atrice den. 9. They shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters that cover the depths of the sea.

10. And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse, which standeth for an ensign to the peoples, unto him shall the nations repair, and his resting-place shall be glorious. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will again put forth his hand the second time, to recover the remnant of his people that remaineth, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the isles of the west. 12. And he shall lift up a signal to the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13. And the jealousy of Ephraim shall cease; and the enmity of Judah shall be no more: Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah; and Judah shall not be at enmity with Ephraim. 14. But they shall invade the borders of the Philistines westward; together shall they spoil the children of the east: on Edom and Moab they shall lay their hand; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15. And the Lord shall smite with a drought the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and he shall shake his hand over the river with his vehement wind and he shall smite it into seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. 16. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria; as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

xii. 1. And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid for my strength, and my song, is Jehovah; and he is become unto me salvation. 3. And, when ye shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of salvation; 4. In that day ye shall say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5. Sing ye unto the Lord; for he hath wrought a stupendous work: this is

made manifest in all the earth. 6. Cry aloud, and shout for joy, O inhabitress of Zion; for great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.

xiii. 1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. 2. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3. I have given a charge to mine enrolled warriors; I have even called my strong ones to execute my wrath; those that exult in my greatness. 4. A sound of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! A sound of the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered together! The Lord of hosts mustereth the host for the battle. 5. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens; the Lord, and the instruments of his wrath to destroy the whole land. 6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7. Therefore shall all hands be slackened; and every man's heart shall melt; and they shall be afraid. 8. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall look one upon another with astonishment; their countenances shall be like flames of fire. 9. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, inexorable; even indignation, and burning wrath to make the land a desolation; and her sinners he shall destroy out of her. 10. Yea, the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not send forth their light the sun is darkened at his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11. And

:

I will visit the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity and I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud; and I will bring down the haughtiness of the terrible-19. And Babylon shall become, she that was the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, as the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, by the hand of God. 20. It shall not be inhabited for ever; nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there: neither shall the shepherds make their folds there. 21. But there shall the wild beasts of the deserts lodge; and howling monsters shall fill their houses: and there shall the daughters

of the ostrich dwell; and there shall the satyrs hold their revels. 22. And wolves shall howl to one another in their palaces; and dragons in their voluptuous pavilions. And her time is near to come; and her days shall not be prolonged..

xiv. 1. For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel. choose Israel. And he shall give them rest upon their own land: and the stranger shall be joined unto them, and shall cleave unto the house of Jacob. 2. And the nations shall take them, and bring them into their own place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord, as servants, and as handmaids: and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve; 4. That thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say;

How hath the oppressor ceased! the exactress of gold ceased! 5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. 6. He, that smote the peoples in wrath, with a stroke unremitted; he, that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. 7. The whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they burst forth into a joyful shout. 8. Even the fir-trees rejoice over thee, the cedars of Libanus: Since thou art fallen, no feller 4s come up against us. 9. Hades from beneath is moved because of thee, to meet thee at thy coming: he rouseth for thee the mighty dead, all the great chiefs of the earth; he maketh to rise up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10. All of them shall accost thee, and say unto thee: Art thou, even thou too, become weak as we? Art thou made like unto us? 11. Is then thy pride brought down to the grave; the sound of thy sprightly instruments? Is the vermin become thy couch, and the earth-worm thy covering? 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! art cut down to the earth, thou that didst subdue the nations! 13. For thou didst say in thy heart: I will ascend the heavens; above the stars of God I will exalt my

throne; and I will sit upon the mount of the divine presence, on the sides of the north: 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15. But thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit. 16. Those, that see thee, shall look attentively at thee; they shall well consider thee: Is this the man, that made the earth to tremble; that shook the kingdoms? 17. That made the world like a desert; that destroyed the cities? that never dismissed his captives to their own home? 18. All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie down in glory, each in his own sepulchre: 19. But thou art cast out of the grave, as the tree abominated; clothed with the slain, with the pierced by the sword, with them that go down to the stones of the pit; as a trodden carcase. 20. Thou shalt not be joined unto them in burial; because thou hast destroyed thy country, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of evil doers shall never be renowned. 21. Prepare ye slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers; lest they rise, and possess the earth; and fill the face of the world with cities. 22. For I will arise against them, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will cut off from Babylon the name, and the remnant, and the son, and the son's son, saith the Lord; 23. And I will make it an inheritance for the porcupine, and pools of water; and I will plunge it in the miry gulph of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely, as I have devised, so shall it be; and, as I have purposed, that thing shall stand : 25. To crush the Assyrian in my land, and to trample him on my mountains. Then shall his yoke depart from off them; and his burthen shall be removed from off their shoulder.

26. This is the decree, which is determined on the whole earth; and this is the hand, which is stretched out over the nations. 27. For the Lord of hosts hath decreed; and who shall disannul it? And it is his hand, that is stretched out; and who shall turn it back?

COMMENTARY.

This prediction affords one of the most remarkable examples of double prophecy, that is to be met with in the

whole of the sacred volume. The first advent of Christ is here connected with his second advent; and the destruction of the literal Babylon, with the overthrow of the mystical Babylon. For, unless the two-fold mode of interpretation be adopted, we shall find it impossible to produce any consistent exposition of the whole prophecy. Isaiah begins with foretelling the birth of Christ from the depressed and impoverished royal house of David. He thence proceeds to describe his character; and introduces as one particular of it, a circumstance, which will not be accomplished till the times of the second advent. Our Lord is not only to judge the poor with righteousness and to convince the meek with equity; but he is likewise to smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips to slay the wicked one. This exactly accords with the prediction of St. John, that he shall smite with a sharp sword, that goeth out of his mouth, the congregated vassals of Antichrist, the kings of the Latin earth *; and with the parallel prediction of St. Paul, that he shall consume that wicked one, the papal man of sin, with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming †.

Having described the character of the Messiah, Isaiah next pourtrays in glowing colours the blessings of his kingdom. The wild beasts are to lie down with the tame, and are to divest themselves of their savage natures. The ox is fearlessly to graze by the side of the lion, and the leopard is to dandle the kid. Beautiful as is the imagery of this celebrated passage ‡, I cannot consider it in the

* Rev. xix. 15, 19.

† 2 Thessal. ii. 8. It is remarkable that the Jews themselves understand this prophecy of Isaiah to relate to the final downfal of the Roman empire, at which period they rightly believe that their restoration will take place. "How much soever the man of sin may be exalted, and how long soever he may reign, yet at last the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming. This is partly taken from the prophet Isaiah (xi. 4.), and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked one: where the Jews, as Lightfoot observes, put an emphasis upon that word in the prophet the wicked one, as it appeareth by the Chaldee paraphrast, who hath uttered it He shall destroy the wicked Roman" Bp. Newton's Dissert. XXII. 3. See also Mr. Lowth in loc.

Independent of those ancient poets, Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, and of some of the Arabian and Persian poets, whom Bp. Lowth has noticed as depicting with similar imagery the golden age, two at least, who have written since the Christian era, have attempted to copy the beautiful strains of