaks as though it were desperate ; " 0
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee
from the wrath to come ? and our Lord tells
them, ^ Your house is left unto you desolate.
And yet they believed not, but delivered
Him up to be put to death, lest that should
be, which did come, because they put Him to
death. ^^ If we let Him thus alone, all men will
believe on Him; and the Romans shall come,
and take away both our place and nation. St.
Paul ", then, applies these words to the Jews
in his day, because the destruction of the flrst
teraple by Nebuchadnezzar was an image of
the destruction of the second (which by Di
vine appointment, contrary to man's inten
tion, took place on the same day '''), and the
Chaldajans were images of the Romans, that
second Babylon, heathen Rome ; and both
foreshowed the worse destruction by a fiercer
enemy, the eneray of souls, the spiritual
wasting and desolation which came on the
Jew first, and which shall come ou all who
disobey the Gospel. So it shall be to the
end. Even now the Jews believe not, Whose
work their own dispersion is ; His, Who by
them was crucified, but Who hath " all power
in heaven and in earth. The Day of Judg
ment will come like a thief in the night to
those who believe not or obey not our Lord's
words. 6. For lo. So God announces a future, in
which His Hand shall be greatly visible,
Hab. ii. 10. Ewald adds " after n|n Gen. xii. 1. Ex.
vii. 15. viii. 16, and without it, Ps. xxii. 29, xxxiii.
5. 7. Ixvi. 7. xcvi. 13. Lehrb. p. 516. ed. 7.
6 ,Ier. V. 12. 6 lb. XX. 7, 8.
'Is- Iiii- 1. es. Matt. iii. 7.
" Ib. xxiii. 38. S. Luke xiii. 35. lo S. John xi. 48.
"Some of the words as there quoted (from the
then received translation, the LXX.) differ; the
sense is the same.
1^ Jos. de B. J. vii. 14. "S. Matt, xxviii. 18.

CHAPTER L

183

chrTst *^® Chaldeans, that bitter
 cir- 626. anH hasty nation, which
shaU march through the
t Heb. ireadite. -j- breadth of the land, to
possess the dwellingplaces
. f^ ^ ^u ihO't are not their's.
II Or, from them
simli proceed 7 Thov are terrible and
the ^iudgment of ''
these,andthe dreadful: || their iuda:-
captivity of . ,
these. ment and their dignity

whether more or less distant. In His sight
it is present. J raise up. God uses the free
will and evil passions of men or devils to His
own ends ; and so He is said to raise up '
those whom He allows fo be stirred up
against His people, since the events which
His Providence permits, favor their designs,
and it rests with Him to withhold them.
They lift themselves up for some end of
covetousness or pride. But there is a higher
order of things, in which God orders their
actions to fulfill by their iniquities His
righteousness. The Chaldceans, that bitter^
and hasty " nation. " * To its might and
warlike boldness almost all the Greeks who
have written histories of the barbarians, wit
ness." Which sliall march through the breadth
of tlie land, rather, the earth, lit. " to the
breadths of the earth," reaching to its whole
length and breadth, all its dimensions ^, as in
the description of Gog and Magog, '' the num
ber of wliom is as the sand of the sea ; and they
went up on the breadth of the earth; unhin
dered, not pent up, but spreading abroad,
where they will, over the whole earth. All
before it, is one wide even plain which it
overspreads and covers, like a flood, and yet
is not spent nor exhausted. To possess the
dwelling-places that are not theirs. As God's
people had done, so should it be done to
them. Spoiling and violence within ' at
tract oppression from without. The over
charged atmosphere casts down the lightning
upon them. They had expelled the weak
from their dwelling * ; others shall possess
theirs. Yet this scourge too shall pass by,
since, although the Chaldaean did God's
'D'pn issoused, 1 Kings xi. 14,23. Am. vi. 14,
and of evil (in the abstract) 2 Sam. xii. 11. Zech. xi.
16, as also T'J/n Ezek. xxiii. 22. 2 Chr. xxi. Hi. and
against Babj'lon, Is. xiii. 17. xii. 2, 25. Jer. 1. 9.
li. 1. 11.
^ 10. In Jud. xviii. 26. 2 Sam. xvii. 8, the less
concise ^^33 ID is used.
' innj as Is. xxxii. 4. * S. Jer.
^^^niO (plur.) occurs here only. Isaiah has
"the fullness of the breadth of Thy land, O Im
manuel " viii. 8, and in the same sense v. 9. 7P
flK 'pniD "allthe far places ofthe earth." (also
aTT.)

shall proceed of them- „5'S°Tl,m
¦^ C ±1 K 1 b i
selves. cir- 626.
8 Their horses also are
swifter than the leopards,
and are more f fierce than f Heb. sharp.
the " evening wolves : and » jer. 5. 6.
their horsemen shall spread
themselves, and their
horsemen shall come from

Zeph. 3. 3.

Will, he willed it not, but his own '>. The
words, not theirs, lit. not to him llo-lo '"] stand
with a mysterious fullness of meaning. The
dwelling places not being his by right, shall
not remain his, although given to him, while
God wills.
7. Tliey are terrible " and dreadful. He
describes them, first in themselves, then in
act. They are terrible, and strike fear
through their very being, their known char
acter, before they .put it forth in act. Their
judgment and their dignity shall proceed of them
selves. Judgment had gone forth in God's peo
ple wrested''' ; now shall it go forth against
them at the mere will of their master, -viho
shall own no other rule or Lord or source of
his power. His own will shall be his only
law for himself and others. liis elevation '^
too is, in his own thought, from himself He
is self-sufficing; he holds from no other,
neither from God nor man. His dignity is
self-sustained ; his judgment irresponsible, as
if, there were none '^^ higher than he. He has,
like all great world-powers, a real dignity
and majesty. He infuses awe. The dignity
is real but faulty, as being held independ
ently of God. This is a character of Anti
christ'", a lawless insolence, a lifting up of
himself. 8. Their horses are sivifter [lit. lighter, as we
say, "light of foot"] than leopards. The
wild beast intended is the panther, the lightest,
swiftest, fiercest, most blood-thirsty of beasts
of prey. " '* It runs most swiftly and rushes
brave anS straight. You would say, when
you saw it, that it is borne through the air."
'"'It bounds exceedingly and is very exceed-
6 Rev. XX- 8. 9. ' i. 2-4. « Mic. ii. 9.
» See Isa. X. 6, 7. "lb x'7.
n DVX occurs here only and Cant. vi. 4. 10. com
pared with the "bannered host," but the root is
common in nD''&^. 121,4,
^¦^nij^ty is not in itself, " se^Z-elevation " (as Kim.
" that he will exalt himself above the nations ")
but simply "elevation;" from God, Gen. iv. 7, or
His Providence, Ib, xlix. 3, Ps. ixii. 5. It is used of
the majesty of God, Job xiii. 23.
" Eccl. V. 8. 15 Dan. xi. 36. 2 Thess. ii. 4.
IS Oppian Cyneg. iii. 75. sq.
" S. Cyr. See more fully in Daniel the Prophet
p. 77. n. 3.

184

HABAKKUK.

cheTst ^^^"' '^'^^y ^^^^1 ^y ^^ ^^s
cir. 026. _ eaffle that hasteth to eat.

I Or,' the'siipping 9 They shall come all
faces, dtc!'ox, for violeuce : ||f their faces
their faces shall , -,, j.i j.
JooA tomard t/ie shall sup up CIS the east
tnlb. theoppo- wind, and they shall gath-
sition of their faces toward ihe east.

ingly light to spring down on whatever it
pursues." 3Iore flerce ' than the evening wolves ^,
i- c. than they are when fiercest, going forth
to prey when urged to rabldness by hunger
the whole day through. Such had their
own judges been'', and by such should they
be punished. The horse partakes of the
fierceness of his rider iu trampling down the
foe*. Iheir horsemen shall spread themselves
[lit. widespread are tlieir horsemen], and their
horsemen from far shall come. Neither dis
tance of march shall weary them, nor dif
fusion weaken them. So should Moses' pro
phecy be again fulfilled. " The Lord shall
raise against thee a nation from far, from the ends
of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation, whose
tongue tliou shalt not understand; a nation of
fierce countenance, whieh shcdl not regard the
person ofthe oil, nor shoiv favor to the young.
They shall fiy as the eagle that hasteth [lit.
hasting "j to eat, " ' not to fight, for none shall
withstand ; but with a course like the eagle's,
to whom all fowl are subdued, hasting but to
eat." Behold, Jeremiah says of Nebuchad
nezzar *, he shcdl fly as an eagle and spread his
wings over Moab ; and, he repeats the words,
' over Bo'.rah. Our pursuers, Jeremiah says'",
are swifter than the ea'jles of the h:avens.
Ezekiel likens him to " a great eagle with
i|it. sharp "acer." Tin (except of the scales of
the crocodile Job xii. '2'2} is used elsewhere only of
the sharpening of iron against iron (Hif) Pr. xxvii.
17; (Hof.l, of the sword Ezek. xxi. 14, 13, 26. rTlH
as an epithet of the sword (iv. times). In Arabic
¦in, conj. i. ii. iv. x. is to " sharpen ;' nxih, HX'in
"sharp," of a knife, sword; inn met., "sharp of
intellect," &c. also of sword,
2 Comp. Jer. v. 6. 3 Zeph. iii. 3.
*The horse aud his rider are regarded as one.
Nahum had spoken of the cavalr,v"in the armies
against Nineveh (Xah, iii. 2); in Judith they are
numbered in the proportion of one-tenth to the
footmen of Holofernes (Judith ii. 5, 1.5.). They were
the raore formidable to Judah whieh hod footmen
only. Under Persian rule Babylonia was a great
breeding place for horses. Rawl. 5 Empires iii. 317.
fi Deut. xxviii. 49, 50. plH"!^ occurs in both.
s Uln as partic. In the finite verb, it had been
tJ^irr Hlvs 1D0' ii. 14, ip^rr in. ll, CTO' job ix.
20. Del. 'S. Jer. 'Jer. xlviii. 40. » Ib, xlix. -22.
10 Lam. iv. 19. " Ezek. xvii. 3. i^ Dan, vii, 4,
"v. 3. 4.
"As •\'-)J Ps. xxix. 9, Is. i. 23, ix. 16, Jer. vi. 13,
viii. 6. 10, XV. 10, TflD Jer. xx. 7.
'^nOJO. a"". Ae-y. The sense "swallowing" is
given liy Jos. Kimchi, .\. E., Rashi, Ob. Sip., Mena
hem B.' Saruk, taking QDJ as i. q. KOJ, quoting

er the captivity as the chrTst
sand.  "¦•' "''"¦
10 And they shall scoff
at the kings, and the
princes shall be a scorn
unto them : they shall de-

great wings full of feathers; in Daniel's vision
he is '^ a lion with eagle's wings.
9. They shall come all for violence. Violence
had been the sin of Judah ", and now shall
be her punishment. It had been ever before
the prophet ; all were full of it. Now should
violence be the very end, one by one, of all the
savage horde poured out upon them ; they all,
each one of them ", come for violence. Their
faces shall sup up '" as the east wind '^. " As
at the breath of the burning wind all green
things dry up, so at sight of these all shall be
wasted." They shall sweep over everything
impetuously, like the east wind, scorching,
blackening, blasting, swallowing up all, as they
pass over, as the East wind, especially in the
Holy Land, sucks up all moisture and fresh
ness. And they shaU gather the captivity [i. e.
the captives] as the sand, countless, as the parti
cles which the East wind raises, sweeping
over the sand-wastes, where it buries whole
caravans in one death.
10. And they [lit. he, the word stands em
phatically, he, alone against all the kings of
the earth] shall scoff at ihe kings and all their
might, taking them away or setting them up
at his pleasure and caprice, subduing them
as though ill sport"; and princes, (Ut. grave
and majestic) shall be a scorn unto them {him] ".
Job xxxix. 24 or Gen. xxiv. 17. Thence A. E.
obtains the meaning " before, straight on," quoting
Targ. Abulwalid, followed hy Tanehum, compares
the Arab, ^n, "purposed," and thence derives the
meaning "direction." The Arab. ?3J1, (appetivit,
Fr.) signifies "approached " not " desired." Gese
nius " tlie collection of their faces," i. e. all of them,
involves the use of a an-. Aey- to express, without
emphasis, what is expressed everywhere by the
common word, 73, Svmra. has 7rp6iro\>it^, and so
Svr. '^ nO-Tp occurs else only in Ezek. xi. 1, and 16
times in c. xl.-xlviii. of the ideal city and temple
as " Eastwards." But except in th'e far-fetched
explanation of Abarb. (mentioned also by Tan
ehum) that they ravaged, not to settle, but to' return
hom? with their booty, " Eastwards" would have
no meaning. Yet "forwards" is just as insulated
a rendering as that adopted by J. and D. Kim., A.
E., Rashi, Oh. Sip., Sal. B. Mel.'.Vrab Tr. (following
Jon.) "the East-wind;" nO'Ti!) standing as a met.
instead of a simile the T\ being regarded as para-
gogie, as in n^'^. So also Symm. ai'efios naHirav.
S. Jer., *' ventus urens."
" Comp. Benhadad's drunken commands, 1 Kings
XX. 18.
18 Comp. Job xii. 29.

CHAPTER I.

185

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

ride every st r o n g hold ;
for they shall heap dust,
and take it.
11 Then shall hie mind

So Nebuchadnezzar bound Jehoiakim' in fet
ters to carry him to Babylon ; then, on his sub
mission made him for three years a tributary
king^, then on his rebellion sent bands of
Chaldees and other tributaries against him ¦' ;
and then, or when Nebuchadnezzar took
Jehoiachin, Jeremiah's prophecy was ful
filled, that he should be buried with the burial
of an ass, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates
of Jerusalem *, his dead body cast out in the day
io the heat and in the night to thefrost^, then
Nebuchadnezzar took away Jehoiachin ; then
Zedekiah. Pie had also many kings captive
with him in Babylon. For on his decease
Evil-JIcrodach brought Jehoiachin out of
his prison after 27 years of imprisonment,
and set his throne above the throne of the kings
that were with him in Babylon^. Daniel says
also to Nebuchadnezzar ', Thou, O king, art a
king of kings : for ihe Ood of heaven hath given
thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the
beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath
He given into thine hand and hath made thee
ruler over all.
They [/if] .sliaU deride every strong hold, as,
aforetime, when God helped her, Jerusalem
laughed the Assyrian to scorn' ; for they [Ae]
shall heap dust, and take il, as Nebuchadnezzar
did Tyre, whose very name (Rock) betokened
its strength. " ^ He shall come to Tyre, and,
casting a mound in the sea, shall make an
island a peninsula, and, amid the waves of
the sea, land shall give an entrance to the
city." the mount, or heaped-up earth, by which
the besiegers fought on a level with the
besieged, or planted their engines at advan
tage, was an old and simple form of siege,
especially adapted to the great masses of the
1 2 Chr. xxxvi. 6. Dan. i. 2.
2 2 Kings xxiv. 1. 3 Ib. 2. < Jer. xxii. 19.
5 Ib. xxxvi. 30. On the one hand, the expression
" slept with his fathers " does not necessarily imply
that Jehoiakim died a peaceful death, since it is
used of Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 40) and Amaziah (2
Kings xiv. 20, 22.) On the other, Jerem iah's prophecy
was equally fulfilled, if the insult to his corpse took
place when Nebuchadnezzar took away Jehoiachin
three months after his father's death. See Daniel
the Prophet, pp. 399, 402, 403. Josephus attributes
both the death and disgrace to Nebuchadnezzar.
Ant. X. 0. 3.
8 2 Kgs xxv. 27, 28.
' Dan. ii. 37. 38. and iv. 22. ' Is. xxxvui. 22.
«S. Jer. M2Sam. XX. 16. "2 Kgs xix. 32.
12 Ez. xvii. 17.
13 Jer. vi. 6. xxxii. 24, xxxiii. 4, Ezek. iv. 2, xxi. 22
127 Heb.], xxvi. 8.
" Herod, i. 102. '* 3 Kings xxiv. 7.
'° fl'rn is used of the overflowing of a river, Is.

Before
CHRIST eir. 626.

change, and he shall pass
over, and offend, '^imputing
this his power unto his sDan. 5. 4.
god.

Eastern armies. It was used in David's
time '" ; and by the Assyrians ", Egyptians '^,
Babylonians", and afterward the Persians".
Here he describes the rapidity of the siege.
To heap up dust and to capture were one.
It needed no great means ; things slight as
the dust suflBced in the hands of those em
ployed by God. Portion by portion, '''the
King of Babylon took all that pertained to tlie
king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt unto the
river Euphrates.
11. Then shall his mind change, or, better,
Then he sweeps by '^, a wind '', and p/asses'", and
is guilty; this his strength is his god. The
victory was comjileted, all resistance ended.
He sweeps by, as his own Euphrates, when
over-filled by the swelling " of all its tribu
tary streams, riseth up over all its banks,
and overwhelms all where it passes; as a
wind which sweepeth ^° over the desert : and
pa.s.^iv over all bounds and laws, human and
Divine, and is guilty and stands guilty before
God, maldng himself as God, This his poiver
is his god. God had said to Israel, "/
uill be to thee God. The Chaldaean virtually
said, this my strength is io me my god. This
Nebuchadnezzar's own words speak ; '" Is
not this great Babylon, that I have built for
the house of the kingdom by tlie might of my power,
and for the honor of my majesty ? And the
statue which '«'as to be worshiped, was,
very probably, of himself, as the intoxica
tion of pride has made other heathen kings
or conquerors, Alexander or Darius^*. Bel
shazzar said, ''^ I will be like ihe Most High, and
the prince of Tyre said, '-'^ / am a god, and
Anti-Christ shall'" exalt himself above all tliat
is called god, and, as Ood, sit in the temple of
Ood, shewing himself that he is god. Such is
all pride. It sets itself in the place of God,
viii. 8- of a wind chasing, Ib. xxi. 1, ofthe invisible
presence of God pas'-ing by, Job ix. 11. or a spirit,
lb. iv. 15. of the swift passing of our days, like ship
or eagle, Ib. ix. 26. of idols utterly passing away,
Is. ii. 18, of rain past and gone, Cant. ii. 11. It is,
together with n3;', used of tr.ansgressing God's
law, Is. xxiv. 6. It is always intrans., except as
piercing the temples of mau Jud. v. 20, or himself
Job XX. 'li.
"ni'^, i- q- ni'lD, metaphor for simile, as Ps. xi.
1. xxii. 14. (1:5 Eng.) xc. 4. Job xxiv. 5. Is. li. 12. &c.
nil can hardly be i. q. inil-
i»1^j7 "pass over" (with nSn, as here,) Is. viii.
8. Nah. i. 8. Hab. iii. 10; "transgress," passim;
" pa^i awav," Ps. xxxvii. 0, Job xxxiv. 20, Nab. i. 12.
19 Is. viii' 8. ^ lb. xxi. 1.
21 Ex. vi. 7. ^ Dan. iv. 30.
23 See Daniel the Prophet, p. 443.
2* See ib. p. 446. 25 is. xiv. 14.
20 Ezek. xxviii. 2. 27 2 Thess. ii. 4.

186

HABAKKUK.

chrYst 12 ^"^ Art thou not
cir. 626. fj-Qm everlasting, O Loed
my God, mine Holy One ?

1" Ps. 90. 2.
& 93. 2.
Lam. 6. 19.

it ceases to think itself His instrument, and
so is a god to itself, as though its eminence
and strength were its own, and its wisdom
the source of its power \ and its will the
measure of its greatness. The words, with
a Divine fullness, express severally, that the
king shall sweep along, shall pass over all
bounds and all hindrances, and shall pass
away, shall be guilty and shall bear his guilt ^i
and so they comprise in one his sin and his
punishment, his greatness and his fall. And
so forty years afterward Nebuchadnezzar,
^whom lie would, he slew ; and wliom he would,
he kept alive ; and whom he would, he set up ;
and whom he would, he put down; but when his
heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in
pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and
they took his glory from him; * there fell a voice
from heaven. The kingdom is departed from thee ;
and Belshazzar, * in ihe same night tliat he
lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, was
slain. 12. The prophet, having summed up the
deeds of the enemy of God in this his end,
sets forth his questions anew. He had ap
pealed against the evil of the wicked of his
people ; he had been told of the vengeance
by the Chaldseans. * But the vengeance is
executed by them who are far worse. How
then ? The answer is, " Wait to the end, and
thou shalt see." "What remains are the
triumphs of faith ; the second chapter closes
with the entire prostration of the whole
world before God, and the whole prophecy
with joyous trust in God amid the entire
failure of all outward signs of hope. Here,
like the Psalmists' and Jeremiah", he sets
down at the very beginning his entire trust in
God, and so, in the name of all who at any
time shall be perplexed about the order of
God's judgments, asks how it shall be, teach
ing us that the only safe way of enquiring
into God's ways is by setting out with a liv
ing conviction that they " are mercy and truth.
And so the address to God is full of awe and
confidence and inward love. For " '" God
placeth the oil of mercy in the vessel of
trustfulness." 1 See Ezek. xxviii. 2-6.
2Diyx includes both. ^Dan. v 19.20.
* Ib. iv. 31. s Ib. V. 23, 30.
6 Heading of Chap. i.
7 Asaph, Ps. Ixxiii. Ethan Ps. Ixxvi.
8 Jer. xii. 1. 9Ps. xxv. 10.
i» S. Bern, de Annunt. Serm. 3. u. 3.
n See on Micah v. 2. 12 jjev. i. 8. is Dion.
"Gal. ii. 9. 16 Conf iii. 11.
16 Isaiah uses it in his prophetic answer to Heze
kiah (2 Kgs xix. 22. Is. xxxvii. 23,) also in the
earlier chapters 12 times and "his holy One" (of

Before

we shall not die. O Loed, q jj ^ j g ^
' thou hast ordained them . ™- •'^e.

c • I , J /^ ' 2 Kin. 19. 25.
tor judgment; and, U ps. 17. 13.
Is. 10. 5, 6, 7. Ezek. 30. 25.

Art not Thou (the word has always an em
phasis) Thou, and not whatsoever or whoso
ever it be that is opposed to Thee, (be it
Nebuchadnezzar or Satan) from everlasting
lit. from before " ? Go back as far as man can
in thought, God was still before; and so,
much more before any of His creatures, such
as those who rebel against Him. 0 Lord, it
is the Proper Name of God, ''' Which is and
Whieh was and Which is io eome, I AM, the
Unchangeable ; my Ood, i. e., whereas his
own might is (he had just said) the heathen's
god, the Lord is his ; mine Holy One : — one
word, denoting that God is his God, sufficeth
him not, but he adds (what does not elsewhere
occur) mine Holy One, in every way, as hal
lowing him and hallowed by him : " ''' Who
hallowest my soul, Holy in Thine Essence,
and Whom as incomparably Ploly I worship
in holiness." All-Holy in Himself, He be
cometh the Holy One of him to whom He
imparteth Himself, and so, by His own gift,
belongeth, as it were, to him. The one Word
in Hebrew wonderfully fits in with the trnth,
that God becomes one with man by taking
him to Himself It is fall of inward trust
too, that he saith, " my God, my Holy One,"
as S. Paul saith, ^* Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me, i. e., as S. Augustine explains
it, " " O Tliou God Omnipotent, Who so carest
for every one of us, as if Thou caredst for
him only ; and so for all, as if they were but
one." The title, my Holy One, includes his
people with himself; for God was his God,
primarily because he was one of the people
of ( xod ; and his office was for and in behalf
of his people. It involves then that other
title which had been the great support of
Isaiah '^, by which he at once comforted his
people, and impressed upon them the holi
ness of their God, the holiness 'which their
relation to their God required, the Holy One
of Israel. Thence, since Habakkuk Uved, for
his people with himself, on this relation to
God, as my God, my Holy One, and that God,
the Unchangeable ; it follows, " We shaU not
die "." There is no need of any mark of in
ference, " therefore we shall not die." It is an
Israel) x. 17 ; in the chapters xl-lxvi, 14 times, and
"his holy One" "your holy One" of or to Israel
xlix. 7. xliii. 35. Else it occurs only in Ps. Ixxviii.
41 (Asaph's), Ixxxix. 19 (Ethan's), Ixxi. 22 [Anon.,
but in Book ii.] and Jer. 1. 29, li. 6.
1' The "tikkune sopherim " or so-called " correc
tions of the scribes" I think, appear to alraost any
one who examines them, not to iraply any correc
tion of the text of Holy Scripture, but as meant to
suggest what would have come naturally into the
mind of the writer, unless for some reason he had
chosen what stands Written. Thus here, the obyi-

CHAPTER I.

187

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
-j- Heb. rock.
Deut. 32. 4.
t Heb. founded.
'Ps. 5. 5.
II Or, grievance.

f mighty God, thou hast
f established them for cor
rection. 13" Thou art of purer
eyes than to behold evil,
and canst not look on 1 1 in-

inference, but it so lay in those titles of God,
He Is, My Ood, My Holy One, that it was a
more loving confidence to say directly, we
shall not die. The one thought involved the
other. God, the Unchangeable, had made
Himself their God. It was impossible, then,
that Pie should cast them off or that they
should perish. We shad not die, is the light
ning thought of faith, which flashes on the
soul like all inspirations of God, founded on
His truth and word, but borne in, as it were,
instinctively without inference on the soul,
with the sarae confidence as the Psalmist
says ', The Lord hath chastened me sore ; but
He hath not given me over unto death; and
Malachi, ^ / am the Lord, I change not ; there
fore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. " ' Thou
createdst us from the beginning ; hy Thy
mercy we are in being hitherto." Thy gifts
and calling are without repentance*^. "Did we
look to his might ; none of us could with
stand him. Look we to Thy mercy, Thine
alone is it that we live, are not slain by hira,
nor led to deeds of death." 0 Lord, again
he repeats the Name of God, whereby He
had revealed Himself as their God, the Un
changeable; Thou, whose mercies fad not, hast
ordained them for judgment, not for vengeance
or to make a full end, or for his own ends
and pleasure, but to correct Thine own^ in
measure, which he, exceeding, sinned.'^
And 0 mighty God [lit. Rock]. It is a bold
title. My rock is a title rauch used by
David ', perhaps suggested by the fastnesses
amid which he passed his hunted life, to ex-
ous contrast to " Thou art of old ; " might be, (they
would say) "Thou wilt continue tobe;" " TAoii
wilt not die," jIlDn x'^l ; but since it were unbe
fitting to speak of death in regard to God, even in
denying it, the prophet said niD3 X7, "we shall
not die. But no thoughtful Jewish critic could
ever have believed that Habakkuk could have
said to God Thou wilt not die. It would also, while
irreverent to God, have omitted the whole consola
tion to his people. Of Jewish Commentators, Kim.,
A. E., Abarb. Tanch., do not think it worth while to
allude to the correction ; Sal. B. Melech mentions
it, to reject it ; Rashi quotes it as the writing of the
prophet. Several of the 18 Tikkune Sopherim are
childish; no one of value. The Chaldee follows
the suggestion, paraphrasing, " Thy word abideth
forever;" the LXX, not. Ewald corrects as the
Chaldee. The Tikk. Soph, are given in Buxtorf
Lex. Chald. pp. 2631, sqq. A glance will shew that
they are no real corrections.
1 Ps. cxviii. 18. 2Mal. ui-6.
3 S. Jer. * Rom. xi. 29.
s Jer._2i 24. xxx. 11.

iquity : ' wherefore lookest
thou upon them that deal.
treacherously, and boldest
thy tongue when the wicked
devoureth the man that is
more righteous than he ?

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
I Jer. 12. 1.

press, that not in them but in His God -H-as
his safety. Habakkuk purposely widens it.
He appeals to God, not only as Israel's might
and upholder, but as the sole Source of all
strength, the Supporter of all which is up
held", and so, for the time, of the Chaldsean
.too. Hence he continues the simple image :
Tliou hast founded him. ""Thou hast made
him to stand firm as the foundation of a build
ing; " to reprove or set before those who have
sinned against Thee, what they had done.
v^ince theu God was the Rock, Who had
founded them, from Plim Alone had they
strength ; when He should withdraw it, they
must fall. How then did they yet abide,
who abused the power given them and
counted it their own? And this the more,
since 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.
The prophet repeats his complaint, (as troub
ling thoughts are wont to come back, after
they have been repelled,) in order to answer it
more strongly. All sin is hateful in God's
sight, and in Plis Ploly Wisdom He cannot
endure to look toward iniqidty. As man turns
away from sickening sights, so God's abhor
rence of wrong is pictured by His not being
able to look toward it. If He looked toward
them, they must perish '". Light cannot co
exist with darkness, fire with water, heat
with cold, deformity with beauty, foulness
with sweetness, nor is sin compatible with
the Presence of God, except as its Judge and
punisher. Thou canst not look. There is an
entire contradiction between God and unholi-

6 See Isa. x. 6. xlvii. 6- Zeeh. i. 15.
1 Ps. xviii- 2. 46. xix. 15. xxviii. 1. Ixii. 6. 7. cxliv.
1. else only in Deut. xxxii. 1. Ps. .xcii. 15. anon.
Else Moses speaks in his Song of "the Rock," "our
Rock," "their Rock," "Rock of his salvation,"
"the Rock who begat thee," [Deut. xxxii. 4, 31, 30.
15, 18.] and iu reference to Dent. Pp. Ixxviii. 35, and
Hannah, "there is no rock like our God," 1 Sam. ii.
2, and David asks, " Who is a rock beside Thee? "
2 Sam. xxii. 31, and calls Him " the Rock of Israel,'*
2 Sam. xxiii. .3, "the Rock of my strength" Ps.
Ixii. 8, and Ethan says that God entitled David to
call Him " Rock of my salvation," Ps. Ixxxix. 26.
and Asaph calls Him, "the Rocli of my heart." Ps.
Ixxiii. 26. Isaiah in his song entitles God " the Rock
of ages," Isa. xxvi. 4. also "the Rock of Israel,"
xxx. 29, "the rock of thy [Israel's] strength," xvii.
10. Else it occurs only in two anonymous Psalms,
" the rock of my refuge," Ps. xciv. 22, " of our sal
vation," xcv. 1.
8 "Thou Who art the Rock of all ages hast
founded him to reprove by him all the nations of
the earth." Kim.
nKim. loPs. civ. 32.

188

HABAKKUK.

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
11 Or, moving.

"Jer. 16.16.
Amos 4. 2.

14 And makest men as
the fishes of the sea, as the
1 1 creeping things, that have
no ruler over them ?
15 They "take up all
of them with the angle.

ness. And yet, wherefore lookest thou upon,
viewest, as in Thy full sight ', yea, as it would
seem, with favor*, bestowing on them the
goods ofthis life, honor, glory, children, riches,
as the Psalmist saith ; ' Behold these are the
ungodly, who prosper in the world, tliey increase
in riches ? Why lookest thou upon tliem that
deal treacherously, boldest Thy tongue, puttest
restraint '', as it were, upon Thyself and Thine
own attribute of Justice, when the wieked de
voureth the man that is more righteous than he ?
^ In God's sight iw man living can be justified ;
and in one sense Sodom and Gomorrah were
less unrighteous than Jerusalem, and ^ it, shall
be more tolerable for them in the day of Judg
ment, because they sinned against less light ;
yet the actual sins of the Chaldee were
greater than those of Jerusalera, and Satan's
evil is greater than that of those who are his
prey. To say that Judah was raore righteous
than the Chaldfean does not imply any
righteousness of the Chald;ean, as the saying
that ' God ransomed Jacob from the hand of one
stronger than he, does not imply any strength
remaining to Israel. Then, also, in all the
general judgments of God, the righteous too
suffer in this world, whence Abraham inter
cedes for vSodom, if there were but ten right
eous in it ; lest * the righteous be destroyed with
the wicked. Hence God also spared Nineveh
in pai't as having ^more than sixscore thousand
pei'sons that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left hand, i. e. good from evil.
No times were fuller of sin than those before
the destruction of Jerusalem, yet the fury of
the Assassins fell upon the innocent. And
so the words, like the voice of the souls under
the Altar "•, become the cry of the Church
at all times against the oppressing world, and
of the blood of the Martyrs from Abel to the
end, Lord, how long ? And in that the word
Righteous " signifies both " one righteous
man," and the whole class or generation of
the righteous, it speaks both of Christ the
Head and of all His members in whom (as
1 The preposition ^N is left out in this place, as
if to make the coirtrast stronger. God cannot en
dure to look toward (7X) iniquity, and yet He does
not only this, but beholdeth it, coute'mplateth it,
and still is silent.
2Sothe word means mostly ;" regard favorably;"
except Ps. X. 14. where it is said 'that God beheld
ungodliness to avenge it, ^'Ps, Ixxiii. 12.
*\^^^X\r\ translated "keep silent" Ps. xxxv. 22.
1. 21. iraplies an acting on a person's self
sPs. cxliii. 2.

they catch them in their oj^r^It
net, and gather them in ™- ''-''¦
their 1 1 drag : therefore they
rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore "they
sacrifice unto their net,

II Ox, flue net.

"Deut. 8. 17.
Isai. 10. 13.
& 37- 24, 26.

by Saul) He was persecuted. The wicked also
includes all persecutors, both those who slew
the Lord Christ, and those who brought His
servants beibre judgment-seats, and blas
phemed His Name ''', and caused many to
blaspheme, and slew whom they could uot
compel. And God, all the while, seemeth to
look away and to regard not.
14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea,
dumb, helpless, in a stormy, restless element,
no cry heard, but themselves swept away in
shoals, with no power to resist, a.s the creeping
things, whether of the land (as it is mostly
used), or the sea '^. Either way it isa con
temptuous name forthelowest of either. That
have no rider over them ; none to guide, order,
protect thera, and so a picture of raan de
prived of the care and providence of God.
1.5. They take up all of them [lit. he taketh up
all of it] the whole race as though it were
one, with an angle; they catch ihem, [lit. lie
sweepeth it away] in their [liis] net. One fish
erman is singled out who partly by wiles [as
by the bait of an angle^, partly by violence,
[tiie net or drag] sweeps away " and gathers
as his own the wdiole kind. Nebuchadnezzar
and the Chaldaeans are herein a faint image
of Satan, who casts out his baits and his nets
in the stormy sea of this life, taking some hy
individual craft, sweeping others in whole
masses, to do .evil ; and whoso hath no ruler,
and will not have Christ to reign over him'°,
he allures, hurries, drags away as his prey.
" '" Adam clave to his hook, and he drew liim
forth out of Paradise with his net ; and cov
ered him with his drags, his varied and mani
fold deceits and guiles. And by one many
became sinners, and in Adam we all died, and
all saints afterward were with him alike cast
out of Paradise. And because he deceived
the first man, he ceaseth not daily to slay the
whole human race."
16. Therefore they sacriflce unto their net, and
burn incense unto their drag. [lit. he sacrifices
unto /lis &c.] Whatever a raan trusts in, is
6S. Matt. X. 15. xi. 24. S. Mark vi. 11. S. Luke x.
12. ' Jer. xxxi. 11. Del. 8 Gen. xviii. 23.
»Jon. iv. 11. lORev. vi. 10.
"Singular in Hebrew, yet so that it may be used
of many. 12 S. Jas. ii. 6, 7. xi ps. civ. 25.
i*The word 1"^J, g&rar, expresses by its sound
the grating noise of the pebbles on the sea-shore.
The word is singular, although it viiqht be a collec
tive. 15 S. Luke xix. 4. log. Jer.

CHAPTEE IL

189

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

I Or, dainty.
tHeb./a<.

and burn incense unto
-their drag; because by
them their portion is fat,
alid their meat 1 1 j plente
ous. 17 Shall they therefore
empty their net, and not
spare continually to slay
the nations ?

his god. If a man relies to compass his end
by his strength, or his wisdom, or his fore
thought, or his wealth, his armies or navies,
these his forces are his God. So the Assyrian
said, ' By the strength of my hand 1 did it ; and
by my wisdom, for I am prudent ; and God an
swered. Shall the axe boast itself against him that
heweth therewith ? The coarse forms of idolatry
only embody outwardly the deep inward
idolatry of the corrupt human mind. The
idol is '' set up in the heart first. There have
not indeed been wanting savage nations, who
in very deed worshiped their arms^; those
of old worshiped spears as immortal gods * ;
Even now we are told of some North Ameri
can Indians " ^ who designate their bow and
arrow as the only beneficent deities whom
they know." Among the civilized Romans,
the worship of the eagles, their standards ",
to whom they did sacrifice', was no other
nor better. The inward idolatry is only a
more subtle form of the same sin, the evil
spirit which shapes itself in the outward
shew. Here the idolatry of self is meant,
which did not join creatures with (lod as ob
jects of worship; but, denying Him in prac
tice or misbelief, becarae a God to itself *. So
Habakkuk had said, this his strength is his God.
His idol was himself.
Because by tliem their portion is fat, and. their
meat plenteous (lit. as in E. M., well-fed). All
the choicest things of the world stood at his
command, as Nebuchadnezzar boasted ", and
all the kingdoms of the world and their
glory, all the knowledge and wisdom and
learning of the world, and the whole world
itself, were Satan's lawful prey '". " " Nebu-
1 Is. X. 13. 16- . ¦ Ezek. xiv. 4.
" The Scythians. Herod, iv. 62. Lucian Jov. Tra-
Kffld. 42. p. 275, Arnob. vi. g 11, Mela. ii. 1. Clem. Al.
Protr. iv. p. 40, ed. Pott., Aram. Marc. xxvi. 2. The
Quadi did the same. Id. xvii. 12. fin. The ch.ance
discovery of one of these sacred swords of the
Scythian kings made Attila think himself "made
prince of the whole world." Jordanes de Get. orig-
c. 35, from Priscus, a contemporary.
< Justin L. 43. c. 3.
5 Waltz die Indianer Nord-Americas 1807 p. 127.
quoted by Ewald.
»See Tertull. Apol. o. 16 and note e. f. g. p. 38-
Oxf. Tr.

CHAPTER II. Before
¦, TT rr , ,, , CHRIST
1 Unto Habakkuk, waiting for cir. 026.
an answer, is shewed that he
must wait by faith. 5 The
judgment upon the Chaldean
for unsaliableness, 9 for covet
ousness, Hfor cruelly, lb for
drunkenness, 18 and for idola
try.
T WILL "stand upon my oig, 21. s, 11.
watch, and set me upon

chadnezzar, as by a hook and meshes and
line, swept into his own land both Israel
himself and other nations, encompassing
them. Satan, as it were, by one line and net,
that of sin, enclosed all, and Israel especially,
on account of his impiety to Christ. His
food was choice. For Israel was chosen above
the rest, as from a holy root, that of the fa
thers, and having the law as a schoolmaster,
and being called to the knowledge of the one
true God. Yet he, having this glory and
grace, was taken with the rest. They became
his prey by error ; but Israel, knowing Him
Who is by nature God, slaying ung(;dlily
Him Who was by nature Ills Begotten Son
and Who came as Man, were taken in his
nets." 17. Shcdl they therefore empty iheir net, and
not spare continually to slay the nations ? The
prophet, like Isaiah ^'^, stands atthe very last
point, before the fury and desire of the
enemy was fulfilled. Men, like fish, were
gathered together for a prey; he who had
taken them was rejoicing and exulting before
hand in ilis booty ; his portion and meat
were the choice of the earth ; the prophet
looks on, as it were, and beholds the net full ;
there is but one step more ; " Shall he empty
it ? Shall he then devour those whom he
has caught ? and so cast his emptied net
again unceasingly, pitilessly, to slay the na
tions?" This question he answers in the
next chapter ; A Deliverer will corae.
II. 1. Iwill stand [I would stand now], as a
servant awaiting his master, upon my walch
[or keep'^], and set me [plant myself firmly]
upon the tower [lit. fenced place, but also one
' Joseph, de Bell. Jud. vi. 32.
8 A heathen poet, wishing to express this irrever
ence, puts into a warrior's mouth this prayer :
" Xow may my right hand, to me god, and the
weapon which I brandish, be ray helper!" Virg.
j9En. vii. 048. add Stat. x. 545. iii. 645, sq. So the
Times said at the beginning of the late war, "The
French almost worshiped the mitrailleuse as a
goddess." They idolized, it would say, their inven
tion, as if it could do what God alone could.
" Dan. iv. 30. comp. 22.
10 S. Luke iv. 6. S. John xii. 31. Isa. xlix. 24.
"S. Cyi-. 12 Isa. xviii. 4, ,5.
13 lb. xxi. 8. "IDt^D in the same sense Jer. li. 12.

190

HABAKKUK.

chrTIt ^'^^ ftower, "and will
cir. 620. _ -(vatch to see what he will

^ ash. fenced ii j. j i, i t
place. say 1 1 unto me, and what I
II Or', in me. shall answer 1 1 1 when I am
y Or, when I am ,
argued with. reprOVCd.
+ Heb. upon my
reproof, or,
arguing.

2 And the Lord an-

straitened and narrowly hemmed in], a'nd
will wateh (it is a title of the prophets ', as
espying, by God's enabling, things beyond
human ken) ; I will espy out, to see a long
way off, to see with the inward eye, what He
will say unto me [lit. '^ in me] ; first revealing
Himself in the prophets " within to the inner
man ; " then, through them. And what I shall
answer when I am reproved''', or, upon my com
plaint, lit. upon my reproof or arguing ; which
might mean, either that others argued against
him, or that he had argued, pleaded in the
name of others, and now listened to hear
what God would answer in him *, and so he,
as taught by God, should answer to his own
plea. But he had so pleaded with God, re
peatedly, Why is this ? Pie has given no
hint, uliat any complained of or reproved
him. "^By an image from those wdio, in war
and siege, have the ward of the wall distri
buted to them, he says, / will stand upon my
watch." " ^ It was the wont of the Saints,
when they wished to learn the things of God,
and to receive the knowledge of things to
come through His voice in their raind and
heart, to raise it on high above distractions
and anxieties and all worldly care, holding
and keeping it unoccupied and peaceful,
rising as to an eminence to look around and
contemplate what the God of all knowledge
should make clear to them. For He hateth
the earth-bound and abject mind, and seeks
hearts which can soar aloft, raised above
earthly things and temporal desires." The
prophet takes his stand, apart from men and
the thoughts and cares of this world, on his

1 Hence nSlV "watchman," the "prophet" Isa.
Ui. 8- Jer. vi. 17. Ezek. iii. 17. xxxiii. 7. K.al; of the
prophets, Pih. Mic. vii. 4; of looking up to God, Ps.
V. 4; with 3 Mic- vii. 7-
2 S. Jer.
8 The Rabb- Kim. A. E. Rashi, Tanch. Sal. B.
Mel., Abarb. take it as the E. V., probably thinking
tile other to be too bold an expression toward God.
4 See Num. xii. 6. and on Zech. i. 19.
6 Theod'. 6 S. Cyr.
7 Symm. Theod. Aq. agree in this sense of nar
rowness. 8 Etymologically, ^t^^ raeans "engrave," lit. diq:
like so raany other words, which come to mean
" write," as DHD with 3£Dn, DVIl Ges. ; 130 vp»<(>s'v,
eingranen, graben, engrave, [Id.] but it only occurs
as " make clear, explain," De. xxvii. 8. So Kim. &c.
^ ni 7 is a table or tablet, on which Isaiah too was
bidden to write what was to last, though in parallel
ism with a "book." Isa. xxx. 8. " the tablets whicli

Before

swered me, and said, ^ jj jj j g -j
"Write the vision, and cir- 626.

make it plain upon tables, « isai. 8. i.
that he may run that read
eth it.
3 For '' the vision is yet ¦' Dan. lo. 14.
•' & 11. 27, 36.

lonely watch, as Moses on the rock, keeping
himself and kept by God, and planted firm,
so that nothing should move hira, fenced
around though straitened in ', as in a be
sieged camp committed to his ward, looking
out from his lofty place what answer God
would give as to times long distant, and what
answer he should give first to himself, and to
those to whom his office lay, God's people.
2. The answer is, that it is indeed for a
long time yet. Write the vision, that it may
remain for those who come after and not be
forgotten, and make it plain'* upon tlie tables,
whereon he was wont to write " ; and that,
in large lasting characters, that he may run
that readeth it, that it may be plain to any,
however occupied or in haste. So Isaiah too
was bidden to write the four words, haste-
prey-speed-spo il.
3. For the vision is yet for an [the] appointed
ti'me. '" Not for the present, but to develop
itself in the course of time, down to a season
which God only knows ; as it is subsequently
repeated, "for the end is yet for the appointed
time; ''''for it is for the appointed time of the
end ; and is explained, '^for the vision is yet
for tlie days : ^^for it is for many days ; ^ the
house of Israel say, Tlie vision tliai he seeth, is
for many days and he prophesieth of the times
far off ; yet it should haste toward the end,
toward its fulfillment, so that, if it is not at
once fulfilled, it should be surely waited for.
" '" It shall certainly be ; not in vain hath it
been shewn, but as certainly to hfe. For
whatever hath been shewn to come and tobe,
will come and be."
But at the end it shall speak " [or it breatheth,
boys write on." A. E. comp. Ezek. xvii. 14. Jer.
xxx. 2.
10 Ewald ad loc. ; but therewith the theory of a
mere human foresi.gbt is abandoned.
11 Dan. xi. 27. /or it is foi- the appointed time, ib. 35.
12 Ib viii. 19. '3 lb. x. 1, 14.
1* Ib. viii. 26. 15 Ezek. xii. 27. ii Theod".
" The E. V. follows the Rabbins [Kim. Comm., A.
E., Tanch., Rashi, Abarb.] so far in rendering nS'*
"speak." Yet in all the cases of both roots, rii3'>
niiJ, except Prov. xii. 17, njlDX n'3', the root is
used not of mere " speaking " but of " breathing
out" like inTiveiov aTreiX^? (Acts .xi. 1.) "breathing
out threatening." In five ca^os it occurs in the one
idiom, "breatheth out lies," UOID IT'S', Pr. vi- 19,
xiv. 5, 25, xix. 5, 9. In other idioms Dr^3 ffiJ''
17 IT'S', Ps. X. 6, xii. 6, it is still used of pufHng at
"contemptuously." Else the Kal is used of the
cool air of the evening Cant. ii. 17. iv. 6, and Hifil

CHAPTEE II.

191

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

for an appointed time, but
at the end it shall speak,
and not lie : though it tar-

hasteth to ihe end], not simply " to its own ful
fillment," but to that time of the end which
should close the period assigned to it, during
which it should continually be putting itself
forth, it should come true in part or in
shadow, gleams of it should here and there
part the clouds, which, until the end, should
surround and envelop it. Being God's truth,
he speaks of it as an animate living thing,
not a dead letter, but running, hasting on its
course, and accomplishing on its way that for
which it was sent. The will and purpose of
God hasteth on, though to man it seemeth to
tarry ; it can neither be hurried on, nor doth
it linger ; before tlie appointed time it cometh
not ; yet it hasteth toward it, and will not be
behindhand when the time comes. It does
not lie, either by failing to come, or failing,
when come, of any jot or tittle. Though it
tarry or linger ', continually appearing, giving
signs of itself, yet continually delaying its
. coming, vjait for it ; because it ivill surely come,
it will not be behindhand^, when the time
comes. ' He cometh quickly also, as He saith ;
because " * though the delay of His Coming
and of the fulfillment of the vision seem
long, yet, in comparison wdth eternity, it is
very short. In His First Coming, He taught
why God permitteth these things; in the
Second, He shall teach by experience, how
good it it is for the good to bear the persecu
tion of the evil ; whence S. Peter also has to
say, "Tlie Lord is not slack concerning His prom
ise, as some men count slackness." The words
seem to belong, in the first instance, to the
vision itself; but the vision had no other ex
istence or fulfUlment than in Him Who was
the Object of it, and Who, in it, was fore
shadowed to the mind. The coming of the
vision was no other than His Coming. The
waiting, to which he exhorts, expresses the
religious act, so often spoken of, " of waiting
for God, or His counsel, or His promised
time. The sense then is wholly the same,
of " causing to blow," Ib. iv. 16. Else it is only used
(metaph.) of blowing up, kindling, (as we say) stir
ring up a city to strife Pr. xxix. 8, and blowing up
the fire of t'he wrath of God, Ez. xxi. 36. nS'fin
is used of the deep sigh of agony Jer. iv. 31. and
Dnn nS'' Ps- xxvH. 12. "breathing forth violence '
stands united with "false witness" as in the Prov.
If understood then of speaking, it would be
"breathing of the end" (^7 relating to the subject
of the speech, as so often) which would be much
the same as, breatheth panting toward the end,
(like h tjKiZ', Eccl. i. 5.)
'nnnnnn (nokal.) seems to be compound of
riD, HD, why, whyi the answer of one procrasti
nating. It occurs thrice in the Pent., twice m
Judges, else only in 2 Sam. xv. 19, iu tlie_Erophet3

Before

ry, wait for it ; because it ^ ^ j{ j g rp
will 'surely come, it will '^Ji'- ^26.
not tarry. «Heb. 10.37.

when S. Paul uses the words of the Coming
of our Lord Himself, ' Yet a little while, and
He that shall come, will come and will not tarry.
S. Paul, as well as Habakkuk, is speaking of
our Lord's Second Coming ; S. Paul, of His
Coming in Person, Habakkuk, of the ef
fects of that Coraing**; but both alike of
the redressing of all the evil and wrong in
the world's history, and the reward of the
faithful oppressed. At His First Coming He
said, ' Now is the judgment of this world ; now
shall the 'prince of this world be cast out. Pie
carae to '"put down the mighty from their seat,
and to exalt the humble and meek ; hut much
more in the Second, when " He shall ceme to
judge the world with righteousness and the people
with His truth, and to '^ reward, every man ac
cording to his works. At all times He seemeth
continually to linger, to' give signs of Plis
Coming, yet He cometh not ; when the ap
pointed season shall come, He shall be found
not to he " later " than flis word. Yea, all
time shall shrink up into a little moment in
the presence of a never-ending ever-present
eternity. " " Having named no one expressly, he
says, wait for him, wait for him although de
laying, and halt not in thy hope, but let it
be rooted and firm, even if the interval be
extended. For the God of all seemeth to
suggest to the mind of the Prophet, that Pie
who was foretold would surely come, yet to
enjoin on him to wait for Plim on ace(junt of
the interval. He who believeth My word
shall possess life, for this is the reward of
those who honor God, and a good reward of
His benevolence. He who admifteth faith
and love to dwell in his heart hath as a re
quital, un-aging life and forgiveness of sins
and sanctification by the Spirit." "'*He
shall live ; for '^ Ood is not the God of the dead
bui of ihe living, " '^ Whoso liveth and believeth
in Me, shall never die."
It ¦will not lie. God vouchsafes to speak of
Is. xxix. 9, and in Ps. cxix. 60. of religious procras
tinating. In Arab, are the like forms DDnn and
n:nj. ,
8 Rev. xxii. 7. * from Dion.
62 i3. Pet. iii. 9.
«Ps. xxxiii. 20. Isai. viii. 17. xxx. 18. Ixiv. 3.
Zeph. iii. 8. Dan. xii. 12. Ps. cvi. 13.
I Heb. X. 37.
8 The vivid words, in themselves, rather express
a personal agent; what would be figure as tothe
vision are simple words as to Him Who was fore
shown. Whence the Lxx change the gender and
interpret the clause of a person, " He who shall
corae." 3 S- John xii. 31.
i»S. Luke i. 52. " Ps. xlvi. 13.
12 S. Matt. xvi. 27. '" S. Cyr. ^ Alb.
w S. Matt. xxii. 32. i«S. Johnxi. 26.

192

HABAKKUK.

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

4 Behold, his soul luhich
is lifted up is not upright

Plimself, as we should be ashamed to speak
of one whom we love, teaching us that all
dou'ots question His truth. ' God is not a
man, that He should lie : hath He said and.
shall He not do it ? ^ The strength of Israel
shall neither lie nor repent. ^ God that cannot
lie, promised before the ivoril began. Therefore
it follows, wait for Him, as .Jacob says, ''/
have waited for Thy salvation, 0 Lord.
4. Behold, his soul whieh is lifted up [lit.
swollen^] is not upright in him. The construc
tion is probably that of a condition expressed
absolutely. Lo, swollen is il, not npright is his
sold in him. We should say, " His soul, if it
be swollen^, pufted up, is not upright in
him." The source of all sin was and is pride.
It is especially the sin of all oppressors, of
the Chaldee, of Anti-Christs, and shall be of
the Anti-Christ. It is the parent of all
heresy, and of all corruption and rejection
of the Gospel. It stands therefore as the
type of all opposed to it. Of it he says, it is
in its very inmost core [in him] lacking in
uprightness. It can have no good in it, be
cause it denies God, and God denies it Plis
grace. And having nothing upright in it,
being corrupt in its very inmost being, it can
not stand or abide. God gives it no power
to stand. The words stand in contrast with
the following, the one speaking of the cause
of death, the other of life. The soul, being
swollen with pride, shuts out faith, and with
it the Presence of God. It is all crooked in
its very inner self or being. S. Paul gives
the result, ' if any man draw back, my .soul hath
no pleasure in him. The prophet's words de
scribe the proud man who stands aloof from
God, in himself; S. Paul, as he is in the
Eyes of God. As that which is swollen in
nature cannot be straight, it is clean con
trary that the soul shotdd be swollen with
pride and yet upright. Its moral life being
destroyed in its very inmost heart, it must
perish. ""Plato saith, that properly is straight,
which being applied to what is straight,
touches and is touched everywhere. But
God is upright. Whom the upright soul
touches and is touched everywhere; but
what is not upright is bent away from God.
' God is good unto Israel, tlie upright in heart.
'" The upright love thee. " The way of tlie just is
1 Nu. xxiii. 19. 2 1 Sam. xv. 29.
8Tit. i. 2. < Gen. xlix. 18.
* n 73i? See on Micah iv. 8. p. 62, note 8.
6 In the Lxx eav uTroo-Tet'ATjTat. PUH is Used thus
absolutely, the condition being implied, Deut. xiii.
16, 16. In E.X. viii. 22. the future is used absolutely
with m.

Before

in him : but the 'just shall ^ h r i s t
live by his faith. ^'r. 626.

f John 3. 36. Rom. 1. 17. G<al. 3. 11. Heb. 10.

uprightness. Thou, most Upright, doth weigh the
path of the just."
But tlie just shall live by his faith. The ac
cents emphasize the words ''', Thejvst, by his
faith he shall live. They do not point to an
union of the words, the just by his faith.
Isaiah says that Christ should j ustify many by
tlie knowledge of Himself '^, but the e.xpression,
just by his faith, does not occur either in the
O. or N. T. In fact, to speak of one really
righteous" as being " righteous by his faith "
would imply that raen could be righteous in
some other way. Without faith, S; ]?'aul says
at the commencement of his Old Testament
pictures of giant faith, '^ it is impossible to please
God. Faith, in the creature which does not
yet see God, has one and the same principle,
a trustful relying belief in its Creator. This
was the characteristic of Abraham their
father, unshaken, unswerving, belief in God
Who called him, whether in leaving his own
land and going whither he knew not, for an
end which he was never to see ; or in believ
ing the promise of the son through whom
that Seed was to be, in Whom all the nations
of the world should be blessed ; or in the
crowning act of offering that son to God,
knowing that he should receive him back,
even from the dead. In all, it was one and
the same principle. '^ His belief was counted
to him for righteousness, though the immediate
instance of that faith was not directly spirit
ual. In this was the good and bad of Israel.
" The people believecl. '" They believed ihe Lord

and liis servant Most

' Then believed tliey

His word, they sang His praise. This contra
riwise was their blame. '^ In ihis ye did not
believe the Lord. " Ye rebelled against tlie com
mandment of the Lord your God, and believed
Him not, nor hearkened to His voice. ^^ They
forgat God their Saviour; they despised tlie
pleasant land, they believed not His word. And
God asks, "^ How king will it be, ere thispeople
believe Me, for all the signs which I have shown
among them ? '* Anger came upon Israel, because
tliey believed not in God, and in His salvation
trusted not. '" For all this tliey sinned still, and
believed not His wondrous works. Even of
Moses and Aaron God assigns this as the
ground, why they should not bring His
people into the land which He gave them,
''" Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in

' Heb. X. .39.
10 Cant. i. 4.

8 Alb.
11 Is. xxvi. 7.

»Ps. Ixxiii. 1.
12 See Delitzsch.

¦¦= pnS' in;?lJ Is. Iiii. 11. w As pns always i
15 Heb. xi. 6. M Gen. xv. 6. " Ex. iv. 31.
•8 Ib. XIV. 31. 19 Ps. cvi. 12. 20 Deut i 32.
21 lb. IX. 23. 22 Pg. cvi. 21, 24. 23 Num. xiv. 11.
-* Ps. Ixxviii. 21, 22. 25 Ib. 82. 20 Num. xx. 20.

CHAPTER II.

193

the eyes of the children of Israel (at Meribah).
This was the watchword of Jehoshaphat's
victory, ' Believe in the Lord your Ood and ye
shall be established; believe His prophets, so
shall ye prosper. 'This continued to be one
central saying of Isaiah. It was his own
commission to his people ; ^ Oo and say to this
people ; hear ye on, and understand not ; see ye
on and perceive not. In sight of the rejection
of faith, he spake prominently of the loss
upon unbelief; ^ If ye will not believe, surely ye
shall 'not be esktblishecl ; and, * Who hath be
lieved our report ? he premises as the attitude
of his people toward Him, the Centre of all
faith; Jesus. Yet still, as to the blessings of
faith, having spoken of Him, * Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a founda
tion, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner
stone, he subjoins, he that believeth in Him shall
nai make haste.
So it had been the key-note of Habakkuk
to his people, Ye will not believe when it is de
clared unto you. Here he is bid to declare
contrariwise the blessing on belief The just
shall live by his faith. The faith, then, of
which Plabakkuk speaks, is faith, in itself,
but a real, true confiding faith. It is the one
relation of the creature to the Creator, un
shaken trust. The faith may vary in char
acter, according as God reveals more or less
of Himself, but itself is one, a loving trust in
Him, just as He reveals Himself. " ^ By
this faith in God, each righteous person be
gins to live piously, righteously, holily,
peacefully and divinely, and advanceth
therein, since in every tribulation and
misery, by this faith and hope in God he
sustains, strengthens, and increases this life
of the soul. He says then, the just lives by
faith, i. e., the unbelieving and unrighteous
displeases God, and consequently will not
live by the true, right, peaceful and happy
life of grace, present righteousness, and
future glory, because God is displeased with
him, and he places his hopes and fears, not in
God, but in men and man's help and in
created things. Bilt the righteous who be
lieveth in God shall live a right, sweet, quiet,
happy, holy, untroubled life, because, fixed by
faith and hope in God Who is the true Life,
and in God's promises, he is dear to God, and
the object of His care.
" This sentence, the just shall live by faith, is
universal, belonging at once to Jews and
Christians, to sinners who are first being jus
tified, as also to those who are already justi
fied. For the spiritual life of each of these
begins, is maintained and grows through
faith. When then it is said, the just sliall live
by his faith, this word, his, marks the cause,
which both begins and preserves life. The
just, believing and hoping in God, begins to

1 2 Chron. xx. 20.
«Ib. Iiii. L
13

2 Is. vi. 9. 8 lb. vii. 9.
s Ib. xxviii. 16.

live spiritually, to have a soul riglit within
him, whereby he pleases God ; and again, ad
vancing and making progress in this his faith
and hope in God, therewith advances and
makes progress in the spiritual life, in^ight-
ness anti righteousness of soul, in the grace
and friendship of God, so as more and more
to please God."
Most even of the Jewish interpreters have
seen this to be the literal meaning of the
words. It stands in contrast with, illustrates
and is illustrated by the first words, his soul is
swollen, is not upright in him. Pride and inde
pendence of God are the centre of the want
of rightness ; it steadfast cleaving to God,
whereby the heart, as Abraham's, was stayed on
Ood, is the centre and cause of the life of the
righteous. But since this stayedness of faith
is in everything the source of the life of the
righteous, then the pride, which issues in want
of rightness of the inmost soul, raust be a state
of death. Pride estranges the soul from
God, makes it self-sufiicing, that it should
not need God, so that he who is proud cannot
come to God, to be by Him made righteous.
So contrariwise, since by his faith doth the
righteous live, this must be equally true
whether he be just made righteous from
unrighteous, or wliether that righteousness
is growing, maturing, being perfected in
him. This life begins in grace, lives on in glory.
It is begun, in that God freely justifies the
ungodly, accounting and making bim right
eous for and through the Blood of Christ ; it
is continued in faith which woi'keth by love ;
it is perfected, when faith and hope are swal
lowed up in love, beholding God. In the
Epistles to the Romans ' and the Galatians "
St. Paul applies these words to the first be
ginning of life, when they who had before
been dead in sin, began to live by faith in
Christ Jesus Who gave them life and made
them righteous. And in this sense he is
called "just," although before he comes to the
Faith he is unjust and unrighteous, being un
justified. For St. Paul uses the word not of
what he was before the faith, but what he is,
when he lives by faith. Before, not having
faith, he had neither righteousness nor life ;
having faith, he at once has both ; he is at
oiLice just and lives by his faith. These are in
separable. The faith by which he lives, is a
living faith, ^ faith which worketh by love. In
the Epistle to the Hebrews '", St. Paul is
speaking of iheir endurance in the faith, once
received, whose faith is not shaken by the
trial of their patience. They who look on
beyond things present, and fix their minds
steadfastly on the Coming of Christ, will not
suffer shipwreck of their faith, through any
troubles of this time. Faith is the founda-

6 Lap. in Rom. i. 17.
8 Gal. iii. 11. » Ib. v. 6.

' Rom. i. 17.
10 Heb. X. 38.

194

HABAKKUK.

c H rT I T ^ IT 1 1 Yea also, because
 liir- 626. Vip. transgresseth by 'wine,
1 Or, Sow much he is a proud man, neither
keepeth at home, who en-
t Prov. 27. 20. -^ . . '
& 30. 10. largeth his desire " as hell,

tion of all good, the beginning of the spiritual
building, whereby it rests on The i^ounda-
tion, Christ. Without faith ii is impossible to
¦please Ood, and so the proud cannot please
Him. Through it, is union with Christ and
thereby a divine life in the soul, even a life '
through faith in the Son of God, holy, peaceful,
self-possessed ^, enduring to the end, being
' kept by the power of God through faith unto sal
vation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6. This general rule the Prophet goes on
to apply in words which belong in part to all
oppressors and in the fii-st instance to the
Chaldsean, in part yet more fully to the end
and to Anti-Christ. Yea also, because he trans
gresseth by wine [or better, Yea, how much
more, since wine is a deceiver''], as Solomon
says ^, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging,
and whosoever erreth thereby shall not be wise,
and, ^ In the end 'it biteth like a serpent and
pierceth Uke an adder; and Hosea, ' Whore
dom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
As wine at first gladdens, then deprives of all
reason, and lays a man open to any deceit, so
also pride. And whereas all pride deceives,
how much more*, when men are either
heated and excited by the abuse of God's
natural gifts, or drunken with prosperity and
hurried away, as conquerors are, to all excess
of cruelty or lust to fulfill their own will, and
neglect the laws of God and man. Literal
drunkenness was a sin of the Babylonians
under the Persian rule, so that even a hea
then says of Babylon, ""Nothing can be
more corrupt than the manners of that city,
aud more provided with all to rouse and en-
1 Gal. ii. 20. 2 S. Luke xxi. 19. s i s. Pet. i. 6.
4 Jon. agrees " as one erring through wine." Kim.
A. E. Kashi, Abarb. Tanch. (in one explanation)
take it personally; Kim. supplying njlEJ' "drinlicr
of wine;" A. E. and Tanch. regarding V^ as p^ l^'^,
quoting '10 Ez. ii. 8. and D^Sn Ps. cix. 4. which
tney explain in the same way.
5 Prov. XX. I. « Ib. xxiii. 32. ' Hosea iv. 11.
' "3 ^N as in 1 Sam. xxiii. 3. Ezek. xxiii. 40. It
adds to the previous sentence ; whether we should
express it by how much more, if an aflirmative had
preceded ; or how much less, if a negative. 'The
more or less lies in the relation of the sentences,
not iu the ^3 ^K.
0 Q. Curt. V. 1. 10 See Daniel the Prophet, p. 450.
11 Xen. Cyrop. vii. 4, 5, 6.
12 "When then he [Cyrus] heard that there was a
feast in Babylon, in which all the Babylonians
drink and revel all the night, on this, &c." Ib. 11,
on the drunkenness see Ib. 9. lo.
18 Herod, i. 19.
'* TiTi iu the only other place, Pr. xxi. 24, stands

and is as death, and cannot
be satisfied, but gathereth
unto him all nations, and
heapeth unto him all peo
ple:

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

tice immoderate pleasures ; " and " the Baby
lonians give themselves wholly to wine, and
the things which follow upon drunkenness."
It was when flushed '" with wine, that Bel
shazzar, with hisprinces his wives and his concu
bines, desecrated the sacred vessels, insulted
God in honor of his idols, and in the night of
his excess " was slain." Pride blinded, de
ceived, destroyed liim. It was the general
drunkenness of the inhabitants, at that same
feast, which enabled Cyrus, with a handful
of men, to penetrate, by means of its river,
the city which, with its provisions for many
years " and its impregnable walls, mocked at
his siege. He calculated beforehand on its
feast '^ and the consequent dissolution of its
inhabitants ; but for this, in the language
of the heathen historian, lie would have
been caught "'^as in a trap," his soldiery
drowned. He is a proud man '*, neither keepeth at home.
It is difficult to limit the force of the rare
Hebrew word rendered, '"keep at home; for
one may cease to dwell or abide at home
either with his will or without it; and, as in
the case of invaders, the one may be the
result of the other. He who would take
away the home of others becomes, by God's
Providence, himself homeless. The context
implies that the primary meaning is the
restlessness of ambition ; which abides not at
home, for his whole pleasure is to go forth to
destroy. Yet there sounds, as it were, an
undertone, " he would not abide in his home,
and he shall not." We could scarcely avoid
the further thought, could we translate by a
in connection with Hi and V^; in Chald. it is
" .arrogant," (see instances in Levy Chald. Wort.) as
in Nasor. (ap. Ges). The Arab, only supplies
in' "perseverance in litigation:" the meaning
"prorainence, swelling "isassumedonly. The Arab.
'lirrri (in Ges. Hitz.) is from ixn (raed. 1) and
signifies "a sand-heap," not as heaped up, but as
sinking asunder, "eorruens," (the central meaning
of -isn.)
'5niJ, Um, seems to be of the sarae root as
vaiui, whence ri''.3 jllj "dweller in the house," Ps.
Ixviii. 13; DIJ, HIJ, abode; il'"IJ Pr. N. probably
the same, and niNJ also. The derived sense
" becoming" (lit." sit weli on " " bene sedet alieui,"
Ges.) exists in ni^NJ Ps. xciii. 6; " beautiful," Cant.
i. 10. Is. Iii. 7 ; and in ni J Jer. vi. 2. It is the basis
of Hif. ini.JX "will praise Him." Either gives a
good sense. The Vulg. takes the derived sense
" decorabitur."

CHAPTER II.

195

Before
CHRIST cir. 620. h

t Mic. 2. 4.

6 Shall not all these
take up a parable against
him, and a taunting pro-

word which does not determine the sense,
" he will not home," " he will not continue at
home." The words have seemed to different
minds to mean either ; as they may '. Such
fullness of meaning is the contrary of the am
biguity of Heathen oracles ; they are not
alternative meanings, which might be justi
fied in either case, but cumulative, the one
on the other. The ambitious part with
present rest for future loss. Nebuchadnezzar
lost his kingdom and his reascui through
pride, received them back when he humbled
himself; Belshazzar, being proud and im
penitent, lost both his kingdom and life.
Who enlargeth his desire, lit. Ais soul. The
soul becomes like what it loves. The ambi
tious man is, as we say, " all ambition ; " the
greedy raan, " all appetite ; " the cruel man,
" all savagery ; " the vain-glorious, "all vain
glory." The ruling passion absorbs the
whole being. It is his end, the one object of
his thoughts, hopes, fears. So, as we speak
of '' largeness of heart," which can embrace
in its affections all varieties of human inter
ests, whatever affiscts man, and " largeness of
mind " uncramped by narrowing prejudices,
the Prophet speaks of this " ambitious raan
widening his soul," or, as we should speak,
" appetite," so that the whole world is not too
large for him to long to grasp or to devour. So
the Psalmist prays not to be delivered into
the murderous desire of his enemies^, (lit.
their sold,) and Isaiah, with a metaphor
almost too bold for our language, ^ Hell hath
enlarged lier soul, and opened her mouth beyond
measure. It devours, as it were, first in its
cravings, then in act.
^s liell, wdiich is insatiable*. He saith,
enlargeth; for as hell and the grave are year
by year fuller, yet there is no end, the desire
enlargeth and becometh wider, the more is
given to it to satisfy it. And [he ^] is [him
self] as death, sparing none. Our poetry
would speak of a destroyer as being " like
the angel of death ; " his presence, as the
presence of death itself AVhere he is, there
is death. He is as terrible and as destroying
as the death which follows him. And can
not be satisfied. Even human proverbs say,
"*The love of money groweth as much as
the money itself groweth." " The avaricious is
1 A. E. Abarb. Tanch. Rashi, following Jon. take
it of his privation of home. Kim. either of the
shortness of Nebuchadnezzar's empire, or his own
tteing driven forth with the wild animals, Dan. iv.
31-33. Del. illustrates the sense of forced " non-
abiding" by p'7' ^3 Ps. xlix. 13, "abideth not;"
'|'"1X \3\!} n'7 Pr. X. 30, " shall not inhabit the
earth;" 'in'lj [ [32; Pr. ii. 21.

verb against him, and say, ^ h rTI t
1 1 Woe to him that increas- ™' °''"'-

eth that which is not his ! II Or, Ho, he.

ever needy." ' He that loveth silver shall not be
satisfied with silver. For these fleeting things
cannot satisfy the undying soul. It must
hunger still ; for it has not found what will
allay its cravings *.
But gathereth, lit. And hath gathered — He
describes it, for the rapidity 'with which he
completes what he longs for, as though it
were already done, — unto him atl nations, and
heapeth unto him all people. One is still the
subject of the prophecy, rising up at succes
sive times, fulfilling it and passing away,
Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Attila, Timur,
Genghizchan, Hunneric, scourges of God, all
deceived by pride, all sweeping the earth,
all in their ambition and wickedness the
unknowing agents and images of the evil
One, who seeks to bring the whole world
under his rule. But shall it prosper ?
6. Shall not all these" take up u, parable
against him, and a taunting proverb against him?
Nebuchadnezzar gathered '" all people, nations,
and languages, to worship the golden image
whieh he had set up. The second Babylon,
heathen Rome, sought to blot out the very
Christian Name ; but mightier were the
three children than the King of Babylon ;
mightier, virgins, martyrs, and children than
Nero or Decius. These shall rejoice o\'er
Babylon, that " Ood hath avenged them on
lier. Woe to him that increaseth that which is not
his ! Truly wealth ill-gotten by fraud or
oppression, is not his, who winneth it, before
he had it, nor when he hath it, but a woe.
It is not his ; the woe is his. Woe unto him.
Pie shall have no joy in what he gaineth,
and what he hath he shall lose. Hoio long ?
What is the measure of thine impiety and
greediness and cruelty? Yet if these are
like hell, without measure, there remains
another How long ? How long will the for
bearance of God endure thee, which thou art
daily exhausting?
This is then the end of all. The conqueror
sweeps to him all nations and gathereth to
him all peoples. To what end ? As one vast
choir in one terrible varied chant of all those
thousand thousand voices, to sing a dirge
over him of the judgments of God which his
ill-doings to them should bring upon him, a
2P.S. xxvii. 12. Comp. Ps. xll. 3 [2 Eng.] Ezek.
x.xvi. 27. 8is. V. 14. 4 Prov. xxx. 15.
5 5<ini. It is not an unmeaning change as though
it belonged only to the simplicity of Hebrew con
struction ; but emphatic, " and he."
0 Juv. Sat. xiv. 139. ' Eccl. v. 10.
8S. Aug. Conf and n. a. iv- 8-
» 0^3 nSx V. 0, referring to the ^3, D'n.I?n ^73,
Q'Un V. 6. 10 Dan. iii. 4, 6. n Rev. xviii. 20,

196

HABAKKUK.

Before
CHEIST cir. 626.

how long ? and to him that
ladeth himself with thick
clay! 7 Shall they not rise up

fivefold Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe ! Woe for
its rapacity I Woe for its covetousness !
Woe for its oppression ! Woe for its inso
lence to the conquered! Woe to it in its
rebellion against God ! It is, a more
measured rhythm than any besides in Ploly
Scripture; each of the fivefold woes com
prised in three verses, four of them closing
with the ground, because, for. The opening
words carry the mind back to the fuller pic
ture of Isaiah. But Isaiah sees Babylon as
already overthrown ; Habakkuk pronounces
the words upon it, not by name, but as cer
tainly to come, upon it and every like eneray
of God's kingdom. With each such fall,
unto the end of all things, the glory of God
is increased and made known. Having, f'or
their own ends, been unconscious and even
unwilling promoters of God's end, they, when
they had accomplished it, are themselves
flung away. The pride of human ambition,
when successful, boasts " woe to the con
quered." Since whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, the ungodly saying of the heathen
is reversed, and it stands, " Man sympathizes
with the conquering side, God with the con
quered." It is a terrible thought that men
should have been the instruments of God,
that they should, through ambition or other
ends short of God, have promoted His ends
which they thought not of, and then should
be weighed in tlie balance and found wanting,
and themselves be flung away.
" ' Gentiles also departed from their wor
ship under Satan, and having deserted him
who aforetime called them, ran unto Christ.
For Satan gathered what was not his; but
Christ received what was His. For, as God,
He is Lord of all."
And to him that ladeth himself with thick
clay ''- It is the character of these proverbs
to say rauch in few words, sometimes in one,
1 S. Cyr.
- The word 0'Q3|? naturally suggests the divis
ion into 3jf and D'tO which has been adopted by
Syr. "cloud of mud," and S. Jer. doubtless from his
Hebrew Instructor " densura lutura," as A. E., J.
and D. Kimchi, Rashi, Ab.arb., R, Tanehum ; Poi\
Arab. Vers, which is not Saadiah's (Hunt. 2nr,.) K.
Samuel Hannagid, Joshua, Japhet, (quoted by A.
E.) Sal. B. Mel., explaining it "abundance of clay."
Kimchi (Shorashim) admits the possibility of 'its
being derived from 03^7 sub v., but himself says
it is a compound word. Saadiah Ben Deuan Lex.
Heb.-Arab. [Bodl. Or. 612.] alone positively derives
it from D3.I?- The objection that there are no com
pound appellatives in Hebrew is contrary to the
evidence of such words, as 7J)''73, nrD'S3, ninSlf,
and amid the predominance of ^compound words,

suddenly that shall bite d^]|°fsT
thee, and awake that shall °'''- ^^'^-
vex thee, and thou shalt
be for booties unto them ?

and more than appears. So the word trans
lated thick-clay, as if it were two words, in
another way means in an intensive sense, "a
strong deep pledge." At best gold and silver
are, as they have been called, red and white
earth. "^What are gold and silver but
red and white earth, which the error of
man alone maketh, or accounteth precious ?
What are gems, but stones of the earth?
What silk, but webs of worms ? " These he
" maketh heavy upon " or " against himself"
[so the words strictly mean]. "For he
weigheth hiraself down with thick clay, who,
by avarice raultiplying earthty things, hems
himself in by the oppressiveness of his own
sin, imprisons and, as it were, buries the
soul, and heaps up sin as he heaps up
wealth." With toil they gather what is not
worthless only, but is a burden upon the
soul, weighing it down that it should not
rise Heavenwards, but should be bowed
down to Hell. And so in that other sense
while, as a hard usurer, he heaps up the
pledges of those whora he oppresses and im
poverishes, and seems to increase his wealth,
he does in truth increase against himself a
strong pledge, whereby not others are debtors
to hira, but he is a debtor to Almighty God
Who careth for the' oppressed. *He that
gathereth riclies and not by right, shall leave
them in ihe midst of his days and at his end
shall be a fool,
7. Shall not theyriseup suddenly that shall bite
thee, and awake tliat shall vex thee ? The de
struction of the wdcked is ever sudden at
last. Such was the flood ", the destruction of
Sodom, of Pharaoh, of the enemies of God's
people through the Judges, of Sennacherib,
Nineveh, Babylon by the Medes and Per
sians. Such shall the end be ^ As he by
his oppressions had pierced others (it is the
word used of the oppression of usury '), so
as Proper Names, it would be monstrous to assume
that a Prophet eould not have compounded a word.
On the other hand, tho forms 1'in3, TUD,
T'l^ii', 7^73n, are remarkable analogies in favor
of its being a single word. Itwas probably formed
to suggest both thouglits, as it has.
8 S. Bern. Serm. 4. in Adv. ^ Jer. xvii. 11-
5 S. Luke xvii. 26. 27.
0 S. Matt. xxiv. 43. 44. xxv. 13. S. Luke xvii. 20-
30. xxi. 34. 35. 1 Thess- V. 3. 2 Pet. iii. 10. Rev.
xvi. 16.
' 1\1S>\ ItyS nai hD lit. "everything which shall
bite," De. xxiii. 20. TE?n (De. xxiii. 20. 21 bis) is
properly a denom. from ^t!/], explained to be "what
bites the giver and takes something of his from
him." Mezia 60. b. in Del. The n3"ran, v. 6. sug
gested JT'3^^, and this, favored by the conception

CHAPTER II.

197

8 'Because thou hast

Before
CHRIST cir. 626. spoiled many nations, aU
' Isai. 33. 1. the remnant of the people
k ver. 17. shall Spoil thee; ''because

should it be done to him. " ^The Medes and
Persians who were before subject to the
Babylonian empire, and whose kings were
subject to Nebuchadnezzar and his successors,
rose up and awaked, i. e., stirred themselves
up in the days of Belshazzar to rebel against
the successors of Nebuchadnezzar which sat
on his throne, like a man who awaketh frora
sleep." The words awake, arise, are used also
of the resurrection, when the worm of the
wicked gnaweth and dieth not ''.
And thou shalt be for booties unto them? The
coramon phrase is modified to explain the
manifoldness of the plunder' which he
should yield. So Jeremiah, * Chaldcea shall
be a spoU ; all that spod her shall be satisfied,
saith the Lord. " ^ "We may hear Him "Who
saith, ^ How can one enter into a strong man's
house, and spoil his goods, except he flrst bind tlie
strong man? and then he will .spoil his house.
For, as soon as He was bom of the holy Vir
gin, He began to spoil his goods. For the
Magi came from the East — and worshiped
Him and honored Plim with gifts and became
a first-fruits of the Church of the Gentiles.
And being vessels of Satan, and the most
honored of all his members, they hastened
to Christ."
8. Because, [or For]. The Prophet as
signs the reason of the woes he had just pro
nounced. Thou'' [emph.], thou hast spoiled
¦many nations, all the remnant of the people shall
spoil thee. So Isaiah, ^ When thou shall cease
to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled ; when thou shalt
make an end to deal treacherously, they sliall deed
treacherously ivith thee. Boundless as his con
quests were, each remaining people, tribe, or
family shall be his foe. " "^Plaving subdued
very many, thou shalt be destroyed by few,
and they who long endured thy tyranny,
arising as from sleep, shall compass thy de
struction ; and thou shalt pay the penalty of
thy countless slaughters and thy great un
godliness and thy lawless violence to cities
of the Chaldseans as a pitiless creditor, concen
trated in £3'03J?, suggested IlK'J, (whioh is often
united wi(!h JT'3in); and this suggested the re
markable designation of those who were to execute
the Divine retribution on the Chaldteans by the
word, D''3B'J. ' Abarb- quoted by Del.
2 See Isaiah xiv. 11. Ixvi. 24.
"J^IDE'd'? JTTI. Elsewhere sing. riDif'D'?.
4 Jer. 1. 10. 5 See S. Cyr. « S. Matt. xii. 29.
7 nnS '3. ' Isaiah xxxiii. 1.
0 Theod. lo Jer: xlix. 3-t-39.
11 The prophecies against the heathen nations
Jer. xlvi-li. were in the same order in the main as
iu Jer. icxv. 19--;fi, l;)p,|);,in,B;^nff.,B^h Egypt aaiL.'*'"!''

of men's f blood, and for ^ J'^7| .j.
the violence of the land. "J''- ^26.

of the city, and of all that -fHeb. bloods.
dwell therein.

whioh thou madest desolate of inhabitants.''
Nothing was too great or too little to escape
this violence.
All the remnant. " ^ As thou, invading,
didst take away the things of others, in like
way sliall what appertaineth to thee be
taken away by those who are left for ven
geance." Jeremiah foretold of Elam in the
beginning of the reign of Zedekiah '", (in expan
sion of the prophecy in the reign of Jehoia
kim ") ; Thus saith ihe Lord of hosts. Behold,
Iwill break tlie bow of Elam, the chief of their
might. And upon Elam I will bring the four
winds from the four quarters of tlie heavens, and
will scatter them toward all these ivinds, and there
shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam
shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be
dismayed before her enemies ; but it shall come
to pass in the latter days, tliat I 'will bring again
the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. Elam is
also counted by Ezekiel ''' among those who,
together with Pharaoh, should be brought
down to the grave, with Asshur, Meshech,
Tubal, Edom and all the Zidonians, by the
king of Babylon. They were then all which
remained'' of the nations which he had
conquered, who should be gathered against
his liouse. Because of men's blood and of the
violence of i. e. to the land, as the violence of, i. e.
to ", Lebanon, and men's blood is their blood
which was shed. To land, city, and all
dwellers ilierein. La'nd or earth, city, are left
purposely undefined, so that while that in
which the offence culminated should be, by
the singular, specially suggested, the violence
to Judah and Jerusalem, the cruelty con
demned should not be limited to these. The
molence was dealt out to the whole land or
earth, and iu it, to cities, and in each, one by
one, to all its inhabitants. Babylon is
called, '^ ihe hammer of ihe whole earth ; " a
golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the
earth drunken ; " a destroying mountcdn, which
h the whole earth ; the whole earth is at

ing in Babylon, and containing between these, the
Philistines (with Tyre and Zidon incidentally),
Moab, Aramon, Edom, Kedar, Hazor, Elam j Elam
being in both cases the last before Babylon itself
12 Ezek. xxxii. 17-32.
13 As n'7«n DMjn nn' Josh. xxhi. 12, ^^n^'
noSan ex. x. 6; jmnn in^ nx, D.!;n in' n«,
2 Kings xxv. 11; DnStyjn Upr\ '\rV IMt Jer.
xxxix. 9.
1* Hab. ii. 17, pDn is united with the gen. of the
object, Gen. xvi. 5. Jud. ix. 24. Jo. iv 19- Ob. 10. Jer.
11. .36; with that of the subject, Ps. vii. 17, Iviii, 3,
Ezek. xii. 19- [all-]
15 Jer. 1. 23. 10 Ib. li. 7. K Ib. 25.

198

HABAKKUK.

chrTst ^ H Woe to him that
cir. 626. '||p,oveteth an evil covet-
'Jer. 22. 13. ousness to his house, that
H Or, gaineth an
evil gain. he may ""set his nest on
nJer. 49. 16. , . , , , , ¦,
Obad. 4. high, that he may be de-

rest and is quiet ', after Babylon, which made it
to tremble'^, is overthrown.
So Satan had by violence and deceit sub
dued the whole earth, yet Christ made him a
spoil to those whora he had spoiled, and the
strong man was bound and his goods spoiled
and himself trampled underfoot. Yet here
as throughout the prophets, it is a " rem
nant " only which is saved. " " Satan too
was spoiled by the remnant of the people,
i. e. by those justified by Christ and sancti
fied in the Spirit. For the remnant of
Israel was saved."
9. Woe to him that coveieth an evU covetousness
to his house [or, with accents, that coveieth
covetousness or unjust gain, an evil to his house.]
What man coveteth seeras gain, but is evil to
his home after him, destroying both himself
and his whole family or race with him*.
That he may set his nest on high, as an eagle, to
which he had likened the Chaldee ^. A
heathen called " strongholds, the nests of
tyrants." The nest was placed " on high "
which means also " heaven," as it is said,
^ though thou set thy nest among the stars ; and
the tower of Babel was to ' reaeh unto heaven ;
and the Anti-Christ, whose symbol the King
of Babvlon is, says, "/ will exalt my throne
above tlie stars of Ood. Babylon lying in a
large plain, on the sides of the Euphrates, the
iraage of its eagle's-nest on high must be
taken, not from any natural eminence, but
• wholly from the works of man. Its walls,
and its hanging gardens were among " the
seven wonders of the world." Eye witnesses
speak of its walls, encompassing at the least
100 square miles ", " '" and as large as the
land-graviat of Hesse Homberg ; " those
walls, 335, or 330 feet high, and 85 feet
broad"; a fortified palace, near 7 miles in
circumference; gardens, 400 Greek feet
square, sujiporting at an artificial height
arch upon arch, of " at least 75 feet," forest
trees ; a teraple to its god, said to have been
1 Is. xiv. 7. 2 lb. 16. 3 s. Cyr.
*.I?^3 J.^]^3 elsewhere stand, without an epithet,
it being itself evil, Prov. i. 19. xv. 27. Jer. vi. 13. viii.
10. and Ezek. xxii. 27. [all]
5 i. 8. Comp. Jer. xx. 10. o Obad 4.
TGen. xi.4. sis. xiv. 13.
^Herodotus, giving probably the extent of the
outer wall, makes it a square 120 stades each way,
and so 50 miles in circuit [i. 178]. Ctesias, giving
probably the dimensions ol the mner-wtill, makes
the circumference 360 stades, 41-42 miles, and so
enclosing 100 square miles [Diod. Sic. ii. 7. sqq.].
10 Rawl. 5 Empires iii. 'HO.
n It is remarkable that the larger dimensions are

livered from the fpo'wer chrTst
of evil ! '^»'' ggs-
10 Thou hast consulted t Heb. pnim 0/
, ,,11 1 .the hand.
shame to thy house by cut
ting off many people, and

at least 600 feet high. Had we, creatures of
a day, no one above us, Nebuchadnezzar's
boast had been true ''', Is not this great Babylon
that I have builded for ihe house of the Kingdom
by the might of my power and for the honor of my
majesty ? Pie had built an eagle's nest, which
no human arm could reach, encircled by
walls which laughed its invaders to scorn,
which no then skill could scale or shatter or ,
mine. Even as one sees in a picture the vast
mounds which yet remain '^, one can hardly
imagine that they were, brick upon brick,
wholly the work of man.
To be delivered from the hand [grasp] of
evil ; that it should not be able to reach him.
Evil is spoken of as a living power '*, which
would seize hira, whose grasp he would defy.
It was indeed a living power, since it was
the Will of Almighty God, Whose servant
and instrument Cyrus was, to chasten Baby
lon, -when its sins were full. Such was the
counsel, what the result? T'he evil covetous
ness which he wrought, brought on him the
evd, from which, in that nest built by the
hard toil of his captives, he thought to de
liver himself.
10. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house,
the cutting off many people, and sinning against
thy soul. The wicked, whether out of passion
or with his whole mind and deliberate choice
and will, takes that counsel, which certainly
brings shame to himself and his house, accord
ing to the law of God, whereby He '^ visits
the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of tliem that hate
Him, i. e. until by righteousness and restitu
tion the curse is cut oflT. '^ He that is greedy
of gain troubleth his own house. So Jeremiah
says, " Thus saith the Lord, Is it Me they are
vexing ? is it not themselves, for '^ the confusion
of their faces ? i.e. with that end and object.
Holy Scripture overlooks the means, and
places us at the end of all. Whatever the
wicked had in view, to satisfy ambition,
the oldest, given by eye-witnesses. Rawlinson has
pointed out one ease in which the later reduced the
dimensions artificially, " softening down the cubits
of Herodotus into feet." 5 Empires iii. ;^48 note.
See the whole vivid description, Ib. pp. 338-361.
12 Dan. iv. 30.
i3See in Smith's Bible Diet. i. 152. Rawl. 5 Em
pires iii. 353.
1'^ ^5p occurs in 19 other places with verbs sig
nifying deliverance, [see Furst Conc. p. 568.] and in
all of living agents. 15 Ex. xx. 6.
10 Prov. xV. 27. 1! Jer. vii. 19.
''m2 \]nih.

CHAPTER II.

199

Before Tioof
CHRIST ^^^^
cir. 626. soul.

sinned against thy

11 For the stone shall
cry out of the wall, and

avarice, passion, love of pleasure, or the rest
of mail's immediate ends, all he 'H'as doing
was leading on to a further end, shame and
death. He was bringing about, not only
these short-lived, but the lasting ends be
yond, and these far more than the others,
since that is the real end of a thing which
abides, in which it at last ends. He con
sulted to cut off many people and was there
by (though he knew it not) by one and the
same act, c/uiliy of and forf citing his own soul'.
11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and
the beam out of the timber shrill answer it. All
things have a voice, in that they are \
God's works speak that, for which He made
them. ^ Tlie heavens declare tlie glory of God.
* The valleys are clad with corn, they laugh, yea,
they sing; their very look speaks gladness.
" ^ For the creation itself proclaims the glory
of the Maker, in that it is admired as well
made. Wherefore there are voices in things,
although there are not words." Man's
works speak of that in him, out of which and
for which he made them- Works of mercy
go up for a memorial before God, and plead
there ; great works, wrought amid 'wrong
and cruelty and for man's ambition and
pride, have a voice too, and cry out to God,
calling down His vengeance on the op
pressor. Plere the stqnes of the wall, whereby
the building is raised, and the beam, the tje-
beam, out of the timber-f/ork ^ wherewith it is
finished, and which, as it were, crowns the
work, join, as in a chorus, answering one
another, and in a deep solemn wailing, be
fore God and the whole world, together
chant " Woe, Woe." Did not the blood and
groans of men cry out to God, speechless
things have a voice to appeal to Him'.
Against Belshazzar the wall had, to the let
ter, words to speak.
'¦WSi son Prov. XX. 2. comp. ItyjlJ DDH lb.
viii. 36. The contemporaneousness ofthe act is ex
pressed by the participle ; the pronoun is omitted
as in i. 5.
2The Arabs have an expression for it, tSD/
Sxnbx, lit- " The tongue of the situation."
»Ps. xix.L 4Ib. Ixv. 13. '.S. Cyr
oSo the word is best understood, since the
"beam" bears the same relation to the "wood
work " as the " stone " to the " wall," i. e. is a part
of it, 033 in Ch. signifying " to bind," like n33
Dan. iii. 20, 21, 23, 24. So Kim. The other sense
given, that it is a half-brick, such as is worked into
the mode of building, called by ns " bricknogging,
whieh R. Tanehum of Jerusalem also knew m the
East, seems unsuited here ; 1) because it is speak
ing of magnificent building; the interlacing of
brick with wood is for economy, since the wood,
interlacing the bricks, holds thera together, though

the 1 1 beam out of the tim
ber shall 1 1 answer it.
12 ^Woe to him that
buildeth a town with

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
II Or, piece, ox,
fastening.
II Or, witness
against it.

Each three verses forming one stanza, as it
were, of the dirge, the following words are
probably not directly connected with the
forraer, as if the woe, which follows, were, so
to speak, the chant of these inanimate wit
nesses against the Chaldceans ; yet they stand
connected with it. The dirge began with
woe on the wrongful accumulation of wealth
from the conquered and oppressed people : it
continues with the selfish use of the wealth
so won.
12. Woe to him that buildeth a town •with
blood, and establislieth a city by iniquity !
Nebuchadnezzar '"encircled the inner city
with three walls and the outer city also with
three, all of burnt brick. And having forti
fied the city with wondrous works, and
adorned the gates like temples, he built
another palace near the palace of his fathers,
surpassing it in height and its great magnifi
cence." He seemed to strengthen the city,
and to stablish it by outward defences. But
it was built through cruelty to conquered
nations, and especially God's people, and by
oppression, against His holy Will. So there
was an inward rottenness and decay in what
seemed strong and majestic, and which im
posed on the outward eye ; it would not
stand, but fell. Babylon, which had stood
since the flood, being enlarged contrary to
the eternal laws of God, fell in the reign of
his son. Such is all empire and greatness,
raised on the neglect of God's laws, by un
lawful conquests, and by the toil and sweat
and hard service of the poor. Its aggran
dizement and seeming strength is its fall.
Daniel's exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar,
''Redeem thy sins by righteousness, and thine
iniquities by shewing mercy on the poor, implies
that oppressiveness had been one of his chief
sins. the wall be thin ; 2) the half-bricks naturally enter
into this mode of building, but are neither the
chief nor a prominent part of it. 3) Neither is the
woodwork apparently in such way oue, that it can
stand as a whole, '"ranehum and Parchon adopt
this rendering, and Rashi on Taanit U a (ap. Del.)
not in his Comm.; Symm. Theod. Syr. e have
<rvvSecTfj.o^, S. Jer. in the same sense, i/i-avTwo-t?, and
LXX. K/ivdapo^, The other sense given does not
account for the wood "out of the timber," since it
would rather be " out of the stone-work." S. Cyril
says, "the other versions have ei'Seo-ju.og ^vKov, so
that they named the crown of the house and the
complexity of the wood, i. e., the band, Kdv6apo<;,
because they as with many feet supported the roof
which lay upon ir.
' See S. Luke xix. 40.
3 Berosus Hist. Chald. L. iii. ap. Joseph. Antiq.
X. 11. and c. Ap. i. 20.
ODan. iv. 27.

200

HABAKKUK.

c H eTs t ° t blood, and stablisheth a
 °"'- °^°' cily by iniquity !
»Jer. 22. 13. 13 Behold, is it not of
Mic. 3. 10. ' the Lord of hosts ° that
t Heb'. bloods, the people shall labor in
the very fire, and the peo-

|0r.

pie shall weary themselves
1 1 for very vanity ?

13. Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that
[the] people [nations] sliall labor - in [for] the
very flre [lit. to suffice ihe fire] 7 By God's
appointment, the end of all their labor is for
the fire, what may suffice it to consurae. This
is the whole result of their labor ; and so it
is as if they had toiled for this ; they built
ceiled palaces and gorgeous buildings, only
for the fire to consume the,ra.
And peoples sliall weary themselves for very
vanity. They wearied themselves, and what
was their reward ? What had they to suffice
and fill them ? Emptiness. This is from the
Lord of hosts. Whom all the armies of heaven
obey and all creatures stand ;it His command
against the ungodly, and in Whose Hand are
all the hosts of earth, and so the oppressor's
also, to turn as He wills.
Near upon the first stage of the fulfillment,
Jeremiah reinforces the words with the name
of Babylon ; ^ Thus saith the Lord of hosts ! The
broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly destroyed,
and her high gates shcdl be burned with fire; and
the people .shall labor in vain [for vanity], and the
folk in [for] the fire, and they shall be weary.
14. For the earth sliall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Habakkuk
modifies in a degree the words of Isaiah
which he embodies, marking that the de
struction of Babylon was a stage only toward
the coming of those good things which God
taught His people to long for, not their very
coming. All the world should be then full
of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
not, as yet, wholly of Himself "^When
Babylon shall be overthrown, then shall the
power of the might of the Lord be known
unto all. So shall the whole earth be filled
with the glory of the Lord, as the waters
cover the bottom of the sea. This as to the
letter. But it is plain, that the Devil also
and Anti-Christ, and the perverse teaching
of heretics, bu'dt a city in blood; i. e., their
own Church, with the destruction of those

'}?y with 3 "labor upon" Josh. xxiv. 13. Isa.
Ixii. 8. aud boldly, of God, Ib. .xliii. 22. and Hif.
"cause to labor with " Isa. .Kliii. 23.
2.1er. li. 58. og. Jer. *Rup.
'Isaiah xi. 9. «S. Cyr. 'S. John xvii. 4.
3nippis rendered "approaching to" "joining"
by Tanch-, A. E., Eashi Kim. Sal. B. Mel. Abarb. ;

14 For the earth shall citTsT
be filled 1 1 with the " knowl- '='^- 626.

edge of the glory of the [ Or, by knowing
T il i *'-" Qiory of the
Loed, as the waters cover Lokd.
^1 Pisai. 11. 9.
the sea.
15 ^Woe unto him
that giveth his neighbor
drink, that puttest thy

whom they deceive  But when they
fail in the fire, (either tliis fire which is felt,
or consumed in the fire of the devil their
prince, or burned up with the fire whereof
the Lord says, I came to send u. fire upon ihe
earth, and so brought back from tlieir former
course, and doing penitence), the whole earth
shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,
when, at the preaching of the Apostles, their
sound .shall go out into all the world, as wateis
covering the sea, i. e., all the saltness and
bitterness of the ^vorld wliich Satan had
rained down and the earth had drunk, the
waters of the Lord shall cover, and cause the
place of their ancient bitterness not to ap
pear." "* For the Spirit of the Lord filled the
earth, and when He filled it, the earth was
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
so that unlearned and ignorant men became
wise and eloquent, and earthly became
heavenly, yea, they who were earth became
heaven, knowing the Glory of the Lord, de
claring the Glory of God, not any how, but
as waters cover the sea. Great as must be
waters, which would cover the sea, or com
pared to which the sea were nothing, far
greater is the miracle, when the abundance
of heavenly wisdora, given to the simple,
surpassed the sea, i. e., the wisdom of all
mankind." This verse being already a re
ceived image of the spread of the Gospel ^ it
would of itself be understood to include this
also ; but more generally, it declares how
upon all the judgments of God, a larger
knowledge of Him would follow. "^All
things are full of Christ, Who is the Glory
of the Father; wherefore also He said,'/
have glorified. Thee on earth, I have finished the
work which Thou gavest me to do."
15. From cruelty the Prophet goes on to
denounce the woe on insolence. Woe unto
him that giveth his neighbor (to whom he owes
love) drink [lit. that ¦maketh him drink] ; that
puttest'^ thy bottle ^to him, and makest him
"pouring" Ch. Symm. Both .senses exist in the
verb ; and the efforts of Ges. and Papen helm (ap. Del.)
to reduce all the usages under either, force sorae-
oThe E. v. has taken "inon as irregular from
npn "flask," with Kim., A. E., Sal. ben Mel.;
"poison," Ch. Abulw. ; "wrath," Rashi, Abarb.;
" flask " or " wrath," Tanch.

CHAPTEB II.

201

c H R°i I T ' ^o^-tls to hiin, and makest
cir. 626. Ji.jifi drunken also, that

<i Hos. 7. 5. thou mayest ' look on their
' Gen. 9. 22. 11 ,
I Or, mare with nakcdness !
shame than ., r. m ^. im j ii 'ii
with glory. 1 D 1 hou art filled 1 1 with
» Jer. 25. 2(i, 27. 1 c 1 .1-1
& 51. 57. shame lor glory : drink
thou also, and let thy fore
skin be uncovered: the
cup of the Lord's right
hand shall be turned unto

drunken also, ' that thou mayest look [gcize with
devilish pleasure] on their nakedness. This
may either be of actual insults (as in the his
tory of Noah), in keeping certainly with the
character of the later Babylonians, the last
wantonness of unbridled power, making vile
sport of those like himself {his neighbor), or
it may be drunkenness through misery ^
wherein they are bared of all their glory
and brought to the lowest shame. The woe
falls too on all, who in any waj' intoxicate
others with flattering words or feigned affec
tion, mixing poison under things pleasant, to
bring them to shame.
16. Thou art filled with shame for glory.
Oppressors think to make themselves great
by bringing others down, to fill themselves
with riches, by spoiling others. They loved
shame', because they loved that, which
brought shame ; they were filled with shame,
in that they sated themselves wdth sharaeful-
ness, which was their sharae within, before, in
the just judgment of God, shame came on them
from without. * Their glory was in their shame.
They shall be filled, yea, he says, they are
already filled^; they would satisfy, gorge
themselves, with all their heaits' desires;
they are filled to tlie full,hat with shame instead
of glory which they sought, or which they
already had. From and /or " a state of glory,
they were filled with contempt.
Drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be un
covered: thy shame like those whom thou
puttest to" shame, only the greater in
being uncircumcised. The cup of ihe Lard's
i1.5iy =1X1 The inf. abs. continuing the previous
action of tlie finite verb, as in Gen. xii. 43. Is. ix.
20. Jer. xiv. 5, or after the inf constr. 1 Sara. xxii.
13. xxv. 26. 33. Jer. vii. 18. &c. See in Ewald Lehrb.
p. 839. ed. 7- ' Isaiah xxix. 9-
SHos. iv.8. 4 Phil. iii. 19.
5j?3tyhas nowhere the reflective raeaning, "sa
tiated himself with " (as Del.) ; it simply expresses
a state. 6 |D includes both. ' S. Matt. vii. 2.
8 Jer. xxv. 26. 9 Lam. iv. 21. lo Rev. xvi. 19.
nps. Ixxvi. 8.
7p'p might be simply an intensive, raodified

thee, and shameful spew
ing shall he on thy glory. _
17 For the violence of
Lebanon shall cover thee,
and the spoil of beasts,
which made them afraid,
'because of men's blood,
and for the violence of the
land, of the city, and of
all that dwell therein.

Before
CHRIST cir. 026.

^pb

1^1^

Right Hand shall be turned [round] unio thee
[or against thee]. It had gone round the cir
cuit of the nations whom God had employed
him to chasten, and now, the circle com
pleted, it should be brought round to him
self, '' With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured unto you again. So Jeremiah says,-
^ And ihe king (f Sheshach shall drink after
ihem ; and of Edom, " To thee also shall the
cup be brought round. Thou, a man, madest
man to drink of the eup of thine anger: the
cup shall be brought round to thee, but not
by man ; to thee it shall be given by ihe
Right Hand of the Lord, which thou canst not
escape ; it shall be '" the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of the wrath of Almighty Ood; as
Asaph had said, " There is a cup in the Lord's
hand.; it is full of mixture, and He poureth out
therefrom ; but the dregs thereof all the ungodly of
the earth shall suck them out, shall drink them.
And shameful spewing " shall be on thy glory.
""With the shame of thy spewing shalt
thou bring up all thou hast swallowed down,
and from the height of glory shalt thou be
brought to the utmost ills." The shame of
the ungodly cometh forth from hiraself ; the
shame he put oflieis to is doubled upon
himself; and the very raeans wliich he had
used to fill himself with glory and greatness,
cover the glory which by nature he had,
with the deeper disgrace, so that he should
be a loathsome and revolting sight to all.
Man veils foul deeds under fair 'words; God,
in His word, unveils the foulness.
17. For the violence of Lebanon i. e., done to
from pSpVp, as 33'13 from 33D3, n'nS'lVr] for
nnSISn, &o. Ew. Lehrb. p. 408. It was regarded
as a compound word by S. Jerome's Hebrew in
structor, " vomitus ignominiffi," the Midrash Ester
Rabb. 121. c. (in Del.)'Kim. Sal. B.Mel, as sug.gested
by the mention of the drinking, (as in Jer. xxv.
27.). Ibn Ezra, Tanehum, Abarb. give both. In
any case, as in t3'£33i', the word was probably
framed to suggest the two words, into whieh it is
naturally resolved, p'7p S''p, like nXX X'p Is.
xxviii. 8. and the image Is. xix. 14. The forra is
enlarged by Hab. from the previous pTD, but the
doubling occurs in Sp^p Nu. xxi. 5. "S. Jer.

202

HABAKKUK.

chrTst 18 H-What profiteth
"'''' ^'^^' the graven image that the

' Is. 44. 9, 10.
& 46. 2.

maker thereof hath graven
it ; the molten image, and

Lebanon, whether the land of Israel of which
it was the entrance and the beauty ', or the
temple '', both of which Nebuchadnezzar
laid waste ; or, more widely, it may be a
symbol of all the majesty of the world and its
empires, which he subdues, as Isaiah uses it,
when speaking of the judgment on the
world '. It shall cover thee, and the spoil [i. e.,
spoiling, destruetion] of beasts [the inhabitants
of Lebanon] which made them afraid, or more
simply, the wasting of wild beasts * shcdl erush^
</4?m[selves]," i. e., as it is in irrational
nature, that " the frequency of the incursions
of very mischievous animals becomes the
cause that men assemble against them and
kill them, so their [the Chaldseans'] frequent
injustice is tha causa that they haste to be
avenged on thee^." Having become beasts,
they shared their history. They spoiled,
scared, laid waste, were destroye I. " Whoso
seeketh to hurt another, hurteth himself."
The Chald.eans laid waste Jud;ea, scared and
wasted its inhabitants ; the end of its jilun-
der should be, uot to adjrn, but to cover them,
overwhelm them as in ruins, so that they
should not lift up their heads again. "Vio
lence returns on the head of him who did it ;
they seem to raise a lofty fabric, but are buried
under it. He suras up their past experience,
what God had warned them beforehand, what
they had found.
18. Wlud profiteth [hath profited''] the gra
ven image, tliat the maker therefore hath graven
it ? What did Baal and Ashtaroth profit you ?
What availed it ever but to draw down the
wrath of God ? Even so neither shall it profit
1 See Is. xxxvii. 24. and, as a symbol, Jer. xxii.
0, 23. Ez. xvii. 3 ; but it is used as a symbol of Sen
nacherib's army. Is. x. 34, and the kmg of Asshur
is not indeed spoken of under the name as a sym
bol (in Ezek. x.ti. 3.) but is compared to it.
' 2 See on Zech. xii. 1. sis. ii. 13.
* jnDn3 is used of beasts of prey, Deut. xxvii. 24.
0 As in Is. vii. 8. and nnnp Ps. Ixxxix. 40, Pr. x.
14, xiii. 3, xiv. 14, xviii. 7-
0 R. Tanehum. He had after Abulwalid, which
Kirachi quotes and approves, explained the first
part of the verse; "This is a likeness framed as to
him, that he was like a beast of prej^ which attack-
eth ttie animals in their lairs ; and Lebanon is
mentioned on account of the multitude of animals
in it. He says then, thy wrong to the inhabitants
of Lebanon shall overwhelm thee." He gives also
the rendering, followed in the E. V., but prefers
his own. He gives the two ways of deriving iri^n''
from nnn and rcVi- Rashi follows the same con
struction. " The wasting of thy beasts and forces,
because they have wasted My people Israel, it shall
crush them [selves]."
'Vj?in no. Samuel warned them, "Serve the

a "teacher of lies, that cheTst
f the maker of his work . "'''• ''^o.

»Jer. 10.8,14.

trusteth therein, to make zec'h. io.'2.
Mumb idols? +Heb.tfe/asA.

J Ps. 116. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 2.

ioner of his
fashion.

the Chaldaean. As their idols availed them
not, so neither need they fear them. Sen
nacherib and, Nebuchadnezzar were pro
pagandists of their own belief and would
destroy, if they could, all other -n'orship, false
or true ' : Nebuchadnezzar is thought to have
set up his own image ^. Anti-Christ will set
himself up as God '". We may take warning at
least by our own sins. If we had no profit
at all from them, neither will the like profit
others. This the Jews did, in the main,
learn in their captivity.
The molten image and teacher of lies. It is
all one whether by teacher of lies we under
stand the idol ", or its priest '''. For its priest
gave it its voice, as its maker created its
forra. It could only seem to teach through
the idol-priest. Isaiah used the title teacher
of lies, of the false prophet '". It is all one.
Zechariah combines them ; '* The teraphim
have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a
lie, and have had false dreams.
Tliat the maker of his work trusteth therein.
This was the special folly of idolatry. The
thing made raust needs be inferior to its
raaker. It was one of the corruptions of idol
atry that the maker of his own work should
trust in wdiat was wholly his own creation,
what, not God, but himself created, what
li:id nothing but what it h:id from himself''.
He uses the very words which express the
relation of man to God, " the Framer " and
" the thing framed." '^ 0 your perverseness !
Shall the framer be accounted as clay, that the
thing made should say of its Maker, He made me
not, and ihe thing framed say qf its Framer, He
Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside : for
[it would be] after vanities, which will not profit,
nor deliver, for they are vain : " and Jeremiah tells
their past; "their prophets prophesied by Baal;
and after things 'Vj?!' nh which profit not, have
they gone." Elsewhere the idol is spoken of as a
thing, "whieh will not profit" (fut.) "My people
hath changed its glory hyt^ X'73 for that which
profiteth not," Jer. ii. 8. 11. So Isaiah, " Who hath
formed a god, h'')})T] ''nS3S,notto profit." Is. xliv.
9. 10. " The makers of a graven iraage are all of
them vanity, and their desirable things iS'J?!'' '73
will not profit."
8 2 Kgs xviii. 3.3-.35, xix. 12-18, xxv. 9, Is. x. 10, 11.
See also Lectures on Daniel pp. 447-449 ed. 2.
ODan. iii. See Lectures on Dan. pp. 442.
10 2 Thess. ii. 4. Rev. xiii. 15-17. " Abarb. Kim.
12 AE. Tanch. is Is. ix. 14. H Zech. x. 2.
10 In Hebrew this is made stronger by the same
ness of the words, lIV' 'IX'' yotser yitsro E. M.
"fashioner of bis fashion." Again "dumb idols"
are elilini illeinim, the second word only slightly
varying frora the first. lo Is. xxix. 16.

CHAPTER II.

203

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

•P3.136.17.

19 Woe unto him that
saith to the wood. Awake ;
to the dumb stone. Arise,
it shall teach! Behold, it
is laid over with gold and
silver, 'and there is no

hath no hands ? The idol-maker is " the cre
ator of his creature," of his god whora he
worships. Again the idol-maker makes
dumb idols [lit. dumb nothings] in themselves
nothings, and having no power out of them
selves ; and what is uttered in their name,
are but lies. And 'what else are man's idols
of wealth, honor, fame, which he makes to
himself, the creatures of his own hands or
mind, their greatness existing chiefly in his
own imagination, before which he bows down
himself, who is the image of God ?
19. But then the greater is the Woe to
him who deceiveth by them- The prophet
passes a'way from the the idols as " noth
ings " and pronounces " woe " on those who
deceive by them. Pie ^ first expostulates
with them on their folly, and would awaken
them. Wlmt hath it profited ^ ? Then on the
obstinate he denounces "woe." Woe unto
him that saith to the wood, Awake ; to the dumb
stone, Arise. Self-made blindness alone
could, in the light of truth, so speak ; but yet
more lies in the emphatic word, /(. The
personal pronoun stands emphatically in
Hebrew ; He shall teach, lo. He (this same
of whom he speaks) this is It which shall
teach: It, and not the living God. And yet
this same It (the word is again emphatic) he
points, as with the finger, to it, behold. It is
laid over with, held fast by'', gold and. silver, so
that no voice could escape, if it had any.
And tliere is no breath at all in the midst of it *,
lit. All breath, all which is breath, there is none
within it; he first suggests the thought,
breath of every sort, and then energetically
denies it all ^ ; iio life of any sort, of man,
or bird, or beast, or creeping thing ; ^ none,
good or bad ; from God or from Satan ; none
whereby it can do good or do evil ; for which
it should be loved or feared. Evil spirits
may have made use of idols : they could not
give them life, nor dwell in them.
The words addressed to it are the language
of the soul in the seeming absence or silence
of God ', but mockery as spoken to the sense
less stone, as Elijah had mocked the Baal-
iRup.
2 As in Ps. cxv. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 2.
3 The meaning of t?3n elsewhere. "Here it
means ' surrounds,' for that which encircles a thing,
is as if it held it on every side." Tanch.
* Comp. Jer. x. 14 repeated li. 17.
6 As in the Hebraism of the N. T. oi SucaiuS^creTai
jraaa aap$ Rom. iii. 20.

breath at all in the midst „ S^^°if% t,
of it. cir- 626.
20 But " the Lord is in « Ps. ii. 4.
his holy temple: flet sill aii tiie earth
the earth keep silence be- 1 zfp™ i.T'
c 1 . Zech. 2. 13.
lore him.

priests ^, peradventure he sleepeth and must be
awaked. 20. And now having declared the nothing
ness of all which is not God, the power of
man or his gods, he answei-s again his own
question, by summoning all before the Pre
sence of the Majesty of God.
And the Lord. He had, in condemning
them, pictured the tumult of the world, the
oppressions, the violence, blo.odsheddings,
covetousness, insolence, self-aggrandizement
of the then world-empire, and had denounced
woe upon it ; we see man framing his idols,
praying to the lifeless stones; and God, of
Whom none thought, where was He ? These
were men's ways. " .4?!^ the Lord," he joins
it on, as the complemeht and corrective of
all this confusion, The Lord is in His holy
temple, awaiting, in His long-suffering, to
judge. The temple of Ood is where God en
shrines Himself, or allows Himself to be
seen and adored. " God is wholly every
where, the whole of plim no where." There
is no contrast between His temple on earth,
and Plis temple in heaven. He is not more
locally present in heaven than in earth. It
were as anthropomorphic but less pious to
think of God, as confined, localized, in hea
ven as on earth ; because it would be simply
removing God away from man. Solomon
knew, when he built the temple, that the
heaven ancl heaven of heavens could not contain '
God. The holy temple, which could be
destroyed '", toward which men were to
pray ", was the visible temple ''', where were
the symbols of God's Presence, and of the
atoning Sacrifice ; but lest His presence
should be localized, Solomon's repeated
prayer is, ''^ hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling
place ; " hec^r Thou in heaven. There is then
no difference, as though in earlier books the
" holy temple " meant that at Jerusalem, in
the later, " the heavens." In the confession
at the offering of the third year's tithes, the
prayer is, '^ look down from Thy holy habitation,
from heaven ; and David says, '^ the Lord is in
His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven ;

0 Is. xii. 23. Jer. x. 5.
' Ps. vii. 7, xxxv. 23, xliv. 24. lix. 6, Is. li. 9. Del.
81 Kgs xviii. 26, 27. 'i Kgs viii- 27.
10 Ps. Ixxix. 1.
11 Ps. V. 7. cxxxviii. 2. Jon. ii. 4.
121 Kgs viii. 29, 30, 35, 38, 42, 44, 48.
13 Ib. 30, 39, 43, 49. " lb. 32, 34, 36, 45.
10 De. xxvii. 16. '" Ps. xi. 4.

204

HABAKKUK.

CH^frsT CHAPTER IIL
cir. 626. 1 Habakkuk in his prayer trem
bleth at Ood's majesty. 17
The confldence of his faith.

and, ^ He heard my voice out of His temple — ¦
He bowed the heavens also and came down ; and,
^ In His temple doth every one say, Glory. The
simple words are identical though not iu the
same order as those, in which David, in tlie
same contrast with the oppression of man,
ushers in the judgment and final retribution
to good and bad, by declaring the unseen
presence of God on His Throne in heaven,
beholding and trying the sons of men.
In His Presence, all the mysteries of our
being are solved. The Lord is in His holy
Temple, not, as the idols in temples made with
hands, but revealing Himself in the visible
temple, " ^ dwelling in the Son, by Nature
and Union, as He saith, * The Father Who
dwelleth in Me doeth the works; in each one
of the bodies and souls of the Saints by His
Spirit ^, in the Blessed, in glory ; in the
Heavens, by the more evident appearance of
Plis Majesty and the workings of His Power ;
"^everywhere by Essence, Presence, and
Power, for in Him we live, and move, and have
our being ; nowhere as confined or inclosed."
Since then God is in Heaven, beholding the
deeds of men, Himself Unchangeable, Al
mighty, All-holy, let edl the earth keep silence
before Him, lit. hush before Him all the earth,
waiting from Him in hushed stillness the
issue of this tangled state of being. And to
the hushed soul, hushed to itself and its own
thoughts, hushed in awe of His Majesty and
His Presence, before His face, God speaks '-
III. 1. A prayer^ of H'lbakkuk. The prayer
of the prophet, in the strictest sense of the
word, is contained in the words of verse 2.
The rest is, in its form, praise and thanks
giving, chiefly for God's past mercies in the
deliverance from Egypt and the entering
into the promised land. But thanksgiving
is an essential part of prayer, and Plannah
is said to h.ave prayed, whereas the hj'mn
which followed is throughout one thanksgiv
ing'. In that also these former deliver
ances were images of things to come, of every
deliverance afterward, and, especially, of that
1 Ps. xviii. 6. 9. 2 Ib. xxix. 9.
0 S. Jer. 4 S. Johu xiv. 10.
6 1 Cor. vi. 19. 0 Dion.
1 See S. Augustine's words to his mother before
her death, Conf ix. 10.
8 Tophilloth is a title of the collection of David's
Psalms ending with Ps. Ixxii. (Ib. ver. 20.) Three of
David's Psalms are entitled Tephillah, Ps. xvii.
Ixxxvi. cxlii. Moses' Psalm xc, aud anonymous cii.
'¦"bSannUSam. ii. 1. loiCor. X. 11.
11 S. Cyr. 12 Ps. vii.
10 on Neginotb, Ps. iv. vi. Iv. Nehiloth, Ps. v.
Gittith, Ps. viii. Shoshannim, Ps. xiv. Mahalath,
Ps. Iiii.

^ PRAYER of Habak- cnfTsT
kuk the prophet ' 1 1 up- — 2Hii?5: —
a Pg_ 7 title
on Shigionoth. | Or, according
' '' i, ox, tunes, called in Hebrew, Shigionoth.

complete Divine deliverance which our Lord
Jesus Christ wrought for us from the power
of Satan "'j the whole is one prayer. " Do, 0
Lord, as Thou hast done of old ; forsake not
Thine own works. Such were Thy deeds
once ; fulfill them now, all which they
shadowed forth." It is then a prayer for the
manifestation of God's power, and therewith
the destruction of His enemies, thenceforth
to the Day of Judgment. ""Plaving com
pleted the discourse about Babylon, and hav
ing fore-announced most clearly, that those
wdio destroyed the holy city and carried
Israel captive shall be severely punished, he
passes suitably to the mystery of Christ, and
frora the redemption which took place par
tially ill one nation, he carries on the dis
course to that universal redemption, whereby
the remnant of Israel, and no less the whole
world has been saved."
Upon Shigionoth. The title, Shiggaion,
occurs but once besides '''. Upon, in the titles
of the Psalms, is used wdth the instrument '^,
the melody ", or the first words of the hymn,
whose melody has been adopted '". The two
first are mentioned by a Jewish Commenta
tor '^ with others, " in his delight," or " his
errors," in the sense, that God will forgive
them. This, which the versions and Jewish
commentators mostly adopt, would be a good
sense, but is hardly consistent with the
Plebrew usage. Shiggaion of David, as a title
of a Psalm, must necessarily describe the
Psalm itself, as Midsmor of David, Michlam of
David, Tephillah of David, Masehil of David.
But Shiggaion, as a "great error," is not a
title : nor does it suit the character of the
Psalm, which relates to calumny not to error.
It probably, then, means a psalm with music
expressive of strong emotion, "erratic" or
" dithyrambic." Habakkuk's title, on Shigion
oth [plur.] then would mean upon, or (as we
should say,) " set to " music of psalms of this
sort "- The number " three " remarkably
predominates in this psalm '^, yet so that
long measures are succeeded by very short.
"on Sheminith, Ps. vi. Alamoth Ps. xlvi.
10 Perhaps "upon Muthlabben," Ps. ix. "on
Aiieleth Shahar," Ps. xxii. "on Yonath-elem-
rekokim," Ps. Ivi. lo E. Tanehum.
-1 Since T\2,^ " erred " is common to Hebrew and
Aramaic, itis improbable that ',VyO should be i. q.
Syr. NiTJlD a " hymn of praise," frora ''JD, beside
that the Heb. t^ does not interchange with Syr. 0.
10 Ver. 6 has 16 words, in five corabination.s. of
three words; vv. 3 and 10 have 12 words, iu four 3s:
VV. 4, 9, 19. have .9 words iu three 3s : vv. 6, 12, 15
and 18 have 0 words in two 3s : ver. 17 is divided into
433433; ver. 8 is 33332; ver. 11 is 433; ver. 16 ia

CHAPTEE III.

205

chrTst 2 O Lord, I have heard
cir. 6-26. -j- thy speech, and was
f Heb, thy report, or, thy hearing.

2. 0 Lord, I have heard i. e. with the in
ward ear of the heart, Thy speech, (rather as
E. M. Thy report, i. e. the report of Thee ')
i. e. what may lie heard and known of God,
or, what he had himself heard ^. The word
contains in one both that which God had
lately declared to the Prophet, the judg
ments of God upon the wicked of the people,
and upon those who, with their own inj nstice,
wrought on them the righteous judgments of
God, and that the work of the Lord would be
wrought in His time for those who in patience
wait for it ; and also still more largely,
what might be heard of God, although, as it
were, but a little whisper of Plis greatness
and of the Majesty of His workings.
And was afraid, not " fearful " but afraid, in
awe, as a creature, and amazed at the sur
passing wonderfulness of the work of God.
Well may man stand in awe " ' at the Incar
nation of the Only Begotten Son, how earth
should contain Him uncontained by space,
how a Body was prepared for Him of the
Virgin by the Holy Ghost, and all the works
whereby He shall work the salvation of man
kind, the Cross, the Death, Eesurrection and
Ascension, uniting things opposite, a Body
with One incorporeal. Death with Life,
Eesurrection with Death, a Body in Heaven.
All is full of wonder and awe." " •* This is
not a servile fear, but a, holy fear which
endureth forever, not one which love casteth
out, but which it bringeth in, wherein angels
praise, dominions adore, powers stand in awe
at the Majesty of the Eternal God."
0 Lord, revive Thy work. God's Word
seems, often, as it were, dead and come utterly
to an end for evermore '', while it is holding
on its own course, as all nature seems dead
for a while, but all is laid up in store, and
ready to shoot forth, as by a sort of resurrec
tion. " * The Prophet prophesying prayeth,
that it should come quickly, and praying
prophesieth that it shall so come." All God's
dealings with His people, His Church, each
single soul, are part of one great work,
perfect in itself; glory and majesty'; all
3332223., This forces itself on every reader. Del.
quotes the Meor. Enaira, i. 60, ".The prayer of
Habakkuk goeth on threes.','
1 Except in the one phrase HX J^DU? "hearing
of ear" (Job xiii. 5. Ps. xviii. 45.) the personal gen.
after ;,»DE!; is that of the object, "the report of
Jacob," Gen. xxix. 13. "of Solomon," 1 Kgs x. 1- 2
Chron. ix. 1. " of Tyre," Is. xxiii. 6 with the affix
^Jj'nty the report of thee, Nu. xiv. 15, De. ii. 26- Nah.
iii. 19. nj^DE' the report of her [wisdom] Job xxviii.

afraid: O Lord, | I" revive
thy work in the midst.
Ij Or, preserve alive.

Before
CHRIST cir. 620.
1> Ps. 86. 6.

which the godly meditateth on ° ; which
those busied with their own plans, do not
look to " ; it is manifested in great doings for
them or with them, as in the Exodus the
Psalmist says, '^ We have heard with our ears,
yea, our fathers have told us what work Thou
didst in their days, in the times of old; " They
proved Me and saw My work ; with it He
raakes His own glad '^ ; after it has been with
drawn for a while, He sheweth it to His ser
vants '^ ; it issues in judgments on the ungodly,
which men consider and declare ^*.
The great work of God on earth, which
includes all Plis works and is the end of all,
is the salvation of man through Jesus Christ.
This great work seemed, as it were, asleep,
or dead, as trees in winter, all through those
4000 years, which gave no token of liis Com
ing. Included in this great work is the
special work of the Hand of God, of which
alone it is said, Ood said. Let Us make man in
Our Image after Our Likeness '^ ; and, we are
the clay and Thou our Potter, and we are all
the work of Thy Hands '^ ; and Thy Hands have
made me and fashioned me together round about ''',
— man ; whom, being dead as to the life of
the soul through the malice of Satan, Christ
revived by dying and rising again. He was
dead in trespasses and sins, and like a carcase
putrefying in them, and this whole world
one great charnel-house, through man's mani
fold corruptions, when Christ came to awaken
the dead, and they who heard lived '*.
Again, the Centre of this work, the special
Work of God, that wherein Pie made all
things new, is the Pluman Body of our Lord,
the 'Pemple which was destroyed by Death,
and within three days raised up.
The answer to Habakkuk's enquiry, How
long ? had two sides. It had given assurance
as to the end. The trial-time would not be
prolonged for one moment longer than the
counsel of God had foredetermined. The
relief would come, come ; it would not be behind
hand. But meantime? There was no com
fort to be given. For God knew that deepen
ing sin was drawing on deepening chastise-
22. ''Jf nE? the report of Me [God], Is. Ixvi. 19. DJ^D©
the report of them, Jer. xxxvii. 6. 1. 43.
2 as nj'inJ!' Ob. 1, and thence Jer. xlix. 14. See
on Hosea vii. 12. » Theoph. from S. Cyr.
¦iRup. 6 Ps. Ixxvii. 8.
0 De xxxii. 4. '' Ps. cxl. 3.
« Ib. Ixxvii. 3. cxliii. 36. " Is. v. 12.
10 Ps. xliv. 2. rhi}3 h}>b. " P3- ^ov. 9.
12 Ib. xcii. 3. '" lb. xc. 6.
"Ib. Ixiv. 10. In all these cases sing. '7;;iJ.
16 Gen. i. 26. " Is- Ixiv- 8.
17 Job X. 8. IS ,S. Johu v. 25.

206

HABAKKUK.

Before „f fl|p
TT T> r a m Oi Lllc

CHRIST "^ ""- years, in the
cir. 626. rnidst of the years make

ment. But in that He was silent as to the
intervening time and pointed to patient
expectation of a lingering future, as their
only comfort, He implies that the immediate
future was heavy. Habakkuk then renews his
prayer for the years which had to intervene
and to pass away. In tlie midst of the years,
before that time appointed ', when His promise
should have its full fulfillment, before those
years should come to their close, he prays ;
revive Thy work. The years include all the
long period of waiting for our Lord's first Com
ing before Pie came in the Flesh ; and now
for His second Coming and the restitution of
all things. In this long period, at times God
seems to be absent, as \vhen our Lord was
asleep in the boat, while the tempest was
raging ; at times He bids the storm io cease and
there is a great calm. This, in those long
intervals, when God seems to be absent, and
to leave all things to time and chance, and
love waxes cold, and graces seem rare, is the
prayer of Habakkuk, of Prophets and Psalm
ists, of the Church, ''Return, we beseech Tliee,
0 Ood of hosts, look doum from heaven, behold
a'nd visit this vine. ' 0 God, why hast Thou cast
us off for ever ? Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand.
Thy right hand ? For God is my king of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
* Awake, awake, put on strength. Thou Arm of
ihe Lord ; awake, as in the ancient days, in tlie
generations ofold. Art thou not It which did
smite Railed), didst wound the dragon? Art
thou not It which didst dry the sea, the waters of
the great deep, which didst make the depths of the
s'ea a way for the ransomed to pass over ? ^Stir
up Thy might and come, save us. ^ Renew our
days, as of old. So our Lord taught His
Church to pray continually, whenever she
prayed, Thy kingdom come, longing not for
His final Coming only, but for the increase
of His glory, and the greater dominion of
His grace, and His enthronement in the
hearts of men, even before its complete and
final Coming. In the midst of the years revive
Thy work, is the Church's continual cry.
In ihe midst of the years make known, lit.
Thou wilt make known : in wrath Thou wilt
remember mercy ; and so (as we use the word
wilt) the Prophet, at once, foretelleth, expres
seth his faith, prayeth. God had made
known His work and Plis power in the days
of old. In times of trouble He seems Uke a
Ood who hideth Hi'mself. Now, he prays Him
to shine forth and help ; make knoum Thy
work, befbre Thou fulfill it, to revive the

3 lb. Ixxiv. 1, 11, 12.
4 Is. li. 9, 10.
0 Lam. V. 21.

2 Ps. Ixxx. 14.

oPs. Ixxx. 3.
' Dan. ix. 24.

known; in wrath remem- chrTst
ber mercy.

cir. 626.

drooping hopes of man, and that all may see
that Thy word is truth. Make Thyself known
in Thy work, that, when the time cometh to
' make an end of sin by the Death of Thy Son,
Thy Awful Holiness, and the love wherewith
Thou hast "so loved the world, may be the
more known and adored.
In wrath Thou wilt remember 'mercy. So
David prayed, ^Remember Thy tender-mercies
and Thy loving-kindnesses ; for they are from
old. Thou wilt remember that counsel for
man's redemption which has been from the
foundation of the world : for we seem in our
own minds to be forgotten of God, when He
delayeth to help us. God reraenibereth
mercy'" in anger, in that in this life He
never chastens without purposes of mercy,
and His Mercy ever softeneth His judgments.
His Promise of raercy, that the Seed of the
woraan shall bruise the serpent's head, went
before the sentence of displeasm'e, " Dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return. " ''' He
reveals Plis wrath that He may scare us from
sin and so may not inflict it ; " and when at
last He inflicteth it, He hath mercy on the
remnant who flee to Plis Mercy, that we be
not like Sodora and Gomorrah. ''' While we
were yet sinners, and God was wroth, Christ
died for us, and '^ He saved us, not for works
which we had done, but out of His great Mercy,
and took away sin, and restored us to life and
incorruption. God had already promised by Micah,
'" According to the days cf ihy coming oui of the
land of Egypt, I uill shmv him marvelous tilings.
Isaiah had often used the great events of that
deliverance as the symbols of the future. So
now Habakkuk, in one vast panorama, as it
were, without distinction of time or series of
events, exhibits the future in pictures of the
past. In the description itself which follows,
he now sjieaks in the past, now in the future ;
of which times the future might be a vivid
present ; and the past a prophetic past. As
a key to the whole, he says, Ood shall come,
indicating that all which follows, however
spoken, was a part of that future. In no
otlier way was it an answer to that prayer,
Revive Thy work. To foretell future deliver
ances in plain words, had been a comfort; it
would have promised a continuance of that
work. The unity and revival of the work is
expressed, in that the past is made, as it
was, the image of the future. That future
was to be wondrous, superhuman ; else the
past miracles had been no image of it. It was

«S. John iii. 16.
10 S. Lukei. 54, 72.
i=S. Jer.
" Tit. iii. 6.

0 Ps. xxv. 6.
11 Gen. iii. 19.
10 Rom. V 8.
10 Mic vii. 15.

CHAPTEE IIL

207

3 God came from 1 1 Te-

Before
f TT Ri T S T
cir. 626. man, "and the Holy One
I Or, the south. "Deut. 33. 2. Judg. 5. 4. Ps. 68- 7.

to be no mere repetition of the future ; and to
mark this, the images are exhibited out of
their historical order.
3. Ood came (lit. shall come) from Teman.
Ood shall come, as He came of old, clothed
with majesty and power ; but it was not mere
power. The centre of the whole picture is,
as Micah and Isaiah had prophesied that it
was to be, a new revelation ; ' The law shall ego
forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. ''I will give Tliee for a covenant to
the people [Israel], /or a light of the Gentiles.
So now, speaking of the new work in store,
Plabakkulc renews the imagery in the Song
of Moses ', iu Deborah's Song *, and in David ° ;
but there the manifestation of His glory is
spoken of wholly in time past, and Mount
Sinai is named. Habakkuk spe_aks of that
coming as yet to be, and omits the express
mention of Mount Sinai, 'wdiicli was the
emblem of the law ''. And so he directs us
to another Lawgiver, AVliom God should
rotse up like unto Moses, yet with a law
1 Is. ii. 3. Mic iv. 2. - Is. xliv. 6.
0 Deut. s-Kxiii. 2.
*Jud. V. 6. 0 Pg, Ixviii. 7.
0 S. Cyr- ' Deut. xxxiii. 2.
on*!! is used in prose too, of the rising sun
(with lyoiyn) Gen. xxxii. 32, Ex. xxii. 3, Jud. ix.
33, 2 Sam. xxiii. 4, 2 Kgs iii. 22, Jon. iv. 8.
0 t?''3in is used of the light of the sun Job iii. 4,
X. 22 ; of the manifestation of God apart from any
physical emblem Ps. 1. 2, Ixxx. 2, xciv. 1 ; and of
God, favoring the counsel of the wicked, .iob x. 3-
10 Mount Paran is only mentioned in De uteronoray
and Habakkuk, and was probably taken by Habak
kuk from Moses, who hiraself knew it. The wilder
ness of Paran must have lain W. or S. of the wilder
ness of Zin, which forraed the Southern border of
Judah (Nu. xiii. 21. Josh. xv. 1.). The history of
Ishmael implies that part of it lay toward Egypt
(Gen. xii. 21.) ; that of Hadad the Edomite, shews
that it lay between Jlidian and Egypt (1 Kgs xi.
18); but there being, (as far as it is ascertained), no
natural boundary between it and the wilderness of
Zin, the name Paran is apparently used in a wider
sense as comprehending the desert of Zin, whence
Kadesh is placed both in Paran (Nu. xiii- 26.) and
more commonly in Zin (Nu. xx. 1, xxvii. 14, xxxiii.
30, 37, xxxiv. 4, Josh. XV. 3.), and the wilderness near
it is also called the wilderness of Kadesh (Ps. xxix.
8.). The name of the wilderness of Zin does not occur
after Joshua ; and that of Paran may have extended
over the whole desert cretaceous plateau up to the
borders of Edora, now called Badiet-et-Tih, the
"wilderness of the wanderings," whose Western
extremity lies North of the crescent-shaped Jebel-
et-Tih, which separates it from the lower part of the
peninsula. (See Map in Sinaitic survey.) Hence
Nabal is related to have fed his flocks in Paran (1
Sam. xxv. 5.) and Eilparan "the terebinth of
Paran," (Gen. xiv. 0.) by the wilderness, the bound oi
the inroad of Chedorlaomer, raay have had its name
from the wilderness. Mount Paran might be any
where connected with this wilderness on the West-
" Mount Serbal is perhaps the most striking moun
tain in the peninsula; it rises abruptly to a height
of raore than 4000 feet above the valleys at its base,
and its summit, a sharp ridge about three miles

from mount Paran
His glory covered the

Selah Before
cir. 626.

of life, and tells how He Who spake the
law, God, shall oome in likeness of our flesh.
And the Holy One from Mount Paran. In
the earliest passage three places are men
tioned, in which or from which the glory of
God was manifested ; with this difference
however, that it is said, ' The Lord camefrom
Sinai, but His glory arose, as we should say
dawned'^ unto them from Seir, and flashed
forth " from Mount Paran '". Seir and Mount
Paran are joined together by the symbol of
the light which dawned or shone forth from
them. In the second passage, the Song of
Deborah, Seir and the fleld of Edam are the
place whence God came forth ; Sina i melted "
at Plis presence. In the 68th Psalm the
mention of Edom is dropped ; and the march
through the wilderness under the leading of
God, is alone raentioned, together with the
shaking of Sinai. In Habakkuk, the contrast
is the sarae as in Moses ; only Teman stands
in place of Seir '''. Teman and Mount Paran
are named probably, as the two opposed
long, is broken iuto a series of peaks varying little
in altitude, but rivaling each other in the beauty
and grandeur of their outline. It is three miles
from Wady Feiran ; " "in one or two points from
which its highest peak is visible." Ordnance
Survey of Peninsula of Sinai pp. 143, 144. " When
seen from a distance Serbal presents a boldness of
outline and an appearance of massive isolation
wliich entitled it to rank as one of the grandest
and most distinctive features of the peninsula."
(Palmer's desert of the Exodus p. 169.) What is
now called Jebel Feiran is too low to be taken into
account. It is but an eminence, rising on one side
810 feet above the Wady Feiran ; on the other side,
"796 feet, and above the sea 2800; so that in the sarae
neigfiborhood Mount Serbal is above twice its
height, 6443 feet above the sea at its highest peak.
(Sinaitic Survey, Mount Serbal, sectiuns.) This
mountain has this advantage, that it is connected
with Wady Feiran or Paran, through which Bloses
led Israel to Mount Sinai. The name is remark
able, as having been given by Israel, since it has a
Hebrew etj'mology, " the beautiful '' or " the leafy,"
and all travelers praise the richness of the valley,
even araid the decfiy of fertility consequent on
neglect. It has no Arabic etymology. (See Palraer,
1. c. p. 20.) S. Jerome says, from his Hebrew teacher
apparently, " Pharan is a place near to Mount
Smai." ad loc
The striking mountain of Edora had its own
name Hor, which in the eleven places in which it
is named in the Pentateuch is always called
inn in "Hor, the mountain." Nu. .xx. 2'2, 23,2.6,
27. xxi. 4. xxxii. 37, 38, 41. xxxiv. 7, 8. De. xxxii.
19. Prof. Palmer having shewn Ain Gadis to be
Kadesh (1. c c iv. p. 373. sqq.) says, " To one en
camped m the wilderness of Kadesh, i. e. iu the
open plain into which Wady Gadis debouches, -Jebel
Magrah would be always the most conspicuous
object in the scene." (Ib. p. 510.) This is a plateau,
70 miles long and 40-50 miles broad, "projecting
into the Tib, much as the Tih projects into Sinai."
Ib. p. 288, 9.
11 Jud. V. 4, 5.
12 As it stands connected with Edom, Ob. 9. Jer.
lix. 7, 20, 21. with Dedan also, Jer. xlix. 8, Ezek.
xxv. 13.

208

HABAKKUK.

Before
C H R I ST
cir. 026.

heavens, and the earth

boundaries of the journeyings of Israel
through the desert. They came to Mount
Sinai through the valley, now called Wady
Feiran ' or Paran ; Edom was the bound of
their wanderings to their promised land ^-
God Who guided, fed, protected them from
the beginning, led them to the end. Between
Poraaalso and Edom or Teman was the gift of
the Spirit to the seventy, which was the
shadow of the day of Pentecost ; there, was
the brazen serpent lifted up, the picture
of the healing of the Cross ". If Mount
Paran be near Kadesh, then Moses in the
opening of his song describes the glory of
God as manifested f'rom that first revelation
of His law on Mount Sinai ; then in that
long period of Israel's waiting there to its
final departure for the promised land, when
Mount Hor was consecrated and God's
awful Holiness declared in the death of
Aaron. He Who shall come, is God*, the Holy
One (a proper Name of God°). Perfect in
Holiness, as God, the Son of God, and as
Man also all-holy, with a human will, al
ways exactly accompanying the Divine Will,
which was " the passion of His Heart
Those Three-and-thirty years."
On this there follows a pause denoted hy
Selah ", (which occurs thrice according to
the mystery of that number,) that the soul
may dwell on the greatness of the majesty
and mercy of God.
Selah. There is no doubt as to the general
purport of the word, that it is a musical di
rection, that there should be a 'pause, the
music probably continuing alone, while the
mind rested on the thought, which had just

1 Sinaitic Survey c. 5. 149-155.
8 Nu. XX. 14^21). Deut. ii.

sRib.

*The sing. n)7i< occurs 41 times in the book of
Job ; else only 10 times in all the 0. T., aud 8 times
only of the true God, (twice in Moses' song
Deut. xxxii. 16, 17; in a Psalm of David, Ps.
cxxxix. 19, of Asaph, 1. 22, Anon. Ps. cxiv. 7 ; in
Proverbs xxx. 5, here, and in Nehemiali's prayer,
(in which there are so many reminiscences from
tho Pentateuch. See in " Daniel the Prophet" pp.
356,357.) Else it is used of the Godhead ( If Ao is
Qod except, &e, in David Ps. xviii. 32, is there any
God besides Mc? Is. xliv. 8) ; "any God" including
the true God Dan. xi. 3. And five times it is used
of a false god; in Hab. i. 11; three times in Dan.
xi. 38, ;i9 ; and by Sennacherib 2 Chr. xxxii. 15.
Tliere is then no basis of induction as to its occur
ring in later Hebrew and poetic books ; since its use
is mostly a peculiarity of the book of Job, the other
10 cases are sporadic and in no one sense.
0 "Whence in the Hebrew, though the subject, it
has no article, as in Is. xl. 26, and Job vi. 11.
0 It occurs here only besides the Psalms. It
oocurs thrice in Ps. iii. xxxii. Ixvi. Ixviii.
' SiiifrnK/jia, in Lxx. Theod. Symm. Syr.
0 In Ps. Iv. 20. Ivii. 4. Hab. iii. 3, 9, alone, it is not

was full of his praise.

Before
CHRIST cir. 026.

been presented to it ; our " interlude '." It
is always placed at some pause of thought,
even when not at the end of a strophe, or, as
twice in this hymn *, at the end of the verse.
S. Gregory of Nyssa modifies this thought,
supposing "Selah" to express a pause made
bythe writer, that "'vidiile the psalmody,
with which David's prophesying was accom
panied, went on in its course, another illu
mining of the Ploly Spirit, and an addition
to the gift accoi'ding to knowledge, came for
the benefit of those who received the pro
phecy, he, holding in his verse, gave time
for his mind to receive the knowledge of the
thought, which took place in him from the
Divine illumining. He defines it to be " a
sudden silence in the midst of the Psalmody
for the reception of the illumining."
His Glory covered the heavens, and the earth
was full of His praise. This is plainly no
created glory, but anticipates the Angelic
Hymn, '" Glory to Ood in the highest, and on
earth peace, good-will toward men, or, as the
Seraphim sing first, glory to God in IPeaven,
" Holy Holy Lloly is the Lord Ood of Sabaoth,
and then, the whole earth is full of His glory ;
and Uncreated Wisdom saith, '^ I alone com
passed the circuit of Heaven, and walked in the
bottom of the deep. Nor are they our material
heavens, much less this lowest heaven over
our earth, nor is His glory any lightning at
Mount Sinai, but the boundless Ma,jesty'^of
God, which rules, encompasses, fills, pene
trates the orbs of heaven and all its inhabit
ants, and yet is not enclosed nor bounded
thereby. Those who are made as the
heavens by the indwelling of God He spirit
ually covers, filling "¦ them with the light of
glory and splendor of grace and brightness of
at the end of the verse. Eight Psalms only, out of
39 Psalms which have it, have not the title " For
the chief musicitm," Ps- 32, 48, 56, 82, 83, 87, 89, 143.
6 of these are linjD; 2, S'Dtyn (32 and 89), one
without any inscription (48). The most protoble
etymology seeras to be 'nho,='lbo' and so our
" alto ; " whether the n be added to 7p or it be an
imperative with paragogic n like n.VtyS Ps. cxix.
117, n^^nii'J Is. xll. 23, although there is no extant
instance of this imperative. There is equally no
instance of the forra frora SSd (as Ewald Ps. i. 179,
Lehrb. g 216. c. p. 614) since nnj 1 Kgs ii. 40, is only
a Var. Read, for the received nn^ which is borne
out by nnj Jos. xix. 13.
0 Tract 2 in Ps. Inscr. *c. T. i. p. 329-
10 S. Luke ii. 14. n Is. vi. 3. 12 Ecclus. xxiv- 5.
10 lin is used of the Divine Majesty Job xxxvii.
22. Ps. viii. 2. XX. 30. with nn Ps. xcvi. 6, (1 Chr.
xvi. 27,) civ. 1, cxi. 3, cxlv. 5, cxiviii. 11 ; ironically
to man, as impossible for him, Job xl. 10. It is used
as imparted to the Messiaii Ps. xxi. 6, or being in
Him, Ps. xiv. 4. "Dion.

CHAPTEE III.

209

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

4 And his brightness

wisdom, as it saith, Is tliere any number of His
armies, and upon whom doth not His light
arise ' ? and so ihe earth was full of His praise,
i. e. the Church militant spread throughout
the world, as in the Psalm, ^ The Lord's
name is praised from the rising up of tlie sun
unto tlie going down of tlie same, and, ^ 0 Lord,
our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the
earth, Who hast set Thy glory above the
heavens. 4. And His Brightness, that wherein God
dwelleth, *the brightness of the Lord's glory,
before which darkness fleeth'', was as the
light, or as the sun. Out of the midst of the
darkness, wherewith God, as it were, " hid
Himself, the Brightness of the inapproachable
Light wherein He dwelleth, gleams forth ',
bright as the brightest light gathered into one,
which man knows of and whereon he cannot
gaze. So amid the darkness of the humilia
tion of Plis Presence in the flesh, ^ we beheld
His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of
the Father; and ^ the people that walked in dark
ness see a great light, "not dim^" nor weak,
nor shadowed, like that of Moses, but pure
unimaginable light of theknowledge of God."
The Brightness too of His Flesh was like
the light of the Godhead on Mount Tabor ;
for the Godhead flashed through. " " As
often as He did His marvelous works, He
put forth His Brightness (tempered for His
creatures, since they could not approach the
depth of His Hght, yet) as light to enlighten
men to know Him. Yet the Brightness
issues from the Light, co-existing with it,
and in it, while issuing from it. And so the
words aptly express, how He Who is the
1 Job xxv. 3. 2 Ps. cxii. 3. ' Ib. viii. 1.
4 Ezek. X. 4. oPs. xviii. 12.
0 Ex. xix. 9, 16. XX. 21. ' Ib. xxiv. 10.
as. Johni. 14. "Is. ix-2. lo Theoph.
11 Rup. 12 Heb. i. 3. " Wisd. vii. 26.
w Nicene Creed. i* S. John i. 9.
10 lb. xvii. 6. " S. Jer. Dion.
18 pp Bx. xxxiv. 29. 30. 36. whioh is compared by
Kim. Rashi, A. E. Abulw. Abarb. Tanch. Abendana.
This is illustrated further by the use of " horns" as
a hieroglyphic for the sun, Champollidn Grammar
p. 359. m Ges. and XHJIp "horns" of the sun,
Buxt. (not in Levy). The title of Ps. xxii. 7j^
iniyn n^^X "according to the hind of the morn
ing," may bear upon it, since Kintyi XJITX in
the Jerus. Talm. (originally quoted by Lightfoot,
Horre Hebr. on S. Mark xvi. 2) is used of the first
rays of light, which usher in the dawn, the rays
appearing solid like horns. In Arab, too JlSsiJ? is
a narae of the sun, though Arab, authorities differ
about its use, and Snibs flbsij; is the "sun at
the time called NHif," some part of the clear day.
And Hariri uses "the hom of the gazelle"
fl'?S?j>'7K j'^p. (as explained by De Saoy) of those
14 '

was as the light ; he had

Before
CH RIST
cir. 626.

^^ Brightness of tlie Father's Glory and ihe ex
press Image of His Person, the "^ Brightness of
ilie Eternal Light, the unspotted mirror of the
Power of Ood, and the Image of His Goodness,
is as the Light from Whom He is, " " Light
of Light," Equal to the Father by Whom
He was Begotten ; as S. John says, '^ That was
the true Light, which lighteneth every man that
cometh into the world. As He prayeth, '^ Glo
rify Thou Me unth Thine Own Self with the
Olo'cy Which I had wiih Tliee before ihe world
was. He had horns coming out of His Hand.
" " Horns are everywhere in Holy Scripture
the emblem of strength." It may be, that
here "rays" are likened to horns, as theface
of Moses is said, with the sarae image, to
have " sent forth rays '* " after he had long
been in the presence of God. So it may
be a mingled image of the Glory and
might ; Light, which was also might. But
" horns," though they may be a symbol of
"light," are not of "lightning;" and the
Hand of God is used as an emblem of His
Power, His protection, His bounty. His
constraining force ou His prophets. It is
nowhere used of the side or sides''. We
have two images combined here ; " horns "
which in every other place in which they
are used as a metaphor, is an emblem of
power ; and " from the hand of" which,
wherever it is used of a person, means that
the thing spoken of had been in his hand or
power really or virtually ^''. Both then com
bine in the meaning that the might came
forth from the directing agency of God Who
wielded it.
same first rays. But Kim. gives as the meanings
of .Uir\ .fc< hind (literally) or day-star, or sunrise.
10 As even Del. and Keil. T* is used of the side
of the river Ex. ii. 6, and with the prepositions
'7. ha, 1]!, 1>'3 (See Ges.) but with |D, once only
from the side of the country Nu. xxiv. 4; on which,
see note 20. end-
20 TD occurs in the 0- T. with the gen. of the
noun or pronoun, 197 times ; in the plural 5 times.
Of these, the greatest number are with verbs of
delivering, Vsn, 71; JJ^WIT^, 18; redeem, ni3, 3,
Sxj, 3; brought forth, K''Xin, 1; rescued, p1£), 1;
guard, IDty, 2; escape, ahr>, 9, tjSs, 1 ; fiee, ni3,l;
T\pl,took by force, 11; took, received, 22; took un-
aicaresfrom, 7IJ, 2; receive and offer, 3''1pn, 1; con
secrate from, tyipn, 1; sprinkled (blood), niT 2;
bought, TMp, 1 ', accept, n3f1,2; give, |nj,l; collect,
r|DX, 1; eat from, SjX 1; ni3, 2; drank, nrWS 1;
seek, l^p2, 7 ; require of, tyn, 5 ; judged and avenged,
t03t!', 3; avenged, DpJ, 1; rend, Jflp, 3; eausetofall
from, 7^£jn, 2; strike from, T^D7^, 2; cut off from^.

210

HABAKKUK.

chrTst ll^iorns coming out of
cir. 626. "hia hand: and there
I Or, bright beams out of his side.

When then did light or might, which lay,
as it were, before in the Hand of God, go
forth from it ? For the Hand of God is
always symbolic of His might, whether put
forth, or for the time laid up in it. The form
of the words remarkably corresponds to those
of Moses, in the preface to the blessing on
the tribes, which Habakkuk had in mind,
' From His right hand was a fiery law for them,
and S. Paul says that the glory of Moses' face
which he received from the Presence of God,
was a symbol of the glory of the law. ^ The
ministration of death written and engraven on
stone was glorious, so thai the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
ihe glory of his countenance. The law, being
fiven by God, had a majesty of its own. The
'salnis bear witness to its pbwer in convert
ing, eiiwisening, rejoicing, enlightening the
soul ^. They in whose heart it was, none of
their steps slided ''. The whole 119th Psalm
is one varied testimony of its greatness and
its power. It was a guide ou the way ; it was
a schoolmaster unto Christ ^, by Whom it was
fulfilled. But itself bare witness of the
greater glory which should corae forth from
the Hand of God. * If that whieh is done away
were glorious, much more that whieh remaineth
is glorious. " ' The horn signifieth power,
when it is spoken of God the Father exhib
iting to us God the Son : "* He hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us, and again, "JEs horn
shall be exalted in honor. For all things which
were marvelously done were glorious. The
Only-Begotten came then in our form, and,
in regard to the Flesh and the Manhood, en
during the appearance of our weakness, but,
as God, invisible in might and easily subdu
ing whom He willed."
And what has been the weapon of His war
fare, whereby He has subdued the might of
Satan and the hearts of men, but the horns of
His Cross, whereto His Sacred Hands were
once fastened by the sharp nails, where was
the hiding of His Power, when His Almighti
ness lay hid in His Passion '", flnd He was
'¦'a worm and no man; a reproach of men and
the despised of the people? Now it is the

nn^n, 1; 1IJJ, 1; east.

iW;

reproach from,
'nain; bywnting from, ^r\22, 1; letters from,
m JX, 1 ; officers appointed by DTp3, 1. strengthened
from the hands of God, 1. The verb was, n'n, is ex
pressed once ; it lies in the sentence thrice ; once
only it means from the side of a country, Nu. xxiv.
4. in whict) there can be no ambiguity.
1 Deut. xxxiii. 2. 22 Cor. iii. 7. 0 Ps. xix 8
4 Ib. xxxvii. 31. OGal. iii. 24. 0 2Cor. iii. 11
' S. Cyr. a S. Luke ii. 09. ¦" Ps. cxi. 9
10 Is. Iiii. 3. n Ps. xxii. 6. 12 13. ix. 6
13 S. John xii. 32.
14 Ps. ex. 2. " The words. Horns are in His Hands,

¦was the hiding of his chrTIt
power. c^''- g^6-

Sceptre laid upon His Shoulder'^, the en
sign and trophy of His rule, the Eod of His
Strength ", terrible to devils, salvation to
man. In it lay His might, although con
cealed, as He said, "J, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto Me. His
, Might was lodged there, although hidden.
It was the hiding-place of His power. The
Cross was '^ to tlie Jews a stumbling-block, and
unto the Greeks foolish'ness ; but unio them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ Cruci
fied, was the Power of Ood and the Wisdom of
God. Through the Cross -^as'^ all power
given lo Him both in Heaven and earth.
''' There was given Him dominion and glory and
u, kingdom, that all people, nations, and lan
guages should serve liim. From Him shall
go forth all power in earth ; by His Hands
shall be given the vacant thrones in Heaven,
as He saith, ''^ To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit wiih Me in My Throne, even as I also
overcame and am set down with My Fallier in
His Throne. There too was the hiding of His
Power, in that there, in His Cros,s, is our
shelter ^", and in His pierced Side our hiding-
place, where we may take refuge from Satan
and our sins ; for therein is Power. ^"Neither
shall any pluck them out of My Hand. Light
and darkness ever meet in God. His inap
proachable light is darkness to eyes which
would gaze on it. "" He covereth Himself with
Light as with a garment. His light is the very
veil which hideth Hira. Plis Light is dark
ness to those who pry into Him and His
Nature ; His darkness is light to those who
by faith behold Him. He emptied Himself
^^ and hid Himself ; He hid the power of His
Godhead in the weakness of the Manhood,
and so ^^ He ^Vho commanded tlie light to shi'ne
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, io
give the light of the knowledge of ihe glory of God,
in the Face of^ Jesus Christ. " ''^ In the Cross
was for a while His might hidden, when He
said to His Father, ^* My soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death, and. Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from Me, and on the
Cross itself, ^^ Father, into Thy Hands I com
mend My Spirit."
shew the insignia of His kingdom, by which horns,
pushing and thrusting the invisible and opposing
powers, He drove them away." Euseb. Dem. Evang.
vi. 15. Add S. Cyprian Test, ad Quirin. ii. 21. p. 57.
Oxf Tr. "The horns in His Hands, what are they,
but the trophy of the Cross?" S. Aug. de Civ. Del
xviii. .32. 10 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. lo S. Matt, xxviii. 18.
" Dan. vii. 14. is Rev. iii. 21.
19 As in the proper naraes, Ezr. ii. 61. Habaiah
" whom God hideth i. c, protecteth ;" Yehubbah
"hidden, protected." 1 Chron. vii. 34. Comp. Is.
xxvi. 20. 20 s. John x. 28- 21 ps. civ. 3.
22 Phil. ii. 8. 23 2 Cor. iv. 6. 2* S. Jer.
25 S. Matt. xxvi. 38, 39. 26 s. Luke xxiii. 13.

CHAPTEE III

211

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
<! Nah. 1. 3.
IJ Or, burning
diseases, Deut. 32. 24.
« Ps. 18. 8.

5 ^ Before him went the
pestilence, and 1 1 " burning
coals went forth at his
feet.

5. Before Him went [goeth] the pestilence;
then to consurae His eneraies. ' I will send
My fear before thee, aiul will destroy all the people,
to whom thou shalt eome, and the lightning's are
a token that ^ they which hate Him, fiee before
Him, and the wicked perish at the Presence of Ood.
So, on His Ascension, Herod and Pilate were
smitten by Him, and Elymas and Simon Magus
before His Apostles, and whatsoever hath
lifted itself up against Him hath perished,
and Antichrist shall perish ' at the breath of
His mouth, and all the ungodly in the Day
of Judgment.
And burning coals (rather, as E. M., burning
fever*) went forth at His Feet, i. e., followed
Him. Messengers of death went as it were
before Him, as the front of His army, and
the rear thereof was other forms of death".
Death and destruction of all sorts are a great
army at His command, going before Him as
heralds of His Coraing, (such as are judg
ments in this world) or attendants upon Him,
at the Judgment when He appeareth "in
His Kingdom, when ' they shall (gather out of
His Kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a fur
nace of flre.
6. He stood^, and measured^ ihe earth.
Joshua, after he had conquered the land,
meted it out and divided it among the people.
He Who should corae, should measure out
the earth in its length and breadth, that
earth which His glory fllleth. He stood, as S.
Stephen saw Him, '"standing at the Right
Hand qf God; and Isaiah saith, ^' Tlie Lord
standeth up io plead, ancl standeth to judge the
people. He had not need to go forth, but, in
the abode of His glory. He stood and beheld
and with His Eye measured the earth, as His
own, whereas, before the Cross, it lay under
'^ the Prince ojf this world, and he had said, '^ it
is delivered unto me, and unto whomsoerer I uill,
I give it. He mea.sureih it, and gave it to His
Apostles, '^All power is given unto Me in lieaven
1 Ex. xxiii. 27. 2 pg. ixviii. 1. 2. ' Ib. xi. 4.
*De. xxxii. 2. (where also it is sing., as only
beside in ntJ^I ':3 Job v. 7.) So A. B. " Burning
coals " is from Kira. Tanch. gives as different
opinions " sparks " or " arrows " or " pestilence ;"
but the raeanings " sparlts, arrows," are ascribed
only to the plur. Ps. Ixxvi. 4. Ixxxviii. 48. Cant. viii.
6. The central meaning is probably "burning
heat." 0 " Before Him is sent the angel of death and His
word goeth forth, a flame of fire." Jon.
0 2 Tim. vi. 1. ' S. Matt. xiii. 61, 42.
Oft is "a metaphor of his giving victory to
Israel." Tanch.
»So Kim. A. E. Bashi. Tanch. Vulg. It is borne

6 He stood and meas
ured the earth : he beheld, _
and drove asunder the na
tions; 'and the ^everlast-

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

'Nah. 1. 5.
e Gen. 49. 26.

and in earth. Oo ye into all tlie world, and
¦preach the Gospel to every creature, and, '^ their
sound is gone out into all land.s, ancl their words
into the ends of the world. He measureth it
also, surveying and weighing all who dwell
therein, their persons, qualities, deeds, good
or bad, to requite them, as Judge of quick and
dead ; as David ca.st down Moab and meas
ured them with a line, '" to put to death andto
keep alive.
He beheld, and drove asunder the nations, or,
made the nations to tremble'''. When Israel
came out of Egypt and God divided the Red
sea before them, they sang, '^ The people shall
hear and be afraid ; terror shall take hold of the
inhabitants of Palestina; ihe mighty men of
Moab, trembling sliall take hold of ihem; all the
inhabitants of Canaan shallmelt away ; fearand
dread shall fall on them; by tlie greatness of Thy
power they shall be still as a stone. Fear and
aw.e were to be renewed. All nearness of
God brings terror to sinful raan. A\'lien the
news came through the wise men, that they
had ^^ seen in the East the star of Him Who
-was born, King of the Jars, not Herod the King
only was troubled, but all Jerusalem with him.
Pilate ^° was «/raicZ when he condemned Plira :
the High Priests wondered wliereunto this
should grow, and expostulated, ^'ye have fllled
Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring
this Man's blood upon us. Pleathendom was as a
beleaguered, city, mastered by an ubiquitous
Presence, which they knew not how to meet.
" ^* The state is beset : the Christians are in
their fields, in their forts, in their islands.
Every sex, age, condition, and now even rank
is going over to this sect." The fierceness
of the persecutions was the measure of their
fear. They put forth all huraan might to
stamp out the spark, lest their gods, and the
greatness of the empire which they ascribed
to their gods, should fall before this unknown
power. And the everlasting mountains were scattered ;
out by Hithpo. " extended himself," 1 Kgs xvii. 21.
By an interchange of dentals 11D might be — OlD,
and so Ch. LXX. but in no other case do the two
forras coexist in Hebrew. lo Acts vii. 56.
"Is. iii. 13. i2 1Cor. ii. 5. is S. Luke iv. 6.
14 S- Matt, xxviii. 18. S. Mark xvi. 15.
10 Ps. xix. 4. 10 2 Sara. viii. S.
" irij being used of oiitward leaping of the locust,
Lev. xi. 12, 111 J, of the inward leaping of the heart,
Job xxxvii. 1. either seems admissible. The inward
terror was the forerunner and often the instrument
of the outward dispersion.
10 Ex. XV. 16, 16. 10 S. Matt. ii. 1-3.
20 S. John xix. 8. 21 Acts v. 24, 28.
22 Tertull. Apol. init. p. 2. Oxf. Tr.

212

HABAKKUK.

chrTst ^^S mountains were scat-
_cir. 626. tered, the perpetual hills
did bow: his ways are
everlasting.

the perpetual hills did bow ; all power, great or
small, gave way before Him. All which
withstood was scattered asunder, all which iu
pride lifted itself up was brought low, al
though before the coming of the Saviour it
had ever gone wdth neck erect, and none
could humble its pride. There is something
so marvelous about those ancient mountains.
There they stood before man was on the
earth ; they are so solid, man so slight ; they
have survived so many generations of man ;
they w ill long survive us ; they seem as if
they would stand forever ; the apter symbol
how nothing should stand before the might
of God. To the greater pride the heavier
lot is assigned ; the mountains lifted on high
above the earth and, as it were, looking
down upon it, are scattered or dispersed, as
when a stone flieth in pieces under the stroke
of the hammer. The "hills" are bowed
down only; and this may be the pride of
man humbled under the yoke of Christ.
His Ways are Everlasting. " Everlasting "
is set over against " everlasting." The "ev
erlasting" of the creature, that which had
been as long as creation had been, co-existing
'with its whole duration, its most enduring
parts, are as things past and gone ; the ever
lasting mountains, the hills of eternity, have been
scattered in pieces and bowed, and are no
more. Over against these stands the ever-
present eternity of God. His ways are ever
lasting, ordered everlastingly, existing ever
lastingly in the Divine Mind, and, when in
act among us, without change in Him. The
prophet blends in these great words, things
seemingly contrary, ways which imply pro
gress, eternity which is unchangeable. " ' God
ever worketh, and ever resteth ; unchange
able, yet changing all ; He changeth His
works. His purpose unchanged." " ^ For
Thou art Most High, and art not changed,
neither in Thee doth to-day come to a close ;
yet in Thee it doth come to a close ; because
all such things also are in Thee. For they
had no way to pass aivay, unless Thou heldest
them together. And since Thy years fail not,
Thy yeai-s are one To-day. How raany of
our's and our fathers' years have flowed away
through Thy to-day ; and from it received
the measure and the mould of such Ijein" as
they had ; and still others shall flow away,
and so receive the mould of their degree of
1 S. Aug. Conf. i. 4 p. 3. 0.xf. Tr.
a Ib. 10. p. 6. 0 Is. ii. 17. 4 lb. xl. 3.
6 S. Bern, in Ps. Qui habitat. Serm. xi. 8.
81 Kgs xxii. 17.

nf Before
"^ CHRIST
cir. 626.

7 I saw the tents
1 1 Cushan 1 1 i n aifliction
and the curtains of the 11 Or, Ethiopia,
1 1 a^T-T TTi 1.1 i Ox, under afflie-
land 01 Midian did tremble. *io;i, or, vanity.

being. But Thou art still the Same ; and all
things of to-morrow, and all beyond, and all
of yesterday, and all behind it, Thou wilt do
in this to-day, Thou hast done in this to
day." To these His goings, a highway is made by
the breaking down of all which exalted itself,
as Isaiah had said,' The loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall
be made low, and tlie Lord Alone shall be ex
alted in that day ; and, * The voice of him that
crieth in the urilderness. Prepare ye the way ofthe
Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for
our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and
every mountain and hill shall be mads low.
"°The Everlasting ways of the Ever
lasting God are Mercy and Truth, — by
these Ways are the hills of the world
and the proud demons, the princes of the
darkness of this world, bowed down, who
knew not the way of mercy and truth nor re
membered Its paths. What hath he to do
with truth, -who is a liar and the father of it,
and of whom it is written, he abode not in the
Truth? But how far he is from Mercy, our
misery witnesseth, inflicted on us by him.
When was he ever merciful, who was a mur
derer from ihe beginning ? — ,So then those
swelling hills were bowed do^vn from the
Everlasting Ways, when through their own
crookedness they sunk away from the straight
ways of the Lord, and became not so much
ways as precipices. How much more pru
dently and wisely are other hills bowed down
and humbled by these ways to salvation ! For
they were not bowed from them, as parting
from their straightness, but the Everlasting
Ways themselves bowed down. May we not
now see the hills of the world bowed down,
when those who are high and mighty with
devoted submission bow themselves before
the Lord, and worehip at His Feet? Are
they not bowed down, when from their own
destructive loftiness of vanity and cruelty,
they are turned to the humble way of mercy
and truth?"
7. I saw (in prophetic vision ^), the tents of
Cushan in (lit. under) affliction. On the Com
ing of the Lord there follows the visitation
of those alien from Him'. Cushan-Eisha-
thaim was the first, whose ambition God
overruled to chasten His people^. It has
been remarked ", that as king of Aram-Naha-
' As in Joel ii. iii. Mic. iv. 1-10 and iv. 11. v. 1. v.
2.&e. V. 16. ojud. iii. 8-10.
0 R. S. Poole in Smith's Bible Diet., Art. Cushan.
Often as Cush or Ethiopia is mentioned in the Old

CHAPTEE IIL

213

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

8 Was the Loed dis
pleased against the rivers ?
was thine anger against
the rivers? was thy wrath

raim or North Mesopotamia, he was proba'bly
sovereign of the .-Vram, from which Balak
king of Moab, allied with Midian, sent for
Balaam to curse Israel. Midian v^as the last
enemy who, at the very entrance of the pro
mised land, seduced God's people into idola
try and foul sin and lusts. Midian became
then the object of the wrath of God '. They
were also among the early oppressors of Is
rael, leaving '^mo sustenance for Israel, neither
sheep nor ox nor ass, driving them for refuge
to dwell in the dens and the mountains, caves
and fastnesses, consuming the produce of their
land like locusts, so that he whom God raised
up as their subduer, was threshing even in a
wine-press io hide it from them. Both the
kingdom of Arara-Kaharaim and Midian
disappear from history after those great de
feats. Midian, beside its princes, 'lost, by
mutual slaughter, o?ie hundred and twenty
thousand men who drew sword. It left ils name
as a proverb for the utter destruction of those
who sought to e.xterminate the people of
God. * Do unto them as unio the Midianites ;
— make them and their princes like Oreb and
Zeeb; all their princes as Ze'ja.h and as Zcd-
munnah, who said, let us take io ourselves tlie
houses of Ood in possession. It was an exter
minating warfare, which rolled back on those
who waged it. So Isaiah sums up an utter
breaking-off of the yoke and the rod of the
oppressor, as being ^ as in tlie day of Midian.
The same word, avcn, is nothingness, iniquity,
and the fruit of iniquity, trouble^, (since
iniquity is emptiness and opposed to that
which is, God and His Goodness, and ends in
sorrow) ; so then Cushan is seen as lying as
all sinners do, weighed down by ancl under
what is very "emptiness." Tents and curtains
are emblems of what shall pass away, under
which the wicked shelter themselves f'rom
the troubles of this present life, as from heat
and rain, "but which 'in themselves decay,
and are consumed by fire." The curtains of
Testament, and in twelve of the sacred writers.
Historians, Psalmists, Prophets ; from Genesis to
Esther (Moses Job, Chronicles, Esther, David) (l^s-
Ixviii.), sons of Corah (Ps. Ixxxvii.) Amos, Nahum,
Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Ethiopians by
Daniel, it is uniformly Cush not Cushan. Cush also
is retained in Ch. and Syr. and was the name in use
in the time of Josephus (.int. i. 62.) One cannot
then doubt, that Jon. and the Talmud (Sanh. 106 in
Delitzsch) were right in regarding Cushan as desig
nating him who is so called in the Holy Scriptures,
not Ethiopia, which is never so called. Kim.,
Rashi, A. E., Abarb. follow the Targum. Only Tan
ehum, identifying the two clauses, says " Cushan is
one of the names of Midian or one of its tribes, and
it ia also called Cush," Zipporah be.ing identified

against the sea, '' that thou ^ hr°i s t
didst ride upon thine °ii'- ^'^^-
1 7 1 1 il I, • i ' Deut 33. 26, 27.
horses ana \ \ thy chariots Ps. 68. 4.
of salvation? ver. 15.'
II Or, thy chariots were salvation f

Midian tremble. The prophet uses the pre
sent to shew that he was not speaking of any
mere past terror, but of that terror, which
should still seize those opposed to God. The
word "wrath" " rogez" echoes through the
hymn * ; here the wicked tremble, " yir-
gezu," under it, to perish ; afterward the Pro
phet^, to live.
8. Was the Lord displeased against the
rivers? The Prophet asks the question
thrice, as to the two miracles of the dividing
of the Eed Sea and the river Jordan, thereby
the more earnestly declaring, that God
meant somewhat ' by these acts and beyond
them. Pie asks, as Daniel '" and Zechariah "¦
asked, what was the truth of the things
which they saw. God's dealings with His
former people were as much ensamples of
what should be with us'^, as the visions
shewn to the prophets. Hereafter too, there
shall he '''signs in the sun, and in the 'inrjon,
aiul in tlie stars ; and upon the earth distress if
nations, wiih perplexity, the sea and the waves
roaring; there shall be deepening plagues
upon the sea and the rivers and fountains of
waters ; and every living soul in the sea shall
die '*. But God's purpose therein aforetime
was not as to the sea or the rivers, but for
the salvation of His elect ; so shall it be to
the end. Mighty as may be the mighty waves
of the sea which lift themselves up against the
Lord, mightier on high is the Lord '*. " '^ As
Thou didst dry up the Jordan and the Eed
sea, fighting for us ; for Thou wert not wroth
with the rivers or the sea, nor could things
without sense oflend Thee ; so now mount
ing Thy chariots, and taking Thy bow, Thou
wilt give salvation to Thy people ; and the
oaths which Thou swarest to our fathers and
the tribes. Thou wilt fulfill for ever."
Thou didst ride upon Thy horses, as though
God set His army, ''' ihe Hosts which do His
pleasure, against the armies of earth, as the
Prophet's servant had his eyes opened to see,
with Moses' Cushite wife. Nu. xii. 1. Even Ewald
says, " The people, TtyO, whieh can neither accord
ing to language nor context stand for ]^^2 '¦ "
though he guesses it to be a little people near
Midian. ad loc.
1 Nu. xxv. 17. 2 ,Tud. vi. 4. 11.
3 Ib. viii. 10. ¦! Ps. Ixxxiii. 9, 11, 12.
0 Is. ix. 4.
0 Job V. 0. xxvi. 14; Jer. iv. 16. Hos. ix. 4. not in
Ps. iv. 4. nor (as Ges.) in Job iv. 8- Ps. xxii. 8. Is.
lix. 4.
1 .s. Greg. Mor. viii. 9. o yer. 2. o y. 16.
10 vii. 16. 11 c. 1. 12 1 Cor. x. 11.
10 S. Luke xxi. 25. Rev. viii- 6. " Rev. xvi. 3.
10 Ps. xciii. 4. 10 S. Jer. "Ps. ciii. 12.

214

HABAKKUK.

cheTst ^ '^^'^y ^°'^ ^^^ ™^*^®
cir. 626. quite naked, according to
the oaths of the tribes.

' the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about EUsha. "^Yet amidst so
raany thousands of horses and chariots, there
was no rider ; He was the Eider and Euler
of those horses, of Whom the Psalmist says,
* Thou that sittest above ilie Cherubim, shew
Thyself. With such horses and such chariots
was Elijah also taken up into Heaxen."
And Thy chariots of salvation, lit. Thy char
iots are salvation. Not, as in human armies,
except as far as they are the armies of God,
to destruction. The end of God's armies,
His visitations and judgments, is the salva
tion of His elect, even while they who are
inwardly dead, perish outwardly also. Nor,
again, do they prepare for the deliverance for
which He intends thera. With God, to will
is to do. His chariots are salvation. His
help is present help. His chariots are the
tokens .and channels of His Presence to aid.
And so, they who bore His Name before ihe Gen
tiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, chosen
¦vessels to bear it, are, in a yet fuller sense, His
chariots, which are salvation. They " '' axe
holy souls, upon "which the word of God
cometh, to save them and others by them.
* I have compared thee, saith the Spouse, to a
company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. How
ever holy the soul, yet compared to God, it
is like the chariot of Pharaoh ; and a beast,
yet still a beast, before Thee" ." Yet such an
one, as endowed with might and ready obe
dience, and swiftness and nobleness to bear
the word of God, and through His might
Whom they bore, not their own, nor making
it their own, bearing down everything which
opposed itself " *" iThe object of the Prophet,
is to shew that the second dispensation is
better and more glorious, and of incompar
ably better things than the old. For of old
He led Israel forth, through the bodily ser
vice of Moses, changing into blood the rivers
of Egypt, and doing signs and wonders ; then
dividing the Eed Sea, and carrying over the
redeemed, and choking in the waters tlie
most warlike of the Egyptians. But when
the Only-Begotten Word of God became
Man, He withdrew the whole human race
under heaven from the tyranny of Satan, not
changing rivers into blood, nor pouring forth
His anger upon waters, nor dividing waves
of the sea, nor bringing destruction upon
men, but rather destroying the murderous
Serpent himself, and taking away the sin

1 2 Kgs vi. 15.
ops. Ixxx. ].
i Cant. i. 9.
OS. Cyr.

' Acts ix. 16.

oPs. Ixxiii. 2.3.
0 Ps. Ixviii. 17.

even thy word. Selah. chrTst
11* Thou didst cleave the  "'^- '^^'^-
,,.,,. 1 Or, Thou didst
earth with rivers. cleave the Hv-
iPs. 78. 15, 16. & 105. 41. ers ofthe earth.

which had been invented by him and for
him, and loosing the unconquered might of
death, and calling all to the knowledge of
God, through the holy Apostles, who, run
ning forth their course under the whole
Heaven and bearing about the Name of
Christ, were very rightly had in admiration.
He saith then, O Lord, most -worthy to be
heai-d are those things, of which Thou hast
Thyself been the Doer, and what Thou hast
anew wrought is far better than what Thou
didst through Moses. For Thou wilt not
inflict wrath on rivers, nor shew Thy
raight on the sea ; not in these things will
Thy Divine and raarvelous power gleam
forth, but Thou wilt ride upon Thy horses, and
Thy chariots are Salvation. What may these
horses be ? The Blessed Disciples, Apostles
and Evangelists, they who took on them
wholly the yoke of all His Divine will, they,
the noble, the obedient, ready for all things,
whatsoever should please Him; who had
Christ to sit upon thera, whereof one is the
Blessed Paul, of whom Himself saith, ' He is
a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before
tlie Gentiles. Of fiery speed were these
Horses, encompassing the whole earth ; so
then the chariots of God are said to he ten
thousandiinus tenlhousand^. For countless, each
in their times, and after them, became
leaders of the people, and subjected the neck
of the understanding to the yoke of the
Saviour, and bare about His Glory throughout
the whole earth, and rightly divided the
word of truth, and subdued the whole earth,
as ^^ith the speed of horsemen."
His chariots are salvation; "^for they ran
not in vain, but to save cities and countries
and nations together, Christ overthrowing
the_ empires of devils, who, so to speak,
divided among themselves the whole earth,
subduing ifs dwellers to their own will."
9. Thy bow was made quite naked. The
word is repeated for emphasis. Lit. (In)
nakedness^ it was laid naked; the sheath being
laid aside and cast away, as Isaiah says, '"Kir
laid bare the shield. Tlie " bow represents the
threat of the vengeance of Almighty God,
from which it is at length discharged,' if not
turned aside ; the longer the string is drawn-,
the sharper issueth the arrow. So then the
more the coming of the day of judgment is
delayed, the stricter is the severity of the
judgment then issuing. So long as judg-
0 n;i J,', ace. abs. as ntva rri.;; MIc. l. n., for the
inf. abs. ' '' ' lo Is. xxii. 6.
11 S. Greg. Mor. xix. 9. u. 64, Comp. S. Aug. in Ps.
lix. n. 6. > r 6

CHAPTEE HL

215

10 * The mountains saw

Before
CHRIST cir. 626. thee, and they trembled:
kEx. 19. 16,18. ,-, a ¦ " J? il-
Judg. 6. 4, 5. the overflowing oi the wa-
Ps. 68. 8. & 77. 18- & 114. 4.

ment is delayed, the bow seems laid up in its
sheath. God's judgments mostly strike sud
denly ^ as with a sivift arrow, because men
regard them not, coming from a bow at a
distance which they see uot. His more sig
nal judgments He makes bare iu sight of all.
According to the oath of [to] the tribes ; '' ihe
oath which He sware unto our father Abraham,
which oath He often renewed to Abrtiham,
Isaac and Jacob, and again to David ^. This
oath, tlie word and promise of God, was the
pledge of the deliverance of His people, that
they should, be saved frcnn iheir enemies, and
from the hand of all tliat hate them. It lay, as
it were, covered and hid, so long as God
completed it not. Selah. A pause followeth,
wherein to meditate on all which is con
tained in the word or promise of God, which
is all time and eternity.
Thou didst cleave the earth 'with [i. e., into]
rivers. Sea and river had become dry land
for the passing through of God's people;
again, the rock, struck by Moses' rod, was
split, so that rivers ran in the dry places. Until
that Eock, Which was Christ, was stricken,
and * out of His Side came Blood and water,
the whole world was desert and barren ;
then it was turned into streams of water, and
"^now not four but twelve streams went
forth from the Paradise of Scriptures." For
from the One Fountain which is Christ,
there issue many streams, even as many as
convey the waters of His teaching, to water
ihe earth.
10. The mountains saw Thee, and they trem
bled, lit. they tremble. Wliile man is insen-
iPs. Ixiv. 7.
2S. Luiie i. 73. The E. V. takes the common
words m^3E? and JIIDD iu their coramon senses,
and IJp^ (which is a poetic word) agreeably to
thera. nj?13E', "oath" occurs 27 times: the plur.
niJf^K? here and Ezek. xxi. 28. The other raean
ing, weeks, which occurs 9 times (chiefly of the
"feast of weeks," four tiraes in De. xvi.), is plainly
irrelevant here. flltSD occurs 24 times beside of
the tribes of Israel; twice only of the "rods" set
against that of Aaron (Ex. vii. 12, Nu. xvii. 21.).
1?pX "speech" is used of the "proraise .of God,"
certainly Ps. Ixxvii. 9. The construction is like-
Wise easy, mUH is the gen. of the obj. after ri\)}'2W,
and both in apposition with the preceding clause,
and lipi^ with them. This construction and mean
ing of 'mt3D m.I?3B', and meaning of 1DK, and the
construction with .n.E? is that of Jon. followed by
Kim. Rashi Abarb. Tanch. So also S. Jer. Only
A. E. taking JliESO as spears, explains, that " His
spears were sworn to establish the word of God."
0 See Mic. .end (ab. p. 104.) Ps. Ix2;xix.,35 exjgii. 11.

ter passed by : the deep
uttered his voice, and^
' lifted up his hands on high.

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
1 Bx. 14. 22.
Josh. 3. 16.

sate, inanimate nature feels and attests the
presence of its Maker. It saw, it trembles.
To see, feel, tremble, were one. The Pro
phet does not follow a bare order of events,
or bind himself to miracles which actually
took place. The mountains tremble with
earthquakes, or seem to be shaken by the
thunders whioh they re-echo. And so they
are signs, how what is firmest and closes up
the way to man, trembles at the Presence of
God. Whatever is lifted up shall be bowed
down before Him ^. But the word trembled,
is that used especially of travail pangs ', and
so it raay spiritually denote that "*they
who conceive the fear of God shall bring
forth unto salvation." The overfiowing i. e.,
the impetuous, sweeping, flow, of the water "
(or of waters), such as in themselves would
bear all before them, pass by harmless. The
raore they swell, the more they expend
themselves, and pass away. "The whole
force of persecution, wherewith they vexed
Thy people, at sight of Tliee passed away,"
like a torrent which rages and disappears,
and, by raging, the sooner wastes itself.
The deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his
hands '"on high. The noise of the waves,
when God brought the strong East wind over
it and "rebuked it, was as a cry to God ; the
waves, as they swelled, were like hands lifted
up to Plim, and stricken one against the
other. There is no distinct ground against a
slightly different rendering, ''' the deep uttered
his voice, the height lifted up his hands i. e., to
One yet higher, Whom height and depth
owned as their Lord and worshiped.

i S. John xix. 24. o S. Jer.
oSee Zech. iv. 7.
'The LXX. so translate, "shall be in birth-
pangs." 8 Theoph.
OQII IS used apparently both of the "flow of
waters and their strong current," as Tanch. ex
plains it here ; or of a violent storm breaking upon
a thing. Its union with rain, Is. iv. fi, hail, Is.
xxviii. 2. xxx. 30, the mountains, Job xxiv. 8, tits in
with or requires the meaning " storm ; " its union
with mighty overflowing (D''5ptJ') waters Is.
xxviii. implies " a current ; " "a storm against a
wall" 1''p D1T) Is- xxv. 4, raight suit either; the
verb Dnp'l.T, " hast swept them away," Ps. xc. 5, im
plies "a flood;" the mention of the clouds Ps.
ixxvii. 18, "a storm." Kim. Rashi, Abarb. explain
it here of water on the earth ; A. E. of waters de
scending. 10 Qn =, ?'lin which stands as the ace. of direc
tion with lifted up the eyes Is. xxxvii. 23. xl. 26.
11 Ps- cvi. 9.
12 So S. Jer., Rashi, A. E. ; D11 being a iir, \ey., one
cannot say that it might not mean this. The meta
phor woiild be dropped.

216

HABAKKUK.

11 " The sun and moon

Before
CHRIST cir. 626. stood still in their habita-

'»josh.io.i2, 13. tion •
II Or, thine

at the light of
arrows ivaiked thine " arrows they went,
m the light, ihc. •' '
¦' Josh^io^ii- and at the shining of thy
& 77- 17, 18. glittering spear.

11. Sun and moon stood still in [as one act ',
retiring into] their habitation. They with
drew, as it were, in the midst of the great
tempest, wherein ^ God cast down great stones
from heaven upon His enemies and they died ;
and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed.
The sun too withdrew itself in the great
darkness at the Crucifixion, as not bearing to
look upon the Death of its Maker, when the
majesty of the Sun of Eighteousness was
darkened o'er ; and signs in the sun and in
the moon there shall be to the end.
At the light of Thine arrows they went.
" ^ There was no need of the sun by day, nor of
the moon by night ; for by the light of Thine
arrows can the sons of men hold their way."
" ' This is a mystical interpretation, as you
see ; this is like the promise of the Most
High ; ^tlie sun shall be 'no more for thy light by
day, neither for brightness shall the moon give
light unto tliee, and the Lord shall be to thee an
everla.sting light." The judgments of God are
a light to His people, while they are the de
struction of His enemies; in them they
^ learn righteousness. The arrows are God's
judgments, as they threaten and wound from
afar ; the shining of Thy glittering [lit. of ihe
lightning of Thy] spear, when close at hand.
When all other light is withdrawn, and the
Sun, our Lord, is hardly beheld in the dark
ness of the last days, and the moon, the
Church, shall not give her light, Christ not
shining upon her as before, because iniquity
shall abound, and the love of many shall wax
cold, and stars, many who seem to shine with
the light of grace, shcdl fall from heaven. His
own shall walk on and advance in holiness,
"'from strength to strength", from good to
better, from the way to their home," by the
bright light of the lightning of God's Judg
ments, wherein His glory ^ shall be raani
fested. Arrows and spears are part of the
spiritual armory of God, wherewith ihe people
are subdued unto Him; " '"armory, not where
with He is girt but which He giveth to those
who are meet ; bright and as it were full of
'IDJ^ sing, with the asyndeton nT UIDW;
" Every word which needs 7 (to) at the beginning
has n at the end, i. e. the n replaces it." Rashr
Tanehum says the D is for grandeur; Kim. Sal. b.
Mel. say it is like n in Wl^b. The "habitation"
t'hey explain to be heaven, like \)VD.
2J0S.X. 11-1,3. 3A. B. ¦'Tanch. o Is. Ix. 19.
0 Ib. xxvi. 9. ' Dion. s Ps. Ixxxiv. 7.

12 Thou didst march chrTst
through the land in indig- ""'- C26.
nation, "thou didst thresh « jer. 51. 33.
J, , ,, . Amos. 1. 3.
the heathen m anger. mic. 4. 13.
13 Thou wentest forth
for the salvation of thy

lightning. For most transparent is virtue."
They went then at the light of Thine
arrows ; " '" because to those who love sin
virtue has no beaut)', nor, as yet, any bright
ness. But to those who know her she is
nothing less than lightning, bright and trans
parent, so that whoso hath her is easily
known to all around. The disciples then,
first having the lightning of Thine arms,
shall lead others also to its Light. Admir
ing and conceiving in themselves those vir
tues which are the arms of Christ, they shine
forth to others, a gleam, as it were, of the
bright flash of light inherent in those
graces." " " They were enlightened and be
gan, by preaching, to send forth shining
words of truth. But those words are Tliine
arrows, shining arrows, shewing by their
light the way of life, and by their sharp
point pricking the hearts of people unto re
pentance." 12. Thou didst tread the earth in indignation.
The word tread '^is used of very solemn
manifestations of God '^, of His going to give
to His own victory over their enemies".
Not the land only, as of old, but the earth is
the scene of Plis judgments ; the earth which
was full of His praise, which He meted out'^,
which contained the nations whora He chas
tened, the whole earth. Thou dost thresh the
heathen in anger. Not then only, but at all
times unto the end, distress of nations and per
plexity are among the shoots of the fig-tree,
which betoken that the everlasting "" sum
mer is nigh at hand. Jerusalem, when it had
slain the Prince of Life, was given over to
desolation and counted like the heathen. It
became the synagogue, not the Church ; and
so in the destruction of Jerusalem (as it is an
image of the destruction of the world) was
that again fulfilled. Thou dost march through
the earth in indignation. Thou dost thresh the
heathen in anger.
13. Thou wentest forth. Even a. Jew says
of this place, " '' The past is here used for
the future; and this is frequent in the
OThe word "shining" is the same as "bright
ness," V. 4.
"S. Cyr. "Rup. lO'lJfS.
10 Jud. V. 4. Ps. Ixviii. 8 ; of the procession of the
ark 2 Sam. vi. 13. It is denied as to the idols, Jer.
X. 6. ,
""The voice of a treading" mj?i' ^710 2 Sam.
V. 24. 1 Chr. xiv. 15.
10 iii. 3, 6. 10 S. Luke xxi. 25-31. " Kimchi.

CHAPTEE IIL

217

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
P Josh. 10. 24.
& 11. 8, 12.
Ps. 68. 21.

people, even for salvation
with thine anointed; ""thou
woundest the head out of

language of prophecy ; for prophecy, al
though it be future, yet since it is, as it were,
firmly fixed, they use the past concerning
it." The Prophet speaks again in the past,
perhaps to fix the mind on that signal going-
forth, when God destroyed Pharaoh, the first
enemy who essayed to destroy the chosen
line. This stands at the head of all those
dispensations, in which God put or shall put
forth His might to save His people or de
stroy their enemies. All is with Him one
everlasting purpose; the last were, as it
were, embodied in the first ; were it not for
the last, the first would not have been.
Prophecy, in speaking of the first, has in
mind all the rest, and chiefly the chiefest and
the end of all, the full salvation of Plis peo
ple through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou
wentest forth ', i. e., " ^ Thou, the Unseen God,
gavest signs which may be seen of Thy Pres
ence or coraing to men." Tliou wentest forth,
not by change of place, for Thou art not
bounded ; Thou art without change ; but by
shewing Thy power, and doing something
anew openly for the salvation of Thy people,
even for salvation with^ Thine Anointed,
God, from the first, helped His people
through single persons, Moses, Joshua, each
ofthe Judges, accustoming them to receive
deliverance by one, and to gather together
all their hopes in One. To Moses He said,
* I will be with thee, and to Joshua, "As I was
wiih Moses, so I will be with thee, and to Cyrus,
* / will go before thee, preparing His people to
receive that nearer Presence with His Christ,
of which our Lord says : ' Believest thou not,
that I am in tlie Father, and the Father in Me ?
The Father thai Dwelleth in Me, He cfheth the
works. "*The Son of God, God Invisible,
became Man, visible ; and with Him, so going
forth, the Holy Spirit went forth to the salva
tion of His people, so as to give a visible sign
of His Coming. For upon His Christ Him-
iComp. -inXSa, "II^'S^ Jud. V. 4. Ps. Ixviii. 8
of the great manifestation of God at Sinai; so of
the .judgment of the world, InlpHO KV Is.
xxvi. 21. ^ Rup.
0 The E. v. is doubtless right. So Aquila, although
a Jew, rendered, and the 6th Version. The 6th,
a Christian, translated, " Thou wentest forth to
save Thy people through Jesus, Thy Christ." So
also the Vulgate and other old Jewish authorities.
Raehmon (in Martini Pug. Fid. f. 634.) notes "that
the word eth raeans with, as in Gen. xxxvii. 2. xxxix.
2." For although it might be used to mark the
object only after a verbal noun, it is not likely that
the construction would have been changed, unless
the meaning were different. Had eth been only the
sign of the object, there was no occasion for insert
ing it at all, and it would probably have been
avoided, as only raaking the sentence ambiguous.

the house of the wicked
t by discovering the founda
tion unto the neck. Selah. nalcij.™'' "^

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.

self. Him Who was anointed with the Holy
Ghost", He descended in a bodily Shape, as a
Dove. So He went forth to the Salvation of His
people, i.e., to save His people with His
Christ, our Saviour ; '' and again, on the Day
of Pentecost, when that other Comforter
carae, Whom, Pie said, I will send unto you
from ihe Father, "and in Whose Presence His
own proraise was fulfilled, Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. His
Presence was manifested both in the remis
sion of sins, and the parting of graces among
all, and in the '" signs and wonders, and clivers
miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, where
with Ood bare witness to the Aposlles, when
" they went forth, the Lord working with them,
and confirming the word with signs following. A
going forth to judgment, at the end of the
world, is foretold in the like image of war
fare '\
Thou woundedst [crushedst] the head out of
the house of ihe ivicked. One wicked stands
over against One anointed, as in Isaiah, '^ He
shall smite the earth with the rod. of His mouth,
and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the
wicked ; and David speaks of one, '^ He shall
smite Ihe head over a great land ; and S. Paul
speaks of '^ that Wicked, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of His Coming, Him
Pie shall destroy at once from above and be
low ; overthrowing his kingdom from the
foundation. From above, his head was
crushed in pieces ; from below, the house -was
razed from its very foundations. So Amos
said, "* The Lord said. Smite the capitcd, and
the lintel [threshold'''] strike, and wound them in
the head, all of them; and with a different
image, '^ I destroyed his fruit from above, and
his roots from beneath. First, the head is
struck off; crushed ; then the house from the
foundations to its neck ; then as it were the
headless walls. The image of the neck may
in that it may raore obviously be token in the
sense adopted by Aq. and the Vulgate and the E.
v. The LXX and two early heretics who disbe
lieved the Divinity of our Lord (Theodot. and
Syram.) render "to save Thy Christs." The LXX
is wrong moreover, in that the Anointed is never
used of the people, but of single persons only, who
were shadows of the Christ. " Thine anointed " is
understood of one individual, " the king of Judah,"
by A. E. "Saul and David," by Rashi ; " Moses " by
Abarb- ; " Hezekiah " by Tanch. ; but " Messiah
Ben David " by Kim. Sal. b. Mel.
4 Ex. iii. 12. 6 Josh. i. 6. o is. xiv. 2.
' 8. John xiv- 10. » Rup- " Acts x. 38.
10 Heb. ii. 4. " S. Mark xvi. 20.
12 Rev. xvii. 14. xix. 11. sqq. 10 Is. xi. 4.
14 Ps. ex. 6. 10 1 Thess. iv. 8. « Am. ix. 1.
I'The same word is used Zeph. ii- 14. Ps.
cxxxvii- 7. '0 Am. ii. 9.

218

HABAKKUK.

chrTst 1^ 'r^°^ ^^^^^ ^*^^^®
eir. 626. through with his Staves
,„ , the head of his villages:
t Heb. were °
tempestuous, they "f came out as a

be the rather used to recall, that as the house
of God is built of living stones, so the king
dom of the evil one is made of living dead,
who shall never cease to exist in an undying
death. The bruising of Satan, the head or
prince of this evil world, is the deliverance
of the world. His head was bruised, when,
by the Death of our Lord, the Prince of this
world was cast out ; he is crushed out of the
house of the wicked, whenever he, the strong
man, is bound and cast out, and "the soul of
the sinner which had been his abode, be
comes the house of God, and righteousness
dwelleth there and walketh in her."
" 'Tiiou didst not leave any error or vice
in the world unshaken, either what was con
cealed, like the foundation of a house; or
that which was open, as the neck of the body
is open ; " to the neek, where the destruction
from above ceased, so that nothing remained
unsmitten. " ' For they being, by the fiery
tongues which Thou shewedst without, made
fervent and strong, wise and eloquent, ceased
not, until they made known to all, what folly
was this world's wisdom, wdiat sacrilege its
sacred worship." " '' His secret counsels He
laid bare, trs the Apostle says, ^ TFe are not
ignorant of his devices ; and, to another is given
the discerning of spirits."
14. Thou didst strike through with his staves
the head of his villages''. The destruction
comes not upon himself only, but upon the
whole multitude of his subjects ; and this not
by any mere act of Divine might, but with
his own staves, turning upon him the destruc
tion whicli he prepared for others. So it
often was of old. 'When the Midianites and
Amalekites and the children of the east^
wasted Israel in the days of Gideon, ''the
Lord set every man's sword against his fellow,
1 Rup. 0 Dion. o 2 Cor. ii. 11. 1 Cor. xii. 10.
4 The meaning "leaders, prefects of soldiers"
has been obtained for l^£) by Ges. &e. by a misap
plication of the Arab. n|) " distinguished " which
in conj. ii. signifies " defined for a person," but only
in the idiom H'XID '7.^ f13 " deflned for rae by
his own counsel," which gains its meaning only
frora the '7J7. That of the B. V. is furnished, in
raost places, by the passages themselves. As in
Ezek. xxxviii. 11, where "a land of milD " is
expanded into "where they all dwell without wall;
and bar and double gates they have not;" aud
Deut. iii. 6, " all these were fenced cities, witli high
wall, double gates and bar, beside cities of ''TlSn,"
and 1 Sam. vi. 18, "from the fenced city to the
village of ''11371 " and Zech. ii. 8. " Jerusalem
shall dwell as JIITID for the multitude of men and
cattle therein ; and I, saith the Lord, will be a wall
of flre around." In Esther ix. 19, cities HUliin
are contrasted with Shushan v. 18, and " the Periz-

whirlwind to scatter me :
their rejoicing ivas as
to devour the poor se
cretly.

Before
CHRIST
cir. 626.

even throughout all the host ; and when God de
livered the Philistines into the hand of Jona
than'; so was it with Ammon Moab and the
inhabitants of Mount Seir, at the prayer of
Jehoshaphat and his army ^. And so it shall
be, God says, at the end, of the army of God ;
every 'man's sword shall be against his brother",
and Isaiah says, '" every man shall eat the fiesh
of his own arm, and Zechariah, " a great tumult
from the Lord shall be among ihem; and they
shall lay every man hold on ihe hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the
hand of his neighbor. So Pharaoh drove Is
rael to the shore of the sea, in which he him
self perished ; Daniel's accusers perished in
the den of lions, from which Daniel was de
livered unharmed ''' ; and so Haman was
hanged on the gallows which he prepared
for Mordecai '^. So it became a saying of
Psalmists, " Ht. made a pit and digged it, and
is fallen into the ditch which he made; his mis
chief shall 'return upon his own head, and his
violent dealing .shall come down upon his own
pate : and this from above, sent down by God.
The heathen too observed that there was
" no juster law than that artificeis of death
by their own art should perish." This too
befell him, -when he seemed to have all but
gained his end. Tliey came [out] as a whirl
wind to scatter me, ivith whirlwind force, to
drive them asunder to all the quarters of the
heavens, as the wind scatters the particles of
'^ cloud, or '^ as the stubble which passeth away by
the wind of the wilderness. Pharaoh at the
Eed Sea or Sennacherib, sweep all before
them. Pharaoh said, ''' I will pursue, I will
overtake^ I will divide the spoil ; my lust shall be
satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my
hand shall destroy them.
Their rejoicing. It is no longer one enemy.
zite," very possibly, was originally "paganus"
"one who dwelt in villages." This rendering is
adopted by chief Jewish interpreters ; Kim. "cities
of the plain, which have no fort nor wall." So
Abulw. Tanch. "land;" Rashi, Abarb. "his cities
and villages ;" A. E. keeps the word, but implies
the meaning, ou Zech. ii. 8. Kira. Sal. b. Mel.
obtained the sense of "forces" here, that they
"shall corae in great nurabers, and so dwell in
Jerusalem, as DTIS, who dwell in jIlIlS, who
spread in the whole place who have no wall to
enclose them." This explains Jon. "the forces of
Pharaoh," as hordes too large to be enclosed in
walls, and perhaps the LXX. SwainaL.
0 Jud. vi. 3, 4. 0 lb. Tii. 22.
' 1 Sam. xiv. 12, 16, 20. s 2 Chron. xx. 22, 23.
0 Ezek. xxxviii. 21. lofs. ix. 20.
11 Zech. xiv. 13. 12 Dan. vi. 24. lo Esth. vii. 10.
14 Ps. vii. 6. add ix. 16, x. 2, xxxv. 8, Ivii. 6, xciv.
23. cxli. 10. Prov. V. 22. xxvi. 27. Eccl- x. 8.
10 Job xxxvii. 11. 10 Jer. xiii. 24. add xviii. 17.
Is. xii. 16. Del. 17 Ex. xv. 9.

CHAPTEE III.

219

15 "Thou didst walk

chrTst -"-^ "inou mast w
"'''¦ "'-"¦ through the sea with thine

IPs. 77. 19.
ver. 8.
II Or, mud.

horses, through the 1 1 heap
of great waters.

The malice of the members was concen
trated in the head ; the hatred concentrated
in him was diff'used in them. The readiness
of instruments of evil to fulfill evil is an
incentive to those who conceive it ; those
who seem to ride the wave are but carried on
upon the crest of the surge which they first
roused. They cannot check themselves or it.
So the ambitious conceiver of mischief has
his own guilt; the willing instruments of
evil have theirs. Neither could be fully evil
without the other. Sennacherib had been
nothing without those fierce warriors 'who are
pictured on the monuments, wdth individual
fierceness fulfilling his will, nor the Huns
without Attila, or Attila without his hordes
whose tempers he embodied. Satan would
be powerless but for the willing instruments
whom he uses. So then Holy Scripture
sometimes passes from the mention of
the evil multitude to that of the one head,
on earth or in hell, who impels them ; or
from the one evil head who has his own
special responsibility in origin.ating it, to the
evil multitude, whose responsibility aud
guilt lies in fomenting the evil which they
execute. Their rejoicing. He does not say simply
"they rejoice to," but herein is their exceed
ing, exultin<4' joy. The wise of this earth
glories in his wisdom, the mighty man in his
might, the rich in his riches : the truly wise,
^liat he understandeth and knoweth God.
But as for these, their exultation is concen
trated in this, — savagery ; in this is their
jubilation ; this is their passion. Psalmists
and pious men use the word to express their
exulting joy in God : men must have an
object for their empassioned souls ; and these,
in cruelty-
As il were to devour the poor secretly. From
the general he descends again to the individ
ual, but so as now to set forth the guilt of
each individual in that stormy multitude
which is, as it were, one in its evil unity,
when each merges his responsibility, as it
were, in that of the body, the horde or the
mob, in '\vhich he acts. Their exultcdion, he
says, is that of the individu.al robber and
murderer, who lies wait secretly in his
ambush, to spring on the defenceless wan
derer, to slay him and devour his substance.
1 Ib. xiv. 3. 2 Dion. o Ps. xiii. 4.
4 Ecclus. xxiii. 1.
0 D''2 DDn as Ps. Ixxvii. 20, pn D'^l.
0 Is. Ixiii. 1.3. 'Zech. X. 11. s Acts xvii. 28.
OSo Jon. Kim. (comparing Ex. xv. 8 and n'mn
Ex. viii. 10.) Sal. b. Mel. 'Tanch. (mentioning the

16 When I heard, ' my ^ ^"^^H ^
belly trembled; my lips __£i^ii!!^_

quivered at the voice : rot- 'Ps. iin. 120.
tenness entered iuto my

Premeditation, passion, lust of cruelty,
cowardice, murderousness, habitual individ
ual savagery and treachery, and that to the
innocent and defenceless, are all concen
trated in the words, their exultation is, as it
were, io devour the poor secretly, i. e. in tlieir
secret haunt.
Pharaoh had triumphed over Israel.
' They are entangled in the land, the wikler-
ness hath shut them in. He rejoiceth in hav
ing them wholly in his power, as a lion has
his prey in his lair, in secret, unknown to the
Eyes of God Whom he regarded ni>t, with
none to behold, none to deliver. '' '' They
gloried in oppressing the people of Israel,
even as the cruel man glories in secretly
rending and afflicting the needy, when
'ivithout fear they do this cruelty, nor heed
God beholding all as Judge." The invisible
eneraies too rejoice verj' greatly in the ruin
of our souls. ^Lest mine enemy say, I have pre
vailed against him : for if I be cast down, they
that trouble me will rejoice at il. * 0 Lord and
governor of all my life, leave me not to their
counsels and lei me not fall by than. Yet God
left them not in his hands ; but even bralx
the head of Leviathan in pieces.
15. 2'hou didst wcdk through the sea with
Thine horses. God Plimself is pictured as
leading them on the way, Himself at the
head of their multitude, having, as Asaph
said of old, ^ His path in the sea. So Isaiah,
' I17io leddest ihem in the depths; and Zechariah,
''And he shall pass through the sea. God was
literally there; for '^in Him we live and move
and have our being. He Who " is wholly
everywhere but the whole of Him nowhere"
manifested His Presence there. Such anthro
pomorphisms have a truth, which men's
favcrite abstractions have not.
Through the heap" of great waters, as of old,
'" the waters stood as a heap, and He made the
waters io stand as u, heap. The very hin
drances to deliverance are in God's Hands a
way for His ends. The waves of the Eed
sea rose in heaps, yet this was but a readier
way for the salvation of His people and the
destruction of their enemies. " ^ God pre-
pareth ever a way for His elect in this
present evil world, and leadeth them along
the narrow way which leadeth unto life."
16. Wlien I heard, better, / lieai-d and &c.
opinion of others that it is " mud " but choosing the
other.) A. E. chooses the sense, "mud." Rashi
parapnrases, "as the sand ofthe sea." For that of
Ges., " the boiling of the waters," there is absolutely
no authority.
10 Bx. XV. 8. Ps. Ixxviii. 13.

220

HABAKKUK.

cheTIt tiones, and I trembled in
cir. 6ji;. rnyself, that I might rest
in the day of trouble :

The prophet suras up, resuraing that same
declaration with '«diich he had begun, / heard,
I was afraid. Only now he expresses far
more strongly both his awe at God's judg
ments and his hopes. Pie had just beheld
the iraage of the destruction of Pharaoh, the
end of the brief triumphing of the wicked
and of the trials of God's people. But awful
as are all the judgments of God upon the
enemies of His people, it was not this alone
which was the object of his terror. This was
deliverance. It was the whole course of
God's disjiensations, which he had heard ;
God's punishment of His people for their
sins, and the exci^.ion of their oppressors,
who, in His Providence, fulfilling their own
evil end, executed His chastisements upon
them. The deliverances, which shadowed
out the future, had their dark side, in that
they were deliverances. The wliole course of
this world is one series of man's unfaithful
nesses or sins, God's chastisements of them
through their fellow-sinners, and His ultimate
overthrow of the aggressors. Those first three
centuries of glorious martyrdoms were, on the
one side, the malice and hatred of Satan and
the world against the truth ; on the other
side, the prophets of those days told their peo
ple that they were the chastisements of their
sins. Future deliverance implies previous
chastisement of those delivered. The prophet
then, at the close, in view of all, for himself
and all whose perplexities he represented and
pleaded befbre God, chooses his and their jjor-
tion. " Suffer here and rest forever ! " "Endure
here an.y terror, any failure of hopes, yet
trust wholly in God, have rest in the day of
trouble and sing the endless song ! " Again
1 [£32 is used of the inward part of man, which
" prepareth mischief," Job xv. 36; the spirit whereof
constrains one, Ib. x.Kxii. 18 ; the chambers of which
arc searched out by the spirit of mau, as the lamp
of God, Prov. .Kx. 27; as cleansed by stripes lb. :!0;
where the words of the wise are guarded, Ib. xxii,
18; which should not be fllled with the East wind,
Job XV. 2. In the like way in the N. T. "from his
belly, icoiKla, shall flow living waters," S. John vii. 38-
In Arab. 'jtDIl is the "inner meaning;" Jto;] "he
knew the inner, the intrinsic, state of the case ; "
with n p., "became intimate with;" conj. x. with
ace, "peuetrateda thing." Soalsojt3J^3 Si<"that
which is within," of facts, thoughts, raind. See
Lane. All are derivative senses. |J03 has nothing
in common with Ar. 7D3, as Ges.
o"ragaz," twice repeated in this verse, takes up,
as it were, " rogez " wrath v. 2. o Del.
4 /'li* occurs of the tingling of the ear, 1 Sam. iii.
11. 2 Kgs xxi. 12. Jer. xix. 3. " Prom the fear at the
meaning ol tois sound which he has heard his lips
trembled in speaking, and he uttered their words
with a trembling sound." Tanch.

when he cometh up unto cHR^flT
the people, he will 1 1 in- "ir- 626.
n . 1 -xl 1 • J. il Or, cut them in
vade them with his troops, pieces.

he casts himself back amid all the troubles
of this life.
/ heard [i. e. that speech of God uttering
judgments to come] and my belly ', the whole
inward self, bodil.v and mental, all his liidden
powers, trembled '', " vibrated " as it ivere,
" ' in every fibre of his frame," at the wrath
of God ; my lips quivered ' at ilie voice of God,
so that they almost refused their office and
could hardly fulfill the prophetic duty and
utter the terrors which he had heard ; his
very strongest parts, the bones, which keep
the wdiole frame of man together, that he be
not a shapeless mass, and which reraain un-
consumed long after the rest has wasted
a^va.v in the grave, rottenness entered inin them,
corruption and mouldering eating into them °;
and I trembled in myself [lit. under me"] so that
he was a burden to himself and sank unable to
support himself, that I might rest in the day of
trouble. All up to this time was weariness
and terror, and now at once all is repose ;
the prophet is carried, as it were, over the
troubles of this life and the decay of the
grave to the sweetness of everlasting rest '.
I, the same, sufl!er these things, terror, quiv
ering, rottenness in the very bones them
selves. / [lit.] who shall rest '* in the day of
trouble. I who had not rest until then, shall
enter into rest then in the very day of trouble
to all who found their rest in the world not in
God, the day of judgment. " Bh.s.sed is the
man whom Thou chastenest, 0 Lord, and teachest
him in Thy law, that Thou mayest give him paii-
ence in time of adversity, until the pit be digged
up for the ungodly.
" '" O my soul ; had we daily to bear tor
tures, had we for a long time to endure hell
oupl (the root) is used ofthe decay of wood and

7, of

the name of the
as we sav, "on the

of the bones, and Pr,
wicked." OAs 2 Sam. ii. 23. "he died
spot," sinking down dead.
'The very softness of the original word niJX
stands in contrast with the rigidness in the words
tirgaz, rakab, regaz, tsarab.
oflU is uniformly "re^-t." Itis used of rest from
labor, from calamities, [Is. xxiv. 7 Job iii. 26,] rest
in a place, with i, or on (S^'l it; of the Holy Spirit
resting on a person (with Si"). But its meaning is
uniformly of rest, not of silence as to a thing [as
Ges.] nor does lyinn furnish any analogy, since
this in itself signifles "kept silence." Nor can it
mean "wait patiently for," form J "rest" is the
very opposite of "waiting for," riDH, which neces
sarily involves a degree, even if of subdued unrest.
Then, too n3n, mp, hvi], are used of waiting,
looking for good, not for evil.
oPs, xciv, 12, 13,
10 Man, ap, App, S Aug. T. vi. c. 21.

