31. a smoke: i. e. clouds of dust caused by an invading army.

XVI. 1.

the temple: i. e. of their gods.

- the lambs. These were probably due as tribute from Moab. See 2 Sam. viii. 2; 2 Kings, iii. 4.

3-5. These verses seem to be the language of the Moabitish fugitives to the Jews. Verse sixth contains the answer of the Jews. No idiom is more common in the Old Testament than the omission of the words, saying, saith he, say they &c.

4.

my outcasts: lit. my outcasts of Moab, i. e. of me, Moab.

8. They extended, &c. A hyperbolical description of the shoots of the vine. the sea: i. e. the Dead sea.

XVII. 10. 11.

· foreign soil: i. e. far-fetched, valuable shoots. day of possession: 1. e. the time, when you expected to take possession of the harvest.

XVIII. 1. rustling wings: i. e. of armies; referring, at the same time, to the noise of the wings of armies and that of the wings of birds. The country intended was, probably, Ethiopia, and a portion of Egypt, formerly united with it under a powerful monarch, hostile to the Assyrians. The prophet seems to intend to give to this nation an intimation of the designs of God with respect to the destruction of the Assyrians.

XIX. 10.

14.

- pillars: the pillars of the state; the principal men. mingled a metaphor drawn from the practice of mingling spices, &c. with wine, thus making it more intoxicating.

XXI. 1.

they come i. e. armies of enemies.

2. Go up, &c. These are the words of Jehovah, which the prophet hears in his vision. For the sake of dramatic vivacity the words, saying, saith he, saith the Lord, are often omitted. So verse 5. all sighing: i. e. caused by the tyranny and oppression of Babylon.

5. Arise, &c. i. e. There is a cry, To arms! in consequence of information from the watch.

10. O my threshing: i. e. O my oppressed, trampled-upon people of Israel.

12. Morning: a morning of relief is approaching, to be followed by a night of affliction. Return ye: i. e. Repent, then come and

receive a more favorable answer.

XXII. 1.

valley of vision : i. e. Jerusalem, so called on account of the prophets, that published their messages in it.

8. The veil, &c. i. e. She is reduced to the last degree of disgrace and wretchedness; the image being drawn from a matron, who is insulted and abused. in such a day, &c. They are represented as looking round for merely human resources, instead of looking to God for help.

16. It has been supposed, that Shebna was a foreigner; at least, that he was a man of mean birth. The prophet may be supposed to address him, while standing near the superb monument, the erection of which he was superintending; which he may have placed near the sepulchres of the kings. - a habitation: i. e. a sepulchre.

22.key, &c. an image denoting the highest office, which a king could give to a subject.

23.

— as a nail: a large nail, spike, or peg, which was usually inserted into the strong walls of oriental houses, when they were constructed, and upon which were hung various articles of furniture. It denotes figuratively the security of Eliakim, and the extent of his ability to give wealth and honor to all his family. - a glorious seat: i. e. his father's house, and all his own family, shall be gloriously seated, shall flourish in honor and prosperity; and shall depend upon him, and be supported by him.

24.

- all the glory : i. e. all that shall be made honorable through his influence. Every small vessel, &c. i. e. all his family and dependents from the lowest to the highest will be supported by his authority and power.

XXIII. 1.

ships of Tarshish: i. e. Tyrian ships, which were

sent to Tarshish, a colony of Tyre, in Spain.

4. I have not travailed: i. e. I am as if I had not travailed, &c. I am now childless, i. e. My citizens have been destroyed by war,

famine, 10.

&c.

daughter of Tarshish: i. e. Tarshish itself, which formerly suffered from the oppressions and exactions of Tyre, but is now the free possessor of her own territory.

11. Canaan: i. e. Phoenicia.

12.

17.

--

daughter of Sidon: i. e. Sidon itself.

- hire, harlot, &c. These words are here used figuratively to denote the revenue, which was gained by the Syrians from commerce with various foreign nations.

XXIV. 4. The world: i. e. the kingdom, as in xiii. 11. So in the New Testament, Luke ii. 1; Acts xi. 28.

20.

a hammock suspended upon a tree, in which the watchman of the fruits in the Eastern gardens used to sit, to guard himself from surprise from some wild beast. See Niebuhr's Description of Arabia, p. 128.

22.

after many days. It seems to be mentioned as an aggravation of their punishment, that they are kept in long imprisonment, before they were led forth to express punishment.

23. The moon shall be confounded, &c. i. e. Jehovah shall reign in Jerusalem with a splendor surpassing that of the sun and moon. - his ancients: i. e. the principal men of the Jewish nation, represented as courtiers around a prince.

XXV. 7. - covering, veil, &c. i. e. He will take away every occasion of grief; every thing inconsistent with uninterrupted enjoyment. The head used to be covered with a veil, as emblem of grief amongst the Hebrews. See 2 Sam. xv. 30; Esth. vi. 12.

10.

