CHAPTER IX. VERSE 13. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. AND THE TREADER OF GRAPES] Hebrew, vě-dorāk anahvim, ‘and the treader of grape-clusters.' So the V.; but the LXX. has 'and the grape shall ripen in the time of sowing.' THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DROP SWEET WINE] The marginal reading of A. V. is 'new wine,' but the phrase is the same as in Joel iii. 18, ahsis, the juice of the newly trodden grapes. LXX., 'the mountains shall drop sweetness' (glukasmon); the V., 'the mountains shall distil sweetness' (dulcedinem). The promise is one of continual fertility and abundance, one agricultural operation following rapidly upon another, all carried on without exhausting the soil, and all resulting in the enrichment of the people. Christian commentators give to the prophecy a spiritual application. CHAPTER IX. VERSE 14. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. AND THEY SHALL PLANT VINEYARDS, AND DRINK THE WINE THEREOF] Hebrew, vě-nahtu kěrahmim vě-shahthu eth-yaynahm, 'and they plant vineyards and drink their wine'; Lxx., oinon; V., vinum. The threatening pronounced (v. 11) is to be cancelled on the repentance of the people. Compare with this. the language of the Erythræan Sibylline Oracle, as quoted by Lactantius, Div. Inst., b. vii. c. 24: Kai tote dee charmeen megaleen theos andrasi dōsei, Kai sitou, hoper esti brotois kalliston apantōn. And truly then great joy shall God to men impart, For from earth, trees, and earth's dumb offspring-countless sight!— Shall fruit, best fit for man, luxuriantly start; Wine, luscious honey, too, and milk of purest white, And corn, and all that gives to mortals most delight. If oinos here does not directly signify vintage-fruit-fruit on the vine,-it must be accepted as the liquid fruit of the vine in its fresh and sweetest state. Honey has been happily called 'the fruit of bees.' THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET OBADIAH. [THIS PROPHET IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN A CONTEMPORARY OF JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL; AND TO HAVE DELIVERED HIS PROPHECY AFTER THE DEstruction of Jerusalem, over WHICH THE EDOMITES WERE REJOICING, ABOUT 580 B.C.] VERSES 15, 16. 15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. V. 16. AND THEY SHALL SWALLOW DOWN] Hebrew, vě-lahu, ‘and they shall suck up.' The margin of A. V. has ‘sup up.' The Hebrew term is one expressive of greediness. LXX., 'all the nations (ethnee) shall drink wine (oinon).' So the Arabic. Here the generic term is applied to a bad wine, as the context makes evident. The LXX. translators must have read khamer (foaming juices instead of tahmed, 'continually.' The initial and final letters of the two words (t, kh, and d, r), are easily mistaken by a copyist. The word wine gives the best It is the 'cup of astonishment' (not of blessing) that shall be given to the Edomites, and they shall drink it till it destroys them from the earth. sense. THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JONAH. [HE LIVED ABOUT 860 B.C.] CHAPTER III. VERSES 6, 7. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. The king's prohibition against the use of water by man, beast, herd, and flock, was, in such a climate, the strongest proof of sincere self-denial which the king and the nobles of Nineveh could exhibit. Is not this example a standing rebuke to many Christian communities, who, for the sake of a great and needed reformation of manners, morals, and religion, cannot deny themselves the use of an artificial and noxious beverage? THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET MICAH. [THIS PROPHET WAS CONTEMPORARY WITH ISAIAH, ABOUT 700 B.C.] CHAPTER I. VERSE 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. AS PLANTINGS OF A VINEYARD] Hebrew, le-mattahāi kahrem, 'the plantations of a vineyard.' CHAPTER II. VERSE II. If a man, walking in the spirit and falsehood, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. I WILL PROPHESY UNTO THEE OF WINE AND OF STRONG DRINK] Hebrew, attiph lě-kah lay-yayin vě-lash-shakar, 'I will prophesy to thee concerning wine and concerning strong drink'; Lxx., 'ye have fled, no one pursuing; thy spirit has framed falsehood; it has dropped down (descended) on thee in regard to wine and strong drink (eis oinon kai methusma)'; V., stillabo tibi in vinum et in ebrietatem, 'I will distil to thee as to wine and drunkenness' a 'lying spirit' that stoops down to the calls of the sensual nature, and is accepted as true by those whose 'god is their belly.' As the Westminster divines' Annotations' quaintly expresses it, "They love and like those prophets that will speak pleasing things, and sew pillows under their elbows: they would be fostered and bolstered up in their sins; else the prophets are no prophets for them" (1651). How strange is it that, in the face of such texts as these perpetually recurring in the history of the Jews, men of professed piety and of undoubted intelligence should labour under the extraordinary delusion that wine—and especially Eastern -countries must necessarily be sober countries! So far from this being the fact, this Hebrew text implies that the people were so anxious to indulge their craving for inebriating liquors, that any one (though destitute of the marks of a true Teacher) who should promise them an abundant supply, would be eagerly received by them as a true prophet, however false and sensuous might be his prophecy. The same spirit is displayed in our own time, when a ready ear is turned to those who defend, no matter how falsely, the drinking customs of society, and eulogize artificial and inflaming liquors as 'the good creatures of God.' Let believers in the light wine delusion read the following testimony from France:-"The abundance of the harvest in 1858 diminished the poverty, and by consequence the crimes and offences which misery inspires; but the abundance of the vintage, on the contrary, multiplied blows and wounds, the quarrels of cabarets, the rebellions, the outrages and violences towards the police. These facts are again found, in all analogous circumstances."-Revue d'Economie Chrêtienne, Paris, 1862, p. 171-2. CHAPTER IV. VERSES 3, 4. 3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. 4 V. 3. INTO PRUNINGHOOKS] Hebrew, lě-mazmāroth, 'into pruning-blades. The reading of the A. V. text is preferable to the marginal 'scythes.' The Lxx. has drepana, sickles'; the V., ligones, 'curved knives.' V. 4. HIS VINE] Hebrew, gaphno, 'his vine.' [See Note on I Kings iv. 25; Zech. iii. 10.] The T. has 'under the fruit of his vine.' CHAPTER VI. VERSE 15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. AND SWEET WINE, BUT SHALT NOT DRINK WINE] Hebrew, vě-tirosh vě-lo thishteh yayin, and vine-fruit, and thou shalt not drink wine.' To realize the full sense we must take the whole verse :-"Thou shalt tread the olive (zaith) and shalt not anoint thyself with oil (shemen), and (tread) the tirosh (or vine-fruit) and shalt not drink the yayin (or expressed juice)." Here tirosh is as clearly placed in apposition to yayin as zaith (olive) to shemen (oil); and it is strange how the translators of any country could have failed to see that poetical consistency and common sense alike required tirosh to be taken as the solid substance whose pressure yielded yayin. It was to be a punishment to the nation, that though the zaith and tirosh had been plucked, the liquids (oil and wine) flowing from their pressure should either be so deficient in quantity, owing to the withered condition of the fruit, that there should be no sufficient supply; or that what there was should be diverted to the use of the spoiler, and not be used by those who had plucked the fruit. LXX., 'thou shalt PRESS the olive, but shalt not anoint with oil, and wine (oinon), and ye shall not surely drink (any)—kai ou mee pieete,'—thus omitting one member of the parallelism by using oinon in the double sense of 'growing wine' and 'expressed wine.' The V. has et mustum et non bibes vinum, ‘and |