CHAPTEE IIL

221

chrTst 17 ^Although the fig
cii. 62C, iypp shall not blossom,

t Heb. lie.

neither shall fruit be in the
vines ; the labor of the
olive shall ff^ilj and the

itself, that we might see Christ in His glory
and be the companion of His Saints, were it
not worth enduring all sorrow, that we might
be partakers of so exceeding a good, such
exceeding glory ? "
Wlien he cometh up unto the people, he shall
invade them with his troops, or, which is prob
ably meant, when he cometh up who shall invade
them '¦ It is a filling out of tlie day of
trouble'^- However near the trouble came,
he, under the protection of God and in firm
trust in Him, would be at rest in Him. The
troubles of God's prophets are not the out
ward troubles, but the sins of their people
which bring those troubles, the offence a,gainst
the majesty of God, the loss of souls. Jere
miah was raore at rest in the court of the
prison, than when all the people did curse
him' for telling them God's Truth. He
who fears God and His judgments betimes,
shall rest in perfect tranquillity when those
judgments come. The immediate trouble
was the fierce assault of the Chaldees whose
terror he had described ; and this, picturing,
as through the prophecy, all other judgments
of God even to the last, when devils shall con
tend about the souls of men, as Satan did about
the body of Moses.
iThis is the simplest construction, and is that
adopted by Kim, Abarb, In the rendering " in the
coming up of a people," the 7 would, as Tanehum
observes, be superfluous, and 1J1U'' would be more
natural than ^3^1J^ But the prophet would not
needlessly make his language ambiguous. Had he
meant, " in the coming up of a or the people," he
would have used the common D^ m7j?7 or jIl 7J77
D>'n, The construction of T\hif with h instead
of 7J?, "to" for "against," is exceptional. But
nSjJ occurs with the equivalent 7K of the person,
and in one case with T (as we say " go up to ") Gen,
xliv, 24, 34, xiv, 9, Ex, XIX, 3, 24, xxiii, 1, 12, xxxii,
30. Deut, X, 1. Jo-sh, X, 4, 6, Jud, iv, 6, xii, 3, xvi, 5,
(nS) 18, 1 Sam, vi, 20, x, 3, xiv, 9, 12, xxiii, 19, 2 Kgs
1, 11, xxii, 4, and this, in a hostile sense Jud, xx, 23,
2 Sam, V, 19, Jer, xlix, 28, 31, Dp also, is used with
out the art, (as a sort of proper name) of the Jewish
people, Is. xxvi. 11. xliv, 6, IU occurs Gen, xlix, 19.
there also with ace; ^^lJn^ our, "troop" (verb)
Jer, X, 7, See also Mic. v. 14, p. 79,
^ni!f DV is a general term which occurs also
Is. xxxvii, 3, more commonly with D, HIV DV3, Ps,
XX, 2, 1. 16, Pr, xxiv, 10, xxv, 19, Jer, xvi, 19, Ob, 12,
14, Nah. i, 7, Zeph, i, 15, as niX Pt]) occurs Jer, xxx,
7, Dan, xii. 1. HIS npX Is- xxxiii. 2. Jer. xiv. 8- xv.
11 ; TITi" Dr3 Gen. xxxv. 3, Ps, Ixxvii, 3, Ixxxvi,
7; nj?3 DDmS Jud, x, 14, Dnii" n;>3 Neh, ix,
27, There is no ground then to limit it to the Chal
dsean or Assyrian period.
0 Jer. XV. 10.

fields shall yield no meat ;

Before
/t TT TJ T q rp
the flock shall be cut off 'cir, 626,
from the fold, and there
shall be no herd in the
stalls :

17. Although [lit. For *] ihe flgiree shall -not
blossom. The Prophet repeats his confidence
ill God, premising his knowledge that all
human hopes should fail. I know, he says,
all stay and support shall fail ; he numbers
from the least to the greatest, the fruits of
trees, the fig, vine and olive, for sweetness,
gladness, cheerfulness °, whereof the well-
being of the vine and figtree furnishes the
proverbial picture of peace and rest. These
shall either not shoot forth, or shall at time
of fruit-gathering have no produce ", or hav
ing, as it were, labored to bring forth fruit
shall lie'', and fail : yet further " the staflf of
life " itself shall fail ; ihe fields shall yield no
meat ; all the fields, as though they were but
one *, shall have one coramon lot, barren
ness. Yet more ; the flocks shall be cut off ^
from the fold ; not those only, feeding abroad
in fields and open plains, shall be driven
away, but they shall be carried away by the
enemy from the folds, where they seemed
penned securely ; and not these only, but
there shall be no herd in the stalls '", even the
stronger animals shall utterly fail ; every
help for labor, or for clothing, or for food
shall cease ; he speaks not of privation, par
tial failure, but of the entire loss of all things,
¦1 The adversative or exceptional force attributed
to ^J, always lies in the relation of the two sen
tences, not in the ^3 itself, which is always causa
tive, " for " or " because," 0 pg, eiv, 15,
0 y)y occurs here only of the produce of trees ;
10 tiraes of the earth itself directly; in Ps, Ixxvii,
1, its produce, as the result of human culture, is
obty, D.i?U'; and Job xx, 28 'in'3 h)y. niy;?D
occurs here only of the fruit, being an application
ofthe common idiom ""IS TlWp.
' E'nS as Hos, ix, 2,
"niD'llE/, (an old word Deut, xxxii, 32) with uo
known etymology, is used, in three out of the four
places in which it certainly occurs, in relation to
place: "fields of Goraorrah" Deut, f, c, "f, of Kid
ron 2 Kgs xxiii, 4," "f of Heshbou" Is, xvi, 8, It
occurs in a fifth, (if, as is probable, the Kri is right,)
" all the fields unto the brook Kidron " i. e, reaching
to it, Jer, xxxi, 40, As a collective, it is joined with
a sing, verb here, and Is, xvi. 8.
oil J occurs intrans. here only. In Arab, also it
is commonly used, but intrans. of "water which
sunk " or retired. See Lane,
10 DTISI, here only, but clear from the context.
In Buxtorf s instance, nD13 nXUD "found it in a
stall," the word is very probably used in the sense
ascribed to it here by tradition as " well known in
the language of the ancient (doctors) who say in
the sing, 1p2 J1£J1." Tanch. "House of oxen."
Kim, "See Mishnah Bava Bathra ii. 3. vi. 4."
Munk on Tanch. The Arab. hS'l " chopped straw "
could hardly furnish a narae for a stall.

222

HABAKKUK.

chrTst 18 'Yet I will 'rejoice
cir, 626, in the Lord, I will joy
¦ Job, 13.16. in the God of my salva-
' Isal, 41, 16, *'
& 01, 10, tion.

'no meat from the fields, no herd in the stalls ;
and what then ? And Iwill rejoice in ihe Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation. The
words are very impressive, as they stand in
the Hebrew. " For," he says, " the fig-tree
shall not blossom, a'nd there is no fruit in the
vines, the labor of the olive AaJA failed ; " (the
Prophet does not look on, only to these
things, but in his mind stands in the midst
of them ', they are done, and he amid them,
feeling their effects) " and the field hath
yielded no food ; the flock hath been cut oft'
from the fold, and there is no herd in the
stall ; and I" — He relates it as the result of
all which had gone before ; such and such
was the state of fruit-trees, vintage, harvest,
flocks and herds ; such was the aspect of all
nature, living or inanimate ; all was barren,
disappointing ; all had failed and was .gone ;
and then at last he comes to himself, and I;
what is he doing, when all nature and every
seeming hope is dead ? thus and thus it is
with them ; and I — imll rejoice. He almost
uses the expression as to the exultation of
the enemy, adopting the same word only in a
softer form. " Tlieir exulting joy was " con
centrated in this, " as to devour the poor
secretly ; " he too had " exulting joy." There
is a joy against joy : a joy of theirs in the
possession of all which their rapacity covets,
in the possession of all things : a joy of his
amid the privation of all things. He con
trasts the two joys, as David had of old ; ^ the
men of the world, whose portion is in this life,
whose belly Thou flllest vnth Thy hid treasure ;
they are sated of children and leave their sub
stance to their babes : I, he adds, I shall behold
Thy Presence in righteousness, I shall be sated,
in the aivukening, with Thine image. So Habak
kuk, I ivill not rejoice only, but shout for joy '^ ;
andnot so only, but I will bound for joy ; and
this not for a time only ; both words express
a drawdng, yearning '' of the soul, and this yet
more and more, Iwill shout for joy and would
shout on ; Iwill boimdfor joy aiul would bound
on. But 'whence the source of this measure
less unutterable joy ? In the Lord, the Un
changeable God, IFyio is and was and is io
¦The flrst future PllSn Kl, "shall not fiourish"
determines that all which follows is future in act,
though present to the prophet's mind.
2Ps. xvii. 13, 15.
2 T7J?, like aKaXd^iD. It is used of exultation in
the holiness of God, Ps. Ix. 8. cviii. 8. before God,
Ps, Ixviii, 6, God being the implied Object, Zeph, iii,
14, Ps, xxviii, 7. xcvi. 12, cxlix, 6, ofthe evil in evil
Jer, xi, 16, 1, 11, li, 39. Ps, xciv, 3.

19 The Lord God is ohrTst
" my strength, and he will . '''•'¦ "^6.

make mv feet like " hinds » Ps, 27, 1,
, , i2Sam. 22, 34,
feet, and he will make me Ps, 18,33,

come, I AM, (it is the incommunicable
Name) ; in the God of ray salvation : it is
almost the Name of Jesus ^; for JESUS is
salvation, and the Name means " the Lord is
Salvation ; " whence the words are here ren
dered even by a Jew ^, " in God the Author
of my redemption," and yet more sweetly by
a father ', " in God my Jesus," In Hini his
joy begins, to Plim and in Him it flows back
and on ; before he ventures, araid all the
desolation, to speak of joy, he names the
Narae of God, and, as it were, stays himself
in God, is enveloped and wrapped round in
God ; and I (the words stand in this order)
and I in ihe Lord would shout for joy. He
comes, as it were, and places himself quite
close to God, so that nothing, not even his
joy should be between himself and God ;
" and I in the Lord." All creation, as it had
failed, ceases to be ; all out of God : he
speaks of nothing but himself and God, or
rather himself in God; and as He, God,
comes before his joy, as its source, so in Him
does he lose himself, with joy which cannot be
contained, nor expressed, nor rest, but utters
itself in the glad motions of untiring love, /
would bound for joy in my Saving God. Truly
all our joy is, to be in Him in "\'\diom is all
Good, Who is all Goodness and all Love,
19, The 'LoR'D OckI is my strength. The pro
phet does not inwardly only exult and
triumph in God, but he confesses also in
words of praise, that in Him he hath all
things, that He is All things in him. And
as he had confessed the Father, under the
Name whereby He revealed Himself to
Moses, and the Son, " the Lord God of my
salvation," so he confesses^ God the Holy
Ghost, Who, in us, is our strength. He is
our strength, so that through Hira, we can do
all things ; He is our .strength, so that without
Him, we can do nothing ; He is our strength,
so that when we put forth strength, we put
forth nothing of our own, we add nothing of
our own, we use not our own strength, of
whieh we have none, but we do use His ; and
we have It ever ready to use, as if it were
our own. For it is not our own and it is our
4This is the force of the optative n'7'JX, HlVj^X
i^j 'J?.*?' recurs in Ps. Ix. 8. cviii. 8.
0 Jesus in Heb. y^tS'_, here ^E^\
0 Chald, The Syr. "God my Redeemer." LXX.
" God my Saviour,"
' S, Aug, de Civ, D, xviii, 32, " To me what some
MSS. have ; ' I will rejoice in God my Jesus,' seems
better than what they have, who have not set the
Name itself, (but saving) whioh to us it is more lov
ing and sweeter to name," 8 Rup,

CHAPTEE III.

223

chrTst *° ^walk upon mine high
cir, 626, pIa,oes. To the chief

J Deut, 32. 13, &33. 29,

own ; not our own, i. e., not from or of our
selves ; but our own, since It is in us, yea
He the Lord our Ood is our strength, not with
out us, for He is our strength, but in us.
And so he says further, how we can use it as
our own. He 'will make my feet like hinds,
which bound upward through Plis iraparted
strength, and, when scared by alarms here
below, flee fearless to their native rocks,
spring from height to height, .and at last
shew themselves on some high peak, and
standing on the Eock, look down on the
whole world below their feet and upward on
high. Even so, ' 'when at the end of the
world all shall fail, and the love of many shall
wax cold, and the Church, which is likened to
the fig tree the vine and the ^ olive, shall
yield no fruits, and sweetness shall be cor
rupted by vanities, aud the oil of mercy shall
be dried up, and lamps go out, and its pro
mises shall fail and it shall lie, having a show
of goodness, but denying the power of it ; 'in words
confessing God, and in works denying Him; and
through their own negligences, or the care
lessness of pastors, the sheep of Christ shall
perish from His very fold, and they who
should be strong to labor ^ shall cease, God's
elect shall joy in Him, " beholding His good
ness, and loving Him in all things, and He
will give them free aflTections, and fervid
longings of holy love, whereby they shall not
walk only, but i-un the way of His command
ments and prevail over the enemies of their
salvation." 1 Chiefly from Dion, Comp, S, Jer,
SS, Luke xiii, 6, Is, v, 1, xxi, 33, &c, Eora, xi, 17,
0 1 Cor, ix, 9, 10,

singer on my f stringed
instruments.

Before
CHRIST cir, 626,
t Heb. Neginoth, Ps. 4, title.

Yet though this strength is inward, and
used by man, still God '\Vho gives it, Him
self guides it. Not man shall direct his own
ways, but He will make me to walk (as on a
plain way) upon my high places. Steep and
slippery places and crags of the rocks are
but ways to the safe height above, to those
whom God makes to walk on them ; and since
he has passed all things earthly, what are
his high places, but the heavenly places, even
his home, even while a pilgrim here, but
now at the end, much more his home, wdien
not in hope only, but in truth, he is raised up
together, and made to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ .lesiis * ?
And now what remains then, but that this
song of praise should be for ever ? And so it
is not without raeaning, nor was of old
thought to be so ^, that there stand here, at
the end, words which elsewhere in the
Psalms always stand at the beginning. Nor is
it anywhere else, " upon my stringed instru
ments." To ihe chief singer on my stringed
instruments. To Him to Whom all praise is
due, through Whora we praise Himself, His
Spirit pleading in us, for us, upon my stringed
instruments. lie Himself, providing, as it
were, and teaching the prelude of the endless
song, and by His spirit, breathing upon the
instrument which He has attuned, and it
giving back faithfully, in union with the
heavenly Choir with whom it is now blended,
the Angelic Hymn, " Glory to God in the
Highest." 4 Eph, ii, 6,
0 It is commented upon as part of the text by S,
Cyril and S, Jerome,

n^TEODUCTIOlsr

THE PROPHET
ZEPHANIAH.

Zephaniah was called to his office, at all
events not long after Habakkuk. As his
time was near to that of Habakkuk, so his
subject also was kindred. Both lived when,
for the sins of the reign of Manasseh, God
had pronounced upon Jerusalem an irrever
sible sentence of destruction. The mission of
both was not to the whole people whose sen
tence was fixed, but to the individuals who
would /ee /rom the wrath lo come. The form of
Habakkuk's prophecy was (as we might say)
more subjective ; that of Zephaniah, more
objective. Habakkuk exhibits the victory of
faith in the oppressed faithful ; how it would
hold to God amid the domestic oppressions,
amid the oppressions of the Chaldees by
whom those oppressions were to be punished,
and, when all shall seem to fail, should, in
the certainty of its unseen life, joy in its God.
The characteristic of Zephaniah is the declara
tion of the tenderness of the love of God for
that remnant of Israel, " the afflicted and poor
people, whom God would leave in ihe midst of
them. Zephaniah has, like Habakkuk, to declare
the judgment on the world. He renews the
language of Joel as to " the day of the Lord,"
and points it to nations and individuals. He
opens with the prophecy of one 'wide de
struction of the land and all the sinners in it,
its idolaters and its oppressors, its princes, its
royal family, its merchants, its petty plun
derers, who used rapine under color of their
masters' name, and brought guilt on theni-
selves and them. Nothing is either too high
or too low to escape the judgments of God.
•Zep'h, iii, 12. 'ifl. °ii-3.
¦i iii- 11, 12. • iii, 12-17. 'Eph. iii. 19.
B Ps. xxvii. 6. •'JJ3S\
15

But tlie visitation on Judah was part only of
a more comprehensive judgment. Zephaniah
foretells the wider destruction of enemies of
God's people on all sides ; of Philistia,
Moab, Ammon, on each side of them, and
the distant nations on either side, Ethiopia
(which then included Egypt) and Assyria.
All these particular judgments contain prin
ciples of God's judgments at all tiraes. But
in Zephaniah they seem all to converge in
the love of God for the remnant of His
people. The nation he calls " a nation not
desired. Individuals he calls to God ; " it may
be, ye shall be hid in the Day of the Lord's
anger. He foretells a sifting time, wherein
God would take away ihe proud among her ^ ;
'yet there follows a largeness of Gospel
promise and of love *, the grounds of which
are explained in the Gospel, but whose ten
derness of language is hardly surpassed even
by the overwhelming tenderness of ' the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge.
The prophet's own name the Lord hath
hid " corresponds with this. The Psalmist
had said, using this same word, " ^ He shall
hide me in His tabernacle in the day of evil :
in the secret of His tabernacle He shall hide
me;" and, "O how great is Thy goodness,
which Thou hast laid up '' for them that fear
Thee. Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of Thy presence from the pride of man.
Thou shalt keep ihem secretly ' in a pavilion
from the strife of tongues." '"'They take
counsel against Thy hidden ones."
The date which Zephaniah prefixed to his
prophecy, has not been disputed ; for no one
Tijas. ips, xxxi, 19, 20, niavn.
'Ps. Ixxxiii. 4. ¦j''iiilS. 225

226

INTEODUCTION TO

felt any interest in denying it. Those who
disbelieve definite prophecy invented for
themselves a solution, whereby they thought
that Zephauiah's prophecy need not be
definite, even though uttered in the time
of Josiah ; so the fact remained unquestioned.
The unwonted fullness with which his
descent is given implies so much of that
personal knowledge which soon fades away,
that those who speak of other titles, as hav
ing been prefixed to the books, or portions of
books of the prophets, by later hands, have
not questioned this. The only question is,
whether he lived before or in the middle of
the reformation by Josiah. Josiah, who came
to the throne when eight years old B.C.
641, began the reformation in the twelfth
year of his reign', when almost twenty ; B.C.
030. The extirpation of idolatry could not,
it appears, be accomplished at once. The
finding of the ancient copy of the law, during
the repairs of the temple in the eighteenth
year of his reign ¦", B, C. 624, gave a fresh
impulse to the king's efforts. He then
united the people with hiraself, bound all the
people present to the covenant " to keep the
law, and made a further destruction of idols "
before the solemn passover in that year.
Even after that passover some aborainations
had to be removed p. It has been thought
that the words, ' / will cut off the remnant of
Baal from this plaee, imply that the worship
of Baal had already in some degree been re
moved, and that God said, that Pie would
complete what had been begun. But the
emphasis seems to he rather on the com
pleteness of the destruction, as we should say,
that He would efface every remnant of Baal,
than to refer to any effort which had been
made by human authority to destroy it.
The prophet joins together, I will cut off the
remnant of Baal, the name of the Chemarim.
The cutting off the name of the Chemarim, or
idolatrous priests, is like that of Hosea ', 1
will take away the names of Baalim out of her
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by
their name. As the cutting off of the name of
the Chemarim means their being utterly ob
literated, so, probably, does the cutting off the
remnant of Baal. The 'worship of Baal was
cut off, not through Josiah, but (as Zephaniah
prophesied) through the captivity, .Jeremiali
asserts its continuance during his long pro
phetic oflice '.
In the absence of any direct authority to
the contrary, the description of idolatry by
Zephaniah would seem to belong to the
period, before the measures to abolish it were
begun. He speaks as if everything were
full of idolatry ', the worship of Baal, the
'2 Chr. xxxiv. 3-7.
™2 Kgs xxii, 2 Chr, xxxiv, 8-28,
» 2 Kgs xxiii. 3. 2 Chr, xxxv, 31,
0 2 Kgs xxiii, 4-20, 2 Chr, xxxiv. 33.
p 2 Kgs xxiii. 2-1.

worship of the host of heaven upon the
housetops, swearing by Malcham, and prob
ably the clothing with strange apparel.
The state also was as corrupt " as the wor
ship. Princes and judges, priests and pro
phets were all alike in sin ; the judges dis
torted the law between man and man, as the
priests profaned all which related to God.
The princes 'were roaring lions ; the
judges, evening wolves, ever famished, hun
gering for new prey. This too would
scarcely have been, when Josiah was old
enough to govern in his own person. Both
idolatry and perversion of justice were con
tinued on from the reign of his father Amon.
Both, when old enough, he removed. God
Himself gives him the praise, that he ''did
judgment and justice, then it was well with him;
he judged the cause of ihe poor and needy, then
it was weU with him ; was not th is io know Me ?
saith the Lord. His conversion was in the
eighth year of his reign. Then, while he was
yet young, he began to see^ after tlie Ood of
David his father.
The mention of the king's children '", whom,
God says, He would punish in the great day
of His visitation, does not involve any later
date. They might, anyhow have been
brothers or uncles of the king Josiah. But,
more probably, God declares that no rank
should be exempt from the judgments of
that day. He knew too that the sons of
Josiah would, for their great sins, be then
punished. The sun of the temporal rule of
the house of David set in unmitigated
wickedness and sorrow. Of all its kings
after Josiah, it is said, they did evil in the
sight of ihe Lord; some were distinguished
hy guilt; all had miserable ends; some of
them aggravated misery.
Zephaniah then probably finished his
course before that 12th year of Josiah, (for
this prophecy is one whole) and so just be
fore Jeremiah was, in Josiah's 13th year,
called to his office, which he fulfilled for
half a century, perhaps for the whole age of
man. _ The foreground of the prophecy of Zepha
niah remarkably coincides with that of Ha
bakkuk. Zephaniah presupposes that pro
phecy and fills it up. Habakkuk had pro
phesied the great wasting and destruction
through the Chaldasans, and then their
destruction. That invasion was to extend
beyond Judah (for it was said he shall scoff al
kings "), but was to include it. The instru
ment of God having been named by Habak
kuk, Zephaniah does not even allude to him.
Eather he brings before Judah the other
side, the agency of God Himself. God
1 Zeph. i. 4. t Hos, ii, 17.
¦ Jer, ii, 8, vii, 9. xi, 13. xix, 6, xxxii, 29,
'i-4, 5, "iii, 3, 4,
' Jer, xxii. 15, 16. " See bel. on Zeph, i, 8.
» Hab. i. 10.

ZEPHANIAH.

22^

would not have them forget Himself in His
instruments. Hence all is attrib-jted to God.
^ I will utterly consume all things from off ihe
land, saith the Lord. I will consume inan and
beast ; I wdl consume the fowls of the heaven,
and the fishes of the sea, and the siumblingblocks
vnth the wicked, and I 'will cut off man from
the land, saiih the Lord. I will also stretch
out Mine hand upon Judah; and I will cut
off the remnant of Baal. In the day of the
Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the princes, &c.
In the same day also I will punish all those
&e. I 'will search Jerusalem with candles.
The great day of the Lord is near, and I wUl
bring distress upon, &c. O Canaan, land of
the Philistines, I will even destroy thee. The
Lord will be terrible upon them. Ye Ethio
pians also, ye shall be slain by My . sword.
And He will destroy Nineveh. The wdcked
of the people had ' said in their heart. The
Lord wiU not do good, neitlier will He do evil.
Zephaniah inculcates, throughout his brief
prophecy, that there is nothing, good or
evil, of which He is not the Doer or Over-
ruler. But the extent of that visitation is co-ex
tensive with that prophesied by Habak
kuk. Zephaniah indeed speaks rather of the
effects, the desolation. But the countries,
whose desolation or defeat he foretells, are
the lands of those, whom the Chaldoaans in
vaded, worsted, in part desolated. Beside
Judah, Zephaniah's subjects are Philistia,
Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia (which included
Egypt), Nineveh. And here he makes a
remarkable distinction corresponding with
the events. Of the Ethiopians or Egyptians,
he says only, 'i/e shall be slain by My sword.
Of Assyria he foretells'' the entire and last
ing desolation ; the capitals of her palaces in
the dust ; her cedar-work bare ; flocks, wild-
beasts, pelican and hedgehog, taking up their
abode in her. Moab and Amnion and Philis
tia have at first sight the two-fold, apparently
contradictory, lot ; the remnant of My people,
God says, " shaU possess them ; the coast shall
be for the remnant of ihe house of Judah;
and, that they should be a perpetual desola
tion. This also was to take place, after God
had brought back His people out of captivity.
Now all these countries were conquered by
the Chaldieans, of which at the tirae there
was no huraan likelihood. But they were
not swept away by one torrent of conquest,
Moab and Ammon were, at first, allies of
Nebuchadnezzar, and rejoiced atthe miseries
1 Zeph, i, 2, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 17. ii, 5, 11, 12, 13,
»i, 12, «ii, 12, iiii. 13-15.
oil, 9,
SAmm, Marcell, xxiii, 22, The Nines taken by
Metierdates A,D, 59, was on the site of the old
Nines, on the other side of the Tigris, Tac, Ann.
xii. 13,
•The existence of the Nineve Claudiopolis is at
tested by coins. See "Vaux in Smith's Diet, of
Greek aud Roman Seogr. v. Ninus.

of the people, whose prophets had foretold
their destruction. But, beyond this, Nineveh
was at that time more powerful than Egypt.
Human knowledge could not have discerned,
that Egypt should sufier defeat only, Nine
veh should be utterly destroyed. It was the
wont of the great conquerors of the East, not
to destroy capitals, but to re-people them
with subjects obedient to themselves. Nine
veh had held Babylon by viceroys ; in part
she had held it under her own immediate
rule. Wliy should not Babylon, if she con-
quei'ed Nineveh, use the same policy?
Humanly speaking, it was a mistake that
she did not. It would have been a strong
place against the inroads of the Medo-
Persian empire. The Persians saw its value
so far for military purposes, as to build some
fort there '' ; and the Emperor Claudius,
when he made it a colony, felt the import
ance of the well-chosen situation". It is
replaced by Mosul, a city of some "'20000 to
40000 " inhabitants. Even after its destruc
tion, it was easier to rebuild it than to build
a city on the opposite bank of the Tigris.
God declared that it should be desolate. The
prediction implied destruction the most abso
lute. It and its palaces 'were to be the abode
of animals which flee the presence of man ;
and it perisheil ^.
Again, what less likely than that Philistia,
which had had the rule over Israel, strong
in its almost impregnable towns, three of
whose five cities were named fortheir strength,
Gaza, strong; Ashdod, mighty ; Ekron, deep-
rooting ; one of which, Ashdod, about this
very time, resisted for 29 years the '\vliole
power of Egypt, and endured the longest
siege of any city of ancient or modern times
— what, to huraan foresight, less likely, than
that Philistia should come under the power
of the remncwt of the house of Judah, when re
turned from their captivity? Yet it is abso
lutely foretold ''. The sea-eoast shaU be for the
remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed
thereupon : in the houses of Ashkelon they shcdl
lie down in ihe evening. For the Lord their God
shcdl visit them, and restore their captivity. As
hnlikely was it, that Moab and Aramon, who
now had entered upon the territory of the
two and a half tribes beyond Jordan, should
themselves become the possession of the rem
nant of Judah. Yet so it was.
It is then lost labor, even for their own
ends, when raoderns, who believe not definite
prophecy, would find out some enemy ' whom
fSee Keith Johnstone, Diet, of Geography [ed,
1864, and orl. 1867.
«See on Nahnm, ab. pp. 122-125, 'ii, 7,
'The Pirr Paul Pezron (Essai d'un Comm, lit, et,
hist, sur les prophf tes 1697) assumed three irrup
tions of the Scythians : the first prophesied by
Amos and Joel ; the second, in the reign of Josiah
about 631, B, C, ; the third, prophesied (he thiuli.s)
by Ezek, xxxviii, xxxix Baseless as all this is,
the characteristic of the late writers is not the

228

INTEODUCTION TO

Zephaniah may have had in mind in fore
telling this wide destruction. It still remains
that all that Zephaniah says beforehand was
fulfilled. It is allowed that he could not
foretell this through any human foresight.
The avowed object in looking out for some
power, formidable in Zephaniah's time, is,
that he could not, by any human knowledge,
be speaking of the Chaldfeans. But the
wori^ stand there. They were written by
Zephaniah, at a time when confessedly no
human knowledge could have enabled man
to predict this of the Chaldseans ; nay, no
human knowledge would have enabled any
one to predict so absolutely a desolation so
'w'ide and so circumstantially delineated.
That school however has not been willing
to acquiesce in this, that Zephaniah does not
speak of the instrument, through whom this
desolation was effected. They will have it,
that they know, that Zephaniah had in his
inind one, who was not the enemy of the Jews
or of Nineveh or of Moab and Ammon, and
through whom no even transient desolation
of these countries was effected. The whole
argument isa simple begging ofthe question.
" '^ The Egyptians cannot be meant ; for the
Cushites, who are threatened', themselves
belong to the Egyptian army "", and Psam
metichus only besieged Ashdod which he
also took, without emblazoning ought greater
on his shield ". The Chaldaaans come still
less into account, because they did not found
an independent kingdora until B. C. 625, nor
threaten Judaea until after Josiah's death.
On the other hand an unsuspicious and well-
accredited account has been preserved to us,
that somewhere about this time the Scyth
ians overflowed Palestine too with their
hosts. Plerodotus relates ", that the Scyth
ians, after they had disturbed Cyaxares at
the siege of Nineveh, turned toward Egypt ;
and when they had already arrived in Pales
tine, were persuaded by Psamraeticlius to re
turn, and in their return plundered a temple
in Ascalon."
It is true that Herodotus says that " a large
Scythian army did, under their king Madyes,
burst into Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians
and entered Media, — keeping Mount Cauca
sus on the right," and that " the Medes op
posed and fought them and, being defeated,
lost their rule ¦'."
It is true also that Herodotus relates, that
'"¦they went thence toward Egypt, and when
they were in Palestine-Syria, Psammetichus
king of Egypt, meeting them, turned them
by gifts and entreaties from going further ;
selection of the Scythians as the object of the
prophecy (which were a thing indifferent) but the
grounds alleged for that selection.
t Hitzig. 1 ii. 12,
"Jer, xlvi, 9, '
» Herod, ii, 157. » Ib. i, litt.
Pib.i. 103, 104. lib, 1U5,

that when in their return they were in Asca
lon, a city of Syria, whereas most of the
Scythians passed by without harming ought,
some few of them, being left behind, plun
dered the temple of Venus Ourania." In this
place also, it is true, Herodotus uses a vague
expression, that "'for 28 years the Scythians
ruled over Asia, and that all things were
turned upside down by their violence and
contempt. For beside the tributes, they ex
acted from each what they laid upon each,
and beside the tribute, they drove together
and took what each had. And most of them
Cyaxares and the Medes entertaining as
guests, intoxicated and slew. And then the
Medes recovered their empire and became
masters of what they held before."
But, apart from the inconsistency of the
period here assigned to their power, with
other history, it appears from the account
itself, that by "all Asia " Herodotus means
" all upper Asia," as he expresses himself
more accurately, when relating the expe
dition of Darius against them. "'Darius
wished to take revenge on the Scythians,
because they first, making an inroad into
Media and defeating in battle those who went
against them, began the wrong. For the
Scythians, as I have before said, ruled upper
Asia, for 28 years. For, pursuing the Cim
merians, they made an inroad into Asia,
putting down the Medes from their rule ; for
these, before the Scythiiins came, ruled Asia."
The Asia then, which Herodotus supposes
the Scythians to have ruled, is co-extensive
with the Asia which he supposes the Medes
to have ruled previously. But this was all
in the North ; for having said that " ' Phra
ortes subdued Asia, going frora one nation to
another," he adds that, having brought Per
sia under his 3-oke, " he led an army against
those Assyrians who had Nineveh, and there
lost most of his army and his own life." Apart
then from the fabulousness of this supposed
empire, established by Phraortes", (Cyax
ares having been the real founder of the
Median empire,) it is plain that, according to
Herodotus himself, the Asia, in which the
Scythians plundered and received tribute,
were the lands North of Assyria, The expedi
tion against Egypt stands as an insulated pre
datory excursion, the object of which having
been mere plunder, they were bought off by
Psammetichus and returned (he tells us) do
ing no mischief " in their way, except that a
few lingerers plundered a temple at Ascalon.
It was to Media that they first came ; the
Medes, whom they defeated ; the Median
' i. 106, He uses the same wide expression as to
Cyrus, after the defeat of Crcesus, "Having sub
dued him, he thus ruled over all Asia," (i. 130);
whereas he had not yet conquered Babylon,
" Ib, i, 106, t iv, 4.
« i, 102, See above p, 119. and Rawlinson Herod.
quoted ib. » dffii'eui'. Her. 1. 0.

ZEPHANIAH.

229

empire to which they succeeded ; Cyaxares
and the Medes, who treacherously destroyed
most of them ; the Medes, whose empire was
restored by the destruction of some, and the
return of the rest to their own land. With
this agrees the more detailed account of the
Scythians by Strabo, who impeaches the ac
curacy of the accounts of Herodotus ". Hav
ing spoken of the migrations of leaders, and
by name, of " " Madyes the Scythian " (un
der whom Herodotus states the irruption to
have taken place), he says, " ^ the Sacte made
the like inroad as the Cimmerians and the
Trerians, some longer, some nigh at hand ;
for they took possession of Bactriana, and ac
quired the best land of Armenia, which they
also left, named after thera Sacasene, and ad
vanced as far as to the Cappadocians and es
pecially those on the Euxine, whom they
now call of Pontus (Pontians). But the gen
erals of the Persians who were at the time
there, attacking them by night, while they
were making a feast upon the spoils, utterly
extirpated them." The direction which he
says they took, is the same as that of the
Cimmerians, whom Herodotus says that they
followed. "^The Cimmerians, whom they
also call Trerians, or sorae tribe of them,
often overrun the right side of the Pontus,
sometimes making inroads on the Paphlago-
nians, at others, on the Phrygians. Often
also the Cimmerians and Trerians made the
like attacks, and they say that the Trerians
and Cobus [then- king] were, at last expelled
by Madyes king of the [Scythians]." Strabo
also explains, what is meant by the tributes,
of which Herodotus speaks. Pie is speaking
of the Nomadic tribes of the Scythians gener
ally : " " Tribute was, to allow them at certain
stated times, to overrun the country [for pas
turage] and carry ofl' booty. But when they
roamed beyond the agreement, there arose
war, and again reconciliations and renewed
war. Such was the life of the nomads, always
setting on their neighbors and then being
reconciled again."
The Scythians then were no object of fear
to the Jews, whom they passed wholly un
noticed and probably unconscious of their ex
istence in their mountain country, while they
once and once only swept unharraing along
the fertile tracks on the sea-shore, then occu
pied by the old 'enemies and masters of the
Jews, the Philistines. But Herodotus must
also have been misinformed as to the length
of time, during which they settled in Media,
or at least as to the period during which their
presence had any sensible effects. For Cyax
ares, whom he represents as having raised
''"More readily might we believe Homer and
Hesiod in their tales of heroes, and the tragic
poets, than Ctesias and Herodotus and Hellanicus
and others of the same sort." xi. 6. 3.
» i. 3. 21. r xi. 8, 4.
»Prol.i3..gL "xi. 8. 3.

the siege of Nineveh, in consequence of the
inroad of the Scythians into Media, carae to
the throne, according to the numbers of He
rodotus, B. C. 633. For the reign of Cyax
ares having lasted according to him 40 years ^
that of AstyagesSS", and that of Cyrus 29",
these 104 years, counted back from the known
date of the death of Cyrus, B. C. 529 or 530,
bring us to B. C. 633 or 636 as the beginning
of the reign of Cyaxares. But the invasion
of the Scythians could not have taken place
at the first accession of Cyaxares, since, ac
cording to Herodotus, he had already defeated
the Assyrians, and was besieging Nineveh,
when the Scythians burst into Media. Ac
cording to Herodotus, moreover, Cyaxares
"¦^ first distributed Asiatics into troops, and
first ordered that each should be apart, spear
men, and archers and cavalry ; for befbre, all
were mixed pele-raele together." Yet it
would not be in a very short time, that those
who had been wont to fight in a confused
mass, could be formed into an orderly and
disciplined army. We could not then, any
how, date the Scythian inroad, earlier than
the second or third year of Cyaxares. On
the other hand the date of the capture of
Nineveh is fixed by the comraencement of
the Babylonian Empire, Babylon falling to
Nabopolassar. The duration of that empire
is measured by the reigns of ifs kings ', of
whom, according to Ptolemy's Canon, Nabo
polassar reigned 21 years; Nebuchadnezzar,
(there called Nabocollasar) 43 ; Evil-Mero-
dach ('Iluaroadam) 2 ; Neriglissar (Niricasso-
lassar) 4 ; Nabunahit (Nabonadius with
whom his son Belshazzar was co-regent) 17 ;
in all 87 years ; and it ends in an event of
known date, the capture of Babylon by Cyrus,
B. C. 538. The addition of the 87 years of
the duration of the empire to that date car
ries us back to the date assigned to the cap
ture of Nineveh by Nabopolassar in conjunc
tion with Cyaxares, B. C. 625. The capture
then of Nineveh was removed by 8 or 9 years
only from that, which Herodotus gives as
the time of the accession of Cyaxares, and
since the attack upon Nineveh can hardly
have been in his first year, and the last siege
probably occupied two, the 28 years of Scyth
ian dominion would dwindle down into some
thing too inconsiderable for history. Probably
they represent some period from their first
incursion into Media, to the final return of
the survivors, during which they marauded
in Media and Upper Asia. The mode, by
'svhich " the greater part " (Herodotus tells
us) were destroyed, intoxication and sub
sequent murder at a banquet, implies that
i> Herod, i. 106. » Ib. 130. « Ib. 214. • Ib. 103.
f Berosus, in his Chaldfean history, agrees as to
these dates, only adding 9 months for the son of
Neriglissar, Laborosoarchod, in Jos, Ant, x, 11, com
bined with cent. Apion. i. 20, and Eus, Prtep.
Evang. ix. 40.

230

INTEODUCTION TO

their numbers were no longer consider
able. History, wdth the exception of that one
marauding expedition toward Egypt, is en
tirely silent as to any excursions of the
Scythians, except in the North. No extant
document hints at any approach of theirs to
any country mentioned by Zephaniah. 'There
was no reason to e.xpect any inroad from
them. With the exception of Bactriana,
which lies some 18 degrees East of Media and
itself extended over some 7 degrees of longi
tude, the countries mentioned by Strabo lie,
to what the kings of Assyria mention as the
far North, Armenia, and thence they stretched
out to the West, yet keeping mostly to the
neighborhood of the Euxine. Considering
the occasion of the mention of the invasion
of the Scythians, the relief which their in
vasion of Media gave to Nineveh, it is even
remarkable that there is no mention of any
ravages of theirs throughout Mesopotamia or
Babylonia. Zephaniah speaks, not of ma
rauding, but of permanent desolation of
Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, and of de
structive war also on Ethiopia. There is no
reason to think that the Scythians approached
any of these lands, except Philistia, which
they passed through unharming. The sacred
writers mention even smaller nations, by
whom God chastised Judah in their times,
bands of tlie Syrians, of Moab, of the children of
Ammon, as well as Assyria and Baliylon.
Ezekiel ^, when he prophesies of the inroad
of Northern nations, Meshech and Tubal,
Gomer and Togarmah, speaks of it as far re
moved in the future, prophesies not their de
stroying but their own destruction.
It does not affect the argument from
prophecy, whether Zephaniah did or did not
know, through whom the events, which he
predicted, should be brought to pass. But,
setting aside the question whether he had
from the prophecies of Habakkuk and Isaiah,
a human knowledge of the Chaldees, or
whether 'God instructed him, how what he
foretold should be accomplished, or whether
God spread out before his mind that which
was to be, apart from time, in prophetic
vision, Zephaniah did picture what came to
pass. But it is an intense paradox, when
men, 2500 years after his date, assert, not
only that Zephaniah's prophecies had no
relation to the Chaldees, in whom his words
were fulfilled, and who are the objects of the
prophecies of Habakkuk and Jeremiah, but
BEzek. xxxviii, xxxix,
i»The name 2Ku06TroAts, which Josephus says the
Greeks gave to Bethshan, (Ant, 12, 8, 5) and which
they alone can have given, is manifestly, as being
Greek, too late to contain any tradition as to the
presence of the Scythians in Palestine, three centu
ries before the Greeks, under Alexander, became
acquainted with Palestine, S, Jerome regarded it
as a corruption otSuccoth. He says on Gen. xxxiii.
17, "In the Hebrew is read Sucoth (fUD)- But

that tliey know, what must have been, and
(as they assert) 'wdiat was in the prophet's
mind ; and that he had in his mind, not
those in whom his words were fulfilled, but
others in whom they were not fulfilled, to
whom he does not allude in one single trait,
who left no trace behind them, and whose
march along an enemy's tract on the sea-
coast was of so little account, that no con
temporary historian, nor Josephus, eveu
alludes to it ^
It has been already observed, that each
prophet connects himself with one or more
of those before them. They use the language
of their predecessoi-s in some one or more
sentences, apparently with this precise object.
They had overflowing fullness of words; yet
they chose some saying of the former pro
phet, as a link to those before thera. We
have seen this in Amos ', then in Obadiah '',
v/ho uses the language of Balaam, David,
Joel, Amos ; of Jeremiah, in regard to
Obadiah ' ; of Micah to his great predecessor,
Micaiah, and Amos'"; of Jeremiah, Habak
kuk, Zephaniah, Ezekiel to Micah " ; of
Nahum to Jonah ° ; and of Isaiah (I think),
to Nahura i" ; of Habakkuk, to Isaiah and
Micah ^. It is in conformity with this, that
Zephaniah, even more than those before him,
uses language of earlier prophets. It arises,
not (as people have been pleased to say) from
any declension in the originality of prophets
at his date, but fi-om his subject. It has been
said, " If any one desire to see the utterances
of the prophets in brief space, let him read
through this brief Zephaniah." The office of
Zephaniah was not to forewarn of any instru
ment of God's judgments. The destruction
is prophesied, not the destroyer. His pro
phecy is, more than those of most other pro
phets, apart from time, to the end of time.
He prophesies of what shall be, not when it
shall be, nor by whom. He does not "expect"
or " anticipate " or "forebode!" He abso
lutely declares the future condition of certain
nations; but not the how of its coming to
pass. If Nineveh, Edom and Ammon had
not been desolated, his prophecy would have
been falsitted ; each fulflllment became the
earnest of a larger fulfillment ; but all shall
not be completed until the earth and all that is
therein shall be burned up.
It belongs to this character of Zephaniah,
that he gathers from other prophets before
him, especially Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Habak
kuk, expressions relating to, or bearijig on,
there is to this daya city beyond Jordan into which
this name enters in part, Seythopolis." Qusestt.
Hebr. ad Gen. [Opp. iii. 358- ed. 'Vail.] quoted by Re-
lanil, p. 992.
iSee Introd. to Joel vol, i, p, 143,
'See Introd, to Obadiah vol, i. pp, 343-351.
' Ib. pp, 343-347,
» See introd to Micah ab. p, 5, »Ib.
¦= See Introd, to Nahum ab, p, 105.
p Ib, 125. 1 Ib. 168.

ZEPHANIAH.

231

judgment to come, or again to that his other
great subject, God's love for the remnant of
His people; yet mostly in fragments only
and allusively. They were key-notes for
those who knew the prophets. Thus, in call
ing on man to hushed submission before
God, because a day of judgment was coming,
he blends into one verse ' Habakkuk's call,
'hush before the Lord, and the warning
words of Isaiah, Joel, Obadiah, ''nigh is the
' day of the Lord; the image of the sacrifice,
which God had commanded, and the remark
able word, consecrated, of God's instruments.
The allusion is contained in single words,
sacrifice, consecrated; the context in which
they are embodied is different. The idea
only is the same, that Almighty God maketh,
as it were, a sacrifice to Himself of those who
incorrigibly rebel against Him. Else Isaiah
draws out the image at much length ; " A
sword of ihe Lord is full of bloods; it is smeared
with fat, with ilie blood of lambs a'nd of goats ;
with the fat of kidneys of rams : for the Lord
hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter
in the land of Edom. Jeremiah uses the
image in equal fullness of the overthrow of
Pharaoh-Necho at the Euphrates ; ' This is
a day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of ven
geance, that He may avenge Him of His adversa
ries : a'nd the sword shall devour, and it shall be
satiate and made drunk with blood ; for ihe Lord
Ood hath a sacrifice in the North country by the
river Euphrates. Ezekiel expands it yet
more boldly ". Zephaniah drops everything
local, and condenses the image into the
words, The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice; He
hath consecrated His guests, adding the new
hold image, that they whom God employed
were, as it were, His invited guests", whom
He consecrated ^ thereto.
In like way, as to the day of the Lord
itself, he accumulates all words of terror
from different prophets ; from Joel the
words, ' a day of darkness and of gloominess ; a
day of clouds and of thick darkness: to these he
adds * of shouting and the sound of the trumpet,
used by Amos in relation to the destruction
' i. 7. ¦ Hab. ii. 20.
'Is. xiii. 6. Jo. i. 15. iv. 15. Ob. 15. The words
*^ DV are used of a day of God's iudgraents. Is.
xiii. 9, Jo. ii. 1, 11, Am. v. 18, 20. Ezek. xiii. 6. Mai.
iii. 23, not with 31"lp. In Is. ii. 12, it is '¦'^ pV or in
Jo. ii. 1. subordinately.
" Is. xxxiv. 6. T Jer. xlvi. 10.
* Ezek. .xxxix. 17.
» Zephauiah's word, D^N'lp occurs beside only
in 1 Sam. ix. 13.
r Isaiah's word (xiii. 3.) ia ''K'IPD; Zephaniah's
©npn. I
. »S£n;;i p;? DV nSasi^iyn or Jo. u, 2, zeph,
' » nj;nni law zeph. i. lo. Am. u. 2.
'nsiroi nsity Job xxxviii. 27. npviDi nv
XV, 24, Zeph, has SD1 mV. nilS stands parallel
With nipli'D Ps. xxv. 17.

of Moab ; .the two combinations, which pre
cede, occur, the one in a different sense, the
other with a slightly different grammatical
inflection, in Job ''.
From Isaiah, Zephaniah adopts that charac
teristic picture of self-idolizing, which brings
down (iod's judgments on its pride; (the
city) "that dwelleth securely, that said in her
heart, land no I beside.
Even where Isaiah says, ^ For a consump
tion and that decreed, the Lard Ood of hosts
makes in the midst of all the earth and, slightly
varying it, " For a consumption and that de
creed, I have heard from the Lord God of hosts
upon all the earth, Zephaniah, retaining the
two first words, which occur in both places,
says more concisely, 'For a consumption,
nought but terror, will He make all ihe inhab
itants of the earth. Yet simple as the words
are, he pronounced, that God would not only
bring a desolation upon the earth, or in the midst
of the earth, but would make its inhabitants
one consumption. Nahum had said of Nin
eveh, 8 wiih an overflowing flood He will make
the place thereof an utter consumption. The
most forceful words are the simplest.
He uses the exact words of Isaiah, '' From
beyond the rivers of Cush, than which none can
be simpler, and employs the word of festive
procession, though in a different form', and
having thus connected his prophecy with
Isaiah's, all the rest, upon which the pro
phecy turns, is varied.
In like way he adopts from Micah the
three words'', her-that-halteth, and-will-gather
her-that-is-driven-out. The context in which
he resets them is quite different.
It has been thought, that the words, 'I
have heard the reproach of Moab, may have
been suggested by those of Isaiah, who begins
his lament over Moab, We have heard of the
pride of Moab ; but the force and bearing of
the words is altogether different, since it is
God Who says, I have heard, and so He will
punish. The combination™, the exulters of pride, is
common to him with Isaiah : its meaning is
« Is, Xlvii. 8. Zeph. ii, 15, moNn HD^'? nniJ/m
nij; 'D-3K1 'jx nD3'73,
* Is, X, 23. « Ib. xxviii, 22,
fn7D ¦'3. He retains the siraplest words, but
substitutes PI Sil^J "IX (a word formed by himself)
for the nSinjl of Isaiah,
8 Nah, i, 8,
'' E'13 'injS 13;fD Zeph, iii. 10. Is. xviii, 1,
' [ib^r Zeph, S^r is, xvlil, 7,
' ns3px nmjni nj^Ssni mic, iv. o. zeph.
ill, 19,
'3X1D nsin 'n;?DB' zeph, ii, s, |ixj ij;?nty
3X1D Isj xvi. 6.
«"mXJ 'rSi? Is. xiii. 3. iniHJ tS;? ZepKlli.

232

INTEODUCTION TO

uncertain ; but it is manifestly different in
the two places, since the one relates to God,
the other to man.
The words, "^ They shall build houses and
shall not dwell ilierein; they shall plant mneyards
and not drink the urine thereof, axe from the
original threat in Deuteronomy, from which
also the two words, " They-shail-walk as-the-
blind, may he a reminiscence, but wdth a con
ciseness of its own and without the character
istic expressions of Deuteronomy, adopted by
other sacred writers : '' They sliall grope at
noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness.
Altogether these passages are evidence that
Zephaniah is of later date than the pro
phecies in which the like language occurs ;
and the fact that he does employ so much
language of his predecessors furnishes a
strong presumption in any single case, that
he in that case also adopted from the other
sacred writer the language which they have
in comraon.
It is chiefly on this ground, that a train of
modern critics' have spoken disparagingly
ofthe outward form and style of Zephaniah.
It has however a remarkable combination of
fullness with conciseness and force. Thus, he
begins the enumeration of those upon whom
the destruction should fall, with the words,
'consuming I will consume all : to an enumera
tion co-extensive with the creation, he adds
unexpectedly, ^ and the stumblingbloeks with the
wicked, anticipating our Lord's words of the
Day of Judgment, '•they shall gather the sium
blingblocks and them that do iniquity : to the
different idolatries he adds those of a divided
faith, '^swearers to the Lord and swearers by
Malcham; to those who turned away from
God he adds those who were unearnest in
seeking Him \
Again, after the full announcement of the
destruction in the Day of the Lord, the burst,
in those five words, '^ sift-yourselves and-sift
{on) nation unlonged for, is, in suddenness and
condensation, like Hosea; and so again, in
five words, after the picture of the future
desolation of Nineveh, the abrupt turn to
Jerusalem, " Woe rebellious and-deflled (thou)
oppressive city, and then follow the several,
counts of her indictment, in brief disjointed
sentences, first negatively, as a whole ; each
in three or four words ?, she-listened not to-
voice; she-received not correction; in-the-Lord
shertrusted not ; to-hcr-Ood she-approached not;
» Zeph. i. 13. Deut. xxviii. 30, 39. The words are
more exact than iu Micah vi. 14. Am, v, 11,
''D''11,I?3 \3'lT\ Zeph, i, 17, rDeut, xxviii, 29,
1 Eichhorn, De Wette, Stahelin, and their follow
ers, De Wette however does own, "In employing
what is not his own, he is, at least, original in its
expansion," Einl, 245, note b,
'i, 2, «i, 3. 'S, Matt, xiii, 41, »Zeph, i.6,
» i, 6. » ii, 1, I ii, 1, J iii, 2, « lb, 3, 4,
« Ib, 6. i" Ib, 17, « iii, 2, a Jer, vii, 24-28,
«iii, 17. Some modern commentators take um
brage at the beautiful expression. Ewald alters,

then, in equally broken words, each class is
characterized by its sins; '¦her^rinces in-
her^midst are roaring lions ; her-judges evening
wolves; 'not gnawed-ihey-bones on-th&moi-row ;
her-propheis empty-babblers, men of-deceits; her-
priests profaned holiness, violated law. Then
in sudden contrast to all this contumacy,
neglect, despite of God, He Himself is ex
hibited as in the midst of her ; the witness and
judge of all ; there, where they sinned.
" The-Lord righteous in-her-midst ; He-doth not
iniquity ; by-morning by-morning His-jiidgment
He-giveth to-light; He-faileth not; and then
in contrast to the holiness and the judgments
of God, follows in four words, the persever
ance of man in his shamelessness, and — the
fruit of all this presence and doings of the
Holy and Eighteous God and Judge is, and
not knoweth the wrong-doer shame. Zephaniah
uses the same disjoining of the clauses in the
descrijition of God's future manifestation of
His love toward them. Again it is the same
thought", The-Lord thy-God (is) in-ihy-midst ;
but now in love; mighty, shall-save; He-shall-
rejoice pver-thee with-joy ; He-shallrkeep-silence
in-His-love ; He-shall-rejoice over-iliee with-
jubilee. The single expressions are alike
condensed ; " she-hearkened not to-voice, stands
for what Jeremiah says at such much greater
length, how God had sent all His servants
^the prophets, daily rising up early and sending
them, but they hearkened ¦not unto 3Ie nor inclined
their ear, but hardened their neck. The words
" shall-be-silent in-His-love, in their primary
meaning, express the deepest liuman love,
but without the wonted image of betrothal.
' The whole people of Canaan reminds one of
Hosea ; ^ the-men-coagulated on-their-lees is
much expanded by Jeremiah'', his word
occurs before him in Job only and the song
of Moses'. Single poetic expressions are,
that Moab should become '' tlie possession of
briars, the word itself being framed by
Zephaniah ; in the description of the desola
tion of Nineveh, 'avoicesingethin the window;
desolation is on the threshold, the imagery is so
bold, that modern criticism has thought that
the word voice which occurs in the O. T. 328
times and with pronouns 157 times more,
must signify " an owl," and desolation must
stand for " a crow ™." Very characteristic is
the word, " He " sliall famish all the gods of
the earth," expressing with wonderful irony,
the privation of their sacrifices, which was
with the LXX, into J^'lfT' which does not occur
elsewhere. But the LXX renders "shall renew
thee ; " Ewald, " (God) becomes young (sicfi verjiinget)
in His love ! "
'Zeph, i, 11, Comp, Hos, xii, 7, ei, 12,
' Jer, xlviii, 11. i Job x, 10. Ex. xv, 8,
¦t ii- 9. 1 ii, 14,
""blp must answer to the Ethiopian J?X1p
yXaif and our eule (owl); and 3111 seems equal
31i'," Ewald Proph. ii. 25.
^S^Q below on illl.

ZEPHANIAH.

233

the occasion of the first Heathen persecutions
of the Christians.
When then a writer, at times so concise
and poetic as Zephaniah is in these places,
is, at othei-s, so full in his descriptions, this
is not prolixity, but rather vivid picturing ;
at one time going through all the orders of
creation" ; at another, different classes of the
ungodly " ; at yet another, the different parts
of the scared woe-stricken city i, to set before
our eyes the universality of the desolation.
Those who are familiar with our own great
Northern poet of nature, will remember how
the accumulation of names adds to the vivid
ness of his descriptions. Yet here too there
is great force in the individual descriptions,
as when he pictures the petty plunderers for
their master, and flll their master^ houses — not
with wealth but — with violence a^nd fraud', all
which remains of wealth gained by fraud
and extortion being the sins themselves,
which dwell in the house of the fraudulent
to his destruction.
In the strictly prophetic part of his ofiice,
Jerusalera having been marked out by Micah
and Isaiah before him, as the place where
God would make the new revelation of Plim
self, Zephaniah adds, what our Lord revealed
to the Samaritan woman, 'that Jerusalem
should no longer be the abiding centre of
.worship. ' They shall worship Him, every man
from his place, all the isles of the ¦nations, is a
prophecy which, to this day, is receiving an
increasing accomplishment. It is a propliecy,
not of the spread of Monotheism, but of the
worship of Him, to Whose worship at that
time a handful of Jews could with difficulty
be brought to adhere, the desertion or cor
ruption or association of Whose worship 'with
idolatry Zephaniah had to denounce and to
foretell ifs punishment. The love which
God should then shew to Plis own is ex
pressed in words, unequaled for tenderness ;
and in conformity to that love is the increas
ing growth of holiness, and the stricter
requirements of God's holy justice. Again,
Zephaniah has a prelude to our Blessed
Lord's words, " to whom much is given, of him
shall much be required, or His Apostle's, of the
great awe in working out our salvation''.
Progress is a characteristic and condition of
the Christian life ; " We beseech you, that as
ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and
to please Ood, ye would abound ¦more and more.
Even so Zephaniah bids " aU the meek of the
earth, who have wrought His judgments or law to
seek diligently that meekness, which had
already characterized thera, and that, not in
view of great things, but, if so be they might
»i, 3. pIb, 4-9, lib, 10, 11,
' Ib, 9, Araos has the like idea (iii. 10) but no
word is the sarae except DDH.
»S, John iv, 21, 'ii- H-
°S, Luke xii, 48. »Phil. ii, 12,
»lThess. iv. L »ii. 3.

be saved ; it may be that ye may be hid in the
day of the Lord's anger, as S. Peter saith, ^ If
the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the
ungoclly and the sinner appear? It is again
remarkable, how he selects meekness, as the
characteristic of the new state of things,
which he promises. He anticipates the con
trast in the Magnificat, in which the lowest
lowliness was rewarded by the highest exalt
ation. As it is said there, " He hath put down
the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the
humble and meek, so the removal of the
proud/rom within thee, and the " leaving of an
afflicted and poor people within thee '-," is the
special promise by Zephaniah.
Little is said of the captivity. It is a
future variously assumed ''. Judah in the
furthest lands, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, is
the daughter of My dispersed " ; the whole
earth is the scene of tlieir shame '' ; their
praises should be commensurate with their
shame, when I turn back your captivity before
your eyes ". But this turning away of their
captivity is the only notice, that their
punishment should be the going into cap
tivity. The captivity itself is pre-supposed,
as certain and as known. So neither are
there any images from teraporal exaltation.
All pride should be removed, as utterly un-
befltting God's holy presence : thou shalt no
more be haughty in My holy mountain '. The
words expressive of the abasement of those
within her are proportionably strong, ^ My
afflicted and poor. Some are wont, in these
days, to talk of God's prophets as patriots.
They were such truly, since they loved the
land of the Lord with a Divine love. But
what mere " patriot " would limit his pro
mises to the presence of " a poor people in a
low estate," with an unseen presence of God ?
The description belongs to His kingdom,
which was not of this world '' : the only king
whom Zephaniah speaks of, the king of Israel',
is Almighty God. The blessing which he
proraises, is the corresponding blessing of
peace, " Fear tliou not ; thou shall not see evil
any more, none shall make them afraid. But
the words ' Let not ihy hands be slack, imply
that they shall be aggressive on the world ;
that they were not to relax from the work
which God assigned to them, the conversion
of the world.
An allusion to the prophet Joel' makes it
uncertain whether words of Zephaniah
relate to the first Coming of our Lord, or the
times which should usher in the Second, or
to both in one ; and so, whether, in accord
ance with his general character of gathering
into one all God's judgments to His end, he
y 1 S. Pet. iv, 18. • S Luke ii, 52.
» Zeph. iii. 12. ^ Ib, 13, = Ib, 10.
4 Ib, 19, « Ib, 20, add, ii, 7, 'lb, 11.
e Ib. 12. i S, John xviii. 36.
I Zeph. iii. 15.
k iii. 16. > iii. 2. [iv. 2 Heb.]

234

ZEPHANIAH.

is speaking of the first restoration of the one
purified language of faith and hope, when
"" tlie multitude qf them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul, or whether he had his
mind fixed rather on the end, when " tlie full
ness of tlie Gentiles shall come in. The words
also (since they may be taken either way ")
leave it uncertain whether the Gentiles are
spoken of as bringing in the people of God,
(as they shall at the end) or -whether the

"Acts iv. 32,

n Rom, xi, 25,

first conversion of the Jews, even in the most
distant countries, is his subject.
In any case, Zephaniah had a remarkable
office, to declare the raercy and judgment of
God, judgments both temporal and final,
mercies, not of this world, promised to a
temper not of this world, p the wisdom which
is from above, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to
be entreated, full of mei'cy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy.
«See on Zeph. iii. 10. pS. James iii, 7.

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

CHAPTEE I.
Gotf s severe judgment
Judah for divers sins.
THE word of tte Loed
which came unto Zeph
aniah the son of Cushi,
the son of Gedaliah, the

Chap. L, Ver. 1. The word of the Lord
which came unto Zephaniah tlie son of Cushi, the
son of Gedaliah, tlie son of Amariah, the son of
Hezekiah. It seems likely that more fore
fathers of the Prophet are named than is the
wont of Holy Scripture, because the last so
named -was some one remarkable. Nor is
it impossible that Zephaniah should have
been the great grandson of the king Heze
kiah ; for although Ploly Scripture commonly
names the one sou only who is in the sacred
line, and although there is one generation
more than to Josiah, yet if each had a son
early, Zephaniah might have been contera
porary with Josiah. The names seem also
mentioned for the sake of their meaning ;
at least it is remarkable how the narae of
God appears in most. Zephaniah, " whom
the Lord hid ; " Gedaliah, " whom the Lord
made great ; " Amariah, " whom the Lord
promised ; " Hezekiah, " whom the Lord
strengthened." 2. / will utterly consume all things ; better
all '- The word is not limited to " things "
" animate " or " inanimate " or " men ; " it is
used severally of each, according to the
context ; here, without limitation, of " all."
Ood and all stand over against one another ;
Ood and all which is not of God or in God.
God, he says, will utterly consume all from off
the land \_earth.] Tlie prophet sums up in
1 Sd is used absolutely in a title of God, " Who
maketh all," ^73 TKl]}, Is- xliv. 24; "Thou canst do
all," i. e. art Almighty, Job xiii. 2; "Thou hast put
all ^73 T\rW, under his feet," Ps. viii, 7 ; and of
man, "mine ej^e hath seen all," Job xiii, 1; and
personally, gathering in one all which he had said
of God's doings, with 'liDn xS "want not any
thing," De, viii, 9. Iipn, lOn "want of every
thing," Jer, xliv, 18, De, xxviii, 48, 57; "all were
[lit, tii'as] asharaed " (with sing, verb) t^'X^il 73
Is, xxx, 5,
2 So also Jeremiah viii, 13, in the same words,
Dtl'DX I'lDX, Rashi makes them one word, sup
posing citJXtobe for rjjsX. A, E. mentions those
who thought that X in tl'lDX was prefixed, as in
tynX Is, xxviii, 28 ; but it is unnatural to assume
a rare and irregular form, when the word f]1DX is
the regular form from the common word i^DX,

son of Amariah, the son oh'^°jIt
of Hizkiah, in the days of '^''•- mo,
Josiah the son of Amon,
king of Judah.
2 I t'will utterly con- 1 Heb, % fritinj
-' away 1 will
same all things from off make an end.
. ^ , ^ fUeh, theface
J the land, saith the Lord, of the land.

few words the subject of the whole chapter,
the judgments of God from his own times to
the day of Judgment itself. And this Day
Itself he brings the more strongly before the
mind, in that, with wonderful briefness, in
two words which he conforms, in sound also,
the one to the other, ' he expresses the utter
final consumption of all things. Pie expresses
at once the intensity of action and blends
their separate meanings, Taking away I will
make an end of all ; and with this he unites
the words used of the flood, from off theface of
the earth '''. Then he goes through the whole
creation as it was made, pairing man and
beast, which Moses speaks of as created on
the sixth day, and the creation of the fifth
day, the fowls of ihe heaven and the flshes of the
sea; and before each he sets the solemn word
of God, I will end, as the act of God Plimself.
The words can have no complete fulfillment,
until * the earth and the works that are therein
shall be burned up, as the Psalmist too, having
gone through the creation, sums up, ^ Tliou
takest away their breath, they die and return to
their dust; and theu speaks of the re-creation,
" Thou, sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created ;
and Thou renewest the face of ihe earth, and,
' Of old Thou hast laid the foundations of the
earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy
hands ; they shall perish, but Thou shalt endure,
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as
'HDnxn signifies "earth," almost always in the
phrase DDIXD ''J3 '7,^, always in the phrase
nmxn '•JS ^yj?> unless they be limited by some
addition, as " which the Lord sware that He would
give thee," nD'^X^ ''J3 hy is thus used Gen. vi,
1, vii, 23, Ex, xxxiii, 16, Nu, xii, 3, De, vii, 6, xiv, 2,
2 Sam, xiv. 7, Is. xxiii, 17, Jer, xxv. 26, Ezek.
xxxviii, 20. nmxn 'ja S,J?D " from the face of
the earth" occurs, unlimited bythe context. Gen.
iv. 14, vi. 7, vii. 4, viii. 8, Ex. xxxii. 12, Do. vi. 15. 1
Sam. XX. 15, 1 Kgs xiii. 34, Jer, xxviii, 16, Am, ix,
8. nmX is used of cultivable land, and so
nmxn ''JS Sjf is used in connection witli rain
falling on the ground, 1 Kgs xvii, 14; but ,3 7,^0
.xn suffers no exception, unless it be restrained
by an addition,
< 2 S, Pet, iii. 10 6pg, civ. 29,
«Ps. civ. 30. 'Ib, cii, 25.
235

236

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIS' cir, 630,

3 "I will consume man
. and beast ; I will consume

« Hos, 4. 3.

•> Ezek, 7, 19,
& 14. 3, 4, 7.
Matt. 13. 41.
li Or, idols.

the fowls of the heaven,
and the fishes of the sea,
and "the ||stumbling
blocks with the wicked ;
and I will cut off man

a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall
be changed. Local fulfillments there may, in
their degree, be. 8. Jerome speaks as if he
knew this to have been. " ' Even the brute
animals feel the wrath of the Lord, and when
cities have been wasted and men slain, there
cometh a desolation and scarceness of beasts
also and birds and fishes ; witness Illyricura,
witness Thrace, witness my native soil,"
[Stridon, a city on the confines of Dalmatia
and Pannonia] '' where, beside sky and
earth and rampant brambles and deep
thickets, all has perished." But although
this fact, which he alleges, is borne out by
natural history, it is distinct from the words
of the prophet, who speaks of the fish, not of
rivers (as S. Jerorae) but of the sea, which
can in no way be influenced by the absence
of man, who is only their destroyer. The
use of the language of the histories of the
creation and of the deluge implies that the
prophet has in mind a destruction commen
surate with that creation. Then he foretells
the final removal of offences, in the same
words which our Lord uses of the general
Judgment. ^ Tlie Son of Man shall send, forth
His Angels and they shall gather out of His
kingdom all things tliat offend, amd them that do
iniquity. 3. The stuinbling-bloeks ^ with ihe wicked.
Not only shall the wicked be utterly
brought to an end, or, in the other meaning
of the word, gathered into bundles to be taken
away, but all causes of stumbling too ; every
thing, through which others can fall, which
will not be until the end of all things. Then,
he repeats, yet more emphatically, / will cut
off the whole race of man ^ from the face of the
earth, and then he closes the verse, like the
1 S, Jer. 2 S, Matt, xiii, 41,
'niStJ/pO i. q. D'Sypp Jer, vi, 21, Ezek, xxi.
20, So Kim,, Rashi, who limits it to idolatry (as
Ges,} without reason. They are the wiclied gener
ally, not one class of them. In Is. iii. 6. (where
alone the word occurs beside) it is used metaphor
ically of the state, "this ruin."
* DIXn nX, as in the history of the creation,
Gen, i, 27, or the flood, Ib, vi, 7. vii, 21,
s Ex. vi, 6, De, iv, 34, v, 15, vii, 19, xi, 2, xxvi, 8, and
thence Jer, xxxii, 21, Ps, cxxxvi, 12, Isaiah had, in
the same phrase, prophesied God's judgments
against Israel in the burden v, 25, ix, 11, 16, x, 4,
6 Jer, ii. 10, 11,
' 1 S, Pet. iv. 17. Jer. xxv. 29.
e Is. xiv. 22.

from off the land, saith chrTst
the Lord. "'¦'¦ °3o.
4 I will also stretch out
mine hand upon Judah,
and upon all the inhabi
tants of Jerusalem ; and " Fumued, cir,
624,
°I will cut off the rem- 2 Kin, 23,4,5,

foregoing, with the solemn words, sait.h the
Lord. All this shall be fulfilled in the Day
of Judgment, and all other fulfillments are
earnests of the final Judgraent. They are
witnesses of the ever-living presence of the
Judge of all, that God does take account of
man's deeds. They speak to men's conscience,
they attest the existence of a Divine law, and
therewith of the future complete manifesta
tion of that law, of which they are individual
sentences. Not until the prophet has
brought this circle of judgments' to their
close, does he pass on to the particular judg
ments on Judah and Jerusalem.
4. / will also stretch out Mine Hand, as be
fore on Egypt ^. Judah had gone in the
ways of Egypt and learned her sins, and
sinned worse than Egypt ". The mighty Hand
and siretclied-out Ann, with which she had
been delivered, shall be again stretched out,
yet not for her but upon her, upon all ihe in
habitants of Jerusalem. In this threatened de
struction of all, Judah and Jerusalem are
singled out, because judgment shall ' begin at
ihe house of God. They who have sinned
against the greater grace shall be most sig
nally punished. Yet the punishment of
those whom God had so chosen and loved is
an earnest of the general judgment. This
too is not a partial but a general judgment
" upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
And I wdl cut off the remnant of Baal, i. e. to
the very last vestige of it. Isaiah unites
* na'me and residue, as equivalents, together
with the proverbial, posterity and descendant ".
Zephaniah distributes them in parallel
clauses, " the residue '" of Baal and the name
of the Chemarim." Good and evil have each
¦a. root, which remains in the ground, when
°13J1 rj, which occur only together, Gen. xxi.
23, Job xviii. 19, Is. xiv. 22.
" IXiy is not limited, like JTIXJV, to that which
remains over when a forraer or larger part has
ceased or is gone. It is mostly " the rest," after
others who had been named, yet still it may be the
larger number ; as, " the rest of those chosen," 1
Chr. xvi. 41; "the rest of their brethren, the
priests and the Levites," Ezr. iii. 9 (8. Eng.) ; "the
rest of the chief of the fathers," Ib. iv. 3 ; " the rest
of their companions," Ib. 7; "the rest of the
people," Neh. x. 29, xi. 1., "the rest of Israel." Ib.
•20; "the rest of the Jews," Esth. ix, 16. So in
Is.aiah, "the rest of Syria" beside Damascus. Is.
xviii. 3 and "the rest of the Spirit" Mai. ii. 15.
(See lb.)

CHAPTER L

237

ohrTst ^^°* °^ Baal from this
cir. 630. place, and the name of
''the Chemarims with the

aHos. 10. 5.

priests ;

the trunk has been hewn down. There is
'¦ a remnant according io the electian of grace,
when the rest have been blinded; and this is
a ^ holy seed to carry on the line of God. Evil
too has its remnant, which, unless diligently
kept down, shoots up again, after the con
version of peoples or individuals. The
' mind of ihe flesh remains in the regenerate
also. The prophet foretells the complete ex
cision of the whole remnant of Baal, which
was fulfilled in it after the captivity, and
shall be fulfilled as to all which it shadows
forth, in the Day of Judgment. From this
place; for in their phrensy, they dared to
bring the worship of Baal into the very tem
ple of the Lord *. " ^ 'Who would ever be
lieve that in Jerusalem, the holy city, and
in the very temple idols should be conse
crated? "\¥hoso seeth the ways of our times
will readily believe it. For among Chris
tians and in the very temple of God, the
abominations of the heathen are worshiped.
Eiches, pleasures, honors, are they not idols
which Christians prefer to God Himself?"
And the 'name of the Chemarim with ihe
priests. Of the idolatrous priests" the very
name shall be cut off, as God promises by
Hosea, that He will ' take away the names of
Baalim, and by Zechariah, that Pie " will cut
offthe names of the idols out of the land. Yet
this is more. Not the name only qf the Che
marim, but themselves with their name, their
posterity, shall be blotted out ; still more, it
is God "VVho cuts off all memory of them,
blotting them out of the book of the living
and out of His own. They had but a name
before, " that they were limng, but were dead.
"'"The Lord shall take away names of vain
glory, wrongly admired, out of the Church ;
yea, the very names of the priests with the
priests who vainly flatter themselves with
the name of Bishops and the dignity of
Presbyters without their deeds. "Whence he
markedly says, not, and the deeds of ¦priests
¦with the priests, but the names ; who only bear
the false name of dignities, and with evil
works destroy their own names." The
1 Rom. xi, 5, 7, 2 Is, vi, 13, 3 (ftpovrjiLO. aapKO?.
<2 Kgs xxiii, 4, SRib,
^ The chemarim is the name of idolatrous priests
fenerally, (it occurs also 2 Kgs xxiii, 5, Hos, x, 5),
n 2 Kings, where is the account of the flrst fulfill
ment of this prophecy, they appear as priests of
the idolatrous high-places, distinct from the priests
of Baal and of the host of heaven. The narae is
probably the Syriac name of "priest," used in
Holy Scripture of idolatrous priests, because the
Syrians were idolaters. See Gesenius Gesch, d,
Hebr, Sprache p, 58, In Chald, X1D13 is limited
to idolatrous priests. See Buxt. and Levy.

5 And them ' that wor- „ before
C H Iv 1 D 1
ship the host of heaven <="'¦ ''¦^o-

,, , , , 1 «2 Kin. 23. 12.
upon the housetops ; and jer. 19. 13.
them that worship and 2Kin,'i7,'3'3,4L

priests are priests of the Lord, who live not like
priests, corrupt in life and doctrine and cor
rupters of God's people". The judgment is
pronounced alike on what was intrinsically
evil, and on good which had corrupted itself
into evil. The title of priest is no where
given to the priest of a false God, without
some mention in the context, implying that
they were idolatrous priests ; as the priests
of Dagon '2, of the high-places as ordained by
Jeroboam ", of Baal '*, of Bethel '^ of Ahab '",
of those who were not gods ", of On, where
the sun was worshiped ". The priests then were
God's priests, who in the evil days of Manas
seh had manifoldly corrupted their life or
their faith, and who were still evil. The
priests of judah, with its kings its princes
and the people of the land, were in Jere
miah's inaugural vision enumerated as those,
who shall, God says, '"flght against thee, but
shall not prevail against thee. ™ The priests said
not. Where is the Lord ? and they that handle
the law knew Me not. In the general corrup
tion, ^' A wonderful and horrible thing is com
mitted in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests bear rule at their hands '^ ; '¦'^ the
children of Israel and the children of Judah,
their kings, their princes, their priests, and iheir
prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabit
ants of Jerusalem, hare turnedunto Me the back,
and not theface. Jeremiah speaks specifically
of heavy moral sins. ''*From the prophet even
unto the priest every one dealeth falsely ; "* both
prophet and priest are prof ane ; ^"for the sins of
her prophets, ihe iniquities of her priests, that
have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
And Isaiah says of their sensuality; '"the
priests and ihe pi-ophets have erred through
strong drink; they are swallowed up of wine, they
are out of the way through strong drink.
5. And them that worship the host of heaven
upon the [flat] housetops. This was fulfilled
by Josiah who destroyed ^^the altars thai were
on ihe top of tlie upper chamber of Ahaz.
Jeremiah speaks as if this worship was almost
universal, as though well-nigh every roof had
been profaned by this idolatry. ''" The houses
1 Hos, ii, 17, s Zech, xiii, 2, » Rev, iii, 1.
10 S, Jer, " See Jer, ii, 8, v, 31, 1= i gam, v, 6.
13 1 Kgs xiii, 2, 33, 2 KcTS xxiii, 20, 2 Chr, xi, 16.
"2 Kgs X, 19, xi. 18, 2 Chr. xxiii. 17.
15 Am, vii, 10, i» 2 Kgs x, 11, " 2 Chr, xiii, 9.
18 Gen, xii, 4.5-.50. &e. The name " Potipherah,"
probably belonging to " Phre," implies this.
" Jer. i. 18, 19. 2» Ib, ii, 7, 8, 2> Jer. v, 30, 31.
22 on'T' '?;?. ^ Jer, xxxii, 32, 33.
2< Ib, vi, 13, viii. 10. 26 jer, xxiii, 11.
2« Lam. iv. 13. 27 ig, xxviii, 7,
28 2 Kgs xxiii. 12. 29 jer. xix. 13.

238

ZEPHANIAH.

of Jerusalem, and ihe houses of Judah, shall be
defiled as the -place of Tophet, because of all the
houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense
unto all tlie host of heaven, and liave poured out
drink-offerings unto other gods. ' The Chal
dceans thai flght against this city, shall come and
set fire on this city, and burn it with ihe houses,
upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto
Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to other
gods, io provoke Me to anger. They worshiped
on ihe house-tops, probably to have a clearer
view of that magnificent expanse of sky, '' the
moon and stars which God had ordained; the
queen of heaven, which they worshiped instead
of Hiraself. There is something so mysteri
ous in that calm face of the moon, as it
' walketh in beauty ; God seems to have in
vested it with such delegated influence over
the seasons and the produce of the earth,
that they stopped short in it, and worshiped
the creature rather than the Creator. Much
as men now talk of " Nature," admire " Na
ture," speak of its " laws," not as laws im
posed upon it, but inherent in it, laws affect
ing us and our well-being ; only not in their
ever-varying vicissitudes, * doing whatsoever
Ood commandeth them upon the face of the world
in the earth, whether for correction, or for His
land or for mercy ! The idolaters '' worshiped
and served tlie creature more than ihe Creator,
Who is blessed for ever ; moderns equally make
this world their object, only they idolize
themselves and their discoveries, and wor
ship their own intellect.
This worship on the house-tops individual
ized the public idolatry ; it was a rebellion
against God, family by family ; a sort of
family-prayer of idolatry. " Did we, say the
mingled raultitude to Jeremiah, make our
cakes to worship her, and pour out our drink-
offerings unto her, without our men ? Its family
character is described in Jeremiah, ' The
children gcither wood, and ihe fathers kindle the
fire, and the women knead the dough io make
cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out
drink-offerings wnto oilier gods. The idolatry
spread to other cities, * We ivill certainly do,
they say, as we have done, we and our fathers,
our kings ancl our princes, in the cities of Judah,
and in the streets of .lerusalem. The incense
went up continually as a memoricd to Ood
1 Jer. x.xxii. 29, 2 p,^, yiij^ 3_
3 Job xxxi, 26, 4 Ib, xxxvii, 12, 13,
6Rom, i. 2.5. 6 Jer. xliv. 19. ' Ib. vii, 18,
8 Ib. xliv. 17, 9 lb, 2, 15, 18,
10 As in the E, M,, corap, 2 Chr, xv, 14. Is. xix. 18.
xiv. 2,j. It can only mean this.
" 03*70 as DpsSa Am. v. 26. and DsVo Jer,
xlix, 1, 3, where the E, V. too renders, their king.
On his worship see vol, i, pp. 301-303,
12 Lev, xviii, 21, xx, 2-4,
18 Always used with the article expressed or
understood, hfl'yi^, S^'^S, '7i'33, unless the spe
cific name (Bael-berith, Bael-zebub, Bael-peor) is
mentioned, MNumid, 1, 2, 3 in Ges, Thes, p, 795,

from the Altar of incense in the temple : the
roofs of the houses 'were so many altars, from
which, street by street and house by house
the incense went up to her, for 'whom they
dethroned God, the queen of lieaven. It was
an idolatry, with which Judah was espe
cially besotted, believing that they received
all goods of this world from them and not
from God. \Vhen punished for their sin,
they repented of their partial repentance
and maintained to Jeremiah that they were
punished for "leaving off to burn incense to the
queen of heaven.
And them that worship ihe Lord, but with a
divided heart and service; ihal swear by
[rather '" to] the Lord, swear fealty and loyal
allegiance to Him, while they do acts which
deny it, in that they sv)ear by Malcham, better
[it is no appellative although allied to one]
their, king", most probably, I think, "Mo
loch.'; This idolatry had been their enduring
idolatry in the wilderness, after the calves
had been annihilated; it is the worship,
against which Israel is warned by name in
tlie law"'; then, throughout the history of
the Judges, we hear of the kindred idolatry
of Baal'', the Lord (who was called also
" '* eternal king " and f'rom whom individuals
named themselves " son of [the] king," " ser
vant of [the] king'°"), or the manifold
Baals '" and Ashtaroth or Astarte. But after
these had been removed on the preaching of
Samuel ", this idolatry does not reappear in
Judah until the intermarriage of Jehoram
with the house of Ahab '**. The kindred and
er^ually horrible worship of '" 3Iolech, ihe
abomination of ihe children of Ammon, was
brought in by Solomon in his decay, and en
dured until his high-place was defiled by
Josiah 2", It is probabte then that this was
ihe.ir king'", of whom Zephaniah speaks, whom
Amos 22 and after him Jeremiah, called tlieir
king; but speaking of Ammon. Him, the
king of Ammon, Judah adopted as their'
king. They owned God as their king iu
'n'ords ; Molech they owned by their deeds ;
they worshiped and. sware fealty io ihe Loi'd and
they sivare by their king ; his name was fa
miliarly in their mouths ; to hira they ap
pealed as the Judge and witness of the truth
'" ¦]bm3, ']Sd13;? ap, Ges, Ic,
" ?'S;?3n in Judges, 1 Sam,, 2 Kgs, 2 Chron,,
Jeremiah, Hosea,
1' 1 Sam, vii, 6, xii, 10,
18 2 Kgs viii, 16-18. 26, 27. 2 Chr. xxi. 6, 12, 13. xxii.
2-Jt, " 1 Kgs xi. 7. 20 2 Kgs xxiii. 13, 14,
21 Molech is always an appellative, except 1 Kgs
xi, 7, Else (by a pronunciation belonging prob
ably to Ammon) it is IjSbn Lev, xx. 5, or ^S'^?
Lev, xviii, 21, xx. 2, 4, 2 Kgs xxiii. 10, Jer. xxxii,
35, As a proper narae, it is MUcom, 1 Kgs xi, 5, 33,
2 Kgs xxiii, 13,
22 See on Amos i, 15, vol. i. p. 265.

CHAPTER I.

239

c H rTs t ^ ^^^^ s'wear 1 1 by the Loed,
cir. 630, and that swear " by Mal-

8 Isai, 48, 1, 1
Hos, 4, 15, Cham ;
II Or, to the LOBD. >> Josh, 23, 7, 1 Kin, 11, 33.

of their words, his displeasure they invoked
on themselves, if they sware falsely,
" ' Those in error were wont to swear by
heaven, and, as matter of reverence to call
out, ' By the king and lord Sun,' Those who
do so must of set purjiose and wilfully de
part from the love of God, since the law ex
pressly says, 2 Thou shall worship tlie Lord thy
Ood, and serve Him alone, and swear by His
Name." The former class who worshiped on the roofs
were mere idolaters. These worshiped, as
they thought, ihe Lord, bound theraselves
solemnly by oath to Him, but with a reserve,
joining a hateful idol to Him, in that they,
hy a religious act, owned it too as god. The
act which they did was in direct words, or
by implication, forbidden by God. The com
mand to swear by the Lord implied that they
were to swear by none else. It was followed
by the prohibition to go after other gods 'I
Contrariwise to swear by other gods was for
bidden as a part of their service. * Be very
courageous to keep and to do all that is written in
the book of the Law of Moses, neither make men
tion of the name of tlieir gods, nor cause to swear
by them, neither serve tliem, but cleave unto the
Lord your Ood. ''How shcdl I pardon thee for
this? Thy children have forsaken Me, cmd have
sworn by tlwse who are no gods.^ ' They taught
My people to ^vear by Baal. They thought
perhaps that in that they professed to serve
God, did the greater homage to Him, pro
fessed and bound themselves to be His, (such
is the meaning of swear to the Lord) they
might, without renouncing His service, do
certain things, swear by their king, although
in effect they thereby owned hira also as
god. To such Elijah said, ' How long halt ye
between two opinions? If the Lord be G od, fol
low Him ; but if Baal, then follow him; and
God by Jeremiah rejects with abhorrence
such divided service. * Ye trust in lying
words, which will not profit. Will ye steal, mur
der, commit adultery, swear falsely, and burn in
cense unto Baal, and walk after oilier gods, and
come and stand before Me in this house, which is
called by My name, saying. We are delivered to do
all these abominations. And Hosea, "Neither go
ye to Beili-aven, and swear there, The Lord liveth.
'S. Cyr, 2Deut, vi, 13.
8 Ib, vi, 13, 14, X, 30, comp. Is, Ixv, 16, Jer, iv, 2.
* Josh, xxiii. 6-8. comp, Amos viii, 14,
6Jer, V, 7, «Ib, xii, 16.
' 1 Kgs xviii. 21. 8 jer, vii, 8-10.
"Hos, iv. 15, See vol. i., p, 53, '"S, Jer,
n 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4.
12 Such is the uniform use of JIDJ- Its common

6 And 'them that are ^S''i°^%,^
turned back from the g'''- 630,
Loed; and those that j**er,' 2! 13, 17.
& 16, 6.

Such are Christians, " '" who think that
they can serve together the world and the
Lord, and please two masters, God and Mam-
mora ; who, being soldiers of Jesus Christ and
having sworn fealty to Him, " entangle them
selves with theaffairs of this Ufe and offer the
same image to God and to Ciesar." To such,
God, Whom with their lips they own, is not
their God ; their idol is, as the very name
says, their king, whom alone they please, dis
pleasing and dishonoring God. "We must
not only fear, love, honor God, but love, fear,
honor all beside for Him Alone.
6. And them thai are turned back from [lit.
have turned themselves back from following after ''']
the Lord. From this half-service, the prophet
goes on to the avowed neglect of God, by
such as wholly fall away from Him, not set
ting His "Will or law before them, but turn
ing away from Him. It is their misery that
they were set in the right way once, but
themselves turned themselves back, now no
longer following God, but '" their own lusts,
drawn away and enticed by them. How
rauch more Christians, before whose eyes
Christ Jesus is set forth, not as a Kedeemer
only but as an Example that they should
'^follow His steps I
And those that have not sought the Lord, nor
enquired for Him. This is marked to be a
distinct class. And those who. Tliese did not
openly break with God, or turn away overtly
from Him ; they kept (as men think) on good
terms with Him, but, like the slothful servant,,
rendered Him a listless heartless service.
Both words express diligent search '». God
is not found then in a careless way. They
who seek Plim not diligently"', do not find
Him. Strive, our Lord says, " io enter in at
the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, shall
seek to enter in, and shall not be able. She who
had lost the one piece of silver, sought dili
gently '*, till she had found it.
Thus he has gone through the whole cycle.
First, that mast horrible and cruel worship
of Baal, the idolatrous priests and those who
had the name of priests only, mingled with
them, yet not openly apostatizing ; then the
milder form of idolatry, the star-worship
ers ; then those who would unite the wor-
construction is with I'mX ; with "inXO, as here. Is.
lix. 13; Kal, with m of pers,, Ps. Ixxx, 19; Nif,
with m of thing, 2 Sam, i, 22,
18 S. Jas, i. 14. " 1 S. Pet, ii, 21,
"E'p3, intensive; tVIT of search below the
I ¦ ¦ - T

surface. 1' S. Luke xiii. 24.

16 S, Matt, ii, 8.
18 Ib, XV, 8.

240

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630,
" Hos. 7. 7.
' Hab, 2. 20.
Zech. 2, 13.

''have not sought the
Loed, not enquired for
him. 7 'Hold thy peace at
the presence of the Loed

ship of God with idols, who held themselves
to be worshipers of God, but whose real
king was their idol ; then those who openly
abandoned God ; and lastly those who held
with Him, just to satisfy their conscience-
qualms, but with no heart-service. And so,
in words of Habakkuk and in reminiscence
of his awful summons of the whole world
before God, he sums up ;
7. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord
Ood. [lit. Flush, in awe /rom theface of God.]
In the Presence of God, even the righteous
say from their inmost heart, ' / am vile, what
shall I answer Thee ? Iwill lay mine hand upon
my mouth. '' Now mine eye seeth Thee, where
fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes. ' Enter not into judgment with Thy ser
vant, 0 Lord ; for in Thy sight shall no man
living be justifled. How much raore must the
* man without the wedding garment be speechless,
and every false plea, with which he deceived
himself, melt away before the Face of God I
The voice of God's Judgraent echoes in every
heart, ° we indeed justly.
For the Day of the Lord is at hand. Zephan
iah, as is his wont, grounds this summons,
which he had renewed from Habakkuk, to
hushed silence before God, on Joel's pro
phetic warning", to shew that it was not
yet exhausted. A day of the Lord, of which
Joel warned, had come and was gone ; but it
was only the herald of many such days ;
judgments in tirae, heralds and earnests, and,
in their degree, pictures of the last which
shall end time.
" ' All time is God's, since He Alone is
the Lord of tirae ; yet that is specially said
to be His time when He doth anything
special. Whence Pie saith, ^ My time is not
yet come; whereas all time is His." The
Day of the Lord is, in the first instance,
"'the day of captivity and vengeance on the
sinful people," as a forerunner of the Day of
Judgment, or the day of death to each, for
this too is near, since, compared to eternity,
all the tirae of this world is brief
For the Lord hath prepared a sacriflce. God
had rejected sacrifices, offered amid unre-
pented sin; they were '"an abomination to
Him. "When man will not repent and offer
1 Job xl, 4, 2 lb, xiii, 6, 6. 3 Pg. cxliii, 2,
1 S, Matt, xxii, 11, 12, 6 S, Luke xxiii, 41,
^ See on Joel i, 14, vol, i, p, 164, and ii, 1. p, 168.
' Dion, 8 s, John vii. 6. » s, Jer
10 Is, i, 11-15, iiRom,xii. 1,
12 Is, xxxiv. 6, 18 Jer. xlvi, 10,

God : "" for the day of the

Before
C H R, T ^ T
Loed is at hand : for "'the . '^'r- ^^¦

T 1 . 1 1 "^ Isai, 13. 6.
Lord hath prepared a » isai. 34, e.
sacrifice, he hath "j" bid his Ezek, 39. 17.
, Rev, 19, 17,
guests. i^&b. sanctified,
or prepared.

himself as " a living sacrifice, holy and accept
able to Ood, God, at last, rejects all other out
ward oblations, and the sinner himself is
the sacrifice and victim of his own sins.
The image was probably suggested by Isaiah's
words, ''' The Lord hath a sacriflce in Bozrah,
and a great slaughter in ihe Land of Idumea ;
and Jeremiah subsequently uses it of the
overthrow of Pharaoh at the Euphrates,
'^ This is the day of the Lord of Hosts ; that He
may avenge Him of His adversaries; for the
Lord God hath a sacrifice in the north country
by the river Euphrates. '* The Lord hath made
all things for Himself, yea even ihe 'wicked for
tlie day of evil. All must honor God, either
fulfilling the will of God and the end of their
own being and of His love for them, by obey
ing that loving Will wdth their own free
will, or, if they repudiate it to the end, by
suflisring It.
He hath bid [lit. sanctifled '*] H'ls guests.
God had before, by Isaiah, called the heathen
whom He employed to punish Babylon,
'"My sanctifled ones. Zephaniah, by giving
the title to God's instruments against Judah,
declares that themselves, having become in
deeds like the heathen, were as heathen to
Him. The instruments of His displeasure,
not they, were so far His chosen. His called ".
Jeremiah repeats the saying, '* Thus saith the
Lord against the house of the king of Judah ; —
/ liai'e sanctifled against thee destroyers, a man
aiul his weapons. That is, so far, a holy war
in the purpose of God, which fulfills His
will; whence Nebuchadnezzar was '"His
servant, avenging His wrongs '". " ^' To be
sanctified, here denotes not the laying aside
of iniquity, nor the participation of the Holy
Ghost, but, as it were, to be foreordained and
chosen to the fulfillment of this end." That
is in a manner hallowed, which is employed
by God for a holy end, though the instru
ment, its purposes, its aims, its passions, he
in themselves unholy. There is an awe about
" the scourges of God." As with the lightning
and the tornado, there is a certain presence
of God with them, in that through them His
Righteousness is seen ; although they them
selves have as little of God as the wind and
storm which fulfill His word. Those who were
16 See E, M,
"rx-ip.
18 Jer. xxii, 6, 7, 1' Ib, xxv, 9,
20 See on Joel iii, 9. vol, i, p. 137 and Micah iii. 5.
ab, p, 312, 21 s. Cyr.

14 Prov. xvi, 4,
i«Is, xiii, 3,

CHAPTEE I.

241

Before
CHRIST cir, 630,

8 And it shall come to
pass in the day of the

once admitted to make offerings to God
make themselves sacrifices to Plis wrath ;
these, still heathen and ungodly and in all
besides reprobate, are Plis Priests, because in
this, although without their will, they do
His Will.
8. I will punish [lit. visit upon]. God seems
oftentimes to be away from His own world.
Men plot, design, say, in word or in deed,
who is Lord over us ? God is, as it were, a
stranger in it, or as a man, who hath taken a
journey into afar country. God uses our own
language to us. Iwill visit, inspecting, (so to
say), examining, sifting, reviewing, and when
man's sins require it, allowing the weight of
His displeasure to fall upon them.
The princes. The prophet again, in vivid
detail* (as his characteristic is), sets forth
together sin and punishment. Amid the
general chastisement of all, when all should
become one sacrijice, they who sinned most
should be punished most. The evil priests
had received their doom. Here he begins
anew with the mighty of the people and so
goes down, first to special spots of the city,
then to the whole, man by man. Josiah
being a godly king, no mention is made of
him. Thirteen years before his death ', he
received the proraise of God, because thine
heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself
before the Lord — I will gather thee unto thy
fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave
in peace, and thou shalt not see all ihe evil which
I will bring upon this plaee. In remarkable
contrast to Jeremiah, who )iad to be, in
detail and continual pleading with his peo
ple, a prophet of judgment to come, until these
judgments broke upon tliem, and so was the
reprover of the evil sovereigns who succeeded
Josiah, Zephaniah has to pronounce God's
judgments only on the princes and the
king's children. Jeremiah, in his inaugural
vision, was forewarned, that ^ the kings of
Judah, its princes, priests, a'nd the people of the
land should war against hira, because he
should speak unto them all which God should
command him. And thenceforth Jere
miah impleads or threatens kings and the
princes together ''. Zephaniah contrariwise,
his office lying wholly within the reign of
Josiah, describes the princes again as * roar
ing lions, but says nothing of the king, as
neither does Micah ^, in the reign, it may be,
of Jotham or Hezekiah. Isaiah speaks of
1 2 Kgs xxii, 19. 20. ' Jer, i, 18.
3 Ib. 11, 26, iv, 9, viii. 1, xxiv, 8, xxxii, 37, xxxiv, 21.
* Zeph. iii, 3, ^ Mic. in, 1, 9.
6 Is, i, 23, ' Jer, xxxi. 32-34, xliv, 21.
8 Ib. xxvi. 16, » Ib, xxxvii, 15, xxxviii. 4,16.
10 lb. xxxvii, 17, xxxviii, 14-27.
16

Before

L o E d's sacrifice, that I <;. g j{ j g ip
will t punish ° the princes, ''i'- ''^o.

«Jer. 39, 6,

fHeb, visit upon.

princes, as ^ rebellious and companions of thieves.
Jeremiah speaks of them as idolaters '. They
appear to have had considerable influence,
which on one occasion they employed
in defence of Jeremiah*, but mostly for
evil '. Zedekiah enquired of Jereraiah
secretly for fear of them '". They brought
destruction upon themselves by what men
praise, their resistance to Nebuchadnezzar,
but against the declared mind of God.
Ne'ouchadnezzar unwittingly fulfilled the
prophets's word, when he " slew all the nobles
of Judah, the eunuch who was over the war, and
seven ¦men of them thai were near the king's person,
and the principal scribe of the host.
And ihe king's children. Holy Scripture
mentions chief persons only by name. Isaiah
had prophesied the isolated lonely loveless
lot of descendants of Hezekiah wlio should
be eunuchs in the palace ofthe king of Babylon''',
associated only with those intriguing pests of
Eastern courts", a lot in itself worse than
the sword (although to Daniel God over
ruled it to good) and Zedekiah's sons were
slain before his eyes and his race extinct.
Jehoiakim died a disgraced death, and
Jehoiachin was imprisoned more than half
the life of man.
And all such as are clothed with strange ap
parel. Israel was reminded by its dress, that
it belonged to God. It was no great thing in
itself; a band of dark blue '* upon tlie fringes at
the four corners of their garments. But the band
of dark blue was upon the high-priest's mitre,
with the plate engraved, '" Holiness to the
Lord, fastened upon it ; with a band of dark
blue also was the breastplate "> bound to the
ephod of the high-priest. So then, simple as
it was, it seems to have designated the whole
nation, as "a kingdom of priests, an holy ¦nation.
It was appointed to them, '" that ye may look
upon it, and remember all ihe commandments of
the Lord and do them, and that ye seek not after
your own heart and your own eyes, after which
ye use to go a whoring ; that ye may remember
and do all My commandments, and be holy unto
your Ood. 'They might say, " it is but a band
of blue;" but the feando/Wtte was the soldier's
badge, which marked them as devoted to the
service of their God ; indifference to or shame
of it involved indifference to or shame
of the charge given them therewith, and to
their calling as a peculiar people. The
choice of the strange apparel involved the
n lb, xxxix, 6, Hi, 25-27.
12 Is, xxxix, 7. See Daniel the prophet p. 16.
13 See Ib. p, 21, 22,
" Nu, XV, 38. De. xxii. 12. 16 Bx. xxviii. 36.
10 Ib, xxxix, 21.
" Ib. xix. 6. iS-Nuj XV. 39, 40.

242

ZEPHANIAH.

chrTst ^^^ ^^^ king's children,
"^ir- 030, and all such as are clothed

with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also
will I punish all those that

choice to be as the nations of the world ;
' we will be as the heathen, as ilie famUies qf the
countries. All luxurious times copy foreign dress, and
with it, foreign manners and luxuries ;
whence even the heathen Bomans were zeal
ous against its use. It is very probable that
with the foreign dress foreign idolatry was
imported 2. The Babylonian dress was very
gorgeous, such as was the admiration of the
simpler Jews. ^Her captains and rulers clothed
in perfection, girded with girdles upon their loins,
with flowing dyed attire upon their heads. Ezekiel
had to frame words to express the Plebrew
idea of their beauty. Jehoiakim is reproved
among other things for his luxury*. Out
ward dress always betokens the inward raind,
and in its turn acts upon it. An estrangecl
dress betokened an estranged heart, whence it
is used as an image of the whole spiritual
mind *. " " The garment of the sons of
the king and the apparel of princes which
we receive in Baptism, is Christ, accord
ing -to that, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and Put ye on bowels of mercy, goodness,
humility, pcUience, and the rest. Wherein
we are commanded to be clothed with the
new man from heaven according to our
Creator, and to ' lay asile the clothing oitlie old
man with his deeds. Whereas then we ought
to be clothed in such rairaent, for raercy we
put on cruelty, for patience, impatience, for
righteousness, iniquity ; iu a word, for virtues,
'vices ; for Christ, Antichrist. Whence it is
said of such an one, ^ He is clothed with curs
ing as with a garment. These the Lord
'Will visit most manifestly at His Coming."
""Thinkest thou that hypocrisy is strange
apparel? Of a truth. For what stranger
apparel than sheeps' clothing to ravening
wolves? What stranger than for him
who '"within is full of iniquity, to appear
outwardly righteous before men ? "
9. I will punish all those tlicd leap on the
threshold. Neither language nor history nor
context allow this to be understood of the
1 Ezek. XX. 33.
2 Jon. Rashi and S. Jer. connect it with idolatry.
8 Ezek. xxiii. 12, 15. 4 jep. xxii. 14, 16.
oRom. xiii. 14, Col. iii. 12, Eph. iv. 24.
6 S. Jer.
' Eph. iv. 22. 8 Ps, cix, 17, » Run,
i0S,Matl, xxiii, 28,
11 [nao is used 1 Sam, v, 4, 5, Ezek, ix, 3, x, 4, 18,
xlvi, 2, xlvii, 1 ; elsewhere fjO, There is atrace of
this explanation in the Chald,, " who walk in the
laws of the Philistines," and in S. Jerome, doubt-

leap on the threshold,

Before
CHRIST
which fill their masters' __5iLi?!L_
houses with violence and
deceit. 10 And it shall come to

idolatrous custom of Ashdod, not to tread on
the threshold " of the temple of Dagon. It
had indeed been a strange infatuation of
idolatry, that God's people should adopt an
act of superstitious reverence for an idol in
the very instance in which its nothingness
and the power of the true God had been
shewn. Nothing is indeed too brutish for
one who chooses an idol for the true God,
preferring Satan to the good God. Yet the
superstition belonged apparently to Ashdod
alone ; the worship of Dagon, although
another form of untrue worship, does not ap
pear, like that of Baal, to have fascinated
the J ews ; nor would Zephaniah, to Ixpress
a rare superstition, have chosen an idiom,
which might more readily express the con
trary, that they "leapt on the threshold,"
not over it '2. They are also the same per
sons, who leap on the threshold, and who fiU
their master^ houses wiih violence and deceit.
Yet this relates, not to superstition, but to
plunder and goods unjustly gotten. Asthen,
before, he had declared God's judgments
upon idolatry, so does he here upon sins
against the second table, whether by open
violence, or secret fraud, as do also Habak
kuk '^, and Jeremiah '*. All, whether open or
hidden from man, every wrongful -dealing,
(for every sin as to a neighbor's goods falls
under these two, violence or fraud) shall be
avenged in that day. Here again all which
remains is the sin. They enriched, as they
thought, their masters, by art or by force;
they schemed, plotted, robbed ; they succeeded
to their heart's wish ; but, " ill-gotten, ill-
spent ! " They fllled, iheir master^ houses quite
full ; but wherewith ? with violence and
deceit, which witnessed against them, and
brought down tlje judgments of God upon
them. 10. A cry frcnn ihe fish-gate. The fish-gate
was probably in the North of the wall of the
second city. For in Nehemiah's rebuilding,
the restoration began at the sheep-gate '*, (so
called doubtless, because the sheep for the
less from his Jewish teachers, Isaiah's reproof
that they have soothsayers like the Philistines, ii, 6, is
altogether different,
'2 7J? J 7'! is, in the only other place. Cant, ii. 8,
"bounding on the mountains;" "bounding over"
(like our "Jeapt a wall ") happens to be expressed
by an ace, 2 Sam. xviii. 30, Ps. xviii. 30; " passing
over " had been expressed raore clearly by nD3
7^, as in Ez, xii. 23, 27.
18 Hab. i, 2, 3, " Jer. v, 27. ^ Neh. iii. 1.

CHAPTEE I.

243

pass ill that day, saith the
_ _LoED, that there shall be
p2 Chr, 33. 14. the noise of a cry from ^ the

Before
CHEIST cir. 630,

sacrifices were brought in by it) which, as
being near the temple, was repaired by the
priests ; then it ascended Northward, by two
towers, the towers of Meah 'and Hananeel ; then
two companies repaired sorae undescribed
part of the wall ', and then another company
built the fish-gate ''. Four companies are then
mentioned, who repaired, in order, to the old
gate, which was repaired by another com
pany '. Three raore companies repaired
beyond these ; and they left Jerusalem unto the
broad wall*. After three more sections re
paired by individuals, two others repaired a
second measured portion, and the tower of the
fuimaces '. This order is reversed in the
account of the dedication of the walls. The
people being divided " into two great companies
of them that give thanks, some place near the
tower of the furnaces was the central point,
from which both parted to encompass the
city in opposite directions. In this account,
we have two additional gates mentioned, the
gate of Ephraim ', between the broad wall and
the old gate, and ihe prison-gate, beyond the
sheep-gate, from which the repairs had begun.
The gate, of Ephraim had obviously not been
repaired, because, for sorae reason, it had not
been destroyed. Else Nehemiah, who de
scribes the rebuilding of the wall so minute
ly, must have mentioned its rebuilding. It
was obviously to the North, as leading to
Ephraim. But the tower of Hananeel raust
have been a very marked tower. In Zecha
riah Jerusalem is measured from North to
South, ^from ilie tower of Hananeel unto the
king's winepresses. It was then itself at the
North-East corner of Jerusalem, where
towers were of most importance to strengthen
the wall, and to command the approach to
1 Neh. iii. 2. 2 Ib, 3, 8 ib, 4-6, * Ib, 7, 8.
5 Ib, 9-11, 0 Ib, xii, 31-38. ' Ib. 39.
8 Zech. xiv. 10, 8 See ab, p, 50, lo B, J, v, 42.
11 Ib, V, 32,
i2Pierotti, "Jerusalem explored" p, 32, from
whom this account is talcen, Signor Pierotti's work
is "the fruit of eight years of continual labor
devoted to a study of the topography of Jerusalem
upon the spot, in which I have been constantly
occupied in excavating and removing the rubbish
accumulated over the place during so many cen
turies, in retracing the walls, in examining the
monuments and ancient remains, and in penetrat
ing and traversing the conduits and vaults." — " I
have," he says, " made excavations and watched
those made by others, have formed intimacies with
the inhabitants of the country, have sought for
information on the spot, regardless of personal rislc,
have worked with my own hands underground,
and so have obtained much knowledge of that
which lies below the surface of the soil in Jeru
salem." Jerusalem explored Pref. p. viii.
181) At the meat-bazaar near the convent of S.
Mary the Great. " In digging down to the rock to
lay the new foundations, 10 feet below the surface.

fish gate, and an howling
from the second, and a great _
crashing from the hills.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

the wall either way. The fish-gate then, lying
between it and the .gate of Ephraim, must have
been on the North .side of the city, and so on
the side where the Chaldsean invasions came ;
yet it must have been much inside the present
city, because the city itself was enlarged by
Herod Agrippa on the Nortli, as it 'was un
accountably contracted on the South'". The
then limits of Jerusalem are defined. For
Josephus thus describes the second wall. "'"Ft
took its beginning f'rom that gate wdiich they
called Oennnth, which belonged to the first
wall ; it only encompassed the northern
quarter of the city and reached as far as the
tower of Antonia." The tower of Antonia
was situated at the Nor#h-West angle of the
corner of the temple. The other end of the
wall, the Gennath or garden gate, must have
opened on cultivated land ; and Josephus
speaks of the gardens on the N, and N, AV,
of the city which were destroyed by Titus in
levelling the ground ". But near the tower
of Hippicus, the North-Western extremity
of the first wall, no ancient remains have
been discovered by excavation '^ j but they
Imve been traced North, frora " an ancient
Jewish semi-circular arch, resting on piers
18 feet high, now buried in rubbish." These
old foundations have been traced at three
places '^ in a line on the East of the Holy
Sepulchre (which lay consequently outside
the city) up to the judgment gate, but not
North of it '''- The line from West to East,
i. c, to the tower of Antonia, is marked
generally by " very large stones, evidently of
Jewish work, in the walls of houses, especially
in the lower parts '^." They are chiefly in
the line of the "V^ia Dolorosa.
The fish-gate had its name probably frora a
I came upon large stones, boldly rusticated and
arranged in a manner that reminded me of the
Phcenician work of the time of Soloraon," 2) on
the East of the Church of the Resurrection, 3)
"close to the West of the pxesexit judgment gate."
" In digging down for the rock, I found, 18 feet
below the surface, a fragment of a wall, resembling,
in all respects, that first described," lb, p, 33,
1* This appeared from excavations made in repair
ing the then Russian consulate, and from "enqui
ries of all who in former years had built in this
neighborhood." Ib.
10 "These were found when the Effendi Kadduti
repaired and partly rebuilt the house in the Via
Dolorosa at the Station of l^cronica. A similar
discovery was made by the Mufti in strengthening
his house at the Station of Simon of Cyrene, and by
the Effendi Soliman Giari, opposite to the Mufti'*s
house on the North. The Armenian Catholic monks
requested me to examine and level a piece of land,
at the Station of the first fall of Clirist ; which^ as
representative of his nation, h'e had just bought.
In the lower part of the wall enclosing it on the
north, very large stones and an ancient gate were
found. Iu the foundations of the Austrian hospice,

244

ZEPHANIAH.

chbTst 11 'Howl, ye inhabit-
cir. 630. anta of Maktesh, for all

»Jam. 5. 1. the merchant people

fish-market (markets being in the open
places near the gates ') the flsh being brought
either from the lake of Tiberias or from
Joppa. Near it, the wall ended, which Ma
nasseh, after his restoration from Babylon '',
built without ihe city of David, on the West side
of Oihon, in the valley. This, being unpro
tected by its situation, was the weakest part
of the city. " * The most ancient of the
three walls could be considered as impreg
nable, as much on account of its extreme
thickness, as ofthe height ofthe mountain on
which it was built, and the depth of the
valleys at its base, and David, Solomon and
the other kings neglected nothing to place
it in this state." Where they had made
themselves strong, there God's judgment
should find them.
And a howling from the second cit}', as it is
supplied in Nehemiah, who mentions the
prefect set over it ¦*. It was here that Hul-
dah the prophetess lived ", who prophesied
the evils to come upon Jerusalera, after Jo
siah should be gathered to his grave in peace.
It was probably the lower city, which was
enclosed by the second w.all. It was a
second or new city, as corapared to the
original city of David, on Mount Moriah.
On this the eneray who had penetrated by
the flsh-gate would first enter ; then take the
strongest part of the city itself Gareb " and
Bezetha were outside of the then town ;
they would then be already occupied by the
enemy before entering the city.
A great crashing from the hills. These are
probably Zion, and Mount Moriah on which
the temple stood, and so the capture is de
scribed as complete. Plere should be not a
cry or howling only, but an utter destruc
tion'. Mount Moriah was the seat of the
worship of God; on Mount Zion was the
state, and the abode of the wealthy. In hu
man sight they were impregnable. The
Jebusites mocked at David's siege, as think
ing their city impregnable^; but God was
with David and he took it. He and his
successors fortified it yet more, but its true
defence was that ihe Lord was round about His
laid in 1857, to the north of the Armenian property,
large stones were discovered, and also further to
the East, in the new convent of the Daughters of
Sion." Pierotti pp. 33, 34.
1 See 2 Kgs vii. 1. Neh. xiii. 16, 19,
2 2 Chr, xxxiii, 14, 3 jos, de B, J, v, 4, 2,
* Neh, xi, 9, E, V, " was second over the citj' " on
account of the absence ot the article, T'yn Sv
T\WO. I prefer taking it, as in a sort of apposi
tion, as Ewald does, Lehrb, n. 287, 1, p, 734, ed, 8,
0 2 Kings xxii, 14, 2 Chr, xxxiv, 22, It is called by
Josephus oiAAr), " another " city, Ant, xv, 11, 5.

are cut down; all they chrTst
that bear silver are cut__£EiJH_
off

people ", and when He withdrew His pro
tection, then this natural strength was but
their destruction, tempting them to resist
first the Chaldfeans, then the Romans.
Human strength is but a great crash, falling
by its own weight and burying its owner.
" This threefold cry'", from three parts ofthe
city, had a fulfillment before the destruction
by the Eomans. In the lower part of the
city Simon tyrannized, and in the middle
John raged, and there was a great crashing
from the hills, i. e., from the temple and
citadel where was Eleazar, who stained the
very altar of the teraple with blood, and in
the courts of the Lord made a pool of blood
of divers corpses." " " In the assaults of an
enemy the inhabitants are ever wont to flee
to the tops of the hills, thinking that the
difficulty of access will be a hindrance to
him, and will cut offthe assaults of the pur
suers. But when God smiteth, and requireth
of the despisers the penalties of their sin, not
the most towered city nor impregnable cir
cuits of walls, not height of hills, or rough
rocks, or pathless difficulty of ground, will
avail to the sufferers. Kepentance alone
saves, softening the Judge and allaying His
wrath, and readily inviting the Creator in
His inherent goodness to His appropriate
gentleness. Better is it, with all our might
to implore that we raay not ofi'end Him. But
since human nature is prone to evil, and '''in
many things we all offend, let us at least by
repentance invite to His wonted clemency
the Lord of all, Who is by nature kind."
11. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, lit.
Mortar '^, " in which," S. Jerome says,
" corn is pounded ; a hollow vessel, and fit
for the use of medical men, in which properly
ptisans are wont to be beaten (or made).
Striking is it, that Scripture saith not, ' who
dwell in the valley or in the alley,' but who
dwell in the mortar, because as corn, when the
pestle striketh, is bruised, so the army of the
enemy shall rush down upon you '*." The
place intended is probably so much of the
valley of the Tyroposon, which intersected
Jerusalem from North to South, as was en-
0 Jer, xxxi, 39.
1 Not, as some, " a cry of destruction " as in Is,
XV, 5. Isaiah has indeed the words 13© np,I?I " e.xy
of destruction," but here np,yS, ilSV, 132/ are
plainly parallel to one another.
8 2 Sam. V. 6. 2 Ps, cxxv, 2. lo Prom Eup.
" S, Cyr. 12 S. James iii, 2,
18 Prov, xxvii, 22. It is also a proper name in
Jud, XV, 19, since Lehi in which it was situate
cn 73 ItyS), was a proper name, Ib, and 9, and 14.
" S. Jer.

CHAPTER L

245

r. M"J% n- 12 And it shall come to
cir. tao. pa,ss at that time, that I
will search Jerusalem with

closed by the second wall, on the North, and
the first wall on the South. The valley
" ' extended as far as the fountain of Siloam,"
and united with the valley of Jehoshaphat a
little below OpheL It was "2 full of
houses,'' and, from its name as well as from
its situation, it was probably the scene of
petty merchandise, where the occasions in
which men could and did break the law and
offend God, were the more continual, be
cause they entered into their daily life, and
were a part of it. The sound of the pestle
was continually heard there ; another sound
should thereafter be heard, when they should
not bruise, but be themselves bruised. The
name 3Iaktesh was probably chosen to express
how their false hopes, grounded on the pre
sence of God's temple among them while by
their sins they profaned it, should be turned
into true fears. They had been and thought
themselves Mikdash, " a holy place, sanc
tuary ; " they should be Maktesh ^, wherein
all should be utterly bruised in pieces.
"''Whoso considereth the calamities of
that siege, and how the city was pressed and
hemmed in, will feel how aptly he calls them
the inhabitants of a mortar; for, as grains of
corn are brought together into a mortar, to
the end that, when the pestle descendeth,
being unable to fly off, they may be bruised,
so the people flowing together, out of all the
countries of Judsea, was narrowed in by a
sudden siege, and through the savage cruelty
of the above leaders of the sedition, was unut
terably tortured from within, more than by
the enemy without."
For all the merchant people [lit. the people of
Canaan] are cut doum; i.e., " * they who in
deeds are like the people of Canaan," ac
cording to that, " Thou art of Canaan and not
. of Judah, and, ' Thy father is an Amoriie and
thy mother a Hittite. So our Lord says to the
reprobate Jews, * Ye are of your father the
devil. All they that bear [lit. " aU laden with] silver
are cut off. The silver, wherewith they lade
themselves, being gotten amiss, is a load
1 See Signor Pierotti's map.
2Jos. B. J. v. 4. 1,
8 The two words do so occur in an epistle of the
Samaritans (Cellar, Epist, Sichemit, p, 26) CJes,
* S, Jer. 6 Ch. o Hist, of Susannah 56,
1 Ezek. xvi, 3, See also on Hosea xii, I, ab. p. 121.
8 S, John viii. 44. ,
"A passive adj. (TtDp from 7lDp). As an act,
adj. (Vop from hcip) it would rather imply that
they cast it on others.
"Nif., of Esau by enemies Ob. 6, Pih,, for Laban's
J*" " '*^— — ¦ . 

Before

candles, and punish the cjjBjgr,,
men that are f '' settled on . <¦¦'''¦ '^ao.

, T . 1 K J.1 J. • t Heb. curded,
their lees: 'that say m or, thickened.
' Jer, 48. 11. Amos 6. 1, " Ps, 94, 7,

upon them, weighing them down until they
are destroyed.
12. I will search [lit. diligently]. The word
is alwaj's used of a minute diligent search,
whereby places, persons, things, are searched
and sifted one by one in every corner, until
it be found whether a thing be there or no •"'.
Hence also of the searching out of every
thought of the heart, either by God ", or in
repentance by the light of God '^.
.lerusalem wiih candles : so that there should
be no corner, no lurking-place so dark, but
that the guilty should be brought to light.
The same diligence, which Eternal ^Visdom
used, to seek and to save that whieh was lost,
'¦' lighting a candle and searching diligently, till It
flnd each lost piece of silver, the same shall
Almighty God use that no hardened sinner
shall escape. " '"'What the enemy would do,
using unmingled phrensy against the con
quered, that God fitteth to His own Person,
not as being Himself the Doer of things so
foreign, but rather permitting that what
comes from anger should proceed in judg
ment against the ungodly." It was an image
of this, when, at the taking of Jerusalem by
the Romans, they "'^dragged out of common
sewers and holes and caves and tombs,
princes and great men and priests, who for
fear of death had hid themselves." How
much more in that Day when the secrets of all
hearts shall be revealed by Him Who '^ searcheth
ihe hearts and reins, and to Whose Eyes''',
which are likefiaming Fire, all things are naked
and open! The candles wherewith God
searcheth the heart, are men's own con
sciences'*, His Own revealed word"*, the
lives of true Christians '"'. These, through
the Holy Ghost in each, may enlighten the
heart of man, or, if he takes not heed, will
rise in judgment against him, and shew the
falsehood of all vain excuses, " "" One way
of escape only there is. If we judge ourselves,
we shall not be judged. I will search out
my own ways and my desires, that He Who
shaU search out Jerusalem with candles, may
find nothing in me, unsought and unsifted.
idols, Gen, xxxi, 35 ; for Joseph's cup, Ib. xliv. 12 ;
for David in hiding places, 1 Sam. xxiii. 23; Ah.ab's
house, 1 Kgs XX, 6 ; for worshipers of God in
Baal'g temple, 2 Kgs x, 23; in Caves of Carmel. Am,
ix, 3, (See vol, i, pp, 330-333) ; Divine wisdom Pr, ii.
4, God's ways, Ps, Ixxvii, 7, The form is intensive
here, n Pr. xx, 27. 12 Lam. iii, 40,
13 S. Luke XV. 8. 14 S. Cyr.
16 S, Jer, See Jos, de B, J, vi,-94, vii, 2 fin,
10 Ps, vii, 9, xxvi, 2, Jer, xi, 20, xvii, W, xx, 12, Rev.
ii, 23, " Ib, i, 14, 18 Prov. xx, 27,
19 Ps, cxix, 104. Pr. vi. 23, 2 Pet, i, 19,
20 Phil. ii. 15. 21 s. Bern. Serm. 65 in Cant.

246

ZEPHANIAH.

CHEIST ^^^i"" ^^^^' The Lord
cir, 626, ^yj]] uot do good, neither
¦will he do evil.
13 Therefore their

For He will not twice judge the same thing.
Would that I miglit so follow and track out
all my off'ences, that in none I need fear His
piercing Eyes, in none be ashamed at the
light of His candles ! Now I am seen, but I
see not. At hand is that Eye, to Whom all
things are open, although Itself is not open.
Once ' I shall know, even as I am known. Now
/ know in part, but I am not known in part,
but wholly."
Tliemen that are settled on their fees, stiffened
and contracted^. The iraage is from wine
which becomes harsh, if allowed to remain
upon the lees, unremoved. It is drawn out
by Jeremiah ', Moab hath been at ease *j'rom
his youth, and lie hath settled on his lees, and hath
not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath
he gone into captivity; therefore his taste re
mained in him, and his scent is not changed. So
they upon whom no changes come, fear not
Ood ^. The lees are the refuse of the wine,
yet stored up (so the word ^ means) with it,
and the wine rests, as it were, upon them.
So do' men of ease rest in things defiled and
defiling, their riches or their pleasure, which
they hoard up, on which they are bent, so
that they " ' lift not their mind to things
aljove, but, darkened with foulest desires, are
hardened and stiffened in sin,"
That say in their heart, not openly scoffing,
perhaps thinking that they believe ; but
people do believe as they love. Their most
inward belief, the belief of their heart and
affections, what they wish, and the hidden
spring of their actions, is, The Lord will not
do good, neither will He do evil. They act as
believing so, and by acting inure themselves
to believe it. They think of G-od as far
away, ^Is not Ood in the height of li'eaven?
Ancl behold the height of the stars, how high they
are ! And thou sayest. How doth God know ?
Can He judge through the dark cloud ? Thick
clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not;
and He walketh in the circuit of heaven. " The
ungodly in the pride of his heart (thinketh) ;
He will not encpuire; all his devices (speak).
There is no God. Strong are his ways at all
1 1 Cor, xiii, 12,
2i<3p is used in two cases of the (as it were)
cougealing of the waves when they stood on an
heap E.x. XV, 8; of the curdling into cheese Job x.
In, Jon, paraphrases "who are tranquil in their
pi is^essions," The Arabic authorities, Abulw, Tanch,
I'avid B, Abr, agree in the sense "congealed," and
do not call in the Arab, |)n which is primarily
"dried," then is used of the wrinkling of a cloth in
drying, or of the face of the old, not "contracted"
as Ges. On Zech. xiv. 6, see ibid.

goods shall become a chrTst
booty, and their houses a . '='''• ^26.

desolation : they shall also
, ., , , , , . 'Deut. 28, ,30,3
build houses, but 'not in- Amos 5,11,

times; on high are Thy judgments out of his
sight. '" They slay the widow a'nd the stranger,
and murder the fatherless, and tliey say. The
Lord shall not see, neither shcdl the God of Jacob
regard it. " Such things tliey did imagine and
were deceived; for iheir own wickedness blinded
them. As for the mysteries of Ood, they knew
them not. ''' Faith wiiliout works is dead. Faith
which acts not dies out, and there comes in
its stead this other persuasion, that God will
not repay. There are more Atheists than
believe themselves to be such. These act as
if there were no Judge of tlieir deeds, and at
last come, themselves to believe that God
will not punish '¦^. What else is the thought
of all worldlings, of all who make idols to
themselves of any pleasure or gain or ambi
tion, but " God will not punish ? " " God
cannot punish the [wrongful, selfish,] indul
gence of the nature which He has made."
" God will not be so precise." "God will not
punish with everlasting severance from Him,
the sins of this short life." And they see not
that they ascribe to God, what He attributes
to idols i.e., not-gods. '^ Do good or do evil,
that 'we may be dismayed and behold it togetlier.
'" Be not afraid of them ; for they cannot do evil,
neither also is it m ihem to do good. These
think not that God does good ; for they as
cribe their success to their own diligence,
wisdom, strength, and thank not God for it.
They think not that He sends them evil.
For they defy Him and His laws, and think
that they shall go unpunished. What re
mains but that He should be as dumb au
idol as those of tlie heathen ?
13. Therefore their goods, lit. And their
strength. It is the simple sequel in God's
Providence. It is a continued narrative.
God will visit those who say, that God does
not interfere in man's affairs, and, it shall be
seen '^ whose words sliall stand, God's or their's.
All which God had threatened in the law
shall be fulfilled. Ood, in the fulfillment
of the punishment, which He had foretold
inthe law", would vindicate not only His
liresent Providence, but His continual gov-

*apm.

6 See Ps. Iv, 19.
' Dion.

10 lb. xciv, 5, 6.
12S, Jas, ii, 20.

8 Jer, xlviii, 11.
8 Job xxii, 12-14.
'Ps, X, 4,5.
11 'Wisd. ii. 21-22,
18 Is, V, 19, Mai, ii. 17.
H Is, xii, 23, Perhaps Zeph, meant to suggest this
by using words which God by Isaiah had used of
idols, isjer. X, 5, Mlb. xliv. 28.
1' Lev. xxvi. 32, 33. Deut. xxviii.

,CH.A.PTEK I.

247

Before
CHRIST cir. 626.
o Mio. 6. 15.

habit them; and they shall
plant vineyards, but "not
drink the 'wine thereof.

ernment of Plis own world. All which is
strength to man, shall the rather fail, be
cause it is strength, and they presume on it
and it deceives them. Its one end is to be
came a prey of devils. Eiches, learning, rule,
influence, power, bodily strength, genius,
eloquence, popular favor, shall all fail a man,
and he, when stripped of them, shall be the
more bared because he gathered them around
him. '" Wealth is ever a runaway and has
no stability, but rather intoxicates and in
clines to revolt and has unsteady feet. Ex
ceeding folly is it to think much of it. For it
will not rescue those lying under the Divine
displeasure, nor will it free any from guilt,
when God decreeth punishment, and bringeth
the judgment befitting on the transgressors.
How utterly useless this eagerness after
wealth is to the ungodly, he teacheth, say
ing, that iheir strength shall be a prey to the
Chaldfean." And their houses a desolation. " ' For they
are, of whom it may be said very truly, 2 This
is the man that took not Ood for his strength, but
trusted unto the multitude of his riches, and
strengthened himself in his wickedness. But if
indeed their houses are adorned costlilj', they
shall not be theirs, for they shall be burned,
and themselves go into captivity, leaving all
in their house, and deprived of all which
would gladden. And this God said clearly
to the king of Judah by Jeremiah, ' Thou
hast builded thyself a large house and wide
cluxmbers, ceiled with cedar, and painted with
vermilion. Shalt thou reign because thou closest
thyself with cedar ? " " '' As the house of the
body is the bodily dwelling, so to each mind
its house is that, wherein through desire it
is wont to dwell," and desolate shall they be,
being severed for ever from the things they
desired, and for ever deserted by God. They
shall also build houses but not inhabit them, as
the rich man said to his soul, ^ Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years. — Thou fool,
this night ihy soul shall be required of thee;
then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? Before the siege by the Romans,
Jerusalem and the temple had been greatly
beautified, only to be destroyed. And they
shall plant vineyards, but not drink ihe wine
thereof. This is the woe, first pronounced in
the law^ often repeated and ever found
true. Wickedness makes joy its end, yet
never finds it, seeking it where it is not, out
of God.
14. The great Day qf the Lord is near. The

1 S. Cyr.
3 Jer. xxii. 14, 15.
'S. Luke>zii.l9, 20..

2Ps. Hi, 7.
* S. Greg, Mor, viii, 14.
.61)aut..xx.TJii. 39.

14 "The great day of chr°ist
the Loed is near, it is "i''- ''26.

near, and hasteth greatly, ' Joel 2. 1, 11.

Prophet again expands the words of Joel,
accumulating words expressive of the terrors
of that Day, shewing that though '' the great
and very terrible Day of the Lord, a day (Joel
had said") of darkness and. gloominess, of
clouds and of thick darkness, which was then
coming and nigh at hand", had come and was
gone, it was only a forerunner of others ;
none of them final ; but each, because it was
a judgment and an instance of the justice of
God, an earnest and forerunner of other
judgments to the end. Again, a great Day
of the Lord was near. This Day had itself, so
to speak, many hours and divisions of the
day. But each hour toUeth the same knell
of approaching doom. Each calamity in the
miserable reigns of the sons of Josiah was
one stroke in the passing-bell, until the de
struction of Jerusalem by the Chaldseans, for
the time closed it. The judgment was com
plete. The completeness of that excision
raade it the more an image of every other
like day until the final destruction of all
which, although around or near to Christ,
shall ill the Great Day be found not to be
His, but to have rejected Hira. " '" Truly
was vengeance required, "from the blood of
righteous Abel io the blood of Zechariah, whom
they slew between ihe temple and the Altar, and
at last when they said of the Son of God,
'^ His blood be upon us and upon our children,
they experienced a bitter day, because they
had provoked the Lord to bitterness ; a Day,
appointed by the Lord, in which not the
weak only but the raighty shall be bowed
down, and wrath shall corae upon them to
the end. For often before they endured the
wrath of the Lord, but that wrath was not to
the uttermost. "What need now to describe
how great calamities they endured in both
captivities, and how they 'who rejected the
light of the Lord, walked in darkness and
thick darkness, and they who would not hear
the trumpet of the solemn feast-days, heard
the shout of the enemy. But of the fenced
cities and lofty corner-towers of Judaea, which
are till now destroyed even to the ground,
the eyes, I deem, can judge better than the
ears. "We especially, ~now living in that
province, can see, can prove what is written.
We scarcely discern slight traces of ruins of
what once were great cities. At Shiloh,
where was the tabernacle and ark ofthe tes
tament of the Lord, scarcely the foundations
of the altar are shewn. Eama and Bethoron
and the other noble cities built by Solomon,
T Joel ii. 31. 8 lb, 2, 9 Ib, 1.
10 S. Jer. 1' S. Matt, xxiii. 35.
i2Ib. xxvii. 25.

248

ZEPHANIAH.

c H R°i s T ^'"^ *^® voice of the day
«ir- 626, of the Loed : the mighty

man shall cry there bit
terly.

are shewn to be little villages. Let us read
Josephus and the prophecy of Zephaniah;
¦we shall see his history before our eyes. And
this must be said not only of the captivity,
but even to the present day. The treacherous
husbandmen, having slain the servants, and,
at last, the Son of God, are prevented from
entering Jerusalem, except to wail, and they
purchase at a price leave to weep the ruin
of their city, so that they who once bought
the Blood of Christ, buy their tears ; not even
their tears are costless. You may see on the
day that Jerusalem was taken and destroyed
by the Eoraans, a people in mourning come,
decrepit old woraen and old men, iu aged and
ragged wretchedness, shewing in their bodies
and in their guise the wrath of the Lord.
The hapless crowd is gathered, and amid the
gleaming of the Cross of Christ, and the
radiant glory of His Resurrection, the stand
ard also of the Cross shining from Mount
Olivet, you may see the people, piteous but
unpitied, bgwail the ruins of their temple,
tears still on their cheeks, their arms livid
and their hair dishevelle.l, and the soldier
asketh a guerdon, that they may be allowed
to weep longer. And doth any, when he seeth
this, doubt of the day of trouble and distress,
the day of darkness and gloominess, the day of
clo'uds and thick darkness, the day of the trumpet
and alai-m ? For they have also trumpets in
their sorrow, and, according to the prophecy,
the voice of the solemn feast-day is turned into
mourning. They wail over the ashes of the
Sanctuary and the altar destroyed, and over
cities once fenced, and over the high towers
of the temple, from which they once cast
headlong James the brother of the Lord."
But referring the Day of the Lord to the
end of the world or the close of the life of
each, it too is near ; near, the prophet adds
to impress the more its nearness ; for it is at
hand to each ; and when eternity shall oome,
all time shall seem like a moment, ' A thousand
years, when past, are like a watch in the night ;
one fourth part of one night.
And hasteth greatly. For time whirls on
more rapidly to each, year by year, and when
God's judgments draw near, the tokens of
them thicken, and troubles sweep one over
the other, events jostle against each other.
The voice of tlie day of the Lord. That Day,
when it cometh, shall leave no one in doubt

1 Ps, xc, 4,
8Ecclus, xii, 1.
6 Rev. vi. 15-17.

2S,John v,28,29,
' Eccl, viii, 8,
* Ps. xiv. 5.

15 ^That day ¦is a day ohrTst
of wrath, a day of trouble . ''i''- "26.

and distress, a day of ' jfiril'l'
'wasteness and desolation, Amos's^'i"'
ver, 18,

what it meaneth ; it shall give no uncertain
sound, but shall, trumpet-tbiigued, proclaim
the holiness and justice of Almighty God ;
its voice shall be the Voice of Christ, which
^ all tliat are in the graves shall hear and eome
forth ; they that have dme good, unto the resur
rection of life ; and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation.
The mighty men shall cry there bitterly ; for
' bitter is the remembrance of death to a man that
liveth al rest in his possessions, unto the man that
hath nothing to vex him, and tliat hath prosperity
'in all things ; and '', Tliere is no mighty man
tliat hath power over the spirit to retain the
spirit; neither hath he power in ihe day of
death; and there is no discliarge in that war;
neither shall wickedness deliver those that are
given to it Rather, wrath shall come upon
° the kings of the earth, and the great men and
the rich men and the mighty men, ancl they shall
will to hide themselves from the Fcux of Him
that sitteth on the Throne and from ilie wrath of
the Lamb ; for tlie great Day of His •wrath is
come : and who shall be able to stand ?
The mighty men shall cry there bitterly. The
prophet has spoken of time, the day of the
Lord. He points out the more vividly the
unseen sight and place, there; so David says,
" Tliere they feared a fear. He sees the place;
he hears the bitter cry. So nigh is it in
fact ; so close the connection of cause and
effect, of sin and punishment. There shall
be a great and bitter cry, when there shall be
no place for repentance. It shall be a
^ mighty cry, but mighty iu the bitterness of
its distress. '^Mighty men shall be mightily
torniented, i. e., those who have been mighty
against God, weak against Satan, and shall
have used their might iu his service.
16. A day of wrath, in which all the wrath
of Almighty God, which evil angels and evil
raen have treasured to thera for that day,
shall be poured out : the day of wrath, because
then they shaU be brought face to face before
the Presence of God, but thenceforth they
shall be cast out of it for ever.
A day of trouble and distress. Both words
express, how anguish shall narrow and hem
thera in ; so that there shall be no escape ;
above them, God displeased; below, the
flames of Hell ; around, devils to drag them
away, and Angels casting them forth in
bundles to burn them; without, tlie books which
'The Arab, word, HIS, is used of "a loud shrill
cry," It occurs only here and (Hif,) in Is. xiii. 12.
«Wisd. vi. 6.

CHAPTEE L

249

chrTst ^ ^^^ °^ darkness and
""¦ 6^6- gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness,
'Jer. 4. 19. 16 A day of " the trum
pet and alarm against the
fenced cities, and against
the high towers.
17 And I will bring

shall be opened ; and within, conscience leav
ing them no escape.
A day of wasteness and desolation, in which
all things shall return to their primeval
void, before the Spirit of God brooded upon ihe
face of ihe waters. His Presence being alto
gether withdrawn.
A day of darkness and gloominess ; for sun
and moon shall lose their brightness, and no
brightness from the Lamb shall shine upon
the wicked, but they shall be driven into
outer darkness.
A day of clouds and thick darkness, hiding
from them the Face of the Sun of Righteous
ness, and covering Him, so that their prayers
should not pass through '.
16. A day of the trumpet and akirm^, i. e.,
of the loud blast of the trumpet, which
sounds alarm and causes it. The word * is
especially the shrill loud noise of the trum
pet (for sacred purposes in Israel itself, as
ruling all the movements of the tabernacle
and accompanying their feasts) ; then also
of the " battle cry," They had not listened
to the voice of the trumpet, as it called
them to holy service ; now they shall hear
* the voice of the Archangel and the trump of
Against ihe high towers, lit. corners ", and so
comer-towers. This peculiarity describes Je
rusalem, whose walls " " were made arti
ficially standing in a line curved inwards, so
that the flanks of assailants might be ex
posed." By this same name ' are called the
mighty men and chiefs of the people, wdio,
humanly speaking, hold it together and sup
port it ; on these chiefs in rebellion against
God, whether devils or evil men, shall
punishment greatly fall.
17. / uiill bring distress upon mem. I will
1 Lam, iii, 44,
2 "Alarm" seems to be used in the sense of
"sounding alarm," alarum.
^n^.'nri- ''l Thess. iv, 16, 'See E, M, on
iii, 6. It is the corner of a house, of a street, of a
court, a city. Hence "the gate of the corner," 2
Kgs xiv, 13, 2 Chr, xxvi, 9, Jer, xxxi. 38. In 2 Chr.
xxvi. 15, riU3 cannot be "battlements" (as Ges.
&C.1 since the engines were erected upon them.
Neither then here is there any ground to invent a
new meaning for the word,
» Tac, Hist. V. 11. Jos. de B, J, v, 6, 3,
'Jud, XX, 2, 1 Sam, xiv. .38, Is, xix, 13, Zech, x. 4,
8 Jer. X. 18. Moses fiad said this of His instru-

distress upon men, that ohrTst
they shall "walk like bhnd . «ir- o^e.

men, because they have " peut, 28, 2n,
' •' Isai, 59, 10,
sinned against the Loed:
and "their blood shall '¦Ps.79,3,
be poured out as dust,
and their flesh
dung.

" as the " Ps. 83. 10,
Jer, 9, 22,
&16, 4,

hem them in, in anguish on all sides. God
Himself shall meet them with His terrors,
wherever they turn. ^ / wUl hem them in,
that they may flnd it so.
That they shall walk like blind men, utterly
bereft of counsel, seeing no more than the
blind which way to turn, grasping blindly
and franticly at anything, and going on head
long to their own destruction. So God fore
warned them in the law ; " Thou shalt grope
at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness ;
and Job, of the wicked generally, '" They meet
with ihe darkness in the day-time, and grope in
the 'noon-day as in the night ; and, " They grope
in ihe dark without light, and He maketh them
to stagger like a drunken man ; and Isaiah
foretelling of those times, '^ We grope for the
wall, as the blind ; and we grope, as if we had
no eyes ; we stumble in the noon-day as in the
night. Because they have sinned against the
Lord, and so He hath turned their wisdom
into foolishness, and since they have despised
Him, He hath made them objects of con
tempt '^- Their blood shall be poured out like
dust, as abundant and as valueless; utterly
disregarded by Hira, as Asaph complains,
'* their blood have they shed like iccder ; con- •
temptible and disgusting as what is vilest ;
their flesh'^ as ihe dung, refuse, decayed,
putrefied, offensive, enriching by its decay
the land, which had been the scene of their
luxuries and oppressions. Yet the most
offensive disgusting physical corruption is
but a faint image of the defilement of sin.
This punishment, in which the carrion-
remains should be entombed only in the
bowels of vultures and dogs, was especially
threatened to Jehoiakim ; '" He shall be buried
with the burial of an ass, dragged and east forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
ments, And He shall hem thee in, 'in all thy gates.
Deut, xxviii, 52,
2Ib, 29, 10 Job V, 14, nib. xii, 25. 12 Is, lix, 10,
13 1 Sam, ii, 30,
I'l Ps, Ixxix, 3, T3Ii? is used of the pouring out both
liquids and solids.
16 Insulated as the use is, DIPI 7 must have had the
meaning of the Arab, 'on'? "flesh," So LXX Ch.
Vulg, Svr. David B, Abr, Abulw, Tanch,, Anon-Arab.
Tr,, retain the word in Arabic; Abulw, notices that
" the Heb, is akin to the Arabic word," Tanch, cites
Job vi. 7. 1^ Jer. xxii. 19.

250

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir, 630,
¦iProv, 11,4,
Ezek, 7. 19.

18 ¦* Neither their silver
_ nor their gold shall be able
to deliver them in the day
of the Loed's Avrath ; but
the whole land shall be

18. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be
able io deliver them in the day of the Lord's
wrath. Gain unjustly gotten was the cause of
their destruction. For, as Ezekiel closes the
like description ; " ' They shall cast their
silver into the strests, and their gold shall be
removed ; their silver and their gold shall
not be able to deliver them in the day of the
wrath of the Lord ; they shall not satisfy
their souls nor fill their bowels : because it is
the stumbling block of their iniquity." Much
less shall any possession, outward or inward,
be of avail in the Great Day ; since in death
the rich man's ''pomp shcdl not follow him,
and every gift which he has misused, whether
of mind or spirit, even the knowledge of God
without doing His Will, shall but increase
damnation. " Sinners will then have noth
ing but their sins,"
Here the prophet uses images belonging
raore to the immediate destruction ; at the
close the words again widen, and belong, in
their fullest literal sense, to the Day of
Judgment, The whole land, rather, as at the
beginning, the wliole earth shall be devoured by the
fire of His jealousy ; for He shcdl make even a
speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the
land : rather, He shall make an utter, yea alto
gether" a terrific destruction* of all the dwellers
of the earth. What Nahum had foretold of
¦Nineveh^, He shall make the plaee thereof an
utter consumption, that Zephaniah foretells of
all the inhabitants of the world. For what
is this, the whole earth shall be devoured by the
fire of His jealousy, but what S. Peter says,
* the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up ? And what is that he says,
He shall make all the dwellers of the earth an
utter, yea altogether a hasty destruction, but a
general judgment of all, who belong to the
world, whose home, citizenship, whose whole
mind is in the world, not as true Christians,
who are strangers and pilgrims here, and
their ' citizenship is in Heaven ? These God
shall make an utter, terrific, speedy destruc
tion, a living death, so that they shall at
once both be and not be ; be, as continued in
being ; not be, as having no life of God, but
only a continued death in misery. And this

1 Ezek, vii, 19,

2 Ps, xlix, 17,

3 "IX "nothing but."
*n7npj unites here the senses of terror and
destruction, as in Ps, civ. 29, Thou hidest Thy face,
they are troubled, I-I 7n3'_ and perish ; Is. Ixv, 23, they

¦= devoured by the fire of oheTst
his jealousy: for 'he sliall "'r. 63o,
make even a speedy rid
dance of all them that
dwell in the land.

= ch, 3, 8.
'ver, 2, 3.

shall be through the jealousy of Almighty
God, that Divine quality in Him, whereby
He loves and wills to be loved, and endures
not those" who give to others the love for
which He gave so much and which is so
wholly due to Himself Alone. " " Thou
demandest my love, and if I give it not, art
wroth with me, and threatenest me with
grievous woes. Is it then a slight woe to
love Thee not?" What will be that anger,
which is Infinite Love, but which becomes,
through man's sin. Hate ?
II. Plaving set forth the terrors of the
Judgment Day, the prophet adds an earnest
call to repentance ; and then declares how
judgments, forerunners of that Day, shall
fall, one by one, on those nations around, who
know not God, and shall rest upon Nineveh,
the great beautiful ancient city of the world.
" " See the mercy of God. It had been
enough to have set before the wise the vehe
mence of the coming evil. But because Pie
willeth not to punish, but to alarm only,
Himself calleth to repentance, that He may
not do what He threatened." " '" Having
set forth clearly the savageness of the war
and the greatness of the suffering to come, he
suitably turns his discourse to the duty of
calling to repentance, when it was easy to
persuade them, being terrified. For sometimes
when the mind has been numbed, and ex
ceedingly bent to evil, we do not readily
admit even the will to repent, but fear often
drives us to it, even against our will. He
calls us then to friendship with Himself
For as they revolted, became aliens, serving
idols and giving up their mind to their pas
sions, so they would, as it were, retrace their
steps, and lay hold of the friendship of God,
choosing to serve Him, nay and Him Alone,
and obey His comraandments. Wherefore
while we have tirae, while the Lord, in His
forbearance as God, gives way, let us enact
repentance, supplicate, say weeping, " remem
ber not the sins and offences of my youth ; let us
unite ourselves with Him by sanctification
and sobriety. So shall we be sheltered in
the day of wrath, and wash away the stain of
our falls, before the Day of the Lord come
shall not bear nSpaS for destruction, || )yy sV
6 See ab, on Nahum i, S, p. 134.
« 2 Pet, iii, 13,
' Heb. xi. 13. Phil, iii, 20,
8 S, Aug, Conf, i, 5, p, 3, Oxf, Tr.
» S. Jer. 10 S, Cyr. n ps. xxv. 7.

CHAPTEE IL

251

Before' CPIAPTEE IL
CHEIST c'l'- ^30. 1 _47i exhortation to repentance.
4 The judgment of ihe Philis
tines, 8 of Moab and Ammon,
12 o/ Ethiopia and Assyria.

upon us. For the Judge will come, He will
come from heaven at the due season, and
will reward each according to his work."
1. Gather yourselves together, yea gather to
gether ', rather, Sift yourselves, yea sift ''- The
exact image is from gathering stubble or dry
sticks, which are picked up one by one, with
search and care. So must men deal with the
dry and withered leaves of a past evil
life. The English rendering however coraes
to' the same meaning, "We use, " collect one's
self" for bringing one's self, all one's thoughts,
together, and so, having full possession of
one's self. Or gathering ourselves might stand
in contrast with being " abro.ad," as it were,
out of ourselves amid the manifoldness of
things seen. " ^ Thou who, taken up with
the business of the world, hurriest to and fro
amid divers things, return to the Church of
the saints, and join thyself to their life and
assembly, whom thou seestto please God, and
bring together the dislocated members of thy
soul, which now are not knit together, into
one frame of wisdom, and cleave to its em
brace," Gather yourselves into one, wherein
ye have been scattered; to the One God,
from Whom they had wandered, seeking
pleasure from liis many creatures ; to His
one fold and Church, from which they had
severed themselves outwardly by joining the
worship of Baal, inwardly, by serving him
and his abominable rites ; joining and joined
to the assembly of the faithful, by oneness of
faith and life.
In order to repent, a man must know him
self thoroughly ; and this can only be done
hy taking act by act, word by word, thought
by thought, as far as he can, not in a confused
heap or mass, as they lie in any man's con
science, but one by one, each picked up apart,
and examined, and added to the sear unfruit
ful heap, plucking them as it were, and gath
ering them out of himself, that so they may,
by the Spirit of burning, the fire of God's
Spirit kindling repentance, be burned up,
and not the sinner himself be fuel for fire
with them. The word too is intensive,
1 The Eng, Vers, follows the LXX Ch,Syr., S. Jer,,
which render "Gather yourselves together," as if,
from the flrst meaning, "gather dry sticks or stub
ble" it came to signify ''gather" generally, and
thence, in the reflective form, "gather yourselves
together," 2 The word is flrst used of gathering dry stubble
together (Ex, v, 7, 12,) then of "dry sticks" one by
one (Nu, xv, 32, 33, 1 Kgs xvii, 10, 12,), A heathen
speaks of "gathering out thorns " {e^aKavdlieiv) i, e,,
minutely examining and bringing out to light
every fault, (Cic, ad Att, vi, 6, 2,) And another writes
to his steward, "Shalt thou with BtrongiBWihftpd pull

"Q-ATHER yourselves chrTst
together, yea, gather cir- S'M-
together, O nation | [ n o t
desired ;

» Joel 2, 10.
II Or, not
desirous.

" Gather together all which is in you, thor
oughly, piece by piece " (for the sinner's
whole self becomes chaff, dry and empty).
To use another image, " Sift yourselves thor
oughly, so that nothing escape, as far as your
diligence can reach, and then — And gather
on, i. e., " glean on ; " examine yourselves,
" not lightly and alter the manner of dis
semblers before God," but repeatedly, glean
ing again and again, to see if by any means
anything have escaped : continuing on the
search and ceasing not. The first earnest
search into the soul must be the beginning, not
the end. Our search must be continued, until
there be no more to be discovered, i. e. when
sin is no more, and 'we see ourselves in the
full light of the Presence of our Judge. For
a first search, however diligent, never thor
oughly reaches the whole deep disease of the
whole man ; the most grievous sins hide
other grievous sins, though lighter. Some
sins flash on the conscience, at one time, some
at another ; so that few, even upon a diligent
search, come at once to the knowledge of all
their heaviest sins. When the mist is less
thick, we see more clearly what was before
one dark dull mass of imperfection and misery,
" '' Spiritual sins are also with difficulty sifted,
(as they are,) by one who is carnal. Whence
it happens, that things in themselves heavier
he perceives less or very little, and conscience
is not grieved so much by the memory of
pride or envy, as of impurities and crimes."
So having said, " Sift yourselves through
and through," he says, " sift on," A dili
gent sifting and search into himself must be
the beginning of all true repentance and
pardon, " ^ "\\'hat remains, but that we give
ourselves wholly to this work, so holy, and
needful ? ^ Let us search and try our ways and
our doings, and let each think that he has
made progress, not if he find not what to
blame, but if he blame what he finds. Thou
hast not sifted thyself in vain, if thou hast
discovered that thou needest a fresh silting ;
and so often has thy search not failed thee,
as thou judgest that it must be renewed. But
out thorns from my field, or I from my mind?"
Hor, Ep, i, 14, 4, 2 S. Jer, ¦> S, Bern, de Cons, c, 5,
6 Id, Serm, 58. in Cant. fln.
6 Lam. iii. 40. The two words, search and try,
isn, "Ipn are both used of a deep search of a
thing whioh lies deep and' hidden. Both originally
mean " dig," Both are used of a Divine knowledge
of the inmost soul ; the firmer of the mind as en
lightened by God (Prov, xx, 27), the latter of God's
searching it out Himself (Jer, xvii, 10, Ps, xliv, 22
(21) cxxxix, 1, Job xiii, 9, and of the Divine Wis
dom, Job xxviii, 27.

252

ZEPHANIAH.

2 Before the decree

Before
CHRIST
 "'^' °^"- bring forth, before the day

pass ""as tlie chaif, before
¦^the fierce anger of the

'Job 21, IS,
Ps, 1, 4,
Isai. 17. 13.
Hos. 13. 3. -r
» 2 liin, 23, 26. LiORD come upon you,
before the day of the
Lord's anger come upon
you.

if thou ever dost this, when there is need,
thou dost it ever. But ever remember that
thou needest help from above and the mercy
of Jesus Christ our Lord Who is over all,
God blessed for ever." The whole course of
self-examination then lies in two words of
Di\dne Scripture. And withal he warns
them, instead of gathering together riches
which shall not be able to deliver them in the
day of trouble, to gatlier theraselves into them
selves, and so judge theraselves thoroughly',
that they be not judged of the Lord ''.
0 nation not desired'', i. e,, having nothing
in itself to be desired or loved, but rather, for
its sin, hateful to God, God yearneth with
pity and compassion over Plis creatures ; He
* hath a desire to tlie work of His Hands. Here
Israel is spoken to, as what he had made him
self, hateful to God by his sins, although still
an object of His tender care, iu what yet re
mained to him of nature or grace which was
from Himself.
2. Before the decree bring forth. God's
word is full (as it were) of the event which
it foretelleth ; it contains its own fulfillment
in itself, and travaileth until it come to pass,
giving signs of its coming, yet delaying until
the full time. Time is said to bring forth
what is wrought in it. Thou knowest not,
what a day shall bring forth.
Before the day pass as the chaff, or, paren
thetically, like chaff the day passeth by. God's
counsels lie wrapt up, as it were, in the womb
of time, wherein He hides thera, until the
moment which He has appointed, and they
break forth suddenly to those who look not
for them. The mean season is given f'or re
pentance, i. e., the day of grace, the span of
repentance still allowed, which is continu
ally whirling more swiftly by ; and woe, if it

1 SiaKpivare, which answers to the intensive form
here, "judge yourselves through and through."
2 1 Cor, Xl, 31, 32.
3 The E. M. has " or not desirous," the word
^QDJ signifying to long, Gen. x.xxi. 30. Ps. Ixxxiv.
3. But in both places the object of desire is men
tioned, " thy father's house," in Gen., "the courts
of the Lord," in the Ps, Israel had strong but bad
longings, " Not desirous" would not by itself con
vey, "having no desire to return to God," or as Ch,,
"who willeth not to return to the law," The same
objection lies, over and above, to the rendering
" unashamed," coll, Chald, =1D3 " turned pale " from

3 "Seek ye the Lord,
' all ye meek of the earth, _
which have -wrought his
judgment ; seek righteous
ness, seek meekness: 'it
may be ye shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's
ana;er,

Before
CHRIST cir, 630,
¦1 Ps. 105. 4.
Amos 5, 6.
» Ps, 76, 9.
f Joel 2, 14,
Amos 5, 15.
Jonah 3. 9.

be fruitless as chaff! Those who profit not
by it shall also be as chaff, carried away piti
lessly by the whirlwind to destruction. Time,
on which eternity hangs, is a slight, uncer
tain thing, as little to be counted upon, as the
light dry particles which are the sport of the
ivind, driven uncertainly hither and thither.
But when it is passed, then cometh, not to
them, but -upon them, from Heaven, over
whelming them, ° abiding upon them, not to
pass away, the heat of the anger of Almighty
Ood. This warning he twice repeats, to im
press the certainty and speed of its coming •>.
It is the warning of our Lord, ' Take heed,
lest that day come upon you unawares.
3. Seek ye the Lord. He had exhorted sin
ners to penitence ; he now calls the righteous
to persevere and increase more and more.
He bids them seek diligently^, and that -with a
three-fold call, to seek Him f'rom Whom they
received daily the three-fold blessing ",
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as he had just
before threatened God's impending judg
ment with the same use of the mysterious
nuraber, three. They, whom he calls, were
already, by the grace of God, meek, and had
wrought His judgment. " '" Submitting them
selves to the word of God, they had done and
were doing the judgment of God, judging
tliemselves that they be not judged; the begin
ning of which judgnient is, as sinners and
guilty of death, to give themselves to the
Cross of the Lord, i. e,, to be " baptized in His
Death and be buried with Him by Baptism into
death; but the perfection of that judgment or
righteousness is, to walk m newness of life, as
He rose from the dead through the glory of ilie
Father." '"^ Since the meek already have God
through grace as the Possessor and Dweller
shame, disgrace, horror, Buxt, For there is noth
ing to limit the "turning pale " to "shame," The
root C1Q3 in Heb, only means " longed," Ps, xvii,
12, Job xiv, 15, of which fjODJ is here the passive.
People turn pale from fear or horror, not frora
shame. '' Job xiv, 15, The word is the same.
6 S, John iii, 38, 6Gen, xii. 32,
' S, Luke xvi, 34,
^ The Hebrew form is intensive,
» Nu, vi, 23-26, 10 Rup,
n Rom, vi, 3, 4, 12 Dion.

CHAPTEE IL

253

c rbTh t 4 ^ For 8 Gaza shall be
cir. 630. _ forsaken, and Ashkelon a

Ezek.' 25! 15. desolation: they shall
Amos 1. 6, 7, 8. Zech, 9, 5, 6.

in their heart, how shall they seek Him but
that they niaj' have Him more fully and
more perfectly, knowing Him more clearly,
loving Hira more ardently, cleaving to Hira
more inseparably, that so tliey may be heard
by Him, not lor themselves only, but for
others ? " It is then the same Voice as at
the close of the Eevelation, ' the righteous, let
himbe still more righteous; the holy, let him be
still mo7-e holy. They are the meek, 'who are
exhorted diligently to seek meekness, and they
who had wrought His judgment, who are ddi-
gently to seek Righteousness. And since our
Lord saith, ''Learn of Me, for I am meek and
lowly of heart. He bids " ' those who imitated
His meekness apd did His judgment, to seek
the Lord in their meekness," Meekness and
Eighteousness may be His Attributes, "Who
is All-gentleness and All-Eighteousiiess, the
Fountain of all, wheresoever it is, in gentle
ness receiving penitents, and, as the Pughleous
Judge, giving the crown of righteousness to those
who love Him and keep His commandments, yea
He joineth righteousness with meekness,
since without His mercy no man living could
he justified in His Sight. " '' God is sought
by us, when, of our choice, laying aside all
listlessness, we thirst after doing what pleases
Him ; and we shall do judgnient too, when
we fulfill His Divine law, working out what
is good unshrinkingly; and we shall gain
the prize of righteousness, when crowned
with glory for well-doing and running the
well-reported and blameless way of true piety
to God and of love to the brethren ; for '" love
is the fulfilling of the law."
It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the
Lordls anger. " " Shall these too then
scarcely be hid in the day of the Lord's anger?
Doth not the Apostle Peter say the very
same ? ' If it first begin at us, what shall be the
end of ihem tliat obey not the Gospel of Ood ?
A'nd if ihe righteous scarcely be saved, wliere
shall the ungodly a'nd ihe sinner appear? So
then, although any be meek, although he have
wrought ihe judgment oi the Lord, let him ever
suspect himself, nor think that he has already
attained, since neither can any righteous be
saved, if he be judged without mercy." " ° He
saith, it may be ; not that there is any doubt
that the meek and they who perseveringly
seek God, shall then be saved, but, to convey
how difficult it is to be saved, and how fear-

1 Rev, xxii, 11, 2S, Matth, xi, 29,
« S, Jer, 4 S, Cyr, » Rom, xiii, 10,
6 Eup, T 1 S, Pet, iv, 17, 18, , « Dion,
0 Ps, xxvii. 6. 10 Ib. xxxi. 20. n Isai, xxxii, 2,
« Ib. v. 6. IS ii. 4_7. 14 lb, 8-10,

drive out Ashdod "at the
noon day, and Ekron shall .
be rooted up.

Before
CHEIST cir. 630.
>> Jer. 0. 4,
& 15. 8.

ful and rigorous is the judgment of God,"
To be hid is to be sheltered from wrath
under the protection of God ; as David says,
" In the time of trouble He shall hide me ; and,
'" Tliou shalt hide them [thai trust in Thee] in
the secret of Thy presence frcnn the pride of man;
Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from
the strife of tongues. And in Isaiah, " A Man
shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a
covert from the tempest; and, ''' There shall be a
tabernaele for a shadow in ihe daytime from the
heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert
from storm and from rain.
4. For. As a ground for repentance and
perseverance, he goes through Heathen na
tions, upon whom God's wrath should come.
" ^ As Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, after visions
concerning Judah, turn to other nations
round about, and according to the character
of each, announce what shall come upon
them, and dwell at length upon it, so doth
this prophet, though more briefly." And
thus under five nations, who lay West, East,
South and North, he includes all mankind
ou all sides, and, again, according to their re
spective characters toward Israel, as they are
alien f'rom, or hostile to the Church ; the
Philistines", as a near, malicious, infesting
enemy ; Moab and Ammon '*¦, people akin to
her (as heretics) yet ever rejoicing at her
troubles and sufferings ; Ethiopians '", distant
nations at peace with her, and 'ivhich are, for
the most part, spoken of as to be brought
unto her ; Assyria '", as the great oppressive
power of the world, and so upon it the full
desolation rests. In the first fulfillment, be
cause Moab and Aramon aiding Kebuchad-
nezzar, (and all, in divers ways, wronging
God's people "), trampled on His sanctuary,
overthrew Plis temple and blasphemed the
Lord, the prophecy is turned against them.
So then, before the captivity came, while Jo
siah was yet king, and Jerusalem and the
teraple were, as yet, not overthro'wn, the
prophecy is directed against those who
mocked at them. Gaza shall be forsaken. Out
of the five cities of the Philistines, the Pro
phet pronounces woe upon the same four as
Amos '® before, Jeremiah '" soon after, and
Zechariah ''" later. Gath, then, the fifth, had
probably remained with Judah since Uzziah ^'¦
and Hezekiah '''. In the sentence of the rest,
regard is had (as is so frequent in the Old
15 v. 12. i" 13-15,
" Is, xvi, 4, Am, i, 13-15, ii, 1-3, Jer, xlviii, 27-30,
42, xlix, 1, Ezek, xx. 3, 6, 8.
18 Am, i. 6-8, 11 Jer, xxv, 20. 2° Zech, ix, 5, 6.
21 2 Chr. xxvi. 6. 22 2 Kgs xviii, 8.

254

ZEPHANIAH.

Testament) to the names of the places them
selves, that, henceforth, the name of the
place might suggest the thought of the doom
pronounced upon it. The names expressed
boastfulness, and so, in the Divine judgment,
carried their own sentence with them, and this
sentence is pronounced by a slight change in
the word. Thus 'Azzah (Gaza,) strong shall
be 'Asoobah, desolated ; Ekron, deep-rooting ',
shall Teaker, be uprooted; the Cherethitcs {cutters
off) shall become {C'leroth) diggings; Chebel,
the band, of the sea coast, shall be in another
sense Chebel, an inheritance '', divided by line
to the remnant of Judah ; and Ashdod {the
waster ^) shall be taken in their might, not by
craft, nor in the way of robbers, but driven
forth violently and openly in the noon-day.
For Gaza shall be forsaken. Some vicis
situdes of these towns have been noted
already '. The fulfillment of the prophecy
is not tied down to time ; the one marked
contrast is, that the old heathen enemies of
Judah should be destroyed, the house of
Judah should be restored, and should re-enter
upon the possession of the land, proraised to
them of old. The Philistine towns had, it
seems, nothing to fear from Babylon or
Persia, to whom they remained faithful sub
jects. The Ashdodites (who probably, as
the raost important, stand for the whole ")
combined with Sanballat, the Ammonites and
the Arabians", to hinder the rebuilding of the
walls of Jerusalem. Even an army was
gathered, headed by Samaria'. They gave
themselves out as loyal, Jerusalem as rebel
lious". The old sin remaining, Zechariah
renewed the sentence by Zephaniah against
the four cities " ; a, prophecy, which an un
believer also has recognized as picturing the
raiirch of Alexander'". ""All the other
cities of Palestine having subraitted," Gaza
alone resisted the conqueror f'or two or five
months. It had come into the hands of the
Persians in the expedition of Cambyses
against Egypt '^- The Gazfeans having all
perished fighting at their posts, Alexander
sold the woraen and children, and re-peopled
the city from the neighborhood ''^. Palestine
1 It seems to me most probable that the origin of
the meanings is preserved in tiie Cfi, "Ip^*, "root,"
(which itself is the source of other metaphoric
meanings, as, " the root of a thing ;" " the root " i, e,,
the foundation "of faith," its fundamental doc
trines; "the root," in Lexicography, see Buxtorf),
and that the Chald, Ipj? " pluck up, remove," and
*^py, here and Eccl, iii, 2, is a denominative. The
Proper Name is older probably than even IMoses.
2ii. S, 7.
3 The root Tit? has throughout, the meaning of
" wasting," not of " strength." ''T^ " the Almighty,"
is probably from a kindred root, nil!/.
4 See on Amos i. 6-S, vol. i. p. 244-247,
6 Their language alone is mentioned Neh, ix. 24,
n^^nty^, in contrast with Jewish rimn' ; but
neither is it mentioned that th© Jews married any

lay between the two rival successors of Alex
ander, the Ptolemies and Seleucidfe, and felt
their wars '*. Gaza fell through mischance
into the hands of Ptolemy '', 11 years after the
death of Alexander'", and soon after, was
destroyed by Antiochus" (B.C, 198), "pre
serving its faith to Ptolemy" as before to the
Persians, in a way admired by a heathen histo
rian. Inthe Maccabee wars, Judas Maccabfeus
chiefly destroyed the idols of Ashdod, but also
" spoiled their cities ; Jonathan set if on fire,
with its idol-temple, which was a sort of cita
del to it '" ; Ascalon submitted to him '^ ; Ekron
with its borders were given to him by Alex
ander Balas™; he burnt the suburbs of Gaza '^';
Simon took it, expelled its inhabitants, filled
it with believing Jews and fortified it more
strongly than before '''' ; but, after a year's
siege, it was betrayed to Alexander Jannseus,
who slew its senate of 500 and razed the city
to the ground^''. Gabinius restored it and
Ashdod ^'. After Herod's death, Ashdod was
given to Salome ''' ; Gaza, as being a Greek
city ''", was detached from the realm of Arche
laus and annexed to Syria. It was destroyed
by the Jews in their revolt when Florus ivas
" procurator," A. D. 55 '". Ascalon and Gaza
raust still have been strong, and were prob
ably a distinct population in the early times
of Anti pa ter, father of Herod, when Alexan
der and Alexandra set him over all Idunisea,
since "he is said" then "^^to have made
friendship with the Arabs, Gazites and Asca-
lonites, likerainded with himself, and to
have attached them by many and large
presents." Yet though the inhabitants were changed,
the hereditary hatred remained. Philo in
his Embassy to Cains, A. D. 40, used the
strong language, " "" The Ascalonites have an
implacable and irreconcilable enmity to the
Jews, their neighbors, who inhabit the holy
land." This continued toward Christians.
Some horrible atrocities, of almost incon
ceivable savagery, by those of Gaza and Asca
lon A. D. 301, are related by Theodoret™
and Sozomen ''. "¦''^Wlio is ignorant of the
madness of the Gazseans ? " asks S. Gregory

other Philistine women. If Gath was destroyed,
Ashdod lay nearest to them.
« Neh, iv, 7, ' Ib, 2. 8 Ib, ii, 19, vi, 6,
«Zech, ix,
10 Eichhorn Einl, iv. 605. See Daniel the Proph,
p, 280. sqq.
" Polyb. Reliq. xvi, 40, 1= Mela i. 11.
13 Arrifin ii, 27, " Polyb, v, 68.
IS Diod, Sic, xix. 84,
1" Hecat, in Jos. c, Ap, i, 22 Opp, ii, 455,
1' 1 Mace, V, 68, 18 lb, x. 84, " Ib, 86, ^ Ib, 89,
21 Ib, xi, 61, 22 Ib, xiii, 43-48.
23 Jos. Ant. xiii, 13, 3, -* Ib, xiv, 6, 3.
25 Ib, xvii, 8, 1, 26 B, J, ii, 6, 3.
27 Karia-KaTrTOV, JoS. B. J. ii. 18. 1.
28 Ant. xiv. 1. 3.
29 Philo Leg. ad Caium T. ii, p, 576 Mang, The
words are aaviiliaTos tis Kal oLKaTaA^aKTOs Svafieveia.
» Theod, H, E, iii, 7, ^ Soz, H, E. v, 10.
32 Orat. 4, in Julian, c. 36.

CHAPTEE II.

255

of Nazianzus, of the times of Julian. This
was previous to the conversion of the great
Gazite temple of Marna into a Christian
Church by Eudoxia'- On occasion of Con-
stantine's exemption of the Maiumas Gazse
from their control, it is alleged, that they
were " '' extreme Heathen." In the time of
the Crusades the Ascalonites are described by
Christians as their "'most savage enemies."
It may be, that a likeness of sin may have
continued on a likeness of punishment. But
the primary prediction was against the peo
ple, not against the walls. The sentence,
Gaza shall be forsaken, would have been ful
filled by the removal or captivity of its
inhabitants, even if they had not been
replaced by others. A prediction against
any ancient British town would have been
fulfilled, if the Britons in it had been replaced
or exterminated by Danes, and these by
Saxons, and these subdued by the Normans,
though their displacers became wealthy and
powerful in their place. Even on the sarae
site it would not be the same Gaza, when the
Philistine Gaza became Edomite, and the
Edomite Greek, and the Greek Arabian *-
Ashdod (as well as Gaza) is spoken of as a
city of the Greeks ^ ; New Gaza is spoken of
as a mixture of Turks, Arabians, Fellahs,
Bedouins out of Egypt, Syria, Petrasa ^
Felix Faber says, " there is a wonderful com
mixture of divers nations in it, Ethiopians,
Arabs, Egyptians, Syrians, Indians and
eastern Christians ; no Latins ''." Its Jewish
inhabitants fled frora it in the tirae of Napo
leon : now, with few exceptions it is inhab
ited by Arabs ".
But these, Ghiizzeh, Eskalon, Akir, Sedud,
are at most successors of the Philistine cities,
of which there is no trace above the surface
of the earth. It is common to speak of
" remnants of antiquity," as being or not being
to be found in any of them; but this means,
that, where these exist, there are remains
of a Greek or Eoman, not of a Philistine city.

1 " This too we see to be fulfilled in our times.
The temple of Serapis at Alexandria, and of Marna
at Gaza, rose to be temples of tlie Lord," S, Jerorae
on Is, xvii,
2 e? ayav 'EWrjviioviTiv. Soz, V, 3,
8 William of Tyre (pp, 917, 840, 865) calls them
"hydra immanissima," " hostes immanissimi" —
"like restless gnats persevering in the purpose of
injuring," comp. pp. 7S1, 787, 797, "Ascalona was
ever an adversary of Jerusalem," Robertus Mon-
achus p, 77, in v, Raumer Palisst, p, 173, ed, 4, It
was called " the spouse of Syria," as an impregnable
fortress, 4 gee on Amos i, 6. vol, i, p, 244,
6 Ps, Epiphanius de vitis Proph, p, 246,
« Ritter xvi, 49,
' Fabri Evagatorium T, ii, p, 379,
8 Schwartz, d, Heil, Land p, 91, 1853.
9 "Passing through AzotuSj between which and
Jamnia, which is situate on tne sea, [i, e, the mari
time Jarania] we left Accaron on one side," Fulcher.
Carnot, A, D, 1100, Gesta Peregr, Franc, c, 23 p, 464
quoted Raumer's, verb,
i» de locis Hebr. T, iii, p. 146. 'Vail.
11 Porter Handb, p, 276,

Of the four cities, Akkaron, Ekron, (" the
firm-rooting ") has not left a vestage. It is
mentioned by name only, after the times of
the Bible, by some who passed by it ". There
was " a large village of Jews" so called in the
time of Eusebius and S. Jerome '", " between
Azotus and Jamnia." Now a village of
" " about 50 mud houses without a single rem
nant of antiquity except 2 large finely built
wells " bears the name of Akir. S, .Jerome
adds, " Some think that Accaron is the tower
of Strato, afterward called C8esarea,'i This
was perhaps derived from misunderstanding
his Jewish instructor'^. But it shows how
entirely all knowledge of Ekron was then
lost. Ashdod or Azotus which, at the time when
Zephaniah prophesied, held out a twenty-
nine years' siege against Psammetichus, is
replaced by " '^ a moderate sized village of
mud houses, situated on the Eastern declivity
of a little flattish hill," " entirely modern,
not containing a vestige of antiquity." " A
beautiful sculptured sarcophagus with some
fragments of small marble shafts," " near the
Khan on the S. W." belong of course to later
times. " The whole south side of the hill
appears also, as if it had been once covered
with buildings, the stones of which are now
thrown together in the rude fences." Its
Bishops are mentioned from the Council of
Nice to A. D. 536 ''', and so probably continued
till the Mohammedan devastation. It is not
mentioned in the Talmud '^. Benjamin of
Tudela calls it Palrais, and says, " it is des
olate, and there are no Jews in it""."
""Neither Ibn Haukal [Yacut], Edrisi,
Abulfeda, nor William of Tyre mention it."
Ascalon and Gaza had each a port, Maiuma
Gazse, Maiuma Ascalon ; lit. " a place on the
sea" (an Egyptian name") belonging to
Ascalon or Gaza. The name involves that
Ascalon and Gaza themselves, the old Phil
istine towns, were not on the sea. They
were, like Athens, built inland, perhaps (as
12 " The verse, Ekron shall be uprooted, the Talmud
says, relates to Csesarea, the daughter of Edom,
which is situate among the sands. It does not
mean that Ekron is Cgesarea, which would be absurd,
but only shews its hatred against that city, and fore
tells its destruction, resting on a Biblical text, as is
the habit of the talmudists." Neubauer Geogr. du
Talmud p. 92, See also Ib, p. 12, Estori in his
Kaftor uperach gives ''"IDp as another name of
1 p^, but Zunz quotes the Succah f. 276, as distin
guishing ''ID'p from JVID'p Ctesarea (on the
geogr, of Pal, App, to Benj, Tud, ii. 441.)
13 Porter Handb. pp. 272, 27:J. n Ke.land p. 609.
i& It does not appear in Neubauer, Geographic du
Talmud. i» " Palmis, which is Ashdod of the Philistines."
JO ed. Asher.
1' Asher note Ib. T. ii. p. 99,
18 " The name Maiuma seems to belong to the
Egyptian language, and to offer the two words ma
lOM " place by the sea." Quatremt^re, les sultans
Mamlouks de Makrizi T, i, 2 App. p. 229.

256

ZEPHANIAH.

has been conjectured) from fear of the raids
of pirates, or of inroads from those who
(like the Philistines themselves probably,
or some tribe of them) might come from the
sea. The port probably of both was built in
much later times ; the Egyptian narae implies
that they were built by Egyptians, after the
time when its kings Necos and Apries,
(Pharaoh-Necho and Pharaoh-Hophra, who
took Gaza') raade Egypt a naval power*.
This became a characteristic of these Phil
istine icities. They themselves lay more or
less inland, and had acity connected with them
of the same name, on the shore. Thus there
was an " '* Azotus by the sea," and an
" Azotus Ispinus." There were " '' two lam-
nife, one inland." But Ashdod lay further
from the sea than Gaza ; Yamnia, (the Yab-
neel of Joshua*, in Uzziah's tirae, Yabneh")
further than Ashdod. The port of Yamnia
was burnt by Judas '.
The name, Maiumas, does not appear till
Christian times, though " the port of Gaza "
is raentioned by Strabo": to it, Alexander
brought frora Tyre the machines, with which
he took Gaza itself. That port tlien must
have been at some distance from Gaza.
Each port became a town, large enough to
have, in Christian times, a Bishop of its own.
The Epistle of John of Jerusalem, inserted in
the Acts of the Council of Constantinople,
A, D. 536, written in the narae of Palestine
i., ii., and iii,, is signed by a Bishop of ilaiu-
men of Ascalon, as well as by a Bishop of
Ascalon, as it is by a Bishop of Maiumas of
Gaza as well as by a Bishop of Gaza '",
Yabne, or Yamnia, was on a small emi
nence ", 6 J hours from the sea '*. The Maiu
mas Gazas became the more known. To it,
as being Christian, Constantine gave the
right of citizenship, and called it Constantia
f'rom his son, raaking it a city independent
of Gaza. Julian the Apostate gave to Gaza
(which, though it had jSishops and Martyrs,
had a heathen temple at the beginning ofthe
5th century) its forraer jurisdiction over it,
and though about 20 furlongs off, it was
called " the maritime portion of (jaza '"."
It had thenceforth the same municipal offi
cers ; but, " as regards the Church alone,"
Sozomen adds, " they still appear to be two
cities ; each has its own Bishop and clergy,
and festivals and raartyrs, and coraraemora-
tions of those who had been their Bishops,
1 Jer, xlvii, 1,
2 See Herod, ii, 159, 161, and Rawlinson on ii. 182
Herod. T. ii. p. 277,
3'At^ojT09 TTopaAos. Excerpta in Greeca notitia
Patriarch, in Reland p. 215. Schwarz (d. heil. Land
p. 91.) places Ashdod at an hour from the " Medi
terranean." 4 Plin. N. H. V. 12, 6 ,josh, xv, 11,
0 2 Chr, xxvi, 6, l 2 Mace, xii, 9,
8 Strabo xvi, 2, 30. p. 759.
0 " The engines, with which he took Tyre, being
sent for by him, arrive frora the sea." Arr, li, 27.
10 Conc, T. V, 1164, Col,

and boundaries of ihe fields around, whereby
the altars which belong to each Episcopate
are parted." The provincial Synod decided
against the desire of a Bishop of Gaza, in
Sozomen's time, who wished to bring the
Clergy of the Maiuraites under himself, ruling
that " although deprived of their civil priv
ileges by a heathen king, they should not
be deprived of those of the Church."
In A. D. 400, then, the two cities were
distinct, not joined or running into one
another. S. Jerome mentions it as " '¦* Maiumas, the
emporium of Gaza, 7 miles from the desert
on the way to Egypt by the sea ; " Sozomen
speaks of '"^Gaza by the sea, which they
also call Maiumas;" Evagrius, '"^that which
they also call Maiumas, which is over against
the city Gaza," " " a little city." Mark the
deacon A. D. 421, says, ""We sailed to the
maritime portion of Gaza, which they call
Maiumas," and Antoninus Martyr, about the
close of the vi"" century, " " we came from
Ascalon to Mazomates, and carae thence, after
a mile, to Gaza, — that magnificent and lovely
city." This perhaps explains how an anony
mous Geographer, enumerating the places
from Egypt to Tyre, says so distinctly,
" *" after Rinocorura lies the new Gaza, being
itself also a city ; then the desert Gaza," (writ
ing, we must suppose, after sorae of the destruc
tions of Gaza); and S, Jerorae could say equally
positively ; " *' The site of the ancient city
scarce yields the traces of foundations ; but
the city now seen was built in another place
in lieu of that which fell."
Keith, who in 1844 explored the spot,
found wide-spread traces of some extinct
city. " ** At seven furlongs from the sea the
manifold but minute remains of an ancient
city are yet in many places to be found — In
numerable fragments of broken pottery,
pieces of glass, (sorae beautifully stained)
and of polished marble, lie thickly spread in
every level and hollow, at a considerable
elevation and various distances, on a space of
several square miles. In fifty different
places they profusely lie, in a level space far
firmer than the surrounding sands," " from
small patches to more open spaces of twelve
or twenty thousand square yards." " The
oblong sand-hill, greatly varied in ifs eleva
tion and of an undulated surface, throughout
11 Irby and Mangles p, 57,
i2Michaud et Poujoulat Corresp, d'Orient v, p,
373, 374,
13 Soz, V, 3,
14 'Vita S, Hilarion, u, 3, Opp. ii, 15. Vail,
16 Soz, vii, 21. w Ev. ii. 5, " Ib, 8,
18 Marcus Diac, A, D. 421, in vita S, Porphyrii, c. 8,
ap, Holland, Feb, 26,
i» Itin. B. Antonini, pp. 24, 25.
2» Hudson Geograph, Minores T. iv. p. 39.
21 T, iii. p. 218.
22 Keith on prophecy, from personal examination.
pp. 378, 379,

CHAPTEE IL

257

which they recur, extends to the W. aud W.
S. W. f'rom the sea nearly to the environs
of the modern Gaza." "In attempts to
cultivate the sand (in 1832) hewn ' stones
were found, near the old port. Eemains of
an old wall reached to the sea, — Ten large
fragments of wall were embedded in the
sand. About 2 miles off are fragments of
another wall. Four intermediate fountains
still exist, nearly entire in a line along the
coast, doubtless pertaining to the ancient
port of Gaza. For a short distance inland,
the debris is less frequent, as if marking the
space between it and the ancient city, but it
again becomes plentiful in every liollow.
About half a mile from the sea we saw three
pedestals of beautiful marble. Holes are
still to be seen frora which hewn stones had
been taken."
On the other hand, since the old Ashkelon
had, like Gaza, Jarania, Ashdod, a sea-port
town, belonging to it but distinct from itself,
(the city itself lying distinct and inland),
and since there is no space for two towns dis
tinct from one another, within the circuit of
the Ashkelon of the crusades, which is limi
ted by the nature of the ground, there seenjs
to be.no choice but that the city of the cru
sades, and the present skeleton, should have
been the Maiumas Ascalon, the sea-port.
The change might the more readily take
place, since the title " port " was olten omit
ted. The new town obliterated the memory of
the old, as Neapolis, Naples, on the shore,
has taken place of the inland city (whatever
its name was), or Utrecht, it is said, has dis
placed the old Eoman town, the remains of
which are three miles off' at Vechten ', or
Sichem is called Neapolis, Nablous,. which
yet was 3 miles off ^. Er-riha is, probably,
at least the second representative of the an
cient Jericho ; the Jericho of the New Testa
ment, built by Herod, not being the Jericho
of the prophets. The Corcyra of Greek
history gave its name to the island ; it is
replaced by a Corfu in a different but near
locality, which equally gives its name to the
island now. The name of Venetia migrated
with the inhabitants of the province, who fled
from Attila, some 23 miles, to a few of the
islands on the coast, to become again the
name of a great republic ', In our own
country, " old Windsor " is said to have been
the residence of the Saxon monarchs ; the
1 Reland who lived at Utrecht, says that Roman
antiquities were daily dug up at 'vechten, where
were the remains of a Roman fort. Pal, p, 105,
2 S, Jerome,
3 Gibbon c, 36.
4 In likewayAlresford,Basford, Brentford, Goole,
Isleworth, must have been at one time, New Air.
NewBasford .fee, but, as the more considerable, have
appropriated the name whieh belonged to both the
old and new plaees,
6 Willermus Tyr, Hist, xvii, 22, in Gesta Dei per
Francos p, 924, The solidity of the walls and of
the cement are described in the same way, in the
17

present Windsor, was originally " new Wind
sor : " old Sarum was the Cathedral city,
until the reign of Henry iii : but, as tlie old
towns decayed, the new towns came to be
called Windsor, Sarum, though not the
towns which first had the name. What is
now called Shoreham, not many years ago,
was called "new Shoreham," in distinction
from the neighboring village ''.
William of Tyre describes Ashkelon as
" ^ situated on the sea-shore, in the form of
a semi-circle, whose chord or diameter lies
on the sea-shore ; but its circumference or
arc on the land, looking East. The whole
city lies as in a trench, all declining toward
the sea, surrounded on all sides by raised
mounds, on which are walls with numerous
towers of solid masonry, the cement being
harder than the stone, with walls of due
thickness and of height proportionate ; it is
surmounted also with outer walls of the same
solidity." He then describes its four gates,
E. N. S. toward Jerusalem, Gaza, Joppa,
and the W., called the sea-gate, because
" by it the inhabitants have an egress to the
sea." A modern traveler, -n'hose description of
the ruins exactly agrees with this, says,
" '' the walls are built on a ridge of rocks that
winds round the town in a semicircular di
rection and terminates at each end in the
sea ; the ground falls within the walls in the
same manner, that it does without, so that no
part of it could be seen from the outside of
the walls. Tiiere is no bay nor shelter for
shipping, but a sm.all harlor advancing a
little way into the town toward ifs eastern
extremity seems to have been formed for the
accommodation of such small craft as were
used in the better days of the city." . The
harbor, moreover, was larger during the cru
sades, and enabled Ascalon to receive sup
plies of corn f'rom Egypt and thereby to pro
tract its siege. Sultan Bibars filled up the
port and cast stones info the sea, A. D. 1270,
and destroyed the remains of the fortifica
tions, for fear that the Franks, after their
treaty with the king of Tunis, should bring
back their forces against Islamisra and estab
lish themselves there'. Yet Abulfeda, who
wrote a few years later, calls it " one of the
Syrian ports of Islam"."
This city, so placed on the sea, and in
which too the sea enters, cannot be the Ash-
latter part of the 17th. cent, by d'Arvieux and
Padre Malone da Maleo Terra Santa p, 471,
6 Dr, Richardson, Travels along the Meditcrr, ii.
p. 201,
' According to Ibn Fi?rat in Reinaud Chroniques
Arabesn, xcvi, Mic baud, Biblioth, des, Croisades
iv, 525.
8 Ab, Tab, Syrise p, 78, Kohler, 1j;n, a gap, open
ing, access, or an enemy's frontier, (Freytag) " is in
ordinary Arabic, used for a port, as HT^^^ "l^H
' the port of Beyrout,' and ntS'DT 1^)0 'the port
of Damietta.' " Prof Chenery,

258

ZEPHANIAH.

kelon, which had a port, which was a town
distinct from it. The Ascalon of the Philis
tines, which existed down into Christian
times, must have been inland.
Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th cent, who
had been on the spot, and who is au accurate
eyewitness ', says, " From Ashdod are two
parasangs to Ashkelonah '- ; this is new Ash
kelon which Ezra the priest built on the sea-
, shore, and they at first called it Benibra^,
and it is distant frora the old Ashkelon,
Avhich is desolate, four parasangs." 'When
the old Ashkelon perished, is unknown. If,
as seeras probable from sorae of the antiqui
ties dug up, the Ashkelon, at which Herod
was born and which he beautified, was the
seaport town, coraraerce probably attracted
to it gradually the inhabitants of the
neighboring town of Ascalon, as the popu
lation of the Pirieus now exceeds that of
Athens. The present Ashkelon is a ghastly skele
ton ; all the frarae-work of a city, but none
there. " The soil is good," but the " peas
ants who cultivate it " prefer living outside in
a small village of mud-huts, exposed to winds
and sand-storms, because they think that God
hirs abandoned it, and that evil spirits (the
J4n and the Ghil) dwell there *.
Even the remains of antiquity, where they
exist, belong to later tiraes. A hundred men
excavated in Ashkelon for 14 days in hopes
of finding treasure there. They dug 18 feet
below the surface, and found marble shafts, a
Corinthian capital, a colossal statue with a
Medusa's head on its chest, a marble pave
ment and white-marble pedestal ". The
excavation reached no Philistine Ashkelon.
" Broken pottery," " pieces of glass,"
"fragments of polished raarble," "of ancient
columns, cornices &c. ^ " were the relics of a
Greek tjaza.
Though then it is a superfluity of fulfill
ment, and what can be found belongs to a
later city, still what can be seen has an im
pressive correspondence with the words Gaza
is forsaken ; for there are railes of fragments
of some city connected with Gaza. The
present Gaza occupies the southern half of a
hill built with stone for the Moslem conquer-
1 p, ,30, 2, ed, Asher, The enumeration of " about
200 Rabbanite Jews," with the names of the chief,
"about 40 karaites, and aboutSOU Cuth3?.ans" shews
personal acquaintance. The former name of the
" new Ascalon " and the supposed distance of the
ruins of the old, he must have learned on the spot.
2 Benj. Tud. pronounces the new city Ashkelona,
as the L.atins did. When speaking himself, he
says Ashkelon.
3"Benibra" looks like a corruption of n^3
n"lDJ, '* a place of pure water," like " Bebaten,
Bedora, Beestera, Begabar " &c. in Reland. 017. sqq.
The Gadite town of that name becomes in Eus.
^Tjeua^pi^. S. Jerome has anolher Benamerium, N.
of Zoar, now N'mairah. Tristram Land of Moab p,
57. A well in Ascalon is mentioned by Eusebius,
"There are many wells (named) in Scripture aud
are yet shewn in the country of Gerar, and at Asca-

ors of Palestine. " ' Even the traces of its
former existence, its vestiges of antiquity, are
very rare ; occasional columns of marble or
gray granite, scattered in the streets and
gardens, or used as thresholds at the gates
and doors of houses, or laid upon the front
of watering-troughs. One fine Coi-inthian
capital of white marble lies inverted in the
middle of the street." These belong then to
tiraes later than Alexander, since whose days
the very site of Gaza must have changed its
aspect. Ashkelon shall be a desolation. The site of
the port of Ascalon was well chosen, strong,
overhanging the sea, fenced frora the land,
stretching forth its arms toward the Medi
terranean, as if to receive in its bosom the
wealth of the sea, yet shunned by the poor
hinds around it. It lies in such a living
death, that it is ""one of the most mournful
scenes of utter desolation " which a traveler
"even in this land of ruins ever beheld."
But this too cannot be the Philistine city.
The sands which are pressing hard upon the
solid walls of the city, held back by them for
the time, yet threatening to overwhelm " the
sgouse of Syria," and which accumulated in
the plain below, must have buried the old
Ashkelon, since in this land, where the old
names so cling to the spot, there is no trace
of it.
Ekron sliall be uprooted ; and at Akir and
Esdud " " celebrated at present, for its scor
pions," the few stones, which remain, even of
a later town, are but as gravestones to mark
the burial place of departed greatness.
"'"In like way, all who glory in bodily
strength and worldly power and say, By the
strength of my hand I have done it, shall be left
desolate and brought to nothing in the day
of the Lord's anger." And " the waster,"
they who by evil words and deeds injure or
destroy others and are an offence unto them,
these slwll be cast out shamefully, into outer
darkness " " when the saints shall receive the
fullest brightness " in the mid-day of the Sun
of Eighteousness. The judgment shall not
be in darkness, save to them, but in mid-day,
so that the justice of God shall be clearly
seen, and darkness itself shall be turned into
Ion." V, (jipsap. 'William of Tyre says : " It has no
fountains, either M'ithin the compass of the walls, or
near it; but it abounds in wells, both within and
without, which suppl.v palatable water, fit for drink
ing. For greater caution the inhabitants had built
some cisterns within, to receive rain-water, Benj,
of T, also says, " There in the midst of the city is a
well whioh they call Beer Ibrahim-al-khalil [the
well of Abraham the friend (of God)] which he dug
in the d,ays of the Philistines." Keith mentions
"20 fountains of excellent water opened up anew by
Ibrahim Pasha." p. 274.
4 Mr. Cyril Graham in Keith p. 376.
6 Travels of Lady H. Stanhope, iii. 159-169,
« Keith p. 378, 7 Robinson Travels ii, 38.
8 Smith Ib. p. 66 note.
" Volney Voyage en Ryrie c, 31. p, 311, Keith p.
370. 10 s. Jer. "Rup.

CHAPTEE II.

259

Before
CHRIST cir. 630,
1 Ezek. 26. 16,

'Jos, 13, 3.

5 Woe unto the inhab-
_ itants of ' the sea coast, the
nation of the Cherethites !
the word of the Lord is
against you ; O '' Canaan,
the land ofthe Philistines, I
"will even destroy thee, that

light, as was said to David, ' Thou didst ihis
tiling secretly, but I will do it before all Israel
and before ihe sun ; and our Lord, ' Whatso
ever ye liave spoken in darkness shall be heard in
the light ; and that which ye have spoken in the
ear in closets shall be proelqimed upon the house
tops; and St. Paul, 'the Lord shall come, Wlw
both will bring io light the hidden things of dark
ness, and will make manifest ihe counsels of the
heart And " they who by seducing words in
life or in doctrine uprooted others, shall be
themselves rooted up *."
6. The woe having been pronounced on the
five cities apart, now falls upon the whole
nation of the Cherethites or Philistines.
The Cherethites are only named as equiva
lent to the Philistines, probably as originally
a distinct immigration of the same people *.
The name is used by the Egyptian slave of
the Amalekite " for those whom the author
of the first book of Samuel calls Philis
tines'. Ezekiel uses the name parallel
with that of Philistines, with reference to the
destruction which God would bring upon
them ".
Tlie word of the Lord comes not to them, but
upon thera, overwhelming them. To them
He speaketh not in good, but in evil ; not in
grace, but in anger; not in mercy, but in
vengeance. Philistia was the first eneray
of the Church. It shewed its enmity
to Abraham and Isaac and would fain
that they should not sojourn among thera^
They were the hindrance that Israel should
not go straight to the proraised land '".
When Israel passed the Eed Sea, " sorrow
1 2 Sam, xii. 12, 2 S, Luke xii, 3, sioor. iv. 5,
4 S, Matth, XV, 13. 6 See on Am, ix. 7. vol, i. p. 333,
« 1 Sam, xxx, 14, ' Ib, 16.
8 DTIID HN 'JTlDn Ezek. xxv. 16. It may be
that they were so called as coming from Crete as
the LXX supposed, rendering "Cretans" iu Ezek.,
and here (as also the Syr.) "sojourners of the Cre
tans." Hence perhaps also Tacitus' statement
(Hist, V, 2,) that the Jews had been expelled from
Crete, The other versions render the word as an
appellative, " destroying " or " destroyed," Aq, and
€, eflvo^ hkeQpiov, Theod, c^i/os oAe^pt'a? Symm, l^vo-i
oAeflpevd/ievoc, S, Jer, gives perditorem.
'Gen, xxi, 34, x.xvi. 14, 15, '28. '» Ex. xiii, 17,
"Ib, XV. 14, isGen, XV, 21,
18 The words " band of the sea " are repeated with
emphasis, vers, 6, 6, and the flrst words v, 7,
_ '4 So Kim, Ibn Denan has, " caves which shepherds
inhabit;" Arab, transl. "domiciles which shep
herds dig." Abulw,, and Tanehum derive it frora
mj 2 Kgs, vi, 23. "a feast." Abulw. thinks this not

there shall be no inhabitant.
6 And the sea coast.
shall be d'wellings and cot
tages for shepherds, 'and
folds for flocks.
7 And the coast shall
be for "" the remnant o f

Before
CHRIST cir, 630,

'See Is, 17.2.
ver, 14,
¦» Isai. 11. 11.
Mic. 4. 7.
A 6. 7, 8.
Hag. 1. 12.
&2, 2,
ver. 9.

took hold of them. They were close to salva
tion in body, but far in raind. They are
called Canaan, as being a chief nation of it '^,
and in that name lay the original source of
their destruction. They inherited the sins
of Canaan and with them his curse, prefer
ring the restless beating of the barren, bitter
sea on which they dwelt, "the waves of this
troublesome world," to being a part of the
true Canaan. They would absorb the Church
into the world, and master it, subduing it to
the heathen Canaan, not subdue themselves
to it, and become part of the heavenly
Canaan. 6. The sea-coast '^ shall be dwellings and cot
tages, lit. cuttings or diggings '*. This is the
central meaning of the word ; the place of
the Cherethites (the cutters off) shall be
cheroth of shepherds, places which they dug
up that their flocks might be enclosed therein.
The tracts once full of fighting men, the
scourge of Judah, should be so desolate of its
former people, as to become a sheep-walk.
Men of peace should take the place of its
warriors. So the shepherds of the Gospel with their
flocks have entered into possession of war
like nations, turning thera to the Gospel.
They are shepherds, the chief of whora is
that Good >Shepherd, Who laid down liis
Life for the sheep. And these are the sheep
of whom He speaks, '" Other sheep I have,
whieh are not of this fold; them also I must bring,
and they shall hear My 'Voice; and there shall
be onefold and One Shepherd.
7. And the coast shall be. Or probably '', It
improbable, as an irregular plural, Tanehum,
" stations ol shepherds where they turn their flocks
to feed and sit down to cat, or places in which they
dig for watering the flocks." The climate of -ludfca,
however, does not admit of underground habita
tions, like Nineveh, and in the country of the Phil
istines flocks would be supplied by wells with
trenches. No Arabic authority suggests a deriva
tion from "331 "nest" (as Ewald), The allusion to
Cherethim would be lost by this invented root,
Rashi has "a plaee where the shepherds eat." A.
E. explains nS3, as if it were from pr\2, "which
the shepherds ihiD for themselves," The Moabite
stone has niT^JD I- 25, apparently, of "a ditch"
"or moat,"
'5 S, John X. 10, .
i» Grammatically, 7Dn may be either the subject
or predicate. For even in prose (Josh xix, 29.) it is
used without the article, of the sea-coast, the men
tion of the sea having preceded, " the goings forth

260

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

I Or, when, &c.

the house of Judah ; they
. shall feed thereupon ; i n
the houses of Ashkelon
shall they lie down in the
evening : 1 1 for the Lord

shall be a portion for the remnant of the house of
Judah. He uses the word, employed in the
first assignment of the land to Israel ' ; and
of the whole people as belonging to God,
" '' Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." The
(rnci o/iAe .sea, which, with the rest, was as
signed to Israel, which, for its unfaithful
ness, was seldom, even in part, possessed, and
at this time, was wholly forfeited, should be
a portion jor the mere remnant which should
be brought back. David used the word in
his psalm of thanksgiving, when he had
brought the ark to the city of David, how
God fiad " ^ confirmed the covenant to Israel,
saying, Unto thee will I give the land of
Canaan, the lot of your inheritance ; " and
Asaph,* He cast out the heathen before them and
divided io them an inheritance by line. It is the
reversal of the doom threatened by Micah,
* Thou shalt have none, that sliall cast a cord by
lot in the congregation of the Lord. The word
i.s revived by Ezekiel in his ideal division of
the land to the restored people". ''The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. The
promise, which had slumbered during Israel's
faithlessness, should be renewed to its old
extent. "¦" There is no prescription against
the Church." The boat threatens to sink ;
it is tossed, half-submerged, by the waves ;
but its Lord rebukes the wind and the sea;
wind and sea obey Him, and there is a great
calm ".
For the remnant of the house of Judah. Yet,
who save He in Whose hand are human
wills, could now foresee that Judah should,
like the ten tribes, rebel, be carried captive,
and yet, though like and worse than Israel
in its sin '", should, unlike Israel, be restored ?
The re-building of Jerusalem was, their
enemies pleaded, contrary to sound policy " :
the plea was f'or the tirae accepted ; for the
rebellions of Jerusalem were recorded in the
chronicles of Babylon '''- Yet the falling
short of the complete restoration depended
on their own wills. God turned again their
captivity ; but they only, whose spirit Ood
thereof were to the sea, 7Dnp to Mizpeh." Yet
there is no emphasis in the repetition of the word
frora the preceding verse. The LXX renders 73n
as the subject, the Ch. Vulg. as the predicate.
1 "The ten portions of M.anasseh ;" Josh. xvii. 5.
" Why hast thou given me one lot and one portion 9 "
Ih, 14, " out of the portion of the children of Judah
was the inheritance of the children of Simeon," lb,
xix, 9,
2 Deut, xxxii, 9, si Chr, xvi, 18, Ps, cv, 11,

their God shall ° visit them,
and ° turn away their cap
tivity. 8 «f[fl have heard the
reproach of M o a b, and

Before
CHRIST cir, 630,
»Ex, 4, 31,
Luke 1, 68,
¦» Ps, 126, 1,
Jer, 29, 14.
ch, 3, 20.
p Jer, 48, 27.
Ezek, 25, 8.

stirred, willed to return. The temporal
restoration was the picture of the spiritual.
They who returned had to give up lands and
possessions in Babylonia, and a remnant only
chose the land of proraise at such cost.
Babylonia was as attractive as Egypt
formerly. Ill the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie doum
in the evening. One city is named for all.
Tliey shall lie down, he says, continuing the
image from their docks, as Isaiah, in a like
passage ''', The first-born of the poor shall feed,
and the needy shall lie down in safety.
The true Judah shall overspread the
world ; but it too shall only be a remnant ;
these shall, in safety, '*go in and out
and flnd pasture. In the evening of the world
they shall find their rest ; for .then also in
the time of Anti-Christ, the Church shall be
but a remnant still. For the Lord their God
shall visit them, for He is the Good Shepherd,
Who came to seek the one sheep which was
lost and Who says of Himself, '^ / will seek
that which was lost, and bring again that which
was driven away, and will bind up that which
was broken, and will strengthen that which was
sick ; and Who in the end will more com
pletely turn away their captirity, bring His
banished to their everlasting home, the Par
adise from which they have been exiled, and
separate for ever the sheep from the goats
who now oppress and scatter them abroad '^.
8. /, " " God, Who know all things, I
heard i. e., have known within Me, in My
mind, not anew but frora eternity, and now I
shew in effect that I know it ; wherefore I
say that I hear, because I act after the man
ner of one who perceiveth soraething anew."
I, the just Judge, heard "*. He was present
and heard, even when, because He avenged
not, He seemed not to hear, but laid it up in
store with Him to avenge in the due time'".
The rep'oach of Moab and the reviling of the
children of Amnion, whereby they have reproaclied
My people. Both words, reproached, reviled,
mean, primarily, cutting speeches ; both are
4 Ps. Ixxviii, 55, 6Mic,ii,5. « Ezek, xlvii, 13.
'Rom, xi, 29,
8 " Nullum terapus ecclesise," though said of its
property, 9 S, Matt. viii. 26, 27.
i» Jer, iii, 8-11. Ezek. xvi, 46-52, xxiii, 11,
" Ezra ix, 12-16, i^Ib. 19-22, w Is, iv, 30,
14 S, John X, 9. 16 Ezek, xxxiv, 16, m Ib, 17-19,
1' Dion,
'» See Is. xvi. 6. Jer, xlviii. 39, Ezek, xxxv, 12, 13.
i»Deut xxxii, 34, 35.

CHAPTEE II.

261

¦•the revilings of the chil
dren of Ammon, whereby
lEzek. 26. 3, 6. they have reproached my

Before
CHEIST cir. 630.

intensive, and are used of blaspheming God
as unable to help His people, or reviling His
people as forsaken by Him. If directed
against man, they are directed against God
through man. So David interpreted the
taunt of Goliah, ' reviled the ai'mies of the
living God, and the Philistine cursed David
by his gods ''. In a Psalm David complains,
' ihe reproaches of them that repi'oaehed Thee are
fallen upon me ; and a Psalm which cannot
be later than David, since it declares the
national innoceney from idolatry, connects
with their defeats, the voice of him * that
reproacheth and blasphemeth (joining the two
words used here). The sons of Corah say,
^with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach
me, while they say daily unto me, where is thy
Ood ? So Asaph, " Tlie enemy hath reproached,
the foolish people hath blasphemed Thy Name ;
and, ' we are become a reproach to our neicjhbors.
Wherefore should ihe heathen say, where is iheir
God? render unto our neighbors — the reproach
wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord.
And Ethan, * Remember, Lord, the reproach of
Thy sexvctnts — wherewith Thine enemies have re
proached, 0 Lord, wherewith they have reproached
the footsteps of Thine Anointed.
In history the repeated blasphemies of
Sennacherib and his raessengers are expressed
by the same words. In earlier times the re
markable concession of Jephthah, " Wilt not
thou possess what Chemosh thy god giveth thee io
possess ? so whomsoever the Lord our Ood shall
drive out before us, them will we possess, implies
that the Ammonites claimed their land as the
gift of their god Chemosh, and that that war
was, as that later by Sennacherib, waged in
the name of the false god against the "True.
The relations of .Israel to Moab and Am
mon have been so habitually misrepresented,
that a review of those relations throughout
their whole history may correct some wrong
impressions. The first relations of Israel
toward them were even tender. God re
minded His people of their common relation
ship and forbade him even to take the
straight road to his own future possessions,
across their land against their will. '" Dis
tress them not, nor contend with them, it is said
of each, /or Iwill not give thee of iheir land for
a possession ; for I have given it unto tlie chil
dren of Lot for u, possession. Idolatere and
hostile as they were, yet, for their father's
1 1 Sam. xvii, 26, 36, 45, coll, 10, 25,
= 1 Sam, xvii, 43. sps. i^ix, 10 (9),
4Ib, xliv, 10(17). 6 1b. xiii, 10.
"Ib, Ixxiv, 10, 18, 'lb. Ixxix. 4, 10, 12,
«Ib, Ixxxix, ,'50,51. 9Jud, xi, 24,
i" Deut, ii, 9, 19. "Jud, xi. 18.
1* Deut. ii. 10,^20, 21. IS Nu. xxi. 25, 31.

people, and ^magnified cheTIt
themselves against their "'''¦ "so.
border. 'Jer.49. i.

sake, their title to their land had the same
sacred sanction, as Israel's to his. I, God
says, have given it to them as a possession.
Israel, to their own manifest inconvenience,
" went along through the wilderness, and com
passed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab,
but came not within the border of Moab. By
destroying Sihon king of the Amorites and
Og king of Bashan, Israel reraoved formida
ble enemies, who had driven Moab and
Ammon out of a portion of the land which
they had conquered from the Zamzummim
and Anakim"', and who threatened the re
mainder. " Israel dwelt in all the cities of the
Amorites. Heshbon, Dibon, Jahaz, Medeba, Nophah
were cities in the land of the Amorites, in whicli
Israel dwelt. The exclusion of Moab and
Ammon from the congregation of the Lord
to the tenth generation '* was not, of course,
frora any national antipathy, but intended to
prevent a debasing intercourse ; a necessary
precaution against the sensuousness of their
idolatries. Moab was the first '* in adopting
the Satanic policy of Balaam, to seduce
Israel by sensuality to their idolatries ; but
the punishraent was appointed to the part
ners of their guilt, the Midianites "", not to
Moab. Yet Moab was the second nation,
whose ambition God overruled to chasten
His people's idolatries. Eglon, king of Moab,
united with himself Ammon and Araalek
against Israel. The object of the invasion
was, not the recovery of the country which
Moab had lost to the Araorites but, Palestine
proper. The strength of Moab was appar
ently not sufficient to occupy the territory of
Eeuben. They took possession only of the
city of palm trees''' ; either the ruins of Jer
icho or a spot close by it ; with the view
apparently of receiving reinforcements or of
securing their own retreat by the ford. This
garrison enabled them to carry their forays
over Israel, and to hold it enslaved for 18
years. The oppressiveness of this slavery is
implied by the cry and conversion of Israel
to the Lord, which was always in great dis
tress. The memory of Eglon, as one of the
oppressors of Israel, lived in the minds of the
people in the days of Samuel '". In the end,
this precaution of Moab turned to its own
destruction ; for, after Eglon was slain,
Ephraim, under Ehud, took the fords, and
14 Deut, xxiii, 3,
15 Nu, xxv, 1,3, The rank of the Midianitish lady
who gave herself as a partner of the sin of the
Simeonite chief (lb, 6, 14, 16, 18,) shews how much
store the Midianites set on tliat seduction,
16 Ib, 17, and xxxi.
1' Jud. iii, 13. 18 1 Sam. xii. 9.