-dung-pool: i. e. a place where manure was prepared by casting straw into it.

XXVI. 10. in the land of uprightness: i, e. the general prevalence of virtue will exert no influence upon him.

13. We have been under the dominion of foreign kings, and it is only by thine aid that we have been rescued from them, and can again honor thee as our Lord and King.

19. Thy dead: i. e. the dead of thy people, O Jehovah. In the preceding verse the desired restoration of the Jews from extreme national depression is represented by an image, drawn from natural birth. In this verse the same thing is promised under the image of a resurrection from death to life. For thy dew the dew of God; i. e. the divine power exerted in favor of the Jews. the dew upon plants; i. e. causing them to revive and flourish. Such is the rapidity with which grass grows in the East, that several travellers describe its appearance, when rain has followed a drought, as a resurrection of vegetable nature. See Calmet's Dictionary, Art. Grass.

XXVII. 1. – leviathan: i. e. Babylon. - fleet: i. e. to escape, inclined to flee from men.

4. thorns and thistles: i. e. the enemies of the Jews.

5. Unless they take hold: i. e. unless the enemies of the Jews submit, and turn to Jehovah. The collocation of the words in the two next lines is in imitation of the Hebrew. It was no doubt designed to give emphasis to the sentiment.

8.

by separation the sending of the Jews into captivity is rep-
resented under the image of the divorce of a wife from her husband.
10. fortified city: i. e. Jerusalem.

11.

-

- burn them : i. e. gather them for fuel.

XXVIII. 2. — a mighty one : i. e. the king of Assyria.

7.

even these: i. e. the inhabitants of Judah.

9. Are we weaned, &c. "The scoffers mentioned below, v. 14,
are here introduced as uttering their sententious speeches; they
treat God's method of dealing with them, and warning them by his
prophets, with contempt and derision. 'What,' say they,' doth he
treat us as mere infants, just weaned? Doth he teach us like little
children, perpetually inculcating the same elementary lessons, the
mere rudiments of knowledge, precept after precept, line after line›
here and there, by little and little?' imitating at the same time and
ridiculing in v. 10, the concise prophetical manner. God, by his
prophet, retorts upon them with great severity their own contemp-
tuous mockery; turning it to a sense quite different from what they
intended. Yes,' saith he, it shall be in fact as you say; ye shall
be taught by a strange tongue, and a stammering lip, in a strange
country; ye shall be carried into captivity by a people, whose lan-
guage shall be unintelligible to you, and which ye shall be forced to
learn like children; and my dealing with you shall be according to
your own words; it shall be command upon command for your pun-
ishment.' - Lowth.

21.

-

strange purpose, strange work: i. e. to deal with the people
of Israel in a very different manner from that in which he had
dealt with them; i. e. to punish them severely, instead of bestowing
peculiar favor upon them.

XXIX. 2. as Ariel. Here is an allusion to the etymological sig-
nification of the word, the lion of God: i. e. she shall be an invinci-
ble city. See verse 7.

10.

-

the prophets, the seers: Koppe, Eichhorn, and Gesenius re-
gard these words as explanatory glosses; a very plausible conjec-

XXX. 6. The loaded beasts: i. e. carrying presents for Egypt.

7.

-

the Blusterer, &c. i. e. making great parade, and affording lit-
tle help. There is a play upon the word Rahab, a poetical name for
Egypt, which denotes arrogant, proud,

18. Therefore: i. e. on account of your foolish plans before mentioned. See verse 16.

XXXI. 9.-fire, &c. i. e. upon the altar.

'XXXII. 16.

land.

- wilderness, fruitful field: i. e. in every part of the

19. the city: the principal city of the enemies of the Jews, probably Babylon.

XXXIII. 7.

the mighty men i. e. the Jewish leaders, who

had been sent as ambassadors to the king of Assyria.

17.

- the whole extent of the land: i. e. thou shalt not be hemmed in by a siege, but shalt go freely and safely about the country.

"Juvat ire, et Dorica castra,

Desertosque videre locos, litusque relictum."

11.

- measuring-line, &c. i. e. it shall be completely destroyed; as it were, by rule and system.

16.

- book of Jehovah: The prophet seems to contemplate the insertion of his prophecy in the sacred books of the Jews, from which those that followed him might judge of the correctness of his prophecy.

XXXVI. 8. - riders. Rabshakeh here alludes to the ignorance of horsemanship amongst the Jews. There was no scarcity of warriors amongst the Jews, but they were unable to ride.

12.

who will be brought, &c. i. e. unless the people hear me, they will be reduced to the same extreme misery, which is coming upon you, their leaders.

XXXVII. 3. the children: i. e. we are in as miserable, helpless a condition as a woman in travail, who is so far exhausted as not to be able to bring her infant into the world.

a spirit, &c. i. e. I will, by a divine influence, induce him to

25. with the sole of my feet: i. e. advancing with my immense army, which requires rivers to quench its thirst.