262

ZEPHANIAH.

the whole garrison, 10,000 of Moab's war
riors, ' every strong man and every man of
might, were intercepted in their retreat and
perished. For a long time after this, we
hear of no fresh invasion by Moab. The
trans-Jordanic tribes reraained in unques
tioned possession of their land for 300
years '', when Araraon, not Moab, raised the
claim, ''Israel took away my land, although
claiming the land down to the Arnon, and
already being in possession of the Southern
most portion of that land, Aroer, since Israel
smote him from Aroer unio Minnith *. The
land then, according to a law recognized by
nations, belonged by a twofold right to Israel ;
1) that it had been won, not from Moab, but
from the conquerors of Moab, the right of
Moab having passed to its conquerors ^ ; 2)
that undisputed and unbroken possession
" for tirae iramemorial " as we say, 300 years,
ought not to be disputed ". The defeat by
Jephthah stilled them for near 50 years till
the beginning of Saul's reign, w^hen they
refused the offer of the men if Jabesh-Gilead
to serve them, and, with a mi.xture of inso
lence and savagery, annexed as a condition
of accepting that entire submission, ' that I
may thrust out edl your right eyes, to lay it as a
reproach to Israel. The signal victory of
Saul' still did not prevent Amnion, as well
as Moab, from being among the ene
mies whom Saul worsted". The term
enemies implies that they were the assailants.
The history of Naomi shews their prosperous
condition, that the famine, which desolated
Judah '", did not reach them, and that they
were a prosperous land, at peace, at that
time, with Israel, If all the links of the
genealogy are preserved ", Jesse, David's
father, was grandson of a Moabitess, Euth,
and perhaps on this ground David entrusted
his parents to the care of the king of Moab ''^-
Sacred history gives no hint, what was the
cause of his terrible execution upon Moab,
But a Psalm of David speaks to God of some
1 Jud, iii, 29, 2 lb, xi, 26,
s Ib, 13, 4 lb, 33.
6 Grotius de jure belli et pads, iii. c. vi, n, vii, and
notes, 8 Id, Ib, ii, c, iv, n, ii, and ix, and notes,
'1 Sam, xi, 1, 2, sjb n
" J?'B'^^, not, "vexed," Ib, xiv, 47,
MRuth i. 1. nib, iv. 21 22
M 1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4, "Ps, Ix. 3-5, "lb.' tit.
15 It was probably the narrow valley some three
railes long between the Northern end of that re
markable salt mountain, the Jebel or Khasm U,s-
dum and the dead sea. See the description in
Tristram's Land of Isr., p. 326 sqq. At its N, ex
tremity at the mouth of Wady Zuweirati there are
considerable traces of (perhaps Roman) buildings,
A tower placed here would command the entrance
of the valley of salt, and this may well have been
the site of the city of salt.
11 Jos, XV, 62,
1' Seetzen guessed (Reisen ii, 366) and Robinson
considered it certain (ii, 109) that "the valley of
salt" was the lower part of the 'Arabah, close to the
Dead Sea, between Edora and Judsea, But i. This

blow, under which Israel had reeled. '" 0
Ood, Thou hast abhorred us, and broken us in
pieces; Thou hast been wroth : Thou hast made
the land to tremble and cloven it asunder ; heal
its breaches, for it shaketh ; Thou hast shewed
Thy people a hard thing. Thou liast made it
drink wine of reeling ; and thereon David ex
presses his confidence that God would hum
ble Moab, Edom, Philistia. While David
then was engaged in the war with the Syrians
of Mesopotamia and Zobali '*, Moab must
have combined with Edom in an aggressive
war against Israel. The valley of salt '", where
Joab returned and defeated thera, was pro
bably within Judah, since the city of salt '* was
one of the six cities of the wilderness.
Since they had defeated Judah, they must
have been overtaken there on their return".
Yet this too was a religious war. "Thou,"
David says ", " hast given a banner to them
that fear Thee, to be raised aloft because of
the truth."
There is no tradition, that the kindred
Psalra of the sons of Corah, Psalm xliv.
belongs to the same time. Yet the protesta
tions to God of the entire absence of idolatry
could not have been made at any time later
than the early years of Solomon. Even
were there Maccabee Psalms, the Maccabees
were but a handful araong apostates. They
could not have pleaded the national freedom
frora unfaithfulness to God, nor, except in
two subordinate and self-willed expeditions''-',
were they defeated. Under the Persian rule,
there were no armies nor wars ; no immunity
from idol atl')' in the later history of Judah.
Judah did not in Hezekiah's time go out
against Assyria; the one battle, in which
Josiah was slain, ended the resistance to
Egypt. Defeat was, at the date of this Psalm,
new and surprising, in contrast with God's
deliverances of old ™ ; yet the inroad, by
which they had suffered, was one of spoil
ing ''', not of subdual. "Yet this too was a
religious war, from their neighbors. They
is spoken of as a " great plain " (Seetzen p. 365) and
although the word t<'J is twice used of as large val
ley; (1) the valley over against Baal Poor, where all
Israel was encamped Deut. iii. 29, iv. 46; 2) that of
Zephathah, where Asa, with an army of 580,000 men,
defeated Zerah the Ethiopian with 1,000,000 (2 Chr.
xiv. 10) this is the exception. In eleven other
places it is used of a narrow valley, ii. The depres
sion, .South of the Dead Sea down to the Red Sea,
had, in the time of Moses, the same title as now, the
" Arabah," Deut. i. 1, ii. 8. iii. 'I'he space, near the
Dead Sea, whieh is salt, "the Sebkha, or desolate
sanil-swamp" (Tristram Moab, p. 41.) is impracti
cable for men; much more for an army. "The
Sebkha or salt-flat is a Large flat, of at least 6 by 10
miles from N. to S. Taught by the experience of
M. de Pauley, we made no att'^mpt to cross it to the
northwards, as the mud would have been far too
deep and treacherous for us to pass in safety" (Id.
L.and of Israel, p. 336.). "The land South ofthe
Sebkha is not salt, but rich .and fertile" (Id. p, 338).
See de Saulcy Voyage en Syrie &a. p, 248-256,
18 Ps. Ix, 4, 19 1 Mace, V, 56-60, 67,
»Ps, xliv, 1-3, 21 Ib, 10,12,

CHAPTEE II.

263

were slain for the sake of God ', they were
covered with shame on account of the
reproaches and blasphemies '^ of those who
triumphed over God, as powerless to help ;
they were a scorn and derision to the petty
nations around them. It is a Psalm of un
shaken faith araid great prostration : it
describes in detail what the Ixth Psalm
sums up in single heavy words of imagery ;
but both alike complain to God of what Plis
people had to sufier for Plis sake.
The insolence of Amnion in answer to
David's message of kindness to their new
king, like that to the men of Jabesh Gilead,
seems like a deliberate purpose to create
hostilities. The relations of the previous
king of Ammon to David, had been kind ",
perhaps, because David being a fugitive from
Israel, they supposed him to be Saul's eneray.
The enmity originated, not with the new
king, but with the princes of the children of
Ammon*. David's treatment of these
nations^ is so unlike his treatment of any
others whom he defeated, that it implies an
internecine warfare, in which the safety of
Israel could only be secured by the destruc
tion of its assailants.
Mesha king of Moab records one war, and
alludes to others, not mentioned in Ploly
Scripture. Pie says, that before his own
time, " Omri, king of Israel, afflicted Moab
many days ;" that " his son [Ahab] succeeded
him, and he too said, ' I will afflict Moab.' "
This affliction he explains to be that " ^ Omri
possessed himself of the land of Medeba"
[expelling ', it is implied, its former occu
piers] "and that" (apparently, Israel")
" dwelt therein," " [in his days and in] the
days of his son forty years." He was also in
possession of Nebo, and " the king of Israel "
(apparently Omri,) "buil[t] Jahazand dwelt
in it, when he made war with me.^" Jahaz was
near Dibon. In the time of Eusebius, it was
still " pointed out between Dibon and
Medeba '"." Mesha says, " And I took it to
annex it to Dibon." It could not, according

iPs, xliv. 22, 2Ib, 13, 14. 3 2Sam, X, 2, 3.
4 Ib, 3, 6 lb, viii. 2, xii, 31,
"sm HD pt< nx 'ID;; my'\.
'This lies in the word jyT'l,
s A gap in the broken stone probably contained
the subject, I see that Schlottman also supplied,
" Israel ; " Dr, Ginsburg conjectured, less probably,
" the enemy,"
9 In this place only Mesha speaks of the king of
Israel's war with him in the past. Elsewhere he
.speaks of himself only as being on the offensive,
"I fought against the city" [Ataroth]; "I fought
against it" [Nebo]; "go down, fight a.gainst Horo-
naim," The king of Israel is apparently the same
throughout, Omri,
10 S, Jerome de situ loc, Hebr, Opp. iii. 230, v.
'letrtja, " Jassa, where Sihon king of the Amorites is
defeated." 11 Nu. xxi. 23-25. 12 Deut. ii. 36.
IS "The ruins of Araayr (T55^'^J») the Aroer of the
Scriptures, standing on the edge of the precipice."
Burckhardt, travels in Syria p. 372.

to Mesha also, have been S. of the Arnon,
since Aroer lay between Dibon and the
Arnon, and Mesha would not have annexed
to Dibon a town beyond the deep and difiicult
ravine of the Arnon, with Aroer lying
between them. It was certainly N. of the
Arnon, since Israel was not permitted to
come within the border of Moab, but it was
at Jahaz that Sihon met them and fought
the battle in which Israel defeated him and
gained possession of his land, from the Arnon
to the Jabbok". It is said also that '^israei
dwelt in the land of the Amorites from Aroer
which is on the edge of the river Arnon '^, and
the eity which is in the river ¦'* unto Gilead.
'^ Aroer on the edge of the river Arnon, and the
city which is in the river Arnon, again occur in
describing the southern border of Eeuben,
araong whose towns Jahaz is mentioned,
with Beth-Baal-Meon and Kiriathaim, which
have been identified.
The afflicting then of Moab by Omri,
according to Mesha, consisted in this, that
he recovered to Israel a portion of the allot
ment of Eeuben, between 9 and 10 hours in
length '^ f'rom N. to S,, of which, in the time
of Israel's weakness through the civil wars
which followed on Jeroboam's revolt, Moab
must have dispossessed Eeuben, Eeuben
had reraained in undisturbed possession of it,
frora the first expulsion of the Amorites to
the time at least of Eehoboam, about five
hundred years ", " The raen of Gad " still
" dwelt in Ataroth," Mesha says, " frora time
immemorial." The picture, which Mesha gives, is of a
desolation of the southern portion of Eeuben.
For, " I rebuilt," he says, " Eaal-Meon,
Kiriathaim, Aroer, Beth-bamoth, Bezer,
Beth-Diblathaim, Beth-baal-Meon." Of
Beth-Bamoth, and probably of Bezer, Mesha
says, that they had previously been de
stroyed'^. But Eeuben would not, of course,
destroy his own cities. They raust then
have been destroyed either by Mesha's
father, who reigned before him, when invad-
14 "Near the confluence of the Ledjoura and the
Mojeb" [Arnon] "about 1 raile E. of the bridge
across the Mojeci, there seems to be a fine verdant
pasture ground, in the midst of which stands a hill
with some ruins upon it," Burcichardt Ib. 37::, 4.
15 Josh, xiii, 10, 18,
11 The distance is taken frora Porter's Hand-book
pp, 299-301,
1' The beginning of Rehoboam's reign is, in the
received Chronology, 477, B, C.
18 1 built Beth-Bamoth, for it was destroyed ; I
built Bezer, for" [the rest is conjecture. There are
only two letters, which may be ^^ or TJ), perhaps
3TJ7 "forsaken"] nj3 probably, in such siraple
H'ebrew, signifies, in regard to all the towns, built.
It is tlie one word used of the king of Israel and of
Mesha, "he built;" "I built," although it is rarely
used of building ou to existing towns aud fortifying
thera, (1 Kgs xv, 17, 2 Chr. xi, 7,) It is probably
here used of re-building; since the cause of tlie
building was the previous destruction.

264

ZEPHANIAH.

ing Eeuben, or by Omri, when driving back
Moab into his own land, and expelling him
from these cities. Possibly they were dis
mantled only, since Mesha speaks only of
Omri's occupying Medeba, Ataroth, and
Jahaz. He held these three cities only,
leaving the rest dismantled, or dismantling
them, unable to place defenders in them, and
unwilling to leave them as places of aggres
sion for Moab. Eut whether they ever were
fortified towns at all, or how they were deso
lated, is mere conjecture. Only they were
desolated in these wars.
But it appears from Mesha's own state
ment, that neither Orari nor Ahab invaded
Moab pi'oper. For in speaking of his suc
cessful war and its results, he raentions no
town S. of the Arnon. Pie must have been a
tributary king, but not a foot of his land was
taken. The subsequent war was not a mere
revolt, nor was it a mere refusal to pay
tribute, of which Mesha makes uo complaint.
Nor could the tribute have been oppressive
to liiin, since the spoils, left in the encamp
ment of Moab and his allies shortly after his
revolt, is evidence of such great wealth.
The refusal to pay tribute would have
involved nothing further, unless Ahaziah
had attempted to enfor..e it, as Hezekiah
refused the tribute to Assyria, but remained
in his own borders. But Ahaziab, unlike
his brother Jehoram who succeeded him,
seems to have undertaken nothing, except
the building of some ships for trade '-
Mesha's war was a renewal of the aggression
on Eeuben.
Heshbon is not mentioned, and therefore
must, even after the war, have remained
with Eeuben.
Mesha's own w;ir was an exterminating
war, as far as he records it. " I fought
against the city," [/Vtaroth], he says, " and
took it, and killed all the niigli ty of the city
for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and of
Moab ; " "I fought against it [Nebo] frora
break of day till noon and took it, and slew
all of it, 7000 raen ; th3 ladies and maidens I
devoted to Ashtar Chemosh ; " to be dese
crated to the degradations of that sensual
idolatry. The words too "^Israel perished
with an everlasting destruction " stand clear,
whether they expi-ess Mesha's conviction of
the past or his hjpe of the future.
The war also, on the part of Moab, was a
war of his idol (.!heinosh against God.
Chemosh, from first to last, is the agent.
" Cheraosh was angry -wdth his land ; "
1 2 Chr, XX, 36, 36,
2 A break in the stone leaves the subject uncer
tain, " In my day said [ ], and I will look
upon him and upon his house, and Isra?l perished
with an everlasting destruction." Schlottman
conjectures, probabl,v, " Chemosh." Ganneau ren
ders as if it were past, T^S, so Hang, Geiger, Neu
bauer, Wright; Schlottman, Noldeke, and Ginsburg,
as future, IJX, though Ginsburg alone renders,

"Chemosh [was pleased] with it in my
days ; " "I killed the mighty for the well
pleasing of Chemosh ; " "I took captive
thence all [ ] and dragged it along before
Chemosh at Kiriath ;" " Cheraosh said to me,
Go and take Nebo against Israel ; " "I de
voted the ladies and maidens to Ashtar-
Chemosh ; " "I took thence the vessels of
IPI'VHand dragged^ them before Chemosh;"
" Chemosh drove him [the king of Israel]
out before [my face] ; " " Chemosh said to
me, Go down against Horonaim," " Che
raosh [ ] it in ray days,"
Contemporary with this aggressive war
against Israel must have been the invasion
by 4 the children of Moab and the children of
Ammon, the great multitude from beyond the sea,
from Syria, in the reign of Jehoshaphat,
which brought such terror upon Judah. It
preceded the invasion of Moab by Jehos
haphat in union with Jcdioram and the king
of Edora. For the invasion of Judah by
Moab and Ammon took place, while Ahab's
son, Ahaziah, was still living. For it was after
this, that Jehoshaphat joined with Ahaziah in
making ships to go to Tarshish °. But the
expedition against Moab was in union with
Jehoram who succeeded Ahaziah. The
abundance of 'wealth which the invaders of
Judah brought with them, and the precious
jewels with which they had adorned them
selves, shew that this was no mere maraud
ing expedition, to spoil ; but that its object
was, to take possession of the land or at least
of sorae portion of it. They came by entire
surprise on Jehoshaphat, who heard of them
first when they were at Hazazon-Tamar or
Engedi, some 36 J railes from .Jerusalem".
He felt himself entirely unequal to meet
them, and cast himself upon God. There
was a day of public humiliation of Judah at
Jerusalem. '' Out of all the cities of Judah they
came io seek ilie Lord. Jehoshaphat, in his
public prayer, owned, ^we have na might
against ihis great company which cometh against
us ; neither know we what to do ; but our eyes
are upon Thee. He appeals to God, that He
had forbidden Israel to invade Ammon,
Moab, and Jlount Seir, so that they turned
away frora thera and destroyed them not ;
and now these rewarded them by "'coming
to cast us out of Thy possession which Thou
hast given us to inherit." One of the sons of
Asaph foretold to the congregation, that they
might go out fearlessly ; for they should not
have occasion to fight. A Psalra, ascribed to
Asaph, records a great invasion, the object of
" And Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever," which
is impossible.
SThe word in Hebrew is used of contumelious
dragging along the ground.
4 2 Chr, x.x, 1,2,
6 Ib. 35, 36. " And after this did Jehoshaphat king
of Judah join himself with Ahaziah."
6 300 stadia. Jos. Ant. ix, 1, 2,
'2 Chr, XX. 4. 8 lb. 13. « Ib. 10.

CHAPTEE II.

265

which was the extermination of Israel.
' They have said ; Come and let us cut them off
from being a nation, that the name of Israel
may be no more in remembrance. It had been
a secret confederacy. ^ They have taken crafty
counsel cigainst Thy people. It was directed
against God Himself, i. e. His worship and
worshipers. ' For they have taken counsel in
heart together ; against Thee do tliey inake a cove
nant. It was a combination of the surround
ing petty nations ; Tyre on the N., the
Philistines on the W. ; on the South the
Amalekites, Ishmaelites, Hagarenes ; East
ward, Edom, Gebal, Moab, Ammon. But
its most characteristic feature was, that
Assur (this corresponds with no period after
Jehoshaphat) occupies a subordinate place to
Edom and Moab, putting them forward and
helping them. Assur also, Asaph says'*, is
joined with them; they have become an arm
io ihe children of Lot This agrees with
the description, there is come against thee
a great multitude from beyond the sea, from
Syria. Scripture does not record, on wiiat ground
the invasion of Moab by Jehoram and
Jehoshaphat, wdth the tributary king of
Edom, was directed against Moab proper ; but
it was the result doubtless of the double war
of Moab against Eeuben and against Judah.
It was a war, in which the strength of Israel
and Moab was put forth to the utmost.
Jehoram had mustered all Israel * ; Moab
had gathered all who had reached the age of
manhood and upward, "every one who girded
on a girdle and. upward. The three armies,
which had made a seven days' circuit in the
wilderness, were on the point of perishing by
thirst and falling into the hands of Moab,
when Elisha in God's name promised them
the supply of their want, and complete vic
tory over Moab. The eager cupidity of
Moab, as of raany other armies, became the
occasion of his complete overthrow. The
counsel with which Elisha accompanied his
prediction, ''ye shall smite every fenced city
and every choice city, and every good tree ye shall
fell, and all springs of water ye shall stop up,
and every good piece of land ye shall waste with
stones, was directed, apparently, to dislodge
an enemy so inveterate. For water was
essential to the fertility of their land and
their dwelling there. "We hear of no special
infliction of death, like what Mesha records
of himself The war was ended by the king
of Moab's sacrificing the heir-apparent of
the king of Edom ", which naturally created
great displeasure against Israel, in whose cause
1 Ps. Ixxxiii, 4. 2Ib. 3, 3Ib, 5, 4ib, 8,
6 2Kgs, iii, 6, «Ib, 21, 'lb, 19.
sSee on Am, ii, 12, vol, i, p, 268,
^This is marked on the Moabite stone, as a sub
sequent and distinct expedition.
10 2 Kgs xiii, 20. "Ib, x, 33,
'2 See on Amps i. 13. vol, i, p, 252. i3 2 Kgs xvi. 25.

Edom thus suffered, so that they departed to
tlieir own land and finally revolted.
Their departure apparently broke up the
siege of Ar and the expedition.. Israel ap-
jjarently was not strong enough to carry on
the war without Edom, or feared to remain
with their armies away from their own land,
as in the time of David, of which Edom
might take the advantage. We know only
the result.
Moab probably even extended her border
to the South by the conquest of Horonaim ".
After this, Moab is mentioned only on oc
casion of the miracle of the dead man, to
whom God gave life, when cast into Elisha's
sepulchre, as he came in contact with his
bones. Like the Bedaween now, or the
Amalekites of old, '" the bands of Moab came
into the land, as the year came. Plunder, year
by year, was the lot of Israel at the hands of
Moab. On the East of Jordan, Israel raust have
reraained in part (as Mesha says of the Ga-
dites of Aroer) in their old border. For
after this, Hazael, in Jehu's reign, sraote
Israel "from Aroer which is by the river Arnon ;
and at that tirae probably Ammon joined
with him in the exterminating war in Gilead,
destroying life before it had corae into the
world, that they might enlarge their border''^.
Jeroboam ii, B, C, 8125, restored Israel io the
sea ofthe plain'''', i, c, the dead sea, and, (as
seems probable from the limitation of that
terra in Deuteronomy '4, under Ashdoth-Plygah
Eastward) to its Northern extremity, lower
in latitude than Heshbon, yet above Nebo
and Jledeba, leaving accordingly to Moab all
which it had gained by Mesha. Uzziah, a
few years later, made the Ammonites tribu
taries '^ B. C. 810. But 40 years later B. C.
771, Pul, and, after yet another 30 years, 740,
Tiglath-pileser having carried away the
trans-jordanic tribes '", Moab again possessed
itself of the whole territory of Eeuben.
Probably before. For B. C. 726, when Isaiah
foretold that " the glory of Moab should be con
temned with all that great multitude, he hears
the wailing of Moab throughout all his
towns, and names all those which had once
been Eeuben's and of whose conquest or
possession Moab had boasted "*, Nebo, Medeba,
Dibon, Jahaz, Baiith ; as also those not
conquered then, '" Heshbon, Elealeh ; and
those of Moab proper, Lnhith, Horonaim,
and its capitals, Ar-Moab and Kir-Moab.
Pie hears their sorrow, sees their desolation
and bewails with their weeping '^". He had
prophesied this before'", and now, three
14 Deut, iii, 17. '' 2 Chr, xxvi, 8.
I'lChr, V, 26, 1' Is, xvi, 14,
18 Ib, XV, 1, 2, 4, 1Mb, 4, 5,1,
20 Ib, xvi, 0,
21 "That the 'prophecy must be from any other
older prophet, is an inference from grounds of
nought," Dei,

266

ZEPHANIAH.

years 'before its fulfillment by Tiglath-
Pileser, he renews it. This tender sorrow
for Moab has more the character of an elegy
than of a denunciatiou ; so that he could
scarcely lament more tenderly the ruin of
his own people. He mentions also distinctly
no sin there except pride. The pride of
Moab seems something of common notoriety
and speech. We have heard''. Isaiah accu
mulates words, to express the haughtiness of
Moab; the pride of Moab; exceeding proud;
his pride and his haughtiness and his wrath ',
pride overpassing bounds, upon others. His
words seem to be formed so as to keep tliis
one bared thought before us, as if we were to
say " pride, prideful, proudness, pridef'til-
ness ; " and withal the unsubstantialness of
it all, tlie wnsubstantialily of his lies *. Pride
is the source of all am'oition ; so Moab is pic
tured as retiring within her old bounds, the
fords of Arnon, and thence asking for aid ;
her petition is met by the counter-petition,
that, if she would be protected in the day of
trouble, the out-casts of Israel might lodge
with her now: be thou a covert to her from the
face of the spoiler ''. The prophecy seems to
mark itself out as belonging to a time, after
the two and a half tribes had been desolated,
as stragglers sought refuge in Moab, and
when a severe infliction was to come on
Moab: the "remnant shall be small, small not
greed. Yet Moab recovered this too. It was a
weakening of the nation, not its destruction.
Some 126 years after the prophecy of Isaiah,
30 years after the prophecy of Zephaniah,
Moab, in the time of Jeremiah, \vas in entire
prosperity, as if no visitation had ever come
upon her. What Zephaniah says of the
luxuriousness of his people, Jereraiah says of
Moab; ''Mod) is one at ease from his youth;
he is resting on his lees ; and he hath not been
emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone
into captivity. " They say. We are mighty and
strong men for the war. Moab was " a strong
staff, a beautiful rod ; '" he magnifled himself
against the Lord ; '¦' Israel was a derision to
him; he skipped for joy at his distress. Jere
miah j-epeats and even strengthens Isaiah's
description of his pride; '^his pride, proud,
he repeats, exceedingly ; his loftiness, again his
pride, his arrogancy, and ihe haughtiness of his
heart. Its strong holds '" were unharmed ; all
its cities, /or and 'near, are counted one by
one, in their prosperity '4; its summer-fiuits
and vintage were plenteous ; its vines, lux
uriant ; all was joy and shouting. "W'iience
should this evil come ? Yet so "it was with
1 Is, xvi, 13, 14, 2 Ih, 0,
2ima;'i uiKJi inisj nxa kj 3x1a nxj,
'V-IDpsb, 5is. xvi. 4, 5,
0 lb, 14, ' Jer, xlviii, 11, » ib, n,
•Ib, 17, loib, 26. n lb 27
^lh.29. "Ib, 18. 14 Ib, 1, 3, 5, 21-24,

Sodom and Gomorrah just before its over
throw. It was, for beauty, ""a paradise of
Ood; well-watered everywhere ; as the garden of
tlie Lord, like the land of Egypt. In the
morning '" the smoke of the country went up as
the smoke of the furnace. The destruction
foretold by Jeremiah is far other than the
affliction spoken of by Isaiah. Isaiah prophe
sies only a visitation, which should reduce
her people : Jeremiah foretells, as did
Zeiihaniali, captivity and the utter destruc
tion of her cities. 'I'he destruction foretold
is complete. Not of individual cities only,
but ot the whole he saith, " Moab is destroyed.
'" 'Tiie spoiler shall come upon every city, and no
city shall escape, and tlie valley shall p)erish and
the high places shall be destroyed, as ihe Lord
hath spoken. Moab himself was to leave his
land. ¦'" Flee, save your lives, and ye shall be
like the heath in the wilderness. Chemosh shcdl
go forth into captivity ; his pmsts and his princes
together. Give pinions unio Moab, that it may
flee and get away, and her cities shall be a desola
tion ; for there is none to dwell therein. It was
not only to go into captivity, but its home
was to be destroyed. ™ / will send to her those
who shall upheave her, and tliey sliall upheave her,
and her vessels they sliall empty, all her flagons
(all that aforetime contained her) they shall
break in pieces. ^'Moab is destroyed and her
cities ; ^'^ the spoiler of Moab is come upon her ;
he hath destroyed ihe strongholds. The subse
quent history of the Moabites is in the
words, '^^ Leave the cities and dwell in the rock,
dwellers of Moab, andbelike a dove whiehnesteth
in the sides rf the mouth of tlie pit. The pur
pose of Moab and Ammon against Israel
which Asaph complains of, and which Mesha
probably speaks of, is retorted upon her.
^* In Heshbon they have devised evd against it ;
come and let us cut it off from being a nation.
Moab shall be destroyed from being a people,
because he hath magnified himself against the
Lord. Whence should this evil come? They
had, with the Ammonites, been faithful ser
vants of Nebuchadnezzar against J udah '".
Their concerted conspiracy with Edom, Tyre,
Zidon, to which they invited Zedekiah ^', was
dissolved. Nebuchadnezzar's march against
Judsea did not touch them ; for they ^^ skipped
with joy at Israel's distresses. The connection
of Baalis, king of the Ammonites, with Isli-
raael ^' the assassin of Gedaliah, whom the
king of Babylon raade governor over the
land^' out of their own people, probably
brought down the vengeance of Nebuchad
nezzar. For Chaldfeans too were included in

i» Gen, xiii, 10. « Ib, xix, 28.
I'Jtr. xlviii, 4, I'lb, 8. i»Ib, xvii, 6,
20 Ib, xlviii, 12, 21 Ib, 15, 22 1),. is,
23 lb. 28. 21 lb, 2, 42,
2»2 Kgs xxiv. 2. 25, Jer, x.xvii, 2 sqq.
2' Ih, ilviii, 27, 28 lb, xl, 14. xii. 10.
20 2 Kgs xxv. 22-26. Jer. xl. 6. xii. 1.

CHAPTEE IL

267

the slaughter'. The blow seems to have
been aimed at the existence of the people ;
for the murder of Gedaliah followed upon
the rallying ofthe Jews ^ out of all tlie plaees
whither they had been driven. It returned on
Ammon itself, and on Moab who probably on
this, as on former occasions, was associated
with it. The two nations, 'who had escaped
at the destruction of Jerusalem, were warred
upon and subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the
23d year of his reign', the 5th after the de
struction of Jerusalem.
And then probably followed that complete
destruction and disgraced end, in which
Isaiah, in a distinct prophecy, sees Moab
trodden down by God as '' the heap of straw is
trodden down in the waters^ of the dunghill,
and he (Moab) stretcheth forth his hands in the
midst thereof, as ihe swimmer stretcheth forth his
hands to swim, and He, God, shall bring down
his pride with the treacheries of his hands. It
speaks much of the continued hostility of
Moab, that, in prophesying the complete de
liverance for which Israel waited, the one
enemy whose destruction is foretold, is Moab
and those pictured by iloab. " We have
wailed for Him and He will save us — For in
this mountain (Zion) shall the hand of the Lord
rest, and Moab shall be trodden dawn under Hi'm.
After this, Moab, as a nation, disappears
from history. Israel, on its return from the
captivity, was again enticed into idolatry by
Moabite and Ammonite wives, as well as by
those of Ashdod and others ', Canaanites,
Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Egyptians,
Amorites '. Sanballat also, who headed the
opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem,
was a Moabite^; Tobiah, an Ammonite'".
Yet it went no further than intrigue and the
threat of war. They 'n'ere but individuals,
who cherished the old hostility. In the time
of the Maccabees, the Ammonites, not Moab,
with a mighty power and much ¦people were in
possession of the Eeubenite cities to Jazar ".
It was again an exterminating war, in which
the Jews were to be destroyed '"'. After re
peated defeats by Judas Maccabseus, the
Ammonites hired the Arabians'^ (not the

1 Jer. xii. 3.
8 Jos. Ant. X. 9, 7.
6 'D:: Chethib.

2 Ib. xl. 12.
4 Is. xxv. 10-12.
6 Is. x.xv. 9. 10,

' Neh, xiii, 23-26. 8 Ezr, fx. 1,
» Neh. ii, 10, iv, 1-8, 'o Ib, iv, 2, 9,
11 1 Mace, V, 6, 8, 12 Ib, 9, 10, 27,
IS Ib, 39, 14 Ib, 45, 16 Ant, i, 11, 3,
10 Dial, n, 119, p, 218. Oxf Tr.
1' Anon, in Job ap. Origen i. 852,
i8Seetzen Reisen i, 412,
10 e, g, "54 of an hour further, we reached the
ruins of el-Eale; V^ hour further, we came to
Hiisban ; beside some overthrown pillars, nothing
important ia found here. On the B., about 1^ hour,
are the ruins of Sheli'il : after an hour on this plain
we came to 3 wasted places, close together ; y^ an
hour further, we reached the ruins of what formerly
was Madaha; ^ an hour further lay the ruined
village of Tufrae; above an hour to the W, the im
portant ruins of Mai5in," Ib, 407, 8,

Moa'oites) to help them, and Judas, although
victorious, was obliged to remove the whole
Israelite population, '* all that were in the land
of Gilead, from the least unto the greatest, even
iheir wives, and iheir children, and their stuff, a
very great host, to the end they might come into
the land of Judcea. The whole population
was removed, obviously lest, on the with
drawal of Judas' array, they should be again
imperilled. As it was a defensive war against
Aramon, there is no mention of any city,
south of the Arnon, iu Moab's own territory.
It was probably with the view to magnify
descendants of Lot, that Josephus speaks of
the Moabites as being "even yet a very great
nation '"." S. Justin's account, that there is
" '" even now a great multitude of Ammon
ites," does not seem to me to imply a
national existence. A later writer says,
" " Now not only the Edomites but the Am
monites and Moabites too are included in the
one narae of jirabians."
Sorae chief towns of Moab became Eoman
tov/ns, connected by the Eoman road from Da
mascus to Elath. Ar and Kir-Moab in Moab
proper became Areopolis and Charac-Mcab,
and, as well as Medeba and Heshbon in the
country wliich had been Eeuben's, preserve
traces of Eoman occupancy. As such, they
became Christian Sees. The towns, which
were not thus revived as Eoman, probably
perished at once, since they bear no traces of
any later building.
The present condition of Moab and Am
nion is remarkable in two ways; 1) for the
testiraony which it gives of its former ex
tensive population ; 2) for the extent of its
present desolation. " How fearfully,'' says
an accurate and minute observer '", " is this
residence of old kings and their land wasted!"
It gives a vivid idea of the desolation, that
distances are marked, not by villages which
he passes but by ruins". "^"From these
ruined places, which lay on our way, one-
sees how thickly inhabited the district
formerly was." 'Yet the ground remained
fruitful. It was partly abandoned to wild
plants, the woi-mwood and other shrubs '" ;
20 lb, 411,
21 "A litfle N, of el-Eale we came on good soil,
which however lay wholly uncultivated aud was
mostly overgrown with the prickly little Bulliin,
which gave the country the look of moor-ground,"
iSeetzen Travels, i, 406, "The soil here (Heshbon)
is in this district excellent, but it lies wholly un
cultivated and serves only for pasture to the little
herds of slieep, goats, kine and camels of the
Arabs," Ib. p. 407. ""The Arabs cultivate a little
ground near Mad.iba." p. 409. "The land (the
other side the Muieb [Arnou] and so m Moab proper)
had little grass, but there was an e.xtraordinaiy
quantity of wormwood on it. Yet the soil seems
excellent for wheat, although no spot was culti
vated. Large spots had The look of our moors Irom
the quantity of wormwood and other little shrubs,"
p. 410. " Here and there, there were tokens of
cultivation, wheatfields; the wheat was good."
p, 412,

268

ZEPHANIAH.

partly, the artificial irrigation, essential to
cultivation in this land, was destroyed ^ ;
here and there a patch was cultivated ; tlie
rest remained barren, because the crops
might become the prey of the spoiler^, or
the thin population had had no lieart to cul
tivate it. A list of 33 destroyed placc'^, which
StiU retained their names, was given to
Seetzen ^, " of which many were cities in
times of old, and beside these, a great num
ber of other wasted vilhiges. One sees from
thiSj that, in the days of old, this land was
extremely peopled and fiouriyhing, and that
destructive wars alone could produce the
jiresent desolation." And thereon he adds
the names of 40 ,more ruined places. Others
say ; " * The whole of the fine plains in this
quarter" [the 8. of Moab] " are covered with
sites of towns, on eveiy eminence or spot
convenient lor the construction of one ; and
as all the land is capable of rich cultivation,
there can be no doubt that this country, now
so deserted, once presented a continued pic
ture of plenty and fertility." "^ Every
knoll " [in the highlands of Moab] " is cov
ered with shapeless ruins. — The ruins con
sist merely of heaps of squared and well-
fitting stones, which apparently were erected
without mortar." " ^ One description might
serve for all these Moabite ruins. The town
seems to have been a svstem of concentric

I See Mr. Tristram's picture of "a ruin-covered
ridc;e by an immense tank of solid masonry, 140
yards by 110 jTFirds, at Ziza. From the surface of
the water to the edge of the tank was 17 feet 6
inches. The masonry was simply magnificent.
The whole system and artificial sluices were pre
cisely similar to aucient works for irrigation in
India and Ceylon. — Such works ea-^ily explain to
U'> the enormous population, of whicli the ruined
cities give evidence. Everywhere is some arti
ficial means of retaining the occasional supplies of
rain water. So long as these precious structures
remained in order, cultivation \\as continuous and
iamines remained unknown. — The Islamite inva
sion left the miserable remnants of a dense and
thriving nation entirely dependent on the neigh
boring countries for their sujiply of corn : a depen
dence which must continue till these border lands
are secure from the inroad of the predatory bands
of the East." Land of Moab pp. 18.V1S6. At Kustul
is " a massive wall in the plain, about GOO yards in
length across the valley, and 18 feet thick, built to
dam up the water in 'the gentle depression, the
head or the wady." Ib. c. 12. p. 'I-AK " U6r el MesrAa,
as far as the soil can be watered, e'vinCes a lux
uriant fertility. By far the greater part of it is
a waste." Seetz. ii. 352. "G6r el Zdpnia owes its
fruitfiUness entirely to the water of the Wady el
Hossa, which is guided to the fields in many canals.
But only a very small portion of this exceedingly
rich soil is cultivated, the rest is ov(-rgrown with
bushes and shrubs, wherein very manv wild boars,
hyenas and other wild animals hve." n).355. "This
water too [of the Nimmt^ry] is said formerly to
have been used for watering some fields, of which
there is now no trace." Ib. iiFA.
2 " True, the land is not our's, but our people are
many, and who shall dare to prevent them from
going where they please? You will find them
everywhere, if the land is good for them." Answer
of Beni Sakkr Sheikh, Tristram Moab. c. 15. p. 28.
3Jb. 41G.
4 Irby and Mangles (May 14) p. 113.

circles, built round a central fort, and outside
tlie Ijuildings the rings continue as terrace-
walks, the gardens of the old city. The ter
races are continuous between the twin hil
locks and intei'sect each otlier at the foot."
" ^ Ruined villages and towns, broken walla
that once enclosed gardens and vineyards, re
mains of ancient roads; everything in Moab
tells of the immense wealth and population,
which that country must have once enjoyed."
The like is observed of Ammon ". His
was direct hatred oJ' the true religion. It
was not. mere exultation at the desolation of
an envied people. It was hatred of the wor
ship of God, "^ Thus saith the Lord God;
Because thou saklst, Aha, agai'nst Mij sanctuary,
because it ivas profaned; and against the land
of Israel, because it was desolated ; and against
the house of Judah, because they went into
captivity." The like temper is shewn in the
boast, *' ^° Because that Moab and Seir do say ;
Behold the house qf Judah is like unto the
heathen^^ i. e., on a level with thera.
Forbearing and long-suffering as Almighty
God is, in His infinite mercy, He does not,
for that mercy's sake, bear the direct defiance
of Himself. ITe allows His creatures to for
get Him, not to despise or defy Him. And
on this ground, perhaps, Pie gives to His
prophecies a fulfillment beyond what the
letter requires, that they may be a continued

5 Tristram, Land of Moab, pp. 100, 101.
6 lb. 09.
T Palmer, desert of the Exodus ii. 473, 474.
8 "East of Assalt, including Ammun, are thirty
ruined or deserted plaees of which names are given
in Dr. Smith's Arabic lists." Keith Prophecy p.
274. "All tills country, formerly so populous and
flourishing, i^ now changed into a vast desert."
Seetzen Brief account kc. p. 34. lb. p. 263. "The far
greater part of this country is uninhabited, being
abandoned to the wand^.w mg Arabs, and the towns
and village,^ are in a stnte of total ruin." Id. p. 37.
Ib. " Two hours from Szalt we came upon some
peasants, who were ploughing some little fields
near what was a little fountain." Seetzen i. 405.
"The soil wa-^ excellent; but only here and there
we saw a little spot cultivated, and this by the
Adui.\n Arabs." p. 40r). " The country that lay in our
route [near Daboah] though now bare of wood, pre
sented a great extent of fertile soil, lying entirely
waste, though equal to any of the very 'best portions
of Galilee and Samaria, and capable of producing
sustenance for a large population. Around us, in
every direction, were remains of more than 50
towns or villages, once maintained by the produc
tive soil, over wlii<-h they were so thickly studded."
Buckingham Travels among the Arab "tribes p. 66.
" At Mahanafish we had arrived at a very elevated
part of the plain, which liad continued fertile
throughout the whole distance from Ammon." p.
81. " S. S. E. of Yedoody we pushed our way over a
continuous tract of fertile soil, capable of the high
est cultivation. Throughout the whole extent of
the plain were seen ruined towns in every direc
tion, before, behind, on each side, generally seated
on small eminences, all at a short distance from
each other, and all, as far as we had yet seen, bear
ing evident marks of former opulence. There was
not a tree in sight; but my guide assured me, that
the whole of the plain was covered with the finest
soil, and capable of being made the most productive
corn-land in the world." Ib. p. 85.
SEaek. xxv. 3. lOIb.'S.

CHAPTEB II.

269

witness to Him. The Ammonites, some
1600 years ago, ceased to " be remerabered
among the nations." But as Nineveh "and
Babylon, and the cities of Sodom and Go
morrah, by being what they are, are wit
nesses to His dealings, so the way in which
Moab and Ammon are still kept desolate is
a continued picture of that iirst desolation.
Both reraain ricli, fertile ; but the very
abundance of their fertility is the cause of
their desolation. God said to Ammon, as
the retribution on his contumely : " ' there
fore, behold, I give thee to the children of
the East ibr a possession, and they shall set
their encarapraents in theCj and place their
dwellings in thee ; they shall eat thy fruit
and they shall drink thy milk ; and I will
make Kabbah a dwelling-place of camels,
and the children of Aramon a couching-
place for flocks." Of Moab He says also,
" '' I will open the side of Moab from the
cities, which are 'on his frontiers, tlie glory
of the country, unto the raen of the East wdth
the Ammonites." And this is an exact
description of the condition of the land
at this day. All travelers describe the
richness of the soil. We have seen this as to
Moab. But the history is one and the same.
One of the raost fertile regions of the world,
full of ruined towns, destitute of villages
or fixed habitations, or security of property,
its inhabitants ground down by those, who
have succeeded the Midianites and the
Amalekites, the children of the East. " Thou
canst not find a country like the Belka," says
the Arabic proverb ', but " the inhabitants
cultivate patches only of the best soil in that
territory when they have a prospect of being
able to secure the harvest against the invasion
of enemies." " We passed many ruined
cities," said Lord Lindsay *, " and \he
country has once been very populous, hut, in
35 miles at least, we did not see a single vil
lage ; the whole country is one vast pastur
age, overspread by the flocks and herds ofthe
Anezee and Beni Hassan Bedouins."
The site of Eabbath Amman was well
chosen for strength. Lying "^in a long
valley " through which a stream passed,
" the city of waters " could not easily be taken,
nor its inhabitants compelled to surrender
from hunger or thirst. Its site, as the eastern
bound of Persea ', " ' the last place where
water could be obtained and a frontier for
tress against the wild tribes beyond," marked
it for preservation. In Greek tiraes, the dis
putes for its possession attest the sense of its
1 Ezek. xxv. 4, 6. 2 lb. 8. 10.
" Burckhardt Syria p. 369. " On both sides of the
road " (near Naoui-) " were the vestiges of ancient
field-enclosures." Ib. 3G5.
* Travels p. 270.
^ Irby and Mangles June 14. c. 8. p. 146.
«Jos. B. J. iii. .3. 3.
' Grote in Smith Bibl. Diet. v. Kabbah.

importance. In Eoman, it was one of the
chief cities ofthe Decapolis, though its popu
lation was said to be a mixture of Egyptians,
Arabians, Phcenicians ". The coins of Eoraan
Emperors to the end of the second century
contain symbols of plenty, where now reigns
utter desolation ". In the 4tli century, it
and two other now ruined places, Bostra and
Gerasa, are named as "most carefully and
strongly walled." It was on a line of rich
commerce filled with strong places, in sites
well selected for repelling the invasions of
the neighboring nations'". Centuries ad
vanced. It was greatly beautified by its
Eoman masters. The extent and wealth of
the Eoman city are attested both by the re
mains of noble edifices on both sides of the
stream, and " by pieces of pottery, which are
the traces of ancient civilized dwelling,
strewed on the earth two railes from the city.
" ''' At this place, Amman, as well as Geriisa
and Gamala, tliree colonial settlements with
in the compass of a day's journey from one
another, there were five magnificent theatres
and one ampitheatre, besides temples, baths,
aqueducts, naumachia, triumphal arches."
"'^Its theatre was the largest in Syria; its
colonnade had at least 50 colurans." The
difference Of the architecture shews that its
aggrandizement must have been the work of
different centuries: its " castle walls are thick,
and denote a remote anticjuity ; large blocks
of stone are piled up without cement and still
hold together as well as if recently placed."
It is very probably the same which Joab
called David to take, after the city of waters
had been taken ; within it are traces of a
temple with Corinthian columns, the largest
seen there, yet "' not of the best Eoraan
times." Yet Amman, the growth of centuries, at
the end of our 6th century was destroyed.
For " " it was desolate before Islam, a great
ruin." "'^No where else had we seen the
vestiges of public magnificence and wealth in
such marked contrast with the relapse into
savage desolation." But the site of the old
city, so well adapted either for a secure re
fuge for its inhabitants or for a secure de
pository for their plunder, was, on that very
ground, when desolated of its inhabitants,
suited for what God, by Ezekiel, said it would
become, a place, where the men of the East
should stable their flocks and herds, secure
from , straying. What a change, that its
temples, the centre of the worship of its suc
cessive idols, or its theatres, its places of

8 Strabo xvi. 2. 33. p. TSO. Cas.
9 Hitter, West-A.sien viii. 1157.
10 Amm. Marc. xiv. 8. 13.
" Buckingham Arab Tribes p. C7, 73. 12 Ib. 77.
13 See Bnrcliliardt's description of its ruins.
Travels in Syria pp. 357-360.
"Abulf. Tab. Syr. p. 91.
15 Tristram Laud of Israel p. 551.

270

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 630.
B Isai. 15.
Jer. 48.
Ezek. 25. 9.
Amos 2. 1.
•Amos 1. 13.

9 Therefore as I live,
saith the Loed of hosts,
the God of Israel, Surely
' Moab shall be as Sodom,
and 'the children of Am-

lu.xury or of pomp, should be stables for that
drudge of man, the camel, and the stream
which gave it the proud title of " city of
waters " their drinking trough ! And yet of
the cities who^e destruction is prophesied,
this is foretold of Eabbah alone, as in it alone
is it fulfiUed ! " Amnion," says Lord Lind
say ', " was situated on both sides of the
stream ; the dreariness of its present aspect is
quite indescribable. It looks like the abode
of death ; the valley stinks with dead camels ;
one of thera was rotting in the streara ; and
though we saw none araong the ruins, they
were absolutely covered in every direction
with their dung." " Bones and skulls of
caraels were mouldering there [in the area
of the ruined theatre] and in the vaulted
galleries of this immense structure." " It is
now quite deserted, e.xcept by the Bedouins,
who water their flocks at its little river, de
scending to it by a wady, nearly opposite to a
theatre (in which Dr. Mac Lennan saw great
herds and flocks) and by the akiba. Ee-as-
cending it, we met sheep and goats by thous
ands, and camels by hundreds." Anotlier
says ^, " The space intervening between the
river and the western hills is entirely cov
ered with the remains of buil lings, now only
used for shelter for caraels and sheep."
Buckingham raentions incidentally, that he
was prevented from sleeping at night " ^ by
the bleating of flocks and the neighing of
horses, barking of dogs &c." Another speaks
of " * a sraall stone building in the Acropolis
now used as a shelter for Hocks." While he
was " ^ traversing the ruins of the city, the
nundier of goats aud sheep, which were driven
in araong thera, was exceedingly annoying,
however remarkable, as fulfilling the pro
phecies." " " Before six tents fed sheep and
caraels." '"Ezekiel points just to these,
(xx. 5.) which passage Seetzen cites ". And
1 Tlie Holy Land pp 279. 281, 283.
2 Gr. Robinson's travels in Palestine and Syria ii.
175. 3 Travels among the Arab tribes, Ruins of Ammon,
p. 73,
4 Lord C. Hamilton iu Keith p. 271.
*¦ Id. Ib. p. 269. 'Seetzen Reisen i. 394.
' Prof. Kruse Anmerkung. Ib. T. iv. p. 216.
» 1. 31. " Is. xiii. 20.
i»See Rich Mem. p. 27, 30. Buckingham ii. :;'i7.
Sir R. K. Porter Travels il. 342. 387. Kenneir IIi>-
moirs p. 279. Keppel's Narr. i. 179, 180. Layard Nm.
and Bab., quoted by Keith on Prophecy pp. 466,
467. n Ezek. xxv. 4, 6. 12 S. John v. 26.
13 1 Sam. xvii. 26, 30. " Jer. x. 10.
15 2 Kgs xix. 4. 10. 10 Jer. xxiii. 36.

men as Gomorrah, '^even ohrTst
the breeding of nettles, _ ""¦ e^"-

and saltpits, and a perpet- Deut. 29. 23.
ual desolation : * the resi- & 34, 13. '
due of my people shall &'6o.*«.^^'
* ver. 7.

in fact the ruins are still used for such
stalls." The prophecy is the very opposite to that
upon Babylon, though both alike are pro
phecies of desolation. Of Babylon Isaiah
prophesies, " " It shall never be inhabited,
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to
generation ; neither shall the Arabian pitch
tent there, neither shall the shepherds make
fold there, but wild beasts of the desert shall
lie there, and their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures ; and the ostriches shall
dwell there, and the jackals shall cry in their
desolate houses, and howling creatures in
their pleasant palaces." And the ruins are
full of wild beasts '". Of Eabbah Ezekiel
prophesied that it should be '"'a possession
for the men of the East, and I," God says,
" will make Eabbah a stable for camels, and
the Amraonites a couching-place for flocks ;"
and man's lawlessness fulfills the will and
word of God.
9. Tlierefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts.
Life specially belongs to God, since He
.Vlone is Underived Life. ''' He hath life in
Himself. He is entitled " the living God,"
as here, in tacit contrast with the dead idols
ofthe PhilLstines ''', with idols generally";
or against the blaspheraies of Sennacherib "',
the mockeries of scofTers '", of the awe of His
presence ", His might for His people '^ ; as
the object of the soul's longings '", the near
ness in the Gospel, children of the limng Ood ™.
Since He can swear by no greater, He sware by
Him.self^'. Since mankind are ready mostly
to believe that God means well with them,
but are slow to think that He is in earnest in
His threats, God eraploys this sanction of
what He says, twice only in regard to His
promises or His merey '''' ; everywhere else to
give solemnity to His threats '''^. The appeal
to the truth of His own being ^* in support of
" Deut. V. 25 (26 Heb.) i' Josh. iii. 10.
19 Ps. of sons of Korah. xiii. 2. Ixxxiv. 2.
=" Hos. i. 10 [ii. 1. Heb.] 21 Heb. vi. 13.
" Is. xlix. 18. Ezek. xxxiii. 10.
23 Xiim. xiv. 21, [of the glory which God should
have in all the world froni his chastisement of Is
rael] 28. Deut. xxxii. 40, [adding oht^h] Jer- '^^^'¦
24. Ez. V. 11. xiv. 16, IS, 20. xvi. 49. [as Judge] xvii. 10,
in. xviii. 3. [in rebuke] xx. :;, 31, 33. xxxiii. 27.
x.xxiv. 8. xxxv. 11. In the same sense, I swear by
Myself Jer. xxii. 5. xlix. 13. hath sworn by Himself
Am. vi. 8. by the excellency of Jacob, viii. 7.
2-' Ges. Maurer, &c. [with a strange conception of
Godl render "ita viuam." Ewald rightly, "as true
as I "live."

GH.4lPTEE IL

271

chrTIt ®P°i-'- them, and the rem-
eir. 630. pant of my people shall

possess them.

the truth of His words is part of the grandeur
ot the prophet Ezekiel in whom it chiefly
occurs. God says in the same meaning, by
Myself have I sworn, of promises which re
quired strong faith '.
Saith the Lord of Hosts. Their blasphemies
had denied the very being of God, as God, to
Whom they preferred or likened their idols ;
they had denied His power or that He
could avenge, so He names His Name of
power, the Lord of the hosts of heaven against
their array against His border, I, the Lord of
hosts Who can fulfill what I threaten, and the
Ood of Israel Who Myself am wronged in
My people, will make Moab as Sodom, and
the children of Ammon as Gomorrah. Sodora
and Gomorrah had once been flourishing
cities, on the borders of that land, which
Israel had won from the Amorite, and of
which Moab and Aramon at different times
possessed themselves, and to secure which
Ammon carried on that exterminating war.
For theywere to the East of the plain 6e-
iween Bethel and Ai, where Lot made his
choice, in ihe plain or circle of Jordan '^, the
well known title of the tract, through which
the Jordan flowed into the Dead Sea. Near
this, lay Zoar, (Ziara') beneath the caves
whither Lot, at whose prayer it had been
spared, escaped from its wickedness. Moab
and Ammon had settled and in tirae spread
from the spot, wherein their forefathers had
received their birth. Sodora, at least, must
have been in that part of the plain, which is to
the East of the Jordan, since Lot was bidden
to flee to the mountains, wdth his wife and
daughters, and there is no mention of the
river, which would have been a hindrance*.
Then it lay probably in that " ^ broad belt of
desolation" in the plain of Shittim, as Go
morrah and others of the Pentapolis may
have lain in " the sulphur-sprinkled ex
panse " between El Eiha [on the site of
Jericho] and the dead sea, " covered with
layers of salt and gypsum which overlie the
loamy subsoil, literally fulfilling the descrip
tions of Holy Writ (says an eye witness),
" Brimstone and salt and burning, that ii is not
1 Gen. xxii. 10. (so often referred to) Is. xiv. 23, or
by Thy Right Hand, i. e. the might which He would
put forth.
2Geu. xiii. 1, ,3, 11.
3 See the de.scription of Ziara " once a place of
considerable importance " in Tristram, land of Moab
pp. 328, 330. 4 Gen. xix. 17-23.
^ Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 367.
« Deut. xxix. 23. ' P.s. cvii. 34. 8 jer. xlix. 18.
° Job xxx. 7.
1" Jon. has rni^iD: the Peschito, N'^''7D^™'^.l¦e-
markably, does not use a name coincident with the

10 This shall they have
'' for their pride, because _
they have reproached and

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
J Isai. 16. 6.
Jer. 48. 29.

sown nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein :
'' a fruitful land turned into saltness. '* No man
shall abide there, neither shall a son of man
dwell in it" An elaborate system of artificial
irrigation was carried through that cis-Jord-
anic tract, which decayed when it was deso
lated of man, and that desolation prevents its
restoration. The doom of Moab and Ammon is rather
of entire destruction beyond all recovery,
than of universal barrenness. For the
imagery, that it should be the breeding [lit.
possession^ of nettles would not be literally
compatible, except in different localities, with
that of saltpits, which exclude all vegetation.
Yet both are united in Moab. The soil con
tinues, as of old, of exuberant fertility; yet
in part, frora the utter neglect and insecurity
of agriculture it is abandoned to a rank and
encumbering vegetation ; elsewhere, irom the
neglect of the former artificial sj'stem of irri
gation, it is wholly barren. The plant named
is one of rank growth, since outcasts could
lie concealed under it ". The preponderating
authority seems to be for molldch '", the Bed-
awin name of the "mallow," Prof. E. H.
Palmer says ", " which," he adds, " I have
seen growing in rank luxuriance in Moab,
especially in the sides of deserted Arab
camps." Tlie residue of My people shall spoil them, and
the remnant of My people shcdl possess them.
Again, a remnant only, but even these shall
prevail against thera, as was first fulfilled in
Judas Maccabfeus ''-.
10. This shall they have for their pride, lit.
This io them instead of their pride. Conterapt
and shame shall be the residue of the proud
man ; the exaltation shall be gone, and all
which they shall gain to theraselves shall
be shame. Moab and Ammon are the types
of heretics''. As they were akin to the peo
ple of God, but hating it ; akin to Abraham
through a lawless birth, but ever molesting the
children of Abraham, so heretics profess to be
lieve in Christ, to be children of Christ, and yet
ever seek to overtlirow the faith of Christians.
As the Church says, '*My mother's children are
Heb. Snn so. sSj^n, a sort of vetch. Abulwalid
prefers the ni7D, but mentions the 3K/"in "arti
choke" (Host Nachrichten von Maroko u. Fez. p.
538) as an " opinion ; " R. Tanehum adopts it, but
gives I^Din as an "opinion" aud says that "alto
gether it belongs to tlie prickly plants;" Kimchi
says, that "some count it a nettle; others, a this
tle." On rn'70 see Bochart Hieroz. ii. 223-228, ed.
Leipz. 11 Ms. letter. 12 1 Mace. v. 6-8.
1= S. Jer. and Rup. " Cant. i. 6.

272

ZEPHANIAH.

chrYIt inagnified themselves
cir. 6.30. ao-aJTist the people of the
Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord ivill be

angry with me. They seem to have escaped the
overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (heathen
sins), and to have found a place of refuge
(Zoar) ; and yet they are in darkness and
cannot see the light of faith ; and in an
unlawful raanner they mingle, against ail
right, the falsehood of Satan wdth the truth
of God ; so that their doctrines become, in
part, doctrines of devils, in part have some
stamp of the original truth. To them, as to
the Jews, our Lord says, Ye are of your father
the devil. While they profess to be children
of God, they claim by their names to have
God for their Father (Moab)' and to be of
His people (Ammon), while in hatred to His
true children they forfeit both. As Moab
seduced Israel, so they the children of the
Church. They too enlarge themselves against
the borders of the Church, rending ofl' its
children and making themselves the Church.
They too utter reproaches and revilings
ag.ainst it. " Take away their revilings,"
says an early father ', " against the law of
Moses, and the Prophets, and God the
Creator, and they have not a word to utter."
They too '' remove the old landmarks which the
fathers (the Prophets and Apostles) have set.
And so, barrenness is their portion ; as, after
a time, heretics ever divide, and do not mul
tiply ; they are a desert, being out of the
Church of God : and at last the remnant of
Judah, the Church, possesses them, and
absorbs thera into herself.
11. The Lord will be terrible unio \iipon']
them, i. e. upon Moab and Araraon, and yet
not in theraselves only, but as instances of
His just judgment. Whence it follows, For
He will famish all the gods qf the earth. " ^ Mis
erable indeed, to whora the Lord is terrible I
Whence is this ? Is not God by Nature sweet
and pleasurable and serene, and an Object
of longing? For the Angels ever desire
to look into Him, and, in a wonderful
and unspeakable way, ever look and
ever long to look. For miserable they,
whose conscience makes them shrink from
the face of Love. Even in this life they feel
this shrinking, and, as if it were some lessen-
1 Tert. de Prfescr. Hser. o. 42, p. 493. Oxf. Tr.
2 Ib. c. ,37. p. 488. 3 Run.
* Rom. i. 18.
^ There is no reason to abate the irony by render
ing "destroy." nPJ is contrasted with JDiyD Is.
xvii. 4, as is nn Is. x. 16; nn, of the land, with
njDK' Nu. xiii. 20; of the sheep, with rmu Ez.
xxxiv. 20. In Ps. cvi. 15. nn is used met' for a
wasting, emaciating sickness : in Mic. vi. 10, of " an

terrible unto them : for he „ h rTq t
will t famish all the gods "ir. 030.
of the earth ; ^ and inen make. lean.
shall -worship him, every ^johnV2i.

ing of their grief, they deny it, as though
this could destroy the truth, which they
hold down in unrighteousness *."
For He will famish'' all the gods of ihe earth,
taking away ^ ihe fat of iheir sacrifices, and the
wine of their drink-offerings. Within 80 years
frora the death of our Lord ', the governor
of Pontus and Bithynia wrote officially to the
Eoman Emperor, that ""the temples had
been almost left desolate, the sacred rites
had been for a long time intermitted, and
that the victims had very seldom found a
purchaser," before the persecution of the
Christians, and consulted him as to the
amount of its continuance. Toward the
close of the century, it was one of the Heathen
coraplaints, which the Christian Apologist
had to answer, "^they are daily melting
away the revenues of our temples." The
Prophet began to speak of the subdual of
Moab and Araraon ; he is borne on to the
triuraphs of Christ over all the gods of the
Heathen, when the worship of God shoidd
not be at Jerusalem only, but they shall worship
Him, every one from his place.
Even all ihe isles of the heathen. For this is
the very note of the Gospel, that "'"each
who through faith in Christ was brought to
the knowledge of the truth, by Him, and
with Him, worshipeth from his place God the
Father ; and God is no longer known in
Judsea only, but the countries and cities of
the Heathen, though they be separated by
the intervening sea from Judsea, no less draw
nigh to .Christ, pray, glorify, thank Him
unceasingly. For formerly "His name was
great in Israel, but now He is well known to
all everywhere; earth and sea are full of
His glory, and so every one worshipeth Him
from his place ; and this is what is said, '''As I
lire, saith the Lord, all the earth sliall be filled
with the glory of the Lord." The isles axe any
distant lands on the seashore '", especially the
very distant"; but also Asia Minor '° and
the whole coast of Europe, and even the
Indian Archipelago^*, since the ivory and
ebony came from its many isles. Zephaniah
revives the term, by which Moses had spoken
ephah of emaciation" i. e. scant; in Is. xxiv. 6, 71
is sickness; (see Ew. Lehrb. 149. g.) [all.]
n Deut. xxxii. 38.
' Between A. D. 103-105.
8 Pliny Epist. x. 32. p. 584. ed. Steph.
'Tert. Apol. c. 42. see p. 90. note o. Oxf. Tr.
i»S. Cyr.
11 Ps. Ixxvi. 1. 12 Nu. xiv. 21.
13 Jer. xxv. 22. sqq. Ez. xxvi. 15. sqq. Ps. Ixxii. 10.
i* Is. Ixvi. 19. 16 Dan. xi. 1, 8.
lOEz. xxvii. 15. Ges. Thes. sub. V.

CHAPTEE II.

273

one from his place, even

Before
f TT R, I S T
cir- 630. a,n "the isles of the hea-

«Gen. 10. 5.

then.

of the dispersion of the sons of Japhet ;
"'By these were the isles of the Gentiles
divided in their lands, every one after his
tongue." He adds the word, all; all, wher
ever they had been dispersed, every one from
his place, shall worship God. One universal
worship shall ascend to God from all every
where. So Malachi prophesied afterward ;
"'' From the rising up of the sun even to the
going down of the same My Name shall be
great among the Gentiles, and in every place
incense shall be ofl^ered unto God and a pure
oflering ; for My Name shall be great among
the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." Even
a Jew ^says here: "This, without doubt,
refers to the tirae to come, when all the in
habitants of the world shall know that the
Lord is God, and that His is the greatness
and power and glory, and He shall be called
the God of the whole earth." The isles or
coasts of the sea are the raore the emblem of
the Church, in that, " ¦* lying, as it were, in
the sea of this world and encompassed by the
evil events in it, as with bitter waters, and
lashed by the most vehement waves of perse
cutions, the Churches are yet founded, so
that they cannot fall, and rear themselves
aloft, and are not overwhelmed by aiflictions.
For, for Christ's sake, the Churches cannot
be shaken, and ° the gates of hell shall not pre
vail against them."
12. Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by
My sword, lit. Ye Ethiopians also, the slain of
My sword are they. Having summoned them
to His throne, God speaks of them, not to them
any more; perhaps in compassion, as else
where in indignation ^. The Ethiopians
were not in any direct antagonism to God
and His people, but allied only to their old
oppressor, Egj'pt. They may have been in
Pharaoh Necho's army, in resisting which,
as a subject of Assyria, Josiah was slain :
they are mentioned' in that army which
Nebuchadnezzar smote at Carchemish in the
4th year of Jehoiakim. The prophecy of
Ezekiel implies rather, that Ethiopia should
be involved in the calamities of Egypt, than
that it should be itself invaded. "* Great
iGen. X. 5. The phrase, D'UD "K, occurs only
in these two places.
2 Mai. i. 11. 3 Abarbanel. 4S. Cyr.
s S. Matt. xvi. 18.
* Is. xxii. 16, " What hast thou here, and whom
hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee here a
sepulchre ? Hewing him out on high his sepulchre,
graving in the rock a dwelling for him." Mio. i. 2, .
"Hear, ye people, all of them." Deut. xxxii. 15,
" Thou art waxen fat, art grown thick, art covered
with fatness ; and he forsook God Who made him,
and lightly esteemed the Eock of his salvation."
18

i2 1I' Ye Ethiopians c^fTsT
also, ye shall be slain by ""¦ 63o.
o ¦ J 'Isai. 18. 1.
my sword. & 20. 4.
<• Ps. 17. 13. Jer. 46. 9. Ezek. 30. 9.

terror shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall
fall in Egypt." " " Ethiopia and Lybia and
Lydia &c. and all the men of the land that is
in league, shall fall with these, by the sword."
" '" They also tliat uphold Egypt shall fall."
Syene '", the frontier-fortress over against
Ethiopia, is especially mentioned as the
boundary also of the destruction. " Messen
gers," God says ", " shall go forth from Me
to make the careless Ethiopians afraid,"
while the storm was bursting in its full deso
lating force upon Egypt. All the other
cities, whose destruction is foretold, are cities
of lower or upper Egypt ''¦'.
But such a blow as that foretold by Jere
miah and Ezekiel raust have fallen heavily
upon the allies of Egypt. We have no
details; for the Egyptians would not, and
did not tell of the calamities and disgraces
of their country. No one does. Josephus,
however, briefly but distinctly says'^, that
after Nebuchadnezzar had in the 23d year
of his reign, the 5th after the destruction of
Jerusalera, "reduced into subjection Moab and
Ammon, he invaded Egypt, with a view to
.subdue it," " killed its then king, and having
set up another, captured for the second time
the J ews in it and carried them to Babylon."
The memory ofthe devastation by Nebuchad
nezzar lived on apparently in Egypt, and is
a recognized fact among the Mohammedan
historians, who had no interest in the fulfill
ment of Jewish prophecy, of which it does not
appear that they even knew. Bokht-nasar
[Nebuchadnezzar], they say, ""made war
on the son of Nechas [Necho], slew him and
ruined the city of Memphis and raany other
cities of Egypt : he carried the inhabitants
captive, 'without leaving one, so that Egypt
reraained waste forty years without one in
habitant." Another says, " "' The refuge
which the king of Egypt granted to the Jews
who fled from Nebuchadnezzar brought this
war upon it: for he took them under his
protection and would not give them up to
their enemy. Nebuchadnezzar, in revenge,
marched against the king of Egypt and
destroyed the country." " One raay be
' Jer. xlvi. 9. s Ezek. xxx. 4.
«Ib. 5. loib. 6. iilb. 9.
12 Zoan, Aven, Pi-beseth, Tehaphnehes, Sin, on tho
Eastern boundary; Noph [Memphis] the capital of
Lower Egypt ; Pathros, probably a district of Upper
Egypt ; No [Thebes] its capital ; Syene, its last town
to the South.
13 Ant. X. 9. 7. See further Sir G. Wilkinson, Man
ners and customs of the Ancient Egyptians, i. 173-
179. Pusey's Daniel the Prophet pp. 275-277.
"Makrizi in De Sacy, Abdallatif Relation de
I'Egypte p. 247. ^ Abdallatif 1. o. p. 184.

274

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

13 And he will stretch
out his hand against the

Ezek. 3L3. north, and "destroy As-
Nah. 1. 1. & 2. 10. & 3. 15, 18.

certain," says a good authority ', " that the
conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar was a
tradition generally spread in Egypt and
questioned by no one." Ethiopia was then
involved, as an ally, and as far as its contin
gent was concerned, in the war, in which
Nebuchadnezzar desolated Egypt for those
40 years. But, although this fulfilled the
prophecy of Ezekiel, Isaiah, some sixty years
before Zephaniah, prophesied a direct con
quest of Ethiopia. I have given, God says ^,
Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
thee. It lay in God's purpose, that Cyrus
should restore His own people, and that his
ambition should flnd its vent and compen-
siition in the lands beyond. It may be that,
contrary to all known human policy, Cyrus re
stored the Jews to their own land, willing
to bind them to hiraself, and to make them a
frontier territory toward Egypt, not subject
only but loyal to hiraself. This is quite con
sistent with the reason which he a.ssigns ;
^ The Lord Ood of heaven hath given me all the
kingdoms of the earth ; and He hath charged me
to build Him an house at Jerusalem which is in
Judah; and with the stateraent of Josephus,
that he was moved thereto by "* reading
the prophecy which Isaiah left, 210 years
before." It is, alas ! nothing new to Chris
tians to have mixed motives for their actions :
the exception is to have a single motive,
" for the glory of God." The advantage to
himself would doubtless flash at once on the
founder of a great empire, though it did not
suggest the restoration of the Jews. Egypt
and Assyria had always, on either side,
wished to possess theraselves of Palestine,
which lay between them. Anyhow, one
Persian monarch did restore the Jews ; his
1 De Sacy 1. c. who quotes Abulfeda [see his hi.st.
ante-Islam, p. 102. he could not find the names of
Egyptian kings between Shishak and the Pharaoh
who was the contemporary of Nebuch.] Masudi, No-
sairi, also.
2Is. xliii. 3. 3Ezr. i. 2, 3.
4 Ant. xi. 1. 2. 6 Herod, i. 153.
8 Ib. 214 and Rawl. notes p. 3.50. i Herod, iii. 97.
8 Sir G. Willcinson in Rawl. Herod, ii. 487. n. lo.
» Her. vii. 69. lo i. 4.
11 an, ?li''1. The ordinary force of the abridged
form of the future with 1 is consecutive, viz., that
the action so joined on is the result of the pre
ceding; "intercede with the Lord TD"1, that He
may take away," lit. "and He may take away."
Ex. X. 17. Gesenius' instances are all of this sort.
In Hif. of the regular verb, Jud. xiv. I'l, 1 Sam. vii.
3, Job xi. 6, xii. 7. Jer. xiii. 3. (Lehrg. p. .321.) verbs
l]?, Kal. Nu. xxv. 4, Jud. vi. 3i), Is. 1. 2, 1 Kgs xxi.
10, 2 Kgs. V. 10, 2 Chr. xxix. 10, xxx. 6, 8. (Ib. p. 403.)
Hif. Ex. viii. 4, x. 17, Nu. xxi. 7. (Ib. p. 406) verb nS,
Ez. X. 12, Is. ii. 20, Is. xxxviii. 21, 1 Kgs xx. 20, Jer.

Syria ; and will make
Nineveh a desolation, a'ndl
dry like a wilderness.

Before
CHEIST cir. 630.

successor possessed himself of " Egypt, and
part, at least, of Ethiopia." Cyrus wished, it
is related *, " to war in person against Baby
lon, the Bactrians, the Sacae, and Egypt."
He perished, as is known, before he had
completed '' the third of his purposed con
quests. Cambyses, although after the con
quest of Egypt he planned ill his two more
distant expeditions, reduced "'the Ethio
pians bordering upon Egypt " ]_"" lower Ethio
pia and Nubia"], and these "brought gifts"
perraanently to the Persian Sovereign. Even
in the tirae of Xerxes, the Ethiopians had to
furnish their contingent of troops against the
Greeks. Herodotus describes their dress and
weapons, as they were reviewed at Dorisous'.
Canfbyses, then, did not lose his hold over
Ethiopia and Egj'pt, when forced by the
rebellion of Pseudo-Smerdis to quit Egypt.
13. Zephaniah began by singling out
Judah amid the general destruction, '" Iioill
also stretch out My Hand upon Judah; he
sums up the judgment of the world in
the same way ; He will stretch out, or, Stretch
He forth ", His Hand against the North und
destroy Asshur, and make Nineveh a desolation.
Judah had, in Zephaniah's time, nothing to
fear from Assyria. Isaiah '^ and Micah ''' had
already foretold, that the captivity would be
to Babylon. Yet of Assyria alone the pro
phet, in his own person, expresses his own
conformity with the mind of God. Of others
he had said, the ivord of the Lord is against
yon, 0 Canaan, and I will destroy thee;
As Hive, saith ihe Lord, Moab shall be as Sodom.
Ye also, 0 Ethiopians, the slain of My sivord
are they. Of Assyria alone, by a slight in
flection of the word, he expresses that he
goes along with this, which he announces.
xxiii. 18. (Ib. p. 428). Such are also Hos. xiv. 6, 7, 9.
Sometimes a prayer seems to be thus interwoven
with prediction as, Nu. xxiv. 7, "her seed shall be
in many waters, and exalted be (Di'l) his king
above Amalek, and exalted sh.all be his kingdom"
and Ib. 9, " And Israel doeth valiantly ; and rule one
(Tin) from Jacob." Is. xxxv. 1, 2, "Wilderness
and dry-place shall be glad for them, and let the
desert rejoice ( 7jni) and it shall blossom as the
Autumn-crocus. It shall blossom abundantly; and
joy it, (7jni) yea with joy and jubilee: the glory
of Lebanon is given to it ; they shall see the glory
of the Lord, the excellency of'our God." The pe
culiarity here is, that it stands so apart and Inde
pendent of the preceding, with whioh 1 connects it.
The shade of meaning is so fine, that the Verss. and
R.abbins pass over it, rendering simply future as
do modern commentators, except Keil, and Ewald
who corrects On lUNn arbitrarily and against his
tory. 12 Is. xxxix. 6. 13 Mic. iv. 10.

CHAPTEE II.

275

14 And ° flocks shall lie

Before
CHRIST °ii'- 830. down in the midst of her,

«ver. 6 all "^the beasts of the na
il dr,petoem." tions: both the H^cormo-
^' ¦ ' ' rant and the bittern shall
II Or, knops, or, . , . .
chapiters. lodge m the 1 1 upper Imtels

He does not say as an imprecation, "May He
stretch forth His hand ; " but gently, as con
tinuing his prophecies, and, joining on
Asshur with the rest ; only instead of saying
" He wdll stretch forth," by a, form ahnost
insulated in Hebrew, he says. And stretch He
forth His Hand. In a way not unlike, David
having declared God's judgments. The Lord
trjeth the righteous ; and the wicked and the
lover of riolence doth His soul abhor, subjoineth,
On the wicked rain He snares, signifying that
he (as all must be in the Day of judgment),
is at one with the judgraent of God. This
is the last sentence upon Nineveh, enforcing
that of Jonah and Nahum, yet wdthout place
of repentance now. He accumulates words
expressive of desolateness. It should not
only be a, desolation ', as he had said of
Ashkelon, Moab and Ammon, but a dry,
parched^, unfruitful^ land. As Isaiah,
under the same words, prophesies that the
dry and desolate land * should, by the Gos
pel, be glad, so the gladness of the world
should become dryness and desolation.
Asshur is named, as though one individual",
implying the entireness of the destruction ;
all shall perish, as one man ; or as gathered
into one and dependent upon one, its evil
King. The North is not only Assyria, in that
its armies came upon Judah from the North,
but it stands for thewhole power of evil",
as Nineveh for the whole beautiful, evil,
world. The world with " the princes of this
world " shall perish together.
14. And fiocks shall lie down in tlie midst of
her. No desolation is like that of decayed
luxury. It preaches the nothingness of man,
the fruitlessness of his toils, the fleetingness
of his hopes and enjoyments, and their baf
fling when at their height, (irass in a court
or on a once beaten road, much more, in a

'nO^JWZeph. ii. 4. 9.
2 71'^ of absence of water, Job xxx. 3. Ps. Ixiii. 2.
cv. 41. cvii. 35. Is. xii. 18. Jer. ii. 6. Ez. xix. 13. Hos.
ii. 6.
3 Is. Iiii. 2.
*n'Sl ima is. xxxv. l. Jer. joins H'S 1310
naij;i, 1. 12.
^ Asshur is used in this way of the people, con
sidered in and with their king. Is, xxx. 31. xxxi. 8.
0 See Is. xiv. 13. ' Ib. xvii. 2.
3 lb. xxxii. 14. Comp. Jer. vi. 2.
^nj "nation," of gregarious creatures, locusts,
Jo. i. 6, ii. 2; DJ?, "ants," Pr. xxx. 25. "conies," Ib.
26. Comp. eOvea xv^'i' &c. "apium populi," "equo-

of it; their voice shall chrTst
sing in the windows ; deso- "i''- "^o-
lation shall be in the
thresholds: 1 1 for he shall WOx, when he
' ' huth uncovered.
uncover the ''cedar'' Jer. 22. 14.
work.

town, speaks of the passing away of what has
been, that raan was wont to be there, and is not,
or is there less than he was. It leaves the
feeling of void and forsakenness. But in
Nineveh not a few tufts of grass here and
there shall betoken desolation, it shall he
one wild rank pasture, where /ocfc shall not
feed only, but I'le doun as in their fold and
continual resting-place, not in the outskirts
only or suburbs, Lut in the very centre of
her life and throng and busy activity, in the
midst of her, and none shall fray them away.
So Isaiah had said of the cities of Aroer,
¦ ' they shall be for floeks, which shall lie down
and none shall make them afraid, and of Judah
till ils restoration by Christ, that it should
be *a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks.
And not only those which are wont to be
found in some connection with man, but all
the beasts of a nation ", the troops of wild and
sa\-tige and unclean beasts which shun the
dwellings of man or are his enemies, these in
troops have their lair there.
Both the pelican '" and the ^hedgehog "] shall
lodge in the vppier lintels thereof. The chapiters
[E. M.] or capitals of the pillars of the
temples and palaces shall lie broken and
strewn upon the ground, and among those
desolate fragments of her pride shall unclean
animals haunt. The pelican has its Hebrew
name from vomiting. It voraits ujj the shells
which it had swallowed whole, after they
had been opened by the heat of the storaach,
and so picks out the animal contained in
them '^, the very image of greediness and un
cleanness. It dwells also not in deserts only
but near marshes, so that Nineveh is doubly
waste. A voice shcdl sing in the windows. In the
midst ofthe desolation, the muteness of the
hedgehog and the pensive loneliness of the
rum gentes," Virg. Georg. iv. 430. Arab. HD^I Boch.
Hieroz. ii. 468. Leipz.
10 The most probable rendering, as explaining the
etymology. The d render "pelican" Ps. cii. 7. Lev.
xi. 18; A'q. Symm. Th., Is. xxxiv. 11; Aq. here. The
pip of the "Talmudists (Kpp Jerus. Targ. ap. Levy
Lex.) is probably the same. The pelican retires
inland to consume its food. Tristram, Houghton,
in Smith Bibl. Diet. v. Pelican, note,
11 There seems a consent that the "ISp is the
hedgehog or porcupine (as in Aram, and Arab.) o,
S. Jer. R. Nathan, Rashi, although the Arab. etym.
"rolled himself round" seems uncertain.
12 Ari.stot. Anim. ix. 10.

276

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
I Isai. 47. 8.
' Rev. 18. 7.

15 This is the rejoicing
city ' that dwelt carelessly,
^ that said in her heart, I
ain, and there is none be
side me : how is she be-

solitary pelican, the musing spectator is even
startled by the gladness of a bird, joyous in
the existence which God has given it. In
stead of the harmony of music' and men-
singers and women-singers in their palaces
shall be the sweet music of sorae lonely bird,
unconscious that it is sitting in ihe windows of
those, at whose narae the world grew pale,
portions of the outer walls being all wdiich
remain of her palaces. Desolation shall be
in the thresholds, sitting, as it were, in them ;
everywhere to be seen in thera; the raore,
because unseen. Desolation is soraething
oppressive ; we feel its presence. There, as
the warder watch and ward at the erapty
portals, where once was the fullest throng,
shall desolation sit, that no one enter. For
He shall uncover Ihaih uncovered E. M.] the
cedar-work : in the roofless palaces, the carved
cedar-work shall be laid open to wind and
rain. Any one raust have noticed, how
piteous and dreary the decay of any house in
a town looks, with the torn paper hanging
uselessly on its walls. A poet of our own
said of the beautiful ruins of a wasted raonas-
tery :
" For the gay bearas of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout the ruins gray."
But at N ineveh it is one of the mightiest cities
of the world which thus lies waste, and the
bared eedar-work had, in the days of its great
ness, been carried oft' from the despoiled
Lebanon '' or Hermon ^.
15. This utter desolation is the rejoicing
eity (so unlike is it, that there is need to
point out that it is the same) ; this is she,
who was full of joy, exulting exceedingly *,
but in herself, not in God ; that dwelt car '

1 np^ collective, like T\'^'^ Jer. vi. 6.
2 Is. xiv. 8. xxxvii. 24. Ezek. xxxi. 16. " In the
fragment of another epigraph, we have mention of
some objects also of wood, ' brought from Mt. Leba
non, (and taken up to the mound) from the Tigris.' "
Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 118. "At tjiat
time the countries that are upon Lebanon, I took
possession of, to the great sea of the country of
Akkari," (the Mediterranean,) from Inscription. Ib.
p.355,3.n6. "The conqueror from the upper passage
of the Tigris to Lebanon and the Great Sea." Ib. p.
3ijl. "Standing one da.v on a distant part of the
mound, I smelt the sweet smell of burning cedar;
the Arab workmen excavating in the small temple
had dug out a beam, and the weather being cold,
had at once made a fire to warm themselves. The
wood was cedar, probably one of the very beams
mentioned in the inscription, as brought from the
forests of Lebanon, b,y the King who built the edi
fice. After a lapse of nearly 3000 years, it had re
tained its original fragrance." Ib. p. 357.

come a desolation, a place
for beasts to lie down in ! _
every one that passeth by
her ' shall hiss, and " wag
his hand.

Before
CHEIST cir. 030.

1 Job 27. 23.
Lam. 2. 15.
Ezek. 27. 36.
" Nah. 3. 19.

lit. securely, and so carelessly ; saying Peace
and safety'', as though no evil would come
upon her, and so perishing more certainly
and miserably ". That said in her heart, this
was her inmost feeling, the moving cause of
all her deeds ; f am and there is none beside
me; literally, ' and there is no I beside, claim
ing the very attribute of God (as the world
does) of self-existence, as if it alone were /,
and others, in respect of her, were as nothing.
Pantheism, which denies the being of God,
as Author of the world, and claims the life
in the material world to be God, and each
living being to be a part of God, is only this
self-idolatry, reflected upon and carried out
in words. All the pride of the world, all
self-indulgence which says, Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we die, all covetousness
which ends in this world, speaks this by its
acts, I and no I beside.
How is she become a desolation, has passed
wholly into it, exists only as a desolation, o
pilace for be'asts to lie doum in, a mere den for
tlie ivild beasts. Every one that passeth by her
shall hiss in derision, and wag [or uratie] his
handj in detestation, as though putting the
hand between thera and it, so as not to look
at it, or, as it were, raotioning it away. The
action is diflerent from that of * clapping the
hands in exultation.
" It is not difficult," S. Jerome says, " to
explain this of the world, that when the
Lord hath stretched forth His Hand over
the North and destroyed the Assyrian,
the Prince of this world, the world also
perishes together with its Princes, and
is brought to utter desolation, and is
pitied by none, but all hiss and shake their
hands at its ruin. But of the Church it
3 Eawl. 6. Emp. i. 385.
* nj?» (verb, perhaps i. q. dXaAa^o),) is exulting
joy, the exultation bein.g good or bad, according to
its object, in God or in self and the world ; in (^od,
Ps. xxviii. 7, Ixviii. 5, .xcvi. 11, cxlix. 5, Hab. iii. 18;
Zeph. iii. 14: in good, Pr. xxiii. 16; in God's gifts,
Ps. Ix. 8, cviii. 8 ; in evil, Ps. xciv. 3, Jer. xi. 16, xv.
17, 1. 11, li. 39; over an enemy 2 Sam. i. 20. I'-?;?
(intens.) Is. xxii. 2, xxiii. 7, xxiv. 8, xxxii. 13, is
used, as here, of a city, full of its tumultuous, self-
confident excitement, as is the verb Is. xxiii. 12.
and "S^' of an individual, Jer. v. 14. [all.]
6 1 Thess. V. 3.
"See Jud. xviii. 27.
1 As we might say "no second I." This gives an
adequate explanation of the ^ in "'DSNi as no other
rendering does.
8 Nah. iii. 19.

CHAPTER III.

277

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

CHAPTER IIL
1 A sharp reproof of Jerusalem
for divers sins. 8 An exhor
tation to wait for the restoration

seems, at first sight, blasphemous to say that
it shall be a pathless desert, and wild beasts
shall dwell in her, aud that afterward it
shall be said insultingly over her ; ' This is
the city given up to ill, which dwelt carelessly
and said in her heart, I and none beside.' But
whoso should consider that of the Apostle,
wherein he says, ' in the last days perilous
times shall come, and what is written in the
Gospel, that ''because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold, so that then
shall that be fulfilled, When the Son of Man
comelh, shall He find the faith on ihe earth f he
will not marvel at the extreme desolation of
the Church, that, in the reign of Antichrist,
it shall be reduced to a desolation and given
over to beasts, and shall sufler whatever the
Prophet now describes. For if for unbelief
Ood spared not the natural branches, but brake
them off, and turned rivers into a wilderness and
the water-springs into a dry ground, and a fruit
ful land inio barrenness, for the iniquity of them
that dwell therein, why not as to those of whom
He had said, ^ He turneth the wilderness into a
standing water, and di-y ground into water-
springs, and there He maketh the hungry to
dwell; and as to those whom out of the wild
olive He hath grafted into the good olive tree,
why, if forgetful of this benefit, they depart
from their Maker and worship the Assyrian,
should He not undo thera and bring them
to the same thirst wherein they were before ?
Which, whereas it raay be understood gener
ally of the coming of Anti-christ or of the
end of the world, yet it may, day by day, be
understood of those who feign to be of the
Church of God, and in works deny it, are hearers
of ihe word not doers, w ho in vain boast in an
outward show, whereas herds i. e. troops of
vices dwell in them, and brute animals serv
ing the body, and all the beasts of the field
which devour their hearts [and pelicans, i. e.
gluttons*, whose god is their bellyl and
hedgehogs, -a, prickly animal full of spikes
which pricketh whatever it toucheth. After
which it is subjoined, that the Church shall
therefore suffer this, or hath suffered it,
because it lifted itself up proudly and raised
¦2 Tim. iii. 1-6. 2 s. Matt. xxiv. 12. 3 Ps. cvii. .33-36.
* Rib. ' Eup. « S. Matt, xxiii. 37.
' Eev. iii. 12. xxi. 10.
" nn with the partic, as a vocative, as in Am. v.
18. Is. xiv. 9, 10. Mic. i. 1. Hab. ii. 6, 9, 12, 15,
19, &e.
'nXllD from KID — ma. This seems more
probable than E. V. rfrnm n. j-i\f^.a.rf'fnir p;fve.p ,|:p ¦'.ljt;^_

of Israel, 14 and to rejoice for Before
their salvation by Ood. cir 630
WOE to lit her that is '' ''
^^ filthy and polluted, |«'--f;«r-
to the oppressing city !

its head like a cedar, given up to evil works,
and yet promising itself future blessedness,
and despising others in its heart, nor think
ing that there is any other beside itself, and
saying, / am, and there is no other beside me,
how is it become a solitude, a lair of beasts !
For where before, dwelt the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, and Angels pre
sided over its ministries, there shall beasts
dwell. And if we understand that, every
one that passeth by shall hiss, we shall ex
plain it thus ; when Angels shall pass
through her, and not remain in her, as was
their wont, they shall be araazed and marvel,
and shall not support and bear her up with
their hand, when falling, but shall lift up
the hands and shall pass by. Or they shall
make a sound as those who mourn. But if
we understand this of the devil and his
angels, who destroyed the vine also that was
brought out of Egypt, we shall say, that
through the soul, which before was the tem
ple of God and hath ceased so to be, the ser
pent passeth, and hisseth and spitteth forth
the venom of his malice in her, and not this
only, but setteth in motion his works which
figuratively are called hands."
" * The earlier and partial fulfillment of
prophecy does not destroy, it rather con
firms, the entire fulfillraent to come. For
whoso heareth of the destruction of raighty
cities, is constrained to believe the truth of
the Gospel, that the fashion of this world
passeth away, and that, after the likeness of
Nineveh and Babylon, the Lord will in the
end judge the whole world also."
C. III. I. The " woe," having gone round
the heathen nations, again circles round
where it began, the '' Jerusalem that killed the
prophets and stoned those that were sent unto
her. Woe upon her, and joy to the holy
Jerusalera, the neiv Jerusalem ', ihe Jerusalem
which is from above, the mother of us all, close
this prophecy ; both in figure ; destruction of
her and the whole earth, in time, the emblem
of the eternal death ; and the love of God, the
foretaste of endless joy in Him.
Wo * rebellious and polluted "¦, thou oppressive
Nah. iii. 6. and from HKIO crop of bird Lev. i. 16.)
or LXX eiTK^ayTj? (as if n&^"lD, as a few Mss. de R.)
or S. Jer. "embittering," provocatrix (as if nnon=
Kno), or Abarb. " terrible " (as from X'^^ which is
expressed by Nif. X^IJ) or Drus. "made a spec
tacle;" irapa5etY/xa-Ti^o;u.ecTj, cf. n&^*^D ; but this is
not used elsewhere, though the verb is so common.

278

ZEPHANIAH.

chrTst 2 S^® "obeyed not the
cir. 630. voinp. ; she '' received not
« Jer. 22. 21. II correction ; she trusted
1 Or, 'instruction, not in the LoED ; she drew

" Ezek. 22. 27.
Mic. 3. 9, 10, 11.

not near to her God.
3 " Her princes within

city ' ! The address is the more abrupt, and
bursts more upon her, since the prophet
does not name her. He uses as her proper
name, not her own narae, " city of peace,"
but " rebellious," " polluted ; " then he suras
up in one, thou opipressive city.
Jerusalem's sin is threefold, actively re-
helling against God ; then, inwardly defiled
by sin ; then cruel to man. So then, toward
God, in herself, toward man, she is wholly
turned to evil, not in passing acts, but in her
abiding state, 1) rebellious, 2) defiled, 3)
oj^pressive. She is known only by what she
has become, and what has been done for her
in vain. She is rebellious, and so had had
the law ; defiled, and so had been cleansed ;
and therefore her state is the more hope
less. 2. She obeyed not the Voice, of God, by the
law or the prophets, teaching her His ways ;
and when, disobeying, He chastened her,
she received not correction, and when He in
creased His chastisements, she, in the declin
ing age of the state and deepening evil,
turned not unto Him, as in the time of the
judges, nor ceased to do evil.
In the Lord slie trusted not, but in Assyriaor
Egypt or her idols. Our practical relation to
G-od is summed up in the four words, " Mis
trust self; trust God." Man reverses this,
and when " self-trust " has of course failed
him, then he " mistrusts God." " '' Such
rarely ask of God, what they hope they may
obtain from man. They strain every nerve
of t'ueir soul to obtain what they want ; can
vass, flatter, fawn, bribe, court favor ; and
betake themselves to God when all human
help fails. They would be indebted, not to
God, but to their own diligence. For the
more they receive of God, the less, they see,
can they exalt their own diligence, the more
they are bound to thank God, and obey Him
the more strictly."
To her God she drew not nigh, even in
trouble, when all draw nigh unto Him. who
1 T'^n as a separate vocative, as Nu. xv. 15. Cant.
vi. 1. Is. Iii. 18. Mi. ii. 7. &a., and in the N. T.
6 ^ao-iAeus, S. Matt, xxvii. 29. 6 utbs, S. Mark .\. 47.
6 TTarrip Ib. xiv. 36, &C.
2 Rib. on Hos. vii. n. 39. ^Dion
?See Hab. i. 8.
6 The meaning of Piel, in Num. xxiv. 8, and met.
Ez. xxiii. :34. as denom. from poetic QIJ. "bone."
The Verss. gave the meaning, dropping the meta
phor, the Lxx. and Vulg. rendering "left;" Ch
" deferring to, " Syr. " waiting for." In Arab. IJ1S

her are roaring lions ; her ^ ^%°l% ^
judges are ''evening wolves ; cir. 630.

they gnaw not the bones^Hab. 1. s.
till the morrow.
4 Her "prophets are ' J'er. 23. 11, 32.
light and treacherous per- Hos. '9. '7. '

are not wholly alien from Him ; she drew
not near by repentance, by fidth, hope or
love, or by works meet for repentance, but
in heart remained far from Him. And yet
He was her own Gud, as He had shewn Him
self in times past, W^ho changes not, while
we change ; is faithful to us, while we fail
Him ; is still our God, while we forget Him ;
waits, to have mercy upon us; shines on us
while we interpose our earth-born clouds
between us and Hira. " ^ Not in body nor
in place, but spiritually and inwardly do
we approach to the uncircurascribed God,"
owning Him as our Father, to Whom we
daily say " Our Father."
3. The prophet having declared the wick
edness of the whole city, rehearses how each
in Church and state, the ministers of God in
either, who should have corrected the evil,
themselves aggravated it. Not enemies,
without, destroy her, but
Her princes within her, in the very midst of
the flock, whora they should in God's stead
feed with a true heart, destroy her as they will,
having no protection against them. Her
judges are evening wolves * ; those who should
in the Name of God redress all grievances
and wrongs, are themselves like wild beasts,
when most driven by famine. They gnaw not
the bones ^ till the morrow or on ihe morrow [lit.
¦in the morning']. They reserve nothing till
the morning light, but do in darkness the
works of darkness, shrinking from the light,
and, in extreme rapacity, devouring at once
the whole substance of the poor. As Isaiah
says, " Thy princes are rebellious and compan
ions of thieves, and ' The Lord will enter into
judgment with the ancients of His people and the
princes thereof : for ye have eaten up the vine
yard : the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
And Ezekiel, * Her princes in the midst thereof
are like wolves, ravening the prey to shed blood,
to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
4. Her prophets are light, boiling and bub
bling up, like water boiling over', empty
signifies "cut off," spec, wool of sheep, fruit of
palm-trees, and with S p. "gaining for himself or
his family." In Svr. it is 1) "cutoff;" 2) "decreed;'
not, "reserved." Abulw. Kim. Menach. render
"break" as denom.
«Is. i. 23. 'Ib. iii. 14. sEz. xxii. 27.
^nitni] being u.sed by Jeremiah (xxiii. 320 of the
false prophets who p'ropliesy false dreams and do ieU
them and cause My people to' err by their lies and "

their lightness, it probably has the same meaning
'  though iniJ is used of the boiling over of

here:

CHAPTER IIL

279

c H rTs t ®°'^® ' ^^^ priests have pol-
cir. 630. luted the sanctuary, they
'Ezek. 22.26. have done ^violence to the
law.

boasters claiming the gift of prophecy,
which they have not ; " boldly and rashly
pouring out what they willed as they willed ;"
promising good things which shall not be.
So they are licr prophets, to whom they pro
phesy smooth things, " ' the prophets of this
people " not the prophets of God ; treacherous
persons [lit. men of treacheries] wholly given
to manifold treacheries against God in 'iVhose
Name they spake and to the people whom
they deceived. " ^ They spake as if from the
mouth of the Lord and uttered everything
against the Lord." The leaders of the people,
those who profess to lead it aright, Isaiah
says', are its misleaders. Thy prophets, Jere
miah says \ have seen vain and foolish things for
thee ; they have seen for thee false visions and
causes of banishment.
Her priests have polluted her sanctuaiy, lit.
holiness, and so holy rites, persons *, things,
places (as the sanctuary), sacrifices. All
these they polluted, being themselves pol
luted ; they polluted first themselves, then the
holy things which they handled, handling
them as they ought not ; carelessly and irrev
erently, not as ordained by God ; turning
them to their own use and self-indulgence,
instead of the glory of God ; then they pol
luted them in the eyes of the people, ^ making
Ihem to abhor tlie offering of the Lord, since,
living scandalously, they theraselves re
garded the Ministry entrusted to them by
God so lightly. Their ofiice was to ''put
difference between holy and unholy and between
clean and unclean, and to teach tlie children all
the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto
them by Moses; that they "should sanctify
themselves and be holy, for 1 the Lord your Ood
am holy. But they on the contrary, God says
by Ezekiel, " have done violence io My law and
have profaned My holy things ; they have mode
no difference between holy and profane, and have
taught none between clean and unclean. Holy
and unholy being the contradictory of each
other, these changed what God had hallowed
into its exact contrary. It was not a mere
short-coming, but an annihilation (so to
speak), of God's purposes.
" '" The Priests of the Church then must
sensuality (Gen. xlix. 4.) and of empty wanton men,
Jud. ix. 4. In Arabic, THS as well as "IHi) is used
of vaiq-glory; in Syr. oif "impurity."
iSee Mic. ii. IL ag. jer.
' Is. ix. 16. [16. Eng.] i Lam. ii. 14.
' Ezra viii. 28. «lSam. ii. 17.
' Lev. X. 10, 11. 8 lb. xi. 44. xix. 2. &e:
» Ezek. xxii. 26. lo S. Cyr.
«.Gai.y.aa.

5 8 The just Loed " is in ^ ^^^°l% ^
the midst thereof; he will ™- eao-

, 1 . . ., J. BDeut. 32. 4.
not do iniquity : "f every t ver. 15, 17.
J iU I, 1. • I.- SeeMic. 3. 11.
morning doth he brmg his f Heb. morning
by morning.

keep strict watch, not to profane holy things.
There is not one mode only of profaning
thera, but many and divers. For Priests
ought to be purified both in soul and body,
and to cast aside every form of abominable
pleasure. Rather should they be resplendent
with zeal in well-doing, remerabering what
S. Paul saith, " walk in tlie Spirit and ye shall
not fulfill the lust of ihe flesh."
They liave oppressed, done violence, to the law,
openly violating it '^ ; or straining it, or se
cretly wresting and using its forms to wrong
and violence, as in the case of Naboth and of
Him, of Whom Naboth thus far bore the
Image. " ''' We have a law, a'nd by our law He
ought to die. Law exists to restrain huraan
violence ; these reversed God'S ordinances ;
violence and law changed places : first, they
did violence to the majesty of the law, which
was the very voice of God, and then, through
profaning it, did violence to man. Forerun
ners herein of those, who, when Christ came,
'* transgressed the commandment of God, and
made it of none effect by their traditions ; '° cmiit-
ting also the weightier ¦matters of the law, judg
ment and mercy and faith ; full of extortion and
excess !
5. But, beside these evening wolves in the
midst of her, there standeth Another in tlie
midst of her, Whora they knew not, and so,
very near^^ to them although they would not
draw near to Hira. But He was near, to be
hold all the iniquities which they did in the
very city and place called by His Narae and
in His very Presence ;' He was in her to pro
tect, foster her with a father's love, hut she,.
presuming on His mercy, had cast it off.
And so He was near to punish, not to deliver ;
as a Judge, not as a Saviour. ""God is
everywhere, Who says by Jeremiah, '" I fill
heaven aTid earth. But since, as Solomon at
test eth, '" The Lord is far from ihe wicked, how
is He said here to be in the midst of these
most wicked men ? Because the Lord is far
from the wicked, as regards the presence
of love and grace ; still in His Essence He is
everywhere, and in this way He is equally
present to all."
The Lord is in the ¦midst thereof; He will not'
12 The construction with the ace. of person occurs
Ezek. xxii. 26, Prov. viii. 36, Jer. xxii. 3.
13 S. John xi.x. 7. » S. Matt. xv. 6.
15 Ib. xxiii. 23. 25.
16 The words in Hebrew correspond with each
other, being from the same root,, n^Tp "drawi
nearr.r 7Ty^i)2^ " in the midst' of' her." ver. 2,' 3y,5..
"Mon. I i» Jer. xxiii. 24:
' "Pr. xy. 29.

280

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
iJer. 3. ;3.
& 6. 15. & 8. 12.

judgment to light, he fail-
eth not; but 'the unjust
knoweth no shame.
6 I have cut off the na-

do iniquity. '"Since He is the primal rule
and measure of all righteousness ; therefore
from the very fact that He doeth anything,
it is just ; for He cannot do amiss, being es
sentially holy. Therefore He will give to
every man what he deserves. Therefore we
chant, ^ The Lord is upright, and there is no
unrighteousness in Him." Justice and injus
tice, purity and impurity, cannot be together.
God's Presence then must destroy the sin
ners, if not the sin. He was in ihe midst of
tliem, to sanctify them, giving them His
judgments as a pattern of theirs ; He will not
do iniquity : but if they heeded it not, the
judgment would fall upon themselves. It
were for God to become '' such an one as them
selves, and to connive at wickedness, were He
to spare at last the impenitent.
Every morning [lit. in ihe 'maiming, in the
moi-niiig] one after the other, quickly, openly,
daily, continually, bringing all secret things,
all works of darkness, to light, as He said to
David, * Thou didst it secretly, but I will do
ihis thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
Doth He bring His judgments io light, so that
no sin should be hid in the brightness of His
Light, as He said by Hosea, Thy jvdgmenis
are a light which goeth forth. " * Morning by
morning, He shall execute His judgments,
i. e., in bright day and visibly, not restrain
ing His anger, hut bringing it forth in the
midst, and making it conspicuous, and, as it
were, setting in open vision what He had
foreannounced." Day by day God gives some
warning of His judgraents. By chastisements
which are felt to be His on this side or on
that or all around. He gives ensamples which
speak to the sinner's heart. He faileth not.
As God said by Habakkuk, that His prom
ises, although they seem to linger, were not
behind" the real time, which lay in the
Divine raind, so, contrariwise, neither are
His judgments. His hand is never missing '
at the appointed tirae. But tlie unjust ^, he,
whose very being and character, iniquity, is
the exact contrary to what he had said of the
perfection of God, " Who doth not iniqii ity, or,
as Moses had taught them in his song '", all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth and
iDion. 2pa. xcii. 15. 3Ib. 1. 21.
<2 Sam. xii. 12.
' S. Cyr. 6 Hab. ii. 3.
' ¦n_J?J is used of one missing when a muster is
made (1 Sam. xxx. 19, 2 Sam. .xvii. 22, met. Is. xxxiv.
16, xl. 26, lix. 15.) ; here only of God that He does
not fail to visit at the time when He ought to be
looked for.
'h)il. "Vhiy nty^ Vh. i<'Deut.xxxii.4.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

tions: their || towers are
desolate ; I made their 
streets waste, that none j Or, comers.
passeth by: their cities

¦without iniquity ", just and right is He. Know
eth no shame, as God saith by Jeremiah,
'^ Thou refusedst to be ashamed. '^ Theywere ml
at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Even
thus they would not be ashamed of their
sins, '*that they ¦might be converted a'nd God
might heal them.
6. I have cut off [the] nations. God appeals
to His judgments on heathen nations, not on
any particular nation, as far as we know ;
but to past history, whether of those, of
whose destruction Israel itself had been the
instrument, or others. The judgments upon
the nations before them were set forth to
them, when they were about to enter on their
inheritance, as a warning to themselves^*.
Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things;
for in all these have the nations defiled themselves,
which I cast out before you: and the la'nd is
defiled ; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof
¦upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabit
ants. And ye, ye shall keep My statutes and
My judgments and shall not commit any of these
abominations — --Ind the land shall not spue you
out when ye defile it, as ii spued out the nations
whieh were before you. The very possession
then of the land was a warning to them ; the
ruins, which crowned so many of its iiill-
tops '^, were silent preachers to them ; they
lived among the memories of God's visita
tions ; if neglected, they were an earnest of
future judgments on themselves. Yet God's
jud.gments are not at one time only. Sen
nacherib appealed to their own knowledge,
" Behold, thou hast heard what tlie kings of
Assyria have done io all lands by destroying
them utterly. Have the gods of the nations
delivered them which my fathers have destroyed?
Hezekiah owned it as a fact which he knew:
'^ Of a truth. Lord, the kings of Assyria have
laid waste all the nations and their land. And
God owns him as His instrument : '" Now I
have brought ii io pass, ihal thou shouldest be to
lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps : and,
^° / will send him against an ungodly nation, and
against the people of My wrath will I give him a
charge, to take the spoil and te take the prey, and
to tread them down as the mire of the streets, and
says of him, It is in his heart to destroy and to
ii'71..J> J'Xl. i=Jer. iii. 3. is ib. vi. 15, viii. 12.
" Is. vi. 10.
15 Lev. xviii. 24, 25, 26, 28, add Ib. xx. 23.
I'This will be brought out bythe "Ordnance sur
vey " of Palestine, when completed. Isaiah alludes
to them, xvii. 9.
1' Is. xxxvii. 11, 13. 18 lb. 18.
i»Ib. 26.
*> Ib. X. 6, 7, and the graphic picture ib. 13, 14.

CHAPTEE IIL

281

chrTst ^^^ destroyed, so that
cir- 030. there is no man, that there

kSo Jer. 8. 6.

is none inhabitant.
7 ''I said, Surelv thou

cut off 'nations 'not a few. The king of Baby
lon too he describes as ' the man that made
the earth to tremble, tliat did shake kingdoms,
thatmade theworld as awildemess, and destroyed
the cities thereof. Habakkuk recently de
scribed the wide wasting by the Babylonians,
and the helplessness of nations before him ^-
Their towers, coroner towers ', the most care
fully fortified parts of their fortified cities,
are desolate; I made their streets waste. The
desolation is complete, within as well as
without ; ruin itself is hardly so desolate as
the empty habitations and forsaken streets,
once full of life, where
"The echoes and the empty tread
Would sound like voices from the dead."
7. I said, surely tliou wilt fear Me. God
speaks of things here, as they are in their
own nature. It could not but be, that in the
very presence of the Hand of God, destroy
ing others but as yet sparing them, they
must learn to fear Him ; they must stand in
awe of Him for His judgments on others ;
they must be in filial fear of Him for His
loving longsuffering toward theraselves.
"Thou vrilt receive instruction," corrected
and taught through God's correction of
others and the lighter judgments on them
selves, as Solomon says, * I looked, I set my
heart: I saw, I received instruction. He saith,
receive, making it man's free act. God brings
it near, comraends it to hira, exhorts, entreats,
but leaves him the awful power to receive or
to refuse. God speaks with a wonderful ten
derness. " Surely thou wilt stand in awe ot
Me ; tho.u wilt receive instruction ; thou wilt
now do what hitherto thou hast refused to
do." There was (so to speak) nothing else
left for them ^, in sight of those judgments.
He pleads their own interests. The light
ning was ready to fall. The prophet
had, in vision, seen the enemy within the
1 Is. xiv. 16, 17. 2 Hab. i. 14^16.
3 See on i. 16. Since also the subjects spoken of
in this verse are places, the metajah. meaning of
nijij "princes" i.p. corner-stones, is not prubable
here, although loiyj is, in four places, used of
men, * Prov. xxiv. 32.
"•^X, exclusively of all besides. All the mean
ings ascribed to 1|X are but different ways of ex
pressing in other languages the primary meaning,
" nothing but."
6 8. Luke xix. 42. 'Jon.
" Ex. XX. 5, xxxiv. 7. Nu. xiv. 18.
"Ex. xxxii. 34, Is. xiii. 11, Jer. xxiii. 2, Hos. i. 4, ii.
13, iv. 9, Amos iii. 2, 14; beside the separate eases
of a) visiting upon, or b) visiting the sin. See
Ges.

wilt fear me, thou wilt re- ^ ^^^°l% ^
ceive instruction ; so their "i''- ^^o.
dwelling should not be cut
off, howsoever I punished

city. Yet even now God lingers, as it were,
" If thou hadst known in ihis ihy day, ihe things
which are for thy peace.
So their [Aer] dweUing should not be cut off.
His own holy land which He had given
them. A Jew paraphrases ', " And He will
not cut off their dwellings from the land of
the house of My Shechinah " ((Jod's visible
Presence in glory). Judah, who was before
addressed thou, is now spoken of in the third
person, her; and this also had wonderful
tenderness. It is as though God were mus
ing over her and the blessed fruits of her
return to Hira ; " it shall not be needed to
correct her further." Howsoever I punished
them : lit. all (i. e., all the offences) which I
visited upon her, as God saith of Himself,
" * visiting the sins of the fathers upon the
children," and this is mostly the meaning
of the words "visit upon. Amid and not
withstanding all the ofiiences which God had
already chastised, He, in His love and com
passion, still longeth, not utterly to remove
them from His Presence, if they would but
receive instruction now ; but they would not.
How often, our Lord says'", would I have
gathered thy children together, even as u, hen
gathereth her chickens urider her wings, and ye
would ¦not. But indeed, probably, Of a truth "
(it is a word strongly affirming what follows)
they rose early, they corrupted all their doings ;
God gave them His warnings, awaited the
result ; they lost no tirae, they began with
morning light ; they hasted to rise, burthened '^
themselves, made sure of having the whole
day before them, to — seek God as He had
sent His Prophets, ''^ rising early and sending
them ? No, nor even simply to do ill, but of
set purpose to do, not this or that corruptly,
but to corrupt all their doings. " '* They with
diligence and eagerness rose early, th.at, with
the same haste wherewith they ought to
have returned to Me, they might shew forth
i»S. Matt, xxiii. 37.
11 IDS probably (as Ges.)=nn Jos. iii. 17. iv. 5.
The adversative force, which Gesenius (Thes. p.
670) and Ewald (Lehrb. n. 105. d. p. 274. ed. 8.) think
to belong to a later style, lies (as so often in other
Heb. particles) in the tacit contrast of the sen
tences. Gesenius' instances of this "later usage"
are Ps. xxxi. 23. (David's) Ixvi. 19. Ixxxii. 7. Job
xxxii. 8. Is. xlix. 4. Iiii. 4. Jer. iii. 20, and this
place. 12 The word means originally "placed on the
back;" then is used of a traveler, who taking his
baggage upon him, or setting it on his camels, seta
out in very early dawn, or before it, as is the prac
tice in hot countries,
i» Jer. vii. 13, 25, xi. 7, xxvi. 5. xxix. 19.
11 S. Jer.

282

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST eir. 630.
' Gen. 6. 12.
n Ps. 27. 14.
& 37. 34.
Prov. 20. 22.

them ; but they rose early,
a7id 'corrupted all their
doings. 8 ^ Therefore "" wait ye
upon me, saith the Loed,
until the day that I rise up

in deed what they had conceived amiss
in their mind." There are as many ag
gravations of their sin as there are
words. The four Hebrew words bespeak
eagerness, wilfulness, completeness enor
mity, in sin. They rose early, themselves
deliberately corrupted, of their own mind
made offensive, all their doings, not slight
acts, but deeds, great works done with a high
hand '.
8. Therefore wait ye upon [/or] Me. God
so willeth not to punish, but that all should
lay hold of His mercy, that He doth not here
even name punishment. Judah had slighted
His mercies ; He was ready to forgive all
they had sinned, if they would now receive
instruction ; they in return set themselves to
corrupt all their doings. They had wholly
forsaken Him. Therefore — we should have
expected, as elsewhere, " Therefore I wdll
visit all your iniquities upon you." But not
so. The chastisement is all veiled ; the pro
phet points only to the mercy beyond. There
fore wait ye for Me. All the interval of
chastisement is summed up in these words ;
i. e., since neither My mercies toward you,
nor My chastisement of others, lead you to
obey Me, therefore the tirae shall be, when
My Providence shall not seera to he over
you, nor My Presence among you '' ; but
then, wait ye for Me * earnestly, intensely,
perseveringly, 1111111 the day, that I rise up to
the prey. The day is probably in the first
instance, the deliverance from Babylon. But
the words seem to be purposely enlarged, that
they may embrace other judgments of God
also. For the words to gather the nations,
assemble the kingdoms, describe some array of
nations against God and His people ; gather
ing themselves for their own end at that
tirae, but, in His purpose, gathering them
selves for their own destruction, rather than
the mere tranquil reunion of those of
different nations in the city of Babylon, when
iJin'?!' '"'^ "1® "mighty works" of God, or
deeds of man's might, and as such, mostly great
crimes in the sight of God. So even the heathen
have formed from "facio," " facinus," of deeds
which they too held to involve great guilt.
-See Hos. iii. 3-6.
^ T\2T\ is mostly a longing persevering expecta
tion for a thing or person which as yet comes not,
when the delay requires patience ; for God, with S,
Ps. xxxiii. 20, Is. viii. 7, Ixiv 3; His promise, Hab.
il 3, and (part. Kal in sense of Pi.) Is. xxx. 18; with

to the prey : for my deter
mination M to " gather the _
nations, that I may assem
ble the kingdoms, to pour
upon them mine indigna
tion, eve7i all my fierce an-

Before
CHEIST cir. 630.
» Joel. 3. 2.

the Medes and Persians carae against tliem.
Nor again are they altogether fulfilled in the
destruction of Jerusalem, or any other event
until now. For although then a vast num
ber of the dispersed Jews were collected
together, and were at that time "* broken
off'" and out of covenant wdth God, they
could hardly be called nations, (which are
here and before ^ spoken of in contrast with
Judah), much less kingdoms. In its fullest
sense the prophecy seems to belong to the
sarae events in the last struggle of Anti-Christ,
as at the close of Joel " and Zechariah '.
AVith this agrees the largeness of the de
struction ; io pour out upon them, in full
raeasure, emptying out so as to overwhelm
them ", Mine ind'ignation, even all My fierce
anger ; for all the earth shall be devoured with
tlie fire of My jealousy. The outpouring of all
God's wrath, the devouring of the whole earth,
in the fullest sense of the words, belongs to
the end of the world, when He shall say to the
wicked, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire." In lesser degrees, and less
fully, the substance of the prophecy has
again and again been fulfilled to the Jewish
Church before Christ, at Babylon and under
the Maccabees ; and to the Christian, as when
the Moharamedans hemmed in Christendom
on all sides, and the waves of their conquests
on the East and West threatened to meet,
overwhelming Christendom. The Church,
having sinned, had to wait for a while /or Ood
Who by His Providence withdrew Himself,
yet at last delivered it.
And since the whole history of the Church
lies wrapt up in the Person of the Redeemer,
the day that I rise up io the prey, is especially
the Day in which the foundation of His
Church was laid, or th;it in which it shall be
completed ; the Day whereon He rose again,
as the first-fruits, or that Day in which He
shall "stand again on ihe earth, to judge it;
'" so coming even as He went up into Heaven.
negative Ps. cvi. 13; for death. Job iii. 20; of endur
ance, Dan. xii. 12. The only other cases are 'lying
in wait,' Hos. vi. 9. waiting for the end of Job's
words. Job xxxii. 4; for the issue ofthe message to
Jehu, 2 Kgs ix. 3; till dawn, Ib vii. 9; and of God,
waiting for us, till He can shew us mercy, Is. xxx.
18. ¦• Rom. xi. 20. 6 V. 6. 6 Joel iii. 2, 9-16.
7 Zech. xiv.
8 See Ps. Ixix. 24, Ixxix 6, Jer. vi. 11, x. 26, xiv.
16, Ezek. xxi. 31, Rev. xvi. 1.
'Job xix. 25. It is the same word.
i»Act3i. 11.

CHAPTEE IIL

283

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
0 oh. 1. 18.

ger ; for all the earth "shall
be devoured with the fire
of my jealousy.

Then, ihe prey' must be, what God vouch
safes to account as His gain, ihe prey which
is taken from the mighty ^, and tlie lawful cap
tivity, the prey of ihe terrible one, which shall
be delivered ; even that spoil which the
Father bestowed on Him Who made His soul
an offering for sin'', the goods of the strong
man *whom He bound, and spoiled us, His
lawful goods and captives, since we had sold ^
ourselves under sin to hira. " ^ Christ lived
again having spoiled hell, because ' it was
not possible [as it is written] that He, being by
nature Life, should be holden, of death.
Here, where spoken of with relation to the
Church, the jealousy of Almighty God is that
love for His people '*, which will not endure
their ill-treatment by those who (as all Anti-
Christian power doth) raake themselves His
rivals in the government of the world.
9. For then, in the order of God's mercies.
The deliverance from Babylon was the fore
runner of that of the Gospel, which was its
object. The spread of the Gospel then is
spoken of in the connection of God's Provi
dence and plan, and time is overlooked. Its
blessings are spoken of, as then given when
the earnest was given, and the people, from
whom according to the flesh Christ was to be
born, were placed anew in the land where
He was to be born. " " The prophet springs,
as is his wont, to Christ and the tirae of the
new law." And in Christ, the End of the
law, the prophet ends.
Iwill turn, contrary to what they had be
fore, to ihe people, lit. peoples, the nations of
the earth, a pure language, lit. a purified lip.
It is a real conversion, as was said of Saul at
'^V- commonly signifies "eternity," ^^ or 1_J?7;
also Gen. xlix. 27, Is. xxxiii. 23. (as Ch. X"l^ &c.)
"prey;" nowhere, as Ew., "attack."
2 Is. xlix. 24, 25. 8 Ib. Iiii. 10, 12.
<S. Matt. xii. 29.
5 Rom. vii. 14. coll. Is. 1. 1, Iii. 3.
« S. Cyr. i Acts ii. 24.
8 See on Nah. i. 2. » Lap.
i«l Sam. X. 9. ins aS 1^ ¦'¦' "JSri'l, as here
11 Gen. xi. 1, 6, 7, 9. The Jews also saw that this
was a reversal of the confusion of Babel. "God,
blessed for ever, saith, ' in this world, on account
of evil concupiscence (y^n lif' man's natural
corruption) men were divided into 70 languages;
but in the world to come, all shall agree with one
mind to call upon My Name ; ' " alleging this place.
Tanehuma i. 5. 1. ap. Schoettg. ad loc. "R. Chiia
said, * thou hearest from holy Scripture, that all
hangeth from the word of the mouth ;' for after the
tongues were confounded, it is added, 'and God
dispersed them thence ' But in the time to come,
what is written? 'Then will I turn &c.'" Sohar,
Gen f. 58. col. 217. (Schoettg. loc. gen n. 37_). Again
It is said, " when, the days of the Messiah snail

9 For then will I turn
to the people ^ a pure f lan
guage, that they may all tHfb.^lp!*'

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

the beginning; ''" God [lit.] turned to him
another heart. Before the dispersion of Babel
the world was " of one lip, but that, impure,
for it was in rebellion against God. Now it
shall be again of one lip; and that, purified.
The purity is of faith and of life, that they
may call upon the Name of the Lord, not as
heretofore on idols, but that every tongue
should confess the one true God, Father Son
and Holy Ghost, in Whose Name they
are baptized. This is purity of faith. 'ITo
''' call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus is the
very title of Christian worship ; all thai called
upon the Name of Jesus, the very title of
Christians '^. To serve Him with one consent, lit.
with one shoulder, evenly, steadfastly, not un
equally yoked, but all with united strength,
bearing Christ's easy yoke and one another's
burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ. This is
purity of life. The fruit of the lips is ihe sac
rifice of praise '*. God gave back one pure
language, when, on the Day of Pentecost, the
Holy Spirit, the Author of purity, came
down in fiery tongues upon the Apostles,
teaching them and guiding them into Ihe
whole iruth'^, and to '"speak to every one in his
own, tongue, wherein lie was born, the ivonderful
wm-ks of Ood. Thenceforth there was to be a
higher unity than that of outward language.
For speech is not the outer sound, but the
thoughts which it conveys and embodies.
The inward thought is the soul of the
words. The outward confusion of Babel was
to hinder oneness in evil and a worse con
fusion. At Pentecost, the unity restored was
oneness of soul and heart, wrought by One
Spirit, Whose gift is the one Faith and the

oome, boys shall know the hidden things of wis
dom ; for then shall all things be revealed, as is
said. Then will I turn &c." Ib. f. 74. col. 291. Ib. ad
loc. And of its fulfillment in the conversion of the
world, "Who would have expected that God would
raise up the tabernacle of David, which was fallen?
and yet it is read. In that day I will raise &c. (Am.
ix. 11). And who would have hoped that the whole
world would be one band? .is in, Then will I turn
&c." Bereshith rabba n. 88 fin. Schoett.g. loci gen.
n. 18, and on Gen. xii. 44; "Why is, 'they shall
praise Thee' repeated four times in Ps. Ixvii. 4?
He means, ' They shall praise Thee with their
heart; they shall praise Thee with their mouth;
they shall praise Thee with their good deeds, and
they shall praise Thee with all these, as it is said,
For then will I turn &c.' and the Name of the Lord
is no other than the King Messiah, according to,
'and the Name of the Lord cometh from far.'" in
Mart. Pug. Fid f. 327. It is also quoted with other
places, as to be fulfilled in the time of the Messiah,
Tikkune Sohar p. 60 (Schoettg. Loc. gen. n. 80), R.
Moseh in Ibn Ezra, and Ibn Ezra himself, of the
second temple. Kimchi "after the wars of Gog."
12 Acts. xxii. 16. Rom. x. 13.
13 Acts ix. 14, 21, 1 Cor. i. 2. "Heb. xiii. 15.
15S. John xvi. 13. i^Aots ii. 8, 11.

284

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
t Heb. shoulder.
1 Ps. OS. 31.
Isai. 18. 1, 7.
'. 60. 4, &o.

Mai. 1. 11. Acts 8. 27.

call upon the name of the
Lord, to serve him with
one t consent.
10 ''From beyond the

one Hope of our calling, in the One Lord, in
Whom we are one, grafted into the one body,
by our Baptism '. The Church, then created,
is the One Holy Catholic Church diffused
throughout all the world, everywhere with
one rule of Faith, the Faith once for all de
livered unto the saints, confessing one God, the
Trinity in Unity, and serving Hira in the
one law of the Gospel with one consent.
Christians, as Christians, speak the same
language of Faith, and frora all quarters of
the world, one language of praise goes up to
the One God and Father of alb " ^ God di
vided the tongues at Babel, lest, understand
ing one another, they should form a destruc
tive unity. Through proud men tongues
were divided ; through humble Apostles
tongues were gatliered in one. The spirit
of pride dispersed tongues ; the Holy Spirit
gathered tongues in one. For when the
Holy Spirit carae upon the disciples, they
spake with the tongues of all, were under
stood by all ; the dispersed tongues were
gathered into one. So then, if they are yet
angry and Gentiles, it is better for thera to
have their tongues divided. If they wish
for one tongue, let them come to the Cliurch ;
for in diversity of the tongues of the flesh,
there is one tongue in the Faith ofthe heart."
In whatever degree the oneness is impaired
within the Church, while there is yet one
Faith of the Creeds, He Alone can restore it
and turn to her a purified language, "Who first
gave it to those who waited for Hira. Both
praise and service are perfected above, where
the Blessed, with one loud voice, '' shall cry,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the
Throne and unto the Lamb ; blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor aud
power awl might be unto our Ood for ever and
ever. And they who have come out of great
tribulation and have washed their robes arid made
them white in the Blood of the Lamb, shall be
before the Throne of God and serve Him day
and night in His Temple *."
1 Eph. iv 3-6. 2 g. Aug. in Ps. liv. 6.
3 Rev vii. 10, 12
<Ib. vn. 14,15.
6 See Isaiah xviii. i.
6Bwald conjoctures B13 n3 because Nabum
speaks of Cush, Phut and Lubin among the allies
ot No-Ammon or Thebes, and renders ''ini; "my
nicenses;" first rendering "nn^ (Ez. viii. ll)"Wie
smoke of the cloud of me.ense." But this sense is not
Itself proved (in both Syr and Arab, incense is ItOi?
not inyi nor is incense plural ; nor is there any
parallelism of Cush and Phut in Nahum, but Phut
and Lubim are historically named as allies of No.

rivers of Ethiopia my sup
pliants, even the daughter.
of my dispersed, shall bring
mine ofiering.

Before
CHRIST cir. C30.

10. From beyond the

of Ethiopia.

The furthest Southern people, wdth whom
the Jews had intercourse, stand as the type
of the whole world beyond. The utmost
bound of the known inhabited land should
not be the bound of the Gospel. The con
version of Abyssinia is one, but the narrow
est fulfillment of the prophecy. The whole
new world, though not in the mind of the
prophet, was in the mind of Him Who
spake by the prophet.
My suppliants. He names them as what
they shall be when they shall come to Him.
They shall come, as needy, to the Fountain
of all good, asking for mercy of the unfailing
Source of all mercy. He describes the very
character of all who corae to God through
Christ. The daughter of My dispersed ". God
is, in the way of Providence, the Father of
all, although, by sin, alienated from Him;
whence S. Paul says, we are ihe offspring of
God '. They were dispersed, severed from the
oneness in Him and from His house and
family ; yet still, looking on them as already
belonging to Him, He calls them, My dis
persed, as by Caiaphas, being high-priest. He
prophesied that Jesus should die for ilmt nation;
and not for that nation only, but that also He
should gather together in one the children of Ood
that were seattered abroad ".
Shall bring Mine offering". The offering is
the same as that which Malachi prophesies
shall continue under the New Testament,
which offering was to be offered to the Name
of God, not in Jerusalem, but '" in eveiy place
from the rising of the sun unto the going down of
the same. The dark skin of the Ethiopian is
the image of ingrained sin, which man could
not efface or change " : their conversion then
declares how those steeped in sin shall be
cleansed from all their darkness of mind,
and washed white from their sins in Bap
tisra and beautified by the grace of God.
" ''' The word of prophecy endeth in truth.
For not only through the Eoman empire is
' Acts xvii. 28. ' S. John xi.'sl, 62.
»lt is possible also to render, "from beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia, Mv suppliants the daughter of
Mv dispersed shall tliey bring as Mine ofTering;
arid this some have preferred on account of the
like place in Isaiah Ixvi. 20. "And they shall bring
all vour brethren for an offering unto the Lord out
of all nations &c." But the word nnJO alone is
common to the two passages, and the words njyo
tyiD 'injS which occur in Is. xviii. 1, and 73V
^'S VfJ Ib. 7, make me think that this place rather
was in the prophet's mind „ _,
10 Mai. i. 11 11 Jer xiii. 23. '" S. Cyr.

CHAPTEK IIL

285

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

11 In that day shalt
thou not be ashamed for
all thy doings, wherein
thou hast transgressed
against me : for then I will

the Gospel preached, but it circles round the
barbarous nations. And there are Churches
everywhere, shepherds and teachers, guides
and instructors in mysteries, and sacred
altars, and the Lamb is invisibly sacrificed
by holy priests among Indians too and
Ethiopians. And this was said plainly by
another prophet also ', For I am a great King,
saith the Lord, and My Name is great among
the heathen, and in every place incense is offered
to My Name and a pure sacrifiee."
11. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for
all thy doings, because God, forgiving them,
will blot them out and no more remember
them. This was first fulfilled in the Gospel.
" '' No one can doubt that when Christ came in
the flesh, there was an amnesty and remission
to all who heUeved. For we are justified not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His great mercy. But we have
been released from shame. For He hath re
stored us to freedom of access to God, Who
for our sakes arose from the dead, and for us
ascended to heaven in the presence of the
Father. For Christ, our Forerunner, hath as
cended for us now to appear in the presence of
God. So then He took away the guilt of all
and freed believer? from failures and shame."
St. Peter, even in heaven, raust remember
his denial of our Lord, yet not so as to be
ashamed or pained any more, since the ex
ceeding love of God will remove all shame or
pain. "^Mighty promise, mighty consola
tion. Now, before that Day comes, the Day
of My Eesurrection, thou wilt be asharaed
and not without reason, since thou ownest
by a true confession, ^all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. But at that Day it will hot be
60, especially when that shall be which I
promise thee in the Prophets and the Psalms,
° Tliere shall be a Fountain opened for sin and
j'or uncleanness; whence David also, exult
ing in good hope of the Holy Spirit, saith,
" Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow. For though he elsewhere saith, ' they
looked unto Him and were lightened, arid
iMal. i. 11. 2S. Cyr. a Rup.
' Is. Ixiv. 6. 6 Zech. xiii. 1.
« Ps. li. 7. ' Ib. xxxiv. 6.
' Rom. vi. 21. 0 Ps. Ixxxix. 1.
1" It cannot be "those that exult in thy highness ;"
for niXJ, as used of man, always has a bad sense,
"self-exaltation." "Rom. ii. 17,18-20,23.
'2 As in E. M., not, because of. n3J, as a mental
quality, mostly occurs with yt and is used in a
bad sense of high-mindedness=pride ; Ps. cxxxi.

take away out of the midst
of thee them that ' rejoice .
in thy pride, and thou shalt
no more be haughty f he-
cause of my holy mountain.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
' Jer. 7. 4.
Mic. 3. 11.
Matt. 3. 9.
f Heb. in my
holy.

their faces 'were not ashamed, yet in this
mortal life, when the Day of My Eesur
rection doth not fully shine upon thee,
thou art after some sort ashamed ; as it is
written, " What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? but that
shame will bring glory, and, when that glory
cometh in its place, will wholly pass away.
But when the fullness of that day shall come,
the fullness of My Eesurrection, when the
merabers shall rise, as the Head hath risen,
will the memory of past foulness bring any
confusion? Yea the very memory of the
miseries will be the richest subject of singing,
according to that, " My song shall be alway of
the loving-kindness of the Lord." For how
shall the redeemed forget the mercies of their
redemption, or yet how feel a painful shame
even of the very miseries, out of which they
were redeemed by the fullness of the over-
streaming Love of God ?
For then will I take away out of the midst of
thee tliem that rejoice in thy pride, \_tliose of thee
who exult in pride '".^ All confusion shall
cease, hecause all pride shall cease, the pa
rent of sin and confusion. The very gift of
God becomes to the carnal a source of pride.
Pride was to the Jew also the .great hindrance
to the reception ofthe Gospel. Pie made his
boast of the law, yea, in God Himself, that he
knew ilis will, and was a guide of others ", and
so was the more indignant, that the heathen
was made equal to him, and that he too was
called to repentance and faith in Christ. So,
going about to establish his own righteousness, he
did not submit hiinself to the righteousness of
God, but shut himself out fi-om the faith and
grace and salvation of Christ, and rejected
Hiraself. So, ' ihy pride raay be the pride in
being the people of God, and having Abra
ham for their father. And thou shalt no more
be haughty '''in My holy mountain, " but thou
shalt stand in the great and everlasting
abiding-place of huraility, knowing perfectly,
that thou now ' knowest in part ' only, and
confessest truly that no one ever could or can
1, (David's), Pr. xviii. 12, Ez. xxviii. 2, 6, 17, 2 Chr.
xxvi. 16, xxxii. 25; absol. in a bad sense, Is. iii. 16,
Jer, xiii. 15, Ez. xvi. 50. It is used of eminence
given by God, Job xxxvi. 7, and of the Messiah as
exalted by Him, Is. Iii. 13. Once only, 2 Chr. xvii.
6, )!37 713 J is used in a good sense of Jehoshaphat,
that, being exalted by God, " his heart was elevated
in the ways of the law." The form HH^Jly is like
the inf. in Ex. xxix. 29, xxx. 18, xxxvi. 2, Lev. xv.
32, &o.

286

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630. the midst of thee

12 I will ako leave in
an af
flicted and poor people,
and they shall trust in the

' Isai. 14. 32.
Zech. 11. IL
Matt. 5. 3.
1 Cor. 1. 27, 28.
Jam. 2. 5. name of the Loed.

by his own works be justified in the sight of
God. ' For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of Ood." Pride which is ever offen
sive to God, is yet raore hideous in a holy
place or a holy oflice, in Mount Sion where
the temple was or in the Christian priest
hood. 12. And JmH also leave {over, as a reranant,
it is still the sarae heavy prophecy, that a
remnant only shall be saved ') an afflicted and
poor people. Priests, (except that great com
pany who were obedient to the faith ^) scribes,
lawyers, Pharisees, Sadducees were taken
away ; and there remained " '' the people of
the land," the "unlearned and ignorant, "the
weak things of the world and the things despised
who bore the very title of their Master ', the
poor and needy ; poor in Spirit " ; poor also in
outward things, since they who had lands, .sold
ihem and they had all things common ". They
were afflicted above measure outwardly in the
^"persecutions, reproaches, spoiling of their goods,
stripes, deaths, which they endured for
Christ's sake. They knew too their own
poverty ; " " knowdng themselves to be sin
ners, and that they were justified only by
faith in Jesus Christ." When the rest were
cast out of the midst of her, these should be
left in the midst of her (the words stand in con
trast with one another) in the bosom of the
Church. And they shcdl trust ¦in the name of
the Lord. " As they looked to be justified
only in the Name of Christ," and " " trusted
in the grace and power of God alone, not in
any power or wisdom or eloquence or riches
of this world, they converted the world to a
faith above nature." " ''^ Conformed in this
too to Christ, Who for our sakes became
poor and alraost neglected both His divine
glory and the supererainence of His nature,
to subject Himself to the condition of a ser
vant. So then those instructed in His laws
after His exaraple, think humbly of them-
1 Rom. iii. 23.
2 Ib. ix. 27. See ab. on Mic. ii. 12. p. 36.
3 Acts vi. 7.
¦iriXn Dj? the uneducated, this people that
knoweth not the law (S. John vii. 49), " one in whom
there are moral not intellectual excellences."
Rambam in Buxt. Lex. Talm. col. 1626.
li Acts iv. 13. « 1 Oor. i. 27, 28. i Ps. xii. 1.
*'JJ? is not simply "poor," nor IJj; simply
"meek." ""Jj; is one "afflicted," in whora affliction
has produced its fruits; )^p, one "meek" but in
whom patience has been tried and perfected; as
the same class are meant by the ttt^xoI, S. Luke vi.
20, and the n-Twxot tcIJ wvevfiaTi, S. Matt. V. 3; and,

13 'The remnant of Is
rael " shall not do iniquity,
* nor speak lies ; neither
shall a deceitful tongue be
found in their mouth : for

Before

CHRIST

cir. 030.

« Mic. 4. 7.

ch. 2. 7.

« Isai. 60. 21.

» Lsai. 63. 8.

Rev. 14. 5.

selves. They became raost exceedingly loved
of God, and chiefly the divine disciples, who
were set as lights of the world."
13. Tlie remnant of Israel, the same poor
people, the true Israel of whom God said, /
leave over (the word is the same) a poor people,
few, compared with the rest who were blind
ed ; of whom the Lord said, / know whom I
have chosen'*. These shall not do iniquity nor
speak lies. " '^ This is a spiritual adorning, a
most beautiful coronet of glorious virtues.
For where meekness and huraility are and
the desire of righteousness, and the tongue
unlearns vain words and sinful speech, and
is the instruraent of strict truth, there dawns
a bright and raost perfect virtue. And this
beseems those who are in Christ. For the
beauty of piety is not seen in the Law, but
gleams forth in the power of Evangelic
teaching." Our Lord said of Nathanael, '° Behold an
Israelite indeed, in whom is 'no guile, and to the
Apostles, '"I send you forth as sheep among
wolves ; be ye therefore wise as serpents and
harmless as doves ; and of the first Christians
it is said, '¦'' they, continuing daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to
house did eat tlieir meat with cjladness and si'w-
gleness of heart, praising God and haring favor
with all ihe people. This is the character of
Christians, as such, and it was at first ful
filled ; '" whosoever is born of Ood, doth not
commit sin ; '" whosoever is born of Ood sinneth
not ; but he that 'is begotten of God keepeth him
self, and that wicked one toucheth him not. An
Apologist, at the close of the second century,
could appeal to the Eoman Emperor ™, that
no Christian was found araong their crim
inals, " unless it be only as a Christian, or,
if he be anything else, he is forthwith no
longer a Christian. W^e alone then are inno
cent 1 What wonder if this be so, of neces
sity ? And truly of necessity it is so. Taught
" no humility without humiliation," is become a
Christian proverb.
s Acts ii. 44, 45, iv. 32, 35.
1" Acts viii. 1, ix. 2, 13, 14. xii. 1, 2, xiii. 50, xiv., 5.
22. xxii. &c. Eom. viii. 17, 36, 36. xii. 14, 1 Cor. ix. 19,
2 Cor. i. 8, 9, xii. 10, 2 Thess. i. 4, 2 Tim. iii. 11, 12,
Heb. X. 32-34, S James ii. 6, 1, 1 S. Pet. i. 6, 7. iv. 13,
Rev. i. 9. vi. 9 &e.
"Rup. 12 Dion. 13 8. Cyr. " S. John xiii. 18.
ii>Ib. i. 47. 16 S. Mat. X." 16. " Acts ii. 46, 47.
1" 1 S. John iii. 9. w Ib. v. 18.
a> Tert. Apol. e. 44, 45. See also Justin M. i. n. 34.
S. Athenagoras, n. 2, Minutius Felix p. 333. Theo
doret de cur. Grsec. aff. Disp. xii. oirc. med. p. 1021
sqq. ed Schultz ; Laetant. v. 9. quoted Ib.

CHAPTEE III.

287

chrTst ^^^^^ ®^^-^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^®
cir. 630. down, and none shall make

jEzek. 34. 28. ., i- -J
Mio. 4. 4. them airaid.
. fsIi.Y2. 6. 14 II ' Sing, O daughter
& 54. 1. Zech. 2. 10. & 9. 9.

innocence by God, we both know it per
fectly, as being revealed by a perfect Master ;
and we keep it faithfully, as being committed
to us by an Observer, Who raay not be de
spised." "'Being so vast a multitude of
men, almost the greater portion of every
state, we live silently and modestly, known
perhaps more as individuals than as a body,
and to be known by no other sign than the
reformation of our former sins." Now in
the Church, which "our earth dimm'd eyes
behold," we can but say, as in regard to the
cessation of war^ under the Gospel, that
God's promises are sure on His part, that
still * they tliat are Christus have crucified the
fiesh with ihe affections and lusts, that the Gos
pel is * a power of God unto salvation, that the
"preaching of the Cross is, unto us which are
saved, the power of Ood; "unto ihem that are
called, Christ is ihe power of God and ilie wisdom
of Ood; that those who will, ''are kept by
God through faith unto salvation ; but that
now too ' they are not all Israel, which are of
Israel, and that " ihe faithlessness of man does
not make the faith of God of none effect. " '"The
Church of God is universally holy in respect
of all, by institutions and administrations of
sanctity ; the same Church is really holy in
this world, in relation to all godly persons
contained in it, by a real infused sanctity ;
the same is farther yet at the same time
perfectly holy in reference to the saints de
parted and admitted to the presence of God ;
and the same Church shall hereafter be raost
completely holy in the world to corae, wdien
all the members, actually belonging to it,
shall be at once perfected in holiness and
completed in happiness." Most fully shall
this be fulfilled in the Eesurrection. " " O
blessed day of the Eesurrection, in whose
fullness no one will sin in word or deed ! O
great and blessed reward to every soul, which,
although it hath now done iniquity and spoken
falsehood, yet willeth not to do it further!
Great and blessed reward, that he shall now
receive such immovableness, as no longer to
be able to do iniquity or speak falsehood,
since the blessed soul, through the Spirit of
everlasting love inseparably united with God
its Creator, shall now no more be capable of
an evil wiU ! "
For they shall feed; on the hidden manna,
1 Id. ad Scap. n. 2, p, 145. Oxf. Tr.
2 See ab. on Mic. iv. 3 pp. 56, 57.
"Gal. v. 24. See Dr. Pusey's Sermon, " The Gospel,
the power of God." Lenten Sermons, pp. .300-321.
* Eom. i. 16. SI Cor. i. 18. « lb. 24.

of Zion; shout, O Israel; chrTst
be glad and rejoice with cir- 63o.
all the heart, O daughter
of Jerusalem.

"'^nourished most delicately by the Holy
Spirit with inward delights, and spiritual
food, the bread of life." In the things of the
body too was '^ distribution made unto every man
according as he had need. And they shall lie
down in the green pastures where He foldeth
thera ; and none shall make them afraid, '' ' for
they were ready to suffer and to die for the
Name of the Lord Jesus "¦- '^ They departed
from the presence of the council rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His
Name. Before the Eesurrection and the
sending of the Holy Ghost, how great was
the tearfulness, unsteadfastness, weakness of
the disciples ; how great, after the infusion
of the Holy Spirit, was their constancy and
imperturbableness, it is delightsome to esti
mate in their Acts," when they '" bare His
Name before the Gentiles and kings, and the
children of Israel, and he who had been afraid
of a little maid, said to the High Priest,
''' We ought to obey God rather than men.
" '» When Christ the Good Shepherd Who
laid down His life for His sheep, shone upon
us, we are fed in gardens and pastured among
lilies, and lie down in folds ; for we are folded
in Churches and holy shrines, no one scaring
or spoiling us, no wolf assailing nor lion
tramjiling on us, no robber breaking through,
no one invading us, to steal and kill and de
stroy ; but we abide in safety and partici
pation of every good, being in charge of Christ
the Saviour of all."
14. Sing, 0 daughter of Sion ; shout, 0 Is
rael ; be glad and rejoice 'with all ihe heart, 0
daughter of Jerusalem. Very remarkable
throughout all these verses is the use of the
sacred number three, secretly conveying to
the thoughtful soul the thought of Him, Fa
ther Son and Holy Ghost, the Holy and Un
divided Trinity by Whose operation these
things shall be. Threefold is the descrip
tion of their being freed from sins ; 1) they
shall not do iniquity, 2) nor speak lies, 3)
neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their
mouth. Threefold their blessedness; They
shall 1) feed, 2) lie down, 3) none •make ihem
afraid. Threefold the exhortation to joy
here; "'"Sing to God the Father; shout to
God the Son; be glad and rejoice in God
the Holy Ghost, which Holy Trinity is One
God, from Whom thou hast received it that
? 'IS. Pet. i. 5. " Rom. ix. 6. " Ib. iii. 3.
10 Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. ix.
n Rup. '^ Dion.
13 Acts iv. 35. " Ib. xxi. 13. i^ Ib. v. 41.
18 Acts ix. 15. " Ib. V. 29. 18 S. Cyril. ¦» Rup.

288

ZEPHANIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 6.')(l.

15 The Lord hath
taken away thy judgments,
he hath cast out thine
Johni.49. enemy: "the king of

thou art 1) the daughter of Zion, 2) Israel, 3)
the daughter of Jerusalem ; the daughter of Zion
by faith, Isi-ael by hope, Jerusalem by charity."
And this hidden teaching of that holy rays
tery is continued ; ' The Lord, God the Fa
ther, hath taken away thy judgments ; He God
the Son, hath east out {cleared quite away) thine
enemy ; the king of Israel, the Lord, the Holy
Ghost, is in the midst of thee ! The promise is
threefold, 1) thou slialt not see evil any more; 2)
fear thou not; 3) let not thine hands be slack.
The love of Goil is threefold. 1) He will re
joice over thee with joy ; 2) He will rest in His
love; 3) He will joy over thee with singing.
Again the words in these four verses are so
framed as to heful-filled in the end. All in
this life are but shadows of that fullness.
First, whether the Church or the faithful
soul, she is sumraoned by all her names,
daughter of Zion ("the thirsty" athirst for
(jod) Israel ("Prince with God") Jei"usalem
(" City of Peace "). By all she is called to
the fullest joy in God with every expression
and every feeling. Sing; itis the inarticu
late, thrilling, trembling burst of joy ; shout;
again the inarticulate yet louder swell of joy,
a trumpet-blast ; and then too, deep within,
be glad, the calm even joy of the inward soul ;
exult, the triumph of the soul which cannot
contain itself for joy ; and this, with the whole
heart, no corner of it not pervaded with joy.
The ground of this is the complete removal
of every evil, and the full Presence of God.
15. 'The Lord hath taken away thy judgments ;
her own, because brought upon her by her
sins. But when God takes away the chas
tisements in mercy, He removes and forgives
the sin too. Else, to remove the judgments
only, would be to abandon the sinner. He
hath cast ou', lit. cleared quite away '', as a man
clears away all hindrances, all which stands
in the way, so that there should be none
whatever left — thine enemy ; the one enemy,
from whora every hindr.ance to our salvation
coraes, as He saith, ^ Now shall the prince of
this world be cast out. The King of Israel, even
the Lord, Christ the Lord, is in the midst of
thee, of Whora it is said, * He that sitteth on
the throne shall dwell among ihem, and Who
Himself saith, ^ Lo I am with you always unto
the end of the world. " Where two or three are
gathered together in My Name, there am I

1 V. 15.
2 Beside this place, the word is used of " the
clearing of a house," Gen. xxiv. 31, Lev. xiv. 36;
"a way," Is. xl. 3, Ivii. 14, Ixii. 10; Mah iii. 1;
" clearing ground," Ps. ixxx. 10.

Israel, even the Lord, "is ^ h rTs t
in the midst of thee : "Ji-- ^o^
thou shalt not see evil any Ezek.' 48.' 35.
Rev. 7. 15.
more. & 21. 3, 4.

in the midst of you. He Who had removed
from ihe midst of her the proud. Who had
left in the midst of her those with whom
He dwelleth, shall Himself dwell in the midst
of her in mercy, as He had before in judg
ment'. He cleanseth the soul for His in
dwelling, and so dwelleth in the mansion
which He had prepared for Hiraself. Thou
shalt not see evil any more. For even the re
mains of evil, while we are yet in the flesh,
are overruled, and ^work together io good to
ihose who love God. They cannot separate be
tween the soul and Christ. Eather, He is
nearer to her in them. We are bidden to
"count it all joy when we fall into divers
temptations, for all sorrows are but medicine
from a father's hand. " '" And truly our way
to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ,
and our door to enter into eternal life
is gladly to die with Christ, that we
raay rise again from death and dwell
with Him in everlasting life." So in the
Eevelation, it is first said that God should
dwell with His people, and then that all pain
shall cease. " Behold the tabernaele of God is
with men, and He will dwell wiih them and be
their God. And God shall wipe all tears from
their eyes ; and there shall be na more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be
any more pain ; for the former things are passed
away. " '^ In the inmost meaning of the words,
he could not but bid her rejoice and be ex
ceeding glad and rejoice with her whole
heart, her sins being done away through
Christ. For the holy and spiritual Zion, the
Church, the raultitude of believers, is justi
fied in Clirist Alone, and we are saved by
Him and from Him, escaping the harms of
our invisible enemies, and having in the
raidst of us the King and God of all, Who
appeared in our likeness, the Word from
God the Father, through Whom we see not
evil, i. e. are freed from all who could do us
evil. For He is the worker of our accept-
ableness, our peace, our wall, the bestower of
incorruption, the dispenser of. crowns. Who
lighteneth the assaults of devils, Who giveth
us to '¦' tread on serpents and scorpions a'nd all
ilie power of the enemy — through Whom we
are in good hope of imraortality and life,
adoption and glory, through Whom we shall
not see evil any more."

8 8. John xii. 31.
6 8. Matt, xxviii. 20.

* Rev. vii. 15.
« Ib. xviii. 20.
' Verses 11, 12, 15, 5. » Rom. viii. 28.
» S. James i. 2. 10 Exhort, in Visit, of the sick.
n Rev. xxi. 3, 4. 12 S. Cyril. " S. Luke x. 19.

CHAPTEE IIL

289

c H eTs t 1^ ^° *^^* ^^y ° ^* ^^^^^
eir. 630. 'he said to Jerusalem, Fear

» Is. 35. 3, 4.
i Heb. 12. 12.
B 0r,/ainl

thou not : and to Zion,
''Let not thine hands be
II slack. 17 The Lord thy God

16. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem,
Fear thou 'not ; for ' perfect love casteth out
fear ; whence he saith, '^ Fear not, little flock ;
it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Who then and what should the
Church or the faithful soul fear, since might
ier is He that is in her, than he that is in the
world ? And to Zion, Let not thine hands be
slack, through faint-heartedness', but work
with all thy might ; be ready to do or bear
anything ; since Christ worketh wdth, in, by
thee, and * in due time we shall reap, if we faint
not. 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is
' ' I ; He will save. What can He then not

do for thee, since He is Almighty? What
wUl He not do for thee, since He will save?
Whom then should we fear? " If Ood be for
vs, who can be against us f But then was He
especially in the midst of us, when God " the
Word became fiesh and dwell among us ; and we
beheld His Olory, ihe Glory as of the Only-
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth.
Thenceforth He ever is in the midst of His
own. He with the Father and the Holy
Spirit ' come unio them and make Their abode
with them, so that they are the temple of God.
He 'will save, as He saith, ^ My Father is
greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand. I and My
Father are One. Of the same time of the
Christ, Isaiah saith almost in the same
words ; ^Strengthen ye ihe weak hands and con
firm the feeble knees, Say to them that are of a
feeble heart. Be 4rong, fear not, behold your God
will come, He wul come a'nd save you ; and of
the Holy Trinity, '" He vrill save us.
He wUl rejoice over thee witli joy. Love, joy,
peace in man are shadows of that which is
in God, by Whom they are created in man.
Only in God they exist undivided, uncreated.
Hence God speaks after the manner of raen,
of that which truly is in God. God joyeth
" with an uncreated joy " over the works of
His Hands or the objects of His Love, as
raan joyeth over the object of his love. So
Isaiah saith ", As ihe bridegroom rejoiceth over
tlie bnde, so shaU thy God rejoice aver thee. As
with uncreated love the Father resteth in
good pleasure in His Well-beloved Son, so

1 S. John iv. 18.
8 See Heb. xii. 12.
6 Rom. viii. 31.
' Ib. xiv. 23.
^ Is. xxxv. 3, 4.
19

2 S. Luke xii. 32.
* Gal. vi. 9.
«S. Johni. 14.
8 Ib. X. 29, 30.
i» Ib. xxxiii. 22.

¦^in the midst of thee is chrTst
mighty ; he will save, ' he '^'i'- ^^o.
will rejoice over thee with°jer.i5.
¦' . 'Deut. 30. 9.
ioy; the will rest in his isai.62. 5.
•'•''' . . & 65. 10.
love, he will jov over thee Jer. 32. 41.
' ¦* •' tHeb. Aeicffl he
With smgmg. sHent.

" Ood is well-pleased mth ihe sacrifices of loving
deeds, and, '" the Lord delighteth in thee ; and,
'* I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My peo
ple ; and, '" the Lord will again rejoice over thee
for good. And so in a two-fold way God
meeteth the longing of the heart of man.
The soul, until it hath found God, is ever
more seeking some love to fill it, and can
find none, since the love of God Alone can
content it. Then too it longeth to be loved,
even as it loveth. God tells it, that every
feeling and expression of human love may
be found in Him, Whom if any love, he only
'" loveth Him, because He first loved us. Every
inward and outward expression or token of
love are heaped together, to express the love
of Him Who broodeth and as it were
yearneth over (it is twice repeated) His own
whom He loveth. Then too He loveth thee
as He biddeth thee to love Him ; and since
the love of man cannot be like the love of
the Infinite God, He here pictures His own
love in the words of man's love, to convey to
his soul the oneness wdierewith love unites
her unto God. He here echoes in a raanner
the joy of the Church, to which He had
called her ", in words the self-same or mean
ing the same. We have joy here for joy
there ; singing or the unuttered unutterable
jubilee of the heart, which cannot utter in
words its joy and love, and joys and loves the
more in its inmost depths because it cannot
utter it. A shadow of the unutterable, be
cause Infinite Love of God, and this repeated
thrice ; as being the eternal love of the Ever-
blessed Trinity. This love and joy the Pro
phet speaks of, as an exuberant joy, one
which boundeth within the inmost self, and
again is wholly silent in His love, as the
deepest, tenderest, most yearning love broods
over the object of its love, yet is held still in
silence by the very depth of its love ; and
then, again, breaks forth in outward motion,
and leaps for joy, and uttereth what it can
not form in words ; for truly the love of God
in its unspeakable love and joy is past be
lief, past utterance, past thought. " '^ Truly
that joy wherewith He will be silent in His
love, that exultation wherewith He will joy
over thee ¦with singing, '" Eye hath not seen nor

n Ib. Ixii. 5.
13 Is. Ixii. 4.
15 Deut. xxx. 9.
1' Verse 14.
18 Rup.

12 Heb. xiii. 16.
i*Ib. Ixv. 19.
18 1 S. John iv. 19.
I'lCor. ii. 9.

290

ZEPHANIAH.

chrTst ^^ ^ ^'^^^ gather them
cir. 630. ffi^fjf^ Bare sorrowful for the
cLam. 2. 6. solemn assembly, ivho are
t Heb. ifte 6iir- of thee, to lohom f the re-
den upon it , o ' , 11
was reproach, proach 01 it luas a burden.
19 Behold, at that time
I will undo all that afflict

car heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of
man." The Hebrew word ' also contains the
meaning, " He in His love shall make no
mention of past sins ^, He shall not bring
them up against thee, shall not upbraid thee,
yea, shall not remember them." It also may
express the still, unvarying love of the Un
changeable God. And again how the very
silence of God, when He seeraeth not to hear,
as He did not seem to hear S. Paul, is a very
fruit of His love. Yet that entire forgiveness
of sins, and that seeming absence are but
ways of shewing His love. Hence God
speaks of His very love itself, He will be silent
in His love, as, before and after. He will rejoice,
He will joy over thee.
18-21. In these verses still continuing the
number " three," the prophecy closes with
the final reversal of all which, in this imper
fect state of things, seems turned upside
down, when those who now mourn shall be
comforted, they who now bear reproach and
shame shall have glory, and those who now
afliict the people of God shall be undone.
18. / will gather them that are sorrowful ^
for * the solemn assembly, in which they were
to rejoice" before God and which in their
captivity God made to cease ". They were of
thee, the true Israel who were ' grieved for the
afflietion of Joseph ; to whom the reproach of it
was a burden [rather ", on whom reproach was
laidj : for this reproach of Christ is greater
riches than ihe treasures of Egypt, and such
shall inherit the blessing, "Blessed are ye,
when men shall hate you, and when they shall
'\0'^T\\2 Jer. xxxi. 34, xxxiii. 8, Mic. vii. 18.
3 This is Ihe common meaning of the root nj\
though not so frequent in the verb as in nouns, and
5 out of the 8 cases are in Lam. i. 4 (where the same
form nlJU, Nif occurs), 12. iii. 32, .3.3, the remain
ing being, this place, Job xix. 2, Is. li. 23. The
other sense " removed " (even if n JH 2 Sam. xx. 13,
implies a ^Q in this sense) comes to the same gen
eral meaning, though with less force. 'The Arab
'JI, iv. is wrongly applied (e. g. Ges. Thes. p. 564) as
" procul a se removit." tt is simply " abstained
from it," " refused one's self."
* [0 is used of the ultimate cause. (See Ges.
Thes. s. V. 2) b. p. 802.
&Lev. xxiii. 40. Deut. xii. 12, 18. xvi. 11, xxvii. 7.
6 Lam. i. 4. ii. 6. 'Amos vi. 6.
3 As in Ps. XT. 3, '¦\¦2'^¦^ ^^ mi s'? Hmni, the
construction being like 1J0D D'JB "inOO, Is.
Iiii. 3. 9 S. Luke vi. 22, 23.

thee : and I will save her ^ ^ ^"/s t
that "halteth, and gather '>''•'¦ eao-

her that was driven out;i>Ezek. 34. le.
and 1 1 will get them praise f Heb. i totii ^«
1 jy • 11 them for a
and lame m every land praise,
t where they have hee'a.^jieb. of their
put to shame.

shame.

separate you from their company, and shall re
proach you and cast out your name as evil, for
the Son of Man's sake ; rejoice ye in that day,
and leap for joy; for, behold your reward is
great in heaven.
19. Behold, at that time I will undo [lit. I
deed with "]. While God punisheth not. He
seemeth to sit still ", be silent '^, asleep '*
Then He shall act, He shall deal according
to their deserts with all, evil men or devils,
that afflict thee. His Church. The prophecy
looked for a larger fulfillment than the de
struction of Jerusalem, since the Eomans
who, in God's Hands, avenged the blood of
His Saints, themselves were among those
who afflieted her. Ancl will save her, the flock
or sheep that halteth '*, " '° imperfect in virtue
and with trembling faith," and gather, like a
good and tender shepherd '", her that ivas driven
out ; scattered and dispersed through perse
cutions. All infirmities within shall be
healed ; all troubles without, removed.
And I will get them praise and fame [lit. I
will make them a praise and a name'\ in every
land wliere they have been put to shame '^.
Throughout the whole world have they been
'"the offscourings of all things; throughout the
whole world should their praise be, as it is
said, '" Thou shalt make them princes in aU, lands.
One of themselves saith ™ Ye see your calling,
brethren, how thai not many wise mere after ihe
fiesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound ihe wise ; and Ood hath chosen the weak
things of tlie world to confound the things which are
10 as Ru. ii. 19. in a good sense ; Ez. vii. 27. xvii. 17,
xxiii. 25,'in a bad; Tj-llN DDIX, iniS, being prob
ably for DflX &o. 11 Is. xviii. 4.
12 Hab. i. 1,3. 13 Ps. xliv. 23.
" See Micah iv. 6, 7. 16 Dion.
issee Is. xl. 11.
" The article is inserted in a way very unusual
and probably emphatic. Without it the words
would mean, as in the E. V. " in every land of their
shame." But it makes the meaning of the first
words, •j''1Xn hjX complete in itself; and they
me-cm, in the whole earth. 0r\W2 then is probably
in apposition, in the whole earth, their shame, i. e. the
scene of their shame; comp. the construction
^'^3^ niXn Jos. m. U. n and those Deut. viii-
15. IKgsiv. 13; and "Daniel the Prophet" P-*78.
In the next verse, 'I'lNn is undoubtedly "the
earth." ' » 1 Cor. iv. 13.
19 Ps. xiv. 16. 20 1 Cor. i. 26-28.

CHAPTEE III.

291

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.
Isai. 11. 12.
& 27. 12.
& 56. 8.
Ezek. 28. 26.
& 34. 13. & 37. 21. Amos 9. 14.

20 At that time ' will I
bring you again, even in
the time that I gather you :
for I will make you a name

mighty ; a'nd base things of this world, and things
which are despised, hath Ood cliosen, yea, and
things which are not, to bring io naught things
that are. " ' These He maketh a praise and a
name there,where they were without name and
dispraised, confounding by them and bringing
to nought those wise and strong and mighty,
in whose sight they were contemptible."
20. At that time will I bring you in i. e. into
the one fold, the one Church, the one House-
hole^of Ood, even in the time that I gather you.
" That time " is the whole time of the Gos
pel; the one day of salvation, in which all
who shall ever be gathered, shall be brought
into the new Jerusalem. These words were
fulfllled, when, at our Lord's first Coming,
the remnant, the true Israel, those ordained
to eternal life were brought in. It shall be
fulfilled again, when " the fullness of the
Gentiles shall be come in, and so all Israel
shall be saved '^" It shall most perfectly be
falfilled at the end, when there shall be no
going out of those once brought in, and those
who have gathered others into the Church,
shall be a name and a praise among all people
of the earth, those whom God hath " redeemed
out of every tribe and tongue and people and
nation, shining like stars for ever and ever.

iRup.

2 Rom. xi. 25, 26.

and a praise among all peo
ple of the earth, when I turn .
back your captivity before
your eyes, saith the Lord.

Before
CHRIST cir. 630.

When I turn back your captivity : " ' that
conversion, then begun, now perfected, when
the dead shall rise and they shall be placed
on the right hand, soon to receive the king
dom prepared for thera from the foundation
of the world. O mighty spectacle of the
reversed captivity of those once captives ;
mighty wonder at their present blessedness,
as they review the misery of their past
captivity ! " Before your eyes, so that we
shall see what we now believe and hope for,
the end of all our sufferings, chastiseraents,
losses, achings of the heart, the fullness of our
Eedemption. That which our eyes have
looked for, our eyes shall behold and not
another, the overliving God as HE IS, face to
Face ; saith the Lord, Who is the Truth
Itself, all Whose words will be fulfilled.
^Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My
Words shall not pass away, saith Pie Who is
God blessed for ever. And so the Prophet
closes in the thought of Plim, Whose Name is
I AM, the Unchangeable, the everlasting
Eest and Centre of those who, having been
once captives and halting and scattered
araong the vanities of the world, turn to
Hira, to Whom be glory and thanksgiving
for ever and ever. Amen.

3 Rev. v. 9.

» S. Mark xiii. 31.

THE MOABITE STONE. See pp. 283, 264.

I Mesha, son of Chemosh-gad, king of Moab
the Dibonlte. My father reigned over Moab
thirty years, and I reigned after my father ;
and I made this shrine to Chemosh in Kor-
ohoh, a shr[ine of delilverance, because he
saved rae from all [ i] and because he let
me look upon all who hate me, Om[r]i king of
Israel ; and he afflicted- Moab many days, for
Chemosh was wroth with his la[n]d; and his
sou succeeded him, and he too said, I will af
flict Moab. In my days said [Chemosti'], and
I will look upon him and upon his house, and
Israel perisheth with an everlasting destruc
tion. And Omri took possession of the land
of Moh-deba and there dwelt in it p Israel in
llis days and in] the days of his son, forty
years ; [and looked] on it Chemosh in my days,
and I built Baal-Meon and I made in it the
ditch [?] and I [built] Kiriathan. And the
men of Gad dwelt in the land of [Atar]oth
from time immemorial, aud the kin[g of I]srael
¦The stone has pbtSTI, whose meaning is con
jectural. Noldeke conjectures J j'7nn " the kings."

built for him Arta]roth and I warred against
the city ; and I took it and I slew all the
rai[ghty men] of the city, for the well-pleas
ing of Chemosh and Moab ; and I took captive
thence the [ ] and [drjagged it [or them]
before Chemosh in Kiriath and I made to
^well in it the men of Siran. and the men of
TNIacharath. And Chemosh said to me, Go
take Nebo against Israel [and I] went by
night and I fought against it from the
break of the morning to midday and I took
it, and I slew the whole of it, seven thous
and; [ 1 the honorable
woraen [and maijdens, for to Ashtar Chemosh
[I] dedicated [them] and I took thence [vesjsels
of Yhvh an4 I dragged them before Chemosh.
And the king of Israel bull[t] Yahats, and
dwelt ill it when he warred with me; and
Chemosh drove him from [my] f[ace and] I
took of Moab 200 men, all its chiefs and I took
them against Yahats and took it to add to
2 Schlottman's conjecture. Likely conjectures I
have put in [ ]; mere guess-work I have omitted.

292

ZEPHANIAH.

Dibon. I built Korchoh the wall of the forest,
and the wall of Ophel i and I built the gates
thereof, and I built the towers thereof, and I
built the king's house, and I made prisons for
the gui[lt]y in the mi[dst] of the city; and
there was no cistern within the city, in
Korchoh, and I said to all the people, make
yourselves every man a cistern in his house,
and I cut the cutting for Korchoh by ni[en
] of Israel. I built [Ajroer and I
miade the high road^ at the Arnon. I built
1 73J?n DDin oocurs of Jerusalem, Neh. iii. 27.

Beth-Bamoth, for it was destroyed. I built
Bezer, for [it was] forsa[ken]
me[n] of Dibon flfty ; for all Dibon
was obedience, and I reig[ned] from Blkran
which I added to the land and I bull[t]  and
Beth Diblathan and Beth-Baal-Meon and 1
took there the — of the land and Horonan
dwelt in it  [and] Che
mosh said to me, Go flght against Horonan
and X it— Chemosh in my days and
ou [I] made
" nSODH lit. " the way cast up " cannot possibly
be a way over the river.

mTEODTJOTIOIT

THE PROPHET

HAGGAI

Haggai * is the eldest of the three-fold
hand, to whom, after the Captivity, the word
of God came, and hy whom He consecrated
the beginnings of this new condition of the
chosen people. He gave thera these pro
phets, connecting their spiritual state after
' their return with that before the Captivity,
not leaving them wholly desolate, nor Him
self without witness. He withdrew them
about 100 years after, but sorae 420 years
before Christ carae, leaving His people to
long the more for Him, of Whom all the
prophets spake. Haggai hiraself seems to
have almost finished "his earthly course,
before he was called to be a prophet ; and in
four months his office was closed. He speaks
as one who had seen the first house in its
glory ', and so was probably among the very
aged men, who were the links between the
first and the last, and who laid the founda
tion of .the house in teara". After the first
two months ^ of his oifice, Zechariah, in early
youth, was raised up to carry on his message ;
yet after one brief prophecy was again silent,
until the aged prophet had ended the words
whioh God gave him. Yet in this brief
"His name is explained by S. .lerome "festive."
But although there are Prop. Names with ai which
are Adjectives, as '•^113, 'E/ty (Ezr. ix. 40. 'dSh
and ¦'K/K' are foreign names) "tit'p', the termina
tion ai is more frequently an abVireviation of the
Name of God, which enters so largely into Hebrew
names, as indeed we have H^jn 1 Chr. vi 15. And
this occurs not only, when the first part of the word
is a verb, "apHN, ''^n:., 'DH", 'iT-' '^¦J'-i'-' '-"?^
'"IOE;', ¦'Ty, '•'inX''., (as Kohler observes p. 2.)
but when it is a noun, as 'jriO, ¦''in, 'ODJ?, 'd'??'.
'riby, (coll. n'jfiio, and -in'jra) ^mp'Ezx.'iv.

space he first stirred up the people in one
month to rebuild the temple ', prophesied of
its glory through the presence of Christ ', yet
taught that the presence of what was holy
sanctified not the unholy s, and closes in Him
Who, when Heaven and earth shall be
shaken, shall abide, and they whom God
hath chosen in Him ".
It has been the wont of critics, in whose
eyes the Prophets were but poets', to speak
of the style of Plaggai as " tame, destitute of
life and power," shewing "' a raarked decline
in" what they call "prophetic inspiration."
The style of the sacred writers is, of course,
conforraed to their mission. Prophetic
descriptions of the future are but incidental
to the mission of Haggai. Preachers do not
speak in poetrj', but set before the people
their faults or their duties in vivid earnest
language. Haggai sets before the people
vividly their negligence and its conse
quences ; he arrests their attention by his
concise questions ; at one tirae retorting their
excuses " ; at another asking thera abruptly,
in God's name, to say why their troubled
came '. Or he puts a, matter of the law to
'rhpS (1 Chr. xxvi. 5.) perhaps 'S}^W, '"lOp or
again '^r\«. ' "• 3- ° ^'"^ '''¦ '^¦
iThe prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah are
thus intertwined. Haggai prophesies in the 6th
and 7th months of the 2d year of Darius Hystaspis,
B. C. .520.) Hagg. i. 1. ii. 1) Zechariah first prophesies
in the Sth mohth (Zech. i. 1.). Haggai resumes at
the close of the 9th and there ends (ii. 10, 20). On
the same day in the 11th month, the series of
visions were given to Zechariah. (Zech. i. 7.)
• c i fii 1-9. 8lb. 12. tlb. 20-23.
1 Eichhorn, De Wette, Bertholdt, Gesenius (Gesh.
d. Hebr. 'Spr. p. 26.), Herzfeldt, (Gesch. d. Volkes
Israelii. 21) Stahelin. ,. „
j Dr. Davidson iii. 314. ' i. 4. ' i. 9.
293

294

INTEODUCTION TO

the priests, that they may draw the inference,
before he does it himself™. Or he asks
them, what human hope had they", before
he tells them of the Divine. Or he asks
them (what was in their heart), " Is not this
house poor ° ? " before he tells them of the
glory in store for it. At one time he uses
heaped and condensed antitheses p to set
before them one thought ; at another he
enumerates, one by one, how the visitation
of God fell upon all they had', so that there
seemed to be no end to it. At another, he
uses a conciseness, like S. John Baptist's cry,
Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at Imnd,
in his repeated ¦¦&< 2/our Aearf to your ways;
and then, with the same idiom, set your lieart '
viz. to God's ways, what He had done on dis
obedience, what He would do on obedience.
He bids thera work for God, and then he
expresses the acceptableness of that work to
God, in the three words, ' And-I-will-take-
pleasure in-it and-will-be-glorifled. AVhen
they set themselves to obey, he encouraged
them in the four words, " I with-you saith the-
Lord. This conciseness must have been still
more impressive in his words, as delivered ''.
We use raany words, hecause our words are
weak. Many of us can remember how the
House of Lords was hushed, so hear the few
low, but sententious words of the aged general
and statesman. But conceive the suggestive
eloquence of those words, as a whole sermon,
Set your-hea.rt on-yoar-ways.
Of distant prophecies there are but two ^,
so that the portion to fee corapared wdth the
former prophets consists but of at most 7
verses. In these the language used is
of the utmost simplicity. Haggai had but
one message as to the future to convey, and
he enforced it by the repeated use of the
sarae word '^, that teraporal things should be
shaken, the eternal should reraain, as S.
Paul suras it up ^. He, the lon,g-longed for,
the chosen of (jod, the signet on His Hand,
should corae ; God would fill that house, so
poor in their eyes, with glory, and there
would He give peace. H.aggai had an all-con
taining but very simple message to give from
God. Any ornament of diction would but
¦»have impaired and obscured its meaning.
The two or three slight idioms, noticed by
one after another, are, though slight, forcible '.
The office of Haggai was mainly to bring
about one definite end, which God, Who
raised him up and inspired him, accom-
"11.12.13. ¦¦ii. 19. «Ib. 3. Pi. 6. qi. 11.
¦¦ i. 5-7. • ii. 15-18. • i. 8. " i. 13.
' See on ii. 5, 9. » ii. 6-9, 21-23.
't5";?in, ii. 6, 22, 'n!y;>'ini ii-7.
y Heb. xii. 26.
•See on ii. 3, 6, 17. The junction of Bya firiN
ii, 6, is a mistake of the critics.
• Dan. ix. 20. i> 1 Chr. xxiv. 3-19.
• Ezr. ii. 36-39. 4 Ib. 40. » Ib ."iS
'lb. vii. 13-14. 8lb. viii. 15. tlb. 18, 19.
' Ib. 20. j See on Hos. ix. 17. vol. i. p. 97, 98.

plished by him. It is in the light of this
great accomplishraent of the work entrusted
to hira at the verge of man's earthly course,
that his power and energy are to be esti
mated. The words which are preserved in
his book are doubtless (as indeed was the
case as to most of the prophets) the represent
atives and erabodiraent of many like words,
by which, during his short office, he roused
the people from their dejection indifierence
and irreligious apathy, to the restoration of
the public worship of God in the essentials
of the preparatory dispensation.
Great lukewa,rmness had been shewn in
the return. The few looked mournfully to
the religious centre of Israel, the ruined
teraple, the cessation of the daily sacrifice,
and, like Daniel, "^ confessed their sin and the
sin of their people Israel, and -presented their
supplication befom the Lord their Gorl for the
holy mountain of their Ood. The most part
appear, as now, to have been taken up with
their material prosperity, and, at best, to
have become inured to the cessation of their
symbolical worship, connected, as it was,
with the declaration of the forgiveness of
their sins. Then too, God connected His
declaration of pardon with certain outward
acts : they became indiflferent to the cessation
of those acts. For few returned. The indif
ference was even reraarkable araong those,
raost connected with the altar. Of the 24
" orders of priests, i only, 4 orders " returned ;
of the Levites only 74 individuals '' ; while
of those assigned to help them, the Nethinim
and the children of Solomon's servants, there
were 392". This coldness continued at the
return of Ezra. The edict of Artaxerxes',
as suggested by Ezra, was more pious than
those appointed to the service of God. In
the first instance no Levite answered to the
invitation « ; on the special urgency and mes
sage of Ezra, '' by the good hand of Ood upon
us they brought -us a man of understanding, of
the sons of Levi ; some 3 or 4 chief Levites ;
their sons and brethren ; in all, 38 ; but of
the Nethinim, nearly six tiraes as 'many,
220 '. Those who thought more of temporal
prosperity than of their high spiritual nobil
ity and destination, had flourished doubtless
in that exile as they have in their present
homelessness, as ' wanderers among tlie 'nations.
Haman calculated apparently on being able
to pay out of their spoils ten thousand talents
of silver", some £300,000,000, two-thirds of
' Esther iii. 9. Ahasuerus apparently, in acced
ing to Haman's proposal, made over to him the
lives and property of the Jews. The silver is given
unto thee, the people also, to do with them as it seem
eth good to thee, (lb. 11.) The Jews' property, was
confiscated with their lives. On the contrary, it
was noticed, that the Jews, when permitted to
defend their lives, did not tay their hands on the prey,
whieh, by the king's decree, was granted to them,
with authority to take the lives of those who stouW
assault them. Esth. viii. 11. ix. 10, 15, 16.

HAGGAI.

295

the annual revenue of the Persian Empire '
into the king's treasuries.
The numbers who had returned with Zer
ubbabel had been (as had been foretold
of all restorations) a remnant only. There
were 42,360 free men, wdth 7337 male or
female slaves'". The whole population
which returned was not above 212,000, free
men and women and children. The propor
tion of slaves is about ^^, since in their case
adults of both sexes were counted. The
enumeration is minute, giving the number
of their horses, mules, camels, asses ". The
chief of the fathers however were not poor,
since (though unspeakably short of the
wealth, won by David and consecrated to the
future temple) they ° offered freely for the house
of Ood, to set it up in its place, a sura about
£117,100 P of our money. They had, beside,
a grant from Cyrus, whic|^ he intended to
cover the expenses of the building, the
height and breadth whereof were determined
by royal edict i.
The monarch, however, of an Eastern
empire had, in proportion to its size, little
power over his subordinates or the governors
of the provinces, except by their recall or
execution, when their oppressions or pecula
tions notably exceeded bounds. The re
turned colony, from the first, were in fear of
the nations, the peoples of ihose countries', their
old enemies probably ; and the first service, the
altar to offer burnt-offerings thereon, was probably
a service of fear rather than of love, as it is
said, ' they set up the altar upon its bases ; for it
was in fear upon tliem from the peoples of ilie
lands, a'nd they offered burnt-off'erings thereon
unto the Lord. They hoped apparently to
win the favor of God, that He might, as of
old, protect them against their enemies.
However, the work was carried on " according
to the grant that they Iwd of Cyrus king of
Persia; and the foundations of the temple
were laid amidst mi.xed joy at the carrying
on of the work thus far, and sorrow at its
poverty, compared to the first temple '. The
hostility of the Samaritans discouraged them.
Mixed as the religion of the Samaritans was,
— ^its better element being the corrupt re
ligion of the ten tribes, its worse the idola
tries of the various nations, brought thither
in the reign of Esarhaddon, — the returned
Jews could not accept their offer to join in
their worship, without the certainty of ad
mitting, with them, the idolatries, for which
they had been punished so severely. For
' 14,560 silver talents. Herod, iii. 95.
¦"Ezra ii. 64, 05, Neh. vii. 66, 67. In the time of
Augustus, it was no uncommon thing for a person
to have 200 slaves (Hor. Sat. i. 9. 11) it ia said that
very many Romans possessed 10000 or 20000 slaves.
Atheneeus vi, p. 272.
¦¦736 horses, 246 mules, 435 camels, 6720 asses.
Ezra ii. 66, 67, Neh. vii. 68, 69.
» Ezr. ii. 68, 69.
P The golden dario being estimated at f 1 2s., the

the Samaritans pleaded the identity of the
two religions. "Let us build with you, for
we serve your God, as ye do ; and we do sacri
fice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon
which brought us up hither. But in fact this
mixed worship, in which " they feared the Lord
ancl served their own gods, came to this, that
^ they feared -not the Lord, 'neither did they after
ihe law and commandment which the Lord com
manded the children of Jaeob. For God claims
the undivided allegiance of His creatures;
these "feared the Lend, and served tlieir graven
images, both their children and their children's
children: as did their fathers, so do they io this
day. But this worship included sorae of the
most cruel abominations of heathendom, the
sacrifice of their children to their gods^.
The Samaritans, thus rejected, first them
selves hara.ssed the Jews in building, ap
parently by petty violence, as they did after
ward in the rebuilding of the walls by Nehe
miah. " Tlie people of the land weakened the
hands of the people of Judah, and wore them out '
in building. This failing, they '' hired counsel
lors (doubtless at the Persian court), to frus
trate iheir purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of
Persia, untd the reign of Darius king of Persia.
The object of the intrigues Avas probably to
intercept the supplies, which Cyrus had en
gaged to bestow, which could readily be
efiected in an Eastern Court without any
change of purpose or any cognizance of Cyrus.
In the next reign of Ahashverosh (i. e.
Khshwershe, a title of honor of Cambyses)
" they wrote accusations against the Jews,
seemingly without any further effect, since
none is mentioned. Perhaps Cambyses, in
his expedition to Egypt, knew raore of the
Jews, than the Samaritans thought, or he
may have shrunk from changing his father's
decree, contrary to the fundaraental prin
ciples of Persism, not to alter any decree,
which the sovereign (acting, as he was as
sumed to do, under the infiuence of Orrauzd)
had written ". Pseudo-Sraerdis (who doubt
less took the title of honor, Artachshatr)
may, as an impostor, have well been ignorant
of Cyrus' decree, to which no allusion is
made *. Frora hira the Samaritans, through
Rehum the chancellor, obtained a decree
prohibiting, until further notice, the rebuild
ing of the city. The accusers had overreached
themselves ; for the ground of their accusa
tion was, the former rebellions of the city " ;
the prohibition accordingly extended only to
the city % not to the temple. However, hav-
61,000 darics would be £67,100; the "maneh" being
100 shekels, and the shekel about 2s., the 600O
maneh of silver would be about £50,000.
9 Ezr. iv. 3. ' Ib. iii. 3. • Ezr. iii. 7. ' Ib. 11-13.
"Ib. iv. 2. '2 Kgs xvii. 33. '1^34.
'Ib. 41. Jib. 31. 'n'73 Cheth.
•Ezr. iv. 4. i>Ib. 5. ' 'lb. 6.
•See Daniel the prophet pp. 44.'i^l47.
» Ezr. iv. 7, sqq. « lb. 12, 13, 15, 16. « Ib. 19. 21.

296

INTEODUCTION TO

ing obtained the decree, they were not scru
pulous about its application, and made the
Jews to cease " by arm and power, the governor
of the Jews being apparently unable, the
governor of the cis-Euphratensian provinces
being unwilling, to help. As this, however,
was, iu fact, a perversion of the decree, the
Jews were left free to build, and in the second
year of Darius Hystaspis, 'Haggai, and then
Zechariah, prophesied in the name of tlie Ood of
Israel to Zerubbabel, the native Governor,
and Joshua the high-priest, and the Jews in
Judah and Jerusalem; and they began to build
the house of God in Jerusalem. Force was no
longer used. Those engaged in building ap
pealed to the edict of Cyrus ; the edict was
found at Ecbatana «, and the supplies which
Cyrus had proraised, were again ordered.
The difficulty was at the coramenceraent.
The people had been cowed perhaps at first
by the violence of Eehum and his compan
ions ; but they had acquiesced readily in the
illegal prohibition, and had '^ run each to his
own house, some of them to their 'ceiled houses.
All, employers or employed, were busy on
their husbandry. But nothing flourished.
The laborers' wages disappeared, as soon as
gained!. East and West wind alike brought
disease to their corn ; both, as threatened
upon disobedience in the law". The East
wind scorched and dried it up ' ; the warm
West wind turned the ears yellow "^ and bar
ren ; the hail smote the vines, so that when
the unfilled and mutilated clusters were
pressed out, two-fifths only of the hoped-
for produce was yielded ; of the corn, only
one half".
In the midst of this, God raised up an
earnest preacher of repentance. Haggai was
taught, not to promise anything at the first,
but to set before them, what they had been
doing, what was its result. °He sets it be
fore them in detail ; tells them that God had
so ordered it for their neglect of His service,
and bids thera araend. He bids them quit
their wonted ways ; go up into the mountain;
bring wood; build the liouse. Conceive in
Christian England, after some potato-disease,
or foot-and-mouth-disease (in Scripture lan
guage "a murrain among the cattle"), a
preacher arising and bidding them, consider
your ways, and as the remedy, not to look to
any human means, but to do soraething,
which should please Almighty God ; and not
preaching only but effecting what he

« Ezra iv. 23.

fib. V. 1, 2

8 Ib. vi. 2.

t Hagg. i. 9. 1 lb. 4

i Ib. 6.

!¦ Deut. xxviii. 22

> ]li3'l!!; comp. cnp mant^ Gen. xii. 6, 23, 27.
»ti pT^ Forskal (in Niebuhr, Beschreibung y.
Arabien, Pref. p. xiv.) took down from the mouth
of " Muri, a Jew of Mecca, that, in the month
Marehesvan, a warm wind sometimes blew, whicli
turned the ears yellow and they yielded no grain ;

preached. Yet such was Haggai. He stood
among his people, his existence a witness of
the truth of what he said ; himself one, who
had lived among the outward splendors of
the former temple ; a contemporary of those,
who said f the temple of ihe Lord, the temple of
the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these ; who
had held it to be impossible that Judah
should be carried captive ; who had prophe
sied the restoration of the vessels of Godi,
which had been carried away, not, as God
foretold, after the captivity, but as an earnest
that the fuller captivity should not be'; yet
who had himself, according to the prophecies
of the prophets of those days, been carried
into captivity, and was now a part of that
restoration which God had promised. He
stood among them " in gray-haired might,"
bade them do, what he bade them, in the
name of God, to (Jo ; and they did it. When
t'ney had set about the work, he assured
them of the presence of God with them '. A
month later, when they were seemingly dis
couraged at its poorness, he promised them
in God's name, that its glory should he
greater than that of Solomon's '. Three
days after, in contrast with the visitations
up to that time, while there was as yet
no token of any change, he promised them
in the name of God, " From this day will I
bless you.
He himself apparently saw only the com
mencement of the work ; for his prophecies
lay within the second year of Darius and the
temple was not completed till the sixths
Even the favorable rescript of Darius must
have arrived after his last prophecy, since
it was elicited by the enquiry of the gov
ernor, consequent upon the commenced re
building ¦", three months only before his
office closed ".
While this restoration of the public wor
ship of God in its intregrity was his main
office, yet he also taught by pai-able ' that
the presence of what was outwardly holy did
not, in itself, hallow those, among whom it
was; but was itself unhallowed by inward
unholiness. Standing too amid the small handful of
returned exiles, not, altogether, more than
the inhabitants of Sheffield, he foretold, in
siraple all-comprehending words, that central
gift of the Gospel, ^ In this place will I give
peace, saith ihe Lord. So had David, the sons
of Korah, Micah, Isaiah, Ezekiel prophe-
it was an unsteady wind, but spoils all it touches."
"M. Forskal remarks that the fields, near the canal
of Alexandria, are sown in October and reaped in
Feb." Id. In Arabic the disease is called jXpl^.
Ges. Thes. ¦¦ Hagg. ii. 16.
» lb. 5-11. P Jer. vii. 4.
1 1b. xxvii. 16, xxviii. 3. ' Ib. xxviii. 2.
• Hagg. i. 13. < Ib. ii. 3-9. » ii- 19.
" Ezr. vi. 16. " Ib. V. 3. sqq.
» Hagg. i. 15. li. 10, 20. lU. 10-15. »ii.9.

HAGGAL

297

sied*; but the peace was to come, not then,
but in the days of the Messiah. Other times
tad come, in which the false prophets had
^id ", Peace, peace, when there was no peace ;
when God had taken away His peace from
'this people. And now, when the chastise
ments were fulfilled, when the land lay
desolate, when every house of Jerusalem lay
burned with fire *, and the " blackness of
ashes " alone " marked where they stood ; "
when the walls were broken down so that,
eren when leave was given to rebuild them,
it seemed to their enemies a vain labor to
"reiriDe the stones out of ihe heaps of rubbish
wkich were burned; when ''the place of iheir
jutlier^ sepulchres lay waste, and the gates there
of were consumed with flre ; when, for their
sakes, Zion was ^ploughed as a field and Jeru-
scdem was become heaps — let any one picture to
himself the silver-haired prophet standing,
at first, alone, rebuking the people, first
through their governor and the high-priest,
then the collected multitude, in words, force
ful from their simplicity, and obeyed ! And
theu let them think whether anything of
human or even Divine eloquence was lack
ing, when the words flew straight like arrows
to the heart, and roused the people to do at
once, amid every obstacle, amid every down-
heartedness or outward poverty, that for
which God sent them. The outward orna
ment of words would have been misplaced,
when the object was to bid a downhearted
people, in the Name of God, to do a definite
work. Haggai sets before his people cause
and effect ; that they denied to God what was
•Ps. Ixxii. 3-7, Ixxxv. 8, 10. Mic. v. 5. Is. ix. 6, 7.
xxvi. 12. xxxii. 17. Iii. 7. Iiii. 6. liv. 10, 13. Ivii. 19.
Ix. 17. Ixvi. 12. Ezek. xxxiv. 25. xxxvii. 26.

His, and that God denied to them what was
His to give or to withhold. His sermon was,
in His words Whom he foretold ; Seek ye flrst
the kingdom of Ood and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto ycru.
He spake in the name of God, and was
obeyed. """The Holy Ghost, Who spake by the
mouth of the prophets, willed that he by a
foreboding name should be called Haggai,
i. e. ' festive,' according to the subject where
of He should speak by his mouth. Yet was
there not another festiveness in the prophet's
heart, than the joy which he had or could
have with the people, from the rebuilding of
that temple made with hands, again to he
defiled and burned with fire irrecoverably?
Be it that the rebuilding of that temple,
wdiich he saw before him, was a matter of
great festive joy ; yet not in or for itself, but
fbr Him, the festive joy of saints and angels
and raen, Christ ; because when the temple
should be rebuilt, the walls also of the city
should be rebuilt and the city again inhab
ited and the people be united in one, of whom
Christ should be born, fulfilling the truth of
the promise made to Abraham and David
and confirmed by an oath. So then we, by
aid of the Holy Spirit, so enter upon what
Haggai here speaketh, as not doubting that
he altogether aimeth at Christ. And so
may we in sorae sort be called or be Hag-
gais, i. e. ' festive,' by contemplating that
same, which because he should contem
plate, he was, hy a Divine foreboding, called
Haggai.". b Jer. vi. 14. viii. 11. xiv. 13.
" Ib. xvi. 5. '12 Chr. xxxvi. 19.
¦¦Neh. iv. 2. 'Ib. ii. 3. sMic. iii. 12. tRup.

HAGGAI.

Before CHAPTEK I.
CHEIST cir. 520. 1 Haggai reproveth tlie people for
neglecting the building of the
house. 7 He inciteth ihem to
the building. 12 He promiseth
God's assistance to them being
forward.
•Ezra 4. 24. TN 'the second year of
Zeeh.' 1.1. Darius the king, in the

Chap. I. 1. In the secondyear of Darius, i. e.
Hystaspis. The very first word of prophecy
after the Captivity betokens that they were
restored, not yet as before, yet so, as to be
hereafter, more than before. The earthly
type, by God's appointment, was fading away,
that the Heavenly truth raight dawn. The
earthly king was w ithdrawn, to raake way
for the Heavenly. God had said of Jeconiah,
^No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon
the throne of David, and ruling any more in
Israel: and so now prophecy begins to be
dated by the years of a foreign earthly ruler,
as in the Baptisra of the Lord Hiraself.
Yet God gives back in mercy raore than He
withdraws in chastiseraent. The earthly
rule is suspended, that men might look out
more longingly for the Heavenly.
In tlie sixth month. They counted by their
own months, beginning with Nisan, the first
of the ecclesiastical year, (which was still
used for holy purposes and iu sacred history)
although, having no raore any kings, they
dated their years by those of the erapii-e, to
which they were subject'. In the sixth
month, part of our July and August, their
harvest was past, and the dearth, which they
doubtless ascribed (as we do) to the seasons,
and which Haggai pointed out to be a judg
ment from God, had set in for this year also.
The months being lunar, the first day of the
month was the festival of the new moon, a
popular feast* which their forefathers had
kept*, while they neglected the weightier
matters of the law, and which the religious
in Israel had kept, even while separated
from the worship at Jerusalem ". In its very
first day, when the grief for the barren year
was yet fresh, Haggai was stirred to exhort
them to consider their ways ; a pattern for
Christian preachers, to bring home to peo-
1 Jer. xxii. 30. - S. Luke iii. 1.
' See Zech. i. 7, vii. 1. * Pr. vii. 20.
' Is. i. 13, 14. _-
«2 Kgs iv. 23. add Am. viii. 5. Hos. ii. 11.
' Castro. 8 S. Luke xii. 42.
•12 times in the Pent. ; 6 times in Joshua; in
Judges once; in 1 Kgs viii. ; 2 Chron. twice; Neh.
ix. 14. Ps. Ixxvii. 20. 10 2 Sam. xii. 25.
'^ 1 Kgs xii. 15, xiv. 18. 2 Chr. x. 15.

sixth month, in the first cheTst
day of the month, came "ir- S20.
the word of the Lord t by t Heb. by the
TT • .1 1 . i hand of Haggai.
Haggai the prophet untobichron. s'. n,
'' Zerubbabel the son of Ezra 3. 2.
Shealtiel, ||goveriior of Lukei 27.
Judah, and to "Joshua! Ezra"!. 2!"'
the son of ''Josedech, thcdfchria. 15.
high priest, saying.

pie's souls the raeaning of God's judgraents.
Gol directs the very day to be noted, in
which He called the people anew to build
His temple, both to shew the readiness of
their obedience, and a precedent to us to
keep in memory days and seasons, in which
He stirs our souls to build more diligen,tly
His spiritual temple in our souls'.
By tlie hand of Haggai. God doth well-
nigh all things which He doeth for a man
through the hands of men. lie committeth
His words and works for men into the hands
of men as His stewards, to dispense faith
fully to His household ^ Hence He speaks
so often of the law, which He commanded '
"by the hand of 3Ioses; but also as to other
prophets, Nathan'", Ahijah", Jehu'^, Jo
nah'^, Isaiah'*, Jeremiah'", and the pro
phets generally'*. The very Prophets of
God, although gifted with a Divine Spirit,
still were willing and conscious instruments
in speaking His words.
Unto Zerubbabel (so called from being born
in Babylon) ihe son of Shccdtiel. By this
genealogy Zerubbabel is known in the his
tory of the return from the captivity in Ezra
and Nehemiah". God does not say by
Jeremiah, that Jeconiah .should have no
children, but that he should in his life-time
be childless, as it is said of these married to
the uncle's or brother's widow, '" they shall
die childless. Jeremiah rather implies that
he should have children, but that they should
die untimely before him. For he calls
Jeconiah, '" a man who shall not pi-osper in his
days ; for there shall not pro,sper a man of his
seed, sitting on ihe throne of Darid, and ruling
any more in Israel. He should die (as the
word means) bared'''" of all, alone and deso
late. The own father of Shealtiel appears to
have been Neri ", of the line of Nathan son
12 Ib. xvi. 7.
1* Is. XX. 2.
" Hos. vii. 20. 2 Chr. xxix. 25.
" Ezr. iii. 2, 8. v. 2. Neh. xii. 1. . , .. „„
18 Lev. XX. 20, 21. " Jer- xxii. 30.
«>''T"lj? from 11;,', as the Samar. Vers, renders
it in Lev. xx. 20, 21, "naked." Abraham uses it of
his desolation in having no son. Gen. xv. 2. [allj.
a S.Luke iii. 27. ^gg

18 2 Kgs xiv. 25.
16 Jer. xxxvii. 2.

300

HAGGAL

2 Thus speaketh the
,ORD of hosts, saying,
This people say, The time

Before
CHRIST cir. 620. Lord of hosts, saying,

of David ; not, of the line of the kings of
Judah. Neri married, one must suppose, a
daughter of Assir, son of 'Jeconiah -whose
grandson Shealtiel was ; and Zerubbabel was
the own son of Pedaiah, the brother of
Shealtiel, as whose son he was in the legal
genealogy inscribed, according to the law as
to those who die childless^; or as having
been adopted by Shealtiel being himself
childless, as Moses was called the son of the
daughter of Pharaoh^. So broken was the
line of the unhappy Jehoiachin, two thirds
of whose own life was passed in the prison *,
into which Nebuchadnezzar cast him.
Governor of Judah. The foreign name °
betokens that the civil rule was now held
from a foreign power, although Cyrusshewed
the Jews the kindness of placing one of
themselves, of royal extraction also, as his
deputy over them. The lineage of David is
still in authority, connecting the present
with the past, but the earthly kingdora had
faded away. Under the name Sheshbazzur
Zerubbabel is spoken of both as ihe prince "
and the governor'' of Judah. With him is
joined Joshuah ihe son of Josedech, the high
priest, whose father went into captivity',
when his grandfather Seraiah was slain by
Nebuchadnezzar ". The priestly line also is
preserved. Haggai addresses these two, the
one of the royal, the other of the priestly,
line, as jointly responsible for the negligence
of the people ; he addresses the people only
through them. Together, they are types of
Him, the true King and true Priest, Christ
Jesus, Who by the Eesurrection raised again
the true temple. His Body, after it had been
destroyed'". 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying.
This people say. Not Zerubbabel or Joshua,
but this people. He says not, My people, but
reproachfully this people, as, in acts, disown
ing Him, and so deserving to be disowned
1 1 Chr. ill. 17-19. 2 Deut. xxiii. 5-10.
sEx. ii. 10. 4 Jer. Iii. .31.
s Sei in Daniel the prophet pp. 570-572. Keil ad
duces a conjecture of Spiegel, " that pechah is from
pdvan, 'protector' (from pd) which in Sanskrit and
old Persian occurs in compounds as Khshatrapdvan,
Satrap, but in the Avesta occurs in the abridged
form pdvan. Thence might be developed pagimn,
as dregvat from drevat, hudgva from hu6va.' Max
Mulier kindly informs me; "Phonetically pavao
could hardly become pagvAo, and even this would
still be considerably different from Pechah. The
insertion of a q before a u in Zend is totally anom
alous. It rests entirely on the uncertain identifica
tion of dregvant, "bad," with drvant, for in the
second instance, huova is much more likely a cor
ruption of huogva, than vice versd, Pavdo in Zend
would mean, protector, but like the Sanskrit pdud/i,
it occurs only at the end of compounds. 'The one
passage, quoted in support of its occurring as a

is not come the time that ^ h e°/s t
the Lord's house should g'r- s2o.
be built.

by Him. The time is not come, lit. It is not
time to come, time for the house of ihe Lord to be
built ". They might yet sit still ; the time for
them to come was not yet ; for not yet was the
time for ihe house of the Lord to be built. Why
it was not tirae, they did not say. The gov
ernment did not help them ; the original
grant by Cyrus '^ was exhausted ; the Samari
tans hindered them, because they would not
own them, (amid their mishmash of worship,
worshiping, our Lord tells them, they ''^know
not what,) as worshipers of the same God. It
was a, bold excuse, if they said, that the 70
years during which the temple was to lie
waste, were not yet ended. The time had
long since corae, when, 16 years before,
Cyrus had given comraand that the house of
God should be built. The prohibition to
build, under Artaxerxes or Pseudo-Smerdis,
applied directly to the city and its walls, not
to the temple, except so far as the temple itself^
from its piosition, might be capable of being
used as a fort, as it was in the last siege of)
Jerusalem. Yet in itself a building of the
size of the temple, apart from outer build
ings, could scarcely so be used. The prohi
bition did not hinder the building of stately
private houses, as appears from Haggai's re
buke. The hindrances also, whatever they
were, had not begun with that decree. Any
how the death of Pseudo-Smerdis had now,
for a year, set them free, had they had any
zeal for the glory and service of God. Else
Haggai had not blamed them. God, know
ing that He should bend the heart of Darius,
as He had that of Cyrus, requires the house
to be built without the king's decree. . It
was built iu faith, that God would bring
through what He had enjoined, although
outward things were as adverse now as
before. And what He commanded He
prospered '*.
There was indeed a second fulfillment of
separate noun, seems to me to contain an etymolog
ical play, where pavdo is used as an independent
noun in order to explain the two compounds,
pacca-pavdo and pard-pavdo, i. e., protecting behind
and protecting in front, as if we were to say, ' he is
a lector, both as a pro-tector and sub-tector,' "
6 Ezr. i. 8. In relation to Cyrus, he is called by
his Persian name Sheshbazzar, by which name he
is mentioned in Tatnai's letter to Darius, as having
been commissioned by Cyrus to rebuild the temple
and as having done so (Ezr. vi. 14-10) while, in the
history of the restor<ation, he is related to have done
it under his domestic name Zerubbabel. On these
changes of names by their masters, see Daniel the
Prophet p. 10.
' Ezr. V. 14. 8 1 Chr. vi. 16.
9 2 Kgs X.XV. 18-21. los. Jer.
11 The first sentence being left incomplete, for,
"It is not time to come to build the Lord's house."
12 Ezr. iii. 7. i^ S. John iv. 22.- '^ Ezr. v. vi.

CHAPTEE I.

301

3 Then came the word

Before
CHRIST cir. 520. of the Lord °by Haggai

e Ezra 5. 1.

f 2 Sam. 7. 2.
Ps. 1-32. 3, &0.

the prophet saying,
4 'Is it time for you, O
ye, to dwell in your ceiled

seventy years, from the destruction of the
temple by Nebuchadnezzar B. C. 586, to its
consecration in the 6th year of Darius B. C.
516. But this was through the wilfulness
of man, prolonging the desolation decreed by
God, and Jeremiah's prophecy relates to the
people not to the temple.
" ' The prophet addresses his discourse to
the chiefs [in Church and state] and yet
accuses directly, not their listlessness but that
of the people, .in order both to honor them
before the people and to teach that their
sins are to be blamed privately not publicly,
lest their authority should be injured, and
the people incited to rebel against them;
and also to shew that this fault was directly
that of the people, whom he reproves before
their princes, that, being openly convicted
before them, it might be ashamed, repent,
and obey God ; but that indirectly this fault
touched the chiefs themselves, whose office it
was to urge the people to this work of God."
"^ For seldom is the Prince free from the
guilt of his subjects, as either assenting to,
or winking at them, or not coercing them,
though able."
Since also Christians are the temple of
God, all this prophecy of Haggai is appli
cable to thera. "'When thou seest one who
has lapsed thinking and preparing to build
through chastity the teraple which he had
before destroyed through passion, and yet
delaying day by day, say to him, 'Truly
thou also art of the people of the captivity,
and sayest. The time is not yet come for building
the house of the Lord.' Whoso has once set
tled to restore the temple of God, to him
every tune is suited for building, and the
prince, Satan, cannot hinder, nor- the ene
mies around. As soon as being thyself con
verted, thou callest upon the name of the
Lord, He will say, Behold Me." " * To him
who willeth to do right, the time is always
present; the good and right-minded have
power to fulfill what is to the glory of God,
iu every time and place."
3. And the word of ihe Lord came. " ' Be
fore, he prophesied nothing, but only recited
the saying of the people ; now he refutes it
in his prophecy, and repeats, again and
again, that he says this not of himself, but
from the mind and mouth of God." It is
iLap. 24 Castro from Alb.
'S.Jer. . *S. Cyr.
' DnX D3 7, the pers. pron. repeated emphatically.
•The force of D''J13D in appos. to DJTID.

houses, and this house lie r^S^X'^JI,,,
waste ? cir. 520.
5 Now therefore t h U S t Heb. Set your
, heart on your
saith the Lord of hosts; ways.
. e Lam. 3. 40.
J ^ Consider your ways. ver. 7.

characteristic of Haggai to inculcate thus
frequently, that his words are not his own,
but the words of God. Yet " ' the prophets,
both in their threats and prophecies, repeat
again and again, Th'us saith the Lord, teaching
us, how we should prize the word of God, hang
upon it, have it ever in our mouth, rever
ence, ruminate on, utter, praise it, make it
our continual delight."
4. Is it time foi' you, lyou y being what you
are, the creatures of God, to dwell in your
ceiled houses ", more emphatically, in your
houses, and those ceiled, probably with costly
woods, such as cedar '. But where then was
the excuse of want of means ? They imitated,
in their alleged poverty, what is spoken of
as magnificent in their old kings, Solomon
and Shallum, but not having, as Solomon
first did, * covered the house of God with beams
and rows of cedar. " " Will ye dwell in houses
artificially adorned, not so much for use as
for delight, and shall My dwelling-place,
wherein was the Holy of holies, and the
Cherubim, and the table of shew-bread, be
bestreamed with rains, desolated in solitude,
scorched by the sun ? "
" " With these words carnal Christians are
reproved, who have no glow of zeal for God,
but are full of self-love, and so make no
effort to repair, build, or strengthen the
material teraples of Christ, and houses as
signed to His worship, when aged, ruinous,
decaying or destroyed, but build for them
selves curious, voluptuous, superfluous dwell
ings. In these the love of Christ gloweth
not ; these Isaiah threateneth, '" Woe to you
who join house to house and field to fleld, and re
gard not the work of the Lord I "
To David and Solomon the building of
God's temple was their heart's desire ; to
early Christian Emperors, to the ages of
faith, the building of Churches ; now mostly,
owners of lands build houses for this world's
profit, and leave it to the few to build in
view of eternity, and for the glory of God.
5. And now, thus saith the Lord of hosts ;
Consider, [lit. set your heart upon] your ways,
¦what they had been doing, what they were
doing, and what those doings had led to, and
would lead to. This is ever present to the
mind of the prophets, as speaking God's
words, that our acts are not only ways in
' 11X3 |13D 1 Kgs vii. 6, 7. Jer. xxii. 14.
siKgsvi. 9. ]3D'1. »Dion.
i»l8.v.8, 12.

302

HAGGAI.

c H bTI t ^ '^^ ^^"^^ " ^°^^^ much,
'=''•¦ ^^- and bring in little ; ye eat,
t Deut. 28. 38. but ye have not enough ;
Hos. 4. 10. J • 1 i_ i 4
Mio. 0 14, 15. ye drink, but ye are not
filled with drink ; ye clothe

which we go, each day of life being a con
tinuance of the day before ; but that they
are ways which lead soraewhither in God's
Providence and His justice ; to some end of
the way, good or bad. So God says by Jere
miah, ' I set before you the way of life and the
way of death ; and David, ^ Thou wilt shew me
ihe path of life, where it follows. In Tliy Pres
ence is the fullness of joy and at Thy Right Hand
there are pleasures for evermore; and Solomon,
* Eeproofs of instruction are the way of life ; and,
he is in '' the ivay of life who keepeth instruetion ;
and he wlio forsaketh rebuke, erreth; and, ^ The
way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart
from hell beneath ; and of the adulterous
woman, " Her house are the ways of hell, going
down to the chambers of death ; and ' lier feet
go down unto death; her steps take hold on hell ;
lest thou shouldest ponder the jMth of life. Again,
" There is a way that seemeth right unto a man,
and the end thereof are the ways of death ; and
contrariwise, " The path of the righteous is a
shining light, shining more and more until ihe
midday. '" 'The ways of darkness axe the ways
which end in darkness ; and when Isaiah
says, " The way of peace hast thou not known,
he adds, whosoever goeth therein shall not know
peace. They who choose not peace for their
way, shall not find peace in and for their
end. On these your ways, Haggai says, set your
hearts, not thinking of them lightly, nor giv
ing a passing thought to them, but fi.xing
your minds upon thera ; as God says to Satan,
'''Hast tliou set thy heart on My servant .fob?
and God is said to set His eye or His face
upon man for good '" or for evil '*. He speaks
also, not of setting the mind, applying the
understanding, giving the thoughts, but of
.setting the heart, as the seat of the affections.
It is not a dry weighing of the temporal re
sults of their ways, but a loving dwelling
upon thera ; for repentance without love is
but the gnawing of remorse.
"'"Set your heart on your ways ; i. e., your
affections, thoughts, works, so as to be cir
cumspect in all things ; as the Apostle says,
'" Do nothing without forethought, i. e., without
previous judgraent of reason ;' and Soloraon,
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine
iJer. xxi. 8. 'Ps. xvi. 11. ' sPr. vi. 2.3.
'Ib. X. 17. 6Ib. XV. 24. ' «Ib. vii.27.
' Ib. V. 5, G. 8 Ib. xiv. 12. xvi. 25.
» Ib. iv. 18. 1" Ib. ii. 13. n Is. lix. 8.
12 Job i. 8. IS Jer. xxiv. 0. " lb. xxi. 10.
16 Dion. i« 1 Tim. v. 21. n Pr. iv. 25.

you, but there is none cheTIt
warm ; and ' he that earn- "'''¦ ^^o-

eth wages earneth wages ' zeoh. a. lo.
to fmt it into a bag f with fHeb. pierced
holes.

through.

eyelids look straight before thee ; and the
son of Sirach, '" Son, do nothing without counsel
and wlien tlwi hast done it thou wilt not repent.
For since, according to a probable proposi
tion, nothing in huraan acts is indifferent,
i. e., involving neither good nor ill deserts,
they who do not thus set their hearts upon
their ways, do they not daily incur well-nigh
countless sins, in thought, word, desire, deed,
yea and by omission of duties ? Such are all
fearless persons who heed not to fulfill what
is ' written, '" Keep your heart with edl watch
fulness." " "" He sows much to his own heart, but brings
in little, who by reading and hearing knows
much ofthe heavenly commands, but by neg
ligence in deeds bears little fruit. He eats
and is not satisfied, who, hearing the words of
God, coveteth the gains or glory of the world.
Well is he said not to be satisfled, who eateth
one thing, hungereth after another. He
drinks and is not inebriated, who inclineth
his ear to the voice of preaching, but chang
eth not his raind. For through inebriation
the raind of those wdio drink is changed. He
then who is devoted to the knowledge of
God's word, yet still desireth to gain the
things of the world, drinks and is ¦not inebri
ated. For were he inebriated, no doubt he
would have changed his raind and no longer
seek earthly things, or love the vain and
passing things which he had loved. For the
Psalmist says of the elect, '^'ihey shall be ineb
riated, with the richness of Thy house, because
they shall be filled with such love of Al
mighty God, that, their mind being changed,
they seem to be strangers to themselves, ful
filling what is written, ^^ If any wiU come .after
Me, let him deny himself"
6. Ye have smvn much. The prophet ex
presses the habitualness of these visitations
by a vivid present. He marks no time and
so expre.sses the more vividly that it was at
all times. It is one continually present evil.
Ye have soion much and there is a bringing in
little ; there is eating and not to satisfy ; there
is drinking and not to exhilarate ; there is cloth
ing and not to be warm ^^. It is not forthe
one or the other years, as, since the first year
of Darius Hystaspis ; it is one continued
18 Ecclus. xxxii. 19. Vulg. "Pr. iv. 23.
20 S. Greg, in Ezek. Hom. i. 10. n. 7. Opp. i. 1266.
21 Ps. xxxvi. 8. 22 s. Matt. xvi. 24.
^h DnS. The ib is not pleonastic, but from
the impersonal ^7 QO 1 Kgs i. 1, 2. Eccl. iv. 11. (bi,s).

CHAPTEE I.

303

c H eTs t '^ it Thus saith the Lord
cir. 520. of hosts ; Considcryour

ways.

visitation, coordinate with one continued
negligence. As long as the siu lasted, so long
the punishment. The visitation itself was
twofold ; impoverished harvests, so as to sup
ply less sustenance ; and various indisposition
of the frame, so that what would, by God's
appointment in nature, satisfy, gladden,
warm, failed of its effect. And he that labor-
eth for hire, gaineth himself hire into a bag full
of holes \l\t. perforatedl. The labor pictured
is not only fruitless, but wearisome and vex
ing. There is a seeming result of all the
labor, something to allure hopes ; but forth
with it is gone. The heathen assigned a like
baffling of hope as one of the punishments
of hell. " ' Better and wiser to seek to be
blessed by God, Who bestoweth on us all
things. And this will readily come to those
who choose to be of the same raind with Him
and prefer what is for His glory to their own.
For so saith the Saviour Himself to us,
'^Seek ye first the kingdom of Ood and His right
eousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you." "^He loses good deeds by evil acts, who
takes account of his good works, which he
has before his eyes, and forgets the faults
which creep in between ; or who, after what
is good, returns to what is vain and evil."
" * Money is seen in the pierced bag, when
it is cast in, but when it is lost, it is not seen.
They then who look how much they give,
but do not weigh how much they gain
wrongly, cast their rewards into a pierced
bag. Looking to the Hope of their confi
dence they bring them together ; not looking,
they lose them."
" ^ They lose the fruit of their labor, by not
persevering to the end, or by seeking human
praise, or by vain glory within, not keeping
spiritual riches under the guardianship of
humility. Such are vain and unprofitable
men, of whom the Saviour saith, " 'Verily I
say unto you, they have iheir reward."
8. Oo up into the mountain. Not Mount
Lebanon, whence the cedars had been brought
1 S. Cyr. 2 S. Matt. vi. 33. ^ Lap.
*S. Greg. Eeg. Past. iii. 21. fin. Opp. ii. 68.
5 Dion. « S. Matt. vi. 2.
' Ezr. iii. 7. 8 Neh. viii. 15.
" S. Matt. xxiv. 1. . 10 Mic. vi. 7. n Ps. cxlvii. 11.
12 Pr. xi. 20. 13 Ib. xii. 22. " Ib. xv. 8.
I'There is no ground for the Kri n'i;33Nl, and so
should I be glorified or honored. It is a positive pro
mise that God would shew forth His glor.y, as in
DSISl immediately before. God says, "do this,
and iWill do that." Comp. Zeoh. i. 3. Of 65 in
stances which Bottcher (Lehrb. n. 905. c.) gives of
(It after the imperative, 61 relate to some wish of
the human agent; i only relate to God. Deut. v.

8 Go up to the moun- 0^^^°/!^
tain, and bring wood, and °ir- s^o-
build the house ; and I will

for the first temple ; whence also Zerubbabel
and Joshua had procured some out of Cyrus'
grant ', at the first return from the captivity.
They were not required to buy, expend, but
siraply to give their own labor. They were
theraselves to go up to the mountain, i. e. the
mountainous country where the trees grew,
and bring them. So, in order to keep the
feast of tahernacles, Ezra made a proclama
tion ^ in all their cities a'nd in Jerusalem, go ye
up io the mountain and bring leafy branches of
vines, olives, myrtles, palms. The palms, any
how, were timber. God required not goodly
stones, such as had been already used, and
such as hereafter, in the temple which was
built, were the admiration even of disciples
of Jesus ", but which were, for the wickedness
of those who rejected their S.aviour, not to be
left, one stone upon another. He required not
costly gifts, but the heart. The neglect to
build the temple was neglect of Himself, Who
ought to be worshiped there. His worship
sanctified the ofiering ; offerings were accept
able, only if made with a free heart.
And I will have pleasure in it. God, Who
has declared that He has no '"pleasure in
thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of
oil, had delight in " them that feared Him, that
are upright in iheir way '^, that deal truly '", in
the prayer of the upright '* ; and so in the
teraple too, when it should be built to His
glory. And will be glorified '^. God is glorified in
man, when man serves Him ; in Himself,
when He manifests aught of His greatness ;
in His great doings to His people '", as also
in the chastisement of thos^ who disobey
Him ". God allows that glory, which shines
ineffably throughout His creation, to be ob
scured here through man's disobedience, to
shine forth anew on his renewed obedience.
The glory of God, as it is the end of the crea
tion, so is it His creature's supreme bliss.
When God is really glorified, then can He
shew forth His glory, by His grace and ac
ceptance. " " The glory of God is our glory.
31, "stand here by Ble, m21Kl, that I may speak
unto thee ; " Is. xii. 22, 23. irony, including men,
"that we may consider and know; that we may
know;" Ps. 1. 7. "hear Me and I would speak, and
testify ; " Mai. iii. 7. " Eeturn to Me and I would re
turn unto you ; " the return of the creature being a
condition that God could return to it. On the other
hand the Ch. Lam. v. 21, "Turn Thou us unto
Thee, DlB'Jl, and we will return" expresses the
absolute will to return; Euth iv. 4, "tell me.^lSI,
and I shall know," the certainty of the knowledge,
upon which Boaz would act.
i« Is. xxvi. 15, xliv. Xi, Ix. 21, Ixi. 3.
" Ex. xiv. 4. Ezek. xxviii. 22.
18 S. Aug. Serm. 380, n. 6.

304

HAGGAI.

c H eTs t *^^® pleasure in it, and I
gii'- S20. -will be glorified, saith the
Lord.
'ch. 2. 16. 9 "Ye looked for much,
and, lo, it came to little ;
and when ye brought it

The raore sweetly God is glorified, the raore it
profits us : " yet not our profit, but the glory
of God is itself our end ; so the prophet
closes in that which is our end, God wUl be
glorified. " ' Good then and well-pleasing to God is
zeal in fulfilling whatever may appear neces
sary for the good condition of the Church
and its building-up, collecting the most use
ful materials, the spiritual principles in in
spired Scripture, whereby he raay secure
and ground the conception of God, and may
shew that the way of the Incarnation was
well-ordered, and raay collect what apper
tains to accurate knowledge of spiritual eru
dition and raoral goodness. Nay, each of us
may be thought of, as the temple and house
of God. For Christ dwelleth in us by the
Spirit, and we are temples of tlie living Go'J,
according to the Scripture ^. Let each then
build up his own heart by right faith, having
the Saviour as the precious foundation. And
let him add thereto other materials, obedi
ence, readiness for anything, courage, en
durance, continence. So being framed to
gether by that which every joint supplieth, shall
we become a holy temple, a habitation of Ood
through the Spirit". But those who are slow
to faith, or who believe but are sluggish in
shaking off passions and sins and worldly
pleasure, thereby cry out in a manner, Tlie
time is not come to build the house of the Lord."
9. Ye looked, lit. u, looking ; as though he
said, it has all been one looking, /or much, for
increase, the result of all sowing, in the way
of nature : and behold it came to litde, i. e. less
than was sown ; as Isaiah denounced to them
of old by God's word, * the seed of a homer
shall, yield an ephah, i. e. one tenth of what
was sown. And ye brought it home, and I blew
upon it, so as to disperse it, as, not the wheat,
hut the chaff is blown before the wind. This,
in whatever way it came to pass, was a farther
chastiseraent of God. The little seed which
they brought in lessened through decay or
waste. Why? saith ihe Lord of hosts. God
asks by his prophet, what He asks in the
awakened conscience. * God with rebukes
1 S. Cyr. 2 2 Cor. vi. 16. « Eph. iv. 10, ii. 21, 22.
* Is. V. 10. 5 Ps. xxxix. 11.
'Herod. 1. 193. Theophr. Hist. Plant, viii. 7.
Berosus Fr. 1. Strabo xvi. 1. 14. Pliny Nat. Hist.
xviii. 17. Amm. Marc. xxiv. 9.
' Nu. xxi. 5. 8 Ib. xi. 5.

home, 'I did ||blow upon chrTst
it. Why ? saith the Lord <='¦•¦ eg"-
of hosts. Because of mine i oh. 2. 17.
1 j-T. i • J. J 11 Or, blow it
house that is waste, and ye away.
run every man unto his
own house.

cliasiens man for sin. Conscience, when alive,
confesses for what sin ; or it asks itself, if
memory does not supply the special sin. Un-
awakened, it murmurs about the excess of
rain, the drought, the blight, the mildew,
and asks, not itself, why, in God's Providence,
these inflictions came in these years ? They
felt doubtless the sterility in contrast with
the exceeding proliticalness of Babylonia*,
as they contrasted the light bread', the
manna, with * the plenteousness of Egypt.
They ascribed probably their meagre crops
(as we mostly do) to mere natural causes,
perhaps to the long neglect of the land dur
ing the captivity. God forces the question
upon their consciences, in that Haggai asks it
in His Narae, in Whose hands all powers
stand, sait.h ilie Lord of hosts. They have not
to talk it over araong themselves, but to
answer Almighty God, why? That why?
strikes into the inmost depths of conscience !
Because of My house which is waste, and ye
run lit. are running, all the while, each to his
own house". They were absorbed in their
material interests, and had no time for those
of God. When the question was of God's
house, they stir not from the spot ; when it is
of their own concerns, they run. Our Lord
says, '" Seek ye first ihe kingdom of Ood and His
righteousness, and all these things shcdl be added
unto you. Man reverses this, seeks his own
things first, and God withholds His blessing.
" " This comes true of those who prefer
their own conveniences to God's honor, who
do not thoroughly uproot self-love, whose
penitence and devotion are shewn to be un
stable ; for on a slight temptation they are
overcome. Such are they who are bold, self-
pleasing, wise and great in their own eyes,
who do not ground their conversation on true
and solid humility."
" " To those who are slow to fulfill what is
for the glory of God, and the things whereby
His house, the Church, is firmly stayed,
neither the heavenly dew cometh, which en-
richeth hearts and minds, nor the fruitful
ness of the earth ; i. e. right action ; not food
nor wine nor use of oil. But they will be
^'j'l'l with 7 is used of the direction whither a
man goes; if used of an action, hasting to do it;
as runneth to evil (Is. lix. 7, Pr. i. 16.) Here IH^Dv
cannot be " on account of his house," but to it, viz.
for his business there.
los. Matt. vi. 33. "Dion. 12 S. Cyr.

CHAPTEK I.

305

cheTst 1^ Therefore ""the
cii^- °^o- heaven over you is stayed
o Lev. 26. 19. from dew, and the earth is
Deut. 28. 23. , ¦, J. -, n ..
1 KiU. 8. 35. stayed jrom her truit.
°2Kin;8!L' 11 And I "caUed for a
drought upon the land,
and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and
upon the new wine, and
upon the oil, and upon that
which the ground bringeth
forth, and upon men, and

ever strengthless and joyless, unenriched by
spiritual oil, and remain without taste or par
ticipation of the blessing through Christ."
10. Tlierefore, for you, on your account ' ; for
your sins ^, He points out the moral cause of
the drought, whereas raen think of this or
that cause of the variations of the seasons,
and we, e. g. take into our mouths Scripture-
words, as murrain of cattle, and the like, and
think of nothing less ihau why it was sent,
or Who sent it. Haggai directs the mind to
the higher Cause, that as they withheld their
service from God, so, on their account and by
His will, His creatures withheld '' their ser
vice frora them.
11. And I called for a drought upon the land.
God called to the people and they would not
hear. It is His ever-repeated complaint to
them. I called unto you, and ye would not
hear. He called to His inanimate creatures
to punish them, and they obeyed. So Elisha
tells the woman, whose son he had restored
to life, * The Lord hath called io the famine, and
it shall also come to the land seven years.
And upon men, in that the drought was
oppressive to man. The Prophet may also
allude to the other meaning of the word,
"waste," "desolation." They had left the
house of the Lord * waste, therefore God
called for waste, desolation, upon them.
12. Then Zerubbabel, and all the remnant of
the people, not, " the rest of people " but " the
1 As in Ps. xliv. 43. 2 jon.
" N/D being everywhere transitive, and in this
v. also, is probably transitive here.
»2 Kgs viii. 1.
'D'ln, Hagg. i. 4, 9; 3in, i- H-
5 This' is the almost uniform usage of n'''^XK',
"remnant which remains over," mostly after the
rest have been destroyed or carried captive. See
vol. i. on Am. i. s ; add, the remnant of .Tudah, Jer.
xl. 11, xiii. 19, xliii. 5, xliv. 12,14, of Israel, Zeph. iii.
13. Ez. xi. 13; ivhole remnant of the people, Jer. xll.
10.16; of Ashdod, Jer. xxv. 20; of the coast of Caphtor,
Ib. xlvii. 4; of their valley, lb. 5; ofthe coast of the
sea, Ez. xxv. IH; of the ndtions, Ib. xxxvi. 3, 4, 5 ; of
the land, flDlX, Is. xv. 9 ; of My people, Zeph. il. 9 ;
20

upon cattle, and " upon all
the labor of the hands.
12 •([I' Then Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtiel, and
Joshua the son of Jose
dech, the high priest, with
all the remnant of the peo
ple, obeyed the voice of the
Lord their God, and the
words of Haggai the pro
phet, as the Lord their
God had sent him, and the

Before
CHEIST eir. 520.
«ch. 2. 17.
p Ezra 5. 2.

remnant "," those who remained over from
the captivity, the fragment of the two tribes,
which returned to their own land, hearkened
unto the voice of the Lord. This was the be
ginning of a conversion. In this one thing
they began to do, what, all along, in their
history, and most in their decay before the
captivity they refused to do — obey God's
word. So God sums up their history, by
Jeremiah, ' I spake unto thee in thy prosperity,
thou saidst, Iwill not hear. This is thy way
from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto
My voice. Zephaniah still more briefly, " s/ie
hearkened not unlo [any] voice. Now in ref
erence, it seems, to that account of their dis
obedience, Haggai says, using the self-same
formula, " they hearkened unio the voice of ihe
Lord, '"according io the words of Haggai.
They obeyed, not vaguely, or partly, but ex
actly, according to the words which the messen
ger of God spake.
And they feared ihe Lord. " " Certainly the
presence of the Divine Majesty is to be
feared with great reverence." " '^ The fear of
punishment at times transports the mind to
what is better, and the infliction of sorrows
harmonizes the mind to the fear of God ;
and that of the Proverbs comes true, '^ He
thai feareth ihe Lord shall be recompensed, and
'^tlie fear of the Lord tendeth io life; and
Wisdora, "• The fear of the Lord is honor and
glory, and '" the fear of the Lord shall rejoice
of His heritage. Mi. vii. 18 ; thy remnant. Is. xiv. 30,
Ez. V. 10; its remnant. Is. xliv. 17; their remnant,
Jer. XV. 9 ; and of those who had actually returned,
Zech. viii. 6, 11, 12. In two places in which it sig
nifies " the rest" (Jer. xxxix. 3, 1 Chr. xii. 38.) it is
at least the rest of a whole, already mentioned. A
third only, Neh. vii. 72. is uncertain. The word is
used almost exclusively by the prophets.
' Jer. xxii. 21.
"htp^ n;;Dty ,nS. see introd. to Zeph. p. 225.
10 This is the only place in which '"131 1^ ^J^DE'
is used. „„ ... ,„
n Dion. '2 S. Cyr. i' Pr. xiii. 13.
i*lb. xix. 23. IS Ecclus. i. n. i«lb. 12.

306

HAGGAL

C H eTs t people did fear before the
c"- 62°- Lord,

13 Then spake Haggai
the Lord's messenger in the
Lord's message unto the
1 Matt. 28. 20. people, saying, ''1 am with
you, saith the Lord.
'2 0hr. 36. 22. "'.,',
Ezra 1.1. 14 And 'the Lord

the heart, and giveth joy and gladness and a long
life. See how gently and beseemingly God
smites us."
"'See how the lovingkindness of God
forthwith goes along with all changes for the
better. For Almighty God changes along
with those who wiU to repent, and promises
that He will be with them ; which what can
equal ? For when God is with us, all harm
will depart from us, all good come in to us."
13. And Haggai, the Lord's messenger.
Malachi, whose own name was framed to ex
press that he was ilie Lord's messenger, and
Haggai alone use the title, as the title of a
prophet ; perhaps as forerunners of the great
prophet whom Malachi announced. Mala
chi also speaks of the priest, as'' the messen
ger of the Lord of hosts, and prophesies of
John Baptist as ^ the messenger of the Lord,
who should ego before His face. Haggai, as he
throughout repeats that his words were God's
words, frames a new word*, to express, in
the language of the New Testament^; that
he had an embassy from God ; in ihe Lord's

lam with you. All the needs and longings
of the creature are summed up in those two
word.s, I with-you. " Who art Thou and who
am I ? Thou, He Who Is ; I, he who am
not ; " nothing, yea worse than nothing. Yet
if " God be for us, S. Paul asks, who can be
against us ? Our Blessed Lord's parting
promise to the Apostles, and in them to the
Church, was, ' Lo I am with you alway, even to
ihe end of the world. The all-containing assur
ance goes beyond any particular proraise of
aid, as, " * I will help you, and will protect
you, so that your building shall have its com
pletion." This is one fruit of it; '"since
I ara in the midst of you, no one shall be
able to hinder your building." But, more
widely, the words bespeak His presence in
love, Who knows all our needs, and is Al
mighty to support and save us in all. So
David says, '"when I walk through ihe valley of
ihe shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for

1 S. Cyr.
6 Rom. viii. 31.
8 Dion.

2 Mai. ii. 7.

2S. Jer.

8Ib. iii. 1.
" 2 Cor. V. 20.
' S. Matt, xxviii. 20.
10 Ps. xxiii. 4.

stirred up the spirit of Ze- ^ ^ rTI t
rubbabel the son of Sheal- g"-. 520.
tiel, 'governor of Judah, "ch. 2. 21.
and the spirit of Joshua
the son of Josedech, the
high priest, and the spirit
of all the remnant of the
people; 'and they came 'Ezra 5. 2,8.

Thou art ¦with me : and God says by another,
"/ will be with him in trouble, and by Isaiah,
'" When thou passest ihrough the waters, I will be
wiih tliee.
14. And the Lord stirred up the spirit. The
words are used of any strong impulse from
God to fulfill His will, whether in those who
execute His will unknowingly as Pul ", to
carry off the trans-Jordanic tribes, or the
Philistines and Arabians against Jehoram '*,
or the Medes against Babylon '° ; or know
ingly, as of Cyrus to restore God's people and
rebuild the temple'^, or of the people them
selves to return". "^The spirit of Zerub
babel and the spirit of Joshua were stirred,
that the governraent and priesthood may
build the teraple of God : the spirit of the
people too, ivhich before was asleep in them ;
not the body, not the soul, but the spirit,
which knoweth best how to build the teraple
of God." '"8 The Holy Spirit is stirred'
up in us, that we should enter the house
of the Lord, and do the works of the
Lord." " "* Again, observe that they did not set
themselves to choose to do what should please
God, before He was with them and stirred
up their spirit. We shall know hence also,
that although one choose zealously to do
good and be in earnest therein, yet he will
accomplish nothing, unless God be with him,
raising him up to dare, and sharpening him
to endure, and removing all torpor. For so
the wondrous Paul says of those entrusted
with the divine preaching, ''"I labored more
abundantly than they all, jet added very wisely,
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me, and the Saviour Himself saith to the
holy Apostles, "' Without Me ye can do nothing.
For He is our desire, He, our courage to any
good work ; He our strength, and, if He is
with us, we shall do well, ^'building ourselves
io a holy temple, u, habitcdion of Ood in the
Spirit; if He depart and wdthdraws, how
should any doubt, that we should fail, over-
corae by sluggishness and want of courage?"

"Ib. xci.l5. 12 Is. xliii. 2. isiChr. v. 26.
i-'2Chr. xxi. 16. 16 Jer. li. 11.
i« Ezr. i. 1. " Ib. 5. 18 ap. Lap.
i«S. Cyr. 201 Cor. XV. 11.
21 S. John XV. 6. 22 Eph. ii. 21, 22.

CHAPTEE II.

307

Before
CHEIST cir. 620.

and did work in the house
. of the Lord of hosts, their
God. 15 In the four and
twentieth day of the sixth
month, in the second year
of Darius the king.
CHAPTEB II.
1 He encourageth ihe people io
the work, by promise of greater
glory to the second temple than
was in ilie first. 10 In tlie
type of holy things and unclean
he sheweth their si'ns hindered
the wm'k. 20 Godls promise
ia Zerubbabel.
TK the seventh month, in
the one and twentieth

15. In the four and twentieth day of the
'month. The interval of twenty-three days
must have been spent in preparation, since
the message came on the flrst of the month,
and the obedience was immediate.
II. 1. In the seventh month, in the one a'nd
twentieth day of the month. This was the sev
enth day of the feast of tabernacles', and
its close. The eighth day was to be a sab
bath, with its 'holy convocation, but the com
memorative fea.st, the dwelling iu booths, in
memory of God's bringing them out of Egypt,
was to last seven days. The close then of this
feast could not but revive their sadness at the
glories of their first deliverance by God's
mighty hand and outstretched aim, and their
present fewness and poverty. This depres
sion could not but bring with it heavy
thoughts about the work, in which they were,
in obedience to God, engaged ; and that, all
the more, since Isaiah and Ezekiel had pro
phesied of the glories of the Christian
Church under the syrabol of the teraple.
This despondency Haggai is sent to relieve,
owning plainly the reality of its present
grounds, but renewing, on God's part, the
pledge of the glories of this second temple,
which should be thereafter.
3. 'Who is left among you? The question
implies that there were those among them,
who had seen the first house in its glory, yet
but few. When the foundations of the first
temple were laid, there were many. ^ Many
of the priests and, Levites and chief of ihe fa-
1 Lev. xxiii. 34, 36, 4o'-42.
2Ib. 36, 39. 8Ezr. iii. 12.
*Suoh is probably the force of IHIOD. Comp.
riJJlSD "IIDJ [Gen. xliv. 18] " one such as thou is
Uke Pharaoh," and perhaps iriDJ, Ex. ix. 18, and

da'ij of the month, came cheTst
the word of the Lord f by "'i^- s^o-
the prophet Haggai, saying, t Heb. hy the
2 Speak now to Zerub
babel the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and to
Joshua the son of Josedech,
the high priest, and to the
residue of the people, say
ing, 3 °Who is left among « Ezra 3. 12.
you that saw this house in
her first glory ? and how
do ye see it now? ^is it i>Zech. 4. 10.
not in your eyes in compa
rison of it as nothing ?

thers, ancient men, thai had seen the first house,
wlien ihe foundations of this house were laid be
fore their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Fifty-
nine years had elapsed from the destruction
of the temple in the eleventh year of Zede
kiah to the first of Cyrus ; so that old raen
of seventy years had seen the first teraple,
when themselves eleven years old. In this
second of Darius seventy years had passed,
so that those of 78 or 80 years might
still well remember it. Ezra's father, Ser
aiah, was slain in the eleventh year of Zede
kiah ; so he must have been born at latest a
few months later; yet he lived to the second
of Artaxerxes.
Is not such as it is*, as nothing? Beside
the richness of the sculptures in the forraer
teraple, everything, which admitted of it,
was overlaid with gold ; ^ Solomon overlaid the
whole house ivith gold, until he had finished edl
the house, the whole altar by the oracle, the livo
cherubim, ihe fioor of the house, the doors of the
holy of holies and the ornaments of it, the
cherubims thereon and the palm trees he covered
with gold fitted upon the carved work ; ^ the altar
of gold a'nd ihe table of gold, whereupon the
shewbread. was, the ten candlestieks of pure gold,
with the fiowers and the lamps and tlie tongs of
gold, the bowls, the snuffers and the basons and
the spoons and the censers of pure gold, and
hinges of pure gold for all the doors ofthe temple.
' The porch that was in ihe front of ihe house,
twenty cubits broad and 120 cubits high, was
overlaid within vnth pure gold; the house
''JIM ItyK, 2Sam. ix. 8. VNJ Kin (which Ewald
says older writers would have used) would have
been weaker.
6 1 Kgs vi. 22. 28, 30, 32, 35. « lb. vii. 48-50.
' 2 Chr. iii. 4-9.

308

HAGGAL

Before
CHEIST eir. 520.
"Zech. 8. 9.

4 Yet now "be strong,
O Zerubbabel, saith the
Lord ; and be strong, O
Joshua, son of Josedech,
the high priest ; and be
strong, all ye people of the

glistened with precious stones ; and the gold
(it is added) was gold of Parvaim, a land dis
tant of course and unknown to us. Six
hundred talents of gold (about £4,320,000 ',)
were employed in overlaying the Holy of
holies. Tlie upper chambers were also of gold ;
the weight of the 'nails was fifty shekels of gold.
4. 'Yet now be strong — and work. They are
the words with which David exhorted Solo
mon his son to be earnest and to persevere in
the building of the first temple. ^ Take heed
now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an
house for the sanctuary : be strong and do. " Be
strong and of good courage, and do. This com
bination of words occurs once only elsewhere*,
in Jehoshaphat's exhortation to the ° Levites
and priests and chiefs of the fathers of Israel,
wdiora he had set as judges in Jerusalem.
Haggai seems then to have adopted the
wonls, with the purpose of suggesting; to the
down-hearted people, that there was need of
the like exhortation, in view ofthe building
of the forraer temple, whose relative glory
so depressed them. The word be strong
(elsewhere rendered, be of good courage) oc-
cuis coraraonly in exhortations to jjersevere
and hold fast, araid whatever obstacles ".
5. The words which I covenanted. The words
stand more forcibly, because abruptly '. It
is an exclamation which cannot be forced

1 Reckoning the silver shekel at 2.5., the talent of
silver, =3000 shekels, would be £300 ; reckoning the
gold talent, as, in weight, double the silver talent,
ami the relation of gold to silver as 12 to 1, (H. W.
Poole in Smith Bibl. Diet. p. 1731, 1735.) the gold
talent would be £300x24,= £7,200; and 600 gold
talents £4,320,000. This would not be so much as
Solomon imported yearly, 606 talents = £l,7').-.,-.ji)0.
2 1 Chr. xxviii. 10. 3 111. 20.
4 2 Chr. xix. 11. Mil. .S.
0 Gesenius (v. pin) refers to the followmg; 2
Sxm. X. 12, (Joab to Abishai in the war with the
Syrians); 2 Chr. xxv. 8. (the prophet to .Amaziah);
2 Sam. xiii. 28 (Absalom to his servants about the
murder of Amnon) ; Ps. xxvii. 14, xxxi. 25, (with
the corresponding promise that G-od would establish
their hearts) ; Is. xli. G, (in mockery of the laborious
process of making an idol). It occurs also, sup
ported by I'pSl Jos. i. 6, 7, 9, 18 (God's words to
Joshua) ; Deut. xxxi. 7, (Moses to Joshua) ; Ib. 6,
(_tii Israel); Josh. x. 25 (Joshua to the people); 2
Chr. xxxii. 7 (Hezekiah to the people) ; pin itself
is repeated Dan. a. 19. pini plH.
' Less probable seems to me, 1) To make ri^
12in depend on Ity^ in v. 4, as Kim, A. E. a) on
account of the idiom in 1 Chr., in whieh, as here,
riK^Tt stands absolutely,, "do work;" b) Haggai is

land, saith the Lord, and ^ ^ eTI t
work: for I am with you, g"- s^"-
saith the Lord of hosts :
5 ^According to theaEx. 29. 45,46.
word that I covenanted
with you when ye came

into any grammatical relation with the pre
ceding. The more exact idiom would have
been " Kemember," " take to heart." But
the Prophet points to it the more energetic
ally, because he casts it, as it were, into tlie
raidst, not bound up with any, one verb.
This would be the rather done in speaking
to the people, as David to his followers^
That which the Lord hath given us and hath
preserved us and given the company against us
into our hands ! i. e. " Would you deal thus
with it ? " The abrupt forra rejects it as
shocking. So here, Tlie word whieh I cove
nanted with you, i. e. this, / will be with you,
was the central all-containing promise, to
which God pledged Himself when He
brought them out of Egypt. He speaks to
them as being one with those who came up
out of Egypt, as if they were the very per
sons. The Church, ever varying in the indi
viduals of whom it is composed, is, thi-ough-
out all ages, in God's sight, one ; His prom
ises to the fathers are raade to the children
in thera. So the Psalmist says, There (at the
dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan) do we
rejoice in Him, as if present there ; and our
Lord promises to the Apostles, " I am with
you always even io the end of the world, by an
ever-present Presence with them and His
Church founded by them in Him.
exhorting them to this one work of rebuilding the
temple, not to obedience tothe law generally; e)
he speaks of what God had promised them, not of
their duties to God. 2) To supply n^l "remem
ber," or any like word, is arbitrary, unless it means
that we should fill up the meaning by some such
word. 3) To construe, " Remember the word whioh
I covenanted with you. fear not" (Ew.); a) gives
undue prominence to the absence of fear, which
was one consequence of God's covenant that He
would be their God, they His people, not the cove
nant itself; b) Fear 'not, is elsewhere the counter
part and supplement of the exhortation, "be
strong," 2 Chr. xxv. 8, Is. xxxv. 41. c) In Ex. xx. 20,
(referred to by Ew.) "fear not" is only Moses'
exhortation on occasion ofthe terrors of the mani
festation of God on Mt. Sinai. 4) It is doubly
improbable, that it, as well as TlTl, should be the
subject of the sing. moj;. The lann flS and
the "nn seem to be different constructions, in
order to prevent this. Bottcher terms it, "an ace.
abs. of the object," and cites Deut. xi. 2, Ezek.
xliii. 7, xlvii. 17-19, ("unless one correct riSl for
nXI ") Zech. viii. 17. (Lehrb. n. 516. e.)
8 1 Sam. xxx. 23, whieh Ewald compares, Lehrb.
n. 329. a, p. 811, ed. 8. and in his Die Proph. iii. 183.
Only he, not very intelligibly, makes it a sort of
oath. By the word. By that which the Lord hath given
ns. But he suggests the like broken sentence
Zech. vii. 7. » S. Matt, xxviii. 20.

CHAPTER II.

309

c H eTs t °^^ °^ Egypt, so ' my spirit
cir. 620. remaineth among you :

• Neh. 9. 20. n ,
Isai. 63. 11. tear ye not.

3Iy Spirit abideth among you, as the Psalm
ist says, ' they [the heavens] perish and Thou
ahidest; " The counsel of the Lord standeth for
ever; ^ His righteousness endureth forever. The
Spirit of God is God the Holy Ghost, wdth
His manifold gifts. Where He is, is all
good. As the soul is in the body, so God the
Holy Ghost is in the Church, Himself its
life, and bestowing on all and each every
good gift, as each aud all have need. As S.
Paul says of the Church of Christ ; * There
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ; and
there are diversities of operations, but it is the
same God, Who worketh all in all. All these
worketh one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as He will. But above and
beyond all gifts fie is present as the Spirit of
holiness and love, making the Church and
those in whom He individually dwells, accept
able to God. Special applications, such as
the Spirit of ¦wisdom and might ; a spirit such as
He gave to Moses to judge His people " ; the
spirit of prophecy " ; or the spirit given
to Bezaleel and Aholiab for the work of the
sanctuary' — these recognize in detail the
one great truth, that all good, all wisdom,
from least to greatest, comes from God
the Holy Ghost ; though one by one they
wotdd exclude more truth than they each
contain. 6. Yet once, it is a little while. This, the
rendering of S. Paul to the Hebrews, is alone
grammatical *. Yet onee. By the word yet he
looks back to the first great shaking of the
moral world, when God's revelation by
Moses and to His people broke upon the
darkness of the pagan world, to be a monu
ment against heathen error till Christ should
come ; onee looks on, and conveys that God
would again shake the world, but onee only,
under the one dispensation of the Gospel,
which should endure to the end.
Itis a little while. " " The 517 years, which
were to elapse to the birth of Christ, are
called a little time, because to the prophets,
ascending in heart to God and the eternity
of God, all times, like all things of this world,
seem, as they are, only a little thing, yea a
mere point ; " which has neither length nor
breadth. So S. Johu calls the time of the

'Ps. cii. 27.
' Ib. cxi. 3.
5 Alb. quoting Num. xi. 25,

2 Ib. xxxiii. 11.
* 1 Cor. xii. 4, 6, 11.

° Jon. " My prophets shall teach you, fear not."
' Included by Lap.
«nnK 2 Kgs vi. 10, Ps. Ixii. 12, Job. xl. 5 : inX,
a« an adj., foUows the noun. In the only exception
alleged by Ges., Dan. viii. 13, it is used of one cer
tain angel, as contrasted with another. D^D is

6 For thus saith the „ before
Lord of hosts; 'Yet once,.
it is a little while, and ^ I

f ver. 21.
Heb. 12. 26.
B Joel 3. 10.

new law, the last hour; '"Little children, it is
the last hour. It was little also in respect to
the time, which had elapsed frora the fall of
Adam, upon which God promised the Sa
viour Christ " ; little also in respect to
the Christian law, which has now lasted
above 1800 years, and the time of the end
does not seem yet nigh.
/ will shake the heavens and the earth, and the
sea and the dry land. It is one universal
shaking of all this our world and the
heavens over it, of which the Prophet
speaks. He does not speak only of " signs
in the sun and in the moon and in the stars,
which might be, and yet the frame of the
world itself might remain. It is a shaking,
such as would involve the dissolution of this
our system, as St. Paul draws out its mean
ing ; '" This word, once more, signifieth the re
moving of ihe things that are shaken, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Prophecy, in its long perspective, uses a
continual foreshortening, speaking of things
in relation to their eternal meaning and sig
nificance, as to that which shall survive,
when heaven and earth and even time shall
have passed away. It blends together the
beginning and the earthly end ; the prepara
tion and the result ; the comraencement of
redemption and its completion ; our Lord's
coming in humility and in His Majesty.
Scarce any prophet but exhibits things in
their intrinsic relation, of which time is but
an accident. It is the rule, not the excep
tion. The Seed of the woman, Who should
bruise the serpent's head, was promised on
the fall ; to Abraham, the blessing through
his seed ; by Moses, the prophet like unto
him ; to David, an everlasting covenant '*.
Joel unites the out -pouring of the Spirit of
God on the Day of Pentecost, and the hatred
of the world till the Day of Judgment ''' ;
Isaiah, God's judgments on the land and the
Day of final judgment'"; the deliverance
from Babylon, and the first coming of
Christ " ; the glories of the Church, the new
heavens and the new earth which shall re
main forever, and the unquenched fire and
undying worm of the lost "¦ ; Daniel, the per
secutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, of Anti-
used of time, Job x. 20, xxiv. 24. 1 nflX ll.J» is the
like construction as 1 D^D 1))! Ex. xvii. 4, Ps.
xxxvii. 10, Hos. i. 4. " Lap.
i» 1 S. John ii. 18. " Gen. iii. 15.
12 S. Luke xxi. 25. i» Heb. xii. 27.
" 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. '' Joel ii. 28-32, iii.
10 Is. xxiv.
1' Ib. xl.-lxvi. " lb. Ixvi. 22-24.

310

HAGGAL

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.

will shake the heavens, and
the earth, and the sea, and
the dry land;

Christ, and the Eesurrection ' ; Obadiah,
the punishraent of Edom and the everlasting
kingdom of God ^ ; Zephaniah, the punish
ment of Judah and the final judgment ofthe
e;a-th ^ ; Malachi, our Lord's flrst and second
Coraing *.
Nay, our Lord Hiraself so blends together
the destruction of Jerusalem and the days of
Anti-Christ and the end of the world, that it
is difficult to separate them, so as to say what
belongs exclusively to either^. The pro
phecy is an answer to two distinct ciuestions
of the Apostles, 1) When shall these things
(viz. the destruction of the teraple) bef 2)
a'nd what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of
tlie end of the world ? Our Lord answers the
two questions in one. Some things seera to
belong to the first Coraing, as " the abomination
of desolation spoken of by Daniel, and the fiight
frora ''Judcea into the mountains. Eut the
exceeding deceivableness is authoritatively
interpreted by St. Paul " of a distant time ;
and our Lord Hiraself, having said that all
these things, of which the Apostles had en
quired, should take place in that genera
tion", speaks of His absence as of a raan
taking a far journey '", and says that not the
angels in heaven knew that hour, neither the
Son " ; which precludes the idea, that He
had just before declared that the whole would
take place in that generation. For this
would be to make out, that He declared that
the Son knew not the hour of His Coming,
which He had just (on this supposition) de
clared to be in that generation.
So then, here. There was a general shak
ing upon earth before our Lord carae.
Empires rose and fell. The Persian fell
before Alexander's ; Alexander's world-em
pire was ended by his sudden death in
youth ; of his four successors, two only con
tinued, and they too fell before the Romans ;
then were the Roman civil wars, until,
under Augustus, the temple of Janus was
shut. " ''' For it greatly beseemed a work
ordered by God, that many kingdoms should
be confederated iu one empire, and that the
universal preaching might find the peoples
easily accessible who were held under the
rule of one state." In the Heavens was the
1 Dan. xi. xii. 2 ob. 18-21.
'¦> See on Zeph. i. 2, 3. p. 235, 236.
< Mai. iii. 1-5. 17, IS. Iv.
5 The second question abouf; the end of the
world occurs orly in S. Matthew (x.xiv. 31; the
first, When shall these things be'? occurs in S.Mark
also (xiil. .3) and S. Luke (xxi. 6). The words in s.
Sl.'irk, This generation shall not pass till all these
til nigs be done (xiii. 30) seem to me to be cast in the
form of their question, When shall these things bef
viz. the things about which they had asked.

7 And I will shake all ^ ^f'f^^ ,^
nations, " and the desire of ™- ^^o-

all nations shall come : and Mah's.^^"'

star, which led the wise men, the manifesta
tion of Angels to the shepherds; the preter
natural darkness at the Passion; the Ascen
sion into the highest Heaven, and the des
cent of the Holy Ghost with '" a sound from
heaven as lof} a rushing mighty wind. "'*God
had moved them [heaven and earth] before,
when He delivered the people from Egypt,
when there was in heaven a column of fire,
dry ground araid the waves, a wall in the
sea, a path in the waters, in the wdlderness
there was raultiplied a daily liar vest of heav
enly food [the raanna], the rock gushed into
fountains of waters. But He raoved it after
ward also in the Passion of the Lord Jesus,
when the heaven was darkened, the sun
shrank back, the rocks were rent, the graves
opened, the dead were raised, the dragon,
conquered in his waters, saw the fishers of
men, not only sailing in the sea, but also
walking without peril. The dry ground also
was moved, when the unfruitful people of
the nations began to ripen to a harvest of
devotion and faith, — so that more were ihe
children of the forsaken, than of her which had a
husband, and '^ the desert fiourished like a lily."
" '" He raoved earth in that great miracle of
the birth from the Virgin : He moved the
sea and dry land, when in the islands and in
the whole world Christ is preached. So we
see all nations moved to the faith."
And yet, whatever preludes of fulfillraent
there were at our Lord's first Coraing, they
were as nothing to the fulfillment wliich we
look for in the Second, wlien " the earth shall be
utterly broken down ; ihe earth, clean dissolved ;
the earth, moved exceedingly; the earth shall
reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be
removed like a hanging-cot 'in a vineyard '", and
the transgression thereof is heavy upon it ; and
it shall fall and not rise again ; whereon fol
lows an announcement of the final judgraent of
men and angels, and the everlasting king
dom of the blessed in the presence of God.
Of that day of the Lord, St. Peter uses our
Lord's image, "*that it shall ''"come as a thief in
the night, in which the heavens shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein
shall be burned up.
7. And the desire of all nations shaU come.
» S. Miitt, xxiv. 15, 16. ' Ib. 24.
8 2 Th ess. V. 2-10. » S. Mark xiii. 30.
10 Ib. 34. 11 lb. 32.
12 S. Leo Hom. 82 in Nat. Ap. Petri et Pauli. o. 2.
col. 322. Ball. IS Acts ii. 2.
14 S. Ambr. Ep. 30 ad Iren. n. 11,12. Opp. ii.
913 Ben. 15 Is. xxxv. 1.
16 S. Aug. de Civ. Dei. xviii. 25. " Is. xxiv. 19, 20.
"njlSn. See a picture of one in Niebuhr.
13 S. Matt. xxiv. 43. 20 2 S. Pet. iii. 10.

CHAPTER IL

311

The words can only mean this, ihe central
longing of all nations ' ; He whom they
longed for, either through the knowledge of
Him spread by the Jews in their dispersion,
or mutely by the aching craving of the
human heart, longing for the restoration from
its decay. Theeamest expectation of the creature
did not begin with the Coming of Christ, nor
was it limited to those, who actually came to
Him. '' The whole creation, Saint Paul saith,
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
¦now. It was enslaved, and the better self
longed to be free ; every motion of grace in
the multitudinous heart of man was a long
ing for its Deliverer ; every weariness of
what it was, every fleeting vision of what
was better, every sigh from out of its mani
fold ills, were notes of the one varied cry,
" Come and help us." Man's heart, forraed
in the image of God, could not but ache to
he re-formed by and for Him, though an
unknown God, Who should reform it.
This longing increased as the time drew
nigh, when Christ should come. The Roman
biographer attests the existence of this expec-

1 ion is " coveted." It is the passion forbidden
iil the tenth commandment, Ex. xx. 14, (bis) Deut.
V. 18, vii. 25, Ex. xxxiv. 24, Jos. vii. 21, Pr. vi. 25, Mi.
ii. 2. In Pr. xii. 12, it is a passionate desire which
ends in choice. It is united with "loved" and
" hated," Ib. i. 22 ; of the passionate idolatry, Is.i.
29. It is used of God's passionless good-pleasure
in that which He chooses, yet speaking after the
manner of men, Ps. Ixviii. 17, and of man's not
longing for Jesus, Is. Iiii. 2. The Piel is used onee
of intense longing. Cant. ii. 3. Men covet things
for some real or seeming good; and so the passive
form of the verb, "IIDH or TiDHJ, are things which
are the object of coveting, and so things desirable ;
imn Job XX. 20, Ps. xxxix. 12, s. xliv. 9; Hon:
Gen. ii. 9, iii. 6, Ps. xix. 11. Pr. xxi. 20. IDnO with
the gen. is "the desire of the eye," what it
covete or desires, 1 Kgs xx. 6, Ex. xxiv. 16, 21, 25,
Lam. ii. 4; or desirable things, belonging to one,
Jo. iv. 5, Is. Ixiv. 10, Lam. i. 10, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19,
or from it, DJC33 "'lOpD Hos. ix. 16. "the desires of
the womb," " the desired children that their wumb
had borne," or with J, " the desired things oonsist-
ingin their silver," DSDIIT ^^^D, Ib. ix. 6. or abs.
Cant, V. 16. nono occurs in the same sense. Lam.
i. 7, 11; n'nnn or .n WK of Oanlel, as the object
of the love of God, Dan. ix. 23, x. 11, 19 ; and of de
sirable things, Gen, xxvii. 15, 2 Chr. xx. 25, Dan. x.
3, xi. .38, 43, Ezr. viii. 27.
As to rrnon Itself, two idioms have been con
fused ; 1) that in which it is accessory to another
word, as mDH ''73 "vessels of desire," Hos. xiii.
16, Jer. xxv. 34, 2 Chr. xxxii. 27, Dan. xi. 8, ;Nah. ii.
10; mnn yiX, "land of desire," Ps. cvi. 24, Jer.
iiL 19, Zech. yii. 14; TrnDn TIJ "houses of thy
desire," or " thy houses of desire," Ez. xxvi. 12 ;
'miDn np7n "my portion of desire," Jer. xii.
10. These we mightparaphrase " pleasant vessels,"
"pleasant land," as we might say "desirables."
Not that the word niDn means, in itself, " pleas
ant things," any more than the word " coveted "
signifies pleasant, though those things only are
" coveted," which are thought to be pleasant. The
original sense of the root, to " desire," is obviously

tation, not among the Jews only, but in the
East ^ ; this was quickened doubtless among
the heathen by the Jewish Sibylline book,
in that, amid the expectations of one sent
frora heaven, who should found a kingdom of
righteousness, which the writer drew from
the Hebrew prophets, he inserted denuncia
tions of temporal vengeance upon the Romans,
which Easterns would share. StiU, although
written 170 years befbre our Lord came ^, it
had not apparently much effect until the
time, when, from the prophecies of Daniel it
was clear, that He must shortly come".
Yet the attempt of the Jewish " and heathen
' historian to wrest it to Vespasian, shews
how great raust have been the infiuence of
the expectation, which they attempted to
turn aside. The Jews, who rejected our
Lord Whora Haggai predicted, still were
convinced that the prediction must be ful
filled before the destruction of the second
temple. The impulse did not cease even
after its destruction. R. Akiba, whom they
accounted " * the first oracle of his time, the
first and greatest guardian of the tradition
brought out the more, when the idea is not sub
sidiary, but the chief. There are four cases, in
which Chemdah is so used. (1) "Jehoram died
mon X73, unregretted," we should .say; "no.
one longing for him," 2 Chr. xxi. 20 ; (2) " To whom
is 7i<*l jy r^lDH iD, the whole longing of Israel ?"
ISam. ix. 20; (3) The well-known words mDH,
W^i Chenulath Nashim, " the desire of women,"
Dan. xi. 37. If (as this is now generally under
stood) this means "the object of-the longing of
women," so much the more must D^l JH 73 JIIDH
mean, " the object of the longing of all nations."
They cannot mean, "the most desirable of all
nations," " die liebsten aller Volker," Ew. formerly ;
"die edelsten aller Volker," Hitzig; "die auser-
lesensten derselben;" Umbreit. This must have
been expressed by aid of the passive participle in
any of the forms, by which a superlative is ex
pressed. Nor can it mean " the costly things of
all people ; " (" die hohen Schjitzen aller der
volker," Ewald, " die Kbstbarkeiten aller Na-
tionen," Scholz). This, if expressed by the word
at all, would have been, D'Un 73 ^^DniD. Kashi,
A. E., Kimchi, explain as if 3 were omitted. R.
Isaac (Chizzuk Emunah, in Wagens. Tela ignea
p. 288) quotes 2 Kgs xii. 11, where '''' ri^3 stands as
the ace. of place; R. Tanehum omits the verse,
Abulwalid the instance. It is not noticed by R.
Parchon, Kimchi, Menahem ben Saruk, David b.
Abraham, in their dictionaries. Abarbanel retains
the meaning, "the desire of all nations," inter
preting it of the holy land. He paraphrases
.jn S3 .n 1X13''l "that they shall come to the
holy land and there shall He be avenged of them,
and then at that time' 'Iiwilb fill this house with
glopy.'v. p. n.l?.1>.4:- The Anon. Arab. (Hunt. 206)
renders "the most precious things of all nations-
shall come." 2 Rom. viii. 19-22.
3 Suet. Vesp. c. 4.
4 See Pusey's "Daniel the Prophet," pp. 364-368.
6 Ib. pp. 230-233. 6 Jos. B. J. vi. 5. 4.
' Tae. Hist. v. 13.
8 " He was President of the academies of Lidda
and Jafna, disciple and successor of Rabban Gama
liel, and a man of.such learning and repute, that he
was aceounted among the Hebrews the first oracia
fte." De BossiI)iz..stQr..d. Autori.Ebr-.sub v.

312

HAGGAL

and old law," of whom they said, that "' God
revealed to him things unknown to Moses,"
was induced by this prophecy to acknowledge
the irapostor Bar-cochab, to the destruction
of himself and of the most eminent of his
tirae ; fulfilling our Lord's words, ^ I am
come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me
not ; if another shall come in his own name, him
ye will receive. Akiba, foUowdng the tradi
tional meaning of the great prophecy which
ri vetted his own ej'cs, paraphrased the words,
" " Yet a little, a little of the kingdom,, will
I give to Israel upon the destruction of the
first house, and after the kingdora, lo ! I will
shake heaven, and after that will corae the
Messiah." Since the words can only mean " the
Desire of all nations," he or that which all
nations long for, the construction of the words
does not affect the meaning. Herod doubt
less thought to advance his own claims on
the Jewish people by his material adorning
of the temple ; yet, although mankind do
covet gold and silver, few could seriously
think that, while a heathen imraoral but
observant poet could speak of " gold undis
covered and so better placed V' ox our own
of the " pale and comraon drudge ' Tween
man and man," a Hebrew prophet could
recognize gold and silver as the desire of all
nations. R. Akiba and S. Jerome's Jewish
teachers, after our Lord came, felt no difficulty
in understanding it of a person. We cannot
in English express the delicacy of the phrase,
whereby manifoldness is combined in unity,
the Object of desire containing in itself
many objects of desire. To render "the
desire of all nations " or " the desires of all
nations " alike fail to do this. A great
heathen raaster of language said to his
wife, "fare you well, ray longings V i.e.,
I suppose, if he had analyzed his feelings,
he meant that she manifoldly met the
longings of his heart ; she had in her
self raanifold gifts to content thera. So
St. Paul sums up all the truths and gifts of
the Gospel, all wdiich God shadowed out in
the law and had given us in Christ, under
the name of ""the good things to come." .-V
pious modern writer ' speaks of " the unseen
desirables of the spiritual world." A psalmist
expresses at once the collective, " God's
Word " and the " words " contained in it, by
iR. Bechai. See ab. p. 48. note 12.
2S. John v. 43.
3 Sanhedrin. dist. chelek in l\Iart. Pug. fid. p. 305.
R. Gedaliah B. Yechaiah quotes R. .Akiba, rejecting
his interpretation. " And not as Rabbi Akibah, who
was interpreting this section ; ' Yet once, itis a little
nnd I shake the heaven and the earth,' He interprets,
that when Israel went to the captivity of Babylon,
Haggai the prophet spake this section, and its
meaning is, that in this house there will be Uttle
flory, and after this I will bring the desire of the
eathen to Jerusalem." Shalsheleth Hakkabbala
extracted in the Carm. R. Lipmanni confut. p. 019.
in Wagenseil Tela ignea satange.

an idiom like Haggai's, joining the feminine
singular as a collective with the plural verb ;
^How sweet are Thy word unio my taste lit.
palate. It is God's word, at once collectively
and individually, which was to the Psalmist
so sweet. What was true of the whole, was
true, one by one, of each part ; what was true
of each part, was true of the whole. So here,
the object of this longing was manifold, but
met in one, was concentrated in One, "in
Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto 'us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctifl.cat'ion and redemp
tion. That wdiich the whole world sighed
and mourned for, knowingly or unknowingly,
light to disperse its darkness, liberty from its
spiritual slavery, restoration frora its degra
dation, could not corae to us without some
one, who should impart it to us.
But if Jesus was the longed-for of the ¦nations
before He came, by that mute longing of
need for that which it wants (as the parched
ground thirsteth for the rain '") how much
more afterward ! So Micah and Isaiah
describe many peoples inviting one another,
" Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jaeob ; and
He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk
in His paths. And in truth He became the
desire of the nations, much more than of the
Jews ; as, St. Paul says ''', God foretold of old ;
3/o,ses saith, I ¦will provoke you to jealousy by
thera that are not a people : by a foolish nation
I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold and
saith, I was found of them that sought Me not.
So till now and in eternity, " '^ Christ is
the longing of all holy souls, who long for
nothing else, than to please Hira, daily to
love Hira more, to worship Hira better. So
S. John longed for Him ; Oome, Lord Jesus '*.
So Isaiah ; '" The desire of our soul is to Thy
Name and. to the remembraunce of Thee : with my
soul have I desired Thee in the night ; yea, with
my spirit "within me, ivill I seek Thee early. So
S. Ignatius, " '" Let fire, cross, troops of wild
beasts, dissections, rendings, scattering of
bones, mincing of limbs, grindings of the
whole body, ill tortures of the devil come
upon rae, only raay I gain Jesus Christ. — I
seek Him Who for us died ; I long for Him
Who for us rose."
" " Hungerest thou and desirest food ? Long
for Jesus ! He is the bread and refreshment
of Angels. He is manna, containing in Him
*"Aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm." Hor.
Od. iil. .3. 49.
'" " Valete, mea desideria, valete." Cic. Ep. ad
Famil. xiv. 2. fin.
^ Heb. X. 1. rCiv ^€XA6vT(i>v a-yaQit)V.
^ Dr. Watts Vol. i. Serm. 4. , ,
«Ps. cxix. 103. iniDK '3n7 ISSOJ HD.
»1 Cor. 1.30. '
10 Euripides so uses epav, of the ground longing
for the rain.
11 Mi. iv. 2. Is. ii. 3.
12 Rom. X. 19, 20 ; quoting Deut. xxxii. 21. Is. Ixv. 2.
13 Lap. " Rev. xxii. 20. i=' Is. xxvi. 8, 9.
i« Ep. ad Rom. in Ruinart Acta Mart. p. 703.

CHAPTER II.

313

cheTst ^ '^^'^ fi^^ *^i® ^°"®® '^^ith
cir. 520. glory, saith the Loed of
hosts.

aZZ sweetness and pleasurable delight. Thirstest
thou ? Long for Jesus I He is the well of
living waier, refreshing, so that thou shouldest
thirst no more. Art thou sick ? Go to Jesus.
He is the Saviour, the physician, nay, salva
tion itself. Art thou dying ? Sigh for Jesus !
He is the resurrection and ihe life. Art thou
perplexed? Come to Jesus ! He is the Angel
of great counsel. Art thou ignorant and err
ing ? Ask Jesus ; He is tlie way, the truth and
the life. "Art thou a sinner ? Call on Jesus !
For He shall save His people from their sins.
To this end He came into the world : This is
all His fruit, to take away sin. Art thou
tempted by pride, gluttony, lust, sloth ? Call
on Jesus! He is humility, soberness, chastity,
love, fervor: He bare our inflnnilies, und
carried, 'yea still beareth and carrieth, our
griefs. Seekest thou beauty ? He is fairer
than the children of men. Seekest thou
wealth ¦? In Him are all treasures, yea in Him
the fullness of ihe Godhead dwelleth. Art thou
ambitious of honors? Olory and -riches are in
His house. He is ihe King of glory. Seekest
thou a friend ? He hath the greatest love for
thee, Who for love of thee came down from
heaven, toiled, endured the Sweat of Blood,
the Cross and Death ; He prayed for thee by
name in the garden, and poured forth tears
of Blood ! Seekest thou wisdom ? He is the
Eternal and Uncreated Wisdom of the
Father I Wishest thou for consolation and
joy? He is the sweetness of souls, the joy
and jubilee of Angels. Wishest thou for
righteousness and holiness ? He is the Holy
of holies; He is everlasting Righteousness,
justifying and sanctifying all who believe and
hope in Him. Wishest thou for a blissful
life ? He is life elei-nal, the bliss of the saints.
Long then for Him, love Him, sigh for Hira I
In Him thou wilt find all good ; out of Hira,
all evil, all raisery. Say then with S. Francis,
' My Jesus, my love and my all! ' O Good Jesus,
burst the cataract of Thy love, that its
streams, yea seas, may fiow down upon us,
yea, inebriate and overwhelm us."
And I will fill this house wiih glory. The
glory then was not to be anything, which
came from man, but directly from God. It
was the received expression of God's mani
festation of Himself in the tabernacle ', in
Solomon's temple '', and of the ideal tem
ple ^ which Ezekiel saw, after the likeness of
that of Solomon, that the glory of the Lord
1 Ex. xl. ,34 35.
'n Kgs viii'. ll'. 2 Chr. v. 14. vii. 1-12.
" Ezek. xliii. 5. xliv. 4.
'I.'S. Ix. 0. 6 Ps. Ixxii. 10.
«Nu. vii. 19, 25, 3L &c. The "charger" (m.J?p)

8 The silver is mine and
the gold is mine, saith the _
Lord of hosts.

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.

filled the house. When then of this second
temple God uses the self-same words, that
He will fill it with glory, with what other
glory should He fill it than His own ? In the
history it is said, the glory ofthe Lord fllled the
temple ; for there man relat^ what God did.
Plere it is God Himself Who speaks ; so He
says not, the glory of the Lord, but, Iwill fill
the house with glory, glory which was His to
give, which carae from Himself. To inter
pret that glory of anything material, is to do
violence to language, to force on words of
Scripture au unworthy sense, which they
refuse to bear.
The gold upon the walls, even had this
second temple been adorned like the first,
did not fill the temple of Solomon. How
ever richly any building might be overlaid
wdtli gold, no one could say that it is filled
with it. A building is filled -with what it
contains ; a mint or treasure-house may be
filled with gold : the temple of God was
fllled, we are told, with the glory of ihe Lord.
His creatures bring Hira such things as they
can offer ; they bring * gold and incense ;
they " bring presents and offer gifts ; thej' do
it, raoved by His Spirit, as acceptable to
Him. God is nowhere said, Himself to give
these offerings to Hiraself
8. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine.
These words, which have occasioned sorae to
think, that God, in speaking of the glory
with which He should fill the house, meant
our material riches, suggest the contrary.
For silver was no ornaraent of the teraple of
Solomon. Everything was overlaid wdth
gold. In the tabernacle there were bowls
of silver'', in Solomon's temple they and all
were of gold'. Silver, we are expressly
told, iocw nothing accounted of ^ in the days of
Solomon : he "made silver to be in .lerusalem as
stones— for abundance. Rather, as God says
by the Psalmist, '"Every beast of the forest is
Mine, so are the cattle upon a thousand hills: I
know all the fowls ofthe mountains, and the wild
beasts of the fleld are Mine. If I were hungry,
I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine and
thefullness thereof: so here He tells them,
that for the glory of His house He needed
not gold or silver: for all the wealth of the
world is His. They had no ground " " to
grieve then, that they could not equal the
magnificence of Solomon who had abundance
of gold and silver." All was God'- "">

He

which in the tabernacle was of silver (Nu. vii. 13.
&c.) does not appear in the temple of Solomon.
'1 Kgs vii. 50. 2 Chr. iv.8.
8 1 Kgs X. 21.
» 1 b. 27. '0 Ps. 1. 10-12. 11 Lap.

314

HAGGAL

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.
John 1. 14.

9 ' The glory of this lat-
. ter house shall be greater

would fill it with divine glory. The Desire
of all nations, Christ, should come, and be a
glory, to which all created glory is nothing.
" ' God says really and truly, that the sil
ver and gold is His, which in utmost bounty
He created, and in His raost just government
administers, so^that, without His will and
dominion, neither can the bad have gold and
silver for the punishraent of avarice, nor the
good f'or the use of mercy. Its abundance
does not inflate the good, nor its want crush
them : but the bad, when bestowed, it blinds :
when taken away, it tortures."
" ^ It is as if He would say, Think not the
teraple inglorious, because, may be, it will
have no portion of gold or silver, and their
splendor. I need not such things. How
should I ? For Mine is the silver and Mine
the gold, saith the Lord Almighty. I seek
rather true worshipers : with their bright
ness will I guild this temple. Let him come
w ho hath right faith, is adorned by graces,
gleams with love for Me, is pure in heart,
poor in spirit, compassionate and good."
" These make the temple, i. e. the Church,
glorious and renowned, being glorified by
Christ. For they have learned to pray ', The
glory of the Lord our God be upon 'us."
9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater
than of the former, or, perhaps, more probably,
ihe later glory of this house shall be greater than
the former ; for he had already spoken of the
present temple, as identical with that befbre
the captivity ; " * Who is left araong you
that saw ihis house in her first glory, and how
do you see it now ? " He had spoken of its
flrst glory. Now he says, in contrast, its later
glory should be greater than that of its most
glorious times'. Inthis case the question,
whether the teraple of Herod was a different
material building from that of Zerubbabel,
falls away. In either case, the contrast is
between two things, either the temple in
I S. Aug. Serm. 50. (de Ag. 2.) n. 4, 6. 2 S. Cyr.
3 Ps. xe. 17.
^ii. 3. So the LXX. "Wherefore great will be
the last glory of this house above the first [glory]."
In the other case, the order would have proViably
been, niH [linxn n'3n 1133 as in Ex. iii. 3,
De. il. 7, iv. 6, 1 Sam. xii. 16, 1 Kgs iii. 9, xx. 1.3, 28,
Jon. i. 12; but, as Kohler observes, this is not quite
uniform, as in 2 Chr. i. 10.
& This interpretation involves a change in the
wording of the argument from this prophecy, as to
the time of our Lord's first coming. For thus inter
preted, it does not speak of a second house, aud so
does not, in terms, speak of the material building
which was destroyed. R. Isaac made use of this :
"a difficulty need not be raised, that he said, 'this
house' of the house which is to be built, since of
the first house, which in their time was of old
waste, he said ' this house ' in the words, ' who is

than of the former, saith

Before
CHKIST
the Loed of hosts : and in "h. 520.

that its former estate, and this its latter
estate after the captivity, or the two
temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel. There
is no roora for a. third temple. God holds
out no vain hopes. To comfort those dis
tressed by the poverty of the house of God
which they were building, God promises a
glory to this house greater than before. A
temple, erected, after this had lain waste
above 1800 years, even if Anti-Christ were
to corae now and to erect a temple at Jeru
salem, could be no fulfillment of this
prophecy. In material magnificence the temple of
Solomon, built and adorned with all the
treasures accumulated by David and enlarged
by Solomon, far surpassed all which Herod,
amid his attempts to give a material mean
ing to the propliecy, could do. His attempt
shews how the eyes of the Jews were fixed
on this prophecy, then when it was about to
be fulfiUed. While taking pains, through
the gradualness of his rebuilding, to preserVe
the identity of the fabric, he lavished his
wealth, to draw off their thoughts from the
king, whom the Jews looked for, to himself.
The friendship of the Romans who were
lords of all, was to replace the all nations, of
whom Haggai spoke ; he pointed also to the
length of peace, the possession of wealth, the
greatness of revenues, the surpassing ex
penditure beyond those before''. A small
section of Erastians admitted these claims of
the murderer of his sons. The Jews gen
erally were not diverted frora looking on to
Him Who should come. Those five things,
the absence whereofthey felt, Were connected
with their atoning worship or God's Pres
ence araong them ; " ' the ark with the
mercy-seat and the Cherubim, the Urim and
Tummira, the fire frora heaven, the Shec
hinah, the Holy Ghost." Material magnifi
cence could not replace spiritual glory. The

left among you, who hath seen this house in its
first glory ?' and as ' this house ' is spoken of the
house of the sanctuary whieh was then desolate,
which was passed away, so he saith, ' this house,'
of the house which shall be." Chizzuch Emunah,
c. 34. Wagens. p. 292.
ifn his oration to the Jews, "Our forefathers
built this temple to the supreme God after the
return from Babylon, yet in size it lacks 60 cubits
in height ; for so much did the first, which Solomon
built, exceed. — But since, by the counsel of God, I
now rule, and we have a long peace, and ample
funds and large revenues ; and chief of all, the
Romans, who, so to speak, are lords of all, are our
friends and kindly disposed," (Joseph. Ant. xv. It.
1.) aud a little Later (n. 3) "exceeding the expendi
ture of those aforetime, in a way in which no other
appears to have adorned the temple." See Hengst.
Christ, iii. 257, 258. ed. 2.
' Yoma 21. b.

CHAPTER IL

315

cheTst *^^ place will I give
cir. 520. ''peace, saith the Lord of

kPs. 85. 8, 9. !,„„<.,
Luke 2. 14. nosts.
Eph. 2. 14.

explanations of the great Jewish authori
ties ', that the second temple was superior to
the first in structure (which was untrue) or
iu duration, were laid aside by Jews who
had any other solution wherewdth to satisiy
themselves. " The Shechinah and the five
precious things," says one '¦', " which, accord
ing to our wise of blessed memory, were in
it, and not in the second house, raised and
exalted it beyond compare." Another^ says,
" When Haggai saith, ' greater shall be the
glory of this later house than the first,' how
is it, that the house which Zerubbabel built
through the income which the king of Persia
gave thera was more glorious than the house
which Solomon -built? And though it is
said that the building which Herod made,
was exceeding beautiful and rich, we should
not think that it was in its beauty like to the
house which Solomon built. For what the
wise of blessed memory have said of the
beauty of the house of Herod is in relation to
the house which Zerubbabel built. How
much more, since Scripture saith not, ' Great
shall be the beauty or the wealth of this latter
house above the first,' but the glm-y : and the
glory is not the wealth or the beauty, or the
largeness of the dimensions of the building,
as they said in their interpretations ; for the
'glory' is in truth spoken of the glory of
God, which filled the tabernacle, after it was
set up, and of the glory of God which filled
1 " Rab and Samuel disputed hereon, or, as others,
R. Jochanan and R. Eliezer. The former said, ' it
shall be more gloriouy in structure;' the latter, 'in
years.' " Baba bathra c. 1. f. 30. R. Asariah quotes
also from the Shir hashshirim Rabba on Cant. ii. 12
and viii. 1, and adds, " We have found that the best
interpreters explained this prophecy literally as to
the second house." This is followed by Kimchi,
Rashi, A. E., Lipmann (Nizz. n. 260) Manasseh ben
Israel (de term, vitte) iii. 4. (Hifpert de gloria
Templipost., Thes. Theol.-Phil. p. 1086 sqq.) Tan
ehum. Of the magnificence of the building they
allege only that the building was in size equal to
that of Solomon, while even in material magnifi
cence it was beyond measure inferior. The relative
duration they underrate ; " the first, 410 years ; the
second 420;" for from the xi* of Solomon's reign,
B.C. 1005, to the burning of the temple in the xi">
of Zedekiah, were 417 years ; but from the vi* of
Darius when the 2d temple was finished, B. C. 515,
to the burning of the temple under Titus A.D. 70,
were 585 years. But mere duration is not glory.
R. Isaac says as Abarbanel; " But it is a difficulty
in what they say, that Scripture says not, ' great
shall be the building ofthe house,' or, 'the time
of the house,' only 'great shall be the glory of the
house;' for what that the 2d house stood ten
years more than the 1st, this was not such great
glory, that for this the prophet should say what he
said: and again though the days during which the
2d house stood were 100 years more than the dura
tion of the first house, and though in its building
it were twofold greater than the first house, how
saith Scripture of it on this account, that its glory

10 '^In the four and
twentieth day of the ninth .

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.

month, in the second year

the house of God, which Solomon built,
when he brought the ark into the holy of
holies, which is the Divine cloud and the
Light supreme, which came down thither in
the eyes of all the people, and it is said, ' And
it was when the priests cam^out of the holy
place, the cloud tilled the house of God, and
the priests could not stand to rainister be
cause of the cloud, for the glory of God filled
the house of God.' And this glory was not
in the second house. And how shall it be
said, if so, ' great shall be the glory of this
later house above the first ' ? " The poor
unconverted Jew did not know the answer to
his question: "Through the Presence of
God, in the substance of our flesh ; through
tlie Son given to us. Whose name should be
Mighty Ood." The glory of this temple was
in Him Who ''was made Flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. " ^ There Christ, the Son of God,
was, as a Child, offered to God : there Pie
sat in the midst of the Doctors ; there He
taught and revealed things, hidden from the
foundation of the world. The glory of the
temple of Solomon was, that in it the majesty
of God appeared, veiling itself in a cloud : in
this, that same Majesty shewed itself, in very
deed united with the Flesh, visible to sight :
so that Jesus Fliraself said, * He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father. This it was which
was greater than the first, since the glory which
dwelt in the first house did not dwell in it?" Cliizz.
Em. 1. c. pp. 287, 288. "Wherefore it is rather the
true glory which is the abiding of the glory of the
Shechinah in this house for ever; whieh did not
abide continually in the first house ; but in the
second house the glory did not dwell at all ; for
they had not the ark and the mercy seat and the
cherubim, or the Urim and Tummim, nor the
Holy Spirit, nor the heavenly fire, nor the anoint
ing oil, as it was in the 1st house." Ib. p. 293. Others
made the glory to consist in the absence of idola
try, quoted Ib. p. 286. R. Lipmann Nizz. p. 42, makes
in it to consist in the uninterruptedness of the
worship of God there, whereas the temple was shut
by Ahaz and Manasseh [as was the second at least
desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes for 3 years. 1
Mace. i. .54, iv. 59.1
2 R. Asariah de Rossi Imve Binah, c. 51, in Hilpert
1. c. n. 8. His own solution is that the glory was not
in the temple itself, but in that kings brought pres
ents to it. Ib. 10.
"Abarbanel Quajst. iv. in Hagg. f. Ipl. He says
that "the interpreters, all of them explained it of
the second house." p. r\J}'\ 2. Abarb subjoins a cri
ticism, which R. Asaria, Imre-Binah e. 54, saw to be
mistaken, that [IB'ST and |nnN couldnotbe said
of two thing.s (of which nnK and 'J© are, he says,
used) against which R. Asariah quotes Jer. 1. 17.
Gen. xxxUi. 2. Add Ex. iv. 8. Deut. xxiv. 3, 4. Ru.
hi. 10, Is. viii. 23. [ix. 1. Eng.]
1 S. John i. 14. 6 Lap. « S. Johu xiv. 9.

316

HAGGAL

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.

¦Lev. 10. 10, n.
Deut. 33. 10.
Mai. 2. 7.

of Darius, came the word
.of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet saying,
11 Thus saith the Lord
of hosts; 'Ask now the

Malachi sang with joy : ' The Lord Whom ye
seek shall suddenly eame io His temple, even the
Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in."
And in this place I will give peace. Tem
poral peace they had now, nor was there any
prospect of its being disturbed. They were
quiet subjects of the Persiam empire, which
included also all their former eneraies,
greater or less. Alexander subdued all the
bordering countries which did not yield, but
spared theraselves. Temporal peace then
was nothing to be then given them; for they
had it. In later tiraes they had it not. The
temple itself w.as profaned by Antiochus
Epiphanes. " * Her sanctuary was laid waste
like a wilderness. As had been her glory, so
¦was her dishonor increased." Again by
Pompey •*, by Crassus *, the Parthians ^, be
fore it was destroyed by Titus and the Ro
mans. Jews saw this and, knowing nothing
of the peace in Jesus, argued frora the ab
sence of outward peace, that the prophecy
was not fulfilled ' under the second teraple.
" 6 '\yi-^;it Scripture says, ' ;ind in this plaee I
will give peace,' is opposed to their interpreta
tion. For all the days of the duration of the
2d house were in strait of times and not in
peace, as was written in Daniel, and three
score and two weeks: ihe street shcdl be built
again and the fosse, and in strait of time, and,
as I said, in the tirae of Herod there was no
peace whatever, for the sword did not depart
from his house to the day of his death ; and
after his death the hatred among the Jews
increased, and the Gentiles straitened thera,
until they were destroyed from the face of
the earth."
But spiritual peace is, throughout pro
phecy, part of the promise of the Gospel.
Christ Himself was to be ' tlie Prince of
peace : of the increase of His government and of
His ¦peaee there was to be no end; in His
days ° the mountains were io bring peaee to the
people; there should be abundance of peace, so
long as the moon endureth ; ihe work of righteous
ness was to be peaee " ; the chastisement of our
peace [that which obtained it] was upon
1 Mai. iii. 1. 21 Mace. i. 39, 40.
3 Jos. Ant. xiv. 4. 4. B. J. i. 7.
•Ant. xiv. 7.1. B.J. 1.9. 8.
SAnt. XIV. 13. 3. 4.
0" Abraham B. Dior in his book of the Cabbala,
p. 43" in R. Isaac Chizz. Em. I. c. p. 287. R. Isaac
makes as if he had answered the explanation as to
Je.sus by quoting S. Matt. x. 34. 1. c. p. 292, 293.
'Is. ix. 6 7. «Ps. Ixxii. 3. 7.
ois. xxxii. 17. luib. Iiii. 5.

priests concerning the law
saying, 12 If one bear holy
flesh in the skirt of his
garment, and with his

Before
CHKIST cir. 520.

Him '" ; great should be ihe peace qf her ehil-
clren " ; in the Gospel God would give peace,
true peace, to the far off and the near '^; He
would extend ''^ peace to her like a river: the
good things of the Gospel was the publishing
qfpeace'K The tiospel is described as '°a
covenant of peace : the promised king '" shall
.speak peaee to the Heathen; He Himself
should be our pcace^'''. And when He was
born, the angels proclaimed " on earth peace,
goodwill toward men: '" The Dayspring from on
high visited us, to guide our feet into the way of
peace. He Hiraself says, '" 3Iy peace I leave
with you. He spake, that '" in Me ye might
have peace. S. Peter suras up the word which
Ood sent unto tliechildren of Israel, as ''''preach
ing peace by Jesus Christ : ''' the kingdom of God
is joy and peace ; ^* Christ is our peace; made
peace; preaches peaee. Ood calleth us to peace''",
in the Gospel : ''" being justifled by faith, we
have peace with God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. ; " tlie fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace.
Spiritual peace being thus prominent in the
Gospel and in prophecy, as the gift of God, it
were unnatural to explain the peace which
God promised here to give, as other than He
proraised elsewhere ; peace in Him Who is
our peace, Jesus Christ.
" '^ Peace and tranquillity of raind is above
all glory of the house ; because peace passeth
all understanding. This is peace above
peace, which shall be given after the third
shaking of heaven sea earth, dry land, when
He shall destroy all powers and principalities
[in tlieday of judgment]. — And so shall there
be peace throughout, that, no bodily passions
or hindrances of unbelieving mind resisting,
Christ shall be all in all, exhibiting the
hearts of all subdued to the Father."
11-14. Ask now the priests concerning the
law. The priests answer rightly, that, by the
law, insulated unholiness spread further than
insulated holiness. The flesh of the sacri
fice hallowed whatever it should touch '", but
not further ; but the human being, who
was defiled by touching a dead body, de
filed all he might touch ^. Haggai does not
11 lb. liv. 13. 12 Ib. Ivii. 19.
13 lb. Ixvi. 12. Mlb. Iii. 7.
IS Ez. xxxiv. 25. iszech. ix. 10.
1' Mi. V. 5. 18 S. Luke ii. 14. " Ib. i. 79.
«) 8. John xiv. 27. =1 lb. xvi. 33.
22 Acts X. 36. 23 Rom. xiv. 17.
21 Eph. ii. 14, 15, 17. 251 Cor. vii. 15. !
2«Rom. V. 1. STGal. V. 22.
28 S. Ambr. 1. c. n. 14. Opp. ii. 913.
2= Lev. vi. 19 (27 Eng.) » Nu. xix. 22.

CHAPTER II.

317

cheTIt ^^^^ ^'^ touch bread, or
cir. 520. pottage, or wine, or oil, or
any meat, shall it be holy ?
And the priest answered
and said, ISTo.
13 Then said Haggai,
"Num.19. 11. If one that is ""unclean by
a dead body touch any of
these, shall it be unclean ?
And the priests answered
and said, It shall be un
clean. 14 Then answered Hag-
«Tit. L16. gai, and said, "So is this
people, and so is this na
tion before me, saith the
Loed ; a n d s o is every
work of their hands ; and

apply the first part ; viz. that the worship
on the altar which they reared, while they
neglected the building of the temple, did not
hallow. The possession of a holy thing does
not counterbalance disobedience. Contrari
wise, one defilement defiled the whole man
and all which he touched, according to that,
'wliosoever shaU keep the whole law and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
In the application, the two raelt into one ;
for the holy thing, viz. the altar which they
raised out of fear on their return, so far frora
hallowing the land or people by the sacri
fices oflered thereon, was itself defiled. This
people and this nation (not " My people " ) since
they in act disowned Him. Whatever they
offer there, i. e. on that altar, instead of the
temple which God coramanded, is unclean,
oflending Him Who gave all.
15. And now, I pray you. Observe his
tenderness, in drawing their attention to it 2.
Omsider from this day and upward. He bids
them look backward, from before a stone was
laid upon a stone, i. e. from the last moment
of their neglect in building the house of God ;
from since those days were, or from the time
backward when those things were, (resuming,
in the 'word, from-their-being ', the date which
'S. James ii. 10.
2 As expressed by SJ, here and 18.
*Euth iii. 7. Neh. xiii. 15. 2 Chr. xxxi. 6-9.
5 Vulg. «LXX.
^(Tlli) only occurs beside, Is, Ixiii. 3; where it
is the winefat itself. The LXX render it (icrpriTal ;
Jon. yj-M (whieh they use for S^J 1 Sam. x. 3,
xxv. 18, Jer. xiii. 12) Vulg. lagenas.
'Deut. xxviii. 27. "Am. iv. 9.

Before
CHRIST cir. 620.

that which they offer there
is unclean. 15 And now, I pray
you, "consider from this " oh. 1. 5.
day and upward, from be
fore a stone was laid upon
a stone in the temple of
the Lord :
16 Since those da-ys
were, '' when one came tC^'i-ic-B- Zech. 8. 10.
an heap 01 twenty meas
ures, there were hid ten :
when one came to the
pressfat for to draw out
fifty vessels* out of the
press, there were but
'^ ' qDeut. 28. 22.
twenty. 1 Kin. a. 37.
1 rr T . , ch. 1. 0.
17 'l smote you with Amos 4. 9.

he had just given, viz. the beginning of their
resuming the building backward, during all
those years of neglect) one came to a heap of
twenty measures. The precise measure is not
mentioned*: the force of the appeal lay in
the proportion : the heap of corn which,
usually, would yield twenty, (whether bush
els * or seahs " or any other measure, for the
heap itself being of no defined size, neither
could the quantity expected frora it be de
fined) there were ten only ; one came to the press-
vcd to draw out flfty vessels out of thep'e.5.s, or
perhaps //i"?/ poo)-aA, i. e. the ordinary quan
tity drawn out at one time from the press ',
there were, or it had become, twenty, two-fifths
only of what they looked for and ordinarily
obtained. The dried grapes yielded so little.
17. / smote you with blasting and mildew,
two diseases of corn, which Moses had fore
told * as chastisements on disobedience and
God's infiiction, of which Amos had spoken
in these self-same words'. Haggai adds ihe
hail, as destructive of the vines '". Yet [^md]
ye turned you not to Me lit. there were none —
you, (accusative ") i. e. who turned you unto
Me. The words are elliptical, but express
the entire absence of conversion, of any who
turned to God.
10 Ps. Ixxviii. 47.
11 D^J'^K marking the ace, DDjIX TX is not for
DDJ'X, which itself, according to the common
Hebrew construction, would require a participle, to
express action on their part. See instances in
Fur.st Conc. p. 4.5. v. '•JJ'X, Ex. v. 19, De. i. 42, Is. i.
15, Jer. xiv. 12 (bis), xxxvii. 14 ; 1J\S Gen. xx. 7,
xliii. .5, Ex. viii. 17, Jud. xii. 3, 1 Sam. xix. 11, 2 Sam.
xix. 8, 1 Kgs xxi. .5, Neh. ii. 2, Eccl. xi. 5, 6. Jer. vii.
17; DDJ'X, De. i. 32, iv. 12, 2 Kgs xii. 8, Ez. xx. 39,

318

HAGGAL

ohrTst blasting and mildew and
O'l'- S20. -svith hail ¦¦ in all the labors

'ch. LU. of your hands; "yet ye
Am'os 4.' 6, 8, 9, tumcd uot to mc, saith the
10, IL T
Lord.
18 Consider now from
this day and upward, from
the four and twentieth day
of the ninth month, even
•Zeoh. 8. 9. from 'the day that the
foundation of the Lord's

18. From, the clay that the foundation of the
Lord's house. Zechariah, in a passage corre
sponding to this, uses the same words ', the
day thcd the foundation of the house of the Lord
of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built,
not of the first foundation, but of the work as
resumed in obedience to the words by the
mouth of the prophets, Haggai and hiraself,
which, Ezra also says, was '' in the second year
of Darius. But that work was resuraed, not
now at the tirae of this prophecy, but three
months before, on the 24th of the sixth
month. Since then the word translated here,
from'', is in no case used of the present tirae,
Haggai gives two dates, the resuraption of
the work, as marked in these words, and the
actual present. He would then say, that
even in these last months, since they had be
gun the work, there were as yet no signs for
the better. There was yet no seed in the barn,
the harvest having been blighted and the
fruit-trees stripped by the hail before the
close of the sixth month, when they resumed
the work. Yet though there were as yet no
signs of change, no earnest that the promise
should be fulfilled, God pledges His word,
from this day Iwill bless you.
Thenceforth, from their obedience, God
would give thera those fruits of the earth,
which in His Providence had been, during
their negligence, withheld. Ood, said St.
Mai. ii. 2,9; UJ'N, De. xxi. 18, 20, Jud. iii. 2,5, 1 Sam.
xi. 7, 2 Chr. xviii. 7, Esth. v. 13, Eccl. v. 11, viii. 7,
13, 10, ix. 2, Jer. xxxviii. 4, xliv. 16; DJ'N, 2 Kgs
xvii. 2i;, 34 bis, Eccl. iv. 17, ix. 5, Neh. xiii. 24, Jer.
xxxii. 3.3, Ezek. ill. 7. 'Ss DDrXl would have
signified, "andye were not [well disposed] toward
Me," as in Hos. iii. 3, Jer. xv. 1, 2 Kgs vi. 11
(Ewald's in^itanees Lehrb. n. 217 e). Gen. xxxi. 5 ;
not (as required here) "ye turned you not unto
Me," as in Am. iv. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. Bottcher (Lehr
buch n. 516. d.) compares bene te (which implies a
verb), en ilium (where en is as a verb.) These how
ever are exclamations, not parts of sentences. He
thinks that "K is joined, 1) with a nom., and then
an ace. after 1, 1 Sam. xxvi. 16 ; that tj'' has an ace.
Gen. xxiii. 8, 2 Kgs x. 15, and K /H Zech. vii. 7.
J Zech. viii. 9.
2 Ezr. iv. 24, V. 1.,
'Such use of "07 would be inconsistent with any

Before
CHRIST eir. 620.

temple was laid, c(
sider it.
19 "Is the seed yet in "Zech. s. 12.
the barn? yea, as yet the
vine, and the fig tree, and
the pomegranate, and the
olive tree, hath not brought
forth : from this day will I
bless ¦you.
20 ^And again the
word of the Lord came

Paul and Barnabas, * left not Himself without
witness, 'in that He did good, and gave us rain
from heaven and fruitful seasons, fllling our
hearts with food and gladness.
All the Old and New Testament, the Law,
the Prophets and the Psalms, the Apostles
and our Lord Himself, bear witness to the
Providence of God Who makes His natural
laws serve to the moral discipline of His
creature, man. The physical theory, which
presupposes that God so fixed the laws of His
creation, as to leave no room for Himself to
vary them, would, if ever so true, only come
to this, that Almighty God knowing abso-
hitely (as He must know) the actions of His
creatures (in what way soever this is recon
cilable with our free-agency, of which we
are conscious), framed the laws of His physi
cal creation, so that plenty or famine, health
iness of our cattle or of the fruits of the
earth or their sickness, should coincide ivith
the good or evil conduct of raan, with his
prayers or his neglect of prayer. The re
ward or chastiseraent alike come to man,
whether they be the result of God's Will,
acting apart from any system which He has
created, or in it and through it. It is alike
His Providential agency, whether He have
established any such system wdth all its min
ute variations, or whether those variations
are the immediate result of His sovereign
force of 7. It is used of a terminus d quo, distant
from the present, and is equivalent to "up to aud
from." So Jud. xix. .30, "No such deed was seen
or done from the day that the children of Israel
came up," i. e. looking back to that time and from
it. So 2 Sam. vii. 6, " Since the time that I brought
up the children of Israel out of Egypt," lit. " up to
from the day." Add Ex. ix. 18, Deut. iv. 32, ix. 7, 2
Sam. vii. 11, xix. 25, Is. vii. 17, Jer. vii. 7, 25, xxv. 5,
xxxii. 31, 1 Chr. xvii. 10, Mai. iii. 7. But there is no
ground for thinking that Haggai used the word in
any sense, in which it had not been used before
him. The only construction consistent with the
use of TO 7 elsewhere is, that the terminus ad quern,
elsewhere expressed by 1^^, having been ex
pressed by the present DTQ, the distant terminus a
quo is, as elsewhere, expressed by tD'.
* Acts xiv. 17.

CHAPTER n.

319

chrTIt ^^*° Haggai in the four
cir. 520. and twentieth day of the

month, saying,
21 Speak to Zerubbabel,
soh. 1. u. '^ governor of Judah, say-
jver. 6. 7. . " _.,,,,'•'
Heb. 12. 26. ing, ''i Will shake the

• Dan. 2. 44.
Matt. 24. 7.

heavens and the earth ;
22 And 'I will over
throw the throne of king-

Will. If He has instituted any physical
system, so that the rain, hail, and its pro
portions, size, destructiveness, should come
m a regulated irregularity, as fixed in all
eternity as the revolutions of the heavenly
bodies or the courses of the comets, then we
come only to a more intricate perfection of
His creation, that in all eternity He framed
those laws in an exact conformity to the per
fectly foreseen actions of men good and evil,
and to their prayers also : that He, knowing
certainly whether the creature, which He
has framed to have its bliss in depending on
Him, would or would not cry unto Him,
framed those physical laws in conforraity
therewith ; so that the supply of what is
necessary for our wants or its withholding
shall be in all time inworked into the
system of our probation. Only, not to keep
God out of His own world, we must remem
ber that other truth, that, whether God act
in any such system or no, He ' upholdeth all
things by the word of His power by an ever-
present working ; so that it is He Who at
each moment doth what is done, doth and
maintains in existence all which He has
created, in the exact order and variations of
their being. 2 J!;^g j,^ J^ail, snow and vapor,
stormy wind fulfllling His word, are as imme
diate results of His Divine Agency, in what
ever way it pleaseth Him to act, and are the
expression of His Will.
21. i wUl shake. Haggai closes by resum
ing the words of a former prophecy to Zerub
babel and Joshua, which ended in the coi)?-
ing of Christ. Even thus it is plain, that the
prophecy does not belong personally to Ze
rubbabel, but to him and his descendants,
chiefly to Christ. There was in Zerubbabel's
time no shaking of the heaven or of nations.
Darius had indeed to pift down an unusual
number of rebellions in the first few years
after his accession ; but, although he magni
fied himself on occasion of their suppression,
they were only so many distinct and uncon-
certed revolts, each under its own head. All
were far away iu the distant East, in Baby-
1 Heb. i. 3. 2 Ps. cxiviii. 8.
3 Rawlinson v. Empires iv. pp. 407-415. chiefly
from Behistun Inscription.

doms, and I will destroy chrTst
the strength of the king- "'i^- s^o.
doms of the heathen ; " I « mic. 6. 10.
will overthrow the chari- &*9lib.'
ots, and those that ride in
them ; and the horses and
their riders shall come
down, every one by the
sword of his brother.

Ionia, Susiana, Media, Armenia, Assyria,
Hyrcania, Parthia, Sagartia, Margiana, Ara-
chosia ^. The Persian empire, spread " '' prob
ably over 2,000,000 square miles, or more
than half of raodern Europe," was not threat
ened ; no foreign eneray assailed it ; oue im
postor only claimed the throne of Darius.
This would, if successful, have been, like his
own accession, a change of dynasty, affecting
nothing externally. But neither were last
ing, some were very trifling. Two decisive
battles subdued Babylonia: of Media the
brief suraraary is given ; " * the jNledes re
volted frora Darius, and having revolted
were brought back into subjection, defeated
in battle." The Susianians slew their own
pretender, on the approach of the troops of
Darius. We have indeed raostly the account
only of the victor. But these are only self-
glorying records of victories, accoraplished
in succession, within a few years. Sometimes
the satrap of the province put the revolt
down at once. At most two battles ended in
the crucifixion of the rebel. The Jews, if
they heard of them, knew them to be of no
account. For the destroyer of the Persian
empire was to come from the West " ; the
fourth sovereign was to stir up all against the
realm of Grecia ', and Darius was but the
third. In the same second year of Darius,
in which Haggai gave this prophecy, the
whole earth was exhibited to Zechariah as
" sitting still and at rest.
The overthrow prophesied is also univer
sal. It is not one throne only, as of Persia,
but the throne, i. e. the sovereigns, of kingdoms;
not a change of dynasty, but a destruction of
their strength ; not of a few powers only, but the
kingdoms of ihe heathen ; and that, in detail ;
that, in which their chief strength lay, the
chariots and horsemen and their riders, and
this, man by man, every one by the sivord of his
brother. This mutual destruction is a feature
of the judgments at the end cf the world
against Gog and Magog"; and of the yet
unfulfilled prophecies of Zechariah'". Its
stretching out so far does not hinder its par-
4 Id. Ib. p. 2. " Herod i. 130.
« Dan. viii. 5. ' Ib. xi. 2. « Zeoh. i. 11.
9 Ezek. xxxviii. 21. 10 Zeoh. xiv. 17.

320

HAGGAI.

chrTIt 23 In that day, saith
cir. 520. the Lord of hosts, will I

tial fulfillment in earlier times. Zerubbabel
stood, at the return from the captivity, as
the representative of the house of David and
heir of the proraises to him, though in an
inferior temporal condition ; thereby the
rather shewing that the main import of the
prophecy was not temporal. As then Ezekiel
prophesied, ' I ivill set up One Shepherd, over
them, and lie shall feed tliem, My servant David ;
''And David My servant shall be king over
them; and My servant David shall be their
prince forever ; and Jeremiah, ^ They shcdl
serve the Lord iheir Ood and David tlieir king,
whom I will raise up unto them ; and Hosea,
that * after many days shall the children of
Israel return and seek the Lord iheir Ood, and
David their king, meaning by David, the great
descendant of David, in whom the promises
centered, so in his degree, the proraise to
Zerubbabel reaches on through his descend
ants to Christ ; that, amid all the overthrow of
empires, God would protect his sons' sons
until Christ should come, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, Whose * kingdom shall never
be destroyed, but ii shall break in pieces and con
sume all those kingdoms, and shall stand fast for
ever. 23. I mill make thee as a signet. God re
verses to Zerubbabel the sentence on Jecon
iah for his impiety. To Jeconiah He had
said, " though he ivere the signet upon My right
hand, yet would I pluck thee thence ; and I will
give thee into ihe hand of them that seek thy life.
The signet was very precious to its owner,
never parted with, or only to those to ¦whom
authority was delegated (as by Pharaoh to
Joseph ', or by Ahasuerus to Haman " and
then to Mordecai ") ; through it his will was
expressed. Hence the spouse in the Canti
cles says, '" Set me, as a seal upon thy heart, as
a sed upon thy arm. The signet also was an
ornament to him who wore it. Ood is glori
fled in His saints"; by Zerubbabel in the
building of His house. He gave him esti
mation with Cyrus, who entrusted him with
the return of his people, and made hira (who
would have been the successor to the throne
of Judah, had the throne been re-established)
his governor over the restored people. God
proraises to hira and his descendants protection
araid all shaking of empires. "'^He was a
type of Christ in bringing back the people
from Babylon, as Christ delivered us from
sin death and hell : he built the temple, as
Christ built the Church ; he protected his
people against the Samaritans who would

1 Ezek. xxxiv. 23.
8 Jer. xxx. 9.
fi Dan. ii. 44.
' Gen. xli. 42.

2Ib. xxxvii. 24, 25.
* Hos. iii. 5.
8 Jer. xxii. 24.
8 Esther iii. 10.

take thee, O Zerubbabel, „^efore
my servant, the son of She- Qii"- S'^o-

hinder the building, as Christ protects His
Church : he was dear and joined to God, as
Christ was united to Hira, and hypostatically
united and joined His Humanity to the
Word. The true Zerubbabel then, i.e.
Christ, the son and antitype of Zerubbabel, is
the signet in the hand of the Father, both
passively and actively, whereby God im
presses His own Majesty thoughts and words
and His own Image on men angels and all
creatures." " '¦' The Son is the Image of
God the Father, having His entire and exact
likeness, and in His own beauty beaming
forth the nature of the Father. In Him too
God seals us also to His own likeness, since,
being conformed to Christ, we gain the image
of God." " " Christ, as the Apostle says, is
'¦* the Image of the invisible God, the bright'ness
of His Olory and the express Image qf His Per
son, Who, as the AVord and Seal and express
Image, seals it on others. Christ is here
called a signet, as Man not as God. For it
was His Manhood which He took of the flesh
and race of Zerubbabel. He is then, in His
Manhood, the signet of God ; 1) as being
hypostatically united with the Son of God ; 2)
because the Word impressed on His Human
ity the likeness of Himself, His knowledge,
virtue, holiness, thoughts, words, acts and
conversation ; 3) because the Man Christ
was the seal, i. e. the most evident sign
and witness of the attributes of God, His
power, justice, wisdora, and especially His
exceeding love for raan. For, that God
might shew this. He willed that His Son
should be Incarnate. Christ thus Incarnate
is as a seal, in which we see expressed and
depicted the love power justice wisdom &c. of
God ; 4) because Christ as a seal, attested
and certified to us the will of God, His doc
trine law commands, i.e. those which He
promulgated and taught in the Gospel. No
one, St. John saith, '* hath seen Ood at any
iime : ihe Only-Begotten Son Ti'ho is the Image
of the Father, He hath declared Him. Hence
God gave to Christ the power of working
miracles, that He raight confirra His words
as by a seal, and deraonstrate that they were
revealed and enjoined to Hira by God, as it
is in S. John, '"Him hath Ood the Father
seated." " ''' Christ is also the seal of God,
because by His irapress, i. e. the faith grace
virtue and conversation from Him and by
the impress in Baptism and the other Sacra
ments, He willed to conform us to the linage of
His Son ", that, '" as we have borne the image of
9 lb. viii. 2. 18 Cant. viii. 6.
" 2 Thess. i. 10. 12 Lap. i' S. Cyr.
14 Heb. 1. 3. 16 S. John i. 18.
18 S. John vi. 27. " Rom. viii. 29. I8 1 Cor. xv. 49.

CHAPTEE II.

321

c H rTs t ^^^^^^' ^'^^^'^ *® Lord, ¦¦ and
eir- s^t'- will make thee as a signet :
i>Cant. 8. 6. Jer. 22. 24.

the earthly Adam, we may also bear the 'image
of ihe Heavenly. Then, Christ, like a seal,
seals and guards His faithful against all
temptations and enemies. The seal of Christ
is the Cross, according to that of Ezekiel,
' Seal a mark upon ihe foreheads of the men who
sigh, and in the Eevelation, '' I saw another
Angel having the seal of ihe living Ood. For
the Cross guardeth us against the temptations
of the fiesh, the world and the devil, and
makes us followers, soldiers, and martyrs of
Christ crucified. Whence the Apostle says,
'J 6car in my body tlie marks of the Lord
Jesus." " This is said without doubt of the Mes
siah, the expected ; " says even a Jewish con
troversialist *, " who shall be of the seed of
Zerubbabel ; and therefore this promise was
not fulfilled at all in himself : for at the time
of this prophecy he had aforetime been gov
ernor of Judah, and afterward he did not
rise to any higher dignity than what he was
up to that day : and in like way we find that
God said to Abraham our father in the cove
nant between the pieces, ^ I am the Lord who
brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give
thee this land to inherit ii, and be.vond doubt
this covenant was confirmed of God to the
seed of Abraham, as He Himself explained
it there afterward, when He said, In that day
God made a covenant with Abraham, saying.
To thy seed have I given ihis land &c., and
many like these.
Abarbanel had laid down the right prin
ciples, though of necessity misapplied. " '' Zer
ubbabel did not reign in Jerusalem and did
not rule in it, neither he nor any man of his
seed ; but forthwith after the building of the
house, he returned to Babylon and died there
in his captivity, and how saith he, ' In that
day I will take thee ? ' For after the fall of
the kingdom of Persia Zerubbabel is not
known for any greatness, and his name is not
mentioned in the world. Where then will
be the meaning of 'And I will place thee as
a signet, for thee have I chosen ?' For the
signet is as the seal-ring which a man putteth
on his hand, it departeth not frora it, night
or day. And when was this fulfilled in
Zerubbabel ? But the true meaning, in my
opinion, is, that God shewed Zerubbabel that
this very second house would not abide ; for
1 in Ezek. ix. 4. 2 Rev. vii. 2. ' Gal. vi. 17.
* R. Isaac Chiz. Em. 1. c. pp. 289, 290.
•Gen. XV. 7, 18. «p. D;?1.
21

for " I have chosen thee,
saith the Lord of hosts.

Before
CHRIST cir. 520.
'Isai. 42. 1. &43. 10

after him should come another captivity, and
of this he says, ' I shake the heaven &c.,' and
afterward, after a long time, will God take
His vengeance of these nations ' which have
devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling
place;' and so he says ' I will overthrow the
thrones &c.,' and He sheweth him further
that the king who shall rule over Israel at
the time of the redemption is the Messiah of
the seed of Zerubbabel and of the house of
David ; and God saw good to shew hiin all
this to comfort him and to speak to his heart ;
and it is as if he said to him, ' It is true that
thou shalt not reign in the time of the second
temple, nor any of thy seed, but in that day
when God shall overthrow the throne of the
kingdoms of the nations, when He gathereth
His people Israel and redeeraeth thera, then
shalt thou reign over My people ; for of thy
seed shall he be wdio ruleth frora Israel at
that time forever, and therefore he saith, ' I
will take thee, O Zerubabbel &c.,' for because
the Messiah was to be of his seed he saith,
that he will take him ; and this is as he says,
' 'And David My servant shall be a princ e to
them for ever ; ' for the very Messiah, he
shall be David, he shall be Zerubbabel,
because he shall be a scion going forth out of
their hewn trunk V
For I have chosen thee. God's forecoming
love is the ground of all the acceptableness
of His creatures. '¦' We love Him, because He
first loved us. Zerubbabel ivas a devoted ser
vant of God. God acknowledges his faithful
ness. Only, the beginning of all was with
God. God speaks of the nearness to Him
self which He had given him. But in two
words '" He cuts ofi' all possible boastfulness
of His creature. Zerubbabel was all this,
not of himself, but because God had chosen
him. Even the Sacred Manhood of our
Lord (it is acknowledged as a theological
Truth) was not cliosen for any foreseen merits,
but for the great love, with which God the
Father chose It, and God the Son willed to
be in such wise incarnate, and God the Holy
Ghost willed that that Holy Thing should be
conceived of Him. So God says of Him,
" Behold My Servant whom I uphold. Mine elect
in whom My soul delighteth; and God bare
witness to Hira, ''' This is My Beloved Son in
Whom I am well pleased.

i Ezek. xxxvii. 24.
9 1 S. John iv. 19.
11 Is. xiii. 1.

8 Is. xi. 1.
i»ymn3 '3.
12 S. Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 6.

n^TEODUOTIOE'

THE PROPHET
ZECHARIAH.

Zech A KI AH entered on his prophetic
office, two mouths after Haggai's first pro
phecy. He was still a youth, when God
called him ", and so, since in the second year
of Darius Hystaspis 18 years had elapsed
from the first of Cyrus, he raust have been
brought in infancy from Babylon. His fa
ther Berechiah probably died young, since,
in Ezra, the prophet is called after his grand
father, Zechariah the son of Iddo ''. He suc
ceeded his grandfather in the ofiice of the
priests, the chief of the fathers, (of which there
were twelve) iu the days of Joiakim the son
of Joshua, the High priest ". Since then,
while he prophesied together with Haggai,
Joshua was still high priest, and it is Joshua
whom he sees in his vision in that same year*
he raust have entered on his prophetic office
before he succeeded to that other dignity.
Yet neither is there any reason to think that
he ever laid it aside, since we hear not of any
prophet, called by" God, who did abandon it.
Eather, like Jeremiah, he exercised both ;
called to the priesthood by the birth given
to him by God, called to the prophetic ofiice
by Divine inspiration.
Like Jeremiah, Zechariah was called in
early youth to the prophetic office. The
same designation, by which Jeremiah at first
excused himself as unfit for the office, is
given to Zechariah, 2/omA=. The term does
not indeed mark any definite age ; for Joseph,
when he was so designated ' by the chief but-
"•Zech. ii. 4.
'Ezr. V. 1. vi. 14.
» Neh. xii. 10, 12, 16. « Zeeh. iii. 1.
• "IJ^J. Jer. i. 6, Zeoh. ii. 4.
'Gen. xli. 12.
sJo.iephwas 30, when he stood before Pharaoh
(lb. 46), but the Interpretation of the dreams of

ler, was 28 «; Benjamin and Absalom had
sons of their own ''. They were probahly so
called as terms of affection, the one by his
brother Judah ', the other by David his fa
ther ". But his grandfather Iddo was still in
the discharge of his office. The length of
his ministry is equally unknown. Two years
after his first entrance upon it ', when Hag
gai's office was closed, he was bidden to an
swer frora God those who enquired whether,
now that they were freed from the captivity,
they should keep the national fasts which
they had instituted on occasion of some of
the mournful events which had ushered it
in. His remaining prophecies bear no date.
The belief, that he lived and prophesied to
old age, may have a true foundation, though
to us unknown. We only know that he sur
vived the high priest, Joshua, since his own
accession to his office of head of the priests,
in his division, was in the days of Joiakim,
the son of Joshua.
His book opens with a very simple touch
ing call to those returned from the captivity,
linking himself on to the former prophets,
but contrasting the transitoriness of all hu
man things, those who prophesied and those
to whom they prophesied, with the abiding-
ness of the word of God. It consists of four
parts, differing in outward character, yet
with a remarkable unity of purpose and end.
All begin with a foreground subsequent to
the captivity ; all reach on to a further end ;
Pharaoh's servants was given two years before.
(Ib. 1.)
i" Benjamin had 10 sons when Jacob went down
into Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 21); Absalom's 3 sons (2
Sam. xiv. 27.) were dead (Ib. xviii. 18). Absalom was
David'.s third son. (2 Sam. iii. .3.) 'Gen. xliii. 8.
xliv. 22, 30, 33. « 2 Sam. xviii. 5, 12, 29, 32. 1 vii. 1.
323

324

USITEGDUCTION TO

the two first to the coming of our Lord ; the
third from the deliverance of the house then
built, during the invasion of .Alexander, and
from the victories of the Maccabees, to the
rejection of the true Shepherd and the curse
uponthe false; the last, which is connected
with the third by its title, reaches from a
future repentance for the death of Christ to
the final conversion of the Jews and Gen
tiles. The outward difference, that the first pro
phecy is in visions ; the second, a response
to an enquiry made of hira ; the two last in
free delivery, obviously did not depend upon
the prophet. The occasion also of the two
first bodies of prophecy involved that they
were written in prose. For the iraagery was
borne on the prophet's mind in visions. The
office of the prophet was only to record them
and the explanations given to him of parts
of them, which could only be done in prose.
He was so far like the Apostles, who enquired
of our Lord, when in the flesh, the meaning
of His parables. There is, as in the later
chapters, abundance of iraagery ; and it may
have pleased God to adapt the forra of His
revelation to the iraaginative raind of the
young prophet who was to receive it. But
the visions are, as the name iraplies, pictures
which the prophet sees, and which he de
scribes. Even a rationalist writer saw this.
" °i Every vision must form a picture, and the
description of a vision must have the appear
ance of being read from a picture. It fol
lows frora the nature of the description of a
vision, that for the most part it cannot be
composed in any elevated language. The
siraplest prose is the best vehicle for a rela
tion (and such is the description of a vision),
and elaborate ornaraent of language were
foreign to it. The beauty, greatness, eleva
tion of a vision, as described, must lie in the
conception, or in the syraraetry, or wondrous
boldness in the grouping of the images. Is
the whole group, piece by piece, in all its
parts, to the raost rainute shading, faithful
and described with the character of truth,
the exhibition of the vision in words is per
fect." The four portions were probably of differ
ent dates, as they stand in order in the pro
phet's book, as indeed the second is dated two
years later than the first ". For in the first
part God's people are exhorted to corae from

¦"Eichhorn Einl. n. 603. iv. pp. 435, 436. "The
style in these visions borders closely on prose : for
they relate what the Seer saw; and prose is the
natural vehicle of relation." Ib. n. 005. p. 442. Eich
horn also draws attention to what he calls "the
hymns, songs of victory or consolation, with which
the visions are sometimes closed, and which are a
more elevated finale." Ib.
" " In the 2d year of Darius." i. 1. " In the 4th
year of Darius." vii. 1. o ii. 7.
pZech. X. 10. Comp. Is. xi. 11, 16, Hos. xi. 11.
1 vi. 10-13. r ix. 13.

Babylon", which comraand, many in the
time of Ezra, obeyed, and doubtless individ
uals subsequently, when a prosperous polity
was restored ; in the latter part, Babylon is
mentioned no more ; only in one place, in
the imagery of earlier prophets, the future
gathering of God's people is symbolized un
der the previous deliverance from West and
East, Egypt and Assyria p.
But they agree in this, that the foreground
is no longer, as in the former prophets, de
liverance frora Babylon. In the first part,
the reference to the vision of the four em
pires in Daniel removes the promise of the
Deliverer to the fourth Empire. For the
series of visions having closed with the
vision of the four chariots, there follows at
once the symbolic act of placing the crown
or crowns on the head of the high priest and
the proraise of the Messiah, Who should be
king and priest i. In the later part the ene
mies spoken of are in one place the Greeks ¦¦,
subsequent to the protection of the temple
under Alexander ' ; in aiiother the final
g.athering of all nations against Jerusalem ',
which Joel also places at the end of all
things 1, after the outpouring of the Spirit,
as it was outpoured on the day of Pentecost.
In both parts alike, there is no mention of
any king or of any earthly ruler; in both,
the ruler to come is the Messias. In both,
the division of the two kingdoras is gone.
The house of Israel and house of Judah are
united, not divided ' ; they had been distinct
wholes, now they are in interests as one.
Zechariah proraises a future to both collect
ively, as did Jereraiah " long after the captiv
ity of Israel, and Ezekiel proraised that they
should both again be one in thehand of God^.
The brotherhood between Judah and Israel still
existed, after they had weighed the thirty
pieces of silver for the Good Shepherd. The
captivity, in God's Providence, ended at
once the kingdom of Israel and the religious
schism, the object of which was to maintain
the kingdom. Even before the captivity,
^divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun
humbled themselves, and came io Jerusalem, to
the passover of Hezekiah ; nay, " a great mul-
titude of the people from Ephraim and Manas
seh, Issachar and Zebulun, who had neglepted
or despised the first invitation ", came subse
quently. In the great passover of Josiah,
we hear '' of all Judah and Israel that were

• Ib. 8. See Pusey's " Daniel the Prophet." pp.
270-282. ' xii. 2, 3, 9. xiv. 2, 3, 14, 16.
"Joel iii. 2.
T " As ye were a curse among the heathen, 0
house of Judah and house of Israel " viii. 13 ;
" these are the horns whieh scattered Judah, Israel,
Jerusalem," i. 19. (ii. 2. Heb.) So in x. 6. "I will
strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the
house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to
place them." * Jer. xxiii. 6. 1. 20.
»Ez. x.xxvii. 16-19. 12 Chr. xxx. 11.
«Ib. 18. 'Ib. 10. bxb. XXXV.18.

ZECHAEIAH.

32.5

jyresent. The edict of Cyrus related to the
"people of the Lord God of heaven, and was
pvblislied throughout all his kingdom, which in
cluded ^the cities of ihe Medes, whither Israel
had been removed. The sacred history is
confined to .lerusalem, whence the Gospel
was to go forth ; yet even " ihe sons of Bethel,
the centre of the rival, idolatrous worship,
which was among the mountains of Ephraim,
were among those of the people of Israel
who returned with Zerubbabel. It is incon
ceivable that, as the material prosperity of
Palestine returned, even many of the ten
tribes should not have returned to their
country. But place was no condition of the
unity of the Church. Those who returned
recognized the religious oneness of all the
twelve tribes, wherever dispersed. At the
dedication of the house of God, they ^offered
a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, ae-
coi'ding lo the number of the tribes of Israel. At
that passover were present, not only ihe chil
dren of Israel which had come again out of the
captivity, but, ^ all such as had separated them
selves unto ihem from the defilements of the people
of tlie land, io seek the Lord God of Israel, i. e.,
Israelites, who had been defiled by the heath
en idolatries. The house of David " is men
tioned ; for of his seed according to the flesh
Messiah was to be born, but it is his house,
not any earthly ruler in it.
In both parts alike, Zechariah connects his
prophecies with the former prophets, the
fulfillment of whose warnings he impressed
upon his people in his opening exhortation
to thera ', and in his answer to the question
about keeping the fasts "^ which related to the
destruction of the city and teraple. In the
first part, the title " ' the Branch " is used as
a proper narae, recalling the title of the
Messiah in Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Branch
of the Lord ¦", a righteous Branch ", a Branch
of righteousness", ¦whom God would raise up
to David. The prophecy of the mutual ex
hortation of peoples and cities to worship at
Jerusalera p is an echo of those of Isaiah and
Mioah, prolonging them. The prophecy of
the four chariots i, the syrabol of those world-
empires, would be unintelligible without the
visions in Daniel which it presupposes. The
union of the offices of priest and king in the
Messiah is a renewal of the promise throu.gh
David'. In the last chapters, the contin
uousness of the prophet's diction admits still

d 2 Kgs xvii. 6.
'Ib. vi. 17. eib. 21.

• Ezr. i. 1. 2.
• Ezr. ii. 2, 28. -lu. vi. u. » lu. zi.
!¦ Zech. xii. 7. The king's wine-presses (Zech. xiv.
10. )_ is but the name of a locality in Jerusalem,
which retained its former name. Wine-prosses
were often hewn out in the rock. Bleek, who
alleged this, afterward (Einl. p. 563. note) laid no
stress on it. ii.4-6.
'vii. 7-14. Mil. 8. vi. 12.
"Is. iv. 2. o Jer. xxiii. .">.
•Ib. xxxiii. 15.
P Zech. viii. 20-22. comp. Mic. Iv. 1, 2. Is. ii. 3.

more of this interweaving of the former pro
phecies, and these alike from the earlier and
later prophets. The censure of Tyre for its
boast of its wisdom is a renewal of that of
Ezekiel " ; the prophecy against the Philis
tine cities, of that of Zephaniah ' ; the re
markable prediction that, when the king
should come to Zion, chariots and horses, not
of the enemy but of Judah should be cut oflT,
is renewed from Micah " ; the extent of his
peaceful kingdom is from a psalm of Solo
mon " ; the loosing of the exile frora the pit,
and God's rendering double unto thera, are
in Isaiah'^. The description ofthe sifting,
in which, two parts having been cut off, even
the remaining third should be anew tried
and cleansed, is condensed from Ezekiel, so
that, shall be cut off, shall expire, correspond to
the natural and violent deaths, by famine and
by the sword, spoken of in Ezekiel ". The
words, y I have said, it is My people, and ii
will say, the Lord my God, are almost verbally
from Hosea, I say to not-my-people, thou art
My people, and it will say, my Ood ; only orait
ting the allusion to the significant narae of
the prophet's son. " ^ The first part of xiv.
10, the whole land shall be twned as a plain from
Oebah io Bimmon, and Jerusalem shall be ex-
cdle.d, reminds of Isaiah and Ezekiel ; the
latter part, it shall be inhabited in her place
from the tower of Hananeel to the king's wine
presses, and men shall dwell in it and there shall
be no more utter desolation, but .lerusalem shall
dwell securely, reminds of Jeremiah, " The city
shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Han
aneel unto the gate of ihe comer ; it shall not be
plucked up nor throion down any more. The
words, '' and every one that is left of all the nor
iions shall go up io worship the king, the Lord
of hosts, and io keep the feast of tabernacles, re
minds of Isaiah, "From new-moon to his new-
moon, and from sabbath io his sabbath shall all
flesh come io worship before Me, saith the Lord.
V. 17-19 are an expansion of Isaiah Ix. 12 ;
V. 20 expresses the thought of Ez. xliii. 13 :
the prophecy, '' there shall be no more the Can
aanite in ihe house of the Lord for ever, refers
back to Ezekiel ".'¦' The symbolizing of the
Gospel by the life-giving waters which should
flow forth from Jerusalera, originally in Joel
iii. 18, is a rainiature of the full picture in
Ezekiel'. The promise, "^I will cut off ifte
names of the idols from the land and they shall
be no more remembered," in part verbally

11 Zeoh. vi. coll. Dan. ii. vii. See below on c. vi. and
'Daniel the Prophet" pp. 359-361.
' Zech. vi. 13. coll. Ps. ex.
fl ix. 2. and Ezek. xxviii. 3.
' ix. .5. Zeph. ii. 4. " ix. 10. Mic. v. 10.
" Ib. Ps. Ixxii. 8. " Ib. 12. Is. li. 14. Ixi. 7.
» xiii. 8, 9. Ezek. v. 12. Hengst.
y Hentjst. Zech. xiii. 9, Hos. ii. 25.
¦ Hengst. "Jer. xxxi. :i8. 40. 'Zech. xiv. 16.
° Is. Ixvi. 2.3. i^Zech. xiv. 21. «Ezek. xliv.9.
'Zech. xiv. s, Ezek. xlvii. 1-13.
eZech. xiii. 2. Hos. ii. 17.

326

INTEODUCTION TO

agrees with that of Hosea, "And I will re
move ihe names of the Baalim //-ont her mouth,
and they shall be no more remembered by their
names ; " only, since the Baal-worship was
destroyed by the captivity, the raore general
narae of idols is substituted.
¦ Eciually, in descriptions not prophetic,
the symbolizing of the wicked by the title of
the goats, I punished the goats'^, is renewed
from Ezekiel ; / judge between flock and flock,
between the rams and the he-goals. The descrip
tion of the shepherds who destroyed their
fiocks retains from Jeremiah the character
istic expression, ' and hold themselves not guilty.
The minuteness of the enumeration of their
neglects and cruelties is the same (amid dif
ferences of the words whereby it is expressed) :
" " the perishing shall he not visit, those
astray shall he not seek, and the broken shall
he not heal ; the sound shall he not nurture,
and the flesh of the fat shall he eat and their
claws he shall split. In Ezekiel, " ' Ye eat
the fat and clothe you with the wool ; the fat
ye slay ; the fiock ye feed not ; the diseased
have ye not healed ; and the broken have ye
not bound, and the wandering have ye not
sought." The imagery of Obadiah, that
Israel should be a flame amidst corn to con
sume it, is retained ; the name of Edom is
dropped, for the prophecy relates to a larger
gathering of enemies. Zechariah has, " '" In
that day I will raake the governors of Judah
like a hearth of fire among wood and like a
lamp of fire in a sheaf of corn, and they shall
eat on the right hand and on the left all na
tions round about : " Obadiah ; " The house
of Jacob shall be fire and the house of Jacob
a fiame, and the house of Esau stubble, audit
shall kindle on thera and shall eat thera."
Even so slight an expression as the pride of
Jordan ", as designating the cane-brake around
it, is peculiar to .Jeremiah ''-
Zechariah is eminently an Evangelic pro
phet, as much as Isaiah, and equally in both
portions. 1" Zech. X. 3. Ezek. xxxiv. 17.
'IDtyX' Xhn Zeeh. xi. 6. Di»NJ n"? Jer. i. 7.
k Zeeh. xi. 16. ' Ezek. xxxiv. .3, 4. "Zeoh. xii.
6. Obad. 18. "Zeoh. xi. 3. » Jer. xii. 5. xlix. 19. 1. 44.
pProf Stanley Leathes, "The witness of the Old
Testaraent to Christ. Note on the Authorship of
Isaiah." (pp. 282, 283.) gives the following summary
as to the occurrence of words in poems of Blilton
and Tennyson; "L'Allegro is a poem of 152 lines:
it contains about 450 words ; II Penseroso is a poem
of 176 lines, aud contains about 578 words ; Lycidas
is a poem of 193 lines, which are longer than those
of either of the other two, most of them being he
roics: its words are about 725. It is plain, there
fore, that Milton must have used for II Penseroso
128 words not in L'Allegro, and for Lycidas 275 not
in L'Allegro, and 147 not in II Penseroso.
" But what is rauch more remarkable, is the fact
that there are only about 125 worils common to
L'Allegro and II Penseroso; only about 140 common
to Lycidas and II Penseroso; only about 61 common
to all three. That is ; Milton must have used for II
Penseroso 450 words not in L'Allegro, and for Lyci
das 690 not in L'Allegro. He must have used for

The use of different words in unlike sub
jects is a necessary consequence of that un
likeness. In contrast with that pseudo-criti
cism, which counts up the unlike words in
diflerent chapters of a prophet, the different
words used by the sarae modern poet have
been counted ''. A finer perception will see
the correspondence of a style, when the
rhythm, subject, words, are different. No one
familiar with English poetry could doubt
that "the Bard," and "the Elegy in a
country Churchyard," however diflerent in
subject and style and words, were by the
sarae hand, judging alone frora the labored
selection of the epithets, however difierent.
Yet there is not one characteristic word or
idiom whioh occurs in both. But the recur
rence of the same or like words or idioms, if
unusual elsewhere, is a subordinate indication
of saraeness of authorship.
They are thus enumerated by the writers
who have answered the attacks on the author
ship of Zechariah.
" Common to both parts are the idioms,
from him who goeth and from, him who returneth,
which do not occur elsewhere i ; the whole
Jewish people are throughout designated as
" " the house of Israel and the house of Ju
dah," or " " the house of Judah and the house
of Joseph," or "'Judah Israel and Jerusa
lem," or " " Ephraim and Jerusalem," or
" " Judah and Ephraim," or " ¦" Judah and
Israel." There is in both parts the appeal
to future knowledge of God's doings to be ob
tained by experience '' ; in both, internal
discord is directly attributed to God, Whose
Providence permits it ^ ; in both the prophet
proraises God's gifts of the produce of the
earth "^ ; in both he bids Jerusalem burst out
for joy ; in the first, " "¦for lo, God says, /
come and will dwell in the midst of thee;
in the second, ''behold thy King cometh unto
thee. The purity of language is alike in both
parts of the book. No one Syriasm occurs in
Lycidas some 585 words not in II Penseroso, and
more than 060 not occurring in both together. Also,
there must be InL'Allegro some325 words notin II
Penseroso, and 315 not in Lycidas; and there must
be in II Penseroso nearly 440 words not in Lycidas.
" Again, Tennyson's Lotos-Eaters contains about
690 words; CEnone has about 720. Thus the Latter
must contain 130 words not in the former: but a
comparison shows that there are only about 2.30
words common to the two poems. That is, there
raust be 490 words in Oilnone which are not in the
Lotos-Eaters, and there mu.st be in the Lotos-Eaters
about 360 words not occurring in (Enone ; that is,—
the shorter poem has 360 words which the longer
one does not contain."
¦•Droi ^^2J}12 vii. 14, ix. 8. In Ez. xxxii. 27, the
expression 131tyi IT^i?, "pass through and re
turn," is not proverbial; in Ezek. xxxv. 7, it is "I
will cut off from it" ^K'l '13>':
'viii. 13. "x. 6. M. 19, [ii.2. Heb.] "ix.lO.
'ix. 13. "xi. 14. Iii. 1:^,15. xi. 11.
y viii. 10. xi. 0. » viii. 12. x. 1.
»ii. 14. [10. Eng.] 'ix. 9.

ZECHAEIAH.

327

the earlier chapters". The prophet, who
returned as a child to Judsea, formed his
language upon that of the older prophets.
In both there is a certain fullness of lan
guage, produced hy dwelling on the same
thought or word '' : in both, the whole and its
parts are, for emphasis, mentioned together ".
In both parts, as a consequence of this full
ness, there occurs the division of the verse
into five sections, contrary to the usual rule
of Hebrew parallelism.
This rhythm will appear more vividly in
instances '' ;
" s And he shall build the temple of the
Lord ;
And he shall bear majesty ;
And he shall sit and rule on his throne ;
And he shall be a priest on his throne ;
And a counsel of peace shall be between
them both.
'' Ashkelon shall see, and shall fear ;
Gaza, and shall tremble exceedingly ;
And Ekron, and ashamed is her expec
tation ;
And perished hath a king fi-om Gaza,
And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
' And I will take away his blood from his
mouth.
And his abominations from between his
teeth :
And he too shall be left to our God,
And he shall be as a governor in Judah,
And Ekron as a Jebusite.
" ' In that day, saith the Lord,
I will smite every horse with astonish
ment.
And his rider with madness ;
And upon the house of Judah I wiU open
my eyes,
And every horse of the nations I will
smite with blindness."
With one considerable exception', those
'D^J^DKl vii. 14 is no Syriasm (as so often al
leged) but has Hebrew analogies as HIJ Job xxii.
29. xxiii. 7, from niNJ for niXJ (Ew. Lehrb. n. 62.
b) ; but which of these critics would argue from the
points except in favor of what he wished to main
tain ? Bottcher (Lehrbuch n. 437. g. 498. 3. p. 304.)
regards the as emphatic. 2) "That ?o'7nn (iii.
7.) comes from a llSriD is self-evident." Ew. ad.
loc. 3) ^ irj; (i. 16.) is not "joined with aoc. of ob
ject," but is simply our, "helped to evil."
^As in the repetition of llJina ^nj-iH ii. 14, 15;
of ns3i, in vi. 10; nj3' xiHi " byr\ riN nj3i
" 73'n riK vi. 12, 13; nnmj, nnnii, n'nnni:!,
3 times in viii. 4. 5 ; 'p'lnni-lp'ItT' lb. 23 ; n;?1Xl
INXn ns at the beginning and end of xi. 7; I

who would sever the six last chapters from
Zechariah, are now at one in placing them
before the captivity. Yet Zechariah here
too speaks of the captivity as past. Adopting
the imagery of Isaiah, who foretells the de
livery from the captivity as an opening of a
prison, he says, in the name of God, " "' By
the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy
prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water."
Again, " " The Lord of hosts hath visited llis
flock, the house of Judah. I will have mercy
upon them [Judah and Joseph] and they
shall be as though I had not cast them off."
The mention of the mourning of all the /ami
ties tliat remain " implies a previous carrying
away. Yet more ; Zechariah took his
imagery of the future restoration of Jerusa
lem, from its condition in his own tirae.
" f It shall be lifted up and inhabited in its
place frora Benj ara in's gate unto the plaee of
the first gate, unto the corner-gate, and from
the tower of Hananeel unto the king's wdne-
presses." " The gate of Benjamin " is doubt
less " the gate of Ephraim," since the road to
Ephraim lay through Benjamin ; but the gate
of Ephraim existed in Nehemiah's tirae ^ yet
was not then repaired, as neither was the
tower of Hananeel ¦", having been left, doubt
less, at the destruction of .lerusalem, being
useless for defence, when the wall was
broken down. So " at the second invasion
the Eoraans left the three impregnable
towers, of Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mari-
amne, as monuments of the greatness of the
city which they had destroyed. Benjamin's
gate, the corner gate, the tower of Hananeel,
were still standing ; " the king's winepresses "
were naturally uninjured, since there was no
use in injuring them; but the fir.st gate w;ik
destroyed, since not itself, but the place of it is
mentioned. The prophecy of the victory over the
Greeks fits in with times when Assyria or
Chaldsea were no longer the instruments of
God in the chastiseraent of His people. The
notion that the prophet incited the few He
brew slaves, sold into Greece, to rebel against
n'nnn naty and na:)'? oStyiT n^ty' at the
end, xiv. 10, 11. 3"lp DV^ IDn^H UVD Dn'?:!
xiv. 3. In xiv. 4. the sentence jyoi &c., explains
the .same event in different words : DnOJl^DnDJl
DPiD: ItyXD XIV. 5. , . ,
o V. 4. "the house, and its stones, and its timbers,
X. 4. " out of him the corner ; out of him the nail ;
out of him the battle bow; outof him every oppres
sor together." X. 11. "the land shall mourn, every
family apart," and then follows the enumeration of
the families. 12, 13.
'This was observed by Knster, Jleletemata crit.
et exeg. in Zeeh. part. post. c. ix.-xiv. pp. 54-66.
Bvi. 13. i>ix. 5. lib. 7.
kxii. 4. Kbster further refer,'; to i.4, 17. iii. 5,9. and
on the other hand to ix. 0, 10, i:!, 1.5. x. 11. xi. 2, 7, 9,
17. xii. 10. xiv. 4, 8.
'Bottcher. »ix. 11. "x. 3-5. »xii. 14.
p xiv. 10. 1 Neh. viii. 16. xii. .39. ' Ib. iii. 1.
• Jos. B. J. vii. 1.

328

INTEODUCTION TO

their masters, is so absurd, that one won
ders that any one could have ventured to forge
it and put it upon a Hebrew prophet '.
Since, moreover, all now, who sever the
six last chapters from the preceding, also
divide these six into two halves, the evidence
that the six chapters are frora one author is
a separate ground against their theory. Yet
not only are they connected by the imagery
of the people as the flock of God ", whom God
committed to the hand of the Good Shep
herd'', and on their rejecting Hira, gave
thera over to an evil shepherd ¦" ; but the
Good Shepherd is One with God". The poor
of the flock, who would hold to the Shepherd,
are designated by a corresponding word ?.
A writer has been at pains to shew that
two difierent conditions of things are foretold
in the two prophecies. Granted. The first,
we believe, has its foreground iu the deliver
ance during the conquests of Alexander, and
under the Maccabees, and leads on to the
rejection of the true Shepherd and God's
visitation on the false. The later relates to
a later repentance and later visitation of God,
in part yet future. By what law is a prophet
bound down to speak of one future only '?
For those who criticize the prophets, re
solve all prophecy into raere " anticipation "
of what might, or might not be, denying to
them all certain knowledge of any future, it
is but speaking plainly, wdien they imagine
the author of the three last chapters to have
" anticipated " that God would interpose
miraculously to deliver Jerusalem, then,
when it was destroyed. It would have been
in direct contradiction to Jeremiah, who for
39 years in one unbroken dirge predicted the
evil which should corae upon Jerusalem.
The prophecy, had it preceded the destruc
tion of .Jerusalem, could not have been earlier
than the reign of the wretched Jehoiakim,
since the mourning for the death of Josiah is
spoken of as a proverbial sorrow of the past.
'This invented prophet then would have been
one of the false prophets, who contradicted
Jeremiah, prophesying good, while Jeremiah
prophesied evil ; who encouraged Zedekiah
in his perjury, the punishment whereof
Ezekiel solemnly denounced^, prophesjdng
his captivity in Babylon as its penalty ; he
would have been one of those, of whora Jere
raiah said, that they spake lies ^ in the name
of the Lord. Itwas not "anticipation" on
either side. It was the statement of those
who spoke more certainly than we could say,
" the sun will rise to-raorrow." They were
'Hitzig. Ewald avoids this; but would have it,
that the 'prophet in Joel's time was stirring up the
.lews to war with the Greeks. Other evasions see
m Pusey's " Daniel the Prophet" pp. 281, 282. note.
"ix. 16. x. 3. Txi. 4^14. w lb. 15-17.
' xi. 7-12. xiii. 7.
' [SXn "j;?, xi. 7, 11. D'"1.j;Sn, xUl. 7, the same
as the IK'^fn "Vyi Jer. xlix. 20, I. 46.

the direct contradictories of one another.
The false prophets said, '""the Lord hath
said, Ye shall have peace ; " the true, "" they
have said, Peace, peace, when there is no
peace : " the false said, " '' sword and famine
shall not be in the land ; " the true, " ^ By
sword and famine shall their prophets be
consumed ; " the false said, " " ye shall not
serve the king of Babylon ; thus saith the
Lord, even so will I break the yoke of Nebu
chadnezzar, king of Babylon, frora the neck
of all nations within the space of two full
years ; " the true, " 'Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, Now have I given all these lands into
the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon, My servant, and all nations shall
serve him, and his son and his son's son."
The false said, " s I wdll bring again to this
place Jeconiah, with all the captives of Ju
dah, that went into Babylon, for I will break
the yoke of the king of Babylon ; " the true,
" '' I will cast thee out and the mother that
bare thee, into another country, where ye
were not born, and there ye shall die. But
to the land, whereunto they desire to return,
thither they shall not return." The false
said ; " ' The vessels of the Lord's house shall
now shortly be brought again from Baby
lon ; " the true, " '^ the residue of the vessels
that remain in this city, — they shall be car
ried to Babylon."
If the writer of the three last chapters had
lived just before the destruction of Jerusalem
in those last reigns, he would have been a
political fanatic, one of those who, by en
couraging rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar,
brought on the destruction of the city, and,
in the name of God, told lies against God.
" That which is raost peculiar in this pro
phet," says one ', " is the uncommon high
and pious hope of the deliverance of Jerusa
lem and Judah, notwithstanding all visible
greatest dangers and threatenings. At a
time when Jeremiah, in the walls of the
capital, already despairs of any possibility of
a successful resistance to the Chaldees and
exhorts to tranquillity, this prophet still looks
all these dangers straight in the face with
swelling spirit and divine confidence, holds,
with unbowed spirit, firm to the like promises
of older prophets, as Is. c. 29, and anticipates
th.at, frora that very raoraent when the blind
fury of the destroyers would discharge itself
on the sanctuary, a wondrous raight would
crush them in pieces, and that this must be
the beginning of the Messianic weal within
and without."
» Ezek. xiii. 10-19.
•Jer. xiv. 14, xxiii. 22, xxvii. 15, xxviii. 15, xxix.
8,9. 'Jer. viii. 11. xxiii. 17. " Ezek. xiii. 2-10.
^ Jer. xiv. 15. " Ib. xxvii. 9-14, xxviii. 11.
'Ib. xxvii. 4, 6, 7. Eib. xxviii. 4.
i" lb. xxii. 26, 27. < Ib. xxvii. 16. ^ Ib. 19-23.
1 Ewald Proph. ii. 52, 53. ed. 1868.

ZECH.VEI.IH.

329

Chapter 14 is to this writer a modification
of those anticipations. In other words there
was a greater human probability, that Jere
miah's prophecies, not^his, would be fulfilled :
yet he cannot give up his sanguineness,
though his hopes had now become fanatic.
This writer says on chap. 14, " " This piece
cannot have been written till somewhat later,
when facts made it more and more improba
ble, that Jerusalem would not any how be
conquered, and treated as a conquered city
by coarse foes. Yet then too this prophet
eould not yet part with the anticipations of
older prophets and those which he had him
self at an earlier time expressed : so boldh^,
amid the most visible danger, he holds firm
to the old anticipation, after that the great
deliverance of Jerusalem in Sennacherib's
time (Is. c. 37.) appeared to justify the most
fanatic hopes for the future, (comp. Ps. 59).
And so now the prospect moulds itself to hira
thus, as if Jerusalera must indeed actually
endure the horrors of the conquest, but that
then, when the work of the conquerors was
half-completed, the great deliverance, already
suggested in that former piece, would come,
and so the Sanctuary would, notwithstand
ing, be wonderfully preserved, the better
Messianic time would notwithstanding still
so come."
It must be a marvelous fascination, which
the old prophets exercise over the human
mind, that one who can so write should
trouble himself about them. It is such an
intense paradox, that the writing of one con
victed by the event of uttering falsehood in
the name of God, incorrigible even by the
thickening tokens of God's displeasure, should
have been inserted among the Hebrew pro
phets, in times not far removed from those
whose events convicted him, that ' one
wonders that any one should have invented
it, still more that any should have believed
in it. Great indeed is " the credulity of the
incredulous." And yet this paradox is essential to the
theories of the modern school which would
place these chapters before the captivity.
English writers, who thought themselves
compelled to ascribe these chapters to Jere
miah, had an escape, because they did not
bind down prophecy to immediate events.
Newcome's criticism was the conjectural
criticism of his day ; i. e. bad, cutting knots
instead of loosing them. But his faith, that
God's word is true, was entire. Since the
prophecy, placed at the tirae where he placed
» Ewald Proph. p. 59.
» Hitzig. uber d. abfassungszeit der Orakel Zach.
ix-xiv, in the Theol. Studien u. Kritiken 1830. 1. p. 25.
"De Wette ed. 4 (after maintaining the contrary
ed. 1-3) and Stahelin, Einl. 1802. "De Wette
often assured me orally, that since he felt himself
compelled to admit, that this portion evinces
acquaintance with the latest prophets, he could not
deny it to be Zechariah's." Stahelin p. 323. De

it, had no iramediate fulfillraent, he supposed
it, in coramon with those who believe it to
have been written by Zechariah, to relate to
a later period. That German school, with
whom it is an axiom, " that all definite pro
phecy relates to an immediate future," had
no choice but to place it just before the de
struction of the temple by the Chaldees, or
its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes ; and
those who placed it before the Captivity, had
no choice, except to believe, that it related
to events, by which it was falsified.
Nearly half a century has passed, since
a leading writer of this school said, " " One
must own, that the division of opinions as to
the real author of this section and his tirae,
as also the attempts to appropriate single
oracles of this portion to different periods,
leave the result of criticism simply negative;
whereas on the other hand, the view itself,
since it is not yet carried through exegeti
cally, lacks the completion of its proof. It is
not till criticism becomes positive, and evi
dences its truth in the explanation of details,
that it attains its completion ; which is not,
in truth, always possible." Hitzig did what
he could, " to help to promote the attainment
of this end according to his ability." But
although the more popular theory has of late
been that these chapters are to be placed
before the captivity, the one portion some
where in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
or Hezekiah ; the other, as marked in the
chapters themselves, after the death of Josiah.
there have not been w;inting critics of equal
repute, who place them in the tirae of
Antiochus Epiphanes. Yet criticisra which
reels to and fro in a period of near 500 years,
frora the earliest of the prophets to a period,
a century after Malachi, and this on histori
cal and philological grounds, certainly has
come to no definite basis, either as to history
or philology. Eather, it has enslaved both
to preconceived opinions ; and at last, as late
a result as any has been, after this weary
round, to go back to where it started from,
and to suppose these chapters to have been
written by the prophet whose name they
bear ".
It is obvious that there must be some mis
take either in the tests applied, or in their
application, which admits of a v;iriation of at
least 450 years from somewhere in the reign
of Uzziah (say B. C. 770) to " later than B. C.
330." Philological and historical criticism, bear
ing on events (as it is assumed) of the day,
Wette, Stahelin, Koster, Burger, were of a different
school from Hengstenberg, Havernick, Keil, or
a.gain from Jahn and Herbst. Stahelin says, " in the
investigation I kept myself free from any influence
from without, .and first found the facts, which attest
the post-exile origin of this section, given by Hengs
tenberg and de Wette, when I subsequently com
pared the labors of others, especially those two
scholars." Messian. Weissag. p. 174. 1847.

330

INTEODUCTION TO

which should, in its variations, oscillate be
tween the reign of John or of Charles I, or
(to bring it nearer to ourselves) the first half
of the xiv"" century or the latter part of the
xviii"', would not gain rauch attention. In
deed, it is instructive, that after the philo
logical arguraent has figured so much in all
questions about the date of books of Holy
Scripture, it is virtually admitted to be abso
lutely worthless, except negatively. For, in
regard to Zechariah, the argument is not
used, except in proof that the same writer
cannot have written prose and poetry, which
would establish that Hosea did not write
either his three first chapters or his nine
last; or Ezekiel his inaugural vision, the
visions of the ninth and tenth chapters, and
the simple exhortations to repentance in his
eighteenth and thirty-third. Only I know
not ou the same evidence, how, of modern
writers, Scott and Southey could be supposed
to have written their prose and their poetry.
How easy it would be to prove that the
author of Thalaba did not write the life of
Wesley or the history of the peninsular war,
nor Shakespeare Macbeth and any comedy
which criticisra raay yet leave to hira ; still
more that he cannot have written the deep
tragic scenes of Hamlet and that of the grave-
diggers. Yet such negations have been practically
considered as the domain of the philological
neo-criticism. Style is to be evidence that
the same prophet did not write certain pro
phecies ; but, this being demonstrated, it is
to yield no evidence, whether he wrote, when
Hebrew was a de.ad language or in the tirae
of its richest beauty. Individuals indeed
have their opinions ; but philological criti
cism, as a whole, or as relates to any
acknowledged result, is altogether at fault.
Having done its ofiice of establishing, that,
in the mind of the critic and his disciples,
certain chapters are not Zechariah's, the
witness is forthwith dismissed, as incompetent
even to assist in proving anything beside.
The rest is to be established by historical al
lusions, which are by some adapted to events
in the reign of Uzziah, by others to those of
the Maccabees : or rather, it being assumed
that there is no prophecy, this latter class
assumes that the book is to belong to the
times of the Maccabees, because one part of
it predicts their victories. Those who tell
us P of the unity of the results of this modern
criticism, must have been thinking of the
agreement of its negations. As to the posi
tive results, a table will best shew their har-
p Essays and Reviews, p. 340. " Among German
commentators there is, for the first tiihe in the
history of the world, .an approach to agreement and
certainty. For example the diversity among Ger
man writers on prophecy is far less' than among
English ones."
I'Bertholdt p. 1715. ' Knobel ii. 170.

mony. Yet the fault is not in the want of
an ill-e.xercised acumen of the critics ; their
principle, that nothing in the prophets can
relate to any distant future, even though that
future exactly realized the words, is the
mainspring of their confusions. Since the
words of Zechariah do relate to, and find
their fulfillment in, events widely separated
from each other, and the theory of the critics
requires that they should belong to some
proximate event, either in the present or
some near future, they have to wrest those
words from the events to which they relate,
some in this way, some in that; aud the
most natural interpretations are those which
are least admitted. Certainly since the de
scriptions in c. i.x. suit with the ware of
Alexander and the Maccabees, no one, but
for some strong antecedent exigency, would
assurae that they related to sorae expected
expedition of an Assyrian monarch, " '' which
may be conjectured as very probable, but
which, for want of historical data, cannot be
indicated more circumstantially," or to "'a
plan of the Assyrians which was not then
carried out," or " Uzziah's war with the
Philistines', and some imagined ""attitude
of Jeroboam II against Damascus and
Hamath," or " ° a concealed denunciation
against Persia," against which Zechariah did
not wish to prophesy openly, or to have had
uo special meaning at all ".
It is marvelous, on what slight data this
modern school has satisfied itself that these
chapters were written before the captivity.
To take the statement of an epitomator'' of
German pseudo-criticism: "Damascus, Tyre,
and Sidon, Philistia, Javan {ix. 1, 6-12) As
syria and Egypt {x. 10.) ai-e ihe enemies of
Judah." " The historical stand-point is differ
ent from that of Zech. i-viii." Of all these,
.lavan, the Greeks, alone are spoken of as
eneraies of Judah, who before the captivity
were known only as purchasers of Hebrew
captives ; the only known wars are those of
the Maccabees.
" The two kingdoms of Judah and Israel still
exist. Surely ihe language, ' that I raight break
the brotherhood between Judah and Israel,'
implies that both kingdoms existed as part of the
covenant nation."
Zechariah speaks of Judah and Israel, but
not as kingdoms. Before the captivity, ex
cept during the effects of the inter-marriage
with Athaliah, there was not brotherhood but
enmity. In the reigns of Amaziah and Ahaa
there was war.
" The house of David is spoken of xiii. 1.
» Hitzig Vorbemerk. z. ii. and iii. Zech. Kl. Pr. p.
354. ' 2 Chr. xxvi. 6. " De Wette Einl. p. 337.
" " The uncertain hopes of the future, here ex
pressed by the prophet, are not to be referred to
certain events." Rosenmiiller on Zech. ix. 13. ed. 1.
" Dr. S. Davidson iii. 321, 322.

ZECHAEIAH.

331

The house, not the kingdom. The house
existed after the captivity. Zerubbabel,
whom the Persians made governor, was its
representative. ^' Idols and false prophets {x. 2. xiii. 2 &c.)
harmonize only with a time prior to ilie exile."
Idolatry certainly was not the prevailing
national sin, after God had taught the people
through the captivity. It is oomraonly taken
for granted, that there was none. But where
is the proof? Malachi would hardly have
laid the stress on " mca-rying the daughters of a
strange god, had there been no danger that
the marriage would lead to idolatry.
'Nehemiah speaks of the sin, into which
Solomon was seduced by " outlandish women,"
as likely to recur through the heathen mar
riages ; but idolatry was that sin. Half of
the children could only speak the language
of their mothers '. It were strange, if they
had not imbibed their mothers' idolatry too.
In a battle in the Maccabee war, it is related
'"under the coats of every one that was
slain they found things consecrated to the
idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the
Jews hy their law."
The Teraphim were, moreover, an unlawful
and forbidden means of attempting to know
the future, not any coarse form of idolatry '' ;
much as people now, who more or less
earnestly have their fortunes told, would be
surprised at being called idolaters. But
Zechariah was probably speaking of sins
which had brought on the captivity, not of
his own day. The prediction repeated from
an older prophet, that in the true Judah, the
Chm'ch, God would cut off even the names and
the memory of idols, does not imply that they
existed ".
False prophets continued after the cap
tivity. Shemaiah, who uttered a prophecy
against Nehemiah, the prophetess Noadiah, and
the rest of the p-ropliets, are known to us from
Nehenuah's relation''. Such there were
before our Lord came, of whom He said, that
they "were thieves and robbers: He warned
against thera, 'as coming in sheep's chthing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves ; He fore
told that ^ many false prophets shall arise and
deceive many ; the Acts tell usof the /afeepro-
phet'', a Jew, Bar-jesus; and Theudas, and Ju
das of Galilee'. S. John says, ''many false
prophets have gone out into ihe world. False

» Mai. ii. 11. 7 Neh. xiii. 26.
• Ib. 23, 24. " 2 Mace. xii. 40.
^ See below on x. 2.
•See ab. p. ,325, and bel. on xiii. 2.
" Neh. vi. 12. 14. • S. John x. 8.
'S. Matt. vii. 15.
5lb. xxiv. 11, 24. S. Mark xiii. 22. t Acts xiii. 6.
'Acts V. 36, 37. I'l S. John iv. 1.
'"The cause ofthis destruction [of those who
took refuge in the teraple] was a false prophet, who
at that day preached to those in the city, that God
bade them go up to the temple, to receive the signs
of salvation. But there were many at that time

prophets aggravated the resistance to the Eo
mans and the final destruction of Jerusalem '-
" The mention of a king or kingdom, in xi. 6,
xiii. 7, does not suit the age of Zechariah."
Zechariah had already implied that thev
ha.d_no king then, for he had bidden Zion to
rejoice that her king would come to her ; ac
cordingly she had none. In xi. 6, God says,
"I will no more pity the land; I will de
liver man, every one into the hand of his
king." It is an event, not of the prciphet's
time, but of the future ; in xiii. 7, there is no
mention of any king at all.
Such being the entire absence of proof
that these chapters were written before the
captivity '", the proof that c. xi. relates to the
tirae of Menahera is even absurd. The pro
cess with those who maintained this, has
been, assuraing as proved, that it was written
before the captivity, and that it contained no
prophecy of the future, to ask, to what period
before the captivity does it relate'? One
verse '¦ rfelates to civil confusion, such as is
foretold also, with the same metaphor, by
Isaiah and Jeremiah. The choice was large,
since the kingdom of Israel had the curse of
discord and irreligion entailed upon it, and
no king ventured to cut off' the entail by
cutting off the central sin, the worship of
the calves, which were to consolidate it by a
worship, the rival of that at Jerusalem. Of
the 18 kings between Jeroboam and Hosea,
9, including Tibni, died violent deaths. The
choice was directed to Menahem, because of
the words in Zechariah, three shepherds also I
cut off in one month, and Shallum murdered
Zachariah the son of Jeroboam ; and he him
self, after he had reigned a full month in Sa^
maria, was murdered by Menahem. Here
then were two kings cut off. But the third ?
Imagination is to supply it. One " conjec
tures Menahem ; but he reigned 10 years, and
so, he invents a meaning for the word, that
the prophet does not mean cut off, but denied
them, leaving it open whether he meant
"removed " or merely " did not acknowledge
them, as Menahem at first certainly found no
recognition with the prophetic order (2 Kgs
XV. 16, 19);" another P imagined "some
third rival of Zachariah and Shallum, of
whom there is no raention in the historical
books;" but there is no roora for a third
king, since Shallum murdered Zachariah ;

suborned by the tyrant.? to the people, bidding
them wait the help from God, that they might not
desert, and that hope might master to their ill,
those who were beyond fear or watching.— The de
ceivers, telling lies against God, then misdeceived
the wretched people." Jos. B. J. vi. 5. 2 and 3.
"^ The questions 1) whether the six' last chapters
were Zechariah's, and 2) whether they were writ
ten before the captivity, are entirely apart.
"xi. 0. Comp. Is. ix. 20. xlix. 26. Jer. xix. 9.'
"Hitzig ad loc. p. 373. ed. 3.
p Maurer, followed by Bunsen Bibelwerk on
Zeoh., Dr. Davidson Intr. ii. 330.

332

.INTEODUCTION TO

and Menahem, Shallum ; another i found in
Hebrew words'' wdiich had crept into the
LXX, an usurper Kobal-am, of whom he
says truly, " we hear nothing ; " another
" conceived of some usurper after the murder
of Zachariah or of Shallum (this is left free),
who about this time may have set hiraself at
the head of the kingdora, but scarcely raain-
tained hiraself some weeks ; another ' says,
"This refers probably to the Interregnum
784^773, in which many may have set thera-
Kflves as kings, but none have raaintained
theraselves." Another " " An anti-king may
at this tirae have set himself up in other parts
of the kingdom, whom Menahem overthrew
as he did that murderer." Others " say of
the whole, " The symbolical representation,
verss. 3 sqq., admits of no detailed explanation,
but can be understood only as a whole. It de
scribes the evil condition of Judah under
Ahaz." Another'', equally certain that it
relates to Ahaz, says, " the three shepherds,
who perished in one and the same month,
were probably men who, in the long anarchy
before Hosea ascended the throne, contended
for the sceptre."
Yet another is so confident in this inter
pretation as to the three kings, Shallum, Zech
ariah and Menahera, that, whereas the book
of Kings says expressly that Shallura reigned
" " a full month " lit. " a raonth of days," the
coramentator says, " The month cannot have
been full ? ; Zechariah xi. 8 evidently refers
to the three Kings, Sachariah, Sallum and
Menahem," while others^ will have it that
Zechariah by one month means some indefinite
space more than a month. This is indeed
required (although not stated) by all these
theories, since Shallum alone reigned " a full
raonth," and, consequently, the other two
kings (if intended at all by the terra " shep
herds") raust have been cut off at some
period, outside of that " one month."
Truly, theory is a very exacting taskraaster,
" Ewald (Gesch. d. "V. Israel iii. 644.), followed as
elsewhere by Dr. Stanley, Jewish Church ii. 364.
'The original text ofthe LXX seems to have
corresponded with the Hebrew. The meaning of
the two Hebrew words, ^^ 73 p, is very siraple,
"before people "i. e. publicly; DJ^D 73p would
(as Bottcher observed, Jen. Lit. Zeit. 1847. p. 1144)
have signified "before the people publicly as
sembled together." The Syro-Hexaplar version by
Paul of Tela translates the words, and introduces
" Kebdaam " with Origen's asterism, aud so, as not
belonging to the LXX. The Alexandrian and two
other MSS. (one of Constantinople cent, x.) also re
tain the rendering. The singular "conspired,"
which excludes "Keblaam" from the plaee which
it commonly occupies, occurs in 3 MSS., the Syro-
Hcx. Georg. Slav-Ostrog. Verss. and the Complut. ;
" and smote him " is also sing, in 3 MSS. and Compl.
Tlie word "Keblaam" was doubtless only the
Hebrew words, written by one, w^ho did not know
how to translate them, and is variously written and
placed as if the scribes did not know what to do
with it. Four MSS. make it the name of a place,
" in leblaam." They are retained in the place of

though strangely fascinating. It is to be one
of the triumphs of the neo-criticism to dis
tinguish between the authorship of Zeoh.
ix-xi and xii-xiv. The point alleged to prove
that c. xi. belongs to the time of Menahem
is one at variance with history. It is not
that the whole is like, while in one point the
likeness is imperfect. It is the point, alleged
as the keystone of the whole, which fails. 'The
words of God by the prophet are, " Three shep
herds have I cut off' in one month" It lies on
the surface of the history, that Zachariah,
son of Jeroboam, was murdered by Shallum,
after reigning 6 months ; and that Shallum,
after reigning one full month, was himself
murdered by Menahem '. The succession of
murders was not so rapid as when Zimri had
murdered Elah, Baasha's son, and after
reigning 7 days, committed suicide, lest he
should fall into the hands of Omri''. Elah
and Zimri were cut off' in one month ; Zacha
riah and Shallum, in two. But in neither
case was there any visible result, except a
partial retribution of God's justice. The
last executioner of God's justice slept with his
fathers ; his retribution was after death. He
was not cut off. And this is the proof, which
is to supplant the testimony to Jesus. The
Apostle's words come true, as so often beside :
" They slicdl turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables.
'^ Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way,
yet saidst thou not, there is no hope. One
should have thought that some must have, at
times, thought of the old days, when the
prophecy was interpreted of the Good Shep^
herd and of the 30 pieces of silver which
were the price of His Blood, and which wei-e
cast into the house of the Lord''. But this
would have been fatal to " historical criti
cism," whose province was to find out events
of the prophet's own day to fill up the words
of prophecy.
The human authorship of any books of
the Hebrew words in the Vat. MS., but more com
monly are added to "Shallum sou of Jabis:"in
some MSS. and a note in the Syr. Hex., they are
followed by "and Selem or Sclera his father." They
are written, " Kebdaam, Kebdiam, Kebdam, Kad-
daam, Kaibdaam, Keblaam, Keddaam, Kebdaan,
leblaam, lebaan, lebdaam, Bdaam, Beldaam."
See LXX ed. Parsons.
¦ Bleek Einl. p. 669. ' Knobel, Proph. ii. 171.
"Bunsen Gott in d. Gesch. i. 450.
'Bertholdt Einl. iv. 1716, and so seemingly Bosen-
miiller. " Single traits are not to be pressed here ;
that of V. 8, that Jehovah had slain 3 bad shepherds
in one month, belongs merely to poetic individual-
isiug." Graraberg ii. 523.
» Herzfeld, Gesch. d. Volkes Isr. Excurs. ii. 23- P-
2s:;. i2Kgs. XV. 13.
J Thenius on 2 Kgs 1. c. p. 351.
z " xhree kings were dethroned by sedition in
nearly one month." G. L. Bauer, Addit. Schulzii.
Scholia viii. " Three kings followed in a short
time on each other." E. 'Meier Gesoh. d. poet.
nation, lit. d. Hebr. p. 307.
"2 Kgs XV. 8-14. bl Kgs xvi. 15-18.
"2Tim. iv. 4. dis. Ivii. la
•S. Matt. xxvi. 14-16, xxvii. 3-10.

ZECHAEIAH.

333

Holy Scripture, and so of these chapters of
Zechariah is, in itself, a matter which does
not concern the soul. It is an untrue impu
tation, that the date of books of the Bible is
converted into matter of faith. In this case
Jesus has not set His seal upon it; God the
Holy Ghost has not declared it. But, as in
other cases, what lay as the foundation of the
theory was the unbelief that God, in a way
above nature, when it seemed good to Hira,
revealed a certain future to His creature
man. It is the postulate, (or axiom, as ap
pears to these critics), that there is no super
human prophecy, which gives rise to their
eagerness, to place these and other prophetic
books or portions of books where they can
say to themselves that they do not involve
such prophecy. To believers it has obvi
ously no religious interest, at what time it
pleased Almighty God to send any of His
servants the prophets. Not the dates as
signed by any of these self-devouring theo
ries, but the grounds alleged in support of
those dates, as implying unbelief in God's
revelation of Himself, make the question one
of religious interest, viz. to shew that these
theories are as unsubstantial, as their as
sumed base is baseless.
It is an infelicity of the modern German
mind, that it is acute in observing detailed
differences, rather than comprehensive in
grasping deeper resemblances. It has been
more busied in discovering what is new, than
in observing the grounds of what is true. It
does not, somehow, acquire the .power of
• balancing evidence, which is habitual to the
practical minds of our own countrymen. To
take an instance of criticisra, apart frora
Theology, the genuineness of a work of
Plato. " The genuineness of the Laws," says their
recent translator', "is sufficiently proved by
more than 20 citations of them in the writ
ings of Aristotle [whom Plato designated
"* the intellect of the school," and who must
'Prof. Jowett, Translation of Plato's Dialogues.
T. iv. p. 1.
sPhilopon. de iEtern. mundi vi, 27. in Smith Gr.
& Rom. Biogr. i. 317.
'From B. C. 364. to Plato's death B. C. 347.
iPall Mall Gaz. March 28, 1868.
' " The style of the Laws differs in several im
portant respects from the other dialogues of Plato :
1) in the want of character, power and lively illus
tration; 2) in the frequency of mannerisms; 3) in
the form and rhythm of the sentences ; 4) in the
use of words. On the other hand, there are many
passages 5) which are characterized by a sort of
ethical grandeur; and 6) in which perhaps, a
greater insight into human nature, and a greater
reach of practical wisdom is shewn than in any
other of Plato's writings.
"The Laws fall very short of the other Platonic
dialogues in the refinements of courtesy. Partly
the subject did not properly take the form of dia
logue and partly the dramatic vigor of Plato had
passed away.— Plato has given the Laws that form
which was raost suited to his own powers of writ
ing iu the decline of life.
" The fictions of the Laws have no longer that

have been intimate with him for some 17
years ''j who was residing at Athens during
the last years of the life of Plato, and who
returned to Athens at the time when he was
hiraself writing his Politics and Constitu
tions ; 2) by the allusion of Isocrates, writing
B. C. 346, a year after the death of Plato, and
not more than 2 or 3 years after the compo
sition of the Laws — 3) by the reference of
the comic poet Alexis, a younger contem
porary of Plato (B.C. 35G.); 4) by the
unaniraous vtSce of later antiquity, and the
absence of any . suspicion among ancient
writers worth noticing."
Yet German acuteness has found out
reasons, why the treatise should not be
Plato's. Those reasons are plausible, as
most untrue things are. As put together
carefully by one who yet attaches no weight
to them, they look like a parody of the argu
ments, produced by Germans to take to
pieces books of Holy Scripture. Mutatis
mutandis, they have such an absurdly ludi
crous resemblance, that it provokes a smile.
Some 50 years ago, there was a tradition at
Gottingen, where Heyne had lived, that he
attributed the nou-reception of the theories
as to Homer in Enghind to the English
Bishops, who " apprehended that the same
principle would be applied to Holy Scrip
ture." Now, for half a century more, both
sets of critics have had full scope. The clas
sical sceptics seem to me to have the advan
tage. Auy one, who knew but a little of the
uncritical criticism, aj^plied to the sacred
books, could imagine, what a jubilee of tri
umph it would have occasioned, could such
difierences as those pointed out between " the
Laws" and other treatises of Plato, have
been pointed out to detach any book of Holy
Scripture from its traditional writer. Y'et it
is held inadequate by one, of wdiom an ad
mirer said, that "'his peculiar mode of criti
cism cut the very sinews of belief." I in
sert the criticisms'' , (omitting the details of
verisimilitude, wbich we find in the Phsedrus, and
the TimiBus or even in the Politicus — Nor is there
any where in the Laws that lively evapyeia, that
vivid mise en sc^ne, which is as characteristic of
Plato, as of sorae modern novelists.
"We no longer breathe the atmosphere of humor
which pervades the earlier writings of Plato, and
which makes the broadest Aristophanic joke as
well as the subtlest refinement of wit possible; and
hence the impression made upon us is bald and
feeble— The irony of the earlier dialogues, of
which some traces occur in the 10th book, is re
placed by a sort oi severity which hardly conde
scends to regard human things.
" The figures of speech and illustrations are poor
in themselves and are not a.ssisted by the sur
rounding phraseology* In the Eepublic and in the
earlier dialogues — notes are struck which are re
peated from time to time, as in a strain of music.
There is none of this subtle art in the Laws.— The
citations from the poets have lost that fanciful
character, which gave them their charm in the
earlier dialogues,
2. "The clumsiness of the dialogue" leads to fre
quent mannerisms — This finish of style [in the

334

INTRODUCTION TO

illustration) because their failure may open
the eyes of some to the utter valuelessness
of this sort of criticism. The accuracy of the
criticisms is not questioned ; the statements
are not said to be exaggerated ; yet they are
held invalid. The question then comes with
great force to the conscience; "Why, reject
ing arguments so forcible as to a treatise of
PlatOj do I accept arguments very inferior,

dialogue] is no longer discernible in the Laws.
Again and again the speaker is charged or charges
hunself with obscurity; he repeats again and
again that he will explain hia views more clearly.
—A tendency to a paradoxical form of statement is
also observable. — More than in other writings of
Plato the tone is hortatory ; the Laws are sermons
as well as laws; they are supposed to have a relig
ious sanction, and to rest upon a religious senti
ment in the mind of the citizens — Resumptions of
subjects which have been half disposed of in a
previous passage, constantly occur: the arrange
ment has neither the clearness of art, nor the free
dom of nature. Irrelevant remarks are made here
and there, or illustrations used which are not prop
erly filled in. The dialogue is generally weak and
labored; and is in the later books fairly given up ;
apparently, because unsuited to the subject of the
work. 3. "From this [perfection of style in the Sympos
ium and PhiBdrus] there are many fallings oif in
the Laws, first, in the structure of the sentences,
which are rhythmical and monotonous : — second,
they are often of enormous length, and the latter
end frequently appears to forget the beginning of
them : they seem never to have received the
second thoughts of the author: either the empha
sis is wrongly placei, or there is a want of point in
the clause, or an absolute case occurs, whicn ia nof.
properly separated from the rest of the sentence;
or words are aggregated in a manner, which fails
to shew their relation to one another ; or the con
necting particles are omitted at the beginning of
sentences ; the use of the relative and the ante
cedent is more indistinct, the changes of number
and person more frequent; examples of pleonasm,
tautology and periphrasis, unmeaning antitheses
of positive and negative, and other affectations, are
more numerous than in the other writings of
Plato ; there is also a more common and sometimes
unmeaning use of qualifying formulae — and of
double expressions — ; again tliere is an ovex'-cur-
ious adjustment of verb and participle, noun and
epithet: many forms of affected variety: thirdly,
the absence of metaphorical language is remark
able; the style is not devoid of ornament but the
ornament is of a debased rhetorical kmd, patched
on it instead of growing out of the subject; there

as to such or such a book of the Old or New
Testament, — certain chapters of Isaiah, or
Ecclesiastes, or these chapters of Zechariah,
or the Epistle to the Hebrews, or the Eeve
lation of S. John the Divine, — except on
grounds of theology, not of criticism, and
how am I true to myself in rejecting such
arguments as to human books, and accepting
them as to Divine books ? "

is a great command of words, and a labored use of
them ; forced attempts at metaphor occur in sev
eral passages — (compare also the unmeaning ex
travagance of language in other passages); poor
and insipid illustrations are also comraon : fourthly,
we may observe an unmeaning use of climax and
hyperbole —
4. "The pecularities in the use of words, which
occur in the Laws, have been collected by Zeller
and Stallbaum ; first, in the use of nouns, such as"
[8 are given] ; " secondly, in the use of adjectives,
such as" [o instances] "and of adverbs, such as "
[3 instances] "thirdly in the use of verbs such as"
[5 instances] 
"Zeller and Stallbaum have also collected forms
of words in the Laws differing from the forms of
the same words, which occur in other places [7 in
stances, "and the Ionic word  "]. Zeller has
noticed a fondness for substantives ending in fia
and CTts, such as [9 instances " and others "] ; also a
use of substantives in the plural, which are com
monly found only in the singular [five instances.]
Also a peculiar use of prepositions in composition
as in l^nve instances " and others "] also a fi'equent
use ot the Ionic datives plural in ato-i and otai.
" To these peculiarities he has added a list of
peculiar expressions and constructions [9 are
given]. He remarks also on the frequent use of
the abstract for the concrete [11 instances]. He
further notes some curious instances of the geni
tive case— and of the dative — and also some rather
uncommon periphrases; also the pleonastic use of
the enclitics n? and of ye, of to-vvv, of w?, and the
periphrastic use of the preposition Trept. Lastly he
observes the tendency to hyperbata or transposi
tion of words ; and to rhythmical uniformity as
well as grammatical irregularity in tlie structure
of the sentences.
" For nearly all the expressions, which are ad
duced by Zeller against the genuineness of the
Laws, Stallbaum finds some sort of authority.
There is no reason for suspecting their genuine
ness, because several words occur in them, which
are not found in the other writings of Plato. An
imitator will often preserve the usual phraseology
of a writer, better than he would himself." From
Prof. Jowett's Introduction to the Laws of Plato,
T. iv. pp. 11-16.

ZECIIAKIAH.

335

TABLE OF DATES, WHICH IN THIS CENTURY HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO
ZECHARIAH IX— XIV ^

AFTER THE DATE OF ZECHARIAH.

C ix-aav.

"At the earliest, in the first half and middle of
the fifth century.''
"The younger poet, whose visions were added to
those of Zechariah."
Last years of Darius Hystaspis, or first of Xerxes ^.
After the battle of Issus B. C. 333.
After 330.

Vatke^.
Greiger ^.
Gramberg *,
Eichhorn ^
Bottcher^.

•J. D. Michaelis, 1786, was uncertain. The opinions
or dou])t;s in the last century were altogether vague.
"I have as yet no certainty, but am seeking : am
also not opposed, if any deny these chapters to be
Zechariah's." Neue Orient, u. Exeg. Biblioth. i. 128.
Augusti stated attack and defence, but gave no
opinion, Einl. 1806. G. L. Bauer (1793) said gener
ally, "c. ix.-xiv. seem not to be Zechariah's," but
professed himself in utter uncertainty as to the
dates. Scholia T. viii. On ix.-xiv. he says, "which
seems not to be Zechariah's," but whether Flugge
was right who thought c. ix. belonged to the time
of Jeroboam ii., or Eichhorn, who doubted whether
it was not later than Zechariah, he says, "I decide
nothing, leaving the whole question uncertain." p.
74. On xi. he says, " we find no indication when
the desolation was infiicted," though he would
lather understand the Assyrians, than Ant. Epiph.
or the Eomans. pp. 96, 97. Of xii.-xiv. he leaves
subject and time uncertain, pp. 109. 119. 121. Dbder-
lein also seems uncertain, Auserl. theol. Biblioth.
iv. 2. p. 81. (1787.)
1 Biblische Theologie wissenschaftlich darge
steUt. i. .553. " It seems to have been occasioned oy
the Persian-Egyptian wars, and by the feuds of the
Jews with the neighboring people. Nehemiah
found Jerusalem half destroyed [rather not rebuilt].
The want of historical accounts makes it impossible
to explain to what details refer."
2(Eabbiner d. Synag. Gem. Breslau) Urschrift u.
Uebersetz. d. Bibl. p. 55, 57. 1857.
/*" When the fame of the Greeks, even in Pales
tine, must have been great enough to suggest to
the poet the thought, that so mighty and warlike a
people could only be conquered by Jehovah and
his Israelites; then would mere peace and pros
perity prevail.
^Rehgions-Ideen d. A. T. (with preface by Gese
nius) ii. 520.
, 6 Einl. ins. A. T. n. 605. iv. 445, 449. 450. 1824. " If
it is true, that all prophecies start from the present,
and prophets threaten with no people, and proraise
nothing of any, till the people itself is come on the
scene and into relation witn their people, the poet
cannot have spoken of the relation of Alexander to
the Jews, till after the battle of Issus." "Alto
gether, no explanation of the whole section (ix. l.-x.
17.) is possible, if it be not gained from the history
of Alexander the Great. History relates expressly,
how after the battle of Issus he took possession of
all Syria and Zidon without great difficulties ; how,
with an employment of military contrivance un
heard of elsewhere, he conquered and destroyed
island-Tjrre ; how, of the maritime cities of Philis
tia, with indomitable perseverance he is specified
to have besieged and taken Gaza, punished with
death the opposition of ita commander and its in

habitants, can any require more to justify this ex
planation ? " " The portions xi. xii.-xiii. (j. have no
matter, from which their age could be determined;
yet neither do they contain auy thing to remove
them to an early time; rather has the language
much which is late ; if then the contents of xiii. 7-
end, set it late, they too may be accounted late.
This last must either have been to comfort the
people on the first tidings of the death of Judas
Blaecabi in the battle with Bacchides, or have no
definite subject. — In that case it would belong to B.
C. 161, yet one must own that there is not the same
evidence for this, as that ix. l.-x. 17, belongs to the
time of Alexander. — These must be the proofs, that
the 2d half of Zechariah cannot have the same
author as the first, ur one must allow what tradition
gives out, and since there are great doubts against
it, one must regret that one can come to no clear
result as to Zechariah. For the other proofs ivhich
could be brought are not decisive." pp. 450, 451.
Corrodi had on the same grounds assigned c. ix.
tothe time of Alexander ; c. xiv. to that of Antiochus
Epiphanes. Versuch e. Beleuchtung d. Gesch. d.
Jud. u. Christi. Bibel-Canons i. 107.
^Ausf. Lehrbuch d. Hebr. Sprache. n, 45. p. 23.
18G8. "The way in which Greece is named as a
chief enemy of Zion (quite different from that of
Joel iv. 6. Is. Ixvi. 19.), chiefly shews that the sec
tions Zech. ix. sqq. which resist every_ assured colloca-
(ionmt/ieprce-ea;!7fl or ante-Macedonian ^^eWod, could
only have been written after Alexander's march
through Palestine. With this agree the later color
ing, the Levitical spirit, the'style full of compilation
and of imitation, as also the phantastic messianic
hopes. These last must have been revived araong
the Jews after the overthrow through Alexander.
In comparison with the lifeless language of these
chapters, as to which we cannot at all understand
how any can have removed them into so early prre-
exile times, the Psalms attributed to the times of
the Maccabees are amazingly fresh. On this, as
well as other grounds, we can admit of no Psalms of
the Maccabee times." Neue Aehrenlese ii. 215-
127. One ground, which has by others of this school
been alleged for not ascribing them to Zechariah,
had been that they were so much more poetic &c.
" In regard to language also, the style in the second
Part is wholly different, c. 9. and 10, are energetic,
vivid, &c." Hitzig, Vorbemerkk. z. d. ii. u. iii. Zech.
n. 2. "Rosenmiiller says truly:— How much the
poetic, weighty, concise, fervid style of the six last
chapters differs from the prosaic, languid, humble
style of the eight first." Maurer on Zech. ix.-xiv.
p. G67. "These prophecies [Zech. ix.-xiv.] cannot
be from Zechariah, not on account of the un-sym-
bolic style (comp. xi. 4r-17.) but on account of the
more forceful style " &c. De Wette Einl g 250 ed. 2.

336

ZECHABIAH.

ix-xi. ix-xi.

ix-xi.
ix-xi.

ix-xi. and
xiii. 7-9.
ix-xi.
xiii. 7-9.
ix-xi.

XI.ix.

TABLE OF DATES.
Antiochus Epiphanes.
On Hyrcanus i, as the Messiah.
ZECHAEIAH HIMSELF.
[Beckhaus' 1792] Jahn*, Koster', Hensten-
berg ", Burger ', De Wette (edd. 4-6). A.
Theiner^ Herbst', Umbreit", Pliivernick ^
Keil^ Stahelin", von Hofimann ">, Ebrard,
Schegg, Baumgarten", Neumann", Kliefoth",
Kohler", Sandrock".
DATES BEFORE THE CAPTIVITY.
Uzziah B.C. 772.
Under Ahaz, during war with Pekah.
Beginning of Ahaz.
Later time of Hezekiah.
Between B. C. 771-740, i. e. between the invasion
of Pul, (2 Kgs XV. 19.) and the capture of
Damascus by Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kgs xvi. 9.)
i. e. between the 40th of Uzziah and the 3d of
Ahaz.
In the first 10 years of Pekah before the war
with Ahaz [i. e. between B. C. 759-749].
"Very probably Uzziah's favorite prophet in his
prosperous days."
Contemporary with Isaiah under Ahaz toward
B.C. 736.
Perhaps contemporary with Zephaniah [in the
time of Josiah].
Might be put in the time of Ahaz.
Perhaps out of the time of Zephaniah.

many
interpreters ^''
Paulus '.

Hitzig",
Rosenmiiller". Bertholdt". Credner '",
Herzfeld 1".
Baur".
Knobel".

Ewald".
Stanley 2".
Bimsen ''.
De Wette". Id.
Gesenius ''.

Mn Bertholdt Einl. iv. 1Y15.
2 Comm. z. N. T. iii. 130-139. Else he follows Eich
horn 1832.
3 ub. d. Integritiit d. Proph. Schriften d. A. B. p.
337. sqq.
<Eiul. ii. Gil), sqq.
5 Meletemata ent. et eseg. in Zach. proph. part.
post. 1818.
6 Beitrage zur Einl. ins. A. T. i. 3G1. sqq.
' Etudes exeg^t. et critiques sur le proph. Zacha-
rie. Strasburg 1841.
8 In their commentaries on Zechariah.
s In their Introductions to the O. T.
10 Schriftbeweis li. 2. p. 550.
ll Prions et posterions Zach. partis vaticin. ab uno
eodemque auct. profecta. 1857.
'2 Theol. Studien u. Kritiken 1830. 1. p. 25. sqq. fol
lowed by u, Lengerke, d. Buch Daniel, Einl. p. Ixxvii.
"Scholia in V. T. vii. 4. p. 254. sqq. ed. 2. In ed. 1.
Ho had followed Jahn.

M Einl. ins A. T. iv. n. 431. pp. 1712-1716. In p. 1722
he conjectures the prophet to h.ave been Zeohanan
son of Jebereohiah (Is. viii. 2) ; a conjecture re
commended by Gesenius, Jesaia i. 627 as "an acute
combination." Ewald calls the theory of one or
more Zechariahs, "an over-ingenious device (erK;-
lugelte) idle conjecture, a plea of those who will not
look straight at the truth." Proph. i. 249.
IS Joel. vol. i. p. 105.
« Gesch. d. Volkes Isr., Excurs. ii. n. 3. pp. 280-
282. 1^ d. Proph. Amos, vol. i.
18 Prophetismus d. Hebraer ii. 168-170.
15 Kl. Proph. i. 248-251, followed mostly by E. Meier
Gesch. d. poet, national, lit. d. Hebraer p. 308.
MJewishChurchii. 444, add 364,366.
21 Gott. in d. Geschichte i. 453. In p. 247, he placed
ch. ix. at " a generation after Ahaz."
22 Einl. ins. A. T. n. 250. p. 338. edd. 1-3.
23 On Is. xxiii. p. 713.

ZECHAEIAH.

337

TABLE OF DATES.

I Uzziah.

X.
xi. 1-3.
xii. 4-17.
ix.

XI.ix. X.
xi. 1-3.
xi. 4-17. xiii. 7-9.
ix-x.

XI.ix.
xii-xiv.

xii. 1-xiii. 6.

xiii. 7.-end.
xii. 1-xiii. 6.
xiii.-7. end.
xii. 1-xiii. 6.
xiii. 7.-end.
xii. 1-xiii. 6.
xiv.

Ahaz, soon after war with Pekah and Eezin.
Invasion of some Assyrian king.
Menahem, and end of Uzziah.
Between the carrying away of 2] tribes and the
fall of Damascus.
Between 739-731, the 7 years' anarchy between
Hosea's murder of Pekah and his own acces
sion.
In reign of Hosea.
Under Uzziah and Jeroboam.
The Anarchy after death of Jeroboam ii. [B. C.
784-772.]
B. C. 716.
Shortly after the war of Pekah and Bezin. '
Not before Jeroboam, nor before Uzziah's acces
sion, but before the death of Zechariah son of
Jeroboam.
Beginning of reign of Menahem.
Possibly contemporary with Hosea.
After capture of Damascus by Tiglath-Pileser.
Manasseh, in view of a siege by Esarhaddon.
Between B.C. 607-604 (though falsified.)
Soon after Josiah's death, by Uriah, Jeremiah's
contemporary, B. C. 607 or 606.
Most probably, while the Chaldees were already
before Jerusalem, shortly before Jerusalem
was first conquered (599).
Under Joiakim or Jeconiah or Zedekiah in
Nebuchadnezzai-'s last expedition (no objection
that it was falsified).
Soon after Josiah's death.
The last years of Jehoiakim, or under Jehoia
chin or Zedekiah.
" Exceeding probably under Josiah or Jehoia
kim.''
Fourth year of Jehoiakim.
Fifth.
The latter half of 600 B. C.
Later than xii. l.-xiii. 6.

Bleek ',
Forberg^. Bleek.

Maurer '.

V. Ortenberg*

Hitzig ^.

Hitzig ^.
Bauer ^.
Movers '.
Hitzig ".
Knobel ".
Bunsen '".
Schrader ''.

Bertholdt ".
Bertholdt ''.
Bleek ».
Bleek '^.
Maurer '^
V. Ortenberg ".

1 Einl. ins. A. T. p. 555-560.
2 Comm. crit. et exeg. in part, post. Zach. P. i.
'^Maurer Comm. p. 669.
*Die Bestandtheile d. Buchs Saoharia pp. 68. 72.
75, 79, followed by Kahnis Lutherische Dogm. i.
354-3.57. SD. Kl. Proph. ii, und iii. Zacharia, Vorbemerk.
n. 4. p. 351. ed. 2., followed by Schrader in his re
writing of De Wette's Einl. n. 308, only placing c. ix.
definitely in the time of Jeroboam ii.
22

8 " What I think, or rather, conjecture." Schulzii
Scholia continuata viii. 100.
' Phoenicien ii. 1. p. 383, 384.
8 Kl. Proph. ii. und iii. Sach. n. 5. 6. ed. 2, 3.
0 Prophetismus ii. 289.
10 Gott in d. Geschichte i. 451,452.
11 De Wette's Einleitung, re-written from his Ed.
vi. n. 308. a new g p. 382. '- Eiul. iv. 1717.
13 Ib. 1719. 1* Einl. p. 660. 15 Ib. 563.
i« Proph. Min. p. 670. " Bestandtheile &c. p. 87.

338

ZECHAEIAH.

TABLE OP DATES.

xii-xiii. 6.

xiii. 7-9.
xiv.

xii-xiii. 6. xiv.
xii. 1-xiii. 6.
xiii. 7. end.
xii. 1-xiii. 6. xiv.

12 years after Habakkuk [about B.C. 607,
Ewald] shortly before the destruction of Jeru
salem.
Same date as ix. xi. (see above).
A little later than xii-xiii.
or. In the first rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar
" ' by Chananiah, or one of the many prophets
who contradicted Jeremiah."
Zedekiah, " Beginning of revolt."
" Prophecies of fanatic contents, which deny all
historical explanation, but xiii. 7. must rather
be conceived as future than ' past,' as Bertholdt."
After death of Josiah, yet relating to the repent
ance for the putting the Messias to death, and
so independent of the times in which it is
placed.

Ewald 1-

Ewald^.

Stanl-ey »
De Wette ed. 2\

Kahnis "-

1 Kl. Proph. ii. 52.
2Ib. ii. 59. "At a time when the earnest and
more threatening condition of the world softened
the proud certainty of victory, and occasioned the
anticipation of the fulfillment of a judgment on the
holy city." xiv. 1-2.
3 Geschichte d. Volkes Isr. iii. 803. Ewald saya
that he often balanced between them, but always
ended by coming back to the first, since xiv. 2.
probably referred to the capture under Jehoiachin.

* Jewish Church. Sect. xi. "special authorities."
p. 513. Passing him over in the history, ho escapes
the consequence which Ewald drew out, that he
would have been a false prophet, although he says,
that " in Hananiah," whose death Jeremiah prophe
sied for "telling lies in the name of the Lord,"
" passed away the last echo of the ancient invinci
ble strain ofthe age of Isaiah." p. 6-15.
5 Einl. n. 250. p. 338 ed. 1S22.
6 Lutherische Dogm. i. 359-361.

ZECHARIAH.

Before CHAPTEE I.
CHEIST cir 520
 ¦  1 Zechariah exhorteth io repent
ance. 7 The vision of ihe
horses. 12 Ai the 'prayer of
the angel comfortable promises
are made io Jerusalem. 18
The msion of the horns, and
the four carpenters.
TN the eighth month, "in
the second year of Da
rius, came the word of the
'Ezras. 1. rj T • n 1
Matt. 23. 35. LoED ' unto Zechariah, the

> Ezra 4. 24.
Hag. 1. 1.

Chap. I. 1. Ln the eighth month '. The
date joins on Zechariah's prophecy to those
of Haggai. Two months before, in ihe sixth
¦month^, had Haggai, conjointly with Ze
chariah ', exhorted Zerubbabel and the peo
ple to resume the intermitted building of the
temple. These had used such diligence,
notwithstanding the partial discouragement
of the Persian Government *, that God gave
them in ihe seventh month, the magnificent
promise of the later glory of the temple
through the Coming of Christ". Still as
Haggai too warned them, the conversion was
not complete. So Zechariah in the eighth,
as Haggai in the ninth ^ month, urges upon
them the necessity of thorough and inward
repentance, as the condition of partaking of
those promises.
" ' 'Thrice in the course of one saying, he
mentions the most holy name of God ; partly
to instruct fn the knowledge of Three Per
sons in one Nature, partly to confirm their
minds more strongly in the hope of the sal
vation to come."
2. lit. Wroth was the Lord against your
fathers with wrath ", i. c, a wrath which was
indeed such, whose greatness he does not
further express, but leaves to their memories
to supply. ""Seest thou how he scares
them, and, setting before the young what
befell those before them, drives them to
amend, threatening them with the like or
more grievoiis ills, unless they would wisely
reject their fathers' ways, esteeming the
pleasing of God worthy of all thought and
care. He speaks of .^reaiwraZ/i. For it indi
cates no slight displeasure that He allowed
iNot as Kim. in the Sth new-moon; for though
Bin is used of the new-moon, Num. xxviii. 14, 1
Sam. XX. 6, 18, 24 ; Am. viii. 5. (not Ex. xix. 1. or
Hos. V. 7.) it is not so used in dates, in which it
would be ambiguous.
2Hagg. i. 1. 3Ezr. V. 1, 2. ^Ib. .3-5.
5 Hagg. ii. 1-9. » Ib. 10-14. ' Osor.
^As we might express bythe indefinite article

son of Berechiah, the son ^ ^ e°i s t
of Iddo the prophet, saying, °ii'- s^"-
2 The Loed hath been
t sore displeased with your fHeb. with
fathers. displeasure.
3 Therefore say thou
unto them. Thus saith the
Loed of hosts ; Turn " ye « Jer. 25. 5.
unto me, saith the Loed mio.' 7. w.
of hosts, and I will turn Luiieia'. 20.
, .,-1 ,1 T James 4. 8.
unto you, saith the Loed
of hosts.

the Babylonians to waste all Judah and
Samaria, burn the holy places and destroy
Jerusalem, remove the elect Israel to a pite
ous slavery in a foreign land, severed from
sacrifices, entering no more the holy court
nor ofiering the thank-offering, or tithes, or
first-fruits of the law, but precluded by
necessity and fear even from the duty of
celebrating his prescribed and dearest fes
tivals. The like we might address to the
Jewish people, if we would apply it to the
mystery of Christ. For after they had killed
the prophets and had crucified ihe Lord of glory
Himself, they were captured and destroyed ;
their famed temple was levelled, and Hosea's
words were fulfilled in them ; '" The children
of Lsrael shall abide many days without a kin/
a'nd without a prince, without a sacrifice and
without an image, without an ephod and without
teraphim." 3. Therefore say thou. lit. And them sayest, i. e.,
this having been so, it follows that thou
sayest or must say ", Turn ye unto Me. In
some degree they had turned to God, for
Whose sake they had returned to their land ;
and again when, after some negligence ''',
they renewed the building of the temple, and
God had said, '^ I am with you. But there
needed yet a more inward completer turning,
whereon God promises a yet nearer presence,
as Malachi repeats the words ", and S. James
exhorts '^, Draw nigh to Ood and He will draw
nigh to you. Those who have turned to God
need ever to turn more into tlie centre of the
narrow way. As the soul opens itself more
to God, God, Whose communication of Him
self is ever hindered only by our closing the
"a blow" for "such a blow." The LXX fill up
opY*)" tieyi^.Tiv. Ewald (Lehrb. n. 281. p. 702.) quotes
Xap? x^'ps'i S. John iii. 29.
9 S. Cyr. 1" Hos. iii. 4. See vol. i. p. 44.
11 The force of mDXl. The duty is implied in
V. 2. 12 Hagg'. 'i. 2-n. '^ lb. 13.
14 Mai. iii. 7. '^ S. James iv. 8.
339

340

ZECHAEIAH.

0 H E°i I T 4 Be ye not as your fa-
cir. 620. _ thers, " unto whom the

<i 2 Chron. 36.
15, 16.
• Isai. 31. 6.
Jer. 3. 12.
& 18. 11.
Ezek. 18. 30.
Hos. 14. 1.

former prophets have cried,
saying, Thus saith the
Loed of hosts ; " Turn ye

door of our hearts against Him, enters more
into it. ' If a man love Me, he will keep My
words, and My Father will love him, and We
wdl come unto him, and make Our abode with
him. " '' Men are said to be converted, when
leaving behind them deceitful goods, they
give their whole mind to God, bestowing no
less pains and zeal on Divine things than
before on the nothings of life."
" ^ When it is said in Holy Scripture,
Turn unto Me and I will turn unto you, we are
admonished as to our own freedom ; when we
answer. Turn us, Lord, unto Thee, and we
shall be turned, we confess that we are fore-
come by the grace of God."
4. Be ye not like your fathers. Strangely
infectious is the precedent of ill. Tradition
of good, of truth, of faith, is decried ; only
tradition of ill and error are adhered to. The
sin of Jeroboam was held sacred by every
king of Israel : * The statutes of Omri were
diligently kept, and all the works of the house of
Ahab. Tliey turned back and were treacherous
like their forefalliers ; they turned themselves like
a deceitful bow ^ is God's summary of the
history of Israel. " ^ Absurd are they who
follow the ignorances of their fathers, and
ever plead inherited custom as an irrefrag
able defence, though blamed for extremest
ills. So idolaters especially, being called to
the knowledge of the truth, ever bear in
mind the error of their fathers and, embrac
ing their ignorance as an hereditary lot,
remain blind."
The former prophets. The prophets spake
God's words, as well in their pastoral office
as in predicting things to come, in enforcing
God's law and in exhorting to repentance, as
in announcing the judgments on disobedience.
The predictive as well as the pastoral office
were united in Nathan', Gad", Shemaiah',
Azariah'", Hanani ", Elijah i^, Elisha i-*,
Micaiah the son of Imla, whose habitual pre
dictions against Ah.ib induced Ahab to say '*,
I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good con
cerning me, but eril. The speciiic calls to con-
1 S. John xiv. 23. '¦ Osbr.
3 Conc. Trid. Sess. vi. c. 5. 4Mic. vi. 16.
6 Ps. ixxviii. 57. eg, Cyr,
7 2Sam. vii. 4-10, xii. 1-14. bi gam. xxii. 5, xxiv. 11.
9 2 Chr. xi. 2-4, xii. 6-8. i" Ib. xv. n Ib. xvi. 7-9.
121 Kgs xvii. 1, 14, xviii. 1, 41, xxi. 19, 21, 23, 29, 2
Kgs i. 4, 16.
13 2 Kgs iii. 17, 18. iv. JO, V. 27, vii. 1, 2, viii. 10-13,
xiii. l-HO.
14 1 Kgs xxii. 8. isjer. xxv. 3-8. i» 2 Kgs xvii. 13.

now from your evil ways,
and from your evil doings : _
but they did not hear, nor
hearken unto me, saith the
Loed.

Before
CHRIST cir. 620.

version here named and their fruitlessness,
are summed up by Jeremiah as words of all
the prophets. For ten years he says, '' The
word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have
spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, and
ye have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent
unto you all His servants the prophets, rising
early and sending ; but ye have not hearkened
nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn
ye again now every one from his evil ways and
from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the
land that ihe Lord hath given unto you and to
your fathers for ever and ever ; and go not after
other gods to serve and worship tliem, andprovoke
Me not io anger with the works of your hands,
and I will do you no hurt. But ye have not
hearkened unto Me, saith the Lord; that ye
might provoke Me to anger with the worlcs of your
hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus saith
tlie Lord of hosts. Because ye have ¦not heard My
words &c. The prophetic author of the book
of Kings sums up in like way, o^all ihe pro
phets and all the seers. "" The Lord testified
against Israel and against Judah by the hand of
all the prophets and edl the seers, saying, Turn
ye from your evil ways and keep My command
ments. My statutes, according to all ihe law
which I commanded your fathers, and which I
sent to you by My servants ihe prophets, and they
did not hear, and hardened their 'neek, like the
neck of tlieir fathers.
The characteristic word ", turn from your
eril ways and ihe evil of your doings occurring
in Jeremiah, it is probable, that this sum
mary was chiefly in the mind of Zechariah,
and that he refers not to Isaiah, Joel, Amos
&c., (as all the prophets were preachers of
repentance), but to the whole body of teachers,
whom God raised up, analogous to the Chris
tian ministry, to recall men to Himself.
The title, the former prophets, contrasts the
office of Haggai and Zechariah, not with
definite propliets before the captivity, but
with the whole company of those, whom
God sent as He says, so unremittingly.
And they hearkened not unto Me. " '" They
heard not the Lord warning through the pro-
II Zech. D3'V'7;?Di uy^n no'3"na w uisy
ii'i'in Jer. xxv. 6. nj;in utid b"s j;j laty
D^'^Sj^n ;;1D1. in Jer. xviii. 11. the second clause
is, D3'^S;7D1 Q3'D ^^lTB'n1; in Jer xxxv. 15, it
is, DD'SSj^D 13'B'ni. In Zeoh., the Kri DD'''7'7;?D
substitutes Jeremiah's word for the aT- Aey.
?'V'7;rn. "S.Jer.

CHAPTEE I.

341

^J'fTIm 5 Your fathers, where
cir. 520. are they? and the pro
phets, do they live for
ever ?
'Isai. 55.1. 6 But 'my words and
my statutes, which I com
manded my servants the
prophets, did they uot
I Or, overtake. 1 1 take hold of your fa
thers? and they returned
and said, *^Like as the
Loed of hosts thought to
do unto us, according to
our ways, and according

sLam. 1. 18.
k 2. 17.

phets, attended not — not to the Prophets who
spake to them but — not to Me, saith the Lord.
For I was in them who spake and was
despised. Whence also the Lord in the Gos
pel saith, ' He that recriveth you, receiveth Me."
5. Your fathers, where are they '' ? The
abrupt solemnity of the question seems to
imply an unexpected close of life which cut
short their hopes, plans, promises to self
' 'When they said. Peace a'nd safety, then sud
den destruction cometh upon them. Yet not
they only but the prophets too, who minis
tered God's word to them, these also being
men, passed away, some of them before their
time as men, by the martyr's death. Many
of them saw not their own words fulfilled.
But God's word which they spake, being
from God, passed not away.
6. Only My words and 3Iy decrees *, which
God spake by them, did not they overtake
them ? Heathen reminiscence of God's justice
acknowledged, " ^ Earely hath punishment
with limping tread parted with the forerun
ning miscreant." AU these curses, Moses
foretells^, shall come upon thee and overtake
thee'', until thou art destroyed.
And they returned to God and said. The
history of the Jews in Babylon is omitted in
Holy Scripture, except as to His special
dealings with Daniel and his three com
panions. Yet Jeremiah confesses in words,
5vhat Zechariah had apparently in his mind ;
' The Lord hath dime that which He purposed;
Ee hath fulfllled His word, whieh He commanded
in the days of old. The Lamentations are one
is. Matt. X, 40.
2 It is probably for emphasis, that (here alone)
the full on n'!< stands for the contracted D'X;
our, " where are tliey f"
' 1 Thess. V. 3. 4 As Ps. ii. 7. Zeph. ii. 2.
'Hor. Od. iii. 9. fin.
"Deut. xxviii, 46.
'The same word J'tyPI (as here) occurs also Ib.

to our doings, so hath he „ S''^°^% ^
, OrlKIbr
dealt with us. cir. 520.
7 ^ Upon the four and cir. 619.
twentieth day of the
eleventh mouth, which is
the month Sebat, in the
second year of Darius,
came the word of the
Loed unto Zechariah, the
son of Berechiah, the son
of Iddo the prophet, say
ing, 8 I saw by night, and
, -, , , ¦^ . ,? tJosh. 6. 13.
behold "a man ridmg upon Rev. 6. 4.

long confession of deserved punishment, such
as Daniel too made in the name of his peo
ple with himself ".
It was one long waiting for God and for
the restoration of His visible worship. Yet re
pentance was a condition of their restoration.
7. On tlie twenty-fourth day, exactly five
months after the building of the temple
was resumed '", and two months after Hag
gai's last prophecy ". The series of visions,
leading onward, from the first deliverance
from the enemies who oppressed them, to
the Coming of Christ, is given as a reward to
their first whole-hearted endeavor to restore
their worship of Him. The visions are called
ihe word of ihe Lord, because they were pro
phecy, made visible to the eve, conveying the
revelation to the soul, and in part explained
by Him.
8. / saw in the night, i. e. that following on
the twenty-fourth day. The darkness of the
night perhaps was chosen, ,as agreeing with
the dimness of the restored condition. Night
too is, " ''' through the silence of the senses
and of the fancy, more suited for receiving
Divine revelations."
A man riding upon a red horse. The man is
an angel of God, appearing in form of man, as
Daniel says, '"''' The man Gabriel, whom I had
seen in the vision at the beginning, touched
me." He is doubtless the same who appeared to
Joshua in form of man, preparing thereby for
the revelation of God manifest in the fiesh —
He, before whom Joshua fell on his face and
in him worshiped God, through whom also
15 ; of the Divine wrath, Ps. Ixix. 25 ; of iniquities,
Ps. xl. 13.
» Lam. ii. 17. DOt is used of God, in connection
with T\&)} in both places and in Jer. li. 12. DDI is
used of God beside only in Jer. iv.28. The verb
is used only 13 times in all.
9 Dan. ix. 4^16. i<> Hagg. ii. 15. " Ib. ii. 20.
12 Dion. '^ Dan. ix. 21.

342

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHKIST cir. 619.

1 ch. 6. 2,-7.
H Or, hay.

a red horse, and he stood
among the myrtle trees
that were in the bottom ;
and behind him loere there
'red horses, || speckled, and
white. 9 Then said I, 0 my
lord, what are these ? And
the angel that talked with

God required the same tokens of reverence
as He had from Moses '. Joshua lifted up his
eyes, a'nd looked, and- beliold there stood a man
over against him with a sword drawn in his hand,
who said, as Captain of ihe Lords host am I
come. He rides here, as Leader of the host
who follow Him ; to Him the otliers report,
and He instructs the Angel who instructs the
prophet. Eed, being the color of blood,
symbolizes doubtless " '' the vengeance of
God to be inflicted on the enemies of the
Jews for their sins committed against the
Jews," exceeding the measure of chastise
ment allowed by God. It probably was S.
Michael ^, who is entitled in Daniel, your
prince *, the great prince which standeth up for
tlie children of thy people ^.
And he was standing, almost as we say, sta
tionary, abiding in that one place. The de
scription is repeated ^, apparently as identify
ing this angel, and so he and the angel of the '
Lord are probably one.
The myrtle trees ", from their fragrance and
lowness, probably symbolize the Church, as
at once yielding a sweet odor, and in a low
estate, or lowly. The natural habits of the
myrtle make it the fitter symbol '.
And behind him. The relation of the
1 Josh. V. 13-15, Sec on "the .4ngel of the Lord"
in " Daniel the Prophet," pp. 619-525,
2 Dion. 3 Dan, x, 13. * Ib. 21.
B Ib, xii, 1, S. Jerome observes, " The Jews suppose
the man on the red horse to be the Angel Michael,
who was to avenge the iniquities and sins against
Israel," ^ ver, 10. i ver, 11,
8 The -name of the plant, O'lH, occurs in the
Arabic of Yemen (Kam, p, 812 and Abulwalid) and
is probably the basis of Esther's original name,
riDin, perhaps i, q, 'Aroo-a-a, Ges,
^ ri vS D, «»¦• in form is doubtless the same as SSi"
nS^in, 'being used of sinking in the water, Ex,
XV, 10, " In profundo," S, Jer, (Virg, Georg, ii. 112,
litora myrtetis gratissima, and Ib, iv, 124, amantes
litora myrti,) The LXX icarairKujiv would rather
have been HWIp, and the myrtles make shade, but
do not grow in a shady plaee, Hitz, Ew, Maur,
correct n7?fD, "the tent," (.as Arab, HvibD) i, e.
"of God," they say. But the tabernacle, while it
existed, was not so called ; nor did myrtles grow
before it, Bottcher n, 641, y.) Dvi^fD, "schatten-
d.ich." io Rev, vi, 2,

me said unto me, I will chrTst
shew thee what these be. °i''- 6i9.
10 And the man that
stood among the myrtle
trees answered and said,
''These are iAey whom the k Heb. 1. 14.
Loed hath sent to walk
to and fro through the
earth.

Angel as their chief is represented by tlieir
following him. This is consistent with their
appearing subsequently as giving report to
him. The red and white horses are well-
known symbols of war and glory, %\ hence He
^Vho sits on the white horse '" in the Revela
tions, went forth conquering and to conquer.
The remaining color is somewhat uncertain.
If it be ashen gray, it would correspond to the
¦pale horse " oi the Eevelations, and the union
of the two colors, black and white, is calcu
lated to be a symbol of a chequered state of
things, wliereas a mingled color like " chest
nut " is not suggestive of any symbol.
9. What are these f He asks, not who, but
what '"'' they import.
Tlie angel that talked with me. lit. " spake in
me." The very rare expression "^ seems
meant to convey the thought of an inward
speaking, whereby the words should be borne
directly into the soul, without the interven
tion of the ordinary outward organs. God
says to Moses, ^* If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, will make Myself known unto him in
a vision, I will speak [lit.] in him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so — In him will I
speak mouth io mouth ; and Habakkuk says of
the like inward teacliing, '' I will wateh io see,
n Rev, vi, 8, i^apol, 6 ; varu, S, Jer., $avdoi Aq, The
rnip of the Targum is itself uncertain. It is a
conjecture only of Levy, that it may be i, q.
/tuai/oxai'Tijs, " dark-maned," Eashi and Kim, own
that they do not know. The Peshito SOp'3 cor
responds to the Heb. SiSq in Gen, xxx. 32, (bis)
33, 35 (bis) 39. but its meaning, in itself, is equally
unknown. The Hebrew root occurs beside, only
of a choice vine, pi. Is, xvi, 8, plti' Is, v, 2, Jer, ii-
21, nplty Gen, xlix, 11; in Arab, p'lD, Abulw.
But although this vine, growing onl^ in Syria, has
small blue- black grapes (KimO, itis mere guess
that it is so called from its color,. or that pit?
signifies red or dark. It is equally a guess that
pity is transposed from Arab, "IDE'S "chestnut,"

(as distinct from "bay" ri'DD), t<"lpE; is used of
the color of fire,
i2nD, not'D. 18-3 131, "Nu, xii, 6-9,
' i6Hab,ii,l. Thesearetheonlyadditional instances
of the construction, unless Jer. xxxi, 20, be used of
tender speaking, "in (elsewhere in tlie heart of)
Ephraim,"

CHAPTEE I.

343

chrTst ¦'¦¦'¦ '^ii<i tW answered
cir, 519, the angel of the Loed

ips. 103. 20, 21. that stood among the myr
tle trees, and said, We
have walked to and fro
through the earth, and, be-

what He wiU speak in me. It is the character
istic title of one attendant-angel, who was
God's expositor of the visions to Zechariah i.
"'By his ministry God shewed me things
to come, in that that angel formed in the
spirit and imaginative power of Zechariah
phantasms or images of things which were
ibresliewn him, and gave him to understand
what those images signified."
11. And the man answered to the question
addressed to the attendant-angel. He him
self took the word.
These are they whom ihe Lord sent to walk up
and down. Satan says of himself that he
came ''from going to and fro in the earth and
from walking up and down in it. As he for
evil, so these for good. Their office was not
a specific or passing duty, as when God sent
His angels with some special commission,
such as those recorded in Holy Scripture. It
was a continuous conversation with the affairs
of men, a minute course of visiting, inspect
ing our human deeds and ways, a part of the
"'wonderful order," in which God has " or
dained and constituted the services of Angels
and men." Nor is it said that the Angels
were limited, each to his own peculiar prov
ince, as we learn through Daniel, that cer
tain great Angels, Princes among them, had
the charge of empires or nations, even of the
heathen". These Angels had apparently
only the office of inspecting and reporting to
Angels of a higher order, themselves a sub
ordinate order in the heavenly Hierarchy.
Nor are they spoken of, as executing any
judgments of God, or as pacifying the earth ;
they may have been so employed ; but they
are only said to have reported the state in
which they found it.
These answered the unexpressed inquiry of
the angel of tlie Lord, as he had answered the
unuttered question of the angel, attendant on
Zechariah. Sitteth still and is at red, at rest, as the word
M. 13, 14, 19 (ii. 2 Heb.) ii. 3. [7] iv, 1, 4, 6, v. 6. 10,
yi, 4, 2 Dion,
5 Job ii. 2. i Collect for S, Michael's day.
5 See "Daniel the Prophet" pp. 525, 526,
"Qpt!' is the word used in the book of Judges
of the rest given to the land under judges until its
fresh departure from God. Jud, iii, 11, 30, v. 31, viii,
28,; of the undisturbed life of the people of Laish,
Jud, xviii. 7, 27; "from war," nDnbop, is added,
Joa, xi, 23, xiv, 15, of the rest after the war whereby
Israel was put in possession of Canaan,

hold, all the earth sitteth ohrTst
still, and is at rest. cjr- 6i9.

12 ^Then the angel of
the Loed answered and
said, ""O Loed of hosts, ¦»ps."io2. 13.
, ' ., , Rev. 6. 10.
how long; wilt thou not

seems to express *, from its wonted state of
tumult and war. Wars, although soon to
break out again, v/ere in the second year of
Darius for the time suspended. The rest, in
which the world was, suggests the contrast
of the yet continuing unrest allotted to the
people of God. Such rest had been prom
ised to Israel, on its return from the cap
tivity ', but had not yet been fulfilled.
Through the hostility of the Samaritans the
building of the temple had been hindered
and was just recommenced ; the wall of Je
rusalera was yet broken down'; its fire-
burned gates not restored ; itself was a waste ^ ;
its houses unbuilt '". This gives occasion to
the intercession of the Angel of the Lord.
1 2. Ami the Angel of the Lord answered the
implied longing, by intercession with God.
As the angel-interpreter in Job had " " the
office of no mere created angel, but one, an-
ticipative of His, A\'ho came at once to re
deem and justify," so the Angel of the Lord,
in whom God was, exercised at once a me
diatorial office with God, typical of our Lord's
High Priest's prayer ''', and acted as God.
These seventy years. The seventy years of
the captivity, prophesied by Jeremiah '^, were
on the eve of their conclusion at the time of
Daniel's great prayer of intercession " ; they
ended with the capture of Babylon, and the
edict of Cyrus, permitting the Jews to re
turn '". Yet there seems to have been a sec
ondary fulfillment, from the destruction of
the temple and city, in Zedekiah's eleventh
year '', 588 B. C. to the second year of Da
rius, 519 B. C. Such double fulfillments of
prophecy are not like alternative fulfillments.
They are a more intricate and fuller, not an
easier fulfillment of it. Yet these 70 years do
not necessitate such a double fulfillment. It
might express only a reverent wonder, that
the 70 years being accomplished, the com
plete restoration was not yet brought to pass.
" " God having flxed the time of the cap-
It is used of the rest in Asa's days, 2 Chr, xiii. 23,
Heb. given him by God, xiv, 4, 6, of the rest of the
city after the death of Athaliah 2 Kgs xi, 20, 2
Chr, xxiii. 21 ; of the earth, after the destruction of
Babylon, Is, xiv, 7,
' with the same word OpW Jer, xxx, 10, xlvi, 27.
8 Neh, i. 3, " Ib, ii, 3, i" Ib, vii. 4.
11 See " Daniel the Prophet " p. 523.
12 S, John xvii,
13 Jer. xxv. n, 12, xxix, 10,
1* Dan, ix, 2, is 2 Chr, xxxvi, 22, 23. Ezr, 1. 1.
w 2 Kgs xxv. 2, 8, 9. " S. Cyr.

344

ZECHAEIAH.

oiir'i™ t ^^"^^ mercy on Jerusalem
"''•¦ si°- and on the cities of Judah,
against which thou hast
« Jer, 25, 11, 12, had indignation "these
Dan, 9. 2. , ° J
ch. 7. 6. t h r e e - s c 0 r e and ten
years ?
13 And the Loed an
swered the angel that
0 Jer, 29, 10, talked with me wiih ° good

tivity to the 70th year, it was necessary to be
silent, so long as the time was not yet come
to an end, that he might not seem to oppose
the Lord's will. But, when the time was
now come to a close and the fear of offending
was removed, he, knowing that the Lord
cannot lie, entreats and ventures to enquire
whether His anger has corae to an end, as
had those who sinned ; or whether, fresh
sins having accrued, there shall be a further
delay, and their forlorn estate shall be yet
further extended. They then, who worship
God have a good and not uncertain hope,
that, if they should oflend from infirmity,
yet have they those who should entreat for
them, not men only, but the holy angels
themselves, who render God gracious and pro
pitious, soothing His anger by their purity,
and in a manner winning the grieved judge.
Then the Angel entreated for the synagogue
to the Jews ; but we, who believe and have
been sanctified in the Spirit, ' have an Advo
cate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous,
and He is the propitiation for oursins, and as the
Divine Paul writes, ' God hath .set Him forth
as a propitiation through faith, freeing from
sin those who come to Him,"
13, And the Lord answered the angel that
talked with me. Either directly, at the inter
cession of the angel of the Lord, or mediately
through an answer first given to him, and by
him communicated to tlie subordinate angel.
Neither is expressed.
Good words, as God had promised^, after
seventy y^ars shall be accomplished at Babylon, I
will visit you and perform My good word unto you,
causing you to return to this place ; and Joshua
says, * Tliere failed not ought of any good word
whieh the Lord spake unto the house of Israel,
Comfortable words, lit. consolations '". Per
haps the Angel who received the message
had, from their tender compassion for us,
whereby they ^joy over one sinner that re-
1 1 S, John ii. 1, 2, 2 Eom, iii. 25.
3 Jer, x.xix. 10.
^ Josh, xxi. 43 (45 Eng,) add xxiii. 14, 15.
6 as Is. Ivii. 18. 6 S. Luke xv, 10,
' >5Tp, ab, 4, Jon, i, 2, Is, xl, 2, n,
8 Ewald compares 'n>7T, olSa, novi; 'niDf,

words and c o m f o rtable ^ h e°''| ^
words. "il'- S19.
14 So the angel that
communed with me said
unto me. Cry thou, saying.
Thus saith the Loed of
hosts; I am ^ jealous for pJoei2. la.
Jerusalem and for Zion
with a great jealousy.

penteth, a part in these consolations which he
conveyed. 14. Cry thou. The vision was not for the
prophet alone. What he saw and heard,
tliat he was to proclaim to others. The
vision, which he now saw alone, was to be
the basis and substance of his subsequent
preaching', whereby he was to encourage
his people to persevere.
lam jealous for Jerusalem, lit. I have been,
not now only but in time past even when I
did not shew it, and am jealous ', with the
tender love which allows not what it loves to
be injured'- The love of God, until finally
shut out, is unchangeable. He pursues the
sinner with chastisements and scourges in
His love, that he may yet be converted and
live '". But for God's love to him and the
solicitations of His grace, while yet impeni
tent and displeasing Him, he could not turn
and please Him.
And for Zion, which especially He had
chosen to put His Name there, and there to
receive the worship of His people ; " tlie hill
which God desired to dwell in, ''' which He loved.
" " With great and special love have I loved
the people of the Jews and what pertained
to them, and out of that love have I so dili
gently and severely corrected her excesses,
that she may be more careful for the time to
come, as a liusband corrects most sharply a
wife most dear to him, if she be unfaithful.
Whence in the book of Maccabees it is writ
ten, " " It is a token of His great goodness,
when wicked doers are not suffered any long
time, but are forthwith punished. For not
as with other nations, whom the Lord pa
tiently forbeareth to punish, till they be come
to the fullness of their sins, so dealeth He
with us ; lest, being eome to the height of
sin, afterward He should take vengeance of
us. And tlierefore He never withdraweth
His mercy from us, and though He punisheth
memini, Nu. xi, 5, TI'DTI, StUPI, Ps- xxxviii, 16,
&c, Lehrb, n, 135, b. p, 129. ed, 8.
"See on Nah, i, 1, p, 129. i» S, Aug. Conf, iii. 1.
"ll Ps. Ixviii. 16.
12 lb, Ixxviii, 68, add Ps, cxxxii, 13, 14,
13 Dion, M 2 Mace, vi, 13-16.

CHAPTEE I.

345

Before
CHRIST cir, 519,
4 Isai. 47. 6.

15 And I am very sore
. displeased with the heathen
that are at ease : for ^ I was
but a little displeased, and
they helped forward the
affliction. 16 Therefore thus saith

with adversity, yet doth He never forsake
His people."
15. I am sore displeased, lit. with great anger
am I angered against the nations which are at
ease. The form of the words ' shews that the
greatness of the displeasure of God against
those who oppress His people, is proportion
ate to the great and tender love toward them
selves. God had been angered indeed ^ with
His people ; with their enemies He was
angered with a great anger ; and that the more, .
because they were at ease ", in unfeeling self-
enjoyment amid the miseries of others.
I was a little displeased * ; little, in compar
ison with our deserts ; little in comparison
with the anger of the human instruments of f.
His displeasure ; little in comparison with
their's who, in their anger, sought their own
ends. They helped forward the affliction^. "^He
is wroth with the nations at ease, because He
delivered His people to be corrected, but
they used cruelty toward those delivered ;
He wills them to be amended as a son by a
schoolmaster ; they set themselves to slay
and punish them, as an enemy. Like that
in Isaiah, ' I gave them into ihy hands; thou
didst shew ihem no mercy; upon ihe ancients
hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.''
Or it may be, helped for evil, in order to
bring about evil, as in Jeremiah ", Behold I
set My face against you for evil ^, and to destroy
all Judah i. e., as we should say, they were
the instruments of God, " '" cooperated in the
execution of My justice toward you, but
cruelly and with perverse intention. For
although the Assyrians and Chaldseans
''^y <VSp 'JN Snj ^IVp ver, 15, as contrasted
withn'jnj HNJp .h 'nN:p ver. U.
"i'nasp rjspi. 2.
^ pXK', as applied to persons, is always used in a
bad sense; the noun, 2 Kgs xix, 28, Is. xxxvii, 29;
the adj. Is, xxxii, 9, 11, Job xii, 5, Am, vi, 1, Ps.
cxxiii, 4, and here,
'£3>'Q 'n3Xp is obviously contrasted with tlVp
7nj: others "for a little while," But beside this
contrast, Oj?D is seldom, comparatively, used of
time, and that, as indicated by the context. Gen.
xlvii. 9, "my days have been few;" Lev. xxv. r>-A,
'if a little remains of the years;" Ru, ii, 7, "she
sat a little in the house;" Job x, 20, "are not my
days few?" xxiv, 24, "they are exalted a little, and
are not," Add Ps, xxxvii, 10, Jer. li. 33, Hos. i. 4,

the Loed ; "¦ I am returned
to Jerusalem with mercies : _
my house shall be built in
it, saith the Loed of hosts,
and 'a line shall be
stretched forth upon Jeru
salem.

Before
CHEIST cir. 519.
'Isai. 12. 1.
& 54. 8.
eh. 2. 10.
&a, 3.
¦ ch. 2. 1, 2.

wasted the Jewish people, God so ordain
ing in as far as He willed tlirough them to
punish in the present the sins of His people,
yet they did it, not in view of God and out
of zeal for righteousness, but out of pride
covetousness and with the worst ends. Hence
God says by Isaiah ", Wo to Asshur, the rod of
Mine anger, and the staff in his liand is Mine
indignation. Howbeit he thinketh not so, but his
heart is to destroy and cut off nations not a
few. 16. Therefore. This being so, since God
was so jealous for His people, so displeased
with their persecutors, thus saith the Lord,
"'"I Who '''in wrath remember mercy, am
returned ''', not by change of place. Who am
uncircurascribed, not existing in place, to
the people of Judah and Jerusalem in
mercies, manifoldly benefiting them by
various efiects of My love." The single
benefits, the rebuilding of His House, and so
the restoration of His public worship, and the
rebuilding of Jerusalem, are but instances of
that all-containing mercy. His restored pres
ence in tender mercies'*. I am returned, God
says, although the effects of His return were
yet to come.
A line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem,
before, when it stood, this had been done
to destroy'^; now, when destroyed, to
rebuild'". " " The temple was built then, when the
foundations of the walls were not yet laid.
In man's sight it would have seemed more
provident that the walls should be first
builded, that then the temple might be
builded more securely. To God, in Whom
*'yet a little, and," Hagg. ii. 6; "yet once, it is a
little, and; " [all, except the doubtful Ps, viii, 6.]
6 As 2 Chr, XX. 23, OTltyD^ '\'\iy "aided the de
struction." « S. Jer. ' Is, xlvii. 6, « Jer, xliv, 11,
" n"t jn'71 nplh. 1" Dion. n is, .i, 5, 7,
12 Hab, iii, 2, ' is -nj©, although nj3', HBr,
"D'Om occurs 27 times of the tender love of
God; 12 times only, of the compassion of man, and
in 6 of these, of compassion of man as given by
God, D'Dni'7 .3 tn:; 2eB with the word IIDJJ.
16 2 Kgs xxi. 13, Is, xxxiv. 11,
i»It is used of the creation of the earth. Job
xx.xviii, 6, The Chethib, probably nip, occurs 1
Kgs vii, 23, Jer, xxxi, 19, and here, " Osor.

346

ZECHAEIAH.

citTsT 17 Cry yet, saying,
cir, 519. 'phns saith the Loed of

hosts ; My cities through
t Heb, good. f prosperity shall yet b e
' Isai. 51, 3. spread abroad ; ' and the
Loed shall yet comfort
» Isai. 14. 1. Zion, and " shall yet choose
ch, 2, 12. ' •'
&3, 2, Jerusalem.

Alone is the most firm stay of our life and
salvation, it seemed otherwise. For it can
not be that he, to whom nothing is dearer
tlian zeal for the most loly religion, should
be forsaken of His help."
17. Cry yet, a, further promise; not only
should Jerusalem be rebuilt, but should as
we say, overfiow with good ' ; and God, Who
had seemed to cast off His people, should yet
comfort her, and should shew in act that He
had chosen her^. Zechariah thrice" repeats
the promise, given through Isaiah * to Jeru
salem, before her wasting by the Chaldseans,
reminding the people tliereby, that the res
toration, in the dawn whereof they lived,
had been promised two centuries before.
Yet, against all appearances. My cities shall
overfiow with good, as being God's ; yet would
the Lord comfort Zion ; yet would He choose
Jerusalem. "^What is the highest of all goods? what
the sweetest solace in life ? what the subject
of joys ? what the oblivion of past sorrow ?
That which the Son of God brought upon
earth, when He illumined Jerusalem with
the brightness of His light and heavenly dis
cipline. For to that end was the city restored,
that in it, by the ordinance of Christ, for
calamity should abound bliss ; for desolation,
fullness ; for sorrow, joy ; for want, a.ffluenoe
of heavenly goois."
This first vision having predicted the entire
restoration, the details of that restoration are
given in subsequent visions,
18. ^ And I lifted up mine eyes. " ' Not
those of the body (for such visions are invisi
ble to the eyes of the flesh), but rather the
inner eyes of the heart and mind." It seems
as though, at the close of each vision, Zech
ariah sank in meditation on what had been
shewn him ; from which he was again roused
by the exhibition of another vision.
1 " affluent bonis," S. Jer, ; " effluent bonis," Vulg.
more ex.actly. The word ^¦^3 is used of the " gush
ing forth of a fountain," Pr, v, IG; also of the dis
persion of people ; not of the spreading abroad of a
people for good,
^¦in^ is always "choose," not (as Ges, and
others) "love," In all the cases, which Ges, cites
as meaning "love," (Gen, vi, 2, 1 Sam, xx, 30, 2
Sam. XV. 15, Pr. i. 29, iii. 31, Is. i, 29) the sense would
be injured by rendering, " loved,"

18 «f[Then lifted I up chrTst
mine eyes, and saw, and "ir- si9,
behold four horns.
19 And I said unto the
angel that talked with me.
What be these? And he
answered me, ^ These are''Ezra4. 1,4, 7,
the horns which have scat-

/ saw four horns. The mention of the horns
naturally suggests the thought ofthe creatures
which wielded them ; as in the first vision
that of the horses following the chiefs, implies
the presence of the riders upon them. " And
this the more, since the word "fray them
away" implies living creatures, liable to
fear. " " The horn, in inspired Scripture, is
always taken as an image of strength, and
mostly of pride also, as David said to some,
^ I said unto the fools. Deal not so foolishly, and
io the ungodly. Lift not up ihe horns. Lift not
up your horns on high and speak 'not with a stiff
neck. The prophet then sees /our horns, i. e.
'four hard and warlike nations, who could
easily uproot cities and countries."
These are the horns which have scattered.
" '" The four horns which scattered Judah,
Israel and Jerusalem, are four nations, Baby
lonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians
and Eomans ; .as the Lord, on the prophet's
enquiry, explains here, and Daniel unfolds
most fully " ; who in the vision of the image
with golden head, silver breast, belly and
thighs of brass, feet of iron and clay, ex
plained it of these four nations, and again in
another vision of four beasts'^, lion, bear,
leopard and another unnamed dreadful beast,
he pointed out the same nations under another
figure. But that the Medes and Persians,
after the victory of Cyrus, were one kingdom,
no one will doubt, who reads secular and
sacred literature. — When this vision was
beheld, the kingdom of the B.abylonians had
now passed away, that of the Medes and
Persians was instant; that of Greeks and
Macedonians and of the Eomans was yet to
come. What the Babylonians, what the
Medes and Persians, what the Greeks i. e. the
Macedonians, did to Judah, Israel and Jeru
salem, a learned man acknowledgeth, especi
ally under Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes,
^ here, ii. 12, iii, 2,
4 Is, xiv, 1, '7X'ltS'"3 11 j; in3. Isaiah has the
same cadence as Zechariah, though Zechariah only
retains the characteristic words niy ir\2.
^ Osor,
»The Eng, Vers, follows the LXX and S. Jer, in
adding the 2d vision to the first chapter.
' S. Cyril on ii. 1. 8S. Cyr, oPs, Ixxv, 4.
i^S. Jer, Kimchi and Abarbanel agree with him
in the general line. n Dan. ii. i^ lb. vii.

CHAPTEE II.

347

Before
CHEIST ""¦ S18- Jerusalem

tered Judah, Israel, and

IPs. 75. 4,5.

20 And the Loed
shewed me four carpenters.
21 Then said I, What
come these to do ? Aud he
spake, saying. These are
the horns which have scat
tered Judah, so that no
man did lift up his head :
but these are come to fray
them, to cast out the horns
of the Gentiles, which
^ lifted up their horn over
the land of Judah to scat
ter it.

to which the history of the Maccabees
belongs. After the Coming of our Lord and
Saviour, when Jerusalem was encompassed,
Josephus, a native writer, tells most full)',
what the Israelites endured, and the Gospel
fore-announced. These horns dispersed
Judah almost individually, so that, bowed
down by the heavy weight of evils, no one of
them raised his head." Though these were
successive in time, they are exhibited to
Zechariah as one. One whole are the efibrts
against God's Church ; one whole are the
instruments of God, whether angelic or
human, in doing or suffering, to repel them.
Zechariah then exhibits these hostile powers
as past and gone ', as each would be at the
end, having put forth his passing might, and
perishing. 'They scattered, each in its day,
and disappeared ; for the next displaced it.
The long schism being ended, Judah and
Israel are again one ; and Jerusalem, the
place of God's worship, belongs to Israel as
well as to Judah ^.
The explanation of the number four, as
symbolizing contemporaneous attacks from the
four quarters of the heavens, fails in matter
of fact, that, in these later times, the Jews
suffered always from one power at a time.
There was no such fourfold attack. In
Zechariah's time all around was Persian.
" * Those horns, broken by the angels' minis
try, portended that no guilt against the Church
of Christ should be unpunished. Never will
there be wanting fierce enemies from E. W.
N. or S., whom God will strengthen, in order
by them to teach His own. But when He
''1.!.
^This is expressed by the use or omission of the
TK, Its use coordinates Judah and Israel; its
omission subordinates Jerusalem.

CHAPTEE II. Before
CHEIST cir, 519,
1 God, in the care of Jerusalem,
sendeth to measure it. 6 The
redemption of Zion. 10 The
promise of Gods presence.
T LIFTED up mine eyes
again, aud looked, and
behold *a man with a » Ezek. 40.3.
measuring line in his hand.
2 Then said I, Whither
goest thou ? And he said
unto me, ""To measure Je- i>Rev. 11. 1.
rusalem, to see what is the
breadth thereof, and what
is the length thereof.

& 21. 15, 16.

shall see His work finished, i. e. when He
shall have cleansed the stains of His own
and brought back His Church to her former
purity. He will punish those who so fiercely
afliicted her."
Spiritually, "* those who destroy vices,
build up virtues, and all the saints who, pos
sessing these remedies, ever build up the
Church, m.^y be called ' builders.' Whence
the Apostle says, ^ I, as a wise builder, laid ilie
foundrition ; and the Lord, when wroth, said
that He would ^take away from Jerusalem
artificer and wise man. And the Lord Himself,
Son of the Almighty God and of the Creator
of all, is called ' ihe son of tlie carpenter."
II. 1. A man with a measuring line in his
hand. Probably the Angel of the Lord, of
whom Ezekiel lias a like vision. " * He who
before, when he lift up his eyes, had seen in
the four horns things mournful, now again
lifts up his eyes to see a man, of whom it is
written, ^Behold a man whose name is the
Branch ; of whom we read above, ' Behold a
man riding upon a red. horse, and lie stood among
the myrtle trees, which were in the bottom. Of
whom too the Father saith ; He builded My
city,'" whose builder and maker is God. He too
is seen by Ezekiel in a description like this,
" a man whose appearance was like the appear
ance of brass, i. e. burnished '^ and shining as
fire, with a line offiax in his hand and a measur
ing reed." The oflBce also seems to be one of
authority, not to measure the actual length
and breadth of Jerusalem, but to lay down
what it should be, " " to mark it out broad
and very long."

3 Osor. IS, Jer,
' S. Matt. xiii. 55,
i» Heb, xi, 10.
i2Ib. i. 7.

5 1 Cor, iii, 10, 6 Is, iii, 3.
8Zeeh. vi. 12, sfb, i. 8,
II Ezek, xl, 3.
13 S, Cyr.

348

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHRIST eir. 519,

3 And, behold, the an
gel that talked with me
went forth, and another
angel went out to meet
him, 4 And said unto him,

3. The angel that talked with me went forth,
probably to receive the explanation which
was given him foi- Zechariah ; and anot'ner
angel, a higher angel, since he gives him a
commission, went forth io meet him, being (it
seems probable) instructed by the Angel of
the Lord, who laid down the future dimen
sions of the city. The indefiniteness of the
description, another angel, implies that he was
neither the Angel of the Lord, nor (were
they different) Michael, or the man with the
measuring line, but an angel of intermediate
rank, instructed by one higher, instructing
the lower, who immediately instructed
Zechariah. And said unto him, Run, speak unto this
young man, the prophet himself, who was to
report to his people what he heard. Jeremiah
says, 'lam a youth; and ''the young man, the
young prophet, carried the prophetic message
from Elisha to Jehu. " Youth," common as
our English term in regard to man, is inap
plicable and unapplied to angels, who have
not our human variations of age, but exist,
as they were created.
Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without
walls, or as villages', viz. an unconfined, un
cramped population, spreading itself freely,
without restraint of walls, and (it follows)
without need of them. Clearly then it is no
earthly city. To be inhabited as villages
would be weakness, not strength ; a peril,
not a blessing. The earthly Jerusalem, so
long as she remained unwalled, was in con
tinual fear and weakness. God put it into
the heart of His servant to desire to restore
her; her wall was built, and then she pros
pered. He Himself had promised to Daniel,
that * Her street shall be rebuilt, and her wall,
even in strait of times. Nehemiah mourned
73 years after this, B. C. 443, when it was
told him, ' The remnant that are left of the cap
tivity tliere in the province are in great affliction
and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is
broken down, and the gates thereof are burned
with fire. He said to Artaxerxes, " Why
should not my countenance be sad, when the city,
the place of my father^ sepulchres, lieth waste,
and the gates thereof are consumed wiih fire ?
When permitted by Artaxerxes to return, he
addressed the rulers of the Jews, ' I'e see the
1 1;;: Jer. i, 6,
2X'3jn -\}im ii':n 2 Kgs ix, 4,
8 See on Hab, iii. 14, p. 218. < Dan, ix, 25.

Run, speak to this young chrTst
man, saying, ° Jerusalem cir- 5i9,

shall be inhabited as towns « Jer, 31, 27.
without walls for the mul- ¦ • • ¦
titude of men and cattle
therein :

distress thai we are in, haw Jerusalem lieth waste,
and the gates thereof are burned with flre ; come,
and let us build up ihe wall of Jerusalem, that we
be no mare a reproach ; and they said, let us rise
and build. So they strengthened their hands for
this good work. When '* the wall was finished and
our enemies heard, and the heathen about us saiv
it, they were much cast doivn in their own eyes ;
for they perceived thai this work was wi'ought of
our God.
This prophecy then looks on directly to
the time of Christ. Wonderfully does it
picture the gradual expansion of the king
dom of Christ, without bound or limit, whose
protection and glory God is, and the character
of its defences. It should dwell as irillages,
peacefully and gently expanding itself to the
right and the left, through its own inherent
power of multiplying itself, as a city, to
which no bounds were assigned, but which
was to fill the earth. " ^ For us God hath
raised a Church, that truly holy and far-
famed city, which Christ fortifieth, consum
ing opponents by invisible powers, and filling
it with His own glory, and as it were, stand
ing in the midst of those who dwell in it.
For He promised ; Lo, I am with you always
even unto the end of ihe world. This holy city
Isaiah mentioned : '" thine eyes shall see Jeru
salem, a quiet habitation ; a tabernaele that sliall
not be taken down ; not one of the siakesi thereof
sliall ever be removed, neither shall any of the
cords thereof be broken; and to her he saith,
" enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them
stretch forth ihe curi/iins of thine habitation;
spare not ; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy
stakes. For thou slialt break forth on the right
hand and on the left. For the Church of
Christ is widened and extended boundlessly,
ever receiving countless souls who worship
Him." "'^What king or emperor could
make walls so ample as to include the whole
world ? Yet, without this, it could not en
circle that Jerusalem, the Church which is
diffused through the whole world. This
Jerusalera, the pilgrim part of the heavenly
Jerusalem, is, in this present world, inhabited
without walls, not being contained in one
place or one nation. But in that world,
whither it is daily being reraoved hence,
much more can there not, nor ought to be,

6Neh. i. 3.

6 Ib, ii, 3,

7 Ib, 17, 18,

8 lb, vi, 15, 16,

«S, Cyr,

10 Is, xxxiii. 20

1 Ib, liv. 2, 3.

12 Rup.

CHAPTEE II.

349

chrTst ^ For I, saith the Loed,
cir. 519. ^iii be unto her ''a wall of

fire round about, " and will
be the glory in the midst

« Isai. 26. 1.
ch. 9. 8.
•Isai. 60, 19.
Rev, 21, 23.
fisai.48,20. of her.
& 52. 11.
Jer. 1. 14. 6 ^ Ho, ho, come forth,
and flee ^from the land of

& 50. 8.
4 51. 6, 45.

nor is, any wall around, save the Lord, Who
is also the glory in tlie midst of it."
5. And I, Myself^ in My own Being, will
be to her a wall of fire, not protection only, an
inner circle around her, however near an
enemy might press in upon her, but destruc
tive to her enemies. Isaiah says, ' No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
every tongue that shall rise in judgment against
thee thou shalt condemn. Its defence, Isaiah
says, shall be immaterial. ^ We have a strong
cily; salvation shall Ood appoint for walls and
bulwarks ; * thou shalt call thy walls salvation
and thy gates praise. By a different figure it
is said, "Iwill encamp about mine house because
of the army.
And glory will I be in ihe midst of her, as
Isaiah says, ° I'he Lord shall be unto thee an
everlcusting light, and thy God thy glory ; and of
Christ, ' Jm that day shall the Branch ofthe Lord
be Beauty and Glory — to the escaped, of Israel.
6. Ho ! ho 1 and fiee. Such being the safety
and glory in store for God's people in Jeru
salem, He Who had so provided it, the
Angel of the Lord, bids His people every
where to come to it, saving themselves also
from the peril which was to come on Baby
lon. So Isaiah bade them, * Go ye forth of
Babylon; fiee ye from the Chaldocans with a
voice of singing ; declare ye, tell this, utter it to
the end of the earth ; say ye. The Lord halh re
deemed His servant Jacob. ' Depart ye, depart
ye, go ye out from thence; touch no unclean
thing : go ye out of ihe midst of her ; be ye clean,
that bear the vessels of the Lord ; and Jeremiah,
'"Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and de
liver every man his soul ; be not cut off in her
iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord's ven
geance; He will render unio her a recompense.
' My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and
deliver ye, every man his soul from the fierce
anger of the Lord.
"JXemph. 2Is. liv, 17.
8 Ib. XXVI. 1. 4 Ib. Ix. 18, 6 Zech , ix, 8,
•Is, Ix, 19, Ub, iv, 2.
8Is. -xlviii. 20. 8 Ib. Iii. 11. i» Jer.li. 6. add, 1, 8,
"lb, li. 45. i2 2Cor. vi. 17. isRev. xviii, 4.
" Jer, 1, 13, 14, iii. 18, iv. 6, vi, 1, 22, xxiii. 8,
IS Esther i, l,iii, 8, 12-14, viii, 5, 9,
"2 Kgs xvii. 6,
i^"As the four winds of heaven are distant one
from the other," Sal, b, Mel, Kim. AE. The LXX
alone paraphrase, "For from the winds of heaven I
will gather you," Others take the word of an in
tended ditTusion of them, through the favor of God,

the north, saith the Loed : _ S%^,°f% ^
n -r , CHRIST
tor 1 have ^spread you. cir, 519,

abroad as the four winds of eDeut. 28, 64,
the heaven, saith the Loed. ^''''^' "' ^^¦
7 "Deliver thyself, O i-Eev.w.i.
Zion, that dwellest with the
daughter of Babylon.

The words, flee, deliver thyself, imply an im
minent peril on Babylon, such as came upon
Jier, two years after this prophecy, in the
fourth year of Darius. But the earnestness
of the command, its repetition by three pro
phets, the context in Isaiah and Jeremiah,
imply something more than temporal peril,
the peril of the infection of the manners of
Babylon, which may have detained there
many who did not return. Whence in the
New Testament, the' words are cited, as to
the great evil city of the world ; ''' Wherefore
come out from among them and be ye separate,
and touch not the unclean thing, and I will re
ceive you; and under the narae of Babylon;
'^ I heard another voice from heaven, saying.
Come out of her. My people, that ye be not partak
ers of her sins, anel that ye receivenot of her plagues.
For I have spread you abroad as the four
Ivinds of lieaven. Tlie north country, although
its capital and centre was Babylon, was the
whole Babylonian empire, called " the
North '*' " because its invasions always carae
upon Israel from the North. But the book
of Esther shews that, sixty years after this,
the Jews were dispersed over tlie 127 prov
inces of the Persian erapire, /rom India (the
Punjaub) to Ethiopia'^, whether they were
purposely placed by the policy of the con
querors in detatched groups, as the ten
tribes were in tlie cities of the Medes"^, or
whether, when more trusted, they migrated
of their own accord. God, in calling them
to return, reminds them of the greatness of
their dispersion. He had dispersed them
abroad as the four winds of heaven " : He,
the Same, recalled them.
7. Dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
The unusual idiora'^ is perhaps chosen as
expressive of God's tenderness, even to the
people who were to be destroyed, from which
Israel was to escape.
the future being spoken of, as if past. But although
ty^S is used of dispersion, beside, in Ps. Ixviii. 16,
Nif, Ez, xvii, 21, it is no where used of diffusion, only
of the spreading out of what remained coherent, as
hands, wings, a garment, tent, veil, cloud, letter,
light. See instances Ges, Thes, p. 1132.
'^ h22 n3 riDtyV dweller of the daughter of Bahy-
iore, as Jer, xlvi,19, DnSD 03 n^tyV, lb, xlviii. 18,
\'\y'^ r\'2 T\'2W. in Jeremiah however, it is the
same people, Egypt or Dibon ; here, Israel as settled
in Babylon.

350

ZECHAEIAH.

8 For thus saith the

Before
gir- SI"- Loed of hosts ; After the

glory hath he sent me unto
the nations which spoiled
1 Deut. 32. 10. you : for he that 'toucheth
2 Thess.' 1.6. you toucheth the apple of
his eye.

8. After the glory ^, " ^ which it is promised
to bring upon you." This being the usual
construction, the words involve a great course
of God's dealing, of first shewing favor to
those who will receive favor, then abandoning
or punishing the rest; as, when the eight
souls had been received into the ark, the
flood came ; when Lot and his had escaped
out of Sodom, the tire came down from
heaven; when Israel had passed the Eed
Sea, Pharaoh's hosts were drowned ; the elec
tion obtained what Israel sought for, the rest
wer? blinded ^. The glory then would be the
glory, of which God says, Iwill be the glory in
the' midst of you.
But further He Who speaketh is Almighty
God, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, He hath
sent^ me; For lo I wave My hand against
them — and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts
hath sent me ; Lo I eome and dwell in the midst
of thee, saith the Lord, and many nations shall
cleave wnto the Lord in that day, and they shall
be to Me a people and I will dwell in the midst
of thee, and thou shalt know, that ihe Lord of
hosts hath sent me unto you. In all which
series of promises, the /, of whom Israel were
to know that the Lord of hosts had sent Him,
is the I, Who affirms of Himself what be
longs to Almighty God only, inflicting pun
ishment on the enemies of Judah, indwelling
the Church and people, receiving the Heathen
as His own ; and it is precisely by all these
acts of power and love, that Israel shall know
that the Lord of hosts had sent Him.
'T^lUi is used with ace. pers., and "'"IPX also of
persons, 2 Sam. iii. 26, 2 Kgs viii. 14, or with ''"inj^
of pers. alone, 2 Kgs xiv. 9, ini^ Tyllit is not else
where used like our " sent after a thing," So gener
ally "inX is used with verbs of motion, *in5^ "IvH,
Gen, xxxvii, 17, 2 Kgs xxiii, 3; ^TM^ X3\ Nu, xxv,
8; inX rrn, 1 Sam, xii, 14; inS f]-n, 2 Kgs xxv.
5; ^^X XV'.lSam. xi, 7: or, spiritually, ?':]'7nn
?rrnniynn nnsis, ixv, 2; ann ins, Ez,xiii,
3; n'7 l^n 'r]l inX, Job xxxi, 7; but iriN is
not used in our sense of seeking, " going after a
thing," except in the one phrase pn** 73 IHi^l
K'TTl^ Job xxxix, 8, "searcheth after every green
thing." It is the less probable here, because, apart
from this, (beside the 6 duplicate passages in
Isaiah and' 2 Kings, 2 Sam, and 1 Chronicles) the
construction of H 71^ with ace. of the person sent
and 7X of the person to whom he is sent, occurs in

9 For, behold, I will chrTst
'shake mine hand upon °ir- sm-

them, and they shall be a i isai, ii. 15,
spoil to their servants : and
'ye shall know that the 'ch, 4. 9.
Loed of hosts hath sent

me.

" " In what follows. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts. After glory, He hath sent Me &e., the
Saviour is introduced speaking. Who, being
Almighty God, saith that Hewas sent bythe
Father Almighty, not according to that
whereby He was Almighty, but according to
that, that, after glory. He was sent, ^ Who
being in the Form of God, thought it not robbery
io be equal with God ; but emptied Himself, tak
ing the form of a servant, and was made obedient
unto the Father even unto death ; and that, the
death of ihe Cross. Nor is it marvel that
Christ is called Almighty, in Whose Person
we read in the Apocalypse of John, ' These
things saith the faithful Witness — / am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and tlie ending, saith
the Lord, which was and which is and which is
to come, the Almighty, * to Whom all power 'is
given in heaven and in earth ; and Who saith,
^ All things of ihe Father's are Mine. But if
all things, i. e. God from God, Lord from
Lord, Light from Light, therefore also Al
mighty from Almighty ; for it cannot be,
that diverse should be the glory of those
whose Nature is One."
For he who toucheth, so as to injure '", you,
toucheth the apple of His eye, i. e. of Him Who
sent Him, Almighty God ", as in the song of
Moses, ''' He led him about. He insti-ueied him.
He kepi him as the apple of His eye ; and David
prays, '" Keep me as the apple of the eye.
9. For behold I will shake My hand agai'nst
them, as God promised of old against the
enemies of His people '*, and they shall
71 passages, (Ges, cites 23 of them) and in no one
case is the object for which they were sent, added
by any preposition. Four are in Zechariah him
self ii, 12, 15, iv. 9, vi, 15, To " send for" is expressed
ty h» nSty Jer, xiv, 3, 1 Kgs XX. 7.
2 Jon, 3Rom, xi, 7. « ver, 8-10. 5S, Jer,
«Phil. ii,6, 'Rev, i, 5, 8, sg. Matt, xxviii. 18.
» S. John xvi, 15,
'"3 J'J:, as in Gen, xxvi, 11, Jos, ix, 10, 2 Sam.
xiv. 10, Jer, xii, 14, Ezek, xvii, 10, Ps, cv, 16 ; with
ace. Gen, xxvi, 29, Eu, ii, 9 ; of God, 1 Sam. vi, 9, Job
i. 11. xix. 21.
11 So S. Jer, Theod, Others, as S, Cyr,, of his own
eye, turning to evil to himself; but the analogy of
the other passages is against it, yy ri33 ['¦''¦]
is doubtless the same as 'ry n3 with the same re
duplication as in Arab, Syr, Ch, The reduplication
is plain in the Arab, X1313 from S3S3 " papavit,"
not from a separate root, as Ges, Thes, p, 841,
12 Deut. xxxii. 10, " Ps, xvii. 8.
" The same idiom. Is. xi. 15. xix. 16.

CHAPTEE IL

351

• Before
CHEIST eir, 519,
"Isai, 12. 6.
& 54. 1.
Zeph. 3. 14.
nLev, 26, 12,
Ezek, 37, 27.
ch, 8, 3.
John 1, 14, 2 Cor, 6, 16.

10 ^""Sing and rejoice,
O daughter of Zion : for,
lo, I come, and I "will
dwell iu the midst of thee,
saith the Loed.

be a spoil to those who served them habit
ually '.
And ye shall know tliat the Lord of hosts halh
sent Me. " ^ He was sent, not as God, but as
Man. For as God He is equal to the Father.
For He saith, ' I am in the Father and the
Father in Me, and, Tlie Father Who dwelleth in
Me He doeth the works, and, * / and My Father
are one, and ^ He who hath seen Me hath seen
ihe Father. But He is sent, as Man, fulflll
ing the dispensation for us, not lessening the
Divine Nature. The Prophet then intimated
not the duality only, but the equality of the
Persons." 10. Sing and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion. It
is a great jubilee of joy, to which Zion is
invited. Thrice beside is she invited with
this same word, and all for the restored or
renewed Presence, of God. ^ Cry aloud for
joy, thou barren which bare not, as here, on the
coming in of the Gentiles, ' (jry aloud for joy,
0 daughter of Zion ; jubilate, 0 Israel ; rejoice
and exuli with all ihe heart, 0 daughter of Jeru
salem ; the Lord, the King of Israel, is in ihe
midst of thee. " Shout and cry cdoud for joy, 0
inhabitant of Zion ; for great in the midst of thee
is the Holy One of Israel. The source of joy
is a fresh coming of God, a coming, whereby
He should dwell abidingly among them : truly
what is this, but the Incarnation ? As S.
John saith, " The Word was made Flesh and
dvidt among us ; and, '" Behold the tabernacle of
Ood is imth men, aiid He will dwell with them,
and they shall be His people, and Ood Himself
shall be .with them and shall be their God.
'"^ Hence too you may learn how great a sub
ject of contentment above is the Presence of
the Saviour upon earth. He could not then
but bid the spiritual Zion, '^ which is the
Church of the Liring Ood, the most sacred
multitude oi those saved by faith, to cry
aloud for joy and rejoice. But it was an
nounced that He should come and be in the
midst of her. For S. John saith to us. The
Word " was in the world, and, being God, was
not severed from His creatures, but He was
iThe force of the part. Dn"13>', instead of
Dn''n3;i;. So nmx nsj?, Zecti. xiii, 5. is. xxx. 24 ;
irimS 13)? Pr. xii. 11; Xyvh^ 13j; Mai. iii. 18:
ins n3j>n ib. 17. hy^n ^'liy 2 Kgs x. 19, 21, 22,
23, '702 .j; Ps, xevii. 7. '^^'yf\ '13;; Ez. xlviii. 18,
yyr\ n3j;n, ib. 19. so n;;ia'SnK3 n3j?n h^,
Nu. iv. 37, 41. D'13> on liyX Drn'3;; Ib. xvill.

11 "And many nations
shall be joined to the Loed .
^ in that day, and shall be
¦i my people : and I will
dwell in the midst of thee.

Before
CHRIST cir. 519.
»Isai. 2, 2, 3.
& 49, 22,
& 60, 3, &c.
eh, 8, 22, 23,
P ch, 3, 10,
9 Ex. 12, 49.

Himself the Source of life to all living, and
holding all things together to well-being and
life ; but '^ the world knew Him not : for it
worshiped the creature. But He came among
us, when, taking our likeness, ITe was con
ceived by the holy Virgin, and '^was seen
upon earth and conversed with men, and the
divine David witnesseth saying, '^ Our Ood
shall come manifestly, and shcdl not keep silence.
Then also was there a haven for the Gen
tiles. For now no longer was the race of
Israel alone taught, but the whole earth was
engoldened with the evangelical preachings,
and in every nation and country great is His
Name." " '" This too is to be understood of the Per
son of the Lord, that He exhorts His peo
ple, being restored from the captivity to their
former abode, to be glad and rejoice, because
the Lord Himself cometh and dwelleth in the
midst of her, and many nations shall believe in
Him, of Whom it is said, " Ask of Me and I
vrill give Thee nations for Thine inheritance, and
the ends ofthe earth for Thy possession, and He
shall dwell in ihe midst of them, as He saith to
His disciples, '^Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world."
11. And many nations shall join themselves,
cleaving to Him by a close union. Isaiah
had so spoken of single proselytes''; Jere
miah had used the word of Israel's self-ex
hortation after the return from Babylon;
''" going and weeping, they shall go and seek ihe
Lord their Ood, saying. Come and let us join
ourselves unio the Lord, in a perpetual covenant
that shall not be forgotten. This Zechariah
now predicts of many nations. The Jews
were scarcely half-restored theraselves, a
mere handful. They had wrought no conver
sions among the heathen, yet prophecy con
tinues its unbroken voice, many 'nations shall
join themselves unto the Lord.
And shall be My people, lit, be io Me a peo
ple. This is exactly the history of the
Christian Church, unity amid _ diversity ;
many nations still retaining their national
21. liyn the laborer, Eccl, v. 11. In Gen, iv. 2,
xlix. 16, Jos. xvi. 10, 1 Kgs v. 1, 2 Kgs xvii. 33, 41, it
has this force from the preceding nTI.
2 Theod, 3 S, Jolfn XIV, 10, ^Ib, x, 30,
51b. xiv, 9, Ms, liv. 1. 7 Zeph. iii. 14, 15.
8 Is, xii, 6, " S. John i, 14, 1» Eev, xxi, 3,
11 S, Cyr. 1= 1 Tim. ni. 15, " S, John i, 10,
H Baruch iii, 37. « Ps. 1. 3. i»S. Jer.
I'Ps. ii. 8. 18 s, iWatt, xxviii, 20.
19 Is. Ivi. 3-6. ^Jer 1.4,5.

352

ZECHAEIAH.

c iirTI t ^^^ '^^'1°'^ ®'-^^^*' ^'^°'^^ ^'^^'^
cir, 519, t,iip Loed of hosts hath
' Ezek, 33. 33. sent me unto thee.
12 And the Loed shall

existence, yet owned by God as one people
and His own. The words are those in which
God adopted Israel in Egypt ; ' / will take
you to Me for a people, and Iwill be your God.
This was the covenant with them, '' that thou
shouldest enier ' into covenant with the Lord thy
God, — that He m:iy establish thee to-day for a
people unto Himself, and that He may be unto
thee a God. The contrary was the title of the
heathen, ' not a people ; with whom God said,
Iwill move Israel to jealousy. The closeness
of union Jeremiah expresses ; ^As the girdle
cleaveth io the loins of a man, so have I caused to
cleave io Mc the whole house of Israel and the
whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they
might be unio Me for a people and for a name
and for a praise and for a glory. This was the
object of the existence of Israel ; to this it
was to be restored ^ by conversion ^ ; to this
special privilege of Israel many nations were
to be admitted ; yet not so as to be separate
from Israel, for He adds, and I wdl dwell in
the midst of thee, Judah. God would dwell in
His Church, formed of Israel and the
Gentiles, yet so that the Gentiles should
be grafted into Israel, becoming one with
thera. 12. And the Lord shall inherit Judah His
portion. The inheritance of the Lord is the
title which God commonly gave to Israel '.
God is said to be the portion of Israel * ; of
the pious " ; once only beside, is Israel said
to be the portion of God '" ; once only is God
said to inherit Israel, " Pardon our iniquity

1 Exod, vi, 7,
2 Deut, xxix, 12, 13, add Lev, xxvi, 12, Deut,
xxvii, 9. 1 Sam. xii. 22, 2 Sam. vii, 23, 24, 2 Kgs xi,17,
1 Chr, xvii. 22, 2 Chr, xxiii, 16, Jer, vii, 23, xi, 4,
8 Deut, xxxii. 21.
4Jer, xiii, 11,
8 Ib, xxiv, 7, xxx, 22, xxxi, 1, xxxii. 38,
5 Ez, xi, 20, xiv, 11, xxxvi, 28, xxxvii. 23, 27, Zeoh,
viii, S.
I Deut. iv. 20, ix. 26, 29, 1 Sam, xxvi. 19, 2 Sam. xiv,
16, XX, li), xxi, 3, 1 Kgs viii, 51, Ps, xxviii, 9, xxxiii,
12, Ixviii. 10, Ixxviii, 62, 71, Ixxix, 1, cvi, 40, Joel ii,
17, iii, 2, [Heb.] Is. xix, 25, xlvii, 6, Jer, xii, 7-0, 1, 11.
8 Jer. X. 16. 11.19,

24.

»Ps. xvi. 5, Ixxiii, 26, cxix, 57, cxlii, 6, Lam, iii.
4. 10 Deut, xxxii, 9, n Ex, xxxiv. 9.
12 w-\n nmK, ex. m. s.
'" tyipn Dipn, Lev, X. 17, xiv. 13.
".pn JT'3, 1 Chr, xxix, 3.
'* ,pn tns, 2 Chr, xxxv, 3,
" .pT^ Tj;, Neh. xi. 1, 18, Is, xlviii, 2, Iii. 1.
" .pn in, Is, xxvii.l3, Jer, xxxi, 23, Zeeh.viii, 3,
".pn D;?, Is. Ixii. 12.

'inherit Judah his por- cheTst

tion in the holy land, lir-

619,

and 'shall choose Jerusa- 'Deut. 32, 9.
, . ' ch. 1. 17.
lem agam.

and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
Zechariah unites the two rare idioms.
In the holy land. The land is again made
holy by God, and sanctifled by His Presence.
So He calls the place where He revealed
Himself to Moses, holy ground ". So it is said,
'^ the holy place, '* tlie holy house, '^ the holy ark,
1^ the holy city, " ilie holy mountain, '^ the holy
people, '^ the holy chambers, or, with reference
to their relation to God Who consecrates
them, '" My holy mountain, '" Thy holy habita
tion, ^^ Thy holy dwelling-place, ''^ Thy holy
temple, '* Thy holy mountain, ''"Thy holy oracle,
'^ Thy holy dty, ''''cities, ''^ His holy plaee, ^His
holy border. It is not one technical expres
sion, as people now by a sort of effort speak
of " the holy land." Everything which has
reference to God is holy. The land is holy,
not for any merits of theirs, but because God
was worshiped there, was specially present
tliere. It was an anticipation and type of
" Thy holy Church throughout all the world
doth acknowledge Thee," This land their
fathers had ^polluted wiih blood; God, says,
^' they deflled My land ; Ezekiel called her
eminently, '^ the land tliat is not cleansed. Now
God said, ^' / irill remove the iniquity of the land,
and she was again a holy land, as hallowed by
Him. It is not a mere conversion of the heathen,
but, as Isaiah '*'' and Micah "^ foretold ; a con-
vei-sion, of which Jerusalem should be the
centre, as our Lord explained to the Apostles
after His Eesurrection, ^* tliat repentance and
" .pn TW2\sh Ez. xiii, 13. [all,]
™ 'tVlp "in Ps. ii, 6. Is, xi, 9, Ivi, 7, Ivii, 13, Ixv, 11,
25, l.xvi, 20, Ez, XX, 40, Jo, ii, 1, iv, 17, Ob. 16, Zeph.
iii, 11,
=•1¦J'^p nij E.X, XV, 13,
'"' ,p |1>'0 Deut, xxvi, 15, His holy hab. Ps. Ixviii.
6, Jer, xxv. 30, Zech, ii. 17.
^ ,p SjTI Ps- V, 8, Ixxix, 1, cxxxviii. 2, Jon. ii. 5,
8, His holy temple. Mi, i, 2, Hab, ii, 20,
'* ,p in Ps. XV, 1, xliii, 3, Dan, ix. 16, His holy Mil,
Ps, iii. 5, xlviii. 2, xcix, 9,
^,p 1'3TPs, xxviii, 2, 26 ,p T';? Dan. ix. 24.
2? ,p nj> Is, Ixiv, 9,
==,p Dlpa Ps, xxiv, 3.
^ ,p SUJ Ps, Ixxviii. 54. 8opg. ovi. 38.
81 Jer, ii, 7, iii, 9, xvi, 18. 82 Ezek, xxii, 24.
88 Zech. iii. 9. a^Is. ii, 3.
'^ Jlicah iv, 2. 80 s. Luke xxiv. 47.

CHAPTEE III.

353

Before
CHEIST cir, 519,
• Hab. 2. 20.
Zeph. 1. 7.
IPs, 68, 5,
Isai, 57, 15,
¦fHeb, the habi
tation of his
Jiotiness.Deut. 26. 15.
Isai. 63. 15.

13 °Be silent, O all
flesh, before the Lord:
for he is raised up ^ out of
t his holy habitation.
CHAPTEE III.
1 Under the type of Joshua, the
restoration of the church, 8
Christ the Branch is promised.

remission of sins should be preached in His 'name
a'niong all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
13. Be silent, lit. hush', all flesh, before ihe
Lord; man in his weakness ^, /esA and Wood
in the language of the New Testament',
before God his Maker. All flesh, the whole
human race*, is to be hushed before God,
because His judgments, as His mercies, are
over all.
For God ariseth. God seemeth to be quies
cent, as it were, when He beai-s with us ; to
arise, when He puts forth His power, either
for us, when we pray, ^ Lord, awake to help
me; or in displeasure. Plis holy habitation is
alike the tabernacle^, temple', heaven^,
since His presence is in all.
III. 1. And He, God, (for the ofiice of the
attendant angel was to explain, not to shew
the visions) shewed me Joshua ihe High Pi test,
standing bef ore the Angel of ihe Lord ; probably
to be judged by hira ' ; as in the New Testa
ment, to stand before the Son of Man; for
although standing before, whether in relation
to man '" or God ", expresses attendance
upon, yet here it appears only as a condition,
contemporaneous'^ with that of Satan's, to
accuse hira. Although, moreover, the Angel
speaks with authority, yet God's Presence in
him is not spoken of so distinctly, that the
Higli Priest would be exhibited as standing
before him, as in his ofiice before God.
1 See on Hab, ii, 20, p, 207,
^Gen, vi, 3,2 Chr, xxxii. 8, Job x. 4, Ps. Ivi. 4,
Ixxviii, 39, Is, xxxi, 3, Jer, xvii, .5,
8S, Matt, xvi, 17, 1 Cor, xv, 50, Gal, i. 16.
*Gen, vi, 12, Ps, Ixv, 3, cxlv. 21, Is. xl. 5, 0, -xlix.
26, Ixvi, 23, Jo, iii, 1, Ez, xxi, 4, 9, 10,
» Ps, lix, 4, add Ps, vii. 7, xliv, 24, « 1 Sain. ii.
29, 32, Ps. xxvi. 9, Ixviii. 6, ' 2 Chr, xxxvi, 15.
8 Deut. xxvi. 15, Jer, xxv, 30, 2 Chr, xxx, 27.
^"Stand before" is used judicially, Nu, xxxv. 12,
Deut. xix, 17, Jos, xx. 6, and of plaintiffs, Nu, xxvii.
2, 1 Kgs iii, 16; stand before God, Rev, xx, 12; before
thejudciment-seat of Christ, Eom, xiv. 10; and be ac
quitted, S. Luke xxi, 36,
'"Joseph before Pharaoh, Gen, xli, 46; Joshua
before Moses, Deut, i, 38 ; David before Saul, 1 Sam,
xvi. 21; the young virgin before David. 1 Kgs i, 2;
Solomon's servants, Ib, x, 8 ; his councillors, 2 Chr,
X, 6; Gedaliah, of serving the Chaldaeans, Jer, xl.
10; Nebuzaradfin, Jer, Iii. 12; Daniel and his com
panions, of office before the king of Babylon, Dan, i,
5. But it is also used of preseuce with a pommis-
sion to the person ; Moses before Pharaoh, Ex. viii,
20,ix. 13; of an office toward others, to minister
23

AND he shewed me chrTst
"Joshua the high "ir, 6i9.
priest standing before the » Hag. 1. 1.
angel of the Loed, and
"11 Satan standing at his'Ps.ioo. e.
. , , , , • , . Kev. 12. 10.
right hand y to resist him. I That is, an ad-
2 And the Loed said t Heb, to be ais
unto Satan, ° The Loed re- • jude 9, "'
buke thee, 0 Satan ; even

And Satan, etymologioally, the enemy, as, in
the New Testament, '^ your adversary the devil,
etymologioally, the accuser. It is a proper
name of the Evil one, yet its original mean
ing, the enemy'*, was not lost. Here, as in
Job, his malice is shewn in accusation ; '^ the
accuser of our brethren, who accused them before
our Ood, day and night. In Job '*, the accu
sations were calumnious ; here, doubtless,
true. For he accused Job of what would
have been plain apostacy " ; Joshua and
Zerubbabel had shared, or given way to, the
remissness of the people, as to the rebuilding
of the temple and the full restoration of the
worship of God'*. For this, Haggai had
reproved the people, through them '". Satan
had then a real charge, on which to implead
them. Since also the whole series of visions
relates to the restoration from the captivity,
the guilt, for which Satan impleads him with
Jerusalem and Jerusalem in hira, includes
the whole guilt, whicli had rested upon
them, so that for a time God had seemed to
have cast away His people ''". Satan stands at
his right hand, the place of a protector ", to
shew that he had none to save him, and that
himself was victorious.
2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord
rebuke thee. " '''' This they so explain, that the
Father and the Son is Lord, as we read in
the 110th Psalm, The Lord said unto my
unto them, as the Levites before the congregation.
Nu, xvi, 0; degraded priests, "to serve them,"
Ezek, xliv, 11,
11 The tribe of Levi, Dent. x. H, 2 Chr, xix, 11 ; the
High Priest, Jud, xx, 28, Ezek, xliv, 15; Elijah, 1
Kgs xvii, 1, xviii, 15 ; Elisha, 2 Kgs iii, 14, v, 10 ; Jo-
nadab's descendants, Jer. x.xxv, in. It is used of
standing to intercede with God, of Abraham, Gen.
xviii, 22 ; Moses and Samuel, .ler. -xv. 1 ; Jeremiah,
Ib, 19, Also of worship, Jer. vii, 10,
12 The two ipj? express a correlative condition.
18 1 S. Pet, V, 8,
"As in other appellatives, ni^n (HI' twice
only), ^J?3n, but in its contracted form, when the
etymology was lost, ^3, &c, [tJty as a Prop. Name,
without the article, oocurs 1 Chr. xxi, 1, Ps, cix, 0;
with the article, eleven times here, and fourteen
times in the flrst narrative chapters of Job,
18 Rev, xii. 10, ¦« Job i. 8-11, ii. 3-5,
I'Ib. i. 11. ii, 5,
18 Ezr iii, iv, i» Hags, i, 1-11, ^o Rom, xi, 1,
21 Ps, xvi, 8, cix. 31, cxxi, 6, exlii. 4, 22 g, jer.

354

ZECHAEIAH.

€ h E°i s T ^^^ Loed that ^ hath cho-
"''•¦ °^°- sen Jerusalem rebuke thee :

"m not this a brand plucked
out of the fire ?

¦1 ch. 1. 17.
Rom. 8. 33,
« Amos 4, 11,
Eom, 11. 5.
tJude23. 3 JNow Joshua was

Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand. The Lord
speaketh of another Lord ; not that He, the
Lord Who speaketh, cannot rebuke, but that,
from the unity of nature, when the Other
rebuketh. He Himself Who speaketh rebuk
eth. For ' he who seeth ihe Son, seeth the
Father also." It may be that God, by such
sayings *, also accustomed men, before Christ
came, to believe in the Plurality of Persons
in the One Godhead.
The rebuke of God must be with power.
'' Thou hast rebuked ihe nations. Thou hast de
stroyed the ungodly. * Thou hast rebuked the
proud, accursed. ^ They perish at the rebuke of
Thy Countenance. ^ At Thy rebuke, 0 God of
Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a
deep sleep. ' Ood shall rebuke him, and he
fleeth far off, and shall be chased as ihe chaff of
the mountains before the wind. * He rebuked
the Bed Sea and it dried up. ' The founda
tions of the world were discovered at Thy rebuke,
O Lord. He '" rebuked the seed, and it per
ished; tlie devourer", and it no longer de
voured. The rebuke then of the blasted
spirit involved a withering rejection of him
self and his accusations, as when Jesus re
buked the unclean spirit and he departed out
of his victim '''.
The Lord hath chosen Jerusalem. Joshua
then is acquitted, not because the accusation
of Satan was false, but out of the free love of
God for His people and for Joshua in it and
as its representative. '^ Who shall lay any
thing io the charge of Ood's elect? It is God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth f
The high priest, being '* himself also compassed
with inflnnily, needed daily to offer up sacriflces
flrst for his own sins, and then for the people's.
As Isaiah said, on the sight of God, ''" I am
undone, because I am a man of unclean lips,
and Idwellin ihe midst of a people of unclean
lips, and, until cleansed by the typical coal,
dared not offer himself for the prophetic
1 8, John xiv, 9,
2 As in those, " the Lord rained upon Sodom and
upon Gomorrah brimstone and Jirefrom the Lord out
of heaven," Gen, xix, 24, and others in which God
speaks of Himself in the third person, the Lord.
Gen, xviii, 14, 19,
8Ps, ix, 5, <Ib, cxix, 21, 8Ib, Ixxx, 16.
«Ib. ixxvi, 6, 'Is, xvii, 13, 8Ps. evi, 9,
0 Ib, xviii. 15, add, Nah, i, 4, i» Mai, ii, 3,
11 lb, iii, 11. lj;J is used 11 times of God, only 3
times of man; Gen. xxxvii, 10, Euth ii. 10, Jer,
xxix, 27. niyj 8 times of God; 3 times in Prov.
and Eccl. vii. 5, of rebuke of man, and is, xxx, 17.
12 S. Mark 1. 26, 26, ix, 26, S. Luke iv. 3.5, ix. 42,
18 Rom. viii. 33, 34. " Heb. v. 2, 3. 18 Is. vi. 5,

clothed with 'filthy gar
ments, and stood before the .
angel. 4 And he answered and
spake unto those that stood

Before
CHRIST cir. 619.
'Isai. 64. 6.

office, so here Satan, in Joshua, aimed at the
whole priestl)' oflice, and in it, at Israel's re
lation to God.
Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire f
" '^ As if he should say, Israel confessedly has
sinned, and is liable to these charges. Yet
it has suffered no slight punishment ; it has
endured sufferings, and has scarce been
snatched out of tliem, as a half-burned brand
out of the fire. For not yet had it shaken off
the dust of the harms from the captivity ;
only just now and scarely had it escaped the
flame of that most intolerable calamity. Cease
then imputing sin to them, on whDm God
has had mercy."
3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy gar
ments ; such, it is expressed, was his habitual
condition " ; he was one so clothed. The filthy
garment, as defllement generally, is, in Scrip
ture, the symbol of sin. '" We are all as the
unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. '" He that is left in Zion and lie that re
maineth in Jerusalem sliall be called holy— when
the Lord shall have washed away ihe filth of ihe
daughters of Zion. ''" There is a generation, pure
in its own eyes, and it is not washed from its
filthiness. The same is expressed by different
words, signifying pollution, defilement by
sin ; ^' Wo unto her thai is filthy and polluted;
'''' The land ivas deflled with blood ; "'' they were
deflled with their own works. It is symbolized
also by the ^* divers washings of the law, rep
resenting restored purity ; and the use of
the word by Psalmists and Prophets ; ''^ Wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity ; ^* wash you,
make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings
from before Mine eyes ; ^' O Jerusalem, wash thy
lieart from wickedness. In later tiraes at least,
the accused were clothed in black ^*, not in
deflled ^^ garments.
4. And He spake to those who stood before Him,
the ministering Angels who had waited on
the Angel of the Lord to do His bidding.
« S. Cyr. " The force ot the participle with nTI.
18 1s. Ixiv, 6. i»Ib, iv, 3, 4.
2« Pr, xxx, 12. Filth, filthiness, in Is. iv. 4 also, is
nXiy, the abstract of the aw. Xey. in Zech,, Nl!f.
2'iZeph, iii, 1, nSxjJl njJIlD, See ib.
22 Ps, cvi, 38. "Ijn'i', q. nio" Cant, v. 3,
28 Ps, evi, 39, XDta opp, to liriQ, " Heb, ix, 10.
25 Ps, li, 4, 'jp33 [2 Eng,] 28 Is. i. 16. iyn"1.
21 Jer. iv, 14, 'pil,
28 Jos. Ant. xiv. 10. i. "Whosoever is brought
before the tribunal to be judged, is set, as lowly,
before it, and is clothed with black raiment."
2» As in Latin, " sordidati." Liv. ii. 64, vi. 20.

CHAPTEE ni.

355

CHR°iST '^^fo'^® ^i°i> saying. Take
cir. 519. away the filthy garments
from him. And unto him
he said. Behold, I have
caused thine iniquity to
J Isai. 61. 10. pass from thee, "^and I will
Bev.^gf 8?^' clothe thee with change of
raiment. 5 And I said. Let them
'Ex. 29. 6. set a fair "mitre upon his
head. So they set a fair

See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from
ihee; the pardoning words of the Lord to
David by Nathan, ' The Lord too hath put
away thy sin. And clothe thee'' with change of
raiment '', i. e. such as were taken off and re
served for great occasions. As the fllihy gar
ments were not necessarily other than the
High Priest's vesture, symbolically defiled
through the sins of the people, so neither
need these be other than the priestly gar
ments in their purity and freshness. The
words imply the condition, not the nature of
the vestment. " * The high-priest having
been thus taken to represent the whole
people, the filthy garments would be no un
clear symbol of the wickedness of the people.
For clad, as it were, with their sins, with the
ill-effaceable spot of ungodliness, they abode
in captivity, subject to retribution, paying
the penalty of their unholy deeds. But when
God had pity on them. He bade them be
freed from their defilements, and in a manner
re-clad with justifying grace. He indicates
to them the end of their toils. For where
remission of sin is, there follows of necessity
freedom from the evils brought through
sin." — He adds that a clean mitre should be put
upon his head, " ^ that so we might understand
that the glory of the priesthood ever, in a
sort, concurs with the condition of the people.
For the boast of the priesthood is the purity
of those in their charge. — As then when the
people was in sin, the raiment of the priest
also was in a manner defiled, so if it were
again well-approved, pure and bright is the
fashion of the priesthood, and free its access
to God. So the divine Paul having minis
tered to the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ,
»2 Sam. xii. 13, -jHSDn T3;rn " DJ. The
idiom occurs Ib, xxiv, 10, add. Job vii, 21,
2 The inf, expresses the more, the contemporane
ousness of the acts. See below vii. 5, xii, 10, and
others in Ewald Lehrb. g 351. c. p. 853. ed. 8.
'r\iy'7nD recurs Is. iii. 22. <S. Cyr.
' S. Cyr. 6 1 Cor. xv, 31, ' Phil, iv. 1.
* ^'jy is nffii of the turban of women, Is, iii, 23 ;
or of nobles, Job xxix, 14: i, q. niJS of royalty. Is.

I mitre upon his head, and chrTst
clothed him with garments. ""¦ °i9-
And the angel of the Loed
stood by.
6 And the angel of the
Loed protested unto
Joshua, saying,
7 Thus saith the Loed
of hosts ; If thou wilt walk ' Lev. 8. 35.
m my ways, and if thou i Kin. 2. 3.
.,^ ,•', •' ' ., , Ezek, 44. 16.
Wilt 'keep my charge, 1 Or, ordmawe.

seeing them advancing in graces, writes, ^ By
your boast, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus,
and, ' my joy and crown."
5. And I said, let ihem set a fair mitre ' on
his head. This seems to have been purposely
omitted, in order to leave something, and
that, the completion of all, to be done at the
intercession of the prophet. The glory and
complement of the High Priest's sacrificial
attire was the mitre with the holy crown upon
it and ihe plate of pure gold, onwhich was graven.
Holiness io the Lord ' ; which was to be upon
the High-priest's forehead, that he may bear
ilie iniquity of the holy things which the children
of Israel shcdl hallow in all their holy gifts;
which was always to be upon his forehead, that
they may be accepted before the Lord. The
renewed gift of this was reserved for the
intercession of man co-working with God.
And the angel ofthe Lord standing by, seeing
that all was done aright, and, now that the
acquittal was complete, standing to give the
charge. 6. And the angel of ihe Lord protested solemn
ly (etymologically, called God to witness) as
in, '" Did I not make thee swear by the Lord and
protested unto thee, laying it as an obligation
upon him ". The charge is given to Joshua,
and in him to all successive high-priests,
while Israel should continue to be God's
people, as the condition of their acceptance.
7. If thou wilt walk in My ways and if thou
wilt keep My charge. Both of these are ex
pressions, bating from the Pentateuch, for
holding on in the way of life, well-pleasing
to God and keeping the charge given by
God ". It was the injunction of the dying
David to Solomon, '^ Keep the charge of ihe
Ixii. 3. Here it is put for fliJJVD, the Pentateuch
name forthe high-priest's mitre, as distinct from
the n,I?3Ja of ordinary priests,
» Ex.' xxviii. .36-38, xxix. 6. i'l Kgs ii. 42.
11 l^tn with 3 Gen. xliii. 3, Deut. viii. 19, xxxii.
46, Ps. I. 7, &c.
'2niDB'n IDtJ^ first u.sed of Abraham, Gen. xxvi.
5, then Lev. xviii. 30, xxii. 9, Deut. xi. 1, Jos. xxii. 3.
13 1 Kgs ii. 3,

356

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 519.
kDeut. 17. 9.'
Mai. 2. 7.
fHeb. walks.
' ch. 4. 14.
&6. 6.

then thou shalt also "judge
my house, and shalt also
keep my courts, and I will
give thee f places to walk
among these that 'stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua

Lord ihy God, io walk in His ways, io keep His
statutes &e.
Then shalt thou also judge My house.
Judgraent, in the place of God, was part of
the High-priest's office '. Yet these judg
ments also were given in the house of God.
The cause was directed to be brought to
God, and He through His priests judged it.
Both then may be comprehended in the
world, the oversight of the people itself and
the judgment of all causes brought to it.
"^Thou shalt judge those who minister in
the house of My sanctuary."
And I will give thee place to wcdk among those
who stand by'', i.e. among the ministering
spirits, who were *¦ standing before the Angel
of the Lord. This can be fully only after
death, when the saints shall be received
among the several choirs of angels. " '' In
the resurrection of the dead I will revive
thee and give thee feet walking araong these
Seraphim." Even in this life, since ^ our
conversation is in heaven, and the life of
priests should be an angel-life, it raay mean,
that he should have free access to God,
his soul in heaven, while his body was on
this earth.
8. Thou and thy companions which sii before
thee; yea^ men of marvelous signs are they''.
It seems probable that the words addressed
to Joshua begin here ; else the men of signs
would be the companions of Joshua, to the
exclusion of Himself His companions are
probably ordinary priests, who sit as sharing
his dignity as priest, but before him, as infe
riors. So Ezekiel says, " / was sitting in my
house, and the elders of Israel were sitting before
me. They are ' images of the things to come.
1 Deut. xvii. 9-13, xix, 17, Mai, ii, 7, TT is used
of judging a cause (with ri, Jer, v. 23, xxx. 13;
with t33ti'0, lb. xxi, 12) or persons ; with the per
sonal pronoun, Gen, ,xxx, 0 ; or people, peoples, the
en-ds ofthe earth, the poor and needy, 17 times:
Tl'3 is used metaphorically of the people of God,
only in Nu, xii, 7, he is faithful in atl My liouse, or at
most Jer. xii, 7, / have left My house. Here the
parallel word My courts, shews tbat the house is the
literal temple.
2 Jon.
8 Against the rendering, " those who shall make
thee to go," i.e., guide thee, (D'D'7np for O'D^hTID)
there were valid objections ; 1) that the Hif, is
always T'7in> except tVpI Ex. ii. 9. The Partic.

the high priest, thou and chrTst
thy fellows that sit before <="•• ^'¦^-
thee : for they are "" f men ¦» Ps. 7i. 7.
wondered at : for, behold, & 20, 3.
I will bring forth "my ser- 'wonde™OT,
vant the " BRANCH. fth'^l^^
» lsai. 42, 1, & 49. 3, 5, & 62. 13. & 53. 11. Ezek, 34. 23, 24.
0 Isai. i, 2. & 11. 1. Jer. 23, 5, & 33. 15. ch. 6. 12, Luke 1. 78.

Isaiah's two sons, with their prophetic
naraes. Haste-spoil speed-'prey, and a-remnant
sliall-return, were with his own name, salva-
iion-of -ihe- Lord, '"signs and portents of the
future Israel. Isaiah, walking naked and
bareibot, was "a sign and portent against
Egypt. God tells Ezekiel, that in the remo
val of his stuff, as stuff' for the captivity, ''' I have
set thee for a portent unto the house of Israel. I,
he explains his act '^, am your portent ; like as
I have done, so shall it be done unto you. When
forbidden to mourn on the death of his wife ;
"¦Ezekiel is unto you for a portent; according to
all that he hath done, shall ye do ; and when this
cometh, ye shall know that I am ihe Lord Ood.
Wherein then were Joshua and the other
priests portents of wliat should be? One
fact alone had stood out, the forgiveness of
sins. Accusation and full forgiveness, out of
God's free mercy, were the substance of the
whole previous vision. It was the full re
instatement of the priesthood. The priest
hood so restored was the portent of what was
to corae. To '° offer the offering of the people,
and make an atonement for thein ; "" to make an
atonement for the children of Israel for all Iheir
sins once a year, was the object of the exist
ence of the priesthood. Typical only it
could be, because they had but the blood of
bulls and goats to offer, which could, in them
selves, '''never take away sins. But in this
their act they were portents of what was to
corae. He adds here, For, behold, Iwill bring
My Servant the Branch.
The Branch had now become, or Zechariah
made it, a proper name. Isaiah had pro
phesied, '* In that day shall the Branch of the
Lord be beautiful and glorious for the escaped of
V"?10 occurs 9 times, once in Zech, v. 10, 2) It
would have been probably " out of these " or at
least " from among these," DO/HD is then prob
ably from a sing, i|Sna like ijann, Ti>'n, 3;fnn)
for ^'^np Jon. iii. 3, 4, Ez. xiii, 4.
< verse 4. 6 Phil, iii. 20.
8 ^3 is inserted in the like way in Gen, xviii. 20,
Ps. cxviii, 10-12, cxxviii, 2,
1 The subject addressed in the nominative is
resumed by the pronoun of the 3d person, as
in Zeph, ii, 12,
8 Ezek. viii, 1, » Heb, x, 1, w Is. viii, 18.
"Ib. XX, 3. 12 Ezek. xii. 6. "Ib.U.
"Ib. xxiv, 24. i5Lev, ix, 7.
18 Lev. xvi. 34. "Heb. i. 4. isig. iv.2.

CHAPTEE III.

357

^^i^Tan, 9 For behold the stone
cir. 619. tliat I have laid before

pPs.118. 22. Isai. 28. 16.

Israel ; and, in reference to the low estate of
him who should come, ' There shall come forth
a rod out of the stump of Jesse, and a Branch
shall grow out of his roots; and Jeremiah,
'' Behold the days come, saith ihe Lord, thai I
•will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a
king shall reign and prosper, and shcdl execute
judgment and justice in ihe earth, and this is ihe
name whereby He shall be called. The Lord our
Bighteousness ; and, ^ In those days and at thai
time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David, and he shall execute judg
ment and righteousness in ihe land. Of him
Zechariah afterward spoke as, ¦* a man whose
name is the Branch. Here Zechariah names
him simply, as a proper name. My sei-vani
[the] Branch, as Ezekiel prophesied of ^ My
servant David. The title My servant, which
is Isaiah's chiefest title of the Messiah, oc
curs in connection with the same image of
His youth's lowly estate, and of His atoning
Death. ^ He shall grow up before Him as a
sucker, and as a root from a dry ground; ' a
scion shall grow out of his roots. " ^ He alone
was above all marked by this name, who
never in anything withdrew from the Will
of God." " " God had before promised to
Joshua, i. e. to the priesthood of the law,
that they should judge His honse and fulfill
the types of the legal worship. Yet not
long after, the things of tJie law were to be
translated into the true worship, and the un-
loveliness of the types to be recast into the
lovely spiritual polity. '"A righteous king
was to reign and princes io rule with judgment,
as the Prophet spake. Another priest was to
arise, after the order, " not of Aaron but of
Melchisedec, '' a minister of ihe sanctuary and
of the true tabernaele which God pitched and not
man. For our Lord Jesus Christ entered the
holy of holies, '^ not by the blood of bulls and
goats, but by His own Blood, having obtained
eternal redemption, and '* haring by One Obla
tion perfected for ever them that are sanctifled.
Lest then God •hould seem to have spoken '
untruly, in promising to the legal priesthood
that it should ever have the oversight over
His house, there was need to fore-announce
the mystery of Christ, that the things of the

1 Is. xi. 1. 2 Jer. xxiii. 6, 6. 8 ib. xxxiii. 16.
'*Zech. vi. 12.
' ^^ '^3.r Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, xxxvii. 24, as here
nns h:3j}.
»ls, Iiii, 2. 'Ib. xi. 1. 8 0sor. »S, Cyr,
» Is, xxxii, 1, 11 Heb. vii. 11. 12 Ib, viii, 2.
18Ib, ix, 12, "Ib, X, 14. 15 Eashi,
18 Kim. Nor, of course, were either foundation-
stone or head-stone engraven.
1' Also in Kim, 18 Is, xxviii, 16,
"Ps, cxviii. 22. S. Matt. xxi. 42. add Acts iv, 11.

Joshua; 'upon one stone c2^°jgT
shall be " seven eyes : be- "i"'- si^-

9ch, 4. 10. Rev. 5. C

law should cease and He Himself should
judge His own house through the Scion from
Hiraself, His Son."
" " Look ye to the Branch of the Lord ;
set Him as the example of life ; in Him, as a
most strong tower, place with most becoming
faith all your hope of salvation and immor
tality. For He is not only a Branch, who
shall fill you with the richness of Divine
fruit, but a stone also, to break all the essays
of the enemy."
9. J^or behold the stone, that I have laid before
Joshua. This must be an expansion of what
he had said, or the ground of it, being intro
duced by, for. It must be something future,
to be done by God Himself, since God says,
I will grave the graving thereof ; something con
nected with the remission of sins, which fol
lows upon that graving. The stone, then,
cannot be the stone of foundation of the ma
terial temple '". For this had long before
been laid. The head-corner-stone, the com
pletion of the building '*, had nothing re
markable, why God should be said to grave
it. The plumbline" was not a part even of
the material temple. The stone is one stone.
Eut to interpret it by other prophecy, one
stone there is, of which God says, '" Behold I
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation,
he that believeth shall not make haste; that
stone, of which our Lord reminded the
Jews, " the stone whieh the builders refused is
become ihe head-stone of the corner; ^'' Jesus
Chrisl Himself, ihe chief comer-stone, in whom
all the building, fitly framed together, groweth
into an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also
are builded together for an habitation of God
ihrough the Spirit.
On this stone had Joshua, with all those
typical priests, to look, in Whom Alone they
and all have forgiveness. Whose Sacrifice
their sacrifices pictured and pleaded. "It,"
says an old mystical Jewish laook ", " is the
stone of foundation, on which the earth is
founded, which God Himself laid, that the
v/orld might receive blessing from it."
" '" The ' Shechinah is caHed the stone,
through which the world subsisteth ; of which
The passages of the Psalm and of Isaiah are united
1 S Pet ii 4-7. '" Eph, ii, 20, 21.
21 Zohar Gen. foi. 124, col. 492,
22 lb, Num, f, 100, col, 397, quoted hy Schoettg. de
Mess, p, 218, "Both passages" he subjoins, "are
again adduced as parallel, Zohar Deut, f. 118, col.
472," Jonathan seems to identify the Branch, the
Messiah, and the Stone ; " Lo I am bringing My Ser
vant Messiah, and He shall be revealed, Lo, the
stone which I have set before Joshua, upon one
stone seven eves, beholding it; lo, I revealed tha
vision thereof," saith the Lord of hosts, and will ra-

358

ZECIL\ELAH.

cheTst ^°^^' I '^ill engrave the
cir. 519. graving thereof, saith
the Lord of hosts, and

it is said, A stone of seven eyes, and, the stone
which the builders refused." This stone, God
says, / have laid or set before Joshua, i. e. for
him to consider ; as He speaks to Solomon
and his children, of My commandments which
I liave set before you '. " ' That the stone is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the head corner-stone,
elect, laid as a foundation ; and that the seven
eyes on the one stone are the sevenfold Spirit of
God which rested upon Him, is or ought to be
unknown to no one. For to Him '' Ood giveth
not the Spirit by measure, and * in Him dwell
eth all the fullness of tlie Godhead bodily. This
stone was rejected by men, but chosen and
honored by God." "*This stone then, on
which the house of God and our whole salva
tion resteth, is placed by God before that high
priest. That is, the most holy Name of
Jesus, the virtue piety and largeness of Jesus
is, by the Divine Spirit, shewed to the priest,
that he might understand the End of the
law and holiness, to Whom all the actions of
life and the offices of the priesthood were to
be referred. In which stone was foreshown
to the divine man, not the invisible strength
only, but also the manifold light of the Di
vine intelligence. For it follows ; "
Upon this one stone are seven eyes, whether
they are the eyes of God, resting in loving
care upon it, or whether, as the wheels in
Ezekiel's vision were "full of eyes round about,
the eyes are pictured as on the stone itself,
marking that it symbolized a being with
manifold intelligence. Zechariah speaks of
the eyes of ' the Lord whieh run to and fro on
the earth, and S. John, of the ^Lamb, as it had
been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
which are tlie seven spirits of Ood, sent forth into
all tlie earth. Either symlool harmonizes with
the context, and is admissible in language '.
The care of God for this stone is expressed
before and afterward, / have laid it, I will en
grave tiie graving tliereof; and so it corresponJs
move the guilt of that land in one day," The Zohar
ohadash (f, 70, 1,) joins the mention of the stone in
Dan. ii. 35, Ps. oSviii, 22, Gen, xlix, 24. and this
place, in Schoettg, I, c. p, 140, n. cv,
' 1 Kgs ix, 6. The idiom is the same, D3''J3 7 TIfl]
See also Deut. iv, 8, xi, 32, Jer, ix, 12, xxvi, 4, xliv',
10 ; of two things, between which to choose, Deut.
xi. 26, xxx. 15. In Ezek. xxiii. 24, DiT'JS'? ^nOJ
aaro, "I have placed before them judgment,"
which they are to consider and to execute.
2 Rup. 8 g. John iii. 34. * Col. ii. 9. 6 Qsor,
8 Ezek. i. 18, x. 12. 'iv. 10. , sRev. v6
oin Ps, xxxii. 8. it is 'J',!; y^l^' m^^lg. Iwill
counsel. My Eye upon thee; in Ps. xxxiii. 18, '''' ry
VXtSk; inPs,xxxiv,l6, D'pnvSK"'r,I?; but
" directed toward, or resting upon," are only shades

'I will remove the iniq- cHR°i"|m
uity of that land in one °ir- 6i9,
T„, 'Jer. 31. 34,
day. & 60, 2(1.
Mic, 7, 18, 19, ch. 1.3, 1,

to the '"It shall grow up before Him as a tender
plant. But the contrast, that on one stone
there are seven eyes, perhaps rather suggests
that the eyes are on the stone itself, and He,
the Living Stone, is pictured with an univer
sality of sight, whereby, with a Divine
knowledge, He surveys and provides for the
well-being of His whole Church. It has
some analogy too to the sevenfold Spirit
which was to rest upon Him. " " For this
stone to have seven eyes is to retain in opera
tion the whole virtue of the Spirit of seven
fold grace. For according to the distribution
of the Holy Spirit, ones receives prophecy ;
another, knowledge ; another, miracles ;
another, kinds of tongues ; another, interpre
tation of words ; but no one attaineth to have
all the gifts of that same Spirit. But our
Creator taking on Him our infirmities, be
cause, through the power of His Divinity,
He shewed that He had at once in Him all
the virtues of the Holy Spirit, united beyond
doubt the bright gleams of the sevenfold
constellation." "None among men had to
gether all the operations of the Holy Spirit,
save the Mediator of God and man Alone,
Whose is that same Spirit, Who proceeds
from the Father before all worlds." " '^ The
stone is one. For as we have in God One
Spirit, one faith, one sacrament of that most
pure laver, so we worship One Christ, the
one only Deliverer of the huraan race, and
Author of our righteousness and everlasting
salvation ; and strengthened by His' guard
ianship, we hope for iramortality and eternal
glory. Who, though He be One, governs all
things with ineffable wisdom. For His wis
dom is aptly described by the seven eyes.
For the number seven generally describes an
universality of good."
Behold I will engrave ihe graving " thereof,
as of a costly stone. What the graving is, is
tnot explained; but manif^ly it is every-
of the same meaning. In Gen. xliv. 21. is nO'iZ'Kl
1' V ^ys> '• Jsr. xxiv. 6, ?rr'?,^ ''ly ¦'nniyi and
xl. 4, for good, I'S;? ^yy nt? D'tys.
wis. Iiii. 2.
11 S. Greg, on Job L. xxix. c. 31. n. 74. Opp, i. 951.
12 Osor,
"runs only occurs besides of the carved wood
of the house of God, 1 Kgs vi, 29, Ps, Ixxiv, 6, or of
the carving of a precious stone. Ex, xxviii, 11, 21,
36, xxxix. 6, 14, 30. nrip is used of engraving things
on wood, 1 Kgs vii. 36, 2 Chr. iii, 7; on precious
stones, Ex, xxxviii, 9, The whole idiom, "skilled
to grave gravings," to grave all graving, recurs 2 Chr,
ii, 6, 13 ; thou shalt grdve on it with the engravings of a
signet, holiness to the Lord ; Ex, xxviii, 36.

CHAPTEE IV.

359

chrTst 10 'In that day, saith
cir. 510, the Loed of hosts, shall

¦ch.2.11, ye call every man his
tiKin, 4, 25. neighbor 'under the vine
Mio. 4. i. ' and under the fig tree.
CHAPTEE IV.
1 By the golden candlestick is
foreshewed the good success of

ZerubbabeVs foundation. 11 Before
T, , ,. , CHRIST
By the two olive trees the two cir, 619.
anointed ones.
AND "the angel that "ch. 2,3.
talked with me came
again and waked me, " as a t Dan. 8. is.
man that is wakened out
of his sleep.

thing which concurs to its beauty. " ' This
stone i-i of earth, and of the power and work
manship of God." "^It signifies Him Who
had His birth in virgin-earth, but framed
skillfully by the power of the Holy Spirit."
That Precious stone was further graven,
through the Providence and Will of God,
when " ^ He caused it to be wounded by the
nails of the Cross and the soldiei-'s lance, and
in His Passion took away the iniquity of the
earth in one day, of which it is written, * This
is the day which the Lord hath made, we ivill
rejoice and be glad in it." Beautiful were the
gifts and graces which Christ received, as
Man ; but beautiful beyond all beauty must
be those glorious scars, with which He al
lowed His whole Body to be riven, that
" ^ throughout the whole frame His love might
be engraven." "'What even in the Body
of the Lord can be lovelier or more lightful
than those five Wounds, which He willed to
retain in His immortal Being, lest the blessed
should be deprived of that splendor, surpass
ing far the light of sun and, stars?"
And I will remove the iniquity of ihe land in
one day. On one day in the year was the
typical atonement ; in one day absolutely,
God Himself would make the iniquity of that
kind to depart. One clay is always emphatic ',
that things ai-e crowded into it, which seemed
too much for one day. Year by year came
the day of atonement : its yearly repetition
shewed that nothing lasting was effected. On
one (^ay that removal should be, which needed
no renewal". A Jewish writer confessed
the mystery, while he said", " One day; I
know not wha* that day is." Ask any -
Christian child, " On what day was iniquity
removed, not from the land only, but from
all lands ? " he would say, " On the day when
Jesus Died."
10. TJ'nder the vine and under the fig tree.
Micah had already made the description of
1 S. Iren. Hser. iii. 21. 7. ' Lap. as from S. Iren.
8S, .Ter. * Ps, cxviii, 24,
8"Cernis, ut in toto oorpore sculptus amor," in
Lap. « Rib.
' Gen. xxvii, 46, " why should I be deprived of you
both in one dayt" 1 Sam, ii, 34, "in one day they
shall die -both ofthem;" 1 Kgs xx, 29, "Israel slew
of the Syrians 100000 footmen in one day; " 2 Chr,
xxviii, 6, " Pekah slew in Judah 120,000 in one day ; "
Is, ix, 14, " shall cut off branch and rush in one day; "

the peaceful days of Solomon'", a symbol"
of the universal fearless peace of the time of
Christ. " ''' Christ by His Passion shall not
only take away iniquity, but also bring peace,
delight, free communication of all things, so
that all things among Christians should be
common. For the law of Christ enjoineth
charity, forgiveness of injuries, patience, love
of enemies &c., all which bring temporal
peace." IV. 1. The angel came again. The angel
(as before ") had gone forth to receive some
fresh instruction from a higher angel or from
God. And awakened me, as a man is awakened
out of sleep. Zechariah, overwhelmed by
the greatness of the visions, must have sunk
down in a sort of stupor, as after the vision
of the ram and he-goat, as Gabriel was speak
ing wiih him, Daniel says, '"' / was in a deep
sleep on my face toward the ground, and he
touched me and set me upright; and again at
the voice of the angel, who, after his three
weeks' fast '^, came to declare to him '" the
scripture of truth; and at the Transfiguration,
" Peter and they that were vnth him were heavy
with sleep, and when they were awake, they saw
His glory. " '* Wondrous and stupendous
mysteries were they which were shewn to
the divine man. He saw the Branch of the
Lord ; he saw His invincible might ; he saw
His brightness of Divine intelligence and
Providence ; he saw the amplitude of beauty
and dignity. Nailed then and struck still
with amazement, while he revolved these
things in his mind, sunk in a sort of sleep,
he is borne out of himself and, mantled
around with darkness, understands that the
secret things of Divine wisdom cannot be
perfectly comprehended by the mind of any.
This then be attained that, his senses being
overpowered, he should see nothing, save
that wherein is the sum of wisdom, that this
.X, 17, " devour his thorns and briers in one day ; " Is,
xlvii, 9, "two things shall come to thee in one day ;"
Ib. Ixvi, 8, "shall the earth be made to bring forth
in one dai/^"
8 It includes then the ii^iira^ of Heb, vii, 27, ix.
12, X. 10, though the idiom is different.
8 Rashi. '" 1 Kgs iv, 25.
" Mi, iv. 4. See ab. p. 69, 12 Lap,
18 ii. 3. " Dan, viii, 18, 18 Ib, ^, 9. i" Ib. 21.
1' S. Luke ix. 32. i' Osor.

360

ZECHAEIAH.

chrTst 2 ^^^ ^^^^ unto me,
cir. 519, What seest thou? And I

said, I have looked, and
• Ex, 2.5. 31. behold "a candlestick all
Rev. 1. 12,
tHeb. with her qf gold, f with a bowl upou
4 Ex, 25, 37, the top of it, ''and his
Rev. 4. 5, f ,
seven lamps thereon, and
1 Or, seven 1 1 scven pipes to the seven
several pipes to , . , i
the lamps, ic. lamps, which are upon the
top thereof:
• ver, 11, 12, 3 " And two olive trees
by it, one upon the right
side of the bowl, and the

immensity of the Divine excellence cannot
be searched out. By this sleep he was
seized, when he was roused by the angel to
see further mysteries." "'Such is the con
dition of our mind, so far inferior to that in
the holy angels, that their state may be called
wakefulness, our's a sleep."
2. And I said'', I have looked and behold a
candlestick all of gold. The candlestick is the
seven-branched candlestick of the taber
nacle ', but with variations purposely intro
duced to symbolize the fuller and more con
stant supply of the oil, itself the symbol of
God's Holy Spirit, Who
" Enables with perpetual light
The dullness of our blinded sight."
The first variation is her bowl ' on the top
of ihe candlestick, containing the oil ; then (as
dependent on this) the pipes to derive the
oil into each lamp, seven several^ pipes to the
seven lamps, i. e,, seven to each ; and the two olne
trees on either side ofthe bowl, whose extreme
and tine branches poured through two golden
pipes the golden oil into the bowl which sup
plied the lamps. The multiplied conduits
imply the large and perfect supply of oil
unceasingly supplied, the seven being sym
bolic of perfection or of the reconciling of
God (symbolized by 3) unto the world (sym-
'S Cyr,
2 Tho Kri lipSl must be right, " IDX'l, a mani
fest blunder, which the Kri corrects; countless
Mss, correct in the text also, the Bibl, Brix., an old
lolio without date, and the Soncin. Prophets, 1486."
De Rossi ad loc. All the Verss. agree with the Kri.
The text would suppose that, in the silence of the
prophet, the angel-interpretev related the vf-sion
which he also saw. But this is unlike all the other
ra^es. Kim. supposes that the prophet speaks of
himselt in the third person. There is the same
variation in 2 Sam, i, 8, Neh, v, 9, vii, 3,
8 Ex, xxv, 31,
<7J iTT, Aey for nbj, like other rare masculines,
as DJ13R Hos, xiii. 2;' DTX, Ps, xlix. 15; Da"l,j;3

other upon the left side chrTst
thereof. «¦¦•¦ "9.
4 So I answered and
spake to the angel that
talked with me, saying,
What are these, my lord ?
5 Then the angel that
talked with me answered
and said unto me, Knowest
thou not what these be?
And I said. No, my lord.
6 Then he answered and
spake unto me, saying,

bolized by 4, its four quarters) ; the spon
taneous flow of the golden oil from the olive
trees symbolizes the free gift of God.
4. ""Awakened from his state of sleep,
even thus the prophet seemed slowly to
understand what was shewn him. He asks
then of the instructing angel. The angel,
almost amazed, asks if he knowns it not, and
when he plainly declares his ignorance,
makes clear the enigma of the vision."
6. This is the word of the Lord unto Zerub
babel. ""As if he were to say, the meaning
of the vision and scope of what has been
exhibited is, ' God's doings have almost cried
aloud to Zerubbabel that all these visions
shall come to an end in their time, not
effected by human might nor in fleshly
strength, but in power of the Holy Ghost and
through Divine Will.' For the Only Begot
ten became Man as we : but He warred not
after the flesh, to set up the Church as a
candlestick to the world, nor did He, through
sensible weapons and armed phalanxes, make
those two people His own, or place the
spiritual lights on the candlestick ; but in
the might of His own Spirit He appointed in
the Church ^ first Aposlles, then propliets and
evangelists, and all the rest of the saintly
band, filling them with Divine gifts and
enriching them abundantly by the influx of
His Spirit."
Job V, 13; nj3 Pr. vii. 8, as D"33 Zech, xiv, 10;
D^Un^ Ps, Iv, 16; 130 Ps, Ixxvi. 3; U'jff, 1 Kgs
xiv, 4'; nnaa, ps, ix.xxix. 4.5,
8 lit, seven and seven, i, e., seven to each, as in Gen,
vii. 2, without the nhihih 1, wb^-iynmu niS'Dn
"five shekels apiece by the poll," Nu. iii. 47; "the
fingers_ of his hands, and the fingers of his feet
were JJ?jyi 2/K?, six and six, four and twenty in
nuniber," 2 Sam. xxi. 20 ; " his fingers (including
as in 2 Sam. those of his feet) were six and six,
twenty-four," 1 Chron, xx, 6,
"Osor. 7 1 Cor. xii. 28.

CHAPTEE IV.

361

Bfefore
CHEIST cir. 519.
'Hos. 1. 1.
I Or, army.

iJer, 61. 25.
Matt. 21. 21.

This 'is the word of the
Loed unto Zerubbabel,
saying, 'Not by || might,
nor by power, but by my
spirit, saith the Loed of
hosts. 7 Who art thou, «0

" ' Not then in great power nor in fleshly
might were the things of Christ, but in power
of the Spirit was Satan spoiled, and the ranks
of the adverse powers fell with him ; and
¦ Israel and those who aforetime served the
creature rather thun the Creator, were called
to the knowledge of God through faith. But
that He saved all under heaven, not by
human arm, but by His own power as God
Emmanuel, Hosea too protested '', I will have
merey upon the house of Judah and will save
them by the Lord their God, and will not save
them by bow nor by sword nor by battle nor by
chariots nor by horses nor by horsemen. But
exceeding fittingly was this said to Zerub
babel, who was of the tribe of Judah and at
that time administered the royal seat at
Jerusalem. For that he might not think
that, since such glorious successes were fore-
announced to him, wars would in their season
have to be organized, he lifts him up from
these unsound and huraan thoughts, and bids
him be thus minded, that the force was divine,
the might of Christ, Who should bring such
things to pass, and not human."
Having given this key of the whole vision,
without explaining its details, God enlarges
what He had said to Zerubbabel, as He had
in the preceding chapter to Joshua^.
7. Who art thou, O great mountain*? Before
Zerubbabel thou shalt be a plain. The words
liave the character of a sacred proverb ;
^ Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased.
Isaiah prophesies the victories of the Gospel
in the same imagery, ^ Every valley shall be
exalted and every mountain and hill shall be
•made low; and the crooked shall be made straight
and the rough plaees plain. And in the New
Testament S. Paul says, ' The weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
. lo the pulling down of strongholds, casting down
imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. As it is
the character of Anti-Christ, that he ^ opposeth
'S. Cyr. 2Hos, i. 7. 3Zeeh, ni, 8-10,
''7njn in; the construction as |ltyKin t}!!:!,
xiv,10; TE?;7n t!''N'7 2Sam,xii,4; Snjmi3 nj;,
1 Sam, xix. 22; nin "jllilN tJ''X 1 Sam. xvii. 12;
't^'biyn X13a Jer. xxxvUlU; niH 13T lb, xl,
3; n.in 'l'7jn ISO Ib. xxxH. ll. aiso 1 Kgs vii. 8,
J2, Ges. Lehrg, ii.'l68. p, 059.

great mountain? before chrTIt
Zerubbabel thou shalt he- ^''r- sii).
come a plain : and he shall
bring forth " the headstone t ps. ns. 22.
thereof 'with shoutings, lEzras. 11, 13.
cr'ijing, Grace, grace unto
it.

and exalteth himself above everything that is called
God, so of Satan himself it had been said in
the former vision, that he stood at the right
hand of Joshua ^ to resist him. So then the
mountain symbolizes every resisting power ;
Satan and all his instruments, who, each in
his turn, shall oppose himself and be brought
low. In the first instance, it was Sanballat
and his companions, who opposed the re
building of the temple, on account of the
" exclusiveness " of Zerubbabel and Joshua '",
because they would not make the temple the
abode of a mixed worship of him whom they
call your God and of their own idolatries.
In all and each of his instruments, the perse
cuting Emperors or the heretics, it was the
one adversary. " " The words seem all but
to rebuke the great mountain, i. e. Satan, who
riseth up ancl leadeth against Christ the
power of his own stubbornness, who was
figuratively spoken of before '¦'. — For th at as far
as it was allowed and in him lay, he warred
fiercely against the Saviour, no one would
doubt, who considered how he approached
Him when fasting in the wilderness, and see
ing Him saving all below, willed to make Him
his own worshiper, shewing Him '''all the
kingdoms of the world, saying that all should
be His, if He would fall clown and worship him.
Then out of the very choir of the holy
Apostles he snatched the traitor disciple,
persuading him to become the instrument of
the Jewish perverseness. He asks him, Wlio
art ihou ? disparaging hira and making him of
no account, great as the mountain was and
hard to ^vithstand, and in the way of every
one who would bring about such things for
Christ, of Whom, as we said, Zerubbabel wa»
a type." And he shall bring forth the headstone'".
The foundation of the temple had long
been laid. Humanly it still hung in the
balance whether they would be permitted to
complete it " : Zechariah foretells absolutely
that they would. Two images appear to be
6 S, Luke xiv, 11, xviii, 14. . i .,
«Is, xl, 4. The same word 11iyD7, therewith
'2 Cor. X, 4, 6, " 2 Thess. ii, 4, "iii, 1.
i»See ah, Introd, to Haggai, p. 293. "S,. Cyr.
12 S, Matt, IV. 8, 9,
" riK'NT is a form, perhaps framed by Zeohariali,
here in apposition to |3fc^n.
" Ezr. V. '

362

ZECHAEIAH.

8 Moreover the word of

Before
CHRIST cir. 519. t,>ie. Loed came unto me.

» Ezra 3, 10,

1 Ezra 6, 15,
» ch. 2. 9, 11.
& 6, 16.

saying, 9 The hands of Zerub
babel " have laid the foun
dation of this house ; his
hands ' shall also finish it ;
and ""thou shalt know that

used in Holy Scripture, both of which
meet in Christ : the one, in which the stone
spoken of is the foundation-stone ; the other,
in which it is the head corner-stone binding
the two walls together, which it connects.
Both were corner stones ; the one at the base,
the other at the summit. In Isaiah the
whole emphasis is on the foundation ; ' Be
hold Me Who have laid in Zion a stone, a tried
stone, a prerious corner-stone, well-founded. In
the Psalm, the building had been com
menced ; those who were building had dis
regarded and despised the stone, but ii became
the head of the corner, crowning and binding
the work in one''. Both images together
express, how Christ is the Beginning and
the End, the First and the Last ; the Foun
dation ofthe spiritual building, the Church,
and its sumrait and completion; the unseen
Foundation which was laid deep in Calvary,
and the Summit to which it grows and which
holds it firm together. Whence S. Peter
unites the two prophecies, and blends with
tliem that other-of Isaiah, that Christ would
* be a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.
To Whom coming, as unto a living stone, disal-
loived indeed of men but chosen of Ood and pre
cious, ye also are built up a spiritual house —
Whence also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect,
precious : — wnto you which believe He is precious,
but unto them which be disobedient, the same
stone which the builders refused is made the head
of the eomer, and a stone of stumbling and a rock
of offence, to them which stumble at the word being
disobedient. A Jew paraphrases this of the Messiah ;
" * And He shall reveal His Messiah, whose
1 Is, xxviii. 16,
2 Ps. cxviii. 22, This is implied in the Midrash,
quoted by De Lira, " They explain it of a certain
stone ofthis building, which was frequently offered
by the stone-masons for the building of the wall,
but was always found too long or too short, and .so
was often rejected by them as unfit, but in the com
pletion of the wall, in the coupling of the two walls.
It is found most tit, which was then accounted a
marvelous thing," in Ps, cxvii, (118) 22, Eyj<"l
" head," is a natural metaphor for the summit; the
tops of mountains, Gen, viii, 6 &c, ; of a hill over
valleys. Is, xxviii, 1,4; of a tower, Gen. xi. 4; of
columns, 1 Kgs vii. 19; the rounded top of a throne,
Ib. X. 19; of a bed. Gen, .xlvii, 31 [Heb,]; ear of
corn. Job xxiv, 24; the starry heavens above us.

the "Loed of hosts hath „ before
V H R 1 S T
cir. 519.

sent me unto you.
10 For who hath de- ¦> isai. 48. le.
spised the day of ° small o Hag, '2, '3.
things ? 1 1 for they shall re- " ^^mZlIofthe
joice, and shall see the fo^JJ* """" '"'"
t plummet in the hand oi^ut''^"'"^
Zerubbabel with those

name was spoken from the beginning, and
he shall rule over all nations."
Wiih shoutings^, grace, grace unto it, i. e. all
favor from God unto it, redoubled favors,
grace upon grace. The completion of the
building was but the commencement of the
dispensation under it. It was the beginning
not the end. They pr.ay then for the con
tinued and manifold grace of God, that He
would carry on the work, which He had
begun. Perseverance, by the grace of God,
crowns the life of the Christian ; our Lord's
abiding presence in grace with His Church
unto the end of the world, is the witness
that Pie Who founded her upholds her in
being. 8. And the word of the Lord. " ^ This word
of the Lord is not addressed through 'the
interpreting angel,' but direct from the Lord,
and that through the ' Angel of the Lord.'
' For though in the first instance the words,
the hands of Zerubbabel &c., relate to the
building of the material temple, and announce
its completion through Zerubbabel, yet the
inference, and thou shali know tliat the Lord of
hosts hath sent me unto you, shews that the
meaning is not exhausted thereby, but that
here too this building is mentioned only as a
type of the building of the spiritual temple ' ;
and the completion of the typical teraple is
but a pledge of the completion of the true
temple. For not through the completion of
the material temple, but only through the
building of the kingdom of God, shadowed
foi'th by it, can Judah know, that the Angel
of the Lord was sent to him."
10. The simplest rendering is marked by
the accents. For who hath despised^ ihe day
Job xxii, 12 ; of the head of a people, tribes, nations,
a family, in many places. Although used of the
chief among things, it cannot, any more than
K€0aA7J, be used of " the base," as Gesenius would
have it, Thes, p, 1251. v. Ht^KT.
3 18, Pet. ii, 4-7, <Jon,
' nsityn always plur, ; of the cries of a city. Is.
xxii, 2; of the exactor. Job xxxix. 7; crash of
thunder, Ib. xxxvi. 29. [all]
6 Keil.
' " comp. V. 9 1" with ii. 13 1 and 15 '."
^ " as in vi. 12. sq."
° T3 i, q. 13 (and with Its const, with S) as riB for
na, Is, xliv. 18.

CHAPTEE IV.

363

Before
CHRIST cir. 519.
J 2 Chr. 16. 9.
Prov. 15. 3.
oh. 3. 9.

iver. S.

seven ; "they are the eyes of
the Lord, wiich run to and
fro through the whole earth.
11 ^Then answered I,
and said unto him, What
are these 'two olive trees
upon the right side of the
candlestick and upon the
left side thereof?

o/ small things ' ? and [i. e. seeing that '',] there
have rejoiced and seen tlie plummet in the hand of
Zerubbabel, these seven, the Eyes of ihe Lord,
they are running io and fro in all the earth, i. e.
since God hath with joy and good-pleasure
beheld, the progress of the work of Zerub
babel, who can despise the day of small things f
The day of small things was not only that of
the foundation of > tlie temple, but of its
continued building also. The old men indeed,
that had seen the first house, wept with a loud
voice, when the foundation of ihis house was laid
before their eyes '. But while in progress too,
Haggai asks, * Who is left among you that saw
this house in its first glory f And how do ye see
it now ? is not in your eyes such as ii, as nothing ?
But that temple was to see the day of great
things, when ^ the later glory of this house shall
be greater than the former, and in this place will
I give peace, saith ihe Lord of hosts.
They are the eyes of the Lord which run to and
fro. He uses almost the words of the pro
phet Hanani to Asa ^, ihe eyes of ihe Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew
Himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is
perfect toward Him. Yet this assurance that
God's watchful Providence is over tlie whole
earth, betokens more than the restoration of
the material temple, whose only hindrance
could be the will of one man, Darius.
The day of small things is especially God's
day. Whose strength is made perfect in weakness ;
»nijQp as ni;?'i, nisSsj, niDj;.j ps- xvi, n.
sing. nSnj ix DMP Num. xxii. 18.
2 This is not a mere relation of a contemporaneous
fact, in which the noun is placed flrst, (Ew, Lehrb,
8341 p, 8,35), It is a contrast; in which case the
word, in which the contrast lies, is placed first,
whether noun or verb. Here the contrast being
between "despising" and " rejoicin.g," inotyi is
placed first. So in Ps, v. 12, inoiyi; lb. xxv. 3,
all that trust in Thee shallnot be ashamed ; ashamed
be they who Ac. ; Ps, xxxviii, 17, The arms of the un
godly shall be broken, and upholdeth the Lord the
righteous, " D'p'IX IDIOI.
' Ezr. iv. 12, ^ Hagg. ii. 3. ' Ib. 0,

'2Chr, xvi, 9, Wyp is masc, in Zech, both here
«nd iii, 9, which is rare, but also Ps. xxxviii. 11.
]'J? m. Cant. iv. 9, Ch. Ps. Ixxiii. 7.
'Rib. vita S. Ther. ap. Lap.

12 And I answered chrTst
again, and said unto him, "'''¦ 5i9.
What 9e these two olive
branches which tthrouehtHeb, 5y<Ae
° hand.
the two golden pipes
II empty fthe golden oill'^hf^ptyout
out of themselves ? "il into the
gold.
13 And he answered me fHeb. the gold.
and said, Knowest thou

Who raised Joseph from the prison, David
from the sheepfold, Daniel from slavery, and
converted the world by the fishermen and
the tentmaker, having Himself first become
the Carpenter. " Wouldest thou be great ?
Become little." " Whenever," said S.The
resa ', " I am to receive some singular grace,
I first annihilate myself, sink into my own
nothingness, so as to seem to myself to be
nothing, be capable of nothing."
11. And I answered and said. The vision,
as a whole, had been explained to him. The
prophet asks as to subordinate parts, which
seemed perhaps inconsistent with the whole.
If the whole imports that everything should
be done by the Spirit of God, not by human
power, what means it that there are these
two olive-trees? And when the Angel re
turned no answer, to invite perhaps closer
attention and a more definite question, he
asks again ;
VZ. What are the two spikes ^ of the olive ? com
paring the extreme branches of the olive-
tree, laden with their fruit, to the ears of
corn, whioh were by or in the hand of^ tlie
golden pipes'", which empty forth the golden oil
from themselves. Zechariah's expression, in
the Imnd o/or, if so be, by tlie hand of the two
pipes, shews that these two were symbols of
living agents, for it is nowhere used except
of a living agent, or of that which it personi
fied as such "-
8 ¦'Ssfc', aT. after the analogy of nV3E^, C/aE'
of ears of corn.
» Kim,, by his explanation "in the midst" and
that the olive trees were pressed in the midst of the
golden pipes, seems to mean that the branches
with their olives fell into those pipes as hands, and
yielded in them their oil; Rashi renders "near it"
like n'' Sx 2 Sam, xiv, 30, as nO Job xv, 23,
"TinrUS is doubtless the same .^s Ch. [nnji'
Esth. (ii.) i. 2, "tubes" KOinn "IIJV Eccl. i. 7,
Targ. in Buxt,, yet larger than the pXlO.both from
its etymology, and since the oil was derived through
two tubes to the bowl, but hy 7x7 — 49 to the
lamps. , , , _,^
11 Of the 276 cases beside this, m which T3
occurs, in three only is it used of any other than a
personal agent, and in thcs-e the agent is personi
fied ; Job viii, 4, and he cast them away in the hand of
their transgression; Prov. xviii, 21, death and life are

364

ZECHAEIAH.

chrYst not what these 6e.? And I
"''¦¦ 6"- said. No, my lord.

»Eev. 11. 4.

14 Then said h(^ 'These

14. These are the two sons of oil, probably
not as themselves anointed, (for another
word is used for this ', and the whole vision
has turned on the use of oil as an instrument
of light, not of anointing) but as themselves
abundantly ministering the stream which is
the source of light ''.
Which stand by the Lord of ihe whole earth, as
His ser\ants and ministers.
The candlestick is almost authoritatively in
terpreted for us, by the adoption of the syrabol
in the Eevelation, where our Lord is exhibit
ed ' as walking in the midst of the seven golden
candlestieks, and, it is said, * the seven candle
sticks are the seven Churches; and our Lord
says to the Apostles, on whom He founded
the Church ; » Ye are the light of the world:
men light a candle, cmd put it on a candlestick,
ancl it giveth light to them thai are in the liouse.
" ^ The golden candlestick is the Church,
as being honored in the woi'ld, most bright
in virtues, raised on high exceedingly by the
doctrines of the true knowledge of God.
But there are seven lamps, having light, not
of tlieir own, but brought to thera from with
out, and nourished by the supplies through
the olive tree. These signify the huly
.\postles. Evangelists, and those who, each
in their season, were teachers of the Churches,
receiving, like laraps, into their mind and
-Jieart the illumination from Christ, whicli is
nourished by the supplies of the Spirit,
casting forth light to those who are in the
house.'' " ' The pipes of the lamps, which
pour in the oil, signify the unstinted
prodigality of the loving-kindness of God to
man." The most difficult of explanation (as is
plain from the variety of interpretations) is
this last syrabol of the spikes of the olive-
tree, through whom fiows the oil of the Holy
Spirit to the candlesticks, and which yet
represent created beings, ministers, and ser
vants of God. Perhaps it represents that, in
tlie Church, grace is ministered through
men, as S. Paul says, * Unto every one of us is
given grace according to ihe measure of the gift
of Christ. Wherefore he saith, wlien He as-
¦in the power, lit, the hand, of the tongue; Is, Ixiv, 6,
thou hast made ns lo melt away by the hand of our in-
iquilies. With reg.ird to "Tp, r[T3, this could not
be otherwise; but also in the 92 cases in which
1T3; 6, in which nT3; and 34, in which tTV^, oc-
cuis, the pronoun relates to a personal agent.
' inS', in the other 20 places where it occurs, is
always united with other n.atui-al products: both
E^llTl (not ]"), the fresh wine, and JJl "wheat."
¦pis is used of the oil as derived from the olive

are the two fanointed chrTst
ones, " that stand by ' the . «'r- 6i9.

Lord of the wfiole earth, ^^f ' ^""^ "^
" ch. 3. 7. Luke 1. 19. • See Josh. 3. 11, 13. ch. 0. 6.

cended up on high. He led captirity captive and
gave gifts unto men. And He gave same,
apostles ; and some, prophets; and some, evan
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers, for ihe
perfecting of ihe saints, for the work of the minis-
try, for the edifying of the body of Christ — that
we — may grow up into Him in all things which
is the Head, even Christ, from Whom the whole
body, fltly joined together and compacted by thai
which every joint supplieth, according to the
effeetual working in the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of
itself in love. What S. Paul expresses by "ofl
ihe body, having nourishment ministered and be
ing knit together by joints and bands, from the
Head, and so increasing with ihe increase of
Ood, (as he elsewhere speaks of '" ihe minis
tration of tlie Spirit ; " he that ministereth to you
the Spirit) (Aai Zechariah may express by the
oil being poured, through the living ''¦' tubes,
the bowl, the sevenfold pipes, into the lamps,
which shone with the God-given light. So
S. Paul speaks again, of '^ having this treasure
in earthen vessels. Joshua and Zerubbabel, as
representatives of the priestly and royal
ofiices, shadowed forth what was united in
Christ, and so, in their several ofiices, they
might be included in the symbol of the olive-
tree, they could not exhaust it; for men
who, having served God in their generation,
were to pass away, could not be alone in
tended in a vision, which describes the abiding
being of the Church.
" '* Christ is both All-holy Priest and
supreme Eternal King. In both ways He
supplies to us the light which He brought.
For frora Him piety and righteousness flow
unceasingly to the Church, that it never lack
the heavenly light. The oil is expressed
into tubes ; thence passed through pipes into
the vessel which contains the lamps ; to de
signate the various suppliers of light, which,
the nearer they are to the effluence of the
oil, the more they resemble Him by Whom
they are appointed to so- Divine an ofiice.
The seven lamps are the manifold Churches,
distinct in place but most closely bound to
gether by the consent of one faith and by the
(n'l jnty, Ex. xxvII, 20, Lev, xxiv. 2.) for the can
dlestick, Ex, xxvii. 20, as well as for the anointing
oil, but not in^'.
2 So pE? |3 Is. V. 1, and the other idioms of quali
ties, Vn p, '7;>''73 [3, nSi;r |3 &e.
s Rev. i, 13, ii, 1. 4Ib, i, 20.
5 S. Matt. V. 14, 15. cf. Phil, ii, 16, » S, Cyr.
' Theod. 8 Eph, iv. 7, 8, 11, 12, 14-16.
"Col.ii. 19. M2Cor, iii. 8. "Gal, iii. 6.
12 See ab. on ver. 12, is 2 Cor. iv. 7. '* Osor.

CHAPTEE V.

365

Before CHAPTEE V.
CHRIST "!''¦ ^^^- 1 By the flying roll is shewed the
curse of thieves and swearers.
5 By a wcnnan pressed in an
ephah, the fi'nal damnation of
Babylon.
THEN I turned, and
lifted up mine eyes,
and looked, and behold a
¦ Ezek. 2. 9. flying ' roll.

bond of charity. For although the Church
is one, yet it is distinct according to the
manifold variety of nations. They are said
to be seven, both on account of the seven
gifts of the Spirit, mentioned by Isaiah, and
because in the numbers 3 and 4, is contained
an emblem of piety and righteousness. There
are 7 pipes to each lamp, to signify that each
has need of many instruments, that the light
may be maintained longer. For as there are
diversities of gifts, so must there needs be
the functions of many ministers, to complete
one work. But the lamps are set in a circle,
that the oil of one may flow more readily
into others, and it, in turn, may receive frora
others their superabundance, to set lortli the
communion of love and the indissoluble com
munity of faith."
V. I. Hitherto all had been bright, full of
the largeness of the gifts of God; of God's
liivor to His people'; the removal of their
enemies"; the restoration and expansion and
secm-ity of God's people and Church under
His protection ^ ; the acceptance of the pre
sent typical priesthood and the proraise of
Him, through Whora there should be entire
forgiveness * : the abiding illuraining of the
Church by the Spirit of God ^ Yet there
is a reverse side to all this, Giod's judgraents
orf those who reject all Plis mercies. " '' Pro
phecies partly appertain to those in whose
times the sacred writers prophesied, partly
to the mysteries of Christ. And therefore it
is the wont of the prophets, at one time to
chastise vices .and set forth punishments, at
another to predict the mysteries of Christ
and the Church."
And I turned and, or, Again' I lifted up
my eyes, having again sunk down in meditation
on what he had seen, and behold a roll flying ;
as, to Ezekiel was shewn a hand with a roll of
'Vision 1. i. 7-17. '' Vision 2. Ib. 18-21.
'Vis. 3. cii. - < Vis. 4. c. iii. »Vis. 6. c. iv.
'S. Aug. de Civ. Dei. xvii, 3. Rib.
'Gen. xxvi. 18, 2 Kgs i. 11, 13. Jer. xviii. 14.
'Ez.ii.o, 10. "Eib.
'"The length of the tabernacle is fixed by Ihe 6
curtains which were to Vie on each side, the breadth
of each curtain four cubits. Exod. xxvi. 1, 2. The
whole, including the holy of holies, is determined
bythe twenty boards on each side, a cubit and a half,
the breadth of mch board ; Ib. 16, 18, The breadth

2 And he said unto me,

Before
ri TT JJ T a fp
What seest thou ? And I "'¦¦¦ m9.

answered, I see a flying
roll ; the length thereof is
twenty cubits, and the
breadth thereof ten cubits.
8 Then said he unto me.
This is the *¦ curse that go- tMai.t. e.
eth forth over the face of

a book therein, and he spread it before me.
Ezekiel's roll also was "ivritten within and
without, and there was written therein lamentation
and mourning and woe. It was a wide un
folded roll, as is involved in its flying; but
its " " flight signified the very swift coming
of punishment ; its flying from heaven that
the sentence came from the judgment-seat
above." 2. And he (the interpreting angel) said
unto me. It cannot be without meaning, that
the dimensions ofthe roll should be those of
the tabernacle '", as the last vision was that
of the candlestick, after the likeness of the
candlestick therein. The explanations of
this correspondence do not exclude each
other. It may be that "judgment shcdl begin
at the house of God ; that the punishment on
sin is proportioned to the nearness of God
and the knowledge of Him ; that the pres
ence of God, which was for life, might also
be to death, as S. Paul says ; ''' God maketh
manifest the savor of this knowledge by us in
every place; for we are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ in them thai are saved and in
ihem that perish ; to the one we are ihe savor of
death unto death, ancl to the other the savor of
life unlo life; and Simeon said, '^ This child is
set for ihe fall and rising again of many in
Israel. Over the face of the whole earth, primarily
land, since the perjured persons, upon whom
the curse was to fall '*, were those who swore
falsely by the narae of God : and this was in
Judah only. The reference to the two tables
of the law also confines it primarily to those
who were under the law. Yet, since the
raoral law abides under the Gospel, ulti
mately these visions related to the Christian
Church, which was to be spread over thewhole
earth. The roll apparently was shewn, as
is flxed by the sii; boards, i, e, nine cubits, with the
two boards for the corners of the tabernacle in tlie two
sides. Ib, 22, 2.3, Josephus gives the whole thirty
cubits long, (the holy of holies being ten cubits
square) ten broad (Ant. 3, 0, 3,), Kimchi strangely
neglects this, and refers to the porch of Solomon s
temple, in which the dimensions of the tabernacle
were repeated (1 Kgs vi, 3.), but which was itself
only an ornament to the temple.
11 1 Pet iv 17. 12 2 Cor. ii. 14-lB.
13 S. Luke ii. 34. "ver. 4.

366

ZECHAEIAH.

cheTst *^® whole earth: for
cir, 519. II every one that stealeth
I Or, every one shall be cut ofi" as on this
°ihit'!tmi°Ih'^ side according to it; and
holdeth him- j. t_ j. — a1
self guiltless every one that sweareth

s it doth.

shall be cut ofi" as on that
side according to it.
4 I will bring it forth,
saith the Loed of hosts.

written on both sides ; the coramandments
of the first table, in which perjury is for
bidden, on the one side ; those relating to the
love of our neighbor, in which stealing is for
bidden, on the other'. "*He calleth curse
that vengeance, which goeth through the
whole world, and is brought upon the workers
of iniquity. But hereby both prophets and
people were taught, that the God of all is the
judge of all raen, and will exact meet pun
ishment of ali, bringing utter destruction not
on those only who live ungodly toward Him
self, but on those also who are unjust to their
neighbors. For let no one tliink that this
threat was only against thieves ant false-
swearers ; for He gave sentence against all
iniquity. For since all the law and the
prophets hang on this word. Thou shalt love
the Lord ihy God with all thy heart and thy neigh
bor as thyself, He comprised every sort of sin
under false swearing and theft. Tlie viola
tion of oaths is the head of all ungodliness.
One who so doeth is devoid of the love of
God. But theft indicates injustice to one's
neighbor; for no one who loves his neigh
bor will endure to be unjust to hira. These
heads then comprehend all the other
laws." Shall be cut off, lit. cleansed away ^, as some-
tliing defiled and defiling, which has to be
cleared away as oflensive : as God says, * /
will take away the remnant of the house of Jero
boam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all
gone, and so often in Deuteronomy,- thou shalt
put the eod away from the midst of thee *, or of
' nip HTD, in two corresponding sentences, can
only he partitive, as in Ex. xvii, 12, xxv, 19, xxvi.
13, xxxii. 15, of the two tables of the law, written
on both sides; xxxvii. 8, xxxviii. 15, Nu, xxii. 24;
Jos. viii, 22, and ten other places. So also PllO
yi^vh niDi Jos, viii, 33, nrai nra ez. xivii, 7,12,
as in other partitives HDO, ilbO, or 13p Ez. xl.
10, 12, 21, 26, xli. 2, niD also, when used of place,
always means "trom here," i.e, a definite place
where people are, Gen, xxxvii. 17, xiii. 15, Exod, xi,
1 (Maurer's instances), 2Theod,
3 So is Ktt^apt^w used Mark vii, 19, (See retf, notes
10-14,) For npj is not simply "clear," but "clean.se
out," as «a9iiipio Soph. Tr 1012, 1001, Plutarch Thes,
n. 7, Ma", n, 6. "of monsters and robbers," (Gese
nius in comparing Arab, ¦'pjriK'K, "emptied clean

and it shall enter into the _ S^i°^%, n,
Ll ±1 n J. o 1
house of the thief, and into "'¦•¦ ^lo.
the house of ° him that • Lev. 19. 12,
sweareth falsely by my Mai.'s. 5.
name : and it shall remain
in the midst of his house,
and ¦* shall consume it with « See Lev. 14. 4s.
the timber thereof and the
stones thereof.

Israel ^, and in Ezekiel, ' / ¦wUl disperse thee
in ihe countries and will consume thy filthiness
out of ihee. * Set it empty upon ihe coals thereof,
thai the brass of it may be hot and may bum, and
ihefllihiness of ii may be molten, that ihe scum of
it may be consumed.
4. Iwill bring it forth out of the treasure-
house, as it were ; as he says, ' He brindeth
forth the wind out of His treasures; and, '"Is
not this laid up in store wiih Me, sealed up among
My treasures? To Me belongeth vengeanee
and recompense."
And il shall remain, lit., "lodge for the
night"," until it has accomplished that for
wliich it was sent, its utter destruction. '"'' So
we have seen and see at this day powerful
families, whicli attained to splendor by rapine
or iU-gotten goods, destroyed by the just
judgraent of God, that those who see it are
amazed, how such wealth perceptibly yet in
sensibly disappeared." " '¦' Why doth it
overthrow the stones and the wood of the
swearer's house ? In order that the ruin may
be a correction to all. For since the earth
must hide the swearer, when dead, his house,
overturned and becorae a heap, will by the
very sight be an admonition to all who
pass by and see it, not to venture on the
like, lest they suffer the like, and it will
be a lasting witness against the sin of the
departed." Heathenism was impressed'*
with the doom of him who consulted the
oracle, whether he should foreswear liimself
for gain'^ "Swear," was the answer,
" since death awaits too the man, who keeps
out" (Vita Tim. 1. 576,), I'ShntyN, "appropriated it
exclusively to himself" (Lane), 'ilVniVN "took
away the whole " (Freyt,), "cleared it all off," misses
the moral meaning of the Heb, word,
* 1 Kgs xiv, in, add xxi, 21, ' Deut, xiii, 5 (8
Heb,), xvii, 7, xix. 19, xxi. 21, xxii. 21, 24, xxiv. 7.
1 lb. xvii. 12, xxiii. 22. ' Ezek, xxii, 15.
8Ib. xxiv. 11, ».Jer, X. 13, li. 16.
m Deut. xxxii, 34, 35.
" Dj'^ for njS in verb air. ; in part. pass. Dill
Is, lix, 5, '' 12 Lap.
13 S, Chrys, on the statues 1.1. n. 13. p. 259. Oxf. Tr.
" " The story of Glaucus is alluded to by Plutarch
(ii. p. 6.i6 D) Pausanias (11. xviii. n. 2.) Juvenal (xiii.
199-208) Clemens (Strom, vi, p. 749) Dio Chrysostom
(Or. 1 xiv, p, 640) and others." Rawl. Herod, iii. 477.
i^Herod. vi. 85.

CHAPTEE V.

367

Before
CHEIST cir. 519.

5 ^Then the angel that
talked with me went forth,
and said unto me. Lift up
now thine eyes, and see
what is this that goeth
forth. 6 And I said. What is

the oath ; yet Oath hath a son, nameless,
handless, footless ; but swift he pursueth,
until he grasp together and destroy the
the whole race and house." " ' In the third
generation, there was nought descended from
him," who had consulted about this perjury,
" nor hearthstone reputed to be his. It had
been uprooted and effaced." A Heathen
orator^ relates, as well known, that " the per
jurer escapes not the vengeance of the gods,
and if not himself, yet the sons and whole
race of the foresworn fall iuto great misfor
tunes." God left not Himself without wit
ness. "''The prophet speaks of the curse in
flicted on the thieves and false swearers of
his own day ; but i fortiori he includes that
which came upon them for slaying Christ.
For this was the greatest of all, which utterly
overthrew and consumed Jerusalem, the
temple and polity, so that that ancient and
glorious Jerusalem exists no longer, as Christ
threatened. * They shall lay thee even wiih the
ground, and they shall not leave in ihee one stone
upon another. This resteth upon them these "
1800 "years."
5. Then the angel went forth from the choirs
of angels, among whom, in the interval, he
had retired, as before^ he had gone forth
to meet another angel.
6. This is the ephah that c/oeth forth. " ^ We
too are taught by this, that the Lord of all
administers all things in weight and measure.
So, foretelling to Abraham that his seed
shoidd be a sojourner and the cause thereof.
He says, ''for the iniquity of ihe Amorites is not
yet full, i. e,, they have not yet committed sins
enough to merit entire destruction, .wherefore
I cannot yet endure to give them over to the
slaughter, but will wait for the measure of
their iniquity." The relation then of this
vision to the seventh is, that the seventh
1 Herod, vi. 85, 86.
'Lycurgus Or. in Leocr. p, 157 fin, 3 Lap,
*S. Luke xix, 44, 6 ii, 3 (7 Heb.) « Theod.
' Gen. XV. 16.
' r^_ our look, as in Lev. xiii. 55. and the leprosy
hath not changed IJ'j; its took; Nu. xi. 7, of the
manna, its look ('\'i'"$) was hke the look (pjJS) of
idellmm ; Ezek. x. 9. the appearance of the wheels
was like the look (V};3) of stone of Tarshish. Add Ez.
i- 4, 7, 16, 27, and Dan. i. 6. like the look ([',^,3)0/
polished brass.

Before
CHRIST cir. 519.

it? And he said. This is
an ephah that goeth forth.
He said moreover. This is
their resemblance through
all the earth.
7 And, behold there was
lifted up a 1 1 talent of lead : piece.

tells of God's punishment on individual sin
ners ; this, on the whole people, when the
iniquity of the whole is full.
This is their resemblance, as we say, iheir
look *, i. e. the look, appearance, of the in
habitants ' in all ihe land. This then being
the condition of the people of the land, at
the time to which the vision relates, the
symbolical carrying away of the full measure
of sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there
was no repentance, but the taking away of
the sin with the sinner. " '"The Lord of all
is good and loving to mankind ; for He is
patient toward sinners and endures trans
gressors, waiting for the repentance of each ;
but if one perseveres long in iniquity, and
corae to the term of the endurance allowed, it
remains that he should be subjected to pun
ishment, and there is no account of this long
forebarance, nor can he be exempt frora
judgment proportioned to what he has done.
So then Christ says to the Jewish people,
rushing with unbridled phrensy to all strange
excess, "Fill ye up the measure of your fathers.
The measure then, which was seen, pointed
to the filling up of the measure of the trans
gression of the people against Himself"
" " The angel bids him behold the sins of
the people Israel, heaped together in a per
fect measure, and the transgression of all ful
filled — that the sins, which escaped notice,
one by one, might, when collected together,
be laid open to the ej'es of all, and Israel
might go forth from its place, and it might
be shewn to all what she was in her own
land." " '¦' I think the Lord alluded to the
words of •the prophet, as though He would
say, Fill up the measure of sins which your
fathers began of old, as it is in Zechariah,
i. e. ye will soon fill it ; for ye so haste to do
evil, that ye will soon fill it to the utmost."
7. And behold there was lifted up a talent of
"The D relates to the persons, |implied though
not expressed in the V'^XH S3, as in Ps, Ixv. 10,
thou prepar est QJJT ttieir corn; xxxix, 7, he heapeth
up and knoweth not, D3p{<, who gathereth them,
Eccl, V. 17, (18 Eng,) to lee good (iSoj?. ^33) m all
his labor; Ib. vii. 1, better is the day ofdeath than
the day nVlH of his birth; Hagg. i, 6, lit, to clothe,
vet not for warmth l'?, to him. Ew, Lehrb, n, 294. 1.
p.754. ed.8. ... .._ . .'°S-..Cyr.

11 S. Matt, xxiii. 32.

12 S. Jer,

13 Eib.

368

ZECHARIAH.

chrTst ^^^ *^^^® '^ ^ woman that
eir. 619. sitteth in the midst of the

ephah. 8 And he said. This is
wickedness. And he cast
it into the midst of the
ephah; and he cast the
weight of lead upon the
mouth thereof.
9 Then lifted I up mine
eyes, and looked, and, be
hold, there came out two
women, and the wind was
in their wings ; for they

lead, the heaviest Hebrew weight, elsewhere
of gold or silver; the golden talent weigh
ing, 1,300,000 grains; the silver, 660,000;
here, being lead, it is obviously an unde
fined mass, though circular', corresponding to
the Ephah. The Ephah too was the largest
Hebrew measure, whose compass cannot now,
with certainty, be ascertained'^. Both
probably were, in the vision, ideal. "^Holy
Scripture calleth the punishraent of sin, lead,
as being by nature heavy. This the divine
David teacheth us, *mt)ie iniquities are gone
over my head: cls an heavy burden, they are too
heavy forme. The divine Zechariah seeth sin
under the image of a woman ; for most evils
are eni;endered by hixury. But lie seetli the
punishment, like raost heavy lead, lying
upon the mouth of iniquity, according to a
Psalra, '' all iniquity shall stop her mouth."
" ^ Iniquity, as with a talent of lead, weighs
down the conscience."
Tills is u, woman, lit. one woman, all sin
being concentrated and personified in one, as
he goes on to speak of her as the, personified,
wickedness^. The sitting raay represent her
abiding tranquil condition in her sins, ao-
cordiug to the climax in the first Psalra,
* and hath not sat in the seat of ihe scornful;
and, ^tliou sittest and speakest against thy
brother; "'"not standing as by the way, but
sitting, as if of set purpose, of wont and
habit," " " Whoso hath peace in sins is not
far from lying down in thera, so that, op
pressed by a spirit of slumber, he neither
sees light, nor feels any blow, but is kept
down by the leaden talent of his obduracy."
1 According to its etymology,
2 It is thought that Josephus (Ant, 15, 9, 2.) put the
fieSifxi'o'; by niistalce for the jaeyprjTTjT, which is^ of
the n^SLfj.fo^; the juerpTjT^? holding nine ofyour
gallons the iiebinvo^ twelve. The Ephah was
probably an Egyptian measure, since the TjXX sub
stitute ott(>i &c, corresponding to the Egyptian word
for " measure," and Ephahhas no Semitic etymology.

had wings like the wings ohrTst
of a stork : and they lifted "'¦•¦ 6i9.

up the ephah between the
earth and the heaven.
10 Then said I to the
angel that talked with me,
Whither do these bear the
ephah ?
11 And he said unto me,
To ° build it an house in«Jer. 29. 6,28.
'the land of Shinar: and 'Gen. lo. lo.
it shall be established, and
set there upon her own
base.

8. And cast her into the midst of ihe Ephah.
As yet then the measure was not full.
" ''' She had the lower part within the Ephah,
but the upper, especially tlie head, without.
Though the Jews had slain the prophets and
done many grievous things, the greatest sin
of all remained to be done. But when they
had crucified Christ and persecuted the
Apostles and the Gospel, the measure was
full ; she was wholly within the Ephah, no
part remained without, so that the measure
was filled."
And he cast the weight of lead upon ihe mouth
thereof, i. e. doubtless of the Ephah ; as in
Genesis ", a great stone was on the mouth of the
well, so that there should be no access to it.
9. There came out two women. It may be
that there may be no symbol herein, but that
he names women because it was a woman
who was so carried ; yet their wings were
the wings ofan unclean bird, strong, power- -
ful, borne by a force not their own; with
their will, since they flew; beyond their
will, since the wind was in their wings; rap
idly, inexorably, irresistibly, they flew and
bore the Ephah between heaven and earth.
No earthly power could reach or rescue it.
God would not. It may be that evil spirits
are syrabolized, as being like to this person
ified human wickedness, such as snatch away
the souls of the damned, who, by serving
them, have becorae as thej^
11. To build it an house in ihe land of Shinar.
The name of Shinar, though strictly Baby
lonia, carries back to an olderpower than the
world-empire of Babylon ; which now too
3 Theod, *Ps, xxxviii, 4. , &Ib. cvii. 42.
« S. Ambr. in Ps. 35. n. 9, Opp. i.*769.
' T\y\!!^r\, iir. with art. as nplSH absolutely,
only in Dan. ix. 7, Thine, 0 Lord, is HplSn, n^lJ^H.
does not occur at all, I
sPs, i, 1. oib, 1,20. lOLap.
11 Sanct. 12 Eib. ^ Gen. xxix. 2.

CHAPTER VI.

369

Before CHAPTEE VI.
CHRIST "'''• ^^^'  1 The vision of the four chariots.
9 By the crowns of Joshua is
shewed the temple and kingdom
qf Christ the Branch.
A ND I turned, and lifted
up mine eyes, and
looked, and behold, there
came four chariots out
from between two moun
tains ; and the mountains
were mountains of brass.

was destroyed. In the land of Shinar ' was
that first atterapt to array a world-erapire
against God, ere mankind was yet dispersed.
And so it is the apter symbol of the antithe-
ist or Anti-Christian world, which by vio
lence, art, falsehood, sophistry, wars against
the truth. To this great world-empire it
was to be removed; yet to live there, no
longer cramped and confined as within an
Epliah, but in pomp and splendor. A house
or temple was to be built for it, for its honor
and glory ; as Dagon ^ or Ashtaroth ', or
Baal * had their houses or temples, a great
idol temple, in which the god of this world
should be worshiped.
And il — " the house," shaU be established
firmly on its base, like the house of God, and
it, (wickedness") shall be tranquilly rested on
its base, as an idol in its temple, until the
end come. In the end, the belief of those
of old was, that the Jews would have great
share in the antagonism to Christ and His
empire. At the first, they were the great
enemies of the faith, and sent forth, S. Justin
says", those everywhere who should circu
late the calumnies against Christians, which
were made a ground of early persecutions.
In the end, it was believed, that Anti-Christ
should be from them, that they would receive
him as their Christ, the last fulfillment of
our Lord's words, 'Jam come in My Father's
rmrne and ye receive Me 'not ; another shall come
in his own na'me, him ye wdl receive.
VI. 1. Behold, four chariots going forth
'"by the secret disposal of God into the
theatre of the world," from between two moun
tains of brass. Both Jews" and Christians
have seen that the four chariots relate to the
same four empires, as the visions in Daniel.
' Gen. xi. 2. 2 1 gam. v. 2-5.
' lb, xxxi, 10. * 2 Kgs X, 23,
'The subjects are marked bythe genders; n'3
being masc, nj^tyT fem.
'8. Just. Dial. n. 17 (n. 91. Oxf, Tr,) and n, 108, p,
205. Eusebius quotes the first passage, H. E. iv. 18,
and repeats the statement on Is. xviiL
24

2 In the first chariot cheTst cir. 519,

were " red horses ; and in .

the second chariot '^ black "ch. i, 8.
, Rev, 6, 4.
norses ; b Rev. o. 5.
3 And in the third char
iot " white horses ; and in ' ° Eev. e. 2.
the fourth chariot grisled
and 1 1 bay horses. ]| Or, strong.
4 Then I answered ^ and ^ ch, 5. 10.
said unto the angel that
talked with me. What are
these, my lord ?

" The two mountains.'' It may be that the
imagery is frora the two raountains on either
side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, which Joel
had spoken of as the place of God's judg
ment'", and Zechariah afterward". It may
then picture that the judgraents go forth
frora God. Anyhow the powers, symbolized
by the four chariots, are pictured as closed in
on either side by these mountains, strong as
brass, unsurmountable, undecaying, ""that
they sliould not go forth to other lands to
conquer, until the time should come, fixed by
the counsels of God, when the gates should
be opened for their going forth." The
mountains of brass may signify the height of
the Divine wisdom ordering this, and the
sublimity of the power which putteth them
in operation ; as the Psalmist says, '^ Thy
righteousnesses are like the mountains of God.
2. 3. The symbol is different from that in
the first vision. There '*, they were horses
only, with their riders, to go to and fro to en
quire ; here they are war-chariots with their
horses, to execute God's judgments, each in
their turn. In the first vision also, there is
not the characteristic fourfold division, which
rerainds of the four world-empires of Dan
iel '* ; after which, in both prophets, is the
mention of the kingdom of Christ. Even if
the grisled horses be the same as the .speckled
of the first vision, ihe blaek horses are wanting
there, as well as the succession, in which they
go forth. The only resemblance is, that
there are horses of divers colors, two of
which, red and white, are the same. The
symbol of the fourth empire, grizzled, strong '*,
remarkably corresponds with the strength
and mingled character of the fourth empire
in Daniel.
7 S, Johnv, 43, '.Alb.
9 Saadiah in Kim., Kim,, Rashi, the Jews m the
time of S, Jerome, Jon. paraphrases vi, 5, "four
kingdoms," i" Jo, iii, 2. u Zeoh, xiv, 4,
12 Rib, isPs, xxxvi, 6. "i, 8, "Dan. ii,
i6The guess of Abulwalid and Kimchi that ^DX
might be i, q., pDH bright^ red/ Is, Ixiii. 1, is at

370

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 510.
• Ps, 104, 4.
Heb. 1. 7, 14.
11 Or, winds.
n Kin, 22, 19.
Dan. 7 10,
ch, 4, 14,
Luke 1, 19.

5 And the angel an-
_ swered and said unto me,
° These are the four 1 1 spirits
of the heavens, which go
forth from 'standing be
fore the Lord of all the
earth.

5. These are the four spirits of ihe heavens.
They cannot be literal winds : for spirits, not
winds, stand before Ood, as His servants, as in
Job, ' the sons of Ood came to present themselves
before tlie Lord. This they did, " ^ for these
four kingdoms did nothing without the will
of God." Zechariah sums up in one, what
former prophets had said separately of the
Assyrian, the Babylonian, Egyptian, Per
sian. " 0 Assyria, the rod of Mine angei — /
will send him against an ungodly 'nation, and
against the people of My wrath I will give him
a charge. 'J will send and take all the families
of the north, and Nebuchadrezzar, the king of
Babylon, My servant, a'nd will bring them against
ihis land. ^ The Lord shall hiss for tlie fly, that
is in the uttermost part of Egypt, and for the bee
that is in the land of Assyria, and they shall
come, and shall rest, all of them, in the desolate
vcdleys. ^ I wdl call aU the famUies ofthe king
doms of the north, saiih the Lord ; and they
shall come, and shall set every one his throne at
the entering of tlie gates of Jerusalem. What
ever the human impulse or the human
means, aU stand before the Lord of ihe whole
earth, rainistering to His will Whose are all
things, the Judge of all, Who withholdeth
the chastiseraent till the iniquity is full, and
then, through raan's injustice, executes His
own just judgment. " ' He says that they
went forth from where they had stood before
the Lord of the whole earth, to shew that
their power had been obtained by the coun
sel of God, that they might serve His will.
For no empire was ever set up on earth
without the mind, counsel and power of God.
ITe exalts the humble and obscure. He pros
trates the lofty, who trust overmuch in them-
variance with the whole use of the Hebrew root,
which occurs 40 tiraes in the verb, yi^i^ ; 7 times in
the adj. V'BS; and once each in nyipX, 1'DKI3,
ynS, beside the Proper Names VIOS, Isaiah's
father; 'ifDN, of two persons, ri'SOX, of four
persons. The Arab. jfDI, which Eichhorn and
Henderson compare, is no name of a color, but is
used apparently of the " slight summer lightning."
The ground with some was, that the word is united
with names of colors ; with Ewald, to replace the
red horses, on which the prophet is silent. See
" Daniel the prophet " p, 360, The single case too,
in which n and 5< are supposed to be interchanged
in Heb., is that a Proper Name i^inD 1 Chr, ix, 41,
is written ^"IXD lb. viii. 35, but the pronunciation

6 The black horses which chrTst
are therein go forth into "¦'•¦ sia.
^the north country; andsjer. 1. 14.
the white go forth after
them ; and the grisled go
forth toward the south
country.

selves, arms one against the other, so that
no fraud or pride shall be without punish
ment." 6. The blaek horses which are therein go forth.
lit. That chariot wherein ihe black horses are,
these go forth. " '' Most suitably is the first
chariot, wherein the red horses were, passed
over, and what the second, third, fourth did
is described. For when the prophet re
lated this, the Babylonian empire had'passed,
and the power of the Medes possessed all
Asia." Bed, as the color of blood, repre
sented Babylon as sanguinary ; 4s it is said
in the Bevelation, * There went out aiiother
horse, red, and power was given io him ilmt sat
thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that
they shoidd kill one another, and there was given
him a sharp sword. The black were to go forth
to the North country, the ancient title of
Babylon. For Babylon, though taken, was
far from being broken. They had probably
been betrayed through the weakness of their
kings. Their resistance, in the first carefuUy
prepared ^ revolt against Darius, was raore
courageous than that against Cyrus : and
more desperate '". Since probably more
Jews remained in it, than returned to their
own country, what was to befall it had a
special interest for them. They had already
been warned in the third vision " to escape
from it. The color black doubtless symbol
izes the heavy lot, inflicted by the Medo-
Persians ; as in the Eevelation it is said,
''' the sun became black as sackcloth of liair ; and
to the beast in Daniel's vision which corres
ponded with it, '^ it was said. Arise, devour
much flesh ; and in the Eevelation '*, he that
sat on the black horse was the angel charged
of Proper Names varies in all languages. See
"Daniel the prophet" p. 405, Filrst's instances
(Handwort. p, 3C8) are conjectures of his own.
Within Arabic, 'flS, i. q., 'fln ; O'li? i- q-, O'^n ;
D^X i. q., n'ln ; (Eichh, in Ges, Thes, p. 2.) are
without authority; D3X is not owned hy Lane;
else, if it means " imprisoned," it would be a softer
pronunciation of p3n in this one sense; 'li'X and
l^n are perhaps from the same biliteral root,
1 Job i. 6, ii, 1. The same idiom ^^ 3S''nn.
2S. Jer, ais, X, 5, 4Jer, xxv, 9,
6 Is, vii. 18, 19, « Jer, i, 15, ' Osor. 8 Eev. vi. 4.
0 Herod, iii, 150,
10 See "Daniel the Prophet," pp. 129, 130. ed. 2.
n ii, 7, 12 Rev, vi. 12.
18 Dan. vii. 5. " Rev. vi. 6, 6.

CHAPTEE VI.

371

Before
CHRIST cir. 519.
b Gen. 13. 17.
oh. 1. 10.

7 And the bay went
forth, and sought to go
that they might ""walk to
and fro through the earth :
and he said. Get you hence,
walk to and fro through

with the infliction of famine. Of the Medes,
Isaiah had said', / will stir up the Medes
against them [Babylon], which shall not regard.
silver; and gold, they shall not delight in it.
Their bows also shall dash the young mere to
pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit
of the womb ; their eye shall not spare children.
The white went forth after tliem : for the
Greek empire occupied the same portion of
the earth as the Persian. White is a symbol
of joy, gladness ^, victory ^, perliaps also,
from its relation to light, of acute intelli
gence. It may relate too to the benevolence
of Alexander to the Jewish nation. " * Alex
ander used such clemency to the conquered,
, that it seemed as though he might be called
rather the founder than the destroyer of the
nations whom he subdued."
And ihe grizzled, the Eomans in their
mingled character, so prominent in the fourth
empire of Daniel*, go forth to the south
country, i. e. Egypt ; as Daniel speaks of
^the ships of Chittim and the intervention of
the Eomans first in regard to the expulsion
of Antiochus Epiphanes from Egypt; in
Egypt also, the last enduring kingdom of
any successor of Alexander, that of the
Ptolemies, expired. "30 years afterward,
the Son of God was to bring light to the
earth. The prophet so interweaves the pre
diction, that from the series of the four king
doras it is brought to the Birth of the Eter
nal King '."
7. And the strong went forth and sought to go,
that they might wcdk to and fro through the
earth. The mention of their strength cor
responds to the extent of the power and com
mission, for which they asked, to go io and
fro, up and down, at their will, unhindered,
through the whole earth. The Babylonian
empire held Egypt only out of Asia ; the
Persian was conquered in its efforts against
Europe, in Greece ; Alexander's was like a
meteor, gleaming but breaking into the four :
' Is. xiii, 17, 18, " Eccl, ix, 8. ^ Rev. vi. 2.
* See note 16, p. .%9, » Dan, ii, 41-43, "lb, xi, 30.
'Osor. See "Daniel the Prophet," pp. 142-150,
8 The fem. nj3Snnn may have been occasioned
by the symbol r\133Tn v, 1, or the explanation
ninn, v. 5; but since their going was consequent
on the permission to go, which they asked and
obtained it must relate to the empire symbolized
by the 4th chariot, not (as some) to all. " S, Cyr,
" p'i?in, with ace. p. is used elsewhere of calling
together people. Jud. iv. 10, 13, 2 Sam. xx. 4, 6.

the earth. So they walked
to and fro through the.
earth. 8 Then cried he upon
me, and spake unto me,
saying. Behold, these that

Before
CHRIST cir, 519,

the Eoman combined East and West and
within large limits tranquilly.
And he said go, walk to and fro in the earth.
He commanded, and they, which were before
withheld, went, and they walked to and fro " on
the earth, ordering all things at their will,
under the Providence of God, whereby He
gave free access to the Gospel in all their
wide empire. The Greek empire being ex
tinguished, the Eomans no longer went into
any given country, but superintended and
governed all human things in (it is the lan
guage of the New Testament) all the world.
"' These same, the dappled and ashen grey
horses were commanded to traverse the earth,
and they did traverse it ; for they mastered
all under heaven, and ruled the whole earth,
God consenting and arraying those who
swayed the Eoman might with this brilliant
glory. For, as God, He knew beforehand
the greatness of their future piety."
8. Then God, or the Angel of the Lord, who
speaks of what belonged to God alone, called
me (probably "loudly ""'), so as to command
his attention to this which most immediately
concerned his people.
These have quieted My spirit in the North
country, or rather, have made My anger to rest "
on, i. e. have carried it thither and deposited
it there, made it to rest upon thera, as its
abode, as S. John saith of the unbelieving,
''' Tlie wrath of God abideth on him. Babylon
had been the final antagonist and subduer of
the people of God. It had at the outset de
stroyed the temple of God, and carried off
its vessels to adorn idol-teraples. Its empire
closed on that night when it triumphed over
God '^, using the vessels dedicated to Him, to
the glorifying of their idols. In that night
was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldceans slain.
This final execution of God's anger upon
that their destroyer was the earnest of
the rest to them; and in this the visions
pause. "Tin ns n'jn, with 3, as ez. v. 13, Tiin'jn
D3 Tion, followed by D3 TIDn ¦'ni'733 lb. xxiv,
13 : thou Shalt not be cleansed any more, until I have
made my anger to rest upon thee. The idiom, " to
cause to rest upon" a person, involves that that
person is the object, on whom it abides; not that
anger or spirit was quieted in him whose it was,
(as Kim,), nn is "anger," Jud, viii, 3, Eccl. x. 4.
12S. John iii, 36,
13 Dan, V, See in Daniel the Prophet pp. 450-453.

372

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir, 519.
1 Judg, 8. 3,
Eccles. 10. 4.

go toward the north coun-
. try have quieted my 'spirit
in the north country.
9 ^And the word of
the Loed came unto me,
saying, 10 Take of them of the

9. And the word of the Lord came io me. The
visions being closed, Zechariah marks the
change by adopting the usual formula, with
whicli the prophets authenticated, that they
spake not of themselves, but by the Spirit of
Qod. The aet enjoined is a symbolic act,
pointing and sumraing up and interpreting
the visions, as some of the visions had been
already expanded by fresh revelations fol
lowing immediately upon them.
10. Tcdce of the captirity, of that which they
had brought with thera '. The captivit-y was,
in Jeremiah '', and Ezekiel ^, the title of those
who had been actually carried captive and
were at that moment in captivity. Ezra con
tinues it of those who had been in captivity,
though now returned from exile. Yet not
without a reference to the circumstances or
causes of that captivity. It is the captivity *
which Sheshbazzar brings from Babylon, or
Ezra subsequently*; the children of the cap
tivity, who set themselves to build the temple
of (iod''; who dedicated it and kept the
passover '. The title is used apparently as
an aggravation of sin, like that which had
been chastened by that captivity ^. Here,
the term seems to imply some blarae, that
they reraained of their own accord in this
state of severance from the altar, where alone
special worship of God and sacrifice could be
oSered. They had been removed against
their will ; yet, as Christians often do, acqui
esced in the loss, rather than forego their
temporal advantages. Still they wished to
' n!<D np7, as Ex. xxv, 2, xxx, 16, xxxv. 5, Lev,
vii, 34, I
2 Jer, xxviii, 6, xxix, 1, 4, 20, 31. (DlSj lb. xxiv, 5,
xxviii, 4, xxix. 22, xl, 1,)
3 Ezek, i, 2, iii. 11, 15, xi. 24, 25, « Ezr. i. 11.
6 Ib, viii, 35, 6 Ib, iv, 1,
' the children of the captivity Ib, vi, 16. Ch. 19, 20,
snhiun lb, ix, 4, X, 6, n^un 'J3 ib, x, 7, 16,
n'run h^np ib. 8,
9 As in 1 Kgs xii. 2, rn3 ItyH whither he had
fled ; add Gen, xiv, 25, for the like accus, of place,
Kim, renders, "who have come from Babylon"
expressly including Josiah, Yet this too is an
impossible construction.
"iin''3TI3, Tobias happens only to occur after
the exile, in Ezr. ii. 60, Neh. vii, 62; 2) in Neh, ii,
10, vi, 1 ; 3) the Tobias here and 14; 4) Tobit and
Tobias in his book.

captivity, even of Heldai,
of Tobijah, and of Jeda- .
iall, which are come from
Babylon, and come thou
the same day, and go into
the house of Josiah the
son of Zephaniah ;

Before
CHRIST cir, 619,

take part in the work of restoring the public
worship, and so sent these men, with their
contribution of gold and silver, to their breth
ren, who had returned ; as, in the first tiraes
of the Gospel, the Christians everywhere
made collections for the poor saints, who
dwelt in Jerusalem. And this their imper
fect zeal was instantly accepted.
And go thyself, to make the act raore ira-
pressive, on that same day, as matter of urgency,
and thou shalt come to the house of Josiah son of
Zephaniah, whither they have come from Baby
lon '. The exiles who had brought presents
for the building of the temple, lodged, it
seems, in the house of Josiah, whether they
doubted or no that their presents would be
accepted, since they cliose Babylon, not Jeru
salem for tlieir abode. This acceptance of
their gifts symbolized the incoming of those
from afar. It is remarkable that all five
names express a relation to God. Tobiah,
" '" The Lord is my good ;" Yedaiah, " God
knoweth" or "careth for;" Josiah, "The
Lord supporteth " ; " Zephaniah, " The Lord
hideth," and perhaps Cheldai, " The Lord's
world "." They had taken religious instead
of worldly names. Probably Zechariah was
first to accept the offerings from the three
exiles, and then to take the actual gold from
the house of Josiah whither they had brought
it. The pilgrims frora Babylon and their
host are included in oue common blessing.
And make crowns ; or a crown " , as in Job,
'^ I would bind it as a crown unto me, and our
11 Josiah only occurs beside, as the name of the
well-known king.
'^ ^1 7n. The name is preserved, though obelised,
in the LXX. 'E^Savi, EASal ; not from Aq. who has
'OASa, Jon, retains the name ; the Syr, and S, Jer,
Holdai, (the Syr. in v, 14, also,) The LXX only
TTapa TCiv apxovTiov.
13 " great crown," Jon, ; " a crown," Syr,
"jinOJ? Job xxxi. 36, The plural form is used
only in these two places, and as, or in, the Proper
Name of four towns; 1) nn£3J* >» town of the
Gadites, Nu, xxxii, 3, 34; 2) of Ephraim, Josh, xvi,
27, also TIS rillt2}}_ "crown of Addar," Ib, xvi. 6,
xviii, 13; '.3) of Judah 3NV D'S Dntpj; ("crown
of the house of Joab ") 1 Chr, ii, 54 ; and 4) and of
Gad, |31K^ nnB;V (mentioned with Ataroth) Nu.
xxxii. 35. In all these it must needs be singular.

CHAPTEE VI.

373

11 Then take silver and

Before
CHRIST cir, 519, _ gold, and make " crowns.

&29. 6.'"'' and set them upon the
Lev. 8. 9. oh. 3. 6.

Lord is seen in the Eevelation, ' on His Head
were many ci-owns. The singular is used of
^ a royal crown, apparently of a festive crowu " ;
and figuratively * ; even of Almighty God
Himself as a crown*; but no where of the
mitre of the high-priest.
The characteristic of the act is, that the crown
or crowns (it is not iu the context said, which)
were placed on the head of the one high
priest, Joshua ; and thou shall place [it or them,
it is not said which] upon the head of Joshua
son of Josedech the high-priest, and shalt say
unio him. If crowns were made of each ma
terial, there were two crowns. But this is
not said, and the silver might have formed a
circlet in ^the crown of gold, as, in modern
times, the iron crown of Lombardy, was
called iron, because it had " ^ a plate of iron
in its summit, being else of gold and most
precious." In any case the symbolical act
was completed by the placing of a royal
crown upon the head of the high-priest.
This, in itself, represented that He, Whom
he and all other priests represented, would be
also our King. It is all one then, whether
the word designate one single crown, so en
titled for its greatness, or one united royal
crown, i. e., one crown uniting many crowns,
symbolizing the many kingdoms of the earth,
over which our High Priest and King should
rule. Either symbol, of separate crowns ', or
an united crown ^, has been used in the same
meaning, to symbolize as many empires, as
there were crowns.
On Zerubbabel no crown was placed. It
would have been confusing ; a seeming resto-
1 Rev. xix. 12. In Eev. xii. 3, the 7 crowns are for
the 7 heads of the dragon. D'TK^p is used of the
one girdle, Jer. ii, 32.
' D3'7D mia;? 2 Sam. xii, 30, 1 Chr, xx. 2 ; also of
a king, Ps. xxi. 4, Cant. iii. 11, Jer. xiii. 18 ; perhaps
Esther viii. 15, (ooU. vi. 8.) possibly Ezek, xvi, 12,
(coll. 13); fig,, parallel with n3l'7a ^IJX Is- Ixii.
3; comp, also HT'DJ^D 'IIV Tyrethe crovming i. e.,
the kingmaker, in her colonies. Is, xxiii, 8,
3 Is, xxviii. 1, 3, Lam. v. 16 ; of festive array, Ez.
xxiii. 42
* Job xix, 9. [plur, Ib, xxxi, 36] Pr. iv. 9, xii, 4, xiv,
24, xvi, 31, xvii, 6,
s Is, xxviii. 5. is contrasted with " the crown of
pride" Ib. 1,3. [all]
' Ceremonia,le Eom, L. 1. sect, 5. in Du Cange
Glossar. v. Corona Ferrea,
' Ptolemy Philadelphus " set two crowns upon his
head," the crown of Asia and of Egypt (1 Mace. xi.
13); Artabanus, "in whom the kingdom of Parthia
ended " used two diadems (Herodian Hist.vi. 2. p. 119
Bekk.) ; " the Emperor of Germany received three
crowns: first, silver (at Aix) for Germany; one of
ironatMonza in the Milanese or Milan' (for Lom
bardy); that ofgold in divers places," (Alber. Index

head of Joshua the son „ 5 o^", I m
c ±1 Iv 1 b 1
of Josedech the hio-h eir. 619.
priest ;

the high.

ration of the kingdom, when it was not to be
restored ; an encouragement of the temporal
hopes, which were the bane of Israel. God
had foretold, that none of the race of Jehoia
kim should prosper, sitting on the throne of
David, or ruling any more in Israel. Kehe-
miah rejects the imputation of Sanballat ",
Thou hast also appointed prophets io preach of
ihee at Jerusalem, There is a king in Judah.
He answers. There are na such things done as
thou sayest ; and thoufeignest them out of thine
oum heart. But Isaiah had foretold much of
the king wlio should reign : Zechariah, by
placing the royal crown on the head of
Joshua, foreshewed that the kingdom was not
to be of this world. The royal crown had
been taken away in the time of Zedekiah,
'" Thus saith tlie Lord God, Remove the diadem
and take away the crown; this shall not be this ;
exalt the low and abase the high ; an overthrow,
overthrow, overthrow will I make it ; this too is
not ; until lie come wliose the right is, and I wiU
give it.
But the Messiah, it was foretold, was to be
both priest and king ; " a priest after the order
of Melchizedec, and a king, set by the Lord
'^ upon His holy hill of Zion. The act of
placing the crown on the head of Joshua the
high-priest, pictured not only the union of
the offices of priest and king in the person of
Christ, but that He should be King, being
first our High Priest. Joshua was already
High Priest ; being such, the kingly crown
was added to him. It says in act, what S.
Paul says, that '^ Christ Jesus, being found in
fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became
V. Corona in Du Cange v. Corona Imperialis) " the
golden at Rome." Du Gang. Otto of Frisingen said
that Frederic received 5 crowns ; the first at Aix
for the kingdom of the Franks ; a second at Ratis-
bon for that of Germany ; a third at Pavia for the
kingdom of Lombardy ; the fourth at Rome for the
Roman empire from Adrian iv; the fifth of Monza
for the kingdom of Italy." In our own memory.
Napoleon I. having been crowned in France, was
crowned with the iron crown at Jlonza,
8 " The headdress of the king, on state occasions,
was the crown of the upper or of the lower country,
or the pshent, the union of the two. Every king,
after the sovereignty of the Thebaid and lower
Egypt had become once more vested in the same
person, put on this double crown at his coronation,
and we find in the grand representation given of
this ceremony at Medeenet Haboo that the princi
pal feature of the proclamation, on his ascension to
the throne, was the announcement that Remeses
had put on the crown of the upper and lower
country.— When crowned, the king invariably put
on the two crowns at the same time, though on
other occasions he was permitted to wear each sep
arately, whether in the temple, the city, or the field
of battle." Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, iii. 351-363.
« Neh. vi. 6-8. i» Ezek. xxi. 31, 32 [26, 27, Eng.]
nPs. ex. 4. i2ib. ii. 6. is Phil. ii. 8, 9.

374

ZECHAEIAH.

C H eTI T 12 -^^^ ®P^^^ "°**^ ^™'
"''•¦ °^^- saying. Thus speaketh the
Loed of hosts, saying, Be-
iSee Luke 1. 73. hold ' the man whose name
"S.^'- is The ¦"BKANCH; and

obedient unto death, even ihe death of ihe Ci'oss.
Wherefore God also hath highly exdlted Him.
12. The Prophet is taught to explain his
own symbolic act. Behold ihe Man whose
name is the Branch'- "Not for himself,
but for Christ, Whose name Joshua bare,
and Whose Priesthood and Princedom
he represented," was the crown given him.
The Prophet had already foretold the Mes
siah, under the name of the Branch. Plere
he adds.
And he shall grow up out of His place '',
lowly and of no seeming account, as God
foretold by Jeremiah, ^I will cause the
Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David;
and Jesus Himself said, * Except a grain of
wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth alone ;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Alone
He grew up before God, as a tender plant ",
unknown of man, known to God. It is that
still. Divine life at Nazareth, of which we see
only that one bright fiash in the temple, the
deep saying, ununderstood even by Joseph
and Mary, and then, •¦ Jie went doivn with them
and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them.
And he shall build the temple of the Lord.
The material teraple was soon to be fin
ished, and that by Zerubbabel, to whora this
1 The consent ot the ancient Jews in interpreting
"the Branch" of the Messiah is very remarkable.
" R. Berachiah (about A, D, 200, Wolf, Bibl, Hebr, ii,
870) said, that ' God, blessed for ever, saith to Israel,
Ye say before Me, we are become orphans and have
no father ; the Redeemer too, Whom I am about to
make to stand from you, He shall have no father, as
is said, Behold the Man Whose name is the Branch,
and he shall shoot [lit. from below him] from his
place; and so saith Isaiah, And he grew up lilce a
sucker before him,' " (Bereshith Eabba on Gen,
xxxvi. 22, in Martini Pug, Fid, f. 694 quoted also by
a Jewish convert, Joshua Hallorki, known among us
as Hieron, de S, Fide, c, Jud. i, 5, Bibl, Max. Patr,
xxvi, 536. His quotation is independent of Martini,
since he adds the quotation from Ps. ii, "and else
where, ' The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son,' ")
Jon, paraphrases, " Behold a &Ian, Whose name is
Messiah, Who shall be revealed, and shall be mul
tiplied," f^3"lfy'1, by which HOV is rendered Ps.
Ixxxv, 12,) "and he shall build the temple of the
Lord, and he shall bear glory, and he shall sit and
shall rule on his throne, and he shall be a great priest
on his throne, and counsel of peace there shall be
between them both," Eashi says, " He hints at the
Messiah, and so paraphrases Jonathan, Behold a
Man Whose name is Messiah, &c," (in Mart, p, 376.
The printed edd. substitute "And some interpret it
of king Messiah.") E. Nachman observes on the
force of the word man, " Man (in Nu, i. 4,) is not
said here but of the Messiah the Son of David, as
is said, * Behold the Man, Whose name is the
Branch,' Jonathan paraphrases The Man Messiah,
and so it is said, 'a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief,'" (Mart, p. 664). The Echa Eabati, f.

he shall Hgrow up out of chkTIt
his place, "and he shall, cir, 519,

build the temple of the /j-omunSer"^
T him.
LiOED : n ch. 4. 9. Matt.
13 Even he shall build lUlft'^-Heb, 3. 3.

had been promised ', not by Joshua. It was
then a new temple, to be built from the
foundation, of which He Himself was to be
the foundation^, as He said, ^ Onthisrocklwi.il
build My Church ; and in Him '" all the budd
ing, fltly framed together, groweth unto an holy
temple io ihe Lord. " " He it is. Who built the
house ; for neither Solomon nor Zerubbabel
nor Joshua son of Josedech could build a
house worthy of the majesty of God. For
'^ ihe most High, S. Stephen says, dwelleth not
in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet ;
Heaven is My throne and earth is My footstool ;
what house will ye build Me, saith the Lord ?
For if they could have built a house for God,
He would not have allowed His house to be
burned and overthrown. What then is the
house of God whieh Christ built ? The
Church, founded on faith in Him, dedicated
by His Blood, stablished by the stayedness
of Divine virtue, adorned with Divine and
etern.al riches, wherein the Lord ever
dwelleth." 13. Even He, lit. He Himself". The repe
tition shews that it is a great thing, which
he affirms ; and He, again emphatic. He, the
same who shall build the teraple of the Lord,
He shall bear the glory. Great must be the
59, 2, and Jerus, Bereshith f, 5, 1, quote R, Joshua
B, Levi (end of 2d cent., Wolf B, H, ii, 842,
coll, pp, 834, 841) as alleging this place in proof that
"Branch is a name of the Messiah," Schottgen
[ad loci Schottgen quotes also the Pirke Elieser
c. 38, "(jod will free Israel at the end ofthe 4tn
kingdom, saying, I have put forth a germ unto you.
Behold my servant the Branch," Bammidbar R,
sect, 18 f, 236, 1, Tanehuma f, 08, 3, "Behold the
Mau, whose name is the Branch, This is the
Messiah, of Whom it is said (Jer, xxiii, 5,) And I
will raise up unto David a righteous Branch," Mid
rash Mishle xix, 21 f, 57, 1. quotes, " R, Huna (3d
cent,) said, The name of Messiah is Branch, as in,
'Behold a man,'" Ib, After all this Kimchi says,
" Some interpret it of king Messiah,"
' Vnnnn as Ex, x. 23, " neither rose any from
his place," 1'nnnD,
3 Jer, xxxiii, 15, This is the natural construction,
1) n?3^ being the common word forthe shooting
of plants, (Gen. ii, 5, xli, 6, 2,3, Is, xliv. 4, Ez. xvii,
6.) the name of "the branch," having preceded, is
the idiomatic subject to no^' ; 2) the impers,
would have been plural, since the meaning would
have been plural, they i, e, many, shalt grow up, 3) it
is unnatural to assume an impersonal, since a
subject has been mentioned in the preceding clause
to which it is united by 1 ; and 4) it is followed by a
personal verb, with that same subject for its subject.
* 3. John xii. 24. i> Is. Iiii. 2.
6 See S. Luke ii, 49-61, ' iv. 10.
3 I«, xxviii. 16, 1 Cor, iii, 11, Eph. ii. 20, 21.
s S. Malt. xvi. 18. 1" Eph. ii. 21.
"Osor,1* Acts vii. 48, 49. '3 Sin emph.

CHAPTEE VI.

375

chrTst *^^ temple of the Loed;
cir. 519. and he "shall bear the

• Isai. 22, 24. glory, and shall sit and
rule upon his throne ; and

glory, since it is affirmed of Him as of none
beside, " He shall bear glory," " He should
build the temple of the Lord," as none
beside ever built it ; He should bear glory, as
none beside ever bare it, ' the glory as of the
Oidy Begotten of the Fattier, full of grace and,
truth. Tliis word glory is almost always used
of the special glory of God ^, and then,
although seldom, of the Majesty of those, on
whom God confers majesty as His represen
tatives, as Moses, or Joshua ^, or ihe glory of
the kingdom given to Solomon * It is used
also of Him, a likeness of Whom these vice
gerents of God bare, in a Psalm whose lan
guage belongs (as Jews too have seen,) to
One more than man ^, although also of glory
given by God, either of grace or nature^.
So in our Lord's great High Priest's prayer
He says, ''Father, glorify Thou Me 'with Thine
owtiself with ihe glory which I liad wiih Tliee
before the world was ; and prays, " lliai they
also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me,
'where I am; that they may behold My glory
which Thou hast given Me. So S. Paul, apply
ing the words of the eighth Psalm, says of
our Lord, ' We see Jesus, Who was made a
little lower than the angels, crowned with glory
and honor; and the angels and saints round
the Throne say, '" Worthy is ihe Lamb which
was slain io receive power and wisdom and
strength a'nd honor and glory and blesring, and
those on earth answer. Blessing and honor and
glory and power be unio Him that sitteth upon
the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
That glory Isaiah saw " ; in His rairacles He
manifested forth His glory ''', which resided in
Him; in His Transfiguration, the three
Apostles saw His glory ", shining out from
within Him ; into this His glory , He told
the disciples at Emmaus, the ¦prophets said,
that He was to enter, having first sulTered
what He suffered ; ire this His glory He is to
sit, when He judges '*. And He shall sii and
rule on His Throne. His rule shall be, not
passing but abiding, not by human might,
but in peaceful majesty, as God says, '* Yet
have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion,
and again, '''Sit Thou on My Bight Hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool; and
'S. Johni, 14,
' 11:11 nn Ps. xcvi. 6, (1 Chr. xvi. 27.) civ. 1, cxi.
3, Job xl. 10, of Christ, Ps. xiv. 4; ^yv^ ni33 HH
Ps. cxlv. 5; "lin alone. Job xxxvii. 22, Is. xxx. 30, 1
Chr, xxix. 11, Ps. viii. 2, cxiviii. 13, Hab. iii. 3.
3 Nu. xxvii. 20. 4 1 Chr. xxix, 25,
' Ps. xxi. 6. See in Schottgen de Messia ad loc.
° It is used of the inward glory given to regener
ate Israel, Hos. xiv. 7. (6 Eng.) ; or as glorified by

Before
CHRIST eir, 619.

¦' he shall be a priest upon
his tlirone : and the coun- .
sel of peace shall be be- p Ps. no. 4.
tween them both.

the angel said to Mary, '^ The Lord God shall
give unto Him the throne of His father David,
and He shall reign aver the house of Jacob for
ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no
end. And He shall be a priest upon His Throne.
He shall be at once king and priest, as it is
said. Thou art a priest for ever after ihe order of
Melehizedec. When the Christ should reign.
He should not cease to be our Priest. He,
having all power given to Him in heaven and
earth, reigneth over His Church and His
elect by His grace, and o's'er the world by
His power, yet ever liveth io make intercession
for us. " '^ Not dwelling now on what is
chiefest, that '" by Him were all things created,
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or domin
ions or principalities or powers ; all things were
created by Him and for Him, and He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist, how
many crowns oif glory belong to Him, One
and the Same, God and man, Christ Jesus !
He then will bear glory and will sit upon His
throne and shall be a priest cm His throne. How
just this is, it is easier to think than to ex
press, that He should sit and rule all things, by
Whom all things were made, and He should be
a Priest for ever, by Whose Blood all things
are reconciled. He shall rule then upon His
throne, and He shall be u, priest upon His
throne, which cannot be said of any of the
saints, because it is the right of none of them,
to call the throne of his rule or of his priest
hood his own, but of this Only Lord and
Priest, Whose majesty and throne are one
and the sarae with the Majesty of God, as He
saith, ^' When the Son of Man shall come in His
Majesty \_Gloi-y'], tlien shall He rit upon the
throne of His Majesty [Gton/]. And what
meaneth that re-duplication, and He shall
ride on His Throne, but that One and the
Same, of Whom all this is said, should be
and is King and Priest. He Who is King
shall rule on His Throne, because kingdom
and priesthood shall meet in One Person,
and One shall occupy the double throne of
kingdom and priesthood." He Alone should
be our King; He Alone our Saviour: He
God, Zech. x. 3 ; of kingly glory, Jer. xxii. 18, Dan.
xi. 21 ; of the inward glory of man, as such, Dan, x.
8, Pr. V. 9, or even of the horse, as the creation of
God, Job xxxix, 20 [all], ' S, John xvii, 5,
8 Ib, 24, 9 Heb. li, 9. i» Eev, v, 12, 13,
11 S, John xii, 41, 12 lb, ii, 11. 13 S, Luke ix, 32.
1* Ib, xxiv, 26; add 1 S, Pet, i, 11, 12,
15 S, Matt, xix. 28, S. Luke ix. 26. i' Ps, ii. 6.
17 Ib. ex, 1, 18 S. Luke i. 32, 33. i' Rup.
i» Col. i. 16, 17. ^ S. Matt. xxv. 31.

376

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 519,

14 And the crowns shall
. be to Helem, and to Tobi
jah, and to Jedaiah, and

Before
CHEIST
niah, ''for a memorial in "J''- 5i9.

to Hen the son of Zepha
niah, ''for a memorial
the temple of the Loed.

9 Ex. 12. 14.
Mark 14, 9,

Alon^ the Object of our love, obedience and
adoration. And the counsel of peace shall be between them
both. The counsel of peace is not merely
¦peace, as S. Jerome seems to interpret : " He
IS both king and priest, and shall sit both on
the royal and sacerdotal throne, and there
shall be peaceful counsel between both, so
that neither should the royal eminence de
press the dignity of the priesthood, nor the
dignity of the priesthood, the royal emi-
nency, but both should be consistent in the
glory of the One Lord Jesus." For had this
been all, the simple idiom, there shall be peace
between them, would have been used here, as
elsewhere'. But counsel of peace, must, ac
cording to the like idioms'^, signify "a
counsel devising or procuring peace" for
some other than those who counsel thereon.
We have the idiom itself, counsellors of peaee '.
They twain might be said of things * : but
things are naturally not said to counsel, so
that the meaning should be, that the thrones
of the priests and of the Branch should
counsel. For the throne is in each case
merely subordinate. It is not as we raight
say, "the See of Korae," or " of Constanti
nople," or " of Canterbury," meaning the
successive Bishops. It is simply the mate
rial throne, on which He sits. Nor is any
thing said of any throne of a priest, nor had
a priest any throne. His office was to stand
before the Lord'', his intercessorial oifice to
* offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. To ' offer up
sacriflce, first for his own sins and then for the
peoples, was his special office and honor.
There are then not two thrones. One sits on
His Throne, as King and Priest. It seems
only to remain, that the counsel of peace should
be between Jesus and the Father ; as S.
Jerome says, " I read in the book of some,
that this, there shall be a peaceful counsel be-
1 Jud. iv. IT, 1 Sam, vii, 14, 1 Kgs v, 16 (12 Eng.),
2 The verbal noun retaining the active force of the
verb, as |?1 mj;_ D'X,J^rn Ez. xi. 2. as in the verb
in'3'7 ntj/3 mj;' Hab. ii. 10; y^^ niHI XIH, Is.
xxxii. 7; I';;; ni3'1J 3'1J, Ib.S. "
3 Pr, xii. 2o7
* DTI'JK' is used of things, throughout Nu. vii. of
the otferings of the princes of the 12 tribes; also
Ex, xxvi, 24, xxxvi. 29, De. xxiii. 19, Pr. xx, 10, xxvii,
3, Eccl, xi, 6: but not with any verb implying
action, 5 See ab p. 353, note 12. » Heb, v. 1, ix, 9,
' Ib, vii, 27, 8 S. John v, 30, vi, 38,
1 lb. xiv. 10. i» Ib. iii. 16. " Eph, ii, 14, 16, 17,
12 Rup, 13 Col, i, 19, 20,
"All MSS. and the Versions (except the Syr.
which repeats here the names of v, 10) have or im
ply the names Helem and Hen, Aq, and Jon, have
the narnes Helem here; Symm. translated it as

tween ihe two, is referred to the Father and the
Son, because He * came io do not His own will,
but the Will of the Father, and ' the Father is
in the Son, and the Son in the Father." In
Christ all is peifect harmony. There is a
counsel of peace between Him and the Father
Whose temple He builds. The Will of the
Father and the Son is one. Both had one
Will of love toward us, the salvation of the
world, bringing forth peace through our re
demption. God the Father '" so loved the
world, that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life ; and God the Son " is our
peace, Who hath made both one, that He might
reconcile both unio Ood in one body by the Gross,
and came a'nd preached peace to ihem which were
afar off and to them that were nigh. Others
seem to me less naturally to interpret it of
Christ in His two offices. " ''' There shall be
the counsel of peace between them, the ruler
and the priest, not that Christ is divided, but
that those two princedoms, which were
hitherto divided, (the priest and the king
being different persons) should be united in
the One Christ. Between these two prince
doms, being inseparably joined in one, shall
be the counsel of peace, because through that
union we have peace ; and thirough Him '^ it
pleased the Father to reconcile all thinejs unto
Himself, and that all things should be brought to
peace through ihe Blood of His cross, whether
things in earth or things in heaven."
14. And the crowns shall be to Helem. There
is no ground apparent to us, why the name
Helem appears instead of Holdai ", or Hen for
Josiah : jet the same person must have been
called both Hen and Josiah, since the
father's name is the same in both places.
They cannot both be intended as explanations
ofthe former names, since Helem stands insu
lated in Hebrew, its meaning conjectural'*.

Holem, Ttp opwcTt evvTTvia. The LXX render the
names common to both verses by the same words,
Irlav j(prrjiriii.iiiv aVTrfs, tHjv eweyvinKorinv avTT)v) but Use
different words for Holdai and Helem; for Holdai
(v. 10) a.p\avTitiV ; for Helem, tols un-o/xe'couffi, as if
D'Vn\ (The Prop, Name SxSlI' is, in Gen, xlvi.
14, the third son of Zabulon, the patronymic
'Sx'm', Nu, xxvi, 26, and the adj, Vn' Lam, iii.
26). The Jews in S. Jerome's time identified the
three with Ananias Azarias and Misael, and Hen,
" grace " with Daniel. ,
i& In Syr. the central meaning of l7n seems to
be "crept," hence used of a "cancer "or a "mole."
Neither '17(1 nor D 711 signify " strong." 1711 is
rather used of "the world" as "fleeting," Ivii
Arab, is perhaps originally "lingered," hence was
"slow in becoming grey," "lingered," abode in a
place ever, " everlastingly," in heaven or hell. It is

CHAPTER VI.

377

Before
CHEIST cir. 519.
' Isai. 57. 19.
& 00. 10.

Epi;
• ch.

ch &4.9.

15 And 'they that are
.far off shall come and
build in the temple of the
Loed, and " ye shall know
that the Ij o k d of hosts

Perhaps then they were the own names of
the individuals, and the names compounded
with the name of Ood, honorable names
which they had taken.
For a memorial in the temple of the Laid.
They brought a passing gift, but it should be
for a lasting memorial in their behalf. It is
a renewal of the well-known term of the
law'. The two stones, engraven with the
names of the children of Israel, upon the
shoulders of ihe Ephod, were to the end, that
Aaron should bear their names before the Lord
upon his two shoulders for a ¦memorial ' ; con
tinually, it is added of the breastplate with its
twelve precious stones ' ; the atonement money of
the children of Israel was to be appointed for the
senrice of the tabernacle of the congregation, tliai
it may be a ¦memorial for ihe children of Israel
before the Lord, to make atonement for their
smds^; to ¦make an atonement for their souls
before the Lord. They were to blow with the
trumpets over their burnt-offerings, and over the
sacrifiee of their peace-offerings, that they may be
to you for a 'memorial before your Ood *. When
Midian had been smitten before Israel, and
not one of Israel had been slain, they
brought all the gold which had accrued to
them, and Moses and Eleazar took the gold, and
brought it inio the tabernacle, a memorial for the
children of Israel before the Lord^. So the
angel said to Cornelius, ' thy prayers and thy
alms are come up for a memorial before Ood.
" ' This is what we look for, that to all the
saints and friends of God, whom these sig
nify, those crowns which they made of their
gold and silver for the Lord Jesus, shall be
an everlasting memorial in that heavenly
temple of the Lord." The tradition of the
Jews, that this was literally observed ", can
hardly be without foundation. " '" 'These
their offerings shall be for grace to those who
dedicated them and an occasion of doxology.
For the piety of princes becomes to the rest
a path to the love of God. But when Christ is
crowned by us, then shall also the multitude of
the Gentiles haste to the knowledge of Him."
not used of strength. VnX\ is used of "good con
dition" of an animal. Job xxxix. 4; (.as in Arab.);
iu Hif. is "restored one to health " (Is. xxxviii. 16),
as Syr. in Ethp. In Syr. D'''7n is used of recovered
health, S. Mark v. 34, S, John v, 11, Acts iv, 10; as
opposed, to sickness, S. Mark ii. 17; or sound
healthy words, S. John vi. 3, 2 Tim. i. 11. In Arab.
Din conj. i. is " dreamt " ii. " was kind, forbearing,"
V, "became fat" (of animals). Other senses are de
rived from dreaming.
1 ['n3t. 2 Ex. xxviii. 12, 22, xxxix. 7.

hath sent me unto you.
And this shall come to.
pass, if ye will diligently
obey the voice of the Lord
your God.

Before
CUEIST cir. 519,

And they wlw are far off shall come. They
who came from Babylon with offerings to
God, became types of the Gentiles, of whora
the Apostle says, " Nmv in Christ Jesus ye who
sometimes were far off have become nigh through
the blood of Christ; and, ''' He came and preached
peaee to you which were far off and to them that
were nigh; and" the promise is to you and to
your children, and to all that are far off', as many
as ihe Lord our Ood shall call.
And build in, or upon, the temple of ihe
Lord '*, not " build it " for it was to be built
by tlie Branch, but build on, labor on, it. It
was a building, which should continually be
enlarged ; of which S. Paul says, '^I,asa wise
master-builder, according to the grace given unlo
me, laid the foundation, and another buildeth
thereon; let every man take heed how he buildeth
thereupon. "'^ What shall they build? Them
selves, compacting theraselves with the saints,
and joining together in faith to oneness with
those of Israel, Jesus Christ Hiraself being
the head corner-stone and uniting together in
harraony through Himself, what was of old
divided. For He united " the two peoples into
one meto man, making peaee, and reconciling in
His own Body all things unto the Father, which
being accoraplished, we shall own the truth
of the holy prophets, and know clearly
that it was God Who spake in thera and
declared to us beforehand the mystery of
Christ." 15. And this shall be ; not as though the
coming of Christ depended upon their faith
fulness, but their share in it. Ye shall know
(he had said) that ihe Lord of hosts hath sent
me unto you ; but whether this knowledge
should reach to individuals, depends upon
their obedience and their willingness to
know ; it shall be, '* if ye will diligently obey the
voice of the Laid your God. For none of the
wicked, Daniel says '", shcdl understand ; and
Hosea, '" Who is wise, and he shall understand
these things f prudent, and he shall know them f
For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just
shall walk in them and the transgressors shall
3 lb, xxviii, 29, ^ Ib, xxx, 16, 6 Nu. x, 10.
« Ib, xxxi, 50, 64, ' Acts X, 4, 31, » Rup,
o"The crowns were hung in windows in the
height of the temple," as we learn from the tract
Middot, a, f, 36. Eashi ad loo.
i» S. Cyr,
11 Eph, ii, 13. '2 Ib, 17. '3 Acts n. 39.
'¦1 3 nj3 Neh, iv. 4, 11 [10, 17 Eng,]
16 1 Cor, iii, 10, I'S, Cyr.
"Eph. ii. 15, 16.
18 So Marck. '" Dan. xn. 10.
20 Hosea xiv. 9. [10 Heb.] see vol. i. p. 141.

378

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 518,

CHAPTER VII.
' 1 The captives enquire of fasting.
4 Zechariah reproveth their
fasting. 8 Sin ihe cause of
iheir captivity.
A ND it came to pass in
the fourth year of king
Darius, that the word of

stumble at them ; and the wise man, ' he that
keepeth ihe law of the Lord geiteth the under
standing thereof. So our Lord said, ' If any
man will do His will, he shallknow of ihe doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of My
self ; ^ He that is of God heareth Oods words:
ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of
God: ^ Every one that is of the truth heareth
3Iy voice. ""Because he had said. And ye
shall know thai ihe Lord hath sent me unto you,
he warns them, that the fruit of that com
ing will reach to those only, who should hear
God and with ardent mind join theraselves to
His name. For as many as believed in Him
were made sons of Ood ; but the rest were cast
into outer darkness. But they receive Christ,
who hear His voice and do not refuse His
rule. For He was made the cause of eternal
salvation to edl who obey Him."
VII. 1. In the fourth year of Darius. Two
years after the series of visions, shewn to
llim, and two years before the completion of
the temple. Chisleu being December, it was
the end of B. C. 518.
2. When they had sent unto ihe house of Ood.
Bather, And Bethel seni; i. e, the inhabitants
of Bethel sent. The house of God is nowhere
in Holy Scripture called Betliel. Bethel is
always the name of the place*. The house
of Ood is designated by historians, Psalmists,
1 Ecclus, xxi, 11. 2 S, John vii, 17,
s Ib, viii, 47, * Ib, xviii, 37,
6 Osor,
6 The LXX, Jon,, Syr. render in the accusative,
to Bethel, The Vulg. alone has "ad domum Dei,"
7 Although n''3 is used alike of the "tent" and
the "house," it is used but little of the "house of
God" before Solomon's temple; " ri''3 Ex, xxiii.
19, xxxiv. 26, Deut, xxiii. 18, Jos, vi, 24, Jud, xix, 18,
1 Sam, 1, 7, 24, iii. 15, 2 Sam, xii, 20; D'nSxil n'3
Jud, xviii, 31. Subsequently '''' n''3 occurs in the
books of Kings, 73 times ; in the Chronicles, 92 ; in
the Psalms, 7; in Isaiah, 6; in Jeremiah, 32; in
Lam., 1; Ezek. 6; Hosea, 2; Joel, 3; Micah, 1 ;
Haggai, 2 ; Zfschariah, 5 ; Ezra, 7 ; in all 246 ; n'3
? 'n 7i< occurs Gen, xxviii, 17, 22 ; in two of David's
Psalms (Ps. Iii. 10, Iv, 15,) ; once in the Chronicles, 2
Chron, xxxiv. 9; in all 5; and D^H/i^n n'3 in
Eccl. iv, 17; in Chronicles, 33 times (intermingled
with ^^ n^3) ; Daniel i, 2; Ezra, 7 times; Nehemiah,
8 times ; in all 50,
3 So Ibn Ezra, although regarding Bethel as the

the Lord came unto Zech- ^ §^^°l% t
ariah in the fourth day of "J''- sis,
the ninth month, eveii in
Chisleu ;
2 When they had sent
unto the house of God . „ ,. ,
t Heb, to
Sherezer and Eegem-me- intreat the
° face of the
lech, and their men, tto Loed;
' „ , ^ ' 1 Sam, 13.12.
pray before the Lord, ch. s. 21.

prophets, by the name, Beih-elohim, more
commonly Beth-Ha-elohim, the Ood ; or of the
Lord, YHVH '. Zechariah and Haggai use
these names. It is not likely that the name,
Beth-el, should have first been given to the
house of God, when it had been desecrated
by the idolatries of Jeroboam. Bethel also
is, in the Hebrew order of the words, natu
rally the subject ". Nor is there any reason
why they should have sent to Bethel, since
they sought an answer from God. Eor it
would be forced to say that they sent to
Bethel, in order that those at Bethel should
send to Jerusalem ; which is not said. It
were unnatural also that the narae of the
sender should not have been mentioned,
when the names of persons inferior, because
sent, are recorded '. Bethel, in Nehemiah's
time '°, was one of the chief places of Benja
min. Two hundred twenty and three of tlie
men of Bethel and Ai " had returned with
Zerubbabel. The answer being to the people
of the land, such were doubtless the enquirers,
not those still in Babylon. The answer shews
that the question was not religious, though
put as matter of religion. It is remark
able that, whereas in the case of those who
brought presents frora Babylon, the naraes
express some relation to God, these names.
are singularly, the one of a parricide son of
name of a man, who sent the others, Eashi and S,
Jerome's Hebrew instructors made Shareser and
Eegemmelech the senders, Eashi says that they
sent to their kinsmen in Bethel, that these should
come to entreat theface of God at Jerusalem. S. Je
rome's teachers said more naturally, that " Shareser
and Eegemmelech sent to the house of God;" only
"Bethel" is not so used, and the theory that they
were " Persian officers of Darius fearing God," is
inconsistent with the question as to a Jewish politi
cal fast of long standing. The interposition of the
plaee whither they were sent, between the verb and
the subject, without any mark that it is not the
subject, would be unnatural. The B. V. follows
Kimchi, taking nStVl as impersonal. But here it
is a formal message from some definite person or
persons. In Gen, xlviii, 1, 2p)l^h IDS'l is alto
gether like our "one told Jaeob," In Esth . ix, 30,
the subject is probably Mordecai, mentioned v, 29.
* Abarbanel notices this difficulty.
i» Neh. xi. 31. 1 Ezr. ii. 28.

CHAPTER VII.

379

cheTIt ^ ¦^'^'^ *° "speak unto
cir. 518. the priests which were in

• Dent, 17.
9, 10, 11.
& 33. 10.
Mai. 2. 7.

bjer. 52. 12.
oh. 8. 19.

the house of the Loed of
hosts, and to the prophets,
saying. Should I weep in
•"the fifth month, separat
ing myself, as I have done
these so many years ?

Sennacherib ', and of one, chief among the
King of Babylon's princes ^ ; the other prob
ably a secular name, " the king's friend ^."
"*I do not see why under the name of
Bethel, the city so called is not understood.
For since Jerusalem was not yet fortified, the
Jews chose them sites in various places,
where they should be less harassed. All
hatred was concentrated on that city, which
the neighbors wished not to be restored to
its former greatness. Other cities they did
not so molest. Bethel then, i. e. the assembly
of the city, sent messengers to Jerusalem to
offer sacrifices to God and consult the wise
there." To entreat the face of the Lord. They
wished, it seems, (so to speak) to ingratiate
themselves with God with an account of their
past self-humiliation, on the day when the
house of God was burned by Nebuchadnez
zar. In regard to God, the word is always
used of entreating Him by earnest prayer ^.
3. Should I weep in the fifth month, separating
myself f In ihe flfth month, from the seventh
to the tenth day, Jerusalem was in flames,
fired by Nebuchadnezzar. '' He burnt the house
of the Lord, and the king's house, and edl the
houses of Jerusalem and evei'y great man's house
he burnt with flre.
" ' Now since it is said that the teraple is
builded and we see that no cause'of sorrow
remaineth, answer, we pray, are we to do this
or to change our sorrow into joy ? "
Separating myself. This seems to be added,
1 Is. xxxvii, 38, 2 Kgs xix. 37.
2 Nergal-Shar-ezer, " Nergal preserve the prince,"
Jer, xxxix, 3, 13. z/epivJuo-cnip, The omission of the
name of the idol left it less openly idolatrous, but
retained the prayer originally idolatrous,
3 DJ1 occurs as a proper name, 1 Chr, ii, 47, The
Kamoos and Fasee say that the Arab, bjl is
"friend," [see Lane] and, though this meaning is
wholly insulated from the rest of the root, their
authority is, of course, decisive.
* Osor.
^The explanation ofthe idiom, stroked the face of ,
in regard to which critics have so descanted about
anthropomorphisms, is altogether imaginary. The
phrase occurs, in all, 13 times in regard to God;
three of these are in Zechariah, here and viii, 21, 22 ;
and beside Ex, xxxii, 11, 1 Sam, xiii, 12, 1 Kgs xiii,
6, (bis) 2 Kgs xiii, 4, Jer, xxvi, 19, Dan, ix. 13, Ps,
cxix. 68, 2 Chr, xxxiii, 12, Mai, i, 9, and all the sim
plest prose. Of man it occurs only 3 times Ps. xiv.
13, Pr. xix. 6, Job xi. 19. In no dialect is there any

4 ^ Then came the word
of the Loed of hosts unto .
me, saying,
5 Speak unto all the
people of the land, and to
the priests, saying. When
ye "fasted and mourned in
the fifth ''and seventh

Before
CHEIST eir, 518,

° Isai. 58. 5.
i Jer, 41, 1,
ch, 8, 19,

to intensify the fast which they had kept.
The Nazarite was bound to " separate himself
from wine and strong drink, and so, they sev
ered themselves to the Lord, and consecrated
themselves to Him ". These had severed
themselves from food, from things pleasant,
frora pleasure, from sin, it may be, for the
day, but not abidingly : they had not given
themselves to God.
As I have done these so many years, lit. how
many '". As if, although they knew that
they were seventy yeai-s, they could not count
them. 5. Speak unto all ihe people of ihe land. They
of Bethel had spoken as one man, as Edom
said to Israel, " Thou shali not pass by me ;
and '"' ihe men of Israel said io ihe Hivite ;
Perhaps thou dwellest in the midst of me, and
how shall I 'make a league with thee ? God gives
the answer not to them only, but to all like-
minded with them, all the people of ihe land,
tlie whole population (in our language) ; as
Jeremiah says, "ye and your fathers, your
kings and your princes and all the people of the
land, and, '''f/ie scribe who mustered the people
of the land.
When ye fasted and that, mourning. It was
no mere abstinence from food (severe as the
Jewish fasts were, one unbroken abstinence
from evening to evening) but with real
mourning, the word being used only of
mourning for the dead '*, or, in a few in
stances '*, for a very great public calamity ;
probably with beating on the breast.
trace of the meaning Icevis or palpo. The Arab
xSn is, ai^y how, used of hard friction, as to
bruising collyrium, rubbing off hair from skin [tan
ning], striking with sword, &c, sSn (ult, 1) is,
"sweet;" 'Sh is "adorned with jewels,"
6 2 Kgs xxv, 9, Jer, Iii, 13, Jeremiah mentions the
tenth day ; the book of Kings, the seventh,
7 s, Jer, ' Nu, vi, 3,
9 lb, 5, See on Am, li, 11. vol, i. p, 265,
10 nD3 is used in exclamation, not interrogatively,
here, Ps, Ixxviii, 40, Job xxi, 17,
11 Nu, XX, 18. 12 Josh. ix. 7. '-3 Jer, xliv, 21.
H Ib. Iii. 25,
16 Gen, xxiii, 2, 1, 10, 1 Sam. xxv, 1, xxviii, 3, 2 Sam,
i 12 iii, 31, xi, 26, 1 Kgs. xiii, 29, 30, xiv, 13,18, Eccl,
xii, 5, Jer, xvi. 4, 5, 0, xxii. IS, [bis], xxv. 33, xxxiv,
6, Ezek, xxiv, 16, 23, Zech, xii, 10, 12,
13 Is, xxxii. 12, Jo, i, 13, Mic, i, 8, Jer. iv, 8, xlix, .3.
In Eool. iii. 4, it is "mourning" as opposed to Hpl,

380

ZECHAEIAH.

c H eTs t "^onth " even those seventy
 cir- 518. ypara, did ye at all fast
• ch. 1.12. ' unto me, et;eji to me ?
'See Rom. 14. 6. /. a n i ti
6 And when ye did eat,
and when ye did drink,
1 Or, be 1 1 did not ye eat for 'your-
'that&c. ^ selves, and drink for your-
. r, . selves f
I Or, Are
not these 7 \\ Should we not hear
the words. " *^
the words which the Loed

In the seventh month. The raurder of Geda
liah, whom the king of Babylon made governor
of the land, completed the calamities of Jeru
salem, in the voluntary, but prohibited exile
to Egypt, for fear lest the raurder should be
avenged on them ',
Did ye at all fast unto Me, Me '' ? God em
phatically rejects such fasting as their's had
been, as something, unutterably alien from
Him, to Me, Me ^ ! Yet the fasting and
mourning had been real, but irreligious, like
remorse for ill-deeds, which has self only for
its ground. He prepares the way for His
answer by correcting the error of the ques
tion. " * Ye fasted to yourselves, not to Me.
For ye mourned your sorrows, not your mis
deeds ; and your public fast was undertaken,
not for My glory, but out of feeling for your
own grief. But nothing can be pleasing to
God, which is not referred to His glory. But
those things alone can be referred to His
glory, which are done with righteousness and
devotion." 6. And when ye eat and when ye drink, is it
not ye who eat a'nd ye who drink f Conversely
now that, after your return, ye feast for joy,
this is no religious act ; ye have all the good
of it, there is no thanksgiving to God. Con
trary to the Apostle's saying, ^ Whether ye
eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the
glory of God. " ^ He eateth and drinketh to
himself, who receiveth the nourishments of
the body, which are the common gifts of the
"bounding" for joy [all]. The noun 13DD is iu
lilce way used of "mourning" for the dead, Gen, I.
10, Jer. vi, 26, Nu, v, 16, Zech, xii, 10, 11, 12; for the
destruction of a people or place, Jer, xlviii. 38, Ez,
xxvii, 34, Mi, i, 8, 11 ; for imminent destruction. Am,
V, 17, Esth, iv. 3 ; or great public calamity, Jo, ii, 12,
Is, xvii, 12, In Ps. xxx. 12, it stands contrasted with
a great outward expression of joy, dancing, /inO-

KV,

1 Jer. xli.-xliii,
'"jnnif. The affix is almost a dative, as in Is,
xliv, 21, Ixv, 5, Job xxxi, 18 ; and Ch, Dan, v, 6,
'MUty, for which, IHIIJ? Vyiit, occurs ver, 9,
3 The pronoun repeated after the affix, as in ^^
• 'JKlSam, xxv, 24; DHX D3'1JS Nu, xiv. 32, and
with DJ, ''JS Qi ''J313 Gen, xxvii. 38; 2 Sara, xvii,
5, 1 Kgs XXI. 19, Pr. xxiii. 15, Jer. xxv. 14, xxvii. 7.

hath cried f by the former ^ g ^"f | t
prophets, when Jerusalem °'''- sis.

was inhabited and in pros- 1 iieb, by the
perity, and the cities there- '""
of round about her, when
men inhabited ^ the south 3 Jer. 17. 26.
and the plain ?
8 ^And the word of
the Loed came unto Zech
ariah, saying.

Creator, without the needy. And any one
fasts to himself, if he doth not give to the
poor what for the time he withdraweth from
himself, but keepeth it to be thereafter of
fered to his appetite. Hence it is said by
Joel, sanctify a fast. For to ' sanctify a fast '
is to shew an abstinence worthy of God
through other good deeds. Let anger cease,
cjuarrels be hushed. For in vain is the flesh
worn, if the mind is not refrained from evil
pleasures, since the Lord says by the Pro
phet, ' Behold, in tlie day of your fast ye find
pleasure. Behold, ye fast J'or strife and debate
die. 7. Should ye not hear ihe words, or. Know
ye not the words f The verb is presupposed
in the emphatic question, as in, " ShaU I, the
blood of these menf David omits the word
" drink " for abhorrence.
By the former prophets Isaiah and Jere
miah ', when Jerusalem was dwelling abidingly '",
at ease, as the whole world then was, except
herself, and the south and the low-country, both
belonging to Judah, were inhabited. The re
storation then was still very incomplete, since
he contrasts their then condition with the
present, as inhabited or no. The mountain,
the south, and the low country, known still by
its name of Sephelato Greeks", made up the
territory of Judah ''.
8. Instead of quoting the former prophets,
Zechariah gives the substance of their exhor
tations, as renewed to himself.

*Osor, 6iCor. X. 31.
is, Greg, in Evang. Hom, 16, n. 6. Opp. 1495.
' Is, Ivii, 3, 4,
3 2 Sam, xxiii. 17. '
9 1s. Iviii. 4, Jer. xiv, 12, Since Isaiah's is the
chief passage and Jeremiah's scarcely more than
allusive, Zechariah, just after the captivity, knew
that the prophecy Is, Iviii. was Isaiah's, not by a
prophet after the captivity.
'" ni'7tyi n3tj''— nrn3 as ab, i, n, ntapK/i n^w'-,
"the state of ease is conveyed bythe HT! with the
act, partic.
11 1 Mace, xii, 38, " It is still called Sephela," Eus.
Onom. 12 Josh. X. 40, Jud. i. 9, Jer, xvii. 26, xxxii. 44,
xxxiii. 13.

CHAPTEE VII.

381

Before
CHRIST cir. 518.
iils.58. 6, 7.
Jer. 7, 23,
Mic. 6. 8.
ch, 8, 16,
Matt, 23, 23.
t Heb. Judge
judgment of truth,
lEx, 22, 21, 22.
Deut. 24, 17,
Isai, 1. 17,
Jer. 5, 28,
kPs, 36,4.
Mic, 2, 1.
ch, 8, 17.

9 Thus speaketh the
.Loed of hosts, saying,
° t Execute true judgment,
and shew mercy and com
passions every man to his
brother :
10 And ' oppress not the
widow, nor the fatherless,
the stranger, nor the poor ;
''and let none of you im
agine evil against his
brother in your heart.

9. Thus spake the Lord, i. e. through the
former prophets, for he goes on to speak of
their rejection in the past. Execute true
judgment. He retains the words of Ezekiel '.
The injunction itself runs throughout the
prophets '. Shew merey, i. e. tender love, to
all ; compasrion, to the unhappy. Omit no
act of love, God so loves the loving. " ^ Like
S. Paul to the Komans *, he naraes only the
duties to the neighbor, but understands what
relates to God. For the love of our neighbor
presupposes the love of God, from which it
springs." " ^ After strictness of justice, let
mercy to all follow, and specially to breth
ren, of the same blood and of one faith.
Brother and neighbor we ought to account
the whole human race, since we are all born
of one parent, or those who are of the house
hold of faith, according to the parable
of the Gospel ^ which willeth us to un
derstand by neighbor, nor our kin, but all
men." 10. And oppress not. He had commanded
positive acts of love ; he now forbids every
sort of unlove. He that oppresseth the poor,
Solomon had said', reproacheth his Maker. The
isidow, ihe orphan, the stranger, the afflicted, are,
throughout the law, the special objects of
God's care. This was the condition which
God made by Jereraiah * ; If ye thoroughly
amend your ways and your doings, ifye thoroughly
execute judgment between a man and his neigh
bor ; if ye oppress not ihe stranger the fatherless
and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in
ihis place, neither walk after other gods to your
hurt, then wdl I cause you to dwell in this place.
It was on the breach of the covenant to set
their brethren free in the year of release,
'nos Bpjyp occurs beside in Ezek. xviii. 8,
only. In Deut. xvi. 18, occurs pn]f D3tyD.
«As Is. i. 17, 23, Iviii. 6, 7, Jer. vii. 5, Ezek. xviii, 8.
Hos. xii. 6 &c.
3 Lap. 4 Eom, xiii, 9, ^ S, Jer.
3 S. Luke X. 30 sqq. ' Prov. xxiv. 31.
3Jer. vii. 5-7. » Ib, xxxiv. 17. 'i'3E'n,
"Mic. li. 1,3. i2Hos. iv. 16. isNeh. ix. 29.

11 But they refused to ch'eTst
hearken, and 'f pulled "'¦•¦ s^s.
away the shoulder, and i Neh, 9. 29,
t " stopped their ears, that Hos, i, le,
they should not hear. they' gave a
12 Yea they made their ^Zuider"^
"hearts as an ndaraant^^eavy™"^"
stone, "lest they should :4lL^ifl9.
hear the law, and the „ Neh! 9^29 so.
words which the Loed of
hosts hath sent in his spirit 1 tHeb, 6t/i!A6
T by the former prophets : hand of

that God said ; " I proclaim a liberty for you to
ihe sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, and
I will make you to be removed into all the king
doms of ihe earth.
And let none of you imagine, i. e. devise '", as,
by Micah, God retorted the evil upon them.
They " derised eril on thrir beds ; therefore, be
hold, against this family do I devise an evil, from
which ye shall 'not remove your necks.
11. But they gave a backsliding shoulder, like
a restive animal, which would not endure the
yoke, dull and stupid as the beasts : as Hosea
says, '^Israel slideih back like a backsliding
heifer. Nehemiah confesses the same ; '^ they
gave a backsliding shoulder and hardened thrir
neek and would not hear.
And made heavy their ears, fulfllling in
themselves what God foretold to Isaiah would
be the result of his preaching, make their ears
heavy '¦*. The heart, which will not hearken,
becomes duller by the outward hearing, as
S. Paul says, '^ The earth which drinketh in the
rain thai cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth
herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiv
eth blesring from Ood; but that whieh beareth
thorns and briars is rejected.
12. Harder than adamant. The stone,
whatever it be, was hard enough to cut 'inef
faceable characters '* : it was harder than
flint". It would cut rocks; it could not
be graven itself, or receive the characters of
God. This is the last sin, obduracy, persevering
impenitence, which '* resisted the Holy Ghost,
and '''did despite io ihe Spirit of grace. Not
through infirmity, but of set purpose, they
hardened themselves, lest ^^ they should con
vert and be healed. They feared to trust them-
14 The same words; '133n V JTNl Is. vi,5, Dri'JiXl
n'3jn Zech,
15 Heb, vi, 7, 8,
13 Jer, xvii, 1, " The sin of Judah is written with
a pen of iron, with the point of a (T'OU/) diamond,"
E, V.
1' Ezek. iii. 9, " As an adamant harder than flint."
13 Acts vii. 51. i» Heb. x. 29. ™ ig. yj. lo.

382

ZECHAEIAH.

cheTst ^therefore came a great
 cir, 518, wra.th from the LoED of

P2 Chr. 36. 16.
Dan. 9. 11.

hosts. 13 Therefore it is come
to pass, that as he cried,
^ Pj,^ and they would not hear ;
I*— 28- so ¦* they cried, and I would
Jer, 11,11, not hear, saith the Loed
& 14, 12, '
Mic. 3. 4. of hosts :

selves to God's word, lest He should convert
thera by it.
Lest they should hear the law and the words
which the Lord Ood sent by His Spirit by the
hand of the former prophets. The Holy Ghost
was the chief agent ; by His Spirit ; the in
spired prophets were His instruraents ; by the
hand of. Nehemiah confesses the same to
God : ' Thou didst protest to them by Thy
Spirit by the hand of Thy prophets. Moses was
one of the greatest prophets. The law then
may be included, either as delivered by
Moses, or as being continually enforced by
all the prophets. Observe the gradations.
1) The words of God are not heard. 2) The
restive shoulder is shewn ; raen turn away,
when God, by the inner motions of His
Spirit or by lesser chastisements, would bring
them to the yoke of obedience. " ' They
would not bear the burden of the law, whereas
they willingly bore that most heavy weight
of their sins." 3) Obduracy. " ^ Their ada
mantine heart could be softened neither by
promises nor threats." Therefore nothing
reraained but the great wrath, which they had
treasured io themselves against the day of wrath.
And so Zechariah returns to that, wherewith
his message and visions of future mercy began,
the great wrath which fell upon their fathers ^-
" ^ ' I sought not,' He says, ' for your tears ;
I enjoined not bitterness of sorrow ; but what,
had they been done, the calamity, for which
those tears were meet, had never befallen
you. What was it which I admonished you
forraerly by the former prophets to recall you
from sin ? What I bid you by Zechariah
now. This I preach, admonish, testify, in
culcate upon you.' "
13. And it came to pass, i. e. this which
God had said. As He cried and they heard not,
so shcdl they cry and I 'unll not hear, saiih ihe
Lord of hosts. God had often said this. " It
1 Neh. ix, 30. I 2 Osor.
3i, 7. n;fp; here inj tlSp. *Prov. i. 27, 28.
5 Is. i. 16, 3 Hos, V. 6. see vol. i, pp, 58, .59.
i iii, 4. see ab, pp, 40, 41. 3 jer, xi. 14, xiv, 12,
9 See Pusey's Parochial Sermons, Vol, I, Serm, 12,
" Irreversible chastisements."
i»The form D1;?pKl for "SI, is remarkable
chiefly, if the punctuation comes, (as is assumed)

14 But ¦¦ I scattered them ^ before ^
with a whirlwind among __5iEiiH^_
all the nations "whom they 'Deut, 4, 27.
knew not. Thus ' the land Ezek. 36. 19.
was desolate after them,.Deut'. 28. 33.
that no man passed through '^^' ' '
nor returned : for they laid
" the t pleasant land deso- » Dan- s, 9,
'I t Heb, land of
late. ' ¦

shall be too late to cry for mercy, when it is
the time of justice." So Wisdom had said
by Solomon ; * then, i. e. when distress and an
guish cometh upon them, they shall call upon Me,
but Iwill not answer ; they shall seek Me early,
and they shall not find Me. So by Isaiali,
' When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide
Mine eyes from you ; yea, when ye 'make many
prayers, I will not hear ; your hands are full of
bloods. So by Hosea *, by Micah ', by Jere
miah "- It was one message which was veri
fied in every day of chastisement, " there will
be a ' too late ; ' " not a final " too late," until
the end of ends comes, but a " too late " for
thera, a " too late " to avert that particular
judgraent of God, whereby the sinner's
earthly trial and future were changed per
manently ".
14. Bui I scattered ihem, rather, And I
will scatter them'". The saying continues
what God had said that He had said, and
which had corae to pass. Among all nations
whom they knew not. So God had repeatedly
said by Jereraiah, " I will cast you out of this
land into a land tliat ye know not, ye nor your
fathers ; where I will not shew yon favor. This
was the aggravation of the original woe in
the law : " The Lord sluill bring a nation
against ihee from far, from the end of tlie earth, a
nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a
nation of fierce countenance. There was no
mitigation of suffering, when the common
bond between man and man, mutual speech,
was wanting.
That no man passed ihrough nor returned, lit.
from passer through and from returner ; as in
the prophecy of Alexander's march and
return, " because of him that passeth by and of
him that reiwneth ; and of Seir God saith, " /
will cut off from him, passer-through and re
turner '^. As we say, there shall be no traffic
more through her.
from Zechariah's time, for the care with which the
vowel pronunciation has been preserved. It has
no exact parallel. The conjugation recurs with the
W, Job xxvii. 21. See Introd. to Zeoh. p. 327. n. o.
11 Jer. xvi, 13 ; add xv, 14, xvii, 4,
12 Deut. xxviii, 49, 50, 13 ix, 8,
14 Ezek, xxxv, 7,
16 The form implies that the same did, or did not,
pass and return, whence he came, Ezek. xxxii, 27.

CHAPTER VIIL

383

Before CHAPTER VIII.
CHEIST eir. 518, 1 The restoration of Jerusalem.
9 They are encouraged to the
building by Ood's favor lo
them. 16 Good works are re
quired of them. 18 Joy and
enlargement are promised.
A GAIN the word of the
Loed of hosts came
to me, saying,

And they made ihe pleasant land'- desolate.
They were the doers of what they by their
sins caused, by bringing down the judgments
of God. Heretofore the land which God had
given them, had been in our language
" the envy " of all who knew it now they had
made it into a desolation, one wide waste ^.
"^What is said in the beginning of the
chapter against Jews who abstained indis
creetly, applies mystically to all, not inward,
but rude Christians, who not being diligent
enough but rather negligent about acts of
piety and inward prayer and reformation of
the powers of the soul, account highly of
bodily exercises and outward observances,
and use no slight scrupulosity as to things of
less moment, and do not attend to the chief
things, charity, humility, patience meekness.
On these it must be inculcated, that if they
wish their fasts and other outward exercises
to please God, they must judge true judg
ment, and be compassionate, kind, liberal to
their neighbors, keep their mind ever stead
fast in God, cast away wholly all hardness of
heart, and be soft and open to receive within
them the word of God. Otherwise their
land will be desolate, i. e. deprived of the in
dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they scat
tered amid various vices." "*That which
was forraerly a pleasant land, and the hospice
of the Trinity, is turned into a desert and
dwelling-place of dragons."
VIII. " ' After the Lord had, in the pre
ceding chapter, manifoldly rebuked the Jew
ish people. He now comforts it with renewed
promises, as a good physician, who after a
bitter draught employs sweet and soothing
remedies ; as that most loving Samaritan
poured in wine and oil." The chapter falls
into two portions, each marked by the words.
The Word of tlie Lord of hosts came ^, or came
unto me, the first ^ declaring the reversal of
the former judgments, and the complete,
'mnn VIX occurs Ps. cvi. 24, Jer. iii. 19. On
rnon see ab. on Hagg. ii. 7, pp. 310, 311.
"This idiom TM^wh Pi'lil or .tj;'? DliV had been
u.sed by Jo. i. 7, Is. xiii. 9, Jer ii. 15, iv. 7, xviii. 16,
xix, 8, xxv. 9, 1. 3, li. 29.
3 Dion. IS. Jer.
' 'ha, ver. 1, which is added in 22 Kenn. MSS,, 13
DeE,; 7 at first, 3 corrected; 2 early edd, ; Jon. Syr.,

2 Thus saith the Loed ^ ^'jf^l ^
of hosts; "I was jealous __£iI:J15^_
for Zion with great jeal- «Nah.i. 21.
ousy, and I was jealous for
her with great fury.
3 Thus saith the Loed ;
'' I am returned unto Zion, '' oh. 1. 16.
and "will dwell in the "ch. 2. 10.

though conditional, restoration of God's
favor ; the 2d ' containing the answer to the
original question as to those fasts, in the
declaration of the joy and the spread of the
Gospel. The first portion has, again, a
sevenfold, the second, a threefold subordinate
division ; marked by the beginning. Thus saith
tlie Lord of hosts.
2. Thus saith ihe Lord of hosts. " ^ At each
word and sentence, in which good things, for
their greatness, almost incredible are prom
ised, the prophet premises, Thus saiih the
Lord of hosts, as if he would say, Think not that
what 1 pledge you are my own, and refuse
me not credence as man. What I unfold are
the promises of God."
/ was jealous, lit. I have been and am jealous
for^. He repeats in words slightly varied,
but in the same rhythra, the declaration of
His tender love wherewith He opened the
series of visions, thereby assuring beforehand
that this was, like that, an answer of peace.
The form of words shews, that this was a
jealousy /or, not wiih her ; yet it was one and
the same strong, yea infinite love, whereby
God, as He says, '" clave unto thrir fathers to
love them and chose their seed after ihem out of
all nations. His jealousy of their sins was
part of that love, whereby, "'without dis
turbance of passion or of tranquillity. He in
flicted rigorous punishment, as a man fear
fully reproves a wife who sins." They are
two diflerent forms of love according to two
needs. " " The jealousy '^ of God is good, to
love men and hate the sins of men. Con
trariwise the jealousy of the devil is evil, to
hate men and love the sins of men."
" '^ Since God's anger had its origin in_ the
vehemence of His love (for this sort of jeal
ousy arises from the greatness of love), tbere
was hope that the anger might readily be ap
peased toward her."
3. lam returned. "'Without change in
is only an explanatory addition. It is noted to be
" wanting in correct MSS," DeE,
8 1  17. 7 18 — 2.3. 3 s, Jer,
Bit is the inverted Hebrew parallelism 1,2; 4,3,
I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy, and with
great wrath am I jealous for her, only substituting
nbiu nnnfor '7nj fisp,init.
'"3 DE'n De. X. 15. "Rup. "Zelus. "Osor.
I - '

384

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 518,
¦1 Is, 1, 21, 26,
»ls. 2. 2, 3.
'Jer. 31. 23.

midst of Jerusalem: and
Jerusalem " shall be called
a city of truth ; and " the
mountain of the Loed of
hosts 'the holy mountain.
4 Thus saith the Loed

Myself, I am turned to that people from the
effect of justice to the sweetness of mercy,
and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, in
the temple and the people, indwelling the
hearts of the good by charity and grace.
Christ also, Very God and Very Man, visi
bly conversed and was seen in Zion."
" ' When He says, ' I am turned,' He shews
that she was turned too. He had said, Turn
unto Me and I will lum unto you ; otherwise
she would not have been received into favor
by Him. As the fruit of this conversion, He
promises her His presence, the ornaments of
truth, the hope of security, and adorns her
with glorious titles."
God had symbolized to Ezekiel the depart
ure of His special presence, in that the glory
of the God of Israel which was over the tem
ple, at the very place where they placed the
image of jealousy '', '' went up from the Cherub,
whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house ;
then * stood over the Cherubim ; and tlien
* went up from the midst of the city and stood
upon the mountain, which is on the east side of
the city, so removing from them. He had
prophesied its return in the vision of the
symbolic teraple, how "the glory of the Lord
came ¦into the house by the way of the gate looking
toward the East, and the Spirit took me up and
brought me into the inner court, and behold, the
glory of the Lord filled the house. This renewed
dwelling in the raidst ofthem, Zechariah too
prophesies, in the same terms as 'in his third
vision ', I will 'dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
And Jerusalem shall be called the rity of truth,
being what she is called, since God would not
call her untruly ; so Isaiah says, ° afterward
thou shalt be called the eity of righteousness, the
faillful city, and " they shcdl call thee the eity of
the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. So
Zephaniah had prophesied, '° The remnant qf
Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies. Truth
embraces everything opposite to untruth ;
faithfulness, as opposed to faithlessness ; sin
cerity, as opposed to simulation ; veracity, as
opposed to falsehood ; honesty, as opposed to
1 Osor. 2 Ezek, viii, 4, 5, 3 Ib, ix, 3,
4 Ib, X, 4, 18, 6 Ib, xi, 23. 6 lb. xliii, 4,
' pin3 'nj3B'1 ii- 14, Heb, [10 Eng,]
3 Is, i, 26.
»lb.lx,14. So jQr.i'ii. 17, Atthattime they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the Lord,
¦» Zeph, iii. 13, " Dion,
12 David, Ps, ii, 6, iii, 4, xv, 1, sons of Korah, xliii,
3, xlviii, 1, Ixxxvii, 1, and anon,, Ps, xcix, 9,

of hosts ; ^ There shall yet ^ Be^fore ^
old men and old women __2EiilL__

dwell in the streets of Je-«seeisam,2 31, Is. 65, 20, 22.
rusalem, and ever'? man Lam. 2. 20, &o.
•' & 5. 11,-14.
with his staff in his hand t Heb. /or
multitude
J for very age. of days.

untruth in act ; truth of religion or faith, as
opposed to untrue doctrine. " " It shall be
called the city of truth, i. e. of the True God or
of truth of life, doctrine, and justice. It is
chiefly verified by the Coraing of Christ,
Who often preached in Jerusalem, in Whom
the city afterward believed."
And the mountain of the Lord fif hosts, Mount
Zion, on which the temple shall be built, shall
be called and be tlie mountain of holiness.
This had been the favorite title of the
Psalmists ", and Isaiah '" ; and Obadiah had
foretold, '* upon Mount Zion there shall be holi
ness ; and Jeremiah, '^ As yet they shall use
this speech in the land of Judah and in the rities
thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity ;
The Lord shall bless thee, 0 habitation of jus
tice, and mountain of holiness. It should be
called and be ; it should fulfill the destination
of its titles ; as, in the Apostles' Creed we pro
fess our belief of " the holy Catholic Church,"
and holiness is one of its characteristics.
4. There shall yet dwell old men and old
women. " " Men and woraen shall not be
slain now, as before in the tirae of the Baby
lonish destruction, but shall fulfill their
natural course." It shall not be, as when
'" He gave His people over unto ihe sword; tlie
fire consumed their young men and their maidens
were not given to marriage ; the pi^iests were slain
by tlie sword and tlieir widows made no lamenta
tion ; apart from the horrible atrocities of
heathen war, when the unborn children were
destroyed in their mothers' worab", witli
their mothers. Yet '^, once more as in the
days of old, and as conditionally proraised in
the law ''. As death is the punishraent of
sin, so prolongation of life to the time which
God has now made its natural term, seeras
the raore a token of His goodness. This
promise Isaiah had renewed ''", There shall no
more be an infant of days, nor an old man that
hath not filled his days. In those fierce wars
neither young nor very old were spared. It
implied then a long peace, that men should
live to that utmost verge of human life.
13 Is. xi. 9, Ivi, 7, Ivii. 13, Ixv, 11, 26, Ixvi, 20, also in
Jo, ii, 1, iii, 17, Ob, 16, Zeph, iii, 11, Dan, ix. 16, 20. .
"Ob, 17,
16 Jer, xxxi, 23, m Pg. Ixxviii. 63, 64,
1' 2 Kgs XV, 16, Hos, xiii, 16, Am, i, 13,
isAsinZeeh, i. 17,
i»De, iv, 10, V, 16, 33, vi, 2, xi. 9, xvii. 20, xxii. 1,
xxxii. 47, Ezek. xx. 17.
»Ia. Ixv. 20.

CHAPTEE VIII.

385

Before
CHRIST cir. 518.

5 And the streets of the
. city shall be full of boys
and girls playing in the
streets thereof.

The man, whose staff is in his ha'nd for ihe
multitude of days. The two opposite pictures,
the old men, "'so aged that they support
with a staflT their failing and trembling
limbs," and the young in the glad buoyancy
of recent life, fresh from their Creator's
hands, attest alike the goodness of the Cre
ator, Who protecteth both, the children in
their yet undeveloped strength, the very old
whom* He hath brought through " all the
changes and chances of this mortal life,'' in
their yet sustained weakness. The tottering
limbs of the very old, and the elastic per
petual motion of childhood are like far dis
tant chords of the diapason of the Creator's
love. It must have been one of the most
piteous sights in that first imminent de
struction of Jerusalem^, how ^ ihe children and
the sucklings swooned in the streets of the city ;
how the 'young children fainted for hunger m
the top of every street. We have but to picture
to ourselves any city in which one lives, the
ground strewed with these little ail-but
corpses, alive only to suffer. We know not,
how great the relief of the yet innocent,
almost indomitable joyousness of children is,
until we miss them. In the dreadful Irish
famine of 1847 the absence of the children
from the streets of Galway was told me by
Eeligious as one of its dreariest features*.
In the dreary back-streets and alleys of Lon
don, the irrepres.sible joyousness of children
is one of the bright sun-beams of that great
Babylon, amid the oppressiveness of the
anxious, hard, luxurious, thoughtless, care
worn, eager, sensual, worldly, frivolous, vain,
stolid, sottish, cunning, faces, which traverse
it. God sanctions by His word here our joy
in the joyousness of children, that He too
taketh pleasure in it, He the Father of all.
It is precisely their laughing ^, the fullness
of her streets of these merry creations of His
hands, that He speaks of with complacency.
6. If it should be marvelous in the eyes of the
remnant of this people in those ' [not these'] days,
shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also ? saith the
Lord of hosts. Man's anticipations, by reason
' Dion. 2 Jer, vi, 11, ix, 21, 3 Lam, ii, 11, 19,
'See other pictures of that time in Pusey's
"Chastisements neglected forerunners of greater,"

6 Thus saith the Loed ^ §''i°j% t
of hosts ; If it be 1 1 marvel- "'•¦ si 8,

D'pntyn.

in "Occasional Sermons,'
°Bnn D'D'3 as in Gen, vi, 4, Ex, ii, 11,' De, xvii.
9. nSnn D''D''3 are the times of the Gospel, Jo. iii.
2,iv'l; bel. 25. fS, Jer,
3P3, cxviii. 23. The phrase occurs beside only 2
Sam, xiii, 2,
' See on Am, i, 8, vol. i. p. 247, n. 28, and on Hagg, i,
12, p. 306. i" Rom. xi. 5-7.
25

OUS in the eyes of the rem- [ or, hard,
nant of this people in these

or, difficult.

of his imperfections and the chequered char
acter of earthly things, are always disap
pointing. God's doings, by reason of His in
finite greatness and goodness, are always
beyond our anticipations, past all belief. It
is their very greatness which staggers us. It
is not then merely that the temporal prora
ises seemed " too good to be true " (in our
words) "' in the eyes of the people who had
come from the captivity, seeing that the city
almost desolate, the ruins of the city-walls,
the charred houses shewed the doings of the
Babylonians." It is in the day of the fulfill
ment, not of the anticipation, that they
would seem marvelous in their eyes, as the
Psalmist says, * This is the Lord's doing: and
it is marvelous in our eyes. The temporal
blessings which God would give were not so
incredible. They were but the ordinary
gifts of His Providence: they involved no
change in their outward relations. His peo
ple were still to reraain under their Persian
masters, until their time too should come. It
was matter of gladness and of God's Provi
dence, that the walls of Jerusalem should be
rebuilt : but mA so marvelous, when it came
to pass. The mysteries of the Gospel are a
marvel even to the blessed Angels. That
fulfillment being yet future, so the people, in
whose eyes that fulfillment should be mar
velous, were future also. And this was to be
a remnant still. It does not say, this people
which is a remnant, nor this remnant of ihe peo
ple, i. e., those who remained over out of the
people who went into captivity, or ihis rem
nant, but "the reranant of this 'people,'' i.e.
those who should remain over of it, i. e,, of
the people who were returned. It is the
remnant of the larger whole, this people '. It
is still the remnant according to the election of
grace; that election which obtained what all
Israel sought, but, seeking wrongly, were
blinded'". Shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also ? It
is an indirect question in the way of excla
mation". It be marvelous in Mine eyes also,
rejecting the thought, as alien from th'e na-
11 As in 2 Sam, xvi, 17, This thy kindness I fox. Is
this thy kindness f Gen, xxvii, 24, Thou, this my son
Esau I 'fox, .irt thou my very son Esau? 1 Sam, xxii,
7, Yea, to you all the son of Jesse shall give I for, shall
h» give? Job ii, 9, Thou still holding fast thine integ
rity I for, art thoul Jud. xiv, 16, I have not told my
father and my mother, •vytf. 1^1 and to thee I shall tell 1
i e., shall I tell thee ? Jer, xxv, 29, For lo, on the city
which is called by My Name, I begin to bring evil, and
ye shall be utterly unpunished I as we should say, " and
ye be utterly unpunished." Ew. Lehrb. n. 324. p.
802. ed. 8.

386

ZECH.A.RIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 618.

days, "should it also be
marvelous in mine eyes ?
saith the Loed of hosts.
7 Thus saith the Loed
of hosts ; Behold, ' I will

'Gen. 18. 14.
Luke 1, 37,
& 18. 27.
Eom, 4, 21.
' U. 11. 11, 12. &
43. 5, 6.
Ezek, 37, 21, 1 n ,1
Araos 9, 14, 15, save my people trom the

ture of God, to Whom ' all things are possible,
yea, what with men is impossible. As God says
to Jeremiah, ' Behold, I am the Lord, ihe God
of aU flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
'Foi' with God nothing shall be impossible.
* The things whieh are impossible with men are
possible with God. ^ For wiih Ood all things
are possible. ""For He is the Lord of all
powers, fulfilling by His will what exceed
ingly surpasseth nature, and effecting at once
what seemeth Him good. The mystery of
the Incarnation passeth all marvel and dis
course, and no less the benefits redounding to
us. For how is it not next to incredible,
that the Word, Begotten of God, should be
united with the flesh and be in the forra of a
servant, and endure the Cross and the insults
and outrages of the Jews ? Or how should
one not admire above measure the issue of
the dispensation, whereby sin was destroyed,
death abolished, corruption expelled, and
man, once a recreant slave, becarae re
splendent with the grace of an adopted son ? "
7. I will save My people from the East coun
try and from the West country, " ' i. e. the whole
world ; for Israel had been scattered in every
part of the world." God had said to Israel,
' Iwill bring ihy seed from the east and gather
thee from the west; I will say to the north. Give
up, and io the south. Keep ¦not back. The
two tribes had been carried to Babylon
and had been dispersed, or had been al
lowed to migrate to the various provinces
of the Babylonian or Persian empire.
But these were in the East, though com
monly called the North, because they in
vaded Israel from the North. Those who
had migrated to Egypt were in the South.
As yet none were in the West. The disper
sion, as well as the gathering, was still
future. When our Lord came, they had
migrated Westward. Greece, Italy, Asia
minor, were full of them ; and from all they
were gathered. All S. Paul's Epistles writ
ten to named Churches, were written to
Churches forraed frora converts in the West.
In all these countries God would gather His
one peojjle. His Church, not oi "the Jews onlij,
bui also of the Gentiles, grafted into them, as
our Lord said, '" / say unto you, that many shall
come from the East and from the West, and shall

' S. Matt, xix, 26,
3 S, Lukei, 37, -lib, xviii, 27,
0 8, Cvr, ' Dion.

3 Jer, xxxii, 27,
6 S, Mark x, 27.
8 Is, xliii. 5, 6.

east country, and from ohr^I^
fthe west country ;

r. A 1 T -n 1 • il ^ Reh, the coun-
8 And 1 Will bring them, try of the going
and they shall dwell in the sm? °
' 1 , o ^ 1 K 1 See Ps. 50. 1.
midst ot J erusalem : " and & 113. 3.
they shall be my people, kjer.'3o. 22.
& 31. 1, 33, ch. 13. 9.

sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the
kingdom (the unbelieving Jews, who were
not the remnant) shall be cast out into outer
darkness. 8. They shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,
not the literal Jerusalem ; for this would not
contain the Jews from all quarters of the
world, whom, as they multiplied, the whole
land could not contain ; but the promised
Jerusalem, the Jerusalem, which should be
inhabited as toivns wiiliout walls, to which the
Lord should be a wall of fire round about.
And they shall be My people. He promises
this as to those who were already His people;
I will save My people — and will bring ihem, and
they shall dwell — and they shall be My people.
And this they were to be in a new way, by
conversion of heart, as Jereraiah says, " / will
give them an heart to know Me, that I am the
Lord, a'nd they shall be My people, and I will be
their Ood : for they shall return unto Me with
iheir whole heart, and, " This shall be the cove-
lumt that I vjill make with the house of Israel;
After ihose days, saith ihe Lord, Iwill put My
law in. their inward parts, and wUl write it in
their hearts; and wdl be tlieir Ood, and they
shcdl be My people.
" ''' The circuit of one city will not contain
so great a raultitude. But one confession of
faith, one conspiration of sanctity, one com-
raunion of religion and righteousness, can
easily enfold all born of the holy fathers,
united to them in faith and piety. And God
is specially called the God of all these. For
He specially consults for these, loads thera
with benefits, fences them in with most
strong protection, illumines them with His
light, crowns thera, when confirmed in the
Image of His beauty, with glory iraraortal
and Divine."
In truth and in righteousness. This too is on
account of their former relation to God.
Isaiah had upbraided them for a worship of
God, "'not in truth and righteousness. Jere
miah had said, '^ Thou shalt swear, the Lord
liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteous
ness. God should be their God in truth and
righteousness ; " '^ truth in fulfilling His pro
mises; righteousness in rewarding every man
according to his works."
9 Rom. ix. 24. " S. Matt, viii, 11, 12.
11 Jer, xxiv. 7. add xxx, 22, 12 Ib, xxxi. 33.
"Osor, His, xlviii, L is Jer, iv, 2. "Eib.

CHAPTER VIII.

387

c H rTs t ^^^ I will be their God, ' in
cir- 518. truth and in righteousness.

IJer. 4. 2.
» Hag, 2, 4.
ver. 18.

9 <|[Thus saith the
Loed of hosts ; "^ Let your
hands be strong, ye that
hear in these days these
' Ezra 5. 1, 2. words by the mouth of-the
prophets, which ivere in
«Hag. 2. IS. "the day that the founda
tion of the house of the
Loed of hosts was laid.

9 Let your hands be strong. The fulfill
ment of God's former promises are the ear
nest of the future; His former providences,
of those to come. Plaving then those great
promises for the time to come, they were to
be earnest in whatever meantime God gave
them to do. He speaks to them, as hearing
in these days, i. a. that fourth year of Darius
in which they apparently were, these words
from ihe mouth of the prophets, which were in
the day when thefoundcdion of tlie house of the
Lord was laid, the temple, thai it might be built.
Haggai was now gone to his rest. His voice
had been silent for two years. But bis words
lived on. The fulfillment of what the pro
phets had then spoken in God's Name, was a
ground, why their hands should be strong,
now and thereafter, for every work which
God gave or should give them to do.
"'Some things are said to Jerusalem, i. e.
to the Jews, which belong to thera only ;
some relate to what is common to them and
the other members of the Cliurch, i. e. those
who are called from the Gentiles. Now he
speaks to the Jews, but not so as to seem to
forget what he had said before. He would
say, Ye who hear the words, which in those
days when the temple was founded, Haggai
and Zechariah spake, be strong and proceed
to the work which ye began of fulfilling the
will of the Lord in the building of the tem
ple, and in keeping from the sins, in which
ye were before entangled. For as, before ye
began to build the temple, ye were afflicted
with many calamities, but after ye had be
gun, all tilings went well with you, as Hag-
iRib. 2 Hagg. ii. 15-19. sQsor.
'pTTIJ uh. rrn,! occurs only in 19 other places :
"it came to pas.s," with nSO, "it was from," i.e,
his doing, 1 Kings i. 27, xii. 24, 2 Chr, xi. 4; of a
thing vfhich had not its like, with 3 or 1D3 Ex.
xi. 6, Deut, iv, 32, Jo, ii, 2, Jud, xix, 30, Dan, xii. 1,
or abs,, Jud, xx, 3, 12, Jer, v, .30, xlviii, 19, Ezek, xxi,
12, xxxix, 8, There remain five insulated cases ;
"was made God's people," Deut, xxvii, 9; "a
desire accomplished," Pr, xiii, 19 ; " hath not been
done," (rejecting an imputation) Neh, vi. 8 ; " was
departed," Dan, ii, 1 ; as if he had ceased to be, Ib,
viii. 27.

that the temple might be cu''i°isT
built. '-il-- 518,
10 For before these days | or, the hire of
1 1 there was no ^hire for nothing^^c,
man, nor any hire f or'^l^'ij; ^' ''^"¦
beast ; '' neither was the7-e 1 2 chr, 15, 5.
any peace to him that went
out or came in because of
the afHiction : for I set all
men every one against his
neighbor.

gai said ', so, if j'ou cultivate piety and do
not depart from God, ye shall enjoy great
abundance of spiritual good." "^The raera-
ory of past calaraity made the then tran-
qidllity much sweeter, and stirred the mind
to greater thanksgiving. He set forth then
the grief of those times when he says ; "
10. There was no hire for man, lit. hire for
man came not to pos-s*. It was longed for,
waited for, and came not. So little was the
produce, that neither laborer nor beast of
burden were eraployed to gather it in.
Neither was there peace to him who went out or
came in because of the afflietion, better, of the
adversary. In such an empire as the Persian,
there was large scope for actual hostility
among the petty n.ations subject to it, so that
they did not threaten revolt against itself, or
interfere with the payment of tribute, as in
the Turkish Empire now, or in the weak
government of Greece. At the rebuilding of
the walls, after this tirae, the Samaritans,
Arabians, Ammonites, Ashdodites conspired io
fight against .lerusalem, and to slay them ^.
They are summed up here in the general
title used here, our adversaries".
For I set ; lit. and I set. Domestic confu
sions and strife were added to hostility from
without. Nehemiah's reformation was, in
part, to stop the grinding usury in time of
dearth or to pay the king's taxes, through
which men sold lands, vineyards, even their
children '.
Ood (lit.) let them loose, each against his
neighbor, in that He left them to their own
ways and withheld them not.
6 Neh. iv, 7-11,
« ins Neh, iv, 5 Heb. (11 Eng,), IV, as calamity,
is very rare, except in the idiom J 1S3, It is
used twice in the construct, as a sort of adj.,
IS Dil'?, bread of affliction Is, xxx, 20; "IV fl^'
ti'me of affliction, Job xxxviii, 23 ; and as united with
the .synonyme HplVDl, Job xv. 24, plVHl, Ps. cxix.
143; absolutely, once only. Is. v. 30. The fem. HIV
occurs, in all, 72 times.
I Neh. v. 1-12.

388

ZECHARIAH.

chrTst 11 P^t now I will not
"''•¦ 518- he unto the residue of this

people as in the former days,
saith the Loed of hosts.
'Hos. 2. 21, 22. 12 'For the seed shall
Joel 2 22
Hag. 2, 19. he t prosperous ; the vine
+ Heb, 0/ peace. , ., . , „ ., ,
shall give her truit, and
• Ps. 67. 6. ° the ground shall give her
«see Hag. 1. 10, increase, and 'the heavens

11. And now. The words iraply a contrast
of God's dealings, rather than a contrast of
time. I am not io the remnant of this people.
He had said, / will be to ihem God; so now
He does not say that He will not do to them,
as in former days, but I am not to the remnant
of this people as heretofore. He would be,
as He was in Jesus, iu a new relation to
them. 12. For the ,see(^ shall be peace'. "''Your
seed shall be peace and a blessing, so that
they will call it ' a seed of peace.' " The
unusual construction is perhaps adopted, in
order to suggest a, further meaning. It is a
reversal of the condition, just spoken of,
when there was reo peace to him that went, or io
him that returned.
The vine shall give her fi-uit and the ground
shall give her increase. The old promise in
the law on obedience ^, as the exact contrary
was threatened on disobedience*- It had
been revived in the midst of promise of
spiritual blessino: and of the coming of Christ,
in Ezekiel'. "^By the metaphor of sensible
things he explains (as the prophets often do)
the abundance of spiritual good in the time
of the new law, as did Hosea', Joel^,
Araos ", and many others." And I will cause
the remnant of the people to inherit. " " As if
he said, I promised these things not to you
who live now, but to the future reranant of
your people, i. e. those who shall believe in
Christ and shall be saved, while the rest
perish. These shall possess these spiritual
goods, which I promise now, under the image
of teraporal." As our Lord said'". He that
overcometh shall inherit all things, and Iwill be
his God, ancl he shall be My son.
1 It cannot be, the seed shall be safe, (Jon,), for
D wtyn is never used except of peace ; nor is even
DI 7^ used as a predicate, except of human beings,
either directly or as implied, as in Job v, 24, thy
tent, 'yj'n^ U)lUi', Joh x'?ii. ^, their houses are peace
from fear, nnSD DlW ?n'J13. The sense in-
colutnitas, integritas, is wrongly assumed in I^od,
Ges, Thes, Deut, xxix, 18, 1 Kgs ii, 33, Ps, xxxvii,
11, 37, Ixxii, 3, 7, Is, Iii, 7, Ivii, 19, 21, Jer, iv, 10, vi,
14, except as far as this maybe involved in "poai;e,"
Nor can ?l'7t^n ^11 be a noun, abs. before |i)J,

shall give their dew; and qh'^^Yst cir. 518.

I will cause the remnant.
of this people to possess all
these things.
13 And it shall come to
pass, that as ye were " a » Jer. 42. i8.
curse among the heathen,
O house of Judah, and
house of Israel ; so will I

13. As ye were a curse among the nations, 0
house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will
save you. The ten tribes bore the name of
Israel, in contrast with the two tribes with
the name of Judah, not only in the history
but in the prophets ; as Hosesj says ", I wUl
no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, and
on ihe house of Judah I will have mercy. Here
he unites both ; both, in the tirae of their
captivity, were a curse, were held to be a
thing accursed, as it is said, " He that is hanged
¦is the curse of Ood, i. e. a thing accursed by
Him; and God foretold of Judah, that they
should be " a desolation and a curse, and by
Jeremiah, '* I will deliver ihem io be removed
into all the kingdoms of the earth for hurt, a re
proach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all
places whither I shall drive them; and in deed,
when it was so, '* therefore is your land a deso
lation and an astonishment and a curse without
an 'inhabitant, as at ihis day. Now the sen
tence was to be reversed as to both. As ye
were a curse, among the nations, naming each,
so Iwill save you. There would have been no
proportion between the curse and the bless
ing, unless both had been included under the
blessing, as they were under the curse. But
Israel had no share in the temporal blessing,
not returning from captivity, as Zechariah
knew they were not returned hitherto.
Therefore the blessings promised must be
spiritual. Even a .lewish commentator saw
this. "'"It is possible, that this raay have
been spoken of tlie second temple, on condi
tion that they should keep the command
ments of the Lord ; or, it is still future,
referring to the days of the Messiah : and
this is proved by the following verse which
"a seed of peace, the vine shall yield her fruit;"
for " seed " has no relation to the " vine."
2 Kim, SLev, xxvi, 4, 4Ib, 20.
6 Ezek, xxxiv, 27. 6 Rib, ' Hos, ii. 21, 22.
8 Jo. ii, 23-25, iii, IS, 9 Am, ix 13.
10 Rev. xxi, 7. n Hos, i, 6, 7, 12 De. xxi. 23,
"2 Kgs xxii. 19,
1* Jer. xxiv, 9, add Ib. xxv, 18, to make thee a deso
lation, an astonishment, a hissing and a curse ; and of
those who went in rebellion to Egypt, ye shall be an
execration [H 7K] and an astonishment and a curse and
a reproach (lb, xiii, 18), and that ye might be a curse
and a reproach among all the nations of the earth (lb.
xliv. 8.) IS Ib. xliv. 22. m Kim. on ver. 12.

CHAPTER VIII.

389

chrTIt ®^^® ^°^' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^
fii-- 618- a blessing: fear not, but

iGen. 12, 2, ^let your hands be strong.
Euth4. 11, 12. ^ . T-, ,, -1,1. .1
Is, 19. 24, 25. 14 For thus saith the
Hag,'2,i9.' Loed of hosts; ^As I
¦Jer,' si, 28. though* to punish you,
when your fathers pro
voked me to wrath, saith

says, 0 house of Judah and house of Israel.
During the second temple the house of Israel
did not return,"
And ye shall be a blessing. This is a revival
and an application of the original promise to
Abrahara, 'thou shall be a blessing; which
was continued to Jacob, ^ Ood give thee the
blessing of Abraham, io ihee and io thy seed with
thee. And of the future king, of whom it is
said, ' Thou gavest him length of days for ever
and ever, David says. Thou hast made him
blessings for ever, and again, * They shall be
blessed in Him. So Isaiah had said of the
days of Christ, ^ In that day shall. Israel be the
third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in
the midst of ihe land; and symbolically of the
cluster of grapes, ^ Destroy ii not : for a bless
ing is in it ; and Ezekiel, ' I 'will make tliem
and the places round about My hill a blessing.
They were this ; for of them, " aecording to
the flesh, Christ came, Who is over all, Ood
bkssed for ever; of them were the Apostles
!ind Evangelists, of them every writer of
God's word, of them those who carried the
Gospel throughout theworld. "'¦'Was this
fulfilled, when the Jews were under the Per
sians? or when they paid tribute to the
Greeks? or when they trembled, hour by
hour, at the mention of the Eoman narae ?
Do not all connt those who rule much hap
pier than those oppressed by the rule of
others? The prediction then was fulfilled,
not then, but when Christ, the Sun of Right
eousness, shone on the earth, and He chose
from the Hebrews lights, through whom to
dissipate darkness and illumine the minds of
men who were in that darkness. The Jews,
when restored frora the captivity, seemed
born to slavery." They were reputed to be
of slaves the most despised. " But when
they had through Christ been put in posses
sion of that most sure liberty, they over
threw, through their empire, the power and
tyranny of the evil spirits."
14. As I thought to punish you (lit. io do eril
io you) and repented not. In like way God
says in Jeremiah '", / have purposed and will
not repent.
' Gen xii, 2. " Ib, xxviii. 4.
^Ps. xxi, 4, 6. 4 Ib Ixxii, 17.
'Is, xix, 24. «Ib Ixv. 8,
' Ezek. xxxiv. 26. ^ Eom. ix. 5.

the Loed of hosts, ' and I ^ i^i'H ^
repented not : '''''¦ °i8-
15 So again have I«2Chr, 36, i6.
thought in these days to do
well unto Jerusalem and
to the house of Judah : fear
ye not.
16 "^These are the

15. So have I turned and purposed " in these
days io do well unio Jerusalem. " " God, to be
better understood, speaketh with the feelings
and after the manner of men, although, in
the passionless and unchangeable God, there
is no provocation to anger, nor turning, im
plying change in Plimself." So He says by
Jeremiah, " I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil. And, with the same contrast as
here, '* As I have watched over them to pluck up
and to break down and to throw down, and io
destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them, to
build and to plant, saith ihe Lord. His having
done what He purposed before was an ear
nest the more, that He would do what He
purposed now. His chastiseraents were the
earnests of His mercies ; for they too were
an austere form of His love. " ^ When the
Lord stretches out His hand to strike those
who are contumacious in guilt, none can hold
His hand that He exact not the due punish
ment. Therefore He says, that He repented
not ; so, when He receives to grace those who
repent of their sins, no one can any way
delay the course of His benevolence. '^For
the gifts and calling of God are without repent
ance." And to ihe house of Judah. "'He speaks to
the two tribes, not to, or of, the ten, because
Christ was to come to the two tribes, and
Zechariah was prophesying to them, and
they were to be admonished to prepare
themselves in good works, lest the coming of
Christ should not profit them, on account of
their depraved ways. But the ten tribes
were far off in the cities of the Medes, nor
was Christ to come to them ; but they were
to hear the Gospel through the Apostles,
and so he prophesies of the conversion of all
to the glory of Christ, yet he could not ad
monish all, but those only to whom he was
sent. 16. These are ihe things that ye shall da. He
exhorts them to the sarae duties, to which
the former prophets had exhorted their
fathers", and, as before, first positively to
truth and peace; then to avoid everything
9 Osor, lojer, iv, 28.
" On nni see above on i. 6, p. 341, note 8.
12 Dion 13 Jer. x.xix, 11, " lb, .xxxi, 28.
15 Rom. xi, 29. « Rib. " vii. 9, 10.

390

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 618,
» ch, 7. 9.
ver, 19,
Bphes, 4, 25,
f Heb, judge
truth, and the
Judgment of
peace.
» Prov, 3, 29,
ch. 7. 10,

¦1 ch. 5. 3, 4.

things that ye shall do ;
'' Speak ye every man the
truth to his neighbor ; f ex
ecute the judgment of
truth and peace iu your

17 ° And let none of you
imagine evil in your hearts
against his neighbor ; and
* love no false oath : for
all these are things that I
hate, saith the Loed.
18 ^' And the word of
the Loed of hosts came
unto me, saying.

contrary to it. Judgment of peace must be
judgment which issues in peace, as all ri,»ht-
eous judgment righteously received, in which
case each party acquiesces, must. " ' If ye
judge righteousness, there will be peace be
tween the litigants, according to that pro
verb, '^He that hath his coat t.aken frora
him by the tribunal, let hira sing and go his
way ' [" because," says a gloss '', " they have
judged the judgraent of truth, and have
taken away that whicli would have been
stolen property, if he retained it," being in
fact not his]. And they have quoted that,
* And all this people shall go to their place in
peace." "^AH this people, even he that is
conderaned in judgraent. It is also inter
preted of arbitration. What sort of judgment
is that, in which there is peace ? It is that
of arbitration."
17. For all these things do I hate, lit, era-
]ihatic, "For they are all these things which I
hate. This is the sura of what I hate ; for
they comprise in brief the breaches of the
two tables, the love of God and of raan,
19, The fast of the fourth month. On the
ninth day of the fourth month ' of Zedekiah's
eleventh year, Jerusalera, in the extremity
of famine, opened to Nebuchadnezzar, and
his princes sat in her gate ; in the tenth
monih^ of his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar
began the siege. Ezekiel was bidden ' on its
1 Kim.
2Sanhedr. f. 7. a. quoted by Mc. Taul, p. 78.
sRashi, quoted Ib. 4Ex..d. xviii. 23.
B Judah b, Korcha in Sanhr, f, 6 b, Ib,
^nit^ 73 r\ii is a sort of noun abs,, as Hagg,
ii. .5. ' Jer, xxxix. 2, 3; Iii, 6, 7,
1 2 Kgs xxv, 1, Jer, xxxix, 1, Hi. 4.
9 Ezek. xxiv. 1, 2.
10 Ib. 6-14. The Jews in S. Jerome's time added,
that in the fourth mouth Moses brake the tables
of the law ; in the fifth month was the rebellion on
the return of the spies, and the sentence of the

19 Thus saith the Loed ^ ^f^l ^
of hosts ; " The fast of the  "¦'¦bis-

fourth month, ' and the fast o jer, 52, e, 7.
„ , „ni „ 1 ,^ a , f Jer. 62, 1-2, 13.
of the fifth, ^ and the ia,st oh, 7, 3, 5,
„ , , 1 r, 1 ii 5 2 Kin. 25. 25.
ofthe seventh, "ana the jer. 41, 1, 2,
fast of the tenth, shall be '^^' ''"
to the house of Judah ' joy ' Esth, 8, 17,
and gladness, and cheerful
1 1 feasts; ''therefore love II Or, sofemn, or,
' ' set times.
the truth and peace. tver. le.
20 Thus saith the Loed
of hosts ; It shall yet come
to pass, that there shall
come people, and the in
habitants of many cities:

tenth day ; write thee the name of the day, of this
same day, as the beginning of God's utter
most judgments against the bloody city '".
The da.ys of national sorrow were to be
turned into exuberant joy, joy and gladness
and cheerful feasts ", for the sorrows, which
they commeraorated, were bnt the harbin
gers of joy, when the chastisements were
ended ; only He adds, love the truth a'nd peace;
for such love whereby they would be Israel
ites indeed, in whose spirits is no guile, were
the conditions of their participating tire
blessings of the Gospel, of which he goes on
to speak ;
20. It shall yet be that. The proraises are
those which God had al ready made by Isaiah '''
and Jlicab'^. Yet where was the shew of
their fulfillment? The Jews themselves, a
handful : the temple unfinished ; its com
pletion depending, in human sight, upon the
will of their heathen masters, the rival wor
ship at Samaria standing and inviting to co
alition. Appearances and experience were
against it. God says virtually, that it was,
in human sight, contrary to all expectations.
But " weakness is aye Heaven's raight."
Despite of all, of the fewness of those who
were returned, tlieir downheartedness, broken
condition, hopeles-^ness, though all had hith
erto failed, though, or rather because, all
huraan energy and strength were gone, as
forty years' wandering. This is true. For since
Moses went up into the mount in the third month
(Ex. xix. 1, 16, xxiv. 12, 16,), the end of the forty days
(lb. 18), after which he came down' and brake the
tables (Ex. xxxii, 15, 19) would fall in the fourth
month, Uiliera calculates the fourth mouth thus :
setting off from Sinai, 2iith day of 2d month, Nu, x,
11; 3 days' journev, Ib, 33; halt of one month, Ib.
xi. 20, 21 ; of 7 days, Ib, xii, 15 ; 40 days' search of
spies, Ib, xiii, 25,
113IB as 310 U\\ Esth. viii. 17, ix, 19, 22; Eccl.
vii. 14. 12 Is. ii. 2, sqq. " Mio. iv. 1. sqq.

CHAPTER VIII.

391

^ S^^°r% m 21 And the inhabitants
C H R 1 o 1
cir, 518, _ of one city shall go to an-

ilsai, 2, 3, ,, . ,-r ,
Mic.4. 1, 2. other, saying, 'Let us go
iOx, continually. ,, , j-i j-j. i j?
i neh. going. 1 1 J Speedily J to jjray before
f Heb, to intreat
the face of the
Lord, cli. 7. 2.

' the Loed, and to seek the

God had said before. The Lord shall yet '
cAoose Jerusalem, so now. It shall yet '' be tliat.
Nations and many cities shall come. He de
scribes vividly the eagerness and mutual im
pulse, with which not only many but mighty
nations should throng to the Gospel, and
every fresh conversion should win others also,
till the ^reat tide should sweep through the
world. 21. The inhabitants of one city shall go to
anolher. It is one unresting extension of the
faith, the restlessness of faith and love.
" ' They shall not be satisfied with their own
salvation, careless about the salvation of
others ; they shall employ all labor and in
dustry, with wondrous love, to provide for
the salvation of others as if it were their
own." It is a marvelous stirring of minds.
Missionary efibrts, so familiar with us as to
be a household word, were unknown then.
The time was not yet come. Before ihe faiih
in (Jhrist came, the Jewish people were not
to be the converters of mankind. They were
to await for Him, the Eedeemer of the world,
through Whom and to Whom they were to
be first converted, and then the world through
those who were of them. This mutual con
version was absolutely unknown. The pro
phet * predicts certainly that it would be, and
in God's time it was. From you, S. Paul
writes to a small colony in Greece ^, sounded
end the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith io
God-ward is spread abroad. " Your faith, he
writes to the heathen capital of the world, is
spoken of throughout the whole world. Within
eighty years after our Lord's Ascension, the
Eoman governor of Bithynia reported, on
occasion of the then persecution, that it
spread as a contagion. " ' The contagion of
that superstition traversed not cities only but
villages and scattered houses too." Before
the persecution, the temples had been deso
lated, the solemn rites long intermitted, the
sacrificed auiraals had very rarely found a
purchaser. An impostor of tlie same date
says, "* Pontus is full of atheists and Chris
tians." " '' There is no one race of men," it
was said before the middle of the second
' i. 17, ii. 16 [12 Eng.]
^'\'\}1 is premised emphatically. ' Osor.
<Seebelow on ix. 12. ^iThess. i, 8.
« Rom, i. 8, ' Plin, ad, Tr.aj, Ep, x. 97.
8 Alexander in Lucian, Alexander,
»S, Justin M. Dial. n. 117, on Mai. i. 10. p. 216.
¦ Oxf. Tr.

Loed of hosts : I will go ^ h eTs t
also. gir- 518-
22 Yea, " many people » isai, 6o, 3, &c.
and strong nations shall
come to seek the Loed of

century '", " whether Barbarians or Greeks
or by whatsoever name called, whether of
those wandering houseless tribes who live in
wagons or those pastoral people who dwell in
tents, in which there are not prayers and
Eucharists to the Father and Creator of all
things, through the narae of the crucified
Jesus." " The word of our teacher," said
another ", " abode not in Judaea alone, as
philosophy in Greece ; but was poured out
throughout the whole world, persuading
Greeks and barbarians in their several na
tions and villages and every city, whole
houses and each hearer individually, and
having brought over to the truth no few
even of the very philosophers. And if
any ordinary magistrate forbid the Greek
philosophy, forthwith it vanishes ; but our
teaching, forthwith at its first announcement,
kings and emperors and subordinate rulers
and governors witli all their mercenaries and
countless multitudes forbid, and war against
us and try to extirpate; but it the rather flour
ishes." The second century had not closed,
before another said, " '^ 'We are a people
of yesterday, and yet we have filled every
place belonging to you, cities, islands, castles,
towns, assemblies, your very carap, j'our
tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum !
We leave you your temples only. We can
count your armies- ; our numbers in a single
province will be greater." " " Men cry out
that the state is beset ; that the Christians
are in their fields, in their forts, in their
islands. They mourn, as for a loss, that
every sex, age, condition, and now even rank
is going over to this sect." " '* On whom be
sides have all nations believed, except on
Christ Who hath already come?" Then
having enumerated the nations raentioned in
the Acts '*, he adds, " And now the varieties
of the Getulians, and the raany tracts of the
IMoors, all the bounds of the Spains, and the
divers nations of the Gauls, and places of
the Britons, unreached by the Roraans^ but
subdued to Christ; of Sarmatians, Dacians,
Germans, and Scythians, and of many re
mote nations, and many provinces and is
lands, unknown to us, afid which we can
10 Trypho says, "I escaped from the late war."
(A. D, 132-136) 'Dial, init, p, 70,
n Clem, Alex, Strom, vi. fln.
12 Tert. Apol. n. 37, p, 78. Oxf. Tr.
13 Ib, n, 1, pp. 2, 3,
M Tert, adv, Jud, c, 7 p. 113 Eig.
isActsii. 9-11.

392

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 518.

hosts in Jerusalem, aud to
pray before the Loed.
23 Thus saith the Loed

scarce enumerate. In all which places the
name of Christ, Who hath already come,
reigneth, seeing that before Him the gates
of all cities are opened and none are shut
against Him, before Whom ' the bars of iron
are broken in pieces and the gates of brass are
opened. In all these places dwelleth a peo
ple called by the name of Christ. For who
could reign over all, save Christ the Son of
God, Who was foretold as about to reign
over all nations forever ? " Then having
contrasted the limited rule of Solomon, Da
rius, the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Alex
ander, " the Romans who protect their own
empire by the strength of their legions and
are unable to extend the might of their
kingdom beyond these nations [Germans,
Britons, Moors, Getulians], he suras up,
" but tiie kingdom and the Narae of ^ Clirist
is extended everywhere, is believed in every
where, is worshiped by all the nations above
enumerated. Everywhere He reigns, every
where is adored, is given everywhere equally
to all. With Hira no king hath greater fa
vor ; no Barbarian inferior joy ; no dignities
or birth enhance the raerit of any ; to all
He is equal ; to all. King; to all Judge; to
all, God and Lord." A little later, a hea
then owns, while caluraniating, "^ Those
most foul rites of that impious coalition are
growing throughout the whole world, as bad
things corae up most luxuriantly, evil ways
creeping on daily." The Christian answers,
"'That our number increases daily, this is
no imputation of error, but a testiraony to
praise. For in a good mode of life, its own
persevere, aliens accrue to it."
Let Its go on and on, * perseveringly, until
we attain to entreat theface of the Lord. It is
not a Tlieism or Monotheisra, but the God,
Who had revealed Hiraself to Israel, Who,
when our Lord carae, was worshiped in Jeru
salem, to which those invited say, I too would
go with ihee. Yet not so, but the words seem
to speak of that which is a special gift of the
Gospel, continued progress, " ^forgetting those
things whieh are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things whieh are before, to press toiaard the
mark of ihe prize of ihe high calling of God in
1 Is, xiv, 2,
s Ccecil. in Minut, Fel, p, SO, Ouz,
i* Minut. Fel. Ib. p. 312, Other like sayings are in
Origen, ^de Princ, iv. 1, c, Cels, i, 7, 67, ii, 13, iii. 24,)
Lactantius, (v. 13) Arnobius _(i. p. 33, ii. 50, Lugd.),
who argues thence to the divinity of the Gospel,
Jul. Firmicus, (c, 21 B, P, iv, 172.)
* 1l'7n n3'7J . ' Phil, iii, 13, 14.
6 " non progredi est regredi,"
1 S. Aug, in 1 Ep, S. Joann, Hom, iv, n, 6, p. lll'i,
Oxf. Tr.

of hosts; In those days it qh^Tst
shall come to pass, that ten °i'- ^'s,
men shall ""take hold out ii\'

Christ Jesus. Let us go on and on ; whence it
is a Christian proverb, " " not to go on is to
go back." " ' Tiie whole life of a good
Christian is a holy longing to make progress."
" " The one perfection "of man is, to have
found that he is not perfect," "^If thou
sayest, It sufficeth, thou art lost." " '" To be
unwilling to increase, is to decrease "
23. Ten mere of all languages of the nations.
Ten " is the symbol of a whole, all the num
bers before it meeting in it and starting
again from it. The day of Pentecost was to
be tlie reversal of the confusion of Babel ;
all were to have one voice, as God had said,
''It (the time) shall come to gather all nations
ancl tongues, and they sliall come and see My glory.
They shall lay hold qf the skirt of one man who
is a Jew, " ''that is, of the Lord and Saviour,
of Whom it is said, '* A prince shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until He shall come, for Whom it is laid up^
ancl for Hum shall the Gentiles wait ; for '^tliere
shall be a rod of Jesse, and He who shall arise
to rule over the Gentiles, to Him shall the Gen
tiles seek. And when they shall lay hold of
Him, they shall desire to tread in His steps,
since God is with Him. Or else, whosoever
shall believe Out of all nations, shall lay hold
of a man who is a, Jew, the Apostles who are
from the Jews, and shall say. Lei «s go with
you; for we have known through tlie pro
phets and from the voice of all the Scrip
tures, that the Son of God, Christ, God and
Lord, is with you. Where there is a most
manifest prophecy, and the coming of
Christ and His Apostles and the faith of
all nations is preached, let us seek for noth
ing more."
" '" Christ turning our sorrow into joy and
a feast and good days and gladness, and
transferring lamentation into cheerfulness,
the accession to the faith and union to God
by sanctification in those called to salvation
shall not henceforth be Individually ; but the
cities shall exhort each other thereto, and all
nations shall come in multitudes, the later
ever calling out to those before them, I too
will go. For it is written, " iron sharpeneth
iron, so doth a man the countenance of another.
877. Oxf, Tr,
, , . , 871, Oxf, Tr,
10 Nolle proficere deficere est, S, Bern, Ep, 254 ad
Guarin, n, 4.
11 As in Gen. xxxi, 7, he hath changed my wages these
ten times ; Lev. xxvi, 26, when I have broken your
staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one
oven ; Nu, xiv, 22, those men which have seen My glory,
have tempted Me now these ten times, wad have not
hearkened to My voice.
12 Is, Ixvi, 18, 13 S, Jer. " Gen. xlix. 8-10.
16 Is. xi. 10. 18 S, Cyr. n Pr. xxvii, 17.

8 Id. Serm, 120, [170, Ben,] c. 8, p,
9 Id, Serm, 119, [169,] fin. ib. p. 871

CHAPTER IX.

393

c H R°i s T '^^ ^^^ languages of the na-
"ii'- °i^- tions, even shall take hold
of the skirt of him that is
a Jew, saying. We will go
witli you : for we have
• ICor. 14. 25. heard °that God is with
you.

For the zeal of some is ever found to call
forth others to fulfill what is good. But what
is the aim proposed to the cities, that is, the
Gentries ? To entreat and io seek theface of tlie
Lord, i. e. Christ, Who is the exact image of
God the Father, and, as is written, ' the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of
His Person, of Whom also the divine David
saith, ' Shew Thy countenance to Thy servant.
For the Image and Countenance of God the
Father hath shone upon us. Having Him
propitious and kind, we lay aside the injury
from sin, being justified through faith, * not
by works of rigliteou.sness, which we have done,
but according to His great merey. — But how
they shall come, he explains. By the ten men
you are to understand the perfect nuraber of
those who come. For the number (ere is the
syrabol of perfection. But that those of the
Gentiles, who cleave to the holy Apostles,
took in hand to go the same way with them,
being justified by the faith in Christ, he sets
evidently before us. For little children, if
they would follow their fathers, lay hold of
the hem of their dress, and, aided by the
touch and hanging from their dress, walk
steadily and safely. In like way, they too
who *¦ wors'tiiped the creature rather than the
Creator, choosing as their true fathers the
bringers-iu ofthe Gospel-doctrines, and join
ing themselves by like-mindedness to them,
follow them, being still of childlike minds,
and go the same way, ever shewing them
selves zealous followers of their life, and by
continued progress advancing ^io a perfect
man, io the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ. But why do they follow thera?
Being persuaded that God is with them, i. e.
Emmanuel, Ood with us. But that this
calling belongs not only to those of the blood
of Israel but to all nations throughout the
world, he indicated by saying, that those who
laid hold of that hem should be of all lan
guages. But when were the nations called to
the knowledge of the truth, and when did
they desire to seek the face of the Lord and
to entreat it, and to go the same way, as it
were, as the holy Apostles, except when the
1 Heb. i, 3. ^ Ps, cxix, 1.35. = Tit, iii, 5,
*Rom, i, 25. 5Eph. iv, 13. u Gen. xlix, 10.
'Ps. Ixxxvi. 9.
8 S. John xviii, 35. " S, Matt, i, 1, xxii, 42.
i» S, John vii, 42. " Acts ii. 30. 12 Ib. xiii. 23.
la Rom. i. 1-4. " Eccl. vii. 28.

CHAPTER IX. Before
CHRIST
1 God defendeth his church. 9 '''''• ^^^-
Zion is exhorted to rejoice for
ihe coming of Ctirist, and his
peaceable kingdom. 12 God's
promises of victory and defence.
THE "burden of t h e « Jer, 23, 33.
word of the Lokd in

Only-Begotten came to us, Who is " the
e.cpeetatioHs ofthe nations ; to Whom also the
divine David singeth, ''All the nations, whom
Thou hast made, shcdl come and worship before
Thee, 0 Lord ? For the multitude of the
nations also is saved through Hira."
The startling condescension of this passage
is, that our Lord is spoken of as " a raan, a
Jew." Yet of His liuraan Nature it is not
only the simple truth, but essential to the
truth. Pilate said to Him in scorn. Am I a
Jeiv^ f Thine oivn nation a'nd the Chief Priests
hare delivered Thee unto me. But it was es
sential to the fulfillment of God's proraises.
The Christ was to be ^the Son of Darid.
'"Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh
of the seed of Darid, and out of the town of
Bethlehem, where David was f David, " being a
prophet and knowing that Ood had sworn with an
oath to him,, that of ihe fruit of his loins accord
ing to the fiesh. He would raise up Christ to rii
on his throne ; ''' Of this man's seed hath God,
according to promise, raised vnto Israel a Sa
viour, jesus. Whence S. Paul begins his
great doctrinal Epistle with this ¦ contrast,
'^the Gospel of Ood concerning His Son Jesus
Christ, which was made of ihe seed of David ac
cording to the fiesh, and declared lo be the Son of
God mth power. He was that "¦one Man
among a thousand, whom Solomon says, /
found ; but a woman among all those have I 'not
found ; the one in the whole human race. It
was fulfilled in the very letter when '^ they
brought to Him all thai were diseased, and be
sought Him that they might only touch the hem of
His garment : and as many as touched were made
perfectly whole. '" The whole multitude sought to
touch Him, for there went rirtue out of Him
ancl healed all.
Even the Jews saw the reference to the
Messiah. " "All nations shall corae, falling
on their faces before the Messiah and the
Israelites, saying. Grant, that we raay be
Thy servants and of Israel. For as re
lates to the doctrine and the knowledge of the
law, the Gentiles shall be their servants, ac
cording to that, In those days ten men &c."
IX. "1. The burden "* of the word of the Lord
16 S, Matt, xiv, 35, 36,
16 S, Luke vi, 19. add Ib, viii, 40, S, Mark v, 30,
" Pesikta Rabbathi, in Yalkut Shim 'oni ii, 56, 4.
in Schottgen ad loc. „ ¦. . -
18 On the word " Burden " see above on JNah. 1. 1.
p. 129.

394

ZECHARIAH.

c H rTs t ^^^"^ ^^"^^ °f Hadrach, and
"''"¦ ^^^- "^ Damascus shall be the rest

b Amos 1. 3.

in [or Mpore '] the land of Hadrach. The
foreground of this prophecy is the course of
the victories of Alexander, which circled
round the holy land without hurting it, and
ended in the overthrow of the Persian em
pire. The surrender of Damascus followed
tii-st, immediately on his great victory at the
Issus ; then Sidon yielded itself and received
its ruler from the conqueror, Tyre he utterly
destroyed ; Gaza, we know, perished ; he
passed harmless by Jerusalem. Saraaria, on
llis return from Egypt, he chastised.
It is now certain that there was a city
called Hadrach in the neighborhood of Da
mascus and Hamath, although its exact site
is not known. " It was first found upon the
geographical tablets ' among the Assyrian
inscriptions," " * In the catalogue of Syrian
cities, tributary to Nineveh, (of which we
have several copies in a more or less perfect
state, and varying from each other, both in
arrangement and extent) there are three
names, which are uniformly grouped together
and which we read Manatsuah, Magida [Me-
giddo] and Du'ar [Dor], As these naraesare
associated with those of Saraaria, Damascus,
Arpad, Hamath, Carchemish, Hadrach, Zobab,
there can be no doubt of the position of the
cities ''." In the Assyrian Canon, Hadrach is
the object of three Assyrian expeditions, * 9183
(B.C. 818), 9190 (Sii) and 9200 (801). The
first of these follows upon one against Damas
cus, 9182 (817). In the wars of Tiglath-pileser
ii. (the Tiglath-pileser of Holy Scripture,)
it has been twice deciphered ; 1 ) in the war
B. C. 738, 737, after the mention of " the
1 As Is. ix. 8, "The Lord sent a word upon Jacob
C3p,l''D) and it liglited on Israel" (SsTii^'^).
2 Published in the British Museum Series vol, ii,
PI, 53, Prof, Rawlinson,
3Su' H, Rawlinson, Athena?um, No, 1869, Aug, 22,
1803, p, 246, where he "published his reading, some
time after he identified it," "It has since been
identified by others,"
¦iSir H, Rawlinson adds in a note; "From the
position on the 1 ists, I should be inclined to identify
It with Homs or Edessa which was certainly a very
ancient capital, (being the Kedesh of the Egyptian
records) and wliich would not otherwise be repre
sented in the Assyrian inscriptions," Note 26, Ib,
1* Oppert in the R6vue Arch6olog-ique 1868, T, 2,
p. 323. 1 G, Smith's Assyrian discoveries p, 276,
7 Ib, p, 284,
8 in Siphre sect. Debarim (ed. Friedm. p. 65.)
0 In the time of Hadrian. Wolf Bibl. Hebr, i, 411,
10 Here,
11 David ben Abraham, MS. Opp. Add. t 2r,, quoted
by Neubauer, Geogr, du Talmud p, 298, The account
of one Joseph Abassi that " it was once a large city,
but now small ; that the Arabs told much of its
kings and princes; that it was said to have had
giants and was about 10 miles from Damascus," no
doubt relates to Edrei, See Hengstenberg Christol,
ii, 92 sqq, A. v. Kremer, Beitrage zur Geographic
des nordiichen Syriens (in d, Denltschrifieu d, Kais,

thereof: when " the eyes of ^ before ^
man, as of all the tribes of _

° 2 Chr, 20, 12. Ps, 146. 16

cities to Sana tlie mountain which is in Le
banon were divided, the land of Bahalzephin
to Ammana" (Amnion), there follows Ha
drach " ; and subsequently there are men
tioned as joined to the league, " 19 districts
of Hamath, and the cities which were round
them, which are beside the sea of the setting
sun." 2) In his " war in Palestine and Ara
bia," " '' the city of Hadrach to the land of
Sana,'' and six other cities are enumerated,
as " the cities beside the upper sea," which,
he says, " I possessed, and six of my generals
as governors over them I appointed." No
other authority nearly approaches these
times. The nearest authority is of the second
century after our Lord, A.D. 116. ""R.
Jose, born of a Damascene raother, said," an
swering R. Yehudah ben Elai ", " I call hea
ven and earth to witness upon rae, that I am
of Damascus, and that there is a place called
Hadrach." S. Cyril of Alexandria says '",
that "the land of Hadrach must be some
where in the Eastern parts, and near to
Emath (now Epiphania of Antioch) a little
further than Damascus, the metropolis ofthe
Pho2nicians and Palestine." A writer ofthe
10th century " says that there was " a very
beautiful mosque tbere, called the Mesjed-el-
Khadra, an<l that the town was named from
it." The conjecture that Hadrach raight be
the narae of a king ''', or an idol '^, will now
probably be abandoned, nor can the idea,
(which before seeraed the raost probable and
which was very old), that it was a symbolic
narae, hold any longer. For the Prophets do
use symbolic names"; but then they are
Akad. d. Wisseusch, [Wien] philos, hist, Classe, A.
1862. 2 Abth. p, 21 sqq?) and Topographie v, Damas
cus (lb, 18,64. 2 Abth. p, 1 sqq, ; 1855 2 Abth, p, 1 sqq,)
and Wetzstein d, Markt v, Damascus (ZDMG, 18oT,
p, 476 sqq.) Reisebericht lib. Hauran u. d. Trachonen
(1860), carry out the evidence that no trace of such
a place can now be found. Kohler ad loc. T. ii, p, 7.
12 The idiom, the land of, is used of a people,
Canaan, Benjamin, Israel, J'udah, Zebulon, Naphtali,
Sinim, Chittim, Egypt, Assyria, the Philistines; or
of the actual king, speaking of his territory, (as
Neh, ix, 22, they possessed the land of Sihon, ancl the
land of the king of Heshbon and the'land of Og, king
of Bashan, (Sihon and Og and the king of Heshbon
being, at the time spoken of, in actual possession
of that land); but it is nowhere used of any past
king or of an idol ; much less would it be used in
reference to an unknown king or idol, Scotland
might, in oratory, be called " land of the Bruce," or
England perhaps, " thou land of Mammon," But
it would not be called, without emphasis, "land of
Stephen " or " Edgar " or any obscure Saxon king,
18 The people, not the land, is called " the people
of Chemosh" (i, e, the people who worshiped it)
Nu, xxi, 29, Jer, xlviii, 46, Nor is there any like
name of an idol, " Derketo " (v, Alphen) would be
i<nj?"in. Hitzig gave up the combination, by
which he made the name of an idol, (KI, Proph.
Ed, 3,)
" As " Ariel," Is. xxix, 1, 2, 7 ; " The burden of the

CHAPTEE IX.

395

names which they themselves frame. Micah
again selects several names of towns, now
almost unknown and probably unimportant,
in order to impress upon his people some
meamng connected with them ', but then he
does himself so connect it. He does not
name it (so to say), leaving it to explain
itself. The name Hadrach ' would be a real
name, used symbolically, without anything
in the context to shew that it is a symbol.
The cities, upon which the burden or
heavy prophecy fell, possessed no interest for
Israel. Damascus was no longer a hostile
power; Hamath had ever been peaceable,
and was far away ; Tyre and ^idon did not
now carry on a trade in Jewish captives.
But the Jews knew from Daniel, that the era-
ph-e, to which they were in subjection, would
be overthrown by Greece '. When that rapid
attack should come, it would be a great con
solation to them to know, how they thera
selves would fare. It was a turning point in
their history and the history of the then
known world. The prophet describes* the
circuit, which the conqueror would take
around the land which God defended ; how
the thunder-cloud circled round Judsea, broke
irresistibly upon cities more powerful than
Jerusalem, but was turned aside from the
holy city in going and returning, because God
encamped around it.
"^The selection of the places and of the
whole line of country corresponds very ex
actly to the march of Alexander after the
battle of Issus, when Damascus, which Darius
desert of the sea," Ib. xxi, 1 ; "the sea," Jer, xlix,
23; "Sheshac," of Babylon, (whatever the explana
tion is, perhaps from sinking down, coll, "|3Sy Gen.
viii, 1) Jer, xxv, 26, li, 41 ; " the land Merathaim,"
C' double rebellion"), and "the inhabitants of
Pekod" ("visitation") of Babylon (Jer, I, 21); not
Dumah, which is probably a real proper name. Is,
xxi, 11; nor 'Dp 3'?, (Jer, li, 1,) for D'TOJ ; for
WWD could not be mentally substituted for it,
since TyV2i2 ''3E''' would be an impossible com
bination. For inhabitant,^ are of a land, city &c;
but O'lK?!) are the people themselves,
1 See ab. on Micah i. 10, p. 221.
2 The word, divided into two halves, would signify,
" sharp-soft," "in is used of sharpness (see on Hab,
i, 8. comp. Ps. Ivii. 5, Is. xlix, 2.); "11 of delicacy,
Deut, xxxiii, 54-56; of weakness, Ib, xx, 8, 2 Chr,
xiii, 7, And so it would si.gnify, what was in one
respect or at one time " sharp," and in or at another,
"soft," A Jewish tradition, extant in times soon
after our Lord, so explained it: "Severe to the
Gentiles, and tender to Israel," (R, Judah ben
Elai, a disciple of R, Akibah. Wolf. Bibl. Hebr, ii,
690,) S, Jerome has the same from his Jewish
teacher, "The burden of the word ofthe Lord is on
the land of Hadrach ; on which the Lord exercised
both His austerity and clemency; austerity on
those who would not believe, clemency on those
who, with the Apostles, returned to Him," The
name would have singularly suited Persia, whose
empire Alexander was engaged in destroying, when
this prophecy was fulfilled, and which was aimed
at in them. It would describe them as they were,
fierce and cruel, as conquerors, but infamous, even
among the Heathen, for their incests. Sins of the

had chosen as the strong depository of his
wealth, of Persian women of rank, confiden
tial officers and envoys'",'' was betrayed, but
so opened its gates to his general, Parraenio,
Zidon, a cify renowned for its antiquity and
its founders, surrendered freely ; Tyre, here
specially marked out, was taken after a 7
months' siege ; Gaza too resisted for 5 months,
was taken, and, as it was said, "plucked
up'." And Damascus shall be the rest thereof.
God's judgment fell fii-st upon Damascus.
But the word " resting-jilace " is commonly
used of quiet peaceful resting, especially as
given by God to Israel ; of the ark, the token
of the Presence of God, after its manifold re
movals, and of the glorious dwelling-place of
the Christ among men ". The prophet seems
then purposely to have chosen a word of
large meaning, which should at once express
(as he had before^), that the word of God
should fall heavily on Damascus and yet be
its resting-place. Plence, about the time of
our Lord, the Jews interpreted this of the
coming of the Messiah, that "'"Jerusalem
should reach to the gates of Damascus. Since
Damascus shall be the place of His rest, but
the place of His rest is only the house of the
sanctuary, as it is said. This is My rest for ever ;
here will I dwell." Another added", "All
the prophets and all prophesied but of the
years of redemption and the days of the
Messiah." Damascus, on the conversion of
S. Paul, became the first resting-place of the
word of God, the first-fruits of the Gentiles
flesh, destroying pure love, brutalizing the soul, dis
organizing the frame, are parents of ferocity, from
which voluptuousness seems at first sight most
alien. s Dan. viii. 20, 21, ¦! Sec below on ver. 8. *"
6 Pusey's "Daniel the Prophet," pp, 279, 230.
sGrote's Greece xii, 173, 4,
l Ka.reaTio.iTn.ivi), Strabo xvi, 2, 30,
* nni JD is used of rest or a place of rest, given by
God, Deut. xii, 9, Ps, xxiii. 2, xcv. 11, Mi. li. 10, Is.
xxviii. 12, xxxii, 18 ; dwelling of God, Ps, cxxxii, 8,
14, Is. Ixvi. 1 ; for the ark, 1 Chr, xxviii, 2 ; of the
Messiah, Is, xi, 10, It is probably a proper name,
Jud, XX. 43,
"n'jri Zech, vi, 8,
lO R. Johanan in Midrash Shir Hasshirim on Cant,
vii. 4 in Raym. Pug. Fid, 643, This Midrash gives
a second mystical interpretation of Hadrach, "Had
rach CITin) is the King Messiah, Who is lo guid«
(TTin'7) all who come into the world by repent
ance before God, Blessed for ever." Ib, "R, Joha
nan was a disciple of the elder Hillel and Shammai,
according to the PirkS Aboth e, 2 ; prince of Israel
for 40 years, 5 of them after the destruction ot the
temple. Rashi on cod, Rosh Hasshana, end," Wolf
Bibl, Hebr, ii, 844,
"Mar (quoted by Rashi) i,e. Rabbi ben Nachman
"Rector of the Academy of Pombedita in 300," De
Rossi Diet, St. V. Rabboth, Ibn Ezra has; "the
rest of the prophecy shall be on Damascus; for this
prophecy shall be fulfilled, connected with the
second temple; For the eyes of man are to the
Lord; for many from the men of Damascus shall
return to worship the Lord and to turn to the obe
dience of Israel in Jerusalem," And so Kimchi,
"Damascus shall be His resting-place, i,e, the She
chinah of His glory and prophecy."

396

ZECHARIAH.

c H R°i s T -'^^I'^^j') ^^^^^^ ^s toward the
"'¦•• -ts^- Lord.

4 Jer. 49. 23.

2 And ''Hamath also

whom the Apostle of the Gentiles gathered
from East to West throughout the world.
When [or Foi-] the eyes of man, as [lit. and
i. e. especially beyond others] of all ihe tribes
of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. This also
implies a conversion of Gentiles, as well as
Jews. For man, as contrasted with Israel,
must be the heathen world, mankind '-
" '' The eyes of all raust needs look in adora
tion to God, expecting all good from Him,
because the Creator of all provided for the
well-being of all, as the Apostle says, ^ Is He
the God of the Jews only f Is He not also of the
Gentiles ? Yea, of the Gentiles also. God's
tirae of delivering His people is, when they
pray to Him, So Jelioshaphat prayed, * 0
our God, ivUt Tkou not judge iliem'f For we
have no strength against this great company,
which is come against us, and we know not what |
we shall do ; but our eyes are ¦ on Thee ^ ; and
the Psalmist says, " The eyes of all wait toward
Tliee ; and, ' as the eyes of servants are unto
ihe hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a
maiden are unto tlie hand of her mistress, so our
eyes are 'unlo the Lord our Ood, until He have
mercy upon us. " For in those days," says a
Jew, who represents the traditional interpre
tation', "raan shall look to his Creator, and
his eyes shall look to the Blessed One, as it
was said above, we will go with you, and they
shall join themselves, they and their cities,
to the cities of Israel." And another " ; "In
ftiose days the eyes of all mankind shall be
to the Lord, not to idols or images ; therefore
the land of Hadrach and Damascus, and the
other places near the land of Israel — shall be
included araong the cities of Judah, and shall
be in the faith of Israel."
2. And Hamath also shall border thereby '".
iSo Israel and man (DTKH) are contrasted in
Jer. xxxii. 20.
2 Rib, 3 Rom, iii, 29. 4 2 Chron. xx. 12.
^^^\'Ji2!^' ySj4 Ps, cxlv, 15; without '¦y^ Ps, civ,
27; and in the same sense, with ^, "inj^lty'''? '01317
Ps, cxix, ICO,
'Ps, cxxiii, 2. God's eye is said to be VXT h^,
toward tliem that fear Him, Ps, xxxiii, 18, or iu Ez
ra's Chaldee, The eye of their God was upon the eldei'S
CyO 1}}) of the Jews (Ezr, v, 5,), or, the eyes of the
Lord thy God are upon it (the land) ^2, De xi, 12 ;
but there is no construction like D1K Vp "" 7 "the
Lord hath an eye on (obj.) man" (as lxx. Jon. Syr,)
The passages. Whose eyes are opened (n'inp3) upon
all the ways of the sons of men, io give &c, (Jor, xxxii.

shall border thereby ; ° Ty- ^ before ^
rus, and ''Zidon, though it «'''¦ ^87.
T . • 0 Isai. 23.
be very « wise. Ezek, 26, & -7,
& 28, Amos 1,9, ' 1 Kin, 17. 9. Ezek, 28, 21. Obad, 20.
B Ezek, 28. 3, &c.

Near to it in place aud character, it shall
share its subdual. After the betrayal of
Daraascus, Parraenio was set over all Syria.
" " The Syrians, not as yet taraed by the
losses of war, despised the new empire, but,
swiftl}' subdued, they chd obediently what
they were comraanded."
And Zidon. Zidon, although probably older
than Tyre'^, is here spoken of parentheti
cally, as subordinate. Perhaps, owing to its
situation, it was a wealthy''', rather than a
strong place. Its narae is " Fishing-town ; "
in Joshua, it is called " the great '*,'' perhaps
the metropolis ; while Tyre is named from
its strength '^ It infected Israel with its
idolatry '", and is mentioned araong the na
tions who oppressed them and from whom
God delivered them on their prayers", proba
bly under Jabin. In the time of the Judges,
it, not Tyre, was looked to for protection '*.
In the times of Ezekiel it had become subor
dinate, furnishing "rowers'^" to Tyre; but
Esarhaddon, about 80 years before, boasts
that he liacl taken it, destroyed its inhabit
ants, and repeopled it with men from the
East, building a new city which he called by
his own name ™- Tyre too had been taken by
Nebuchadnezzar '". At the restoration from
the captivity, Sidon had the first place ^'',
which it retained in the time of Xerxes '".
But Artaxerxes Ochus gained possession of it
by treachei-y, when all Phcenicia revolted
from Persia, and, besides tliose crucified,
40,000 of its inhabitants i^erislied by their
own hands ^¦', twenty years before the inva
sion of Alexander, to whom it submitted
willingly ''.
The prophet having named Tyre and
Zidon together, yet continues as to Tyre
19), "His eyes behold the nations" (nPiDVn D'1J3
Ps, l.xvi. 7), are altogether different, "Tlie eye of"
must be construed as "his own eye,"
8 Rashi, 8 Kimchi,
10 It might be also, and Hamath too, which bordereth
thereby, viz, shall be the place of its rest, as well as
Damascus, but it seems not so forcible,
11 Q. Curtius iv. 1.
12 " The Tyrians are often called Sidonians ; the
Sidonians are never called Tyrians."
Xi Its manufactures of silver bowls and of female
robes of great beauty, are mentioned bv Homer (II,
vi. 289, xxiii, 743, 744; Od, iv, 614-018,); 'Homer does
not name Tyre,
"Jos. xi. 8, xix, 28, i5Ib, xix, 29, wjud, x. 6,
" Ib, 12, 18 Ib, xviii, 7, 28, i» Ezek, xxvii, 8.
20 Inscription of Esarhaddon (Annals of the past
iii, 112), Such names, in the East, last only with the
conquerors, 21 See vol. i. pp, 249, 250, and, more fully, "Daniel
the Prophet," pp, 289, 290,
22 Ezr, iii, 7, 23Herod. viii. 67, see also vii, 9, 6.
24 Diod. xvi. 41 sqq. Mela i, 12. 20 Curt. iv. 3.

CHAPTER IX.

397

Before
CHRIST cir, 487.
¦¦Job 27. 16.
Ezek. 28. 4, 5.

3 And Tyrus did build
herself a strong hold, and
¦' heaped up silver as the
dust, and fine gold as the
mire of the streets.

alone, as being alone of account in the days
of which he is speaking, those of Alexander.
Although, rather, because she is very wise.
Man's own wisdom is his foolishness and de
struction, as the foolishness of God is liis wisdom
and salvation. God ' taketh the 'wise in thdr
own craftiness. ' For afier tliat, in the wisdom of
Ood, tlie world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased Ood by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe. Of the Hagarenes it is
said, they ' seek wisdom upon earth ; 'none of
these k'now the vxiy of wisdom, or remember her
paths. The wisdom of Tyre was the source
of her pride, and so of her destruction also.
^Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast
said, I am a god, I sit in tlie seat of Ood, in the
midst of the seas ; yet thou ¦ art a m.an and not
God, ihough thou hast set thine heart as the heart
of Ood; behold thou art wiser than Daniel,
there is no secret that they can hide from thee.
Therefore Iwill bring strangers upon thee — they
shall bring thee down to ihe pit. So of Edom
Obadiah says, * Tlic pride of thy heart hath de
ceived ihee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the
rock. ShaU I not destroy the wise men out of
Edom, and understanding ont of ihe mount of
Esau f
3. And Tyre did build herself a stronghold.
She built it for herself, not for God, and
trusted to it, not to God, and so its strength
brought her the greater fall. The words in
Hebrew express yet more. "Tyre " {2^r) lit.
" the rock," built herself mazor, tower, a rock
like fort, as it were, a rock upon a rock for
exceeding strength, binding her together.
""The walls, 150 feet high and of breadth
proportionate, compacted of large stones, em
bedded in gyp!3ura," seemed to defy an enemy
who could only approach her by sea. " ' In
order to make the wall twice as strong they
built a second wall ten cubits broad, leaving
a space between of five cubits, which they
filled with stones and earth." Yet liigh
walls do not fence in only ; they also hem in.
Mazor is both " a stronghold " and " a siege."
¦Wealth and strength, without God, do but
invite and embitter the spoiler and the con
queror." A'nd she heaped up rilver as the dust, and fine
1 Job V. 13. 2 1 Cor. 1. 21, s Baruch iii, 23,
4Ezek, xxviii, 2,8, 'Ob, 3, 8. o Arrian ii, 21.
' Diod, Sic, xvii, 43, 'Job xxvii, 16,
» 2 Chron, ix, 27, i« Diod, Sic, xvii, 40, n Theod,
' 12 ty'iv, of God, is chiefly used of the driving out
the Canaanitish nations before Israel, Ex, xxxiv,
24, Nu, xxxii, 21, Ps, xliv, 3, 1 Kgs xiv. 24, xxi, 20, 2
Kgs xvi. 3, xvii. 8. xxi. 2.

4 Behold, 'the Lord chrTst
will cast her out, and he ,^_£Eii§Z:___
will smite ''her power in i isai. 23, i.
the sea; and she shall be
devoured with fire.

gold as the mire of the streets. Though he heap
up silver as ihe dust. Job says . * The King,
Solomon, made silver in Jerusalem as stones ".
Through her manifold comraerce she gath
ered to herself wealth, as abundant as the
mire and the dust, and as valueless. " Gold
and silver," said a heathen, " are but red and
white earth." Its strength was its destruc-
ticra. Tyre determined to resist Alexander,
" '" trusting in the strength of the island,
and the stores which they had laid up," the
strength within and without, of which the
Prophet speaks.
4. Behold. Such were the preparations of
Tyre. Over against them, as it were, the
prophet sets belore our eyes the counsels of
God. " " Since they had severed themselves
from the providence of God, they were now
to experience His power." The Lord will cast
her out ", lit. deprive her of her possessions,
give her an heir of what she had amassed,
viz : the enemy ; and he will smite her power
or wealth '^, of which Ezekiel says, '* With thy
wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast
gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and. sil
ver into thy treasures : by the g^realness of thy
wisdom and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy
riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy
riches'^. All wherein she relied, and so too
the stronghold itself, God would smite in the
sea. The sea was her confidence and boast.
She said "^ I am a Ood; I rit in ihe seat of
Ood, in the midst of ihe seas.
The scene of her pride was to be that of
her overthrow ; the waves, which girt her
round, should bury her ruins and wash over her
site. Even in ihe scathe hand of God should find
her, and smite her 'in it, and into it, and so
that she should abide in it. " " They mocked
at the king, as though he thought to prevail
against Neptune [the sea]." "'"Ye despise
this land-army, through confidence in the
place, that ye dwell in an island," was the
message of Alexander, " but soon will I shew
you that ye dwell on a continent."
Every device had been put in force in its
defence : the versatility by which the inhab
itants of an island, some 2 J miles in cir
cumference, held at bay the conqueror of the
i^S'n cannot be here the outer wall (onwhich
see Nah, iii, 8, ab, p, 166, n, 2.) which was useless in
island Tyre, whose walls rising from the sea needed
no outer wall and admitted of no fosse or pomce-
rium, ,
14 Ezek, xxviii, 4, 5, '^IfW
i« Ezek. xxviii. 2. „ „ . .
II Diod. Sic. xvii. 41. " Q- Curt. iv. 7.

398

ZECHARIAH.

5 ' Ashkelon shall see it.

Before
CHRIST oir. 487, ahd fear ; Gaza also shall

1 Jer, 47. 1, 6.
Zeph. 2. 4.

see it, and be very sorrow-

battle of Issus with unlimited resources,
" ' engineers from Cyprus and all Phosnicia,"
and "^a fleet of 180 ships from Cyprus,"
attests the wisdom in which the prophet
says, she would trust. "' She )iad already a
profusion of catapults and other machines
useful in a siege, and easily prepared mani
fold others by the makers of war-engines and
all sorts of artificers whora she had, and
these invented new en_;ines of all sorts ; so
that the whole circuit of the city was filled
with engines." Divers who should loosen
the mole; grappling hooks and nets to en
tangle near-assailants ; melted metal or
he;ited sand to penetrate between the joints
of their armor ; bags of sea-weed to deaden
the blows of the battering raachines; a fire-
ship navigated so as to destroy the works of
the eneray, while its sailors escaped; fiery
arrows ; wheels set in continual raotion, to
turn aside the missiles against them'*, bear
witness to an unwearied inventiveness of de
fence. The temporary failures might have
shaken any mind but Alexander's (who is
even said to have hesitated*) but thathe dared
not, by abandoning the enterprise, lose the
prestige of victory. Yet all ended in the
massacre of 6, 7, or 8000 of her men, the
crucifi.xion of 2000, the sale of the rest,
whether 13,000 or 30,000, into slavery".
None escaped save those whom the Sidonians
secreted in the vessels', with which they
had been compelled to serve against her.
Ani she herself^, when her strength is over
thrown, shall be devoured with fire. " ' Alex
ander, baving slain all, save those who fled
to the temples, ordered the houses to be set
on fire."
5. Ashkelon shall see and fear. The words
express that to see and /ear shall be as one'.
The mightiest and wealthiest. Tyre, having
fallen, the neighbor cities of Philistia who
had hoped that her raight should be their
stay, shall stand in fear and shame. Tyre,
being a merchant-city, the raother-city of
the cities of the African coast and in Spain,
its desolation caused the more terror '".
» Arr, ii, 21, 2 Q. Curt, iv, 13. " Diod, Sic, xvii. 41.
4 Q, Curt, iv, 11-16, Arrian ii, 18-22,
6 Diod, Sic, xvii. 42-46,
8 Diod, xvii, 46, Q, Curt, iv, 19, Arr ii, 24,
¦IQ, Curt, Lc. ss'ni emph, "KT'ill-Niri,
10 Is, xxiii. 5-11.
11 Herodotus states it to have been the wont of the
Persian monarchs to put the sons even of revolted
kings on their fathers' thrones (iii. 16), and in the
review of the Persian troops under Xerxes mentions
different tribut.ary kings, among whom the king of
Sidon had flrst rank ; then theking of Tvre ; then
the rest (viii, 67), Josephus speaks of " the kings
of Syria,'' (Ant, xi, 8. 5,)

fill, and Ekron; for her chrTst
expectation shall be__5iLi!!^_
ashamed; and the king

And the [a] king shall perish from Gaza, i, e.
it shall have no more kings. It had been
the policy of the world-empires to have trib
utary kings in tbe petty kingdoms which
they conquered, thus providing for their con
tinued tranquil submission to theraselves".
The internal governraent remained as before :
the people felt no difierence, except as to the
payment of the tribute. The policy is ex-
IDressed by the title " king of kings," which
they successively bore. Sennacherib speaks
of the kings of Ascalon, Ekron and Gaza'^.
A contemporary of Alexander'* mentions,
that the king of (iaza was brought alive to
Alexander on its capture, Alexander's
policy was essentially difierent frora that of
the world-monarchs before him. They de
sired only to bold an empire as wide as pos
sible, leaving the native kings, if they could ;
and only, if tliese were intractable, placing
their own lieutenants. Alexander's policy
was to blend East and West into one'*.
These petty sovereignties, so many insulated
centres of mutual repulsion, were essentially
at variance with tliis plan, and so this rem
nant of sovereignty of 1500 years was taken
away by him, when, after a siege in which
he hiraself was twice wounded, he took it.
Alexander wholly depopulated it, and re-
peopled the city with strangers.
And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. Ash-
kel')n yielded at once to Jonathan, when he
"camped against it'*," after he had taken
and " burned Ashdod and the cities round
about it," In another expedition of Jona
than its inhabitants "'^met hira honorably,"
while " they of Gaza shut him out" at first.
" "Simon — passed through the country unto
Ascalon, and the holds tbere adjoining,"
without resistance, whereas "he turned aside
to Joppe, and won it." He placed Jews in
Gaza, but of Ascalon nothing is said. The
ruins of a Christian city, built on its site,
" khirbet-Ascalon," have been lately dis
covered in the hills near Tell Zakariyeh'^,
and so, a little South of Timnath, a Philis
tine city in the days of Samson, whence
12 in Layard ISIin. and Bah, p, 144,
13 Hegcsias in Dionys, Hal, de comp, verb, c, 18,
T, V, p, 125, Reiske. There is much obscurity about
the individual. Dion, Hal, has, "its kin.g Baistis
or Baistios;" Arrian (ii. 25) mentions ii.atis, an
Eun uch and so a Persian officer, as " having supreme
authority over Gaza;" /cparajf t, Ta^aioiv TroAeois, Q,
Curtius says, " Betis was over the city " (iv, 26),
" Josephus (Ant, xi, 84.) says that " the name of the
commandant of the garrison was Babemeses,"
14 See " Daniel the Prophet," pp, 142-145.
151 Mace. X, 86, i«Ib, xi, 00, 01, " Ib, xii. 33.
18 " The name was given twice to Lient. Conder
and 3 times to Corporal Brophy by different wit-

CHAPTER IX.

399

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

o Amos 1. 8.

shall perish from Gaza,
and Ashkelon shall not be
inhabited. 6 And a bastard shall
dwell in ""Ashdod, and I
will cut off the pride of the
Philistines.

Samson went to it, to gain the 30 changes of
raiment'. Commentators have assigned
reasons, why Samson might have gone so far
as the maritime Ascalon, whereas, in fact, he
went to a city close by.
That city," in 536 A.D., had its Bishop ^
"'The site shews the remains of an early
Christian Church or convent : " as a great
lintel of stone*, resembling somewhat the
Maltese Cross, lies on the ground." It was
probably destroyed by the inundation of
Mohammedan conquest. In 1163 A. D. it
was a ruin. The distance of the ruins from
the Ascalon Maiumas corresponds to that as
signed by Benjamin of Tudela, being twice
the distance of that city from Ashdod ^ ; but
since he was at Beth Jibrin ^, he must have
been not far from the spot where it has been
lately discovered'. The Ashkelon, which
was Herod's birth-place and which he beau
tified, must have been the well-known -city
by the sea; since the distance from Jerusa
lem assigned by Josephus' is too great for
the old Ashkelon, and he speaks of it as on
the sea '.
6. And a bastard shall dwell at Ashdod'".
nesses," " so that there is no doubt (Lieut. Cobder
subjoins) that it is a well-known site." Lieut.
Condor's Report N, xxxiv. p. 163. 1 Jud, xiv, 19,
2 See ab. p. 244, 3 Lieut, Conder, Ib, 4"Sueh
lintels are to be found in all that class of ruins,
which date from about the 5th to the 7th century ."lb.
'He says that the new Ashkelon, that on the sea,
is 2 parasangs from Aslidod, 4 from the old Ashke
lon. 1 Travels, p. DD.
'T Jeremiah, xlvii, 7, How can it (the sword of the
Lord) be quiet, seei.ng that the Lord has given it a
. charge against Ashkelon, and against tiie sea-shore ?
has ofteii been wrongly quoted in proof that Ash
kelon was on the sea-snore," On the contrary,
Jeremiah spealvs of thein as distinct ; " again.st Ash
kelon and against the sea-shore," The D"n Hin, in
the 3 other places, in which it occurs, is only a title
for Philistia itself, as l,ving between the Shephelah
and the sea. Thus m Deut, i, 7, Palestine is divided
into the hill country, the 'Arabah, the Shephelah,
the Nejeb, and the D'H ^IH. In Joshua, ix. 1, the
division is, "the hill country, the Shephelah, and
the whole coast of the great sea, D'H 'lin I J
'rnjn." Ezeldel (xxv. 16.) uses D'H flin,as
equivalent to the Cherethim and Philistim, whom
he had named iu v. 6. Jeremiah names together
the whole tract and a chief city of it, as the
prophets so often speak of " Judah and Jerusalem,"
8 520 stadia, B, J, iii, 2, 1, o Ib, iv, 11, 5.
'OQn the omission of Gath see on Am. i, 6,
11 CK iropv^s, o in Deut. xxiii. 3 ; " de scorto," Vulg,
and so Saad, ; " son of adultery," Syr, With this

7 And I will take away ^ g fTs t
his fblood out of his mouth, "ir- ^s'? ¦

and his abominations trom ¦fseh. bloods.
between his teeth : but he
that remaineth, even he,
shall he for our God, and
he shall be as a governor

The " mamzer " was one born unlawfully,
whether out of marriage, or in forbidden
marriage, or in adultery ". Here it is, pro
bably, like our " spurious brood ''' ; " whetlier
it was so itself or in the eyes of the Ashdo
dites ; whence he adds,
/ will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
Pride would survive the ruin of their coun
try, the capture of their cities, the loss of
independence. It would not survive the loss
of their nationality; for they themselves
would not be the same people, who were
proud of their long descent and their victo
ries over Israel. The breaking down of
nationalities, which was the policy of Alex
ander, was an instruraent in God's hands in
cutting ofif their pride.
7. And I will take away his bloods out of his
mouth. The abominations being idol-sacri
fices", the bloods will also be, the blood
mingled with the wine of sacrifices, of which
David says, '* Their drink-offerings of' blood will
I not offer; and Ezekiel unites the offences,
" '* Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes
toward your idols, and shed blood,"
But he thai remaineth, better. And he too
agrees the opinion of R, Joshua A,D, 73, "every
one, for wlioni the,v are guilty of death in the
house of judgment!" R, Joshua b, Azai says, ' I
have found a roll of genealogies in Jerusalem, and
there was written in it, ' M,, a mamzer from a man's
wife;' to confirm the words of R, Joshua," in Yeba-
moth c, 4, g 13, R, Akiba's opinion was, that "it
was any near of kin, with whom marriage was for
bidden ;" Simon the Temanite said, "any liable to
excision at the hands of God," Ib, in Ges, Thes. p,
781 sub. V. Of the etymologies, Kimchi's is perhaps
the most probable, that it is from IIT, the two
D's being added, as in nn JDD, Joel i. 17,
12 The Lxx. Jon, Syr, agree in the rendering,
" strangers," Jon, and the Syr, using the same
word; K^bU Pesh,; "and the children of Israel
shall dwell in Ashdod, who were in it, as strangers "
(I'N13U3), Jen- -A-Q- Symm, Theod. retain the
Hebrew word, as do Onk. and Sam. in Deut,
i^ripiy always retains its appellative sense. It is
not merely "idols," but idols, in that they were
" abomin.ations," It is generally in constr,, "the
abomination of" such a nation, 1 Kgs xi, 6, 7 [bis],
2 Kgs xxiii. 13 [bis], " the abomination of his, their,
eyes," Ezek. xx, 7, 8 ; or with the personal pronoun
as here, Deut. xxix, 16, Is, Ixvi, 3, Jer, [5 times]
Ezek, [6 times]. In a few places it stands absolutely,
in its original appellative sense, Nah, iii, 6; allu
sively to the idol abominations, Hos, ix, 10; with
art. the [idol] abominations (2 Kgs xxiii, 24, 2 Chr,
XV, 8) ; and the abomination of desolation, Dan,
ix, 27, xi, 31, xii, 11, [all],
'4 Ps, xvi, 4, "• Ezek. xxxiii. 25.

400

ZECHARIAH.

c H rTs t ^°- Ju'i^^) ^^^ Ekron as a
™' ¦ts^- Jebusite.

n Ps, 34, 3,
ch, 2. 5.

8 And "I will encamp
about mine house because

shall remain over to our Ood. Of the Philis
tines too, as of Israel, a remnant shall be
saved. After this visitation their idolatry
should cease ; God speaks of the Philistine
nation as one man; He M'ould wring his
idol-sacrifices and idol-enjoyments from him ;
he should exist as a nation, but as God's.
And he shall be as a governor in Judah, lit.
" a captain of a thousand," merged in Ju
dah as in a larger whole, as each tribe was
divided into its " thousands," yet intimately
blended, in no inferior position, with tiie
people of God, as each converted nation be
came an integral yet unseparated whole in
the people of God.
Ancl Ekron as a Jebusite. Ekron was ap
parently the least important of tlie i'ew re
maining Philistine cities ' ; yet he shall be,
as tliose of the Canaanite nations who were
not destroyed, nor fled, but in the very capi
tal and centre of Israel's worship, ' dwelt with
the children of Benjamin and Judah, and were,
as a type of the future conversion and ab
sorption of the heathen, incorporated into
Judah. 8. And I will encamp about my house {for '
my house's sake) because of ihe army'' ; because,
it is added in explanation, of him that passeth
by and of him that returneth ; Alexander, who
passed by with his army, on his way to
Egypt, and returned, having founded Alex
andria. It was a raost eventful raarch ; one of the
raost eventful in the history of raankiiid.
The destruction of the Persian erapire, for
which it prepared, was in itself of little
moment ; Alexander's own erapire was very
brief. As Daniel had foretold^, he came,
cast down Pei-sia to the ground, waxed very
great, and when he was strong, the great horn
was broken. But with the marvelous percep
tion which characterized hira, he saw and
impressed upon his successors the dependi-
bleness of the Jewish people. \Vhen he
came into Judsea, he sent to tlie high priest
for aid against Tyre and for the like tribute
as he used to pay to Darius, promising that
1 See on Jo. i, 8, vol, i, ,
2 Josh, XV, 63, Jud, i, 21, s Tl'ai.
* n^V, for J^^y, according to the Masorites as
1 in the verb also. Is. xxix. 7, So Symm, kioKvoiv
^ o-TpaTGia?. The context also favors the readin,g ;
for unless the passers by and returners had been a
powerful army, there had been no occasion for that
defence of which God speaks. The correction
nnXD would come to the same, "a military post;"
only, in actual use, this is a " fort," " fortress," 1
Sam, xiv, 12, i, q, 3KD lb, xiii, 23, xiv. 1, 4, 6, 11, 15,

of the army, because of qj^'jJ°i''|t
him that passeth by, and ^_£iLi?li_
because of him that re- „ .
' Isai, 60. 18.
turneth: and "no oppressor Ezek, 28,24,

he would not repent of choosing the friend
ship of the Macedonians*. The high priest
refused on the ground of the oath, by whicli
his people were bound in fealty to the
earthly king cf kings, whom Alexander
came to subdue. Alexander threatened to
te;ieh all, through its fate, to whom fealty
was due. This, after the conquest of Gaza,
he prepared to fulfill. He came, he saw, he
was conquered. ' Jaddua and his people
prayed to God. Tau.-^ht by God in a dream
not to fear, he went to meet the conqueror.
The gates of the city were thrown open.
There marched out, not an army such as
encountered the Romans, but as he had
been taught, a multitude in white garments,
and the priests going before in their rai
raent of fine linen. The high priest, in his
apparel of purple and gold, having on his
head the mitre, and on it the golden plate ",
whereon was written the name of God, ad
vanced alone, and the Conqueror, who was
expected to give the city to be plundered,
and the high priest to be insulted and slain,
kissed the name of God, recognizing in the
priest one whom he had seen in the like
dress in a dream, who had bidden him, when
hesitating, cross to Asia ; for that he would
go before his army and deliver the Persian
empire to hira.
The result is related to have been, that
.Alexander promised to allow the Jews in
Judnea to live according to their own laws,
remitted the tribute of every seventh year,
acceded beforehand to the terms to be pro
posed by those in Babylonia and Media, and
tliat many Jews joined his army, under con
dition that they might live under their own
laws. Rationalism, while it remains such, can
not adrait of Daniel's prophecies which the
high priest shewed hira, declaring that a
Greek should destroy the Persian erapire,
which Alexander rightly interpreted of
hiraself.' But the facts remain ; that the
conqueror, who, above most, gave way to his
anger, bestowed privileges almost incredible
2 Sam, xxiii, 14, 3i*p Is. xxix. 3, is a work on the
offensive, not defensive. Ewald comes to the same
sense, that God would protect her against any one
coming against her,
6 Dan, viii, 7, 8, "Jos. Ant. xi. 8, 3. ' Ib. n. 5,
8 Justin says, "then he, Alexander, goes to Syria,
where many lyings of the East with fillets met him.
Of these, according to their deserts, he received
some into alliance; others he deprived of their
li:ingdora, putting other kings in their place,"
xi, 10.

CHAPTER IX.

401

chrTIt ^^^11 pass through them
cir. 487, any more : for now ¦' have

pEx, 3. 7. I seen with mine eyes.

on a nation, which under the Medes and
Persians had been " ' the most despised part
of the enslaved ; " made thera equal in priv
ileges to his own Macedonians^, who could
hardly brook the absorption of the Persians,
although in inferior condition, araong them
selves '¦'. The most despised of the enslaved
became the most trusted of the trusted.
They became a large portion of the second
and third then known cities of tbe world.
They became Alexandrians, Antiochenes,
Ephesians*, without ceasing to be Jews.
The law coramanded faithfulness to oaths,
and they who despised their religion re
spected its fruits.
The immediate successors of Alexander,
Ptolemy Lagi° and Antiochus Nicator, fol
lowed his policy ; Ptolemy especially on the
ground of the fealty shewn to Darius ; Nica
tor, as having observed their faithfulness as
soldiers, who had served with him * ; but
they were so enrolled on this visit to Jerusa
lera. The Heathen kings multiplied, in their
own purpose, faithful subjects to theraselves ;
in God's design, they prepared in Asia and
Egypt a seed-plot for the Gospel. The set
tlement of the Jews at Alexandria formed
the language of the Gospel ; that wonderful

1 Tacitus limits the description to the time,
"when the East belonged to the Assyrians, Medes
and Persians," Hist, v. 8,
2 "Alexander gave them (the Jews) a place to
dwell in, and tliey obtained equal rank with the
Macedonians, I know not what Apion would have
said, had they been settled near the Necropolis
aud not near the palace, and were not their race
now too called 'Macedonians,' If then he (Apion)
has read the Epistles of Alexander the King, and
has met with the rescripts of Ptolemy Lagi and the
kings after him, and has lighted on the column
which stands in Alexandria and contains the rights
given by the great Caesar to the Jews; if, I say,
he knows these things, and, knowing them, has
dared to write the contraiy, he is unprincipled;
if he knew nothing of them, lie is ill-instructed."
"Alexander collected some of our people there,
not for want of such as should colonize the city
which he founded with great earnestness. But
carefully proving all as to good faith and probity,
he gave this distinction to our people. For he
honored our nation, as Hecatieus too says of us,
that, for the probity and good faith which the Jews
evinced toward him, he gave them in addition the
territory of Samaria to hold, free from tribute.
And Ptolemy Lagi too wa= like-minded with Alex
ander as to those who dwelt in Alexandria," Jos, Ib,
This early equalizing ofthe Jews with Alexandrians
is recognized in the edict of Claudius ; " Having
learnt that the Jews in Alexandria were from the
first callei Alexandrians, having been settled there
together with the Alexandrians straightway at the
earliest period, and having received from the kings
equal citizenship, as appeared plain both from their
letters and from the ordinances," &c, [in Jos. Ant.
xix, 5, 2,] in Pusey's "Daniel the ("rophet," p,
146, n, 3. "Arr, vii, 6.
26

9 «f[ " Eejoice greatly, O ^ ^fefore ^_
daughter of Zion; shout, cir, 4s7,

O daughter of Jerusalem :' oh!'2,''i6,^^'
Matt, 21. 6, John 12. 15.

blending of the depth of the Plebrew with
the clearness and precision of the Greek.
Everywhere the seed of the preparatory dis
pensation was sown, to be fostered, grow and
ripen with the iiarvest of the Gospel.
For now have I seen with Mine eyes. This is
the counterpart of what the Psalraists and
pious men so often pray, ' Awake to help me
and behold; 'Look down from heaven, behold
and visit this vine ; ^ Look upon my trouble from
them that hate me; '"Look upon my affliction
and my Iroidile ; look upon my enemies, for they
are many ; " Look upon my adversity and deliver
me ; " 0 Lord, behold my afflietion ; '^ Behold,
0 Lord, for I am in distress ; " Look and
behold my reproach ; "> Open Thine eyes, 0
Lord, and see ; '^ Look down from heaven, and
behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and
glory. With Ciod, compassion is so intrinsic
an attribute, that He is pictured as looking
away, when He does not put it forth. ^Vith
God, to behold is to help.
9. From the protection, which God pro
mised to His people and to His House,
the Prophet passes on lo Him Who was ever
in his thoughts, and fbr Whose sake that
people and temple were preserved. He had
described the great conqueror of this world,

4" His (Apion's) marveling, how, being Jews, they
were called Alexandrians, betrays the same ignor
ance. For all who are invited into a given colony,
much as they differ in race, taiic their name from
its founders. Those of us, who dwell at Antioch,
are called Antiochenes, Fur Seleucus, the founder,
gave them citizenship. And so too in Ephesus, and
the rest of Ionia, they bear the same name with
the natives, the Successors (of Alexander) having
given it to them," Jos. c. Ap, ii, 4, See Pusey's
" Daniel the Prophet," p. 146, n. 2.
5 Ptolemy Lagi, " understanding that, those from
Jerusalem were most reliable as to their oaths and
fealty, (from the answer which they gave to the
embassy of Alexander after he had conquered
Darius,) having located many of them in the garri
sons and given them equal rights of citizenship with
the Macedonians in Alexandria, took an oath of them
that they would keep fealty to the descendants of
him who gave them this charge. And no few of
the other Jews came of their own accord into
Egypt, invited by the goodness of the soil and the
liberality of Ptolemy." Jos, Ant, xii, 1, Ib, p, 145.
n, 8,
C'They (the Jews) obtained the honor from the
kings of Asia also, having served in the army with
them. For Seleucus ^'icator, in the cities which
he founded in Asia and in lower Syria, and in the
metropolis itself, Antioch, conferred on them citi
zenship, and made them rank with the Mace
donians and Greeks who were settled therein, so
that this citizenship remains even now also." Ant.
Xli, 3, Ib. p. 146, n, 1,
' Ps, I ix, 4, 8 lb, Ixxx, 14, 5 lb. ix, 13,
10 Ib, xxv. 18, 19, 11 Ib. cxi.x. 16.3.
12 Lam, i. 0. add 11, li, 20, « lb, i, 20,
14Ib, V, 1,
15 1s, xxxvii. 17, Dan, ix. 18. i^Is. Ixiii, 15,

402

ZECHARIAH.

c H r7s t behold, '' thy King cometh
cir 4,S7 ' Jer, 23, 5, & 30, 9, Luke 19, 38,
 John 1, 49,

, sweeping along in his course of victory. In
contrast with such as he, he now exhibits to
his people the character and procession of
their king. B^oice greatly. Not with this
world's joy. God never exhorts man to rejoice
greatly in this world's fleeting joys. He
allows us to be glad, as children, before Him ;
He peruiits such buoyancy of heart, if inno
cent; but pie does not command it. Now
He commands His people to burst out into a
jubilee of rejoicing : they were to dance and
shout for gladness of spirit; " despising the poor
exultation of this world and exulting with that
exceeding" yet chaste joy, which befits the
true bliss to be brought hj their King and
Saviour. " ' This word, greatly, means that
there should be no raeasure whatever in theii'
exultation; for the exultation of the chil
dren of the bridegroom is far unlike to the
exultation of the children of this world."
" '^ He biddeth the spiritual Zion rejoice, in
asmuch as dejection was removed. For what
cause of sorrow is there, when sin has been
removed, death trampled under foot, and
human nature called to the dignity of free
dom, and crowned with the grace of adop
tion and illumined with the heavenly gift '¦' ''
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He does
not say " a king," but " thy king ; " thy king,
thine own, the long-promised, the long-ex
pected ; He Who, when they had kings of
their own, given thera by God, had been
proraised as the king ' ; *ihe righteous Ruler
among men, of the seed of David ; He Who,
above all other kings, was their King and
Saviour ; Whose kingdom was to absorb in
itself all kingdoms of the earth ; tlie King of
kings, and Lord of lords. Her king was to
corae to her. He was in a manner then " of
her," and " not of her ; " "of her," since He
was to be her king, " not of her," since Pie
was to " come io her." As Man, Pie was born
of her : as God, the Word made flesh. He
came to her. " ^ To tliee, to be manifest unto
thee"; to be thine by communion of
nature'; as He is thine, by the earnest of
the Eternal Spirit and the gift of the Father,
to procure thy good. ^ Unto us a Child is
born, unto us a Son is given." Of this. His
entry into Jerusalem was an image. But
how should He come ? " He shall come to
1 Rup. 2 S. Cyr.
3 e, g, Ps, ii, Ixxii, Is. xxxii. 1. Jer. xxiii, 5,
4 2 Sam, xxiii, 3, ^Cooo. «1 Tim. iii, 16,
' Heb, ii, 14, « Is. ix. 6.
» Zohar Levit, f, 3, col. 9 in Schottg. on Hos, ii, 21,
10 Is, xiv, 21, Iiii. 11, Jer, xxiii, 5, 6, xxxiii, 15, 16,
Mai, iv, 2,
lis, Luke ii, 10, 11, 12 Dion. " Wisd. xii. 15, 16.
14 1 S, Pet, ii, 22, 15 S, John vii, 18, 10 Acts vii, 52.
" The Jewish Versions as well as the Christian
render, actively, "Saviour," LXX, o-tiiguc; Jon. p'13.

unto thee : he is just, and ^ i'^ ^"Jg t

thee," says an old Jewish writing^, "to
atone thee ; He shall come to thee, to upraise
thee ; He shall come to thee, to raise thee up
to His temple, and to espouse thee with an
everlasting espousal."
He is just and having salvation. Just or
righteous, and the Fountain of justice or
righteousness. For what He is, thai He
diflfiiseth. Eighteousness whioh God Is, and
righteousness which God, made Man, im
parts, are often blended in Holy Scripture '"-
This is also the source of .the exceeding joy.
For the coming of their king in righteousness
would be, to sinful man, a cause, not of joy
but of fear. This was the source of the
Angel's message of joy ; " I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to edl people ;
for unto you is born this day, in the city of
David, a Saviour.
Heisjust, " ''' because in the Divine Nature,
He is the Fountain of all holiness and jus
tice." "'^As Thou art righteous Thyself,
Thou orderest all things righteously, bor
Thy power is the beginning of righteous
ness." According to the nature which He
took. He was also most just ; for Pie ever
sought the glory of the Father, and '* He did
no sin, neither was guile found in His Mouth.
In the way also of justice He satisfied for
men, delivering Himself for their faults to
the pain of the most bitter death, to satisfy
the honor of , the Divine Majesty, so that
sin should not reraain unpunished. Hence
Pie saith of Himself ; '^ He tliat seeketh His
glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no
unrighteousness if in Him. Of Whom also
Stephen said to the Jews, '^ Your fathers slew
them which shewed before of the coming of ihe
Just One, of Wliom ye have been now the be
trayers and murderers. Righteousness is an
awful attribute of God. It is a glory and
perfection of His Being, for the perfect to
gaze on and adore. Mercy, issuing in our
salvation, is the attribute which draws us
sinners. And this lies in the promise that
He should come to tliem, however the one
word noslia' be rendered ". The meaning of
such a prophecy as this is secure, inde
pendent of single words. The whole context
implies, that He should come as a ruler and
deliverer, whether the word nosha' signify
as well as the Christian, the Syr. and S, Jerome.
The participle ptiP\} might, aecording to analogy,
be a reflective, but it only occurs elsewhere as a
passive; with 3 p., Deut. xxxiii, 29, Is, xiv, 17;
with 2 X., Ps, xxxiii. 16, Imperat, "look unto Me
and be ye saved," IJ^E'IHI Is, xiv, 22; being "saved
by God " implied Nu, x. 9. Ps. xviii, 4. [2 Sam, xxii,
4,] Ixxx, 4, 8, 20, cxix, 117, Pr, xxviii, 18, Is, xxx, 15,
Ixiv, 4, Jer, iv, 14, viii. 20, xvii, 14, xxiii. 6, xxx. 7,
xxxiii. 16, [all]

CHAPTEK IX.

403

c H rTs t II leaving salvation ; lowly,
cir, 487, and riding upon an ass.

H Or, saving himself.

" endued with salvation," (whereas the old
versions rendered it, "Saviour") or whether
it be, "saved." For as He came, not for
Himself but for us, so, in as far as He could
be said to be saved. He was "saved," not for
Himself but for us. Of our Lord, as Man, it
is, in like way, said, ' Thou shalt not leave His
soul in Hell, or, ^ Whom God raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not
possible that He should be holden of ii. As
Man, He was raised from the dead ; as God,
He raised Hiraself from the dead, for our
sakes, for whom He died. For us. He was
born a Saviour ; for us. He was endued with
salvation ; for us. He was saved frora being
held of death ; in like way as, of His Huraan
Nature, the Apostle says, ^ He was heard, in
tliat He feared. To us, as sinners, it is hap
piest to hear of the Saviour ; but the most
literal meaning " saved " has its own proper
comfort: for it implies the Sufferings, by
which that salvation was procured, and so it
contains a hint of the teaching by Isaiah, He
was taken from oppression and from judgment ;
upon which that same wide reign follows, of
which David, in his picture of the Passion *,
and Isaiah ^prophesy. ""This 'saved'
does not imply, that He obtained salvation
for His own otherwise than from Himself.
Mi'ne own arm. He saith in Isaiah, '' brought
salvation unto Me. But as Man, He obtained
salvation from the indwelling Godhead. For
when He destroyed the might of death,
when, rising from the dead. He ascended
into heaven, when Pie took on Him the ever
lasting kingdom of heaven and earth. He
obtained salvation from the glory of the
Father, i. e. from His own Divinity, to im
part it to all His. The Hebrew word then
in no way diminishes the amplitude of His
dignity. For we confess, that the Human
Nature of Christ had that everlasting glory
added to It frora His Divine Nature, so that
He should not only be Hiraself adorned with
those everlasting gifts, but should become the
cause of everlasting salvation to all who obey
Him." Lowly. Outward lowliness of condition, is,
through the grace of God, the best fosterer
of the inward. The word lowly wonderfully
expresses the union of both ; lowness of
outward state with lowliness of soul._ The
Hebrew word expresses the condition of
one, who is bowed down, brought low
1 Ps. xvi. 10. 2 Acts ii, 24. ' Heb. v. 7.
4 Ps, xxii, 27, 28, 5 Is. Iiii. 10-12, 0 Osor.
' I.s. Ixiii. 5. sis, Iiii. 4. »S, Matt, xi. 29.
™ Dion. " S. Matt. viii. 20, '2 2 Cor, viii, 9,
13 Jud. X. 4, xii. 14. 14 Ib. V, 10.
15 1 Kgs i. 33, 38, 44. 1" 2 Sam. xiii. 29, xviii, 9.

and upon a colt the foal of

' Before
CHRIST cir. 487,

through oppression, affliction, desolation,
poverty, persecution, bereavement ; but only
ir, at the same time, he had in him the fruit
of all these, in lowliness of mind, submission
to God, piety. Thus our Lord pronounces
the blessedness of " the poor " and " the poor
in spirit," i. e. poor in estate, who are poor
in soul also. But in no case does it express
lowliness of mind without lowness of condi-'
tion. One lowly, who was not afflicted,
would never be so called. The Prophet then
declares that their king should come to thera
in a poor condition, stricken, smitten, and
afiiicted^, and with the special grace of that
condition, meekness, gentleness and lowliness
of soul ; and our Lord bids us, " Learn of Me,
for I am meek and lowly of heart. " '" He saith
of Himself in the Gospel, " The foxes have
holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head.
'"' For though He ioa.s rich. He for our sakes
became poor, thai we through His poverty might
be rich.
Lowly and riding upon an ass. Kings of the
earth ride in state. The days were long
since by, when the sons ofthe judges rode on
asses ". Even then the more distinguished
rode on white (i. e. roan '*) asses. The mule,
as a taller animal, was used by David '^ and
his sons '*, while asses were used for his
household '', and by Ziba, Shiraei, ]\Iephibos-
heth, Ahitophel'8, a^j^ jatei-^ ijy the old pro
phet of Bethel '^. David had reserved horses
for 100 chariots™, after the defeat of tbe
Syrians, but he himself did not use them.
Absalom eraployed chariots and horses'" as
part of his porap, when preparing to dis
place his father; and Soloraon multiplied
them ''''. He speaks of it as an indignity or
reverse ; ''' I have seen servants upon horses, and
'princes walking, as servants, upon the earth.
The burial of an ass became a proverb for a
disgraced end^*. There is no instance in
which a king rode on an ass, save He Whose
kingdom was not of this world. The pro
phecy, then, was framed to prepare the Jews
to expect a prophet-king, not a king of this
world. Their eyes were fixed on this pas
sage. In the Talmud, in their traditional
interpretations, and in their mystical books,
they dwelt on these words. The mention of
the ass, elsewhere, seemed to them typical of
this ass, on which their Messiah should ride.
" If a man in a dream seeth au ass," says
" Ib. xvi. 2. ^ .. ,„
18 lb, xvi. 1, xvii, 23, xix, 20, 1 Kgs ii, 40. .
13 1 Kgs xiii. 13, 23, 27. 20 2 Sam. vm. 4.
21 Ib, xy, 1,
22 1 Kgs iv, 26, X. 26, 2 Chr. i. 14, ix, 25,
23 Eccl, X. 7. ^* Jer. xxu. 19.

404

ZECHARIAH.

the Talmud \ "he shall see salvation." It
is an instance of a prophecy which, humanly
speaking, a false Messiah could have ful
filled, but which, from its nature, none would

1 Beraehoth f. 56. 2 (in Schottgen ad loc). There
was a general consent among the Jews, that this
prophecy related to the Messiah. R. Joseph (prob
ably " the pious," the disciple of Jochanan, the dis
ciple of Hillel, Woif^ Bibl. Hebr. ii. 848, SU) used it
aa an argument against R. Hillel, who disbelieved
Id any Messiah. " R. Hillel, ' Israel has no Messiah,
for they enjoyed him in the days of Hezekiah.' R.
Joseph said, 'Lord, forgive R. Hillel!' When did
Hezekiah live? In [the time of] the first temple.
But Zechariah prophesied in [the time of] the
second temple ; ' Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion,
behold, thy kin^ cometh unto thee, righteous and
iiosha\" He said also, "O that he may come, and
that I maybe worthy to sit in the shadow of the
dung of his ass" Sanhedrin, f. 99. 1. "i2. Alex-
andri said, that R. Joshua ben Levi set against each
other the Scriptures, 'Lo there came witli the
clouds of heaven one like unto the Son of Man,'
and that, ' lowly and riding on an ass.' Deserve he
[Israel], 'with the clouds of heaven;' deserve he
not, 'lowly aud riding on an ass.'" Ib. f. 98. "All
these goods, which I will do to them through the
merits of the Messiah, shall be extended in all
those years." R. Jannai. (about A. D. 130) said from
Raf, "whoever looketh for salvation, frod will give
him rest in the garden of Eden, ai.'r on ling to that, 'I
will feed my Hock and cause them to he down' (Ezk.
XXXIV. ]5.J 'Just and nosha.' This is the Messiaii,
who justifieth his judgment against Israel because
they mocked him, because he ^at in prison, so he
is called 'just.' Butwhy _j;tyij, but that he justifieth
the judgment upon them. Hesays to them, 've
are my sons ; are ye not all to be saved only by the
mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He?' ' AfHicted
and riding on an ass.' This is the Messiah. But
why is his name called ''}^\ 'atHicted?' Because
he was afflicted all those years in prison, and the
transgressors of Israel mocked him, becau.^o he
rideth upon an ass on account of the wicked who
have no desert." (a dislocated passage, Schottg.
says, of the Pesikta Rabbathi f. Gl. 1. 2. in Schottg.
de Messia, loci gen. n. xevii. p. 136. The Hebrew
of the latter part is given by Wunsche d. Leiden
des Messias p. UG.) And in a remarkable passage
on Cant. i. 4, "Let us exult and rejoice in thee."
" The Matrona is like a royal bride, whose husband
the king, her sons and sons-in-law, were gone
beyond sea. When they brought her word that her
sons were returned, she said, ' What cause of joy
have I? Let my daughters-in-law rejoice !' Another
messengercame, that her sons-in-law were returned,
she answered, ' What cause of joj' have I ? Let my
daughters rejoice!' But when they told her that
the king, her husband, was returned, she said, 'This
is perfect joy, a joy above all joys!' So also in the
time to come, the time of the Messiah, the prophets
shall come to Jerusalem and say, (Is. Ix. 4) 'thy
sons shall come from far;' she will answer, ' What
cause of joy have I V The prophets will add, ' Thy
daughters shall be nurtured by thy side ; 'she will
answer in like way. But when they shall say to
her, 'Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, just and
a Saviour,' then she shall say, 'This is perfect joy;'
as in, 'Exult greatly^ daughter of Zion,' and else
where, 'Singandrejoice,0 daughter of Zion.' Then
she shall say, 'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul shall be joyful in my ('iod (Is. Ixi. 10.)'"
Shir hnsshirbyi Rabba foi. 7. 3 (in Schottg. loc. gen.
n. v.. Martini f. 512). They quote the prophecy also
as to the union of the royal and priestly offices of
the Messiah. The Bereshith Rabba had on Gen. xiv.
18, "'And Melchizedec, king of Salem.' This is
the name of Shem, the son of Noah. What would
that teach, ' he brought forth bread and wine ?' R.
Samuel Bar Nachjnan said, He delivered to him the
ways of the priesthood, and he offered bread and
wine to God, as it is said, 'He was priest of the

fulfill, save the True. For their minds were
set on earthly glory and worldly greatness :
it would have been inconsistent with the
claims of one, whose kingdom was of this

most High God, king of Salem.'— Otherwise; ^JQl-
chizedec; this is what Scripture saith, 'The Lord
sware and will not repent. Thou art a Priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedec' And who is
he? This is the king, righteous and )?U/)}, the
king Messiah, according to, ' Behold thy king
cometh unto thee, righteous and ^EyiJ.' And what
would that teach, 'He brought forth bread and
wine ?' It is as is said, ' Be there a handful of corn
upon the earth.' (Ps. Ix.x,ii. 10.) This is what is
written, 'And he was a priest of the most High
God.'" (in Mart. f. (1J4 end.) Or they argue from
p^)}, as to the free mercy of God, "God says to
Israel, If your merit is not of such account, 1 do it
for my own sake ; for day by day, when you are iu
trouble, I am with you, as in, 'I am with him in
trouble,' (Ps. xci. 15) ; and so 1 deliver myst-lf, ' And
he saw that there was no one, and wondered' (Is.
lix. 16.); and elsewhere, ' Exult greatly, daughter
of Zion — behold thy king cometh unto thee, just
and yi^}}.' Itisnotwritten j;''EyiD1 ["andsaving"]
but p'l^^}^ ["and saved"]; whereby it is hinted
that, though your merits are not of such account,
God will act for His own sake, according to, 'For
my salvation is nenr to come.'" (Shemoth Rabba
sect. SU.lfol. 129. 1. Schottg. loc. gen. n. ix.) Martini
quotes a like saying from the Bereshith Rabba on
Gen. xlix. 8. " R. Berachiah the priest, son of Rabbi,
said, See what is ^\Titten, ' Rejoice greatly &c' It
is not written, 'Just and j^^iZ/1D, a Saviour,' but
'Just and J^ti/lJ saved,' and thus he says, (Is. Ixii.
11.) 'Say ye to the daughter of Sion — it is not
written, 'thy Saviour (1J.*'"K^10) ccmeth,' but, 'Be
hold thy salvation ("li^t!/"') cometh.' A.s if one
might so speak, ' Israel was redeemed, and it is as
if God were redeemed,' and this is one of the hard
Scriptures, that the salvation of Israel is the salva
tion of God." foi. 518. Martini quotes also from a
comment on Isaiah Ivii. 1. " The righteous perish
eth." " This is Messiah, of Whom it is said, 'Just
and saved.' " f. 334.
In other places, the riding upon the ass is dwelt
upon. Midrash Coheleth on Eccl. 1. 9. f. 73.3. "R.
Berachiah said from R. Isaar., As was the first re
deemer, so also shall be the last redeemer. What
did the first redeemer? (Ex, iv. 20.) 'And Moses
took his wife and his sons and placed them on an
ass ; ' the second, as is written, 'lowly and riding on
an ass.' " (Martini f. 3SD, and fioo, Sch6ttg. Hor. Hebr.
on S. :Matt. xxi. 5.) In the Midrash Shemnel f. 66. 1.
the saying is ascribed to R. Levi (Schottg. on this
place). And the Pirke R. Eliezer c. 31, of Abraham's
ass, "This is the ass, on which the son of David
shall ride, according to, 'Rejoice greatly, daughter
of Zion.' " ab.) The Zohar owns that the prophecy
relates to the Messiah, but apolo2;izes for it. "It is
not the custom that the king and his Matrona should
ride on an ass, hut rather on horses, as in (Hab. iii.
7.) 'For thou shalt ride on thy horses, and thy
chariots are salvation.' For they do not esteem a
matrona so si ightly, that she should ride on an ass, as
the king wonteth not to ride on an ass, like one of
thejieople. And therefore it is said ofthe Messiah,
' Poor and riding upon an ass.' And ho is not there
called king, until he ride upon his horses, which
are the people of Israel." (on Levit. f. 38. col. 151. in
Schottg. de Mess. vi. 213. p. 54:J.) Or they say great
things of the ass. "This ass is son of the she-ass,
which was created within the six days in the twi
light. Thisistheass,which Abraham saddled, when
he purposed to sacrifice Isaac This is the ass, on
which Moses was carried when he went to Egypt.
This IS the ass, on which the son of David shall ride
hereafter." Yalkut Reubeni (f. 79, 3, 4 on Exod. iv.

CHAPTER IX.

405

world. It belonged to the character of Him,
Who was buffeted, mocked, scourged, spit
upon, crucified, died for us, and rose again.
It was Divine humiliation, which, in the

20 in Schottg. on S. Matt. xxi. 5.) They connect it
with Balaam's ass. "This is the ass destined for
the Messiah, as it is written, ' Poor and riding on an
ass.'" {Zohar Num. f. S3, col. :i32.) Or they speak
of his reigning thereon. 'This is the ass, on wnicli
the Messiah shall reign,' as it is written, ' Poor and
riding on an ass.' " Zohar JS'um. f. 83, col. 332 (on
Deut. xxii. 10.) in Schottg. de Messia vi. 2. 12. p.
.54:!. The mention of an 'ass' in Holy Scripture
suggests the thought of this prophecy, as relating
to the Son of David. "'And 1 have oxen ana
asses.' Messiah son of David is hinted at here, of
whom it is written, ' Meek and riding upon an ass ' "
Tanehuma on Gen. xxxii. 6. f. 12. 2. (in Schottg. on
S. Matt. xxi. 5). And the Bereshith Rabba on Gen. xlix.
14, had, "Bythe foot of the ox (Is. xxxii. 20.) is un
derstood Messias son of Joseph, according to Deut.
xxxiii. 17. 'His glory is of the firstling of a bul
lock.' But by the foot of the ass, Messiah son of
David, as in Zach., ' Meek and riding on an ass.' "
(in Mart. f. 330. See also Schottg. loc. gen. n.'liii. and
Ixxiv.) "When he shall come, of Whom it is writ
ten, ' ¦'Jj; and riding upon an ass,' he will wa^h his
garments in wine, i. e. make clear to them the words
ofthe law, and his clothes in the blood of grapes, i.e.
cleanse them from their errors." Ib. f. 95. col. 4.
And in the Bereshith ketanna on Gen. xlix. 1 1. " bind
ing his foal unto the vine and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine." "This is he of whom it is written,
"'JJ? and riding &c.' and he it is who planteth
Israel as a choice vine (Jer. ii. 21) : and how will he
do it? As itis written, t will sprinkle clean water
&c. Ezek. xxxvi. 21." Zohar Deut. f. 118. col. 471. in
Schottg. Horee H. on Hab. ii. 3. p. 215. " After that
depth (of the fulfillment of the vision, Hab. ii. 3.)
was opened, whoever fell into it, never came up.
The Messiah Ben David fell into it, with the Mes
siah ben Joseph, of whom one is ' poor and riding
upon an as-s' the other, 'the firstling of his bullock'
(Deut. xxxiii. 17.), viz. the Messiah ben Joseph.
And this is alluded to in (Ex. xxi. 23.) ' If any one
dig a pit and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall
therein.' And therefore the Messiah is called 'Bar
naphli' 'son of the fallen." The Bereshith Rabba
quoted the prophecy also in proof of His meek
ness. "When the king Messias shall come to
Jerusalem to save Israel, he shall bind his
ass and ride upon it and eome to Jerusalem,
that he may conduct himself m lowliness, as
it is said. ' lowly and riding upon an ass.' And
his ass's foal unto the ;choice vine, when he shall
corae to gather the congregation of Israel, ["which
is called a vine in that, Tliou hast brought a vine
out of Egypt," added in Schottg. loc gen. n. lix.l as
in Zech. x. 8. 'I will hiss to them and will gather
them,' then he shall ride on the foal of his ass, as
in Zech. ix. 9. ^ Rejoice greath/ &e.'' And is it not of
old said of the ]\iessiah, ' And in the clouds of
heaven cometh one like the Son of man?' (Dan.
vii. 13.) If Israel deserveth, ' He cometh with the
clouds of heaven,' and if he deserveth not, 'lowly
and riding on an ass.' on Gen. xlix. 11 in Martini f.
656 (or latter part as in Sanhedrinabove). In times
not far from our Lord, the Messiah seems to be
mentioned, as under a well-known name, " he who
is borne upon an ass." The Zohar quotes a revela
tion to R. Eliezer and R. Abba, " Did I not say to you
that the precept of the king lasts, until he shall
come who is borne on an ass?" {Zohar Gen. in
Schottg. loc gen. n. xxxi. 7 p. 79.) And 'Jj;
"afflicted " becomes an indication that the passage
relates to the Messiah. Thus 'the steps of the
needy,' "'J^, (Is. xxvi. 6.) is explained ' This is the
Messiah, '•Jj; and riding on an ass.' (Bereshit?i
R. on Gen. xlix. 10. Mart. f. 65G.J The Midrash
TehiUim explains Ps. xc. 15, " ' aeeording to the days
of the Messiah.' The word, IJD'J^ 'hast afflieted

purpose of God, was to be compensated by
Divine power. In itself it would, if insulated,
have been unmeaning. The Holy Ghost
prophesied it, Jesus iulfilled it, to shew the
us' corresponds to the other, "'Jj; afflicted and
riding on an ass,' as if he would say ' according to
the days of our afflicted.' " (in Schottg. ad loc p.
242.) and the Zohar Chadash on Eccl. ix. 14. sqq.
" A little city is Zion ; 'and a few men in it : ' these
are the six days of the creation ; and there came a
great king against it,' this is a certain one; 'and
there was found in it a poor wise man.' This is
Messiah Ben David, as itis said, ""J j; and riding
upon an ass' and 'the righteous perisheth' (Is.
Ivii. 1.) so long as the overflowing cometh not upon
him, it is said, ' the river shall be wasted and dried
up.' (Is. xix. 5.) 'The ass,' that isSamael, and the
wise man, that is Messiah Ben David, and of him
it is said, 'and he delivered the city by iris wisdom.'
And he shall be the deliverer of Messiah ben Eph
raim. And this is a redemption from abovo.'' (f,
63. 2. in Schottg. loc. gen. n. 1U3. filled up from
Wunsche Leiden d. Mess. p. 105.) Schottgen ad
loc quotes also from the Zohar Deut. 117. col. 465.
The name '^IDn i^ understood as indicating the
Messiah. "Bythe word "llDn, 'ass 'is indicated
the king Messiah, according to that, 'poor and
riding on an ass.'" Bereshith Rabba sect. 75, f. 74.
2. in Schottg. ad loc.
In later times, R. Saadiah Gaon said on Daniel
vii. 13; "'And behold with the clouds of heaven
one came like a Son of man.' This is the Messiah
our righteousness, and is it not written of the Mes
siah, "'J^ and riding upon an ass?' i. e. he shall
come with meekness, for he shall not come ou
horses with pride ; and. ' the clouds of heaven ' they
are the Angels of the heavenly host. This is the
exceeding greatness, which the Creator shall give
to the B'lessiah." And Rashi says, "This cannot be
explained, except of king Messiah ; for it is said of
him, ' and his dominion shall be from sea to sea ; '
but we do not find that such an one ruled over Is
rael in the time of the second house;" and (on
Exod. iv. 20) "On an ass the Messiah will reveal
himself, according to 'Meek and riding on an ass.'"
(in Schottg. ad loc^ The first who referred it to
any other was R. Moseh Haccohen (A. D. 1148), whom
Ibn Ezra quotes, as explaining it of "Nehemiah,
the Tirshatha, because of him it was said, 'There
is a king in Judah;' and that there was no men
tion of a horse, because he was poor ; " which, Ibn
Ezra says, was contrary to the fact in Nehemiah,
and also the mention of the Greeks did not suit
llis tiraes. Jbn Ezra says that, as far as he knows,
"it was the king Judas the Hasmoneean, whose
might suited that, ' I have made thee like the
sword of a mighty man,' and his hand was mightv
against the Greeks, and at first he had not wealth
or horses." These were private opinions; tov Ibn
Ezra says, " The expositors are divided about it;
some say, this king is Messiah ben David, and some
say, Messiah ben Joseph." Both then agreed that
he was a Messiah. Abarbanel says of Jbn Ezra; " I
wonder that his ill intent blinded his understand
ing ; for lo, Judas the Hasmonrean was never called
king, all his days, much less of Zion ; that had he
prophesied of the Hasmoniran, what had ho to do
with Ephraim, since the kingdom of Ephraim vva.s
not in the second temple ; also he did not speak
peace to all nations, and did not rule from sea tosea."
(On his own exposition see below.) Even ii!. Jsaac
(Chizz. Emunah c. 35 p. 293 Wagenseil), denying it
as to our Lord, insists upon it as relating to their
Messiah whom they looked for. R. Bechai says
that" Jacob (Gen. xlix. 11) used the words HT'^*
* his ass' andUTHi^ ^^21 'the foal of his ass,' be
cause it is written of him (the king Messiah) ' and
upon a colt, the foal of an ass ' (the same words be
ing used, Jlljljlt^ p T_>\ Binat-hatthorah ad loc.
f. nto col. 3. Amst.) R. Tanehum admits the diffi
culty of supposing it to relate to a future Messiah,

406

ZECHAEIAH.

Jews, of what nature His kingdom was.
Hence the challenge ; " ^ Let us look at tlie
prophecy, that in words, and that in act.
What is the prophecy ? Lo, thy king cometh
unto thee, meekj and sitting wpon an ass, and
upon a colt; not driving chariots as other
kings, not in pomp nor attended by guards,
but shewing herein also all gentleness. Ask
the Jew then. What king, riding on an ass,
came to Jerusalem ? He could name none,
save this One alone." An ancient writer
says, " ^ The Greeks too " (not the Jews only)
" ^vill laugh at us, saying, that ' The God of
the Christians, Who is called Christ, sat upon
an ass.' " The same mockery was probably
intended by Sapor ^ king of Persia, which
the Jews met with equal pride. The taunt
continues till now. *'*It is not hid from
you, O congregation of Christians, that * rider
upon an ass ' indicates Christ." The Moham
medans appropriate the title "rider upon a
camel" to Mohammad, as the grander animal ^-
The taunt of worshiping " Him Who sat upon
an ass " was of the same class as those of the
or, since asa Jew, he could not interpret it of Jesus,
of interpreting it of any one in the time of the
second temple. "Some of the interpreters make
this consolation an announcement of the E.x-
pected (may he soon be revealed !) and this is found
in most of the Midrashoth of the ancient wise
(blessed be their memory !) and the obvious mean
ing of his words, ' and his dominion is from sea to
sea and from the river unto the ends of ths earth '
supports this ; and some of them think, that from
the context it relates to the circumstances of the
second house, and this is supported by his words
in the passage, 'And I will raise thy sons, O Zion,
against thy sons, O Greece,' which was in the sec
ond house, through the Hasmonecans, and now the
empire of Greece is dispersed and gone. How then
should he promise help against it in the future?
And altogether the word ot the prophecies admits
of the interpretation. And many vary therein
from one meaning to the other. And therefore we
will mention how the language can be explained
according to each opinion. And God, most high,
knows what is hidden ! The meaning then of ' "'Jj;
and riding upon an ass' is, in my opinion, in the
first way, beautiful ; that ^}y means one who hum
bles himself, like (Is. Ixvi. 2) ' And to this man will
1 look, to the humble {''2p) and contrite of spirit,'
not weak in condition ; on account then of his low
liness he will ride upon an ass." (He compares
the reduplication to that in Gen. xlix. 11.) " Or,"
he says, "the whole of this may be a metaphor for
self-abjection, not an actual history; and what is
known, is that this is his condition at first for his
weakness and lowness ; afterward he will attain his
later condition in strength and felicity. And so for
the second way, this points to the return of the
kingdom to Israel through the Hasmonseans, and
his saying 'meek and riding upon an ass' indicates
their first king, Judas the HasmonLean, and he, at
the outset, was weak, because he followed upon the
oppression of Greece, according to what ha^ been
transmitted of that history ; and that, ' his domin
ion shall be from sea tosea &c.' this is the kingdom
to which he attained at last, and the extension of
his house; and he means by this, 'from the red
sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the river
to the end of the habitable land ; ' and this is, ' And
from the river &c.' and thus words, ' I will raise up
thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece,' will
fit. And in the first way ; ¦ from sea to sea ' will be
the encircling sea [the Ocean] and from the river
which is the bound of the land of Israel to the fur-

worship of the Crucified; "^one dead and
crucified, who could not save himself;" ''a
crucified Man," " that great Man," or (if it
suited them so to speakj " that great sophist
who was crucified," but Who now, for above
1800 years, reigns, " to all, the King ; to all,
the Judge ; to all, Lord and God." " ' Christ
did not only fulfill prophecies or plant the
doctrines of truth, but did thereby also order
our life for us, everywhere laying down for
us rules of necessary use and, by all, correct
ing our life." Even Jews, having rejected
our Lord, saw this. " Not from poverty,"
says one^, "for behold the whole world shall
be in his power — but from humility he will
ride upon an ass ; and further to shew that
Israel [viz. the establishment of His kingdom
or Church] shall not want horse nor chariot :
therefore it is added, And I will cut off the
chariot from ephraim and the horse from Jeru-
salein" And another^; "He, i. e. thy true
king David, shall come to thee ; and he men
tions of his qualities that he shall be righteous
and noslia* ^^ in his wars ; but his salvation
thest habitable earth." He answers the reference
to Nehemiah, but ends by leaving the other two
open. Moses ben Nach-man quotes it In illustration
of the contempt ofthe Messiah spoken of in Isaiah
Iii. 13. liii. 3. 7. " Theirs [the kings'] astonishment
was shewn by mocking him, when he first arrived,
and by asking, how one ' despised, meek and riding
upon an ass, could conquer all the kings of the
world who had laid hold on Israel? — He was 'de
spised,' for he had no army and no people, bu t was
'meek and riding on an ass,' like the first redeem
er Moses our master, when he entered in Egypt
with his wife and children riding upou an ass. {Kx.
iv. 20.) ' He was oppressed and he was afflicted,'
for when he first comes ' meek and riding upon an
ass,' the oppressors and officers of every city will
come to him, and aflflict him with revilings and in
sult, reproaching both him and the God in whose
name he appears, like Moses our master, who, when
Pharaoh said, I know not the Lord, answered him
not." In Jewish Commentaries on Is. Iiii. p. 80, 81.
The modern school, which rids itself of defini e
prophecy, would have this relate to "the ideal Mes
siah." One does not see, how a literal prophecy,
fulfilled tothe letter, can relate to an ideal king;
unless on the implied assumption, "There can be
no prophecy of a definite event." i S. Chrys. in
S. Blatt. Hom. 66. p. 656 marg. Ed. Oxon.
2 Author of the Hom. in S. Matt. xxi. 2. in the Du-
biaof S. Athan. n. 6. Opp. ii. 77.
3 " King Sapor said to R. Samuel, 'Ye say that the
Messiah comes upon an ass, Iwill send him ahorse
[epithet uncertain] which I have He answered,
'Hast thou one with 100 colors' (so Rashi) or, 'with
inoo qualities.' (Aruch and Reland Diss. ix. T. i. 288,
298.) Sanhedr. f. 98. 1. " In the deep humility of
the Messiah," subjoins Lightfoot, "they dream
of pride even in his ass." Hor. Hebr. on S. Matt.
xxi. 5.
4 Epist. Mohammedan. Anon, inserted by Hack-
span Nizzach. pp. 397-401.
6 The titles "rider on an ass," *' rider on a camel,"
are derived from Is. xxi. 14.
OSee Lucian de morte Peregrini c 11, 13. Trypho
in S. Justin Dial. n. 14. p. 83. Oxf. Tr. Celsus in
Origen c. Cels. viii. 12. 14. 15. and others m Pusey's
Lenten Sermons pp. 4S4, 455. Liddon's Bampton
Lectures pp. 392-297. ed 2. Kortholt de calumniis
Pagan, c 4 pp. 31-3fi.
7 S. Chrys. 1. c. p. 655. 8 Kimchi.
''Abarbanel in his Mashm'a Yeshu'ah p. 73.
10 1 leave the word nos/za' untranslated, in order
not to give any possible color to his words, though

CHAPTER IX.

407

Before
CHEIST cir. 437.
¦ Hos. 1. 7.
4 2. 18.
Mio. 6. 10.
¦ Hag. 2. -l'-..

10 And I "will cut off
. the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusa
lem, and the battle bow

shall not be from strength of his wars, for he
shall come lowly and riding wpon an ass'.
And riding on an ass, this is not on account
of his want, but to shew that peace and truth
shall be in his days ; and therefore he says
forthwith. And I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim and ihe horse from Jerusalem; viz.
that such shall be the peace and stillness in
the world, that in Ephraim (i. e. the tribes)
and in Jerusalem (i. e. the kingdom of
Judali) they shall tru^st no more in horse and
in rider, but in the name of God. And
because it is the way of princes and chiefs to
take example from the life of their kings,
and to do as they, therefore he saith, that
when the king Messiah rideth upon an ass,
and has no pleasure in ihe strength of a horse,
there will be no other in Jerusalem or the
lands of the tribes, who will have pleasure in
riding on a horse. And therefore he says.
And I ivill cut offthe chariot from Ephraim and
the horse from Jerusalem ; and he assigns the
reason for this, when he says, And tlie battle-
bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace
among ihe nations, i. e. there shall be no more
war in the world, because he shall speak peace
unto the nations, and by the word of his lips ' he
shall dispose peace unio them."
And upon a colt, ihe foal of an ass. The
word rendered colt, as with us, signifies the
young, as yet unbroken animal. In the ful
fillment, our Lord directed His disciples to
find '^an ass tied, ancl a colt wiih her, whereon
never man sat. The prophet foretold that He
would ride on both animals ; our Lord, by
commanding both to be brought, shewed that
the prophet had a special meaning in nam
ing both. S. Matthew relates that both
were employed. " They brought the ass and
the colt, and put on them their clothes, and
they set Him thereon." The untrained colt,
au appendage to its mother, was a yet humb
ler animal. But as the whole action was a
picture of our Lord's humility and of the un-
earthliness of His kingdom, so, doubtless.
His riding upon the two animals was a part
of that picture. There was no need of two
animals to bear our Lord for that short dis
tance. S. John notices especially, * These
things understood not His disciples at the first.
The ass, an unclean stupid deb.nsed ignoble
drudge, was in itself a picture of unregener
ate man, a slave to his passions and to devils,
he seems from the context to take it actively "Sav
iour." 1 He says here that 'Jj; is like 1 J^-
2 Is. xxvi. 12.
»S. Matt. xxi. 2, S. Marli xi. 2, S. Luke xix. 30.

shall be cut off: and he ^ J^^J"™ .„
shall speak 'peace unto the g'r- ¦ts^.
heathen: and his dominion'Eph. 2. u, 17.
shall be "from sea eve?i tcPu- 72. 8.

toiling under the load of ever-increasing sin.
But, of man, the Jew had been under the
yoke and was broken ; the Gentiles were the
wild unbroken colt. Both were to be brought
under obedience to Christ.
10. And Iwill cut offthe chariot. The horse
is the symbol of worldly power, as the ass is
of meekness. Some, says the Psalmist, ^put
their trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but
we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
^ A horse is but a vain thing to save a man. ' He
delighteth not in the strength of a horse. In
scarcely any place in Holy Scripture is the
horse spoken of in relation to raan, except
as the instrument of war. It represents
human might, which is either to be conse
crated to the Lord, or destroyed by Him ".
As the ^ stone, cut out without hands, broke in
pieces and absorbed into itself all the king
doms of the world, so here He, Whose King
dom should not be of this world, should
supersede human might. His kingdora was to
begin by doing away, araong His followers,
all,, whereby human kingdoms are est:ib-
lished. He first cuts ofi' the chariot and the
horse, not from His enemies, but from His
own people ; His people, not as a civil polity,
but as the people of God. For the prophet
speaks of them as Ephraim and Judah,
but Ephraim had no longer a distinct exist
ence. And He shcdl speak peace unto the heathen, as
the Apostle says, '" He came and preached peace
to you which were afar off, and io them that were
nigh. He shall speak it to them, as Pie Who
hath power to give it to them, peace with
God, peace in themselves, the reconcilia
tion of God and man, and the remission of
their sins.
""At His birth the heavenly host an
nounced peace to men ; all His doctrine has
peace for its end ; when Plis death was at
hand. Pie especially commended peace to
His disciples, that peace which the world
knoweth not, which is contained in tranquil
lity of mind, burning zeal for charity. Di
vine grace. This same peace He brought to
all wiio gathered themselves to His_ empire
and guidance, that, emerging from intestine
wars and foul darkness, they might behold
the light of liberty, and, in all wisdom keep
the grace of God."
And His dominion shall be from sea to sea.

»S. John xii. 16.
^Ib. xxxiii. 17.
8SeeMi. V. 10.
0 Dan. ii. 34.

lOEph. ii. 17.

SPs. XX. 7.
' Ib. cxlvii. 10.
n OsoT.

408

ZECHAEIAH.

0HE°iST ®®^' ^^^ from the river
eir. 487. even to the ends of the

I Or, whose cove- ,
nant is by earth.
Ex° 24. 8. 11 As for thee also, 1 1 by
&i3.'2o.' ' the blood of thy covenant

The bounds of the promised land, in its ut
most range, on the West, were the Mediter
ranean sea ; on the East, the great river, the
Euphrates. The prophet pictures its exten
sion, so as to embrace the whole world,
taking away, first the one bound, then the
other. From sea io sea is from the Mediter
ranean to the extremest East, where the
Ocean encircles the continent of Asia ; from
the river to ihe ends of ihe earth, is from the
Euphrates to the extremest West, embracing
the whole of Europe ; and whatever may lie
beyond, to the ends of the earth, where earth
ceaseth to be^. It is this same lowly and
afliicted king. Whose entry into Jerusalera
is on a despised animal, Who shall, by
His mere will, make war to cease. Who
shall, by His mere word, give peace to the
heathen. 11. As for thee also. The Prophet turns
from the deliverance of the whole world to
the former people, the sorrows which they
should have in the way, and the protection
which God would bestow upon them for the
sake of Hira, Who, according to the flesh,
was to be born of them. Thou too; he had
spoken of the glories of the Church, such as
her king, when He should come, should ex
tend it, embracing earth's remotest bounds :
he turns to her, Israel after the flesh, and
assures her of the continued protection of
God, even in her lowest estate. The deliver
ance under the Maccabees was, as those under
the judges had been, an iraage of the salva
tion of Christ and a preparation for it. They
were martyrs for the One God and for the
faith in the Eesurrection, and, whether by
doing or by suffering, preserved the sacred
line, until Christ should come.
Ey the blood of thy covenant. " * Not by the
blood of those victims of old, but by the blood
of thy covenant, wilt thou be united to the
empire of Christ, and so obtain salvation. As
the Lord Himself says. This is the blood of
covenant, which is shed for you." ^ The gifts
and caUing of Ood are without repentance.
1 See " Daniel the Prophet." p- 483. 2 Osor.
3 Rom. xi. 29. Exod. xxiv. 8.
6 Al in Gen. xxxvii. 24. cpg_xl.2.
' L.im. iii. n.s, 56, 66. ' S. Auf;. de Civ. Dei. xviii.
35. 3. » pi^a is iir. \ey.
10 Ps, xxvii. 1. add xxxi. 5, xxxvii. 39, xliii. 2, Hi. 9.
n Joel iv. 10. [iii. 16 Eng.] 12 Kah. i. 7.
"ly ^^J'^ Ps. ixi. 3. ' "Pr. xviii. lO.
16 Ps. xxxi. 3, 5. [2, 4, Eng.] « Kim,
"Dlpnn. The only place, where it has the art.

I have sent forth thy ''pris- ^ h r""'! t
oners out of the pit where- '^''^- *^''-
in is no water. ^ isai. 42. 7.
12 ^ Turn you to the &6i!i. '
strong hold, ''ye prisoners ? isai. 49. 9.

That symbolic blood, by which, fore-signify
ing the new Covenant, He made them His
own people, * Behold the blood of the covenant,
which the Lord hath made with you concerning
edl these words, endured still, amid all their
unfaitlifulness and breaches of it. By virtue
of it God would send forth her imprisoned
ones out of the deep, dry pit, the dungeon
wherein they could be kept securely, because
life was not threatened*. Out of any depth
of hopeless misery, in which they seemed to
be shut up, God would deliver them ; as
David says, " He brought me up also out of a
horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet
upon a rock and established my goings ; and
Jeremiah, ' They have cut off my life in tlie
dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. I called
upon Thy Name, 0 Lord; out ofthe low dun
geon Thou hast heard my voice. '"The dry
and barren depth of human misery, where
are no streams of righteousness, but the mire
of inicpiity."
12. Turn ye to ihe stronghold ", i. e. Almighty
God ; as thePsalmists so often say '", The Lord
is tlie defence of my life ; and Joel ", The Lord
shall be a stronghold of the children of Israel ;
and jSTahum ''', The Lord is a stronghold in the
day of trouble ; And, David said, '' Thou hast
been a shelter for me, a strong tower against the
enemy '* ; the Name of the Lord is a strong tower,
the righteous runneth inio it and is safe ; and
again, '^ Be Thou to me a rock of strength, a
house of defence to save me — Bring me forth out
of the net that tliey have laid privily for me; for
Thou art my stronghold. The stronghold, " cut
off'" from all approach from an enemy, stands
in contrast with the deep dungeon of calam
ity. The return must be a willing return,
one in their own power ; return to the strong
hold, which is Almighty God, must be by
conversion of heart and will. Even a Jew
ish commentator'^ paraphrases, "Turn ye to
God ; for He is a stronghold and tower of
strength." Ye prisoners of\_ihe'] hope '' not, accordingly,
any hope, or generally, hope, but the special
It is used 12 times with different pronouns ; 6 times
with the gen., of him whose expectation is spoken
of; it is used absolutely i:. times, viz. 5 times of a
hope which will not fail, in the idiora nipH Ui'*
Ruth i. 12. Jer. xxxi. 17. .n t^'' ''3 Job xi. 18, xiv. 7,
Pr. xix. 18, modified by ''71X Lara. iii. 29, with 7, a
solid expectation which a person has. Job. v. 16, Pr.
xxvi. 12, xxix. 20; given by God, Hos. ii. 17, Jer.
xxix. 11; twice with the neg., tlie absence of all
hope. Job vii. 6, Pr. xi. 7. [all.]

CHAPTEE IX.

409

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.
• IsaL 61. 7.

of hope : even to day do I
declare that ^ I will render
double unto thee ;
13 When I have bent
Judah for me, filled the

hope of Israel, the hope which sustained them
in all those years of patient expectations, as
S. Paul speaks oi' the hope of Israel, for which
he says, lam bound with this chain. 'I stand
to be judged for the hope of ihe promise made by
God unio our fathers, unio which promise our
twelve tribes, serving God instantly day a'nd
night, hope io come ; for which liop^s sake. King
Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. And in
his Epistles, ' the hope laid up for you in
heaven; ''the hope of the Gospel; and, ^looking
for tlie blessed hope and the glorious appearing of
the great God ami our Saviour Jesus Christ.
He writes also of '"^ keeping the rejoicing of
the hope firm unto the end ; " of " ' the full
assurance of the hope unto the end ; " of
"^fleeing to lay hold on the hope set before
us ; which hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and steadfast." He does not
speak of hope as a grace or theological virtue,
but, objectively, as the thing hoped for. So
Zechariah calls to them as bound, held fast
by the hope, bound, as it were, to it and by it,
.so as not to let it go, amid the persecution of
the world, or weariness of expectation ; as S.
Paul also says, ^ before faith came, we were
guarded, kept in ward, under the law, shut
up unto the faiih '" which was about to be re
vealed. Even to-day, amid all contrary appearances,
do I declare, that I will render double unto ihee ;
as He had said by Isaiah ", For your shame
ye shall have double.
13. When, or For I have bent''' Judah for
me, as a mighty bow which is only drawn at
full human strength, the foot being placed to
1 Acts xxviii. 20. " Ib. xxvi. 0, 7.
3Col.i. 5. lib. 23. 5Tit. ii. 13.
OHeb. iii. 6. 'Ib.vi. 11.
«Ib. 18, 19. ^ , sGal. iii. 23.
11 Is. Ixi. 7. The same word, njtyp.
12 r\Wp 1"n, in different infiee'tions is too com
mon an idiom to leave any ambiguity, though the
word riE?p occurs in the following clause only.
The idiom occurs Ps. vii. 13, xxxvii. 14, Is. v. 28,
xxi. 15. Jer. xlvi. 9, I. 14, 29, li. 3, Lam. ii. 4, iii. 12,
1 Chr. V. 18, viii. 40, 2 Chr. xiv. 7. TIT is used twice
in tlie same sense, when the arrow is made the
object, Ps. Iviii. 8, Ixiv. 4. i' It is the common
construction of xbo with a double ace, " fill a
thing with ; " whieh, in different idioms, oocurs .38
times beside. [Gen. xxi. 19. xxvi. 15, xiii. 25, Ex.
xxviii. 3, xxxi. 3, xxxv. 31, 36, 1 Sam. xvi. 1, 1 Kgs
xviii. 35, 2 Kgs xxiii. 14, xxiv. 4, 2 Chr. xvi. 14,
Job iii. 15, viii. 21, xv. 2, xxii. 18. xxiii. 4, Ps. xvu.
14, Ixxxiii. 17, evii. 9, oxxix. 7. Pr. i. 13, Is. xxxiii. 6,

bow with Ephraim, and
raised up thy sons, O Zion, _
against thy sons, O Greece,
and made thee as the
sword of a mighty man.

Before
CHEIST cir. 4S7.

steady it. It becomes a strong instrument,
but only at God's Will. God Plimself bends
it. It cannot bend itself And filled the bow
with Ephraim'''- The bow is filled, when the
arrow is laid upon it. God would employ
both in their diflerent offices, as one. And
raised up "' thy sons, 0 Zion, against thy sons, 0
Greece. Let men jjlace this prophecy whei'e
they will, nothing in the history of the world
was more contradictory to what was in hu
man sight possible. "'^Greece was, until
Alexander, a colonizing, not a conquering,
nation. The Hebrews had no human know
ledge of the site or circumstances of Greece.
There was not a little cloud, like a man's
hand, when Zechariah thus absolutely fore
told the conflict and its issue. Yet here we
have a definite prophecy later than Daniel,
fitting in with his temporal prophecy, ex
panding part of it, reaching on beyond the
time of Antiochus, and fore-announcing the
help of God in two definite waj's of protec
tion ; 1) without war, against the army of
Alexander '^ ; 2) in the war of the Maccabees ;
and these, two of the most critical periods in
their history after the captivity ". Yet,
being expansions of part of the prophecy of
Daniel, the period, to which they belong,
becomes clearer in the event by aid of the
more comprehensive prophecies. They were
two points in Daniel's larger prediction of
the 3d empire."
And I will make thee as the sword of a mighty
man. The strength is still not their own. In
the whole history of Israel, they had only
once met in battle an army of one of the
Jer. xiii. 13, xv. 17, xxxiii. 6, xli. 9, li. 14, 34, Ezek.
iii. 3, ix. 7, x. 2, xi. 7, xxxii. 6, xxxv. 8. Kah. ii. 13,
Zeph. i. 9, Hagg. ii. 7.] It is therefore entirely un-
idiomatie to render with Ges. &c., "pulled with full
strength a bow, Ephraim." The Arab. '•) nSdX
D1p'7X does not bear this out, being for S7iJX
Dip^K 'D J.niSx. The Syr. xhw'p. )bo Ps. xi. 2.
S''7m Xnil/p Is. x.^i. 15, probably mean, "filled
the bow" " the bow fllled " viz. with the arrow
"Since "1"ll^ oocurs of rousing a person. Cant. ii.
7, iii. 5, viii. 4, 5, Is. xiv. 9, or Mving thing. Job iii. 8,
or His might, (of God) Ps. Ixxx. 3, it would be un-
idiomatio tn interpret it here, "lift up as a spear,"
on the ground of the idioms Ifl'jn HX TI1J?, 2
Sam. xxiii. 18, 1 Chr. xi. 11, 20, Bit!? Tll>', Is. x. 26,
since here no instrument is mentioned, but a per
son, and Stij; is not used of any one instrument,
nor, by itself, signifles " wave."
15 Pusey's " Daniel the Prophet " pp. 282, 283.
10 Zech. ix. 1-8. " lb. 9-16.

410

ZECHAEIAH.

14 And the Lord shall

Before
CHEIST
 cir. 487. Vip, geen over them, and

• Ps. 18. 14.
& 77. 17.
& 144. 6.

' Isai. 21. 1.

°his arrow shall go forth
as the lightning : and the
Lord God shall blow the
trumpet, and shall go "^ with
whirlwinds of the south.
15 The Lord of hosts

world-Empires and defeated it, at a time,
when Asa's whole population which could
bear arms were 580,000 ', and he met Zerah
the Ethiopian with his million of combat
ants, besides his 500 chariots, and defeated
him. And this, in reliance on the '' Lord his
God, to Whom he cried. Lord, it is nothing to
Thee to help, whether wiih many, or with them
that have no power ; help us, 0 Lord our God;
¦for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go
against ihis multitude. Asa's words found an
echo in Judas Maccabaeus^, wlien the "sraall
company with him asked him. How shall we
be able, being so few, to fight against so great
a multitude and so strong '! " " It is no hard
matter," Judas answered, " for many to be
shut up in the hands of a few, and with
Heaven it is all one to deliver with a great
multitude or a small company. For tbe
victory of battle standeth not in the multi
tude of an host ; but strength cometh from
Heaven." But his armies were but a hand
ful ; 3000, on three occasions *, on one of
which they are reduced by fear to 800 ^ ;
10,000 on two occasions^; on another, two
armies of 8000 and 3000, with a garrison, not
trusted to fight in the open field ' ; on one,
20,000 8 ; once only 40,000, which Tryphon
treacherously persuaded Jonathan to dis
perse " ; these were the numbers with which,
always against " great hosts," God gave the
victory to the lion-hearted Judas and his
brothers. But Who save Pie, in Whose
hands are the hearts of men, could foresee
that He, at that critical moment, would raise
up that devoted family, or inspire that faith,
through which they ^^ o 'i i of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fiight ihe
armies of the aliens ?
14. And the Lord shall be seen over them ",
" " He will reveal Himself," protecting them.
" " He says plainly, that the Lord God will
1 Chr. xiv. 8-10 sc(q. 'Ib. 11. s 1 Jlacc iii. 16-19.
* 1 Mace. iv. 6, vii. 40. ix. 5. '^ Ib. ix. 6.
« Ib. iv. 29, X. 74. I Ib. V. 17-20. 8 lb. xvi. 4.
lib. xii. 41-47. See more in detail in "Daniel
the Prophet " p. 371. note 5. i» Heb. xi. 34.
" hy as with the word MJ, n03, "[30, T]Qy.
12 Jon. 13 S. Cyr. " S. Mark xvi. 20.
15 Hab. iii. 11. The arrows of God, and the light
nings, stand in parallel or connected clauses, Ps.
iviii. 14, Ixxvii. 17, 18. cxliv. 6.

shall defend them; and ^ g r°i | ^
they shall devour, and . _2HiiH:__
1 1 subdue with sling stones ; | Or, subdue the
T 1 1 n 1 * 1 7 stones of the
and they shall drink, and sUng.
make a noise as through
wine; and they 11 shall belpr s/w^fiij
' •' " both, the bowls,
filled like bowls, and as <tc.
• Lev. 4. 18, 25.
° the corners of the altar. Deut. 12. 27.

be with them and will fight in serried array
with them and will with them subdue those
who resist them." It is as if he would say,
" When they go forth and preach every
where, "^ ihe Lord shall work wiih them and
confirm the word with signs following." And His
arrow shall go forth as the lightning. Habak
kuk directly calls the lightnings the arrows
of God'*: at the light of Thine arrows they
went. Here it is probably of an invisible
agency, and so compared to that awful sym
bol of Plis presence, the lightning.
And the Lord God shall blow with ihe trumpet,
as their Commander, ordering their goings.
The blowing of the trumpet by the priests in
war was commanded, as a reminiscence of them
selves before God, "^ If ye go to war in your
land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then
ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and ye
shcdl be remembered before the Lord your Ood,
and ye shedl be saved from your enemies. Abijah
said, " God Himself is mth us for our captain,
and His priests with sounding trumpets to cry
alarm against you.
And .shall go with whirlwinds of tlie south, as
being the most vehement and destructive.
So Isaiah, " As whirlwinds in the south sweep
by, He cometh from a desert, from a terrible land.
Such smote the four comers of the house
where Job's children were '', and they
perished. 15. The Lord of hosts shall defend them.
As God says ''", I will defend this rity io save ii,
for Mine own sake and for My servant Darid! s
sake. The word is used by Isaiah only before
Zechariah, and of tlie protection of Almighty
God. The image of the complete protection
on all sides stands first in God's words to
Abraham '", I am thy shield ; David thence
says to God, ^' Thou, O Lord, art a shield
around me.
And they shall devour, and subdue, or more
10 Nu. X. 9. u 2 Chr. xiii. 12.
18 Is. xxi. 1.
"Job i. 19. In Job xxxvii, 9, E. V. has followed
Kim. who explains mnn ID by roTi mn Job
ix. 9 ; but in this case the chief characteristic word
would be omitted.
20 Is. xxxvii. 35, 2 Kgs xix. 34. Is. xxxviii. 6,2
Kgs XX. 6. It oocurs again Zech. xii. 8.
21 Gen. XV. 1, no from the same root
22 Ps. iiL 4. {3 Eng.)

CHAPTEE IX.

411

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

ilsai. 62. 3.
Mai. 3. 17.

16 And the Lord their
. God shall save them in
that day as the flock of his
people : for ^ the'i/ shall be

probably ', shall tread on, the stones of the sling,
as in the image of leviathan in Job, ' The
son. of the bow will not make him flee ; sling-
stones are to him turned into stubble ; clubs are
counted as stubble ; he lauglieth at ihe shaking of
a spear. Their enemies shall fall under them,
as harmless and as of little account as the sling-
stones whieh have missed their aim, and lie
as the road to be passed over. It is not ex
pressed what they shall devour, and so tlie
image is not carried out, but left indefinite,
as destruction or absorption only ; as in that,
' ihou slialt consume [lit. eai] all the people
which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; and,
* they are our bread ; and in that, * they shall
devour [lit. ea(] all the people round about,
where the image is of fire, not of eating.
The one thought seems to be, that their
enemies should cease to be, so as to molest
them any more, whether by ceasing to be
their enemies or by ceasing to be. There is no
comparison here, (as in Balaam) with the
lion ; or of eating flesh or drinking blood,
which, apart from the image of the wild
beast, would be intolerable to Israel, to whom
the use of blood, even of animals, was so
strictly forbidden. They should disappear,
as completely as fuel before the fire, or food
before the hungry. The fire was invigorated,
not extinguished, by the multitude of the
fuel ; the multitude of the enemies but
nerved and braced those, whom they sought
to destroy.
And they shall be filled like bowls, like the
corners ofthe altar. They shall be consecrated
instruments of God ; they shall not prevail
for themselves, but for Him ; they shall be
hallowed like the bowls of the temple, from
which the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on
His altar, or as the comers of ihe altar which
receive it.
16. And the Lord their God shall save them in
that day. Still all should be God's doing ; they
themselves were but as a flock, as sheep
among wolves, ready for the slaughter ; but
they were the flock. His people^, as He says,
' / will increase them like tlie flock, men, as the
flock of holy things, as the flock of Jerusalem

1 As in margin.
2 Job xli. 20, 21 (28, 29 Eng.)
* Nu. xiv. 9.

s Deut. vii. 16.
5 Zech. xii. 6.

"ID;; ]NS3 in apposition, as in Ezek. DIS ]NS3.
' Ezek. xxxvi. 37, 38. 8 Kim. o Ps. Ixxvii. 20.
10 The etymology implies this, properly "conse
cration," then the diadem of one consecrated, as
the B/npn 1?J Ex. xxix. 6, xxxix. 30, Lev. viii. 9.
or the 1IJ of the king.

as the stones of a crown, „ i????! ,
L. 11 K 1 o
"lifted up as an ensign ___5i£ii?Ii.

upon his land. 'isai. ii. 12.
17 For 'how great is his 'Ps. 31. 19.

in her solemn feasts ; so shall the waste cities be
filled with flocks, men. "'As a man saves his
flock with all his strength, so He will save
His people ; for they are His flock." As in,
' Thou leddest Thy people like sheep by ihe hand
of Moses and Aaron.
They shall be as ihe stones of a crown. While
God's enemies shall be trampled under foot,
as a common thing which has failed its end,
these shall be precious stones ; a consecrated
'"diadem of king or priest, raised aloft", so
that all can see. On His land. It was laid
down, as the title-deed to its whole tenure,
" ihe land is Mine, and much more our Cliris-
tian land, bought and purified by the blood
of Christ.
17. For how great is His goodness. For it is
unutterable ! As the Psalmist said, ''' 0 Lord,
our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the
earth ! and Jacob, '* How awful is this plaee !
and the Psalmist, How awful are Thy doings !
The goodness and the beauty are the good
ness and beauty of God, Whose great doings
had been his theme throughout before. Of
the goodness the sacred writers often speak '",
since of this we have extremest need. And
this He shewed to Moses, '^ I will cause all My
goodness to pass before thy face. Of this we
know somewhat personally in this life ; for
beside the surpassing amazingnessofitin the
work of our redemption, we are surrounded
by it, immersed in it, as in a fathomless,
shoreless ocean of infinite love, which finds
entrance into our souls, whenever we bar it
not out.
Goodness is that attribute of God, where
by He loveth to communicate to all, who can
or will receive it, all good ; yea. Himself,
" 1' Who is the fullness and universality of
good. Creator of all good, not in one way, not
in one kind of goodness only, but absolutely,
without beginning, without limit, with
out measure, save that whereby without
measurement He possesseth and embraceth
all excellence, all perfection, all blessedness,
all good." This Good His Goodness be
stoweth on all and each, according to the
capacity of each to receive it, nor is there
11 Comp. Ar. SJ " lifted on high," i":^J " throne
exalted." 12 Lev. xxv. 23. 13 Ps. viii. 1. " Gen. xxviii. 17.
16 310 "the goodness" of the Lord, Ps. xxv. 7,
xxvii. 13, xxxi. 20, cxlv. 7, Is. Ixiii. 7, Jer. xxxi. 12,
14. Hos. iii. 6.
i«rj£) V ''31a Sd ¦i''3;?x bx. xxxiii. 19.
"Blaise Palma in "Paradise of the Christian
soul," P. 1. c. vi. n. 4. pp. 90, 91.

412

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

8 Joel 3. 18. Amos 9. 14.

goodness, and how great is
his beauty! ' corn shall make

any limit to His giving, save His creature's
capacity of receiving, which also is a good
gift from Him. " From Him all things
sweet derive their sweetness ; all things fair,
their beauty ; all things bright, their splen
dor ; all things that live, their life ; all things
sentient, their sense ; all that move, their
vigor ; all intelligences, their knowledge ;
all things perfect, their perfection ; all things
in any wise good, their goodness."
The beauty of God belongs rather to the
beatific vision. Yet David speaks of the
Beauty of Christ ', Thou art exceeding fairer
than the children of men; and Isaiah says,
^ Thine eyes shall behold the King in His beauty.
But the Beauty of God " eye hath not seen
nor ear heard nor can heart of man conceive."
Here, on earth, created beauty can, at least
when suddenly seen, hold the frame motion-
les.-i, pierce the soul, glue the heart to it,
entrance the affections. Light from heaven
kindles into beauty our duUest material sub
stances ; the soul in grace diffuses beauty
over the dullest human countenance ; the
soul, ere it has passed from the body, has
been known to catch, through the half-opened
portals, such brilliancy of light, that the eye
even for sorae time after death has retained
a brightness, beyond anything of earth ^.
"*The earth's form of beauty is a sort of
voice of the dumb earth. Doth not, on con
sidering the beauty of this universe, its very
form answer thee with one voice, ' Not I
made myself, but God ' ? " Poets have said,

or,

* Old friends .... shall lovelier be.
As more of heaven in each we see,"
"^When he saw,
" — God within him light his face."

and Holy Scripture tells us that when S.
Stephen, /uH of faiih and- of ihe Holy Ghost,
was about to speak of Jesus to the council
which arraigned him, ''all that sat in the
council, looking steadfastly ai him, saw his face
as it had been the face qf an Angel. It has
been said, that if we could see a soul in grace,
its beauty would so pierce us, that we should
die. But the natur.al beauty of the soul
transcends all corporeal beauty which so
attracts us ; tbe natural beauty of the last
Angel surpasseth all natural beauty of
soul. If we could ascend from the most
beautiful form, whieh the soul could here
1 Ps. xiv. 2. 2 Is. xxxiii. 17. 8 xhis I saw once.
^S. Aug. in Ps. cxliv. n. 13.
c> Christian Year. Morning Hymn.
^Tennyson, In memoriam. l*. has " The God."
1 Acts vi. 5, 15.

Before

the young men 1 1 cheerful, c h e i s t
and new wine the maids. °'''- '*^^-

II Or, -grow, or, speak.

imagine, to the least glorious body of the
beatified, on and on through the countless
thousands of glorious bodies, compared where
with heaven would be dark and the sun lose its
shining ; and yet more from the raost beautiful
deified soul, as visible here, to the beauty ofthe
disembodied soul, whose image would scarce
be recognized, because " " the bodily eyes
gleamed with angelic radiancy ; " yea, let the
God-enlightened soul go on and on, through
all those choirs of the heavenly hierarchies,
clad with the raiment of Divinity, from choir
to choir, from hierarcliy to hierarchy, admir
ing the order and beauty and harraony of the
house of God ; yea, let it, aided by divine
grace and light, ascend even higher, and
reach the bound and term of all created
beauty, yet it must know that the Divine
power and wisdom could create other crea
tures, far more perfect and beautiful than all
which He hath hitherto created. Nay, let
the highest of all the Seraphs sum in one all
the beauty by nature and grace and .glory of
all creatures, yet could it not be satisfied with
that beauty, but must, because it was not sat
isfied with it, conceive some higher beauty.
Were God forth with, at every moment to create
that higher beauty at its wish, it could still
conceive something beyond ; for, not being
God, its beauty could not satisfy its concep
tion. So let him still, and in hundred
thousand, hundred thousand, thousand yeara
witli swiftest flight of understanding multiply
continually those degrees of beauty, so that
eacli fresh degree should ever double that
preceding, and the Divine power should, with
like swiftness, concur in creating that beauty,
as in the beginning He said, let there be light
and there was light ; after all those millions
of years, he would be again at the beginning,
and there would be no comparison between
it and the Divine Beauty of Jesus Christ,
God and Man. For it is the bliss of the
finite not to reach the Infinite'. That city
of the blest which is lightened by the glory
of God, and the Lamb is the light thereof,
sees It, enabled by God, as created eye can
see It, and is held fast to God in one jubilant
exstacy of everlasting love.
" '" 'The Prophet, jaorne out of himself by
consideration of the Divine goodness, stands
amazed, while he contemplates the beauty
and Deity of Christ : he bursts out with un
wonted admiration ! How great is His good
ness, Who, to guard His fiock, shall come
8S. Flavian, of Successus a martjT, whom he
saw after death. Passio SS. Montani, Lucii &c.
cxxxi. in Ruinart, Acta martyr, sincera p. 241.
0 abridged from Joannes a jesu Maria, ars araandi
Deum c. 3. Opp. ii. 301-304. i» Osorius.

CHAPTEE X.

413

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

CHAPTEE X.
1 God is io be sought unto, and

not idols. 5 As i
flock for rin, so he will save and
restore ihem.

down on earth to lay down His life for the
salvation of His sheep ! How great His
beauty. Who is the brightness of the glory and
the Image of the Father, and comprises in His
Godhead the measure of all order and beauty !
With what firm might does He strengthen,
with what joy does He overwhelm the souls
which gaze most frequently on His beauty,
and gives largely and bountifully that corn,
by whose strength the youths are made
strong. He supplieth abundantly the wine,
whereby the virgins, on fire with His love,
are exhilarated and beautified. But both
are necessary, that the strength of the strong
should be upheld by the bread from heaven,
and that sound and uncorrupt minds, melted
with the sweetness of love, should be re
created with wine, i. e. the sweetness of the
Holy Spirit, and be borne aloft with great
joy, in the midst of extreme toils. For all
who keep holily the faith of Christ, may be
called youths, fortheir unconquered strength,
and virgins for their purity and integrity of
soul. For all these that heavenly bread is
prepared, that their strength be not weak
ened, and the wine is inpoured, that they be
not only refreshed, but may live in utmost
sweetness." X. 1. Ask ye of ihe Lord rain. Ask and ye
shall receive, our Lord says. Zechariah had
promised in God's name blessings temporal
and spiritual : all was ready on God's part ;
only, he adds, ask them of the Lord, the Un
changeable, the Self-same, not of Teraphini
or of diviner, as Israel had done aforetime '.
He had promised, '' iff ye .shall hearken dili
gently unio My commandments, to love the Lord
your Ood, I will give you the rain of your land
in his due season, the first rain and the latter
rain, and I will send grass in thy field for thy
cattle. God bids them ask Him to fulfill His
promise. The latter rain ^ alone is mentioned,
as completing what God had begun by the
former rain, filling the ears before the har-
1 Hos. ii. 5-12, Jer. xliv. 16-28. 2 Deut. xi. 13-16.
8 It is mentioned alone in Pr. xvi. 15.
< See vol. i. on Hos. vi. 3, p. 64 ; Jo. ii. 23. pp. 190,
191. 6 Osorius.
" DTin, Its etymology is unlcnown, its meaning
is determined by the idiom nPlD I'Tfl Job xxviii.
26, xxxviii; 25. The Arab, -in only signifies " made
incisions, notches, out the heart," (of misgivings
of conscience.)
' Jer. x. 13, ll. 16. 8 Ps exxxv. 7.
'As the words are transposed in Job xxxvii. 6,
llj; nn£3D DK'JI "IDD DI^JI. Opi occurs, de-

j^SK ye "of the Lokd cheTst
*'rain °in the time of_ eir. 487.
the latter rain ; so
Lord shall make

,1 " Jer 14. 22.
tne ll Deut. 11. 14.

rn . ,, "Job 29. 23.
I bright Joel 2. 23.

clouds, and give them " jer. lo,

Or, lightnings.

vest. Both * had been uspd as symbols of
God's spiritual gifts, and so the words fit in
with the close of the last chapter, both as to
things temporal and eternal. " ^He exhorts
all frequently to ask for the dew of the di
vine grace, that M'hat had sprung up in the
heart from the seed of the word of God,
might attain to full ripeness."
The Lord maketh bright clouds, [rather]
lightnings ^, into rain, as Jeremiah says, ' He
causeth the vapors io ascend from the ends of the
earth ; He maketh lightnings inio rain; and the
Psalmist, ^He maketh lightnings into rain, dis
appearing as it were into the rain which fol
lows on them. And giveth ihem. While man is
asking, God is answering. Showers of rain",
"rain in torrents," as we should say, or "in
floods," or, inverted, "floods of rain." To
every one grass, rather, the green herb, in the field,
as the Psalmist says, '" He causeth ihe grass to
grow for the ealtle, and green herb for the seniee
of men. This He did with individual care, as
each had need, or as should be best for each,
as contrariwise He says in Araos, " I caused ii
to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain
upon another city ; one piece ivas rained upon,
and the piece, whereon it rained not, withered.
The Rabbins observed these exceptions to
God's general law, whereby He ''' sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust, though expressing
it in their way hyperbolically ; "'^In the
time when Israel doeth the will of God, He
doeth their will ; so that if one man alone,
and not the others, wants rain. He will give
rain to that one man ; and if a man wants
one herb alone in his field or garden, and not
another. He will give rain to that one herb ;
as one of the saints used to say. This plot of
ground wants rain, and that plot of ground
wants not rain'*." Spiritually the rain is
divine doctrine bedewing the mind and mak
ing it fruitful, as the rain doth the earth.
So Moses saith, '' My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distill as tlie dew, as the

fined by Snj 1 Kgs xviii. 45; by tlBliZ; Ezek. xiii.
11, 13, xxxviii. 22; by ril3'1J Ps. Ixviii. 10, ]lDn
DSyjn 1 Kgs xviii. 41. "The clouds are full of
? tyj," Eccl. xi. 3. The w.iters of the flood are
called ^K'jn Gen. vii. 12, viii. 2. Kim. compares
the two -svnonymes, isy JimX (Dan. xii. 2) B'D
jrn Ps. xl. 3.
'lo Ps. civ. 14. See also Gen. i. 30, iii. 18.
11 Am. iv. 7. See note vol. i. p. 284.
12 S. Matt. V. 49.
"Taanith f ix. 2 in Kim. Mc. Caul pp. Ill, 112.
i* S. Cyril. ¦* Deut. xxxii. 2.

414

ZECHAEIAH.

c H E°i s T showers of rain, to every
°ii'- *87. one grass in the field.
4 Jer. 10. -8. 2 For the ¦*! idols have
Hab. 2. IS. , . , -, , ,
tHeb. ierti- spoken vanity, and the
phims. T • ^ T
Judg. 17. 5. divmers have seen a lie,
and have told false dreams ;
• Job 13. 4. they " comfort in vain:
therefore they went their
|] Or, answered n i i 1 1
that, lie. way as a nock, they 1 1 were

small rain upon the tender herb and as the
showers upon the grass. " ' The law of Moses
and the prophets were the former rain."
2. For the teraphim have spoken vanity,
rather, spake vanity. He appeals to their
former experience. Their fathers had sought
of idols, not of God ; therefore they went into
captivity. The teraphim were used as in
struraents of divination. They are united
with the ephod, as forbidden, over against
the allov/ed, means of enquiry as to the
future, in Hosea, ''without an ephod and^ with-
• out teraphini ; they were unitedin the mingled
worship of Micah ^; Josiah put them away
together with * the workers with familiar spirits
ancl the wizards, to which are added, the idols.
It was probably, a superstition of Eastern
origin. Eachel brought them with her from
her father's house, and Nebuchadnezzar
used them for divination *. Samuel speaks
of them, apparently, as things which Saul
himself condemned. ^ RebeUion is as the sin
of divination, and stubbornness as iniquity or
idolatry, and teraphim. For it was probably
in those his better days, that ' Saul had put
away those that had familiar spirits and wizards
out of the land. Samuel then seems to tell
him, that the sins to which he clave were as
evil as those which he had, in an outward
zeal, like Jehu, condemned. Anyhow, the
teraphim stand united with the divination
which was expressly condemned by the law **.
The use of the teraphim by Rachel" and
Michal '" (for whatever purpose) implies that
it was some less oflensive form of false wor
ship, though they were probably the strange
gods" which Jacob bade his household to put
away, or, anyhow, among them, since Laban
calls them, " my gods.
1 S. Cyril.
2 Hos. iii. 4. Every fresh attempt to find an ety
mology tor D^S'^n attests'the unsatisfactorinessof
those before it, without finding anything better.
3 Jud. xvii. 6, xviii. 14, 17, 18, 20.
*2 Kgs xxiii. 24. ^Ezek. xxi. 21.
*» 18am. XV. 23. ^ Ib. xxviii. 3.
»De. xviii. 13, 14. »Gen. xxxi. 19, .34,:i5.
10 1 Sam. xix. 13, 16. " Gen. xxxv. 2, 4.
12 Ib. xxxi. 31), 32. iJ Jor. xxvii. 9. i* Ib. xxix. 8.
1' Ezek. xxi. 29 ; add xxii. 28.
1^ Tbe etym. meaning of JIQJ, " plucked up" pegs
of tent, in order to removal, must have been lost in

troubled, 'because there chrYIt
was no shepherd. "'i'- *^''-
3 Mine anger was kin- 'Ezek. 34. s.
died against the shepherds,
^and I tpunished the " Ezek, 34. 17.
„ -, -r f Heb. visited
goats : for the Loed ol upon.
hosts ''hath visited his 'Luke Les.
flock the house of Judah,
and ' hath made them as ' Cant. 1. 9.

Zechariah uses anew the words of Jeremiah
and Ezekiel, ''' Hearken ye not to your prophets,
nor to your diviners, nor io your dreamers, nor
to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers ;. and,
^* let not your prophets and your diviners, that be
in tlie midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken
to your dreams, which ye cause to be dreamed ;
and Ezekiel, '^ While they see vanity unto thee,
while they divine a lie unto ihee. 'The words
not only joined on the Prophet's warning
with the past, but reminded them of the sen
tence which followed on their neglect. The
echo of the words of the former prophets
came to thera, floatmg, as it were, over the
ruins of the former temple.
Therefore they went their way as a floek,
which, having no shepherd, or only such as
would mislead them, removed ^*, but into cap
tivity. They were troubled'''. The trouble
lasted on, though the captivity ended at the
appointed time. Nehemiah speaks of the
exactions of former governors, '" The former
governors which ivere before me, laid heavy
weights upon thepeaple'", and took from them in
bread and wine, after forty shekels of silver ; also
iheir servants used dominion over ™ the people ;
and I did not so, because of the fear of God.
Because there was no shepherd. As Ezekiel
said of those times, '" They were scattered, be
cause there is no shepherd; and they became
meat lo all ihe beasts of Ae field, when they were
seattered : My floek was scattered upon all the
face of tlie earth ; and none did search or seek
after them.
3. Mine anger was kindled against ihe shep
herds. As Ezekiel continued, ^' Thus saiih
ihe Lord Ood ; Beliold I am against the shep
herds, and I will require My flock at iheir hand.
I punished the he-goats. The evil powerful
the idiom. The captivity is spoken of as past, and
the idolatry as before the captivity, which was ita
punishment. i^njJ7 occurs in this sense Ps. cxvi. 10, cxix. 67,
of man ; with H of wearisome labor Eccl. i. 13, iii.
10 ; of the lion. Is. xxxi. 4 ; of the song of the ter
rible, Ib. xxv. 5 [4 Eng.] all. "Neh. v. 15.
i°n'33n with 7j; p., Hke "made our, your, yoke
heavy," 1 Kgs xii. 10, 14, 2 Chr. x. 10,14. "thy yoke,"l3.
xlvii. 0. "my chain" Lam. iii. 7. or £D'Q3j; Hab.ii. 6.
2"Si? mSt!' SU Ezek. xxxiv. 5, 6. 22ib. lo.

CHAPTEE X.

415

Before
CHEIST cir. 487. • battle.

his goodly horse in the

4 Out of him came forth
» Num. 24. 17. ' the corner, out of him ' the
1 Sam. 14. 3S. . ,^ 1 • 1 1 1
Isai. 19. 1.3. nail, out 01 him the battle
iIsaL22.23. ' ^ ^T
bow, out ot him every op
pressor together.
5 ^ And they shall be as

are called the he-goats of ihe earth '¦ ; and in
Ezekiel God says, ''I will judge between cattle
and cattle, between rams and lie-goats ; and our
Lord speaks of the reprobate as goats, the
saved as sheep '- God visited upon * these in
His displeasure, because He visited His flock,
the people of Judah, to see to their needs and to
relieve them.
And hath made them as the goodly horse, as,
before. He said, * I made thee as the sword of
a mighty man. Judah's might was not in
himself; but, in God's hands, he had might
like and above the might of this world ; he
was fearless, resistless ; as S. Paul says, ^ the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
4. Out of him'' came forth, or rather, From
him is ihe corner, as Jeremiah *, Their nobles
shall be from themselves, and their governor
shall go forth from the midst of them. Her
strength, though given by God, was to be in
herent in her, though from her too was to
come He Who was to be ihe head-corner-stone,
the sure Foundation and' Crowner of the
whole building.
From thee the nail, an emblem of fixedness
in itself, (as Isaiah says, " I will fasten him u.
nail to a sure place) and of security given to
others dependent on Him, as Isaiah says
further, ''" And they shall hang upon him all
the glory of his father's house, the offspring and
the issue, from the vessels of cups io the vessels of
flagons; all, of much or little account, the
least and the greatest. ¦ " " Christ is the
corner-stone ; Christ is the nail fixed in the
wall, whereby all vessels are supported. The
word of Christ is the bow, whence the arrows
rend the king's enemies."

1 Jg_ xiv. 9.
'S.Matt. XXV. 32.

2 Ezek. xxxiv. 17.

*iy 103, as commonly, of chastisement; Tp3,
like eTreo-Ke'i^aTo, of visiting to shew favor.
Six. 13. 0 2Cor. X. 4.
'The word XS'' does not suit nj3 or ^n¦' un
less (whioh is not probable as to l/T') the metaphor
was lost. 8Jer. xxx. 21. »Is xxii. 2:3.
lofb. 24. 11 Osor. i2Zeeh. ix. 8.
12 Is. xiv. 2. jyj j is no where used of a ruler or
king, as in JEthiopic. The idea of " oppressors "
remains in Is. iii. 12, (comp. tii) lb. iii. 5) xiv. 2.
add Is. Ix. 17, where the contrast is of change of
the inferior for the better; /or brass I wilt bring

mighty men, which ¦" tread ^ h e°i I t
down their enemies in the ""¦ ^^^-
mire of the streets in the«>Ps. is. 42.
battle : and they shall fight,
because the Lord is with
them, and 1 1 the riders on | or, they shau
1 1 n 1. /" 11 make the ¦rideri
norses shali be conlounded. on horses
6 A IT Ml i. J.1 asttamed.
And 1 will strengthen

From it every' exactor shall go forth together.
God had promised ''' that no oppressor, or ex
actor ''', shall pass ihrough them any more. He
seems to repeat it here. From thee shall go
forth every oppi-essor together; go forth, not to
return ; as Isaiah had said, ''' Thy children
shall make haste to return ; thy destroyers and
they that made ihee waste shall go forth of thee.
" Erom it, its corner-stone ; from it, the sure
nail ; from it, the battle bow ; froin it," — he
no longer unites closely with it, that which
should be from it, or of it, but — from it shall
go forth every oppressor together ; one and all,
as we say ; a confused p§le-m61e body, as
Isaiah, '^ all that are found of ihee are bound to
gether ; '^ together shall they all perish ; or, in
separate clauses ^', they are all of ihem put to
shame; together they shall go into confusion.
5. And they [the house of Judah '", of
whom he had said. He hath made them as the
goodly horse in the battlej shall be as mighty
men, trampling on the mire of ihe streets. Micah
had said, '"she shall be a trampling, as the
mire of ihe streets, and David, ''" I did stamp
them as the mire of ihe street. Zechariah, by a
yet bolder image, pictures those trampled
upon, as what they had become, ihe mire of
the streets, as worthless, :ls foul ; as he had
said, " they shall trample on the sling-stones.
And they shall flght, because the Lord is wiih
them, not in their own strength, he still re
minds them ; they shall have power, because
God empowers thera ; strength, because God
instrengthens them^'; in presence of which,
the goodly war-horse of God, huraan strength,
the riders on horses, shall be ashamed.
6. / will bring them again to place them.
Zechariah seems to have condensed into one
gold &c. It is summed up and it ends in, I wiU
''make their exactors righteousness, [all alleged.]
i*Is. xlix. 17. INS'' 1|Dp. as here NS'' IJDD
¦15 With the same idiom, l^flMIDN ^"XSDJ 73
nn''73; Is. xxii.3.
16 Is. xxxL 3, ^vhy D'73 nn'.
"Ib. xiv. 16, nD^33 i3^n nn' D'73 mh^: dji.
18 They are the main subject in v. 3. The words
inv. 4. eould not be the subject: for neither cor
ner-stone, nor nail, nor bow, can be said to be like
mighty men &c.
IB Mio. vii. 10. 20 2 Sam. xxii. 43. 21 jx. is.
22 ^„ j^ evSvpaiiovfTi. lie xpiiTTi^. Phil. iv. 13.

416

ZECHAEIAH.

c H eTI t ^^^ house of Judah, and I
 ""¦ '^^'''  will save the house of Jo-

»Jer. 3. 18. seph, and "I will bring
Ezek. 37. 21. -/¦ • J. 1 V.1
them again to place them ;

• Hos. 1. 7.

Pch.l3. 9.

for I "have mercy upon
them : and they shall be
as though I had not cast
them off": for I am the
Loed their God, and "will
hear them.

word two' of Jeremiah, ^ J will bring iliem^
again unto this place, and I will cause them to
dwell safely. " ^ The two ideas are here both
implied, he will cause them to return to their
laud, and will cause them to dwell there in
peace and security."
For I will have mercy upon them. " * For the
goodness and lovingkindness of God, not any
merits of our's, is the first and principal
cause of our whole salvation and grace.
Therefore the Psalmist says, "neither did their
own arm save them; but Thy right hand and
Thine arm, and ihe light of Thy countenance,
because Thou hadst a favor unto them.
Ancl they shall be, as though I had not cast
them off. (etymologically, "loathed," "cast
ofi' as a thing abhorrent'"'.) God is ever
"the God of the present." He does not
half-forgive. ' Their sins and their iniquities
Iwill remember no more. God casts off the
sinner, as being what he is, a thing abhorrent,
as penitence confesses of itself that it is " * a
dead dog, a loathsome worm, a putrid corpse."
God will not clothe wdth a righteousness,
which He does not impart. He restores to
the penitent all his lost graces, as though he
had never forfeited them, and cumulates
them with the fresh grace whereby He con
verts him'. It is an entire re-creation.
They shall be, as ihough I had not cast them off.
'" I wdl settle you as in your old estates, and will
do good, more than at your beginnings, and ye
shall know that I an the Lord.
For I am the Lord iheir God, and will hear
them, as He says by Malaclii ", I am the
Lord; I change not. liis unchangeableness
belongs to His Being; I Am; tlierefore ye
sons of Jaeob are not consumed; and by Hosea,
" The Lord of hosts. The Lord is His memorial,
therefore turn thou io ihy God. Because God
was their Ood, and as surely as He was iheir
1 D'n'ntyin from D'fl3K'n, and ?'ri3'K'n.
2 Jer. xxxii. 37.
3 Kim. It is not a confusion of forms, but the
blending of two words into one. So also Ibn E.
¦iDion. sPs. xliv. 3.

*njT. Arab used of
in'JINn Is. xix. 6.

' rancid " oil. Observe

7 And they of Ephraim cheTst
shall be like a mighty man, . <=ir. 487.

and their ''heart shall re-iPs. 104. 15.
, , , . oh. 9. 15.
joice as through wme : yea,
their children shall see it,
and be glad ; their heart
shall rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will 'hiss for them, t Isai. 5. 26.
and gather them; for I
° "Isai. 49. 19.
have redeemed them: 'and Ezek. 36.37.

God, He would hear them. His Being was
the pledge of Plis hearing. '''I, ihe Lord,
will hear them; I, the Ood of Israel, will not
forsake ihem.
7. And Ephraim, they shall be like a mighty
man. Prophecy, through the rest of the chap
ter, turns to Ephraim, which had not yet been
restored. With regard to them, human
victory retires out of sight, though doubtless,
when their wide prison was broken at
the destruction of the Persian empire,
many were free to return to their native
country, as others spread over the West in
Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and so some may
have taken part in the victories of the Mac
cabees. Yet not victory, but strength, glad
ness beyond natural gladness, as through
wine, whereby the mind is exhilarated above
itself; and that, lasting, transmitted to their
Cliildren, large increase, holy life in God,
are the outlines of the promise.
Their heart shall rejoice in tlie Lord, "^as
the principal object, the first, highest, most
worthy Giver of all good, to Whora is to be
referred all gladness, which is conceived
from created goods, that '^ whoso glorieth may
glory in the Lord, in Whom Alone the rational
creature ought to take delight."
8. I will hiss for them. Formerly God had
so spoken of His summoning the enemies of
His people to chastise them. '^ It shall be in
that day, thai the Lord shall hiss for ihe fly, that
is in the uttermost part of ihe rivers of Egypt,
and for ihe bee that is in the land of Assyria,
and they shall eome, and shall rest all of them in
the desolate valleys, and in the holes of ihe roclcs,
and upon edl thorns and upon all bushes. "" He
wdl hiss unto them from the ends of the earth, and
behold they shall come wiih speed swiftly ; none
shall be weary or stumble among them. He
would gather them, like the countless num-

1 Heb. viii. 12.
8 Bp. Andrewes' devotions. Morn. Pr.
8 See vol. i. on Joel ii. 25 pp. 192, 193.
1" Ezek. xxxvi. 11. "Mai. iii. 6.
12 Hos. xii. 5, 6. [0, 7 Heb.] See vol. i. pp. 119, 120.
"Is. xli. 17. "2Cor. X. 17. 15 jg. vii. 18, 19.
1' Ib. V. 26, 27. The word is only used in this same
sense in these three plaees.

CHAPTEE X.

417

0 H E°i I T ^^®y shall increase as they
cir. 487. have increased.

' Hos. 2. 23.

"Deut. 30. L

9 And ' I will sow them
among the people: and
they shall "remember me
in far countries ; and they

bers of the insect creation, which, if united,
would irresistibly desolate life. He would
summon them, as the bee-owner, by his shrill
call, summons and unites his own swarm.
Now, contrariwise God would summon with
the same His own people. The fulfillment
of the chastisement was the earnest of the
ease of the fulfillment of the mercy.
For I have redeemed them. Then they are
His, being redeemed at so dear a price.
" ' For Christ, as far as in Him lay, redeemed
all." God had done this in purpose, as S.
John speaks of ''the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.
And they shall increase as they increased.
" ^ As they increased in Egypt, so shall they
increase at that time." The marvels of God's
favor in Egypt shall be repeated. The in
crease there had been promised beforehand.
¦* Fear not io go down inio Egypt ; for I will
there make of thee a great nation. The fulfill
ment is recorded, ^ ihe children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multi
plied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the
land was fllled with them. God appointed that
this should be part of their confession at
their yearly prosperity, the offering of the
basket of first-fruits ; ^ A Syrian ready to
perish was my father, and he went inio Egypt
and sojourned therewith a few, and became there
a nation, great, mighty, and populous. The
Psalmist dwelt upon it. ' He increased His
people greatly, and made ihem stronger than thrir
enemies. It became then one of the resem
blances between the first deliverance and the
last. " ' For the Apostles and others con
verted from Judaism, had more spiritual
children, all those whom they begat in Christ,
than the synagogue ever had after the flesh."
9. And I uill sow ihem among the nations.
Such had been the prophecy of Hosea ; * /
will sow her unto Me in the earth, as the pre
lude of spiritual mercies, and I will have
merey on her that had not obtained mercy, and I
'will say to not-my-people, Tlwu art My people,
and they shall say, my Ood. Hosea's saying, /
will sow her in the earth i. e. the whole earth,
and that to Me, corresponds to, and explains
Zechariah's brief saying, I will sow them among
iDion. 2Rev. xiii. 8. ^Kim. <Gen. xlvL3.
6 Ex. i. 7. « De. xxvi. 5. ' Ps. ev. 24.
' Hos. ii. ult. See vol. i. pp. 27, 28, ete.
»Ib. i. 11. See vol. i. p. 25. i» Jer. xxxi. 27.
"mi (Kal and Pi.), "dispersed," is contrariwise
never to " sow."
27

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

shall live with their chil
dren, and turn again.
10 ''I will bring them » is. ii. ii. lo.
again also out of the land
of Egypt, and gather them
out of Assyria ; and I will

Hos. 11. n.

the nations. The sowing, which was future to
Hosea, had begun; but the purpose of the
sowing, the harvest, was wholly to come;
when it should be seen, that they were
indeed sown by God, that great should be the
day of Jezreel ". And Jeremiah said, '"Behold
tlie days come, saith the Lord, that Iwill sow the
house of Israel and the house of Judah, with the
seed of man and with the seed of beast The
word is used of sowing to multiply, never of
mere scattering ''¦-
And they shall remember Me in far countries.
So Ezekiel had said, ''' And they that escape of
you shall remember Me among the nations,
whither they shall be carried captive — and they
shall loath tliemselves for the evils which they have
committed in all iheir abominations, and they
sliall know that I am the Lord.
And shall live. As Ezekiel again says,
'^Ye shall know that lam ihe Lord, when I open
your graves, and bring you up out ofyour graves,
0 My people, and shall put My Spirit in you,
and ye shall live. With their children. A con
tinuous gift, as Ezekiel, '* they and their chil
dren, and their children's children for ever: and
My servant David shall be thrir prince for ever.
And shall turn again to God, being con
verted, as Jeremiah had been bidden to ex
hort them ; '^ Go and proclaim these words
toward the North, the cities of the Medes
whither they were carried captive, and say.
Return, ihou backsliding Israel, and / will not
cause Mine anger to fall upon you ; '^ Turn, 0
backsliding children — and I will take you, one of
a city, and two of a family, and will bring you to
Zion, and Iwill give you pastors according io
Mine heart. " Return, ye backsliding children ;
I will heal your backslidings. And they
answer, Behold, we come unto Thee ; for Thou
art the Lord our God. So Isaiah had said,
'" A remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob,
unto the mighty God. " ' They shall return
by recollection of mind and adunatiou and
simplification of the aflfections toward God
so as ultimately to intend that one thing,
which alone is necessary."
10. / will bring ihem again also out ofthe lajid
of Egypt Individuals had fled to Egypt '^ ;
but here probably Egypt and Assyria stand,
i-Ezek. vi. 9. is Ib. xxxvii. 13, 14. "Ib. 25.
IS Jer. iii. 12. 16 Ib. 14, 16. " Ib. 22.
18 Is. X. 21. comp. nOiJ', "her converts," Is. i. 27,
and 13tJ/l in Solomon's prayer, 2 Chr. vi. 24.
19 See' Hos. viii. 13, vol. i., p. 86, ix. 3, p. 88. ,

418

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHRIST eir. 487.
y lsai. 49. 20.

¦ Isai. 11. 15.
16.

bring them into the land of
Gilead and Lebanon ; and
^place shall not be found
for them.
11 ^And he shall pass
through the sea with afflic
tion, and shall smite the

as of old, for the two great conflicting em
pires, between which Israel lay, at whose
hands she had suff'ered, and who represent
the countries which lay beyond them.
Hosea unites, ' ihe West, Assyria, Egypt, the
three then known divisions of the world,
Europe, Asia, Africa'^. Asshur, after
Nineveh perished, stands clearly for the
world-empire of the East at Babylon''', and
then in Persia''- Balaam includes under
Assliur, first Babylon, then the third world-
empire". Babylon, which was first subject
to Nineveh, then sulyected it, was at a later
period known to Greek writers (who proba
bly had their information from Persian
sources) as part of Assyria".
And I will bring them into the land qf Gilead
and Lebanon, their old dwellings, East and
West of .Jordan. And place shallnot be found
for them ', as Isaiah says, ^ The children of
thy bereaved estate shall yet say in thine ears.
The plaee is too strait for me: give place, that
I may dwell.
11. And He, i. e. Almighty God, shall pass
ihrough the sea, afllietion ", as He says, '" When
ihou walkest through the waters, I will be
with thee; and ihrough the rivers, they shcdl not
overfiow thee. And shall smite tlie waves in the
sea, as in Isaiah, " The Lord shall utterly de
stroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea. The
image is from the deliver.ance of Egypt : yet
it is said, that it should not be auy exact
repetition of the miracles of Egypt ; it would
iHos. xi. 10, 11, Is., xi. 15,16; add Ib. xix. 23-25,
xxvii. 13, Iii. 4, Mic. vii. 12. See ab. p. 90.
2 See ou Hos. xi. 11. vol. i., p. 11.5.
8 2 Kgs x.xiii. 20, Lam. v. I5; and, unless it refers
to earlier history, Jer. ii. 18; also Judith i. 5, ii. 1,
V. 1 &c.
4 Ezra vi. 22. 6 Nn. xxiv. 22-24. coll. Dan. xi. 30.
0 Thus Herodotus, in the familiar passages,
speaks of "Assyria, all but the Babylonian por
tion." i. 106. " Those Assyrians, to whom Nineveh
belongs." Ib. 102. " Assyria possesses a va«t num
ber of cities, whereof the strongest at this time was
Babylon, whither after the fall of Nineveh the seat
of government was removed." lb. 178. " many
sovereigns have ruled over this city of Babylon,
and lent their aid to the building of its walls and
the adornment of its temples; of whom I shall
m.ake mention in my Assyrian history." Ib. 184.
" Babylon supplies food during four, the other
regions of Asia during eight months [to the great
king] by which it appears that Assyria m respect of
resources is % of the whole of Asia." Ib. 192.
" Ijittle rain faUs in Assyria. The whole of Baby-
Ionia is, like Eg.vpt, intersected with canals. The
largest is carried from the Euphrates into another

oil Before
'^^^ CHEIST eir. 487.

waves in the sea, and
the deeps of the river shall
dry up: and °the pride of « isai. 14.25.
Assyria shall be brought
down, and ''the sceptre t Ezek. 30. 13.
of Egypt shall depart
away.

be as the Eed Sea'^, which would as effectu
ally shut them in, and in presence of which
they might again think themselves lost,
through whioh God would again bring them.
But it would not be the Eed sea itself; for
the sea through which they should lie
brought, would be afflietion; as our own poet
speaks of " taking arms against a sea of
troubles." ""The promise of succor to
those who believe in Christ is under the
likeness of the things given to those of old ;
for as Israel was conveyed across the Eed
sea, braving the waves in it ; "'for the waters
stood upright as an heap, God bringing this to
pass marvellously ; and as '^ they passed the
Jordan on foot, so he says, those who are
called through Moses to the knowledge of
Christ, and have been saved by the ministries
of the holy Apostles, they shall pass the
waves of this present life, like an angrily
foaming sea, and, being removed from the
tumult ofthis life, shall, undisturbed, worship
the true God. And they shall pass through
temptations, like sweeping rivers, saying with
great joy, in like way, '^ Unless the Lord had
beenfor tts, may Israel now say, ihe waters had
drowned us, the stream had gone over our souls."
H' sliall smite ihe wavejs in tlie sea. There,
where the strength of the powers of this world
is put forth against His people, there He
will bring it down. All ilie deeps of ilie river,
i. e. of the Nile", shall be dried up. The
Nile as a mighty river is substituted for the
stream called the Tigris, upon whieh the city Nine
veh formerly stood." Ib. 193. so Strabo xiv. init.,
Arrian Exp. *AI. vii. 2. 6. Ammian xxiii. 20.
' DnS 1SSD s"? Jud. xxi. 14, is, " they found
not (enough) for themselves;" thence here, Nif.
" there was not found for them."
8 Is. xlix. 20. ¦
'ms is in appos. to D'3. Against the render
ing of the LXX ev 9o.\a(TCTri (TTevij, 1) ?% as the sea,
no where occur.^ as fem. ; in 2 Kgs xvi. 17. it is "the
brazen sea" which is spoken of; 2) the narrowness
of the sea, if physical, would facilitate the crossing,
not aggravate it; 3) omitting the art., rT^S D^3
would be "in a sea of afflietion," but would drop
the reference tothe sea, or "the red sea," "sea"
becoming a mere metaphor.
i« Is. xliii. 2. 11 Ib. xi. 15. 12 Ex. xiv. 10, i3.
IS s. Cyr. " Ex. XV. 8. 16 Josh. iii. 17.
11 Ps. Gxxiv. 1-5.
1^ 115<', always the Nile, except Dan. xii. 5, where
it is part of his revival of words of the Pentateuch.
So Gesenius also. It has been conjectured that a
canal now connecting the Tigris and Euphrates,

CHAPTEE XI.

419

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
« Mic. 4. 6.

12 And I will strengthen
them in the Lord ; and
"they shall walk up and
down in his name, saith
the Loed. CHAPTER XI.
1 Tlie destruction of Jerusalem.
The elect being cared for, the

Jordan, symbolizing the greater putting
forth of God's power in the times to come.
And the pride of Asshfir shall be brought
down. " ' When the good receive their re
ward, then their eneraies shall have no power
over them, but shall be punished by Me,
beciiuse they injured My elect. — By the Assyr
ians and Egyptians he understands all their
enemies." 12. / will strengthen them in the Lord, as our
Lord said to S. Paul, My strength is made per
fect in weakness, and S. Paul said in turn.
When I am weak, then am I strong. And in
His Name shall they walk up and down, have
their whole conversation " ' in Him accord
ing to His will, and diligent in all things to
speak and act in Ilis grace and Divine hope."
" ^"Christians walk in the Name of Christ,
and there is written on the new Avhite stone
given to them a new name *, and under the
dignity of a name so great, they walk with
God, as "Enoch walked and pleased God and
was translated."
Saith the Lord. "'Again the Lord God
speaks of the Lord God, as of Another, hint
ing the plurality of Persons in the Godhead."
XI. "^ All ihe ways of the Lord are mercy
and truth, saith the Psalmist', and, ^ I will
sing to Tliee of mercy and judgment. So is this
prophecy divided. Above ", almost idl were
promises of mercy, which are now fulfilled in
deed ; and from this, '" Open, 0 Lebanon, thy
doors, all are terrible edicts of truth and
tokens of just judgraent. How much sweet
ness and softness and pleasantness is therein.
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion: shout, 0
daughter of Jerusalem; wliat l)itterness and
acerbity and calamity to those, to whom
he says, Open, 0 Lebanon, thy doors, that the fire
may devour ihy cedars; howl, 0 fir tree; howl, Oye
oaks of Basan. As then, before, we beheld His
mercy in those who believed and believe ; so
now let us contemplate His just judgment on
called Bahr-el-Nil, may have had that name in the
titne of Daniel and been the river in his vision
(Stanley Jewish Church iii. 12). 1) The Bahr-el-Nd is
only the ¦modern Arabic name for the Nile. 2) Had
the canal been so called in Daniel's time and had
he meant it (whieh is unlikely) he would naturally
have called it by its name^ not have translated it
into the old Egyptian and Hebrew name.
lEib. 2 Dion. aS. Jer. 4Eev. ii. 17.

rest are rejected. 10 The staves Before
•' CHKIST
qf Beauty and Bands broken cir. 487.
by the rejection of Christ. 15
The type and curse of a foolish
shepherd,
QPEN ''thy doors, O "ch.io.io.
Lebanon, that the fire
may devour thy cedars.

those who believed not." Gilead and Leb
anon " had been named as the restored home
of Ephraim ; but there remained a dark side
of the picture, which the prophet suddenly
presents, with the names of those self-same
lands, " Opien thy doors, 0 Lebanon ; howl, 0
ye oaks of Basan."
1. Open thy doors, 0 Lebanon. Lebanon,
whose cedars hud stood, its glory, for centuries,
yetcould offer no resistance to him who ielled
them and were carried off to adorn the pal
aces of its conquerors ", was in Isaiah '* and
Jeremiah '' the emblem of the glory of the
Jewish state ; and in Ezekiel, of Jerusalem,
as the prophet himself explains it'"; glori
ous, beauteous, inaccessible, so long as it was
defended by God; a ready prey, when aban
doned by Hira. The centre and source of
her strength was the worship of God ; and
so Lebanon has of old been understood to be
the teraple, which was built with cedais of
Lebanon, towering aloft upou a strong sum
mit ; the spiritual glory and the eminence
of Jerusalem, as Lebanon was of the whole
country, and " " to strangers who came to it,
it appeared from afar like a mountain full of
snow ; for, where it was not gilded, it was ex
ceeding -white, being built of marble." But
at the time of destruction, it was '" a den of
thieves, as Lebanon, amidst its beauty, was of
wild beasts.
" ^ I suppose Lebanon itself, i. e. the temple,
felt the command of the prophet's words,
since, as its destruction approached, its doors
opened without the hand of man. Josephus

relates ho

' at the passover, the Eastern

gate of the inner temple, being of brass and
very firm, and with difficulty shut at eventide
by twenty men ; moreover with bars strength
ened with iron, and having very deep bolts,
which went down into the threshold, itself
of one stone, was seen at six o'clock at night
to open of its own accord. The guards of the

6 Gen. V. 24. " Eup-
'Ps. X.XV. 11. 8[b. 01. 1.
0 " viii. 10-x. end." 1° "all c. xi."
11 X. 10. '¦ xi. 1, 2.
13 See ab. on Zeph. ii. 14. and note 2. p. 270.
" Is. xiv. 8, xxxvii. 24. 1* Jer. xxii. 6, 7.
i« Ezek. xvii. 3, 12. " Joseph, de Bello J. 5. 6, 6.
IS S. Matt. xxi. 13.
Mde Bell. J. 6. 5. 3 quoted by Rup.

420

ZECHAEIAH.

cheTst 2 Howl, fir tree; for
cir. 487. the cedar is fallen; be

ll Or, gallants, cause the 1 1 m i g h t y are
spoiled : howl, O ye oaks
;i?ai 32 19. of Bashan; "for lithe
lOv, the defenced ' "
jorest. forest of the vintage is
come down.
3 ^ There is a voice of

temple running told it to the otficer, and he,
going up, with difficulty closed it. This the
uuinstructed thought a very I'avorable sign.
That God opened to them the gate of all
goods. But those taught in the Divine
words, understood that the safety of the
temple was removed of itself, and that the
gate opened." A saying of this sort is still
ex,stant. "' Our fathers have handed down,
forty years before the destruction of the
house, the lot of the Lord did not come up
on the right hand, and the tongue of splendor
did not become white, nor did the light from
the evening burn, and the doors of the tem
ple opened of their own accord, until Rabban
Johanan ben Zaccai rebuked tbem, and s;iid,
'O teraple, why dost thou affright thyself?, I
know of thee that thy end is to be destroyed,
and of this Zechariah prophesied. Open thy
doors, 0 Lebanon, and let the fire devour thy
cedars.'" The "forty years " mentioned in
this tradition carry back the event exactly to
the Death of Christ, the temple having been
burned A. D. 73 ''. Josephus adds that they
opened at the passover, the season of His Cru
cifixion. On the other hand, the shutting of
the gates of the temple, when they had^ seized
Paul ancl dragged him out of the temple, seems
miraculous and significant, that, having thus
violently refused the preaching of the Gospel,
and cast Paul out, they themselves were also
shut out, denoting that an entrance was
afterward to be refused them.
And let afire devour thy cedars. Jerusalem,
er the temple, were, after those times, burned
by the Eomans only. The destruction of
pride, opposed to Christ, was prophesied by
Isaiah in connection with His Coming ''.
2. Howl, 0 cypress, for the cedar is fatten.
Jerusalera or the temple having been likened
to Lebanon and its cedars, the prophet car
ries on the image, speaking of the priests
1 Yoma f. 39 b. quoted by Mart. Pug. fid. {. 297.
Eusebius (Dem. Evang. vii. 4) says, "He calls the
temple Lebanon, as is his wont, since in other
prophecies it has been shewn that the temple itself
is called Lebanon. This the Jews themselves still
confess." 2 Euseb. Chron. ^ Acts xxi. 30.
* Is. X. 34, xi. 1. 6 S. Luke xxiii. 31.
5 1 S. Pet. iv. 18.
' As in E. M. The E. V. has followed the Kri,
correcting T'SDH Ij^'' for "llSDn IJ?', probiibly

the howling of the shep
herds; for their glory is
spoiled : a voice ofthe roar
ing of young lions ; for the
pride of Jordan is spoiled.
4 Thus saith the Lord
my God ; "Feed the flock" ver. 7.
of the slaughter ;

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

princes and people, under the title of firs,
cypresses and oaks, trees inferior, but magnifi
cent. He shews that it is imagery, by as
cribing to them the feelings of men. The
more glorious and stately, the cedars, were
destroyed. Woe then to the rest, the
cypress; as our Lord says, "If they do these
things in the green tree, what shall be done,
in ilie dry f and S. Peter, " If the righteous
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly a'nd
the sinner appear ?
For the defenced'' forest is come doum; that
which was closed and inaccessible to the
enemy. All which was high and lifted up
was brought low, came down, even to the
ground ^.
3. A voice of the howling of the shepherds,
for their glory is spoiled. It echoes on from
Jeremiah before the captivity, "Howl, ye
shepherds — A voice of the cry of the shepherds,
and an howling of the principcd of the flock ; for
the Lord hath spoiled iheir pasture. There is
one chorus of desolation, the mighty and the
lowly; the shepherds and the young lions;
what is at other times opposed is joined in
one wailing. Tie pride of Jordan are the
stately oaks on its banks, which shroud it
frora sight, until you reach its edges, .and
whieh, after the captivity of the ten tribes,
became the haunt of lions and their chief
aboie in Palestine, " on account of the burn
ing heat, and tlie nearness of the desert, and
the breadth of the vast solitude and jun
gles i°."
4. Thus saith ihe Lord my God, Feed ihe
flock of the slaughter. Tbe fulfillment of the
whole prophecy shews, that the person ad
dressed is the prophet, not in, or for himself,
but (as belongs to symbolic prophecy) as rep
resenting Another, our Lord. It is addressed,
in the first instance, to Zechariah. For
Zechariah is bidden, " take unto thee yet the
in order to substitute the common nom. and gen.
for the less usual construction of the subj. and adj.
being defined by the art. of the adj. as in Zeeh.
himself, iv. 7, xiv. 10. «
8 As in Is. xx-'iii. 19, ii. 12, sqq. » Jer. xxv. 34, 3G.
lis. Jer. See Jerem. .xlix. 19, 1. 44 2 Kgs xvii. 25.
The lion lingered there even to the close of the
Xllth cent. Phocas in Reland Patost. i. 274. 8.
Cyril says in the present, " there are very many
lions there, roaring horribly and striking fear into
the inhabitants." n v. 1.5.

CHAPTEE XI.

421

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
djer. -2. 3. &60. 7.

5 Whose possessors slay
them, and *hold themselves

instruments of a foolish shepherd, in words ad
dressed to himself, personally ; And the Lord
said unto me. But he who was to represent
the foolish shepherd, had represented the
True Shepherd, since it is said to him,
" Take unto thee yet." But He, th'e Shep
herd addressed, who does the acts com
manded, speaks with the authority of God.
He says, ' I cut off three shepherds in one month ;
' I broke My covenant whieh I had made with
all the peoples ; ^ the poor of the flock waited
upon Me ; * / cut asunder Mine other staff.
Bands, that I might break the brotherhood be
tween Judah and Israel. But in Zechariah's
time, no three shepherds were cut offj the
covenant made by God was not broken on
His part, there was no such visible distinc
tion between those who waited on God, and
those who, outwardly too, rejected Him.
Feed the flock of the slaughter^, those who
were, even before the end, slain by their evil
shepherds whom they followed, and who in
the end would be given to the slaughter, as
the Psalmist says, ^we are counted as sheep for
ihe slaughter, because they would not hear the
voice of the True Shepherd, and were not
His sheep. They were already, by God's
judgment, a prey to evil shepherds ; and
would be so yet more hereafter. As a whole
then, they were sheep of the slaughter. It is a
last charge given to feed them. As our Lord
says, ' Last of all, He sent unio ihem His Son,
saying, They will reverence My Son. This fail
ing, nothing remained but that the flock
would be given up, as they themselves say,
" He will miserably destroy ihose wicked men, and
wdl let oui His vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render llim ihe fruits in iheir seasons,
i. e. our Lord explains it, ' The kingdom of
heaven shall be taken from them, and given io a
nalion bringing forth the fruits thereof. Yet a
remnant should be saved, for whose sake the
larger fiock was still to be fed : and, as our
Lord, as Man, wept over Jerusalem, whose
sentence He pronounced, so He still feeds
those who would not turn to Him that they
might be saved, and who would in the end be a
flock of slaughter, '" Heath their shepherd, since
they chose death rather than Life.
5. Whose possessors [^buyers "¦} slay them and
hold themselves 'not guilty, rather, are nxit guiUy,
ly. 8. 2v. 10. 3v. 11. 4v. 14.
. 'HJinn [SS, as .nn K''J Jer. viL 32, xix. 6.
n QV ib! xii. 3.
6 Ps. xliv. 22. nn3t3 tXS. ' S. Matt. xxi. 37.
8 Ib. 41. 0 Ib. 43. 1" Ps. xlix. 14.
"rri'Jp stands opposed to trc'ljb, as in Is.
xxiv. 2, -ID1D3 njip3.

not guilty : and they that
sell them * say, Blessed be .

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

« Deut. 29. 19. Hos. 12. 8.

either in their own eyes, or in the sight of
God, since He gave them up and would no
more avenge them. They contract no guilt.
Aforetime God said ; ''' Israel was holiness to
the Lord, ihe first-fruits of His increase ; all that
devour him shcdl be guilty '^ : evil shall come upon
them, saith the Lord. Now God reversed this,
as He said by the same prophet, '*' My people
hath been lost sheep ; their shepherds have caused
ihem io go astray ; they have turned ihem away
on the mountains ; — all that found tliem liave de
voured ihem ; and their adversaries say, We are
not guilty '^ ; because they have sinned against
ihe Lord, the habitation of justice, yea, ihe hope
of their fathers, the Lmd. The offence of in
juring Israel was that they were God's peo
ple : when He cast them forth, they who
chastened them were His servants '^, His in
struments, and offended only when through
pride they kne-w not in Whose hands they
theraselves were'', or through cruelty ex
ceeded their office'*, and so they became
guilty. And they that sell them say. Blessed be the
Lord, for I am rich. Even Sennacherib felt
himself in part, or thought best to own him
self, to be an instrument in God's hand ".
But Titus when he " '" entered Jerusalem,
marveled at the strength of the city and its
towers, wbich 'the tyrants' in phrensy aban
doned. When then he had beheld their
solid strength and the greatness of each rock,
and how accurately they were fitted in, and
how great their length and breadth, he said
' B}' the help of God we have warred : and
God it was Who brought down the Jews
from those bulwarks : for what avail the
hands of man or his engines against such
towers?' Much of this sort he said to his
friends." The Jews also were sold in this
war, as they had not been in former cap
tures ; and that, not by chance, but because
the Eoman policy was different from all,
known by "experience" in the time of
Zechariah. Into Babylon they had been car
ried captive, as a whole, because it was the
will of God, after the seventy years to restore
them. In this war, it was His will to destroy
or disperse them ; and so those above 1 7
were sent to Egypt to the works ; those below
17 were sold. "^'The whole number taken
12 Jer. ii. 3. " IDWK' vSdX hj. " Jer. I. 6, 7.
1^ Di!'XJ sS. The same word.
i« Jer. XXV. 9, xxvii. 6, xliii. 10.
II Is. X. 7. OtyXl Hab. i. 11.
18 Is. xlvii. 6, Zeeh. i. 18. " Is. xxxvi. 10.
20 Jos. de B. J. 6. 9. 1.
21 Jos. ib. § 2. 3.

422

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

t Heb. ¦make to
be found.

the Loed ; for I am rich :
and their own shepherds
pity them not.
6 For I will no more
pity the inhabitants of the
land, saith the Lord : but,
lo, I will t deliver the men

prisoners during the wars were 1,100,000,"
beside those who perished elsewhere.
"'Eead we the ancient histories and the
traditions of the mourning Jews, that at the
Tabernaculum Abrahfe (where now is a very
thronged mart every year) after the last de
struction, which they endured from Adrian,
many tliousands were sold, and what could
not be sold were removed into Egypt, and
destroyed byshipwreck or famine and slaugh
ter by the people. No displeasure came upon
the Eomans for the utter destruction, as
there liad upon the Assyrians and Chal-
dseass." And their own sliepherds (in contrast to those
who bought and sold them, who accordingly
were not their own, temporal or spiritual)
they to \vhom God had assigned them, who
should have fed them with the word of God,
'strengthened the diseased, healed the sick,
bound up the broken, and sought the lost,
pity ihem not. He says what they should
have done, in blaming them for what they
did not do. They owed them a tender com
passionate love ' ; they laid aside all mercy,
and became wolves, as S. Paul says ; * After
my departure shall grievous wolves enier in
among you, not sparing ihe flock. Also of your
own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them. They
who owed thera all love, shall have none.
" ' No marvel then, he says, if enemies shall
use the right of conquest, when their very
shepherds and teachers spared them not,
and, through their fault, the flock was given
over to the wolves." All were corrupted.
High Priest, priests, scribes, lawyers, Phar
isees, Sadducees. No one^ had pity on
them. 6. For Iwill no more pity. Therefore were
they a flock of the slaughter, because God
1 S. Jer. 2 Ezek. xxxiv. 4.
^ iSdIT. ' Acts XX. 29, 30.
5 "This is expressed by the Hebrew idiom, " their
shepherds [plur.] one by one, pity [sing.] them
not." 6g, Luke xi. 52. ' ''DJl«t emphatic.
8 Acts iii. 13, 14. 9 S. John xix. 15.
11^ Of which PiH^ is used, Is. xxx. 14; of the
golden calf, De. ix. 21. So SM^2, of the brazen
serpent, 2 Kgs xviii. 4; the idols, 2 Chr. xxxiv. 7.
" VSD t'K Jud. xviii. 28, 2 Sam. xiv. G, Job v. 4,
Ps. vii. 3, I. 22, Ixxi. 11, Is. v. 29, xiii. 22, Hos. v. 14,
Mic. V. 7, 8.

every one into his neigh
bor's hand, and into the
hand of his king: and
they shall smite the
land, and out of their
hand I will not deliver
thein.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

would have no pity on those who went after
shepherds who liad no pity upon them, but
corrupted them ; who " entered not in them
selves, and those who were entering in, they hin
dered. The inhahitanis of the land, "that land, of
which he had been speaking," Judsea. And
lo. God, by this word, lo, always commands
heed to His great doings with man ; I, I,
Myself ', visibly interposing, will deliver man,
the whole race of inhabitants, every one into
his neighior's hand, by confusion and strife
and hatred within, and into tlie hand of his
king, him whom they chose and took as their
own king, when they rejected Christ as their
King, repudiating the title which Pilate
gave Him, to move their pity. Whereas
He, their Lord and God, was their King,
they formally * denied Him in the presence of
Pilate, when he was determined io lei Him go ;
they denied the Holy One and the Just, and
said, " We have no king but Ccesar.
And they, the king without and the wild
savages within, shall smite, bmise, crush in
pieces, like a broken vessel '", the land, and
out of their hand I will not deliver them.
Their captivity shall be without remedy or
end. Holy Scripture often says, there is no
deliverer ", or " none can deliver out of My
hand; or, since God delighteth in doing
good, I '% He '*, will deliver, or delivered '^
from the hands of the enemy, or their
slavery, or their own fears, or afflictions, or
the like. God nowhere else says absolutely
as here, Iwill not deliver'^. "Hear, O Jew,"
says S. Jerome, " who boldest out to thyself
hopes most vain, and hearest not the Lord
strongly asserting, / wiU not deliver them out
of their hands, that thy captivity among the
Eomans shall have no end." In the threat
ened captivity before they were carried to
12 De. xxxii. 39, Job x. 7, Ps. 1. 22, Ixxi. 11. Is. xliii.
13. Dan. viii. 4, 7.
18 Ex. vi. 0, 2 Kgs XX. 6, Jer. xv. 21, xxxix. 17,
Ezek. xxxiv. 27.
"1 Sam. vii. 3, Ps. xviii. 1.5, Ixxii. 12, 2 Kgs xvii.
39, Is. xix. 20, xxxi. 5, Job v. 19.
15 Ex. xviii. 10, Josh. xxiv. 10, Jud. vi. 9, 1 Sam. x.
18, xiv. 10, 2 Sam. xxii. 1, Ps. xxxiv. 5, 18, liv. 9, Ezr.
viii. 31, Jer. xx. 13.
loOnee only on one ofthe brief repentances in
the Judges, God answers their pra.yGr, I will not save
you ; go anci cry fo the gods which ye have chosen ; let
them save you; but only to save them on their
renewed repentance and prayer. Jud. x. 13-16.

CHAPTEE XL

423

Before
. CHEIST cir. 487.
^ver. 4.
I Or, verity the
poor.
B Zeph. 3. 12.
Matt^ 11. 6.

7 And I will 'feed the
flock of slaughter, 1 1 even
you, * O poor of the flock.
And I took unto me two

Babylon, the prophet foretold the restora
tion : here only it is said of Judah, as Hosea
had said of Israel, that there should be no
deliverer out of the hand of the king whom
they had chosen.
7. The prophetic narrative which follows,
diflfers in its form, in some respects, from the
symbolical actions of the prophets and from
Zechariah's own visions. The symbolical
actions of the prophets are actions of their
own: this involves acts, which it would be
impossible to represent, except as a sort of
drama. Such are the very central points,
the feeding of the flock, which yet are intel
ligent men who understand God's doings:
the cutting off of the three shepherds ; the
asking for the price; the unworthy price
offered ; the casting it aside. It differs from
Zechariah's own visions, in that they are for
the most part exhibited to the eye, and
Zechariah's own part is simply to enquire
their meaning and to learn it, and to receive
further revelation. In one case only, he
himself interposes in the action of the
vision 1; but this too, as asking that it
might be done, not, as himself doing it.
Here, he is himself the actor, yet as repre
senting Another, Who alone could cut off
shepherds, abandon the people to mutual de
struction, annulling the covenant which He
had made. Maimonides, then, seems to say
rightly; "^This, I fed the flock of the slaugh
ter, to the end of the narrative, where he is
said to have asked for his hire, to have re
ceived it, and to have cast it into the temple,
to the treasurer, all this Zechariah saw in
prophetic ¦vision. For the command which
he received, and the act which he is
said to have done, took place in prophetic
vision or dream." "This," he adds, "is be
yond controversy, as all know, who are able
to distinguish the possible from the im
possible." " ^ The actions, presented to the prophets
are not always to be understood as actions
but as predictions. As when God commands
Isaiah, to make the heart of the people
dull* i. e. to denounce to the people their
future blindness, through which they would,
1 iii. 15.
2 More Neboch. ii. 46, p. 123, 6. Buxt. Tr. p. 326.
Abarbanel (ad loo.) regards the act as real, but
symbolic. "God commanded him to do an act, in
deed and awake, which was a declaration and a
sign of what should be in God's |uidanee of Israel.
See at leng'th in McCaul's transl. of Kimchi on
Zech. pp. 198-208.

called Before
cailCU OH EIST
cir. 487.

staves ; the one I
Beauty, and the other I
called 1 1 Bands ; and I fed i Or, Unders.
the flock.

with obstinate mind, reject the mercies of
Christ. Or when He says, that He ap
pointed Jeremiah ' to destroy and to build ;
to root out and to plant. Or when He com
manded the same prophet to cause the na
tions to drink the cup, whereby they should
be bereft of their senses", Jeremiah did
nothing of all this, but asserted that it would
be. So here."
And I will feed the fiock of ihe slaughter,
rather And [our, so] / fed '. The prophet
declares, in the name of our Lord, that He
did what the Father commanded Him. He
fed the flock, committed to His care by the
Father, who, through their own obstinacy,
became the fioek of slaughter. What could be
done, He did for them ; so that all might
see that they perished by their own fault.
The symbol of our Lord, as the Good Shep
herd, had been made prominent by Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, ^Behold the Lord will
come, as a Mighty One — He sliall feed His fioek
like a shepherd : He shall gatlier the lambs 'with
His arm, and carry tliem in His bosom: He
shall gently lead those that are wiih young.
And Jeremiah, having declared God's judg
ments on the then shepherds ", '" I will gather
the remnant of My fiock out of all countries
whiiher I have driven tliem, and will bring them-
again to their fold; and they shall be fruitful
and increase. And I will set up sliepherds over
ihem which .shall feed them. Behold the days
ccnne, saith the Lord, thai I will raise unto Da
vid a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign
and prosper — and this is ihe name whereby He
shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness.
And Ezekiel with the like context " ; '^ Tliere
fore will I save My fioek and they shall be no'
more a prey ; and. I will judge between cattle and
cattle. And I will set One Shepherd over them,
and He shall feed ihem: My servant Darid, He
shall feed them; and He shall be thrir Shepherd;
and, uniting both offices, " Darid, My servant,
shall be king over ihem, and they shall all have
One Shepherd. It was apparent then before
hand. Who this Shepherd was to be, to
Whom God gave the feeding of the flock.
" Even you, or for you, ye poor of ihe floek ;
or, therefore, being thus commanded, [/ed /]
8 Osor. * Is. vi. 10. ' Jer. i. 10. ' Id. xxv. 15 sqq.
I n retained in n.I?.1XJ as in verbs n'? in 1 Sam.
i. 7, 2 Sam. xxiii. 16, 1 Kg's xiv. 9, 2 Kgs ii. 8, 14 [bis]
Jer. XX. 2.
8 Is. xl. 10, 11. » Jer. XXIII. 2. i« Ib. ,3-6.
11 Ezek. xxxiv. 1-21. " Ib. 22, 23.
18 lb. xxxvii. 24.

424

ZECHAEIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
'Hos. 6.7.

8 Three shepherds also I
cut ofi" '^ in one month ; and

the poor of the flock '. The whole flock was
committed to Him to feed. He had to seek
out all ''' tlie lost sheep of the house of Israel.
" ' He fed, for the time, the Jews destined to
death, until their time should come ; " the
fruit of His labor was in the * little flack,
"the faithful Jews who believed in Him,
out of the people of the flock aforesaid, or
the synagogue. Who in the primitive Church
despised all earthly things, leading a most
pure life." So He says, * / will feed My flock
¦awl I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord
•God : I will seek that which was lost, and bring
again that whieh was driven away, and will bind
that which was broken, and will strengthen that
which was sick : but I will destroy the fat and
the strong, Iwill feed tliem with judgment.
The elect are the end of all God's dispen
sations. He fed all ; yet the fruit of His
feeding. His toils, His death, the travail of
His soul, was in those only who ai-e saved.
So S. Paul says, '¦ Therefore I endure all things
for the elects sakes, that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal
glory. He fed all ; but the poor of the flock
alone, those who were despised of men, be
cause they would not follow the pride of the
High Priests and Scribes and Pharisees, be
lieved on Him, as they theraselves say,
' Have any of ihe rulers or ihe Pharisees be
lieved on Him ? and S. Paul says, * Not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called ; but God hath chosen ihe
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ;
and God liaih chosen ihe weak things of the
world io confound the things that are mighty ;
and base things of ihe world, and things de
spised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which
are not, to bring to nought things that are.
And I took unto Me two [shepherd's] staves,
as David says, " Thy rod and Thy staff they
comfort me. The one leaded Beauty or Loveli
ness'", as the Psalmist longs to behold the
beauty or loveliness of God in His temple ",
and says ; let '^ the beauty of the Lord our God
be upon us.
And the other I ccdled Bands, lit. Binders ''.
The one staff represents the full favor and
loving-kindness of God; when this was
1 The masora parva says that " the lyj is a femi
nine," i. e. so punctuated for 107, as in the 3d pers.
0n3 2 Sam. xxiv. 3, Eccl. ix. 12; tn3 Gen. xix.
- T , 1 - T
29, xxx. 26. Yet 1^7 being, so often, some 60
times, illative, therefore, it would be arbitrary to
talce it otherwise here, since even |5 itself nowhere

occurs as a pronoun.
2S. Matt. X. 6, XV. 24.
* S. Luke xii. 32.
«2Tim. ii.10.

8 Dion.
' Bzek. xxxiv. 15, 16.
' S. John xii. 48.

my soul f loathed them, and
their soul also abhorred me.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
t Heb. was straitened for them.

broken, there yet remained the other, by
which they were held together as a people
in covenant with God. -And I fed the jlock.
This was the use of his staves ; He tended
them with both, ever putting in exercise
toward them the loving beauty and grace of
God, and binding them together and with
Himself. 8. And I cut off three shepherds in one
month. " "' I have read in some one's com
mentary, that the shepherds, cut ofi' in the
indignation of the Lord, are to be under
stood of priests and false prophets and kings
of the Jews, who, after the Passion of
Christ, were all cut off in one time, of whom
Jeremiah speaketh, '" Tlie priests said not,
Wliere is ihe Lord ? and they that handle the
law knew Me not ; the pastors also transgressed
against Me, and the prophets prophesied by
Baal, and walked after things which do not
profit," and again, " ^s the thief is ashamed
when he is found, so is the house of Israel
ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and
tlieir priests and iheir propliets; and '''they said.
Come, lei us devise devices against Jeremiah;
for the law shcdl not perish from the priest, nor
counsel from the wise, nor the word from the pro
phet. " "* He speaks of the kings of the
Jews, and prophets and priests ; for by the
three orders they were shepherded." " '" The
true and good Shepherd having been al
ready pointed out, it was right and necessary
that the hirelings and false shepherds should
be removed, the guides of the Jews in the
law. The three shepherds were, I deem,
those who exercised the legal priesthood,
and those appointed judges of the people,
and the interpreters of Scripture, i. e. the
lawyers. For these too fed Israel. Those
who had the glory of the priesthood were of
the tribe of Levi only ; and of them Mala
chi says, ''" The priest's lips shall keep knowledge,
and they shall seek the law at his mouth. But
those who received authority to judge were
also selected, yet were appointed out of every
tribe. In like way the lawyers, who were
ever assessors to the judges, and adduced the
words of the law in proof of every matter. —
But we shall find that our Lord Jesus Christ
8 1 Cor. i. 26-28. « Ps. xxiii. 4.
IOkciAAos, o; evTrpejreLa, Aq. Sym. (Theodot. also,
see Field Hexapl. on v. 10.) " decus." S. Jer.
11 '''' DJ^'j Ps. xxvii. 4. 12 Ps. xc. 17.
18 From the common 73n "rope ;" in Arab, verb,
"bound fast as with rope," "made covenant;"
noun, " band of marriage, friendship, covenant of
God or man, personal security," Lane. axoivLiriJia,
6 Aq. Sym. ; funiculos, S. Jer.
" S. Jer. 16 Jer. ii. 8. m Ib. 26. " Ib. xviii. 18.
18 Theodoret. i!>S. Cyr. 2»MaI. ii. 7.

CHAPTEE XI.

425

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
i Jer. 15. 2.
& 43. 11.

9 Then said I, I will not
feed you : ' that that dieth,
let it die ; and that that is
to be cut off, let it be cut off;

Himself expre.ssly pronounced woe on the
Pharisees and scribes and lawyers. For He
said, ' Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees.
And when one of the lawyer's hereupon an
swered Him saying, ^ Master, so saying Thou
reproachest us also, He said, Woe unio you also,
ye lawyers ! for ye lade men with burdens griev
ous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the
burdens mth one of your fingers. These three
Shepherds then, priests and judges und law
yers ', who remained in their own orders and
places, until the coming of Christ, were very
justly taken away in one month. For since
* they killed the Prince of life, thereby also are
they mown down, and that in the month of
the first fruits, in which Emmanuel endured
to be slain for us. They remained indeed
administering Israel, even after the Saviour's
Cross, through the long-suflering and com
passion of .-Vlmighty God calling them to re
pentance ; but, in the sentence passed by
God, they were taken away, at that time,
when they delivered to the Cross the Sa
viour and Eedeemer of all. They were
taken away then in one month ; " Nisan. A. D.
33. The three offices, King, Divine Teacher,
Priest, were to be united in Christ : they
might have been held under Him: those
who rejected them in Him, forfeited them
themselves. These then He made to disap
pear, effaced them from the earth °.
And My soul was straightened for them"-
It is used of the Divine grief at the misery
of His people '. And their soul ahhoi'red Me,
nauseated Ife*. "^When it is said. Their soul
also abhoiTeth Me, the meaning is, ' My soul did
not loathe them first, but their soul first
despised Me, therefore My Soul abhorred
IS. Luke xi. 44. 2ib. 4S,46.
8 No other explanation of the 'three shepherds'
seems to me at all to recommend itself. The Jews
made them Moses Aaron and Miriam (Taanith f.
9a.) and from them, S. Jerome ; J. Kim. and (as one
solution) Ibn Ezra, suggested Haggai, Zechariah,
Malachi ; " ' After whom,' the rabbis say, ' prophecy
departed from Israel ' " (" on account of the cutting
otf of prophecy at their death," opinion in Tan
ehum.) Abraham Lev. "the principality of the
sons of David, and the monarchy of the Hasmo-
nseans, and that of their servants." D. Kim., " the
three sons of Josiah, Jehoaliaz, Jehoiakim and
Zedekiah : " Abarbanel, " the Maccabees, Judas
Jonathan and Simon : " Eashi, " the house of .Vliab
and the house of Ahaziah, and his brethren and all
the posterity of the kingdom of David (except
Joasn) slain by Ahab and Athaliah:" Tanehum
" Joshua the high-priest and the second priest and
the anointed for war:" (Buxtorf refers for his
office to Maimonides, Hilchosmelachinumilehama
c. 7. and masseeheth Sota c. 8. Lex. Chald. col.
1267). "And it is said, Joshua, Zerubbabel and
Nehemiah," Tanehum. Theodorus of Mops, in
terpreted it of "the priests" generally, not of any

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

and let the rest eat every
one the flesh f of another.
10 ^And I took my ^ 'H-eh. of Ms fel-
rt. -r» 1 ^^'^' '^1') neigh-
stan, even Beauty, and cut bor.

them.' " The soul which drives away God's
good Spirit, comes at last to loathe Him and
the thought and mention of Him.
9. And I said, I will not feed you. God, at
last, leaves the rebellious soul or people to
itself, as Pie says by Moses, '" Then My anger
shall be kindled against them in that day, and
I wdl forsake them, and will hide My Face from
itiem, and they shall be devoured, and many evils
and troubles shall find them : and our Lord
tells the captious J ews ; "I go My way, and
ye shall seek Me and shall die in your sins.
Tliat whieh dieth, let it die.. Zechariah seems
to condense, but to repeat the abandonment
in Jeremiah ; ''' Cast them out of My sight, and
let them go forth. And ii shall be, if they shall
say unto ihee. Whither shall we go forth f then
ihou shali tell them. Thus saith the Lord, Such
as are for death, to death ; ancl such as are for
the sword, to the sword ; and such as are for the
captivity, to the captivity. First, God gives
over to death without violence, by famine or
pestilence, those whose lot it should be ;
another portion to violent death by the
sword ; that which is cut off shcdl be cut off'; and
the rest, the flock of slaughter, would be
turned into wolves ; and, as in the awful
and horrible siege of Jerusalem, those who
had escaped these deaths, the lefl-orer, shall
eat every one of the flesh of his neighbor, every
law of humanity and of nature broken. " '^ So
should they understand at last, how evil and
bitter a thing it is for all who lived by My
help to be despoiled of that help."
10. And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it
asunder. Not, as aforetime, did He chasten
His people, retaining His relation to them :
for such chastening is an austere form of love.
three classes of persons. Three classes, Priests,
Pharisees and Sadducees, were adopted by some
older ; Pharisees Sadducees and Essenes by Light
foot (HorEe Hebr. on S. John x.). On the abortive
guesses of a German school, see ab. Introd. to
Zechariah p. 609. * Acts iii. 15.
' ^1^J^ ut. " hid," job xx. 12, as nn3 uniformly
(15 times), thence <14.ai/i'Sa>. It is used of numbers ;
the 7 nations, Ex. xxiii. 23; of Israel, in the inten
tion of their enemies, from being a nation, ''IJD,
Ps. ixxxiii. 6 ; of the house of Jeroboam from the
face of the earth, 1 Kgs xiii. 34; of Sennacherib's
army, 2 Chr. xxxii. 21.
oA'sin E. M.
I Jud. X. 16 also with 3 p Gesenius' comparison
of Arab. j;ij is wrong. Its primary meaning is
"out off from," See Lane p. 419. .
8 Such is the traditional meaning of ir\2.
"loathed My worship," Ch. ; "loathed," Abulw.
Tanch. coll. Syr. sVn?. "o'ae so nauseating as to
vomit his food."
» Kim. 1" De. xxxi. 17. " S. John viii. 21.
12 Jer. XV. 1, 2, and similarly xliii. 11. 18 Osor.

426

ZECHAEIAH.

cheTst ^* asunder, that I might
 ""'¦ ^^''-  break my covenant which
I had made with all the
people. 11 And it was broken
1 Or, the poor of . ,-, , , , , . v , ,
the flock, d-c. m that day : and 1 1 so " the
knew. ' ¦" poor of the flock that
ver. 7. " " waited upon me knew that

By breaking the staff of His tender love. He
signified that this relation was at an end.
That I might dissolve My covenant whieh I had
made with all the people, rather, with all the
peoples, i. e. with all nations. Often as it is
said of Israel, that they brake the covenant
of God^, it is spoken of God, only to deny
that He would break it '', or in prayer that
He would not''. Here it is not absolutely
the covenant with His whole people, which
He brake ; it is rather, so to speak, a cove
nant with the nations in favor of Israel, allow
ing thus much aud forbidding more, with re
gard to His people. So God had said of the
times of Christ * ; In that day I will make a cove
nant for them with the beasts of the field and with
thefowls ofthe heaven, and with the creeping things
of the ground ; and, ^ I will make 'with ihem a
covenant of peace, arid will cause the evil beasts to
cease out of the land ; and in Job ° thou shalt
be in league with ihe stones of the field, and the
beasts of the field shall be at peaee with thee.
This covenant He willed to annihilate. He
would no more interpose, as He had before
said, ^ I will not deliver from their hand. Who
ever would might do, what they would, as the
Eomans first, and well nic,di all nations since,
have infiicted on the Jews, what they willed ;
and Mohammedans too have requited to
them their contumely to Jesus.
11. And so the poor of ilie flock that waited
upon Me" knew. The rest were blinded;
those who listened to God's word, observed
His Prophet, waited on Him and observed His
words, knew from the fulfillment of the
beginning, that the whole was God's word.
Every darkening cloud around the devoted
city was an earnest, that the storm, which
should destroy it, was gathering upon it. So
our Lord warned, " When ye shcdl see Jerusa
lem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh. Then let ihem which
are in Judcea flee io the mountains ; and let
them which are in the midst of it depart. The
1 Lev. xxvi. 15, De. xxxi. 16, 20, Is. xxiv. 5, Jer.
xi. 10, xxxi. 32, Ezek. xvi. 69, xliv. 7.
2 Lev. xxvi. 44, Jud. ii. 1. and, strongly, Jer.
xxxiii. 20, 21.
8 Jer. xiv. 21. * Hos. ii. IS, [20 Heb.]
6 Ezek. xxxiv. 25. « Job v. 23.
'v. 6.
*''nX D''TD!J'n. IDty occurs more commonly w.

it was the word of the che°i'st
Lord.  "''¦ ^«^-

12 And I said unto
them, f If ye think good, fHeb.// it be
T .jy good in your
give me my price ; and it eyes.
not, forbear. So they
'weighed for my price,
° ,. , ' Matt. 26. 15.
thirty pieces of silver. See Ex. 21. 32.

little flock which waited upon the Good Shep
herd, obeyed the warning, and, fleeing
to Pella, escaped the horrible judg
ment which fell on those who remained.
" '" They remembered that it had been pre
dicted many centuries before, and that the
Lord, by Whose Spirit the prophet spake,
foretold that in that city " one stone should not
be left upon another."
12. And I said unto them. If ye think good,
give Me My price. C-Jod asks of us a return,
not having any proportion to His gifts of
nature or of grace, but such as we can render.
He took the Jews out of the whole human
race, made them His own, a peculiar people,
freed them from ihe bondage and the iron fur
nace of Egypt, gave them tlie land flowing with
milk and honey, fed and guarded them by His
Providence, taught them by Plis Prophets.
He, the Lord and Creator of all, was willing
to have thera alone for His inheritance, and,
in return, asked them to love Hira with their
whole heart, and to do what He commanded
them. '^ He sent His servants to ihe husband
men, thai they might receive ihe fruits of ihe rine-
yard ; and tlie husbandmen took His servants,
and beat one, and killed another, and stoned
another. Last of edl. He sent unto them His Son,
to ask for those fruits, the return for all His
bounteous care and His unwearied acts of
power and love. " '^ Give Me," He would
say, "some fruits of piety, and tokens of
faith." "loWhat? Does He speak of a price ? Did
the Lord of all let out His toil ? Did He
bargain with those, for whom he expended it
for a certain price? He did. He condes
cended to serve day and night for our
salvation and dignity ; and as one hired,
in view of the reward which He set
before Him, to give all His care to
adorn and sustain our condition. So He
complains by Isaiah, that He had undergone
great toil to do away our sins. But what
ace. of thg., commandments &c. butw. ace. pers., in
good sense, VJ"1'. ^00 "he that observeth his
master," Pr. xxvii. 18; also of God, Hos. iv. 10; of
idols, Ps. xxxi. 7 ; and of observing for evil, ISam.
xix. 11, Job X. 14.
" S. Luke xxi. 20, 21. i" Osor.
11 8. Matt. xxiv. 2. 12 S. Matt. xxi. 34-37.
i8Eus. Dem.Ev. X. 4. So Theod.

CHAPTEE XL

42/

13 And the Loed said

Before
CHEIST "''• '^«'^-  unto me, Cast it unto the

reward did He require ? Faith and the will
of a faithful heart, that thereby we might
attain the gift of righteousness, and might in
holy works pant after everlasting glory.
For He needeth not our goods ; but He so
bestoweth on us all things, as to esteem His
labor amply paid, if Pie see us enjoy His
gifts. But He so asketh for this as a reward,
as to leave us free, either by faith and the
love due, to embrace His benefits, or faith
lessly to reject it. This is Plis meamng,
when He saith,"
And if not, forbear. God does not force our
free-will, or constrain our service. He places
life and death before us, and bids us choose
life. By His grace alone we can choose Him ;
but we can refuse His grace and Himself.
* TfiOu shalt say unto tlian. He says to Ezekiel,
Thus saiih the Lord God, He that heareth, let
him hear, and he that forbeareth, let him forbear.
This was said to them, as a pecple, the last
offer of grace. It gathered into one all the
past. As Elijah had said, ^ If the Lord be God,
follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him; so
He bids them, at last to choose openly, whose
they would be, to whom they would give
their service ; and if they would refuse in
heart, to refuse in act also. Forbear, cease,
leave off, abandon ; and that for ever.
So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of
silver ; the price of a slave, gored to death by
an ox'. Whence one of themselves says,
"*you will find that a freeman is valued,
more or less, at 60 shekels, but a slave at
thirty." He then. Whom the prophet rep
resented, was to be valued at thirty pieces of
silver. It was but an increase of the con
tumely, that this contemptuous price was
given, not to Him, but for Hira, the Price of
His Blood. It was matter of bargain.
^ Judas said. What will ye give me, and I will
deliver Him unto you? The High Priest,
knowingly or unknowingly, fixed on the
price, named by Zechariah. As they took
into their mouths willingly the blasphemy
mentioned in the Psalm ; * they shoot out the
lip, they shake the head, saying. He trusted in
the Lord, that He would deliver Him ; let Him
deliver Him, seeing that He delighted in Him ; so
perhaps they fixed on the thirty pieces of silver,
1 Ezek. iii. 27 ; add ii. 5, 7, iii. 11.
a 1 Kgs xviii. 21. 8 Ex. xxi. 32.
* Maimonides More Neboch. e. 40. P. 3.
6 S. Matt. xxvi. 16. ^ Ps. xxii. 7, 8.
' Ex. xxii. 31.
8 Is. xiv. 19, xxxiv. 3, Jer. xxiv. 16, xii. 19, xxvi.
23, xxxvi. 30.
92 Sam. xviii. 17. ">2 Kgs xxiii. 12.
11 Is. ii. 20, add Ezek. xx. 8.
122 Kgs xiii. 2.3, xvii. 20, xxiv. 21, Jer. Iii. 3.
13 De. xxix. 27 [28 Eng.] " Jer. xxii. 28.

"potter: a goodly price che7st
that I was prized at of__5Eii!!^_

' Matt. 27. 9, 10.

because Zechariah had naraed them as a sum
offered in contumely to him, who offered to
be a shepherd and asked for his reward.
13. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it, as a
thing vile and rejected, as torn flesh was to
be cast to dogs', or a corpse was cast un
buried'*, or tlie dead body of Absalom was
cast into the pit^, or the dust of the idol-
altars into the brook Kedron by Josiah '", or
the idols to the moles and the bats " ; or
Judah and Israel from the face of God ''' into
a strange land '^ • Coniah and his seed, a
vessel in which is no pleasure '*, into a land
which they knew not ; or the rebels against
God, said, '^let us cast away their cords from us;
or wickedness was cast into the Ephah '^ ;
once it is added", /or loathing.
Unlo the potter. The words exactly cor
respond with the event, that the thirty pieces
of sdver were cast or flung away '^ ; that their
ultimate destination was the potter, whose
field was bought with them ; but that they
were not cast directly to him, (which were a
contemptuous act, such as would not be used
whether for a gift or a purchase), but were
cast to him in the house of the Lord. They
were flung away by the remorse of Judas, and,
in God's Providence, came to the potter.
Whether any portion of this was a direct
symbolic action of the prophet, or whether it
WHS a prophetic vision, in whicli Zechariah
himself was an actor, and saw himself in the
character which he described, doing what
he relates, cannot now be said certainly,
since God has not told us. It seems to me
raore probable, that these actions belonged to
the vision, because in other symbolic actions
of the prophets, no other actors take part ;
and it is to the last degree unlikely, that
Zechariah, at whose preaching Zerubbabel
and Joshua and all the people set them
selves earnestly to rebuild the temple, should
have had so worthless a price offered to him;
and the casting a price, which God con
deraned, into the house of God, at the com
mand of God, and so implying His accept
ance of it, were inconsistent. It was fulfilled,
in act consistently, in Judas' remorse ; in that
he flung'" away the pieces of silver, which had
stained his soul with innocent blood, in the
isPs. ii. 3. i«Zeoh. V. 18. " Ezek. xvi. 6.
18 oil/* a? Ta apyvpta ev ToJ vaiZ S. Matt, xxvii. 6.
"This is in itself (as Keil observed) decisive
against the substitution of 1V1X for IVT, as Jon.
and the Syr. have, if it be interpreted of any actof
Zechariah. If it were taken only of the result of
the ordering of God's Providence, the raan sub
stance of the prophecy would equally remain, that
the Good Shepherd was valued at this contempt
uous price; and that the money itself was flung

428

ZECHAEIAH.

them. And I took the

Before
CHRIST Gir.4.s7. fh'wtj pip.p,p.,9 of silver, and

temple, perhaps remembering the words of
Zechariah ; perhaps wishing to give to pious
uses, too late, money which was the price of
his soul ; whereas God, even through the
Chief Priests, rejected it, and so it came to
the potter, its ultimate destination in the
into tlie treasury; only in this ease the second
clau.se " to the treasury in the house of the Lord"
would add nothing to the first, wherea-^, if ll^V be
rendered in its natural sense "potter," this ac
counts for the use of the word "tiin;^," and con
tains what was brought about by the joint agency
of Judas and the Pharisees. But 2) no two words,
in any language, are more distinct than "^iflK and
'^^V, both of them also being, in their several
senses, common words. Ilflt^, "treasure," or at
tiraes, "treasury," occurs 79 times in the 0. T. ;
"l^V, lit. "former," occurs 41 times beside these
verses. There is not the slightest approxima
tion of the meaning of the two roots; ^y^ is
"treasured up;" 'n2f\ "made." Since tlien, apart
from inspiration, eveiy writer wishes to be under
stood, it is, in the nature of things, alisanl to sup
pose, that, had Zechariah meant to say, " cast into
the treasury," he should not have u.sed the word,
which everywhere else, 79 times, is used to express
it, but should have used a word, which is always,
viz. 41 times, used of something else. The particu
lar form moreover, with the art. occurs 11 times iu
the 0. T. as "the potter;" once in I.'^aiah (xxix.
IG), seven times in 2 chapters of Jeremiah, xviii. 2,
3, '1 (bis) 6 (bis) xix. 11, of " th© potter," once only
of Almighty God, (Ps. xxxiii. 15) and that, in a dif
ferent idiom. Of God, it is never used a-^ a sub
stantive, " the Creator." It remains a part., " Maker
of," it being added, of what He is the Maker. ' He
that maketh the eye,' Ps. xciv. 9, the liearts, Ib.
xxxiii. 15, light, Is. xiv. 7; the earth, Id. 18; the
universe, 73n Jer. ^. 15, li. 19 ; mountains, Amos
iv. 13; grasshoppers, Ib. vii. 1; the spirit of man,
Zech. Xli. 1; or with pronouns, my ;\Iaker Is. xlix.
5; thy Maker Is. xliii. 1 ; our Maker xliv. 2, 24, his
Maker Is. xxvii. 11, xxix. Hi, xiv. 9. 11. The ren
dering then of the Jews in S. Jerome's time, D.
Kim., Abraham of Toledo apparently, Abarb., Al-
sheikh, "the Creator," is unidiomatic, as well as
that of Rashi, J. Kim. Tanch., Isaac (xvii. cent.)
Chizzuk Emunah (Wagn^eil Tel. ign. Sat. p. 140.),
"treasury," which the modern Anti-Messianic in
terpreters follow. Aquila has Toi' TrAatj-TTji/; the LXX
and Symm. x^^^^'''VP'-°'^i " foundry ; " in that "ly^ is
used with regard to metals. Is. xliv. 12, liv. 17, Hab.
ii. IS, as well aa, more commonly, of clay. I^r is
used of the "potter" 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 1 Chr. iv. 23,
Ps. ii. 9, Is. xxx. 14, xli. 25, Ixiv. 7, Jer. xix. 1, Lam.
iv. 2 (beside the use of "ij^Vn above); also "the
former thereof" contrasted with the clay, Is. xiv.
9. The Hebrew-Arabic translation, whieh Pococke
so much valued (12th cent.) has twice J-X^Sn,
(used chiefly of a gold-smith). Abulwalid does not
notice it in either lexicon, nor Saadyah Ibn Danan
nor Parchon. They must therefore "have had noth
ing to remark on it, interpreting it as elsewhere,
' potter.' It is not then necessary even to say, that the
dicta as to the interchange of 5^ and "^ in Hebrew
are much too vague, the instances heterogeneous.
Alt the words, in which 5< and ¦• occur as the first
letter, are allied words of the same meaning, not
interchanged. Such are int? and ^^^ 1t!'X and
'W\ (whence the Proper Names nbx"^i:''N 1 Chr.
xxv. 2. and PlbXTt:'' lb. 14.). ins^ and in' an. Aey.

cast them to the potter in
the house of the Lord.

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

Providence of God. " ^ He saitli, cast it unto
the potter, that they might understand
that they would be broken as a potter's
vessel." A goodly price, that I was prized at of them,
lit. the magnificence of thevalue'^j at which I was
(2 Sam. XX. 5) are again allied, the Maltese also
having a root xoacchar (Vassal! Lex. melit. pp. 82,
651, in Ges. v. "in'). TDX " was stable " was, prob
ably, the basis of pO''- The use ot the aTr. Aey.
1 J'DXn for irO'JI turn to the right " Is. xxx. 21,
would have been anyhow a substitution of the guf>-
tural for the ¦", not the '' for the t<, and any ambig
uity is precluded by the contrast of 'l^'XDEyJI
"turn to the left." the Kri D'JiVD (Jer. v. 8) is
only a bad correction for the Ch. D'JMD, and sonot
Biblical Hebrew, The-;e areall the instances collect
ed by Bottcher (Lehrb. n. 43U.) In like way in the
middle radical HXI (Lev. x. 14) and TV^ Deut. xiv.
13. Botteh, lin.3, 4^ adds no'nn, which Saad. and
Rashi, more probably, derive from "1^\ Jer. ii. 11.
In Ezelt. vi. G, U'W and Dl^X both occur, as varia
tions, not of each other, but of ?DIJ^. vi. 4.
Other cases are simple omissions of the X, Qf^t an
interchange at all ; as rp from 5<''p (med. i. Arab.
^Eth.) Jer. xxv. 27, rV^'2 for PlX'TD Ez. xxxiv. 20.
T3 Jer. vi. 7 is a mere correction for "11^- and so,
again, not Biblical Hebrew. JM"1 (1 Sam. xxii. 18,
22 Ch.) is a mere corruption of JXH, as, in all lan
guages proper names are the most easily corrupt
ed. (See Daniel the prophet p. 405 ed. 2). Ei^K (3
Sam. XX. 5, Mic. vi. 19) and the common tt/\ each
lose one letter of the original form, which has
both. (See on Daniel the prophet p. 50 note. ed. 2)
There is not then the slightest countenance for
assuming that "liTH is not, what aecording to its
form it is, " the potter" lOsor.
""nX occurs in this sense, here only. In Mi. ii.
8, it is used of a wide garment i. q. n*Tli^-'np\ "of
value" only occurs else in "ID"' ''7I) "a vessel of
value "Pr. xx. 15; "iD'-vD " every precious thing"
Job. xxviii. 10; nip' 7^ "all its magnificence,"
Jer. XX. 5; "costliness," Ez. xxii. 25; not directly a
" price." "Jewish writers who could satisfy themselves
that the ' thirty pieces of silver ' were anything but
what they are, sorae thirty precepts given to the
sons of Noah (mystical interpretation in the TJ
HLS'jn ap. Abarb. 'ad loc. p. 219. v.), or thirty digni
ties of royalty ("the wise of blessed memory," in
Abarb. Ib. p. 29.:. v.) or the thirty righteous in each
generation, promised fas they say) by God to Abra
ham (Midrash Aggadali in Rashi), or the thirty in
that generation (Kim.), or who went up with Nehe
miah, or were priests m his time [Tanehum has
It is said, that perhaps it is an image of the thirty
righteous or prie^t-^, who were the noblest of the
followers of Zerubl)abel or Nehemiah."] Ibn E., or
thirty days of imperfect repentance (Kim.), or
thirty years of the reigns ofthe kings of the pious
Hasmoiifeans (Abrah. Toled. in McCaul on Zech. ad
loc), or who scrupled not to own that thev could
not explain them at all (Rashi) ;— Jewish writers,
who could, in any of these ways, escape from think
ing of those thirty pieces of silver, at which their
forefathers priced the Blood of Jesu-;, doubt not
that the Good Shepherd Who fed them, Whom

CHAPTEE XI.

429

14 Then I cut asunder

Before
CHRIST cir. 487. mine otlier staff,

\0i. Binders. lIBands, that I

even
might

valued of them .' The strong irony is carried
on by the, at which I was valued of them, as in
the idiom, thou wert precious in my sight '.
Precious the thouglit of God to David ^;
precious the redemption of the soul of man ' ;
and precious was tlie Shepherd Who came to
them ; precious was the value, whereat He
was valued by them*. And yet He, Who
was so valued, was Almighty God. For so
it stands : Thus saith the Lord Ood, Cast it unto
ihe potter, ih s goodly price thai I was prized ai
of ihem. The name, the potter, connects the
prophecy with that former prophecy of Jere
miah *, denouncing the judgment of God for
the shedding of innocent blood, whereby
they had detiled the valley of the son of Hin-
nom, whieh was cd the entry of the gate of the pot
tery *, and which, through the vengeance of
God there, should be called the valley of
slaughter '. The price of this innocent Blood,
by the shedding of which the iniquities of
tiieir fathers were filled up, should rest on
that same place, for whose sake God said,
" I will break this people and ihis city, as one
breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made
whole again. So then S. Matthew may have
quoted this prophecy as Jeremiah's, to sig
nify how the woes, denounced on the sins
committed in this same place, should be
brought upon it through this last crowning
sin, and all the righteous blood which had been
shed, should come upon that generation "
14. And I cut asunder mine other staff. Bands,
they rejected, Who gave them up, Who speaks of
Himself, " the goodly price that / was prized at of
them' (however they may have distorted these
words too) was Almighty God." Pusey's University
Sermons pp. 151, 152.
' 3 T;?3 Tp' 1 Sam. xxvi. 21, Ps. Ixxii. 14, 2 Kgs
i. 13, 14, Is. xliii. 4. 2 P.s. cxxxix. 17. sib. xlix. 9.
* ?n'''7J,'D Tp'. See Ewald Lehrb. n. 219a. p. 573.
ed. 8. ' 5 Jer. xix.
^illD'inn '\}?'!^ Ib. 2. See Ges. Thes. sub v. p.
522. ¦ ' Jer. xix. 6. * lb. 11.
»S. Augustine suggests that S. Matthew wished
to lead the reader to connect the prophecy of
Zechariah with Jerem. xxxii. 9. " All copies," he
says, "have not 'Jeremiah ' but only 'by the pro
phet;' but more Mss. have the name of Jeremiah ;
and those who have considered the Gospel care
fully in the Greek copies, say that they have found
it in the older Greel< (copies) ; and there is no rea
son why the name should be added, so as to occa
sion a fault ; but there was a reason why it should
be removed from some copies, this being done by a
boldunskillfulness [imperitia] being distracted by
the question, that this testimony was not found in
Jeremiah." "S. Matthew," he says further, " would
have corrected it in his life-time at least, when ad
monished by others who could read this, while he
was yet in the flesh, unless he thought that one
name of a prophet instead of another did, not with
out reason, occur to his memory, which was ruled
by the Holy Spirit, but that the Lord appointed that

break the brotherhood
between Judah and.
Israel.

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

to dissolve ihe brotherhood between Judah and
Israel. Hitherto prophecy had spoken ofthe
healing of the great breach between Israel
and Judah, in Christ. The Lord, Isaiah said,
'" shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from ihe four
corners of ihe earth. The envy of Ephraim shall
depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut
off' : Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah
shcdl 'not vex Ephraim ; and Hosea, " Then
shall the children of Judah and the children of
Israel be gathered together and shcdl appoint
themselves one Head ; and Jeremiah, " In ihose
days the house of Judah shall walk wiih the
house of Israel. And Ezekiel, in the midst
of the captivity, in a symbolic action the
counterpart of this, is bidden, ''' Take thee one
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the
children of Israel his companions; then take
another stick, and write upon it. For Joseph, the
stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel his
companions, and join them one to another into
one stick, and they shall become one in ihy hand ;
and, when asked tlie meaning of this act, he
was to say, Thus saith the Lord God, '* I will
take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows,
and will put ihem with him, even with the stick
of Judah, and will 'make ihem one stick, ami they
shall be one in 3Iine hand. And dropping tlie
symbol ; '^Thus saith ihe Lord God, Behold, I
will take ihe children of Isi-ael from among ihe
heathen, whither they begone — and Iwill make
it should be so written," 1) to shew that all the pro
phets, .speaking bythe Spirit, agreed together by
a marvelous consent, which is much more than if
all the things of the prophets were spoken by the
mouth of one man, and so that, whatever the Holy
Spirit said by them, should he received undoubt-
ingly, and each belonged to all and all to e.ach &c.
2) to combine it with the selling the field of Hana
neel of whieh the evidence was put in an earthen
vessel, de Cons. Evang. L. iii. n. 30, 31. T. iii. 2. p.
114-116. None of the other cases of mixed quotation come
up to this. S. Mark quotes two prophecies, of Mal
achi and of Isaiah as Isaiah's (S. Blark i. 2. 3). S.
Matthew blends in one, words of Isaiah (Ixii. l)and
Zechariah (ix. 9) as "the prophet" (S. Blatt. xxi
4, 5). Our Lord unites Is. Ivi. 7, and Jer. vii. 11,
with the words, " It is written."
Of earlier fathers TertulUan simply quotes the
prophecy as Jeremiah's (adv. Marc. iv. 40). Origen
says, "Jeremiah is not said to have prophesied
this anywhere in his books, either what are read
in the Churches, or reported (referuntur) among
the Jews. I suspect that it is an error of writing,
or that it is some secret writing of Jeremiah where
in it is written." (iu S. Matt. p. 910.) Eusebius says,
" Consider since this, is not in the Prophet Jere
miah whether v/e must think that it was removed
from it by some wickedness, or whether it ivas a
clerical error of those who made the copies of the
Gospels carelessly." Dem. Ev. x. p. 481.
10 Is xi 12 13 "Hos. i. 11. 12 Jer. Ul. 18.
13 Ezek.' xixvii. 16, 17. " lb. 19. i^ lb. 21, 22, 23, 24.

430

ZECHAEIAH.

c H r7s t 1 5 «^ And the Lord said
°''^- *87. unto me, " Take unto thee

"Ezek. 34. 2, 3, 4. yet the instruments of a
foolish shepherd.
16 For, lo, I will raise
up a shepherd in the land,
which shall not visit thoss

them one nation in the land upon the mountains
of Isi-ael : and one king shall be king to them all:
and they sliall be no more two nations, neither
shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more
at all — I will cleanse them, and they shall be My
people and I will be tlieir Ood, and David My
servant shall be king over tliem, and they all shall
have one Shepherd. Such should be the unity
of those w"ho would be gathered under the
One Shepherd. And so it was. ' Tlie multi
tude of them that believed were of one heart and
of one soul; and long afterward it wns a
proverb among the Heathen ^, " See how
these Christians love one another." Zechariah
is here speaking ol' those who had rejected
the Good Sliepherd, the Israel and Judah
after the Ilesh, who shut themselves out from
the promises of God. This had its first ful
fillment in the terrible dissolution of every
band of brotherhood ' and of our common na
ture, which made the siege of Jerusalem a
proverb for horror, and precipitated its de
struction. "*H,aving thus separated the be
lieving from the unbelieving, He bared the
rest of Plis care. And what we now see bears
witness to the prophecy. For the Jews, be
ing deprived of prophets and priests and
kings and temple and ark and altar and
mercy-seat and candlestick and table and the
rest, through which the legal worship was
performed, have come to be deprived also of
the guardianship from above ; and, scattered,
exiled, removed, serve against their will
those who preach Christ : denying Him as
Lord, they yield service to His servants.
Tlie prophet having foretold these things
of Christ, our God and Saviour, and re
proved the obstinacy of the Jews, naturally
turns his prophecy straight to the God-op
posed Christ whom they e.xpect, as they say.
So said the Lord in the holy Gospels to
them, * I am come in My Faihei's name, and
ye receive Me not ; anolher will come in his own
name, and him ye will receive. This the blessed
Paul also prophesied of them, ^Because they
1 Acts iv. 32.
2 Tert. Apol. n. 39. p. 82. and notes, Oxf Tr.
TlinX The word occurs only here, but is in
Arab' Syr. Ch. Zab.
¦> Theod. s s, John v. 43.
<i2 Thess. ii. 10-12.
7 Ezekiel has the idiom, "his instrument of de
struction," innEyo ¦'73 ix. 1; "his instrument of

that be I|cut off, neither cheTst
shall seek the young one,  "'^^ *^^- 
nor heal that that is broken, n Or, hidden.
nor 1 1 feed that that stand- II or. *«""¦.
eth still: but he shall eat
the flesh of the fat, and
tear their claws in pieces.

received not ihe love of ihe truth, that they might
be saved, Ood shcdl send thpn strong delusion
thai they shoidd believe a lie, that all might be
damned, who believe not the truth, but have
pleasure in unrighteousness. The like does the
blessed Zech.iriah-prophesy, having received
the power of the Holy Spirit."
15. Take to thee yet (/te 'instrument'' of a
foolish * shepherd. " " Yet. He had enacted
one tragedy, in which he clearly set forth
the future guilt of Judas; now another is set
forth, tlie accumulated scoffing through
Anti-Christ. For as Paul said, because they
receive not the Spirit of truth, the All-
righteous Judge shall send them a spirit of
d.fiision, that they should believe a Ue '". Pie
calls him a foolish sheplierd, for since the
extremest folly consists in the extremest
wickedness, he will be the most foolish, who
reached tlie highest impiety, and this he will
do by arrogating to himself divinity and
claiming divine honors ^'-
This is the only action, wliich the prophet
had to enact or to relate. If it was a visible
act, the instrument raight be a staff' which
should bruise, an instrument wliich should
bear a semblance to tliat of the good shep
herd, hut which should be pernii ious.
"'^Good shepherds, who understood their
business, had slight staves, that, if there
should be occasion to strike, the stricken
sheep might not be bruised ; but one who
understandeth not, beats them with thicker
clubs." Or it may mean also, whatever he
would use for the hurtful treatmgnt of the
sheep, such as he proceeds to speak of. He
is spoken of as, in fact, foolishly sinful*: for
sin is the only real foil)', and all real iblly
has sin mingled in it. The short-lived wis
dom of the foolish shepherd for his own ends
should also be his destruction.
16. / will raise up. God supplies the
strength or wisdom whicli men abuse to sin.
He, in His Providence, disposeth the circum
stances, of which the ambitious avail them-
slaughter," 1030 .D lb. 2 1 Isaiah, " for his work,"
mw^fDh ^hD liv. 16.
*'S''1N air., VlX being often a subst., VlXis a sin
ful fool, job. V. 2, 3, and throughout the Proverbs,
though more marked in some places, Pr. vii. 22,
xiv. .3, XV. 5, XX. 3, xxiv. 7, xxvii. 22; and in the
plural, Ps. cvii. 17. Pr. i. 7. x. 21, xiv. 9.
0 Osor. i»2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. " Ib. i. '^S. Cyr.

CHAPTEE XI.

431

17 "Woe to the idol

Before
C TT R T S T
cir. 487. shepherd that leaveth the

ojer. 23. 1. flock! the sword shall be
Ezek. 34. 2.
John 10. 12, 13. upon his arm, and upon

selves. Anti-Christ, whom the Jews look
for, will be as much an instrument of God
for the perfecting the elect, as the Chaldees '
or the Assyrians ^ whom God raised up, for
the chastisement of His former people, or the
Medes against Babylon^.
Which shall not ririt them that be eut off.
Zechariah uses the imagery, yet not the ex
act words of Jeremiah * and Ezekiel ^. Ne
glect of every duty of a shepherd to his flock,
to the sick, the broken, the sound ; direct in
jury of them, preying upon them, make up
the picture.
Which shall not visit, or tend, that which is
cut off: fulfilling God's judgment", thai which
is io be cut off, let ii be cut off.
Neither shall seek ihe young one, better, the
scattered ', dispersed, as the Good Shepherd
^came to seek and to save thai which was lost.
Nor heal that which is broken ; bound not, Eze
kiel says ". " '" The broken legs of sheep are
healed no otherwise than those of men ;
rolled in wool impregnated with oil and
wine, and then bound up with splinters
placed round about it."
Nor feed tliat whieh standeth still, better, the
whole ", as the word always means, " in its
good estate," like our prayer, "that Thou
wouldest strengthen those who do stand."
17. Wo to the idol shepherd, (a shepherd of
nothingness, one who hath no quality of a
shepherd '"' ;) who leaveth the flock. The con
demnation of the evil shepherd is complete
in the abandonment of the sheep ; as ' our
Lord says, '^ He thai is an hireling and not the
Sliepherd, whose own ilie sheep are not, seeth tlie
wolf coming and leaveth tlie sheep and fleeth:
and ihe wolf catcheth them and scattereth the
sheep. The hireling fleeth, because lie is an hire
ling and careth not for ihe sheep.
Or it may equally be. Shepherd, " thou idol,
including the original meaning of nothing
ness, such as Anti-Christ will be, "^^ while
he calleth himself God, and willeth to be
' D''pD ¦'JJ.n Hab. i. 6. 2Am. vl. 14.
'Tj.'a ''Jjn. Is. xiii. 17. ¦! Jer. xxiii. 1, 2.
5 Ezek. xxxiv. 3, 4. » ab. v. 9.
Ito etTKopTTLo-p-^vov, 6; dispersum, S. Jer. "who
have wandered or gone astray," Syr. "He who
hirethaflock is forbidden mj^jS. What is this I
To lead it from place to place." Talm. Hieros. Tr.
Sheviith c. 3, in Burt. Lex. p. 1363. Arab. J'N !0
XySx mj^J "Whence earnest thou to us?" c. 'iJ,
"traversed country" (Kam.). ^^^i is not used of
young of animals.
fiS. Luke xix. 10, S. Matt, xviii. 11.
' Ezek. xxxiv. 4. i" Coinm. de re rust. viii. 5.

his right eye: his arm shall cheTst
be clean dried up, and his ""¦ ^87.
right eye shall be utterly
darkened.

worshiped." " '^ This shepherd shall there
fore arise in Israel, because the true Shep
herd had said, Iwill not feed yon. He is pro
phesied of by another name in Daniel the
Prophet '", and in the Gospel ", and in the
Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians "^, as
the abomination of desolation, who shall sit in
the temple of the Lord, and make himself
as God. He cometh, not to heal but to de
stroy the flock of Israel. This shepherd the
Jews shall receive, whom the Lord Jesus
shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and de
stroy with the brightness oft His coming."
The sword shall be upon lagainst^ his arm
and right eye. His boast shall be of intelli
gence, and might. The punishment and de
struction shall be directed against the instru
ment of each, the eye and the arm. " '* The
eye, wherebj' he shall boast to behold acutely
the mysteries of God, and to see more than
all prophets heretofore, so that he shall call
himself son of God. But the word of the
Lord shall be upon his arm and upon his
right eye, so that his strength and all his
boast of might shall be dried up, and the
knowledge Avhich he promised himself falsely,
shall be obscured in everlasting darkness."
" '" Above arid against the power of Anti-
Christ, shall be the virtue and vengeance
and sentence of Christ, ^Vho shall slay him
with the breath of His mouth." The right
arm, the symbol of might, and the right eye
which was to direct its aim, should fail to
gether, through the judgment of God against
him. He, lately boastful and persecuting,
shall become blind and powerless, bereft
alike of wisdom and strength.
The "right" in Holy Scripture being so
often a symbol of what is good, the left of
what is evil, it may be also imagined, that
" '" the left eye, i. e. the acumen and cunning
to devise deadly frauds, will remain unin
jured : while the right eye, i. e. counsel to
guard against evil, will be sunk in thick
n " Which was set firm, or set himself firm." Nif.
as in Ps. xxxix. 6, "Every man in his firm estate
(D^J) is all vauity." to b\6K\j]poy, 6. "id quod stat,"
S. .Jer. So Syr. The Arab. " J^J was weary " (quoted
C. B. Mich. Ges.) has only this force as intrans.;
ny: c. ace. r., and DSnjN agree with Heb. Yet
Jon. renders as Eng.
i^VSxn '.^^, as 'I'lyi 'Sa'l, " physicians of no
value," Job xiii. 4. " '^ S. John x. 12, 13.
w;;'!, as a form for n;t?.'l, occurs in Is. xxxviii.
12. y'l '7nN.
15S. Jer.' i«Dan. ix. "S.Mark xiii.
18 2 Thess. ii. '" Dion. 20 Osor.

432

ZECHARIAH.

chKTst chapter xh.
 ""'• ^^'^'  1 Jerusalem a cup of trembling
io herself, 3 and a burdensome

stone to her adversaries.

, The victorious restoring of Ju
dah. 9 The repentance of Je
rusalem.

darljness. And so, the more he eraploys his
ability to evil, the more frantically will he
bring to bear destruction upon himseli'."
XII. " ' From ' I will make Jerusalem '
to ' Av;-ake, O sword,' there is a threefold ex
position. For some of the Jews say that
these things have already been fulfilled in
part from Zorobabel to Cn. Porapey who,
first of the Romans, took Jud.iea and the
temple, as Josephus relates. Others think
that it is to be fulfilled at the end of the
world, when Jerusalem shall be restored,
which the miserable Jewish race promiseth
itself with its anointed, of whom we read
above as the foolish shepherd. But others,
i. e. we who are called by the name of
Christ, say that these things are daily ful
filled, and will be fulfilled in the Church to
the end of the world."
1. The burden of the word of the Lord for,
rather, upon ^ Israel. If this prophecy is a
continuation of the last, notwithstanding its
fresh title, then Israel must be the Christian
Church, formed of the true Israel which be
lieved, and the Gentiles who' were grafted
into them. So S. Cyril; "Having spoken
sufficiently of the Good Shepherd Christ,
and of the foolish, most cruel shepherd who
butchered the sheep, i. e. Anti-Christ, he
seasonably makes mention of the persecu
tions which would from time to time arise
against Israel ; not the Israel according to
the flesh, but the spiritual, that Jerusalem
which is indeed holy, '''the Church of the
Liring Ood. For as we say, that he is spirit
ually a Jew, who hath the * circumcision in
the heart, that through the Spirit, and not in
the flesh through the letter ; so also may Israel
be conceived, not that of the blood of Isriiel,
but rather that, which has a mind beholding
God. But such are all who are called to
sanctification through the faith in Christ,
and who, in Him and by Him, know of God
the Father. For this is the one true elected
way of beholding God."
IS. Jer. I
2 See on Nah. i. 1, p. 129. The 1^ cf the title is
repeated in the D^'tS'lT'"'?;; mUT'-'^j; ver. 2.
3 1 Tim. iii. 16. *Rom. ii. 29.
s See at length, ab. on Mic. iii. 12, pp. 46-50.
6 So Lap. " That Zechariah speaks literally of the
times of the Maccabees which were shortly to
follow, appears both from the sequence of the
times, and the connection and congruenoy of these
oracles with the deeds of the Maccabees, as also

THE burden of the word ^ ^^"[It
of the Loed for Israel, «'r- ^87.
saith the Lokd, '^ which « isai. 42. 5.
stretcheth forth the heav- & 45! 12,' is.
ens, and layeth the foun
dation of the earth, and

Since the Good Shepherd was rejected by
all, except the poor of the flock, the little flock
which believed in Him, and thereupon the
band of brotherhood was dissolved between
Israel and Judah, Israel in those tiraes could
not be Israel after the flesh, which then too
was the deadly antagonist of the true Israel,
and thus early also chose Anti-Christ, such
as was Bar-Cochba, with whom so many
hundreds of thousands perished. There was
no war then against Jerusalem, since it had
ceased to be *.
But Zechariah does not say that this pro
phecy, to which he has annexed a separate
title, follows, in time, upon the last ; rather,
since he has so separated it by its title, he
has marked it as a distinct prophecy from
the preceding. It may be, that he began
again from the time of the Maccabees and
took God's deliverances of the people Israel
then, as the foreground of the deliverances
to the end ^. Yet in the times of Antiochus,
it was one people only which was against
the Jews, and Zechariah himself speaks
only of the Greeks ' ; here he repeatedly
emphasizes that they were all nations^. It
may then rather be, that the future, the
successive efibrts of the world to crush the
people of God, and its victory amid suff'ering,
and its conversions of the world through the
penitent looking to Jesus, are exhibited in
one great perspective, according to the man
ner of prophecy, which mostly exhibits the
prominent events, not their order or se
quence. ""The penitential act of contrite
sinners, especially of Jews, looking at Him
Whom they pierced., dates from the Day of
Pentecost, and continues to the latter days,
when it will be greatly intensified and will
produce blessed results, and is here concen
trated into one focus. The rising up of
God's enemies against Christ's Church,
which commenced at the same time, and has
been continued in successive persecutions
from Jews, Gentiles, and other unbelievers
because v. 10. ends in the Pap«ion of Christ. For
this followed the times of the Maccabees. As then
Isaiah Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel, Ezekiel &e. fore
told what was shortly to befall the Jews from Sal-
manassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius, so Zech
ariah foretells what should presently befall them
from Antiochus under the Maccabees." Synops.
c. xii. I Zech. ix. 13. 8 Q^n;?;! Sj xii. 2, 3, 6, 9.
" Bp. C. Wordsworth here, and the like in Keii ou
xiv. 20. p. 661.

CHAPTER XII.

433

* formeth the spirit of man

Before
CHRIST g'l'- *g^- within him.

Eccles. i2""7. 2 Behold, I will make
Isai. 57. 16. Heb. 12. 0.

in every age, and which will reach its cli
max in the great Anti-Christian outbreak of
the last times, and be confounded by the
Coming of Christ to judgment, is here
summed up in one panoramic picture, ex
hibited at once to the eye."
Which stretcheth forth ihe heavens. God's
creative power is an ever-present working,
as our Lord says, ' My Father worketh hitherto
and I work. His preservation of the things
which He has created is a continual re-crea
tion. All "forces" are supported by Him,
Who Alone hath life in Plimself. He doth
not the less uphold all things by the word of
His power, because, until the successive gene
rations, with or without their will, with or
against His "Will for them, shall have com
pleted Plis Sovereign Will, He upholds them
unilormly in being by Plis Unchanging Will.
Man is ever forgetting this, and because,
'' rince the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as from ihe beginning of the crecdion, they rele
gate the Creator and Plis creating as far as
they can to some time, as far back as they
can imagine, enough to fill their imagina
tions, and forget Him Who made them, in
Whose hands is their eternity, Who will be
their Judge. So the prophets remind them
and us of His continual working, which men
forget in the sight of His works; '' Thus
siiih ihe Lord ; He that createth the heavens,
and stretcheth them oui ; II" thd spreadeth forth
the earth and its produce. Who giveth breath to
the people upon it, and spirit to ihem that walk
therein ; and, * I am the Lord Who maketh all
things, Who stretcheth out the heavens alone.
Who spreadeth abroad ihe earth by Myself:
speaking at once of that, past in its begin
ning yet p "esent to ns in its continuance,
but to Him ever-present present; and of
things actually present to us, ^that frusirateth
ihe tokens of ihe liars ; and oi^ things to those
of that day still future, * thai confirmeth the
word of His servant, an I performelh the counsel
of His mejssengers ; the beginning of which
was not to be till the taking of Babylon.
And the Psalmist unites past and present in
one,'' Donning light as a ganneiil, stretching
oui ihe hecivens as a curtain ; Who layeth the
beams of His chambers on ihe waters, Wha
maketh ihe dowls His chariot ; Who walketh on
the wings of the wind ; Who maketh His angels
1 S. John V. 17. 22 S. Pet. iii. 4. s Is. xlii. .s.
4Ib. xliv. JI. 6Ib. 25. 6Ib. 20.
vps CIV 2-5. 8 Am. iv. 13. a(id V. 8.
0Ps!li. 10. i"S. Cyr.
ii^j?-| aTT. in this sense. The form n"7j;iil
28

Jerusalem °a cup of chrYIt
II trembling unto all the. "r 487.

people round about, || when "23!"' *^' ^^' ^^'
y Or, slumber, or, poison. || Or, and also against Judah
shall he be whieh shall be in siege against Jerusalem.

spirits. His ministers a flame of fire ; He foun
ded the earth upon its base. And Amos, " He
that formeth the mountains and createth the
winds, and dedareth unlo man his thoughls ; —
adding whatever lieth nearest to each of us.
And formeth ilie spirit of man within him,
both by the unceasing creation of souls, at
every moment in some 'spot in our globe, or
by the re-creation, for which David prays,
" Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and reneio
a ri'ghi spirit within me. Pie Who formed the
hearts of men can overrule them as Pie
wills. " '" But the spirit of man is formed
by God in hira, not by being called to the
beginnings of being, although it was made
by Plim, but, as it were, transformed from
weakness to strength, from unmanliness to
endurance, altogether being transelemented
from things shameful to better things."
" '" It is the wont of the holy Prophets,
when about to declare beforehand things of
no slight moment, to endeavor to shew
beforehand the Almightiness of God, that
their word may obtain credence, though
they should declare what was beyond all
hope, and (to speak of our conceptions)
above all reason and credibility."
2. Iirill make .lerusalem a cup of trembling".
For encouragement. He promises the victory,
and at first mentions the attack incidentally.
Jerusalem is as a cup or basin, which its
eneraies take into their hands ; a stone,
which they put forth their strength to lift ;
but they themselves reel with the draught
of God's judgments which they would give
to others, they are torn by the stone which
tliey would lift to fling. The image of the
cup is mostly of God's displeasure, which is
given to Plis own people, and then. His
judgment of chastisement being exceeded,
given in turn to those who had been the
instruments of giving it '''. Thus Isaiah
speaks of the cup of trembling. ''^ Thou, Jeru
salem, hast drunk the dregs of the cup of trem
bling, hast wrung ihem out. Therefore hear thou
this, ihou afliicted and drunken but not wiih wine.
Thus saith ihy Lord, ihe Lord, and thy God
thai pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I
have taken out of thine hand ihe cup of trem
bling, the dregs of ihe cup of 3Iy fury ; ihou
shall no more drink it again: but I will put it
inio ihe hand nf ihem thai afflict thee. Jere-
occurs in the like idioms, n^i^in DID, Is- li- 17,
22; n'7;?"in p Ps. ix. s.
12 See on Obad. IG, vol. i. pp. 302-365.
"Is. li. 17, 21-23.

434

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

they shall be in the siege
 both against Judah and
*ver. 4, 6, 8, 9. . , X i
11. & oh. 13. 1. against Jerusalem.
& 14. 4, 6, 8, 9. 3 ^ , ^^^ . j^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^jjj

miah speaks of the cup of Ood's anger, as
given by God first to Jerusalem, then to all
whom Nebuchadnezzar should subdue, then
to Babylon itself ' ; and as passing through to
Edom also'^; Ezekiel, of Aholibah^ (Jerusa
lem) drinking the cup of Sama'ria. In Jere
miah alone, Babylon is herself the cup.
* Babylon is a golden cup in ihe Lords hand,
that made all ihe nations drunken ; tlie nations
have drunken of the wine ; therefore the 'nations
are mad. Now Jerusalem is to be, not an or
dinary Clip, but a large basin * or vessel, from
which all nations may drink what will
make them reel.
And also upon Judah will it be in the siege
against Jerusalem, i. e. the burden of the word"
of the Lord which was on Israel should be
upon Judah, i. e. upon all, great and small.
3. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
to all nations. What is a stone to all nations ?
It is not a rock or anything in its own nature
immovable, but a stone, a thing rolled up
and down, moved, lifted, displaced, piled on
others, in every way at the service and com
mand of men, to do with it what they willed.
So they thought of that ' stone cut o ut
without hands ; that ^ tried stone and sure foun
dation, laid in Zion ; that stone which, God
said in Zechariah ", I have laid ; of which
our Lord says, '"the stone, which tlie builders
rejected, is become ilie head of the eomer ; " who
soever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but
on whomsoever it shall fall, it ivill grind him to
' r. The Church, built on the stone,

IJer. xxv. 15-26. 2 Lam. iv. 21. Jer. xlix. 12.
3 Ezek. xxiii. 31-33. * Jer. li. 7.
5 *10 IS the basin, which received the blood of the
Paschal lamb, Ex. xii 22; D^SD, with beds and
earthen vessels, were brought to David by Barzillai
and the others. 2 Sam. xvii. 28. Else they are only
mentioned as instruments of the temple-services.
1 Kgs vii. 50, 2 Kgs xii. 14, Jer. Iii. 19.
'^i^-yO is the only natural subject, as in ix. 1, ihe
burden of the Lord is on the land of Hadrach, but it
is subjoined, Damascus is the resting place thereof,
&c. The E. "V. does not seera grammatical. The
E. M. is too elliptical, as also that other, "it will be
laid upon Jerusalem to be in the siege against Jeru
salem." Had " the cup of trembling " been the
subject, it had probably been min''?, as i^.
D''D^'n. Nor can ll^fD be the subject; for coun
tries, as Judah, are not the objects of .siege.
?Dan.ii.45. 8 is. xxviii. 16. »Zech. iii. 9.
los. Luke XX. 17.
"S. Matt x.xi. 44. S. Luke xx. 18.
12 Baronius speaks of two inscriptions as still ex
isting at Clunia (Corunna dal Conde) in Spain. The
one had, "amplificatoper Orientem et Occid. Impe.
Rom. et nomine Christianor. delete qui remp.
evertebant ; " tbe other, " superstitione Christi
ubiq. deleta. Cultu Deorum propagate." A. 304. n. 1.

T make Jerusalem ° a bur- ^ ^^^i% t
densome stone for all peo-  "''"¦ '^^''- 
pie ; all that burden them- • Matt. 21. 44.
selves with it shall be cut in

seems a thing easily annihilated ; ten perse
cutions in succession stroN'e to efi'ace it ; Dio
cletian erected a monument, commemorating
that the Christian name was blotted out'^-
It survived ; he perished. The image may
have been suggested by the custom, so widely
prevailing in Judsea, of trying the relative
strength of young men, by lifting round
stones selected for that end'^ ""The
meaning then is, I will place Jerusalem to
all nations like a very heavy stone '^ to be
lifted up. They will lift it up, and accord
ing to their varied strength, will waste it ;
but it must needs be, that, while it is lifted,
in the very strain of lifting the weight, that
most heavy stone should leave some scission
or rasure on the bodies of those who lift it.
Of the Church it may be interpreted thus;
that all persecutors, who fought against the
house of the Lord, are inebriated with that
cup, which Jereraiah gives to all nations, to
drink and be inebriated and fall and vomit
and be mad. Whosoever would uplift the
stone shall lift it, and in the anger of the
Lord, whereby He chastens sinners, will hold
it in his hands ; but he himself will not gjo
unpunished, the sword of the Lord fighting
against him."
All that burden themselves wiih ii will be cut to
pieces "^, more exactly, scarified, lacerated;
shall bear the scars. Though (rather, and)
all the people \_peoples, nations] of the earth shall
be gathered together againtt it. The prophet
marshals them all against Jerusalem, only to
18" It is the custom in the cities of Palestine, and
that old usage is kept up to this day throughout
Jud.isa, that in villages towns and forts, round
stones are placed, of very great weight, on which
young men are wont to practise themselves, and ac
cording to their varying strength, lift them, some
to the knees, others to the navel, others to the
shoulders and head ; others lift the weight above
tbe head, with their two hands raised straight up,
shewing the greatness of their strength. In the
Acropolis at Athens, I .saw a brass globe, of very
great weight, which I, with my little weak body,
eould scarcely move. When I asked its object, I
was told by the inhabitants, that the strength of
wrestlers was proved by that mass, and that no one
went to a match, until it wa^ ascertained by the
lifting of that weight, who ought to be set against
whom." S. Jer.
"S. Jer.
18 lit. " a stone of lading," whieh whoso lifteth
would be laden or burthened. It is the only noun
formed from ODJ/ ; and the root itself existed only
in Hebrew.
wtO^ty is a root, revived by Zechariah from the
Pentateuch. It occurs only Lev. xix. 28, xxi. 5, of
the forbidden incisions for the dead. Arab. EO'^K'
and Syr. Q^D, "scarified" Syr. BnDnS "was
branded."

CHAPTEK XII.

435

c H rT s t pieces, though all the peo-
"'^^ ^8'7. pie of the earth be gath
ered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the
Lord, "^I will smite eYevj
horse with astonishment,
and his rider with mad
ness : and I will open mine
eyes upon the house of Ju
dah, and will smite every

»Ps. 76. 6.
Ezek. 38. 1.

say how they should perish before it. So in
Joel God says, ' I will also gather all nations,
and will bring ihem down io the valley of Jeho
shaphat, speaking of that last closing strife of
Anti-Christ against God. Wars against
Israel had either been petty, though Anti-
theistic, wars of neighboring petty nations,
pitting their false gods against the True, or
one, though world-empire wielded by a
single will. The more God made Himself
known, the fiercer the opposition. The
Gospel claiming '' obedience io tlie faiih among
all nations, provoked universal rebellion.
Herod and Pontius Pilate became friends
through rejection of Christ ; the Roman
Caesar and the Persian Sapor, Goths and
Vandals, at war with one another, were
one in persecuting Christ ancl the Church.
Yet in vain ;
4. In that' day, saith ihe Lord, I will smite
every horse unth astonishment, stupefying. Ze
chariah revives the words concentrated by
Moses, to express the stupefaction at their
ills, which God would accumulate upon His
people, if they perseveringly rebelled against
Him. Each expresses the intensity of the
visitation ^. The horse and his rider had,
tlirough Moses' song at the Red Sea, become
the emblem of worldly power, overthrown.
That, song opens ; * / will ring unto the Lord ;
for He hath triumphed gloriously : the horse and
his rider hath He east into ihe sea. The scared
cavalry throws into confusion the ranks, of
which it was the boast and strength.
And on the house qf Judah I will open My
eyes, in pity and love and guidance, as the
Psalmist says, ^ J will counsel, with Mine eye
1 Jo. iii. 2. See vol. i. pp. 200, 201, and p. 207 on
Jo. iii. 9. 2Bom.i. 0. )i
8 Dent, xxvii. 28, JiriBri (the only noun derived
from nnn) (and with the same word, n3.") [lljli?
occurs only there beside; Vi^W, beside, only in
2 Kgs ix. 20. Only ^dS is omitted after ]inDn
since it stands in connection with the horse in the
. parallelism. <Ex. xv. 1. ^ Ps. xxxii. 8.
« nVDN air . ; as is the form VT}^, Job xvii. 19,
VDKO lb. xxxvi. 19. ' Zech. i.'l7, li. 12. iii. 2.
8-i'i'3, inlSam. ii. 14, is 'a vessel, iu which the

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

horse of the people with
blindness. 5 Aud the governors of
Judah shall say in their
heart, ||The inhabitants of||Or, There is
Ji 7 77 7 Strength to 'me
erusalem shall be my and to the iv
, J.1 • j_i X c habitants, dtc.
strength m the Lord of joeis. lo.
hosts their God.
6 ^In that day will I
make the governors of Ju-

upon thee, in contrast with the blindness with
which God would smite the powers arrayed
against them.
5. And the princes of Judah. He pictures
the oneraindedness of the Church. No one
shall assume anything to himself; each shall
exalt the strength which the other was to
him ; but all, in ihe Lord. The princes of
Judah shall say in their heart, not outwardly
or politically, but in inward conviction,
strength to me " (all speak as one) are the inhab
itants of Jerusalem in the Lord of hosts tlieir
Ood. The highest in human estimation
acknowledge that their strength is in those
who are of no account in this world; as, in
fact, the hearts of the poor are evermore the
strength of the Church ; but that, in ihe Lord
of hosts; in plim, in Whose hands are the
powers of heaven and earth, over against the
petty turmoil cn earth. God had chosen
Jerusalem ' ; therefore she was invincible,
" That most glorious prince of Judah, Paul,
said, '/ can do all things in Christ Who in-
strengthenelh me.' "
6. Iwill make the governors of Judah like a
hearth or cauldron'^ of fire, large, broad, deep,
and full of fire, among the wood which is pre
pared for burning^, and like a torch of fire in a
sheaf. The fire could not kindle the wood
or the sheaf, of itself, unless applied to it.
All is ofthe agency of God : I will make.
" '" He foretells the increase of the Church,
which by such persecutions shall not be
diminished, but shall be marvelously in
creased. The preachers of the Church shall
raise up all the peoples round about, shall
destroy all unbelief, and shall kindle the
food is cooked;' in 2 Chr. vi. 13 'a pulpit;' so that
the vessel, to which it is likened, must have been
large; as must have been the brazen laver of tha,
tabernacle (Ex. Lev.) or temple {'i Kgs), of which
the word is elsewhere used. Each laver of Solo
mon's temple contained forty baths, or about 300
gallons, and was four cubits '(1 Kgs vii. 38) square
apparently (coll. 27.).
^D'^i? (pb) is used of wood eut up, 1) for burning,
especially on an altar, or 2) for building, unless it
is plain from the context, tnat they are I iving trees,
as in Jos. x. 26, Jud. ix. 48, in Jotham's fable lb.
9-15, or Ps. xevi. 12, civ. 16, Cant. iv. 14, Is. vii. 2.
&c. i" Rib.

436

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.
lObad. 18.

dah ^ like an hearth of fire
among the wood, and like
a torch of fire in a sheaf;
and they shall devour all
the people round about, on
the right hand and on the
left : and Jerusalem shall
be inhabited again in her
own place, even in Jerusa
lem. 7 The Lord also shall

hearts of hearers with the fire of the Divine
word." On the right hand and on the I 'ft.
" ' He indicates the strength and success of
the preachers, whom no one can resist nor
hinder," as our Lord says, ' / will give you a
mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
And Jerusalem shall agcdn, rather, yet, be
inhabited. " Yet " is a sort of burden in Ze
chariah's prophecies^. "''They at once
burned up by the flame all the defilement of
vices, and kindled the minds of men with the
torch of Divine love ; at once consumed the
enemy and cast a heavenly fire into the hu
man heart : yet : in despite of all appear
ances, of all which is against her. <S/(e shall
yet dwell in her own place in Jerusalem ; for,
however the waves of this world chale unl
lash themselves into foam against her, they
break theraselves, not her; as soon as they
have reached their utmost height, they fall
back ; if they toss themselves, and, for a
moment, hide her light, they i'all down at
all sides, and the ray shines out, steady
as before ; for she is founded on a rock,
against which * ihe gates of hell should not
prevail. 7. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah
first. &ti\\ 'it is, the Lord shall save. We have,
on the one side, ihe siege, the gathering of all
the peoples of the earth against Jerusalem, the
horse and his rider. On the other, no human
Btrength ; not, as before, in the prophecy of
the Maccabees, the bow, the arrow, and the
sword, though in the hand of God ^. It is
thrice, I will make''; I will smite ^ ; and now.
The Lord shall save. By tlie tents, he probably
indicates their defencelessness. Ciod would
save them first'; that ilie glory '¦' of the house
iRib. 2 S. Luke xxi. 15.
8 See retf. note 2. < Osor.
'S. Matt. xvi. 18. «Zech. ix. 13.
l ver. 2, 3, 0. 8 ver. 4 bis.
Tll^On is nowhere "gloriatio," as Ges., hut
Bimply "glory," "beauty," though, rarely, it is im
plied in the context, that he who has it, is proud of
It, as Is. iii. 18. X. 12, xiii. 9.
i» Jer. ix. 24, 1 Cor. i. 31, 2 Cor. x 17.

save the tents of Judah
first, that the glory of the .
house of David and the
glory of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem do not magnify
themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the
Loed defend the inhabi
tants of Jerusalem ; and
'' he that is || ffeeble among
them at that day shall be

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

'Joels. 10.
[I Or, abject.
tHeb. f alien.

of David — be not great against or over Judah,
maj' not overshadow it ; but all may be as
one ; for all is the free gift of God, the mere
grace of God, that '" he that glorieth may glory
in the Lord, and both " " may own that, in
both, the victory is the Lord's."
¦' ''In Christ Jesus is neitlier Jew nor Greek;
neither bond nor free", neither rich nor poor ;
but all are one, viz. a new creation ; yea in
Christendom the poor are the highest, both
because Christ '* preached to the poor, and pro
nounced the '''poor blessed, and He made the
Apostles, being poor, nobles in Plis kingdom,
through «hom He converted kings and
princes, as is written, '" ye see your calling,
brethren, that not many wise men after ihe flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but
God hath chosen ihe foolish things of the world to
confound Ihe wise, and the weak things of ilie
world to eonfonnd the things ivhich are mighty
&.--.; and, '''Hath not God called the poor in
ihis world, rich in faith, and heirs of the king
dom, which Ood has promised io them that love
Him? The rich and noble have greater
hindrances to humility and Christian virtues,
than the poor. For honors puff up, wealth
and delishts weaken tho mind ; wherefore
they need greater grace of Christ to burst
their bonds than the poor. Wherefore, for
the greater grace shewn them, they are
bound to give greater thanks unto Christ."
8. In that day the Lord shall defend the
inhahitanis of Jerusalem ; and he that is feeble,
rather, he that stumbleth among ihem, shcdl be
as David. The result of the care and the
defence of God is here wholly spiritual, " the
strengthening of such as do stand, and the
raising up of such as fall." It is not simply
one feeble, but one stumbling ^* and ready to
" S. Jer. 12 Lap. " Gal. iii. 28.
»S. Luke iv. 18. i^Ib. vi. 20. "l Cor. i. 26.
ITS. James ii. 5.
18 I Sam. ii. 4, is the only case alleged by Ges., in
which liLlDi is to signify " weak." Yet here too
" stumble," as in the E. V., is the natural rendering.
In the otlier 19 cases it is confessedly stumbling,
though in some it is stumbling, so as to fall.

CHAPTER XII.

437

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

as David ; and the house
of David shall be as God,
as the angel of the Loed
before them.
9 ^ And it shall come
to pass in that day, that I

fall, who becomes as David, the great
instance of one who fell, yet was raised.
Daniel says of a like trial-time, ' And some of
those of understanding shall stumble, to try
ihem a'nd to purge and to make ihem white, io
the time of the end. '"Such care will God
have of protecting the sons of the Church,
when it shall be infested v/ith persecutions,
that he who shall have fallen through human
infirmity, either deceived by heretics or
overcome by fear of tortures, shall arise the
more fervent and cautious, and with many
tears shall make amends for his sins to God,
as did David. He who stumbled slicdl be as
David, because the sinner returneth to re
pentance. This is not said of all times, nor
of all (for many have stumbled, who never
rose) but chiefly of the first times of the
Church and of men of great sanctity, such as
were many then."
And ihe house of David shall be as God.
They who stumbled became really like
David ; but he, though mighty and a great
saint of God, though he once fell, was raan.
How then could the house of David be really
like God ? Only fully in Him, Who, ^ being
in the form qf Ood, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God ; Who said, * He who hath seen
Me, hath seen My Father also; */ and the
Father are one. And this the prophet brings
out by addin,g, cis the Angel of the Lord before
them, i.e. that one Angel of the Lord, in
whom His very Presence and His
Name was; Who went before them,
to guide them ^ Else, having said, like
God, it had been to lessen what he had
just said, to add, like the Angel of the Lord.
Our Lord prayed for those who are truly
His, ' As Thou, Father, art in Me and I in
Thee, thai they may be one in Us ; thai they may
be one as We are one, I in ihem, and Thou in Me,
that they may be perfect in one; and S. Paul
saith, * Christ is formed in us; " Christ dwelleth
iDan. xi..35. 2 Eib. aphil.ii. 6.
<S. John xiv. 9. 6ib. x. 30.
*'See " Daniel the prophet" pp. 519-523.
' S. John xvii. 21, 22, 23. » Gal. iv. 19.
OEph. iii. 17. 10 Gal. ii. 20.
11 Rom. viii. 10.
12 Col. iii. 4. 13 Ib. 11. 1* Eph. iv. 15.
IS Rom. xvi. 7, 2 Cor. v. 17, Gal. 1. 22.
i«2Pet. i. 4. "1 S. John iv. 17. isGal. iv. 14.
'"W02 with S and inf. "Pharaoh sought to slay
Moses" Ex. ii. 15; "Saul, my father, seeketh to
elay tnee," 1 Sam. xi. 2; "Saul sought to smite

will seek to ' destroy all the ^ h r7s t
nations that come against ^_5Eii§I^__
Jerusalem. ' Hag. 2. 22. ver.
10 "And I will pou r^jer. 31. 9. &6o.
upon the house of David, Ezek. 30. 29.
and upon the inhabitants °'^ ^'^^'

in our hearts by faith ; '"Christ liveth in me;
"Christ is in you; '''Christ is our life;
" Christ is all and in all ; '^ we grow into Him
which is the Head, even Christ; '^we are in
Christ; and S. Peter, we are '"partakers of
ihe Divine 'nature ; and S. John, '''As He is, so
are we in this world. Then in a degree the
glory of Christ passeth over to those who
dwell in Him, and in whom He dwells by
the Spirit, as S. Paul says ; "^ Ye received me,
as an angel of Ood, as Christ Jesus.
9. In that day, I will seek to destroy. Woe
indeed to those, whora Almighty God shall
" seek to destroy ! " Man may seek earnestly
to do, what at last he cannot do. Still it is
an earnest seeking. And whether it is used
of human seeking which fails '", or wdiich
succeeds ''", inchoate " or permitted '''', it is
always used of seeking to do, what it is a
person's set purpose to do if he can '". Here
it is spoken of Almighty God ''^. " '' He
saith not, ' I will destroy ' but / vnll seek io
destroy, i. e. it shall ever be My care to
destroy all the ene-nies of the Church, that
they may in no way prevail against it:
this I will do alway to the end of the
world." 10. And I will pour, as He promised by
Joel ^*, Iwill pour out My Spirit upon all flesh,
largely, abundantly, upon ihe house of David
and ihe inhabitants of Jerusalem, all, highest and
lowest, from first to last, the Spirit of grace and
supplieation, i. e. the Holy Spirit which con-
veyeth graee, as ^ ihe Spirit of wisdom and
understanding is the Spirit infusing wisdom and
understanding, and the Spirit of counsel and
might is that same Spirit, imparting the gift
of counsel to see what is to be done and of
might to do it, and the Spirit of the knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord is that sarae Spifit,
infusing loving acquaintance with God, with
awe at His infinite Majesty. So the Spirit of
grace and supplication, is that same Spirit,
David," Ib. 20; Solomon, to kill Jeroboam, 1 Kgs
xi. 40; "Sought to lay hand on the king," Esth. vi.
2; Haman sought to destroy the Jews. Ib. iii. 6.
The inf without V, occurs Jer. xxvi. 21.
2"! Sam. xiv. 4, xxiii. 10, Eccl. xii. 10.
. 21 " sought to turn away," De. xiii. 11. " seekest to
destroy a eity," 2 Sara. xx. 10.
22 1 ligs xi. 22, Zech. vi. 7.
23 In Ex. iv. 24 only, it is said, " God sought to
slay Moses," i. e. shewed that He would, unless hii
son had been circumcised.
21 Jo. ii. 28. See vol. i. pp. 193, 194. ^ Is. xi. 2.

438

ZECPIAEIAH.

c H rTs t ^^ Jerusalem, tlie spirit of
^^^- ^^^- grace and of supplications :
1 John 19. 34,37. j .^ inn i
Rev. 1. 7. and they shall ' look upon

infusing grace and bringing into a state of
favor with God, and a, Spirit of supplication^
is that Spiiit, calling out of the inmost soul
the cry for a yet larger measure of the grace
already given. S. Paul speaks of ^ the love
of God poured out in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit which is given unto us ; and of ^ insulting
^ D'^JUnil 13 choaen in allusion to ?n "grace."
CJUnn is, almost everywhere, the cry to God for
His grace and favor. It occurs mostly in the
Psalms united with 7lp. "the voice of my suppli
cations," Ps. xxviii. 2, 6, xxxi. 23, xxxvi. 6, cxvi. 1,
cxxx. 2, cxi. 7; also ofthe cry to God, without 71 p,
Ps. cxliii. 1, Dan. ix. 3, 17, 18, 33, Jer. iii. 21. xxxi. 9.
It is used of man to man, only Prov. xviii. 23, and
else, in irony, of what leviathan would not do to
man, Job xl. 27, 6. [xli. 3. Eng.]
2 Rom. T. 5.
^ Heb. X. 29, TO iri'euju.a t^? ;^apiTOS evv^piua.^'
* Osor.
5 There is no critical doubt about the reading,
"n^, to Me. It is the reading of all the old Verss.,
Jewish or Christian; LXX. Aq. Sym. Theod. Chald.
Syr. Vulg. In the ixth cent., the Jews had begun
to make a marginal correction into VN, but did
not venture to change the text. "Where we,
according to the faith of Holy Scripture, read, in
the Person of God, 'and they shall look to Me
Whom they pierced,' though, in the text itself of
the book, they were deterred by God's Providence
from making a change, yet without, in the margin,
they have it noted, 'they shall look to him whom
they_ pierced.' And so they hand down to their
disciples, that they should transcribe, as it is con
tained in the text, and read, as they have noted,
outside; so that they may hold, according to their
Shrensy, that the Jews look to him, whom Gog and
[agog pierced." Rabanus Blaurus c. Jud. n. 12.
In the 13th. cent. Martini says, that " all the old
MSS. of the Jews have "'^X ;" and that the "perfidy
of some viodern Jews, unable to deprave so evident
a testimony to the divinity of the Messiah, say, that
it is not ^^« but V^N." f. 66G. In f. 328, he again
says, " some Jews falsify the text ;" and (f. 329) that
"noiy (jam) in many MSS. they have corrupted
their text, but that they are refuted by the Targum,
the Talmud, and by many ancient MSS., in which this
text is not yet corrupted, and by the exposition of
Rashi." R. Isaac, at the end of the IGth. cent. A. D.
1593, quoted the reading ''75^ without doubt, though
he was expressly controverting the Christian argu
ment. " They say, that hereafter the sons of Israel
shall mourn, because they pierced and slew the
Messiah sent to them, Jesus who is compounded
of Godhead and Manhood, and they say, that thia
is (the meaning of) 'they shall look to me whom
they pierced.' " (Chizzuk Emunah in Wagenseil
Tela ign. Sat. pp. 303, 304.) He explains it of the
wars of Gog and Magog. 'If they shall see that
they [their enemies] shall pierce through even one
of them, they shall be amazed and shall look to me,
eih asher dakaroo, i.e. on account of him, whom
they pierced — So that the Nazarenes hav6 no help
from the words )^p1 "1K?&( n^ ^^K ID^rsHI;' (lb.
pp. 307, 308;) and he subjoins, that if he who was
wounded had been the same as he to whom they
should look, it ought to have gone on in the first

me whom they have ^ h rTs t
pierced, and they shall ^^^- ^^'^-
n 1 • -ai "^ Jer. 6. 26.
mourn for him, ""as one Amoss.io.

the Spirit of grace, rudely repulsing the Spirit,
Who giveth grace. "*When God Plimself
says, */ will pour out,' He sets forth the
greatness of His bountifulness whereby He
bestoweth all things."
And they shall look, with trustful hope and
longing, 071 Me ^, Almighty God, Whom they
person, ''^^ HSD, and •'h}} iDm, like 1C3'3ni
^Sx. Ib. 309. R. Lipmann (A.D. 1399) uses the
same argument, "He should have said, and they
shalt mourn for me, as he began, they shall look to
wifi." p. 144 ed. Hacksp. Ibn Ezra agrees with this,
for he explains it in the first person, "Then shall
all nations look to me ("^i^) to see what I shall
do to those who have slain Messiah b. Joseph."
Alsheikh's commentary requires the same, "And I
will yet do a third thing. And this that they shall
look 'h'^, is that they shall hang their eyes on Me
in perfect repentance when they see &c." and R.
Obadiah Siporno, (BiBl. Rabb.) "and they shah look
to Me iu their prayer." Rashi also gives the Targ.
"and they shall seek o/ ilfe" ^DTp ID as the inter
pretation of ''7N l£3''Dm "they shall look to me."
Ii. Tanehum of Jerusalem, "a learned son of a
learned father," in the latter part of the 13th cent.
(Griitz vii. 144, 145) knew in the East of no other
reading. He explains it; "They shall fiee to Me,
when they see the slaying of those whom the
enemy had slain of them " (Poc. 344). His contem
porary, Parclion, in his lexicon Mechabberoth, cites
the passage with ''7X, and explains the word
"piercing of a sword in the body," v. Tpn. The
Heb. Arab, version, so often quoted by Pococke
(Hunt. 20G) renders, "Aud they turned to me, whom
they ren^t (U^^ the word, used by Abulwalid, only
Abulwalid further explains this by pE^.) Abulwalid
does not notice the reading in either of his lexiea,
nor Menahem b. Sarag, ndr David b. Abraham.
With regard to MSS., even in later times Peter
Niger [Schwarz] (a learned Benedictine of the 17th
cent.) wrote, "some false and lying Jews say that it
is not written, 'And they shall look on me whom
they have pierced,' but 'they shall seek to him
whom they have pierced' — I answer, that on my
conscience and on the Christian truth I say, I have
seen many Jewish Bibles [Spanish, doubtless, since
he studied Hebrew in Spain] and I never, in any '
Bible, found it written other than vehibbitu elai 'and
they shall look to me,' and not vehibbitu ekiv, ' and
they shall look to him,' as I will shew any one who
desires to see." Stella Messise Tract, ii! c. 2. A.D.
1477 in Wolf Bibl. Hebr. iv. p. 543. Norzi, a Jewish
critic, says that V/H is notfound in the Scriptures,
only in Itashi and the Gemara. The codex Babyl.
Petropol. (T am told, of the ixth cent.) has "'St^.
In the collated MSS. there is the variation, commtfa
where there is a real or virtual kri, 33 Kenn. MSS.
and 6 de R. have V^K ; 3 have vS§< marked on the
marg., one as a kri; 7 K. and 5 de R. had "'^J^ cor
rected into y^^; 4 K., 5 de R. had rSi< corrected
Into ^Sj<: 11 K., 5 de R. had a kri in marg. vbj*.
"The most and best MSS have "h"^." De R. .
Ewald's ground for rejecting the reading ''Sk illus
trates the Jewish. " IpT is, from the context
which speaks of mourning forthe dead, and the,

CHAPTEK XII.

439

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

mournetli for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness

have pierced ' ; the Head with the thorns, the
Hands and Feet with the nails, the Side with
the soldier's lance. The prophecy began to be
fulfilled as soon as the deed was completed,
and Jesus had yielded up His Spirit : when
^ all the people that came together to that sight,
beholding ihe things which were done, smote their
breasts and returned. " ^ When they had nailed
the Divine Shrine to the Wood, they who
had crucified Him, stood around, impiously
mocking. — But when He had laid down His
life for us, *the centurion and they that were
with him, watching Jesus, seeing ihe earthquake
and those things whieh were done, feared greatly,
saying, Truly ihis was the Son of God." As it
ever is with sin, compunction did not come
till the sin was over : till then, it was over
laid ; else the sin could not be- done. At the
first conversion, the three thousand were
pricked' in the heart, when told that He
° Whom they had taken and with wieked hands
had crucified and slain, is Lord and Christ.
This awoke the first penitence of him who
became S. Paul. Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou Met This has been the centre of
Christian devotion ever since, the security
against passion, the impulse to self-denial,
the parent of zeal for souls, the incentive to
love ; this has struck the rock, that it gushed
forth in tears of penitence: this is the
strength and vigor of hatred of sin, to look to
Him Whom our sins pierced, Who S. Paul
says, loved me and gave Himself for me. " ' We
all lifted Him up upon the Cross ; we trans
fixed with the nails His Hands and Feet ; we
pierced His Side with the spear. For if man
had not sinned, the Son of God would have
endured no torment."
And they shall mourn for Him, as one mourn-
ethfor an only son, and shall be in bitterness for
Him, as one that is in bitterness for a first-born.
We feel paost sensibly the sorrows of this life,
language ofthe prophet (xiii. 3) clear; but for 'iX,
we must, with many MSS., read vSx. The first
person were wholly unsuited here. It is at variance
with the following vS;? n£3D1, and introduce-s into
the Old Teptament the senselessneps, that one is to
weep over .lahve, (for .Jahve [Almighty God] mnst
be the subject,) as over one dead, (who should
l^ver come back again !)." De Rossi sugge.its that
the vha came in accidentally, the scribe having
in his mind Ps. xxxiv. 6, Vj^ 1t3''Dn.
1 There can equally be no qucBtion about the
meaning of 11 pi (as even Ew. and Hitz. admit) or
about the construction. IpT (which occurs 11
times, is everywhere "thrust through." In one
place only. Lam. iv. 9. Q'lPlp. "thrust through,"
occurs as a synonyme of ^Jfl V/O "''^"se
wounded by hunger" and that, in contrast viith

for him, as one that is in
bitterness for his firstborn. .

Before
CHRIST cir. 487.

passing as they are ; and of these, the loss of
an only son is a proverbial sorrow. * 0
daughter of My people, gird ihee with sackcloth
and wallow thyself in ashes, God says ; make
thee the mourning of an only son, most bitter lamen
tation. " Iwill make it as the mourning ofan only
son. The dead man carried out, the only son
of his mother and she was a widow, is recorded
as having touched the heart of Jesus.
"'"And our Lord, to the letter, was the
Only-Begotten of His Father and His
mother." He was " the flrst-begotten of every
creature,arLA "we saw Hisglory, theglory as ofthe
Only-Begotten ofthe Father, full of graee andtrvth.
This mourning for Him Whom our sins
pierced and nailed to the tree, is continued,
week by week, by the pious, on the day of
the week, when He suflered for us, or in the
perpetual memorial of His Precious Death
in the Holy Eucharist, and especially in
Passion-Tide. God sends forth anew the
Spirit of grace and supplieation, and the faith
ful mourn, because of their share in His
Death. The prophecy had a rich and
copious fulfillment in that first conversion in
the first Pentecost ; a larger fulfillment awaits
it in the end, when, after the destruction of
Anti-Christ, '^ all Israel shall be converted
and be saved. There is yet a more awful
fulfillment; when "ITe cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see Him, and they which
pierced Him, and all kindreds of ihe earth shall
wail because of Him. But meanwhile it is
fulfilled in every solid conversion of Jew
Heathen or careless Christian, as well as in
the devotion of the pious. Zechariah has
concentrated in few words the tenderest
devotion of the Gospel, They shall look on Me
Whom they pierced. "¦* Zechariah teaches
that among the various feelings which we
can elicit from the meditation on the Pas
sion of Christ, as admiration, love, gratitude,
3"in 'S'^n "wounded ty the sword." So also the
noun. Sin n'npiD, "the piercings ofthe sword,"
P.s xii 18 In regard to the construction, ItyX ON
occurs in 97 places in the Bible, and in every place
in the meaning "he who," "that which," "this
that." In one place only Deut. xxix. 13, 14, m
having been previously used as a preposition, and
not with you only, (DDnN) do I make this cove
nant," the nX is a.gain used as a preposition carry
ing on tlie construction, " but with him who, BK
iWX Frischmuth (de Messia confixo) mentions
14 ways by which "because" might without <ambi-
suitv have been expressed (see Pusey s Univ.
Serrnons p. 142). There is then no excuse forthe
renderings ii-e' uv, LXX. or Aq. <ri>r w- Theod. has
2 S. Luke xxiii. 48. s s. Cyr. i S. Matt, xxyii. 54.
6 KaTcv^yn^av Acts ii. ?.T. »,Ib. 23, 30. 'Osor.
8 Jer vi 26 9 Amos vm. 10. "Alb.
nCol.'i. 15. 12 S. Johni. 14. isRom.xiSr..
14 Rev. i. 7. ''I^^P-

440

ZECHARIAH.

chrTst 11 ^^ ^'^'^^ ^'^y shall
"''¦ '*^^- there be a great " moiirn-
¦¦ Acts 2. 37. ing in Jerusalem, " as the
® 2 Kin 23 29
Chr. 35. 24. ¦ mourning of Hadadrim-
mon in the valley of Me-
giddon
pMatt. 24. 30. 12 "Andthe land shall
Rev. 1. 7. 4? • 1
¦f Reb. families, mourn, "j" every tamily
apart ; the family -of the
house of David apart, and
their wives apart ; the fam-

compunetion, fear, penitence, imitation,
patience, joy, hope, the feeling of compas
sion stands eminent, and that it is this, wliich
we peculiarly owe to Christ suffering for us.
For who would not in his inmost self grieve
with Christ, innocent and holy, yea the Only-
Begotten Son of God, when he sees Him
nailed to the Cross and enduring so lovingly
for him suflerings so manifold and so great ?
Who would not groan out commiseration, and
melt into tears ? Truly i-ays S. Bonaventure
in his 'goad of Divine love;' 'What can
be more fruitful, what sweeter than, with the
whole heart, to sufler with that most bitter
suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ ? ' "
11. As the mourning of Hucladr'immon in the
valley of Megiddon. This was the greatest
sorrow, which had fallen on Judah. Josiah
was the last hope of its declining kingilom.
His sons probably shewed already their
unlikeness to their father, whereby they pre
cipitated- their country's fall. In Josiah's
death the last gleam of the sunset of Judah
faded into night. Of him it is recorded, that
his pious acts, according to what was writ
ten in the law of the Lord, were written in his
country's history ' ; for him the pl-ophet
Jeremiah wrote a dirge'' ; all the minstrels of
his country spake of him in thrir dirges ''. The
dirges were made an ordinance which sur
vived the captivity ; io this day '', it is said at
the close of the Chronicles. Among the
gathering sorrows of Israel, this lament over
Josiah was w'ritten in the national collection
of dirges '. Hadadrimmon, as being com
pounded of the name of two Syrian idols, is,
in its name, a witness how Syrian idolatry
penetrated into the kingdom, wdien it was de
tached irom the worship of God. It was "'a
city near Jezreel, now called Maximinianopo-
lis in the plain of Megiddon, in which the
1 2 Chr. xxxv. 26, 7. = Ib. 25. =8. Jer.
4Itin. Hieros. in Reland p. 891.
* " About 5^ of an hour to tlie S. of Jlegiddo lies
a small village called Rumuni." Van de Velde
Travels i. A56.
'I Chr. iil. 6. 'S Luke iii. 31.

5 2Sam. 6. 14.
Lukes. 31.

ily ofthe house 'of 'Na- chrTst
than apart, and their wives  (^•m^ 
apart ;
13 The family ofthe
house of Levi apart, and
their wives apart ; the
family ||of Shimei apart, 1 Or, o/Smeon
and their wives apart ;
14 All the families that
remain, every family apart,
and their wives apart.

righteous king Josiah was wounded by
Pliaraoh Necho." This "*was 17 miles
from Cx'sarea, 10 from Esdraelon." Its
name still survives in a small village, south
of Me.gidJon ', and so, on the way back to
Jerusalem. 12-14. This sorrow should be universal but
also individual, the wdiole land, and that,
family by family ; the royal family in the
direct line of its kings, and in a branch from
Nathan, a son of David and \vhole brother
of Solomon'', which was continued on in pri
vate life, yet was still to be au ancestral line
of Jesus ' : in like way the main priestly
family from Levi, and a subordinate line
from a grandson of Levi, the fcnnily of
Shimei^; and all the remaining families, each
with their separate sorrow, each according to
Joel's call, " /ei ;/ie bridegroom go' forth of his
chamber and the bride out of her closet, each de
nying himself the tenderest solaces of life.
""' The ungrateful and ungodly, daily, as
far as in them lies, crucify Clirist, as S. Paul
says, " crucifying to themselves the Son of Ood
afresh and putting Him to an open shame. And
on these t'hrist, out of Llis boundless pity,
poureth forth a spirit of grace and supplica
tion, so that, touched with compunction, wdth
grie^dng and tearful feeling, they look on
C^hrist, suffering wdth His suffering, and be
wailing their own impurities."
" ''' The likeness is in the sorrow, not in its
degree. Josiah had restored religion, re
moved a dire superstition, bound up relaxed
morals by healthful discipline, recalled to its
former condition the sinking state. In their
extremest needs light shone on them, whef
there came his unlooked-for death. There
with the whole state seemed lost. So in the
Death of Christ, they wdio loved Him, saw
His Divine works, placed their wliole hope
SNu. iii. 21. Had the allusion been to the tribe
of Simeon, as supplyin.g, the teachers of Israel, as
S. Jerome thought, it h.ad been, not '^'pt^, but
' J j^D© as in Nu. xxv. 14, Jos. .xxi. 4. 1 Chr. xxvii. 15.
9Jo.'ii. IG. 10 Dion. n jjeb. vi. 0 12 Osor.

CHAPTER Xin.

441

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

•oh. 12. 3.
"> Heb. 9. 14.
1 Pet. 1. 19.
Rev. i. 5.

CHAPTER XIII.
- 1 The fountain of purgation for
Jerusalem, 2 from idolatry, and
fake prophecy. 7 The death
of Christ, and the trial of a
third part.
TN ' that day there shall
be '' a fountain opened
to the house of David and

of salvation in His goodness, suddenly saw
the stay of their life extinct, themselves de
prived of that most sweet intercourse, all
hope for the future cut off. But the grief in
the death of Christ was the more bitter, as
He awoke a greater longing for Himself, and
had brought a firmer hope of salvation."
XIII. 1. In tliat day there shall be a fountain
epened. Zechariah often repeats, in that day ',
resuming his subject again and again, as a
time not proximate, but fixed and known of
God, of which he declared somewhat. It is
thai day which '' Abraham desired to see, and
saw it, whether by direct revelation, or in the
typical sacrifice of Isaac, and was glad : it was
^ that day which many prophets and kings and
righteous me» desired to see, and in patience
waited for it : the one day of salvation of the
Gospel. He had spoken of repentance, in
contemplation of Christ crucified ; he now
speaks of forgiveness and cleansing, of sancti
fication and consequent obedience. -The
fountain shall be not simply opened, but shall
remain open*- Isaiah had already pnophe-
sied of the refreshment of the Gospel.
* When the poor and needy seek waier and
there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear than, I, the Ood of Israel,
will not forsake ihem. I will open rivers in high
plaees and fountains in the midst ofthe valleys;
here it is added, for sin and for uncleanness.
There were divers " symbolical washings under
the law ; the Levites were ' sprinkled with the
waier of purifying, lit. the water of taking away
of sin .• liring waters ^ put to the ashes of an
1 xii. 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, xiii. 1, 2, 4, xiv. 6, 8, 13, 20.
- S. John viii. .'iG.
ss. Matt. xiii. 17, S. Luke x. 24.
*The force of nflSJ nTI'. ^ Is. xli. 17, 18.
.«Heb. ix. 10. TlStan 'O Num. viii. 7.
« Ib. xix. 17.
"mj 'D lb. xix. 9, 13, 20, 21 bis xxxi. 23.
"nXan lb. xix. 9. "Theod.
12 Jer. ii. 13. The word is the same, llpD, and
Ib. xvii. 13. 11 pa is, etymoIogicaIly,a place "dug;"
but a "mere well" could not be "a fountain of
living water." They dug to obtain anyhow a
larger supply of water. Is. xxxvii. 2-5; Isaac's ser
vants by digging obtained "a well of living" i.e.
flowing "water" Gen. xxvi. 19. It is parallel with
J'j;a Hos. xiii. 15., where cistern or reservoir would

to the inhabitants of Jeru- „ ^ff?! ™
salem for sLa and for f un- "'¦•¦ ^st.
cleanness. iHeb. separa-
2 ^And it shall come mdmnness.
to pass in that day, saith
the Loed of hosts, that I
' «Ex. 23. 13.
will ° cut off the names of Josh- 23. 7.
Ps. 16. 4.
the idols out of the land, Ezek. 30. 13.
Hos. 2. 17.
and they shall no more be Mic. 5. 12, 13.

heifer, were appointed as a "water for (re
moving) defllements ; a cleansing of sin '". Now,
there should be one ever-open fountain for
all the house of Darid. ""Who that fountain
is, the Lord Himself teacheth through Jere
miah, ''' they have forsaken 3Ie, the fountain of
living waters ; and in the Gospel He says,
^^ If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink; and " The water which I shall give him,
is a fountain of living water, gushing up io ever
lasting life. This was open to the honse of
David ; for of that kindred He took human
nature. It was opened also/or the dwellers of
Jerusalem, for the sprinkling of holy Bap
tism, through which we have received
remission of sins." " '^ That, receiving
Divine and holy Baptism, we are sprinkled
with the Blood of Christ lo the remission of
sins, who can doubt?" '""Of this fountain
much was foretold by Ezekiel ", that a foun
tain should issue forth from the temple of
the Lord, and go doum into the desert, and
every soul, to whom it shall eome, shall live; and
Joel, '* A fountain shall come forth of the house
of the Lord, and water the valley of Shittim. Of
this fountain Peter said to the Jews, when
pricked in ihe heart and seeking forgiveness,
'" Let every one of you be baptized in the Name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins."
2. I will cut offthe names of the idols. This
had been a fence against idolatry. To name
evil is a temptation to evil. Wrong words
are the parents of wrong acts. To speak of
evil awakens curiosity or passion ; curiosity
is one of the strongest incentives to act. All
be unmeaning. Metaphorically, fountain of living
waters Jer. xxii. 13. fountain of life Ps. xxxvi. Kl.
Pr. X. 11. xiii. 14. xiv. 27. xvi. 22. of wisdom Ib. xviii.
4. of tears Jer. viii. 23. of blood Lev. xii. 7. xx. 18. of
Israel Ps. Ixviii. 17, are like one fountain which
supplies a stream, rather than a reservoir, and
D^n C'D is of running water, Gen. 1. c. Lev. xiv.
6, 6, 50-52. XV. 13. Num. xix. 17. Cant. ix. l.'>. Zech.
xiv. 8. nntyn llpa Pr. xxv. 28. is rather "a foun
tain corrupted," spoiled from without, than stag
nant water in a reservoir, where the ."-poiling is
from itself. In Jer. li. 36. "Iipo (sing.) stands col
lectively for the whole supply of water. Tanehum
hasND;?:ija- "S.John vii. 37. "Ib. iv. 14.
15 S. Cyr. .16 Dion. " Ezek. xlvii. 1, 8, 9.
i« Jo. iii. 18. See vol. 1. pp. 212, 213.
i» Acts ii. 37, 38.

442

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST
cir. 487.
*2 Pet 2.1.

remembered : and a 1 s o I
will cause '^ the prophets
and the unclean spirit to
pass out of the land.
3 And it shall come to
pass, that when any shall
yet prophesy, then his fa
ther and his mother that

public mention of terrible crimes (it has been
observed) produces imitation of the specific
form of crime. Hence it was commanded,
'make no mention of the name of other gods,
neither let ii be heard out of thy mouth. And
Joshua names it in his dying charge to
Israel, ' Be ye therefore very strong to keep and
io do all that is written in tlie book of the law of
Moses-^-neilher make mention of the name of their
gods, nor cause io swear by them. Hence they
changed the names of cities ^, which bare idol
names. David speaks of it, as part of fealty
to God. * I will not take iheir names upon my
lips. Hosea prophesies of the times of
the new covenant ; * / will take away the
names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall be no more remembered by their name.
Isaiah, T/ie idols he shall utterly abolish.
Zechariah foretells their abolition with a
turn of words, formed apparently on those
of Hosea'; but slightly varied, because the
worship of Baal, such a plague-spot in the
time of Hosea, one, which continued until
the year before the captivity*, was gone.
He implies nothing as to his own times,
whether idolatry still existed. He predicts
its entire abolition in the whole compass of
the enlarged Judah, i. e. of Christendom.
And also I will cause ihe prophets and the un
clean spirit to pass oui of the land. False pro-
fihecy sets itself to meet a craving of human
nature to know something of its future. False
prophets there were, even in the time of
Nehemiah^, and those in some number,
hired to prophesy against the word of God.
Our Lord warns against them. '"Beware of
false prophets, which come to you in sheep's cloth
ing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
^' Many false prophets shcdl arise and sliall deceive
many. Many false prophets, S. John says, '''are
gone out into the world. False prophets at-
lEx. xxiii. 13. 2,jos. xxiii. 6, 7.
8 Nebo anrl Baalmeon, Num. xxxii. 38.
« Ps. xvi. 4. s Hos. ii. 17. » fc. ii. IS.
7 Hos. ii. 19. Heb. "/ will remove the names of
Baalim out of his month ; and they shall be no more
remembered, •]))} IID-f x'71, by their names " Zeeh.
I will eut off the names ofthe idols /rom the land,
and they shall beno more rememhercd,'y\y n;].r X7l.
8 Jer. xxxii. 19. The prophecy w;is in the tenth
year of Zedekiah, ver. 1. So far then from its im
plying a date before the captivity (Speaker's Comm.

begat him shall say unto cheTst
him. Thou shalt not live;  "'''¦ ^s'?- 
for thou speakest lies in the
name of the Lord: and
his father and his mother
that begat him " shall thrust » Deut. 13. 0.
° 8. & 18. 20.
him through when he pro
phesieth.

tended the decline of Judaism. Such was the
author ofthe Jewish Sibylline book, prophe
sying the destruction of the Romans '*, and
fixing the mind of his people on temporal
aggrandizement": false prophets were
suborned bythe Jewish "tyrants" and en
couraged the Jews in the resistance which
ruined the devoted city'^: false prophets
have arisen in Christianity ; bnt, like the
Phrygian women who led TertuUian astray,
they " went out," were ctist out " from it, as
not being of it." " '"After that the Only-
Begotten Word of God appeared to us, the
dull and childish toys of idolatry perished
and were utterly destroyed, and with it were
taken away the strange and impious devices
of the false prophets, who were full of the
evil, unclean spirit, and could be readily de
tected as laboring under a kindred disease to
the idolaters. For both had one president of
impiety, Satan." Not 50 years after the
Crucifixion, a heathen " wrote his work, "on
the failure of oracles." The outpouring of
the Holy '^Spirit of grace and supplieation,
should sweep away '" tlie unclean spirit, {Zeeha-
riah %lone anticipates the language of the
New Testament") which became™ a lying
spirit in the mouth of ihe prophets of those who
sought to them.
3. His father cmd mother that begat him '" shall
say unio him. Thou shalt not live. The prophet
describes the zeal against false prophecy, wdth
reference to the law against those who se
duced to apostasy from God. '^The nearest
relations were themselves to denounce any
who had secretly tried to seduce them, and
themselves, as the accusers, to cast the first
stone at them. " '* Such shall in those times
be the reverence to God-wards, so careful
shall they be of perfect probity and laudable
life, that parents themselves shall be stimu-
p. 735.), there could have been no ground for the
change the7i.
9 See Introd. p. 330. '» S. Matt. vii. 15.
11 Ib. xxiv. 11. 12 1 S. John iv. 1.
13 See Pusey's "Daniel the Prophet" p. 1G2.
" Ib. pp. 364-368 15 Jos. B. J. vi. 5. 2.
i» S. Cyr. " Plutarch A. D. 80. 18 Zech. xii. 10.
"nXDOn nn here only in the O. T. ; Tn-eS/in
o-KaSoipTov, in our Lord's words, S. Matt. xii. 43. S.
Mark v. 8. S. Luke viii. 29, xi. 24. add Eev. xviii. 2,
xvi. 13. ,
201 Kgs xxii. 21-23. O'li-j'^i, 23 De xiii. 6-10.

CHAPTER XIII.

443

chrTst '^ -^^ ^* ^^^^^^ "^^^^ *<^
"¦•¦ -tS'- pass in that day, that ' the
'Mic. 3. 6,7. prophets shall be ashamed
every one of his vision,
„. when he hath prophesied ;
82 Km. 1. 8. ,
Isai. 20. 2. neither shall they wear
Matt. 3. 4. •'
tHeb.o.gai-ments t a rough garment tto
of hair. . o o
fHeb. to lie. deceive :

lated against their children, if they should
speak falsely anything from their own heart,
as though God spake by them — How true
that word is, and how accredited the pro
phecy! This indicates clearly a, great ad
vance toward godliness, God transforming
things for the better. What aforetime was
held in great esteem, is now hated and ac
cursed and held intolerable."
4. The prophets shall be ashamed, every one of
them. They who before their conversion,
gave themselves to such deceits, shall be
ashamed of their deeds; as, after the defeat
of the seven sons of the chief priest Sceva,
'fear fell on them all, and the name of ihe Lord
Jesus was magnified, and many that believed
came and confessed and shewed their deeds : many
of thtm also which used curious arts brought tlieir
books together and bui-ned ihem before all, and
they counted tlie price of ihem, and found it flfty
thousand pieces of silver. So mightily, S. Luke
subjoins, grew the word of God and prevailed.
Neither shall wear a rough garment io deceive,
feigning themselves ascetics and mourners
for their people, as the true prophets were
in truth. 'The sackcloth, which the profihets
wore '', was a rough garment of hair ^, worn
next to, the skin*, whence Elijah was known
to Ahaziah, when described as ^ a hairy man,
lActs xix. 13-20. 2 Is. XX. 2.
8Ib. xxii. 12, Jer. iv. 8, vi. 2G.
41 Kgs xxi. 27, 2 Kgs vi. 30, Job xvi. 15.
'2 Kgs i. 8.
'l^JftyrmX occurs Gen. xxv. 26, as describing
the whole appearance of the new-born Esau ; rmX
alone, of Elijah's mantle, 1 Kgs xix. 13, 19, 2 Kgs ii.
8, 13, 14; of the robes of the king of Nineveh Jon.
iii. 6. "i;7JE; rmN is the large Babylonian gar
ment which incited Achan's covetousness. Jos. vii.
21-24. [all] IS. Jer.
8 The phrase DOnN "I^j? is from Gen. iv.2.
" n J pn, occurring in this place onl}', is uncer
tain. Against the modem rendering " sold " (which
would be the obvious causative of njp), or
"bought" (taking Hifil lis Kal) it seems decisive,
that this would be contrary to the Levitical law".
For since, if bought or sold as a slave, he would
have been set free in the 7th year, he would not
have been sold or bought from his youth. T]}pr\
might equally be, "made me to possess," as " made
another to possess me." In either case it governs
a double accusative, of whioh one only is expressed.

5 "But he shall say, I q^^^°1%^
am no prophet, I am an_ <=ii'- *87.

husbandman ; for m a n i> Amos 7. 14.
taught me to keep cattle
from my youth.
6 And 0716 shall say unto
him, What are these
wounds in thine hands?

and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.
It was a wide garment, enveloping the whole
frame ", and so, afflictive to the whole body.
" ' This was the habit of the prophets, that
when they called the people to penitence,
they were clothed with sackcloth."
5. And he shcdl say, repudiating his former
claims, I ara a husbandman * : for a man hath
taught" me from my youth. There was no
room then for his having been a false pro
phet, since he had had from his youth one
simple unlettered occupation, as Amos said
truly of himself; '" I was no prophet, neither
was la prophet's son: but I was an herd,sman
anda gatherer of sycamore fruit. The propljet
does not approve the lie, any more than our
Lord did the injustice of the unjust steward.
Our Lord contrasted the wisdom in iheir
generation of a bad man for his ends, ivith
the unwisdom of the children of light, who
took no pains to secure their God. Zecha
riah pictures vividly, how men weJuld any
how rid themselves of all suspicion of false-
prophesjdng. 6. And one shall say unto him. What are
those wounds in thy hands ? The words are
simple ; the meaning different ", according
as they are united with what immediately
precedes, or the main subject. Him Whom
Kim. " made me a shepherd and husbandman :
Rashi, quoting l\lenahem, "set me to keep his
tiocks," Ibn Ezra, "made me to possess ground i.e.
made me a hushandman." Tanehum " tilled his
land, which his father put him in posses-'^ion of by
inheritance." Hunt. 20G. translates 'JJpn by
USTIESX " bought me."
i»Am. vii. 14.
11 A prevalent modern explanation has been of
the self-inflicted wounds of the prophets of Baal.
But 1) the idolatrous incisions have a technical
name, Tiun' "cut himself;" De. xiv. 1, 1 Kgs
xviii. 2S, Jer. xvi. 16, xli. 5, .xlvii. 5. D'HllJ Jer.
xlviii. 37. 2) n^n, n)2rp, D''3D, are used of fresh
unhealed wound'- themselves, not of the scars. Pr.
XX. 30, 1 Kes xxii. .3,"., 2 Kgs viii. 29, ix. 1.5, Is. i. c,
xxx. 26, Mi, i. !), Nah iii. 19, Jer. vi. 7, x. 19, xv. Is,
xxx. J2, n! .3) Self-infliction was characteristic of
the idolatrous cuttings. They were probably to
appease the displeased god or goddess. The only
support of it, that D'^ilXD is used of idolatrous,
and so adulterous, objects of love, is neutralized by
the fact that the metaphor of male and female is
never dropped. Of 14 times in which it oceur.s, 11
times, in Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, it is united
with the fem. pronoun, ^'^nsn, n':3n!<q ; 3 times
in the first pers. of the city personified.

444

ZECHARIAH.

c H b7I t "^^^^ ^® ^^^^^ answer, TIw.se
"'''¦ *^'^- with which I was wounded

in the house of my friends.
7 ^ Awake, O sword.

they pierced, for Whom they were to mourn,
and, on their mourning, to be cleansed, and
of Whom it is said in the next verse. Awake,
O sword, against Mg Shepherd. S. Jerome
and others ' explain it of the punishment
inflicted by parents. "These wounds and
bruises I received, condemned by the judg
ment of my parents, and of those who did
not hate but loved me. And so will truth
prevail dissipating falsehood, that he too,
who was punished for his own fault, will own
that he suffered rightly." But wounds of
chastisement are not inflicted on the hands,
and the punishment of lalse prophecy was
not such wounds '•', but death. Wounds in
the hands were no punishment, which pa
rents would inflict. They were the speLial
punisliment of the cross ', after sustaining
which, One only lived. The most literal in
terpretation, tlien, of the wounds in the
hands harmonizes wdth the piercing before,
an 1 the smiting of the Good Shepherd
which follows, of Whom David too prophe-
siel, *Tiey pierced My Ilinds and My Feet.
'""What are those wounds of. Thy hands?
How long, think you, and how and Ijy whom
wdll this be said to Him? For ever and
ever, unceasingly, and with unspe.akable ad
miration it will be said, both by God the
Father, "to Whom He wo-s obedient unto death,
the ckath of the Cross : it will be said 'also
both by the holy ' angels wdio desire to look
into Him, and hj men whom He has re
deemed. O great miracle, ivonderful specta
cle, especially in the Lord of all, to bear
wounds in the midst of His Hands ! And
He shall say ; With these I was wounded in
tlie house 'of thoss who loved Me. O great sac
rilege, sacrilegious homicide, that such
wounds were inflicted in the house of those
who loved. He will not say, ' with these I
was wounded by those who loved Me,' but
' in the house of those who loved ile.' For
they who indicted them, loved Him not.
But they were the liouse of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob and David, and the rest like
them, who loved Me, and expected Me,
iSo S. Cyr. also; but S, Cyril was misled by the
rendering of the LXX, crufj-TroSioinrt-v, whereas Aq.
Symm, Theod, have eKKeyrrjrrovfriv.
2Hence Kim. explains it of the binding him
hand and foot to keep him at home : Eashi of
scourging the back, which would be the very op
posite of D"T V2, and would not be visible, Ibn
Ezra makes it refer to the ini'lpll ver. 3. Tan
ehum explains "when one asks as to the marks of
beating which are ou his body," and, paraphrasing

against ' my shejoherd, and ^^ h e°i s t
against the man " that is my "i''- ^^'^-

fellow, saith the Loed of Ezek, 34. 23.
hosts : ' smite the shepherd, & 14. 10, 11. '
¦Matt. 26, 31. Mark 14. 27. Phil. 2. 0.

Who was promised to them. Yet so to
speak is not to answer the question, wliat are
these wounds? For it is one thing to ask,
what are these wounds, another to say,
where they were inflicted. Having said,
that they were inflicted in the house of
those who loved Me, He says, what they are,
the Cup which My Father hath given Me to
drink. For what He subjoins, is the Voice
of the Father giving the Cup. Sword,
awake &c. is as though he said. Ask ye. What
are these wounds ? I say, ' the tokens of
obedience, the signs of the Father's will and
command. The Lord of hosts, God the
Father hath not spared Me, His own Son, but
hath given Me for you all. And Lie said.
Awake, o sivord, against My Shepherd, and
against the Man cohering to Mr, ivhich is as
much as, 'O Death, have thou power over
My Son, My good Shepherd, the Man Who
cohereth to Me, i. e. Who is joined in unity
of Person with the Word Who is consub-
stantial ivith Me 1 ' And then, as though
the sword asked, how or how far shall I
arise against this Thy Shepherd, he subjoins,
Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scat
tered. Hence the Shepherd Himself, when
about to be smitten, spake, " All ye shall be
offended because of Me this night. For it is
written, I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep
shall be seattered. So then to those who say,
what are ihose wounds in the midst of Thy
hands ? is appositely subjoined the Voice of
the Father, saying, Awake, 0 sword, against
My Shepherd &e. in the meaning, 'They are
monuments of the Father's love, the to
kens of My Obedience, because He spared
not His own Son, and I became obedient to
Him for you all, even unto death, and thai, ihe
death of ihe Cross.' "
7_. Awake, 0 sword. So Jeremiah apostro
phises the sword, " 0 thou sword of the Lord,
when wilt tlwu be quiet f The prophets ex
press what will be, by a command that it
should be; '" 3Iake ihe heart of this people
heavy. But by this command he signifies
that human malice, acting freely, could do
"]"T,]'3, explains "in front of thee." The Arab.
version [Hunt. 208] has simply -[XT' TJ.
3S. Jerome m.akes the question answered in the
words, "They .are the wounds &c." inconsistently,
" Why hangest thou on the Cross ? why are thy
hands tr.ansfixed by nails? What hast thou done,
to be subjected to this punishment and torture '( "
••Pa. xxii. 16. 'Eup, ophil. li.8.
' 1 S, Pet. i, 12.
SS. Matt. xxvi. 31. » Jer. xlvii. 6. m Is. vi. 10.

CHAPTER XIIL

445

cheTst ^''^^ ^^^^ sheep shall be
cir. 487, scattered : and Iwill turn

no more than ' His Hand and His counsel de
termined before to be done. The envy and
hatred of Satan, the blind fury of the C liicf
priests, the contempt of Herod, the guilty
cowardice of Pilate, freely accomplished
that Death, which God had before decreed
for the salvation of the world. The mean
ing then is, " " the sword shall be aroused
against My Shepherd, i, e. I will allow Him
to be smitten by the Jews. But by the sword
he designates death, persecution, wounding
&c. as above, the ^ sword upon his right arm,
and, where the Passion of Christ is spoken
of, * Deliver my soul from the sivord. So also,
* All the sinners of the people shall die by tlie
sword," "^ which cannot be taken literally;
for many sinners perish by shipwreck, poi
son, drowning, fire." Amos then " ' so spake,
because many died by war, yet not all by the
sivord, but others by pestilence and famine,
all which he includes under the sword. This
smiting be,gan, ivhen the Lord was taken,
and His sheep began to be scattered ; but
the prophecy which, before, was being grad
ually fulfilled, was fully fulfilled in His
Death, and the Apostles were dispersed till
the day of the Resurrection at eventide."
Against ihe Man, My Fellow'', i.e. One
united by community of nature. A little
before, God had spoken of Blimself as priced
at the thirty pieces of silver, yet as breaking
the covenant which He had made ivith all
nations for His people ; as pierced through,
yet as pouring ihe spirit of graee and supplica
tion on those who pierced Him, that they
should mourn their deed, arid as, thereon,
ever cleansing them from sin. As Man,
God was sold, was pierced. "*God, in
flesh, not working with auglit intervening as
in the prophets, but having taken to Him a
Manhood connatural" with Himself and
made one, and through His flesh akin to us,
drawing up to Him all humanity. What
was the manner of the Godhead in flesh ?
As fire in iron, not transitively but by com
munication. For the fire does not dart into
the iron, but remains there and communi-
iActsiv.28. 2Eib, 3oh,xi.l7.
*Ps. xxii, 20. 'Ani, ix. 10. oS. Jer.
"The word fl'D.!?, in form, abstract, is always
personal. It st.ands alone in the dialects, h.aving
probably been framed by Moses, to express more
than "neighbor," "our common nature," as we
Bpeak, It occurs 11 times in Leviticus (v. 21 bis,
[vi. 2 Eng,] -xviii. 20, xix, 11, 1.5, 17, xxiv. 19, xxv, 14
(bis) 15, 17,) always with the pronominal affix, " thy '
or "his;" and always in enjoining things or for
bidding things by virtue of our common humanity.
Though feminine in form, it is always masc. in
fact, as in, "the wife of" qjT'n;? Lev, xviii, 20, and
y^V, Ib, xix. 17. The word, being revived out of

mine hand upon " the little
ones.

Before
C H E I S T
cir, 4S7,
¦» Matt, IS. 10, 14. Luke 12. 32.

cafes to it of its own virtue, not impaired by
the communication, yet filling wholly its
recipient." The bold language of the Fa
thers only expressed the aituality of the
Incarnation. Since the Manhood was taken
into God, and in Him dwelt all the fullness
(if the Godhead bodily, and God and Man
were one Christ, then was it all true lan
guage. His l!odv was " '" the Tody i f God ; "
His flesh " " ihe'flesh of the Word ; " and it
was lawful to speak of " ''•^ the fiesh of the
Deity," of J'^Hhe Passion of the Wf:rd,"
""the latsion of Christ, my Cod," "i^the
Passion of (iod," "i° God dead and buried,"
""God sufli^red," "'"murderers of Giod,"
"I'the Godhead dwelt in the flesh bodily,
ivhich is all one with saying that, being
God, He had a proper hi dy, and using this
as an instrument. He lecame Man for our
sakes, and, because of this, things proper to
the flesh are said to be His, since He was in
it, as hunger, thirst, sufiering, fatigue and the
like, of which the flesh is capable, while the
works proper to the Word Himself, as rais
ing the dead and restoring the blind, He did
through His own Body," is but a continu
ance of the language of Zccharia-h, tin- e He
Who was sold, was priced, was Almighty
God. Jesus being G(-d and Man, the suffer
ings of His Humanity were tl.e suflerings of
God, although, as God, He could not sufier.
Now, conversely, God speaks of the Shep
herd Who was slain, as 3Ig I'cllmv, united in
Nature with Himself, although not the Man
hood of Jesus which suffered, but the God
head, united with It in one Person, was
Consubstantial with Himself. The name
might perhaps le most nearly reiue^eiifed
by"" connatural." "2° When tlien the title
is employed of the relation of an individual
to God, it is clear that that individual can
be no mere man, but mu.st be one, united
with God by unity of Being. The Akin of
the Lord is no other than He Who said in
the Gospel '" I and My Fallier are One, and
Who is designated as '" the Only-Begotten Son,
Who is in the Bosom of tlie Father. The word,
the Pentateuch by Zechariah, received no modifi
cation in the Hebrew of the intermediate period,
8 Hom, in Sanct Christi gcncr, App, S, Ba«il.
Opp, ii, ,596 qui.ted in Newman on S, Ath,ag. Arian.
p. 444. note k. Oxf, Tr,
» " avij.(t»jii i. c, joined on to His Nature; Ib.
i»S, Ath, ag, Arians iii, 9. p,4'14: Oxf, Tr.
11 lb, n, ,34 p, 449, i^S, Leo, Serm, rs, fin.
WTert, de earn. Christi, 5. "S. Icnat. Eom. 6,
IS Tert, I, c. Ib, "Vigil, c, Eut, ii. p, .502.
II S, Melito in Anast, Hodeg, 12,
18 Tert, 1, c, all quoted on S. Ath, 1, c, nole i,
i»S Ath. ag. Ar. iii. n, 31 p, 443 0, T, See more
ibid » Hengst. Christ, iii, .5311 ed, 2.
21 S. John X. 30. ^ lb. i. IS.

446

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487,

8 And it shall come to
pass that in all the land,
saith the .Lord, two parts

it seems, was especially chosen, as being used
in the Pentateuch, only in the laws against
injuring a fellow-man. The prophet thereby
gives prominence to the seeming contradic
tion between the command of the Lord,
Awake, 0 sword, against My Shepherd, and
those of His own law, whereby no one is to
injure his fellow. He thus points out the
greatness of that end, for the sake of which
the Lord regards not that relation. Whose
image among men He commanded to be
kept holy. He speaks after the raanner of
men. He calls attention to the greatness of
that sacrifice, whereby He 'spared not His
own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all.
The word ' Man ' forms a sort of contrast
with My Fellow. He Whom the sword is to
reach must unite the Human Nature wdth
the Divine." Jews too have seen that the
words. My Fellow, imply an equality with
God ; only since they own not Him, Who
was God and Man, they must interpret it of
a false claim on the part of man ', overlook
ing that it is given Him by God.
And Iwill turn M/ hand " upon the little ones,
doing to them as lie had done to the Shep
herd. So our Lord forewarned them : * If
they have persecuted Me they will also ¦persecute
you : " If the world hate you, ye know that it
hated Me, before it h'lted you : * Ye shall be
hated of all men for Mg name's sake : ' they will
deliver you up to the councils and scourge you in
the synagogues ; and ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for My namds sake: ^they
shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill
lEom, viii, 32,
- Ibn Ezra interprets it in this sense, " He pro
phesieth again m.any wars, which shall be in all
the earth, at the death of .Messiah ben Joseph, and
the meaning of JMy Shepherd, is every king of the
nations, whom God made to rule over the earth ;
and he estimates of himself rhat he is as God ;
therefore (he saith) and against the man my fel
low," Kimchi adopting the interpretation, "adds
" i, e, who thinks himself my fellow," R, Isaac
(Chizzuk Emunah, "IVasrenseif Tela Ignea Satante
p, 310) interprets the whole of the kin.g of Ishmael,
called also the king of Turkey, and ruling over
Asia aud Africa, under whose hand the majority of
the people of Israel are iu captivity, God calls him
my shepherd, because He has given His people into
his baud to feed them in their captivity. He calls
him 'the man my fellow and companion,' because
in the pride and greatuess of his heart he account
eth himself like God, like that. Behold man is be
come like one of us (Gen, iii,)," Abarbanel gives,
as the one of three interprotations which he pre
fers, a modification of E, Isaac's, explaining the
words " my shepherd " of Mohammed, and direct
ing his interpretation of " the man, my fellow "
against our Lord, "The words, 'the man my fel
low' are spoken of Jesus the Nazarene, for accord
ing to the sentiment of the children of Edom and
their faith, he was the Son of God, and of the same
substance, and tlierefore he is called according to

therein shall be cut off and ,, ^ ^7 s t
die; "but the third shall ^.£iLi?Z^_
be left therein. ° Eom, ii, 5,

you : and ye shali be hated of all 'men for My
nam^ssake; and to the Scribes and Pharisees,
"I send unto you prophets and wise men and
scribes, and some of them ye shcdl kill and cru
cify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your
synagogues and persecute them frcrm rity to rity,
tliai upon you may come all the righteous blood
shed upon the earth.
The little ones '", as Jeremiah speaks of " ihe
least of the flock, and the Lord said, "fear not,
little flock, little and weak in itself, but mighty
in Him and in His grace. Three centuries
of persecution, alike in the Roman empire
and beyond it in Persia,fulfllledtheprophet's
words and deepened the foundation of the
Church and cemented its fabric.
8. In all the land, two parts therein shall be
cut off and die. " In all the land of Israel,"
says a Jewish interpreter '^ ; — the land, in
which the Good Shepherd liad been slain
and the sheep scattered, that upon you, our
Lord had said, may come all the righteous
blood. As David punished Moab, ^* with two
lines measured he to put to death, and with one
full line to keep alive ; and Ezekiel prophesied,
'° A third part of ihee shall die with the pestilence,
and with famine shaU they be consumed in ihe
midst of tliee : and a third part shall fall by the
sivoid round about ihee ; so now, the greater
part should he destroyed, but a remnant
should be saved. Bui ihe third part shall be
left therein. Fven so then at this present iime
also, S. Paul says '", there is a remnant accord
ing to the election of grace. " i' The third part
only shall be saved from the common de-
their words, * The man, my fellow," Eashi alone
has '' I\Iy shepherd, vvhom I set over the sheep of
my captivity, and the man my fellow whom I asso
ciated with myself, to keep my sheep, even as I
did;" but "I smite the shepherd," he explains
" the wicked king of Moab," or "king ofthe border
of wickedness " [i, e, Edom] or in one MS, " the
wicked Eoman king, who shepherdeth my flock."
E. Tnnchumhaf^, "that they think in themselves on
account of my setting them over the creation that
they are my administrators in the kingdom and
government," The Heb, Ar, [Hunt. 206] " against
the man, my companion " ('3nS0 SjlSx ^hp).
8Such is the force of Jp D'tJ'TI Am, i, 9, turning
the hand against Ekron or against the other cities
of Philistia; in Is, i. 2.5^ upon Judah, and thor
oughly cleansing her by affiiction ; Ezek, xxxviii.
12, of Gog against the restored Israel; Ps, Ixxxi.
15 of God's turning upou its adversaries, Hi3 Hand
which was now upon her [all]. It were in itself
improbable that liere alone should be in a good
seu'^e, as Ges. ^S, John xv, 20, ^Ib, 18.
»S, Matt, X. 22, S. Luke xxi, 17,
' S, Matt X, 17, 18 ; add S, Luke xxi. 12.
8 S. Matt, xxiv. 9. » Ib, xxiii, 34, 36.

11 n'l;;yn «"•¦
12 s, Luke xii, 32,
15 Ezek. V. 12.

"Jer, xlix, 20 JXVn '"'''.J^X
13 Kim, 1*2 Sam, viii, 2.
WEom. xi. 5. I'Osor.

CHAPTER XIV.

447

c H eTs t ^ ^^^ ^ "^^^^ ^'¦^"S *^®
cir, 487, third part "through the
• Isai, 48. 10. fire, and will •'refine them
¦ ¦ ' '¦ as silver is refined, and will
try them as gold is tried :
'' they shall call on my
name, and I will hear them :
•Ps. 144. 15. ' I -vyill sav. It is mv peo-
Jer. ,30. 22. - ' ¦' '^
Ezek, 11, 20, pie : and they shall say,
ch. 8. 8, The Loed is my God.

IPs. 60, 16.
4 91.15.
ch. 10. 6,

struction ; yet not so, that they should sup
pose that glory was to be obtained amid ease."
9. Iwill bring the third part through the fire.
Such is always God's ways. ' Thou hast
pi-aved us, O Ood ; Thou hast tried us, like as
silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the
snare. Thou laidest trouble upon our loins : we
went through fire and water, and Thou brought
est us out into a wealthy 'place. ^ I have refined
thee, but not trith silver, I have chosen tliee in the
furnace of affliction ; and, " Through much
tribulation we 'must enterinto the kingdom of God.
"*In adversity virtue is most tried, and
it is shewn what advance a person has made ;
for patience hath a perfect work ^ ; and it is
called the touchstone of all other virtues, as
is written ; ' " God tried His elect as gold in
the furnace and received them as a burnt
offering ; ' and, ' ' All the faithful who have
pleased the Lord have passed through many
tribulations.' And the angel Raphael saith
to Tobias, ' * Because thou wert accepted of
God, need was that temptation should prove
thee.' " " Adversities are granted to the
elect of God, and therefore to be rejoiced in
with the whole he.art." '"'Fire, crosses,
racks were prepared ; swords executioners
torturers were put in action ; new forms of
sufiering were invented, and yet Christian
virtue remained moveless, unconquered : the
fiercer the onslaught, the more glorious was
the triumph." "i^The more suffered, the
more believed in Christ." " " Whose virtue
they admired, these they imitated, and shared
the suffering, that they might be partakers
of the glory. This was that fire, whereby
God willed that His own should be tried and
purified, that, ivith Christ Whom they gave
themselves to imitate, they might enjoy ever
lasting glory."
I will bless him and will say. It is My people,
"*not only by creation as the rest, but by
devotion and worship, by predestination and
infusion of grace, by singular Providence, by
mutual love ; and it shall say. The Lord is my
1 Ps, Ixvi. 9-11. = Is. xlviii. 10. ' Acts xiv. 22.
* Dion. ' S, James i. 4. « Wisd. iii. 6.
'Judith viii. 23 Vulg.
B Tobit. xii. 13 Vulg. "Osor.

CHAPTER XIV. ^ Before
CHEIST
1 Tlie destroyers of Jerusalem de- cir. 487.
stroyed. 4 The coming of
Chi-ist, and the graces of his
kingdom. 12 The plague of
Jerusalem's enemies. 16 The
remnant shall turn to the Lord,
20 and their spoils shall be holy.
gEHOLD, "the day of • isai. 13. 9.
the Loed cometh, and Acts 2. 20.
thy spoil shall be divided
in the midst of thee.

God, Whom Alone above all things, I long
for, love, worship."
This promise is oftentim es renewed through
the prophets, oftentimes fulfilled in Christ,
whenever the Church -is recalled from list
lessness by fiery trials, and through them her
children are restored to deeper devotedness
and closer union with God.
XIV. " The Jews," S. Jerome says, " say
that these things are to be fulfilled under
Gog; others that they were accomplished in
part, in the times of the Macedonians, Egyp
tians, and other nations. ^Ve, leaving the
truth of the time to the judgment of the
Lord, would explain what is written."
Eusebius^' points out that it cannot be said to
have been fulfilled under Antiochus Epipha
nes; "If any think that these things are,
then let him consider again and again,
whether he can refer the rest of the prophecy
also to the times of Antiochus ; as, that ''' the
feet of the Lord stood on the mount of Olives,
that '^ the Lord in that day, became king over
ihe whole earth; and so, as to the rest of the
prophecy." And although more was fulfilled
in the last siege by the Romans, still those who
would explain it solely of this, are obliged to
mingle explanations partly literul, as that
Jerusalem should be the earthly Jerusalem,
which was destroyed, partly metaphorical, as
to the mount of Olives, its division into two
parts &c. It seems then probable that, like
the kindred prophecy of Joel ", it relates
chiefly to the time ofthe end, and that as our
Lord unites the destruction of Jerusalem
with His Coming in the Day of Judgment,
so here are united that first destruction with
tbe last rebellion of nian, in the times of Anti-
Christ. Since then much or most may be
yet future, it seems safer, as S. Jerome sug
gests, to explain the Prophet's symbolic
language, leaving the times of the fulfillment
to Him, in Whose hands they are.
1. Behold the Day of the Lord cometh, lit. a
day cometh, the Lord's, in which He Himself
10 S. Aug. in Ps, xc, Serm, i. n, 8, See more in
Tert, Apol, c, ult, p. 105, note a. Oxf Tr.
"Dem. Evang. vi. 18, "ver. 4. "ver. 9.
" Jo. II. 30, iii. 18. See vol. 1. pp. 196-212.

448

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST
 cir, 487, nations against Jerusalem

2 For " I will gather all

'Joel 3, 3, to battle ; and the city shall
• Isai. 13. 16. be taken, and ° the houses
rifled, and the women rav
ished ; and half of the city
shall go forth into captiv-

shall be .Judge, and no longer leave man to
fulfill his own will, and despise God's ; in
which His glory and holiness and the right
eousness of all His ways shall be revealed.
And thy spoil shall be in ihe midst of tliee.
" ' How great will the strait be, that the
spoils should be divided in the midst of her.
It often happens that what, by a sudden
assault, is plundered in the city, is divided
in the field or in solitude, lest the enemy
should come upon them. But now there
will be such a heavy weight of ills, such will
be the security of conquest, that the spoils
shall be divided in the raidst of the city."
2. / will gather edl nations against Jerusalem
to battle. This is a feature ivhich belongs to
the end. It had been dwelt upon by Joel ' ;
Ezekiel spoke of the " many nations whieh
should come under Cxog. S. John foretells
of an universal strife at the end, when * The
spii'i's of d';vils, working miracles, go forth unto
tlie kings of the earth and of ilie whole ivoiid, to
gather them to the battle of that great day of God
Almighty ; and ^ Satan Sihall be loosed out of his
prison and shall go out to deceive the nations
whieh are in the four quarters of ihe earth, ffog
ancl Migog, to gather them together to battle, thi
number of lohom is as the sand of ihe sea. And
ih?y went up on ihe breadth of the earth, and
compassed the eanip of the saints round about,
and the beloved eity. Since no creature can do
aught but what God wdlls, and, in his
phrensy against God's people, is but His
instrument, '' to try them and to purgi and to
make white to the iime of the end; and the
Btrength of body or intellect, which is abused
.against His law. He continuously in the
order of nature supplies, God may be said to
do what Satan does against Him. Satan, in
his blind fury, crowns martyrs, fills the
thrones of heaven, ivorks, against his will,
the All-wise Will of God.
And the houses rifled, and the women &c.
The horrors of heathen war repeat them
selves through men's ever-recurring passions.
What was foretold as to Babylon is repeated
in the same words as to the Church of God.
Seemingly all things come alike to all : ' there
is one event to the righteous and io ihe wicked ;
>S, Jer, 2iii, 2-9, 11. 3 Ezek. xxxviii, 6, 15, 22,
< Rev, xvi, 14. 6Ib, xx,7, S, 9,
6 Dan, xi, 35, xii. 10. ' Eeel. ix. 2.
8 Sec on Mic. iii. 12, pp. 46-60, » 2 Kgs xxv. 11,

ity, and the residue of the
people shall not be cut off
from the city.
3 Then shall the Lord
go forth, and fight against
those nations, as when he
fought in the day of battle.

Before
CHEIST oir. 487.

io tlie good and to tlie clean ancl to the unclean: to
him tliat sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth
not : as is the good, so is the sinner. The out
ward event is the same, the hidden part is
known to God Alone. And ihe residue of the
people shall not be cut off from the city, unlike
the lot of the earthly Jerusalem, in the de
struction both by Nebuchadnezzar (which
was past) and the Romans'*. At the first,
" Nebuzaradan, Ihe captain of the guard, carried
away the rest of ihe people left in the city, a-nd
the fugitives thai fell away io the king of Baby
lon, with the remnant of the multitude, so that
Jeremiah mourned over it, '" Because of the
mountain of Zion which is desolate, foxes walk
[habitually] uponit. The Romans ""effaced
the city." Now a remnant is not cut off,
because "for the elect's sake those days shall be
shortened ; for our Lord had said ", that tlie
gates of hell should not prevail against His
Church. 3. The Lord shall go forth and shall flght,
""is to be taken like that in Habakkuk,
'^ Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy
'people, for salvation with Thine Anointed, and
in Micah, '"For behold, the Lord cometh forth
out of His place, and will come down and will
tread upon ihe high places of the earth, and the
mountains shall be molten under Him, and the
valleys shall be cleft ; and Isaiah also, " The
Lord shall go forth as a mighty man ; He shdl
stir up jealousy like a man of war; He shall
cry ; He shall prevail over His enemies. " God
is said to go forth, when by some wondrous
deed He declares His Presence — His Deity
is,^ as it were, laid up, so long as He liolda
Himself in, and does not by any token shew
His power. But He goes forth, and bursts
forth, when He exercises some judgment, and
worketh some new work, w'hich striketh
terror." God then will go forth out of His
place, when He is constrained to break
through His quietness and gentleness and
clemency, for the amendment of sinners. He
Who elsewhere speaketh through the pro
phet, 18 /, the Lord, change not, and to Whom
it is said, '" Thou art 'the same, and in the
Epistle of James, ™ With 'Whom is no change,
now goeth forth and fighteth as in the day of
1" Lam. V. IS. II See on pp, 46, 47.
12 S, Matt, xxiv. 32, 13 Ib, xvi, 18, n S, Jer.
1= Hab, iii, 13, i«Mic.i,3,4. I'ls, xlii. 13.
18 Mai. iil. 6. 10 Ps. cii. 28. so S. James i. 17.

CHAPTER XIV.

449

Before
CHEIST eir. 487.
«SeeEzek. 11.
23.

4 ^ And his feet shall
stand in that day " upon
the mount of Olives, which
is before Jerusalem on the
east, and the mount of
Olives shall cleave in the
midst thereof toward the

batUe, when He overwhelmed Pharaoh in
the Red sea ; and fought for Israel." The
Lord shall jight for you, became the watchword
of Moses' and the warrior Joshua in his
old age^, after his life's experience^, an^
Nehemiah *. Be not afraid by reason of this
great multitude, said Jahaziel, son of Za
chariah ^, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon
him ; for the battle is not yaw's, but God's.
As He fought in the day of battle. " ^ All
wars are so disposed by the power of God,
that every victory is to be referred to His
counsel and will. But this is not seen so
clearly, when men, elate and confident, try to
transfer to themselves all or the greater part
of the glory of war. Then may the war be
eminently said to be the Lord's, when no
one drew sword, as it is written, ' The Lord
shall fight for you, and ye sluill hold your peaee.
Of all God's wars, in which human insolence
could claim no part of the glory, none was
more wondrous than that, in which Pharaoh
and his army were sunk in the deep. The
Lord, SJiid Moses", ts a man of war: ihe Lord
is His Name. That day of battle was the im
age of one much greater. In that, Pharaoh's
army was sunk in the deep ; in this, the
power of evil, in Hell : in that, what could
in sonte measure be conquered by human
Btrength, was subdued ; in this, a tyranny
unconquerable ; in that, a short-lived liberty
was set up ; the liberty brought by Christ
through subdual of the enemy, is eternal. As
then the image yields to the truth, earthly
goods to heavenly, things perishable to eter
nal, so the glory of that ancient victory sinks
to nothing under the greatness of the latter."
4 And His feet shall stand in thai day upon
the mount of Olives, " over against Jerusalem
to the East, wherein riseth the Sun of Right
eousness." 'The Mount of Olives is the central
eminence of a line of hills, of rather more
than a mile in length, overhanging the city,
from which it is separated only by the nar
row bed of the valley of the brook Cedron.
It rises 187 feet above Mount Zion, 295 feet
above Mount Moriah, 443 feet above Geth
semane, and lies between the city and the
1 Exod. xiv. 14. Deut. i. 30, xiii. 22, xx. 4.
2 Josh, xxiii. 10 ; comp. x. 14, 42, xxiii. 3.
«Ib. X. 14, 42, xxiii. 3. iNeh. iv. 20.
» 2 Chr. XX. 15. « Osor, ¦ Ex. xiv. 14,
• Ib. XV. 3. • Van de Velde, Memoir 179.
29

east and toward the west,
"and there shall be a very.
great valley ; and half of <
the mountain shall re
move toward the north,
and half of it toward the
south.

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.
Joel 3. 12, 14.

wilderness toward the dead sea : around its
Northern side, wound the road to Bethany
and the Jordan". There, probably, David
worshiped'"; his son, in his decay, profaned
it"; Josiah desecrated his desecrations";
there '^ upon ihe mountain, whieh is ore the Fast
side of the city, the glory of the Lord stood, when
it had gone up from the midst of the rity ; it
united the greatest glory of the Lord on
earth. His Ascension, with its deepest sor
row, in Gethsemane. Since the Angel said,
'* This same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen Him go inio heaven, the old tra
ditional opinion is not improbable, that our
Lord shall come again to judge the earth,
where Lie left the earth, near the place of
His Agony and Crucifixion for us. So shall
the Feet of God literally stand upon the Mount
of Olives. Else it may be tliat " '^ the Feet
of the uncircumscribed and simple God are
to be understood not materially, but that the
loving and fixed assistance of His power is
expressed by that name."
Which is true, or whether, according to
an old opinion, the last act of Anti-Christ
shall be an attempt to imitate the Ascension
of Christ (as the first Anti-Christ Simon
Magus was said to have met his death in
some attempt to fly '") and be destroyed by
His Coming there, the event must shew.
And the Mount of Olives shall cleave [be
cleft~\ in [fromi the midst thereof toward the East
and toward the West, i. e. the cleft shall be
East and West, so aa to form a very great
valley through it — from Jerusalem toward
the Jordan Eastward ; and this shall be, in
that half of the mountain shcdl remove North
ward, and half thereof Southward. If this be ,
literal, it is to form an actual way of escape
from Jerusalem ; if figurative, it symbolizes
how that which would be the greatest hin
drance to escape, the mountain which was
higher than the city, blocking, as it were,
the way, should itself afford the way of es
cape; as Zechariah speaks, "0 great moun
tain, before Zei-ubbabel thou shalt become a
plaim ; and Isaiah,'* Every valley shcdl be ex-
1' 2 Sam. XV. 32. iilKgsxi,7. 12 2 Kgs xxiii. 13,
13 Ezek, xi. 23. " Acts i. 11. 's Dion,
"The evidence would be late, except as seem
ingly confirmed by a like history in Suetonius
vi. 12. "Zeeh. iv. 7, "is. xl.4.

450

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 487.

5 And ye shall flee to
the valley of 1 1 the moun-
taing ; 1 1 for the valley of

I Or, Illy ¦moun
tains.
I Or, when he ,-, i • i ii i
shall touch the the mouiitams shall reach
valley of the j_ \ ^ in
mountains to uuto Azal : yea, ye shali
the place he n t, n -i -o
separated. nee, like as ye fled irom
cir. 787,

ailed and every mountain and hill shall be brought
low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and
the rough places plain ; i. e. every obstacle
should be removed.
5. And ye shall flee to ihe valley of the moun
tains, rather, along ' the valley of My moun
tains ^ viz. of those mountains, which God
had just formed by dividing the mount of
Olives. For the valley of the mounlains shall
reaeh unto Azcd, i. e. Azel, the same word which
enters into Beth-Azel of Micah, where the
allusion probably is to its firm-rootedness. It
is more probable that the name of a place
should have been chosen with an allusive
meanin;, as in Micah, than that an Unusual
appellative should have been chosen to ex
press a very common meaning. S. Cyril had
heard of it as the name of a village at the
extremity of the mountain ^. Else it might
very probably have been destroyed in the
destructive Roman wars. The Roman camp
in the last siege must have been very near
it*. The destruction of villages, after the
frantic revolt under Bar-Chocab, was enor
mous °.
Yea, ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the
earthquake. An earthquake in the time of
Uzziah, whose memory survived the cap
tivity to the time of Zechariah, nearly two
centuries, must have been very terrible, but
no historical account remains of it, Josephus
having apparently described the past earth
quake in the language which Zechariah uses
of the future ". Such an earthquake is the
more remarkable a visitation in Jerusalem,
because it was out of the line of earthquakes.
These were to the North and East of Pales
tine : within it, they were almost unknown ',
Interpositions of God even in man's favor,
1 According to the principle of words of motion,
"iSn xy ' 13j; H^2. see Ew. Lehrb. n, 282a, 1, pp,
V06, 707, ed. 8.
2 E. vers, has followed Kim. ; yet there is no need
to assume that "'"in is an old plur, form,
3 7yt< for 7VN, in pause, as in the man's name
both forms occur 1 Chr, viii. 38, ix. 44, The LXX
had 'Ao-aTJA in S, Jerome's time; Aq. 'Ao-eA; Theod,
'AcrijA ; Symm, alone translates it, n-pbs to TrapaKei-
nevov. Jon, retains 7^5^, So Kim,, I, E,, Abarb,
The Syr, and Sym, (whom S, Jerome follows,) para
phrases. So Menahem and Eashi, giving an impossi
ble explanation, " height," S. Cyril says, "it is a
village, itis said, atthe extremity of the mountain,"
* Jos. B, J. V. 1. 8.

Before
CHEIST cir, 487 ,

before the 'earthquake in
the days of Uzziah king of
Judah: ^and the LoED'Amosi. i.
_, - ., ,, jBMatt. 16. 27.
my God shall come, a7id &24. so, 31.
" all the saints with thee. jude 14.
6 And it shall come to

are full of awe and terror. They are tokens
of the presence of the All-Holy among the
unholy. Fear was an accompaniment of
special miracles in the Gospel, not only
among the poor Gadarenes ^, or the people ",
but even the .4postles '" ; apart from the effect
of the sight of Angels on us who are in the
flesh ". It is then quite compatible, that-the
valley so formed should be the means of de
liverance, and yet an occasion of terror to
those delivered through it. The escape of
the Christians in Jerusalem to Pella, during
the break of the siege, after the withdrawal
of Cestius Gallus was a slight image of this
deliverance. And the Lord thy Ood shall come, and all the
saints with Thee, O God. The prophet, hav
ing spoken of God as my God, turns suddenly
to speak to Him, as present. " " This is mani
festly said of the second Coming of the Sav
iour, of whieh John too in his Apocalypse
says, ''^ Behold He shall come with the clouds, and
every eye shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him. And the Lord Himself in the
Gospel dedareth, that '' ihe Son of Man shall
come in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. He shall come with ihe clouds, i. e.
with the Angels, who are ministering spirits
and are sent for different offices, and with
the Prophets and Apostles." " '^ Whenever
Scripture says that the saints and angels
come with Christ, it is always speaking of
His second Coming, as in that, * When the
Son of Man shall come in His glory and all His
holy Angels with Him, and in the Epistle of
Jude ", Behold the Lord cometh with ien thou
sand of His saints, to execute judgment."
6. The light shall not be clear nor dark, or,
more probably, according to the original
6 "985 very well known villages." Dio Cass. Ixix.
14. See ab. p. 48, 8 gee Introd. to Amos vol, i.
pp, 224, 225, 7 See Am, iv, 11, vol. i. p, 286.
8S. Mark v. 15, S, Luke viii, 25,
^ On the restoration of Zacharias' speech, S. Luke
i. 65; of the son of the widow of Nain Ib. vii, 16.
iHAt the walking on the sea, S, M.att, xiv. 26, S.
John vi, 19 ; the reouking of the wind, S, Mark vi,
48, S, Luke viii, 25; the Transfiguration, S. I\Iatt,
xvii, 6, S, Mark ix, 6 ; the draught of flshes, S, Luke
V, 3-10,
" To Zacharias, S, Luke i, 12 ; the B, Virgin, Ib.
29, 30; the shepherds, Ib, ii, 9 ; to the women after
the Eesurrection, S, Mark xvi, 8; the Apostles
" supposing they had seen a spirit," S. Luke
xxiv. 37, 12 S, Jer, on vv. 6, 7, " Eev. i, 7.
14 S, Matt, xxiv, 30. 16 Eib. « S. Matt. xxv. 31.
I'S. Jude 14,15.

CHAPTER XIV.

451

c H eTs t P^®^ ^°^ ^^'^^ ^^J' 11 ^^'¦"¦^ ^^'^^
.light shall not be f clear.

lit, e. it shall , , ,
not be clear nor J dark :
places', and 7 But 1 1 it shall be ' one
dark in other , ,, , . , i n i i
places of the day " wuich shall be known
tHeb, precious, to the LoED, not day, nor
'n^s.' "'' ' night: but it shall come to
I Or, the day shall be one. i Eev, 2l>, 5, >•¦ Matt, 24. 36.

reading ', In that day there will be no light ;
the bright ones '' will contract themselves, as it is
said, ' The stars shall withdraw their shining.
This is evermore the description of the
Day of Jurlgment, that, in the presence of
God AVho is Light, all earthly light shall
grow pale. So Joel had said, * The sun and
moon shall be darkened, and tlie stars shall with
draw their shining. And Isaiah,^ The moon
shall be confounded and ilie sun ashamed, when
the Lord of hosts shali reignin Mount Zion and
in Jeruscdem and before His ancients gloriously;
and, ^ Behold the day of the Lord cometh, — The
stars of heaven and ihe constellations tliereof shall
not give their light : the sun shcdl be darkened in
his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her
light to shine. All know well our Lord's
words'. S. John, like Zechariah, unites the
failure of the heavenly light ^with a great
eartliquake, and the sun became as sackcloth of
hair : and the moon became as blood ; and the
stars of heaven fell upon the earth.
7. And it shad be one day : ii shall be known
unio ilie Lord : not day, and not night; and at
tlie eventide it shall be light. One special day ;
one, unlike all beside ; known unto God, and
to Him Alone. For God Alone knows the
day of the consummation of all things, as He
saith, " Of that day and that hour knoweth no
one, neither the angels in Heaven, nor the Son,
(so as to reveal it) but tlie Father only.
Neither wholly day, because overclouded
'The E, V, follows Kim, "The light shall be
neither nilp'' ' preciousnesses ' nor tlXiUp 'thick
ness,' " '
^nnp' as Job xxxi. 26. "the moon, IjStl TP',
walking in beauty." pXiJp'' " shall contract them
selves," as it is said iu Ex, xv. 8, nTOHi^ 1i<9p
"the depths (lit.) coagulated in the heart of the
sea," According to the Kri, nXripl, the meaning
of nnp'' is mere conjecture, Kimchi (Lex,) Ibn
Ezra Eashi suppose it to be used of "clear light,"
as contrasted with cloudy, expressed by [ISDp, so
that the meaning of the whole should be the aame
as that of v, 7, Our version follows this. Abul
walid and Parchon explain it of heavv thick clouds,
and make the words svnonymous, Tanehum men
tions both. The LXX, seem further to have read
nnpl, Kal ^Jxi; but it is not supported by any
MS. or any other version : for the " but " in Symm.

pass, that at ' evening time ^ h kTs t
it shall be light. ""•¦ «7.
8 And it shall be in that i isai, 30, 26.
1 ,T , T ¦ m , &60. 19, 20.
day, t/iai living "waters Eev. 21, 23.
shall go out from Jerusa- joei 3'. is.
lem ; half of them toward
the 1 1 former sea, and half Joei 2. 20.

with darkness ; nor wholly night, for the
streaks of light burst through the darkness
chequered of both ; but in eventide, when all
seems ready to sink into the thickest night,
tliere shall be light. Divine light always breaks
in, when all seems darkness ; but then the
chequered condition of our mortality comes
to an end, then comes the morning, ivhich
has no evening ; the light which has no set
ting ; " perpetual light, brightness infinite ; "
when'" the light ofthe moon shallbe as ihe light of
thesun,and the light ofthe sun shallbe sevenfold ;
and^' the glory of Ood doth lighten the eternal
c'ltj, and the Lamb is the light thereof; and
" in Thy light we shcdl see light. " ''' Christ
shall be to us eternal light, a long perpetual
day." And ii shall be, that living waters. " '* This
is what is said in the prophecy of Joel, '' A
fountain shall come forth from the house of tlie
Lord; and in that of Ezekiel, '".^red behold
there ran out waters'' Zechariah leaves to the
mind to supply what the former prophets
had said of the fertilizing life-giving charac
ter of those waters. He adds that they
should pervade the whole land, West as well
as East ; to thefoi'mer, rather the Eastern sea''',
into ivhich they would by nature flow, and
toward the hinder, i. e. the Western sea, the
Mediterranean, which natural waters could
not reach. This their flow, he adds, should
be perpetual. '"* These streams shall not
Chald. Syr, may only express the contrast of tha
sentences; "there shall not be light; — and — ," as
Asyndeton, The LXX, however, "There shall not
be light and cold and ice," could only mean to deny
the presence of any of them, not (as Ew.ald) "there
shall be no altern,ation of light with cold and ice,"
Proph, ii. 02, Light too and cold are not alterna
tives. The Kri nXSpl, as always, occurs in some
MSS,, 8 Spanish of De Eossi, 2 at first, 15 old editions.
The Jewish authorities (as far as I know) including
Abulwalid Tanehum Parchon &e., fake no notice
of the Kethibh.
iJoeliii, 15, 6is, xxiv. 23, « Ib, xiii, 9, 10.
' S, Matt xxiv, 29. 8Eev. vi, 12, 13,
» S, Mark xiii, 32, '" Is. xxx, 26.
11 Eev, xxi. 23, 12 Ps, xxxvi, 9, i^S, Cyr.
" Kim, 15 Joel iii, 18. i* Ezek, xlvii, 2.
17 Joel ii. 20, where the preternaturalness of the
deliverance is pictured by the driving the locust,
the symbol of the enemy, into two opposite seas.
The Eastern sea, i, e, the dead sea, is spoken of
there and Ezek, xlvii, 18; the hinder sea, i, e. the
Mediterranean, Joel ii, 20, Deut, xi, 24, xxxiv. 2.
18 See Joel vol, i. pp. 212-215.

452

ZECHARIAH.

c H kTs t °^ them toward the hinder
ci''- *87, gea : in summer and in win-

¦Dan. 2.44.
Eev. 11. 16.

• Eph. 4. 6, 6.

ter shall it be.
9 And the Loed shall
be ° king over all the earth :
in that day shall there be
" one Loed, and his name
one.

dry up and their waters shall not fail ' ; "
therefore drought shall not lessen them, nor
winter-cold bind them. " ' From Jerusalem as
from a fountain shall stream forth living
waters of wisdom and grace to all nations."
" '' Again he tells us, under a figure, that
exceeding great and large shall be that out
pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the saints,
especially when they shall be removed to
that holy eternal life in the world to come.
For now through faith in Christ we are
enriched, as wdth an earnest, with the first-
fruits of the Holy Spirit. But after the
Resurrection, sin being wholly taken away,
the Holy Spirit will be in us, not as an
earnest or in a measure ; but richly boun
teously and perfectly shall we enjoy the grace
through Christ. He calleth, then, living
water, the Spirit which, he says, will come
forth from the Jerusalem which is from
above. — But that the holy Scripture is wont
to liken the Divine Spirit to water, the Giver
thereof, the Son, accredits, saying ^, he that
believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said. Out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
This the Evangelist explains, * This spake He
ofthe Spirit, which they who believe in Him should
receive. Since then the Spirit is life-giving,
rightly does he liken it to that, which is life-
giving to the frame."
9. And the Lord shall be king over all the
earth. Such should be the influence of the
living water, i. e. of the Spirit of God. God
Who has ever reigned and will reign, ''a great
King over ail ihe earth, shall be owned by His
creatures, as what He is.
There shall be one Loi d, more exactly. The
Lord shall be One, and His Name One. He
had before prophesied, " I will cut off the names
of the idols out of the land. The Church being
thus cleansed, no other lord or object of wor-
iKim. flini yip make up the whole year. Gen,
viii. 22, Ps. Ixxiv. 17. ^X\ is winter Pr. xx. 4, Am.
iii, 15, Jer, xxxvi, 22.
as. Cyr. 8 g. John vii. 38. <Ib, 39,
'Ps. xlvii. 3, 8, « Zech, xiii. 2. 'Dion, 8 Kim.
«Ps, cxxv. 2,
¦"nOXl. as DXpl, Hos. x. 14. Nis substituted
in Ihe name of the animal ?^t^, D'DX") ; the ap-
pell., niDS1 Pr. xxiv. 7 ; the precious substance,

Before
CHEIST oir. 487.

10 All the land shall be
1 1 turned ¦¦ as a plain from _
Geba to Eimmon south of \0r, compassed.
Jerusalem : and it shall be
lifted up, and ¦• || inhabited i ch. 12. e.
, ., f, T-» • B Or, shaU abide.
m her place, from iienja-
min's gate unto the place
of the first gate, unto the

ship should be named but Himself. This is
one of those prophecies, of continued expan
sion and development, ever bursting out and
enlarging, yet never, until the end, reaching
its full fulfillment. "'Since in this life we
contemplate God in His effects, in which His
whole perfection shineth not forth, now
we know Him obscurely and imperfectly.
His perfections being in divers diversely
represented. In our home we shall see
Him as He is, face to Face, through
His Essence. Therefore then He will be
represented by one name, as He shall be
beheld by one gaze."
10. All ihe land shall be turned as a plain
from Bimmon to Oebah. "^All the land,
which is round about Jerusalem, which is
now mountains, as is said, " The mountains are
round about Jerusalem, shall be level as a
plain, but Jerusalem itself shall be exalted 1°,
and high above all the earth." The dignity
of the Church, as '' a rity set upon a hill, which
cannot be hid, is symbolized here by the sink
ing of all around and its own uprising ; as in
Micah and Isaiah, 1^ The mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established on the top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above ilie
hills. Oebah, lit. hill, now, Jeva, was a fron
tier-garrison, held once by the Philistines '',
and fortified by Asa", in the northern
boundary of Benjamin '^, together with Mich
mash "• (now Mukhmas), commanding an
important pass, by which Jerusalem was
approached". Bimmon, south of Jerusalem is
mentioned in Joshua among the southern
towns of Judah '", given to Simeon '". Both
survived the Captivity ''". They mark then
the JST. and S. of the kingdom of Judah, a
long mountain chain, which is pictured as
sinking down into a plain, that Jerusalem
alone might be exalted.

Ezek. xxvii, 10. Job xxviii. 18 ; the town, Deut. It.
43. Jos, XX, 8, 1 Chr. vi, 65.
11 S. Matt, V, 14, n Is, ii, 2, Mic. iv. 1.
18 1 Sam, xiv, 5, I'll Kgsxv, 22.
IS From Gebah to Beer-sheba," 2 Kgs xxiii. 8, as
here, "from Gebah to Eimmon." It is named
among the northern towns of Benjamin, Jos. xviii.
24, 18 1 Sam. I, c. 17 Is. X. 28, 29.
IS Jos, xv. 32. i» Ib. xix, 7, 1 Chron. iv. 32.
2»Gebah, mentioned with Michmash, Neh. xi. 31,
Eimmon, lb. 29.

CHAPTER XIV.

453

c H E°i s T "^o^i^si' g^te, ' and from the
cir, 487, tower of Hananeel unto
¦ Neh. 3.1. the king's winepresses.
Jer. 31. 38. 11 And men shall dwell
in it, and there shall be
¦ J er. 31. 40. ' no more utter destruetion ;
'Jer, 23, 6. 'but Jerusalem 11 shall be
I Or, shall abide. „ , .... -
saiely inhabited.
12 ^And this shall be
the plague wherewith the
Loed will smite all the
people that have fought

From Benjamin's gate unio ihe place of the
first gate. Benjamin's gate ' must obviously
be a gate to the North, and doubtless the
same as the gate of Ephraim'', the way to
Ephraim lying through Benjamin. This too
has probably reference to the prophecy of
Jeremiah, that ¦' the city shall be built to the
Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate
of the comer. * Jehoash, king of Israel, brake
down ihe wall of Jerusalem from the gate cf
Ephraim lo ihe comer-gate, four hundred cubits,
after the war with Amaziah. Zechariah
seems to speak of Jerusalem, as it existed
in his time. For the tower of Han
aneel * still existed ; the first gate was prob
ably destroyed, since he speaks not of it, but
oiiis plaee; the gate of Benjamin and the
corner-gate probably still existed, since
Nehemiah^ mentions the building of the
sheep-gate, the fish-gate, the old gate, or gate
of the old city, the valley-gate, the dung-
gate, the gate of the fountain ; but not
these. 11. And they shall dwell in il, in peace,
going forth from it, neither into captirity, nor
in flight'; for God should exempt from
curse the city which He had chosen, against
which the gates of hell shall not prevail,
and He says of the heavenly Jerusalem,
' there shall be no more curse.
12. Again, upon the restoration of His
people follows the destruction of His enemies.
It shall, first and chiefly, be God's doing,
not man's. This shall be ihe plague. The
word is used of direct infliction by pestilence,
1 Mentioned beside, Jer. xx. 2. xxxvii. 12, 17,
Jeremiah goes through it, "to go into the land of
Benjamin," Jer. xxxvii. 12, 13,
2 Mentioned 2 Chr, xxv, 2.3, Neh. viii, 16, xii. 39,
3 Jer. xxxi 38. *2 Kgs xiv. 1.3. 2 Chr. xxv. 23.
8 Neh. iii. 1. « Neh. iii. 1, 3, 6, 13, 14, 16.
7 V. 2, 6. " Eev, xxii. 3.
» tl JJ occurs 20 times of God's striking ; 2ce of a
foot stumbling ; once (like HJJ) of an ox goring
another, once of a man's accidental blow, both in
Ex, . nSJO, in like way, occurs 17 times of death
inflicted by God (once only of an individual, Eze-

Before
CHEIST cir. 487.

against Jerusalem ; Their
flesh shall consume away
while they stand upon their
feet, and their eyes shall
consume away in their
holes, and their tongue
shall consume away in their
mouth. 13 And it shall come to
pass in that day, that " a^isam. 14. 16,
great tumult f r o m the
Loed shall be among

wherewith ihe Lord shall smite" all the people
[peoples'] that fought against Jei-usalem. The
awful description is of living corpses. " '" The
enemies of Jerusalem shall waste, not with
fever or disease, but by a plague from God,
so that, being sound, standing, living, in
well-being, they should waste and consume
away," as Isaiah speaks of the " carcases of
ilie mem, that have transgressed against Me ; for
their worm shall not die — and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh.
Thrir flesh shall consume away, rather, wast
ing away the flesh of each one. It is the act of
God, in His individual justice to each one of
all those multitudes gathered against Him.
One by one, their eyes, of which they said,
''' let our eye look on Zion, i. e. with joy at
its desolation, shall consume away in thrir
holes, and their tongue, wherewithi they
blasphemed God '", shall consume away in
their mouths. Appalling, horrible, picture!
standing cm their feet, yet their flesh moulder
ing away as in a grave-yard, their sight
less balls decaying in their holes, the tongue
putrefying in their mouth, a disgust to them
selves and to others ! Yet what, compared
to the horrible inward decay of sin, whereby
men " have a name thai they live and are dead f
"i^Let us read Ecclesiastical histories,
what Valerian, Decius, Diocletian, Max-
imian, what the savagest of all, Max-
imin, and lately Julian suffered, and then
we shall prove by deeds, that the truth of
prophecy was fulfilled in the letter also."
13. A great tumult, and panic fear, such as
kiel's wife, Ez. xxiv. 16), and 3 times only, of
slaughter in battle by men, 1 Sam. iv. 17, 2 Sam.
xvii. 9, xviii. 7. The form Hif,, pDH, is ot. Nif, is
used of a putrefying wound, Ps, xxxviii. 6, and pn
subst Is. iii, 24, Nif, is also used of man's wast
ing aw.ay through O) his sins Lev. xxvi. 39 (bis)
Ez, xxiv, 33, xxxiii, 10 [not 'under the weight of
as Ges, f and ofthe dissolution of the host of
heaven, is, xxxiv, 4.
"Lap. "Is. Ixvi. 24. i^Mi, iv. 11,
13 eom p. Ps. xii, 3, Is, xxxvi. 16, 18, xxxvii, 3, 4, IT.
2.3,29. "Eev. iii. 1. 15 S. Jer,

454

ZECHARIAH.

ci?eTst ^'^^^> and they shall
cir. 437, lay hold every one on
«Judg, 7. 22. the hand of his neigh-
Ezek.' 38.' 21.' bor and ^his hand shall
rise up against the

hand of his neighbor. cheTst
14 And II Judah also "¦•¦ -tw,
shall fight II at Jerusalem ; I or. Mow also
* 1 1 ' O Judah, Shalt.
^ and the wealth of all the I! Or, against.
rEzek, 39, 10,
heathen round about shall i7, &c.

God said He would send upon the Canaanites
before Israel i, or on Israel itself, if disobe
dient ^ ; or which fell on the Philistines after
Jonathan's capture of the garrison at Mich-
mas fi, when every man's '^sivord was against
his fellow. There is no real unity, except in
God ; elsewhere, since each seeks his own,
all must be impregnated with mutual suspi
cion, ready at any moment to be fanned into
a flame ; as when, at the blowing of Gideon's
trumpets, *the Lord set every man's sword
against his fellow ; or when, at Jehoshaphat's
prayer^, the children of Ammon and Moab
stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir,
utterly io slay and destroy ; and wlien they had
made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one
helped to destroy another.
And they shall lay hold, every one on the
hand of his neighbor. Every oneshall be every
one's foe. Each shall, in this tumultuous
throng, grasp the other's hand, mastering
him powerfully^. And his hand sliall rise
up ''against tlie hand of his neighbor, as was
prophesied of Ishmael, "his hand wUl be
against every man, and every man's hand against
him. 14. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem.
This seems more probable than the alter
native rendering of the E. M,, " against."
For Judah is united with Jerusalem as one,
in the same context ' ; and, if it had shared
with the heathen, it must also have shared
their lot. It is Judah itself, not " a remnant
of Judah," as it is '"every one that is left of all
the nations, which is thus united to Jerusalem :
1 Devil. 23, 2 Ib, xxviii, 20, ' 1 Sam, xiv, 20, The
same word is used, 4Jud, vii, 22, 8 2Chr, xx, 32,
8 p'inn, with ace, is used" adversely though
figuratively. Anguish (Jer, vi, 24, 1, 43) amazement
(lb, viii, 21) pangs (Mic, iv, 9) are said to seize on — ;
and David "I seized ('npinn) by the beard the
lion and the bear," 1 Sam, xvii, 35, It is used of a
man grasping with violence (with 2) De, xxii, 25, 2
Sam. xiii. 11 ; forcibly detaining prisoners. Ex, ix,
2, Jer, 1,33; the head of an opponent, "they seized
each his fellow by the head, and his sword in his
fellow's side," 2 Sam, ii, 16 ; " the ears of a dog,"
Pr, xxvi, 17, Here the context precludes ambig
uity; tlie use of the ace, is poetic.
' n7J^ "rise"=-"be raised up," as even of in
animate things, Am. iii, 5, Pr, xxvi, 9, Job. v, 26; of
a people earned away, Ib, xx^vi. 20. Gesenius' in-
etanees, Thes. p, 1023 n. 2,
8Gen, xvi, 12, »v, 21, i»v, 16,
'1 " Yea, and those of the house of Judah the na
tions will bring, constrained, to carry war against
Jerusalem," Jon. , i^v. 2, 3,
18 On the one hand, T'J/'D Dn7j "fought against
the city," Jud. ix, 45 ; n3T3 " against Eabbah " 2

it is that same Judah, as a whole, of which it
is said, it shall fight. Nor is anything spoken
of " conversion," which is said of those left
from the heathen nations, who had fought
against her. Yet for Judah to have joined
an exterminating Heathen war against Jeru
salem, even though constrained, had, like the
constrained sacrifices to Heathen gods, been
apostasy. But there is not even a hint tliat,
as Jonathan apologetically paraphrases",
they were "constrained." The war is to be
Judah's free act : Judah also shall fight. Again,
those gathered against Jerusalem, and their
warfare against it, had been described at the
outset, as i''' edl nations : here the subject is
not the gathering or fighting, but the over
throw. Nor is there any decisive contrary
idiom ; for, although when used of people, it
always means " fight against," yet, of jjlace, it
as often, means " fight in ''^." Probably then
the Prophet means, that not only should
God fight for His people, but that Judah
also should do its part, as S. Paul says, " We,
then, ets workers together with Him ; and, '" we
are laborers together with God; and, '" liahored
more abundantly tlian they all; yet not I, bui
the graee of God which was with me ; or, " work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling ;
for it is God whieh worketh in you both to will
and io do of His good pleasure. God so doth
all things in the Church, for the conversion
of the heathen, and for single souls, as to
wait for the cooperation of His creature.
" '^ God made thee without thee ; He doth
not justify thee without thee."
Sam, xii, 27; H '''JJpS "against Keilah," 1 Sam.
xxiii. 1 : on the other, ^J;.tn3 " fought at Taanach,"
Jud. V. 19; DT313f "at Eephidim," E.x. xvii. 8j
njp n.l!p33 "in the valley of Megiddo," 2 Chr.
xxxv, 22, and so probjibly in the immediate context,
(Ib. 20) ty''p3-|33, "at Carchemish," since it is
hardly probable, that Carchemish should be men
tioned as the object of such an expedition, and the
decisive battle between Egypt and Chaldfea was
"ai," not "in Carchemish," K/p31I)3, where ^"e-
buchadnezzar smote his army, Jer, xlvi, 2, For
such a large army as Pharaoh's would not have
been shut up in a town, which was of importance
only as a key to the passage of the Euphrates.
Also in Isaiah xxx, 32, the Chethib n3 must be " in
her," Zion, which the Kri has corrected into the
more common idiom, 03, "against them." The
LXX, renders thus, Trapara^eTac kv ' lepoucraA^jLL,
i*2Cor, vi,l. 151 Cor, iii, 9, loib, xv,10,
" Phil, ii, 12, 19 S, Aug, Serm, 169. n. 13. Opp.
V, 815. (on N, T. p. 866 O, T,)

CH.\PTER XIV.

4-55

c H eTI t ^^ gathered together, gold,
"il"- ^'^- and silver, and apparel, in
great abundance.
ver. 12. ¦ 15 And ^ so shall be the
plague of the horse, of the
mule, of the camel, and of
the ass, and of all t h e
beasts that shall be in these
tents, as this plague.

And the wealth of all ihe heathen round about
shall be gathered. "Whatever the world had
taken in their war against the Church shall
be abundantly repaid. All the heathen had
combined to plunder Jerusalem ' ; the wealth
of aU the heathen sh'dW he gathered to requite
them. " '' As Isaiah says. The nations, con
verted to Christ, brought all their wealth to
the (.'hurch, whence he congratulates the
Church, saying, " " Thou shalt also suck the milk
of the Oeniiles, and shalt suck the breasts of
kings — For brass I will bring gold, and for iron
I will bring silver ; under which he typically
understands, "* wisdom, philosophy, elo
quence, learning, and all the other arts and
sciences, liberal and mechanical, wherewith
the heathen shall be adorned, who are con
verted to the faith. So shall the gifts of
nature be perfected by the gifts of grace, and
they shall defend the Chm-ch who erstwhile
attacked it."
15. And so shall be the plague of the Lord
&e. "*So, when God sendeth the plague,
all the irrational animals of Anti-Christ and
his satellites shall perish, as the aforesaid
men, who used them, perished. For, for the
sins of men, God, to their greater confusion,
sometimes slays their beasts, sometimes also
for their loving correction." "=The im
agery is from the Mosaic law of the ban. If
a whole city became guilty of idolatry, not
the inhabitants only, but the beasts were to
be destroyed^, so that here, in miniature,
should be repeated the relation of the irra
tional to the rational part of the creation,
according to which, for the sins of "men, tlie
creature is, against its will, made subject io van
ity. Analogous is it also, that on the offence
of Achan', beside him and his children, his
oxen, asses and sheep were [stoned and]
burned with him."
16. Every one that is left of the nations.
God so gives the repentance, even through
His visitations, that, in proportioii to the
largeness of the rebellion and the visitation
upon it, shall be the largeness of the conver
sion. ^ Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
•ver. 2. 2 Lap. s Is. Ix, 16, 17, <Dion,
'Hengst. «Deut. xiii. 15. ' Josh. vii. 24, 2,5,
•S. Luke xxi. 24, » Eom. xi. 25, 26. mis. x. 21,

16 ^ And it shall come cheTst
to pass, that &fBXY one that __cir^^s7^__
is left of all the nations
"svhich came against Jerusa
lem shall even " go up from • is, co. o, 7, 9,
^ f. & 66, 23.
year to year to worship the
King, the Loed of hosts,
, , ' l> Lev, 23, 34, 43.
and to keep " the feast of Neh, s, 14.
'¦ Hos, 12, 9,
tabernacles. John 7. 2.

Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be
fulfilled. And S. Paul, ^ Blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until thefullness ofthe Gentiles
shall be come in ; and so edl Israel shall be saved.
Hitherto prophets had spoken of a '" remnant
of Jacob, who should return to ihe mighty
Ood, and should be saved ; now, upon this
universal rebellion of the heathen. He
foretells the conversion of a i-emnant of
the heathen also.
Shall even go up from year to year io wor
ship the King, the Lord of hosts. There is a
harmony between the rebellion and the re
pentance. The converted shall go to wor
ship God there, where they had striven to
exterminate His worshipers. The prophet
could only speak of the Gospel under the
image of the law. The Feast of Tabernacles
has its counterpart, not, like the Pascha or
the Pentecost, in any single feast, but in the
whole life of the Ciospel. It was a thanks
giving for past deliverance ; it was a picture
of their pilgrim-life from the passage of the
Red sea, until the parting ofthe Jordan opened
to them the entrance to their temporary rest
in Canaan "- " '"' In that vast, wide, terrible
ivilderness, where was no village, "house,
town, cave, it made itself tents, wherein to
sojourn with ivives and children, avoiding by
day the burning sun, by night damp and cold
and hurt from dew ; and it was " a statute
forever in their generations; ye shall dwell in
booths seven days ; all, that are Israelites born,
shall dwell in booths, that your generations may
know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in
bootlis, when I bmuglit ihem out of the land of
Egypt." "^Much more trulj' do Christians
keep the feast of tabernacles, not once in the
year only, but continually, unceasingly.
This is, what S. Peter admonisheth, " Dearly
beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pil
grims, abstain from fleshly lusts. And S. Paul
often teacheth that we, like Abraham, are
strangers on earth, but "citizens of heaven
with ihe saints, nnd of the household of Ood.
Faiih, he says, '" is ihe substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By
11 See at greater length Hos. xii. 9. vol, i, p, 122.
12S, Jer, 13 Lev. xxiii. 41-43. "1 S. Pet, ii, 11,
IS Eph. ii. 19. i» Heb. xi, 1, 9, 10,

456

ZECHARIAH.

c H eTs t 1'^ ° -^^ i* ^^^^^ ^®' ^'^"*
"il"- '^^'^- whoso will not come up of
all the families of the earth

• Is. 60. 12.

unto Jerusalem to worship

faith Abraham sojourned in the land of pro
mise as in a strange country, dwelling in ta
bernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise ; for he looked for a
city ivhich hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is Ood." " ' As long as we are in
progress, in the course and militant, we dwell
in tabernacles, striving with all our mind to
pass from the tabernacles to the firm and
lasting dwelling-place of the house of God.
Whence also holy David said, '' I am u,
stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my
fathers were. So speaketh he, who is still in
Egypt and yet placed in the world. But he
who goeth forth out of Egypt, and entereth
a desert from vices, holdeth liis way and says
in the Psalm, ' I will pass through io ihe
place of the tabernacle of tlie Wonderful unto
the liouse of God. Whence also he says else
where, * How amiable are Thy dwellings.
Thou Lord of hosts; my soul longeth, yea,
even fainleth for the courts of the Lord; and a
little after, ^ Blessed are tliey who dwell in thy
house, they shall be alway praising Thee. " The
voice of rejoicing and salvation is m the taher
nacles of the righteous. ' One thing h^ave I de
sired of ihe Lord, that will I seek after ; that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to
enquire in His temple. Whoso dwelleth in
such tabernacles, and hastes to go from the
tabernacles to the court, and from the court
to the house, and from the house to the
temple'"of the Lord, ought to celebrate the
feast of Tabernacles &c." It symbolizes how,
" " in the New Testament, Christians, being
delivered through Christ from the slavery to
sin and satan, and sojourning in this vale of
misery, by making progress in virtues go up
to the home of the heavenly paradise, the
door of glory being open by the merit of the
Lord's l^assion, and so the faithful of Christ
celebrate the feast of tabernacles ; and, after
the destruction of Anti-Christ, they will
celebrate it the more devoutly, as there
will then be among them a fuller fervor of
faith," 17. Whoso will not go up. '" To those who
go not up, he threatens the same punishment
as persecutors would endure. For enemies,
and they who will not love, shall have the
same lot. This is, I think, what Christ
IS, Jer, 2 Ps, xxxix, 12. = Ib. xli, 5, Vulg,
* lb, Ixxxiv, 1, 51b, 4, 8 1b. cxviii, 15,
'lb, xxvii, 4, "Dion, 'S, Cvr,
i»S, Luke xi, 23, "Dcxi, 10-15 i^Ib. 1U,'17,
"It), x.xviii. 23,24, "Am, iv, 7. See vol, i, p, 281.
i» 1 Kgs xvii. 9-16, 18 Ib, xviii. 5,

the King, the Loed of cheTst
hosts, even upon them shall ^_5il!ii?I- 
be no rain.
18 And if the family of

Himself said, '" Whoso is not with Me is
against Me, and whoso gatliereth not with Me
scattereth." Upon tliem there shall be no rain. Rain was
the most essential of God's temporal gifts for
the temporal well-being of His people.
Moses marked out this, as his people were
entering on the promised land, with recent
memory of Egypt's independence of rain in
Egypt itself, and that this gilt depended on
obedience. " Tlie land, whither thou goest in to
possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, whence ye
came out, where thou sowedst thy seed and water-
edsl it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs : but a
land of hills and vcdleys, — it drinketh water of
the rain of heaven ; a land which the Lord thy
God careth for ; the eyes of the Lord are always
upon it, from the beginning of ihe year even unto
the end of the year. And it shall be, if ye shcdl
hearken diligently unto My commandments — I
will give j'ou the rain of your land in its season,
the flrst rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest
gather in ihy corn and thy wine and thine oil.
And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle,
that tlwu mayest eat and befall. But the threat
on disobedience corresponded therewith.
''' Take heed to yourselves, Moses continues, that
your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside
and serve other gods — and ihe Lord's wrath be
kindled against you, and He shut up tlie
lieaven, thai there be no rain, and that the
land yield not her fruit, and ye perish quickly
from off the good land, which the Lord giveth
you ; and, ''' Thy heaven, that is over thee, shall
be brass, and the earth, that is under ihee, shall
be ii'on ; the Lord .shall make the rain qf thy
land powder and dust. Araos speaks of the
withdrawal of rain as one of God's chastise
ments 1* : the distress in the. time of Ahab is
pictured in the history of the woman of
Sarepta i", and Ahab's directions to Obadiah '".
But it is also the symbol of spiritual bles
sings ; both are united by Hosea" and Joel '*,
as Joel and Amos also speak of spiritual
blessings exclusively under the figure of
temporal abundance'^. In Isaiah it is
simply a symbol, ''"Drop doivn, ye heavens,
from above, and let the sides pour down right
eousness ; let the earth open, and let them bring
forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up
together. 18. And if the family of Egypt go 'not up,
1' Hosea vi, 3 See vol, i. p, 64,
i8Jo. ii, 28, See vol, i, pp, 190, 191,
19,10, ui, 18, See vol, 1, pp, 212-215, Am, ix, 13.
See vol, i, p, 338,
» Is, xiv, 8, See also Ib, v, 6. both together Ib.
xxx. 23,

CHAPTER XIV.

457

cheTIt Egypt got not up, and
cir. 487, oome not, f* that have no

tHeb. upon rain; there shall be the
whom tnere is i , • , i , i
not. plague, wherewith the
Lord will smite the heath-

and come not, that have no rain ; rather, and
there shall not be '. It may be that the
prophet chose this elliptical form, as well
knowing that the symbol did not hold as to
Egypt, which, however it ultimately de
pended on the equatorial rains ivhich over
filled the lakes ivhich supply the Nile, did
not need that fine arrangement of the rains
of Autumn and Spring which were essential
to the fruitfulness of Palestine. The omis
sion leaves room for the somewhat prosaic
supply of Jonathan, "The Nile shall not
ascend to them." More probably the words
are left undefined with a purposed abrupt
ness, there shall not be upon ihem, viz. whatever
they need : the omission of the symbol in
these two verses might the more suggest,
that it is a symbol only. Egypt, the ancient
oppressor of Israel, is united with Judah as
one, in the same worship of God, as Isaiah
had said, ^ In thai day shall Israel be ihe third
with Egypt and wiih Assyria ; and since it is
united in the duty, so also in the punish
ment for despising it.
" " 'Let not Egypt be proud, that it is wa
tered by the Nile, as if it needed no rain :
i. e. let no one be secure in this life. For
though we stand by faith, yet may we fall.
For although bedewed by the efflux of
Divine grace, and filled with its richness, yet
if we give not thanks continually for such
great gifts, God will count us as the rest, to
whom such copious goodness never came.
The safety of all then lies in this, that while
we are in these tabernacles, we cherish
the Divine benefits, and unceasingly praise
the Lord, Who hath heaped such benefits
upon us."
" * Under the one nation of the Egyptians,
he understands those who are greatly de
ceived, and chose idolatry most unreason
ably, to whom it will be a grave inevitable
judgment, the pledge of destruction, that
1 The E. v., following Kim., takes Dn''?^ xSl
as a subordinate clause, " and there is not upon
them," viz. rain at any time ; but it is unnatural
that, in two consecutive verses, the words should
be taken in such divergent senses. The omission
of nSi bythe LXX,, followed so far (as so often)
by the Pesh., is supported only by 4 Kenn, MSS,,
against those in S. Jerome's time, and S,ymm,
Theod. Jon., and is evidently a makeshift, followed
by Ewald.
2 Is. xix. 24. 8 Osor, ' S. Cyr
5 Eccl. vi. 3, 4, 8 S. Matt, xxvi, 24. ' lb, xx, 7
8Ib, xii. 29. »S, John XV, 22,
18 The E. V. follows Kim. in rendering " punish-

Befors
CHEIST oir. 487.

en that come not up to keep
the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the
1 1 punishment of E g y p t, I or, sin.
and the punishment of all

they despise the acceptable grace of salvation
through Christ. For they are murderers of
their own souls, if, when they could lay hold
of eternal life and the Divine gentleness,
open to all who will choose it and put off
the burden of sin, they die in their errors ;
the stain and pollution from transgression
and error uncleansed, although the Divine
light illumined all around and called those
in darkness to receive sight. Of each of
these I would say, * Better is an untimely
birth than he ; for he cometh in with vanity,
and departeth in darkness, and his name shall
be covered with darkness. " Good had it been
for them, if they had never been born, is the
Saviour's word. That this is not said of the
Egyptians only, but shall come true of all
nations, who shall altogether be punished, if
they are reckless of the salvation through
Christ and honor not His festival, he will
establish in these ivords ;
19. This shall be the sin of Egypt and the
rin of all nations that come not up to keep
the feast of tabernacles. For before the com
ing of the Saviour, good perhaps had been in
part the excuse of the heathen, that they
had been called by none. For no one had
preached unto them. Wherefore the Saviour
also, pointing out th#s in the Gospel parables,
said, ' the laborers, called at the eleventh hour,
said, No man hath hired us. But when Clirist
cast His light upon us, ^ bound the strong
man, removed from his pervereeness those
subject to him, justified by faith those who
came to Him, laid down His life for the life
of all, they will find no sufficient excuse who
admit not so reverend a grace. It will be
true of the heathen too, if Christ said of
them, " If I had not come and spoken unto
them, they had not had sin : but now they have
no cloke for iheir sin."
The prophet says rin, not punishment ",
for sin includes the punishment, ivhich is its
ment," Ges, combines the two in his rendering of
DtVN, u, 2"culp!im sustinuit," not in his "culpsB
ptenas dedit," The rendering "shall be guilty"
unites .sin and punishment in his instances, Pg.
xxxiv, 22, 23, Is, xxiv, 6, Jer, ii, 3, Hos, x, 2, [E, V,,
in the same sense, " shall be found faulty"! xiv. 1
[xiii, 16 Eng,] Pr, xxx, 10, L" be found guilty," E, V,]
So also in N Tl Lam, iii, 30, J^«a^ Ib,iv,6, When
the Lord said. It shcdl be more tolerable in the day of
iudqmentfoT Sodomand Gomorrah than for that citi;
Hemeant, that both guilt and punishment would
be greater. In Is, v, 18, nXHn, and, Ib, xl, 2,
nSSn is "sin." So also pi;?' Is. v, 18, Ps. xxxi. 11.

458

ZECHARIAH.

Before
CHEIST cir, 487,

I Or, bridles.
• Isai. 23. 18.

nations that come not up to
_ keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 ^In that day shall
there be upon the j | bells of
the horses, 'HOLINESS
UNTO THE LORD; and

due, and which it entails : it does not ex
press the punishment, apart from the sin.
It was the rin which comprised and involved
all other sin, the refusal to worship God as
He had revealed Himself, and to turn to
Llim. It was to say, ' We will not have Him
to reign over us.
20. In that day there shall be upon ihe bells ^
of the horses, Holiness unlo ihe Lord. He does
not say only, that they should be consecrated
to God, as Isaiah says of Tyre, ^ Her mer
chandise ancl her lure shall be holiness to the
Lord; he says that, the bells of the horses,
things simply secular, should bear the same
inscription as the plate on the high priest's
forehead. Perhaps tbe comparison, was sug
gested by the bells on the high priest's
dress ¦* ; not the lamina only on his forehead,
but bells (not as his, ivhich were part of
his sacred dress), bells, altogether secular,
should be inscribed with the self-same title,
whereby he himself was dedicated to God.
Holiness to ihe Lord. He does not bring
down what is sacred to a level with common
things, but he uplifts ordinary things, that
they too should be sacred, as S. Paul says,
''whether ye eat or drink Of whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God.
And the pots of the Lord's house shall be like
bowls before the cdtar. The pots are mentioned,
together ivith other vessels of the Lord's
house ^, but not in regard to any sacred use.
They were used, with other vessels, for dress
ing the victims ' for the partakers of the
sacrifices. These were to be sacred, like
those made for the most sacred use of all,
the bowls J'or sprinkling", whence that sacrifi
cial blood was taken, which was to make the
typical atonement.
21. And every pot in Jeruscdem ancl in Judah
shall be holiness io the Lord. Everything is to
be advanced in holiness. All the common
utensils everywhere in the people of God
shall not only be holy, but holiness, and capa-
iS, Luke xix. 14.
^nbvo, an", "yet the rendering "bells" has the
analogy of D'n'7SD 1 Chr. xiii, xv, xvi, xxv, 2 Chr.
v. xxix, Ezr, iii. 10, Neh, xii, 27. The other guesses,
" bridles '' (Ixx, Syr,), "trappin,gsof horses" [Jon,]or
"warlike ornaments" (S, Jerome's Jewish teacher)
have none ; the ^vOhv of Aq. and TTipijiaTov cruo-Kiof
ot Symm. (as from nibsp) give no meaning,
Us, xxiii, 18,

the pots in the Lord's
house shall be like the.
bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in
Jerusalem and in Judah
shall be holiness unto the

Before
CHE 1ST
cir. 487.

ble of the same use as the vessels of the
temple. And there shall be no more the Canaanite in
the house of ihe Lord qf hosts. The actual
Canaanite had long since ceased to be ; the
Gibeonites, the last remnant of thera, had
been absorbed among the people of God.
But all Israel were not of Israel. Isaiah had
called its princes and people, "rulers of
Sodom, people of Gomorrah. Ezekiel had
said, '"Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusa
lem; Thy birth and ihy nativity is of the land
of Canaan ; ihy father was an Amorite, and thy
mother a Hittite. Hosea used at least the
term of two-fold meaning, " Canaan, in whose
hands are the balances of deceit ; and Zepha
niah, '''All ihe people of Canaan are destroyed.
After the time of the Canon, Daniel is intro
duced saying, " " O thou seed of Canaan and
not of Judah." Ezekiel had spoken of un
godly priests, not only as uncircumcised in
heart {according to the language of Deute
ronomy '"'), but uncircumcised in flesh also,
altogether alien from the people of God i^
Tbe prophet then speaks, as Isaiah, '^ It
shall be called the way of holiness ; the unclean
shcdl not pass ewer it, and Joel, " then shall Je
rusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers
pass Ihrough her any more. This shall have
its full fulfillment in the time of the end.
'" There shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomi
nation or a lie; and, without are dogs and sor
cerers and whoremongers and murderers a'nd
idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie.
"1' Although born of the blood of Israel,
those of old eagerly imitated the alien Ca
naanites. But after that the Only-Begotten
Word of God came among us, and, having
justified by faith, sealed with the Holy
Spirit, those who came to His grace, our
mind hath been steadfast, unshaken, fixed in
piety. Nor will any one persuade those
who are sanctified, to honor any other god
*]1D;?i3 Ex. xxviii. 34, xxxix, 25, 26, used of it
only, and there only, ^ICor, x, .31.
« Ez. xxxviii. 3, 1 Kgs vii. 45, 2 Kgs xxv. 14, 2 Chr.
iv, 11,16, Jer, Iii, 18, 19.
'2 Chr, xxxv. 13, 'D'pltn, « Is, 1. 10.
10 Ezek. xvi, 3. n Hosea xii. 7. See vol. i. p. 121.
'= Zeph, i, 11, See ab. p. 244.
13 Hist, of Sus, ver, 56. " Deut. x. 10, xxx. G.
IS Ezek. xliv. 7, . i« Is. xxxv. 8.
"Joel iii. 17, See vol. i, p. 211.
18 Eev. xxi. 27, xxii. 15. " 8, Cyr.

CHAPTER XIV.

459

c H eTI t I^OKi* of ^osts : and all
eir. 487. they that sacrifice shall
come and take of them,
and seethe therein : and in

save Him Who is, by nature and in truth,
God, Whom we have known in Christ. For
in Himself He hath shewn us the Father,
saying, 'He thai halh seen Me hath seen the
Father. Wherefore in that day, i. e. at that
time, he says, there shcdl be no Canaanite, i. e.
alien and idolater, in the house of tlie Lord
Almighty'' "'^But may the Almighty God
1 S. John xiv. 9.

that day there shall be no ^ h eTs t
more the 'Canaanite in cii"- *^''-
^ the house of the Loed of joei 3. 17'.
, , Eev. 21. 27.
nosts. & 22. 15,
t Eph, 2. 19, 20, 21, 22.

bring the saying true at this time also, that
no Canaanite should be seen among us, but
that all should live according to the Gospel-
laws, and await that blessed hope and the
appearance of our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ, with Whom be glory to the
Father with the Holy Ghost, now and ever
and to endless ages. Amen."
• Theod.

rtin^EODUOTIOW

THE PROPHET
MALACHI.

The last prophet of the Old Testament,
Eke the Forerunner of our Lord, whom he
foreannounced under his own name, " ' the
messenger of the Lord," willed to be but
" the voice of one crying in the wilderness ; "
as his great successor, who took up his mes
sage, when asked. Who art thou? What
sayest thou of thyself? said, '' I am the voice of
one crying in ihe wilderness. Make straight the
way of the Lord. He mentions neither his
parentage, nor birthplace, nor date ; nor did
he add the name of his office °, and has left
it to be guessed, whether the name under
which he is known, was the name which he
bore among men ; so wholly did he will to
be hidden. No one before him is recorded
to have borne his name. It may be that he
framed it for himself, and willed to be
known only as what it designated, " the
messenger of the Lord." This was a favo
rite title with him, since, in this brief pro
phecy, he uses it, as describing the priest's
office, and that of the forerunner ^ ; whereas,
before him, except once by Haggai and
once by Isaiah ', it had been used only of
the blessed Angels.
There is, however, no ground to think
that it was not his name. Even the Seventy,
who paraphrase it, " His messenger," prefix
to the book the name Malachi ; and the title,
' 'DS7D, the extremest abridgement of the fuller
form, ^f^^})W\ iT'^^B'', as "'IIX, Bezaleel's father
(and two others)' for' n'lIX, 'Uriah' or irT'lIX,
Urijah the prophet Jer. xxvi. 20. sq. The same
person ''3X 2 Kgs xviii. 2 is n''3K in 2 Chr. xix. 1 ;
'IDr (the name of 11 persons) is doubtless abridged
from innj.r n^Dr.
IS, John i;23.' '

" my messenger," would not have described
that he was " the messenger of God," since
the name of God had not preceded. "If
names are to be interpreted," S. Jerome says,
"'and history is to be framed from them,
not a spiritual meaning to be derived, then
Hosea who is called Saviour, and Joel whose
name means, ' Lord God,' and the other pro
phets will not be men, but rather angels or
the Lord and Saviour, according to the
meaning of their name." No special stress
was laid upon the name, even by the Origen-
ists, who supposed Haggai, Malachi and S.
.John Baptist to have been angels *. Origen
himself supposed S. John Baptist to have
been an angel in huraan form i", aud Mel-
chisedek ', as well as Malachi. More widely,
that "i they became the words in the pro
phets." At the time of our Lord, some accounted
him to have been Ezra, perhaps for his zeal
for the law. His date must, however, have
been later, since there is no mention of the
building of the temple, whose service was in
its regular order. In the New Testament,
like others of the twelve, he is cited without
his name ', or the substance of his prophecy,
is spoken of or alluded to, without any ref
erence to any human author ' ; so entirely
was his wish to remain hidden fulfilled.
•Habakkuk and Haggai add the title of their
office, " the prophet," Hab, i, 1. Hagg, i, 1.
¦iMal. ii. 7, iii. 1, • Hagg. i. 13, Is. xlii. 19,
'Prsef. ad Mai, T, i. p, 9.30 Vall.
s Id, on Hagg. i. 13 p. 751 Vall,
' Orig. Comm. in S, Joan, T, ii, n. 25, Opp, iv, 85
de la Ene. ' S Jer, Ep, 73 ad Evang. n. 2.
j In Matt. Tom, ii. n. 30, Opp, iii, 549.
I " It is written," S, Matt, xi, 10, S, Luke vii, 27,
or, with Isaiah, "in the prophets," S. Mark i, 2,
'S. Luke i. 17, 70. S. Matt. xvii. 10, S, John i, 21.
461

462

ENTRODUCTlUJN TO

Yet he probably bore a great part in the
reformation, in which Nehemiah cooperated
outwardly, and to effect which, after he had,
on the expiring of his 12 years of office "",
returned to Persia, he obtained leave to
visit his own land a,gain °, apparently for a
short time. For he mentions his obtaining
that leave, in connection with abuses at Je
rusalem, whioh had taken place in his ab
sence, and which he began reforming, forth
with on his arrival. But three chief abuses,
the neglect of God's service, the defilement
of the priesthood and of their covenant, and
the cruelty to their own Jewish wives,
divorcing them to make way for idolatresses,
are subjects of Malachi's reproofs. Nehe
miah found these practices apparently ram
pant. It is not then probable that they had
been, before, the subjects of Malachi's de
nunciation, nor were his own energetic
measures probably fruitless, so that there
should be occasion for these denunciations
afterward. It remains, then, as the most
probable, that Malachi, as the prophet, co
operated with Nehemiah, as the civil author
ity, as Haggai and Zechariah had with Zerub
babel. " " So Isaiah cooperated with Heze
kiah ; Jeremiah with Josiah. Of a mere
external reformation there is no instance "
in Jewish history.
It does not appear, whether Nehemiah, on
his return, was invested by the king of
Persia with extraordinary authority for
these reforms, or whether he was appointed
as their governor. The brief account affords
no scope for the mention of it. It is not
then any objection to the contemporaneous
ness of Malachi and Nehemiah, that, where
as Nehemiah, while governor, required not
the bread of the governor, i, e. the allowance
granted him by the Per.sian government, as
an impost upon the people, Malachi upbraids
the people that they would not offer to their
governor the poor thingswhich they offered
to Almighty God, or that the governor
would not accept it, in that it would be an
insult rather than an aet of respect. For 1)
the question in Malachi is of a free-offering,
not of an impost ; 2) Nehemiah says that he
did not require it, not that he would not
accept it ; 3) there is no evidence that he
was now governor, nor 4) any reason why he
should not accept in their improved condi
tion, what he did not require, p because the
bondage was heavy upon this people. Presents
were, as they are still, a common act of
courtesy in the East.
Like S. John Baptist, though afar off, he
prepared the way of the Lord by the preach
ing of repentance. More than other prophets,
he unveils priests and people to themselves,
interprets their thoughts to them, and puts
nNeh, V, 14. nib. xiii. G. o Hengst. Christ, iii. 583.
P Neh. V. 18. 4 Mai. iii. 16. 'i. 2. " i. 6.

those thoughts in abrupt naked langnage,
picturing them as demurring to every charge
which he brought against them. They were
not, doubtless, conscious hypocrites. For
conscious hypocrisy is the sin of individuals,
aping the graces ivhich others possess and
which they have not, yet wish to be held in
estimation for having. Here, it is the mass
which is corrupt. The true Israel are the
exception ; i those who feared ilie Lord, ihe
jewels of Almighty God. It is the hypocrisy
of self-deceit, contented with poor, limited,
outward .service, and pluming itself upon it.
Malachi unfolds to them the meaning of
their acts. " His thesis is themselves, whom
he unfolds to them. He interprets himself,
putting into their mouths_ words, betokening
a simple unconsciousness either of God's
goodness or their own evil. "" Yet ye say.
Wherein hast Tnou loved us ? This was their
inward thought, as it is the thought of all,
ungrateful to God. But his characteristic is,
that he puts these thoughts into abrupt, b.ild
bad words, which might startle them for
their hideousness, as if he would say, " This
is what your acts mean." He exhibits the
worm and the decay, which lay under the
whited exterior. ' Ye say. Wherein have we
despised Thy Name ? Perhaps, they were al
ready learning, not to pronounce the proper
Narae of God, while they caused it to be de
spised. Or they pronounced it with reverent
pause, while they shewed that they held
cheap God and His service. ' Ye say, The
table of the Lord is contemptible. " Ye say, the
table of ihe Lord is polluted; and the fruit
thereof, his meed, is contemptible. Their acts
said it. What a reading of thoughts ! " Ye
said also. Behold, what a weariness ! It is the
language of the heart in all indevotion. " Ye
say. Wherefore '? as if innocently unconscious
of the ground of God's judgment. " Wherein
have we robb'd Thee? "the language of those
who count the earth as their own. ^ Ye say,
Wherein have we wearied Him? Whan ye say,
Every one that doeth evil is good m the siqht of
ths Ijord, and in them doih He delight, or,
Wliere is the Ood of judgment ? The heart's
speech in all envy at the prosperity of the
wicked !
Yet the object of all this unfol \mz them to
themselves, is their repentance. We have
already the self-righteousness of tbe Phari
sees, and the Sadducees' denial of God's Pro
vidence. And we have already the voice of
S. John Baptist, of the wrath to come. They
professed to ^ delight in the coming of the mes
senger of ihe covenant; yet their deeds were
such as would be burned up with the fire of
His Coming, not, rewarded.
Pharisees and Sadduces are but two off"-
shoots of the same ungodliness; Pharisees,

• Ib. 7.
»iii. 8.

°Ib. andl2. yii-n.

'lb. 13. "li. 14.
¦Ui.1. IV. 1.

MALACHI.

4GJ

while they hoped by outward acts to be in
favor with God, they become, at least, secret
Sadducees, when the hope fails. Firet, they
justify themselves. God had said to thera,
" Ye are departed out of the way : I have made
you base, as ye have not kept My ways. They
say *, It is vain io serve God ; and wliat profit,
thai we have kept His ordinance? (affirming
that they had done, what God called them to
repentance for not doing). God said". Ye
have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, the
tears of their wronged wives; they insist on
their own austerities, *" we have walked mourn
fully before the Lord our Ood. Then comes
the Sadducee portion. God had called them
to obedience and said, ''^ Prove Me now here
with : they say, " the workers of wiekedness have
¦proved God, and are saved. God promised,
^ All nations shall call you blessed; they answer,
1^ and now we call ihe proud blessed. Wliat have
we spoken against Tnee ? is the last self-justify
ing question, whioh Malachi records of them ;
and this, while reproaching God for the use
lessness of serving Him, and choosing the lot
of those who rejected Him.
Thereon Malachi abandons this class to
their own blindness. There was liope amid
any sin, however it rebelled against God.
This was a final denial of God's Providence
and rejection of Himself. So Malauhi closes
with the same prophecy, with which S. John
Baptist prepared our Lord's coming, His
''fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge
His floor, and will gatlier ilie wheat into His
gaimer, but ihe chaff Hie shall burn with fire un
quenchable. The unspeakable tenderness of
God toward those who fear His name, and the
severity to those who finally rebel, are per
haps niwhere more vividly declared, than in
these closing words of the Old Testament.
Yet the love of God, as ever, predominates ;
and the last prophet closes with the word
" Remember," and with one more eflbrt_ to
avert the curse which they were bringing
upon themselves. Yet no prophet declares
more expressly the rejection of the people,
to whom he came to minister, the calling of
the Gentiles, the universal woi-ship, in all
the earth, of Hiin Who was hitherto wor
shiped by the Jews only ; and that, not at
Jerusalera, but each offering, in his own
place, the sacrifice which hitherto (as they
had recently experience!, in their captivity
at Babylon) could be oflTered up in Jerusalera
only. To hira alone it was reserved to pro
phesy of the unblo-idy Sacrifice, which should
be offered unto God in every place throughout

•ii, 8, 9.
• ii, 13,

tiiii. 14.
• iil. 15. ijna

¦liii. 10 -Jljliai
'DDHN n»Xliii, 12,
eD""1IVS'D IjnjX Iii, 15. These last contrasts are
Hengstenherg's Christ, iii, 597. ed. 2.
'S, Luke ni. 17,
'KSgelsbaoh in Herzog Real-Encycl.

the world from tlie rising of the .sun unto the
going down thereof. It has been said, " ' Ma
lachi is like a late evening, which closes a
long day, but he is at the same time the morn
ing twilight which bears in its bosom a glorious
day." " " When Prophecy was to be withdrawn
from the ancient Church of God, its last light
was mingled with the rising beams of the Sun
qf Righteousness. In one view it combined a
retrospect of the Law with the clearest spe
cific signs of the Gospel advent. ' Remember
ye the law of Moses My servant, which I com
manded him in Horeb, for all Israel, with the
statutes and the judgments. Behold I will send
you Elijah the prophet, before the great and
dreadful day of the Lord. Prophecy had been
the oracle of Judaisra and of Christianity, to
uphold the authority of the one, and reveal
the proraise of the other. And now its latest
admonitions were like those of a faithful de
parting minister, embracing and summing up
his duties. Resigning its cliarge to the per
sonal Precursor of Christ, it expired with the
Gospel upon its lips."
A school, wbich regards the " prophets "
chiefly as "poets," says that "the language
is prosaic, and manifests the decaying spirit
of prophecy." The ofiice of the prophets
was, to convey in forceful ivords, wdiich God
gave them, Llis message to His people. The
poetic form was but an accident, (jrod, Who
knows the hearts of His creatures whom He
has made, knows better than we, why He
chose such an instrument. Zechariah, full
of imagination. He chose some years before.
But He preserved in history the account
of the words which Zechariah spoke, not the
words wherewith he urged the rebuilding of
the temple, in his own book. Had Malachi
spoken in imaginative language, like that of
Ezekiel, to whom God says, "' ihou art unto
them like a very lovely song of one that hath u
pleasant voice and can play vieli on an instru
ment, and they hear ihy words and iliey do them
not, it may be that they would have acted
then, as they did in the time of Ezekiel. It
may be, that times li;:e those of Malachi,
apathetic, self-justifying, murmuring, seff-
complacent, needed a sterner, abrupter, more
startling voice to awaken them. Wisdom was
justified of her children. God wrought by him
, a reformation for the time being : He gave
through hira a warning to the generation,
when our Lord should come, that He should
come, !vs their Judge as well as their Saviour,
and, how they should stand in the day of His
1= Davison on propheey pp, 456, 457. "Malachi,
the last ofthe prophets, as in order, so in time;
and even for that reason, by nie chosen to Kx my
thoughts on, before others, because nearest, there
fore, in conjunction with the Gospel; to which it
leads us by the hand, and delivers us over; for
that begins, where he ends." Pococke, Dedication.
liv, 4. "Ezelc, xxxin. 32.

464

MAIjACHI.

Coming. He gave it as a book to His whole
Church, whereby to distinguish seeming
from real service. Parting words are always
solemn, as closing the past, and opening out
a future of expectation before us. The posi
tion of Malachi, as the last of the prophets,
bids us the more solemnly prepare for that

dread Day, our Lord's Second Coraing, which
he foretold, in one with the First, warning
us that we deceive not ourselves, in uncon
sciousness of our own evil and remembrance
of our seeming good, until He profess unto
us, "I never knew you; depart from Me, ye thai
work iniquity. •S. M«tt TiL 2a

MALACHI.

Before
CHEIST oir. 397.

t Heb. by the
hand of Malar
chi.
'Deut. 7. 8.
& 10. 15.

CHAPTER I.
1 Malachi complaineth of Israel' s
unkindness, 6 Of their irrdig-
iousness, 12 and prof aneness.
THE burden of the "word
of the Loed to Israel
tby Malachi.
2 "I have loved you,

Ch.^p. 1. 1. The burden of ihe word of ihe
Lord to Israel. " '¦ The word of the Lord is
heavy, because it is called a burden, yet it
hath something of consolation, because it is
not 'against,' but io Israel. For it is one
thing w hen we write to this or that person ;
another, when we write ' against' this or that
person ; the one being the part of friendship,
the other, the open admission of enmity."
By the hand of Malachi ; through him, as
the instrument of God, deposited with him ;
as S. Paul speaks of ^ ihe dispensation of ihe
Gospel, ^ the word of reconriliation, * ihe Gospel
of the uncircumcision, being committed to him.
2. I have loved you, saith ilie Lord. What a
volume of God's relations to us in two sim
ple words, I-have-loved you ^. So would not
God speak, unless He still loved. " I have
loved and do love you," is the force of the
words. When ? and since when ? In all
eternity God loved ; in all our past, God
loved. Tokens of His love, past or present,
in good or seeming ill, are but an effluence
of that everlasting love. He, tbe Unchange
able, ever loved, as the Apostle of love says ;
''we love Him, because He first loved us. The
deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, the
making them His ''peculiar people, the adop
tion, the covenant, the (firing of the law, the serv
ice of Ood and His promises, all the several
mercies involved in these, the feeding with
manna, the deliverance from their enemies
whenever they returned to Him, their recent
restoration, the gift of the prophets, were so
many single pulses of God's everlasting love,
uniform in itself, manifold in its manifesta
tions. But it is raore than a declaration of His
everlasting love. "I have loved you;" God
would say; with ""a special love, a more
than ordinary love, with greater tokens of
1 S, Jer, 2 1 Cor. ix, 17, Tit, i. 3. » 2 Cor. v, 19,
<Gal,ii,7, ITim. 18. ^Q^p^ 'i^D^S,
»1 S, John iv, 10, ' Eom. ix, 4, » Poc,
B Ps, Ixxviii, 11. I'l Ib. ovi, 13, n Lap,
12 Gen, xxv, 23, i^Ib, xxix, 31,
"Jlljn, in this fem. form, is but a variation from
theform elsewhere, D'}r\, as we have TX and flTS,
Ewald. Lehrb. n, 147b, p, 458, ed, R. Ges.'s render
ing "dwellings" (after the LXX, Suip-ara ep-q^ov,
and SjT,) fails in many ways. The Arab ilKJ/l
30

saith the Loed. Yet ye cheTst
say. Wherein hast thou "'r- 397.
loved us? Was not Esau
Jacob's brother ? saith the
Loed: yet "I loved "Rom. 9. is.
Jacob. . " Jer, 49. 18.
3 And I hated Esau, Ezek, 35.3, 4,
1 , . 1 , . . ' 7, 9, 14, 15.
and ° laid his mountains Obad. 10, &o.

love, than to others.'' So God brings to the
penitent soul the thought of its ingratitude :
I have loved you : I, you. And ye have .said.
Wherein hast Thou loved us ? It is a charac
teristic of Malachi to exhibit in all its naked
ness man's ingratitude. This is the one
voice of all men's murmurings, ignoring all
God's past and present mercies, in view of
the one thing ivhich He wdthholds, though
they dare not put it into ivords: Wherein
hast Thou loved us ? " Within a while they forgat
His works, and the wonders thai He had shewed
ihem : '" they made haste, they forgat His works.
Was not Esau Jacob's brother! saith the
Lord : and I loved Jaeob, and Esau have I
hated. '"'While they were yet in their
mother's womb, before any good or evil
deserts of either, God said to their mother,
1'^ The elder shall serve the younger. The hatred
was not a proper and formed hatred, (for
God could not hate Esau before he sinned)
but only a lesser love," which, in comparison
to the great love for Jacob, seemed as if it
were not love. " " So he says, '" The Lord
saw that Leah was hated; where Jacob's
neglect of Leah, and lesser love than for
Rachel, is called ' hatred ; ' yet Jacob did not
literally hate Leah, whom he loved and cared
for as his wife." This greater love was
shewn in preferring the Jews to the Edomites,
giving to the Jews His law. Church, temple,
prophets, and subjecting Edom to them ; and
especially in the recent deliverance, " " He
does not speak directly of predestination, but
of pra?election, fo temporal goods," God
gave both nations alike over to the Chaldees
for the punishment of their sins ; but the Jews
He brought back, Edom He left unrestored.
3. And I made his mountains a waste, and
his heritage for the jackals " of the wilderness.
which he, after Pococke, compares, is a nomen
actionis, " a remaining, staying, dwelling, abiding
[in a country, town, place], not "the dwelling" it
self 2) he supposes nijri to be = niSJJl (with dag.
lorte euphon.) as ni9pD for ns^WpO, hSd!? for
nsS:)D," (see Edd, in Ges, Thes,) But this would
be' to derive it from NJil, with the characteristics
of nn and none of «JJ1, 3) " dwellings- of the
' 465

466

MALACHI.

Before
CHEIST oir, 397.

and his heritage waste for
. the dragons of the "wilder
ness. 4 Whereas Edom saith,
We are impoverished, but
"we "will return and build
the desolate places; thus
saith the Loed of hosts.
They shall build, but I
"will thro"w down ; and they

Malachi attests the first stage of fulfillment
of Joel's prophecy, i Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness. In temporal things, Esau's bless
ing was identical with Jacob's ; ihe fatness of
the earth and of the dew of heaven from above;
and the rich soil on the terraces of its moun
tain-sides, though yielding nothing now ex
cept a wild beautiful vegetation, and its deep
glens, attest what they once must have been,
when artificially watered and cultivated.
The first desolation must have been through
Nebuchadnezzar '' in his expedition against
Egypt, when he subdued Moab and Ammon ;
and Edom lay in his way, as Jeremiah had
foretold ''-
4. Whereas Edom saith*. We are impover
ished^, or, more probably, we were crushed.
Either gives an adequate sense. Human
self-confidence will admit anything, as to the
past ; nay, will even exaggerate past evil to
itself, " Crush us how they may, we will arise
and repair our losses." So Ephraim said of
' old, " "in the pride and stoutness of heart, Tlie
bricks are fallen doivn, but we will build with
hewn-stones : ihe sycamores are cut down, but we
will change them into cedars. It is the one
language of what calls itself, " indomitable ; "
in other ivords, " untameable," conquerors or
every other gambler ; " we will repair our
losses." All is again staked and lost.
They shall call them the border of wiekedness.
Formerly it had its own proper name, the
border of Edom, as other countries, ^ all the
border of Egypt, '*the border of Moab, " thewhole
border of Israel, '" the border of Israel, "¦ tlie whole
wilderness," is the contradictory of what is meant,
complete desolation, i Joel iii, 19, vol, i, pp, 214, 215,
2 Jos, Ant, X, 11. See vol, i. on Obad, 16, p, 362.
s Jer. xxv, 9, 21,
*"10Nn, Edom, for Idums-a, and so fem,
&So Jon, and Syr, here KaTia-TpawTai, LXX: de-
structi sumus, Vulg, E, Tanehum gives both, here
and on Jer, v, 17, and Sal, b. Mel, here out of Kim,
on Jer, v, 17," Poe, On Jerem,, Tanehum s.ays the
meaning "cutoff" suits best the mention ofthe
sword. Perhaps B^tJI may be — j'}? n, and ^'W'\r\,
"Tarshish," may be so called, as a boast, "she
crushes," Syr,, in Jerem, also has "impover
ished;" Jon, " destroy ; " S, Jer. "conteret," The
aAo7j(Tou(Tt of the LXX. prob.ably implies a mis
reading, E^ty"l\

shall call them, The border (, i%°l% t
of wickedness, and. The  "'i'- ^^- —
people against whom the
Loed hath indignation for
ever. 5 And your eyes shall
see, and ye shall say,
^ The Lord will be magni- ^ ^^ ^ ^,^_
fied II t from the border of \\Of,upc>n.
" ' t Heb. from
Israel. w>'^-

border of ihe Amoriie. Henceforth it should
be known no more by its own name ; but as
ihe border of wiekedness, where wickedness
formerly dwelt, and hence the judgment of
God and desolation from Him came upon it,
"an accursed land." Somewhat in like way
Jeremiah says of Jerusalem, " Many nations
shall pass by this city, and they shall .say, every
inan to his neighbor. Wherefore hath the Lord
done this unio this great rity ? Then they shall
answer, Because they have forsaken ihe covenant
of ilie Lord their Ood, and worshiped other gods
and served ihem. Only Israel would retain
its name, as it has ; Edom should be blotted
out wholly and for ever.
5. Ancl your eyes shall see. Malicious
pleasure in looking on at the misery of
Judfea and cf erusalem, had been a special sin
of Edom : now God would shew Judah the
fruit of its reversal, and His goodness toward
themselves. "i^Ye have assurance of His
love toward you and providence over you,
when ye see that ye are returned to your own
land, and can inhabit it, but they cannot do
this ; but they build and I throw down, and ye
therefore praise and magnify My name for
this, and ye shall say, The Lord shall be mag
nified on the border of Israel, i. e. His great
ness shall be always manifest upon you ; "
high above and exalted over the border of
Israel'*, which shall retain its name, while
Edom shall have ceased to be. Wickedness
gives its name to Edom's border, as in
Zechariah's vision it was removed and settled
iu Babylon '''-
« Is, ix, 9, 10, 7 Ex, X. 14, 19. 8 De. ii. 18,
SI Sam, .xi, 3, 7, xxvii, 1, 1 Chr. xxi. 12.
102 Chr, xi, 13, iiJud, xi, 22.
1= Jer, xxii, 8, 9, Comp. Deut. xxix, 2,3-28,
13 Tanehum in Poc, here, Tanehum gives, as
constructions of others, "the Lord, Who protect
eth the border of Israel," or "ye from the border
of Israel," or, " it had been fitting tliat ye should
do 'this and abide in it; but ye have done the con
trary," as he explains afterward,
'" '7>'D, as in Eccl. v. 7, PliJ S;?!? DIdJ " One
high from above the high ; " Ezelj. i. 25. " a voice
from the firmament ( 7^'0) from above their heads,"
Gen, i, 7, " the waters above the firmament."
16 Zeeh, V. 8, 11.

CHAPTER I.

467

c H eTs t 6 «^ a son ' honoreth his
cir, 397. father, and a servant his

« Ex, 20, 12.
'Luke 6. 40.

master : ' if then 1 be a fa
ther, where is mine honor ?

6. A son honoreth his father, and a slave his
lord. Having spoken of the love of God, he
turns to the thanklessness of man. God
appeals to the first feelings of the human
heart, the relation of parent and chilil, or,
failing this, to the natural self-interest of
those dependent on their fellow-men. A son
by the instinct of nature, by the unwritten
law written in the heart, honoreth his fallier.
If he fail to do so, he is counted to have
broken the law of nature, to be an unnatural
son. If he is, what by nature he ought to be,
he does really honor him. He does not even
speak of love, as to which they might de
ceive themselves. He speaks of honor, out
ward reverence only ; which whoso sheweth
not, would openly condemn himself as an
unnatural son, a bad slave. " Of course,''
the Jews would say, " children honor
parents, and slaves their raasters, but what is
that to us ? " God turns to them their own
mental admission.
If I am a Father. " ' Although, before ye
were born, I began to love you in Jacob as
sons, yet choose by what title ye will name
Me : I am either your Father or your Lord.
If a Father, render me the honor due to a
father, and ofier the piety worthy of a parent.
If a Lord, wl y despise ye Me ? why fear ye
not your Lord ? " God was their Father by
creation, as He is Father of all, as Creator of
all. He had come to be their Father in a
nearer way, by temporal redemption and
adoption as His peculiar people, creating
thera to be a nation to His glory. This they
were taught to confess in their psalmody,
''He hath made us, and not we ourselves; we
are His people and ihe sheep of His pasture.
This title God had given them in sight of
the Egyptians, ^ Israel is My son. My firstborn :
of this Hosea reminded them ; * When Israel
was a child, then I laved him, and called My son
out of Egypt; and Jeremiah reassured thera,
''I am a Father to Israel and Ephraim is My
first-born : this, Isaiah had pleaded to God ;
^Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abra
ham be ignorant of u.s, and Israel acknowledge
us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our
Redeemer, Thy name is from everlasting. ''And
now, 0 Lord, Thou art our Father ; we the clay,
and Thou our potter ; and we all, the work cy
Thy hands. God had impressed this His
relation of Father, in Moses' prophetic warn-

1 S. Jer,
8 Bx. iv. 22.
6 Jer, xxxi. 9.
« Deut. xxxii. 6.

2Ps. e, 3
4 Hos. xi. 1. See vol. i, p. 109.
" Is. Ixiii. 16. ' Ib. Ixiv. 8.
'Lap.

and if I 6e a master, where ^ h e°is t
is my fear ? saith the Loed ™- ^^''-
of hosts unto you, 0
priests, that despise my

ing ; ' Do ye thus requite the Lord, 0 foolish
people and unwise? Is not He thy Father thai
hath bought ihee? hath He not made ihee and
established thee? "" God is the Father of the
faithful ; 1) by creation ; 2) by preservation
and governance ; 3) by alimony ; 4) by
fatherly care and providence ; 5) by faith
and grace, whereby He justifies and adopts
us as sons and heirs of His kingdom."
If I am a Father. He does not throw
doubt, that He is our Father ; but, by diso
bedience, we in deeds deny it. Our life
denies what we in words profess. Where is
My honor ? " '" Why obey ye not My pre
cepts, nor honor Me with acts of adoration ;
praying, praising, giving thanks, sacrificing,
and reverently fulfilling every work of God?
For 11 cursed is he that doeth the work of the
Lord deeeilfully."
And if lam your Lord, " as I certainly am,
and specially by singular providence."
"¦'^He is our Lord by the same titles, that
He is our Father, and by others, as that He
has redeemed us, and purchased us to Him
self by the Blood of His Son ; that He is the
Supreme Majesty, Whom all creation is
bound to serve ; that, setting before us the
reward of eternal glory, He has hired us as
servants and laborers into His vineyard."
God Alone is Lord through universal sover
eignty, underived authority, and original
source of laws, precepts, rights ; and all other
lords are but as ministers and instruments,
compared to Him, the Lord and original
Doer of all. Hence Lie says, '" / am the
Lord ; that is My Name, and My glory will I
not give to another.
'Where is My fear? which oughtto be shewn
Me. '"'' If thou art a servant, render to the
Lord the service of fear ; if a son, shew to
thy Father the feeling of piety. But thou
renderest not thanks, neither lovest nor
fearest God. Thou art then either a contu
macious servant or a proud son." "^^Fear
includes reverence, adoration, sacrifice, the
whole worship of God." " '' Whoso feareth
is not over-curious, but adores; is not in
quisitive, but praises, and glorifies."
" '" Fear is twofold ; servile, whereby pun
ishment, not fault, is dreaded; filial, by
which fault is feared. In like way service is
twofold. A servant with a service of fear,
purely servile, does not deserve to be called
lODion. "Jer. xlviii. 10. 12 Lap. "Is. xlii. 8.
"Lap, as from S, Ambr,
16 .S, Chyrs, de Incompr. Dei, Hom, ii, T, 1, p. 459.
Ben.

468

MALACHI.

Before
CHEIST cir, 397,

s eh, 2, 14, 17. ,1 0
& 3, 7, 8, 13. thy name/

name. ^And ye say,
, Wherein have we despised

a son of God, nor is in a state of salvation,
not having love. Whence Christ, distin
guishing such a servant frora a son of God
by adoption, saith, ' The servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth ever: and
again, '' The servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth. But a servant, whose service is of
pure and filial love, is also a son, of whom
the Saviour saith, " Well done, good and faith
ful servant, enter thou into ihe joy of thy
Lord. But since a distinction is made here
between the son and the servant, he seems to
be speaking of servile fear, which, although
it doth not good well and meritoriously, i, e.
with a right intention and from love, yet
withdraws from ill, and is the beginning of
wisdom, because it disposeth to grace.
Whence it is written, '*The fear of the
Lord driveth away sins,' and again Scripture
saith, ° By the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil."
" ^ God requireth to be feared as a Lord,
honored .as a Father, loved as a Husband,
Which is chiefest of these ? Love. With
out this, fear has torment, honor has no
grace. Fear, when not enfreed by love, is
servile. Honor, ivhich cometh not from
love, is not honor, but adulation. Honor
and glory belong to God Alone ; but neither
of them will God accept, unless seasoned
with the honey of love."
Saith the Lord unto you, 0 priests, ivho de
spise My Name, lit. despisers of My Name, hab
itually beyond others. The contempt of
God came specially from those bound most
to honor him. Priests, as consecrated to
God, belonged especially to God. " ' Mala
chi begins his prophecy and correction by
the correction of the priests ; because the re
formation of the state and of the laity hangs
upon the reformation of the clergy and the
priest ; for "as is the priest, such also is ihe
people." He turns, with a suddenness which
must have been startling to them, to them
as the centre of the offending.
And ye say. Wherein have we despised Thy
Name? Before, it was ignorance of God's
IS, John viii, 35, 2ib. xv, 15.
as. Matt, xxv, 21,23, * Ecclus, i, 21, spp. xvi, 6,
8 S, Bern, Serm, 83 in Cant, n, 4, Opp, i, 1560 Ben,
Lap, 'Lap. 8Ho3, iv, 9. "Gen, iv, 9,
l» S, JIatt, vii, 22, 23, 11 Ib, xxv, 44, 46,
r^ The collocation of D'Ei'''jp is probably subor
dinate to the verb,' expressed iu the question, ye de
spise, offering ; as the participle often is tothe ex
pressed tini'te verb, Nu, xxvi, 27, Jud, viii. 4, Ps,
Vll, 3, Ixxviii. 4, Job xiv, 2l), xxiv, 5, Ezr, x, l,Jer.
xliii, 2 (instances out of those in Ewald Lehrb, ^
341, b 3, p, 836, ed, 8,) This case is however more
developed than the rest, as not being contempora
neous only, but in explanation of that expressed

7 II Ye offer" polluted
bread upon mine altar ;
and ye say. Wherein have

Before
CHEIST cir, 397,
II Or, Bnng
unto, d'C
iDeut, 15,21,

love : now it is ignorance of self and of sin.
They affect to themselves innocence and are
unconscious of any sin. They said to them
selves doubtless, (as many do now) " we can
not help it ; we do the best we can, under the
circumstances." Without some knowledge
of God's love, there can be no sense of sin ;
without some sense of sin, no knowledge of-
His love. They take the defensive, they are
simply surprised, like Cain, "Am I my
brothel'' s keeper ? or many of the lost in the
Day of judgment, '"Many will say to Me in
that day. Lord, Lord, have we nai prophesied in
Thy Name ? and in Thy Name liave east out
devils? and in Thy Name d.one many wonderful
works? and yet were all the while workers of
iniquity, to whom He will say, / never knew
you: and, '¦'Lord, when saw we Tliee an
hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, ar
sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto
Thee? And yet they shall go away into ever
lasting ¦punishment.
7. Offering polluted bread upon Mine altar.
This, continuing on the words, despisers of
My Name ''', is the answer to their question,
Wherein have ive Hespised Thy Name ? Bread
might stand, in itself, either for the shew
bread, or for the " minchah," meal-offering,
which was the necessary accompaniment of
sacrifices and sometimes the whole. But
here ihe pollutedbread cannot be the shewbread,
since this was not put upon the altar, but
upon its own table; and although the altar is,
as here, also called "a table '^" in regard to
the sacrifice hereon consumed, "the table"
of the shewbread is nowhere called " altar,"
The prophet then means by bread, either the
meal-offering, as representing the sacrifice,
or the offerings by fire altogether, as in
Ezekiel, '* When ye offer My bread, the fat and
tlie blood ; and in Leviticus, '^ the offerings of
the Lord, made by fire, the bread of their^God,
do they offer; and of the peace-offering'", the
priest shall bum it upon the altar; ihe bread qf
ihe offering made by fire unto the Lord: and
specifically, of animals with blemish, as
these, it is forbidden, ^' Neither from u,
by the finite verb. WiT\ is used with ^7, of offer
ings to God, Am, v 26, Mai, ii, 12; with 4i?, here only.
13 In Ezek, xli, 22, the " altar " is called the table
What is before the Lord, and in regard to the offering
of the sacrifice, it is said, they shall eome near to my
table, Ezek, xli. 15, 16, w Ezelj, xliv, 7,
i^Lev, xxi, 6 : more briefly, the bread of thy God,
ib, 8, of his God, ib, 17 and (parallel with to offer the
offerings of the Lord made by fire,) 21 ; to eat the
bread of his God (in contrast with offering it) ib, 22,
and in Nu, xxxiu, 2, " thy offering, thy bread for thy
sacrifices made by fire, shalt ye observe to offer to Me."
!« Lev. iii. 11. n ib. xxii, 25.

CHAPTER L

469

Before
CHEIST eir. 397,
1 Ezek. 41. 22.
ver, 12,
' Lev, 22. 22,
Deut, 15, 21.
ver, 14,
I Heb. to sacri
fice.

we polluted thee ? In that
. ye say, ' The table of the
Loed is contemptible.
8 And "if ye offer the
blind 'fior sacrifice, is it
not evil? and if ye offer

stranger's hand shall ye offer the bread of your
God of any of these, because their corruption is
in them, blemishes in ihem: they shall not be
accepted for you. It was, as it were, a feast of
God with man, and what was withdrawn
frora the use of man by fire, was, as it were,
consumed by God, to Whom it was offered.
It was polluted, in that it was contrary to
the law of God which forbade to sacrifice any
animal, lame or blind or with cmy ill blemish,
as being inconsistent with the typical per
fection of the sacrifice. Even the Gentiles
were careful about the perfection of their
sacrifices. " ' Blind is the sacrifice of the soul, which
is not illumined by the light of Christ.
Lame is his sacrifice of prayer, who comes
with a double mind to entreat the Lord."
" ' He offereth one weak, whose heart is not
established in the grace of God, nor by the
anchor of hope fixed in Christ. These words
are also uttered against .those who, being
rich, offer to the Creator the cheaper and
least things, and give small alms."
And ye say. Wherewith have we polluted
Thee'''? It is a bold expression. Yet a
word, to which we are but too ill-accus
tomed, which expresses what most have
done, " dishonor God," comes to the same.
Though less bold in expression, they are
yet like in meaning. * WiU ye pollute Me
any more among My people? or, ^thai My
Name should not be polluted before ihe heathen.
^ My holy Name shall Israel no more defile;
''Iwill not lei them pollute My Name any more.
"^Much more in the new law, in which the
Sacrifice is Christ Himself our God, whence
the Apostle says expressly, ' Whoso eateth this
bread and drinketh this Cup of the Lord un
worthily, shall be guilty ofthe Body and Blood of
the Lord. " ' For when the Sacraments are
violated. Himself, Whose Sacraments they
are, is ' violated." God speaks of our acts
with an unveiled plainness, which we should
not dare to use. " ^ As we are said to sarictify
Ood, when we minister to Him in holiness
and righteousness, and so, as far as in us lies,
1 S. Jer. ^ Dion-
3 The conj. Ssj occurs only here : the pass. Sxj,
here and 12, Ezr. ii. 62, Neh. vii. 64, in one idiom,
< Ezek. xiii. 19. " lb. xx, 9, 14, 22.
«Ib. xliii. 7. 'Ib. xxxix. 7. SLap.
«1 Cor, xi. 27,
'"Xin ni3J; the noun being prefixed absolutely,

the lame and sick, is it not
evil ? offer it now unto thy .
governor; will he be
pleased with thee, or 'ac
cept thy person ? s^ith the
Loed of hosts.

Before
CHEIST oir, 397.

iJob42. 8.

shew that He is holy ; so we are said to pol
lute Him, when we conduct ourselves irrev
erently and viciously before Him, especially
in His worship, and thereby, as far as in us
lies, shew that He is not holy and is to be
dishonored." In that ye say, ihe table ofthe Lord is contempt
ible, lit. contemptible is it '", and so any con
temptible thing might be offered on it. They
said this probably, not in words, but in deeds.
Or, if in words, in plausible words. " " God
doth not require the ornamenting of the
altar, but the devotion of the offerers."
" ' What good is it, if we offer the best? Be
what we offer, what it may, it is all to be
consumed by fire." " " The pretext at once
of avarice and gluttony ! " And so they
kept the best for themselves. They were
poor, on their return from the captivity.
Anyhow, the sacrifices were offered. What
could it matter to God ? And so they dis
pensed with God's law.
" 1'^ So at this day we see some priests and
prelates, splendid in their tables and feasts,
sordid in the altar and temple ; on the table
are costly napkins and wine ; on the Altar
torn linen and wine-mace '" rather than
wine." "^ We pollute the bread, that is, the
Body of Christ, when we approach the Altar
unworthily, and, being defiled, drink that
pure Blood, and say. The table of the Lord is
contemptible ; not that any one dareth to say
this, but the deeds of sinners pour contempt
on the Table of God."
8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifiee, is it
not evil ? Others, it is not evil, as we should
say, "there is no harm in it." Both imply,
alike, an utter unconsciousness on the part
of the offerer, that it was evil : the one, in
irony, that this was always their answer,
" there is nothing amiss ; " the other is an
indignant question, " is there indeed nought
amiss?" And this seems the most natural.
The sacrifice of the blind and lame was ex
pressly forbidden in the law ", and tlje sick
in manifold varieties of animal disease.
Whatever hath a blemish ye shall not offer,
as in Gen. xxxiv. 21, " these men, peaceful are they,"
Ib, xlii. 11; "atl of us, sons of one man are we."
Ewald n, 297, b. pp. 761, 762.
11 Eemig.
12 Lap. referring to Card. Bellarmine de gemitu
columbffi, i3"villum ("the refuse of kernels and skins,"),
potius quam vinum." i* Deut, xv, 21,

470

MALACHI.

c H E°i I T ^ ^^'^ '^°^^' ^ p^'^y y°^'
"''¦ 397, beseech f God that he will

tHeb, theface be graclous unto us : " this
» Hos,''i3, 9, , hath been f by your means :
tHeb, from mi i i
your hand. Will he regard your per
sons? saith the Loed of
hosts. 10 Who is there even

' blind or with limb broken, or wounded or
mangy or scabby or scurfy. Perfectness was
an essential principle of sacrifice ; whether,
as in the daily sacrifice, or the sin or trespass-
offering, typical of the all-perfect Sacrifice,
or in the whole-burnt-offering, of the entire
self-oblation. But these knew better than
God, what was fit for Him and them. His
law was to be modified by circumstances.
He would not be so particular, (as men now
say so often.)
Is it then fit to offer to God what under
the very same circumstances man would not
ofl'er to man ? Against these idle, ungrateful,
covetous thoughts God saith.
Offer it now unto ihy governor. He appeals
to our own instinctive thought of propriety
to our fellow creature, which may so often be
a test to us. No one would think of acting
to a fellow-creature, as they do to Almighty
God. Who would make diligent prepara
tion to receive any great one of theearth, and
turn his back upon him, when come ? Yet
what else is the behavior of most Christians
after Holy Communion ? If thou wouldest
not do this to a mortal raan, who is but dust
and ashes, how much less to God Almighty,
the King of kings and Lord of lords ! " ' The,
words are a reproof to those most negligent
persons, who go through their prayers to
God ivithout fear, attention, reverence or feel
ing ; but if they have to speak to some great
man, prelate or prince, approach hira with
great reverence, speak carefully and dis
tinctly and are in awe of him. Do not thou
prefer the creature to the Creator, man to
God, the servant to the Lord, and that Lord,
so exalted and so Infinite."
9. And now entreat, I pray yon, God ', that
He will be gracious unio you. This is not a
call to repentance, for he assumes that God
WDuld not accept them. It is rather irony ;
" go now, seek the favor of God, as ye would
not that ofyour governor." From your hand,
not frora your fathers, not from aliens, hath
this been: will He aeeept persons from you?
The unusual construction seems to imply a
1 Lev, xxii, 22. 2 Dion,
37X seems to be used purposely in contrast with -
man, as in Is. xxxi, 3, The Egyptians are men and
not God.

Before

among you that would shut ^ jj jj i g r^.
the doors for 71 ought? "n"- ^s'-

"neither do ye kindle fire '¦icor. 9. 13.
on mine altar for nought.
I have no pleasure in you,
saith the Loed of hosts,
"neither will I accept an"!;
offering at your hand.

lsai. 1. 11.
er, 6. 20,
Amos 5. 21.

difference of meaning ; as if he would say,
that it consisted not with the justice of God,
that He should be an accepter of persons,
(which He declares that He is not) which
yet He would be, were He to accept them,
while acting thus.
10. Who is there even among you? This
stinginess in God's service was not confined
to those offices ivhich cost something, as the
sacrifices. Not even services absolutely cost
less, ivhich required only a little trouble, as
that of closing the folding-doors of the
temple or the outer court, or bringing the
fire to consume the sacrifices, would they do
without some special hire. All was merce
nary and hireling service. Others have ren
dered it as a wish, who is there among you ! i.e.
would that there were one among you, who
would close the doors altogether; so shall ye
not kindle fire on Mine altar for nought, i. e.
fruitlessly ! But apart from the difficulty of
the construction, it is not God's way to quench
ihe smouldering fiax. He Who bids. Gather
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be
lost, accepts any imperfect service rather
than none. He does not break off the last
link, which binds man to Himself. Then,
if or when God willed His service tc% sur
cease. He would do it Himself, as He did by
the destruction of the temple before the
Captivity, or finally by the Romans. It
would have been an ungodly act, (such as
was only done by Ahaz, perhaps the most
ungodly king of Israel *), and one ivhich espe
cially called down His wrath ^, to close the
doors, and therewith to break off all sacrifice.
Manasseh carried the worship of false gods
into the temple itself; Ahaz, as far as in hira
lay, abolished the service of God. A pro
phet of God could not express a wish, that
pious Israelites (for it is presupposed that
they would do this out of zeal for God's honor)
should bring the service of God to an end.
He sums up with an entire rejection of
them, present and future. I have no pleasure
in you; it isa term of repudiation °, some
times of disgust ', neither will I accept an offer-
i 2 Chron, xxviii, 24, 6 lb. xxix, 8,
" 3 ]'3n j''N 1 Sam. xviii. 25. Eccl. v. 3. [4 Eng.]
'U riin rX ''Sd Jer. xxii. 28, xlviii. 38, Hos.
viii- S. ' '

CHAPTER I.

471

c H eT I T ^1 ^°^ ' f™"^ *^® naing
""¦ ^^'^- of the sun even unto the

pPs. 113. 3. going down of the same
lsai. 69. 19. 7 77 I
my name shall be great

mg at your hands. He says not simply, ' your
burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sac
rifices sweet unto Me, but, I will not accept it.
Such as they were, such they would be here
after. God would not accept their sacrifices,
but would replace them.
11. For. The form of words does not ex
press whether this declaration relates to the
present or the future. It is a vivid present,
such as is often used to describe the future.
But tbe things spoken of shew it to be future.
The Jewish sacrifices had defects, partly in
cidental, partly inherent. Incidental were
those, with which the Prophet had upbraided
them ; inherent, (apart from their mere
typical character)that they never could be the
religion of the world, since they were locally
fixed at Jerusalem. Malachi tells them of a
new sacrifice, ivhich sliould be offered
throughout the then heathen world, grounded
on His new revelation of Himself to them.
For great shall be My Name among the heathen.
The prophet anticipates an objection^, which
the Jews might make- to him. ^What then
will God do unto His great Name ? Those by
which He would replace them, would be
more worthy of God in two ways, 1) in them
selves, 2) in their universality. Then, what-
. soever the heathen worshiped, even if some
worshiped an unknown Ood, His Name was
not known to them, nor great among them.
Those who knew of Him, knew of Him, not
as the Lord of heaven and earth, but as the
GoS of the Jews only ; their offerings were
not pure, but manifoldly defiled. A Hebrew
prophet could not be an apologist for heathen
idolatry amidst its abominations, or set it on
a level with the worship which God had, for
the time, appointed ; much less could he set
it forth as ihe true acceptable service of God *.
Malachi himself speaks of it, as an aggrava-
1 Jer. vi, 20, 2 Poc. ^ jos. vn. 9,
*So in Eashi; Our rabbis say, that "they [the
heathen] called Him [the Lord] God of gods; he
too who"nath an idol, knoweth, that He [the Lord]
is God, that He is above all those things, and that
in every place the Gentiles also, of their own accord,
offer unto my name. But our rabbis have ex
pounded, that they [those spoken of] are the disci
ples of the wise, who in every place are occupied
in the rules of the Divine worship ; so also all the
prayers of Israel, which they make in every place,
these are like a pure oblation (Minchah), and so
Jonathan interprets, 'at whatever time ye shall do
My will, I receive your prayers, and My great name
is sanctified by you, and your prayer is Tike a pure
oblation before Me.' " See Ibn Ezra, D. Kira,, Tan
ehum, Abarb,, in Poc.
5Mal, ii, 11. «Zeph. ii. 11.
' S, John iv, 21, 23, 24. 8 S. Matt. xxi. 41, 43.
"Id. viii. 11, 12.

" among the Gentiles ; ' and ^ h eTs t
in every place ° incense . "^ii"- so'?-

7 77 7 jy 1 , 1 1sai, 6t), 3, 5.
shall be oiiered unto my rjoimi. 21, 23.
J JT. . 1 Tim, 2. 8.
name, and a pure offering : sRev. 8. 3.

tion of cruelty in their divorcing of their
wives, that they "married the daughter of a
strange god. The worship of those Jews, who
remained, out of secular interests, in foreign
countries, could not be represented as the
" pure ofiering ; " for they made no offerings :
then as now, these being forbidden out of Je
rusalem ; nor would the worship of such
Jews, as were scattered in the large empire
of Persia, be contrasted with that at Jerusa
lem, as the pure worship ; else why should
the Jews have returned ? It would have been
an abolition of the law before its time. Mal
achi prophesies then, as had Micah, Isaiah,
Zephaniah", of a new revelation of God,
when, and in which, men should worship
Him, every one from his plaee, even all the isles
of the heathen.
Our Lord Himself explains and expands
it in His words to the Samaritan woman ;
^ Woman, believe Me, ihe hour cometh, when ye
shall neither in ihis mountain, nor yet at Jeru
salem, worship the Father. — The hour cometh, and
now is, when ihe true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth ; for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit :
and they thai worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth, and declared the rejection
of the Jews, sealing their own sentence
against themselves, "Isay unto you, Theking-
dcymof God shall be taken from you, and given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits tliireof ; and
before, " Many shall come from ihe East a'nd
West, and shall rit down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and
ihe children of the kingdom shall be cast out into
outer darkness.
Incense shall be offered unio My name, lit. I
think, there shall be incense, oblation made unta
My name [this is a mere question of construc
tion '"], and a pure oblation.
I't^JD "IB DO are, I think most probably, two in-
7 •, T I ¦.
dependent impersonal passive participles, taken as
future, "will be incensed, offered fwird gerauohert,
dargebrachtas Ewald J (Lehrb. 295 a) bniD, " there
is begun," TIE?, "there is wasted," 13"7p "there
is spoken " (Ps. Ixxxvii. 3), and this place. Tan
ehum praises Abulwalid for taking ^DpD as a
noun — miDp (Eib. Bad. col. 634). He adds, "The
rest (ni"),') take them as adjectives with an unex
pressed substantive," This, I think right: for, al
though IDpD might be ' what is incensed,' and so
a subst., ty'jn is used elsewhere of offering a sac
rifice, not of offering incense, and so "lOpD eould
not be the subject to it. '

472

MALACHI.

This sacrifice, which should be offered, is
designated by the special name of meal-offer
ing '- God would not accept it from the
Jews; He would, from the Heathen. It was
a special sacrifice, oflered by itself as an un
bloody Sacrifice, or together wdth the bloody
sacrifice. ^ It is most holy, as the sin-offering
and as ihe trespass-offering. In the daily sacrifice
it was offered morning and evening, with the
lamb. As this was typical of the precious
blood-shedding of the Lamb without spot upon
the Cross, so was the meal-offering which
accompanied it, of the Holy Eucharist.
The early Christians saw the force of the
prediction, that sacrifice was contrasted with
sacrifice, the bloody sacrifices which were
ended by the " One full perfect and sufficient
Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction " made by
our Lord " on the Altar of the Cross for the
sins of the whole world," and those sacrifices
which He commanded lo be made on our
Altars, as a memorial of Him. So S, Justin,
who was converted probably A.D. 133,
within 30 years from the death of S. John,
says, " " God has therefore beforehand de
clared, that all who through this name offer
those sacrifices, which Jesus, Who is the
Christ, commanded to be offered, that is to
say, in the Eucharist of the Bread and of the
Cup, which are offered in every part of the
world by us Christians, are well-pleasing to
Him. But those sacrifices, which are offered
by you and through those priests of yours.
He wholly rejects, saying. And I uiill not
accept your offerings at your hands. For from
ilie rising of the sun even to ihe going down of
ilie same. My Name -is glorified among the Gen
tiles ; but ye profane it."
He points out further the failure of the
Jewish explanation as to their sacrifices, in
that the Church was everywhere, not so the
Jews. " " You and your teachers deceive
yourselves, when you interpret this passage
of Scripture of those of your nation who
were in the dispersion *, and say that it
speaks of their prayers and sacrifices made
in every place, as pure and well-pleasing,
and know that you speak falsely, and
endeavor in every way to impose upon
yourselves ; first, because your people are
not found, even now, from the rising to the
setting of the sun, but there are nations, in
which none of your race have ever dwelt ;
whilst there is not one nation of men, whether
Barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever name
distinguished, whether of those (nomads)
who live in wagons, or of those who have no
houses, or those pastoral people that dwell
in tents, among whora prayers and thanks
givings are not offered to the Father and
1 Lev. ii. 7 (14 Eng,) sqq.
2Ib. vi, 17, [10, Heb,]

» Dial, c, Tryph, § 117 pp. 215, 216 Oxf, Tr, also 3 28,
'"o, 104,105. Ib,
'he Jews then must have interpreted it of

Creator of all things, through the name of the
crucified Jesus. And you know that at the
time when the prophet Malachi said this,
the dispersion of you through the whole
world, in which you now are, had not yet
taken place; as is also shewn by Scripture."
S. Irenseus in the same century, " " He
took that which is part of the creation, viz.
bread, and gave thanks, saying. This is Mg
Body. And the Cup likewise, wdiich is of
the creation which appertains unto us. He
professed to be His own Blood, and taught
men the new oblation of the New Testa
ment ; which the Church receiving from the
Apostles offers unto God in the world : — unto
Him Who giveth us nourishment, the first-
fruits of His own gilts, in the New "jTesfa-
ment ; of which in the twelve prophets
Malacbi gave beforehand this intimation
[quoting Mai. i. 10, 11] _; most evidently inti
mating hereby, that while the former people
should cease to make offerings to God, in
every place sacrifice should be offered unto
Him, and that in pureness ; His Name also .
is glorified among the Gentiles. Now what
otlier name is there, which is glorified among
the Gentiles, than that which belongs to our
Lord, by Whom the Father is glorified, and
man is glorified ? And because m.an belongs
to His Own Son, and is made by Him, He
calls him His Own. And as if some King
were hiraself to paint an image of his own
son, he justly calls it his own image, on both
accounts, firet that it is his son's, next, that
he himself made it : so also the Name of
Jesus Christ, which is glorified in the
Church throughout the whole world, the
Father professes to be His own, both because
it is His Son's, and because He Himself
wrote and gave it for the salvation of men.
Because therefore the Name of the %on
properly belongs to the Father, and in God
Almighty through Jesus Christ the Church
makes her offering, well saith He on both
accounts. And in every place incense is offered
unto My Name, and a pure sacrifice. And
incense, John in the Apocalypse declares to
be the prayers of ihe Saints. Therefore the
offering of the Church, which the Lord hath
taught to be offered in the whole world, is
accounted with God as a pure sacrifice, and
accepted of Him."
Tertulli.an contrasts the " ^ sacerdotal law
through Moses, in Leviticus, prescribing to
the people of Israel, that sacrifices shbuld
in no other place be offered to God than in
the land of promise, which the Lord God
was about to give to the people Israel and to
their brethren, in order that on Israel's intro
duction thither, there should be there
themselves in the present, and so of the times of
Malachi after the return of others from Babylon.
6 iv, 17, 6, pp, 356, 367, 0,\f, Tr, See also his Frag
ment xxxvi, p, ,554, 5,55, Oxf Tr, o c, Jud. i. 5.
p. 214 Edinb. Tr. Add c. Marcion. iii. 22.

CHAPTER I.

473

celebi'ated sacrifices and holocausts, as well
for sins as for souls, and nowhere else but in
the holy land '," and this subsequent predic
tion of "the Spirit through the prophets,
that in every place and in every land there
should be offered sacrifices to God. As He
says through the angel Malachi, one of the
twelve prophets, (citing the place)."
S. Hippolytus, a disciple of S. Irenseus,
A. D. 220. martyr, in a commentary on Daniel,
says that " ' when Anti-Christ cometh, the
sacrifice and libation will be taken away,
which is now in every place offered by the
Gentiles to God." The terms "Sacrifice
offered in every place " are terms of Malachi.
So S. Cyprian, in his Testimonies against
the Jews, sums up the teaching of the passage
under this head, " " That the old sacrifice
was to be made void, and a new sacrifice
instituted." In the "* Apostolic Constitutions," the
prophecy is quoted as " said by God of His
cecumenical Church."
Eusebius says, " ^ The truth bears witness
to the prophetic word, whereby God, reject
ing the Mosaic sacrifices, foretells that which
shall be among us. For from ihe i-ising of the
sun &c. We sacrifice then to the supreme
God the sacrifice of praise ; we sacrifice the
Divine, reverend and holy oblation : we
sacrifice, in a new way according to the New
Testament, the pure sacrifice. The broken
heart is also called a sacrifice to God — We
sacrifice also the Memory of that great Sacri
fice, performing it according to the mysteries
which have been transmitted by Him."
S. Cyril of Jerusalem " speaks of it only as
prophesying the rejection of the Jews and
the adoption of the Gentiles.
In the liturgy of S. Mark ', it is naturally
quSted, only, as fulfilled " in the reasonable
and unbloody sacrifice, ivhich all nations offer
to Thee, O Lord, from the rising of the sun
to the setting thereof," not in reference to
the cessation of Jewish sacrifices.
S. Chrysostom dwells on its peculiar force,
coming from so late a prophet ". " Hear
Malachi, who came after the other prophets.
For I adduce, for the tirae, no testimony
either of Isaiah or Jeremiah or any other
¦before the Captivity, lest thou shouldest say
that the terrible things wiiich he foretold
were exhausted in the Captivity. But I
adduce a prophet, after the return from

'Lev. xvii. 1-6, Deut. xii. 5-14, 26, 27.
^Interpret, in Dan. n. xxii, p, UO, published from
the Chisian codex of cent, x, in Daniel sec, LXX.
EomEel772, The passage is quoted loosely by S.
Jerome in Dan, c. 9. Opp. v. 689, Vall,
a Testim, ad Quirin. i. 16. pp. 23 and 31. Oxf Tr,
<vii, .30 [on their age, especially of that of their
substance, see Pusey, The Eeal Presence the doc
trine of the early Church pp, 605-609,]
6 Dem, Ev. i, 10. fin. He also quotes the pas.sage
In proof of the abolition of the Jewish sacrifices.

Babylon and the restoration of your city,
prophesying clearly about you. For when
they had returned, and recovered their city,
and rebuilt the temple and performed the
sacrifices, foretelling this present desolation
then future, and the taking away of the
sacriflce, Malachi thus speaks in the Person
of God [ver. 10 fin.— 12 beg.]. When, oh
Jew, happened all this? When was incense
offered to God in every place ? when a pure
sacrifice ? Thou couldest not name any other
time, than this, after the Coming of Christ.
If the prophet foretelleth not this time and
our sacrifice, but the Jewish, the prophecy
will be against the law. For if, when Moses
commandeth that sacrifice should be offered
in no other place than the Lord God should
choose, and shutteth up those sacrifices in one
place, the prophet says that incense should
be offered in every place and a pure sacrifice,
he opposeth and contradicteth Moses. But
there is no strife nor contention. For
Moses speaketh of one sacrifice, and Malachi
of another. Where doth this appear? [From
the place, not Judfea only ; from tbe mode,
that it should be pure ; from the offerers, not
Israel, but the nations,] from East to 'West,
shewing that whatever of earth the sun
surveys, the preaching will embrace. — He
calls the former sacrifice impure, not in its
own nature but in the mind of the offerers ;
if one compares the sacrifice itself, there is
such a boundless distance, that this [that
offered by Christians] might in comparison
be called ' pure.' "
Even the cold, but clear, Theodoret has,
" " Foretelling to the Jews the cessation of
the legal priesthood, he announces the pure
and unbloody sacrifice of the Gentiles. And
first he says to the Jews, I have no pleasure in
you, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept
a sacrifice ai your hands. Then he foreshows
the piety of the Gentiles, For from the rising
of {lie sun &c, (Mai, i. 11.) You then I will
wholly reject ; for I detest altogether what
you do. Wherefore also I reject the sacrifice
offered by you ; butinstead of you, I have the
whole world to worship Me. For the dwell
ers in the whole earth, which the rising and
setting sun illumines, will everywdiere both
offer to Me incense, and ivill sacrifice to Me
the pure sacrifice, which I love. For they
shall know My name and My will, and shall
offer to Me reverence due. So the Lord said

although without allusion to the Eucharistic sacri
fice, Ib. i, 6, p, 19 ; and in ii, 29, pp. 55, 56, of the re
jection of the Jewish nation and their bodily wor
ship according to the law of Moses, and the spirit
ual worship given to all nations through Christ,"
8 Cat, xviii, 25, ' A,ssem, Cod, Lit, vii, 19, 20,
8Ad, Jud, V, 12. Opp. i, 647, 648 Montf See also
his Expos, in Ps, 112, n, 2. Opp, v, 288, 280, and Quod
Christus sit Deus Opp, i, 582, "Seest thou, how
plainly he both cast out Judaism and exhibited
Christianity effulgent and extended over the whole
world?" 9 ad. loc.

474

MALACHL

c H eTs t ' ^'^^ ™y name shall be great
°ii'- ^^^- among the heathen, saith
'Isai, 66. 19, 20. the LOED of hostS.
12 ^But ye have pro
faned it, in that ye say,
"ver. 7. "The table of the Loed
is polluted : and the fruit

to the Samaritan woman. Woman, ¦believe Me,
that the hour comelh and now is, wlien neither in
this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship
the Father. — The blessed Paul, being in
structed in this, says, ' I will that men pray
everywiiere &c, and the Divine Malachi clearly
taught us in this place the worship now
used ; for the circumscribed worsliip of the
jDriests is brought to an end, and every place
is accounted fit for the woi-ship of God, aud
the sacrifice of irrational victims is ended,
and He, our spotless Lamb, Who taketh
away tbe sin of the world, is sacrificed."
Lastly, S. Augustine, " ^ Malachi, pro
phesying of the Church which we see pro
pagated through Christ, says most plainly to
the Jews in the person of God, / have no
pleasure in you, and 'will not receive an offering at
your hands. Eor from the rising of the sun etc.
Since we see this sacrifice through the
priesthood of Christ after the order of
Melchisedek, now offered to God in every
place from the rising of the sun to its set
ting ; but the sacrifice of the Jews, of whieh
it is said, I have no pleasure in you, neither will
I accept an offering from your hands, they can
not deny to have ceased ; why do they yet
expect another Christ, since what they read
as prophesied and see fulfilled, could not be
fulfilled, e.'i:ce[3t through Hira ? "
12. And ye have ¦profaned [* are habitually
profaning it~\, in that ye say. It was the datily
result of their daily lives and acts. " * It is
probable that the priests did not use such
ivords, but that by their very deeds, they
proclaimed this aloud : as in the. The fool hath
said in his heart, Tliere is no God. For in that
he is seen to be a despiser, though he say it
not in words, yet, by their very deeds and by
the crookedness of their lives, they ail-but
cry out, There is no God. For they who live
as though God beheld not, and do all things
reckle.ssly and unholily, by their own deeds
and works deny God. So they who are not
1 1 Tim, ii, 8, 2 de Civ, Dei. xviii. 35. 3.
^insD'SSnoDnst4 S, Cyr, 6 Ezek, xliv, 16,
«S, Matt, V, 23, Heb. xiii, 10. '1 Cor x, 21,
es Ignat, ad Pliilad, n, 4, p, 32, Cotel,
1 This too is one of the Tikiiune Sopherim, as if,
had it not been profane, the prophet would have
said, at Me. On the character of these hypothetic
corrections, see on Hab, i, 12. p, 186, n. 17,
i^This is the one sense of 7tJ, which occurs in 34

thereof, even his meat is ^ g r"! t
contemptible. "i^- '¦J^''-
13 Ye said also. Behold,
w h a t a weariness is it !
1 1 and ye have snuffed at II or, whereas ye
. _ miqht have
it, saith the Loed of blown it away.
hosts : and ye brought

earnest to preserve to the holy Altar the
reverence becoming to it, by the very things
which they do, say.
The table of the Lord is despised. Not the
table of shewbread, since it is so called in
reference to the sacrifice offered thereon.
Ezekiel had probably so called the altar,
which he saw in his vision of the new tem
ple^. It is what was before called the altar;
an altar, in regard to the sacrifices offered to
God ; a table, in regard to the food of the
sacrifice therefrom received. Both names,
"altar*" and "table'" being received in
the Kew Testament, both were received in
the early Church. For each represented one
side of the great Eucharistic action, as it is a
Sacrifice and a Sacrament. But the title
"altar" was tbe earliest*.
It may be here a different profaneness of
the priests. They connived at the sin of the
people in sacrificing the maimed animals
which they brought, and yet, since they had
their food from the sacrifices, and such .ani
mals are likely to have been neglected .and
ill-conditioned, they may very probably have
complained of the poverty of their lot, and
despised the whole service. For the words
used, its produce, the eating thereof is contempt
ible belong to their portion, not to what was
consumed by fire. With this agrees their
cry, 13. Wmt a weariness ! What an onerous
service it is ! The service of God is its own
reward. If not, it becomes a greater toil,
with less reward from this earth, than the
things ofthis earth. Our only choice is be
tween love and weariness.
And ye liave snuffed [puffed] at ii ", i. e. at
the altar ; as a thing contemptible. Ye have
brough i that which was taken by violence '". In
despising any positive law of God, they
despised the lawgiver ; and so, from con
tempt of the ceremonial law, they went
on to break the moral law. It were in-
separate passages (beside two met. Job, xxiv. 19,
Pr, iv. 16,) It IS used specially of the robbery of
the poor, whether by wrong judgment (Eccl. v. 7,
[Heb,] Is, ,v, 2) or open violence, "The meaning
" torn " was gained^ as if the animal had been car
ried off by beasts (fl^jpiiXioToi-), the eating of whieh
was forbidden. Ex, xxii, 30, Lev. vii, 24, xxii, 8.
Ezek. iv. 14, xliv. 31. But this had its own name,
rtilTB, .and eould not be used in sacrifices, since it
was dead already.

CHAPTEB I.

475

c H E°i s T '^** which was torn, and
— 2iIii£Z:  the lame, and the sick:
thus ye brought an offer-
» Lev. 22. 20, &c, ing : "should I accept this of
your hand ? saith the Loed.
14 But cursed he ^ the
deceiver, 11 which hath in

y ver, 8,
U Or, in whose
fiock is.

deed a mockery of God, to break a law
whereby He bound man to man, and there
from to seek to appease Himself. Yet in
rough times, people, even in Christianity,
have made their account with their souls, by
giving to the poor a portion of what they
had taken from the rich. " God," it was
said to such an one, " rejects the gifts ob
tained by violence and robbery. He loves
™ercy, justice and humanity, and by the
lovers of these only wdll He be worshiped."
" ' He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully
gotten, his offering is ridiculous, and the
gifts of unjust men are not accepted. The
Most High is not pleased with the offerings
of the w icked, neither is He pacified for sin
by the multitude of sacrifices. Whoso
bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor
doeth as one that killeth the son before the
father's eyes." ¦
14. Cursed is ihe deceiver. "* The fraudu
lent, hypocritical, false or deceitful dealer,
who makes a show of one thing, and doth or
intends another, nor doth to his power ivhat
he would make a show of doing ; as if he
could deceive God in doing in His service
otherwise than Lie required, and yet be ac
cepted by Him." The whole habit of these
men was not to break with God, but to keep
well ivith Him on as easy terms as they
could. They even went beyond what the law
required in making vows, probably for some
temporal end, and then substituted for that
which had typical perfection, the less valiia-
ble animal, the ewe ', and that, diseased. It
was probably, to prevent self-deceit, that the
law commanded that the oblation for a vow
should be *a male without blemish, perfect ; lest
(which may be a temptation in impulsive
vows) repenting of their vow, they should
persuade themselves, that they had vowed
less than they had. Ordinarily, then, it
would not have been allowed to one, who
had not the best to offer, to vow at all. But,
in their alleged poverty, the jirophet sup
poses that God would so far dispense with
His own law, and accept the best which any
1 Ecclus. xxxiv. 18-20. 2 Poc,
" nriE/a fem. for nJ^^ro,as n'^pi? for n^\¦^m,
Kgs i. 15, and il^no Lev. ii. 5, Ewald Lehrb, n.
188. p. 495 ed. 8. Keii would read JiriE^D (masc.) and
make it a separate case, " the deceiver, whereas in

his flock a male, and vow- „ 5^^°''?, „,
O H K 1 o 1
eth, and sacrificeth unto '^ir, 397.

1 Tim. 6, 15.

the Lord a corrupt thing :
for 'I am & great King, • Ps, 47. 2,
saith the Loed of hosts,
and my name is dreadflil
among the heathen.

one had, although it did not come up to that
law. Hence the clause, whieh hath in his
flock a male. " ^ If thou hast not a male, that
curse in no ivise injureth thee. But saying
this, he sheweth, that they have what is best,
and ofler what is bad."
They sinned, not against religion only, but
against justice also. "^ For as a merchant,
who offers his goods at a certain price, if he
supply them afterward adulterated and cor
rupted, is guilty of fraud and is unjust, so he
who promised to God a sacrifice worthy of
God, and, according to the law, perfect and
sound, is fraudulent and sins against justice,
if he afterward gi\es one, defective, muti
lated, vitiated, and is guilty of theft in a
sacred thing, and so of sacrilege."
Clergy or " all who have vowed, should
learn hence, that what they have vowed
should be given to God, entire, manly, per
fect, the best. — For, reverence for the su
preme and Divine Majesty to Whom they
consecrate themselves demandeth this, that
they should offer Him the highest, best and
most perfect, making themselves a ivhole-
burnt-offering to God."
" ' They who abandon all things of the
world, and kindle their whole mind with the
fire of Divine love, these becorae a sacrifice
and a whole-burnt-offering to Almighty
God." '" Man himself, consecrated and de
voted in the name of God, is a sacrifice." He
then offers a corrupt thing who, like Ana
nias, keeps back part of the price, and is the
more guilty, because, wdiile it was his own,
it was in his own power.
I am a greed King. '"As God is Alone
Lord through His universal Providence and
His intrinsic authority, so He Alone is King,
and a King so great, that of His greatness or
dignity and perfection there is no end."
My Name is dreadful among ihe heathen. Ab
sence of any awe of God was a central defect
of these Jews. They treated Him, as they
would not a fellow-creature, for whom they
had any respect or awe or fear. Some re
maining instinct kept them from parting
his flock is a male; and he who voweth Ac, :" but
then nothing would be said, wherein the deceit
consisted. 4 Levit, xxii, 19, 21, sg, Jer, ^Lap,
' S, Greg, in Ezek. L. i. Hom. xii. 30. Opp, i. 305
Ben, L,
8 S, Aug. de Civ. Dei. x. 6. L. » Dion.

476

MALACHI.

Before CHAPTER IL
CHEIST v.±j.Ai. ij^iv
,  °"'- ^^''' 1 He sharply reproveth tlie priests
for 'neglecting thrir covenant,
11 and the people f'or idolatry,
14 for adultery, 17 and for
inflddiiy.
A ND now, O ye priests,
this commandment is
• Lev, 26. 14, &e. for VOU.
Deut, 28, 15, r. -tr.
&0. 2 " If ye will not hear.

with Him ; but they yielded a cold, weari
some, heartless service. Malachi points to
the root of the evil, the ignorance, how
awful God is. This is the root of so much
irreverence in p.^ople's theories, thoughts,
conversations, systems, acts, of the present
day also. They know neither God or them
selves. The relation is summed up in those
words to a saint ¦, " Knowest thou well. Who
I am, and who thou art ? I am He Who Is,
and thou art she who is not." So Job says
in the presence of God, 'I have heard of Thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
Tliee: wherefore I abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes. To correct this, God, from
the beginning, insists on the title which He
gives Himself " Oircumcise the foreskin of
your hearts and be no more stiff-necked: for the
Lord your Ood is God of gods and Lord of
lords, ihe great Ood, the mighty and tlie terrible;
and in warning, ^ If thou wilt not observe to
do all the words of this law that are written
in ihis book, that thou mayest fear ihis glorious
and fearful name. The Lord thy God, then
the Lord ihy God will make thy plagues won-
daful &c
II. 1. And now this is My commandment
unio you, not a commandment, which He
gave them, but a commandnient in regard to
them. As God said of old, upon obedience,
^ Iwill command Mg blessing unlo you, so now
He would command what should reach them,
but a curse. "^ He returns from the people
to the priests, as the fauntain of the evil,
whose carelessness about things sacred he
had rebuked before. Let the priests of the
new law hear this rebuke of God, and con
ceive it dictated to them by the Holy Spirit
to hear, from whora God rightly requires
greater holiness, and so will punish them
more grievously, if careless or scandalous in
their office." All Christians are, in some
sense, ' a royal, holy priesthood, over and above
the special " Christian priesthood ; " as the

1 S. Catherine of Sienna. 2 Job xlii, 5, 6.
3 Deut, X. 16, 17, vii, 21, Nehemiah uses it in his
prayers (i, 5, ix, 32) and Daniel (ix 4,) It occurs
also Neh,iv, 8 (14 Eng,) Ps, xlvii, 3, Ixviii, 36, Ixxxix,
8, xcvi, 4, xcix. 3, exi, 9, Zeph. ii. 11.
< Deut. xxviii. 68, 59.

and if ye will not lay it to ^ h b°i"| t
heart, to give glory unto ^_2i!li2I^_
my name, saith the Loed
of hosts, I will even send
a curse upon you, and I
will curse your blessings :
yea, I have cursed them
already, because ye do not
lay it to heart.

Jews, over and above the special priesthood
of Aaron, were a " kingdom of priests. What
follows then belongs, in their degree, to them
and their duties.
2. If ye will not lay to heart, viz. the rebukes
addressed to them, to give glory to God. For
the glory of God is the end and aim of the
priesthood. This should be the principle
and rule of their whole life, '"to the greater
glory of God." / u)itl send the curse upon you,
viz. that which He had threatened in the
law upon disobedience ; and will curse your
blessings, will turn your blessings into a curse.
He does not say, I will send you curses in
stead of blessings, but, I will make the bless
ings themselves a curse. '" The things whieh
should have been to their wealth became to them
an occasion of falling; to the proud, the
things which lift them up ; to the gluttonous,
their abundance; to the avaricious, their
wealth; which, if used to the glory of God,
become blessings, do, when self not God is
their end, by God's dispensation and Provi
dence, become a curse to them. " " The
goods of nature, the goods of fortune, the
goods of the Church allowed to you, I will
turn to your greater damnation, permitting
you to abuse them to pride ; and your dam
nation shall be the more penal, the more
good things ye have received from Me.
Whence Christ declares in the Gospel,
'^ Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall
be much required."
Yea, I have cursed them [lit. i(], i. e. each
one of the bfessings, already. God's judg
ments as well as His mercies are individual
with a miniite care, shewing that it is His
doing. The curse had already gone forth,
and had begun to seize upon them from the
time that they began to despise His Name.
His judgments do not break in at once, but
little by little, with warnings of their ap
proach, that so we may turn to Him, and es
cape ihe wrath to come.
6Lev. xxv, 21, ddS 'nain nx 'n'lvi.
« Lap, 7 1 S, Pet, ii, 9, s Ex. xix. 6,
°"Ad majorem Dei, gloriam," the motto of S.
Ignatius Loyola.
i»Ps, Ixix, 23.
11 Cion. 12 s. Luke xii, 48.

CHAPTEK IL

477

Before
CHRIST cir, 307,
I Or, reprove.
fHeb, scatter.

II Or, it shall
take you away
to it.
i>lKiQ. 14. 10.

3 Behold, I will .| I cor
rupt your seed, aud
t spread dung upon your
faces, even the dung of
your solemn feasts ; and
II one shall ""take you away
with it.
4 And ye shall know

3. Lo, I will rebuke the seed ' for your sake,
i. e. that it should not grow. He "VVho work
eth by His sustaining will all the opera
tions of nature, would at His will withhold
them. Neither priests nor Levites cultivated
the soil ; yet, since the tithes were assigned to
them, the diminution ofthe harvest affected
them. The meal-offering too was a requisite
part of the sacrifice ''-
And spread dung upon your faces, the dung "
of your solemn feasts, or, of your sacrifices *. It
was by the law carried without the camp
and burned wdth the animal itself. Tliey
had brought before the face of God maimed,
unfitting sacrifices ; they should have them
cast back, with their refuse, upon thera ;
" ^ as a lord that rejecteth a gift, brought to
him by his servant, casts it back in his face."
"^ Of your sacrifices, not of Mine ; for I am
not worshiped in them : ye seek to please,
not Me, but yourselves." So God said of
Eli, ' Ihem thai honor Me Iwill honor, and they
thai despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
And one shall take you away with it, lit. io it.
They should be swept away, as if they were
an appendage to it, as God said, "Iwill take
away the remnant of ihe house of Jeroboam, as a
'man taketh away dung, till all be gone. As are
the offerings, so shall it be with the offerers.
4. And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you : this, which He had
just uttered. They who believe not God
when threatening, know that He is in earn
est and not to be trifled with, through His
punishing. That My covenant might be wiih
Leri ". God willed to punish those who at
that time rebelled against Him, that He
1 K^eil objects to this rendering of the text and
adopts the punctuation yf^V^ from lxx. Aq. Vulg,
" the arm," i, e. render it useless and incapable of
discharging its ofBoe. But when ^J;J is used of
other than men themselves, it is a whole, as to
which the metaphor is used," either being animate,
as "the devourer," Mai. iii, 11, or jiictured as ani
mate, as "the sea," Ps, cvi, 9, Nah, i, 4.
2 See also Joel i. 13, ii, 14.
3 W13 is only used of the dung, as it lies in the
animal killed for sacrifice. Ex, xxix. 4, Lev. iv, 11,
viii. 7, xxi. 27, Nu. xix. 5, and here.
4jn is certainly the animal sacrificed at the
feast. Ex, xxiii, 18, Ps. cxviii. 27, and so probably
here. So Kim.

that I have sent this com- „ ^''i°f% ^
mandment unto you, that __2EiJ5!:_
my covenant might be
with Levi, saith the Loed
of hosts.
5 "My covenant was'Num, 25, 12.
. , , , . e 1 ¦ P 1 Ezek. 34. 25.
with him 01 life and & 37. 26.
peace ; and I gave them

might spare those who should come after
them. He chastened the fathers, who shewed
their contempt toward Him, that their sons,
taking warning thereby, might not be cut off'.
He continues to say, ivhat the covenant was,
which He willed still to be, if they would
repent. 5. My covenant was with him life and peace;
lit. the life and the peace ; that, which alone
is true life and peace. The covenant was not
with Levi himself, but ivith Aaron, his re
presentative, wdth whom the covenant was
made in the desert, as is indeed here ex
pressed ; and, in him, with all his race '"
after him, who succeeded him in, his office ;
as, when it is said, that "Aaron and his sons
offered upon ihe altar of burnt offering, it must
needs be understood, not of Aaron in person
alone and his sons then living, but of any of
his race that succeeded in his and their
room. So our Lord promised to be with
His Apostles, " always to the end of the world,
i. e. with them and those whom they should
appoint in their stead, and these others,
until He should Himself come. God
promised, if they would keep the law, that
they should live in peace on the earth ; yea,
that they should have peace of mind and a
life of grace. Life is an indefectible being,
ivhich man does not forfeit by sin, to which
death is no interruption, changing only the
place of the soul's life.
And I gave them to him, in, or as, fear,
" '" Fear, not servile but filial and pure, as S.
Paul bids Christians, '^ work out your oivn sal
vation with fear and trembling." God gave
them an awful gift, to be held with fear

«Eib.

'1 Sam, ii, 30.

5 Abarb. Poe,
3 1 Kgs xiv, 10,
* Keil says th.it HTl means indeed to " exist,"
but not to "continue existence," But the contin
uance is involved in the existence in the future,
for the being in the future involves the continued
being. His own rendering, " that this should be
My covenant with Levi ; " requires a more definite
subject; and it should rather be, "that My cove
nant with Levi should come to this," In ver, 5, 6,
he spealts of the past emphatically, " My covenant
was with him," " the law of truth was in his
mouth," So it shall be with you, if you become
like him,
10 By the art, in ''iSn v, 8. See Num. xxv, 12, 13.
11 1 Ohr, vi, 49, 12 s. Matt, xxviii. 20. is Dion.
14 Phil. ii. 12.

478

MALACHI.

c H eTs t ^° ^™ V"*" tli6 fear where-
cir. 397, -^yif,}, ]^g feared me, and

4 Deut, 33, 8, 9. was afraid before my name.

and awe, for its very jjreciousness, as one
would hold anxiously what is very precious,
yet very fragile and easily marred.
And he feared Me, and was afraid before My
Name. Malachi unites two words, the second
expressive of strong fear, by which a man is,
as it were, crushed or broken. They are
often united in Hebrew, but as expressing
terror, wdiich men are bidden not to feel
befbre men. Toward mau it is ever said,
'fear not, neither be ye dismayed ; toward God
Alone, it is a matter of praise. Man's high
est fear is too little ; for he knows not. Who
God is. So Isaiah says, ' Fear ye not iheir
fear [the fear of this people'], nor be afraid.
Sanctify the Lord of liosts Himself, and lei Him
be your fear and let Him be your dread.
" " What can be more precious (than this
fear) ? For it is written, * He who feareth the
Lord irill be rewarded. ' * The fear of the
Lord is honor and glory and gladness and a
crown of rejoicing.' Lie saith, the fear, where
with he feareth Me and was afraid, i. e. he re
ceived the fear of God in his whole heart
and soul. For these reduplications and em
phases suggest to the hearer how rooted in
virtue are those thus praised."
6. The law of truth was in his mouth. Apart
from those cases, which were brought to the
priests at the tabernacle^, in which their
voice was the voice of God through them, to
teach the law was part of the office both of
the priest and Levite. Of the priest God
says ; '' that ye may leach the children of Israel
all the statutes, whieh the Lord hath spoken unto
them by the hand of Moses : of the tribe of
Levi generally Moses says, " They slmll teach
Jacob Thy judgments and Israel Thy law.
After the schism of the ten tribes, a prophet
says to Asa, that Israel had "f'or a long time
been without the true God and without a teach
ing priest and without law. They are evil
times, of which Ezekiel says, i" the law shall
perish from the priest; and God says of cor
rupt priests, " The priest said not, where is the
Lord ? and they that handle the law knew Me
not. ''' They did violence to My law. On
their return from the captivity Ezra was
known to Artaxerxes as '^ a scribe of the law
of the God of heaven, and he looked upon him
apparently, as one who should keep the peo-
1 Deut, i, 21, xxxi. 8, Josh, i. 9, x, 26, t Chr, xxii.
13, xxviii, 20, 2 Chr. xx, 15, 17, xxxii, 7, Is, li, 7, Jer.
xxiii, 4, xxx, 10, xlvi. 27, Ez, li, 6, iii, 9,
2 Is, viii, 12, 13. 8 S. Cyr. * Pr. xiii, 13.
s Ecclus, i, 11.
« Deut, xvii. 9, 10, 11, xix. 17 ; (add Deut, xxi, 5,
Ezek, xliv, 23, 24,) hence the use of ?'n'7X E.x.
xxi, 6, xxii, 7, 8,

6 ^The law of truth cheTst
cir. 397,

was in his mouth, and in
iquity was not found in ° Deut. j

pie in good order by teaching it. " Thou,
Ezra, afier the wisdom of thy God which is in
ihy hand, set magistrates andjudges, which may
judge all the people which are beyond the river,
all such as know the laws of thy God, anel teach
ye ihem that know ihem not : and whosoever wiU
not do the law of thy God or the law of the king,
let judgment be exeeuted speedily upon him.
Ezra says of himself, that he '" had prepared
his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it
and to teach in Isi-ael statutes and judgments.
" '" God's " law is ihe truth : the true doc
trine of this law did he teach the people,
and instruct them in the true meaning and
intent thereof, that, according to the right
rule, they might frame all their actions ;
nothing of it did he conceal from them, nor
teach any thing contrary to it or false. This
was in his mouth ; nothing contrary to it
was found in his lips."
And iniquity was notfound in his lips. He
expresses the perfectness of that teaching,
first positively, then negatively. The true
priest taught truth wdthout any admixture
of wrong. " " Not he only is a betrayer of
the truth, who, transgressing the truth,
openly teaches a lie for the truth ; but he
too, who does not freely utter the truth,
which he ought to utter freel}', or who does
not freely defend the truth ivhich he ought
to defend freely, is a betraj'er of the truth.
1' For with tlie heart man believeth unto right
eousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." " Nothing," saj's S. Am
brose ''" to the Emperor Theodosius, " is so
perilous to the priest with God, so disgrace
ful with men, as not to utter freely what he
thinks. For it is written, " I spake of Thy
testimonies before kings, and was riot ashamed.
And therefore a priest's silence ought to dis
please _your Clemency ; his freedom, to please
you. For you are involved in the peril of
my silence, art aided by the good of my free
speech." He walked with Me. To awe of God,
truthfulness of teaching, he adds a devout
continual intercourse with God. Like the
patriarchs of old, Enoch and Noah, he
''"'walked with God. He not only lived in the
Presence, but walked up and down with
Him, through his whole life, as a Friend ;
'Lev. X, 11. SDeut. xxxiii, 10, ii2Chr, xv, 3,
lOEzelc, vii, 26, u Jer, ii, 8.
12 Ezek. xxii, 26, Zeph. iii, 4, i3 Ezr, vii, 12, 21,
1* Ib, 25, 26, 15 Ib, 10, i« Poe, " Ps, cxix. 142,
"Opus imp, in S, Matt. ap. S, Chrys. Hom. 25. T.
vi, ,^pp, p. cix, Ben,
'9 Eom, X, 10,
2«S, Ambr. Ep. xi. ad Theod, n, 2, 3, Ben, L,
21 Ps, cxix. 46. ffii Gen, v, 24, vi, 9.

CHAPTER II.

479

cheTst ^^ -^^P®- ^® ¦walked with
eir. 397. me in peace and equity.

Jam. 5. 20, and did 'turn many away
8 Lev, 10, u. /. ...
Deut. 17. 9, 10. n'om iniquity.
Ezra?'. 10. 7 *For the priest's lips
• Jer. 18. 18. Hag. 2, 11, 12.

" having respect in all things to Him and
His glory."
In peace and equity. The inward peace
with God overflowing in peace to men. The
brief words comprise the duties of both
tables ; as that, ' Follow peace with all men,
and holiness, without which no man shall see
God ; ' Live in peace, and the Ood of love and
peace shall be with you ; * blessed are the peace
makers, for they shall be called the children of
God. " ¦* God's covenant with him was of
peace "; so he observed it on h is part."
Even equity, or real considerate justice, would
alienate those, whom it found wrong, so he
joins with it peace, that even equity wag not
administered but with love. '"^To have
peace with God, what is it but to will to be
mended and to do what Lie willeth, and in
nothing to offend Him ? "
And turned away many from iniquity. They,
the true priests of the Old Testament then,
were not satisfied wdth their own sanctifica
tion, but were zealous for the salvation of
souls. What a history of zeal for the glory
of God and the conversion of sinners in
those, of whom the world knows nothing ;
of whose working, but for the three words ''
in the closing book of the Old Testament,
we should have known nothing ! The Pro
phets upbraid the sins of the many; the
Psalms are the prayers given to and used by
the pious ; such incidental sayings as these,
record some of the fruits. "Be of the disci
ples of Aaron," said Hillel ", " who loved
peace and followed peace, and wdio loved
men and brought them near to the law."
Yet even under the Gospel S. Gregory com
plains, " " The world is full of priests ; yet in
the harvest of God the laborers are few.
For we undertake the priestly office, but do
not fulfill its work. We receive the fruit of
holy Church in daily stipend, but labor not
for the everlasting Church in preaching."
" '" There are many priests," says a writer in
the IVth cent., " and few priests ; many in
name, few in deed. See then, how ye sit on
your thrones ; for the throne maketh not
the priest, but the priest the throne; the
place sanctifieth not the man, but the man
1 Heb. xii. 14. Eom, xii. 18. 2 2 Cor. xiii. 11.
a S, Matt, V. 9. * Poc. " ver. 6. " S. Cyr.
']i;7D Ttyn D'31i.
a Pirke Aboth c. i, g 13 Poc.
»S, Greg, Hom. xvii. in Evang. n. 3 and 8. Opp. 1,
1496, 1499. Ben. L.

should keep knowledge, ^ h ^7 1 t
and they should seek the '=ii'- 397,
law at his mouth: 'for 'Gal. 4. 14.
he is the messenger of the
Lord of hosts.

the place. Whoso sitteth well on the throne,
receiveth honor from the throne ; whoso ill,
doth injustice to the throne. Thou sittest in
judgment. If thou livest well and teachest
well, thou wilt be a" judge of all ; if thou
teachest well and livest ill, thine own only.
For by teaching well and living well thou
instructest the people, how it ought to live ;
by teaching well and living ill, thou teach
est God, how He should condemn thee."
" "We who are called priests, above the ills
which we have of our own, add also the
deaths of others. For we slay as many as
we, in tepidity and silence, see daily go to
death. — He who is placed under thee dies
without thee, ivhen in that which causes his
death, thou hast wdthstood hira. For to
that death, which thou hast not withstood,
thou wdit be added. "
7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge.
" 12 He assigns the reason for what he had
just said, the law of truth was in his mouth;
they had done what it was their duty to do ;
as in Ecclesiasticus it is said of Aaron ;
' '' God gave unto him His commandments,
and authority in the statutes of judgments,
that he should teach Jacob the testimonies,
and inform Israel in His laws.' So S. Paul
requires of Titus to ordain such Bishops, as
shall be able to '* exhort bi/ sound doctrine and
to convince gainsayers. "Wherefore vS, Am
brose '^ calls the Bible, whieh contains the
law of God, 'the book of priests^' as spe
cially belonging to them, to be specially
studied by them. S. Jerome notes that he
says keep, not ' give forth,' that they should
speak seasonably, and give their fellow-ser
vants meat in due season."
For he is ihe messenger [or angel] of the
Lord of hosts. Malachi gives to the priest
the title which belongs to the lowest order
of the heavenly spirits, as having an oflace
akin to theirs ; as Haggai does to the pro
phet '", as an extraordinary messenger of God ;
and S. Paul tells the Galatians, "ye received
me as an angel of Ood, as Christ Jesus; and
Christ, by S. John, speaks to the Bishops of the
seven Churches, good or bad, or of mixed
good and bad, as ihe angels"^ of those Churches.
10 Op, Imperf in S, Matt, cxxiii. Hom, xliii. App.
p, clxxxiii, Ben, L, „ , „ j
11 S, Greg, Hom, in Ezek, L. i. Hom. xi. nn, 9, and
11, Opp, i, 1285. L, ,^„,^ „
12 Lap, " Ecclus, xiv. 17. '< Tit, i, 9,
15 de fide iii, c. 15, n, 128. Opp, i. 519, Ben,
i« Hagg, ii. 11. " Gal. iv. 14. " Eev. i. 20.

480

MALACHL

Before
CHEIST cir, 397,
' 1 Sam, 2, 17.
Jer. 18, 15,
D Or, fall in the
law.
'iNeh, 13. 29.

8 But ye are departed
out of the way ; ye ' have
caused many to 1 1 stumble
at the law ; '' ye have cor
rupted the covenant of
Levi, saith the Loed of
hosts.

" ' Since in the heavenly hierarchy the
order of Angels is tlje lowest, and in the
Eucharistical hierarchy the order of the
priesthood is the highest," "2 most truly is
the priest of God called angel, i. e. messen
ger, because he intervenes between God and
man, and announces the things of God to
the people ; and therefore were the Urim
and Thummim placed on the priest's breast
plate of judgment, that we might learn, that
the priest ought to be learned, a herald of
Divine truth." Much more in the New
Testament. " " Who, as it were in a day,
can form one of earth, to be the defender of
truth, to stand with angels, to give glory
with Archangels, to transmit the sacrifices
to the altar above, to be partaker of the
priesthood * of Christ, to reform the thing
forraed, and present the image, to re-create
for the world above, to be a god " and make
men partakers of the Divine Nature "1"
" ' The priesthood is enacted on earth, but
is ranked with the heavenly ranks. "Very
rightly. For not man, not angel, not arch
angel, not any other created power, but the
Paraclete Liimself hath ordained this office,
and persuaded them, ivhile yet abiding in
the fiesh, to conceive the ministry of the
Angels. Wherefore, he who is consecrated
as priest, ought to be pure, as if he stood
among the heavenly powers." " " The
throne of the priesthood is placed in the
heavens, and he is entrusted with minister
ing things of heaven. Who saith this?
The King of heaven Himself. For He
saith. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall
be bound in heaven, ancl whatsoever ye shall
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.-— Qo the
priest standeth in the middle between God
and human nature, bringing down to us Di
vine benefits, and transmitting thither our
supplications." 8. But ye" are departed out of the way
" '" of knowledge, truth, equity, fear of God,
which I appointed to Aaron and the Levites."
Ye have caused many io stumble at the law. He
does not simply say, in the law, but at it.
The law was what they stumbled at. They
'Dion, 2S, Jer.
» S, Greg, Naz, Orat, ii, u. 73, p, 48 Ben.
' avvieptCiaovra.
^ 06Of laop-tvov Kat OeoiroinaovTa. ^ 2 S, Pet, i, 4.
' S, Chrys. de Sacerdotio iii. 4. Opp, i. 382 Ben.

9 Therefore "have I cheTst
also made you contempt!- . '^'r- 3^'-

ble and base before all the 1 1 Sam. 2. 30.
people, according as ye
have not kept my ways, 11 pr. W'^'i "p
ttie J ace
but 1 1 1 have been partial agaimt.
" ' ¦*¦ f Heb, c
in the law. fives.

did not only misunderstand the law, through
the false teaching of the priests, as though it
allowed things whioh in truth were sins (al
though this too) ; itself was their source of
stumbling. As Jesus Himself was a rock of
offence whereon they stumbled, because
through His Divine holiness He was not
what they expected Him to be, so contrari
wise the law became an offence to them
through the unholiness and inconsistency of
the lives and ways of those who taught it ;
much as we now hear Christianity spoken
against, because of the inconsistency of
Christians. So vS. Paul saith to the Jews,
" The name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles through you, as ii is written ; and, for
the sins of Eli's sons ", men abhorred ilie offer
ing of the Lord.
And hare eorrupted the covenant of Leri; as it
is said in Nehemiah, '^ They have defiled the
priesthood, and tlie covenant of thepriesihood and
of Levi, that covenant ivhich was life and peaee ¦*,
and therefore forfeited them.
9. Therefore have I made you contemptible.
They had said in their hearts, '' The table of
tlie Lord is contemptible. So God would
requite them " '"measure for measure." Yet
not only so, but in their office as judges,
against the repeated protestations in tire law,
''' Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor,
nor honor the person of the mighty, in righteous
ness shalt thou judge thy neighbor; '" ye shcdl not
respect persons in judgment; '"thou shall not
wrest judgment, he says.
Ye have accepted persons in ihe law. You
have interpreted the law differently for rich
and poor, or have put it in force against the
poor, not against the rich. It would include
actual bribery; but there are many more
direct offences against equal justice. How
differently is the like offence against the
eighth commandment visited upon the poor
who have real temptation to it, and the rich
who have none, but the lust of the eyes!
" Crows he condones, vexes the simple dove."
That contempt which they cast upon God
and His law, by wresting it out of respect to
a Id, in Is. vi, 1, Hom, v, 1, Opp. vi. 132.
'OnNl, emphatic, WLap
iiBom,ii,24, 12 1 Sam, ii, 17, Poo. "Neh xiii 29
1-1 ii, 5, 15 i, 7. 10 Kim. n Lev, xix. 15
1* Deut. i. 17. 19 lb xvi 19

CHAPTEE II.

481

Before
CHRIST cir. 397.
¦ 1 Cor. 8. 6.
Eph. 4. 6.
• Job 31. 15.

10 "Have we not all
one father ? " hath not one
God created us? why do
we deal treacherously
every man against his
brother, by profaning the
covenant of our fathers ?
11 ^ Judah hath dealt

persons, that so they might gain favor and
respect from them, so honoring them more
than Him, and seeking to please them more
than Him, wdll He cast back on them making
them contemptible even in the eyes of those,
from wdiora they thought by that means to
find respect.
10. Have we nai all one Father ' ? Hath not
one Ood created us ? Malachi turns abruptly
to another offence, in which also the priests
set an evil example, the capricious dismissal
of their Hebrew wives and taking other
women in their stead. Here, as before, he
lays down, at the outset, a general raoral
principle, ivhich he applies. The one Father,
(it appears from the parallel), is manifestly
Almighty God, as the Jews said to our Lord,
''We have one Father, even Ood. He created
them, not only as He did all mankind, but
by the spiritual relationship ivith Liimself,
into which He brought them. So, Isaiah
speaks, ^ Thus saiih the Lord that created thee,
0 Jacob, and He that formed thee, 0 Israel.
Every one that is called by My Name; I have
created Him for My glory; I have formed him;
yea I have made him. This people have I
formed for Myself; they shall shew forlh My
praise. And from the first in Moses' song,
* Is not He thy Father that created * thee ?
Halh He not made ihee and established thee ?
This creation of them by God, as His people,
gave them a new existence, a new relation to
each other; so that every ofience against
each other was a violation of their relation
to God, Who had given them this unity, and
was, in a nearer sense than of any other,
the common Father of all. Why then, the
prophet adds, do we deal treacherously, a man
against his brother, to profane the covenant of our
falhei-s? He does not yet say, wherein this
treacherous dealing consisted ; but awakens
them to the thouglit, that sin against a
1 Jews (Ibn E,, Tanehum, Kim, Abarb, ap, Poc,)
have understood the one father tobe Jaeob; S, Cyril,
to be Abraham, The parallelism is, I think, deci
sive against hoth. Although Abraham is specially
spikenof as their father, .vet the appeal to that rela
tion would not hold against the marriage, condemned
here, since he was the father of the descendants
of Ishmael as of Isaac, of the bitterest foes of
Israel, the heathenish Edomites, Ammon and Moab,
inveterate persecutors of Israel, were his near
kindred. Ammonitesses and Moabitesses were as
31

treacherously, and an cheTIt
abomination is committed ™- 3'''^-
in Israel and in Jerusa
lem ; for Judah hath pro
faned the holiness of the
Lord which he 1 1 loved, II Or, ought to
" love.
" and hath married the " Ezra 9. 1.
& 10. 2.
daughter ot a strange god. Neh. is. 23.

brother is sin against God, Who made him a
brother ; as, and much more under the
Gospel, in which we are all members of one
mystical body; "when ye sin so against the
brethren, and wound thrir weak conscience, ye sin
against Christ. He speaks of the sin, as
aflecting those who did not commit it. Why
do we deal treacherously? So Isaiah, before
his lips were cleansed by the mystical coal,
said, ' / am a man of unclean lips, ancl I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and the
high-priest Joshua was shewn in tbe vision,
clothed with defiled garments'; and the sin
of Achan became the sin of the children of
Israel", and David's sinful pride in number
ing the people was visited upon all '". He
teaches beforehand, that, " wliether one mem
ber suffer, all the members suffer wiih it, or one
member be honored, all the members rejoice wiih
it. They profaned also the covenant of their
fathers, by marrying those whom God forbade,
and who would seduce, as heathen wives had
Solomon, from His worship. S, Paul in
sanctioning the remarriage of widows, adds,
only ''' in the Lord, i. e. Christian husbands.
"i^He who treated as null the difference
between the Israelites and a he.athen woman,
shewed that the difierence between the God
of Israel and the God of the heathen had
befoi-e become null to him, ivhence it
follows ;
11. Treacherously has Judah dealt; an
abomination is committed in Israel. The pro
phet, by the order of the words, emphasizes
the treachery and the abomination. This have
they done ; the very contrary to what was
required of them as the people of God. He
calls the remnant of Judah by the sacred
narae of the whole people, of whora they
were the surviving r'epresentatives. The
word " abomination '* " is a word belonging
to the Hebrew, and is used especially of
much forbidden by Ezra (ix, 2) as women of the
different nations of Canaan, Ashdod or Egypt.
2 S. .Iohn viii. 41,
a Is, xliii, 1. 7, 21. add xliv. 2, 21, 24.
*Deut. xxxii. 6. 'pp I'^K.
0] Cor, viii, 12, 'Is. vi. 5.
a Zech, iii. 3, 4. See ab, pp. 354, 3.5,5.
» Josh, vii. 1,11, 1112 Sam. xxiv.
11 1 Cor, Xli, 20, 12 1h, vii. 39,
la Hengst. Christ, iii. 695. i'n:3>'in.

482

MALACHI.

12 The Lord will cut

Before
CHRIST
 2i£Li5L  off the mau that doeth

ior, him that this, ||the master and the
waketh, and , , pit
him that an- scliolar, out ot the tabcr-
p Neh, 13. 28, 29, nacles of Jacob, ¦" and him
that offereth an offering
unto the Lord of hosts.
13 And this have ye

things offensive to, or separating from.
Almighty God ; idolatry, as the central
dereliction of God, and involving offences
against the laws of nature, but also all other
sins, as adultery, which violate His most
sacred laws and alienate from Him.
Hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which
He loved, in themselves, who had been sepa
rated and set apart by God to Himself as a
^ lioly nation. ^ Israel was holiness to the Lord.
" '' The Lord is holy, perfect holiness ; His
name, holy ; all things relating to Him, holy ;
His law, covenant and all His ordinances
and institutions holy ; Israel, His peculiar
people, an holy people ; the temple and all
things therein consecrated to Him, holy ;
Jerusalem, the city of the great God, holy ;
yea, the whole land of His inheritance, holj' ;
so that whosoever doth not observe those
due respects which to any of these belong,
may be said to have profaned the holiness which
He loved."
Unlawful marriages and unlawful lusts
were in themselves a special profanation
of that holiness. The high priest was
to ^take a virgin of his oivn people io wife,
and not to profane his seed among the people.
The priests who married strange wives, defiled
the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood ".
The marriage with idolatresses brought, as
one consequence, the profanation by their
idolatries. The prohibition is an anticipa
tion of the fuller revelation in the Gospel,
that ^the body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and so, that sins against the body are
profanations of the temple of God. " ^ As
those who acknowledge, worship and serve
the true God are called His ' soiis and daugh
ters, so they that worshiped any strange
god are, by like reason, here called the
daughters of that god. Hence the Jews say,
' * He that marrieth a heathen woraan is, as
if he raade hiraself son-in-law to an idol.' "
Hath married the daughter of a strange god.

«Jer. ii. 3. apoo.
6 Neh. xiii. 29.

1 Ex. xix. 6.
4 Lev. xxi. 14, 15.
8 1 Cor, vi, 15-20.
1 Deut. xxxii. 19, 2 Cor. vi. 18.
a Maim, in Issure biah, c. 12, 1 1, Poc,
» Not " the awakener," as if Sj? were active : for
"1) U is always intransitive, except in the correction

done again, covering the cheTst
altar of the Loed with °h-, 397.
tears, with weeping, and
with crying out, insomuch
that he regardeth not the
offering any more, or re
ceiveth it with good will
at your hand.

And so he came into closest relation with
idols and with devils.
12. The Lord will cut off ihe man that doeth
this, the master and the scholar, lit. The Lord cut
off from the num that doeth this, watcher " a'nd
answerer. A proverbial saying apparently,
in which the two corresponding classes com
prise the whole '". Yet so, probably, that
the one is the active agent ; the other, the pas
sive. The one as a waterier goes his rounds, to see
that nothing stirreth against that which he is
to guard ; the other answereth, when roused.
Together, they express the two opposite
classes, active and passive sin ; those who
originate the sin, and those who adopt or
retain it at the instigation of the inventor or
active propagator of 'it. It will not exempt
from punishment, that he was led into the sin.
From the tabernacles of Jacob. Perhaps
" he chose the word, to remind them of their
unsettled condition," out of ivhich God had
brought them.
And him thai offereth an offering unto the
Lord of hosts ; i. e. him, who, doing these
things, offereth an ofi'ering to (jod, to bribe
Him, as it were, to connivance at his sin.
In the same meaning, Isaiah says, that God
hateth " iniquity and the solemn meeting, and,
''' I hate robbery wiih burnt-offering ; or Sol
omon, '" The sacrifice of the wicked is an abom
ination to the Lord ; '* he thai turneth away his
ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an
abomination. And God by Amos says, 1^/
hate, I despise, your feast-days, and will not
accept your solemn assemblies. In one sense
the sacrifice was an aggravation, in that the
worship of God made the offence either a sin
against light, or implied that God might be
bribed i^ito connivance in the breaking of
His laws. The ancient discipline of remov
ing from Communion those guilty of grievous
sin was founded on this principle.
13. And this ye have done again, adding the
second sin of cruelty to their wives to the

of the text, Job xli, 2. In Chald. "^ly is "a
watcher," Dan, iv, 10, 14.
i» Dietrich, Abhandll. zur Hebr. Gram. p. 201 sqq.,
has instances from the Arabic, but not so energetic
as those iu the 0, T., except when they are the
same, 11 Is. i, 13. 12 Ib. Ixi. 8, la Prov. xv. 8.
"Ib. xxviii. 9. IS See vol, i. p. 299 ou Am. v. 21.

CHAPTEE II.

483

Before
CHEIST cir. 307.

1 Prov. 5. 18.

' Prov. 2. 17.

14^Yet ye say.
Wherefore? Because the
Lord hath been witness
between thee and '' the
wife of thy youth, against
whom thou hast dealt
treacherously : ' yet is she

taking foreign women ; they covered ihe cdtar
of God with tears, in that they by ill-treat
ment occasioned their wives to weep there to
God ; and God regarded this, as though they
had stained the altar with their tears.
Insomuch thai He regardeth not the offering
any more. God regarded the tears of the
oppressed, not the sacrifices of the oppres
sors. He would not accept what was thus
offered Him as a thing well-pleasing i to
Him, acceptable to win His good pleasure.
14. And ye say. Wherefore ? They again
act the innocent, or half-ignorant. What
had they to do with their wives' womanly
tears ? He Who knows the hearts of all was
Himself the witness between them and the wife
of youth of each ; her to whom, in the first fresh
ness of life and their young hearts, each had
plighted his troth, having been entrusted by
her with her earthly all. 2 i%g Lord, said
even Laban, when parting from his daughters,
watch between me and thee, when we are absent,
the one from the other ; if thou shalt afflict my
daughters, or if thou shalt take wives beside my
daughters, no 'man is with us ; see, God is witness
between me and. thee.
And he dealt treacherously against her, violat
ing his own faith and her trusting love,
ivhich she had given once for all, and could
not now retract. And she is thy companion ;
she has been another self, the companion of
thy life, sharing thy sorrows, joys, hopes,
fears, interests ; different in strength, yet in
all, good and ill, sickness and health, thy
associate and companion ; the help meet for
the husband and provided for him by God
in Paradise; and above all, tlie wife of thy
covenant, to whom thou didst pledge thyself
before God. These are so many aggrava
tions of their sin. She was the wife of their
youth, of their covenant, their companion ;
and God was the witness and Sanctifier of
their union. Marriage was instituted and
consecrated by God in Paradise. Man was to
leave father and mother (if so be), but to
cleave to his wife indissolubly. For they
were to be * no more twain, but one flesh. Hence,
as a remnant of Paradise, even the heathen
knew of marriage, as a religious act, guarded

1 pvi.
as. Matt. xix. 6.
sjlarriage Service.

' Gen. xxxi. 49, 50.
*Prov. ii. 17.
•Lap.

the Before
^^^ CHRIST cir, 397.

thy companion, and
wife of thy covenant.
15 And "did not heiMatt. 19. 4, 5.
make one? Yet had he
the 1 1 residue of the spirit. 11 Ot, excellency.
rr, ¦f ^"^^ " ^'"^ °f
And wherefore one? That g"''*-
1 • 1 -1 , n, 'Ezra 9, 2.
he might seed j'a godly 1 Cor, 7, 14.

by religious sanctions. Among God's people,
marriage was a * covenant of their God. To
that original institution of marriage he seems
to refer in the folloiving ;
15. And did 'not He, God, of Whom he had
spoken as the witness between man and his
wife, make one, viz. Adam first, to mark the
oneness of marriage and make it a law of
nature, appointing " that out of man
(created in His own image and similitude,)
woman should take her beginning, and, knit
ting them together, did teach that it should
never be lawful to put asunder those, whom
He by matrimony had made one^?"
" " Between those two, and consequently
between all other married, to be born from
thera. He willed that there should be one
indivisible union ; for Adam could be raar-
ried to no other save Eve, since no other had
been created by God, nor could Eve turn to
any other man than Adam, since there was
no other in the world. ' Infringe not then
this sanction of God, and unity of marriage,
and degenerate not from your first parents,
Adam and Eve,' " " ' If divorce had been
good, Jesus says, God would not have made
one raan and one woman, but, having made
one Adam, would have made two women, had
He meant that he should cast out the one,
bring in the other ; but now by the mode of
creation, He brought in this law, that each
should have, throughout, the wife which he
had from the beginning. This law is older
than that about divorce, as much as Adam is
older than Moses."
Yet had he the residue of the spirit ; " the
breath of life, whieh He breathed into Adam,
and man became a liring soul. All the souls,
which God would ever create, are His, and
He could have called them into being at
once. Yet in order to designate the unity of
marriage. He willed to create but one. So
our Lord argues against divorce, " Have ye
¦not read, that He which made them at the begin
ning, made them male and female ? They both
together are called one man '", and therefore
should be of one mind and spirit also, the
unity of which they ought faithfully to
preserve. i S. Chrys. de libello repud. n 2. Opp. Hi. 28. Ben.
Rib. a Gen. ii. 7. » S. Matt. xix. 4r^. 10 Gen. i. 27.

484

MALACHI.

Before
CHEIST cir. 397.
I Or, unfaitlv.
fully.

• Deut. 24. 1.
Matt. 6. 32.
& 19. 8.
II Or, if he hate
her, put her
away.
tHeb. to put
away.

seed. Therefore take heed
to your spirit, and let none
deal II treacherously
against the wife of his
youth. 16 For " the Lord, the
God of Israel, saith 1 1 that
he hateth f putting away :
for one covereth violence
with his garment, saith
the Lord of hosts : there
fore take heed to your

And wherefore one ? Seeking a seed^ of Ood,
i. e. worthy of God ; for from religious mar
riage, religious offspring may most be hoped
from God ; and by violating that law, those
before the fiood brought in a spurious, un-
sanctified generation, so that God in His dis
pleasure destroyed them all. And take heed
io your spirit', which ye too had from God,
which was His, and which He willed in
time to create. He closes, as he began,
with au appeal to man's natural feeling,
let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
youth. 16. He hateth putting away''. He had al
lowed it for the hardness of iheir hearts, yet
only in the one case of some extreme bodily
foulness ", discovered upon marriage, and
which the woman, knowing the law, con
cealed at her own peril. Not subsequent ill
ness or any consequences of it, however
loathsome (as leprosy), were a ground of
divorce, but only this concealed foulness,
which the husband found upon marriage.
The capricious tyrannical divorce, God saith.
He hateth: a word'' naturally used only
IThe Dunn, "your spirit," manifestly refers
back to " the residue of the spirit," nil INK? which,
he says, was God's,
2 The E, M, "Jf he hate her, put her away,"
(which follows Jori,) seems to enjoin what Malachi
reproves these for, their cruelty to their wives, as
also it gives an unbounded license of divorce,
a^^Dl r\)~\}} Deut, xxiv. 1, used of disgusting
foulness in the chapter before, xxiii, 15,
4 Things spoken of as objects of God's hatred,
are, " a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wieked imag
inations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that sow
eth discord araong brethren," Prov. vi, 10-19;
" pride, arrogancy, the evil way, and the froward
mouth," Ib. viii, 13 ; idolatry, De, xvi, 22, Jer, xliv.
4 " robbery with burnt-offering," Is, Ixi. 8 ; heathen
abominations, Deut. xii. 31; worship with sin. Am.
V. 21, Is. i. 14.
a No Jewish-Arabic writer notices the meaning,
which Pococke suggested, and Gesenius, Fiirst,
Ewald follow ; as if tyi37 signified "wife," because
in the Eoran Ut^^h is used, not directly for ' hus
band ' or " wife," but in its original sense, " cover-

spirit, that ye deal not qheTst
treacherously. ""'• ^^'^

17 ^^Ye have wearied 'Isai 43.24.
, _ . , , Amos 2, 13.
the Lord with your words, oh 3. 13, 14, 15.
Yet ye say. Wherein have
we wearied himP When
ye say, Every one that do
eth evil is good in the
sight of the Lord, and he
delighteth in them; or.
Where is the God of judg
ment?

as to sin, and so stamping such divorce aa
sin. One covereth riolence with his garment ^ or,
and violence covereth his garment", or, it raight
be, in the same sense, he covereth his garment
with violence'' , so that it cannot be hid, nor
washed away, nor removed, but envelopes
him and his garment ; and that, to his shame
and punishraent. It was, as it were, an
outer garment of violence, as Asaph says,
"violence covereth ihem as a gai-ment ; or
David, " he clothed himself with cursing as 'with
a gai-ment. It was like a garment with fret
ting leprosy, unclean and making unclean, to
be burned with fire^". Contrariwdse, the
redeemed saints had " washed iheir robes and
made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.
Having declared God's hatred of this their
doing, he sums up in the same words,
but more briefly; and this being ao, yeshall
take heed to your spirit, and not deal treacher
ously. 17. Ye have wearied the Lord with your
words. " '^ By your blasphemous words, full
of unbelief and mistrust, you have in a man-
ing," of each reciprocally, DPJSl CdS DNdV JH
|n7 DW3 7) " they (your wives) are a garment to
you, and you are a garment to them," So Abime
lech said to Sarah, "he [Abraham] is to thee a cover
ing (D^OD) of the eyes, unto all which are withthee,
(Gen. XX, 16). But DWD7 does not signify, either
husband or wife. In Arabic, TvlTi and ^X'&5 loose
dresses, (See Lane Arab. Lex, p. 53, 621) are used
metaph. of a wife: ("^S^ttC also of a person's self or
family as well). But there is 1.0 trace of this in
Heb, 6 According to the constr,, Nu, xvi. 33, Lev. iv, 8,
Job xxi. 26, where the thing covering is the nom
inative and 71.* is put beforethe thing covered. So
Vulg, and LXX. originally, as shewn by the Arabic
transl,, thouch now the LXX. has iv9vij.riiJ.aLTa for
evSvfjara. ( De Dicu,)
" In Ez, xxiv. 7, Job xxxvi. 32, the thing cover
ing is in the ace, with j^ of thing covered.
a Ps, Ixxiii, 6. a ib. cix. 18. i» Lev. xiii. 47-58.
" Eev. vii. 14. 12 Dion.

CHAPTEB IIL

485

Before
CHEIST cir. 397. I

CHAPTEE III.
Of the messenger, majesty and
grace of Clirist. 7 Of the re
beUion, 8 sacrilege, 13 and in
fidelity of the people. 16 The
promise of blessing io ihem
that fear God.

ner wearied God. Lie speaks of God, after
the manner of men, as a man afflicted by
tbe ills of others. Whence also the Lord
says in Isaiah, ' / am weary io bear ihem, and
2 thou hast made Me io serve with thy rins ; ihou
hast wearied Me unth thine iniquities. In like
way the Apostle says, ^ Grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God."
With the same contumacy as before, and
unconsciousness of sin, they ask. Wherein?
It is the old temptation at the prosperity of
the wicked. " Does God love the wicked ?
if not, why does He not punish them?"
"*The people, when returned from Babylon,
seeing all the nations around, and the Baby
lonians themselves, serving idols but abound
ing in wealth, strong in body, possessing all
which is accounted good in this world, and
themselves, who had the knowledge of God,
overivhelmed with want, hunger, servitude,
is scandalized and says, ' There is no provi
dence in human things ; all things are borne
along by blind chance, and not governed by
the judgment of God ; nay rather, things evil
please Him, things good displease Him ; or
if God does discriminate all things, where is
His equitable and just judgment?' Questions
of this sort minds, which believe not in the
world to come, daily raise to God, when they
see the wicked in power, the saints in low
estate ; such as Lazarus, whom we read of in
the Gospel, who, before the gate of the rich
man in his purple, desires to support his
hungry soul ivith the crumbs ivhich are
thrown away from the remnants of the table,
while the rich man is of such savagery and
cruelty, that he had no pity on his fellow-
man, to whora the tongues of the dogs
shewed pity ; not understanding the time of
judgment, nor that those are the true goods,
which are for ever, say. He is pleased
with the evil, and. Where is the God of
judgment ? "
Where is the God of the judgment ? "^'i.e. of
that judgment, the great, most certain, raost
exact, clearsighted, omniscient, raost just,
most free, wherein He regards neither
powerful nor rich nor gifts, nor aught but
justice ? For He is the God of the judgment, to
Whom it belongs by nature to judge all men
and things by an exact judgment : for His
>ls, i, 14, 21b. xliii. 24. "Eph, iv, 30.
<S, Jer, 5 Lap,
« -T-)"! nJ3 had been used only by Isaiah, xl, 3,

I will send cheTst cir. 397.

jgEHOLD^ my messenger, and he
shall " prepare the way be- » Matt, ii. lo,
fore me: and the Lord, Lukei,' 76.
whom ye seek, shall sud- ^ isai. 40. 3.
denly come to his temple.

nature is equity -itself, justice itself, provi
dence itself, and that, most just, most wise. —
To Him it belongs to be the Judge of all,
and to exercise strict judgment upon all ; and
He wdll exercise it fully on that decisive and
last day of the world, which shall be the
horizon between this life and the next, part
ing off time from eternity, heaven from hell,
the blessed f'rom the damned forever, through
Christ, Whora He constituted Judge of all,
quick and dead."
III. 1. God answers their complaints of
the absence of His judgments, that they
would come, but would include those also
who clamored for them. For no one who
knew his own sinfulness would call for the
judgment of God, as being himself, chief of
sinners. S. Augustine pictures one saying to
God, "Take away the ungodly man," and
that God answers, "Which?"
Behold, I send My 'messenger before My face,
and he shall prepare My way before Me. They,
then, were not prepared for His Coraing, for
Whom they clamored. The messengeris the
same whom Isaiah had foretold, whose words
Malachi uses " ; ' The voice of one crying in
the wilderness, Prepare^ ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a high-way for our
Ood. " Thou, child, was the pi-ophecy on S.
John Baptist's birth, shali be called ihe prophet
of the Highest ; for ihou shall go before ihe face
of the Lord io prepare His way, io give know
ledge of salvation unto His people, for ilie remis
sion of iheir sins. Kepentance was to be the
preparation for the kingdom of Christ, the
Messiah, for Whom they looked so impa
tiently. He Who speaks, is He Who should come,
God the Son. For it was before Him Who
came and dwelt among us, that the way was
to be prepared. He speaks here in His Di
vine Nature, as the Lord Who should send,
and Who should Himself come in our flesh.
In the Gospel, when He was come in the flesh,
He speaks not of His own Person but of the
Father, since " "indivisible are the operations
of the Trinity, and what the One doth, the
other Two do, since the Three are of one
nature, power and operation." Whence
Christ, in oi-der to give no excuse to the Jews
to speak against Him before the time, refers
Ivii. 14, Ixii. 10, although rfJS"? HjS, abs,, had
been used Ps, Ixxx, 10,
Us. xl. 3, a s, Luke 1. 76, ' Lap.

486

MALACHL

c H eT s T ° ^^^^ ^^^ messenger of the
eir. 397. covenant, whom ye delight

» Isai. 63. 9.

it, as He does His life ', His doctrine ',
words ^ and works * to the Father.
" ° Those works, which do not relate to
that which belongs peculiarly to each Person,
being comraon, are ascribed now to One Person,
now to Another, in order to set forth the One
Substance in the Trinity of Persons." Thus,
S. John says^, Isaiah spoke of the unbelief
of the Jews, when he saw the glory of God
the Son and spake of Him, and S. Paul says'
that the Holy Ghost spake then by him.
And he shall prepare ihe way before Me.
"°The same is God's way here, and Christ's
there, an evident proof that Christ is one
God with the Father, and that, in Christ,
God came and was manifest iu the flesh."
The prophets and all who turned men to
righteousness, or who retained theknowledge
of the truth or of righteousness or of God in
the world, did, in their degree, prepare the
way for Christ. But John was His imme
diate forerunner before His Face, the herald
of His immediate approach; whence he is
called " " the end of the law, and the begin
ning of the Gospel," " '" the lamp before the
Light, the voice before the Word, the me
diator between the Old and the New Testa
ment ; " " 11 the link of the law and of grace ;
a new morning star ; a ray, before the true
Sun should burst forth," the end of night,
the beginning of day.
And the Lord, Wliom ye seek, shali suddenly
come to His temple. He, Whose Coraing they
sought for, was Almighty God, ihe God of
Judgment '''. He Who should come, was the
IS, John vi, 57, 2ib. yii, 16,
a Ib. iii, 11, v, 43, viii. 38, 40, 47, 55, xii, 49, xiv, 10,
24, »Ib, iv. 34, V. 19, 20, 26, 30, 36, vi, 38, viii, 28, ix, 4,
X, 25,32,37,38, xiv. 10, 11,
a Rib. a g, John xii, 41, i Acts xxviii, 25.
a Poo,
« S, Thorn, 3 p, q, 38, art, 1, ad 2, See Tert in
.Marc, iv, 33, pp, 317, 31S, Edinb, Tr.
1" S, Greg, Naz, Orat, 21, n, 3 p, 387 Ben,
11 S, Chrysol, Serm, 21, Bibl. Patr, vii, 917,
12 Rashi, "The God of judgment," Ibn Ezra
siiys, " This is the glory; this is themessenger ofthe
covenant; for the sense is doubled," Abarbanel,
" Haadon is the Name which is glorified, who will
then come to His temple, the house of His sanctu
ary, and His glorious n.ame and His Shechinah
,'^hall dwell there ; and this is what they sought in
tlieir murmurings," In the "Mashmia' yeshu'ah,"
"he says, " Haadon may be explained of the king
IMessia'h," Kimchi also gives it as his first explana
tion ; " Haadon, he is the king Messiah, and he is the
angel of the covenant ; " but he gives an alternative
explanation, "or he calls Elijah the messenger of tho
covenant," Saadiah Gaon admits the ' Me,' before
whom the messenger is sent, to be the Messiah b.
David, "The forerunner of the Messiah b, David will
be like his embassador, and as one who prepareth the
people, and eleareth the wa.v, as in what is said. Be
hold 1 send &c," Sepher Haemunoth Tr, 8 de re-
demptione, (quoted by Voisin on the P, F, f, 127,)

in : behold, " he shall come, ^ h r°[s t
saith the Lord of hosts. "'¦¦• s^'?-

a Hag. 2. 7.

Lord, again Almighty God, since, in usage
too, none else is called " ihe Lord 'V' as none
else can be. The temple also, to which He
was to come, the temple of God, is His own.
The messenger, or the Angel of the covenant,
plainly, even from the parallelism, is the
same as ihe Lord. It was one, for whom they
looked ; one, of whose absence they com
plained; '^ where is the God of judgment? one,
who should corae to His temple'^; one,
whose coming they sought and prepared to
have pleasure in '" ; one, of whom it is re
peated, lo. He cometh " ; one, in the day of
whose coming, at whose appearing, it was
asked, who shall stand? "^"AU Christian in
terpreters are agreed that this Lord is Christ,
'" Whom Ood hath made both Lord and Christ,
and 211^0 is Lord over all; by Whom all
things were made, are sustained and gov
erned ; Who is (as the root of the word '" im
ports) the basis and foundation, not of any
private family, tribe or kingdom, but of all ;
22 by Whom are all things and we by Him : and
Whose we are also by right of redemption ;
and so He is '''' Lord of lords and King of
kings, deservedly called the Lord." As then
the special presence of God was often indi
cated in connection with the Angel of the
Lord, so, here. He Who was to come was en
titled the Angel or messenger of the cove
nant, as God also calls Him the covenant it
self, ^'' I will give Thee for u, covenant of the
people, a light of the Gentiles. He it was, ^ the
Angel of His Presence, Who saved His former
people, in Whom His Name was, and Who,
The author of the older Nizzachon (whether seri
ously or to have something to say) said, "He is sent
and is not God," Wagenseil p, 126. Tanehum says,
" they are promised a time, in which transgressors
will be requited with a swift retribution by the just
king whom God will raise up to the rule, and lie is
the king Messiah,"
The Jews are agreed also that the messenger is
no ordinary person, Ibn Ezra supposes him to be
the Messiah b, Joseph, holding accordingly I hat he,
before whose face he should eome, was the Messiah
ben David : Kimchi, that it was an angel from heaven
(as in Ex, xxiii, 20,) to guard them in the way. But
to guard in the way is not to prepare the way before
him; Eashi and the author of the Abkath roehel,
"the angel of death who should clear away the
wicked;" Abarbanel, that itwas Malachi- hirnself;
but he who is promised through Malachi, was yet
to eome,
1" jnxn Ex, xxiii, 17, xxxiv, 23, Is, i, 24, iii, 1, x.
16, .33, xxix. 4, [all, beside this place,]
'*ii-l'?- imVj'H Sn Kir.iii, 1.
i»D'typ3D, D'-Xin Ib. 17 K3 njn. laPoo.
" Acts ii. 36. 20 lb. X. 36.
21 Poc,, (as Abulvvalid,Menahem, Parchon, Kimchi)
derives ]nN from pN.
22 1 Cor, viii, 6. 2a Eev. xvii. 14, xix, 16.
'* Is, xlii, 6. 25 lb. Ixiii. 9.

CHAPTEE III.

487

Before
CHEIST cir. 397.
• eh. 4. 1.
'Eev. 6. 17.

2 But who may abide
' the day of his coming ?
and ' who shall stand when

by the prerogative of God, would ' not par-
dhn their transgressions. He should be ^ ihe
Mediator of ihe new and better covenant which
is promised; "not according to the covenant,
that I made with their fathers, in ihe day when I
took them by the hand to lead ihem out of the land
of Egypt, which My covenant they brake, al
though I was a husband unto them, saith the
Lord ; but this shall be the covenant, thai I will
¦make wiih tlie house of Israel after those days,
saiih ihe Lord, I will put My law in their in
ward pai-is, and write it in their hearts, and will
be thrir God and they shall be My people.
Whom ye seek, are seeking. Whom ye delight
in, i. e. profess so to do ; He will eome, but
will be very different from Him whom ye
look for, an Avenger on your enemies.
Judgment will come, but it will begin with
yourselves. Shall suddenly come, "* unawares, when men
should not think of them ; whence perhaps
it is that the Jews reckon the Messiah
among what shall come unawares ". As, it is
here said of His first Coming, so it is
said of His second Coming (which may
be comprehended under this here, spoken of)
that except they diligently watch for it, " ii
shall come upon ihem unawares, ''suddenly, "in
such an hour as they think not. "'The Lord
of glory always comes, like a thief in the
night, to those who sleep in their sins."
Lo, He will come : he insists again and calls
tlieir minds to that Coming, certain, swift,
new, wonderful, on which all eyes should be
set, but His Coming would be a sifting-time.
2. And who may abide ihe day of His com
ing ? And who shall stand when He appeareth ?
The implied answer is, " No one ; " as in the
Psalm, *" If Thou, Lord, wilt mark iniquities, 0
Lord, who shall stand ? Joel had asked the
same, " The day of the Lord is great a'nd very
terrible; and 'Who can abide it ? "i^How can
the weakness of man endure such might ; his
blindness, such light ; his frailty, such power ;
his uncleanness, such holiness ; the chaff, such
a fire ? For He is like a refiner's fire. Who
would not fail through stupefaction, fear,
horror, shrinking reverence, from such
majesty ? "

1 Ex. xxiii. 21, 2 Heb. xii. 24, viii, 6,
a Jer. xxxi. 32, 33, Heb. viii. 9. * Poc.
6 " Buxt. Lex. Ch. et Talm. v. HDJ " Poc.
«S. Luke xxi. 35.
I a. Mark xiii. 36.
a S, Matt, xxiv, 44. " Schmieder.
1" Ps. cxxx. 3.
11 Jo. ii. 11, IjVd' 'DI; Jer. x. 10, " The nations
shall not abide ilhy) BU Indignation:' Vulg. has,

he appeareth ? for » he w ^^ h r"! t
like a refiner's fire, and "'''¦ 3^7,
like fullers' soap :

E See Is, 4, 4,
Matt. 3, 10, 11,
12.

Malachi seems to blend, as Joel, the first
and second coming of our Lord. The first
Coming too was a time of sifting and sever
ance, according as those, to whora He came,
did or did not receive Him. The severance
was not final, because there was yet space for
repentance ; but it was real, an earnest of
the final judgment. ''"For judgment, our
Lord says, / am ceme inio this world, that they
which see not 'may see, and they which see might
be made blind ; and again, " Now is the judg
ment of this world ; and, '^ He that believeth not
is condemned already, because he hath not be
lieved on the name of the Only-Begotten Son of
God ; '" He that believeth not the Son, .shall not
see life, but ihe wrath of Ood abideth on him.
As, on the other hand. He saith, '''whoso
eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath
eternal life ; and ''" he that bdieveth on the Son
hath everlasting life ; " halh," He saith ; not,
"shall have ; " hath it, in present reality and
earnest, though he may forfeit it : so the
other class is condemned already, although the
one may repent and be saved, the other may
'"turn from his righteousness and commit in
iquity; and if he persevere in it, shall die
therein. It is then one ever-present judg
ment. Every soul of man is in a state
of grace or out of it ; in God's favor or under
His wrath ; and the judgment of the Great
Day, in which the secrets of men's hearts
shall be revealed, will be but an outward
manifestation of that now hidden judgment.
But the words, in their fullest sense, imply a
passing of that judgment, in which men do
or do not stand, as in tliose of our Lord, ''"As
a snare shall that day come on all ihose that
dwell on theface of ihe whole earth. Watch ye,
therefore, and pray always, that ye may be ac
counted worthy io escape all these things which
shall come to pass, and io stand before the Son of
Man ; and S. Paul, " Take unto you the whole
amior of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, a'nd, having done all, to stand;
and in the Revelation, 22 They said io the
mountains and rocks ; Fall on us, and hide us
from the wi-aih of Him that sitteth upon the
throne, and from the lorath of the Lamb. For
the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall
cogitare, i, e. who shall comprehend? But 7J7J,
in this sense, is used of actual containing, the
heaven of heavens cannot contain the Infinite God, (1
Kgs viii, 27, 2 Chr, ii, 5, [6 Eng,] vi, 18.) not of intel
lectually comprehending.
12 Lap, la S, John ix, 39, " Ib, xii, 31,
isib, iii, 18, laib, 36,
I'lb, vi, 54, laib, 47,
18 Ezek. xxxiii. 18. 20 s. Luke xxi, .35, 36,
21 Eph. vi. 13. 22 Eev. vi, 16, 17.

488

MALACHI.

Before
CHRIST cir. 397. ;],

>¦ Isai. 1. 25.
Zeoh. 13. 9.

3 And ""he shall sit as
refiner and jiurifier of
silver : and he shall purify
the sons of Levi, and

be able to stand ? Asaph says of a temporal,
yet, for this lile, final destruction ; 'At Thy
rebuke, 0 God of Jacob, both the chariot ancl
horse are east into a deep sleep. Thou art to be
feared, and who may stand in Thy sight, when
Thou art angry ?
For He is like a refiner's flre, and like fuller's
soap. Two sorts of materials for cleansing
are mentioned, the one severe, where the
baser materials are inworked with the rich
ore ; the other mild, where the defilement is
easily separable. " ' He shall come like a
refining fire; "a flre shcdl bum before Him,
and it shall be very tempestuous round about
Him. Then He shcdl call the heaven from above,
a'nd the earth, that He may judge H'ls people;
streams of fire shall sweep before, bearing
away all sinners. For the Lord is called a
fire, and a * consuming flre, so as to burn our
^ wood, hay, stubble. And not fire only, but
fullei^s soap". To those ivho sin heavily. He
is a refining anti consuming fire, but to those
who commit light s'ms, fuller' s soap, to restore
cleanness to it, when washed." Yet, though
light in comparison, this too had its severity ;
for clothes which were washed (of which the
word is used) w-ere trarapled ' on by the feet.
" ° The nltrum and the fuller's soap is peni
tence." Yet the whiteness and purity so
restored, is, at the last, perfected. Inspira
tion could find no more adequate comparison
for ua, for the brightness of our Lord's
raiment from the glory of the Transfigura
tion, than, "exceeding vjhite as snow; so as no
fuller on earth ean white them.
Our Lord is, in many ways, as a fire. He
says of Hiraself; "*/ am come to send afire
upon earth, and what will I, if it be already
kindled? S. John Baptist said of Him, "He
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost ancl
with fire. He kindles in the heart " a fire of
love," wliich softens wdiat is hard, will

iPs, Ixxvi. 6, 7,
¦> Deut, iv, 24.

2S, Jer,

a Ps, I. 3, 4,
ai Cor, iii. 12.

* ri''"l3 is a generic name for materials lor cleans
ing; but various plants, possessing alkaline quali
ties, grew and grow in Palestine, and "iiali" is
still an article of trade. Being united with "Ijlj
Jer, ii. 22, it has been su]>posed the " borith " is a
vegetable, as contracted with in], a mineral,
"Fur the herb Bordh, the LXX, have translated
TToav, to signify the herb of fullers, which accord
ing tothe wont ot Palestine grows in luxuriant moist
places, aiii.l has thesame virtue for clean-ing defile
ments as nitrum," .S, Jer, on Jerem, ii, ',:!1.
^ D33, (only used in Piel, except in the part, of
the obsolete Kal, Comp,, with Ges,, i!;33 and DU
as, Jer, ib, i>S, Mark ix,3, i»S, Luke xii, 49,
"lb ui, 16,
i2Transl,of Whitsun-hymn, Veni Stiuote Spiritus,

purge them as gold and cH'j{°f|r[,
silver, that they may ' of- . '=i''- '^st.

fer unto the Lord an of-iiPet2. 5.
fering in righteousness.

" ''' Wash whate'er of stain is here.
Sprinkle what is dry or sere.
Heal and bind the wounded sprite;
Bend wdiate'er is stubborn still.
Kindle what is cold and chill,
A\'hat hath wandered guide aright."
But as God is a consuming fire. Who must
burn out the dross, unless we be ''^ reprobate
silver which the founder melteth in vain, either
He must, by His grace, consume the sin
within us, or must consume us with it, in
hell. 3. And He shall rii '% as a King and Judge
on His throne, with authority, yet also to
try accurately the cause of each, separating
seeming virtues from real graces ; hypocrites,
more or leas consciously, from His true ser
vants. He shall purify '" the sons of Leri. These
had been first the leaders in degeneracy, the
corrupters of the people by their example
and connivance. Actually '" a great company
of Ihe priests were obedient to ihe faith. Barna
bas also was a Levite ¦'. But more largely,
as Zion and .Jerusalem are the titles for the
Christian Church, and Israel who believed
was the true Israel, so the sons of Levi are the
true Levites, the Apostles and their succes
sors in the Christian priesthood.
It was through three centuries of persecu
tions that the Church was purified by fire.
That they may offer, lit. and they shall be
unto th: Lord offerers of a meal-offering in
righteousness, i. e. they shall be such, and
that, habitually, abidingly. Again, here and
in the next words, and the meal-offering of
Judah shall be pleasant unto the Lord, it is re
markable, that the meal-offering, to which the
Holy Eucharist corresponds, is alone men
tioned. Of bloody offerings Malachi is silent ;
for they were to cease.
in Hymns for the Week and the Seasons p. 105.
1848, la Jer, vi, 29, 30,
i*The usual word for sitting on a throne. Ex, xii.
29, Deut. xvii, 18, 1 Kgs i, 13, 17, 46, 4S, ii. 12, 24, iii,
6, viii, 20, 25, xvi, 11, xxii. 10, 2 Kgs x, 30, xi, 19, xiii.
13, XV. 12, Ps, exxxii, 12, Pr, xx, 8, Is, xvi, 5, Jer,
xiii, 13, xvii, 25, xxii, 4, ,10, xxxiii, 17, xxxvi. 30,
Zech, vi, 13; or for judgment. Ex, xviii, 13, Jud. v.
10, Ps, cx.xii, 5, Is, xxviii. 6, Jer, xxix, 10, Dan. vii.
9. 21;, Jo, iii, 12, Of God, Ps, ii, 4, ix, 5, 8, xxix, 10,
xlvii. 8, Iv. 20, 1 Kgs xxii, 19, Is, vi, 1. and otliers.
I'ppi, probably originaUy "strained," used of
wine. Is. xxvi. 0, but thence perhaps, the first
meaning being lost, of precious metals ; gold. Job
xxviii, 1, 1 Chr, xxviii, hS, silver, Ps, xii. 7, 1 Chr.
xxix. 4.
i» Acts vi. 7, II Ih, iv, 36.

CHAPTEE ni.

489

Before
CHEIST cir. 397 .

4 Then "shall the ofier-
.ing of Judah and Jerusa-
'ch. 1. 11. lem be pleasant unto the
Lord, as in the days of
I Or, onciCTi. old, and as 1 1 in former
years.

In righteousness, as Zacharias prophesied,
that we might serve Him in holiness and
righteousness before Him all the days of our
life. 4. Then [Audi] sliall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem. The law, the new revelation
of God, was to ^go forth from Zion and the
word ofthe Lord from Jerusalem. Judah and
Jerusalem then are here the Christian
Church. They shall be pleasant [lit. sweet]
unto ihe Lord. It is a reversal [using the
self-same word] of whaj. God had said of
them in the time of their religious decay,
' they shaU not offer wine-offerings to ihe Lend,
'neither shcdl they be sweet unio Him; "your
burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sac
rifices sweet unto Me.
As in ihe days of old, before the days of
degeneracy ; as it stands in the ancient
Liturgies, "* "Vouchsafe to look upon them
[the consecrated oblations] with a propitious
and serene Countenance, and to accept thera,
as Thou vouchsafedst to accept the gifts of
Thy righteous Abel and the sacrifice of our
Patriarch Abraham, and the holy sacrifice,
the imraaculate oflering, which Thy high
priest Melchisedec oflered unto Thee,"
"^The oblation of the sacrament of the
Eucharist, raade by the Jews who should
believe in Christ, which is known to have
been first instituted by Christ in the city of
Jerusalem, and afterward to have been con
tinued by His disciples'", shall be pleasing
unto the Lord, as the sacrifices of the Patri
archs, Melchisedec, Abraham, and the holy
priests in the law, as Aaron ; yea, the truth
takes precedence of the figure and shadow ;
the sacrifice of the new law is more excellent

lis. ii. 3. 2Ho3, ix.4. ajer. vi. 20,
4 Canon Missse, So in S, James' Liturgy, in the
prayer of the incense, " 0 God, Who didst receive
the gift of Abel, and the sacrifice of Noah and
Abraham, the incense of Aaron and Zachariah,"
Ass. Cod, Lit, T, v. p. 0. " Eeceive from the hand
of us sinners this ineense, as Thou didst receive
the oblation of Abel and Noah and Aaron and all
Thy saints." Ib, p, 6. " Grant us. Lord, with fear
and a pure conscience to present to Thee this
spiritual and unbloody Sacrifice, which, when Thou
hast received on Thy holy supercelestial and
.spiritual altar, as a sweet savor, do Thou send
back to us the grace of Thine All-holy Spirit, and
look upon us, 0 God, and regard this our reason
able service and accept it, as Thou didst accept the
gilts of Abel, the sacrifice of Noah, the priesthoods
of Moses and Aaron, the peaoe-offerings of Samuel,
the repentance of David, 'the incense of Zaehary.
A3 Thou didst receive this true worship from the

5 -Ajid I will come near ^ ^ eTs t
cir. 397.

to you to judgment ;_ and I
will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers, and
against the adulterers, ' and ' zech. 5, 4.
" . Jam. 5. 4, 12.
against raise swearers, and

and acceptable to God, than all the sacrificea
of the law or before the law. With this
agrees what the Lord saith to the synagogue,
' I will turn My liand upon thee, and purely
purge away thy dross, and take away all ihy tin ;
and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and
ihy counsellors, as at ihe beginning: and tlie
destruction of the transgressors, and of the rin-
ners, shall be together, and they that forsake the
Lord shall be consumed." So now it follows ;
5. And I will come near io you to judgment.
They had clamored for the coming of the
God of judgment ; God assures them that He
will come to judgment, which they had de
sired, but far other than they look for. The
few would be purified ; the great mass of
them (so that He calls them you), the main
body of those who had so clamored, would
find that He came as a Judge, not for them
but against them.
And I will be a sirifl witness. "* In judging
I will bear witness, and witnessing, I, the
Same, ivill bring forth judgment, saith the
Lord ; therefore the judgment shall be ter
rible, since the judge is an infallible witness,
whom the conscience of no one will be able
to contradict."
God would be a swift untness, as Lie had
said before. He shall come suddenly. Our Lord
calls Hiraself " the Faithful and True witness,
when He stands in the midst of tbe Church,
as their Judge. God's judgments are always
unexpected by those, on whom they fall. The
sins are those specially condemned by the
law ; the use of magical arts as drawing men
away frora God, the rest as sins of special
malignity. Magical arts were rife at the
time of the Coming of our Lord " ; and
hand of Thine Apostle, so, in Thy goodness, receivo
also from us sinners the gifts which lie before Thee,
and grant that our oblation may be acceptable,
hallowed in the Holy Spirit, &c," Ib, p. 29, 3ii,
s Dion. « S. Matt, xxvi. [29] Acts ii. 42, 40.
I Is, i, 25, 26, 28,
8 Rev, iii. 14, i,5, " I, and not other witnesses, hav
ing seen with Mv own eyes." Theod, S, Jer,
»See Introduction to Zechariah pp, 330, 331, and
on Zech, xiii, 2, p, 442, Lightfoot, on S, Matt, xxiv,
24,, quotes Maimonides, alleging that one " elected
in the Sanhedrin ought to be learned in the arts of
astrologers, diviners, ,soothsayers &c, that he
might be able to judge those guilty thereof" San
hedrin e, 2, He mentions the belief that many had
perished thereby (Hieros, Sanhedr, 1. 18, 3), 80 wo
men hung in one day for it at Ascalon, (^Ib, f 23, 3.
Babyl. Sauh. f. 44, 2 ;') lor that " the Jewish women
had greatiy broken out into such practices." Glosi
lb.

490

MALACHI.

0 11 eTs t ^gS'iiist those that | ] oppress
cir, 397. the hireling in his wages,
1 Or, defraud, the widow, and the father
less, and that turn aside

adultery, as shewn in the history of the woman
taken in adultery, when her accusers were
convicted in their own consciences '.
Oppress the hireling, lit. oppress the hire' i. e.
deal oppressively in it. Behold, says S.
James '', ihe hire of the laborers who have reaped
down your fields, which is by you kept back by
fraud, crieth ; and the cries of them whieh have
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. The mere delay in the payment of
the wages of the laborer brought sin unto him,
against whom he cried to God ¦*. It is no
light sin, since it is united with the heaviest,
and is spoken of as reaching the ears of God.
The widow and the fatherless stand in a
relation of special nearness to God.
Ancl fear not Me. He closes with the
central defect, which was the mainspring of
all their sins, the absence of the fear of God.
The commission of any of these sins, rife as
they unhappily are, proves that those who
did thera had no fear of God. " " Nothing
hinders that this should be referred to the
first Coming of Christ. For Christ, in preach
ing to the Jews, exercised upon them a
judgment of just rebuke, especially of the
priests. Scribes and Pharisees, as the Gospels
shew." 6. lam the Lord, I change not, better, more
concisely, /, ihe Lord ", change not. The
proper name of God, He Who Is, involves
His Unchangeableness. For change implies
imperfection ; it changes to that which is
either more perfect or less perfect : to some
what which that being, who changes, is not
or has not. But God has everything in
Himself perfectly. " ' Thou Alone, O Lord,
Art what Thou Art, and Thou Art Who Art.
For what is one thing in the whole and another
in parts, and wherein is anything subject to
change, is not altogether what Is. And
what beginneth from not being, and can be
conceived, as not being, and only subsisteth
1 S. John viii, 9, adulterous generation. S. Matt.
xii, 39. Lightfoot on S, John viii, 3 quotes Sotah f.
47, 1, " From the time that homicides were mul
tiplied, the beheading of the heifer ceased: from
the time that adulterers were multiplied, the bitter
waters ceased : " and Maimonides on Sotah, c, 3,
" When the adulterers multiplied under the 2d
Temple, the Sanhedrin abolished the ordeal of the
adulteressss by the bitter water ; rehnng on its Idc-
ing written, 'I will not visit your daughters when
the.v commit whoredom, nor your spouses when
they commit adultery.' " Lightfoot subjoins, " The
Gemarists teach that Johanan b, Zacc'hai was the
author of that advice, who was still alive, in the
Sanhedrin, and perhaps among those who brought
the adulteress before Christ, For some things
make it probable, that the Scribes and Pharisees,
mentioned here, were elders of the Synagogue,"

cir. 397.

the stranger from his right, ^ h ^"i s t
and fear not me, saith the _
Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Loed,

through another thing, returns to not-being ;
and what hath a ' has been,' which now is
not, and a 'to be,' ivhich as yet is not, that is
not, properly and absolutely. But Thou Art
what Thou Art. For whatever Thou Art in
any time or way, that Thou Art wholly and
always ; aud Thou Art, Who Art properly
and simply, because Thou hast neither ' to
have been ' or ' to be about to be ; ' but only
to be present ; and canst not be conceived,
ever not to have been." '"* There is only
one simple Good, and therefore One Alone
Unchangeable, which is God."
Our life is a " becoming " rather than a
simple "being;" it is a continual losing of
what we had, and gaining what we had not ;
for " ' in as far as any one is not what he was,
and is what he was not, so far forth he dieth
and ariseth ; " dieth to what he was, ariseth
to be something otherwise.
" '" Increase evidences a beginning ; de
crease, death and destruction. And there
fore Malachi says, I am God, a'nd I change not,
ever retaining His own state of being ; be
cause what has no origin cannot be changed."
So the Psalmist says, " As a vesture, Thou
shalt change them and they shall be changed, but
Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall not fail ;
and Balaam, controlled by God, ''¦' Ood is not
a man, tliai lie should lie, or the son of man, that
He should repent ; and, ''^ with Whom is no vari
ableness, neither shadow of turning.
Of this unchangeableness of God, His holy
ones partake, as far as they fix themselves on
God, " " The soul of man hangs upon Him,
by Whom it was made. And because it was
made, to desire God Alone, but everything
ivhich it desires below is less than He, rightly
doth not that suffice it, which is not God.
Hence is it, that the soul is scattered hither
and thither, and is repelled from everything,
toward which it is borne, through satiety of
them. But holy men guard themselves by
S, Justin reproaches them with having fresh wives,
wherever they went throughout the world. Dial.
fin, p, 243. Oxf Tr,
2ioa' ^^Dil> '•ptiiy, as in mi, u. 2, ^^i iptvj;
IJT'Dl oppress a man and his house.
a S, Jas, v, 4. i Deut, xxiv. 14, 15, 5 Dion,
a The Lord is in apposition to /, as, in the follow
ing clause, the sons of .Jacob to ye. The two clauses
correspond in form,
I, CJX) the Lord, change not;
¦i'e, (DnXl) sons of Jaeob, are uot consumed.
' S, Anselm Prosl, c. 22, p. 34 Ben.
as, Aug. de Civ. Dei xi. 10.
»S. Aug. Conf xi. 7. p, 291. Oxf Tr.
11 Novatian de Trin. e. 4, n Ps cii 27
i2Nu xxiii, 19, - 13 S. Jas. i. 17.
" S. Greg, Mor. xxvi. 44. n. 79. Ben.

CHAPTEE III.

491

c H rTs t " ^ change not ; " therefore
cir. 397, Jf. sQjjg Qf Jacob are not
consuraed.

" Num. 23. 19.
Rom. 11. 29.
Jam. 1. 17.
¦" Lam. 3, 22. ™
• Acts 7. 61. 01

p Zech. 1. 3.

7 *f[ Even from the days
your fathers ye are
gone away from mine or
dinances, and have not
kept them. '' Return unto
me, and I will return unto
you, saith the Lord of

cautious observation, lest they should be re
laxed from their intentness by change, and
because they desire to be the same, wisely
bind themselves to the thought, whereby
they love God. For in the contemplation of
the Creator, they wdll receive this, that they
should ever enjoy one stability of mind. No
changeableness then dissipates them, because
their thought ever perseveres, free frora un
likeness to itself. This therefore they now
imitate, striving with effort, ivhich hereafter
they shall with joy receive as a gift. To
which unchangeableness the prophet had
bound himself by the power of Jove, when he
said, ' One thing 1 required of the Lord, which I
will require, thai I may dwell in ihe house of ihe
Lord. To this unity Paul clave intently,
when he said, ' One thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and stretching forth
to those things which are before, I press forward
toward the mark for the prize of ihe high calling
of Ood in Christ Jesus."
And ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Man
would often have become weary of man's
wickedness and waywardness. We are im
patient at one another, readily despair of
one another. God might justly have cast off
them aud us ; but He changes not. He
abides by the covenant which He made with
their fathers ; He consumed them not ; but
with His own unchangeable love awaited
their repentance. Our hope is not in our
selves, but in God.
7. Even from the days of your fathers. Back
to those days and from them ", ye are gone away
from My ordinances. "''I am not changed
from good ; ye are not changed from evil.
I am unchangeable in holiness ; ye are un
changeable in perversity."
Return unto Me. The beginning of our re
turn is from the preventing grace of God.
" Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned ; for
Thou art ihe Lord my Ood, is the voice of the
soul to God, preparing for His grace ; " turn
IPs, xxvii. 4. 2phii. iii, 13, 14. "'O^'oh.
4 Rup.
a Jer. xxxi. 18. Lam. v, 21,
a Ps, Ixxxv. 4, I nann Num. XV. 19, 20.
a Ex. xxx, 13-15.

hosts. 'But ye said, chrTst
Wherein shall we return ? g"- '^^''-
8 "[[Will a man rob i ch. i. 6.
God ? Yet ye have robbed
me. But ye say. Wherein
have we robbed thee? ''In 'Neh, 13. lo, 12.
tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a
curse : for ye have robbed
me, even this whole nation.

us, 0 God of our sal.vation. For, not in its
own strength, but by His grace can the soul
turn to God. Turn ihou io Me and I will re
turn unio you, is the Voice of God, acknowl
edging our free-will, and promising His
favor, if we accept His grace in return.
And ye say. Wherein shallwe return ? Strange
ignorance of the blinded soul, unconscious
that God has aught against it I It is the
Pharisaic spirit in the Gospel. It would
own itself doubtless in general terms a sinner,
but when called on, wholly to turn to God,
as being wholly turned from Him, it asks,
" In what ? What would God have of me ? "
as if ready to do it.
8. Shall a man rob or cheat, defraud God ?
God answers question by question, but thereby
drives it home to the sinner's soul, and ap
peals to his conscience. The conscience is
steeled, and answers again. In what ? God
specifies two things only, obvious, patent,
which, as being material things, they could
not deny. In tithes and offerings. The offer
ings included several classes of dues to God,
a) the first fruits' ; b) the annual half-
shekel ' ; c) the offerings made for the tab
ernacle", and the second temple'" at its first
erection ; it is used of ordinary oflerings " ;
d) of the tithes of their own tithes, which the
Levites paid to the priests " ; e) of the por
tions of the sacrifice which accrued to the
priests '".
9. Ye have been cursed with the curse (not
"with a curse"). The curse threatened had
come upon them: but, as fore-supposed in
Leviticus by the repeated burthen. If ye still
walk contrary to Me, they had persevered in
evil. God had already shewn His displeas
ure. But they, so far from being amended by
it, were the more hardened in their sin. Per
haps as men do, they pleaded their punish
ment, as a reason why they should not amend.
They defrauded God, under false pretences.
They were impoverished by His curse, and
a Ib. xxv, 2, 3, xxxv. 5, 21, 24, xxxvi, 3, 6,
10 Ezr. viii, 25,
11 2 Chr, xxxi. 10, 12 (where IK'.JJDn and HDnnn
are joined, as here, but iu inverse order.)
12 Nu. xviii. 26, 28, 29. laLev. vii. 14.

492

MALACHI.

Before
CHEIST cir. 397,
¦ Prov, 3. 9, 10.
«lChr. 26. 20.
2 Chr. 31. 11.
Neh, 10. 38.
& 13. 12.

10 "Bring ye all the
tithes into ' the storehouse,
that there may be meat in
mine house, and prove me

so they could not afford to pay the tithes ;
as men say, " the times are bad ; so we cap-
not help the poor" of Christ. And Me ye
still are defrauding ' ; Me, ye ; man, God.
And that not one or other, but ihis whole
people. It was a requital as to that, in which
they had offended. " '' Because ye have not
rendered tithes and first-fruits, therefore ye
are cursed in famine and penury." " ' Be
cause the people did not render tithes and
first-fruits to the Levites, the Lord saith, that
He Hiraself suffered fraud. Whose ministers,
constrained by hunger and penury, deserted
the temple. For, if He is visited by others
in prison, and sick, is received and cared for,
and, hungry and athirst, receives food and
drink, why should He not receive tithes in
His ministers, and, if they are not given, be
Himself deprived of His portion ?"
10. Bring the whole tithes, not a part only,
keeping back more or less, and, as he had
said, defrauding God, offering, like Ananias,
a part, as if it had been the whole; into the
treasury, where they were collected in the
time of Hezekiah ", and again, at this time,
by the direction of Nehemiah, so that there
shall be food*, not superfluity, in My house,
" " for those who minister in the house of My
sanctuary." " The Levites and singers had,
before the reformation, fled every one to his
field, because the portion of the Levites had not
been given them. On Nehemiah's remon
strance, aided by Malachi, the tithe of corn and
the wine and the new oil were brought into tlie
treasuries. Bring the wliole tithes. '"Thou knowest
that all things which come to thee are God's,
and dost not thou give of His own to the Cre
ator of all ? The Lord God needeth not : Lie
asketh not a reward, but reverence : He
asketh not anything of thine, to restore to
Him. He asketh of thee first-fruits and tithes.
Niggard, what wouldest thou do, if He took
nine parts to Himself, and left thee the
tenth?— What if He said to thee; 'Man,
1 D'.J73b. According to its probable etym.
("withdrew and so hid," Arab,), it might be de
frauding rather than open robbery. But it has not
this metaph. meaning in Arabic, Abulw. Tanehum,
Hunt, 206,, render it of open violence DSJ?. J73p
occurs, beside, in Hebrew only in Pr. xxii, 23, The
Lord wdl plead their cause and wilt spoil those who
spoil them, i, e. He will requite them as they have
done ; in the same bold language, as in Ps. xviii. 17.
2S, Jer.
82 Chr. xxxi. 11. sqq. Neh. x. 38, 32, xii. 44. xiii.
12. * '^^D, food, as Pr. xxxi. 15, Ps. cxi. 5.

now herewith, saith the
Loed of hosts, if I will

Before
CHEIST cir. 397.

. , uGen, 7. 11.
not open you the "windows 2 Kin. 7. 2.
„ , 1 J.V fHeb, empty
of heaven, and f pour out
« 2 Chr. 31. 10.

thou art Mine, Who made thee ; Mine is the
land which thou tillest ; Mine are the seeds,
which thou sowest ; Mine are the animals,
which thou weariest ; Mine are the showers,
Mine the winds, Mine the sun's heat ; and
since Mine are all the elements, whereby
thou livest, thou who givest only the labor
of thine hands, deservest only the tithes.'
But since Almighty God lovingly feeds us.
He gives most ample reward to us who labor
little: claiming to Himself the tithes ouly.
He has condoned us all the rest."
And prove Me now herewith, in or by this
thing. God pledges Himself to Llis creatures,
in a way in which they themselves can verify.
"If you will obey, I will supply all your
needs ; if not, I will continue your dearth."
By whatever laws God orders the material
creation, ITe gave them a test, of the comple
tion of which they themselves could judge, of
which they themselves must have judged.
They had been afflicted with years of want.
God promises them years of plenty, on a con
dition which He names. Wh^t would men
think now, if any one had, in God's name,
promised that such or such a disease, which
injured our crops or our cattle, should come
at once to an end, if any one of God's laws
should be kept? We should have been held
as fanatics, and rightly ; for we had no com
mission of God. God authenticates those by
whom He speaks ; He promises. Who alone
can perform.
" " There be three keys which God hath re
served in His own hands, and hath not deliv
ered to any to minister or substitute, the ke.ys
ot life, of rain, and of the resurrection. In
the ordering of the rain they look on His
great power, no less than in giving life at
first, or afterward raising the dead to it ; as
S. Paul saith, "God left not Himself without wit
ness, in tliat He did good and gave rain from
heaven and fruitful seasons."
If I will not open the uiindows of heaven '". In
the time of ihe flood, they were, as it were,

a Jon. a Neh, xiii. 10-23,
' App. Serm, S, Aug, 277. Opp, v, App. p, 461, " Not
S, Augustine's ; more like Cgesarius than S. Aug."
Ben, a Poc, quoting Sanhedr. u. Chelek, and Taanith
u, 1, a Acts xiv, 17.
la The exact expression occurs only iu the history
of the flood. Gen. vii, 11, viii, 2 ; m the scoffing
courtier's speech, ironically, of God " malcing win
dows in heaven " (D'Dty^), 2 Kgs vii, 2, and, per
haps in reference tothe flood, Isaiah says, "win-
doivs from on high are opened, and tlie. foundations
of the garth do shake." Is. xxiv. 18.

CHAPTER III.

493

chrTst y°^ °^* ^ blessing, that
cir. 397. there shall not be room

enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke
I Amos 4. 9. 'the devourer for your
sakes, and he sliall not
fHeb. corrupt, f destroy the fruits of your
ground ; neither shall your
vine cast her fruit before

opened, to man's destruction : now, God would
rain abundantly /or you, for their sakes. And
pour you out, lit. empty out io you, give to them
fully, holding back nothing. So in the Gos
pel it is said, that the love of God is shed
abroad'-, poured out and forth in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given io us.
That there be not room enough to receive it ;
Ut. wntU there be 'no sufficiency ''. The text does
not express what should not suffice, whether
it be on God's part or on man's. Yet it were
too great irony, if understood of God. His
superabundance, above all which we can ask or
think, is a first principle in the conception of
God, as the Infinite Source of all being.. But
to say of God, that He would pour out Llis
blessing, until man could not contain it, is
one bliss of etSrnity, that God's gifts will
overflow the capacity of His creatures to re
ceive them. The pot of oil poured forth the
oil, until, on the prophet's saying, "Bring me
yet a vessel, the widow's son said. There is not
a vessel more. And the oil stayed. God's gifts
are limited only by our capacity to receive
them. 11. And Iwill rebuke the devourer, the locust,
caterpillar, or any like scourge of God. It
might be, that when the rain watered the
fields, the locust or caterpillar &c. might de
stroy the corn, so that the labors of man
should perish ; wherefore he adds, / will re
buke ihe devourer. Neither .shall your vine cast
her fruit* before the time, Iiolding out a fair
promise, but cut off by the frost-wind or the
hail ; the blossoms or the unripe fruit strew
ing the earth, as a token of God's dis
pleasure. 12. All nations shall call you blessed. The
promise goes beyond the temporal prosperity
of their immediate obedience. Few could
1 eKKcxvraL Eom. V. 5,
2 In Ps. Ixxii. 3 (quoted by Ges. Ros. &c.) "there
thall be abundance of peace nT' ''73 HJ?, lit "until
there he no moon," has a literal meaning, that the
peace should last until the end of our creation,
without saying anything of what lies beyond.
a 2 Kgs iv. 0.
*b3E', used elsewhere as to the animal world, is
used of a land, 2 Kgs ii. 19, whence rhTm lb. 21.

Before
CHRIST cir. 397.

the time in the field, saith
the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall
call you blessed : for ye
shall be 'a delightsome ¦ Dan. 8. 9.
land, saith the Lobd of
hosts. 13 *[] " Your words have * ch. 2. 17.
been stout against me.

know or think much of the restored prolifi-
calness of Judaea; none could know of its
antecedents. A people, as well as individuals,
may starve, and none know of it. Had the
whole population of Judah died out, their
Persian masters would not have cared for it,
but would have sent fresh colonists to replace
them and pay the tribute to the great king.
The only interest, which all nations could have
in them, was as being the people of God, from
whom He should come, the Desire of all na
tions, inWhova edl the families of the eariA would
be blessed. Of this, God's outward favor was
the earnest ; they should have again the
blessings which He had promised to His
people. And ye shall be called a delightsome land, lit.
a land of good pleasure. It was not so much
the land as the people ; ye shall be called. The
land stands for the people upon it, in whom
its characteristics lay. The river Jordan was
not so bright as Abana and Pharpar : " the
aspect of the shore " is the same, when the
inhabitants are spiritually or morally dead ;
only the more beautiful, in contrast with the
lifeless "spirit of man." So Isaiah says,
^ The nations shall see ihy righteousness, and all
kings ihy glory; and thou shalt be called by a
name, which the mouth ofthe Lord shall name — •
Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken, nor shall
ihy land be called Desolate, but thou shalt be called
My-delight-is-in-her, and thy land Married : for
the Lord delighteth in thee and ihy land shall be
married. -God and man should delight iu
her. 1.3. Your words have been stout against Me,
probably oppressive to " Me, as it is said, the
famine was strong upon the land: And ye have
said. What have we spoken among ourselves''
against Tliee ? Again, the entire unconscious-
of " immaturity." Pliny spealis of " arborum abor
tus." H. N. xi'i, 2, 6, Ges, " Is, Ixii, 2-4,
a pin, with 2 on the land. Gen, xli. 66, 57 ; the eity,
2 Kgs xxv. 3, Jer. Iii. '6 ; with Sj?, of persons. Gen.
xlvii. 20; hand of God was strong upon the pro
phet, Ez. iii. 14 ; they were urgent, pressed upon.
Ez. xii. 33,
'The force of Nif. as in iii. 16. Ps. cix. 23, Ezek.
xxxiii. 30. The constr. with ^7^ as Pih. in Ps. cix.
20, Hos. vii. 13, Jer. xxix. 32.

494

MALACHI.

chrTst ^^^^^ *^® Lord. Yet ye
 "'''• ^°^- say. What have we spoken

so much against thee ?
14 ''Ye have said, It

IS

!> Job 21. 14, 15,
Ps, 73. 13. vain to serve God : and
^^ ¦ ¦ ¦ what profit is it that we
t Heb. his have kept f his ordinance,
observation. i ^i j. i n t
and that we have walked

ness of self-ignorance and self-conceit ! They
had criticised God, and knew it not. " ' Be
fore, he had said, '' Ye have wearied ihe Lord
'with your words, and ye said, Wherein have we
wearied Him ? When ye said. Every one thai
doeth eril is good in ihe sight of the Lord <&c.
Now he repeats this more fully. For the
people who returned from Babylon seemed to
have a knowledge of God, and to observe the
law, and to understand their sin, and to offer
sacrifices for sin ; to pay tithes, to observe the
sabbath, and the rest, commanded in the law
of God, and seeing all the nations around
them abounding in all things, and that they
themselves were in penury, hunger and
misery, was scandalized and said, ' What does
it benefit me, that I worship the One True
God, abominate idols, and, pricked with the
consciousness of sin, walk mournfully before
God?' A topic, which is pursued more
largely in the 73d Psalm." Only the Psalmist
relates his temptations to God, and God's de
liverance of him from them ; these adopted
thera and spake thera against God. They
claira, for their partial and meagre service, to
have fulfilled God's law, taking to themselves
God's words of Abraham, he kepi My charge".
14. Ye have said. It is vain to serve the Lord :
" * as receiving no gain or reward for their
service. This is the judgment of the world,
whereby worldlings think pious, just, sincere,
strict men, vain, i. e. especially when they see
them impoverished, despised, oppressed,
afliicted, because they know not the true
goods of virtue and eternal glory, but measure
all things by sight, sense and taste. — Truly, if
the righteous bad not hope of another and
better life, in vain would they afHict them
selves, and bear the afflictions of others.
For, as the Apostle says, " If in ihis life only we
have hope in Christ, we are of all men most mis
erable. But now, hoping for another blessed

IS. Jer.

' li. 17.

a'DIOifO 'IDty'l Gen. xxvi. 5; add Lev. xviii.
30, xxii. 9, Deut, xi, 1, Jos, xxii. 3, 2 Kgs ii, 3, 2 Chr.
xiil. 11, xxiii. 6, Zech. iii. 7.
* Lap, , a 1 Cor, xv. 19,
a ri'Jllp IJJ^n. Theform p is one found only
here; the phrase In ths Ps. is 1|7n Tip Ps. xxxv,
14, xxxviii. 7, xlii. 10, xliii. 2.
'verse 12, aijnjN emph.

t mournfully before the chrTIt
Lord of hosts ?  "¦'¦ ^°^- 
15 And now "we call t Heb. m sioct.
0 Pg Y3_ 12,
the proud happy; yea, ch. 2.17.'
they that work wickedness
t are set up ; yea, they that t Heb. are bunt.
''tempt God are even de-^Ps. 95. 9.
livered.

and eternal life for the slight tribulations of
this, we are the happiest of all men."
And we have walked mournfully". Again
they take in their mouths the ivords of Psalm
ists, that they took the garb of mourners,
going about mourning before God for their
country's afflictions.
15. And now we call the proud happy [blessed].
This being so, they sura up the case against
God. God had declared that all nations
should call them blessed ', if they would obey.
They answer, using His words ; A'nd^ now we,
(they lay stress on the word, " we,) pronounce
blessed, in fact, those whom God had pro
nounced cursed: " Tlwu hast rebuked the proud,
who are cursed. Their characteristic, araong
other bad men, is of insolence '", arrogance,
boiling over with self-conceit, and presump
tuous toward God. The ground of Babylon's
sentence wa,s, ^1 she halh been 'proud toward the
Lord, ihe Holy One of Israel ; Jethro says of
the Egyptians, as a ground of his belief in
God, "for, in the thing that they dealt proudly.
He was above ihem. It describes the character
of the act of Israel, when God bade them not go
up, neither fight, and they would not hear, and
went up presumptuously into the battle '" ; the
contumacious act of those, who, appealing to
the judgment of God, afterward refused it " ;
of Johanan's associates, who accuse Jeremiah
of speaking falsely in the name of God'';
they are persons who rise up i", forge lies
against", dig pits fori", jg^j perversely
ivith '", hold in derision 2", oppress '", the
pious. Whether or no, they mean specifically
the heathen, those, whom these pronounced
blessed, were those who were contemptuous
toward God.
Yea, ilie workers of wickedness, those who
habitually work it, whose employment it is,
are built up ; yea, they have tried Ood and have
escaped. God had promised that, if ''''they
»Ps. cxix. 21. 10 Pr. xxi 24.
11 Sx mi Jer. 1. 29. It is used in regard to
Babylon together with D''X''1;r (as in Ps. IxxxvL
14,) Is. xiii. 11.
12 Ex, xviii, 11. It is used of Egypt toward Is
rael, Neh. ix. 16,
13 Deut. i. 41, 43. 14 Ib. xvii. 12 13
16 Jer, xliii. 2. m Ps. Ixxxvi. 14. i' Ib. cxix. 69.
i'Ib.85. "Ib. 78. 201b. 51
^ lb- 122. 22jer. xii. 16.

CHAPTEK ni.

495

cheTst ^^ HThen they "that
cir, 397. . feared the LoRD 'spake
often one to another : and

• Ps, 66, 16.
ch. 4, 2,
'Heb. 3, 13,
8 Ps. 56. 8.
Isai. 65. 6.
Rev, 20. 12. remembrance was written

the Lord hearkened, and
heard it, and ^ a book of

will diligently learn the ways of My people, they
shall be built up in the midst of My people ; these
say, tbev.'orkers of wickedness Wz been built
up : God had bidden themselves, ' make trial
of Me in ihis ; these answer, the ivicked had
made trial of Him, and had been unpun
ished. 16. Then they that feared ihe Lord spake often
among themselves. The proud-speaking of the
ungodly called out the piety of the God
fearing. " ' The more the ungodly spake
against God, the more these spake among
themselves for God." Both went on till the
great Day of severance. True, as those said,
the distinction between righteous and ivicked
was not made yet, but it was stored up out
of sight. They spake among themselves, strength
ening each other against the ungodly sayings
of the ungodly.
A'nd the Lord hearkened and heard it God,
Whom these thought an idle looker-on, or
regardless, all the while (to speak after the
manner of men) was bending the ear" from
heaven and heard. Not one pious loyal word
for Him and His glory, escaped Hira.
And a book of remembrance was written before
Him. Kings had their chronicles written'',
wherein men's good or ill deeds toward
them were recorded. But the image is one
of the oldest in Scripture, and in the self
same words, "the Lord said io 3Ioses, Write
ihis, u, memorial in a book. God can only
speak to us in our own language. One ex
pression is not more human than another,
since all are so. Since with God all things
are present, and memory relates to the past,
to speak of God as " remembering " is as
imperfect an expression in regard to God, as
to speak of " a book." "" Forgetfulness hath
no place with God, because He is in no way
changed ; nor remembrance, because He for
getteth not." Both expressions are used,
only to picture vividly to our minds, that
our deeds are present with God, for good or
1 ch. iii. 10. ' A Castro.
" atyp'i. * n'ljijin nao Esth. vi. i,
s 13D3 t'nsi rixi a^J ex. xvii. i4.
6 S. Aug. in Ps. xxxvii. n. 5. ' Dan. vii. 10.
8Rev. XX. 12. » Ex. xxxii. 32.
10 Ps. Ixix. 28. „, ....
11 S, Luke X. 20. 12 Mai. i. 6. " Is, Im. 3.
"Poo. iSKim. ib. wibnEzr. ib.
1' The grounds for this rendering are 1) the recur
rence of the words, ntV;? 'JX ICyK Dr, ver. 21.

before him for them that ch^^It
feared the Lord, and that ''ii^- sot.
thought upon his name.
17 And "they shall be "Ex. 19, 5.
. , , -r ,. Deut. 7. 6.
mine, saith the Lord oi Ps, 135, 4.
' . Tit. 2. 14.
hosts, m that day when i 1 Pet 2, 9,

for evil ; and in the Day of Judgment He
will make them manifest to rnen and angels,
as though read out of a book, and will requite
them. So Daniel had said, ' the judgment
was set, and ihe books were opened. And S.
John says, " The books were opened, and another
book was opened, which is the book of life ; and
the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works.
So Moses says to God, "If not, blot me out of
Thy book which Thou hast ivritten; and David,
prophesying, prays, '" Let them be blotted out of
the book of the living, and not be 'written among
tlie righteous ; and our Lord bids His disci
ples, ¦" Rejoice in this, that your names are wit-
ten in heaven.
And that thought upon His name, rather,
esteemed, prized, it, in contrast with those who
'''despised; as, of Christ, when He should
come, it is said, '"He was despised, and we
esteemed Him not. " " The thinking on His
Name imports, not a bare thinking of, but a
due esteem and awful regard of, so as with
all care to avoid all things ivhich may tend
to the dishonor of it, as always in His pres
ence and with respect to Him aud fear of
Him." " '" Those are meant who always
meditate on the ways of the Lord and the
knowledge of His Godhead ; for His name is
Himself, and He is His Name ; " " '" the wise
in heart who know the mystery of the awful
glorious Name."
17. And they shall be Mine, saith ihe Lord of
hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels ",
or perhaps better. And they shall be to Me,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day which I make
(or, in which I do this) a peculiar treasure '".
"I'ln the day of judgment, those who fear Me
and believe and maintain My providence
shall be to Me a peculiar treasure, i. e. a
people peculiarly belonging and precious to
Me, blessed in the vision and fruition of
Me. For as in the old law, Israel was a pecu
liar treasure ^", a special people '" and inher-
Heb. [iv, 3, Eng,], and the nSjD ''S ?n''''ni Ex,
xix, 5 ; so that we have both phrases elsewhere. In
Deut. vii. 6, there is the equivalent DJ? 7 l'? nm*?
n'7JD, and the like, Deut. xiv, 2, Ps, cxxxv. 4.
18 Beside the places in whieh Israel is spoken of
such, it occurs only of David's treasures, laid up
for building the temple 1 Chr. xxix. 3, and of the
public treasures of kings and provinces. Eccl. ii. 8.
i» Lap, T\h3iD Ex. xxix. 5, Ps. cxxxv. 4.
21 n'7JD U}! Deut. yii. 6.

496

MALACHI.

cheTst ^^^^ "P ^7 H' jewels;
__cirjm^__ and ¦¦ I will spare them, as

I Or, special a man spareth his own son
treasure. . i , 17.
'Isai. 62. 3. that serveth him.
iP6'.'5s. il. ' 18 'Then shall ye re
turn, and discern between
the righteous and the
¦wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that
serveth him not.

itance of God, chosen out of all nations, so in
the new law Christians, and those who are
righteous through grace, are the special treas
ure of God, and in heaven shall be His special
treasure in glory, possessed by God and pos
sessing God.' The peculiar treasure, is some
thing, rauch prized, made great store of, and
guarded. Such are Christians, bought at a
great price, even by the precious Blood of
Christ ; but much more evidently such shall
they be, Malachi say.s, in all eternity, which
that Day of final retribution shall decide,
" 'joying in the participation of their
Creator, by Whose eternity they are fixed,
by Whose truth they are assured, by Whose
gift they are holy."
And I will spare them. It is a remarkable
word, as used of those who should be to Him
a peculiar treasure, teaching that, not of their
own merits, they shall be such, but by His
great mercy. It stands in contrast with the
doom of the ivicked, whom that day shall
sentence to everlasting loss of God. Still,
the saved also shall have needed the tender
mercy ' of God, whereby Lie pardoned their
misdeeds and had compassion upon them.
"If Thou, Lord, shalt lay up iniquities, 0 Lord,
who shall stand? Among those whom God
will spare on that day, ivill be countless,
ivlioin the self-righteous despised as sinners.
"*I will spare them, although formerly
sinners ; I will spare them, repenting, and
serving Me with the service of a pious con
fession, as a man spareth his own son which
served him." For our Lord saith of the son,
who refused to go work in his Father's
vineyard, and afterward repented and went,
that he "did the will of his Father.
IS. Then shall ye reiuni, or turn, not,
" return " in the sense of returning to God, for
in that day will be the time of judgment, not
of repentance ; nor yet, " then shall ye again
see ; " for this is wdiat they denied ; and, if
they had ceased to deny it, they would have
been converted, not in that day, but before,
1 S, Aug, in Civ. Dei x, 7.
2'7Dn has originally the meaning of tender
compassion.

CHAPTEK IV. cIeTIt
1 Gods judgment on ihe wicked,  '-  '¦ —
2 and his blessing on ihe good.
He exhorteth to the studip of
the law, 5 and telleth of Eli
jah's coming and office,
OR, behold, "the day "joei 2.31.
cometh, that shall burn 2 Pet. 3. 7.
as an oven ; and all " the '' ch. 3. is.
proud, yea, and all that do

F

when God gave them grace to see it. They
shall turn, so as to have other convictions
than before ; but, as Judas. The Day of
judgment will make a great change in
earthly judgment. Last shall be first, and
first last ; this world's sorrow shall end in joy,
and worldly joy in sorrow; afflictions shall
be seen to be God's love : " Thou in very
faithfulness hast afflicted me; and the un
clouded prosperity of the ungodly to be God's
abandonment of them. The picture of the
surprise of the wicked in the Day of
judgment, in the Wisdom of Solomon,
is a comment on the Prophet. "'Then
shall the righteous man stand in great bold
ness before the face of such as have afflicted
him, and made no account of his labors ;
when they see it, they shall be troubled with
terrible fear, and shall be amazed with the
strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all
they looked for : and they, repenting and
groaning for anguish of spirit, shall say
within theraselves. This was he whom we
had sometimes in derision and a proverb of
reproach : we fools counted his life madness
and his end to be without honor : how is he
numbered among the children of God, aud
his lot is among the saints ! "
IV. 1. For, behold, the day cometh, which
sluill bum as an oven. He had declared the
great severance of the God-fearing and the
God-blaspheming, those ivho served and
those who did not serve God ; the righteous
and the wieked ; now he declares the way
and time of the severance, the Day of Judg
ment. Daniel had described the fire of that
day, " The throne [of the Ancient of days] was
a fiery flame; his wheels u, burning fire: a
flery stream issued and came forth from Him :
the judgment was set and ihe books were opened.
Fire is ever spoken of, as accompanying the
judgment. " Our Ood shall came, and shall
not keep silence, a flre shall devour before Him ;
'" Beliold tlie Lord will come wiih flre : for by fire
and by ihe sword will the Lord plead with edl

"Ps, cxxx, 3.
*Ps. cxix. 75.
» Dan. vii. 9, 10.

*Rup. •Ps. 1.3.

SS. Itfatt. xxi, 31.
' Wisd, V, 1-5.
10 Is. Ixvi. 15, 16.

CHAPTEB IV.

497

c H eT s t wickedly, shall be " stubble :
 gji-- 391. a.nc\ the day that cometh
= Obad, IS. shall burn them up, saith
the Lord of hosts, that it

Jlesh : ' every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the Day shall declare ii, because it shall be
revealed by flre : and the flre shall try every man's
work, of what sort il i.s. S. Peter tells us that
fire will be of this burning world ; ^ the heavens
and the earth which are now, by the same word
are kept in store, reserved unio fire against the
^y of judgment and perdition of ungodly men;
— in the which ihe heavens shall pass away
wiih a great noise, and ihe elements shall melt
with fervent heat, the earth also and ihe works
that are therein shall be burned up.
The oven, or furnace, pictures the intensity
of the heat, which is white from its intensity,
and darts forth, fiercely, shooting up like a
living creature, and destroying life, as the
flame of the fire of Nebuchadnezzar's " burn
ing fiery furnace slew ihose men that took up
Sliadrach Meshach and Abednego. The whole
world shall be one burning furnace.
And all the proud and all ilmt do wickedly.
All those, whora those murmurers pronounced
blessed *, yea and all who should thereafter be
like them (he insists on the universality of
the judgment), evei-y doer of wickedness, up to
that day and those who should then be, shall
be stubble. " " The proud and mighty, who in
this life were strong as iron and brass, so
that no one dared resist them, but they dared
to fight with God, these, in the Day of Judg
ment, shall be most powerless, as stubble can
not resist the fire, in an overliving death."
That shall leave them, neitlier root nor branch
" i. e. ^ they shall have no hope of shooting
up again to life ; that life, I mean, ivhich is
worthy of love, and in glory with God, in
holiness and bliss. For when the root has
not been wholly cut away, nor the shoot torn
up as from the depth, some hope is retained,
that it may again shoot up. For, as it is
written, ' There is hope of a tree, if it be cut
doum, that it will sprout again, and that ihe
tender branch thereof will not cease. But if it
be wholly torn up from below and from its
very roots, and its shoots be fiercely cut
away, all hope, that it can again shoot up to
life, will perish also. So, he saith, will all
hope of the lovers of sin perish. For so the
Divine Isaiah clearly announces, " their worm
shall not die and their fire shall 'not be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorring io all flesh."
2. But (And) unio you, who fear My Name,
1 1 Cor, iii. 13. 2 2 S. Pet. iii. 7-10. SDan. iii. 22.
4 ch, iii, 15, 6 Lap. » S. Cyr. ' Job xiv. 7.
8 Is. Ixvi. ult. 0 Ps, Ixxxiv. 11. i" Is. Ix, 19, 20.
11 S, Luke i. 76, 78, 79,
12 Eus. Dem. Ev, iv. 29. 18 Heb, ix, 28.
11 As. Ps. i, 6, ii, 12, iii. 7, 8, v. 10-12, vi. 8-10, vii. 16,
32

Before
CHRIST oir, 307,

shall ''leave them neither
root nor branch.
2 ^But unto you that'iAmos2, 9.
"fear my name shall thcch. 3, 16.

shall the Sun of Bighteousness arise. It is said
of God, " The Lord God is a sun and a shield,
and, '" The Lord shall be io ihee an everlasting
light, and thy God thy glory ; thy sun shall no
more go down ; for the Lord shall be thine ever
lasting light ; and Zacharias, speaking of the
office of S. John Baptist in the words of
Malachi, ihou shalt go before the face of the
Lord to prepare His way, speaks of '' the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from
on high hath visited us, io give light io them that
sit in darkness. " " He Who is often called
Lord and God, and Angel and Captain of the
Lord's host, and Christ and Priest and Word
and Wisdom of God and Image, is now called
tiie Sun of Bighteousness. He, the Father
promises, will arise, not to all, but to those
only who fear His Name, giving them the
light of the Sun of Eighteousness, as the re
ward of their fear toward Him. This is God
the Word Who saith, / am the Light of ihe
world. Who was ihe Light of every one who com
eth into the world." Primarily, Malachi
speaks of our Lord's second Coming, when
''"to them that look for Him shall He appear, a
second iime unto salvation. For as, in so many
places ", the Old Testament exhibits the op
posite lots of the righteous and the wicked,
so here the prophet speaks of the Day of
Judgraent, in reference to the two opposite
classes, of which he had before spoken, the
proud and evil doers, and the fearers of God.
The title, the Sun of Ilicjhteousness, belongs to
both Comings; "Hn the first. He difliised
rays of righteousness, whereby He justified
and daily justifies any sinners whatever, who
will look to Him, i. e. believe in Him and obey
Him, as the sun imparts light, joy and life to
all who turn toward it." In the second, the
righteousness which He gave. He will own
and exhibit, cleared from all the misjudg
ment of the world, before men and Angels.
Yet more, healing is, throughout Holy Scrip
ture, used of the reraoval of sickness or cur
ing of wounds, in the individual or state or
Church, and, as to the individual, bodily or
spiritual. 80 David thanks God, first for the
forgiveness, '" Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ;
then for healing of his soul. Who healeth
all thy diseases; then for salvation. Who re-
deemeth thy life from destruction; then for the
crown laid up for him, 'Who crownelh thee wiih
17, ix, 17-20, X. 16-18, xi. 6, 7, xvii, 13-15, xx, 8, xxvi,
9-12, xxxi. 2,3, xxxii, 10, 11, xxxiv, 21, 22, xxxv, 26-28,
xxxvi, 10-12, xxxvii. 38^0, xl. 15-17, 1. 22, 23, Hi.
5-9, Iv. 22, 23, Iviii. 10, 11, Ixiii, 10, 11, Ixiv, 9, 10, Ixxiii.
27, 28, civ. ,33-36, cxii. 9, 10, cxxvi. 5, cxlix. 9.
15 Ps. oiii. 3-5.

498

MALACHI.

cheTst '^'^^ of righteousness
 2iLJ?2!L  arise with healing in his
'B^h'^s'il' ¦wings; and ye shall go
?,P6'-i-i9- forth, and grow up as
Eev, 2. 28. 'or
B2 Sam. 22. 43. calves of the stall.
Mic, 7. 10.
Zech. 10. 5. 3 «And ye shall tread

loving-kindness and tender mercies ; then, with
the abiding sustenance and satisfying joy.
Who saiiisjieih thy mouth with good things.
Healing then primarily belongs to this life,
in which we are still encompassed with in
firmities, and even His elect and His Saints
have still, wdiereof to be healed. The full
then and complete healing of the soul, the
integrity of all its powers will be in the life
to come. There, will be " ' understanding
without error, memory without forgetfulness,
thought without distraction, love without
simulation, sensation without offence, satisfy
ing without satiety, universal health without
sickness." " 2 For through Adam's sin the
soul was wounded in understanding, through
obscurity and ignorance ; in will, through
the leaning to perishing goods ; as concupis
cent, through infirmity and manifold concu
piscence. In heaven Christ will heal all
these, giving to the understanding light and
knowledge; to the will, constancy in good;
to the desire, that it should desire nothing
but what is right and good. Theu too the
healing of the soul will be the light of glory,
the vision and fruition of God, and the glori
ous endowments consequent thereon, over-
streaming all the powers of the soul and
therefrom to the body." " ' God has made
the soul of a nature so mighty, that from its
most full beatitude, which at the end of time
is promised to the saints, there shall over
flow to the inferior nature, the body, not
bliss, which belongs to the soul as intelligent
and capable of fruition, but the fullness of
health that is, the vigorousness of incorrup
tion." And ye shall go forth, as from a prison-
house, frora the miseries of this lifeless life,
andgrowup, or perhaps more probably, bound*,
as the animal, which has been confined, ex
ults in its regained freedom, itself full of life
and exuberance of delight. So the Psalmist,
" The saints shall exult in glory. And our Lord
uses the like word ", as to the way, with
which they should greet persecution to the
utmost, for His Name's sake. Swiftness of
1 Pomerius de vit, contempt, i, 4, 2 L^p.
8 S, Aug, Ep, 118 ad Diosc, n. 14 Opp. ii, 334, L,
*So LXX. Vulg, Syr. (and on Jer. 1, 11) Jon, (here
"go" only); of modern Jews, Tanehum here and
on Jer, 1. 11. Pococlce says more cautiously than
moderns generally, "not farfrom this signification
is the Arab. K/S3, which signifies to 'vaunt' or
' boast' or ' go strutting ' or 'proudly,'" For "arro-

down the wicked ; for they
shall be ashes under the
soles of your feet in the
day that I shall do this,
saith the Loed of hosts.
4 *l\ Remember ye the

Before
CHEIST cir. 397.

motion is one of the endowments of the spir
itual body, after the resurrection; as the
angels, to ivhom the righteous shall be like ',
"ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of
lightning. 3. And ye shall tread down the ivicked ; for
they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.
It shall be a great reversal. He that exalteth
himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. Here the wicked often
have the pre-eminence. This was the com
plaint of the murmurers among the Jews;
in the morning of the Eesurrection " the up
right sliall have dominion over ihem. The
wicked, he had said, shall be as stubble, and
that day '"shall burn them up; here, then,
they are as the ashes, the only remnant of
the stubble, as the dust under the feet.
" '1 The elect shall rejoice, that they have, in
mercy, escaped such misery. Therefore they
shall be kindled inconceivably with the Di
vine love, and shall from their inmost heart
give thanks unto God." And being thus of
one mind with God, and seeing all things as
He seeth, they will rejoice in His judgments,
because they are His. For they cannot have
one slightest velleity, other than the all-
perfect AVill of God. So Isaiah closes his
prophecy, " And they shall go forth, and look
upon the carcases of ihe men, that have trans
gressed agcdnst Me ; for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be cpirnched, and they
shall be an abhorring to all flesh. So ''" The
righteous shcdl rejoice, wlien he seeth the ven
geance ; and another Psalmist, '''' The righteous
shall see and rejoice; and all wickedness shall
stop her mouth ; and Job, '" The righteous see
and are glad, and the innocent laugh them to
scorn. 4. Remember ye the law qf Moses, My ser
vant '" The law was our schoolmaster to bring
us vnto Clirist. They then who were most
faithful to the law, would be most prepared
for Christ. But for those of his own day,
too, who were negligent both of the cere
monial and moral law, he says, ""Since the
judgment of God will be so fearful, remem-
gance," not "exuberance of jov," seems the mean
ing of the Arabic word. 'The E, V,, "grow,"
" enlarge," follows the interpretation given by most
Heb, Comm. or lexicographers.
" Ps, cxlix. 5. 6 (r/cipT7)troiTe B, Luke vi, 23.
'S. Luke XX, 36. 8Ezek, i, 14. » Ps. xlix. 14.
1° iv. 1, " Dion, 12 Is. Ixvi, 24.
18 Ps. Iviii. 10, 14 lb. cvii. 42.
16 Job xxii. 19. 10 Gal. iii. 24.

CHAPTEE IV.

499

c H E°i s T *" ^^^ °^ Moses my servant,
eir, 397. which I commanded unto

l>Ex, 20. 3, &c.
1 Deut, 4, 10.
' Ps. 147. 19.

him ' in Horeb for all Is
rael, with "^ the statutes and
judgments.

ber now unceasingly and observe the law of
God given by Moses."
Which I commanded' unto him for [lit.
upon, incumbent upon] all Israel. Not Moses
commanded them, but God by His servant
Moses ; therefore He " ' would in the day of
judgment take strict account of each, whether
they had or had not kept them. He would
glorify those wdio obeyed. He would con
demn those who disobeyed them." They
had asked. Where is the God of judgment?'
Wliat proflt, that we have kept the ordinance?
He tells them of the judgment to come, and
bids them take heed, that they did indeed
keep them ; for there was a day of account
to be held for all.
With the statutes and judgments, better,
statutes and judgments, i. e. consisting in them ;
it seems added as an explanation of the word,
law, individualizing them. Duty is fulfilled,
not in a general acknowledgment of law, or
an arbitrary selection of some favorite com
mandments, which cost the human will less ;
as, in our Lord's time, they minutely ob
served the law of tithes, but ^ omitted weight
ier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and
faiih. It is in obedience to the command
ments, one by one, one and all. Moses ex
horted to the keeping of the law, under these
same words : * Now, therefore hearken, 0
Israel, unto the statutes and judgments which I
teach you, to do them, tliai ye may live. — Yeshall
nai add unio the word thai I command you,
neither shall ye diminish it. — Behold, I have
taught you statutes and judgments, even as the
Lord my God commanded me. — What nation so
great, thai hath statutes and judgments, righteous
as all this law, wh'ich I set before you ihis day ?
The Lord commanded me ai that time, to teach
you statutes and judgments, that ye might do
them in ihe land, whither ye go to possess it.
5. Behold I will send [I send, as a future,
proximate in the prophet's mind] you Elijah
the prophet. The Archangel Gabriel inter
prets this for us, to include the sending of
S. John Baptist. For he not only says " that
he shall go before the Lord in the spirit and
power of Elias, but describes his mission in
the characteristic words of Malachi, to turn
ihe hearts of ihe fathers io the children : and
1 niS with double accus. 2Lap,
8 S, Matt, xxiii, 23. * Deut, iv, 1, 2, 5, 8, 14,
6S, Lukei. 17. 6S. Johni. 2L
I S. Matt. xi. 14, 8 lb. xvu, 12,
9 The error of the Jews consisted, not in their
rooted belief, as founded on these words, that

Before

6 ^ Behold, I will send c h r i s t
you 'Elijah the prophet, cir, 397,

"before the coming of the ' Matt, 11, 14.
great and dreadful day of Mark 9, 11.
& •' Luke 1. 17.
the Loed: ¦»joei2,3i.

those other words also, and ihe disobedient
to ihe wisdom of ihe just, perhaps represent the
sequel in Malachi, and the hearts ofthe children
to the fathers ; fortheir hearts could only be
so turned by conversion to God, Whom the
fathers, patriarchs and prophets, knew, loved
and served ; and Whom they served in name
only. S. John Baptist, in denying that he
was Elias ^, denied only, that he was that
great prophet himself. Our Lord, in saying,
' This is Elias, which was for io come, "tliat
Elias is come already and they knew him not, but
have done unto him whatsoever they listed, met
the error of the Scribes, that He could not
be the Christ, because Elias was not yet
come ". When He says, '" Elias truly shall fi'rst
come and restore all things, He implies a com
ing of Elias, other than that of S. John Bap
tist, since he was already martyred, and all
things were not yet restored. This must also
be the fullest fulfillment. For ihe great and
terrible Day of the Lord is the Day of judg
ment, of which all earthly judgments, how
ever desolating, (as the destruction of Jeru
salem) are but shadows and earnests. Before
our Lord's coming all things looked on to
His first Coming, and, since that Coming, all
looks on to the Second, ivhich is the comple
tion of the first and of all things in time.
Our Lord's words, Elias truly shall flrst come
and restore all things, seem to me to leave no
question, that, as S. John Baptist came, in
the spirit and power of Elias, before His
First Coming, so, before the Second Coming,
Elias should come in person, as Jews and
Christians have alike expected. This has
been the Christian expectation from the first.
S. Justin Martyr asked his opponent ", " Shall
we not conceive that the Word of God has
proclaimed Elias to be the forerunner of the
great and terrible day of His second Com

ing

" Certainly," was Trypho's reply.

S. Justin continues, " Our Lord Himself
taught us in His own teaching that this very
thing shall be, when He said that Elias also
shall come; and we know that this shall be
fulfllled, when He is about to come from
Heaven in glory." TertulUan says"', "Elias
is to come again, not after a departure from
life, but after a translation ; not to be re-
Elijah should oome before the great and terrible
Day of the Lord, but in their denial that He should
have any forerunner of His Coming in His great
humility. They erred, not in what Ihey believed,
but in what they disbelieved,
10 S, Matt, xvii. 11, " Dial, 0, 49, p, 131, Oxf Tr,
12 De anima c, 35. p. 539, Eig,

500

MALACHL

stored to the body, from which he was never
taken ; but to be restored to the world, from
which he was translated ; not by way of re
storation to life, but for the completion of
prophecy ; one and the same in name and in

person.

' Enoch and Elias were trans

lated, and their death is not recorded, as
being deferred ; but they are reserved as to
die, that they may vanquish Antichrist by
their blood." And, in proof that the end
was not yet, " 2 No one has yet received
Elias ; no one has yet fied from Antichrist."
And the ancient author of tlie verses against
Marcion ; " " Elias who has not yet tasted
the debt of death, because he is again to
come into the world." Origen says simply
in one place*, that the Saviour answered the
question as to the objection of the Scribes,
" not annulling wdiat had been handed down
concerning Ellas, but affirming that there
was another coming of Elias before Christ,
unknown to the scribes, according to which,
not knowdng him, and, being in a manner,
accomplices in his being cast into prison by
Herod and slain by hira, they had done to
him what they listed." S. Hippolytus has ;
" " As two Comings of our Lord and Saviour
were indicated by the Scriptures, the first in
the flesh, in dishonor, that He might be set at
naught — the second in glory, when He shall
come from Heaven with the heavenly host
and the glory of the Father — so two forerun
ners were pointed out, the first, John, the
son of Zacharias, and again — since He is
manifested as Judge at the end of the world.
His forerunners must first appear, as He says
through Malachi, I will send to you Elias the
Tishbite before tlie great and terrible day of the
Lord slmll come"
S. Hilary; ""The Apostles enquire in
anxiety about the times of Elias. To whom
He answereth, that Elias will come and restore
all things, that is, ivill recall to the knowledge
of God, what he shall find of Israel ; but he
signifies that John came in tlie spirit and
power of Elias, to whom they had shewn all
severe and harsh dealings, that, foreannounc-
ing the Coming of the Lord, he might be a
forerunner of the Passion also by an example
of wrong and harass." " ' We understand
that those same prophets [Moses and Elias]
will come before His Coming, who, the
Apocalypse of John says, will be slain by
Antichrist, although there are various opin
ions of very many, as to Enoch or Jeremiah,
that one of them is to die, as Elias."
H'dary the Deacon, A.D. 355, has on the ivords.

1 Id, ib, c, 50, p. 549,
2 de res, carnis c, 22. p, 385, Eig,
8 Carm, incert, Auct. adv, Marcion, L, iii, p.
col, 1 Rig,
* in S, Matt, xvii, 10. Opp, iii, 567,
'de Antichristo c, 44-46 pp, 21, 22,
nin Matt. c. xvii, n, 4, Opp, p, 694, 695.
' Id, Ib, c, XX. n. 10, p, 710, Ben,

I suppose God hath set forth us ihe Apostles
last; "*He therefore applies these to his
own person, because he was always in dis
tress, suffering, beyond the rest, persecutions
and distresses, as Enoch and Elias will suffer,
who will be Apostles at the last time. For
they have to be sent before Christ, to mtike
ready the people of God, and fortify all the
Churches to resist Antichrist, of whora the
Apocalypse attests, that they will sufler per-
secutions and be slain." ""When the faith
less shall be secure of the kingdom of the
devil, the saints, i. e. Enoch and Elias being
slain, rejoicing in the victory, and sending
gifts, one io another, as the Apocalypse says '",
sudden destruction shall come upon them.
For Christ at His Coming, shall destroy
them all." iS', Gregory of Nyssa quotes the
prophecy under the heading, that " ' 1 before
the second Coming of our Lord, Elias should
corae," S. Ambrose ; " " Because the Lord was to
come down from heaven, and to ascend to
heaven. Lie raised Elias to heaven, to bring
him back to the earth at the time He should
please." "i^The beast, Antichrist, ascends
from the abyss to fight against Elias and
Enoch and John, who are restored to the
earth for the testimony to the Lord Jesus, as
we read in the Apocalypse of Johu."
S. Jerome gives here the mystical meaning;
"God will send, in Elias, (which is inter
preted ' My God ' and who is of the town
Thisbe, which signifies 'conversion' or
' penitence ')the whole choir ofthe Prophets,
to convert the heart of the fathers to tlie sons, viz.
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the
patriarchs, that their posterity may believe
in the Lord the Saviour, in ivhom them
selves believed : for Abraham saw the day of
the Lord and was glad." Here, he speaks of
the " coming of Elias before tlieir anointed," as
a supposition of Jews and Judaizing heretics.
But in commenting on our Lord's words in
S. Matthew, he adheres twice to the literal
meaning. " " Some think that John is there
fore called Elias, because, as, according to
Malachi, at the second Coming of the
Saviour '°, Elias ivill precede and announce
the Judge to come, so did John at Llis first
Coming, and each is a messenger, of the first
or second Coming of the Lord:" and again
concisely, " '''Lie who is to come in the second
Coming of the Saviour in the actual body,
now comes through John in spirit and
poiver ; " and he speaks of Enoch and Elias
as " '" the two witnesses in the Eevelation,
8 App. S, Ambros, ii, 126, in 1 Cor, iv, 9,
' Ib, p, 282. in 1 T hess, v. 1. 10 Rev, xi 10
11 adv, Jud, Opp, ii, p, 266. 12 de pcenit, i, 8,
18 in Psalm 45, n. 10, Opp. i. 930. " Only one MS.
has, 'and -Iohn,'" Ben, note,
"OnS. Matt, xi, 14, 15,
15 On S, Matt, xvii, 11,12,
16 Ep 59 [al, 143] ad Marcell, Opp, i, 320, YM.

CHAPTER IV.

501

since, according to the Apocalypse of John,
Enoch and Elias are spoken of, as having to
die." S. Chrysostom, " ' When He saith that
Elias cometh and shall restore all things. He
means Elias himself, and the conversion of
the Jews, ivhich shall then be; but when He
saith, which was to come, He calls John, Elias,
according to the manner of his ministry."
In S. Augustine's time it was the universal
belief. " ^ When he [Malachi] had admon
ished them to remember the law of Moses,
because he foresaw, that they would for a
long time not receive it spirituallj', as it
ought, he added forthivith ; And I wdl send
you Elias the Thisbite &c. That when,,
through this Ellas, the great and wonderful
prophet, at the last time before the judg
ment, the law shall have been expounded to
them, the Jews shall believe in the true
Christ, i. e. in our Christ, is everywhere in
the mouths and hearts of the faithful. For
not ivithout reason is it hoped, that he shall
come before the Coming of the Saviour, as
Judge, because not without reason is it be
lieved that he still lives. For he was carried
in a chariot of fire from things below ; wdiich
Scripture most evidently attests. When he
shall come then, by expounding the law
spiritually, ivhich the Jews now understand
carnally, he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children."
S. Cyril of Alexandria, his antagonist
Theodoret, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, who
was loose from all tradition, had the same
clear belief. S. Cyril ; " It is demonstrative
of the gentleness and long-suffering of God,
that Elias also the Tishbite shall shine upon
us, to foreannounce when the Judge shall
come to those in the whole world. For the
Son shall come down, as Judge, in the glory
of the Father, attended by the angels, and
shall sit on the throne of His glory, judging the
world in righteousness, and shall reward every
man according to his works. But since we are
in many sins, well is it for us, that the
Divine Prophet goes before Him, bringing
all those on earth to one mind ; that all,
being brought to the unity through the faith,
and ceasing from evil intents, may fulfill that
which is good, and so be saved when the
Judge cometh down. The blessed Baptist
John came before Him in the spirit and power
of Elias. But, as he preached sayitig. Pre
pare ye the way qf the Lord, make His paths
straight, so also the divine Elias proclaims
His then being near and all-but-present, that
He may judqe the vjorld in righteousness."
Theodoret; "^Malachi teaches us how, when
Antichrist shall presume on these things,
the great Elias shall appear, preaching to
the Jews the Coming of Christ : and he shall
convert many, for this is the meaning of, he
1 In S, Matt, Hom, 57, Opp, vii, 577, 2 de Civ, Dei,

shall imm the heart of the fathers lo the children,
L e. the Jews (for these he calls fathers, as
being older in knowledge) to those who be
lieved from the Gentiles. They who shall
believe through the preaching of the great
Elias, and shall join themselves to the Gen
tiles who seized the salvation sent to them,
shall become one Church. Lie hints, how
when these things are done by Antichrist, S.
Michael the Archangel will set all in motion,
that Elias should come and foreannounce the
Coming of the Lord, that the then Jews may
obtain salvation." And on this place,
" Knowing well, that they would neither obey
the law, nor receive Him when He came, but
would deliver Him to be crucified, He
promises them, in His unspeakable love for
man, that He will again send Elias as a
herald of salvation, Lo, I will send you Elias
the Tishbite. And signifying the time. He
added. Before the great and terrible Day of the
Lord shall come : He named the Day of His
Second Coming. But He teaches us, what
the great Elias shall do, ivhen he comes. Who
shall bring back the heart of the father to the son
&c. And pointing out the end, for which
Elias should first come. Lest I come and smite
the earth utterly. For lest, finding you all in
unbelief, I send you all to that endless pun
ishment, Elias will first come, and will per
suade you, O Jews, to unite you indissolubly
with those, who from the Gentiles believe in
Me, and to be united to My one Church."
Theodore of Mopsuestia paraphrases: "In
addition to all ivhich I have said, I give you
this last commandment, to remember My law,
which I gave to all Israel through Sloses,
plainly declaring what they ought to do in
each thing, and as the first token of obedi
ence, to receive the Lord Christ when He
cometh, appearing for the salvation of all
men : Who will end the law, but shew Ilis
own perfection. It had been well, had you
immediately believed Him ivhen He came,
and known Him, as He Whom Moses and
all the prophets signified, "Who should put
an end to the law, and reveal the common
salvation of all men, so that it should be
manifest to all, that this is the sum and
chief good of the whole dispensation of the
law, to bring all men to the Lord Christ,
Wfio, for those great goods, should be mani
fested in His own time. But since,
when Lie manifested Liimself, ye mani
fested your own ungainliness, the blessed
Elias shall be sent to you before the
second Coming of Christ, ivhen He wdll come
from Heaven, to unite those who, for re
ligion, are separated from each other, and,
through the knoivledge of religion, to bring
the fathers to one-mindedness with the
children, and in a word, to bring all men to
one and the same harmony, when those, then
XX, 29, Opp, vii, 613, 8 On Daniel, e, xii, init.

502

MALACHI.

6 And he shall turn the

Before
CHEIST g'l-' 39'?- heart of the fathers to the

children, and the heart of

found in ungodliness, shall receive from him
the knowledge of the truth in the commun
ion with the godly thence ensuing."
The African author of the work on ihe prom
ises and predictions of God. (between A. D.
450-455.) "1 Against Antichrist shall be sent two
witnesses, the prophets Enoch and Elijah,
against whora shall arise three false prophets
of Antichrist."
Isidore of Seville A. D. 595, ;
" ' Elias, borne in a chariot of fire, as
cended to heaven, to come according to the
prophet Malachi at the end of the world, and
to precede Christ, to announce His last
Coraing, wdth great deeds and wondrous
signs, so that, on earth too, .Antichrist wdll
war against him, be against him, or him who
is to come with him, and will slay them ;
their bodies also will lie unburied in the
streets. Then, raised by the Lord, they will
smite the kingdom of Antichrist ivith a great
blow. After this, the Lord wdll come, and
will slay Antichrist ivith the word of His
mouth, and those who worshiped him,"
"^Tliis will be in the last times, wdien, on
the preaching of Elias, Judah will be con
verted to Christ."
To add one more, for his great gifts, S.
Gregory the Great. "''It is promised, that
when Elias shall come, he shall bring back
the hearts of the sons to their fathers, that
the doctrine of the old, which is now taken
from the hearts of the .Jews, may, in the
mercy of God, return, when the sons shall
begin to understand of the Lord God, what
the fathers taught." "» Although Elias is
related to have been carried to heaven, he
deferred, he did not escape, death. For it is
said of him by the mouth of the Truth Film-
self, Elias shall eome and restore all things.
He shall come to restore all things; for to
this end is he restored to this world, that he
may both fulfill the office of preaching, and
pay the debt of the fiesh." ""The holy
Church, although it now loses many through
the shock of temptation, yet, at the end of
the world, it receives its own double, ivhen,
having received the Gentiles to the full, all
Judeea too, which shall then be, agrees to
1 Dimid, Temp, c. 13, App, to S, Prosper. Enoch
and Elias are spoken of, as the two witnesses, by
Ammonius in the Comm, variorr, ou Daniel, Blai
Scriptt, Vett. Nov. Coll, T, 1, P, iii, p, 62,
2 de ort, et ob, Patr, c, 35, Opp, v, 167, 168,
8 c, Jud, ii, 5, 9. Opp, vi, 79,
?Moral, xi, 15. n, 24, Ben,
' Ib. XX, 34. n, 66, Ben,
8 Ib. xxxv. 14. n. 24, See also on Ezek. L, i, Hom,
12. n. 8, 9, where he speaks of the coming of Enoch
also.

Before

the children to their fathers, q jj ^ j g ^
lest I come and " smite the . "ii-- 397,
earth with " a curse.

"Zeoh. 14, 12,
»Zech. 5, 3,

hasten to its faith. For hence it is written,
Until thefullness of the Gentiles shall come, and
so all Israel shall be saved. Hence in the Gos
pel the Truth s.ays, Elia.s shall come and shall
restore all things. For now the Church has
lost the Israelites, whom it could not convert
by preaching; but then, at the preaching of
Elias, while it collects all which it shall find,
it receives in a mauner more fully what it
has lost," "'John is spoken of as to come
in the spirit and power of Elias, because, as
Elias shall precede the second Coming of the
Lord, so John preceded His first. For as
Elias \vill come, as precursor of the Judge, so
John ^vas made the precursor of the Ee
deemer. John then was Elias in spirit ; he
was not Elias in person. ^Vhat then the
Lord owned as to spirit, that John denies as
to the person,"
Whether Elias is one of the two witnesses",
spoken of in the Apocalj'pse, is obviously a
distinct question. Of commentators on the
Apocalypse, Arethas' remarks that as to
Elias, there is clear testimony from Holy
Scripture, this of i\Ialachi ; but that, with
regard to Enoch, we have only the fact of
his being freed from death by translation,
and the tradition of the Church. S. John
Damascene fi.xed the belief, in the Eastern
Church '". In the West, Bede e. g. who
speaks of the belief that the two witnesses
were Elijah and Enoch, as what was said by
" " some doctors," takes our Lord's declara
tion, that Elias shall return, in its simple
meaning 12. Yet it was no matter of faith '".
"When the belief as to a personal Antichrist
was changed by Luther and Calvin, the
belief of a personal forerunner of Christ gave
way also.
0. And he shcdl turn ihe hearts of the fathers
unto Ihe children. Now they were unlike, and
severed by that unlikeness from each other.
Yet not on earth ; for on earth parents and
children were alike alienated from God, and
united between themselves in wickedness or
worldliness. The common love of the world
or of worldly pursuits, or gain or self-exalta
tion, or making a fortune or securing it, is,
so far, a common bond of interest to those of
one family, through a common selfishness,
'in Evang, Hom, vii, n, 1, 8 see vol, i, p, 45,
» Comm, on Apocalypse printed with CEcumenius
p, 042, ed, 1530,
i» De fide iv, 26. n on Eev, c, xi
12 on S, Matt, xvii, 11, S, Jtark ix,
i8Rupertus says here, " Of the coming of Elias I
dare not define anything, because some doctors,
with whom almost all agree, believe that he will
come in the letter, and will restore all things, and
will pay the debt of death ; but others not, with
whom the illustrious S, Jerome seems to agree.

CHAPTEE rv.

503

though that selfishness is the parent of gen
eral discord, of fraud, violence, and other
misdeeds. Nay, conversion of children or
parents becomes rather a source of discord,
embittering the unconverted. Whence our
Lord says. Think not, that I ' am come io send
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace on
earth, but a sword. For I am come to set a man
at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law : and a man's foes
shcdl be they of his oum household ; a prophecy
fultdled continually in the early persecu
tions, even to the extent of those other words
of our Lord, ' the brother shall deliver up the
brother to death, and the father Ihe child; and
the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them io be put io death. It is ful
filled also in the intense hatred of the Jews
at this day, to any ivho are converted to
Christ; a hatred which seems to have no
parallel in the world. Nor do the ivords
seera to mean that fathers and children
should be united in one common conversion
to God, as one says, " " All shall be one
heart to return to the Lord, both fathers and
children;" for he speaks primarily of their
mutual conversion to one another, not to
God. The form of the expression seems to iraply
that the effect of the preaching of Elias shall
be, to bring back the children, the Jews then
in being, to the faith and love which their

1 S. Matt, X. 34-36. 2 lb. 21,
8 Ibn Ezra, The Jews, although mostly agreed,
that Elijah will come, are disagreed as to the end
of his coming. By some he is spoken of as a Ee
deemer. Tanehuma, (f, 31, 1,) " God said to Israel,
In this world I sent an angel to cast out the na
tions before you, but in the future [or, in the world
to come, Yal'kut Shim'oni f, 98-29] myself will lead
you and will ' send you Elijah the prophet,' " Pes
ikta rabbathi (in Yalkut Shim'oni ii, f, 32, 4) " Both
redeemed Israel : Moses in Egypt, and lilias in
that which is to come," (Id. ib. f, 53. 2.) " I send you
a redeemer," Midrash Shoeher tof Ib, t. 884, " Is
rael said, 'It is written of the first redemption, ^ He
sent Moses His servant, Aaron whom He had chosen ;
send me two like them,' God answered ; ' I will
send you Elijah the prophet : this is one, the other
is he, of whom Isaiah spoke (xlii, 1,) Behold, my
servant whom I have chosen.' " " Shemoth Eabba
[Sect. 3. col. 108, 2, ad loc] ' In the second redemp
tion, ye sliall be healed aud redeemed by the word
/, i. e, Iwill send." Or, as a comforter, " I will send
you Elias, he shall come and comfort you," De
barim rabba sect, 3, fin. Or to pronounce some
things clean, others unclean. Shir hashirim rabba
f, 27. 3, [all the above in Schottgen ad loc] Others,
in different ways, to settle, to which tribe each be
longs, Kimchi on Ezek. xlvii, and this with differ
ent explanations as to strictness, (See Edaioth fin,
Mishnah T, iv, p. 362. Surenhus,) "Eabbi Simeon
says, ' To remove controversies,' And the wise
and doctors say. To make peace in the world, as is
said, " Behold I send," E, Abraham B, David ex
plains the peace to be " from the nations," and
adds, "to announce to them the coming of the re
deemer, and this in one day before the coming of
the Messiah ; " and to " turn the hearts &c," he ex
plains "the hearts of the fathers and children (on
whom softness had fallen from fear, and they fled,
some here, some there, from their distresses) on

fathers, the Patriarchs, had ; that " * as
these believed, hoped for, longed exceedingly
for, and loved Christ to come, so their sons
should believe, hope in, long exceedingly for
and love Christ, Who was come, yea is
present ; and so the heart of fathers, which
before was turned from their unbelieving
children, he should turn to them, now be
lieving, and cause the Patriarchs to own and
love the Jews believing in Christ, as indeed
their children ; fbr " your father Abraham re
joiced to see My day ; he saw it and was glad,
Christ saith,"
Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse,
i. e. with an utter destruction, from which
there should be no redemption. In the end,
God will so smite the earth, and all, not con
verted to Him. The prayer and zeal of
Elijah will gain a reprieve, in which God
will spare the world for the gathering of His
own elect, the full conversion of the Jews,
which shall fulfill the Apostle's words, " So
shall all Israel be saved:
After the glad tidings, Malachi, and the
Old Testament in him, ends ivith words of
awe, telling us of the consequence of the final
hardening of the heart ; the eternal sever
ance, wdien the unending end of the everlast
ing Gospel itself shall be accomplished, and
its last grain shall be gathered into the
garner of the Lord. The Jews, who would
be wiser than the prophet, repeat the pre
vious verse ', because Malachi closes so aw-

that day they shall return to their might and to
one another and shall comfort each other," Abar
banel says, that Elijah shall be the instrument of
the resurrection, and that, through those who rise,
the race of man shall be directed in the recogni
tion of God and the true faith," Ibn, Ezra, " that he
shall come at the collection of the captives, as
Moses at the redemption of Egypt, not for the res
urrection," [These are collected by Frischmuth
de EliEC adveutu, Thes. Theol, Phil, V, T, T, i, p.
1070, sqq,] E, Tanehum, from Maimonides, says,
"This is without doubt a promise of the appear
ance of a prophet in Israel, a little before the com
ing of the Messiah ; and some of the wise think
that it is Elias the Tishbite himself, and this is
found in most of the Bhdrashoth, and some think
that it is a prophet like him in rank, occupying ills
place in the knowdedge of God and the manifest
ing His Name and that so he is called Elijah. And
so explained the great Gaon, Eab Mosheh ben Mai
mon, at the end of his great book on jurisprudence,
called ' Mishneh Torah,' And, perhaps he [the
person sent] may be Messiah ben Joseph, as he
says again — And the exactness of the matter in
these promises will only be known, when they ap
pear: and no one has therein any accredited ac
count, but each of them says what he says, accord
ing to what appears to him,and whatpreponderates
in his mind ofthe explanation of the truth," " The
turning of the heart of the father to the children,"
he explains to be, "the restoration of religion, un
til all should be of one heart in tlie obedience to
Gnd," 8 Lap,
IS, John viii. 56.
« Rom. xi, 26,
i The Masora at the end of Malachi notices, that
in the reading of ppn\ i, e, Isaiah, the Twelve [as
one book, ending with Malachi], the Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, the last verse but one is repeated.

504

MALACHI.

fully. The Maker of the heart of man knew
better the hearts which He had made, and
tau,ght their authors to end the books of
Isaiah and Ecclesiastes with words of awe,
from which man's heart so struggles to
escape. To turn to God here, or everlasting
destruction from His presence there, is the
only choice open to thee. " ' Think of this,
when lust goads thee, or ambition solicits
thee, or anger convulses thee, or the flesh
blandishes thee, or the world allures thee, or
the devil displays his deceitful pomp and
enticement. In thy hand and thy choice are
life and death, heaven and hell, salvation
The three do end heavily ; but Ecclesiastes onlj^
ends with the declaration of a day of judgment,

and damnation, bliss or misery everlasting.
Choose which thou wiliest. Think, 'A
moraent which delighteth, eternity which
tortureth;' on the other hand, 'a moraent
which tortureth, eternity which delighteth.' "
" I see that all things corae to an end :
Thy commandment is exceeding broad."
Ps. cxix. 96.

¦'As the hart panteth after the water brooks.
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God."
Ps. xlii. 1.
which, it must be supposed, they did not like to
dwell upon. i Lap.

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